Want to see something really scary?
February 23, 2009
Hacking the New Yorker on DVD
I’ve installed version 1.3 and it seems that they’ve disabled the hack that allowed you to point the software to the HD. This was previously accomplished by updating the DiskID field in the Issues table and pointing it to ‘9’ which in turn points to the HD. It doesn’t seem to work anymore. Anybody manage to hack this?
February 19, 2009
Snapple improved
Funny how a step backward is often the best step forward in these times. The Times reports that Snapple is dumping the high fructose corn sweetener for sugar. If they do that, they will have won at least one customer back (me.)
Why housing is still too expensive
Yet another example of why The Big Picture is required reading. The graphs provided today of housing value and debt as percentage of GDP and existing home prices vs. median income fundamentally tell the entire story of why housing prices are still too high. The fact that housing value has gone from 170% to 130% of GDP tells the story of our illusory wealth and our continued comeuppance. The ratio of median income to housing prices is a good indicator of affordability and indicates an ongoing process of regression to historic means. But there is another important metric not shown by the charts and that is the price of the least expensive homes:
Go to any suburban neighborhood — the one you or a freind/family member lives in. Look at the starter homes that a newlywed couple just starting out might consider. Small capes, 2/3 bedroom houses or cottages. Assume that this couple are late 20s/early 30s, and are making decent — but not 6 figure — salaries.
Can they afford that starter house? If not, then the entire real estate chain is frozen.
What’s left is mostly lateral moves, greatly reducing the overall sales.
So don’t expect a recovery until the prices of those starter homes return to reasonable levels, perhaps for those people who make just above to just below the median national income. (Below that, renting is probably the way to go.)
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Middle Cyclone Making Of
Short promo film from Anti on the making of Middle Cyclone, which sounds it is going to be a great album. Can’t wait…
February 18, 2009
Inner City Blues (Make Me Wanna Holler)
The city is messing with your brain.
I could have just as easily used a freaking Bee Gees reference.
Middle Cyclone
Neko Case has a new album with a Tarantino inspired cover. She’s got a new single too and you can download it.
February 16, 2009
Article Skimmer
The New York Times has made no small amount of effort on being a forward looking digital media company. Their site is loaded with special web-only features, blogs, and cool infographics. However, sometimes good ideas can also be found by looking to the past. So, the Times is attempting to replicate the experience of browsing the newspaper with their new article skimmer.