Rogers iPhone Voice/Data Plans released

Rogers released their iPhone Voice/Data plans … and I must say I feel a little like this guy.

The iPhone dilemma

Reasons for me not to buy the new iPhone continue to mount.

Still waiting for the Rogers plans. That will make or break the deal for me.

To Trex or not to Trex

Looking at installing a deck this year.

We have a walkout basement, so this would be a second story deck from the kitchen with stairs down to our backyard. Originally only wanted to go out 12′ and across 2/3 the back of the house, to leave a large window in the basement exposed to light. But now we’re considering going across the entire back of the house.

I’ve been getting some quotes for various materials: pressure treated, cedar, and Trex. I really like the way it looks. It also requires hardly any maintenance. And on top of that it is considered to be “Green” since it is made of recycled wood and plastic.

Few concerns though:

• Apparently the color fades, though they claim less than 10% over an extended period of time with direct sun
• Not barefoot friendly. Retains heat from direct sunlight.. so I’ll need to wear my Crocks when the Sun is out. Though our house faces west so we only get the Sun in the back until 2pm
• Mold. Yes… mold. This is where the maintenance kicks in. I would need to clean the deck with their cleanser and hard brush if mold is detected.
• Recent class action lawsuit: although it was settled out of court, the court found no fault with the product.

As for $$… I’ve been getting some dramatically different quotes, especially for Trex. Apparently the manufacturer’s costs have recently changed due to a rise in competitive products. The cheapest estimate I found was $29/sqft for Trex, $25/sqft for Cedar, and $20/sqft for PT. Though I have yet to confirm that with a formal quote. But if they hold… I think I would go for the Trex.

The Trex site has a cool Deck Designer app built into their site. Here is rendering of the deck I would like to have:

Chunking

Just returned form completing the Ride for Heart (50K) here in TorontoMy wife had an excuse to go to a bridal shower so I did it solo this year. It’s become sort of a tradition with me to go participate in this event. out of the last 13 years, I believe I only missed one year.

Since I was on my own, I decided to bring my iPod along. Gave me a chance to get back to an audio book I had set aside. The 2.5 hour ride gave me exactly the time I needed to finish This is Your Brain on Music.

Learned an interesting fact about cognitive memory management. There are two types of memory: long term and short term or “working memory“.

Apparently working memory is limited and can normally only sustain 9 items at one time. So our brain uses “chunking” to retain more complex memory structures in working memory, thanks to knowledge retained from the past.

For example, when memorizing a phone number we “chunk” the area code as one item rather than the 3 individual digits, since we know what an area code is for say Toronto.