Convenient Utility Pages
I regularly visit the sites collected below, and list them here to aid
access to them
Google.
Maplight.org links data on
campaign contributions and votes of California politicians.
Seat Guru aids in selecting
seats for air travel.
Flight Aware provides live tracking of all
flights.
Check the BedBug Registry for reports of bedbugs in
your hotel, and make a report if needed.
XE.com, the Universal Currency
Converter can be useful for overseas travel.
x-rates.com graphs exchange rates
over time.
Temperature
Converter for Celsius, Fahrenheit, and Kelvin (for those
out-of-this-world trips).
With the decline of Weather Underground International Weather for deeply informative weather reporting
on May 4, 2015, I now use and recommend either Intellicast or AccuWeather.
Spare The Air.org provides
detailed reports and forecasts on Bay Area Air Quality.
A map showing active forest fires in the United States can be found at
the USDA Forest Service
site; a similar map of fires in California can be found at CAL FIRE.
International Time and Date
Converter and Telephone Codes page is useful for planning meetings and
travel.
Alta Vista's Babelfish
Translator site translates text across at least a dozen languages. I
really wish that had existed when I was in high school, it
could have helped immensely in learning a language, if used properly.
Sadly, at present the site does not translate to or from Czech.
Online Timer
can be used in countdown or countup modes.
USA Track and Field Route Mapper
allows users to map running routes throughout the USA or to tap a database
of previously-saved routes, some of which are outside the United States.
To map and save one's own routes outside the USA one may use the Gmaps Pedometer. Both of these
sites are ideal resources for those seeking to maintain their work-out
schedule even while travelling in unfamiliar territory, without having a
hotel treadmill as the only recourse.
While running in unfamiliar conditions it can be useful to check
the Runner's World
What to Wear site. Punch in the weather conditions and one's preferences
and out pops suggested clothing for the run.
Mapquest is for drawing maps and
obtaining driving directions.
511.org is the Bay Area's full
service transit information hub. It contains everything from a map
showing degree of traffic congestion; an integrated link to the multiple
transit systems in the bay area (e.g., BART, AC Transit, CalTrain, and
more) allowing one to plan a trip using any single system, or multiple
systems; bike routes and maps; and airport information.
Bay Area Hiker is the Bay Area's
full service hiker information hub. It contains everything from trail
maps, information on planning your hike, volunteer opportunities, rankings
of the ease or difficulty of hikes, and more. Truly a guide to the San
Francisco Estuary.
United States
Geological Survey Earthquake Center can be checked to confirm the
existence of a recent earthquake nationwide.
California
ISO provides information on the status of power distribution, demand,
and availability in California.
Pandora is a music service that takes
your stated preferences for songs or bands and then streams a personal radio
station from bands you might consider on that basis. With this free service one
can develop up to 100 personal stations. Power from the web to the people!
The Internet Movie Database
liberates one from having to own an up-to-date video directory before
heading to the video store.
Dead or Alive can be
searched to determine whether someone famous or nearly famous is dead or
