The Immigration Issue

I was driving to work this morning and glanced across the street from our neighborhood. A new subdivision is going in - hundreds of homes. I noticed the brown faces of every worker toiling away - all Mexican. I don't know how many are legal or illegal, but what I do know is that this city wouldn't exist if it weren't for them. And likely many cities across this country. So what's the big deal, people? You don't like that we pay healthcare, education and other social costs for them? We do the same for gobs of Walmart employees, too. Coincidentally, I came across a Reuters article today claiming the same for agriculture:

Agriculture dependent on migrant workers

This was a poignant quote: "If the Mexican farm laborers all went back tomorrow, the U.S. farm system would collapse," said Bobbie Brown, a crop farmer in the lower Rio Grande Valley along the Texas/Mexico border.

If Your Cell Phone Is Stolen

So we left our cell phone in a movie theater a few weeks back (we didn't figure this out until much later). The next day we left for a trip and figured we'd look around the house some more when we came back. A week later we returned and I checked the call logs online hoping the last call we made might give a clue as to where it was. I was shock to see hundreds of dollars in calls to Haiti. Luckily, it looks like the battery died and the thief gave up after a day (it was a RAZR - guys, how hard is it to find a charger?). And of course I get the runaround from T-Mobile placing the responsibility for the fradulent calls on me, since we hadn't reported the phone stolen. Here's my gripe - if my credit card company can freeze my card and call me after one suspicious transaction, how can my wireless carrier not recognize dozens of calls to Haiti, a place I've never called? That's a serious lack of consumer protection. So I found this great Yahoo Finance article and filed reports with our state utility commission, the state attorney general and the FTC. I got call from T-Mobile a week later saying they had been contacted by the FTC and would credit the charges if I faxed them the police report (which I had). Here's the easy prevention: enable the PIN code on your phone so only you can access it.

What to do in case your cell phone is stolen

MacGyver Multitool

This is the best "stocking stuffer" product (you know, the mindless endcap purchase) since the Fishpen. Unfortunately, while the Fishpen is real, this is just a clever Photoshop job.

MacGyver Multitool

Back in Action

I had the week of July 4th off, then took three days last week to go to Los Angeles with the family. Turns out I worked just 2 days in the last 16. I could get used to that. Spent a day at Disneyland and the next at Balboa Pier in Newport Beach. Every time we visit SoCal we ask ourselves why we don't move there. Oh yeah, because it's so freaking expensive. I picked up a new camera right before the trip and it seems perfect for my use. The Canon SD850 IS uses image stabilization, something I desperately needed. I'm usually wrangling kids with one arm and trying to snap a pic with the other. This seems to keep things nice and sharp, even in low light. I spent a few hours reading reviews and trying to decide between the SD850 IS and the SD800 IS. There's something to be said for a simple product line - sometimes too many choices causes consumer paralysis. Here's a good comparison if you're stuck in the same spot:
Canon SD800 IS vs Canon SD850 IS

Italian Cypress

These are absolutely beautiful trees. We lost a bunch of ficus this winter to the record freezing temps and had to rip them out. Now the summer sun is too strong on the side of the house. I'm going to put a screen of these Italian Cypress in this October when the weather cools.

Hands-on with iPhone

Had a chance to play with this over the weekend. As expected, Apple's industrial design is breathtaking. It was actually thinner than I expected. The functionality was impressive, switching quicklybetween apps and navigating around. The touchscreen responded well, but I'm still concerned about the average joe using this kind of interface. Of course, the average joe isn't plunking down $500-600. Remains to be seen if this will hit mass-market proportions, but Apple has rarely been interested in the masses (iPods excluded). So I was surfing YouTube videos and the phone froze on me. Usually I pull out the battery for a hard reset but the iPhone doesn't have a removable battery. We had to read some online forums and find the right reset process. Last thought on this: AT&T's EDGE network = slow. At least in Phoenix. This is probably the biggest so-called "flaw" with the device. But a brilliant strategy - AT&T only has a handful of 3G markets up and running. They'll sell a bunch more on EDGE.

Alpha

OK, so I've relented and decided to do the blogging thing. And of course all the reasonable Blogger names are already gone - serves me right. Kind of feels like I'm talking to myself, but I've heard that's a healthy behavior. Or maybe it was poor mental health. Either way...here I am. I'm thinking this will focus on my various work-related interests, but might venture to the personal realm eventually.