Big Grips for iPad

Really, this is a great idea!
Not just for kids either. Me, I'm no more clumsy than average, I have never dropped my iPad. But you always feel that you have to be so careful with a thing like that! Which of course just adds to the general tension and stress that many of us have in the modern world. I bet that with the Big Grip on, your grip is much more secure, easy to hold, and it protects the iPad very well too.

(I'm getting their stand also.) 

You can get it in bright colors also. But I'm very happy they made a nice grey one so adults ain't blinded.
A version for iPad 2 is coming soon. But I wonder if this one won't work, perhaps with a bit of cope, the only difference is that the iPad 2 is a bit thinner after all.

Big Grips home page

Who pays the pensions

Many people believe that what they pay in taxes now is being saved up to pay for their pension when they grow old. S'not so,  what's being paid now is paying for the current pensioners. And when the baby-boomers retire very soon, there may be a problem, it is a very large chunk of population to have on permanent vacation for 25 years, paid for by much small groups of younger generations.

(From a recent issue of MoneyWeek, UK.)

Electric speed demon

Three speed world records in one evening, with an electric car!
"I thought I had a quick little BMW, but it was like I was standing still..."




(Video found here. I didn't find any way to scale the picture to this column.)

‘Chimping’ and Other Photo-Taking Tips

‘Chimping’ and Other Photo-Taking Tips, article by David Pogue.

Jonathan Ive profile

How did a British polytechnic graduate become the design genius behind £200billion Apple?, profile of designer Jonathan Ive. (Thanks to MacObserver.)

caPITalization

(From anon.)

I have noticed that many who text messages & email have forgotten the art of capitalization.
Capitalization is the difference between helping your Uncle Jack off a horse, and helping your uncle jack off a horse.

U2, not the band

[Thanks to Ian]

Footage of the plane which goes so high it's virtually a spaceship.


(bigger)

Most useful media blurb of week

BBC teevee

So I tried the BBC iPlayer for iPad, and I tried various current BBC programs ("programmes"). They were all either boring or just bad. How can it be? They have access to all of Great Britains' talent pool, they have millions of taxpayers' Pounds Sterling, how can they fail to make some good TV? I can't figure it out. All they have to do it let people present their stuff and then pick the good ones, and let their experienced producers make it. One would think.

Tonight's super perigee moon a rare treat

Tonight's super perigee moon a rare treat, article.
Check out the full moon this evening--it could be 14 percent bigger and 30 percent brighter than usual.

The Appearing Man

Pretty kewl photo series.

Commercial paintings

I like this painting, I like the composition and the freshness of the colors.
I'm wondering, though, if what the painter is not mostly doing is dazzling us with his superior skills. "Oooh, look what I can do with only a painting knife."
Don't get me wrong, his skills *are* superior. You try and and make a painting like this with a painting knife, wow, damn near impossible. I'm sure he's been doing it for at least twenty years. ... The detail in the buildings, the tones of the Eiffel Tower, the sketched coats and legs, the quick details of the umbrellas, the reflections in the wet pavement... very damn impressive.

Though the technique reminded me of paintings I just saw today in a furniture store. They were small original painting, framed, being sold for ludicrous prices like twenty dollars each. They were painted with quick tools like painting knives and such. And the thing is that a trained painter can make one of them in like ten minutes. He can spew out 40 in a day.
So you're basically paying just for the materials and for something to make your wall look less boring. Which, admittedly, may be what most paintings are sold as, unless they are investments in a famous artist, hoping he will appreciate in time.

My dad saw such an artist work once. He had ten big canvasses lined up next to each other. Then he took a big roller and applied green paint to the bottom of all of them. Then another roller and applied blue paint to all of them. Then he painted in a couple of trees, all a bit different, on all of them. The foliage was hinted at with texturing and a few detailed leaves at strategic places. In the end, these things were sold at very good profit in low-end galleries and shows.

The problem of course, is, how do you know what is "good art" and what is hack work? If for example it turns out that the artist above makes twenty paintings like this every day... but I just really like it, it speaks to me... who's to say it's not "serious art"... for me?