Category Archives: Useful Stuff

Useful Stuff

Google Sync for your iPhone

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Google Sync for your iPhone was released in beta earlier this week, enabling iPhone users to sync their Contacts and Calendar over the air with their Google Contacts and Calendar. I don’t particularly like Google’s Contacts interface and there’s no way to merge duplicate entries (especially between My Contacts and Suggested Contacts), so I’ll keep using Yahoo’s Address Book and synching my contacts via iTunes. Google’s Calendar product, however, is pretty decent and has nice, soothing colors. I don’t use a desktop Calendar product, so Google Sync for your iPhone fills this void pretty nicely.

Even better, Google Sync for your iPhone coupled with Google Calendar Sync allows me to get my work calendar onto my iPhone (uni- or bi-directionally). I’d been using the company-issued Blackberry to figure out my daily schedule more than checking work emails (our IT department doesn’t support the iPhone unless you’re a top-level executive), but now that I can push Outlook events from the desktop to Google and then over the air to the device, I can ditch the wretchedness that is the Blackberry.

Thanks, Google!

Useful Stuff

E-file your California tax return for free

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If you live in California, you probably qualify to use CalFile, the Franchise Tax Board’s free e-file service for filing your California tax return.

Who qualifies to use CalFile? You can if you:

  • Are filing a 2008 California personal income tax return.
  • Were a California resident all year in 2008.
  • Meet our CalFile qualifications – 6.4 million California taxpayers do.

I’ve used TurboTax to prepare my return for the last nine years because the questionnaire will often jog my memory about something I need to put into my tax return. They also now have the free It’s Deductible website where I can track and estimate the value of my charitable donations throughout the year and import into TurboTax at tax time.

TurboTax only allows you to e-file your federal return for “free,” charging $20 to e-file the state return.* So I’ve always opted to print out and submit my state return by certified mail.

Last year I came across CalFile after I’d already prepared everything for mailing. This year I decided to give it a try, using the TurboTax numbers as a basis for comparison. CalFile took less than 30 minutes (faster than a trip to the post office) and was pretty easy. I highly recommend it.

*TurboTax tried to jack up their prices and screw their customers earlier this year, as reflected in the 1-star reviews on Amazon. In response to the outrage, Intuit dropped their prices to be competitive with TaxCut and stopped trying to charge $10 for every e-filed or printed federal return. In a related bit of shadiness, Amazon allowed the earlier Turbotax reviews to get wiped clean because they were now selling a “new version” of the software.

Image CC BY StockMonkeys.com

Useful Stuff

Cocktail Recipe: Sidecar

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One of the more expensive drinks you could make.

Sidecar

  • 2 parts Cognac
  • 2 parts Cointreau
  • 1 part lemon juice

Shake with cracked ice; strain into chilled cocktail glass frosted with sugar.

Some notes:

Ingredients matter. Use Cognac, Cointreau, and fresh lemons. Bottled lemon juice doesn’t belong anywhere near your shaker.

Sidecar Ingredients

Don’t skimp on the ice. The little known ingredient in many cocktails is ice melt (water). Don’t skimp on the shaking, either. Count to 30.

Shaker with Ice

Frosting the glass. Run a lemon wedge around the rim of the glass, then rotate the glass upside-down in a bit of sugar.

Sidecar Cocktail

Cool Stuff, Useful Stuff

Picasa

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Google released Picasa 3 this week, with a bunch more features. The ones that look most promising are:

  • Photo Viewer – faster, chromeless way to browse images on your computer
  • Automatic Web Sync – choose albums on your computer to always sync with the web

That’s all fine and well, but the real reasons to use Picasa are the web albums:

  • Images automatically fit the available browser area
  • Album view thumbnails can be adjusted to tiny, small, or medium size
  • iPhone-optimized version is lightweight and very functional
  • Facial recognition software is scary good. Why “tag” thousands of photos when Google can do it for you?

Read more about Picasa 3 on the Google Photos blog.

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Useful Stuff

Turkey Recipe

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Separate skin from breast with your hand. Pour a few tablespoons of brandy under the skin. Shove fresh rosemary, fresh bay leaves, peeled cloves of garlic, sliced onions, and sliced lemons (with the peel) under the skin and inside the body cavity. Fill rest of cavity with stuffing.

Roast turkey according to directions. Baste every 15 minutes. Don’t use an oven bag.

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