Caravaggio

How can someone stumble upon 100 Caravaggio sketches worth an estimated £560m, it simply beggars belief. If this story is true, then can you imagine the public response if part or the whole collection goes on display?

I spent a fortune to see an Art Exhibition in Florence in 2010 that hosted only one Caravaggio. Ok, it was the astonishingly beautiful shield, but nevertheless it was just one piece. Another gallery in Florence housed 4 or 5 Caravaggio's, but all of this pales into insignificance compared to the number of reportedly Caravaggio sketches found in Milan.

I await confirmation with an eagle eye and hope that if true, the sketches reach a wider audience and not a private collector.

The iPhone 4s Tips continue

Please read the Disclaimer in or about the 25 June 2012 Blog post before proceeding.  These iPhone 4s tips are provided to assist new users to the iPhone.  If like one of my daughters you are ‘all geeked out’ then these iPhone 4s posts probably won’t be for you. In all instances the official APPLE advice as guidance is best.  So if you track down the official APPLE stuff; then there is no need for you to waste time reading this Blog.  Unless of course you are interested in the host of other ramblings that appear from time to time on The Weekender

(18) ‘Screen pinching’ is another important part of the iPhone 4s experience.  Finger and thumb together on the screen and then move them apart and back towards one another and you will see the screen zoom in out.  Great for checking out parts of the photographs or changing the font size when reading a webpage. 

(19) While we are on the subject of photographs; remember that new images can be taken by pressing the camera button shown on screen (when the camera viewfinder is open after you click on the camera iPhone App), or by ‘+’ zoom button on the edge of the iPhone 4s

(20) And don’t forget that the iPhone 4s camera viewfinder image rotates! Hold the iPhone camera one way and the ‘+’ zoom button will be on the underside and to the left.  Rotate the iPhone 4s and the camera viewfinder image will remain in the same orientation (what you see is what you get) but the ‘+’ zoom button will now be on the top and to the right hand side more akin to the normal camera shutter release position.  Open up your camera App and have a go yourself, it’s only a machine, so don’t be afraid

More iPhone 4s Tips to follow; so check back and read the Weekender Blog now and again

yet even more iPhone 4s Tips

Please read the Disclaimer in or about the 25 June 2012 Blog post before proceeding.

(17) Smiley faces.  Go to HOME SCREEN and select the SETTINGS App.  Now select GENERAL and then KEYBOARD. Then select INTERNATIONAL KEYBOARDS and EMOJI KEYBOARD.  You will now have two keyboards installed on the iPhone 4s that you can switch between one of which has a significant number of smiley type faces

The smiley should work well when sending and receiving iMessages between you and other APPLE device users.  However these images may appear as squares or other data when sent to non APPLE users even though they appear correct when you are compiling the text message

Wow, all of this APPLE talk has made me wander out to the kitchen and grab a piece of fruit. Yummy, a great product and healthy eating too!

More iPhone 4s Tips to follow; so check back and read the Weekender Blog now and again 

Don't forget to free John Massey

Just in case you forgot; then don't forget to free John Massey. Please see both the John Massey Blog Post below and the John Massey commentary in my Human Rights interests detailed on the Side Bar of this Blog.

I wonder how much a FREE JOHN MASSEY T-Shirt would be?

Staysure

I noticed the Staysure advertisement has popped up on my Blog.  Well that's a timely occurrence as I have just arranged annual European travel insurance for wifey and I and I am overwhelmed at how cheap the price was and how seamless arranging the travel insurance cover was.

Cheap and seamless hassle free arrangements for European Travel Insurance, now that's a first in my life, and I'm no spring chicken!  Well done Staysure on having what we needed and having it at a good price.  You can be certain that God willing I shall be stayingwithyouforsure next year!

If the Staysure advertisement and the Staysure link still appears and you need Travel Insurance; then I can only re-inforce what I have already written.  I found that it was good value for money, it cost less than I expected, and the lovely person that I spoke to on the telephone to book the insurance for wifey and I was a pleasure to chat to.  You have to make your own choice based on your circumstances and the circumstances of others on the intended travel insurance policy.  But for me Staysure was good forsure, but that's just my opinion and yours may differ.

Even more iPhone 4s Tips

Please read the Disclaimer in the circa 25 June 2012 Blog posts before proceeding.

(14) If your iPhone 4s is lost or stolen then let’s hope that you had the common sense to turn on the ‘Find my iPhone’ facility in iCloud.  Go to the SETTINGS App on the HOME SCREEN of the iPhone 4s, and then into iCloud.  Scroll down and you will see ‘Find my iPhone’ and then simply select the ‘on’ switch

(15) In the App Store search for and download the ‘Find iPhone’ App (this App was free of charge in June 2012).  If your iPhone 4s is lost or stolen, you can open ‘Find iPhone’ App on another APPLE device, i.e. an iPhone owned by one of your friends or family and search for your lost or stolen iPhone 4s.  The ‘Find iPhone’ App will locate your iPhone and provide you with a map.  You can also send an alert to the iPhone and even if you or the person who has the iPhone has turned the sound to off, the alert will sound on your iPhone 4s at maximum volume for 120 seconds.  You could even send a message to your iPhone screen, I quite like the idea of sending something like; “give me back my iPhone you b*^%@rd” (and for the latter word you could instead insert your own meaningful interpretation), but alas you have to be careful just in case someone has already handed your iPhone into the local police station.

As a last resort and it is a last resort, you can remotely wipe your iPhone 4s with the ‘Find iPhone’ App, but rest assured there’s no chance of locating the iPhone with this the ‘Find iPhone’ App after taking that particular measure!

More iPhone 4s Tips to follow; so check back and read the Weekender Blog now and again 

Oh, and while you are at it, please read the Blog Post below about it being time to free John Massey 

Free John Massey

When the news broke, like many people, I was concerned that Category B prisoner John Massey aged 64 had escaped from Her Majesty’s Prison Pentonville.  After all this is a person who was quite rightly convicted of a crime and sentenced to life imprisonment for using a shotgun to shoot another person in 1975.  I am not judging the case, its merits, or the sentencing.  What should have been done was done under our penal system.  I feel for the friends and family of the victim and I sincerely hope that their wounds and distress have healed since 1975.

But a long 37 years have passed since 1975 and there is no getting away from it; there are people who have done far worse, who are walking the streets again having paid their debt to society, while John Massey for some very strange reasons indeed remains incarcerated.

Having been released in 2007 and confined to a Bail Hostel as part of the conditions of release, it seems a tad harsh that John Massey was recalled to prison for jumping his bail conditions to spend a few days with his dying father.  I spent time with my dying father and that time was and still is precious to me.  John Massey is no different, even those who shoot others back in 1975 love their father and grieve the loss.  After being re-incarcerated for what can only be described as extremely dubious reasons and reasons that do not on face value stand up to scrutiny by the average person, it is no small wonder that John Massey walked out of Ford Open Prison upon hearing that his sister was gravely ill.  I mean, you just lost your father, you think that you are about to lose your sister and you have spent almost 40 years locked up for something that someone else would have probably served 25 years for.  You get one go in this world, and if I was John Massey then I would have also jumped a Bail Hostel to be with my dying father and having been robbed of a few years that I could have spent with him due to my unnaturally long incarcerating, I would also have walked out of Ford Open Prison to visit my gravely ill sister before I lost her too.

Come on folks let’s show a bit of compassion here.  It’s about time John Massey was re-integrated into society and not detained any long; simply because he desired to be with those that he loved at a time when they were terminally or gravely ill and with whom he would have been with if he hadn’t been put back inside.   It’s wrong, and others know that it’s wrong too.