The National Association of Home Builders has released their Housing Opportunity Index covering the most and least affordable cities in the country. Here's a quick rundown of the top 10 metropolitan areas with a population over 500,000.
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Ten Least Affordable Cities
1. New York-White Plains-Wayne, NY-NJ2. San Francisco-San mateo-Redwood City, CA3. Nassau-Suffolk, NY4. Los Angeles-Long Beach-Glendale, CA5. Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall, FL6. Santa Ana-Anaheim-Irvine, CA7. El Paso, TX8. Newark-Union, NJ-PA9. Honolulu, HI10. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, WA
Ten Most Affordable Cities
1. Indianapolis-Carmel, IN2. Warren-Troy-Farmington Hills, MI3. Youngstown-Warren-Boardman, OH-PA4. Detroit-Livonia-Dearborn, MI5. Grand Rapids-Wyoming, MI6. Syracuse, NY7. Dayton, OH8. Akron, OH9. Cleveland-Elyria-Mentor, OH10. Scranton-Wilkes-Barre, PA
If the big city isn't your thing, you may be more interested in checking into the most and least affordable cities under 500,000:
Ten Least Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000
1. San Luis Obispo-Paso Robles, CA2. Ocean City, NJ3. Santa Cruz-Watsonville, CA4. Napa, CA5. Flagstaff, AZ6. Medford, OR7. Bend, OR8. Mount Vernon-Anacortes, WA9. St. George, UT10. Laredo, TX
Ten Most Affordable Cities with a Population Under 500,000
1. Lansing-East Lansing, MI2. Sandusky, OH3. Lima, OH4. Springfield, OH5. Bay City, MI6. Battle Creek, MI7. Canton-Massillon, OH8. Saginaw-Saginaw Township North, MI9. Utica-Rome, NY10. Binghamton, NY
For more fun stats brought to you by NAHB and Wells Fargo, be sure to head to the official Housing Opportunity Index page below. For a slightly different take, check out last year's guide to the best US cities to live, work, and play. Let's hear how the NAHB's list matches up to your expectations (good god, Ohio!) in the comments.
NAHB/Wells Fargo Housing Opportunity Index (HOI) [via Consumerist]
Sunday, February 22, 2009
Belt-Clip Your Cellphone for Better Battery Life
Former Valleywag consigliere Paul Boutin offers up a handful of great, low-tech fixes to your high-tech gadget issues. One of them involves getting your cellphone away from your warm pocket to boost its battery life.
Photo by hsiqueira.
If you're planning to be away from your charger for a stretch, Boutin finds evidence that keeping your phone on a belt clip, away from your 98.6 body oven, or in a hotel fridge overnight, can actually get you a bit more juice.
"Cellphone batteries do indeed last a bit longer if kept cool," says Isidor Buchanan, editor of the Battery University Web site. The 98.6-degree body heat of a human, transmitted through a cloth pocket to a cellphone inside, is enough to speed up chemical processes inside the phone's battery. That makes it run down faster. To keep the phone cooler, carry it in your purse or on your belt.
Most of the other low-tech work-arounds for gadget issues in the New York Times article have been covered here before, including:
Amplifying your keyless entry/car key fob with your head
Drying out soaked gadgets with rice
Boost your wireless signal with homemade wifi extender
Boutin recommends straight-up liquor or Listerine for CD cleaning; we've previously recommended bananas, toothpaste, and Pledge for similar results.
Saving your crashed hard drive in the freezer.
One (relatively) new and notable technique the article suggests for getting more ink out of wasteful cartridges is using a hair dryer:
"The heat from the hair dryer heats the thick ink, and helps it to flow through the tiny nozzles in the cartridge," says Alex Cox, a software engineer in Seattle. "When the cartridge is almost dead, those nozzles are often nearly clogged with dried ink, so helping the ink to flow will let more ink out of the nozzles." The hair dryer trick can squeeze a few more pages out of a cartridge after the printer declares it is empty.
So even if some (okay, most) of this advice seems familiar, the article makes for a great forward or print-out for family and friends always hitting you up for a little gadget triage. Got a favorite low-tech save for seemingly Ph. D problems? Share it in the comments.
Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems [New York Times]
Photo by hsiqueira.
If you're planning to be away from your charger for a stretch, Boutin finds evidence that keeping your phone on a belt clip, away from your 98.6 body oven, or in a hotel fridge overnight, can actually get you a bit more juice.
"Cellphone batteries do indeed last a bit longer if kept cool," says Isidor Buchanan, editor of the Battery University Web site. The 98.6-degree body heat of a human, transmitted through a cloth pocket to a cellphone inside, is enough to speed up chemical processes inside the phone's battery. That makes it run down faster. To keep the phone cooler, carry it in your purse or on your belt.
Most of the other low-tech work-arounds for gadget issues in the New York Times article have been covered here before, including:
Amplifying your keyless entry/car key fob with your head
Drying out soaked gadgets with rice
Boost your wireless signal with homemade wifi extender
Boutin recommends straight-up liquor or Listerine for CD cleaning; we've previously recommended bananas, toothpaste, and Pledge for similar results.
Saving your crashed hard drive in the freezer.
One (relatively) new and notable technique the article suggests for getting more ink out of wasteful cartridges is using a hair dryer:
"The heat from the hair dryer heats the thick ink, and helps it to flow through the tiny nozzles in the cartridge," says Alex Cox, a software engineer in Seattle. "When the cartridge is almost dead, those nozzles are often nearly clogged with dried ink, so helping the ink to flow will let more ink out of the nozzles." The hair dryer trick can squeeze a few more pages out of a cartridge after the printer declares it is empty.
So even if some (okay, most) of this advice seems familiar, the article makes for a great forward or print-out for family and friends always hitting you up for a little gadget triage. Got a favorite low-tech save for seemingly Ph. D problems? Share it in the comments.
Low-Tech Fixes for High-Tech Problems [New York Times]
Monday, February 2, 2009
Five Best Windows System Tray Applications
The Windows system tray can be so much more than a parking lot for programs you don't want cluttering up your task bar. Read on to see the five most popular tray tools readers can't live without.
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite applications system tray applications, with an emphasis on applications that exist primarily in the tray. It was a broader topic to be sure but you replied in force and we've compiled a list of the top five contenders for the crown of best system tray application.
UltraMon
It speaks of the popularity of multi-monitor setups that UltraMon is such a popular system tray application. UltraMon is so feature packed it's nearly impossible to take a single screenshot that captures the usefulness of the application. The most obvious feature UltraMon add from the system tray is the addition of two buttons to the title bar of all open applications. The two buttons you see in the screenshot here—the dual triangles and the box with the arrow in it—allow you to instantly expand a window across all monitors or reduce it to one and to sling a window from one monitor to another with out having to drag or resize. That feature alone is invaluable when you're dealing with dozens of windows across multiple screens, but that barely scratches the surface. UltraMon allows you to create custom shortcuts so applications will always end up the size you specify on the screen you want. You can set up multi-monitor friendly screensavers and wallpaper with Ultramon and enable the Smart Taskbar—a tool that extends your taskbar space across all available monitors. UltraMon isn't free—nor is the $40 price tag pocket change in the current economy—but for users in a multi-monitor environment it would be tough to get more value for your money.
Taskbar Shuffle
Taskbar Shuffle has the distinction of being not only a popular application in this Hive Five but also the only application that actually acts upon the system tray itself. After installing Taskbar Shuffle, you can indulge your inner—and slightly obsessive compulsive—nerd to your hearts content arranging and rearranging the items on your taskbar and system tray. If you've ever been annoyed as hell that somehow an application icon you really want visible in the system tray somehow keeps ending up tucked out of sight, Taskbar Shuffle is a free and effective solution for liberating your programs from their cement shoes. In addition to the obvious and useful program dragging, you can also close applications by clicking their taskbar button with the middle mouse button, tweak the way Windows groups similar taskbar buttons, and assign a keyboard hotkey to keep you from accidentally shuffling things around with some furious productivity-fueled clicking. As an added bonus, Taskbar Shuffle works with the aforementioned multi-monitor Smart Taskbar provided by UltraMon.
AutoHotKey
AutoHotkey is a macro-scripting tool with scripts that—when running—reside in the system tray. The strongest selling point of AutoHotkey is that the scripting language it uses is extremely accessible to new users—especially those with no programming experience. You can use AutoHotkey to do everything from creating simple time-saving typing macros—turning every typed instance of btw into by the way, for example— to creating complex applications, like our very own Texter. Additionally you can also create simple interfaces to allow user input into the scripts and even save your AutoHotkey scripts as executables to use them as portable applications or send them to friends. If all of that seems a bit overwhelming check out our guide to turning any action into a keyboard shortcut—an excellent guide to getting started with AutoHotkey. If you're not interested in writing your own scripts that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the excellent scripts others have written—check out the posts we've written about AutoHotkey scripts and browse the Scripts section of the AutoHotkey community forum to find scripts.
Digsby
If you're looking to cut down on the number of programs cluttering up your system tray and taskbar, Digsby combines the functionality of many separate applications into one. Once configured, Digsby allows you to chat with friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo Chat, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Additionally you can receive notifications and check email accounts including popular services like Gmail, Hotmail, or any service that supports IMAP or POP. Right from the overview box in Digsby you can mark emails as read or flag them as spam. As if combing most popular chat platforms and email services together wasn't enough to sell most people, Digsby also supports alerts and updates on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn. From both a time and screen-space saving aspect Digsby is a gem.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a remote file storage and syncing service. The magic behind Dropbox may reside on a distant server, but the convenience sits in the system tray as an always available link to your Dropbox sync folder. Anything you need to access from a remote location can be dragged into the Dropbox sync folder and within moments it will be uploaded to your Dropbox account. Readers have raved about Dropbox since we offered invites to the beta test last summer; thankfully it's no longer in beta, so anyone can sign up. By far the biggest selling point is the dead simple file syncing and the ample-for-most-purposes free 2GB of remote storage. Many readers have noted that thanks to the speed and simplicity of Dropbox they have forgone toting their files around on flash drives. To take Dropbox beyond simply syncing copies of your TPS Reports check out how to use it to sync your Firefox installations and how to use it as the ultimate password syncer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that you've seen the top five applications that bring joy to your fellow readers' system trays, it's time to vote on which one is to be crowned King of the Tray.
If you have your own system tray treasures and tips to share, sound off in the comments below!
Earlier this week we asked you to share your favorite applications system tray applications, with an emphasis on applications that exist primarily in the tray. It was a broader topic to be sure but you replied in force and we've compiled a list of the top five contenders for the crown of best system tray application.
UltraMon
It speaks of the popularity of multi-monitor setups that UltraMon is such a popular system tray application. UltraMon is so feature packed it's nearly impossible to take a single screenshot that captures the usefulness of the application. The most obvious feature UltraMon add from the system tray is the addition of two buttons to the title bar of all open applications. The two buttons you see in the screenshot here—the dual triangles and the box with the arrow in it—allow you to instantly expand a window across all monitors or reduce it to one and to sling a window from one monitor to another with out having to drag or resize. That feature alone is invaluable when you're dealing with dozens of windows across multiple screens, but that barely scratches the surface. UltraMon allows you to create custom shortcuts so applications will always end up the size you specify on the screen you want. You can set up multi-monitor friendly screensavers and wallpaper with Ultramon and enable the Smart Taskbar—a tool that extends your taskbar space across all available monitors. UltraMon isn't free—nor is the $40 price tag pocket change in the current economy—but for users in a multi-monitor environment it would be tough to get more value for your money.
Taskbar Shuffle
Taskbar Shuffle has the distinction of being not only a popular application in this Hive Five but also the only application that actually acts upon the system tray itself. After installing Taskbar Shuffle, you can indulge your inner—and slightly obsessive compulsive—nerd to your hearts content arranging and rearranging the items on your taskbar and system tray. If you've ever been annoyed as hell that somehow an application icon you really want visible in the system tray somehow keeps ending up tucked out of sight, Taskbar Shuffle is a free and effective solution for liberating your programs from their cement shoes. In addition to the obvious and useful program dragging, you can also close applications by clicking their taskbar button with the middle mouse button, tweak the way Windows groups similar taskbar buttons, and assign a keyboard hotkey to keep you from accidentally shuffling things around with some furious productivity-fueled clicking. As an added bonus, Taskbar Shuffle works with the aforementioned multi-monitor Smart Taskbar provided by UltraMon.
AutoHotKey
AutoHotkey is a macro-scripting tool with scripts that—when running—reside in the system tray. The strongest selling point of AutoHotkey is that the scripting language it uses is extremely accessible to new users—especially those with no programming experience. You can use AutoHotkey to do everything from creating simple time-saving typing macros—turning every typed instance of btw into by the way, for example— to creating complex applications, like our very own Texter. Additionally you can also create simple interfaces to allow user input into the scripts and even save your AutoHotkey scripts as executables to use them as portable applications or send them to friends. If all of that seems a bit overwhelming check out our guide to turning any action into a keyboard shortcut—an excellent guide to getting started with AutoHotkey. If you're not interested in writing your own scripts that doesn't mean you can't take advantage of the excellent scripts others have written—check out the posts we've written about AutoHotkey scripts and browse the Scripts section of the AutoHotkey community forum to find scripts.
Digsby
If you're looking to cut down on the number of programs cluttering up your system tray and taskbar, Digsby combines the functionality of many separate applications into one. Once configured, Digsby allows you to chat with friends on AIM, MSN, Yahoo Chat, ICQ, Google Talk, Jabber, and Facebook Chat. Additionally you can receive notifications and check email accounts including popular services like Gmail, Hotmail, or any service that supports IMAP or POP. Right from the overview box in Digsby you can mark emails as read or flag them as spam. As if combing most popular chat platforms and email services together wasn't enough to sell most people, Digsby also supports alerts and updates on popular social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Myspace and LinkedIn. From both a time and screen-space saving aspect Digsby is a gem.
Dropbox
Dropbox is a remote file storage and syncing service. The magic behind Dropbox may reside on a distant server, but the convenience sits in the system tray as an always available link to your Dropbox sync folder. Anything you need to access from a remote location can be dragged into the Dropbox sync folder and within moments it will be uploaded to your Dropbox account. Readers have raved about Dropbox since we offered invites to the beta test last summer; thankfully it's no longer in beta, so anyone can sign up. By far the biggest selling point is the dead simple file syncing and the ample-for-most-purposes free 2GB of remote storage. Many readers have noted that thanks to the speed and simplicity of Dropbox they have forgone toting their files around on flash drives. To take Dropbox beyond simply syncing copies of your TPS Reports check out how to use it to sync your Firefox installations and how to use it as the ultimate password syncer.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now that you've seen the top five applications that bring joy to your fellow readers' system trays, it's time to vote on which one is to be crowned King of the Tray.
If you have your own system tray treasures and tips to share, sound off in the comments below!
Saturday, January 17, 2009
The Best New Windows 7 Keyboard Shortcuts
No matter what OS you use, keyboard shortcuts are a one-way ticket to enhanced productivity (plus you look awesome to friends and colleagues); Windows 7 has more cool new shortcuts than you can shake a stick at.
Windows 7 boasts a lot of great new shortcuts, but I'm focusing on several of my favorites. Check out the video above for a closer look. For those of you who prefer text to video, here are all of the shortcuts I highlighted:
Win+Home: Clear all but the active window
Win+Space: All windows become transparent so you can see through to the desktop
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor (If you've got dual monitors, adding Shift to the mix (e.g., Win+Shift+Right arrow) will move the window to the adjacent monitor.)
Win+T: Focus and scroll through items on the taskbar.
Win+P: Adjust presentation settings for your display
Win+(+/-): Zoom in/out
Shift+Click a taskbar item: Open a new instance of that application
Got a favorite shortcut of your own now that you've installed the Windows 7 Beta? Let's hear about it in the comments. (Apologies for the poor video quality... tried something new, but clearly it didn't work out.)
Windows 7 Shortcuts Enables the Best Win7 Shortcuts in XP or Vista
Windows only: If you like the look of Windows 7's great new keyboard shortcuts but aren't planning to upgrade for a while, Windows 7 Shortcuts enables some of the best Win7 shortcuts for XP and Vista.
Windows 7 Shortcuts was submitted by Lifehacker reader Rupert and was written in one of our favorite scripting languages, AutoHotkey. Right now, Windows 7 Shortcuts supports the following keyboard shortcuts:
Included:
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized
Partially Included
Win+Space: Note from the developer: AHK won't allow multiple windows to be made transparent easily. Therefore, I've changed it to make the active window transparent until it is released.
If you're an AHK user, you can grab the source and paste it into the script you use daily. If not, download the EXE by clicking the Download link above.
Windows 7 Shortcuts is a free download, Windows only.
Windows 7 Shortcuts was submitted by Lifehacker reader Rupert and was written in one of our favorite scripting languages, AutoHotkey. Right now, Windows 7 Shortcuts supports the following keyboard shortcuts:
Included:
Win+Left/Right arrows: Dock the window to each side of the monitor
Win+Up arrow: Maximize the active window
Win+Down arrow: Minimize the window/Restore the window if it's maximized
Partially Included
Win+Space: Note from the developer: AHK won't allow multiple windows to be made transparent easily. Therefore, I've changed it to make the active window transparent until it is released.
If you're an AHK user, you can grab the source and paste it into the script you use daily. If not, download the EXE by clicking the Download link above.
Windows 7 Shortcuts is a free download, Windows only.
HyperSnap-DX 6.40.02
2009.01.13 HyperSnap 6.40.01 released
Updated user interface with several "skins" to choose from on the "Options" menu - "Application Look".
Image tabs may be configured to be positioned above or below the image area, have different colors and properties. Right-click on a tab displays a short menu to close or save an image and to customize the tabs.
Corrected auto-scroll to work with Google Chrome browser.
Added File/Save command to the menu (in addition to "Save As..." that was always there)
Moved "Close All" command from Window to File menu.
Corrected a bug that caused sometimes HyperSnap to print multiple copies of an image, when only one copy print was requested.
Automatic capture processing, such as converting to black & white, substituting colors, adding a shade or frame, inserting stamps - will turned off and you need to manually turn it on when you exit and restart HyperSnap. If you do need to preserve these options at all times, add "-ra" command line option to the shortcut you use to start HyperSnap (see online help, "Command line usage" chapter).
HyperSnap-DX 6.40.02
Updated user interface with several "skins" to choose from on the "Options" menu - "Application Look".
Image tabs may be configured to be positioned above or below the image area, have different colors and properties. Right-click on a tab displays a short menu to close or save an image and to customize the tabs.
Corrected auto-scroll to work with Google Chrome browser.
Added File/Save command to the menu (in addition to "Save As..." that was always there)
Moved "Close All" command from Window to File menu.
Corrected a bug that caused sometimes HyperSnap to print multiple copies of an image, when only one copy print was requested.
Automatic capture processing, such as converting to black & white, substituting colors, adding a shade or frame, inserting stamps - will turned off and you need to manually turn it on when you exit and restart HyperSnap. If you do need to preserve these options at all times, add "-ra" command line option to the shortcut you use to start HyperSnap (see online help, "Command line usage" chapter).
HyperSnap-DX 6.40.02
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Windows Update
Microsoft makes the second release candidate of Windows XP Service Pack 3 publicly available for testing purposes. If you're feeling like giving your XP some early adopter love, run a registry modification program to install SP3 RC1 via Windows Update. But be warned the release notes are kinda "eh." Update: Or just download it directly from here. Tx, Prospero!
Windows XP Service Pack 3 and Vista SP1 Now on Windows Update
Windows only: We know it's kind of pathetic to get all excited about something as mundane as a service pack—yet here we are, hearts all a-patter because XP SP3 and Vista SP1 have been unleashed on Windows Update and at the Microsoft Download Center. Get thee to patching your PC! Why should you? Our complete field guide to XP Service Pack 3 holds all the answers.
Windows Search 4.0 Available on Windows Update
Windows only: Windows Search 4.0, an updated version of the desktop/web search tool that was introduced with Vista, is now officially available for Windows XP and Vista through Windows Update. As was the case with the technical preview, Windows Search 4.0 boasts faster and deeper indexing, better handling of email cataloging, support for encrypted documents, and a new system tray interface. Windows Search 4.0 is free and being rolled out gradually, but you can grab it manually from a link at this page.
See Your System's Upgrades with WinUpdatesList
Windows only: WinUpdatesList, a free utility for Windows, lets you see what updates your system has grabbed during its existence, and provides quick links to Microsoft Knowledge Base articles related to each one. Why would you use this instead of heading to the Windows Update server, you ask? If you're without internet and want to see which update borked your system, perhaps, or if you want to pre-download and slipstream updates into a custom-made Windows install CD. Since it's a self-contained app, no real installation is required, so use and discard at your discretion. WinUpdatesList is a free download for Windows systems (except Vista).
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