Comments on: Snow Leopard: Beating Microsoft at their own game.

By: jbscfcmc

Thu, 17 Jun 2010 03:43:50 +0000

I have Mac Ox 10.6.3 and a Macbook Core2 Duo. I am trying to convert my old calendars from Palm Desktop to iCal and sync through my University’s Exchange server, so that I can easily synch with my new iPhone (finally ditching my old Palm). [Mail is synching fine between my Macbook and my iPhone, but iCal is another story.]
My calendars are 80% my own (and complicated) and 20% stuff that comes to me from work through the Exchange server. I have been able to export my calendars from Palm Desktop, import into iCal, and make the necessary adaptations for iCal. What I have found is that my iCal files of my own prior appointments will NOT go into a new calendar on the Exchange server, no matter what I try. (I have tried exporting and importing, going online, etc.) The error message I get repeatedly is
“iCal can’t delete an occurrence from the repeating the event “xxx” from the Exchange server.
The account “YYY” currently can’t be modified. To discard your changes…click Revert to Server. To save you changes in your computer until the problem is resolved, click Go Offline.”
I have all kinds of recurring events that are modified or deleted for exceptions when I am traveling, etc., and I gather Exchange is choking on these.
However, I can import my calendars into a local calendar on my Macbook. Unless I want to start over from scratch (which means 20+ hours recreating my calendars, no thanks), it looks like I will have to synch my own calenders through iTunes or maybe MobileMe and maintain my work calendar separately through Exchange.
I have already worked on the time zone issue above, and I don’t think that is likely to be the problem.
If anyone has any other ideas to simplify this, I would appreciate it.

By: John

Tue, 01 Jun 2010 17:25:09 +0000

Interesting arguments….

I actually know a few folks out at Microsoft, all of whom confirmed that the reason Entourage does not have the MAPI protocol (depricated now anyways), is because the Exchange group refused to give the Mac Business Unit (responsible for Office for Mac) access to it. That just shows that Microsoft is perfectly willing to cripple their own software just because it’s on a competing OS / platform.

You are perhaps the first person I’ve ever heard who tries to turn “Freeing up space” into a negative. Yes – there was space that did not need to be taken up in previous versions of the OS (look at Windows – an OS that everybody recognizes as full of bloat) – instead of letting that continue, however, Apple remedied it and freed up space in the process. I fail to see that as a negative… no matter how you look at it.

MS Office, for Mac, which includes Entourage…. does not beat SL support. I’ve used both. Entourage is atrocious, cumbersome and kludgy. SL Exchange support is simple, elegant and works. It’s also built in to the OS, meaning I don’t have to buy additional software in order to use Exchange based email (outside of a web browser), calendaring and address book functionality. It works, out of the box, and all I have to do is put in an email address and password.

Also – if you’ve bothered to do any homework on me you’d realize that I don’t go around simply saying Mac OS is better than Windows or Linux. I actually firmly believe that each OS is mostly good, and have their uses. Mac OS is a great every day OS for me – I like it, enjoy it, and prefer it. Windows (esp. Win7) is equally a good OS, and some people like it and prefer it. Good for them. Linux also is making great strides in many areas. I use all three, depending on what I’m doing.

So – hop off the Microsoft bandwagon for a bit, get your facts straight, and understand what you’re trying to act like an expert on. It’s pretty obvious you’re not a Mac user, as you’ve obviously got no idea what you’re talking about re: Office for Mac.

By: ShoX

ShoX — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 16:57:08 +0000

You didn’t quite get, that Entourage is for Mac and MS has not the biggest intentions to provide better Software for Macs than for heir own PCs?

And “freeing space” means they WASTED space in 10.5

MS Office (the real, big, useful mother of Entourage) beats the SL-support hands down…. Why?
Because it is BUILT for just doing that.

So now STOP bugging around that Mac is better than Windows or Linux or whatever, because if something in ANY OS goes wrong, usually YOU or the Programmer of the PROPRIETARY Software fucked up.

So guys, get knowledge and stop exposing yourself to laughter.

By: John

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:59:35 +0000

Hi Khürt,

Were you getting any particular error messages in Console for iCal when you were having issues with it and Exchange? If Mail / Address Book work with Exchange then your admins are correct – Exchange meets the requirements (The webservices required weren’t available in earlier versions of Exchange). My problem was relating to properly setting the Timezone data in iCal and on my Mac and making sure they matched.

I would check Console, though, as that should give you an error message pointing to where to look for a solution. I hate Entourage, so I prefer using straight iCal. Since doing my fix it has worked flawlessly for me. Shoot me the error message from Console and I can help you track down the issue.

By: Khürt L Williams

Khürt L Williams — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 15:52:34 +0000

I never got iCal working with Exchange 2007. I talked to my Exchange admins and they assured me that they met the requirements that Apple stated on the web site. Mail and Address Book work flawlessly. My solution was to setup Entourage to sync to iCal. So now I can manage my calendar in iCal and be assured it syncs back to the Exchange server.

By: John

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 02:25:51 +0000

You should be able to choose cities in Mexico too (try clicking on Mexico on the map, it should allow you to click around to cities there – I was able to anyways).

By: Eugenio Martinez

Eugenio Martinez — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 22:23:23 +0000

If I choose any city from the US it will work…. but the problem is that in the US the time zone alrready changed and in Mexico is on three week due…. I have tryed other zones and it dosen´t seems to work… I found this two treads (in one of them I think they mention your name! )

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2020984&tstart=0

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2140073&tstart=135

One guy has the same problem that lives on Canada…. I do not know if this has something to do working outside of US Time Zones…. maybe a BIG bug…

By: John

Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:38:43 +0000

What city is closest to where you are? You should be able to set it based off that. I’m not too familiar with how time zones are handled in Mexico, but in general if you select a major city that is CLOSE to you and in the same time zone, then you should be good to go.

By: Eugenio Martinez

Eugenio Martinez — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:27:31 +0000

John, I still have the same issue, I did all the updates on exchange and on Snow Leopard, still having the same issue….. selecting a Time Zone “Central Standard” solved my issue, but now I have a problem…. because here in Mexico our summer saving time will change three weeks past the US change…. so I have one hour of difference between Central and Mexico Central…. If I choose Mexico Central I can´t create events….. do you know another possible solution??? thanks in advance!!!!

By: John

John — Sun, 14 Mar 2010 11:33:07 +0000

I meant to say ‘not sure if 4th step is needed’ (I added steps after I wrote 2nd lol)