The Maxson Homepage on the WWW
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
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
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
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:
[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
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:
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| 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.
Today is Fair Use Day. What’s that? Why a day to celebrate fair use, of course. What’s fair use? Well, let’s let the copyright office tell us:
The 1961 Report of the Register of Copyrights on the General Revision of the U.S. Copyright Law cites examples of activities that courts have regarded as fair use: “quotation of excerpts in a review or criticism for purposes of illustration or comment; quotation of short passages in a scholarly or technical work, for illustration or clarification of the author’s observations; use in a parody of some of the content of the work parodied; summary of an address or article, with brief quotations, in a news report; reproduction by a library of a portion of a work to replace part of a damaged copy; reproduction by a teacher or student of a small part of a work to illustrate a lesson; reproduction of a work in legislative or judicial proceedings or reports; incidental and fortuitous reproduction, in a newsreel or broadcast, of a work located in the scene of an event being reported.”
Fort example,my using these images from Amazon is fair use because I am using them in the context of a review.
[Update 2011-01-14 07:41:37] I reread the article and realized I posted the wrong snippet. Oh, and I thought I would say….this article is not an example of fair use. Why? Well, everything produced by the US Government or its employees while at work is in the public domain. That means there is no copyright on it. And the eff logo? Well, I’m not commenting on it directly either. Perhaps it is fair use, but probably not. But, it is licensed under a creative commons license that allows people to reuse it, like I am here.
Image from electronicfrontierfoundation via flickr
The US government gave them real money. They repay it with worthless paper. Oh yeah sure…they’ve really repaid the debt.
Image from mars hill church seattle via flickr
Take a guess what this guy is talking about below:
From the very first time he asked, I have promised him that I would teach him. But that promise always comes with me enforcing respect and understanding. Thanks to this consistency, my children can by rote say that a xxxxxxxxx is not a toy and that hey are not to touch one unless I am there handing it to them.
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That same xxxxxxx is actually hanging within a long arm’s reach of me as I type this, along with several others. And yes, my children have noticed them.
What should be in place of the xxxxxxx? Well, if you were me, this is EXACTLY what I got taught about firearms. It was the case in our house with firearms when I was a kid. They were readily available. It is EXACTLY what I will teach my kids about firearms.
Go read the original article (first seen here) and come back. Swords. They are talking about swords. Oh, and how old is the kid? 5. FIVE. Let’s think about this for a second…..
I doubt anyone would say boingboing is conservative. I actually think they are quite liberal in many ways. But here they are praising this guy for teaching his kid…his FIVE year old kid…about swordplay. I’m sure that most of the editors at bb would think me crazy for teaching my kids about guns. Certainly, the comments would reflect it.
Riddle me this….what’s the difference? Why are swords ok and cool but guns are evil?
In an update to this article, my Nexus S has arrived! It actually arrived prior to Best Buy’s order system even telling me it was shipped. Holy cow…what a horrible shipping system.
As of 7am (GMT) the order site was saying it wasn’t shipped yet. I was all worried and hacked off. I get to work and find out that not only had it shipped but it had arrived.
When it gets here, I’ll post about how I like it.
I met someone today who knew what ramps were. I was shocked…he was the first person outside of WV who knew what they were. I was impressed.
Oh…he actually liked them too!
[Update 2012-12-26 15:47:04] Had to redo some internal links.
Image from chrisfurniss via flickr
