The creek and drainage can't handle the rain

Backyard view, nice little waterfall from the side of the house.

(download)

Sent from my iPhone

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Cash for Clunkers = Bad Math $$

Median new car price:  $25500

Average 1st year depreciation on a a $25500 car:  $3825

Cash for clunker credit $3500 or $4500. 

Total cost to taxpayers: $1B.

So, a net expense of $325 or savings of $675 over a one year old vehicle, depending on the mileage of the car--not including any possible trade-in or scrap value that the car would be worth.

And this from BusinessWeek:

Edmunds.com, which is benefitting from all the extra site traffic generated by CARS nonetheless issued a report Monday saying that each car bought under the progream would actually cost the U.S. tax-payer $20,000 per vehicle sold, not the $3.500-$4,500 actually paid out.

Edmunds figures that CARS will only help drive about 50,000 incremental new car sales. How is this possible? Edmunds.com’s research shows that typically 200,000 vehicles worth less than $4,500 are traded in for new vehicles every three months.

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Sprint called me this week

They were letting me know that my phone was eligible for an upgrade. The irony of this phone call was that they called a phone number that I transferred to AT&T a week an a half ago. So, as they were asking me if there was anything they could do for me and if I had any questions, I really had no idea what to say to them.

 Meanwhile, I'm realizing that my iPhone is a relatively inexpensive device. I just played with Runkeeper, which tracked my run via GPS to within 0.07 miles of what my Garmin 305 reported. On a 4.1 mile run, that's within the 2% error margin. Anyway, the Garmin currently sells for about $150. A decent multimedia phone costs $99. If I want to play my older iTunes, I'm going to spend at least $100. This device has also prevented me from considering a netbook. All of this doesn't even start to consider the lack of a need to carry around a combination of four different devices.

 Sent from my iPhone

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The anti-Sprint

One danger for Sprint right now might be the possibility that their subscribers switch to AT&T. AT&T has setup their customer service, at least for new iPhone users, to be a first class customer experience:
--What's this follow-up call stuff?
--Waiting in the call queue less than 5 minutes.
 
These things may not be all that special, but I has to leverage social media to even get to this level of service with Sprint. The biggest danger is that a new iPhone convert from Sprint may gush so much over the 1-2 punch of better service and a pretty cool new phone that he may take some of his calling circle along.

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Apple Shows Weakness In PC Market -- Apple Mac -- InformationWeek

Is this exposing the weakest link in Apple's strategy? I read somewhere else that Apple owns well over half the high end computer market, but half of nothing will still be nothing.

 http://mobile.informationweek.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.informationweek.com/news/hardware/mac/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218501023

  
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For your business--a tot tree?

My Sam's club mailer suggested this item "for my business."  Hmmm...  Maybe I'm one of the few members NOT running a day-care.

For Your Business

Tot Tree
Tot Tree
 Write a review
 $2,947.00  Shipping Included
 #179776
Click here to view item

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Guessable SSNs -- but is that the real problem? - Network World

The real issue mentioned here, which was not covered by the press, is that the first 5 digits were often guessed in ONE try--the ones that are usually masked.

 http://mobile.networkworld.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=www.networkworld.com/columnists/2009/071609bradner.html

  
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Text Messaging Bans Tough To Enforce -- Text Messaging -- InformationWeek

You think? I believe the strategy locally was to only apply the ban to drivers under 18, which would only make it more difficult to enforce.

 http://mobile.informationweek.com/device/article.php?CALL_URL=http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/local/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218500447

  
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Yeah, he cllimbed up there all by himself.

11 1/2 months old... (walking by 9 1/2)

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