StudioGlyphic

Amazon's search engine now has maps: A9 Maps

Might as well put them all out there:

Trulia gathers data from all sorts of sources and plots it out on a big Google Map for you. It also includes some stats on average prices, market indicators, and other real estate geekery. Armed with this and some of the other data that's available, we can make some rational decisions on whether to rent or own, rent out or sell, or just get the hell out of Dodge.

As you well know, I'm a big fan of cool web apps, especially meta-apps like HousingMaps. Here's a new one called RentSlicer for all you So-Cal kiddies still paying the man on the first of the month. It takes feeds from Craigslist classifieds and calculates average rents for different housing types and neighborhoods.

Turns out I'm getting a deal on my apartment, both in terms of the entire city, as well as the specific location I'm in.

It also turns out that if certain bloggers who work for a certain online poker site would only move out to Panorama City, we could probably save a bit more on rake.

Of course, the real way to use RentSlicer is in conjunction with HousingMaps. Use HousingMaps to find a place, use RentSlicer to comparison shop or negotiate a better deal.

I <3 Internet.

Thanks to Curbed.LA for blogging about it in the first place.

I often find it useful at work to get screenshots of web pages, but until now getting an entire page has always been a tedious process of stitching together multiple screenshots and editing out the "browser chrome."

Screen grab! makes life easy.

Yet another reason to use Firefox instead of IE.

...but just once a year.

AnnualCreditReport.com is a joint service of the three major credit reporting companies that allows all consumers to check their credit for free as part of the FACT Act. Even if you're not comfortable transmitting a lot of personal information like Social Security and credit card numbers over the Internet, there's info on how you can phone or mail in your request.

I like to request these credit reports just for my own amusement, but sometimes you may notice a forgotten account or a mistake in your file. This is also a good time to ask these same companies not to sell/use your personal information for spam.

Those of you who use Blogger have probably already seen this, but if not...

At the passenger unloading curb, I pulled all my Kiwi money out of my wallet and shoved it into my sister's hands, figuring I wouldn't need it anymore. Wrong! Apparently you have to pay New Zealand $25 or they won't let you leave. Those bastards. I charged this one last expense to my AmEx, knowing full well I was getting shafted by their exchange rate.

I received this phishing email yesterday:

It looks like an official email. I actually clicked the link, but Eudora alerted me that the URL I was clicking on was different from the one listed. That didn't throw up any red flags because lots of companies use third party emailers, but for whatever reason, I decided not to continue on and just typed "ebay.com" into my browser. It was only then that it occurred to me that this might be a fake email. Some signs:

1. The email address they sent the message to is not the address I use with ebay.
   
2. The mailer is a program called The Bat!, which I believe is a bulk email program.
   
3. My name isn't eBay.
   
4. That credit card number's completely wrong.
   

Too cool. Check out Google SMS to find out how you can use Google on your cell phone via text messages.

Javacool Software has released the latest version of SpywareBlaster, a free tool for preventing spyware. I'm not sure what the difference is between this and version 3.2, but you'll need to install version 3.3 in order to get the latest definition files, which is generally a good idea, especially if you're still using Internet Explorer. Personally I much prefer Firefox due to its tabbed browsing, integrated search, live bookmarks, and cool extensions that let you obliterate ads from a web page.

By the way, if you already have a spyware infestation, you'll need to get some tools to eliminate it from your computer. Check out my "Public Service Announcement: Dealing with Spyware" from last July for tips on how to do it.

If you're sure you don't have spyware and your computer is still behaving a bit sluggish, you might want to check out Black Viper, buy some memory, or buy a new computer.

Be sure to check out that last link like now:

Inspiron 8600 + $27 - Add $27, Use $750 off coupon = $749 shipped

But don't be a cheap bastard. Get the high-res WUXGA (I think that's the one) so you don't have to buy an external monitor like me.

If you live in the LA area, especially the Westside, I recommend you check out Uncle Darrow's restaurant in Marina Del Rey. They primarily serve Cajun/Creole food, but I go there for the Chicken Supper: three crispy, meaty wings served with a side of red beans and rice, potato salad, and hush puppies spiced with bits of jalapeno. Not necessarily the best fried chicken I've ever had, but really flavorful and light on the grease factor. Friendly people, too; tonight I sped home from campus to try to catch them before they closed, but only managed to sneak in the door as they were printing out their receipts for the day. Suck. I must have looked hungry and pathetic because they graciously offered me some jambalaya and red beans on the house.

For Blogger users...

Let's face it. Blogger sucks. You type up a great big entry, click Post, and watch with horror as an error page comes up. You click back, already knowing that your latest blogging masterpiece has dissipated into the ether. After a few times, you start copying and pasting your words into a Word document before posting as a precautionary measure, but Goddammit, it shouldn't have to be this way.

Unfortunately, the only real way to get around Blogger's sketchiness is to upgrade to a real blogging solution like Movable Type or WordPress.

However, you can reduce some of the pain and misery of using Blogger by using the w.bloggar blogging client.

w.bloggar works on your computer and lets you save posts as local text files. Just click the save button or ctrl-s before publishing and never again will you lose a post to Blogger's ineptitude.

For everyone...

It's a pain in the ass to type in the tags to make things boldface, italicized, underlined, or stricken each and every time. Links and images are also a pain. While the addition of DHTML formatting tools helps a bit, I don't like to click buttons. I like keyboard shortcuts, and I don't like learning new ones. I don't like the focus being taken away by a JavaScript dialog box and being forced to click into the textbox to find my place. I don't like HTML being dumped at the end of post when I really want it placed where I had my insertion point. I don't like having to go through multiple steps to add images to my posts.

Fortunately with w.bloggar you can get around all of these little productivity-killing aspects of web-based blogging and focus on what you really want to do: blog.

At first you might wonder about a site called Black Viper's Web Site. I suppose it's better than Black Viper's Home Page or Welcome to Black Viper's Home Page on the World Wide Web!!!, but I digress.

The biggest problem I have with my Dell Inspiron 600 is that it tends to run hot (check out I8kfanGUI if you have a Dell laptop). Under load, the CPU can often reach up to 50 degrees Celsius before the fan kicks in. Heat can hamper performance and even damage your computer. I got myself a little laptop stand that has two built in fans, and that helps a bit--mostly by drawing heat away from the hard drive and memory compartments.

But I still had problems with the CPU experiencing high loads and thus generating heat. I noticed that there were times when I wasn't doing anything and yet 85-95% of the CPU would be used by a process called cisvc.exe. According to several sites, this was a Windows service, not Spyware or anything malicious. Of course, that doesn't mean you necessarily want it running.

That's where Black Viper comes in. Black Viper's Service Configurations essentially lists the various Windows processes and services, explains what they do, and makes recommendations on whether you want them disabled or not. I suspected cisvc.exe was a completely useless process, but this confirmed that I could safely turn it off. Go ahead and take a peek at the list; you'd be surprised at the number of stupid things that are running at any given time.

Disclaimer: Using I8kfanGUI to override the automatic controls on your fans or Black Viper's Service Configurations to muck around with Windows carries with it a small element of risk. Personally I think it's negligible, but don't come crying to me if you break something.

Good grief.

A friend of mine got a spyware and virus infestation that was more severe than anything I'd seen before. The steps for dealing with the problem went far beyond what I'd prescribed in my Public Service Announcement. Thankfully, the counter-spyware experts at The PC Guide Forums were able to walk me through the process of marking, fixing, deleting, repairing, and immunizing. I think the machine is clean now.

Right now would probably be a good time for you to update your spyware and anti-virus definition files. SpywareBlaster is also a good one to have. It puts known spyware on the shit list and prevents them from being installed in the first place. It's free to use, but if you donate a small fee, you can enable the auto-update feature for worry-free protection.

In the last few months I've had to deal with crazy spyware on my machine and my sister's machine. It used to be the case that you'd get spyware on your machine by installing a program like Limewire or getting suckered into adding the Bonzi Buddy to your computer. Now visiting the wrong web page with Internet Explorer can get spyware installed without your knowing.

Removing spyware

If you've been infected, you're in for some work. It's like dealing with a flea infestation, without all the vacuuming.

1. Download and install these three free programs: AdAware, Spybot Search & Destroy, HijackThis! AdAware and Spybot S&D are similar, but they each seem to cover some things that the other doesn't, so it's good to get the overlap. HijackThis is a very powerful and dangerous tool. Don't mess around with HJT unless directed to do so by a guru (more on that in a bit).

2. Use AdAware's update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you'll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. AdAware might require you to restart your machine.

3. Use Spybot's update function to install all available updates and run a full scan. Be sure to select a mirror located in your country, or you may get a checksum error when downloading the update. Then allow it to fix everything it finds. There might be some things which you'll want to keep, but if in doubt, fix it. Spybot might require you to restart your machine. Spybot also has some Internet Explorer protection features. I've only run into a couple issues with this one, and usually it involves watching some cartoon on the web. Since doing this kind of activity isn't critical to my happiness, I just move on.

4. Run a full anti-virus scan. If you have AV software, make sure the definitions are up to date. If you don't, you can do an online scan at BitDefender or you can install AVG Anti-Virus.

5. Run HijackThis and save the log of what it finds. Do not mark/fix anything until you've gone to The PC Guide Discussion Forums and posted a description of your problem, your prior actions, and the full log file. One of the experts (Budfred's a good one) will go through your log file and give you further instructions. If you're not comfortable with rebooting into safe mode or using a command line to delete files in your windows\system32 directory, recruit someone who is.

That's about it. It's a lot of steps, and it'll take you a few hours to do it, but for the really vicious stuff, it's the only way.

Preventing spyware

There are a couple options:

1. Don't use Internet Explorer. The combination of insecure software and market domination makes IE the target for all kinds of hijinks. Try Mozilla instead.

2. If you're like me, you like using IE (for no good reason). In this case, use Windows Update to get the latest security patches for Windows and IE. Download Spybot S&D and/or SpyWare Blaster and run the protection scheme. Update your virus definitions or get AVG to protect your system.

Good luck.