Oh yes! I have wanted to do this for such a long time, and
glancing through the iPad manual gave me the answer. I will now show
you how to synchronize your Emacs diary files with the calendar in the
iPhone or iPad. I should warn you right out that the implementation
seems broken in some ways, for instance I don’t see cyclic dates
showing up, but it provides a start. I have tested this on an iPad
running iOS 3.2.1, and an iPhone running iOS 4.0.

To do this, you just need a working Emacs and a place to put it on
the web. First, within Emacs, use M-x
icalendar-export-file. Put in the name of your diary, for
instance ~/diary. Make sure the output file has the .ics
extension, for example diary.ics. Now, copy the .ics
file to the web. You should probably do this on a server where you
can implement some security restrictions, or just delete the file
immediately afterward.

Now, go to your iPhone or iPad. Go to Settings, then
Mail, Calendar, Contacts. Add an account, choose
Other then Add Subscribed Calendar. Put in the full
URL of your .ics file in the server field. You don’t need to worry
about the user name, password, and SSL fields, unless of course you
do. This would also make a good way to secure your diary. Now save
it and enjoy. You could also enter the URL in Safari, but doing it
through the settings menu lets you put in a description and other
things. Either way works. To update your calendar, just go back to
the mail settings, and Fetch New Data.

I hope this helps some Emacs using iPhone enthusiast out there. I
wanted to sync my calendar for the longest time, and felt an obvious
way existed, and I found it. I look forward to discovering other ways
to integrate Emacs with my iPhone and iPad. I consider it a very
worthy effort.

I love Emacs. I love using Twittering-mode to read Twitter from within Emacs. Only one thing bothered me about twittering-mode, and quickly browsing through its source-code showed me the fix. I also modified a tip on their page to give a text notification of new tweets. Just place these lines in your .emacs and enjoy. Modify as appropriate. Send me a tweet if you found this useful.


(add-to-list 'load-path "/path/to/twittering-mode") ; if non-standard
(require 'twittering-mode)
(setq twittering-username "yourtwittername") ; replace
(setq twittering-notify-successful-http-get nil)
(add-hook 'twittering-new-tweets-hook (lambda ()
(let ((n twittering-new-tweets-count))
(format "%d New Tweet%s" n (if (> n 1) "s" "")))))


While looking through the Emacs directory, I saw a file named etc/COOKIES. Curiously, I browsed it, and found a bunch of cookie recipes. No doubt everyone has heard the urban legend of the woman who writes to a company for their cookie recipe, and ends up spending $250.00 instead of $2.50, so distributes it. At the end, it had an easy recipe for Toll House Cookies.

Previously, I had purchased Nestles Toll House cookie mix, the kind you break apart and put on sheets. It tasted okay, but nothing beats home-made cookies. I always liked the name. It called to mind a friendly toll house with its happily ringing bell, and a quaint inn overlooking it. Actually, Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield purchased an old toll house in 1930, and remade it into an inn.

According to Nestle, the invention of the first Toll House cookie occurred accidently. That page has a link to an official recipe, which differs slightly from the one in Emacs, which follows:

Chocolate Chip Cookies - Glamorous, crunchy, rich with chocolate bits & nuts.

Also known as "Toll House" Cookies ... from Kenneth and Ruth Wakefield's
charming New England Toll House on the outskirts of Whitman, Massachusetts.
These cookies were first introduced to American homemakers in 1939 through
our series of radio talks on "Famous Foods From Famous Eating Places."

Mix Thoroughly :
        2/3 cup soft shortening ( part butter )
        1/2 cup granulated sugar
        1/2 cup brown sugar ( packed )
        1 egg
        1 tsp vanilla

Sift together and stir in :
        1-1/2 cups sifted flour (*)
        1/2 tsp soda
        1/2 tsp salt

Stir in :
        1/2 cup cut-up nuts
        6 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate pieces ( about 1-1/4 cups )

(*) for a softer, more rounded cookie, use 1-3/4 cups sifted flour.

Drop rounded teaspoonfuls about 2" apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake until
delicately browned ... cookies should still be soft. Cool slightly before you
remove them from the baking sheet.

Temperature:            375 F. ( modern oven )
Time:                   bake 8 - 10 minutes
Amount:                 4 - 5 dozen 2" cookies

=====

Personal comments :

I find it tastes better with a mixture of shortening and butter, as they say.

You don't need << all >> of that sugar, and it can be whatever color you want.

The nuts are optional. Feel free to play with the recipe. I put oatmeal in it,
reducing flour accordingly, and sometimes cinnamon.

I also find it useful to grease the cookie sheets.

I think I'm going to go bake some now ...

-- richard

I figured that any editor that comes with a file of cookie recipes has a strong spirit, and it inspired me to try the recipe above. It came out well enough, as I still learn the fine art of baking. It got me thinking about achieving immortality in the more classic sense of the word, living on through one’s works.

In exchange for printing the recipe, Ruth Wakefield received a lifetime supply of chocolate. She died in 1977. The Toll House Inn burned down on New Year’s Eve of 1984. Yet, the inn, Ruth Wakefield, and the original colonial toll house live on through a simple cookie.

I know I have considered myself a born-again Vim user, and I love Vim, but I have recently begun investigating Emacs. It definitely has some interesting potential, including an audio desktop environment, which I have yet to even get into, my initial reason for doing this, so I could use my Artic Transport external speech synthesizer with Orca and Gnome. I’ll keep you up to date on this startling development, since many people either take one or the other. Apparently, Emacs and even read email and rss feeds, and perhaps browse web pages? I don’t know! I will have to keep reading, plus I took a LisP course in college, so can make use of that knowledge. Interestingly, nowadays both editors have begun becoming more like the other, and today’s modern systems make both load rapidly. I enjoy knowing both. I have always dreamed of a consistent environment for doing everything and one which uses Mayan dates. Emacs might have this ability.