RSS feed for InstantSpot site cfguy

Google Does it Again - Google Streets

Thu, 31 May 2007 14:58:39 GMT

Check it out - no love in H-town yet, but I'm sure it's coming.

http://maps.google.com/help/maps/streetview/index.html

I love how they used a developer as the host for the demo...

Google will also be announcing a new project today at Google Developer Day called Google Gears:

http://blogs.zdnet.com/Stewart/?p=399

You can attend Google Developer Day sessions virtually, for free, here:

http://code.google.com/events/developerday/mv-home.html

After having a look at the session schedule, I can tell these guys have been busy!

Syncing Lotus Notes with Google Calendar

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 16:34:00 GMT

I'm going to describe how to quickly and reliably synchronize your Lotus Notes and Google calendars without purchasing expensive, buggy software.

Until now I have not been able to get my Lotus Notes work calendar and my personal Google Calendar synced. Lotus Notes is a proprietary format, and will not by default import any standard calendar filetypes, so it's a no-go on all fronts.

So today I tripped across a page on IBM's website titled "Notes iCalendar Support ". Now, having worked with Notes for a few years, I know by now not to get my hopes up. But I downloaded and installed the app (it integrates into notes), and now have both calendars synced to each other. It's a manual process, but I'll take what I can get. Here are the steps I took:

Download Notes iCalendar Support from IBM's Lotus Sandbox site
Unzip and run the installer
Restart Notes

To add your Notes calendar entries to your Google Calendar :

Open Lotus Notes
- Hold down shift and click each calendar event you want to copy over
- Click Actions -> iCalendar -> Export
Open your Google Calendar
- Click "Manage Calendars" from the bottom of the left-hand navigation .
- Click the "Import Calendar" tab.
- Browse to your newly created iCal file (by default it is in your Notes install folder, under ' \data\iCalendar'.
- Choose the calendar to import your Notes events into. I created a new calendar to import into, in order to take advantage of GCal's multi-calendar overlay feature.
- Click the 'Import' button.
- Gcal will import your events and display a confirmation summary, and you're done!

To add your Google Calendar entries to Lotus Notes:

Open your Google Calendar
- Click "Manage Calendars" from the bottom of the left-hand navigation
- Click on the title of the calendar you want to export.
- Click the green ICAL button located in the "Private Address" region.
- Copy the link provided to your clipboard - rightclick on the link, then choose "Copy Shortcut" or "Copy Link Location".
Open Lotus Notes
- Click Actions -> iCalendar -> Import from the file menu
- Paste the url from your clipboard into the "File name:" box of the resulting dialogue box

And that's it, you're done!

MiniMAX 5 Recap

Tue, 24 Oct 2006 05:29:00 GMT

Last night was MiniMAX 5 here in beautiful and extremely weird Las Vegas, NV., and I thought I'd do a quick recap for those of you who wanted to come but couldn't make it. So here it is. :)

Greg Hamer opened the non-conference with an introduction of the upcoming speakers, and then presented on using ColdFusion to develop Rich Internet Apps, the options available, and covered some of the advantages and disadvantages of each approach.
"Never Bet on The Philadelphia Eagles." Adam Bell showed how to quickly produce 3D Flash animations using Illustrator, while wearing only his man-panties, which was perhaps the most terrifying thing I've seen in my life. Seriously, it was an enlightening presentation, even if over my head, and I learned that sometimes the best way to produce Flash animations is by using something other than Flash.
Stephanie Sullivan followed with an almost-presentation about "creating lean, creative sites with CSS" using Dreamweaver, which did not materialize because of some technical issues (hint: "I'm a Mac!", LOL). Stephane nonetheless earned her keep by setting the tone for the rest of the event by warming up the crowd. Which is probably pretty easy when you're an extremely attractive, athletic brunette surrounded by 50 geeks. To say that she had the audience's attention would be an understatement! Stephanie, you still owe us a presentation, so cough it up!
Scott Fegette from Adobe also had some technical difficulties (of which I don't think it's necessary for me to mention the nature) giving his preso on animating a green screen still using After Effects, but he recovered while Adam worked the crowd to stall (adding a boa and a red teddy to his ensemble). His presentation was worth the wait, and it was mind blowing to watch him create a beautiful, compelling, HDTV-ready animation in the space of about 10 minutes. Again, outside my realm of expertise, but still extremely cool!
Tom Green stepped up to the plate next, with his assistant ~~(whose name I forgot, sorry, I suck)~~ Tiago demonstrating how to wrap a video around a textured object using Flash and After Effects. This was very neat stuff, and it amazed me that anyone could produce these kind of special effects using any cheap-o PC from Wal-Mart or Dell with a very small investment in some special software. It seems like just a few years ago (maybe more, think 'Video Toaster') it cost thousands, if not 10s of thousands of dollars, to achieve a much, much less convincing but somewhat similar effect.
Todd Sanders wrapped up the show by cranking out a web 2.0-styled web layout using Photoshop in just a few minutes. I wish I had it recorded so I could play it back in slow-mo a few dozen times. Another amazing demo of some skills I wish I had. :)

All and all it was a very good night, definitely worth the money.

ColdFusion Developer Urgently Needed in Houston

Fri, 22 Sep 2006 11:47:00 GMT

ColdFusion developer needed ASAP in the Galleria area of Houston. This is a permanent, full-time position that will pay in the ~$60k range.

Required skills include ColdFusion and SQL Server, but they are growing quickly and value a diverse skill set for future need. Immediate availability is a big plus!

There is no significant travel.

They provide services in the income tax industry so there is a busy season before April 15th that will include significant overtime that will be balanced during the off season. There are bonuses available and good benefits.

Shoot me an email with your resume' attached if you're interested. My email address is my first name @ my full name (no underscored) dot com.

-Seth
(Mr. Bienek if you're nasty)