I frequently find myself frustrated by people who consider everything they read on the Internet to be true, despite the fact that it’s ridiculously easy to create a respectable-looking webpage and fill it with completely unverified and/or false information. (Though, there are certainly those who skip the “respectable-looking” part entirely…for a glaring example, check out This webpage).

Anyways, all this to say I was reading a book for school today, and came upon this quote:

For the most part, the present study has ignored…the Internet material that is posted without having passed the rigorous process of peer review that characterizes true scholarship. (emphasis mine)

It made me laugh, I hope you enjoy it, and never forget that being on the internet does not make something true, and if it’s only on the Internet, makes it that more likely to be not true.

So I read this post today, and it really got me irked. Apparently John McCain (rather astutely) observed that illegal immigrants do our nation a great service because they’re actually willing to do many jobs that Americans would refuse to do.

Then, Sensico posts a link to the video, outraged that McCain would essentially call Americans lazy, because McCain states that even if they were offered $50/hr to do so, Americans wouldn’t ever pick lettuce in Yuma during the summer. (If you’ve missed it, as Sensico obviously did, this is hyperbole. Offering $50/hr to pick lettuce would cause the price of Lettuce to hit about $15/head.) Sensico says:

You don’t understand how much I want to yell out MCCAINS AN ELITIST. I can’t believe McCain would basically call Americans lazy and then offers $50…

And then, here’s the priceless bit. TWO PARAGRAPHS LATER:

I for one would never pick lettuce because Im not used to manual labor,

THAT’S THE EXACT POINT JOHN MCCAIN WAS JUST TRYING TO MAKE!!!!! <sigh> How do you even try to reason with this?

edit:
Just to clarify, my point here is not to defend the ways in which Americans take advantage of illegal immigrants in order to maximize their own profits: the Bible is quite clear on this, that it’s absolutely despicable. (Read James 5 among others) My points are that:

1. Many Americans are proud and lazy
2. Many immigrants work very hard and get NO appreciation or respect
3. Some Americans like to ignore both of these facts and yell very loudly about their own “rights”
4. McCain is astute enough to recognize this, and
5. A lot of the most vocal people on the internet don’t understand common literary devices such as hyperbole: I still think that the blogosphere is going to destroy civilization.

Last step: synchronize Outlook 2007 and Google Calendar. This is the easy part:

1. Download Calgoo Connect.
2. Install it.
3. Follow these directions.

You’re done! How easy was that?!

This post is the last in a series on How to sync iCal, Google Calendar, and Outlook 2007.

Update:After much time and effort with this writeup, it appears that Calgoo can do all this much more simply. If you like easy, follow these steps:

1. Download Calgoo Connect.
2. Install it.
3. Follow these directions.

If you’d rather do it the fun or less intrusive way, follow these directions:

1. Download GCALDaemon and save it where you normally save downloads. Just visit This page and click the link that say “UNIX/Linux/AIX/Mac OS X compatible ZIP archive”. It’s under the “Linux compatible” section, but you don’t need Linux, because the OS X Terminal is compatible. Don’t open it or unzip it, just save the file.
2. Hit Apple-Space Bar to open Spotlight (Or just click the Magnifying glass on your menu bar), and type in “Terminal.” Click the result that looks like a black screen and says “Terminal”. Don’t freak out when it opens up with a boring little cursor.
3. Make sure you have Java 1.5 or higher installed. Just type in:
   java -version
   and hit enter, and it will tell you what version you have. If it’s lower than 1.5, go to java.sun.com and install the latest version.
4. Type in the following command, and hit enter:
   cd /usr/local/sbin
5. Type in:
   sudo unzip
   (add a space at the end, do NOT hit enter)
6. Drag and drop your newly-downloaded file onto Terminal. This pastes in the correct pathname. Hit enter.
7. Now type in each of these commands, and hit enter after each one:
   sudo chgrp -R admin /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon
sudo chmod -R g+w /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon
sudo chmod 755 /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon/bin/*.sh
9. Leave Terminal open

Sweet! Now that GCALDaemon is installed, we can set it up to do a two-way synchronize between iCal and Google Calendar.

1. In Terminal, type this in and hit enter to run the setup program: /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon/bin/config-editor.sh
2. Select the “File synchronizer” on the left, and click the “Google Accounts” buttom (screenshot)
3. Click the “New Account” button, enter your Gmail address and your password (twice), click “Verify”, and hit “OK”
4. Click the “New” button (Left of the “Google Accounts” button you just pushed)
6. Select your Google account, your Google Calendar (You may have to hit “refresh” to see them all), and your iCal file. Hit OK, and repeat for as many calendars as you have.

Almost done! All we have to do is make this program run whenever you’re on your computer.

1. Download Lingon here and unzip it into your “Applications” or “Applications/Utilities” folder.
2. Double-click on it to run it
3. Follow the five easy steps here. IMPORTANT: when it asks for the path in step 4, enter this:
   /usr/local/sbin/GCALDaemon/bin/standalone-start.sh

That’s it, you’re done! Now your Google Calendar will always be synced with your iCal! If you change one, the other will change automagically! Now, go ahead and set up Outlook 2007 to sync with Google Calendar as well–it’s much easier.

Imagine that you use Outlook at work to maintain your work schedule, and Google Calendar at home to keep track of your personal life, and you want to keep the two schedules together, but separate. You want to be able to share your Work schedule with work people, your home schedule with your wife, and nary the two shall meet.

The solution? Multiple calendars.

In Outlook 2007, you’ll be able to see these events side-by-side, but if you want to share just one of those calendars to your Boss, it will show only the events in that calendar to those who view it. (This also has the added benefit of showing you at a glance that you work too much!)

I personally maintain 5 calendars: Personal, Work, Class (I’m a full-time student), Church, and Birthday/Anniversaries. Makes it easy to keep my life nice and organized.

Here’s how you do it with Outlook 2007:

1. Open Outlook, and click on your calendar. (duh!)
2. Click the little arrow next to the “New” button just under your Tool Bar, and select “Calendar…” (screenshot)
3. Give it a name and hit OK.
4. Repeat as many times as you like
5. If in the past you’ve been categorizing by Color, you can now easily move items from your current Calendar to your new Calendars.
   1. Make sure your original calendar is selected (It’s called “Calendar”)
   2. Type a common letter (such as “a”) in the “Search Calendar” Box
   3. Click the “Categories” header to sort by Category
   4. Select all the items in a Category and drag-and-drop them into the appropriate new Calendar on the left. (If you don’t see them listed, Click the “My Calendars” heading under “All Calendar Items”
6. Finally, to overlay your calendars and view all events together, check the box next to each calendar, and use the little left-pointing arrow next to the Calendar name on each tab (screenshot).

P.S. This is also possible to do in Outlook 2003, I believe. I will post instructions when I have the chance.

Now that you’ve done this, you can go read how to do the same thing with Google Calendar and iCal, and then you can read sync multiple iCal, Google, and Outlook Calendars to keep them all automagically synced together!

Imagine that you use Outlook at work to maintain your work schedule, and iCal at home to keep track of your personal life, and you want to keep the two schedules together, but separate. You want to be able to share your Work schedule with work people, your home schedule with your wife, and nary the two shall meet.

The solution? Multiple calendars.

In your iCal, you’ll be able to see these events side-by-side, but if you want to share just one of those calendars over the internet, it will show only the events in that calendar to those who view it. (This also has the added benefit of showing you at a glance that you work too much!)

I personally maintain 5 calendars: Personal, Work, Class (I’m a full-time student), Church, and Birthday/Anniversaries. Makes it easy to keep my life nice and organized.

Here’s how you do it with iCal:

1. Open iCal. (duh!)
2. On the left-hand side, you’ll see a spot for calendars. Right-click in the blank space (Hold the Ctrl key and click, or click and hold) and select “New Calendar” (screenshot)
3. Give it a name.
4. Repeat as many times as you like

Now that you’ve done this, you can go read how to do the same thing with Google Calendar and Outlook 2007, and then you can read sync multiple iCal, Google, and Outlook Calendars to keep them all automagically synced together!