From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Sep 1 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 1 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 1, 2009 Message-ID: <20090901225900.69942.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** News: New Mac Ad Jabs At PC Reliability The Mac Observer Apple's new Get a Mac ad, Trainer, jabs at Windows reliability issues and lower PC customer satisfaction ratings compared to the Mac. **** Plants Vs. Zombies Zack Stern, Mac Life **** Can Facebook Deliver A Second iPhone App Store? App Advice What would you do with a Facebook App Store within an App Store? **** Apple Confirms Annual iPod Event For September 9 AppleInsider Confirming reports that an iPod-centric event would be held on Wednesday, Sept. 9, Apple has made official its annual keynote at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. **** Mac Clone Maker Sues Apple Over Snow Leopard Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Mac clone maker Psystar last week sued Apple for a second time, charging that it illegally ties the new Snow Leopard operating system to its hardware. **** Expectations And The Apple Event Christopher Breen, Macworld Part of the pleasure of these events is the guesswork that takes place once the invitation has been issued. And because I???m no less immune to this guesswork than the next guy, let???s get to it. **** Apple Releases Mac Mini, SuperDrive Updates Jonathan Seff, Macworld Apple says that Mac mini EFI Firmware Update 1.2 improves compatibility with the latest Apple memory kits on Mac mini computers, although doesn???t specific which Mac mini models it???s intended for. **** Macworld Without Apple: The Show Will Go On Sam Diaz, ZDNet No one ever said the show would die - but you kind of have to wonder how long it can make it without the draw of Apple. Still, it appears that the show will go on. **** 5 Ways To Listen To Music On The iPhone Without Using iTunes Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica One of the iPhone's main selling points is its ability to play music. But we don't always want to listen to music from our iTunes libraries, do we? Here are five ways to listen to music on an iPhone without using iTunes. **** Apple's PR Machine Needs A Decoder App Damon Darlin, New York Times Apple sent out an e-mail message today to certain tech journalists indicating that it was holding an event Sept. 9 in San Francisco. That???s about all the information it gave, because Apple knows that speculation about the event will do all the work for it. **** Apple Snow Leopard Security Criticized Thomas Claburn, InformationWeek The release on Friday of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6, known as "Snow Leopard," has elicited criticism from security companies, which may have business to lose if Apple's latest operating system reduces interest in third-party security software. **** Apple's Mistaken Mystique The Heretech The Apple myth has enduring power beyond just Apple's consumers and investors. People in other companies try to emulate the Apple example, to whatever extent they can (despite occasional warnings that "you can't innovate the way Apple does"). **** Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard: The Ars Technica Review John Siracusa, Ars Technica Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard has landed. This time around, Apple goes light on the glitz in favor of some heavy work under the hood. John Siracusa dives deep into Apple's new OS offering to see what's new, what's still the same, and whether it's worth upgrading. **** Apple Snow Leopard Upgrade Provides Productivity Enhancements Cameron Sturdevant, eWeek End users may not immediately see the improvements in Mac OS X, but they will quickly notice an increase in productivity--all without significant IT impact. Snow Leopard is an evolutionary step that speeds up common tasks and tightens the fit and finish of the now entirely 64-bit based operating system. The upgrade also adds built-in support for Microsoft Exchange Server, but it's limited to Service Pack 1 Rollup 4. **** Why the iPhone Will Change The Chinese Phone Market Austin Ramzy, Time But as the population grows wealthier, China should become a more important part of Apple's sales. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** After The Transistor, A Leap Into The Microcosm John Markoff, New York Times Dr. Ross, an I.B.M. researcher, is growing a crop of mushroom-shaped silicon nanowires that may one day become a basic building block for a new kind of electronics. Nanowires are just one example, although one of the most promising, of a transformation now taking place in the material sciences as researchers push to create the next generation of switching devices smaller, faster and more powerful than today???s transistors. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** It's Not Big And It's Not Clever David Denby, Guardian How does snark operate these days? Let me count the ways. **** Silence Is Golden Jan Swafford, Slate How A Pause Can Be The Most Devastating Effect In Music. **** Finding A Scapegoat When Epidemics Strike Donald G. McNeil Jr., New York Times In pandemics throughout history, someone got the blame. **** The Demystifying Adventures Of The Amazing Randi Michael J. Mooney, SF Weekly Heretics, nonbelievers, and doubters worship the Amazing Randi. So what will free thinkers do when he???s gone? **** The Second World War: Six Years That Changed This Country For Ever Robert McCrum, Guardian Seventy years have gone by since the Second World War began and 64 since it ended. That dwindling minority of Britons, some 3 million, who lived through those six extraordinary years remember them as the most vivid moment in their lives and still refer to "the last war". So do the 11 million baby boomers and the 20 million over 60. Even some of their grandchildren will articulate this instinctive reflex. Britain has fought in some dozen wars and "emergencies" since 1945, but it's the Second World War that casts the longest shadow. As the D-Day anniversary celebrations indicate, this is one war that has not gone away. **** Bootylicious Caleb Crain, New Yorker What do the pirates of yore tell us about their modern counterparts? **** How Did They End Up That Way? Michiko Kakutani, New York Times How did the well-to-do scions of one of New York???s oldest families come to such a sad and ludicrous end? The story is a kind of male, New York City version of ???Grey Gardens,??? and it has fascinated writers for years. It reportedly inspired Marcia Davenport???s 1954 novel, ???My Brother???s Keeper,??? and Richard Greenberg???s 2002 play, ???The Dazzle,??? and now Mr. Doctorow, using his patented blend of fact and fiction, has tackled it here, producing a slight, unsatisfying, Poe-like story that turns out to be a study in morbid psychology. **** Continuum's Masterful 33 1/3 Series Michael Schaub, Los Angeles Times Imagine a Venn diagram with two circles: one for book nerds, one for rock geeks. At the intersection, you???ll find a lot of opinionated people with glasses, having arguments about the exact point in time when a particular author or musician ceased to be cool. You???ll find paychecks cashed and spent entirely at bookstores or record shops on the same day. You???ll find a great deal of love and devotion, and you???ll find the slim, pocket-sized volumes that make up Continuum???s album-oriented 33 1/3 imprint. **** Golden Gramma Robert Pinsky, Slate Magazine The unexpected pleasures of George Herbert's sentences. **** A One-Way Ticket To Mars Lawrence M. Krauss, New York Times Why are we so interested in bringing the Mars astronauts home again? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Critical Issues Overlooked In HDB???s Letter To Straits Times Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net **** Long-term Unemployment Rising As Structural Changes Cut Jobs Cheow Xin Yi, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's structural unemployment problem seems to have worsened as the economy recovers from recession. Government intervention and retraining of workers have kept the problem under control, but experts said a mismatch remains between skills of workers and the job positions available. **** H1N1 Virus Tapering Off But Doctors Still Advise Vigilance Hasnita A Majid, Channel NewsAsia **** Storytelling Festival Returns With New Initiative Channel NewsAsia The Singapore International Storytelling Festival is back for its fourth year and will feature 21 storytellers from all over the world. **** An Obvious Clerical Error, Says DBS Cheow Xin Yi, Channel NewsAsia There was an error in the formula that investors were told would be used to calculate any remaining value in their investments should there be a "credit event". But, DBS Bank is arguing, this was such "an obvious clerical mistake", that it would be apparent to any investor who had read his or her documents thoroughly. **** Running The Country Tan Kin Lian The lament of the shortage of talents in Singapore is a product of our Singapore model. We reap what we sow. **** ????????????????????? ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** River Sand Is Vietnam's Latest Endangered Resource DPA Surging international demand for sand is leading to excessive dredging in Vietnam's Mekong Delta, damaging the terrain and the environment, officials said Monday. The jump in sand excavation is fueled by demand from Singapore's construction industry, which is searching for new sources after Indonesia and Cambodia banned exports. **** Singapore Should Resume Currency-Gain Trend, IMF Says Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore should return to a policy of allowing the currency to strengthen once the economy recovers from its deepest recession since independence in 1965, the International Monetary Fund said. **** Debunking The Official Myths About HDB Flats(Part 1): Singapore Are Owners Of Their HDB Flats Eugene Yeo, The Temasek Review **** Bedrock: Steak - It's Much More Than Just The Piece Of Meat ieatishootipost If you are looking for a casual laid back place to eat a thick char grilled steak, then look no further than Bedrock. **** Manpower Minister Is Wrong, We Do Need Flexi-work Laws Gilbert Goh, The Online Citizen As of now, tripartism currently favours the employer more as without legislation they need not follow the call to implement family-friendly practices at work. Workers all have everything to lose here with no flexi-work rules in place. Any good law without proper legislation is subjected to abuse and we are currently seeing this right now in Singapore. **** Internet Steals Minister's Thunder Christopher Tan, Straits Times It all began at a closed-door briefing for journalists held by the Land Transport Authority on Friday afternoon. It was to allow beat reporters to understand the upcoming changes to the scheme and to ask questions. The announcement itself was to have been made public by none other than Transport Minister Raymond Lim at a ministerial visit on Sunday. Isn't it time to stop doing embargoes? **** Singapore's DBS Group Appoints Citi's Piyush Gupta As CEO DPA **** IMF:Singapore Severely Hurt By Crisis; '09 GDP May Fall 8% Dow Jones The International Monetary Fund Tuesday said that Singapore's economy is likely to shrink by about 8% this year as the global economic crisis has pushed the export dependent nation into its worst economic downturn since the 1965. **** Time For The Young To Drive The Creation Of A Two-party System In Singapore The Temasek Review >From the escape of Mas Selamat to the multi-billion losses suffered by Temasek and GIC, it should be clear to Singaporeans by now that a one-party government will not be able to check on itself. Not only does Singapore need a genuinely strong opposition presence in Parliament, perhaps it is about time we change the government into one which truly understands our present concerns and aspirations for the future. **** Public Transport Goes Wireless In Singapore Konrad Foo, ZDNet Asia SBS Transit has introduced wireless Internet connectivity for commuters using public transport in the country. **** ST Blogs: Internet Steals Minister's Thunder mrbrown: L'infantile terrible of Singapore Aiyah, why change the blog post so much? The original was so much more entertaining to read leh. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Sep 2 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 2 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 2, 2009 Message-ID: <20090902225901.93795.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Two-Line URLs Broken In Snow Leopard's Preview Adam C. Engst, TidBITS We assume that the problem is that Preview is attempting to treat text that looks like a URL as a link, but it is unfortunately doing so in such a way that it ignores the actual PDF link box that's on top of the text. **** Why Was 'Free Memory' An App Store No-no? Don Reisinger, CNET News.com To maintain the application's availability on the App Store, Bjango had been told by Apple that it had to remove what was arguably the most compelling feature of version 1.0: Free Memory, which enabled people to clear wired and inactive memory to increase the iPhone's battery life. It also improved the device's performance. **** China Mobile Acknowledges Continued iPhone Talks MacNN China Mobile is indeed still in talks with Apple regarding the iPhone, a spokeswoman for the carrier says. **** Bare Bones Releases Yojimbo 2.0 Peter Cohen, Macworld New to the 2.0 release is the new Tag Explorer system, which lets you navigate through the contents of your Yojimbo library by filtering items based on whatever tag you???ve selected. New commands have been employed for adding, removing and setting tags for a specific item. **** Un-minimize Windows Via Keyboard Command Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Control Audio Playback In Keynote Presentations Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Promising Prospect: Read Right Dan Frakes, Macworld **** Inside Mac OS X Snow Leopard: QuickTime X Daniel Eran Dilger, AppleInsider Essentially, Apple has pulled an iMovie 08 here: rather than enhancing features of the current QuickTime 7.x, Apple has replaced it entirely with a new version written from the ground up to create a launching pad for a new generation of media-related development. **** Developers, Be Warned: Apple Has Apparently Trademarked Those Glossy Chat Bubbles Jason Kincaid, TechCrunch Which means that Apple is either being remarkably inconsistent in its approval policies (which would be nothing new), or they???re about to launch a crusade to eliminate these glossy bubbles from any application that dares use them. **** Indie Movie ???Welcome To Macintosh??? Makes It To iTunes Nicole Martinelli, Cult of Mac The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A New Language For Phone Networks Robert Lemos, MIT Technology Review Scientists love the cell phone. Researchers have used the ubiquitous device as a portable polling station, a tracking device, and a sensor. Now, computer scientists want to use mobile phones to exchange data without using the phone's network, instead of communicating directly with cellular towers, base stations, and the occasional wireless network. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** I As In Justice Mary Jo Bang, The Walrus **** Summer Of The Flesh Eater Zsuzsi Gartner, The Walrus Field notes on the tendency of varieties to depart indefinitely from the original. **** In Search Of The Planet's Most Endangered Species Stephen Fry, Guardian Let us never stop talking about the creatures we share the planet with. The first step is to know them a little better. **** Secrets Of The Womb Jacqueline Maybin, Guardian The uterus, or womb, is the organ par excellence. It functions so efficiently that a full understanding of its processes may lead to novel treatments for a plethora of medical disorders. **** So This Is Dorm Food David Ross, Los Angeles Times Duck confit, pancetta-wrapped quail, butter-poached lobster tails, fried zucchini blossoms -- not exactly how most collegians are expecting to dine when they head back to their school dormitories this fall. But those are some of the dishes that may again delight the denizens of Norris Hall at Occidental College in Eagle Rock come this semester. Occidental junior Saul Sutcher is heading back to school with his '87 Volvo packed full of his cooking equipment and dishes. Without objection from the school administration, he'll again be setting up for Caf?? Norris, preparing three-course gourmet meals served in the dormitory's common room most Saturday nights. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Civil Servants: Take Better Care Of Your Minister???s Bosses Gerald Giam So for LTA to be scrambling around trying to embargo and plug the news leak suggests that they were more interested in making their Minister look good than anything else. **** LTA???s ???Palpable Panic??? Over News Leak The Online Citizen **** Singapore Gears Up To Host APEC Leaders Week Meetings Xinhua Preparations are well underway as Singapore gears up to host the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Leaders Week Meetings from Nov. 8 to 15, the meetings' organizing committee said on Tuesday. **** What Do We Want From Our Teachers: An Answer From Singapore Yong Zhao I am not only very impressed with the content of the vision statement but also, and perhaps more, impressed with the process, especially when considering what and how the U.S. Department of Education is doing to teachers in the U.S.. **** Debunking The Official Myths About HDB Flats (Part 2): HDB Flats Are Affordable To The Most Singaporeans The Temasek Review **** ???????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Split With Singapore A Lesson Straits Times Former information minister Zainuddin Maidin cited the split with Singapore in making his point in a column on Tuesday that it was important to learn lessons from the past. Wrote Mr Zainuddin: 'If 50 years of independence have given a deeper understanding of the poison sowed by Kuan Yew 40 years ago, the recent events mentioned would not have occurred.' **** Economists Surveyed By MAS Expect Singapore's GDP To Shrink By 3.6% Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore's (MAS) quarterly survey of professional forecasters, economists project that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) will shrink 3.6 per cent this year ??? a much more optimistic forecast compared to the 6.5 per cent contraction predicted in June. **** Cost Of Building HDB Flats ??? Finally An Answer? Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen **** Concern Over Use Of Singlish Diana Othman, Straits Times AN ADVISORY committee has raised concerns over the use of Singlish in some local children's productions. In its biennial report released on Wednesday, the Programme Advisory Committee for English Programmes' (Pace), also calls for more programmes for elderly viewers. **** HDB Flats Will Be ???Unaffordable??? Using The Median Multiple As A Benchmark Of Housing Affordability Eugene Yeo, The Temasek Review **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? ????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????15?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** HDB Resale Flat Prices To Rise Joyce Teo, Straits Times HDB resale flat prices - already at record high levels - are likely to continue rising this year, said national development minister Mah Bow Tan on Wednesday. **** Excesses Of Liberal System Of Regulations Led To Economic Crisis, Says MM Lee Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Sep 3 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 3 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 3, 2009 Message-ID: <20090903225901.76178.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Psystar Starts Selling Mac Clones With Snow Leopard Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Mac clone maker Psystar isn't waiting for a federal judge to give it the green light to sell systems with Apple's new Snow Leopard operating system, according to the company's Web site. **** Why Are There No Mac Viruses? Philip Elmer-DeWitt, CNNMoney.com There are, as far as we know, no Mac OS X viruses in the wild. To prove that assertion wrong, you only have to name one. **** Why Tech Standards Are Vital For Apple (And You) Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo Shaping standards isn't always for royalty checks or dominance???Apple's position doesn't allow them to be particularly greedy when it comes to determining how you watch stuff or browse the internet broadly. They've actually made things better, at least so far. But, one glance at the iPhone app approval process should give anybody who thinks they're the most gracious tech company second thoughts about that. **** Apple's Snow Leopard Is Less Secure Than Windows, But Safer Wired In short, Mac users are ducking behind a short wall ??? but as long as the enemy is firing in another direction, they???re not in grave danger. **** Customers Angered As iPhones Overload AT&T Jenna Wortham, New York Times Cellphone owners using other carriers may gloat now, but the problems of AT&T and the iPhone portend their future. Other networks could be stressed as well as more sophisticated phones encouraging such intense use become popular, analysts say. **** Apple's Snow Leopard Upgrades Mac OS X, Downgrades Flash AppleInsider While Snow Leopard makes a number of improvements to Apple's Mac OS X machines, for those who have kept Adobe Flash up to date, installing the new operating system will reportedly downgrade the software. **** Can Apple's Snow Leopard Save You Money? CNET News The differences were minor, but we were able to estimate that running your MacBook with Snow Leopard installed would use about one dollar's worth less electricity than if you kept the older version of OS X. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** The Windows iPhone Taylor Buley, Forbes A new Wyse application uses virtualization to deliver computer desktops over the Internet. **** The Bar For Success In Our Industry Is Too Low Jason F., Signal Vs Noise So I guess what ultimately bothers me most about this New York Times piece, and many other pieces just like it (see TechCrunch daily), is the example that???s being set for the next generation of entrepreneurs. They???re seeing business success defined as ???the projections say we???ll profitable later???. They???re constantly being exposed to excuses. They???re being taught that profits are these things that only happen one day far away. That???s just wrong. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Bringing ???Where The Wild Things Are??? To The Big Screen Saki Knafo, New York Times ???Where the Wild Things Are,??? in other words, cost about as much to make as did ???Shrek??? and ???Madagascar,??? and yet in almost every other way it represents a sharp departure from those family-friendly blockbusters. **** Ikea's Flat-Pack Font Simon Garfield, Guardian Ikea is changing its font to Verdana - causing outrage among typomaniacs. Should the rest of us care? Absolutely. **** Seeing Is Not Believing Hany Farid, IEEE Spectrum Doctoring digital photos is easy. Detecting it can be hard. **** The Self-Storage Self Jon Mooallem, New York Times The down economy has clearly created circumstances in which some people desperately need to rent storage units ??? namely, people losing their homes. But more significantly, it seems to be upsetting a longstanding equilibrium ??? a kind of psycho-financial inertia that has kept so many tenants in place. **** Street Scene David Ferry, Three Penny SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** New PAP Book Neglects Founding Members Detained For 19 Years Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** More Foreign Dentists For S'pore April Chong, Straits Times **** MM Lee Cleverly Sidetracked Catherine Lim???s Question On Sending In The Army In Event Of A ???freak Election??? The Temasek Review Throughout his entire ???answer???, he did not touch on his veiled threat to use the Singapore Armed Forces to subvert and overthrow a democratically elected government of Singapore voted into office via a ???freak election??? which brings to the mind the key question of whether SAF owes its allegiance to the people of Singapore, the PAP or MM Lee personally. **** Should Section 152 Be Scrapped From The Singapore Constitution? Alfian Sa???at, The Online Citizen The tendency of any majority, if left unchecked, is towards tyranny. The tendency of any minority, if left unattended, is towards alienation. The presence of Section 152, a constitutional guarantee of minority protection, goes a long way towards alleviating the damaging forces of such vectors in our society. Far from undermining equality, Section 152 is an attempt to rectify asymmetries of power, to achieve parity, among those who are not born equal. It takes a particular form of genius to observe the reverse. **** ???????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** David Team Plans To Sue Singapore Police Jakarta Post Representatives for the family of Indonesian student David Hartanto Widjaja, who was found dead at Singapore???s Nanyang Technological University in March this year, plans to sue the Singapore Police for refusing to return David???s laptop and police records to his family for examination. **** Debunking The HDB Myths (Part 3): Rising Prices Of HDB Flats Generate Wealth For Singaporeans The Temasek Review **** ????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Mah Bow Tan's Comments Will Further Fuel The Property Price Hike Who Moved My Singapore Cheese? Housing inflation during a recession is no good. An untimely comment like this from you will only further worsen the situation. **** H1N1 Detected In Live Pigs Imported Into Singapore S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) has detected the pandemic A(H1N1) virus in some pigs imported into Singapore from Indonesia's Pulau Bulan. But the AVA stressed that the pork available here is safe for consumption, because the H1N1 virus is not transmitted through the handling and consumption of pork and pork products including ham, bacon, sausages and canned pork. **** ???Sir, Would You Send In The??Army???? Catherine Lim **** Drawbacks Of HDB Using STIR Benchmark Of 30 Per Cent To Assess Public Housing Affordability Eugene Yeo, The Temasek Review **** 1 In 2 Subsidised Hospice Patients Will Pay Less After Govt Subsidy Revision Satish Cheney/Liang Kaixin, Channel NewsAsia The Ministry of Health is increasing its subsidy tiers from four to nine, which means there will be more subsidy levels, which translates to better savings for patients and their care givers. **** Taiwan, Singapore To Let Currency Rise, Goldman Says Lilian Karunungan, Bloomberg Taiwan and Singapore???s central banks will allow more room for their currencies to appreciate as economic growth recovers, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc. **** Sandwiched Population Cut Off From Hospice Subsidy The Temasek Review The sandwiched population, who earns between $1,500 and $4,500 monthly will not qualified for any financial help from the government. Singaporeans in this group are usually in the lower-middle income group. They earn just enough not to be ineligible for most government subsidies, but are not quite rich enough to afford the medical expenses on their own. **** Experts Say Use Of New Media In S'pore Likely To Become More Prevalent Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia Experts said that using new media is likely to become prevalent in Singapore. Civil servants have been learning how they can use this to convey their ministries' social messages. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Sep 4 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 4 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 4, 2009 Message-ID: <20090904225900.84694.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Snow Leopard Needs Flash Patch, Says Adobe Jeremy Kirk, IDG News Service Mac users may be surprised that versions of Apple's latest operating system, Snow Leopard, also installs an older version of Adobe System's Flash player, potentially putting them at a higher security risk. **** The Macintosh/iPhone Mind Meld Adam C. Engst, TidBITS So you have a Mac, and you do have an iPhone (or other Bluetooth-compatible mobile phone - I don't have one of those, so I'm concentrating on the iPhone here). You're sitting at your Mac, working away, and the phone in your pocket rings. You could pull it out, check the caller ID, and decide whether or not your want to answer. Or, if you had Sustainable Softworks' new Phone Amego application loaded and paired with your iPhone, you'd just glance at a little pop-up window on your Mac to see who was calling and, if you desire, send the call directly to voicemail by closing the window. **** Resurrecting The MacBook's Number Pad Christopher Breen, Macworld **** How To Create A Service In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld I???ll walk you through the creation of a simple Service using Automator. Even if you???re not a programmer, and you find the thought of AppleScript scarier than a root canal at the dentist, I promise you???ll have nothing to fear by following this tutorial. **** AT&T To Enable MMS For iPhone 3G And 3GS On Sept. 25 AppleInsider AT&T confirmed Thursday that multimedia messaging capabilities will come to the iPhone a few days late, on Sept. 25 -- just after the end of summer -- bringing to an end months of waiting and speculation. The service will be available with a software update on the launch date. The update will arrive for customers as a download from iTunes. The feature will only be available for iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS users. **** Reveal Hidden Menu Bar Icon Functions In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld Here???s what you???ll see when you hold down the Option key and click on various menu bar icons. **** Apple Releases Java Update For Leopard The Mac Observer **** Flip Boom Classic 3 Adds Picture Library, iPod Support MacNN The app provides tool for drawing and coloring various pictures, which can then be animated or imported to programs such as QuickTime. **** Bookishly Appy With The iPhone Carolyn Kellogg, Los Angeles Times Lately people have been asking me with excitement what apps I've got on my iPhone, and I shrug and change the subject. It's a phone, it plays music, it gives me directions, it lets me e-mail from as many accounts as I like, allows me to vet the comments on this blog, check Twitter. ... Do I really want it to do anything else? **** Apple's Sloppy Security Moves Andy Greenberg, Forbes As high profile hacks of Apple products have surfaced again and again in recent years, Apple has been taken to task for what some say is an incompetent approach to software security. But the company's latest software slip-up seems to show something more than security incompetency: security apathy. **** Why Won???t Apple Do That? Dr Burt Steve Jobs understands that rather than worry about how to offer something for every market segment, their overall brand value lies in being able to deliver a quality product at a premium price for the right customer segment. That way the customer can depend on the quality of the brand and of the value of the investment. **** Snow Leopard???s New Services Giles Turnbull, Cult of Mac At long last, the user has been given total control over Services. We can choose whether or not they are used, we can assign keyboard shortcuts that suit us, and we can create entirely new Services using Automator. **** Inside Mac OS X Snow Leopard: GPU Optimization AppleInsider The move toward greater utilization of available GPU resources, along with Snow Leopard's Grand Central Dispatch architecture which helps makes this easy and transparent for developers to deliver, also makes it possible to Apple to innovate in future hardware, adding new acceleration chips of its own design or simply including better support for the existing GPU resources available from today's vendors. **** With Snow Leopard, Apple Changes Few Of Its Spots Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post So let those folks install Apple's latest and get to work on a new crop of Mac applications. The rest of us will do better sitting Snow Leopard out, at least until Apple can ship a bug-fix update or two for it. **** Snow Leopard's (Partial) Gem Substitutes Dan Frakes, Macworld The good news for developers is that Snow Leopard focuses on under-the-hood changes, so it shouldn???t kill off so many third-party products. Still, I???ve come up with a good number of Gems, listed below, whose developers may be feeling a bit nervous these days. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Red Hat Eyes REST Standardization Paul Krill, Infoworld Red Hat is seeking REST standardization through an effort it is calling REST-*, which could serve as a counterpoint to the alternative WS-* specifications for Web services. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Cupcake Bubble Daniel Gross, Slate Magazine Better enjoy that vanilla cupcake with espresso-ganache icing today, because the cupcake crash is coming! **** Kennedy???s Rough Waters And Still Harbors Michiko Kakutani, New York Times At the end of his deeply affecting memoir, the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy writes about his grandson ???Little Teddy??? ??? the son of his son ???Medium Teddy??? who delivered such a heartbreaking eulogy at the senator???s funeral on Saturday ??? and his difficulties mastering the family tradition of sailing. The senator told the 10-year-old ???we might not be the best,??? but ???we can work harder than anyone,??? and Little Teddy stayed with it, grew eager to learn and started winning races. That, the senator writes, ???is the greatest lesson anyone can learn???: that if you ???stick with it,??? that if, as the title of his book suggests, you keep a ???true compass??? and do your best, you will eventually ???get there.??? And that, in a sense, is the theme of this heartfelt autobiography: that persistence, perseverance and patience in pursuit of a cause or atonement for one???s failures can lead to achievement and the possibility of redemption. It???s the story of how this youngest and most underestimated of siblings slowly, painfully, incrementally found genuine purpose of his own in shouldering the weighty burden of familial expectations and the duty of carrying on his slain brothers??? work. **** Two Poems Stewart Bourn, 3:AM Magazine **** Pop Culture Is Still Popular Ada Calhoun, New York Why the niche will never triumph, and mass culture will always march on. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** People See Channel NewsAsia As Voice Of Government, Says Report Liew Hanqing, New Paper A new report has criticised news broadcaster Channel NewsAsia (CNA) for its approach in news reporting. The 12th biennial report by the Programme Advisory Committee for English Programmes (Pace) said CNA adopted a generally 'conservative and careful' approach in its reports, which has resulted in the public perceiving it as the 'voice of the government'. The report said this could hamper CNA's credibility as a news conduit. **** Cashless Tolls At The Second Link Today Come Sept 14, Singaporeans can expect smoother traffic flow at the Second Link when a full electronic transaction toll payment system is implemented at Malaysia's Tanjung Kupang Toll Plaza from 10am. **** Smaller Returns On CPF Savings Likely Today For what should be the last time, Central Provident Fund members will enjoy the guaranteed minimum 4-per-cent interest on their Special, Medisave and Retirement Accounts (SMRA). And they are likely to see smaller returns on their savings come the new year. **** This Notice In Bedok A Tad Unsettling Tan Chek Wee, Today These foreign workers risk their lives and limbs to help build this city so that we have a "good" life. However, notices such as this perpetuate the prejudice against them. The bottomline of such notices is that "you are not welcome to live in our heartlands". **** Do Singaporeans Deserve To Be Treated Like Freaks? Feed Me To The Fish I'm still confused from the answer Catherine received on whether the army will ensure the longevity and perpetual power of PAP? It's either I'm too thick or the answer is meant to confound. **** Temasek Finds A Replacement For Goodyear! Getting At The Truth **** $100 Cap On Lost Cards Chua Hian Hou & Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times Banks have decided to change a long-standing policy which made credit card holders liable for all charges incurred on lost or stolen cards before they are reported missing. >From Nov 1, cardholders' liability will be capped at $100, provided they are not negligent or fraudulent and notify the banks as soon as they discover the loss. **** $500,000 V $100m V $40b: Have A Sense Of Proportion, Singaporeans! The Temasek Review What is $500,000 to them? A mere 0.5% of what is going to be spent in three days time on entertaining foreign guests. **** Safer Food At Night Markets Tessa Wong, Straits Times Rules governing food safety at night markets have been tightened by the National Environment Agency (NEA) in the wake of the Geylang Serai food poisoning case in April, in which two people died and 152 others were taken ill. The new rules require stallholders to take greater steps to prevent food contamination - the sharing of sinks, for instance, is no longer allowed for hygiene purposes. Food preparation areas must also be shielded and made of impervious materials. **** PAP Still Clueless About The New Media The Temasek Review It is a shame that while Singapore has the highest internet penetration rates in the world, its politicians are not making full use of the new media to engage citizens and to burnish their credentials. **** A Rebuttal To MM Lee???s Highfalutin Ideas Of The PAP???s ???non-interference??? In Singapore???s Institutions (Part 1) The Temasek Review History had shown us that there seemed to be one set of rules for the PAP and another set for the opposition which raises serious questions about the political neutrality and impartiality of the civil service. **** ?????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** A Manifestation Of Realism Singapore Recalcitrant Is MM Lee of the certainty of mind that Singapore's young voters are satisfied with the status quo? His diffident exposition of the Singapore political landscape of the future at the anniversay dinner dialogue does not convey the confidence. **** Let Singles buy HDB Singapore Watch **** Credit Card Fraud Cases Low Gabriel Chen, Straits Times New measures to limit the liability of credit cardholders does not indicate that the incidence of card fraud is a big problem here, said the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS) on Friday. **** SIA Defends Kiwi Deal Christopher Ong, Straits Times Singapore Airlines (SIA) has defended its decision to sponsor a New Zealand team over the Republic's World Championships junior dragon boat side, saying it cannot be supporting every local sport. **** The Real McCoy? Tessa Wong, Straits Times An imposter Ramly burger is just not worth all those calories. **** Singapore Opposition Dispute Breaks Into Brawl-Police Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters A power struggle in a Singapore opposition party descended into a street brawl using hammers and screwdrivers, leading to serious injuries and 21 arrests in a city-state known for being safe and politically stable. **** Lower Cost Of Living - The Good Old Days Tan Kin Lian This economic model changed after 1985. Under the "asset enhancement" strategy, the prices of property was allowed to inflate to high levels. This was supposed to create more wealth. It produced the opposite and negative effect and enslaved the future generation to a high cost of living and high debts. Life was stressful. The sever decline in birth rates occurred during these past two decades. **** CPF Plans To Lower Interest Rates For Medisave And Retirement Accounts The Temasek Review For Singaporeans who just bought their homes, a grim prospect awaits them that they may end up with literally nothing in their CPFs after paying off their housing loans over a period of 30 years. **** Banking Sector Unlikely To Be Significantly Affected By ABS' Announcement Jonathan Peeris/Ng Baoying, Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Sep 5 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 5 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 5, 2009 Message-ID: <20090905225900.96239.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Regarding The Brouhaha Over The Version Of Flash In Snow Leopard John Gruber, Daring Fireball I???m not sure how long Apple freezes the components before going GM, but I???m pretty sure it???s more than eight days. Does anyone really think that Apple should have replaced the single-crashiest piece of software in Mac OS X with a new untested version just eight days before going GM? Should Apple have postponed Snow Leopard for another month? Should Apple allow Adobe to set the schedule for Mac OS X updates? **** AT&T Agrees To First Constantly Connected Third-party iPhone App AppleInsider With users' permission, the social networking iPhone application Loopt will report the phone's current location even when the software isn't running, based on a new agreement with AT&T. **** Use New Expos?? Features In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld You can now activate Expos?????s Application Windows mode after pressing Command-Tab. **** Snow Leopard Apple's Most Compatible Release Ever Jim Dalrymple, CNET News.com While not everyone is thrilled with the way Apple handled the release, it turns out that Snow Leopard is Apple's most compatible operating system release ever. According to sources familiar with Snow Leopard's internal testing process, Apple kept an enormous amount of statistics on third-party application compatibility. **** Is Apple Replacing Microsoft As Silicon Valley???s Designated Villain? Tomio Geron, Wall Street Journal Two??well-known entrepreneurs debated that question in a semi-serious debate Thursday night in Palo Alto, Calif.: Jason Calacanis, the outspoken chief executive of Mahalo Inc., and venture capitalist and former Apple marketing executive Guy Kawasaki, author of a number of marketing books and operator of a popular blog, ???How to Change the World.??? **** AT&T Defends Its iPhone Network Via YouTube Outreach AppleInsider AT&T has published a YouTube response to the mounting complaints about its network in order to explain the issues involved and assure subscribers that it is working hard to address the massive new demand related to iPhone use. **** Inside Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Exchange Support AppleInsider With iWork and the built in Exchange client support in Snow Leopard, many users will have no need to even consider Microsoft's Mac client offerings. It will be very difficult for Microsoft to convince Mac users that they need Office after those users discover suitable alternatives that cost significantly less. **** Please Don???t Put Your iPhone In A Case Tim Cox, Cult of Mac A case doesn???t allow me to experience the iPhone. It just means I???m using a bulkier, less attractive iPhone. **** Why MobileMe Is Worth It Andy Ihnatko, Macworld MobileMe isn???t a specific feature or function. It???s a utility, like the water or electricity. Its actual purpose is to maintain a pipeline so that Apple can deliver digital services and feature enhancements to whatever device they???ve sold you. I just wish they???d punch that button more aggressively. **** Is Apple Losing Another Board Member? Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune According to an SEC Form 4 filed Friday, Bill Campbell, a key Apple board member and a close friend and adviser to Steve Jobs, executed a "non-sale transfer" of 60,000 shares of Apple stock worth more than $7.7 million in late August ??? including directors options he'd been holding for eight years. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google???s Internet Techniques Inspire Studies Of Food Webs Henry Fountain, New York Times Inspired by PageRank, Stefano Allesina of the University of Chicago and Mercedes Pascual of the University of Michigan have devised an algorithm of their own for the relationships in a food web. **** Red Hat Builds One API For Many Clouds Tom Espiner, CNET News.com Red Hat has launched a project to create an application programming interface that will let developers write applications for use across many kinds of clouds. **** Gov 2.0: It???s All About The Platform Tim O???Reilly, TechCrunch MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Nicholson Baker: Inside The Author -- And His Alter Ego Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Times His new book, 'The Anthologist,' is a novel within an novel featuring a character who sheds light on his creator. **** ???The Greatest Show On Earth??? By Richard Dawkins Anjana Ahuja, The Times Thank the Lord for creationists. Without their blinkered belief in the biblical account of how life came to be, Richard Dawkins would never have felt the need to give us The Greatest Show on Earth. And what a fine, lucid and convincing exhibition he puts on, walking us through the natural world to demonstrate that evolution by natural selection is everywhere. **** Up From Calamity Tom Vanderbilt, New York Times Disasters, for Solnit, do not merely put us in view of apocalypse, but provide glimpses of utopia. They do not merely destroy, but create. ???Disasters are extraordinarily generative,??? she writes. As the prevailing order ??? which she elliptically characterizes as advanced global capitalism, full of anomie and isolation ??? collapses, another order takes shape: ???In its place appears a reversion to improvised, collaborative, cooperative and local society.??? **** Economics Is Not Natural Science Douglas Rushkoff, Edge We must stop perpetuating the fiction that existence itself is dictated by the immutable laws of economics. These so-called laws are, in actuality, the economic mechanisms of 13th Century monarchs. Some of us analyzing digital culture and its impact on business must reveal economics as the artificial construction it really is. Although it may be subjected to the scientific method and mathematical scrutiny, it is not a natural science; it is game theory, with a set of underlying assumptions that have little to do with anything resembling genetics, neurology, evolution, or natural systems. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Two-man Disciplinary Tribunal To Determine If Gopalan Nair Is Guilty Of Misconduct Channel NewsAsia A two-man disciplinary tribunal will be appointed by chief Justice Chan Sek Keong to determine if former Singaporean lawyer Gopalan Nair is guilty of misconduct "unbefitting" of a lawyer. The application on Friday morning was submitted by the Law Society. **** Why Delay News On H1N1 Pigs? Teh Jen Lee, New Paper Would the one-week delay in providing information plant doubt in people's minds? **** Pork Sales Take A Hit Straits Times Despite assurances that it is safe to eat, sales of fresh pork took a hit yesterday. **** Tune Talk In Talks On Singapore Expansion The Star Chief executive officer Jason Lo said the company was currently in talks with three mobile operators in Singapore ??? M1, SingTel and StarHub ??? for a potential collaboration in providing services in the republic. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** New Green Link By 2013 Grace Chua, Straits Times By 2013, there will be a new green link between the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve and the Central Catchment Area. The bridge, 50m wide at its narrowest point and planted with dense trees resembling forest habitat, could help populations of animals like the critically-endangered banded leaf monkey to recover. A hiking trail at one edge will enable humans to cross between the reserves as well. **** Want To Buy A Cable Car? Nur Dianah Suhaimi, Straits Times **** The Widening Rift Between The Young And Old In Expectations Of The Government The Temasek Review To the older generations of Singaporeans who had been through a tumultuous period of poverty, hardship and uncertainties with the PAP government, it can do no wrong. In fact, they are more than happy to trade their political rights in exchange for the stability and prosperity Singapore has enjoyed all these while. Young Singaporeans born after 1965 were brought up in a relatively well-off environment. Being educated, widely read and exposed to the world, having a honest and capable government which provides jobs and housing for the people is no longer enough. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Sep 6 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 6 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 6, 2009 Message-ID: <20090906225900.4801.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Meet The 'iPhone Mom' Julio Ojeda-Zapata, Twincities.com Meet today's 'iPhone mom.' She's the woman who has seized on Apple's consumer-friendly smartphone as a means of bringing order to her hectic family life. And she's emerging as a consumer-tech icon. **** There's No Snow Leopard Here Alex Blewitt What 10.6 is is a developer release. It's like a massive-scale beta early-access test of the next version of 10.7. **** He Works For The Times, Too Clark Hoyt, New York Times It is no intended knock on Pogue???s integrity ??? he has panned Apple products and praised those of competitors ??? to point out that the review put him in the kind of conflict-of-interest situation that The Times regularly calls others to account for: doctors with a financial interest in the drugs they recommend, or a presidential adviser whose clients have a direct interest in certain legislation. In this case, the better Snow Leopard sells, presumably the better Pogue???s ???Missing Manual??? on how to use it will sell. **** Texting? No, Just Trying To Read Chapter 6 Randall Stross, New York Times In our digital age, miniaturization rules. This is a welcome thing ??? in most cases. Squeezing two billion transistors onto a small chip? All good. Squeezing an enormous printed textbook down to iPhone-size? Not so good. **** Apple Approves Commodore 64 Emulator For iPhone AppleInsider A previously rejected iPhone title offering emulated play of Commodore 64 titles has been approved after the developer made changes to align it with Apple's SDK. It allows the iPhone to act as a system that was what was once Apple's staunch competitor. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Winslow Homer???s Maine Geraldine Fabrikant, New York Times Of the roughly 160 homes on Prouts Neck, a very private parcel of land that juts into the sea south of Scarborough, a handful are new or newly restored. But one of the houses tucked up close to the road stands out for its almost perfect condition. It is painted a dark green, and the trim is a deep red. Unlike most others along the sea there, it is relatively small, though it has a second-story balcony that offers a pristine view of the ocean across a manicured, if simple, lawn and the jagged rocks that hug the coast. **** The Benefits Of Vacation Jonah Lehrer, The Atlantic When my wife looks at me in frustration after yet another crappy fast food meal consumed in the parking lot of a rest stop, here's what I'm going to say: vacation has important psychological benefits. This tedious drive is necessary - not for me, but for my brain. **** The Rise Of The Female Anchor Alessandra Stanley, New York Times It???s an odd bit of a role reversal: Ms. Couric is a morning-show natural who had to tone down her peppy cadence and casual style to suit the formality of evening news programs, while Ms. Sawyer, born to be an evening anchor, spent much of her career twisting her natural elegance into the shape of slap-happy morning television. And Mr. Williams, who ascended to the position of NBC anchor on the shoulders of an old boys??? club, now has to reposition himself as a member of a persecuted minority, the white male anchorman. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Sunday Times??? Publicity Blitz For The PAP Failed To Mention The Prolonged Detention Of Barisan MPs Without Trial The Temasek Review It was supposed to be an ???objective??? and ???non-partisan??? insider account of the early days of the ruling PAP of Singapore, but it turns out to be yet another piece of subtle propaganda by the regime to remind the restless populace of its glorious past. **** What The Left-wing Stood For : Dr Poh Soo Kai Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** Dhanabalan Left Cabinet Due To Differences With Government Over ???Operation Spectrum??? The Temasek Review The ISA is an obsolete, unnecessary and repressive law which has no place in a modern democracy like Singapore. It should be repealed and an ???Anti-terrorism??? act introduced in its place to deal specifically with terrorists. **** Crackdown On Tax Cheats Heralds Bank Transparency Martin Abbugao, AFP A US-led crackdown by wealthy countries on cross-border tax cheats will promote greater transparency and benefit Singapore and other global financial centres, bankers and analysts said. **** Comparison Of Neighbors Malaysia Star Something is very, very wrong in a sense that we are way, way behind our neighbor when it comes to our monetary reserve. How can a tiny island with only one port from it's initial inception be better off then a country with 13 states and a huge abundance of natural resources? **** Fullerton Aims To Extend Singapore???s Reach By Wooing The European Investor Steve Johnson, Financial Times The city state of Singapore punches well above its weight in the world of investment. Between them Temasek Holdings and the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation, the tiny nation???s twin sovereign wealth funds, manage an estimated $400bn (??245bn, ???280bn) of assets. But Singapore is not resting on its laurels; it is about to wade into the congested European asset management industry as part of a plan to raise its assets under management higher still. **** Judge Fines Chee Soon Juan $10,000 For Speaking In Public Singapore Democrats The SDP leader has repeatedly argued that the charge of him not having a permit is a red herring. The Ministry for Home Affairs and police have stated that no permit will be issued for outdoor political events. Dr Chee pointed out that such a policy to issue a blanket ban on public speaking and assembly clearly violated the Constitution and are therefore legally invaild. **** Circumventing The Mainstream Media Bias: A Call For Oppositional Introspection Pritam Singh, The Online Citizen With the shadow of an opportunistic mainstream media cast over everything the opposition says and does, displays of anger and differences of opinion within and between opposition parties, figures and supporters are best left out of the public eye. There is no denying that Singaporeans today are more educated, more politically mature and not afraid to question PAP leaders over even the most minor of policy matters. Lest opposition leaders and supporters rub their hands in delight at this burden of leadership, reality cuts both ways ??? the public expectation on the conduct of the opposition in between elections, is likely to rise in tandem. **** Malaysians Ridiculed Zainuddin For Bashing Singapore While Local Netizens Sniggered The Temasek Review **** Send In The Clowns Yawning Bread The centre of gravity has finally shifted. But what of the government's response? Are they still in denial mode? Is there anyone there who has the wisdom to see that the best legacy they can leave behind is to redesign the political system to make it more open, competitive, fairer and more soundly based on principles of human rights? I'm not holding my breath. And frankly, that I am not should tell you the rot has begun. Perhaps the rogues are already here. Have they been here since 1961? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Sep 7 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 7 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 7, 2009 Message-ID: <20090907225900.7092.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Snow Leopard Gives Apple Mac A Business Edge Daily Telegraph No, of course you don't use Apple Mac computers. They're for students, desktop publishers, designers and film product placement opportunities. Well, perhaps not so much now, with Apple regularly posting impressive sales results. **** Computer-support Genius Bar Lives Up To Name Ced Kurtz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette **** Snow Leopard Snubs Document Creator Codes Matt Neuburg, TidBITS An application in Snow Leopard cannot use a creator code attached to a document to bind that document to itself. **** Spotify Launches On Apple's iPhone AFP Spotify, the Swedish music streaming website, on Monday announced the launch of its software on Apple's iPhone, the best-selling handset that features high speed internet access. **** MTA Derails iPhone Application Martin B. Cassidy, Connecticut Post Apple has yanked a Greenwich Internet developer's iPhone application from its iTunes App Store after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority asked the company to stop distributing the program, which displays Metro-North Railroad and other transit schedule information. The MTA asked Apple in a letter Aug. 7 to remove the application, MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan said, complaining that it lacked an approved disclaimer showing the MTA was not responsible for the accuracy of the information. **** iTunes Indeed: The iPhone As Instrument James Temple, San Francisco Chronicle Words can only convey so much about the new applications and how they're being used, so we decided to share our favorites among the many videos out there showing iPhone musicians doing what they do. **** Review: Online Backup Services Glenn Fleishman, Macworld 8 Web services that let you back up files and restore them from anywhere. **** Apple Offers Sleek Cachet For Clunkers Brooke Crothers, CNET News.com Imagine consumers en masse dumping their old PC clunker for a svelte MacBook Air running the sleek, new Snow Leopard operating system. An implausible Orwellian vision but probably not that far removed from Apple's marketing aspirations. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Like Apple, TV Explores Must-Have Applications New York Times MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Why Are We Still Reading Dickens? Jon Michael Varese, Guardian The great Victorian is probably even more ubiquitous now than he was in his lifetime. How he remains such vital reading is an intriguing question. **** Reading Underground Alexis Mainland, New York Times Reading on the subway is a New York ritual, for the masters of the intricately folded newspaper like Ms. Kornhaber, who lives in Park Slope and works on the Upper East Side, as well as for teenage girls thumbing through magazines, aspiring actors memorizing lines, office workers devouring self-help inspiration, immigrants newly minted ??? or not ??? taking comfort in paragraphs in a familiar tongue. These days, among the tattered covers may be the occasional Kindle, but since most trains are still devoid of Internet access and cellphone reception, the subway ride remains a rare low-tech interlude in a city of inveterate multitasking workaholics. And so, we read. **** Missing Woman Judith Thurman, New Yorker Amelia Earhart???s flight. **** Love???s Photograph (or Father And Son) James Schuyler, New Yorker **** Hunter-Gatherer Tom Sleigh, New Yorker **** Seminar Justin Quinn, New Yorker I carry America into these young heads, at least some parts that haven???t yet got there??? Hawthorne???s Salem, Ellison???s blacks and reds, Bishop???s lovely lines of late summer air. **** The Lower River Paul Theroux, New Yorker Even in his best days in Medford, running the family clothing store, Altman had always imagined that he would return to Africa, to the Lower River. It had been his Eden, for those four years he had spent in a village called Malabo as a young man. Now, after nearly forty years, he was on his way back. The decades in between seemed almost a digression: the business, the marriage, the children. Altman???s Store for Men had closed, the marriage had failed, Altman???s children were grown, absent, living their lives. A little over sixty, he was alone again. He had enough money to see him into his old age, yet he wanted more than that. No one needed him in Medford, and he wondered if the people of Malabo might still remember what he had done there. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** EZ-Reload: Convenience, Peace Of Mind Gregory Gerald Danker, EZ-Link Pte Ltd, Today While we are unable to comment on the pricing model of other billing organisations in providing the Giro service to their customers, a nominal convenience fee of $0.25 per top-up is charged so as to cover processing costs that are incurred in the provision of the EZ-Reload by Giro service. **** Thanks, But More Can Be Done Conrad Raj, Today It is disappointing to note that little proactive action is being taken by the ABS to introduce greater security measures to protect cardholders from unauthorised transactions. **** Could Open Government Initiatives Help Drive Innovation In Singapore? Tardate 11.2 Case in point: Did you know that you cannot hyperlink to most government sites without first obtaining explicit permission? **** Is Lee Kuan Yew More Interested In Power, Money Or Altruism? The Secret Political Blog **** Cybercafe Boom Tan Weizhen, Straits Times Many new outlets have opened recently catering to workers and students. **** Singapore Broadband Limps My Paper With average speeds of 7.32Mbps, Singapore's speed is almost three times slower than that of South Korea, which is ranked first with 21.17Mbps. It fared even worse with upload speeds, coming in 51st with its average of 0.75Mbps. **** The Macro Factors Behind The Housing Crisis In Singapore Abdul Gafoor, The Temasek Review **** How The Government Keeps HDB Prices Artifically High Eugene Yeo and Jeremy Koh, The Temasek Review How is possible to have a inflationary public housing market in the midst of an economic recession? **** M1 Launches Wireless Device Tan Weizhen, Straits Times Called the MiFi, it is a small credit card sized device which creates a mobile, wireless 'bubble' around users when it is activated. **** Man Dies, Bringing Singapore's H1N1-related Deaths To 18 Lynda Hong, Channel NewsAsia A 61-year-old Chinese man has become the latest victim of H1N1, bringing the death toll in Singapore to 18. **** Singapore???s Economic Strength - Blessing Or Bane? Conrad Alvin Lim, The Pattern Trader **** Retailers Around The F1 Tracks Pessimistic About Business During F1 Period Channel NewsAsia Retailers situated around the Singapore Formula 1 track expect a 40 per cent drop in business during the F1 period, the same as last year. This, despite a reduction in the number of road closure days from 12 to seven. **** Experts Unsure If Promising Employment Outlook Is Sustainable Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia Even though key industry players are optimistic about prospects in the finance and insurance sectors, they remain cautious about the manufacturing and retail industry. Recruitment agencies are also cautious when it comes to predicting if the current outlook is here to stay. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Sep 8 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 8 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 8, 2009 Message-ID: <20090908225900.69228.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** 20 Best New Features In Snow Leopard Craig Grannell, TechRadar UK Many of Snow Leopard's changes are under the hood - new architecture that provides a foundation for the Mac going forward. But while there's no Spotlight, Time Machine or Quick Look equivalent this time round, Snow Leopard still packs in new user-oriented features, big and small. Here are our favourites. **** Apple's iPhone Not Profitable For Carriers? Sarah Perez, ReadWriteWeb **** Apple's Snow Leopard Helps Real-life Cats Mongabay Apple's release of its new operating system, dubbed "Snow Leopard", is helping raise awareness of the plight of one of the world's most endangered big cats, reports the Snow Leopard Trust, a group working to protect the real-life snow leopard in its mountainous habitat across Central Asia. **** Is Apple Favoring Less Complicated iPhone Apps? WhereIsMyiPhoneApp.com **** Apple 13 & 15-inch MacBook Pros See Boot Camp Audio Failures MacNN Apple's latest MacBook Pro offerings appear to have an ongoing speaker audio-failure issue when running most varieties of Windows in Boot Camp. **** Solve Snow Leopard's Screen Sharing Bug Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS After some experimentation, I discovered the bug appears to be in Snow Leopard in the Screen Sharing application that handles connections via Bonjour, Back to My Mac (which uses Bonjour), and directly entered addresses. **** Inside Mac OS X Snow Leopard: Malware Protection AppleInsider What's new in Snow Leopard is an additional warning when disk images are opened containing known malware installers. However, there is no real malware problem on the Mac, in part because it's hard to write viral code that infects Mac OS X and very easy for Apple to roll out a patch that closes any discovered holes. **** How To Fix The App Store Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek The Google Voice stalemate highlights the problems in Apple's iPhone app approval process. Here are some ways Apple can make the process smoother. **** Mac Clone Maker's Lawyer Denies Spilling Apple Secrets Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Psystar CEO calls Apple's inspection of its Florida office the same as letting 'terrorists visit the Pentagon'. **** Pixelmator 1.5 Adds Save For Web, Snow Leopard Support David Chartier, Macworld **** Snow Leopard And Exchange: It Just Works Michael Scalisi, Macworld Overall, I think Snow Leopard???s apps deliver the essential Exchange features, and should allow Mac users to feel perfectly at home in a corporate Exchange environment. **** Flickr Unveils Dedicated iPhone App MacNN Yahoo has introduced a dedicated Flickr application for the iPhone, which attempts to promote the media-sharing service and simplify its use. The app can upload both photos and videos from an Apple handheld, with the option of geotagging the former. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** WordPress Just Made Millions Of Blogs Real-Time With RSSCloud Marshall Kirkpatrick, ReadWriteWeb RSSCloud is an element that's always been present in the RSS 2.0 spec but has drawn new attention with the rise of interest in the Real-Time Web. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Coming To Know The Limits Of Healing Colin Fernandes, New York Times Still, after a demoralizing recent constellation of patients, I was left wondering which is worse: informing people that they are going to die, or that they are likely to spend the rest of their lives in pain. **** Where Did All the Flowers Come From? Carl Zimmer, New York Times Long after Darwin???s death in 1882, the history of flowers continued to vex scientists. But talk to experts today, and there is a note of guarded optimism. **** Where Newspapers Thrive: Orange County's Little Saigon My-Thuan Tran, Los Angeles Times The enclave is home to five papers catering to Vietnamese Americans' interests - and one of them just started up this summer. Despite the economy, all are doing well. **** Artists In Exile Charlotte Higgins, Guardian The real question, then, is not why these artists chose to leave, but why they have stayed away. **** The Joy Of Earning A Free Coffee, Stamp By Stamp Simon Hattenstone, Guardian Why I love my coffee-shop loyalty card. **** Invitation Jane Hirshfield, Slate Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Reward Users For Loyalty Today Aren't EZ-Link's overall profits based on this volume of users enough to cover said processing costs of the Giro service? As if there are alternatives to be non-loyal. **** Service Adjusted When There Is Demand Bernadette Low, SMRT Corporation, Today We would like to assure Mr Khan and Today readers that we will continue to monitor passenger loads on this stretch and adjust the frequencies when there is demand. Nothing in this letter by SMRT matches what the headline (presumably written by Today, and not SMRT) says. **** Relax, The Banks Can Handle Themselves Toh Chong Siong, Straits Times Dr Koh should therefore not view the new rules as an altruistic move on the part of card issuers. It is something that should have been done a long time ago. **** Fight Against Net Porn A Collective Effort: MDA Eric Tan, Media Development Authority, Straits Times We advocate and actively support public education and responsible use of the Internet as the best defence against online pornography in the long run. **** Singapore Now Stands Alone Tan Kin Lian, Tan Kin Lian's Blog How can justice be seen to be done, when the people affected do not have any say to influence the outcome? Is this the pinnacle of arrogance in a democratic country? **** Girl Now More Independent... After Being Taken From Mum's Hands Benson Ang, New Paper Mum goes to girl's school every day, kicks up fuss about her test papers. School calls police twice, and the authorities take action. **** Singapore Increases Contribution To IMF Xinhua The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced on Monday that Singapore will "significantly expand" its contribution to resources of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). **** Cracks Found In Cathedral Theresa Tan, Straits Times The foundations of Singapore's oldest Catholic church are weakening and the Cathedral of the Good Shepherd is finding ways to stop the cracks in the 162-year-old building from going deeper. Reverend Father Adrian Anthony, its rector, said the church had started noticing 'quite a good number of cracks' after the Land Transport Authority (LTA) began construction work on the MRT Circle Line around 2003. **** Singapore Air Customers Ask ???Where Is Recession??? On Packed A380 Chan Sue Ling, Bloomberg Singapore Air???s advantage as the only airline to fly the A380 to financial centers such as Hong Kong and Tokyo is helping it lure customers like Ong. The plane???s appeal in the two years it has been in service could ease the pain from empty seats on other aircraft and cheaper tickets that are threatening to push the carrier into its first annual loss since 1985. **** ???????????????????????? 13????????????60% ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????1995??????3794?????????(Gwh)???????????????6162????????????????????????60?????? **** 80?????????????????????????????? ???????????????iPhone?????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????80?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????iPhone3GS?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** 8 Common Things Between Men In Black And Men In White Insane Polygons **** $2.5 Or $5.6 Billion? - Misleading Headline By Straits Times On Abu Dhabi???s Purchase Of Chartered The Temasek Review It is an established practice for news agencies to report financial transactions and purchase of companies at the purchase or take-over price which is not inclusive of the target company???s debt. **** Why Is SingPost Delivering The Material Now? Tong Jee Cheng, Today Why are SingPost staff now also delivering junk mail? Follow the money. **** Singapore's Obsession Holds Lessons For Us All Andres Oppenheimer, Miami Herald When school officials from across the world come here to learn why Singapore's students score so well on international science and math tests, it doesn't take them long to discover the secret -- a national obsession with education. **** Proscribing Seditious And Hate Speech Yawning Bread What do we mean by the term "hate speech"? Where do we draw the line between tolerable offensive speech and legally intolerable hate speech? **** The PAP In Crisis (Part 1): An Ossified Structure Lacking An Institutionalized System Of Party Renewal Eugene Yeo, The Temasek Review **** Unseen Side Of Singapore Raindrops Of Memories The shit that happens between Singapore and Malaysia are the same. Only the smell is different. **** Potential Growth In Pawn Broking Industry Led To New Entrants Into The Market Hasnita Majid, Channel NewsAsia Last year alone, eight were set up, one of the largest increase in the last five years. The rise was also due to the entry of pawn shop chains which has caused somewhat of an image make-over of the industry. **** Singapore Ranked 3rd In World Competitiveness Ranking But Only 10th In Innovation Factors The Temasek Review **** S'pore On Track To Meeting OECD's Int'l Tax Standard Requirements Timothy Ouyang, Channel NewsAsia Singapore is on track to meeting all requirements of an international standard on tax havens laid out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). This is according to the Ministry of Finance in response to a query from Channel NewsAsia. **** Temasek???s Chartered Semi Sale Speeds Up Chip Industry Exit Katrina Nicholas and Andrea Tan, Bloomberg Temasek Holdings Pte, which supported the development of Singapore???s $26 billion semiconductor industry for two decades, is one deal away from exiting the chip market entirely. **** Singapore CIOs Optimistic Of An Upturn Sol E. Solomon, ZDNet Asia CIOs in the island-state are optimistic the economic downturn is waning and market conditions will be more favorable for growth over the next six months, a new survey revealed. **** Changes To Appointments Of Permanent Secretaries Channel NewsAsia The Public Service Division has announced several changes to the appointments of permanent secretaries which will take effect from October 1. **** MAS Responds To Feedback On Sale Of Unlisted Investment Products Channel NewsAsia The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it will ban the use of the term "capital or principal protected", or any form of the term, in all disclosure documents and marketing materials for unlisted investment products sold to retail investors. **** 218 Newly Diagnosed HIV-positive Cases From January To June 2009 Channel NewsAsia From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Sep 9 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 9 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 9, 2009 Message-ID: <20090909225901.33275.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Lack Of iPhone SMS Character Counter Frustrates Users MacNN The handset's messaging interface does not provide any notification when 160 characters have been exceeded in the communication bubble. **** Sir Paul Blames Beatles iTunes Delay On EMI Nick Spence, Macworld UK Sir Paul McCartney has blamed music giant EMI for the delays which have prevented The Beatles back catalogue appearing legally on download services such as iTunes. **** iPhone C64 Emulator Pulled From App Store For BASIC Loophole Stuart Dredge , Mobile Entertainment iPhone's first Commodore 64 emulator has been swiftly pulled from the App Store, after users figured out how to access the app's BASIC programming language. **** Blame The iPhone's 3G Network Woes On You And Me Matt Hickey, CNET News.com The problem as I see it isn't AT&T, which is clearly working as fast as it can. I'm putting the blame squarely on the iPhone users themselves. And I'm one of them. **** Synology Adds Time Machine, iPhone Support To Disk Station Manager 2.2 The Mac Observer **** Suddenly, The iPod Is A Boring Device Don Reisinger, InternetNews While Apple's iPod event Wednesday promises some improvements to the current iPod line, it's doubtful that many users will be paying attention. **** China Clears iPhone For Network, Puts Picture Online Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service The Chinese government has cleared a version of the iPhone to use the country???s mobile networks and posted pictures of the handset online, just as carrier China Unicom prepares to launch the phone. **** Can Apple Lose The App Race? Michael Hickins, BNET **** A Program That Makes Your Inbox Less Scary Katherine Boehret, Wall Street Journal Postbox sorts through your email and detects its contents so you can see Web links, photos, contacts and other items themselves with one button click???whether Microsoft Word (MSFT) documents, PDFs or spreadsheets???without digging through messages. Since its inbox is constantly being indexed, all search queries return near-instant results. **** Apple Fans And Investors Geared Up For Company's Annual Music-Themed Event New York Daily News Although industry experts are not expecting any game-changing product announcements - iPod updates are more likely - Apple's events are among the most closely watched in all of technology, and there is always the possibility of a curveball. **** Apple Cuts Most iPod Prices Ahead Of Event MacNN **** The Incredible Shrinking iPod Prices Undercut The Zune HD TechCrunch **** Avid Releases Pro Tools Essential Bundles Jackie Dove, Macworld Avid Technology today announced three new Pro Tools Essential bundles, hardware-software combinations that target consumers and hobbyists who are interested in musical composition, editing, and production, or who want to create and share music, podcasts, narrations, and other audio content. The packages are: Pro Tools Vocal Studio, Pro Tools Recording Studio, and Pro Tools KeyStudio. **** Does Refurbished MacBook Glut Point To Imminent Refresh? Macworld UK While the odd bargain or two can be found on the Refurbished Mac and Refurbished iPod sections of Apple's website, they currently appears to be a glut of discounted MacBooks available. **** Why Did Microsoft License Exchange ActiveSync To Apple? Brad Feld, MIT Technology Review It feels like there is a deep master plan going on here. I just can???t seem to figure it out. Actually, I thought it made perfect sense for the Exchange project group to do this. The "Windows Everywhere" strategy -- which is at the expense of every Microsoft product except, perhaps, Windows -- is a lousy strategy. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Enterprise Cloud Computing Coming Of Age James Urquhart, CNET News.com One of the most interesting aspects of the weeks leading up to and including this year's VMWorld was the incredible innovation in cloud-computing service offerings for enterprises--especially in the category of infrastructure as a service. A variety of service providers are stepping up their cloud offerings, and giving unprecedented capabilities to their customer's system administrators. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Bento Boxes Win Lunch Fans Samantha Storey, New York Times It might seem like silly kids??? stuff, but that sense of fun has helped make bento boxes ??? obentos as the Japanese call them ??? increasingly popular with grownups in the United States, too. **** The Write Stuff Inga Dubay and Barbara Getty, New York Times What follows is a guide to help you get started -- whether you are in elementary school, graduate school, in between or beyond. Think of it as an emergency first step to improve American handwriting. **** Quantum Leap Louisa Gilder, New York Times This biography is a gift. It is both wonderfully written (certainly not a given in the category Accessible Biographies of Mathematical Physicists) and a thought-provoking meditation on human achievement, limitations and the relations between the two. Here we find a man with an almost miraculous apprehension of the structure of the physical world, coupled with gentle incomprehension of that less logical, messier world, the world of other people. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Sentosa Family Scheme Open To Grandparents Too Lee Huei Chern, Sentosa Leisure Group, Straits Times We would like to clarify that we do have grandparents in our pool of family memberships as flexibility was extended in the past upon request. Sounds like weasel words to me. **** Spare Us The Confusion Rick Lim Say Kiong, Today Stop associating this town with tomatoes. **** World Turns Disapproving Eyes On Singapore Banquet Eric Ellis, The Age Singapore seems to subscribe to a ''don't ask, don't tell'' policy on where money comes from. **** Correcting Temasek Misperceptions Myrna Thomas, Temasek Holdings (Private) Limited, Wall Street Journal While our sole shareholder is the Singapore government, we are not a "fund," and do not manage Singapore "citizens' earnings." It is factually wrong to imply that Singaporeans have no choice but to "keep their money with the fund." **** Singapore Is Easiest Place For Business-World Bank Lesley Wroughton, Reuters For the first time, an African country, Rwanda, is the World Bank's biggest business reformer, while Singapore leads overall world rankings for the fourth straight year as the easiest place to do business. **** Why The Prices Of HDB Flats Must Be Kept High From A Political And Economic Perspective (Part 1) Eugene Yeo and Jeremy Koh, The Temasek Review This unique brand of ???pork-barrel??? politics introduced by the PAP to ensure its political hegemony is possible only if the prices of resale flats are attractive. It will lose its effectiveness if residents are unable to make a hefty profit from the sale of their flats. **** Temasek Rebuts Wall Street Journal Again, But Fails To Answer Key Questions The Temasek Review Temasek should stop fudging the issue and strive to be more accountable and transparent to Singaporeans who are after all financing their operations (through years of accumulated budget surpluses). **** WEF Ranked Singapore 19th In ???Judicial Independence??? Which Is Considered A ???competitive Disadvantage??? The Temasek Review **** Still No 'YEA' Christopher Tan, Straits Times Nearly three years ago, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) said it was looking into allowing car owners to have personalised or vanity number plates. But roadblocks - temporary or otherwise - are stopping plates such as JAMES007 or TOOSEXY from appearing on the roads here. **** NTU Students Put Up Fake Bus Stop Sign To Fool Bus Driver The Temasek Review **** Lui Tuck Yew Praised Singaporea Media For ???Non-Aggressive??? Journalism The Temasek Review Mr Lui should realize that the world is moving towards greater media liberalization. It is both fruitless and silly to continue to exert control over the media in this age and time. **** Singapore Says 'Double-Dip' Risk For Global Economy Kevin Lim, Reuters Singapore's economy should remain prepared for the risk of a 'double-dip' in the world economy in 2010, its finance minister said on Wednesday. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Sep 10 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 10 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 10, 2009 Message-ID: <20090910225900.18509.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Griffin Intros Headphone Control Adapter For iPod Nano 5G MacNN **** Hey, Apple, Why No Video Camera For The iPod Touch? PC World **** Q&A: Steve Jobs Snipes At Amazon, Praises Ice Cream David Pogue, New York Times So what we were focused on is just reducing the price [of th iPod Touch] to $199. We don???t need to add new stuff ??? we need to get the price down where everyone can afford it. **** These Apps Help Users Of iPhones Find Their Way Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal Now, a number of companies have launched, or will soon launch, iPhone apps that do offer voice-prompted, automated, turn-by-turn navigation. Of course, many other cellphones have long offered such services. But the iPhone???s large screen, decent mono speaker and large selection of car mounting kits make it a tempting navigation device. **** Will Apple's New iTunes Put You On Cloud Nine? PC World Overall, I can't think of a reason not to upgrade to iTunes 9 and iPhone OS 3.1 (unless your phone is jailbroken, in which case you might want to hold off for now). **** Apple Shows Its Music Vision Stephen Shankland, CNET News **** How To: Organize Your iPhone Apps With iTunes 9 Jennifer Van Grove, Mashable Amid all the hype around iTunes 9 was one new instrumental feature for iPhone owners ??? app management. We were thrilled by the possibilities of finally being able to organize and manage our apps via iTunes, and now we???re even more impressed by the reality. **** iTunes LPs Should Be Lossless Chris Jacob, Gizmodo The iTunes LP is Apple's attempt to recreate the "feel" of buying a physical record in an intangible format. Without lossless audio as a part of the package, though, iTunes LPs are much less than an album. **** Apple Approves Real's Rhapsody iPhone App; First Look Staci D. Kramer, PaidContent.org **** iPod Shuffle 2G Is No More Vladislav Savov, Engadget Amidst all the excitement about moderate improvements and video cameras, we've also had to say goodbye to an old friend. Having been kept around for six months after the release of its successor, the second gen shuffle has finally succumbed, leaving the newly colorful 3G option all on its lonesome in the minimalist music lover space. **** PerfectTablePlan Pro, Advanced Updates Seating, Planning App MacNN Oryx Digital has released new Professional and Advanced Editions of its seating and planning software, PerfectTablePlan. The app offers tools for creating and arranging seating places for special occasions such as weddings or award ceremonies, and includes printable charts and reports. **** Apple's Music Event, In Holiday Colors Jason Snell, Macworld Wednesday???s iPod event was planned with an eye toward holiday sales. **** How To Use Text Substitution In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword Franklin Pride, Inside Mac Games Civilization IV: Beyond the Sword adds loads of new content, with new areas of gameplay, entirely reworked universes to play in, random events, and plenty of mods to choose from, it easily delivers enough to make it worth the $35 to anyone who enjoys the series. **** Steve Jobs Is Going After The Game Market Dean Takahashi, VentureBeat The cheapest iPod Touch is now sellng for $199. If Apple had put a camera in that device, it would have made it more expensive. The device already has a price disadvantage; the Sony PSP sells for $199 as well, while the Nintendo DSi sells for $169. Those prices are so close that gamers will have to think hard about what they will buy. If Apple had thrown a video camera into the iPod Touch, it probably couldn???t be as competitive on price. **** With The iPhone 3.1 Update Little Things Mean A Lot Mel Martin, TUAW This latest iPhone update contains a few little gems that should not be lost in all the excitement over new iPod hardware. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google Plans Micropayments To Save Newspapers InformationWeek Google is developing a micropayment scheme to allow users to buy digital content through its Checkout online payment system. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Can Cheap Be Sexy? Laura Miller, Salon At a time when Americans are wallowing in consumer debt, let's reconsider the joys of penny pinching. **** Where Does Innovation Come From? Lee Drutman, Miller-McCune A new book by W. Brian Arthur, a pioneer in the area of positive feedback in economics, argues that genius is overrated and technology drives its own innovations. **** Who Are You Calling Genius? Ron Rosenbaum, Slate It's time to retire the term. **** Big Food Vs. Big Insurance Michael Pollan, New York Times That???s why our success in bringing health care costs under control ultimately depends on whether Washington can summon the political will to take on and reform a second, even more powerful industry: the food industry. **** Life In (And After) Our Great Recession Benjamin Schwarz, The Atlantic Dashed hopes, less sex, even more Sisyphean labor for women???what the histories of the Depression era tell us about middle-class families in crisis, both then and now. **** How To Revive Another Author's Characters Alison Flood, Guardian Authors are being roped in left, right and centre to continue or complete legacies, whether it's Sebastian Faulks taking on James Bond in Devil May Care last year, or the bucketloads of Virginia Andrews novels she has "written" since her death more than 20 years ago. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Dissecting Minister Lui Tuck Yew???s Take On The New Media The Temasek Review The Singapore media is living on borrowed time. The only reason why they appear to be dominant now is because their opponents are still pretty weak, poor and inexperienced, but we are learning the ropes fast and the gap between us is narrowing with each passing day. **** Singapore Sees Spike In Diarrhea Cases Xinhua **** Lui Tuck Yew on New Media: Pot Calling the Kettle Black Gimme Some Truth! The vibe I???m getting from his comments is that Mr. Lui???s camp still espouses the ???Us Vs. Them??? mentality about the new media; by describing the web a ???challenge??? and not something to embrace, its probably going to eventually be a case of the web being able to meet the media???s challenge, rather than the other way round. **** Be Warned But Don't Be Fooled Simply Gab Minister Lui???s comments are not earth shattering as we have always understood the government???s unease with regards to alternative and unregulated media. But they are nonetheless disappointing and betray a continued unease in dealing with dissident voices. **** LI Takes Up Singapore Issue At UN Meeting Singapore Democrats The Liberal International (LI) has submitted a written statement to the United Nations' Human Rights Council. The statement cites human rights violations in several countries including Singapore and Burma. **** Never Mind The Confusion, Just Think Of The Health Benefits Jas Tan, Today The tomato is a lovely and healthy fruit and associating it with the town might just remind people of its health benefits. **** Cable Car Shuts Down Mon Jessica Lim, Straits Times Singapore's cable car system will shut down for the longest period on Monday as it gets set for a multi-million dollar makeover. When business resumes in the second quarter of 2010, riders can expect bigger cars, the addition of a sound system and new flip-up seats. A special VIP cabin will come adorned with crystals, and luxurious leather chairs. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Sep 11 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 11 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 11, 2009 Message-ID: <20090911225900.49045.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Apple Rolls Out iMac Graphics, RAID Card Firmware Updates Philip Michaels, Macworld **** The iPod Is Dead. Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine The new Nano signals an inevitable, though still remarkable, transition: The iPod is dead. I don't mean the name won't stick around or that people will stop buying Apple's devices. Rather, the sun is setting on what the iPod once was???a device you bought to play MP3s. **** Not Only Is Snow Leopard Trim, Its Update Cubs Are Tiny MG Siegler, TechCrunch The first update to Snow Leopard, OS X 10.6.1 has just been released by Apple. It seems that it???s mostly bug fixes, which is hardly surprising considering that the OS was just released a couple weeks ago. But one odd thing about the update is just how small it is for some users: 9.8 MB, to be exact. **** Why Developers Love Apple's Snow Leopard Mark Milian, Los Angeles Times Why is Snow Leopard so important? To quote a sweaty, excited Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's chief executive, "developers, developers, developers." (We're quoting him out of context, but he makes our point: developers!) **** Snow Leopard Update Fixes Adobe Flash Issue Jim Dalrymple, CNET News Apple on Thursday released a relatively minor update for Mac OS X Snow Leopard that fixes an issue users had with the operating system that downgraded them to an older version of Adobe Systems' Flash Player. **** Apple Demonstrates Ignorance Of Mobile Games Market Matt Peckham, PC World $5 to $10 games? Great. Easy to learn and simple to play? Terrific. Able to pull them down in minutes, wherever you're at, using your provider's 3G network? Bully for Apple. But that doesn't make games like Guitar Hero: On Tour for the DS--a game that'd be impossible on the iPhone--any less "cool," or its price tag of $30 any more unreasonable. **** Faster AT&T 3G On Its Way, Slowly Dong Ngo, CNET News.com **** Box.net Opens Up Collaboration Service To iPhone Apps Philip Michaels, Macword Developers will able to integrate Box.net's content management and collaboration platform into their apps. **** Lessons From A Mac OS Switcher Michael Gartenberg, SlashGear The bottom line is that the Mac platform today is not the Mac platform of old and there???s a lot of benefit for going with Apple and relatively little hassle for doing so. **** Apple Issues Security Updates For Leopard, Tiger Jonathan Seff, Macworld **** Apple Releases Mac OS X 10.6.1 Dan Moren, Macworld Included in the OS X 10.6.1 update are a number of stability and compatibility improvements as well as patches for security issues, among them including the more recent version of the Flash plug-in for Safari. **** Home Sharing: At Last, iTunes Library Synchronization Peter Cohen, Macworld If you???re like me and you have a house full of music lovers, you may be interested in Home Sharing, a new feature of iTunes 9. It lets up to five computers in a single household share movies and music files more easily. **** iPhone 3.1 Breaking Exchange E-Mail For iPhone 3G Users? Al Sacco, CIO Apple???s support forum pages are quickly filling up with reports from frustrated enterprise iPhone users who attempted to sync information via iPhone with Exchange servers after upgrading to iPhone 3.1, but received the following error message. The account requires encryption which is not supported on this iPhone. **** iPhone 3.1's Anti-Phishing: Not Better Than Nothing? Dan Moren, Macworld Security firm Intego reports that the anti-phishing feature???which is supposed to display a warning when you visit a site with less-than-honorable intentions towards your personal information???flat out doesn???t work. Security firm Zscaler agreed with that assessment, noting that it???s been unable to get the warning to trigger. **** iPod Touch Comes Into Its Own As A Game Platform Peter Cohen, Macworld We???re just scratching the surface, folks. Now the fun begins. **** Using The New Automatic Import Folder In iTunes 9 Giles Turnbull, Cult Of Mac iTunes 9 has neat little new feature: it will automatically import any music or videos you throw into a specific folder. **** Apple Rides Recent Growth In Asia To Earn Top Honors Cris Prystay, Wall Street Journal For a company with a tiny market share in Asia, Apple Inc. has an outsized reputation. Apple held just a 1.6% share of the personal-computer market in Asia in the second quarter of this year, and a 0.6% sliver of the region's mobile-phone market, according to technology market-research firm IDC. Yet Apple skyrocketed to the top of our annual Asia 200 survey this year, and was ranked by readers as the region's most admired multinational company. Last year, Apple ranked seventh. **** Radio Rejoices As iPod Nano Gets FM Tuner Andrew Hampp, AdAge.com Apple's launch this week of its fifth-generation iPod nano, the first iPod to include a video camera, drew heavy chatter from bloggers and tech nerds alike for its affordable attack on the Flip camera. But the unlikeliest benefactor of the new nano? The radio industry, via Apple's first FM tuner, compatible with new 5G nanos. **** iPod Nano 5G Is So Good, You???ll Want To Eat It Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac **** Bugs & Fixes: iTunes 9 And Safari Mix It Up Ted Landau, Macworld After installing iTunes 9, you may find that the updated version refuses to connect to the iTunes Store. **** Apple Plugs Loopholes With Security Updates In iPhone OS 3.1 AppleInsider Through security fixes, Apple's latest update to the iPhone operating system has reportedly disabled unintended "features" that some handset users were able to access with the prior version. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Home Crafts Get Wired Penelope Green, New York Times Ms. Lewis, 35, is part of a wave of young product designers intent on embedding electronics into ???soft??? areas like fashion or home furnishings. She has the can-do spirit that defines the modern crafter and hopes to engage other young women in her blinking, D.I.Y. world. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Three Poems Jack Henry, 3:AM Magazine an old man walks between the shadows of his footfalls, between the sound of light overtaking dark and the diminishing returns of time **** Opposing The Death Penalty Is Not About Innocence Lee Kovarsky, Salon Fighting the death penalty should not hinge on proving that innocent people have been sentenced to die. **** I Will Not Read Your Fucking Script Josh Olson, Village Voice ???I will not read your fucking script. That's simple enough, isn't it? "I will not read your fucking script." What's not clear about that? There's nothing personal about it, nothing loaded, nothing complicated. I simply have no interest in reading your fucking screenplay. None whatsoever. **** Summer???s End Judith Warner, New York Times I am back, once again this week, to mortality, aging, time???s passage, loss. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Lui Tuck Yew Should Take His Head Out Of The Sand Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net The truth is that in Singapore, more and more people have come to recognize that the mainstream media does not always give a balance picture, especially when it comes to political issues or issues involving Opposition parties, and more people are starting to go online for alternative sources of socio-political news and commentary. **** Your Age Doesn't Matter Zul Othman, Today This is one employer who doesn't ask for your age when you're filling up a job application form. And it is due to age-friendly policies that helped Royal Plaza on Scotts' (RPS) become one of the three Singaporean recipients of the 2009 AARP International Innovative Employer Awards. **** Singapore's All Wet Neel Chowdhury, Time Hot, equatorial, but with limited groundwater, Singapore has made itself a global paragon of water conservation by harvesting--and reusing--the aqueous bounty of its skies and, to a lesser extent, its surrounding seas. **** Eleven Aircraft Queueing To Land Not Unusual At Busy Airports Like Changi Alvin Tan, Straits Times Having 11 aircraft queueing (in the air) to land at Changi at any one time is no cause for concern. **** Pay A Fee To Get Your Own Money Back, Or Take The $100k In Small Notes Goh Khee Kuan, Straits Times It seems ironic that one has to pay to get back one's own money. It also seems that OCBC is putting senior citizens at risk by forcing those who do not want to spend $5 to get back their own money, to carry large sums of cash. **** HDB 'Box' Spaces Are Part Of Common Area Lim Huat Eng, Housing and Development Board, Straits Times While the outdoor display areas are located in front of the shops, they are part of the common area meant for general use by the public; they therefore do not belong to the shops, and cannot be sublet. **** The Conservatives Should Look To Singapore For Ideas On Pruning Public Services John Paul, Telegraph David Cameron is reported to be promising spending cuts of 10 per cent. He needs to take a leaf from Singapore's book ??? they have a public-sector payroll which, I understand, amounts to 7 per cent of the workforce, while the United Kingdom has 40 per cent or more. **** Hold On To Older Workers Ang Yiying, Straits Times A call has gone out to companies to keep their older employees on the payroll instead of waiting for the law on this to take effect in 2012. Minister in the prime minister's Office Lim Boon Heng said that some of these older workers may need retraining, but they are a source of labour going untapped - even as small- and medium-sized enterprises tell him about their difficulties in finding enough Singapore workers. **** ???????????????????????? ??????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Free Data Bundle worth $5.35?????????????????????????????????????????????Free Data Bundle 20MB/$5.35??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????20MB?????????????????? **** ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore???s Banks Slammed For Being Offshore Repositories Of Burmese Military Junta???s Yadana Gasline Pipe Revenue The Temasek Review EarthRights International (ERI) released two authoritative reports yesterday alleging that Burma???s military regime has transferred billions of dollars from the Yadana gas project into two banks operating in Singapore. Citing ???confidential and reliable??? sources, ERI named the Overseas Chinese Banking Corporation (OCBC) and DBS Group (DBS) as the offshore repositories of Yadana gas pipeline revenues. OCBC is Singapore???s longest established local bank and according to ERI holds the majority of the revenue, while DBS is Singapore???s largest bank in terms of assets. **** Not Mainstream Media, Not New Media, Then Who? Fang Shihan, The Online Citizen Adversarial relationship between MSM and New Media will only increase the already high levels of apathy. **** NSmen Allowances Up Straits Times The government has accepted all the recommendations to better recognise the contributions of National Servicemen. They include higher combat and rank allowances - of up to 20 per cent more - for NSmen who go for in camp training. NSmen will also be allowed to bring in and use their laptops, PDAs and Blackberries during non-training hours. Three business centres, fitted with wireless internet access, photocopiers, online telephony service Skype and fascimile facilities, will be set up by the end of the year. **** Why The Prices Of HDB Flats Must Be Kept High From A Political And Economic Perspective (Part 2) Eugene Yeo and Jeremy Koh, The Temasek Review **** Ban On 'Singapore Rebel' Lifted, Rated M18 Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans After four and a half years, the government has lifted the ban on Singapore Rebel today. **** Singapore Banks Reject Myanmar Junta Cash Report AFP Two Singapore banks have rejected a report by a US-based rights group that said Myanmar's ruling junta deposited billions of dollars with them. DBS Group Holdings and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp (OCBC) said in separate statements late Thursday that there was no truth in the report by EarthRights International (ERI). **** Government Lifts Ban On Movie About SDP Chief Chee Satish Cheney, Channel NewsAsia The Media Development Authority said on Friday that the Board of Film Censors had referred the film to the Political Films Consultative Committee (PFCC) for advice on whether it should be regarded as a party political film under the Films Act. And after reviewing the film, the Committee said "Singapore Rebel" is a documentary and not a party political film. **** Commuters Unhappy With 25-cent Levy For GIRO Top-up Of New Ez-link Card Gladys Ow, Channel NewsAsia In response to Channel NewsAsia, LTA said card providers such as EZ-Link or credit card companies are free to determine their costs to ensure business survival while meeting customers' needs. LTA said: "With regard to the question of the fee related to automatic GIRO top-up, this is a commercial consideration by the card issuer to provide for a waiver or to require a nominal fee. Card issuers have to consider the charges that are imposed on them to provide this service to the users of their card. **** Singapore On Track To Exit Tax 'Gray List' By Year End -OECD Costas Paris, Wall Street Journal Singapore, a key Asian financial center attracting billions of dollars in offshore accounts, is working quickly to become more transparent and is on course to be removed by year-end from a list of countries that shield bank-account information. **** Affluent Singapore Attracts Luxury Retailers In Force Brenda Goh, Reuters Luxury fashion brands are wafting into Singapore in droves, betting on the city-state's ambitions of becoming a playground for Asia's super-rich as it recovers from its worst-ever recession. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Sep 12 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 12 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 12, 2009 Message-ID: <20090912225900.81944.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iTunes And Cocoa John Gruber, Daring Fireball Carbon hasn???t been deprecated but Apple clearly considers it legacy technology, and Apple has demonstrated a strong institutional aversion to legacy anything. **** Apple Releases New 'Get A Mac', iPod Touch, And iPod Nano Ads MacRumors : Mac News and Rumors Apple this week has launched three new television commercials, including one new "Get a Mac" ad featuring Justin Long and John Hodgman in their usual roles, one highlighting the gaming focus of the iPod touch, and a third showing off the video capabilities of the new iPod nano. **** Coloring With Adobe Kuler James Dempsey, Macworld The use of color is generally one of the most important aspects of any design. But not all designers are blessed with the ability to create color combinations that work well together. Most of us know a great color-combo when we see one, but couldn't create one if our lives depended on it. This is where Kuler can help. **** iTunes Gains Automatically Add To iTunes Feature Aayush Arya, Macworld One of the often requested features for iTunes has been the ability to set a folder for it to watch, automatically adding any items you drop in that folder to its library. In iTunes 9, Apple has quietly added this feature, although I wouldn???t blame you for not having noticed its existence. In typical Apple fashion, it???s not exactly what people were asking for, but Apple???s interpretation of what they want. **** News: Apple Makes Grand Central Dispatch Open Source The Mac Observer Apple opened up its Grand Central Dispatch technology in Snow Leopard to the open source community on Friday. Grand Central is a feature in Mac OS X 10.6 that lets developers more easily take advantage of the horsepower multi-core processors, and Apple's move means the open source community can now roll the technology into other operating systems, too. **** iTunes App Store: Does Anyone Even Care About Top Grossing Apps? Craig Grannell, Cult of Mac It???s pretty clear this an attempt to appease developers, increasingly annoyed at the rush to 99 cents on the App Store. But here???s the thing: will anyone care? I can???t see too many consumers rushing to see which apps have grossed the most and make buying decisions based on that. ???Top grossing apps??? also sounds pretty ugly???not really what you???d expect from Apple. **** MobileMe Adds iPhone, Snow Leopard Features Dan Moren, Macworld **** Hands On: iTunes 9 Refinements Cool, But Hard To Find Chris Foresman, Ars Technica iTunes 9 ushers in several changes to Apple's media app???some obvious, some far more subtle. We took a look around to see what we could find, and we bring you our impressions of what Apple has done with the latest version. **** Opinion: Open Sourcing Grand Central Dispatch Is Crazy??? Like A Fox The Mac Observer It's becoming more and more clear that Apple has developed a world class software development system for the Mac and the iPhone/iPod touch. Developers are taking notice. **** Review: Fifth-generation iPod Nano Christopher Breen, Macworld The 5G iPod nano is different. A video camera, built-in microphone, and buffered FM radio make this iPod nano a far more functional, flexible, and entertaining iPod than its predecessor. It won???t replace your full-sized camcorder (or even last year???s pocket camcorder). It???s not Tivo for radio nor a field recorder. It???s a compelling upgrade to an already solid and affordable media player. If the iPod you own is starting to look a little limited, this is the iPod to ask for this holiday season. **** iPod Touch Teardown Reveals Empty Space For Camera Leander Kahney, Cult of Mac The new iPod Touch has an internal space for a camera, a teardown by iFixit has discovered. And there???s a couple more surprises also. **** IEEE Ratifies 802.11n Wi-Fi Standard After 7 Years MacNN **** Review: iTunes 9 Dan Frakes, Macworld Besides being a mandatory upgrade if you need to use any of the new features of the iTunes Store and your iPhone or iPod touch, the latest version of iTunes is a worthy upgrade for new users, those with massive media libraries, and those who want to more-easily share their media between family members. Indeed, Apple???s goal with iTunes 9 seems to have been to make it easier for new users to bring in media and start enjoying it, while providing some of the most-requested features for existing users. And in most respects, iTunes 9 succeeds. **** iTunes 9???s New Interface Causing App Sales To Drop? Tyler Tschida, App Advice The issue seems to be the new iTunes 9 interface. ??iTunes 8 clearly displayed all app categories, such as games, finance, entertainment, and what have you, on the left-hand side of the screen. ??iTunes 9, however, hides all of these categories under a tiny arrow within the top navigation bar. ??An arrow that doesn???t appear unless hovered over. **** Cocktail 4.5 (Snow Leopard Edition) For Mac OS X 10.6 Released Macsimum **** iPhone OS 3.1 Enforcing Exchange Device Encryption, Only Supported By iPhone 3GS Donald Melanson, Engadget **** What Steve Jobs Actually Said About EBooks MG Siegler, TechCrunch Translation: We???re making a tablet, and eBooks will be a part of those. **** The New iPod Nano: More Features, Same Size David Colker, Los Angeles Times It's a triumph of engineering and design that has managed to pack new features -- video camera, FM radio, microphone, speaker, dorky pedometer -- into an elegant device that's a pleasure to use. **** iTunes 9: The Stuff That Dreams Are Made Of? Scott McNulty, Macworld MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Specialist Pleading Frank Furedi, The Australian ONE of the most influential contemporary cultural myths is that our era is characterised by the end of deference. **** Grandpa Had His Own Sphere Of Influence Patricia Cohen, New York Times Nicholas Thompson is not bragging when he says that his new book about the two master builders of America???s cold war strategy, Paul Nitze and George Kennan, could have been written only by him. **** Essay: Poet Of Desolate Landscapes Jonathan Lethem, New York Times By the time J. G. Ballard died in April of this year, talk of his long struggle with cancer should have prepared his followers (???fans??? is too pale a word for the devotion Ballard inspired), yet the news still came as a shock. Ballard was, unmistakably, a literary futurist, at ease in the cold ruins of the millennium a lifetime sooner than the rest of us; his passing registered as a disorienting claim of time upon the timeless. Whether you embrace or reject on his behalf the label ???science-fiction writer??? will indicate whether you regard it as praiseful or damning, but no one reading Ballard could doubt the tidal gravity of his intellect or the stark visionary consistency of the motifs that earned him that rarest of literary awards, an adjective: Ballardian. **** Far From The Madding Crowd Dominique Browning, New York Times We live in noise. The world is a booming, rustling, buzzing place to begin with (though many of us have shut out nature???s clamor), and to that we have added every conceivable vibration of our own making and every possible means of assault, whether it???s the vast, thrumming climate-controlling systems of our sealed buildings or the tiny earbuds nestled against our cochleae. What chance does quiet have against all this? SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** EZ-Link Must Justify New Charges, Says Case Seah Seng Choon, Consumers Association of Singapore (Case), Straits Times We agree with Mr Ng that EZ-Link needs to be more explicit in explaining and justifying the new charges imposed on card top-ups via Giro. **** ????????????30??? ???????????? ???????????????30????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Thio Li Ann Lashed Out At TOC For ???victimizing??? Her The Temasek Review She termed the TOC coverage as a lie and irresponsible reporting and said that TOC was not interested in public debate and was only interested in creating confusion. Thio stated that the AWARE incident was a perfect example where there was no religious issue as it was about a ???private takeover??? of a NGO and a debate over public values. But someone threw the religious card into the debate and when that happened all rationality was lost. **** Singapore Rebel : Unbanned! Diary of A Singaporean Mind So the account of Operation Coldstore in "Men in White" is acceptable but Zahari's account is not? The PAP govt still chooses the version of history it wants us to believe... **** Need To Wise Up Quickly To The Ways Of The World Seah Chiang Nee, The Star Are Singaporeans too simple-minded ??? or greedy ??? to be able to survive unscathed in this era of sophisticated scams and financial sharks? Protected by a system of laws and a stable environment, they become vulnerable when exposed to sophisticated swindlers and Madoff-type con men. **** Mainstream Media Here Continues To Hold Ground, Said Minister Yawning Bread How many layers make a truthful fact? From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Sep 13 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 13 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 13, 2009 Message-ID: <20090913225901.63188.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** New iPod Touch Has 802.11n Chip Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS Does that mean that the iPod touch is suddenly much zippier on the network? Not quite. **** Head To Head: iPod Nano Vs. Pocket Camcorders Tim Moynihan, PC World In the end, the Nano won???t replace a dedicated pocket camcorder, just as a pocket camcorder won???t replace a full-size video camera. But the Nano has its benefits, namely ultraportability, fun features, and the fact that it???s an iPod. **** Some Notes On iTunes LP Jay Robinson Feature-wise, an iTunes LP is a DRM-free album in high-quality 256kbps AAC format, along with digital extras (visualizer(s), photos, videos and interviews) wrapped in a custom WebKit-powered site. **** Ballmer's Guide To iPhone Usage At Microsoft Nick Wingfield, Wall Street Journal It???s no secret to anyone at Microsoft that more than a few employees tote around iPhones in their pockets. Some staffers make little effort to hide the Apple device, while others seem to treat the iPhone a bit like a flask of whisky ??? a secret, irresistible source of shame. This from a company famous for its 'embrace and extend' strategy. Where would Microsoft be if Bill Gates didn't buy a Macintosh? **** iPod Touch 3.0 Firmware Now $4.95 John Biggs, CrunchGear **** iPhone And iPod Touch Becoming A Viable Gaming Platform? William Ham, Onemetal I can???t help but feel that the mobile phones instant digital distribution, and micro-payment platform are also key elements of is success. **** How Come iTunes Sales Haven't Hit A Wall? Philip Greenspun How could a product that requires home computer users to be expert sysadmins continue to enjoy expanding sales? **** Apple Flubs iPod Event, Marketing Changing? Erik Sherman, BNET Such a market misreading is unusual for the company. Combined with the results of yesterday, and you have to wonder if Apple is having a bad day, or whether shifting markets and conditions are showing that ingrained approaches to business may not work. **** Apple iTunes, iPod Upgrades A Quiet Burst Of Sound Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun Times **** Apple's iPod Evolution Could Mark End Of Dedicated Devices Nicholas Kolakowski, eWeek Apple's Sept. 9 rollout of an iPod Nano equipped with a video camera and a larger screen suggests a larger trend of manufacturers concentrating on multifunctional devices, including tablet PCs. If those devices find a foothold in the enterprise and consumer markets, there is a likelihood that dedicated devices such as e-readers and MP3 players could find themselves endangered species against gadgets that not only display text or play music, but also capture video and allow document editing. **** The Bookmark App - Audiobooks Finally Done Right David Winograd, TUAW The Bookmark app has solved a number of problems I've always suffered while listening to audiobooks on an iPhone. It isn't pefect yet, but what is currently in the app store is the best implementation of digital audiobook listening I've found. **** Entrepreneur Sees Future - On His iPhone Kara G. Morrison, Arizona Republic But with more than 75,000 apps, an explosion from the 500 that debuted 14 months ago, competition is towering, and app millionaires rare. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** At Your Fingers, An Oxford Don Steve Lohr, New York Times Today, though, 21st-century technology carries the potential to nudge mainstream education back toward the 16th-century vision of one-to-one tutoring. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Facts, Errors And The Kindle Anthony Gottlieb, Intelligent Life The printed word has always had an Achilles heel: factual mistakes. Can the electronic reader help? **** Time To Hit ???Escape??? Marianne Leone, Boston Globe My new plan is to enlist the younger nieces and nephews in a skills-exchange program. They hook up my new copier/printer/particle collider and in return I use my culinary crone expertise to make them my mother???s mouth-watering lasagna. And I promise not to look at them smugly when they ask for the recipe. **** Strange, Dear, But True, Dear Dick Cavett, New York Times We were living in an ice-house that winter. (That sentence is not about a power failure, but is the result of my favorite high school English teacher in Nebraska, Esther Montgomery, who advocated trying for an arresting opening sentence in writing a story. I hope you are arrested.) **** The Fashion Industry's Old Business Model Is Out Of Style Booth Moore, Los Angeles Times The Internet is bringing high fashion to the masses, and the recession is making retailers and designers put the consumer first, not the brand. **** The Lyrical Miracle Gene Weingarten, Washington Post You'd think the song might be within my grasp, but I have discovered there is an enormous difference between writing the sorts of things I write and writing a song, especially the part involving having deep human feelings that rhyme. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** MediShield Should Cover Congenital Illnesses Gerald Giam Singaporeans have been led to believe that we already have a fantastic ???public option??? (i.e., a state-run health insurance scheme) in form of MediShield. Well it seems MediShield is public alright, but with a lot of options for our bottom line driven government. **** Singanews: A Thio-like News Portal Wrapped Under The Guise Of Secularism? The Temasek Review Is Singanews really a ???secular??? news portal or another Thio-like portal wrapped under the guise of secularism to promote ???mainstream family values??? like what Josie Lau and team had attempted to achieve with their unsuccessful takeover of Aware? Only time will tell. Sounds to me like a big echo chamber. **** Making Mas Selamat Safe Malaysia Star So far, it has not been made clear why he has not been sent back to Singapore. ???We would also like to know why,??? mutters a prison official in response to a question from a journalist during a media visit to Kamunting last month. **** Revealed: The Ghost Fleet Of The Recession Simon Parry, Daily Mail The biggest and most secretive gathering of ships in maritime history lies at anchor east of Singapore. Never before photographed, it is bigger than the U.S. and British navies combined but has no crew, no cargo and no destination - and is why your Christmas stocking may be on the light side this year. **** Singanews Sam Ho, Sam's thoughts In the mean time, I look forward to Singanews and its reporting from the perspective of "mainstream family values". There are many types of families in Singapore, different strategies of love, care and creating safe environments for our loved ones. And even within circles who subscribe to "mainstream family values", there will be different opinions. **** 'No Signboard' Let's Grab Some Crabs! Triwik Kurniasari, Jakarta Post By 1981, the No Signboard Seafood Restaurant had become a branded name and since then, it has expanded its branches around many parts of the city-state, pampering foodies with its famous crab delicacies, like chili crab and white pepper crab. Today, Indonesian foodies can also savor this scrumptious dish. They don't need to fly to Singapore, but can simply drive to the Pacific Place shopping mall. **** Anti-Gays' New Online Platform Launched Yawning Bread What is it about the growing wisdom that the rest of the world has about gay people, as exemplified by Gordon Brown's statement, that these fundies find so threatening? What private demons are they struggling with? **** The Far East With Children Made Easy Fiona Bruce, Telegraph If you crave a bit of adventure and the unknown, Singapore is not for you. But if you want a holiday where you are transported to a strange and wonderful foreign land but where everyone speaks English, you always feel safe, you won't get a tummy bug and where your fractious child can get English food if he or she absolutely refuses to eat another bowl of noodles ??? it's the place for you. The exotic Far East made easy. **** The King Of The Skies Nevil Gibson, The National Business Review Nearly two years out, Singapore Airlines??? gamble with the A380 is looking good. **** Singapore Media Thriving On Quality Or Monopoly? Blowin' In The Wind **** Singapore, Wild And Tamed Darrell Hartman, Chicago Sun Times Straight-laced island nation offers a thrilling ride, all neatly organized. **** Species Being Wiped Out Straits Times Acid rain could be driving Singapore's remaining native species to extinction. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Sep 14 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 14 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 14, 2009 Message-ID: <20090914225901.71828.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Schools Dump Textbooks For iPods, Laptops Rachel Martin and Christine Brouwer, ABC News For generations, school meant books -- lots of books. But not anymore. Around the country, from high school to grad school, textbooks are getting harder to find. Technology has made the library something that can fit into the palm of your hand. **** OK, Apple, But How Many Good Games Do You Have?!? Michael Anderson, Gear Diary I am hopeful that the iPod Touch continues to progress as a gaming platform and that the App Store continues attracting talented developers. I also hope that no one grabs too tight on to what Phil Schiller said last week, because I believe that we really could end up in a place of the expectation of insulting cheapness. And that would have a devastating impact on the gaming world I know and love today. **** Is Apple Too Powerful? Michael Mace, Mobile Opportunity iTunes is no longer just a tool for Apple to defend its iPod sales; it's now a tool to help Apple take over new markets. **** iPhone's Safari Leads On Sexy Smarts Daniel Ionescu, PC World The iPhone is the prettiest smartphone, but is its Safari browser really the benchmark that all other mobile browsers must meet? **** iPhone MMS Working For Many; Two Weeks Early Jason D. O'Grady, The Apple Core Despite its statement that MMS would be available to iPhone customers beginning on September 25, AT&T began a gradual rollout of the coveted feature in select markets starting on Friday. **** Apple Jack Of All Trades? Jeffrey Fritz, Examiner.com Steve Jobs' comment to David Pogue concerning an Apple's eBook reader is interesting and troubling. **** iPhone Gets .Net App Development Paul Krill, Infoworld News Novell on Monday will offer a kit for developers to build Apple iPhone and iPod Touch business applications using Microsoft's .Net Framework instead of the Apple-designated C or Objective-C languages. **** Kids Use iPods In School To Help With Language Skills Kate Cerve, Hilton Head Island Packet At most Beaufort County public schools, iPods and other portable music players are banned from classrooms and hallways. But at Hilton Head Island Middle School and others with high numbers of students with limited English skills, teachers use the devices to help students learn to read. **** Apple iTunes 9 Paul Thurrott's SuperSite For Windows For now, iPod and iPhone owners can enjoy the vastly improved sync capabilities, while all iTunes users can access the new store design and should at least examine the sharing capabilities. The rest of it is about lock-in, mostly, but of course, Apple's most fanatical fans relish corporate micromanagement of their lives, and they'll embrace iTunes 9 blindly like the lemmings they are. But then, there's no choice involved here regardless. And that's true if you're in the fold or not. **** The iPod Nano: The New Family Video Camera Tim Bajarin, PC Magazine Over the years, I have seen a lot of changes when it comes to portable video recorders, and every generation gets smaller, lighter, and better. But the nano breaks new ground and, given its aggressive price, it just might become the No. 1 digital video camera for the modern family. **** Let Your iPhone Drive You Jamie Lendino and Sascha Segan, PC Magazine iPhone OS 3.0 opened the floodgates for driving-directions applications. We choose the best. **** iPod Touch Helping Mansfield District Students Learn Traci Shurley, Star-Telegram >From coloring pictures to putting together puzzles, the 4-year-olds in Mansfield teacher Lisa Watson???s class handle all the things that pre-kindergartners have for years, with one big exception ??? iPod touches. **** WebGL Support Begins To Arrive In WebKit Arnold Kim, MacRumors WebGL is a standards based initiative which is bring hardware accelerated 3D graphics to web browsers without the need for browser plug-ins. **** Apple Drops 40GB Apple TV And Discounts 160GB Model To $229 Arnold Kim, MacRumors **** Review Sid Meier's Civilization IV: Beyond The Sword Chris Holt, Macworld Expansion pack for expansive game makes things more... expansive. **** Apple Says: Tiger Users could Upgrade To Snow Leopard For ??25 - But Mustn't Charles Arthur, Guardian "Technically, yes, it would upgrade a Tiger install," said Eyzaguire, sounding a little deflated, "but in the licensing, no." **** Apple Stirs Muddy Waters With iPod touch Emphasis Bryan Chaffin, Mac Observer >From my armchair pundit viewpoint, Apple would be better served emphasizing the iPod touch as a gaming device that can run the same apps as the iPhone. This is markedly different from trying to position it separately with the almost certainly-unintended side effect of suggesting there is a separate category of apps for the device. **** Mobilize: How Apple Is Helping Mobile Developers Make Money Katie Fehrenbacher, GigaOM As large players like Apple move into the cell phone market with innovations like the iPhone and its App Store, the revenues that mobile app developers can get from consumers and carriers will only grow, noted a panel of executives from mobile application startups at our Mobile 09 conference in San Francisco on Thursday. That???s because while carriers have traditionally controlled the billing relationship with the customer, Apple has brought its own billing relationship with the customer to the table and has been using it to break the stranglehold that carriers have had on the industry. **** Five Unexpected Uses For The Spacebar Sharon Zardetto, Macworld Ancient Greek and Latin writings had no spaces between words; you just had to be familiar with where words started and stopped in order to read textlikethis. But we should be grateful to the spacebar for more than just its sacred word-separation calling, because it can also perform quite a few tricks in various environments. **** Default Folder X 4.3.1 Improves Snow Leopard Support The Mac Observer **** The iPod Nano: The New Family Video Camera PC Magazine **** Top Grossing Apps Lukas Mathis, Ignore The Code despite of the fact that there seems to be a race to the bottom of the pricing range, having a higher price will often push you above cheaper apps when it comes to a your net income. **** Severn Software Intros Secrets Data Encryption App The Mac Observer **** Apple Clarifies iPhone Anti-phishing Feature Dan Moren, Macworld **** Accounting Rule Change In Apple's Favor Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Fortune A change in accounting rules for which Apple (AAPL) ??? among other high-tech companies ??? lobbied heavily won tentative approval last Thursday. The change could significantly affect both the company's reported earnings and its stock price. **** Acorn 2 Adds Multi-layer Screenshots, More Dan Moren, Macworld Image-editing programs have long had a hard time competing with the 800-pound gorilla known as Photoshop, but Flying Meat has carved out a sweet spot for itself with its lightweight, inexpensive editor Acorn. The recently released Acorn 2 has even more to offer those who don???t need every single little bell, whistle, or kazoo that Photoshop offers. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Miley Cyrus Is On The Line Just For You Brooks Barnes, New York Times Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are now considered essential parts of the entertainment factory???s marketing arsenal. Add another service to the list: SayNow, a tiny Silicon Valley company whose low-key approach ??? connecting stars and their fans through voice mail ??? is gaining traction, particularly among teenage audiences. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Mother???s Quail Paula Bohince, New Yorker **** Alternate Take: Levon Helm Tracy K. Smith, New Yorker I???ve been beating my head all day long on the same six lines, Snapped off and whittled to nothing like the nub of a pencil Chewed up and smoothed over, yellow paint flecking my teeth. **** Land Of The Living Sam Shepard, New Yorker **** Let Us Now Praise ... Canned Food James Parker, Boston Globe For the lover of produce in New England, the countdown to fall is a gilded time. Appetite sharpens. The carrot itches in the cooling earth. The feverish fruits of summer recede - the tomatoes, the peppers, the zucchini - and the cauliflower shows once again her enigmatic face. Seasonal dishes recommend themselves; the climate solicits a culinary tribute. So what???ll it be - a pumpkin and chestnut soup? A wild mushroom risotto, with persimmon chutney? Or perhaps... some nice Chef Boyardee Mini Ravioli? **** Tracking The Blog Explosion Carol Iaciofano, Boston Globe Not since the early days of personal computers have there been such riveting and quirky tales of ???pioneers and innovators,?????? those men and women able to consider the possibilities of daily life in remarkable new ways. **** The Rise Of The Professional Blogger Benjamin Carlson, The Atlantic The blogosphere was supposed to democratize publishing and empower the little guy. Turns out, the big blogs are all run by The Man. **** Right On Kim Phillips-Fein, The Nation Is the conservative movement dead? In November, when many of its leading intellectuals publicly abandoned the McCain-Palin ticket, deserting their comrades and going over to the other side, the movement suffered not only electoral defeat but ideological apostasy. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Battle Of The Views Lim Wei Chean, Straits Times The public observation deck perched atop the three hotel towers of the Marina Bay Sands (MBS) could well give the Singapore Flyer a run for its money by the middle of next year. **** Asian Growth Revives 'Decoupling' Concept Peter Stein, Wall Street Journal When markets around the world tumbled in unison last fall, the once-popular view that Asian markets and economies could hold up despite the turmoil in the West was quickly forgotten. Now, investors have once again embraced the idea of "decoupling." Markets in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Singapore are up nearly twice as much as those in the U.S. and Europe as their economies recover strongly from the recession. **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, 21?????? ????????????????????????????????????700???????????????????????????400?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????40?????????????????????????????????1000???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** HDB Deputy CEO: Singles Earning $2,500 A Month Can Afford Resale Flats The Temasek Review It doesn???t make sense for Singaporeans to slog their entire lives to pay for the roof over their heads only to realize that they do not have enough savings left in old age for retirement. **** Nation, Heal Thyself A. Soorian, Malaysia Star Salaries and working conditions are far better in Singapore and the education of the doctors??? children is secured. Singapore will be the first to admit that it is doing this not for altruistic purposes. It is high time we take a hard look at some of our national policies to overhaul them to prevent this ominous brain drain. **** Singapore Netizens Sceptical About Singanews??? Real Agenda The Temasek Review Even before Singanews was officially launched, it has been attracting whispers and gossips around Singapore???s internet chatrooms about its real agenda. **** ???????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????COV?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** U.S. May Invite Singapore, Thailand To G20 -Nikkei Tetsushi Kajimoto, Reuters The United States is considering inviting Singapore and Thailand to a Group of 20 summit in Pittsburgh this month to reflect broader views from developing countries, Japan's Nikkei business daily reported without citing sources. **** Scientist's Relocation Was A Smart Move Roger Dobson, The Times Dr Manuel Salto-Tellez, one of Singapore???s most distinguished clinicians dedicated to biomedical research, is convinced that relocating to the island state has been crucial to his professional development. **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????, ????????? **** Give SingaNews A Chance, Says CEO Terence Lee, The Online Citizen Despite having all $90,000 of its seed funding coming from Singaporean Christians, SingaNews CEO Mathew Yap has rubbished any notion that the online news website will serve a ???Christian agenda???. **** Film Censorship Correspondence, Part 1 Yawning Bread Why is text (as opposed to images) censorable? **** Measures Taken To Cool Property Speculation Channel NewsAsia Measures to pre-empt any speculative bubble from forming in the private property market have been outlined in Parliament by the national development minister. Mr Mah Bow Tan said one of the steps to "temper the exuberance" of the market will be the immediate withdrawal of the interest absorption scheme and interest-only loans being offered for purchases of uncompleted property developments. **** Singapore Moves To Curb Property Market Speculation Kevin Lim, Reuters Singapore will release more land for development and make it harder for home buyers to defer payments, steps aimed at curbing speculation in the housing market and that drove down property stocks on Monday. **** Media: Singapore's Native Species In Danger Due To Acid Rain Xinhua The NUS findings showed that that it may be due to the acidity of a stream in the 80 hectare nature reserve, which offers great biodiversity in plant and animal life. The four-year study found that the stream, which covers 5 hectare of land, is more acidic after torrential rain. The researchers have found that the water in the stream on the nature reserve have a pH value of 4.4 to 4.7, which is said to be more acidic now than 20 years ago. **** HDB Caters To 8 Out Of 10 S'poreans To Suit Different Budgets & Needs Channel NewsAsia The topic of the affordability of HDB flats was raised in Parliament on Monday during question time. In his reply, national development minister Mah Bow Tan has again emphasised that they remained affordable. **** Temasek 'Woos' Thai Firms The Nation Temasek Holdings is courting Thai firms, including telecom conglomerate Samart Corp, to buy a stake in its satellite operator Thaicom, an industry source said yesterday. **** Singapore Seeks Transparency: WSJ The Edge Singapore Singapore, an Asian financial centre attracting billions of dollars in offshore accounts, is working quickly to become more transparent and is on course to be removed by year???s end from a list of nations that shield bank-account information. **** On Slow Medicine Movement Yaw Shin Leong **** Mental Illness In Singapore Comparable To Developed Countries Channel NewsAsia Health minister Khaw Boon Wan said that based on a recent global survey by the World Health Organization, the prevalence of mental illness in Singapore is generally lower or comparable to other developed countries. **** Freedom For Sale By John Kampfner Peter Preston, Guardian Government by some of the people for some of the people (the ones who matter). Election by clique, twist and fiddle. Lip service to public service. And fear rippling onwards, as rationale or excuse. Where will this cowardly new world go when the threat is real? Is there a strong man who will bust through the facade of freedom and construct a rescue pact? It's where John Kampfner's grisly logic takes us next, one more reason to read and flinch. Perhaps we haven't seen anything yet. **** Value For Money Remains Key Consideration For Govt Procurement Channel NewsAsia Finance minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam said that value for money and not cost alone is the key consideration for best sourcing for government procurement in general. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Sep 15 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 15 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 15, 2009 Message-ID: <20090915225901.70688.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iTunes 9 Breaking AirTunes Connections? Donald Melanson, Engadget **** Microsoft Money For Mac OS X Kyle Buckley, The Nillabyte Perspective Most people who switch from Windows to Mac find themselves entering a much simpler and less annoying world of computing. And they can find Mac equivalents for most of the familiar programs they used in Windows and most are better than those found in Windows. There is one glaring exception: financial software. **** How Apple Could Make The Newly Cheaper Apple TV Useful Chris Foresman, Ars Technica But opening access to more content is far more likely to entice consumers than a big hard drive. **** AT&T: No Early MMS For iPhones Leslie Cauley, USA Today ???We can???t comment on what people might be doing??? to get MMS in the meantime. **** SolidThinking 8.0 Adds Productivity, Rendering Enhancements MacNN SolidThinking has launched global updates to its photorealistic rendering and animation software packages, SolidThinking 8.0 and SolidThinking Inspired 8.0. The design programs offer tools for creating manufacturable models, and allow users to render photorealistic 3D product designs. **** Why Apple TV Must Evolve To Avoid Extinction Brian X. Chen, Wired **** Apple Gobbles World's Flash Memory Rik Myslewski, The Register The world is running out of flash memory, and it's all Apple's fault. **** Government Mulls iPhone Approval Kim Tong-hyung, The Korea Times Just when the industry thought that iPhone had finally been cleared for the Korean market, the Korea Communications Commission (KCC), the country's broadcasting and telecommunications regulator, put another stop, expressing concerns over the handset's capabilities for location-based services. **** Adobe Posts Lightroom 2.5, Camera Raw 5.5, DNG Converter 5.5 MacNN **** iTunes 9 Is Cool But Far From Perfect Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle If you've been hoping that the next version of iTunes would make managing your music library easier, or be simplified and put on a diet as was Apple's Snow Leopard operating system, you'll likely be disappointed. **** Review: Camtasia For Mac Rob Griffiths, Macworld Techsmith???s Camtasia for Mac is a new entry in the field of screen recording and editing tools available for OS X, but Techsmith isn???t new to the field of screen recording???their Camtasia Studio for Windows is a powerful and widely-used program. **** Stream Audio From Any Application With Airfoil Kirk McElhearn, Macworld The real advantage of Airfoil is its ability to stream from any application to a number of devices, including other computers. **** iTunes 9 Hits The Right Note John Martellaro, The Mac Observer It's a balance between a money making enterprise and service to the customer. For now, the principal focus of the app remains on the latter. I hope it remains so. **** iTunes 9 Sven-S. Porst, Quarter Life Crisis iTunes 9 was released on 9th of September - haha! - and just as many releases before it it brings a few nice new tweaks as well as a big bunch of more iPod, iTMS crap with next to no benefit to the user. **** HP Boosts Mac Integration With New MediaSmart Home Servers Peter Cohen, Macworld MediaSmart devices are billed as ???all-in-one??? home servers that act as a central point for network backups for your home computers. They also act as media servers for any music and video you???d like to share. Included software centralizes the collection of media to keep it in one place. **** Another New Chief Counsel At Apple Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek In Apple terms, this is a fast turning revolving door. Apple???s executive suite for the most part is marked by remarkable stability. What could cause this exception? The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google Releases News-Reading Service Migue Helft, New York Times Google, long seen as an enemy by many in the news industry, is making a bold attempt to be seen as its friend with a new service it hopes will make it easier for readers to view newspaper and magazine articles. **** iTwin Remotely Connects Two Computers Via USB Drives MG Siegler, TechCrunch Remotely connecting two computers is still a pretty big pain. It usually requires two parties jumping through a bunch of hoops to get things working. This includes each computer having the same software, using various passwords, and waiting on a connection. iTwin, a new startup launching today at TechCrunch50 aims to make the process entirely plug and play. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Mind: When A Parent???s ???I Love You??? Means ???Do As I Say??? Alfie Kohn, New York Times More than 50 years ago, the psychologist Carl Rogers suggested that simply loving our children wasn???t enough. We have to love them unconditionally, he said ??? for who they are, not for what they do. As a father, I know this is a tall order, but it becomes even more challenging now that so much of the advice we are given amounts to exactly the opposite. **** The Most Hated Name In News Deborah Campbell, The Walrus Can Al Jazeera English cure what ails North American journalism? **** Forty-five Lisa Moore, The Walrus Here???s what happens when you turn forty-five. You realize you will only ever read so many books ??? how much time have you got left for reading? ??? and you had better only read the good ones. There are only so many movies, so many trips, so many new friends, so many family barbecues with the sun going down over the long grass. It has always been this way. Finite. But at forty-five you realize it. **** New Clues To Sex Anomalies In How Y Chromosomes Are Copied Nicholas Wade, New York Times The Y chromosome has an Achilles??? heel that leads to a wide variety of sexual disorders. **** A Familiar Cast Of Fighters In A Final Battle For The Soul Of The Earth Michiko Kakutani, New York Times The flood referred to by the title of Margaret Atwood???s new novel isn???t the biblical deluge, sent by God to wipe out wickedness and sin, but a waterless one: an uncommon pandemic that cannot be contained by ???biotools and bleach,??? and that sweeps ???through the air as if on wings,??? burning ???through cities like fire, spreading germ-ridden mobs, terror and butchery.??? This flood has killed millions upon millions, and electrical, digital and industrial systems are failing, as their human keepers die. **** Their Old Knives W.S. Di Piero, Slate Magazine **** Rumination On The Life, Death, And Particularly The Legacy Of A Man Barely Necessary To Introduce To Y'all, Beyond Mentioning (1) His Initials D, F, And W, And (2) The Fact That This Very Headline Owes Him, Obviously, Everything Sam Kean, 3 Quarks Daily Watching the legions of Michael Jackson fans make pilgrimages to and build cairns of flowers and stuffed toys at the Neverland Ranch in southern California, I can???t say I shared their sorrow exactly. I did sympathize: Boy, had I been there. When David Foster Wallace hanged himself at his own southern California home on September 12, 2008???that???s the closest I???ve ever been to crying over the death of someone I didn???t know. What roiled my emotions all the more was the now-too-late conviction that I???d betrayed Wallace. **** A Talking Head Dreams Of A Perfect City David Byrne, Wall Street Journal Osaka's robot-run parking lots mixed with the Minneapolis lakefront; a musician's fantasy metropolis. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Have A Card To Rival EZ-link Ng Jit Cheng, Straits Times I find it strange that EZ-Link, which is formed by LTA, could not continue this service unlike when TransitLink, a joint venture between the private transit operators, provided the service in 2002 without charges and in a much more convenient manner. **** Ez-Link Has Yet To Justify New Charges Tan Shao Yi, Straits Times I asked about how a service that was previously rendered free of charge for years could suddenly require a convenience fee of 25 cents to cover processing costs. No other merchant that I know of charges for Giro. **** It's A Question Of Timing Conrad Raj, Today New curbs welcome, but why change rules only now? **** Shorter Waits For Buses, No Fare Hike eong Wee Keat, Today Lim Hwee Hua assures MPs that bus operators cannot pass on cost to commuters. **** Quality Over Quantity Is The Current Agenda S Ramesh, Today The "slow medicine movement" - an alternative approach to healthcare which emphasises quality over quantity of life spent - or comfort over high-risk medical treatment - is gaining appeal among elderly Singaporeans, according to the minister in the prime minister's office Lim Boon Heng. **** Tomato Mascot Is Popular In AMK Hub Andy Kau, AMK Hub, Today Since the introduction of the tomato as the official mascot for AMK Hub, it has become very popular with our shoppers. A survey conducted during our first anniversary celebrations revealed the majority of consumers were in favour of our official mascot, thanks to its attractive colour and design. **** Singapore And Aggressive Proselytizing Kalinga Seneviratne, Ceylon Daily News There is nothing wrong with people becoming more religious because religion is a positive force in human societies, noted Lee. But, at the same time, stronger religious fervour can have side-effects, which have to be managed carefully, especially in a multi-racial and multi-religious society. **** A Property Tale Of Two Cities Mary Ma, The Standard Just as most governments worldwide are caught in a dilemma of not knowing when to withdraw stimulus measures introduced during the financial tsunami, Singapore has taken bold steps ahead of others. **** Avoid Confrontation In Asean Suzalie Mohamad, Malaysia Star Singapore???s armed forces buildup suggests it could be an outpost in the security chain the US is building around China, and this is contrary to the spirit of Asean, of which it is a member. **** Bring It On, Singanews Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp So much for being secular. **** Wireless at sg Registration For Tourist Dee Kay Dot As Gee If IDA is serious about allowing tourists/visitors use wireless at sg, I think they need to seriously re-look into the registration process. Else, please remove the link for tourist to register a wireless at sg account. Repeat after me: Wireless at Sg is not a free wireless service. **** ????????????????????? ????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Employers Fire Fewer Workers As Slump Eases Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore employers fired fewer workers last quarter and increased job openings as the economy emerged from its worst recession since independence in 1965. **** Tougher Rules For New Hotels Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times The government will come down hard on new hotels that rent rooms by the hour, as it tightens the rules for these places which are often seen as hotbeds of prostitution. Hoteliers with an eye on offering such rooms in residential areas will face an even harder time. They are required 'to engage the community and respond to concerns of residents', said Mr S. Iswaran, senior minister of state for trade and industry, without elaborating. **** The PAP In Crisis (Part 3): Lack Of Real Political Leaders In A Team Of Technocrats Eugene Yeo, The Temasek Review What will become of the PAP when the real power behind the throne finally passed on? Given its entrenched position, it will probably manage to continue its rule for a number of years. Singapore will still retain its economic superiority over its neigbhors while losing its slight edge now over its nearest competitors Hong Kong and Taiwan, but its inherent social tensions and divisions will worsen, caused partly by a government filled by technocrats who are grossly out of touch by the reality on the ground. **** Citizens In The Vice Trade Up Against Strong Foreign Competition Mr Wang Says So In the debates about foreigners versus citizens in Singapore, the sad plight of our local prostitutes is often neglected. **** ????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Long-term Unemployment Up Straits Times With unemployment rising for five quarters before stabilising in June, long-term unemployment among the jobless in Singapore has worsened, said the Ministry of Manpower on Tuesday. The resident long-term jobless rate rose to 1.3 per cent in June from 0.5 per cent a year ago - a four-year high for June periods. **** Minister Mah Emphasized Again: HDB Flats Are ???Affordable??? The Temasek Review Parliament is becoming more like a ???Question and Answer??? session where MPs field questions for ministers to answer. There is little or no debate at all. **** We Teach Critical Thinking Through Propaganda Trapper's Swamp The state of the media in Singapore is deplorable, with the mainstream media an placid and complacent channel for government spin and aggressive questioning left to the independent bloggers. **** "My Name Is Tan Thiam Peng And There's Something Wrong With Your Government." My World **** A Bill With No Bite Hard Hitting In The Lion City So the Singapore government has now implemented more stringent rules for Singapore???s private schools; more stringent rules that has no bite in them. **** Mrbrown And The Polyclinic Kin Mun LEE, InSing I made my first trip to a polyclinic in a long time. **** Singapore Retail Sales May Improve After July Decline Shamim Adam, Bloomberg Singapore???s retail sales dropped more than expected in July, a decline that may ease as employers pare job cuts amid signs of a global economic recovery. **** Police Investigation Of Film-maker Martyn See: A Case Of Taxpayers??? Monies Well Spent? The Temasek Review **** Young Children To Be Immunised Against Pneumococcal Disease Channel NewsAsia Young children in Singapore will be immunised against pneumococcal disease, health minister Khaw Boon Wan told Parliament on Tuesday. **** Men In White Author Responds To Martyn See's Blog Post Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans **** HDB To Review If Target Group For Lease Buyback Scheme Needs To Be Expanded Channel NewsAsia **** Unemployment Rates Higher For All Education Groups The Temasek Review According to latest data released by the Ministry of Manpower, unemployment rates have increased for all education-groups though the resident unemployment rate eased slightly in June 2009 from three months ago. **** MAS Says No Need To Implement Regulations To Limit Liability In Credit Card Fraud Channel NewsAsia Senior minister Goh Chok Tong, who is also the MAS Chairman, said this is because the recent measures announced by the Association of Banks in Singapore complement the current fraud detection systems that banks have in place. **** On Affordable HDB Flats? Yaw Shin Leong So when I read minister Mah said that ???first-time households use on average less than 30% of their household income to service their housing loans, which is within the yardstick the government uses to measure affordability.??? I can???t help but wonder why this purportedly first-world government uses a yardstick which is no where near first-world??? **** No Drugs Please, We're Singaporean Goths AFP In a largely conservative, multiracial society like Singapore, SDAM aims to bring together goths and other unorthodox and alienated youths yearning for a sense of belonging and social purpose. **** More Teeth To Copyright Rules Serene Luo, Straits Times Amendments to the Copyright Act have been passed to move these laws into the digital age and give the Act more teeth. **** Stiffer Penalties For Default Theresa Tan, Straits Times The Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS) is considering imposing stiffer penalties to deter men from defaulting on maintenance payments. **** Regional Ministers To Meet In S'pore Next Month To Discuss Haze Problem S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia One issue that remains unresolved is that both Indonesia and Philippines have yet to ratify the ASEAN Agreement on Transboundary Haze Pollution which was signed in 2002. **** PM Lee Urges S'poreans To Be Psychologically Prepared For Slow Pick-up Channel NewsAsia **** Temasek Review To Bring Leadership, Strategy In Focus Saeed Azhar, Reuters Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings is trying to get its house in order after a tumultuous year when it suffered from bad bets on Western banks and a failed experiment to get a high-profile outsider as CEO. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Sep 16 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 16 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 16, 2009 Message-ID: <20090916225900.88260.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** iTransport: Could iPhone apps change the way we travel? Tom Vanderbilt, Slate Magazine One of the device's greatest areas of promise is as a transportation tool. Rival smartphones, of course, are equipped with GPS, Internet access, etc., but none corral quite so many of the features that delight transpo geeks (an accelerometer, a compass, etc.) into one device. **** Bing Brings Visual Search To iPhone Apps Rick Broida, CNET News **** New iPod Nano: Tiny Package, Big Features Ed Baig, USA Today Physics, schmysics: That???s what Apple seems to be saying when it comes to the company???s latest iPod Nanos, introduced by Steve Jobs in San Francisco last week. It's impressive what Apple managed to cram into this thing. **** Is The Future Of Mac...The iPhone? Erica Sadun, TUAW Apple's engineers have learned a lot of important design lessons during the history of OS X. When the iPhone debuted, it gave those engineers the chance to rebuild an OS and an API from the ground up. Those engineers could craft a platform and its libraries that built on the Mac's successes without dragging along its less fortunate design decisions. **** Apple's New Top Lawyer Has Antitrust Experience: He May Need It Dan Frommer, Business Insider If Apple's growing power in the mobile industry -- particularly its dominance of the mobile app industry -- continues; if Apple doesn't eventually make the iPhone app platform more open; and if it ticks off the right opponent; it could eventually find itself on the wrong end of an anti-competitive lawsuit. **** RIM, Apple Phone 'duopoly' Faces Pressure -Rogers Wojtek Dabrowski, Reuters Research In Motion and Apple Inc's "duopoly" in the smartphone market will be pressured by other handset makers eager to capture increased share, the head of Canada's biggest wireless company said Tuesday **** Gaming On The iPhone Stinks! Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, Datamation So, what???s the problem? Well, it???s that most games require some basic controls, and that most of the time these controls have to be placed on the screen along with the gaming action. **** The Other iPhone Lie: VPN Policy Support Galen Gruman, InfoWorld The iPhone OS 3.1 fixed false reporting about Exchange policy adherence. It turns out that a similar flaw existed for VPN policies, too. **** MacSpeech Dictate Debuts New International Version MacNN MacSpeech has launched a new international version of its speech recognition software, with new localized multi-language support for France, Italy and Germany. **** Screen Saver In Snow Leopard Dave Winer, Scripting News There's a plus and minus at the bottom of the list. When you click the plus you can add a folder to the list. Nice little improvement. Used to be there could only be one folder, now you get as many as you like. **** iTunes 9 Zoom Button Thomas Fitzgerald For those who took issue with the previous behavior I guess it???s a step in the right direction. Except that it broke a lot of habit. The lesson to learn here is that, in my humble opinion, you don't deviate from that human-interface guidelines without a good solid reason. **** iPod Touch Excels In Sound Quality Matt Rosoff, CNET News Hearing is subjective--apparently younger listeners are beginning to prefer the "sizzle" of highly compressed MP3s, and one listener's "crisp" is another's "harsh." And I'm an analog fan, with far more records than CDs in my home collection. But to me, the Zune HD sounded pretty good, while the new iPod Touch is the best-sounding MP3 player I've ever heard, comparing favorably with a decent CD player. **** Your Company? There's An App For That. Jason Kottke, kottke.org Few technology and device-making companies probably realize it, but they are in direct competition with Apple (or soon will be). **** A Guide To Blocks & Grand Central Dispatch (And The Cocoa API's Making Use Of Them) Colin Wheeler, Cocoa Samurai The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** White House Unveils Cloud Computing Initiative Daniel Terdiman, CNET News The Obama administration on Tuesday announced a far-reaching and long-term cloud computing policy intended to cut costs on infrastructure and reduce the environmental impact of government computing systems. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Smoke-Free Planet William Saletan, Slate Magazine The disappearing boundaries of cigarette prohibition. **** High-Five Nation David Brooks, New York Times Self-effacement became identified with conformity and self-repression. A different ethos came to the fore, which the sociologists call ???expressive individualism.??? Instead of being humble before God and history, moral salvation could be found through intimate contact with oneself and by exposing the beauty, the power and the divinity within. **** From The Garden To The Meal Tray Judith Monachina, Boston Globe There were true believers and maybe a few skeptics too when the group of high school students announced two years ago that they wanted to plant a garden and feed their school. Kathy Sullivan???s attitude was probably somewhere between enthusiasm and doubt. But Sullivan had more at stake than most. As Food Service director here, her job suddenly became more complicated. **** Why I love Canada's Northern Wilderness Ray Mears, Guardian There are places on earth so vast they impress upon us the power of nature, and Canada is one of them. It boasts a seemingly endless list of superlatives ??? it sprawls over almost 10m square kilometres, making it the second-largest country in the world after Russia; it has more than two million lakes, amounting to about a tenth of the world's fresh water; and embraces the longest coastline of any country. There's a vastness to this country that is almost unimaginable ??? an epic grandeur to its landscapes, its forests, rivers, ice and snow, its mountains, wildlife and wilderness. No matter how many times I travel here, I'm always staggered by its sheer scale. **** Tour Of Southeast Asian Cuisine Via Eclectic Cookbooks Anne Mendelson, Los Angeles Times The culinary tag "Southeast Asian" has cachet in American foodie circles even though it has not yet achieved the all-purpose buzzword status of "Mediterranean" (though I seem to recall that someone has invented a "Southeast Asian turkey burger"). Books about the food of this vast and complex region are multiplying fast. **** Attention, People Of Earth Paul Simms, New Yorker We are on our way to your planet. We will be there shortly. But in this, our first contact with you, our ???headline??? is: We do not want your gravel. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Shorter Wait For Rental Flats Lin Yan Qin, Today About 1,400 rental flats have been added to the stock since 2007, and the waiting time for one has dropped to 13 months from 21 months a year ago - thanks to the HDB's efforts to manage supply and demand, said Parliamentary secretary (national development) Maliki Osman. **** Please Keep Them Out Of Casinos, Request Seven Families Ansley Ng, Today As at the end of last month, the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) has granted the wishes of seven families to keep their kin out of the upcoming casinos. **** That Bleep On 'Breast' Was BBC's Work, Replies MDA Ginny Goh, Media Development Authority, Straits Times According to SCV, BBC advised that the programme was edited to comply with regional content standards as the channel is available not only in Singapore, but also other countries in the region. **** Slower Intake Of Foreigners Sue-Ann Chia, Straits Times Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday sought to soothe Singaporeans' simmering discontent over the surging numbers of foreigners in Singapore in recent years. Their rapid influx will slow, he said, as the economy is not expected to grow at the exceptional pace it did for several years until last year. **** Understanding Confucian Societies : How A One-party Democracy Can Be Democratic According2ed **** Room For More, But At What Cost? Terence Lee, The Online Citizen While Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong had given students much reassurance during this year???s NTU Ministerial Forum, the welfare of transient workers have been dehumanised as mere cogs in a machine. **** ???????????? ????????????????????? ????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Single Mothers Should Be Given Baby Bonuses And Other Benefits Sgpolitics.sg **** Haze Back In Singapore Amresh Gunasingham & Maria Almenoar, Straits Times Haze shrouded Singapore on Tuesday evening, as a sudden shift in wind direction blew smoke from blazing fires set in Indonesia directly to the island. **** Eyeing China, Singapore Sees Mandarin As Its Future Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters English has long united the ethnically diverse island-state but Singapore's leaders now foresee a time when Mandarin will be the country's dominant language and they are aggressively encouraging their people to become fluent in Chinese. **** Singapore Backs Tawang Claims Seema Guha, Daily News And Analysis Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo has backed China's claim to the Tawang monastery in Arunachal Pradesh. The ancient monastery is one of the holiest shrines of Tibetan Buddhists as the sixth Dalai Lama was born there. **** ????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????MDA???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Old, New Media Can Coexist Straits Times "In new media, you get all kinds of views. You are not sure what to make of it. If you want considered views, somebody has to think, report, gather, verify, write up, get it published. Then there's criticism and then there's improvement. All this requires a proper newspaper or news agency." Translation: We like having a gatekeeper that we control. **** Many Foreign-born Do NS Yearly Straits Times Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong on Tuesday addressed a pet peeve among Singaporeans, that new immigrants do not do national service (NS) or are called up for reservist training. Mr Lee said every year, hundreds of foreign-born youths do their NS as new citizens or permanent residents (PRs). **** Singapore Citizenship: A National Credit??Card? Justin Zhuang, The Enquirer The pink card in your wallet and the red passport you use to travel is not a key to more money. Rather, it symbolises where you???re from and who you are. **** Wall Of Silence Senang Diri If MINDEF cannot handle the repercussions of a single training death in peacetime, I would not be too sanguine about its prospects of managing public relations during a hot war scenario where body bags would pile up by the hundreds. **** Ministerial??Humour Chong Zi Liang, The Enquirer **** 2 Sites For Arts, Museum Diana Othman, Straits Times Two prime sites near the arts and cultural lifestyle districts will be developed by the private sector into unique integrated arts and museum venues, as part of a move to encourage new business players to enter Singapore's heritage landscape. **** Singapore Bank Secrecy Under The Spotlight AFP Transparency International, which like many other corruption monitors ranks Singapore highly for its clean and efficient government, said the city-state should promote greater transparency in its financial system. "It has been documented time and again that corrupt individuals -- be they politicians, business executives or wealthy citizens -- have used countries like Singapore as safe havens to stash their ill-gotten funds," the Transparency spokesperson said. **** PM Lee Questioned New Media???s Journalistic Standards The Temasek Review Is PM Lee implying that news published by the new media is unreliable because they are not written by professional journalists and those produced by a proper news agency like SPH are trustworthy? While it is true that the Singapore media has trained full-time journalists to ???think, report, gather, verify and publish??? the news, it still doesn???t explain their pathetic and embarrassing rankings on the World Press Freedom index conducted yearly by Reporters without Borders, an internationl media watchgroup. **** MHA Releases 3 Singaporeans Detained Under Internal Security Act Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia Three Singaporeans who were detained under the Internal Security Act (ISA) for involvement with the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) have been released **** 9 In 10 S'poreans Do Not Feel Well Prepared For Retirement Gladys Ow, Channel NewsAsia Ninety-one per cent of Singaporeans do not feel well-prepared for retirement compared to the global average of 87 per cent, according to an annual report by Oxford University's Institute of Ageing on Wednesday. **** Singapore PSI Hits 64 On Wednesday, The Highest Reading This Month Jessica Yeo, Channel NewsAsia The 24-hour reading was the highest so far this month. This puts Singapore's air quality in the moderate range. **** Singapore Government Protects Its Workers ??? Unlike Britain British National Party Singapore, therefore, has a strict policy in place to protect its own workers ??? unlike that of Tory and Labour created Britain. **** Singapore Startup Scene Scores A Hat Trick! Mohan Belani, e27 It???s a hat trick for Singapore! The last few days have been really crazy. Singapore startups have been reaching heights never before seen. **** But Not Too Much Lam Chun See, Good Morning Yesterday I think Singaporeans generally are like the generous Ribena girl. They say; ???Sure you are welcome to share some of our goodies ?????? but not too much???. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Sep 17 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 17 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 17, 2009 Message-ID: <20090917225900.21631.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Digging Deep Into Bare Bones With Rich Siegel Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer Bare Bones Software has been involved in the Mac community since 1993, predating Mac OS X, the iMac and Steve Jobs's return to Apple. Looking back at the company's history offers some idea about where it might be headed, but it's easier to figure out what's really happening by going right to the top, so The Mac Observer sat down with company founder Rich Siegel. **** New iPod Nano Fulfills Its Mission, Mostly Stephen Williams, New York Times It???s glossy, it???s slick, the video???s for real, the audio speaker???s not. **** Apple To Launch iPhone In China's Cut-throat Mobile-phone Market John Boudreau, San Jose Mercury News Ren Wanhui is in the market for a sleek smart-phone packed with applications. That should be good news for Apple, which soon will launch the iPhone in the world's largest and hottest mobile-phone market. The bad news for Apple is that the smart-phone Ren admires is the iPhone look-alike "M8," one of dozens of iPhone imitations and knockoffs already on store shelves in China. **** A Real Keyboard For The iPhone? Roy Furchgott, New York Times The most frequent complaint I hear about the iPhone is its lack of a physical keyboard. Toronto-based Mobile Mechatronics said it has taken care of that by building a Blackberry-style physical keyboard that attaches to an iPhone. **** Lucky iPhone Developer Gets Very Own App Store Hotline Register As a worldwide chorus of mobile developers howls over Apple's unwillingness to discuss the ins and outs of the iPhone App Store, Steve Jobs and his minions are providing at least one app seller with its very own support rep. **** Apple's New iPod Nano Is No Small Step Forward Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times Apple has another winner here. Thank Heavens they haven???t chosen to turn the Nano into a trivial little fashion player, giving a huge reboot each and every season Just Because. No, Apple continues to build upon the Nano???s tremendous equity. And they???re doing it in just the right way: by keeping the size and price where they are, and packing in more value without sacrificing the simplicity that Nano users prefer. If you want a premium but still affordable pocket music player, the Nano is still your go-to choice. **** IDrive Lite, A Contacts Backup App For iPhone And BlackBerry, Gets Even Better Robin Wauters, TechCrunch **** Open Thread: Apple Defies The Laws Of Economics Om Malik, GigaOM I wonder if there are other computer makers that can get away with something like that? Are there any other brands that can charge extra for ???retro??? features? **** Apple's iTunes 9 Makes It Easier To Share, Organize Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal In my tests, performed on multiple Windows PCs and Macs, iTunes 9 worked as advertised, and I found it to be less cluttered, more intelligent and easier to use than the prior version. **** Apple's Fifth Take: Ars Reviews The iPod Nano With Video Jacqui Cheng, Clint Ecker, Ars Technica The nano's video camera is not the best pocketable video camera on the market. The nano is, however, a very thin and light portable media player that is capable of taking good-enough SD videos for uploading to YouTube. Like the iPhone 3GS, you're not going to be shooting any award-winning documentaries on it, but when you already carry around an iPod, convenience often wins. When combined with the plethora of other features supported by the nano--music of course, video playback, Nike+, pedometer, Voice memos, and radio capabilities--there are certainly many things to like about this 8GB for $149 (or $179 for 16GB) player. **** Review: iPod Touch (late 2009) Jason Snell, Macworld The iPod touch is a terrific media player and portable computing device that doesn???t require any of the commitments or ongoing costs of the iPhone. The new high-end models add the blazing speed of the iPhone 3GS, making them even better for games. If you???re in the market for a game machine, video player, portable Internet device, and music player all in one???and if you don???t want to pay AT&T every month???you can???t do better than the iPod touch. **** Music Publishers: iTunes Not Paying Fair Share Greg Sandoval, CNET News Songwriters, composers, and music publishers are making preparations to one day collect performance fees from Apple and other e-tailers for not just traditional music downloads but for downloads of films and TV shows as well. They contain music after all. These groups even want compensation for iTunes' 30-second song samples. **** Organize Your iMovie Video Library Jeff Carlson, Macworld **** iTunes 9 Creating iPod Classic Conflicts MacNN Issues primarily revolve around sync, to the extent that a number of people complain they are unable to to sync media at all. **** Apple Storms Hollywood TNL.net **** iPhone, The 'Personal' Computer - Future Of The Mobile Web Mark Sigal, O'Reilly Media The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Bits: I.B.M. Sets Out To Make A City In Iowa 'Smarter' Steve Lohr, New York Times I.B.M. is providing more evidence on Thursday that its ???smarter cities??? program is more than a marketing campaign. The company is starting a project with the city of Dubuque, Iowa, that over the next several years will use sensors, software and Internet computing to give the city???s government and citizens the digital tools to measure, monitor and alter the way they use water, electricity and transportation. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Wild Side: Cracking The Spine Of Libel Olivia Judson, New York Times Several times this summer, science journalists in London have leaned over to me and said something along the lines of, ???I was thinking of writing,??? and gone on to describe an article that was going to be critical of someone. ???But then,??? the speaker would gloomily conclude, ???I thought to myself, ???Simon Singh,??? and I decided not to.??? **** Sex, Flies And Videotape: The Secret Lives Of Harun Yahya Halil Arda, New Humanist Muslim creationist, cult leader, Dawkins' nemesis, messiah. **** The Long And Short Of It Paul Bloom, New York Times We shouldn???t underestimate the short-term self. Sometimes the long-term self should stay out of its way. **** America's Tabloid Sweetheart Amanda Fortini, Salon Jennifer Aniston's movies are middling. Her talent is questionable. Why can't we get enough of her? **** This Scene Could Really Use A Man-Eating Jellyfish Ben H. Winters, Slate Magazine How I wrote Sense and Sensibility and Sea Monsters. **** Green Metropolis Danny Heitman, Christian Science Monitor David Owen, a staff writer for The New Yorker whose interests include global ecology, has examined numerous communities across America and discovered one that strikes him as a model of environmental efficiency. That community is New York City, and in Green Metropolis, his latest book, Owen tells readers what green-conscious citizens can learn from Gotham???s example. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** From Bonus Payout To Bonus Payback Liew Hanqing and Juliana June Rasul, New Paper Affected teachers said that while they understood it was an error, they were upset that it was spotted so late. **** Singaporeans Have A Choice To Make Loh Chee Kong, Today The government's intent to slow the foreigner influx may mollify those frustrated locals quick to blame the latter for various woes. But it will not wish away the reasons for which this "little red dot" had to open its doors wide in the first place. **** Bank Fee Charged For Withdrawing Funds Is Standard Rate Daisy Er, OCBC Bank, Straits Times If the customer chooses to withdraw the funds in the form of a cashier's order, a processing fee of $5 is levied. This fee is aligned to industry rates. Did OCBC have a range of other options at different costs, and did OCBC advise its customers of all these options? **** Commuters Pay For Ez-link Card, So Why Must It Carry An Ad? Richard Seah, Straits Times I pay $5 for my ez-link card. Why should I be made to carry a card that carries an advertisement for Fevo MasterCard? The question we should be asking is: when the Public Transport Council calculates the 'correct' fare to charge, does it take into accounts all these advertisement opportunities that is available to the public transport companies? (Note: Ez-link company is owned by LTA. Also, we pay for a lot of things that carry advertisements, such as movies, cable television, and newspapers.) **** Foreign Workers Act As Buffer During Economic??slump Belmont Lay, The Enquirer The reality for transient foreign workers is this: When times are good, you are hired to work in Singapore to help build this cosmopolitan city. When times are bad, expect to be the first to be sent packing. **** Is A Tsunami Of Good News About To Hit Singapore? Diary of A Singaporean Mind Once you see the announcements of multi-million dollar plans for fountains, gardens, playgrounds and walkways near your home, you can be sure the elections are not too far away... **** Gopalan Nair Continues To Criticize Singapore Judge Belinda Ang The Temasek Review He was jailed three months last year for using ???abusive??? language against a lady judge in Singapore, but it appeared that Gopalan Nair had not learnt his lesson yet. **** Singapore And Qatar: Small But Successful Gulf Times Singapore???s charge d???affaires Umej Bhatia highlighted the similarities that existed between Qatar and his country at a lecture at the Georgetown School of Foreign Service yesterday. **** On Slowing The Pace Of Foreigner Influx Yaw Shin Leong Therefore if the mindset of the government is that our citizens are indeed the ???heart and soul??? of our nation, then our population policies must be robustly long-term and not merely based on purely short-term considerations but one that strive us towards a more humane society, anchor people and make people want to make Singapore our home. **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????? ????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ?????????????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Call To Probe Sand Transfer To Singapore Apinya Wipatayotin, Bangkok Post A company's request to ship sand sediment to Singapore after dredging it needs more study, a local environmental group says. **** ??????????????? ?????????????????? ??? ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Consults On Tighter Fund Rules Kevin Brown, Financial Times Singapore???s central bank is consulting hedge fund executives on ways to tighten the regulatory regime for the state???s burgeoning alternative investment industry. The informal talks reflect the Monetary Authority of Singapore???s determination to demonstrate effective oversight of the financial services industry in the light of political concerns in Europe and the US about the role of lightly regulated sectors in the global financial crisis. **** Taskforce To Study Ways Of Improving English Standard In Schools Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia The education ministry will set up an English Language Task Force to study ways of improving the standard of English in schools. One recommendation is to have an English Language institute to train teachers better. **** ??????????????????????????? ????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????40????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????;??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????? **** Get Wired Up, Singapore! Heyzanie's World I can???t understand why a place as advance as Singapore is so backward where broadband is concerned. When I was in China, almost every restaurant, cafe, pub and hotel in 1st tier cities like Shanghai and Beijing is hooked up. Since 2003~2004, every new boutique hotel in the Shenzhen comes with free wireless in the room. By 2005, it was taken for granted and cafes didn???t even bother to hang up notices that brag ???We have wireless??? because it has become a norm. **** Where Is MSM???s Thorough Investigation? The Online Citizen The conclusion that MOH draws about Singapore???s supposedly lower prevalence of mental illness could be completely unwarranted measured by standard scientific procedures and survey protocols. **** PM Lee Correcting His "Hum" Mistake Singapore Social and Political Thoughts Is PM Lee's script writer white washing the actual amount of immigration by just emphasizing the Foreign Workers? Didn't the script writer include PRs? **** Khaw Wants To Blhawg Civic Advocator This lame effort by MOH to connect with the online citizenry is evidence of the PAP???s continuing failure to understand new media. This is their achilles??? heel, one which opposition parties should take full advantage of during the next general elections. **** Singapore Export Slide Eases In August AFP The fall in Singapore's main exports eased in August, official data showed Thursday adding to hopes that the trade-reliant economy was heading for a recovery. **** Temasek Gains $30bn From Market Rally Kevin Brown, Financial Times The global market rally had added S$42bn (US$29.7bn) to the market value of Temasek???s investment portfolio since the end of March, Singapore???s state investment company said on Thursday. The mark-to-market value of the portfolio fell to S$130bn at the end of the financial year in March, but recovered to S$172bn by the end of July ??? just 7 per cent below its peak of S$185bn in March last year. **** Temasek Profit Falls Record 66% As Bank Values Drop Joyce Koh, Bloomberg Temasek Holdings Pte, Singapore???s $122 billion state investment company, reported profit fell a record 66 percent as a collapse in credit markets drove down the value of its stakes in Bank of America Corp. and Barclays Plc. The profit decline was deeper than the 44 percent drop in the MSCI World Index that wiped about $24 trillion from the value of global equities in the 12 months to the end of March. A measure of financial companies on the benchmark slumped 57 percent after the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. in September last year froze credit markets. **** Malaysia Says Its Local Dishes 'Hijacked': Report AFP Malaysia will lay claim to its signature dishes like laksa and chicken rice which are being "hijacked" by other countries, the tourism minister said according to a report Thursday. Those on the list include the fragrant coconut milk rice 'nasi lemak', spicy soup noodle 'laksa' and pork ribs herbal soup 'bak kut teh', Tourism Minister Ng Yen Yen said according to the Star newspaper. See Also: Laksa And Nasi Lemak Among Our Pride, Says Yen Yen [http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2009/9/17/nation/4734354&sec=nation], by The Star. **** Sabra And Shatila ??? A Remembrance, And A Singaporean Roderick's Journal Every time I come across stories of people like Dr Ang, it makes me ??? on very rare occasions in my life ??? to feel proud of being a Singaporean. **** As Temasek Plays It Safe, CIC Dives In Peter Stein, Wall Street Journal Still, it's difficult to be inspired by Temasek's current strategy -- seemingly a holding pattern that has the fund focusing on its Asian holdings and warning of "medium-term risks" that justify caution. The surprisingly vocal criticism Temasek faced in Singapore over its losses in Western banks may have reinforced this conservatism. **** Ho Still Running Temasek's Show, But For How Long? Kevin Lim and Saeed Azhar, Reuters Temasek CEO Ho Ching appears to be firmly in charge once again after a rocky year for the sovereign wealth fund in which it failed in its efforts to replace her by getting its first foreign chief executive. Ho may now be able to take some credit for the fund's stronger position, and there is no timeframe for getting a replacement. But the leadership issue and questions about investment strategy still cloud the fund's global image. **** Land Banking - Call On CAD To Investigate Tan Kin Lian Why are our public officers not doing their job? They seem to be passing the buck around. One point to the other. The poor citizens, having "lost" their money, have to go on a merry go round. It seems that they have to carry out their own investigation. **** Temasek Replies ... Myrna Thomas, Temasek Holdings, Today Despite the recent financial crisis, our returns remain relatively healthy. An investment of $1,000 in Temasek 35 years ago would be worth about $250,000 as of July 31, 2009, including dividends and net of capital injections. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Sep 18 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 18 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 18, 2009 Message-ID: <20090918225900.16548.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Notifications: One iPhone Push Alert App To Rule Them All? Frederic Lardinois, ReadWriteWeb Notifications combines push notifications for Twitter, email, and any RSS feed into one iPhone app. While we have tested quite a few push notification apps in the past, including some great apps like Boxcar and GPush, none of these offer the flexibility of Notifications. **** Apple's iTunes May Be Trying To Do Too Much Justin Williams, Evansville Courier-Press There is a time in every piece of software's life where it passes the threshold of adding useful features and instead starts polishing its existing user experience or just starts cramming needless functionality in for the sake of a bullet point on the new features list. With iTunes 9, the latest release of Apple's digital jukebox software, I think it is hovering somewhere in between. **** The Snow Leopard Appreciation Society Seb Janacek, ZDNet In many way, it's very anti-Apple but I'd be very happy to dispense with future eye candy if the next iteration of the Mac operating system is as packed with hidden treasures. It's a software release which proves definitively the old aphorism that 'less is more'. **** How Should Mac Apps Be Distributed? John Gruber, Daring Fireball Perhaps Apple should do something like that for .app bundles, where if you launch an app from ~/Downloads/, it would prompt you to install the app, and if you agree, it would move it to the Applications folder and launch it from there. It made sense back in 1984 when all you have are little tiny floppy disks, but perhaps application files shouldn't be treated the same as your data files in the Finder? **** Snow Leopard's Grand Central, Open CL Boost App By 50% AppleInsider A developer reports seeing a 50% jump in real world performance after adding initial support for two new Snow Leopard technologies: Grand Central Dispatch and Open CL. **** Apps Trump Tunes At Apple BusinessWeek As iPod sales ease, the company is focusing more and more on software???to the dismay of the record labels. **** OmniOutliner Professional 3.9.1 Stuart Gripman, Macworld OmniOutliner Professional 3.9.1 is still the best outlining and list management tool on the market. Omni Group has wisely avoided gratuitous feature creep, focusing instead on keeping current with the Mac OS and judiciously enhancing a solid feature set. **** Not-Just-MP3 Players: Apple And Microsoft Audition For New Roles Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post We need to retire the term "MP3 player." Not only do the newest media gadgets from Apple and Microsoft play more music formats than MP3 -- in addition to showing photos and videos -- they also fill some roles once reserved for high-end smartphones. They can even replace an old transistor radio. **** It's Okay To Ignore The iPhone Manton Reece If you're a Mac developer, my message to you is the same: just because the iPhone is awesome and runs on Objective-C does not mean you are required to build software for it. Maybe your time would be better spent refining old apps or building new ones on the Mac. Maybe... the iPhone doesn't need you, either. **** Apple's Attempt To Simplify Ringtones May Muddy The Waters Chris Foresman, Ars Technica If you just want a short clip of your favorite song to use as ringtone for your iPhone, Apple's new iPhone ringtones make buying and downloading it to your iPhone a cinch. If you like a little more control over the process, though, you may have to rely on third-party applications. **** Apple's Network Sharing Features In iTunes 9 Could Be Better Network World Home Sharing has more than its share of problems. **** Google Tells FCC Apple Rejected Its Voice App For iPhone Fawn Johnson, Dow Jones Google Inc. has disclosed that earlier this year, Apple Inc. rejected Google's new Google Voice phone service for the popular iPhone's application store. Google originally kept confidential its response to the FCC's question about the company's discussions with Apple. But Google notified the FCC on Thursday that it was lifting its request for confidential treatment. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Old Economist, Relevant Amid The Rubble Dwight Garner, New York Times In ???Keynes: Return of the Master,??? Mr. Skidelsky surveys the vast body of Keynes???s work. But he boils the thinking down to a few essential points. Central among them is that market economies are fundamentally uncertain; large shocks like the recent meltdown are not anomalies but normal if unpredictable events. Government should intervene in a crisis ??? as the Obama administration has since the fall of Lehman Brothers last year ??? supplying a judicious but firm hand on the tiller. **** The Glamorous Life Of A Science Journalist Greg Critser, Scientific Blogging I recently attended the International Developmental Biological Congress in sunny Edinburgh, Scotland. Here is my diary. **** High-Wire Act Emily Nussbaum, New York Neil Patrick Harris used to be an underage doctor on TV. Now he???s another Hollywood first: an out gay actor who can host award shows, play a womanizer, walk the red carpet with his boyfriend, and then get cast in movies as a straight dad. Neat trick. **** This Is Your Brain On Kafka Tom Jacobs, Miller-McCune Does absurdist literature make you smarter? Giraffe carpet cleaner, it does! **** America???s Food Revolution Jerry Weinberger, City Journal The U.S. has revolutionized its culinary culture over the last 40-odd years. No longer is it the developed world???s worst food nation; in fact, it???s perhaps the best. And it???s largely thanks to the (currently disputed) genius of America???s entrepreneurial capitalism. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Case's Concern Addressed, Says EZ-Link Gregory Gerald Danker, EZ-Link, Straits Times In our letter, we have explained the rationale behind charging the 25 cents convenience fee to recover processing and operating costs involved in providing this premium auto top-up service. **** 'Geylang Serai Is Sighing' New Paper Despite discounts, business is slow compared to last year, say Ramadan bazaar stallholders. **** Expect The Worst Of The Haze - Unless Asean Acts Today He has said it before, and he repeated his warning: This year's hazy conditions could reach the unhealthy levels seen in 1997 and 2006, said minister for environment and water resources Yaacob Ibrahim. **** Why S'pore Lags Behind In Broadband Speed Dawn Tay, My Paper An Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) spokesman told my paper that upload and download speeds would depend on the service plans consumers subscribe to. However, Singapore would soon catch up with global leaders with the upcoming Next Generation National Broadband Network, which will utilise fibre-optic cables. **** Burger King Whopper Bar Singapore Opening Sangsara???s Posterous Ordering can be a little tricky, but you basically start from a 1-3 patty burger, and add on your choice of 24 condiments and premium toppings. **** Malaysian Minister Drags Singapore Into Southeast Asia's Simmering Culture War Ben Bland, The Asia File Given the shared cultural heritage of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia and the fact that these three entities (none of which existed before 1949) could easily have become one giant nation (Indonesia Raya) or many smaller states, these new culture wars are rather farcical. **** Why Can't Than Shwe Open A Bank Account In Singapore? Ben Bland, The Asia File That's largely irrelevant to the Burma cash question because the Singapore government views the junta as a legitimate regime. Therefore any cash accrued by the generals is, by definition, not considered hot money in Singapore. **** CPF Life Will Be Operated On Mutual Principles Tan Kin Lian I find this arrangement to be beneficial and in the interest of the annuitants. I hope that this will dispel any doubts about operation of the CPF Life scheme. **** Netizens Sceptical About PM Lee???s Promise To Slow Intake Of Foreigners The Temasek Review **** Myanmar Citizens Not Allowed To Open Bank Account (In General) Tattooed Banker Granted, approval criteria is set by individual banks, and exceptions or misjudgment do happen (as we seen in cases of Taiwan's ex-president fiasco) but in general, 'no questions asked' is a bit too unlikely. **** Requiem For A Dream The Online Citizen PM Lee Hsien Loong???s call on young Singaporeans to ???dare to dream??? is revealing in itself. Against the reality of Singapore, it sounds almost like a taunt: perchance to dream, but only if you dare. **** How Much ???Negative Bonus??? Will Ho Ching And Team Be Getting? The Temasek Review **** Men In White: More Blowin' In The Wind Officials fallen out of favour were said to be airbrushed out of pictures in the Soviet era. Something similar happens in Men In White, the history of Singapore's ruling People's Action Party. **** Singapore Justice Is Sometimes Baffling.... Diary of A Singaporean Mind Somehow the sentencing is sometimes inconsistent with what ordinary Singaporeans think of the justice system. **** Singapore Chicken Rice Lindsey Bareham, The Times For my birthday treat this year I???m meeting up with my Sydney-based sister at our brother???s house in southern Spain. I???m sure to end up in the kitchen so I???ve pre-planned a celebratory meal to challenge paella, the local speciality. Hainanese or Singapore chicken rice is a great sharing dish and because the chicken is served at room temperature, it???s possible to get ahead with all the preparations. The only jobs that need to be done at the last minute are finalising the rice and reheating the broth to be sipped with the meal It???s all about the skin, my Singaporean chef friend, Eddie Lim, said, preparing me for the first time I tasted chicken rice at the long-gone Equatorial in Soho???s Chinatown, where it was made every Saturday lunchtime. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Sep 19 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 19 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 19, 2009 Message-ID: <20090919225900.2408.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Review: GridIron Flow 1.0 Jay J. Nelson, Macworld GridIron Flow is a groundbreaking application???there has never been anything like it. This visual workflow manager uses a simple interface to show you important information about your projects and keep you organized. **** Bugs & Fixes: Too Many iPhone Notes In Mail? Ted Landau, Macworld **** See Hidden Files In Snow Leopard's Open And Save Dialogs Rob Griffiths, Macworld In any Open or Save dialog in Snow Leopard, simply press Shift-Command-Period to display hidden files and folders. This command is a toggle; hidden files will be displayed as you navigate various directories in the Open or Save dialog. **** Apple, Other Retailers Target Of Patent Infringement Suit AppleInsider A newly filed lawsuit accuses Apple and numerous other online retailers for violating a 14-year-old patent claiming ownership of randomly generated encryption keys for security. **** Even More Hidden Refinements In Snow Leopard TidBITS As we've settled in with Snow Leopard, we've found many tiny improvements. Undoubtedly, even more will be discovered as time goes on, but for now here's another healthy serving of unexpected - but much appreciated - refinements. **** Apple Fires Back At Google Over Voice App Rejection Claim AppleInsider Hours after Google's letter to the FCC was published in its entirety, Apple has directly responded to the claim that it has formally rejected the Google Voice application from the iPhone App Store. **** Google Vs. Apple: Who's Telling The Truth? Erica Ogg, CNET News Anyone who deals with Apple on a regular basis knows it is a company that gives information on its own terms. But now even the federal government is having problems getting a clear answer regarding Apple's rejection of the Google Voice application for the iPhone. **** iTunes U: Learning Wherever You Are Chris Ryan, Salon >From language lessons to audiobooks to lectures and more, iTunes U is a great place for those who love to learn. With the release of iTunes 9, Apple has put an even bigger spotlight on this great content by featuring it prominently inside the application. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** A Romance Writer Jabs At Singapore???s Patriarchs Seth Mydans, New York Times It is the dress, she said, that catches the eye, the long silk sheath with the slits in the sides that offers what she calls ???a startling panorama of the entire landscape of the female form.??? The dress is called a cheongsam, and the woman wearing it is Catherine Lim, 67, arguably the most vivid personality in strait-laced Singapore and, when she is not writing witty romantic novels or telling ghost stories, one of the government???s most acute critics. **** Dude, It Adds Up Sally Sampson, Washington Post I am sick of reading about how the obesity epidemic is being fueled by fast food. I can't stand that poor people are eating it because they think it's their only option. And I am sad that Ben, my otherwise endearing teenage son, squanders his allowance on pizza and burgers, both of which make him feel rotten. I've always known that fast food is inferior in flavor and nutrition to its home-cooked counterpart, but I also suspected it couldn't really be as cheap as people think it is. So I sought proof. **** The Powers Of Dr. Johnson Andrew O'Hagan, New York Review Of Books Britain is a very changed country; it has changed morally. It might be said that its people's sense of what life is all about has altered more in the last fifty years than it did in the previous 250, beginning in 1709, when Samuel Johnson was born at Lichfield. Yet one of the things that hasn't changed is the popularity of the nation's most popular word: "nice." When I was growing up, everything worth commenting on could probably be described either as "nice" or, controversially, "not nice." My mother would invite me downstairs for a "nice cup of tea" before I went off to school to be taught lessons by "that nice teacher of yours." At the same time, Prime Minister Edward Heath, who had "a nice smile," was "not being nice to the unions." Tony Blair seemed "very nice" at first, but he wasn't very nice to his friend Gordon Brown. "Nice try," my old headmaster would say if he read this very paragraph, "but your diction could be nicer." SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** More Asian Universities Cast A Net For Foreign Students Liz Gooch, New York Times Educators have been stepping up their efforts to exploit the global student market, whether by relaxing quotas on non-local students or encouraging overseas institutions to set up local campuses. The words ???education hub??? have infiltrated the mission statements of governments hoping to attract students to their shores. **** A Romance Writer Jabs At Singapore???s Patriarchs Seth Mydans, New York Times It is the dress, she said, that catches the eye, the long silk sheath with the slits in the sides that offers what she calls ???a startling panorama of the entire landscape of the female form.??? The dress is called a cheongsam, and the woman wearing it is Catherine Lim, 67, arguably the most vivid personality in strait-laced Singapore and, when she is not writing witty romantic novels or telling ghost stories, one of the government???s most acute critics. **** What Next? Pay Royalties For Nasi Lemak? Sylvia Toh Paik Choo, New Paper **** I've Never Heard Anyone Talk About M'sian Chilli Crab Amanda Yong, New Paper 'I've never been so shocked in my life,' said Mr Roland Lim, 52, owner of Roland Restaurant, which claims to be the founder of Singapore's famous chilli crab dish. 'Chilli crab has been around for 59 years. Why did they suddenly claim today that it's theirs?' **** $100k Withdrawal Wasn't Customer's Fault, Why Make Him Pay? Chin Kee Thou, Straits Times If the bank can impose a fee to accept coins in amounts exceeding a threshold, it should, likewise, pay a fee to customers who have no choice but to accept a large amount in small denominations. **** Why Is Malaysia's Tourism Minister Spoiling For A Quarrel With Neighbours? Loh Tiong Soo, Straits Times I cannot imagine on what grounds she makes such audacious claims, or her reasons for doing so. If it is simply to gain political ground to make up for the spat Malaysia had with Indonesia recently over the Balinese pendet dance, then she is committing political suicide. **** SDP Aims To Be Become An Alternative To The PAP The Temasek Review According to SDP Secretary General Chee Soon Juan, his party is ???brimming with confidence, and more importantly, growing in number. **** Mr PM: Please Release The Exact Figures. Singaporean Skeptic The majority of foreigners are enjoying Singapore without any NS burden but the PAP fails to address this problem. While it is commendable that some of the foreign born choose to do NS, you have to understand that they are but a tiny minority among the foreign born population. **** National Day Congratulationary Messages The Online Citizen One wonders what purpose is served by these public displays of mutual back-slapping? **** Fears Of A Property Bubble Spur Buying Spree Seah Chiang Nee, The Star The government is caught be-tween two unpalatables. One is a sharp market collapse that will hit 80% of the population which own their homes. The other is prices moving beyond the dream of the new generation to own a home. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Sep 20 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 20 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 20, 2009 Message-ID: <20090920225900.3021.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Turning Your iPhone Into A Film Projector Courtney Banks, Wall Street Journal **** I???m Leading A Double Life: I Primarily Use A Mac, But I Just Bought A Zune HD. (What The Heck?!) Nicholas Deleon, CrunchGear All that said, I???m happy (I guess) to report that using a Zune HD even though Mac OS X is my primary operating system really isn???t that difficult. **** Using iWork As An Image Editor Sang Tang, TUAW As with many Apple products, the UI plays a major role in making for a more pleasurable experience. This ethos is certainly evident across the iWork suite, resulting in a very similar and seamless workflow within all three apps. **** Hackintosh PC - Don't Tell Me What To Do, Apple! Jeffrey Fritz, Examiner.com Technically, we can turn our business PC into a business Macintosh. Technically we can, but is it legal? **** Apple Introduces The App Store Resource Center Joachim Bean, TUAW As part of Apple's efforts to make the ins-and-outs of the App Store more clear to everyone, Apple has just Introduced the App Store Resource Center. Apple states this new site is "a single destination where you can find everything from how to prepare for submitting your app to managing your app once it been posted to the App Store." **** 20+ Mac Apps To Increase Your Productivity Christina Warren, Mashable For the Mac addicts and newcomers alike, I???ve compiled twenty of my favorite Mac productivity applications. **** Why Apple Is Betting On HTML 5: A Web History AppleInsider Despite making the vast majority of its money from hardware sales, Apple is investing heavily in shaping the future of software. One example of this pertains to HTML 5 and related web standards. **** Intel And Apple, Future Rivals? Brooke Crothers, CNET News As Intel readies its most potent chip yet for small devices, Apple may already be using competing technology. **** Advice For Apple: Grow The iPod Touch Paul Suarez, PC World The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Cake Toppers: An End To One Size Fits All Joyce Cohen, New York Times Thanks to digital technology, cake toppers are more customizable than they have ever been. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Project ???Gaydar??? Carolyn Y. Johnson, Boston Globe At MIT, an experiment identifies which students are gay, raising new questions about online privacy. **** The Holy Grail Of The Unconscious Sara Corbett, New York Times This is a story about a nearly 100-year-old book, bound in red leather, which has spent the last quarter century secreted away in a bank vault in Switzerland. The book is big and heavy and its spine is etched with gold letters that say ???Liber Novus,??? which is Latin for ???New Book.??? Its pages are made from thick cream-colored parchment and filled with paintings of otherworldly creatures and handwritten dialogues with gods and devils. If you didn???t know the book???s vintage, you might confuse it for a lost medieval tome. And yet between the book???s heavy covers, a very modern story unfolds. It goes as follows: Man skids into midlife and loses his soul. Man goes looking for soul. After a lot of instructive hardship and adventure ??? taking place entirely in his head ??? he finds it again. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** No Facce, Say M'sians Amanda Yong, New Paper **** No Shame, Say Popular S'pore Food Stalls New Paper Hedy Khoo, Zaihan Mohamed Yusof and Crystal Chan **** Uniquely Singaporean Shuli Sudderuddin, Straits Times Singaporean foodies have already disputed the claim. But food critics here are unfazed by barbs about 'cultural theft'. They point to uniquely Singaporean dishes that no other country can 'own'. Top of the list would be yu- sheng, lor mee, bak chor mee, satay beehoon, and fried Hokkien prawn mee. **** More Porn Via Cellphones Cassandra Chew, Straits Times Lack of filters for cellphones and cheap Net access making it easier for the young to download smut. Time for us to move from stopping to work around undesirable content. **** Role Of Public And Private Sectors Tan Kin Lian There is no need for the public sector to crowd out the private sector. They can co-exist. The public sector can provide for the needs of the lower and middle income groups. The higher income groups can pay more to get private health care, education or other services. They can get personal and better quality attention, but they pay more. The public sector will be around to offer a choice and keep a reasonable limit on the charges of the private sector. **** Dare To Dream - A Challenge We Must Take Up The Secret Political Blog PM Lee's dare to dream is therefore a challenge we must take up. Dare to challenge the status quo, dare to pursue freedom and liberty, dare to make it possible to dream. Only then can we dare to dream dreams. **** Singapore's Art Groups Decline To Be Propaganda Mouthpiece For National Integration Council Temasek Review The key players in the Singapore art scene have declined an overture by the government to become their propaganda mouthpiece to help promote integration between locals and foreigners, a call made by the National Integration Council on Friday. **** Walking Singapore Diana Plater, Stuff Geraldene Lowe, the legend of Singapore history and heritage, is leading us down back lanes in Singapore's Malay area. **** Singapore Dissident The Agonist The thing to keep in mind is just how patriarchal a place Singapore is and how much courage she has to live the life she leads. That's not to be underestimated and it is to be applauded. **** Container Traffic Expanding Robin Chan, Straits Times Singapore's container traffic has continued to expand, raising hopes that the worst might be over for the beleaguered shipping industry. **** Can't Afford HDB Flats? You Deserve It If You're Poor The Secret Political Blog **** HDB: New Flats Sold At ???Significant Discount??? The Temasek Review In Singapore, the government is the largest landlord and property developer at the same time. With its monopoly over the public housing market, it can fix the prices as high as it wants to the detriment of Singaporeans who are plunged increasingly into debt. **** Auto System Entry Into M'sia For Frequent Singaporean Visitors Desiree Tresa Gasper, The Star An automated clearance system, initially introduced for investors coming into Iskandar Malaysia, is now open to all residents from the Island Republic. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Sep 21 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 21 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 21, 2009 Message-ID: <20090921225900.57124.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Rivalry Between Macs And PCs Are Fading As Software Moves Online Scott Shuey, GulfNews If there is anything likely to put an end to the Mac-PC rivalry, it is the advent of "cloud computing", a jargon term to describe software that runs over the internet. **** Did Apple Sacrifice iTunes With Latest Apps? Michael Learmonth, Advertising Age Through its iTunes Store, Apple dominates digital music sales. But did it just kneecap that business by approving two apps that could make iTunes itself obsolete? **** Is The iPhone 3G Liquid Sensor A Filthy Liar? The Consumerist Here's the $199 question. What does it take to set off the moisture sensor on an iPhone 3G? Immersion in water? Sweat from a vigorous workout? Using the phone on a humid day? The truth is somewhere on that continuum, and many iPhone users claim that their warranties have been unfairly voided when normal use set off the sensors. **** Is Genius For The App Store A Joke? (iPhone OS 3.1) Pete Mortensen, Cult of Mac I have Tweetie, so it recommends other Twitter clients. I have Mint, so it recommends other money-management software. I have Kayak, so it recommends other plane ticket programs. Other times, it fares even worse, making flat-out irrelevant recommendation. **** 7 Myths About iPhone Exchange Policies Galen Gruman, InfoWorld I've been called everything from stupid to a Microsoft fanboy in recent days for an opinion article criticizing Apple's handling of a bug fix in the iPhone OS. While there's legitimate argument over how damaging Apple's decisions were, many e-mails, comments, and blog posts show how few users really understand the issues around access policies when connecting to corporate servers. And many bloggers are telling users that there's a simple fix to this issue. There isn't. For many enterprises that allowed or were planning to allow iPhone access to their networks, Apple's handling of this situation is, in some measure, a betrayal. **** Why Apple Is Unstoppable Tim Bajarin, PC Magazine Apple is perhaps the most influential company in the personal computer and CE market. And this is driving its competitors crazy. **** Curio For Mac OS X Updated To Version 6 MacTech **** Using Smart Playlists With Nested Conditionals In iTunes 9 Kirk McElhearn, Macworld Among the many features added to iTunes 9 () is a tweak to the way you can create smart playlists. Using this new feature, you can create nested conditional smart playlists; smart playlists that contain multiple sets of rules, as opposed to simply multiple rules. **** Apple Inquires With Users About iPhone OS 3.1 Battery Life AppleInsider With various reports of poor iPhone battery life following the 3.1 OS update, Apple has reportedly begun asking users about its experiences and usage habits in an attempt to address the issue. **** How To Save The PC: A Petition To Microsoft And Apple Jason Hiner, ZDNet **** Global CIO: Apple's Next Billion-Dollar Idea: The Enterprise Mobility iCloud Bob Evans, InformationWeek **** Moving Your iTunes Library The Right Way Jason D. O'Grady, ZDNet In the process of moving my iTunes library from my internal SSD to the OptiBay hard drive that I installed last week and I was reminded that moving your iTunes library isn???t a trivial task. **** Service Impresses Apple Shoppers Jonathan Overstreet, Augusta Chronicle A new Apple Store is open at Augusta Mall, and it's already generating excitement. **** 5 Things That Drive iPhone Users Crazy Tom Kaneshige, CIO.com Apple's iPhone is supposed to be the most user-friendly smartphone on the planet, but bad application design choices tick off iPhone newbies and experts. **** The Seven Most Underused Mail Features Joe Kissell, Macworld If you???re anything like me, you fall into certain habits when using programs such as Apple Mail???you get used to using the same small set of core features all the time and tend to overlook capabilities that are less obvious, though no less useful. Based on my own experience and my observations of several other Mail users, I???ve compiled a list of seven truly helpful features that often go unnoticed (applicable to both Leopard and Snow Leopard versions of Mail). **** Pangea: In-App Sales From Enigmo Often Less Than 25 Daily Jon Jordan, Pocket Gamer.Biz And this from a million-selling game. **** Easily Adding E-mail Addresses Christopher Breen, Macworld The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Now, An Invention Inventors Will Like Steve Lohr, New York Times Wrangling over patents is beginning to move out of the courtroom and into the marketplace. A flurry of new companies and investment groups has sprung up to buy, sell, broker, license and auction patents. And venture capital and private equity is starting to pour into the field. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Fathers And Sons David Mason, New Yorker **** Where Will Synthetic Biology Lead Us? Michael Specter, New Yorker Where will synthetic biology lead us? **** Temporary Marisa Silver, New Yorker Vivian and Shelly lived in downtown Los Angeles, in an industrial space that belonged, nominally, to a ribbon factory, whose warehouse was attached. Shelly had discovered it one night when the band she belonged to then had played at an impromptu concert there. When the evening was over and everyone had cleared out, Shelly and a man she???d met that evening stayed on. The man left soon afterward, but Shelly did not. She worked out an arrangement with the owner of the ribbon factory: the rent would be paid in cash, and if Shelly was discovered by the housing authorities the owner would claim that she was a squatter. **** Wendell Berry: "A Speech To The Garden Club Of America" Wendell Berry, New Yorker **** The Encumbrance of Things Past Judith Shulevitz, Slate Magazine The mystery of William Trevor's nostalgia. **** Placebos Are Getting More Effective. Drugmakers Are Desperate To Know Why. Steve Silberman, Wired The fact that an increasing number of medications are unable to beat sugar pills has thrown the industry into crisis. The stakes could hardly be higher. In today's economy, the fate of a long-established company can hang on the outcome of a handful of tests. Why are inert pills suddenly overwhelming promising new drugs and established medicines alike? The reasons are only just beginning to be understood. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Trouble In Singapore High Seas Straits Times The waters in and around Singapore have become more dangerous for laden ships this year. **** ???You Are Hereby Permitted To Remain In Singapore?????? Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen Bangladeshi worker asked by Manpower Ministry to remain in S???pore to help with investigations ends up waiting for four years. **** Loosen Up On Photography At MRT Stations And Public Places Richard Seah, Straits Times It is true that, once, some terrorist suspects were arrested for filming and taking photos of an MRT station. But this is no reason to overreact by banning photography altogether. **** Mah Bow Tan Blamed Flat Buyers For Being Choosey The Temasek Review **** Singapore And Malaysia Export Markets To Watch For ICT Computerworld Singapore and Malaysia will become key centres for Australian export opportunities in the coming decade as the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) free trade agreement with Australia creates opportunities for export and trade ??? and ICT is one of the sectors to watch. **** Asian Neighbours Try To End Cultural Spat John Aglionby, Financial Times Indonesia and Malaysia have agreed to deepen their bilateral ties in an attempt to end a year-long sociocultural spat that analysts say could threaten regional institutions if allowed to fester. However, analysts and diplomats are sceptical how long peace will last because within hours of the two nations' foreign ministers agreeing last week not to lay claim to disputed items of heritage, Malaysia's tourism minister was inflaming passions by insisting that culinary dishes popular in Indonesia and Singapore were Malaysian. **** CPF Life ??? A Critical Analysis Damon Yeo, The Temasek Review **** Mas Selamat: ???I Was Drugged In Singapore???s Whitney Detention Center??? The Temasek Review Mas Selamat Kasteri, Singapore???s most famous fugitive who is currently incarcerated at Malaysia???s Kamunting detention barracks, told a visiting officer from Suhakam (Malaysia???s Human Rights Commission) that he was happy to be detained in Malaysia. He also claimed that he had been drugged while he was in detention in Singapore. He said he did not feel normal most of the time and was always dizzy. **** A Letter From Ng Kok Lim: HDB???s Affordability Benchmark Is Not Reasonable Ng Kok Lim, The Temasek Review There is nothing in that statement that says that it is HDB???s responsibilty to sustain flat values over the long term. In fact, none of the four mission statements or even the vision statement remotely suggests that it is the HDB???s duty to sustain flat prices over the long term. So where did HDB get its mission of sustaining flat prices over the long term? **** MM Lee???s Latest ???Lecture Stint??? At Russia The Temasek Review **** What Is The PAP Thinking? Singapore Social and Political Thoughts $10 million to Integrate our fellow new PRs and new Citizens payable over 3 years? I thought I was dreaming when I saw this news last Friday! **** Sea Piracy In Waters Near Singapore Sets Five-year High Xinhua The waters in and around Singapore reported more piracy cases for ships this year, local media reported on Monday. **** Singapore Quarry Kodomut It was right behind the place where my mum used to stay during her younger years. Located at Bukit Timah. She moved out of the place during the mid 1980s when the government relocated the residents. **** US Clampdown On Taxation Leaks Could Benefit Singapore, Hong Kong Desmond Wong, Channel NewsAsia Singapore and Hong Kong could see more companies set up operations as they seek to avoid being tarred by less reputable tax jurisdictions. This comes as US lawmakers seek to clamp down on American citizens with undeclared assets around the world. **** Singapore Moves Quickly To Burst The Bubble That Greenspan Missed Bloomberg The point here is not to celebrate Singapore's economy or politics. Nor is it to say a $US182 billion ($210 billion) economy is a model for a $US14.2 trillion one. It's to show that central bankers are full of bunk when they say bubbles can't be identified. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Sep 22 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 22 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 22, 2009 Message-ID: <20090922225900.91082.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Microsoft Poaching Apple Store Managers And Sales Staff Jim Dalrymple, The Loop People that have spoken to The Loop on condition of anonymity confirm that Microsoft has contacted a number of Apple???s retail store managers to work in their stores. In addition to ???significant raises,??? the managers have also been offered moving expenses in some cases. **** Apple's Damage Control Can't Polish The Tarnished App Store Brand Christian Zibreg, Geek.com Apple has put in motion the damage control plan plotted to create an illusion that the company is addressing App Store criticism. Its mostly cosmetic moves also conceal the fact that the most important piece of the puzzle - the review process policy - is still hidden from the public. **** Airship Ventures. Taking iPhone to new heights. Apple When Jim Dexter suits up to fly Eureka, one of the three Zeppelin airships in the world, he tucks iPhone into his pocket. It???s his go-to device for flight planning, weather reports, and keeping in touch with the ground crew. ???It???s a huge leap in technology,??? he says. **** Transforming IT With iPhone Apple Global consulting firm Logica is no stranger to technological transformation. As a leader in IT and business services throughout Europe, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas, the firm creates functional, integrated business systems and applications for clients such as E.ON, Ford and NATO. So it???s only logical that Logica has embraced iPhone as a mobile essential for its own operations as well as a platform for increased client productivity via custom iPhone apps. **** Apple's Brand Moving Up The Ranks Jim Dalrymple, CNET News **** 2001: An Apple Odyssey Joe Wilcox, Beta News It's not uncommon for bloggers and journalists to get hung up on the present. For Apple, there's big noise about soaring stock price, even considering economic recession, and increasing demand for iPhone. But the past defines the present. For Apple, products or services launched in a single calendar year -- and the consistent execution that followed -- define current successes, including iPhone. I contend that next to 1984, when Apple launched Macintosh, 2001 was the most important year in the company's history. **** Apple Releases Three New iPhone Ads: 'Dine', ' Nature', And 'Pass' Eric Slivka, Mac Rumors **** iFinance 3 Personal Finance Software Jeffery Battersby, Macworld iFinance 3.0.9 is a beautifully designed personal finance application that helps you budget your money and manage stocks, income, and expenses. Unfortunately, it lacks some very basic and necessary features, making it a questionable choice over other, more full-featured applications. **** Apple Can't Save Saudi Billionaire AME Info The problem is that for all its recent gains, Apple's stock has yet to recover losses suffered since 2008. As of June 30 of this year, Apple was down 19% year-over-year. **** AT&T Takes The Phone Out Of iPhone Elinor Mills, CNET News} I wondered why, a year later, the service still seemed unreliable. I called AT&T (on my reliable landline at work) to find out. **** Remote Mac Support Made Even Easier With Mac HelpMate 3.0 Steven Sande, TUAW **** Yet Another Way To Move App Windows To Spaces Rob Griffiths, Macworld Instead of using these hard-to-reach keys, try pressing Command-Tab after you start dragging a window. **** AppDelete 3.0 Features Ability To Remove Widgets, Plugins MacNN The latest version can additionally uninstall widgets, preference panes, plugins, and screensavers. **** Concentrate Helps You Focus On Tasks Dan Frakes, Macworld With all the distractions your Mac and its network connection can provide, it can be tough to get anything accomplished. A while back, I reviewed Think, a free utility for focusing on a particular program. But I rarely work in a single piece of software; rather, I usually focus on tasks that involve multiple applications. Roobasoft???s Concentrate is a bit like Think for tasks. **** The Five Most Important Mac Laptops Benj Edwards, Macworld On the anniversary of the first Mac portable, we name the five most significant models. **** Blasted Keeps Your Recent Stuff Close At Hand Giles Turnbull, Cult of Mac Blasted is a Menu Bar app that quietly tracks what you???ve been working on ??? all the files you???ve created, opened, or modified recently ??? and makes them available when you need them via an unobtrusive icon. **** Push Gmail Now Available On iPhone Dan Moren, Macworld **** Google Releases Picasa 3.5 Heather Kelly, Macworld The most notable addition in this release is an enhanced version of Picasa's people-tagging feature, previously only available in Picasa Web Albums. Other improvements include Google Maps integration for faster and easier geotagging, a smarter keyword-tagging interface, and more importing options. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** OpenID Implementation Works On Mobile Platforms Mikael Rickn??s, IDG News Service Swedish company Accumulate has implemented a version of the OpenID standard for mobile phones. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** An Author???s Year-Long Book Tour William Dalrymple, Financial Times Like many other authors, my books used to be launched with a simple drinks party ??? the usual plastic-cups-and-a-couple-of-speeches affair, somewhere at the back of Holland Park. These days, however, there has been a radical change in the way books are launched. Behind this lies the striking growth of the whole global literary festival bandwagon. **** 'Lights On A Ground Of Darkness' By Ted Kooser David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times A look back, from middle age, on a man's life in a sequence of poems. **** Intellectual Conservatism, RIP Michael Lind, Salon I was once a young neoconservative. The word meant something different then, before it was hijacked by extremists. **** America, The Beautiful (America, The Ugly) Laura Miller, Salon You could do a lot worse with the next 220 days of your life than to begin each one by reading an entry from the freshly published "A New Literary History of America" -- the way generations past used to study a Bible verse daily. You could do a lot worse, but I'm not sure you could do much better; this magnificent volume is a vast, inquisitive, richly surprising and consistently enlightening wallow in our national history and culture. **** Eating After The New York Times Frank Bruni, The Atlantic On the week after I stopped visiting restaurants for the sake of reviews, I had roast chicken four nights in a row. **** Dissolving Barry Goldensohn, Slate Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Wheelchair-friendly Ramp At Train Station Lacks Shelter From Rain Tan Wee Kian, Straits Times Besides upgrading the infrastructure at ground level, I hope the authorities can also improve these areas, to make barrier-free facilities more user-friendly and complete. **** Why These Students Get Common Call-up Darius Lim, Ministry of Defence, Straits Times Most NSmen studying in the three local universities (National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University and Singapore Management University) are scheduled for ICT call-ups during their academic vacation period. This arrangement is made possible because these universities have a common vacation period, and the majority of our NSmen study in these institutions. **** Singapore's Chinatown And The Tale Of Buddha's Tooth Annie Scott, Tonic Chinatown is a staple all over the world, even in Singapore, where most of the population and culture is at least part Chinese. And if Singapore is already pretty China-esque to begin with, you can probably guess that it's like any other Chinatown ??? on steroids. **** Bharti Shines Brightest In Temasek Portfolio Madhav A Chanchani, VC Circle Singapore???s Temasek Holdings??? presence in India is on an ascendant note. The largest sovereign wealth fund active in India, Temasek???s portfolio in the South Asian region (India and Pakistan) has increased from 1% of its total portfolio in 2004 to 7% as on March 2009. The total size of this portfolio stood at $6.4 billion. **** Affordability In Singapore... Diary of A Singaporean Mind It is strange isn't it? Whenever something goes up sharply in price, instead of finding ways to bring down or stabilise the price, our govt spends so much effort explaining to us why it is still affordable. **** Asian Cities Catch Up With London Brooke Masters, Financial Times Asian cities are closing the gap on London and New York in a ranking of competitiveness among the world???s leading financial centres in which they now hold five of the top 10 spots. **** Spike In Singapore Kids With Behavior Disorders Xinhua There has been a sharp rise in the number of young children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in Singapore, local media reported on Tuesday. **** Militant Mas Feels 'Selamat' In Malaysia Malaysia Star Jemaah Islamiah militant Mas Selamat Kastari is happier being detained in Malaysia than in Singapore, says a human rights commissioner. **** Airships Over Singapore Soon? Christopher Tan, Straits Times Zeppelin Airship World (ZAW), started by German permanent resident Armin Spenninger, has clinched a deal to 'assemble, operate, market and distribute' the new Zeppelin NT airships in Singapore and Malaysia. **** The Facade Of Meritocracy In Singapore Subith Sitharthan, The Temasek Review The rhetoric of meritocracy has given Singaporeans the consolation of believing that their ruling elite are the best of the best and can therefore be trusted almost blindly on important matters, even if they are highhanded and lack the common touch. As this illusion gradually falls away???and today it is already heavily undermined???the trust that Singaporeans have for their government is becoming increasingly qualified. It remains to be seen how long the regime can avert the logical consequences of the contradictions between the myth and the reality. **** ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** National Flags Gone, Most Likely To Be Disposed Singapore Social and Political Thoughts I am not sure if these cost of the National Day "Look Good" exercise was bear by the MPs, but definitely TCs paid for these items. **** Detained In Singapore The Korea Herald The Singaporean law presumes anyone in possession of narcotics to be trafficking it and the defendant bears the burden of proof against this presumption. Korean authorities are asked to help them in whatever means possible, including legal aid. The government should strengthen public education about being involved in criminal offenses during overseas travel, recklessly or inadvertently. **** Is Property In Singapore Affordable? Den Of The Lion Investor If you really spend 30% of your income paying for your home for 30 years, you will most definitely retire with insufficient savings in your CPF account. And when that time comes, you will have to downgrade to a smaller property in order to monetize the cash from your property. But what about those who are already staying in a small property to begin with? **** ???????????????????????????????????? ????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore's GIC Cuts Citigroup Stake P.R. Venkat, Wall Street Journal Government of Singapore Investment Corp. Tuesday said that it has reduced its stake in Citigroup Inc. to below 5% from over 9%. Chief investment officer Ng Kok Song said GIC realized $1.6 billion of profit on the stake sale. **** Light At End Of Tunnel Over KTM's Singapore Land The Malaysian Insider The contentious bilateral talks over the Keretapi Tanah Melayu (KTM) land in Singapore appears to have moved forward with a proposal to swap it for valuable land near the island state???s first casino in Marina South, instead of scattered pieces across the tiny republic. Government sources said Singapore has submitted a proposal to Wisma Putra last month for a joint-venture company that will develop the new piece of land. Malaysia will hold 60 per cent equity in the company while Singapore will hold the balance, both through their respective sovereign wealth funds. **** How Much Is HDB Profiting From The Sale Of New Flats? The Temasek Review After yet another merry-go-round, we are none the wiser about HDB???s pricing policies and strategies as the key question on the minds of many Singaporeans remained unanswered ??? how much profit is HDB making out of the sale of new flats? **** In A Singapore Storeroom, A Treasure Waits To Be Shown Mieke Deprez, DPA **** Martyn See Writes To Minister On Zahari's 17 Years Martyn See, Only "Objective" And "Factual" Political Films Please, We're Singaporeans I refer to the publication and publicity of Men In White : The Untold Story of Singapore's Ruling Party by the Singapore Press Holdings (SPH). The book features insights from former ISA detainees about their past and during its launch, a video containing comments by Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew was reportedly played to the audience. How is it that such a book and video be allowed while Zahari's 17 Years continues to be banned? Is the Minister applying the law equally? **** Employers Will Know By Mid-Oct If Jobs Credit Scheme Will Be Extended Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia Employers will know by mid-October if the national Jobs Credit Scheme will be extended. **** The Future Of Discontent Harrison Goh, The Online Citizen The government has opened the floodgates for foreigners to come in without much consideration for the average Singaporeans. With depressed wages leading to less financial freedom, the average Singaporean will have to continue to slog to pay for inflated housing mortgages and living costs. The rich, however, will continue to benefit disproportionately, giving rise to a widening social chasm. **** Singapore Gamblers Shrug Off Race Fixing Reuters Singapore gamblers shrugged off news that last year's Formula One race in the city-state was fixed and said it would not stop them placing bets on this weekend's nighttime grand prix. **** Law Society Removes Fee Guidelines For Property Transaction Deals Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia >From October 1, the Law Society will do away with fee guidelines for lawyers when processing property deals. This means that lawyers and their clients will be free to negotiate their transaction fees, based on the type of work done, and the value of the property. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Sep 23 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 23 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 23, 2009 Message-ID: <20090923225900.26613.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Macworld Expo 2010 To Feature Pogue, Laporte Presentations Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer David Pogue, technology pundit and New York Times columnist, will be kicking off Macworld Expo 2010 with a keynote presentation called "Late Night with David Pogue." Popular tech host Leo Laporte is also taking over as the new host for the expo's annual Macworld Live! onsite talkshow event. **** Gold Rush! Big Money Seen For iPhone, Smartphone App Developers Matt Hamblen, Computerworld A gold rush for developers who build applications for the iPhone and other smartphones is in the works, with U.S. revenues from smartphone apps expected to increase by a factor of more than 10 through 2013, to $4.2 billion. That estimate, from Yankee Group Research Inc. in Boston, was calculated using the following factors: growth in smartphone unit sales, which Yankee Group expects to quadruple between now and 2013; an expected increase in the number of smartphone applications, and a projected jump in the average price of a single app from $1.95 today to $2.37. Yankee Group expects the number of smartphones sold to grow from 40 million in 2009 to 160 million in 2013. **** Apple Battles Entrepeneur Over ???Pod??? Trademark Brian X. Chen, Wired We assure ourselves that words will never hurt us, but they can cost a lot of time and money when it comes to trademark battles. Take the story of Daniel Kokin, who is continuing to fight Apple over a three-letter word: Pod. **** Yes, US iPhone Apps Are Legal For Business Use David Coursey, PC World Published reports that iPhone applications are not licensed for business use appear to be untrue, at least for customers of Apple's U.S. App Store. **** Apple iPhone OS 3.1 Brings New Glitches Along With Slick Features Michelle Maisto, eWeek Discussion boards are filling up with complaints about issues such as the iPhone suddenly freezing or shutting down, poor battery life, weird error messages, sluggish performance and podcasts being listed in random order. **** 4 Easy Ways To Write A Novel On Your New Mac Natalia Nowak, Mac 360 I???m ready to be a novelist. I have a Mac, a bunch of writing tools, and a stack of 3x5 cards loaded with ideas. What???s next? Besides the nitty gritty of writing. For the moment, I???m on a detour looking for the insanely greatest writing tool for Mac users. **** 8 Rules Users Should Insist On For Quality iPhone Apps Tom Yager, InfoWorld As an iPhone user, I don't want Apple to back off its standards. Where money is involved, I not only want Apple's strict App Store standards to stay in place, I want to raise the bar by demanding guidelines that reflect the pivotal role that a mobile device, which is inseparable from its applications, plays in modern life and work. **** I Would Love To Know Where Is Apple TV Going Massive Mileage **** New Nano Not Banned By Health Club Chain Eric Savitz, Barron's The company isn???t making any new policies for the Nano. They don???t want them used in locker rooms. And they don???t want you shooting video anywhere else in the clubs. But if you want to use the new Nano to listen to music while working out, no problem there **** Palm Smacked Down In USB Dispute With Apple Arik Hesseldahl, BusinessWeek Well now the USB-IF has ruled, and according to a letter to I???ve seen today, this tactic hasn???t worked out so well for Palm. **** "I Am Not A Reporter!" NYT's David Pogue Declares, Responding Angrily To Recent Criticism The NYTPicker Clearly stung by recent attacks over conflicts of interest, the NYT's technology columnist David Pogue used a podcast interview Sunday to respond to his critics, his editors and even his counterparts at the Wall Street Journal and USA Today, declaring defiantly at one point: "I am not a reporter!" The interviewer, technology writer Leo LaPorte, was sharply questioning Pogue's positive writing about Apple -- and, in particular, a much-criticized upbeat interview with Apple chairman Steven Jobs that was published as a news story -- when Pogue grew defensive. **** First Look: Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 Rick LePage, Macworld New look, content-aware scaling lead the charge in update. **** Apple Updates Logic Pro, Logic Express Philip Michaels, Macworld In addition to updating its iTunes software for listening to music, Apple on Tuesday released maintenance updates for two programs used to create songs. Both Logic Pro and Logic Express saw updates aimed at improving stability while adding fixes and enhancements. **** Accounting Rules Shouldn't Change To Benefit Apple, Other High Tech Companies Joe Wilcox, Betanews The Financial Accounting Standards Board will make a grave mistake if it gives into Apple and other high-tech companies demanding a change to subscription accounting rules. **** iTunes 9.0.1 Bows To Mini Player Complaints Stephen Withers, ITWire iTunes 9.0.1 reverses the operation of zoom (once again shows the mini player) and option-zoom (toggles the window size in iTunes 9 style). **** South Korea To Allow iPhone Entry Evan Ramstad and Jaeyeon Woo, Wall Street Journal South Korea's communications regulator decided Wednesday to allow the sale of Apple Inc.'s iPhone, amending a technical ban that had blocked the product, a spokesman said. The Korea Communications Commission made an exception in a rule that requires cellphones sold in the country to use domestic technology for location-based services. **** Growing Up The iPod Way Andrei Codrescu, NPR The treadmill and the iPod are for my generation what the hammer and the sickle were for the early Bolsheviks ??? articles of faith. I've been running my miles and listening to my music for a year, and if I could write while in motion I'd have a memoir by now. **** AT&T-iPhone Calling Woes On Redial Elinor Mills, CNET News Judging from the response I received from the "AT&T takes the phone out of iPhone" story published on Tuesday, I definitely struck a nerve with a lot of iPhone users, not just in San Francisco but around the country. The overwhelming majority of them reported similar problems of frequent and consistent dropped calls and garbled conversations, and even delays with voice messages and voice mail being inaccessible. **** Snow Leopard Changes The Rules About Opening Files Rob Griffiths, Macworld Not being able to get to the creating application by double-clicking on a document is a change that has a direct and measurable impact on many users??? daily routines, including mine. The last thing I want to do with my already-limited time is use the Finder???s contextual menu to ???tag??? every file I create to be opened with the creating application. Sadly, that???s just what Snow Leopard has forced me to do. **** Building The Mac Office - 2009 Edition BMighty.com **** Apple, Rapper Eminem May Face Trial Over Music Downloads Reuters Apple Inc and rapper Eminem may be headed for trial on Thursday if they are unable to resolve a lawsuit over whether the singer's songs could be used on the popular iTunes service. **** Find My (Wife's) iPhone Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Don't get me wrong, I'm all in favor of privacy. But there are times and places when you very much want certain other people to know exactly where you are, without you having to do anything. **** Stitchtastic 1.0 Converts Images To Cross-stitch Patterns MacNN **** FASB OKs Change Allowing Companies To Speed Up Some Revenues Dow Jones Accounting rulemakers approved a change Wednesday that will give a boost to technology companies and other firms by allowing them to recognize some revenues faster. Apple Inc. is expected to be one of the major beneficiaries of the change, since it would dramatically change how the company reports revenues from its iPhone. **** AT&T Details Friday Morning iPhone MMS Update MacNN The carrier will enable the service via a carrier settings update that will be available to download from iTunes. The update will go live sometime late morning, Pacific Time. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** E-Kitchens Can Get Crowded Kim Severson, New York Times As the digital age seeps into the kitchen, it???s time to reconsider whether too many cooks spoil the broth. Crowd-sourcing recipes ??? corralling a group of strangers on the Internet to create and edit a bank of recipes ??? is gaining popularity and investors. **** Simple Cloud API Project Offers Portability Hopes Paul Krill, Infoworld News Zend, Microsoft, and IBM lead the open source cloud portability effort, which seeks to eliminate vendor lock-in by helping developers create apps that can access all major cloud platforms. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Behind The Scenes Of The Dark Cold War, Where An Even Darker Side Lurked Dwight Garner, New York Times >From the sorry final years of Leonid Brezhnev???s rule, which ended at his death in 1982, to the arrival of Mikhail S. Gorbachev in 1985, the Soviet Union seemed to be led, as David Remnick has put it, by a series of ???half-dead men in half-lit hospitals.??? **** The Essence Of America In 1,095 Pages Patricia Cohen, New York Times With entries on the porn star Linda Lovelace, the indie film ???Wild Style??? and Hurricane Katrina, it is clear that ???A New Literary History of America??? is not your typical Harvard University Press anthology. Although it has many features of an academic compendium ??? page numbers that reach into four digits and scores of scholarly contributors ??? this new collection of essays, being released on Wednesday, roams far beyond any standard definition of literature. Aside from compositions that contain the written word, its subjects include war memorials, jazz, museums, comic strips, film, radio, musicals, skyscrapers, cybernetics and photography. **** Four Poems Justin Hyde, 3:AM Magazine **** The City Is A Battlesuit For Surviving The Future Matt Jones, Future Metro The architecture of science fiction has profoundly changed urban design. When building cities of the future, our best guides may be places like comic book megalopolises Mega-City-1 or Transmet. **** The Decline Of The English Department William M. Chace, The American Scholar How it happened and what could be done to reverse it. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** As SOEasy Crashes And Burns, Singapore's Ministry Of Education Does The Right Thing Harish Pillay, Alas, A blog! As I read that MOE went with Google, I was listening to a series of horror stories from the poor "rest of Singapore government officers" who are now burdened with the so-called "SOEasy" standard operating environment roll out. Tax payers monies are being spent on stuff that reduces the efficiencies of the work process and forces clued-in IDA officers (yes there are some) to have to bring in their personal laptops in order to get work done. I am hearing from some government officials that I should not expect any replies from them via email after 5 pm because they refuse to bring their worthless "locked down Windows laptop" home. If I expect a reply, it will only come during office hours and only if they are in the office. So much for improving efficiencies. **** It All Boils Down To PKMS Building Zaihan Mohamed Yusof, New Paper In the PKMS power struggle, loyal lieutenants and footsoldiers have been known to engage in violent confrontations. **** Lawsuits Set OB Markers For Foreign Commentators Alicia Wong, Today It has been banned in Singapore since 2006, but many here will remember the Far Eastern Economic Review's legal battles with the government. **** F1 Weekend Shutdown Jessica Lim & Serene Luo, Straits Times Shops and restaurants in the Marina Bay area are not optimistic that business over the next few days will be even halfway decent, despite measures taken to improve traffic flow - both human and vehicular - there. **** Singapore Chocolate Factory Sg Pirate Game What is the rational in what we are doing as a country and can there a better way out? **** Our Water Flows To Singapore Leslie White, Weekly Times Now A foreign company has purchased 8000ha of almonds and 41,000 megalitres of water for a steal. **** Citi Bailout Also Bails Out Singapore Fund Rick Carew, P.R. Venkat and Costas Paris, Wall Street Journal The reversal of fortune for GIC's January 2008 investment of $6.9 billion into Citigroup is due to a sweetening of terms it won from the U.S. government as part of a bailout package negotiated in February 2009. GIC and other sovereign investors gave up their 7% annual coupon payment on the preferred shares and moved lower in Citigroup's capital structure. In exchange, Citigroup reduced the conversion price of GIC and other investors' shares to $3.25 a share from the $26.35 conversion price they had agreed in the original deal. **** SingaNews: Divine Intervention Or Distraction? Gabriel Sim, Simply Gab While they have every right to push an agenda, their actions thus far have won them few friends, and i suspect will eventually prove to be their downfall. **** Is Money Important? This Lush Garden Within Welcome to Singapore, where graduates are expected to earn scarcely enough to feed or start a family. **** Straits Times Editorial Chides Singaporeans For Being Unreasonable The Secret Political Blog It is one thing to accuse Singaporeans of being choosy, but it is another to insinuate that Singaporeans are being obstinate or unreasonable. The Straits Times has succeeded in doing both, a great insult to the plight of Singaporeans looking for a home. **** Straits Times Editorial: ...Its All Your Fault! Diary of A Singaporean Mind This is an incredible editorial even by Straits Times standard. It makes no mention of HDB failure to sufficient housing when the foreign influx caused a population expansion of 400,000. The 23 Sept 2009 editorial puts the blame for all the unhappiness surrounding the surge in HDB prices squarely on ordinary Singaporeans. **** ??????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ???????????????????????????????????? ??????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Parents Should Nurture A Loving Bond Lily Fu, Malaysia Star Times have changed. Parents cannot take for granted that their children will look after them in their old age. Children today have a thousand and one reasons why they can???t or won???t care for their aged parents. **** Fewer LAN Gaming Centres My Paper Their numbers have been dwindling due to price wars among the centres, a clampdown on illegal centres and the growing popularity of gaming at home. **** In Singapore, Novelty Of F1 Race Begins To Wear Off Kai Portmann, DPA After the inaugural night race in 2008, the novelty of a F1 Grand Prix in Singapore seems to have worn off a bit. As the economic downturn also took its toll on tourism worldwide, ticket sales and room bookings in the weeks to this year's GP season have been sluggish compared to last year. **** The Paradox Of Singapore???s Economic Growth: Time & Income The Temasek Review As much as politicians and policy makers brag about how many folds Singaporeans??? incomes have risen in last forty years, they fail to realize that such a phenomenal increase is void of meaning and purpose and have failed to bring about the outcomes that other countries have achieved with such increases in incomes. **** Lee Kuan Yew Says The Darnedest Thing. Singaporean Skeptic This is the myth of the Lee family- that they were thrust into high positions just purely on their own abilities and the fact that Lee Kuan Yew was PM had absolutely nothing to do with it. **** ???????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????? ?????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????International Car Free Day?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Female Escorts Hope Singapore Race Will Boost Business Nopporn Wong-Anan, Reuters Singapore's Formula One race may be beset by last year's match-fixing and lower ticket sales, but many female escorts have flown into the city-state especially for the event, eyeing wealthy customers. **** The Unsustainable Singapore Model Ian Choo, The Online Citizen The irony of staring at the Singapore model is not only that the model which brought Singapore to its current status might work any longer, but it might be the very thing that is holding the country back. Maybe we have been aiming at the wrong goal all this while. **** Estates And Town Councils Ranking In Four Areas From October Channel NewsAsia Estates and Town Councils will be bench-marked from next month according to four key areas outlined in the finalised Town Council Management Report (TCMR) framework. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Thu Sep 24 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 24 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 24, 2009 Message-ID: <20090924225900.51262.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Why Did Apple Approve Spotify? Michael Masnick, TechDirt I would bet that the folks at Apple are pretty damn sure that they can outlast and out-innovate Spotify. Spotify hasn't shown much ability to make money, and while it has become a press darling as a music app, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that Apple's quietly been working on its own version of a Spotify-like offering built directly into iTunes. **** Apple Investors Should Focus On The Core Martin Peers, Wall Street Journal There may be lots of reasons to buy Apple stock right now. But Wednesday's accounting-rule change shouldn't be one of them. As Wall Street analysts line up to revise their estimates for Apple's future earnings, investors should be very clear that these upward revisions are a matter of perception, not reality. Apple isn't taking in any more cash as a result of the rule change. **** Apple Bids To Avoid Court Date With Eminem Bobbie Johnson, Guardian Last minute talks are taking place between lawyers for Apple and Eminem as the iPod maker attempts to avert a costly and potentially embarrassing court battle with the rap star. **** Apple Prepares For First Microsoft Store By Updating Its Own Neil Hughes, Apple Insider In what could be viewed as a preemptive strike, Apple has closed its store in Mission Viejo, Calif., for renovations -- the same store that will be located near one of Microsoft's first retail outlets. **** The iPhone In Korea: Is SK Telecom Blowing It? Tim Beyers , The Motley Fool I find it curious that SK Telecom is taking a wait-and-see approach when it comes to the iPhone. Certainly there's no reason for the carrier to act rashly, but its customers are also well-known data consumers. **** David Pogue And The Whole Conflict Of Interest BS. Tom Reestman, The Small Wave In my opinion, what it boils down to is not whether there???s a reason one may want to lie (i.e., be ???unbiased???), but whether one actually does so. **** Apple's Focus On Innovation, Quality Showing Long-term Value Dennis Sellers, Macsimum News **** Bare Bones TextWrangler 3 MacNN TextWrangler 3 may be a free application but don???t let that fool you, this is a serious text editing tool. It???s earned its place in my toolbox and should be in yours too. **** How Not To Use UTIs Peter Hosey, Domain Of The Bored Uniform Type Identifiers are a replacement for type codes (and MIME media types, and filename extensions), not for creator codes. There is no replacement for creator codes. **** NetNewsWire iPhone App Adds Google Reader Sync, Twitter MacNN NewsGator has released NetNewsWire 2.0, the latest version of its mobile RSS reader for the iPhone or iPod touch. The update adds several new features including Google Reader sync, with support for transferring starred items. The app also integrates Twitter and Instapaper services for sharing content or saving items for later reading. **** TomTom Car Kit For iPhone Appears In Apple's European Online Stores MacRumors TomTom's much-anticipated iPhone GPS car kit has appeared on a number of European Apple online stores, including the UK store. Scheduled to ship in 2-3 weeks, the kit is priced at ??99.95 (US$164.10) in the UK and 99.95 Euro (US$147.90) in other European countries, which includes the TomTom iPhone application. **** Metadata Madness John Siracusa, Ars Technica Concept, representation, policy. These are three separate things. Conflating them leads to misplaced anger, unreasonable demands, and unhelpful recommendations. **** 10.6 Falsely Reports 'service Battery?' ... I Think Not Josh Carr, TUAW **** Review: Poser 8 Dan Ablan, Macworld 3D character app for hobbyists, artists, and graphics professionals gets an overhaul. **** Associate Files To Applications Using Services In Snow Leopard Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** The Real Genius Of The Genius Bar Rob Griffiths, Macworld So while the Genius Bar serves an important function for customers (and a popular one???it was swamped the whole time I was there) by providing them direct contact with Apple, it also serves as an incredible sales engine for Apple???s retail arm. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Google Fits Web With Meta Comments Engine Cade Metz, Register Google has added a new contraption to its browser toolbar that lets you annotate any web page - and read annotations left by others. **** Piecing Together Smart Cameras At DemoFall 09 Rafe Needleman, CNET News MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Frugal Traveler: Asian Cuisine As Diverse As Vancouver Matt Gross, New York Times ???Mixing things just becomes part of everyday life,??? said Todd Wong, a Vancouver arts advocate who during Chinese New Year hosts the annual Gung Haggis Fat Choy dinner, where Scottish haggis finds its way into dim sum dumplings. ???It???s not ???Why are they doing this???? It???s ???Why not???? ??? **** In Search Of The Middle Class Deborah Orr, Guardian 'Make them pay more for the higher education of their children," says the Confederation of British Industry. "Should they really be getting child benefit?" muse policy wonks of all stripes. The poor creatures. Only Gordon Brown is their nominally leftist friend. Who are they? The middle classes, of course. But who, seriously, are the middle classes? And why are they, alone among British people, routinely referred to in the mainstream political discourse as "a class". **** Book 'Em Jessa Crispin, The Smart Set It's criminal how much some people love books. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Puzzled By Shopping Mall's Ban On Photography Hari Krishnan, Straits Times Northpoint is a shopping centre that thousands of people visit. Just imagine if everyone who wants to take a photo has to seek permission first. **** Data Doesn't Back Conclusion On Acid Rain Sharon Chan, National Parks Board, Straits Times The study is in its early stages and it is premature to suggest that acidity of the streams is caused by acid rain, and whether biodiversity has been affected. Note that no where in this letter is there any justification for what the headline says. **** What's Holding Back Singapore's ETF? Tom Lydon, Seeking Alpha Singapore is heavily dependent on exports to sustain recovery from its worst economic turn yet. But export numbers are still not up to par to bring the economy and its related ETF out of a slump. **** Last Call To Replace Ez-link Cards Today Commuters who are still using their old ez-link cards should replace them by Sept 30, when the free one-for-one card replacement exercise ends. **** Now, Malacca Claims Hainanese Chicken Rice Chen Pelf Yeen, Malaysia Star The food ownership debate has taken a new twist with heritage loyalists here claiming the Hainanese chicken rice originated from this historic city. ???It???s ours,??? said Badan Warisan Malaysia member Josephine Chua, 50, adding Malacca???s famous 17th Jonker Street was well-known for its Hainanese chicken rice compressed into golf-sized balls. **** Hasbro Says Singapore Hasbro Ads Are Fake, Even Though An "Individual Approved It". Wait, What? Adland **** A Strange One Hard Hitting in the Lion City Now I can understand The Strait Times wanting to defend National Development Minister Mah Bow Tan???s statement that property in Singapore are still affordable, but this article The Strait Times put together make no sense. **** Town Council Reviews: Where Is The Green?! Gabriel Sim, Simply Gab So while they try to preoccupy us with bread-and-butter, the use of our hard-earned jam and marmalade will continue to be mystery to us. **** ??????????????????????????????????????? ????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Sinking Fund?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????76%???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????Chinatown?????? **** Massive Spin For These Town Council MPs noreply at blogger.com (Phare de Singapour), Singapore Social and Political Thoughts In my own opinion, its just another round of meaningless means by the ruling party to appease the "mis-investment" of Town Council Funds in Lehmen Brothers. **** Running A Check On Chilli Crab's Origin Malay Mail Where did chilli crab come from? Malaysia or Singapore? Apparently, Tourism Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ng Yen Yen herself is not sure. **** Are Foreigners Depriving Locals Of Places In NUS, NTU And SMU? Amanda Lian, The Temasek Review Putting all the information together and analyzing it together with our own beliefs and accounts, we, the locals are not deprived of places in Universities. Rather, it has become more competitive and we have the reassurance that the total influx is capped at 20 percent every year till the next big thing comes about. **** Singapore ??? Where Whatever We Do, Is Never Good Enough James Chan, Master Of The Obvious Ride the forces of our environment, and put the time and energy into harnessing your lofty ambitions to change the world. Fear has gotten us this far, but won???t have much in it to take us any further. It???s time to let go, ride the bulls of your ambitions by their horns and reach for the stars. **** ????????????????????????????????? ????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** HDB High Prices & Influx Of FT Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives It is time for PAP government and HDB to give due recognition to Singaporeans' contribution to the Nation and put tangible value to our allegiance as a citizen. It is unacceptable for us, especially the young Singaporeans, to pay the price of PAP's indiscriminate FT policy in terms of paying higher price for HDB flats. **** EntrePass Visa Rules Revised By Singapore Government The Temasek Review The Singapore government has tightened the rules governing the EntrePass scheme ??? a work visa designed for foreign entrepreneurs who wish to relocate and start a business in Singapore. **** New Censorship Committee Straits Times The government has appointed 17 people from various fields to sit on a committee that has been tasked with updating policies on censorship of the media and the arts. **** Strategy Split Behind Temasek Exit-Goodyear Michael Flaherty and Joseph Chaney, Reuters Former BHP Billiton CEO Charles "Chip" Goodyear confirmed that a divergence in strategy was behind his shock departure from Singapore sovereign wealth fund Temasek Holdings two months ago. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Fri Sep 25 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 25 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 25, 2009 Message-ID: <20090925225901.78205.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** The Case For Entourage On Snow Leopard John C. Welch, Macworld Mac OS X 10.6 covers basic Exchange well, but Entourage EWS is the clear winner. **** NewsGator Updates NetNewsWire For Mac And iPhone Dan Moren, Macworld In addition to the new Google Reader syncing features, the final version of NetNewsWire 3.2 fixes a number of bugs and adds other features, such as support for Web service Instapaper and the ability to easily create Twitter search feeds. **** TomTom Clarifies: ??99.99 Hardware, Application Sold Separately AppleInsider Correcting an Apple online store listing from earlier Thursday, TomTom U.K. announced that the iPhone car kit accessory will have a retail price of ??99.99 but will not include the TomTom application. **** Apple's Motion To Include Snow Leopard In Psystar Case Denied AppleInsider After Apple allegedly changed its mind on whether to include Snow Leopard in an ongoing suit with Psystar, a U.S. District Court judge has denied the Mac maker's request. **** Apple Now Investigating SuperDrive Issues Doug McLean, TidBITS The slew of symptoms, suggested causes, and solutions that are reported in the forums make it difficult to draw any firm conclusion regarding these issues, save for the fact that what seems to be an unusually high number of SuperDrives are indeed failing. **** Apple Launches Major Green Effort Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek It's being more forthcoming with environmental data???and working to change the terms of the debate. **** Apple Logic Studio Review Len Sasso, Digital Content Producer A must-have upgrade to Apple's DAW and performance software bundle. **** Apple: Yes, It Makes Money On The App Store Eric Savitz, Barron's **** Oops, Roddenberry Didn't Own The First Mac Plus After All ChannelWeb An Apple Macintosh computer owned by Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry that's up for auction next month wasn't the first-ever Mac Plus, as those selling the computer originally said Thursday. **** Carbon Copy Cloner 3.3 Preserves HFS+ Compression Data MacNN **** Checkout 3 Adds Re-designed Product Manager, Improvements MacNN **** 5 Apps For The Radio Lover Sang Tang, TUAW **** Quicktime X: Still Looks Like Beta On Some Apsects Hardmac.com **** Where Are All The Free Mac Utilities And Applications? Mac 360 **** Star Defender 4 Ted Bade, Inside Mac Games All in all Star Defender 4 is a terrific action game. It is fun to play, offers great action, graphics, and audio. It is challenging, but not so much that one immediately gives up. This is the best shooter I have played in a long while. You won???t go wrong if you buy this game. **** Cleaning An iTunes Library Christopher Breen, Macworld **** Apple's Shadow Hangs Over Game Console Makers Hiroko Tabuchi, New York Times As video game giants like Sony and Microsoft touted their new gizmos at the Tokyo Game Show this week, industry executives had more than the coming holiday sales season on their minds. Apple???s recent foray into video games ??? with the iPhone, the iPod Touch and its ever-expanding online App Store ??? is causing as much hand-wringing among old industry players as the global economic slump, which threatens to take the steam out of year-end shopping for the second consecutive year. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Web Spider For Everyone Erica Naone, MIT Technology Review A startup uses PC idle time to crawl Web pages on demand. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Raising Steaks Christine Muhlke, New York Times In 1950, the editor Judith Jones rescued Anne Frank???s diary from the reject pile. Ten years later, she championed a cookbook no other publisher would touch and named it ???Mastering the Art of French Cooking,??? the first of many seminal culinary titles that she shepherded. At 85, she still works as a senior editor and vice president of Knopf. But every girl needs a hobby. So three years ago, she started raising cattle. **** 'The National Parks: America's Best Idea' By Dayton Duncan And Ken Burns Los Angeles Times The companion book to the PBS series pays homage to America's crown jewels, and the people who fought to save them. **** Blood???s A Rover James Ellroy, Powell's Books Historical fiction affords novelists the opportunity to rewrite great events to their own specifications. They must begin by adhering to rigorous facts and are then freed to extrapolate at their imaginative will. Known history serves as subtext. Readers come to historical fiction with some knowledge of the eras they are about to immerse themselves in. Names, dates, and the locations of key happenings must be scrupulously accurate. From that point on, the writer is free to invent. Thus, we enter the secret infrastructure of emergent history and the private nightmare of public policy. **** 2 Days, 3 Nights, On A Path Named For A Devil Stephen Regenold, New York Times The Devil???s Path, an east-to-west voyage along the spine of the Catskills, is often cited as the toughest hiking trail in the East. In 25 miles it ascends six major peaks, plunging into deep valleys between climbs. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** $5 Charge For Cashier's Order Waived By OCBC Daisy Er, OCBC Bank, Straits Times We are pleased to inform readers that with immediate effect, we will waive the $5 processing fee to issue a cashier's order made payable in the account holder's name if the individual is withdrawing funds from his personal accounts. **** Why We Peg To Market Rates: HDB Ignatius Lourdesamy, Housing & Development Board, Today Market-based pricing is fairer to all buyers because it allows buyers to receive similar levels of subsidy regardless of market movements and fluctuations in development costs. **** Former Head Of Civil Service Ngiam Tong Dow Criticises Singapore???s Liberal Immigration Policy The Temasek Review The former head of the civil service Mr Ngiam Tong Dong has spoken out against the government???s liberal immigration policy which risks turning Singaporeans into ???strangers??? in their own land. **** Our Obsession With Medical Certificates (MC) Tattooed Banker **** Some Report Card Today In Singapore Inspite of the calls for transparency sparked by the $16 million wipeout, Fu is still adamant that returns on Town Council financial investments and adequacy of the sinking funds will not be disclosed. And you call that a report card? **** Changi's Traffic Up At Last Karamjit Kaur, Straits Times Last month, 3.1 million passengers went through Changi Airport - a small increase from August last year but a sign that the current crisis could have bottomed out. **** ERA Report : More Evidence Price Rise Due To Foreign Influx. LuckySingaporean, Diary of A Singaporean Mind The truth is becoming very clear. The PAP govt allowed a large influx of foreigners into the country with a large number of them obtaining PRs or citizenship in the past 3 years making them eligible for the purchase of HDB flats. The HDB did not provide sufficient supply for the increase demand that is why prices were going up even when the economy was slowing down. The PAP govt has made a mistake that has impacted Singaporeans looking for homes negatively. **** Have You Changed Your EZ-Link Card? Dee Kay Dot As Gee If the operating cost of the new EZ-Link card is going to be higher than the old card, then why are we changing? **** More New Primary Schools Slated Channel NewsAsia More Singapore primary schools will be able to offer single session classes with the Education Ministry rolling out plans to build 11 new primary schools and upgrade 28 existing ones from November 2009. **** PM Lee Wades Into Singapore's Blogosphere Imran Ahmed, The Temasek Review No the Prime Minister has not started a blog yet. Or at least I am unaware of it. However, his recent statements about the new media versus traditional news media have brought attention to the print media of the state. **** $5 Charge For Cashier's Order Tattooed Banker >From my understanding, the charges has been ongoing for almost a year before they decide to revoke it now, due to complains to the straits times forum. Internal complaints doesn't seem to be taken seriously. So note to all, to get things done, post to your local newspaper forum. **** Why Should Singapore Taxpayers Pay $10 Million Dollars To Help Immigrants Integrate? The Temasek Review The question Singaporeans should seriously be asking is this: why should we be paying $10 million to help the newcomers integrate into our society? This is almost unheard of in the developed world and we risk making a mockery out of our citizenship by ???selling??? it out so easily and cheaply in order to attract immigrants to settle down here. **** Singapore Aug Factory Output Points To GDP Growth Reuters **** Singapore's GIC To Reveal Strategy, War Chest Kevin Lim and Harry Suhartono, Reuters Singapore's $200 billion-plus sovereign wealth fund GIC will likely reveal next week it is moving more money into property, resources and Asian assets after recently cutting its exposure to major Western banks. The Government of Singapore Investment Corp, or GIC, is due to release its annual report for the year to March 2009, only the second year the fund will make the report public. **** Teo Ho Pin Blames Residents For S&C Arrears The Temasek Review Dr Teo Ho Pin, coordinating chairman of the 14 PAP-run councils, had lashed out at residents living in PAP estates for S&C arrears which will affect their peformance in a new report card on how well they run estates is released next year. **** The Unsustainable Singapore Model: A Rejoinder The Online Citizen The ???Singapore model??? per se is not unsustainable. What makes it unsustainable is a missing component in the model. In this case, it is the economy???s absence of a distinct identity. **** Singapore Recovery Slowing: All Sectors Down Except Biomedicals Blowin' In The Wind **** Land Reclamation Completed For Jurong Island Rachel Kelly, Channel NewsAsia The reclamation of Singapore's Jurong Island was completed on Friday after nearly a decade, marking a major milestone in the country's industrial development. Although the initial completion date was 2030, the project finished some 20 years ahead of schedule, due to high demand from big global names for space on the island. **** Reform Party's Talks With Singapore Democratic Alliance Non-conclusive S.Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia Alliance talks between the Reform Party and Mr Chiam See Tong's party, the Singapore Democratic Alliance, have not reached any conclusions so far. Revealing this was the Reform Party's Secretary-General, Kenneth Jeyaretnam who took over the helm following the death of its founder and his father, J B Jeyaretnam. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sat Sep 26 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 26 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 26, 2009 Message-ID: <20090926225900.34674.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Control The Behavior Of The Green Button In iTunes 9.0.1 Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** iPhone GPS App Market Heating Up Jason Snell, Macworld The iPhone GPS app market unleashed by the release of the iPhone 3.0 software update is getting more interesting by the day, with several developers in an arms race to add new features to their initial offerings. **** MMS Arrives: What It Means For You Philip Michaels, Macworld AT&T now supports Multimedia Messaging Service???here???s how it works. **** Comparing Two Early iPhone GPS Navigation Apps Adam C. Engst, TidBITS Overall, although both apps would clearly do the job in the end, neither gave me the confidence to drive in the Boston metropolitan area - I continually wimped out and retreated to the Garmin nuvi 255W, which has never let me down in a major way. **** Appiphilia: A Chase To Legitimize iPhone Photography Michelle Maltais, Los Angeles Times Does having a 2- or 3-megapixel camera on your cellphone make you an artist or a photographer? Chase Jarvis would argue it does. **** Apple Scores Some Points With Environmental Groups, But Not All Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek Bottom line is that Apple took a big step today to get out of the environmental community???s doghouse, but it???s not there ye **** Will FCC Pry iPhone Loose From AT&T? John Cox, Network World If you're wondering whether FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski finally will pry the iPhone from AT&T's cold dead hands and release it into the wild, you're not alone. **** Use The Hit List To Get Things Done With Mac Vincent Danen, TechRepublic **** Disposable iPhone Apps Tom Foremski, ZDNet With more than 60,000 applications on the iPhone platform many industry pundits have proclaimed it a big hit. But is it a hit if very few of those developers are making money? **** Life With Snow Leopard: One Month Later Mark Crump, The Apple Blog **** Apple Falls Victim To 'feature Creep' With New iPod Nano Glenn Fleishman, Seattle Times There's nothing wrong with this revision to the iPod nano, but there's not much that feels right about it, either. Apple seems to have skipped a beat in this refresh. **** As Complaints Roll In About Problems With iPhone MMS, AT&T Says Activation Went Smoothly Matt Hamblen, Computerworld AT&T activated Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) on Apple Inc's iPhone 3G and 3GS phones starting mid-day Friday nationwide, with some early users reporting transmission problems on AT&T's Facebook page. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** The Fastest Mathematician On Earth Marianne Freiberger, Plus Magazine Imagine hurtling through the desert at 1000mph in a rocket powered car, far outstripping the speed of sound, only to emerge, "shaken, deafened and cooked," as the fastest human being on land. Andy Green, Royal Air Force fighter pilot and Oxford maths graduate, is currently gearing up for just this experience, for the second time around. **** Giant Squid Grady Hendrix, Slate Magazine Don't mess with them. **** Amy Gerstler's Message: Be Not Afraid Dinah Lenney, Los Angeles Times The poet wishes more people would realize that her medium doesn't hurt. At all. **** Talk Of The Town Edmund White, New York Times Most of the unconditional admirers of New York are from elsewhere. People like me, who grew up in the Midwest in the 1950s, couldn???t wait to trade in ???the provinces??? for the Big Apple, and half a century later we???re still besotted with its incomparable vitality. But Michael Greenberg, a native New Yorker, loves the city as a child loves a parent, and in its honor he has put together a collection of tightly written, incisive chapters, each another tessera or tile in a big mosaic ??? and like tesserae, they are all placed at a slightly different angle to the light. **** Algorithm And Blues Jim Holt, New York Times Well, this is unexpected ??? a comic book about the quest for logical certainty in mathematics. The story spans the decades from the late 19th century to World War II, a period when the nature of mathematical truth was being furiously debated. The stellar cast, headed up by Bertrand Russell, includes the greatest philosophers, logicians and mathematicians of the era, along with sundry wives and mistresses, plus a couple of homicidal maniacs, an apocryphal barber and Adolf Hitler. **** When Writers Speak Arthur Krystal, New York Times So the next time you hear a writer on the radio or catch him on the tube or watch him on the monitor or find yourself sitting next to him at dinner, remember he isn???t the author of the books you admire; he???s just someone visiting the world outside his study or office or wherever the hell he writes. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Fix That Sign Yawning Bread These examples show how much an uphill task it is to improve English in Singapore. The problem stems from the fact that very few here are native speakers. With assiduousness, we can learn the vocabulary and the grammatical rules, but the subtleties of idiomatic usage can only be acquired if one is immersed among people who use the language idiomatically. And we don't have that environment in Singapore. **** Straits Times??? Perplexing Definition Of ???Netizens??? The Online Citizen The Straits Times seems to think netizens are only those who comment on the ST???s discussion boards. **** Grassroots Puzzle In New Censorship Panel Tay Tong, Straits Times Doubtless, the Censorship Review Committee will canvass the views of all, but our concern is about the insufficient diversity on the committee itself, in the range of views on liberalisation; and hence, the inadequately robust debate on diverging viewpoints. **** Playing Second Fiddle To Foreigners Despite Having A Birthright Seah Chiang Nee, The Star With the improvement of the economy, it is widely expected that elections will take place next year, instead of 2011 as scheduled. The public discontent against massive immigration promises to be one of the hottest campaign issues if it happens. This intensity of public feeling has been too sensitive to be reflected in the traditional media, which has toned down the coverage. On the Internet, however, where Singapo-reans can air their grievances, the mood is more sombre. It probably requires more than mere government assurances to placate. **** No Spillover Effects From Singapore F1 Mohd Farhann Shah and Austin Camoens, The Star Despite promotional offers to woo F1 fans, there was no significant increase in hotel bookings compared with last year when the race made its Singapore debut. Some believe this is due to the lower rates being offered in hotels across the island. **** ???Men In White??? Author Cried Foul At ???Unfair??? Criticisms From Netizens The Temasek Review By dedicating one entire page in a national English Daily to counter-attack their critics, the ???Men in White??? authors are already appearing very ???defensive??? which betray their innermost insecurities and fears. By making use of the state media to launch a counter-offensive against its critics without giving them to reply, the authors are accentuating public perception that the book is partisan, biased and lop-sided. **** Eating Well On Singapore's Seedy Side Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan, Washington Post In Geylang, a neighborhood that has been a well-known red-light district for decades, Singaporeans have always known that the even-numbered lorongs (which means "small roads" in Malay) are where you'll find the red-lanterned houses, while the odd-numbered ones are for unrelated enterprises. Along those roads, there's been a boom since the 1990s of late-night eating stalls that serve up a variety of fare, from noodles topped with melt-in-your-mouth-tender beef to dishes not for the faint of heart: chopped duck's necks and pig's ears that are cheap, savory and meant to go well with an ice-cold beer sipped while watching the girls walk up and down the road. **** Singapore To Open Consulate In Johor Baru By December New Straits Times Malaysia-Singapore bilateral ties are set to improve further when the republic sets up a consulate office here by year's end. This is significant for Johoreans, as one of the aims of the move is to provide trade and investment advice to Singaporeans about business opportunities in the state, especially in Iskandar Malaysia. **** Not Everyone Is Affluent In Singapore Singapore Sojourn As the mega rich spend thousands of dollars on the Formula One event in Singapore this weekend spare a thought for some of the 'heartlanders' who are feeling the pinch. **** Complaint Numbers Rise Among Homebuyers In Singapore The Temasek Review **** Karen Lee: No More Daddy's Little Girl Sylvia Tan, Fridae No More Daddy???s Little Girl is Karen Lee???s self-published autography about her journey coming out as a lesbian and finding acceptance from God, her family ??? and herself. **** Singapore Buskers Are Really Bad Yawning Bread We reward people for making our public spaces more unpleasant for us. How perverse can we get? Of course we know why they do that. They do it out of pity. They certainly can't be doing that because these "buskers" make good music. **** The Contrast Of Democracy And Ill-Democracy Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives In contrast with Singapore's PAP government's handling of such controversial issue of building casino resorts, the Taiwanese has shown much more respect of popular will in deciding such decisions. **** My Night Safari In Singapore The Annie Scott Experience Dear everybody, I went on a nighttime safari in Singapore (the only one in the world!) and I got some really great pics. Check it out! **** Temporary Foreign Workers' Dorm In Serangoon To Open In Nov Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia **** Smaller Bottles To Cut Excess Straits Times That bottle of Coke sold at your nearest supermarket is now a tad lighter - in a bid to help save the environment. Using fewer materials, F&N Coca-Cola, the distributor of beverages such as Coca-Cola and Sprite here, has shaved 2g off the 500ml and 1 litre plastic bottle sold since 2007. **** PM Lee Says Singapore's Economy Is Stable Now Cheryl Lim, Channel NewsAsia Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong, speaking at a lantern festival celebration in Ang Mo Kio on Saturday, said the country's economy is in a stable position as it has passed the most difficult part of the economic downturn. He added that Singapore's economy will be all right this year and even better next year. **** High Costs And Low Wages In Singapore Gerald Giam A comprehensive survey released by UBS has confirmed what economists, academics, opposition politicians and ordinary Singaporeans have known all along: That the Singaporean worker???s wages has decreased over the past 3 years, while the cost of living has shot up. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Sun Sep 27 18:59:01 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 27 Sep 2009 22:59:01 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 27, 2009 Message-ID: <20090927225901.33375.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** C4 Notes: Is AppleScript Dead? Jason Snell, Macworld I???m not convinced that Rentzsch???s suggestion that we bury AppleScript and replace it with JSTalk is a good idea, but I do think the conversation is worth having. Scripting might not be a feature used by most users, but I know that my Mac life would be much less productive if I didn???t have access to the slew of scripts I use every day. **** Mozilla Coders Are Misguided Over App Store Criticisms Chris Foresman, Ars Technica Apple's choices in how it manages the App Store and what kinds of functions it may restrict has certain benefits and disadvantages, and there's no question that that there have been missteps as Apple???at the bleeding edge of the smartphone revolution???figures out the best way to handle the flood of app submissions and balancing the demands of developers, users, and mobile carriers. Though Palm has embraced the technology of the open web for development, and made overtures about being more "open" than the competition, that doesn't mean Palm's platform is inherently better or will be immune to some of the same problems that Apple has faced. **** Busted! Did O2 And BT Try To Mug iPhone Users? Basheera Khan, Telegraph Victory! The 0870 application I blogged about in June, which was available in the Google Android marketplace but conspicuously absent from the iTunes App Store, has finally received the green light. If you???re an iPhone user you can download it today, free of charge. And it only took 429 days to be approved, too. **** More On Clicking And Dragging To Select In Apple's Mac OS X Applications Betalogue The bottom line here, as far as I am concerned, is that the inconsistencies simply don???t make sense. Even if there is some hidden philosophical or logical justification for them, for Mac users in real-life computing, it???s hard to imagine that this justification matters at all, and the end result is that users are faced with something that feels inconsistent and unpredictable and is impossible to get used to. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** A Burst Of Technology, Helping The Blind To See Pam Belluck, New York Times Advances in technology, genetics, brain science and biology are making a goal that long seemed out of reach ??? restoring sight ??? more feasible. **** City Critic: Much Ado About Lunch: Fast Food A Little Faster Ariel Kaminer, New York Times GoMobo does offer delivery, but its focus is on letting you pick up your food without the attendant hassles of waiting in line or waiting for change. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Naming The Sky Samuel Arbesman, Boston Globe The true story of one man's quest to give George Plimpton a permanent presence in orbit. **** Bicyclists Vs. Pedestrians: An Armistice Robert Sullivan, New York Times One of the great battlefields in the war between bicyclists and pedestrians in New York City is the Brooklyn Bridge. Pedestrians think all bicyclists are out-of-control maniacs; bicyclists ??? the majority, anyway ??? are just trying to avoid cars and not break a sweat. The stripe painted down the center of the elevated Brooklyn Bridge walkway, to separate bicyclists from pedestrians, has become a line in the sand. We need to erase that line once and for all. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** "We Prefer Non-Singaporeans..." Diary of A Singaporean Mind The PAP govt put us into this vicious cycle ...but we are not to sure they are able to get us out. **** UN Calls On Southeast Asian Nations Association Leaders To Take Tougher Stance With Myanmar Will Weissert, Associated Press Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged a ministerial meeting of southeast Asian nations late Saturday to take a tougher line with fellow member Myanmar in hopes its military junta will free political prisoners and hold fair elections. **** The Victory Of Anti-Casino Movement In Taiwan Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives It is just too bad that Singaporeans have allowed PAP to monopolize power and do whatever they want without proper consultation from the people. From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Mon Sep 28 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 28 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 28, 2009 Message-ID: <20090928225900.21758.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** How The iPod Became A Tool Of War Ian Sample, Guardian Motivational music has been used by the military for centuries, but in modern wars, soldiers are taking along their own playlists. **** Apple Up To Its Old Tricks, Pushing Unwanted Software Onto PCs Ed Bott, ZDNet Apple is completely out of step with generally accepted norms for delivering updates and new software to users with proper consent. **** iPods May Have To Carry Health Warnings David Charter, The Times Portable music players may have to carry health warnings under proposals from the European Commission. Apple, which makes the iPod, and other manufacturers will be asked either to display labels advising users of the damaging long-term effects of loud music on their hearing or to devise a system of on-screen alerts triggered by the prolonged use of headphones at high noise levels. **** Ed Bott Gets All Picky On Apple Steven Hodson, Shooting At Bubbles **** Microsoft's Grinning Robots Or The Brotherhood Of The Mac. Which Is Worse? Charlie Brooker, Guardian I admit it: I'm a bigot. A hopeless bigot at that: I know my particular prejudice is absurd, but I just can't control it. It's Apple. I don't like Apple products. And the better-designed and more ubiquitous they become, the more I dislike them. I blame the customers. Awful people. Awful. Stop showing me your iPhone. Stop stroking your Macbook. Stop telling me to get one. **** Apple Rejects ???iSinglePayer??? App For Being ???Politically Charged??? Devin Coldewey, MobileCrunch **** Apple Is Just As Sneaky As Microsoft, Dumping Software On Your Computer Zoli Erdos, CloudAve An update is an update. To software already installed on my computer by choice. My choice, not some manufacturer???s. Anything else is unethical intrusion. **** How Pizza Hut, Gap And Co. Wound Up In Apple App Ads Emily Bryson York, Advertising Age If you want your branded app to be included in Apple's next iPhone commercial, the first rule is not to ask. The second rule? Make the app really useful to consumers. **** Orange Announces UK iPhone Deal BBC Orange has reached an agreement to sell Apple's popular iPhone in the UK. The deal ends an exclusive arrangement between UK network operate O2 and the Californian phone maker, which has been in place since 2007. **** Adobe Lightroom, Camera Raw Bug Hits PowerPC Users Nick Spence, Macworld UK Adobe has highlighted a bug discovered in the latest Photoshop Lightroom and Camera Raw updates that may hit Mac PowerPC users. **** "I Fell In Love At The Apple Store" Is Destined To Become A Fanboy Classic Gizmodo **** Apple Rumors: The Early Years Harry McCracken, Technologizer Apple has been a powerful engine for the rumor mill for as long as there???s been an Apple and tech journalists to cover it. And Google Books??? recent addition of the entire run of InfoWorld provides us with the opportunity to revisit the first golden age of Apple rumors???which, uncoincidentally, ended when Steve Jobs was forced out of the company he cofounded in mid-1985. **** Snow Leopard Server Provides Powerful Feature Updates Cameron Sturdevant, eWeek Mac OS X Server Snow Leopard deserves a top spot on IT managers' evaluation list for system updates in creative departments where Macs predominate. Snow Leopard Server could be considered for general enterprise deployment, but its built-in creative and communications functions make the operating system best suited for use where high-value content is produced. Of note are the updates to the Podcast Producer, Wiki and Mobile Access components. **** Unicom To Sell Apple iPhones In China From Oct Kirby Chien, Reuters China Unicom, the country's No. 2 mobile carrier, will begin to sell Apple Inc's iPhone in China for a retail price of 5,000 yuan ($732.50), as it leans on the phone to launch its 3G service. The high price tag may force buyers of the popular handsets to sign up for subsidised packages carrying lower handset prices but also longer-term contract commitments, as competition heats up in China's recently reformed telecoms sector. **** Eight Amazing Image Capture Tricks Derrick Story, Macworld Image Capture is one of OS X???s best kept secrets. This photo-savvy program, which lives in your Applications folder, may not have iPhoto???s beautiful interface, nor its vast feature set. But it does a great job of grabbing a quick shot and performing complex actions without having to first add the images to iPhoto???s library. And in Snow Leopard, Apple completely overhauled Image Capture to make it even more useful. **** App Store Hits 2 Billion Downloads MacNN Apple this morning said that App Store downloads had reached the two billion mark. The news follows just 158 days after the company said it had reached one billion downloads and now has over 85,000 apps with over 125,000 registered developers. It proves that the rate of downloads "continues to accelerate," according to Apple chief Steve Jobs. **** Who Wins From An Orange iPhone? Rory Cellan-Jones, BBC But here's the key question yet to be answered by either Apple or Orange this morning: what is going to happen to tariffs? **** Van Gogh Museum Offers iPhone Users App On Dutch Artist's Life Marcel van de Hoef, Bloomberg **** VLC 1.0.2 Includes 64-bit Mac Port And Security Fixes TJ Luoma, TUAW **** Apple Revises Educational Licensing Agreements MacNN Apple has made major alterations to its educational licensing program, ones which could potentially raise the cost of Macs for schools. The company is said to be abandoning a previous volume licensing scheme, which allowed institutions to buy Mac OS X at costs of $39 to $59 per copy, depending the amount of licenses ordered. Instead, schools must now pay for annual license renewals. **** Latest Version Of StuffIt Deluxe Incorporates Cloud Computing Dan Miller, Macworld Among other new features, StuffIt Deluxe 2010 supports the new ???cloud-based??? StuffIt Connect service, which lets you share large files with other users more easily. **** Apple Releases iWork '09 9.0.3, Updates iWork.com Eric Slivka, MacRumors **** iPod Classic 2.0.3 Firmware Adds Support For Genius Mixes MacNN Apple has released a firmware update, v2.0.3, for the latest 160GB iPod classic. The update adds support for Genius Mixes, the iTunes feature that automatically creates playlists. **** Home Sharing Is iPod Touch???s Killer App For Families Peter Cohen, The Loop iTunes 9 and Home Sharing is what can make the iPod touch the one gaming system that no family can live without, one whose value is considerably better than anything Sony or Nintendo offer. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Dialing For Answers Where Web Can???t Reach Ron Nixon, New York Times Each day, Ms. Muhima and two other young women at this small call center on the outskirts of Uganda???s capital city answer about 40 such calls. They are operators for Question Box, a free, nonprofit telephone hot line that is meant to get information to people in remote areas who lack access to computers. MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** Rational Irrationality John Cassidy, New Yorker The real reason that capitalism is so crash-prone. **** Heaven???s Eel Charles Wright, New Yorker **** First Leaf Lia Purpura, New Yorker **** Victory Lap George Saunders, New Yorker **** Brain Drain James Wood, New Yorker The scientific fictions of Richard Powers. **** Leno At The Bat Nancy Franklin, New Yorker Two major show-business developments in the past half decade have inspired a combination of puzzlement, vexation, and dread, and both of them involved Jay Leno and NBC. **** Thinking Literally Drake Bennett, Boston Globe The surprising ways that metaphors shape your world. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Taufik Batisah Apologises For Singapore National Anthem Error Shaffiq Alkhatib, Channel NewsAsia Local celebrity, Taufik Batisah who was given the opportunity to sing the national anthem during the Formula One Grand Prix tonight, made a mistake while doing so. **** Mailbox Window Flap Bolted But Still Flooded With Fliers John Paul Low, Straits Times I would like the SingPost to explain what else we, as well as the organisation, can do to stop this pervasive nuisance? **** Mall Explains Why It Restricts Photography Lee Kam Seng, Northpoint, Straits Times Security staff may also stop shoppers from taking photos of tenants' shop fronts to protect the tenants' privacy. There are signs at all entrances of the mall to indicate that no photography is allowed. Stupid excuse; if you want privacy, you don't f***ing go set up a store in a public mall. **** Singapore???s Human Rights Debate: Not Just About Gay Rights Imran Ahmed, The Grand Moofti Speaks **** On Marital Rape Rachel Zeng **** Whiter Than White Feed Me To The Fish I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired of the arrogance and the "father knows best" attitude of the MIW. **** Crystal Jade Dining In: Best Dim Sum Since My Hong Kong Trip ieatishootipost The food is excellent and reminds me of the Dim Sum I had in Hong Kong. Rather than trying to add exotic ingredients to make their Dim Sum special, they simply make very good Dim Sum. **** Downturn Limiting Formula 1's Commercial Ambitions Sharanjit Leyl, BBC News With enticing extras like discounts and rock music festivals - the focus may start to shift away from the race, already flagging by diminishing corporate interest. They could also prove too much of a distraction from who crosses the finish line first. **** Jumping Onto The Property Bandwagon.... Diary of A Singaporean Mind We all want to be the smart ones owning property that rise in value as the wave of foreign immigrants come to push the prices up to the stratosphere. This is the big easy money that companies like Aztech dream about. ..forget about the hardwork of innovating and manufacturing. This dream has a flip side. Remember Dubai? **** The Upside Down World Of Night Racing In Singapore BBC Sport To put it simply, Singapore's night race is a stunning sight. "It's the contrast that makes it so exciting," says Getty Images photographer Mark Thompson, who reckons all the snappers relish the chance to be creative in Singapore. **** Chua Mui Hoong Criticized Indicators For Good Town Council Management The Temasek Review In a rare biting editorial, the Senior writer of state-controlled Straits Times criticized the indicators revealed lately to assess the performance of Town Councils in Singapore. **** Shops Near Marina Bay See A Greater Drop In Sales Than Last Year Ong Dai Lin, Channel NewsAsia The streets of Marina Bay were hot with race action this weekend but businesses in the area lost even more steam than they did last year. So much for all that boosting by the event organizer. If the government sees fit to collect more tax from businesses that benefited from the race, why isn't the government compensating to businesses that lost money? **** TOC Special Feature: Is Singapore Really Slum-free? Stephanie Chok, The Online Citizen If these are profitable companies with business clout, why are they not even fulfilling a basic requirement of housing the workers building its prized projects decently? **** Singapore And Malaysia Poles Apart In Promoting F1 HJ Mokhtar Stork, Malaysia Star The Malaysian F1 is a real joke and a total waste of money. Participants of the Malaysian F1 from abroad merely turn up for the event and then fly over to Singapore for entertainment. **** I Can Smell The Arrogance From Here, Dr Teo Callan Tham, Trapper's Swamp It's not an issue when they lose S$16 million that is not their own, and still unaccounted for. It's not an issue when they pay senior managers 8-month bonuses in a recession when the country was haemorrhaging jobs. But it is an issue when people don't pay their S&C charges because it will reflect badly on a scorecard that has nothing to do with how happy, or unhappy, they are with the town councils they pay to run their estates. **** ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Singapore Population Of 4.99m Is Older, Female And More Likely Living Alone Channel NewsAsia **** Removing Concession Restrictions Would Encourage Senior Citizens To Work Tan Keong Boon, Today The elderly are increasingly being encouraged to work and most of them who do hold low-paying jobs. Hence bus concessionary rates should not be restricted to specific time periods. **** Fertility Rate Still Falling Diana Othman, Straits Times While the number of births in Singapore rose slightly last year, Singapore's total fertility rate has continued to drop, according to the latest report on Singapore's population. **** 844,000 People Visited Singapore In August Channel NewsAsia The number of visitors to Singapore reached 844,000 in August, down 0.7 percent over the same period last year. The year-on-year decline was the smallest this year. **** 2008 Saw Largest Number Of Marriages Since 2000 938Live Last year saw the largest number of marriages since 2000. The Department of Statistics (DOS') latest population trend report said nearly 24,600 marriages were registered last year. **** We Are Going To Be Outnumbered Soon Dee Kay Dot As Gee Are native Singaporeans going to be outnumbered soon? Will we going to become minority in our own country soon? Is it time for us to start relooking into the foreign talent policies? Or am I worrying too much? **** Tourists Coming Back To Singapore, But Hotels Still Suffering DPA From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Tue Sep 29 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 29 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 29, 2009 Message-ID: <20090929225900.20548.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** Free iTunes! Farhad Manjoo, Slate Magazine I am not claiming that Palm has the legal right to hack into Apple's software, nor am I calling on any authorities to compel Apple to let Palm in; if the cat-and-mouse game turns into a courtroom brawl, it's very likely that Apple would win the fight. Instead, I'm calling on Apple to stand down. Even better: It should create a legal pathway for Palm and every other company to sync with iTunes. And must support everything that the iTunes app throws at the devices, including Genius, bookmarking, listened count, smart playlists, and any other new stuff in future versions of iTunes? **** Is Mac Security Software Necessary? Thomas Claburn , InformationWeek Plenty of vulnerabilities affect online applications across multiple platforms, like recent Adobe Flash and Reader flaws, and both Mac and Windows users may fall victim to social engineering attacks. Security on the Mac can be managed by diligent individuals without special software, but anyone responsible for Macs in the workplace might see value in taking additional steps. **** Apple: Sony, Nintendo Can Panic Now Brian Caulfield, Forbes Many of the App Store's 2 billion downloads are free. That's scary. **** iPod Nano Delivers Static In Radio Interface And Features Glenn Fleishman, TidBITS For Apple to add any feature, it needs to be best in class, and a rethought-out way to carry out a process we've become so used to, we forget how much time we waste. Radio storage and tuning needs another trip to the whiteboard at Apple. I just want to say that competitors had almost a decade to create a killer radio-listening device (that happens to play MP3s too) to gain ahead of Apple, and none had. **** Apple Rehires A Developer Of Its Newton Tablet Brad Stone, New York Times If you were gearing up to launch a tablet computer ??? and these days, who isn???t? ??? who would you hire to market it? One obvious candidate would be Michael Tchao, one of the original developers of Apple???s groundbreaking but failed Newton personal digital assistant. **** Three Ways To Save Some Cash And Repair Or Upgrade Your iPod Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica Just because your iPod is broken in some way doesn't mean you have to buy a new one???there are ways to fix some basic problems on your own at home with little more than replacement parts and a steely resolve. **** PDFpen 4.5 Adds New OCR Engine, Enhancements MacNN SmileOnMyMac has released an upgrade to its PDF editing tool with Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology, PDFpen 4.5. **** Apple's New Educational Pricing Not A Clear Win For Schools Ronald O Carlson, Mac.Blorge Although certainly more ???convenient??? in terms of keeping a school or school system licensed with a single renewal date, it???s hard to see any increase in value. **** Djay 3 Update Adds New User Interface, Improvements MacNN The app allows users to control the interface using finger gestures, enabling them to apply effects, scratch tracks or crossfade between the two virtual tables. Version 3.5 offers a redesigned user interface, new automatic tempo and beat detection, along with an auto-cut scratching function that syncs with the songs beat and rhythm. **** Review: Make Any Drive An Internet Drive With Seagate???s FreeAgent DockStar (Verdict: Great, With One Big Catch) Eli Milchman, Cult of Mac **** iPhone Accessories Can Now Trigger App Download Prompt Rosa Golijan, Gizmodo **** 10 Ways Consumers, Companies Can Prepare For iPhone Ubiquity Don Reisinger, eWeek There is a good chance that the iPhone won't be trapped on AT&T's network much longer in the United States. So, as we all get ready for that release, both consumers and companies should start preparing now for the day when more than one carrier offers Apple???s iPhone. **** Mac OS X Mistakes And Malfeatures Richard M. Stallman, Free Software Foundation I have said in speeches that Apple could forcibly impose software changes in Mac OS X, just as Microsoft can with Windows. I heard this in the Mac community, but there is no published information that confirms it, and I now believe that I was misinformed. There is no evidence that Apple has installed software changes without the user's permission. We have no way to verify that there is no backdoor in Mac OS X that could install changes without permission, but that is no basis to claim there is one. I apologize for repeating a criticism of Mac OS which I cannot substantiate and must presume is false. **** Scareware Sellers Poison 'iPhone MMS' Search Results Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Criminals have poisoned major search engines for terms related to the new MMS capability of Apple???s iPhone, and are using the results to steer users to fake Windows security software downloads, a researcher said today. **** Vodafone Joins Orange In Offering Apple's iPhone Macworld UK A day after Orange announced it would be selling Apple's iPhone before Christmas, rival mobile phone operator Vodafone announced a similar statement today only missing out on the important end of year shopping period. **** Another Amazing Web Ad From Apple Thomas Fitzgerald **** Filemaker's Bento 3 Announced, Available Immediately Megan Lavey, TUAW Filemaker has announced the release of Bento 3, the next version of its database program for the Mac, available for purchase immediately. The upgrade comes just a couple weeks shy of a year from the debut of Bento 2. **** CNN's New iPhone App Puts Rivals To Shame Daniel Ionescu, PC World On Tuesday morning, CNN introduced an iPhone app that puts to shame similar products. Featuring live newscasts, video-on-demand, and a familiar iPhone interface, the CNN iPhone app also takes a step ahead of other news apps by charging $2 for the download. **** Five Zune HD Features Apple Should Steal Matt Rosoff, CNET News Apple's still riding high with the iPod, particularly the Touch, but the Zune HD is clearly moving ahead in terms of innovation. Now if Microsoft can open the Marketplace to third-party apps and fix the browser, Apple might have reason to worry. **** Product News: BusyMac Ships BusyCal 1.0 Jeff Gamet, The Mac Observer BusyMac announced the immediate availability of BusyCal 1.0 on Tuesday. BusyCal is a calendar application that shares calendars on local networks or over the Internet, and synchronizes with Google Calendar. **** What If Halo Had Launched On A Mac? Mathew Braga, Globe And Mail After all, the days of Halo are now but a footnote in Macintosh history, but perhaps it is the casual gamer that will ultimately determine the platform's fate. **** Apple Warns Of Near-term iMac, Mac Mini Constraints AppleInsider Apple this week began informing its direct sales channels that several of its desktop-based Mac offerings have entered a period of constraint, further hinting that Mac hardware updates are on the horizon. **** Review: Bento 3 Database Software Jeffery Battersby, Macworld Bento remains the premiere database application for the SOHO and home user. The addition of iPhoto integration, database security, database sharing with up to five users, and and a multitude of new templates and themes make Bento a far more versatile database with more options for the small office and small business owner. But it also omits some very obvious and basic tools, like label printing and the option to put fields exactly where you want them on a form, that may leave many potential users out in the cold. **** EyeTV App For iPhone Handles Live TV, Recordings MacNN Elgato has released an EyeTV app for the iPhone, which serves as an extension to the company's desktop software. Users can watch both live and recorded TV, though due to bandwidth and carrier restrictions, live TV can only be streamed over Wi-Fi. **** C4 Notes: Pizza And Pie Shakes Jason Snell, Macworld The C4 indie Mac developer conference in Chicago is decidedly different. Different in that it???s the brainchild not of some conference and expo company, but of one guy ??? developer Jonathan ???Wolf??? Rentzsch. Different in that it???s in Chicago. Different in that it???s steadfastly a small event, happening over a weekend and with a relatively small capacity that makes it awfully hard to get into. **** Retrievable iPhone Numbers Mean Potential Privacy Issues Dan Moren, Macworld I talked to developers who said that while Apple???s iPhone software development kit doesn???t provide a built-in way to access the device???s phone number, the information can still be indirectly retrieved with relatively little trouble. **** Editing (Or Not) iTunes Genres Christopher Breen, Macworld While you can???t edit the list of genres included with iTunes, you can clean up the custom genre entries that find their way to iTunes???either because you entered them or you acquired music that had custom genre tags applied to it. There are a couple of ways to go about this. **** Freeverse Sound Studio 3 MacNN Aside from a few minor quirks, such as the extra step of downloading the LAME framework and a Tap for BPM button that requires you to click it repeatedly in time with the music if you want to measure its beats per minute (BPM), Sound Studio works exactly as advertised. The intuitive interface lets you pick it up almost immediately; mixing beats, matching tracks, and speeding them up to chipmunk speed. The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Explaining Intel's Turbo Boost Technology Peter Glaskowsky, CNET News Intel promotes the Turbo Boost technology in its new Core i7 Mobile processors as a way to adapt to the needs of the software and get more performance from the chip, but this isn't the real reason the technology exists. **** Wireless Recharging Comes To Laptops Erica Ogg, CNET News.com MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** After A Death, The Pain That Doesn???t Go Away Fran Schumer, New York Times Some experts argue that complicated grief should not be considered a separate condition, merely an aspect of existing disorders, like depression or post-traumatic stress. But others say the evidence is convincing. **** What Is An Andy Warhol? Richard Dorment, The New York Review of Books Just as Monroe understood that you don't have to act for the camera in the way the stage-trained Olivier defined acting, so Warhol realized that you don't need to make art for an audience brought up on film and television in the way Kenneth Clark defined art. Actress and artist grasped that in the modern world, presentation counts for more than substance. The less you do, the greater may be the impact. **** Elegy For Miss Calico Frank Gallimore, Slate Magazine SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Why Set Exams On Eve Of Deepavali? New Paper A ministry spokesman said schools are free to set the dates of school-based examinations. **** Can't Stop The Best And Brightest From Migrating Teo Kueh Liang, Straits Times In reality, it is very hard and not pragmatic to stop the best talent and promising entrepreneurs from moving round the world as they treat it as their performance platform and mobile home. Hence, Singapore must ensure it is among the most competitive and attractive places for the best to live and sink their roots in. **** Integration And Immigration: Copying The US Won't Work Paul Chan, Straits Times In large developed countries with solid home-grown global industrial bases like the US, economic migrants are insignificant and their function is to boost the American economy. They cannot influence America's social system radically. This is definitely not true, especially if we stop looking at the US as one big country, but many, many big and small cities. **** A New Manager For Arts Fest Channel NewsAsia Mr Low Kee Hong, who helmed the Singapore Biennale in 2006 and 2008, will serve as general manager of the Singapore Arts Festival from Thursday, leaving the Singapore Art Museum of the National Heritage Board in charge of organising and managing future Biennales. **** Malay As Coolie In Singapore Muhd Khalis, Rojo Cancer All this years,the PAP government have been telling Singaporeans about the need to maintain racial harmony and to avoid communal/race politics.But in reality, it is mere words to gain political mileage. **** GIC Says Citigroup, UBS Stakes Have 'Recovered Significantly' Netty Ismail, Bloomberg The Government of Singapore Investment Corp. said its 20-year annual return fell to 4.4 percent in Singapore dollar terms from 5.8 percent. It was 5.7 percent in U.S. dollar terms. **** Amazing Snap Of Tiger's Teatime Hannah Summers, The Sun This amazing photograph shows a rare white tiger lunging into water to fight for food during feeding time at the zoo. **** Time To Explore Singapore Jake Humphrey, BBC Sport So, at this point I'd eaten a banana and too many Pringles and was toying with the idea of just heading back to the hotel to get some kip. Jonathan Legard wouldn't hear of it so began an adventure I'll never forget as our online colleague Sarah Holt joined us for a trip into the unknown... to find dinner at a time when the city was well and truly asleep. **** Singapore's GIC Suffers $41.6 Billion Loss Costas Paris and P.R. Venkat, Wall Street Journal Government of Singapore Investment Corp. suffered a loss of around 59 billion Singapore dollars (US$41.6 billion) in the fiscal year ended March, making it one of the worst years for the sovereign wealth fund since it was established in 1981, a person familiar with the situation said Tuesday. **** ?????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? **** Startup Visa, Singapore-style James Chan, Master Of The Obvious The new framework does look extremely complex and demanding, especially when it is applied to technology start-ups. **** Wealth Fund GIC's Portfolio Recovers, Looks To Asia Kevin Lim and Neil Chatterjee, Reuters The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC), the larger of the city-state's two wealth funds with an estimated $200 billion or more, said it raised its exposure to alternative investments such as real estate and natural resources, but was bearish on bonds. GIC's portfolio shrank by more than a fifth in the year to end-March, but it has ridden the financial meltdown better than sister fund Temasek by paring its equities exposure before the crisis and from a well timed sale of part of its Citigroup (C.N) holding. **** ????????????????????? ???????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????3???5??????????????????????????????????????????????????? I wonder, firstly, if this is hackable, and, secondly, if the device is able to record (and hence, track) the movement of individuals since the Ez-Link cards contain personal information. **** ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????????????????????????????, ???????????? ???????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ??????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** Formula One ??? A Gold Mine Or A Gold-digger Damon Yeo, The Temasek Review **** ?????????????????? Mr.River????????? **** Singapore - The Ultimate Foodie Mecca Madness And Beauty Singaporeans are true foodies. I can get behind that - man, can I ever! **** $13bn For Malaysian Metropolis Kevin Brown, Financial Times More than $13bn has been committed by government bodies and outside investors to an ambitious plan to create a metropolis at the southern tip of Malaysia three times the size of Singapore, according to the chief executive of the state agency set up to drive the project. The biggest single source of investment is likely to be Singapore, whose central business district is about half an hour's drive from Iskandar's proposed financial district. Are we finally getting the MRT into Johor? **** Parliament Sits On Oct 19 Straits Times **** Singapore Calls For "Effectiveness, Inclusiveness" In G20 Xinhua Following last week's G20 Summit in Pittsburgh, the U.S., Singapore's foreign minister George Yeo said here Monday that for an effective G-20 process, there must be a greater representation of smaller states. **** Singapore Cheaper Than Stockholm Straits Times After moving to Singapore in 2007, researcher Mikael Huss was surprised that it was possible to get by on a single income here. **** Electricity Tariffs For Households To Go Up By 12.5% In Q4 Channel NewsAsia For the quarter starting in October, electricity tariffs for households will go up by 12.5 per cent or 2.41 cents to 21.69 cents per kilowatt-hour. SP Services said the increase is due largely to significantly higher fuel oil prices over the last three months, which increased by around 21 per cent to S$92.03 per barrel. **** UBS Survey Shows Singapore Slipping In Standard Of Living Yawning Bread Our economy seems to be one where we have an extraordinary gap between the powerful and the powerless, even by Asian standards -- countries not known for softie-softie socialism. Average wages for Singapore as a whole are pulled down the city rankings because our low-paid are so lowly paid. Meanwhile, one suspects that our prices seem to be kept up not so much by labour costs but by profit-taking and the government's share. With the resulting degradation of purchasing power, one can then ask: Is the average Singaporean really having it so good? **** Dr M: Let's Not Start An Arms Race New Straits Times Malaysia should not start an "arms race" with Singapore, former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said. He said this when asked for his views on Singapore's plan to exhibit two of its F-16 fighters at the Langkawi International Maritime and Aerospace (LIMA) 2009 exhibition in December. **** Casinos Expected To Lead To Rise In Corruption Involving Police Officers Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia Singapore's law and second home affairs minister K Shanmugam expects an increase in corruption cases when two casinos open here in 2010. Authorities are concerned the country's inexperience may make it an easy target for organised crime. But the minister said there are systems in place to deal with such incidents. **** Miss Singapore Quits After Criminal Record Revealed Teo Xuanwei, Today **** Street Life In Singapore Alex West, The Sun The impressive backdrop of the Marina Bay area gave the race a quality not seen elsewhere in the world. **** More Areas To Assess Town Councils On Patrick Sio, Today From applesurf at myapplemenu.com Wed Sep 30 18:59:00 2009 From: applesurf at myapplemenu.com (applesurf at myapplemenu.com) Date: 30 Sep 2009 22:59:00 -0000 Subject: [MyAppleMenu] Sep 30, 2009 Message-ID: <20090930225900.24100.qmail@voot.pair.com> MyAppleMenu ==================================== **** See Selection Info In iTunes 9 Rob Griffiths, Macworld **** Why Apple Can't Sell Business Laptops Brian Caulfield, Forbes If you want to know why, compare and contrast Dell's latest laptop, the Latitude Z, with the MacBook Air. **** Akamai's New Network Aims For iPhone HDTV Stephen Lawson, IDG News Service Akamai Technologies is extending its content delivery network to the Apple iPhone as it introduces the Akamai HD Network, a system for streaming high-definition live and on-demand video to a variety of devices. **** Dropbox Launches iPhone App For File Sync, Sharing MacNN Dropbox has released an application for the iPhone and iPod touch that allows users to access or manage content from their Dropbox accounts. **** Customers Sue AT&T, Apple Over iPhone Glitch Steve Alexander, Minneapolis Star Tribune Kyle Irving, who said he'd given up another cell phone with MMS capability to buy the new iPhone, said AT&T sales representatives assured him the MMS service would work in July, when in fact it was available only in other countries and wasn't turned on in the United States until Friday. **** Apple Genius Bar: iPhones Dropping 30 Percent Of Calls Is Just Plain Normal In New York Matt Buchanan, Gizmodo The Genius told Manoj that's actually excellent compared to most people in the New York area, where a 30 percent dropped call rate is the average. **** New iPod's Awesomeness An Ethical Dilemma For Us All Dennis Sweeney, Student Life The only question you need to ask yourself, then???and this is the gist of the review???is whether life with 1.28 ounces of metal that???s cooler than you is a life you want to lead. **** How Microsoft Office 10 Will Be Locked Out Of My Toolbag Robert Scoble, Scobleizer es. Three years ago I used to carry my laptop everywhere. Now? I only carry my iPhone. It???s amazing how much work I can get done with it. **** Surprise! iPhone Users Love Their Phones, Hate Their Network Colin Gibbs, GigaOm AT&T scored lowest in customer-satisfaction ratings, and 50 percent of iPhone users said they???d like to switch service providers. But few iPhone owners seem willing to sacrifice the device to make that move. **** Apple's 'Big Brother' Sequel Maggie Shiels, BBC For 1984 take two, a Silicon Valley start-up called doubleTwist is sending Apple a very pointed message. **** Finding A Needle In The App-Stack Dwight Silverman, Houston Chronicle While there are literally tens of thousands of apps from which to choose, finding the good stuff can be daunting. There's a lot of junk in the App Store, and finding gems is akin to panning for gold. You'll spend a lot of time dipping into the river, and will seldom come up with anything shiny. **** How High Can I Crank My iPod's Volume? Dan Fletcher, Time The Tomorrow Weblog ==================================== **** Disney Tries To Pull The Storybook Ritual Onto The Web Brooks Barnes, New York Times In what it bills as an industry-defining moment ??? though rivals are sure to be skeptical about that ??? Disney Publishing plans to introduce a new subscription-based Web site. For $79.95 a year, families can access electronic replicas of hundreds of Disney books, from ???Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too??? to ???Hannah Montana: Crush-tastic!??? MyAppleMenu Reader ==================================== **** One Holiday, Two Systems, And Lots Of Book Sales In Hong Kong Joyce Hor-Chung Lau, New York Times To prepare for the National Day holiday, retailers here have been stocking up on merchandise like designer bags, gold jewelry ??? and banned books. **** United Tastes: Fast Food Even Before Fast Food John T. Edge, New York Times In the northern reaches of West Virginia, along a corridor of Appalachia stretching from Buckhannon, through Clarksburg, up to Morgantown, an appetite for pepperoni rolls cuts across class strata. **** In The ???70s, All New York Seemed Young And Gay Dwight Garner, New York Times In all of the gonzo testimony about Stonewall, however, no reaction to the rioting has struck me as being so painfully honest (or so funny) as the novelist Edmund White???s. He was there at the Stonewall Inn when it erupted, he writes in his new memoir, ???City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and ???70s.??? And when all hell broke loose, his initial response was to sit and stew and cluck. **** Tighty Whities To Turn 75; Jockey Gets A Leg Up On The Celebration Adam Tschorn, Los Angeles Times Jockey International Inc. has documented that the first pair of its men's brief-style underpants was sold at Marshall Field & Co. in Chicago on Jan. 19, 1935. And, although it is undocumented, it's more than likely that the first wedgie was administered later that same day in the parking lot of that Marshall Field's. SingaporeSurf ==================================== **** Director Or GM? Straits Times What'S in a name? A simple designation change, from festival director to general manager for the new head of the Singapore Arts Festival, has sparked off discussions about the future of the festival. My guess: same job, different salary. **** Analysing Temasek Holdings??? Review: Does Portfolio Value Mean Anything? Gangasudhan, The Online Citizen **** Call This SingPost Number To Junk The Junk Mail Patsie Tan, Singapore Post, Straits Times While SingPost as a postal service provider is obligated to deliver all mail items, we do not accept for delivery black and white brochures, photocopied fliers and those sized below A5, as well as "business or calling cards". Read: we didn't start the fire. **** Population: Don't Let Critical Mass Turn Into Critical Mess Jack Chew, Straits Times Finally, after the mistake of "stopping at two", we should not make the mistake of not stopping at 5 million. **** Hold Local Elections To Raise Accountability Harminder Singh, Straits Times When specific performance measures are announced for an organisation, employees and managers will act so as to meet those narrow goals; and this may be to the detriment of the broader objectives of the organisation. The only way to make sure that the goals of residents and their town councils are aligned is to hold elections for town council posts. Have you heard the story of the project manager who decided to reward his programmers based on the number of bugs fixed in the programs they wrote? **** Focus On Needs Of Residents, Not Profit Lim Beo Thiam, Straits Times Town councils shouldn't be surprised if residents like myself, who face tough times, wonder why we aren't being helped via the excess revenue collected; revenue which is instead ploughed into loss-making investments. **** Youths Unsure Over Contraception Byron Ho, 938Live Six in 10 Singaporean youth are unfamiliar with or confused about contraception methods. A quarter of those polled think having sex when the girl is having her period is an effective way to prevent pregnancy; they also count on the withdrawal method. **** Last Minute Ez-link Rush Yeo Ghim Lay, Straits Times Long queues snaked from TransitLink ticket offices yesterday as commuters scrambled at the last minute to get their ez-link cards replaced. **** F1 And Men In The Street Of Singapore Feed Me To The Fish So why are men in the street so disillusioned? **** Singapore: GIC???s Turn Under The Microscope The Grand Moofti Speaks Certainly, one can appreciate the government's desire to put a positive spin on GIC's investment performance. Nonetheless, having taken the decision to disclose a basic level of information it is necessary that the information be at least minimally useful to the general public. **** Life Really Got Worse In Singapore..... Diary of A Singaporean Mind The numbers clearly shows that that our cost of living has risen much faster than our wages. We have gotten worse compared with other Asian cities such as KL, Seoul, Hong Kong etc. When interviewed by Business Times, MP Halimah said govt measures ranging from Workfare Income Supplement for low-wage earners, to rebates and subsidies in healthcare, education and housing help people to cope much better. Did she forget that the govt also implemented means testing that will significantly increase the cost of medical care for Singaporeans? Did she forget that the cost of housing has escalated by 40% in 3 years as govt subsidy remains more or less the same? Workfare? Most of us don't qualify and you don't envy those who do because at their income level life is just miserable in Singapore. **** William Safire And Singapore And Williams College Sam Crane, The Useless Tree I never met Safire face-to-face, but one late summer we found ourselves thrown together as adversaries of the Singapore government. Rest in peace. **** ?????????????????????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ??????????????????2?????????????????????????????????50??????????????????????????????????????????????????????100????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? **** ????????????????????????????????????????????? ???????????????????????????, ???????????? ?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? Once again, the headline and the letter do not tally. **** 5 Wet Markets To Close Straits Times Plans to shut down five wet markets in Choa Chu Kang, Serangoon North, Bukit Batok West and Bukit Panjang are making two groups of people unhappy. Residents in these neighbourhoods are upset over what looks to be a loss of lower prices, freshness and variety, and market stallholders are wondering what is to become of their livelihoods. Some have gone to see their Members of Parliament. **** State Media Tries To Cover Up GIC???s Gigantic S$109 Billion Loss In Two Years The Temasek Review The entire article was slanted in such a way to GIC to exonerate its executives from any blame for the decrease in its portfolio by attributing it to the global financial crisis and instead praised them for having the ???foresight??? to limit the loss. **** Why Singapore ???Meritocracy??? Isn???t Meritocracy Abdul Gafoor, The Temasek Review The claim that meritocracy exists is one of the various notions that PAP has successfully marketed to the people even without having gone the length to ever proving it actually exists. **** ????????????2000???????????? ??????????????????????????? ?????????, ???????????? ????????????Esplanade Xchange????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????? ??????????????????????????????SMRT????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????40???????????? Were SMRT given the opportunity to operate the mall 'for free' without a proper tendering process? **** GIC Signals Shift To Emerging Markets Sundeep Tucker, Financial Times Singapore's sovereign wealth fund yesterday signalled that its investment focus would shift to emerging markets after unveiling a 20 per cent drop in the value of its portfolio. The Government of Singapore Investment Corp (GIC) does not disclose precise figures of its portfolio but is estimated by analysts to manage more than $200bn. In effect, this means that the aggregate value of its assets dropped by at least $40bn in the year to March - partly because of ill-timed investments in western assets. **** Arms Race Or Reverse Psychology? SilentAssassin's Archive **** Unit To Fight Cyber Threats Zakir Hussain, Straits Times A new government agency has been set up to fight terror attacks on their most virulent battleground: the Internet. The Singapore Infocomm Technology Security Authority (SITSA), which starts work Thursday, will be the national specialist authority on infocomm technology security threats. **** Miss Singapore World Resigns After Lingerie Fraud Neil Chatterjee, Reuters **** LTA Extends Ez-link Replacement Deadline Channel NewsAsia The one-for-one free replacement of the EZ-link cards will continue for another week until October 7. Despite the extension, the old cards cannot be used on buses and trains with effect from Thursday. **** Why Peg Prices Of New HDB Flats To Market Rates? Ng Kok Lim, The Temasek Review If we put these two items aside, HDB actually made a profit of $363,859 instead. **** I Should Be A Politician Ian On The Red Dot **** Singapore May Not Host SEA Games Terrence Voon, Straits Times Singapore's troubled Sports Hub project is unlikely to be completed in time for the 2013 South-east Asia Games, minister for community development, youth and sports Vivian Balakrishnan confirmed on Wednesday. He said the government will not be rushed into completing the $1.87 billion project at Kallang, which has been plagued by repeated delays since a private consortium won the bid to build the 35ha facility in January last year. **** Slight Haze Descends Over Parts Of Singapore Channel NewsAsia **** S'poreans Feel Government Needs To Invest More Into Arts, Heritage, Culture: Survey Channel NewsAsia Singaporeans feel that the government should pump more money into heritage and culture, than into sectors like tourism, IT and defence. Education topped the list, followed by investment in social welfare. This is according to a recent survey done by the National University of Singapore and commissioned by the National Heritage Board. **** Tremors In Various Parts Of S'pore Following Quake In Indonesia Channel NewsAsia The tremors from a powerful earthquake that rocked western Indonesia were felt across Singapore on Wednesday evening. **** Dr M: Iskandar Is Good, But New Bridge Is Needed Bernama Singapore could benefit largely from the spillover effects from the development of the Iskandar region but first a new bridge is needed, says former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.