Flight from Palo Alto to Clear Lake

One of my colleagues from work, Radu Popovici, recently got his private pilot's license. This weekend, we (radu, myself and 2 others) hopped in a rented Cherokee Piper and took a flight from Palo Alto to Clear Lake. The flight was only about an hour and a half one-way and was quite delightful.

We spent the afternoon renting a Wave Runner and hanging out before flying back and landing back in Palo Alto right before darkness set in. I took some photos along the way and added them to Picasa marking the photos in the relatively new maps interface. This is really the perfect application as you can see progress as you move along the journey. Makes me want to get a GPS hotshoe attachment for the camera so that I don't have to eyeball the pos

Join me at SES San Jose 2007 at the Duplicate Content Panel

On wednesday you I'll be doing a Q&A panel at SES San Jose, Duplicate Content & Multiple Site Issues. I'll be there with other folks from Google as seen in the image below. Thats me in the front, and although it is difficult to tell, we are riding a conference bike.

Octane / MPG

Let me clear up a myth. Higher Octane does not increase MPG and for those who already knew that, let me state the corrolary: Lower Octane does not increase MPG.

Gasoline octane measures the "activation energy" required to ignite the gasoline. Higher numbers are harder to ignite, hence they "knock" or accidentally ignite less frequently in the engine. Higher performance (power, not mpg performance) engines tend to require less knocking and hence higher octane.

Octane is orthogonal to MPG. Different gasolines do have different efficiencies, but octane plays no role. Octane does matter though due to the fact that different cars are tuned for different octane fuels. Put the incorrect octane fuel in your car (too high or too low) and the engine will slowly get damaged and get reduced efficiency. Modern cars have anti-knocking provisions to minimize this, but using the right octane is still ideal. Most cars do best to get the lowest octane available at the pump, read your manual to be sure.

GeoCaching with a Dell Axim X5

One of my most popular blog posts via search referrals has been my post Geocaching with a Garmin Nuvi. I just updated it a little bit with more detailed information, but I thought since so many people are looking for information, I'd give out another small secret to my geocaching. A long time ago, I bought a Dell Axim X5 Palm Computer thinking that it would be fun to play with. It was pretty boring in reality, so I never used it. It sat around unused for several years. Then geocaching came along and I found a new use for the device. But wait, before you say - "I don't have an Axim X5, this isn't for me", allow me to point out that these devices are ancient and ebay is selling them for as low as $25 for a great condition used one with a minimal amount of bargain shopping effort. Additionally, what I'm going to tell you about works with any Pocket PC device.

If you have an Axim, install this great free software for geocaching called GpxView. It requires Pocket PC or later.

1. Download yourself a .gpx file as described in my Geocaching with a Garmin Nuvi blog post,
2. Copy that file over to your Pocket PC.
3. Install GpxView and have it load the gpx file.

Wala. The entire geocaching page on hundreds of geocaches at your fingertips. This includes the description, hint, bugs, and most recent comments. You are off to the races.