I have been trying for a long time to automate syncing google calendars (ical’s) together with my Iphone. There are a few options on the web to do that but most of them require signing up to 3rd party exchange server “look alike” routing services!! It needed new accounts to be set up and a password handover clause :s to be signed : yuk!

anyhow, last week google “yet again” came to the rescue by launching a free Google Sync Service. This service can syncronise upto 5 Internet Calendars to your mobile device at present it supports Iphone, Blacberry, Nokia, Sony Ericsson & Windows mobile. Its very easy to set up (detailed instructions here).  

By default it only syncs default google calendar, to sync any others just browse to http://m.google.com/sync on iphone and specify others individually. In less then 10 minutes my 10 month search was over. All my internet cal’s are now automated to “pull” sync and the best part is it even does event alarms hmmmm one step closer to that interconnected bliss.

I finally managed to put together a site for our local SQUASH Club – Hawthorn Recreation Squash Club

The requirements for the site was fairly basic, It has 4 pages with club specific information about location, teams, gallery & contact.

Since i didn’t want to invest too much on writing new code, I used javascript to leavarage on exisiting technology & bring things together. From reading CSV files to integrating with Google Maps, Javascript can so easily mash it all up together.

Here is a code snipett that uses the XMLHttpRequest Object to extract xml data from a http response stream -Javascript rocks!

//create the Cross-browser XMLHttpRequest object
function getFile(pURL,pFunc) {
    if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { // code for Mozilla, Safari, etc

        xmlhttp=new XMLHttpRequest();
        eval(‘xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=’+pFunc+’;');

        xmlhttp.open(“GET”, pURL, true); // leave true for Gecko
        xmlhttp.send(null);

    } else if (window.ActiveXObject) { //IE
        xmlhttp=new ActiveXObject(‘Microsoft.XMLHTTP’);
        if (xmlhttp) {
            eval(‘xmlhttp.onreadystatechange=’+pFunc+’;');
            xmlhttp.open(‘GET’, pURL, false);
            xmlhttp.send();
        }
    }
}

From its first foray into OLAP Server Business with the acquisition of the Israeli-based Panorama Software, Microsoft has now climbed to top rank in the Gartner’s Latest Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence.

Personally I thought it was meant to happen but am surprised on how quickly the industry has seen the integrated attractiveness of Microsoft’s Office Suite with SQLServer 2005/ Katmai & the new Performance Point Server.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=206104502&subSection=All+Stories

Timeline showing Microsoft’s OLAP Services *Source Wikipedia