It’s easy being green

After two years of protecting my tablet from constant abuse, it was finally time to replace my orange iPad Cover with a spiffy new green one. The orange cover was pretty beaten up:  the hinge had started to rip, causing the cover to slide out of position while I was holding it, and the cover itself looked dingy despite repeated cleanings.

I chose the green one rather than another orange because it stands out better against the background of my daily life. It’s hard to miss when sitting on my desk, and it stands out nicely against the grey lining of my backpack (which is always helpful when doing those last minute checks before a road trip.

The question now is … how do I recycle the old one?

kens-new-ipad-cover

The Art of 3D Print Failure

Rostock Max calibration and early prints. Credit: Fred Kahl

The Art of 3D Print Failure demonstrates the creative ways in which 3D printers can fail, giving rise to their own twisted sculptures. Hat tip to Fast Company for turning up the gallery.

What I’m Reading Now: Hero of Ages

Book 3 of the of Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn series finds the protagonists Vin and Eland deal with an evil they inadvertently unleashed upon the world. Mistborn’s notable for its unique magic system, in which “Allomancers” ingest, and then “burn” metals in order to use telekinetic and empathic powers. The Hero of Ages is part of … Read more

What I’m Reading: Trading in Danger

Trading in Danger

Kylara Vatta’s dreams of a brilliant military career were ruined by one well-intentioned wrong decision; instead she goes to work for her family’s shipping company. Her first mission: captain a ship destined for the scrapyard. Of course, it’s not that easy as Vatta decides to try and turn a profit of her own using the … Read more

What I’m Reading: The Bowl of Heaven

The Bowl of Heaven

The Bowl of Heaven is a “tremendous object in space” novel, similar in scope to Niven’s original Ringworld books. Like Ringworld, it involves a massive construct — in this case a hemisphere — that has several million times the surface area of earth. A crew of human explorers comes across the hemisphere and sends an away mission to investigate. … Read more

What I’m Reading: Mistborn

Cover art for Mistborn

Mistborn is the first book in Brandon Sanderson’s Final Empire series. The setup is simple enough: imagine if the hero destined to save the world from a terrible evil did so … and then decided to use his new-found power to establish a tyrannical empire. The ascended “Lord Ruler” is considered a living god, and … Read more

What I’m Reading: A Memory of Light

A Memory of Light is the final book in Robert Jordan’s epic Wheel of Time series, a series so huge that Jordan died before he could finish it. Fortunately, he took voluminous notes and passed those on to his chosen successor, Brandon Sanderson. Sanderson’s done a fantastic job finishing up the series, and I’m looking forward to this … Read more