This article and the 115 comments are a must read to understand what is going around you and how the internet should operate at this time.

http://www.jeffturner.info/facebook-not-internet-nor-should-be

It’s a very pretty phone and the screen is amazing. The speed of the network is fast. The battery is poor. It was a nice phone but I was just not impressed by it.

On Saturday Jan 21st 2012, I decided to return the phone and then go back to AT&T and upgrade my account with an iPhone 4S. Here is where the problems started.

When I went to return the phone I expected a hassle free return. I had done this 2 years ago with Verizon when I tested a Droid Eris. The Brea, CA Verizon store returned my phone no problem. This time I was informed of a $35 dollar restocking fee PLUS a $100 dollar “smartphone” restocking fee. I’m ok with the $35 fee, but the $100 ‘penalty’ for a smart phone has just PISSED ME OFF.

Since they would not waive the $100 dollar fee for smart phone I got the iPhone 4S from Verizon. Yes, their network does seem to be better but in my house it’s still spotty service just like AT&T. The next thing I was reminded about is that I cannot make a phone call and use internet at same time. I’ve never had this problem because AT&T doesn’t have this problem. Yes, I heard about this problem with Verizon but never experienced since I’ve been on AT&T for over 10 years, even when it was Cingular.

They DID NOT tell me about the restocking fees when I got the phone on the 14th. I will swear to this. They said I initialed the document but did not pull it out to prove it. If I had known about the $100 RoShambo fee I would NEVER have even bought the Nexus. Now that I know of the fee and got the iPhone 4S on Verizon on screwed out of $135 bucks if I return it.

I also learned something interesting from the Verizon reps about how Apple has Verizon (maybe others) by the balls. If a customer comes in and purchases a new phone at Verizon and say for some reason do not like it, they can return the phone but CANNOT exchange for ANY OTHER PHONE. This means that if you got new service at Verizon with iPhone and returned phone you would have to cancel the new service because you are not allowed to exchange for another phone. Yes, there is probably a way around this but it’s interesting none the less. This is what Verizon reps told me so I take as fact from their mouth.

See attached to see note about not be able to exchange for anything else.

So now that I’m not happy at all and want to return the phone and go back to AT&T what do I do? If I can’t get out of the RoShambo Fee I guess I’ll just have to be have to suffer with the $135 dollar being ripped from my arse and then spend another $200 at Apple/AT&T for a shiny new 4S.

I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m just bummed that I can’t use internet while on phone. Does it matter? I would say yes for me. There has been innumerous times where I have taking a support phone call and need to look up info while on the phone because all I had for internet is phone.

You tell me, what should I do. Return the phone and go back to AT&T or stay with Verizon?

Moral of the story. The iPhone is still the best phone and Verizon kicks you in the Balls.

Updated 1/26/2012: The store I visited was a 4G wireless store which is a “Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer” not a Verizon company store. I guess what the “premium retailer” means is that they like to kick you in the balls when you return products and charge you a premium for the priviledge. 

This weekend I decided to merge the content from an old site. It was the first blog I created for the majority of my clients. Future of Real Estate Technology. I would like to welcome any visitors that came here looking for RE Tech. All old articles are under the category “Real Estate Technology” <- click here to see all posts. I stopped posting on it late last year but didn’t want to ditch all the content, so I merged it here.

During the merging I also updated the Theme to StudioPress Driskill Child Theme. This theme is a responsive design. That means the layout changes automatically depending on the device you are viewing this from. This eliminates the need for a mobile template and or plugin.

For this type of site it works well, but I am not totally sold on the responsive design yet. All the Studiopress sites will be getting updated for responsive design soon. I am hoping that Agentpress will be one of the first that gets updated.

I haven’t finished putting all the pieces together and the demo of this theme uses. Come back in another week and I might have it done.

Many of my clients that I setup Google Apps for always say “What about my Folders?!?” I tell them to give them up, but to make the transition easier I import their email from Outlook with the Google App Migration Tool.

In May this year IBM Research released a study showing how the usage of folders is actually an inefficient way of organization. PDF Link

It is a great read but here are a few key points

People who create complex folders indeed rely on these for retrieval, but these preparatory behaviors are inefficient and do not improve retrieval success. In contrast, both search and threading promote more effective finding(of data)

Another important reason for reexamining how people manage and access email is the emergence of new searchoriented clients such as Gmail [12]. Such clients assume the benefits of the opportunistic approach as they do not directly support folders. A second novel characteristic is that they are thread-based. Building on much prior work on email visualization [2,19,20], Gmail offers intrinsic organization, where messages are automatically structured into threaded conversations. Threads potentially help people more easily access related messages. A thread-based inbox view is also more compact, enabling users to see
more messages without scrolling, helping people who rely on leaving messages in the inbox to serve as ‘todo’ reminders.

The study’s researchers wondered why people continued to use manual foldering when it was clearly less efficient.

They concluded that need to file emails in folders was not to make it easier to find those emails later – it was a reaction to being overwhelmed by email volume. “Users receiving many messages were more likely to create folders, possibly because this serves to rationalise their inbox, allowing them to better see their ‘todos’,” the study said.

I use a few “labels” which are like folders, but only to monitor other emails coming in that are automatically archived. All email I receive is read, replied to if necessary and then archived. I do use the ‘starred’ label for reminder of people follow up on.

What are you waiting for? Give me a call or email and I’ll set you up with Google Apps and help you kick the Outlook addiction.

Yes, it is possible to still use Outlook along with Google Apps enterprise, but eliminating outlook all together is a better solution IMO.

When you stop using outlook you will loose some functionality but there are work arounds that you will find to be better solutions.

Sorting by Date/Subject/Person

Many clients like to search for stuff by sorting outlook by date/subject/person. I myself used to think this was great but the search function of Google Apps works so well that loosing this ability will be forgotten as it is unnecessary.

Folders

Google Apps does folders, just that they are called labels instead. You can also have nested labels (folders). You can even import all your data from Outlook to Google Apps and the import tool will convert all your folders to labels

Calendar Sharing

You don’t loose this ability. In fact the web based solution of calendars works better than Outlook does

Contact Sharing

This ability really isnt native to Outlook but is part of an Outlook + MS Exchange Server deployment. There is no solution with Google Apps but there are 3rd party services that fix the problem but I have not tried any of them.

Is Google Apps the best solution for email/contacts/calendar for small businesses?

Yes, for the price and the features there is nothing better.

That question is a loaded question and there are so many variables. But to get a generic idea I put a sample WordPress website together with a Real Estate niche.

Sample site – www.yorbalindapropertylistings.com

I used some pictures and text from other sites/friends in Yorba Linda and wording from Raj Qsar and Vista del Verde. The IDX search solution is from Linsey Planeta

Thank you for the use of images and text.

Initial Setup:

Buy domain
Buy and Setup hosting account
Install wordpress

Time: 1 hour 

Setup Email (if needed) Using Google Apps

Time depends on how many accounts and if teaching needs to happen

Minimum time: 1 hour

Initial Setup of WordPress and Theme:

Install Genesis
Iinstall AgentPress 2 ChildTheme
Adjust permalinks
More settings needed updating but not done

Time: 1 hour

Install and setup Plugins:

Genesis Simple Sidebars
Genesis Simple Slider
Gravity Forms
dsIDXPress
These are just what I installed and not all that should be there

Time: 2 hours

Now the hard part and the most time intensive

Starting out with the initial page structure. I built 5 pages for the site.

Home Search
Contact Us
Kerrigan Ranch
Vista del Verde
Eastlake Village
Need about page (not done)

Area pages took longer because I also created a custom sidebar (with plugin) for each page (3 total). Then for those pages I also created a custom IDX property widget

Time for those pages: 5 hours (approx)

Design Modifications:

CSS color and design changes mostly
PHP updates

Time: 3 hours (approx) 

Write a few posts:

Find pictures for posts and featured image and generic content.

Time: 2 hours (approx)

Total Time = 15 hours

Is the site done?

Not even close. But at this point it is a good starting point for a Real Estate agent to start blogging and driving traffic.

How much does this cost?

Contact me if you want something similar and/or you are interested in purchasing the site for yourself.

I did find examples and bits and pieces.

First I used Greg Rickaby’s idea to add extra fields to the WordPress user profile.
http://gregrickaby.com/2011/01/add-new-contact-methods-to-wordpress.html

I used the first part of his code

remove_action('genesis_after_post', 'genesis_do_author_box_single');

// Add/Remove Contact Methods
function add_remove_contactmethods( $contactmethods ) {

	$contactmethods['twitter'] = 'Twitter';
	$contactmethods['facebook'] = 'Facebook';
	$contactmethods['linkedin'] = 'Linked In';
	$contactmethods['flickr'] = 'Flickr';

	// Remove Contact Methods
	unset($contactmethods['aim']);
	unset($contactmethods['yim']);

	return $contactmethods;
}
add_filter('user_contactmethods','add_remove_contactmethods',10,1);

Then I combled this bit together

// Add Author Box
add_action('genesis_after_post_content', 'custom_author_box');
function custom_author_box() {
	echo '<div class="author-box">';
		echo get_avatar( get_the_author_id() , 100 );

		echo '<h2>';
		the_author_meta( 'display_name', $userID );
		echo '</h2>';
		echo '<p>';
		the_author_meta( 'description', $userID );
		echo '</p>';
		echo '<div class="author-links">';
			echo '<ul>';
			echo '<li class="user_url"><a href="';
			the_author_meta( 'user_url', $userID );
			echo '"><img src="/images/www32.png"></a></li>';

			echo '<li class="user_tw"><a class="user_tw" href="';
			the_author_meta( 'Twitter', $userID );
			echo '"><img src="/images/twitter32.png"></a></l>';

			echo '<li class="user_fb"><a class="user_fb" href="';
			the_author_meta( 'facebook', $userID );

			echo '"><img src="/images/facebook32.png"></a></li>';
			echo '</ul';
		echo '</div>';
	echo '</div>';
}

And sprinkled with a little bit of CSS

.author-links li {
	width: 35px;
	height: 35px;
	float: left;
	margin: 10px 15px 0 15px;
	list-style-type: none;
	}

You can see it in action here -> www.landofgraciousliving.com

Who Am I?

Asking who I am or what I do is a legitimate question and sometimes requires a lengthy answer and sometimes a sort answer.

So let’s start shall we….

Who are you?

I am Loren Nason

What do I do?

The short answer: I fix stuff, I make stuff, I talk about stuff, I do a lot of stuff.

Let’s expand on the stuff I do (the longer answers)

I can build websites (see portfolio examples)
I can setup small business networks (routers, switches, servers, workstations, etc)
I have managed and setup Electronic Time Clocks (internet based)
I can setup a Microsoft Exchange Server
I have setup Cisco Routers
I have setup many wireless networks
I have installed car stereos
I educate people on the use of their technology
I educate people how to use wordpress
I make mugs (I have a mug press and printer to make mugs)

I created Alien Sand (www.aliensand.com)
I setup Google Apps for small to medium business and the self employed.
I can rebuild an engine in a car (done it a few times)
I do my own brake jobs on my cars
I don’t do my own oil changes because I don’t want to have to dispose of the oil.
I make computers into picture frames (see pictures of magic mirror)

Best of all:
I am a husband (www.thepixelmom.com)
I am a father

The list can keep going but I’ll stop here

What does this all mean? Are you a Jack of All – Master of None?

Heck no. What this all means is that I have so much experience in so many facets of technology and how things work that I can lead many business in their decisions of technology implementation and how the use of said technology will impact their business.

How can I help you?

One plugin that caught my eye was GeoPosty by Mobiah. What is it? It’s a cool plugin that you can use to enable specific content to show up for specific visitors from different Geographical locations. I’m trying it out a simple widget on www.aliensand.com

A big thanks goes out to all the sponsors of OC Wordcamp 2010