Ted Leung on the air : More virtual office stuff

Ted Leung on the air
Ted Leung on the air: Open Source, Java, Python, and ...

Wed, 01 Sep 2004

Of course, the day after my virtual office post, Skype releases their OS X beta. Skype is interesting to me because it is cross platform (I tested that today with both Linux and Windows users) and because it allows a multi-person audio chat (or at least it will at some point in the Mac beta -- the current beta doesn't support it). Less important, but also nice, is that it requires much less firewall tweaking (none, to be precise) when compared to iChatAV. I had a crystal clear audio chat with a Linux user in San Francisco, and a barely usable (we ended up going back to the phone) audio chat with a Windows user in Utah. I hope that the sound issues will improve in subsequent Mac betas.

The other virtual office item is the Mozilla Calendar. This is really more a home office item. Julie and I would like to have a family calendar, and our situation is complicated by being a cross platform (Mac OS X and Windows) household (at least at the moment). iCal is okay as a calendar, and the calendar sharing is actually useful. Last night I installed the Mozilla calendar, and now we have calendar sharing between the two of us. It's still not ideal, since we can't edit each other's calendars, but just being able to have a merged calendar view is a big step forward.

[00:17] | [computers/internet] | # | TB | F | G | 8 Comments |

yes, we need better group calendars. for a while we used a work Exchange server, but a quirk of domaining means that we cannot even share outlook appointments between people in the same company.

Groove calendar works through firewalls, but it is windows only so doesnt cut it either.

We really, really, need a better calendering solution across organisatins, friends and families.
Posted by Steve Loughran at Wed Sep 1 03:52:33 2004

Ted, I'm curious about how you've shared the calendars. I was looking at exactly the same (sharing calendars with the wife, using Mozilla Calendar), but I don't have a webDAV share, and I could not figure out if the FTP upload works, at least I could not make it work.
Posted by Balazs at Wed Sep 1 11:46:57 2004

Update - forget the question. Since I wanted to set up Subversion as well, I've bit the bullet and installed Apache 2. I can now use our local WebDAV on Apache to share the .ics files.
It's nice that I can pick a color for each subcribed calendar - my wife's calendar is obviously pink :-)
Posted by Balazs at Wed Sep 1 13:46:46 2004

Balazs,

We have an internal WebDAV server for sharing the calendars. Of course, this is out of reach for most people, so what Steve said before you applies.
Posted by Ted Leung at Wed Sep 1 23:13:04 2004

As Ted noted, he and I can now use Mozilla Calendar to help coordinate our family schedule. Last night I installed the Mozilla calendar, and now we have calendar sharing between the two of us. It's still not ideal, since...
Posted by Trackback from Julie Leung: Seedlings & Sprouts at Thu Sep 2 02:39:56 2004

MozCal sharing via FTP works if you use the following syntax for the Location under the Subscribe to Remote Calendar menu option:

ftp://username:password@[ftp.your.web.addr]/calendar.ics

This is of course assuming that you copy your .ics file to your site in the first place.

Checking the Publish Automatically check box will allow you to edit and update the calendar remotely. My wife and I both use this feature, and she can add (as well as view) events on my calendar.
Posted by Brandon Corfman at Thu Sep 2 05:13:36 2004

Sorry that syntax should be

ftp://username:password@ftp.your.web.addr/calendar.ics

The square brackets shouldn't have been there.
Posted by Brandon Corfman at Thu Sep 2 06:51:25 2004

I've written up a little HOWTO just for you and Julie, if you're interested in trying out SchoolBell, the open source calendar server I work on. It'll let you edit each others calendars, and more.

The document is here: http://www.schooltool.org/schoolbell/family/

Our project is funded by Mark Shuttleworth, and is ultimately aimed at K12 schools. We share lots of technologies and interests with OSAF.
Posted by Tom Hoffman at Thu Sep 23 23:02:53 2004

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