MSN RSS Search

MSN has added RSS Search operators to their engine. You can now search for content within feeds (using the feed: operator) or restrict a search to entries that have an RSS feed (using the hasfeed: operator). For example: all of the feeds that the NYTimes produces.

Yahoo! Weather via RSS

You can now get the local Yahoo! weather report via RSS. Like many of the RSS Weather sites (e.g. RSS Weather) and RSS Calendars, the problem with Yahoo is when to signal an update. In the case of Yahoo! Weather, it updates every time the underlying condition report changes - which seems to be about once an hour. Having this be marked new in the aggregator essentially every time the feed is fetched is not ideal. It would be better if it changed only when the forecast or the current conditions changed significantly (i.e. it's gone from sunny to rainy). Yahoo has added a bunch of interesting namespaced Weather extensions for things like units, location and the underlying weather which is interesting - apparently the Yahoo! Widget (aka Konfabulator) for Weather uses the same feed. I added an entry for the Weather extensions in the RSS Extensions Registry. If I were Yahoo, I would also publish the weekly forecast as an iCal feed so that I could integrate it into my calendar.

Summer Reading List

Books I'm reading this summer - I'll write a quick review when I'm done:

• Wisdom of Crowds / James Surowiecki - Done, needs to be reviewed.
• Freakonomics / Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner - Done, it was excellent but no review as it's all beeen said.
• The Misbehavior of Markets / Benoit Mandelbrot, Richard L. Hudson - (Reviewed)
• Haunted / Chuck Palahniuk - I didn't finish this because the library wanted it back. What I did read was monkey hurlage and I never made much progress on it which is a shame because I've enjoyed every other Palahniuk book.
• Democratizing Innovation / Eric von Hippel - Wasn't worth finishing
• Silence on the Wire / Michal Zalewski - Currently reading

E*Trade 2-Factor Authentication Key Fob

As part of my E*Trade Bank account, I received a key fob to make logging in more secure. It's a rebadged RSA key fob that generates a unique ID every 60 seconds. As part of authenticating with the service you need the ID and your password. This is (currently) an opt in program so if you don't think it's worth the trouble, you can continue to use a password. E*Trade security has been gradually getting better over the years (when I first opened an account with them about 8 years ago it was terrible - you were limited to a 6 digit numeric password if I recall correctly) and this is a big improvement. I'm very pleased to see an online bank that is actually making account security a priority. The devil with these things is in the details - if you lost the key fob and want access to the account they need to have some way to let you have access which most likely involves relying on personal information (I haven't tried it yet).

The real problem with the key fob is what happens when every high security site requires them - how many of these things can I carry on a key chain? Answer: 1! You really need one of these devices that can generate multiple secure IDs for multiple services. Another alternative would be to have a single sign-on service that managed all of this but given the problems (technical, philosophical, etc) that Microsoft Passport have run into, the former seems more likely to happen.

Walken for President: The ice is gonna break!

Actor Christopher Walken (best known for his roles as a madman in every movie ever made) is apparently running for President in 2008. If he has those gnarly powers to predict the future like in The Dead Zone, I think he'll make an excellent president. Hail to the chief! UPDATE: It's a hoax.

How Microsoft Access got it's name

In light of the recent announcement that the next release of Windows will be called Vista, here's a funny story from Panopticon Central about how Microsoft Access got it's name:

Apparently, they’d hired an outside research firm that specialized in product naming. They paid them some big chunk of change to go off and think about possible names for Access and then come back and give their recommendations. They came back with a set of ideas, but the one that always stuck out in his mind was “Microsoft Cept.” Yes, “Cept,” as in “con-cept” or “pre-cept” or “ex-cept.” They apparently had some wacky ideas about how Microsoft could run a whole marketing campaign around words that ended in “cept.” (Apparently ignoring the obvious homophone that immediately springs to mind, namely “septic.”) Thankfully, the marketing department ignored the suggestion and took a look at the trademarks that Microsoft already owned. We’d apparently shipped a “Microsoft Access” product before – it was some kind of DOS dial up program that had died a quick death – and the name seemed to be perfect.

As always, Salon's article on research firm that develop product / company names is required reading.

San Jose Grand Prix Video

I added some video from the Grand Prix -

• Driving through the high speed chicane during the Friday practice [One, Two]
• Street level as cars drive through the chicane on Almaden Blvd.
• Street level of a restart from Cesar Chavez Park

Ari Vatanen in "Climb Dance"

From iFilm - a 1990 documentary film of Ari Vatanen's winning drive in the Pike's Peak Hill Climb in a Peugeot 405 T16. Ari artfully powerslides the car to within inches or a sheer drop-off at breakneck speed on 14,000 ft Pike's Peak in Colorado.

San Jose Grand Prix Wrapup

The Inaugural San Jose Grand Prix was held this weekend - my photos are here. The event was not without it's hiccups - several events on friday had to be cancelled to make changes to the track and some of the foot bridges were not ready until Saturday. The most serious problems were related to having racing cars moving over a set of train tracks for the VTA Light Rail and this caused most of the delays on Friday. Despite the fixes made, the light rail tracks caused a very severe bump while the cars were travelling at top speed and through a chicane. The original track design for this chicane was used on Friday and the cars were visibly sliding as they went through. Missing the first apex of the corner by 2 feet would likely lead the car to make a head on impact with a concrete barrier at 160 mph. The driver's described it as "challening" - in Racing Driver speak this translates to "lethally dangerous". The track was changed for Saturday to make this corner safer although it still had a huge bump in the middle of it as the cars passed over the light rail tracks.

Old Layout	New Layout

By Sunday, the cars high grip tires had demolished the recent ashphalt resurfacing and the organizers had resorted to patching and filling in holes with QuickCrete.

CHAMP car races use a jet engine attached the back of a truck to "sweep" the track of debris (there was a ton of garbage on the track right from the start). If you happen to be standing next to it when it goes by, you need to turn around or get a face full of grit. If your a track worker, you hide behind your flag...