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October 30, 2005

I'm a big geek, but Google Maps & Google Earth are still cool

So, as is typical of Sunday evening (and really, just about every evening), Terry and I were watching Law & Order, specifically Criminal Intent. It was a repeat, but the interesting part was that the plot featured a sport called Geocaching. So I looked it up on the web. Apparently, there are "virtual caches" where you don't actually find anything, except the site itself. There was one pretty close the house, and I got the idea that I might be able to find it via satellite imagery...

First, I had to find my home latitude and longitude, in order to create an account on Geocaching.com. I stumbled around for a minute, then realized I'd used the latitude and longitude information when I used Mapbuilder.net. Once I had an account, I was able to find the coordinates of the cache. I popped them into mapbuilder, and seeing as how it was close to home, I knew what the prize was. I then thought "well, maybe I can actually *see* the prize if I use Google Earth. So I put the coordinates into Google Earth. I couldn't actually see the prize very well, but the shadow of it was fairly clear on the ground. Well, clear if you know what you're looking at.

Give it a shot - 39°57'30.49"N, 75°10'1.60"W or (39.958469, -75.167111).

Posted by Janice Ryan at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 24, 2005

Never check baggage into Philadelphia

It's the cardinal rule of air travel, and I can't believe I forgot. We wasted a full hour last night, probably a little more, waiting for our suitcases to come up. I asked why it was taking so long, and the only answer I got was that it always does. So frustrating...

Posted by Janice Ryan at 4:14 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

October 18, 2005

I like robots

First, it was the electric toothbrush. Made dental visits much less painful.
Then, it was my TiVo. Can't imagine life without it now. We actually have two of them.
Then, after wishing that the floors could clean themselves, because they get dirty a lot, we got the Roomba. Now, the Roomba cleans the floors and I only have to clean the Roomba.

And now, meet my newest robot friend...the SpotBot.

I spilled cranberry ginger ale on the floor today, and I really didn't have the time or patience to get the stain out. Then, I realized that's something of a theme around here. So, I got a robot who will scrub for 3 to 6 minutes to do it for me. He did a good job on the soda stain and on the dirt on the stairs, but the mystery stain in the upstairs hallway is still there, even after several 6-minute cyles. Overall, I give SpotBot a B+.

Posted by Janice Ryan at 12:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 17, 2005

The one line that has earned this show a spot in my TiVo

"One of the 24 similarities between girls and fish is that they are both attracted to shiny objects. You really never read my blog, do you?"

--uttered by Neil Patrick Harris, aka Doogie Howser, apparently now Barney on How I Met Your Mother

UPDATE: I actually looked at the website for the show, and Barney's blog is there, and It has a VENN DIAGRAM in a non mathematical context! Hmm...maybe I shouldn't be so excited about that publicly...

Posted by Janice Ryan at 10:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack