I’ve been using Windows Vista now for about a year as my Windows Media Center hub (an article on what Windows Media Center is and how it can be used as the center of a media entertainment system in your home will follow). While the Home Premium version looks nice and has great times between a reboot, Windows Media Center constantly suffers from crashes and unexpected shutdowns. I find the program crashes more often in Vista than it did in its predecessor, Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005.

My main workstation is still an old single core computer running Windows XP Professional. It’s been a rock solid workhorse from the day I turned it on but it’s starting to show its age. Preparing home movie DVDs and working with large images in Photoshop just seems to take longer, even after a reinstall of XP.

During the summer, Microsoft launched a promotion on pre-orders for Windows 7. You could get an upgrade edition of Home Premium for around $60. I jumped and purchased two copies (one for my media center PC and one for my new workstation which I will eventually build). While this article doesn’t go into a point-by-point build of what I’m going to use to build my new machine, I will outline the parts I plan to look at to put into the new system when I build it to take advantage of the new features of Windows 7.

Quad Core Processors
The last time I built my main computer, processors were still single-core. Now, the two main processor manufacturers, Intel and AMD, have dual-core and quad-core offerings, meaning there are two or four processors on one chip. The mantra of more is better doesn’t necessarily translate here because most software available hasn’t started to take advantage of all that horsepower. For the most part, a dual-core processor will provide enough horsepower for the average consumer, but if you game, or plan on performing any intensive task such as video editing or working with Photoshop, go with a quad-core.

For specific processor types, off-the-shelf PCs from the major manufacturers tend to use slightly older hardware than what is available on the after-market, from retailers such as NCIX or Newegg. For example, a quick glance through the Desktop computers section of Best Buy’s website revealed no systems using Intel’s latest Core i5 and i7 processors. There was one system that used the more expensive Core i7 processor. Purchasing the individual parts from after-market retailers like NCIX and Newegg and putting the computer together yourself or getting the store to put it together for you gives you a lot more flexibility in terms of what you can put in there. Plus, if you put it together yourself, you’ll learn how all the components go together and realize that building a PC from scratch isn’t that difficult a job.

Memory
Memory (or RAM) is the part of a computer where the mantra “the more the merrier” appliers. Memory is used by your operating system to load programs and files. The more you have, the larger the files and/or the more programs you can open. Operating systems have gone from 32-bit to 64-bit. Without explaining the underlying mathematics, a 64-bit operating system allows a PC to have more than 4GB of RAM installed.

Today’s digital cameras take pictures whose file sizes can be 10MB or more when saved in the camera’s native RAW format. At a minimum, a PC should have 4GB RAM if the OS is 32-bit and 8GB RAM if the OS is 64-bit.

Storage
With storage, you can never have enough. The future is being able to download high definition content to your computer. a feature film could easily consume 10-15GB of hard disk space. On a 500GB hard drive, that’s 50 movies. But let’s not forget other forms of digital media such as music and pictures. If you have a 10 megapixel or 12 megapixel digital SLR camera that can shoot photos in RAW format, each picture you take is 10MB or 12MB. Suddenly, that 500GB hard drive looks pretty small.

The newest technology on the block is solid-state drives, or SSDs. At this point in time, these are only available as an after-market product. SSDs are basically hard drives that use flash memory (similar to a USB flash drive) to store data instead of rotating platters and mechanical heads. The performance increase when compared to traditional hard drives is astounding, but so is the cost. Depending on the brand and size, SSDs can cost over $800 for a 256GB drive.

Ideally, an SSD would have the operating system installed on it and be complemented by a traditional hard drive for data storage. None of the major manufacturers (with the exception of Dell in their laptops) are using SSDs to replace the tried and true mechanical hard drive (yet).

Peripherals
Most pre-built computers from the big vendors come with some standard peripherals such as DVD burners, card readers, audio and headphone inputs on the front of the computer, and USB/firewire ports (more USB than firewire). If you plan on building your own, then these are peripherals you will need to purchase.

While the devices have been available in the consumer electronics field for some time, Blu-ray players have yet to arrive in full force in the home computer arena. They are available as add-ons from the major manufacturers and Blu-ray burners can be purchased on the after-market. But the going rate for one is about 5 times the going rate for a standard DVD burner. What’s more, the blank media is still relatively expensive.

But like all things electronic, the cost of Blu-ray burners is coming down. Blu-ray players for PCs can now be purchased for around $150 and would be an ideal purchase to complement a standard DVD burner. But, if you plan on burning lots of data or creating home movies recorded on a high-definition video camera, then a Blu-ray burner may make sense.

Video Cards
Video cards are components that display the image you see on your monitor. Pretty much everything you see, from the Windows desktop to Solitaire to more graphics extensive games available on the market all use the video card to render the images on the screen. A powerful video card is of little use if the processor is lacking the horsepower.

Video cards can be integrated right into the main board or it can be an add-on card. Windows 7 has an elaborate rendering engine that generates the desktop. And while integrated graphics cards in today’s PCs have enough horsepower to handle displaying the desktop or show high definition movies on a 19″ – 22″ LCD monitor, there simply isn’t enough horsepower to play games or playback high definition movies on a big screen LCD or plasma screen.

Most PCs from the major manufacturers usually have on-board video but the higher end desktops come with high-powered video cards. If you build your own, or if you want to add your own to a vendor PC, the nice price point is around $200. Something in this price range will have enough juice to play today’s games as well as allow the computer to be connected to a big screen and play high definition movies.

There are a plethora of manufacturers who make after-market video cards. But when it comes to the actual chipset used, there are really only two manufacturers: ATi (owned by AMD) and NVIDIA. Cards made by either manufacturer have more than enough juice to run today’s games as well as play back high definition movies. ATi’s video cards tend to be a better all-round card, able to handle high definition play back and games better than NVIDIA cards, but it’s really a toss-up between the two.

The Monitor
The monitor is probably the most important component when it comes to a new PC. Think about it: it’s the one component you will look at the most. It’s also the one component that has a direct effect on your health. The old CRT monitors used to emit large amounts of radiation when they were used for an extended period of time. LCD monitors didn’t have the same problem but extended use can still lead to eye and neck strains.

When purchasing a monitor a computer package with a monitor, there are certain features you should look for. Try and get one that can be height adjusted or tiled at the very least to reduce neck strain. When it comes to technical specifications, the numbers that different manufacturers present can be misleading because each manufacturer uses their own testing software and methodologies to determine things like contrast ratio and refresh rates. Suffice to say that most LCD monitors available today have refresh rates fast enough to prevent ghosting with fast action movies and video games and enough contrast ratios to produce deep, vivid colors.

Conclusion
Today’s PCs have lots of power, considering the average consumer will use one to browse the Net, check email, keep in touch with family and friends on Facebook and perhaps play an odd game. Five to six hundred dollars will get you a system that can do that relatively easily. It’s when you start getting into more intensive tasks like gaming, watching high definition movies and editing home videos that you need to think of systems with serious power. We’re not saying to go out and spend $5000 but a decent system to do the above tasks could run about $1200 – $1500.

Windows 7 is finally here. If you pre-ordered your copy when it was available at a rock bottom price, chances are you will either have a system you plan to upgrade or plan on building one yourself. Most of the major manufacturers are still selling systems with Windows Vista, but are offering free upgrades to Windows 7. Happy hunting

Realtors, contractors, and vendors should all focus on keep their existing customers happy and perhaps spend more time making sure they are educating them along the way in greater detail than what they normally would have, in order to earn their full regard towards your services. Its simple – happy customers will promote your business positively. Now is the most important time to make sure all your customers are beyond satisfied with what you’ve done for them. Now would also be a good time to consider attending industry related tradeshows, seminars or association events. The Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association represents the residential construction industry in the Greater Vancouver Area. Dedicated to the professionalism of its members, GVHBA provides the following services:

- Liaison with local governments and housing industry groups.
- Education and training.
- Technical and economic information transfer.
- Public visibility and recognition.
- Opportunities to network.

Among other industry-related associations, the GVHBA is a great avenue to network with colleagues within the industry and link up with companies who provide services to help enhance your business and to have better validation when connect with new prospects.

To learn more about GVHBA, visit their website: www.gvhba.org.

1.
Don’t forget to claim a tax credit for your transit passes – CRA is currently offering a tax credit where you can claim the cost of monthly or annual public transit passes for travel within Canada on public transit during the year. These passes must permit unlimited travel on local buses, streetcars, subways, commuter trains or buses, and local ferries. Please seek professional advice for further details regarding this tax credit.

2.
Netfile or efile your return – if you file your own taxes, then make sure your tax software is certified to netfile your return. If you have a professional tax preparer file your taxes, then make sure they’re able to efile your return. Either way, it will save printing your return on paper and not only will it save on delivery costs, your refund will most likely be processed faster!

3.
Sign up for direct deposit – save on paper and tax payer costs for delivery. Sign up for direct deposit, and CRA will deposit your refund directly in your account and not have to mail you a cheque.

If you have investments in real estate out there, stick through these times. Plan for the worst from a cash flow perspective but don’t get overwhelmed as in the long run this is only going to be another hurdle on our growth chart. 

The fundamentals of success are still present in the Canadian economy. We must not loose site of what is working for us: the banking system, governments incentives, demand for our products, services, and innovation. It common sense if you think about it, when the time get tough, we need to get tougher. So let me sign-off by asking: are you confident that the economy will bounce back?

What do news reporters, socialites, celebrities, and realtors have in common? They Twitter. As described on their website: “Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co–workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?”

So how does this help realtors? To be successful in this day and age, it is important to sell to your customer, the way they want to be sold. This is why online advertsing, and social networking is such an importance for company marketing plans of the future. Twitter is fast becoming apart of this spectrum. Twitter is a popular avenue where people get information about people they are tracking. Realtors are using it to keep their “followers” uptodate with what there next listing is, or what the status is on existing ones. Twitter is a fast new avenue to communicate; Check it out: www.twitter.com

There are tens of millions of text messages sent everyday in Canada. Though many of these are for personal reasons, many are related to marketing and promotions from companies. If you are already sick of receiving these marketing related text messages, you better brace yourself as this will only increase in due time. Text marketing is proving to be a very popular and effective approach to delivering a message by companies to their existing and potential customers.

Channel Construct offers a service for businesses to send mass text messaging campaigns. More specifically, a company who has a detailed profile established on www.channelconstruct.com can load their key customer’s phone numbers in order to send quick messages on-demand. So if a company is having a special promotion or has some extra inventory which they want to get rid of quickly, they can blast a text message, which will be received instantly and acted on accordingly. This approach proves more effective in construction and real estate as builders, contractors, and realtors are more on the go and rely on their phone than having instant access to email in most cases.

Texting is flexible, direct, quick, and cheap. Consider how it can be utilized in your business. Contact sales@channelconstruct.com to learn how we can help integrate texting marketing into your business.

Though you may not agree, based on the current temperatures in the Lower Mainland, but spring is around the corner and its an ideal time to get started on odds and ends which were overlooked during the winter months.  Start inspecting and making a list of things that need to be done inside and outside of your home. The value of following through will help prevent normal wear and tear from becoming larger problems, which lead to more expensive fixes. Spending the time cleaning and fixing up your home will prove rewarding when you are entertaining guests in the summer months. Check out the following link to learn more about things to consider, when making your own spring-cleaning checklist: http://organizedhome.com/spring-cleaning-chore-checklist.

Organizing your closet?  Don’t forget to donate that five-year-old sweater you used to wear all the time and thought you looked great in, until you found another one to take its place.  Because you loved it once is no reason to hang on to it today.  Even during tough times, our rate of buying clothes always exceeds our rate of discarding them.  There’s no rule you can follow when considering what to keep and what to let go.  Instead, ask yourself these questions.  When did I last wear this?  Why don’t I wear this anymore?  Did I miss it?  What can I put in its place instead?  Try this and you won’t spend hundreds on remodeling, you’ll deduct some of the biggest space fillers and relive some memories.