Zugg Software :: View topic - Zugg and Chiara busy for a couple of weeks

Posted: Tue May 10, 2011 1:00 am

Due to continued declining CMUD/zMUD sales Chiara and I have decided to sell our big house here in Colorado and move into something smaller. The housing market has picked up a bit and I think it's finally time to do something about this. I'd rather get our costs down so that we can continue to work on CMUD and keep Zugg Software healthy for the future.

So, Chiara and I will be spending the month or so packing and moving. I'll try to keep up with the forums, but probably won't be as quick to respond to either forums or emails for a while.

Try to help each other here on the forums as much as possible. Also, if you are interested in helping out, you can send donations via PayPal to zugg@zuggsoft.com. Or just tell your friends to play more MUDs and buy CMUD ;)

Thanks for the understanding and support.

Posted: Fri May 13, 2011 9:36 pm

This is going to be annoying. DirectTV can get the TV hooked up next week as soon as we move. But Qwest needs 2 weeks to activate our new phone and high-speed Internet. Not sure why, but this is why I never liked Qwest in the past. DirectTV sends out a tech and they can schedule right away...but Qwest doesn't even need to send out a tech and they can't "flip the switch" on the service for 2 weeks?

(we are switching to DirectTV/Qwest from Comcast because we can save $100/month. But it's like going from the "dark side" to the "darker side")

In any case, it looks like we will be without any Internet service at the new place for at least a week, and maybe longer. I'm going to leave our mail server running in our current house and we should be able to access email via our Droid phones. But I probably won't see the forums for at least a week.

I'm not sure how I'll cope with no Internet for a week. I'll probably go through horrible withdrawals!

Posted: Sun May 15, 2011 1:55 am

Nothing unusual there as regards being in the UK. Both Sky and Virgin can get you up and running for TV in 2 days or less but when it comes to telephone and broadband every company I've used is useless and needs two weeks or more. A guy I work with had to wait over a month to get up and running.

Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:21 am

eeek downsizing! well I hope things work out, hope you get used to directv not delaying cable channels...ie most channels aren't delayed except network channels, takes some getting used to. i actually complained at first heh, but now i can watch primetime cable at 5-8 then primetime network from 8-10.

good luck and get to work :)

Posted: Mon May 16, 2011 2:29 pm

Computers are being moved today, so this is the last post I'll probably be able to make for a couple of days. See you after the move!

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 7:16 pm

Yeah! Finally our computers are back up and running and I'm connected to the net again. Wow, it was sure hard to live without Internet for a couple of weeks. You don't realize how addicted you are until you lose it. Even the limited Internet and email on our Droid smartphone wasn't good enough. It was good enough for simple emails, but that was about it.

I'm not sure yet how I want to deal with the forums. It will take me a couple of days to get caught up with our support email. But I'm so far behind on forum posts, that I'm not sure I'll be able to read them all.

I guess if you think there is an actual real bug report for v3.34 then go ahead and bump the topic and make sure "3.34 bug" is somewhere in the subject line. Then I'll try to take a look at those posts next week and add them to the list for the next update.

Moving really sucks and it's going to take months to get fully unpacked again. We got rid of a *lot* of stuff during our downsize and I'm hoping we didn't get too carried away and get rid of anything that I still needed.

Apprentice Joined: 03 Jul 2006 Posts: 108

Murphy's Law of moving covers your concerns about getting rid of something:

Having gotten rid of it after not seeing or thinking about it for the last 5 years, you will immediately think of a use for it that seems both incredibly important and urgent. If you had not sorted through your stuff, that particular object would not have entered your thoughts for another 5 years...

Mike

Posted: Fri Jun 03, 2011 10:44 pm

Welcome back Zugg.

Posted: Tue Jun 07, 2011 7:15 pm

mikeC130: LoL, you are absolutely right!

The corollary is that something you urgently need will have been packed in some random box that you cannot find and you'll be forced to go to the store and buy a new one. I've already done this with an HDMI cable and a set of screwdrivers. The screwdrivers *should* have been with all of my other tools, but mysteriously were not. And I have so many random boxes of various computer cables I have no idea where my longer HDMI cable ended up.

Another axiom when dealing with two houses: the one we are selling and the rental we are living in is: the tool you need is always at the other house.

Wanderer Joined: 23 Apr 2010 Posts: 53

I recently found out that the same rule applies for carpet cleaners when your dog has an accident at the new house. A nice 10:30 p.m. trip to the old house to retrieve the carpet cleaner does wonders for your sleep.

Good luck selling the house, Zugg.

Posted: Tue Jun 28, 2011 5:21 pm

I'm going to un-sticky this post now. I think I've unpacked enough stuff for now. The old house is still on the market (just reduced the price), but hardly anybody has visited. The housing market really is dead right now (at least in Colorado Springs). We are getting about one click per week on the MLS listing. We've had 2 showings in 3 weeks. Just horrible.

Wish they would change the stupid foreclosure rules in this country. The selling price of a foreclosure should *not* be used in computing the average appraisal price of a nearby house on the market. Bank foreclosure prices do not reflect the actual value of the house. Unless they are adjusted higher by 10-20 percent, including them in the average when doing comparable appraisals just causes all houses in the area to lose value...just because somebody couldn't pay their mortgage.

Does the fact that somebody can't pay their mortgage mean that the other houses in the area are not worth as much? Of course not. But this causes a vicious downward spiral which is at the heart of the housing crisis in this country. Foreclosures cause all of the houses in the area to decrease in appraised value, which then causes new foreclosures to sell for even less, further depressing prices.

If they just adjusted foreclosure prices or just didn't include them in the comparable appraisal averages, then housing prices might stabilize eventually.

It's just so silly how artificial all of this is with this "on paper" appraisal values. Two years ago the house appraised at 150% of what it's listed at now. Just insane since the actual COST to build a comparable house has increased and not decreased. And it's all because of foreclosure rules and banks.

Anyway, that's just me venting my frustrations.

Back to MUD stuff: The good news is that since I'm mostly done with unpacking, I can now get back to looking at CMUD again. I will try my best to release a 3.35 update sometime later in July to fix the top bugs reported in the latest version.