While playing with Backpack, I came across this posting on caching RSS feeds on Backpack. It turns out that Squeet serves up items from your RSS feeds into your in-box at a pre-designated time. It also gives you the ability to pause and resume feed delivery.
Squeet also lets you import your favorite RSS subscriptions as an OPML file. Stoked at this discovery, I exported my Google Reader feeds as OPML, imported them into Squeet and proceeded to examine the resulting OPML file.
I was shocked to discover that most of my feeds were listed multiple times in the Squeet reader. It turns out that in Google Reader, a tag is a top-level outline and it's children are the feeds that are tagged with that attribute. So the same feed would be listed multiple times, if it were tagged with multiple attributes.
For e.g. Adam Bosworth shows up both in distributed systems as well as blog
<outline title="distributed-systems" text="distributed-systems">
<outline text="Adam Bosworth's Weblog" title="Adam Bosworth's Weblog" type="rss" xmlurl="http://www.adambosworth.net/index.rdf" htmlurl="http://www.adambosworth.net/">
<outline title="blog" text="blog">
<outline text="Adam Bosworth's Weblog"
title="Adam Bosworth's Weblog" type="rss"
xmlUrl="http://www.adambosworth.net/index.rdf" htmlUrl="http://www.adambosworth.net/"/>
The Squeet OPML import utility, which seems to ignore the tags, parses this as two (or N) distinct feeds. It would be nice if the import utility detected duplicates.
Fearing the deluge awaiting my inbox tomorrow morning, I looked for a way to delete the duplicates. I could export the Squeet feeds as OPML (thereby elminating the tag nesting), transform the OPML file and import it again. But, Squeet doesn't allow for an imported OPML file to over-write the current subscriptions.
So it was that I spent a good deal of time clicking (and confirming) each delete..
Coming back to Backpack, the actual coolness of the original post is that you can direct the periodic Squeet e-mail of your RSS items to the unique e-mail of a Backpack page you can set-up as your feed cache. Since I have a large set of subscriptions, a better idea would be to let the feeds get served into my inbox, and selectively forward interesting posts to the Backpack page to be cached.
In any case, I'm happy to see my RSS feeds in my inbox, and not have to go to a separate feed portal. Another way to do this is to use Mihai Parparita's Greasemonkey script to get my feeds in my GMail in-box, but the Backpack solution lets you archive the feeds as well, an useful third dimension.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
Friday, November 10, 2006
From Google Calendar and Desktop to 37Signals' Backpack and .Mac's iDrive
I spent some time looking at the .Mac last night, and was pondering the value of a move from Google's multi-machine Desktop Search, Calendar, and possibly, even Reader to a combination of Basecamp, Campfire, Backpack from 37Signals' suite and, iDisk, Sync and Backup from the iMac suite. So it's funny that I came across this posting today, which discusses the mechanics of the reverse move.
If we use cost as an argument, it is the same as debating whether to buy a Windows-based laptop or a Mac, which is a premium vs. commodity argument. From the few years, it's clear that for many people, the premium commanded by the Mac is worth the cost. In other word, cost is no object for people who are looking for the best value.
In the same vein, I think a certain subset of people will prefer premium services to Google's free imitations. A case in point is 37Signals' Calendar, which is part of their Backpack offering, and which Google has done a remarkable job at benchmarking! I think I'd willing to pay five bucks a month for Basecamp's product, just because it has the Mac factor going for it viz. thoughtful UI, thoughtful integration, uniform user interaction patterns, and a better set of implemented use-cases, for e.g. the Always-on day view.
I think the same subset of people is also willing to pay a little extra to acknowledge the beauty and feel of good innovation.
If we use cost as an argument, it is the same as debating whether to buy a Windows-based laptop or a Mac, which is a premium vs. commodity argument. From the few years, it's clear that for many people, the premium commanded by the Mac is worth the cost. In other word, cost is no object for people who are looking for the best value.
In the same vein, I think a certain subset of people will prefer premium services to Google's free imitations. A case in point is 37Signals' Calendar, which is part of their Backpack offering, and which Google has done a remarkable job at benchmarking! I think I'd willing to pay five bucks a month for Basecamp's product, just because it has the Mac factor going for it viz. thoughtful UI, thoughtful integration, uniform user interaction patterns, and a better set of implemented use-cases, for e.g. the Always-on day view.
I think the same subset of people is also willing to pay a little extra to acknowledge the beauty and feel of good innovation.
Wednesday, November 08, 2006
How does Google make money?
I don't understand how Google makes so much money from ads.
I've spent at least 10-12 hrs a day, connected to the web, for work and play, say for the past 10 years, and I must've clicked on a sponsored ad, a handful of times..that's less than 10 ads in the past 10 years. Of course, this obviously also includes previous incarnations of relevant ads like DoubleClick's and Overture's.
So where are all these clickthru's coming from?
P.S. The irony of the Google AdSense box on my own blog hasn't escaped me! I'm just curious about who these folks are.
I've spent at least 10-12 hrs a day, connected to the web, for work and play, say for the past 10 years, and I must've clicked on a sponsored ad, a handful of times..that's less than 10 ads in the past 10 years. Of course, this obviously also includes previous incarnations of relevant ads like DoubleClick's and Overture's.
So where are all these clickthru's coming from?
P.S. The irony of the Google AdSense box on my own blog hasn't escaped me! I'm just curious about who these folks are.
Some Google products and their benchmarks
It struck me the other day that certain Google products I use reminded me of some other products out there, except that the Google ones were just a tad off, either in features or look-and-feel. OS X's Dashboard widgets look more polished than Google Desktop Gadgets, and 37Signal's Backpack looks better and does more than Google Calendar.
Given that both Blogger and Google Maps (or YouTube, for that matter) were brought in through acquisition, what are the truly great user products that Google has developed in-house?...GMail?...It clearly builds great infrastructure (MapReduce, GFS, BigTable, even Search..as a platform for other products, like Desktop or GMail or Book), but what about inspired user products?
Given that both Blogger and Google Maps (or YouTube, for that matter) were brought in through acquisition, what are the truly great user products that Google has developed in-house?...GMail?...It clearly builds great infrastructure (MapReduce, GFS, BigTable, even Search..as a platform for other products, like Desktop or GMail or Book), but what about inspired user products?
Apple - Product releases
A little while after Apple announced the first MacBook Pro Duos , an inventory of pre-configured MacBooks arrived on Amazon, and was cleared up in double-quick time. Just as that happened, upgrades to the new MacBook Pros were announced .
Lucky for me that I procrastinated on the previous lot, because a new lot showed up on Amazon. I did go ahead and order one last night, which should get to me by sometime next week. So it was with trepidation that I opened up this press release this morning, but was relieved to find that the MacBook Pros remain the same.
How long will my relief last, I wonder? I'm guessing Christmas. But, given that the Core to Core 2 upgrade has come to pass, what could Apple possibly release near the holiday season? An early peek at Leopard perhaps?
Lucky for me that I procrastinated on the previous lot, because a new lot showed up on Amazon. I did go ahead and order one last night, which should get to me by sometime next week. So it was with trepidation that I opened up this press release this morning, but was relieved to find that the MacBook Pros remain the same.
How long will my relief last, I wonder? I'm guessing Christmas. But, given that the Core to Core 2 upgrade has come to pass, what could Apple possibly release near the holiday season? An early peek at Leopard perhaps?
Thursday, September 21, 2006
High finance
I've been reading this lately: Amazon.com: When Genius Failed: The Rise and Fall of Long-Term Capital Management: Books: Roger Lowenstein. As impressive as the actual story, is how Roger Lowenstein managed to put together the entire book in a year or two, and write such a compelling narrative about it, capturing both the technical (at least to me) and the emotional aspects of it.
Fascinating..this talk of spreads, swaps, repos, volatility, hedges, paired trades, options and bonds..To paraphrase Sienfeld, "..Bulls, Bears, people from Connecticut.."
There's more of this good stuff here.
UPDATE: Now, where have I heard this before? What is with September and volatility?
Fascinating..this talk of spreads, swaps, repos, volatility, hedges, paired trades, options and bonds..To paraphrase Sienfeld, "..Bulls, Bears, people from Connecticut.."
There's more of this good stuff here.
UPDATE: Now, where have I heard this before? What is with September and volatility?
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
Authenticated and private feeds
Came across this: Authenticated and private feed, the other day. Building authentication, authorization and security into the feed reader is one way to go. But, this effort would have to be replicated across all the feed platforms out there.
A better way would be to leave these platforms to do one thing well, and push the aforementioned functionality into a web services intermediary, like SOA Software's Network Director, which supports HTTP Basic Auth and role-based subscriptions to feeds.
In addition, it also supports digital signatures (signing and verification) on feeds, and tag-based aggregation of these feeds. This is the ability to define a virtual ("aggregate") feed, which is a boolean expression on the tags (or labels) applied to the underlying ("concrete") feeds. For e.g., if the New York Times feed is tagged "nyt" and the Wall Street Journal feed is tagged "wsj", one could define a new aggregate feed called "news", defined as (nyt OR wsj).
A better way would be to leave these platforms to do one thing well, and push the aforementioned functionality into a web services intermediary, like SOA Software's Network Director, which supports HTTP Basic Auth and role-based subscriptions to feeds.
In addition, it also supports digital signatures (signing and verification) on feeds, and tag-based aggregation of these feeds. This is the ability to define a virtual ("aggregate") feed, which is a boolean expression on the tags (or labels) applied to the underlying ("concrete") feeds. For e.g., if the New York Times feed is tagged "nyt" and the Wall Street Journal feed is tagged "wsj", one could define a new aggregate feed called "news", defined as (nyt OR wsj).
Monday, September 18, 2006
Technology News: Portals & Search: Google Founders Start For-Profit Philanthropy
Technology News: Portals & Search: Google Founders Start For-Profit Philanthropy
Always thought "for-profit philanthropy" was an oxymoron before this.
Always thought "for-profit philanthropy" was an oxymoron before this.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
BEA, HP tout SOA capabilities with repository, services | InfoWorld | News | 2006-09-17 | By Paul Krill
BEA, HP tout SOA capabilities with repository, services | InfoWorld | News | 2006-09-17 | By Paul Krill
Interesting news! Hadn't heard of XPDL before this. Was wondering how it compared to BPEL, when I came across this
Interesting news! Hadn't heard of XPDL before this. Was wondering how it compared to BPEL, when I came across this
Saturday, September 16, 2006
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Google Book Search: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read
Google Book Search: Celebrate Your Freedom to Read
Ah!.. illicit books. One gets the feeling that they can't be that bad for you. More like "free speech" than "free beer".
Some of the books on this list surprise me, probably because I'm unaware of the context under which they were banned. Race and war seem to be a couple of them, on a cursory glance.
Ah!.. illicit books. One gets the feeling that they can't be that bad for you. More like "free speech" than "free beer".
Some of the books on this list surprise me, probably because I'm unaware of the context under which they were banned. Race and war seem to be a couple of them, on a cursory glance.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
Apache XMLBeans
Been playing with Apache's XMLBeans lately. It's a impressive tool. Beats having to traverse the schema document tree.
SchemaType and SchemaParticle are well thought out, and simple enough to use once you get the hang of them. XmlOptions, on the other hand, are a bit more mysterious, especially regarding how they deal with external schema references, and imported schemata.
SchemaType and SchemaParticle are well thought out, and simple enough to use once you get the hang of them. XmlOptions, on the other hand, are a bit more mysterious, especially regarding how they deal with external schema references, and imported schemata.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Microsoft Open Specification Promise
This Microsoft Open Specification Promise looks very generous on first glance, but isn't this kind of the point of a specification, that a common interface has been decided upon, in order to encourage all the interested parties to talk a common vocabulary?
Harvard Ends Early Admission - New York Times
Harvard Ends Early Admission - New York Times
This is bound to make prep schools unhappy, If other Ivy League schools follow Harvard's lead, wonder if that'll make prep schools and other elite private schools less exclusive, given that building and maintaing a robust early admissions pipeline is one of the core competencies of such schools.
This is bound to make prep schools unhappy, If other Ivy League schools follow Harvard's lead, wonder if that'll make prep schools and other elite private schools less exclusive, given that building and maintaing a robust early admissions pipeline is one of the core competencies of such schools.
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
BITS: Write Auto-Updating Apps with .NET and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service API -- MSDN Magazine, February 2003
Need to get into this .NET thingy! Writing a file transfer (and backup) utility seems a fun way to get into it.
BITS: Write Auto-Updating Apps with .NET and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service API -- MSDN Magazine, February 2003
BITS: Write Auto-Updating Apps with .NET and the Background Intelligent Transfer Service API -- MSDN Magazine, February 2003
Monday, March 13, 2006
Guardian Unlimited Sport | Cricket | Cricket: India to become new powerhouse
Guardian Unlimited Sport | Cricket | Cricket: India to become new powerhouse
"...Superpowers have a habit of demanding their own way and Indian cricket is a superpower, responsible for about two-thirds of the game's revenue..."
"... But does India recognise the social responsibility that comes with its burgeoning economic power?"
Beg your pardon, Mr. Hopps! We do quite recall the sterling example set by Brittannia, which discharged it's social responsibility by milking it's colonies dry for hundreds of years, enriching only the coffers of the Queen, and that of the shareholders of the East India Company before that.
Boo-hoo! Sucks to be you.
"...Superpowers have a habit of demanding their own way and Indian cricket is a superpower, responsible for about two-thirds of the game's revenue..."
"... But does India recognise the social responsibility that comes with its burgeoning economic power?"
Beg your pardon, Mr. Hopps! We do quite recall the sterling example set by Brittannia, which discharged it's social responsibility by milking it's colonies dry for hundreds of years, enriching only the coffers of the Queen, and that of the shareholders of the East India Company before that.
Boo-hoo! Sucks to be you.
Sunday, March 05, 2006
Monday, February 27, 2006
Did Bode rock, or choke?
If Bode Miller just wanted to rock in Turin, why didn't he do it on his own time and money, or is this an excuse for choking under pressure?
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/alpine_skiing/news?slug=ap-ski-jimlitke&prov=ap&type=lgns
http://sports.yahoo.com/olympics/torino2006/alpine_skiing/news?slug=ap-ski-jimlitke&prov=ap&type=lgns
Google Page Creator
I wonder if the Google Page Creator is a wrapper around blogger.com? If so, why not combine the two? What is the rationale for having a separate home page namespace (and infrastructure)?
Monday, January 16, 2006
MIT OCW lecture videos
MIT OpenCourseWare has videos of Prof. Gilbert Strang's Linear Algebra class (http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-06Spring-2005/VideoLectures/index.htm). That just rocks!
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