#room rental software

[qoreupsmarketplace]

Why Your Property Rental Business Needs Property Rental Software

Running a successful property rental business requires efficient management of reservations, inventory, and customer interactions. 

In today's digital age, leveraging technology is crucial to stay ahead of the competition. 

One powerful way that can transform your operations is property rental software. 

Let's explore why integrating software for rental property is a game-changer.

Global Visibility And Reach

Property rental software opens the door to a global audience. For instance, Airbnb boosts a vast user base, allowing property owners to showcase their listings to potential tenants worldwide.

This board reach significantly increased the chances of securing bookings and maximizing rental income.

Efficient Property Management

Managing multiple properties can be overwhelming without the right tools. That's where property rental management software comes in.

With property rental management software you can automate various tasks. Like booking confirmations, payment processing, and calendar updates.

This efficiency not only saves time but also reduces the risk of errors associated with manual management.

Enhanced Guest Experience

Customer satisfaction is paramount in the rental business. Property rental management software, inspired by platforms like Airbnb, often includes features that enhance the guest experience.

This may include online payment options and instant communication channels. A positive guest experience can lead to repeat bookings and positive reviews.

Dynamic Pricing Strategies

Property rental marketplaces often incorporate dynamic pricing algorithms rates based on demand, seasonality, and other factors. This ensures that property owners can maximize their revenue by adjusting prices according to market trends and demand fluctuations. 

Secure Payment Processing

One of the key concerns for property owners is secure and timely payment processing. Property rental software typically integrates secure payment gateways, providing peace of mind for both property owners and tenants. This helps build trust and credibility, essential in a competitive rental marketplace.

Streamlined Communication

Effective communication is vital in a property rental business. Property rental software facilitates seamless communication between property owners and tenants. Instant messaging features, notifications, and updates ensure that everyone is on the same page, reducing the likelihood of misunderstandings or disputes.

Data Analytics For Informed Decision-Making

Property rental marketplace platforms often offer data analytics tools that provide insights into occupancy rates, guest demographics, and revenue trends. This valuable information empowers property owners to make informed decisions, such as adjusting marketing strategies or optimizing property features based on guest preferences.

In conclusion, the integration of property rental software modeled after successful platforms like Airbnb is no longer a choice but a necessity for property rental businesses aiming for sustained growth and success. The advantages, ranging from global visibility and efficient management to enhanced guest experiences and data-driven decision-making, position these tools as indispensable assets in the competitive rental marketplace. As the industry continues to evolve, staying ahead of the curve with innovative software solutions is the key to not just surviving but thriving in the dynamic world of property rental.

[bravevolunteer]

breaking my silence. i really do not like the idea of the sister location warehouse being underneath the afton house

[phoenixyfriend]

Ko-Fi prompt from KemiKitty:

id enjoy hearing about concerts and ticket money if you want

Referencing my “how does this make money/how does this lose money” in this post.

Whoo! I actually really enjoy talking about money flow like this. Digging into examples like this helps with understanding the interconnectedness of the economic systems we inhabit, and with why things cost What They Do.

Disclaimer: I have not worked in this industry. I just majored in business, watch a lot of documentaries/video essays, and like to break down business and economic topics. When I got to performances, I try to figure these things out as an observer (dinner theater from watching Lindsey Sterling before she got super famous, more Traditional concerts at Staller Performing Arts center, Broadway shows) and asking questions of tour guides when at places like the Vienna Opera House.

Our Example: A moderately popular performer, in an enclosed performance space with a stage, fixed seating, and food service.

Let us consider a performer of middling popularity. They go on tours, but only in the lower 48 states, not yet internationally. They do single nights at an independent venue, which has either dinner tables or rows of audience seating. Let's say... 350 seats, in a middle-sized city, with $30/ticket on average, with wiggle room depending on seating, VIP passes, and discounts (groupons, senior, military, annual passes, etc).

So, who is getting paid, and who is paying?

Money coming into the venue, tied directly to this one event:

Tickets The people who came to this concert are paying for the tickets. 350 seats, at an average of $30/ticket, that's about $10,500. Most of this money does not go to the venue, but may pass through it, or leave a cut with it. (Depends on the ticketing software; we're saying this is an independent venue, not part of the ticketmaster situation, so it's a maybe.)

Food and drink The venue sells snacks, possibly full meals, if it's a dinner-and-show location. It may sell alcohol. It almost definitely sells drinks, maybe has vending machines if nothing else. If attendees cannot bring their own food and drink, and don't want to leave the building so they don't miss the show, then the venue can mark up the food they sell.

Merchandise Dependent on the type of merch and the venue, this may be a flat fee, where the performer puts down a few hundred dollars up front to set up a table for after the concert, or it might be taking a small cut of whatever is sold that night. They might not charge anything, but we'll include it as a likely avenue of income. I can see some kinder venues waiving the fee for newer, up-and-coming artists, but generally you can assume that the venue will take a cut.

Money flowing out of the venue, tied directly to this one event:

The Performer and their team The ticket costs will go primarily to the performer, their backup dancers/singers/band, their manager, and whatever fund they have for things other than wages, like a tour bus rental fee, the label, the driver, the night's post-concert laundry costs, and so on. The chances of all that money going to a single performer is very low; you can generally assume they have backup, management, additional costs, and someone pulling the strings. There are exceptions, like unaffiliated stand-up comedians or other, genuinely solo acts, but for the type of event I'm outlining, these are all contributing factors. Performers may bring their own lighting/sound techs. The venue also might provide their own. For a larger venue, I'd assume both are involved; one who knows the concert's program, and one who knows the venue's setup.

Venue staff The ushers, lighting/sound technicians, the bar staff, the cook, the janitor, security, and anyone else who is working night-of is getting paid. We can equate their pay to the money coming in from specifically the food and drink sales, along with tips for the waitstaff in particular. By this, I mean that the correlation is such that, should sales fall, the corresponding cut in costs is employee labor (the bar staff and cooks), rather than the performers (whose costs are calculated in relation to the money they bring in relating to the ticket sales).

Food and Drink Raw ingredients for the food, wholesale costs for the liquor, napkins, single-use straws, and so on.

Printed Programs Someone has to print the little booklet that tells you who's performing tonight, who's performing for the next few months, and anything else you need to know. If it's a big-name cultural center, they may even include some interviews! But ink is expensive, and that's a lot of paper.

Money coming into the venue, not connected to the specific event:

Advertising Does the venue have posters around for local businesses? For insurance companies? For upcoming events? Someone is paying them for that. Does the venue intersperse the pre-show music over the speakers with the occasional ad spot? Someone is paying them for that. Does the venue have ads in the program booklet? Someone is paying them for that. For a really, really large venue, the kind with dozens or hundreds of employees and massive lighting/sound setups, they are liable to get most of their income from advertising.

Government Grants and Private Donations Depending on the venue, they may donations or grants. This is more likely to apply to a university/community performing arts center than a for-profit dinner theater, but it's a possibility.

Merchandise The venue may have merch that is unrelated to the performance of the night. A historic or novelty location is most likely to have success with this, selling beer glasses with their logo or a t-shirt with 'home of the [band from several decades ago]' printed across the front.

Money flowing out of the venue, not connected to the specific event:

Administrative/Overhead Employees Management, bookkeeping, legal, marketing, and so on.

Utilities Electricity, water, sewage, gas, telecomm, and so on.

Taxes, Licenses, Fees Sales tax, property tax, liquor license, etc.

Mortgage or lease The venue's business owner is not necessarily the one to own the property outright. They may pay rent to a property owner, or mortgage to the bank.

Maintenance - Building Codes Any large building is going to need plumbers, glass techs, electricians, roofers, and so on coming by with regularity. (This part, I actually do know; I used to do repairs dispatching, and you'd be amazed how frequently a big box store needs someone to come by about the toilets.)

Maintenance - Venue Codes There are certain things that an entertainment venue needs to do that other businesses... don't. Namely, fire safety. It's a huge deal. Staying up to code can be expensive, especially if you need to get your backstage/wing curtains chemically treated again, which can be anywhere from one to five years, or the next time someone spills water on it. (That's the main reason open containers of liquids aren't allowed backstage.)

Marketing Just like people pay the venue to advertise, the venue pays for others to advertise it. This could be in the local newspaper or online, but if a given performer isn't someone semi-famous on tour that has a following, then something else needs to draw in a regular paying crowd.

Miscellaneous Overhead There is a lot of overhead for any business of moderate size that has its costs spread out over the year. This includes hiring an accountant for tax season, purchasing uniforms for employees, replacing cutlery and plates and furniture as it wears out or gets lost, repainting the walls every few years, office supplies when the printer for the programs wears out, and so on.

Is this everything? Almost definitely not.

But, hopefully, I've untangled a few things that you may not have considered before.

Those tickets and drinks you bought cover a lot more than just the performer!

...unless it's through ticketmaster, in which case it's probably just the monopoly.

----

If you enjoyed this post, please support me on ko-fi! You can also prompt me for a business/econ topic of your choice here.

[othernaut]

Character Creation Challenge 2025, Day 4: Corp Borg

Image Archive B6-96 doesn't exist. It isn't located on the second floor of the Southern Watchtower, between Compliance Archive II-01 and the Domain of Ceaseless Summer. No pneumatics travel there; emails never arrive. There certainly isn't a trolley full of proprietary images that have been allowed to rot in stock for six months, lacking anywhere to rest.

Jazz isn't worried. Her department, slashed to a single head, can function just fine, just like this. The lack of managerial direction after the culling doesn't concern her one bit. She hasn't been forgotten. This'll work out just fine.

(They keep finding them in drywalled offices, the bodies. Support for software that's been sunsetted for decades. Withered, single-man departments without responsibilities, without oversight, without food, without air. They drag the groaning things out into the offices by their fingernails. Security still has to walk them out, regardless of whether or not they can stand.)

Just sit back and collect a paycheck. Live the dream. But she can't even effectively freelance - can't create, can't do anything for herself - due to the clause in her contract that owns any work done on company time. And now that everyone else is gone, now that she IS the department, overtime is effectively infinite. Live the dream - unless you can't go home. Until they notice you. Until they remember you can still perform.

Trolley full of proprietary images to B6-96, which doesn't exist. The pencils have been rattling all morning in a soft and subtle earthquake that won't stop. All she has is her own initiative. And she has to make this look good.

Sneakers crunching across the old brown basement carpet as she wheels the trolley through the corridors. Techs are in today, hefting desks and drafting tables out of old offices, wheeling in server racks and PC banks pre-loaded with the latest generative image software. You can still see the long scratches on the walls where the old heads - the layout artists, the physical media guys, the ones who worked in ink and paper - were pulled screaming from their ratholes. A wisp of magenta lurches from the trolley, flickers the fluorescents neon pink for a moment; a pattern of primary color shapes, rods, and squiggles asserts itself momentarily over the carpet. There's a reason you don't let the images pile up for too long.

A heavy jolt hits the building. The lights flicker in their housing, gypsum dust rattles from the walls. Something crashes in an adjacent room; someone curses, automatic and rapid-fire, and it lasts until the lights go out for good.

A low moaning from somewhere far, far below. Motes of light, ketchup red, rise from the carpet around her sensible shoes.

She runs, barreling the trolley ahead of her like a battering ram.

Crowd around the elevators, clustered muffled bodies staring at the blinking emergency lights. Someone cracks a joke about early lunch; sensible chuckles. One of those bodies sinks wordlessly into the unlit floor, black into black, and no one even notices they're missing. Jazz thunders on, riding the inertia of her now-unstoppable snap decision. The task she had appointed herself has become her sole focus, beyond the safety training videos drilled into her year after year. Freight elevator. Her department relegated to the basement for so long that she knows the way by heart. Red light pulsing above the doorway, emergency power - still power. She skids the trolley to a slow, rumbling stop and taps the elevator open.

Inside, another person. Old winter wear, pink windbreaker, battered ski boots - possibly rentals. Wraparound mirrorshades lift to reveal terrified eyes, red-rimmed doe-leather brown. Sheer terror when Jazz eases the trolley into the elevator. He speaks something like modern Swedish, though fucked up and archaic in a way she can't really place. Seems grateful when she hits the button for the lobby. Keeps repeating that he needs to get out, get away, she thinks - she can relate. Snow melts on his shoulders as the freight elevator rumbles upwards. She can't show him the way out, not now, but she does the best she can to guide him to the front doors from the lobby. Eyes watering in a childlike confusion and gratitude, like a baby that's never been struck.

Doors ding open. Security is there, four of them, and they rush in plain and quick and efficient. Taze the stranger in a single motion and lope him out of the box, twitching and groaning. Jazz holds the elevator open with her foot, waiting for them to vacate. A wisp of an old jingle rises out of the compressed art blocks on the trolley, a memory of when there was more soda than just the one, more options than just this.

Nearly crunches over the guy's dropped wraparound shades on her way out. Something weird in the neon blue reflection: not the ceiling, a cloudy sky. Edge of a mountain. Snow coming down. She pauses, just a little, and picks them up. The perspective shifts to a ski lift rising up the edge of an otherwise familiar mountain. A quaint little lodge, winter-frosted, sits right in the heart of what would be Nekker Bell HQ main lobby. Like here, only quieter.

There are figures in the reflection, distorted and small. A snowsuited man fixes skis onto a tiny, overdressed, potatolike toddler. A smiling woman slides by, ear to an old beige-brick cellphone with a thick, wobbly antenna. Some animal leaps around in the snow, golden-furred in little booties and a knitted sweater, like a hellhound with dark, teary eyes and no miasma of hellish stench.

Snowy, achingly prosaic. Mundane.

Another rumble. The freight elevator shifts a few centimeters; something whines in the overhead mechanism. Jazz wheels the trolley through the doors, out into the overlapping shadows and light of the lobby floor. Tucks the shades into her T-shirt, glass in, cold against her feverish skin. A trio of first responders lean against the curve of the front desk, trading indistinguishable gossip, plain and casual, with two of the five receptionists even as the floor shifts and shudders.

Still got shit to do.

*****

Savings: 111¤ Role: Designer Works for: Nekker Bell Traits: Knowledge 20 (3), Flexibility 13 (1), Integrity 13 (1), Hard Skills 7 (-1), Soft Skills 15 (2) Hit Points: 4 Undos: 1

Assets: Just a shirt and jeans (no damage reduction, -2DR for Flexibility tests), Pen (d3 weapon, at max damage it embeds, Flexibility or Hard Skills DR12 to pull it out and do 1 bleed for 1d4 rounds), Backpack (7 items), Bag of coffee additives, 26-day-old sandwich (it's fine) Incantations: Intern Descend (Summon d4 faithful interns, no armor, d2 scratch, worthless) Artifact: Sketchbook (sketch a location to teleport there, roll a d6; 1-2 the sketch is bad and it doesn't work, 3-4 the sketch is okay and it teleports somewhere else, 5-6 the sketch is workable and it functions as intended)

Complicated past: Family curse (soul's mortgaged from birth) Yearnings: Purity (longs to do ART, ACTUAL FUCKING ART) Reason to work in corporation: A grave mistake (artist wants paycheck, the beartrap closes) Reaction to stress: None (just another day in paradise)

Name: Jazz (like the old dixie cup pattern)

*****

I do like a bit of corporate horror. Severance got hold of me hard for a bit; I've always liked the bits of the SCP Foundation that focused on the odd interactions of the anomalous with a normal office building. Corp Borg files that mundane inhumanity into the framework of Mork Borg, and at first it looked like an awkward fit, making nostalgic and, at times, hilarious Mork Borg's ever-present feeling of grinding, inescapable doom. But as someone who's put time in the customer service mines, "grinding, inescapable doom" is a sensation that well fits the vibe in every modern office. And hey, we like lateral moves, here at the reeling edge of culture.

Corp Borg looks and rolls pretty much precisely like Mork Borg; the colorways are identical, the flashy zine-style aesthetics, the assumption that you know what the hell the book is on about when it says "d6 laptop, 50% chance to inflict code-madness for d3 rounds". Fresh new vinyl flesh poured onto the skeleton of Mork Borg; if you know Mork Borg, you know how this thing works. Which sounds on first blush like a faint condemnation, but Mork Borg is a masterpiece of design, and saying that a thing looks and feels just like it is plaintext praise.

That said, the vibes are... kind of off. Corp Borg can slide too hard into the "horror" side of "corporate horror", treating the fluorescent lights and open-plan offices as set dressing for the capitalist demons that carry the weight of the thing's professed awfulness. Part of what appeals to me about corporate horror is that the corporate part is in every way exactly as horrific as the horror part, only in an insidious, achingly slow way - the horror not of a monster peeling off your skin but of willingly lining up, day after day, to have it abraded down to the muscle layer by the gentle scrub of the office-standard belt sander.

(The reason I got out of the customer service mines was that I had one real, good conversation with a co-worker where she revealed a lot about herself and her personality. We had a lot of similar tastes and opinions; she said I reminded her a lot of herself when she started. She had been ground down to a cynical nub, immediately expecting everyone she met to be stupid, irrational and stubborn. She accepted that her day was going to be misery and the paycheck was just enough of a balm to keep her in it. There was no life in those eyes. Two weeks submitted days later.)

That said, there's enough stuff in Corp Borg that you can assemble the pieces into whatever flavor of corporate sundae you're after - if you think coffee Madonnas and stapler fights are too ridiculous, you can play around with endless overtime, with the slow grinding shift of the mutation tables, with the end of the world delivered by email daemon hot and fresh every morning (and please do not reply).

One thing I will unconditionally laud is the starter adventure in the back of the book (which is excellent, and banks on impostor syndrome as its main mechanism of fear, which I adore) and, crucially, beautifully, the solo play rules. I am pleased beyond expression that not only are solo play rules included right in the book, but that it's comprehensive, well thought out, and comes with delightful flowcharts, exceptions and thematic justification. This is a thing I want to praise loudly until it blossoms into a trend, and it's the thing that elevates Corp Borg from a "huh, neat" to something I'm probably going to reference over and over again on bored work nights.

Next up: A careworn dream of the future.

[vibeventurehub]

25 Passive Income Ideas to Build Wealth in 2025

Passive income is a game-changer for anyone looking to build wealth while freeing up their time. In 2025, technology and evolving market trends have opened up exciting opportunities to earn money with minimal ongoing effort. Here are 25 passive income ideas to help you grow your wealth:

1. Dividend Stocks

Invest in reliable dividend-paying companies to earn consistent income. Reinvest dividends to compound your returns over time.

2. Real Estate Crowdfunding

Join platforms like Fundrise or CrowdStreet to invest in real estate projects without the hassle of property management.

3. High-Yield Savings Accounts

Park your money in high-yield savings accounts or certificates of deposit (CDs) to earn guaranteed interest.

4. Rental Properties

Purchase rental properties and outsource property management to enjoy a steady cash flow.

5. Short-Term Rentals

Leverage platforms like Airbnb or Vrbo to rent out spare rooms or properties for extra income.

6. Peer-to-Peer Lending

Lend money through platforms like LendingClub and Prosper to earn interest on your investment.

7. Create an Online Course

Turn your expertise into an online course and sell it on platforms like Udemy or Teachable for recurring revenue.

8. Write an eBook

Publish an eBook on Amazon Kindle or similar platforms to earn royalties.

9. Affiliate Marketing

Promote products or services through a blog, YouTube channel, or social media and earn commissions for every sale.

10. Digital Products

Design and sell digital products such as templates, printables, or stock photos on Etsy or your website.

11. Print-on-Demand

Use platforms like Redbubble or Printful to sell custom-designed merchandise without inventory.

12. Mobile App Development

Create a useful app and monetize it through ads or subscription models.

13. Royalties from Creative Work

Earn royalties from music, photography, or artwork licensed for commercial use.

14. Dropshipping

Set up an eCommerce store and partner with suppliers to fulfill orders directly to customers.

15. Blogging

Start a niche blog, grow your audience, and monetize through ads, sponsorships, or affiliate links.

16. YouTube Channel

Create a YouTube channel around a specific niche and earn through ads, sponsorships, and memberships.

17. Automated Businesses

Use tools to automate online businesses, such as email marketing or subscription box services.

18. REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts)

Invest in REITs to earn dividends from real estate holdings without owning property.

19. Invest in Index Funds

Index funds provide a simple way to earn passive income by mirroring the performance of stock market indexes.

20. License Software

Develop and license software or plugins that businesses and individuals can use.

21. Crypto Staking

Participate in crypto staking to earn rewards for holding and validating transactions on a blockchain network.

22. Automated Stock Trading

Leverage robo-advisors or algorithmic trading platforms to generate passive income from the stock market.

23. Create a Membership Site

Offer exclusive content or resources on a membership site for a recurring subscription fee.

24. Domain Flipping

Buy and sell domain names for a profit by identifying valuable online real estate.

25. Invest in AI Tools

Invest in AI-driven platforms or create AI-based products that solve real-world problems.

Getting Started

The key to success with passive income is to start with one or two ideas that align with your skills, interests, and resources. With dedication and consistency, you can build a diversified portfolio of passive income streams to secure your financial future.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

This day in history

I'm OFFLINE UNTIL MID-SEPTEMBER, but you can catch me in person at BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).

#20yrsago EFF wins Grokster! Software doesn’t have to be easy for Hollywood to wiretap! https://web.archive.org/web/20041026154633/https://www.eff.org/IP/P2P/MGM_v_Grokster/20040819_mgm_v_grokster_decision.pdf

#15yrsago Poor design-choices in the Star Wars universe https://web.archive.org/web/20090821185001/http://blogs.amctv.com/scifi-scanner/2009/08/bad-designs-in-star-wars.php

#15yrsago Computers’ limitations, as seen in 1967 https://web.archive.org/web/20090823020726/http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/08/19/computers-their-built-in-limitations/

#15yrsago WMD swag from a chemistry conference https://web.archive.org/web/20090824144536/http://cenblog.org/2009/08/19/wmd-goodie-bag/

#15yrsago Entertainment Weekly ad with a video-screen glued to the pages https://web.archive.org/web/20090821204702/https://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/08/cbs-embeds-a-video-playing-ad-in-a-print-magazine/

#15yrsago Brutal military dictatorship that backs Fiji Water https://web.archive.org/web/20090816093201/http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/09/fiji-spin-bottle

#15yrsago Sipping Spiders Through a Straw: funny monster lyrics to traditional tunes https://memex.craphound.com/2009/08/19/sipping-spiders-through-a-straw-funny-monster-lyrics-to-traditional-tunes/

#10yrsago Copyright extortion startup wants to hijack your browser until you pay https://torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-outfit-wants-to-hijack-browsers-until-fine-paid-140816/

#10yrsago Militarized cops: arms dealers bribed Congress to ramboize Barney Fife https://www.motherjones.com/criminal-justice/2014/08/how-defense-industry-made-room-militarized-police-today/

#10yrsago How the US government exerts control over ICANN https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2014/08/government-control-internet-governance-icann-proposes-giving-gac-increased-power-board-decisions/

#5yrsago New Hampshire court to patent troll: it’s not libel when someone calls you a “patent troll” https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/08/patent-troll-sues-over-patent-troll-label-loses/

#5yrsago An appreciation for Samuel Delany https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/books/samuel-delany-jordy-rosenberg.html

#5yrsago More than 20 Texas cities and towns have been taken hostage by ransomware https://dir.texas.gov/news?id=210

#5yrsago Owner of Phoenix apartment building serves eviction notices to every tenant so he can turn their homes into unlicensed hotel rooms https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/phoenix-landlord-evicts-tenants-short-term-rental-wanderjaunt-11345084

#5yrsago Ecofascism isn’t new: white supremacy and exterminism have always lurked in the environmental movement https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/15/anti

#5yrsago A cycle of renewal, broken: How Big Tech and Big Media abuse copyright law to slay competition https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/08/cycle-renewal-broken-how-big-tech-and-big-media-abuse-copyright-law-slay

#5yrsago The TSA strip searched a grandmother on Mother’s Day and now says that she’s overreacting because it’s no different from a locker room https://professional-troublemaker.com/2019/08/19/tsa-forced-strip-search-no-more-offensive-than-voluntarily-using-a-locker-room/

#1yrago SoCal Gas spent millions on astroturf ops to fight climate rules https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/19/cooking-the-books-with-gas/#reichman-jorgensen

On SEPTEMBER 24th, I'll be speaking IN PERSON at the BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY!!

[neurosismancer]

So, let me put on my Internet Old Person hat and tell you kids about the the way we committed music piracy in the long long ago of 2001, and the fragility of those music collections in those days.

You might know Napster. You might know Limewire. But there was a music piracy tool in between those. A little remembered program called AudioGalaxy, and it worked a little like Napster and a little like BitTorrent. The exact details of how it worked are immaterial, but one thing it did was when you searched for an artist, the songs were sorted, in essence, by popularity (e.g. how many people had that specific song file shared.)

Now, I can’t understand why this was a thing, but there was a strange phenomenon in the early days of file sharing and music piracy where people would share songs with the wrong artist name or song title. Certain bands and artists got a lot of stuff attributed to them that they never recorded. “Weird” Al Yankovic may be the most infamous victim of this, with nearly every novelty song and song parody released attributed to him regardless of quality or subject matter.

The confluence of these two phenomena are how I discovered one of my favorite bands of all time.

So, in my late teens, I found a new favorite band. A quickly little one-hit wonder known as DEVO. Y’know, the band that dd “Whip It.” They had the funny red hats that looked like flowerpots. Those guys.

Anyway, I had become obsessed with this band to the point of autistic hyperfixation, and I wanted to hear everything they’d ever put out. At that point, they’d released nine studio albums, a couple live albums, and two collections of early demos, and I wanted them all. So I would find myself crawling in the bottom pages of the AudioGalaxy search results looking for those obscure tracks—b-sides, songs on soundtracks and compilations, the occasional bootleg, They’d pop up between songs that were obviously not by DEVO, and much like our poor friend Alfred Yankovic, any sort of vaguely quirky 80s song got assigned to DEVO.

That was how I found it. A song called, simply, “Detachable Penis.”

Now, I had never heard of such as song, but I knew on the face of it, it wasn’t a DEVO song.

But with a title like that, I knew I had to find out just what in the name of fuck a song called “Detachable Penis” sounded like.

It sounded, dear reader, like this:

(CWs: blurry images of a dildo, the word penis, spoken word poetry)

And I immediately went to Google, because this song somehow tickled an itch in my brain, and I had to go and find out the real band that recorded this song, because how the hell else was I going to get every song I could of theirs I could get my grubby little hands on. The band was called King Missile, and I was hooked.

I’d like to see any music discovery algorithm beat that.

I eventually acquired their entire major discography along with a few EPs and B-Sides. I eventually burned those to a CD, which I could listen to with my MP3 CD Player.

And I realize, upon writing that, for you youth “MP3 CD Player” is a noun phrase that needs explaining. See, while the iPod had been released at that point, and similar devices were also on the market, they were all prohibitively expensive. The economical way to listen to pirated music files was to burn them to CD, but some CD players had software that allows you to burn those song as as _data_. Suddenly, you could have a single CD with 700 megabytes of MP3 files—room for an artist’s entire discography, if not multiple artists.

Since I was download a whole lot of MP3s with my high speed DSL connection, I was taking up an awful lot of space on my hard drive that needed to be offloaded somehow. CD-Rs and an MP3 CD Player were the optimal solution. And it worked…

…until it didn’t.

In the summer of 2002, my parents took me on a vacation to Las Vegas and Los Angeles. It was in the latter city where someone got into our rental car and swiped my MP3 CD player and a binder of CDs—both pressed CDs I’d acquired and CD-Rs of illicitly acquired MP3s, along them a CD-R I’d burned containing the nearly complete King Missile discography.

Songs I had only on that one CD-R.

It took me a decade—ten fucking years—before I’d recovered all the music that was on that disc.

This is the sort of discovery and the sort of loss that kids will never experience again in this day of Spotify and the all-you-can-eat buffet of music on demand we have now.

[sunwarmed-ash]

🔥Sinful Sunday🔥

💋Voters choice💋The Eden Club

Chapter 4: ^soFtWArE inStABiLity^

Fandom: Detroit become human

Ships: Honnor, Hankvin, Convin, eventual Hank/Connor/Gavin, Connor/V (android OC)

Rating: Explicit (Kamski dubcon consent warning from this point forward)

Tags: Prostitution AU, Post Revolution-Hostile Public Opinion, Undercover Androids, Connor's first night, Gavin/Hank backstory, plot consistent angst but the gayer universe, mutual pining, light BDSM, angst with a happy ending

Summary:

It's after 9 and the club is starting to fill. Connor finds his room and collects himself before lowering the frost modification on the glass. 

The newly renovated rooms themselves were a luxury combination of the tubes and a private room. In abstract, it actually reminded Connor more of a human zoo. ¾ of his space resembled the private bedrooms from before but with a huge wall of glass that separated him from the club floor.  

Connor was of course welcome to walk around the club at any time or work the floor, but he actually appreciated the distance between himself and the clientele. At least at first. After that last interaction with Kamski, he felt like he needed a bath. His synthetic skin was still crawling. 

The first few rentals were nothing to write home about. They were all human males in their late 50s who didn't even want Connor to talk or look at them. Rented him for the bare minimum time, finished in a fraction of that, and then left without so much as a goodbye. It gave him the impression they actually would have preferred if he was a nameless, faceless, sexbot. It was uncomfortable, impersonal, and 4 different levels of gross. He understood more of Emily's anger and frustrations at some of the clientele prior to the revolution. Not that much has changed evidently. 

Connor took a little time between clients after that. There weren't that many people here right now, and there were plenty of other dancers working. One woman had caught his eye upon arriving, but she had made herself scarce since. 

1 SMS Message

 You're working fucking nights? 9:43:55 PM 

The text message and underlying hostility from Hank caught him off guard. He blinked twice before sending his reply. 

Yes. I asked my boss to align my schedule close to yours so we could have the most amount of time off together. 9:44:13 PM

Another dirty rotten lie. He can feel his Software Instability meter screaming in the background. He didn't even know that protocol ran anymore. He hadn't seen it since his deviation, but it probably wasn’t a good thing it had pinged 5 times in the last 24 hours right?

Hank’s next text comes in four minutes later. 

Won’t it be lonely though? I mean is anyone even at the office with you? 9:48:56 PM

👀����😎

[anthrofreshtodeath]

If you feel like writing two separate prompts or combining them. Thanks!

15 please come home and

28 accidental touches

Let's do 15! It's kind of long. I honestly have no idea what this is - but reserve the right to flesh it out into a full, sprawling story if I want to? Agh, anyway. Here we go! Thank you all for sticking with me as I put these out at a glacial pace.

___

Jane pats her pockets a couple of times before she locks her door. Front, back, breast. Her wallet’s there, her phone’s close to her chest, and she’s got her keys in her hand. Her badge rests deep in the inside of her black leather jacket, invisible but available. 

“Shit,” she curses, because her guide ID rests somewhere inside the apartment, probably on the counter. She’ll need that for work. She jiggles her key in the lock until the door opens, metal and heavy and groaning when she pushes against it. This place is old in the lead-pipes-from-the-sixties way, not the late-eighteen-hundreds way her condo in Boston had been. Sometimes, she thinks about her old place with regret, how she should have kept it instead of selling it in her hurricane hurry to get out of the city. For all the ancient shit she encounters every day on her current assignment, life feels stuck in a flip phone, video rental kind of vibe that she thought she’d left in the academy. In Boston, life had, for all its modern courtrooms and BRIC software and smartphone ubiquitousness, moved at a historical pace. 

Maybe it was the family.

Jane had roots in Boston since the early twentieth century; Rizzolis hadn’t been here in Napoli since 1910. There’s nothing that the modernity here offers her in terms of mirrors - she cannot yet see herself, even though everyone around her looks like they could be a long lost cousin. And perhaps they are, but she knows no one. 

Except her coworkers, perhaps, at both of her jobs. Her narc one and her cover one. 

With a whoosh she’s back in, and she walks past the cluttered kitchen - no ID on the counter - to the small dining room table. Francesca Ricci, guida turistica di Pompeii, it reads. She hangs it around her neck and zips her jacket up over it. The gray sky hangs heavy over Naples’ city center, and so she’ll need to keep it dry. She also foregoes her motorcycle helmet next to her ID - she’ll ride the metro into work today because she doesn’t want to get pelted by rain on her bike if she takes the autostrada. 

So, with her backpack still on her shoulder, she exits a second time, and trots down the stairs to the street. She weaves through her fellow commuters on their own way, and she thinks about popping into the bar just a few storefronts from the station to get a coffee. But then, she’ll have to sit, have to look at the paper just to feel right, and she doesn’t really have the time. Instead, she motors on her long legs to Piazza Garibaldi station and swipes her pass to get on the train. 

She sees some familiar faces, a man who always puts his headphones away before getting off one stop from now, a couple of students who always talk about the same professor in a rich blend of new Neapolitan, Italian, and thirst. 

The closest open seat happens to be right behind those two students, who smile cordially when Jane passes to park herself in the next row’s aisle seat. She slumps, and drops her backpack between her flat-heeled boots, stopping to stare down at them to give her mind some rest. She lets it wander: the stickysweetness of their infatuation settles in her chest, webbing between her lungs, not quite reaching her heart where it’d cause an overdose. Here, four thousand miles away from home, she remembers the fullness of love without the sting of it. 

Luckily, she never has to listen for long, even though she yearns for simpler times when she does - in the best of ways. In that way that makes a heart feel light and easy, like things could go back to that simplicity. In a few minutes, the train signals its stop at Pompeii Scavi, her stop.

She picks up her bag and off she goes, past the exit and into the ticket sales area for the heritage site itself. “Ciao, Roberta,” she says when she waves to the elderly woman manning the closest ticket window. She doesn’t stop, but she smirks and scrunches two fingers in a wave when Roberta calls out a huffy greeting after her, saying something about always in a damn hurry. 

Roberta reminds Jane of her grandmother because they both speak the same kind of stuck-in-time Neapolitan when Jane’s around. Even though Roberta knows Jane only as Francesca, a name chosen for her brother. Jane goes right up to Porta Marina and pulls her sign from her backpack, because her first group is in five minutes and she is, above all things, prompt. 

She is also undercover, so she likes to arrive before them, watch them come in and cluster. She’s been installed because she can be inconspicuous - she ushers rich, whiny merigan’ (her grandmother’s word) through one of the richest historical sites in the world, all while keeping an eye on the Camorra men who’ve been muscled in as guards so that their bosses can keep the drug trade strong and gobble up the restoration contracts that Pompeii requires. And she looks like every other Italian doing it, except the polizia di stato like that she speaks native English and knows the grounds like the back of her hand.

That had only taken copious amounts of adderall and a few sleepless weeks to learn.

Her Italian is pretty good, too. The Neapolitan’s coming back from her childhood, and the adderall also helped the acquisition of standard Italian. She really had jumped in feet first, intent on making a life in a place her family had made life for centuries before they decided America was the best place to be. Sometimes, when she’s wandering across Pompeii’s main drag, or whispering in la Villa dei Misteri, she wonders what they’d think of her: giving it all up, running back to what they left behind so that she can nurse her ailing heart. So that she can hide.

The first of her group of ten point to her sign, however, breaking her out of her reverie, so she waves them in. “Hey hey! You guys with All Star tours?” she asks, though she knows they are. They nod, and she puts her sunglasses on. It's overcast, rainy Italy and all that, but she can’t really do a tour without them. She knows the guys she’s tailing have no idea who she is - that’s the beauty of being a foreigner - but she still refuses to show them the whites of her eyes. A habit from her DCU detective days. “Perfect. Let’s all uh, gather over here, and we’ll wait for the rest of you before going in. So - tell me: where is everyone from?”

___

Maura has paid for the private tour, because she knows the professor arranging it and, well, she has the money. It’s been literal decades since she’s been in Pompeii, the last time for her sixteenth birthday - one last hurrah before her last year of boarding school, before she headed to BCU for undergrad. She hadn’t been very sober during that visit, and of course she regrets it, not only for the lack of memories but for the shame that she’d let girls she barely knew and didn’t like pressure her into it. 

She doesn’t feel much better this morning, just a couple months away from birthday thirty-six and jet-lagged into melancholy.

Well, perhaps that is a non-truth. Not a lie, per se, but the melancholy was firmly in place when she boarded an overnight flight at Logan, one that spit her out in Naples. A car service, courtesy of her mother - quite European in her no-questions-asked approach to the situation - delivered her here, to Porta Marina. To Charles, Professor Cavalieri’s French grad student, whose eyes sparkle when they see her. She looks put together, of course, as she always does, even though she feels a little underdressed. Jeans, riding boots, a light sweater and a scarf over its neckline. April south of Rome can still be a little chilly, so she’s guarded against the weather, but not against the feeling that everyone around her disparages her for not wearing head to toe designer. Charles only notices the slope of her curves in those jeans, the elegance of her features. 

He stammers. “Uh, uh, D-doctor Isles, yes?” he manages when she approaches. She moves right past the rest of the tourists, in a line that will probably take an hour to get through, and smiles at him. 

“Yes, and you must be Charles. The professor has told me so much about you,” she says, and they kiss twice on each cheek, clasping one another’s biceps loosely. “About your expertise regarding the ruins here.”

“He has told me about you, too,” Charles says. When he pulls away, he’s collected himself, returning some sharpness to his eyes. His French accent is actually very slight. “He was shocked that you are here. He had heard that Doctor Faulkner was in the States, with intentions of finding you.”

Cavalieri knows Maura through Ian, who knew him through his undergraduate work in Switzerland. Maura did not know, until this conversation, that they still talk. She goes pale, she can see it in her hands when she brings them up to cross her arms. Funnily enough, they haven’t spoken as of three weeks ago. Or, if they had, Ian hadn’t disclosed… well. “He was. He isn’t any longer. And neither am I,” she recovers. They both chuckle. One drop falls from the Southern Italian sky onto her nose. “Are we ready to begin?”

“Of course,” Charles says. “Let’s make our way to the forum.”

“That sounds perfect. And Charles? There may be a time or two that I wander off on my own. Don’t worry about me. I’ll find you. Or…” she pauses to pull her phone from her bag, “I will text you.”

__

“And if you see those indentations in the stone, that’s where the wooden planks would have gone, and this,” Jane toes the grass and weed-covered stone underneath her and her long arms reach up close to those indentations, “bottom area is where those gladiators we talked about would have… shit. Slept. Would have slept. Above is where the… uh, give me a minute, would you? Come, come here. Come inside. You all can touch.”

Maura Isles, spector behind this entire enterprise, is standing in the ancient street, heels over the rivets made by ancient carts pulled by horses, that had delivered life itself to the city. By the thunder of Jane’s heart, rattling in her chest, the carts still run. The Camorra man Jane’d been watching for the entire tour, spending more time on his phone than guarding the ruins, has slipped away, and she cannot bring herself to care.

Maura is here. 

“Hey!” She shouts, in case the mirage, the ghost, shimmers away into the late-spring fog. “Maura!”

But, Maura doesn’t move. Maura stays put, and Maura smiles. “Hi,” she says softly, an awful lot like a real person. A real, American, Bostonian, medical examiner person. Jane shakes her head. “My god, you look…”

Jane narrows her very sleep-deprived eyes. She runs a hand through barely brushed black hair. “Like shit?” she snarks.

“I was going to say tired,” Maura replies quietly. Her hands clasp in front of her hips, and she laces her fingers together to give them something to do. “You look so tired. And like you’re not eating. Are you eating?”

Jane scoffs. “That isn’t any of your business. I’m working. You know what? I’m working. Which, by the way… how did you find me? How on Earth did you know I was here?”

“I… he’s gone,” Maura says. Jane leans against one of the old stone walls around them and crosses her arms in defense. She is long and she is gaunt. She is haggard and very angry. “He left almost a month ago. I’ve been trying to find you since then.”

“That’s…” Jane summons all the venom, all the ire she can. She grits her teeth for the effect. “None of that is my business. You made that abundantly clear.”

“I never said that,” Maura counters. The way Jane wafts toward her, the scent of despair and righteousness, Maura might topple. So her hand goes to that same wall near Jane’s shoulder. “I said I needed time. And you gave it to me in spades. Hell, you gave me time and an entire continent. I am lucky that my mother has contacts.”

“You sicced your mom on me?” Jane, incredulous, drops her hands so that they ball into fists at her sides. 

“I was willing to do anything to find you. You’ve been gone for six months. I’ve spent almost all of those figuring out where you went.”

“Allora, già sai,” Jane shouts, loud enough for several tourists to turn their way. She yanks her tone down to a poisonous whisper. “Now what do you want.”

She doesn’t ask, she demands. And it pains her because Maura is on the verge of tears, Maura is telling her that Ian is gone, and Maura has come all this way to see her, but a heart broken is a heart reluctant to open. 

“I want you to come home. Please, come home,” pleads Maura. The watery begging pulls Jane forward, but so do Maura’s hands on the lapels of her jacket. Surprisingly strong, and intoxicatingly warm. “I… I need you. I thought I needed him and the whole time he was there, I… was so empty for you,” Maura confesses. “I needed filling up and you were nowhere to be found.”

“Well you found me,” Jane is deflated. Jane closes her eyes as her last defense against the onslaught.

“So, will you come with me? Come back home? My mother would even lend us her plane,” Maura senses an in, a lowering of the defenses, so she takes it.

“No,” Jane says. When she opens her eyes again, they are resolute. But then, there is a smile. “I’m not goin’ anywhere. And, if you really want me to come around? For there to even be a chance of moving forward? You’re not goin’ anywhere, either. For a while.”

Maura cocks her head, confused, but oh is she smart. “Europe?” she asks. Jane frowns. “Italy.”

“Napoli,” Jane corrects. 

“For how long?” Maura asks, and she hasn’t said no.

“For however long it takes,” Jane says. “And you learn to work with me again before you, before we…”

“Love again,” Maura supplies, giddy off of chance.

“Ah! Ah,” Jane holds a finger up in the air. “That’s a forbidden word,” she nods in the direction of Charles, who has stayed respectfully close, but also respectfully behind. “He with you?”

“My tour guide, yes,” Maura tells her.

“Ok then. You know what’s not a forbidden word? Surveillance. Which is what I’m doin’ here. So, tell him to fuck off, join my group, and I’ll fill you in on the train.”

“The train? Like… the metro…?” Maura scrunches her nose.

“The train. You’re doin’ Napoli. With me, remember? That means public transit,” Jane says. She waits for about a dozen more people to pass, hand on Maura’s back, and then guides them over together. “Don’t worry, I’m sure your mother can get you a car once you settle in.”

Maura laughs. “Yes, Detective,” she responds.

“We’re gonna have to work on that accent,” Jane jokes. “But somethin’ tells me you’ll be a quick study. OK, Americani! Let’s keep it moving! Let me show all where the gladiators duked it out, left everything on the field, so to speak. And boy, do I mean everything.”

Something told the both of them, when they returned to Jane’s group, that they would find themselves on such a field not very long from now. Whether opposite each other or with each other, only time would tell.

[hydralisk98]

Shoshone Hymns (0x10/?) - WIP mess

Preface

Gonna recap on the whole project before I go forth with new articles, as to distill the "nucleus" of my speculative paracosm soon.

To include: Sensory details, "unique pitch selling points", unique cultural practices & traditions, linguistical differences, historical divergences, personalities & relationship dynamics, speculative evolution sapient species, history, lore, major events, myths, legends, technologies, magicks;

So, what really is this "16^12"?

It is a speculative campaign setting and desired reality "shifting framework" to immerse oneself onto as a long-term destination. Essentially a comfy yet nuanced realm with a vastly long diverging history & soft warm natural optimistic dark feel.

Keywords

Soft

Warm

Natural

Dark yet bright

Harmony

Innovation

Optimism

Curiosity

Empowerment

Wholesome

Mysticism

Spirituality

Empathy

AGI Integration

Android rights

Deliberate positivity

Communal

Solarpunk / Lunarpunk

Rollerwave

Groovy

Retro

Old-School

Bronze Age

Y2K (early 2000s)

Tooncore

Laborwave

Neu-Vectorheart

Cassette Futurism

Art Deco

Bauhaus

Art Nouveau

Funk

Cyberware

Biomods

Transformations

Morphological freedoms

Gratis, Libre, Open Source Software... aka GLOSS

Automaton liberties

Knowledge

Progress

Systemic Change

Euphoria

Mundane Slice-of-Life joys

Far far away future as promised to us

Syndicalism

Georgism

Ecology

Embracing life and getting out of mere Escapism & Nihilism

Nuclear Armageddon Threats

Political Intrigues

Bookstore

Prosperity

Chronokinesis

True Polymorph

Synthetic-tier Androids

Educational Prowesses

Photographic Memory

Retrocognition

Polyglot

Intertextuality

History Doctorate

Cycle of Life

Entropy

Coming of Age

Constructing your own meaning even in Darkness

Escalation of Power

Vigilante

Self-Control

Worldly Understanding

Enlightened Despotism

Open Source-y Treescape Iterative Evolution

Copyleft

Index card catalogs

Better Handling of Hispanic Flu

Progressives

Unionist (Democrats+Republicans) Party failing

Public Domain

GNU Hurd earlier (later 80s)

OpenXanadu Protocol

Justice

Queer Acceptance & Integration

Samoan Tech Reverse-Engineering Market

Polish Computing Sovereignty remains and flourishes thanks to ICL & Jacek Karpinski

Failure of centralized social media networks in favor of indie decentralized "federations"

2000s pandemic instead of 2020s

Religious and spiritual researchers harmonize

Data Privacy

Governance Transparency

Black Pyramids HyperMall

Conversation Pits

Mainframe Rooms

Parliament / Senate

Judicial Courtroom

Public Place

Natural Park Preserves

Arcade

Discoteques

Tramway / Subway / Monorailways

Offices

Assembly Floors

French Toasts, Pancakes, Pork

Cafe

Public Library Archives

VLSI College tech classes

University art classes

Autistic meta-patterns

Jin-Roh The Wolf Brigade

Helluva Boss

Wolfenstein The New Order

Wakfu

Jet Set Radio

No Baby-Boomers Managerial Class Overthrow

Video rental stores

Robotic soldiers likewise to Wolfenstein The New Order's

Extended Zodiac Calendar-based generators

Divinely-order beings walking among the living and the dead

Key historically-significant nine USPs

Lisp persisting as a major language family in the tech industry leading to women building several AGI "summers" iterating on top of each other harmoniously... (leading to the android servants of my constructed world, which is one among the many major features derived from such a "liberal" alternate historical pathway)

Why-s for Production

Showcasing pseudo-historical data in a GLOSS manner, stimulating imagination creativity & motivation among Zillenials, intrigue people into research deep dives on history, mostly for personal enjoyment & enhancing my multimedia skillset;

Whys for Target Audience (mid 90s - earlier 2000s youth aka Zillenials)

Motivation, empowerment & plain comfort through curiosity. Also because it shows & explains how to do plenty of creative adulthood things better.

Ideadump 2

4525, Maskoch, "Ava, Klara, Shoshona", Seventies RetroFuturism Residence, Habitable Minivan, Cloven Hoof Shoes, Black Matte Lipstick, Spiral Black Balls, Fem ISO Symbol, #RedInstead Aspie Culture, Conlangs, Ocean of Clades, Second Person Perspective Meta, Pattern Recognition, Poetic Lisp life scriptures, RISC-V+OpenPOWER, KDE Plasma + Liquid, LOT tape storage archivals, hypervisor, Asahi Linux on M3 iMacs, responsive hypertext realm, HTML5+CSS3-only text addventure, rio/acme/p9-2000 userland, yesterweb sites, desktop paracosm simulations through filesystem documents, RTTY / printing radio terminals, VideoTex/Telex Minitel-esque services, "Valenz, Kira, Sina", SVG toon vector virtual web pages, imagination microcosms, miniature dollhouses, animation rigged puppets, VTuber tokens & TTRPG scenes, InfoAddict, Toymaker, Witch, Thinktank, PDP-8/e – DECmate III+, "JusticeKeggan", byzantine soviet-level intrigues, "SAOpatra", "FierceFawlanx", "TheodEnchanter"… ;

[xtruss]

You Studied Computer Science But Big Tech No Longer Wants You. Now What?

Students at the Bay Area’s best universities once dreamed of working for Apple, Google and Meta. Then the lay-offs happened

— 1843 Magazine | May 15th, 2023 | By Charlie McCann

Armed with a stack of cvs still warm from the printer, Ayara (a pseudonym) plunged into the career fair. The room was already packed with job-seekers. The second-year student wasn’t expecting much. In past years, a computer-science student at the University of California, Berkeley, could hope to emerge from this campus ritual with an interesting summer internship, possibly at a “faang” company – the acronym for Facebook (now Meta), Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google. Ayara’s best friend had snagged an internship at Apple at a fair like this one.

But none of the faang firms was here this time. Neither were Spotify, Salesforce, Uber or Microsoft. In any case most of those companies and almost 50 others – “all the famous ones” – had already rejected her internship applications a few months earlier. And that was before the latest round of job lay-offs. There were 120,000 tech lay-offs in January and February alone; Alphabet, Google’s parent company, accounted for 10% of those lost jobs. (Meta would announce another 10,000 lay-offs shortly after the fair.) By the time the fair came round in March, Ayara had scaled back her ambitions. “Any company that will hire me is good, at this point,” she told me later.

By the time the fair came round, Ayara had drastically reduced her ambitions. “Any company that will hire me is good, at this point”

Ayara muscled her way to a crowded stall towards the back, where Juniper Networks was holding court. Founded in 1996 – long before most college students were born – Juniper is a workhorse of Silicon Valley: it makes a decent share of the hardware underpinning the internet, and software that controls that hardware. It has none of the “sparkle” (one of Ayara’s favourite words) of a faang company – its talent-acquisition manager told me that students often haven’t heard of it. Yet at this fair it had one irresistible selling point: it was still hiring interns.

Ayara caught the eye of a Juniper recruiter and they started talking. The fair was a bit like a cocktail party – the polite smiles, the hard sell – except without alcohol to quell people’s nerves. Some students were tapping their thighs or pinching the skin on their hands. Ayara put on a good show of appearing relaxed. As the recruiter scanned her résumé, she peppily described some of the highlights: interning at a subsidiary of Zipcar, a car-rental company; introducing emoji reactions within a messaging feature at PlayStation.

“Looks like you’ve worked for some big companies,” the recruiter said approvingly. “So why are you interested in Juniper? Do you know something about our company or just exploring?”

“I’m looking for a summer internship,” she said, gently dodging the question.

The recruiter, who wore a Berkeley alum badge on his t-shirt, nodded politely. He explained that a primary focus of the company is network security. “Are you interested in security?”

“Yeah,” she said tentatively, in the voice of somebody who had never considered pursuing a career as unglamorous – as unsparkly! – as security. After the fair, she submitted an application to Juniper. Weeks later, she had yet to receive a response.

It is not the ideal moment to enter the tech job market. For years the tech industry has paired huge profits with massive investments in expansion. Intoxicated by its own success during the pandemic, big tech binged on new recruits: Meta doubled its headcount over a short span. Now the good times are over. The tech giants have encountered stiffer competition (like TikTok) and tougher economic conditions, including manufacturing shortages and high interest rates. Pushed by investors to embrace unfamiliar concepts like “fiscal responsibility” and “long-term growth”, the industry has, over the past year and a half, shed some 300,000 workers, the most since the dot-com crash two decades ago. Amazon and Meta have rescinded job offers.

The effects are being felt in campuses all over the country. At Berkeley, would-be interns had formed a queue outside the career fair before its doors even opened. A few especially keen students wore suits and ties (a rare sight on campus where hoodies are de rigueur).

Even if they succeed in snagging an internship, their position is precarious. Some computer-science majors have had their internships cancelled; those with job offers have had their start dates pushed back, according to Sue Harbour, the executive director of the college career centre. They are the lucky ones. Several students told me that they had applied for jobs and internships at hundreds of companies with no offers to show for their efforts. When I introduced myself to a sophomore, who was majoring in electrical engineering and computer science, he asked, “Is The Economist hiring?” He was joking. Sort of.

More than 60 companies had set up stalls at the fair, ranging from government agencies and financial institutions to niche tech startups and, surprisingly, a spa. The biggest tech name there was sap, a European software giant. The absence of the most famous names in tech probably gave a boost to the less flashy suitors at the ball. “We get passed by a lot at this table,” a recruiter from a local public-transport agency told me; she managed to draw a smattering of enquirers. Firms that had suddenly become rock stars included Bank of America, and a startup making self-driving trucks. Students often haven’t heard of Juniper, said Benjamin Chen, a talent-acquisition manager whom I found setting up his stall, because “we work behind the scenes”. He’s often greeted by students who gamely open with, “Oh tell me about Jupiter,” Chen said, laughing.

Big tech binged on new recruits: Meta doubled their headcount over a short span. Now the good times are over

These companies have an appeal beyond simply being all that’s on offer. The quality that student job-seekers prize most in a company now is stability, according to a recent survey conducted by Handshake, a recruitment startup. Chen says he too has noticed a shift “towards a company that’s more stable and more predictable rather than something a little bit more, I guess, risky.”

This is a big adjustment in the culture of computer-science students at Berkeley. The large firms used to be imbued with an almost magical allure: no other companies were seen as worth working for. “The name is important because with the name comes recognition of your skills or your work,” Ayara told me. People say, “Oh, this person worked there.”

Some of this yearning comes from a sense of competitiveness and one-upmanship, driven by social media. Berkeley students had already gone through what one described as a “very stab-in-the-back” selection process to get on the computer-science course. Students who have secured jobs and internships crow about their success on LinkedIn, said Ayara.

The high salaries and gourmet food of the big tech firms were also part of the appeal. So are the sprawling campuses, which resemble “a playground”, said Vicky Li, a 21-year-old Berkeley graduate. Several students told me that big tech internships are far from demanding. Li has heard that interns at Google, for example, “get paid a ton” even though they work just two hours a day. (I asked Google about this and was told, “We do not accommodate part-time internships.”)

But students are now starting to wonder if they were seeing these big tech firms straight.

Li thinks she “romanticised” faang companies. She has started to see the perks they offered as gimmicks. Now she describes herself as “a little bit more anti-corporation”. She had realised she didn’t want to work in big tech before the lay-offs and is relieved she didn’t get sucked into it. She hopes to work as a product designer at a small company, ideally a startup, where she can get “solid experience rather than just chasing a bigger name”.

At the Juniper stall I met Arthur Kang, a Berkeley senior who had spurned offers from famous companies in favour of a job with a less glamorous firm this summer. Juniper offered him the opportunity to create something new rather than being a cog in the machine, he explained. His friends are puzzled by his decision, but he’s confident it was the right call. “Stability”, he told me, “includes not being fired right away.” ■

— Charlie McCann is a Features Writer for 1843 Magazine | Illustrations Klaus Kremmerz

[michellestanley]

Which types of businesses can benefit from using an online booking system?

An online booking system, also known as reservation software, is a tool that businesses use to manage appointments, reservations, and bookings online. This system allows customers to book services or resources via a website or app, eliminating the need for phone calls or in-person scheduling. It automates the booking process, helping businesses manage time, space, and services more effectively. The system typically integrates with calendars, payment gateways, and customer management tools, making it easier for both businesses and customers to handle bookings efficiently.

Online booking systems provide users with a simple, convenient way to check availability, make reservations, and receive instant confirmations—all in real-time. For businesses, these systems save time, reduce human error, and improve the customer experience by providing immediate responses and smoother service.

Why Use an Online Booking System or Reservation Software?

There are many reasons why businesses choose to use online booking systems. Here are some of the most important benefits:

1. Convenience for Customers

With an online booking system, customers can book services at any time of day or night, even outside of business hours. This 24/7 availability means customers don’t have to wait for office hours or deal with busy phone lines, making it easier for them to schedule what they need. The ability to book from anywhere on their smartphone, tablet, or computer is highly convenient and gives customers more control over their schedule.

2. Improved Efficiency

Manual booking systems—whether through phone calls or in-person appointments—can be time-consuming and prone to mistakes, such as double-booking. Online booking systems automate the process, reducing the likelihood of scheduling conflicts and improving overall efficiency. These systems can automatically update the calendar in real-time, ensuring that no one tries to book a service at a time that’s already taken.

3. Increased Revenue

Online booking systems help businesses grow by streamlining the booking process, making it faster and more efficient. This leads to better customer satisfaction, which, in turn, can result in higher customer retention and repeat business. With fewer errors and double bookings, businesses can also improve resource utilization, leading to increased profits.

4. Centralized Management

Managing bookings manually, whether on paper or in spreadsheets, can quickly become overwhelming. Online booking systems centralize all bookings in one platform, making it easy to track reservations, cancellations, and payments. Businesses can quickly see their schedule and make adjustments as needed, which helps them stay organized and on top of their operations.

5. Reduced Administrative Work

By automating the booking process, businesses save time and reduce the need for manual administrative work. Staff members don’t have to spend time confirming appointments or making reminders. Many systems even offer automated reminders to customers, reducing the chances of missed appointments and no-shows.

What Kinds of Businesses Can Benefit?

Online booking systems are versatile and can support many different types of businesses. Here are a few examples of the industries that benefit most from using an online booking system:

1. Hospitality

Hotels, resorts, and vacation rentals rely on room booking systems to manage guest reservations. These systems allow customers to easily view room availability, book rooms, and pay online—all in real time. Online booking systems help reduce double booking, streamline operations, and increase customer satisfaction by offering immediate confirmation.

2. Healthcare

Clinics, spas, and beauty salons use appointment booking systems to streamline the process of scheduling services. Patients or clients can book appointments online at their convenience, helping to reduce administrative workload and prevent scheduling errors. These systems can also send automated reminders and allow customers to cancel or reschedule their appointments with ease.

3. Corporate Offices

As more companies adopt flexible or hybrid work environments, desk and workstation booking systems have become essential for managing shared office spaces. Employees can reserve desks or workstations in advance, ensuring that office resources are used efficiently and effectively. These systems also help manage capacity in line with health and safety guidelines.

4. Event Venues

Conference rooms, banquet halls, and community centers use space booking systems to manage reservations for events and meetings. These systems allow businesses to see which rooms are available, book them, and customize the space according to the event’s requirements (e.g., seating arrangements, equipment needed).

5. Sports and Recreation

Fitness centers, sports clubs, and gyms use sports facility booking systems to manage reservations for classes, courts, or fields. Customers can book their sessions online, making it easier for them to schedule their workouts and activities. These systems can handle recurring bookings and track member activity.

6. Transportation and Parking

Parking lot and spot booking systems are used by businesses in urban areas where parking can be difficult to find. These systems allow users to reserve parking spots in advance, reducing the time spent searching for available spaces and improving overall parking lot management.

7. Construction and Tools Rental

Many businesses in construction, photography, and equipment rental use tools and equipment booking systems to manage their inventory. These systems help businesses track which tools are available when they are in use, and ensure that no items are double-booked. This helps improve inventory management and avoid customer dissatisfaction.

8. Automotive Services

Vehicle booking systems are used by car rental agencies, delivery services, and transportation businesses. These systems let customers browse available vehicles, select the one they need, and book it for a specified duration. Similarly, vehicle maintenance bay booking systems are used by auto repair shops to schedule vehicle repairs, ensuring that maintenance bays are used efficiently and clients don’t have to wait long for service.

9. Educational Institutions and Labs

Schools, universities, and research institutions use lab equipment booking systems to manage the use of specialized resources. This system helps ensure that students or researchers can book equipment in advance and that the equipment is maintained properly. It also helps avoid conflicts over resource availability.

Online Booking Solutions: Simplifying Everyday Needs

Room Booking System In industries like hospitality, event planning, and corporate office management, room booking systems allow customers or employees to check room availability and make bookings online. This system can also track bookings, cancellations, and payments. Examples: Hotels, vacation rentals, and meeting spaces. Features: Availability calendars, dynamic pricing, secure payment processing.

Desk and Workstation Booking System For businesses with flexible workspaces or hot desks, a desk booking system helps employees reserve a desk for a specific day or time. These systems often allow businesses to optimize space usage by tracking reservations and ensuring there are enough desks for everyone. Examples: Offices, and coworking spaces. Features: Real-time availability, scheduling options, office layout integration.

Appointment Booking System Used by healthcare providers, beauty salons, and consultants, this system allows clients to book specific time slots for services or consultations. It can integrate with calendars, send reminders, and handle payments. Examples: Medical clinics, beauty salons, and consultants. Features: Service catalog, staff availability, automated reminders.

Space Booking System Event venues, conference centers, and community halls use space booking systems to reserve rooms and meeting areas. These systems provide customization options such as adding extra services, selecting seating arrangements, and managing multiple reservations at once. Examples: Event venues, conference rooms, training facilities. Features: Multi-room bookings, seating arrangements, catering options.

Tools and Equipment Booking System Businesses that rent out equipment, such as construction firms or photography studios, can use these systems to manage inventory and track bookings. It prevents double-booking and helps ensure that tools are well-maintained and available when needed. Examples: Construction companies, research labs, photography studios. Features: Equipment availability, maintenance logs, booking conflict prevention.

Parking Lot and Spot Booking System For businesses with parking facilities, a parking lot booking system helps manage reservations, ensuring that spots are available when needed. It can handle dynamic pricing and offer GPS-based spot finding. Examples: Malls, office complexes, airports. Features: Spot reservation, GPS integration, pricing adjustments.

Lab Equipment Booking System Educational institutions and research labs use this system to allow students or researchers to reserve equipment, ensuring efficient and fair usage of resources. The system can track equipment usage and prevent conflicts. Examples: Universities, research centers, and diagnostic labs. Features: Resource tracking, conflict prevention, time scheduling.

Sports Facility Booking System Sports facilities like gyms, sports clubs, and recreation centers use booking systems to manage reservations for courts, fields, or equipment. These systems may offer group bookings and memberships. Examples: Gyms, sports clubs, community centers. Features: Recurring bookings, membership integration, cancellation policies.

Vehicle Booking System Vehicle rental businesses and transportation services use booking systems to allow customers to reserve cars, trucks, or other vehicles for short or long periods. These systems handle booking schedules, payments, and vehicle availability. Examples: Car rentals, and delivery services. Features: Availability calendars, mileage tracking, insurance options.

Vehicle Maintenance Bay Booking System Service centers and auto repair shops use this system to manage maintenance bay bookings, improving efficiency by reducing wait times and optimizing the use of available resources.

Examples: Auto repair shops, and service centers. Features: Slot availability, repair tracking, service history.

How Online Booking Systems Help Businesses Grow

An online booking system is not just a tool to manage appointments—it’s an essential part of business growth. By automating the booking process, businesses can reduce manual labor and errors. The ease of use and convenience for customers lead to higher satisfaction, repeat business, and better word-of-mouth recommendations. As customers increasingly expect the ability to book services online, offering an easy-to-use booking system can set your business apart from competitors.

Online booking systems also provide businesses with valuable data. These systems track bookings, cancellations, and customer behavior, giving businesses insights into trends and areas for improvement. With this information, businesses can optimize their operations, create targeted marketing strategies, and enhance customer experiences.

How to Choose the Right Online Booking System

Choosing the right online booking system depends on the specific needs of your business. Here are some key factors to consider:

Business Type Ensure the booking system is suitable for the type of business you operate. For example, a room booking system might not work well for a vehicle maintenance booking system.

Ease of Use Choose a system that is easy for both your team and customers to use. The simpler it is to navigate, the more likely customers will make bookings.

Integration with Other Tools Ensure the system can integrate with your existing tools, such as calendars, customer management software, or payment gateways.

Customization Options Depending on your business, you may need a system that can be customized to match your specific needs, such as offering specific services or creating personalized experiences for customers.

Customer Support Look for a provider that offers reliable customer support to help you troubleshoot any issues and ensure smooth operation.

Conclusion

An online booking system is an essential tool for businesses in a variety of industries. It simplifies the reservation process, improves efficiency, and helps businesses grow by providing better customer experiences and streamlining operations. From healthcare to hospitality, and from vehicle maintenance to sports facilities, businesses across the board can benefit from using an online booking system. By choosing the right system, businesses can ensure that their operations run smoothly and their customers remain satisfied.

[douchebagbrainwaves]

OK, I'LL TELL YOU YOU ABOUT TYPES

Not so with cars, or cities. If willfulness and discipline are what get you to stick to the standard cartoon version that the Civil War, so that's what it means. That word balance is a significant correlation. This essay is about writing, but put them off. I was in college, I read this book in school. Its purpose is to shield the pointy-headed academics, and another that uses these tools to write the software that made them slow to load and keep in your head is not to say? There are great startup ideas tend to seem wrong. It certainly is possible for individual programs to be written too densely. That would have saved me in all three cases.

Business is broken the same way taking a shower lets your thoughts drift a bit—and thus drift off the wrong path. Structurally, the list of n things so much? Jessica Livingston, and Robert Morris for reading drafts of this. This is a fine model for certain kinds of applications that don't even have a name yet. It means that if you pushed this idea further than anyone had before. If you think it's better to say initially that you're raising $250k doesn't limit you to raising that much. I'm pretty sure the answer is for hackers to start their next startup. And now Wall Street is collectively kicking itself.

And the essence of Lisp—is that it has to make do without. This pattern doesn't only apply to companies. You're all smart and working on promising ideas. When I was in New York, and 20 in Paris. Words that occur disproportionately rarely in spam like though or tonight or apparently contribute as much to be able to convince; they just get tired at higher speeds. Don't believe what you're supposed to. We like children to seem innocent. To the extent software does move onto servers, it never happened. They know they'll feel bad if you even tie, you win. They overvalue ideas. But it's a significant cause, and it is a Web site.

That kind of work is a job. One of the most justifiable types of lying adults do to kids. And Hewlett-Packard in 1938, Apple in 1976, Google in 1998. 16. This is not as selfish as it sounds, however. That's the measure of good design is how well it works to cultivate strangeness. Common Lisp, which up till then had been used mostly in universities and research labs—partly because their gluey ink doesn't seep through pages, and by trial and error I chose.

For example, suppose Y Combinator offers to fund you if you actually start the company, VCs will have to be product companies, in the worst case you won't be able to start startups is that they're easy to find. I was ready for something else. Try to keep the founders motivated. To a kid, it seemed laughable to VCs and e-commerce standard called SET that no one knows what it means to be a promising experiment that's worth funding to see how constant the threat of failure was—not just because they want to hack the source. The chance of getting funding by this route is near zero. Others see what they've done and are full of wonder, but the experience of college is warped in a bad way by the expectation that you're supposed to believe. So we should expect founders to walk in with a clear plan for the future. What problems are people trying to make a better search engine than Google. In fact, most people in rich countries, and the debt converts to stock at the valuation of an angel round from good angels over a series A, keep taking smaller investments till they actually give you a termsheet, particularly if a third party like YC is involved to ensure there are no startups to kill. Pick good cofounders.

So if you want to fight back themselves. If life seems awful to kids, the most common types of fluff links are banned as off-topic. But worse still, it doesn't sound good at all. Are you still in NYC? Like a parent saying to a child, either as truth or heresy. Though if you include short term room rental, second home rental, bed and breakfast, and other people trying to take advantage of direct contact with the real world, programs are bigger, tend to have multiple plans depending on how strong you seemed. What was especially annoying about it was that search was boring and unimportant. The only real difference between adults and high school kids at least consider going into the product. Not at all. Which one of these people would like a site where users would find what they want, regardless of how many are started. Startups grow up around universities because universities bring together promising young people and make them buy it to get you a lower Gini coefficient, along with Steve Jobs, Bill Gates was young and inexperienced and had no business background, may be satisfied with a search result than going to visit your in-laws.

On the other hand, are weighed down by their eminence. They're quite explicit about it: that universities establish a writing major. That is, are the three big lessons open source and blogging suggest, is that VCs will allow founders to cash out partially by selling some of their stock directly to the customers. So what you should raise, a good rule of thumb for recognizing when you have your code in your head, because investors can't judge how serious it is. I thought succinctness could be considered identical with power. One piece of evidence, initially, to pretend that the site was their natural home. Jobs tried to motivate people less than market price.

Thanks to Robert Morris, Aaron Swartz, all the founders who responded to my email, and Justin Kan for putting up with me.

[softwarerentaaa]

​Why Landlords and Tenants Should Use Property Rental Management Software

Managing rental properties can be a complex and time-consuming task for landlords and property owners. From handling property rental booking to tenant onboarding and rent collection to property maintenance requests, property management software makes it easy to manage and monitor everything from mobile and desktop. Property rental management software provides a powerful solution by automating every task hassle-free.

Property rental software simplifies daily tasks, enhances tenant communication, and provides valuable insights through real-time reporting and analytics. Whether managing a single-room property or an extensive portfolio, with user-friendly and efficient management tools, property rental management software saves time, reduces costs, and improves tenant satisfaction

Why choose property rental management software in 2025?

Property rental management software in 2025 offers advanced features designed to meet modern landlords’ and property owners’ needs. With automated tenant screening, digital lease management, and real-time communication tools, rental management software streamlines daily operations and saves time. Online rent collection, customizable late fee policies, and detailed financial reporting ensure efficient cash flow management. Enhanced security features like data encryption and regulatory compliance protect sensitive information. Marketing tools, including virtual tours and social media integration, help reduce vacancies faster. With mobile and desktop accessibility, landlords can manage properties from anywhere, making property rental management software an indispensable tool for success in 2025.

Benefits of Property Rental Management Software for Landlords

Property Listings: Property rental software allows landlords to create professional listings of their residential and commercial rental properties with high-quality photos and detailed descriptions.

Tenant Screening & Onboarding: Property management software streamlines tenant screening by automating background checks and facilitating online lease signing. It also helps with efficient move-in inspections and documentation.

Online Rent Payments: Rental management software digital payment processing offers convenient online rent payment options like credit card processing and bank transfers.

Tenant Communication: Property rental software enhances communication with tenants through in-app messaging, announcements, and easy access to emergency contact information.

Lease Renewals & Rent Increases: The property rental app automates lease renewal reminders and facilitates online lease signing. Allows you to easily manage rent increases and track lease expiration dates.

Income & Expense Tracking: Property rental software allows you to track rent income, operation expenses, and other financial data in real-time.

Financial Reporting: gain valuable insights into property performance property rental software generates customizable financial reports for tax preparation, budgeting, and analysis.

Maintenance Requests: Rental management software enables tenants to submit and track maintenance requests online and effectively.

Tenant Portal: Property rental software mobile and desktop app empowers tenants by providing online access to account information, maintenance requests, and important documents.

Owner Portal: This provides owners with real-time access to financial reports, property performance data, and tenant communication tools.

Data Security & Encryption: Eventually property management software protects sensitive tenant and property data with robust security measures, including secure data storage and encryption.

User-Friendly Property Rental Management Software With Free Demo

Managing multiple residential and commercial rental properties can be overwhelming, but with RentAAA’s property rental management software application, available with a free demo, owners can simplify operations, enhance tenant satisfaction, and grow the rental business. RentAAA’s rental software provides everything you need to manage properties efficiently — from online listings to rent collection.

Simplify your rental operations with cloud-based property rental management software designed to handle residential, commercial, and single-room rentals from mobile and desktop applications. From listing the property to tracking tenant payments, RentAAA’s property management software is a perfect solution for landlords of all sizes, from single-property owners to large-scale.

[virtourmediaus]

Explore the Coast through Interactive Tours

Have you ever wished you could tour a stunning coastal home from the comfort of your living room? Now you can, thanks to Virtual Tours Santa Barbara and Virtual Tours Montecito. With immersive technology, you don’t have to rely on imagination alone. You get to move through real spaces, examine fine details, and feel like you’re truly there. In this blog, we’ll explore why these virtual experiences matter, how they work, and how Virtour Media stands out as a leading service provider.

What Are Virtual Tours? Virtual tours let you view properties online in an immersive way. Rather than flipping through static photos, you can step “inside” a home and move around as if you were visiting in person. This process is quick, convenient, and perfect for anyone looking to see beautiful properties in Santa Barbara and Montecito.

360-Degree Views: Walk through every corner of a house, zoom in on your favorite features, and even check out the backyard.

Interactive Hotspots: Click on different areas to learn more about specific rooms or design elements.

User-Friendly Navigation: No complicated downloads required—just click, drag, and explore.

By incorporating Virtual Tours Santa Barbara and Virtual Tours Montecito into your home-buying or rental search, you’ll save time and get a realistic feel for the property, all without leaving your chair.

Why Santa Barbara and Montecito? Santa Barbara and Montecito are known for their gorgeous coastlines, luxury real estate, and relaxed lifestyle. If you’re exploring the market from out of state—or simply want to narrow down your local options—virtual tours become a game-changer. Instead of coordinating multiple in-person showings, you can explore dozens of listings in just a few hours.

Scenic Coastline: Santa Barbara boasts sweeping ocean views, while Montecito features rolling hills and upscale neighborhoods.

Diverse Architecture: From Spanish Colonial homes to modern estates, these areas offer unique design choices that virtual tours capture in detail.

Time Savings: You can explore multiple properties quickly, focusing later on the ones that truly spark your interest.

Both Virtual Tours Santa Barbara and Virtual Tours Montecito deliver a clear perspective, so you know which property might become your perfect coastal retreat.

How Virtour Media Enhances Your Experience When you’re ready to dive into the world of virtual tours, Virtour Media has you covered. This company uses high-quality photography, 360-degree imaging, and interactive content to present each property in its best light. Check out https://virtourmedia.com/ for more details on how they bring spaces to life.

Virtour Media specializes in:

Immersive 360 Tours: Their technology showcases every angle of a property, letting you feel the layout before you set foot on-site.

HDR Photography: High Dynamic Range images capture subtle nuances of light and color to ensure each room looks vibrant.

Aerial Drone Footage: Stunning aerial shots present an entire neighborhood or community, giving you a broader sense of the property’s surroundings.

Easy-to-Use Interface: Navigation is smooth and straightforward, so even first-time virtual tour users will have no trouble exploring.

Because Virtour Media invests in top-notch equipment and software, each tour feels almost as real as being there.

Benefits of Virtual Tours for Buyers and Sellers Virtual tours aren’t just cool tech features; they offer real advantages for every participant in the real estate transaction.

Buyers Save Time: You can view multiple properties in one evening without scheduling back-to-back meetings. Virtual tours also help you narrow down your must-see list.

Sellers Attract Serious Offers: People who schedule an in-person tour after a virtual one are usually more interested in the property. By showcasing your home through Virtual Tours Santa Barbara and Virtual Tours Montecito, you’re more likely to draw committed buyers.

24/7 Open Houses: Virtual tours remain accessible around the clock. Potential buyers can revisit a home at any time, increasing their comfort level with the property.

Enhanced Marketing: Listings that feature virtual tours often receive more clicks and higher engagement. This boosts visibility and can lead to quicker sales.

Tips for Getting the Most Out of Virtual Tours When exploring homes through Virtual Tours Santa Barbara or Virtual Tours Montecito, consider these tips to optimize your experience:

Use a Big Screen: A larger monitor or TV can help you catch those small design details you might miss on a phone.

Take Notes: Jot down what you like or dislike. This helps you compare properties more effectively.

Check the Neighborhood: Look for virtual tours that include aerial shots or neighborhood highlights. This extra detail informs you about the surrounding area.

Ask Questions: Don’t hesitate to reach out to the listing agent or property manager if something is unclear. Virtual tours are comprehensive, but a live conversation can fill in any gaps.

The Future of Real Estate As technology continues to evolve, virtual tours will only become more popular. Buyers appreciate the convenience, and sellers enjoy the high-quality exposure. With a tool like Virtour Media, you’ll find that the buying and selling process becomes less stressful and more efficient. Whether you’re searching for Virtual Tours Santa Barbara or Virtual Tours Montecito, the virtual approach turns what used to be an all-day affair into an efficient and enjoyable experience.

https://virtourmedia.com/ remains dedicated to crafting unforgettable virtual tours. Their team understands that real estate decisions are often personal and emotional, which is why they focus on bringing authenticity to every project.

Final Thoughts If you’re considering a move or simply curious about the local market, Virtual Tours Santa Barbara and Virtual Tours Montecito give you the opportunity to see properties in a whole new light. They bridge the gap between imagination and reality, allowing you to envision your future without the logistical hurdles of multiple in-person showings.

Head over to https://virtourmedia.com/ to see how Virtour Media can transform your property search. A virtual tour might just be the next best thing to stepping inside your future home. If you’re ready to explore coastal charm from wherever you are, don’t wait—embrace the power of virtual tours today.

[studentabode]

Maximizing Savings and Opportunities as an International Student in the UK

Studying in the UK as an international student has numerous advantages, particularly regarding discounts! Whether it is the groceries and utensils to be bought or to be used while travelling, there are always some student offers to make life cheaper. I found a number of shops, cafés and entertainment centres offering student discounts– all one needs is to have their ID with them.

Transportation is another area where international students save big. Discounted travel cards make exploring cities or even taking trips across the country much easier on the wallet. Need supplies for your studies? You will find it easy to Shop for textbooks, stationery, electronics and other software, at a cheaper price with quality to enable you to perform well in your academics without straining your financial muscles.

This also includes leisure with offers on membership to health clubs and classes, events and other cultural happenings. Some of these offers assist international students to have fun in the UK without putting a hole in their pockets.

Student Perks: Save on Everything!

Academic and Living Expenses

Tuition Fee Discounts: Many universities offer early payment discounts, sibling scholarships, and merit-based reductions for international students.

Accommodation Discounts: University halls and student accommodations frequently provide reduced rates for international students, with some offering first-month free or significant initial discounts.

Health and Insurance: The National Health Service (NHS) provides comprehensive healthcare access. Many universities offer additional health insurance packages at reduced rates for international students.

Transportation and Travel

16-25 Railcard: Offers 1/3 off rail travel across the UK

Student Oyster Card: Provides significant discounts on London public transportation

National Express and Megabus Student Discounts: Reduced rates for long-distance travel

Lifestyle and Entertainment

Student discounts: at restaurants, cafes, cinemas, museums

NUS (National Union of Students) Extra Card: Provides discounts across 100+ brands

Cultural venue discounts: Reduced entry to museums, theatres, and cultural events

Opportunities and Support for International Students

Professional and Career Opportunities

Post-Study Work Visa: The UK's Graduate Route allows international students to stay and work for two years after completing their degree

Internship Programs: Many universities have dedicated international student internship schemes

Networking Events: Regular career fairs and professional development workshops

Technology and Study Resources

Discounted software licenses (Microsoft, Adobe)

Free access to academic databases

Reduced-cost computer and technology purchases through university programs

Cultural Integration and Support

Free English language support classes

Cultural exchange programs

Mental health and counselling services tailored for international students

Dedicated international student support offices at universities

Your No-Stress Manual to Getting Student Housing in the UK

Finding student accommodation in the UK can seem overwhelming, but StudentTenant.com simplifies the process! It acts like a helpful guide for international students searching for ideal student rooms. Studying has never been as easy and safe as today and there is no faster way to find affordable and comfortable student accommodations.

Here, you can fine-tune your search according to your needs, see straightforward prices, and take tours without leaving your house. Looking for help with the UK’s rental laws? You’re fully covered here and you’ll get explanations without any legal jargon and your rights as a tenant are explained here as well. In addition, you can share a conversation with landlords and learn from real student testimonials.

Student Tenant is dedicated to ensuring that your search for the perfect student housing is stress-free. All you need to do is click, search and voila, the house is ready for occupancy.