More house shopping

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We looked at several more houses this weekend:

  • 122 Damascus - This house is mechanically excellent, everything is in great shape, but it doesn't really excite us, there's no place for a big screen TV, unless we either do it in the "formal" living room area, or finish the basement, which may or may not stay dry...

  • 1458 Laurel Circle - This house is huge, but very dated inside, lots of space, which we love, but that kitchen has to go, and it's already so far up our price list that adding a kitchen remodel on top of it would probably be financially unwise...
  • 3414 Tucson - This house is just 2 blocks from our current home, and we really like the neighborhood, but suffers from being the most expensive house on the street, as it's a newer house in an older neighborhood. While it is very nice inside, it's also rather pricey for the square footage, as it's smaller than we would like. The yard is very nice, though.
  • 1122 Parkway - This house is across the street from a really dumpy duplex, though it is in a very quiet dead-end road area. This house is huge, but needs a lot of finish work redone, as it's either ugly, or poorly implemented. Also, all that "wood" flooring in the photos is really laminate.
  • 2608 Abraham - This house is interesting. It's only a three bedroom, and we'd really like four, but there is at least office space in the basement, and a room that could maybe be converted to a fourth bedroom if we ever needed one. There's a hot tub, but it's really old looking, and the master bathroom is the only one on the main level, and also opens to the rest of the house, so you can't leave it messy. Also, it has a walk-in tub for old people, and I hope to be at least 40 years away from needing that...

    • Resources for new Kindle owners

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    As I know a lot of people have received new Amazon Kindles lately for the holidays, and have probably fallen in love with them as much as I have over the last six months of owning one, I thought I'd compile a few tips about alternative ways of getting content on them. Certainly, you can buy your eBooks all from Amazon, though there can be advantages from getting them elsewhere too, especially if it saves you money!

    One of the ways you can save a few bucks is by using the excellent free software package called Calibre to load content you already own on your Kindle. Amazon has a nice service where they will convert PDF and Word documents, among other formats, and send them to your Kindle, but they charge by the megabyte for the data they're converting for you. If you use Calibre, and just plug your USB cable into your computer, you can upload eBooks and other content for free, and cut out the middle an. Calibre is available for both Mac and PC, and it's a great app!

    Another great source for eBooks is Baen, the science fiction publisher. If Sci-Fi isn't your cup of tea, then this probably won't interest you, but the Baen Free Library has an ever-changing collection of totally free and legal eBooks for you to download for your Kindle. They started this program at the urging of some of their authors, to help generate interest in paper sales of catalog titles, as well as in the hopes that if you read one book by the author for free and love it, you'll purchase subsequent books.

    Baen also sells many other eBooks via their WebScriptions site, including many titles that simply aren't available via Amazon for the Kindle, and they're usually at a much lower price. Another nice feature of the Baen books is that they don't use any DRM on their eBooks, so you'll always be able to read them, move them to another device, or loan them out to a friend.

    Friends are another excellent source of Kindle content, as many titles can now be lent to a friend via Amazon's web page. You just need to enter a valid email address to send the eBook code to, and then that Kindle owner can have the book installed on their Kindle. It's important to note, however, that not all Kindle books on Amazon can be lent, as it's up to the publisher to enable that feature. Also, a given book you own can only be lent once, and only for a period of two weeks! Make sure the person you're lending the book to will have time to read it, and REALLY wants the book, before you use up your one lending period on them.

    This idea has also been extended to the Kindle Lending Club online, where users can swap their "lends" with each other, giving you access to far more titles than you could get from your friends.

    I'm hopeful in the future that libraries will implement a way to check out eBooks on the Kindle too. They have the ability to do it for some other platforms, and while the DRM can be removed to let the content work on a Kindle, it's something you need a computer geek to set up.

    3G Data coverage maps of Iowa

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    As I’m in the market for a new cell phone and carrier, after being with Sprint (disclosure: I’m a Sprint shareholder) for 9.5 years, I did some comparison of the various 3G coverage maps of Iowa, and here they are.  You can click on the maps for larger versions of many of them:

    First up, iWireless.  Formerly known as Iowa Wireless, they’re the closest thing we have to T-Mobile here in Iowa.  Their 3G coverage is pretty weak, and is represented by the pink color on the map.  Davenport, Cedar Rapids, Cedar Falls/Waterloo, Des Moines, Ames, Council Bluffs, and Iowa City are covered, and really nowhere else..  Their service prices are good, but their phone selection tends to lag T-Mobile proper by quite a bit, and if you venture outside those cities, you’re going to be on Edge or even worse, GPRS a lot of the time…

    iWireless

    Next up is AT&T.  I have two maps for them, the first is their current map, the second is the coverage they plan to have on 3G by the end of March.  Cedar Falls & Waterloo went live on 3G sometime yesterday, so the map appears to be coming true.  On the first map, 3G is the dark blue.  On the second (future) map, current 3G is dark blue, future 3G is light blue, sorry it’s so tiny!

    ATT

    attfuture

    Third is Sprint.  As I mentioned, they’re my current carrier, and cover most of the major metropolitan areas with 3G (the dark orange), though for some reason they continue to ignore Fort Dodge and Mason City, among others, as well as the I-35 corridor:

    sprint

    Fourth is Verizon.  They cover most of the state with their 3G (red) coverage, though that salmon color shows they have some holes in the northwest & southwest corners.  I, personally, never go there, so it doesn’t really bother me, but I wish there was a little better coverage on US 63 north from Waterloo to Rochester, MN.

    Verizon

    Fifth, and best, in my opinion, is regional carrier US Cellular.  They cover almost all of the state with 3G as represented by the sickly green color, and when you’re not on their network, you’ll roam onto Verizon’s 3G network in most of the country.  For some reason, the bottom tier of Minnesota seems to be non-3G coverage in their maps, however.

    USCell

    So what’s an Iowan to do?  Clearly if you’re a heavy smartphone user, and you travel outside major cities, CDMA is your only real option for technology, and the best choices are Verizon & US Cellular.  Sprint isn’t bad in Eastern Iowa, but really degrades elsewhere, and in rural areas.  The GSM carriers, iWireless and AT&T, are really only great in the major cities, over 100,000 people, but if you don’t spend any time out in little places like Ventura, Manson, or Hanlontown, Iowa, they’d be fine.  Unfortunately, I spend time in those places, and even some bigger ones, like Mason City and Fort Dodge, and I think I want 3G coverage in all of them for my next phone…