Back Online, Back on Track

Thank you for your support while we shut down the site in protest of the SOPA and PIPA bills that were milling about congress. We're happy to see that congress listened to the internet and decided to put those nasty bills under the carpet for a while. Hopefully we'll be able to keep that sort of legislation at bay in the future.

Speaking of the future, we got a new intern to help Rent Jungle achieve some of our goals for 2012 . Introducing Monis Khan, intern extraordinaire!

Yep, that's Monis alright. Welcome aboard! 

SOPA Blackout

Dear Friends and Family,

If you haven't heard, there are a few bills passing around congress that could significantly disrupt the internet as we know it today. The bills, PIPA and SOPA, wold basically make it impossible for Rent Jungle to exist in the way we understand it today, so we have decided to join the growing movement of websites dedicated to getting rid of it. Tomorrow Rent Jungle will be blacked out to show an example of how these bills will censor the internet and change change the internet as we know it today by censoring it.

We strongly urge you to contact your congressional representatives and let them know that you demand a free internet. Thank you for your support, we'll see you on the 19th!

-Rent Jungle Team

Click here to see a list of other anti-SOPA supporters.

New Year's Resolutions for Apartment Hunters

January is commonly known as the best month to make a fresh start. January marks the full rotation of the earth around the sun, it's when the weather hits coldest (at least in Pennsylvania), and it lands shortly after the holiday euphoria. So why not take on something new and find ways to improve your life? If you're in an apartment that hasn't been nice to you over the last year, perhaps its time to make a change. Here are some important things to keep in mind as you make the switch in 2012.

1. Kitchen's Are Important, So Get A Good One
Kitchens are often the most popular hangout areas in apartments. Not only do they grant easy access to food and beverages, but in modern architecture the kitchen is generally the center of the home. People love the smell of cooking food and like hanging out with chefs. Don't skimp on the kitchen.



2. Pay Attention to Your Feet: Flooring 
So it may just be me, but I think hardwood floors make all the difference. You don't have to deal with cat/dog/human hair everywhere, spills don't matter as much, and you have plenty of areas to place your unique Afghan rug.





3. Choose Yards or Outdoor Areas

Ever want a dog? Then get an apartment or rental home with outdoor areas. If you are lucky you can find apartment complexes with a dedicated common yard, and if you're luckier you can find a rental home with its own space out back. Having an outdoor area is not only good for your pets, its good for your soul. No one wants to stay inside 24/7. Go have a BBQ once in a while!


4. Location, Location, Vocation

There are two types of ideal locations for your apartment: the one that's close to where you work, and the one that's 20 subway stations away. A good rule of thumb is to decide which you want. If you want to stay away from work, you have a wider area to choose apartments from, but a longer commute. If you want to be able to ride your bike to work, you generally need to be within the 3 mile radius, on the same side of the river, and with a commute that is walkable. The beauty of living close to your work is that when the weather is nice you can walk or bike, and when its bad you can simply drive or take a bus. Plus who wants to wait in traffic for 45 minutes every morning anyway?


5. Be Near... Things

Do you really want to trek out a few miles to go to the grocery store because you forgot to pick up some green onions? Me either. Try to triangulate your apartment between places you know you will frequent in the future. This includes restaurants, coffee shops, bars, clubs, or whatever else you like to do. This may mean that you will be in the middle of the city, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. Walking around the neighborhood is good for you, let's you meet neighbors you otherwise would bump into, and is a great way to tone those abs. Plus you never know what adventures lie just outside your door until you open it and step out into the world.

The Rent Jungle Traffic-O-Meter

Happy 2012! To celebrate the new year, Daniel Lanigan (our Lead Developer) crafted a device that constantly tells us the traffic of our websites as they update in real time. Although he's been working on it for over a year, we were pleasantly surprised to see the mystery project come to life in the office this morning. Check it out: 

This baby flashes traffic numbers as they come into our sites. Here's a closer look: 

Notice the sleek carbon black finish on the trim. Beauty. Perfection.

The Traffic-O-Meter is connected to the router here, sucking up our much needed bandwidth and electricity. 

Personally, I think it makes a great addition to our office. We are thinking about hanging it up somewhere, but you know, that sounds like a lot of work. For now it can rest on the rarely used desk under the giant dry erase board. Next we're thinking of getting a social media ticker that flashes our statuses and comments, hopefully excluding the angry one. Thanks for checking in, till next time!

Happy Holidays from Rent Jungle

December has struck and so has the snow around Rent Jungle headquarters. Our CFO headed south for the winter, but the rest of us are preparing for the cold with hot coffee and heavy boots. Here's a look at our holiday plans, and how we intend to rejuvenate our creative juices.

Erik, Matt, and Bryan (our computer scienticians) all plan on catching up on sleep. It turns out that when you stay awake for twenty hours a day for an entire year, you begin to go somewhat insane. They prefer to hibernate over the winter season in lieu of "wasting a full eight hours on sleep, which is overrated by the way, and plus RockStar keeps me awake and active, thank you very much."

Josef (aka Jeauxsef) plans on striking his car repeatedly with a crescent wrench until the alternator decides to heal itself. When asked why he does not just take the car to a mechanic, he responded by yelling wildly and swinging a badly mangled crescent wrench.  

Daniel Lanigan, our lead developer, is already on break, and most likely still working from home.  He plans on sitting in the rocking chair on his front porch chewing a strand of straw, a cigarette lit between his fingers, shedding a single tear for freedom.

CEO Jon Pastor will be spending his winter break with his wife and new born babe. With some promises to refrain from working through the entire holiday season, he plans on watching both the Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story before the 25^th.

So from all of us, we wish you a happy holiday season. Stay warm, healthy, and cheerful!

PILLOWS!!

We here at Rent Jungle take our jobs seriously. We work hard, play hard, eat hardy meals, and just like any red blooded American, we sleep hard to recuperate our strength. In an initiative to connect better with our social media arm, we ordered the official Osmosis Social Media Pillows from the internet (CraftSquatch).

Our developers couldn't keep their hands off them. Bellow you can see Erik slithering up from behind the chair-like pedestal to sneakily touch each individual pillow.

Like a sleuth, he fingers his way over to the Twitter pillow, trying to learn it's secrets. On the right in the background, you might notice Bryan becoming visibly upset.  Clearly he also wants to learn more from the Twitter pillow.

Sensing the predatory nature of Bryan's scowl, Erik returns to the Facebook pillow and puts on his best troll face.

Bryan revels in his victory, and begins the osmosis process. Can't get enough of pillows, those developers. 

Bryan is also getting pretty darn good at his bird impression:

Right. Thanks for checking in. More office antics to come!

Geng At University of Miami

Geng Wang, co-founder of Rent Jungle talked to students in Professor Sheryl Alonso's class, Advanced Organizational Behavior (senior elective) at the University of Miami last week. He spoke about Rent Jungle and our sister company, Community Elf.
 
He talked about his background and what he's been doing since graduating from Michigan State University in  2008. He also talked about the background of Rent Jungle and Community Elf and how the two companies came about.  Students asked a lot of questions like "How did you get funding for the idea?" or "What made you think Rent Jungle would be a good idea to start?" 

 

Students also were great in giving feedback on both businesses.  Interesting stats on the students: 90% of the classes used Twitter, 75% have Liked a company on Facebook,  40% have used QR codes  One of the students also used Rent Jungle last year to look for an apartment as well. Thanks for the feedback, Advanced Organizational Behavior class!