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Athena Vs. Aurora

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Come, My Son! We will show you the light. Many have made the conversion and it has changed their lives.
 
Don't bother upgrading right now. aLamode is finalizing a complete ground up re-write of Total called "Armstrong". The labs have been working on it for a while and the prototype should be released in the next few months. I would not waste the time learning the ins and outs of Aurora since you are so far behind the curve, and the next generation will be out soon. The new version is written in c#, and fixes a lot of the memory release problems seen in Athena and Aurora. It should be a much more stable product as it is all new and not built on old (some even DOS based) technologys. Just hang in there. The forms are not going to change any time soon, so no rush.
 
Tom Woolford said:
Don't bother upgrading right now. aLamode is finalizing a complete ground up re-write of Total called "Armstrong". The labs have been working on it for a while and the prototype should be released in the next few months. I would not waste the time learning the ins and outs of Aurora since you are so far behind the curve, and the next generation will be out soon. The new version is written in c#, and fixes a lot of the memory release problems seen in Athena and Aurora. It should be a much more stable product as it is all new and not built on old (some even DOS based) technologys. Just hang in there. The forms are not going to change any time soon, so no rush.
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I would suggest that the learning curve is minimal going from Athena to Aurora. I would also suggest waiting six months to a year after Armstrong is released before upgrading. Look at what happened when Aurora came out. ala Mode received so many complaints about Aurora that they added a "revert to Athena" option and decided not to discontinue support for Athena, but revised it to indefinite. Just because it will be all new and written in a tighter language from the ground up does not necessarily mean it will be bug free from the get-go.
 
I got Aurora in spring of 2005. For the first year there were almost daily updates. Today, there are very few updates. The software is ok, but it reminds me of AOL as it is a little invasive. Guess that's why they call it wintotal.

I wish they would come up with a package called "just appraise" without always tryng to get me to do the next thing or use their websites and marketing tools. I actually think blanket scheduled sales emails are impersonal and lame, and that is what they are pimping.

That and the "hey get on board and do the next thing with us". Dave Biggers, I have a life and I really like it. I would rather live it when I am not working than fool around with your next way to make money off me idea.

Anyway, Aurora is fine, just make the switch, go thru the learning curve, and try to laugh as much as possible. :Eyecrazy:
 
I made the change at the very same time the new 1004 (05) forms came out. Talk about confusing. I was trying to get familiar with the new forms and trying to learn Athena at the same time. It was difficult for about a month. Now, things are sailing right along. I don't use a lot of the bells and whistles in Athema. I wish they would just make a simple appraisal program without all of the accounting crap that most of us small appraisers don't use.
 
Jack Straw said:
......... but it reminds me of AOL as it is a little invasive. Guess that's why they call it wintotal.

I wish they would come up with a package called "just appraise" without always tryng to get me to do the next thing or use their websites and marketing tools. I actually think blanket scheduled sales emails are impersonal and lame, and that is what they are pimping.

That and the "hey get on board and do the next thing with us". Dave Biggers, I have a life and I really like it. I would rather live it when I am not working than fool around with your next way to make money off me idea.

Anyway, Aurora is fine, just make the switch, go thru the learning curve, and try to laugh as much as possible. :Eyecrazy:
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Yes Mr. Biggers. Aurora is a very fine product, imho. However, this is right to the point. Please stop with all the schemes and extras that we don't really need (like the 'marketing' materials) just to generate more cash from appraisers. Take that OUT, put the cash portion that we already gave you for the stuff we don't need and put it toward web services. I'm disappointed with the X-Site add-on / plug in, (VERY pricey) when actual domain hosting is so dang cheap and dropping further. Your Vault service (last time I checked) was way too pricey also compared to your web-based storage competitors.
 
Jack Straw said:
I got Aurora in spring of 2005. For the first year there were almost daily updates. Today, there are very few updates. The software is ok, but it reminds me of AOL as it is a little invasive. Guess that's why they call it wintotal.

I wish they would come up with a package called "just appraise" without always tryng to get me to do the next thing or use their websites and marketing tools. I actually think blanket scheduled sales emails are impersonal and lame, and that is what they are pimping.

That and the "hey get on board and do the next thing with us". Dave Biggers, I have a life and I really like it. I would rather live it when I am not working than fool around with your next way to make money off me idea.

Anyway, Aurora is fine, just make the switch, go thru the learning curve, and try to laugh as much as possible. :Eyecrazy:
Click to expand...

Yeah, I have been getting bombarded with advertising from a la mode in the last month or so. Faxes, e-mails, pop-ups. It is ridiculous and annoying.
 
Good lord - I'm glad I have not upgraded to Aurora now. Are you able to block the pop ups?

That would be very annoying to have a program constantly trying to sell me something else. I don't even allow automatic updates.

Y'all are scaring me with this stuff. I was almost ready to upgrade ... now I'm going to wait because I hate pop ups with a passion. I asked a few years ago to be removed from their phone/email/fax marketing list. It worked. I don't have a problem with them calling, faxing or emailing any longer. I'll call them if I need them.

I have the lowly silver membership, an x-site that is useless (but I have to have it due to the xml crap) and flood maps. They get more $$$ from me than the local Realtor board. It is getting expensive in this down market.

:sad:
 
It's not all that bad, Rhonda, certainly not bad enough not to upgrade to the superior system.

Alamode has the best overall software package. Part of the package is agressive marketing. I'd rather put up with that then an inferior product or built in data theivery.
 
When they first released Aurora, my area MLS had just gone thru it's third new totally different database/toolset in the past 3 years. And the new forms were coming out, and the Apex sketch tool just went thru a new release. I put a hold on upgrading at that time, enough with the new stuff.

I was just talking to alamode support on Thursday about another matter and I asked him if it was stable enough to upgrade yet. He said, and I quote, "It would be good if you had a separate computer to run the new system, until you get it proved in."

I don't want to run a dedicated PC for Aurora. Actually, I think I'll now wait for Armstrong to get out of beta-test mode before considering an update. WinTOTAL Athena works just fine for now.

So far, no Aurora users have really quantified the plusses of the upgrade.
 
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