2005 February 28 North Korea: I don't make many references here to the regular articles on IRED, but maybe I should. Simeon has a particularly interesting perspective on Kim Jong Il's future, if he has one. In brief, he recommends that the US do nothing which seems pretty sensible to me.
In family news, my niece Liz is now at 23 weeks, and aiming for a minimum of 30 weeks to give the quads the optimal chance to thrive. My nephew, Jon, is scheduled to leave Iraq on March 18. Yay! Prayers for both are encouraged! Jon and his brother Jas are both hoping for second tours in Iraq. Arggh!
Becky |
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2005 February 24 Google Toolbar: Before you install Google Toolbar you might want to consider the potential consequences. Since I do not use (do not want) third party toolbars, I was completely unaware of the potential for Google's adding links to my web site without my knowledge. It seems that the "Look for Map" feature does just that.
Dave Winer notes:
Once I click on the Look For Map button, a new link appears on the page; the link looks exactly like the other links on the page. It appears as if the author of the page added the link. Only a reader who's paying very close attention would know which links were put there by the author, and which were put there by Google. Unlike Smart Tags, which made the Microsoft-generated links appear differently from the authored links, Google makes no such distinction.
He then comments:
In 2005, adding links to a page is not different from adding to or changing the words on the page. It's as if a machine editor had license to change our meaning or intent, without our permission, without disclosing to the reader that it was doing so, because it's impossible to know which links were added by the author and which were added by Google.
Any news organization or academic journal that publishes on the Web now has a serious integrity issue because of the existence of the Google toolbar with the AutoLink feature. All documents will have to contain a disclaimer that links contained within the page may not have been placed there by the author or organization whose copyright notice is on the page. Same is true for legal documents, end-user license agreements, rental agreements, etc. And if links are changeable, is text subject to change as well? Might Google correct our spelling? Or might they correct our thinking? Where is the line?
Indeed!
Many users are just beginning to realize that ad-ware has begun to take control of their browsers. How are they now to determine what links are provided by the author and what might have been added by Google, Microsoft or even worse?
Read the entire article and comments (if you can tolerate the more arcane tech talk therein), then give serious thought to any "freebies" you may decide to add to your system. Remember, there still ain't no such thing as a free lunch!
Becky |
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2005 February 23 Book ReviewMagic Bullets in Real Estate: I get a lot of new real estate books for review, many of which are not worth the time to read. Others simply don't appeal to me, or are victims of bad timing (my lack of time, that is). "Magic Bullets" fell into the bad timing category.
Dan Ayuto's Magic Bullets in Real Estate offers tips for home sellers (and to a lesser extent, buyers) especially those who opt go it alone without an agent.
Magic Bullets in Real Estate comprises mostly common sense, but as we all know, common sense isn't common at all. In particular, because Dan is a licensed appraiser, there is a lot of information here about determining the value of a property, not often found in consumer real estate books. The chapter on appraisal is an excellent basic outline which will help you formulate the questions you must ask before you offer for sale, or make an offer to purchase, a property.
Dan's target reader seems to be a novice investor, but there is also useful information for residential buyers and sellers. In particular, a list of qualifying questions for potential buyers can save FSBO sellers time and grief, e.g.,
Do you live in the area?
How many homes have you looked at?
Have you spoken to a lender and are you preapproved?
Advantages and disadvantages to real estate sales and investment techniques are included; often proponents of real estate investing conveniently ignore of downplay potential hazards
I especially liked the appendices:
One appendix incorporates valuable questions to ask about raw land, a specialty area most real estate agents don't really know enough about to be helpful.
"Magic Bullets Kills Sacred Cows" includes my favorite section, "Screening Potential Buyers" which helps you identify the least, and most lkely buyer among the various types (the nitpickers, the low-ballers, the fearful, and real estate agents for instance).
The greatest weakness in ths book is inherent in any printed book: the internet links (and there are many) are simply not reliable. It is difficult enough to maintain current links online; it is impossible in print. Even so, there are some very useful links here that even we were not familiar with, and savvy internet users can probalby track down moved links, and obsolete links are simply a part of the game. Novices will find this frustrating, however, and non-internet users (is there such a thing?) might as well forget about this book.
Most, if not all, of the useful content in included on Dan's website MagicBullets.com
2005 February 22 Today is just too, too, too... or is that 2/22? Either way, I've had it. I hate computers, don't you? Worse than computers is computer networks, and even worse is wireless networks. This week it's been a constant challenge just to read mail, much less accomplish work. One program locks up the computer so I can't use any other, or worse, it locks up my system and I can't shut it down, turn it off or use it. tossing the whole thing out a window seems like a pretty good option, but instead I unplugged it and removed the battery. Drastic, and probably going to prove the source of even more trouble later.
Online again, I send a file to the printer...oops, the network won't recognize me. Reconfigure network permissions for everyone; still my notebook is shunned. Forget printing, on to the web. Half an hour later, no connection! What, everyone else on the network is happily surfing, ftping, etc, but I am left in limbo. Do you know how much you can do these days on a stand alone computer with no internet access, and no peripherals? Nada, nothing...except play Freecell. No wonder productivity is down, the whole world is broken, except Freecell. It's another Bill Gates/Karl Rove conspiracy, I tell ya'.
Becky |
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2005 February 15 Updates: Jon is well in Iraq and trying hard to keep everyone healthy for the next couple of weeks. Their CAG is headed home in March. His Mom and Dad will be in DC to meet him for a few days R&R, then he reports for debriefing before heading home for a while. He has every intention of returning to Iraq as does his brother Jas. These are strong and amazing young men.
Meanwhile, on the homefront, Liz is now 20 weeks pregnant with 4 healthy babies. The goal is to keep them growing in the womb until 30 weeks, and she is already ordered to bedrest. Within the next couple of weeks she will probably be confined to the hospital for the rest of the gestational period. If she carries them for the desired 30 weeks that will bring us to Logan's first birthday. I do hope he does not have to share their birthday; otherwise I guess he'll just become the 5th "quad".
Becky |
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2005 February 10 Google Maps: Sometimes it seems like Google is simply taking over the internet. I was a very early adopter of the Google Search well before it became a household name, but now I find I have half a dozen different bookmarks to various Google specialties. Local searching has enabled me to toss out most of the many print telephone directories, which for 20 years have claimed a full shelf of cabinet space in the kitchen. I decided to keep one, just in case of a sudden pizza craving during a power outage, or perhaps merely as a relic, but I can't remember the last time anyone actually used a phone book to look up a number or address. Google Local makes it so easy to find a Thai restaurant en route to the theater, or a Kinkos within walking distance of my hotel room, or the nearest Krispy Kreme!
Google Maps goes even further. Now I can search for "Thai Restaurant, Grapevine, TX" and a map shows me all the Thai Restaurants nearby; click and it shows me the Name, Address, Phone and, with one more click to enter my address, directions for getting there from wherever I am! What's more, the maps are "draggable" so instead of click and wait, I just click and drag to view more. Not only does this put the old Yellow Pages to shame, but the implications for real estate are mind boggling. Mapsco and Rand McNally, begone! A Realtor with a wireless laptop, or a PocketPC can not only save time, but money. It's almost enough to make me want to reenter the fray, myself. These are not just tools for geeks, they are as vital, and handy, as calculators and measuring tapes were 10 years ago.
Other Google tools include Google news, handy, but annoying for its apparently arbitrary choices of what is "news" and what isn't, but that's a tale for another day. Google Desktop Search for searching your own files as easily as you search the web; Google Blogger for creating and managing your own web log, even if you don't know html from Hotmail; Google Catalogs for the shopaholic in all of us; and, Google Groups if you want to form a chat area to discuss Botany, Birmingham or Britney Spears. And these are just a few of the options Google offers today. I wouldn't be suprised to see Google Banking or Google Home Schooling any day now.
One Google offering I have not embraced is the Google Toolbar. I do use a nifty little Firefox extension that shows me the Google Page Ranking, unobtrusively in the status bar at the bottom of my screen. I often use AltaVista for searching, though by default I use Google, and if I don't find what I want I still have a list of about 10 other search engines I occasionally use...in addition to dictionaries and the like. Firefox also offers ad blocking (and who cares about a running count of how MANY ads were blocked) and probably anything else the Google or Yahoo, or other, toolbars offer. Besides, I don't need anything else eating up my screen real estate as toolbars do. The other Google innovation I avoid is Google AdSense. I don't like any third party served ads, but the absurdity of what Google's artificial intelligence deems appropriate is reason enough for me to avoid it.
Becky |
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2005 February 2 Fallujah: We still have no direct word from Jon, our own favorite Marine in Fallujah, but this from a fellow Marine in Fallujah is almost as good.
Becky |
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10 Things Your Broker Won't Tell You: SmartMoney Magazine has an article this month that really nails the evergreen topic of things you won't hear from your broker, but you really should know. If you doubt any of these 10 items (and there are plenty more that did not make this year's Top Ten) just ask your neighbor, cousin or friend in the real estate business.
While similar topics make the rounds of consumer publications every couple of years, this one, by Michael Kaplan, is one of the best I have read.
"Real estate brokers ... act in a fiduciary capacity and must place the interests of their clients above their own and be fair to all parties." (_Barron's Real Estate Handbook_)
As you may know, many states are now considering passing rules or laws designed to eliminate limited service listings, which is one where the seller wishes to negotiate the contract themselves with limited help from the listing broker.
The argument in Texas has been that listing brokers are not doing their fiduciary duty by letting the seller negotiate on their own.
If the seller says it is in their best interest to do the negotiations even though I may make less money as a listing agent, am I not doing a fiduciary duty?
I could even argue that if a broker does not offer this option to their client, then they are not doing a fiduciary duty.
As a matter of fact, I agree completely, Aaron. I don't believe it is up to the state to determine the contractual relationship between two parties. If the seller wants to purchase a limited service, and the broker is willing to provide that limited service at an appropriately reduced fee, how is that different than my buying an electrical cord from Home Depot to repair my own lamp? I am not an electrician, but as long as I am confident of my ability to do a simple repair I can't imagine that the state could, should or would require that I buy an electrician's services. If I had no knowledge, or ability to learn, I can accept that the state, or the salesman at Home Depot might recommend that I seek professional help, but in the end, the decision is mine.
Likewise, it is up to consumers to determine what level of real estate service they want, need and are willing to pay for. I hope that TREC, and other state real estate commissions and legislatures eventually discover that they exist to protect consumers from unethical real estate practitioners, not to protect the income of real estate licensees. As it is, only well informed consumers can really protect themselves, and the real battle is allowing them to become informed!
Other Google tools include 