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Tag Archives: technology

Speaking of Custom v Catalog v Mass Produced…

Manufactured homes side walls are built and th...
Image via Wikipedia

Yesterday, I wrote a post about Coach-Built cars of the 1920s and 1930s.  As I was wring about those cars, and the Coach-Builder catalogs that grew out of them… and the mass-produced cars, I started thinking about the comparison with homes in the US.  And there is an interesting comparison.

Back in the 1970s and 1980s, my grandparents had a wonderful lake property in northern Michigan.  It was on Black Lake.  It had been in the family (mostly) for generations.  When I was very young, it had a couple of one room cabins that had been built in the 1930s.  There was no running water or indoor plumbing.

But then, in the early 70s, my grandparents had a double wide mobile home put on the lot.  It wasn’t a palace, but it was WAY nicer than the little cabins in replaced.  And it cost MUCH less than having a “regular” home built on the lot.

Bulk materials stored indoors at a manufacture...
Image via Wikipedia

There is a stigma with manufactured housing, though.  It isn’t just “some people”, either.  Some lenders won’t finance a manufactured home.  Others have a much higher rate.

And those are kind of like mass-produced cars… built on an assembly line… using components that are often tailored specifically for them. Constructions is actually VERY streamlined.  The parts fit, so it is largely a matter of assembling all of the pre-made components.  It is efficient… less waste… less time… even less energy.

On the other end of the scale are custom homes.  There are a couple of flavors, but for the purposes of this discussion, we’ll lump any home built completely on-site as being custom built.  That would be the vast majority of homes.  And it is a terribly inefficient process.  Just think about it…

  • Modern Desert Mobile Home/ Manufactured House
    Image via Wikipedia

    coordinating dozens of contractors to come out at just the right time

  • coordinating multiple inspections of the property… at just the right time.
  • while there are efforts made at maximizing the usage of the purchased materials, building one house at a time can’t utilize materials as well as mapping them out for multiple builds.
  • engineering for one home, or even a small run of similar homes, can’t be as rigorous as it can be for a mass-produced run.
  • same with design…

Honestly, I’m not really a cheerleader for pre-manufactured housing… but I can see some writing on a distant wall.  At some point, the efficiencies of manufactured or component housing will outrun the deficiencies. Lowering the cost and speeding the build-time, along with increasing the energy efficiency, space utilization and material efficiency will move in front of tradition.

Manufactured home ready for interior drywall i...
Image via Wikipedia

Already, in various places around the world, component housing is picking up steam.  And I think it is only a matter of time until the idea catches on here.  In effect, a buyer could choose from the components that they want to make up a home… plug in various parts of the plan… add an extra bedroom, media room or garage space as the home is being designed… plug and play.  The various parts would be assembled in a factory, and then shipped to the location.  At that point, the house would basically be joined together.  (Have you ever seen a Bruster’s Ice Cream Shop or Nathan’s Hot Dog store being installed?  They come on a truck and the property goes from being a parking lot and a pad to having a building in a day).

Another option is that similar to the log home kit model.  Most log homes are built from kits.  The vendor literally builds the shell at the mill, makes all of the adjustments to the structure, then disassembles and ships the parts… numbered like a puzzle… to be built on the site.  That might be an intermediate step…

As I said… it is only a matter of time… but that could be a generation away.

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Enter Realtor.com… New Android App

Realtor.com has introduced their new Android App for Google Andriod based mobile phones like the T-Mobile G2, Sprint EVO, Verizon Droid X and AT&T Captivate.

I have to say, it is pretty cool.  It is ‘location aware’, so it can search for listings and open houses that are nearby.  It can also do a host of other things, such as filtering listings by price, amenities, size, bedrooms/bathrooms, etc.  It can also share listings with family and friends… and it syncs to your Realtor.com account so that you can share listings and notes between your computer and phone.

QR code for Realtor.com Android app

Scan this with your Android phone

The Android App also does a few things that are unique to it… such as viewing the listing and its surroundings on Google Street View and save voice memos.  You can also ‘dictate’ an email to your agent, and notes right on the listing page.

Android is the up and coming platform for mobile phones.  It is the fastest growing platform, and is nipping at the heels of the iPhone… which is flat in its growth.

Here is the QR code if you want to go straight to downloading the app.  And here is a link to the Realtor.com page about the app (including the QR code and a few screenshots).

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Flashback Friday… Catch the Wave?

This is icon for social networking website. Th...
Image via Wikipedia

Last year everyone was talking about the Google Wave… it was the hottest ‘beta’ invite around.  There were hundreds of blog posts from all sorts of tech luminaries about the Google Wave and how it was going to revolutionize communications… rich media, text, video, audio, websites… all together.

About two and a half months ago, Google announced that the Wave was going to die… probably after the end of 2010.

I wrangled a Wave invite last year.  It was cool… but not cool enough to actually use.  And I guess that was why nobody bothered to really use it.  It didn’t revolutionize email communications.  It didn’t make a wave… in fact, it was barely a ripple.

But here is the big question…

When we look back at this a couple years from now, will we see the Google Wave as a trans-formative communications revolution?

I don’t know that we will… or won’t.  But I think it is just as possible that Google’s Wave will be an idea ahead of its time as it is to be just a bad idea.

Take a look back…

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A Model Day… Disney Series…

I just ran across one of these videos on the Disney Blog and had to see if there were any others.  I came up with three.

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NASCAR and Bobsledding

In 1992, Geoff Bodine was a stock car racing good ol’ boy (albeit, one from New York).  He was knee deep in being one of the best NASCAR drivers of all time.  In fact, he hold a Guiness Record for the most wins by a racer in one season… 55 Modified wins.

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