From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Oct 1 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 1 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 1, 2009 Message-ID: <20091001225901.58657.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Use Find My iPhone From An iPhone Adam C. Engst, TidBITS The only iPhone app I have handy that implements a full browser is Selznick Scientific Software's PasswordWallet. **** iWork.com Enhanced, Does Anyone Care? Adam C. Engst, TidBITS With iWork.com, Apple is bringing too little to the table, and they've brought it far too late. **** Tweetie Pricing Fuss Highlights App Store Flaw Dan Moren, Macworld The App Store, you see, has very strict rules on pricing. Among those is ???no paid updates.??? It???s an all-or-nothing proposition: either every upgrade to an application is free for everybody, regardless of how much work the developer puts into it, or the upgrade is delivered as a ???new??? application that everybody has to pay for it. There???s no facility???none???for developers to give some customers a break on a upgrade price without sending each and every one a check for the discount. **** AP Stylebook Comes To The App Store Joachim Bean, TUAW If you're out a lot, and don't want to carry a big spiral-bound book around with you, you might want to consider this, although the price of this app may be limiting. **** Solutions For Synchronizing Folders Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Apple Purchased Mapping Company In July To Replace Google Seth Weintraub, Computerworld Yep, Apple bought Placebase. But what are they going to do with this software? See Also: Apple Gets A Mapmaker. Where Does That Leave Google? [http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/09/30/apple-gets-a-mapmaker-where-does-that-leave-google/] by MG Siegler, TechCrunch. **** Using Aliases To Extend Front Row's Capabilities Sang Tang, TUAW **** Apple And Google Breaking Up Over iPhone Maps? David Coursey, PC World While Apple may someday offer a mapping platform of its own, the company would be wise to remain tied to Google until it has something truly incredible to offer. **** Has Apple Ensured The BlackBerry's Reign In Business Mobile? Bill Snyder, Infoworld Security holes in any applications are bad enough. Covering them up is even worse. But what's really, really bad about Apple's iPhone security screwup is this: It deals a body blow to true mobility for business users just as the future was looking brighter than ever. The only possible winner in this mess is RIM, whose BlackBerry remains the favorite messaging device for business users but that still offers relatively primitive Web access and add-on applications. **** iPhone App Prices: How Much Is Too Much? Tom Kaneshige, CIO.com App prices are hitting a critical juncture as developers test the limits at the high end. **** Secret Of Apple iPhone's Expansion In UK International Business Times Apple expanded in the UK mobile market as Orange and Vodafone are to offer its popular iPhone for frenzy consumers, signaling a subtle shift in power away from the network operators towards the manufacturers. **** PCalc Prevents iPhone Profanity Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Kudos to James Thomson of TLA Systems for the new profanity filter in PCalc for iPhone - protecting the innocent minds of society's young mathematicians from turning their iPhone calculators upside down... **** Bento: Databases For The Rest Of Us Milind Alvares, Smoking Apples The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Curling Up With Hybrid Books, Videos Included Motoko Rich, New York Times In the age of the iPhone, Kindle and YouTube, the notion of the book is becoming increasingly elastic as publishers mash together text, video and Web features in a scramble to keep readers interested in an archaic form of entertainment. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Importance Of Being Unimportant Shane McAdams, The Brooklyn Rail As we enter an acid-test of a season in the art world, I thought it important to mention that a little tough, critical love is the best medicine for an ailing commercial sector. **** Understanding The Anxious Mind Robin Marantz Henig, New York Times The tenuousness of modern life can make anyone feel overwrought. And in societal moments like the one we are in ??? thousands losing jobs and homes, our futures threatened by everything from diminishing retirement funds to global warming ??? it often feels as if ours is the Age of Anxiety. But some people, no matter how robust their stock portfolios or how healthy their children, are always mentally preparing for doom. They are just born worriers, their brains forever anticipating the dropping of some dreaded other shoe. For the past 20 years, Kagan and his colleagues have been following hundreds of such people, beginning in infancy, to see what happens to those who start out primed to fret. Now that these infants are young adults, the studies are yielding new information about the anxious brain. **** Can You Tell Me How To Get ... Tom Scocca, Slate Magazine ... how to get diapers without Sesame Street characters on them? **** Tracing The Many Lives Of Anne Frank And Her Still-Vivid Wartime Diary Janet Maslin, New York Times In a book full of keen observations and fascinating disputes (the craziest of which involves Meyer Levin, who had no qualms about both reviewing the book in The New York Times Book Review and trying to act as its agent), Ms. Prose looks in all directions to find noteworthy material. And when she writes of how Anne???s diary, which according to a 1996 survey was at one point required reading for 50 percent of the schoolchildren in the United States, keeps on finding its way ???onto the desks of teachers who discover that the book most certainly does not, as they say, teach itself,??? she underscores the importance of keen analysis. This is a Grade A example of what a smart, precise and impassioned teacher can do. **** In Pursuit Of The Wild Cohiba Ginger Strand and James Wallenstein, The Believer Two semi-intrepid travelers meditate (with the help of a great deal fo puffing) on the Cuban communist roots of an American Capitalist icon. **** Can a Woman Prong a Man? Jesse Sheidlower, Slate Magazine Why it's so hard to put sex in the dictionary. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Let's Keep Wet Markets - Our Oases Of Native Chic Murali Sharma, Straits Times In the name of progress, we may lose another feature of Singapore life. We have enough air-conditioning as it is, in malls, bus terminals and even whole areas such as Bugis. These little oases of non-air-conditioned native chic could have been spared for posterity. **** Singapore???s New Media: New For How Long? The Grand Moofti Speaks While some may viewed it as a threat others see it as a 'balancing' factor in a society where the state owns and regulates all traditional media. **** The New Kallang Sports Hub ??? To Be Or Not To Be (Built) Damon Yeo, The Temasek Review What is unacceptable is the lack of disclosure from the authorities on what went wrong and an updated schedule as to this new Sports Hub can be completed. **** SingTel Wins EPL Rights Straits Times Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) has won exclusive rights to the Barclays Premier League for three years from 2010, it announced on Thursday. These include rights for mio TV, as well as the Internet and mobile. It has also secured exclusive broadcast rights to seven sports channels from ESPN STAR Sports. **** Since When Do We Need ???Foreign Talent??? To Be Clinic Assistants? The Temasek Review Besides clinic assistants, foreigners are also taking up jobs that can otherwise be filled by Singaporeans such as tele-marketeers, administrators, IT engineers and even coffeeshop assistants. **** Don't End Jobs Credit Goh Chin Lian, Straits Times UNION leaders, concerned about uncertain economic prospects in the coming months, hope the Jobs Credit scheme will be withdrawn gradually instead of at one go. **** E-health Records Next Nov Salma Khalik, Straits Times An ambitious project to capture and record every health episode of each individual from birth to death, the EHR is expected to go live by November next year. **** Singapore PR Is Given Away Like Candies Kay Poh Chee It???s telling the world that anyone can come to Singapore and compete for jobs here. It???s a free pass. **** EPL Win For Singtel, Loss For Singapore James Chan, Master Of The Obvious The Singapore market is too small to allow for an inefficient auction-style system to dominate. Don't worry. In a few years time, cable television will be obsolete, and you will buy content directly from the content provder directly, and you will pay whatever the content provider wants to charge you. :) On a more serious note, one should remember the rule of the game is set by the content owner, not SingTel nor Starhub, and definitely not MDA or the Singapore government. **** How Do You Change Your EZ-Link GIRO Auto Top Up Amount? Dee Kay Dot As Gee **** Is Singapore Private Banking Surpassing Swiss Private Banking? Patrick Winters One of the reasons why Singapore has grown is because it already was a large financial center in its own right. Unlike smaller tax havens and dependencies of other countries which have been accused of ''inventing'' laws to benefit from capital flight, Singapore is a long-standing trading hub and center of international financial settlements. **** HDB To Launch 7,000 Flats Jesicca Cheam, Straits Times National development minister Mah Bow Tan said on Thursday that the board will ramp up its supply of build-to-order (BTO) flats from 8,000 to 9,000 units this year, and will make available 2,132 completed flats across the island for sale with immediate effect. **** Rising HDB Flat Prices Due To "unrealistic Expectations"? Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp **** More Town Council Shenanigans Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp Mr Lim has asked his MP for help, and was rejected. If the MP has no say in the running of the town council, why have elected officials head them? **** Singapore: Follow Its Savvy And Profitable Money... Tony Sagami, HoweStreet.com **** Tremors Felt In Parts Of S'pore After Second Sumatran Earthquake Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia A second earthquake with a magnitude of 6.8 rocked Sumatra Island Thursday morning, sending another round of shockwaves to Singapore. **** New Citizens Outstripping Net Increase Of Existing Citizens? Leong Sze Hian , The Online Citizen **** Survey Shows Civil Servants Happier Compared To Those Working In Private Sector Channel NewsAsia Employees working for the government are happier than those in the private sector. This is according to an online survey conducted by JobsCentral, one of Singapore's largest job portals. **** StarHub To Review Package Straits Times StarHub, which lost out to Singapore Telecommunications in the bid for the exclusive rights to broadcast the Barclays Premier League (BPL) for the next three seasons, said on Thursday it will review its sports package in 2010. **** Oei, Citi Settle Out-of-court Dennis Chan, Straits Times Businessman Oei Hong Leong and Citigroup have reached an out-of-court settlement over claims that he was misled by the bank into losing some $1 billion from foreign exchange and US Treasury bond transactions. **** River To Be Relocated Victoria Vaughan, Straits Times Singapore's first river relocation project is set to make quite a scene at Bishan Park. The concrete of Kallang drainage canal will be torn up and the water way will be brought into the park as a meandering river with gentle slopes and plant covered banks. **** Make Meaningful Comparisons Jessica Cheam, Straits Times Comparing the prices of public flats today with those of years ago is 'not meaningful', National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan said on Thursday. 'If we did that, we'd be comparing many things that we did 20 years ago, do we want to go back 20 years?' he said. **** Good Market For E-Gov Projects Esther Teo, Straits Times A new study has identified a whopping US$1.1 billion (S$1.6 billion) in potential infocomm technology (ICT) projects around the world being funded by global bodies. And almost all of them are related to e-Government services, an area where Singapore is a recognised leader. **** SDP Asst Sec-Gen Calls For Election Monitoring In S'pore Singapore Democrats Singapore Democrats' Assistant Secretary-General John Tan has called for international organisations to monitor elections Singapore, given the way that polls are run by the PAP government. Mr Tan made this appeal during the 3rd World Forum for Democratisation in Asia (WFDA) entitled "Sustaining Democratization in Asia: Challenges of Economic and Social Justice" which was held a week ago in Seoul, South Korea. Human rights activist Mr Seelan Palay also attended the conference. **** Singaporeans To Recover What's Left Of Lehman Notes Kevin Lim, Reuters Singapore investors, who bought structured notes linked to failed U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers, may recover what is left of their investments after the receiver gained control of the notes' underlying assets. **** MioTV Takes EPL From StarHub Patrick Frater, Hollywood Reporter The deals have the potential to change the course of pay-TV development in Singapore. Sports, in particular the EPL, and movies are the single biggest incentives to subscribers. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Oct 2 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 2 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 2, 2009 Message-ID: <20091002225901.52308.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Modifying iPhone Carrier Settings Ted Landau, Macworld How to modify your iPhone???s carrier settings???and why you would want to. **** Select Expose Windows By Name In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld After activating Expos?? in All Windows mode (F9, or the dedicated key on your keyboard), you can now select windows by typing portions of their names (as shown below each window). **** Ripping Your Unprotected DVDs Christopher Breen, Macworld **** C4 Notes: Developers Cool Towards iPhone Projects Dan Moren, Macworld While most of the developers I talked to at the conference were positive about the iPhone???s technological capababilities, almost all had issues with the business side of the platform. More than one told me that they weren???t actively developing any programs for the iPhone, having come to the conclusion that it wasn???t worth the time and energy that they could be spending on more profitable projects on the Mac side. Why the lack of love? The reasons are varied, but many tie back to a central thread???Apple???s emphasis on control. **** Trickle Of Companies Switching From BlackBerry To iPhone? MacNN A small but significant number of corporations are switching from BlackBerries to iPhones, a new report claims. Citing various industry sources, including a "top sales executive" from a major cellphone carrier, the report suggests that several factors are spurring a transition. **** Three Ways To Stream Movies To Your iPhone Rick Broida, CNET News Here's a look at three such options for streaming the big screen to your small screen. **** David Hockney's iPhone Passion The New York Review of Books Hockney first became interested in iPhones about a year ago (he grabbed the one I happened to be using right out of my hands). He acquired one of his own and began using it as a high-powered reference tool, searching out paintings on the Web and cropping appropriate details as part of the occasional polemics or appreciations with which he is wont to shower his friends. But soon he discovered one of those newfangled iPhone applications, entitled Brushes, which allows the user digitally to smear, or draw, or fingerpaint (it's not yet entirely clear what the proper verb should be for this novel activity), to create highly sophisticated full-color images directly on the device's screen, and then to archive or send them out by e-mail. **** 10 Best iPhone Apps For Journalists Etan Horowitz, Poynter Online With more than 85,000 applications available for download, Apple's iPhone is a Swiss Army-like device for journalists to communicate, produce and consume media from wherever they are. **** Business Users No Longer Drive Smartphone Adoption Galen Gruman, Infoworld News Consumers now buy the most smartphones, with the iPhone way in the lead in user satisfaction. **** Is The iPhone Hurting AT&T's Brand? Marguerite Reardon, CNET News The Apple iPhone has boosted AT&T's subscriber numbers, but network problems and a bevy of complaints from frustrated customers are likely hurting the company's reputation. **** Crowdsourcing Coming To iPhone Apps, Big Time CNET News There is a growing number of iPhone apps--both those that seek to make money and those that are nonprofit--that are based entirely on crowdsourcing, and which without the buy-in by a critical mass of users would be meaningless. **** Eminem, Apple Lawsuit Is Settled Ben Schmitt, Detroit Free Press The music publisher of hip-hop megastar Eminem and computer giant Apple Inc. have reached a settlement in a federal lawsuit brought by the publisher. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Last Days Of The Polymath Edward Carr, Intelligent Life People who know a lot about a lot have long been an exclusive club, but now they are an endangered species. **** Cooking With Dexter: Happy-Meal Me Pete Wells, New York Times At 5, Dexter has reached the age when schoolyard friends tell him things his parents have kept from him. ???Luke says there???s a restaurant called McDonald???s,??? he reported one day. **** Joking About Science Peter Dear, Project Syndicate Even though potential usefulness is the reason why governments devote so much money to scientific research, people really expect more from science than that. On this view, science also has a quite different, higher aim: understanding the natural world. **** Apple TV Still A Dud After Price Cut Dan Frommer, Business Insider Lower pricing hasn't made the Apple TV set-top box a smash hit. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Sheng Siong To Buy Markets? Jessica Lim, Straits Times The Housing Board (HDB) has stepped in to say that it has yet to receive an application from boutique property developer Heeton Holdings for clearance to sell the wet markets to supermarket chain Sheng Siong. **** Call 995, Show A Video Muhd Nurluqman, Straits Times Firefighters will soon be able to get a preview of the blaze they are going to fight before reaching the scene. The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) will tweak its 995 emergency line to allow video calls from mobile phones which have the technology. **** Electricity: Why Singapore???s Tariff Raising Ranked 2nd Amongst 21 Cities? Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen With about 117,000 unemployed residents as of June, and perhaps hundreds of thousands of Singaporeans suffering from reduced earnings in the current economic downturn, isn???t it time for a review of our national utilities policies, which allow the power sector to make huge profits, and to sell companies to foreign companies, without the need for parliamentary debate or approval? **** Priority For Those Who Need To Access Library Reference Materials Tay Ai Cheng, National Library Board, Straits Times Within the reference section of the regional libraries, about 20 per cent of the tables are set aside for library users who need to consult library materials. The remaining seats are for anyone to use. However, priority will be given to users who have to access and use library materials. The National Library Board reserves the right to request users not consulting library materials to give up their seat to other users who do use library materials. **** No Video Recording At T3? Teo Chun Nee, Today **** To Improve Competition ... Edwin Yeo Tee Yeok, Today Wouldn't it be better to structure the competition by separating the content from the transmission platforms? Soon, we'll all buy content from content owners directly over the internet. Stop wasting taxpayers' money to pay regulators to regulate a dying business. **** Singapore Election Fever Sam Ho, Sam's thoughts Gerrymandering is a problem on its own. At the next level, I feel a bit uneasy, as an ethnic Chinese Singaporean, that we use race (racial/ethnic representation) to justify gerrymandering. If that isn't race-based politics, the notion we so often criticise our Malaysian neighbours of, I don't know what is. **** Ungrateful Platoon Commander, Insensitive Leeder Feed Me To The Fish It's all well and good when careless politician speaks of buying votes and fixing oppositions but to callously deride the sacrifices of so many true blue Singaporean NSmen is really asking for trouble. Mr Prime Minister, why rock the boat further with such insensitivity? **** I Oppose Extradiction Demand Against Balraj Naidu News Release by UncleYap **** $8k Cap Stays Jessica Cheam, Straits Times The $8,000 household income ceiling for public housing benefits will stay, despite growing calls for a review. However, the Government will be offering more executive condominiums (ECs) to address the needs of middle-income buyers in the $8,000 to $10,000 monthly income bracket. The moves were announced by National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan on Thursday. **** Prices Of HDB Flats ??? Press Censorship? See Leong Kit, The Online Citizen HDB???s ???market-based??? pricing approach is the root cause of prices of new flats and resale flats chasing each other in a never-ending upward trend. **** Mah: ???Not Meaningful??? To Compare To Prices Of Flats In The Past The Temasek Review Mr Mah does not seem to understand that the 30 per cent benchmark cannot be used as an arbitrary figure to determine housing affordability which should be linked to other factors such as the cost of living, retirement planning and a country???s welfare system As Singapore does not have a social safety net to speak of, it mandates that Singaporeans save more to prepare for old age when they are expected to work for lesser hours and more prone to illness. **** A Modern Spin On Spirituality Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, New York Times At first sight, Li Chen???s monumental, whimsical sculptures of stylized, rotund Buddhas and bodhisattvas may bring to mind works by the Colombian master Botero, but the sculptor from Taiwan is quick to point out important differences. While ???Botero is more about the weight of material and flesh, my work is more about the emptiness and void, two important concepts in Buddhism and Taoism,??? Mr. Li, 46, said through an interpreter. **** New Ball Game In Pay-TV Chua Hian Hou, Straits Times SingTel's surprise win of pay-TV's crown jewel, the English Premier League (EPL), could allow it to displace rival StarHub as the republic's dominant pay-TV player over the next few years. **** Starhub Falls On SingTel's Soccer Wim Kevin Lim, Reuters **** Get Set, Go! Malaysia Star Ultimately, the race itself wasn???t the main event. The real achievement here is the master class of organisation, planning and event management that is the Singapore Grand Prix. **** IMF Expects Singapore To Be Fastest Growing Advanced Economy Blowin' In The Wind The IMF is now even more optimistic than the Singapore government, which expects the economy to shrink by 4 to 6 percent this year. **** James Seah Remembers Mid-autumn Festival (?????????)in Bukit Ho Swee Kampung Lam Chun See, Good Morning Yesterday **** Singapore Airlines Appeal Over Price-fixing Cartel Dismissed In Court Dow Jones The Federal Court today dismissed an appeal by Singapore Airlines against the competition watchdog's jurisdictional right to investigate alleged price-fixing by the carrier. **** Singapore Millionaire Oei 'Happy' With Citigroup Settlement Katrina Nicholas, Bloomberg Singapore millionaire Oei Hong Leong, who sued Citigroup Inc. over more than S$1 billion ($708 million) in trading losses, said he???s ???happy??? with the settlement he reached with the U.S. bank and plans to remain a client. **** Number Of Applications Exceed Available Units For Sale Of Balance Flats By HDB The Temasek Review This is a clear indication that the current supply of flats is insufficient to meet demands even at such high prices. **** Singapore's Hidden Heartland - A Story You Can't Read In The Lion City Ben Bland, The Asia File In a Kafkaesque twist, FEER says it is unable to send me a copy of my own story because of the restrictions enforced by the Singapore government on foreign publications in 2006 after FEER was accused of "engaging in domestic politics" by the government. **** Mr Mah, Is That All You've Got? Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp The government's argument that rising flat prices is beneficial to us is just flat out wrong. Using excuses to lead the people on a merry dance is yet another sign of the PAP losing touch with the electorate, and it is beginning to be obvious that they are too blind to even see that. **** 2 New Berths At Terminal Straits Times The good news: The second cruise terminal at Marina South broke ground on Friday afternoon, and will have two berths with no height restrictions for cruise ships. The bad news: It will be ready in 2011, a year later than originally planned. **** MFA Says All Singaporeans In Padang Are Safe Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) said on Friday that all citizens known to the ministry when the earthquake struck in the Sumatran city of Padang in Indonesia, are accounted for and safe. **** Developers Want More Land Straits Times Property developers are in talks with the government to increase the supply of affordable land across the island. **** Google Trike In Singapore Dee Kay Dot As Gee It is a impressive looking tricycle many camera mounted on top. The whole system is powered by a power generator which is next to a box that houses the computer. There is a small display mounted on the handlebar for the rider to monitor the status. Looks cool huh? **** In Our Urban Jungle, What Animal Are You, Artist Asks Miral Fahmy, Reuters Ask Singaporean artist David Chan about society and he'll say that it's a jungle out there, with weeping crocodiles, wolves in sheep's clothing and fat, arrogant pigs -- all animals he features in his paintings. **** MDA Considering Intervention In Local Pay TV Market Dylan Loh, Channel NewsAsia The government is aware of consumer concerns over the local pay TV market, said Acting Information, Communications and the Arts Minister Lui Tuck Yew on Friday. MDA said it is monitoring the situation and will consider the implications of the final agreement of the EPL bid. SingTel has yet to set its pricing policy, but added that rates will be competitive. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Oct 3 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 3 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 3, 2009 Message-ID: <20091003225901.55949.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** VPN Tracker 6 Adds Secure Desktop MacNN **** RIM Posts BlackBerry Desktop Software For Mac MacNN As promised earlier this week, Research in Motion has launched a dedicated Mac management tool, now rechristened the BlackBerry Desktop Software. The app goes beyond BlackBerry Media Sync in order to also sync contacts, calendars, tasks and notes with a BlackBerry smartphone. **** Make It Even Easier To Add Media To iTunes Rob Griffiths, Macworld While the new Tunes 9 feature that automatically adds media to iTunes is pretty easy to use already???just drop an iTunes-compatible media folder on the Automatically Add to iTunes folder in your iTunes folder, and you???re done. But in case you???re looking to make it even easier, here are a couple of hints that do just that. **** Psystar Counsel Resigns From Defense Team In Apple Suit AppleInsider A California attorney representing Psystar in its defense against an Apple lawsuit withdrew himself from the case this week, according to new court documents. **** Solving The Mystery Of Disk Utility's Failure To Erase USB Drives Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS **** App Pulled By Apple Thanks To Supposedly Spammy Phone Calls Jeff Smykil, Ars Technica A company has supposedly been calling some iPhone users trying to sell them software. The problem? The company is getting users' phone numbers from an application that was available on the App Store. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Preserve Wet Markets But Make Them Cleaner And Less Wet Jack Chew, Straits Times **** Don't Let Wet Markets Become History Ong Soek Peng, Straits Times While I can buy fresh produce like fish, meat and vegetables in the cool comfort of supermarkets, I prefer to buy them from the wet market near my home. This is because I feel I must support small businesses, and I find I can build relationships with the wet market vendors. They are always willing to go the extra mile for a customer, be it in offering advice or reserving a special product one might need. We should also not eliminate choices -- especially budget choices -- from our marketplace artificially. HDB should learn from its mistake to stop building 3-room flats. **** EPL Telecast Winners And Losers Jason Chiam, Straits Times Only in 'uniquely Singapore' does free market competition not lead to lowering of prices for consumers. That's a myth. Competition drives prices to fair and competitive level. A price war, on the other hand, kills off everybody. Remember the great MediaCorp-SPH Media Works price war of the early 2000s? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Oct 4 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 4 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 4, 2009 Message-ID: <20091004225900.95008.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** StuffIt Deluxe 2010 Steven Sande, TUAW **** Why CIOs Are Saying No To Macs Jo Best, CNET News The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Prototype: It???s Brand New, But Make It Sound Familiar Mary Tripsas, New York Times MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The First Counter-revolutionary Corey Robin, The Nation It's no accident that Hobbes fled his enemies and then his friends, for he was fashioning a political theory that shredded longstanding alliances. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Concern Over Rising Foreign Population Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Singapore has always been dependent on migrants for its economic prosperity and making up for a low birth-rate, but there are fears that this is just pushing it too far and too fast. **** Education Ministry Looks Like It Has Something To Hide Yawning Bread **** Newspapers' Future Uncertain Eisen Teo, Straits Times The Campus Observer (TCO) and The Enquirer - online university newspapers led and staffed solely by undergraduates - are finding it tough to sustain their projects on passion alone. Because these publications are not affiliated with schools or on-campus organisations, their staff do not receive Co-Curricular Activity points, and neither are they paid. **** Tell Us Please, How Was The $0.25 Charge Arrived At? Peter Low, Today **** Residents Get Reassurance Serene Luo, Straits Times Sembawang residents will still get their fresh cuts of meat and produce, Health Minister and Sembawang constituency adviser Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday. He reassured residents that he understood how important wet markets were to them and that he is working on keeping such markets available to them. **** Singapore Must Understand Changes In Japan, Says PM Straits Times 'Japan, like other countries, was hit by the global economic crisis. It now has a new, non-LDP government. It is important for Singapore to understand the profound changes taking place in Japan,' he said, in a written reply released yesterday. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Oct 5 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 5 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 5, 2009 Message-ID: <20091005225900.1243.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Is Your iPhone 3.1 In Coma Mode? Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune **** Google AdSense Leaks Apple's Refreshed iMac, Mac Mini, Macbook? Joseph L. Flatley, Engadget Further confirming our suspicion that something more affordable may be on the horizon, Google AdSense this weekend started serving users in the Netherlands with ads for new iMacs, MacBooks, and Mac minis. **** Apple Claims Woolies Is Getting Fresh With New Logo Julian Lee, Sydney Morning Herald Woolworths insists its new logo is a stylised W, or a piece of fresh produce; Apple thinks it is an apple, and the California-based technology company wants to stop Australia's largest retailer from using it. **** Are You Addicted To Apple iPhone's Ubiquitous Apps? Mary Brophy Marcus, USA Today Most people start their day with a cup of coffee, a shower, a good stretch. Beth Akins rolls over, grabs her iPhone and fires up Shake & Spell, her favorite iPhone app game. **** 5 Cool Things To Sync With Dropbox On Your Mac Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Dropbox is great for syncing essential files over the Internet, but it's good for more than just your daily images and Word files. **** O2 Sits On Fence About iPhone Unlocking Stuff.tv **** 6 Everyday iPhone Disasters And How To Handle Them Tom Kaneshige, Computerworld Aaron Vronko, CEO of Rapid Repair, an iPod and iPhone repair shop, and one of the first technicians to take apart the iPhone 3GS and write a repair guide, has seen his fair share of reasons why broken iPhones need emergency surgery. Here are his six favorites, along with advice on how to triage the problems. **** Flash 10.1 Leaves Apple Out In The Cold Chris Nuttall, Financial Times There is still no agreement between Adobe and Apple over its Flash technology being allowed to boost the web browsing capabilities of the iPhone, but the same can???t be said for other devices from today. **** Happy iPhone Customers Limit Their Love To Apple Tom Kaneshige, CIO.com Everyone is supposed to love their iPhones, lest they be branded an Apple-hater. But Apple's comeuppance is at hand. **** Hopes Fade Of An iPhone Price War Nic Fildes, The Times Those customers that have been holding off buying an iPhone in the hope of a massive price cut look set to be disappointed. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Shuttling PC Data At The Speed Of Light Brooke Crothers, New York Times There are a lot of reasons for going optical, the most obvious being speed: data can be delivered faster on optical cable than on current metal-based cables. Light Peak can carry data at 10 gigabits per second in both directions simultaneously, and Intel expects it will reach 100 gigabits per second in the next decade. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Can The Muppets Make Friends In Ramallah? Samantha M. Shapiro, New York Times The Palestinian territories have been a tough place to strike a balance between promoting ???Sesame Street??? values while portraying a realistic version of local life. **** Hard Work, No Pay Jennifer Williams, New York Times The worst thing was the feeling of uselessness ??? the fear that I was simply unskilled and unable to compete. Where had I miscalculated when I was planning out my life? An unlikely solution finally pulled me out of my metaphorical shoebox wallpapered with r??sum??s. **** Lost Sonnet John Ashbery, New Yorker **** The Paw Of A Cat Kay Ryan, New Yorker **** The Godchildren Tessa Hadley, New Yorker **** Thought Problem Vijay Seshadri, New Yorker **** Wired To Wonder Todd Kashdan, Greater Good Magazine Cutting-edge research from neuroscience suggests that while we may be natural born worriers, we're also wired for worry's neglected, underappreciated neural twin: curiosity. This research suggests that our curiosity and threat-detection systems have evolved over millennia, working together to ensure that we make optimal decisions in an unpredictable, uncertain world. As a result, we find intense, lasting fulfillment in seeking new knowledge, new experiences, and in embracing uncertainty. Choosing to explore the unknown rather than avoid it is key to a rich, meaningful life. **** Poem Of The Week: John Donne's The Sun Rising Carol Rumens, Guardian Not for Donne a sad parting at dawn: here he places himself and his lover at the centre of the universe, with the sun as their servant. It's one of the most joyous love poems ever written. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Don't Scrap It, Phase It Out Lin Yan Qin, Today When the Jobs Credit scheme comes to an end, new programmes and initiatives will be needed to keep - and grow - jobs as Singapore faces a more competitive world in the upturn, said labour chief Lim Swee Say yesterday. **** Population Growth May Add To Woes Ong Siew Chey, Straits Times Now we worry about our ageing population and the need to infuse young blood to sustain ourselves. But all young people eventually grow old. Will our problem be compounded then? **** Where's The Benefit? Kwong Hui Hen, Straits Times Ez-link has spared no effort to promote its new Cepas ez-link card. But I am not sure if convenience and lower cost to the consumer were what it had in mind. **** Asian Textiles No Longer A Fading Industry AFP Asian textiles, once considered a fading industry, are now showing strong growth prospects thanks to technology and demand from expanding middle classes, a leading industry player said. **** PM Lee: NS For Children Of PRs Will Scare Them Off The Temasek Review **** The Ball Is Now In Our Court Conrad Raj, Today What is the Media Development Authority (MDA) doing about what appears to many as wasteful competition? The question to this question: when is competition wasteful? Should we only have one insurance company, one supermarket/wet-market company, and one food court company? **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** Hossan Leong: Singapore???s Latter-day Court Jester Ben Bland, The Asia File The political humour was interspersed by copious amounts of cross-dressing, stupid songs and all-round pantomime silliness. Thus any hard message behind the political humour was diluted and deliberately deprived of any semblance of legitimacy. To put it another way, Leong is adopting the role played by court jesters in England during the Middle Ages. **** ?????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ???????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????3???6????????? **** ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Are Local-born Singaporeans Becoming A Minority In Their Own Country? The Temasek Review Though the above calculation is only a simplistic model and cannot be used to predict population trends in the next decade, it does throw up the possibility that Singaporeans may become a minority in their own country like Dubai if the current influx of foreigners continues unabated. **** Sunday Times Removed Article On Singapore PR Zhang Yuanyuan Taking Part In China National Day Parade The Temasek Review The article which relates a Singapore PR by the name of Zhang Yuanyuan, who chose to return to Beijing and took part in China???s 60th National Day parade was still available in the morning of 4 October 2009 under the ???Home??? section, but by the afternoon, it was nowhere to be found. **** ?????????40%?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????40%??????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** State Media Uses Flawed Study To Create False Impression That Foreigners Are Welcomed In Singapore The Temasek Review The study is obviously flawed because of selection bias. Teenagers between the age of 13 and 18 have no experience in the real life and as such they do not encounter problems faced by working adults who need to compete with the newcomers. **** If You Love Your Data, Set It Free (Free, Free, Set It Free) Jimmy Yap, iMerlion So far, Singapore has done a great job in creating useful online government services, from tax filing to business registration. However, Singapore's government agencies can do more. They have lots of data that would be of immense use if it were easily available to consumers. **** In Singapore Without A Dollar An American girl in Singapore Singapore, you people are way behind in modern forms of payment. **** M1???s ???Terrible??? Customer Retention Scheme Ian On The Red Dot When a customer???s contract has expired, I think the telcos should treat these customers as potential new customers instead of treating us as people who will always just stay around. In a surprisingly shocking parallel, our government treats those they want to attract better than those they already have here. **** Put Away The Camera And Video Recorder Please... Yeo Kia Thye, Changi Airport Group, Today Photography and video recording are not allowed at all immigration areas for security reasons. This is indicated on signs placed in front of each immigration counter. **** HDB Flats Are Not "Affordable" - If You Are A Heartlander Joseph Khoo, Today It is rather pointless for HDB's policy makers to keep using the term "affordable" when actual buyers are not the policy makers themselves but heartlands folks who really find it a challenge to "afford" a roof over their heads. While I love the word "affordability" used in the table as part of the article in "7000 on stream in next 3 months" (Oct 2), one key number missing is the actual number of years needed to pay off the flat loan. After working out the numbers, it sure doesn't look that affordable anymore! **** Afforable? Check The Loan Period See Leong Kit, Today The losses reported in HDB financial statements could well come from "transfer pricing" accounting between HDB, Singapore Land Authority and Ministry of Finance. **** SDP Opposes Closure Of Wet Markets Singapore Democrats At a time where inflation is already outstripping wages, such a move is reprehensible. It will only lead to more difficulties for the people. Singaporeans must put a stop to this hawking of the people's interests to the highest bidder. This has caused much hardship for the people as prices continue to escalate beyond our means. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Oct 6 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 6 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 6, 2009 Message-ID: <20091006225901.66774.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The iPhone Finally Gets Flash Apps ??? But Not Flash Websites Anthony Ha, Venture Beat Previously, if you built a cool Flash game to run on the web and you wanted it to work on the iPhone, you???d have to write the app again, with new code. Now you can just build the app and the Flash Creative Suite can create a new version that???s downloadable to iPhones from Apple???s App Store. **** Apple's Logo Lunacy: 5 Previous Trademark Tiffs Jr Raphael, PC World Apple wants to keep Woolworths Supermarkets from putting an apple into its logo. It's not Apple's first image-driven fight. **** How The iPhone App Store Resurrected The Lone Wolf Programmer Edible Apple The level playing field that the app store provides has given all developers the ability to strike it rich, and much like how the iPhone wrestled away much of the control that mobile carriers had grown accustomed to enjoying, the app store has wrestled away the dominance that a handful of large game publishers exerted over the gaming industry for quite some time. **** What's In Store For The Future Of QuickTime? The Digital Lifestyle.tv **** Mac, Windows Marketing Doesn't Match Reality In The Home Jeff Bertolucci, PC World Does this digital diversity in the home mean it's time for Apple and Microsoft to soften their ad campaigns a bit? **** Adobe Website Blames Apple For Blocking Flash On iPhone MacNN Adobe's mobile website contains new information that directly blames Apple for preventing the company's Flash Player from being allowed onto the iPhone platform. Visitors attempting to install Flash Player on their iPhone are reminded that the project has stagnated due to Apple's rules. **** Apple Approves 'Politically Charged' iSinglePayer App MacNN Apple has reversed course and approved iSinglePayer, an iPhone app advocating health care reform in the US. The app had initially been rejected for being "politically charged," as it contains charts and information regarding single-payer health care systems. **** Bells, Whistles For Time Machine Bob Levitus, Houston Chronicle Time Machine was designed from the start to be drop-dead simple and Apple is doing the right thing by keeping it that way. Fortunately, third-party developers have taken those wishes to heart and created three free or dirt cheap utility programs that do those things and more. **** Fusion 3.0 Gains Snow Leopard, Windows 7 Aero Support Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica The next version of VMware Fusion has been announced, and it comes with numerous new features that users will undoubtedly love. Snow Leopard support, the latest gaming support, and support for Windows 7 features all top the list, as well as a new Migration Assistant to help those moving their PCs over to a virtual machine. **** Caterpillar, Duke, Apple Are Winners In Frank Derivatives Plan Bloomberg Apple Inc., Caterpillar Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. are among companies that come out ahead in draft derivatives legislation offered by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank. Frank would exempt such ???end-users,??? companies that hedge their own risks through derivatives, from new rules and collateral requirements applying to banks and other participants in the $592 trillion derivatives market. **** Finally, Some Kudos For Apple From An Environmental Group Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Yes, you read that right. Although it???s been criticized by the likes of Greenpeace in the past, today two related groups called Clean Production Action and ChemSec issued a report that highlighted Apple as one of seven companies that are leading the pack in terms of eliminating toxic substances from electronic poducts. **** Video Maneuvers: Surprising Flip Keeps Apple's iPod Nano At The Top Tom Rose, Boston Herald What does a company do when a best-selling product is ready for its yearly update? If the company is Apple and the item is the iPod nano, then they cram as many new features into it as possible without raising the price. **** VMware Fusion 3.0 Makes Windows Look Like Mac Eric Lai, Computerworld The upcoming version of VMware Inc.'s Fusion software for Mac-Windows desktop virtualization includes an interface overlay called "Unity" that erases Windows' long ubiquitous Start taskbar in favor of Mac OS X's Dock, and replaces the Windows Search with one closely resembling Mac OS X's Spotlight search box. **** Bell, Telus To Carry iPhone In Canada MacNN Canadian carriers Bell and Telus have announced separate deals with Apple, ones which will let them both carry the iPhone 3G and 3GS beginning in November. **** Revealing Mac OS X's Single-Application Mode Lewis Butler, TidBITS That's right, the original single-application mode in Mac OS X Public Beta is still with us. Although it was always intended as a simple option for people who are not computer experts, it turns out to be an interesting option for the power user. **** On Authoring iPhone Apps Via Flash CS5 Jeff Rock You really want to trust them to manage your memory, translate your code and keep up with Apple???s SDK? **** PDF Checkpoint 1.1 Improves PDF Compression The Mac Observer **** Apple, Google, Others Named In Patent Infringement Suit MacNN **** The Price Of The Top Grossing iTunes Apps Ben Lorica, O'Reilly Media **** AT&T Changes Tune, Allows VoIP Over Cell Network Dan Moren, Macworld All engines, full reverse! That???s the order AT&T seemed to be giving on Tuesday when it announced that it would be altering its existing policy to allow Internet phone applications such as Skype to place calls over the iPhone's cellular data connection. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Main Reason To Eat Local Helene York, The Atlantic There's a reason we require chefs to source a minimum of 20 percent of their food stuffs locally: it tastes better. **** Gourmet's Legacy Laura Shapiro, Slate Magazine The magazine is closing, but we'll always have the Gourmet cookbook. **** How Cond?? Nast Is Like General Motors. Jack Shafer, Slate Magazine Although the privately held Cond?? Nast isn't as financially distressed as the bankrupt General Motors, and although the magazine business couldn't be more unlike the car business, the two distraught companies share woes. **** Charles And The Women: Darwinian Psychology Meets The Female Body Paul Griffiths, Australian Review of Public Affairs Women have often been in the front line of the struggle between evolutionary psychologists and their critics. **** In Nomine Patris et Felis Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine Christopher Smart's extremely spiritual poem about his cat. **** Do Readers Really Want Video-book Hybrids? Laura Miller, Salon When it comes to fiction, the medium is not the message: injecting a bit of video into a mediocre story is not going to suddenly make it compelling. Books that really work succeed by doing what novels do best: immersing readers in a world blended of equal parts of the author's imagination and their own. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Avoiding Doomsday Tan Chak Lim, Straits Times Whatever the long-term scenario, the public expects that, at least for the telecast rights to World Cup 2010, the Media Development Authority (MDA) does not remain passive. Whoever wins the rights must share with other service providers at a price determined by MDA if they cannot agree among themselves. Do not deny those with access to only MediaCorp channels or who cannot have SingTel's mio TV yet, this quadrennial extravaganza. One question is this: what is the cost of additional regulations to the taxpayers, and how much does the non-football-watching public have to pay to 'subsidize' the airing of foreign sports entertainment for the few people who do watch? **** Buses, Trains, ERP And ... Gregory Gerald Danker, EZ-Link Pte Ltd, Today We are pleased to inform the writer that currently, ez-link cards can be used for payment at more than 5,000 non-transit merchants touch points across Singapore. Note the use of 'merchants touch points', not merchants. The list of merchants -- much less than the figure of 5,000 -- is listed here [http://www.ezlink.com.sg/business/business_list.jsp]. **** Parking: When 5 X $2 Does Not Equal $10 Kent Tan, Today How does using 5 x $2 coupons differ from displaying a single $10 coupon? Very simple: this is to plug a loophole. Since parking coupons are not tied to a particular car park, coupons can easily be reused elsewhere. **** Buses: Display Stage Numbers, Please Ong L S, Today The new signs installed on upgraded bus stops around the island do not display the corresponding stage number for the buses plying those routes. Without this information, passengers are unable to check the fare they have to pay, or whether the sum deducted from their ez-link card is accurate. The larger question: why are still using 1970s technologies in determining bus fares? **** CapitaLand's Mall-nopoly Conrad Raj, Today **** Has Singapore Lost The Race To Hong Kong? Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks Unfortunately, Singapore's stock exchange has not provided a solid foundation from which to build a regionally competitive capital market. The inadequacies of size and liquidity are painfully evident to local and regional market participants. **** Singapore Air, Cathay 'Magically' Fill Planes, Mask Yield Slump Chan Sue Ling, Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd. and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd. are flying fuller planes. Profits may take longer to recover. **** Singapore Prepares To Embrace High-rollers Kevin Brown, Financial Times Many Singaporeans are sceptical about the concept of resorts combining gambling with family entertainment, fearing they may bring gambling addiction and even crime to the tranquil city. However, the operators appear confident the casinos will generate substantial revenue. **** The Fullerton Hotel - Historic Singapore At Its Finest Annie Scott, Gadling.com The Fullerton Hotel is a luxury hotel in the heart of Singapore with a claim to fame that few hotels can boast: it used to be the post office. **** Why It Was Wrong To Allow Competition Kenny Ching, Straits Times Competition works only if certain assumptions are met, namely perfect information and free entry and exit of consumers and firms. In Singapore, those assumptions fail and the small market simply cannot sustain more than one hegemonic player in a capital-intensive industry. So, why are we not removing barriers to better information and entries by new players, but are instead looking into regulations to make the companies grow into 'too-big-to-fail' sizes? **** Mum Gets Daughter Back Selina Lum, Straits Times A mother who had her child taken away because she was deemed too controlling was reunited with her seven-year-old daughter on Sunday after the High Court overturned the decision of a lower court. **** Some Disagree On Idea Of Casinos Funding Charities Zul Othman, Channel NewsAsia **** ??????????????????????????? ??????????????? ?????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** PAP MPs Jumped To The Defence Of Singapore ???Quitter PR??? Zhang Yuanyuan The Temasek Review It is disappointing that the MPs, who are supposedly close to the grassroots, are unable to grasp the real concerns of Singaporeans and make no comments on the government???s immigration policy. **** HDB, Town Councils Are Partisan Bodies Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp Civil servants know which side their bread is buttered, and fear career stagnation or even losing their jobs if they dare to risk angering their paymasters. This is why PAP-run Town Councils have the temerity to gamble, and subsequently lose, at least S$16 million dollars in taxpayers money without the need to account for them. **** Singapore Police Took No Action Against Hanging Of China Flags Though It Is Clearly Against The Law The Temasek Review **** Reform Party Backs 'Wanted Man' Elena Chong, Straits Times The Reform Party's secretary-general and a central executive committee member turned up in court on Monday to support a party member, who is wanted by the United States authorities for alleged terrorism activities and brokering an arms deal with the Tamil Tigers. **** Singapore Pays $30M For East Side Garage Adam Pincus, The Real Deal The Singapore government paid $29.5 million for a 40,000-square-foot garage building near the United Nations that will be converted to office space, a broker on the deal said. **** Why The Removal Of Jobs Credit May Also Mean The Removal Of Your Job Temasek Hedge Here???s the killer: the current government worry about falling productivity ??? partially as a result of JC ??? will be neatly taken care of once the JC is removed, almost inevitably leading to employers slashing the workforce, and forcing the remainder to take up the slack. **** Singapore's Bipolar Beauty Queen Ben Bland, Asia Sentinel When 19-year-old student Ris Low stepped forward to receive the Miss Singapore World crown in the Island ballroom of the Shangri-la Hotel back in July, she was blissfully unaware that it would turn out to be a garland of thorns. **** No Protection From Fraud My Paper The results of the study, released yesterday, showed that 70 per cent of the most-visited sites here send e-mail that do not bear electronic signatures, which verify that they had been sent by the legitimate websites. **** ????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Official Reply From Government On The Zhang Yuanyuan Fiasco The Temasek Review With the exception of lower housing and education subsidies and CPF contributions, PRs enjoy the same rights as citizens except that they are not permitted to vote. **** Domineering Justice Today In Singapore **** S&CC Charges As A KPI For Town Councils Will Not Benefit Residents Leong Sze Hian , Today KPIs should motivate councils to serve residents better, instead of making life more difficult for financially stressed residents. **** Pre-General Election Campaigning Donaldson Tan, The Online Citizen The pre-General Election campaigning is already in full swing. While some opposition political parties have quietly begun their weekly walkabouts to reach out to the community in their targeted wards, the People???s Action Party has begun their onslaught with eye-grabbing headlines on the Straits Times. **** Judge Acquits SDP Leaders Singapore Democrats In a stunning decision, District Judge John Ng acquitted leaders of the Singapore Democrats who were charged with taking part in a procession on 16 Sep 07. Judge Ng said that the walk ???did not cause inconvenience to the public, affect traffic flow or make noise which disturbed the public peace.??? Citing definitions in the Oxford and Collins English dictionaries, the Judge said that he could not accept the Prosecution's ???simplistic??? interpretation that ???so long as a group of 5 or more people walk[ing] from one point to another point in a public place to commemorate an event??? constitutes a procession. **** Judge Acquits SDP Four Over Walking Case Yawning Bread One is also reminded of the case of Senior District Judge Michael Khoo who acquitted the late J B Jeyaretnam of nearly all charges when in 1986, he was accused of mis-stating his Worker???s Party accounts. Jeyaretnam was an indefatigable opponent of the ruling party. Not only was Jeyaretnam???s case retried under a different judge (with the usual result), but Khoo himself was transferred out of his job into the Attorney-General???s Chambers. This move was widely seen as punishment for deciding the case the way he did. Another thing to watch out for is whether the government will now amend the law to write in a definition for ???assembly??? and procession??? that will catch all future walkabouts with a political message. It???s known as killing Singapore with a thousand cuts. **** Not The Most Articulate Leader Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp As citizens, let us get mad at our national leaders, but for good reasons, and not just pop a vein whenever they say something stupid. It's very unhealthy if you opt for the latter, and worse yet, makes us mirror images of the same people we criticise. **** Yale In Singapore? Vivian Yee, Yale Daily News Yale is turning its international attention southward from China to lend a hand to the National University of Singapore. The Southeast Asian island???s largest university invited Yale administrators and professors to consult at the end of June on a new liberal arts college that NUS hopes to open. Administrators have not decided the extent of Yale???s commitment to the project, and there is no timeline for the college???s opening. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Oct 7 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 7 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 7, 2009 Message-ID: <20091007225900.87027.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The iPhone Is Not An All-You-Can-Eat Buffet Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine **** Apple And Skype React To AT&T's Announcement Of Support For iPhone VoIP Services MacRumors **** Apple Will Change iPhone SDK Agreement Eric Norwood, App Advice Apple has issued a statement regarding AT&T???s iPhone changing announcement today. Now that AT&T has no objection to VoIP apps on their wireless network, Apple will be amending their SDK agreement. **** Is Apple's Software Quality Declining? Kyle Buckley, The Nillabyte Perspective **** iPhone Finds A Little Love In Japan Sumner Lemon, IDG News Service One of the iPhone's challenges is that most Japanese users prefer clamshell and slider handsets, but that didn't stop Yamaha and partner Densan System from experimenting with the touchscreen phone. **** Bento For iPhone Gains Bento 3 Support MacNN **** C:\ONGRTLNS.OSX John Gruber, Daring Fireball Or: There is no replacement for creator codes in Snow Leopard. **** Find And Merge Address Book Duplicates Joe Kissell, Macworld Even if you???ve cleared out old, outdated contacts, you???ll still find that one of the most obvious sorts of address book clutter is multiple entries for the same person. This happens most often when you add records that differ slightly???for example, one for ???Bob Smith??? and another for ???Robert Smith,??? or ones listing different e-mail addresses or other contact info. Cleaning up these extra entries is easy in Address Book and doable, if a bit more complex, in Entourage. **** App Store Profits Extremely Difficult, Developers Say MacNN **** Time Capsule Power Failures Continue To Affect Owners MacNN Apple's Time Capsule network drives are still suffering from power failures, complaints on official support forums indicate. **** Resetting Safari Christopher Breen, Macworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Closing The Book On Gourmet Kim Severson, New York Times Although it was easy to paint Gourmet as the food magazine for the elite, it was a chronicler of a nation???s food history, from its early fascination with the French culinary canon to its discovery of Mediterranean and Asian flavors to its recent focus on the source of food and the politics surrounding it. **** Fried Chicken: A Migratory Bird Julia Moskin, New York Times While adherents may argue about buttermilk or brine, batter or dredge and shallow fry or deep fry, dissenters say there???s a more fundamental question ??? is Southern fried chicken ever that inspiring? **** Anyone Out There? Giovanni Bignami, New York Times 50 years ago last month, a letter to the magazine Nature ended the passive, look-up-and-ponder attitude by proposing a scientific, experimental approach. We don???t have an answer yet (or you and I would know), but in the process we have come up with quite a tale to tell. **** These Foolish Things Michael Dirda, In Character There are three kinds of fools: Real Fools, Professional Fools, and Unsuspecting Fools. The professional, a staple of Shakespeare???s plays, is, in reality, nobody???s fool. **** Garbage Jeanne Koskela, LOST Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore Forms Ministry For "Cyber-Wellness" Lydia Sung, Neoseeker Governments around the world always need a scapegoat for its people to blame, and Singapore has its sights set on video games as well. **** 12,700 Bids For 2,132 Flats Straits Times Applications are pouring in for the HDB's sales exercise for 2,132 flats in 24 estates across the island. **** SDP Five Cleared Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times District Judge John Ng, in a written judgment, said he acquitted the five on the sole ground that he did not consider what they had done a 'procession'. **** Fur Flies, And Rail Operator Apologises Neo Chai Chin, Today The incident has got animal lovers up in arms over the treatment of the cat, and SBS Transit has apologised for the way procedures were not followed for such animal intrusions. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ??????, ???????????? **** Is There Room For More Foreigners In Singapore? Bhaskaran Kunju, The Temasek Review It is indeed of some comfort to note the Prime Minister???s pledge to alleviate the concerns of the citizens but as mentioned earlier the promises are long standing and are still not yet fully resolved. Perhaps with the General Elections right around the corner there could be some practical changes in the immediate timeline. **** 12,700 Applications For 2,132 HDB Flats Under Sales Of Balance Flats Scheme The Temasek Review **** PAP???s Eric Low Rapped For Stealing Limelight Of Hougang MP Low Thia Kiang The Temasek Review Mr Eric Low???s latest attention-seeking antics did not go down well with netizens. **** Ming Yi, Aide Convicted Carolyn Quek, Straits Times Former Ren Ci Hospital founder Ming Yi and his former personal assistant Raymond Yeung were found guilty on Wednesday on charges over an unauthorised loan from the charity's funds to his aide in 2004. They will be sentenced on Nov 11. **** Judge's Decision: Nothing To Be Elated About, Nothing To Despair Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democrats Judge Ng had ruled that the Miscellaneous Offences Act (MOA) under which the defendants had been charged was not unconstitutional. He wrote that "There was no basis for the defendants to attack the constitutionality of the legislation." Perhaps. But Mr Ng misses the bigger point which is that the police will not approve any application for outdoor political activity. The defendants made this point their main contention. **** In Singapore Two???s A Company, Three???s A Crowd, But Five Is NOT A Procession Alastair Su, Gimme Some Truth! **** Loss Of English Soccer Rights Clouds StarHub's Outlook Se Young Lee, Wall Street Journal A person familiar with the situation said Friday that SingTel paid more than S$280 million for the English soccer rights, which is about 90% of StarHub's full-year net profit last year, and that SingTel likely cannot recover the cost from the pay TV business. "Effectively what SingTel's done is throw the balance sheet and crowd out the competitor," CLSA analyst Ashwin Sanketh said Thursday. "If this is a precedent for any content coming up, then you basically have the incumbent using their size... which is obviously not an ideal situation." **** ????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? **** Preserving The Past ??? Singapore And Its Monuments Yesterday.sg **** Mah Bow Tan On Complaints From Buyers They Cannot Get A Flat: ???It Is Ridiculous!??? The Temasek Review **** Singapore's Lees Win Case Against A Defunct Magazine admin, Singapore News Alternative The announcement that the magazine would close was in fact seen by skeptics as a maneuver by Murdoch to nullify the lawsuit or as a quiet capitulation to Lee Kuan Yew, who staged a long series of lawsuits and other battles with the magazine and particularly with its onetime editor, the late Derek Davies. Although the Review no longer has assets in Singapore, its parent company, Dow Jones Co. does. **** MOE Releases Guidelines On How External Vendors Conduct Sex Education Programmes Channel NewsAsia The Ministry of Education (MOE) has released guidelines which external vendors conducting sexuality education programmes in schools will have to adhere to. **** Restrictions On Sand Exports By Vietnam Will Not Hurt Supply In Singapore Tan Hui Leng & Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said on Wednesday the recent restrictions on sand exports by Vietnam have not affected the supply of construction sand to Singapore. **** Two More Wet Markets To Go Straits Times The latest markets to be taken over by supermarket chains are at Block 623, Elias Road and Block 21, Hougang Street 51. **** Majority Support Stricter Controls Proposed Under Smoking Act Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia The Health Promotion Board has received 171 responses from the public on proposed amendments to the Smoking (Control of Advertisements and Sale of Tobacco) Act. **** More Thoughts On The 'Not A Procession' Judgement Yawning Bread And you know what? The government itself knows its actions are unlawful. It knows that if ever a judicial review is conducted enquiring into its standing policy and individual decisions, the court will likely rule against them. A court with integrity will rule against them. What grounds have I to arrive at this perspicuous insight? Simple, my dear Watson. You can tell who are the guilty parties from the way they sneak about. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Oct 8 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 8 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 8, 2009 Message-ID: <20091008225900.36678.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Chamber To Apple: You Don???t Understand Our ???21st Century Approach To Climate Change.??? Think Progress U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, who last year called for further ???scientific inquiry??? into climate science because of a ???cooling trend,??? today rebuked Apple for leaving his organization. **** Apple Rejects Someecards App For Being Full Of Someecards Content MG Siegler, TechCrunch **** Adobe Does 'end-around' Apple With Flash Dev Tool, Says Analyst Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Adobe's decision to give Flash developers a way to craft iPhone applications is an "end-around" Apple's decision to ban Flash Player from its popular smartphone, an analyst said today. **** App Classics: The App Store's Missing Hall Of Fame Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb App Classics analyzes iTunes rating and sales information to determine which applications have remained popular over time. **** iPhone App Store Developers Aren't Getting Rich, And Why That's Not A Problem Edible Apple The key thing about the app store is that it actually gives you the opportunity to get in a game dominated by 7-footers. It gives you the opportunity to to strike it rich. Actually accomplishing that, however, is entirely different story. **** Apple???s Mighty Mouse Never Lived Up To Its Name. And Now It Can???t. MG Siegler, TechCrunch It seems pretty clear at this point that Apple is getting ready to release a new mouse, probably with some kind of multi-touch capabilities, that is probably attached to some new iMacs. No one is happier about that than me, as I hate the current Mighty Mouse. But it looks like Apple may not have a chance to create a device that lives up to that name this time around, as someone else has won the trademark for the name ???Mighty Mouse.??? **** iPod Apps Have Made Us Rich! David Lowe, The Sun **** Apple Returns Disputed Transport App To iTunes Nicole Martinelli, Cult of Mac **** From Cars To TVs, Apps Are Spreading To The Real World CNN The App Store taps the creative energy of entrepreneurial developers. Whether they're big or small, they can make money through it, even though the challenges for them can be considerable. **** Review: Pagehand 1.0 Word Processor William Porter, Macworld Pagehand 1.0.6 has the most elegant user interface of any word processor I???ve ever used. By ???elegant,??? I mean that the exceptional beauty of the program is closely related to the program???s ease of use. But Pagehand???s elegance is aristocratic. It???s not meant for menial work like, oh, index creation or outlining. Pagehand is like a Mont Blanc ???writing instrument,??? designed for individuals whose writing needs are simple enough that they have time to enjoy the experience of writing. **** Create A Central Media Library Kirk McElhearn, Macworld **** iPhone Tethering Still Unavailable, AT&T Says Andrew LaVallee, Wall Street Journal AT&T subscribers still won???t be able to use their iPhones as wireless modems for their computers, despite the carrier???s reversed position on Internet-phone applications. **** Flash On The iPhone Louis Gerbarg, /dev/why!?! Now, the notion that what this thing emits is indistinguishable from something Xcode emits is laughable. They are very different, and not in a good way. While the apps may get acceptable frame rates on an iPhone 3GS, they don't on earlier hardware, and they almost certainly use substantially more battery power than native games. **** Gain More Control Over QuickTime X Playback Speeds Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Should Apple Give A Rat's Ass That Developers Aren't Getting Rich Off Of The iPhone Platform? Mark Sigal, O'Reilly Media: Mac and iPhone **** iPhone OS 3.1.2 Is Out Joachim Bean, TUAW This update fixes the widely reported issue where the iPhone would not wake from sleep, and also fixes an issue involving video playback and cellular service. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Gourmet Was For The Young And Scrappy, Too Alex Van Buren, Salon Media coverage has tarred Ruth Reichl's magazine as elite and stuffy. But it was so much richer than that. **** In Search Of Chinese Science John Derbyshire, The New Atlantis It would be interesting to know what Joseph Needham would have made of the new China, with its heroic materialism, its teeming commercialism, its bumptious militarism, and its sinister, vengeful race-nationalism. Probably he would have deplored much of it, while reminding us that at least Chinese scientists no longer have to work in caves and derelict pagodas. **** Gourmet To All That Christopher Kimball, New York Times Is American magazine publishing on the verge of being devoured by the democratic economics of the Internet? Has the media industry fully become an everyman???s playing field, without the need for credentials or paid membership? Or, to ask the questions that every media executive is really whispering, ???Will I have a job next year???? **** New Translation Freshens Up A Sprawling Modern Classic Michael Dirda, Washington Post This year marks the 50th anniversary of "The Tin Drum," the first and best-known novel of Nobel Prize-winning author G??nter Grass. While its narrator, the 3-foot-tall Oskar Matzerath, may be small in stature, his story is epic in scale -- nothing less than the history of Germany during the first half of the 20th century, told through the experiences of one family. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** US Government Debt Diary of A Singaporean Mind Scrutinising the nickels and dimes given out to the poor while taking big risks with state reserves simply makes no sense.... **** Singapore Court Rules Against Magazine Wall Street Journal The appeals-court panel on Wednesday agreed with a ruling last year that a 2006 Far Eastern Economic Review story improperly tied Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and his father, the former prime minister, to corruption. The court also found the Review improperly suggested the Lees used libel lawsuits to cover up misdeeds. **** Singlish Joanna's Singapore Adventures Despite their strong desire to develop a national identity and instil patriotism, the Singapore government is decidedly unimpressed by Singlish. **** Singapore Pro-democracy Activists Score Rare Court Victory AFP A group of Singaporean pro-democracy activists won a rare legal victory after being acquitted of involvement in an illegal march two years ago, according to court documents obtained Wednesday. **** A-G Chambers Mulls Appeal Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times The Attorney-General's Chambers is considering whether to appeal against the acquittal of five opposition leaders and supporters charged with taking part in an illegal procession in September 2007. A spokesman for the Chambers told The Straits Times on Wednesday that it has up to 10 days to file the appeal. **** Government Land Revenue Falls Diana Othman, Straits Times Government's total land sale revenue for financial year 2008/2009 fell to $7.3 billion from $12.4 billion a year ago. But it is still higher than 2007's $6.2 billion, said the Singapore Land Authority (SLA) in its 2008/09 annual report released on Thursday. **** SDP Calls On Teo Ho Pin To Speak Up On Wet Market Saga Singapore Democrats Mr Ambalam challenged Dr Teo to state publicly his position on the sale of the wet market. Silence and inaction on the part of the MP on such a controversial issue, one which has riled many residents, is not an option. **** Singapore Backs Lee In Media Case BBC News **** Singapore Yet To Return RI Airspace Control Fadli, The Jakarta Post The Singaporean government seems unwilling to return control over Indonesia's airspace in the Riau Islands province, for economic and strategic reasons, a Batam airport official says. Based on the 2009 Flight Law, Indonesia's airspace over Riau Islands should be returned to Indonesia, Tevi Amir, the chief air traffic controller at Batam's Hang Nadim Airport, said Tuesday. The airspace over the province had been under Singaporean control for around 10 years because of the limited capacity of Indonesia's radar systems, but this issue was no longer relevant, Tevi said. **** Singaporeans Charged For ???Walking???: A Case Of Taxpayers??? Monies Well Spent? The Temasek Review **** Is Singapore Becoming A Nation Of Immigrants? Amanda Lee, The Online Citizen A nation is like a tree. Even if the tree crown is beautiful and is a home to many organisms living together, it is very important to remember the roots. The tree crown represents the different immigrants and Singaporeans living together and making Singapore a progressive society and nation. However, we must not lose our ancestral roots which are us ??? Singaporeans. **** Stallholders Upset Over Plans To Turn Wet Markets To Supermarkets Cheryl Lim & Ting Kheng Siong, Channel NewsAsia The Housing and Development Board (HDB) said on Thursday it will consider the needs of residents before approving any application to convert wet markets into supermarkets. HDB also said it will ensure the area retains the same variety of choices, as far as possible, when the application is approved. **** How Cities Drive Plants Extinct Matt Walker, BBC News **** Asia's Wealth Managers Prepare For Transparency Neil Chatterjee and Don Durfee, Reuters As Singapore and Hong Kong prepare to grant foreign governments unprecedented access to the financial affairs of their bank account holders, Asia's private bankers sound confident business will only improve. But they may be too optimistic. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Oct 9 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 9 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 9, 2009 Message-ID: <20091009225900.26257.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Burton Asset Management. Responding To The Unexpected Apple When Kevin Burton steps onto a client???s campus, he???s focused on one thing: risk. ???I live in a Jack Bauer world,??? he says. ???I make sure that people are prepared for the unforeseeable.??? Burton is the Founder and CEO of Burton Asset Management (BAM), a business continuity and disaster recovery firm. It???s his job to protect his clients from every imaginable hazard???fire, earthquake, flood, terrorist attack, or pandemic. Integral to Burton???s business operations is iPhone. ???The first day I turned the iPhone on, it changed our business model,??? he says. ???It was so powerful in terms of data, email, and connectivity. It was virtually a laptop.??? **** AT&T Does The Right Thing David Pogue, New York Times Anyway, the bottom line is this: public pressure+government agency doing its job=corporate behemoths doing the right thing, catching up to other countries and saving you money. **** Apple And The Future Of Publishing ??? Part One I, Cringely Let???s assume that Apple or some Apple competitor announces a really good electronic reader, which means one that costs little, is super-easy to use, stores a lot, and has very low power consumption. That???s just the beginning. **** Steve Jobs Tops List Of Most Influential People In Tech Steve Ranger, Silicon.com Apple CEO Steve Jobs has been named the most influential individual in the global technology industry, topping the silicon.com 2009 Agenda Setter's list. **** Smart-Phone Market Update: Apple's Eating Everyone Else's Lunch Henry Blodget, Business Insider The latest smart-phone numbers from Canalys show that Apple's gaining share like a bat out of hell. **** WebKit And Why Open Standards Matter Savio Rodrigues, InfoWorld Analysis of open source WebKit usage shows high degree of incompatibility across WebKit-based browsers, including Safari and Chrome. **** AT&T CEO Has Ominous Words For iPhone Users During CTIA Seth Weintraub, Computerworld AT&T's CEO Ralph de la Vega spoke this week at CTIA about the problems of mobile broadband scarcity. He mentioned that AT&T had seen a 5000% increase in mobile broadband usage over the past three years and was having trouble keeping up with demand. AT&T doesn't forecast that exploding increase in demand to stop any time soon. **** Apple To Indie Labels: iTunes LP Is Out Of Your League John Herrman, Gizmodo **** The Future Of iPhone Games Daniel Terdiman, CNET News With the release of "2012," the iPhone app tied to the forthcoming Sony Pictures film of the same name, a group of developers may have kicked off the future of games on the hit smart phone. **** How The iPhone Works John Brandon, Computerworld While not every feature on the iPhone is unique, the way Apple has implemented some of those features is. And the iPhone serves as the base for tens of thousands of third-party applications, many of which make use of its built-in features in innovative ways. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** At Ceatec 2009, A Starring Role For 3D Erica Ogg, CNET News MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Rules To Eat By Michael Pollan, New York Times If we can???t rely on the marketers or the government or even the nutritionists to guide us through the supermarket woods, then who can we rely on? Well, ask yourself another question: How did humans manage to choose foods and stay healthy before there were nutrition experts and food pyramids or breakfast cereals promising to improve your child???s focus or restaurant portions bigger than your head? **** Putting America???s Diet On A Diet Alex Witchel, New York Times Last year, an Associated Press article designated the Huntington-Ashland metropolitan area as the unhealthiest in America, based on its analysis of data collected in 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly half the adults in these five counties (two in West Virginia, two in Kentucky and one in Ohio) were obese, and the area led the nation in the incidence of heart disease and diabetes. The poverty rate was 19 percent, much higher than the national average. It also had the highest percentage of people 65 and older who had lost their teeth ??? nearly 50 percent. All of which makes Huntington the perfect setting for the next Jamie Oliver Challenge. While he understands the allure of Home Wreckers and Big Macs alike, this British celebrity chef has made it his mission in recent years to break people???s dependence on fast food, believing that if they can learn to cook just a handful of dishes, they???ll get hooked on eating healthfully. The joy of a home-cooked meal, rudimentary as it sounds, has been at the core of his career from the start, and as he has matured, it has turned into a platform. **** 30 Courses And Lots Of Leftovers David Nakamura, The Atlantic "Please arrive super-hungry," Tomoko's email advised. "The dinner will include about 30 dishes. It's a lot of food (all of it amazing)..." How does one prepare for a 30-course meal? **** The Colbert Report David A. Bell, The New Republic While the extreme availability of information today should presumably have highlighted its relative paucity in earlier periods, historians--most notably Ann Blair--have in fact extended the concept of "information overload" all the way back to the sixteenth century, arguing that while we now associate the phenomenon with the internet, the printing press had a comparable effect. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Private Sector Takes Initiatives To Reduce Dependency On Sand Imports Ryan Huang, Channel NewsAsia Some contractors are taking no chances with news that Vietnam is banning sand exports to Singapore on worries that the pace of extraction would damage the Mekong Delta. **** HDB : ???Getting A Flat??? Statistics That Hardly Anybody Believes? Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen Instead of just saying that Singaporeans are choosy, the HDB should give the break-down of the statistics as to the reasons why people rejected flats. **** SDP Five's Acquittal - Nothing To Celebrate Except An Upright Judge The Secret Political Blog The defendants were acquitted because the law under which they were prosecuted was not applicable to them and not because political assemblies suddenly became acceptable to the establishment. **** My Oppression By The Heavy Arm Of The State Balderdash But then, the easiest course of action is not always the one we should follow. **** Pedestrians And Cyclists May Face Danger At Simultaneous Crossing Zones Aw Chon Wai, Straits Times The existing configuration may improve traffic flow and save time for everyone. However, the issue here is whether this is worth the trade-off with road user safety. We don't really have to be the number one in everything. Really. **** 21-day Wait For EZ-Reload Approval Not True - It's Longer How Peng Soon, Straits Times The previous ez-link card only took five minutes to link up for auto Giro top-up with an ATM card at any MRT station general ticketing machine. Why is the Land Transport Authority taking so long to roll out this service? The least it could do is to extend the use of the old card until the EZ-Reload feature is ready. **** Elias Closure Low Siew Ling, Straits Times Why should wet markets be private concerns and even if they are, should the HDB and town council absolve themselves of their responsibility to residents? **** Not Just About Money Straits Times Dollars and cents should not be the overriding consideration with institutions that are distinctly Singaporean like wet markets, which are a popular and valuable part of our identity. **** Singapore: More Cash ??? More Babies Elites TV Will a cash incentive make women want to have a child? Going by recent figures under Singapore???s recent Baby Bonus initiative, a government plan to raise declining birth rates in the country, the answer ostensibly is ???no???. **** Bloggers And The Networked Public Sphere In Singapore Snurblog Singapore is a particularly interesting case as it presents a paradox: a young and successful nation with strong ICT use, but a heavily regulated media environment (including the Internet) - but with regulation which has nonetheless proved unable to prevent the emergence of online sites of resistance. **** One Hour Out: Singapore John Krich, Wall Street Journal Before heading back to the city-state where such a colorful scene might well have been hosed down, sprayed over and turned into a Fishland Amusement Park -- complete with turnstiles -- long ago, we continue a bit farther up the coast in search of more curiosities. **** The Hourglass Effect The Economist Critics say that Singapore needs to shift faster from building cheap but resource-intensive concrete structures towards more expensive construction techniques that use, say, more steel and glass. Relying as it does on low-wage, low-skilled migrant workers from South Asia, Singapore???s construction industry is not yet ready for such a high-tech transformation. And in the short term there are still plenty of willing suppliers. **** CCS Is Not Responsible For SingTel Chin Yen Yen, Communications Competition Commission of Singapore, Today There has been much public interest on SingTel's winning of the rights to telecast the Barclays Premier League. We need to clarify that, under the law, competition issues in the media sector do not come under the jurisdiction of the Competition Commission of Singapore (CCS) and hence CCS cannot make any ruling on this matter. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ????????? ????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Lame Reply By HDB And PA On Why LUP Are Announced By PAP Losers And Not The MPs The Temasek Review All government agencies should deal directly with the elected MP regardless of their political affiliations and not outsiders who have no right or business to be intefering with the management of the ward in any way. **** Change The Prescription Randolph Tan, Today Withdrawing the Jobs Credit scheme will allow policymakers to re-direct their focus to areas which could help unemployed individuals in ways that will alleviate possible challenges in a new global economic order. **** Singapore Economy Probably Expanded A Second Quarter Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore???s economy probably expanded for a second consecutive quarter as the global recession eased, adding to evidence of a regional recovery that has prompted policy makers to consider ending stimulus measures. **** Two Women Trapped On Train Lin Yanqin, Today When the lights in the MRT train went out and the air-conditioning hummed to a stop, passenger Kalarani Shunmugasundram knew she was in trouble. Asleep when the announcement came on asking passengers to disembark as the train was terminating its run at Punggol station, she woke up just as the doors were closing. Along with another passenger, she was stuck on the train for nearly an hour on Monday as it headed for the depot. **** Singapore's Temasek To Meet Bond Investors - Sources Saeed Azhar, Reuters Singapore state investor Temasek Holdings will meet bond investors on Oct 13-14 to update them on its recent performance and outlook, sources said on Friday. **** Mah Bow Tan: ???I Don???t Expect Non-PAP MPs To Explain LUP??? The Temasek Review As an important minister, Mr Mah should stay clear and aloof of such petty politickeering on the ground and put the interests of the nation above that of the party. **** If You Think Being Charged For "Walking" Is Ridiculous... Singapore Democrats If you think being charged for "walking" is ridiculous enough, take a look at this: Six SDP members and activists are charged with distributing flyers in 2006. **** Nets' Multi-purpose Card Straits Times It's finally here, the Nets multi-purpose contactless payment card which is also the first to break EZ-Link's long time stranglehold on the transit market. **** S'pore Cruise Agents Up In Arms As PSA Up Docking Fee By 10-fold Lloyd's List Cruiseship agents are in uproar over a decision by the Singapore Cruise Centre to charge ships an additional docking fee of 10 times the usual amount if they are forced to berth at container terminals due to congestion. **** SingTel Should Provide Clarity On Pricing Of Its Sports Packages: MDA Lin Jiamei, 938Live The Media Development Authority (MDA) has asked SingTel to provide clarity on the pricing of their sports packages following its successful bid for the English Premier League for three seasons starting next year. **** 5 Privately Owned Wet Markets To Remain As They Are Even If Sheng Siong Takes Over Ting Kheng Siong/Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia Five privately owned wet markets won't be converted into air-conditioned supermarkets if Sheng Siong takes over. This is because HDB told MediaCorp, the supermarket chain has expressed taking over the wet markets in their existing state. **** Define Choosy Hard Hitting in the Lion City A study by National University of Singapore economists Tilak Abeysinghe and Gu Jiaying published last year found that the buying power of people's lifetime earnings in 2007 was lower than it was in 1990 when it is tracked against the prices of HDB resale flats. Basically, prices of HDB resale flats have become less affordable for Singaporeans. **** Life's Too Short, Linger Over That Coffee, Artist Says Rina Ota, Reuters Next time you're at your local cafe, don't gulp down that coffee -- Japanese contemporary artist Rei Sato believes coffee shops harbor precious moments that should be savored. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Oct 10 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 10 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 10, 2009 Message-ID: <20091010225900.79991.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Artlantis 3 Intros New Geometry Layers, Animation Effects MacNN The suite uses a new layer structure, with scene, object, plant, lamp, animated object and billboard layers, as well as support for custom ones. Other new options include importing layers from ArchiCAD, or designating a layer as an automatic destination for a particular type of media. **** Automatically Mute Sound Before Meetings Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Minor MobileMe Upgrades Improve IDisk Lex Friedman, Macworld Highlights include new settings for public iDisk files, a revamped Web interface, and more granular privacy controls for what others can and can't do with files stored in the online repository. **** Adobe Releases Photoshop.com Mobile For iPhone Dan Moren, Macworld **** Psystar, Apple Both Look To Avoid 2010 Trial AppleInsider On Thursday, both Apple and Psystar filed separate motions, with their respective supporting evidence, requesting a summary judgment from Judge William Alsup in a San Francisco court. Two hearings have been set for Nov. 12, and the outcome could determine whether the trial will take place in January. **** Government Going Apple? L. Samuel Pfeifle, Security Systems News What would you say if you heard the U.S. Army has four video surveillance installations that are based on Apple???s OSX operating system, and use Apple servers? Or that a large government entity had just initiated an all-Apple installation? **** Calgary School Libraries To Embrace iPod CBC.ca Libraries in Calgary public schools are planning to make way for iPods among the stacks of books. The Calgary Board of Education wants its libraries to embrace new technologies, such as video conferencing and hand-held devices like smartphones and the iPod. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Where The Wild Things Weren???t Bruce Handy, New York Times Obviously, many millions of children have loved ???Where the Wild Things Are??? ??? there are more than 19 million copies in print around the world ??? but I was struck, while conducting an extremely informal survey of a couple of dozen friends and a few professionals in the field of children???s literature, by how many said Sendak???s work had eluded their younger selves and/or their own offspring. Which kids??? books, I had wanted to know, are appreciated more in theory, or by adults, than by actual kids? **** Evolution All Around Nicholas Wade, New York Times To biologists and others, it is a source of amazement and embarrassment that many Americans repudiate Darwin???s theory and that some even espouse counter theories like creationism or intelligent design. How can such willful ignorance thrive in today???s seas of knowledge? In the hope of diminishing such obscurantism, the prolific English biology writer Richard Dawkins has devoted his latest book to demonstrating the explanatory power of evolutionary ideas while hammering the creationists at every turn. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** That Baffling Reply ??? And The Opposition???s Silence Ravi Philemon, The Online Citizen If it is indeed government practice to implement national programmes for residents through advisers to grassroots organisations, then they should change their policy to appoint elected MPs as grassroots advisers (even if they are opposition MPs), or hold separate elections for the proper election of grassroots advisers by residents. **** Sports TV Viewing: We Have Regressed Chan Wah Siong, Straits Times Once, Singaporeans were treated to the English Premier League, European Cup (now Champions League) football and the semi-finals and finals of Grand Slam tennis tournaments on free-to-air television. Now we must open our wallets for more than one subscription package just to enjoy the sports telecasts we used to get for free. Because you sports fans are willing to open up your wallets, that's why. Simple Economics 101. **** EPL Bidding: MDA Committed To Finding Effective Solution Sharon Tan, Media Development Authority, Straits Times The bidding for the EPL rights is a commercial process, with the bidding and broadcast terms determined by the Football Association Premier League and agreed upon with the bidders. **** Ethnic Quota Policy Works Fine, Says HDB Lily Chan-Wong Jee Choo, Housing & Development Board, Straits Times **** No Basis For MP Not To Announce Lift Upgrading: Low Low Thia Khiang, Member of Parliament for Hougang, Straits Times This is the manifestation of the Government's attitude towards elected opposition MPs, that they are not representative of the constituency but the grassroots advisers are, despite the fact that the grassroots advisers, candidates of the People's Action Party (PAP), had been rejected by the voters in Potong Pasir and Hougang. **** Not All Markets To Convert Jessica Lim, Straits Times The wet markets will have to stay because they do not meet the criteria for conversion into supermarkets, the HDB said on Friday. **** ?????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????8????????????2?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** An Unconscionable Injustice Singapore Recalcitrant The most decent thing for the minister mentor Lee Kuan Yew to do now is to undo the harm he has caused me and to restore my reputation. But will he? **** Heavenly House Singapore Life and Times You can never satisfy all of them, but can you blame people with this laundry list of demands when the price of a public housing apartment these days is upwards of S$200,000? **** Singlish As She Is Spoken Seah Chiang Nee, The Star A beauty queen shocked Singaporeans with her poor diction in English, triggering a storm of online debate that indirectly reflected on the city state???s education system. **** Senator Urges US Free Trade Deal With ASEAN Doug Palmer, Reuters A senior Republican senator called on Friday for a free trade agreement between the United States and countries in Southeast Asia. **** A Page From Singapore's Cybersecurity Playbook Pat Clawson, Optimal Security We could all learn a thing or two about developing an effective cyber security strategy from the government of Singapore. **** SingTel Cuts Cost Of Watching Barclays Premier League Games By More Than Half Today SingTel has unveiled its price plans for the Barclays Premier League, which it won the rights to for three years commencing August 2010. The Barclays Premier League will cost $23 (excluding GST) per month and will include all 380 Premier League matches. This includes one high-definition set-top box. Customers who sign a one-year plan to watch these matches will enjoy the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League at no additional cost till May 2011. **** AGC To Appeal Judge John Ng's Decision Singapore Democrats Attorney general Walter Woon has appealed District Judge John Ng's decision to acquit the SDP leaders of conducting a procession. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Oct 11 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 11 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 11, 2009 Message-ID: <20091011225901.86448.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: Tweetie 2 Is The Best iPhone App. Period. Pete Mortensen, Cult of Mac It???s incredibly useful, smooth as butter, innovative in design and features, and just works as you expect that it would. It???s as if it sprung, fully formed, from the skull of the iPhone, as if to say, ???This is how it should work.??? Not only has Tweetie 2 raised the bar for mobile Twitter clients, it???s raised the bar for mobile software. **** Top 10 iPhone Apps To Save You Money Jennifer Hill, Times Online >From tracking mortgages to finding the best store prices there are more than 85,000 apps for iPhone to make your life easier. **** Watch Your Data Get Eaten ??? Bad Microso??? Err .. Apple The Inquisitr **** 20 Fantastic Free iPhone Apps For Parents Jeana Lee Tahnk, Mashable What follows is a list of 20 free apps that won???t necessarily make you a better parent, but can make your life a little easier, or help out in a pinch wherever you are. And when you have a screaming, bored, hungry, or need-to-use-the-bathroom kid, sometimes a little help is all you need. The apps listed below have been compiled from the eyes of a parent, but many can be used regardless of whether you do or don???t have children. **** Tweetie 2 Leaves The Nest Nic Vargus, Macworld Tweetie 2 boasts a remarkably long list of new features. What words can???t describe, however, is the blazingly fast new interface, which threatens to turn even reluctant tweeters into Ashton Kutchers and Chad Ochocincos. **** Vonage, Skype iPhone Apps Make Global Calls Cheaper Glenn Fleishman, Seattle Times Skype and Vonage Mobile, both free to download and available for the iPhone and iPod touch, use their own calling networks to offer quite inexpensive per-minute calling to destinations outside the U.S. Each application comes with limitations, which are about to change. **** Small Schools Become Technology Pioneers DesMoinesRegister.com The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Unboxed: To Do More With Less, Governments Go Digital Steve Lohr, New York Times Local governments, like many businesses, are struggling with a data glut. Agencies collect huge amounts of information about topics as diverse as building permits, potholes, Medicaid cases and foster-child placements. Technology, according to computer experts and government officials, can be a powerful tool to mine vast troves of government data for insights to streamline services and guide policy. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Modernism And The Little Magazines Stefan Collini, The Times The literary journal is dead. Long live the literary journal. **** Offensive Play Malcolm Gladwell, New Yorker How different are dogfighting and football? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Eric Low To Low Thia Kiang: ???Don???t Politicize LUP!??? The Temasek Review **** Why Singaporeans Are Angry Over The Zhang Yuanyuan Fiasco The Temasek Review Singaporeans are not angry over Ms Zhang???s loyalty to her motherland, but rather at the liberal immigration policy of the ruling party which has altered the demographics of Singapore completely over the last few years. **** Take-up Rate 'Encouraging' Cai Haoxiang, Straits Times Close to 12,000 people have signed up for the new Central Provident Fund (CPF) annuity scheme opened last month to Singaporeans and permanent residents aged 55 and older. Minister of state (trade and industry and manpower) Lee Yi Shyan last night described the number signing up for CPF Life as encouraging. **** Singapore Police Arrest Falun Gong Practitioners While Meditating, Displaying Posters George Fu, The Epoch Times Seven Falun Gong practitioners were arrested while doing exercises in a local park in Singapore on Oct. 5. Police handcuffed four of the practitioners, citing ???vandalizing public property??? after they put posters on a wall. Three others, who were meditating, were not handcuffed, since "meditation is allowed," according to police. **** With A Diploma From China, Zhang Yuanyuan Got Her Singapore PR In Only Two Months The Temasek Review While some Singaporeans scoffed at the government???s attempts to ???import??? more foreigners as ???cheapening??? our citizenship, there is nothing they can do about it as long the incumbent remains in power. **** Super Grassroots! Times They Are A-Changin' **** Another Teenager Caught, Set To Hang Yawning Bread Whatever the list of crimes may be for which a country specifies the death penalty in its laws, there is a common thread, and that is that there are certain ideas valued higher than life. People who clamour for or defend the death penalty hold this as an unspoken assumption. **** Wet Market To Stay Yeo Ghim Lay, Straits Times Stallholders at Sembawang New Market in Canberra Road - the only wet market in Sembawang - will stay put after all, instead of making way for a FairPrice supermarket. Health minister and Sembawang GRC MP Khaw Boon Wan said on Sunday the market operator has decided to extend its lease with the Housing and Development Board. **** Taiwanese Orator Speaking At Singapore Forum: A Case Of Foreign Interference In Local Politics? The Temasek Review The Singapore government has always eschewed ???foreign interference??? in its domestic affairs. Foreign speakers are frequently barred from speaking at indoor forums and events organized by opposition parties. It appears that the rules are bent especially for Li and Zhang which is not surprising since they are promoting the ???virtues??? of the PAP government to its own ignorant and naive citizens. **** Concerns Raised Over Possible Abuse Of Jobs Credit Scheme Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia The government is looking into whether the Jobs Credit Scheme fits into its long-term economic strategy for Singapore. It will announce its decision on the future of the scheme on Tuesday. But a more immediate concern for some workers is whether the scheme, which helps companies offset a portion of wage costs, is being abused. This was raised at a dialogue with minister in the prime minister's office and second minister for finance and transport, Lim Hwee Hua, on Sunday. **** SDP Calls On Dr Teo To Stand With Bukit Panjang Residents Singapore Democrats Dr Teo must understand that he is a Member of Parliament, not the postal service. We are asking him to take a stand on the issue and not just convey the residents message to the HDB. He needs to state clearly his position on whether he supports the privatisation of the Fajar wet market. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Oct 12 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 12 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 12, 2009 Message-ID: <20091012225901.84492.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** You Can???t Beat Service With A Smile Beverly Beckham, Boston Globe The first time I brought it into the Apple store at South Shore Plaza, I was certain they???d say, ???Hey, lady. You didn???t buy this here. Sorry, we can???t help you.?????? But instead, it was like wandering into a Unitarian church and having a group of smiling strangers welcome you and then invite you to stay for coffee hour. **** Apple 'Gag Order' And The Fear Factor Brooke Crothers, CNET News Over the last year, I have talked to middle-level and high-ranking executives at enough companies to know exactly what to expect when the topic of Apple is broached: fear. **** iPhone App Piracy: Small Time Developers Feel The Pinch Nick Spence, Macworld UK Cracked iPhone applications freely available online are restricting the growth and potential of small-time developers particularly as they struggle to make a living in difficult economic times. That's the findings of Macworld over recent weeks after speaking to several developers, some of whom are seeing just one legit sale compared ten pirated downloads. **** iPods Become Learning Tools At Shady Hills Elementary Jeffrey S. Soloche, St. Petersburg Times Throughout Shady Hills Elementary, teachers have been taking advantage of iPods as an extra tool aimed at encouraging their students to learn in different ways. The iPods are finding their way into the curriculum as a less expensive, more portable piece of technology that teachers and students can use when computer labs, for instance, aren't available. **** The Myth Of The Apple Fan Boy Ron Miller, DaniWeb When it comes down to it though, I buy Apple products because they make good stuff most of the time. I couldn't care less if they are fashionable or cool. It doesn't mean Apple's a perfect company, far from it. It only means that what they do right, they do very, very well. **** Should AT&T Dump All-You-Can-Eat Plans For The iPhone? Ed Hansberry, InformationWeek Instead of modifying user's behavior, AT&T needs to modify its network to handle the bandwidth. The exclusivity agreement will end at some point. AT&T needs to do everything it can to make existing users happy. The happier they are, the less likely they are to bolt. **** 10 Essential OS X Apps For Pro Web Developers Craig Grannell, TechRadar UK The best tools for coding, testing, uploading and tracking costs. **** Apple Versus Microsoft: The Top 20 Stolen Ideas Of The OS Wars John Rizzo, InfoWorld Steve Jobs once said that Microsoft stole Windows from Apple, but both sides have snatched plenty of ideas over the years. **** Apple's App Refund Policy: No Eric A. Taub, New York Times There are no refunds. Period. **** The Case Of The Missing iPhone 3GS's Dennis Howlett, ZDNet Looks like I???ll have to grin and bear the shortage like everyone else. **** A Recipe App One Can Give Thanks To Wesley Fok, The Globe And Mail Whether its Thankgiving, Christmas or just the post-work rush, Epicurious is sweet on your iPhone/iPod. **** The Apple, Google, Verizon Love Triangle Jean-Louis Gass??e and Frederic Filloux, CBS News The enemy of my enmy is my friend is their new mantra. **** Genentech???s (And Apple Board Member) Arthur Levinson Leaves Google Board Robin Wauters, TechCrunch Genentech chairman Arthur D. Levinson is resigning from Google???s Board of Directors, the Mountain View company announced earlier this morning. His departure comes shortly after Google Chairman and CEO???Eric???Schmidtresigned from the board of Apple, where Levinson is also a director. No reason for the departure was given in the statement, but it???s safe to assume that it has something to do with the growing tension between Google and Apple, which is still being investigated by the FTC. **** Retrospect For Mac 8.1 Review Rob Henry, Macworld UK Veteran Mac backup software gets more than a makeover with latest release. **** The Two App Stores Marco Arment, Marco.org **** Dragon Stop Motion 2 Adds New Editing Features The Mac Observer The new version of the stop motion animation application added new editing features along with 64-bit support. **** IDG Completes Macworld 2010 Preparations With Time To Spare MacNN IDG World Expo has announced that Macworld 2010 programming has already been completed, with all of the speaker slots and content locked down five months prior to the actual event. IDG also states that over 28,000 attendees have pre-registered, roughly two-thirds of the number that normally comes to the expo. **** Snow Leopard Guest Account Bug Deletes User Data AppleInsider Reports of a potentially critical Snow Leopard bug that can erase a user's account data have continued to surface since the operating system's debut. **** Review: Worms For iPhone Tim Mercer, Macworld All in all, Worms is a fun game with a unique charm all its own that suffers from a few unpolished areas. If Team17 fixes these small annoyances and adds an online multi-player mode, Worms would be amazing. As it stands now, the 1.0.1 version of the game is just pretty good. **** Useful Mac Mail Tips David Morgenstern, The Apple Core A recent tip shows how smart Mac Mail???s dynamic Smart Mailbox feature can be. It really can make using Mac Mail more convenient. **** Filtering Foreign E-mail Christopher Breen, Macworld **** The T-Mobile Sidekick Data Failure, And What It Means To iPhone Users Steven Sande, TUAW What the Sidekick incident should point out to anyone using cloud-based services is that they're not fail-proof. These systems are run and administered by human beings, who have a sad record of making poor decisions. Backup, backup, backup. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Seeking Energy Savings At The Heart Of The Internet Kate Galbraith, New York Times Some of the largest opportunities lie in the way data centers are kept cool. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** A History Of Origami Bill Hicok, New Yorker **** Complicity Julian Barnes, New Yorker When I was a hiccupping boy, my mother would fetch the back-door key, pull my collar away from my neck, and slip the cold metal down my back. At the time, I took this to be a normal medical???or maternal???procedure. Only later did I wonder if the cure worked merely by creating a diversion, or whether, perhaps, there was some more clinical explanation, whether one sense could directly affect another. **** From Weymouth Will Eaves, New Yorker **** Pillars Of The Next American Century James Kurth, The American Interest The United States can still be the most prominent???although not dominant???of the great powers, and it can still offer the most attractive way of life. But to do this, America will have to become more American than it has been in recent years. This means it will have to renovate or reinvent certain pillars that raised the United States to the heights of global power and prosperity in the second half of the 20th century. These pillars remain the only solid and enduring supports for a prominent American role in the 21st century, so we need to be clear about what they are. **** The First Book Of Electronics Robert W. Lucky, IEEE Spectrum Can a 95-year-old book still inspire new generations of engineers? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Singapore???s Underworld ??? Turning Sharks Into Nemos Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks The question before policy makers is how to marry the idealism and energy of Singapore's younger generation with the practicality of the real world. One response may be the phased deregulation of Singapore's media sector. **** Battle Cry Of The "We Want Our Luxury Sports Entertainment Product Our Way" People Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu Look, a foreign sports entertainment is a luxury product, no two ways about it. There is nothing essential nor nationalistic of having Singaporeans watch foreign sports clubs competing in a particular foreign sports league. And that's already a damn fine reason for the government not to step in and regulate the broadcast of foreign sports entertainment. What about the inconvenience of having two set-top boxes [http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2009/10/battle-of-paytv-operators.html]? Tough! If you cannot handle that, maybe you are not that much of a fan anywhere. But, on a more serious note, do you really want the government telling how companies should conduct their businesses, or what you, as a customer, can or cannot buy in Singapore? Do you want the government telling Apple that it should license Mac OS X to Acer before they are allowed to sell Macintosh in Singapore? Do you want the government telling F&N that Yeo's can also bottle Coke, before allowing Coke to be sold in Singapore? Do you want the government telling McDonald's that Burger King must also be able to sell Big Macs, before the Golden Arches can set up shops in Singapore? If you don't like Apple computers, you can go buy Acer, HP or Dell. If you don't like F&N, you can drink the same kind of sugar water from Yeo's. And if you don't like how McDonald's run their restaurants, you can go eat burgers at MOS or Botak Jones. Stop running to the government for regulations every time you are inconvenienced or when a certain luxury product is priced beyond your ability to purchase. If you want the government to regulate everything thing, pretty soon you'll just be able to watch a 1.5 hour of "World of Sports Incorporating [insert foreign league name] soccer" every Sunday morning. So the government should sit around and do nothing, you ask? Why, sure! Have a smaller government, and perhaps you don't need to pay that much GST in the first place. What government need to do, on the other hand, is to remove barriers to competitions. If a newcomer can bid high enough to secure another foreign sports entertainment, this newcomer should be able to sell the content to Singaporeans without SingTel or StarHub or MediaCorp or SPH putting unjustified barriers. If SingTel want to subsidize the foreign sports entertainment package by selling broadband internet at a higher price, make sure there are broadband internet companies that can sell at a lower price than SingTel without a need to cross-subsidize. Don't limit what SingTel can or cannot do unnecessary, but make sure SingTel will be penalized in the marketplace if it is selling unreasonably. Don't agree? Feel free to e-mail me [mailto:webmaster at myapplemenu.com]. Or write it up on a blog post and send me the link to your blog post. **** Monetary Policy Unchanged Straits Times The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) kept its loose monetary policy unchanged on Monday, citing uncertainty over the sustainability of the global recovery, although its economy is recovering from its worst recession. **** Singapore Growth Forecast Revised Up Between -2.5% And -2.0% Channel NewsAsia The economic growth forecast for 2009 has been revised upwards to between -2.5% and -2.0%, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said in a news release Monday. It also said the Singapore economy expanded by 0.8% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2009 with growth driven by the biomedical and electronics sector and improvements in the trade-related and tourism sectors of the economy on the back of a gradual stabilisation in global economic conditions. **** Public Housing Affordability: HDB Versus Singaporeans Khalil Adis, The Temasek Review **** ???????????????????????? ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Economy Grows 0.8 Percent In Q3: Government AFP Singapore's economy grew by an estimated 0.8 percent in the three months to September from a year ago, the first such growth in five quarters, the government said Monday. **** Singapore Keeps Monetary Policy Unchanged, Q3 GDP Jumps Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore's central bank kept its loose monetary policy unchanged on Monday, citing uncertainty over the sustainability of its economic recovery or demand for exports and expectations of limited inflation next year. **** Two Singapore Banks Compete With Big Players For ING Assets Costas Paris and P.R. Venkat, Wall Street Journal Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp. is competing with Singaporean rival DBS Group Holdings Ltd. and HSBC Holdings PLC to acquire the Asian private-banking assets of ING Groep NV, and analysts say a possible deal offers good growth prospects for either of the two Singapore banks. **** China National Castigates Singapore Netizens For Being ???Naive??? And ???Insecure??? Over The Zhang Yuanyuan Fiasco The Temasek Review Singapore has no business in helping China nationals improve their English or their marketability. Mr He should realize that there is no free lunch in the world and Singaporeans do not owe him or his fellow countrymen a living. **** A Reply To Mah Bow Tan???s Assertation That Buyers Did Not Get First Flats Because They Have Rejected Them The Temasek Review **** Zero Inflation This Year Straits Times Singapore's inflation is likely to be around zero per cent this year, before rising to one to two per cent in 2010, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore on Monday. **** Unlikely To Keep Strong Pace Straits Times The strong economic rebound in the third quarter is not likely to be sustained as significant challenges remain, said the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Monday. Despite two consecutive quarterly growth in Q2 and Q3, the central bank said the Singapore economy is 'likely to settle at a more gradual pace of expansion.' It also expects GDP growth in 2010 to be slower than in previous post-recession periods. **** ??????????????? ??????????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Exploring Singapore???s City Reefs! The Hantu Bloggers **** 40% Of Cards Not Replaced Straits Times More than 40 per cent of the original ez-link cards issued have not been exchanged for new cards, meant for more purposes than just paying public-transport fees. The Land Transport Authority (LTA) declined to comment on the possible reasons for such a large number of cards remaining unreplaced. But the bulk of these cards are likely to have been cards that were not in active use. **** While Singapore Government Procrastinates, Singapore Runs The Risk Of Serious Tensions Jimmy Mun, Frankly Speaking Most Singaporeans can tolerate the situation... as long as they have a job. If citizen unemployment rises significantly, or if wages fail to keep pace with the costs of living rocketing up due to resource competition with foreigners, I fear the unease with foreigners will turn into full blown irrational anger, and that is not going to do anybody any good. **** Bloggers Must Own Up Gifts Chua Hian Hou, Straits Times Bloggers and users of other new media may soon have to say so upfront if they receive gifts or money for their write-ups. The Media Development Authority (MDA) has said it is looking at stricter disclosure rules. **** MDA Wants Bloggers To Declare Their Income The Temasek Review The real agenda behind the move, however, is probably to deter potential donors from funding and supporting bloggers, especially socio-political blogs with a high readership like ours. Sorry, but I really don't find any evidence of conspiracies behind this announcement by MDA, especially since it came so close after U.S.' FTC doing the same. **** Singapore Will Maintain Policy Of Steady Dollar Channel NewsAsia The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said Monday it would maintain its policy of "zero percent appreciation" for the city's dollar, despite data pointing to a modest recovery from recession. **** Agents Can't Wear Two Hats Jessica Cheam, Straits Times The government is contemplating a move to ban property agents from representing both sellers and buyers of HDB flats -one that has cheered the public and left some agents unhappy. **** Singapore Ventures Into Sub-saharan Africa In A Big Way Bernama Singapore today sent the largest ever delegation of local companies to Sub-Saharan Africa to seek business opportunities in a big way there. Led by minister of state for trade and industry and manpower, Lee Yi Shyan, the 31-company strong delegation comprising 44 representatives, will make its first stop in Nigeria, followed by South Africa and then Ghana. **** SingTel's EPL Win 'Not Profitable', But Ups Ante Liau Yun Qing, ZDNet Asia Local carrier Singapore Telecommunications (SingTel) "will not make a profit" from winning the rights to broadcast the English Premier League (EPL), but it can prove a critical tool to boost subscriber numbers for its mio pay TV service, says analyst. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Oct 13 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 13 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 13, 2009 Message-ID: <20091013225900.27381.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Taught Lazard How Not To Talk About CEO Illness Michael Corkery, Wall Street Journal News that Lazard chief Bruce Wasserstein had been hospitalized for an irregular heartbeat didn???t hurt the investment firm???s shares too much, down just 1% in Monday trading. The lesson? Openess can be healthy. **** Apple "No Refunds" Policy For Better & Worse David Coursey, PC World Apple's "no refunds" policy for iPhone App Store purchase is both not as bad--and worse--than it sounds. **** The iPhone Is Too Cheap Eric Zeman, InformationWeek The $99 iPhone is turning the wireless industry on its head, and not in a good way. It's having an obvious negative affect on AT&T's bottom line, and it's causing some serious pain for other makers of mobile devices. **** FTC Chairman Praises Levinson's Resignation From Google Board Jim Dalrymple, The Loop FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz feels Arthur Levinson made the right decision leaving Google???s Board of Directors. **** Logic Pro 9.0.2 Is Out And Ready For Updating Joachim Bean, TUAW This update provides numerous fixes and enhancements, as well as addressing several issues. **** Prosoft Releases Data Rescue 3 For Mac Hard Drive Recovery Bryan Chaffin, The Mac Observer Prosoft Engineering announced Monday the release of Data Rescue 3, an update to the company's do-it-yourself data recovery solution for the Mac. The new version includes speed improvements, a new interface, a new feature called FileIQ, support for more file types, and more. **** Disney???s Retail Plan Is A Theme Park In Its Stores Brooks Barnes, New York Times The Walt Disney Company, with the help of Steven P. Jobs and his retailing team at Apple, intends to drastically overhaul its approach to the shopping mall. For the first time, Mr. Jobs???s fingerprints can be seen on Disney strategy, in the same way that he influenced the look and feel of Apple???s own immensely popular retail chain. Mr. Jobs provided access to proprietary information about the development and operation of Apple???s highly successful stores, and Disney executives visited Apple???s research operation in Cupertino, Calif. **** First Look: Popcorn 4 Jonathan Seff, Macworld **** Apple: Finding Even More Uses For iTunes Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek It's taken iTunes six years to grow from an upstart digital music store into something more powerful than may have been imagined. The moment may be here to turn it into something even bigger. **** On Paying For iPhone Apps ForkBombr I think the biggest thing that keeps people from dropping a few bucks on a mobile app is that it doesn???t feel like a real app. iPhone apps are usually one trick ponies, while desktop apps are usually more complicated. That, paired with the fact that people don???t view their phones as computers, mean some people don???t view mobile apps as worth anything, while computer programs are worth some money. **** MobileMe Mixup: Address Book Snafu Exposes Personal Data To Strangers? Erica Sadun, TUAW Under certain very specific conditions, Apple is inadvertently sharing data from other people's accounts. **** Don???t Want To Pay $10,000 To Have An iTunes LP Version Of Your Album? Make Your Own Devin Coldewey, CrunchGear It turns out anyone versed in a little HTML and Javascript can put together an LP that???s just as good as a ???real??? one. The question is, will Apple take positive measures to lock out third party ITLP files? **** Review: CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac Pro 8 John Brandon, Macworld Program that lets you run Windows apps on your Mac adds support for Office 2007, Quicken 2009. **** Microsoft Extends Support Period For Office For Mac 2004 Aulia Masna, Macworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Collider, The Particle And A Theory About Fate Dennis Overbye, New York Times More than a year after an explosion of sparks, soot and frigid helium shut it down, the world???s biggest and most expensive physics experiment, known as the Large Hadron Collider, is poised to start up again. In December, if all goes well, protons will start smashing together in an underground racetrack outside Geneva in a search for forces and particles that reigned during the first trillionth of a second of the Big Bang. Then it will be time to test one of the most bizarre and revolutionary theories in science. I???m not talking about extra dimensions of space-time, dark matter or even black holes that eat the Earth. No, I???m talking about the notion that the troubled collider is being sabotaged by its own future. A pair of otherwise distinguished physicists have suggested that the hypothesized Higgs boson, which physicists hope to produce with the collider, might be so abhorrent to nature that its creation would ripple backward through time and stop the collider before it could make one, like a time traveler who goes back in time to kill his grandfather. **** You've Got Mail Lizzie Widdicombe, New Yorker The thinking goes like this: It???s perfectly legal for Halderman to write, or threaten to write, a screenplay (or an e-mail to TMZ) exposing the fact that David Letterman had flings with ???Late Show??? employees. It???s also legal for Halderman to ask Letterman for money as part of a business transaction. So why are the two things illegal when you put them together? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Despite The Green Shoots, Concerns About Economy Still Reign Leong Wee Keat, Today Singapore may have reported its first year-on-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth in five quarters yesterday - but if your first instinct is to demand a restoration of pay cuts or salary increments, the advice from economists and employers is to keep that in check. Well, at least for another six months. **** Indonesia To Help Secure APEC Summit In Singapore ANTARA News Indonesia will help secure the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Forum (APEC) summit to be held in Singapore next month, National Police Chief General Bambang Hendarso Danuri said here on Monday. Indonesia had been asked to help secure border regions while the summit is in progress, he said when visiting the Riau Islands regional police command. **** Third-Rate Television For A Third-World Country Yawning Bread The crisis in local television is a harbinger of the crisis that Singapore as a whole will soon face. In a nutshell, it's an inability to compete in a world of ideas. Censorship and authoritarian politics are the root causes. While occasionally a direct connection can be made, the truly damaging effects are indirect. That is to say, even if censorship is lifted tomorrow, it will still take a long time to overcome the effects. **** Third Of RBS Coutts Singapore Staff Quit Christopher Johnson, Reuters A third of the staff of the Singapore office of RBS Coutts, a private bank that is part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group (RBS), have quit in a mass resignation, the bank said on Tuesday. **** ????????????????????? ??????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????86????????? **** Paradise Home, But Nowhere To Buy Groceries Tay Shi'an, New Paper **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ??????????????? **** ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????, ????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Government In Denial Mode Over Reach Of ???Reinvented??? Portal The Temasek Review **** ???????????????????????????????????? ??????????????? ??????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Budget 2010 To Help Firms Grow Straits Times Next year's budget will provide new and enhanced programmes to support companies' efforts to grow, innovate and compete based on higher productivity, said prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. **** ?????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Who Should HDB Work With For Lift Upgrading Program Urbanrant The letter is a clear indication to the extent for which the civil service believes it is an instrument of the ruling party. The lack of a regular 'check' of the systems causes the system to be rigid and non-responsive. **** Staying Vocal For Umno's Sake Malaysia Star The Johor bridge project is still an issue. Is the bridge so important to Dr Mahathir because it will boost the economy or is it because it is part of his vision? ???It???s not about my vision. There is this perception that the Government is afraid of Singapore, that it does not want to build it because Singapore is against it.??? **** Singapore To Extend Wage Subsidy Program To Curb Job Losses Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore will extend a wage subsidy program for employers set to expire this year to avoid an increase in job losses that may derail the city-state???s economic recovery, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said. **** Singapore: India's Latest 'Round-Trip' Destination RN Bhaskar, Forbes India How Singapore became the most attractive route for the flow of money in and out of India. **** Singapore???s Age Limits Mathia Lee, Plans and Preoccupations **** Singapore's M1 To Offer iPhones AFP Singapore's MobileOne Ltd (M1) said Tuesday it has reached an agreement with US computing giant Apple to sell the iconic iPhone to customers later this year. However, the telecommunications firm said that information on pricing, tariffs and availability dates will be released later. **** Zahari's 17 Years Remains Banned : MICA Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans "The prohibition stands as the film gives a distorted and misleading portrayal of Said Zahari's arrest and detention under the Internal Security Act (ISA) and is an attempt to exculpate him from his past involvement in communist united front activities against the interests of Singapore. The film was assessed in its entirety, and every part of the film should be taken in the context of the entire film which presents a distorted portrayal of Said Zahari's arrest and detention under the ISA." **** HDB's Sale Of Balance Flats Nearly Nine Times Oversubscribed Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia The Housing & Development Board (HDB) has seen strong demand for the 2,100 flats being offered under its "Sale of Balance Flats" exercise. The HDB received more than 19,000 applications, just a day before the exercise closes, which means that the flats are nearly nine times oversubscribed. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Oct 14 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 14 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 14, 2009 Message-ID: <20091014225901.43367.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple's iPhone Will Be Available From Every UK Mobile Operator Rupert Neate, The Telegraph 3 and T-Mobile are scouring Europe for contract-free Apple iPhones they can offer to British customers threatening to leave for rival networks which hold official rights to the iPhone. The radical plans risk invoking the wrath of Apple, which tightly controls the sale of the iPhone in the UK. **** 10 Ways For Apple's Mac OS X To Capitalize On Windows 7 Don Reisinger, eWeek There are at least 10 good reasons why Apple shouldn't fear the release of Microsoft's Windows 7 operating system. In fact, the release of Windows 7 on Oct. 22 could well prove to be a golden opportunity for Apple to win more converts to Mac computers and Mac OS X, if the recent history of Windows releases is any guide. Factors such as more imaginative marketing and superior security could help Apple make deeper inroads against Microsoft's desktop dominance. **** Trillian IM: Apple's Sitting On Our iPhone App Jessica Dolcourt, CNET News According to Trillian maker Cerulean Studios, Apple has been sitting on Trillian's submission for the last two months without a peep to indicate a problem with the app's content or the quality. **** The Best Free Open Source Software For Mac OS X Peter Wayner, InfoWorld There are thousands of open source tools available for the Mac, some built for the Mac alone and others that are translations of software created for other operating systems. Some are aimed at a niche of programmers or scientists, but a good number are supremely useful tools for everyone. **** Inside Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server: Apple's Server Strategy AppleInsider Apple's ability to successfully tame Unix, something it largely inherited from Steve Jobs' NeXT and the years and tens of millions that went into creating what would eventually become Mac OS X at Apple, seemingly should have resulted in tremendous success for Mac OS X Server as well. But that never really happened. **** IM+ Updated With Speech Recognition And Controversial New Icon Tyler Tschida, App Advice The long-awaited update contains a handful of new and interesting features, including speech recognition, but surprisingly it???s the new icon that???s causing a bit of a stir. **** China Eager To Hack Apple's iPhone To Restore Wifi Function Glen Loveland, Examiner.com Despite the Chinese version of the iPhone not coming equipped with WiFi access, many residents said they were confident that they could restore the service on the phones by performing their own ???repairs.??? **** Adobe Fixes 29 Flaws In Acrobat, Reader SearchSecurity.com Adobe Systems Inc. issued an update Tuesday, repairing nearly 30 flaws identified as critical, as part of its quarterly update. Adobe warned that one flaw is being actively targeted by attackers. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Bringing Tech Jobs To Third World Refugees Daniel Terdiman, CNET News Workers stuck in the world's largest refugee camp are being given a chance to wield a mouse and keyboard as tools for digging their way out of poverty, and in the process, are helping out a series of small American companies looking to be more profitable. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Lost Pleasure Of Browsing Charles Rosen, The New York Review of Books I realize that mail order shopping has been going on for a long time, but have always thought that this destroys one of the pleasures of civilized life. **** "Goose Flesh" Tim Liardet, Slate Magazine **** When The Icing On The Cake Spells Disaster David Hochman, New York Times Someone who decorates cakes for a living should possess certain skills. Spelling is an important one. For example, success is not quite as sweet when the inscription reads, ???Contralulation???s Ronan.??? An eye for color helps, too. Piped dark brown swirls are never a good idea on a cake dotted with plastic farm animals. Finally, a few words about customer service: When someone requests that nothing be written on the cake, ???NOTHING??? should not be written on the cake. **** So You Think You Know Pasta Rachel Donadio, New York Times In its 300-odd pages, the ???Encyclopedia of Pasta??? ranges from abbotta pezziende, a short pasta that means ???feed the beggar??? in Abruzzo dialect, to the zumari of Puglia, a long pasta traditionally added to vegetable soups. In between there are the corzetti of Liguria and Piedmont, the little stamped-out coins; pi fasacc of Lombardy, which look like little babies in a papoose; avemarie, which cook for as long as it takes to say a Hail Mary; and several dozen variations on macaroni and ravioli. **** Are We Now Post Sci-Fi? Damien G Walter, Guardian With sci-fi filling up every corner of cinema and TV and mainstream literature borrowing its ideas freely, where next for the literary tradition that started the cultural phenomenon? **** Wall Street Smarts Calvin Trillin, New York Times ???If you really want to know why the financial system nearly collapsed in the fall of 2008, I can tell you in one simple sentence.??? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Mah To Low: Stay Within Your Sandbox Gerald Giam, geraldgiam.sg If town councils are expected to fork out 5% of the LUP costs, don???t they deserve a say in the upgrading? This is taxation without representation. It is nothing short of political gymnastics to say LUP is only possible because of budget surpluses. Why don???t they say road maintenance, MRT lines or government polyclinics in Hougang are possible only because of budget surpluses? **** Getting A Reply Is Not As EZ As Suggested How Peng Soon, Straits Times >From its customer database records, EZ-Link must have known the number of old ez-link cards that were linked for the auto Giro top-up (EZ-Reload). It could have worked out the necessary lead time needed to seamlessly handle the card replacement exercise. **** Smart Cards Not Used Tan Weizhen & Tessa Wong, Straits Times Millions of contactless cards have been sold in Singapore but retailers are slow to offer consumers the option of paying for goods with them. **** HDB: 5 X $2 = $10, After All Thong Keng Wai, HDB, Today Our parking enforcement service provider incorrectly issued a summons to him. We have reminded our service providers to adhere strictly to our guidelines. **** Not A Free For All Cheng Shoong Tat, Today It is the duty of the regulator, in this case the Housing and Development Board, to assign permitted land uses and plot ratios to plots of land, in the overall interests of estate and community development. Within those parameters, market forces work to allot plots to those who can make the most productive use of them. **** It Wasn???t Just Chee Soon??Juan Lin Junjie, The Enquirer As dramatic as the censorship of Chee???s visit was, it was definitely not the first time an article had to be edited or played down to avoid offending the powers that be, or in extremely rare cases such as the Chee saga, removed entirely. Chee???s visit was however the only time in recent history that the president of the university???and the publisher of the paper by virtue of its funding???had intervened to order a removal of an article. **** We Must Fight The PAP On All Fronts Chee Soon Juan, Singapore Democrats Fighting elections on the PAP's terms without doing anything else is to launch a direct frontal assault ??? and only a direct frontal assault. The PAP simply lays all the booby traps and landmines, fortifies its position and then signals for the opposition to charge. **** Singapore???s Doctors As Big Brother: Electronic Health Records Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks Are the existing methods sufficient for a constantly evolving online environment? It may be time to review personal privacy laws to ensure that the penalties associated with the unauthorized distribution and use of personal data is severely punished. **** Banking Resignations Shows Confidence Returning Recruiter **** Singapore Sticky-Tack Arrests Could Result In Deportation, Torture Charlotte Cuthbertson & Matthew Robertso, The Epoch Times Facing deportation to China and possible torture, Falun Gong practitioners in Singapore are calling for international support in a case which has seen five arrested for putting up posters with Sticky Tack in a park. **** An Apartment Complex Teeters Lingling Wei and Craig Karmin, Wall Street Journal **** S'pore Playing To Win And Next 2 Years Will Not Be Any Less Challenging: NTUC S.Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's labour movement is playing to win and the next two years will not be any less challenging. That's the view of the labour movement's chief Lim Swee Say who has called on workers and employers to play their part in making the economy and workforce cheaper, better and faster. **** Worksite Deaths Up Jermyn Chow, Straits Times More workers died or were disabled on their jobs in the first six months of this year, despite efforts by government safety officials and companies to make worksites less dangerous. **** Singapore Sept Container Traffic Falls 5.8 Pct From Aug Neil Chatterjee, Reuters Singapore port terminals handled 5.8 percent fewer containers in September than in August, a downturn after two months of rises, and traffic was 16 percent lower than a year earlier, government data showed. **** ?????????????????????????????? ????????????????????????????????? ??????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1981?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1987??????2007?????????????????????280???????????? **** What Makes Singapore's Changi Airport So Charming? Harriet Baskas, USA Today On a visit to Singapore earlier this month, I asked most everyone I met to tell me what they liked most about their island city-state. Locals sang the praises of the Lion City's food, its culture, its cleanliness and its safety. And more often than not, they told me how much they loved their airport. Yes, their airport. Not something you're likely to hear from anyone living in Chicago, Detroit or New York City. But it seems most citizens of Singapore are sweet on Changi Airport. Given how often Changi lands on top of (or near the top of) surveys ranking airport shopping, dining, cleanliness and leisure activities, so too is the rest of the world. So I decided to set aside an afternoon to find out what makes Changi so charming. **** HDB Flats In Hot Demand Jessica Cheam, Straits Times As an indication of the red hot demand for public flats, the Housing Board (HDB) was swamped with 20,691 applications for its biggest sales exercise - 2,132 flats - in recent times on its closing day. **** A Rebuttal To MND: Why Mah Bow Tan Is Wrong On Upgrading The Temasek Review **** Ban On Ex-detainee Film Stays Zakir Hussain, Straits Times The ban stays because the film gives a 'distorted and misleading portrayal' of his arrest and detention under the Internal Security Act, said the press secretary of Mica's acting minister Lui Tuck Yew. **** 75-year-old Grandma Is Singapore's Oldest Living Organ Donor Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia A 75-year-old grandmother has become Singapore's oldest living organ donor. Madam Chee Leng Yin donated one of her kidneys to save her seriously-ill daughter. **** In Singapore, Shopping For A Hospital Simon Kearney, Christian Science Monitor Shopping is a national pastime in this wealthy city-state and a bit of the retail culture is helping the government hold down hospital costs ??? at a time when much of the world is searching for an antidote to rampant healthcare spending. One of Singapore's secrets: compulsory publication of the cost of hospital procedures. It has turned having a hip replacement into something similar to buying a pair of shoes. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Oct 15 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 15 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 15, 2009 Message-ID: <20091015225900.92221.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** UrbanSpoon Makes It Easier To 'Scope' Out Restaurants Jenna Wortham, New York Times UrbanSpoon, one of the most popular apps for the iPhone from Apple, is the latest to make use of augmented reality, a feature that superimposes data or information over the live feed from the phone???s camera. **** Why Do Apple And Nike Support Climate Change Legislation? Matthew Bandyk, US News And World Report >From the standpoint of a long-term branding strategy, it seems reasonable to me that Apple and Nike would each make the calculation that shoring up their reputation with green and "progressive" customers will help their sales more. That makes a lot more sense if you view climate change legislation as an inevitability. **** Apple Renders iPhone Jailbreak Exploit Useless Nathan Eddy, eWeek The Apple iPhone jailbreak exploit 24kPwn is no longer working after Apple updates its bootram file. **** Why Mac Open Source Gets No Respect Dana Blankenhorn, ZDNet For a system evolved from a BSD Unix the Mac OS does not get much respect from the open source community. **** Surprise: Apple Sells To The Federal Government John Martellaro, The Mac Observer Apple's three biggest federal customers are NASA, the Department of Energy, and the National Institutes of Health. **** Mac OS X "Performance" Update Prevents Hard-Drive Stalls MacNN Apple on Wednesday released performance updates for both its Leopard and Snow Leopard operating systems. The downloads address intermittent stalls caused by hard drives, an issue reported by a a small number of users. **** Apple, Nike And The U.S. Chamber Wall Street Journal If companies are going to dump the Chamber over a single dispute, then the overall influence of business in Washington is likely to decline. The Chamber's job isn't to favor one company's agenda over another but to stand broadly for free trade, low taxes and limited regulation???principles that help U.S. business as a whole. **** Apple And The Lost Data Syndrome Gene Steinberg, TechNightOwl **** Beyond iTunes: Streaming Music Services Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Mac Sales 'Defy All Logic,' Says Analyst Gregg Keizer, Computerworld **** Review: Toon Boom Studio 5 Dan Ablan, Macworld At first glance, Toon Boom Studio 5 looks like a simple, almost kid-like program. But don???t be fooled. The new stop-motion feature, annotation layers, and new export functions make this not just a fun program to use, but one rich in sophisticated features that any creative artist would want as part of their digital toolset. **** AT&T Bursts The iPhone Tethering Bubble; Not Until 2010 Jason D. O'Grady, The Apple Core **** Review: Logic Express 9 Christopher Breen, Macworld Logic Express 9 is a tremendous value for musicians seeking a tool more powerful and musical than GarageBand. But with that power comes complexity. While Apple has done much to tame the beast that was Logic, some users will still find its advanced features confounding (and hard to locate). Work through the application???s challenges, however, and you???ll receive many harmonious rewards. **** Switch Between App Windows In Different Spaces Rob Griffiths, Macworld Here???s a really simple Spaces tip that works in both OS X 10.5 and 10.6. As best as I can tell, this isn???t documented anywhere in the help files. If you use windows from the same application in multiple Spaces (for instance, three Safari windows in three separate Spaces), switching between them can be done in a number of ways. **** Curio 6.1 Gets Even More Creative And Productive Brett Terpstra, TUAW **** Confused About iTunes Home Sharing? Ted Landau, The Mac Observer **** Apple Allows In App Purchases For Free App Store Software AppleInsider Apple has announced that developers who offer free App Store applications can now take advantage of in-app transactions -- a feature that was previously allowed only for paid software. **** Apple Gets Best Spot In EU Browser Ballot Screen, Mozilla Says Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Mozilla again slammed the browser ???ballot screen??? proposal that Microsoft???s made to European antitrust regulators, saying that the voting will be skewed Apple???s way because its Safari browser will be the first choice on the list. Time to rename yourself as AAA Browser Company, eh? The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Wi-Fi Alliance Announces Wi-Fi Direct Spec Jason Cross, PC World The Wi-Fi Alliance, that governing body that argues for years about, eventually ratifies, and certifies official Wi-Fi specification, is about to make the peer-to-peer connected world a bit easier. **** Libraries And Readers Wade Into Digital Lending Motoko Rich, New York Times Eager to attract digitally savvy patrons and capitalize on the growing popularity of electronic readers, public libraries across the country are expanding collections of books that reside on servers rather than shelves. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Against Transparency Lawrence Lessig, The New Republic How could anyone be against transparency? Its virtues and its utilities seem so crushingly obvious. But I have increasingly come to worry that there is an error at the core of this unquestioned goodness. We are not thinking critically enough about where and when transparency works, and where and when it may lead to confusion, or to worse. And I fear that the inevitable success of this movement--if pursued alone, without any sensitivity to the full complexity of the idea of perfect openness--will inspire not reform, but disgust. **** Ghost Writers Alexandra Alter, Wall Street Journal A new wave of posthumous books by iconic authors is stirring debate over how publishers should handle fragmentary literary remains. **** The Truth About Boys, Girls, Zombies, Vampires And Sex Charlie Higson, Guardian Our current preoccupation with zombies and vampires is easy to explain. They're two sides of the same coin, addressing our fascination with sex, death and food. They're both undead, they both feed on us, they both pass on some kind of plague and they can both be killed with specialist techniques ??? a stake through the heart or a disembraining. But they seem to have become polarised. Vampires are the undead of choice for girls, and zombies for boys. Vampires are cool, aloof, beautiful, brooding creatures of the night. Typical moody teenage boys, basically. Zombies are dumb, brutal, ugly and mindlessly violent. Which makes them also like typical teenage boys, I suppose. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Haze Pact Should Be Ratified Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times Indonesia needs to ratify a seven-year-old regional haze agreement to prove its commitment in tackling climate change, a top United Nations official said at a conference in Singapore on Wednesday. **** Inflation Not Expected To Be A Threat For Years Into Recovery Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia Inflation is unlikely to pose a threat to the budding global recovery as it is expected to remain low for at least the next few years. And so, some analysts said, interest rates will remain depressed across Western economies. **** The Disappearing Wet Market Tng Ying Hui, The Online Citizen It is necessary to upgrade wet markets to improve hygiene, but to wipe it out from the face of Singapore portends means that we would lose something dear to our hearts, raising a generation further adrift from their roots. **** New Information Minister Disappoints Gerald Giam Contrary to what MICA accused Zahari of doing, I did not think the film gave any ???distorted portrayal???. The entire film consisted of Zahari talking into the camera, with Martyn See occasionally asking questions in the background. There were no animations, slick edits, or emotional scenes. I can???t see how a testimony of one person talking about himself could be a ???distorted portrayal???. **** Young PAP Member Guises Human Rights As Western Imperialism And Praises Chinese Communist Premier Seelan Palay **** More Cases In And Around S'pore ... Zul Othman, Today Even though sea pirates are stepping up their activities in the straits of Malacca and Singapore, this "is a modest concern", according to Australia's Inspector of Transport Security. This is because the governments of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia have done well in keeping the number of piracy cases low, Mr Mick Palmer told reporters at a press conference on the sidelines of Interpol's 78th general assembly held here yesterday. **** Singapore - The Last Bastion Of Irrational Exuberance? Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks Will someone please educate Singapore's private bankers about the lessons learnt from the global banking crisis? **** Innovative Asia Fights A Downturn Sonia Kolesnikov-Jessop, New York Times Times may be hard in the contemporary art market, but Asian auction houses are fighting the downturn with energy and innovation. Far from pulling back, new players are joining the fray. **** ?????????????????????????????? ?????????0416 ??????????????????6?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ???????????????????????? ????????? ??????????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Retail Sales Post Smallest Decline In Eight Months Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore???s retail sales dropped the least in eight months in August as the city state???s economic recovery spurred an improvement in spending at supermarkets and department stores. **** Singapore's OCBC Buys ING's Asian Private Banking Business Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) Thursday announced the purchase of Dutch lender ING's Asian private banking business for 1.46 billion US dollars. **** PTC Saw Improvements In Public Bus Operators' Quality Standards Channel NewsAsia The Public Transport Council (PTC) said both SBS Transit and SMRT Buses have complied with the standards on service provision and scheduled trips operated. **** Self-styled Mediums Thrive In Modern Singapore Philip Lim, AFP In affluent and technologically advanced Singapore, belief in spirituality persists and traditional religious practices are considered essential to good luck and prosperity, whether it involves health, love, a job or the lottery. **** WP Rebuts Ministry???s Reply On Lift Upgrading Sylvia Lim, The Workers' Party of Singapore **** Bus Operators Fined Again Maria Almenoar, Straits Times SBS Transit was fined $500 - less than its fine of $4,500 in the last review - for having overcrowded buses on five occasions. SMRT was also fined $200 - up from its $100 in the last review - for not meeting the scheduled headway standards on one occasion and having over crowded buses on another. **** Corporatization Of Wet Markets.... Diary of A Singaporean Mind While corporatization very often is beneficial because it introduces economy of scale and efficiency, in many cases it merely converts income of small scale independent businesses into profits of large corporations without benefit to the consumers. **** Former ISD Chief Requests A Correction In ???Men In White??? Book Neo Chai Chin, Channel NewsAsia Former Internal Security Department (ISD) chief Yoong Siew Wah has requested a correction with regards to an "unflattering mention" of him in the book "Men In White", which chronicles the untold stories of the ruling People's Action Party (PAP). The book's publisher, the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has agreed to the request. **** No More Pay Cuts At 60 Sue-Ann Chia, Straits Times It is time to review the practice, said labour chief Lim Swee Say, because most companies have moved away from a seniority-based wage system where salaries are determined more by length of service rather than performance. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Oct 16 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 16 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 16, 2009 Message-ID: <20091016225900.97906.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Snow Leopard Is Location-Aware Brady Forrest, O'Reilly Media Shortly after installing Snow Leopard I saw the first evidence of the new location services built into the operating system. I got the new version of Clarke, a Fire Eagle updater. After the install a window appeared that asked me if I wanted to share my location with an application. Finally! **** iPhone Fever Probably Won't Spread In China David Pierson, Los Angeles Times Apple will officially launch its handset here this month, but it's unlikely to spur zealotry. That's because the device has long been imported as well as pirated -- and has to vie with the OPhone. **** Apple's iPhoto Makes It Way Too Easy To Delete Your Entire Flickr Library Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch Apple has long been associated with the saying ???it just works???. Well, sometimes it apparently works a little too well, to the point of allowing users to delete their entire Flickr libraries in one fell swoop without really meaning to. Oops. **** iPhone App Helps You Keep Track Of Your Favorite Zoo Animal Houston Chronicle At the Houston Zoo, anyone with an iPhone or iPod Touch can log onto a new application for a hand-held guide from the meerkats to Toby the red panda. It even offers a real-time, GPS-guided map to the nearest restrooms, handy when nature calls the human cubs that roam the zoo. **** Augmented-Reality Apps Continute To Roll Out Azadeh Ensha, New York Times **** Free Apps Turn Your iPhone Into A Multipurpose Tool Kim Komando, USA Today **** The In-App Purchase Shakeup Begins: Boxcar Goes Free! MG Siegler, TechCrunch **** App Store Lessons: Picking An Application Name Erica Sadun, TUAW So what's a developer to do? It seems like the only way to vet an application (let alone an application name) is to submit it and see whether Apple rejects it or not. If the name is used in the application art, you might have to redesign your screens. If the application idea is not okay, you might end up throwing away all your development costs because Apple would not give a preapproval before starting serious development. **** Aqua Data Studio 8.0 Adds Support For Six More Databases MacNN The software is geared toward visualizing and working with multiple relational databases in a single view. **** Analysts Enraged At Apple For Not Obeying Their Predictions IT World **** Review: Mac OS X 10.6 Server John C. Welch, Macworld With the significant price cut, new features, and improvements to existing features, Mac OS X 10.6 Server is a solid product. For an all or mostly-Mac network, this isn???t an if upgrade, but a when, especially if you have iPhone users clamoring for push services. **** If These Ten Apps Don???t Convince You To Jailbreak Your iPhone, Nothing Will Tim Cox, Cult of Mac Through Cydia, you can download and install each item below and add new functionality and usefulness to your iPhone. I give you the Top Ten Must Have iPhone Jailbreak Apps. **** iPhone Apps Enable 'Supercomputer-Class' Image Rendering John Cox, Macworld University of Utah researchers and programmers are creating an iPhone application that will let users edit massive image files containing hundreds of gigabytes of data. When you get bored with that, you can use another of their recently released applications to virtually dissect a real human corpse. **** AT&T Still Riding High With iPhone MarketWatch AT&T and Verizon Communications Inc., its main competitor, have largely weather a poor economy because of their sheer size and big lead over rivals in the wireless business. AT&T in particular has benefited greatly from its exclusive rights to sell the Apple iPhone. **** Arranging Your iPhone Apps Is A Waste Of Time Giles Turnbull, Cult of Mac I spent time carefully arranging my apps into genre-specific screens like this, and found within days that installing new apps ruined the effect. What I realized was, once you???ve started arranging your apps, you???re tied into constantly maintaining that arrangement. **** Bugs & Fixes: Solving Safari Cookie Problems Ted Landau, Macworld **** Kung Fu Panda: The Game Michael Wuerthele, Inside Mac Games Kung Fu Panda is a good game that displays console roots at every turn. Keyboard and mouse controls are functional, but plainly some sort of gamepad is what???s intended for the controls of the game. Credit goes to whomever set the price for the game, as it was released a year after the movie and the tie-in games for just about every other platform in the world were shipped. As Mac users, we???re accustomed to delayed releases, but it still isn???t optimal. Kung Fu Panda defeats all expectations of ports and movie games with a body splash attack, but I???m afraid that even with the aggressive pricing for a new release game, the release is too little too late. **** A Windows Disadvantage They Don't Talk About! Gene Steinberg, TechNightOwl What???s strange about the particular shortcoming I???m about to discuss is that Apple solved the problem with the very first Mac in 1984, and Microsoft clearly isn???t paying attention, despite spending tens of billions of dollars to make Windows into a reasonably stable, productive operating system. I???m talking about mouse tracking! MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Non-Tragedy Of The Commons John Tierney, New York Times The 2009 Nobel Prize for economics is a useful reminder of how easy it is for scientists to go wrong, especially when their mistake jibes with popular beliefs or political agendas. **** Let's Get Those Phones Ringing! June Thomas, Slate Magazine The cunning genius of the public radio fundraising drive. **** La Negra Blanca Roxane Gay, The Collagist SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Men In White: Ex-CPIB Head Baffled By Account Yoong Siew Wah, Straits Times Do you think that a little note of correction in your newspaper is in order to preserve my reputation? **** Lim Swee Say : Cheaper, Better, Faster (CBF).... Diary of A Singaporean Mind Unless the cost of living is low, workers cannot afford to suppliers of cheap labor. Lim Swee Say doesn't come cheap and as labor chief he cannot expect Singapore workers to be cheap. **** China National Fights Back Today In Singapore That???s the norm at Abu Ghraib. **** Thumbs Up For Abolishing This Age-discrimination Practice Urban Rant Given the Singapore government's pro-business stance, and its willingness to use a blunt tool to 'protect' jobs, this indeed a welcome reprieve. **** Intellectual Dishonesty: SPH Did Not Reveal Source Of 1986 Report In The Yoong Siew Wah Fiasco The Temasek Review In the editors??? note they inserted below Mr Yoong???s letter in the Straits Times Forum, the authors claimd that what they wrote in the book was based on newspaper reports in 1986, which said that Yoong had been boarded out as a result of the incident with Mr Seow. Who wrote the report? And what is it based on? These lingering questions were not addressed by SPH. **** MDA Seizes Opportunity To Stifle Dissent Online The Secret Political Blog Regardless, it is too early to say whether the actual policy will restrict free speech on the internet, but it is certainly not to point out how all these contributes to an atmosphere of repression. **** Proposed Amendments To Present HDB Policy To Increase Affordability Of Public Housing In Singapore The Temasek Review The ball is in the government???s court to ensure that HDB stay true to its original mission and vision of providing quality and cheap public housing to every Singapore citizen which is not merely affordable, but easily affordable such that the people do not have to deplete their CPF accounts in order to finance the astronomical 30-year mortage loans and will have adequate disposable income to enjoy a standard of living commensurate with a first world country besides saving enough to meet one retirement needs. **** Singapore Key Exports Tumble In September: Govt AFP Singapore's key exports fell for the 17th consecutive month in September as demand from crucial markets including the US and European Union continued to decline, data released Friday showed. **** Malaysia Promotes Lesser Known Attractions To Singaporeans Bernama Malaysia is promoting lesser known places of interest to Singaporeans, according to Tourism Malaysia Director-General, Datuk Mirza Mohammad Taiyab. He said as Singaporeans are frequent visitors, Malaysia needed to offer fresh, all-year round attractions, to ensure their stay was fun and worthwhile as well as to keep them coming. **** No Sign Of Recovery For Singapore Airlines Ben Sandilands, Crikey **** Parliament Will Debate Questions Over EPL Rights, Standards Of Local Pageants Channel NewsAsia Questions over the rights to air the English Premier League (EPL) as well as other sports channels will be raised when Parliament sits on Monday. **** 200,000 Members Married Straits Times **** Singapore Economy ???Recovering??? Because It???s Getting Worse At Slower Rate Temasek Hedge From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Oct 17 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 17 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 17, 2009 Message-ID: <20091017225900.78474.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Protect Yourself From Adobe Acrobat And Reader Vulnerabilities Rich Mogull, TidBITS **** See Which Processes Are Using The Internet Rob Griffiths, Macworld If you???ve ever wondered about which programs are using your Internet connection at any point in time, here???s one way to find out using Terminal. **** Review: iPhone Halloween Apps Lex Friedman, Macworld There???s some treats to be found this Halloween at the App Store. **** Is iPhone Bad For The Videogame Industry? Matt Casamassina, IGN More than a 85,000 apps -- many of them games for a buck. Why that should have some publishers scared. **** Welcome To The University Of iTunes Mark Tutton, CNN The wisdom of business professors, once only available to MBAs and business students, can now be accessed by anybody with an Internet connection. **** iPhone Supply Issues Dulling Apple's Shine? John Paczkowski, Wall Street Journal Overwhelming demand for the iPhone has made it hard for Apple to keep the device in stock globally, so much so that some observers wonder if the company???s fourth-quarter earnings might be a slight disappointment. **** Broadcast Nets Ramp Up iPhone Efforts Mike Shields, Mediaweek The broadcast networks are dialing up their collective presence on the iPhone. **** Free iPhone Apps Are The Future Alan Warms, Business Insider With yesterday???s announcement, every company out there can offer a free iPhone App, thereby reducing the friction of driving adoption, knowing that over time they can work with their consumers to find offers that make sense for both parties. **** EyeTV App Removed From The App Store Over Streaming Workaround Joachim Bean, TUAW Just shortly after the discovery of an 3G "backdoor" for the EyeTV app, it has been pulled from the App Store. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Coffee, Tea, Then Equality Amy Bloom, New York Times Gail Collins???s smart, thorough, often droll and extremely readable account of women???s recent history in America not only answers this question brilliantly, but also poses new ones about the past and the present, as she explicates moments that were widely recorded and illuminates scenes that were barely remarked upon at the time. **** 1989! Timothy Garton Ash, The New York Review Of Books Unsurprisingly, the twentieth anniversary of 1989 has added to an already groaning shelf of books on the year that ended the short twentieth century. If we extend "1989" to include the unification of Germany and disunification of the Soviet Union in 1990???1991, we should more accurately say the three years that ended the century. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** AGC Stops Swim Club Cases Straits Times The Attorney-General's Chambers (AGC) sent a clear signal yesterday that taking someone to court for criminal defamation is not an action to be taken lightly. In a highly unusual move, it stepped in to end a series of private prosecutions taken by and against Singapore Swimming Club members for criminal defamation. **** Lift Upgrading: We Will Agree To Disagree Lim Yuin Chien, Press Secretary To The Minister For National Development , Straits Times We do not expect the Workers' Party to accept these basic facts, and we will agree to disagree. In the final analysis, the people of Singapore will decide. In the meantime, the interests of Hougang residents are best served by concrete actions, not words. **** All's Well That Ends Well Singapore Recalcitrant **** Govt Concedes Argument With WP And Singaporeans Gerald Giam I can???t see how the PAP advisers, being volunteers (I hope!) and not under the government payroll are ???answerable??? to the government. **** Singapore???s Culinary Melting Pot Gisela Williams, New York Times A small group of chefs is reinventing the city???s traditional food culture, finding a balancing point between the city???s cheap but hard to navigate street food and the expensive white-tablecloth spots. **** Singapore's Hidden Heartland Ben Bland, Far Eastern Economic Review Welcome to Singapore's last remaining slice of rural life: the Kranji countryside. The Southeast Asian city-state may be better known for its banks, shopping malls and sprawling public housing estates but here, in the northwestern corner of the island, Singapore's hardy farmers struggle on, producing 18,000 tons of vegetables, 47 million chickens, millions of eggs and 5,000 tons of fish each year. **** Liu Guodong Denies Reaching An ???amicable??? Solution With STTA The Temasek Review The former coach of the Singapore Table Tennis team Liu Guodong had categorically denied reached an ???amicable??? solution with the STTA over the latest fiasco started by its president and PAP MP Lee Bee Wah. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Oct 18 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 18 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 18, 2009 Message-ID: <20091018225900.44015.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Behind The Cover Of An iTunes LP Scott McNulty, Macworld **** Devs Quickly Move To New Models After In-app Purchase Change Mike Schramm, TUAW **** All Eyes On Apple's Earnings Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune What's Wall Street expecting this quarter? The analysts we polled are all over the lot. **** The iPhone App Economy: What Price Quality? Harry McCracken, Technologizer **** Flash To iPhone Veronique Brossier , Inside RIA This article will explain some of the engineering behind the magic of an ActionScript project appearing on your desktop as an ipa. It will describe how what has changed under the hood affects your source code. It will go over some best practices to develop for devices with small CPUs such as the iPhone and other smartPhones. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Transfer To: Lets You Transfer Mobile Phone Credit To Relatives Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Long Shadow Of Willie Horton Michael Blanding, Boston Globe More than two decades ago, a governor showed a prisoner leniency, with horrifying results. Our justice system hasn???t been the same since. **** The Power Of Treats Virginia A. Smith, Boston Globe Defining the rules by bending them a little. **** In Praise Of Amy Tan And San Francisco's Literary Life Bruce Weber, New York Times The event to honor the novelist Amy Tan at the Herbst Theater here on Wednesday night was supposed to be in the spirit of a roast. But the organizers couldn???t quite call it that ??? ???a braising,??? they suggested instead ??? and the speakers had a hard time saying anything terribly mean, even in jest. The running joke concerned Ms. Tan???s ordinarily placid demeanor, which was attributed to her husband???s sexual prowess. **** Let Us Now Praise... The Clich?? James Parker, Boston Globe It???s concise, time-tested, and instantly familiar. What???s not to love? **** The Periodic Table: Primo Levi's Elementals Of Life, Suffering And Death Tim Radford, Guardian As a survivor of Auschwitz, Levi offers fiction, non-fiction, allegory and reality wrapped in a metaphor of chemistry to brings us a layered vision of his world. **** New film Where The Wild Things Are Sends Parents Into A 'Rumpus' Vanessa Thorpe and Anushka Asthana, Guardian The spooky palm tree fronds and twisting vines that invade the bedroom of naughty Max in this nursery classic will soon be invading the imaginations of young children anew. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Factual Error In ???Why ???No.1??? Singapore Fails To Get No.1 In Highest Global Human Achievements??? By Mr Abdul Gafoor The Temasek Review **** ?????????????????????????????? ??????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Transport Operators ??? Stop Quibbling Over Senior Citizen Concessionary Travel SpotlightOnSingapore In Singapore our gesture toward our senior citizens is widely seen as half-hearted or tight-fisted as in public assistance to the very poor many of whom are senior citizens. **** ?????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** The LOWest Point Of LUP: A Mere Storm In The Tea-cup? The Temasek Review **** Journalist Assaulted For Work On Foreign Workers Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen **** Singapore Writers Fest Pays Us A Visit Sharon Bakar, Bibliobibuli It is really nice to see the organisers of the Singapore Writers' Festival reaching out to Malaysian authors and book lovers. They were in town Thursday for a press conference at MPH Mid Valley. **** Smoking: HDB Dwellers Still Suffering In Silence Chua Kim Choo, Today **** High Property Prices Cloud The View Of A Generation Ian Choo, The Online Citizen **** Rich Enough To Be Frugal, Blessed Enough To Suffer. Feed Me To The Fish There is a great difference in frugality practiced by the rich and frugality practiced by the poor. The poor can't choose. **** Profit-Motive Blinding Governments From The Public Good? Clement Tan, Asian Correspondent What does the floundering healthcare reform attempts in America and the sorry plight of foreign workers in Singapore have in common? They are both victims of corporate interests. Making profits has become the overwhelming concern that it has shrouded the reality these profits might have come at a huge social cost. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Oct 19 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 19 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 19, 2009 Message-ID: <20091019225900.43633.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Who Needs An iPhone FM Radio Anyway? Bill Andad, DaniWeb I'm just not convinced that there is any real need for old technology such as FM radio on a next-generation device like the iPhone. **** Wolfram Alpha Launches $50 iPhone App Christina Warren, Masbable The application is pretty advanced, as its $49.99 price-tag suggests. Before your jaw drops over the price, keep in mind that this is much more than just a mobile version of the website. It???s a high end graphing calculator (that supports discrete number theory, Calculus derivative and plotting of functions), an almanac, a currency/unit converter and a pretty sophisticated stock analysis tool. And that???s just the beginning. **** Apple's Profit Burden: Great Expectations Wall Street Journal Wall Street has worried recently that expectations for Apple could be too high. **** New Droid TV Spot Happily Rips Apple Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News **** Wolfram Alpha Miscalculates What Its iPhone App Should Cost MG Siegler, TechCrunch The iPhone app is the first example of Wolfram Alpha???s new APIs that they hope will extend their most valuable asset: Their data. But if you???re trying to get more people to use access your data, charging $50 is not a great play. A better one may be to get people hooked on your data, then charge down the road when they realize how valuable it is ??? if they ever do, which is still far from certain with Wolfram Alpha. **** Don???t Use Just Any Wireless While Using Your iPhone - Unless You Want To Put Yourself At Risk App Advice **** Apple, RIM Wage App Wars Omar El Akkad, Globe And Mail For smart phone makers ??? and, indeed, for an increasing number of electronics makers designing everything from radios to televisions ??? the emphasis is quickly shifting away from hardware design and toward the type and variety of applications that users can download and run. **** Take Your Show On The Road With 'Rock Band' Eli Hodapp, Touch Arcade On the iPhone and iPod Touch, each of these instruments are played by tapping four areas on the screen to match up with the musical notes coming down the screen. **** In-App Feature Could Keep More Apps On iPhone Jacqueline Emigh, PC World While Apple's new in-app purchase feature for iPhones is being widely touted as an antipiracy measure, Apple's more overarching motive seems to be that of keeping the iPhone at the development forefront for the coolest new apps for mobile users. **** Apple Approves Another VoIP App, Rebtel Om Malik, GigaOM **** After New Ads, Doubts Grow About A Verizon iPhone Brad Stone, New York Times This nasty name-calling does not bode well for the prospects of the iPhone joining Verizon in 2010, talks for which were said to have begun earlier this year. **** Facebook 3.1 With Notifications Should Soon Highlight The iPhone Push Problem MG Siegler, TechCrunch **** Review: Acorn 2.0 By Flying Meat Michael N. Roach, DigitalAppleJuice.com **** What Lit Mag Mcsweeney's Could Teach News Orgs About The iPhone Mac Slocum, Nieman Journalism Lab At Harvard You???d think selling subscriptions within iPhone applications would appeal to media companies. **** How To: Turn Your iPhone Into A Remote Speaker For Your Mac Or Windows App Advice **** Apple, Others Hit With Lawsuit Over '90s Ethernet Patents AppleInsider A Texas company has targeted Apple and a number of other technology companies in a new lawsuit regarding a handful of computer networking patents issued in the 1990s. **** Apple Discriminating Against Non-YouTube Video Services? MacNN Apple is not playing fair in terms of supporting video hosting services beyond YouTube, claims the chief technical officer of Dailymotion. Olivier Poitrey comments that the iPhone edition of Safari relies on a special plug-in for YouTube videos, allowing it to jump straight to H.264-encoded copies. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Song Decoders Rob Walker, New York Times On first listen, some things grab you for their off-kilter novelty. Like the story of a company that has hired a bunch of ???musicologists,??? who sit at computers and listen to songs, one at a time, rating them element by element, separating out what sometimes comes to hundreds of data points for a three-minute tune. The company, an Internet radio service called Pandora, is convinced that by pouring this information through a computer into an algorithm, it can guide you, the listener, to music that you like. The premise is that your favorite songs can be stripped to parts and reverse-engineered. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Procedure In Plain Air Jonathan Lethem, New Yorker **** Au Revoir Maureen N. McLane, New Yorker **** Gardening In Cardoso Michael Longley, New Yorker **** Man Of Extremes: The Return Of James Cameron. Dana Goodyear, New Yorker Cameron is fifty-five. It has been twelve years since he has made a feature film; ???Avatar,??? his new movie, comes out on December 18th and will have cost more than two hundred and thirty million dollars by the time it???s done. He started working on it full time four years ago, from a script he wrote in 1994. ???Avatar??? will be the first big-budget action blockbuster in 3-D; Cameron shot it using camera systems that he developed himself. He is a pioneer of special effects: the undulating water column of ???The Abyss??? and the liquid-silver man of ???Terminator 2??? helped to inspire the digital revolution that has transformed moviemaking in the past two decades. The digital elements of ???Avatar,??? he claims, are so believable that, even when they exist alongside human actors, the audience will lose track of what is real and what is not. ???This film integrates my life???s achievements,??? he told me. ???It???s the most complicated stuff anyone???s ever done.??? Another time, he said, ???If you set your goals ridiculously high and it???s a failure, you will fail above everyone else???s success.??? **** Look At The Birdie Kurt Vonnegut, Los Angeles Times **** Leap Into Light Robert Huddleston, Boston Review Perhaps it is because, as Bedient acknowledges, W. B. Yeats discovered a tragic realism in the quarrel of antinomies while ???Jack willingly sacrificed much of the outline of the ???simple Unchangeable??? to the ???protean Changeable,?????? that Yeats the poet was the greater artist. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Review Is Timely Rick Lim Say Kiong, Today Lessons have to be learned here that senior workers are assets in any company but employers who are concerned about their bottom line do not seem to recognise this fact. **** Ending Pay Cuts At 60: Govt-linked Firms Should Take Lead Perinpanayagam James, Straits Times It is a shame that an employee, in the last years of his employ, instead of being respected for his experience and contributions to the organisation, faces a wage cut for doing the same job. **** Working To Improve Services For Viewers Cassandra Tay, Media Development Authority, Ng Sook Fun, Infocomm Development Authority, Straits Times The Media Development Authority and Infocomm Development Authority are working with the industry on the Next Generation Interactive Multimedia, Applications and Services initiative. Potentially, this could allow more seamless inter-operability between multiple service providers, as well as interactive applications and services such as IPTV to be more easily deployed across different service providers' platforms. **** Are Women Paying For Sexism Laws? Clare Matheson, BBC News **** Singapore Hedge Funds Set To Be Licensed, AIMA's Coleman Says Netty Ismail, Bloomberg Hedge funds in Singapore will ???almost certainly??? need to be licensed as the central bank seeks to tighten regulation of the industry, according to the local chapter of the Alternative Investment Management Association, the largest trade group for hedge funds. **** Temasek Said To Be Planning Sale Of 10-Year Bonds In Dollars Shelley Smith, Bloomberg Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore???s government-owned investment company, hired a group of three banks to help it sell 10-year bonds denominated in U.S. dollars. **** ????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Upturn Not Felt Yet Tessa Wong, Straits Times The economy may be technically out of a recession, but there is no let up in the numbers of those looking for help. Deputy prime minister Teo Chee Hean said on Sunday that the effects of the upturn have yet to be felt on the ground. **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? ????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** What Is The Value Of Citizenship In Singapore? This Lush Garden Within I have already gave up hope on a better Singapore, or a better life for me and my future family in Singapore. My heart is elsewhere, and my mind is already focused on how to achieve a better future, somewhere else besides in ???Uniquely Singapore???. **** Singapore Urges Investors To Look At Sri Lanka AFP Singapore is urging local businessmen to explore investment opportunities in Sri Lanka following the defeat of the Tamil separatist insurgency there, a report said here Monday. **** Govenment Reviews Pay-TV Deals Chua Hian Hou and Terrence Voon, Straits Times Acting minister for information communications and the arts Radm (NS) Lui Tuck Yew told Parliament on Monday that the Media Development Authority (MDA) is currently exploring various 'short and long term regulatory options'. **** Written Reply To Parliamentary Question On A) How Many Cyclists Have Been Booked For Traffic Offences Over The Past 12 Months; (b) What Are The Common Offences; And (c) What Is The Rule For Vehicular Traffic When Cyclists Ride Their Bicycles Across Pedestrian Crossings, 19 October 2009 Ministry Of Home Affairs, Singapore Government 1,312 summonses were issued to errant cyclists for cycling offences between July 2008 and June 2009. Of these, the largest number of 615 summonses were issued to cyclists for cycling on the footways of roads. Other common infringements include failing to ride in an orderly manner such as not keeping a proper lookout and not giving way to traffic with the right of way, riding on expressways and riding against the flow of traffic. **** Singapore Passes Tax Law To Improve Transparency Nopporn Wong-Anan, Forbes Singapore, under pressure from the G20 to improve banking transparency, passed a bill in Parliament on Monday amending its income tax law to comply with OECD standards to fight cross border tax evasion. The new bill enables the Singapore government to ask banks for client information in potential cases of foreign tax evasion, and not just for domestic tax cases as allowed by the previous law. **** Singapore, Malaysia Expand Air Services Agreement Jia Mei, Channel NewsAsia Singapore and Malaysian carriers will soon be able to fly freely between Changi and six new destinations in Malaysia after both countries agreed to expand their air services agreement. **** Expansionary Budget To Be Expected For 2010, Says Finance Minister Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam has hinted that next year's government budget is likely to be expansionary, with no major shift from the fiscal stance taken in Budget 2009. **** Analysts Say Office Rental Slide A Necessary Correction Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia Prime office rents may be on a downward trend, but analysts say there is nothing much to worry about as the decline is a necessary correction. **** Mas Selamat Still Defiant Cassandra Chew, Straits Times 'Malaysia authorities have given our security officers access to Mas Selamat. He was, however, uncooperative during the interview, and refused to talk. So at this point, the Internal Security Department's assessment is that he remains defiant,' senior ministertatertate (law and home affairs) Ho Peng Kee disclosed. **** Boon Lay Ave Blk 216 - 220 Phare Anderson, Singapore Social and Political Thoughts **** Asean Needs A Culture Shock Nazry Bahrawi, Guardian Asean countries need to instil a much-needed paradigm shift that will see its people define 'culture' beyond superficialities. **** Singapore To Increase Budget Spending Next Year Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore will lift spending from infrastructure to education next year and maintain a similar budget deficit, a sign the export-dependent country fears an economic rebound may not hold without government support. **** Government-run Markets Will Stay Jessica Lim, Straits Times All 82 of the government-run wet markets in Singapore will remain in government hands, along 'with the smell, the sound and the sight', minister for environment and water resources Yaacob Ibrahim told Parliament on Monday. As for the rest of the 19 wet markets run by private companies, he reiterated that approval from the Housing Board would be needed for their sale and any change of their uses. **** Democrats Apply For Permit To Speak At Bukit Panjang Singapore Democrats The SDP has applied for a permit to speak at Fajar Road over the wet market issue. Assistant Secretary-General John Tan put in an application for party leaders to address Bukit Panjang residents on Sunday, 25 Oct 09, from 9 am to 12 noon. **** Don't Sign Away Too Much, Dr M Tells Developing Nations Sira Habibu, Malaysia Star From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Oct 20 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 20 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 20, 2009 Message-ID: <20091020225900.2977.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** As More Turn To iPhones, Companies Look For Help Gus G. Sentementes, Baltimore Sun Watch out, BlackBerry. The iPhone is creeping into the workplace ??? and that's a good thing for BoxTone. **** Is Apple's Stock Getting Ahead Of Itself? MarketWatch They were downright giddy after the company reported even stronger than expected earnings for the fourth fiscal quarter, though some on Wall Street had also questioned whether expectations for such strong results were already baked into the stock, which has more than doubled this year and touched the $200 mark in after-hours trading Monday for the first time since January of 2008. **** News: Snow Leopard Sales More Than Double Leopard Sales Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer Sales of Mac OS X, or Snow Leopard, clocked in at more than double compared to Leopard for the first five weeks each OS was available. Apple confirmed the strong Snow Leopard figure during the company's fourth quarter earnings conference call on Monday afternoon. **** Apple Taketh And Apple Giveth (Sometimes) Yukari Iwatani Kane, Wall Street Journal While the Cupertino, Calif., company has made some improvements, such as speeding up the approval process, it???s clear to developers Jon Myers and Chuck Hootman that Apple continues to work in mysterious ways ??? though they???re not complaining this time. **** Apple: All Systems Go BusinessWeek **** Apple Retail Stores Achieve Highest Quarterly Revenue Ever AppleInsider New customers and new computers helped drive a record-setting quarter for Apple's Retail Stores, bringing in the company's highest quarterly revenue ever. **** How Low Will Apple Go On Price? Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek **** Apple Defies Gravity Lance Knobel, Reuters Here???s how bullish Steve Jobs and his colleagues at Infinite Loop in Cupertino feel: After a blowout September quarter, the forward guidance they are offering for the December quarter is comically modest. In the tech world, people have long known that Jobs loves messing with the expectations of both competitors and his legions of Apple fanboys. He plays his games with the financial world as well. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** That Tune, Named Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine How does the music-identifying app Shazam work its magic? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Beauty And The Bento Box John Maeda, Kenya Hara, Nick Currie, Denis Dutton, New York Times What does the care devoted to the visual details in a packed lunch suggest about the culture? Why is such value placed on aesthetics in everyday life in Japan? **** Rethinking What Leads The Way: Science, Or New Technology? John Markoff, New York Times The popular view is that technology is the handmaiden of science ??? less pure, more commercial. But in ???The Nature of Technology: What It Is and How It Evolves,??? W. Brian Arthur, an economist, reframes the relationship between science and technology as part of an effort to come up with a comprehensive theory of innovation. **** The Demons That Drove John Cheever Rachel Cooke, Guardian John Cheever, brilliant chronicler of American suburbia led a tortured double life filled with sexual guilt, alcoholism and self-loathing. **** The Horses Rachel Richardson, Slate Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** No Cap On Liability Imelda Saad, Today The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has said "no" to placing a cap on the maximum medical liability of an employer for foreign maids brought here to work. **** Should ERP Charges Apply When Accidents Cause Jams? Alan Lee, Today Drivers can choose to pay a small premium for smoother traffic and less congestion. However, this begs the question: Should drivers still have to pay for the use of roads which are congested due to accidents? This, I believe, is a myth. ERP cannot survive as a payment to avoid congestion. It is a tax for congestion. If the road is congested and you still drive into it, I would suggest you should pay even more ERP. **** Reducing Cost Of Public Housing: Some Policy Suggestions Gerald Giam This government needs to bite the bullet and clean up its own mess ??? even if it means losing some votes ??? for the sake of future generations of Singaporeans. Instead, the government in recent years continued to push the cost of living in order to chase after the older, richer voters. **** The Singapore Asset Recovery Is A False Recovery! Singaporean Skeptic Correct me if I am wrong. The stock market increase is driven mainly by a flight from low interest rates. How much of it is due to proper economic fundamentals? **** Liability For Maid???s Medical Bills: Stop Pushing The Whole Buck To Employers Sgpolitics.net It is ridiculous and cold-hearted to force households to take on such potentially large risks on their own. Unlike corporations, households don???t hire foreign help for a profit motive. They do so because the elderly or the young need care. This is nonsense. By all means, help the households who need help in elderly and child care, but I do not think that the majority of households who hire maids are so desperate for cheap help labour that they cannot survive without a maid. **** ??????????????????????????????????????? ??????, ????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Social Divide 'Inevitable' Jeremy Au Yong, Straits Times Having a minimum wage in place here to narrow the income gap could do more harm than good, Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew said last night. In fact, every country that has set a minimum wage over what the market will bear has found that the move cuts jobs, he noted. Employers who are forced to deal with higher staff costs would simply find ways to hire less people. So we are not doing a minimum wage scheme just to cover up the fact that we have no idea how to create enough good and sustainable jobs? **** What Singapore Can Teach The White House Wall Street Journal Critics of this island-nation often have fun referring to it as the "nanny state" for its laws against spitting, littering, or leaving behind an unflushed loo. When it comes to health care, however, Uncle Sam has better claim to the nanny title. **** Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum: The Lion, The Young And The Orchestra Khairulanwar Zaini, The Online Citizen We are all Lee???s children, and as far as we remain so, we will be cursed to settle for the pale imitations of a nation, one never true, never substantive, never moving. We are all Lee???s children, and this knowledge must have been of great comfort to the Father as he laid last night to repose, for every cry ???For Singapore!??? is one ???For Lee Kuan Yew!??? ??? the nation of Lee will prevail, that mechanical, technocratic and bureaucratic edifice, it lives on in the meek and soulless monotony of the young. **** ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Think: there are so many things that will not survive in the market, but we still keep them. From minority television programming to police and fire service, we as a society decides to pay for it as a common good. Why not good cheaper food for the poorer among us? **** Singapore Maintains Secrecy Over Death Penalty Stats Ben Bland, The Asia File If the government is not willing to release this information in the first place, then how are people supposed to research the issue in a credible and accurate manner? **** PAP Says: "You Die. Your Business." You Still Vote For Them. Singaporean Skeptic I always wondered why Singaporeans vote for the PAP when they are constantly berated and insulted by the ruling party. What's worse, our lives have actually gotten worse over the past 10 years. The best analogy I can think of is that of a battered wife. **** MM Lee : Social Divide Inevitable Diary of A Singaporean Mind MM Lee now tells us that the income gap is inevitable. The resentment among the population caused by the income gap and rising cost of living is also inevitable. When people are resentful and the govt does nothing about a problem except to blame it on everything else but themselves, it is also inevitable what the voters do at the ballot box. **** KRMF 2009 -- A Stage-Managed Event Random Thoughts Of A Free Thinker **** Southeast Asia To Have Rights Monitor Associated Press Southeast Asian nations unveil a landmark human rights watchdog this week, but critics charge that it will be both toothless and include in its membership one of the world's worst human rights offenders - military-ruled Myanmar. **** No Pageant Regulation Felicia Wong, Straits Times While the Government cares about Singapore's branding, it does not see a need to regulate beauty pageants as it believes that the 'market discipline' imposed by sponsors will keep such events in check. Minister for trade and industry Lim Hng Kiang said beauty pageants are run as businesses and the organisers rely heavily sponsorship for funding. As such, they risk backlash from sponsors for badly-organised events. Is there an approval for anything goes, so long as sponsors are okay? Hmmmm.... **** Benchmarking Affordability Of New HDB Flats The Temasek Review **** Does A Single Party State Lead To Dictatorship? Manisha Kumari, The Temasek Review **** Arrests Before APEC: Police Power Expanded With Singapore's New Law Charlotte Cuthbertson, The Epoch Times The arrest of a 70-year-old Singaporean man last week has seen the collision of freedoms expressed under constitutional law with new laws that give police arbitrary powers. Singapore???s Public Order Bill, introduced in April this year, was invoked for the first time for the arrest of Chua Eng Chwee on Oct. 14. **** More Lots, Higher Priority For Regular Users As Part Of Park & Ride Scheme Revamp Channel NewsAsia **** MM Lee: ???Never Mind The Gini Coefficient!??? The Temasek Review MM Lee forgot to mention the fact that though it is important to create jobs for the people, measures must be put in place to ensure that the wages are sufficient for them to maintain a minimum standard of living. **** Spoken Like An Emperor (with No Clothes) Singapore Democrats Depriving workers the ability to speak up while allowing corporations to dictate wage levels is not market forces. It is bad policy making. It is exploitation. It is greed. It is also unsustainable. Society is going to be so drained of spirit if we keep paying our workers lower and lower wages that our competitiveness and productivity will be critically undermined. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Oct 21 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 21 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 21, 2009 Message-ID: <20091021225900.57017.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Unveils Multi-touch Magic Mouse Jason Snell, Macworld Apple on Tuesday banished the 2005-vintage Mighty Mouse and its wireless sibling to the other side of the island (under the new name Apple Mouse), replacing them with a new wireless Magic Mouse that features a multi-touch surface on its entire top side. **** Apple Updates Mac Mini, Adding Server Configuration Jason Snell, Macworld Apple on Tuesday announced an update to the Mac mini line of compact desktop Mac systems, adding faster processors, doubling memory capacity, and introducing a new server configuration that trades an optical drive for more storage. **** Apple Quietly Updates AirPort Extreme, Time Machine Dan Frakes, Macworld According to Apple???s Web site, the AirPort Extreme Base Station now sports ???improvements in antenna design??? that allegedly provide up to 50 percent better Wi-Fi performance and up to 25 percent better range than the previous iteration. **** Announcements Keep Coming: Meet The Aluminum Remote Pete Mortensen, Cult of Mac The company also quietly put up for sale a brand new Apple Remote, the first revision since Fall 2005. It???s longer and aluminum, and now features good control of docked iPods and iPhones. **** Will Apple Find El Dorado In Beijing? David Morgenstern, ZDNet I am interested in whether the iPhone???s halo effect will be felt in this new market. What will be Macintosh sales? And before anyone remarks on how totally price-conscious the China market is and how it???s foolish to expect any sales there, may I point out that these are the same arguments that have been made for every other market segment worldwide and keep getting knocked down. **** MacBook Pro Sees A Price Drop Brett Terpstra, TUAW Today saw a price drop for a top-of-the-line configuration, which makes the price almost $1000US cheaper. **** LaunchBar 5.0.1 Runs On Snow Leopard, Adds Clipboard History Matt Neuburg, TidBITS LaunchBar is one of those utilities I'd describe as massively explorable: it has far more features than I'm truly familiar with. In fact, I use it actively in a surprisingly limited set of ways. So instead of trying to list everything that LaunchBar can do - which you can explore for yourself, by downloading LaunchBar or by reading its documentation online - I thought I'd let you peek over my shoulder and watch how I actually use it. **** New Apple Macs, Macbooks And A Mouse. But Where's The Freight? Brad Stone, New York Times **** Has Apple Produced Too Much Of A Good Thing With Its iPhone? John O'Brien, Courier Mail Apple's insistence on building "the whole widget" of hardware and software has resulted in superior products over the decades but, in the case of its computers, saw the company relegated to the margins of the commodified PC industry. It didn't stop the iPod from gaining majority share of the music player market, but the jury is still out on the more mature and complex mobile phone industry. **** Apple Is Cheating You Tim Beyers, Motley Fool Billions in the bank, earning nothing more than passbook savings rates. You call that excellent capital allocation? **** Why An Apple-blessed Mac Mini Server Has Big Possibilities Steven Sande, TUAW A Mac mini server has a lot of possibilities, and I foresee a lot more small companies choosing Mac OS X Server as their server OS of choice now that this "server in a box" is available. **** White MacBook Gets Unibody Design Jason Snell, Macworld The new model, while still clad in white polycarbonate, now features the same unibody construction and bright LED-backlit screens as Apple???s other laptops, as well as the same glass multi-touch trackpad found in the MacBook Pro line. **** Two Ways To Download Software Updates In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** File Sheriff 2.0 Adds New Interface MacNN **** Sharing Home Movies With iWeb Adam Berenstain, Macworld The My Albums templates in iWeb aren???t just for pictures??????they can hold videos, too. Here???s how to use them to make life easier for you and your audience by organizing your movies in one convenient place online. **** Acorn 2.1 Gains AppleScript, More David Chartier, Macworld Acorn 2.1's most significant new feature is definitely "scripting for humans" in the form of AppleScript, complete with a series of example scripts to get users started. **** Inside Apple's New Multitouch Magic Mouse AppleInsider Apple's new Magic Mouse brings multitouch technologies first exposed on the iPhone and MacBook touchpad to the venerable mouse. **** First Look: New iMacs (Fall 2009) Roman Loyola, Macworld The most obvious change is to the iMac screen. Both the 21.5- and 27-inch screens are made with high definition video in mind. Like on many HDTVs, the black border around the new iMac???s screen reaches out to the very edge; the aluminum border that surrounded the screen in the previous iMac is gone. This gives the effect of the screen being bigger than it really is. To the chagrin of many, there is no matte screen option. Glossy is your only choice. **** New Unibody MacBook Gets Tore Up Devin Coldewey, CrunchGear **** Review: Apple MacBook John Biggs, CrunchGear This MacBook is not for everyone. It???s a great addition to the MacBook canon, an effort to appease the analysts with an entry level laptop, but don???t ever expect something like this to drop past the $500 mark. Apple doesn???t deign to play in those muddy fields, leaving that to the PC makers in their race to the bottom. **** Want To Run Windows 7? Buy A Mac Brian Caulfield, Forbes You know who has designed a really sweet Windows machine? Here's a hint. He's British, he works in Cupertino, Calif., and lately he has a thing for dark aluminum. **** Conde Nast Launches iPhone Platform With GQ App Nat Ives, AdAge Conde Nast is introducing a slick platform for selling, displaying and enhancing its titles' regular print issues on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Issues rendered for the iPhone screen will sell as apps, starting with this December's issue of GQ, priced at $2.99 in the app store. **** LongBox Digital Comics Store Adds To Apple Tablet Frenzy Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times Apple???s upcoming tablet computer (whoops, ???rumored??? upcoming tablet) just got a little more interesting: there are signs that the company is getting into the digital comic book market. **** Apple Slipstreams 3x3 Into Wi-Fi Base Stations Glenn Fleishman, Wi-Fi Net News The additional transmit and receive antennas improve how far signals can travel to a client, and how sensitively an access point can pick up distant transmissions. This accounts for Apple's statement on improved range. **** Apple's Rise, Dell's Demise CNBC **** EU: Breakthrough On Online Music Rights Associated Press The EU's top antitrust official on Wednesday described a deal among Apple Inc.'s iTunes, music companies, distributors and online licensing groups as a "great breakthrough" that would roll out more Internet music sales across Europe. **** Are Apple's New iMacs Ready For Your Living Room? Ian Paul, PC World While the new all-in-one looks promising, there are a few problems with moving the iMac from the study to the living room. **** The State Of The Mac Mini Macminicolo.net **** Pipe Mania Franklin Pride, Inside Mac Games The modern Pipe Mania is a work of art. **** More Macs Put Out To Pasture: Apple???s Updated ???Vintage/Obsolete??? List Nicole Martinelli, Cult of Mac **** Caching iPod Touch Driving Directions Christopher Breen, Macworld **** First Look: Apple Magic Mouse Roman Loyola, Macworld The Magic Mouse has a plastic top, and aluminum bottom with two plastic rails. Moving the mouse on my desktop with and without a mouse pad wasn???t smooth at all???it was a grating sensation. **** Objective Development Releases Launchbar 5 The Mac Observer The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** GE Shows Off Pocket-size Ultrasound Scanner Rafe Needleman, CNET News In a wide-ranging interview at the Web 2.0 Summit, Jeff Immelt, CEO of General Electric, announced a low-cost and very portable ultrasound scanner called the Vscan. **** A New Search Engine Specializing In Fun Katherine Boehret, Walt Mossberg This week, I tested a tool called Goby (pronounced go-be), www.goby.com, which works as an activity search engine to help you find things to do. It tries to be simple enough so that you can get some ideas and start doing the things you want to do rather than wasting hours in front of the computer. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** That Domineering Creature Called The 'I' Charles Simic, The New York Review of Books I had always believed that a good poem can stand on its own, that it made no difference if some creep you???d never want to meet in your life wrote it; but, obviously, that???s not how it is with many readers. **** Matches Welcome Where Smokers Aren???t Katrina Heron, New York Times If smoking was their sole raison d?????tre, restaurant matches should by all rights have disappeared by now. After being overtaken by the disposable lighter, they have run into smoking bans of varying severity. (Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia now have laws prohibiting smoking in restaurants, according to the American Lung Association, and local jurisdictions impose their own smoke-free rules.) Yet matches appear to be struggling back from the brink to reassert their pre-eminence among the rabble of coasters, business cards, cocktail napkins and swizzle sticks charged with hawking a restaurant???s good name. In an era of instant information access and viral publicity, logo-bearing matches may have the edge as ambassadors that convey distinction in their very physicality. **** Three Tweets For The Web Tyler Cowen, The Wilson Quarterly Welcome the new world with open arms???and browsers. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Where To Top Up New Ez-link Cards For Free Gregory Gerald Danker, EZ-Link Pte Ltd, Straits Times In the past, TransitLink offered automatic Giro top-ups at no charge to commuters. This was not because the top-ups were free, but because the cost was absorbed by TransitLink, which is jointly owned by the two public transport operators - SMRT and SBS Transit. They were willing to absorb the cost because the old cards were mainly used on buses and trains. However, this is not possible now as the new Cepas-compliant cards issued by EZ-Link can also be used in private vehicles for Electronic Road Pricing, retail shops, libraries and many other places unrelated to public transport. And why doesn't EZ-Link Pte Ltd want to absorb the cost? Perhaps they themselves have no confidence of earning enough transaction fees from the other many commercial places? **** Press Freedom Index: Singapore 133rd Ong Dai Lin, Today After falling three places last year, Singapore has rebounded up the Press Freedom Index compiled by Reporters Without Borders. It moved up from 144th spot to 133rd, just shy of Thailand (130rd) and Malaysia (131st). **** Newspaper Editor In Brawl Over Foreign Worker Story Leong Wee Keat, Today **** Letter To My PM: No Country For My Old??man Sheere Ng, The Enquirer Dear Mr Prime Minister, at the Ministerial Forum a month ago, you talked about helping new citizens adjust to life in Singapore. Have you also considered the early immigrants who are having trouble adapting to this fast-moving country? **** MM Lee Doesn't Care About His Legacy? Yeah Right Liau Chuan Yi and Norvin Chan, Asian Correspondent **** Singapore: Sunshine???s Empire Spreads Only Rays Of Gloom Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks The law enforcement machinery has to answer not just for illegal littering and bicycling on pavements but also for the disappearance of millions by the Sunshine Empire business partners. **** Social Divide Inevitable In Singapore, But A Lot Of It Is Caused By PAP Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net A social divide may be inevitable in Singapore, but what MM Lee does not acknowledge is that a lot of it is in fact caused by PAP policies that favour Big Business and the elites, and not merely due to the unstoppable tide of globalization. **** Singapore Will Not Allow 'Fishing Expeditions' To Fight Tax Evasion DPA Singapore Law Minister K Shanmugam on Tuesday said the city-state would not allow unwarranted financial investigations in the fight against cross-border tax evasion, even after it had implemented the international standard on tax information set by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). "Spurious requests and fishing expeditions will not be entertained." **** The Great Public Housing Debate Ng Kok Lim, The Temasek Review **** Why Singapore's Social Divide Is Inevitable Liau Chuan Yi and Norvin Chan, Asian Correspondent **** No Top-up Yet For New Nets Tan Weizhen, Straits Times The new contactless card introduced by the Network For Electronic Transfers (Nets) two weeks ago cannot be topped up at most automated teller machines (ATMs) in Singapore. Despite earlier promises that users would be able to do so, checks by The Straits Times show that this is not the case. **** A Lost Sense Of Parliamentary Democracy A Blog Day???s Work The justification of the WP???s proposal in the 2006 GE to dismantle the PA ??? dubbed as one of the four ???time bombs??? ??? actually becomes stronger because the latter has clearly not acted in good faith. **** HDB Can't Interfere Diana Othman, Straits Times The Housing and Development Board (HDB) has said it cannot take over the wet markets or interfere with the commercial negotiation between the new owner and the stallholders. In a statement on Wednesday, it added that it cannot also 'impose new requirements that are more stringent on the new owner, compared to those already imposed on the existing one.' I don't know... if HDB can limit me, as an apartment owner, what I can or cannot do in my apartment, who I can or cannot sell to, how I can or cannot rent out my apartment, and even move me out of my apartment in the name of development... why so much barrier with a little wet market? **** Finance Minister Tharman Re-appointed To MAS Board Mok Fei Fei, Channel NewsAsia **** $400 Package Lost By VPost. Compensation Offered = $60 Douglas Tan, Today No one has since contacted me from vPost, despite my request to escalate the matter to a full investigation. I have given up on hearing from them again. **** Researcher From LKY School Debunked MM Lee???s Claims That Widening Income Gap Is ???Inevitable??? The Temasek Review **** Someone Up There Looking After Temasek Blowin' In The Wind **** Singapore Sees Chance For ASEAN To Boom With China, India DPA Singapore Wednesday urged the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) to stay on track with integration efforts so that the region could boom along with China and India. **** "The Lion King" Musical To Open At Marina Bay Sands In 2010 Dylan Loh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore looks set to get a touch of Broadway next year. Simba - the lion cub - will make an appearance in "The Lion King" musical at Marina Bay Sands in September 2010. **** Spoken Like An Emperor (With No Clothes): Part 2 Singapore Democrats Make no mistake, our economy is like an old showgirl. We have to constantly keep ourselves attractive by piling on layer after dreadful layer of economic makeup just to keep ourselves looking attractive for the foreign businessman. Meanwhile the gobs of powder and lipstick hide the ageing rot beneath. **** Pedestrians Beware, Heavy Traffic On Walkways Choo Wing Kheong, Straits Times While I can understand - thought I do not agree - why the Traffic Police do not take strict action against cyclists riding on footpaths, I cannot comprehend why they allow motorcyclists to do the same. **** And This Year???s Comical Ali Award Goes To??? Groundnotes Bullshit may come in all shapes and sizes but we all know pedigree manure when we smell it. Only in a parallel universe is a 133 ranking in the Press Freedom Index indicative of ???press credibility???. Only in Singapore do a government-controlled TV station and a government-controlled newspaper constitute ???media diversity??? and ???competition???. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Oct 22 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 22 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 22, 2009 Message-ID: <20091022225901.91315.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** How Apple Keeps Defying The Odds Industry Standard **** Apple's iPod Shuffle 'Worst' Mp3 Player Harry Wallop, Telegraph Apple's new iPod shuffle has come botton in a survey of mp3 players tested by a leading consumer watchdog. **** What The Government Can Do To Narrow Singapore???s Income Gap The Temasek Review A government which does not care and love its people will not win respect or allegiance from them. We will become a nation without a soul, a playground for the rich and a hotel for foreigners to make a quick buck. **** Full Review: Apple Magic Mouse Makes Big Splash, Can't Tread Water Justin Yu, CNET News At first glance, Apple's new Magic Mouse might change your thoughts about love at first sight. The curvature of the soft white shell paired with the speckled silver underbelly is enough to make any Applehead salivate, but we warn prospective buyers to head out to your local Apple Store before taking the plunge, because you might be disappointed. **** All About iTunes Windows Kirk McElhearn, Macworld Most people see iTunes as a single-window program: when you click something in the sidebar, the main window???s content changes. But you may not realize that iTunes can let you use multiple windows for different purposes. Here???s an overview of what you can do with iTunes windows. **** AT&T Activates Record 3.2m iPhones In Summer MacNN AT&T today provided results for what it says is one of the best summer quarters in its history. The company says it activated 3.2 million iPhones, the most ever in its history and a steep jump from 2.4 million in the spring. It comes despite the iPhone 3GS having launched the previous quarter and points to increasing demand for the phone between July and September. **** Adobe Unveils Lightroom 3 Beta, Improves Speed, Image Quality Nick Spence, Macworld UK The beta software release, aimed at serious amateur and professional photographers, promises new improved intuitive importing, unparalleled noise reduction and sharpening tools and enhanced slideshow capabilities. **** Extensis Universal Type Server 2 Adds Deeper Font Compliance Management Macworld UK Extensis has released an "significant update" of it's Universal Type Server 2, which adds deeper font compliance management, Snow Leopard and Windows 7 compatibility. **** Aussie Censors Want To Certify iPhone Apps Macworld UK The Australian Classification Board has written to the Australian government 'expressing concern' that iPhone applications, espicially games, are being released through the iTunes store without being rated. **** Chronos Intros SOHO Organizer, Notes 8 The Mac Observer Chronos announced the immediate availability of SOHO Organizer 8 and SOHO Notes 8 on Thursday. Both applications added video, audio and photo recording support, and Notes 8 also added iPhone Wi-Fi sync support. **** Disney Keychest To Make Buy-Once View-Anywhere Movies A Reality With Apple's Help? Thomas Ricker, Engadget You know who's missing from the Digital Entertainment Content Ecosystem (or DECE) consortium? A group bent on redefining the way we buy, access, and play digital content with a membership roster that includes Best Buy, Cisco, Comcast, Fox, HP, Intel, Lions Gate, Microsoft, NBC Universal, Paramount Pictures, Philips, Sony, Toshiba, VeriSign, and Warner Bros? Right, Apple and Disney. **** Nokia Sues Apple For Patent Infringement Reuters The world's top cellphone maker Nokia Oyj filed a lawsuit on Thursday against smaller rival Apple, claiming the U.S. firm had infringed ten Nokia patents. **** Find Recently-used Apps And Documents In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Batch Move Your Playlists To An iTunes Folder Sang Tang, TUAW **** First Look: Apple's Redesigned 13-inch Unibody MacBook AppleInsider Apple's revamped new MacBook takes everything the company learned from last year's aluminum unibody MacBook Pro redesign and applies it to make a solid, curvy, entry level notebook that carries the same $999 price tag. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Terabyte On The Tip Of Your Finger Lucas Mearian, Computerworld Engineers have created a new fingernail-sized chip that can hold a terabyte of data -- 50 times the capacity of today's best silicon-based chip technologies. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Misremembering Jack Kerouac David Barnett, Guardian Thanks partly to his miserable end 40 years ago, Kerouac has lost some of his lustre as a counterculture icon. But that was never what he wanted to be. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Spielberg's Sentosa `Not Competing' With Disney Mary Ann Benitez, Hong Kong Standard Hollywood producer and director Steven Spielberg lent his hand to boost the profile of upcoming Universal Studios Singapore as the city-state tries to drum up Hong Kong interest in the project. **** Johor Charges Inconsistent Rates For Raw Water Malaysia Star Malacca pays 10 times more than Singapore to buy raw water from Johor, according to the 2008 Auditor-General???s Report on Johor. ???In the audit???s opinion, the raw water rates are inconsistently implemented because the Singapore Public Utilities is paying a very low price compared to the Malacca government." **** KRMF Everyday Is Meant To Be Beautiful **** ??????????????? ???????????????????????? ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Asian Summit To Tackle Economic Crisis Martin Abbugao, AFP Asian leaders meet here this weekend to discuss ways to deepen economic ties further in order to sustain the region's rebound from the recent global downturn, diplomats and analysts said. **** Singapore Appoints Ex-judge To Asean Human Rights Body Malaysia Star **** A Cable Car, Right On Your Own Patio Today Having a piece of Singapore's world famous tourism icon - the Sentosa cable car - in your home is not an impossible dream if, like Associate Professor Jeremy Goh, you are prepared to pay at least $2,888 for it. **** Time For A Different Approach? Neo Chai Chin, Today It may be no surprise that bosses in Singapore keep a watchful eye on the health-care costs of their workers. But why are they then not tabulating how much they reap from each health-care dollar spent? **** MM Lee Confirms PM Lee???s Fears In 2006 The Online Citizen Now that MM Lee has said a social divide is ???inevitable???, will Singapore society be ???destroyed???, as PM Lee warned in 2006? Apparently, the ???deliberate policy??? of the PAP government has resulted in this ???inevitable social divide???. **** Temasek To Invest More Than $1.8 Billion In Coming Months Costas Paris, Dow Jones Singapore's state-owned investment fund Temasek Holdings Pte. Ltd. wants to invest more than US$1.8 billion in the next few months, with a focus on China, India, Mexico and Brazil, people familiar with the situation said. Investment teams are currently approaching Temasek with proposals on how the money might be put to work, one of those people told Dow Jones Newswires, adding that the amount to be invested could grow if a major opportunity comes along. **** Singapore ICT Firms Urged To Tap Into Opportunities Offered By ICT Contracts Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia **** Who Is My MP? Hard Hitting in the Lion City **** Resorts World Sentosa Offers 45,000 Jobs Desiree Tresa Gasper, THe Star Resorts World Sentosa, which is expected to open its doors early next year, will provide up to 45,000 job opportunities. The resort???s assistant director of communications, Robin Goh, said the vast employment opportunities created would also help boost the economic situation in the region. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Oct 23 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 23 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 23, 2009 Message-ID: <20091023225900.48952.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Psystar Sells $50 Software Hack To Run Snow Leopard On PCs AppleInsider Mac cloner and enduring litigant Psystar has rolled out a new $50 application that will allow certain Intel-powered PCs to run Mac OS X. **** Apple: Drunk With Power Mike Schuster, Minyanville Apple's behavior has become that of an alcoholic relative: You're pleading with them to stop and you despise what they've turned into. Has success gone to its head? What will it take for it to show some humility? How much will Apple customers take before they leave in droves? **** Apple: What???s Not To Love? Steve Reiter, Minyanville While Apple may not always be the first out of the gate, it tends to quickly surpass the competition with style and originality. **** Apple Must Upgrade Boot Camp To Support Windows 7 Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Apple today announced that it will update its Boot Camp utility before the end of the year to support Microsoft's just-launched Windows 7. **** 27-Inch iMac Is The New Apple TV Charlie Sorrel, Wired **** Gift This App, Apple! Dan Grigsby, Mobile Orchard Providing a ???Gift This App??? mechanism would open up a universe of novel marketing, bundling and promotional opportunities ??? all of which would drive App Store revenues, none of which would threaten Apple???s commission. **** Apple Releases Server Diagnostic Tool For Snow Leopard Philip Michaels, Macworld Apple released a server diagnostic download on Thursday that the company says will test servers running Mac OS X Server 10.6 for hardware issues. **** AT&T Says Loosing Apple iPhone Exclusivity Possible, But Not A Worry Joseph F. Kovar, ChannelWeb A top AT&T executive on Thursday acknowledged that his company could lose its exclusive contract with the Apple iPhone, but brushed off concerns that such an event would have a major impact on AT&T. **** Pro Applications Update Tackles Final Cut Studio Philip Michaels, Macworld Apple rolled out minor updates for the components of the latest version of its Final Cut Studio video-production suite on Thursday, with all five updates included in a single bundle. **** Three New "Get A Mac" Ads Premiere, Aimed At Win 7 Michael Rose, TUAW Domestic TV watchers who tuned into the NBC Thursday comedy lineup or the Yankees-Angels playoff game on Fox were treated to three new Get a Mac ads in heavy rotation tonight, all focused on the launch of the latest Windows version. You can watch all three ads (Broken Promises, Teeter Tottering & PC News) over on Apple's site. My favorite is PC News. **** Can You Plagiarize A Store? Harry McCracken, Technologizer **** Review: Yojimbo 2.0 Roman Loyola, Macworld Yojimbo 2.0 is a well executed update with truly worthwhile enhancements. It may not have everything on your wish list (where are those nested collections and rule-based smart collections?) but Yojimbo handles information with aplomb and is top notch in its class. **** How To: Create Free Ringtones For Your iPhone Caleb Kingston, App Advice MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Two Storytellers, Singing The Blues Michiko Kakutani, New York Times **** Timewarp: How Your Brain Creates The Fourth Dimension Douglas Fox, New Scientist When we look back at scary situations, they often seem to have occurred in slow motion. Eagleman wanted to know whether the brain's clock actually accelerates - making external events appear abnormally slow in comparison with the brain's workings - or whether the slo-mo is just an artefact of our memory. It's just one of many mysteries concerning how we experience time that we are only now beginning to crack. "Time," says Eagleman, "is much weirder than we think it is." **** Stops: On Those Things My New Novel Forgot To Be About, Maybe Jonathan Lethem, PowellsBooks For me, there's a weird, unfathomable gulf ??? I almost wrote gulp ??? between the completion of a novel and its publication. Some days this duration feels interminable, as though the book has voyaged out like some spacecraft on a research mission, populated by forgotten losers like the ones in John Carpenter's Dark Star, a craft cut loose by those who launched the thing and now grown irretrievable, bent by space and time into something distorted and not worth guiding home. Then there are other days, where the book might be a pitch that's left your hand too soon, now burning towards home plate, whether to be met by a catcher's mitt or the sweet part of the bat, you can't possibly know. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** The Hiring Gates Re-open Lin Yanqin, Today As the Singapore economy turns the corner and with potential growth ahead, more employers here plan to hire staff in this final quarter - more than at any other period this year - according to the latest report on manpower outlook by Hudson. **** Managing LUP: Advisers Should Be Independent Of Party Interests David Lim, Straits Times In essence, the Government has forgotten the difference between the organs that implement policies - for example, civil service and municipal concerns - and the government, thinking both are the same. In fact, in 40 years, it has institutionalised state organs to be People's Action Party (PAP) organs. **** Singaporean Youths Are Apathetic About Singapore???s Future Ivan Chan, The Online Citizen I urge everyone to break this cycle, to think about the future of living in Singapore, regardless of the molly coddling and the perceived certainty that life will always be smooth sailing. **** Latest Boulud Outpost - Singapore Glenn Collins, New York Times Chef Daniel Boulud announced Thursday that he will be opening a 120-seat DB Bistro Moderne restaurant in the new $5.5 billion Marina Bay Sands project, a luxury hotel and casino resort under construction by the Las Vegas Sands Corporation, which owns the Venetian resort-hotel-casino in Las Vegas. **** ?????????????????? ?????????????????? ????????????????????????96?????? ?????????, ???????????? **** ????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Russian Interest In Singapore Grows Kevin Brown, Financial Times Singapore is attracting a surge of Russian investment as rich business people seek a politically stable home for personal wealth as well as exposure to Asia's rapid recovery from the global financial crisis. **** A National Disgrace: NUS Stage-managed ???Forum??? For MM Lee The Temasek Review **** Five Countries Reject Civil Society Reps At Asean Summit D Arul Rajoo, Bernama The governments of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, the Philippines and Singapore have rejected members of civil groups from their respective countries at the 15th Asean Summit here. **** Progress At Genting's Singapore Casino Puts Pressure On Sands Wall Street Journal Officially, Genting hasn't strayed from its target date of early 2010 for the opening of its US$4.4 billion Resorts World on the holiday island of Sentosa. But despite its cautious public projections, the developer has quietly been preparing for an earlier ramp-up, and a consensus is emerging among market-watchers that Resorts World will open ahead of Sands' Marina Bay Sands project in the heart of Singapore's business district. **** Singapore's Home Prices Rebound On Cheap Money, Better Economy Bloomberg Singapore???s private home prices rose 15.8 percent in the third quarter, the most in 28 years, as cheap money and improving economic conditions lured buyers. **** MDA Launches Tender For Campaign To Promote Public-service Broadcasts Media The Media Development Authority of Singapore (MDA) has put out a tender for an agency to conceptualise and implement an integrated education campaign around public-service broadcasting. **** How CPF And Tax Changes Contribute To Widening Income Gap Between The Rich And The Poor The Temasek Review **** Singapore's Consumer Prices Declined A Sixth Month In September Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore???s consumer prices fell for a sixth month in September as a stronger currency reduced the cost of imports and housing and transportation prices eased. **** HDB Resale Prices Rise Fiona Chan, Straits Times Prices of HDB resale flats hit another record high in the third quarter, jumping 3.6 per cent over the second quarter. This is higher than HDB's estimate earlier this month of a 3.2 per cent increase, and comes after HDB resale prices rose 1.4 per cent in the second quarter over the first quarter. **** The Domino Effect Zach's Thought Blot **** HDB Will Ensure Adequate Supply Of New Flats Singapore Government This press release provides housing data for the HDB Resale and Rental Market transactions in 3rd Quarter 2009. **** The Government Will Continuously Introduce Incentives To Recognise Our NSmen???s Dedication And Commitment, Says Minister K Shanmugam Singapore Government **** Tough Start For ASEAN Human Rights Commission James Hookway, The Temasek Review Southeast Asia's efforts to create a commission to curb human rights abuses and encourage free-trade deals got off to a rocky start Friday when delegates from several countries refused to meet with a group of pre-selected civil society activists. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Oct 24 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 24 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 24, 2009 Message-ID: <20091024225901.64026.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Zed???s Dead, Baby. Zed???s Dead. John Gruber, Daring Fireball Apple???s official project to port ZFS to Mac OS X has been canned. **** Herd Mentality John Gruber, Daring Fireball It???s the same herd mentality that led to the rash of Apple needs to get in the ???netbook??? game punditry that I claim-checked earlier this week. I could have linked to a dozen others. The argument, though, is the same: everyone else is making netbooks, so Apple should, too. Why? Because everyone else is. **** IPhoto '09 Faces Bug Awaits Apple Update Doug McLean, TidBITS Users find that, upon attempting to find other matches for a particular face, spinning progress arrows appears next to the text, "X may also be in the photos below." For most affected users, no matches are ever made, and the arrows continue to spin. In some cases, after an inordinate amount of time, iPhoto returns a random group of off-the-wall suggested matches. **** UBS Speculates On Hidden Agenda In Nokia Patent Dispute MacNN Following news of Nokia's patent infringement lawsuit against Apple, UBS analyst Maynard Um suggests the possibility of a hidden agenda. The case -- involving Nokia patents on technology ranging from 3G to Wi-Fi and GSM -- could be a preemptive strike in order to avoid possible infringement issues with soon-to-be-released Nokia phones, many of which contain multi-touch capabilities similar to Apple's own. **** OmniDiskSweeper Helps You Track Down Where All Your Disk Space Went TJ Luoma, TUAW **** Apple Gets To Fly Banner, Despite Rules Stephanie Ebbert, Boston Globe The mayor???s campaign treasurer acknowledged this week that he called the Boston Redevelopment Authority two years ago about the permitting process for a massive iPod banner ad along the Southeast Expressway, an outsize display that Mayor Thomas M. Menino???s administration ultimately endorsed, despite its usual discouragement of new billboards. **** How An Original iPod Ended Up In London???s Science Museum Nicole Martinelli, Cult of Mac Today is the 8th birthday of the iPod and yes, though it hasn???t reached even a decade of life, it???s already the object of several museum exhibits. **** SheepShaver Brings Classic Mac OS To Snow Leopard Matt Neuburg, TidBITS **** Bugs & Fixes: Font Duplicate Misadventures Ted Landau, Macworld **** The iPod Turns Eight Years Old Scott McNulty, Macworld **** New 27-inch iMac Computer Shopper While some all-in-one desktops have come close to besting the iMac in certain areas, none has been able to beat Apple???s flagship desktop on both levels. Factor in the new Magic Mouse, and a beautiful LCD with more real estate than anything this side of a $1,000 monitor, and Apple has cemented the iMac???s reputation as the all-in-one to beat. **** NASA Releases App Eric Norwood, App Advice This is the first app from the United States space program for the iPhone and iPod Touch. It gives users direct access to up-to-date space mission content, NASA mission updates, images, and video links. **** Inside the App Economy Douglas MacMillan, Peter Burrows and Spencer E. Ante, BusinessWeek It's easy to shrug off the kooky world of apps. The bite-size software programs people load onto their mobile phones or tap into on the Web seem mostly to be silly games and pointless novelties. But look past the beer-drinking apps and flatulence programs and you'll see something significant taking shape: a bustling app economy that's creating new fortunes for entrepreneurs and changing the way business gets done. **** Apple's 'Free Ride' On Nokia May Cost $1b Reuters Apple faces the possibility of having to pay the world's top cellphone maker Nokia up to $US1 billion ($1.08 billion) for the technologies used in iPhones sold so far if it loses a lawsuit brought by Nokia, analysts said. **** Finger Painting Dan Zak, Washington Post Finger painting used to be the province of the preschooler. Now adults do it. Doodlers do it. Serious artists do it, like pop art master David Hockney. They do it -- as we do nearly everything these days -- with an iPhone application. "Brushes," which allows users to paint on the white digital canvas of an iPhone screen or iPod Touch using their fingertips, hit the app store in August 2008. Sales soared earlier this year after artist Jorge Colombo designed the New Yorker's June 1 cover art using the application. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Poetic Gaze Tony Harrison, Guardian Statues are one of the ways I try to test the traditions of European culture against the most modern destructive forces. I often make a point of seeking them out and have used them as mouthpieces in my film poetry, as with Heinrich Heine in The Gaze of the Gorgon. **** 'Dracula: The Un-Dead' By Dacre Stoker And Ian Holt Leslie S. Klinger, Los Angeles Times Although billed as a sequel, it's not really. But what it is is a tale that pushes the story in unexpected directions while remaining true to the dark heart of the Transylvanian vampire-king. **** Slaughterhouse Live Alex WIlliams, New York Times For some diners, belonging to a farm co-op or buying groceries from a greenmarket is no longer enough. Taking concepts like nose-to-tail eating a step further, a new generation of carnivores is learning to butcher, and in some cases, slaughter their own animals ??? think of it as do-it-yourself meat. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** I Am Singaporean Vol. 3, I ??? On Apathy Die Neue Welle The reason why self-centredness finds its expression in political engagement is that people believe that they can make a difference. As long as we never have this impression that we can make a difference, then apathy is here to stay. **** MFA Says Singapore's CSO Rep To ASEAN Dialogue "No Substitute" Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) has responded to media queries on the statement from the organisers of the ASEAN Peoples' Forum/ASEAN Civil Society Conference that it was "shocked" to learn that Singapore had selected "substitutes from government-sponsored agencies" to the Informal Dialogue with ASEAN Leaders. The ministry referred to the ASEAN Foreign Ministers Meeting in Phuket in July, where it was agreed that each ASEAN member would choose its own civil society organisation (CSO) representative for the Informal Dialogue with ASEAN Leaders at the 15th ASEAN Summit. **** Buyers Feeling The Squeeze Seah Chiang Nee, The Star As foreigners with PR status compete with young Singaporeans for public housing, impacting also on private development projects, prices rise and the government limits the entry of foreign arrivals. **** The Not-So-Great Perks Of Singaporean Citizenship Alastair Su, Gimme Some Truth! **** Singapore Group Learns From Md. Students WBALTV.com A delegation of educators from Singapore is looking to Maryland schools for help in developing a character education program. Maryland has gotten high marks for its school-based character education programs that encourage academic and cultural understanding. **** ???????????? ??????????????????30?????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore's Lee Says China, India To Rival US In This Century Peter S. Green, Bloomberg The U.S. may have less than a half- century left as the dominant global economic power before it will share top billing with China and India, former Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said in an interview. **** Obama To Meet Singapore' Lee Kuan Yew AFP President Barack Obama will meet Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew next week, the White House said Friday, as the US leader gears up for his first official visit to Asia. **** Singapore Bets On Casino Gambling Frederik Balfour, BusinessWeek The government hopes to boost tourism with two new casinos but will try to keep local gambling in check by charging Singaporeans a steep admission. **** Asean Inaugurates Human Rights Commission Thomas Fuller, New York Times Southeast Asian governments inaugurated their first human rights commission on Friday in what they hailed as a milestone for a region ruled by governments as diverse as the thriving democracy in Indonesia, the hermetic communist regime in Laos and the repressive military dictatorship in Myanmar. But human rights activists called the body toothless and walked out of a meeting here Friday when ???civil society??? representatives from five countries were rejected by their governments. **** Employers Urged To Adopt Fair Wage System For Older Workers Saifulbahri Ismail/Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia Manpower Minister Gan Kim Yong has urged companies to adopt a fair and equitable stance in dealing with workers' wages when they turn 60. Mr Gan said employers should not simply reduce salaries by the maximum 10 per cent permitted by the law. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Oct 25 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 25 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 25, 2009 Message-ID: <20091025225901.53375.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Inside Apple's New Mac Mini Server AppleInsider **** Killer Apps Don't Always Make A Killing For Developers Wendy Lee, The Tennessean Apple's iPhone has become a frenzied frontier to sell and market products, but making a profit there or even getting noticed is far from a sure thing. In Nashville, businesses ranging from well-funded corporations such as Nissan to entrepreneurs operating out of their homes have developed applications for the iPhone with different goals. **** How Apple Is Gaining On Microsoft Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune Both companies beat expectations last week, but only one of them was growing. **** Apple Punts On Lower-cost Macbook Brooke Crothers, CNET News By not coughing up a low-cost MacBook, as some had expected, Apple has ceded a potentially huge market to PC makers. But is this just all part of Apple's marketing genius? **** The Loss Of ZFS Louis Gerbarg, /dev/why!?! MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Mystery of Music Terry Teachout, Wall Street Journal What about it has such power over human beings? **** Long Day's Journey ... ... Into Knights Rebecca Bengal, Washington Post Men in tights, women in corsets, plainclothed suburbanites: Encounters at the Maryland Renaissance Festival can be a royal mystery. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** PM Lee Warns Of Marginalised ASEAN If It Doesn't Stay Relevant S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong has warned that ASEAN risks becoming marginalised if it does not stay relevant. Speaking during the ASEAN leaders retreat on Saturday morning, he said it was vital for the grouping to strengthen cooperation, deepen integration and enable all its member countries to develop and prosper. **** S$4m Public Space Unveiled At Dhoby Ghaut Wang Eng Eng, Channel NewsAsia Dhoby Ghaut Green, just outside the Dhoby Ghaut MRT station, is the latest addition to the 28 parks in the city. **** One Country, Two Systems Part IV Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** A Peak Into PAP Politics ??? Present And Future Fang Shihan, The Online Citizen The mere questioning of whether Singapore and the PAP are synonymous is indicative that we are in a transition of finding the anwer. **** Living In Style (Not) Jakarta Post Singapore is more of a city than a country and one that is quite ambitious when it comes to promoting itself. Some people might call this Napoleon Syndrome; however we have to admit that Singapore actually has some success as well as ambition. Some though (in particular the last Formula1 leg) could hardly be called successful. **** Progress, But At A Price Today Consumers, it seems, are losing out following the introduction of new contactless cards. **** Wet Markets: No Change Unless There's A Signal Neo Chai Chin, Today The National Environment Agency (NEA) may have no plans now to change the use or management of the 82 wet markets it operates, but the Housing and Development Board, which provides the facilities, will allow the sale or conversion to other uses if market forces send the "signal". **** Foreigners And Permanent Residents A More Common Sight In The Heartlands Leong Wee Keat and Ong Dai Lin, Today A Singaporean walking around Boon Lay Shopping Centre could be forgiven for thinking he is in a foreign land. It has six minimarts - four Myanmarese, one Thai and one Indian - while seven remittance shops and Internet cafes dot its aisles. **** 'PR Distribution In HDB Estates Will Be Monitored' Today The Housing and Development Board will consider measures to prevent the congregation of permanent residents, if necessary. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Oct 26 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 26 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 26, 2009 Message-ID: <20091026225900.98887.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple: Plenty Of Upside Left Steve Birenberg , Seeking Alpha **** Licensing Issues At Heart Of Apple's Decision To Kill Snow Leopard ZFS Plans Jack Loftus, Gizmodo **** 85,000 Reasons Why Apple???s iPhone Isn???t Going To Be Disrupted Robert Scoble, Scobleizer I???m not going to be switching anytime soon, and neither are you. **** Are The iPhone And Social Networks Making The Classic Web And Intranet Obsolete? Dion Hinchcliffe, ZDNet **** You Can't Have Too Many Backups For Mac Hard Drives Jeff Carlson, Seattle Times I've written in this column about the importance of having a good, reliable backup of your computer's data. Of course, you know it's a good idea, but backing up is like flossing: you know you should be doing it regularly, but something more important or interesting to do often comes up instead. And besides, your data won't get lost, right? **** App Store Too Much Of A Good Thing? John O'Brien, NEWS.com.au But has the rapid rise come at a cost? Does the App Store - and by extension the iPhone and iPod touch - risk becoming a victim of its own success? Let???s consider the evidence ... **** Top iPhone Apps For Health Pros, Patients Mitch Wagner , InformationWeek Healthcare professionals and individuals are finding ways to manage health and wellness with applications for the Apple iPhone and iPod Touch. **** iPhone-crazy? Not So Kiddy Apps In Apple's Online Store S M Ong, The New Paper Why can't the adult apps be segregated into a "Mature" category that I can tell my kids to avoid? **** iPod Application Now Replacing Calculators Meaghan Block, SCSU University Chronicle **** FCC Chairman: iPhone Bandwidth Will Require Spectrum Changes AppleInsider Bandwidth-heavy mobile devices like Apple's iPhone will require new policies because of a coming "spectrum gap," the U.S. Federal Communications Commission chairman said in a new interview. **** Apple Abandons Plans To Use Sun's ZFS File System: So What's Next? Charles Arthur, Guardian The big - the really big - question though is: what does Apple want a new filesystem to do? What is there that HFS+ Journaled [to use the American spelling] doesn't do that it needs a file system to do? **** Maximize Your IMovie Editing Space Jeff Carlson, Macworld Editing video is a task ideally suited to large monitors and lots of screen real estate. You want to see your video large, but still have plenty of room to view the project???s clips. Unfortunately, most of us don???t own a 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Display. The designers of iMovie were sympathetic, however, and included several options for maximizing the editing environment for any screen size. Whether you want to focus on your project instead of your video library, or just want to recover some elbow room while editing, the following techniques will help. **** Review: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Rick LePage, Macworld If you measure solely by whiz-bang new features, Photoshop Elements 8 comes across as a minor upgrade from version 6. However, with a the addition of few strong new tools and lots of small improvements, Elements remains a bargain for those people who want much of the power of Photoshop, but don???t want to pay the high price. **** Study Reveals More Details About The iPhone Mom Leena Rao, TechCrunch **** Review: BusyMac BusyCal 1.0 Calendar Software Joe Kissell, Macworld BusyCal addresses almost every common complaint about iCal, adds useful new features, and yet maintains the same simple interface and ease of use Mac users are accustomed to. The program is overkill for users with simple calendaring needs who have never found iCal limiting, but for anyone who needs to share calendars or wants a wider range of scheduling options, BusyCal is an ideal choice. **** Apple Tablet: Did The New York Times Spill The Beans? Ian Paul, PC World The New York Times' Executive Editor, Bill Keller may have inadvertently confirmed the existence of the oft-rumored Apple Tablet in a private speech earlier this month. Keller may have also let slip the name of the new device: Apple Slate. Then again, he may have been speaking hypothetically based on the common assumption that Apple is about to release a tablet device in the next few months. **** And The Awarding Goes To Daniel Jalkut, Red Sweater Blog We feel so good about our lofty development ideals, that we spend a lot of time kicking back and reflecting on what a great job we???re doing. Some of us even write lengthy blog posts sycophantically congratulating ourselves on a collective ???job well done.??? Jerks. In spite of our skillful self-adulation, we also appreciate and seek the opportunity to be rewarded with admiration from presumably unbiased groups. That is to say, we???re interested in awards. **** Review: Apple Magic Mouse Roman Loyola, Macworld Although it???s not perfect, the Magic Mouse successfully combines design and usability. It's great as a two-button wireless mouse, but if you need more than two buttons, the Magic Mouse is not for you. **** Upgrading A MacBook Pro's Hard Drive Christopher Breen, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** What Comes After Hard Drives? Lisa Zyga, PhysOrg.com The ability to store and retrieve data is an important component of today's computers, as well as other modern electronic devices such as cell phones, video game consoles, and camcorders. Since their invention in the 1950s, magnetic-based hard disk drives (HDDs) have been the primary method of nonvolatile storage. However, researchers are currently developing several new and promising nonvolatile memory (NVM) technologies, but for one of them to replace HDDs within the next decade, it will be a challenge. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** While The Women Are Sleeping Javier Mar??as, New Yorker **** Letter To Tsvetaeva Nina Zivancevic, New Yorker **** My Great-Grandmother???s Bible Spencer Reece, New Yorker **** Metropolitan Glory Tunku Varadarajan, Wall Street Journal >From Paris to Timbuktu, the urban places that have played illustrious roles in the world's story. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Let's Not Politicise LUP Anymore! Times They Are A-Changin' **** No Link Between Vaccines And Autism: MOH Karen Tan, Ministry of Health, Straits Times As for Mr Tan's concerns about autism and vaccination, there is strong scientific evidence to show that there is no link between vaccines and autism. This view is shared by the health authorities in the United States, Britain and the World Health Organisation. Independent reviews by the Cochrane Collaboration and the US Institute of Medicine have also come to the same conclusion. **** ????????? Littlesquare Blog ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Some Local Schools Look To Singapore To Boost Scores Michele Sager, Tampa Tribune With U.S. students lagging behind their counterparts in some countries, local educators are turning to Singapore to shake up their math curricula. Several private schools have adopted the Singapore Math curriculum ??? based on the principles used in the Asian nation ??? and the Hillsborough County school district is thinking about adding it, too. **** SDP Calls Off Planned Talk At Fajar After Permit Was Rejected By Police (Again) The Temasek Review The double standards practiced by the police and the criminalization of legitimate political activity is detrimental to the growth of the opposition as well as the civil society in Singapore. **** Singapore???s Missing Pillars Of Democracy (Part 1) The Temasek Review Democracy does not mean simply conducting elections every five years. Other integral components such as a free press, an independent judiciary and an active civil society must be present as well without which democracy becomes only a hollow name, a facade put up by the regime to legitimatize its rule. **** Grace Fu: HDB Cannot Guarantee Success Of Wet Markets The Temasek Review Grace Fu claimed that the operation of wet markets should be left to ???market forces???, but NTUC has enjoyed an unfair advantage right from the beginning with access to plentiful resources provided by the state. **** LTA Poll Shows Fewer People Using Public Transport In Last 4 Years Channel NewsAsia The number of people using public transport in Singapore has declined over the last four years, despite a land transport masterplan to get more people on buses and trains, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said Monday. LTA said a lack of major infrastructural improvements in public transport during that period could be one of the reasons behind the decline. **** Singapore Production Drops As Pharmaceutical Makers Cut Output Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore???s industrial production fell for the first time in three months in September as output at pharmaceutical companies dropped, heralding a moderation in the pace of the economic recovery. **** Credit Card Spending Up Francis Chan, Straits Times Consumer confidence continues to rally in the run-up to Christmas with figures out on Monday showing that credit card spending is up while payment delinquency rates at record lows. The latest numbers from the Credit Bureau Singapore (CBS) show that spending patterns have stayed steady despite the recession. **** MICA To Develop A Welcome Kit For New Citizens Using Taxpayers??? Monies The Temasek Review In other countries like Australia and Canada, migrants must pass an English proficiency test before they are even allowed to work there. In Singapore, the ruling party will offer free English courses to foreigners using public monies. **** Raising The Public Transport Mode Share To 70% By 2020 Is Key Objective Of Land Transport Masterplan Singapore Government The progress of our Masterplan measures so far, together with the 2008 household survey results, affirm the need for us to stay the course. The Land Transport Masterplan???s overriding goal is to ensure that our people continue to enjoy a high quality urban living environment even as the economy and population grow. **** Singapore's Heng Says Sustainability Of Recovery Is Not Clear RTT News Monday, Managing Director of Monetary Authority of Singapore, Heng Swee Keat said managing the cyclical recovery of Asian economies amid uncertainty presents several challenges. While the outlook has improved, the sustainability of the recovery is not clear at this point, Heng added. **** Singapore To Lure Indian Tourists With Casino Hindu Business Line Come 2010, a grand casino will be thrown open at Singapore???s Sentosa island to attract tourists, especially from India, in large numbers. **** Throwing Fish Yawning Bread These technicalities are designed to obscure a simple truth: The Singapore government, like its friends, the generals in Burma, refuse to engage with activists of any sort. Why else did the foreign ministers adopt such a policy in the first place? **** Worst Of Haze Over Due To Onset Of Monsoon Season: NEA Joanne Chen, Channel NewsAsia The worst of the haze appears to be over. The National Environment Agency (NEA) said Singapore is unlikely to be affected by transboundary haze from late November onwards. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Oct 27 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 27 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 27, 2009 Message-ID: <20091027225901.24898.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Piracy And The Apple App Store Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, ZDNet For App Store developers, these sorts of statistics must make depressing reading. It???s also a shameful indictment of a certain segment of iPhone/iPod touch users who happily pay hundreds of dollars for a device and feel the need to steal an app worth a few bucks. **** Jumpcut, A Free Clipboard Manager For OS X Charles W. Moore, Low End Mac **** Apple To Spend $4 Million On Chicago Subway Station MacNN Apple has agreed to spend over $4 million on renovating a Chicago subway station, according to Chicago Business. The station is situated near the intersection of North and Clybourn, where Apple is set to build another retail store for the city, measuring some 15,000 square feet with design by long-time partner Bohlin Cywinski Jackson. The lease on the real estate is expected to cost Apple at least $700,000 annually. **** Apple Flourishes In Europe And Beyond Lex Friedman, Macworld Much of the focus on last week???s quarterly earning announcement focused on record-setting Mac and iPhone sales and Apple???s recession-defying performance in this part of the globe. But just as interesting were the stellar numbers Apple turned in from other continents???and whether the company can keep that trend going into the lucrative holiday-shopping season. **** ScreenFlow 2.0 Adds Powerful New Editing Features Lex Friedman, Macworld **** Verizon: iDon???t Not Want The iPhone MG Siegler, TechCrunch Judging from the first Verizon commercial about the Droid project, it would seem that they clearly believe it is better than the iPhone. But if Verizon is so confident in this new device, why would they put themselves through the hassle of dealing with Apple to get what they view to be an inferior device? **** Dear Internet: Bill Keller Doesn???t Know The First Thing About The ???Apple Slate??? John Biggs, CrunchGear **** The Apple Powerhouse Nate McMahon, Motley Fool To understand why Apple's crushed earnings predictions were no shock, take a look at the business model that telegraphed the punches behind what Apple called its most profitable quarter ever. **** 10 Reasons Why The Microsoft-Apple Battle Helps PC Buyers Don Reisinger, eWeek As the marketing battle between Apple and Microsoft continues to heat up, desktop and notebook buyers are benefiting from improvements in features, security and user experience on both platforms. Apple keeps hammering away with the message that its platform is more secure and reliable. Microsoft is counting on improvements in Windows 7 to trigger a sustained wave of hardware and operating system upgrades that will keep buyers committed to the Windows platform. Here are 10 reasons why the Microsoft-Apple market war is a win-win situation for PC buyers. **** Mac 101: Publish iWeb '09 sites to FTP Dave Caolo, TUAW **** Memorial Hermann Healthcare System: Advancing health care with iPhone. Apple With thousands of doctors, nurses, and administrators in 11 hospitals ??? including the busiest trauma center in the country ??? Memorial Hermann Healthcare System depends on the latest mobile technologies to streamline its services and deliver better patient care. iPhone and state-of-the-art medical apps like AirStrip OB let Memorial Hermann???s physicians keep a finger on patients??? pulses even when they can???t be at their bedsides. **** Tests Confirm Apple's 27" iMac Only Supports DisplayPort Input AppleInsider Third party testing has confirmed that Apple's new 27" iMac can only be used as an external display for devices designed to provide DisplayPort video. It will not work with any equipment that only supports VGA, DVI, or HDMI output. **** App4mac Releases SecretBox 2 For Mac, iPhone MacNN App4mac has released a major upgrade to its data protection program for both the Mac and iPhone: SecretBox 2 is designed to create a database which can be used to store information such as credit card numbers, software registrations, and e-mail logins. **** First Look: VMware Fusion 3 Rob Griffiths, Macworld Overall, I???ve been impressed with VMware Fusion 3???s performance during my time with it. Creating new virtual machines was simple, performance was good even on a mid-range iMac, and the ability to use Aero effects and run 3D games in the virtual machine was impressive. The new Virtual Machine Library screen eases the management of multiple virtual machines, and the built-in update tool will make it easy to keep up to date with future releases. **** Apple Quietly Drops Prices On MacBook Pro RAM, Processor Upgrades O'Grady's Power Page **** Review: ScreenFlow 2 Rob Griffiths, Macworld ScreenFlow 2.0 is a big step forward for the screen recording application. The addition of transitions, freeze frames, clip speed adjustments, audio ducking, and basic color adjustment tools really make ScreenFlow an all-in-one solution. It???s now something that I could use for an entire project from start to finish, instead of exporting my edited screen recordings for further processing in Final Cut Express. Those users who need higher-end features, such as real color correction or advanced titling and more control over transitions, will still want to do some work in Final Cut or Final Cut Express; for most anyone else, though, ScreenFlow should meet their needs. **** Phil Schiller: No More Apple Products This Year Jesus Diaz, Gizmodo "The holiday lineup is set." It's all going to be pre-announcements from now until end of the year? **** Two More Snow Leopard Expose Tips Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** DoorStop X Security Suite 2.3 Doug McLean, TidBITS **** Apple To Extend Full Health Benefits To Its Part-Time Employees AppleInsider Starting in January 2010, part-time Apple employees who have been with the company for one year will receive full medical insurance coverage, as part of their compensation. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Virtual Voyage Through The Brain Of A Mouse Ashlee Vance, New York Times Mouse brain enthusiasts can finally relax. They finally have a place of their very own to hang out, swap stories and share information. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Faith No More Christopher Hitchens, Slate Magazine What I've learned from debating religious people around the world. **** Memo To Grammar Cops: Back Off! Laura Miller, Salon A new book on the history of "proper" English says you're just stuck up. **** The Devil In David Letterman Robert Kolker, New York Magazine How the late-night talk-show host handled his extortion crisis says a lot about the peculiar mix of function and dysfunction that got him in, and (for now) out, of the mess. **** Thoreau's Beans David Roderick, Slate Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Make It A Must For Local Staff, Too Leong Sze Hian, Today Address abnormality to ensure all workers start on a level playing field. **** Advisers And MPs Have Different Roles Lim Yuin Chien, Press Secretary To The Minister For National Development, Straits Times The roles of MP and adviser are distinct and separate, even though government MPs, wearing their other hat of advisers, are expected to perform both roles. Opposition MPs cannot be appointed advisers, because they do not answer to the ruling party. They have no constitutional or legal obligation to carry out national programmes on the Government's behalf. Nor can the government hold them to account if they perform this role unsatisfactorily. What was left unanswered is how does the government intent to hold non-MPs PAP advisors accountable? **** CPF Minimum Sum: Allow Higher Payouts Richard Foo, Straits Times As we are allowed to top up our previous Minimum Sum of $84,500 to the prevailing Minimum Sum of $117,000, I see no reason why we should not get a higher payout of $1,040, rather than $668 and a prolonged period of payout. **** 'Divorced From Reality' Today It is a modern, prosperous city-state based on the rule of law - but if you only read about Singapore in certain American publications, you would think it a repressive state that controlled people's very thoughts. "As if that is possible in a modern, successful, wired and internationally connected city," added law minister K Shanmugam. **** Netherlands, France, Singapore Cheapest For Mobile Broadband Lexton Snol, PC Advisor **** Asian Nations Aim To Succeed Where Bernanke Failed On Bubbles Shamim Adam and Seyoon Kim, Bloomberg Policy makers from South Korea to Singapore, confronted with rising real-estate values that threaten to mimic in Asia the U.S. mortgage bubble that roiled the global economy, are stepping up efforts to rein in prices. **** A Surfeit Of Shopping Malls Flaneurose Diehard shopaholics may disagree with me, but Singapore seems to have a surfeit of shopping malls. Not that I'm complaining much, mind you. **** Singapore Ranked Lower In Global Assesment Of Wealth And Wellbeing Than Hong Kong The Temasek Review **** ?????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????, ?????????????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** MND Continues To Throw Smoke Bombs Over Role Of PAP ???grassroots Advisers??? The Temasek Review The root cause of the problem lies in the lack of a clearly defined demarcation between the state and the party which resulted in many supposedly apolitical institutions like the People???s Association being made use of by the PAP to serve its partisan interests. **** Singapore???s Missing Pillars Of Democracy (Part 2): What Are We Actually Missing? The Temasek Review The pervading and sometimes overwhelming sense of apathy, scepticism and fear of participating in politics is the biggest stumbling block to Singapore becoming a healthy and functioning democracy for there is no democracy without participation from the people. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ??????, ????????? **** Sheng Siong: ???Inconvenient To Meet??? Singapore Democrats Supermarket chain Sheng Siong has declined an invitation to meet with the Singapore Democrats, citing the reason?? that it is ???inconvenient??? to do so. The SDP had written to the company to meet with its representatives over its takeover of wet markets in Singapore. **** ERP Rates At 3 Gantries To Be Raised From Nov 1 Channel NewsAsia **** I Do Declare, I'm Confused Melvinder Singh Kanth, Today I have had nothing to hide and have had always placed everything in the scanner in plain view of the officials. Putting luggage in the scanner is not declaring GST duties. **** PAP MP Ho Geok Choo Against ???quota System??? To Ensure Even Distribution Of PRs The Temasek Review While foreigners are not subjected to the quota system, Singaporeans have been subjected to a racial quota which limits on who they can sell their flats to. **** Customers Still Wanting Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times Customers in Singapore continue to see a decline in their satisfaction levels for the first three quarters of this year for six out of eight sectors measured. **** Tough Tests Serve A Positive Purpose Yawning Bread I see in a few letters that parents feel children should not be demoralised by tough exam questions. Is this a good enough justification for tinkering with what a good testing regime should be? Or is this yet another facet of the expectations problem? When a child and his parents start expecting to be able to do all the questions in a test with relative ease, then of course it will come as a rude shock when he is faced with a paper that contains some truly difficult questions. But this worries me less than the prospect of a society where large numbers of kids grow up thinking highly of themselves, on no better foundation than that they've had a lifetime of flawless exam results. **** Singapore Tourism Rises For First Time In 2009 Associated Press Singapore tourist arrivals rose in September for the first time this year, boosted by holidays in neighboring Indonesia and Malaysia. **** Shanmugam Peeved At Singapore Media???s Pathetic Rankings On The World Press Freedom Index The Temasek Review Given the Singapore media???s dismal track record and lack of any improvements in terms of journalistic freedom, integrity and independence over the past one year, it is ???quite absurd and divorced from reality??? that it is now ranked 11 positions higher than its 144th ranking last year. **** Singapore Getting Richer In A Downturn Blowin' In The Wind Now that is something others could learn from Singapore: how to get richer in a recession. **** Seeing Singapore Through The Smoke Annie Scott, Tonic Still, no brawls, no drug busts, no clouds of pot smoke. Who are these 4.98 million people? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Oct 28 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 28 Oct 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 28, 2009 Message-ID: <20091028225901.44253.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Releases Magic Mouse Software Updates For Leopard, Snow Leopard Jonathan Seff, Macworld **** Nokia-Apple Row May Last More Than 1 Year Tarmo Virki, Reuters A legal battle between Apple Inc and Nokia Corp over patent infringement is likely to last for more than a year, said Bill Merritt, the head of mobile licensing firm InterDigital. **** Some Things I'd Like To See In Mac OS X 10.7 Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News **** Apple Does The Right Thing The Digital Lifestyle **** Why Freelance iPhone Development Is Becoming More Popular, And Easier To Do Editable Apple **** Psystar's $50 Hackintosh Tool Not All It's Cracked Up To Be Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Giving Psystar $50 buys you repackaged open source software but doesn't guarantee a fully-functional hackintosh. Rebel EFI appears to be just another attempt to profit from others' work. **** Apple Posts DIY Info For New iMac Memory Installation Ken Ray, TUAW **** 3 Times Unlucky Or Just Start Of A Larger Trend Om Malik, GigaOm Back home, the machine is sitting on the table, wrapped up in cellophane. I dread even booting it up. What???s the point if this one is going to be another lemon ??? three in a row is a pretty bad sign, don???t you think? I am not even angry anymore ??? I have lost the data, I have lost my time and more importantly, I have lost my trust in Apple and its hardware. As an unabashed fan boy of Apple products ??? that is the worst part of this whole ordeal. **** Pound The Quality John Gruber, Daring Fireball The number of apps already in the store ??? and, even more so, the momentum with which new ones are being added ??? almost certainly guarantees the continuing popularity of the iPhone and iPod Touch for the next few years. But Windows is proof that popularity doesn???t guarantee market-leading quality. **** MacBook (Late 2009) Benchmarks James Galbraith, Macworld Compared to the system it replaces, the new 2.26GHz MacBook was faster than the older 2.13GHz MacBook in every test we ran, though, in many cases, not by very much. **** DocProtect 1.1 Adds Image Support, PDF Subscription Model MacNN Excel Software has announced an update to its project- and document-protection application, DocProtect 1.1. The program is designed to protect rights and prevent access to HTML projects, image collections, video and audio files, PDFs, and Excel spreadsheets for all non-licensed users. **** iPhone And iPod Touch Remote Controls Christopher Breen, Macworld **** App Store Stories: One Man's App. Three Corporations. Lyrics 2 Against The World. Erica Sadun, TUAW It has been a long journey from the ill-fated Lyrics with its censoring issues, Easter eggs, and unlicensed data to the fully licensed Lyrics 2. Hopefully, Kluivers' story will provide an inspiration for the other small developers out there. **** How Apple Sliced Its Pie In 2009 Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune The Mac and iPod slices shrank between '08 and '09. iTunes grew a bit. iPhone grew a lot. **** Wilcox Says The iPhone Will Lose Smartphone War; I Don???t Think So Jim Dalrymple, The Loop **** Timeline: No-regret Version Control For Photoshop Brett Terpstra, TUAW Timeline from PixelNovel aims to take the "geek" requirements out of using version control in Photoshop. **** Supporting Your Family Christopher Breen, Macworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** What The Last Meal Taught Him Kim Severson, New York Times Thomas Keller cooked his father???s last meal. **** The Joys Of Clay Pot Cooking Paula Wolfert, Los Angeles Times I don't think I've ever met a clay cooking pot I didn't like . . . or want to own. **** A Language of Smiles Olivia Judson, New York Times Do some languages contain an intrinsic bias towards pulling happy faces? In other words, do some languages predispose ??? in a subtle way ??? their speakers to be merrier than the speakers of other languages? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** No Ban On Press Criticism Zakir Hussain, Straits Times Singapore does not seek to ban press criticism of the Government or policies, but demands the right of reply, Law minister K. Shanmugam has said. If factual allegations are made, a libel suit will follow and those accusations must be proved. **** Use Human Guides, Not Smart Phones, For Nature Rambles Sabrina Wong, Straits Times I do not doubt that smart phones are a hit with school children. However, to inculcate a love for nature, human presence and interaction are much more effective. In the first place, I doubt that a machine can impart enthusiasm, excitement and respect for flora and fauna like an impassioned human guide or teacher. **** Take Action Against Rogue Cyclists Tang Kah Wai, Straits Times Why wait till something bad happens before anyone takes action? **** Mom-and-pop Shops Go 24 Hours Imelda Saad, Today In the struggle to survive, some mom-and-pop retailers in heartland estates have gone 24 hours. **** CJ Rebuts The Critics Today Some have alleged that Singapore pays just lip service to the rule of law; others question the independence of its judges. Chief justice Chan Sek Keong, addressing such criticisms yesterday, made it clear: "Political authority must be exercised subject to, and in accordance with, the law," he told his audience at the New York State Bar Association seasonal meeting held here. **** Will Pay More For Fast Rides Maria Almenoar, Straits Times How much would a motorist be willing to pay to avoid congestion on the roads? Or, if you prefer public transport, how high would you go for a seat on that bus or train to work? Just about double whatever it takes now to get a smooth ride, it seems, according to a new survey commissioned by the Land Transport Authority (LTA). **** Trouble In The Asean Talking-Shop Asia Sentinel **** As APEC Approaches, Singapore Turns Some Away Zheng Xin, Epoch Times Singaporean border officials denied entry to two Falun Gong practitioners on Oct. 19 and 22 who had previously frequented the country, one from Indonesia and the other from Malaysia. As the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit in November approaches, the practitioners believe hosting officials are concurrently engaged in a politically motivated attempt to limit the presence of Falun Gong practitioners in the areas where events will be held. **** Why RSF's Press Freedom Index Is Flawed ??? And Why It Works Cherian George, Journalism.sg RSF???s method means that, at the end of the day, what it gives us is not really a ???press freedom index??? but a ???national perception of press freedom index???. Actually, it???s not even that. **** ????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** ????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore???s Missing Pillars Of Democracy (Part 3): Building The Most Important Pillar Right Now The Temasek Review **** Comments On Singapore???s Press Rankings Readings From A Political Duo-ble While Shanmugam was right to argue that Singapore is not suffering from internal instability, he has mistakenly conflated press freedom with the political climate. **** Shanmugam : Low Ranking For Press Freedom Here Absurd! Diary of A Singaporean Mind Imagine that you're a full time journalist whose family depend on your income, what kind of articles will you write? **** ?????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Mos Burger???Pepper Lunch???Yoshinoya???R Burger???????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Airlines Says Too Soon To Call Global Travel Recovery Chan Sue Ling and Mary Schlangenstein, Bloomberg Singapore Airlines Ltd., the world???s biggest carrier by market value, said it was too soon to say whether a rebound in air travel last month marked the beginnings of a long-term revival in demand. **** The IR Jobs Bonanza The Edge Singapore Will the two integrated resorts, Marina Bay Sands and Resorts World at Sentosa, which are???now fast nearing completion, be a huge jobs bonanza for Singapore? The way one resort operator tells it, everyone may have underestimated exactly how many people might be needed to keep the iconic resorts humming. **** Shanmugam: Press Can Criticize (But Will They Dare To?) The Temasek Review Does Mr Shanmugam really believe that the press ??? both local and international will dare to criticize the Singapore government given its proven low tolerance for criticism and dismal track record of suing the media for defamation? **** Correcting Minister Shanmugam???s Misperception That Singapore Is A ???Stable Democracy??? The Temasek Review For those who are aware of Singapore???s political system, it is neither stable nor is it a democracy. **** Mindful Of Jakarta Bombings, Singapore Prepares For Obama - Feature DPA As Singapore prepares to host the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit next month with US president Barack Obama and other world leaders, authorities are warning of a terrorist threat. Since suicide bombers attacked the Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott hotels in Jakarta in July, killing nine people and injuring more than 50, Singapore fears that terrorist groups might look at similar targets during the November 14-15 APEC meeting. **** China, Singapore May Beat Sydney In Carbon-hub Race Bruce Hextall, Reuters Asian cities are likely to beat Australia in the race to become a carbon-trading hub, despite Australian plans to set up the region's first cap-and-trade market, industry experts said on Wednesday. **** MOE To Review Initiatives And Give More Help To Keep Students In School Hetty Musfirah Abdul Khamid, Channel NewsAsia The Ministry of Education (MOE) will review initiatives aimed at getting students to stay in school. It said more will be done to help the schools keep their drop-out rate low. **** Distribution Flyers Trial: Senior Officers Contradict Each Other Singapore Democrats You would think that a Superintendent (Supt) of the police would be competent enough to get his story straight when testifying in a court of law. Apparently that's a myth in Singapore. Supt Abdul Khalik, Head Investigations of the Central Police Division no less, contradicted himself and his subordinate so badly that he ended up being chastised by the Judge. **** CJ (Then AG) Chan Sek Keong???s Letter To Law Minister Jayakumar Nn The Presence Of Unauthorised Persons Inside Polling Stations In 1997 The Temasek Review **** Paperless Government Not Yet A Singapore Reality VIvian Yeo, ZDNet Asia The public sector has made strides toward nurturing a paper-free culture, but its interaction with a myriad of stakeholders means it will take years before a true paperless government becomes a reality, observes an analyst. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Oct 29 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 29 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 29, 2009 Message-ID: <20091029225900.25344.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Stores Upgrading From Windows-based EasyPay To iPod Touch AppleInsider Multiple sources have noted that Apple will be transitioning its retail store EasyPay handheld checkout systems from Windows-based PDA devices to iPod touch hardware for the 2009 holiday season. **** Apple Sued Over Infringement Of Camera Tech Patents MacNN **** Track Your Tweets With iPhone App Tweetie Lance Whitney, CNET News Tweetie is the app I've stuck with the longest, and the one I heartily recommend. **** Apple's 2009 Ad Budget: Half A Billion Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune Half a billion doesn't seem like so much when it's compared with the $1.4 billion Microsoft spent in fiscal 2009, or the $811 million Dell spent on ads I can't remember ever seeing. In fact, as a percentage of revenue, Apple has actually been decreasing its ad spending every year for the past eight, from nearly 5% in 2001 to 1.37% today (1.17% if you use non-GAAP revenue). **** Apple iMac 27-inch (Core 2 Duo) Joel Santo Domingo, PC Magazine The Apple iMac 27-inch (Core 2 Duo) is certainly a class-defining product. It's got a huge screen, looks beautiful, and has some serious power under the hood. **** iWeb Not Enough? Build Your Web Site With Sandvox Natalia Nowak, Mac 360 **** Paris Apple Store At The Louvre Set For Nov 7th Opening MacNN **** Apple Updated Improves Bluetooth With Windows On Boot Camp MacNN **** Google Says Its Navigation Will Come To iPhone, If Apple Approves AppleInsider Google on Wednesday revealed a free online navigation service that will be a part of its forthcoming Android 2.0 mobile operating system. It could also come to the iPhone, the company said, if given the green light by Apple. **** How Apple's Magic Mouse Works Matthew Bolton, Techradar.com And why there's no pinch-to-zoom. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Using A Cellphone Number To Pay For Virtual Goods Claire Cain Miller, New York Times Eventually, online shoppers might simply need to enter their cellphone number to pay for a purchase. Two online payment start-ups, Zong and Obopay, have taken a step closer to making that a reality. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The First Marriage Jodi Kantor, New York Times The centrality of the Obama marriage to the president???s political brand opens a new chapter in the debate that has run through, even helped define, their union. **** Gumshoes, Sleuths And Cops, Squealed On By Scribblers Janet Maslin, New York Times It began as a marketing strategy. Otto Penzler, the renowned proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City, wanted to keep his customers happy. And he wanted to keep them out of chain stores. So he began commissioning annual Christmas stories from popular crime writers and giving out free copies of these stories as thank-you gifts to the shop???s customers. **** Movie Director David Lynch On Artist Ed Ruscha Christopher Goodwin, The Times To understand Ed Ruscha, ask David Lynch. He explains how the artist???s glorification of the banal became the last word in Californian cool and inspired so many. **** Living On $500,000 A Year William J. Quirk, The American Scholar What F. Scott Fitzgerald???s tax returns reveal about his life and times. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Faulty Ez-link Cards - Give Complimentary Card Wilson Choo, Straits Times Most ez-link card users are average citizens who requires the card to travel daily. It is not their fault if their cards are defective. **** Let Civil Servants Execute Govt Schemes Rather Than Advisers Matthias Chew, Straits Times While I can accept that opposition MPs cannot, and should not, be placed in a position where they are held accountable for government policy, surely the unelected grassroots advisers, who are not members of the government but merely of the ruling party of the day, may only be held accountable to the party, and not the government. Civil servants already competently execute most national programmes, under the direction of their elected political masters, so it makes little sense to task specific aspects of implementation to unelected political appointees. **** Gender Gap Index: More Equality In Singapore But ... Today It has improved on its overall score on equality between the sexes, but Singapore has slipped again in the world gender gap index by the World Economic Forum. **** Missing From Straits Times CEO Pay Report... Blowin' In The Wind **** 2010: Pay Hikes Are Going To Be A Pittance Liau Chuan Yi and Norvin Chan, Asian Correspondent **** Singapore???s Opposition Parties ??? Time For Some Backward Integration? Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks Singapore's opposition parties face many obstacles in their drive to win public support. One can sympathize with their plight. However, it is not apparent to the public that the opposition parties are serious in their efforts to create a viable alternative to the PAP. **** ????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????60?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Thoughts On PRs Usurping Jobs Meant For Singaporeans Jay Tan, The Temasek Review **** Reporters Without Borders Replies To Temasek Review Vincent Brossel, Reporters Without Borders, The Temasek Review About the ???improvement??? (in Singapore???s ranking to 133th), it is mainly due to the fact that the previous year was worst with several trials. **** Paradox Of Singapore Economic Growth: Economy Has Grown Fast, Labour Income Share Remains Dismally Low Abdul Gafoor, The Temasek Review **** Gradual Economic Pickup Expected For Singapore Channel NewsAsia The Singapore economy is likely to settle at a more gradual pace of expansion, with GDP growth in 2010 expected to be lower than in previous post-recession periods. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said in its Macroeconomics Review released on Thursday that compared to six months ago, the outlook for the second half of 2009 and for 2010 is "markedly more optimistic". **** Singapore's Central Bank Sees 'Slower, Steadier' Growth In 2010 Bloomberg Singapore will grow at a ???slower and steadier??? pace in the coming quarters as the construction industry contributes less to the city-state???s expansion and external demand remains ???challenging,??? the central bank said. Singapore is dependent upon a rebound in exports to sustain its recovery from the global slump. The central bank, which said earlier this month it will maintain a zero appreciation stance in its currency policy, said today it ???intervenes??? to reduce pressure for the Singapore dollar to strengthen as investments in Asian assets rise with the region???s economic revival. **** Shanmugam: Singapore ISA Subjected To ???checks And Balances??? The Temasek Review Unless Mr Shanmugam can release classified information about Operation Spectrum to lend support to his words and to debunk the allegations directed at the ISA by the ex-detainees, it will be an uphill task for him to convince Singaporeans as well as foreigners that ???ISA is subjected to checks and balance???. **** Law Minister Defeats ???Reporters Without Borders?????? Straw Man Pitram Singh, The Online Citizen In shrewdly seeking to conflate Singapore???s economic success against the irrelevance of international press freedom rankings, Law minister K Shanmugam sought to justify the importance of maintaining the government???s indirect control over the press in Singapore. In reality, Singapore???s economic success since the 1960s is of little relevance to RwB, as is the economic performance of any other country it ranks. Correspondingly, the Law minister ought to have respected the objective ranking standards of RwB, in step with his triumphant references to reports from the World Economic Forum, IMD, Moody???s, Mercer and Mori, which rank Singapore favourably in economic, legal and quality of life indices. **** 4th University Named As Singapore University Of Technology And Design Hetty Musfirah, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's fourth public-funded university, which is scheduled to open its doors in 2011, has been named the Singapore University of Technology and Design (SU). **** Town Council Act (CAP 329A) States Clearly That Govt Must Work With Town Councils (Run By MPs) To Implement LUP The Temasek Review If a precedent is set which allows for laws as outlined in the Singapore Statutes to be ignored and disobeyed, what will our country become? **** Crackdown On Errant Cyclists Straits Times Between Oct 12 and 23, officers from the Traffic Police and the Land Transport Authority (LTA) conducted a joint operation and issued a total of 310 summonses to errant cyclists, particularly those found using unapproved motorised bicycles or not wearing suitable protective bicycle helmets. **** The Minister Doth Protest Too Much Singapore Democrats And so while Mr Shanmugam tells America that there is no repression in Singapore, his audience politely nod and smirk that 'yeah-right' smirk. Think about it. Which governments need to repeatedly declare that they don't repress their citizens? The ones that repress their citizens, of course. **** Our Approach To Law Has Resulted In Lower Crime Rates Singapore Government **** Art Wars: Hong Kong Vs. Singapore Alexandra A. Seno, Wall Street Journal Longtime rivals in trade and finance, Hong Kong and Singapore are vying to become Asia's regional arts hub, part of a strategy to be crowned Asia's top city. **** Educators From Singapore Learn At Newport Mill Jen Beasley, Gazette.net Respect is something internationally understood. It is also the October trait at Newport Mill Middle School, which is appropriate, because the school received a lot of it last week when educators from the Ministry of Education in Singapore visited to learn about the school's character education program. **** S'pore Rejects Emission Cuts Amresh Gunasingham, Straits Times Speaking to The Straits Times on the sidelines of the 11th Asean Ministerial Meeting on the Environment on Thursday, minister for the environment & water resources Yaacob Ibrahim said: 'We are not obligated to set targets or reduce emissions, but...we will do our part.' 'Whatever we do, we cannot compromise our ability to grow. So how we find a balance will be a continuous process.' **** Traffic Smooth Along AYE - So Why The Spike In ERP Charges? Sally Kong, Straits Times I travel the AYE every day during this period at speeds of 80kmh to 90kmh, keeping within the speed limit. Traffic is smooth-flowing. From Buona Vista exit to Lower Delta Road, it takes me about eight minutes. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Oct 30 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 30 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 30, 2009 Message-ID: <20091030225900.10796.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** High Price Tests China's Appetite For iPhone Loretta Chao, Wall Street Journal The buzz-killer is price. **** Make Easy Timelapse Movies With Your iPhone Josh Lowensohn, CNET News Time-lapse movies can be a complicated affair, and quite often involve either a lot of special equipment, and/or post-processing skills. For just a buck though, you can use the recently released Timelapser app to turn your iPhone into a tool that can do this time-bending filming technique using nothing more than the onboard camera. **** How To Get An iPhone App Refunded App Advice It is common belief that all purchases on the App Store are definitive. Well, it???s not the case. It???s true indeed that you might get disoriented in iTunes but if you know how to proceed and as long as you have a valid reason, there is no obstacle to getting your money back. **** 12 Things You Need To Know About Apple TV 3.0 [Apple] Gizmodo If there's one Apple product that lives outside the Reality Distortion Field, it's Apple TV . But hey wait, 3.0 is out , doesn't that change everything? Well, considering Apple rolled it out on a Thursday afternoon with no fanfare, whattaya think? **** Review: I Want To Love The Magic Mouse, But I Can???t Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac The big problem is that the Magic Mouse doesn???t operate completely like a little trackpad. Instead, it???s a hybrid between a regular mouse and a multitouch trackpad. **** Coding For Accessibility: The Experience Of SG Buses Developer Muh Hon Cheng Jimmy Yap, iMerlion **** Blind iPhone User Is A Voice For The Sight-Impaired Jimmy Yap, iMerlion Alvin Ng may be blind but that has not stopped him from being an avid iPhone user. He loves playing around with the device and trying out apps from the app store. He even provides iPhone tech support to his wife, a private tutor who has normal sight. **** iPhone App Is Not Rhapsody's Panacea Technologizer If you measure Rhaspody for iPhone???s success by the downloads it has accumulated ??? over a half million ??? it would be a hit. But looking at Real???s quarterly results, which reported subscriber numbers for the service, a different story is told. Rhapsody is still steadily losing subscribers, definitely not good news for the company. **** iTunes 9.0.2 Improves App Sorting CNET News Apple released iTunes 9.0.2 today an update that included additional improvements to app sorting for the iPhone and iPod Touch. **** First Look: Apple TV 3.0 Macworld Apple TV 3.0 is a nice, mild update to an outdated piece of hardware that???s still not nearly as capable as it should be. The real question is, what???s next for Apple???s hobby? If Steve Jobs knows the answer, he???s not talking. **** 5 Smart Playlists To Help You Manage Your iTunes Library Sang Tang, TUAW SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Obama Welcomes 'Legendary' Lee Kuan Yew AFP US president Barack Obama on Wednesday lauded Singapore's "legendary" founding father Lee Kuan Yew, as he sought advice ahead of his first trip to Asia since taking office. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** Lessons To Be Gleaned From Singapore's Property Boom Gillian Tett, Financial Times If you talk to financiers in Singapore these days, the topic of property prices keeps cropping up but, unlike in America, it is not the threat of further real estate market falls. Instead, as Wall Street worries about American house prices - exemplified by a downbeat report from Goldman Sachs this week - in Asia there is mounting concern about property booms-cum-bubbles. **** Singapore Turns To Drugs To Soothe Output Hiccups Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore's government plans to attract pharmaceuticals makers and raise the number of drug factories on the island by two thirds in the hope that a broader product range will reduce the wild swings in industrial output. **** Services To Drive Singapore Economy: Central Bank China Post Trade-reliant Singapore will increasingly look to its services sector in the future as it tries to soften the impact of any further global economic crises, the central bank said Thursday. **** Singapore-style Democracy Zakir Hussain, Straits Times Shanmugam cites US economist who sees the Republic as a challenge to time-tested models. **** Singapore 3Q Unemployment Rises To 3.4 Percent Associated Press Singapore's unemployment rate crept higher in the third quarter with a recession earlier this year triggering layoffs in the manufacturing sector. **** Unemployment Hits 5% Among Singapore Residents Blowin' In The Wind It's clear the government scheme to keep unemployment low by helping people defer job search and further their studies has had only a temporary benefit. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Oct 31 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 31 Oct 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Oct 31, 2009 Message-ID: <20091031225900.86536.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** New iMac Owners Complain About Performance Problems Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Owners of Apple's new iMacs, including the pricier 27-in. model, have reported major performance problems with their machines, including extremely sluggish playback of Flash-based video, according to posts on Apple's support forum. **** Chinese iPhone Has No Wi-Fi Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS The reason for this omission is the Chinese government's efforts since 2003 - in fits and starts - to promote a proprietary security standard for 802.11 devices called WAPI (WLAN Authentication and Privacy Infrastructure; WLAN standard for wireless local area network). **** Mac Mini (Late 2009) Benchmarks James Galbraith, Macworld With its considerably faster 2.53GHz Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM, it???s no surprise that the new $799 Mac mini was noticeably faster in our tests. **** Three iPhone Things That Bug Me Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu 1. Cover Flow. 2. Mobile Safari likes to crash. 3. iTunes likes to automatically start playing when I remove or insert the headphone. **** Get Cozy With Comics On Your iPhone Don Reisinger, CNET News If you're a fan of comic books, you should also be a fan of the iPhone. Apple's smartphone is home to several neat comic-book apps designed specifically for those who want to enjoy harrowing stories of their favorite heroes in the Digital Age. **** Noise Buster 7.0 Adds Snow Leopard Support, Enhancements MacNN The application is designed to remove noise in the color and luminance layers of images, both separately and together. The upgrade delivers a series of new features including support for Adobe Photoshop Elements 8, 64-bit Adobe Photoshop CS4, and Snow Leopard, as well as improvements to both the noise reduction algorithm and interface. **** Why Your 3-year-old Needs An iPhone Chris Matyszczyk, CNET News If putting an iPhone into their hands makes them happier and smarter, and, well, hushed in concentration, then might this not be a good thing? **** Why An iPhone Could Actually Be Good For Your 3-Year-Old Neil Swidey, Boston Globe Parents who hand smart phones to their preschoolers as a distraction are shocked to see how quickly the kids become pros. They may worry about such early screen time. But for this generation of ???mobile kids,??? portable, wireless technology promises to improve the way they learn. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** What Are Women Fighting About? Emily Gould, Intelligent Life Women are often the cruellest critics of other female writers. Where does this anger come from, and at what expense? **** Taking The Novel Seriously Richard Lea, Guardian The winner of a literary prize is sometimes surprised, often delighted, seldom ever disappointed. But when I finally caught up with the novelist Rana Dasgupta, speaking on a patchy mobile phone as he drove through rural India a couple of weeks after his novel, Solo, had been voted the winner of the Guardian's inaugural Not the Booker prize, he confessed that he found his victory "very depressing". **** What To Write Next Colson Whitehead, New York Times I recently published a novel, and now it???s time to get back to work. If you???re anything like me, figuring out what to write next can be a real hassle. A flashy and experimental brain-bender, or a pointillist examination of the dissolution of a typical American family? ??Generation-spanning door-stopper or claustrophobic psychological sketch? Buncha novellas with a minor character in common? To make things easier, I modified my dartboard a few years ago. Now, when I???m overwhelmed by the untold stories out there, I head down to the basement, throw a dart and see where it lands. Try it for yourself! **** A New York Forkful Dawn Drzal, New York Times In 1815, Paris had 3,000 restaurants; New York had none. (In fact, the word itself wouldn???t enter the American lexicon until the middle of the 19th century.) Those forced to eat out could choose between ???a slab of beef or mutton with potatoes and gravy??? at a boardinghouse or chophouse, reports William Grimes, a New York Times domestic correspondent and formerly the newspaper???s restaurant critic, whose latest book is a chronicle of New York???s transformation from a Dutch village at the edge of the wilderness to what he sees as the most diverse restaurant city in the world. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Public Service Satisfies Jessica Lim, Straits Times More than 80 per cent of Singaporeans are satisfied with public service here, according to a recent study conducted research company Forbes Research. **** Zoo Cleaner's Death Suicide Khushwant Singh, Straits Times Zoo cleaner Nordin Montong, 32, deliberately got himself mauled to death by two white tigers on Nov 13 last year, said state coroner Victor Yeo, who recorded a verdict of suicide on Friday. Why the Malaysian ended his life was however not evident. **** Needy Seniors Working The Streets Are A Reality Tan Teck Leng, Straits Times Even if one disproves the dire circumstances of one individual, the problem is not non-existent. **** Have Balance, Please Ken Kwek, Straits Times As a film-maker and dramatist, one of the things I continue to question is the criteria for censorship, and the censor's lack of balance in reflecting the public's values and respecting the artist's craft. **** Singapore Will Do Its Part If ... Channel NewsAsia The Republic may not be under any international obligations to make "absolute cuts" in carbon emissions, but it must - and is prepared to - do its part in tackling the global problem of climate change, said prime minister Lee Hsien Loong. "Unlike many bigger countries, we face serious limitations in switching to alternative energy sources or reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. Nevertheless, we are a responsible member of the international community, and we have to bear our fair share of the collective global effort to reduce carbon emissions," he said, at the launch of the Clean and Green Singapore campaign at HortPark on Friday. **** People's Association Songwriting Competition And Copyright Thuggery Sam Ho, Sam's thoughts Why would a stat board bother about owning full rights to someone else's song? They probably want to save up on paying royalties and licenses. And if they exclusively own the song, they could profit from royalties themselves. But isn't the PA about fostering community togetherness? I find it unjustifiable they adopt this "peripheral competency" of owning rights to a bunch of songs. **** ?????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????44????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Lee Kuan Yew On Asia Pacific Arrangements Peter Drysdale, East Asia Forum Lee???s speech traversed the implications of the shifts in world power and the institutional changes that are under way or in contemplation, and deserves close study, especially for those who are students of how thinking in Singapore might develop towards the Rudd and Hatoyama proposals for renovating regional architecture. **** Singapore's New Breed Of Bar Christine Chow, New York Times As Singapore???s thirst for cocktails has grown steadily over the last few years, a new generation of bars and clubs has emerged in some memorably unusual places. **** High Life: Singapore Sameer Reddy, Diane, A Shaded View On Fashion The Singapore Tourist Board was kind enough to extend an invitation to experience the country's five-star hospitality options. Here I'm reporting on my favorite part of the experience: the incredible hotels that they booked me into. **** Asia Ministers Fear Climate Impact On Business Financial Times Ministers from two of Asia???s tiger economies have said worries about climate change must not compromise business, casting further doubts on whether an international framework on greenhouse gas emissions can be agreed at Copenhagen in December. **** Recession Hits Singapore Unevenly Seah Chiang Nee, Malaysia Star While the rich few rejoice, many Singaporeans are making do quietly. **** Shanmugam: Singapore Is NOT A Country The Temasek Review For a fouth day running, Singapore Law Minister K Shanmugam tried desperately hard to convince a skeptical audience that Singapore is a ???democracy???. **** Freedom Press Index Divorced From Reality? Gangasudhan, The Online Citizen Instead of making sweeping judgements that the index is absurd, the government would do well to consider what press freedom really means and look at the rather simple criteria on which it fails. **** A Little Lesson In Logic Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu If A then C, and if B then C, does *not* implies that A == C. Given that the citizens of city A voted in the same party year after year, and citizens of city B voted in the same party year after year, if city A is democratic, that does not imply that city B is also democratic. **** Nurse Says Singapore Model Way To Go NationNews.com The Barbados Prison Service plans to adopt a Singapore model of rehabilitation for inmates. That was one of a number of best practices that Superintendent of Prisons Lieutenant Colonel John Nurse said they planned to look into after the closing of the 11th annual general meeting and conference of the International Corrections and Prisons Association (ICPA) at Hilton Barbados. **** Singapore And The Gum Thing Waywardlife???s Posterous I propose a gumfree world. If I had a billion dollars I would buy lobbyists and make it a priority. Until then, I will have Singapore.