While I support many small developers for the great work that they do, I’ll take a free solution if I can get it. I also like wherever possible to solve problems using as few variables as possible. So when my subscription to Spanning Sync recently expired, I revisited the problem of syncing calendars between iCal, Google, and my iPhone using ‘built-in’ features.

The reason Google is part of the equation is so my partner and I can share calendars without publishing them from iCal. In my opinion any implementation of calendars should provide both read and read/write sharing, publicly and privately. iCal only allows you to publish publicly, though I suspect more features are possible using their paid MobileMe service.

Though Google’s implementation of CalDAV leaves a lot to be desired, I found that with features of the new iPhone OS the solution, though still ugly, has improved. The main problem with Google CalDAV is that on both iPhone and iCal, you can’t see all your calendars using only one account. That is, you should be able to create one CalDAV connection using your google credentials and connect to all the calendars (owned, shared, and subscribed) that you can see through the Google Calendars web interface using the iPhone or iCal as clients. Although I have not tried it, I’ve read that Yahoo!’s implementation works in a more intuitive manner. The solution is you have to create a new CalDAV account for each Google calendar you want to connect to.

I recommend this post for instructions.

Reading through the comments for this post I saw what I thought to be an even better way: rather than syncing calendar data from iCal to the iPhone via iTunes, create the CalDAV accounts directly on the iPhone. This way, any calendar items created on any of the three platforms (Google, iPhone, iCal) will be synced with the others within a matter of minutes. No need to plug in the phone and sync with iTunes.

Be sure you have the latest version of the iPhone OS. I don’t believe this feature was available until recently.

Create a text list of the google calendar addresses you’ll need and email them to yourself. Then open the email on your phone and copy one address at a time. Then go to

Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add Account… > Other > Add CalDAV Account

and paste the address in the server field. I found that the form replaces the address with www.google.com; this was confusing at first but after testing I found that it still works. Enter in your google login and password for each account and name the calendar.

Now whenever you add a calendar item to your iPhone it will be immediately added to Google (assuming network/cellular connectivity), and iCal will sync with Google at regular intervals set in iCal preferences. During testing you can see your updates immediately in iCal using the menu item Calendar > Refresh All.

This appears to work as I’d like it to. It’s free, allows syncing between the phone, web, and desktop clients, and allows sharing of calendars via Google calendar sharing features.

Next I’d like to figure out how to push the Birthdays calendar, which is created in iCal based on data from Address Book, out to Google. In the meantime, I’ll sync Birthdays with the iPhone via iTunes.

Update: I started getting errors in iCal. The issue seems to be that by creating the CalDAV accounts in iCal using the Google method as opposed to the CalDAV method, the URL was being created wrong. Looks like an iCal bug. What seems to have resolved the issue is deleting the CalDAV accounts and recreating them using the CalDAV method.

Upon looking at the PHP log, I saw the following error:

PHP Fatal error: Allowed memory size of 33554432 bytes exhausted (tried to allocate 2357046 bytes)

This means that the process needs more memory (RAM) to run that it is allowed. With a little research I found that the solution is in the WordPress documentation.

By adding the following line to wp-config.php, we boost the limit of memory which may be allocated to WordPress processes.

define(‘WP_MEMORY_LIMIT’, ’64M’);

Sure enough, after updating the file the upgrade ran successfully.

Had a couple of beers and a few laughs at Mission Cycling’s mid-season meetup at Coffee Bar last week. Pictured here with Zach Bass (left), with whom I rode a couple of the Death Ride passes earlier this summer. Zach ended up riding all five passes at DR this year. I might give it a go next year.

They’ve got a really nice looking kit designed by one of the founders; best looking kit I’ve seen, honestly. The sponsors, all my favorite restaurants, bars, bakeries, and coffee shops in the neighborhood, provide either discounts to members or have subsidized our gear so we get top-quality kit at affordable prices.

Riding with a group is great motivation to get out of the house and ride; even if it’s just one other person. I’m riding 3-4 days a week now and loving it. Wednesdays and Thursday evenings we do hill repeats in the Marin Headlands (20 mi / 2500 ft climb), Saturday a longer challenging ride (60-90 mi / 5000+ ft climb), and on Sunday or Monday I try to ride with my lady, Addy.

The club has also been a great way to meet people, and I have found most of the club members to be very friendly and welcoming.

While I was riding ALC, I posted pictures via Twitter [follow me]. Some of these appeared in the club blog – here and here.

Recently I won a really nice helmet in a club contest. They filmed the winners being drawn and there’s a funny bit where someone who doesn’t know me assumes Shannon is a girls name. Video is taken at Delfina Pizzaria, a club sponsor.

Here’s one of the club founders interviewing us last weekend after we climbed Bolinas-Fairfax Road from HWY 1 to Ridgecrest Blvd. near Mt. Tam.

This little hack forces Safari to open clicked links to open as a new tab in the same window; essential for my browsing style. Open Terminal and type this at the prompt.

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

To reverse the setting just change true to false.

We were the first ones in line for tent assignment, and while waiting for that line to open we bought commemorative jerseys at the Camp Store. Can you believe I wear an Xsmall?

The tent assignment team managed to put all four of our tents next to one another, just as we had hoped. We got red tags with our tent number to go on our gear bags and a blue tag to carry on our person.

After that we went to check-in and I actually had to wait behind one person! [/sarcasm] There we signed all the waivers and received stickers with our rider numbers to put on our helmets and bikes.

The final step was to check our bikes into bike parking where we collect them tomorrow morning for ride-out at 6am (after opening ceremonies).

When did you watch the safety video, you ask? The pre-requisite for all the above steps and the reason orientation takes so long for most people? Suffice to say we did watch it, and have the wristbands to prove it, but if I told you any more I’d have to kill ‘ya. Thank you, Emily!!!

Pictures here are of Adriene, Justin, and I sporting the ALC8 jerseys, our fantastic roadies Greg (driving sweep) and Jim (volunteering both in SF and in LA), and the line for the safety video which we managed to avoid.

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Today’s stage was a very important stage as time trials often result in major changes in the General Classification (GC), or overall standings. On top of that this time trial wasn’t flat or straight; rather it was long, twisty, and involved two significant climbs. It required competitors to ride flat-out for about 90 minutes.

Thankfully I found that Universal Sports has exactly what I’ve been looking for. Here is their main listing for the Giro.

The three most important stage (multi-day) races in professional cycling are known as the Grand Tours; they are the Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and the Giro d’Italia.

This year celebrates the 100th Giro d’Italia and has had all the drama befitting this auspicious race. Of particular interest is that Lance Armstrong has been using the race to get back in form after three years in retirement and has been helping his team mate Levi Leipheimer to win the Giro. They’ve been saving themselves up until now and I expect things to get really exciting after today. Go Levi!

More great coverage:
Graham Watson
Cycling News
Cycling Fans
Steephill.tv

At lunch in Pt. Reyes lost his sandwich between the deli and our picnic spot; fortunately there was enough food to go around. After the long ride out there, those sandwiches never tasted so good.

Addy got a little sore on the way home but girl scout Emily saved the day with Advil. Within 20 minutes Addy had a smile on her face again and was leading the charge home. Although the forcast predicted 70s there was a chill in the wind and I was under dressed. Addy let me use her arm warmers and upon our return I had a long soak in a hot tub to avert getting sick.

Go team!

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Last Saturday I had also intended to ride with these peeps but was 30 minutes late getting out of the house. I made up a lot of time and by Sausalito thought I might catch them as they have a scheduled stop there, but my efforts were thwarted by an Easter roadblock. Police had stopped traffic so that a large number of people could cross the road to the park by the water. Lots of kids with their Easter baskets, and women in festive hats.

After 10 minutes of waiting, the long line of cyclists were allowed to pass. I’d come to terms with the idea that I’d be riding alone by then, and headed toward Fairfax (gateway to cycling heaven). I rode faster than usual, chasing a rear wheel through Mill Valley, and by Fairfax was wondering what route would be appropriate. After filling my water bottle and bumping into our vet in line for the bathroom at the coffee shop, I decided to try Mt. Tam and ate a pack of Shot Bloks. mmm.. juice!

As I started the climb I was seriously doubting I’d make it; I’d ridden too hard from San Francisco to Fairfax and my muscles were weak and in pain. Once before I did the same thing and had to turn around. I figured I’d just keep the pedals turning until I couldn’t any longer and after 10-15 minutes I found renewed strength. Yahoo! I arrived at Alpine Dam at noon; my pictures don’t do justice to the beautiful serenity of that place.

The second climb, from Alpine to Ridgecrest, was a struggle; a lot more standing than usual. I had a guy behind me using me as a pacer, and a few times he provided encouragement; I was grateful for that. Near the top I got inspired and sprinted the last switchback.

Once on Ridgecrest, all concerns float away. It’s a world apart up there; such a beautiful stretch of road. I took a break to eat a Cliff Bar between climbing the sisters. Clear sky; maybe 75 deg; a bit more windy than usual. So peaceful.

Distance: 60.5 mi
Duration: 05:07:32
Avg Moving Speed: 14.0 mph
Climb: 4743.1 ft

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