Google Docs is really bad

Every so often I try to do something non-trivial using Google Docs "Documents".

Each time I come away with the same opinion. Google's Document.app is awful.

Try selecting a table embedded within another table row.

That's just the start. Document.app has lots of missing functionality. It's not stuff that's technically impossible to do in Ajax, it's just that Google isn't doing it.

Spreadsheet.app is not nearly so bad. You can even edit it on an iPhone. Unlike, say, a Google Document.

I don't get how people pretend this is some kind of alternative to Word. I am, to put it mildly, no fan of Microsoft Word. Even so, I can't delude myself for a nano-moment that Google's Document.app is in the same class as Word. Especially not Word:Mac 2008*.

It's weird that anyone pretends otherwise.

* I've only recently begun using this version of Word. I am disturbed by the suspicion that I might like it.

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SurveyMonkey and web apps for meeting setup

I've seen this site used with quick group questions such as dates, places, etc.

SurveyMonkey.com:

... SurveyMonkey has a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily...

In a similar vein are a number of products for setting up meeting times and spots ...

• TimeToMeet: visual calendar sync
• Doodle: this one's quite popular for quick scheduling. Probably next one I'll try. Apparently works without sign-up (smart). No OpenID!
• Tungle: Read-write-web really liked it, I need to study it more. No OpenID! Can work with Google Calendar, but does it require a Google pw (kiss of death).
• TimeBridge: Has iPhone client
• When is Good: No sign up at all.

Ok, so why don't any of these support OpenID?

Big switch on my iPhone sync: CalDAV and Exchange server

In the last episode of ‘As the iPhone Turns’ our hero was getting business contacts to the iPhone via PST export to Outlook on home XP to MobileMe to the iPhone. Office calendar data traveled one way via Google Calendar Sync to Google Calendar. Google Calendar and Contacts went to the iPhone via Google’s Active Sync (Exchange Server) clone. Address Book on OS X synced to MobileMe on several machines. iCal was out of the picture.

Today it’s all shook up. I can now use Exchange server to bring office contacts, calendar and email to my iPhone. Since the iPhone can support only one Exchange Active Sync connection I switched my Google Calendar sync to CalDAV; for now office appts still go there via one way Google Calendar Sync. I still don’t use iCal.

Personal Contacts now go via MobileMe to the iPhone. Google Contacts don’t go anywhere (for now).

The downside is that my office contacts no longer appear in OS X Address Book, but the ease of updating and ability to edit on my iPhone makes up for that. My first impression is that CalDAV is a better fit for Google Calendar than Active Sync, and that Exchange sync works better with a true Exchange server than with Google Calendar.

Hope you followed all that, I’m not sure I did.

Update 12/3/09: I've seen one odd behavior that might be a bug. I can see and edit Emily's calendar. So when Emily invited me to an event I at first accepted, then realized I didn't need to see her event and mine. So I deleted the invited even, so only hers remained. Problem is, her appointment then vanished on my iPhone! but it was viewable on her iPhone and on the web.

So it was still around, I just couldn't see it. I removed the "invited, not coming" data from the event and changed it enough to force a refresh, it then reappeared.

I wonder if there's a problem with deleting an invited appointment while viewing the original appointment on another person's calendar.

iPhone App store boredom - some palliatives

For me the iPhone App Store went from nothing to thrilling to boring in a matter of months.

The excitement was just one casualty of the Battle of Google Voice. I gather there are lots of interesting games coming out, but I don't do games. I haven't found a good app in months; it's 57 channels and nothin' on all over again.

I did find some palliatives.

The App Store.app Genius button does work and it turned up one or two I've not considered. One of them led me in turn to the O'Reilly Best iPhone Apps site, which is two cuts above the competition. Between the two of them I'm looking at QuickOffice and iThoughts.

Even so, there's no cure for the App Store blahs. Cowardice is making Apple boring.

Address book sharing with OS X and MobileMe

Did you know you could share your Address Book through MobileMe, and even allow someone else to edit the entries?

I didn’t think so.

One of the oddest aspects of Apple’s “MobileMe” program is that much of the functionality is distributed between OS X machines, a user-invisible MobileMe repository, iPhones, and a sparse Web GUI. I expect most MobileMe functionality to be exposed through the web GUI, but it doesn’t work that way.

Address book sharing is a prime example (warning, Apple’s troubleshooting page on this feature is pretty much a warning not to use it! Obviously, you need to backup the desktop Address Book frequently.

I followed the directions and from my OS X desktop 10.5.8 user account I shared my Address Book with Emily (editing enabled).

Then, from her account I subscribed to my shared Addresses. I then did an iPhone sync to get everything cleared up and saved an archive of her Address Book [1]. Then, and only then, did I turn on MobileMe sync for her desktop contacts (Address Book).

I had to exit her Address Book and restart it to get my addresses to come over to her account. That’s typical of 10.5 Address Book.

It took quite a while, but now Emily has all of my Contacts on her OS X Address Book. They don’t, however, sync to her iPhone via iTunes. They also can’t be seen from the MobileMe web GUI, so I’m sure MobileMe iPhone contacts Sync wouldn’t see them either.

On the Mac though Emily can copy contacts from my list into her address book though, so copies can go to the iPhone.

It’s an interesting feature. We’ll see how useful it is, but to be safe I’ll disable remote editing.

[1] If you ever do a restore you need to immediately restart Address Book to complete it.

OS X Address book: labels and large numbers

I like Address Book far more than iCal, but even so I've underestimated it.

Great features: Mac 101: Two things I love about Address Book.

Update: Poking around Address Book I came across the “share feature”. It’s rather complex, but intriguing. I’ve a later post on how to use this sharing feature.
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Parental Controls - The wikipedia problem solved

I'm setting up a special account on one of our laptops that will be used by my son with light supervision. It will be much more restricted than the account he uses when closely supervised.

So I'm back with Apple's notoriously buggy Parental Controls. It's been a while, so I was pleasantly surprised to see that several old bugs are better in the latest version of Safari and 10.5.

One is acting strangely however. I wonder if it's a new Safari bug. When I limit access to listed web sites, many links within the sight are unavailable. This isn't how it's supposed to work (emphases mine) ...

Mac OS X 10.5: About the Parental Controls Internet content filter

... If 'Allow access to only these websites' is selected in Parental Controls, the Internet content filter blocks any website which is not on the list. When the blocking web page is presented, a list of allowed websites is also shown. If using Safari, allowed websites are displayed as bookmarks in the bookmarks bar.

Note: For most websites, the Internet content filter considers the domain name and not the path. For example, if http://www.example.com is added to the list, then http://pictures.example.com will be allowed, as will http://www.example.com/movies....

The key word here is "most". In one site I tested it works as above. In another, only the main page is accessible. I can't find any documentation that explains why behavior varies by site. I'll try asking on Apple Discussions.

Update 11/20/09: I found a 2008 post on this topic. The user never found a fix, but later, on a different 10.5 machine, the problem resolved.

Update 11/21/09: Wikipedia has a nonstandard approach to IP addresses. I can use ping to find an IP address for simple.wikipedia.org, but I can't use that address in a URL. I suspect this is done to meet some security and confidentiality goal. However this approach may also defeat Parental Controls, which probably works from IP addresses.

Update 11/21/09b: We use OpenDNS on some kid machines, and OpenDNS supports a "shortcut" redirect like "simple" for simple.wikipedia.org. Except it doesn't work for this domain. Wikipedia is doing something unusual with IP addresses, perhaps as a side-effect of protecting user IP addresses. I think Wikipedia manages IP addresses differently for logged in users, so I'm going to explore that option next.

Update 11/21/09c. I dance the geek dance of Dilbertian triumph. What worked for me is the combination of establishing a user account and secure server access (https to wikimedia.org server). The sequence I followed is:

1. From Admin account off content controls for the child account browser.
2. In Child account create a user account on wikipedia and use their secure login: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/simple/wiki/Special:UserLogin. Create a bookmark to this page.
3. Go to main page: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/simple/wiki/Main_Page. Create a bookmark to this page.
4. Now return to Admin account and limit access controls to the above listed bookmarks.

It now works.
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