There are a lot of things that I really love about my iPhone over my old Android phone, but I do miss how nicely Gmail was integrated.

I have a personal Gmail email account as well as a Google Apps email account for work, and I would like to received push notifications for work. Last year Google came out with Google Sync, a service that imitates Microsoft Exchange so that you are able to sync contacts, calendar, and email easily to your iOS device. Like so many things, Google Sync is great in theory but lacking in two important aspects in practice. While this will give you push Gmail on your iPhone, it’s been my experience that the push notifications are a bit flaky. The issue that really makes it useless for me though is the inability to delete emails from my iPhone. Sure I can archive them, but one of the great things about having a smartphone is that I can weed through emails while I am out and about. I have no desire to keep all email communication permanently. I want to be able to delete emails without having to fall back to the web interface. I still have the Google Sync Exchange account setup on my iPhone, but I disabled the mail part. To be fair, I haven’t noticed any issues with contacts or calendars syncing.

Then I setup the my Gmail account as IMAP account (which was how my work email account was already setup) and changed the Advanced Settings to delete messages and store drafts on the server. When I had set it up using the Gmail wizard on the iPhone I was not provided with those options.

All is well on the delete issue, but now I have no push notifications. Apparently Google and Apple don’t do IMAP push the same way that the iPhone does. Very strange since Yahoo does. Go figure. So I downloaded Boxcar from the App Store and now I’m getting push notifications for both accounts. However, for this to work I have to forward my email from my accounts to Boxcar so that it can send me push notifications. I don’t really like the privacy implications of this, but it’s free and it works.

I really need to start blogging on a regular basis. Without a creative outlet my geekiness tends to build up, until it bursts from my body in a fast and steady stream of consciousness directed at my wife, who could not care less about the technical aspects of anything.

I do not plan on adding any more to this for several reasons. The first of which is I have stopped using YNAB as I’ve switched to Moneywell. The second reason is that there is now an official YNAB app for the iPhone. You are welcome to download the Budget Viewer code or fork the github repository to continue this project if you like. But if you have an iPhone I recommend clicking the first link and going with the official app.

YNAB for iPhone – Official App

Download Mobile Budget Viewer

Mobile Mudget Viewer on Github

Automatic is a preference pane that has been around for awhile that will watch RSS feeds and download content from the feed items. It’s very useful, especially since it can filter feeds using regular expressions. I found out Automatic 2 had come out as a paid upgrade. Strange, Automatic had always been free. Oh well, it’s useful software and I’m happy to support the developer if it improves on the original. I downloaded, installed it, and was disappointed.

Bummer.

Pros (it’s not all bad):

• It looks pretty
• Built in torrent downloading for TV shows
• Rules are sorted alphabetically instead of in the order they were added

Cons (but it’s not that good either):

• Episode filter in custom feeds is no longer configurable
• Built in TV show filters cannot be customized in any (including the feed)
• It costs €14.95 (~$18.99 at the time of this writing)
• No default feeds; feed URLs have to be reentered for each custom feed

Oh well, Automatic 1 is still available as a free download on the Automatic website.

Automatic

SickBeard only has two requirements. The first being Python, which comes with Snow Leopard, and the second is Cheetah, which will need to be installed. This guide assumes that you are using the default Snow Leopard Python. If you have installed another version of Python I am not sure that this will work.

Download Cheetah from http://www.cheetahtemplate.org/download.html. Extract the contents of the archive file you just downloaded to somewhere on your Mac. Open Terminal and cd to the extracted files. Once inside the folder run the following:

sudo python setup.py install

Now you need to download SickBeard. There are two options for this. I did (and still do) option 2.

Option #1 (easier but harder to update)

There is not a binary for the Mac platform so you will have to download the source which you can get from http://github.com/midgetspy/Sick-Beard/zipball/master. Extract the downloaded zip file to wherever you would like the SickBeard app to reside on your computer. Go back to Terminal.app and cd to the SickBeard directory. To start SickBeard type the following:

python sickbeard.py

A browser should open up with SickBeard. If it doesn’t you can get to the app by visiting http://localhost:8081 in your favorite browser.

Option #2 (harder but easier to update – newest version of the code)

We are going to use git to download and update SickBeard. So first you need to install git if you have not already. Download the git OSX binary here. Install git. If you have still have Terminal open cmd+q out of it and then reopen. cd to the directory you want to install SickBeard in. Then type and run the following:

git clone git://github.com/midgetspy/Sick-Beard.git

Now you should have a folder call Sick-Beard. cd into the new folder and then type the following:

python sickbeard.py

A browser should open up with SickBeard. If it doesn’t you can get to the app by visiting http://localhost:8081 in your favorite browser. When you want to update Sickbeard first make sure SickBeard is not running. Open terminal and navigate to the Sick-Beard folder. Then type the following:

git pull

That’s it. Now you are running the latest version of the code.

Some Notes

Unfortunately, I have yet to find an elegant way to automatically start Sickbeard on boot, or to get SickBeard to run without having to have Terminal open. I played around with py2app a bit, but never got a working app out of it. If you have any ideas, I’d love to hear them.

UPDATE: SickBeard now has a daemon mode.  To start in daemon mode type the following in a Terminal window:

python sickbeard.py -d

You can close the Terminal window and it will continue to run.

HelTweetica has been ported from the iPad to Mac. Helvetica for everyone! If you are a Twitter user who likes Helvetica, give HelTweetica a chance. It’s free.

git pull
remote: Counting objects: 21, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (18/18), done.
remote: Total 18 (delta 13), reused 0 (delta 0)
Unpacking objects: 100% (18/18), done.
From git@github.com:user/repo
251d91b..b1a4844 master -> origin/master
Auto-merged folder/file.ext
CONFLICT (content): Merge conflict in folder/file.ext
Automatic merge failed; fix conflicts and then commit the result.

You probably saw this message when you tried to do a git pull. There are a number of causes for this but the bottom line is that Git was unable to auto merge. If you know that the remote version is what you want then you can fix it by doing the following:

git fetch origin
git reset --hard origin

Now you can git push and pull to your heart’s content.

Plex does not yet have the ability to automatically watch your media sources and Update the Library any time something is added. However, there is a way to get around this. We can set Sabnzbd to tell Plex to run Update Library whenever it finishes downloading a new episode.

#!/bin/sh
curl --get "http://localhost:3000/xbmcCmds/xbmcHttp?command=ExecBuiltIn&parameter=XBMC.updatelibrary(video)"

First we need to create the update script. Fire up your text editor of choice and paste the above code into a new document.

Make sure to change localhost to the IP address of of the computer running Plex if it is running on a different computer.

Save the file as UpdateLibrary.sh in ~/Library/Scripts/Sabnzbd. If the directory does not already exist then you will need to first create it.

Open up Sabnzbd in your browser. Go to the Folder Settings page (the location of this may vary depending on the theme you are using). Set “Folder Containing the User Scripts” to Library/Scripts/Sabnzbd. Make sure to save your changes. For the next step choose Option 1 or Option 2. Not both.

Option 1: If you want Plex to be updated no matter what the category is

Go to the Switches page in the Sabnzbd configuration. Under Processing Switches there is a Default User Script dropdown. Change it from None to UpdatePlexLibrary.sh. Make sure to save your changes. Now scroll down to the bottom of this post to add some finishing touches.

Option 2: If you want Plex to be updated only for a certain category

Go to the Categories page in the Sabnzbd configuration. Change the Script dropdown on the category of you choice to UpdatePlexLibrary.sh. For the TV category to be automatically assigned I have an RSS feed just for TV Shows and I set the Feed category to be TV. This is the option that I use.

Finishing touches

Now to add just a bit more polish. Open up Plex. Go to Preferences > Video > Library. Turn on Update library on startup (the script only works if Plex is open, but this option takes care of if it’s closed when the download finishes) and Always update library in background (this will suppress the Updating library box from popping up). That’s it. You are done. Now anytime Sabnzbd finished downloading an episode it will automatically be added to Plex.

Now that I have had the opportunity to listen to the Swans M10 for a few hours I am even more impressed. The mid-range is amazing, and the highs are clear, and the M10 has a surprizingly wonderful soundstage. The bass is relatively tight, but I believe that it will become even more so after having some time to burn in. The speakers have a nice warm sound, so while they might not be the best for monitoring they make for very enjoyable listening. They do an especially good job of making lossy recordings sound wonderful. Instead of rambling on any more I will review the effects this had on some of the music I listened to. That’s all that matters anyway, right?

Porcelain by Red Hot Chili Peppers: Immediately I noticed how easily discernible the vocal harmonies were. All the tracks were clearly present and easily discernible. Minimal sibilance issues.

Oh, Atlanta by Alison Krauss: The vocals are crisp and detailed. I am really pleased with the way female vocals sound. The bass line for this song can easily sound muddy, but the sounds coming from the subwoofer are anything but.

C’mon by the Rustic Overtones: This song has a tendency to sound quite muddy because it has a lot going on, but again the Swans M10 shines. No comparison to any of my previous desktop speaker systems. The mids and highs are not too bright and I am still hearing things I haven’t heard before. Prolonged listening is not fatiguing.

Black Hole by She & Him: Nothing new here except Zooey’s voice sounds a little forward. Probably the recording more than anything else.

Pattern Against User by At the Drive-In: This song is an MP3 downloaded from Amazon. I played this because it has always sounded very muddy whether it be through my car stereo or my old bookshelf system. Still muddy, but much better than before. I think this song is just not very compressible.

You’ve Changed by Paula Cole: Vocals sound amazing, which is no surprize. The sweeps sound more like sweeps and less like static like they tended to do on my last speakers. I don’t think the trumpet solo has ever sounded better.

Needless to say, I am very happy with my purchase

Just over a week ago my Treo 700p started acting up. It kept randomly trying to HotSync. This was not too big of a problem at first, but a few hours later I could not even use the phone because it was stuck in a never ending Hot Sync loop, so I tried to reset the phone. However, instead of turning back on normally, it would just immediately show the screen you above. A quick Google search told me that this screen was the Bootloader screen and if a Treo gets wet in the wrong place it gets stuck here and can’t be fixed. They were wrong. You enter the Bootloader mode by having the Treo hooked up to the Sync cable and holding the HotSync button while putting the battery in. Moisture (and grime), can cause a short on the contacts of the bottom of the phone to make the phone think that you are holding down the HotSync button. Continue Reading to find out how to fix it.

First, dry out your phone. Take the stylus and battery out and put it in a sealed bag of uncooked rice. The rice should observe all the moisture. Do this for at least 24 hours. I let mine dry out for a whole week, but that was mostly due to not knowing how to fix it. Next, wet a cloth or paper towel with Isopropyl Alcohol (can be purchase at your local drugstore). Push this up against the bottom of your phone (where you plug the Sync cable in). While the bottom of your phone is covered in alcohol, use a toothpick to clean all of the metal contacts. Let the phone dry for a little while. Put the battery back in and start the phone. If it still doesn’t work just repeat the process.