Maybe next time I’ll order a tall but ask them to serve it in a short cup; odds are I will get in a semantics argument with them as to whether that makes the drink a short or a tall.

Carmel beach on the Fourth

Mino noticed an SUV parked by the beach that was of particular interest to me, as it contained three handsome old Brittanys. The car also had several American Brittany Rescue stickers on the back–kudos to the car’s owner for supporting a great organization. How did I know these were older dogs? Just check out how white their faces are in my photos.

Lots of sniffs for a nose that knows

These guys would love to be running on the beach

A very old gentleman, snoozing in the back

In general, it was a very classy weekend, filled with timeless taste combinations like brut rose champagne and sweet onion Kettle chips.

Meghan in the kitchen

Mino takes in the view towards Pebble Beach

But if you’re an Apple laptop user and have an iPad, you’re now in luck. A company called Avatron has released Air Display, a $10 iPad app that, combined with a utility and driver for the Mac’s OS X, lets you use your iPad as an external display.

My iPad/MacBook Pro setup in Carmel

The screen is refreshing over WiFi, so it cannot handle video or other fast-moving windows (too slow a refresh rate), but it works great for an occasional second screen to hold your calendar, task manager, IM window, etc.

Note that the Avatron web page says that a Windows version of the accompanying utility software is on the way.

Hat tip to Wired’s Gadget Lab blog for alerting me to this app.

Why? Because the US tied Costa Rica today in the last minute of their final World Cup qualifier in the North and Central America (CONCACAF) group, which, when combined with Honduras’ victory in their own qualifying match today, means that Honduras has qualified for the World Cup. Big news in a small, soccer-mad country, dealing with the aftermath of a military coup earlier this year. The video below is pretty great; check out the “USA! USA” chants at the end (and a guy in a devil mask wearing a US flag as a cape, on a scooter). HT to Grant Wahl (SI soccer writer) via his Twitter feed.

You also get a nifty Gmail icon for your inbox now. Macworld has a nice article up on these revisions.

I previously set up this behavior myself using an “Other”-type mail account (as the prior Gmail preset available when you created a new account did not support IMAP), combined with a few tweaks of the trash can location.

There is still no support for labels, rather than folders, but this would require a comprehensive revising of certain aspects of the Mail app’s user interface, so I’m not holding my breath on this one. Gmail via mobile Safari is still the best option here.

One downside to the new Gmail account type, versus using an “Other” account configured to match the Gmail behavior: you no longer can set up multiple e-mail aliases. An e-mail alias is who the sender appears as. Personally, I have my Gmail address, my alumni address from Stanford, and an address set up to give out to all companies and web accounts that require an address. Depending on whom I’m e-mailing with, I may want to compose or reply from a different account than my Gmail address. Also, if someone e-mails, say, an article to a group of friends using my Stanford alumni address (my preferred address) and I reply to all from my Gmail address, my Stanford address receives a copy of my reply–annoying.

With a custom-configured Other account, you can, however, set up multiple aliases. Just follow the handy directions found on Chris Oattes blog, here. Note that the first e-mail address in the sequence of comma-separated addresses is the default account from which replies are sent or messages are composed as on the iPhone.

So, great feature, right? However, using the revised Gmail account type does not allow you to use aliases. As best as I can tell, it is because you only have place to enter your e-mail address when setting up the account, and this is used by Gmail to authenticate your e-mail/password combination, so inputting a list of aliases there returns a password error–your password will only work with a username of just your Gmail address. Whereas, the Other account type includes one blank for your address (where you put in all the aliases via Chris Oattes’ tip) and a separate area to log in to your incoming mail server, which is where you just put in your Gmail address.

Thus, I’ve switched back from using the revised Gmail account preset to my existing Other account. Apart from no Gmail icon and no “Archive” text label, I’m losing nothing.

One more possible solution involves setting up dummy accounts solely for the purposes of having aliases to choose from. (This site also shows you how to select an alias in the mail compose scree on your iPhone.) I haven’t tried this yet, since I wouldn’t gain much compared to my current setup, but I’ll update if I do so.

(If you run into any problems with setting up aliases, you should confirm that you have set up these aliases in Gmail via the web interface. I’m not sure if this is required in order for alias sending to work on the iPhone, but it’s worth checking, and has the bonus of setting up aliases in Gmail’s web interface as well. Go to Settings/Accounts and Import tab/Send mail as section and click on the “Send mail from another address” button, then follow the directions.)