I am so disappointed by this year's Olympic coverage. Words can barely express my displeasure at not being able to see actual sports. The synchronized diving and beach volleyball coverage was knowledgeable, but what about all of the other sports? And enough with all of the background info about everyone's families. Show the sports!
But most of all, the 5-7pm EST MSNBC coverage with Tiki Barber and those two women is utterly offensive. Making fun of a name that sounds funny in English? Making fun of a $26,000 track bike? Mentioning that a polo team's coach has been barred from the pool for the next match without saying anything about any of the matches themselves? Putting mustaches on pictures of each of the 3 hosts? Spending several minutes (long enough for me to surf looking for something better to watch and then to check back, in hope of seeing sports coverage) on the dog someone trains with, and then ending that story with the woman in China's off-handed "yeah, a good way to train a husband too" comment? Come on!!
This isn't an Olympic round up. It's a teenager's version of entertainment today. And a waste of Tiki Barber.
I sent this rant to nbcolympicsfeedback@nbcuni.com
The more the merrier?
Posted: August 15, 2008 7:45 pm | 0 comments
Tags: msnbc, Olympics Roundup, Summer Olympics, Tiki Barber
Someone posted a comment on one of my endless iPhone / Meeting Maker calendar posts asking about Simmons Webmail on the iPhone, so I figured answering was worth a separate post.
Syncing Simmons email with the iPhone is a snap!
For the settings you need to get email on your iPhone, see Set up your email software to access Simmons email
On the iPhone, roughly speaking, here are the steps:
* Settings
* Mail, Contacts, Calendar
* Add Account
* Other
* Fill in the blanks
* Keep the IMAP tab highlighted, and then use the settings as directed at Set up your email software to access Simmons email
* Make sure you include your username and password in the "Outgoing mail server" section, or you won't be able to send email from your iPhone using your Simmons account.
By setting up your iPhone for "IMAP" access, mail you read on your iPhone will be marked as "read" in WebMail, and everything you send will land in the sent messages folder you see in your Webmail as well. Hmmm. Well, actually, the name of the sent mail folder may be different from the default name Webmail uses, but anyway, the outgoing mail will be there, somewhere.
Note: if you already use separate email software to read your Simmons email, like Apple Mail, Outlook, or Thunderbird, you can sync your email settings through iTunes. However, I've often found that setting up the account directly on the iPhone more likely ensures the settings will be correct. Don't ask me why "I've often found": I like to play!
Posted: August 15, 2008 8:07 pm | 0 comments
Tags: iPhone, Simmons email, webmail
Hope dawns for more easily getting my Meeting Maker calendar onto my iPhone . . . or does it?
The latest version of NotifyLink for Meeting Maker includes support for the iPhone: ta dah! We use Notify at Simmons to synchronize Blackberries with Meeting Maker. Supporting Notify on the Blackberries has taken an enormous amount of our time, actually. And it hasn't been problem-free.
But my iPhone . . . that would be a dream come true!
According to the documentation, though, Notify has you set up your link to Meeting Maker through the "Exchange" option under "Settings -> Mail, Contacts, Calendars." However, when you set up your iPhone for use with Exchange, Exchange takes over your iPhone's calendar and doesn't allow synchronization with other calendars. If that doesn't kill the deal for you (it really does for me), then also note that you can't invite guests to Meeting Maker meetings, you can only create events that appear on your own calendar.
See, for example, the caveats on Illinois State University's instructions for Exchange synchronization.
From my brief surf about it, these problems appear to be due to Apple's implementation of some underlying standard for Exchange (a Microsoft standard, or a true standard?).
Given the problems Notify upgrades have caused for us, we can't upgrade the server until we've had time to do thorough testing, which means well after classes start since we're a little busy right now.
Sigh. Just me and that very old applescript, plugging along. Looks like we'll be together a long time. Hope it keeps working.
Posted: August 15, 2008 8:26 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Calendar synchronization, iPhone, Meeting Maker, Notify
