Stick it to the man with the GasWatch Widget
April 20, 2006 – 9:28 am by Matt Radel
Filed under Cool Stuff, Rants
Are the type that drives across town for gas that’s 2 cents cheaper? I’ve got something that’ll make your life a bit easier.
We here at Volksbloggin are just like the rest of you. We’ve been watching the gas prices steadily rise, and felt our wallets get proportionally thinner. Added insult to injury are the constant reminders from analysts that oil companies are pocketing record profits. Ugh.
While you can’t do anything about your dependence on oil (unless you saw this coming and snagged a TDI which gets 32/43mpg), you can be a smart consumer at pay as little as possible for it. With the “GasWatch” widget from Yahoo’s Konfabulator, you can monitor the prices in your area and minimize your pain at the pump.
So what’s a widget? Basically, it’s a very simple mini application that runs on your computer and provides you information or entertainment. There are thousands of widgets, each with different functions. Konfabulator is the parent application that runs and manages the widgets. Soooo, you need to download Konfabulator and then download widgets. Fellow Mac OX 10.4 (Tiger) users: there is a Gas Price widget available for Dashboard here.
How to use it:
1. Download Konfabulator (Mac or PC). It’ll walk you through the installation process (very, very well).
2. Download the GasWatch widget.
3. Browse to your “My Widgets” folder and double click to start it up.
4. Enter your ZIP Code and enjoy!
Note: The GasWatch widget works in the US only, and does not cover every area.
Stick it to the man with the GasWatch Widget
April 20, 2006 – 9:28 am by Matt Radel
My only complaint with the Gas Watch widget is that many times the it will cost you the savings difference to physically haul you and your dub over to the cheapest locale.
Also, I have noticed that at times the widget isn’t entirely accurate. It’ll list one price, but then I know that I had seen it lower just on the way to work. Perhaps they have released a newer, more accurate version? Anyone know what their logic is to check the prices across each station in the area? Who reports the $$, etc?
Gosh, there I go burstin the bubble…
Haha. Yeah, I should have noted that it’s not ENTIRELY accurate - more of a guide really. It pulls it’s info from http://autos.msn.com/, and did get only 2.5 out of 4 stars on Konfabulator. Then again, it’s a bit better than driving ALL over town.