PadMapper - Amazing.

I’ve been living my life in 6-month increments, mainly due to the fact that I’m in a rotational leadership program where I move every 6 months (call me crazy, I know.)

People are usually concerned for me- but the worst part of it is finding a cool place to live for 6 months in a short amount of time, within your price range.

So, my initial approach was somewhat similar to most- updating my facebook status, e-mailing contacts, and of course, checking Craigslist numerous times per day.

After the stress of excel to Craigslist copy and paste efforts, my lean/six sigma training kicked in: There has to be a better way to do this… Are there applications available that I just don’t know about or don’t have access to?

Well, I was right.

I found PadMapper… this would have seriously saved me HOURS. Basically, PadMapper pulls location data listed in craigslist, and displays it in (our favorite) google maps interface, where you can also FILTER LISTINGS based on bedrooms, # bathrooms, total price, and price per bedroom (great for roommates).

If you’re particularly interested in a place, you can zoom in very close, and nearby restaurants, bars, shopping and more will show up on the map (in most cities), and you can click on them to see their Yelp Ratings.

The only thing to watch out for is not PadMapper’s fault- but just the inconsistency of how data is entered into Craigslist. When posting an ad on CraigsList, some enter the “weekly” or “bi-weekly” rate instead of the monthly rate, and that can throw PadMapper off… so just keep an eye out for this. Now, this is an improvement CraigsList needs to change- simply adding a new field or a button to choose if it is a weekly/daily/monthly rate, which would allow for easier searching.

It really just boils down to their tagline- “Making Apartment Huting Suck Less.” basically.

Since I can’t get enough of blogging and social media technologies, I have joined up on a collaborative, cross-business team to do just that.

After a few weeks of meeting, reading, writing and conference calls, the result is now “live” — the official IMLP Blog.

The bloggers come from across GE businesses- Corporate, Infrastructure, C&I, Commercial Finance, Healthcare, and Money. Gaining perspectives from IMLPs from a variety of businesses allows readers to get a well-rounded perspective on the program.

Check out the GE IMLP blog for more information on GE’s Information Management Leadership Program- especially on Thursdays, because that’s when yours truly posts!!

So, in my first rotation as a GE IMLP, it looks like I’m going to be working with some fun, new technologies. Maybe even some crazy satellite stuff.

And it’s not just me. A couple of my IMLP coworkers need to navigate their way through some technical documents and training.

But how?

Newton’s Telecom Dictionary. It basically held my hand through computer networking and other technical classes in college. With wit and humor, Harry Newton will help you breakdown high level technical terms in a means that can actually be understood by humans.

It’s like this reviewer said on Amazon:

Harry does a great job of defining telco terms and acronyms in plain English and not by using other complex terms and acronyms. This is much more significant than it sounds at first. It is simply impossible for any professional to know every last obscure acronym and term used in this expansive and ever-growing industry over the past 100 years. Harry will help to make sure that you never have to ask anyone else what in the heck their TLA’s mean. You will be the Alpha-geek. All others will bow in your presence. Life will be good.

Newton’s Telecom Dictionary has one more unique trait. Harry’s wry sense of humor has threaded itself into many of the definitions. This is one of those rare tomes that you can sit down with and randomly read for enjoyment. Whenever there is an interesting and/or humorous story behind a telco term, Harry inevitably includes it with the definition. This dictionary can be fun to read! This is especially nice if someone walks into your work space and catches you reading your dictionary. They will never suspect you of goofing off!

-Christopher Erickson
Intrepid Engineer of the Far North

My conclusion. If you work with technology (who doesn’t?) buy an edition of this dictionary. If you’re cost conscious right now, buy an older edition (they come out annually). The 2005 edition is $1.89. Seriously.