Truly Trulia
July 29, 2010
I’m on the road, and I see a house I like. I check Realtor.com or HomeDatabase.com on my Palm Pre smartphone. And I don’t like what I see.
I don’t like the house? No, that’s not what I meant. I don’t like how Realtor and HomeDatabase’s websites appear on my smartphone. To my dismay, these two web leaders in home searches are not optimized for smartphones such as the Palm Pre / Pixi, iPhone, or various Android phones. Even up-and-coming contender Zillow.com does not have a mobile version. Rather, their webpages are the full version, which can still be seen on these smartphones but are bulky and slow to use. No fun while looking at potential houses on the road.
So it’s truly a relief to discover Trulia.com.
Trulia.com automatically displays its mobile version on smartphones, and the web version is jam-packed with features. To begin with, you can either do a simple search using a zip code / city name, or an advanced search with a good number of criteria. It even provides a list of neighborhoods that’s automatically configured for the city (not zip) you provide. And you can sort the resulting list different ways, including most expensive to least expensive, newest listings first, and more.
You can search for homes for sale or for rent, and Trulia displays the results either as a list (including a pic of the exterior of the home) or as a map. The map doesn’t seem to be zoomable in the mobile version, though. Selecting a home displays its details, photos, and a map of where the home is. It even displays how long the home has been on the market, recent sales information on the home and whether the sale price has been reduced (and from what) – a very useful feature!
You can create a “My Trulia” account – again via the mobile version – and save specific searches as well as your “favorite” listings. A nice touch for when you do repeated searches over time for new listings, and you can save favorite homes for easy reference later.
Obligatory feedback: I wish there was a way to search for homes near a specific address rather than within a town or zip code. And when viewing all pictures (rather than individual ones), it’d be nice to be able to customize the thumbnails so that they can be larger.
So, there you have it, folks. I recommend Trulia.com for its mobile site, and the full web version also holds its own versus its more established competitors.
Obligatory pun time: Trulia.com truly shines.
Liberating Yourself with Liberkey
July 20, 2010
Two months ago, my back-up external hard drive crashed. And nearly simultaneously, my primary laptop crashed too. All my thousands of photos from the past 15 years, potentially destroyed. My digital scrapbooking files, also probably went *poof* in a cloud of magnetic dust. Aaiigghh!
I sent the external hard drive to Best Buy’s Geek Squad. I spent approximately $150, but they were only able to recover one video I made of my mom’s wedding. My mom’s wedding’s video is all and good, but I mean, thousands of goofy pics of my kids?! All gone?! At least I got a sleek, brand-new (but nearly empty!) hard drive as part of that “deal.”
Then I remembered a set of utilities recommended several months ago by a Twitter friend: Liberkey.com.
Liberkey is basically a set of over three hundred (yea, hundreds!) free (yea, FREE!) PC (sorry, no Mac) utilities and programs that are installed onto an USB drive. A single, easy-to-use program unifies all these utilities and makes it easy to add / remove programs and keep all these programs updated. And since they’re all on an USB drive, you can bring the set of utilities anywhere with you and plug it into any PC computer / laptop / netbook.
What utilities and programs am I talking about? Ah, here’s a short but fabulous list of the best programs and categories:
- Browsers, including Google Chrome, Firefox, and Opera
- Office productivity suites, especially OpenOffice.org which rivals Microsoft Office and has a complete word processor, presentation, spreadsheet, database, and more
- FileHippo which checks many programs on your computer and makes it easy to update them
- Paint.net and GIMP, which have similar functions as Photoshop Elements, as well as dozens of other smaller graphics utilities to paint upon, repair, or enhance your photos
- Dozens of file management / repair utilities, including those that copy, back-up, repair, defrag, re-name, search, and more
- Many network programs for Internet bandwidth monitoring, configuring router and computer settings, and more
- A good number of video programs for editing, enhancing, fixing, and managing videos
- Dozens of programs to manage, repair, create, or stream audio / music files
- Anti-virus scanners, anti-spyware catchers, and numerous other security-related programs
- Registry optimization / repair and many other programs that repair and tweak your computer operating system so that it runs better and faster
- And many, many more
Some of these free programs — like OpenOffice.org, GIMP, and Paint.net — are nearly or equally as good as their expensive counterparts. And everything is portable – you can take all these with you in your USB thumb drive. Because there are just so many (free!) goodies – especially the huge OpenOffice.org program – you just have to make sure you’ve got space for them all. So, I recommend that your USB thumb drive be at least 4 gig.
So, what did I use to recover files from my defective external hard drive? Let’s see, I used these two programs:
- I used “Partition Find and Mount” to re-mount the damaged hard drive.
- Next, I used “TeraCopy” to delicately copy files from the damaged hard drive to the new drive. For such a simple program, it worked surprisingly well.
I just wish that a mobile version of Google Picasa was one of the Liberkey applications. That’d be like icing on top of layers of icings on an immense and beautiful cake … I had some other beefs, but the newst beta version of LiberKey (v5.0) takes care of them: remembering my favorite / last used applications, and a better navigation scheme.
Oh, my photos? I was able to save ALL of them onto the new external hard drive. And clean out / fix a friend’s computer. Thank you, Liberkey.
I’ve since then saved a backup of my photos onto the cloud. I’ll explain in a future blog post – stay tuned.
Arrgggghhhh!
July 15, 2010
Methinks I’m having too much fun with my Palm Pre and the various photo touch-up apps available on it.
Here’s one, using gems from the Palm Pre’s Camera Fun! app:
And here’s myself looking a bit, well, puzzled (via Pre’s Photo Effects Plus app):
To make this photo of a shark eating lil scared me, I simply used the “Change Frame” option on the Photo Point app. 
More self-mocking photos coming soon! :-)
Glamping: Measure Your Gas With Hot Water
July 14, 2010
My family and I got a Travel Trailer last year, and we love it. It’s like a condo on wheels. All the comforts of home in the wild.
Why go camping if it feels like home and not roughing it? Ah, um, some may argue that we’re glamour-camping – “glamping.” Think of it this way – we wouldn’t have gone into the wilderness otherwise. We wouldn’t have been able to expose our children to the sights and joys of the wilderness (or as close to these as we can manage to) unless it was with the day-to-day comfort of home. Air conditioning to help us sleep, electricity for the coffee machine so that grumpy Daddy gets his daily java, bath / shower so that we can wash off the grime, etc etc.
We’ve already had or scheduled nearly ten camping trips this year. Trips which we wouldn’t have gone on or planned if we didn’t have a travel trailer. So, don’t knock us for wanting to go glamping.
And of course, we gotta buy lots of gadgets and accessories to help us camp – uh – glamp. This blog post is hopefully the first in a series of gadgets I use or yearn after while camping / glamping.
So, here goes …
We have two propane tanks that we use for cooking, heating our hot water, and operating our refrigerator (the latter two especially when not connected to an electrical supply). In the picture above, the two tanks are inside the relatively small white container at the very front end (right side of the pic) on top of the tow hitch.
Our particular travel trailer doesn’t come equipped with a gauge showing us how much propane we’ve got left in these tanks. Last time we asked our service to top off the tanks, we found out the tanks were only fractionally used – and the service technician was like, “why did you ask us to fill these tanks anyway?” Kinda embarrassing for us city folks.
So I resolved to find a low-tech way to measure how much gas I had. Um, that didn’t sound right. How much propane I had left. That sounds better.
Anyway.
I ended up buying a pair of these removable magnetic propane gauges.
These gauges are actually not much more than a magnetic strip that you affix to the side a propane tank. It almost looks like the changing-temperature temperature gauge on a fish tank. Almost.
Next, you microwave a cup of water till it’s steamingly hot. (What, you don’t have a microwave oven while camping? I’m talking about glamping, folks!) Pour it over the side of the propane tank so that the hot water runs over the magnetic gauge. Don’t worry, the gauge won’t be damaged, and the tank won’t explode.
Miraculously (ok, so I’m fishing here), the color of the gauge will change from yellow to orange. After a few seconds, a portion (or all) of the gauge will turn back to yellow, with the portion above the propane line remaining orange. But be quick – the gauge returns to its inert state after approx 30 seconds.
(Image from tolin.cn)
Magic? Nah. Just really cool, like a high school science experiment. And very useful. You can even use this for your barbeque gas grill’s propane tank. No glamping needed there.
Now go forth and glamp. And enjoy the air conditioning.
By Design or by Mistake?
July 13, 2010
While shopping for camping and yard supplies at Wal-Mart (yes, I admit I shop there) a few months ago, I came across this gem:
The foldable table itself? Naw, nothing special. What’s special is the display packaging. Instead of the Spanish translation, the packaging says, “Spanish Here” under the title and repeatedly under the description.
Somewhere, a designer is crying in her or his cubicle …
Back in the Game!
December 17, 2009
Now that the Post’er app is available for my new-ish Palm Pre, I expect to resume blogging once again!
If only I can add photos via Post’er …
Greater Access to San Francisco: Tweeting Complaints
June 2, 2009
San Francisco continues to keep up its uber-geek credo: it will now accept complaints from people via Twitter. Just follow @SF311. Can even post photos via TwitPic.
Damn. This is terrific for deaf folks living in or visiting San Francisco. Hope Frederick, Maryland will do the same soon. I do know that several city and county commissioners in and around Frederick, MD are tweeting via Twitter. But an official Twitter account like @SF311? Priceless.
Any other towns / cities / counties accepting complaints via Twitter?
(Thanks, TechCrunch)
Gmail Tasks Has A Direct Link
March 17, 2009
Stumbled upon a direct link that pulls up Gmail Tasks onto its own page. Worked on Google Chrome Beta 2.0, so I wonder if it works on other browsers as well.
Here’s the link:
http://mail.google.com/tasks/ig
If you’re using Google Apps for your domain, here’s another link:
http://mail.google.com/tasks/a/YOURDOMAIN.COM/ig
(Substitute “YOURDOMAIN.COM” with the correct Google Apps domain)
Barnes and Noble Acquires Ereader.com and Fictionwise
March 6, 2009
Barnes and Noble has acquired Fictionwise, which owns Ereader.com. The acquisition is part of Barnes and Noble’s strategy to open an e-Bookstore later this year.
This looks like an attempt to fend off Amazon.com’s Kindle-inspired expansion into the possibly lucrative e-book market. Amazon.com has been selling Kindle hand-held electronic readers to sync and read electronic books, and recently unveiled an iPhone version which should prove to be hugely popular.
I have been purchasing e-books from Ereader.com for several years now — heck, I *ONLY* read e-books nowadays. People may think I’m crazy for reading e-books on my comparatively tiny Palm Treo 755p screen, but believe me, once you get used to it, it’s hard to live without it! I read in the elevator, I read while walking to a restaurant near work, I read on the train, I read in bed, I read while standing in line … I read so much that if I had paper copies of all the books I’ve read over the past several years, I would have filled up a small library! Ereader.com carries a good number of new releases, plus books written by some of my favorite authors. Hard for me to run out of what to read from ereader.com.
However, I’d begun to be unhappy with ereader.com. Despite the addition of a new (but slow!) mobile site and a iPhone app, the site had been stagnating. I’m hoping that the Barnes and Noble acquisition will give it a much-needed boost, and that it will serve as a viable competitor to Amazon’s Kindle bookstore. Especially since ereader.com’s e-books can be read on a wider variety of smartphones than Amazon.com’s e-books.
Good move, Barnes and Noble. Now, start advertising — you need to overtake Amazon.com’s headstart!
Strange Maps: Canada extends as far south as California
March 4, 2009
A long time ago, I heard a joke:
What do you call someone who knows three languages?
Trilingual.
What do you call someone who knows two languages?
Bilingual.
What do you call someone who knows one language?
An American.
The punchline holds true when it comes to geography. Most Americans think of Canada as cold, remote, barren. California? Ah, southern, verdant, sunny, palm trees …
Most Americans would be amazed to learn that Canada actually extends further south than the northern border of California!
Pelee Island, Ontario is the largest island in Lake Erie. Although its location is close to chilly Detroit, the lake effect gives it a milder climate than nearby mainland cities. Its climate is similar to North / South Carolina, and wine is actually grown there. It lies south of Latitude 42° N, which serves as the northern border of California. (Incidentally, the 42nd also serves as most of the northern border of Pennsylvania.)
Middle Island, Ontario is actually further south in Lake Erie than Pelee Island and is officially the southernmost point of Canada. No permanent settlements are present, however, since it is a conservation area.
“Wait a minute,” you may be saying. “These are islands. So does that mean the Canadian mainland doesn’t extend as far south as California?” Hold your Canadian Mounties horses, willya?
Point Pelee, Ontario and the hamlet of Colchester, Ontario are both on the Canadian mainland. Both also lie south of Latitude 42° N.
Consider this part of the education of us Americans so that we will no longer be the punchline of (as many) jokes. I actually didn’t know this until Guy commented on this. Thanks, Guy.
Ciao!
