I have downloaded Newsgator – which is a RSS reader that works inside of Microsoft Outlook. I’ve also downloaded MovablePoster – a third-party plugin that allows me to post RSS items from Newsgator or new items, like this one, to my Typepad weblog from within Outlook. Very impressive.
RSS Scraper – By Subject
In my pursuit of a RSS scraper I’ve received no direct feedback from anyone, but writing the post in this weblog has not been totally in vain. You see Google is helping out – which probably means everyone who is looking for a RSS scraper is helping out. How? My previous RSS scraper post comes up number 1 when you search for those terms on Google.
How has that helped so far? Well, today I saw several Google search hits on my weblog for RSS scraper and decided to check on the results myself. On the right I found an ad for NewsTrove.com which allows you to create an RSS feed by subject and appears to scan quite a few publications. It is not exactly what I’m looking for but it could be very useful. I’ve created a few subject feeds and am testing it out. Thanks Google. Thanks Newstrove.
AT&T Office Online Doesn’t Like Vindigo
To retrieve my office e-mail on my Treo 600 I signed up for AT&T’s Office Online service. It worked fine for several weeks. Then, right when I was about to go out of town – and actually needed to get my email on my Treo – it wouldn’t work. The “Welcome to Office Online” page on the Treo would offer me the choice to login, but never gave me the login page – instead it endlessly looped back to the same page.
I spent about two hours waiting and talking to the AT&T folks. Adjusting settings on the Treo – because everything was fine on the “host” computer at work. No luck. I even visited AT&T’s online support chat – an excellent service – but also no go.
Frustration. Then it dawned on me. Several days before I was headed to Las Vegas I got one of those Palmgear=handango or something emails advertising something handy – a pda Zagat’s guide-like service call Vindigo. I bought it, installed it and it looked like it might be useful – especially since I hadn’t been to Vegas in 15 years. AH HA!
Removed the Vindigo app from the Treo. Removed the Vindigo app from the desktop and from the backup folder in the /handspring folder. Did a hard reset of the Treo to clean out all the data and start fresh -(hotsync first to put all data on the desktop before doing this) and voila’ – Office Online works again.
And that’s good -cause I’ve got to travel to Palm Springs this week. I’ll stick to brochures when it comes to learning Palm Spring’s local highlights.
Economic Assumptions and Arnold’s Budget
In today’s Contra Costa Times – George Avalos quotes me in a story analyzing the economic assumptions used to prepare the Governor’s proposed state budget. Here’s the housing portion:
Some economists also point to other complications. Ken Rosen, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business, fears that the super-heated housing market in the Bay Area and, to a lesser extent, the rest of California could finally start to cool off this year and next. Rosen pointed out that statewide housing prices have soared about 37 percent in the past two years.
“Whether it’s a home-price bubble or excess appreciation, there is certainly some risk that prices can reverse,” Rosen said.
Suppose price increases do slow or flatten? Some economists warn that means homeowners might have less cash to extract from the equity in their houses, effectively slashing their spending power. And if interest rates rise, that could be a further threat to California’s crucial housing market.
“There would be a weaker economy as a result,” Rosen said. “There would be less home building and fewer real estate commissions. People would have less wealth.”
But an industry executive counters that the California housing market still looks pretty strong.
“Demand for housing continues to exist, even with the tough economy,” said Guy Bjerke, an executive with the San Ramon-based Home Builders Association of Northern California. “In the Bay Area, we are tremendously under-supplied for housing. The only thing that could rain on the parade for housing is if interest rates dramatically spike.”
Yes. I knocked on wood (desk) upon completion of that interview.
Looking for an RSS scraper…
There are several news sources without RSS feeds I like to read on a daily basis. Right now I use the news aggregator in Radio to read my RSS subscriptions – and until about December 28, 2003 was able to use the Stapler utility to successfully scrape the sites I wanted to follow. Something has broken, and after several frustrating attempts to fix it – I decided to go look for another solution. There is an automated scraper at myrss.com but it isn’t quite ready for prime time. Any suggestions?