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Cost Management
Heavy and Light Rail
TBD Bid Index
Windows Vista is Here!
Construction
Management Specialists
111 Pine Street, Suite 1315
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 981-9430
www.TBDconsultants.com
Cost
Management
Gordon
Beveridge
What is the difference between estimating and cost management? How do the two work together, and where does Value Engineering fit in? Gordon discusses these and other issues in this article.
Heavy and Light Rail Systems - On Track
Geoff
Canham
Light Rail and Heavy Rail systems are redefining our cities. What makes Light Rail light and Heavy Rail heavy? What differentiates one from the other? This article looks into these issues.
Construction prices continue on their upward surge, but how long is this trend going to continue, and what would we recommend as allowance for future escalation? Click the link below for our review of the current market and the updated TDB Bid Index.
Geoff’s
IT Gems
Windows
Vista is Here!
Windows Vista is finally due to go on the market in January 2007, replacing Windows XL as Microsoft's primary operating system, and there is a lot that's new about it. In fact, it is all new, as Microsoft has developed this version of Windows from scratch. That is good news and bad news. The good news is that a lot of aging coding that has been bloating previous versions of Windows has now been dropped, but the bad news is that some compatibility problems are almost certain to occur.
While the operating system has a new look to it, it is not the dramatic change that users had when Windows 95 emerged as a replacement for Windows 3.1. You'll still find the task bar where it was before, and the important Start menu is still there, although we'll have to stop referring to 'My Documents', since the 'My' part has been dropped. You also have more options available where 'Turn Off' used to be - this is in line with the 'always on' environment that we are moving towards.
Security has become one of the hot issues in computing, and Microsoft has gone out of its way to address it in Vista. While Vista is great at giving you a lot more information about what is happening in all aspects of the computing environment, the place you are likely to see notices most is in relation to security issues - especially if you have User Access Control turned on. User Access Control will mean that an administrator's password is needed whenever software is to be installed (which should prevent most of the adware and other malware from infecting your computer).
Windows Vista comes with a number of useful applications. Of course there is Internet Explorer 7.0, along with Windows Media Player and Windows Photo Gallery. There is also Windows DVD Maker and Windows Movie Maker. Windows Mail replaces the old Outlook Express, and with Windows Contacts and Windows Calendar you have to ask if Microsoft Outlook is really needed anymore.
Another interesting application is Windows Collaboration, which allows you to set up a Windows Meeting Space where you can carry out peer-to-peer work sessions with colleagues.
The new Aero interface achieves a 3D look by utilizing the new Desktop Windows Manager that uses vector graphics, in lieu of the bit-mapped graphics of previous Windows versions. That should be ideal for graphical modeling of buildings, but when I went to try out AutoDesk's Revit software, it refused to install on Vista. There is that compatibility problem again, which is likely to take a little while to be completely resolved.
Design consultant: Katie Levine of Vallance, Inc.