NorthSideSox72

QUOTE (lostfan @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 09:45 PM) Sometimes the phone incorrectly reads battery charge so if you use the phone until it dies and then charge it to 100% and past that by a couple of hours it'll start working right again. This may or may not be your problem but it's worth a try. One of the many things I found suggestions for, was doing "bump charging" the first few days. Basically, you run the battery down... plug it in until its green... unplug it, turn it off completely... plug it in again, until green. Repeat until the green light comes on immediately when plugging it in. Supposedly that gets the battery in better condition. Also, the Droid Inc comes with a 1300 aMh battery, and I just ordered at 1800 from Seito (via Amazon) that has the same form. They also make extended ones that require a new phone back that go to like 3000, but I don't want to have to get a new case for it, etc.

Anyone know what happened to Hynick? I'm gonna pimp one of my AAPs now. Dan Remenowsky's last 5 outings: 9 IP, 6 H, 0 R, 2 BB, 19 K.

Get Berkman for the DH spot, drop Kotsay or Jones. Its time.

Holy crap. 9 straight, 3 above .500, and now about to be 2.5 GB... before the end of June. Would NOT have thought that possible.

QUOTE (SoxAce @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 12:13 PM) My god I'm an idiot. My apologies Sqwert. I've been up since 7 am, so I guess I'm still tired. 7am is early?

QUOTE (iamshack @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 01:04 PM) How hard are you on the phone, in terms of usage? Maybe you could adjust some settings to prolong the life a bit...lower the brightness, make it turn off more quickly once it becomes idle, etc. If you are indeed correct, and the battery is dying by lunchtime, a lot of customers are going to be upset. Say what you want about usage, but these smartphones are indeed made for the business person... Reading some forums, people are seemingly upset about battery life. I'm also trying a number of tips they provided in the forums, and we'll see where we're at in a few days of making those changes. One cool feature on this phone is, it actually shows you what is eating the battery life. Oddly, the screen is only 8% of my total power consumption. 30%, highest number, is Android and its associated services.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 01:02 PM) Haven't I been saying that would be the case? Thought I had been. I don't know, it seems to me its done what most of the experts said it would - a long, slow process.

QUOTE (NorthSideSox72 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 08:07 AM) Got my HTC Droid Incredible last night. Playing with it today to get it set up. Usual frustrations with dealing with a new OS (new to me I mean), learning it, but I think I'm going to like it. So far, except for one thing, I like the phone, and the Droid OS. Problem is the battery. I turned the phone on at about 5:30am after charging fully overnight... and now I am getting a warning (at 1pm) saying the battery is at 14%. WTF? Seriously? If this is the way the battery is going to be, I am going to have to return the phone. I am hoping that over a few nights of charging the battery will improve. If not, I'm returning it. Running out of batter mid-afternoon is not acceptable. Needs to make it through a long single day, at LEAST.

A little anecdotal addition to this disussion.. A few doors down from us, back in 2008, someone bought a single city lot (in a slot between Bucktown and Lincoln Park), with an existing but dilapidated 2-flat, for $580k. He took out a total loan of $1.1M for the property and cost to build. Asked for a zoning variance to go 3 units, was denied due to neighborhood resistance, and decided to build a single family home. Needless to say, things didn't go well - I don't see what single family home you can build on a single lot in our neighborhood that would net you above $1.1M. The building went up, framed, but the guy lost the building in foreclosure before anything other than the frame could be finished. So there was this partially built structure just sitting there for 2 years. Bank just sold the property for... wait for it... $180,000. It listed at that price from the bank, and was under contract within a week (hell, the land is worth twice that, even with the big price drops). Someone, long run, got a steal there. Hopefully we won't have a derelict building there for long.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 10:38 AM) There are also a lot of people who are going to run out of unemployment. I am talking about the long term unemployed who really are going to be hard pressed to find a job anywhere near the levels of income they had before. I would suspect the extended unemployment insurance program has also kept foreclosure rates down. This will, likely, also add to the foreclosure rate in the near future. Thus putting more existing homes on the market and lower prices. Additional supply with a fairly weak demand. That's actually what scares me - the jobs picture. We've cleared out a lot of the people who got into stupid mortgages, and the reset rates are so low that many of those people are actually seeing lower payments. The issue is so many people out of work or losing jobs still, people going into foreclosure as a result is (IMO) the biggest concern. The shadow inventory is peaking or past peak as you pointed out, but I'm afraid if the job market doesn't continue to improve (as it was until very recently), and we start losing jobs overall again, then more foreclosures will follow, and that WILL cause significant price drops. But if the economy can go back to the slow and steady improvement in the jobs picture as it was for most of the year, I think we'll steer clear of that problem.

Why has W-S had so many days off in a row? Are they on their all-star break or something?

Kotsay hitting third? Really? Seriously?

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 10:12 AM) There's a reason why foreclosures are up sharply...for about a year, banks have been putting off foreclosures for people because they can't sell the home if they foreclose on them. The term that has become commonly accepted for this is "Shadow inventory", they are houses that will be on the market but that banks have kept off the market to avoid the double-whammy of depressing housing prices further and taking the financial hit to themselves. If the people keep living in them, the people basically get free rent on the bank, but the bank gets the benefit of the house not sitting vacant and general upkeep/usage being done. They started pushing more Foreclosures earlier this year because their financial situation has improved and because, thanks to the government intervention, the housing market somewhat stabilized and could absorb some portion of the hit. And the articles you see from bankers and realtors state that the shadow inventory has been diminishing - that they are processing more and more of them. This is good in the long term, now that they are accelerating their pace, but not putting them all out in a huge wave.

QUOTE (TitoMB @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 09:57 AM) God, even when this team wins, it's a mess. DV being called up was probably the worst move this season. You can't be serious.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 09:40 AM) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_home_sales more good news? Foreclosures SELLING is good, so is the fact that we appear to be around the top or just past of the big foreclosure bubble. The dip in general is bad. But the marketplace does appear to be shedding inventory in a healthy way, yes. It will be quite a while before we see is truly be strong though, another couple years at least. But this huge second drop in prices and sales that people have been predicting for a while doesn't seem to be in the cards. I'd bet 2010 ends up an overall wash, with the market staying more or less stagnant for the year. 2011 should see some improvement.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 24, 2010 -> 08:35 AM) The problem with saying it that way is...those are new home sales numbers, not new home construction numbers, and construction numbers kept trying to inch up while the government was dumping billions of dollars into trying to blow the popped balloon back up. Not really. Take a look around at reports the last 6 months or so of new construction permits. They are ALSO dropping like a rock, as they should. Further, if construction is outpacing sales, since the gov't is no longer providing special incentives, the construction companies will have no choice but to continue to cut back. This is all an overall good thing for the real estate market - but as I said, the new home construction business and its suppliers will feel the pain. Better that small segment than the rest of the country.

QUOTE (mr_genius @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 05:48 PM) http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/24/business...ml?ref=business U.S. New Home Sales Drop 33% in May Prices need to be allowed to fall to levels which reflect wages and job growth. No more tax payer funded 'home discounts'. Homes will sell for what they are worth. This is NEW home sales, not existing. So its really mostly about how many new homes are being built. I've said all along, and its still true, I am glad to see these NEW home sales numbers continue to plummet. This is good because it puts less supply on the market. So ultimately, this will help lead to a stronger overall real estate market, since EXISTING home sales make up the majority of it. Believe it or not, this is good news for the real estate market. Bad for new home construction personnel though.

QUOTE (Tex @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 05:18 PM) This is going to be interesting. Basically the fun part is if Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana can show economic hardship and sucessfully sue to have the locks closed. I love a state versus state fight. Various courts have already blocked those attempts by other states, and SCOTUS refused to review it. Basically, as long as Illinois is making a good faith effort (along with US agencies) to try to stop it, that seems to be good enough for the courts. Also, not a surprise that was found - it was pretty much accepted among locals that the fish were already IN Lake Michigan, just in small numbers. Thing is, Asian Carp entering the Great Lakes in significant numbers might not have that huge an impact on fisheries. They are basically assuming the worst, which i can understand. On the flipside, closing the locks also could have big economic consequences. Then there;s the fact that they won't be able to keep the locks closed all the time anyway, because otherwise parts of the city and suburbs will flood in storms. Basically, closing the locks is just not likely to happen.

All three GF pitchers in their debuts, threw a combined shutout. Nice.

Got my HTC Droid Incredible last night. Playing with it today to get it set up. Usual frustrations with dealing with a new OS (new to me I mean), learning it, but I think I'm going to like it.

QUOTE (Quinarvy @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 03:55 PM) We could kill two birds (Kotsay & Jones) with him. Call him up, suddenly you have a speedy back up OF that is left handed and Dayan is allowed to stay on the team. And yes, I know Kotsay is a valuable bench player, but as long as he is in Chicago he will be a starter. Edit: Also, not kidding. If he makes it to AA I will probably by a #26 Blackwood shirt. If he makes the MLB, I certainly will (I don't buy jerseys, and if I did, it'd only be Paulie or Buehrle right now) Let's not get out of hand. I liked De Aza coming into the system and feel he could be valuable, but he doesn't belong on the Sox roster, not at this point.

QUOTE (docsox24 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 03:23 PM) huge storm coming but supposed to be over by 7 weather.com saying the chances of precip don't START until 6-7pm, then stay high into the night. Future view looks like 7pm-ish for the rain to begin.

To me, its all about where you allow the stores. Giving Walmart full reign to just build big boxes and get zoning variances anywhere it pleases won't work well, and in fact will hurt. On the other hand, targeting areas where a Walmart will improve things, can be very effective. Also, some of the jobs will pay more than 8.75, the construction jobs certainly will, and there are managerial positions to be had in the store. Furthermore, most of the lots in those areas that would be built on are vacant and probably pay little or no property taxes. I think its a good thing, as long as its implemented carefully, so that Walmart provides upward movement in the right areas, an doesn't just blanket the city in order to drive out other stores.

QUOTE (Controlled Chaos @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 02:40 PM) I thought it alwyas had Daley's backing. It's the unions who are against it and they bring the mighty influence with em. Also, this.... "Walmart has this strategy of entering the urban marketplace, but they want to bring the rural wages with them," he said, adding Walmart's pay scale is a drag on the wages paid by competing retailers." is bulls***. They pay what every other retail job would pay. What do cashiers at fast food restaurants make? Cashiers at Kohls? Video stores?? Nobody is boycotting McDonalds or White Castle....What are those...ideal career paths with a high end salary structure?? People need and want these jobs. They need and want the food. The city needs the tax revenue. Daley likes it, the wards that lean hardest left need it most, the other wards won't get the stores so are less likely to care... I think there is a strong chance this passes the City Council.

QUOTE (Balta1701 @ Jun 23, 2010 -> 02:35 PM) Sadly, you're 100% right on that being the best lineup the Sox can put out right now...which is why calling up DV was a mistake. Flat out mistake. If nothing else, wait a week so that he could get 25 more at bats at Charlotte. I was thinking about this, and I agreed before... but I will add a caveat. If the plan was to have him up here for just a couple weeks until Teahen's return... then I am OK with him playing sparingly. Because if that's the case, then really they just wanted to get a small look at him, to see what they have, in person. And a couple weeks of missed AB's, in exchange for getting some exposure to the big club, is not so awful. On the other hand, if he spends the rest of the season (or even just more than the couple weeks or so) with the big club, sitting on the bench... then I'll be pissed.