Realty World Northern California & Nevada

Microsoft Corp has launched its newest operating system, Windows 7 yesterday. Many PC users had decided to wait on pulling the trigger on moving away from their trusty Windows XP to Windows Vista. Some waited due to the lack of “polish” Windows Vista sported and others waited due to the rather tall price tag that came along with. The question now is whether it is time to upgrade to Windows 7.

Most of you that know me know that I have been a “PC guy” for many years. Its only been within the last several years that I began looking closer at Macs. While there is much that can be said on that topic, I will try to keep focussed on the subject at hand. I upgraded from Windows XP to Windows Vista and was expecting a lot and therefore disappointed when I finally got up and running. When I began running an evaluation copy of Windows 7 back in April of 2009, again, I had high hopes. Only this time I was very impressed!

Windows 7 picks off right where Windows Vista fell short. The interface is similar to Windows Vista. The Start menu has a comprehensive search for programs and files and there are links to everything you need in an organized fashion. The Taskbar has been redesigned to increase the size of icons and displays a thumbnail windows view called “Live Preview.” One of my favorite features is the ability to drag a window to the left or right side of the desktop (shortcut keys are “Windows + Left Arrow” and “Windows + Right Arrow”) and it will automatically resize to one half of the width of the screen. This allows for you to have two windows side-by-side without the hassle of manually resizing each window.

So after a quick few paragraphs of my thoughts I am sure all of you want to go out and immediately purchase your own copy of Windows 7. Okay, that probably isn’t exactly the case. However, if you are pondering the idea I suggest you start by looking through the Windows 7 Frequently Asked Questions and the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

Recently I’ve been asked for my two cents on the matter of selecting a new notebook computer. I am partial to two laptops – Dell for PCs and MacBook Pros from Apple. I don’t tend to care for other manufacturers for a variety of reasons.

Right off the bat you may decide to go with one or the other simply because of the operating system choice of Microsoft Windows or Mac OS X. One advantage with the Mac OS X is that you have the capability of installing Windows on the Mac using VMWare or Parallels. This requires a bit more of technical knowledge in being able to setup but it enables you to run your Windows applications on a Mac. Another main difference between the two of them is their price. Often times, Dell will offer notebooks starting at $499. The starting price point for a Macbook is $999. One can make the argument that the two prices are not comparing apples to apples (no pun intended). Pound for pound, I feel that the Macbook Pro is a better machine (hardware and software).

Dell offers a phenomenal warranty program with next (business) day and onsite repair for hardware issues with your computer. Apple does not offer that, but instead requires that you bring your laptop to an Apple store. Any issues found may be resolved at the Apple store while other repairs could take several weeks to resolve.

• In selecting the specific model I would recommend thinking seriously about which what types of things are most important to you. Some things to consider are:
• Size of screen
• Screen resolution
• Weight
• Ports (DVI / USB / Firewire, etc.)
• CPU speed
• Memory capacity
• Misc. Items (Onboard WWAN / Bluetooth, etc.)

For the Apple products, it is relatively easy to select your choice. You are fairly limited with choices between two models (Macbook and Macbook Pro) both of which come with many items such as wireless, ports, etc. as standard items while they may be considered “add-ons” by other computer makers. The Apple stores are a great place to see and hold the models first hand. The Apple store staff is usually very helpful and knowledgeable. The Dell site offers roughly a dozen models, all of which allow for customizations.

I hope this helps in your notebook search!

Erin, Hilda, Aaron... the Erin/Aaron sandwich!

Yesterday I attended my second real estate barcamp event – this one at ReBarCamp Silicon Valley (#rebcsv for you Twitter fans) before this week’s CAR Conference in San Jose. Admittedly, the first was during my second week of work in real estate at the annual Inman Conference and I spent most of my time in that initial experience with my mouth agape and senses reeling.

I’m a barcamp veteran in the technology industry, but there are some vast differences from the barcamps I’d attended featuring deep dives into widgets, application builds and cloud computing and the world of real estate.

Here are a few similarities and differences I noticed:

Difference: Formal v. casual wear. You guys came dressed up in suits, shiny shoes and wielding business cards. In tech barcamps the attire is jeans or shorts, t-shirts, sweatshirts and you can’t get someone to look up from their smartphone long enough to give you a business card.

Who wins? Tech. Realtors have to come in comfortable clothes (it’s only other agents, no worries!) because often times the sessions are outdoors, on benches, folding chairs, etc. You won’t pay attention as well if you’re sweating bullets in that suit!

Similarity: Everyone is on a cell phone/laptop. At tech and real estate barcamps alike, I look at people through the lens of their camera phone as they snap pictures for blogs or Twitter, or I stare at the back of their laptop, netbook, etc. as they feverishly look up the new technologies mentioned, add me as a friend on Facebook or follow me on Twitter (and catch up on a few emails of course).

Difference: Humility. In tech, we can’t admit we don’t know about tech very easily, so you’ll see a lot of us thoughtfully nod and then jot down notes furiously on acronyms or websites to look up when we steal a few moments away from the myriad of prying eyes (we’re a paranoid bunch) but you won’t see us ask a lot of “basic” questions. At real estate barcamps it is refreshing to see people question the basics and slow the pace down to make sure they aren’t left behind!

Who wins? Real estate. Knowing that asking questions without being afraid of what your colleagues will think serves Realtors well, as it ensures the entire group gets a good education.

Similarity: We all like the “bar” part of barcamp. It is a universal truth that most of us look forward to the part of the day where we open up some wine, have a beer, or in our case yesterday – a handle of Johnnie Walker, and kick back and talk about what’s up in our industry. At the end of the day, barcamps are not just a place for education, but also a great place to connect with those in the industry who are passionate about integrating new media and methodologies into our lives.

I highly recommend checking out barcamps if you have the opportunity – come to learn, share information, ask questions and meet people… because the best way to make the most of social media is to actually be social.

Erin Robbins
Social Media & Marketing Director
erin.robbins@rwnc.net

Before there were tags, WordPress.com (and other blog hosing sites) only allowed categories to be used.

Categories allowed for a broad grouping of post topics, but when you wanted to describe a post in more specific terms, more categories were required. That lead to very long category lists inside the blog and very long lists in categories widgets making it harder to find what you needed a backlog of general categories stacked into posts.

Someone realized how silly this was and now have tags as well.

Tags are similar to categories, but instead of a list of words to choose from, you write them in a list (separated by commas) in the tags module of your post editing screen. They are free form words and allow you describe your post in more detail and help people narrow search results to get to relevant information faster.

For example, a post titled “Last Night At El Tapatio” might be filed under the “Dinner” category, but could have tags such as, “taco, margarita, salsa, Mariachi.” This will help people looking for information on where to get good tacos for dinner find something more specific than all of the dinner places in an area. Get it?

Since it may be a bit confusing upon first glance (especially to new bloggers),  here are some common questions and answers that may help you out:

Q: With regards to capital letters, is “Tag” the same as “tag?”
A: Yes. Capital letters do not change a tag. “Blogging” is the same as “blogging.”

Q: Is there a limit to the number of tags I can have?
A: No. You may associate as many tags with your posts as you like.

Q: Is there any advantage to using tags or categories, or both?
A: Tags will allow you to be more specific and narrow searches, so they are recommended. It cannot hurt to do both!

Q: Do I have to use tags?
A: The use of tags is entirely optional (although each post must be attached to at least one category) but they will help filter searches.

It is recommended you limit your number of categories to no more than 10. For real estate experts, good categories include “Buyers,” “Sellers,” “Community,” etc. Your tags can include identifiers that fall under these categories, like “first-time buyers,” “short sales,” or “schools.”

Categories and tags are both useful in helping your readers find posts of interest. You can think of categories as being utilitarian and tags as a more creative way of indexing your blog.

Ron Dillon
Director of Online Education
ron.dillon@rwnc.net