Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Old Is New Again

I have been working on a fascinating marketing project for the City of Covington, Georgia, that has caused me to appreciate my home and the wisdom of its builders more than ever.
It has to do with Walker’s Bend, a development devastated by the real estate collapse.
With only 80 dwellings built and 134 vacant lots, the project was rescued by the City of Covington, and it has been re-envisioned as a “green” building development featuring highly energy efficient EarthCraft homes.
To achieve EarthCraft House certification, homes must meet ENERGY STAR certification criteria, including achieving passing scores from diagnostic tests for air infiltration and duct leakage.
The City, under the leadership of Randy Vinson, City Planner, has selected a number of EarthCraft certified designs that fit the needs of the community.
Looking at these house designs, I was struck by the similarity to my 1832 home: simple lines, comfortable porch, open living areas.
Unlike conventional modern construction, the EarthCraft homes are built to a higher standard, and should last longer, and be far less costly for maintenance and utility bills.
Now there’s an idea whose idea has come (AGAIN!). I guess when these older Georgia Houses were being built in the first half of the 1800’s, they knew what they were doing. What goes around comes around, and that’s a good thing.

Monday, November 8, 2010

New Browser Idea


No, it's not my idea, it is the brainchild of Mark Andreessen, the founder of Netscape. The browser is called RockMelt and in the words of Andreesen, it "does more than just navigate Web pages. It makes it easy for you to do the things you do every single day on the Web: share and keep up with your friends, stay up-to-date on news and information, and search."
Why is this important? Because the domination of social networking is bringing about a tidal wave of change in the way we communicate. And that affects what we like, what we buy, what we recommend, what we read, etc. etc.
The Rockmelt browser is officially being announced today and we will see if it grabs market share from the other browser biggies. And rest assured that when it does, the other biggies will fall in line to make browsing a more intuitive social process.


See full article from DailyFinance: http://srph.it/bTRpSu