Cheque Issued

Three Cheques in a week

Today, I received an e-mail telling me that Mazuma had received my phone, processed my order, and mailled my cheque (of check if you are spelling the American way(Cool).  Soon, I should have an extra 23 quid floating around (enough to pay for the case and screen protector I bought).  This is an update to this post where I mention selling my Nokia e65 to Mazuma Mobile.

[Update 2012-12-26 15:45:56] The simley link changed.  I’ve redone it.

Image from liewcf via flickr

Nexus S 2.3.2

android

My Nexus S got the 2.3.2 Update on Monday evening.  I didn’t experience the SMS bug–well, atleast not that I can tell–nor have I experienced the reboot bug.

Image from saad irfan via flickr

Let me say it…

Gold Bars

the government doesn’t have the money!  Where’t it going to come from?  They could stand to cut the budget by 1/2 (keeping just the military and some other essentials.  They could get rid of worthless government programs like the Department of Education and Homeland Security).  And I’m talking about real cuts…not these cuts that are real increases but simply cuts to the proposed budget.

Image from curtis gregory perry via flickr

Phones

Car Phone

With my new mobile/cell phone purchase, I needed to update the list of cell phones I have owned.  If you are curious, it is a complete list of the phones that I have owned and used on a daily basis.  I also have put down what I remembered about the plans.  In 20 years, I think it will be interesting to see what exists….the market has changed so so much in the past 10 years!

Image from Rubin110 via flickr

Mac Annoyances — Redux

Glass Trackpad + Keyboard

In this article, I blogged about some annoyances I had with my new MacBookPro.  Well, I found out today that one of them doesn’t have to be.  In my article, I said:

Touchpad. The guestures are great, but why do I actually have to click it? Why can’t I just tap it like on a PC touchpad? And don’t get me started on the click noise.

Well, today, I found out you can make the pad act like a pc touchpad.  Here’s how:

Go to system preferences->trackpad.
Check the Tap to Click option

That’s it.  You can now simply tap the touchpad to click…you don’t have to actually depress it. Now, I’m just going to have to break myself of the click habit I picked up  🙂

Image from huskermania via flickr

Sold Phone

Nokia E65

Well, I’ve sold the trusty e65 that I bought before we left the US and moved overseas.  Why?  Well, it went on the fritz and the mic decided not to work all the time.  So, I bought me a Google Nexus S.  But then, what should I do with my old phone?  We saw an advert on the tv for mazuma mobile.  They’d give me 10 pound for my phone (over 20 if it was working).  That’s enough for a case and screen protector so I said sure.

These instructions here helped me reset the phone:

Using the *#7780# restored factory settings
*#7370# wiped my data off it.

[Update 2011-01-26 08:09:13] I had an e-mail from mazuma saying they processed my order and posted my check.

Image from hooverdust via flickr

Mac Annoyances

13" Mac Book Pro

 

I got a Mac (a 13″ MacBookPro) about a week before Christmas.  Before you ask, no, I didn’t buy it…I’ve got to support Macs at work so they got me one.  Prior to this, I’d only spent about 30 min messing with a Mac.  Overall, I like it.  Although, I have problems with the way they lock their hardware and software together…I’d love to run OSx on other hardware.  I’ve also come up with some minor tweaks….little things that drive me crazy.  I thought I’d blog them here and see if anyone has suggestions:

  1. Touchpad.  The guestures are great, but why do I actually have to click it? Why can’t I just tap it like on a PC touchpad? And don’t get me started on the click noise.
  2. Keyboard.  The keys feel farther apart than on a standard desktop keyboard.  I feel like I have to move my hands 10 miles to type.
  3. Hover.  There’s no hover functionality.  In a PC, I could hover my mouse over the icons in the systray–that area down by the clock–and find things out.  Like how much more battery is left.  On the Mac, I can’t just hover over the icon…I have to click it.
  4. Quit.  Why doesn’t the red x actually quit the program.  I don’t want the thing to just hide…I want the app to quit running.  To do this, I have to hit command-q.

[Update 2011-01-17 19:29:58] I found out how to make the mac touchpad act like a pc touchpad.  This means you don’t have to depress it…you can simply tap it.

[Update 2012-12-26 15:36:37] My original picture was removed from flickr.  I’ve updated it to another image

Image from Dexter Panganiban via flickr

Sink Taps

Come to the UK and one of the first things you notice (after looking right – left- right when you cross the street) is that most every sink has two taps (aka faucets).  Why?  I have wondered about this since we got here.  I mean, to me, it makes sense to have one…then you can mix hot and cold then wash your hands in kind of warmish water.  Here, you either freeze or burn.  Sure, you can use the plug to mix the two in the sink…but who wants to run a sink-full of water to simply wash their hands?

Here’s an example of what I’m talking about:

two faucets

Bird bath

english sink
from orangejack via flickr
What looks like a typical American sink
from anibee via flickr

Well, I have my answer.  According to this answer on yahoo’s uk answers site, it is against code to mix hot and cold water like I am used to.  Now, this is quite interesting because on our tub, there is one spigot, but one half of it gets really hot and the other gets really cold.  You can even feel the hot and cold water separately when it is flowing.