Technology Corner

<p>Another RealTown member, Ginny Whitney, recently posted comments in another place in RealTown&nbsp;related to Skype and her and I emailed about it privately.</p> <p>I recently got a new Toshiba M700 tablet PC that had some Skype information included and I had been meaning to take a closer look at Skype (pronounced SKIPE). I was aware of Skype for about the last two years but had never gotten around to it. A friend of mine talks regularly to his friend in New Zealand (like every day) and does that for free using Skype.</p> <p>Longer story shorter. I ended up hooking&nbsp;up with Ginny with&nbsp;voice and video using Skype.</p> <p>My first trip out using Skype, I am sitting at an open house for a client&nbsp; and&nbsp;I have my new tablet PC with me and I am&nbsp;online via a Wi-Fi network some place in the neighborhood.&nbsp;I creat a profile in my newly installed (easy) Skype software and made myself visible in the Skype system.&nbsp;Low and behold Ginny see's me and chats me up and in no time we have a voice over IP conversation going complete with a video feed from both ends. We may as well have been sitting in the same room together. We were easily a couple thousand miles from each other. I was struck by two things. Dumbfounded actually. It was EASY and it was FUN.</p> <p>Skype is one of the coolest pieces of technology I have discovered in a while......and thats saying something.</p> <p>Later in the afternoon, while at the same open house, I have &quot;Skype Me&quot; turned on which is a mode where anybody can see you and you are indicating you want to communicate. Low and behold a guy from Brazil chats me up. And guess what.........there was a language barrier.</p> <p>I thought he was talking French at first but it turned out to be Portuguese. His opening salutation was &quot;Oi&quot;, so I figured French but that is also Hi in Portuguese (I get $250/hr as a consultant b-t-w).</p> <p>GUESS WHAT!!!........Google has a translator.......and GUESS WHAT ELSE!!!......its easy. Antonio Cesar Oliveira De Souza showed me how it worked and now I have a brand new friend in Barbacena Brazil.</p> <p>Politics, Culture, Images, Communication, Discovery.......</p> <p>Its all right at our virtual fingertips these days.</p> <p>I have been on this planet for a while and It just gets more interesting and exciting.&nbsp;</p> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a name="_MailAutoSig">David A. Gibbs, Broker Associate, ABR, E-PRO</a></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span>RE/MAX Professionals, Inc. </span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span>Gainesville, Florida</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span>Cell:352.318.0811 Fax:888.520.6888 Office:352.375.1002</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span>http://Your-RealEstatePro.com</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.rebac.net/Content.aspx?PageName=AboutRebac.htm"><font color="#0000ff"><span>ABR</span></font></a><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Accredited Buyer Representative</span></span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.your-realestatepro.com/irw/article.php?cid=21488&amp;ctry=US&amp;arid=85753"><font color="#0000ff"><span>E-PRO</span></font></a><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp; Certified Internet Real Estate Professional</span></span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span>Residential - Land - Investment</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">Experience is what you get when you can't have what you want.......</div>

<p>These days there are two ways to accomplish an electronic signature.</p> <p>Technology has been in existence for a few years&nbsp;whereby a software application residing on a computer provides the ability to create a unique and encrypted electronic &quot;representation&quot; of a person's signature complete with a date/time stamp. The electronic representation of the person's signature is made as a component part of the electronic document the person is signing. It is secure, it belongs to and is irrevocably represented as being the person's electronic &quot;mark&quot;. Adobe Acrobat has this technology built in now. I have worked with electronic medical record software&nbsp;where a physician's electronic signature is affixed to a medical record entry electronically in this manner.</p> <p>We now have technology available today where a person can actually and literally affix their signature to a document using their natural handwriting albeit in electronic form. The technical computer term for it is &quot;inking&quot;. Once a person signs a document (most commonly an Adobe PDF document) and the document is securely saved, the overlayed &quot;inked&quot; signature is rastorized (melded) in to the document and becomes a permanent part of the document.</p> <p>And thus we have electronic signature.......two ways of accomplishing.</p> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">David A. Gibbs, Broker Associate, ABR, E-PRO<br /> RE/MAX Professionals, Inc. <br /> Gainesville, Florida<br /> Cell: 352.318.0811 Fax:888.520.6888 Office: 352.375.1002<br /> <a href="http://www.Your-RealEstatePro.com">http://www.Your-RealEstatePro.com</a></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.rebac.net/Content.aspx?PageName=AboutRebac.htm"><span><font color="#006bb5">ABR</font></span></a><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Accredited Buyer Representative</span></span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a href="http://www.your-realestatepro.com/irw/article.php?cid=21488&amp;ctry=US&amp;arid=85753"><span><font color="#006bb5">E-PRO</font></span></a><span><span>&nbsp;&nbsp; Certified Internet Real Estate Professional</span></span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span><br /> Residential - Land - Investment</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span> <div><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111"><a href="http://www.skype.com/"><font color="#006bb5"><br /> SKYPE</font></a> me at <strong>dave.gibbs.florida.usa </strong>and be sure to let me know you are from RealTown.</span></div> </span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">I am never too busy for your North Central Florida real estate referral&nbsp;</div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p> I spend an hour to 2 everyy day reading or blogging. Some of the sites I use are: </p> <p> GRInetwork.org </p> <p> Relaynetwoking </p> <p> Activerain.com </p> <p> SRES </p> <p> InternetCrusade.com </p> <p> DrHousingbubble.blogspot.com </p> <p> Blog.inman.com </p> <p> Houseblogger.com </p> <p> Realblogging.com </p> <p> Therealestatebloggers </p> <p> Realesatetomatoe.com </p> <p> Trulia.com </p> <p> Zillowblog.com </p> <p> Realtownblogs.com </p> <p> Linkedin.com </p> <p> Realestatepros.org </p> <p> Realtown.com </p> <p> REwebpros.com </p> <p> In these unusual times every little bit helps, and we can get our referrals going. </p> <p> Libby McPherson-Mann </p> <p> <a href="mailto:Libbymm1@gmail.com">Libbymm1@gmail.com</a> </p> <p> My areas of speciality are Woodside, Portola valley, Menlo Park, Atherton, Redwood City and San Carlos, all in San Mateo County, CA San Francisco Peninsula. </p> <p> I will pay a 25% referral.... </p>

<p> Does anyone know of (or the code for) a widget that I can use to scroll my blog headlines on my homepage that will then link when clicked to the appropriate blog entry? I am looking for something maybe 2&quot;x.5&quot;, I think you can modify the sizes of most of these types of tools. </p> <p> I want something with no link another site, widget producer, etc. It should only allow people to click to my blog to the entry that is associated with the headline. </p> <p> So if I have to pay for it I will. Or if someone has or knows how to get the code, please let me know! </p>

<p>For those real estate professionals out there who have not yet tuned in to the new Tablet PC technology, there is a pretty good presentation of the technology at VREO.com.</p> <p>VREO is pushing their RedTablet real estate dashboard solution at their web site and I can tell you there is more than one way around the bush with regard to going paperless and secure electronic e-signatures and utilization of a tablet PC solution.</p> <p>It is however a nice presentataion of tablet technology at the VREO web site that I recommend as a way to gain a good and quick understanding of the possibilities with tablet PC usage.</p> <p>I have a Toshiba Portege M700 tablet and like it VERY MUCH.</p> <p>&nbsp;</p> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><a name="_MailAutoSig"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">David A. Gibbs, Broker Associate, ABR, E-PRO</span></a></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">RE/MAX Professionals, Inc. </span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">Gainesville, Florida</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">Cell:352.318.0811 Fax:888.520.6888 Office:352.375.1002</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111"><a href="http://your-realestatepro.com/"><font color="#006bb5">http://Your-RealEstatePro.com</font></a></span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111"><a href="http://www.rebac.net/Content.aspx?PageName=AboutRebac.htm">ABR</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; Accredited Buyer Representative</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111"><a href="http://www.your-realestatepro.com/irw/article.php?cid=21488&amp;ctry=US&amp;arid=85753">E-PRO</a>&nbsp;&nbsp; Certified Internet Real Estate Professional</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">Residential - Land - Investment</span></div> <div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt">&nbsp;</div> <div><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111"><a href="http://www.skype.com/"><font color="#006bb5">SKYPE</font></a> me at <b>dave.gibbs.florida.usa </b>and be sure to let me know you are from RealTown.</span></div> <div>&nbsp;</div> <div><span style="font-size: 9pt; color: #111111">I am never too busy for your real estate referrals</span></div> <p>&nbsp;</p>

<p> Is anyone using RELAY? I recently came across this website (<a href="http://www.rebt.com">www.rebt.com</a>) and it almost seems to good to be true. Our office is thinking of trying it out, but I would like some actual feedback from people that are using it. Thanks </p>

<p>We build interactive neighborhood websites, and contract realtors to be the primary sponsor of the area. This is a great way to gain exposure in your area, and position yourself as the neighborhood expert. This is a free service to the residents provided by the realtor. Imagine the community or area you farm has a community intra-net, and you were the only realtor on their, as the primary sponsor, imagine the personal exposure the realtor will gain. This is passive marketing, and niche marketing. Take a look at what we do, and I would love to hear some feed back.</p> <p><a href="http://www.EZNeighborhoodWebsites.com">www.EZNeighborhoodWebsites.com</a></p> <p>&nbsp;</p>