Adding Understanding

CALI Conference for Law School Computing 2008

Originally uploaded by bfwest

Or really this is just a test

The Idaho Statesman ran a story yesterday asking suggesting the housing sales numbers might indicate a bottoming out of the market. There are several problems with this sort of story. From start to finish the story bears a strong resemblance to the blogs about Boise real estate which have been trumpeting the return of a healthy market for at least as many months as the market has been in a spiral.

Though it wasn't in blog form I remember being told nearly nine months ago by an agent how prices had "recovered" and sellers were getting asking price and higher for their places. The message then was that we needed to act quickly and buy now. Oddly those same houses, still on the market, are now priced lower than they were last winter. In the last month Boise has been struck by the loss of several hundred jobs. Although some of those jobs will actually be cut over the next few months it is still a blow to confidence in consumer's minds. Yet the article in the paper would have you believe that a 3% decrease in available housing is a significant indicator of a bottom in the market.

A busy night in Boise tonight. So many great meetings and opportunities to choose from. The Idaho Press Club has a forum on the impact of the internet on television. Meanwhile over here at the Washington Group building the Boise Web Technologies meetup is hearing about PHPUnit testing and Zend Framework from Brad Benner and Rich Benton.

I'm rather surprised and pleased with how good NBCOlympics.com is this time around. Sure there are annoyances like expecting users to download a Microsoft plugin, although it appears that the plugin is even available for Linux and Firefox. The site and approach aren't without their flaws. It remains clear that NBC doesn't grok the internet. They don't understand how people want to access data and they require you to click through a screen which says you subscribe to a local cable/satellite service as well as provide a zip code so they can target advertising on the page to their local affiliate.

So I'll certainly give the benefit of the doubt and say it looks like progress. I'm looking forward to the olympics of the future where networks compete globally and if the BBC has the best equestrian coverage I can not only view it easily but download and remix it in ways they never intended.

For now, this is better than a sharp stick in the eye. Although the next DirecTV terminator advertisement it might not be.

Each day folks stop by looking for information on Cowboy Christmas so I guess it's never to early to post information about the 2008 show.

• The Las Vegas Convention Center hosts the Cowboy Christmas Gift Show which is open 10AM - 5PM daily from Thursday, December 4 through Saturday, December 13 at the Las Vegas Convention Center this show bills itself as "longest running and only “Original” gift show of the Wrangler National Finals Rodeo"
• My personal favorite the Ariat Country Christmas Western Gift Expo returns for the 15th year at the Sands Convention Center and runs from Friday, December 4 - Sunday, December 14. Their site doesn't give hours but it's safe to assume they will be similar daytime hours.
• The Mandalay Bay Convention Center will again play host to the Cowboy Marketplace Western Lifestyle Expo December 5 - 13

So whether you're headed to Las Vegas for the NFR or just for some holiday shopping it should be a great time in Vegas again this year.