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
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
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
I am taking some days away from Simmons, but I couldn't miss Bike to Work week, so I rode in yesterday for the MASCO-sponsored breakfast. There were a couple of REI "wrenches" (mechanics) doing free tune-ups, coffee, bagels, and, of course, The T-Shirt.
I'd seen the design for the t-shirt in advance, and couldn't be without my 3rd bike to work week t-shirt. Nevermind that I've been to more bike to work breakfasts than that (usually after they'd run out of t-shirts) and that I have more t-shirts than I know what to do with. I mean, look at this!
There are some good things happening with biking around the Boston area. Check out a new bike coach on one of the commuter rail lines (below the gross crime story). The number of people and amount of energy at the MASCO breakfast was much greater than it's been in the past. As I pull into Fenway area, I see more and more bikers than I used to.
As the price of gas soars, let's hope that people really do try to Kick Gas, by biking and using public transportation.
Posted: May 16, 2008 10:24 am | 0 comments
Tags: bicycling, bike to work week, MASCO
Right down the road there's a really lovely example of bike racks being integrated into a campus's built environment, with landscaping and sculpture. Next time you walk by, take a closer look at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts.
Note that from inside their Grossman Gallery, one must be able to see the parked bicycles. The iron sculpture of circles (presumably "wheels") helps create a physical and visual barrier between the street and the bike parking.
Also note how the paving stones lead one onto their (albeit small) campus, and clearly include the rack area as part of campus. Along with the sculpture, there is some shrubbery that helps delineate the bike parking from street, and also, thereby, helps protect the bike area from "outsiders."
This design is worthy of emulation! Nicely done.
I'm not a designer, only an appreciator, otherwise I'd try to propose something for this:
Although there is also the easy route, which Berkelee School of Music took.
Posted: April 9, 2008 9:03 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Berkelee School of Music, Bicycles, bike racks, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, sculpture, Simmons College
I can't help myself. The spring weather brings on my desire for change. I want to ride to work. And I don't have a death wish.
I'm posting this in case there are others in the community interested in commuting safely to Simmons. If your commute is anywhere near mine: let's talk!
Dear Mass Highway Dept. Rep. Leavenworth, Dept. of Conservation & Recreation, City of Medford Dept. of Public Works, City of Somerville Dept. of Public Works, Orange Line MTBA officer, Bier Brier Development, Assembly Square Mall folk, City Councillor DiPietro, and City of Malden,
I'm writing to you all because I do not know where to turn. It doesn't look as though there is one clear entity that could take responsibility for making improvements for cyclists and pedestrians in the Wellington Circle area, and thus some good will and cooperative interest is required.
I am about to start commuting to Simmons College from Malden again soon. The safest route I've come up with, upon which Mass Bike has not been able to improve, goes through Wellington Circle. In the morning, I travel south on Middlesex Ave., and turn left on Riverside, and then left on the Fellsway so that I can go straight through Wellington Circle with the light.
I am very happy to report that traveling on the Fellsway (Rt. 28) south over the river in the street (which is where, as a cyclist, I belong and have the right to be) is pretty safe. There is a wide shoulder, and whatever entity is responsible for street sweeping often does a fantastic job sweeping the shoulder on the bridge. Thank you so very much!!
I'm able to get all the way to Broadway, where I turn left so that I can turn right on the relatively safer Cross Street and get to Union Square.
The way home, however, is just about impossible. I commute to work 3-4 times a week in good weather, and every ride home I spend time thinking about who might be able to improve this dismal situation, for both bicyclists and pedestrians. And so, I am writing to all of you in hopes of some advice and assistance.
I have one of two choices for navigating Rt. 93 on the way home, since as a cyclist I absolutely will not go under the underpass on Rt. 28.
1. I can go behind the Stop and Shop, cross under the overpass (very sketchy in terms of personal safety), and pick my bike up over the biggest-curb-you-ever-wanted-to-see-after-you've-narrowly-escaped-speeding-cars on Mystic Ave. I often meet pedestrians carrying shopping bags negotiating this same terrible "intersection" and curb. Heaven forbid there be a fiscally challenged person in a wheelchair down there. There may even be a bus stop--I'm not sure. Bleck.
2. Or, what I usually do is go west on Broadway, turn right on Grant, left on Sydney, right on Temple, cross under 93, and ride on Bailey Road.
Once I'm past 93, I have three more choices, none of which are good:
A. I can ride on Fellsway West/28 North over the bridge (which for some reason is not as well swept as the other side), and risk life and limb as cars go about 45-50 mph, from 3 lanes, to 4 lanes, to 5 lanes. Right after the bridge, the shoulder disappears as it is taken over by one of these lanes.
B. I can ride on the pedestrian walk way on the east side of the bridge, negotiate the terrible sidewalk turns and crumbling bumps right after the bridge, and then make my way through the ridiculous curb cuts that new development has put in, which requires quick cuts and turns, and going from sidewalk into parking lot and back out, making it all that much easier for cars not to see me. This puts me in the way of pedestrians, slows me down, and makes it difficult for me to get back into traffic. I need to end up going north on Middlesex Ave.
C. Or, what I usually do, is take option #2 above, get on the sidewalk across from Putnam Road, get onto that Shore Drive island, cross Shore Drive against oncoming traffic, go across the bridge on the pedestrian walk way (apologizing to walkers and joggers all-the-while), stay on the sidewalk until the State Highway Police building (where there aren't any curb cuts, which strikes me as apropo: it's the highway police: you shouldn't be walking or riding, you should be driving!), cross over to the little island where Rt. 16 comes in, wait for the light to cross Rt. 28 south (still on the sidewalk), sprint across the Rt. 28 north traffic so that I can turn my bike north with the traffic and head across by the Kappy's onto Middlesex Ave.
D. There is a 4th choice, which is heading through the new development's parking lot (e.g. by the Starbucks), and then on the (crumbling sidewalk) up and over Rt. 16, down by the T, under Rt. 16, and north on Corporation Way. While I'm at it, by the way, exactly once I tried to ride my bike from Corporation Way along the sidewalk (knowing better than to take my life in my own hands on Rt. 16 where the bridge surface is variegated), to the Target. That sidewalk is crumbling to the point where a wrong turn could take you diving down the side of the road, has huge holes, and places where there are 6" changes in elevation.
I applaud recent efforts to increase population density in the Wellington Circle area near the T. The formerly-known-as-Telecomm-City Corporation Road bike lane is great. Wouldn't it be great to make it so that once a cyclist has gotten to the Wellington Circle area, whether on Middlesex Ave., or Corporation Road, s/he can get home again? Wouldn't it be great for people living near the Somerville Stop & Shop to be able to safely get back and forth to the Assembly Square Mall? Wouldn't it be great to dissuade more drivers along those already busy roadways by making it possible for bicyclists and pedestrians to pass through?
Thank you for your assistance, and I look forward to hearing from you,
Kim
cc: Mass Bike, Bike to the Sea
Posted: April 3, 2008 5:11 pm | 0 comments
Tags: bicycle safety, bicycling, Malden, massachusetts, Medford, pedestrians, roads, safe routes, sidewalks, Somerville
I saw a new bike rack over near Palace Road. That, along with the nicer weather, rekindled my interest in having bike racks installed in front of Lefavour, where bicyclists clearly want to park. I wonder if the City of Boston, given Mayor Menino's interest in making Boston a "world class biking city", would give Simmons a hand by letting the college place bike racks on the city property in front of Lefavour?
This would seem to go hand-in-hand with Green Simmons and the desire to decrease reliance on cars and the air pollution they create.
Here's a poorly sewn together image of photos I took today in front of Lefavour, which is actually very similar to pictures I've taken all winter, and two places where a bunch of bike racks could happily go. The little red lines and arrows show 5 bikes (plus the red scooter) parked. In addition, there's actually one directly across the street by the bus shelter.
Why not put the racks where people want to park? Such racks would serve Lefavour folk. The racks by the Science Center are usually full in good weather, and could continue to serve Science Center cyclist traffic.
Posted: April 3, 2008 4:03 pm | 0 comments
Tags: Bicycles, bike racks, Lefavour, Simmons College
