Category: Technology (page 40 of 60)
I was on Fox Business Network yesterday bitching about all the ways the U.S. government has interfered with the residential real estate market, resulting in both our recent boom and our current bust. The topic itself is not new to me, but it’s not something I’ve addressed in a full-blown philosophical argument. Surely that would be Quixotic, but when did that ever stop me? But: I’ve been very busy, and I’m about to get a whole lot busier. So last night I set that idea and everything else aside to bake some Christmas cookies. It was fun, it made the house smell good, and it actually brought Cameron out of his cave for a while. As soon as I can clear the decks today, I think I’m going to make fudge. Here’s the thing, and I have to remind myself every year: It’s Christmas. I don’t ever not work, but there ought to be room for play in the working day — at least some working days.
Meanwhile, here’s a bunch of stuff I might-could be dealing with, but ain’t:
Kelman had a post on all the crap he was force-fed prior to going on TV. I’m not picking on the man (for a change), this is a segue: I think we’re fools to buy into that crap. First, the mainstream media, to the extent that it clings to its creepy Vaudeville past, is the enemy of truth. Second, weblogging is the best friend the truth has made so far. The conclusion that I draw from these premises is that, even when we are on their turf, we should still behave our way. I hate everything phony, but even allowing for that, I think we damage our own credibility by playing their game their way. There’s no shortage of commercials on TV, but there’s damn little authenticity.
Zillow had a software release this week. How important was it? Important enough to be released eight days before Christmas, when no one is paying attention. What it amounts to, as far as I can discern from the effusive PR-speak in the press release, is smarter routines Read more
Seth Godin has a new ebook, yours for free. What’s the catch? Getting the value out of it is going to take work.
There’s an enormous amount of superstition about what makes some pages rank high while others languish. When you look at the actual figures, though, much of that fades away.
It turns out that the new playing field enforced by the search engines is eliminating many of the shortcuts that used to be effective. In other words, the best way is the long way.
The long way is to create content that is updated, unique and useful. Again and again we see that sites that do all three manage to get more than their fair share of traffic. So, I guess the title of the ebook is a bit misleading. The clicks don’t cost money, but they do take effort. That’s good news for people who have more talent than cash.
Technorati Tags: blogging, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
I am a total sucker for classic shitkicker music. What makes the songs of Leonard Cohen work, as an example, is that they’re so simple musically that there is all the room in the world for the lyric. We listen to a lot of complicated music, but the stuff I love the best isn’t really music at all, it’s literature, a thoroughly modern take on lyric poetry. If you read Horace or especially Catullus — without your high-brow horned-rims on — you’ll understand Tom Petty like never before.
Change of heart:
With Stevie Nicks, Insider:
Here comes my girl:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Chris Thile and Bryan Sutton explore the idea of excellence in a 20+ minute improvisational tour de force:
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Lyle Lovett covers Townes Van Zandt on Flying shoes:
Mindy Smith covers Dolly Parton (with Dolly singing back-up!) on Jolene:
Gary Jules makes you forget all about Tears For Fears with his cover of Mad world:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
There must be fifty ways to come unchained in rock ‘n’ roll. Here are three of them.
1. She’s free of him, whether he likes it or not. It’s Pure Prairie League with Falling in and out of love/Amie. This is one of the most incredible country-rock medleys ever committed to vinyl, but I can’t show you the studio version. The rights police want to make sure that nobody buys any old PPL albums this Christmas. Good thinking.
2. He’s free of her, and he’s not quite dancing in the streets. I’ve know about this version of Bob Dylan’s She’s your lover know, but I had never heard it until tonight. It was recorded at about the same time as Like a rolling stone, when Dylan was convinced he could become a singles act like the Beatles. Here is an abortive studio take. This raw piano version is better, I think, because there’s still room for regret, even if the singer knows he’s better off.
3. Why chain yourself to him when you can chain yourself to me instead? This is Jim Hendrix covering Bob Dylan on Baby can you please crawl out your window? This again was written at the same time, and the Hendrix version is clearly cribbed directly from Dylan’s Columbia single.
None of these are very good as videos, but do make an effort to disabuse yourself of the image of “bloodhounds that kneel.” No such thing.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Country-rock romance, great covers of great song-writers. Start with Leonard Cohen’s Tonight will be fine covered by Teddy Thompson:
Next, a buried treasure. Bobby Darin was an amazing talent who couldn’t manage to fit in anywhere. This is his cover of Tim Hardin’s If I were a carpenter:
Finally, Glenn Frey and Don Henley bring those incredible Eagles’ harmonies to Tom Waits’ Ol’ 55:
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Cathy’s birthday. Here’s Michael Franks with Popsicle toes in commemoration.
A genuine, actual genetic difference between male and female homo sapiens is blood-flow to the extremities. Men can deftly work a bow or a knife or a snare in weather that leaves women with frostbite. We were talking about this at dinner the other night with Pirate DJ Russell Shaw. Another topic of conversation was the idea of the epicene, the sexual ambiguity in art upon which Camille Paglia built her early career. Here is Bryan Ferry as a post-modern epicene performing These foolish things.
And while I would rate both of those tunes as good jazz, they’re both really very clean jazz. Here’s something a little grungier, piano bar jazz for for Zillow’s dive bar, Tom Waits with On the nickel.
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
I don’t want to be mean to Redfin.com. It’s Christmas, for one thing. Plus which, Cynthia Pang, Redfin’s PR Queen, is even nicer than David Gibbons. And, all things considered, Redfin’s latest bold PR thrust is not all that awful. But still, it is funny…
The fact is, these Dilberts don’t actually work in real estate, or they never have until now. Not just Redfin.com, but all the venture-funded Realty.bot mechanics. I think there were people at Zillow who really did believe that real estate could be sold without intermediaries. And Redfin beams with an infant’s delight every time it discovers something actual working professional Realtors have known for years — had to learn in order to survive as actual working professional Realtors.
But, take just a moment to consider this idiocy, which was on BusinessWeek’s Hot Property weblog earlier today. What is it? Fake news generated by a Realty.bot and spoon fed to a mainstream media outlet. The “story” itself is stoopid, but the transaction is atrocious, exactly the kind of media whoring that all of us should rebel against — exactly what the mainstream media has always been and what the world of weblogging should never be.
In this light, Redfin’s press release is not so bad. The advice it proffers is actually good, even if it is comically obvious to anyone who has gotten good at getting paid for doing this job. It is going to form the core of Redfin’s agent-training program, and that really is funny — though maybe not so much if you’ve sold a home with a Redfin agent who didn’t know this stuff.
In any case, it is in that light that I am going to cover it, albeit briefly. It’s funny to me. It should be funny to anyone reading this here. But it’s not as bad — all things taken together — as it might be.
So here we go, with a death grip on the obvious: “Seven tactics for selling a home.”
- Don’t overprice your property. You just can’t make this stuff up, kids.
- Set your price to show up in web searches. That means pricing in Read more
Warren Zevon again, this time with the Boss on vocals and banging on a blistering Telecaster. I forget who suggested this, but I’m playing it tonight for the Hatfields and McCoys at Point2 Agent. The song is Disorder in the house:
Zevon was in the process of dying when that video was made. “You lose your grip and then you slip into the masterpiece.” I’m willing to cut Leonard Cohen a lot of slack, and A thousand kisses deep seems like the proper requiem for the excitable boy:
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
Warren Zevon’s Mohammed’s radio for Russell Shaw, recovering pirate broadcaster:
Patty Loveless has one of the richest high lonesome voices in newgrass. This video, You’ll never leave Harlan alive, is all but nothing visually, but that’s really not a defect: The sound is so rich that just about anything would get in its way. This is very nice exposition of people who are chained everywhere they look.
To close, Enid, because there’s never enough BNL:
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Jay Thompson’s pick, Queen doing I want it all:
Adventure seeker on an empty street,
Just an alley creeper, light on his feet
A young fighter screaming, with no time for doubt
With the pain and anger can’t see a way out,
It ain’t much I’m asking, I heard him say,
Gotta find me a future, move out of my way,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.Listen all you people, come gather round
I gotta get me a game plan, gotta shake you to the ground
Just give me what I know is mine,
People do you hear me, just give me the sign,
It ain’t much I’m asking, if you want the truth
Here’s to the future for the dreams of youth,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.I’m a man with a one track mind,
So much to do in one life time (people do you hear me)
Not a man for compromise and where’s and why’s and living lies
So I’m living it all, yes I’m living it all,
And I’m giving it all, and I’m giving it all,
It ain’t much I’m asking, if you want the truth,
Here’s to the future, hear the cry of youth,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now,
I want it all, I want it all, I want it all, and I want it now.
Next is Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers in a dangerous time covered by Barenaked Ladies: Brutal winter, a cover that’s better than the original and the extreme liberation of that stand-up bass.
To finish the day, we have to rank on the mainstream media: REM and LL Cool J KRS-One with Radio song. “Now our children grow up prisoners/all their lives, radio listeners!”
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology
I was going to rank on the mainstream media, but I’ll save that for tomorrow. This is more Michelle Pfeiffer, singing Makin’ whoopee from The Fabulous Baker Boys.
Another bride, another June
Another sunny honeymoon
Another season, another reason
For makin’ whoopeeA lot of shoes, a lot of rice
The groom is nervous, he answers twice
It’s so killin’ that he’s so willin’
To make whoopeePicture a little love nest
Down where the roses cling
Picture the same sweet love nest
See what a year can bringHe’s washing dishes and baby clothes
He’s so ambitious, he even sews
But don’t forget, folks, thats what you get, folks
For makin’ whoopeeAnother year, or maybe less
What’s this I hear? Well can’t you guess?
She feels neglected and he’s suspected
Of makin’ whoopeeShe sits alone most every night
He doesn’t phone, he doesn’t write
He says he’s busy, but she says “Is he
Out makin’ whoopee?”He doesn’t make much money
Only five thousand per
And some judge who thinks he’s funny
Says he’s paying six to herHe says, “Now, judge, suppose I fail?”
The judge says, “Son, right into jail
You might just keep her, I’d say it’s cheaper
Than makin’ whoopee”
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This one is from Brad Coy, who wanted to tip his hat to pseudonymous commenter Joe Strummer with a Joe Strummer cover of Bob Marley’s Redemption Song.
If I have a favorite Clash tune it’s This is Radio Clash, simply because I like the idea of a pirate satellite. As with pirate radio, the actual capital outlay per independent broadcaster (or publisher) turned out to be much smaller. Ecce sum vivens in saecula saeculorum et habeo claves mortis et inferni. Take that, Dan Rather!
But: Don’t let’s forget that these are the same knuckleheads who brought us Sandanista, so we should close with a more rational kind of psychotic violence, Coolio’s Gangster’s Paradise.
Not all rap sucks, and I’ll watch Michelle Pfeiffer in anything.
You say you want a revolution? What does it sound like?
Technorati Tags: blogging, disintermediation, real estate, real estate marketing, technology