The coldest winter I ever spent
Archive for the ‘Product Reviews’ Category.
I’ve found a couple really great apartment hunting tools:
Craigslist.org. It is the go-to.
Housingmaps.com – an aggragator of Google Maps and Craigslist
Padmapper.com – a great aggragator of several sites (including Craigslist) with a good map and good selection criterion! Charlotte used this November 2011 to great effect in Seattle.
I just had a hard drive go bad on me so I had to buy a new drive and reinstall Windows. Here’s the software I put back on my computer immediately, the essential software that makes Windows XP useable for me:
WizMouse – lets you scroll a window without you having to give it focus. Brilliantly simple and useful.
Crashplan – I would have lost data if not for this online backup tool.
EditPad Pro – my text editor of choice. It also comes in a free version that’s fine.
Autohotkey – giving me keyboard controls like Ctrl-Alt-C for Calculator and “..4” to automatically type my phone number.
Google Chrome – the best, fastest, easiest to use, prettiest browser.
CCCP – the Combined Community Codec Pack lets Windows Media Player play most every video format automatically
Freecalc – by Moffsoft, a better calculator than the built-in Windows one. Easy, clean.
Picasa – the best home picture viewer
Teracopy – replaces windows file copy… the best feature being if a copy fails, I see what happened and can recover, unlike Windows copy
Rename-It! – lets me rename files en-mass
PureText – strips text formatting when pasting.
Put Windows Explorer in the Quicklaunch toolbar and change the startup options target to “%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,c:\aaa”. More examples.
Set Gmail to be the default email client in Chrome
Disable Windows Search When Searching Windows Explorer
Truecrypt – keeps my passwords safe on my computer.
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The second round of essential software
KFC – Kill Flash Cookies
Filezilla
UltraVNC
The Sysinternals tools are amazing. Filemon to see what is slowing down my hard drive, Pagedefrag to defrag your pagefile.sys. Several tools to help find malware
DVD Decrypter (local archive)
Cleartype – absolutely essential for good text quality on Windows XP! You’ll have to run the page using Internet Explorer to install it.
The Clipper Card website wants to be useful and good… but it isn’t. It has lots of ridiculous text like this which is in alarmingly red print:
When you first set up Autoload, change your Autoload setup or update your Autoload funding source using a credit card, it may take up to 3-5 days for your new Autoload order to take effect. If you use a bank account, it may take 5 to 10 business days.
That could have been said far clearer with 60% fewer words:
Any changes to Autoload may take up to 5 days for credit cards and 10 days for bank accounts to complete.
Despite there being very few functions, it is hard to find what you’re looking for. For example, to turn Autoload on, you go to, straightforwardly enough “Set up Autoload” off the main menu. But to disable Autoload, you go to… ugh, I forget, I wandered the site for 5 minutes looking for the button before finding it. I think it was under “Check card value”
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Ah, but the reason I’m writing. Here is a tidbit I got from Customer Service that isn’t on their website anywhere:
My query:
I have autoload on the card and I have some Clipper Cash. I have noticed that the Clipper Cash never gets used, instead, the card autoloads from my credit card when it gets low. How can I used the Clipper Cash on my card?
And the response:
my paraphrasing:
Autoload supersedes Clipper Cash. You need to disable Autoload to use any Clipper Cash on your card.
Their overly wordy response:
In order to use the Clipper cash on your account, you will need to temporarily disable the BART HVD on your account. BART will not deduct from your e-cash balance as long as your autoload is available on the account. If you disable your HVD, BART will continue to deduct from that until the HVD balance is depleted, and then they will begin deducting from the e-cash balance. Once the e-cash balance on your account has been reduced, you may re-activate the BART HVD autoload.
If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Clipper Card Customer Service Center at 1-877-878-8883 (TDD/TTY 711 or 1-800-735-2929).
Update 2-15-12: Read my full review of Fungavir.
Text in bold italics below are updates.
I had written a scathing post about Fungavir, calling it a scam. I’ve removed this post. I now think I was a little too aggressive in my wording. I spoke with one of the owners of Fungavir a couple days ago and they have begun rewording their web site and changing some of their practices to be more realistic. made a couple tiny changes to their site but the vast majority of the weasel words and scammer language remain. The ingredients in Fungavir are somewhat effective at fighting toenail and fingernail fungus, but there is absolutely nothing special about it. They charge 10 times the price for ingredients you can already find at your local pharmacy.
I was introduced to Fungavir by a comment spam that appeared on my site, which is not an auspicious start.
The wording on their site had some is full of scammer language:
* testimonials that seem too good to be true
* lies. For example, “Fungavir has double the amount of Undecylenic Acid than any other nail fungus treatment”. It does not. 25% is the legal limit for non-prescription strength and they have 10%.
* vague promises with meaningless copy like “double action” and “killing the fungus while working to heal the affected area” and… well, most of the words on the site.
* product images such that look like product only exists in Photoshop
* Site icons with no substantiation like “Green Certified Site”, “GMP”, “Made in an FDA Registered Facility”, and “Google Checkout” (they don’t use Google Checkout)
The ingredients appear to be just a collection of all the topical anti-fungals mixed into one bottle. Yeah, that might work, but I’m guessing it’ll work as well as well as any other topical, which is to say, “It might work but don’t hold your breath.”
The guy at Fungavir has said he is going to change their website. I’m going to give him the chance. But if he doesn’t since he didn’t come up with more realistic language on his site in a month or so, I’ll be reposting my original article and then some.
For more info on nail fungus, read the several posts and followup comments on my blog about nail fungus.
Here is the Fungavir homepage on 10-9-11:
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There are many discussions about nail fungus going on on my blog. Search my blog for the word “fungus” for more.
I recently got a washing machine for my apartment, a Haier HLP021-WM. It’s! So! Awesome! I got it used on Craigslist for $100, you can get them new from Walmart and other places for under $250. It is a 0.97 cubic feet washer.
I had been looking at more well known brands like Kenmore but with a retail price of $760 for their portable machine and favorable but mixed reviews, I had all but given up. I thought, “If an established brand can’t make a unit that is fairly similarly priced, the cheap one is probably junk.” Wrong was I, young Skywalker!
I just did yet another a load of laundry this morning and it was so easy. I dread going to a laundromat. I dread running out of clothes, having stinky clothes in the closet, letting stains set for weeks on end, spending 3 hours doing a stupid task, but most of all I dread hauling 40 pounds of laundry out of the house and into the car just so I can bring it back a few hours later. Those days are gone. It’s such a simple thing but it makes me so happy.
Oh, and the other essential thing I got with the washing machine from the lady on Craigslist was a small dryer, a Hamilton Beach Quick Dry Garment Drying Station. It works like a champ. It takes 2-8 hours to dry a load of clothes but it’s small, cheap to run (it’s just a fan), convenient and I don’t have piles of drying clothes hanging all over the apartment. She threw it in for $20.
I don’t like smelly laundry soap. I absolutely hate Tide laundry soap. Tide burns my nose in a way not unlike ammonia. I’ve had clothes washed in Tide that after a few hours I had to take off, they were so awful and distracting and headache inducing. There is a guy at a previous job that used Tide (hi Matt Gr!) and if he approached my desk slow enough, I my nose would burn that characteristic Matt Gr smell before I could see him.
I’ve found 2 soaps that I like. Trader Joe’s powdered laundry detergent and All Small & Mighty Free Clear. The liquid soap works better in the Haier washing machine because if the powdered soap has clumped, some of the clumps stay on the clothes. I fixed this problem by straining the powered soap (which I often leave in my clump-inducing humid garage), but I’d rather not have to do that.
(Subject line hat-tip to Scarlett O’hara)
I went to the “Foodia is Chocolate” event Friday night with Erika. We tried chocolate from Fearless Chocolate, Madecasse, Vice Chocolates, and TCHO. The clear winner: Fearless Chocolate’s Cherry Bomb gnosh (ugh, how do you spell that?). The taste experience was like watching Macho Man Randy Savage and Hulkamania duke it out on a terrific roller coaster… on the moon… in 3-D… In. My. Mouth! Awesome.
And their basic chocolate bars all had a vivid, sharp taste that had us wanting more!
Madecasse: too much of a heavy cream action in all their samples
Vice Chocolates: I don’t recall, there was something not perfect… (sorry)
TCHO: a solid stand-by
I wrote and sent this off today:
Mystic Pizza Food Company
PO Box 427
Mystic CT 06355
Dear Pizzapeople,
Fantasy
I bought a Mystic Pizza 3 Pack Mediterranean Style from Costco in San Francisco on about May 1st, 2011. It reads “Best if used by Dec 24 11 12:40”
I wanted to enjoy your pizza, but I’m sad to say it was very disappointing.
The directions say to bake for 10-12 minutes at 450. Clearly a pie this thick won’t be done in 10 minutes. We were further surprised that the pie still wasn’t cooked through after 24 minutes. After all that time, the bottom still wasn’t brown or crisp, and the center of the pie was still gummy and underdone. My oven is well calibrated, it was cooked on the middle rack with no cookie sheet under it.
Reality
The toppings were spread very poorly. The comments from my roommate say it well, “The vegetables are all lumped in a frozen pile in the middle. Who wants lumps of soggy spinach on their pizza?” One slice had a pile of peppers, another slice had a pile of olives that should have been chopped more. None of the toppings were mixed in with the pizza, they sat on top in great heaps. My roommate and I differed about the feta cheese; she enjoyed it but I thought it tasted and had the mouth feel of cream cheese, which does not belong on a pizza.
Maybe it was just the poor toppings, but after a few bites, I wanted to go out and buy some real pizza to wash the taste out of my mouth.
Keep trying!
Lee Sonko
San Francisco, CA 94110
I’ve never been much of a wine drinker. I always get a headache before the glass is empty.
I like riesling, my home made (hooch-like) mead, chianti and now….. retsina.
Call me a sweet tooth. Done. Call me pedestrian. Done! But what matters is what I like.
The retsina discovery came when I went to Carmel a few weeks ago with Binka’s relatives, Senta and her mom. We had dinner at Dametra Cafe in Carmel. They have, by the way, the best moussaka ever. And Senta’s recommandation of retsina was perfect!
I’ve been using Autohotkey for keyboard macros for a while now. I find it virtually indispensable to work quickly and productively. It rocks.
Here are the most useful macros I use on a regular basis, lifted straight from my AutoHotkey.ahk:
; hit ctrl-space to make the current window always on top. From http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/keep-window-always-on-top/5213/
^SPACE:: Winset, Alwaysontop, , A:o:..3::My address
:o:..4::415-…My phone number
:o:..9::94110^!r:: ; Run gedit with Ctrl-Alt-r
;IfWinExist, Notepad++
; I found the name of the window by using “AutoIt3 Window Spy”, which comes with autohotkey
IfWinExist, ahk_class gdkWindowToplevel
WinActivate
else
Run, “C:\Program Files\gedit\bin\gedit.exe”
return^!c:: ; Run Calc with Ctrl-Alt-c
IfWinExist, Moffsoft FreeCalc
WinActivate
else
; Run, calc.exe
Run, “C:\Program Files\Moffsoft FreeCalc\MoffFreeCalc.exe”
return^!t:: ; Run Truecrypt with Ctrl-Alt-t
IfWinExist, TrueCrypt
WinActivate
else
; Run, calc.exe
Run, “C:\Documents and Settings\Lee\Desktop\My Truecrypt file.tc”
return^!d:: ; Run Chrome with Ctrl-Alt-d
IfWinExist, New Tab – Google Chrome ; If there is already a blank window, bring it to front
{
WinActivate, New Tab – Google Chrome
}else
{
IfWinExist, ahk_class Chrome_WidgetWin_0 ; grab a Chrome window and click ctrl-n to make a new window
{
WinActivate
Send ^n
}
}WinWaitActive, New Tab – Google Chrome, , 1 ; wait to see if the command worked
IfWinNotExist, New Tab – Google Chrome ; if we don’t have a new chrome window by now (IE, clicking ctrl-n didn’t work) then
start it manually
{
Run, “C:\Documents and Settings\Lee\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe”
WinWait, New Tab – Google Chrome, , 3
WinActivate, New Tab – Google Chrome
}return
^!w:: ; Run Windows Explorer with Ctrl-Alt-w
IfWinExist, My Documents
Run, explorer.exe
else
Run, explorer.exe
return:o:.address::My full address{enter}San Francisco, CA 94110{enter}
:0:.80::123456789012345678901234567890123456 >40< 3456789012345678901234567890123456 >80{enter}
:o:.–::{- 50}{down}{home}
:o:.-=::{- 50}{enter}:o:.=-::{enter}{- 50}{ENTER}{- 50}{down}{home}
:o:.==::{enter}{- 50}{ENTER}{- 50}{enter}:o:.ms::——– Original Message ————-{enter}
:o:.me::——– End of Original Message ——{enter}
:o:.ss::—- Start of Snippet —-{home}{down}
:o:.se::—- End of Snippet —-{enter}
:o:.s::San Francisco
:o:.sc::San Francisco, CA
:o:.c:: California:o:.b::Berkeley
:o:.bc::Berkeley, CA:o:.date:: ; This hotstring replaces “]d” with the current date and time.
FormatTime, CurrentDateTime,, M/d/yyyy h:mm tt ; It will look like 9/1/2005 3:53 PM
SetKeyDelay 0 ; This sets the keystrokes below to be sent faster than the default.
Send %CurrentDateTime%
return
To get you excited in case you can’t read this configuration file, here are some examples:
:o:..3::My address
I type “..3(Return)” and it replaces that text with my street address. I use this all the time when buying stuff on websites. Oh, it’s a “3” because my address starts with a 3, making it easy to remember
^!d:: ; Run Chrome with Ctrl-Alt-d
…
I hit Control-Alt-D and it starts Google Chrome. Or if there is already a blank Chrome window open, it gives it the focus. This is sooo much faster than picking up the mouse and clicking the icon a thousand times a day.
^!c:: ; Run Calc with Ctrl-Alt-c
Pull up the calculator with a quick key combination
:o:.ms::——– Original Message ————-{enter}
I type “.ms” (short for “message start”) and it replaces it with, well, I’ll let you guess. Similarly, “.me” is short for “message end”.
This note is so I can remember this for myself. Brent at work tells me that if you need to put a rack on a vehicle and you need it to be done right, especially if it’s a difficult install (ie. drilling holes in the roof of your car), these are the guys to do it.
Their nearest locations to me is San Carlos and San Jose. A bit of a trek, but worth it for tricky installs.