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Nerds on the Road goes mobile!

Posted on December 23, 2009 by Katya Posted in nerding, web design | 2 Comments

I dont often run into websites online that are mobile friendly unless they are fairly large companies. They seem to have the money and time to work on the extra project, although an important one. Making your site mobile and especially touch screen friendly is important in an age where pretty much everyone, including 10 year old kids, has a mobile browser. It has become one of the most popular ways to browse the internet and cannot be ignored by anyone.

Everyone with an iPhone knows how annoying it is to go to a site and have to finger zoom, rotate and wipe across the screen looking for links to more sections. Even more annoying is when the site just doesn’t work well enough to tolerate. The Nerds on the Road website worked fine on my iPhone but was as annoying as any other site to get around.

Solution: the wptouch plugin for WordPress by www.bravenewcode.com.

As you can see, the is a plugin for wordpress only and any blog not using wordpress is lacking anyways. WordPress has so many options for SEO, networking, pinging, caching, and updating. There is even a great app for wordpress on the iPhone (download) that I use pretty regularly. It’s especially useful for uploading photos directly to wordpress from your phone (rather than emailing them to yourself) and of course you can write blogs when you’re not around a computer – but as you can imagine, writing an entire blog on a touch screen keyboard is a nightmare.

As soon as I found wptouch I had some problems installing, so I thought, really I had just checked the box for “show regular site for 1st time visits” and my iPhone would never show the mobile site, second visit or 10th – so beware of that.

First thing to do is come up with a color scheme, which is really limited but I cant complain giving what the plugin does. Then go and create your icons for your home page and all the pages you decide to have on the mobile site. A link next to the icon section sends you to a great site for making icons for iPhones, sites, apps or profiles, www.flavorstudios.com. Then install WordTwit though your plugins>add new, configure your settings there and you’re live!

Anyone with wordpress can have a mobile site and now that I know that I have about 10 more mobile sites to make for myself, clients and friends. And I thought I wouldnt have any work Christmas week!

18 Free & Useful Road Travel iPhone Apps!

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Katya Posted in nerding, travel | 2 Comments

Before we left on our trip we knew internet and phone were going to be huge deciding factors on our trip. Neither of us can work without internet every day, all day, and Ross has regular phone meetings that require decent cell reception. With our iPhones came AT&T and no other options. I got my phone refurbished for $99, an 8gig 3G and Ross got the newer 16gig 3GS. So far, we haven’t noticed significant differences between them.

For internet we have an AT&T USB internet device and a Verizon wifi hotspot (our second after Sprint’s service didn’t work out). If anyone cares to know, for traveling, Verizon has the BEST coverage for phone and internet – like the commercials say – 5 times better than AT&T. We learned the hard way, having not had TV in years and not listening to radio ads closely enough, we probably would have got Verizon for cell service as well. At the time, you couldn’t get an iPhone without AT&T unless it was used and jailbroken – which at the time I didn’t know enough about to trust.

I am always in the passenger seat since I don’t have a drivers license which by default makes me the navigator. While we are driving, if I’m not working, I am looking up information and weather at our next destination. Making an attempt to become somewhat informed about the place and maybe even have the place mapped out in my head. By the time we get to a town, I know where we can eat, what there is to do, where we can buy groceries, what the weather will be like all week, what our cell/internet reception will be like and maybe even why the town is called Bubsville for example.

I decided after two friends this year bought or got the iTouch for Christmas, that I would make a list of travel apps while it was fresh in my mind. They are not in a particular order except ones I use most often. I dont see a point in rating them – if they have issues – I will not hold back telling you.

First, Google Maps of course. This app comes with the iPhone and iTouch and although we have GPS (TomTom) in the RV, it has proven instrumental in finding places that either the GPS cannot find by name or provides a map view of a search, unlike GPS, letting you see things in relativity to you and each other – rather than a list that only tells you how far away from you things are.  GPS is also only updated every so often and is nowhere near as thorough of a search though sometimes it will surprise you. When you cant find a place on GPS by name you can search Google Maps for the location which will give you an address. If you can’t find a place on Google Maps but know generally where it is,  you can drop a pin by clicking the peeling paper in the bottom right and drag it where you want it. If its on a road, Google will tell you the location of your dropped pin, which you can then type into GPS. Do NOT by AT&T GPS if you plan to leave a major city, unfortunately iPhone GPS just isn’t dependable enough and often lags (when you need to know what your next turn is this is a no), even Google Maps gets stuck sometimes and thinks you’re in a field or the center of town – so paying for GPS that is hardly better than the free map service isn’t worth it.

Other advantages of Google Maps is Satellite and Hybrid view which will show you the topography of the region and in cases where you are really lost, you can find buildings, RV parks and even the street view of the place you are going (in a town or city – not state parks or country roads). We have many times found RV parks by looking at the satellite view and seeing a row of RV’s from space. We find most of our State Parks and RV parks though Google Maps as well as anything like vets, propane and parks for Chena to play in.

Google Maps iPhone appGoogle Maps iPhone App

Weather is an obvious necessary app. We ran from snow storms and 18 degree nights for weeks thanks to this built in feature. It’s pretty self explanatory.

The apps I use second most often is probably a toss up between Around Me (download), Yelp (download) and Urban Spoon (download). They all do similar things in different ways.

Yelp (download) is just like the website, generally. You can find places and see their ratings – unlike Urban Spoon, it has more than just food and unlike Around Me, it has the reviews. Yelp has however gotten us lost a couple times and it’s best to confirm with Google Maps and maybe even call a place before betting money. Yelp does have a live feed though where local reviews for places pop up as a list and you can bookmark favorite places to check them out later. They also have a Talk feature where you can post or answer local questions about places to find things or just use the Nearby option to find anything near you in set categories. Retailers can also post coupons and sales on the Yelp website which show up as a category in the Nearby page giving you an edge in shopping or eating cheap.

Around me (download) will let you search many categories or use an open search for places in your area. You can search a list that tells you the address and how many miles it is or view it as a map with pins on it. They are pretty up to date on what business are actually still around, a problem you run into allot while traveling the US we’ve found. There is a category called Nearby that will tell you a short history of towns around you.

around me

Urban Spoon (download) is strictly food as you can guess. You can search by type of food, places near you and unlike Google Maps or Around Me, you can see the price range, reviews, ratings and sometimes menus. The restaurant page has the phone number, address and a link to the map or website if they have one. Once on the map, you can send it to Google Maps which will show were you are relative to the restaurant and plan your trip there.

Urban Spoon

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Weekend before Xmas proves ok!

Posted on December 22, 2009 by Katya Posted in out and about | 1 Comment

This is one of the first weekends we have actually stayed put. We don’t usually stay anywhere longer than a week before we are rushing off to the next unknown location, spending our weekends on the road and parking in Walmarts.

We made it to Central Time (nice to sleep in a bit before work), we made it to a state I’ve never been to and we were both tired of pouring all our money into the next jump east so we decided to stay a while and slow the trip down. The first thing we’ve learned about the south so far is that is is NOT warm in the winters. Apparently this is an “Arizona. California and Florida thing” and only small parts of those states as well. We have had our heat on pretty much every day all day and night since we ran out of propane and thought we would freeze to death a few weeks ago. Luckily it only gets down to about 30 here at night and up to 65 during the day – with a breeze that says “keep your damn hoody on outsider”.

This Saturday we got up at the crack of noon and took to the town. Our first stop Denny’s for garden burgers, probably the only restaurant in town with those, then the Cemetery. I thought… well, assumed it would be old and awesome – therefore photogenic – but it wasn’t, so we hung out long enough to find a smelly orange berry fruit – which turned out to be a Kumquat (the most stupidly named fruit ever). I didn’t eat it but if I see more I may.

Brougham at the Cemetery

Brougham at the Cemetery

We then looked for a post office, being lied to horribly by google maps (on iphone) we walked around downtown a bit looking for it when we finally found a blue box and dumped our Christmas cards in it – with Edgar Allen Poe stamps haha.

Then the Gun Show. I found out about that by looking up “Fredericksburg Texas Christmas” in an effort to find out why they spend so much on their Christmas decorations – like maybe they hold a fair, parade… party? I found the official Fredericksburg website and found it is the home of Lady Bird  and possibly Lyndon B Johnson and they have a holiday party at his house. They also had an events calender with the Gun Show listed directly next to that on the same day. Rather than rub elbows with the local elite, we decided to see what Texan gun enthusiasts were like and boy, it was…. something.

We got there late so they only charged us a single fare, $5 and I think it was worth it. It was the smallest gun show I’ve been to (I used to do security at the Portland Expo Center Gun Show) but it did not disappoint. One of the first tables we came to was a hate filled cesspool of “kill liberals, kill cats and obama is a terrorist” stickers next to books about surviving the coming apocalypse, killing your enemies and gun defense for women carrying babies.

I lost almost all my photos of the gun show today when my iPhone crashed and I didn’t back them up lately. Luckily I uploaded a couple to facebook – though not the most offensive.

Saturday, while playing with our tomtom GPS, I found out we were really close to some interesting sounding places. Balancing Rock (which we never found), Pilar Rock (which we traded for a movie) and the Cave Without a Name.

Hilmar Hung street, where we got lost looking for a balancing rock. Notice the measure stick in the background? Notice that it says 5 feet ABOVE the road – fun with flooding!

We drove about 56 miles without first researching much aside from their hours of operation. When we arrived we found they charged $15 a person and tours only. After a round trip of over 100 miles, gas was enough of a price so the weekend began playing makeup for all the weekends we.. well.. spent lots of money on gas driving.. hmm.We had somehow imagined the cave would be free and without a tour… now we know for sure that anything people can make money off of, they will.

Anyway, we went. It was pretty cool. It looked more to me like a cave people should live in than one people should tour. I imagined it succeeding greatly as a restaurant for people who would love to eat in caves, like me. There were only 4 people on the tour, the other, a Chinese couple from Houston who were twice asked how and why they came from China – both having been born and raised in Texas, this was a little odd and funny to watch. People weren’t rude to them just really curious.

I managed to take some photos at iso 1600 with my digital, didn’t even bother bringing film because of the lack of light (and I only have 50 and 100 speed film). The walls look like parts of mud monsters and had a certain glitter to them, apparently having a crystal content or some kind – to which the guy in the other couple stated “looks like Edward”. I tried so hard not to bust up laughing.

white grapes at the cave without a name

white grapes at the cave without a name

All in all the tour was a little less perilous than I wanted. We weren’t allowed into the section where they dive under water in the cave to explore it. Apparently there is 3 miles of cave so far but people only get to see about 1/4 of a mile of smooth trail, floor and concrete stairs.

After the cave we were going to head to Pillar Rock outside Kerrville but after seeing photos on Wikipedia, we decided it was boring. Instead we went to see Avatar in 3D! It was nearly a 3 hour movie but totally worth it. The graphics were not the slightest bit annoying or unrealistic – and while in 3D you really started to feel like everything about the world was completely possible and after a while, normal. It was a pretty big disappointment leaving the theater and coming back to earth – seeing trees that don’t glow and animals that cant swallow your head. I was quickly reminded after the film where we were when a kid behind us said “damn treehuggers”, repeating a statement from the military in the film who were set on stealing the planet’s resources. I suppose if you hunt and every member of your family is in the military, you may take the military side in the film but I think the main purpose of the plot was to attempt to visually explain the importance of appreciating your resources and the destructive results of stealing from – destroying and remaining ignorant about other cultures. Also understanding your right to abuse the environment, especially for something so temporary as money. Anyway, great film! See it! (in 3D if possible).

Fredericksburg Texas for Christmas

Posted on December 21, 2009 by Katya Posted in RV life, RV Parks, travel | Leave a comment

This is our second week in Fredericksburg. We ended up here sort of by accident – while on the way to Spring Branch Texas we were looking for somewhere to eat. I looked up the next town’s selection of food on my Urban Spoon app on my iPhone and found a strange collection of German restaurants and pubs. Curious, I looked up more info on the town in Wikipedia and found it was a historically German town and one very hooked on its heritage. When we drove through downtown we were greeted by actual signs of life. Every town in Texas before Fredericksburg lacked a certain something – somethings like edible food, movie theaters, people outside of their cars and a at least some modernity – something as nerds we haven’t let go of yet.

We got into town relatively early considering our usual arrival time in of 3am – rolling into a super cheap RV park at 8pm was some kind of miracle. We wanted a place near the center of town to get a chance to do something, anything, during the week. It would be the first time we were near anything at all really. A part of me just wanted to be able to walk to a store or ride my bike to a bar after spending the last couple months in the boondocks. Of the 2 closest to the center of town, Hill County RV Park was the cheapest at only $20 a night or $100 a week. It was almost as cheap as some of the non-hookup sites at state parks and featured free wifi, cable TV and the usual hookups. They even had a gray/black water hookup unlike all the parks so far. For everyone who doesn’t know what gray water is (and I barely know), its the water from your sink and shower, basically anything but your toilet. Black Water is toilet water + the rest – anything you should be embarrassed about. We still don’t use our toilet and don’t plan on it. There is a bathroom with a shower about 40 feet from the RV and as usual we are some of the only people using it so it’s not bad.

Since this is technically the first RV park we have stayed at (everything else having been state parks or parking lots) we were skeptical about sharing space so closely with so many people. Turns out people tend to leave you alone, especially if you leave them alone or look different. They have a rec room we haven’t used for anything yet. It has a TV, books and 2 computers with internet. They are planning a Christmas potluck – probably consisting of a few of the many full time residents at the park. There’s are 64 spots here and less than half of them every seem to get new people in them. Most of the people seem older, many working locally and all of them spending most of their time inside.

Fredericksburg has so far proven interesting enough to keep us here 2 weeks. After we were here a couple days we took a bike ride into town to find a place to get a drink. The highway is the only way into town from where we are and it’s definitely not meant for bikes. It was already dark, naturally (since it gets dark at 5:30) and we hadn’t made the attempt in daylight to get a feel for it. People travel down the highway at about 50 to 70mph, most any intention of giving us any space. I can ride my bike in the dirt if I have to but Ross’s bike has small road tires that pop if you look at them wrong. We had to share a headlight and tail light, me in the back with the flashing red – and probably the only thing that kept us form being smothered. The ride into town is about 2 miles up a slight hill, which wouldn’t have been a problem if I had ridden a bike more than once in the last 3 years. About half way there we found a place called Mamacitas and stopped for something to eat. I thought it was locally owned but we were immediately greeted by a Starbucks inside (the first in Texas) and a possible sighting of a Bush family member (this is a leaping guess, but he looked like Bush). After some soggy spinach on tortillas and cheese we headed off to find another place to grab a drink – someplace Texan this time.

We rode downtown with the expectations that a weeknight would not keep Texans out of the bars but found only a completely dead downtown. All the bars and restaurants on main street were closed and it was only 8pm. We quickly scoured the annals of our iPhones in search of nearby late night beverage sales and came up with Buck O’Brians – an “Irish bar” who was close and open. We walked in to a bar full of cowboys and hunters listening to country music I haven’t heard since I was 12 in Montana and my mom worked in bar. The ride home was cold but at least downhill and we didn’t go out again til this weekend.

Xmas obsessed Fredericksburg:

Santa-Garlic in Fredricksburg Texas

Santa-Garlic in Fredricksburg Texas

santa on crutches

santa on crutches

Spunky Monkey and the Xmas dog

Spunky Monkey and the Xmas dog

We will be here until Christmas and 2 days after. We don’t expect to do much on, around or after Christmas but I guess that all depends on our willingness to face the highway, pack up and drive somewhere or socialize. I’m sure something will drag us out before then.