[Productivity] DialaHuman.com

This may be one of the best ideas ever.  Have to call a support line? Don't like talking to computers?  Look up how to get to a real person!

[Productivity] Sync iCal to gCal

Here's the best thing until something free comes along to sync your iCal and your gCal.  I'm not one to buy software typically but this works well.  If you follow this link you'll save 5 and I'll make 5...do it...do it.

[Funny Business] MacBook Air

Don't get me wrong, I love Apples but the Air doesn't fit in all manilla envelopes.

[Smartphone Trick] Palm 650 Treo for Dial-Up-Networking with your Mac

This is a setup that took me way longer to implement than it should have. I did quite a bit of research on the topic so here’s my version of this implementation.

Background
When you have a smartphone such as a Palm Treo 650, what I have, it connects to the internet the same way that a computer tethered to a cell phone would. Therefore, by having a smartphone plan your account is essentially configured the same way it would be if you paid the tethering fee. So, since you are already paying for unlimited data, wouldn’t it be nice to connect on your notebook? I think so.

Performance
My service on Alltel’s EVDO network. I was able to get 85 KB/s down and 53 KB/s up. This is not near as fast as broadband anything, but hey having internet driving down the road is sweet.

Implementation
I’m going to start with the implementation for Alltel, however, other implementations will be very similar.

1.) You will need a Mac running OS X 10.3 at least. (I believe?)

2.) You will need a smartphone with the unlimited data plan.

3.) You will need a modem script for your phone. This is a file that contains the instructions for your phone. Here is a general one that should work on any CDMA network. You can get that here: CDMA Modem Script. (You may need to remove the .txt file extension.)

Step 1:
Put the modem script renamed, “CDMA Modem Script” with no file extension into the directory
“/Library/Modem Scripts/”.

Step 2:
Pair your smartphone with your Mac. On the Palm Treo 650 you must go into the Bluetooth preferences and set the Dial-Up Networking control to “On”.

Step 3:
Open the Network preferences under the System Preferences icon select the Bluetooth connection and enter the following parameters(for Alltel):

Telephone Number: #777
Account Name: [your number]@alltel.net, i.e.: 9995551212@alltel.net
Password: alltel

Click Connect and your Mac should dial into Alltel via its Bluetooth connection.

I plan on making revisions to this to improve readability and clarity. Please contact me with any suggestions.