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Decent-sounding records are becoming increasingly rare, so I'd like to point out the great-sounding ones that have come my way in recent months. For more good stuff, check out my previous "Top 10 must-have CDs" lists from 2009.

Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, The Live Anthology

First, I have to admit I'm not a big TP fan, but I love this four-disc live collection culled from a database of 3,500 songs, including 169 takes of "American Girl" performed between 1980 and 2007. The tunes aren't arranged in chronological order, but the sound quality remains high from start to finish. Vocals are clear, dynamic range kicks butt, and you hear the fans whooping it up to good effect. Petty does a lot of covers, my favorites run from "Goldfinger" to the old Fleetwood Mac tune, "Oh Well."

Drive By Truckers, "Live From Austin, TX"

This show, from September 26, 2008, has something for everyone: it rocks, it smokes, and it's very easy on the ears and eyes. You can buy the CD or the CD packed with a DVD of the same show. That's what I have, and the band really does put on a terrific show. Sound is clean and clear; I don't think they mucked around with it very much, though I do prefer the CD's sound.

Owen Pallett, "Heartland"

Owen Pallett, aka Final Fantasy, isn't exactly your average rock musician. For starters he plays violin, and if you're a fan of Arcade Fire, Grizzly Bear, or Beirut, you've heard his sound. "Heartland" is an expansive work, with densely orchestrated tunes, but don't get nervous; it still appeals to an indie rock crowd. Sound quality, on CD and 45 RPM LP, is spectacularly good. You're going to see "Heartland" on a lot of best-of-2010 lists in December, but why wait?

The Doors, "Live in New York"

The Doors' "Live in New York" contains all of the Doors' performances at the Felt Forum in New York in 1970. All four shows were recently mixed and mastered by the band's longtime engineer, Bruce Botnick. Sound quality is, and not just for a 40-year-old recording, exceptional. It's very dynamic and totally vivid. This six-CD set ain't cheap, but Amazon is listing a "Live in New York" LP that'll come out in March for a lot less than half the price of the CD set. … Read more

If you take a look at the new KitchenAid French Door bottom freezer fridge, you might think that the only changes are the chrome details and full color LCD screen on the newly contoured doors. You might, but you'd be wrong.

Open those lovely doors, and you'll find a larger fridge capacity (2 cubic feet more than previous models), shelves that extend an additional three quarters of an inch, and advanced LED lighting so that you can see everything you cram inside. The fridge also features an in-door water and ice system and a convenient tilt-out ice door. … Read more

I was doing research for last week's blog about the gas guzzlin' class of 2010 automobiles, and along the way I had read some not-so-positive notes about the 2010 Porsche Cayenne GTS and its rather low gas to mileage ratio. That's too bad; it looks nice on the outside.

Also along the way I began picking up some articles about the 2010 Porsche Panamera, which reportedly marks the German auto maker's first stab at designing and manufacturing a sedan. But if you're thinking that Porsche has traded in horsepower for childproof locks and wood panels, you … Read more

I've been hearing more and more about the Arduino microcontroller project lately, and this is by far one of the coolest uses for it I've seen. Arduino is an open-source hardware project meant for easy prototyping of hardware ideas. This is Steve Hoefer's great vision for a mechanism that opens a door when it detects a secret knock. Here it is in action:

As you can see, he's programmed the microcontroller to listen for a specific knock sequence. When it hears it, it turns the deadbolt, meaning you can open the door. It's a simple … Read more

RatMaster is a fun and challenging puzzle game in which users reconfigure mazes to allow their rat to reach the cheese at the end, all while avoiding snakes and other potential dangers. The simple premise and sometimes difficult puzzles make this game easy to get hooked on.

The program's graphics and interface didn't totally blow us away, but they are definitely above average. The music and sound effects were appropriate and added to the game's experience, but they can be turned off if desired. Game play is intuitive, and a Help file explains the basic rules of … Read more

Samsung has set the new bar for French door refrigerators with its 2009 RFG298 and RF268 models. Featuring an innovative dual ice-making system, the sleek refrigerators can create up to one and a half times the ice in refrigerators with a single ice maker.

The dual ice system is composed of an external filtered water and ice dispenser embedded in the counter-height fridge and an additional dispenser in the freezer. If you're not up to eating that much ice, you can turn one of them off: each one is independently operated. And don't let the extra ice dispenser … Read more

Family-owned Dacor showed off its new line of appliances recently at the 2009 Kitchen/Bath Industry Show (KBIS) in Atlanta. Among the appliances on display was the Energy Star qualified Epicure 36-inch Freestanding French Door Cabinet-Depth Bottom Freezer Refrigerator. The refrigerator saves time and energy with a 20-percent energy efficient compressor, and is stated to use less energy than a 60-watt light bulb.

An easy-to-use control panel not only monitors the temperature of the freezer along with the refrigerator, but also offers some convenient options. Fast Ice automatically cools the freezer section for 24 hours, allowing for the included icemaker … Read more

The name may be misleading, but this Combi Quadrio Hotpoint French Door refrigerator does a great job of looking cool while it's cooling your foods. Available in gloss black or stainless steel and only 70 cm wide, it's an addition to your kitchen that will fit right in.

But don't let the slender shape fool you: the refrigerator bay can hold up to 300 liters, and the freezer holds up to 110 liters. And where they deliver in size, they save in energy use. The freezer has a four-star rating and its A rating means it should … Read more

Last week, I looked at five real estate search sites and discussed their merits as tools for searching for a home. So now that you have that dream house picked out, it's time you get down to the business of finding a real estate agent and researching both the home itself, and the neighborhood it's in--just to make sure it's still a place you want to live.

After all, moving to a new home can't be as simple as finding a home you like and buying it immediately, right?

Find your real estate agent with DoorFly Once you've found the home you like on sites like Trulia or Realtor.com, you have to find a real estate agent to help you look at homes, secure the best deal, and get you into your new abode. But finding the best real estate agent isn't always easy.

That's where DoorFly comes in. Instead of calling different real estate firms to find the best agent, you can use DoorFly to explain your needs and watch as real estate agents bid to work with you.

When you first sign up for DoorFly, you're asked to provide the area where you'd like to live, your home-buying needs, an affordable price you're willing to pay, and desired home features. That information is then posted on the site and will be viewed by real estate agents who also signed up. Interested agents will contact you and inform you of their knowledge and experience. But here's the kicker--they will also offer an incentive rebate from their commission at closing to sweeten the pot. I found that sometimes that discount is 5 percent of their fee, but it can be up to 20 percent off, depending on the market. Either way, it's a great way to save some money.

As interesting and useful as DoorFly can be, I was disappointed with its general lack of support. Granted, it's a start-up that few people have heard about, but so far, the site only has real estate agents from Indiana, Missouri, Texas, and North Carolina using the site. That's obviously an issue for those who wish to move elsewhere in the U.S. and one that DoorFly can hopefully address at some point in the future.

DoorFly is a compelling and unique service, and you should look at if you want to buy a home in one of those locations. It's easy to use, the real estate agents offer good deals, and generally, they seem to be knowledgeable.

Research mortgages and neighborhoods with HomeThinking HomeThinking is designed quite well. When you're brought to the main page, you can quickly and easily find a real estate agent in any of the 50 U.S. states, perform research on mortgages in cities and towns across the country, or gain knowledge about different neighborhoods in major markets. It's a great resource if you're unsure whether you want to move to a specific location.

When I started evaluating HomeThinking, I first looked for a real estate agent in both big cities like New York and San Francisco, as well as small suburbs in my area. In all cases, the site returned a slew of real estate agents from companies both big and small. It was outstanding.

HomeThinking's neighborhood search is also a great feature that allows you to compare big cities, as well as mid-level markets like Akron, Ohio. When you perform a comparison, the site delivers a slew of results that examine which areas of the new city resemble your current city, as well as reviews by those who live there.

For example, HomeThinking claims that those living in the Castro-Upper Market area of San Francisco will find a similar lifestyle in New York City's West Village. It's a nice feature, but it would have been nice if more information was available. Simply telling me where to move if I like the scene I live in now won't help all that much.

But HomeThinking's best feature is its mortgage resource page, which takes an in-depth look into everything you ever wanted to know about mortgages in the location to which you're planning to move. Whether you're researching suburbs or big cities, the site will deliver the risk of a sub-prime mortgage crisis, leading lenders in the area, the average loan size, number of rejected applications, and much more. It even shows a heat map detailing where the majority of people are trying to buy homes. HomeThinking's mortgage research tool is best I've seen.… Read more