Here’s a fix that worked for me for an error that I got, while trying to sync an iPhone 3G to a macbook.

It was syncing 100% when out of the blue one day (on an important and a busy day) I get this error on iTunes saying:

iTunes cannot sync information with the iPhone “<users>’s iPhone” because syncing has been disabled on this computer. Do you want to enable syncing?

When I tried to enable sync, the error message was

Syncing cannot be enabled on this computer

If I remember correctly, then I had two options: Overide and OK. When I clicked overide, the error message was something like “You cannot overide…”! Beats me why it had the overide button in the first place! LOL!

Here’s the fix that worked for me on iTunes 8.0 and Mac OS X 10.5.5.

1. I opened Terminal
2. At the root, I typed
   cd ~/Library/Application\ Support/SyncServices/
mv Local Local_bak
3. Restarted my macbook.
4. Restarted iSync
5. Quit iSync
6. Connected my iPhone
7. Opened iTunes
8. When it detected my iPhone 3G, pressed SYNC

It worked.

This is a slightly adapted fix taken from maccarocks.com. The difference being, iSync hanged when I tried to launch without restarting.

What this essential does is actually removing the Local folder. However, instead of removing it, it was just renamed in case I needed it back.

A friend did earlier suggest the removing technique for Mac applications. However, on previous occasions of sync errors with my previous Nokia E61i, it did not resolve the issue then. I now suspect, it was because of a mismatch with my iPhone version, Mac OS X version and the iTunes version.

When my old phone went berserk one day, I had to begin the laborious task for hunting for a new phone that suited my needs. The list eventually got short listed to two phones: Nokia N71 and Apple iPhone 3G… and finally settled for an iPhone 3G due to the rush.

My Needs
A Phone! (with good battery life and easy keyboard)
Good Contact management
Multiple Calendar Management
Contextual or Categorical Task Management
Ability to run third-party applications with vibrant on-going development
A-GPS (Asynchronous Global Positioning System)
Music Player and podcast subscriptions
3G compatible
Ability to sync with Mac OSX.

Pros
Met all of my above mentioned needs except for task management, which was solved by installing the Remember The Milk (RTM) Application for the iphone for USD20/= per year.
A neat, very responsive touch-display and a very effective user-interface
Large Icons
Nice Clock, Calculator
Good on Wifi
Nice Browser Safari (supports multiple pages)
Nice Platform for third party apps
Good A-GPS hardware and software range

Cons
No Number Scanning: Fixed later with a version update
No Copy & Paste (how did Steve Jobs miss this??)
No MMS app in the box
No, SMS forward
No Apps Store access for Maldives Billing Address
No Video Calling
Bluetooth does not work with all blue tooth devices (no idea why Apple only served limited bluetooth)
No iTunes and Apps Store support for Maldives

The Nokia E71 initially seemed to be a likely candidate except for the small display, cramped up-keyboard and a not-so-familiar calendar interface. The iPhone 3G proved to be more familiar in this area of use. Secondly, I’ve had experiences with Nokia phones and syncing issues with my macs. It’s not Nokia that’s the problem, but some updating issues with the Mac OSX.

While I don’t particularly fancy the closed-door nature of Apple sometimes, I am dependent on the Mac OSX for now. Hence, the ability to sync well turned to be one of the highest priorities.

I believe that more open technologies and Web OS applications will be the future. Therefore, I am keenly keeping an eye on the gPhone.

This post is by no means a comparison between the Nokia E71 and the iPhone 3G. It is limited to my thoughts on the iPhone 3G.

I’ve shared the Maldives Academic and Holidays Calendars as a Google Calendar for 2009. Any one could subscribe to it. Try it! Personally, I feel that dynamic calendar feeds are more appropriate for this day and age than a static .pdf. It would be highly rewarding for the government websites to implement subscription features.

Please let me know if there any errors of changes and I shall try to fix it asap. Use it at your own risk and it is provided as is without obligation. Subscription is fairly self-explanatory (by clicking the links below) or read it here on my previous year’s post.

Source:
http://www.moe.gov.mv/eng/publications/calendar/ac2009-draft.pdf

New Source:
http://www.moe.gov.mv/eng/publications/calendar/academic_calendar_2009.pdf

UPDATES:
3rd March 2009: The Maldives Academic Calendar has been updated

Maldives Academic Calendar

Maldives Holidays

SPEED was a product level music concert by Dhiraagu to relaunch their broadband internet packages. Trio, Mezzo and performed from 2030hrs till 0015hrs. The event was organized by Artline.

This was the first time that a proper monitor mixer was used to monitor the sound for the musicians on stage in Maldives, by a local company. We used a SPIRIT Monitor 2 on stage. | Read the rest of this entry …

Bounce was held on 22nd of November 2007 in Kuda Bandos. The event DJ Kina and DJ Gavin from Australia. Prior to this finale event they also conducted workshops.

I could here the difference in their samples – they were really good! Another difference that I’m beginning to notice with professional DJs is that the consistency in the levels of their mixing. My guess is that it’s not only in the recorded materials nor is it there metering alone, it’s a bit of everything and most importantly their critical listening ability. Once set, it remains like that.

Here are some photos from that I managed to snap.

Sound by Island Music. Team: Hambe, Farish and I

Here are two indispensable calendars that I need when I plan my schedules. I consider them to be fundamental as all my schedules (including personal, business, schooling, etc.) usually have to revolve around these dates. Hence, I thought I’d share them.

Please use them at your own risk as they are provided as is. Do let me know if you find anything in these calendars to be in error. Also, please feel free to share any useful public calendars that you may have shared.

If you have a Gmail account, log-in and just click the Google Calendar button. If you use iCal, just clicking the iCal button and subscribing would be enough. If you use Microsoft Outlook, you may need to copy the URL link by right-clicking on the iCal button and subscribe to remote calendars via the URL.

Maldives Academic Calendar

Maldives Holidays

I was looking for something more power than iCal to manage multiple calendars, with multiple tasks by Calendar and I found iGTD. Initially, iCal seemed just fine (especially if you manage a few calendars with a few ToDos).

However, I felt that I was being very limited by it’s interface when entering a lot of tasks. Also, there’s no way to handle tasks than become mini-projects or big-projects. After a while, the ToDos on iCal gets very busy and cluttered when it tries to auto-sort into “today”, “tomorrow” and dates.
| Read the rest of this entry …

Flickr Finder for Mac is a cool application to browse Flickr photos through a Finder-like application on your mac. It’s speedier than browsing through a normal browser as it initially downloads little thumbs. This is especially time and bandwidth saving when on slow connections.
| Read the rest of this entry …

ianhenderson.org – delimport is a nifty little application that runs in the background, which makes it possible to search your del.icio.us bookmarks using Spotlight (only if you are on a Mac). This is very handy as you don’t have to have your del.icio.us bookmarks open in a browser to intiate a search.