Missing Sync for Palm OS 5 Shipped!

For the last 6 or 7 months, I've been working on Missing Sync for Palm OS. We have finally shipped and it is a big relief. I acted not only as the lead engineer, but as product manager due to others at Mark/Space being quite busy. Needless to say, at times, I've been overwhelmed taking on two major roles. I think that this product has killer features. It has much better syncing support for Calendar, Contacts, and Tasks, as well as the features I worked on: overhauled UI, auto sync vs sharing detection, iTunes conduit, folder sync conduit, iPhoto to handheld, as well as a number of bug fixes. If you're a Macintosh and Palm OS user, I highly recommend you purchase or upgrade! If you're on the fence about upgrading or purchasing, trust me, it is well worth the money as it is leaps and bounds better than Palm's HotSync Manager, Apple's iSync Palm Conduit and even Missing Sync for Palm OS 4.

Election time is always a fun time of the year

I sure do love receiving the phone calls (luckily to a voicemail only number) and the printed junk telling me what to vote for in the upcoming election. Luckily I don't have to sit through the TV commercials as we skip through them on TiVo. One of the interesting pieces of junk mail we received today had Mac OS X written all over it. They modified the Finder's Go menu and added Uncover->The Hidden Agenda. Very slick looking and then they used Safari for the web browser pictured in the ad.

The one proposition that annoys me the post, is Proposition 74 (these are California propositions that Governor Terminator got on the ballot). It changes teacher tenure which on the surface sounds like a good idea, but it really doesn't solve the problem of getting rid of bad teachers. Furthermore, it is retroactive. My wife is in her third year teaching and was granted tenure this year. If the measure passes, they strip the tenure from her and she is on probation for another 3 years. That really sucks. It is hard enough to find good teachers that are passionate about there work, now to make it even harder to become a permanent teacher and easier to get fired, who is really going to want to become a teacher? It sure isn't for the money. If you're a California voter, at least vote NO on 74. (I don't know enough about the other propositions to make an informed decision, but if Arnold is behind them, they're probably bad.)

Daylight savings time

I hate the change back to standard time as it gets dark so much earlier and kind of cuts my days short. However, what is even worse than the change is having to deal with daylight savings time as a software developer. Most of the software I deal with lately is synchronization and each device handles daylight savings time differently which results in major headaches. Too bad it isn't all standardized to make life easy. Oh well, these issues keep me employed.

The fix to a broken heater

In one room of our house, which was an addition to the main house, we have an electric, in-wall heater. We never really cared about using it as we haven't had guests in the winter. Well this morning I turned it on to see what would happen as my in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving. The heater turned on for about 30 seconds and then shut off. I fiddled with the knob and it worked for another 30 seconds. So, being the good engineer I am, I shut off the circuit breaker, and disassembled it so that I can get the parts tomorrow. I had the main piece (the thermostat) on the counter (it's a 30 year old heater, so it is pretty simple) and explained to my wife how it works. See tells me to try moving the thermocouple away from the heater (it was sitting in front of the heating element). I didn't really think it would make a difference, but said OK, put it back together, moved the thermocouple, turned on the circuit breaker and gave it a whirl. Well, it worked and the room started heating up (slowly, but surely). I'm not sure why I didn't think of that "fix" as I'm an engineer and knew exactly how the system worked. So simple and my wife proved that it doesn't take an engineer to solve a problem.