Entries from February 2006 ↓

Seth Godin has a link to an absolutely true to life video of how screwy the iPod packaging would look if Microsoft got a hold of it. My favorite part about the video is the music. You may recognize it from Pee Wee’s Big Adventure. I used to love this movie. It’s still a classic, even if the guy had his problems.
Video.
Seth.

I am making a public declaration that I owe Richard K. Miller, one of the founders of FreeMacWare.com, $2. He shouldn’t ever have to remind me of it either. Even if it is only $2. I am the debtor.
Richard, I didn’t forget. (Do you take credit cards or paypal?) Just kidding.

The next Utah Geek Dinner is coming up this week on Wednesday. THAT’s TOMOROW!

When: Wednesday February 22, 2006
Where: Miller Innovation Campus
Time: 6 p.m.
Informal Discussion Societies

DevUtah’s Geek Dinner

2006 February Event

Seth Godin says he thinks that consumers want things like interaction and respect instead of perfect, now and cheap, but I don’t know that I agree.

I think the only thing that drives what a customer wants is value. But, value is always defined differently. For example, I just bought a gym pass.

Value: price, location, exercise. That was all more valuable to me than my dollars.
For someone else, it could be that it’s the perfect place, they can pay for it now, and it’s cheap. So, the consumer wanted perfect, now and cheap, and they were all more valuable than their dollars.

Was interaction valuable to me in this case? No. I didn’t want it. I knew what I wanted, and I wanted to buy it and be done. To me, interaction meant pushy gym pass sales people. I got what I defined as “value” out of the exchange, and that was location and price. (The exercise part is up to me).

“The average American home appreciated 12 percent during 12 months ended September 30, 2005 . . . and 55.3 percent over the past five years.”

via the TeaLeaf

TeaLeaf is an economic newsletter put out by Jeff Thredgold, an economist from Utah. His company Thredgold Economic Associates provides economic data for Zions Bancorporation and here’s what they have to say about the real estate market for 2006.

“Greed-driven surges in home prices, especially on both coasts and in the Southwest, set the stage for possible weakness in 2006. A stock market analogy seems appropriate…’Bulls and Bears can make money…Pigs get slaughtered.’ We expect greater home price strength in the nation’s interior… less strength on both coasts.”

Read in full

Now, I am no real estate expert, but this is what I have suspected all along. Why? The major media organiations have been reporting all kinds of news in relation to a housing bubble, but these organizations are based on the coasts where the population is much more dense. So, do you think their coverage will cater to New York City. D.C., L.A and S.F. more or Utah, Wyoming, Missouri and other states more?

Truth is, if you talk to Utah real estate agents who work with buyers from out of state, they will tell you that they get twice the calls they were getting a few years ago from folks in places like California.

Here’s an example: “The volume of real-estate sales in Park City more than tripled to $2 billion in 2005 from $651 million in 2002.” source. TRIPLED! And guess what? This growth didn’t come from people in the state. I came from people outside of the state. And, the land is still a good deal compared to land prices in Arizona, New Mexico, California and the East coast.

Happy Valentines. Take state. Hope everyone gets to soak it up in a hot tub with their soul mate tonight.

A friend of mine recently started the business book blog. Very interesting. Hopefully promising and helpful.

I stumbled across this very cool website called AlexaDex.com, which is a stock market of sorts for websites. You get $10,000 in fake money to start, and then you buy stocks in websites. The stock price is based on traffic using Alexa data. It’s quite fun. Try it.