After much ado and years of planning we have decided to leave our comfy home in Phoenix for an adventure in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The process has been slow and the work difficult, but the hope is that struggling through a Masters in Architecture from Harvard will all be worth it. The real difficulty will not be the long hours, grueling schedule, harsh critiques, or cold winters. Oh no, the kicker is named Miss Sophia - our beautiful three month old little girl.

Every christmas I give friends and family a mix tape of my favorite songs from the year. It is a big production using Jewelboxing and some cool graphic design. During December I labor for days trying to curate the best music for my eclectic mix of friends. Now with muxtape, I can make an organic mixtape that grows throughout the year! I am endlessly excited about this - you can find a permanent link to my current mix on the sidebar at the top.

I tired of not finding a concise tutorial on how to make this work. If you have a Treo using Palm software bookmark this entry and you should never have trouble getting sync to work again.

1. From your Mac download and install the appropriate Palm Desktop.

2. Open iSync on your Mac and go to Devices -> Enable Palm OS Syncing… Follow the instructions and select OK to close the window. The instructions at the end of the process are confusing so just continue.

3. Go to your Mac’s hard drive and browse to Applications -> Palm -> HotSync Manager. In the HotSync manager go to HotSync -> Edit Users then click on the New User button. Enter your desired name for the Treo you want to sync and click OK.

4. Make sure that the HotSync window has the HotSync Enabled button selected.

5. Still in the HotSync Manager go to HotSync -> Conduit Settings… and double click on the item iSync Conduit. In the iSync Conduit window check the box Enable iSync for this Palm device and select OK.

6. Back in the Conduit Settings dialogue select each of the conduits and give them the desired functionality for your Treo / Mac synchronization. Once complete close the Conduit Settings and HotSync Manager windows.

7. Go back to iSync and you should see your device shown. Click on your device and the window will expand to give you options for syncing your Treo.

8. Configure your synchronization for iCal and Address Book as desired. Note: there is some bug in iSync that will not allow categories in Address Book - you MUST delete the categories in Address book for any iSync synchronization to work in Leopard. While this is lame, the Palm will not really utilize categories anyway, so they are of limited usefulness.

9. Connect your Palm to the your mac using the USB cable and press the sync button. HotSync should launch on the Mac and Treo and you should be synchronized!

I have no idea why this is so complicated, but I have an inkling that the iPhone is quite a lot simpler. Too bad I am locked in a contract with Sprint and the iPhone’s internet is so slow. Once they release a 3G capable iPhone, Treo goes bye bye.

Last night I debated the following statement, made by a freind, “If you think DVDs will be around in a year you are mistaken.” His quip was made in response to my voicing my excitement for getting a super-sweet Blu-Ray drive. I initially disregarded his gaul and went merrily along in my usual bliss of technical ignorance. As the night went on, our discussion became more heated, with him eventually disregarding me as an Apple Fanboy - something about me drinking lots of Starbucks in my square framed glasses. Oh dear.

I still think DVDs will be around for some time; besides, where are people to drive their mid-life BMW if not to Blockbuster on Friday night? I digress, but I genuinely give the format, HD or no, at least five years of lifespan. In an attempt to defend that, let us now regard the state of digital movie delivery.

1. My challenger claimed that X-Box 360 had “cornered the market on young people downloading movies.” Already, in his mind, reducing DVDs as useless as that Spin Doctor’s CD you know you own. In their defense, Microsoft is offering a very interesting package for movie delivery, via their Live services, assuming you own their console. The technical details and pricing gets fairly convoluted, but it seems like a reasonable deal. A Standard Definition (SD) movie rental is $3 to $4, depending on its newness; High Definition (HD) rental is $4.50 to $6. The problem with this solution is two-fold: First, it means I have to buy an X-Box 360 in order to get started. Second, I have to use Microsoft Points, and nothing is more frustrating than the idea that MS would be in charge of any type of currency. Ever.

2. The next argument was that Netflix Instant Rentals are “the main way people are using Netflix.” I am a satisfied customer and have only heard of this peripherally. Upon trying to watch Short Circuit instantly, I was greeted with “Our apologies — instant watching is currently not supported for Macintosh”. Me and my square framed glasses are hurt by that, Mr. Netflix man. In addition to this striking blow, the movie selection for Instant Viewing was disappointing - sort of like browsing the collection of someone that you have nothing in common with, in the mid ’90s.

3. I tried to defend my case by pointing to the Itunes movie rental debacle currently happening. While Apple has conquered / destroyed the economy of music, their attempt to do the same with movies has not gone very well so far. For starters, you have to have an Apple TV box to rent HD movies. But you can rent movies at SD on your PC, Mac, or Ipod for less money. SD defeats the purpose for me and the last thing I want is to watch movies exclusively on my computer. In addition, when the movie houses made their deals with Itunes, they insisted on a 24 hour window of functionality. That means if I rent it, Elle throws a fit, and life takes over for a day - no dice - movie gone. No thanks so far for this Fanboy, Apple.

There are, of course, other options available via the internets: CinemaNow (PC only), Vudu (must buy their hardware), etc. None of these ideas really do much for actually integrating “on demand” movies to the living room. Which leads to the next new thing: TVs that hook directly to the internet! I had a hard time finding information about this on a cursory look, but I will dig deeper.

So, for me there is not a great way to abandon DVDs just yet. Perhaps in a couple of years, the new technologies built directly into the television will persuade me to stop ogling the Playstation 3. But for now I love me some Blu-Ray; more to come.