Nomination: Best tool for developers

This news impressed and pleased me: Symfony was nominated for the three awards (Best project, Best Tool for Developers and Best Project for the Enterprise). I don’t know how it can influence the further development of frameworks but I’ll give my vote to Symfony. I’ve known and worked on it for the last 16 months and completely satisfied and wouldn’t like to change it.

If you still uncertain about the choice between symphony and ZendFramework, I wouldn’t advise you to start with Zend as it’s a bit complicated and isn’t suitable for rapid web development. For those who work with Eclipse, there is a good plug in – Symfoclipse.

Las Vegas foreclosures decline

Hardly anyone knows that Las Vegas is one of the foreclosure centers in the country where one in four households is late in their payments or they are facing the foreclosure. But if we take all the rest we can say that they are some renters, county officials and some security systems installer who look for a place to live in and they are desperate to find a good house. There are a lot of people who have foreclosures, but at the same time it’s rather hard to find a house at the attractive price and in the desirable surroundings. The event is a real phenomenon for the country. The local authorities try to help all those who are likely to lose their houses to keep their house off the real estate market. So that’s why many prefer to go to buy a house in Detroit or California where it’s still possible to find a house at a good price, although in California the number of foreclosures is increasing.

The investors who are eager to invest some money suffer as well as they can’t find the appropriate houses to buy. Some experts say that the trend is temporary and the improvement is quite near.

Present for wife

When I was thinking about the present for my wife for Christmas I visited lots of forums and talked to many people. I wanted to give her something to a car (she is crazy about cars) and wants to have all possible things for convenience. Last year she bought a car fridge (to have cool drinks for our children).

A friend of mine offered one online store – Car DVD Online – where he had managed to buy dvd for car with touch screen. I visited the shop and immediately understood what she needed – a dvd player with built-in TV (she likes talk shows and soap operas).

The price was reasonable and I took the one with GPS. I know that this function is not for my wife but for me – why not. Moreover, I decided that I need this small 7-inch  portable DVD player with TV function as a birthday present:

Actor’s New Paradise

It has been announced that Tom Hanks and his wife have bought a new estate. They have paid 26 million dollars to buy a house in Pacific Palisades. The estate is said to be on the biggest in Los Angeles area. The 26 million purchase includes about 15 000 square feet, four bedrooms and five bathrooms. They say that the new house is twice bigger than their previous house. The surroundings are rather famous. The community has about 30 000 people living there. It has been the site for some film shootings. The place is really great for enjoying life there.

One may say it’s useless to spend so much money for a house, but Tom is a great actor and he has taken part in many great films and each film brought him a fortune. He is one of the actors whose films have always been blockbusters and they will continue the same way.

The area they have chosen is ideal for the family life and it’s rather quiet and it seems to be very private. Many celebrities are eager to buy a house there. Besides, the best of the best are living there and Tom will find somebody to talk to.

Russian market opportunities

Financial and economic crisis brought a lot of troubles for small and medium business all over the world. Large companies with their stabilizing funds managed to control their activities but small teams suffered a lot. But as everybody nows there is no bad news without good news following.

Facing crisis and financial loses at their traditional markets managers of SME started to explore new markets. I just mentioned that my favorite online store selling discounted designer clothing Forever Fashion created a new site that is 100% oriented to the Russian speaking customers - ForeverFashion.ru. The things are the same but the content is translated into Russian so as domain is not "com" but "ru". I'm sure that it's not because they like to speak Russian but because they want to cover a new market with their services. Good idea, I think!

Rich become richer…

I think it’s unfair when new companies suffer big difficulties while entering the market. I’m speaking about some institutional and marketing barriers that economic system creates for new-comers.

For example, many big internet sites selling the goods of other companies (like Amazon.com) permit to write testimonials and reviews on company’s services and products. Is it a good IT marketing instrument? Yes, of course. But can it help a small business just entering the market? NO and one more time NO.

Amazon allows the place comment only in 24 hours after buying the good and only if it’s bought from Amazon! For example if you bought a FSBO yard sign from Fizber.com you need to remember to return and to write a review in a day. Do you know a person who will do this? I don’t. I think that not more than 1% will do.

So, if I’m a small online boutique of Prada shoes with 30 customers per month, I’ll get 0.3 reviews per month. Conclusion I’ll get nothing at all. But my large competitor like BlueFly selling thousands of clothing every month will get 10-20 reviews. New customers will come and check for testimonials and will choose BlueFly. So, they will become richer and richer…

Trade-off while selling a house

While selling a house seller usually faces a difficult trade-off - how to improve the appearance of a house. There are a lot of moments that have to be improved to make house look better and to cost the money that seller wants to get for a house.

Here are some useful ideas:
1. Modify the bathroom. At least think about new fixtures for your bathrooms
2. Eliminate clutter, mess, and keep it simple. This will go a long way in having homebuyers picture themselves in your home, and then making it their home.
3. Think about some iron works or original aluminum balconies. They always improve the house and add to its value.