Folks:

At long last I've got the self-service interface for Ecosystem data up & running in a fully automated fashion.

The interface requires that you place special Ecosystem-generated tags on your weblog to specify the change that you are requesting: this guarantees that you and only you can make changes to your blog.

To request a change, go to your blog details page, and select the new 'Request a change to this blog' link under the summary section. An automated wizard will guide you through a series of questions about what type of change you are requesting, and ultimately will provide you the exact code that must be placed on your weblog to trigger the update.

These requests are now being processed automatically once a day in the evening prior to each night's Ecosystem update, and no longer require my personal attention. So that means, no more waiting for me to get around to changes, which should be a very good thing for all of us...

Folks:

I'm beginning the fun/not fun process of house hunting in the Orange County, CA area, and am looking for advice on good online and offline resources available for finding properties in the area. My preferred method of operation is to review home listings online, check the neighborhood out with tools like Google Earth, and then and only then involve a realtor to get me access to view the home in person.

So: in particular I'm looking for sites that offer free/open access to search the CA MLS database, but would also welcome any other pointers / suggestions --- especially advice on if there are other database beyond the MLS (for sale by owner?) that I should be monitoring. (And yes, if you know a good real estate agent in the area, I'm happy to hear about them).

Thanks in advance...

NZB