“Insanely Simple” is a new insider book about Jobs and Apple

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The Next Web:

Ken Segall served as Apple’s agency creative director under Steve Jobs from the NeXT years on through, including some years under John Sculley’s disastrous reign. Now he’s written a book, called Insanely Simple: The Obsession That Drives Apple’s Success.If you’re unfamiliar with Segall, he runs an excellent personal blog Observatory, the parody site Scoopertino and was the guy who came up with the name iMac. He was also involved in the seminal Think Different ad campaign. So yeah, he knows a few things about Apple and the way that Steve Jobs worked.

“Insanely Simple” will be available April 26th and you can pre-order at iBooks, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and others.

About Gatekeeper

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Panic Software:

As Mac users, we’ve mostly enjoyed a life free of the worry that has followed Windows users for years. Mac OS X is pretty damn secure. But it could be more secure. As Macs enjoy increased popularity, they become a more attractive target to identity thieves and other criminals. Sooner or later, bad people ruin every nice thing. It’s an immutable law of humanity.

So, what to do about this? Code-signing, although it can’t single-handedly fix the problem forever, is a vital weapon in the fight against malware. But many folks are unclear on how it works, or how it helps. Let me try to explain in as close to plain English as I can.

You can read and get more details on Gatekeeper from security expert Rich Mogull on TidBITS and Securosis.

Horizontal Shower

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Dornbracht:

At Swissbau 2012, kitchen and bathroom fittings manufacturer Dornbracht presented an expansion of the groundbreaking shower technology Ambiance Tuning Technique with the addition of a new application: the Horizontal Shower.With the Horizontal Shower, showering with the Ambiance Tuning Technique can be enjoyed lying down.

Wait, what? How lazy do you need to be that you have to shower lying down? It does look kind of cool though.

Objects come to life with photographer’s “Bent” sense of humor

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Wired’s Raw File:

With some well-placed wire, creative lighting and a provocative sense of visual puns, sculptor and photographer Terry Border has given life to everything from peanuts to pill bottles. His cleverly cartoonish scenes are often viral hits on the internet and they’ve brought his blog, Bent Objects, a global audience.“I don’t mean for everything to be funny,” says Border, who lives in Indianapolis. “We all have different perspectives and my perspective happens to be kind of strange and twisted.”

“Strange and twisted” in a hilarious way. Be sure to read the article to get the link to his more NSFW stuff, “Really Bent”.

Adobe shows off Photoshop CS6’s content-aware move

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Photoshop Content Aware Sneak Peak:

Adobe is previewing CS6 features prior to release. In a video posted to its YouTube channel, Adobe demonstrated an update to the CS5 content-aware fill tool but the cool comes with “content-aware move”. It adds the ability to move any piece of a photo with little disturbance to the pixels around it and replaces the background in a very natural way.

Unexpected downsides of the switch to ebooks

Written by

Cracked:

As e-book sales overtake paper-book sales, it seems like everybody is crying and wringing their hands about what it means — serious, society-changing ramifications like the end of ownership, or ease of piracy, or environmental impact, or whether it makes things easier or harder for publishers or aspiring authors.Like most important issues, those are boring. What are some effects of going to an all e-book world that haven’t been talked to death? I dug around and tried to find some e-book ramifications that would appeal to the type of people who spend more time preparing for a zombie apocalypse than like, unemployment, or retirement, or something. You know, realists.

iOS apps and the address book: who has your data, and how they’re getting it

Written by

The Verge:

Over the course of the past week, a firestorm has erupted in the world of iOS apps, thanks to the discovery that Path was uploading data from your iPhone’s address book without asking for explicit permission.Stated simply: any iOS app has complete access to a large amount of data stored on your iPhone, including your address book and calendar.Over the course of the past day, we have been using the method explained by Arun Thampi (who discovered Path’s privacy violation) to investigate several dozen popular iOS apps. Our findings should bring both comfort and concern to any iPhone user.

42 Saint Bernards!

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[caption id="attachment_20248" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="42 Lasquite Saint Bernards"][/caption] Lasquite Saint Bernards:

Video of us out for a walk with our 42 Saint Bernards.

That’s a lot of drool…

Fascinating Matchbook Art

Written by

Dark Roasted Blend:

Matchbooks were at their peak in the 1940’s and 50’s, when they were popular souvenir items, but they have made something of a comeback recently due to the public interest in retro advertising.The collecting of matchboxes, matchbooks, match labels and other match-related items is called phillumeny.

Art is where you find it and sometimes, you find it in odd places.

The 6 best performances on the 2012 Grammy Awards

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[caption id="attachment_20197" align="alignnone" width="240" caption="Jennifer Hudson"][/caption] The Week:

Sunday night’s Grammy Awards was all about two women: Adele and Whitney Houston. The former was the night’s big winner, emerging victorious in all six of the categories she competed in, including the Big Three: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Album of the Year. And Houston’s death on Saturday permeated the event’s entire proceedings.Here are six of the performances from Grammy night that critics are buzzing about.

Mooresville School District, a laptop success story

Written by

New York Times:

“This is not about the technology,” Mark Edwards, superintendent of Mooresville Graded School District, would tell the visitors later over lunch. “It’s not about the box. It’s about changing the culture of instruction — preparing students for their future, not our past.”As debate continues over whether schools invest wisely in technology — and whether it measurably improves student achievement — Mooresville, a modest community about 20 miles north of Charlotte best known as home to several Nascar teams and drivers, has quietly emerged as the de facto national model of the digital school.

The American Experience – Bill Clinton

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PBS:

Premiering February 20th and 21st, a biography of a president who rose from a broken childhood in Arkansas to become one of the most successful politicians in modern American history, and one of the most complex and conflicted characters to ever stride across the public stage.

PBS announced it was offering the first hour of the four hour documentary exclusively through its PBS iOS app – a full week before it airs on television.

The 2012 Westminster Kennel Club dog show live!

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I’ve been watching this dog show on TV since I was a kid and it’s great to see a live stream of the event. It gives you a different view and impression of the show. Thanks to @HikerCA for the heads up!

12 creative business cards

Written by

Mental Floss:

Forget putting QR codes on your business card in order to stand out from the competition. Check out these 12 very cool, creative approaches.

Gyroscopic self-leveling pool table on a cruise ship

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[caption id="attachment_20126" align="alignnone" width="325" caption="Gyroscopic self-leveling pool table"][/caption] As the ship moves, the pool table adjusts so the balls don’t move at all, even in rough weather. If you look closely you can see the balls remain still as the table moves, enabling you to play in almost any conditions.

Compact slide-through toaster works in 90 seconds

Written by

Gizmodo:

Conveyor belt toasters help restaurants keep up with the breakfast demand, but the compact QuikServe from WestBend is instead designed for home use using a motorized system to pull your bread through, toasting it in a mere 90 seconds.

There’s not much “cool” about toasters but this idea is clever. Just don’t buy it for your significant other for Valentines Day. Gizmodo says the list price is $60 but you can get it on Amazon.com for only $40.

Louis vs. Rick

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It’s the “story of a man who taught his cat to use instant messaging.” Funniest thing you’ll read today…..Thanks to Sian Meades and Jared Earle for the heads up.

Shamrock shakes are back!

Written by

Gothamist:

It’s Shamrock Shake season, and the green stuff is already ready to be slung at your local McDonald’s, and this year all of America will be able to indulge in the seasonal treat. The chain announced today that the shake will go national this year, for the first time in its 42-year-long existence.According to the McDonald’s spokeswoman, Ashlee Yingling, the minty shake “is currently available at every one of McDonald’s 14,000 U.S. restaurants,” and will be available through March 25th.

Anyone else embarrassed to admit how much they look forward to these things each year?

100,000 Scovilles Naga Chili vodka

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[caption id="attachment_20090" align="alignnone" width="173" caption="100,000 Scovilles Naga Chilli Vodka"][/caption] Master of Malt:

We filled a carboy with vodka, and into it we poured so many Naga Jolokia chillies that there was nothing but darkness in that carboy, nothing but darkness. We left the chillies to infuse and impart their flavour, colour and deathly fire into the vodka, and we’ve bottled the result. We are sorry. We are truly sorry.This stuff smells like pure evil, like the very blood of Satan himself. Such a pungent nose of chilli, it makes your eyes water just sniffing it.

Not a fan of spicy food but if you are, why would you want to ingest something that can cause you this kind of pain?

What you need to know about Pinterest

Written by

TIME:

Though Facebook’s SEC filings are dominating headlines, social neophyte Pinterest is gaining traction and plenty of buzz as the newest social media darling.According to comScore, Pinterest was the fastest growing independent site to hit 10 million monthly unique visits in the U.S., while a new report claims it drives more referral traffic to online retailers than Google+, YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn combined.But is Pinterest just a digital arts and crafts bulletin board piggybacking off of a social phenomenon, or is there value in joining?

Secretive SEALs moonlight as movie stars

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[caption id="attachment_20069" align="alignnone" width="400" caption="Act of Valor"][/caption]

Wired’s Danger Room:

SEALs are supposed to be secretive, stealthy killers. The public will probably never know the identities of the SEAL Team Six members who killed Osama bin Laden. But the Navy and the Pentagon had no problem letting the producers of a forthcoming action movie put active-duty SEALs on camera. Their faces are on screen and their names — first names, at least — are in the credits, along with their rank.“There were many precautions taken with the project to make sure our advantages on the battlefield would not be compromised to the enemy,” explains Amanda Greenberg, a Navy spokeswoman. Well, that and the fact that Act of Valor — in theaters next Friday! — is one giant, explicit recruiting pitch.

Not expecting great acting or dialog but am expecting things to blow up real good!

“Do Not Track” tool promises faster page loads

Written by

PC World:

A free new tool released on Thursday was built specifically to address many of the concerns raised in that study and to go well beyond what standard private browsing modes can do. It’s called Do Not Track Plus, and it works seamlessly with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and Safari; not only that, but it can increase page load speeds by up to four times, its maker says.Users can decide at the individual website level whether they want to block or allow tracking. When they do want their activities to remain private, DNT+ blocks a growing list of 580 different tracking technologies and more than 200 tracking companies.

I’ve been using it for a while and it’s a bit scary to see how often and in how many different ways we are being tracked.

Is it worth seeing Star Wars in 3D?

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[caption id="attachment_20059" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace"][/caption] CNET UK:

Lucasfilm has done a smashing job on Star Wars — it’s easily one of the best post-3D conversions I’ve seen. The key to this is that most of the 3D effects are relatively subtle. In other 3D post-conversions, the makers are so keen to make it clear it’s in 3D they make the effect too stark.So is it worth paying to see?

At this point, is there any point in even discussing it? If you’re a fan, you will, if you’re not, you won’t. What’s interesting is kids today won’t get to see the series the way we did (out of order) so it will be an entirely different experience and story for them.

Valentine’s Day dinner for two

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[caption id="attachment_20053" align="alignnone" width="470" caption="Creamy Pasta With Shrimp And Vegetables"]Creamy Pasta With Shrimp And Vegetables[/caption] Huffington Post:

There’s nothing more romantic than a private dinner for two when you want to spend some time with your significant other this coming Valentine’s Day. And you don’t need to make reservations weeks in advance or pay a pretty sum for dinner out.The following slideshow features quick, simple and easy recipes that are designed to serve just two people. Look for the classic filet mignon with compound butter, roasted mustard salmon, roast duck breasts with pomegranate, and more. Any of these recipes will impress your loved one and show them how much you care. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Some of these recipes look so easy to make, even someone who burns water could create a lovely meal.

Microsoft stores open next door to Apple stores

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New York Times: Analysts said the strategy of going head to head with arguably the most successful retail chain of the 21st century could be a smart move, although it is unlikely that Microsoft Stores will be money engines in … Continued

43% say random choices better than current Congress

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Rasmussen Reports:

With positive ratings for Congress at an all-time low, it may come as no surprise that a plurality of voters nationwide believes a group of people randomly selected from a telephone book would do a better job than the current legislators.The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of Likely U.S. Voters shows that 43% believe a group of people randomly selected from the phone book would do a better job than the current Congress. Thirty-eight percent (38%) disagree with that assessment, while another 19% are not sure.

iPad is a nuisance for many Chinese parents

Written by

TUAW:

A report from the Beijing Evening News suggests Chinese parents are scuffling with their kids over iPads. It seems the iPad was the gift of choice for many children this past Chinese New Year, and now those youngsters are having a hard time putting their tablets aside.Exasperated parents don’t know what to do when their tots refuse to hand over the iPad, and they’re afraid iPad use may impede their children’s education.

Interesting problem. They could use the solution my mom used in these situations. She said, “No.”