Many may be unaware the service available via Google’s Picasa. For those of you uninitiated types Picasa is a free photo library manager and photo editor for your Mac or Windows PC. It continues to evolve steadily with new features and provides free online web albums for storage, sharing, and light weight back-up of you pictures.
One feature many are not aware of is that if you use the Picasa web albums feature you may upload your files from your Iphone via email. Login online and go to settings in Picasa and turn-on email upload. This will ask you to enter some secret characters which will be appended to your gmail account. ie….EmailID.Secret@gmail.com.
Another thing I did was add this new special email to my email address in my gmail contacts. See article on sync of gmail contacts and email on this site.
Now when you are out and about you can snap a photo with your Iphone and tap email, enter the email and it will upload to a drop folder in your web albums. You can control the view of this Drop Folder folder such as making it public or private and manage your pictures as you do any of the others.
Another bonus is slideshows…in Picasa web albums you can click a folder and click”link to this album” on the right side and there is options to link or embed the album(s) and you can even create a slide show that will update with pictures in the folder automatically. Below is an example…
Picasa is a neat application and the workaround for email adds by Iphone works great!
May 22nd by Glen StadigThe BreatheNH fundraiser bike ride was yesterday and they had a wonderful turnout. There were some 198 riders and volunteers making the trek from Pease Tradeport in Newington, NH to Ogunquit, Maine.
This was the first event of this kind I have ever participated in and found it very well organized. Everything from the fundraising help online, through registration, and support on the routes was outstanding and top notch. Due to everyone’s kind and generous support I was able to raise $691.00 for the organization, and I am so very grateful for all your support and I thank all of you who helped!! Overall the bike tour raised nearly $35,000, you can see there website here.
BreatheNH Bike Tour - Getting Started
My chosen route was 43 miles, but my bike odometer was telling me I covered 45. I began in Pease and rode down through Greenland to Rye beach and up to Wallis Sands. Then the route went inland and down pass BG’s Boathouse out through and around New Castle and back to downtown Portsmouth. I crossed river over to Badgers Island and down through downtown Kittery and around to Fort McClary. The route followed along to York and along Long Sands and up to Nubble Light. They had a photographer taking pictures of the riders and will post as soon as I get it. From there it was up to Short Sands and up along the road that passes by the Cliff House to downtown Ogunquit. I ended at the Seafarer Hotel on Rt1 to much fanfare.
In for the Finish
Being a newbie to cycling I didn’t want to push it to much and chose the middle length route. I rode the legs to Fort McClary (25 mi) with various other riders at a very casual steady pace. The balance of the ride I rolled on my own and pressed quite hard. This later section was also much more hilly so there was more climbing and downhill sections. The ride took about 3 hrs including the many stops at the checkpoints for provided snacks and water.
I thank all of you for your support in the event and helping such a worthy cause
May 18th by Glen StadigWell I did it…upgraded to a new Iphone 3G this past weekend and threw my old Motorola Razor in the drawer for well served tired electronics (and as a back-up). I went back and forth over the Blackberry Bold and Apple Iphone (Storm is only available on Verizon)
I must say when I read at the Apple website I could sync to MsExchange I was excited. When I discussed this feature with the “phone guy” i was told it was another $15 a month….NOT the right price. I think this may have been for the “mobile me” service through apple but regardless I wasn’t paying anymore than the bare bones price.
I purchased the phone and started my 30 day trial. The Iphone has been great through it initial break-in and feel out. I use Google Applications, Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Picassa the works…configuring the Gmail account was a snap, but i wanted a calendar that i could push sync as well. I don’t want to maintain many copies or need to transfer or sync manually.
Well low and behold you can sync the Google Calendar and Contacts easily without any additional fits or fees. There is a tutorial here on configuring the phone to interface with your existing Google calendar and presto. Leave it to Google to step up and get it done without fuss or expense.
It is key to have a central hub for and this configuration works like a charm providing updates and syncing via any computer browser or my phone. This configuration provides the best of all worlds. Google has an application in the Apple app store that provides a hub to ALL things Google for the iphone as well.
Once configured your email, contacts, and calendar are in sync and update automatically. You even can have simple task management all in one simple place all in sync over the air. Well done Google!
May 04th by Glen StadigI recently purchased a road bike and have started spinning on the road for fun and for health. I am amazed at the difference between my road bike on the road, and my older mountain bike or for that matter recalling my old ten speed of yesteryear.
The whole experience is so different. The shifters, the position, the speed…it blows me away how you can roll along the road.
I covered 34 miles this past weekend which is awesome for me being a beginner. At this one point I had a long climb to the top of blueberry hill on depot road where I could see the mountains. I decided to turn around and downhill (2 miles) when last I checked my speed it was 46 and I know I went faster than that. It was a bit windy and i was getting blown around a bit so I actually was on the brake a bit as i moved more to the center of the road. I started to get paranoid of flatting and wiping out and the whole logical side of my brain started chiming in. It was so much fun though. I could picture what it would be like trying to ride in a pack at those speeds like the pros do.
I could have easily gone farther this day but not having had that much time in the saddle I figured best to ease into things. I wanted to be sure I wasn’t going to have any knee, back, saddle, or hip pain. As it turned out I feel fine today so my bike fit must be good. Previously I was getting a lot of painful numbness and tingling in my hands from my mountain bike and I experience very little on the new bike.
The Shifters are interesting if you haven’t seen a road bike in a few years. They are part of the brake lever and to change gears you merely tap them to the left to upshift and an inner lever taps to the right to downshift. You want to move up two gears quickly tap it twice. The chain indexes immediately and quietly…I love engineering.
I ended up transferring my rear rack from my mountain bike along with the pack. I like being able to carry a spare tube, tools and essentials. It is also great for extra water, rain coat, snacks etc. It makes the bike look slower and adds some weight which to a purist is probably crazy, but it is practical.
This weekend I also christened my knees with my new clip in pedals. I was riding and talking with my wife and playing with my dog, when I went to turn and leaned accidentally to my out bound, cliped pedal and tipped over, doing a somersault of all things with the bike. I scrapped my knee but was no worse for the wear. It was actually quite funny and an experience Rosie will remember for a while.
I have about 5 weeks to prepare for my Breathe NH ride. If you haven’t contributed I would appreciate any and all donations. Every dollar counts. See the article on this website and or go to Breathenh.org - bike event.
Apr 06th by Glen StadigI came across a product that I am really pleased with and thought I would share my experience. The product is a Ram Mount for my older model Magellan hand held GPS.
My dilemma was i wanted to be able to mount my GPS to my bicycle in a solid way to provide navigation as I cruise some of the lesser know by-ways and towns. I also wanted something that would be solid as to not shake, adjustable and be easily removable for when it was not needed.
The Ram Mount product has been fantastic. They are modular so purchased a U-Bolt mount for my bicycle handlebar and suction mount for my car. The GPS cradle and the adjustment stem make up the other two parts and easily transfer between the bike to car. The adjustment stem operates with a single knob and tightens the mount in any position desired and all the parts are powder coated aluminum.
The suction cup base for the car will lock to any flat surface with a twist and keeps very still. I have a car mount already but the unit shakes a bit and makes noise…not so with the Ram Mount.
Ram Mount makes similar mounts for Cell Phones, Laptops, fishing poles, cup holders, almost anything…
I road tested it this weekend on a 23 mile ride over smooth and pothole terrain and I couldn’t be happier.
Apr 06th by Glen Stadig