MysticKoolaid

Let's say I were to buy a piece of land (in this case half a residential block) and develop a low-income housing project with several buildings (1-2 households in each) on it.

According to the property's survey, my half of the block that I purchased is divided into four lots. I want to put as many buildings as I can. I don't want to super densify the lot with houses, and I don't plan to build upwards (i.e. midrise or higher) to accommodate more families because I want it to feel like a real neighborhood, not a public-housing/apartment development. Even though the land is mine, do I have to build the houses so that they stay within the lot lines (the way one must with property lines), or can houses be built across them? If building across lot lines in not a problem, then under what circumstances will those lot lines be an issue in the future? Is this something I have to go to the local planning/development department for?

Thank you!

I'm taking real estate course, and we have a project do work on over the semester where we take a site and come up with a use (or vice-versa) and develop that land. The book we're using is a bit limited in providing information on this particular topic, so anyone familiar with real estate development, your answers are appreciated!

So I've read that as a real estate developer you can have:

1.) A site looking for a use, or

2.) A use looking for a site

I have found a site, and I have an idea for its use (low-rise mixed-use - commercial/grocery below and residential above), but I haven't done a market analysis yet because I don't know how to begin in this type of situation. Does a market analysis for "a site looking for a use" differ from that for "a use looking for a site"? In what way? How big of a geographic area do I need to look at for the data going into the market analysis, and the comparable surrounding buildings? For comparables, am I looking for other mixed-use developments only? And is a market analysis the same thing as a feasibility study?

Any other advice would be helpful as well... thank you!

I'm taking a course in real estate. My background is architecture, and I'm not very business-minded, so understanding real estate is by no means a second-nature thing.

I have a half-semester-long group project where I am to go through the whole development process, from site acquisition to financing. For my project, I've located an approximately-7-acre urban site in Houston, Texas, where I'm proposing to put a large grocery store, such as an HEB. The total area I will be covering in store and parking combined is about 90,000 square feet, roughly half the area of the vacant site.

So as you can see, the site is larger than use would require. I guess it's possible to utilize the whole site (such as having a large commercial strip-center-like complex with the grocery store as the anchor), but I want to keep it a bit more simple and leave it at just the store. In a real-world situation, if I were a developer, is it possible to buy just PART of the property from the landowner? Or would I be required to buy the whole thing and then sell the rest (which I suppose would be more risky for me)?

Also, is it feasible for me to propose not just some generic grocery store, but an actual well-know chain grocery store? As an independent developer I don't know if this decision is up to me, or if those decisions are made only within that business by their own employers...

Any help would be appreciated. Neither my textbook nor my professor are much help in this particular area, and my own project teammates are clueless... thanks!

I've been trying to build my portfolio for an architectural internship. I have several AutoCAD files I've been working on back and forth. Tonight I cracked open my laptop after a week of not using it, and for some reason, one particular file will not open, though the others will. I've tried opening this file using my typical path: through folders on my hard drive (external, on which all my projects are). I've tried opening it through an already-open, responding file. I've tried just clicking on the AutoCAD icon on my desktop and essentially doing a "File>Open." It is simply NOT responding! There weren't any unusual circumstances around my working and closing/opening this file during the last time I was able to use it, and it's roughly the same size as the one that WILL work.

Any alternative ways to open this file? I.e., doing something with its backup, relocating the file, etc? I've worked for countless hours on this project, and I'm liable to just apply at the local Jiffy Lube and be done with it...

Thank you!

Please bear with me... my questions are at the end

I'm part of the student community on Autodesk's website, and I have access to free downloads of their products. So I have AutoCAD Architecture 2010 (amongst some other programs) on my computer. I decided to get "Architecture" over the original version of AutoCAD, because I'm an arch grad, but now I wonder if that was a good idea, since the latter is always specified in requirements for arch firms' job openings. I have such little space on my hard drive that I can't add any more programs right now, so for the moment I have to choose to either keep AutoCAD Architecture or uninstall it and replace it with plain AutoCAD2010.

My AutoCAD experience goes as far as 2005, and just trying to navigate ACAD Architecture 2010 shows me how unfamiliar I am with the more recent versions. Can anyone more familiar with these programs (2010) give me a little guidance?

My main question is: how different is the Architecture version from the original version of AutoCAD? Is the deal that AutoCAD Architecture is EXACTLY like regular AutoCAD but just with more, architecturally-oriented features?

Thanks a lot!

Hey guys, any way you can help me with a virus issue? It's looking a little dismal.

Please bear with me; it's a little lengthy.

Here's some background info if you need it: Last night I was surfing the web on my PC (I have Windows XP), and a familiar-looking antivirus-related alert popped up in the bottom right of the screen. I'm so used to clicking on them to exit out or to read more about the alert, that that's what I did, pretty absent-mindedly. It calls itself Media Pass, and it just started downloading something immediately, and I couldn't delete it through Task Manager fast enough (if that would've helped). All these pop-ups that were trying to mimic my system's appeared, and I soon couldn't even access my Task Manager, because it was "disabled by the administrator" (it wasn't, in actuality). I've had a virus before, and I'd gotten rid of it successfully by downloading and running a program to get rid of the virus.

So I'd figured there was a removal program for this one. I'd downloaded a Removal Tool from Security Stronghold, which seemed legit (I guess it wasn't, as I'm now reading it's a scam). After paying them to run the tool (*facepalm*), I seemed to get my Task Manager back, but then my desktop screen turned green with a black and red sign saying "YOUR SYSTEM IS INFECTED!" or something. After emailing Security Stronghold about the problem, my computer just restarted on its own. I freaked out and just shut it down. But now that I'm going to give it another try and to fix it manually, I can't seem to get it past the boot-up phase. There's the black screen giving me options, such as Safe Mode (tried), Safe Mode with Networking (will NOT try), some other thing, last known configurations when computer was fine (something like that; tried), and Normal mode (tried). The virus just keeps shutting down my computer, after each new option I choose! Now how in the world am I going to fix this?!

I'm waiting for a Lenovo laptop I'd ordered on Black Friday, but unfortunately my desktop has several architectural drafting and rendering programs on it (very expensive and hard to come by, as I got them from people I knew at the time in school). I was going to finally put all my programs on the laptop (the shipment of which was late by 2 weeks, of course....). I'm absolutely livid now.

Hopefully my questions aren't too silly; I wish I had the mind to understand computer problems of this nature...

1. How do I get around this eternal loop of my computer restarting and shutting down? Anything I can do manually during that phase?

2. Is anyone familiar with this virus?

3. Who, as a professional/techie, do I refer this problem to? Is it your average computer repairperson? Someone at Geek Squad? Any group on the internet you know of, that deals mainly with viruses? Does a group like that even exist? My roommate seems to know everything about everything, yet he says he knows nothing about viruses

4. If I can get my computer up and running, and I'm NOT successful at removing the virus, can i still move my architectural programs to the laptop I'm expecting? Is it CERTAIN that those programs are infected? Any way to find out for sure, if there is the possibility of using those programs again?

Please help if you can...

Thank you!

This question is mainly for techies, or people who have experience in both Lenovo and Dell laptops, but anyone's welcome to answer, of course (just please add sources if possible):

I've been looking for the perfect drafting/architectural design laptop for a while and decided to wait until the post-Thanksgiving sales kicked in. I've only found TWO laptops that can be customized to my needs (including fast processor, tons of memory, dedicated workstation graphics card, and downgradeability to Windows XP, display size, etc). These are:

Lenovo ThinkPad W700

Dell Precision Workstation M6400 64-bit

If I remember correctly, I was able to customize the ThinkPad's hardware configuration to be very close to that of the Dell Precision, and it was comparatively a steal, by about a couple hundred dollars at least. So naturally, the ThinkPad beat out the Precision. But now that an online deal has made the Precision as affordable as the ThinkPad, I'm down to having to make a choice again between these two, on the dimension of laptop quality/durability this time, and not price.

I'm not asking for which laptop gives me more/better features for my money; I'll work that out myself. I'm just curious as to which laptop is more durable and better built. So...

Which is better built and will last longer?

Also, any idea as to what would make these two laptops, which are customized to roughly the same hardware configurations, differ so much in price?

Any laptop comparison or review websites you could offer?

Thank you!

I just recently bought an awesome black sweater that's 80% rayon and 20% acrylic. It's kind of big and a little thick, so it's pretty comfy in colder months. I'm kind of rushing around doing house errands before Thanksgiving and a weekend trip immediately afterwards. I stuck this sweater into the washer, so it's already been rinsed. After a couple of minutes in the dryer, I pulled out the sweater to read the care label, hoping it wouldn't be something suject to shrinking. It says "dry clean only"! Crap. Can I still dry it in the dryer? What will happen if I do? Will it shrink? What can I do at this point to avoid damage? I'd gained a little weight over the past few years, and it's one of the few FUNCTIONAL warm sweaters I own that will actually fit right now, and that looks pretty good on me. Therefore I really want this thing to last.

Thanks for your time!

So my roommate is fed up with a semi-stray tomcat. We feed him and all, but he has a habit of killing and eating small animals, unlike any other stray I've seen before! There's the risk of disease and whatnot, so I've agreed to make him stay outside (he takes to her bed pretty frequently), after she's threatened taking him to a shelter.

The weather's getting colder (it's in the 40's F where I live, at least for tonight), and I want to make sure he has SOME kind of roof over his head, so I want to design a well-built and insulated "cat house," in the backyard. There's the problem of other animals (just possums, really) sometimes eating the food I leave for the cat. Even if I don't leave food in his "house," I want to find a way to keep possums from just hanging out in there; I want to minimize the possibility of an encounter between this cat and this animal. Possums are cute, but I'd imagine they're pretty dangerous in a fight, if one were to arise.

So, is anyone well-acquainted enough with possums' behavior/anatomy/etc to give me advice on how to actually possum-proof this structure? Do these creatures actually jump? If so, how high? Are they repelled by certain odors/colors? I'd heard they can climb brick walls... WTF? I'd never have guessed.

Any help would be appreciated. Just don't suggest I shoot things... Thank you!

P.S. Hopefully this is a decent place for this question. I figure pest-proofing is a big concern for people who try to maintain nice yards/gardens, and maybe someone's a bit knowledgeable in the "small mammal" department. :P

I plan to buy a laptop and install the latest version of AutoCAD (a drafting program). I'd like to stay with Windows XP Pro x64 Edition, if it's still possible, and as long as I can. Also, I'm geared toward getting an Intel Core 2 Duo, as so many other people (and even the system requirements of some other drafting/rendering programs) specifically suggest.

AutoCAD 2010 comes as a 32-bit version and a 64-bit version. The only "System Requirements" modification between them that stand out, is the modification regarding the processor:

For AutoCAD (32-bit): Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology

For AutoCAD (64-bit): AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology; or AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology; or Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology; or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology.

I want to go with AutoCAD 64-bit, but there seems to be no mention of Intel's Core 2 Duo. This is the same as with the slightly different AutoCAD Architecture program, but same respective processor lists as above...

1.) Are the 64-bit system req's implying that a Core 2 Duo isn't compatible?

2.) What even happens, performance-wise, if I get the 32-bit AutoCAD for a 64-bit OS?

There seems to be no actual phone number to contact AutoCADs tech support, and I can probably get an answer on here faster than I could on the website's Discussion Group page.

Thank you!

Bear with me: As an architecture grad, I'd like a laptop that could handle such programs as Rhino, Revit Architecture, AutoCAD, 3dStudioMax, maybe even Generative Components, etc. 3D and rendering capabilities should happen seamlessly, even when a couple of these programs are open at once. Along with iTunes, of course... ;)

I recently found a forum in which it was suggested that a guy, who did video editing on his comp, get a hyperthreading processor at 3.0Ghz, because his current hardware wouldn't handle such heavy tasks. While video-editing sounds more graphically demanding than architecture, I think both "fields" might share some similarities in hardware needs.

Now, I've only heard of Multi-core processors, which are constantly recommended for architecture students, given the nature of their computer programs. I'm even thinking of getting a Quad core (if it's cheap enough). But now, with this "hyperthreading processor" I'd never heard about, I feel I should reconsider.

So, questions (hopefully they're valid):

1) In layman's terms, what is the basic difference between hyperthreading processors and multi-core processors, and how does it effect performance of the computer (generally, and specifically for drafting programs?) I've Wiki'd them both, and it's implied they're different, but it's all Greek to me...

2) As someone who wants to run architecture/drafting/rendering programs smoothly in tandem, is it necessary to even consider a hyperthreading processor over a multicore processor (if there is in fact an advantage to hyperthreading)? Or will simply a multicore processor do the job?

Thanks a lot for your help!

Hello!

I'm a recent grad with a Bachelor in Architecture. I've never owned a laptop before, but now I want one before I put myself on the market.

I've seen many pro-Mac answers here for the perfect "architectural design program" laptop. Apparently, Mac is THE professional design/graphics computer, more than a PC is. But after weighing the pros/cons in light of my personal situation, I think I'm going to stick with a PC for now.

I'm looking to run mainly AutoCAD, 3dsMax, Photoshop, Illustrator, and Rhino (definitely 3D design/render capabilities). I'm not looking to run these all at the same time, of course. I'll probably be using iTunes while I draft/render though. So perhaps my taskbar will contain iTunes + 2 design/render programs + Internet. It's possible that in the future I'll tinker and try to familiarize myself with additional programs (Revit, Maya, etc).

I'm not really looking for anything over $1700, but if there's anything out there that's more than that, I'd like to know anyway.

So hopefully this is a valid question: Knowing all the above info, what specs must my laptop PC have in order to simulate the best features of a Mac from a design/architecture perspective (good graphics/speed/power)? Naturally, custom-made isn't out of the question.

Also, I hear a lot of people praising Toshiba and Sony Vaio. Any merit in this?

Thanks a lot!

I'm not the most computer-literate of people, so I need a little help here, please!

I've just recently begun fitness training at a gym, and so I now have access to a fitness account on a website called Bodybugg (http://bodybugg.com),/ which makes up meal plans for me based on my individual caloric/nutritional needs, and has a log of calories burned/consumed throughout the day.

Along with these things, I have a daily nutrition menu/plan. On it I'm able to "delete," "add," or "replace" a meal item. When I click on any of those three options, a small window pops up (called an application, no?), with a drop-menu of various foods found in the site's database, along with a box to enter values related to nutritional/serving info. When I click 'OK,' I simply expect the pop-up box to disappear, but instead, whatever browsers I have open will often vanish, and I'm left looking at my desktop screen. Then a Mozilla Crash Report box comes up. I'm always able to "Restore Previous Session" afterwards.

This thing seems fickle enough to where Mozilla crashes only about 60% of the time with this type of feature (on this site only, to my knowledge). Unfortunately, it ALWAYS crashes during another of the site's very similar features, in which I have to enter food items myself, (in the case that I eat something that's not found in the food database) along with their nutritional values.

I'm on this site a few times a day, but I can't go much further in logging my food/calorie intake until the problem's fixed. So does anyone know why this is happening, and what I can do about it? Is it just something in my comp that needs updating?

Thanks a lot, if you can help!

Please bear with me! I've never been in such a situation nor known anyone personally who has, and I know little about the arrest/jail/release process of someone in a law enforcement situation...

A friend of mine had gone to a house party last night. I was planning to go, but I ended up staying home. By the end of the night he and another girl were arrested by the Houston Police. Other friends and I are hoping to bail them out ASAP... before the end of the day, if possible. No one has contacted me or called back about what the bail is or how she and he are doing. Which means I must go to the police department myself if I want information.

There's a possibility that the Houston police could take their time booking them, which means we may have to wait until the next business day--Monday.

So giving you this information, my questions: After which point in the police department's processing his and her information am I free to start asking questions and seeing them, even if for a brief moment?

All answers are welcome! Thank you!

Is it very difficult to get help from lawyers/attorneys doing pro bono work outside of the state you live in? How does one go about doing 'business' with them? Thank you!

I've just recently graduated with a bachelor of Architecture, with no prior experience in working at a firm.

There are several questions here, but I guess my big question is: what does someone who's beginning an architectural internship wear at a firm?

I'm by no means one to dress in khakis, dress shoes, and/or button-up tops and have perfectly-coiffed hair. I'm more of a jeans, tank/tee, Doc Martens, hooded-jacket, hair-in-a-bun kind of girl; very laid back style... To what degree can I get away with that? Are jeans or tank tops even ok, and if so, then under what circumstances?

Is a "dress code" on a firm-by-firm basis (and therefore just something I should ask my employer)?

Also, are there any links to clothing websites, or specific pages, that can give a somewhat safe idea of what to wear? I was given a $100 dollar gift certificate for Macy's and I figure that could be one place that might have semi-professional clothing.

Maybe I'm making a bigger deal out of this than necessary, but I'm only now really overcoming the nervousness of starting my professional life. I want to be myself as much as possible, while still being able to make a good impression overall.

Thanks a lot!

This is a question that's mainly for seasoned classical-music listeners (it's in there somewhere...):

I've always loved Camille Saint-Saens' piece of music called "Danse Macabre" (if you haven't heard it I'm sure you could "youtube" it). I still consider it to be just as eerie now as the first time I'd heard it.

Apparently it was pretty eerie when it was first performed as well: the Wiki page for Saint-Saens' "Danse Macabre" says, "When [it] first premiered, it was not received well. Audiences were quite unsettled by the disturbing, yet innovative, sounds that Saint-Saëns elicited."

I assume listening to classical music enough allows one to have an ear for knowing what musical works were more or less mainstream or inventive comparatively.

Question: Are there any other classical works that were considered disturbing/eerie like this, at the time they were first performed publicly? In other words, do you know of any works which stood out against their contemporaries as being disturbing/eerie?

I guess it doesn't REALLY have to be disturbing, maybe simply surreal or weird. It's just that I DO tend to have a taste for the darker things within the realm of the arts, hehe...

Thanks a lot!

For a presentation in my architecture studio course, I'd been working on the NURBS-based design program Rhinoceros v.4. I ultimately had one of those Error Reports, which gave me no choice but to attempt to save my work before the program closed. In the command line it said that Rhino was autosaving, yet when I tried to open the file I was working on (for 10 hours straight!), there was no sign of the recovered version. Does ANYONE know how to possibly retrieve this lost work? I already feel silly that didn't manually save my progress as much as I should have done...

Thanks!!

Please bear with me; I'm just trying to explain as much as possible:

I keep all my past water bills, which have been at an average of 7,500 gallons consumed per month. Now I have a bill this month saying 73,000 gallons have been used! The water company said that these high readings have been taken since March, and only this month they stopped making the estimates and adjustments (which essentially gave us the illusion of our typical readings). If I were to claim our actual usage to be 7,500 gallons a month, for those six high-read months, then that still leaves us with an unaccounted-for consumption of 28,000 gallons.

Question(s): What could be the possible reasons for such a thing, if there are no obvious leaks in my house (although the sweep hand is rotating slowly, even with all water off)? A busted underground pipe maybe? Is it even possible for someone to siphon our water? The water pressure in our house is also quite low at times, if that matters...

The reading on our meter is indeed correct, so on the phone with the water company I brought up the possibility of an error within the meter itself. But the lady seemed to disregard that possibility. There's also a slightly frayed wire that's attached to the meter, but I don't know if that interferes with the readings since I have no idea why it's there.

Thanks a lot if you can help!

I'm 26 years old, 5'3", and 150 pounds right now, and I'm trying to lose about 3 lbs/week to get back to my old weight of about 110. I've never had problems with stretch marks at any point in my life, if it matters. But I was wondering:

Should I expect to see stretch marks and loose skin, given my situation? If so, then what are the best ways to prevent that from actually occurring at the start?

I hear talk of vitamin E, and I would assume lots of water... but anything else that's natural/healthy and known to be effective?

Thanks a lot, and pardon if these questions are silly and/or lazy...