Interesting video clip about Zillow.com

Steve Chainey bought his dream home using Zillow.com, a Web 2.0 site that combines satellite mapping imagery with home valuation analysis. This site and others like it provide consumers with research tools that have been difficult to access in the past, potentially disrupting the traditional real estate paradigm. Will sites like Zillow.com shake up the real estate industry?

 

I’ve had the same cellular phone number for ten years. Recently, I had moved and decided that I wanted a local number but I didn’t want to lose my old number either.

The obvious answer would be to get a new local number added to my phone since its a feature that is available on the cellular network and on my phone. Unfortunately, no carrier in the US supports this feature as far as I know.

So after lots of research, I decided to port my old number to T-Mobile using their pre-paid To-Go service. You can buy an activated prepaid SIM off of Ebay that includes one month of service with about 150-minutes of credit. Not bad for about $10 including shipping. Just slide it into a GSM phone you have lying around.

You can add an additional 12-Months of service and 1,000 minutes with a $100 refill card.

Now to get your number moved over – T-Mobile will port your old number for free. Just call T-Mobile’s customer service line at 1-800-T-MOBILE.

So after spending $10 for the SIM, and $100 for the refill card we’re talking roughly $8 a month to park your old number… and you still have over 1,100 nation-wide minutes of talk time you can spend. Furthermore you also retain the ability to send and receive SMS messages. What a deal!

This is such a great parody!

You can get the lyrics here and the MP3 here.

For comparison, you can find the original lyrics here and the original video here.

Oh, and here’s another classic:

I think its funny that 6 of the top 10 water brands are owned by Nestle… 🙂

For a natural resource that most of us have access to for minimal cost, water is doing pretty well as a revenue generator. The bottled version of the stuff is currently an $8 billion industry in the United States alone, with Americans drinking about 7 billion gallons of it in 2005. That’s compared to hundreds of billions of gallons of tap water, but for a product that can cost up to 10,000 times more than its municipal counterpart, it’s still an impressive marketshare. How Bottled Water Works
 

Hey! I was at this party! Maybe if you look closely enough you can see me in the background. 🙂

Cyworld officially launched in the U.S. on Tuesday, and CNET News.com was there to speak with CEO Henry Chon about what to expect from the company. Are we going to see the wildly popular Cyworld mobile in the U.S. anytime soon? MySpace rival arrives in the States

I’m sure that most everyone has seen this commercial:

And so I decided to do some searching and found this clip about Don LaFontaine:

Clearly, my two favorite quotes are “I’d like a can of peas” and “Its never to early…. for salad.” 😀

So – are DVI/HDMI based capture coming soon? hmm…. 🙂

Everyone needs a little more high-definition in their lives, don’t you think? Apparently Blackmagic Design thinks so, as it’s just released a new PCI Express card (Mac and Windows compatible) with direct HDMI-in to connect to your HDV digicam or your digital set-top box for a very high-quality capture. The company’s site says that this works by bypassing the HDV compression chip, allowing you to access raw superior-quality video, but gives no word on whether or not it supports HDCP. The Intensity, which is shipping on October 15, also supports HDMI formats at 525 NTSC, 625 PAL and 720p or 1080i — a bargain for only $250. Because after all, technologies that are sufficiently high-def are indistinguishable from black magic.Blackmagic Design announces Intensity, first HDMI PCI Express card

Lately, I’ve been trying to figure out what kind of credit card I should carry. After tons of research I’ve decided on the following cards:

• Blue Cash American Express – No annual fee, up to 5% cash back with no limits
• Bank of America Power Rewards VISA – No annual fee, up to 2% cash back with no limits
• MBNA Motley Fool Platinum Plus VISA – No annual fee, hassle-free 1% cash back with no limits

Of all the credit card sites I googled for, the only one I found any real value in was:

http://www.creditcardgoodies.com

It was on the one that focused on those people who don’t carry balances and are looking for the best reward programs.

Just the other night, someone asked me if city-wide Wifi would render cellular based data services obsolete… maybe:

Are the residents of Tempe, Ariz., ready to trade in their cable lines for the new citywide Wi-Fi? Hear how well (or not so well) the early stages of wireless access for all are working from the people who live there. Residents of Tempe, Ariz. talk about their new wireless city

On Thursday, I spend most of the day hanging out with Rakesh Agrawal and the rest of the crew out at SnapStream.

I really enjoyed all the conversation and seeing their office… As soon as I walked in – I was reminded of what a scrappy innovative tech company should look like. It was all business in there – no fluff. People were working among piles of hardware and wies.. sofas were scattered around to provide convesational areas… they even had the obligatory ping-pong table!

Anyone who has lost touch with what a serious business should look and act like should give Rakesh a call and hang out with him and his team… the energy and passion is intense over there. 😀

Oh, and if you’re looking for a great place to work you should definitely check out their job listings.

Looks the the retailers are getting smarter and smarter…

As you step in the door of a retail store — whether it sells Gucci handbags, jeans for teens or hardware — you’re being lured to shop and spend in ways so subtle you probably don’t know what’s happening to you.

Just browsing at the mall? That’s what you think

I read this glowing article about how great tea is for you:

If you drink three or more cups of tea a day you might be doing your health more good than drinking plain water, say researchers from King’s College, London, UK. This new study found, among other things, that the urban myth that tea dehydrates could not be further from the truth – tea hydrates as well as water does, say the researchers.

Drinking Tea Is Better For Health Than Plain Water

and thought – “Maybe I should drink more tea… hmmm”

Then when I got to the end and saw this:

The Research was funded by The Tea Council.

Oh boy.

It looks like some good deals for homes are coming up in Texas…

As home sales continue to heat up in Austin, the area is experiencing another sort of housing increase — in foreclosures.

Report: Austin ranks high for home foreclosures

I remember that my father wouldn’t allow the doctors to use ultrasound on me… maybe he was on to something…

Exposure to ultrasound can affect fetal brain development, a new study suggests. But researchers say the findings, in mice, should not discourage pregnant women from having ultrasound scans for medical reasons.

Ultrasound can affect brain development

Couple of interesting articles on global warming popped up recently… the first one:

Global warming is affecting the intensity of Atlantic hurricanes, according to a new study by a university professor in Florida who says his research provides the first direct link between climate change and storm strength.

Global warming affects hurricane intensity: study

And this one:

Climate change could be slowed by burying greenhouse gases blamed for global warming deep below the ocean floor under thick, cold sediment that would trap it for thousands of years, said a team of Harvard-led scientists.

Scientists urge deep-sea cure for climate change

The latest on the housing market…

This on building:

U.S. homebuilder optimism sank for a seventh consecutive month in August to its lowest level in 15 years as potential buyers pulled back amid rising uncertainty in the housing market, an industry trade group survey showed on Tuesday

Homebuilder optimism sinks

This on selling:

The slowdown in the once-sizzling housing market is spreading, with 28 states and the District of Columbia reporting spring sales declines, led by big drops in former boom areas of Arizona, Florida and California.

Home sales decline in 28 states, D.C.

So if you’re buying – it looks like you’re gonna be in great shape! 😀

Have seen the prices for virtual web hosting these days?

At Godaddy.com, you can now get 200gigs of disk space and 2terabytes of transfer for $15/month… no setup fees, no contracts… In fact, for the $15/month… you also get an SSL certificate, your choice of Windows or Linux, and all the addons you need… including SQL, Rails hosting, etc… they’ll even throw in a domain name for 2 bucks!

For that much disk and transfer, I can’t think why you’d want to do dedicated hosting anymore… wow!

This is sad… Eliot sent this to me after we all had some food at In-N-Out on the same day as this article…

Esther L. Snyder, who founded the In-N-Out Burgers restaurant chain with her husband, has died. She was 86.

Esther Snyder, matriarch of In-N-Out Burgers, dies at 86

A friend of mine sent me this link… cool!

The Aluminium 41 White LED 2 mode handtorch is bright, tough, and remarkably handy. Its piercing light comes from 41 bright white LEDs each with a life of 100,000 hours so you’ll never replace a bulb again. This flashlight features 2 way lighting for 21 LED short and 41 LED long distances. Plus, with a durable design and a battery life of up to 25 hours, this flashlight gives you the peace of mind you need in challenging situation, it’s O-ring sealed and water resistant.

41 LED Flashlight

and while we were at a bar, we saw this faux-candles used… and they looked pretty real:

Lasts Several Days on a set of Batteries • No Hot Wax • No Fire Hazard • No Wind Effect

Flameless LED Candle Flickers Like a Real Candle

Finally! Someone said it! 😀

Forget the silly debate over pixel counts among digital cameras. There is little visible difference between cameras with seemingly different ratings. For instance, a 3 MP camera pretty much looks the same as a 6 MP camera, even when blown up to 12 x 18!” I know because I’ve done this. Have you?

The Megapixel Myth

I always thought the 100-calorie packs of cookies, and the new smaller cans of soda were a great idea…

It’s “unit bias,” the tendency to think that a single unit of food — a bottle, a can, a plateful, or some more subtle measure — is the right amount to eat or drink, researchers propose.

Study: Surroundings play key role in diet

One of the great things about living in a major city is access to non-stop flights…

The fliers on American Airlines’ new USA-to-India flight know they are facing a long haul — the longest that American offers worldwide — and they’re steeling themselves for it. Fifteen hours on a plane. Fifteen non-stop hours. On a plane. With no stops.

Life aboard a 15-hour flight to India

Motorweek’s review of the Cadillac XLR-V… anyone want a ride? 😀

http://mpt.org/motorweek/video/roadtests/rt2540a_flash.shtml

Its well known that I love modding Xboxes and convert them into media players using Xbox Media Center. XBMC is great – it basically turns the Xbox into a media playing frontend for music, video, photos, streaming, etc…

Whenever a friend comes over and sees a demo of it, they immediately want one of their own. The only problem is – I usually get stuck with modding it for them… and the process takes an hour or longer since it involves dissassembling the Xbox, soldering, and a whole bunch of steps after that… not fun.

Seems that an enterprising individual figured out a way to mod the Xbox purely with software.

Dust off that old Xbox, add a little free software, and get your movies and songs into the living room where they belong

Xbox Media Monster

So on Sunday, I picked up a used Xbox at the local EBGames for about $100 and tried the Soft-Mod method – and after about 10mins…

It worked exactly as described – Awesome! 😀

I had completely missed this… seems that Gamestop and EBGames have merged!

GameStop Corp. (GME) and Electronics Boutique Holdings Corp. (ELBO), owner of EB Games, announced that their shareholders have green-lighted the merger of the two companies. The approval was the last step in the deal, which was made public in April.

Shareholders OK GameStop, EB Games merger