Thursday, December 11th, 2008
Google recently released many new Street View images, including the State of Maine. Street View is interesting. I was suprised about some of the places that Google recorded a Street View for and some of which it did not.
For instance, one of the prettiest and out of the way places in Maine may be The Bunker Hill Church in Jefferson, Maine. It has a view of Damariscotta Lake that is hard to beat on a clear sunny day. Click on the link below and pan left 3 times to see what I mean. [Link to Google Street View of Bunker Hill Church, Jefferson, ME]
But what I find interesting about Google Street View’s of Maine is that Google drove by this church. It’s not on a road I would call busy. In fact, I tried to go down really busy roads that Google didn’t travel down. For instance, Route 1 between Waldoboro and Damariscotta is not complete for about 5 miles. So I can’t even show people the turn to my house on Street View. But I can share the view of this small church on a high hill with a million dollar view. And way down acorss the lake amongst the trees and out of site, my house is there, somehwere.
One thing I have not done yet, since moving to Nobleboro, is actually go inside this church. Once or twice a month, we can sit outside our house and listen to organ music coming from way off in the distance. My wife does not believe me but I think it’s coming from The Bunker Hill Church. It’s soft and lovely and only 3.5 miles away as the crow flies.
Tags: Bunker Hill Church, Google, Jefferson, Maine, map, Street View
Posted in Maine | No Comments »
Thursday, June 19th, 2008
Google Browser Sync has been a favorite tool for me since it’s public release. But with the release of Firefox 3 the question of when Google Browser Sync would be updated has been answered with it’s death knell. Apparently it was nothing more than a personal project for someone and will not be supported further.
Well, I have always understood that you get what you pay for. And Google owes me nothing for this great free Firefox addon. But I fear what this means for the many other free services I use from Google. What happens if they decide that Google Apps for Your Domain is no longer profitable?
I’m moving on and am now using Foxmarks to syncronize bookmarks between the several computers I use. It works very well and settles my need. Another free service. Yes, I get what I pay for.
Tags: browser, death, Foxmarks, Google, sync
Posted in Software | No Comments »
Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
I have long wanted a way to synchronize my address book across GMail, Yahoo, and my Mac. I was a Plaxo user for while until they were gobbled up by Comcast. Even Plaxo didn’t give me all I wanted. It would not push contact info to Google.
A few weeks ago I tried out a new web service called Soocial. It solved the Gmail Contacts problem syncing with my Mac Address Book. I used it for a week and was happy.
Then my birthday came and my wife gave me an iPod Touch. As of OS X 10.5.3, if you have an iPod Touch or iPhone then the added feature of a Google Contacts Sync appears in Address Book preferences. I couldn’t wait to try it! I completely forgot that I was set up to sync to Soocial. When I synchronized next the streams crossed and my address book blew up. Everything tripled! It was not pretty.
Fortunately, I have good backups and it didn’t take long to clean up the mess. I turned off Soocial for now. I’m currently just syncing with Apple’s tools and it’s working pretty well.
So if like me, you are exploring the success and failure of syncing then be careful, “Don’t cross the streams”.
Tags: Address Book, Apple, contacts, Ghost Busters, Google, Mac, Soocial, sync
Posted in Communication, Personal, Software | No Comments »
