ProFont and Sheldon

ProFont is great, but I prefer Sheldon for the simple reason that the ‘a’ can be easier distinguished from the ‘o’. The only thing that doesn’t work well with both fonts is bold highlighting, as some characters become unreadable, but then again I can live without that.

More easy-to-read code on one display, f*ck yeah!

Last week I renewed my plan with the provider and took the chance to get my hands on a XDA Diamond 2 (a minor variation of the HTC Touch Diamond 2). With this I only need to take one device with me. But to fully use it, I have to work around a few handicaps of the smartphone (i.e. Windows Mobile). The major part would be the calendar synchronisation.

Initial situation

Several Calendars: My private calendar (Horde Kronolith), the calendar at work (eGroupWare) and a few other local iCalender files (ics) at work. All of them are imported as iCal into Thunderbird/Lightning which manages all of those calendars.

New to that bunch: The smartphone

Let’s do it!

Of course, first comes a little research. Since I manage the calendars in Lightning and use the iCal format for that, I want to stick to that. But as I feared, Windows Mobile has still no idea how to handle iCal and of course it also has no idea how to handle SyncML. As it seems, Funambol provides still the best solution for my needs. So nothing has changed in the last years. At least the Funambol solution got more advanced and gives me new possibilities.

Everything of Funambol needs to be installed. The server (for now on the workstation) and the clients/Add-Ons for Windows Mobile and Lightning. (Server and Windows Mobile download, Lightning Download) The server doesn’t need to be configured for this simple one-user solution. As for the clients, one needs to enter the same login data and the same remote names.

The local communication with the smartphone under Windows goes over Active Sync. One could also just create a network connection, since the Funambol server is running Tomcat, but for now, let’s stick to local sync.

To my surprise, the synchronisation of the contacts worked immediately and I could use Thunderbird to clean up my contacts (SIM based contacts suck). The calendar somehow worked, but there were still some problems.

The major problem would be that I can sync only one calendar with Funambol (probably because Windows Mobile can only handle one), but I have several of those in Lightning. This is where it gets a bit tricky. I need to find a way to merge those calendars into one, without mixing it up with the others.

Automatic Export is an Add-On for Sunbird/Lightning that saves calendars to ics files. Now I got all my calendars on my filesystem, but they are still in several files. Searching for a way to merge those didn’t give me working results. There is a python script out there, which ought to do this, but I didn’t get it to run. Mostly because it was written in Python 2.6 and I am using 3.1 (the same goes to a library used by the script). Adapting it didn’t work out, since there seem to be other problems as well. So I used a lunch break to codethe a simple python script myself. Since the files all share the same export source I didn’t need to give a damn about formats and stuff. The script just parses the ics files, extracts all VEVENTS, puts the iCal header information around it and saves it as a new file. A really simple makeshift solution, you can download it, if you want.

Download: Simple iCal file (ics) merger (for Python 3)

The Automatic Export Add-On can run a command after saving the files, so just entering the python path and the script as a parameter allows me to do this all in one run.

The file with the merged calendars is integrated as a new calendar into Lightning. (Hidden and not exported.) Now the configuration of the Funambol client has to be set to the new calendar and ta-da, it works. Now all my dates/events/appointments are synced onto my smartphone.

Result

Well, I got my calendars into Windows Mobile. The only thing that doesn’t work is getting the changes and adds I do on my smartphone back into the original calendar. For the moment I can live with that, but of course I will try to find a solution for that as well. But after the update to Windows Mobile 6.5, who knows how that will disrupt my makeshift solution anyway. There also seems to be a little quirk with changing existing entries after the first sync of them. Sometimes the change doesn’t go onto the phone and some are not deleted, but I will look into that another time as well.

To do

Well, this is just the solution for the Windows workstation at work (since right now I can only access my work calendars here). So I still have to adapt this to my Linux system at home. Having a central server on the interwebs would be better. Especially if I could do it with CalDAV or even GroupDAV. I already got some basic ideas how to do this, but since I cannot do this in a few lunch breaks, I need time. We’ll see if I can do it before I switch my cellphone again in 2+ years. Oh and I didn’t try to sync tasks so far.

These are the icons that represent the function of a program to save the current state of a document – or whatever you are working on – to a file, the save icons.

The icon itself was derivated from a floppy disk. The floppy was a major storage medium back in the 70s and 80s and there were several variants of it. The one the save icon was modeled on – the 3.5″ floppy disk – was introduced in 1981 and looked like this:

Old 3.5" floppy disk.

However, technology advances fast, especially when it comes to computers, and so new kinds of storage media were developed. The hard disks got bigger and affordable, the CD became a major medium for computers, followed by the DVD, Blue-ray and USB sticks. So the floppy became obsolete and in the late 90s more and more manufacturers began to ship their computers without a floppy disk drive. So it’s not unlikely, that you’ve never seen a floppy disk like the one in the image above.

When Pluto was still a planet, the floppy disk was state of the art (and the term disk-jockey did not only refer to someone who arranges music). To use a floppy disk as a save icon was a very logical step, since it was really representing the function. But let’s compare storage media a bit. A standard floppy carried 1,440 KB (around 1.42 MiB), which was a lot back in the days when Twix was still called Raider and usually more than enough to save a bunch of documents. But as I said, technology advances fast and so a standard 700 MB CD (actually 737.28 MB or 703.1 MiB) already carries as much as 512 floppy disks. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. A standard 4.7 GB DVD (or 4.38 GiB) is equal to about 3,264 floppies, a single layer Blue-ray disk (25 GB) can store about 17,378 floppies, a dual layer Blue-ray disk twice as much and a common 1 TB hard disk can even save almost 695,000 times as much as a standard 3.5″ floppy disk. So let me reassure you, the floppy disk is more than outdated. You could even have a hard time purchasing a floppy disk drive or the floppies themselves.

But we still click on an icon that represents an archaic medium to save our work. We do not save it onto a floppy disk anymore, we didn’t do that anymore for over a decade. We save to hard disks, USB storage, Flash cards, optical drives, network storage and even the great interwebs. And people who are new with computers have no idea what a floppy disk is. They cannot intuitively connect the symbol to the function it represents. But we still stick to that old icon.

So here’s my wish and a task for every UI designer out there:

Create a new standard save icon!

One that does not represent any kind of storage media, since we all know that those will outdate someday. Don’t use the arrow to folder icon, since that is already out there and not good enough (otherwise the floppy would’ve been replaced years ago and it also represents an even older way to store and save files). And also refrain from using  a cross, even though Jesus saves (and does incremental backups). The icon should be coherent in any language and culture. Create something new, something great, something that any software developer will immediately want to use. Your win? Fame and glory!

And if you’re really good, you’ll create matching icons for “Save”, “Save as/Save new”, “Save all”, “Save draft” and “Open”. (And to be really, really, really good, also add matching “New” and “Close”.)

Thanks in advance!

Notepad entry (will be updated every once in a while).

Some Add-Ons for Firefox that I use:

• Abduction – Helpful tool to create screen- or webshots.
• BetterPrivacy – Since the methods of datamining get better, one needs better defense.
• ColorZilla – A colorpicker, ’nuff said.
• DNS Prefetch – While Firefox 3.5 will do DNS prefetching to speed up the browsing, you need this little extension with earlier/current versions.
• DownThemAll! – Firefox has no decent download manager? With this, it has.
• Firebug – Very, veeeery helpful when debugging websites.
• Flashblock – Flash is a great way to create interesting content for websites and also a great way to kill memory. Not to speak of annoying banners with SFX. Simply block them by default and activate them when you want them with a simple click.
• Greasemonkey – While I personally only use it on deviantArt, it can be helpful on almost any site. For the popular ones (like most Google services) there are already a lot of tools available that make the browsing more enjoyable/simple.
• Lazarus: Form Recovery – How often did you fill out a long form, only to see the contents vanish to the nine hells, because you took to long, your browser crashed or another error occured. Lazarus remembers them for you, even textareas, which alone outraces the built-in function.
• Read It Later – Before this Add-On I usually had dozens of tabs open with pages I want to read some time, but not right away when I stumble upon them. Usually they stay open forever, since I never find the time and making a bookmark is to much work to do (especially to remove them later). With this Add-On you get  a nice tool that provides a simple way to store and remove them in a seperate bookmark folder and you also get a tool to keep track of them. You could even store them online to use with several computers.
• Redirect Remover – Some sites create links that lead to an internal app first and then to the site you want to go. Some do this for stats, others for datamining,  some to direct you to ads every once in a while or they just do it to please their evil overlord. This tool directs you to the real URL directly.
• Session Manager – Firefox remembers your last session. Session Manager can remember several sessions and lets you load them even partly.
• Torbutton – Well, this is on my to-do list. Doesn’t work out of the box, so I need to dig in more.
• Tree Style Tab – Another way to organize your tabs, especially useful for wide screens.
• Ubiquity – As already said, a great tool. The only two things that it lacks are the integration of external apps (like Thunderbird and Lightning/Sunbird) and that most standard functions lead to non-German services (which I don’t care about in language, but location… I usually order at some-store.de instead of some-store.com for example). But it’s quite easy to extend, if you know a bit programming.
• Web Developer – You can’t really do webdevelopment without this toolbar.

• The Nethnet – I place this a bit seperately. This is a MMOG, using the www as playground. While the idea sounds like loads of fun, I’m not really sure if it is a good idea. Since all is tracked on a central server, it kinda sounds like a big datamining operation. Just my two cents…

Just a few for the moment. I hope some will be replaced by equal or better built-in functions in the future.

Oh and before I get mails that state that Opera can do most of that with build-in features: I do not care!

• bmlet.com – Great page for ready-to-use Bookmarklets
• Jessi’s Bookmarklets Site – More ready-to-use Bookmarklets
• Bookmarklets.com – Guess what…
• Any JavaScript website you know will help you develop your own.

Not all Bookmarklets will work for you, cause it depends on your JavaScript engine, browser and if the coin of fate fell so, that Tymora smiles upon you. But if you find some helpful little Bookmarklets, they will enhance your web-experience. Here are some that I use frequently:

• Search Wikipedia (EN) – Does what it sounds like. Either a marked part of the website or if nothing is marked, a popup will appear. Can easily be changed to query whatever language on Wikipedia you prefer.
• Search Leo Dictionary – Same as above. Hey, my English ain’t really that good, I really need it.
• Sort table – unfortunally not all webdesigners think it is a good idea to add a sort function to cluttered tables. Well, this helps.
• Highlight RegEx – Since there is no highlight search feature in Firefox and the fact about every search function in every application sucks (more about that in an upcoming post) and me being a RegEx freak, this is a wonderful function.
• Edit webpage – As mentioned in an earlier post. Not a regular Bookmarklet of mine, but helpful when creating documentations or just to have fun.

There are a lot more helpful functions (taking the first two from this list will give you a hint how to use it with any other web(site) search function), those are just a few examples. Go browse and find some that work well for your. Or maybe even create your own and post them to the pages mentioned above.

And while we are at it, there’s another way to enhance your webbrowser (as long as it is called Firefox or can use whose Add-Ons). Check out the following two Add-Ons. No further describtion from me, just check the links.

• Ubiquity – Great tool in development by Mozilla Labs. Even has a natural language parser.
• Greasemonkey – Mostly for layout stuff, but some very useful scripts (especially for communities like deviantArt).

That’s it for now. Go and enhance your browser!