The popular song tells us that children are the future, but it doesn’t seem like Canadians are paying too much attention that mantra. As more and more people put off marriage (let alone raising a family) until later on in life, there just isn’t as much time be a breeder. More specifically, you’ll find that the cost of living in Vancouver is quite high — as I’ve mentioned in a previous post about the housing market — and as such, people are having a tougher time simply sustaining a certain lifestyle. There just isn’t the money there to have a baby and raise him (or her) right.

But I digress. I came across an article in the paper the other day, in the “Working” section, telling me how difficult it is for immigrants to find jobs that pay well and suit their skills. After all, there are many people who enter this country with university degrees, perfectly capable of running complex machinery, overseeing the operations of a multinational company, and yes, even caring for our young.

As fewer Canadians have children and as more baby boomers retire, more and more we will have to turn to immigrants to fill those skilled jobs. There will always be plenty of entry-level gigs available — McJobs, as some people call them — but it’s not possible to raise a family on that kind of income. How can you afford to hold a baby shower, raise a couple of kids, and live comfortably in your retirement years?

Having a child is supposed to be one of the proudest and happiest moments in a person’s life, but to many Canadians, it’s starting to seem like an unnecessary financial burden. Like me. I’m not ready to have children. Far from. Maybe I’ll just have to settle for having a cute bunny named Roy.

Happy Halloween. Give other people’s kids their due… or a Snickers bar. Whatever.

You know, I love my job. Although I don’t get to keep most of the stuff that shows up at my door via Fedex, I do get a bounty of new toys to play with every so often thanks to my affiliation with Mobile Magazine. There is work involved, of course, but it is certainly welcome, considering that I get to fiddle with things that I wouldn’t otherwise get my grubby little hands on.

The latest electronic device that I got to review was the RCA Lyra X3030, a personal media player with built-in PVR (personal video recording) capabilities. Say goodbye to your VCR; say hello to the RCA Lyra X3030.

Here’s a short excerpt from the full review I did for Mobile Magazine:

When you open up the box, you’ll find not only the Lyra device itself, but also a car adapter, USB cable, a pair of AV cables, a wireless remote, headphones, protective cover, AC/DC adapter, “IR blaster”, and — most notably — a home theatre dock. This last bit is particularly
interesting, because it transforms what would otherwise be an everyday PMP into a full-fledged PVR (personal video recorder). Just plant the base in between your satellite receiver (or cable box, DVD player, etc.) and your television, and you can start recording right out of the box. They’re really emphasizing this added capability, as there is a dedicated “record” button on the top of the Lyra X3030.

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To check out the full review, click on this link.

I’ve also provided a small handful of additional videos for your perusal, which you can check out below.

The RCA Lyra X3030 seen from every which angle:

A look at the Setup menu and Photo function:

Up close with the home theatre dock:

The provided wireless remote:

I was born and raised in Vancouver, so maybe my perception of society at large is a little skewed. During my time here, I’ve seen both a growing Chinese and East Indian population here, and it becomes quite apparent that these cultures place a very high value on wearing gold jewelry. Some of the best “gold” stores in Vancouver are either run by Chinese or East Indian people, and it makes me wonder, is this obsession with the yellow element a cultural phenomenon?

When I ventured to Hong Kong several years ago, there were stores peddling high-priced gold products (though still substantially cheaper than what was available in Vancouver), many of which boasted huge gold statues and such right in the front window. Like oil, the Earth only contains so much gold at any given time, and buying gold is perhaps one of the best investments you can make because it is guaranteed to go up in value in the long term.

That’s why people set out to buy gold so often, but more often than not, they are not receiving a physical ounce or brick in hand, rather getting their hands on a piece of paper that indicates that they now own a certain amount housed in some vault halfway across the world in Zurich, Switzerland.

Myself, I’ve had a modest gold chain around my next for ten years or so now. I don’t think anything of it.

You know, you can’t really beat the price of free. When you waltz in somewhere and they just start giving stuff away, you start to jump up and down at the price and gobble it up like a fat kid in a chocolate factory. While other “gifts” may be a scam to get you sign up for a new credit card or to collect your personal information for their spam factory, if you happen to attend any kind of trade show — particularly big name ones like CES (Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas — you can come across plenty of free swag… but how exactly do you swing something like that? How do you score a free thumb drive, high-speed RAM, or other goodies?

Local blogger John Chow has been nice to enough to share his swag-getting expertise with the rest of the world, teaching us the ways of free-stuff-getter. He mentions things as duh-worthy as simply asking for free stuff, but there’s also a few other tidbits in there that are definitely worth having a look at.

Check out his article through the link below. And yes, you can read it for free too! :p

John Chow: How to Get Free Stuff At Trade Shows

I got my hands on some new video conversion software about a week ago. The Fedex guy came by, dropped off a manila-coloured envelope, and got me to sign on his little handheld communication device. Opening up this bubble-wrapped package, I discovered a DVD case with M2Convert Multimedia Software inside. On this single burned CD (it was quite obvious that it was a CD-R), I got full versions of their conversion solutions, for the iPod, PSP, Creative Zen, smartphones, and the complete package known as M2Convert Professional. I reviewed it for Mobile Magazine, so check that out by clicking on the link below.

Here’s a screenshot of the program in action, and while it’s nice that it comes with a boat load of support for a number of different file formats and codecs, I found its performance slow and somewhat cumbersome, especially for a video converting newb like myself.

Click here for the full review.

The homebrew scene for the Nintendo DS is huge, arguably even bigger than the audience devoted to the Sony PSP. Up until now, however, the enthusiasts were a little on the “geek” side of things, and the Average Joe (or Jane) video game player was intimidated by all this talk of flash cartridges, clients, kernels, PassMe devices, and the like. Then along comes what may be the easiest system for the Nintendo DS to date: the outrageously-named but incredibly simple to use DS-Xtreme from DS-X.

Let’s get something out of the way. The primary reason why a lot of people would consider getting something like this is to play illegally downloaded games on their DS. Yes, the DS-X can do that and it makes the process idiot-proof, but — of course — technically they can’t sell the consumer on that feature. On the record, I don’t condone the practice, but I’ll leave it up to you to decide what you want to do.

I got a test unit to fiddle with, and have since posted up a review for Mobile Magazine. Here’s a short excerpt:

Pretty well any NDS “homebrew app” will run like a dream on the
DS-Xtreme. It may take a second or two for it to load, but as soon as
it does, there doesn’t appear to be any slowdown. I found this was true
both with BeUp (MSN Messenger) and DS Organize (a PDA-like tool).

For the full review, click here.