Category Archives: North Salem

The Weekly Online Video News Round Up – Final Cut Edition | North Salem Homes

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This week I’ve got to get the final cut of the pilot episode over to the contest people. But, as always, I’ve been keeping an eye on the industry to see how things are going and this week there’s some interesting stuff from the likes of Comcast and Verizon of all places. Check it out and enjoy your morning coffee.

Comcast Adds Offline iOS/Android Viewing To Xfinity TV Player

Comcast has brought video on-demand streaming to subscriber’s mobile devices since early last year, but now an update has added the option to download (some) content for offline viewing. Arriving simultaneously on iOS and Android, the Xfinity TV Player apps support downloads from premium channels Showtime (which was also one of the first up for streaming when that launched), Starz, Encore, and MoviePlex.
Source: Engadget

Verizon Makes 75 Channels Available Via Its iPad App

Verizon Communications is making 75 live networks available through its updated app for iPad tablets for FiOS TV and Internet customers — but unlike services from competitors like Cablevision Systems and Time Warner Cable, the telco’s tablet TV lineup currently lacks broadcast networks and local channels. The updated FiOS Mobile app for iPad was published in the Apple iTunes App Store on Wednesday (last week).
To use the feature, customers must subscribe to both FiOS Internet and TV service, and must use a Verizon-provided router. Live TV on the iPad is accessible only within a customer’s home over Wi-Fi.

Rovi TV Guide Listings to End

Rovi has started shutting off the TV listings data it has provided in over-the-air broadcasts to dozens of consumer-electronics device models in North America — and will completely end the service by April 2013 — a move that has infuriated consumers who claim it will render their DVRs useless.

The company said its agreements with data broadcasting partners CBS and National Datacast Inc. (NDI), a for-profit subsidiary of PBS, are coming to an end.

Source: Multichannel News

RedBox Instant Set for Holidays

The online video joint venture Redbox Instant by Verizon is set to launch sometime before the end of the year. The service is currently being tested in private beta, and Verizon and Redbox have kept mum on some key details. Subscriptions start at $6 a month. An $8 a month membership adds four Redbox credits to the streaming package that can be redeemed for Redbox DVD rentals. Redbox Instant is using Silverlight for streaming on the web.

Source: GigaOm

Chill Direct’s New Platform Empowers Artists to Distribute Content Directly to Fans

Chill (www.chill.com), the Web’s premier video discovery portal today launched the entertainment industry’s first turnkey platform for artists to produce, own and distribute content directly to their fans, dubbed “Chill Direct.” The self-service platform is the first of its kind and makes it dead simple for artists to globally distribute premium video to all desktop, mobile and Internet connected televisions.

Chill Direct is a fully socially integrated platform that allows any filmmaker, comedian, musician, or artist to directly release premium video to the fans who love them. Building on the success of content creators who have made specials and albums directly available to audiences for personal download, Chill Direct expands on this emergent model, empowering artists to engage their fan bases and build full-scale customizable community hubs where fans and artists can interact.

Unlike releasing content through app stores, music stores, a broadcast network or film studio, Chill Direct imbues artists with creative control and flexibility over their material and allows them full ownership of Intellectual Property. Chill Direct also helps artists build powerful social communities around their work through integration with Facebook and Twitter and world-class page creation tools.

Source: Press Release

Test the Encoding.com Private Cloud and enter to win $1000 of free encoding credit

At Encoding.com, we all agree that building the world’s most powerful private cloud transcoding platform is a good time. Even more fun is watching our resident stunt goat Clive take it for a test drive. Unfortunately, even the great Clive went from goat to chicken when he overheard the roar of 32 core multi-threading servers and 1Gbps ingest/egress usingAspera fasp 3™ technology.

Therefore, we are offering a reward of $1,000 in free encoding credit to the Encoding.com community member willing to brave unprecedented speed, put the pedal to the metal, and encode the largest volume of video in December using Encoding.com private cloud!

Using the Encoding.com Private Cloud is easy, you can keep all of your encoding settings the same and simply specify a new region in your API request.  Click here for complete instructions.

The rules are simple:

– Only one winner will be selected
– Encoding credit will be awarded to the primary account holder
– Encoding credit may only be redeemed by the primary account holder
– Encoding credit must be used by 1/1/2014
– Encoding credit is not applicable for discounts on existing contracts

Source: Blog Post

via reelseo.com

Why’d You Choose That Domain Name? | Mt Kisco Realtor

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Let’s admit one thing. We all started this web thing honestly, naively.

Our first site was designed to help people, to fill a gaping void we saw in the online world.

We wanted to do so much good.

Where, then, did it go so wrong? And why? Why did we end up with a website like “www.how-to-earn-money-online.com” that we can barely mention across the dinner table without blushing?

In this post, I’m going to target the psychology behind our seemingly harmless paths to web domination. I’ve been curious for a while about why a few of us start the Zygna.coms and Digg.coms while others go a, well, different path. It all dates back to the mid 1970s, when a man name Albert Bandura, the guy behind Social Cognitive Theory, examined how we seek to replicate success we see in our surroundings and in media, often at all costs. It gets a bit creepy.

Day 1: A new beginnning

It all began with GoDaddy.

“What is GoDaddy?” we ask Google. And Google responds with a full tutorial on GoDaddy.

“Thank you, Google. Now I’ve got my first domain and I have no idea how to use it.”

Well at some point, no thanks to GoDaddy, we find Blogger or WordPress. Your first domain name most-likely had a .blogspot or .wordpress in it. Hello, new blog.

“Wow, this is so interesting,” we think. “I can write posts, post images, create links, and put things in my side bar. And what exactly is a sidebar? I’m going to grow this blog to be huge! I’m getting 100 views a day! Wait, I was tracking my own views. Shut that off. So this actually is difficult … okay, I can handle that.”

We set up our first Google Analytics profile and hardly use it. We’re too focused positioning Adsense ads and garnering Facebook likes.

“Suggest to friends? I think so. Why did he not like it? Not my friend anymore! Write posts, write posts, write posts. Write even more. How am I ever going to have as many posts as that other site? Three a week, that’s it. Must happen. Three great posts of 500 words at least. More coffee. You can do this! Backlinks. Backlins! Need more. Alexa tells me I don’t have enough. Must network. Got one! Got a tweet too! Oh my dear god prepare yourself for traffic! Traffic didn’t come…why not? More posts … more domination!”

At some fateful point after much deliberation we decide to hack off the .blogger/.wordpress and basically think the world will rejoice over our decision.

“Sigh, they don’t. People don’t care. They’re focused on their own websites. Oh well, more networking, more Facebook marketing! Backlinks!”

Day 2: Day 1 got old

At some point in blogging, we become jaded. It just isn’t like it was on Day 1. Our community blog, our niche review site, and our Google Adsense landing page just didn’t work as planned. It wasn’t all we were told it would be, but we did learn in the process.

So, we start a new blog. We suck up our pride. We hobble back over to the computer. We probably woke up later that day because we were up late making it big the night before.

This is where it gets interesting.

The day we start up a second website defines us in our blogging careers.

Why? Because (in case you didn’t realize yet) everyone starts a semi-successful-yet-pretty-mediocre website at first, then moves on to another project. It’s in that second project that we either:

  • show the world we’ve learned from our mistakes and are ready to build something useful, or
  • totally sell out and continue down the path to eventual existential failure.

I’m sorry, but it’s one or the other. Which path are you on?

Maybe you’re on a different path?! If so, let’s hear about it in the comments.

Day 3: Pick a new domain

It may not be on actual day 3 of blogging, but the “third day” in your blogging career is the day you choose your next domain name. On Day 1 you made your first website, on Day 2 you decided to build another one, and on Day 3 you picked this new domain. And on Day 7 s/he rested.

So what did you pick?

The brandable domain

If you picked a brandable domain then I’d like to buy you a beer. I’m proud of you. A brandable domain is something like “Twitter.com”. It’s something like “Coursehero.com” or “Koofers.com”. It’s a brother of “Problogger.net” and a cousin of “Alexa.com”. Its recognizable. It stands out.

It holds its own in a conversation across the dinner table. (Should that be the new standard?)

People learn not just from trying and failing, but from observing, sometimes subconsciously, sometimes for means of survival, what works for our peers.—Albert Bandura

The importance of a brandable domain is five-fold:

  • Unique: It stands out.
  • Recognizable: People remember it.
  • Bizarre: It’s weird enough to generate some intrigue the first time someone hears it.
  • Worth mentioning: People want to talk about weird things.
  • Worth putting on a t-shirt: Yes, you would consider wearing that logo with it’s branded image on a t-shirt.

If you picked a brandable domain I commend you because, while you won’t get immediate “direct match” traffic from Google, you will get many more returning visits because you have a pretty cool concept.

These websites are more likely to get blog comments and will inevitably build larger email followings. They may not be the best at making a quick buck, but they do have a long-term trajectory to success. Props to you for choosing this option!

The keyword-rich domain

If you picked this type of domain, you may want to watch this short video as Matt Cutts talks about how Google is changing the algorithm.

Short summary: A lot of noise and competition exists among keyword-rich domains. Google is altering the algorithm so websites with keyword-rich domains won’t get as much an advantage over similar websites with less keyword friendly domains.

If you picked a keyword-rich domain, this is my advice for you.

  • Check out onlineprofits.com: It’s a successful community that makes online profits.
  • Check howtomakemyblog.com: It’s actually an awesome how-to site by Marko Saric.
  • Check out onlinecolleges.com and literally every other domain name with some variation of the phrase “online colleges” in it. You’ll begin to see just how competitive things are getting.
  • Learn some on-page SEO: It’ll help you immensely against the waves of others like you.
  • Get used to being #2: Hey, look at how well Monster does in the shadow of Redbull.

It’s okay, as a few of these examples will show you. With your keyword-rich domain your blog might actually make that six-figure annual income you dreamed about on Day 2.

However, as time passes I can’t help but think keyword-rich domains will become a dime a dozen, and will get sifted out to the bottom of the blogosphere while unique, original concepts rise to the top. It’s a process that may be happening as you read this.

Why did we choose one option or the other?

We’re human. We don’t want the things we do to eventually lead to failure.

We want to succeed, sometimes badly, and will often consider every means necessary to do so. Sometimes this means selecting a domain we at first would have scoffed at.

Albert Bandura was a renowned Canadian psychologist. He examined the characteristics we learn in our adolescence that leads us to success or failure. From the existing Social Learning Theory, it was known four key factors affect how we learn new behavior: drives, cues, responses, and rewards.

What Bandura found, in plain words, was that those of us who are more aggressive often skip a couple steps to get to the “rewards.”

This can be dangerous.

When our aggression outweighs our engrained moral compass, we exhibit “lapses in judgement,” as Bandura called them, where we totally avoid “cues” and “responses.”

It’s these tendencies which lead us to choose a certain domain and make larger, more long-term business decisions. It’s pretty hard to say a domain doesn’t hold vibes and messages that follow our website throughout its entire existence. So next time you’re sitting at GoDaddy about to make a purchase, remember Bandura and think about the long-term implications of your choice.

Bandura became the endowed chair of social psychology at Standford University in 1974 and is believed to be the fourth most cited pyschologist of all time. Go find more of his related work on Wikipedia.

The Blogger is a 25 year old guy from Manhattan who answers 150 blog questions before breakfast and holds a world record for comment response time. Sign up to his email club if you haven’t already (jeez) and find him on the Twitter.

via problogger.net

6 wrong-headed ideas about remodeling | Mount Kisco NY Homes

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After 30 years in architecture, I still hear the same tired old wives’ tales circulated about remodeling. It’s amazing how long it can take to stamp out a wrong-headed concept. Here are some of my unfavorites:

1. Bathrooms should be planned back to back to save cost. Rubbish. This chestnut goes way back, and probably stems from the practice of placing apartment house bathrooms back to back. You’re not building apartments, however, so the meager savings in plumbing cost — something on the order of a few hundred dollars — doesn’t justify straitjacketing your floor plan with a bathroom arrangement you don’t like.

2. The best way to improve your home’s energy efficiency is by installing new double-glazed windows. Poppycock. In most houses, windows represent a very small fraction of the total heat loss. By far the most heat is lost through ceilings, so attic insulation is the best place to put your energy-efficiency dollars. Once that’s done, consider installing a higher-efficiency furnace and ductwork. Replacing your windows is far down the list of cost-effective energy improvements.

3. Granite is the best choice for kitchen counters. Balderdash. Granite is definitely durable, but it may not make economic sense to install a 100-year countertop on cabinets that will last only 30. In any case, there are lots of other interesting countertop materials out there, from other types of stone slabs, to butcher block, tile, and yes, even plastic laminate. It’s worth taking a look at them before you choose granite by reflex.

4. Skylights are the best way to get daylight into your house. Malarkey. Skylights are a good last resort to improve daylighting, but adding windows should always be your first choice. Why? Because they’re passive solar devices naturally attuned to the seasons, letting in more low-angle sunlight in winter when you want it, and excluding it in summer when you don’t. Skylights do just the reverse. They also look out of place on many styles of homes, particularly those built before World War II.

5. Point-of-use (“tankless”) water heaters are the most efficient way to heat water. Maybe, maybe not. Tankless units can be just the thing for certain applications, such as bathrooms that are remote from the water heater. But their efficiency is typically oversold, with efficiency ratings based on rarified laboratory conditions that are seldom reflected in actual installations. They’re also complex and subject to erratic response under low-flow conditions.

What’s more, if saving space isn’t your primary concern, there are a number of conventional storage water heaters available with efficiencies in the mid-90s, some at surprisingly reasonable cost.

6. Recessed “can” lights are the best way to modernize a home’s lighting. Piffle. Recessed lighting is useful for very specific purposes — highlighting permanent objects or architectural features, for example — but they do a lousy job of general illumination. This is because cans are inherently directional, creating a pool of light beneath them, rather than diffusing light throughout the room. They’re also terribly overused, leading to the notorious “swiss cheese ceiling” effect seen in so many remodeled houses. Be sparing in your use of recessed cans — and if you have a house predating World War II, think twice about using them at all. They’re literally a glaring anachronism in most older homes.

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Quick Tip: 5 Things to Do to Jump-Start Your 2013 | North Salem NY Real Estate

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After the long Thanksgiving holiday, it’s tempting to take your foot off the pedal and coast into 2013. But, I encourage you to make the most of these last few weeks of the year. Don’t wait until January 1st to get started for the year – the time is now.

Here are 5 quick and easy things to do to jump-start your 2013:

1. Shed your problem clients

I have witnessed first-hand agents who are so desperate for a paycheck that they hang onto the wrong type of client until they are completely drained and end up comprising way too much. The sign of a successful agent is the ability to walk away if needed. Ask the tough questions: “Are they worth it? Are they being realistic? Are they keeping me away from other opportunities?”

2. Clear your schedule

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Your time is your own, but it’s also easy to let your schedule get out of hand because of other people’s needs. From now until the end of the year, time block time during the week that is just devoted to thinking about 2013. For true planning, brainstorming and dreaming – you need more than 10 minute chunks of time. You need long drawn out time blocks without interruption!

3. Be honest

What do you love about your business and what do you want to change? Make 2013 the year you work with the clients you really want to work with, the year you truly have the year professionally and personally that you want to have. Been meaning to take a vacation? Plan it out! Nothing happens by accident. Be honest about where you are and where you want to be in 12 months!

4. Get your finances in order

Do you have a professional helping you with your accounting and/or taxes? If not, now is the time to talk to one before the end of the year. Don’t try to do it all yourself – get a professional to help! Also, now is a great time of year to update your software or invest in a system like QuickBooks or Mint.com.

5. Schedule 5 phone calls a week 

Don’t forget, one of the best ways to reach out to someone is with a quick phone call. Nervous about calling out of the blue? Then, email them first and set up a time to chat and then schedule the call using a calendar appointment. Make sure you have a reason for calling – is it a market update? Recent sales in their neighborhood? After you call, search them out on LinkedIn and connect there as well as Facebook and/or Twitter if appropriate for you and your business.

These are just a few things to get ready for 2013. I would love to hear how you are getting ready for the New Year. Leave me a comment below!

 

 


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Real Estate Market Trends: Pending Home Sales Rise | Pound Ridge Realtor

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Pending home sales – a predictor of signed housing contracts – rose 5.2 percent in October, according to the latest real estate market trends reported today by the National Association of Realtors.

The association’s Pending Home Sales Index has realized 18 consecutive months of annual gains, reaching a reading of 104.8 in October, the highest level since March 2007, excluding a few spikes stimulated by the first-time home buyers’ tax credit, said the Chicago-based trade association.

“We’ve had very good housing affordability conditions for quite some time, but we’re seeing more impact now from steady job creation, and rising consumer confidence about home buying now that home prices have clearly turned positive,” Lawrence Yun, the association’s chief economist, said in a statement.

Home prices rose more than 11 percent in October 2012, compared to October 2011, according to the association. The gains have raised total home equity by $760 billion since the beginning of the year, according to Yun, a figure that could reach $1 trillion by year end.

The Pending Home Sales Index tracks home purchase contracts that have been signed, but not completed. A sale is typically finalized within 60 months of signing. The index reveals regional real estate market trends, according to Yun. “Contract activity surged in the Midwest and is showing very healthy gains in the South, but was down slightly in both the Northeast and West.”

In other real estate market trends, the Commerce Department yesterday reported a 0.3 percent dip in sales of new single family homes for October of 2012. Despite the drop, the seasonally adjusted annual rate of 368,000 home sales for October is 17.2 percent higher than the 314,000 rate for October 2011. Inventories stand at 147,000, a 4.8-month supply at the current sales rate.

“The latest numbers are right in line with our forecast, which projects that sales will resume a slow, upward trajectory going forward and will end 2012 about 20 percent ahead of 2011,” said David Crowe, chief economist for the National Association of Home Builders, a Washington, DC, trade association that tracks real estate market trends.

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The value of conversation | Pound Ridge NY Real Estate

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I don’t think conversation gets the respect it deserves.  Consider these facts:

I love my wife.  After a little more than half our lives together I can confidently say that she is the most important and influential person I have ever known.  She is half my life, literally, as the direct result of conversation.  It’s how we fell in love and how we stay that way.

I love my children.  They’ve taught me, tested me and have been the fuel propelling me towards my better self.  I stagger daily, but will never stop striving to be worthy of guiding them and preparing them for happy lives.  Conversation is where the work of parenting gets done.  It’s the countless explanations to my three year old and the countless excuses from my teenagers.

I am profoundly grateful for my business partners.  Together we are so much stronger, better, faster and fun than we could ever be apart.  Conversation is the glue, the playground and key to the magic factory that lets this happen.  It is the stone against which we sharpen our ideas and the salve that remedies our failures.

I believe that the quality of our lives is determined by the quality of our conversations.  So let’s be good at this.  Here are my ground rules: 

  • Ask questions.  There’s no better way to start a conversation.  “Have you lived here long?”  “Did you hear about (blank)?”  “I love your (blank), where did you get it?” are some of my favorites.  They are guaranteed to get a reply, but then you need to keep the conversation going.  How?
  • Be interested first.  Great conversation is a dance.  It’s give and take, and wit, and repartee… but listening is critical.  Instead of waiting for them to stop yapping so you can pivot to your story, try asking follow up questions instead.  Like this- “Interesting.  I’ve wondered about that, what is it you like most about (blank)?”
  • Ask for opinions.  This stops questions from feeling like an inquisition and it invites fresh thinking.  The question “What’s your opinion?” and statement “In my opinion” both leave room for discussion.  It communicates that you’re interested in what they think – and that’s so much more important than how tall, short, fat, rich or pretty we are.  When we ask someone what they think, they immediately give us a free upgrade in their good peeps ranking.
  • Make friends.  If this is your goal you will almost never fail.  Meet strangers with an open and accepting heart, and you’ll suddenly find new friends everywhere you go.

 

And now, a word of caution from my pal William Shakespeare: the tip of the tongue reveals the depth of the mind.

I used to think he was simply referring to intelligence, but he’s really talking about the transparency of our motivations as revealed by what climbs out of our word holes.   So be cautious and resist the temptation to ‘always be closing’.  Yes, you need sales, but don’t rush it.  If you cultivate, nurture and build relationships; sales will follow.

So here’s the simple recipe for increasing opportunity: be more interested.

If you want more opportunity, be interested in more people.  It’s just that simple.  Stay in touch with them.  Start conversations and give them a reason to keep you top-of-mind besides what you do for a living.

If you do this, I promise the rewards will be surprising.  You’ll have more fun, make more friends and realize that you don’t need to talk about what you do to do more of it.

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