Thursday, October 22, 2009

MBTA BingVis WPF Application

I've been working on a side project with some recently released data from the MBTA (Boston Transit Authority). The goal of the application is to take some fare files with individual transactions throughout the day and visualize them in some way.


I've released a preliminary version after a week of work. I'm hoping to do some improvements to the loading of fare files. But, shipping is a feature.

If you want to install the application, this link should work. Then check your Start Menu -> Programs -> MBTA BingVis folder to start the application.

Check out the project page on CodePlex for updates in the future.

Now Playing - Jay-Z - On To the Next One


Monday, October 12, 2009

Real Estate Rant

The following is an email correspondence between me and our real estate agent after having received a list of petty repairs to be made before closing, which we eventually conceded to do. I think it sums up our frustration with selling our house pretty well.

On a side note, we are getting very frustrated by all of this and we found the letter that was forwarded to be disrespectful and rude. I don't know why such a vague emotional appeal should ever have been brought into this negotiation. It certainly didn't make us want to help them out, if anything it made us want to walk-away from such disrespectful and greedy buyers. I always find numbers objective and appealing, here are some numbers so you know what our perspective is:

112000 - What we paid for the house
2000 - Cost of closing at purchase
3000 - Price of new furnace
400 - Cost of new dishwasher
1000 - Cost of new refrigerator and Oven
3500 - Cost of new Deck
3000 - Cost of new Kitchen
====
124900 Total

Their offer: 113500 after us conceding 1500 from our asking price.

What we get after agents fee and warranty: Approx. 108000.

Approx. Actual Loss by Mr. and Mrs. Gable: 16900.

But that has absolutely no bearing on how they make their decision, does it? We are not so stupid as to try and write up a nice letter that will make some vague emotional appeal about why they should just go ahead and concede. What I can do is complain to my agent, because you are the buffer between us and them so that emotions don't cloud the fact that we need to sell the house. So, we appreciate being able to vent a little bit right now.

We are ready to close on this house. Let's get it done.

Now Playing: Starship - We Built This City