Google Calendar Sync totally rocks!

I've got four computers I use regularly, two laptops and two desktops (one each at the office and at home). The desktops don't generally move but one or both laptops go with me on the road depending on the situation. Additionally my Cloudbook will be arriving soon (today hopefully). So, I might be sitting in front of any one of these computers and need to know what my calendar is. The four main machines all run Outlook while the Cloudbook won't. I've got a Google Calendar account but in the past you've not been able to (easily or completely) sync content between Outlook and Google calendars.

I had a partial solution in my Motorola Q smartphone but the Windows software would only let me sync with up to two computers (my office desktop and my home laptop) but that left out the other computers. I also have Web access to our Exchange server via Outlook Web access but to be honest, Outlook just isn't the same as a Web application. (And I'm doubting that it'll work well on the Cloudbook since it doesn't work all that well in Firefox on a Windows machine to begin with.)

So yesterday, I was VERY excited to hear that the folks over at Google had released their first version of Google Calendar Sync. This program is both simple and elegant. Download it from Google, and run the quick install. You'll then get this screen:

Enter your Google Calendar login information, then choose if you want to sync in both directions, just Google to Outlook, or just Outlook to Google. Lastly, set how often you'd like the content to re-sync and click Save.

The program will minimize to your system tray and sync your data. How much more simpler could it be?

I now have four copies of Outlook all with the same calendar along with my phone. Now, no matter which computer I have with me, I can enter a new appointment and shortly all of my other computers will have that same information.

I want my office walls totally covered in this!

Update: Turns out that you need to erase whatever you've written within 24 hours or it'll become permanent. Great for meeting rooms, poor for just leaving yourself notes in your office. (Thanks Allana)

Google Chart API

Need a quick chart on your Web site and don't want to bother with creating it in Excel then exporting the image? Try the Google Chart API instead? Just build a URL, set it as an img source and see your results.

For example here's the code for a simple pie chart:

<img src=http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?
cht=p3&chd=s:hW&chs=250x100&chl=Cool|Not Cool />

and the results are:

Or how about a Venn diagram?

It gets way more complicated but this should give you a basic idea.

Google as source

Unshelved has a great strip regarding using Google as a "source". Consider this a follow-up to my Google is not the Enemy post.

Google is not the enemy

I've heard negative comments about Google before and I've not commented on it but I'm in a fightin' mood today so I'm going to say something this time.

Yesterday a presenter from an academic library made an off handed comments about how she "doesn't let" her students use Google. When questioned why not, she went on to explain that Google is "unreliable" and "doesn't use boolean" though it is "sort of built in." (I believe she was attempting to point out that boolean operators are not necessary when searching in Google but are typically necessary in professional databases.) Shortly thereafter she admitted to "sometimes cheating" by using Amazon.com to search for resources on a topic instead using library resources.

Anyone but me got a problem with that? Where to begin?

Well, let's see. Google is just another tool in a searcher's arsenal. Nothing more. Nothing less. For some things is may be exactly what the searcher needs to use. Sometimes, not. But to dismiss it out of hand because it doesn't require the use of boolean operators and that not all of the resources it finds are 100% reliable is intellectual arrogance to the n^th degree.

If you've got a problem with the results that Google finds, teach your students to be skeptical and good information evaluators. Don't refuse to let them use the tool.

If you're upset that your students are using the resources we've paid tens of thousands of dollars for, you've got a marketing problem. That's not Google's fault, it's ours.

If, after the students are completely aware of the paid-for library resources and then still prefer to go to Google (or Amazon.com) first, then I'd blame the interfaces in those databases before I'd blame Google. People like simple. Google is simple. "Professional" databases are not.

If you don't like the fact that Google doesn't require a knowledge of boolean operators that's not Google's fault either. Google doesn't require them because <em>it works differently</em> than professional databases. Professional databases index things like title, author, abstract, article content, and a <em>controlled vocabulary</em>. Google does index content but it's hardly controlled and the relevance algorithm is centers around the number of links to that resource. Ok, it may be a popularity contest and you may not like that it is, but that's what seems to be working.

I'm not trying to say that boolean shouldn't be taught. I'm not saying that Google has all the answers. I'm not even saying that Google is always an appropriate tool for research. But none of that means that you should refuse to let someone use it. Really, when you're dealing with young people, isn't forbidding them from something just going to make them want to use it more?

Google Docs in Plain English