Help Build LemonFree.com

Is PHP Caching Worth it

demetrik — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 19:46:17 +0000

The bug was first planted in my ear when speaking with someone at Zend. Their claim was with the Zend Platform PHP scripts would execute 1 to 10 times faster. Plus the Zend Platform would compress data sent to the browser, monitor MySQL, and mange downloads.

At first the two things that appealed to me the most was the MySQL monitoring and the compressing of data being sent to the browser. For less money we ended up getting a license from MySQL that also provides support which is simply worth every penny. Doing a little research on the web took me to a great paper on , optimizing page load times.

What I learned from die.net was that I didn’t need any fancy software to do what Apache already had built in. There were some pretty common sense things to do, like having browsers cache images and javascript, compressing data sent to the browser, keepalives, etc.

After implementing many of these suggestions there was a noticeable improvement in performance. At least that was the perception when surfing lemonfree.com from my sister in-law’s dial-up connection in rural Saskatchewan. I was so happy with the results, that were evident from observation, that I hadn’t thought about caching PHP opcode or running benchmarks for a very long time.

One thing that really stuck with me from my research was that IBM recommended running eAccelerator in one of their papers about optimizing Apache and PHP. I figured that it was worth looking at if IBM recommended it. On top of that, techs at our hosting company had on occasion recommended using eAccelertor or the Alternative PHP Cache (APC).

I had installed APC on one server and eAccelertor on another server and really couldn’t tell if there was any benefit. I recall saying to a co-worker that lemonfree may or may not be any faster. I didn’t think it was slower. Since it was not obvious I decided to measure actual load times. Die.net came to the rescue here with a peice of Java code that measures the actual load times your users experience and records it in your apache logs. The code is as follows:

...

Now that I had a way to measure load times I ran three tests on a partner site, classifieds.carforums.net. I picked the partner site as there isn’t a large amount of Java Script or images to be displayed when compared to lemonfree.com. I figured that it should be easy to see the benefits on a simpler site.

The three tests were without caching, using eAccelortor, and finally using APC. I ran the tests for about a day each, the results are in the table below.

Caching	Average	Median	Stdev	Max	Min	n	Start	End
No Cache	2.5	1.25	5.2	161	0.12	9116	14/Jul:17:10	15/Jul:17:03
PECL APC	2.6	1.18	6.95	397	0.14	9488	16/Jul:10:41	17/Jul:10:40
eAccelerator	2.7	1.25	12.4	854	0.14	5902	15/Jul:17:04	16/Jul:10:41

Caching really had no impact on our partner site. What I liked about APC is that it gives you pretty graphs and tells you things like you’re hitting cached code 99.9% of the time but when you look at the actual page load times there really isn’t a benefit to caching PHP opcode with respect to page load times. Maybe on a less powerful server it would make a difference but on our partner site the bottle neck is certainly not the overhead from compiling PHP script.

I’ll be running a more in depth test on Lemonfree.com. We’re including page load times into our company targets and any change we make will also have the page load times factored in. I plan on running the tests for at least a week at a time on lemonfree.com and I’ll now in a month if caching is worth it on Lemonfree.

Demetri

LemonFree adds Body Search Option

lemonfree — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:16:58 +0000

Yesterday we added a body search option to LemonFree.com. LemonFree users now have the option to search for a vehicle by SUV, 4 Door, Truck, 2 Door, Minivan, Wagon, Convertible, Hatchback, Van or Hybrid.

We haven’t yet added this new option to our squirt alert menu or our advanced search, this will be coming within the next few weeks.

If you have any problem using the new body search please let us know. We’ve tested it internally to make sure it works, but it always seems that no matter how much we’ve tested a product it never seems to be flawless the first time.

Email dlegal@lemonfree.com with your comments, questions or concerns.

Cheers,
Dan & The LemonFree Team

Purchase and Import a Car from the US into Ontario - LemonFree User Submitted Question

lemonfree — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 17:00:21 +0000

Question:
Hello ,I need to now a few things and would be very greatful for your help .If I was to purchase a car from the usa from ontario what are the extra expenses I have to pay to get it here eg taxes duties etc.Aswell Is it possible to get a loan for a car that isfrom the usa???

Answer:
It depends on the car as to what the expense would be. A friend of mine picked up a car from New Jersey last year and I think he was out of pocket around $2,000 in air fair, gas, and fees. He claims he saved a few thousand dollars on his Volvo. Our office admin also picked up a Honda from the US last year and she’s very happy with the money that she saved.

If the car is covered under NAFTA then you’ll only pay GST and I think $200 to have it registered with the Registrar of Imported Vehicles plus an excise tax if it has air conditioning of around $100.00.

If the car isn’t covered under NAFTA ( say a 2008 Audi R8 ) then you’ll pay duty of around 6.5% on top of the price plus GST.

I’m not sure if you’ll have to pay PST in Ontario. In Manitoba we have to pay 7% PST on all vehicles (private sale or not) based on the book value of the car when we insure them.

There’s more information on importing a car into Canada at http://lemonfree.wordpress.com/2007/11/28/importing-a-us-car-into-canada

Getting a loan on a vehicle outside of Canada depends on your credit and your bank. You’ll have to ask them. As long as your credit is good I can’t see them not giving you a personal loan.

I don’t recommend buying or giving a deposit on a vehicle that you haven’t seen. There are a lot of scam artists out there and there will always be another deal to be found if you let one slip past you.

One thing you can do if you’re really set on having a particular vehicle is look in the yellow pages of the city that the vehicle is in and hire an auto appraiser to go and take a look at it. At least you’ll save yourself the cost of flying down to look at a vehicle that may not be worth it.

Hope this helps.

Demetri Karavas
Lemonfree.com

LemonFree.com - Massive Market Exposure!!

lemonfree — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:38:17 +0000

Every single listing that now gets listed on LemonFree via our feed partners or via our listing page now has the option to also be listed on autos.aol.com for…… you guessed it, Free!! That’s right, every one of our listings is now featured on autos.aol.com.

We invite everyone to come and list there automobiles with us, private sellers, dealers… everyone!!

Dealers, if you want to learn how you can get your auto listings on LemonFree for free, click here now.

If you haven’t tried LemonFree.com, please give it a try; we’re sure you’ll like it. If you don’t agree with us make sure you send your comments and suggestions to me dlegal@lemonfree.com. Please tell me why you did or didn’t like the site.

Cheers,
Dan
dlegal@lemonfree.com

LemonFree is now on Facebook

lemonfree — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 20:18:23 +0000

As fast passed a company as we are, it took us quite a while to finally get a LemonFree profile page up on Facebook.

If your a facebook user and would like to show your appreciation for LemonFree.com, go to the LemonFree profile page on Facebook and click on the link “become a fan”.

If you have comments or questions about the site you can also leave us a note on the discussion board.

Cheers,
Dan & The LemonFree Team

autotrader.cm

lemonfree — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 18:10:30 +0000

While doing some keyword research for LemonFree.com I stumbled across this cool little keyword tool put out by decenttools.com

http://www.decenttools.com/aol

The reason I like the tool so much is because you can enter in something like autotrader and it will out put all the different spelling mistakes people make when typing in autotrader.com

Check out the list I got when I entered in autotrader.

autotraders.com
autotraderonline.com
autotrader.cm
autotraders
autotraderonline
autotrader.co
autotrader .com
autotradercom
autotrader online
autotrader.comhttp
autotrader.c
autotrader.comm
autotrader.
autotrader.ca
autotrader magazine
autotrader..com
autotrader.om
autotrader used cars
autotraderom
autotrader motorcycles
autotrader.m
autotrader.comk
autotrader collector
autotrader .comm
autotrader.cok
autotrader. com

If you are into internet marketing, I highly recommend checking out this website.

Cheers,
Dan

Importing a US car into Canada

demetrik — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 23:23:07 +0000

It’s pretty handy having someone in the office who has imported a vehicle into Canada from the US. Our Office Admin did just that this summer. She said it was so easy you save so much money she’s puzzled as to why more people don’t do it.

She was kind enough to give us the following procedure:

How to import a used vehicle into Canada

1. Before importing a vehicle, you must call to make sure it is allowed to be imported into Canada you can find out from:

Registrar of Imported Vehicles: 1-888-848-8240
Canada Border Services Agency: 1-800-461-9999
Transport Canada:1-800-333-0371 or 1-613-998-8616 (Outside Canada)
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency:1-800-461-9999 or 1-506-636-5064 (Outside Canada)

You can also check Transport Canada’s web site (www.tc.gc.ca) for a list of admissible vehicles. Call your insurer to make sure that your imported vehicle has, or requires, an approved anti-theft immobilizer as some insurers will require an immobilizer before certain vehicles can be insured and/or registered.

2. Once you purchase your vehicle, you must have all the required documentation in order to bring your vehicle back into Canada. You will need to a fax all the documents to the U.S. Customs border crossing you will be passing through. They require the paperwork 72 hours prior to export. The documentation required are:

A recall clearance letter/printout obtained from the vehicle dealership or the original equipment manufacturer (OEM)
Sales receipt
Title documents (both sides of title)
Registration (if applicable)

Call US Customs, at the appropriate boarder crossing, to ensure that they have received your fax and that no other documents are required. At this time you can contact your insurer to advise them that you are purchasing a vehicle in the US and that you require a Temporary Registration Permit, you may require a 2 week permit as it takes time to receive all the required documentation once in Canada before you can insure the vehicle.

Make sure that you have adequate third party liability (TPL) coverage. In no fault provinces many people carry $200,000 in TPL, this will not cover you in United States (and provinces like Alberta) where there is tort law governing traffic accidents. Provinces with no-fault insurance mitigate the need for having a high TPL limit but where there isn’t no-fault insurance you should carry at least $1,000,000. The more the better as it typically doesn’t cost much more to go from $1,000,000 to $3,000,000 TPL.

3. When you are at U.S. Customs they will review all your original documentation and then proceed to your vehicle to check that the VIN matches your paperwork. They will stamp your Certificate of Title and you will then proceed to the Canada Customs. Canada Customs will give you a “Vehicle Import Form - Form 1″ to complete (this must be kept in the vehicle until licensed). At Canada Customs you will be required to pay the GST on the Canadian price of your imported vehicle, an air conditioning excise tax (if applicable) of $100.00 as well as a fee of $195.00 plus GST (more in Quebec) to go to the Registrar of Imported Vehicles (RIV). Thankfully you won’t have to carry cash as they understand Visa and Mastercard at Canada Customs.

There is no duty due for vehicles manufactured in North America or vehicles over 25 years old. If your vehicle does not fit that cirteria you’ll be assesed duty of 6.2%. You’ll also have to pay HST or PST either at the border or when you register your vehicle depending on which province the vehicle will be registered in.

4. Once you have entered Canada, within 10 days you should receive a letter from the “Registrar of Imported Vehicles” (RIV) with your inspection information (Form 2 of the Vehicle Import Form). This will advise you as to what is required to make your vehicle compliant with Canadian standards. When the modifications are completed (Eg. daytime running lights, metric speedometer & odometer labels, tether bolt) you will take your vehicle to Canadian Tire (RIV has Contracted Canadian Tire) for a Federal inspection (no charge). Once your vehicle passes the inspection they will stamp Form 1 of the Vehicle Import Form. They will fax Form 2 to RIV once everything is approved by them. Be sure to keep all your receipts for any modifications that have been done. Within a week you will receive a Canadian Certification Label from RIV to affix to your vehicle door.

5. You will need to pass a provincial safety prior to insuring your vehicle. Once this is completed you can get license plates on your vehicle. Bring all documentation including the stamped Form 1 of the Vehicle Import Form to the licensing agent as you may be required, depending on your province, to pay the PST on your Canadian purchase price.

Additional Considerations

Keep in mind that there may be something specific to your part of Canada that isn’t included here … or something that we’ve left out, the customs people on both sides of the border can make sure you’ve covered all your basis before you go through the expense of buying a car and traveling down to the States to pick it up.

It’s a good idea to look at the car and take it for a drive before you buy it. If that doesn’t fit into your schedule then you can save yourself a potentially expensive mistake by taking a look in the Yellow pages of the city the car is located in for an Auto Appraiser. Basically anywhere there is insurance companies there are people who are experts at appraising them. It may cost a few hundred dollars but you can get a professional opinion about the value of the vehicle as well as its condition.

Finally if the deal looks too good to be true it is. No one will sell you a car with $80,000 worth of modifications for $5,000.

Happy shopping!

Demetri & The LemonFree.com Team

Weak US Dollar has Canadians Looking for Deals

demetrik — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 18:08:12 +0000

Is the USA now Canada’s Mexico? Being in Canada (yes it’s a little known fact but Lemonfree.com is based in Canada) I’ve been hearing stories, both in the media and anecdotal, about how people are saving hundreds or even thousands of dollars by shopping in the USA instead of Canada.

These stories range from that friend of a friend who saved $20,000 on lumber, which ironically originated in Canada, for his Kenora cottage by driving down to Grand Forks, ND to our very own office admin who flew down to Florida and saved $8,000 on a 2004 Honda Accord.

Personally I knew the dollar was strong and took a look at a couple of cars I was interested in back on July when I was deciding between a 2007 City Jetta and a 2007 Jeep Patriot. The Canadian Dollar was trading at a whopping $0.95 USD but my two choices of cars hardly seemed worth the hassle of going down the the states just to save a few bucks.

Since the Loonie, what we Canucks affectionately call our dollar, has gone over par with the US Greenback I’ve been thinking that I should have picked a different vehicle. Last week the Canadian Dollar briefly broke $1.10 USD making American Cars a really good deal on some models.

Not that I want to add insult to injury by knowing how much I could have saved but I had to take a look at our most popular models to see what the numbers were. I narrowed specifically on the 20 vehicles that Canadians will save the most money on by buying in the States. The table below shows the average price (in USD) of these vehicles located in the United States and for comparison the average price of those same vehicles located in Canada (in CAD).

Vehicle	US Average Price	CAN Average Price	Savings at PAR	Adjusted Savings at $1.03
2007 LINCOLN NAVIGATOR	$47,201	$74,231	$27,030	$28,405
2007 FORD EXPEDITION	$31,739	$57,868	$26,129	$27,053
2007 CHRYSLER ASPEN	$30,018	$55,945	$25,927	$26,801
2006 CADILLAC STS	$36,468	$60,326	$23,858	$24,920
2007 CHEVROLET CORVETTE	$57,151	$80,380	$23,229	$24,894
2007 LINCOLN TOWN CAR	$31,557	$54,705	$23,148	$24,067
2007 CADILLAC STS	$43,425	$66,277	$22,852	$24,117
2008 FORD F-450	$48,536	$70,778	$22,242	$23,656
2007 CHEVROLET TAHOE	$38,777	$60,565	$21,788	$22,917
2007 CADILLAC DTS	$36,310	$57,918	$21,608	$22,666
2007 FORD EXPLORER	$25,774	$46,799	$21,025	$21,776
2007 CADILLAC ESCALADE	$59,017	$78,084	$19,067	$20,786
2007 CHRYSLER PACIFICA	$23,417	$42,416	$18,999	$19,681
2007 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE	$28,137	$46,982	$18,845	$19,665
2007 NISSAN TITAN	$27,675	$46,423	$18,748	$19,554
2007 JEEP COMMANDER	$26,672	$45,295	$18,623	$19,400
2007 BMW X5	$61,165	$79,629	$18,464	$20,246
2008 JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE	$34,875	$53,238	$18,363	$19,379
2007 CHEVROLET TRAILBLAZER	$24,379	$42,669	$18,290	$19,000
2007 FORD F-250 SUPER DUTY	$35,821	$54,057	$18,236	$19,279

When I crunched the numbers I was a little choked. Assuming a par dollar the savings are quite significant, especially when I look at the Jeep Commander. I thought the Commander was a little out of my comfort range for how much I was willing to spend but in reality it was only $6,000 more than what I spent on my Jetta.The Loonie closed a little lower yesterday at $1.03 easing my pain a little bit but there’s no point in looking back.

We’ve decided to give Canadian Shoppers the benefit of knowing the Average listing price of a vehicle in Canada as well as the average price in the USA on our Canadian site, lemonfree.ca, just look up any make and model and if we have enough data we’ll give you the average price both north and south of the boarder. For example if you’re looking for a Ford F-150 you’ll see that the average price of this vehicle is $39,531 CAD as listed in Canada but the price south of the border is $27,063 USD.

For those who want to find one close to home we’ve added a 500 mile radius for your Postal Code Search. You’ll get listings close to home as well as in the United States.

Demetri

We’ve added some things to consider when Importing a car into Canada.

Safest Cars on the Road - NHTSA DATA - Top Performers

lemonfree — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 21:06:44 +0000

NHTSA Ratings are based on the following:

Frontal rating based on the risk of head and chest injury.
Side rating based on chest injury.
Rollover test gauging a vehicle’s stability.

Two 5 Star Winners for 2008
- 2008 Acura RL
- 2008 Lincoln Town Car

Small Cars
- 2008 Nissan Versa
- 2008 Scion XB & XD
- 2008 Chevrolet Aveo
- 2008 Kia Rondo
- 2008 Honda S2000

Mid / Full Size Vehicles
- 2008 BMW 3 Series
- 2008 Chevrloet Impala
- 2008 Nissan Altima
- 2008 Lexus ES350

SUV’s
- 2008 Acura MDX & RDX
- 2008 Buick Enclave
- 2008 Ford Edge
- 2008 Honda CR-V
- 2008 Subar B9 Trebeca
- 2008 Toyota Highlander
- 2008 Volkswagon Touareg

Note that these vehicles’ ratings are based on models equipped with optional or standard side air bags.

The 2008 NHTSA safety ratings will be dispalyed beside all available models on LemonFree within the next few weeks. Until then, all the data can be seen at safercar.gov

Cheers and have a great weekend!
The LemonFree Team

LemonFree.com and Text4Cars.com Partnership

lemonfree — Mon, 15 Oct 2007 15:57:15 +0000

LemonFree.com and Text4Cars.com entered into a partnership this past Friday.

With this new partnership our Canadian LemonFree users will be able to search an additional 30,000 Canadian cars, this number significantly increases the number of Canadian cars in our database.

For instance we now have over 2200 vehicles in Winnipeg, Manitoba alone; that number will continue to grow until we have every car in Canada. Here are some numbers for a few other cities.

Calgary: 5208
Scarborough: 2599
Vancouver: 2357
Toronto: 1903
Hamilton: 1652
Richmond Hill: 1457
Mississauga: 1247
Maple Ridge: 1021
Newmarket: 1002
Ottawa: 939
Edmonton: 878

If you have any comments or suggestion for LemonFree, please send to dlegal@lemonfree.com

Cheers,
Dan & the rest of the LemonFree Team