From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jun 1 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 1 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 1, 2008 Message-ID: <20080601171500.71874.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Solid-State Drive Prices To Dive (Think MacBook Air) by Brooks Crothers, Crave Adoption by notebook PC makers is expected to start in the third quarter, according to industry sources. **** Mobile Phone Users Itching To Take A Bite Of Apple by Garry Barker, The Age Thousands of Australian mobile phone users are trembling with anticipation at the imminent arrival of Apple's reolutionary iPhone, described by commentators as "one of the most talked-about consumer products in history". The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Billboards That Look Back by Stephanie Clifford, New York Times Some entrepreneurs are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details abotu passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Maid Cafes? On The Trail Of Tokyo's Otaku by Bruce Wallace, Los Angeles Times The Japanese have perfected the art of obsession. Japan, after all, is the place that gave us /otaku/, that wonderfully elastic word that refers to people obsessed to distraction with the details of a single thing. **** Stargazing On Hawaii's Mauna Kea by Dan Neil, Los Angeles Times "You were oxygen-deprived. You should try that sometime with a bottle of O2," he said. "Take on breath and the stars just"—he reached out as if grabbing teh sky and drawing it to his face—"whoop, leap out at you." Oh /yeah/, I thought. I've got to try that. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Decision To Be Made On Tuesday On Sale Of Petrol To Foreigners In Johor by V. Vasudevan, New Straits Times Najib said Singapore had indicated that it did not have any problems with the Malaysian governments decision to restrict sale of fuel to vehicles from the republic. "They do not reject the decision. It is the government's right. But they wanted pumps here to be able to sell fuel at market prices to their citizens. We do need to cater for this request," he said at a press conference after the Shangri-la dialogue. **** Caught In Singapore Legal Web by Sarah Frier, Palo Alto Daily News "When you are in a foreign country you ar esubject to their laws," said Edgar Vasquez, a U.S. State Department spokesman. "We do whatever we can to assist, but ultimately they're under the jurisdiction of the country they're detained in." **** Will You Be Back Tomorrow? by A Xeno Boy In Sg This is the political constant in Singapore. Despite all the rhetoric of opening up, allowing creativity, tolerating dissent. This is the cold basic stark political reality when you cross the invisible, shifting, convenient boundary defined by our political rulers. **** Plenary Speech By Minister For Defence Teo Chee Hean At The Shangri-La Dialogue 2008 by Singapore Government Looking ahead, we need to build capacities that are capable of accommodating different modes of cooperation between different configurations of countires. No one wants to see a new divide, playing to a zero-sum outcome. New structures for avoiding conflict and solving new problems have to be established. **** Necessary Conditions For Economic Growth And The Varnished Truth by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread Clearly, Singapore is not at the same stage as most Sub-Saharan countries, so we shouldn't assume that the commission's finding that democracy is not a necessary condition for growth, is relevant to us. I would argue that we're past that, and that it is wrong to keep using this line to deny us the full flowering of our social and collective self-actualisation when we have a per capital GDP approaching most developed countries. **** Malaysia Not Giving Up Hope On Batu Puteh Yet by Paul Gabriel, The Star Malaysia has renewed the search for evidence to stake its claim on Batu Puteh, whose sovereignty was deemed to be under Singapore by the International Court of Justice. Foreign minister Datuk Seri Dr Rais Yatim said although the ruling by the ICJ at The Hague on May 23 was final and not subject to appeal, there was a specific provision in the court's rules that allowed for a judicial review of a case within 10 years if new evidence was adduced. **** Johor Traders Fear Losses by Meera Vijayan, The Star A group of Johor businessmen is against the petrol ban on Singapore registered vehicles for fear it would affect their businesses. They contended that the ban was unnecessary as all Singapore vehicles have to have their petrol tanks 75% full when leaving the country. **** Police Arrest Former Singaporean For Insulting Public Servant by Bhagman Singh, Channel NewsAsia In response to media queries, police confirmed that Gopalan Palichadath Nair, who is now a US citizen, was arrested at B roadway Hotel along Serangoon Road on Saturday. See Also: Singapore Dissident , a blog by Gopalan Nair. **** Envoy: Those With Singapore PR Also Affected by Nelson Benjamin, The Star Malaysian high commissioner to Singapore Datuk N. Parameswaran said there were a large number of Malaysians holding Singapore PR who travelled in their vehicles between Johor and Singapore daily via the Causeway and Second Link. **** Catherine Lim And The March Of The Lilliputians by Chemical Generation Singapore Why is it that the more self-conscious the public commentator, the harder he or she finds it especially ahrd to say "sorry" just for the sake of closure? **** Transcript Excerpts Of Lees Vs Chees by Martyn See, No Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** No Days-Off For FDW (FOreign Domestic Workers): Letter To MOM And Newspaper Editors by Huang Shoou Chyuan, nofearSingapore From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jun 2 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 2 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 2, 2008 Message-ID: <20080602171501.9737.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iPhone: One Year Later by Matt Hamblen, Computerworld Apple's splash into the cell phone market proved consumers will pay for hip devices. Now the race is on to one-up the iPhone. **** First Look: Adobe Acrobat 9 by Melissa J. Perenson, PC World With the new Acrobat 9, Aodbe adds features that elevate Acrobat to a potential must-have application for business and individuals alike. **** The Future Of Mobile Social Networking by Kate Greene, MIT Technology Review iPhone users will soon be able to enjoy Whrrl, software that combines activity recommendations with real-time location data. **** What Is A Task And A Note - OS X iCal/Mail/Gamil Vs Outlook by John Gordon, Gordon's Tech OS X Notes/Tasks are almost the mirror image of Outlook Notes/Tasks. **** Bloomberg Versus Apple by New York Sun If this was all so clear to newspaper eidtors and the judge, one wonders why the politicians who are the ostensible clients of the class action lawyers did not realize it before giving Grant & Eisenhofer the go-ahead to run up Apple's legal bills. **** The MacBook Air: Thin Enough To Slice A Cake by Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch.com **** Me.com Belongs To Apple; Vegas iMac Deal by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider Apple's internet service strategy has become clearer with the transfer of Me.com to the company. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Spring by Gerald Stern, New Yorker **** Dearborn Suite by Philip Levine, New Yorker **** Coffeehouse Is Not The Same Old Grind by Danielle Drellinger, Boston Globe Writers and coffee go together like deadlines and trying to avoid starting your article with a cliche. **** Magical Spielism by Steve Almond, Boston Globe The novelist John Gardner claimed there are two basic plots in fiction: someone goes on a trip, or a stranger comes to town. Salman Rushdie's "Enchantress of Florence" opens with a stranger coming to town, and ends with the same fellow heading off on a trip. **** On A Punishing Trail, Personal Truths Are The Reward by Benjamin J. Romano, Seattle Times Behind a chalk line on a dustry road int he igh valley east of Snoqualmie Pass, 93 extraordinarily fit humans are making final preparations for a 100-mile journey through lush Cascade forests, rock, wind-swept ridges, slick, ankle-twisting ravines, rain, darkness and extreme fatigue. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** A Distance Place Of Entitlement: Singapore And Lee Kuan Yew by Shawn Starr, What's The Weather? Spoken like a true person of entitlement. For one could neve rbelieve corruption could have existed within one's government. You see Mr. Lee, if you came to the West with that kind of smugness, the people would toss you and your party out, sound economics or not. No court would save you here. **** Chee Siblings Get Jail Terms For Contempt Of Court by Channel NewsAsia Singapore Democratic Party chief Chee Soon Juan has been sentenced to 12 days in prison for contempt of court. His sister, Chee Siok Chin, has to serve a 10-day jail term. **** Barking Up The Wrong Tree On FDW Legislation? by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye! Hear Ye! proponents of legislating mandatory rest day should really be calling for legislation making accreditation compulsory, i.e. licensing. **** Chee's Sister Jailed 10 Days For Contempt Of Court by Zakir Hussain, Straits Times In passing sentence at the High Court, justice Belinda Ang noted that Ms Chee had disobeyed the court's orders and scandalised the court over three days last week during a hearing to assess damages in a defamation suit brought against the Chee siblings and the SDP by prime minister Lee Hisen Loong and minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew. **** Amazing Weather In Singapore by Authority Sites Directory Blog **** Big Brother Singapore by Batu 9 Taking back policies in a week does not make you look smart or revolutionary, and right now it seems all that it takes for our policies down is a bit of advice from our neighbours. **** Lost Islands Of The Singapore River - Part 1 by Times Of My Life Guess this sandbar is completely removed fromt he mouth of the Singapore River by now. **** Re-Discovering Singapore 1 by Drawing On A Smile **** Peace And Flights by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu I always enjoyed going to Changi Airport, because it was a quiet, peaceful and calm space. But a recent visit to Terminal 3 has shattered this mental image, and I found myself not enjoying the trip at all. It was just like yet another Singapore shopping mall. I guess I should have turned left towards Terminal 1 and 2 when I got off from the MRT train, but I didn't, and now I am afraid of going there again. I guess I'll have to find another place in Singapore where I can find peace and calm. Or I should just stay home. :-)

Permanent Link to This Post **** Transcript Part II: CSJ Vs LKY by Martyn See, No Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** My Magic Sets The Bar For Local Film-Makers by Cara Van Miriah, Straits Times The honour of competing alongside 21 other shortlisted films - including those by luminaries like dcirectors Clint Eastwood and Steven Soderbergh - was an encouraging indication of how far the Repbulic's film scene has come since lapsing into moribund inactivity for three decades after a golden age in the 1950s and 1960s. **** Park 'Dis-connectors' Not For Jogging Or Cycling by Liang Wern Kang, Straits Times I look forward to when park connectors truly connect, even if it means underground tunnels or wheelchair-friendly bridges, as this will help the environment, our health, traffic and economy in the long run. **** Go On, Clench The Iron Fist by Mollymeek The rest of the world outside Singaproe could watch and smile wryly. Those in Singapore could continue to participate in the demonization of Fools. Or they could continue to sigh, with or without resignation. Bitterness could continue to grow and continue to be repressed. **** Molly's Questions For MM Lee by Mollymeek **** Which Hat Was Tan Kin Lian Wearing? by P N Balji, Today However hard he tried to portray the battle in his blog as one between insurer and policyholder over changes in bonus payouts, somehow his previous role in the organisation became the news. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jun 3 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 3 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 3, 2008 Message-ID: <20080603171500.64261.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple's Script by Daniel Jalkut, Red Sweater Blog Kudos to the WebKit team! **** Apple School Deal Offers Free iPod Touch by MacNN Apple today began one of its more ambitious back-to-school promos by offering a free iPod touch to faculty and students buying a Mac. **** From Macs To Speakers, More Gift Ideas For Dads, Grads by Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle **** Mac Time Machine: Backup For The Rest Of Us? by Robin Harris, ZDNet.com It is cheap insurance for busy systems. You can afford no less. **** Apple Fans Prepare For Glimpse Of 3G iPhone by News.com.au **** I'm Getting A MacBook by Mike's Doc Blog Call me a bandwagoner if you would like but this is a decision I reflected on for quite a while. /One should not underestimate the difficulty of migrating out of Windows platform, and that's why the switch to Intel by Apple makes so much sense./ **** Endangered Speices Game Debuts by MacNN **** Apple's Genius Bar Is Genius... by Ryan Hartsock, Beautiful And Grotesque Thanks Apple for a great customer service experience time and time again! **** Apple Stores Across Country Holding Black Music Month Concerts by Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica This month, in recognition of Black Music Month, Apple stores are hosting a variety of concerts around the country featuring various African American artists. **** Mobile Me: What A New .Mac Might Mean For The iPhone by Charlie Sorrel, Wired Here are four things we'd love to see from Mobile Me. **** Lifting The Lid: Steve Jobs Unlikely To Face SEC Options Suit by Gina Keating, Reuters Steve Jobs is not likely to face a government lawsuit over stock options backdating despite legal actions agaisnt a growing number of his former colleagues at Apple and Pixar. Jobs appears to have a strong case. As CEO, he may not have known about the legal implications of backdating carried out by subordinates, lawyers say. Internal audits have cleared him, and federal regulators want ironclad cases, rather than a battle agaisnt the business icon responsible for the iPod. **** Dragoman Offers Batch File Conversion For Mac OS X by Peter Cohen, Macworld Dragoman is a "universal" batch file conversion tool that can convert images, photos, music files and archive files using a drag-and-drop interface. **** The iPhone Trickles Into The Enterprise by David Haskin, Computerworld Consumer adoption may well help accelerate acceptance of iPhone 2.0 in the enterprise, but not without IT managers giving close scrutiny to its capabilities, security, support, price and even durability. **** Essential Mac Maintenance: Get Set Up by Dan Frakes, Macworld Setting your system up right can not only prevent problems but also make a difference if a problem arises int he future—be it a hard-drive meltdown, a natural disaster, or theft. Taking these steps when your Mac is brand new is easiest, but it's never too late to get organized. **** Five Mac Maintenance Myths by Dan Frakes, Macworld Let's talk about what you /don't/ need to do, despite what you may read in online forums or on email mailing lists. **** Apple Announces iTunes Festival, 2008 by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK James Blunt, McFly, N.E.R.D., The Zutons and Chaka Khan are among dozens of acts confirmed to play at the second iTunes Festival:London this summer, which takes place this July. **** No Apple At Apple Expo, 2008 by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Apple has once again decided to snub its European users, cancelling its booth at the 25th anniversary Apple Expo, Paris event. /i wonder if Macworld SF will soon be at risk too. There must be many not-so-happy people in Apple having to worry about putting on a show right after the holiday seasons./ **** 1Password Improves Autosave by Peter Cohen, Macworld 1Password helps keep track of passwords for the web sites you visit. New to the 2.6.3 release is an easier to use autosave window for Safari and other browsers based on Apple's WebKit technology: it now lets you verify that the login information is accurate before saving. **** Thousands Of Palm Apps To Leap To iPhone by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Apple has a developer hit on its hands with the iPhone and iPod touch, with mobile developer StyleTap last night confirming plans that should bring "thousands" of applications to both devices. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Acer Aspires To Lead Low-Cost Laptop Race by Erica Ogg, CNET News.com **** Is Google Draining Or Retaining? by Chris Thompson, Slate Reports of an exodus of talent from the company has been greatly exaggerated. **** Gearing Up For The Rise Of The Mini Web Gadgets by Jonathan Richards, The Times Devices that offer pocket-sized web connectivity for people ont he move are likely to be this Christmas's stocking-filler gadget. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Names by Joe Wilkins, Slate **** Dark, Perhaps Forever by Dennis Overbye, New York Times Although cosmologists have adopted a cute name, dark energy, for whatever is dirving this apparently antigravitational behavior on the part of the universe, nobody claims to understand wy it is happening, or its implications for the future of the universe and of the life within it, despite thousands of learned papers, scores of conferences and millions of dollars' worth of telescope time. **** The Book Collection That Devoured My Life by Luc Sante, Wall Street Journal Why it's so hard to let go of books in a language I can't read... or duplicate copies of 'True Tales from the Annals of Crime and Rascality'... or Tijuana sailors' pornography... **** A Biography Of The World's Most Famous Sex Manual by Michael Dirda, Washington Post The title alone summons visions of exceedingly ambitious sexual postures. Yet the real /Kamasutra/ is even more fascinating than its myth. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Chee And Sister Drop Appeals Against Sentence by Straits Times Explaining their decision, they said they were unable to file their notices of appeal by the deadline because they could not pay the $2,000 administrative fee. **** MediaCorp's RSI To End Transmission On July 31 by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia MediaCorp said the effectiveness of a shortwave radio service has diminished over time,w ith changing technology and media consumption habits. **** Singapore, US Sign Aviation Security Pact by Straits Times Singapore is the first country in the Asia Pacific to conclude a Memorandum of Cooperation with the Transport Security Administration (TSA), of the US Department of Homeland Security, to work on the development and enhancement of civil aviation security, said a statement from Ministry of Transport on Tuesday. /I hope this does not translate to more invasion of privacy for passengers./ **** Lax Editorial Standards At Today? by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye! Hear Ye! The problem with the first headline wasn't exactly the issue of Gopalan Nair being an American citizen but rather, the problem was the original headline was factually wrong. **** Gopalan Nair's 1St Court Mention by Chia Ti Lik A simple first mention for Gopalan Nair scheduled for 9 am ended at 4.35 pm. For the first time in more than 9 years as a lawyer, I saw a criminal case being handled in this manner. **** Card Or IU: Which Is Faulty? by Tan Weizhen, Straits Times Is it the CashCard or the In-vehicle Unit (IU)? It's still a mystery as to what's behind the ERP glitches that plague about 300 drivers a month. **** Singapore Should Sign Pact On Cluster Bombs by Timothy Tan, Straits Times This is disappointing, as even neighbouring countries like Malaysia and Indonesia are among the signatories. **** Thinking About The Long-Term by Tan Kin Lian, Today The comments of your editorial directory about my "strategic errors" arose from a misunderstanding of my purpose, which is to protect the long-term interests of the policyholders. **** Right Move, Wrong Target by Nelson Benjamin, The Star At the end of the day, much of Johor's economy is still heavily dependent on Singaporeans and it is in our interest to ensur ethey keep on returning to the country whether to eat, shop or even spend a bit on fuel. **** US Blogger Charged In Singapore Over 'Prostituting' Comment by AFP A California-based blogger who allegedly accused a judge of "prostituting herself" has been arrested and charged in Singapore, his lawyer and a court document said Monday. According to a court document, Gopalan Nair is charged with insulting justice Belinda Ang Saw Ean last Thursday by sending an email which said she "was throughout prostituting herself during the entire proceedings, by being nothing more than ane employee of Mr Lee Kuan Yew and his son and carrying out their orders". **** Who's Truth Is It Anyway? by Feed Me To The Fish After so many years, I'm happy to note that alternative reports and news are now available on the net. **** 146Th Today Changed Title Of Gopalan Nair's News by Kengho Yap, News Release By UncleYap So they had first wanted public perception of the Mr Gopalan Nair to be American then otherwise later. Some instructions had been issued from the top to have this changed? :-) **** "The Strength Is In The Ordinary People" - JB Jeyaretnam by Jamie Lee, The Online Citizen "People are feeling that they've got to express, but it's not enough to leave it on the internet," said Jeyaretnam, who has applied to set up a new opposition outfit, the Reform Party, this year. He has pledged to address what he deemed as systemic flaws in Singapore's governance by working to "educate, empower and energise" the people and focusing on their civil rights. **** Singapore To Dissident: Go To Jail by Asia Sentinel **** What Is The Regime Thinking? by Eng Chuan Lee, Singabloodypore When a regime is unsure of its political footing, conjuring up a foreign bogeyman is the oldest trick in the book. **** LTA Considers Implementing More Full-Day Bus Lanes by Margaret Perry, Channel NewsAsia Eleven new full-day bus lanes came into operation in the central business district on Monday, and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) is planning to implement more such lanes in various parts of Singaproe to cut travel times for bus commuters. /As a bus commuter, I hope to see bus lanes on expressways and more buses taking advantage of expressways./ **** 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' To Be Weekly Affair From June 4 by Chio Su-Mei, Channel NewsAsia Come June 4, the popular 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' will become a weekly affair. Every Wednesday will be designated 'Bring Your Own Bag Day' at participating retailers, which include major supermarket chains. /I wonder how the reporter can justify the use of the word 'popular' to describe this initiaitive./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jun 4 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 4 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 4, 2008 Message-ID: <20080604171500.8806.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple's Biggest Threat: High Expectations by Larry Dignan, ZDNet.com When Jobs actually delivers another great sermon to the APple faithful there's a slight letdown. Why? Folks got too far ahead of themselves in anticipation of Apple's keynote. **** Apple Inks Japan iPhone Deal With Softbank by MacNN In a statement released today, SoftBank said it will sell Apple's iPhone later this year, but did not provide any other details in the terse statement. **** File-Saving Issues On Mac OS 10.5.3 by Jack Nack, Adobe The slightly longer story is that saving directly to a network is a generally bad idea. **** When It Comes To Apple, Proprietary, 'Schmaprietary' by Charles Cooper, CNET News.com If it's going to attract new customers, the high-tech industry will need to behave more like the consumer electronics industry. That means simplicity. I want to plug in my stereo, turn it on, and listen to a CD. I don't want to first download the CD-enabling software. And when it comes to tech companies, Apple is the closest to providing that sort of simplicity, be it for music or photos. The company's "closed" behavior, you can argue, is what makes that simplicity possible. What limited Apple's appeal is now working to its advantage. **** Apple Expands iTunes U To Four New Countries by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Apple on Tuesday extended the reach of iTunes U into four new countries. Australia, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK joins the U.S. and Canadian universities offering content on the free service. **** Apple And Google's Awkward Mobile Marriage by Hank Williams, Silicon Alley Insider Here's the thing: Apple /needs/ Google. **** Roxio Toast 9 Titanium - Mac Review by Doug Harman, Pocket-lint Toast 9 Titanium is a remarkable piece of software because despite the remarkable feature set, the interface is so easy to use that Toast seems, well, so simple that it cannot do the things it can. **** The Straight-Up Lowdown On Apple TV Annoyances by Christopher Breen, Macworld You fire up iTuns and the Apple TV is there one minute and gone the next. **** Essential Mac Maintenance: Rev Up Your Routines by Dan Frakes, Macworld Macs are rlatively hassle-free—most people can get by without doing any routine maintenance at all. But you can greatly reduce your chances of problems, both big and small, by regularly performing a few simple tasks. **** Monopoly Reaches iTunes Store by iPodNN The latest game on the iTunes Store is Electronic Arts' adaptation of the classic boardgame Monopoly, Apple has announced. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Grandfather Builds Web Browser For Autistic Boy by Brian Bergstein, Boston Globe John LeSieur is in the software business, so he took particular interest when computers seemed mostly useless to his 6-year-old grandson, Zackary. The boy has autism, and the whirlwind of options presented by PCs so confounded him that he thew the mouse in frustration. **** Start-Up Releases Smaller Version Of Flip Camcorder by Brad Stone, New York Times **** Blackberry Deprivation by Jalme Snelder, Weekly Standard As George W. Bush told a small group of friends just days before being sworn in, "Since I do not want my private conversations looked at by thouse out to embarrass, the only course of action is not to correspond in cyberspace." In the last eight years, president Bush has not sent a single message. And future presidents are all but certain to follow in his footsteps. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Inflated Phrases by Christian Demand, Signandsight Most texts which accompany contemporary art production are so twisted and woolly that they could easily pass for self-parody. **** A Yellow House In New Orleans by Sarah M. Broom, Oxford American We stood facing a fifty-foot-long burrow int he ground beginning near the curb and running, shadowlike, the length of where the house used to be. My friend asked where certain rooms were, where Ivory and my banjo-playing dad, Simon, once slept. I tried to pinpoint them, but found myself confused. **** How I Learned To Breakfast (Or At Least What To Eat For It) by Amanda Fortini, New York Magazine Since so many researchers argue that breakfast does matter, I began to investigate. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Attorney-General Says "Human Rights Now A Religion" With Fanatics by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread In a large part of the world, and one with which we depend on for our survival and prosperity, there is a broad current of opinion moving inexorably forward. Silly rhetoric by our attorney-general is hardly the right way to cope with change. **** Singapore Will Wait To See What New Evidence Malaysia Can Produce Over Pedra Branca by Imedla Saad, Channel NewsAsia Singapore law minister K Shanmugam said Singapore will wait and see if the Malaysian government can come up with any new evidence to renew Malaysia's claim on Pedra Branca. "My own view is that the international court has ruled, and both countries have said that they accept the ruling... As to what this new evidence is, we'll wait and see," said the Singapore law minister. **** Law Minister Shanmugam Condemns Attacks On Judiciary by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's law minister K Shanmugam said it is the duty of all citizens to condemn attacks made on the country's judiciary. /It seems like he is saying that all we need to have an independent and just judiciary is to not say we don't have an indpendent and just judiciary, and to condemn anyone who claim that we don't have an indpendent and just judiciary./ **** More Turning To Cheaper Housebrands To Beat Rising Costs by Judith Tan, Straits Times The Nielsen Retail Index survey also showed that more Singaporean shoppers are turning to supermarkets for fresh foods. **** St James Power Station Article by Dejavu If the club doesn't appreciate your money and your business, find somewhere else then. **** Blogger Arrested In Singapore For Supposing Otherwise by ed'sperience **** Thoughts On Singapore Becoming High-Cost, Low-Tech by Noughts It appears likely that we are going to face a future where both the developers of technology and the people who manage them are going to be foreigners. **** AirAsia Says It Needs More Flights To Singapore To Stay Competitive by Bernama AirAsia Tuesday said it would need to step up its frequency to Singapore by at least another four flights daily to stay competitive and keep its rising ocsts, such as increasing fuel prices, at bay. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jun 5 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 5 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 5, 2008 Message-ID: <20080605171500.1597.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Is Here And The Geeks Are Gobbling by Blaine Kyllo, Straight.com The opening of Apple's new retail outlet in Vancouver's Pacific Centre proves that the little company that could is still able to engender the rabid, fan-based response that brought it back from the brink in the late '90s. **** Apple Takes Wraps Off Leopard Securkty Gide by Matthew Broersma, Techworld.com **** WWDC Flashback: Why It's Taken 10 Years From Carbon To Snow Leopard by Pete Mortensen, Cult Of Mac The transition to a legacy-free OS X over the past decade has been such an over-whelming success for one simple reason: Apple has masked the degree of change that it was implementing in each release. When Microsoft and Adobe finally created modern versions of their applications for OS X that were built using Apple's XCode tools instead of the more comfortable CodeWarrior environment, it was clear that Jobs had won the adoption race through slow and steady steps forward. /Carbon was created probably because Microsoft and Adobe refused to port their code to Objective C. Today, if Apple said it is dropping Carbon, Microsoft and Adobe will probably not protest too much, I think, because Apple has something else up its sleeve: a souped up iWork, and a souped up Apeture./ **** OS X Scripting by Ted Leung On The Air The big problem is that developers don't really support scripting that well. **** Mac OS X 10.6 Code Named Snow Leopard, May Be Pure Cocoa by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica The next version of Mac OS X is code-named "Snow Leopard," and will indeed be Intel0only, we have learned. The release is heavily focused on eprformance and nailing down speed and stability. **** The Problem Is Never The Language by John C. Welch, Bynkii.com If you calibrate your expectations of AppleScript correctly, and stop trying to dig a hole with a hammer, it's a damned decent tool, and that's all it has to be. Stop blaming the language for the shit IDE and vendor support. **** iTunes Rentals Arrive In Canada, U.K. With 48-Hour Time Limit by Dan Moren, Macworld Apple's newly announced movie rental service for its iTunes offerings in Canada and the United Kingdom may come several months after the same service debuted in the United States. But the Canadian and British versions of movie rentals do carry one substantial difference—customers in those markets will have 48 hours to finish a movie once they start watching it. That's twice as long as U.S. customers have. **** Data Rescue II, Drive Genius 2 Get Leopard Boot Discs by Peter Cohen, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The $100 Distraction Device by Ray Fisman, Slate Why giving poor kids laptops doesn't improve their scholarstic performance. **** Why Yahoo's Yang Is Holding Out by Robert Hof, BusinessWeek MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Her Killer Meatballs Are The Stuff Of Fiction by Julia Moskin, New York Times In these stories, food has the power to define characters, propel plots, cause riots and even commit manslaughter. **** Vinegar And Oil by Jane Hirshfield, The Atlantic SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Thais, Singaporeans Happy Over Lifting Of Ban On Fuel Sale To Foreign Vehicles by Bernama While Malaysians are crying foul over the increase in fuel prices announced by the government Wednesday, their neighbors in Thailand and Singapore welcomed Malaysia's decision to lift the ban on the sale of fuel to foreign-registered vehicles up to 50km inside Malaysia from their common borders. **** Mystery Shrouds Tamilian's Death In Singapore Prison by S Irshad Ahme, Newindpress.com The hapless parents of Katturaja, 32, of Nemmeli North in Orathanadu taluk are crying foul over the "mysterious" death of their son in a Singapore prison. **** Super Duper Logic! by Mollymeek I suppose we cannot even question whether Singapore is democratic or not. It is when a minister says it is. It isn't when a minister says democracy is bad. **** Singapore's Electricity Tariffs Cushioned By Competitive Market by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Electricity tariffs in Singapore are unlikely to come down any time soon given the backdrop of soaring oil prices. The CEO of Senoko Power, Singapore's largest power generation and retail company, explained that about 80 per cent of the cost of producing electricity here is related to oil prices. **** US Blogger Released On Bail In Singapore by AFP A judge ordered Gopalan Nair, a former Singapore lawyer who is now a US citizen, to be released on 5,000 dollars bail after more than four days in custody. Nair's lawyer told reporters outside court that he expects a fresh charge to be laid against his client, without elaborating. **** 15% Cut In Road Tax From July by Straits Times Road tax for vehicles and special tax for Euro-IV diesel cars are set to go down from July 1, said the Land Transport Authority on Thursday. **** Two Images Of China by Lee Kuan Yew, Forbes **** Can LTA Wake Up Their Idea? by A Long And Arduous Road Of An Entrepreneur Can LTA wake up their idea? They have made taking a cab in Singaproe so difficult and troublesome. **** Malaysian Couple Shocked By Prostitutes Outside Hotel by Arul John, New Paper "I did not know that our hotel was located in the red-light district of Singapore. I had heard that Singaore had red-light districts and some 'black' areas, but I did not expect the activities to be carried out so openly." **** Mr Gopalan Nair Released On Bail by Kengho Yap, News Release By UncleYap In court today, Mr Nair was /not/ charged any additional charges. **** Follow The Money by The Legal Janitor **** Libel And Defamation In Singapore by Chee Wai Lee What aspects of the law protects me from malicious attempts to claim that I had maliciously defamed them instead? **** Of Sharks' Fins And Highrollers by Liang Dingzi, Today RWS has taken what maybe viewed as the first step, which is not something to be pooh-poohed. I only wish it was just a one and only step, without exception. **** Laughable Comments By Singapoer's Law Minister by The Good, The Bad And The Ugly When it comes to politically-loaded cases, I believe quite a sizeable number of Singaporeans hold the view the judiciary lacks independence and that a powerful few are more equal than others. **** Call For Sedition Charge Against US Blogger To Be Dropped by Reporters San Frontieres Reporters Without Borders today codemned a case brought by the authorities under the Sedition Act against blogger Gopalan Nair, a 58-year-old American lawyer, who criticised the Supreme Court's handling of a defamation case. "We urged the authortieis to drop charges against Gopalan Nair, who has only exercised his right of free expression. This charge is improper and will add to the intimidation of blogers and internet users who express themselves about Singapore's political life", the worldwide press freedom organisation said. (Note: This is a press release.) **** Singapore, Dishonorable by Andrew PK Yap, New Sintercom.org Forget about courtesy and graciousness campaigns. **** Can Malaysia Walk The Talk? by Endoh's Dungeon Singapore had always been staged as the /"difficult"/ party in bilateral debates and I think this anticipated episode is also giving the world the best hint on who's the real delinquent. **** No More Ban On Sale Of Fuel To Foreign-Registered Vehicles At Borders by Bernama The government has decided to do away with the ban on the sale of fuel to foreign-registered vehicles up to 50 km inside the country from its broders with Thailand and Singapore. **** Whose Misbehaviour Diminishes Us All? by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread If anything, Lee Hsien Loong's attempts to make his government look moderate (and to "connect" with the people) are now in a thousand piecs with people reminded all over again how nasty and brutish this government can be towards its opponents. **** The Childcare Teacher - Not Your High-Class Maid by Rachel Zeng, The Online Citizen **** Bar None by Singapore Life And Times Ultimately, it's all a business, not an egalitarian society. **** Human Rights Are Not Human Rights, Are Not Right by Mollymeek Maybe it's just that politics cannot be political. Or, to put it more simply, maybe the idea is that we cannot go against the ruling party just because it doesn't respect our rights. **** Who Said No Cabs? Got! by mrbrown Sure we have cabs! Just that almost /all/ of them are On Call! From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jun 6 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 6 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 6, 2008 Message-ID: <20080606171501.97900.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iPhone 2.0 Takes On The World by Arik Hesseldahl and Jennifer L. Schenker, BusinessWeek The new version of the iPHone will do more than perhaps any other device in history to fuel Apple's ability to reach international markets. **** Toon Boom Offers Pencil Check Pro by Peter Cohen, Macworld Pencil Check Pro is line testing software — software that helps animators create and preview a line test movie with synchronized sound. **** Speculation Mounts For New iPhone by Jane Wakefield, BBC News Apple fans are waiting with bated breath - and a seemingly unending supply of rumours - for the iPhone Version 2. /Only one new thing, I suppose, is more or less confirmed: 3G. Every thing else are pure speculations./ **** Decoding Apple's WWDC Clues by Jennifer Guevin, CNET News.com With the company's Worldwide Developers Conference around the corner, our intrepid photographer, James Martin, took a stroll past Moscone West and managed to snap these photos of banners hanging inside before the convention hall heavies came and shooed him away. **** Rogers Wireless Halts June-July Vacations by MacNN Managers at retail locations of Rogers Wireless, one of Canada's three major cellular companies, are being told not to take vacations during a specific period beginning later this month, a source from within the company claims. **** Australian Resellers Get Mystery Apple Boxes by Electronista Australian resellers are receiving packages from Apple they aren't allowed to open until after Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, /MacTalk/ says. **** Voice Recording For iPhone, iPod Touch by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Plum Amazing is a new company that's sprung up to develop applications for the iPod touch and iPhone, and today announced its first two mobile applications, which will ship "as soon as the AppStore comes online". **** iPhone 3G To Hit Europe July 1St? by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com T-Mobile Germany has added a yellow offer sticky in the last few days to their iPhone page stating that they will only be offering the current iPhone until 30 June 2008. **** Future Photoshop UI Changes by John Nack, Adobe "Are you telling me," I asked, "that we're going to put a huge, battleship-gray box into the background on the Mac, as it is on Windows? /Why would we do that?"/ After I'd used the app frame for a little while—well, what do you know? I like it, and not because they pay me to say so. **** The iPhone Stakeout: Part I by Brian Caulfield, Forbes A visit Wednesday evening to a West Coast distributor center of Apple contract manufacturer Quanta Computer shows a company hustling to get mysterious boxees of, well, something, on the move. **** WWDC 08: Early Photos From Moscone West by MacNN **** What Do Mac Developers Want From Apple? by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com **** AT&T Now Out Of iPhones by Charles Jade, Ars Technica **** Apple Rebates: A Great Side Effect Of Doing It All Yourself by David Chartier, Ars Technica Since the company makes and sells all its own stuff, it can run what is quite possibly the best rebate website in existence. **** WWDC 2008 Keynote Bingo by John Siracusa, Ars Technica The bigger problem (if you can call it that) is that, in the past decade or so, Apple has fulfilled almost every long-standing product fantasy. A modern OS, crazy new case designs, x86 CPUs, a set-top box, a hand-held video player, a phone, a newton successor (n.b. "successor," not "clone"), a sub-notebook... what's left, really? **** Does Apple Have An OS X Update Up Its Sleeve At WWDC? by Rob Griffiths, Macworld By making OS X faster, more stable, and more secure, it becomes a better OS everywhere it's being used—whether that be on a Mac, on an iPhone or iPod touch, or on some yet-unknown Apple hardware device that we'll all be craving in the near future. **** Monopolizing My Mind by Christopher Breen, Macworld The people behind coding Monopoly for mobile devices understand how to put board games on the small screen and make them enjoyable. **** iPhone Won't Beat The Nintendo DS At Its Own Game by Dan Moren, Macworld The iPhone, at its heart, is not a gaming machine. Not in the way that the DS is, where every design consideration is given to one task, and one taks only: playing games. /On the other hand, phones have already killed off PDAs./ The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Low Cost, Ultra-Portable Laptops Changing PC World by Sheena Lee, New Zealand Herald For around a quarter of the price of a regular notebook, PC makers such as Acer and Asustek Computer displayed simpler laptops at this year's Computex trade fair in Taiwan, hoping to open up a new market and bolster the fortunes of PC makers as an economic slowdown curbs spending. **** What Newspapers Still Don't Understand About The Web by Scott Karp, Publishing 2.0 Why is Google making more money everyday while newspapers are making less? I'm going to pick on The Washington Post again only because it's my local paper and this is a local example. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Two Poems by Hamutal Bar-Yosef, translated by Rachel Tzvia Back, Guernica **** On The Road, Supposedly Headed For Fun by Jonathan Eig, Wall Street Journal We'll always have Walley World. **** Salad Days For The Internet by Michelle Slatalla, New York Times Buy food online to eat locally? It sounded unnatural, or at least counterintuitive. But the phenomenon is growing nationwide. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Traditional Fishing To Be Allowed In Batu Puteh, Middle Rocks And South Ledge Waters by Bernama Malaysia and Singapore have agreed that fishermen of both countries would be allowed to continue with their current traditional fishing activities in the waters around Batu Puteh (Pedra Branca), Middle Rocks and South Ledge. **** Simple Analogy On How Tax-Reduction Are Not Helping The Poor by Lee Lilian, The Itch To Write **** Singapore's Poor Turn To Temples To Fill Bellies by Reuters Long lines of strained faces wait inside to scoop up ladles of rice, noodles and stir-fries. They then stand next to walls to shovel in the food if they can't find a spot at packed tables. Most are elderly or labourers, in a country that has the second highest GDP per capita in Asia after Japan but ranks alongside the Philippines and Guatemala for income disparity. **** Singapore's GIC To Fully Subscribe To New UBS Shares by Chia-Peck Wong, Bloomberg UBS, the bank with the second-highest writedowns and credit losses from the subprime crisis, plans to sell new shares at a 31 percent discount to May 31's price to raise about 16 billion Swiss francs in new capital, the company said last month. **** Taxi And Tour Bus Operators Expect Big Losses After Malaysian Fuel Hike by Channel NewsAsia THe prices of tour bus tickets to and from Malaysia are likely to increse. Bus transport operators are already expecting to make big losses, following the fuel hike in Malaysia. **** Transcript Part III: CSJ Vs LKY by Martyn See, No Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** Judging The Judiciary by Gerald Giam, The Online Citizen The PAP leaders who have been bringing lawsuits against their political opponents all these years never cease to boast about the independence of our judiciary. Unfortunately, what they don't seem to realise is that every frivolous lawsuit they launch only serves to chip away at ordinary Singaporeans' confidence in the judiciary. **** Sub-Committee To Oversee Joint Survey Of Pedra Branca, Middle Rocks by Channel NewsAsia The foreign ministers of both countries released a joint statement on Friday, saying that a technical sub-committee will be set up to oversee joint survey works, to prepare for eventual talks on maritime issues in and around that area. **** Saving Gaia Ad, But What's The Message? by Choongyong.com I applaud the effort to raise awareness, but questions the message behind the TV advertisement. **** The Real Taste Of Freedom by The States Times With the new AG drawing his line in the sand so early in his honeymoon year, it looks like Singapore will be sticking to the artificially flavored stuff. **** Still Not Much News About Gopalan Nair by Ethical Martini **** Group Takes Aim At SIA's Rodeo Scene by Leong Wee Keat, Today Claiming Singapore Airlines' ad shows "a lack of compassion towards animals," the Asia Pacific branch of the US-based animal rights group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) gave SIA its Litterbox Award. **** Nair Out On Bail, Hopes To Leave by Teo Xuanwei, Today One of the first things that former Signaproean lawyer and ex-Workers' Party election candidate Gopalan Nair hoped to do after he was released on bail yesterday was to return to the United States to settle some personal affairs. Nair's lawyer, Mr Chia Ti Lik, said Nair's car has been racking up parking charges at the San Francisco Airport since he came here on May 25. The lease for his law firm in California is also due soon. **** Tech On TV by Christopher Toh, Today We all know laptops are portable, but just how protable ar ethey? And just how sturdy are some of the gadgets today? These are just some of the questions posed on The WTF! Show, a new 30-minute TV technology and consumer gadget review show produced by Mega Media and King Content, and broadcast on Sling HD, the first Singaporean HD channel. **** A Perfect Hiding Place by Ng Tze Yong, New Paper Today is Mas Selamat's 100th day on the run. He is believed to be in Singapore, but if he did go overseas, one NTU don says it would be to Riau... /There has been no evidence offered by anyone that Mas Selamat is still in Singapore./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jun 7 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 7 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 7, 2008 Message-ID: <20080607171501.49588.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Breaking: Exclusive Leaked Pics Of The iPhone 2! Thinner Design? Check! Different Colors? Check! Video Chatting? Check And Check! by Matt Hickey, CrunchGear **** The Importance Of AAPL's Event On Monday Isn't A New iPhone by Michael Gartenberg, Jupiter Research Everyone wants to be a platform, that's because platforms are powerful. But there's a natural catch-22 to platforms. Developers typically are not interested in developing until there's a solid base (like a million + units) and device companies can't get that base without third party apps. Apple has broken this logjam quite well, giving a real user base of millions of devices to developers who seem eager to flock to it. **** Those Intense iPhone Users by Laura M. Holson, New York Times It's no surprise that 25- to 34-year-olds make up the largest segment of owners, or a third of all iPhone users. But the over-50 set makes a significant showing, too, as 14.4 percent of iPhone users are aged 55 years old to 64 years old. **** Apple Launches Official Keynote Podcast Ahead Of WWDC Address by Charles Starrett, iLounge **** Service Scrubber Cleans Services Menu by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Here's hoping Apple puts more thought into making services more discoverable in the next big cat, and until then, I strongly recommend that you use Service Scrubber to make the Services menu work the way you want. **** WWDC Goes Mainstream by Andy Ihnatko, Macworld I come not to bemoan this phenomenon, but to praise it. **** Ambrosia To Make Mahjong Game For iPhone by Peter Cohen, Macworld Ambrosia Software on Friday announced plans to get into the iPHone software busines with Aki Mobile Mahjong, a rewritten version of their Mac game Aki Mahjong Solitaire designed specifically for the iPhone. **** The iPhone's A Game Changer For Phone Games by Peter Cohen, Macworld I think that original-thinking developers are looking at the iPhone as an opportunity to try new things. **** Bugs & Fixes: Troubleshooting Advice And Mac OS X 10.5.3 by Ted Landau, Macworld **** Apple To Open Store At The Louvre In Paris by John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News For those who view Apple's design sensibilities as something akin to art, the company's plans for a store at the Louvre in Paris should come as no surprise. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Dilberts Of The World, Unite! by David Sirota, The Nation Can a populist uprising flourish in a sector traditionally hostile to collective action? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Cities For Living by Roger Scruton, City Journal American visitors to Paris, Rome, Prague, or Barcelona, comparing what they see with what is familiar from their own continent, will recognize how careless their countrymen often have been in their attempts to create cities. But the American who leaves the routes prescribed by the Ministries of Tourism will quickly see that Paris is miraculous in no small measure because modern architects have not been able to get their hands on it. **** Playing The Odds by George Johnson, New York Times State lotteries, it's sometimes said, are a tax on people who don't understand mathematics. But there is no cause for anyone to feel smug. **** The Ache Of Censorship by Yiyun Li, San Francisco Chronicle Good and evil, black and white, never make for memorable characters. It is the gray banding the nature of every human that makes me still wonder, from time to time, about the people, anonymous or apparent, operating the machine of censorship. **** Sonnet By Billy Collins by Guardian SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** So What's The Game Plan? by The States Times **** The Phoney War by The Online Citizen Given the apparent flimsiness of the charges, the only thing that Nair's arrest might serve to accomplish is to reveal the extent to which the judiciary's integrity will be compromised for political ends. **** Lessons About Discrimination From The Book Of St James by Huang Shoou Chyuan, nofearSingapore Whatever it is, don't tell me that even if I am willing to pay the sky-high price and work to be the best of the best that I am barred because I am not Green or not Singoopoolean! **** "Don't Rock The Boat!" by Die Neue Welle **** David Vs Goliath In Court by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star In the court of public opinion, neither side came out winners. The opposition leader, however, has emerged with an improved standing among Singaporeans who hanker for a stronger opposition. Coffeeshop critics talk of "bullying". **** Restrictions Follow Critics To Cyberspace by Lin Quan Zhong, IPS When Lee Hsien Loong became Singapore's prime minister after his fater, Lee Kuan Yew, four years ago, he encouraged citizens to "feel free to express diverse views, pursue unconventional ideas, or simply be different." Today, these hopes for a city-state that can be more relaxed about criticism and more open to frank debate appear to have been too high. **** Instant Messages Outpace SMS Texting by Tan Weizhen, Straits Times **** What Is Chee Soon Juan's Game Plan? by Today Put those questions in the context of a society that shies away from a public fight, even more a political fight, and Chee's personality, actions and intentions become even more intriguing. **** SDP Starts Fund To Raise $2K For Chees' Appeals by Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times The Singapore Democratic Party (SDP) launched a legal defence fund on Friday and appealed for ocntributions so that party chief Chee Soon Juan and his sister Siok Chin can mount appeals against their convictions for contempt of court. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jun 8 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 8 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 8, 2008 Message-ID: <20080608171500.28547.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Who Will Rule The New Internet? by Josh Quittner, Time Every major player in Techland wants to create the next great platform, of course. What's new here is that it's possible for any number of them to succeed. **** One Month With Our iMac by Frank And Fedora's Blog In this web-centric world of ours, I was surprised at how much the OS still matters. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Fiction Review: Joan Siber's 'Size Of The World' by Karan Mahajan, San Francisco Chronicle Joan Silber's beautiful new novel is called "The Size of the World," but thankfully it makes no attempt to ccount for the world's bigness with its page count. It is instead a marvel of compression - a mere 320 pages even as it spans several continents and lifetimes. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Tampines Considers Extending Trial To Let Cyclists Share Footpath With Pedestrians by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia **** Temasek-Owned Telecom Unit Disposes Stake In Indoensia's Indosat by AFP **** Malaysia Should Start Talks To Take Over Lighthouse On Pulau Pisang, Says MP by Bernama Malaysia should start negotiations with Singapore to take over the administration and management of the lighthouse in Pulau Pisang from the republic, said Pontian member of parliament Ahmad Msalan. /If this happens, my guess is Singapore will want to get the KTM out of the republic./ **** The Singapore Democratic Party: Method Or Madness? by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread If you look at it from this angle, you find yourself conceding, grudgingly perhaps, that the SDP is not completely unsuccessful. Time and again, they bring out the worst in the PAP for everyone to see. The police overreact at Hong Lim Green. Four people standing on the sidewalk saying nothing but wearing similar T-shirts (i.e. less than the minimum five that require a police permit) are nevertheless arrested for refusing to disperse. Judges are made to look like hatchet men for the PAP and both the attorney-general and the law minister have recently been provoked to say outrageous things, making themselves look quite unbecoming. Lee Kuan Yew himself is made to look the bully that he is while on the witness stand. **** Caught In The Pay Squeeze by Braema Mathi, Straits Times Many have seen their salaries and work benefits shrink over the years as bosses seek to cut costs. **** Fishermen Happy With News by Rizalman Hammim, New Straits Times The fishermen around Sungai Rengit, Pengerang, about 65 km from Kota Tinggi, are looking forward to a better catch with the news that they can now fish around Pedra Branca, Middle ROcks and South Ledge. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jun 9 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 9 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 9, 2008 Message-ID: <20080609171501.69832.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Dreaming Of The iPhone App Store by Andy Ihnatko, Macworld I've been thinking about the sort of software that we'll see when the App Store opens and figuring out how much money its first month of availabilty is going to cost me. **** What's Good For Apple Is Better For Everyone Else by Betsy Schiffman, Wired It's a standard line for companies to say they "welcome competition," but it's usually a throwaway meant to deflect attention from strategic vulnerabilities. In the case of the iPhone, however, competitors earnestly have reason to welcome Apple to the market. **** A PC Guy And MacBook Air by MikeyP.com My experience with the MacBook Air has been total computing bliss. If only Windows machines were this elegant. **** 3G iPhone Boxes Showing Up At Apple Stores by MacNN Apple retail stores around the world are beginning to receive mysterious boxes (one box per store) with strict instructions not to be opened until next week, along with new unidentified signage. **** PGP Unveils Pre-Boot Uthentication For Mac OS X by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Long time data encryption company PGP on Monday unveiled pre-boot authentication to the PGP Whole Disk Encryption for Mac OS X. The new features are available for Intel-based Macs running Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. **** The Keynote Line by Roboerto Baldwin, MacLife The queue has already begun for tomorrow's event. **** Shop And Awe: Apple's Australian Retail Debut by Stephen Hutcheon, Sydney Morning Herald Ron Johnson, the head of Apple's retail division, speaks to us exclusively about the new $15 million Sydney Apple Store - the company's first in the southern hemisphere. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Twitter Goes Into Battle Mode In Anticipation Of Apple News by Caroline McCarthy, CNET News.com MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** A Thriller In Ten Chapters by Robert McCrum, The Guardian When I joined The Observer in 1996, the world of books were in limbo between hot metal and cool word processing, but it would have been recognisable to many of our past contributors, from George Orwell and Cyril Connolly, to Anthony Burgess and Clive James. Everything smelled of the lamp. It was a world of ink an dpaper; of cigarettes, coffee and strong drink. Our distinguished critic George Steiner used to submit his copy in annotated typescript. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Integrity Of The Courts by Lee Weijia, The Online Citizen The judgements may becorrect in every conceivable way, but the courts will never have credibility if it is perceived, whether rightly or wrongly, to be biased. **** Finance Ministry Says 3/4-Tank Rule For Cars Going Into Malaysia To Stay by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia At this point, the ministry said, there are no plans to review the three-quarter tank rule. It added the rule is part of Singapore's policy to moderate vehicle usage and reduce traffic congestion. **** ST Telemedia Move On Indosat Stake 'An Insult' To Indonesia Legal System by Thomson Financial Tbk, Indonesia's second-largest mobile phone company, to partner Qatar Telecom is 'an insult' to the legal system here, an official of the country's anti-trust body said on Monday. **** Transcript Part V: CSJ Vs LKY by Martyn See, No Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** Pity That Youthquake 2 Didn't Make It To The Richter Scale by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread What is an education, unless a person takes an interest in, and to a degree, participates in affairs of the world? **** Hiring Executive! by Ramblings Of A Chinese American Expat In Singapore I think if they have this posted in the US, the company will be sued so fast. **** Callous Labelling Of Mental Illness Smacks Of Gutter Politics by The Online Citizen The present accusations are far more insidious than amateur political intimidation. They are a refined version of a form of gutter politics that uses medical accusations to serve political ends that we have seen before. **** Government To Consult Johor N Pulau Pisang by Izatun Shari, The Star The federal government will consult the Johor state government officially before engaging with Singapore on taking over th emanagement administration of the lighthouse on Pulau Pisang. **** Gopalan Nair Case Moves Media Activism To A New Level by Journalism.sg Nair's actions may mystify most Singaporeans - even government critics and opposition members - who prefer to stay clear of legal trouble if they can help it. **** Temasek Unit Says Indosat Stake Sale 'Purely Business Decision' by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg A Temasek Holdings Pte unit defended a plan to sell shares in PT Indosat, saying the divestment wasn't related to a May court ruling compelling the Singapore company to pare its investments in Indonesia's mobile-phone companies. **** Attractions Too Pricey For Families by Daryl Tan, Straits Times Parents say that high admission fees and miscellaneous charges at spots like the Night Safari or Singapore Flyer are pricing them beyond a regular family's reach. A check of 10 main attractions here found that a day out would set a family of four back by $125 on average. **** Fears Of Singapore Staking A Claim by Satiman Jamin, New Straits Times The fear that Pulau Merambong could become another contentious point with Singapore stems from its proximity to the republic, being about 1.6km from the reclaimed area of Tuas. Tales of Gelang Patah fisherman harrassed by Singapore marine police near Pulau Merambong are not uncommon. **** Temasek's Hands In Too Many Pies by Under The Willow Tree Perhaps it is time for the government to rethink its strategy with regards to its management of its sovereign wealth, and perhaps consider some sort of proper privatization of the GLCs under Temasek's ownership. /Will you be comfortable if some private entity manage taxpayer's money? I certainly don't./ **** Pregnancy Perks Extended by Mum's The Word (Or Pa) These little gimmes may not mean much in the larger scheme of things. Yet perhaps they not only brighten one's day, but serve to reaffirm the essential goodness of humanity... /Oh, what nonsese/. **** Character Assassination Of The Most Uncharitable Kind by Anthony Yeo, The Online Citizen **** Freedom Of Expression In Singapore Vs. Sri Lanka by ICT For Peacebuilding The facade of a progressive, westernised society hides the reality of media cocooned in a straight-jacket of repressive legislation and government control. **** Ms Chua Lee Hoong, Why Do You Even Bother? by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net Chua Lee Hoong has made absolutely no effort at hiding the true intentions of the state media which she works for. One propaganda piece after another, each one distoring the facts with greater and greater impunity, leaves me no doubt that Ms Chua and her state media are obsessed with putting the man down at all cost, even at the risk of destroying whatever credibility they have left (if any). **** Transparency - More Or Less? by Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen I would like to suggest a balance to satisfy the call for more transparency and the need to forestall others anticipating GIC's moves - why not disclose on a delayed 2-year basis? Historical information which is more than two years old, are of no use to others, and will also improve Singapore's international standing and reputation for disclosure and transparency. **** 'No One Solution' by Walter Woon, Today I gave the example of those who think that the right to free expression means that one can insult the prophet of a great religion with impunity. I asked rhtetorically, can we accept this in our society? **** It's About Cruelty, Not Profits by Dudley Au, Today There is no middle ground, where the supposed balance meets. **** Tharman Shanmugaratnam Says Singapore Not Headed For A Recession by Chio Su-Mei, Channel NewsAsia Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Sunday gave the assurance that Singapore is not heading for a recession. "From all indications we have at this point, I don't think we're heading for a recession. But there will be discomfort on the ground." From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jun 10 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 10 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 10, 2008 Message-ID: <20080610171501.12063.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Why Users Should Be Scared Of Apple's New Notification System by Josh Lowensohn, Webware This new tunnel for data is a veritable gold ine that's not just metrics—it's attached to user IDs and billing information too. **** Does Apple's Steve Jobs Have Cancer Again? by Henry Blodget, Silicon Alley Insider Many readers will consider this post inappropriate, and we apologize in advance for that. Afer seeing photos of Steve Jobs at WWDC yesterday, however, we weren't the only ones who wondered whether Steve Jobs is sick again. **** Update That Wishlist - I Just Tried A MacBook Air by Christopher Dawson, ZDNet.com **** Code Execution Flaws Hit QuickTme Again by Ryan Naraine, ZDNet.com With QuickTime 7.5, Apple corrects multiple buffer overflows, memory corruption issues and URI handling flaws that could allow malicious hackers to launch exploits with QuickTime movie or image files. **** Dispatch From The Apple Store #2: Foreign Journalists, Tourists, And Angry Guards by Jose Fermoso, Wired Judging by the excitement of the crowds, it looks like the night of July 10th will be another all-nighter for the crew. **** Hands On With iPhone 3G by Jason Snell, Macworld Okay, so maybe touching the iPhone 3G is not as impressive a feat as it was to touch the first iPhone when it was announced back in January 2007. But still, for the next month I've got one up on most members of the general public. With that in mind, let me tell you what I found. **** The 3G iPhone: First Impressions by Walt Mossberg, AllThingsD They haven't added a real way to cut and paste, or to save files, other than emailed photos. And there still isn't any MMS capability. **** iPhone 3G - Apple's Reality Distortion Field Redefines The Phrase "Half The Price" by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet.com However, AT&T has added an extra $10 a month to the unlimited 3G monthly fees compared to EDGE< so over the 24 month period of the contract, that sets you back an extra $240. **** Recalculating... by Chadwick Matlin, Slate The 3G iPhone is coming. GPS manufacturers should be very, very scared. **** Dialing Into The Future by Steven Levy, Newsweek The Macintosh, the computer Jobs introduced in 1984, was a technological breakthrough that never became the worldwide standard he believed it should have been. Today begins his effort to make the iPHone a mobile device not for the rest of us, but for most of us. **** Canadian iPhone Will Only Be Sold With Three-Year Plan by Tod Maffin You will only be able to buy an iPhone if you agree to a three-year plan. **** First 3G iPhone Hands-On Tests Are Thumbs Up by David Chartier, Ars Technica Both Gizmodo and Engadget have taken floor models for a spin and basically corroborate Apple's talking points about the new device. **** MobileMe: .Mac's iPhone-Friendly Replacement by Merlin Mann, 43 Folders I'm really looking forward to getting my hands on this and reporting back to you on how it's working for me. I want it to work great, and I think it can, based on Apple's high standards and ability to control all the pieces. **** Most Important WWDC Announcement: GPS On iPhone by Ian Lamont, The Industry Standard The game-changer in the new iPhone package is "Assisted GPS"—if the technology lives up to the hype. **** Apple's $199 iPhone: How Can It Be So Cheap? by Yardena Arar, PC World How could a phone with more memory, more radios (3G/GPS technology), and better battery life go for, essentially, a third of what the original cost a year ago? I surveyed a handful of experts to see what they had to say. **** iPhone 3G: In-Store Activation Only, Free Upgrades by MacNN AT&T on Monday said that all iPhone 3G handsets must be activated at the time of purchase in the retail store and that all first-generation phones purchased after May 27th will be eligible for a free upgrade to the 3G model. **** From iTools To MobileMe by Dan Moren, Macworld MobileMe appears to be a significant improvement over .Mac, bringing it firmly into the era of the iPhone. Of course this isn't the first time that Apple has revamped its online offering in the service's long lifetime. **** WWDC: Third-Party Touch App Demos by Dan Pourhadi, MacUser Today during the WWDC keynote, several developers got on stage to strut their new iPhone/Touch apps. **** Apple Posts QuickTime 7.5, WWDC Keynote by MacNN **** Review: FoldersSynchronizer X 3.6 by Joe Kissell, Macworld The interface is unnecessarily obscure, and having to keep the proram running all the time fo rscheduled syncs to occur is awkward. **** 3G iPhone In 22 Countries July 11Th, 70+ Total by MacNN Apple on Monday announced it is bringing the much anticipated device to over 70 countries — just over one-third of countries in the world — a year after launching the first iPhone, with 22 countries to have it on July 11th. **** iPhone 3G Already At FCC by Electronista The terse application provides few details but reveals that Apple timed its confidnetiality request to begin with the announcement of the device. **** Analysts: Macs In 80 Percent Of Multinationals by MacNN Corporate adoption of Macs is extremely high in the realm of multinationals, a new study claims. **** Apple Confirms OS X Snow Leopard by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Apple confirmed that Snow Leopard would focus on performance enhancements rather than new features. The OS X update, expected to ship in about a year, will be optmized for multi-core processors and enable "breakthrough amounts of RAM." Apple also promised a new, modern media platform with QuickTime X. The update will also offer out-of-the-box support for Microsoft Exchange 2007. **** WWDC: Apple Slashes Prices With iPhone 3G, Shipping In July by Brian Chen, Macworld The iPhone 3G will sell for $199 for the 8GB model and $299 for the 16GB modle. That's a $200 discount from the previous prices, and it's a far cry from the price tag for the iPhone when it was introduced nearly a year ago. AT&T and Apple have also discontinued their revenue sharing agreement, which provided Apple with a cut of the monthly subscription fee paid by customers. **** MobileMe Replaces .Mac, Adds iPhone-Friendly Features by Philip Michaels and Jonathan Seff, Macworld Dubbed MobileMe, the new service offers push e-mail, calendars, and contacts for users, keeping that information up-to-date whether they're viewing it at a computer or an iPhone. The web-based MobileMe works with the iPhone's mail, calendar, and contacts applications in addition to working with Mail, iCal, and Address book on the Mac and Outlook on the PC. **** WWDC: iPhone 2.0 Release Slated For Early July by Brian Chen and Jonathan Seff, Macworld Apple will delay the release of the iPhone 2.0 software from late June (as previously promised) until early July. But when the significant update does ship, it will offer plenty of new features for iPhone and iPod touch users. **** Review: Daylite 3.7 by John Brandon, Macworld Confronted with Daylite's comparatively high price tag, you may decide to piece together a bunch of lower-cost or open source programs instead. Don't. As an organizer, Daylite 3.7.3 keeps a set of powerful tools in one convenient application. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Looks Like A Million To Me: How I Realized That Amazon's Kindle And Sony's E-Reader Were Exceeding Sales Estimates by Evan Schnittman, Oxford University Press MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Blue by Peter Balakian, Slate **** Battle Of The Skyscrapers by Ulrike Knofel, Salon A building frenzy is raging in Asia, Russia and the Persian Gulf. And cities like New York don't have the money to compete. Will the West soon look outdated? **** Words, Words, Words by Michael Kinsley, Slate My first day on the copy desk at the /Royal Oak Daily Tribune/ in Royal Oak, Mich., the chief copy editor said something that has inspired me ever since. "Remember," he said, "every word that you cut saves the publisher money." But like so much else, this principle seems to have been turned upside down by the internet. **** Buy Me Some Sushi And Baby Back Ribs by Peter Meehan, New York Times I spent a few weekends after opening day this year bopping around to 10 American cities, where I ate my way through 12 major league ballparks. My mission: to hoover down a shameful number of hot dogs and to sample the increasingly ambitious and occasionally delicious world of ballpark cuisine beyond peanuts and Cracker Jack. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Thinking About Critical Thinking by Mr Wang Says So **** Asia Set To Become The 'Home Of The Away Game' by Financial Times **** Human Rights In Everyday Life by Siew Kum Hong, The Online Citizen I think we have spent more than enough years hearing abot our obligations as citizens without a corresponding discourse on our /rights/. The meergence of a rights-based discourse in Singapore is long overdue. **** SingTel To Bring In Apple's iPhone 3G Later This Year by Channel NewsAsia The telco added that it will announce pricing and availability at a later date. **** Cancellation Of Bridge To Singapore by Mahathir Mohamad Abdullah frustrated that his scheme was blocked then punished the Johore people by cancelling the bridge project altogether. No straight bridge, no curve bridge either. The result is that more than RM1 billion have been wasted building the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine (CIQ) facilities, foundation and work on a new railway station, pilings and preliminary works on the road linking the CIQ to the bridge and compensations to the contractors because of the cancellation of the projects. The CIQ building is now a white elephant, unused and yet have to be maintained costing hundreds of thousands of Ringgit a month. Clearly Dato Seri Abdullah has wasted public money. All because he was angry with the Johor people for not enabling one billion cubic metres of sand to be sold to Singapore and the profits thereof. **** A Case Of Similar Attractions by The Bosonic State If we compare the same kind of attractions, like zoo to zoo, then I think it may not be quite on the mark. /Another data point: the Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington D.C. of the Untied States is free./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jun 11 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 11 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 11, 2008 Message-ID: <20080611171501.92326.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The iPhone's Limits by Los Angeles Times Apple and AT&T aren't allowing some web applications on the iPhone, but the FCC is right to avoid forcing networks and devices to open up. **** Apple CUtting Rivals Out Of iPhone Navigation? by Electronista **** Reivew: Papers 1.8 by Flip Phillips, Macworld Papers 1.8 is a great program for organizing academic file cabinets. It makes searching and organizing papers for reading and referencing a near-enjoyable task. **** Safari 'Carpet Bomb' Attack Code Released by Robert McMillan, Macworld UK A hacker has posted attack code that exploits critical flaws in the Safari and Internet Explorer web browsers. **** Apple Updates iDVD, iMovie by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK The iDVD 7.0.2 and iMovie 7.1.2 updates are described in Apple's customary terse style, which says they: "Address general compatibility issues, improve overall stability, and address a number of other minor issues." **** European Carriers Mum On iPhone Pricing by Mikael Ricknas and Jeremy Kirk, Macworld UK The iPhone 3G starts at $199 in the US, but what it will cost in European and African countries still remain a mystery. Except for O2, operators are keeping quiet about details. **** Analysis: Developers Welcome Snow Leopard by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Developers welcomed the news of Snow Leopard for a variety of reasons. Some want to focus on writing iPhone software and not have to worry about any new APIs. Other developers were hapy that it will open the door for Apple to fix some bugs in the existing APIs. **** iSurrender by Tim Wu, Slate In this larger story, the iPhone matters just as one of the last nails in the coffin of Bell's would-be competitors. **** iPhone Games Are Front And Center At WWDC by Peter Cohen, Macworld The iPhone's game potential has given a new opportunity for Mac game veterans to make their mark in the iPhone space. **** Steve Jobs Bets The Apple Farm by Josh Quittner, Time Once you control the platform, you call the tune. And if that happens, it will be Steve Jobs' magnum opus. **** Will The New Apple 3G iPhone Win Over The Corporate World? by Michele Masterson, ChannelWeb One big issue that wasn't discussed much was security, arguably more important on an enterprise scale than on the consumer side. **** Steve Jobs's Apperance Grabs Notice, Not Just The iPhone by Nick Wingfield, Wall Street Journal In response to a question about his health Tuesday, an Apple spokeswoman said Jobs was hit with a "common bug" in recent weeks but he still felt it was important to participate in the Apple conference. The spokeswoman said he's now on themend with the aid of antibiotics. **** TomTom Says Navigation App Already Runs On iPhone by Niclas Mika, Reuters Dutch navigation device maker TomTom already has a version of its navigation software running on Apple's iPhone and has plans to sell it to consumers, a spokesman said on Monday. **** Apple In Parallel: Turning The PC World Upside Down? by John Markoff, New York Times In describing the next version of the Mac OS X operating system, dubbed Snow Leopard, Mr. Jobs said Aple would focus principally on technology for the next generation of the industry's increasingly parallel computer processors. **** Apple Just Killed The Market For Phones by Mike Davidson At the risk of sounding like a fanboy of the highest order, how on /earth/ could the average customer justify purchasing any other mobile device at this point? **** Micro iPhone Charger Only In U.S. by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com Don't you think that Apple could have made the UK version a /little/ smaller? **** Safari 4 To Include SSB Feature And Fastest JavaScript Ever by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica These features make perfect sense in relation to not only increased use of Web2.0 apps like Google Mail or Flickr, but with the new MobileMe service that Apple announced yesterday. **** The iPhone 3G And Accessories: Some Speculation by Dan Frakes, Macworld **** iPhone 3G Is Faster, But Cheaper? by Dan Frakes, Macworld Now, granted, the higher-priced data plan is going to give you considerably-faster data speeds, so it's not as if you're paying more and getting nothing in return. nd the new iPhone is obviously a much better phone than its predecessor. Just be aware that you're not /really/ paying half the price for those privileges. **** (Some) iPhone Gaming Makes Me Sick by Christopher Breen, Macworld The graphics are glorious, the accelerometer controls were extremely responsible, and the results, in my case, were absolutely nauseating. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Self-Writing To-Do List by Lissa Harris, MIT Technology Review New online schedulers rely on natural-language processing to take the drudgery out of getting organized. **** Harsh Words For Microsoft Technology by James Kanter, New York Times The European Union's competititon commissioner, Neelie Kores, delivered an unusually blunt rebuke to Microsoft on Tuesday by recommending that businesses and governments use software based on open standards. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** French Theory's American Adventures by Francois Cusset, Chronicle Of Higher Education In fact, if there is a future for theory, it will start on the campus, provided it doesn't die there. But theory may even find a suitable nesting place there; for now that its passions and controversies are over, now that it has been quietly normalized and institutionalized, it may finally be possible to treat it with a historical approach, a colder eye, rather than with the jargon-filled, decontextualized approach that has been a leading narrative of theory in the United States. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** SingTel's iPhone Reservation System That Isn't by Benjamin Koe You still have to go down to the SingTel shop to confirm your reservation. Yes, confirm. **** Fremont Blogger Raises Singapore's Ire by Todd R. Brown, The Argus Gopalan Nair said he might have gone too far in lashing out at Singapore officials who then had him jailed on a sedition charge. But the Fremont immigration attorney said he was speaking from the heart when he attacked the foreign government on his blog for suing leaders of an opposition political party, then taunted the judge in the case for "prostituting herself" during the trial. **** Up Prices Of Eggs And Some Vegetables by Jessica Lim and Tessa Wong, Straits Times The prices of eggs and some vegetables have jumped at wet markets across the island, according to a Straits Times check. This comes barely a week after Malaysia - Singapore's biggest food supplier - trimmed domestic fuel subsidies. **** SingTel To Sell Faster Next-Gen iPhone This Year by Chua Hian Hou, Straits Times StarHub spokesman Michael Sim said the telco expects to sell the phone eventually while MobileOne is in talks with Apple. **** Middle Rocks Still Off Limits by Glady's Tay, The Star Middle Rocks is still off limits to Malaysia fishermen despite a decision by the Malaysian and Singaporean foreign ministries allowing them access. **** A Taste Of Singapore In Manila by ABS-CBN **** In Singapore, A House Steeped In Tradition by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, New York Times "It is really a quintessential Singapore experience to live in one of those grand old houses surrounded by nature. You can live in a condominium anywhere, but these houses are really unique." **** Singapore Needs Human Rights. We Really Do. by Ng E-Jay, The Online Citizen Singaporeans need to better their understanding of human rights, not because we are a nation of slaves, but because we are often a nation of sheep. **** So, What Must Our Ministers Do To Get Punished? by BothSidesOfTheJohorStraits Even though Khaw soiled himself by defending a guy later proven guilty, the minister distanced himself far from the NKF fallout, and ahs not paid the price for his lack of judgement. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jun 12 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 12 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 12, 2008 Message-ID: <20080612171501.38901.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** 5 Reasons Android Will Kill The iPhone (Or Assimilate It) by Jonathan Endersby, Arbitrary User /If Macintosh can avoid be assimilated by Microsoft for a couple a decade, why do you think Google can do it?/ **** Switch! Or How The Mac (Finally) Won Me Over by Stephen Foskett I've become less interested in tinkering with hardware lately and more in having something that works. **** Apple Presents WWDC Design Awards by MacNN Highlights include Vara Software's ScreenFlow screencasting software, which won both the Best OS X Application and Best OS X Graphics and Media Applications awards; Aspyr's port of Guitar Hero III, which won for Best OS X Game; and Omni Group's OmniFocus, which won for Best iPhone Productivity App. Pangea's Enigmo, used to demonstrate iPhone 2.0 apps, took home Best iPhone Game. **** App Store Has Size And Price Caps, Opening With iPhone 3G by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider People familiar with the matter say that apps uploaded to the Apple-run service via iTnes Connect have been given an absolute file size limit of 2GB that may prevent some developers from producing software with very large, integrated data sets. **** AirPort Utility 5.3.2 Available Now by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Apple's brief accompanying notes explain the updates include general fixes and compatibility updates for Mac OS X's AirPort Utility and Base Station Agent. **** Is It Fair To Analyze Steve Jobs' Appearance? by Kim Peterson, MSN Money Blog It seems invasive and kind of rude to be talking about the man's health. But at the same time, shareholders are understandably watchful over their investment, and any investment in Apple is an investment in Jobs. **** What The Heck Is 3G? by Chris Wilson, Slate The technology behind the new iPhone. **** Apple Vs Microsoft - The Chips Are Down by Rupert Goodwins, ZDNet UK The Red Ring of Death should hang above every technology company CEO's desk - a baleful anti-halo, warning to stick to the knitting. **** Why The 3G Speed On iPhone 3G Is Capped At 1.4Mbps by Michael Kwan, Mobile Magazine The biggest hurdle is battery life. **** WWDC Survey Suggests 70% Of Planned iPhone Apps May Be Free by Sam Oliver, AppleInsider If a survey of developers attending Apple's Worldwide Devleopers Conference this week is of any indication, the average cost of a third-party iPhone application will fall well below $3.00, with the vast majority being made available at no cost at all. **** Google V. Apple by Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek At present, there are few signs of friction. Google and Apple get along well, a friendship strengthened by mutual distrust of Microsoft. But several years down the road, Apple is likely to find itself in Microsoft's position: trying to sustain its walled-off, profitable, and very pleasant iPhone eco-system in the face of unruly innovation driven by Android developers. **** The Longest Week by James Duncan Davidson This shot is one of my favorites from the day. The attendees shown are the first ones in line that had been waiting over 12 hours to get in and were enthusiastic as anything to be riding up the final escalator to the 3rd floor of Moscone West. All it took was a bit of verbal encouragement, along the lines of, "OK everyone, show your iPhones!", and they were happy to share their enthusiasm. **** Move Over .Mac, Here Comes MobileMe by Michael DeAgonia, Comptuerworld What's new now, and what's important, is the emphasis on the push technology unveiled in the upcoming iPhone 2.0 software update. **** Ars At WWDC: Overall, Devs Are Positive On Snow Leopard by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Many developers are excited about the possibilities that Grand Central and OpenCL—two major architectural features slated for Snow Leopard itnended to improve raw processing performance—can offer. **** Running With The Dinosaurs by Apple While paleontologists remvoe the sediment from Dakota grain by grain, Apple technology is helping to recreate his living persona - his actions, his movements, his walking and running gaits - at the University of Manchester. **** Apple Gives Developers Safari 4 Preview by Alex Brooks, World Of Apple Safari 4 adds the ability to Save a webpage as an application, similar functionality to the third-party application Fluid. **** Google CEO Details Delicate iPhone Relationship by John Letzing, MarketWatch Google Inc. chief executive Eric Schmidt said "the vast majority" of searches done through Google via mobile phones now come from the iPhone. Still Schmidt reiterated that he must occasionally be excused from Apple board meetings, as Google is preparing to supply the operating system used to power a mobile device that could compete with the iPhone by the end of this year. **** iPhone Version Of OmniFocus On Omni's To-Do List by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Omni Group CEO Ken Case said the iPhone version of the program solves one major problem the company has for some time—the ability to capture users' ideas easily when they're away from their computer. **** Snow Leopard Specs Revealed, Intel Only by MacNN Individuals who obtained a developer's preview of the OS noted that Snow Leopard requires an Intel processor, confirming earlier suspicions. **** Getting In On The Ground Floor Of iPhone Games by Peter Cohen, Macworld Independent Mac software developers Freeverse Software, Aspyr Media and Pangea Software are focusing on what many companies attending this week's Worldwide Developers Conference have in thier sights—staking a homesteading claim in the burgeoning iPhone application market. **** iStat Menus 1.3 by Roman Loyola, Macworld iStat menus is a good way to find out what's going on under the hood of your Mac. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Microsoft Testing Prototype Of Facebook-Like Social Network by Heather Havenstein, Computerworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** When Mom And Dad Share It All by Lisa Belkin, New York Times They would not be the kind of parents their parents had been - the mother-knows-best mold. Nor the kind their friends were — the "involved" dad married to the stressed-out working mom. Nor even, as Marc put it, "the stay-at-home dad, who is cooed at for his sensitivity but who is as isolated and financially vulnerable as the stay-at-home-mom." Instead, they would create their own model, on ein which they were parenting partners. Equals and peers. **** Scorpions For Breakfast And Snails For Dinner by Matthew Forney, New York Times In Beijing, where my family lives, I once returned home from a restaurant with a doggy bag full of deep-friend scorpions. The next morning, I poured them instead of imported raisin bran into my 11-year-old son's cereal bowl. I wanted to freak him out. The scorpions were black and an inch long, with dagger tails. "Scorpions!" shrieked my son, Roy. "Awesome!" SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Gopalan Nair Denies Charges by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen In his press statement, Nair said, "I did not at anytime send any emails to judge Belinda Ang or anyone else as far as this incident is concerned." **** This Is What You Get by Aidil Omar, Sheep City Such is the fear among the people. **** U.S. Lawyer Faces More Charges Of Singapore Judge Insults by Melanie Lee, Reuters A U.S. lawyer already facing a charge of insulting a Singapore judge was indicted on Thursday in a Singapore court for disparaging another member of the bench in an email he sent two years ago. **** Two Military Recruits Die In Singapore by AFP Singapore's military has suspended its physical and endurance training for three days after two recruits died this week, the defence minister says. **** The Difference Between A Malaysian & A Singaporean (Part 1) by Cowboy Caleb So Singaporeans make good managers in a stable environment where the status quo is to be maintained. Malaysians however thrive in chaotic situations with no clear instructions by behaving like leaders. **** Don't Set Artifiical Deadlines: Singapore Minister To Asean by Straits Times Asean members must not set artifiical deadlines for the creation of a new institution just for the sake of setting up one, said Singapore's second foreign affairs minister Raymond Lim on Thursday. In particular, he said advancing the human rights agenda within the regional grouping should be achieved through an evolutionary approach and any new Asean institution must have the support of all the 10 member states to reflect Asean's diversity, compleity and realities in all fields. **** Gopalan Nair Faces Second Charge Of Insulting Judge by Channel NewsAsia Former Singapore lawyer and ex-Workers' Party election candidate, Gopalan Nair, is facing another charge of insulting a High Court judge. On Thursday morning, the court heard that Nair, now a US citizen, had on 17 March 2006 insulted justice Lai Siu Chiu in an email while the judge was hearing an Originating Summons case. **** Escape Bid From Court: SOPs Not Followed by Straits Times A breach in procedure allowed two detainees to make an escape bid from the lock-up at the Subordinate Courts on Wednesday, said police, which will carry out a probe to see if there was any negligence involving the officers. **** Justice For A Victim, But Many Molesters Go Scot-Free by Alice Cheong In Wonderland This exactly show how the moral of the society has deteriorated. **** What Kind Of Government Do You Want? by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu When you go and ask MOF a question, say, "why is there such a tax by the government," or "why is there such a rule in place," what do you expect MOF to reply? One blogger wanted MOF to, essentially, answer in the manner of "you are asking the wrong ministry. We just collect the money.", or "you are asking the wrong ministry. We just make sure we collect the money." I hope nobody is listening to this blogger's advice: answer as narrowly as possible. In fact, I'm glad agencies in Singapore government, mostly, do not subscribe to this policy. (I don't think anybody will be listening much to this blogger anyway, because, frankly, his debating skills is lacking. Especially since he cannot offer a single piece of counter-point except to just repeat himself louder. Especially since he keeps contradicting himself with statements like, for example, on one page that says "the taxation of petrol in Singapore was never designed as a measure to counter traffic congestion", and on another page that says "I do not deny petrol taxation is one of the various methods on top of ERP and higher road-tax charges etc. ".)

Permanent Link to This Post **** Shouldn't Mindef Be More Transparent About Servicemen Deaths? by Joel Tan, The Online Citizen **** Singapore Film Fest Director Philip Cheah Steps Down by Karman Tse, Today It has all the makings of an indie mystery film worthy of inclusion in the festival that he has been synonymous with for so long. Singapore International Film Festival (Siff) director Philip Cheah has stepped down as its frontman after 21 years — and one year after the resignation of Lesley Ho and Teo Swee Leng, who together with Cheah had been heading Siff from the start. **** Double Standards by Cheryl Soh, Today **** Singapore Can Become A Hub For Region's Arab Community, Says George Yeo by Ahmad Dhafeer, Channel NewsAsia Foreign affairs minister George Yeo said Singapore can become a hub for the region's Arab community, even as it broadens its ties with Middle Eastern countries like Yemen. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jun 13 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 13 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 13, 2008 Message-ID: <20080613171500.86464.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** MeMobile, You Kaput: Apple's Plan To Take Over The World by Robert X. Cringely, PBS The 20 percent market — if that's all that you are aiming for — tends not to be price-sensitive. That market is willing to pay something for elegance or convenience, but better still for elegance /and/ convenience. That's how Apple could charge $99 per year for .Mac and for the successor to .Mac, MobileMe. There is at least $60 in profit for Apple hiding inside the $99 price. **** Fable: The Lost Chapters by Peter Cohen, Macworld Fun-filled, but it may have missed its winodw of opportunity. **** Analysis: Will iPhone Games Lead To More On The Mac? by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Making The Switch To Apple by Sam Purtill, 31fps This thing gets so hot I could make breakfast on top of it if I flipped it over. This is /completely/ unacceptable, I can't believe the FCC (or whatever body governs products here in the US) let Apple release a computer that could get to the temperatures that mine has already gotten to in the last few days. /My MacBook also gets too hot to be a *lap*top whenever I use HandBrake./ **** What Apple's Snow Leopard Announcement Tells Us About Its Future Plans For Intel Nehalem by Ricky Morris, Digitimes It looks like Snow Leopard is being designed specifically to make the most of Intel's next-generation Nehalem microarchitecture. **** Apple's Snow Leopard - An OS Without Any New Features? by Dan Turner, Computerworld I'm liking this idea. Quality, not quantity. **** Did Steve Jobs Demo A Flash-Enabled iPhone 3G? by iPhone Atlas On the keynote-demonstrated iPhone 3G, this site renders the same cheetah image /without/ the "This presentation requires Flash" message. Interesting. /I wouldn't read too much into this, personally. I think Flash is running internally inside Apple, but Apple would probably make a big deal out of it if they are indeed shipping iPhones with Flash support./ **** What It Means To Have No New Features In OS X by NoodleMac Gone are the megahertz and gigahertz wars. Gone are the feature wars between applications and operating systems. It's all about what works together and Apple makes it work together better than anyone in the technogadget world. **** Is Navigation Software Authorized On The iPhone? by GPS Business News It seems these limitations apply to using APIs linked to the Maps application on the iPhone. **** Be Careful What You Ask For by Watching Apple It's fascinating to see how Samsung studied the iPhone, yet missed so much of what makes it lovely. **** When A CEO Coughs, Do Shareholders Catch A Cold? by Betsy Schiffman, Wired We wondered if a CEO's health could be considered "material" — the sort of information the SEC requires a company to disclose to all shareholders equally. So we asked some lawyers. The consensus: it probably makes sense to disclose something that will affect a CEO's performance, but there is probably no legal requirement to do so. **** The iPhone Fingernail Problem by Michelle Quinn, Los Angeles Times Women who have long nails — as well as people of all genders with chunky fingers — have real trouble typing on the iPhone. **** Keep Your Goods Sizzling - Like Apple's iPhone by Elizabeth Blackwell, TheStreet.com What did Jobs get right? Here's how to keep a hot product sizzling. **** Virtualized Leopard Server Coming Along by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com The day that sys admins will be able to run multiple copies of Mac OS X Leopard Server on a single Mac keeps inching closer. **** iPhone 3G Trivia by Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS The outpouring of information by Apple yesterday about the iPhone 3G, iPhone 2.0 software, and .Mac's metamorphosis into MobileMe left us dazed. Here are few details that we left out. **** Memo Hints At iTunes Activation With 3G iPhone by Justin Berka, Ars Technica **** Stop Reading Tea Leaves by John C. Welch, Bynkii.com Based on my experience with the flu, if Steve had the flu? Dude, he was looking pretty good. **** Apple Considering iPhone Sales Through Universities by Kasper Jade, AppleInsider Apple is mulling a plan that would see the company extend sales of its upcoming iPhone 3G through top univerisites, and is separately considering a new protection service plan for college students, /AppleInsider/ has learned. **** iPod Touch: Not Such A Good Deal Anymore by Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica The new price of $199 for the iPhone suddenly makes that iPod touch look like a spectacularly bad deal. **** Where Are The iPhone's iPod Improvements? by Christopher Breen, Macworld Very little has been said of the iPhone as iPod other thna that the iPhone 3G brings "improved audio" (and that may apply only to its phone functions) and offers a flush headphone jack rather than one that's recessed. With that in mind, I'd like to revisit a few of the iPhone's iPod features that could use some improvement. **** Designing A New Game For The iPhone: Enter Kroll by Peter Cohen, Macworld For Digital Legends, it's been a whirlwind month. Prior to May the company had no experience developing for Mac OS X or the iPhone, but earlier this week, its newest game in development, Kroll, was featured on the keynote stage at WWDC. **** An iPhone User's Guide To 3G by Glenn Flieshman, Macworld A 3G cellular telephone network offers something akin to wired broadband while away from a wire, whether you're anchored to a table, walking, or traveling at driving or train speeds. The 3G part refers to the evolution of the cell telephone network. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Doubling Laptop Battery Life by Kate Greene, MIT Technology Review Intel's new itnegrated power management could dramatically reduce power consumption in your laptop by shutting down operations not being used. **** What Were We Talking About? by David Robinson, Wall Street Journal According to the received wisdom, computers are a godsend for productivity. But the practical experience of working in a modern office can be remarkably frazzled. **** Microsoft-Yahoo Deal Really, Seriously Dead This Time by John Timmer, Ars Technica Yahoo is stating that its talks with Microsoft have broken down entirely. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** If A Very Sick Man Was About To Die, Wouldn't You Help To Let His Mother Know? by Mr Wang Says So There could only have been two reasons why ICA didn't do it: (1) ICA is just too stupid; or (2) ICA just can't be bothered. Either way, it just reflects very badly on the ICA. **** Online Citizen: David Vs Goliath In Singapore by Tarani Palani, Malaysiakini A fledgling website in Singapore hopes to emulate its counterparts across the Causeway in bringing democracy to the island state. **** WP Leader Now Regrets Voting For PAP Candidate by Sue-Ann Chia, Straits Times The Bukit Panjang resident said he would not vote for his MP, Dr Teo Ho Pin, at the next election, and urged Singaproeans to 'vote in solidarity to deny the PAP'. **** I Can't Eat Lobsters Anymore (Singapore Trip) !!! by Ryan Hui **** Diplomat Koh Dreams Of Creating Washington's Mall In Singapore by Adam Majendie, Bloomberg Tommy Koh presided over the 1982 United Nations agreement that set the world's maritime boundaries, and charied the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro a decade later. He was the first executive director of the Asia-Europe Foundation and led Singaproe's free-trade negotiations with the U.S. in 2003. In between, the engaging 70-year-old with unruly gray hair and glasses has spent two decades trying to persuade Singaporeans to love culture, first as head of the National Arts Council adn currently as chairman of the National Heritage Board, which oversees the state museums. **** Singapore Expects Surge In Saudi Vacationers by K.S. Ramkumar, Arab News Singapore is expecting a high volume of visitors from Saudi Arabia this summer, with the island nation offering a range of new attractions. **** Gopalan Nair's Quickie Press Conference by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread After the press conference, I sat chatting with Chia Ti Lik for 15-30 minutes more, during which time, he received a call from the prosecutor, I'm told the latter expressed some displeasure that Gopalan Nair had gone to the media so quickly within hours of being charged. **** Are Plastic Bags Really That Bad? by Melody Zaccheus, New Paper "Singapore does incinerate its waste, but the very fact that we are generating so much of it from plastic bags alone is still a problem." See Previously: Trash And Burn: Singapore's Waste Problem , by Gillian Murdoch, Reuters. **** I've Been Issued This Nets-Free Debit Card - Now What? by Esther Fung, Today What happens when a bank sends you a card to replace the one you already have, with different features, and imposes an annual charge that you feel you have to accept no matter what? **** ST Telemedia Sale Of Indosat Stake Gets VP's Nod by Conrad Raj, Today Indonesia vice-president Jusuf Kalla appears to have come out in support of ST Telemedia's sale of its stake in the country's second-largest provider of mobile phone services, Indosat, saying that the sale basically achieves the country's main objective of making the telecommunications sector more competitive. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jun 14 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 14 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 14, 2008 Message-ID: <20080614171500.54797.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Why OS X Isn't Perfect... Yet by First Of All **** Just The Macs, Ma'am by Pipwerks.com The software that comes wth OS X feels more useful, and is certainly easier to look at! **** 3G iPhone Secrets Apple Has Yet To Address by Harry McCracken, PC Advisor We're still curious about a number of things, so here's our list of the questions that we'd love to know the answer to. **** Fanboys At New iPhone Debut Had Sights Too High by Andy Ihnatko, Chicaco Sun-Times 2008 will be the year when the iPhone truly earns its spurs. **** When Technology Is Too Desirable by Steve Scauzillo, San Gabriel Valley Tribune If what happens after its iPod release a few years earlier holds true, Apple will not be the only entity to see increasing profits. Common thieves and criminals will be eating better this summer as well. That's because there is a direct correlation between every new release of the latest palm-sized internet device and street crime. **** AOL Turns The iPhone Into An Expensive Radio by Saul Hansell, New York Times All of this begins to answer the nagging question about how much latitude Apple and AT&T will allow to applications that may challenge their own businesses. **** Why Does The New iPhone Use Old Wi-Fi Technology by Rik Fairlie, ZDNet.com I suspect that Apple went with the older technology to wring as much battery power as possible from the new iPhone. **** iPhone 3G May Be Apple's Most Profitable Product, Says Analyst by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Teardown speculation puts cost of components as low as $100. **** Apple Forces Bathroom Escorts On WWDC Reporters by Sam Oliver, AppleInsider Paranoia on the part of Apple reached a new high this week when the company refused to allow journalists covering its annual developers conference to use the restroom facilities on site without a personal escort. **** Enterprise To Apple: Whoa, Nellie by Keith Shaw, Network World In the end there can't be a perfect mobile device - even the ones in the enterprise now have their limitations - if you're waiting for that perfect enterprise device to be made, you're going to be waiting a long, long time, because it's not ever going to be made. **** Why Is The Market Hammering Apple? by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com After a bit of a bump following CEO Steve Jobs' keynote address at Apple's developer conference, the company's stock has been taking a beating. What is up? **** Seven Open-Source Mac Apps You Need Right Now by Lisa Hoover, CIO **** OS X Virtualization Options Limited For Desktop Users by Rob Griffiths, Macworld There are many valid reasons to install a virtual copy of OS X, but between the company's license terms and the installation limits in VMware and Paralels upcoming products, it just can't be done. **** Apple Updates Xsan Software To 2.1 by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Snow Leopard: Back To Basics by Jason Snell, Macworld Several thousand points out of ten to Apple for having the courage to step off the new-feature bandwagon and focus on making Mac OS X faster and more stable. /There are significant unknowns — like prices — that will really affect whether Apple will get a thumbs up or a thumbs down./ **** What I Hate About Leopard by Rick LePage, Macworld What bugs me is the lack of polish throughout Leopard. It has far too many small things that are broken, or that just get in my way daily. **** Ultralingua 7.0.1 by Dan Frakes, Macworld If you work or play with words, are learning a new language, or work in a multi-lingual environment, Ultralingua is a useful alternative to OS X's Dictionary program. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Lost In E-Mail, Tech Firms Face Self-Made Beast by Mat Richtel, New York Times Some of the biggest technology firms, including Microsoft, Intel, Google and I.B.M., are banding together to fight information overload. **** Is Google Making Us Stupid? by Nicholas Carr, The Atlantic What the internet is doing to our brains. **** Does Google Hate America? by Chris Thompson, Slate The search giant rankles the right by declining to commemorate certain holidays. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Where The Wild Things Came From by Laura Miller, New York Times Leonard Marcus's "Minder of Make-Believe: Idealists, Entrepreneuers, and the Shaping of American Children's Literature" is the story of the apparatus that conjured such readers into existence: the children's librarian who chose to order "The Hobbit"; the publisher (Houghton Mifflin, Marcus's own) who brought it to market, the stores that were out of stock (possibly because of paper shortages). He even has a few words for the parents who, in the mid-20th century, increasingly saw boks as an investment in their children's future. **** American Murder Mystery by Hanna Rosin, The Atlantic Why is crime rising in so many American cities? The answer implicates one of the most celebrated antipoverty programs of recent decades. **** Matinee Idol Of The Travel Book by Sara Wheeler, The Guardian Julian Evans's Semi-Invisible Man reveals that an unerring eye for the telling detail made Norman Lewis a writer of genius. **** Art Of Discovery by Georgina Ferry, The Guardian What is a beautiful experiment? Conventional aesthetics has little to do with it. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** SingTel Announces More Than 10,000 Pre-Orders For iPhone 3G In First 3 Days by Lianhe Zaobao **** Environmental Ad Withdrawn From TV After Viewers Find It Gruesome by DPA A television ad intended to jolt viewers to the impact of environmental destruction on future generations was taken off the air after complaints that a scene of a chainsaw cutting open a boy mannequin were too gruesome, the station said on Saturday. Since MediaCorp started showing the "Saving Gaia" video on June 5, upset parents have written to newspapers and gone on internet forums describing the commercial as "distasteful," "scary" and "shocking." **** Transcript Part VI - CSC Vs LHL by Martyn See, No Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** Parents Considering Additional Health Screenings For Pre-Enlistees by Chio Su-Mei, Channel NewsAsia **** Law Minister Says Attempted Court Escape Result Of Human Error by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia The recent attempted escape by two accused persons from the Subordinate Courts should not have happened, said law minister and second home affairs minister K Shanmugam. It was the result of human error and non-adherence to established procedures. **** From Next Year: Flag Days Only For Smaller Charities by Theresa Tan, Straits Times >From next year, charities with financial reerves of at least five times their annual operating costs will be barred from staging flag days. In recent years, flag days have become increasingly popular among charities because they cost little to stage, but deliver big returns. Smaller charities have said they are increasingly being pushed out by the big boys. **** Human Rights - Walter Woon Is Commenting From A Global Perspective by Where Bears Roam Free My advice to activists in Singapore is that before you draw you gun, take a step backwards, study Woon's words and reflect. He may be talking about someone else or something else in the first place. **** Citizen Woon by The Online Citizen The attorney-general is right that we need a real debate on human rights, but he probably won't like the answers. **** Specters Of Unnameable Soldiers: On Necessary Deaths & Singapore's Tragic Modernity by Mollymeek **** Are Wet Markets All Washed Up? by Desmond Ng, New Paper A recent survey indicates that while more than half of surveyed people still go to wet markets to buy fresh food, more are now heading for supermarkets and hypermarkets. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jun 15 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 15 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 15, 2008 Message-ID: <20080615171501.67080.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** A Farewell To iCards by Thomas Fitzgerald It's an opportunity for some other company to take up the mantle of de-gimmicking electronic greeting cards and offering something as simple and effective as Apple's service. **** The iPhone - Only Served With Apple by John Naughton, The Guardian If Apple's strategy succeeds, an increasing proportion of internet users will access through a gateway entirely controlled by a single company. **** Apple And Intel: Best Buddies by Jon Fortt, Fortune If there were lingering doubts about how well longtime enemies Apple and Intel would work together, the svelte MacBook Air laptop should dispel them. **** Living In A Prepaid World And How Apple Failed To Change The Economics Of Mobile by Stefan Constantinescu, IntoMobile The one company that could have changed it all, failed. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Charging By The Byte To Curb Internet Traffic by Brian Stelter, New York Times Three of the country's largest internet service providers are threatening to clamp down on their most active subscribers by placing monthly limits on their online activity. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Embracing The 'Differences' Of The Opposition by Melvin Tan, A Sampan On Singapore Soil This manifestation of "four schools" exemplifies more choices instead of the "only one choice" mantra provided by the "PAP kindergarten" that treats its citizens like children, such as the lame justifications against ministerial responsibility over Mas Selamat's escape or "trash index" idea of a PAP town council. **** Religion And The Right Not To Respect It by Joel Tan, The Online Citizen The hold of religion over law and policy creeps in like a thief in the night: once we lose sight of it, as is easy in a debate of such an emotional and "sensitive" nature, then we afford religions a trump card, even above fundamental human rights, that they do not deserve. **** Interest In The Professions Dropping by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star While foreigners arrive in large numbers, more of Singapore's homebred talents are leaving to settle abroad. **** Human Rights In Singapore by Siew Kum Hong Instead of dwelling on the controversies at the margins, it seems to me more appropriate to focus on ensuring that Singapore is up to the mark on what is non-controversial to most. **** 'New Food Centre Is Like A Sauna' by Elysa Chen, New Paper Stallholders claim the humidity in the renovated Chinatown Complex Food Centre is unbearable and blame the recent $20 million renovation for it. They said that more parts of the building have been covered up,causing ventilation problems. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jun 16 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 16 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 16, 2008 Message-ID: <20080616171500.27118.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Store To Open In Beijing by Simon Burns, vnunet.com China may be about to see the opening of its first official Apple Store as the firm prepares to launch the iPhone in the country. **** Apple's Open Secret: SproutCore Is Cocoa For The Web by Prince McLean, AppleInsider One of the biggest revelations at WWDC was quietly unveiled in a session on Friday morning entitled "Building Native Look-and-Feel Web Applications Using SproutCore." While Apple maintained high security during the entire NDA-sealed WWDC session, the secret of SproutCOre is out because it is an open source project and people can't stop talking about it. **** Review: Contactizer Pro 3.6 by Christopher Breen, Macworld Contactizer Pro 3.6.1 is, in many ways, an impressive information manager. The notion of the contact as hub to the information attached ot it is an attracive organization idea—one that you might take to. **** Lingon 2.1 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Using a simple GUI, Lingon lets you easily create launchd tasks. **** The Promise And Peril Of Apple by Eric J. Savitz, Barron's My view is that Apple's price cut, combined with its steps to make the phone more acceptable to corporate information-technology departments, fundamentally changes the landscape for the device. It goes from high-end luxury good to middle-of-the-road crowd pleaser. My suspicion is that the STret will ratchet up its expectations for the phoen as the pre-launch hype machine gets rolling. **** Apple's Bait: Application Developers Swarm To iPhone by John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News Apple's soon-to-open online App Store has triggered a scramble among software developers to write business plans aimed at making money off Apple's iPhone, a mini-computer that doubles as a phone. **** Iris 1.0 Image Editor For Macs Debuts by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Iris performs its image editing operations within a single-window user interface, without confusing multiple palettes. **** High Switching Costs by The Paddlewheel In your business, look for ways to make it harder for your customers to switch to another brand. I don't mean the kind of extortion tactics mobile phone companies use to handcuff their patrons. I mean through the services you offer and the mutual investments you make with your consumers. That is what creates loyalty. **** The iPhone's Impact On Rivals by Olga Kharif, BusinessWeek As Apple looks to make further inroads with its soon-to-be-released 3G device, both handset makers and wireless carriers may suffer. **** Mobile Me Shows Apple Still Dislikes Being A Team Player by Pete Mortensen, Cult Of Mac What Apple doesn't grasp is that the real opportunity for the company isn't in becoming a web services also-ran. /I disagree. If MobileMe is going to be core to Apple's strategy, and I believe it is, Apple gotta make sure it has good control over the web apps too. Besides, finding the talents to build a "good-enough" web app nowadays is rather easy, twitter notwithstanding./ **** The iPhone 3G Upgrade Question by John Gruber, Daring Fireball **** My First Mac by Ev's Alphabet Permutations I'll just share a few biggest surprises, something I didn't know or heard about Macs until I ran into it first-hand. **** MBA: Magnum Opus In Design, Style by Zatni Arbi, Jakarta Post The approximately US$2,000 MBA is truly an engineering marvel. It allows you to be productive, enjoy a lot of entertainment, stay connected with our loved ones, put you at the center of attention and boost your self-confidence wherever you use it. **** Don't Laugh At Mrs La Tour Eiffel - I Took My New Apple Laptop Out For Lunch by Caitlin Moran, The Times Yes, damn it, I'm coming out as a proud objectum sexual. And through this rather ravishing door, which I'd really like to get to know better. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Associated Press To Set Guidelines For Using Its Articles In Blogs by Saul Hansell, New York Times The Associated Press, one of the nation's largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.'s copyright. **** Five Hot - And Cool - Storage Technologies by Dave Webb, Network World Canada By 2010, we'll be creating close to one trillion gigabytes of data. Here's a look at some of the technologies that will manage all that information. **** Hollywood Studios Are Editing Their Home-Video Strategy by Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times As one of their most lucrative sources of revenue stagnates, several Hollywood studios are considering something that would have been unthinkable even two years ago: renting films to cable subscribers and internet users on the same day they're released on DVD. **** Google, Yahoo And The Elephant In The Room by Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Headstrong Historian by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, New Yorker **** Slow Drag Blues by Kevin Young, New Yorker **** A Frame by J. D. McClatchy, New Yorker SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Making Steady Progress Towards Digital Broadcasting by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Singapore is making steady progress towards the 2015 target to switch from analogue to digital broadcasting. But MDA said the exact date to the analogue switch-of has yet to be decided. **** US Blogger Charged With Insulting Singapore Judge by AFP A US citizen was charged Monday with insulting a Singapore judge in his blog by saying she was "prostituting herself", a court document said. The latest Penal Code charge replaces an initial charge which alleged Nair sent the comments in an email, his lawyer Chia Ti Lik said. **** One Death Too Many by Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives It is abot time to re-consider the needs of spending more money to safe guard the welfare of our people, especially when life and death is concerned. **** Economists See Singapore Q2 Growth At 4.7Pct - Poll by Koh Gui Qing, Reuters Singapore's economy will grow 4.7 percent in the second quarter from a year ago, slowing from a 6.7 percent expansion in the January-March period, a central bank survey of economists showed on Monday. Economists also raised their forecasts for 2008 inflration to 6 percent from 5.0 percent in the March survey. **** Inflation Across The Causeway by Murmurs, Mutters And Other White Noise There was less traffic on the Malaysian roads. With the price of petrol these days, I think a lot less Malaysians are out and about. This was the same situation in the shopping centre we visited. Less Singaporeans, and a lot of empty parking lots. Petrol stations were empty. Imagine that! **** Q1 Unemployment Rate Up Slightly From Previous Quarter To 2% by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's unemployment figure for the first three months of this year is up slightly from the previous quarter, but lower if compared to the same period a year ago. See Also: Labour Market, First Quarter 2008: Employment Growth Remains Strong; Unemployment Up , by Ministry of Manpower, Singapore Government. (Note: PDF document.) In summary, employment continued to expand strongly in a healthy economy, although uncertain outlook and more cautous sentiments resulted in higher unemployment rate. Amid an overall tight labour market, workers' earnings rose substantially. On the other hand, without corresponding improvement in productivity, cost pressures on businesses continued to rise. **** Pinyin Names by Blabbering Blob Of Blogging Blogger **** CPF Minimum Sum Raised To $106,000 From July by Irene Ngoo, Straits Times The minimum sum for Central Provident Fund members who turn 55 from July 1 will be raised to $106,000 - from the current $99,600, the CPF Board announced on Monday, along with other changes to the Medisave contributions and withdrawal rule. **** Governments Step Up Blogger Arrests by Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica No matter what you think of blogging, internet-basd citizen journalism is a real threat not just to traditional media business models but to totalitarian governments. **** Should Police Cars Be Allowed On Footpath? by Esther Tan, Straits Times Police cars have been patrolling along the East Coast Park footpaths and members of the public are questioning the need for it. **** 134 Accidents Involving Cyclists In 3 Months by Melissa Sim, Straits Times Jostling for space on the increasingly busy roads here, cyclists are getting into more accidents. /The cynic in me is thinking that we are being prepared for a revision in law to allow bicycle onto pedestrian path./ **** Why Only 'Practical NGOs' And For Economic Reasons? by Vinita Ramani Mohan, Yawning Bread It is disingenuous to invite international "civil society" in a bid to make Singapore a "world-class city", but insist that the NGOs that come to Singapore are "practical". **** University Admissions, Employment And Help For The Poor by Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen **** National Service - Who Fights For The NSMan? by Insane Polygons Like it or not, NS has become a liability in every sense of the word for the Singaporean male. **** I Didn't Know I Can't Honk by Crystal Chan, New Paper Under the Road Traffic Act, those who blare their horns while their vehicles are stationary can be given a $70 compound fine or be charged in court and face up to $1,000 fine and three months' jail. Responding to queries from The New Paper on Sunday, a spokesman for both the ICA and the Singapore police confirmed that the authorities are cracking down on incessant honking by motorists at the checkpoints. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jun 17 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 17 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 17, 2008 Message-ID: <20080617171500.26370.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Agony Of A Brand-New MacBook Pro Purchase by Pete Mortensen, Cult Of Mac Apple does such an amazing job adding features over time, that even a three month-old Mac can look a little long in the tooth. **** SoftBank iPhone Pricing Plan Leaked by What Japan Thinks A number of Japanese blogs ar epublishing what purports to be a confidential memo from SoftBank on the pricing plan for the new 3G iPhone. **** Apple's Grand Central Threat To Microsoft by Robin Harris, ZDNet.com Whether Windows 7 is simply perfuming the Vista pig or a significant re-write, Apple's Grand Cenral challenge can't be ignored. If Apple achieves real speed-ups and Microsoft doesn't they will look like a pitiful, helpless giant. And their IT defenders will look like idiots. /Of course, writing applications that take full advantage of parallel processing is hard, no matter Grand Central exists or not. It's just that Moore's Law probably have no where else to go except parallel, and Microsoft was caught unprepared./ **** RapidoWrite: The Mac App That Your Fingers Will Love by Kevin Richard, MakeUseOf.com **** Steve Jobs And Apple's $19 Billion Sneeze by Chris Ayres, The Times For most of us, the flu costs nothing more thna the price of a box of Lemsip and a couple of days off work. For Steve Jobs, the co-founder of Apple, the illness has turned out to be a bit more expensive than that. **** The iPhone Vs. IT's Culture Of 'No' by Frank Hayes, Computerworld PCs are the devil we know. We're stuck with them. And we can still nurse the fantasy that we can keep iPhones out by just saying no. **** Why Korea Won't Bite The Apple by Waiguoren's Weblog South Korea is proud of its electronics makers and tech-savvy consumers. Samsung and LG won't roll out the welcome mat for the new iPhone 3G. **** Big Mac Attack by Luigi Benetton, CBC Winning over consumers who like Apple phones and music players is one thing, but are experiemnts like the pilot project IBM has started, along with Apple's strengths and Microsoft's woes with Vista, enough to encourage companies to bet their business operations on a switch from Widnows computers to Macs? **** Parallels Slices Up Apple Xserve by Scott Ferguson, eWeek Paralles is releasing the full version of its Parallels Server for Mac June 17, which works with any of Apple's Intel-based hardware such as the Xserve or the Mac Pro. The virtualization software also works with Apple's OS X Leopard Server. **** The Infinite Loop by Mac Daddy World You can separate the OS X feature engineering work done by Apple into two categories. There's the features that are exciting to the typical Mac user, and then there's the features that are only exciting to software developers. When Apple says that they're "hitting the pause button on new features", they're talking about the first category of features. **** Grand Opening Of Australia's First Apple Store On June 19Th by Aayush Arya, MacUser **** Visual Voicemail Dispute Settled, Licensing Deal by MacNN Apple and AT&T have reached a settlement with lausner Technology over patent disputes, and have agreed to license the technology from the firm. **** Will Current iPhone Owners Upgrade To 3G? by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Apple Restricting iDisk Browser Access by MacNN Apple has begun restricting the supported browsers for the iDisk storage compnent of .Mac, reports say. **** United Connects iPods, iPhones On International Flights by Peter Cohen, Macworld United Airlines on Monday announced plans to offer a new in-flight entertainment system on some of its aircraft that will enable iPod and iPhone users to connect their devices. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Demand For Data Puts Engineers In Spotlight by Steve Lohr, New York Times Today, data center experts are no longer taken for granted. The torrid growth in data centers to keep pace with the demands of internet-era computing, their immense need for electricity and their inefficient use of that energy pose environmental, energy and economic challenges, experts say. **** AP Wants Change In Blog Excerpting, Just Not Sure What by Joseph Weisenthal, PaidContent.org The AP is spoiling for a fight it can't win. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Web Time Forgot by Alex Wright, New York Times Historians typically trace the origins of the World Wide Web through a lineage of Anglo-American inventors like Vannevar Bush, Doug Engelbart and Ted Nelson. But more than half a century before Tim Berners-Lee released the first web browser in 1991, Otlet (pronounced ot-LAY) described a networked world where "anyone in his armchair would be able to contemplate the whole of creation." SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Reform Party Approved!! Congratulations! by Kengho Yap, News Release By UncleYap **** 8 In 10 Singapore Households Now Hooked On Broadband by Straits Times 82.5 per cent of households here are now hooked up to broadband service, according to minister for information, communications and the arts Lee Boon Yang. **** Praised Be Singaporean Dissidents by Jon Katz, Underdog Fortunately, Singapore is not the monolithic lockstep place that many of its rulers have sought. Numerous Singaporean dissidents are willing to speak out, and to do so in a vibrant, fearless, calm, intelligent and apparently effective way. **** Government's Graduate Equation Needs Balancing by Gerald Giam, The Online Citizen The argument that having more universities will /lower/ overall standards is a red herring. No one wants the NUS, NTU and SMU to lower their standards and rankings. There is no reason to expect this to happen if a fourth or fifth university were to set up. Why can't each university be the "best in the class"? **** All-Time High Of 52M Train Rides In May by Leong Wee Keat, Today Both operators say the hike can be attributed to many factors, such as a change in travel patterns, population growth, employment growth and the government's push for more people to take public transport. **** In The Wake Of His Trail by The Panegyrist I'm not really sure that the Mas Selamat incident had — or will have — any real lasting effect on Singaporean trust in the PAP. **** Should We Hang Illegal Immigrants Or Children Beyond Parental Control? by The J-Thing Is there really a need to kill the dog? **** Why Shut Down RSI? by Zhuang Yongkang, Lianhe Zaobao **** Sports Hub May Now Be Ready Only By 2012 by Leonard Lim, Straits Times The completion date for the Singapore Sports Hub has again been pushed back - and looks likely to be ready only by 2012. The two-year delay has disappointed some national sports associations, who were hoping to bid to host world-class competitions at the new venue. **** After The Flurry, Tame Response To Telcos' Offers by Hedirman Supian, Today Offers galore were dangled by telcos as mobile number portability was launched last Friday, but subscribers have not exactly been jumping to switch providers — yet. **** Bikes Vs Bus by Sharon Lim, Today If the authorities are serious about encouraging Singaoreans to cycle to work or school, shouldn't they also ensure the cyclists are treated as rightful road users? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jun 18 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 18 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 18, 2008 Message-ID: <20080618171501.60944.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple: Microsoft's Other Nemesis by Heidi N. Moore, Wall Street Journal Apple is just as formidable a competitor, with a well-documented history of menacing Microsoft's lead in advertising, mobile and software. **** iPod Touch Supplies Seeing Shortages, Changes Due By September by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider Stocks of some iPod touch models are starting to run low and may be connected to recent promotional announcements, according to one Wall Street analyst, who also notes that the advent of the $199 iPhone 3G will put pressure on Apple to alter its pricing on the high-end media players in the next few months. **** Apple Is Silicon Valley's Sweatshop by Nick Farrell, The Inquirer Lower wages but they love it. **** NoobProof 1.1 And WaterRoof 2.0 by Dan Frakes, Macworld Mac OS X's built-in firewall—an implementation of the Unix ipfx program—works well, but Apple offers very few options for configuration. Hanynet's NoobProof 1.1 and WaterRoof 2.0 are utilities that provide just such customization. **** My Most Anticipated (Announced) iPhone Applications by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com I've already got a few favorite iPhone applications based on early descriptions and screen shots that have surface since WWDC. **** MobileMe: What You Need To Know by Macworld Here's what to expect when Apple throws the switch, and .Mac transforms into MobileMe. **** Switching From PC To Apple; A Programmer's Perspective by Great White North Prognostications I would say that productivity is way up with the exception of some key slips where I use the Windows key combos. **** New Apple Store Is A Glass Act by Stephen Hutcheon, Sydney Morning Herald For a place that sells only Macs, there are a lot of windows in the new $15 million Sydney Apple Store. And, although the doors won't be opening to the public until 5 pm on Thursday, a queue of enthusiasts has already formed outside the interlocking glass panels that form the facade of Apple's first retail outlet in the southern hemisphere. **** Criminal Defense Law With An Apple: Seven Reasons To Switch To An Apple by Aaron Pelley, Law Trends & News Practice Area Newsletter Go to an Apple store and try using an Apple comptuer. See what you think. I bet within a few months you will be trying to figure out why you did not switch your office over sooner. **** She's The Apple Of Their Eye by Valerio Veo, SBS World News Australia There's a glint in an Apple aficionados eye when they talk about their favorite product that can be described as evangelic, a little weird, or both. **** Petite Model Perfects The Art Of Exploiting Apple by Stephen Hutcheon, The Age They don't keep tabs on this sort of things but, if they did, Isobella Jade would probably hold the record for being Apple's most famous freeloader. **** 16:9 Computer Displays: Let's Not Go There by Dan Knight, Low End Mac Perfect for HDTV, but not for computing. /Besides, you are not a true movie fan if you are fussy about having black bars on the sides of the screen./ **** Apple: Mac Unit Sales Grew 50% In May by Eric Savitz, Barrons **** The New UI Wars: Why There's No Flash On iPhone 2.0 by Counternotions In this highly charged and competitive marketplace to establish the next UI paradigm for mobile devices, Apple is not about to give Adobe or any other company free reins to dilute its brand proposition by introducing cross-platform, common-denominator UIs and interaction patterns to be mingled with Apple's carefully orchestrated multi-touch approach. **** The Battle Of The Browsers by Greg Lamb, Christian Science Monitor At stake for Microsoft and Apple are prestige and name recognition, or, for Mozilla, the quest to promote an "open source" world of software. Commerce isn't too far behind, of course. Even though browsers don't directly create revenue, they are indirect pathways to it. **** Apple Proposes OpenCL As High-Speed Computing Standard by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider Apple has signed on to an industry-wide alliance that will see many companies, including some of the Mac maker's processor and video card suppliers, work together to develop an open format for accelerating specialized computing. **** iPhone 3G Activation Will Be Required At Time Of Purchase by Jim Darlymple, Macworld AT&T spokesman Mark Siegel confirmed for /Macworld/ that activation must be done at the time of purchase, in-store. **** Author Elliot Aronson. Measuring Mistakes. by Apple "When Mac OS X was released with VoiceOver it was a lifesaver. It's the single most important technical invention for me. It kept me in the game, allowed me to write without really being able to see the words on the screen." **** Review: Amnesty Singles 1.3.3 by Craig Grannell, Cult Of Mac **** Apple Sydney Store Unveiled, Opens June 19Th by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com **** Parallels Releases First Intel Mac Server Virutlaization Software by Eric Lai, Computerworld $999 per server allows for an unlimited number of CPU cores. **** iDisk Now Unsupported By Firefox 3, Safari For Windows by Justin Berka, Ars Technica **** The Curious Case Of The Missing iPhone Features by Thomas Fitzgerald I'm just curious to know what Apple's reasoning is for leaving out features that would seem, given the numerous demos of how quick it is to write software for the iPhone, to be easy enough to implement. **** Phone Plugins Brings Quick-Dial To Leopard by MacNN Nova Media has released Phone Plugins, a utility that allows one-click dialing and text messaging from any application in Leopard. **** So How Do iPhone Apps Save Files? by Jason Snell, Macworld The web's going to have to come to the rescue here. /A lot of new things to learn as developers move from creating desktop applications and web applications to iPhone applications./ **** Firrefox 3.0 Released, Servers Overwhelmed by Peter Cohen, Macworld Mozilla released Firefox on Tuesday after a public preview that lasted months. New features include one-click bookmarking, instant web site ID (to help identify online scams and unsafe transactions), improved performanc,e web page zooming, password management, a smart location bar, and platform-native look and feel. **** CodeWeavers Ships CrossOver 7 Virtualization Software by Peter Cohen, Macworld CrossOver enables Intel-based Macs to run Windows applications. It works differently from other virtualization software because it doesn't require Windows to be installed in order to run Windows software. **** iPhone 3G: What You Need To Know by Macworld Here's what we've figured out after talking to AT&T, scouring the web, and racking our brains. **** Adobe: iPhone Flash In Early Development by MacNN An iPhone version of Adobe's ubiquitous Flash plug-in is still early into development, the company has admitted. /Adobe should really avoid over-promising, even if the barrier lies entirely within Apple./ **** Review: Now Up-To-Date & Contact 5.3 by Jeffery Battersby, Macworld Excellent contact manager in holding pattern. **** Apple Offers Xserve Firmware Patch by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK The Xserve EFI Firmware Update 1.1 fixes several issues to improve the stability of Xserves, Apple advises of its 1.6MB patch. **** Tidy Up! 1.4.2 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Hyperbolic Software's Tidy Up! is a powerful solution to finding and removing duplicate files. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Yahoo's Yang May Be Yearning For Yesterday by Jessica Guynn, Los Angeles Times **** At Social Site, Only The Busiensslike Need Apply by Brad Stone, New York Times Now, in the midst of Silcon Valley's recession-proof enthusiasm for community-oriented web sites, the most boring of the social networks is finally grabbing the spotlight. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Washington: City And Symbol - Or Neither? by Kenneth Ringle, European Affairs If Washington seems disappointing as a modern urban center (and perhaps to some European vistors as a national capital), it is not all L'Enfant's fault. In his fascinatingly vivid account of the city's first planner and his modern legacy, Scott Berg, a Pulizer prize-winning biographer and historian of the American heritage, shows that L'Enfant designed a substantially more libable national capital than the one the nation has ended up with. **** Scenes From A Weekend Poetry Conference by Rebecca McClanahan, Brevity 27 **** Watch by Eamon Grennan, Slate SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Marina Boulevard Closed Temporarily After Soil Near Road Sinks by Hiroshi Limmell, Channel NewsAsia **** Misreporting By Reporters Without Borders by Article 14 This kind of reporting does not, in any way, assist in promoting the truth. **** Singapore Exports Fall As Western Demand Ebbs by John Jannarone, Wall Street Journal Exports from Singapore in May fell the most in more than two years as shipments to the U.S. and Europe tumbled, highlighting the island state's exposure to weaker demand from Western developed economies. The data come as Singapore's central bank has embraced a stronger currency to fight inflation; that policy tool might be causing unwanted harm to the important manufacturing sector. **** Singapore Table Tennis: Is There More - Or Less - Than Meets The Eye? by The SingaporeSportsfan Says... I will feel no pride should our women paddlers go on to break our 48-year Olympic medal drought at Beijing in August. **** Manifesto For A New Singapore - In Honour Of My Favourite Young Politician's 18Th Birthday by Tang Li, Desparatebeep Singapore has run a successful course but it is now necessary to ensure it continues to do so in the future. **** Temasek To Reduce Stake In Shin Corp by Amy Kazmin, Financial Times Singapore's Temasek Holdings plans to reduce its stake in Shin Corp, the Thai group it took control of more than two years ago, through a public offering of shares. Shin Corp shares are trading at Bt25 per share, a 35 per cent discount to their net asset value, reflecting the political changes in Thailand and Mr Thaksin's fortunes since the purchase. **** STT Divestment Clears Pebble From Temasek's Shoe by Vincent Lingga, Jakarta Post Selling the stake to Qatar Telecom was simultaneously a clever business and political decision. **** Up, Up And Away - The ERP Takes Off by Mr Wang Says So Car ownership just makes you a rather easy victim for the government's Pay-&-Pay policies. **** Baby Bust! The World Is Panicking Over Birthrates. Again. by Kerry Howley, Reason Magazine Modern fertility panic stems from a desire to reshape polyglot cultures, to regain control over women's reproductive choices, and to locate a single, easy-to-undersand culprit for disparate social problems. As they have for hundreds of years, societies are projecting their deepest anxieties onto empty wombs. **** Cabinet To Decide On AirAsia's Proposal by New Straits Times AirAsia's propoal to increase the number of flights to Singapore will be referred to the cabinet, transport minister Datuk Ong Tee Keat said yesterday. **** I Am Opposed To The Idea Of Allowing Cyclists Onto Pavement by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu For the record, I am opposed to the idea of changing the law so that cyclists can ride on pedestrian walkways. Essentially, this will simply transfer the problem of bullying from the roads (by motorists to cyclists) to the walkways (by cyclists to pedestrians.)

Permanent Link to This Post **** Suggestions Are Not Welcomed by Tan Kin Lian, The Online Citizen **** Talking Cock! by Abdul Salim, You Have A Choice What about our own ministers? Do they have the heart? Why don't any of them take the initiative for a pay cut? Streamline the government. Is there a need for a minister mentor post in the government? Isn't it just a waste of money and resources? **** Opposition Politician JBJ's Reform Party Gets Approval by Lin Yan Qin, Today More than a year after veteran opposition politician Joshua Benjamin Jeyaretnam announced he was formng a new political party and making a political comeback, the Reform Party is now an officially-registered society. **** Give Singaproeans More Information - Seelan Palay by Andew Loh, The Online Citizen **** National Service - What They Can Do About It by Insane Polygons The problem is not with NS but with how it's bbeing implemented. **** Family: We Lost $290,000 Over Back Lane by Celine Lim, New Paper While trying to retrieve an online copy of the title deed to the back lane, the Goh family found out that the tiny strip of land had been acquired by the government in an island-wide exercise in April last year. The family said they did not recieve any letter informing them that the back lane had been acquired. Neither did they get any compensation. **** Bike Ride Paradise by Bryan MacKinnon, Today In comparison to other major cities in the West, there are very few bike paths in Singapore. **** ERP Rates In CBD To Go Up, 5 New Gantries Added by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia The electronic road pricing (ERP) rates for 32 of 65 gantries will increase by between 50 cents and S$2.00. Five new ERP gantries along the Singapore River will also be activated on July 7. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jun 19 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 19 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 19, 2008 Message-ID: <20080619171500.72166.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The False Hope Of Apple's Snow Leopard by Hank Williams, Why Does Everything Suck? The problem is that most algorithms and progam logic cannot be made to run better across many processors. This is not a swipe at Apple, because the problem is indeed industry wide. **** The Sydney Apple Store Is Open! by Gizmodo Australia The corner of George Street and King Street was packed, shoulder-to-shoulder with curious workers, interested tourists and indifferent passers-by. But no matter who it was, there was one company on everybody's lips — Apple. **** Apple Upgraded On Bullish iPhone Predictions by Jonathan Richards, The Times Wall Street continued to make bullish predictions about Apple after reports suggested that sales of the company's Mac computers grew far more than expected in the year to May. **** iTunes Store - Five Billion Sold And Counting by Peter Cohen, Macworld Apple on Thursday announced that mre than five billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from its iTunes Store. **** Kid Rock Explains iTunes Boycott by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK Apple gets paid, labels get paid, artists don't. **** A Closer Look At Snow Leopard Server by John C. Welch, Macworld The majority of new features are server-specific new features, along with all the performance and reliability improvements Apple is making in the client version of Snow Leopard. **** Apple Store Sydney Unveiled by Matthew JC Powell, Macworld **** The Genius Of The Apple Store: Tech Support Heaven by Seamus Byrne, APC We've already heard many Aple resellers are worried about this opening. Maybe we should add service centres and training colleges to the list. **** I Was At Apple Switch World At Gurney Plaza by Nicholas Chan **** iQueue: Apple WIll Open To An International Line-Up by Stehen Hutcheon, Sydney Morning Herald They came with their sleeping bags, flasks of hot chocolate and fold-out chairs and they formed a queue, hoping to be among the first to enter Apple's $15 million flagship store when it opesn for business today. **** How The Apple Store Became More Than A Shop by Chloe Lake and Andrew Ramadge, News.com.au "They've all drunk the Kool-Aid." **** New iPhone Signals An Apple Defeat by Kevin J. O'Brien, International Herald Tribune Apple's retreat marks a subtle yet significant victory for operators, who use subsidies to determine how, when and where the latest mobile communications technology is put into the hands of consumers. That practice was challenged by Apple; now it will probably remain the industry standard, analysts said. **** iPod On Long Road Downhill As iPhone Halo Effect Kicks In by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider A new forecast has the iPod's influence on Apple dropping steadily over the next few years as the iPhone cannibalizes its sales and generates a halo around the Mac. **** More iPhone Camera Megapixels Would Be Worse, Not Better by Iljitsch van Beijnum, Ars Technica The extra pixels wouldn't help with anything, in fact, and could even hurt under some circumstances. **** Firefox 3 For Mac: Is It TIme To Switch From Safari? by Scot Finnie, Computerworld Firefox has caught up to Safari's performance but has not surpassed it in any notable way. What that means is that the decision is effectively a photo finish for the legions of Safari users on the Mac. It will probably come down to individual perceptions and predilections. **** In Ten Years Time, Will Apple Be The New Microsoft - An Abusive Monopoly? by Ian Betteridge, Technovia While it is extremely convenient for consumers in the short-term, the potential for abuse is there, and in the long term, as its market share grows, Apple will have to be very careful about which applications it decides not to allow on the iPhone. **** Study: 91% Of Japanese Don't Want iPhone 3G by Electronista The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Can Yang Survive At The Top Of Yahoo? by Jack Schofield, The Guardian MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Leaving The Country by Susannah Felts, Please Don't **** The Breakthrough: Feminism And Literary Criticism by Judith B. Walzer, Dissent Feminist criticism as these four writers practice it returs us (or should have) to one of the basic purposes of criticism—to have and defend a reasoned, coherent point of view. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Johor Sultan Vows To Find Ways To Reclaim Batu Puteh by Farik Zolkepli, The Star Sultan of Johor Sultan Iskandar Ismail has vowed to find numerous ways in order to reclaim Batu Puteh or Pedra Branca. **** Double Or Nothing by Una Galani, Business Spectator Barclays' promised reward never materialised. Its bid for ABN Amro failed, and Temasek and CDB's investment has since lost more than half its value. So why would sovereign funds go back for more? Temasek and CDB's participation in the $pound;4 billion share issue would help mask their existing losses. Buying more shares will lower their average buy-in price and help spread the financial hit. **** Pedra Branca On The Map by Otterman Speaks... **** National Service, National Responsibilities by The Online Citizen The military must recognize that it is a public organzation that is mostly staffed by people against their free will. This restriction of such a basic human right must be recompensed through a pledge of honour and professionalism, to develop each enlistee's potential to the fullest. **** Small Players Need Support by Koh Chin Chye, Today I am in full support of the LTA's move to open up th public transport industry, but this can only happen if small players are given the support to ease into the industry. **** Illegal Recording Of Court Proceedings Appear On SDP's Website by Lianhe Zaobao **** Singapore Cars Using Causeway May Have To Help Fund New JB Road by Leslie Lopez, Straits Times Conract says toll will be levied on vehicles entering Malaysia to pay for new link to North-South highway. /Given that Singpaore matches the toll on Causeway, looks like LTA will have new funding for its upcoming North-South expressway./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jun 20 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 20 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 20, 2008 Message-ID: <20080620171501.65131.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** For God's Sake, Get eBooks Going, Steve Jobs! by Mike Cane **** A Mac Geek's Take On Birth Announcements by Dan Frakes, Macworld People want to know all about the baby /now/. **** Steve Jobs Can Never Die by Mark Morford, San Francisco Chronicle Will Steve Jobs be around awhile? Would it not seem brutally unfair and wrong were he to depart, thus potentially toppling one of the seminal technology and design companies of the world and creating a massive vacuum and inducing a great wonder as to where the next world-class game-changer will come from? **** Could Old Macs Be Left Behind By New Operating System? by John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News Observers don't expect Jobs to say much more about Snow Leopard until January at the company's annual Macworld conference. But just a glimpse of the latest big cat from Apple has created speculation and buzz among Mac fans and analysts. **** Why The New iPhone WIll Squash BlackBerry by Mark Frary, The Times While the BlackBerry has a uge following, the iPhone's desirability coupled with industrial-strength push email will see that dominance come to an end. **** Replacing Apple's Irreplaceable Steve Jobs by Priya Ganapati, TheStreet.com Many believe investors pay a "Steve Jobs premium" for the stock. **** SmartBackup 2.2 by Dan Frakes, Macworld What makes FreeRideCoding's SmartBackup 2.2.4 unique is that—in addition to most of the usual trimmings of a ood backup program, including incremental and bootable backups, network backups, and the ability to retrieve files from your backups using the Finder—it lets you define files to be backed up using saved Spotlight searches. **** The iPhone's Next Frontier: Porn by Jeremy Caplan, Time Sensing the start of a profitable new era for pocket porn, the adult entertainment industry is investing heavily and feverishly broadening its marketplace of iPhone porn. **** SecureMac Discovers Trojan Horse Targeted At Mac OS X by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Secure claims o have discovered several variants of a Trojan horse in the wild targeted at users of Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. The Trojan is being distributed from a hacker web site through iChat and Limewire, the company said. **** WWDC 2008 Miscellany by John Gruber, Daring Fireball **** Apple Says The Price Is Right by Stephen Hutcheon, Sydney Morning Herald The head of Apple's highly successful retail division denies the company is slugging local customers more for its products by failing to pass on the benefits of the strong Australian dollar. **** Selling Big Business On The iPhone by Jon Fortt and Michal Lev-Ram, Fortune Apple is taking a new corporate-friendly tact with the iPhone as it tries to convince companies that it means business about meeting their needs. **** iPod Air: See You In September? by Mike Cane The iPod touch can't be sustained at its current price point. **** The Music Industry Abuses Us And We're To Blame by Don Reisinger, CNET News.com Because iTunes is such a success, we've given the record industry the license it needs to keep abusing its power and ensuring that we can't own music, nor can we transfer it from one place to another. **** Kerning And Opentype Features In Firefox 3 by Ralf Herrmann, OpenType **** Psystar Taunts Apple With Xserve Clone by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider Aggressively staking its claim as the lone company outside of Apple selling Mac OS X systems, Psystar on Thursday has unveiled a pari of Xserve-like rackmount computers unofficially based on Apple's Mac OS X Leopard Server. **** Pondering Apple In A Post-Jobs World by Jason Prelow, ZDNet.com It's no secret that what is holding Apple back from finally cutting the cord from its hardware and allowing mass-licensing of OS X on generic X86 hardware is Jobs himself. /Oh, really?/ **** Apple Udates Safari For Windows With Four Security Fixes by Robert Vamosi, CNET News.com Apple on Thursday released a new version of Safari for Windows that includes a security fix for a high-profile carpet-bombing desktop attack vulnerability previously dismissed by the Cupertino vendor. **** More Than TV by Dewitt Jones, Outdoor Photographer In my opinion, there's not a photographer on the planet who shouldn't invest in one of these. Apple TV has become my "final frame," if you will. This is where most of my images will end up for my personal delight and enjoyment. **** Remote Management Exploit Found In Mac OS X by MacNN A new vulnerability connected to Mac OS X's Remote Management feature has been discovered, says the security firm Intego. **** AT&T Paying Apple $325 Per iPhone 3G by MacNN AT&T reportedly paying a $325 for each iPhone 3G, an unprecedented dollar amount that would put the device well above competing smartphones and mobile devices in terms of carrier-supplied financial assistance. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Planned Yahoo Reorganization May Spark Executive Departures by Jessica E. Vascellaro, Wall Street Journal As Yahoo Inc. attempts to move beyond its takeover battle with Microsoft Corp., the company is planning a reorganization that is sending ripples through its executive ranks. **** Speak English, Stupid Computer! by Chris Wilson, Slate Finally, a search engine that understands you. But don't ditch Google yet. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Six Degrees, But No PhD by Mary Lynas, The Guardian Not being a scientist is a help rather than a hindrance when it comes to communicating - with the necessary passion - the findings of scientific research. **** Totally Fucking Limp by Paul Constant, The Stranger Can a filthy, filthy German give sex writing a kick in the pants? **** Text Message From Los Angeles by Paul Constant, The Stranger On the demented, celebrity-crazed, surrdner-happy, endlessly-on-the-verge-of-being-wiped-off-the-planet publishing industry. (Note to panicked book lovers: Everything is going to be okay.) SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** New Rules To Prevent Profiteering From Employment Of Foreign Workers by Channel NewsAsia Starting from 14 July, employers cannot receive payment - whether monetary or in kind - as consideration for employing a Work Permit or S Pass holder. **** Only One Errant Smoker Nabbed Per Officer A Month by Adrian Choo, Straits Times I strongly agree that the NEA should consider outsourcing enforcement to third parties. **** Mas Selamat Dexter? by Alvinology This spoof poster is further rubbing salt into the wound. /If you can't laugh at yourself... well, you really should start to learn./ **** The Scourge Of Inflation by The Online Citizen One possible way forward is to strengthen MAS' independence from the government and to give it a strict inflation target to aim at, wich might bolster MAS' credibility and lower the costs of containing inflation. **** I Am Superstitious About ERP by Choo Zheng Xi, The Online Citizen It never strikes me how incapable our top civil servants are of finding a creative solution out of the problem we're in. **** Rizal's Visits To Singapore by Ambeth Ocampo, Philippine Daily Inquirer From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jun 21 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 21 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 21, 2008 Message-ID: <20080621171500.2331.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Telstra To Sell 3G iPhone by Michael Sainsbury and Stuart Kennedy, The Australian Telstra will join Optus and Vodafone in launching the new 3G version of Apple's new iPhone in July and Telstra chief Sol Truillo may make an announcement next week. **** Putting Prices Into Focus by Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post The initial price (and even the first discount) of the iPhone anchored consumers to the idea that to own this device, you would have to pay a lot of money, substantially more than a typical cellphone. "It establishes a reference price of $600, and now when it comes down — that's very, very exciting." **** Business 'Yet To Be Convinced By Apple iPhone' by Kevin Allison, Financial Times Apple could face an uphill battle convincing big businesses to abandon the BlackBerry in favour of its iPhone mobile handset, according to a study released yesterday. **** iTunes Rules. And Don't Forget It by Michelle Quinn, Los Angeles Times It seems to me that Apple's announcement was designed to remind everyone: iTunes rules. **** Where Yahoo And Apple Diverged by Brian Caulfield, Forbes Yahoo's next chief executive should ask himself a simple question: What would Steve Jobs do? **** Brilliant Like A Fox by Andy Ihnatko, Chicaco Sun-Times Firefox 3.0 has the usual foibles of all mortal creations but nonetheless, it should be your one and only browser. **** Apple Success Linked To More Than Just Steve Jobs by Scott Hillis, Reuters As valuable as Jobs is, respect for the executive team he has assembled runs high, and Apple could quickly bounce back if Jobs were to leave for whatever reason. **** Maybe I Was Wrong About Mac Servers by Jason Perlow, ZDNet.com I couldn't help but ponder the implications of Macs having a native implementation of Sun's ZFS network scalable file system in the latest versions of Mac OS X Snow Leopard client and Snow Leopard Server. Finally, a compelling reason to use Macs as file servers. **** Making Your Point Through Numbers by Carmine Gallo, BusinessWeek It takes skill to use numbers without losing your customers' attention. Here's how IBM, Apple, and others put them in context. **** MDIs On The Mac by Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code There are many reasons why MDIs are a bad idea; some of them generic, some of them due to how the Mac normally works. /For a long time, I didn't get tabs in a browser. Then I realised that both the Dock on a Mac and the Taskbar on Windows are still inadequate in terms of power./ **** Will The iPhone's Apps Store Kill The 'Jailbreak' Market? Maybe Not by Dan Frommer, Silicon Alley Insider As long as Apple is in charge of vetting apps for the iPhone store, we think there will be some interest in jailbreak apps. **** FoxTrot Professional Search Goes Beyond Spotlight by Peter Cohen, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Harnessing The Power Of 'Clouds' by Spencer Kelly, BBC News It is not unusual to find the computer you bought only a couple of years ago cannot handle the very latest software, but there could be an answer to the problem so long as you are connected to the internet. **** More On The Settlement: AP's Nightmare Identified by Scott Rosenberg, Wordyard AP has what economists call an "incumbent business model." They have a way of obtaining revenue that they feel is threatened. **** AP Affair: Prelude To Longer Conflict? by Scott Rosenberg, Wordyard So the AP has closed the book on its dispute with the Drudge Retort. The matter may be "closed" — but the book never got written! MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** 'Not My Fault' by Jacob Heilbrunn, New York Times What may, in fact, be most revealing about McClellan's book is not what it discloses about the head of state, but what it says about the continuing devaluation of the political memoir as a literary form. Pradoxical though it may seem, even as these books have become more accusatory, they have also become less illuminating. **** True Grit by Elmer Kelton, Texas Monthly To me, the word "Cowboy" calls to mind a long and noble tradition of hard work and honesty. But every time I turn on the news, I hear it thrown around as a pejorative, hijacked by pundits and politicians to refer to arrogant, reckless types who go it alone and break all the rules. If any ot these folks had ever spent a day with my father on the McElroy Ranch—or with the thousands of working cowboys in Texas—they might have a different idea. **** ; ( by Paul Collins, Slate Has modern life killed the semicolon? **** Chinese Food Translations: Sweet, Sour And Downright Odd by Jennifer 8. Lee, New York Times Pumping Chinese dishes through a computer translator can create some strange results, but translation has always been more an art than a science. Of course, machine translation + human error can create even more bizarre results. **** Typos A La Carte, Ever A Specialty Of The House by Jane Black, Washington Post In my fantasy, I enter a restaurant, order and sweetly ask the waiter if I can "hold on to the menu" during dinner. Then, using a distinctive purple pen, I discreetly copy-edit the descriptions of the dishes. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Imagewell For Cropping And Uploading Images by Otterman Speaks... **** Minister Mah Says Cutting Petrol Taxes Not The Way To Cushion Rising Oil Prices by Channel NewsAsia National development minster Mah Bow Tan has said the government cannot reduce petrol taxes despite the soaring oil prices. He warned against taking the subsidy route, noting that even countries like China and Malaysia have started to re-think their policies on this. /Even though I agree that there is really no need to cut petrol taxes yet, I don't see how cutting petrol tax equates to taking the subsidy route./ **** Companies Should Provide Transport For Workers by Michelle Jean Yeang, Today **** Saturday ERP 'Unnecessary' by Roy Chan, Today Not once have we experienced traffic congestion. **** The Workers' Webolution by Today The SIA announcement, while understandable, is one that is hard to police and goes against the direction in which the web is naturally evolving. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jun 22 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 22 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 22, 2008 Message-ID: <20080622171500.88073.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Did AT&T Make The Right Call With Apple's iPhone? by Betsy Cummings, Brandweek The real stroke of genius, analysts said, was the new iPhone's potential for corporate users. **** iPhone's False Bargain by Boston Globe The Federal Communications Commission should insist that the wireless telephone companies allow their customers to shop freely for their phones and let manufacturers compete for their business. /On the other hand, would such a system give us visual voicemail?/ **** BK On Safari, Hunting Firefox... by Billy (BK) Rios These types of vulnerabilities are a perfect example of how all the software and systems we use are part of a giant ecosystem. Whether we like it or not, the various parts of the ecosystem are intrtwined with each other. **** The iPhone's Shocking Cost Of Internationl Downloads by Jessica Bown, The Times The thousands of consumers planning to snap up a 3G iPhone when they go on sale next month could be hit with bills of thousands of pounds if they download music or programmes overseas, industry insiders warned last week. /Roaming charges are really really expensive./ The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Will Ozzie Era At Microsoft Signal A Revolution? by John Fontana, Network World **** Microsoft After Gates. (And Bill After Microsoft.) by Steven Levy, Newsweek The icon of the tech world will focus on philanthropy as the company he founded faces turbulent seas. **** 'There's No Year That I Didn't Love My Job' by Steven Levy, Newsweek Bill Gates looks back at the road he and Microsoft have traveled, and at what's ahead for his foundation. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** How Darwin Won The Evolution Race by Robin McKie, The Guardian It's 150 years since Darwin made one of the most significant breakthroughs in scientific history - the theory of natural selection. But if it hadn't been for a young ornithologist on the other side of the world, his seminal work might never have appeared. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Campaign For All Singaporean SAF, Police Force by Chia Ti Lik No one need to look too far into history to know the dangers of having a foreign armed mercenary unit in Singapore. **** Political Films And The Ruling Party by Gerald Giam, Singapore Patriot Laws like this only serve to deter law-abiding citizens. **** What's Going To Become Of Our Children? by Lee Lilian, The Itch To Write **** Singapore, HK Covet Malaysia's Islamic Finance Crown by Saeed Azhar and Umesh Desai, Reuters Malaysia, Asia's biggest Islamic finance market, can expect growing competition from Singapore and Hong Kong, which are raising their game to tap Middle East funds keen on investing int he region's economies. **** Singapore: Asia's Switzerland For Millionaires by AFP Got at least five million US dollars? A private banker is at your service in Singapore, which is fast gaining a reputation as the Switzerland of Asia for the world's growing ranks of multi-millionaires. The tiny, tropical island-state, Southeast Asia's most advanced economy, has emerged as a centre for the wealth management industry which caters to an elite breed called high net worth individuals. **** Why We Need A Bottom-Up Internet Content Consultative Committee by Cherian George, Journalism.sg The objective over time is to subject more and more so-called "sensitive" areas to public reason, replacing intervention by the state with people's own capacities for discernment and judgement. The only viable long term response to the impracticality of internet censorship is to help Singapore mature as a society, online as well as offline. **** Let People Form Body To Oversee Net Content: Panel by Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times The issue of who should set up a consultative body of citizens to moderate internet content - as proposed by a group of 13 bloggers - came under scrutiny at a forum yesterday. **** Meet Singapore's Nomad Families by Braema Mathi, Straits Times For four years, the newly-weds lived on the beach. /Nomad? In almost any other countries, the term to use is "homeless"./ **** A Nation Of Gamblers - Or Investors? by Lim Chih-Yang, The Online Citizen The government can eduate and encourage gamblers to channel their hard-earned money towards investments suitable for their risk profile. **** Key Concerns About Internet Deregulation Emerge At Forum by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread I thought it was disturbing to get the sense that AIMS seemed to be going out of its way to find justifications for retaining the present law banning political films. I hope I am wrong, but it would be interesting to see what recommendations they intend to make to the government later this year. /Everything can be political, so everything can be banned./ **** Internet Content Consultative Committee by Gerald Giam, Singapore Patriot In any community, there are bound to be those who contravine generally accepted rules and codes of conduct. At stake also is the racial and religious harmony of our state, and the protection of minors from undesirable content on the internet. /The natural question to follow is of course: why should I be responsible for your intolerance of different religious beliefs? Why should I be responsible for your inability to protect your own children against what you decide is undesirable?/ **** Is Subsidy A Panacea For The Rising Inflation? by Lam Pin Min, P65 Giving subsidies alone is not a problem, provided it can be sustainable and the country is able to afford it for a long, long time. **** Government May Refine Workfare Income Supplement Top-Ups by May Wong, Channel NewsAsia Mr Goh Chok Tong said income inquality will be an increasing challenge for Singapore. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jun 23 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 23 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 23, 2008 Message-ID: <20080623171500.15086.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** It's Never Easy, Ven When You Have A Mac by ZDNet UK **** Review: Synchronize Pro X 6.0 by Peter Cohen, Macworld For users looking for a complete bckup, archival, and synchronization software tool for their Macs that also works on Tiger or Pather, Synchronize Pro X 6.0 is an excellent choice. **** Review: SyncTogether 1.0.2 by Joe Kissell, Macworld If .Mac Sync isn't an option for you, this program is far better than nothing. But its limitation and annoyances are not insignificant, and they multiply if you have more htan a few Macs, especially if some of them are remote. **** iPassword Improves Firefox 3 Support by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Apple's iPhone: Beware Of Poisonous Pips by Telco 2.0 So Apple have an interesting solution to a real technical problem with their push messaging, coupled to a powerful back end. But under that tasty, shiny skin lies a potentially bitter taste for the operators who swallow the fruit. **** SmartSleep 1.2 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Patrick Stein's Smart Sleep, a System Preferences panel, lets you choose between four different sleep modes. **** Apple, HP Sued Over Online Stores by Jonny Evans, Macworld UK A Texas company called Clear With Computers is suing the tech firms over the way their online stores work. **** Softbank Says To Sell iPhones For Y23,040 In Japan by Sachi Izumi, Reuters **** Learn To Rock With GarageBand by Brendon Chase, CNET.com.au Rock hair? Check. Leather pants? Check. Air guitar skills? Check. Move over Rover and let the music nerds at /CNET.com.au/ show you how to set up a simple home recording environment with GarageBand. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Delaying News In The Era Of The Internet by Noam Cohen, New York Times When the NBC News host Tim Russert died on June 13, NBC tried to hold back the news from going public for more than ahour to notify his family vacationing in Italy and presumably to prepare for what became six hours of coverage on its cable news outlet, MSNBC. **** The Next Bubble by Jason Pontin, MIT Technology Review Are web 2.0 companies the unlucky beneficiaries of a speculative mania? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Propofol by Karl Kirchwey, New Yorker **** The Itch by Atul Gawande, New Yorker Its mysterious power may be a clue to a new theory about brains and bodies. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** How Much Can We Not Trust Our Government? by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu Look at this edited transcript of an interview of Mr Goh Chok Tong by the Straits Times, released by the Singapore Government. Note that this is /edited/, presumably by the government, so we don't really know what is missing in the transcript. But it strikes me that there are virtually no follow-up questions asked by the Straits Times. Every assertion, every idea, every statement by Mr Goh was not questioned nor challenged by the interviewer. We all know that Straits Times is a pro-government paper. But, even so, I hope the paper still exhibits some form of skepticism, especially from authority figures.

Permanent Link to This Post **** Singapore's Consumer Prices Rise Less Than Expected by Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore's consumer prices rose at a slower-than-expected pace last month, reducing the need for the central bank to allow further gains in the currency to rein in inflation. The consumer price index jumped 7.5 percent from a year earlier, matching April's pace that was a 26-year high, the Department of Statistics said today. That's lower than all 13 estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, where the median forecast was a 7.8 percent increase. See Also: Singapore Consumer Price Index , by Department of Statistics, Singapore Government. (Note: PDF document.) **** Qantas-Singapore Marriage Unlikely by Mathew Murphy, Sydney Morning Herald Speculation that Qantas chief executive Geoff Dixon may use his last year at the helm of the Kangaroo carrier to forge a merger or "regional alliance" with Singapore Airlines would be an ambitious feat to say the least. **** Orchard Road: Boom, Bust, Stuck And Shut by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread I cannot see how this main artery can be unclogged without a major rconceptualisation of traffic flow. **** Foreigners Key To Avoiding Worst-Case Scenario by Clarissa Oon, Straits Times One way to avoid stagflation is to maintain a foreign-worker policy that is 'very responsive' to business needs, labour chief Lim Swee Say said. **** Disparities In Singapore by Mary Bohan, Reflections On A Global Health Lab Experience It's been five weeks since I've been in Singapore, and one thing that has become more and more apparent since arriving in this small island nation is the discrepancy that exists between the rich and the poor. **** Separate Pumps For Foreigners by Bernama The government has agreed to implement a dual pump system at fuel stations in border areas so that foreigners do not buy fuel at subsidised prices. **** New ERP A Short-Term Solution by Leslie Wang, Today The question I would pose is, why bother owning a car when we can't use the road as freely as we want? /Someone who drives daily from, say, Yishun to Woodlands for work should pay significantly less than another fellow who drives daily from Ang Mo Kio to Raffles Place. That, to me, is simple logic. You want to drive freely? Don't contribute to the congestion./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Jun 24 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 24 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 24, 2008 Message-ID: <20080624171501.12854.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Print It! 3.0 Extends Mac OS X Printing Options by MacNN **** Smultron 3.5 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld There are dozens and dozens of text editors for the Mac, so why do I use Peter Borg's Smultron? **** Taking Your Photos To A New Level by Bob LeVitus, Houston Chronicle **** Apple, iPhone Drawn Into Touch Computing Patent Lawsuit by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider A small Nevada company has added Apple and a slew of other PC makers to a lawsuit it hopes wil lgive up royalities for an allegedly valid touchscreen patent that may affect the iPhone. **** How Snow Leopard Can Save Mac OS X From Malware Attacks by Ryan Naraine, ZDNet.com Snow Leopard will hopefully raise the bar for Mac OS X as much as Vista did for Windows. Of course it won't stop all security attacks, but it should make exploiting them beyond the reach of most attackers. **** Why Hasn't MacBook Air's SSD Gotten Cheaper? by Andrew Smith, The Dallas Morning News Six months have come and gone — along with a lot of stories about SSD prices falling in general — but the SSD option on the MacBook Air is still as expensive as ever. **** Two Apple Trojans Threaten Users by Brian Kraemer, ChannelWeb SecureMac and Intego Security reported that Trojans in the wild have the potential to cause serious damage to Mac desktops. One comes wrapped in a poker application and the second, and more nefarious, takes advantage of the ARDAgent. **** Microsoft's Mac Team: 'We're The Coolest' by Kevin McLaughlin, ChannelWeb Microsoft's Mac business unit recently kicked off the biggest hiring spree in its 11 years of existence. /More cool apps coming soon, or is porting Visual Basic for Application really that resource-intensive? :-)/ **** Apple Store Redefines Retail In Australia by David Frith, The Australian The real story is that Apple has completely redefined retailing in Australia with this store: executives from every other computer company in the country should get over there pronto to look and learn. **** Five Undisclosed Features Of Apple's Mac OS X Snow Leopard by AppleInsider Although Apple is marketing Mac OS X Snow Leopard as an operating system update with "no new features," under the hood improvements will actually translate into a slew of new enhancements. **** $600 For A Prepaid iPhone 3G, Says Analyst by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Piper Jaffray analyst Gene Munster believes that prepaid subscribers will end up having to pay more than $600 per unsubsidized iPhone 3G. **** Firefox 3 Bounds Forward by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS It looks as though Firefox 3 may significantly improve the user experience for Mac users. **** Martians Vs. Robots Game Released by Peter Cohen, Macworld Looking for some goofy arcade-style fun? **** In Case Of Emergency by Christopher Breen, Macworld I can replace music. I can let go of a couple of decades worth of work. I can buy another computer. But I can't replace the images of a child's first years or a parent's last. **** OpenMind 2 Mind Mapping Software Comes To Mac by Peter Cohen, Macworld Mind mapping is a brainstorming technique in which you visually connect ideas and concepts together to organize your thoughts. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Reading The Kindle With Your Morning Coffee by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek Print devotees will likely find Amazon's newfangled e-reader an imperfect substitute for the old-fashioned newspaper—even if it saves trees. **** At Google, Slow Growth In News Site by Miguel Helft, New York Times While news organizations continue to worry about what Google is doing to their business, the company is far from achieving the kind of dominant position in news that it has in other areas. Six years after its start, Google News appears to be stuck in neutral and struggling to keep up with rivals. **** Go Ahead, Steal My Car by Bill Blake, Chronicle Of Higher Education Video games don't make people violent any more than explicit lyrics make teens get pregnant. **** One Billion Computers! by Yahoo Tech The PC is dead? Don't tell the rest of the world. Gartner has released research that says that worldwide, the number of PCs has now topped a full billion machines. That's just machines actually in use, not including those that have already been decommissioned. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Medals And Rights by Andrew J. Nathan, The New Republic What the Olympics reveal, and conceal, about China. **** Is Local Food Really Miles Better? by Roberta Kwok, Salon Many of us now count "food miles." But local fruits and veggies may not be more carbon-friendly than produce at the supermarket. **** Victoria's Circuit by Adrienne So, Slate Harnessing the untapped power of breast motion. **** What's Up With Chinese Menus? by Brian Palmer, Slate The stories behind "Chicken Without Sexual Life" and "Bean Curd Made by a Pockmarked Woman." **** At California's Asian Fish Markets, Freshness Is Everything by John M. Glionnna, Los Angeles Times In Asian cuisine, live fish are a delicacy. Asian diners insist they can distinguish on the plate between a fish freshly plucked from a tank or stream and one previously gutted and languishing on ice. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Responsibility, Responsibility, Responsibility! by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen Suc blatant disregard for taking responsibility can and will only do further damage to the government's claim that it is a government of integrity. **** Ahhhhhhh!!! Like That Also Can? by Lee Lilian, The Itch To Write To me, it's the 5th time mistakes as such had happened. **** Fremont Blogger Held In Singapore by Patrick May, San Jose Mercury News "We've monitoring the case very closely," a representative of the U.S. Embassy said. "Under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, we believe an individual should be able to peacefully exercise fundamental human rihts, especially freedom of expression, regardless of frontiers." The Embassy representative described U.S.-Singapore relations as "generally very healthy. They're not an ally, but we consider them a close partner." **** New University Proposed For Singapore by Channel NewsAsia A Singapore government-led committee proposed on Tuesday that a new publicly-funded university be established as part of wide-ranging efforts to retain local and foreign talent. **** The Government Does Not Make Money From The ERP Increase. So Says Lim Swee Say. by Mr Wang Says So The last time round, our finance minister missed his budget estimate by $7,100,000,000. In percentage terms, what makes you think Swee Say will do any better? **** Singapore Gets Pedra Branca: What's Next? by I Made Andi Arsana, Jakarta Post Put simply, there are now some outstanding pending boundary segments that these three neighboring states need to settle. **** Wong Kan Seng's Latest Career Achievement by Mr Wang Says So You know what will happen next, don't you? **** Challenge To Thrive In The Online World by The Star Institute of Policy Studies senior research fellow Tan Tarn How said maintaining credibility was important to ensure continued patronage. "Most Singaporeans feel that newspapers can be trusted and don't feel they need to find the truth elsewhere. That is why the internet does not play an important role, unlike in Malaysia," he said. **** Dad Flies Off Using Son's Passport by Carolyn Quek, Straits Times He checks in at Changi, clears immigration and gets on Tiger Airways jet to Vietnam. **** Remembering George Carlin by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu Via lonelysandwich, George Carlin on life.

Permanent Link to This Post **** The Economics About Banning Political Films by Bernard Leong, Simple Is The Reason Of My Heart Technologies and social practices change and the same kind of deterrence can falter against the backdrop of innovation in the internet. **** Rationality Vs Political Expediency In Internet Policy by Arun Mahizhnan, Journalism.sg There is a sharp distinction between what is rational - rational even to political leaders - and what is politically expedient. **** Brain Drain? Few Worries, Say Employers by Lin Yanqin, Today Singapore employers ranked 12th out of the 27 countries and territories when it came to worryig about the brain drain, and third from the bottom in their concern that government and businesses were not doing enough to slow the outward migration. **** Cancel National Day Parade Flypast And Save Fuel by Denis Distant, Today There are still seven weeks left to save that expensive jet fuel. /Seriously, why not cancel the parade too? I won't miss it./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Jun 25 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 25 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 25, 2008 Message-ID: <20080625171501.93636.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Assisted GPS And The iPhone by Iljitsc van Beijnum, Ars Technica We know that the iPhone 3G will have "assisted GPS." But what does that mean? Unfortunately, there is no clear definition of this term, and of course it's beneath Apple to provide meaningful details. However, some understanding of how GPS works takes most of the guesswork out of it. **** A Tale Of Two Apple Stores by Consumerist "Two Apple Stores, two ways of being treated." **** Time Machine Bugs Raise Doubts About Reliability by David Zeiler, Baltimore Sun I realize that no software is perfect, but Apple needs to be particularly careful with Time Machine. **** SuperDocker by Rob Griffiths, Macworld If you don't like Leopard's 3-D dock, SuperDocker offers a number of variations that you can implement with a few mouse clicks. You can switch to the 2-D dock, or replace the 3-D dock's background, separator, and active application indicator. **** Adobe Releases Acorbat, Creative Suite Updates by Philip Michaels, Macworld **** How Apple Is Blurring The Line Between Marketing And Service by Pete Blackshaw, Advertising Age Apple is introducing some important new lessons and questions for marketers. **** MS Offers Open XML File Format Converter For Mac 1.0 by MacNN **** Virtualize Those Mac Servers by Keith Ward, Virtualization Review **** MacBook Drinks Solar With Apple Juicz by Jaymi Heimbuch, EcoGeek Fitting the MacBook, a foldable sheet of thin-film solar cells can charge up your laptop for free — well, after you shell out the big bucks for the product. **** While Microsoft Fiddles, Apple Plans WWW Domination by Branko Miletic, Smarthouse Apple now wants to remake the internet in its own fruit-flavoured image. /To me, MobileMe seems to me to be just a (good) upgrade to .Mac, while Apple's internet strategy remains more or less unchanged. But, when timed together with iPhone 2.0, it really has caught people's attention./ **** Office 2008 For Mac Goes To 12.1.1 by David Dahlquist, MacUser Issues fixed include charting problems, Entourage crashing when your Mac awakes from sleep, and issues involving the conversion of documents to and from the Open XML format. **** The iPhone Has A Fingernail Problem? by Scott Kleinberg, RedEye Let's hear from someone with long fingernails who /doesn't/ have a problem. Let's hear her solutions. Let's hear the other side. **** Is AppleScript Under Siege? by David Morgenstern, ZDNet.com There are serious workflows in large companies based on AppleScript. But its longterm usefulness may be in question. Or not. **** Why Are PCs So Hard? by New Zealand Herald **** "The Dark Energy Of The Net" by Dayo Olopade, The New Republic Banning "poronography" or "illegal" content makes some sense—but quashing "unforeseen" innovations? Sinc ewhen is the unforesseen a bad thing? **** Could iPhone Smoke The Kindle? by Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com I know Apple said nothing about offering an e-reading application for the new iPhone. But what happens if Steve Jobs later surprises us or some developers turns the iPhone into a whiz-bang electronic reader? I'll tell you what happens, my Kindle ends up on eBay. **** Even Apple Will Be Hated One Day by Don Reisinger, ITworld.com How long will it possibly take before the general public realizes that Apple's strategy of controlling its OS and iPhone with an iron fist are more of a money-grab than an attempt to "keep us safe"? /I'll continue to buy Apple so long as its "iron fist" is giving me the best computer and best portable-podcast-player in the world, at a reasonable price. It doesn't matter to me if Apple is grabbing much money at the same time./ **** Who Will Be The Next Steve Jobs? by Charles Jade, Ars Technica When you look at the records of the people who ran Apple, it makes you wonder how the company survived. **** I'm Done With The MacBook Air (For Now) by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet.com I've come to the conclusion that the MacBook Air isn't the best Mac for me. At the end of the day I'm a power user and the MBA doesn't have enough horsepower to meet my needs. **** How To Protect Yourself From The New Mac OS X Trojans by Rich Mogull, TidBITS The good news is that based on the nature of the vulnerability the risk is low, but the bad news is that this kind of attack could become more serious. **** MacBook Air SuperDrive Hacked For Other Macs, PCs by MacNN **** Freeverse Offers Jeopardy Deluxe, Wheel Of Fortune Deluxe by Peter Cohen, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Nokia To Buy Symbian To Thwart Google, Apple by Clint Boulton, eWeek With a wary eye on Google and Apple, Nokia will pay $410 million for the 48 percent of Symbian shares it does not already own. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Sexual Antagonism by William Saletan, Slate A genetic theory of homosexuality. **** Service With A Wink To A Japanese Fad by David Hochman, New York Times As tea services go, the one at Royal/T here is definitely of the down-the-rabbit-hole variety. In an industrial-chic cafe surrounded by Japanese pop art, an American woman dressed as an English maid recently served French tea in a style that was straight out of Toyko. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Foreigners Bolstering Singapore's Birth Rate: Report by Melanie Lee, Reuters Foreigners are providing a boost to Singapore's lagging birth rate, with one in four babies born to expatriate fathers in the last five months, a local newspaper reported on Wednesday. **** Huh? We Absolutely Should Not Cancel Our National Day Parade by Ian On The Red Dot Without it, what it means is we don't even have one day, one pivotal event on the calendar to stop and think what it means to be Singaporean and yes, feel Singaporean. We don't even have that once chance to generate goodwill in some of us that hopefully last through the year. /A parade is expensive, cheap SAF labour notwithstanding. There are so many more better, and possibly memorable and heartfelt, ways to celebrate Singapore-ness. Take a look at U.S., for example, from fireworks on the July 4th to the lighting of the national tree during Christmas, all of which are grand traditions that bring out the patroitism in people — yet cheaper and less militaristic than the National Day Parade./ **** Electricity Tariffs Up 4.98% From Next Quarter by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Electricity tariffs will go up by 4.98 per cent or by 1.19 cents per kilo watt per hour for all households from the next quarter beginning July 1. **** Need For "Fuller" Number Portability? by Alfred Siew, Techgoondu Is it a technical problem or more based on what telcos think the market needs? **** Sembawang, Woodlands To Get Cycling Paths by He Zongying and Daryl Tan, Straits Times These two estates will be provided with 7.4km of cycling tracks. They will run parallel to the existing footpaths linking residential areas to the Sembawang and Admiralty MRT stations. **** More Babies - So What? by The Extra Scoop Being the self-declared patriot that I am, I'm quite bent on starting on family in Singapore. But who is to say that 5 years from now, I would be feeling the same way? **** Give Adequate Wages To Low Income Workers by Tan Kin Lian, The Online Citizen I believe that local workers deserve to have an adequate salary for a hard day's work. This salary has to be commensurate with the cost of living. It should be adequate for a worker to feed a family, at least in a frugal way. The worker should not be expected to work for 12 hours a day, and still not earn enough for the family. /My suggestion is for Singapore to go down the "minimum wage" route, because the existing pro-business policies is failing and created a large income disparity at the expense of lower-income workers./ **** Wong Kan Seng Again? by Feed Me To The Fish How many more screw-ups do we need before the buck stops? **** CC Singapore License Draft In Public Discussion by Ivan Chew, Rambling Librarian **** Subsidy To Study At Foreign Varsity Here? by Tan Hui Leng, Today Niche degrees, such as those in gaming and hotel administration, not offered by the three local universities could become more affordable - if the government takes up a recommendation to subsidise a small number of students in foreign varsities based here. **** That Long Wait For The Bus... by Neo Chai Chin, Today Singaporeans gripe about long waiting times and buses that inch slowly towards their destinations, but we are still better off than commuters in Hong Kong, London and Tokyo, according to data from the Land Transport Authority and the Belgium-based International Association of Public Transport. /GDP and average income figures can mask income dispartiy; can similiar scenario be at play here?/ **** DPM Wong Appalled Over Passport Slip-Up by Today Deputy prime minister and home affairs minister Wong Kan Seng said in a statement late last night that he was "totally appalled and flabbergasted at this slip-up". From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Jun 26 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 26 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 26, 2008 Message-ID: <20080626171501.46150.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Why Do Apple Laptop Upgrades Cost 200% More Than Dell's? by Rory Reid, Crave Apple is generally more expensive than Dell for components that are, in most cases, identical to those used in Dell machines. **** Apple's iPhone Retains Allure Among Early Buyers by Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg Early iPhone users, some of whom paid as much as $599 for the web-surfing device, said they will be among the first to buy. **** MenuMeters 1.3 by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Curious what's going on with your system's CPU, disk drives, network activity, or memory usage? While there are many apps that can track these things for you, my personal favorite is Raging Menace's MenuMeters. **** When Installing Software Is Too Simple by Rob Griffiths, Macworld Installing software on the Mac is generally very simple; developers just need to remember that not everyone using a Mac has been doing so for years. A little bit of text, in addition to the lovely graphics, can go a long way to preventing needless tech support inquiries. **** Coming Soon: A Laptop In Your Pocket by Sharon Machlis, Computerworld Your laptop is likely to soon go the way of 5.25-in. floppy disks, made obsolte by smaller, more useful technology: the smart phone. **** Could Smart-Phone War Boost Sluggish Cell Market? by Therese Poletti, MarketWatch The wireless-phone business has become starkly divided into haves (Apple, Research In Motion) and have-nots (everyone else). **** Hello, I'm A Mac. by Bryan Maleszyk What followed was a series of communication breakdowns, buck-passing, and ineptitude of a magnitude far greater than any I've any witnessed with any product company. **** Elephants Rejoice: The Mouse Is Dead by Dan Pourhadi, MacUser A future interface optimized for something else will obviously work best with something else. That's where Elgan's claim shines—how can we dispute it when any opposing detail can be shot down as temporary and variable? **** The Mouse Is Dead by Mike Elgan, Datamation Available on MacBook Air and MacBook Pro laptops, this pointing device represents a body blow to the appeal of using a mouse with an Apple mobile computer. The new trackpad is superior because in addition to pointing and clicking, you get gestures, which adds a whole new layer of control. /Apple should really start selling a keyboard with a multi-touch track pad./ **** Shelf Life by Garry Barker, Sydney Morning Herald Apple is building a community and, as always, thinking about what is, and can be, different. **** Apple Memo Coaches Employees On iPhone 3G Launch Questions by Kasper Jade, AppleInsider Apple is distributing to its retail and sales personnel an internal iPhone 3G Frequently Asked Document document which implies that first-day sales and activation procedures are still being ironed out. It does, howeve,r provide some information on bulk iPhone 3G sales for buisnesses. **** 'Wall-E' Draws Design Inspiration From Apple by Dawn C. Chmielewski, Los Angeles Times In "Wall-E," Pixar Animatio Studios indulges in its own bit of homage to its one-time corporate cousin, Apple. **** Starbucks Dumping CDs, iTunes Gift Cards by Peter Kafka, Silicon Alley Insider Starbucks, which has been scaling back its once-grand ambitions to turn itself into an entertainment hub, is about to shrink its plans yet again. We hear that by September, the chain will have dumped all of its in-store music retail offerings. **** Meet The iPod Doctor: He Makes House Calls by Devin Leonard, Fortune Busted your iPod? Demetrios Leontaris makes his living fixing the popular digital players - and bringing relief to anxious owners. **** Acrobat 9 Is Out... BOHICA For You Dirty Hippy Mac Users by John C. Welch, Bynkii.com I know, I know, I should stop being surprised that every releae of Acrobat 9 for the Mac sucks a little bit more. But I am, at least somewhat. Every time. **** The Hidden Financial Impact Of Apple's iPhone by Andy M. Zaky, Bullish Cross Apple's war-chest holds nearly $1,170 billion in currently deferred revenue and $763 million in non-currently deferred revenue from sales of the iPhone and Aple TV as of the close of its fiscal second quarter. **** Speedy Mac Helps You Open Things Quicker by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Mariner Ships MacGourmet Deluxe by Peter Cohen, Macworld Billed as "iTunes for recipes," it lets you create and edit recipes, make wine and cooking notes, browse your collection and build category lists like "appetizers." **** Apple Drops In Greenpeace Rankings by Electronista The drop is attributed to stricter overall criteria, under which companies are required to support curts to greenhouse gaes dictated by treaties such as Kyoto, and enforce them within their operations. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Do You Need To Be A Programmer To Run A Software Company? by Mary Jo Foley, ZDNet.com **** Microsoft And Salesforce Agree: You Can't Separate Software From Services by Rafe Needleman, Webware MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Why Writers Can't Go It Alone by David Barnett, The Guardian We love independent filmmakers and musicians, and celebrate their maverick spirit, so why don't we want independent writers? **** Albanian Custom Fades: Woman As Family Man by Dan Bilefsky, New York Times Pashe Keqi recalled the day nearly 60 years ago when she decided to become a man. She chopped off her long black curls, traded in her dress for her father's baggy trousers, armed herself with a hunting rifle and vowed to forsake marriage, children and sex. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Policymakers Changing The Way They Deliver Messages, Says Minister Teo by Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia Defence minister Teo Chee Hean said policymakers are changing the way they deliver their messags - instead of the usual carrot-and-stick approach, they are favouring a softer method to help shape public attitudes. **** Activists Charged For Protest by The Online Citizen **** Manhattan Dirtier Than Singapore by James Joyner, Outside The Beltway I think there are cultural differences. Americans seem much more willing than people in most of the rest of the developed world to accept visual blight. Dilapidated structures, abandoned buildings, garish billboards and neon signage, overhead utility cables, and the like are quite normal even in close proximity to affluent areas. **** Singapore Opposition Leader On Trial For Illegal Public Speaking by DPA Singapore's most vocal opposition leader and a supporter will go on trial again July 14 for speaking in public without a permit, the third time the pair face a judge since the run-up to the 2006 general elections. **** Fremont Blogger In Legal Limbo Till Case Next Month by The Argus With print journalists wary of making wavs in a nation that denies free speech, Nair's arrest is the latest example of a government that has turned to targeting web reporters, said Margaret John, an Amnesty International coordinator. **** New 7Th Storey Hotel To Make Way For Downtown Line Development by Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia One of Singapore's oldest hotels - New 7th Storey Hotel at Rochor Road - will be demolished to make way for the new Bugis MRT station for the Downtown Line. The owners - who said they only heard about the news from the medai - are upset over the decision. They said they have spent some S$100,000 in renovations this year. **** Democracy In Singapore by Wall Street Journal Lee Kuan Yew's Singapore can rightly be proud of many achievements, but full democracy is not one of them. The city-state he founded in 1965 and led as prime minister until 1990 is economically prosperous and its citizens enjoy a range of freedoms. Political dissent is not among them. Which makes a recent David vs. Goliath exchange between one of the country's few opposition politicians and Mr. Lee worth noting. The dialogue took place in a courtroom and is therefore privileged — which means we can report on it without risking a lawsuit, which Mr Lee often files against critics. Mr Chee is no orator, and on one level the dissident was no match for the eloquent Mr Lee. But when the subject turned to the moral underpinnings of democracy — freedom of speech, assembly and association — the debate went game, set and match to Mr. Chee. **** Stop Getting Bored by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu Do you hate taking public transport because the commute time — including all the waiting — can be long? Here's my way of entertaining oneself. First, buy an iPod. No, I didn't try out all the other MP3 players on the market, but from what I've read, the iPod and iTunes combination offers the best podcast listening experience. (Automatic bookmarking and syncing, smart playlists, and one-click subscription are my favorite features.) Secondly, subscribe to some podcasts. You can find many inside iTunes Store. They are free, and you don't need an iTunes account to subscribe. Here are some podcasts that I enjoy :- 1. The Leonard Lopate Show , at WNYC. "Best conversations with writers, actors, ex-presidents, dancers, scientists, comedians, historians, grammarians, curators, filmmakers, and do-it-yourself experts." 2. Leo Laporte , at TWiT. I usually listen to This Week in Tech, The Tech Guy, MacBreak Weekly, Jumping Monkeys, and Munchcast. 3. Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! , at NPR. "The oddly informative news quiz." You really don't need to watch yet another old sitcom rerun on Mobile TV, or listen to all the shallow local radio shows. Enjoy. (Sorry, I can't help you from all the crowding and all the idiot commuters.)

Permanent Link to This Post **** Singapore Is Weak! by Hard Hitting In The Lion City As much as I respect Mr. Lee, if Singapore is ruined by the opposition in just 5 years, I'm afraid the PAP will have to take some of the blame as well. **** Oldest Singapore Bus Stop To Be Preserved: LTA by Tan Hui Yee, Straits Times A 1970s bus stop due to be razed as part of improvement works will now be saved. **** Opposition Would Ruin Singapore: Lee Kuan Yew by AFP The Singapore opposition would ruin the wealthy city-state's achivements in five years if they ever gained power, the country's founding father Lee Kuan Yew said. /What I think he is saying is that opposition will ruin his idea of what Singapore should be./ **** Ok, Our Fault Again... by Lee Lilian, The Itch To Write Errmmmm... yes, it's again our fault, Singaporeans, you are careless, negligent! **** Qantas, Singapore Deny Merger Speculation Due To Fuel Prices by Steve Creedy, The Australian Qantas and Singapore Airlines have moved to quash speculation they are looking at a merger as a result of crippling fuel prices. **** Singapore's PM Says Water Security May Spark Conflicts by Melanie Lee, Reuters Singapore's prime minister said on Tuesday that water security may be a source of conflicts, while launching an institute in the city-state to research Asia's water problems. **** Inflation Drove This Man To Loansharks by Daniel De Costa and Glenn Tan, The Online Citizen Is our CID doing enough in serving the citizens that it has sworn to protect? **** Religion And Its Discontents by Gerald Giam, Singapore Patriot **** Singapore's Quest To Be Less Dependent On Malaysia For Water Started At Separation by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's quest to be less dependent on Malaysia for its water supply came about from day one when the country separated from its neighbour in 1965, minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew revealed on Wednesday. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Jun 27 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 27 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 27, 2008 Message-ID: <20080627171501.16151.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Plans A Core For Beijing by Zhu Shenshen, Shanghai Daily Apple Inc will open a retail store in Beijing this summer, its first shop on the Chinese mainland, to attract fans of iPod, Mac computers and perhaps iPhones. **** Rogers Says Canadian iPhone 3G Plans To Start At $60 For 150 Mins by AppleInsider All price plans require a three-year contract and include unlimited weekend and evening minutes, unlimited Visual Voicemail, and unlimited incoming text messages. **** Thinking Like A Cocoa Programmer by Scott Stevenson, Theocacao Being a great Mac or iPhone programmer means more than just knowing Objective-C and the Cocoa, it means /thinking/ in a different way about design and writing software. **** TimeMachineEditor 1.3 by Dan Frakes, Macworld If you've ever wanted to change Time Machine's schedule—for example, because you don't /need/ to back up so often—Time Software's TimeMachineEditor 1.3.1 lets you do just that. **** China Mobile Says iPhone Talks Scale Biggest Hurdle by Vinicy Chan and Sophie Taylor, Reuters Talks to bring Apple's iPhone to mainland China have cleared their biggest hurdle and are now focusing on practical issues, the country's top mobile operator China Mobile said on Friday. But there is no timetable for when China Mobile would bring the iPhone to mainland China, a spokeswoman said. **** One Difference Between Bill Gates And Steve Jobs by Jurgen.ca The difference here between Bill and Steve Jobs in this instance is that if Steve had to come to the point of writing an email like that, people would be losing their jobs. **** Top Ten Things They Don't Tell You About Switching by Airtight News Open the lid on my MacBook and the screen lights up and you are ready to go in 5 seconds every time. Open the screen on my Vista Thinkpad and it's a crap shoot whether it turns on, stays asleep or requires a reboot. **** Apple To Offer iTunes Remote Control App For iPhone And iPod Touch by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com Apple reveals that they will be offering a free app on the App Store that allows you to remotely control iTunes in your home from your iPhone or iPod Touch. **** Apple Accepting iPhone Apps Into App Store by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com **** Pro Applications Update 2008-02 Released by David Dahlquist, MacUser The Update addresses installation issues, compatibility updates, and "general performance issues and improves overall stability". Woot! **** Open Questions For The App Store by Paul Kafasis, O'Reilly Digital Media Blog Apple is controlling the means through which software is obtained on the iPhone. This will be a transition for most developers who are used to selling their own software directly to their customers. As such, there will be some differences in how things work, and there are still many open questions. **** Matt Neuberg's Review Of OmniFocus by Ken Case, The Omni Mouth Here's my summary of Matt's issues presented in his screencasts along with my response to each issue. **** Survey: 8 In 10 Businesses Now Using Macs by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Enterprises love the Mac's reliability, rely on virtualization, repots Yankee Group. **** A Better Finder Rename Updated by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** ICANN Adopts New Web Site Naming Rules by Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com At its meeting in Paris, ICANN, a not-for-profit organizatio that oversees the naming scheme for web sites, voted to accept a proposal that will allow companies to purchase new top-level domain names ending in whatever they like. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Yanks Thump Sox by Gene Weingarten, Washington Post One frequent newsroom complaint is that they are cutting back drastically in the use of copyeditors. It's true, but I for one am not complaining. I say good riddance. (Paragraph Two: Four errors. "They" have no antecedent; should read "publishers." "Copy editors" is two words. The phrase "I, for one," needs two added commas.) SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Whose Future Is "Shining", Really? by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen It seems that this "golden era" which MM Lee declared we are in is only for a select group - and we also wonder whose future it is that is 'really shining'. **** The Logic Of Heritage Conservation In Singapore by Tym Blogs Too Oh, I totally agree, Mr Minister. Very soft sell on this one. **** The Big Taxi Surcharge Muddle by My Paper A confusion over what constitutes the 'City' area means that some people could end up paying $3 more than they should. **** More Local Film-Makers Tackle Sex And Nudity by Boon Chan, Straits Times Sex was a major theme in more short films and at least two features in the past two years. **** For Voters, Politicians, Lift Ban On Political Films by Choo Zheng Xi, Straits Times This law is ineffective against films posted on sites such as YouTube and Gogle. Unenforceable laws diminish the respectability of the legal framework, and should not be on the books. **** The New 7Th Storey Hotel Has To Go! by Hop Around With Me The deepest impression I have about this place is the old lift that they have. **** CASE Finds Many Cooked Food Dishes Being Sold For S$2.50 And Below by Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia The Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE) did a survey last month and it found that 240 of 395 food items surveyed could be bought at S$2.50 and below. **** No Deal Over Air Space Between Malaysia And Singapore by The Star There's no military agreement between Malaysia and SIngapore that authorises the use of the country's airspace by the republic's fighter jets. Deputy defence minister Datuk Wira Abu Seman Yusop said that any intrusion detected would see Malaysia sending a protest note to the republic. **** A Paean For Intellectuals by The Online Citizen The only way to achieve this is to roll back the paternalistic controls that may have served Singapore well in the first few decades but are now clearly hindering its progression. Otherwise this paean is liable to become a dirge for a society that could not see beyond its fanatical focus on economic returns. **** Tak Boleh Tahan - I Have Stand So Much! I Can Stand No More! by Chia Ti Lik The issues of high cost of living caused by the bloody ruling party are that which affects all Singaporeans - someone must stand up to the PAP for this rubbish that they have created. **** Minister Mentor: Which Ever Way But Lose? by Feed Me To The Fish The arrogance that Singapore without PAP will sink has to stop. It is suffocating. **** Government's Graduate Equation Needs Balancing by Gerald Giam, Singapore Patriot A fundamental shift in mindsets with respect to university education is needed. Our knowledge economy needs many more graduates, and it will be better to fill the skilled positions with Sngaporeans rather than importing more foreign talent. **** Good On Temasek, Shame On The Government by Under The Willow Tree **** Keeping It Fresh Water Will Flow From Marina Barrage To Upper Peirce Reservoir - And Vice Versa by Lin Yanqin, Today To make the Marina Reservoir created by the Marina Barrage more than just a stagnant body of water, underground drains are gong to be built so that water can circulate throughout Singapore's water channels, keeping the lake fresh. **** The Best Of Systems Are Not Immune To Human Failures by Toh Yong Chuan, Ministry Of Home Affairs, Today It is misconceived to generalise that these human failures are reflective of systemic failure when the findings of the investigation do not support such a conclusion. **** Averages Don't Tell Entire Story by Koh Wei Kiang, Today From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Jun 28 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 28 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 28, 2008 Message-ID: <20080628171501.50657.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Customers Groan As Rogers Sets iPhone Prices by Susan Taylor and Wojtek Dabrowski, Reuters Canadians have long bemoaned high cost of wireless service compared to those in the United States, and many blame lack of competition in a relatively thinly populated country that stretches across six time zones. **** The iPhone 1.0 Should Be Cheap Now. Right? by Marin Perez, InformationWeek There will be a variety of factors, but many people are more than willing to pay for a device they can control. **** Apple Makes Example Of iPod Repairman In Lawsuit by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider The owner of an iPod repair shop is being sued by Apple for misuse of the coveted iPod trademark - and of allegedly manipulating Apple to both send him replacement units for free as well as tricking the electronics giant into repairing out-of-warranty iPods. **** Slife 2.0 Gets It Right by Mike Gunderloy, Web Worker Daily You launch it on your Mac, and it lurks in thebackground, keeping track of what you do on the machine. **** Apple's Upcoming iPhone Remote App For iTunes Is Really Smart by Eliot Van Buskirk, Wired WIth one free little add-on, Apple will strengthen its ecosystem, shoring up the connections between its hardware, software and music aspects. **** CD Lovers Smile As Rogue Amoeba Releases LiveDiscKit For Developers by THomas Gagnon-van Leeuwen, MacUser This development kit allows anyone to create a Live Disc application using InterfaceBuilder. **** Solving The Mystery Of Snow Leopard's Shrinking Apps by Price McLean, AppleInsider **** Apple Notebook Shipments Up 61 Percent by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld A new report from market research firm DisplaySearch shows Apples notebook shipments grew 61 percent from the first quarter of 2007 to the first quarter of 2008. Shipments rose from almost 900,000 to just over 1.4 million. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Meaning Of Bill Gates by The Economist As his reign at Microsoft comes to an end, so does the era he dominated. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Same Dance, Different Song by Jeanne Marie Laskas, Washington Post You can't help but marvel at the passage of time, all these generations. **** Cubicle Rats by Mark Sarvas, New York Times Considering the ubiquity of the work experience in American lives, and the thousands upon thousands of novels published annually, perhaps the question shouldn't be why there are two work-related novels right now but why there aren't many more. **** Interpreting The Evolution Of English by Timothy Farrington, Wall Street Journal Accents, dialects, slang and how we got from King James to hip-hop swagger. **** No Country For Young Men by Mara Hvistendahl, The New Republic The one-child policy was instituted in an attempt to hamper the wild growth of the Chinese population. But, in the process of plugging one hole, the government may have left another open. The coming boom in restless young men promises to overhaul Chinese society in some potentially scary ways. **** The Death Of Life Writing by Kathryn Hughes, The Guardian Celebrity memoirs, breathless lives of 18th-century socialites and countless royal mistresses - whatever happened to the golden age of biography? And what is the future for a genre in which the best subjects have already been written about, time and again. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Charges Two For Organ Trading by Reuters The Singapore government has charged two Indonesians for putting their kidneys up for sale in the city-state, in what local media say is the first prosecution against organ trade in the country. **** MOH To Examine If There Are Any Lapses In Living Donor Transplant Programme by Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia Health minister Khaw Boon Wan as said his ministry will review the living donor transplant programme to see if there are any lapses, after a current case of organ trading wraps up in court. **** No-Nonsense Status Dented by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star All these indicate to Singaporeans that not all is right with the no-nonsense home affairs ministry, the frontline body that overlooks security, including the war on terrorism. The public has called for the minister to be held accountable for his "complaency", which has been rejected by the prime minister. Some wanted him dismissed, while other said his salary should be docked as punishment. **** Case Is As Neutral As It Can Be by Seah Seng Choon, Case, Straits Times **** Iras Refuses To Say Sorry For Its Mistakes by Cheah Chew Kuan, Straits Times What is wrong with this organisation? There is no comprehension of the words 'customer', 'service', nor, it appears, even simple courtsey, respect and professionalism. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Jun 29 13:15:00 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 29 Jun 2008 17:15:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 29, 2008 Message-ID: <20080629171500.34018.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Six Great Uses For The Web Clip Widget by Reality Distortion **** Appeal Of iPhone Is Enduring by Bloomberg **** Third-Party Tool Allows Mac Pro Overclocking by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider The German edition of /ZDNet/ has postd a utility dubbed ZDNet Clock Tool that allows owners of the Intel-based Mac workstations to push the clock speeds of their Xeon processors significantly higher - with leaps from 2.8GHz to 3.24GHz for more recent systems. **** Norway Carrier Says No MMS For iPhone 3G by MacNN NetCom, the iPhone 3G carrier in Norway has published its iPhone 3G plans, confirming that the 3G version will lack MMS, just as the original version did. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Windows Could Use A Rush Of Fresh Air by Randall Stross, New York Times The best solution to the multiple woes of Windows is starting over. Completely. Now. **** They Can't Hide Their Pryin' Eyes by Jennifer Ordonez, Newsweek An appeals court ruling makes it more difficult for employers to sniff around in workers' electronic communications. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Running Strong by Shira Springer, Boston Globe WHen amputee athletes compete against able-bodied athletes, they're called courageous. But when they nearly win, they are accused of cheating. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Issue Of Human Organ Trading In Singapore by Mr Wang Says So I am inclined to agree with Dr Lee Wei Ling (who happens to be Lee Kuan Yew's daughter) that it is possible, and desirable, to legalise organ trading. **** The Workers' Party Elects New CEC by The Online Citizen **** Murdoch Has Axe To Grind With Singapore by Blowin' In The Wind The Wall Street Journal and the Australian, on the other hand, were quite partisan — as indeed they might be, given their sister publication Far Eastern Economic Review's wrangle with Singapore's leaders. /The "solution" is not to make sure all newspapers be completely bias-free and objective, because, frankly, there is no such thing. THe solution is to have more newspapers, more sources, competing with different ideas and bias. At least the Wall Street Journal disclose potential bias up front, whereas Straits Times typically do not. (Look at Straits Times coverage of the local television media, where it had a substantial stake in MediaCorp TV.)/ **** "Patriots" In Court by Chemical Generation Singapore Gopalan has bitten more than he can chew and the US Embassy has not swooped down to save him from certain incarceration (merely a matter of how long). **** Taxi Firms Mulling Over Fuel Surcharge by Christopher Tan, Straits Times Just months after taxi fare rose sharply, cab commuters may have to brace themselves for another cost hike: fuel surcharges. **** Authoritarian Govenments Can Lock Up Bloggers. It Is Harder To Outwit Them. by Nawaat.org The best and quickest way of defending those in prison may be with the help of other internet activists. **** Rocket Food by Singapore Life And Times Inflation is not only a function of raw material prices, fuel and electricity, it is also a function of the "Kopi Tiam effect" - large organisations of food management companies bidding atrronomical prices for many a food centre and then passing on the costs down the line finally to the consumer. /The lack of more basic choices — from hawker center to wet market to neighbourhood shopping to buses are hurting the lower incomes./ From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Jun 30 13:15:01 2008 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 30 Jun 2008 17:15:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Jun 30, 2008 Message-ID: <20080630171501.43874.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Steve Jobs Standard by Tom Steinert-Threlkeld, ZDNet.com The record inside and outside Apple says that Jobs stands alone. He has talent, perserverance and a devotion to making devices that delight in ways that others can't imagein - or carry out. **** DRM-Free Threats Bounce Off iTunes' Chest by Greg Sandoval, CNET News.com Remember, Apple didn't become an all-powerful music company just because of iTunes. Jobs was successful because of the total package: the player as well as a great music store. To pull us away, somebody has to offer a great new device and service that can do all these things /and/ more. Or else why jump? **** Software Group To Promote Macs In The Enterprise by Ephraim Schwartz, InfoWorld A consortium of five companies has announced the creation of the Enterprise Desktop Alliance (EDA) to promote the deployment of Macs in the enterprise. The five founding companies — Centrify, LANrev, Atempo, GroupLogic, and Parallels — are all focused on integrating the Mac operating system and infrastructure with Windows and PC-based network infrastructure for enterprise-level companies. **** Telstra Joins The iPhone Club by Asher Moses, Sydney Morning Herald Telstra has announced it will be the third mobile carrier to offer the iPhone when the handset launches in Australia on July 11. **** The Hole In My Backup Plan by Joe Kissell, TidBITS **** Wrap 1.1 by Dan Frakes, Macworld **** Rhapsody To Challenge iTunes By Embracing The iPod by Yinka Adegoke, Reuters Digital music seller Rhapsody is launching a $50 milion marketing assault on Apple's iTunes, offering songs online and via partners including Yahoo Inc and Verizon Wireless, Rhapsody said on Monday. The songs will be sold in MP3 format, which means users of the Rhapsody service will be able to play them on iPods. **** A Year With The iPhone - iPhone Turns 1 Year Old by Will Park, IntoMobile The iPhone's UI has spoiled me to no end. With multi-touch and Mac OS, the iPhone has redefined what I expect out of a mobile phone. **** 10,000 Canadians Petittion For iPhone Rate Relief by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune It's taken more than a year for the iPhone to make its way across the world's longest undefended border, which may help explain why so many Canadians are upset this weekend. **** Want To Sell An iPhone App? Got Six Months To Wait In Line? by Dan Frommer, Silicon Alley Insider We hear the waiting list to get accepted into Apple's developer program is six months long. **** Jobs Queue by David Flynn, Sydney Morning Herald A line-up of cranky laptop owners is about to hit Sydney's Apple Store. **** Your Laptop's Dirty Little Secret by Bryan Walsh, Time The U.S. is by far the world's top producer of e-waste, but much of it ends up elsewhere — specifically, in developing nations like China, India and Nigeria, to which rich countries have been shipping garbage for years. There the poor, often including children, dismantle dumped PCs and phones, stripping the components for the valuable — and toxic — metals contained inside. **** Consistency Killed The Cat by Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code You don't need to make an application that looks like every other application. But you do need to make sure your application behaves the way the user epxects. If you can't use or mimic existing widgets, it's better to look entirely inconsistent with the host OS, hence influencing the user's expectations. **** Ars Technica Digs Into iTunes App Store Payment Rumors by David Chartier, Ars Technica This rumor of a $250 minimum hasn't shaken up any of the developers we spoke with. In fact, developers were more concened with Apple's continued slow and frustrating pace of store acceptance and how little we still know about how it's all going to work. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Bill Gates: PC Genius, Internet Fool by Josh Quittner, Time Bill Gates, who for years was the richest man in the world, is also one of the smartest. But even he couldn't figure out how to beat the internet-how to transition his grand old monopoly software company, Microsoft, into a business that thrives on the net. **** I Freed Myself From E-Mail's Grip by Luis Suarez, New York Times It's not that I stopped communicating; I just communicated in different and more productive ways. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Eye On The Universe by Jonathan Shaw and Jennifer Carling, Harvard Magazine The cosmic drama, as seen from a vantage in space. **** Thirteen Hundred Rats by T. Coraghessan Boyle, New Yorker **** Songs Of A Season by Maureen N. McLane, New Yorker **** After Love by Jack Gilbert, New Yorker **** 'The Book Of Getting Even' By Benjamin Taylor by Jonathan Kirsch, Los Angeles Times At the end, we are sadder and wiser, and yet somehow comforted too — signs that we are in the hands of a gifted storyteller. **** Isn't It Funny? by Mary Beard, New York Review Of Books Laughter is one of the most treacherous of all fields of history. Like sex and eating, it is an absolutely universal human phenomenon, and at the same time something that is highly culturally and chronologically specific. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Iskandar Malaysia Not Part Of Singapore But Competitor, Says Johor MB by Bernama The Iskandar Malaysia development project covering 2,217 sq km will not become part of Singapore but more accurately a competitor to the republic, Johor menteri Besar Datuk Abdul Ghani Othman said. He said the issue of Singapore becoming part of Iskandar Malaysia did not arise because until today, no direct investment from the country had flowed into the region. **** National Day Celebrations & Rehearsals - The Cost & Purpose Of by Chia Ti Lik **** Green Singapore Has Blue-Water Dreams by AFP Singapore is known for its grenery but it may soon be recognised for its blue - as in blue water. That is the hope of civic officials behind a project to seal off the city-state's waterfront from the sea and create a three-in-one water source for drinking, flood control and recreation. **** Increase Patrols Along Johor Waters, Says Assemblyman by The Star Enforcement agencies such as the Maritime agency and the Marine police must increase patrols along Johor waters to prevent further intrusion of the state's islands. Datuk Aziz Sapian told the state assembly that the agencies should be on their toes especially after the Johor Sultan reminded everyone that Pulau Batu Puteh was under Johor's sovereignty and must be reclaimed. **** New Bus Service Along MRT Line To Launch On July 7 by Chan Eu Imm, Channel NewsAsia A new basic bus service that is aimed at easing passenger load along the southbound section of the North-South-East-West MRT line will take off on July 7. **** Total Wages In Singapore Up By 7-Year High Of 5.9% In 2007 by Channel NewsAsia Total wages - basic wages plus bonuses - of private sector employees rose by a seven-year high of 5.9 per cent in 2007, higher than the increase of 4.5 per cent the year before. **** Singapore's 4Th Multi-Disciplinary University by Design Sojourn I believe this is a great step forward for the country and for the creation of graduates suitable for any profession that requires multi-disciplinary influences. **** Does Singapore Need A Ministry Of Energy? by AsiaIsGreen On paper, it seems that there is no need for one as the energy policies are managed and coordinated by the EPG. But on the ground, the administrative difficulties and layers of bureaucatic red tape accumulated across 11 ministries and agencies in the EPG might pose a problem to the effectivness and timeliness of the energy policies. **** Hong Kong Tax Systems Seen As Fairest by DPA Hong Kong is seen as having the fairest and most transparent tax system out of six major developed economies, followed by Singapore, a study said on Monday. **** A Rebuttal To PAP Media Crucifixion Of Dr Chee Soon Juan by Chia Ti Lik In short, we have a political editor trying to play psychologist, an assistant editor without an independent opinion, and a journalist who had an opinion of how the article should read even before he started his interviews. **** Making Sense Of HDB Rejections by Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen Instead of offering more land sites for private developers to tender and build HDB flats, I would like to suggest that the HDB continue to focus on its historic role to build affordable housing to meet Singaporeans' needs, as the price of private-develpoment HDB flats tend to be higher than HDB-developed flats. **** Crossing The Line Into Vulgarity by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen "If you have truth on your side and you know your cause to be just, you need never fear your rulers and what they do to you." **** Analysis: Will ERP Mean 'Every Road Pay'? by Conrad Raj, Today Few would deny that the ERP system has helped in smoothening traffic flow, especially int he Central Business District. THe main quarrel with the timing of the new round of increases is that it comes in the wake of higher petrol prices and insurance costs. Many would argue that traffic congestion here is still tolerable compard with the traffic jams in Bangkok, Jakarta and even Kuala Lumpur. **** Audience Numbers Don't Tell Entire Story by Chia I-Ling, Today Festival boosted Singapore's arts scene in other ways too.