[Public] Technical words I love: Part 4823

[yesthattom]

Meta-stable -- fluctuating within boundaries.

Homework:
Work this into a casual conversation sometime this weekend: "the fact that routing on the internet is meta-stable makes it difficult to debug problems in Europe when I'm in the US."

Comments

In my tiredness . . .

[lilbjorn.livejournal.com]

I read this as me-ta'-sta-ble, as in:
A cancer which can easily spread (metastacize) to other organs is called metastable.

Need more sleep. Unlikely to get it in Toronto.

[airshipjones.livejournal.com]

I think any conversation which includes that phrase is by definition 'not casual'.

:)

Re: In my tiredness . . .

[awfief.livejournal.com]

I wondered the same thing -- is it Me-TA-sta-ble or me-ta-STA-ble.