From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Feb 1 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 1 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 1, 2009 Message-ID: <20090201235900.1661.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: iStat For iPhone Cool, But Not For Sysadmins by Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica Remote system monitoring from your iPhone: does iStat have what server admins want, or does it only meet the needs of casual home server admins? **** Adobe, Apple Working Together On Flash For iPhone by Aidan Malley, AppleInsider Once thought to be building Flash for the iPhone mostly on its own, Adobe has mentioned at the World Economic Forum that it's not only continuing work on the animation plug-in but has teamed up with Apple to make it a reality. **** Drobo Saga: Part 2 by Fraser Speirs The DR people were very apologetic over the way the technical support incident was handled. In particular, they made it clear that literally everything I had been told by DR tech support was wrong, which tells you a story in itself. **** Apple's Touch Gets Lost In Suffle by Kevin Hunt, Hartford Courant The Touch changed everything. **** Can't Toss That Old Mac? Transform It by Ashley Laurel Wilson, CIO.com More alternative uses for Mac computers are popular these days. Mac usage has never been so outrageous. **** Adobe And Apple Working To Bring Flash To The iPhone? We've Heard That Before by Mg Siegler, VentureBeat After so many false starts, I'll believe Flash is coming to the iPhone when it's actually there, on my device. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Economics Of Giving It Away by Chris Anderson, Wall Street Journal In a battered economy, free goods and services online are more attractive than ever. So how can the suppliers make a business model out of nothing? **** OpenTable Files For IPO, Finally by Rafe Needleman, CNET MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** John Updike's Mighty Pen by Charles McGrath, New York Times There was something endearingly quaint about these little inky imprints -- a legacy perhaps of a Depression boyhood and a lifetime habit of efficiency -- but they also reflected his enduring fascination with the magic of print. **** Whisper It: You Don't Need To Have Read John Updike by James Delingpole, Telegraph It is impossible - and unnecessary - to grapple with every 'must read' of the literary canon. **** A Slow New York Passage, Up To Organic Food by Glenn Collins, New York Times The elevator at the store, on Broadway at West 74th Street in Manhattan, is ponderously slow. It is famously cramped. **** Our Love Affair With Malls Is On The Rocks by David Segal, New York Times In other words, shopping was part of the problem and now it's part of the cure. And once we're cured, economists report, we really need to learn how to save, which suggests that we will need to quit shopping again. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** So Where Are The Jobs For Singaporeans? by Sex Sells, So Does Politics If you are holding a degree and working as a professional/senior executive/manager, pray hard that your job is here to stay! **** Singapore 'Cooks Up' Petrol Prices by Alan Lander, Sunshine Coast Daily Geoff Trotter of Fueltrac thinks it's a "cook-up" by the oil companies in Singapore, because he can't find any triggers in the currency exchange rate, refinery problems or spikes in demand to explain it otherwise. **** Singapore's Economy: Has The Government Been Caught With Its Pants Down? by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net The government has spent most of 2008 fighting inflation rather than preparing for deflation, which is what the global economy, and in particular Singapore, is likely to experience in the months ahead. **** How To Inflict Selective Amnesia by Groundnotes Singapore has just taken the erasing of history to new heights. **** 4 Issues With Singapore Startups by Aaron Chua, Wild Illusions **** Rush For PR Status by Cassandra Chew, Straits Times More foreigners are applying for PR status for fear of losing their jobs during recession. **** Singapore Must Be Disciplined, Not Dip Into Reserves At First Signs Of Trouble by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's senior minister Goh Chok Tong has said the country must be disciplined and not dip into the reserves at the first signs of trouble. **** Why There Is No 'Malaysiakini' In Singapore by Fang Zhi Yuan and Lim Siow Kuan, The Wayang Party Club Singapore journalists have too much to lose by going against the wishes of the government. **** The Wages Of Deceit by The Online Citizen The recent plight of some foreign workers throws up uneasy questions. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Feb 2 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 2 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 2, 2009 Message-ID: <20090202235900.68060.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** How Secure Is Safari? by Roger A. Grimes, InfoWorld Security is not Safari's strong point. Security-minded users will have to decide if Safari's poor cipher support, lack of security zones, and absence of enterprise features for mass deployment and control can be overcome by its aesthetic benefits. **** Apple's Gloom At The Mall by Mark Veverka, Barron's The impact of these stores, which will remain powerful when the economy returns, is multifold. They have created a high-margin retail channel that has been hugely responsible for converting Windows users to Macs. Their registers will ring again as long as Apple continues to deliver iconic wares. **** The SEC Should Leave Steve Jobs Alone by Harvey Silverglate, Wall Street Journal The notion that investors were entitled to every detail, when they knew the CEO's health history and saw his obvious weight loss, is ludicrous. That a man's desire to maintain a shred of privacy under these circumstances can justify a fraud investigation tells us much about the lack of legal precision, not to mention decency, with which federal investigators and prosecutors too often operate. **** iPhone Still Has No Flash by Joe Wilcox, eWeek John Gruber is right. Collaboration "could mean anything." Flash on iPhone isn't a "technical challenge." It's an Apple-imposed challenge, I say. **** Despite iTunes Accord, Music Labels Still Fret by Tim Arango, New York Times Apple, according to a music industry official involved in the negotiations, offered to negotiate variable pricing about a year ago. Apple indicated it was willing to make the switch to variable pricing provided that the music companies would agree to license songs for wireless downloads on the iPhone, as well as drop copyright protections using digital rights management software. **** Special Gloves Ease Use Of iPhone In Cold by Michael Felberbaum, Associated Press A company called 4sight Products Inc. has a solution: $40 gloves that have electrically conductive gold-colored material on the tip of the index finger and thumb. Apple must think it's a good idea as well - it has filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for gloves that would do essentially the same thing. **** Aperture To Picasa Plug-In Does Just What It Says by David Chartier, Ars Technica An open source plug-in allow Aperture 2 users to share photos online through Google's Picasa Web Albums service. **** Get Audio Into Your Mac by Christopher Breen, Macworld How to work with mics and other input methods. **** App Store Lessons: Apple Clarifies Upsell Policy by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica You can develop Lite and Free versions of your iPhone application, but it turns out that Beta and Demo apps are off limits. **** Diner Dash: Flo Through Time by Richard Hallas, Inside Mac Games The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Web Site Created For Semantic Cloud API by James Urquhart, CNET MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** That Buzzing Sound by Jerome Groopman, The New Yorker The mystery of tinnitus. **** In The Attic by Seamus Heaney, The New Yorker **** The Two Yvonnes by Jessica Greebaum, The New Yorker SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** GIC Generates Returns by Alvin Foo, Straits Times The Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) is confident that it will be able to continue generating reasonable returns for the country's reserves despite a tougher global investment climate. **** Budget Spending Not Transparent, SDP Proposes Alternative 5-Point Plan by Singapore Democrats If the PAP is serous on helping the people, then it should implement these measures proposed by the Singapore Democrats. No fancy names, no complex time line, just quick and good help for the people. But if the intent is to make the Budget sound and look impressive while evading transparency and accountability then names like Resilience Package would go a long way in aiding the wayang. **** ??????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ???????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Is Evil by Making History Relevant People may say Singapore does not have 'free' elections, but this isn't enough to paint the government as evil. **** ?????? - ?????????????????? by The Workers' Party ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Responsibilities To National Stakeholders by Gabriel Sim, Singapore Enquirer If taxpayer money is used, there must be transparency and accountability. If companies and industries are saved because of our sacrifices and our money, then there should be some compensation and windfall due to us when everything recovers. I believe Mr Gabriel Sim is forgetting one crucial fact: Companies pay taxes too! **** STOMP The Biggest Loser In TPJC Controversy by Terence Lee and Mervin Lee, The Online Citizen One wonders if the editor of STOMP even bothered to verify the accuracy of the report, if one could even call it that. **** This Dollar Needs To Drop by Ven Ram, Barron's Economists say the authority will eventually let the Singapore dollar weaken, as otherwise it risks falling behind the curve even as other central banks cut rates aggressively to prop up their economies. **** Offshore Singapore, Why So Attractive? by Ecommerce Journal **** ????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ????????????(????????????) ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Informing Media Opinion by Roger Mitton, THe Phnom Penh Post When I met a Singapore delegation, they told me how their ministers, even the prime minister, sue the newspapers. They said I'm too soft with journalists. But in Cambodia, we take a much more relaxed and democratic attitude. Even a foreigner can own a newspaper here. You don't even need a Cambodian partner. That's not possible in most Asian countries, even those that claim to have a free press. One of the reasons we did it is because foreigners help our own journalists develop their technical and professional abilities. And it helps foster the openness of Cambodian society because people now feel they can say things they used to think were forbidden. **** Blogging Group Fizzles Out by Serene Luo, Straits Times The fledging Association of Bloggers (Singapore) has lost at least seven out of 10 of its founding committee members over the weekend. The Straits Times understands an eight person also intends to step down. Those who have stepped down include its two vice-presidents and treasurer. **** Off-Budget Steps To Come? by Fiona Chan, Straits Times Even as a panel hosted by audit firm Pricewaterhouse Coopers praised this year's budget statement, - announced two weeks ago and to be debated in Parliament starting today - expectations of a 'Plan B' hung in the air, in the form of more off-budget measures to come later this year. **** Singaore, Indonesia Reach Agreement On Border Dispute by Sujadi Siswo, Channel NewsAsia Indonesia and Singapore have settled a dispute over a maritime border that spans over 36 years. It involves the area around Indonesia's Nipah Island, in the Riau Islands, nearest to Singapore. **** The Needy Still Lack Awareness Of Help Schemes by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia Of the S$6.25m budgeted for the CCC-ComCare Fund, only S$1.57m was disbursed to the needy and low-income families in the first nine months of the current fiscal year. **** Amendments To The Films Act by Gerald Giam From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Feb 3 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 3 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 3, 2009 Message-ID: <20090203235900.65794.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** LaCie Intros 8x Blu-Ray Disc Burner by Peter Cohen, Macworld The drive can burn up to 50GB of data on a single dual-layer BD-R disc, and can do so at 4x to 8x speed (limited to 6x using USB 2.0). **** Review: Cartoonizeme For iPhone by Kyle Bailey, Macworld This slick little iPhone app allows you to add cartoonish effects pictures of friends and relatives until your cheeks hurt from too much smiling. **** Apple Improves Keynote, Pages, Numbers '08 Compatibility by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Version 4.0.4 of Keynote improves compatibility with PowerPoint 2007 and PowerPoint 2008 files generated by Microsoft. **** False Hopes: Adobe Desperate To Install Flash On The iPhone? by Charlie Sorrel, Wired "Apple and Adobe are collaborating." It seems straightforward enough, but is likely to be just bluster and wishful thinking. **** Steve Jobs And Your Own Privacy As An Executive by Saj-Nicole Joni, Forbes In the new era of transparency, it is less possible to avoid the collision between public and private rights. I preidct that if you want to lead at the top, these issues will increasingly be decided in favor of the greater good of those you serve. **** Apple In-Ear Headphones With Remote And Mic Review by Dave Rees, The Gadgeteer I conducted my usual earbud test on them and was very happy when I was able to stop using them. **** Mac OS X Makes The Grade In New Computer Science Course by Matt Asay, CNET If the University of Utah is offering OS X administration courses, it's because there's a market for the class, a market that is being fed by increasing enterprise adoption of the Mac. Something disturbs me... "Mac OS X Deployment v10.5", or any computer administration classes, does not belong to Computer Science. Where is the science? **** Mac Enters Enterprise By Back Door by Joe Wilcox, eWeek Business Mac deployments hit a 5 percent adoption ceiling last year, but they're bouncing down, according to a new report by Forrester Research. **** World Of Goo Publisher Files For Bankruptcy by Earnest Cavalli, Wired Even publishing the finest indie game of the year can't protect a company from the ravages of our current economy. **** I'm Sorry, Mac, I Was Wrong by Ryan McLaughlin, CNET Asia Apple has done absolutely everything it can to make using its laptop computer an enjoyable experience. **** Learn To Play An Instrument by Christopher Breen, Macworld Your Mac can help you pick up new skills. **** BookEndz-es by Bradley Ouellette, Blaast **** Apple Sues German Website Over 'Misuse' Of iPhone Imagery by MacBloz Apple has sent a cease and desist letter to a German website that sells iPhone 3G's independent of a Simlock or T-Mobile contract, as well as a $2,271 bill for legal costs surrounding the misuse of Apple's own iPhone imagery. **** Another Case For Lower Mac Prices by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Has Apple so differentiated itself from Windows rivals that the Mac market is now a separate thing from the overall PC market? **** A Salmagundi Of Smart Playlists by Kirk McElhearn, Macworld Smart playlists let you set up rules and then sit back and let iTunes do the searching, filling the playlists with tracks that meet your desires. Here???s a handful of smart playlists to show you some of the subtle ways you can have your Mac choose your songs for you. Smart playlists is one of the most powerful feature of the iTunes/iPod product, and is one of the main reason why my podcast listening experience is so great on my iPod. **** Drobo Saga: The Resolution by Fraser Speirs THe Drobo situation has been resolved. **** Kept Out Of Sight: The Strange Case Of Apple's Disappearing Visual Voicemail by Tony Poulos, Telecom TV Despite Apple's success at rolling out the iPhone via its mobile operator partner channels, it hasn't had everything its own way. One of the iPhone's much-vaunted features - Visual Voicemail - has been studiously ignored by many operators even though they could profit from it as a way of driving even more subscribers to their service. **** Review: Aquaria by Chris Holt, Macworld The game doesn't merely pay homage to an earlier genre of gameplay, but embellishes and explores new ways to define it. Well-paced and unique, Aquaria is an instant classic. **** Hands-On: TechRestore's Matte-Screen MacBook Pro Service by Rob Griffiths, Macworld If you're a matte screen aficionado, and you've been lamenting the lack of such screens on the new 15-inch MacBook Pro, TechRestore's screen replacement program is an option worth serious consideration. **** Force The Help System To Update Help Files by Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Review: iPhoto '09 by Rick LePage, Macworld By focusing on the people and places behind our photos--and how we share them--Apple has made it easier in iPhoto ???09 to categorize, search for, and share our pictures. We???d like to see some of these new features more streamlined and automated, but this latest version is a solid step forward. **** iLife Suite Quietly Going Intel-Only, PowerPC Owners Cry by David Chartier, Ars Technica iLife '09 contains plenty of new features to convince current Mac owners to upgrade from iLife '08, but there is one unfortunate deterrent for those still on PowerPC-based machines. GarageBand '09 is the first iLife component to have one of its most touted features go Intel-only. **** Review: Flutter And Palringo For iPhone by Jeffery Battersby, Macworld Apps look to address iPhone's inability to send pictures via MMS. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Is Wikipedia Cracking Up? by Stephen Foley, The Independent It was a utopian vision: an encyclopedia for the people, by the people. But eight years on, Wikipedia is plauged by endless hoaxes, riven by boradroom rebellion - and lurches from one cash crisis to another. Will it become a footnote in the history of the web? **** Is Open Source Becoming Like Microsoft? by Matt Asay, CNET To the extend that we build projects that run only with other open-source projets, and intend them to only work with open-source components, we're acting like the proprietary ecosystems that we've been trying to overcome. **** I'm Reading Newspapers Again by Roger Ebert, Chicaco Sun-Times The pages follow in orderly progression. The headlines and artwork point me to stories I find interesting. I am settled. I am serene. I read. I think. I am freed from clicking and the hectic need to scroll, to bounce between links. I don't have search for the print stories. They find me. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Between Sound And Silence by David Lodge, Wall Street Journal His parents were deaf. He was not. A memoir. **** What Are The Odds A Handy, Quotable Statistic Is Lying? Better Than Even by Barry Gewen, New York Times It's hard to resist a book that tells you that most people have more than the average number of feet. Or that researchers have found that Republicans enjoy sex more than Democrts do. Michael Blastland and Andrew Dilnot delight in bringing such facts to our attention — and then explaining them away. **** Paradise by Emma Jones, Slate **** China: A Threat To Or Threatened By Democracy? by Edward Friedman, Dissent In order to dal with a superpower--anti-democratic China--democracies feel compelled to become less democratic. **** When Altruism Isn't Moral by Sally Satel, The American Our nation's current organ donation system relies on altruism alone. A regime of donor compensation would be better. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Saga Of The Structured Notes - What Next For The Suffering Investors? (Part 2) by Mr Wang Says So In Singapore, the risk-profiling process is carried out by the very same salesperson who's going to try to sell you some structured product. In other words, there's a conflict of interest. **** From Theory To Practice: Femtocells Put To Work In Singapore by Tony Poulos, Telecom TV Femtocells may become a serious part of the mobile infrastructure over the next few years. We've covered the standards and the theory, but with Singapore's StarHub having launched service, we can now bring you one of the first, independent femto reviews. **** 8 Drop Out Of Bloggers Association by Alicia Wong, Today Less than a month after the Bloggers Association (Singapore) was officially formed, eight founding members have stepped down, leaving president Jayne Goh and secretary Wilfrid Wong at the helm. The sudden departures mostly stem from the negative response to the association and personal commitments, said Ms Goh, who admitted: "There are quite a lot of disagreements as well, on the way the association is run and on my conduct." **** My Favorite Spot In Singapore by Shhh! Secret Life Of A Princess Simple pleasures of life. **** ????????????????????? by ???????????? ???????????? 2009 ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** No Steep Rental Cuts by Joyce Teo, Straits Times The head of a developers' association yesterday urged commercial tenants here not to expect steep rental cuts from their landlords. Mr Simon Cheong, president of the Real Estate Developers Association of Singaproe (Redas), has asked tenants to be reasonable in their demands. **** More Help For Needy Students, How About Near Needy? by Daniel Ling, Singapore Enquirer **** RI, Singapore Agree On New Boundary by Erwida Maulia, The Jakarta Post After almost four years of negotiations, Indonesia and Singapore have agreed on a new maritime boundary. Departing from previous concern, foreign minister Hassan Wirajuda said, Singapore, which has been acitvely reclaiming its shoreline, finally agreed not to use its southern reclaimed shoreline as the basis to determine the border. **** 2008???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????2008????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????8???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Swiss's Loss, Singapore's Gain by Khalil Adis, Property Report Asia If you noticed more Lamborghinis and Ferraris revving up Singapore's roads lately, it's the super rich making their mark. **** Singapore Visitor Arrivals Down For 7th Straight Month by Melanie Lee, Reuters Singapore's visitor arrivals in December 2008 fell 6.9 percent rom a year earlier as the global economic downturn took a toll on the tourism sector, the Singapore Tourism Board said on Tuesday. **** Sports Hub Consortium Having Difficulty Finding Funds To Start Project by 938Live The consortium which is constructing the Kallang Sports Hub is having difficulty in raising the necessary funds to start the project, due to the ongoing financial crisis. **** MPs Welcome Move To Use Reserves But Warn Against Setting A Precedence by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia MPs who spoke on the subject are clear about their stand - that such a decision must not be made a habit and it is important for Singaporeans to understand the full reasons behind it and the president's approval. **** Shoppers Tighten Belts Despite Bargains In Orchard Road by Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia Recession woes have hit Singapore's shopping belt. Retailers are finding it harder to persuade consumers to part with their hard-earned cash despite the attractive post-Lunar New Year sales. **** Written Answer To Parliamentary Question On Status Of Implementation Of Recommendations On Committee Of Inquiry Into Mas Selamat's Escape, 03 February 2009 by Wong Kan Seng, Singapore Government All the specific recommendations have ben fully followed up and implemented. **** Tough Questions Asked About Effectiveness Of Jobs Credit Scheme by Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Feb 4 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 4 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 4, 2009 Message-ID: <20090204235901.92201.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Funtastic Photos 1.0.3 by James Dempsey, Macworld The program is perfect for scrapbookers, those who wish to customize their images before sharing on the Web, and users who want a little more in the way of image adjustment than iPhoto offers. With such a wide variety of tools, there???s little reason for non-professionals to look at other options—Funtastic Photos has a little bit for everyone. **** Dropbox: A Collaborator's Dream by David Weintraub, TidBITS **** What A Long Strange Trip Back To Pismo by Kevin Webb, Low End Mac The Pismo is still considered a wonderful machine almost five years since its initial release. **** In Campaign Wars, Apple Still Has Microsoft's Number by Brad Stone, New York Times Apple's ads have fared better than Microsoft's in the war for consumers' hearts. **** Microsoft Vs. Apple: Beware Of Your 'Killer Instinct' by David Morgenstern, ZDNet Redmond: Make sure your "killer instinct" isn't pointed at your own foot. **** Apple Sued Four Times In Two Weeks Over iPhone 3G Speeds by Zach Spear, AppleInsider **** Apple Documentary Receives Positive Feedback by MacNN The documentary Welcome to Macintosh has reportedly received positive feedback and praise during a recent screening that included several Apple personalities. **** Review: Parallels Desktop by Adam Turner, The Sydney Morning Herald **** Apple TV: Time To Get Serious by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek Apple should give programmers the software developers' kit they need to make the device more flexibile and useful. Buy the box, and you can buy or rent from iTunes—and if that's not enough, there are hundreds of easy-to-install apps that will let you watch whatever you want from the internet. Will Apple give up the dream of having iTunes be the place to distribute media content? **** Rumor Mill Killing Apple by Seb Janacek, Silicon.com The rumor mill is now a major liability for the Mac maker. **** Review: Print For iPhone by Jeff Merron, Macworld Print from EuroSmartz is a nifty but limited utility that enables you to print web pages, photos, and contact information from your iPod touch or iPhone. **** Apple Updates GarageBand '09 by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld The update improves overall stability, according to notes included with the update. The new version also addresses specific issues with downloading lessons from the Learn to Play Lesson Store. **** Norway: No Reason To Hound Apple Over DRM Any Longer by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Norway's consumer watchdog group has nothing left to complain about after Apple announced that DRM on iTunes Store music would be going the way of the dodo. That's why it's now dropping the case against Apple and moving on to bigger and better things. **** An iPhone Without A Data Plan? Does Not Compute by Dan Moren, Macworld Ask your average iPhone user if they spend more time on the phone or on the Net, and I guarantee that the majority of them will say something to the effect of "Holy crap, it makes phone calls too?" **** Big Kahuna Reef 2 by Ted Bade, Inside Mac Games It's an addictive game and worth the price. I highly recommend it. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Don't Work For Assholes by Powazek Nine times out of ten, the first impression someone gives you is exactly who they are. We choose not to see it because we need the money, or we want the situation to be different. But if someone rubs you the wrong way at the first meeting, chances are, it???s only going to get worse. **** Some Fear Google's Power In Digital Books by Noam Cohen, New York Times There will be lawsuits. **** NYT's Keller: We're Looking For Ways To Charge For Online Content Again by David Kaplan, paidContent.org The discussions are revolving around four of the most popular themes: subscription model, micropayments, revenue sharing via devices like Amazon???s Kindle and the non-profit route. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Lessons From Groundhog Day by Cliff Kuang, Good It's a charming, big-hearted story whose major features—time travel and redemption—scream for interpretation. Science, religion, and economics have each provided one. **** Alms For The Press? by Jack Shafer, Slate The case against foundation ownership of the New York Times. **** A Vast And Sudden Sadness by Claudia Kaib, Newsweek Each year thousands of families experience stillbirth. As science seeks causes, parents use photography to honor their babies and cope with their grief. **** Restaurants Stop Playing Hard To Get by Frank Bruni, New York Times Has a restaurant hugged you lately? **** Clifton's Cafeteria: The Place Where L.A. Finds Itself by Mary MacVean, Los Angeles Times On Broadway downtown — amid a jumble of shops selling gold necklaces and sports socks and electric guitars, amid exhaust and noise and has-been theaters, amid hipsters, the down and out and the just plain out of it — an authentic piece of history goes about the business it began during the Great Depression, feeding everyone who walks through the glass doors. **** The Refrigerator Personality Test by Russ Parsons, Los Angeles Times Every once in a while, it's good to take stock of the fridge, if only to discover what's in all those little jars. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Job Credit Scheme Is A Misnomer! by Feed Me To The Fish The Jobs Credit Scheme is nothing more than a 'wag-the-dog' scheme to help companies and put the Government in a good light. **** Misconceptions About The Singapore Democrats by Singapore Democrats **** The Truth About Jobs Credit! by Diary Of A Singaporean Mind **** Job Credit Scheme: False Dilemmas Aplenty by Groundnotes All Low was did was to point out the obvious - the Job Credit scheme is no use for an employee whose employer needs to cut wage costs pronto. Instead of addressing this point, Heng in return presents a false dilemma by offering Low a stark choice between praising the Job Credit scheme and not doing anything at all. **** School Bars Students From Mall - But Is Ban Working? by Julian Lee, New Paper Coral Secondary School forbids any student in uniform from entering the nearby White Sands shopping mall in Pasir Ris, among other things. The rule, which was imposed several years ago, also forbids students in uniform from hanging out at the neighbouring housing estate. One word: stupid. **** Recession: Singaporeans Come First by Edmund Lin, Straits Times Most foreigners choose to stay here for utilitarian reasons, unlike the reasons why native-born Singaporeans live on this island. **** Flawed Job Credit Scheme Benefits Employers More Than Workers by Fang Zhi Yuan and Jeremy Koh, The Wayang Party Club **** School Bars Students From Mall: Is This Logical? by Daniel Ling, Singapore Enquirer **** In Singapore, A Renovated Shop House by Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, New York Times **** Why Singapore's Not Iceland by Esther Fung, Today Minister of state (defence) Koo Tsai Kee said: "If Singapore had followed WSJA's prescriptions, Singapore could well have become 'Iceland on the Straits.'" **** Singapore Central Bank Says Hasn't Used Fed Swap Facility by Kevin Lim, Reuters Singapore's central bank said late on Tuesday that it has not drawn on a $30 billion swap facility establiehed with the U.S. Federal Reserve and did not see a need to do so soon. **** What If Watchdogs Got Bonuses? by Andrew Ross Sorkin, New York Times Maybe the regulators, like Wall Streeters, would start thinking about the money, rather than what is right. But maybe that's exactly what Wall Street needs to slow down. **** Key Parties To Skip Forum by Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times The need for unity and identifying the future direction of the opposition in Singapore are among issues to be discussed at a forum on Saturday - but several key parties are giving the event a miss. **** Follow The Ships In Singapore... by Bob Porras I was speaking with folks about Singapore's Port Terminal and why so many ships at port. I was not surprised to find out that many of the ships are short term moored, since imports and exports have slowed. One individual told me that ship movements started to slow in October, then some more in November and plummeted in December. The decrease in port activity is in direct correlation with the economic slow down worldwide. Another person described the port activity as "crawling." **** ???????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** That Is Why We Need More Opposition MPs In Parliament by Singaporean Skeptic You have PAP MPs who hide behind their superiority in numbers to attack the opposition. **** The Great Spy Experiment by Somesuperman I mean its perfectly fine when we are with our parents! Its not like we are going to cause trouble in front of our parents. And they should really let us go in to eat. We get hungry too! school food isn't that appetising. I mean come on! We have to live with those same stall for our 4 or 5 years in coral! I predict tomorrow is going to be a longgggg assembly. **** The Singapore Economic Model Works by Chin Sau Ho, Ministry of Finance, Singapore Government, Wall Street Journal Singapore will constantly review and update its economic strategies, but we have not done too badly. The economy has grown by over 5% per year on average in the decade since the Asian crisis, well above any economy with broadly comparable income levels. Unemployment rates have also been amongst the lowest in the world. This hardly suggests that Singapore is a failed model. **** Ganging Up On Low Thia Khiang by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye Hear Ye I think problem with Low???s argument is that he was not comparing apples with apples. It seems to me the Job Credit scheme was never designed to save jobs for companies that are on the verge of collapse. The scheme is meant to help sound companies lower their costs so that they can continue operating even when demand has dropped significantly. **** Internet Not An Effective Self-Regulated Regime, Says MICA by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Contrary to what some may feel, Singapore's senior minister of state for information, communications and the arts, Lui Tuck Yew, says the internet is not an effective self-regulated regime. **** Singapore, Malaysian Banks Hit By Bad Debt, Weak Markets by Saeed Azhar, Reuters Slowing loan growth, mounting losses from bad debts and falling fee income from slumping capital markets will cut quarterly earnings for banks in Singapore and Malaysia by as much as a third, with an even rougher ride expected in 2009 as the global economy worsens. **** GIC's Investments Decline In Value In Wake Of Global Financial Meltdown by Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia The Ministry of Finance said the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) has performed well over the long term. But its investment have lost value just like other institutional investors in view of the financial meltdown. **** Singapore Government Says: Internet Very Unruly And Unkind, Not Self-Regulated Enough by mrbrown Coffee shop uncles and netizens should all take a leaf from our responsible and balanced press and assorted local mainstream media. That is where true self-regulation and nation-building takes place. **** Films Act Changes Target Civil Disobedience Videos by Cherian George, Journalism.sg The amendments that have been tabled in Parliament aren't only about opening up space for free expression. The government is also taking the opportunity to tighten the noose around civil disobedience. **** February 4, 2009 by Ayasaka Kagali, NothingIsWorthIt My whole four years in CSS, I was never caught once, tho' nearly once (if my friend didn't pull me away before I stepped into White Sands.) **** We Are Coralll... Not by Angels Seeping Through We're not even allowed to walk in whitesands after school, we are expected to walk a big round around whitesands to get to the bus interchange. What kind of crap rule is that? **** Job Credits - A Good Sign For Soon-To-Be Grads by The Kent Ridge Common Perhaps, the scheme will tilt the balance of competitiveness between local graduates and foreigners. And perhaps, our soon-to-be graduates of 2009 may face a kinder job market. **** Coffee Shop Talk Not An Effective Self-Regulated Regime by Ringisei Mdm Liu Lao Lao added that coffee shop community had not done enough to rebut some of the unhelpful comments delivered by fellow patrons. **** TAAI To Stop Selling Packages To Singapore by Business Standard The Travel Agents Association of India (TAAI) has decided to stop selling packages to Singapore and withdraw its support to the city-state as a destination. **** Rare Singapore Protest Over Sri Lanka War: Report by AFP Four people held a rare protest march in tightly controlled Singapore on Wednesday to appeal for British help in ending the war in Sri Lanka, a report said. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Feb 5 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 5 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 5, 2009 Message-ID: <20090205235900.67754.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Look Before Leaping... And Formatting Hard Drives by Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Apple Says 17-Inch MacBook Pros Will See Further Delays by Slash Lane, AppleInsider Apple said Wednesday that it's facing unexpected delays related to its new unibody 17-inch MacBook Pros and won't be capable of shipping orders for at least another two weeks. **** Tough Economy Cooling MacBook Demand by Electronista A new study published today by ChangeWave reveals that the sudden recession has likely had a chilling effect on MacBook sales. As the number of people looking to buy notebooks over the next 90 days has dipped from 8 to 6 percent in January, fewer are also looking to buy one of Apple's portables. **** Apple UI Complaint: The Way To Set A Default View For Folders by Steve Kudelko It's kind of a pointless little pet-peeve, but it's irritated me since Leopard hsa been released. **** Apple And Six Years To Operating System Parity by Gene Steinberg, MacNightOwl **** Fourth Time's The Charm? Apple Seeks Georgetown's Blessing by Paul Schwartzman, Washington Post Three times, Apple has presented plans for its first Washington store. Three times, a panel of architects has suggested a return to the drawing board. Each time, Apple came back with a drawing that was more contemporary and as full of glass as the first, if not more. On Thursday, Apple returns for a fourth round with the Old Georgetown Board, as the panel is known, this time with a drawing that is virtually identical to the first. **** Exploded iPod (Still Works) by [An Error Occurred While Processing This Directive].com I love exploded diagrams of objects where you see every piece of the thing. I had the idea to try and make a real life version of one, and picked my iPod to be the victim. The catch was, I wanted it to work even in its exploded form. Wow! **** For Popular Mac Bundles, Update Not An Upgrade by Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post Moving from iLife '08 to '09 makes more sense than an upgrade from iWork '08 to '09. **** DC Store Design Finally Approved by ifo AppleStore After several denials by a District of Columbia architectural commission, Apple has finally obtained approval for its planned store on Wisconsin Avenue in the Georgetown district of the city, and it???s a stunning new design that includes a rear interior atrium with planted trees. **** Playing With Toys? by Paul Castle, Shufflegazine So while my Apple devices are fun to play with, they continue to be a great bon when it comes to getting serious work done. **** Review: Rayman Raving Rabbids by Peter Cohen, Macworld If you???re not a Wii owner and the idea of a bunch of mini-games featuring nutty cartoon bunnies sounds appealing, Rayman Raving Rabbids can be appealing. But if you???ve already tried it on the Wii, you???re going to find that the gameplay loses a lot in translation. **** Review: iWeb '09 by Deborah Shadovitz, Macworld Its improved uploading capabilities, easy-to-use widgets, and more straightforward interface will be worth the price of the upgrade. Using the program for professional purposes remains more of a challenge. It???s not designed for professionals, but it can be a great way to start your Web presence. **** Mathematica Home Edition Released by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Review: Duck Shoot Tickles For Short-Term Fun by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica There's just not enough gameplay to learn from and return to, although it's fun for its relatively short play life. **** So Many iPhone Apps, So Little Time by David Pogue, New York Times Even when the economy is crashing down around us, there???s still amazing power in a single good idea. And the one on display here--pricing software so low that millions of people buy it without batting an eye--is turning a few clever programmers into millionaires. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google & The Big Ideas by Om Malik, GigaOM **** Sun's Missing Mojo: MIA Until When? by Charles Cooper, CNET Truth be told, it was a compelling performance. I just wonder how long it's going to take before the story line ever jibes with facts on the ground. Panglossian optimism has its place, but Sun's CEO insists on painting a sunny picture that never quite takes shape as envisioned. **** Ah, Yes, More About Me? Here Are '25 Random Things' by Douglas Quenqua, New York Times As with anything on the Internet, why this particular distraction has suddenly become a phenomenon is anyone???s guess. For most, it seems to be a creative way to indulge in social networking without coming off as needy or shamelessly self-absorbed. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** That Dogma Won't Hunt by Witold Rybczynski, Slate Why are architects so obsessed with schools and rules? **** A Heimlich In Every Pot by Joan Nathan, New York Times It was the best party I had ever hosted. And then I almost died from choking on too big a piece of chicken. **** The Pursuit Of Happiness by Carlin Flora, Psychology Today Has the happiness frenzy of the past few years left you sad and anxious? Herein we report the surest ways to find well-being. **** The Great Girl Gross-Out by Rebecca Traister, Salon Female writers are getting more graphic than ever about the messy realities of their bodies. Is it too much information, or enlightened honesty? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Lui Tuck Yew Wants A Cyber Panopticon by Mollymeek Lui's latest comments are interesting because his criticism is based on the idea that the internet should be self-regulatory. It reveals what an ideal world, online and offline, must be to him. A self-regulated world. **** A Consolidation Of My Views On Budget 2009 by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net **** Repeated Calls For GST Cuts And Help For SMEs In Budget Debates by Ng Baoying, Channel NewsAsia Members of Parliament repeated earlier calls for a cut in the Good and Service Tax (GST) during the budget debate in Parliament on Wednesday. There were also requests for more pro-active help schemes for small and medium-sized businesses. **** TV Licence Fee Among World's Lowest by Pam Hu, Media Development Authority, Straits Times The TV licence fee of $110 has remained unchanged since Jan 1, 1994. It is among the lowest in the world, even as the cost of producing Public Service Broadcast programmes has risen over the years, and there are more free-to-air TV channels today for consumers to enjoy. I wonder how one can claim our TV license is among the lowest in the world, when 300 mllion people living in the United States, for one, pay $0 for their television. **** Opposition MP Low Has Valid Concerns by Joey Yeo, Straits Times The rebuttals by the PAP MPs showed that they had failed to understand the nub of Mr Low's concern. **** To View Town Council Reports... by Albert Teng, Holland-Bukit Panjang Town Council (On Behalf Of The 14 PAP Town Councils), Today The Town Councils' annual reports for 2008 will be available to the public once the audited financial statement is approved by the Ministry of National Development. **** No GLC Investments In Las Vegas Sands And Its Subsidiaries by My Paper **** ????????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????200?????????????????????????????????8000?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????100???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** A Most Stupendous & Audacious Undertaking - Singapore's Government by Nasu Dengaku Something in Singapore's national cutlure allowed the country to work extremely well. **** Is The Crowd Telling Us A Story? by Benjamine Koe, The Eok .Network I believe the online community is a great source of feedback, but it's the story of the collective that carries meaning. **** Why Singapore Can't Succeed In Arts Just Yet by The Temple Of Thoughts III Compared to other countries, nationalistic pride keeps their streets clean. Singapore hire foreigners to clean up the streets at night. **** PAP MPs Should Reflect On Blogosphere's Response To Attack On Seng Han Thong by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club To defend the PAP will be an unacceptable anomaly. **** Is The Gahmen Going To Regulate Cyberspace Now? by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye Hear Ye The bottomline is that in any democratic space, there are all kinds of people with all kinds of ideas and oopinions. There will always be people on the extremes. **** Half-Million Is The New Benchmark by Au Yaipang, Yawning Bread All ministers' pay comes from taxpayer money, so yeah, it can be compared to how government aid is used in such companies. Secondly, the government now thinks that our economy is tanking so badly that the case for raiding the reserves is justified. THat's like seeking bailout, is it not? **** NSP Budget Response 2009 - Extensive But Not Comprehensive by National Solidarity Party **** Diversity And Eating One's Proverbial Cake by Celluloid Reality(s) We cannot tell individuals what to think, and it is wise not to do so. Everyone understands the bacteria analogy, that little ???infections??? serve to strengthen the entire corpus, and hence harmless voices and opinions, fiery or not, serve the same purpose. How else would you know that you are being positive if there is no Other to measure this against. If you are a caring ,decent chap, your identity is strengthen in opposition to the Other, the antithesis of what you stand for personally. **** Procreation 'Not Our Forte,' Says Singapore MP by AFP A Singapore lawmaker has a simple explanation for the city-state's lack of babies: procreation, he says, is "not our forte." Loo Choon Yong also suggestd that because more free time did not necessarily result in more babies, people should work on Saturdays, a report in The Straits Times said. Shouldn't the logical conclusion be that, instead of Sunday, the weekly rest day should be based on the wife's ovulation cycle? :-) **** Strict Or No Freedom? by Ms Chor Lor.com **** Shield Us Good, Mock Us Bad, Says Lui by Au Yaipang, Yawning Bread I don't think Lui understands what are the justifiable limits to free speech. Saying things hurtful to people in power is not a reason for censorship. Nor is expressing childish sentiments. Did moderators fail in their jobs when they chose not to shield PAP members from unkind remarks? The junior minister is using a very self-serving test to make his judgement. **** Sensible Suggestion But Was Unfortunately Shot Down by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye Hear Ye Come on, PAP. Sylvia Lim is essentially suggesting aiding people who are trying to help themselves. What is there to disagree with? **** Koo Tsai Kee's Non-Rebuttal To WSJA's Criticism by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Prof Koo conveniently ignored the key question posed by the editorial: Why does our consumption comprise only 40% of the GDP, much less than the average 55% of other Asian countries ? **** Lui Tuck Yew Should Recall What His PAP Colleague Wee Siew Kim Said In 2006 by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club To Mr Lui and the other PAP MPs out there, please remember what your own kind has said by heart: If you do not like what netizens say, you and your minions have the right of rebuttal. Unlike your compliant, syncophantic and spineless print media, the New Media can never be regulated by any third parties. The problem is: you are in the minority in cyberspace and you should be asking yourselves why. **** Self-Regulation Fail? by Ephraim Loy, A Writer's Blog If I may counter his words, I had seen many encouraging statements and comments on Facebook which wished Mr Seng well. There was also a Facebook group started to rally support and wish him well. Clearly, we cannot afford to make such fallacious judgments based on one incident. **** 20,513 Took Up Singapore Citizenship In 2008 by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia More immigrants became Singapore citizens and Permanent Residents (PRs) in 2008. Minister-in-charge of population, Wong Kan Seng, said the increase could be due to the good economy and not because of a change in immigration policy. **** Saving Jobs Will Have Bigger Impact In Boosting Singaore Economy by Ng Baoying, Channel NewsAsia Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said the government believes keeping Singaoreans employed and helping businesses stay afloat makes more sense. He said a GST cut is unlikely to help Singaporeans or businesses as powerfully. **** Money Got Enough: Defence Budget Increases By 6% Despite Recession by Military Life: Memoirs Of A Conscript In The Lion City I seriously question the wisdom of flinging our hard-earned tax dollars down the bureaucracy that is Mindef. What next big weapons systems is in Mindef's radar? **** Media Advertising In Singapore Down 6.4% In Q4 On-Year by Cheryl Frois, Channel NewsAsia Amid the global recession, some experts predict this year's advertising budgets may shrink by 15 to 20 per cent. **** Higher Cap Will Benefit Few by Straits Times Raising the $2,000 cap for personal income tax rates would benefit only a very small group of taxpayers and significantly impact on government revenues, said finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in Parliament on Thursday. **** Reserves May Be Used Again by Straits Times The government, which is tapping its past reserves for the first time to fight Singapore's worst recession, cannot rule out a further drawdown in the event of another exceptional situation,s aid finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam on Thursday. **** We'll Upgrade Your Lift For You, Sir by Ragsstudio I think we have to be moving out. **** Land Sales Go To Reserves by Fiona Chan, Straits Times When the government sells land in Singapore, the revenues collected usually go into its past reserves rather than its current savings. Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam disclosed this in Parliament on Thursday in resonse to a question from Workers' Party MP Sylvia Limon how much the government has in its current reserves. **** Speech By Mr Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister For Finance, At Budget 2009 Debate Round-Up Speech by Ministry Of Finance, Singapore Government (Note: Link goes to Microsoft Word document.) **** We Don't Need No Regulation... by Empty_Vessels It is akin to trying to condemn the ocean for being wet. Sorry: Can't do anything about it even if we wanted to. **** No Credible Information Of Whereabouts Of Mas Selamat Kastari by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Home affairs minister Wong Kan Seng said his ministry has no credible information on the whereabouts of Mas Selamat Kestari, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) leader who escaped last year. **** Google Phone On The Way by Serene Luo, Straits Times Singapore will be the first country in Asia to get the Google phone. **** Civil Service Hires Older Staff by Straits Times The public service, the biggest employer in Singapore, is hiring more older officers and also re-employing those over 62-year-old, said Mr Teo Chee Hean, minister in charge of the civil service on Thursday. **** Lui Tuck Yew's Admonisment Of Netizens Misses The FOrest, The Trees, And Even The Overhead Bridge by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Feb 6 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 6 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 6, 2009 Message-ID: <20090206235901.6932.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Georgetown Board Sends Apple Back To Drawing Board by Paul Schwartzman, Washington Post An architectural review board today ordered Apple to redraw plans for a store it hopes to open in Georgetown, the fourth time the panel has rejected the company's submission. The board's three members, each of them architects, expressed disappointment that Apple keeps proposing a design that they have criticized. Apple struggles with the board have caused anxiety among Georgetown business leaders who worry that the company will grow fed up and drop its plans for the property. **** Apple Delay In iPhone App Feature Not Serious, Analysts Say by Antone Gonsalves, InformationWeek Apple is late in delivering technology that would enable third-party iPhone applications to run in the background in order to immediately receive alerts, messages, and other content. But analysts say consumer demand for such features remains low, so the delay is unlikely to have an impact on the consumer electronics maker. **** Apple's iMovie 09 Is A True "Wow" Update For Video Software by Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times It???s hard to imagine Apple elevating the art of desktop moviemaking to this degree under the severe limitations of the old iMovie???s user interface and methodology. **** An App Store For OS X Is A Mistake by James R. Stoup, Apple Matters All of the best developers (one imagines) would be too interested in retaining control to let Apple handle things. I don't seem them trusting anyone that much. **** A Few Words In Appreciation Of Steve Jobs by Charles Moore, Low End Mac **** Boxee And Its Implications For Apple TV by John Martellaro, The iPod Observer Whether Apple likes it or not, to make the Apple TV hardware more attractive, the company may have to open the doors a little with strategic partnerships. The question is: is the partnership at the hardware/application level, or at the content/iTunes Store level? I bet Apple is still on the latter strategy. **** Attention, iPhoto '09: I Am Not Steve Jobs by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Thanks to Faces, iPhoto seems to think that I'm Steve Jobs. **** Review: SimCity For iPhone by Chris Holt, Macworld SimCity for the iPhone is true to the series and a solid strategy game with many memorable moments, clever nuances, and a high level of replayability. Experienced fans of the series will take some time adjusting to the touchscreen controls, but ultimately geek out at seeing this miniature version of their beloved game. Persons new to the series should experience this iconic strategy game but this may be a rocky introduction. **** Review: iMovie '09 by Jeff Carlson, Macworld iMovie '09 has caught up with iMovie HD and surpassed it in features and performance. There are enough improvements in iMovie '09 that I think it is no longer competing with iMovie HD, but instead with Final Cut Express, which is the next step up in Apple video editing. **** Great Ormond Street Hospital: Apple Technology Helps Improve Surgical Treatment For Children by Apple **** Geneforge 5: Overthrow by Franklin Pride, Inside Mac Games Geneforge 5 is well worth the price of purchase. $28 is pretty cheap for an RPG that lasts over thirty hours, especially one that's this entertaining. **** Analyst: Apple Making Smart Moves With Next OS, Snow Leopard by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Case For Supporting And Using Mono by Neil McAllister, InfoWorld Novell's open-source .Net clone is alive and well, and it's turning up in surprising, useful places. **** The Race For A Better Read by Josh Quittner, Time What everyone really wants, of course, is the iPod of e???readers. **** The Open-Source Mandates Are Coming by Matt Asay, CNET As enterprises get squeezed by the recession, they're going to squeeze their vendors for cost savings. At some point, those vendors' cost structures and business models won't support the squeeze, and the business will go to open-source vendors. **** Google And Amazon To Put More Books On Cellphones by Miguel Helft, New York Times In a move that could bolster the growing popularity of e-books, Google said Thursday that the 1.5 million public domain books it had scanned and made available free on PCs were now accessible on mobile devices like the iPhone and the T-Mobile G1. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Why Hard Times Won't Mean Good Times At The Movies Again by J. Hoberman, The Village Voice Brother, can you spare $12? **** 24-Hour Hearty People by Tm Carman, Washington City Paper How diners are surviving the recession. **** Mister Lucky by Isaac Chotiner, The New Republic Gladwell's overarching thesis in Outliers is so obviously correct that it hardly merits discussion. "The people we surround ourselves with have a profound effect on who we are." Also, tomorrow is the beginning of the rest of your life. Gladwell writes as if he is the only person in the world in possession of this platitudinous wisdom. **** A Baker's Dozen Of My Feeling About David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest by Elissa Bassit, The Rumpus First of all, I didn???t even want to write this because who am I to write this? **** The Hardest Job In Football by Mark Bowden, The Atlantic For millions of football fans watching at home every Sunday, it seems as though NFL games make a seamless transition from the gridiron to the television screen. But spend a weekend with a network production crew, and you???ll discover what it really takes to turn the on-field action into televised entertainment--intense preparation, frantic effort, brilliant improvisation, and an artistic genius named ???Fish.??? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** School Starts Remedial Classes At 6.50am by Arul John, New Paper On Tuesday, the father of a student at Kuo Chuan Presbyterian Primary School wrote to the Straits Times online media portal (Stomp) describing his shock at receiving a note from the school about his daughter's remedial classes from today. **** How Government Can Engage Netizens Effectively by Tong Hsien-Hui, Straits Times As a first step, the government should manage its current online presence better with swifter response times, which is a fundamental trait of the online community. The government must also understand the communication dynamics in the online world. A statement followed immediately with a strong rebuttal usually either leads to an escalation in online confrontation, or worse, the withdrawal of the contributor to some other site. **** Steps To President's OK by Jeremy Au Yong, Straits Times **** RADM Lui's Comments Highlight Growing Divide That Needs To Be Bridged by Choo Zheng Xi, The Online Citizen We agree with RADM Lui???s call for bloggers to establish norms of acceptable behavior, but disagree that anyone on the internet should 'enforce' these norms. The force of these standards must come from the moral legitimacy of community acceptance: they need to be evolved from consensus and not by fiat. **** Temasek CEO Ho Ching To Leave; Goodyear To Take Over by Bei u and Yoolim Lee, Bloomberg Temasek Holdings Pte said chief executive officer Ho Ching will step down after almost seven years at the helm of Singapore's $130 billion state-owned investment company. Chip Goodyear, 51, a former CEO of BHP Billiton Ltd., will succeed Ho, wife of Singapore's prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, effective Oct. 1, Temasek chairman S. Dhanabalan said at a press conference today. Goodyear will be the first foreigner to run the sovereign wealth funds. **** Risk-Taker Ho Ching Has No Regrets by Reuters Ho Ching, wife of Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, will step down as chief executive of Temasek, ending a 5-year term which saw the state investment agency expand aggressively beyond Singapore. It was also involved in controversies around the region. Temasek chairman S. Dhanabalan said Ho's decision to step down was not linked to performance, and it was too early to determine if investments made in the last two years would lose out in the long-term. **** HDB To Accept Applications For Lease Buyback Scheme From Mar 1 by Channel NewsAsia Lease Buyback Scheme (LBS) is a new monetisation option to help elderly households in three-room or smaller flats unlock their housing equity to meet their retirement needs. **** Foreign Minister Updates Parliament On Singapore's Ties With Neighbours by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo on Friday said Singapore's tie with Malaysia have improved considerably under prime minister Abdullah Badawi. Ties with Indonesia are also very good, said the foreign minister. **** A Reversal Of Roles? by Melvin Tan K. H., A Blog Day's Work As an organisation that touts iself to be a caregiver of workers, did these NTUC-representing PAP MPs grill the PM or the finance and manpower ministers with equal zeal, which ideally should be the case? **** Where To, Opposition? by Aloysius Foo, The Online Citizen The WP has poised itself as the leading opposition party, with anticipations of a better performance in the next election. If other parties were to stand a chance, they ought to reorganize themselves, revamp their image and offer better proposals. Unless they do so, they will head for political stagnation or worse, obliteration, no matter how much opposition unity they talk of. **** Singaporeans Deserve Better by Yaw Shin Leong **** HDB Tightens Rental Rules by Jessica Cheam, Straits Times The move will differentiate those truly deserving cases from those who actually have alternative housing options, National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan told Parliament on Friday. **** 80,000 Paid Up Library Fines by Straits Times Around 80,000 library members have paid their fines since it was announced last month that borrowing privileges would be suspended from April 1 if fines remain unpaid. **** Shock Over Ho's Departure by Alvin Foo and Francis Chan, Straits Times CIMB-GK economist Song Seng Wun said: "I'm taken aback by the timing. It's been a most difficult period for Temasek given their paper losses." Mr Wong Kok Ho, APS Asset Management's chief investment officer, said: "The whole industry is surprised by the announcement. Nobody expected the timing." **** MM Lee Explains Singapore's Long-Term Invstment Horizon by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew has said the country has over S$100 billion in reserves today, unlike the 1960s when the country first gained independence. But the republic has not relied on borrowing to fund its investments. **** My Response To RAdm Lui's Remarks About "Self-Regulation" by Gerald Giam From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Feb 7 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 7 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 7, 2009 Message-ID: <20090207235901.52723.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple's Not So Quiety Rally And Why It Will Continue by Jim Goldman, CNBC In recessionary times, cash is always king, and Apple has a mountain of it. But the company's business is also surging. It's an incredibly powerful one-two financial punch not replicated by any other company, to this degree, that I can think of. **** Can Apple's Multi-Touch Patent Withstand Scrutiny - Or Challenge? by Erik Sherman, BNET Technology **** 10 Secrets Of iMovie '09 by Jeff Carlson, TidBITS **** Apple Rejects Obama Trampoline iPhone App, Leaves Us Puzzled by Robin Wauters, TechCrunch MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Random Beauty Of "25 Random Things" by Robert Lanham, Salon Why the latest annoying Facebook trend might be one of the most inspiring Web crazes in years. **** Haunted Castles Of The Barrier Islands by Tony Earley, Washington Post **** The Bridge by Ellen Gilchrist, Washington Post **** 10,000 Steps by Ann Hood, Washington Post **** Jumpin' At The Woodside by Breena Clarke, Washington Post **** Sonora Pass by Sam Esquith, Washington Post SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Netizens To Decide by Li Xueying, Straits Times Senior minister of state Lui Tuck Yew yesterday stated categorically that he was not pushing for more internet regulation when he crticised netizens for not rebutting online attacks on MP Seng Han Thong. He noted that in responding to the report by the Advisory Council on the Impact of New Media on Society, a group of bloggers proposed that community moderation replace the government's lighter-touch regulatory approach. **** Taiwan, Singapore To Jointly Train Talent For Casino Business by Taiwan News **** Singaporean Linked To Terrorist Network by Dicky Christanto, The Jakarta Post A police officer told a Jakarta district court Thursday that terror suspect Muhammad Hasan alias Fajar Taslim, a Singaporean man arrested last year in Indonesia, was part of a terrorist cell operating within his country. **** ??????????????????????????? by ?????????, ????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????30?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????30??????????????????????????????????????? **** Is It Politics Next? by Chrstie Loh, Today About a month ago, certain circles were abuzz with talk that Ms Ho Ching was planning to leave Temasek Holdings to join politics. Strong skepticism greeted those murmurs at the time. The talk is now back. **** Clamp Down On Internet Will Breed More Adversarial Netizens by Fang Zhui Yuan, The Wayang Party Club Political dissent can only be managed through effective communication and not quashed completely by adopting a hard-ball approach which will cause the relationship between the government and blogosphere to become more sour and adversarial. **** Unease Over Nation's Assets by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Singaporeans are becoming more anxious about not knowing how much their collective savings have been lost - or tied up - in troubled investments as a result of the global market collapse. In a few years' time the recession will blow over, almost everyone is sure. But no one can be equally sure that even when it happens Singapore can recover from its investment mistakes, even years after that. **** Tertiary Students Seek Lower Public Transport Fares by Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia Close to 5,200 tertiary students have signed a petition for lower public transport fares. They say it is unfair they have to pay 80 per cent more in fares compared to students in junior colleges and institutes of technical education. **** More Theatre Productions Pass Uncensored In Singapore by Pearl Forss, Channel NewsAsia >From poking fun at political figures to tackling homosexuality and religion and even full frontal nudity, theatre companies in Singapore are increasingly pushing the boundaries. **** Behind Today's Lui Story by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread The anatomy is very interesting, and quite typical of news stories in the mainstream media. The element that is most supportive of the government is placed first, then the factual context is explained. After that, the components are arranged roughly in descending order of support; the more dissenting, the further down the article your view is. **** Full House At SDP's Forum by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club Nearly 100 Singaporeans filled the Aerides Room at Orchid Corpthone Hotel to attend SDP???s forum on the future of opposition politics, almost half of whom are young people. **** Deliberations Of President Shrouded In Mystery by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen The question thus remains: What were the president's reasons for approving the reserves, and what process did he go through to approve it? **** Madame Prime Minister Bows Out by The Online Citizen Madam Ho's connections to the Singaore's founding Lee family were long considered to have rendered her unimpeachable, yet the timing of her impending departure would inevitably send an ambiguous message. **** Opposition Unity Still Illusory by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread How does one make progress when the starting point is an illusion? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Feb 8 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 8 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 8, 2009 Message-ID: <20090208235901.42002.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Hints At A Tough Legal Stance; Is It Patently Risky? by Eric J. Savitz, Barron's **** Review: Apple's iWork '09 Gets Online Sharing, 'Evolutionary' Updates by Ryan Faas, Computerworld For $79, iWork '09 is a solid suite for newcomers and a worthy upgrade for current users, even if it seems like a largely incremental update. There are a variety of useful additions to all three applications, though Numbers is probably the one with the most changes. For many users, iWork serves as a viable and cost-effective alternative to Microsoft Office, one that distinguishes itself with ease of use and the visual flair it can add to data, documents and presentations. With a free trial version available, users who have been curious about iWork can take it for a thorough test drive before deciding whether to buy. **** Macs Appear On More Government Desktops by Merrill Douglas, Government Technology A growing trend toward "consumerization" in the workplace has seen more employees asking for the IT products they prefer, or simply bringing in products they buy themselves. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Software Designer Knows His Office Space, Too by Claire Wilson, New York Times A client who claims to know something about design might be an architect's worst nightmare. But it turns out that Joel Spolsky, a software designer, author and blogger, actually knows a lot about it. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** I'm A Control Freak by Jeana Lee Tahnk, Boston Globe THe CEO of the household -- that's me. But could I let my husband take over in a pinch? **** My Blog Ate My Career by Linda Keenan, Boston Globe I'm perfectly qualified for a job -- just don't look me up online. **** What's Your New Plan B? by David Segal, New York Times We have the new Plan B, which can be summarized this way: the best you can make of a worst-case scenario, the deal you cut with a fate you might be unable to avoid. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Temasek's Coming New World by The Edge Singapore The incoming Temasek CEO's biggest asset will e as a strong public frace for Singapore's more visible SWF. Because Ho was the unfair target of potshots for her relationship with prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, who is her husband, she had chosen to stay away from the limelight, avoiding media interviews and press conferences. That, unfortunately, denied Temasek the ability to tell its side of the story more effectively. **** Ageing And Willing by Singapore Life And Times No, he wasn't the fiery speaker, never was anyway. And yes, he was often ignored, even in his heyday. But he always came across as ever sincere, earnest and honest. **** No Need To Know How President Uses His Second Key, Says Government by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread When the PAP wants to spend its "own" money, of course the process has to be quick and easy. WHen a future non-PAP goernment asks to do so, it must prove extremely difficult (assuming that the president had been installed by a PAP government). To institutionalise the process by which the president and the CPA should evaluate and decide, through the example of the current request, would be to lay down a procedure that makes things much too easy for future non-PAP governments. Better to keep it opaque. **** Real Culprit Spreading Lies About Cause Of Fire Attack On Seng Han Thong Is SPH!! by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club It is unbecoming, unprofessional and unethical for a major Chinese daily to publish such fictitious hogwash without even checking on its veracity and accuracy and what???s more embarrassing is the source of the misinformation come from themselves in the first place! **** The Untruths About Jobs Credit! by The Kway Teow Man The JCS makes locals about 10% cheaper to hire than foreigners. Now, it turns out that the JCS is also targetted to jobs that pay less than $2,500 per month because these are likely non-executive jobs that are most sensitive to costs. If people think carefully about it, what the JCS is doing is not exactly stopping retrenchments, but where there are retrenchments, move Singaporeans avourably down the list. So, what we care about are the retrenchments numbers for Singaporeans. **** Trust, But Verify by Gerald Giam How can you have trust without transparency? **** More Thoughts On Jobs Credit Scheme by Siew Kum Hong Te employers' CPF contribution rate for most locals (excluding older locals, etc.) is 14.5%. JCS equates to a 9% point reduction in that rate. So local employees are still 5.5% more expensive than foreign employees. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Feb 9 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 9 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 9, 2009 Message-ID: <20090209235900.73888.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Mac Clone Maker Wins Legal Round Against Apple by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld A federal judge last week ruled that Psystar Corp. can continue its countersuit against Apple Inc., giving the Mac clone maker a rare win in its seven-month-old battle with Apple. He also hinted that if Psytar proves its allegations, others may then be free to sell computers with Mac OS X already installed. **** Apple App Store Developers Look To Next Level by Ryan Kim, San Francisco Chronicle When pressed, developers, who are all effusive in their praise of Apple, have some modest suggestions about how the App Store can evolve. The ideas highlight some of the growing pains the store is undergoing, new opportunities created by it and the developers' own eagerness to do much more with the iPhone and iPod Touch. **** Apple Could Fall Far From Georgetown by The Examiner Georgetown's stuffiness should not prevent D.C. from landing an Apple store. Every "big city" has one. If mayor "CrackBerry" Fenty wants to be a big-city mayor, he should make sure Georgetown doesn't ruin it for the rest of us. **** iPhone... But In Japan, iAlso Watch TV by Junko Yoshida, EE Times EE Times has leanred that Siano Mobile Silicon, a mobile digital TV chip supplier, will disclose that its multi-standard mobile digital TV receiver chip is designed into the recently launched iPhone 3G accessory in Japan. **** My Recent Experience With AppleCare by Kristan Kenney's Digital Life I'd have to rate the service I received from AppleCare to be a 10 out of 10. **** Rise Of The Nerds: Apple Co-Founder Wozniak On 'Dancing With The Stars' by Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times Well, that's just an act of genius. That's all you can say. Genius! **** 5 Ways Steve Jobs' Absence Isn't All Bad For Apple by Sct Finnie, Computerworld Jobs or no Jobs, several opportunities exist for Apple. **** New Games For Jailbroken iPhones Are NSFW by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac Comes now Variah, with a brand new mobile ???gaming??? app exclusively for jailbroken iPhones and iPod Touch that lets users interactively touch, strip and stroke beautiful models to climax. **** EMV Software Releases Pixie Game by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Some iPhoto '09 Features Also Left In The Dust For PowerPC by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Besides the "Learn to Play" feature of GarageBand '09 being Intel-only, it turns out that some slideshow themes in iPhoto '09 are incompatible with older machines. Better ditch that PowerPC machine now if you want to keep using Apple's software. **** Miking Drums, Amps, And Recording To The Mac by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld **** Review: GarageBand '09 by Christopher Breen, Macworld What GarageBand ???09 brings to the table is the possibility that more people--specifically those looking to get some use from a guitar or keyboard crammed in a closet or electric guitar players seeking a more authentic sound--will stick around for a second look. **** iPhone May Not See Light Of Day In China Thanks To App Store by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica The latest rounds of talks with both Steve Jobs and Tim Cook came to a standstill when China Mobile supposedly refused to give up sales of smartphone apps to Apple. "Wang said China Mobile should operate the application store itself in order to maintain its advantage," a source told Interfax China. Another sticking point was that the App Store requires the use of a credit card, whereas most customers in China pay by depositing money into their mobile phone accounts. **** iMovie Photo Management by Christopher Breen, Macworld If you don???t want your iPhoto library to be cluttered with images you have no interest in keeping, don???t import the photos into iPhoto in the first place. Rather, fling them into a folder somewhere and when you???re ready to place the images in iMovie, drag them from the folder directly into the iMovie project. **** Review: Jaadu Remote Desktop For iPhone by Tim Mercer, Macworld Jaadu RDP is an exceptionally well-built and polished app that stands out among the other remote desktop apps out there, particularly if you???ve got a PC to control. **** Behind The iPhone's Carrier-Settings Update Message by Dan Frakes, Macworld **** Six Years WIth An Apple Cinema Display by Rob Griffiths, Macworld So thanks, Apple, for building such an amazingly long-lasting monitor. I certainly wasn???t expecting it to be looking this good, nor working this well, six years and nearly 20,000 usage hours after I brought it home. **** Judge: Psystar Can Claim Apple 'Copyright Misuse' by Dawn Kawamoto, CNET While Judge Alsup found in Psystar's favor by allowing the company to continue its counterclaim with a misuse-of-copyright argument, he denied its motion to amend its claim that Apple's copyright-oriented conduct threatens or harms competition. **** Turn Your iPhone Into A Web Server by Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** And The Winner Is... The Digital Revolution by Libby Purves, The Times Forget the Baftas and Oscars, the real star of Revolutionary Road is the computer and the freedom it has brought women. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Is There Intelligent Life On Television? by Paul A. Cantor, Claremont Review Of Books In the era of literary deconstruction, it can be refreshing to turn to television books and see critics who are still interested in reconstructing the meaning of the works they discuss. The readers of the new books on television will accept no less, since their reason for turning to these books is to help them better understand their favorite programs. At a time when literary critics often seem to be talking only to each other, the lively market for television books tells us something. **** The Climate Engineers by James R. Fleming, The Wilson Quarterly Despite the large, unanswered questions about the implications of playing God with the elements, climate engineering is now being widely discussed in the scientific community and is taken seriously within the U.S. government. **** Unfinished Business by The Economist Charles Darwin's ideas have spread widely, but his revolution is not yet complete. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Upgrading Schemes Won't Work For SME Employees by Yum Shoen Liang, Straits Times **** PM Defends Jobs Credit by Aaron Low, Straits Times One, according to prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, the Jobs Credit Scheme reduces the cost of hiring a Singaproean by paying, on behalf of employers, part of the worker's contribution to his Central Provident Fund (CPF) savings, and two, it encourages companies to hire more Singaporeans. In doing so, he said the scheme also deals specifically with an overriding worry of Singaporeans: whether they can keep their jobs in this downturn. **** Wayangparty Send Hamper To MP Seng Han Thong by The Wayang Party Club We made a mistake in not exercising due caution and deliberation in what was published here. The offensive posts, comments and videos have since been deleted. **** Rolls Royce, Pratt & Whitney Suspend Singapore Projects by Kevin Lim, Reuters **** Breaking.sg - Singapore's Digg Clone by Ian Timothy, SG Entrepreneuers **** What Should Ho Ching's New Role Be? by P N Baiji, Today Having a third member of the Lee family in politics or the cabinet is not just going to be a very difficult cross to carry. The Singapore that we were when former foreign minister and one of the founding members of the PAP, Mr S Rajaratnam proposed a youthful Lee Hsien Loong for politics in 1984 is very different from the Singapore we are in today. The population is becoming more demanding and judgemental, with a click community sometimes hijacking the debate in a digital world always looking for the next hot-button issue. **** Temasek Takes Severe Hit by Thanong Khanthong, The Nation Ho Ching's resignation as CEO of Temasek Holdngs would not cloud heavy losses of about 40 per cent at Singapore's sovereign wealth fund amid the global financial market meltdown. An investment analyst in Singapore in Singapore said that he don't think the resignation has much to do with Temasek's performance. "This is Singapore, favoured people are not made to resign for performance! I think Singapore leaders are more concerned over the sovereign wealth fund issue. It becomes more difficult to defend Singapore's sovereign wealth fund as a non-state actor with no political agenda if the wife of the prime minister is running it." **** ????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Ho Ching, Murdoch And Lure Of The Brands by Blowin' In THe Wind So sovereign wealth funds invest billions of dollars in the same way a shopper buys Maxwell House coffee ??? because he or she likes that particular brand. But who can resist the lure of brands? **** Online Self-Regulation In Singapore by Oldskoolmark Obama has already shown successful use of social tools to engage Gen Y during his campaign to become president. It would be interesting to see, for the rest of his term, how he manages to carry on that engagement. It would be a lot to ask for us to move in that direction, but the idealist in me sincerely believes that the leaders we have could bring us to that same level of communications. **** No-Frills Housing Please, Say Some MPs by Ansley Ng, Today It is hardly the usual call from Members of Parliament (MPs), who tend to push for upgrading in their constituencies. But two among their ranks are making the call for "no-frills" housing. **** Proposal For The Opposition, Civil Society And Blogging Community To Get Their Act Together by Fang Zhi Yuan and Lim Siow Kuan, The Wayang Party Club The take home message from the panelists at the SDP Forum on the future direction of the opposition held at Orchid Copthone Hotel yesterday is unmistakable: The opposition, civil society and blogging community must work together in order to do a ???Malaysia??? in the next election. **** Apres Ho Ching, Le Deluge? by Asia Sentinel Whatever the performance, the skimpy nature of Temasek's published data makes independent analysis very difficult — even assuming that the major brokers, rating agencies and investment banks would ever be willing to incur official wrath by attempting to do so. As for Goodyear, even with the help of a big capital profit on the December sale of PowerSeraya to Malaysia's YTL for S$3.8 billion, his first Annual Review as Ho Ching's successor will need some remarkable accounting contortions if it is not to look grim indeed. **** MPs Solution To HDB Housing Woes - Build Slums by This Lush Garden Within I don???t think HDB flats and neighbourhoods are anywhere near luxurious in the first place. ???No frills??? housing? Do those MPs really believe that HDB flats nowadays have lots of ???value-added??? features? **** The Voice Of The Void by A Long And Arduous Road Of An Entrepreneur We have heart, we just choose to show it appropriately. **** New Tariff Formula by Straits Times The Energy Market Authority (EMA) will revise the current formula for electricity tariff to make it less volatile and more reflective of prevailing market conditions. Senior minister of state for trade and industry S Iswaran said EMA plans to use the fuel oil price data over a three month period to set the tariff, instead of the current practice of using only one month's price data. **** The Singapore Pakatan? by Nicholas Lazarus, Young PAP Blog I don???t think the opposition have any shared goal. Theirs seems a pursuit of their own agendas to the detriment of their fellow oppositionists. A "Pakatan" indeed! **** $330, One Youth And A Minister by Mr Wang Says So Dr Vivian seemed to suggest that if the PAP government gave more than $330, then it would somehow become a bloated, inefficient, irrational, ill-disciplined and incompetent organisation. How exactly that would happen - I do not know. But then again, Vivian's imagination is probably much more powerful than mine. **** Holding Lee Kuan Yew Accountable - Part 1 by Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democrats Herein lies the danger, which is that of allowing one man to call the shots and of accepting Mr Lee's propaganda that he and the people he has anointed are the only one's who have the answers to our future. This danger must be highlighted, and highlighted again and again until it drenches our national psyche. **** Is Singapore Cracking Up? by Feed Me To The Fish Too many in Singapore have trusted too few for too long. **** Recent Comments Not To Control, But To Discredit Internet Content by Mathia Lee The message the internet-un-saavy electorate will remember is that any news from the internet is written by unkind, unjust, violent terrorists, who spout inaccurate information, with the evil underlying motive of brainwashing the good Singaporeans. Internet political content has just acquired the same reputation as pornography and criminals. **** Temasek, The Now Slightly Less Singaporean Singapore SWF by Jason Leow, Wall Street Journal As an outsider, Goodyear could help reinforce Temasek???s message to foreign governments that the fund conducts it business solely with commercial considerations and without political motives. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Feb 10 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 10 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 10, 2009 Message-ID: <20090210235901.93848.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: The 25 Best Outdoor iPhone Apps by Steve Casimiro, The Adventure Life The iPhone itself is already on its way to becoming indispensable and will become even more so—these 25 outdoor apps are part of the reason why. **** Apple's Flatland Aesthetic, Part 1: The Mac by Bruce Tognazzini, Ask Tog How a simple idea is causing complexity. **** A Quicker Search Of Almost Everything by Jochen Wolters, O'Reilly Digital Media **** Can Apple Stop Mac Clones? by Steven Burke, ChannelWeb The ability of PearC and Psystar to keep one step ahead of Apple's ever-vigilant legal eagles is likely to spark more companies to brave the Mac clone waters. **** Apple iTunes' Genius: Is It Racist? by Stephen Baker, BusinessWeek I think Genius reflects the normal human way of dealing with complexity. It reaches for a simple rule in the beginning. These people are like this, those ones like that. And then, hopefully, it starts to learn. **** Cocktail 4.3, Mac OS X Maintenance Tools Utility Updated by Nick Spence, Macworld UK Maintain has updated its Mac OS X utility Cocktail, which adds the ability to clear potentially harmful files such as 'most common Trojans' or other files that may harm your system in any way. **** MacHeist Opens Season 3 With Free Mac OS X Software by Nick Spence, Macworld UK MacHeist has launched MacHeist 3, the redesigned software promotion site aimed at offering bargain Mac software bundles while raising money for charity. **** The Incredible Shrinking Operating System by Ephraim Schwartz, InfoWorld Windows, Mac OS, and Linux are all getting smaller. What does that mean for you? **** Drive Genius 2: Mac Hard Drive Toolbox by Surfbits.com **** The iPhone Is Useless In New York City by Apple Gazette **** How To Reach 8 Hours Of Battery Life On The New MacBooks And MacBook Pros by Mac Versus PC: The Blog You might already know that wireless connectivity and screen brightness are some of the major factors that limit battery life, but what else can you do to reach 8 hours of battery life? **** Postbox Helps You Organize Your E-Mail by Peter Cohen, Macworld Postbox — based on technology developed by Mozilla — is aimed at users looking for new ways to organize, locate and use the data that???s sent to them by e-mail. **** Life's Instant Gratifications by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu Dear Apple, I've bought iLife '09, all excited with the advertised new features like Faces in iPhoto '09, all ready to see all the face detecting and face recognizing that you've promised. After waiting for the installation and the rebooting to be done, I happily launch iPhoto '09, and discovered, sadly, that more waiting was in order. There were hundreds more minutes before I could start using Faces in iPhoto '09 as your software started scanning through my photos. Where's my instant gratification? You should have sneaked an update to iPhoto '08, and start doing all that scanning in the background a few weeks prior to the launch of the new version, little-by-little. Then, when your customers install and launch iPhoto '09, everything will be super-fast and super-magical, and every blogger out there can start to rain praises on you so-many-more minutes earlier. Thank you. (With tongue somewhere in cheek.) **** Review: Mac Call Recorder For Skype by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac **** Is Google Sync A Shot At MobileMe? by Dan Moren, Macworld **** Nisus Writer Express Adds Editable Document Properties by Peter Cohen, Macworld New to the 3.2 release are new features like the ability to edit document properties, including author, company, copyright and other fields; new backup options; control over smart quotes on a per-language basis; and a preference to choose the default file format for new documents. **** DVDs And A DRM-Free Future by Christopher Breen, Macworld It took the music industry the better part of a decade to figure this out. I???m hopeful the movie studios are a little quicker on the uptake. **** Dock Bug Could Lead To Data Loss by Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Consultant Scott Rose has isolated a potentially dangerous bug in Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard that could cause data loss for people who rely on the Dock as a launcher for in-progress documents. The steps to reproduce the problem aren't likely to bite careful users, but it's easy enough to see someone accidentally stumbling into the situation, as did one of Scott's clients. **** Five Reasons The iPhone Trumps The Kindle by Rick Broida, PC World **** Scrabble Journey by Charlie Fletcher, Inside Mac Games Its shortcomings do not completely outweigh the basic fun of playing Scrabble through an obstacle course. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Amazon Unwraps Kindle 2.0 by Erica Naone, MIT Technology Review The device betrays a plan to dominate the transition from printed books to electronic ones. **** How Tweet It Is by Will Leitch, New York Magazine Sure, the Twitter guys still have no idea how to make money off their fabulous invention. But for now they are living in a dreamworld of infinite possibilities, maybe the last one on Earth. **** E-Book Expansion Stalled By Price by Erica Ogg, CNET In the story of e-book readers, we're still in the first chapter. **** Why Small Payments Won't Save Publishers by Clay Shirky **** You Can't Sell News By The Slice by Michael Kinsley, New York Times MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Wilde Times by David France, New York Magazine The huge legacy of a small bookshop. **** Praise Be To Dog by Heather Havrilesky, Salon An ode to loud, stinky, filthy canines and the pathologically needy people who love them. **** Darwinism Must Die So That Evolution May Live by Carl Safina, New York Times Equating evolution with Charles Darwin ignores 150 years of discoveries, including most of what scientists understand about evolution. **** It Takes Particular Clicks by Christian Wiman, Slate **** Is Food The New Sex? by Mary Eberstadt, Policy Review A curious reversal in moralizing. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Five-Day Work Week = Poor Work-Life Balance? by Lediati Tan, New Paper **** Singapore Developer Says Office Demand Plunged by The Associated Press CapitaLand Ltd, Southeast Asia's largest property developer, said demand for Singapore office space plummeted last year as the global financial crisis knocked the city-state into recession. "There was a big surge in demand for offices 10 or 11 months ago ... but it suddenly stops and falls off a cliff," CapitaLand Chief Executive Liew Mun Leong said at a news conference. "We know the market is softening and volume has gone down, and prices will be softening." **** Singapore's Official Foreign Reserves Decline In January by RTTNews Monday, a report by the Monetary Authority of Singapore said the official foreign reserves decreased to US$ 167 billion in January from US$ 174.2 billion in December. **** Singapore Detained 366 Without Trial In Last Five Years by Bernama Singapore authorities detained 366 people without trial under its criminal law in the past five years, its Parliament was told today. Home affairs ministerWong Kang Seng said the act was only used as a last resort when a serious crime had been committed and a court prosecution was not possible because witnesses were not willing or afraid to testify in court. In other words, I can't show any evidence that you are guilty, but trustme, you are factually guilty. **** Mapping A Good Fence With Singapore by Made Andi Arsana, The Jakarta Post The success of Indonesia and Singapore in establishing a maritime boundary through a series of negotiations is an example of a good bilateral relationship. This once again proves that countries in Southeast Asia can settle disputes peacefully. **** Chairman Takes Over At DBS - Again by Saeed Azhar and Kevin Lim, Reuters Investors did not panic late last month when the chief executive of DBS Group, the biggest bank in Southeast Asia, was found to have cancer. That is because its chairman, Koh Boon Hwee, one of the most powerful players in Singapore boardrooms, took the reins. **** Why Singapore Should Keep GST by Making History Relevant **** 3 Feasible Strategies The Government Should Adopt To Counter Rising Anti-Establishment Sentiment In Cyberspace by Lim Yii Tong, The Wayang Party Club Given the rapid pace at which internet technologies are evolving, there need to be a fundamental shift in the government???s mindset and strategy to package and communicate its intent and message in a more palatable and acceptable form to netizens who will be peeved from being talked down to as is the current mode of interaction with the officialdom. **** MRTs & LEDs by Lost In Thoughts... If only they had done this long ago rather than investing in stupid projects like announcements. **** Singapore Fights Recession With Upbeat Acronyms by Gillian Murdoch, Reuters Not content with a $13.7 billion financial stimulus package, Singapore has unveiled a raft of economic recovery schemes with titles so perky they are almost "comical," the Straits Times newspaper reported on Tuesday. **** No To Human Cloning by Straits Times Singapore is standing firm on its ban on human cloning. Declaring that it is illegal, health minister Khaw Boon Wan, however, said on Tuesday that science is evolving and the law must try to keep place. **** CPF Rate For Ordinary Account To Be 2.5% From April To June by Channel NewsAsia The Central Provident Fund (CPF) Board will continue to pay 2.5 per cent interest per annum for members' CPF savings in their ordinary accounts from April 1 to June 30. **** Stiffer Penalties For Litterbugs by Channel NewsAsia The National Environment Agency (NEA) will be increasing the penalties for littering. From April 1, first-time offenders will be fined S$300 for minor littering - up from the existing fine of S$200. **** Singapore Confident Of GIC, Temasek Long-Term Returns by Chen Shiyin, Bloomberg Singapore is "confident" that state-owned investment companies Temasek Holdings Pte and the Government of Singapore Investment Corp. will deliver long-term returns even as stock markets tumble amid a global recession. Lim Hwee Hua, senior minister of state with the finance ministry, also said that the government will assess whether a separate fund is needed to rescue local companies. **** Where Is Fairness In Efficency? by Actionslavehero I cannot comprehend that the judicial system has failed so miserably as to be completely incapable of finding guilt where it exists and to deliver punishment where it is due. **** Female Teacher Admits To Sex With Boy Aged 15 by Au Yaipang, Yawning Bread We need to be acutely conscious of this potential bias in the justice system, and that is why the above-mentioned cases in Singapore are worth watching. **** Deepavali To Fall On October 17 This Year by Channel NewsAsia Deepavali is on October 17 this year, not on November 15 as announced earlier. The manpower ministry said that the Hindu Endowments Board has advised that between mid-October and mid-November, there is a rare occurrence of two "no moon" days (amavasai). **** Temasek's Investment Portfolio Down 31% To S$127b As Of 30 Nov 2008 by Timothy Ouyang, Channel NewsAsia Temasek Holdings' portfolio of investments fell 31 per cent to S$127 billion as of 30 November last year, according to latest data revealed in Parliament on Tuesday. Senior minister of state for finance and transport, Lim Hwee Hwa, said: "This is less than the corresponding declines in the MSCI Singapore Index of 44 per cent and the MSCI Asia ex-Japan of 45 per cent both in Singapore dollar terms over the same period." **** Singapore Is No Tax Haven by Robin Chan, Straits Times The republic has low but not no tax; strong rule of law; companies with substantive business activities, and is now considering adopting an internationally-recognised standard for the exchange of tax information, said senior minister of state for finance and transport Lim Hwee Hua in Parliament on Tuesday. **** Finance Ministry To Introduce Public Sector Annual Report In 2010 by Wong Siew Ying, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's finance ministry plans to introduce a public sector annual report in 2010. This will track how various agencies work towards their strategic goals and should help to better synergise their operations. **** PSLE A Necessary Part Of Singapore's Education System, Says Education Minister by Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia **** Looking Forward To (More) Goodyear by The Online Citizen **** Johor Idea Draws Flak by Salma Khalik, Straits Times A suggestion by health minister that Singaporeans might want to consider staying at a nursing home across the Causeway in Johor where it is much cheaper drew flak from two opposition MPs in Parliament on Tuesday. **** The Road To Hell by The Kway Teow Man Retrenchments are not limited to troubled companies. **** Please Mr Khaw, Have A Heart by Feed Me To The Fish From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Feb 11 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 11 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 11, 2009 Message-ID: <20090211235901.69305.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** App Store Tally: 20,000 Apps In Seven Months by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld **** The Experiment by Appcubby People seem to think that there is unlimited demand for iPhone apps, but that's just not true. **** How To Become An iPhone Developer In Eight Easy Steps by Keith Stuart, The Guardian The developer of iShoot quit his day job after earning $22,000 a day at the top of the App Store charts. Here's what you have to do to be next... **** Apple, Google, And Palm by John Gruber, Daring Fireball This jibes with a story I heard several months ago from a source who works at Apple, which is that Google showed Apple legal a pre-release prototype of the HTC G1, specifically to avoid patent-related disputes. **** German Mac Clone Maker Claims Immunity From Apple by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld "German legislation is in this case on the side of the final consumer," the company's site said, claiming that under German law, a license agreement is valid only if it was visible, and agreed to by the buyer, prior to purchase. **** Note To Analysts: If You Remove All The Features From The iPhone, It Can Almost Be Free! by Mg Siegler, Venture Beat Analysts seem to like to assume that Apple is going to make moves based on motivations that drive other companies, like market share. But Apple has proven time and time again that market share takes a back seat to solid margins and quality products. The same statement can be applied to netbooks. **** Apple's "Sticky" iPhone by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune **** Apple Speeds Up MobileMe Control Panel For Windows by Aidan Malley and Kasper Jade, AppleInsider The upgrade accelerates the sync time for calendars and contacts stored in Microsoft Outlook, pushing updates in real time both to and from the computer. **** Sending Apple Back To The Drawing Board by Jeff Leitner, Washington Post I had naively assumed the goal was to preserve old buildings of historic significance from the ravages of modernity. But the building Apple intends to raze is 24 years old. **** MobileMe Users Targeted In Phishing Scam Again by David Dahlquist, Macworld MobileMe users have been receiving a new phishing e-mail that informs them that their annual subscription is set to renew automatically on a certain date, but that "attempts to charge your credit card have failed." It then offers to let you log in to update your information. **** Extracting Audio From Movies With iLife by Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Review: Box.net For iPhone by Brendan Wilhide, Macworld Box.net???s iPhone client lets users of the online storage service easily access their files while on the go. It???s a convenient option for iPhone and iPod touch owners with remote storage needs. **** FlatOut 2 by Susie Ochs, Mac|Life **** With Smartphones, Doctors Reinvent House Call by Bobby Caina Calvan, McClatchy Newspapers "My iPhone puts things right in the palm of my hands, and I'm able to access things quickly during my day-to-day work." **** Review: White MacBook 2GHz With Nvidia GeForce 9400M Graphics by James Galbraith, Macworld As far as system updates go, the changes to new white MacBook are welcome, if subtle. The new faster graphics will make casual gamers happy, and who doesn???t like additional RAM? Though the slightly slower processor didn???t help performance any, this new white MacBook is a solid entry-level product. And if you need a Mac portable with FireWire, it???s your most affordable choice, with the cheapest MacBook Pro costing twice as much as the white MacBook. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Writing Is On The Paywall by Nicholas Carr, Rough Type We'll likely end up with a handful of mega-journalistic-entities, probably spanning both text and video, and hence fewer choices. This is what happens on the commercial web: power and money consolidate. But we'll probably also end up with a supply of good reporting and solid news, and we'll probably pay for it. **** Automation On The Job by Brian Hayes, American Scientist Computers were supposed to be labor-saving devices. How come we're still working so hard? **** How I Made Over $2 Million With This Blog by Dave Winer, Scripting News Why would anyone try to make money by putting an ad on an ad? So when I told you I made over $2 million with this blog, why did you immediately look for ads? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Hazardous Materials? by James Surowiecki, The New Yorker If the threat of moral hazard is going to encourage inaction in a crisis, we should be sure that threat is real. And there certainly are situations where moral hazard does seem to have an effect on people???s choices. In other circumstances, though, moral hazard seems to have a much smaller impact. And, in the case of public-sector intervention during financial crises, evidence for its dangers is surprisingly flimsy. **** We Are All Socialists Now by Jon Meacham and Evan Thomas, Newsweek In many ways our economy already resembles a European one. As boomers age and spending grows, we will become even more French. **** At The Power Lunch, The Check Is Kryptonite by Laura M. Holson, New York Times It used to be a common sight from Sparks to Spago — the boisterous scrum as diners wielding corporate cards dove for the lunch bill, crying ???I???ll get it!??? But since the economic downturn, the delicate social rituals of the bull market era, when executives tried to outdo one another in expense-account one-upmanship, have been upended. **** Nutty For Nutella: Spreadable Joy by Amy Scattergood, Los Angeles Times Nutella isn't just junk food with a European pedigree. It can be an obsession, a habit, even a cult. If you think this is foodie hperbole, you're just not among the initiated. **** Born Believers: How Your Brain Creates God by Michael Brooks, New Scientist That's not to say that the human brain has a "god module" in the same way that it has a language module that evolved specifically for acquiring language. Rather, some of the unique cognitive capacities that have made us so successful as a species also work together to create a tendency for supernatural thinking. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Wealth Fund Loses Steam by BBC News The value of Singaporean sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings contracted last year as the economic downturn dented the value of its investments. **** Bringing Politicians Into The 21st Century by Harish Pillay And all this while the minister thought it was self-regulating? **** My Favourite Minister Strikes Again! by Harish Pillay The country has been waiting patiently for almost a year for Wong Kan Seng's resignation. **** Puzzling Over Portfolio by Mouthing Off On Asia's Finances Certainly, portfolio growth is but one prong of a more thorough assessment of performance. And it would be useful to look at the other aspects too. **** Ho Ching In Better Position To Support PM by Albert Tye, Straits Times I hope she will not take up any other corporate post but instead stay by the side of Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong to assist him in the way that her mother-in-law, Madam Kwa Geok Choo assisted Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew in his political life. **** Desperation Stakes At Singapore's Electronics Mecca by Ben Bland, Telegraph Sim Lim was never an overly pleasant shopping experience. But, as fearful retailers try any and every tactic to make enough sales to pay the rent, it's getting a whole lot worse. **** Major Singapore Industries In Peril by Saudi Gazette / Agencies **** Agents Put Squeeze On Singapore Airlines by AviationRecord.com About 2000 Indian travel agents and online travel portals have threatened to continue their boycott of Singapore Airlines over the carrier???s stance of non-payment of 5% commission on ticket sales. **** Bad Bets, Empty Seats Drop Singapore Air 43% by Reuters Singapore Airlines said Tuesday that it had posted a 43 percent drop in profit for the fourth quarter, hurt by fuel-hedging losses and slowing demand for travel and cargo. **** Temasek Holdings Poorer Than Three Years Ago by Blowin' In The Wind the steady gains Temasek was making under Ms Ho leadership, racking up a record 18 billion Singapore dollars in profits in the financial year ended March 2008, have been wiped out by the global downturn. But Ms Ho deserves credit for the openness she brought. Compared with Temasek, the larger Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (GIC) is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. **** Holding Lee Kuan Yew Accountable - Part 2 by Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democrats In an age where accountability has become the touchstone of good government, the PAP continues to march remorselessly forward. **** ??????????????????????????????Part 1 by ?????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Timely Departure Of Ho Ching Save PM The Blusehs by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club **** Hong Kong's Foreign Reserves Increase While Singapore's Dcrease! by The Wayang Party Club **** ??????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????100?????? **** ????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** NETS?????? ?????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????NETS??????????????????10??????????????????CEPAS??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Companies Report Big Losses Amid Recession by Xinhua The current economic downturn is taking its toll on Singapore's economy with local giants posted huge losses in their profits during the fourth quarter of 2008, bringing up more concerns over the country's economic outlook. **** Super Ultra Extraordinary Losses by Yaw Shin Leong When times are good, the PAP regime will accredited good times to its prudent policies and its competency. When times are bad, the regime will quickly push blame aside, for example, by quickly citing worse-off MSCI indices and how else where in the world SWFs have suffered too etc. Singaporeans have enough. **** Appalled. by I'm Talking, Can't You Hear? Sure those are options, but the typical Singaporean (aka me) would deem it an insult to ourselves as it seemed medical costs are too high here to be afforded by the middle-income group. **** Singapore Citizens To Get Road Info On Mobile Phones by Robin Hicks, Future Gov All traffic and road information will eventually be made available to citizens in real-time via mobile phone, Singapore???s Land Transport Authority (LTA) chief executive Yap Ah Mee has said. **** An Absurd "Sense Of Propotion" To Pay Millions For A Dose Of "Incompetent" Government by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club **** Satyam Fraud: Singapore Expresses Faith In Indian Government by The Economic Times The Singapore government, which has many of its departments among Satyam???s clients, said that it did not want to punish thousands of people working at Satyam for the action of certain individuals by withdrawing its accounts from the company. **** No To Online Worksheets by Straits Times Assessment papers and worksheets help teachers and students to track their progress and should be contextualised with classroom teaching. As such, they should not be made available online for all to have a go at it, said senior minister of state for education Grace Fu on Wednesday. **** Temasek's Rebranding by Singapore Angle **** The Thing About Being A Transgender In Singapore by Ms Chor Lor.com I was born in Singapore, is it lucky or unlucky? I don't know. **** PA Rate To Go Up by Melissa Sim, Straits Times Needy Singaporeans can look forward to more public assistance from April. Recipients will get a raise in their monthly allowance of between $30 and $120. **** Wildlife Reserves To Open S$140m River Safari Attraction In 2011 by Channel NewsAsia Construction of the S$140 million river-themed park, comprising boat rides and freshwater habitat displays with a strong conservation theme, will begin this year in anticipation of eventual economic and tourism recovery. Wildlife Reserves said construction will not affect the bio-diversity of the Mandai Nature Reserve area as the River Safari will be housed within the zoo's and Night Safari's current 89-hectare compound. **** First Retirement Villages In Neighbouring Countries, Now Nursing Homes In Johor by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net Providing our elderly a comfortable retirement in Singapore is not just a matter of social justice, but also one of pride in ourselves. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Feb 12 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 12 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 12, 2009 Message-ID: <20090212235900.89864.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** 7 Ways To Take Your Docs On The Go With Your iPhone by David Chartier, Ars Technica Apple doesn't let iPhone owners store files on their devices, but there are plenty of third-party options for getting the job done. Ars rounds up our favorite Web services, desktop clients, and native iPhone apps that allow iPhone users to access files while away from their desks. **** IBM Study Ranks Mac As Most Vulnerable OS by MacNN IBM's security research and development group, X-Force, has released an annual report that suggests Mac is the most vulnerable operating system. The percentage of patched vulnerabilities compared to the total number of disclosed vulnerabilities was used for the rankings, with Mac OS X and OS X Server each leaving 14.3 percent of the problems unresolved. **** Foxmarks Synchronizes IE, Safari, Firefox Bookmarks by MacNN Foxmarks, Inc. has released several variants of its browser add-on, Foxmarks, that can now be used to synchronize bookmarks between Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari. **** Check That Authentication Dialog! by Stephen Withers, IT Wire "We advise that Mac OS X users don't rely simply on familiar icons or messages from the authentication dialog box, but take an extra little step in order to verify the execution path of the program that is asking for the password." **** Google: Go Tell Apple To Shove It by Jason Perlow, ZDNet **** iPod Touch Helps Mobile Internet Grow & Grow & ... by Om Malik, GigaOM **** Solving Font Mysteries With iPhone by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac Using the iPhone???s built-in camera, users can photograph the text in question (or choose an existing image from the camera???s photo albums). The app allows you to crop the image, focusing on only the important parts before uploading to the WhatTheFont web-based identification service. **** Virtual TimeClock Adds Time Deduction Rules, New Reports by Peter Cohen, Macworld Virtual TimeClock helps employers track their employees' comings and goings. **** Curio Integrates With Evernote by Peter Cohen, Macworld Zengobi and Evernote on Thursday announced new integration between their respective products--Curio, Zengobi's brainstorming software, and Evernote, the company's eponymous information capture and retrieval software **** App Store Lessons: The Tao Of Running Contests by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica Apple has started cracking down on contests and sweepstakes associated with App Store products. Ars investigates and learns how you can work around these rules to better market your product. **** VMware Fusion Imports Parallels Desktop 4 Virtual Machines by Peter Cohen, Macworld The new 2.0.2 update features the ability to import virtual machines created using a competitor product -- Parallels Desktop 4. The update supports Parallels Server as well. **** Review: Spreadsheet Editing Apps For The iPhone by Rob Griffiths, Macworld How well can a spreadsheet work on a 3.5-inch screen? **** Apple Recasts iMovie With Improved Features by David Pogue, New York Times The new iMovie offers so many satisfying time-savers that I would embrace it wholeheartedly, if it weren???t still missing one critical option. **** MacBook Owners Frustrated By New Audio Jacks by Zach Spear, AppleInsider A few owners of Apple's new unibody notebooks are experiencing backwards compatibility issues with the units' redesigned audio jacks, which offer a snug connection for the company's latest headphones with integrated microphones at the expense of a few legacy stereo headsets and speaker connectors. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Tech Layoffs: The Real Numbers Aren't So Bad by Tom Sullivan, InfoWorld A series of announcements suggest 35,000 or more tech-vendor workers lost their jobs this winter; the real figures are far, far less. **** New Kindle Audio Feature Causes A Stir by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice. **** Twitter? It's What You Make It by David Pogue, New York Times It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source — whatever. There are no rules, or at least none that apply equally well to everyone. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Our American Cousin Revisited by Timothy Noah, Slate Was the play that ended Lincoln's life any good? **** Last-Minute Changes by Christopher F. Chabris, Wall Street Journal Scientific orthodoxy says that human evolution stopped a long time ago. Did it? **** Why Are We So Fascinated With US Literature? by Sutart Evers, The Guardian The reasons, I suppose, are ones of personal taste and individual prejudice. The fact is, I prefer American English: I like the way it sounds; its rhythms and its cadences. Give me a diner over a caf??, a sidewalk over a pavement, a bar over a pub and definitely a gas station over a petrol forecourt. **** Dawkins On Darwin by Richard Dawkins, The Times Why we really do need to know the amazing truth about evolution, and the equally amazing intellectual dishonesty of its enemies. **** How Could 9,000 Business Reporters Blow It? by Dean Starkman, Mother Jones In looking back on how we got here, the business press assumes a tone of rueful omniscience, as in this late-2007 New York Times piece on regulatory laxity under Alan Greenspan: "Had officials bothered to look, frightening clues of the coming crisis were available." Of course, the clues the Times cites in the very next sentence--the ceaseless research of the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending--were available had anyone bothered to look. So, a reader might well ask, why didn't the media? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Sees Tourism Revenue Down 19 Percent by The Associated Press Singapore expects tourism revenue to plunge as much as 19 percent this year as a global economic slowdown undermines spending on travel. **** ????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Is A Secrecy Jurisidiction by Richard Murphy, Tax Research UK Singapore is a secrecy jurisdiction. Secrecy jurisdictions are places that intentionally create regulation for the primary benefit and use of those not resident in their geographical domain that is designed to undermine the legislation or regulation of another jurisdiction and that, in addition, create a deliberate, legally backed veil of secrecy that ensures that those from outside the jurisdiction making use of its regulation cannot be identified to be doing so. **** ??????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Temasek And Our Unanswered Questions by Kelvin Tan, The Wayang Party Club Temasek???s losses should be seen in a more balanced light: a combination of bad timing, inhospitable global developments, and, the likelihood that Ho Ching was simply not up to task. This last point can either refer to Ho Ching???s ???ability???, or her role as the PM???s wife that has become an obstacle when investing abroad. In this regard, Ho Ching???s stepping down is the first step. **** Crisis Spoils Singapore Celebrations by John Burton, Financial Times The economic crisis is putting Singapore's political system to its severest test since independence in 1965. "Officials appear scared about the public reaction. I've never seen them so concerned before," said a Singapore-based regional political analyst. Terence Chong, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, says: "Political order and economic stability may go hand in hand, but there is increasing awareness, even within the PAP, that that may no longer work." **** Banks Turn Away Business by Kelvin Chow, Today Financial institutions across Singapore are being cautious following accusations last year of mis-selling complicated financial products, triggered by the Lehman Brothers minibonds saga. **** Wayang Party Club Proposal Is Irrelevant by Making History Relevant Mass discontent against the PAP government has been imagined by Wayang Party Club. **** Active Citizens And Effective States - Are They Compatible? by Duncan Green, Dispatch Online Widespread awareness of rights means that economic growth alone, while necessary, will not guarantee legitimacy, much less bring about the deep transformations that constitute real development. **** Watch It Live! by Koh Choong Yong **** Expect More Goodies To Be Rolled Out In The Days Ahead, Thanks To Temasek by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club The bitter medicine has been forced down our throats, now is the sweetener to wash away the bitter after taste. **** Physical Training Phase For NS Enlistees Extended by Channel NewsAsia The Ministry of Defence has decided to extend the Physical Training Phase (PTP) for National Service enlistees who fail to get NAPFA test silver. **** Data Protection In Singapore by Shih Tung's Wordpress Blog As it turns out, the government really has been reviewing privacy legislation in Singapore for a v...e...r...y long time - 20 years in fact. And still, consumers have no protection. **** ????????????????????????????????? by ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Circle Line Stage 3 To Open May 30 by Channel NewsAsia The five stations to open are: Bartley, Serangoon, Lorong Chuan, Bishan and Marymount. The other stages of the Circle Line are expected to open from 2010 onwards. **** Okay To Foldable Bicycles by Straits Times Foldable bicycles will be allowed on trains and public buses during off-peak hours from March 15, senior parliamentary secretary for transport Teo Ser Luck announced in Parliament on Thursday. **** NS Deferments For Rare Talents by Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times Rarely is approval given because it is vital to uphold the NS system's strength and integrity, by making it universal and fair to all Singaporeans, said Dr Ng Eng Hen, second minister for defence in Parliament on Thrusday. How is it fair that you cannot defer if you have special talents? How is it universal when different vocations brings different benefits and hardship? **** LTA To Spend S$43m On Building Cycling Tracks In Public Housing Estates by Channel NewsAsia The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will spend S$43 million to design and construct dedicated cycling tracks next to pedestrian footpaths in HDB estates. The first phase of this programme will be implemented in Tampines, Yishun, Sembawang, Pasir Ris and Taman Jurong. This is a mistake, I feel. The tracks should be build next to roads, not pedestrian footpaths to emphasis bicycles belong to roads and not footpaths. **** Graciousness Out Of Whack by Gerald Giam From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Feb 13 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 13 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 13, 2009 Message-ID: <20090213235900.55218.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Releases Security, Java Updates by Dan Moren, Macworld Among the fixes in Security Update 2009-001 are a patch for the Safari RSS vulnerability demonstrated by developer Brian Mastenbrook last January. Also fixed were a denial of service vulnerability in AFP server, a flaw in CoreText that could allow maliciously crafted Unicode content to execute arbitrary code, and a security hole that could let other local users access a user???s Downloads folder, and several other vulnerabilities. **** Review: Days Of Thunder For iPhone by Rob Griffiths, Macworld All in all, Days of Thunder is a hoot to play. The graphics are quite good, the sound effects are well done, and the game play is entertaining. **** Apple To Showcase Top iPhone Apps, Games At Retail Stores by Sam Oliver, AppleInsider As part of a software-oriented reorganization of its worldwide retail chain, Apple plans to start highlighting some of the App Store's most popular offerings by equipping demo units with the shop's most downloaded games and applications on a regular basis. **** Hands-On With Apple's Earphones With Remote And Mic by Charlie Sorrel, Wired For me, these are worth the money just for the remote. It makes it way more convenient to walk around listening to music and podcasts. If you want better quality than the stock buds, though, you won't find it here. **** A $99 iPhone Isn't Worth It by Don Reisinger, CNET I realize we're in an economic recession and offering products at a discount can be a smart move in today's environment, but when we look at the $99 iPhone with some long-term perspective, I'm not convinced it's a deal. **** Together In Harmony: Mac And PC by Rafe Needleman, CNET Now that I'm learning to live with the Mac, I can see why people like it. It's slicker, smoother, more enjoyable to use. I did learn the hard way, though, that moving from the PC to Mac is not something you can do overnight, nor in some cases at all—not if you want to maintain productivity. But if you have to use both platforms, it is possible to set up a system that not only lets you take advantage of the best of each world, but brings those worlds together in a way that makes them, just slightly, more than the sum of their parts. **** Apple's App Store Turning Carriers Into Dumb Pipes by James Quintana Pearce, MocoNews.net Are mobile carriers destined to be traffic cops rather than content and services companies? **** Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking Is Illegal by Fred von Lohmann, Electronic Frontier Foundation Jailbreaking an iPhone constitutes copyright infringement and a DMCA violation, says Apple in comments filed with the Copyright Office as part of the 2009 DMCA triennial rulemaking. This marks the first formal public statement by Apple about its legal stance on iPhone jailbreaking. **** Review: Movie Outline 3.0.5 by Tim Haddock, Macworld Easy-to-use software helps novice screenwriters with story structure. **** iDisk File Share Feature Now Activated Via MobileMe by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica The long-promised iDisk file-sharing feature has finally been activated, making sharing large files with your MobileMe account a snap. **** Review: Artist's Touch For iPhone by Tim Mercer, Macworld Artist???s Touch allows even the most inartistic person to produce beautiful paintings while providing realistic tools to those who are more creative. **** Apple Sued Over Screen Rendering Technology In iPhone by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld In the suit, filed in the United States District Court for the District of Delaware, Picsel Technologies claims that the rendering process Apple uses on the iPhone violates Piscel's patents. Specifically, Picsel said its technology accelerates the process of updating the display on a device. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The H-1B Visa Has Got To Go by Bill Snyder, InfoWorld With more than 200,000 tech workers on the unemployment line, there's no longer any reason to look abroad for employees. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Roget In Love by Hart Seely, Slate What happens when there are too many ways to say "I love you." **** Forgiveness And Irony by Roger Scruton, City Journal What makes the West strong. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Global Economy: A Patient On Life-Support. Lessons For GIC & Temasek, And The Finance Ministry by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net We need honest admissions of mistakes, greater accountability and transparency in the accumulation and investment of our reserves, and concrete plans to provide substantial and immediate aid for the poor and underprivileged. **** Helping The Jobless: No To Unemployment Cash, CPF Withdrawal by Albert Tye, Straits Times People must know that in good times, they have to save for a rainy day, rather than spend lavishly on what they can do without. If they want to enjoy during good times, can they rightfully ask for taxpayers' money at the first sign of recession? **** Whatever Happened To That CNY Chingay? by Nge Tuck Long, Straits Times With 5,000 years of culture to mine, there should not be a shortage of imaginative offerings. **** Singapore's DBS Profit Misses Forecast On Bad Debt Rise by Saeed Azhar, Reuters Singapore's DBS Group, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, suffered a bigger-than-expected 40 percent drop in quaterly profit, hit by an increase in bad debt provisions. **** Why Singapore Shouldn't Have Handouts by Making History Relevant I think a social safety net is possible for these hard-luck cases. Even if we don???t implement such a social safety net, perhaps we can do means-testing, to determine if who genuinely requires help. **** No Ghosts, Lots Of History, On Spooky Singapore Tour by Rina Ota, Reuters Don't take the Singapore Spooky Tour expecting to see ghosts, but those seeking an old-fashioned thrill in this modern state are likely to get it through insights into abandoned sites and ancient practices. The tour is conducted by the Asia Paranormal Investigators who spend most of their time poring over legal texts and archives to unravel the beliefs and confusion surrounding supposedly paranormal phenomena. **** GIC Lost 41%? Accountability Please by Goh Meng Seng **** Retailers Seek GST Cut by Straits Times Singapore's retailers are asking the government to lower the goods-and-services tax (GST) to help draw shoppers as the economy economy faces its worst-ever recession, the Singapore Retailers Association said. **** December Retail Sales Down 1.6% On-Year by Channel NewsAsia Retail sales in Singapore fell 1.6 per cent on-year in December. The largest drops came from the sales of watches & jewellery, furniture & household equipment and wearing apparel & footwear. **** CPF LIFE Plans Reduced From 12 To Four by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia The CPF Board has decided to reduce the number of CPF LIFE plans from 12 to four. And the payouts for all the four plans will start from the age of 65. **** Stricter S-Pass Criteria by Aaron Low, Straits Times The government will tighten the criteria for semi-skilled workers coming to Singapore. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Feb 14 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 14 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 14, 2009 Message-ID: <20090214235901.6309.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** WTF Lawsuit Of The Year: iFart V. Pull My Finger by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac iFart Mobile, maker of a wildly popular app for iPhone and iPod Touch, asked a court on Friday to rule that it can use the term ???pull my finger??? without risking trademark infringement claims by another iPhone fart app named, ???wait for it, Pull My Finger. **** Is Los Angeles The Center Of The Apple Universe? by Tyler Regas, LA Examiner The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Micropayments Argument: Do We Want To Turn The Web Into Zimbabwe? by Charles Arthur, The Guardian For years, people have been wishing for a micropayment system for pages and images on the web. Is there any argument in favour of it? **** Search Giants Join To Tidy Up Web Addresses by Stephen Shankland, CNET All three on Thursday announced they'd support a technique by which a little extra code in a Web page can indicate the address of its "canonical" version--essentially, the original, primary URL. The move will make it easier to tell search engines what they should pay attention to and to avoid treating duplicative Web pages as different. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** 'The Way Through Doors' By Jesse Ball by Laurel Maury, Los Angeles Times A challenging web of stories-within-stories leaves a reader fulfilled. **** Some Well-Planned Wackiness by Melissa Clark, New York Times On the rare night I???m cooking just for one, though, some of my old inclinations return. But they???re tempered with my newer, more organized habits. In other words, the wackier combinations persist, but I plan them. And this is how I came to invent what???s been affectionately called my cheesy cauliflower chutney mess. **** School Of Rock by James Parker, The Atlantic What does Guitar Hero's popularity mean for the future of rock and roll? **** Grand Theft Auto's Extreme Storytelling by Lev Grossman, Time It's one of the enduring paradoxes of the Grand Theft Auto games--or maybe the paradox lies in the culture around them?--that people who don't play them think of them as the epitome of mindless virtual violence, whereas in fact they are, with each installment, more and more radical and sophisticated experiments in storytelling. **** The Maggots In Your Mushrooms by E. J. Levy, New York Times You may be grossed out, but insects and mold in our food are not new. The F.D.A. actually condones a certain percentage of ???natural contaminants??? in our food supply -- meaning, among other things, bugs, mold, rodent hairs and maggots. **** Death: Bad? by David Segal, New York Times To be ???philosophical??? about something, in common parlance, is to face it calmly, without irrational anxiety. And the paradigm of a thing to be philosophical about is death. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** More Than Half The Story by Glass Castle Blog While self-identified critical voice in Singapore may talk the language of human rights where men are concerned, therefore, I have doubts about whether that language is meant to apply (in substance, not just in form) to women. **** 366 Detained Without Trial In Last 5 Years by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread So, when they say prosecution is not possible, how do we, the public, know whether it was because they were too lazy or incompetent to collect evidence? Or even maybe, the prosecution don't have a real case, and the alleged person is indeed innocent? **** A Summary Of My Critique Of The CPF Life Scheme by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net To suggest that people rely solely on each others??? pocketbooks and never on the government???s surpluses for their retirement needs is mean spirited and heartless, and reduces each person to an economic digit. A country that is being run as a mere corporation loses its soul and its identity, and becomes a hotel rather than a home, a mere stepping stone for those who are able to come and go. **** Nervous Days For Singaporeans As Reserves Plunge by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star The government has been reluctant to reveal much about where its money was placed even in good times, but the dramatic downturn has increased public pressure for greater openness. **** Temasek And Transparency by Wall Street Journal The hiring of a foreign CEO is a notable change, and we hope it's a signal that Temasek and Singapore's leaders understand the need for more transparency in the company's operations. The world is demanding more openness and accountability from sovereign-wealth funds, and the shareholder-voters of Singapore deserve nothing less. **** Voting Not A Mere Privilege by Jeremy Au Yong, Straits Times Law minister Mr Shanmugam stated categorically that voting is a constitutional right and therefore enjoys the highest possible legal protection. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ??????2????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Lim Boon Heng Says Government Schemes Are Safer Bets During Difficult Economic Times by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Minister in the prime minister's office, Lim Boon Heng said on Saturday private insurers would be quite challenged to offer the same interest rates the CPF Life annuity scheme is offering. Singaporeans were assured on Friday that the CPF interest paid by the government will not fall below the guaranteed floor rate of 3.5 per cent on the first S$60,000 of CPF balances and 2.5 per cent for amounts above that. **** When The Chips Are Down, Singapore Singles Go Dating by Reuters Singapore's economic downturn may prove to be Cupid's ally as dating agencies in the city state have reported a spike up in the number of singles signing up to find partners, the Straits Times said on Saturday. **** If Only Singapore Had Knick-Knacks by Johnny Neihu, Taipei Times Do you find it strange that this Utopian Singaporean future our politicians and officials envision for Taiwan just happens to resemble our dodgy past? **** Singapore's Life Sciences Bet - Still On? by Kelvin Teo, The Kent Ridge Common **** Would Khaw Boon Wan Send His Mother To A Foreign Land? by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen The suggestion of such a simplistic solution is devoid of compassion. Of course, Khaw would argue that, on the contrary, it would provide Singaporeans with a piece of mind in their later years. This of course again misses the fact that life is more than just cheap healthcare and as a government which often says that it is a compassionate one, such a suggestion is akin to speaking through both sides of the mouth. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Feb 15 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 15 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 15, 2009 Message-ID: <20090215235901.74151.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** A Sea Of Gaming Innovation by Chad Sapieha, The Globe And Mail Who knew Apple had the potential to become such a boon to interactive entertainment? **** Apple Owns 51% Of Mobile Web... And Growing! by Rene Ritchie, The iPhone Blog **** Life After Touch - How Will The Apple Patent Impact Innovation? by Tim Leberecht, CNET Apple has never been accused of keeping new ideas under wraps, but by securing their new patent for ???multifunction??? touch technology like pinch, rotation, and swipe, they have certainly rocked the boat. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** How Google Decides To Pull The Plug by Vindu Goel, New York Times All of the shuttered projects failed several of Google???s key tests for continued incubation: They were not especially popular with customers; they had difficulty attracting Google employees to develop them; they didn???t solve a big enough problem; or they failed to achieve internal performance targets known as ???objectives and key results.??? **** Do We Need A New Internet? by John Markoff, New York Times There is a growing belief among engineers and security experts that Internet security and privacy have become so maddeningly elusive that the only way to fix the problem is to start over. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Boom Is Over. Long Live The Art! by Holland Cotter, New York Times The contemporary art market, with its abiding reputation for foggy deals and puffy values, is a vulnerable organism, traditionally hit early and hard by economic malaise. That???s what???s happening now. Sales are vaporizing. Careers are leaking air. Chelsea rents are due. The boom that was is no more. **** I Want My Free TV by John Schwartz, New York Times This might be how we greet the digital television future: without television. **** Open Says Me by Gene Weingarten, Washington Post I suppose it is possible that this packaging dysfunction is just about me, but I doubt it. In the breadth of modern history, can it be that anyone has ever been able to use a tube of Super Glue more than once? **** McCulture by Aviya Kushner, The Wilson Quarterly Americans have developed an admirable fondness for books, food, and music that preprocess other cultures. But for all our enthusiasm, have we lost our taste for the truly foreign? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** No Frills Housing? Don't Have Upgrading Lor. by Aaron Ng, Hear Ye! Hear Ye! It is indeed very interesting to me that some PAP MPs don???t seem to even understand rationale of the policies set by their own political party. **** International Survey Says Singapore's Not Yet A Think-Tank Hub by Journalism.sg **** Asking Chiam To Step Down? Only Voters Should Decide by Gerald Giam **** Foreign Workers Taking Up Non-Skilled Jobs In Government-Linked Companies by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Instead of compelling companies to employ a minimum number of Singapore workers before they are allowed to employ foreigners, the government should consider legislating certain jobs such as those quoted above as ???out of bounds??? to foreigners. **** Isn't It About Time We Took Our Business Elsewhere? by My Thoughts... **** Retiring In Johor Bahru by Sinchew During the recent CNY festive season, Singapore's health minister Khaw Boon Wan made a quiet and unannounced "visit" to a medical institution in Johor Bahru's Iskandar Development Zone, where he met a Singaporean who will soon build a 200-bed nursing home there. Khaw's proposal couldn't have sounded more practical and realistic. Nevertheless, he soon came under harsh criticisms from the city-state's opposition lawmakers, who ridiculed him for recommending cheaper nursing homes in JB in a gesture that seemed to admit that medical costs were excessively high in the country. **** Our Sacred Reserves! by My Singapore News When our reserves are near to a point of being untouchables, our investment policies must be one that matches the stringent criteria of protecting our reserves to ensure that it would not be washed out for any investing mistakes. **** Parliament Unbound by The Online Citizen Recent proceedings have laid bare the need for greater accountability. **** Depressing To Be Left In JB Nursing Homes by Brian Miller, New Paper For want of a better word, I'd say it's cruel. You shouldn't do that to a pet. And you don't do that to the people you love. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Feb 16 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 16 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 16, 2009 Message-ID: <20090216235901.5323.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Tracking The iPhone's Bubble Of Hype by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune You can see right away why it???s so hard for Apple???s competitors to be heard above the din. **** My New Macbook: How Does Apple Do It? by Tech N' Marketing Everything about the Mac OS is simpler, nicer, and more intelligent than Windows, period. **** Where iPhone Beats Computer by Seth Weintraub, Computerworld As Apple ramps up the capabilities, processor and screen of the iPhone, more and more computing tasks will be offloaded from my main machine. **** At HCC, Teachers Give The Apples - iPhones, That Is by Jeannie Kever, Houston Chronicle Studying on your laptop is so 2007. A group of biology students at Houston Community College???s southeast campus just turns on iPhones. "Instead of bringing your book to class, you bring your phone," said Lisa Jackson, one of 15 students enrolled in Anatomy and Physiology II as part of a pilot project to deliver course work on Apple???s trendy smart phones. **** Psystar's Amended Claims Cite Apple's Copyright Misuse by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica After Judge Alsup partially granted Psystar's motion to file amended couterclaims to Apple's lawsuit against the unlicensed clone maker, Psystar has gone ahead and filed the amended counterclaims, focusing on copyright misuse. **** Profile: Version Cue CS4 by Galen Gruman, Macworld The net effect of the changes to Version Cue CS4 is to make it less obtrusive when you're working in various CS4 apps and to provide a more intuitive way of accessing shared files (as virtual network drives). Adobe wisely left the version management features alone. A little more simplification would be nice, but that's more of a quibble than a complaint. **** Does Apple Have A Blind Spot About Flash? by Fred Wilson, Silicon Alley Insider The mobile web is not going to be dominated by a single device and a single app ecosystem. I don't even think an app ecosystem is the long term solution for the mobile web. It's a bridge enviroment that allows for rich experiences on devices that don't have reliable high bandwidth connections yet. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** In Web Age, Library Job Gets Update by Motoko Rich, New York Times ???The days of just reshelving a book are over,??? said Ms. Rosalia, who came to P.S. 225 nearly six years ago after graduating at the top of her class at the Queens College Graduate School of Library and Information Studies. ???Now it is the information age, and that technology has brought out a whole new generation of practices.??? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Let Death Change Your Life by Laura Miller, Salon You only die once. Why not take tips from great philosophers on how to do it well? **** Crowning by Kevin Young, The New Yorker **** Like by Frank Bidart, The New Yorker SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** SMRT Failed To Probe Overcharging Of Passengers by Wai Wing Tai, Straits Times I am disappointed that SMRT chose not to investigate or respond appropriately. Judging by what happened to me, it seems that many other passengers on the same bus were literally taken for a ride by paying more than they should have. **** Iskandar's RM43bil Investment A Big Boost For Johor by Zazali Musa, The Star KGV-Lambert Smith Hampton director Samuel Tan Wee Cheng said Singapore played an important part in determining the economic growth in Johor. "It is a well-known fact that both Johor and Singapore are intertwined in economic activities during good or bad times due to their close proximity," he said. **** You're Hired... Sorry, I Mean Fired by Ben Bland, Telegraph Part of the problem in Singapore, China, the UK and elsewhere is that the massive expansion of the number of university places over the last two decades has raised career expectations across the board, while also increasing competition for (an admittedly larger pool of) good jobs. **** ??????????????????????????????67??? ???????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????6????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????67???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Taking The Bus From Singapore To Johor Bahru by My Life In Singapore **** Singapore Jan Exports To Drop 32.7 Pct Y/Y by Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore's non-oil exports in January are expected to drop by the biggest margin since September 2001 on the back of collapsing global demand for electronics, mirroring sharp declines in Taiwan and China. Non-oil domestic exports may have tumbled 32.7 percent from a year ago, according to a median forecast from five economists. Adjusted for seasonal factors, exports were likely to be unchanged from December, the average forecast showed. **** MPs Say MOH Review Should Include Overseas Singaporeans by Neo Chai Chin, Today It would help the lower-income to stretch their health dollar. But is there another group — expatriate Singaporeans — who would benefit if Medisave is allowed to be used overseas? **** Relooking Hiring Policy, MOE by Ang Kok Siang, Today Acting manpower minister Gan Kim Yong and NTUC chief Lim Swee Say have mentioned time and again in their speeches to employers about fair employment practices and employing people based on merit. However, the Ministry of Education (MOE), for some reason, has in place a policy of employing only ex-Mindef or Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) unifored officers for the post of school operations managers. **** SIA Cuts Capacity By 11% by Straits Times Singapore Airlines will cut its capacity by 11 per cent in the 12 months starting April due to falling demand, and it has begun talks with trade unions on steps to mitigate the downturn. It will also decommission 17 aircraft over this financial year to March 2010, instead of just four as originally planned before the global downturn hit major markets. **** Hazy Days Back In Singapore by The Keropok **** The Sixth Cornerstone by Yaw Shin Leong For total defence to be effective, it is time for Singaporeans to rise up a new political force in Singapore Parliament to hold the PAP regime accountable for all its decisions and actions. **** Two Hawker Centres To Close For Upgrading by Channel NewsAsia **** Grafitti Suspect Held At IMH by Elena Chong, Straits Times A 48-year-old unemployed man who scribbled on the display wall of Parliament House last month ws ordered on Monday to be kept in safe custody at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH) pending a minister's order. Koh Chan Meng was found to be of unsound mind at the time of the alleged offence. **** No Charges Against Holland Village Nude Couple Yet by Teo Xuanwei, Channel NewsAsia More than three weeks after a Caucasian man and a Singaporean woman were arrested for strolling around Holland Village totally nude, no charges had been filed against them yet. **** Burmese Actvist Exiled From Singapore Receives UN Refugee Status by Seelan Palay's Blog From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Feb 17 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 17 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 17, 2009 Message-ID: <20090217235900.69386.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** VMware vCenter Converter Version 4.0 Released by Justin Berka, Ars Technica VMware has released version 4.0 of its vCenter Converter software, which allows VMware virtual machines to be created from physical sources as well as other virtual machines. The software now supports Windows Server 2008 and Linux physical machines, as well as a variety of third-party image formats. **** Apple Takes Biggest Bite Of U.S. Wi-Fi Usage by Judy Mottl, Internet News Apple's iPhone and iPod lead the pack mobile handset Wi-Fi in the U.S. use while Nokia's handsets are dominant worldwide and the Symbian platform is tops in global Wi-Fi activity, according to a just-published report. **** Apple's Mac OS X Update Breaks Perl by Cade Metz, The Register According to blogger Tatsuhiko Miyagawa, Perl breakage only occurs if you're running Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5), you're using the Perl distro baked into the OS, and you've updated the distro via CPAN (Comprehensive Perl Archive Network), a widely-used collection of existing Perl modules. **** Mac 101: Using Spotlight To Start Applications by Tyler Regas, Examiner.com Apple is all about convenience and ease of use, and Apple's Spotlight technology, introduced in Mac OS X 10.4 "Tiger" as a replacement for Sherlock and improved in Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard", is a big part of that ethic. **** 69 Really Useful OS X Timesavers by TechRadar There are also a number of third-party applications that can help you to save time when performing any number of tasks. These range from simple solutions, like speeding up searching for files or connecting to other Macs, to more advanced features like remote controlling Macs without leaving your seat and understanding iMovie's export options to minimise render times. **** Living With The MacBook Air by Simon Hackett, Business Spectator It's easily the best laptop I have ever owned. **** Beef Up Apple's Spaces With Hyperspaces by AppScout Hyperspaces doesn't do anything drastically different with Apple's Spaces, but it does completely transform the way you use them. Some of Hyperspaces' features are so strong, I expect Apple to incorporate them in future versions of Mac OS. **** Is Windows-To-Mac Tide Turning? by Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle For a variety of reasons, the pace and intensity of Windows-to-Mac switching may be starting to ebb. **** Mobile Web 2009 = Desktop Web 1998 by Jakob Nielsen, UseIt.com We're turning a corner in mobile Web usability. Just as Apple's Macintosh heralded a breakthrough in personal computer usability 25 years ago, its iPhone is pioneering a similar breakthrough in mobile usability today. **** Review: Suitcase Fusion 2 by Jay Nelson, Macworld Fusion 2 has plenty of unique features to get excited about. It adds and activates fonts in a snap and you can preview your fonts on your actual layout. Its Glyph View palette helps you explore your fonts, and Smart Sets make it easy to organize fonts by any criteria you like. **** Aspire Life-Goal Planning Software Released by Peter Cohen, Macworld **** Understudy Brings Hulu, Netflix To Front Row by Dan Moren, Macworld This free little software package hooks into Front Row and adds the ability to stream video content from both Hulu and Netflix. Understudy allows you to add a variety of feeds from the two services, and even integrates with your own accounts so you can browse your Netflix Instant Queue or your Hulu subscriptions. **** Apple Settles San Francisco Store Disability Lawsuit by Dan Moren, Macworld **** HIdden Mysteries: Buckingham Palace by Michael Scarpelli, Inside Mac Games Hidden Mysteries: Buckingham Palace is a competent hidden object game, but it???s simply not challenging enough to support the price tag. **** Apple Absent From Universal Phone Charger Push by Zach Spear, AppleInsider Although AT&T and several other iPhone partners joined an industry initiative to standardize mobile phone chargers over the next few years, Apple has yet to follow suit and may remain committed to its proprietary dock-connector interface. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Has Nintendo Changed The Definition Of 'Gamer'? by Don Reisinger, CNET Today's new gamer doesn't want to waste their time playing through an epic adventure; they want to jump on a plastic board that's connected to the Wii. **** The Cellphone, Navigating Our Lives by John Markoff, New York Times The cellphone is the world???s most ubiquitous computer. The four billion cellphones in use around the globe carry personal information, provide access to the Web and are being used more and more to navigate the real world. And as cellphones change how we live, computer scientists say, they are also changing how we think about information. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Long Goodbye by Meghan O'Rourke, Slate The other morning I looked at my BlackBerry and saw an e-mail from my mother. At last! I've missed her so much. Then I caught myself. The e-mail couldn't be from my mother. My mother died a month ago. **** The Masterly Blasphemer by Ian McEwan, The Australian Many years later the older Updike, now giving up on alcohol, coffee and salt, put into the mouth of that God the words of Frederick the Great excoriating his battle-shy soldiers -- "Dogs, would you live forever?" But all the life-enhancing substances were set aside, and writing became Updike's "sole remaining vice. It is an addiction, an illusory release, a presumptuous taming of reality." In the mornings, he could write "breezily" of what he could not contemplate in the dark without "turning in panic to God". The plain facts of life were "unbearably heavy, weighted as they are with our personal death. Writing, in making the world light -- in codifying, distorting, prettifying, verbalising it -- approaches blasphemy." **** The Sound That Wakes Me At Night, Thinking Of It by Charles Harper Webb, Slate **** Great Book, Bad Movie by WIlling Davidson, Slate How Hollywood ruins novels. **** Goodbye To The Age Of Newspapers (Hello To A New Era Of Corruption) by Paul Starr, The New Republic Why American politics and society are about to be changed for the worse. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Lessons From Singapore by Mike Baker, The Guardian How do you achieve a school system consistently in the top three in the world for maths and science, fourth for literacy, and described by experts as leading the world in teaching quality? Moreover, how do you manage to get 80% of pupils to pass five or more O-levels when they are taught in their second language in classes of 35? The answers are found in Singapore. **** ???????????????390??? ??????????????????760?????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? **** Mr Lee And The Conflict Of Interest by Singapore Democrats Did Citi seek its special advisor's advice before it approached the GIC for funds? If it did, what was the advise given? When the GIC received the invitation from Citi, what went into the decision to go ahead with the investment? Did Mr Lee's position in one organisation affect the decision made in the other? The conflict of interest is too jarring to even contemplate. **** MPs Hope For 3 To 10 Cent Cuts For Bus & Train Fare Adjustments by Neo Chai Chin, Today One Parliamentarian thinks the cut in EZ Link card fares could be as large as 10 cents, while another is hoping for a three- to five-cent reduction. In the days running up to formal bus and train fare adjustments by the Public Transport Council (PTC), likely by the end of this week, it is anyone???s guess how dramatic the fare cuts will be. **** They Blog, We Believe by My Paper In a recent study conducted by marketing agency OgilvyOne Asia Pacific, more than one in two Singaporeans said they trust blogs as much as newspapers or TV news bulletins. It also helps that bloggers here are seen to have integrity. **** Singapore Mobile Players Target Region by Victoria Ho, ZDNet Asia A group of Singapore-based mobile services providers are targeting Asia-Pacific developing markets by bridging the gap between high- and low-end devices. **** Singapore Airlines Declines After Passenger Traffic Tumbles by Anand Krishnamoorthy, Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world???s largest carrier by market value, slumped to a two-month low on the city-state???s stock exchange after passenger traffic tumbled the most in more than five years. **** Providing Affordable Housing - HDB Should Re-Look Policies by Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen Instead of policies to try to dampen demand for rental or smaller flats, like the new additional eligibility criteria or the second loan for upgraders only, the HDB should re-focus on its mission to provide affordable housing for Singaporeans, especially now that Singapore is in its worse recession. **** Television, Radio, Newspapers... And Blogs by Mr Wang Says So **** Singapore Exports In Biggest Fall On Record: Government by AFP Singapore's key exports in January fell by the largest amount on record, the government said Tuesday, releasing data showing further evidence of the city-state's deepening recession. It is the biggest fall since the government began year-on-year comparisons in 1977 and exceeds the previous record of a 30.7 percent drop in September 2001, after Al-Qaeda's attacks on the United States. **** January Port Of Singapore Container Traffic by Paul Kedrosky, Infectious Greed The January 2009 container traffic data is out for the Port of Singapore, and it's about as bad as expected. **** StarHub TV To Go Fully Digital By End Of June by Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia StarHub will cease all analogue transmissions on June 30 when it switches over to a fully digital service. **** Singapore Must Think That Badminton Players Are Very Stupid by Mr Wang Says So So of course his family advised Riky to wait a year or two. He needs to avoid the NS liability that kicks in, when he turns eighteen. **** Are Singapore Bloggers More "Unthinking" Than Their Malaysian Counterparts? by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club This is where politically active netizens will play a pivotal role in influencing their peers by word of mouth: get our message out, publicize the alternative news blogs and win new converts to our side in our protracted struggle against the entire propaganda machinery of the state. **** Elections Department To Update Register Of Elgible Voters by Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has asked the Elections Department to revise the registers of electors by April 30. The Elections Department said this is a routine update, as the law requires the registers to be revised within three years of a general election. **** Use Of Reserves Gives Confidence To Budget Measures, Says President Nathan by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Speaking in detail for the first time on Tuesday about his decision to give in-principle approval for the government to tap into past reserves, Mr Nathan said he and the Council of Presidential Advisers recognised the importance of giving full confidence and backing to the budget measures as a speedy decision was needed to stem the tide of the economic downturn. **** Singapore Arts Festival To Lower Ticket Prices This Year by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia **** Singapore's GIC Losses $33 Billion As Assets Tumble, WSJ Says by Andrea Tan and Chris Peterson, Bloomberg Government of Singapore Investment Corp., one of two sovereign wealth funds owned by the island, lost as much as S$50 billion in 2008, the Wall Street Journal said, citing two people familiar with the matter. GIC???s losses are similar to those at Temasek Holdings Pte, the city-state???s other sovereign wealth fund, according to the Journal. ???GIC does not comment on speculative reports,??? Singapore-based spokeswoman Jennifer Lewis said today by phone. **** Beauty And Recession Only Skin Deep In Singapore: Poll by Reuters Despite the threat of job losses and the country's deepest economic recession, seven in 10 Singaporeans will continue to spend on beauty products and services, a small industry survey showed. **** Malaysians Last To Be Retrenched In Singapore by Bernama Malaysians would be the last workers to be retrenched in Singapore during the global economic slump, said the minister of human resources, Datuk Dr. S. Subramaniam. He said this was because Malaysian workers had more skills and abilities as required by Singaporean industry compared to other foreign workers in the island republic. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Feb 18 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 18 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 18, 2009 Message-ID: <20090218235900.17828.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** PiperJaffray Looks Ahead To Apple's Q2 by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek Piper Jaffray???s Gene Munster just issued a research note looking at the tea leaves so far on Apple???s current quarter, its fiscal second. The upshot is that given the currently available evidence, he expects Apple???s results to come in about par with the consensus expectations. **** Liquid Submersion Indicators Reveal Accidental Dips by Doug McLean, TidBITS While it's no news that water and electronic devices don't mix, Apple has of late rolled out an interesting and little-known design feature: the liquid submersion indicator (LSI). Now integrated into the design of all Apple laptops, iPods, and iPhones, the LSI reveals whether or not its host device has been subjected to liquid damage. **** Review: Weather Radar Apps For iPhone by Jeff Merron, Macworld For those who like to follow weather more closely, there are a fair number dedicated radar apps to fill the void. Three of the most popular are Radar In Motion, Weather Radar, and RadarScope. **** Apple Makes Online Music Lessons Easy With GarageBand by Jefferson Graham, USA Today **** Apple's Multi-Touch Designer Describes His Inspiration, More To Come? by Arnold Kim, Mac Rumors Wayne Westerman and John Elias are the two engineers who are responsible for much of Apple's multi-touch technology found in the iPhone and notebook trackpads. Westerman and Elias originally founded a company called Fingerworks in 1998 and developed a number of multi-touch input devices including keyboards and touch-pads. Apple then acquired Fingerworks in 2005 and Westerman has been a senior engineer at Apple since. **** Mozilla, Skype Support EFF's Case For iPhone Jailbreaking by Prince McLean, AppleInsider In a filling with the US Copyright Office, Mozilla and Skype have added their voices of support to a request by the Electronic Frontier Foundation for an exemption to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act related to iPhone jailbreaking. **** Contactizer Adds 'Dayboard' Companion by Peter Cohen, Macworld Contactizer is a personal information management application that helps you manage projects and track their progress. New to the 3.7 release is a new standalone companion application called Dayboard. Dayboard provides a list of tasks, events and birthdays at a glance, even when Contactizer is closed. **** Consistency Desired by Chris Bowler, The Weekly Review The issue is that there is not consistent mapping of the Command+Number Key from application to application for opening the various windows available in any application. **** Apple Pimps Gaming Even Further With Latest iPod Touch Ad by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Apple's message couldn't be any more clear, though. The iPod touch means "More games. More fun." **** Review: Keynote Controllers For The iPhone by Rob Griffiths, Macworld If you???re looking for a simple Keynote controller, TapNext Lite certainly gets the job done. However, if you give more than one talk or so a year, you may find its lack of features quite limiting. For those who give many presentations, Stage Hand is the clear winner--it???s miles ahead of Keynote Remote???s limited features, and it worked very well during my testing. **** More On Extracting Audio From Video by Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Analysis: Technology, Politics Keep Flash From iPhone by Dan Moren, Macworld With the preponderance of sites specifically tuned for the iPhone and the lack of vocal Flash proponents beyond Adobe itself, Apple has little incentive to bend over backward for what, in the end, may be a bigger help to Adobe. **** Mac Sales Slide In January, Says NPD by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld The worsening economy hit Apple Inc. hard last month as its U.S. retail sales fel 6% compared with January 2008, research company The NPD Group Inc. said today. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** How To Involve Enterprise IT In Open Source by Matt Asay, CNET MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Your Morning Pizza by Mark Bittman, New York Times There are many reasons to rethink breakfast. **** No Way, No How, Not Here by Thomas L. Friedman, New York Times There are nine bodies -- all of them young men -- that have been lying in a Mumbai hospital morgue since Nov. 29. They may be stranded there for a while because no local Muslim charity is willing to bury them in its cemetery. This is good news. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** What Price Have We Paid For Today's Success? by Fang Shihan, The Online Citizen Is this necessarily a linear upward progression? What have we sacrificed to get to where we are today? **** "My Loyalty Is First And Foremost, To The People Of Singaore" by Jason Lee, The Online Citizen I believe an elected president can do more to protect our interests -- regardless of whether he is an executive or non-executive president. **** The Call For An Independent Public Inquiry by Yaw Shin Leong **** Dismantling The Myths Of The PAP System by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club Eventually, Singaporeans will become so averse to the one-sided reports carried by the mainstream media that they will be completely switched off, preferring to read only what they want to read on the internet even though its factual accuracy cannot be independently verified and that will finally send the myths of the PAP system into their death throes. **** The Beginning Of Decline In PAP's Popularity? by This Lush Garden Within To be honest, I rather have less money in our national reserves and a more compassionate government with leaders that understand citizens??? problems and can feel for us, rather than one that proclaims to understand us and yet goes about implementing a stimulus plan that don???t directly address our immediate needs as much as those of businesses and investors. **** Singapore Mosques Get Modern To Keep Up With Times by Kash Cheong, Reuters Rooftop gardens, a shiny aluminium exterior and an environmentally friendly design: this is not a new mall in Singapore, but a mosque that is trying to put a modern face on a traditional faith. **** Free Trade, Jobs And Democracy - A Look At Singapore by Tim Mills, People's Weekly World **** Unlocking Reserves by Groundnotes Not here to judge? Shouldn???t the man responsible for giving the government our money make it a point to judge if the money will be well spent? **** Will Sovereign Wealth Funds Pour Yet More Money Into The West? by Edward Harrison, Credit Writedowns I see the weak domestic market and the heavy losses as a one-two punch for sovereign wealth funds. While these funds may have continued to invest heavily in Europe and North America through 2008, I cannot foresee a similar asset allocation going forward. **** More LKY Revelations At Rajakumar's Memorial by Singapore Democrats Forged from the crucible of the struggle for freedom, the PAP turned around and denied that very freedom to the people when it ascended the throne. **** Government Gazette Publishes Boundaries Of Altered Polling Districts by S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia A day after the announcement by the Elections Department that the Register of Voters is being revised, the government gazette published the boundaries of altered polling districts on Wednesday. It is believed to be the precursor of the Electoral Boundaries Report, which is normally released before an election. The last general election was held on May 6, 2006. **** Full Of Generalities But Short On Specifics: President S R Nathan's (Unoffical) Guide To Rubber Stamping by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net It is this mentality taken by the ruling PAP that makes president Nathan???s nebulous explanations look all the more precarious. **** Premium Air Traffic Falls by Karamjit Kaur, Straits Times The freefall in first and business class traffic continues to batter top-tier carriers like Singapore Airlines, with no signs of the crisis bottoming out anytime soon. **** Singapore's Bushfires Hit Nearly Decade High In Jan by Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Island-state Singapore faced the largest number of bushfires in nearly a decade in January, thanks to an unusually long dry spell, the government's anti-fire agency said on Wednesday. The tropical nation saw 182 vegetation fires in January, mostly due to the dry spell, which the Singapore Civil Defence Force said was "unprecedented". **** LTA Introduces Two New Road Safety Initiatives by Lian Cheong and Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia The Land Transport Authority (LTA) has introduced two road safety measures. They're aimed at alerting motorists of pedestrian crossings ahead. **** Your Money At Work And The Curious Disappearing Acts Of The Prime Minister by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen The US government, under president Barack Obama, sees its people as shareholders with a stake in how the government spends its money. The Singapore government, on the other hand, sees any query about the way it spends its money as troublesome. This is demonstrated most succintly by the recent budget debate where questions were unanswered or answered with non-answers. Cultivating active citizenry is one of the government???s aims. It has said so several times in the past. Yet, it seems that when it matters most, and when presented with an unprecendented opportunity in this unparalleled economic crisis, the government instead has chosen to stick its head in the sand. It has gone the other way and refused any meaningful disclosures or explanations of its actions. **** Investors Of Failed Structured Products To File Class Action Suit by Valarie Tan, Channel NewsAsia 260 investors in Singapore plan to take financial institutions to court in April for selling them failed structured products like Lehman Minibonds. **** Nathan Fluffs His Reserves Explanation by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread Firstly, president Nathan had no clue what was really on people's minds and therefore failed to address the key questions in his interview, and secondly, faced with even the slightest difficulty of a question, he gave a most unconvincing reply. It's hard to have full confidence that he is up to his constitutional job of protecting the reserves. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Feb 19 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 19 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 19, 2009 Message-ID: <20090219235900.11056.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Buying Up Available Flash RAM Supplies For Next iPhone by Prince McLean, AppleInsider A report issued on the flash RAM market indicates that Apple is inhaling supplies of memory components in preparation for the next generation iPhone, causing part shortages and raising the spot price for memory. **** Apple Slows Down Mac Upgrades, In Sync With Economy by Brian X. Chen, Wired Apple isn't going to roll out a revamped Mac desktop anytime soon, because you wouldn't buy one anyway, analysts say. Tough economic times, a shrinking desktop market and strong notebook sales make the idea of a sexy, aluminum Mac Mini an unwise investment for Apple, said Trip Chowdhry, a Global Equities Research analyst. **** The Apple Mafia by Brian Caulfield, Forbes In Silicon Valley, Apple's quirky culture goes far beyond its walls. **** ScreenFlow 1.5 Adds Audio Effects, WMV Export by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld New in ScreenFlow 1.5 is the ability to add text objects to the timeline, allowing users to add titles to videos. The new version also adds more than 10 audio effects that can be applied to the narration. **** Hulu And Boxee Disconnect by Christopher Breen, Macworld **** A Little More On Q2 Sales Projections by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek **** Review Of Papers For iPhone by Jonathan M. Gitlin, Ars Technica One of the best things I can say about Papers for iPhone is that it works exactly how you think it should work, and makes catching up on your reading that much easier. It's perfect for long commutes on public transport, boring seminars or lab meetings, or any other occasion where whipping out a Macbook might be considered inappropriate. **** Why Apple Should Implement A 24 Hour Return Policy For All iPhone Apps by Edible Apple If Apple needs any evidence that a 24 hour return policy would be useful, they need look no further than the current pricing problems currently plaguing the app store. **** Apple Adds Italy, France, German Stores To Retail Map by Ed Sutherland, Cult Of Mac Although the economy has caused it to curtail opening more retail locations in 2009, Apple Wednesday officially added France and Germany to its list of European stores. **** Black Hat: Macs Under Attack? by Sean Michael Kerner, Internet News A security researcher says a new vulnerability could pose danger to Macs and iPhones. But we're still waiting for the proof. **** In Dismal Economy, MacBook Outlook Slightly Brighter by Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune **** The World Of The Mac by AJ Harrison, The Times-Delphic Widgets rule my life. **** CES: No Replacement For Macworld Expo by Shawn King, The Mac Observer By any objective measure, CES is a much bigger show. But is it a more effective one? **** Pixelmator 1.4 Adds New Painting Engine by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld According to the developers, Pixelmator 1.4 adds a new painting engine delivers performance improvements, smoothness, as well as adding new brush settings for the painting tools. **** LightSpeed Retail System Offers Web Store 2.0 by Peter Cohen, Macworld LightSpeed features an iTunes-like browser and a ???floating??? point of sale interface. It can manage multi-store inventory lookups and transfers, and can work in a multi-user environment. **** Adobe Changes Its Tune Slightly On iPhone Flash by Justin Berka, Ars Technica Adobe's CEO said a few weeks ago that Apple and Adobe were working together to develop Flash on the iPhone, but a recent inquiry into the collaboration has Adobe simply reaffirming the difficulty of the task and how much it wants to work with Apple. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google Wins Street view Privacy Suit by Steven Musil, CNET A couple in Pittsburgh whose lawsuit claimed that Street View on Google Maps is a reckless invasion of their privacy lost their case. **** Not All Information Wants To Be Free by Jack Shafer, Slate Inventing and refining the rich content that wants to be sold. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Judging Autism by Rahul K. Parikh, Salon Science has failed to convince many people that vaccines do not cause autism. Will last week's court ruling finally change their minds? **** How I Became A Soft Touch by Michelle Slatalla, New York Times Our new family eats Gummi bears by the bagful. She wears flip-flops to school even in winter. She stays up as late as she wants, sleeps as late as she likes and does not need a fever to prove she???s too sick for school. I have become, in other words, the mother I wanted when I was a child. **** The Promised Land by Denis Dutton, New Statesman Art theory assumes that our aesthetic tastes are conditioned by the culture in which we live. But does genetic programming have more to do with it than we think? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Electoral Boundaries Redrawn by Singapore Democrats Calling for early elections would signal one thing that should worry Singaporeans a lot. It shows a Government on an unsure footing and needing to resort to opportunistic holding of elections to continue its grip on power instead of one confidently going to the people to ask for a genuine mandate to tackle the country's problems head-on. **** Iran Welcomes Expanded Ties With Singapore: Speaker by Tehran Times Iranian Majlis Speaker Ali Larijani stated on Wednesday that Iran welcomes expansion of ties with regional states. "It is better for the regional countries to resolve their problems and stop the interference of foreigners." **** Haze Heading For Singapore by Wahyudi Soeriaatmadja, Straits Times / Associated Press / Reuters Haze from forest fires in Indonesia's Riau islands is blowing towards Singapore, and the number of hot spots is rising although the situation is still far from the worst days of 2006. **** Contrasting Views Of Madrassas In Multi-Ethnic Singapore by AFP Madrassas are Islamic religious schools that in Pakistan, Indonesia and other Muslim states have sometimes been associated with militancy. But in multi-ethnic Singapore, madrassas — funded mainly by the minority Muslim community — stick strictly to the basics, focusing not only on religion but on academic studies as well. **** Ironing Out Issues by Nelson Benjamin and Suan Ong, The Star "We expected some problems, but many of the complaints were in relation to the structures. We were not involved in designing the complex. The Immigration Department only gave input on the designs of work stations, how many lanes were needed and the facilities needed to get the job done. We were put in charge of the complex only in October last year. Nevertheless, I am doing my best to rectify as many problems as possible via the CIQ management committee." **** ???????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????? by ??????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????!???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** The PAP Does Not Pander To Business by Ringisei If you???re unhappy about corporate top hats getting taxpayers money, then how about corporatist fat cats like the PAP-controlled Singapore Press Holdings, ComfortDelGro/SMRT, NTUC ???Fairprice???? **** Does Temasek Still Has "Great Confidence" In Ex-Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain? by Cheng Siew Peng and Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Temasek waited less than a year to have their ???great confidence??? in John Thain burst right in their face. We certainly hope that GIC doesn???t have to wait for too long for the truth. **** Reserves Not Lost... by Making History Relevant He turns the 31 percent net loss into a 100 percent net loss, and asumes we have to build up our reserves from 0, without considering share prices will increase - again - and so the value of Temasek's investment portfolio will increase too. **** The Malaysian Conumdrum by Almost Infamous **** 4.6% Reduction In Bus & Train Fares From 1 April 2009: Lower Fares For Commuters - 2 To 14-Cent Reduction by SBS Transit, SMRT, Public Transport Council, Ministry Of Transport The 4.6% fare reduction package comprises both a fare rebate and an increase in transfer rebate. This more than offsets the fare increases of the past three years combined. If you read the press release carefully, you'll notice that this 2 cents fare rebates is only from 1 April 2009 to 30 June 2010. It is not a reduction of fares, but merely a fare rebate. What this means, if I understand correctly, is that for the next round of fare adjustments, the formula will be calculated based on the higher 2008 fares, thus allowing for higher maximum allowable fares in 2010, as opposed to calculation based on the lowered 2009 fares. **** Temasek's Ride With Osim by Today In Singapore **** Serangoon Gardens Dorm May Begin Operations In August by 938 Live In a letter addressed to the Serangoon Gardens residents, MP of the ward Lim Hwee Hua said that the dorm could begin operations in August. However, the dorm operator will have to first fulfill the 14 conditions laid out by the residents. **** Asia Theatre Faces Slowing Funding, Free Tickets by Laurence Tan, Reuters Deteriorating economies and the threat of job losses are putting many Asians off the arts, forcing actors to work longer hours and theatre companies to get more creative for the show to go on. **** We Want A No-Frills Government, Not A No-Frills HDB Housing by This Lush Garden Within **** Singapore's Strategy To Free Up Banking Sector Has Served Economy Well by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Pirme minister Lee Hsien Loong has said Singapore's approach to free up thebanking sector has proven to be a wise move in the current global crisis. But he warned that while banks in Singapore are in good shape, there is still substantial risk in the global environment. **** Mainstream Media Preparing For GE2009? by The Online Citizen This is really no big deal. All 'mainstream media' with an ounce of brain will have something like this prepared in advance, just in case. I'm pretty sure Lee Hisen Loong does not alert MediaCorp and SPH in advance. In fact, I'll bet you too that there are obituaries written for Lee Kuan Yew, Goh Chok Tong, and Lee Hsein Loong already written and updated regularly, and ready to be pushed out when the inevitable happens. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Feb 20 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 20 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 20, 2009 Message-ID: <20090220235900.80609.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** 'There's An App For That' by Joe Wilcox, eWeek Apple executives understand exactly what they've got in the platform. Have you noticed the subtle but clear changes in iPhone marketing? The focus has shifted from the device to the applications. The newest ads, with the line, "There's an app for that," are brilliant in their simplicity. **** FusionFall by Ted Bade, Inside Mac Games While the game is easy enough for younger players to understand, it isn???t so watered down that a more mature player won???t find it fun. **** Flux Brightens Up Your Day By Darkening Your Screen by Giles Turnbull, Cult Of Mac It automatically adjusts your computer???s monitor brightness according to the time of day and likely lighting conditions. **** Apple Discontinues 20-Inch Cinema Display, Rumors Ensue by Peter Ha, CrunchGear Just like Apple doesn't sell a 15-inch monitor anymore, does it still make sense to sell a 20-inch model? **** Confessions Of An iPod Touch Artist by Keith Axline, Wired Last month, French artist and videographer David Lasnier began composing paintings with the Brushes app on his iPod Touch and uploading the artwork to Flickr. The paintings quickly garnered praise and links from commenters and bloggers. **** App Stores: Will They Kill Developers' Freedom? by Neil McAllister, InfoWorld If Apple's iTunes App Store becomes the model for software distribution, it could mean bad news for software developers. **** Has Apple Gone From Brash Upstart To Mainstream Middle Age? by Dan Turner, Computerworld Once 'beleaguered' Apple is now blue-chip; beleaguered was more fun. **** Adobe Acrobat, Reader Vulnerability Affects Mac by Dan Moren, Macworld Adobe announced on Thursday that they???d found a wee bug in Acrobat and Reader versions 7 through 9. Just a tiny little critical buffer overflow hole that could let a malicious attacker take control of your computer. **** Fliq Sharing Apps Sends Tasks, Files by Peter Cohen, Macworld Fliq lets you exchange contacts, photos and notes with other Fliq users over a network. An iPhone app extends Fliq's usability to the iPhone as well. **** Untitled Document Syndrome by John Gruber, Daring Fireball Everything on your computer is ultimately saved somewhere in the file system. But that doesn???t mean that you want to handle the actual filing by hand for everything. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Universal Power For Mobiles - Now What About Laptops by Iain Thomson, venunet.com **** How social Media Changes The Way Citizens Talk To Government by Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek **** 7 Technologies That Changed The World by Diann Dianiel, CIO.com MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Roe Vs. Wade Vs. My Boyfriend by Lauren Bans, Nerve My abortion was no big deal — except to the men in my life. **** What Made The Greeks Laugh? by Mary Beard, The Times Ancient writers disagree about the exact cause of the mirth, but they agree that Greek laughter was the final straw in driving the Romans to war. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Taxi Drivers More Willing To Flout Rules During Tough Times by Sufian Suderman, Today As demand for taxi rides falls amid the economic downturn, some cabbies appear to be more willing to flout traffic rules, including the requirement that they pick up and drop off passengers only at taxi stands in the Central Business District (CBD). **** Parliamentary Elections Possible From May To Nov 2009 by Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net Historical experience reveals that there is a time lag of as much as 6 months between the publication of the polling district changes and the release of the committee???s Electoral Boundaries Report which details the number and size of single-member and group representation constituencies. **** Dearer TV Licences In Japan, But No Fees In Australia by Tham Kwok Keong, Straits Times I find the selectio of countries by Ms Dorothy Lai of the Media Development Authority (MDA) a weak case to justify what the MDA is charging. **** Slipperly Slope Arguments Slipperly by Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu This argument by Miss Rhea Tan in Straits Times is yet another example that demonstrates why one really shouldn't use the slipperly slope argument. Do you really think if SGH waive the fees for one person today, we will see a flood of 'heros' asking for waiver tomorrow? **** Singapore PM Says Reviewing Financial Regulations by Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore is reviewing financial sector regulators to reduce shocks to the system, its prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Thursday. **** Sense Of Place: Singapore by Neel Chowdhury, Time No writer has swallowed all of Singapore, from its stately colonial bungalows to its once opium-infested slums, with the verve and wit of the late J.G. Farrell, whose 1978 saga The Singaproe Grip remains the great Singapore novel. **** Schools Are The Front Line In The Economic War by Michael Gove, Telegraph The success of Singapore, and other nations that top the education league tables such as South Korea and Finland, has been driven by reforms that have got the most talented people possible into teaching. **** ????????????????????? by ?????????, FT????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** When Will "Spin"ster Dr. Chua Spin Another Story For Us Again? by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Unless Singaporeans start to make themselves heard in the public arena such as a protest at Hong Lim Park drawing the attention of the international media, the PAP will never take us seriously and all our online grouses will remain forever, in the words of one Rear-Admiral, ???unhelpful comments???. **** Spice Peranakan: Mesmerized By The Little Nonya by iEat.iShoot.iPost This little stall in the most unlikely of places is run by a Peranakan family and if you didn't know about them, you would most likely just pass by without trying the food. But then you'd be missing out on some really nice Peranakan food. **** We Invested $14 Billion In UBS For This? by Singapore Democrats Either Dr Tan knew about the developments and problems that UBS was facing and chose to ignore them, or he had no clue that trouble was brewing in and around the bank. Which is worse? **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????? **** No Change To Casino Rules by Straits Times Singapore will not consider relaxing rules imposed to curb problem gambling, including a S$100 a day levy on citizens and permanent residents entering the casinos, even as the global slowdown reduces visitor numbers to the country, Singapore Tourism Board's CEO Aw Kah Peng told Bloomberg news in an interview on Thursday. The PAP still need to gain some votes from the 'conservative' voters after all. **** On The Right To Vote by Yaw Shin Leong **** Fares Lowered For Non-Basic Bus Services by 938 Live A day after announcements that bus and train fares will go down by 2 cents, SBS Transit and SMRT said they woudl also be cutting fares for their non-basic bus services by up to 20 cents. **** What A Wonderful World by Translating Singlish It's called "Crunchy Time." **** Singapore Port No Safe Haven In Economic Storm by David Greising, Chicago Tribune On a typical day, more than 500 ships sail in or out of the harbor here, an armada of mercantilism that makes Singapore one of the busiest ports in the world. These days, though, Singapore stands at the terminus of a commerce parking lot. **** Singapore A Prisoner Of Its Own Success by Blowin' In The Wind Singapore has to continue to depend on export markets for continued prosperity. In a global downturn, it is helpless. **** SingTel Brings Google Phone To Asia by Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia **** Mixed Views On Whether Taxi Fares Should Come Down by Asha Popatlal and Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Feb 21 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 21 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 21, 2009 Message-ID: <20090221235900.18313.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Backups Need Power, Too by Jeff Carlson, TidBITS When you're evaluating your backup system, don't forget to take power into consideration. A backup hard disk can't help you if it gets zapped by a blown circuit breaker or a lightning storm. **** What's At Stake In The Apple-Psystar Case by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld **** Review: Groups: Drag & Drp Contacts Management For iPone by John Fuller, Macworld The app still lacks some essential features, but the horizon looks promising for what looks to be a really powerful app. **** A Software-Developer-Meets-OS X Love Story by Sue Voelkel, Macworld The iMac is a pretty cool machine. Ours has everything we need, and we???re a family made up of people who have very different computing needs and preferences. **** Study: Free iPhone Apps Quickly Gather Dust by Ed Sutherland, Cult Of Mac A new study highlights what could be the iPhone version of attention-deficit disorder. A day after a free iPhone app is downloaded, there???s only a 20 percent chance it will used. **** Charles Wolf: The Market Is OVerreacting To The NPD Numbers by Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek "It's a single month's data; and it provides no information on international sales which account for 45% of worldwide sales in the March quarter." **** Should Apple Make A Netbook? If Tim Cook Wants To Be Its CEO, Yes by Charles Arthur, The Guardian The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google Android May Run Asus Netbook, Rival Microsoft by Tim Culpan, Bloomberg Asustek Computer Inc. which pioneered the market for sub-$500 laptops, may install Google Inc.'s free Android operating system on its low-cost netbooks, challenging the dominance of Microsoft Corp.'s Windows software. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Taste Bone's Connected To The ... Soup Bone by Jane Sigal, New York Times In this economy, soup bones are a deal. **** Righting Wrong Writing by Lance Contrucci, Reader's Digest Heroically persnickety typo crusaders set the United States straight. **** Can't. Stop. Writing. by Geoff Nicholson, New York Times Unless you???re a genius or a fool, you realize that everything you write, however ???successful,??? is always a sort of failure. And so you try again. **** What's Cooking? by The Economist The evolutionary role of cookery. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Treatment Of Merlion Hero Sends Mixed Signals TO Public by Lau Wah Yuen, Straits Times Let us come together to address principles, and not just interests and positions. **** We Can't Match JB by Karen Tan, Ministry Of Health, Straits Times It is not just capital cost. Nursing homes are labour intensive. The wages of nurses here are more than double those in JB. **** Why Singapore Must License Bicycles Now by Amy Loh, Straits Times A child had to die before we had better seat-belt safety. Is this what it will take before cyclist and pedestrian safety arrives in Singapore? **** Sands, Genting In A Singapore Sling by Miriam Marcus, Forbes Cost overruns hurt casino operators' shares. **** She Holds Up 'Half the Heaven' by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star **** OM Post For All by Lu Cheng Yang, Today Besides former Mindef and MHA uniformed officers, we have recruited mid-career professionals with the requisite experience for the job. We thank Mr Ang for his feedback on our website. We have amended it to reflect clearly our policy to consider anyone with the relevant experience. So, the question that wasn't answered: why was the discriminating policy up on the web site in the first place? An apology from MOE would be nice. **** Learn From Our Neighbour (Window Smashing) by The Star I am not saying that there are no crimes in Singapore. However, Singapore so far is one of the safest country in the world. **** Government Says Policies On New Media Will Evolve As New Challenges Crop Up by Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia While the government is gradually liberalising its approach towards online engagement with its citizens, community development, youth and sports minister Vivian Balakrishnan said that one has to be responsible and careful when posting their thoughts online. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Feb 22 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 22 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 22, 2009 Message-ID: <20090222235900.31005.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Where Does Apple Go From Here? by Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek Apple's got room for future triumphs -- but it also faces threats from a battered economy, rejuvenated competitors, and a leadership crisis precipitated by Steve Jobs' illness. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Everyone Loves Google, Until It's Too Big by Randall Stross, New York Times The popularity of Google???s search engine in the United States just grows and grows. In the past three years, its market share gains have even been accelerating, making some people wonder whether the company will eventually obliterate what remains of its competition in search. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** A Mattress Built For Two by Deborah Sosin, Boston Globe I went shopping with the idea that I had to make room for Mr. Right, even if I hadn't met him yet. **** ? = Beauty by Sebastian Smee, Boston Globe Horace "Woody" Brock believes he has cracked the secret of beautiful design. He even has equations and graphs to prove it. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Minister Vivian Balakrishnan: Your Anonymity Is An Illusion... by Diary Of A Singaproean Mind The best way to deal with the internet is to make political progress and turn the Internet into a non-issue. **** State Media's Continued Silence On Sensitive Issues Will Erode Its Credibility Further by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club As Singaporeans become increasingly exposed to diversity of views offered by the alternative media, the blatant one-sideness and prejudices of the state media will not be lost upon them. **** Much Ado About Nothing by The Online Citizen **** On Community Moderation Of Internet Content by Au Waipang, Yawning Bread Why do Singaporeans neglect their horizontal responsibility to their peers? Is it, at source, a case of an over-controlling government creating a culture reliant only on vertical authority, such that individuals' sense of social responsibility has atrophied? **** A Singaporean's Worry For The Future Of His Nation by George Tan, The Wayang Party Club **** Bugis Bomb Hoax - Time To Wake Up To Potential Loopholes by Deborah Choo, The Online Citizen **** Moderating The Internet - Lets Hold The Wild Horses by Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Feb 23 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 23 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 23, 2009 Message-ID: <20090223235900.80224.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Quarter Of Apple iPhones "Unlocked": Analyst by Reuters More than a quarter of people who bought Apple Inc's iPhone are using them on wireless networks other than AT&T's, the exclusive iPhone carrier in the U.S., a "stunning" number that will pressure the company's business model, an analyst said on Monday. **** Android Vs. iPhone: Why Openness May Not Be Best by Mark Sigal, GigaOM The reality is that openness is just an attribute -??? it???s not an outcome, and customers buy outcomes. **** They Don't Do Windows by Crystal Schelle, The Hearld-Mail Macintosh fans say 25-year-old computer brand is a way of life. **** Screw Licensing OS X - Give Me An iPhone-Based Netbook by Christopher Dawson, ZDNet I???ll leave Apple to keep selling $1500 laptops in a recession. No stimulus package could get me to give them a second glance with their current lineup. **** Rejected! 10 iPhone Apps That Didn't Make Apple's App Store by JR Raphael, PC World A 'throw shoes at Bush' app, a breast-jiggler, a naughty entry from the South Park guys—these are some of the iPhone apps that Apple unceremoniously denied shelf space. **** Steve Jobs Health Concerns Swirl Ahead Of Apple Annual Meeting by Connie Guglielmo, Bloomberg Apple Inc. will hold its annual meeting this week without chief executive officer Steve Jobs, his first absence since he reclaimed leadership of the company more than a decade ago. **** Hands On With An Imaginary Apple Netbook by Jason Snell, Macworld Can a hacked PC laptop tell us anything about Apple???s future mobile devices? **** Brainpipe Game Released For Mac by Peter Cohen, Macworld Brainpipe is a colorful, psychedelic 3D action game in which you descend a tunnel filled with obstacles you must maneuver to avoid, while trying to capture glowing glyphs. **** Analyst Reaffirm NPD Figures No Cause For AAPL Alarm by Justin Berka, Ars Technica After several analyst reports caused Apple's stock price to fall by several points last week, two Needham & Company analysts issued a research note calling the price drop an "overreaction" and outlining several reasons why things aren't as catastrophic as they seem. **** Do You Really Think Apple's Going To Take Business Advice From A Bunch Of Cheapskates? by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet I can???t be the only one who???d tired of reading about the opinions of cheapskates who feel that Apple, for some bizarre reason, owes them a low-cost Mac OS powered computer. Read my lips: It???s not gonna happen! **** Strung Out: Apple Loses "Pod" Trademark Down Under To Guitar Co. by Nicole Martinelli, Cult Of Mac **** Apple Can Make Money On $599 Netbook, Says Analyst by Gregg Keizer, Computerworld With a $599 netbook, Apple Inc. could move into a fast-growing market without cannibalizing existing sales and still make the profit margin investors have come to expect, a financial analyst argued today. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Why Microsoft Should Fear Ubuntu's Cloud Efforts by Dave Rosenberg, CNET **** Go Figure... by Bobbie Johnson, The Guardian Ever wondered why traffic lights turn red when they do? How Amazon works out its recommendations? Or how Google prioritises its search lists? It's all done by algorithms - jealously guarded mathematical recipes that increasingly dictate how we lead our lives. **** Exploring A 'Deep Web' That Google Can't Grasp by Alex Wright, New York Times The challenges that the major search engines face in penetrating this so-called Deep Web go a long way toward explaining why they still can???t provide satisfying answers to questions like ???What???s the best fare from New York to London next Thursday???? The answers are readily available ??? if only the search engines knew how to find them. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Are Markets Moral? by Michael Shermer, Search With stocks tumbling, it's time to think about how our brains shape the economy. **** A Street by Leonard Cohen, The New Yorker **** Waiting And Finding by Jack Gilbert, The New Yorker SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Why We Need Nursing Homes Here, Not In JB by Ivy Tan, Straits Times This is not an issue of market forces alone. It is about caring for our people who have contributed the best years of their lives to Singapore. It is about family bonding where children can visit their parents more often. **** Singapore Says Kyoto Obligations Should Not Be Based On Wealth by RedOrbit Chew Tai Soo, Singapore's chief climate change negotiator, said the nation was responsible for 0.3 percent of total global greenhouse emissions, but was falling under pressure to reduce its emissions simply because it is rich and had high per-capita carbon pollution. **** ?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? by ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Electricity Prices To Drop by Clarissa Oon, Straits Times Electricity prices will drop again in the second quarter, most likely in the region of the 25 per cent fall in the first quarter. The hint was given by both prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and trade and industry minister Lim Hng Kiang yesterday as they addressed a tripartite forum with employers and workers. **** Tale Of The Dumbest Singapore Website by Singaporean Monologue When the ns.sg was released, probably numerous criticisms were made, but I guess the SAF set aside two dollars for their budget to improve on their abysmal portal design, just enough to receive feedback from us and do nothing. And two dollars is probably the amount they paid those "professional web designers". NS.sg is built by NCS. **** Labourer Chief Plays Football With Depression by A Lesser Mortal Can you guys remember the advertisment of that hardcore gambler trying to con his own daughter of her little savings for her little piggy bank? ???Just one more time. Trust me. I will win it all back for you!??? I hope we are not in that position. If leaders are still talking like that, we seriously need the Divine to help us now, really. **** CapitaLand Pays Staff Bonuses In Shopping Vouchers by Kevin Lim, Reuters Southeast Asia's largest developer and Singapore's biggest mall operator, will pay part of its managers' bonuses this year in shopping vouchers. **** Singapore GDP Could Shrink By Over 5 Pct In '09 - PM by Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore's economy could contract by more than a government forecast of between -2 and -5 percent this year if the global economy continues to shrink, the Business Times quoted prime minister Lee Hsien Loong as saying. **** Flash: Lock Your Doors, The Stupids Are Here by The Void Deck **** Asian Developers Delay Projects In Downturn by AFP The simple sign announces "South Beach" and calls it "Singapore's New Lifestyle Quarter" but there is little sign of life at the collection of dilapidated military buildings. The abandoned camp was to become a 1.1-billion-US-dollar luxury hotel, office, retail and residential project known as South Beach. Instead, it has become a symbol of the global economic downturn. **** Singapore's Inflation Rate Eased Further In January by 938 Live Singapore's inflation rate eased to its slowest pace in 16 months in January as oil prices fell and a deepening economic slump hurt demand for goods and services. **** Government Building Capabilities To Tap On New Media At Next GE by Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government is already building up some capabilities. But he added there is still a place for traditional media to be the trusted source of information. >From YouTube to Twitter to Facebook, what's there to 'build'? Oh, maybe he is talking about the MPs, who need to learn all these newfangled stuff, and are still clinging on to old and obsolete beliefs. **** Reserves - More Or Less? by Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen Why can???t GIC???s losses be revealed like Temasek???s? This government keeps too many secrets. **** Singapore TV by Lara's Singapore Blog We don???t have cable so we get the six channels that are freely available on Singapore TV. **** Singaporean PM Asks News Media Not To Wear Western Spectacles by Xinhua Singapore prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said there is a need for news media to present objective reports and not to wear "western spectacles", local media reported on Monday. **** 1st World Singapore Like Anonymity In Cyberspace Is An Illusion by Feed Me To The Fish In their chase for money and pragmatism, my simple wish of being fed to the fish may not come true. **** Police Testimony Crumbles Under Cross-Examination by Singapore Democrats In what might very well be the first of its kind, prosecution witness Mohd Hassan told the court that the charge written by the Attorney-General's Chambers for the WB-IMF protest was "incorrect". **** The PAP's Evoving New Media Strategy by Gerald Giam So now that the PAP is hopping onto the social media bandwagon, they can???t afford to rubbish the entire platform as being ???full of??? half truths and untruths. They now need to employ a ???divide and rule??? strategy: continue to discredit the unruly sites, and make positive mention of the sites that they either control (like REACH) or they feel they can live with (like TOC?). From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Feb 24 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 24 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 24, 2009 Message-ID: <20090224235901.44220.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: Black And White 2 by Chris Holt, Macworld Likely a game deserving of a cult following, Black and White 2 is a mixed blessing that will divinely inspire some and churn the hellish wrath of others. **** Apple Take A (Small) Bite Off Its High China Prices by Loretta Chao and Mei Fong, Wall Street Journal After opening its first (and still only) China store last year, Apple Inc. has started extending its offering of refurbished products to the world???s second largest PC market. But refurbished doesn???t mean cheap in China. **** Does Apple Remember The Mac Mini? Why The Neglect? by Kyle Buckley, Nillabyte.com **** Snapshot - Apple's Cash Growth by Truley Muller, Financial Alchemist Cash flow, not earnings, best reflects a firm's investment prospects. **** 'Line Rider' iPhone Game Sheds On by Jesica Dolcourt, CNET **** Making Sense Of Mac Market Share Figures by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Apple's slice of the market share pie continues to grow, even during this economic downturn. But the numbers from different sources tend to be all over the place. What do they all mean, and what's the big picture for Apple's market share trajectory? **** Apple Launches A New iTunes Pass Feature For Groupies by Mg Siegler, VentureBeat Is there an artist you love? I mean really love, as in you???ll buy anything they do before you have any idea what it is? A lot of people probably do, and for them, Apple has a new feature on iTunes called "iTunes Pass". **** Apple CEO Steve Jobs Turns 54 by Joseph Darnell So, to Steve Jobs: may you live long, live well, and do all that you are meant to on this earth. May you have another great year spending your time with those that matter to you most. May you make memories, tread to new heights, and come to better understanding and wisdom. **** Apple Releases Public Beta Of Safari 4 Browser by Katie Marsal, AppleInsider Apple on Tuesday announced a public beta of Safari 4, a new version of its share-gaining web browser that packs a powerful new JavaScript engine and the latest web standards. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Information Wants To Be Expensive by L. Gordon Crovitz, Wall Street Journal For years, publishers and editors have asked the wrong question: Will people pay to access my newspaper content on the Web? The right question is: What kind of journalism can my staff produce that is different and valuable enough that people will pay for it online? **** Why Kindle Should Be An Open Book by Tim O'Reilly, Forbes Unless Amazon embraces open e-book standards like epub, which allow readers to read books on a variety of devices, the Kindle will be gone within two or three years. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Why Can't A Woman Write The Great American Novel? by Laura Miller, Salon Female authors hold their own on the bestseller lists, but Elaine Showalter's provocative new history wonders why they get so little respect. **** The Cheese-And-Pepperoni Stimuus by Anastacia Marx de Salcedo, Salon The pizza restaurant is the last bastion of American small business. Eat a slice today to jump-start our economy. It's your civic duty! **** Slightly Tearful by Mark Holliday, Slate SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Do We Care? by Wong Wee Nam, Sgpolitics.net To me the formulation of policies must not just be based on cold and hard financial mathematics. There must also be a generous dose of compassion, idealism and love. A policy must come out from a good head as well as a big heart. This is more so when the policy concerns health, the poor and the elderly. **** Long Wait For Passengers by Lediati Tan, New Paper With many commuters opting to take the bus to JB, which costs less than a quarter of the price of taking a cab, the recession has affected the Malaysian cabbies badly. **** Users Unhappy With 'No Travel Deposit' Feature by New Paper If you are using the new ez-link card to take the MRT, remember, 3 is the new zero. If the balance on your card falls below $3, the turnstiles won't open for you. LTA's mentality here is not to even lose a single cent, even if this punishes honest customers. **** Ding Feng Ge Hainanese Chicken Rice Steamboat by His Food Blog... **** GIC Wants To Keep Preferred Stock by Costas Paris and Nisha Gopalan, Wall Street Journal A major Singaporean investor in Citigroup Inc. doesn't currently plan to convert its preferred shares into common stock as part of a potential U.S. government effort to help the ailing bank, according to people familiar with the matter. But Government of Singapore Investment Corp., a sovereign-wealth fund that has seen the value of its initial US$6.88 billion investment in Citigroup plunge in recent months, could face a dilemma if the bank reaches an agreement with U.S. officials that includes a greater government role. **** Singapore Airlines' Departure A Sign Of Turmoil In Asia by Joanne Lee-Young, Canwest News Service Even before the global credit crisis, Singapore was running out of steam, according to economist Yuwa Hedrick-Wong, who is based there. "Its so-called non-oil domestic exports plunged in early 2008, largely due to its badly managed currency policy. The Singapore dollar stayed too high for too long, sapping the competitiveness of its electronic exports, and when overseas demand collapsed, the entire sector that was weak to begin with got wiped out." **** Good Things Must Share... :) by The Star The lesson i should always learn is break the ice. Human tends to stereotype to an extent, not just Singaporeans...You too. **** ???????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Countering PM Lee's Erroneous Perception Of The New Media by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club Every individual netizen or socio-political blogger has an important to role to play in informing and educating their less knowledgable fellow citizen to prevent them from falling pray to the PAP???s omnipresent and overwhelming propaganda machinery. **** The Singapore Experiment by Andras Szanto, Artworld Salon In every tangible respect, the visual arts in Singapore are in an enviable situation. The missing element is criticism. There is none. **** Small And/Or Limited Government: Some Distinctions by Will Wilkinson I think our real concern ought to be limited government. But whether you think an ideally limited government is also small will depends on lots of things including your account of rights, your beliefs about the relative efficiency and reliability of state vs. market provision of various goods, your beliefs about the necessity of public spending to facilitate growth, and more. **** The Internet And Positioning Wayang Party Club by Kelvin Tan, The Wayang Party Club This is the same argument, after all, for a democratic society ??? that no one institution or political party holds monopoly, and that there is free flow of information and the freedom to debate. This competition can only benefit the end-consumer, or reader, or citizen ultimately. **** Why An Election In September Is Not Likely by Jason Lee, The Online Citizen **** Is The Hansard Verbatim, Or Near-Verbatim? by Koh Choong Yong Enough of whether GIC loss 41%, or it was just a slip of the tongue of Mrs Lim Hwee Hua. The more important thing this episode has taught me is another thing - that the Hansard reports, contrary to popular belief, are not verbatim. **** Eating For Adventure by Wayne Cheong, The Daily Texan I love food, and not just because it keeps me alive. I love food for its taste, its texture, how it smells. I don???t eat meals, I savor them. I???ve a hearty appreciation for the chef who prepares each meal (even if it???s my microwave), the farmer who grew it, the earth that allowed plants to flourish and beasts to frolic so I could eat them. Fill me with vittles and I???m a happy camper. **** Rehab Programme Works by Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times Two-thirds of Singapore's terrorist detainees arrested since 2001 have been released after rehabilitation, and so far they have not strayed back into terrorism. They have re-integrated well into society, said second minister for home affairs K. Shanmugam, but the authorities will continue monitoring them. **** The Great Hunt: One Year On by Au Yaipang, Yawning Bread The government and its media no longer have the last word. **** More Consumers Struggling To Pay Credit Card Bills, Personal Loans On Time by Irene Chan, 938 Live More consumers in Singapore are struggling to pay their credit card bills and personal loans on time. **** Efficient Civil Service Is The Result Of The Hard Work Of Pioneers And Not The Present PAP Leaders by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club As the administrative arm of the government, the civil service should be depoliticized and allowed to function independently of partisan differences so that it can continue to serve the people well even when there is a change of government. Although I too would like to see a smaller civil service, I do not think that the current PAP leaders and civil service leaders deserve no credits at all. **** If You Can't Beat It, Join It by Yaw Shin Leong As such PM Lee has unwittedly acknowledged that the key issue here is not so much so about getting people to be comfortable with mediums. Rather the issue is that of the PAP regime trying to find its footing, in the uncomfortable position of its attempts to counter and taming the ???wild wild west??? but had overall failed in varying degrees. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Feb 25 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 25 Feb 2009 23:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 25, 2009 Message-ID: <20090225235901.87709.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** PulpMotion Adds iLife '09 Support by Peter Cohen, Macworld PulpMotion lets you create slideshow animations using your own pictures, video and music, and can be exported as QuickTime movies or published as still image galleries on the web. **** MacBook Cases Still Cracking Up by Cyrus Farivar, Macworld **** Coming To (iTunes) Pass by Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Corel Painter 11 Unveiled by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld According to Corel, Painter 11 includes 40 new and enhanced features including new pressure sensitive brushes, customizable media and enhanced drawing tools. Users can also create their own brushes and customize existing brushes. **** DoubleTwist Puts A Twist On Media-Sharing by Dan Moren, Macworld doubleTwist combines an online service and a desktop app that has access to all of your media. It lets you play your media and share it with others, either via integration with sites like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube, or over doubleTwist???s own service. **** Hands On: Safari 4 Beta Fast, Mixes Polish, Rough UI Edges by David Chartier, Ars Technica Apple appears to have created a new UI problem for each new feature it introduced, and at least one staff member has already uninstalled Safari 4 beta because of the aforementioned broken plug-in and bookmarklet problems (however, most bookmarklets, including popups, worked fine in our other testing). Performance is noticeably faster on large, rich media sites like CNN.com, and even resource management seems to have improved. **** Google Gives Safari A Kick In The Pants by Jason Snell, Macworld So when I first saw Safari 4 Tuesday morning, I couldn???t help but think that the arrival of Chrome must have had a big impact on the Safari team. **** Microsoft Office Vulnerability Affects Excel For Mac by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld Microsoft is investigating a new vulnerability in Excel that could allow remote code execution if a user opens an infected file. The company said that this vulnerability affects versions of Office for Windows and the Mac. **** Galatic Assault: Prisoner Of Power by David Allen, Inside Mac Games **** Ballmer Keeps Close Watch On Apple And Android by Dawn kawamoto, CNET "The truth of the matter is all the consumer market mojo is with Apple and to a lesser extent BlackBerry. And yet, the real market momentum with operators and the real market momentum with device manufacturers seems to primarily be with Windows Mobile and Android," Ballmer said. **** Safari 4 A Big Step Up, But Not As Far As Rivals by Stephen Shankland, CNET With Safari 3, I admired Apple's chutzpah for bringing its browser to Windows. With the new Safari 4 beta, I'm actually starting to admire the browser, too. **** Safari Challenges Chrome On Web App Speed by Stephen Shankland, CNET Google's latest version of Chrome has claimed the lead in my JavaScript speed tests, but Apple's new Safari 4 beta is the first browser to challenge it on Google's own performance benchmark. **** First Look: Safari 4 Beta by Rob Griffiths, Macworld While it may take time for some to adjust to tabs on top of the window, the overall feel of Safari 4 Beta is one of speed and efficiency. The user interface does its best to stay out of your way (while still being quite feature-rich), and the low-level changes in the browser mean that web sites load quickly and efficiently. **** An Apple Netbook Won't Just Be A Notebook For 'Cheapskates' by Mitch Wagner, InformationWeek We're not just looking at a cheaper notebook computer here — which will inevitably be a less-powerful, crappier notebook. We're looking at a completely new category of device here, and low cost is just one of the criteria. **** As American As Apple Mac by J. Nicholas Hoover, InformationWeek Recently, Apple CEO Steve Jobs, VP of government sales Ron Police, and other key Apple executives acquired government security clearances, according to a source with direct knowledge of Apple's government strategy. **** OmniWeb, Three Other Omni Apps Available As Freeware by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld The Omni Group said OmniWeb, OmniDazzle, OmniDiskSweeper, and OmniObjectMeter are all available with no licensing restrictions and are fully functional. The company said none of the applications are currently under active development. **** My New Mac Pro: Great Mac Or The Greatest Mac? by Scott McNulty, Macworld My Mac Pro was a great purchase and I would recommend it to anyone who actually read this entire post. **** Apple Annual Meeting Today by Troy Wolverton, San Jose Mercury News The meeting may have some other drama beyond the question of whether Jobs will show. Among other matters, investors will have a deja vu-like chance to vote on a shareholder-sponsored "say on pay" proposal. **** Apple Investor Riding Tenfold Gain 'Slighted' By Disclosures by Joseph Galante, Bloomberg Apple???s disclosures on Jobs???s health have some investors split: They love the company and its products yet say the board should be more forthcoming. **** Mobile Apps For Music: Look Out iTunes? by Olga Kharif, BusinessWeek Just what the music industry needs: another way to distribute music at a fraction of the cost of a traditional CD. **** A Tale Of Two Safaris: Mac Stomps Windows by Pete Mortensen, Cult Of Mac On the one hand, I???m delighted to have a blazing-fast new web browser for my Mac. On the other hand, I can???t believe Apple would ship such terrible software for Windows. How are you going to convert anyone when your product is inferior to the status quo? The experience of QuickTime on Windows is also terrible, especially when compared to the experience on Mac. To a smaller extend, iTunes for Mac is better than iTunes for Windows in the performance arena. Why can't Apple do good Windows programs? **** Safari 4, The Cinderella Browser, Comes To The Marketing Ball by Paul Wallis, Digital Journal This is a definite grab for profile, long overdue, by an Apple that just might have realized it can grip what it grabs. **** Apple Updates Apple TV Software To Version 2.3.1 by Sam Oliver, AppleInsider Apple over night released a minor software update for owners of its Apple TV set-top media box but it's not clear whether patch delivers any new features. **** Adobe Patches Flash Vulnerabilities For Three Platforms by Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Adobe Systems has updated its Flash multimedia software to eliminate five flaws affecting Windows, OS X and Linux systems. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Netbook Effect: How Cheap Little Laptops Hit The Big Time by Clive Thompson, Wired Netbooks prove that we finally know what PCs are actually for. Which is to say, not all that much. **** Getting Inside A Microsoft Surface Computer by Ina Fried, CNET First, Microsoft showed off its tabletop Surface computer. Then it showed what that might be like as a sphere. At TechFest on Tuesday, Microsoft actually let the user get inside the sphere. **** Innovation, U.S. Said To Be Losing Competitive Edge by Steve Lohr, New York Times The competitive edge of the United States economy has eroded sharply over the last decade, according to a new study by a nonpartisan research group. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** For A New Generation, Kimchi Goes With Tacos by Jennifer Steinhauer, New York Times The food at Kogi Korean BBQ-To-Go, the taco vendor that has overtaken Los Angeles, does not fit into any known culinary category. One man overheard on his cellphone as he waited in line on a recent night said it best: ???It???s like this Korean Mexican fusion thing of crazy deliciousness.??? **** Coat-Check Anxiety? Get Over It. by Alex Witchel, New York Times What is it with people and coat checks? **** In The Open At Last, A Secret All Women Share by Abigail Zuger, New York Times For all our public exploration of everyone else???s bodies, our own personal specimens remain quite private. So when it comes to the onset of menstruation, it is the rare girl who will launch an enthusiastic dialogue with family or friends on the subject. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Democracy: PAP Government Is Not PAP by Goh Meng Seng **** S'pore Gov't by City-State Life In Singapore, when something goes wrong, it seems the first place people look for answers is the government. **** Maybe A Smaller Singapore Population Would Be Better by Lisa Tan, Straits Times Looking at the current dire economic situation and how many of our very own local talent - mainly the PMETs - have to bear the brunt of job losses and retrenchments, it is apparent that a population size of close to five million is beyond what Singapore can cope with. **** Why So Many Empty Seats At Budget Debate? by Rhea Tan, Straits Times The MP's role is to represent the people. How can an MP represent us if he is not present sufficiently in Parliament? **** A Squandered Opportunity To Demand For Accountability From The Government by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club The regime has failed Singapore by turning its back on accountability and transparency to save its own skin. The state media has failed Singaporeans by keeping mum on such an important national issue. And most importantly we have failed ourselves by not rising up to the occasion. **** How To Profit From Singapore The New Switzerland Of Asia by Tony Sagami, The Market Oracle In the dog-eat-dog world of business, there is almost always a beneficiary of another business' misery. That is especially true of the attack on secret Swiss bank accounts. Investing in that ???winner' could be extremely profitable, and that winner could very possibly be Singapore. **** Hallmark Of Singapore's Local Media by Must Have Been Good Groan. The local nanny media butchered (again!) both Oscar acceptance speeches by Dustin Lance Black and Sean Penn, scriptwriter and lead actor in Milk respectively. **** Western Spectacles - Look Who's Seeing by Singapore Democrats The picture through any lens — Western or Asia — looks astonishingly negligent. But what Mr Lee really meant was not Asian spectacles, but rather the ones put in front of us by the Singapore Press Holdings. **** The Culture Of Fear Revisited by The Sun Shines On Singapore Certainly the minister was talking about online hate speech but are you positive that he was not referring to anti-PAP rhetoric as well? **** The 'Chope-ing' Vigilante by Rick Lim Say Kiong, Today My solution, though drastic, is simple. From now on, I resolve to remove and discard all packets of tissue if I chance upon them at hawker stalls. Even if I do not require the seats, I will do likewise. **** Crisis Could Cost Singapore 99,000 Jobs by AAP Singapore could lose a total of 99,000 jobs during the current recession, with more than half of the cuts in the key manufacturing sector, an analysis by local bank DBS said. **** ????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ??????4000???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** CPF Investment Scheme Lose 38% Of Value In 2008 Due To Credit Crunch by Yasmine Yahya, Channel NewsAsia Funds included in the CPF Investment Scheme (CPFIS) lost 38 per cent of their value on average last year amid the credit crunch and a crisis in investor confidence. **** Minimum Income Requirement For Unsecured Credit Relaxed To S$20,000 by Mustafa Shafawi, 938 Live The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said the revision will allow access to unsecured credit to more individuals who may have occasional genuine borrowing needs but not if they have a spotty record with Credit Bureau Singapore. **** Singaporeans Understand The Perils Of An Open Economy by Chen Hwai Liang, Press Secretary To The Prime Minister, Singapore, Financial Times Over the 20-year period up to March 31 2008, GIC earned annualised US dollar returns of 7.8 per cent, while Temasek earned 19 per cent. This is not a disreputable record. **** What The Temasek Debacle Reveals by Aloysius Foo, The Online Citizen From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Feb 26 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 26 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 26, 2009 Message-ID: <20090226235900.64686.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple TV 2.3.1 Breaks Boxee, Adds (Very) Minor Changes by Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Apple has added a Network Test function to the device's general settings, presumably so that you can make sure the network settings you have entered actually work. Additionally, a reader pointed out that an AppleInsider forum member has made note that songs selected through the Apple Remote app on the iPhone now begin playing immediately on the Apple TV. **** Shimo 2.0.9 by Dan Frakes, Macworld Whereas the original Shimo was a must-have for those forced to use Cisco???s VPN client for Mac OS X, Shimo 2 is worth considering for anyone who regularly connects to a VPN. **** Apple Makes MobileMe Faster And Shinier by Aayush Arya, Macworld It took a long time but I think MobileMe is finally there. It has weathered the storm and become all that it set out to be. **** Defending Safari 4 Tabs by Manton Reece The Safari 4 tabs are conceptually the right way to go. It's not "tabs" at all. Instead, think of it as an efficient way to dock multiple windows together. Getting the tabs out of the content area of the window is also the first real step to making this available to other developers. While I don't think you should stamp this on to all applications, certain classes of document-based applications could "opt-in" to this new system and get it mostly for free, with consistent UI and behavior provided by the system. **** Vagabond Tabs by One Button Mouse I???m sure that part of the reason Apple did this was to conserve space, and allow more room for web page content. But displays are getting larger all the time. I don???t think it???s necessary to squeeze each pixel until it screams for mercy. **** Review: BeejiveIM For iPhone by Dan Moren, Macworld Capable IM client offers features beyond those of many rival apps. **** Review: Monopoly: World Edition For iPhone by Chris Holt, Macworld Monopoly Here and Now: The World Edition is a clever adaptation of the classic game to the iPhone format. 3-D animations and flexible options spruce up the formula to produce a game that is as addictive as it is fun to play. **** Apple Execs Reassure Shareholders At Annual Meeting by Jonathan Seff, Macworld The meeting served largely to have executives assure shareholders that the company was on the right track. **** Opening The Package And Peeking Under The Hood Of Safari 4 by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica It's always interesting to spend time poking through the application bundle for newly released Mac OS X software. Inside the bundle are all sorts of files and resources that can sometimes give you insight as to what is going on with development. **** Apple's Safari 4 UI Changes Hint At Plans For Snow Leopard by Prince McLean, AppleInsider The new public beta release of Safari 4 reveals the deepest look yet at the future of Apple's software, hinting at what's in store for the closely guarded user interface revamp coming in Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, as well as appropriating ideas from other browsers and adding some original flourishes, some of which go boldly and decisively past the company's existing human interface design guidelines. **** Shareholders' Meeting Makes For An Interesting Trip by Jonathan Seff, Macworld Over the past decade, I???ve been to Apple???s Cupertino headquarters many times for assorted product launches and PR briefings. But Wednesday???s trip for the company???s annual shareholders??? meeting was a new experience for me. **** Review: Apple MacBook Pro 17-Inch Laptop by Telegraph This is a powerful and effective machine, though if you don't need the extensive battery life or prefer something lighter, a smaller-screened laptop will save money as well as arm ache. **** Temasek Opens Chennai Office To Focus On South by Reuters Temasek Holdings Advisors India has opened an office in Chennai in a bid to expand its India operations. The Singapore state investor started its India operations in 2004 with an office in Mumbai. **** Apple's Annual Meeting: Not Much Concern About Succession by Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek I spoke with a number of investors before and after the meeting, and not one of them seemed all that concerned about the possibility that Steve Jobs might not be able to return from medical leave to run the company full-time. **** Apple Shareholders Re-Elect Board Despite Concerns by Rex Crum and Dan Gallagher, MarketWatch **** Steve Jobs Probably Won't Return To Apple by David Coursey, PC World Does anyone at Apple have the gravitas (and vision) to cut the deals that made the iTunes Store such an incredible success? No one in the industry or even global business seems to be able to build whole ecosystems the way Jobs can. **** Windows On Mac: The Best Of Both Worlds by Ivan Drucker, eWeek **** Review: Apple's Safari 4 Browser Beta Is Innovative, Fast, Fun by Ryan Faas, Computerworld **** Apple Directors: We Have A Plan, But We're Not Telling You What It Is by Bobbie Johnson, The Guardian Apple's invisible man continued to exert his influence at the company's annual investors' meeting. **** Safari's New Tabs: Good Or Bad? by Dan Frakes, Macworld What Apple got right and wrong with tabs in Safari 4 beta. **** 1Password Updated For Safari 4 Beta by Peter Cohen, Macworld 1Password helps Mac users keep track of passwords used to access Web sites. **** Analysis: Looking For A Pattern In Apple's App Store Rejections by Jonathan Seff, Macworld **** UFO: Alien Invasion by Remi Stebenne, Inside Mac Games This game offers great strategic gameplay where it's not only what you do during the battle that counts, but more importantly what you do beforehand. As an open source project, it is always improving. For the low, low price of free, it's definitely worth checking out. **** On Tabs And Docking And Title Bars by Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code Using dockable windows, we???d be able to get rid of application-specific tab implementations. Every application would get tabs for free. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Twitter = YouTube. by John Battelle, Searchblog What's the most important and quickly growing form of search on the web today? Real time, conversational search. And who's the YouTube of real time search? Yep. Twitter. **** Microsoft Studies The Big Sleep by Ashlee Vance, New York Times MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Laughing Past The Grave by Kevin Nance, Obit The shock value of what might be called death humor can be heightened by a number of factors, including the public profile of the jokester. **** The Inner Life by Roger Cohen, New York Times Perhaps the Age of Excess had to end before we could all turn inward just enough to rediscover the gold standard of the perfectly formed phrase, and make connections again. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Moderation Or Mind Trick? by Just Stuff The case is too clear to deny; too strong even to displace on a wimp and fancy; its one that even suggest if government really desire netizens to step out into the full glory of light; then they should first dedicate themselves to earning the trust and respect of the online community; start by laying down the hatchet that you once used to knock Catherine Lim, Mr Brown and countless others whose only crime was to speak their mind for the betterment of the collective good; better still beat that hatchet into a ploughshare ??? then and only then; do you ask people to come out into the open. Otherwise no deal - go and die lah. **** Student Chased Out Of Library For Studying by Lediati Tan, New Paper Student Gerald Khoo, 16, was left confused and frustrated after he was allegedly asked to leave Sengkang Public Library. He was there to study. **** Pay For Goods Over MRT Fare Gate And Get Fined $2,000 by Vivien Chan, New Paper The New Paper found out that under SMRT regulations, it is an offence to conduct a business transaction over a fare gate. **** Chocked Checkpoints: The Solutoin Is With ICA by Joseph Ong, Straits Times We often hear and read glowing news reports about the efficiency of our award-winning airport, where passengers are cleared swiftly, without any compromise to national security. Yet such a culture does not seem to have taken root at the two Singapore-Malaysia crossings. **** Oscars TV Cut: First You See It, Then You Don't by Pamela Koh, Straits Times Disappointed, I switched off my TV and watched the inspiring speeches on the Internet instead. **** The Old Asian Way Excuse by Kan Yuenyong, Asia Sentinel The internet is the new infrastructure for society, in the same way as guilds were for the merchants in the Middle Ages, where independent freedom reigned. This new "guild", along with the necessity for Asian economies to create a new information industry by a new generation of Asians who need more freedom, are the great challenges to the good old Asian Way. We will see if these challenges are met. **** Chartered's Survival Hinges On Temasek by Bolaji Ojo, EE Times Chartered Semiconductor Manufacturing Ltd.'s ability to survive the ongoing economic recession and sliding demand for its services will depend largely on the willingness of parent Temasek Holding Pte Ltd. to provide financial support for the wafer foundry, according to Standard & Poor's. **** Financial Crisis To Take Priority Over Human Rights At Upcoming Asian Nation Summit by Jocelyn Gecker, Associated Press The prickly issue of human rights in Myanmar will take a back seat to the global financial meltdown as leaders of cash-strapped Southeast Asian countries meet this weekend for an annual summit. **** "This Materialism Has Got To End" London, October 2008 - The Chance Has Now Come For Singaporeans To End The Materialism That Has Decayed This Nation. by Chia Ti Lik The time has come for Singaporeans to end the the rot of materialism. The rot brought largely by the PAP. If not, your materialism will be the end of you. **** ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????2011???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Did The PM Say Traditional Media Is Unbiased by Blowin' In The Wind According to the transcript of the interview kindly provided by the Straits Times, this is what the prime minister said: ???I think the fact that you???ve been able to keep audiences up, readership up in Singapore shows that the mainstream media have credibility.??? ???Credibility??? may mean the same thing as ???trusted???. But it does not mean unbiased. I couldn???t find that word in the transcript. **** The Picture That Spoke A Thousand Words by Secret Political Blog! **** Singapore Revises Q4 GDP To -16.4 Pct, Keeps Outlook by Reuters Singapore issued revised 2008 GDP estimates on Thursday showing the export-reliant economy contracted by 16.4 percent in the fourth quarter, and reiterated its forecast that it will shrink by 2-5 percent this year. **** Why TBT Protestors Look Forward To Going Back To Court by Singapore Democrats This is because legal battles are one way through which Singaporeans can fight for their rights and work towards the rule of law, however long the process may take. **** Blogging And Identity: To Name Or Not To Name? by Gerald Giam If you want to meet more interesting people in the real world, and your employer is not bothered by it, use your real name. If you???re happy keeping your online and offline life separate, then by all means, use a pseudonym. The issue is really not about ???credibility??? or lack thereof, as the government likes to put it. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Feb 27 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 27 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 27, 2009 Message-ID: <20090227235900.24800.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** PowerBook Explodes In London Office by Paul Hales, The Inquirer Staff in the London office of a marketing company were left shocked and reeling yesterday after an Apple PowerBook burst into flames. **** Why Are iPhone Users Willing To Pay For Content? by Saul Hansell, New York Times Apple has created an environment that makes buying digital goods easy and common. With an infrastructure that supports one-click purchases of songs and videos, it was easy to add applications in the same paradigm. **** Apple And Psystar Finally Agree—To Keep Trade Secrets Secret by Chris Foresman, Ars Technica In a joint filing made by both Apple and Psystar, the two companies agreed to a litany of stipulations for the handling of evidence that is deemed sensitive, a protected trade secret, or otherwise "confidential." The agreement also covers how code can and can't be reviewed. **** Apple Removes Old Non-Customer Reviews From App Store by Arnold Kim, MacRumors.com It appears that Apple has removed these early non-customer reviews. Several long standing apps have seen dramatic decreases in their review counts. **** CBS Streaming Free TV Programming To iPhone Users by Prince McLean, AppleInsider CBS Mobile has released TV.com, a free new mobile application that allows iPhone and iPod touch users to watch full episodes of select CBS shows and other programming over WiFi or 3G mobile networks. **** Dell Could Drag Apple Down Too by Brian Caulfield, Forbes Dell's low-cost laptops ensure that if it has to suffer, it won't do so alone. **** How To Make An iPhone App: Part One by Dave Prochnow, Popular Science **** Apple Enthusiasts' Urge To Flame: What Gives? by Ed Oswald, Technologizer Fans of Cupertino could learn a few things from Fans of Redmond. **** An Apple A Day Keeps Recession Away by Joe Wilcox, eWeek Economic hard times will force many companies to change how they do business. Apple already is a step ahead and perhaps is the model for other companies to follow. **** Apple MacBook Pro 17-Inch (Unibody) by Cisco Cheng, PC Magazine It was inconceivable that a design as attractive as the previous version could be outdone, but Apple somehow pulled it off, as the 17-inch is sexier and still the lightest in its class. Any doubts about the redesigned keyboard, the touchpad, and the non-removable battery can be put to rest, as their addition has only improved the user experience. The one area still in question, which stands in the way of this system's supremacy, is the feature set. **** MacBook Air Hinge Defect Not Covered By Apple's Warranty? by Paul Miller, Engadget **** Test Center: Safari 4 Preview 'Flat Irresistable' by Tom Yager, InfoWorld The Safari 4 beta is mighty fast, very possibly the world's fastest, and it's well in front in such cutting-edge standards as HTML 5, CSS 3, accelerated JavaScript, and ARIA. WebKit is my favorite open source project by far, and arguably the best software decision that Apple has ever made. **** Phones Must Be Unlocked To Challenge PCs' Creative Power by Danny O'Brien, Irish Times Mobiles will be the PCs' poor relation until they are made open-ended. **** Review: NeatReceipts For Mac by Jeffery Battersby, Macworld Small scanner and OCR solution does a great job of collecting data from all your receipts and business cards. **** Apple Waves Bye Bye To The uSirius StarPlayr App For iPhone by Jeremy Sikora, The iPhone Blog "The app was not rejected, however it could not be approved at this time." **** Apple Purging App Store Of Every Last Emoticon Enabler by John Herrman, Gizmodo Developers who've either made a dedicated emoji-enabler or included the functionality as a feature in their apps have received notification that they need to stop with this Japanese smiley stuff, like, now. **** Slim Shady Vs. Universal - And What It Tells Us About Apple by Josh Fruhlinger, IT World The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Fear The Kindle by Farhad Manjoo, Slate Amazon's reader is a brilliant device that shanghais book buyers and the book industry into accepting a radically diminished marketplace for published works. If the Kindle succeeds on its current terms, and all signs suggest it'll be a blockbuster (thanks Oprah!), Amazon will make a bundle. But everyone else with a stake in a vibrant book industry???authors, publishers, libraries, chain bookstores, indie bookstores, and, not least, readers???stands to lose out. **** The Android Developer Experience by Mike Riley, Dr. Dobb's **** Google Puts Small Ads On Pages Of News Site by Miguel Helft and Brian Stelter, New York Times Google began running small text ads on the pages of its Google News service this week, reviving a debate between the company and some struggling newspaper publishers, who have seen their businesses devastated by the shift of advertising to the Internet. **** Microsoft's Fight Against Fat Fingers by Ashlee Vance, New York Times Researchers at Microsoft think they???ve come up with a way to solve the fat-finger issue by letting people manipulate the back of a device with their finger while still looking at the front screen. It???s a project called Nanotouch and was one of many that Microsoft had on display this week at its headquarters in Redmond, Wash., during the TechFest event. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Bomb The Middle Class by Andrew O'Hehir, Salon In an era of wealth and excess, 19th century French anarchists introduced terrorism as we know it. Can a fascinating new history help us understand our own violent times? **** Shelf Life by Allison Arieff, New York Times Like a photo album, diary or record collection, these books constitute a sort of life history. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Mortal Danger Of "Self-Spinning" Ourselves In Delusion by Fang Zhi Yuan, The Wayang Party Club The soul of a nation does not lie in GDP numbers, world class infrastructure or a first world government. It lies in a well-informed, socially active and politically mature citizenry which is able keep the nation together in spite of any internal or external threats. **** Singapore Raises Its Partying Profile by Kitty Bean yancey, USA Today Indeed, Singapore is slinging aside its stuffy reputation. The wealthy island nation now is a destination filled with trendy clubs, chic restaurants that attract a multicultural crowd and cutting-edge boutique hotels. "Eat. Party. Chill," urges a hot-pink tourism brochure. You even can sit in a wheelchair and sip from an IV bag at the Clinic bar in the Clarke Quay nightlife area. **** Government, Singapore To Discuss Economy by Bangkok Post Thailand has agreed to cooperate with Singapore in solving financial and economic problems facing the region, but the bilateral cooperation will be discussed in detail during Foreign Minister Kasit Piromya's visit to Singapore next month, Mr Kasit told reporters on Thursday. **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????OSC??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore - En Bloc Fallout by Waleed Hanafi, Ignorance Is Curable To the former senior civil servant, Ngiam Tong Dow, who is so proud of his en bloc legislation, notch up another failed outcome, as buildings that were once desirable homes have been turned into empty lots and ghost buildings. **** Will It Be A Champion? by Alicia Wong, Today The first batch of HDB flats for this year has been launched, but do they reflect homebuyers??? budgets in this downturn? And are their prices an indication of what to expect from other projects later this year? **** A Year On The Run For Singapore's Mot Wanted Man by AFP An alleged Islamic militant leader suspected of plotting to crash an airliner into Singapore's Changi airport remains at large a year after his escape from detention, the government said Friday. **** Singapore Tourism Falls 13 Percent In January by Associated Press Singapore tourism fell 13 percent in January as the global economic slowdown kept visitors at home, another blow to a city-state deep in recession. **** Let's Compare News From 'Asian' And 'Western' Spectacles by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club This is Singapore???s ???Asian??? spectacles for you - hiding, distorting or sugarcoating the truth to serve the narrow self-serving interests of the government. **** Flextronics Lays Off Over 100 Workers At Woodlands Plant by Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia **** Jobless Migrant Workers Protest In Singapore Again by Reuters A group of around 100 Bangladeshi migrant workers gathered outside Singapore's labour ministry on Friday, urging the government to give them work and retrieve overdue pay after they were laid off by shipping firms. **** Singapore's GIC Will Convert Citi Notes To Stock by Neil Chatterjee, Reuters The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) said on Friday it will convert its Citigroup preferred shares into common stock in a bid to shore up the troubled U.S. lender. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Feb 28 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 28 Feb 2009 23:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Feb 28, 2009 Message-ID: <20090228235900.30228.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Save Time When Converting iTunes Tracks by Rob Griffiths, Macworld If you have a large iTunes collection with a lot of Smart Playlists set to auto-update, you may experience very slow performance when using iTunes??? ability to convert a song from one format to another. **** MondoMouse Complements Safari 4's Tabs by Dan Frakes, Macworld Unfortunately, MondoMouse is one of those utilities that???s tough to appreciate until you actually see it in use; I encourage you to give it a try. It???s been one of my favorite OS X add-ons for the past few years; I use it so often I sometimes forget it isn???t part of Leopard. Now that I???m using Safari 4 Beta to surf the Web, MondoMouse is even more useful. **** iMafia For iPhone Circumvents The App Store, Sells Other Apps In-Game... And Apple Willingly Approves by Adrian Covert, Gizmodo The iMafia game for iPhone is not only the first app with an approved, in-game microtransaction system, but that system also doubles as a platform to promote and purchase other iPhone apps. **** My View Of How iPhone is Doing In Japan by Nobuyuki Hayashi, Nobilog Returns The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Amazon Backs Off Text-To-Speech Feature In Kindle by Brad Stone, New York Times Amazon announced today it will let publishers decide whether they want the new Kindle e-book device to read their books aloud. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Conditioned Soul by Aaron Hicklin, Out.com A new collection of greatest hits finds Annie Lennox in a reflective mood, looking back at her long night's journey into day. **** College Campuses As Affordable Travel Destinations by Jane Margolies, New York Times College students, you???ve got company. The grassy quads and ivy-covered buildings that attract prospective applicants also make schools of higher education enticing for those with no interest in matriculating. Visitors can partake of world-class art collections and film screenings, not to mention more unusual offerings like the burial sites of Robert E. Lee and his horse, Traveller, on the campus of Washington and Lee University, in Lexington, Va. All this, without the pressure of studying for exams, or anteing up tuition. **** You Must Not Remember This by Dennis Overbye, New York Times This novel???s unlikely hero is a Japanese mathematician whose memory lasts for only 80 minutes. **** Read A Book, Get Out Of Jail by Leah Price, New York Times What happens when convicted felons are sentenced to a book club instead of prison? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Don't Be Preoccupied With Retrenchment Forecasts, Says Labour Chief by 938Live Labour chief Lim Swee Say has urged Singaporeans not to be preoccupied with forecasts of retrenchment numbers but focus instead on saving jobs. Number one, we have no idea what the numbers will be like. Number two, how can we win election if you keep thinking of doom and gloom? **** Singapore Left With Second Largest Citi Stake by John Burton, Financial Times GIC still runs the risk of having its entire investment in Citi wiped out if the US nationalises the bank. **** Chiam's Still Standing by Loh Chee Kong, Today If politics could be likened to a game of chess, this grand old man of Opposition politics readily concedes that he is still a novice at disguising his next moves. Which is why Potong Pasir MP Chiam See Tong, 73, is making extra efforts to conceal the details of what he hopes would be a fitting finale to his eventful political career ??? even as he declared that he already has a team in place to contest for a Group Representation Constituency (GRC) in the next General Election, due by February 2012. **** All Hot Over StarHub's Cooling-Down Period by Ray Lee, Straits Times Will StarHub explain its 'cooling-down period' condition, which penalises users who terminate a cable service to re-subscribe at new rates? **** Glitch Hits GST Credits For Some Ubin Residents by Teh Jen Lee, New Paper The Ministry of Finance (MOF) has acknowledged that there was a 'system error' this time and will be giving them more GST credits. **** Why Oscars Repeat Blanked Out Gay Plea by David Christie, MediaCorp, Straits Times We wish to clarify that the programme was edited for the encore telecast in accordance to the Media Development Authority (MDA) Programme Code - specifically, the relevant guidelines relating to the treatment and portrayal of homosexual themes and issues. The code explicitly disallows content that sympathises with, promotes or normalises such a lifestyle from being broadcast. It's all MDA's fault. Don't blame us -- you guys voted for this government. **** Duties Taken Seriously by Lim Swee Say, Government Whip, Straits Times While PAP MPs are expected to be in Parliament, they are not able to stay in the Chamber for the whole seven hours. They need to leave the Chamber from time to time for lunch and breaks, to do research and revise their speeches in the library as the debate progresses, and to attend urgent calls and meetings which they are unable to reschedule. The Government Whip ensures there is sufficient quorum in the House at all times. **** The Cards Are Revealed by Yaw Shin Leong **** "Government By Gentlemen" by Heng Ching Sheng, The Online Citizen It took much humiliation inflicted by the Western and Japanese imperialist powers at the turn of the last century before China learnt to shed its old dependency on the scholarly class to shape its future, even though it continues to come to terms with corruption under ???benevolent??? leaders. I certainly wish Singapore will not have to undergo the same tumultuous experiences before we accept that all our leaders, elite scholars or otherwise, need to be intensely scrutinized and constantly made accountable. **** 8% Dip In Growth Likely by Straits Times The Prime Minister does not rule out the possibility of Singapore's economy shrinking by as much as 8 per cent this year. That would be a sharper contraction than the current official forecast of a decline of between 2 per cent and 5 per cent. **** Interview With Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hisen Loong by Bangkok Post "Investing in the long-term. Infrastructure, as I mentioned. Education. We are launching a new university. We are putting investment in research and development. We are bringing in new investment projects in Singapore because even now multi-nationals (come) which have a long-term horizon. They have started projects which take three to five years before coming to fruition. And if they have a good operation in Singapore they can build on that and enhance their Singapore capabilities. And some of them are doing it even now, despite the market conditions. And I think it's important that we look beyond the horizon and not just stay under the shelter from the storm." **** It's A Race Against Bad News by Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Living in a nanny state has made too many Singaporeans dependent on government help when things go wrong. The present crisis is no exception. **** Singapore Blooms As Luch As Eden Itself by Linda Watanabe McFerrin, San Francisco Chronicle I've come to Singapore, after an absence of many years, to rediscover paradise - the lush, leafy heart of a nation better known for its obsessions with commercial success. I think I've found it here. But this is not the only slice of heaven in this land of sunlight, flowers and friendly people. **** ????????????????????????????????? by ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Lightning Strikes The Merlion At Fullerton by Claire Huang, 938 Live The original Merlion statue located at One Fullerton was struck by lightning this afternoon, causing quite a commotion. The explosion, caused by the lightening, created a hole the size of a soccer ball, on the Merlion. This sure ain't a good omen for the tourism industry.