My Top 75+ iPod Touch Apps

Posted on 08. Jul, 2010 by kchristieh in technical

When we recently purchased a MacBook for our daughter to take to college, I asserted myself and claimed the iPod Touch that came with it. I’m so glad I did. While we wait for Verizon to start selling iPhones, I’ve become completely obsessed with and dependent upon the apps on my new iPod Touch.

I can click to my favorite apps – ShoppingList, Mail, Facebook, Contacts, Safari and Twitter – directly from my home screen. I highly recommend ShoppingList. I walk through the grocery store with my iPod in hand, checking off items on my categorized list. I also use it for packing for trips.

I’ve categorized the rest of my apps into 14 different categories. Here are my favorites for each category:

College:

• iStanford: Shows what’s going on at Stanford each day. I wish I could hear all the great speakers and attend the great events, but maybe it’ll come in handy the next time I visit.
• TommyCam: I can see a live view of the Tommy Trojan statue at USC. This Fall maybe my daughter will call me when she’s standing in front of the statue, waving to me. You can also see the TommyCam online here.
• CollegeMapp: Keeps track of college application submissions and statuses. I’ve got to get my son to put this on his iPod. Yes, I get to experience the college application process all over again this year.

Date / Time / Cal:

• CalenGoo: Great Google Calendar app. Our family’s calendars are on Google Calendar.
• Super Countdown: Counts the days until a big event. Right now, we’re counting the days until my daughter leaves for college (40).
• IP Free: For women. If you don’t get it, you shouldn’t.
• Clock: Shows me the time in various time zones.

Entertainment:

I don’t spend much time in this area, but this category includes YouTube, Fandango, Flixster, IQ+ Netflix, The Onion, Oprah Mobile, Videos, Kindle, This American Life and Public Radio.

Finance:

• Mint.com: I can view and categorize my financial transactions. It synchs with the online version.
• Tip Calculator: Easy way to figure a tip and split a bill.

Food:

Some cookbooks are completely downloaded on the iPod, and others will only show up offline if you “favorite” a recipe. Cookbooks include:

• How to Cook Everything (where I learned to make crepes!). This was worth paying for, as it downloaded the whole cookbook to my iPod and includes great step-by-step directions, tips and recipe variations. It also includes a timer for each step.
• Epicurious
• AllRecipes
• Recipes
• On the Grill (shout out to Jamie Purviance!)
• Whole Foods
• Jamie Oliver’s 20 Min Meals.

Music:

• Pandora: Just like Pandora.com. Listen to your favorite playlists.
• Vuvuzela: My virtual vuvuzela comes in handy when I watch World Cup games.
• Music: The music from my iTunes on my computer.
• Binaural Beat: Relaxing sounds.
• Shazam: Identifies songs. I haven’t used it yet, since it would require me to plug in my earbuds/microphone. I’m usually at my computer, so I can usually see what song is being played if I’m actually listening to music.

News:

If I’ll be offline, I’ll download the news before I leave home. It’s especially handy while waiting in a car line.

• New York Times
• Slate
• TheAtlantic and AtlanticWire: Look for new versions coming soon!
• The Daily Beast
• NPR News and NPR Addict
• WSJ (Wall St. Journal)
• LA News, KTLA 5, Fluent News
• Scanner911: Listen to real-time police scanners from around the U.S. We’re in the LA County Sheriff’s territory, but LAPD is much more interesting.

Photography:

• Flickr: Synchs with my photos at
• Rebel T2i (my camera’s manual)
• Photos: The photos I’ve chosen to upload from my computer.

Productivity:

• MobileRSS: Allows me to see all the items in my feed. I can download it when I’m online and read it when I’m offline.
• Things: Synchs with my Things to-do list on my computer
• Evernote: Synchs with Evernote on my computer and online.
• Dropbox: Allows me to read files that synch with my computer via Dropbox. Password-protected.
• iDisk: Part of MobileMe
• InstaPaper: Allows me to save articles to read later.
• GoodReader: Read pdfs

Reference:

• Articles: Great way to find something on Wikipedia.
• Dictionary, English/Francais Dictionary, Eng<>Spa Dictionary
• Google
• Wolfram
• YellowPages, W&Y Pages
• Wikipanion
• WebMD
• Bible, FastFacts

Shopping:

Apple Store, Amazon.com, Groupon, App Store, iTunes

Travel:

• TripAdvisor
• TrafficLA: Shows camera views of different freeways. I wish I could find an app that would show a map with how busy different freeways are.
• TripTracker
• Yelp
• GoogleEarth
• FreeMaui
• Maps
• Chateaux de Loire: I can dream, can’t I?

Utilities:

• Settings
• Free Wi-Fi
• Flashlight
• Calculator
• KitchenPro: Translates cups to TB, etc.
• Carpenter: Level, ruler, etc.
• Life: BMI, life expectancy
• Notes: I use Evernote instead.

Weather / Quakes:

• Weather: But it’s always the same here: sunny, sunny, sunny.   :)  (except yesterday and the day before)
• QuakeWatch: Shows and maps the most recent, biggest and closest quakes.
• TWC (The Weather Channel)
• pUniverse: Plots the stars and planets from wherever you wish.

As much as I love my iPod Touch, I’m frustrated that I can’t put more than 12 apps in a given category. If there’s a way to do that, please let me know.

In case you’re curious, I uploaded my own wallpaper as a photo into my Photos app.

How to create a great business blog

Posted on 16. Feb, 2010 by kchristieh in work

What’s worse than not having a blog for your business? Having a bad one, or not updating the one you have. I’ve designed blogs for many clients, but very few of them have developed those blogs into high-quality vehicles for conveying information about their organization or industry. That’s why I’ve decided that from now on, when I create a blog for a business, I’m going to make sure they know what they’re getting into, and how to make blogging worth their while.

I recently gave such a presentation to a law firm that’s starting a blog. They’re very enthusiastic about blogging (or “blawgging”), and I’m confident that once they start posting, they’ll have a great law blog. Here are some of the points that I brought up in my presentation that can also be applied to other businesses:

Does your business need a blog?

I don’t think that every business needs a blog. There may be better ways to communicate with customers, and you may not have the time or the content to maintain a blog. But if you’re an enthusiastic writer with lots to say, here are some reasons you may want to blog:

• An impressive blog may help you:
  • Attract new clients or customers
  • Attract referrals
  • Retain existing clients or customers
• To create dialogue about your product or services. Just as I blogged about in my post about “Undercover Boss” yesterday, it’s important to get many different perspectives when running a business.
• To create writing opportunities that push employees to be better communicators.
• To influence others.

A good business blog should do as many of the following as possible:

• Inform: People will look for information about your company, its products, and your industry on your business blog. Cabana Mobile blog does a great job of informing people about trends in mobile entertainment via well-written, frequent, appropriately-sized posts.
• Inspire: I love it when a business blog inspires me to learn about a new product or technique that will help me to be more efficient or effective. An example of a blog that successfully does this is The Mac Lawyer, which shows law firms why they should incorporate Macs into their practices.
• Entertain: I’d rather read something that makes me laugh instead of boring me to tears. The law firm of Harrison & Ford has a fun blog about “The Office” called That’s What She Said, which details the legal ramifications of each Office episode. Even though I’m not a lawyer, I enjoy reading it and sharing it with my kids.
• Engage: Get a good discussion going. If people feel like you care enough to respond, they’ll be more likely to hire you or shop with you. SocialEdge fosters great discussions about micro-lending.
• Have a voice: Don’t be dull. No one wants to read a blog full of press releases. If you show the personality of the writer behind each post, your company will start to feel like a place with real people the reader can trust.
• Have a purpose: Don’t meander too much. If you’re a law firm, don’t write about donuts unless it’s somehow relevant. The Thin Pink Line blog is a great example of a blog with a purpose, which in their case is to advise women professionals.
• Take risks: Show that you’re willing to do what you need to to get something done. Be careful, however, that you don’t reveal sensitive information, and that your views align with the company or firm mission.
• Be unique: There are tens of thousands of blogs out there. Be different and get noticed.
• Post frequently: You don’t have to post every day, but post frequently enough that people will return, and won’t think that you’re lazy.

Characteristics of a good blog post:

• Enthusiasm: Don’t write boring posts. If you wouldn’t want to read your post, then no one else either.
• Fits the blog’s mission: If people are coming to learn about your company or industry, don’t distract them with an irrelevant post.
• Good headline: It should be succinct, engaging and informative. It’s the first thing that people see, and they’ll either decide to read or abandon your blog based on it. It will also help you with search engines.
• Engaging writing: People are more likely to come back if they enjoy and respect your writing style.
• Appropriate length: People have short attention spans, especially on the web. Don’t make your post too long, and be sure to use bullet-points where possible.
• Analysis: If you’re going to talk about a news item that’s been published elsewhere, provide your analysis of it. Otherwise, people might as well just read the original article.
• New idea: Don’t just regurgitate old ideas; write about new ones. Become an influencer.
• Well-researched: Write bulletproof posts. If you’re referring to outside information, refer to it by name and link to it.
• Appropriate graphics: People are drawn to pictures. Include a graphic with each post, if possible, but make sure they’re appropriate and aesthetically-pleasing. And legal. I love iStockphoto.com for photos and graphics, and they usually cost $1 apiece.
• Categorizing, tags: Put your post in the correct categories, and create appropriate tags for the post. Google will search on the post content and on the tags. You may write a post about a Supreme Court decision, but not have the phrase “Supreme Court decision” in the post. Make that a tag, as someone might type “supreme court decision” into Google and find you.

Potential business blogging pitfalls:

Business blogging isn’t for the faint of heart. Be armed and ready for the following potential minefields:

• Burnout: According to a 2008 Technorati survey, over 95% of blogs that have been started have been abandoned. Don’t join that statistic, or you’ll be worse off than when you didn’t have a blog because you’ll look lazy.
• Infrequent posts: Don’t bother blogging if you blog so infrequently that people check out your blog only to see the same “recent” post they saw last month.
• Patience: It takes time to build readership. Don’t be discouraged.
• Comments: Be willing to publish dissenting comments. If you respond well, you’ll build loyalty.
• Be 150% sure before you hit “publish”: You may be quoted from your blog some day. Make sure you’re willing to stand by what you say for a long time. Also, be sure it’s well-written and reflects your company or firm’s high standards.
• Graphics: Make sure you’re legally able to include the graphics that you do.
• Attribute sources: Don’t steal content from others, and be sure to attribute quotes and statistics.
• Don’t send people away: If you link to another site, be sure it opens in a new window.

How to get the word out about your blog and specific posts:

If a tree falls in the forest and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound? The same holds true for blogging.

• Tell people about the blog and new posts via email, Facebook (including via Networked Blogs), Twitter, LinkedIn, your company or firm website
• Ask other sites to link to it
• Technorati, other blog aggregators
• “Favorite” posts on Digg, Delicious, Reddit, Metafilter, StumbleUpon, etc.
• Comment on other blogs and leave your blog URL. Not only will that provide a valuable link back to you, but someone might think that your comment is so insightful that they’ll be eager to read what you write on your blog.
• Tags, categories (see above)
• Encourage people to add you to their RSS feed

Hopefully these tips help you to enter the world of business blogging with your eyes wide open.

The Super Bowl ad I liked the most

Posted on 08. Feb, 2010 by kchristieh in advertising

Here’s the Super Bowl ad I liked the most: Google’s “Parisian Love” ad. Is it because I became engaged in Paris, or because I rely on Google countless times a day? Peut-être tous les deux.

Or perhaps, it’s just because this awesome ad not only gets across the company’s message with grace and simplicity, but because it was so sweet that it even brought tears to my eyes.

You can see all the commercials on the CBS Website.

Google knows when and where you’re sick

Posted on 12. Nov, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites, health, my life, things that bug me

As much as I love the Minute Clinic at CVS, I struck out there yesterday. Besides the fact that they wouldn’t give my daughter a physical for her athletic clearance, they denied me a pneumonia shot because I’m 20 years too young. It didn’t matter that I informed them that I’ve had pneumonia twice, and that the last time I got a shot was at their store many years ago. They needed proof of my illness or of my shot, and I have neither. So, when I find the time and screw up my courage again, I’ll figure out where my doctor recently moved her office and see if she can help me. At least she takes my insurance.

If I do get sick this year, it probably won’t surprise Big Brother Google. Today’s NY Times details how Google has compared regional searches of certain terms like “flu symptoms” to Center for Disease Control (CDC) reports and found that they align nearly perfectly. Because Google knows its results instantly, and doesn’t require manpower to gather the data, this could prove to be a valuable tool in predicting the path of illnesses so that preventive measures can be taken.

Hopefully I won’t be a bad statistic this year.

Top computer tips I need to remember or share

Posted on 07. Oct, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

When ever I get a new gadget or software program, I always read the manual or learn the tutorial. I find that whenever I do, I discover ways to do things I never even imagined I could do.

That’s why I loved David Pogue’s recent blog article about Tech Tips for the Basic Computer User. I won’t even try to argue whether or not I’m a “basic” computer user, but I did learn a few new things. Here are a few tips he shared that I want to remember. I figure that putting them in my blog will mean that I’ll always have a way to find them, and if I didn’t know them, you might not either.

• Windows key + D takes you straight to your desktop. Or back.
• Press Ctrl and the + key to enlarge text on a web page. Use Ctrl and – to make it small again.
• Tap the spacebar to scroll down a page on a website, and the shift key to go back up. (NOTE: The shift key doesn’t do that on my computer. But I did discover that either the Tab key or the Home key takes me to the top of the page, the End key takes me to the bottom of the page and the Backspace key takes me to the previous web page I had visited.)

I also recently read a great summary of computer care tips in Reader’s Digest titled “Thirteen Things Your Computer Person Won’t Tell You.” Here’s the one I keep quoting to my family:

Give it a rest. Turning off your computer when it’s not in use saves energy and clears out the RAM, or temporary memory, which would otherwise slow your machine over time.

I don’t think they believe me.

I also need to remember to defragment my hard drive more often. I can do that by clicking Start, pointing to Programs, pointing to Accessories, pointing to System Tools, and then clicking Disk Defragmenter. Of course, I’ll back up my computer first and not do anything else while it’s defragmenting.

If you don’t already have a great computer repair person, you might check out Dial A Geek. I’ve never used their services, but I’m impressed by their business concept and testimonials. For a monthly fee, you can place a phone call at any time of any day to a technician who can access your computer remotely, if you choose. Please let me know if you try it. I had an HP technician access my computer remotely from India once, and he fixed way more than just my printer problem. I just sat and watched!

And finally, if there’s something you think you might be able to do, you probably can. I recently decided to find out if I could disable the reverse beep in my Prius, and a Google search quickly found a wikiHow page with nine easy steps for how to stop that annoying noise. It worked like a charm! (Dave, have you done this already?)

How does Big Brother know so much?

Posted on 12. Sep, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites, things that bug me

I’m sure you’ve someone. Whether it’s a potential business partner or a new friend, you’ve probably been curious to find out more about a person before you get to know them better. Have you ever looked up someone on Zabasearch? That’s a great way to find out someone’s address.

Now there’s iSearch. Much like Zabasearch, it’ll tell you a person’s age and address at no cost. I have a friend who didn’t think people could find out anything about her. She’s wrong. See? I can tell that she’s 48 and I even know her husband’s name now. (I blocked all the names here to protect these innocent people…though if you know them, you can obviously look this up, too.)

I heard some teens being interviewed on NPR today that weren’t upset that their school had the right to search their backpacks and lockers. They figured that if they had nothing to hide, what’s the big deal? I think it’s because not only did these kids live through the war on terror, but they are accustomed to sharing intimate details about their lives on sites such as MySpace and Facebook.

iSearch even shows schools attended, relationship status and sexual orientation. Here’s an example:

It’s not limited to adults, either. Just type in a name and click on the Social Networks tab. You’ll find people who have social networking profiles. Here’s a young woman who’s 17. I saw some kids as young as 14, complete with pictures.

For a small extra fee, I could find out any of these peoples’ phone numbers, addresses, email addresses, and other background information.

What can you do to protect yourself?

• Set your social networking pages to PRIVATE or FRIENDS ONLY. There’s less information about me on here than there is about other people, and it’s probably because I have my Facebook privacy settings set as tight as they can be.
• If you don’t want your information on a site, see if you can remove it. iSearch says it’s determining how to implement a profile suppression service, but they don’t have that option yet.
• Know what information is out there about you. It’s no big comfort, but it’s a first step to knowing how to control it.
• And finally, my snarky answers: crawl in a hole and don’t get anyone angry with you.

Honestly, this train has left the station, and I don’t think it’s easy/possible to totally hide from someone looking for you.  :(

The coolest way to say you’re not finding something on Google

Posted on 04. Jul, 2008 by kchristieh in education, quotes

I love this quote from a college digest email I received recently:

While a google search brings up tons of hits, the signal to noise ratio is extremely low and I’m finding it hard to vet the quality/accuracy of the claims.

In other words, there’s too much stuff coming up on Google and it’s hard to figure out what’s useful.

What an eloquent way to say it! I’ll titivate my speech by using the phrase “signal to noise ratio” now. And, kaynahora, all my Google searches will go well.

I bet they don’t teach any of these in the SAT prep classes so many kids I know are taking this summer…

Tips for reducing email inbox clutter

Posted on 17. Jun, 2008 by kchristieh in my life, technical, things that bug me, work

One of the biggest barriers between me and serenity is my email inbox. I hate chaos, and if there’s something in my inbox, I regard it as a task undone, a monkey on my back. I often feel that my life is like a tennis game, where I’m constantly hitting balls back to other people.

Apparently I’m not the only one feeling overwhelmed. Saturday’s NYTimes article, Lost in E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast, notes how some companies are trying to find ways to help their employees cope with the crush of email. They’re encouraging employees to send less messages, especially group messages, and to cut themselves off from the constant flow of email into their inbox. Some are even encouraging “zero email Fridays,” though that works better in theory than in practice. I recently heard an NPR story where a Microsoft employee with over 2,000 emails in his inbox declared “email bankruptcy” and deleted his whole inbox. How tempting is that?!? Unfortunately, that didn’t go over very well with some of the people who had sent him emails.

My inbox is doing pretty well right now, with only 25 emails. What are those emails about, and why aren’t I getting them all out of my box? Here’s a quick tally: work-related (15), memo to me reminders (3), class notes (3), need to log in finance program (2), friends (1), volunteer work (1). The best part of this exercise was realizing that there were 16 emails sitting in my inbox that I was able to dispense of pretty quickly because they were either no longer relevant or could be filed. Clearly, work’s what holding me back right now, but at least it’s paid work. Then again, that’s because the volunteer work had deadlines and I completed it already.

Here’s what I do to try to reduce my technological stress:

• When it gets really bad, I turn off the volume on my computer, so I don’t hear the click click click of emails pouring in.
• I don’t IM. I tried it many years ago, and found that as soon as I’d wrap my brain around what I was doing before I typed my last message, another would come in. I’d waste a lot of time writing about what could have been a 2-minute conversation.
• I don’t receive my emails or Facebook messages on my cellphone. I’d go crazy if I did.
• If I can’t get to something right away (e.g., make appointment for doctor tomorrow), I set up a Memo to Me reminder to arrive when I can accomplish the task.
• Our family uses a Google calendar with about 6 different calendars. Besides one for each family member, we have one that includes All-Family Events, and one that includes My Events Which Impact the Family. (e.g. when I have to go to the dentist when the kids are out of school.) Each family member has access to what s/he needs.
• I maintain two iGoogle to-do lists: one for work, one for personal stuff. Each is prioritized.
• I subscribe to Freshbooks, a service which provides a timer for me to keep track of how much time I spend on each project. Once I click on the timer, I don’t let anything distract me, since I only want to bill the client for work done for them.
• I delete mass email forwards unless they look truly fascinating and I have time for them.
• If I can respond quickly to an email, I do.
• If I think I might blog about something, I file it in a “Blog about someday perhaps” folder so that it doesn’t sit in my inbox.
• If I’m REALLY crazed, I stop blogging. I guess it’s not that bad right now. :)

Please let me know if you have any more suggestions!

Google Maps includes videos & photos

Posted on 17. May, 2008 by kchristieh in cool websites, travel

I continue to be amazed at how easy it is to discover more about people or destinations via the internet. Today I happened upon a new feature which shows photos and videos that people have taken near a destination. When you type in an address to Google Maps, here’s what you might see. I say “might” because some addresses I type in don’t have photos or videos show up near them. Either Google hasn’t mapped those, or people in those areas don’t take enough pictures or videos.

When you type in an address for a photo or video you upload, you should assume it’ll show up on a public map. I don’t think I’d do that for my daughter’s birthday party, but I don’t regret doing it for the in February:

The more videos and pictures people upload, the more we’ll be able to discover without ever leaving home. Here’s a map of the greater Pasadena area. The blue lines indicate where you can access another favorite feature, Google Street View. The small pictures indicate videos of those places. Notice how La Canada Flintridge is still underrepresented on Google Street View – why is that?

Try Google’s free voice-activated directory assistance, 1-800-GOOG-411

Posted on 14. Apr, 2008 by kchristieh in technical

Leave it to Google to improve business directory assistance and make it free!

Just dial () and state the city and state you’re looking for, then the business name or category. (It’s not for residential listings.) It’s all voice-activated, unless you prefer using a keypad. It’ll give you the choice of what listing you wish to be connected to, and will even send a text message to your phone. If you think it heard you wrong or you wish to change your search, just say “back.” If you say “details,” it’ll even give you the address.

Note: If you’re looking for a listing in La Canada, California, say you’re looking for one in La Canada Flintridge. Otherwise, you might get listings in Cambria.

I’m going to program “GOOG411″ into my cellphone.

La Canada Flintridge finally on Google Streetview…sort of

Posted on 10. Apr, 2008 by kchristieh in local news, technical

I was so excited to see that La Canada’s finally got pictures on the Street View feature of . Here’s what the Sport Chalet construction looked like recently:

I wish we knew what restaurant is going there! I vote for Daphne’s.
Here are the streets that Google Maps currently shows on Street View for LCF:

I was pretty jazzed until I saw that they’ve mapped nearly every street in Pasadena and other surrounding cities:

Maybe Google’s waiting until our sidewalks are completed.

I didn’t see any people or cars I recognize on Foothill Blvd. Maybe we’re not a rural community?

Here’s who I’m not: my Googlegangers

Posted on 04. Jan, 2008 by kchristieh in my life

Admit it: you’ve Googled your own name. When you did, you were probably amazed at how many people shared your name. These people are your Googlegangers. “Googleganger” is a play on the German word “doppelganger,” which means “double-goer” and refers to a physical twin who may not share your personality or lifestyle.

I’ve been on the internet for so long that I usually wind up at the top of a Google search for any permutation of my name. But if you look at the entries after that, you’ll see some of my Googlegangers.

In case my Googlegangers are confusing you, here’s a partial list of who or what I’m NOT:

• I’m not a Scientologist or a preacher
• My son’s neither a brutal killer nor a military casualty
• I didn’t receive the “Excellence in Riparian Management” award
• I don’t sleep during the day and lie awake at night
• I’m married in California, not divorced in New York
• I definitely didn’t give to the California Republican Party
• I don’t sell real estate in Texas, heal people in Wisconsin, do PR in Florida, or attend Darien High School reunions
• You’re all lucky I didn’t sing with Philip Wang in the UCSD talent show
• I’m not a Tasmanian Polynesian dancer

Who are your Googlegangers?

One step airline flight tracking on Google

Posted on 21. Dec, 2007 by kchristieh in travel

Here’s a tip that will come in very handy to holiday travelers, and those who transport them to/from the airport: if you type the abbreviation of the airline and the flight number into , you’ll see whether the flight is on time.

Here’s an example:

In this case, “wn” is the abbreviation for Southwest Airlines. Go figure! Here are some other popular airline abbreviations:

• AS = Alaska Airlines
• AQ = Aloha Airlines
• AA = American Airlines
• CO = Continental Airlines
• B6 = JetBlue
• NW = Northwest Airlines
• UA = United Airlines
• VS = Virgin Atlantic

You can see more abbreviations by clicking here.

I’ll use this tomorrow when my father-in-law arrives!

Google Map of Southern California fires

Posted on 21. Oct, 2007 by kchristieh in local news

Current Southern California fires :

I found it from a link on the . Hopefully all those blue tags will disappear soon.

Google Maps tells you how long a trip will take with traffic

Posted on 16. Aug, 2007 by kchristieh in travel

Here’s another cool new feature: if there’s traffic.

For example, here’s a screenshot of a potential trip from La Canada to Corona del Mar. I overlaid the Google Maps time estimate. Check out my previous Google Maps post to see how you can change your route by dragging the blue line. If you do it wisely, you’ll see that the estimated traffic time should go down.

What an awful commute that would be!

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Retracing our steps via Google Streetview; Stalking via Google Earth

Posted on 30. Jul, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, travel, videos

We ate lunch at a great little restaurant in Soho in New York City a few weeks ago. I wanted to tell a friend about it, but I didn’t know the name. All I knew was that it was near a restaurant named Zoe.

I looked Zoe up on Google, and quickly found its address: 90 Prince Street. I plugged that address into Google Maps, and switched to Google Street View. I maneuvered the Google Guy to the front of the restaurant I was searching for. It looked like the sign said “Fanelli Cafe.”

I looked that up on Google, and when I linked to the restaurant’s website I found that it’s the second-oldest continuous food and drink establishment in NY.

So if you’re in NY, I recommend that you eat at Fanelli Cafe. I had a fabulous grilled chicken salad there, and loved the historic atmosphere. I wonder if any of my ancestors ever ate (or imbibed) there.

On a different note, this hilarious Slate.com video titled “Google Earth’s Downside” points out the potential that Google Earth has for stalking tracking loved ones:

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Customizing your route on Google maps

Posted on 17. Jul, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, travel

When I used Google maps the other day to get directions to my destination in Santa Barbara, I discovered that I could customize my route. It originally told me to take the 101 Freeway the whole way, but since I thought that would have traffic, I preferred to take the 210 to the 118 to the 23. Sure enough, all I had to do was drag the blue route to the freeway that I wanted and voila! The map changed, the directions changed, and the estimated time changed. (It added two minutes!)

Here’s an example. When you ask Google to get you from La Canada Flintridge to Anaheim, it tells you to take the 5 Freeway:

But anyone that lives in LA knows that the 5 Freeway is evil and traffic-laden. So when I drag part of the blue line to the 57 Freeway, which has a carpool lane, here’s what Google re-draws:

Too bad I didn’t know this last month! Then again, perhaps it wasn’t offered then.

Happy travelling!!

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We were TeleAtlassed on the 5 Freeway

Posted on 03. Jul, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, technical, travel

My daughter and I passed by a Teleatlas van with about 10 cameras on top on our way to Newport Beach last week. I figured they must be taking pictures for something like Google Street View, and a look at their website confirms this. They count not only Google, but Mapquest, Yahoo, and many others among their clients. I hereby coin a new word: we were “TeleAtlassed.”

We were in front of the van for awhile as it drove south on the 5 Freeway north of the 710. So if you look it up someday and see a blue Toyota Sienna with a Barack Obama bumpersticker, that’s us!

My mother and stepfather saw one of these last month on their roadtrip back East. Hopefully when it passes by our house our roses will be in bloom.

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20 tips for better Google searching

Posted on 26. Jun, 2007 by kchristieh in articles, cool websites, technical

You gotta love a site called Dumb Little Man just for the name alone! Actually, Dumb Little Man isn’t so dumb: he recently had a fantastic blog post with 20 Tips for More Efficient Google Searches. Here are a few that I didn’t know, but I suggest you visit his blog to make sure you know the rest.

• Similar terms. Use the “~” symbol to return similar terms. [~dumb little man -dumb] will get you pages that contain “funny little man” and “stupid little man” but not “dumb little man”.
• Numrange. This little-known feature searches for a range of numbers. For example, ["best books 2002..2007] will return lists of best books for each of the years from 2002 to 2007 (note the two periods between the two numbers).
• Site-specific. Use the “site:” operator to search only within a certain website. [site:dumblittleman.com leo] will search for the term “leo” only within this blog.

Google has a concise that has many of these tips in one place. Now to remember all of this!

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Why we might appreciate Google Street View someday

Posted on 15. Jun, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, technical

Google Street View (see my previous post) isn’t an entirely new concept. For many years, New York City maintained photographs of every building for taxation purposes. The Freakonomics blog’s Stephen Dubner points out how amazing it is to see buildings that his ancestors lived and worked in, and wonders whether our successors will say the same thing about archives being built now.

I personally love , and can’t wait for it to come to our city. I’m sure my dog will stand in the driveway and bark at the truck as it goes by.

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Big brother really is watching you

Posted on 03. Jun, 2007 by kchristieh in articles, cool websites, travel, tv

He’s using Google Street View to do it. Just enter an address into , and if it’s in the San Francisco Bay Area, Las Vegas, Denver, Miami or New York City, you might see a “Street View” tab that allows you to see photos of the facades of the buildings at that address. You can turn around and see different views, or “walk” down the street by clicking on the north, south, east or west links. Too bad it doesn’t include the rest of the country.

Here’s a screenshot of the view from the Golden Gate Bridge:

The New York Times reports in “Google Zooms In Too Close for Some” that some people are concerned about their privacy. The Google cameras have captured photos of cats in windows, coeds sunbathing, and a man entering a naughty bookstore. Google considered this before it launched the service:

Google said in a statement that it takes privacy seriously and considered the privacy implications of its service before it was introduced on Tuesday. “Street View only features imagery taken on public property, the company said. This imagery is no different from what any person can readily capture or see walking down the street.

Who needs a vacation when you can visit via Google? We saw part of “Hippies” on the History Channel the other night, and yesterday “visited” Haight-Ashbury via Google. I can’t wait until they get Paris and London on this. I’m sure that someday they’ll have great museums like the Louvre visible with this feature.

I had fun seeing the balcony of the room I lived in the last two years of college. It looks like the current occupant doesn’t have a hammock like I did.

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Pushing Google maps to the limit

Posted on 28. Apr, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, international

Go to , then Find Directions. Try getting from New York to London. Check out Step 24. Note that the trip will take you 29 days and 10 minutes! This works from U.S. locations to European locations, but doesn’t work to other continents. In case you’re wondering, you can’t get directions from South Korea to North Korea either! (Thanks, Holly!)

While you’re at that page, click on the “My Maps” tab next to Search Results. It has featured maps, such as “,” which pinpoints highlights along this historic route. The “My Maps” feature isn’t as easy to use as Platial is, but since it’s Google, I’m sure it’ll get better.

The addictive Google Image Labeler

Posted on 25. Apr, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites

Want to test your typing and mindreading skills? Then check out the . You’ll be paired with another cyberspace visitor and asked to label random Google Image pictures. If you both name the same word, you’ll move on to the next picture. You have 90 seconds total. You’ll get 100 points for each correct picture, and each day there’s a tally of the top scorers. Google will use your word to better label its pictures.

It’s like a video game, and is slightly addictive. Unfortunately, it’s not always the best way to label a picture. The pictures are small, so you can’t always see what they are. Also, sometimes you just can’t tell what something is. There was one I needed to label that was a portrait of a military figure. I had no idea who it was. The word matched? “Man.” Whoopee. Not very helpful.

Anyway, it’s a nice break from the daily routine.

My Google vs. My Yahoo: Google wins

Posted on 27. Jan, 2007 by kchristieh in cool websites, technical

Apparently I still haven’t figured out how people can subscribe to this blog and have emails automatically sent to them. Blogarithm and Feedburner don’t seem to work with it. I’ll keep trying.

At least Google, Yahoo and other feeds work. (Click on icons to the right.) This prompted me to check out today, and I found it impressive enough to switch to from My Yahoo. It’s easier to customize, and I also think it’s easier to read. I miss being able to mouseover headlines for the first sentence of a story, and I don’t like the space the Google search takes up at the top since I have the Google toolbar already, but I still like it better than Yahoo. Plus, with Yahoo I sometimes lose my homepage when I log in to change a client’s Yahoo store.

So, tip for the day: check out .

PS – I later found NetVibes, and like it even more for my home page, as it allows RSS feeds of my choice and it lets me mouse over headlines to see the first sentence.

Google trends

Posted on 05. Jul, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites

Predict the future! Well, you almost can at the new Google Trends at .

Enter a search term, and as long as there have been enough searches for it, Google will tell you how often it has been searched over time, and what cities it’s been searched in most. It also has links to news stories that happened at key points, so you can see why something spiked. If you want to compare two terms, just enter both with a comma between them.

Think of the possibilities!

• An author could see where to go on a book tour (glass castle)
• A demographer could conjecture where babies are most likely to be born in upcoming months (baby names)
• An investor could get a glimpse of how popular that company’s products are (hummer)
• A pet store could see where a certain dog breed is more popular (poodle)
• Politicians could see how popular certain search terms are to voters (global warming, abortion)

Today’s NY Times article, “The Internet Knows What You’ll Do Next” points out a few more:

• Predict which American Idol contestant is most likely to win (Taylor Hicks vs. Katharine McPhee)
• See whether Al Gore or Hillary Clinton is more popular
• Decide which clothing line an apparel store should stock (ed hardy, von dutch)

Check it out – it’s addictive – and let me know your favorite searches!

Platial – a way to create your own Google map

Posted on 11. Apr, 2006 by kchristieh in cool websites, my life, travel

Platial.com is a cool new website that allows you to pinpoint favorite places with custom descriptions, images and tags, and then to publish them.

I created a map with favorite places I’ve been, go, or would like to go. You can see my map by clicking here.

Please let me know if you can think of more for me to add!!

WARNING! It’s ADDICTIVE!!! Plus, it makes you want to take a vacation and visit all those old haunts…