Answers to questions

From David Pogue's email newsletter:

Why do the signal-strength bars on my cellphone change when I’m standing still?

The signal indicator isn’t a live depiction of your cell strength. The phone needs to send out a “ping” to the tower from time to time to figure out if it is still connected. You may be in a spot where you get full signal strength, then move to a dead spot, and the phone won’t know for a set interval (30 seconds or so, I believe) until it pings again and figures out the new strength. Thus, you stand there with 4 bars and then suddenly get 1 or 0. If it were a live update, the battery would drain a heck of a lot faster.
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Often the signal is being reflected off buildings and or terrain and that will give you varying signal strength. This may also explain why sometimes you can’t make a call even though you’ve got enough bars as reflected signals are weak anyway.

Why is the numeric keypad on a computer (7-8-9 at the top) upside-down from the numeric keypad on phones (1-2-3 on top)?

When 10-key touch-tone telephones were invented it was decided that folks accustomed to 10-key calculators would type in the numbers faster than the then-developed equipment could handle, so the numbers were inverted.
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The computer keypad is a legacy of the adding machine/calculator and is mostly used by bean counters, who are too old to learn new tricks. The phone keypad is a legacy from the rotary dial, with the 1 on top and 0 at bottom. The dial had the alphabet to contend with. No one wants to see that upside down.

Why aren’t elevator buttons double action? Press once to go to floor, press again to cancel. It would save all those “OOPS! — I hit the wrong button” moments.

I live in Korea — almost all the elevators are “one push on/second push off” style. Most in Japan, too. Much more sensible, and if that annoying kid who presses them all shows up, easy to fix. Though one time I had someone unpush my floor because they thought they had pushed it by mistake, and so I had a bit longer elevator ride. But over all, a definite plus.
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Because there are people who think punching a lit elevator button makes it come faster. Really. Drop in to my office.

Inspections and apples

The home inspection was today, and I'm happy to say there was very little that warranted fixing. There was a piece of siding in the back that had a crack in it; one of the air conditioning pipes on the HVAC unit needs a little more insulation; two electrical outlets in the garage need to be grounded; and two roof shingles are slightly lifted. Everything is very minor and asking the seller to repair should present no problems.

I am also thrilled to report that seeing the house again was a very positive experience. I found it to be even better than I remembered, and it reaffirmed that I made the right decision. I took lots more photos and you can see a few of them at Flickr. (You have to get past the old ones first to see the new ones.)

My backyard (pardon the glare from the window)

The inspector was a really nice fellow. He explained everything to me in detail, which I very much appreciated. And he enlightened me on why some electrical outlets are "right side up" while others are "upside down." He said many electricians use this as an idicator so you'll know which outlets are "switched"--e.g., connected to a light switch. I never knew that before! Of course, it's not true everywhere, but it is in this house, which is good to know!

Another thing I learned today pertains to something completely different: apples. Before I bit into my tasty Red Delicious at work this afternoon, I peeled off the sticker and announced to no one in particular, "My apple is from Washington." A coworker said there's no way it came from Washington since it's the dead of winter. He insisted it must be from Chile. Ever the faithful label-conscious consumer, I could not be conviced that the sticker was misleading. I even went to the Washington Apples website to confirm they are actually grown there. I found an email address and asked if my apple was indeed originated from Washington. Answer: Yes, as a matter of fact it did. And it was picked at least three months ago. So there! Um, wait a minute! Wha? Well, the harvesting season is August through November, and it is now February, so that would make my apple at least three months old. How on earth? The lady who wrote back to me from Washington Apples said, and I quote, "We store our apples in controlled atmosphere storage rooms and that extends their life." Amazing! It tasted pretty good to me--nice and crisp--but now I wonder what a truly fresh apple tastes like. Hmm.