The rise of ultraHD TVs, password keys, and Millennial debt
Having finally caught up to the 21st century with a plasma tv (or is that still 1990s?), I now see that the latest and greatest is Ultra HD (sometimes called 4K) sets from all the usual suspects. They were the stars of the just-concluded Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Before you start hyperventilating that you will need to start saving now for your new $20,000 set, Engadget talks us off the ledge. A lot of things are going to have to happen before these become even remotely popular. Best guess: not until after 2016 Olympic Games.
Managing passwords is a constant battle. Make them all the same and one hack and your life is wiped out. Make them all different and good luck remembering even a few of them. There are some doable fixes like 1password, but they aren’t for everyone. Google is working on another option, trying to develop a password token that slides into a USB port or even a ring that transmits your information wirelessly at short range. While for now these fixes are only good on google browsers and sites, Google is talking of trying to develop an independent standard that might find acceptance across the industry.
While talk of debt among Millennials tends to focus on college tuition, credit cards are another area of concern, according to Time. A new study out of Ohio State University found that young adults are racking up credit card debt at a more rapid rate than other age groups, and that they’re slower at paying it off.
How well is Microsoft’s new tablet, Surface, doing in terms of sales? Not great….
This will help answer the most pressing question of our time—where are my missing socks? WiseBread helps you locate your lost socks in this helpful article.
Zillow mines public data for pre-sale foreclosures, new Apple goodies, the worst passwords, and best blogs
Using publicly available data, Zillow plans to list properties in foreclosure before they are even listed for sale.
Remember your tiny dorm room from college with the bathroom down the hall? Or perhaps you shared a decrepit rental with 5 of your best buddies, with an old couch on the front porch. Dorms have evolved into cottage-style housing, reports The Wall Street Journal. “At the Cottages of Columbia near the University of Missouri, the units include 9-foot ceilings, stainless-steel appliances, hardwood floors and marble bathroom countertops. Other developers include walk-in closets, steam rooms, indoor golf simulators, basketball courts and yoga studios. ”My parents told me to not get used to living like this,” said Avery Bond, a Louisiana State University senior who has lived at the Cottages of Baton Rouge for three years and pays $630 a month.”
Apple releases a flood of updates (Mac mini, iMac, Macbook Pro with Retina, iPad) and a new, smaller iPad this week. How does the new iPad Mini stack up against the competition? Engadget has a handy chart. Update: within hours of pre-ordering opening on Friday, the white version of the mini appears to be already sold out.
And if you are one of those who needs to keep up with the latest and greatest, Mashable via CNN gives some suggestions on where you can sell your iPad 3.
Just in time for Halloween, Splashdata lits the scariest (ie worst) passwords for 2012. Unchanged from last year: #1 ‘password’ #2 ’123456′ #3 ’12345678′. #18 was a surprise to me: ‘shadow’.
During this presidential campaign, housing has been ignored. Why? Housing hasn’t been a feature in the debates or on the campaign trail. Seattle Bubble speculates that “Here’s one possible explanation: Neither wants to have a serious discussion about housing because they would have to talk about the mortgage interest deduction, which more and more is looking like it will need to be severely limited or possibliy even eliminated no matter who gets elected.”
The United States will be outpacing Saudi oil production, says the Energy Department. Production of crude and liquid hydrocarbons next year should reach a 40-year high. Increasing U.S. oil production will cut the need for foreign imports, helping our economy. The oil boom in such states as North Dakota, Oklahoma and Wyoming has decrease unemployment and helped companies that support the oil boom, like pipe suppliers and railroads.
This week Tina Brown, editor at Newsweek, discussed the venerable print magazine’s transformation into a digital-only publication next year on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Time rounds up the best blogs for 2012, covering everything from the economics of gadgets to the Civil War to Kate Middleton’s fashions.
What’s my password? How much is this condo worth? Where are my Thin Mints?!
By far the most frequently asked question asked by members is the ubiquitous ‘What’s my username and password?’ We cringe whenever we see that the answer is ‘password’ or ‘letmein’. Even if you have a little more complicated login, it’s not very hard for today’s powerful computers to worm their way into your system. Take a moment to review your passwords. Are all of them basically the same? If people got your realtor.org password would they have access to your bank account?
Warren Buffett says along with equities, single-family homes are a very attractive investment right now.
As an agent or broker, you know it’s important to ‘know your market’. Be up to speed on deals in the area, what places are selling for, what buyers are looking for, etc. But not only is it important to know all this, it’s important to let clients and potential clients know that you know. The New York Times has an interesting article on an amateur appraiser who turned his passion for pre-war apartments on the Upper West Side into a part time career as an agent. His social media posts, which started out as a hobby, have brought him business.
Would you prefer to live in a community where you had to drive everywhere for everything, or would you prefer to live in a community where you could walk, ride a bicycle, take public transportation, or drive to get to where you want to go? While you may prefer the latter, Congress is only funding the former. The U.S. House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted on February 2 to eliminate funding for nonmotorized transportation (e.g., bike paths and sidewalks) from the federal transportation bill working its way through Congress.
Is ivy on your house a menace or a protector? According to Oxford University, ivy does not crack bricks and mortar, but does protect the building against airborne pollution, and creates a microclimate that shelters the building from freeze-thaw damage.
For a long stretch of the 20th century, Bell Labs was the most innovative scientific organization in the world. The New York Times has an interesting article highlighting their remarkable achievements. The accompanying timeline graph visually it out.
Companies are always trying to get employees to eat better and exercise. They know that healthy employees are happy employees and more productive employees. But how do you get those holdouts? ‘Gamification‘ – the process of using game thinking and game mechanics to engage audiences and solve problems - is the answer for some.
Are you desperate for a Thin Mint or a Tagalong but haven’t seen any Girl Scouts selling cookies in your neighborhood? Fortunately, the Girl Scouts have created a free Cookie Locator App to quench those cookie cravings and support a worthy organization at the same time. Thank god mine arrived today!
Thievery, Tailgating, and Tips for Your Tool Belt
As digital thieves contrive ever more clever and convoluted traps, we must remain vigilant about protecting our online identities–keep your coterie in lock-down and personal information secure. It’s takes two to tango though, so think twice before you fake a name online.
With money being tight these days, one has to be resourceful. That hairdryer of yours? Go ahead and add it to your tool belt. However, money is not tight for all; where do the wealthy settle down? Forbes enlightens us. If you’ve got some extra funds, perhaps take a ride on the Florida foreclosure tour bus?
Football season is once again upon us. If you’re a football enthusiast, then check out these tailgating tips (or sailgating if you’re a Washington Husky). If, like my mother, you are not a sports fan, then we recommend the New York Times Arts section for reviews on movies, TV, plays, art exhibitions, and more. Not sure what tailgating is? Wikipedia sheds light.
And last, for those who experience pain–joints, back, head–some helpful ideas.
Bye-bye affordable mortgages for most, Oprah doesn’t wash her chicken, and hello iPad 2
Google’s recent e-mail snafu serves as a good reminder to regularly back-up and sync your data. You may even want to consider the traditional model of LOCKSS—Lots Of Copies to Keep Stuff Safe. Even “The Cloud” is not impervious to the perils of computer hackers and system malfunction. Think e-mail, photos, documents, address books, calendars, data on your phone and other devices, and data from online billing services and banks.
The New York Times looks at what might happen to the venerable 30-year mortgage if Fannie and Freddie are shut down. The short answer: larger down-payments, shorter loans, and more costs to borrowers.
MSNBC and Prevention provide tips for a healthier, cleaner, more eco-friendly home. Hide your electronic clutter, don’t use harmful chemicals on your lawn, make sure your refrigerator handle is clean and much more.
Oprah recommends more than just keeping your refrigerator handle clean when she asks Could Your Kitchen Pass a Health Inspection?
Bad news for eBooks and Libraries: HarperCollins, one of the largest publishing houses, announced recently that new titles licensed from library ebook vendors will be able to circulate only 26 times before the license expires. Of course, other major publishers still ban libraries from lending ebook copies of their titles entirely (Macmillan and Simon & Schuster). NAR’s eBook Collection won’t be overly impacted, as HarperCollins hasn’t been a major source of titles for us.
Apple announces iPad 2 and already the grumps are out. Sheesh people, it’s just a computer!
Social networking is about sharing information, opening up your life to new people, and building a virtual community. However, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t keep your eyes open. As social networks like Facebook and Twitter become an integral part of our daily online lives, a whole new array of potential threats to our online security have emerged. Here are some general tips to help keep you safe.
Remember who your friends are – and who your friends of friends are too!
As REALTORS® you know it is important to address the needs of your audience when showing a house or answering an RFP. Saying the wrong thing at the wrong time or in anger can lead to repercussions down the road. Before you post an update, think about who will see this – without the help of your facial expressions or the tone in your voice to convey your true meaning. Also remember just because you’ve posted this to your select group of friends, if they comment on you post, their friends will be able to see what you have written or the picture you’ve posted.
Be info smart
Just as you wouldn’t post your Social Security number online, don’t post your date of birth (or at least eliminate the year). And what are you using for your passwords? If it’s your pet’s name or your children’s names, you might want to reconsider – eventually you will talk about them online. Similarly, that family tree you posted or that link to Great Aunt Millie’s genealogical work is going to certainly contain your mother’s maiden name. Be careful!
Also think about what contact information you want to include. Web programs called spiders troll the internet grabbing email addresses that are resold and spammed. Consider listing your website address instead, or creating a free email account just for social networking.
Be wary of quizzes and games
They’re fun, and you can see how you stack up against your friends, but it’s amazing the amount of information they can gather as part of their terms of service. When you sign up for a quiz, typically a notice pops up to declare that interacting with the application requires opening access to information such as: “access will let [the application] pull your profile information, photos, your friends’ info, and other content that it requires to work.” Pretty broad rights.
Use privacy options
Facebook provides very granular privacy tools that are useful to spend some time reviewing. Start by dividing your friends into separate lists. You might consider creating lists for ‘work’, ‘good friends’, ‘family’, ‘clients’, etc.
Once you’ve created your lists, go through your friends and add them to the appropriate list. Friends can be on more than one list or none of them. Your friends are not able to see how they have been sorted.
Once you have sorted your friends, click on settings in the upper right corner and then on privacy settings. There are many areas of Facebook where you can control what you chose to share. Let’s start with Profile. You can edit many portions of your information here so that it is visible from everyone to no one but yourself. If you have used the list function to sort your friends you can also exclude certain lists from having access. So if you don’t want your coworkers to see photos that your friends might post, you could exclude everyone you listed in ‘work’. The granularity is pretty extreme and appears to be getting even more so. Facebook also give you a link on the page to view your profile as one of your friends will see it. This is a nice way to test if your changes are going to have the desired effect. Here is a quick YouTube video that shows how to set up lists and set privacy.
Hijacking and Phishing
Just as other websites can suffer from hijacking and phishing attacks so to can Facebook and Twitter. Most of us know not to send money to Nigerian bank officials with poor grammar, but what if your long-lost high school chum suddenly asked you for a loan? Be wary. If someone is going to ask you for a favor, it’s not likely they would do it through Twitter or Facebook. Remember, if a request, post or link oesn’t sound like something your friend would say or be interested in, be careful.
Keep your computer and software up to date
Similar to the above, hijackers and phishers will sometimes gain access to your system via a request to update your Flash or Adobe reader software. Clicking through the link will take you to a mal-ware infested website. Always go to adobe’s site on your own to update, never via a link. Keep your browser up to date too.
Watch out for TinyURLs and Bit.ly shortURLs
Twitter posts have a maximum of 140 characters. As some website links can be pretty long, Twitter automatically converts all web addresses into shortened links using Bit.ly. Unfortunately with these shortened links the user doesn’t always know where the link is pointing. Although security measures have been put in place to help spot malicious links, it’s not 100% effective. Tweetdeck, a popular application for Twitter, provides a ‘Show preview information for short URLs’ option, which offers some protection. Firefox also offers an extension you can add to the browser called ‘LongURL’.
Remember whatever you do to protect your privacy, it could fail
Finally, regardless of what privacy options you put in place, assume they will fail and the whole world will be able to see everything. Will a determined hacker target your accounts? Probably not, but you never know. Only share what you feel comfortable letting everyone know about.
You meet lots of people in the real estate business – some nice and some not so nice. It’s REALTOR® Safety Week (Sept. 13 – 19, 2009) and it is more important than ever to protect yourself. Learn how to protect yourself at open houses and in the car in our timely Field Guide to REALTOR® Safety. Get safety tips, handouts and posters from The National Association of REALTORS® and REALTOR® Associations.
