Author Archives: meta

Phone numbers

Posted on 11 August 2010 by meta

I’m in the process of migrating to using a cell phone as my only phone. I’m also cleaning up my address book. Here’s a tip to make life easier for me, and everyone else who might call you. Whether you’re … Continue reading →

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Bring back the Feast of Fools

Posted on 8 August 2010 by meta

…At least, medieval Christianity understood. For most of the year it preached solemnity, order, restraint, fellowship, earnestness, a love of God, and sexual decorum—and then, at New Year’s, it unleashed the festum fatuorum, the feast of fools, and for several … Continue reading →

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Home improvements part 2: Guttering

Posted on 7 August 2010 by meta

As mentioned in part one, it rains heavily in Austin. I noticed during the first couple of winters that water would pour in sheets off of the front and back roofs, and pound onto the steps up to the decks. … Continue reading →

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Home improvements part 1: New deck

Posted on 7 August 2010 by meta

The story of why I had to get the front deck of our house torn down and rebuilt. Continue reading →

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Android is #1

Posted on 4 August 2010 by meta

NPD reports that Android is now the #1 platform for smartphones in the US. 33% Android, 28% BlackBerry, 22% iPhone. And that’s including iPhone 4 pre-orders. Meanwhile, Nielsen confirms that Android has beaten iPhone,  though they have Android still lagging slightly behind … Continue reading →

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A lie from Apple

Posted on 27 July 2010 by meta

Apple writes: The new Magic Trackpad is the first Multi-Touch trackpad designed to work with your Mac desktop computer. That’s a pretty blatant lie. The FingerWorks iGesture pad was a multi-touch trackpad designed to work with Mac desktop computers (as … Continue reading →

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Year of the click beetle

Posted on 14 July 2010 by meta

It seems as though each year, a different kind of Texas wildlife undergoes a population explosion and decides to visit our house. We had the year of the woods roach. That was pretty unpleasant. The year of the junebugs wasn’t … Continue reading →

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RPM fail

Posted on 9 July 2010 by meta

It’s 2010, and RPM still sucks. Transaction Check Error: file /usr/share/man/man1/xdelta.1.gz from install of xdelta-1.1.4-1.el5.rf.x86_64 conflicts with file from package xdelta-1.1.3-20.i386 file /usr/share/emacs/site-lisp/psvn.el from install of subversion-1.6.12-0.1.el5.rf.x86_64 conflicts with file from package subversion-1.4.2-4.el5_3.1.i386 # rpm -q subversion subversion-1.4.2-4.el5_3.1 subversion-1.4.2-4.el5_3.1 # … Continue reading →

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Extracts from “iPhone Four” by George Orwell

Posted on 5 July 2010 by meta

Winston woke up inside 101 Infinite Loop. “I told you,” said O’Brien, “that if we met again it would be here.” “Yes,” said Winston. O’Brien picked up an iPad from the table, and brushed his fingers over the screen. Without … Continue reading →

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iPhone 4, SAR, and antenna contact

Posted on 23 June 2010 by meta

The iPhone 4 uses the metal edge of the phone as its antenna. This means that it’s pretty easy to make contact between the antenna and your hands. As you’ll know if you’ve ever grabbed the antenna of a TV or … Continue reading →

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