Concerned about mediocrity, dumbing-down, high school graduates not prepared to compete in the world? Enter Philadelphia's newest high school, the School of the Future, which opened this week. The 700-800 student high school was funded by Philadelphia with Microsoft offering technical expertise a
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09/10/2006
There is much talk in the Tampa Bay area, as in so many other parts of the country, about housing prices getting so high that there are no affordable homes. Lennar has a full page ad in the Tampa Tribune this morning announcing that it will waive down payments and closing costs on certain invento
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09/10/2006
After reading about Google's new news archive search this week I decided to play with it this morning - and was captivated. Searching for Sharon Simms I found everything from local paper social articles to Realty Times articles that quoted me back in the 1990s. There are a lot of Sharon Simms aro
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09/10/2006
We've become accustomed to call centers in India (not saying we like them, but we have become used to them) but I was surprised to read in the Wall Street Journal yesterday that many hotels at all levels are outsourcing this position to travel or ticket companies. While I don't mind a travel or t
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09/09/2006
Multiple choice systems are the worst, followed by answering machines. Next behind that is a receptionist saying XX is out of the office, can I put you through to his voice mail? And yes - smiles and attitudes from that Director of First Impressions is critical.Although we can be reached through
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09/09/2006
And you think you had problems spelling your city! From childhood I've had fun just pronouncing the name of this lake. It's in Webster, Massachusetts, and some people cheat and call it Lake Webster, Lake Manchaugg, or locals often just call it The Lake.The name, as many name places, came from a
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09/09/2006
Actually, we do this for every one of our listings, not just luxury properties, but it's especially important for luxury real estate. We purchase a domain name, generally the address of the property, such as http://www.14073nbayshoredr.com/ or the condo building, such as http://www.thegrandeonsan
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09/08/2006
The counterpoint to The Lovely Wife's Weekend Warrior is the Weekend Disappearing Act. Usually it starts on Friday - sometimes at noon, sometimes early in the morning. Nobody there to talk to about setting up a weekend showing. Nobody there to tell us about the listing our clients might be inter
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09/08/2006
We talk frequently about our addictions - well, this morning tested them. Up at 5:30 to blog and read before leaving for work - site was down. Checked again at 6:00 and 6:30 site down. Checked again about 9:30 site still down. Can't be. What do I do now. Fortunately now at 2:00 while I'm eat
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09/08/2006
Today I looked at several "flippers", new homes purchased by an investor who put them on the market right after he closed on them. Vacant homes aren't as compelling as model homes; we know that the kitchen and baths (or at least the master bath) are critical to most buyers.In the homes I saw toda
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09/07/2006
