Craig's Rantings...

Lippstadt Modeleisenbahn

2008-10-07T18:35:00.001+02:00

Lippstadt Modeleisenbahn
Originally uploaded by Craig & Nicole

This past weekend my little town, Lippstadt, had a model railroad show so me, the little one and the grandpa went to check it out. I took tons of photos and some video and basically had a great time. The time and energy that the folks put into their displays is amazing. If have the developers I know out there took that time of pride in documentation I don't think an end user in the world would have anything to complain about LOL.

Have a look at the photos.

Bee-Boy dance crew drops dead

2008-10-06T12:15:00.001+02:00

Interesting approach to getting the message out that we still have a serious problem with CCD and the honey bees from around the world!

Zoho Marketplace

2008-09-30T19:05:00.001+02:00

For quite awhile I guess you could call me a "ZC Pusher", it was like the little kid selling lemonade outside of their house for 5 cents or something like that. Zoho Creator captured my attention and on mny levels still holds it fast. What started as me pushing for a roadmap, turned into a relationship with the Zoho folks that has been simply awesome over the years. They are responsive and interactive so it made it easy working with them.

Lately though I was sitting on the bench a lot, not really a reason other than a lack of time but it's been interesting watching the announcements go flying through my inbox for new stuff (often a pre-announcement which I have been honored to be included in on).

This latest bit though has blow my expectations, I always thought something like this would be a good idea so to see them actually launch it has been awesome! The new Zoho 3.0 is there as well as a brand new Marketplace!

Technorati Tags:
"zoho creator", community, development, zoho, zoho marketplace

taming the firehose!

2008-09-29T19:49:00.001+02:00

It seems the last few days have been good to @eventtrack. Two great blogs posts have been written about our little operation here which is quite exciting!

"Microblogging is great but the way it’s articulated by Twitter provides a river of often random disconnected messages, most of which have little relevance to the things in which I am interested. Put another way content without context and purpose is meaningless and for business, that combination is crucial. That was the state of play when I first heard about eventtrack in November 2007"

(Via Eventtrack: Listening to Events Within the Microblogging Firehose - Pistachio.)

"To kick off our Event Technologies Blog Series, I had the opportunity to chat with @eventtrack founder, Craig Cmehil. @eventtrack is ‘quite simply your very own way to discover those sharing the same moment as you.’"

(Via @eventtrack Interview with Craig Cmehil | expacklyMondo.)

I'm excited simply because it's been a long and hard year balancing everything and still being able to put time into @eventtrack, I believe in this project a lot so it's exciting to see what others have to say about it (good or bad)!

What some startups do...

2008-09-29T12:22:00.001+02:00

The age of video has really started to make an impact on the advertising model, I'm not so sure that a few years ago we would have seen these types of advertising videos being made.

Startups continue to amaze me with creativity, desire and motivation! Rock on expacklyMondo!

Disclaimer: I give technical advise to expacklyMondo.

SAP TechEd Cluetrain, next stop Berlin

2008-09-24T08:39:00.001+02:00

We've been going around for months, years even saying that we are listening, learning and changing and our actions have been showing this quite nicely so when I was given the chance to lead both the Community Clubhouse and the Community Day for Berlin I started to think of interesting ways to get the conversation started sooner than once we are all in Berlin. How best to do this? This got me thinking about the whole concept of conversation and what it means, this of course lead me back to the Cluetrain Manifesto.

A powerful global conversation has begun. Through the Internet, people are discovering and inventing new ways to share relevant knowledge with blinding speed. As a direct result, markets are getting smarter—and getting smarter faster than most companies.

These markets are conversations. Their members communicate in language that is natural, open, honest, direct, funny and often shocking. Whether explaining or complaining, joking or serious, the human voice is unmistakably genuine. It can't be faked.

Most corporations, on the other hand, only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do.

But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about "listening to customers." They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.

(via Cluetrain Manifestio)

So I came up with what some might thing a corny gimmick, which is not the intention at all. The idea was born out of some thoughts last year and the fact that it's just the right thing to do! The idea is about what I do on a daily basis, it's help get conversations started and more importantly empower others to have conversations!

With that let me introduce you to the...

The SAP TechEd '08 "Cluetrain" is about empowering our attendees to get the conversation started the before they even reach Berlin. Encourage blogging, podcasting and video blogging along the way it's a 4 hour ride, strike that it's a 4 hour conversation with the people themselves. SAP jumps on board the Deutsche Bahn together with it's customers and partners from Frankfurt to Berlin. October 12 at 16:17 the party starts. 25 attendees of the SAP Community Day taking place on October 13th will board and make their way to Berlin, from there they will bring that conversation to the attendees of the Community Day and then into the SAP Community Clubhouse, all the while SAP and SAP TechEd will be listening and learning along the way!

Several hundred kilometers of conversation, community, collaboration and co-innovation!

Join the "SAP TechEd Cluetrain!"

Those pesky little details? Well it's the Deutsche Bahn and we start in the Frankfurt Haupt Bahnhof (main station) in downtown Frankfurt. We depart at 16:17 (so 4pm in the afternoon), if you are already a registered Community Day attendee (and of course one of the first to sign up) I've a ticket waiting for you! It's first come first serve though! This will be from Frankfurt to Berlin!

Register here!

Technorati Tags:
collaboration, community, communityday08, Enterprise, experiment, sap, sapteched08, cluetrain

SE #10 - SAP TechEd 2008 - InnoCentive

2008-09-22T14:13:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

The SAP TechEd event always yields some interesting things for the SAP Ecosystem. With it being a major event often times things are planned to "go live" during the event. What many don't know though is that many of these things are talked about, shown and discussed the day before at the Community Day it was there I was first introduced to this new partnership and what it meant for the SAP Community Network.

So when I was asked if Starship Enterprisey wanted to do a show with their CTO I of course said yes!

SE #9 - SAP BOBJ Influencer Summit - Doug Merritt

2008-09-18T13:07:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

While in Boston during the Business Objects Influencer Summit I had a chance to sit down with Doug Merritt which was really cool, I've been able to sit in on many blogger roundtables with Doug and he's always be upfront and honest about what's going on so having come on the show was highlight for me.

Being on the "inside" I was dying to ask him about the deal between the "Business User" and "Information Worker" and the confusion that seems to be surrounding them both. It was a great chat and we covered a lot of different things including the SAP Imagineering group from Denis Browne and the future of the program!

ProTraveller » 6 Very Unconventional MMO Virtual Hotels

2008-09-18T11:02:00.001+02:00

I got an email a few weeks ago (in the middle of conference time for me hence the delay) pointing me to this blog post:

"We recently published an article we thought you might be interested in. It covers over 6 unconventional virtual hotels. "

"Travel has gone virtual within these MMO’s, which is probably quite a smart thing to do given then cost of fuel now and the recent rash of bankrupt airlines. The biggest names in the international hotel industry are getting onboard with this trend for massively multiplayer online games. So next time your avatar needs a place to stay in virtual space, check into one of these virtual hotels where lodging is literally out of this world. Some of them are actually quite impressive, but then again, what isn’t in a virtual world?"

(Via ProTraveller » 6 Very Unconventional MMO Virtual Hotels.)

I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised, their focus was a bit different than what I would have done but the material and information was right on and nicely put together!

I'm now following them to see what more they have to come!

Technorati Tags:
"second life", "virtual worlds", social, visualization

Every year...

2008-09-16T22:34:00.001+02:00

IMG_4063
Originally uploaded by Thomas_Jung

This reminds me of the time Shai Agassi said to Thomas Jung "Oh time for our yearly photo?" Thomas was always up on stage at the event receiving something in multiple locations time and time again. Well similarly every year Tom seems to capture a photo of me on stage and it looks like I have two more chances to get a better one LOL

I always seem to have some odd grin on my face when he snaps it...

SAP Community Day Evening Party!

2008-09-16T14:55:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

At the SAP TechEd '08 Las Vegas event, the Community Day closed out with an awesome party! Check out some of the scenes of the party in this video!

SAP TechEd Evening Event

2008-09-16T13:27:00.001+02:00

Chip Rodgers kicks off the evening concert (The Black Crowes) at the SAP TechEd event!

SAP Community Clubhouse Las Vegas '08

2008-09-16T13:13:00.001+02:00

My little video contribution to give everyone a feel for what they missed during the Las Vegas SAP TechEd if they didn't stop into the Clubhouse and to give everyone else a taste of what is to come for Berlin!

SAP TechEd 2008 Las Vegas -- Video Highlights #4

2008-09-16T12:59:00.001+02:00

SAP went into video overdrive creating some awesome content in Las Vegas this year for SAP TechEd '08, here's one with me in it :-)

I challenge you to hit me (neutral) >> The Environmental Blog From The Grumpy Old Man

2008-09-16T11:26:00.001+02:00

All I can say, way to go Eddy!

"So I decided to make a donation to the CompenCO2 initiative: 1 Eurocent per visit to this blog entry with a minimum of 30 Euro. This in compensation of the impact of things out of my control for this blog. So I need at least 3000 hits to this blog entry. The deadline is December 15th (thus 3 months of time). Spread the word, Digg, Stumble it or add it to Technorati, etc. I’d say."

(Via I challenge you to hit me (neutral) >> The Environmental Blog From The Grumpy Old Man.)

Response over Reaction

2008-09-10T17:37:00.001+02:00

This was the title of my session I did Monday during the SAP TechEd '08 Community Day here in Las Vegas.

Our Community Day is an unconference, sure we prompt the community ahead of time but it's still first come first serve, user driven content and sessions so mine I decided would be about "Response over Reaction" my little one liner for it was "communicate less using more tools".

I've spent the last couple of years trying to figure out how to handle 1.4 million users of our community, understand them, their needs and them in order to best be able to ensure that they get the best experience in our community. This of course is not an easy task dealing with a global community so I began to seek out and explore the various tools possible and available to us to do this. One of my favorite sites is the Office 2.0 Application Database which is a treasure trove of great online web based tools designed to help me achieve what I need to achieve, now I often choose for the online tools because these often provide easy ways for the community to use in terms of access. It's nothing like asking someone to find a time to meet when they have no access to your calendar, you simply sit there emailing back and forth until you find a time and often have just wasted a lot of time... Therefore tools like Time To Meet are ideal for me with dealing with all of these folks who are not on the same side of my firewall.

Now in order to "add" to the idea I decided to use a non traditional way of doing my presentation. There are several services available, I could have used a standard presentation software and then uploaded to Slideshare, or I could have used one of the many online alternatives. Being the "non standard" person I am I chose an online alternative. I used Zoho Show.

So was the presentation successful? I certainly hope so many people asked me afterwards about the links, some of the ideas and so forth so that certainly made me feel as so I made an impact which of course leads to the possibility of communicating with those people in a more efficient manner and not just overloading each others inboxes...

Technorati Tags:
collaboration, community, experiment, sapteched08, zoho, communityday08

SE #7 - SAP BOBJ Influencer Summit - Paul Clark

2008-09-04T13:40:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

A chat with Paul Clark from SAP and Business Objects about the "non SAP" customer base of Business Objects before and after the acquisition and what can we expect for them in the future.

A key phrase for me was "we will protect that market"...

SAP Community HQ

2008-09-02T23:14:00.001+02:00

I'm finally ramping back up into the realm of Second Life, our space is there and I'll be holding shop here in the future. Some might think I'm crazy but I think there is still something here to interest the enterprise so here I go...

SE #6 - SAP BOBJ Influencer Summit - Narina Sippy

2008-09-01T10:10:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

Narina is the Senior Vice President & General Manager, Governance, Risk and Compliance Business Unit at SAP and during our chat I got a very good impression of why SAP can with certainty claim it's spot as #1 for GRC.

GRC is one of those areas that effect everything about your business, even those areas you were not thinking about, Narina was also able to give an idea of what is to come and what areas SAP for example are focusing on for the near future.

SE #5 - SAP BOBJ Influencer Summit - Jonathan Becher

2008-08-28T23:04:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

In my second attempt I managed to finally get Jonathan on camera (with audio) to talk about SAP, Business Objects and the idea behind "1 + 1 = 3", a great chat looking at merging markets and tackling the challenges of two powerful companies and how the synergies make for an awesome looking road forward!

Jonathan is also a blogger, so be sure to check out his blog where he describes the blog as,

A primary goal of this blog is provide information about performance management in a vendor-neutral way. The inspiration for the title of this blog, Manage By Walking Around, can be found in my inagural post. Because the term performance management gets bandied around by many different people to describe many different things, in some of my earlier posts (Operational, Financial or IT and Whats In A Name) I try to disambiguate the different uses, but in reality confusion still reigns in the market. Perhaps its a small consolation that continued confusion means continued reading of this blog

FMR AIR App live

2008-08-28T09:22:00.001+02:00

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

You can find it either on the site itself or over in the Adobe AIR Marketplace.

And if you are on Facebook, feel free to join the fan page.

Uploaded with plasq's Skitch!

Many might wonder why I'm putting so much effort into the show, mainly it's because I enjoy it and it gives me a great excuse to play around with the Kyte.tv API, PHP, Flex/AIR and other scripting languages and tools to pull it all together, call it an experiment in the idea of Web 2.0, Social Media and integration.

Technorati Tags:
experiment, flex, friday morning report, kyte.tv, php, social

SAP SME Deep Dive, TAM Ceramics talks about their go live

2008-08-27T15:43:00.001+02:00

Click to Play

While in Boston the other week I was able to stick around to attend the SAP SME Deep Dive, this was a day dedicated to SAP's SME market space and they filled it with customers and partners telling their own stories. Dennis Howlett a fellow Irregular was in attendance as well and has a great post about a SAP All-in-One implementation. For Starship Enterprisey having Stacey and Mona from SAP setup an interview with an actual customer was a first overall let alone a first in the SME market space. The customer is TAM Ceramics LLC and I got to sit down for a chat with George Bilkey.

George Bilkey is President of TAM Ceramics LLC currently implementing SAP Business ByDesign. Bilkey has had extensive experience of ERP implementations in the ceramic manufacturing and was previously holding management positions in global companies including Ferro Corporation, Washington Mills, and Saint Gobain. He holds a BS of the Ceramic Engineering, Alfred University and an MBA from the State University of New York at Buffalo, School of Management. Bilkey also holds executive level positions with key trade associations and groups.

Before I even turned on the camera though I got to know some things about what it is George and TAM does, TAM's mission is to focus on being the quality leader in the zirconia market and to expand into new markets. With a dedicated highly seasoned labor force, low overhead and costs, the company is positioned to reclaim the market volume leader in the industry. TAM sees continued expansion in both the investment casting and refractories industries and will greatly expand their reach in these areas along with a focused effort on increasing the Titanates business. Working with existing and new customers to provide new innovative solutions that are customized for their specific use, TAM has increased annual sales for 2008 by over 30% compared to 2007 in less than four weeks.

After awhile I decided I should probably start the camera rolling and hear about the pain points, successes, positives and the negatives of an aggressive two month implementation of SAP Business ByDesign!

Saga of Adobe AIR Developer Certificate

2008-08-26T18:20:00.001+02:00

Well it seems my journey of getting an Adobe AIR Developer Certificate is now at an end. I had a chat yesterday with a Thawte customer service rep and the result I'll simply post here in terms of the conversation.

It seems Ryan Stewart picked up on my broadcast as well, so here I guess is the rest of the pieces.

Please wait while we find an agent to assist you...

You have been connected to Lily G.

Lily G: Hello. How may I assist you?

Craig Cmehil: Hi my order number is US...1 and I've just received a

conflicting email and wanted to get clarification.

Craig Cmehil: On Aug 18 I received a mail with "Invidual Notarized
Form Letter" which I am in the process of getting notarized and then
today I got an email about my account having 48hrs to send some other
documents?

Lily G: Please confirm your order number.

Craig Cmehil: US...1

Lily G: Thank you

Craig Cmehil: THe mail on the Aug 18 was a result of me calling and
speaking to someone on the phone

Lily G: Your order is currently pending Proof of Right documents, such
as a Business License, Articles of Incorporation, DBA documents, etc,
to authenticate your organization.

Craig Cmehil: and the Notatrized Individual portion? I am not a
business I work under my own name and my own SSN

Lily G: For order #US...1, it is enrolled as Organization =
@eventtrack, @eventtrack is not your name.

Craig Cmehil: can I change that?

Lily G: I will need to cancel the order and you will need to enroll
again

Craig Cmehil: OK and for the organization name I would then put just
my name?

Lily G: If that is your organization, then yet. You will need to
provide a notarized ID.

Craig Cmehil: ok so cancel the order and I will do it again and
provide the notarized ID - now the telephone I use is VOIP and is not
in the directory how do I need to verify that for you?

Lily G: Did you already have your notarized your ID?

Craig Cmehil: I will tomorrow

Lily G: Let me e-mail you the notary letter.

Lily G: When you notarized your ID, please have him/her notarized the
notary letter as well.

Craig Cmehil: OK

Lily G: Please confirm your e-mail?

Craig Cmehil: cr...@cmehil.com

Lily G: Also what will the name of your new certificate?

Lily G: I will pre-edit the notary letter

Craig Cmehil: org name or what?

Lily G: Yes, organization name

Craig Cmehil: Craig Cmehil which is my name

Lily G: Ok

Craig Cmehil: domain is www.eventtrack.info

Craig Cmehil: What type of "business" do I select "other" and then
state Individual?

Lily G: Yes

Lily G: Actually I am unsure

Lily G: I do not know what type of business do you have

Craig Cmehil: I do business as me and pay taxes on my business under
my Social Security Number

Craig Cmehil: I will state other and put individual and see what
happens I guess

Lily G: When enroll, is that what it ask?

Lily G: Yes, that should be fine

Craig Cmehil: yes for the "background" OK I will do that

Lily G: Is there anything else I can assist you with today?

Craig Cmehil: the new order is US...1 perhaps you can indicate that
the notatrized ID and letter are in process and cancel the first
order?

Lily G: Previous order is cancelled, you should receive the
confirmation shortly.

Craig Cmehil: ok

Craig Cmehil: and the new order is OK?

Lily G: Actually, for code sign certificate you cannot register under
your own name.

Lily G: However, you do qualify for the regular SSL certificates.

Craig Cmehil: you guys are killing me! One person says I can I just
need this notarized and now you tell me I can not?

Craig Cmehil: SSL does not interest me, I am interested in the Adobe
AIR Developer Certificate

Craig Cmehil: I build applications, I am a coder why can I not get my
code signed? Where is the logic in not letting an individual get their
code signed?

Lily G: Unsure whom told you, codesign do not qualify for
individuals.

Craig Cmehil: and why not? I would appreciate a link to the
documentation explaining this

Lily G: Earlier, I did not noticed it was a code sign certificate.

Lily G: Sure, please hold while I locate the information

Lily G: Thank you for holding

Lily G: Thawte CANNOT issue a Developer Certificate in the name of an
individual. The only exception to this rule is: German, Austrian,
French and Swiss sole proprietors.

Lily G: A Notarized ID Template along with valid Proof of Right under
the Organizational Contact’s name is required.

Note: The Organizational Contact's name and the Organization Name in
the Distinguished Name must be the same.

Lily G: Your order is enrolled in Florida, US, therefore it will not
qualify.

Craig Cmehil: And if I enrolled from Germany?

Lily G: The yes, should be ok.

Craig Cmehil: I would then choose individual and all that and it would
be accepted?

Lily G: The only exception to this rule is: German, Austrian, French
and Swiss sole proprietors.

Craig Cmehil: does the notarized document need to be notarized by a
German notary or any legal notary in the world?

Lily G: The the Country of where you are enrolling

Craig Cmehil: and what is the reason Thawte cannot issue a Developer
Certificate to an individual? I see you can not but no reason why? I
would like to understand that

Lily G: Thawte always recommends that customers register a business
name for use in the certificate instead of applying for a certificate
in their personal name. If Proof of Right can not be provided for the
business name, then the customer may be given the option to enroll for
an Individual SSL Certificate.

Lily G: Individuals organization only works for SSL certificates.

Craig Cmehil: it's a recommendation? or a rule?

Lily G: Rule

Craig Cmehil: an SSL certificate is not the same as a Code Signing
Certificate though is it?

Craig Cmehil: is there a legal reason to this rule?

Lily G: SSL certificates and Code Signing certificates is different,
therefore, we process the orders differently.

Lily G: Our Policy due to the nature of the certificate we can only
issue developer certificates to business entities

Craig Cmehil: frankly I don't accept that, it's not an explanation or
answer you are simply telling me the same in different ways but NOT
the why it must be a business entity - if you can accept individuals
for SSL certificates then why not for code signing? What about all the
independent developers in the world? I mean I'm trying to give you
guys money and willing to do everything with notaries and verifying my
id, telephone the works that in itself should

Craig Cmehil: suffice to prove I am who I say I am and thus
authenticate me as me

Lily G: Craig, I am doing my best to assist you. Unfortunately at this
time we can only issue developer certs to business entities.

Lily G: Developer certs and SSL certificates is different products.

Lily G: Unsure if in the future this policy will be revised or not but
at this time this is the best we can do.

Craig Cmehil: I know, its just very frustrating that you are the only
service provides what I need and yet I can't get it.

Lily G: I will bring this issue to the managers, however at this
point, there is nothing I can do.

Craig Cmehil: thank you

Craig Cmehil: have a good day

Lily G: Thank you

Lily G: Thank you for visiting. Please contact us at anytime.

The comments on Ryan's blog I think are covering most of my own thoughts as well, so at the moment I am more or less sitting back and wondering if something will come out of all of this? My day job is for a developer community as well so I'm always keeping an eye on how other communities do things and the idea of the certificate spawned several ideas of my own but after this experience I've more or less moved them all to the back burner (sorry Thawte might have been some interesting ideas there!).

The most pressing thought I can't seem to get away from though is the fact Adobe had a great idea, put validation behind developers and their code and build a community around it, the marketplace is fantastic and I check it all the time BUT after all of this I wonder where the break down is? On Adobe's side or on the certificate signing side? I mean how can you build a community of developers but not make it easy for them to do what you ask?

Technorati Tags:
adobe, development, experience, friday morning report

Weekend Tip for Lippstadt

2008-08-24T10:54:00.001+02:00

"Die Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn (WLE) kann im Jahr 2008 auf 125 Jahre bewegte Geschichte zurückblicken. Sie hat dabei so manchen Veränderungsprozess geschickt gemeistert. Heute stellt sie sich im Unternehmensverbund der Westfälischen Verkehrsgesellschaft als moderner und leistungsfähiger Logistikpartner der heimischen Industrie dar.

Tradition und Moderne möchte die WLE aus Anlass ihres 125. Geburtstages am Sonntag, den 24. August 2008, in Lippstadt gleichermaßen präsentieren. An diesem Tag findet auf dem Betriebsgelände an der Beckumer Straße 70 zwischen 11.00 Uhr und 18.00 Uhr ein Jubiläumsfest statt.
"

(Via WLE - Westfälische Landes-Eisenbahn.)

Celebrating 125 years, right here in Lippstadt from 11 to 6pm you can check it all out! Since it's not so far away perhaps we'll head there in which case I'll update the site with photos :-)

Technorati Tags:
life, weekend

One of my best purchases ever!

2008-08-22T09:30:00.001+02:00

I just purchased a one time, or I guess I could say lifetime subscription (out of my own pocket) to Spanning Sync and awesome service by fellow Irregular Charlie Wood. I've known about the service for ages but never really had a need for it. I have a blackberry and we use Outlook at work and the Exchange server so calendar wise life was already easy. Then I became a Mac user...

"Synchronize Google Calendar and Apple iCal. Share calendars between multiple Macs. Share calendars with your coworkers, family, and friends. And while you're at it, connect Google Calendar to your iPhone, iPod, and other devices.

The Best of Both Worlds
What if you could combine Google Calendar's powerful sharing features, Gmail integration, and notifications with iCal's beautiful interface and offline operation? Now you can.

With Spanning Sync, your iCal calendars are kept in sync with Google Calendar, which means you can use the best features of both to manage your schedule."

(Via Spanning Sync - Sync iCal and Google Calendar.)

Being a Mac user was not the problem, the problem was actually the fact that for whatever reason and despite multiple attempts Microsoft Entourage stopped talking properly to the Exchange server for my calendar. It literally broke my calendar I was helpless with a lack of meeting info. I work virtually for the most part so I depend on my calendar and my blackberry to aid me in not missing anything. So I decided to switch to iCal (I mean the calendar was already broke so no one was seeing my available or busy time anyway) and since then life has been good, although still no one can see my busy time or not but that is another issue I'll have to deal with.

The remaining problem was "on the road" how do I have my calendar there and telling me what is happening? I don't have an iPhone but I do have an iPod Touch and I can easily sync my calendars to to (yes multiple calendars!), it's working perfectly and thanks to Charlie's service I now have a complete synchronized life which enables me to open my calendar back up to the community I work with if they need to contact me via Time To Meet.