App Store “Error 1004 please try again later” on iPhone and iPad?

By all accounts, from googling the experiences of others, issues from clock time to full memory can trigger the iPhone and iPad App Store “Error 1004 please try again later”.

I was simply trying to update my installed apps. The problem hit me simultaneously on iPhone and iPad — which is a hint that the problem is server side.

No amount of waiting to try again later made a difference. Not resetting the time. Nor restarting my iPhone/iPad. Nor rebooting my iPhone/iPad. Nor deleting a couple of videos to recover memory (even though I wasn’t short on available RAM to start with). Nor even switching between 3G and WiFi, thereby excluding router issues.

For me the solution was different and simple.

Recipe: Biltong

Biltong is the South African version of what Americans call jerky: Excepting biltong is savory, not sweet, and it’s much thicker — often moist under a spicy crust, sometimes with a thin rind of fat. The predominant flavours being salt, vinegar and coriander. Here’s how to make your own biltong wherever you are, especially if you’re a needy ex-pat unwilling to smuggle it in …

Eco-Friendly Luxury Loft (via Chicquero)

I’d love to have a hide-away like this far from the city …

Fernanda Marques architect and Associates, São Paulo – Brazil. The luxury sustainable loft was designed for the Casa Cor exhibit. Casa Cor is the second largest architecture and decoration event in the world. The house itself is a piece of art, the nature is screaming out loud, everything was inspired by sustainability issues. Recycled wood, green seal furniture, highly efficient LED system, represent the commitment to the environment. Thumbs up … Read More

via Chicquero

Biltong for Braai Day!

Fall brings with it cooler weather more suitable for making biltong. This season I aim to evolve the process by improving the adhesion of spices, making less of a mess and reducing waste — using vacuum seal bags.

How to embed a Flickr photo into your hosted WordPress blog …

I recently googled for a simple way to use a Flickr image in a WordPress post – and couldn’t find one. Flicker provides the code to your own photos, not to other people’s images (from an option in All Sizes). Some solutions relied on plugins, others on bookmarked applets. I just wanted to know how to drop in the appropriate <img src="http://flickr.com/photo.jpg"> tag. Here’s how to do exactly that …

New York living: Don’t park on the downward spiral …

Photo by Andrew Stawarz via Flickr

When you self-park in a garage where there are likely to be timed exits, then don’t park on the downward spiral if you can help it. For example, a multi-storey parking garage at a commuter railway station is likely to disgorge a large number of passengers at regular times during the peak home traffic hours (about 4-8pm). So what’s the problem?

Hurricane Irene: The mailman, the cops and the tree cutters …

Hurricane Irene blew down a tree, which snapped some electrical wires and crushed a neighbour’s boat. The tree blocked our court and live wires dangled overhead, on the boat and coiled up into the neighbour’s yard. Some people on the court cut a path through the fallen tree, but the wires still hung dangerously low in the branches.