I’ve been messing with, or rather doing productive research into, a Google Maps mashup site that is so easy, it puts the power of map-making in the hands of the least geekiest among us.
If you’ve got a small business site that you manage yourself, as many real estate agents and retail shop owners do, a map can help potential customers locate your properties or storefront. Rather than hire a Web designer and hiring a translator to figure out what he is saying, check out CommunityWalk.com.
Google Maps is the mapping technology that allow you to create maps that you can embed in Web sites. You can “mashup” a Google map with your own data to create a useful guide to, say, all of the city’s farmers markets. Which is just what I did here:
What’s useful about these maps is it comes with Google’s route locator. So, if you are new in town and need to get to the Manoa District Park farmers market, just plug in where you are starting from, and Google will map your route. You can also insert photos, but unless you want to help me with this, I won’t get around to shooting each and every farmers market for another decade.
Users can also comment on these maps, so if you see anything screwy with mine, drop me a comment. Be kind, because I worked on this between my daily tasks, which include deleting abusive comments from the Web site.
There is a free version of CommunityWalk maps and one that comes ad-free at a cost of $4.99 that you can embed in your site.
A few cautions: mapping this way will not be pinpoint accurate unless you have the latitudes and longitudes that locate your markers with more precision. I also found using addresses can sometimes land your marker in the middle of the Pacific, and clearly we don’t have farmers selling sweet potatoes 50 miles off Kuhio Beach.
There are several other sites like Wayfaring.com and Platial.com that serve up map-making services as well. I haven’t tried them out, but if you have let me know. And point us to your maps because I can’t wait to comment on them.
Wish I could say it was amazing foresight that led us late last year to anticipate the spike in jet fuel and book our summer vacation flights when tickets didn’t involve taking out a second mortgage.
In fact, it was more a case of using up our airline miles before the carriers went under that landed us tickets which, if all was right in the world, we could now sell for a tidy profit on eBay.
Every once in a while when I feel the need for self-affirmation, I check out the fare comparison sites to see how much we’ve saved. At last look, we’ve pocketed about $900 in make-believe money, which will go toward purchase of the make-believe landscaped lawn with optional miniature pagodas.
Comparison sites kayak.com, farecompare.com and BookingBuddy.com allow you to check airline fares side-by-side for the best deals. Since some of the cheapest fares can be found on the airline sites, search these locations as well. Packages that bundle flights, hotels and cars can also save you money, so compare prices there as well.
I know it is hardly cause for celebration when a roundtrip ticket to Vegas costs $800 but consider how smug you’ll feel a month from now when your cousins are paying $1,000 each while you are rolling in all that make-believe savings and losing it in the slots.
So what are you doing to find affordable fares? Or are you planning to stay close to home this summer? If so, how are you at laying down sod?
This may be yet another generational divide and its decidedly low tech, but there are some of us who race through the newspaper daily with scissors in hand. We pounce on any useful bit of information or any recipe for leftover tuna to snip out of the paper and tack on the refrigerator door.
I suspect this is a habit of boomers and their aging parents because I notice that among my young friends, none use their refrigerator like it’s a community bulletin board. Do young people even say the word “icebox”? Or even read the newspaper, for that matter? Don’t answer that; it’ll just make me cry.
Comparing hospitals
One refrigerator-worthy newspaper brief detailed the government’s new Web site that allows patients and their families to compare hospitals in their community for quality of care. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services populated the site with useful information, including the outcomes for patients after hospital care and survey results on patients’ hospital experiences.
You can search for specific conditions such as diabetes or chest pain, or particular procedures, such as heart surgery. So, next time your heart clutches, you’ll know which hospital to head to and which to avoid.
There are numerous conditions associated with this data, so read the fine prnt. And, as always, consult with your doctor, because that’s the responsible thing to say.
Productivity times two
It appears that the more you see, the more you do.
Microsoft researchers have found that you can improve your productivity by 9 to 50 percent by adding a second or even a third computer screen. Ivan Berger of The New York Times wrote about this subject a couple of years ago, but his comments are still relevant.
It makes sense that you can gets things done quickly if you multi-task with multiple monitors. Switching views on a single screen is truly frustrating, so if you have the desktop real estate, you might want to drag out another monitor.
You’ll need to ask you IT folks to be sure you have the hardware and software to plug in a second monitor, but if you do, let us know how it works out.
The downside is you’ll now need to close down two screens when your boss wanders by while you are checking out YouTube. That’s just as well since there’s only so much time you should devote to treadmill dance routines anyway.
Is it permitted to ask what’s on your refrigerator door?
A rotary clothesline sits in the laundry room waiting for someone, preferably somebody who knows what he or she is doing, to plant it in the backyard.
It took me a while to get to this point where I’m taking a step back from existing clothes-drying technology. There were these long debates with myself:
Me: “What makes you think you’ll have time to hang clothes?”
Me2: “You’ll save money.”
Me: “I can easily afford the extra $6,000-a-month electric bill. What I don’t have right now are eight hours to dry towels.”
Me2: “Well, then, think of the melting glaciers and monk seal pups.”
Right. There it was: green guilt. Where did it come from?
Money and time were once the only factors we noodled over to make life and business decisions. Then somewhere between Al Gore and Leonardo DiCaprio, we developed another filter through which we mesh out answers to such questions as: Hummer or hybrid? Plastic or paper? Yell at the kid or leave the lights on?
It helps that living green tends to save one money, even though spare time usually takes a hit. Bankrate.com’s 153 ways to go green prove the point.
But I would not discount guilt as a motivational tool. Consider how you feel when the people in front of you in the cashier line bring out their reusable tote bags.
For businesses, the stakes may be higher: that you are not acting to reduce your company’s carbon footprint can hurt your image and disappoint employees. Perhaps corporate guilt isn’t exactly what failing to act engenders, but it’s close enough.
So, anybody know how to dig a hole for a clothesline?
Don’t believe your mother when she says it doesn’t help to whine.
After blogging about a hand-me-down Flip Video, I was slipped a brand-new Aiptek GO-HD 720P camcorder to play with. If the $170 price tag (Amazon) doesn’t discourage you, the Aiptek has a lot going for it.
Like the Flip Video, this is a small camcorder, compact enough to carry around in a pocket or purse.
The camera shoots in HD (1280 x 720 pixels, 16:9 aspect ratio), D1 (720 x 480 pixels) and CIF (352 x 240 pixels) to a maximum of 30 frames per second. More numbers: it has a 3x optical zoom and claims to capture stills up to 8 megapixels.
Built-in LED lights help boost the video image in low lights, and you will want to use the lights indoors. I shot video of our local news editor Steve Petranik in CIF without the lights, leaving him somewhat in the dark. It’s a condition I’m used to, but it’s not something you want to inflict on your video subjects.
The audio pickup is decent, though it would be nice to have a way to hook up an external mic, just in case you get a chance to interview George Clooney. Call me if you do.
The video records in .mov format and is easily transferred to a computer via a USB cable. You can also connect the camera to a TV or DVD to record programs on its SD card.
So, bottom line: Flip Video or Aiptek? I like the Aiptek because of the video quality. But for ease of use, the Flip Video’s controls and built-in USB stick are handier, particularly if you are buying a pocket cam for your mom.
