Technology For Agents

Ryan Paul over at Arstechnica reported yesterday that the big campaign to have everyone download Firefox 3 was a resounding success.  Their goal was a mere 5 Million downloads.  The actual numbers hit were around 8, that’s EIGHT, million downloads of the awesome browser known as Firefox 3.

I was one of many who downloaded the browser and I’m certainly impressed.  Faster load times and session restoration (if you’re browser somehow closes then the pages you were on will usually come back) are a couple of the big changes that went into place.

In regards to making entry into the Guiness Book of World Records, Ryan had this to say:

I also asked Dotzler some questions about the process through which Mozilla’s download day statistics will enter the Guinness World Records. The server logs and download information will be given to an independent review board consisting of Corey Shields and Paul Vixie, which will then conduct a thorough audit, weed out duplicate and incomplete downloads, and determine an exact number. The download day event, which was orchestrated by Mozilla’s global marketing team, has been one of Mozilla’s most successful awareness campaigns to date.

Looks like time will tell; though server reports should be pretty concrete evidence that the record has been broken.  Great job to the Firefox 3 team!

If you’ve downloaded Firefox 3, what do you think?

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Today is the big day! Firefox 3 has been officially announced and is ready for you to download and enjoy.  I’ve been using Firefox 3 for quite some time now, and all the pages I browse load noticably faster than other browsers.

If you are currently using Internet Explorer or any other currently available browser, you Firefox 3 definitely deserves a try! 

I especially love the productivity features:

In the end, it’s all about you being able to do what you need to do on the Web. And with features like built-in spell checking, session restore and full zoom, nobody makes it easier, helps you work better or saves you more time than Firefox.

It’s a free download so head on over and help break the world record for the most downloads in a day.

Download Firefox 3

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What software do you use to house your real estate database?  Among the real estate agents I’ve consulted with, most agents seem to use either Top Producer or Microsoft Outlook.  We know that Top Producer is fairly secure; you’re asked for a username and password before even logging in.

What about Microsoft Outlook?  Anyone with access to your laptop or computer can simply open Outlook and see your database in it’s full form.  Online Tech Tips recently published a nice how-to on securing your Outlook database that deserves a look.

If you are using Microsoft Outlook as your real estate database, keeping your information secure should be a priority near the top of your list!

Thanks goes out to Lifehacker for pointing out this tutorial.

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One of the ways you can sign contracts using your Tablet PC is using a piece of software named PDF Annotator.  I’ve personally used this to have my clients sign contracts to buy and sell real estate, so give it a shot!

You don’t need to have a tablet PC per say, but a tablet component to your computer is a necessity.  Here is a selection of writing components you can attach to any laptop to enable the ability to digitally sign your contracts.

I love it when developers keep their products fresh and up to date, and PDF Annotator 2 comes with a bunch of nifty new features.

• Page Manager
• Toolbox
• Stamps
• Bookmark Manager
• Auto-Smooth (smooths out hand drawn lines to be perfect)
• Enhanced Full Screen Mode
• Enhanced Text Search
• Continuous View
• Pan Mode
• Page Navigation
• Enhanced Menu/Toolbars
• Enhanced Text Box Styles
• Enhanced Rendering Engine

Existing users can purchase a single license update for $34.95, but new users will have to pay the standard $69.95.

Update: PDF Annotator does not currently support Apple products.

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Is that logo familiar? I’d be confident to say that it’s the non-official online document of most real estate transactions.

CutePDF is free software you can download and install on your computer to enable the option to print virtually any document to a PDF. I say “print” because the process is just like printing to a traditional printer.

So how does one print to a PDF? What does that mean? Let’s say you are creating a flyer for a listing, and you’d like to send over a rough draft to your client. Do you send over the gigantic source file? I’d hope not!

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