[MyAppleMenu] Apr 13, 2011

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Wed Apr 13 18:59:00 EDT 2011

MyAppleMenu
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**** Microsoft Releases Office 2011 For Mac Service Pack 1 <http://www.macworld.com/article/159184/2011/04/office2011_sp1.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Moren, Macworld

Most significantly, the e-mail, contact, and calendar application has added support for Mac OS X’s Sync Services, meaning you can now sync events, notes, and tasks with other Mac apps. However, Apple has moved away from Sync Services with the introduction of MobileMe’s revamped calendar system, so while you will be able to sync your Outlook calendars with your iOS device via iTunes, you won’t be able to do so over the air via MobileMe.

**** Arrange 1.3.2 <http://www.macworld.com/article/159182/2011/04/arrange.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

With Arrange running, and the window you want to move or resize active, just click Arrange’s systemwide menu-bar icon or press its main keyboard shortcut. In the middle of the screen appears a grid of pre-defined window layouts—click one and the selected window is resized and repositioned to match that layout. Fourteen of these sixteen presets represent specific window sizes and positions: quarter-screen-size in the upper-left corner, half-size on the left, and so on. The other two let you zoom the window to fill the entire screen or center the window at its current size, respectively.

**** Apple Announces Final Cut Pro X <http://news.cnet.com/8301-27076_3-20053364-248.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple>
Josh Lowensohn, CNET

Apple tonight took the wraps off Final Cut Pro X, a new version of its professional video-editing software that the company says is a complete rewrite of the 12-year-old platform.

Final Cut X is 64-bit application written in Apple's Cocoa. It sports a new interface, as well as features to speed up the editing process, including background rendering and the option to make edits as footage is being imported.

Apple says it will be available to users in June as a direct download for $299 and replacing the $199 Final Cut Express, and coming in at a steep discount compared to the company's $999 Final Cut Studio suite.

**** Inside Mac OS X 10.7 Lion: New Dictionaries, Multiple Word Views, Multitouch Lookups <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/04/12/inside_mac_os_x_10_7_lion_new_dictionaries_multiple_word_views_multitouch_lookups.html>
AppleInsider

Mac OS X Lion adds polish to the bundled Dictionary app, with new dictionaries and an improved multi-pane interface. The system also improves overall dictionary functions with enhanced Spotlight integration and multitouch support for inline text lookups.

**** Manage Files From Its Title Bar Icons In OS X <http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/04/manage-files-from-their-title-bar-icons-in-os-x/>
Whitson Gordon, Lifehacker

**** Bluetooth Devices Battery Levels Reported Differently After 10.6.7 <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20053280-263.html>
Topher Kessler, CNET

**** Apple’s Mobile Strategy Is To Make The Technology Irrelevant <http://www.tightwind.net/2011/04/apples-mobile-strategy-is-to-make-the-technology-irrelevant/>
Kyle Baxter, TightWind

**** The Mac OS X Task Manager Showdown <http://thenextweb.com/apps/2011/04/13/the-mac-os-x-task-manager-showdown/>
Joel Falconer, The Next Web

Despite that shortcoming, it’s hard to deny OmniFocus its place as top dog. Wunderlist is great for what it does, though, and for its price tag — but until one app or the other steps up, I’ll be using both apps to manage different types of tasks.

**** The Most Important New Protocol Since RSS: AirPlay (Three Cool New Apps That Use It To Change How We View TV) <http://scobleizer.com/2011/04/13/the-most-important-new-protocol-since-rss-airplay-three-cool-new-apps-that-use-it-to-change-how-we-view-tv/>
Robert Scoble, Scobleizer

**** Acorn 3.0 Brings Layer Styles, Live Gradients, More <http://www.macworld.com/article/159196/2011/04/acorn_3.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Moren, Macworld

Looking to do some graphics work without all the bulk and expense of Photoshop? Flying Meat’s Eddy-award-winning image editor Acorn provides a lot of the functionality for a fraction of the price, and the latest update, version 3.0, adds even more in the way of features.

Chief among the new capabilities are layer styles, which let you non-destructively add effects to your layers. Don’t like it? No worries; you can just remove the effects without any damage.

**** Learn The Basics Of Web Browser Security <http://www.macworld.com/article/158918/2011/04/web_security_primer.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Marco Tabini, Macworld

Let's take a look at the basic security features used by most web browsers. Understanding how these features work can make the web a little safer.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** The Rampant Rise Of Ayn Rand-O-Mania <http://www.npr.org/2011/04/12/135171116/the-rampant-rise-of-ayn-rand-o-mania?ps=cprs>
Linton Weeks, NPR

In the way that Rebel Without a Cause in the 1950s or Wall Street in the 1980s spoke to a certain time and displacement in American history, will the Hollywood depiction of Ayn Rand's 1957 novel serve as some sort of easy-to-read cultural thermometer? Will the film flop or will it become the movie manifesto of America's nascent Tea Party?

**** Infinite Attention <http://www.slate.com/id/2291043/?from=rss>
Matt Feeney, Slate

It seems a telling sign of our technology-angst that we're getting nostalgic for, of all things, boredom.

**** The Amazing Healing Power Of "Buffy" <http://www.salon.com/life/feature/2011/04/12/buffy_helped_me_grieve_open2011/index.html>
Michelle Masterson, Salon

It was my best friend's favorite show. After she died, the series became a way to remember her -- and let go.

**** Pointless Is Pointless Is Pointless: David Orr Writes Useless Guide To Poetry’s Uselessness <http://www.observer.com/2011/culture/itimesiman-david-orr-writes-useless-guide-poetrys-uselessness?utm_medium=partial-text&utm_campaign=culture>
Michael Robbins, The New York Observer

But a book that undertakes to educate "general readers" about contemporary poetry is handicapped by the uncomfortable truth that there is no such thing as a general reader.

**** Sex And Salter <http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2011/04/11/sex-and-salter/>
Alexander Chee, The Paris Review

Too much writing about sex tries to either make it prettier or more serious, sexier or funnier or shocking, or anything, really, except what it is.



SingaporeSurf
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**** NCMPs Are Not Marginalised: PM Lee <http://www.straitstimes.com/GeneralElection/News/Story/STIStory_655943.html>
Yen Feng, Straits Times

Fielding questions during a 'live' forum on Channel News Asia with a panel of 12 Singaporeans from a wide spectrum of society, Mr Lee described it as a 'good system' that allows NCMPs to use their five-year parliamentary stint to establish themselves.

**** Why Ask What Was Spent When Glory Came From 12,498 Sandwiches Served? <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/04/12/why-ask-what-was-spent-when-glory-came-from-12498-sandwiches-served/>
Yawning Bread

First of all, plenty of Singaporeans abroad reported that there was no publicity to speak of; foreign media carried next to nothing about the Youth Olympics. Secondly, it was not just a case of going out on a limb to claim that investors’ interest would be generated from this non-publicity, it was a figurative leap off the branch into cloud cuckoo land.

If this “commemorative book” is anything to go by, the ministry is still there.

**** GE: Government Will Take Note Of Issues Raised At Forum, Says PM Lee <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1122372/1/.html>
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia

Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong told Channel NewsAsia that the recent televised forum was a good opportunity for Singaporeans to engage the government on issues, and that the government will take note of the issues raised.

**** Why Singapore Ought To Consider Becoming A British Protectorate <http://logos-pistis.blogspot.com/2011/04/honour-all-men.html>
In the Beginning was the Logos...

Why should I identify with a government who rules over us by virtue of their ability to employ rhetoric, spin the press, manipulate social and political interest groups and sway 51% of the voters?

**** Against All Opposition Odds <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110413-0000434/Against-all-Opposition-odds>
Teo Xuanwei, Today

Joining Opposition ranks is widely perceived as risky for one's career - and particularly so if your paymaster is a statutory board.

So when asked how her colleagues and supervisor - she has been doing research on Singapore history and heritage at the Institute of South-east Asian Studies for the past two years - reacted to her joining the Workers' Party last July, Ms Angela Oon, 32, would not go beyond saying: "I was prepared for the worst but hoping for the best."

**** Rebuffed SGX Sets Sights On Leading ASEAN Role <http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/rebuffed-sgx-sets-sights-on-leading-asean-role/story-e6frg91o-1226038014937>
Florence Chong, Wall Street Journal

Southeast Asia's seven stock exchanges launched on Friday what they called their "ASEAN brand identity", inching closer to a trading platform covering a combined market capitalised at $US1.8 trillion ($1.7 trillion).

Singapore Exchange, capitalised at $US647 billion, would be a big fish in a relatively small pond. ASEAN sources told The Australian that until now, Singapore had not shared their enthusiasm for the pan-ASEAN initiative.

**** Why One Defends The Secular State <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110413-0000391/Why-one-defends-the-secular-state>
Zhou Ziqian, Today

The notion of a "public reason" need not be a mere synonym for our brute, unreflected convictions, nor vague and prejudiced.

**** Shedding Tears For Singapore <http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2011/04/shedding-tears-for-singapore.html>
Singapore Notes

Then again, he might have interpreted "group think" as an euphemism for "yes-men", given the unsettled debate about diversity in the party ranks. At age 63, Lim would surely feel sullied if his 31 years of office should go down in history as a mendicant lackey. On the other hand, with Goh Chok Tong making threats (Straits Times, April 6, 2002) like, "If you sing Jailhouse Rock with your electric guitar when others are playing Beethoven, you are out of order. The whip must be used on you," Lim had little choice but to fall in line if he valued his paycheck. Besides, what does a Minister Without Portfolio exactly do to earn a performance bonus?

**** GE: Independent Candidate Andrew Kuan's Manifesto <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1122357/1/.html>
Evelyn Choo, Channel NewsAsia

"Care for a better Singapore and Joo Chiat" - that will be Andrew Kuan's campaign slogan for the coming General Election (GE).

Mr Kuan said if elected, he will address issues such as the lack of parking space, mosquito breeding and utility subsidies for the elderly living in landed properties in Joo Chiat.

**** PM Lee, Will GST Increase After GE? <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1122450/1/.html>
Neo Chai Chin, Today

There is unlikely to be any hike in the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rate if the government budgets remain prudent and the economy continues to grow, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said on Tuesday.

**** Recurrent Poser: Upgrading Of Opposition Wards <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110413-0000463/Recurrent-poser--Upgrading-of-Opposition-wards>
Today

**** PAP Has Blurred Line Between State And Party <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_655955.html>
Ang Miah Boon, Straits Times

**** 已尽快安装月台安全屏门 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/yl/tx110413_002.shtml>
林玮琪 陆路交通管理局, 联合早报

我们希望公众能够谅解，我们已经尽快施工，以便在明年完成装置月台安全闸门的工作。目前，我们要提醒乘客注意自身安全。乘客应该遵守安全指示，站在黄线后、并在不舒服时向服务大使或地铁站职员求助。最终，地铁站的安全是共同的责任，也只有在每个人都出一分力的情况下才能保证安全。

**** An Open Letter To Minister Of Transport Raymond Lim <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/an-open-letter-to-minister-of-transport-raymond-lim/>
Deborah Choo, The Online Citizen

Like one resident told me, “We don’t want to just be told we cannot do this. We want to know why.”

**** The Significance Of Lim Boon Heng’s Tears <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/the-significance-of-lim-boon-heng%E2%80%99s-tears/>
Ng E-Jay, The Online Citizen

Mr Lim’s tears are like a canary in the coal mine, pointing to cracks that might be forming in the PAP leadership. In recent memory, no PAP minister or MP has resigned in protest or proceeded to openly challenge the PAP soon after stepping down. The PAP party discipline is still very strong. But if this party discipline only serves to mask growing discontent within the PAP ranks, the PAP could be in for a period of volatility in the years ahead.

Mr Lim’s emotional reaction during the press conference is the sign of fatigue and strain that a one-party system imposes on itself. The party whip can hold Mr Lim’s tongue, but it cannot stop his tears. A one-party state creates the illusion of consensus and stability, but it serves Singaporeans less and less.

**** 张思乐：行人天桥电梯 昂贵不易保养 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp110413_015.shtml>
联合早报

张思乐回答询问时指出，电动扶梯其实不算是无障碍设施，而且如果发生故障或需进行维修时，就会引起其他方面的问题，年长者和其他行人要爬上电动扶梯较陡峭的梯级恐怕会有困难。他说，与其在所有行人天桥装电梯，陆交局会设法在适合地点提供地面行人过道，这对年长者和行动不便者来说会更加方便。此外，如果可行，当局也会尽量为行人天桥铺设斜坡。

**** HDB – Policies That Are Cruel? <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/hdb-policies-that-are-cruel/>
Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen

Why is it that about 70 per cent of the flats in this block are rented to foreigners for profit or are left vacant, when there are Singaporeans like Mr Yeo, who desperately needs a rental flat?

**** Dairy To Singapore's Cost Of Living - Post GE2006 <http://singaporeelection.blogspot.com/2011/04/dairy-to-singapores-cost-of-living-post.html>
Singapore Election Watch

All this, the ruling party had failed to address them directly and properly, instead the focus was placed on "Gomez's form incident".

**** The $3M Man <http://javertworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/3m-man.html>
Javert's World

This shows that PAP already had the mind set that they are the government. They think they are Singapore.

**** Confessions Of An Unconvinced Voter <http://thotspeak.blogspot.com/2011/04/confessions-of-unconvinced-voter.html>
The Art Of Dumbspeak

**** PAP: The Importance Of The 67% Mark <http://atans1.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/pap-the-importance-of-the-67-mark/>
Thoughts of a Cynical Investor

If the PAP manages only 60 or 61%, then the PAP knows that it has failed to connect with the post-65ers, “Kate Spade” Tin’s and “Saving babies=NS” Puthu’s efforts notwithstanding.

**** Hard Truths You Won’t Read About Elsewhere, Part II <http://flaneurose.blogspot.com/2011/04/hard-truths-you-wont-read-about_12.html>
Flaneurose

As long as our incentive structures in government remain the same, government policies will continue to be unsustainable.

**** Singapore & Oz: Round Two <http://www.lowyinterpreter.org/post/2011/04/12/Singapore-Oz-Round-two.aspx>
Graeme Dobell, The Interpreter

Where the Treasurer blasted the Singapore ASX bid to pieces, the Singapore response to Kevin Rudd's Asia Pacific Community proposal was to kick it to death — slowly and quietly.

In seeing off Australia, Singapore didn't get its preferred solution — the creation of an ASEAN-plus-8 summit rather than the expansion of the East Asia Summit to let in the United States and Russia.

**** Vote For The Opposition: PAP Will Not Lose <http://newnation.sg/2011/04/vote-for-the-opposition-pap-will-not-lose/>
Fang Shihan, New Nation

Unlike our neighbours up north, so frequently cited as an example of freedom gone wrong, Singapore has little chance of becoming an actual democracy even though PM Lee might actually have a chance of losing. Political constructs built with the purpose of keeping the incumbent authoritarian party in power do not disappear overnight. Lazy voters especially, only take the path of least mental resistance, towards the only party they’ve been familiar with their whole lives.

**** Yeo! Guat The Hell Is Happening To Hougang-Aljunied? Curious CASE Indeed <http://thinkingbetterthinkingmeta.blogspot.com/2011/04/guat-hell-is-happening-to-hougang.html>
Sam's Thoughts

**** Thinking Aloud – The Tin Pei Ling Issue <http://ge2011.theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/thinking-aloud-%E2%80%93-the-tin-pei-ling-issue/>
The Online Citizen

To put it in another way, Ms Ting has inadvertently become the poster-girl for the pent-up frustration and acrimonies over the excruciating sense of injustice arising from the political maneuvering of the GRC system to give a particular party a not insignificant advantage over the the opposition.

To silence the critics out there once and for all, perhaps the best possible course of action for Ms Ting is for her to request her party to let her contest in a single-member constituency (SMC). If Ms Ting wins, even by a narrow margin, she can hold her head high, knowing she has won on her own merits and had beaten her opponent in fair competition.

**** HDB Upgrading – Holding Voters To Ransom <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/04/hdb-upgrading-%E2%80%93-holding-voters-to-ransom/>
Andrew Loh, The Online Citizen

To accept and allow the government to continue to perpetuate its selfish practices is to give it a stamp of approval on discrimination. Further, the government could, by its same flawed reasons, extend this discriminatory practice to other areas. Perhaps it would next refuse to build car parks in opposition wards, or not to build kindergartens in non-PAP constituencies (which incidentally it had threatened to do in the past in Hougang).

**** What Is The SDP Trying To Pull Down? <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4729-what-is-the-sdp-trying-to-pull-down->
Singapore Democratic Party

To work within its system is to acknowledge that the PAP's policies are essentially good for Singapore. The SDP does not accept this premise. The structure and direction of our economy, the treatment of our poor and elderly, and the monetary reward our ministers lavish on themselves do not benefit our nation.

Indeed, it must be said - and repeated - that it is only when the PAP system is stopped that Singapore will progress and develop.

The folly is to accept Mr Lee's claim that only opposition parties that work within his party's system are constructive.

**** GE: Opposition Parties Locked In Tussle In At Least 8 Constituencies <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1122569/1/.html>
Imelda Saad, Channel NewsAsia

**** A Re-trial For Cheong Chun Yin. <http://webelieveinsecondchances.wordpress.com/2011/04/13/a-re-trial-for-cheong-chun-yin/>
We Believe In Second Chances

Till this day, Chun Yin insists that he had believed he was carrying gold bars. He did not cut open the lining of the bag as he did not want to be held responsible should anything have gone missing.

Since it is a matter of life and death, and since the death penalty is irreversible, Second Chances urges the Singapore government to grant Chun Yin a stay of execution, and to look into his case again. Every effort should be made to thoroughly investigate a case before a sentence is handed down. We cannot afford to get it wrong, because we will never be able to bring a person back to life after he/she has been executed.

**** GE: WP's Sylvia Lim Comments On NCMP System <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1122604/1/.html>
Hoe Yeen Nie, Channel NewsAsia

Worker's Party Chairman Sylvia Lim said the Non-Constituency Members of Parliament (NCMP) system remains flawed, despite allowing for more robust debate.

That's because NCMPs do not get full voting rights, and do not represent any electorate.

**** British Author Gets Some Traction On Contempt Appeal <http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3126&Itemid=195>
Asia Sentinel

Singapore's government may well be regretting the use of a sledgehammer to crack a small nut, in this case prosecuting the British author of a hitherto obscure, Malaysia-published book critical of the injustices present in the Lion City's eager use of capital punishment. The case has brought international attention to Singapore's relatively easy and allegedly discriminatory use of the hangman's noose in a way that casts doubt on its preferred image as a state that is strict but fair.

Shadrake's book, poorly written and possibly not entirely accurate as it may be, has also drawn attention to what appears to be race-based discrimination in the application of the law, and a determination to convict regardless of the quality of evidence. Shadrake for example compares the case of a well-connected German student who was saved from the gallows when an uproar in Germany caused the cannabis she was carrying to be re-weighed and determined to be below the limit that requires the mandatory death sentence. She was eventually released after three years in prison. But a young Nigerian with no elite connections or political backing from home was executed despite reasonable doubts that he knew he was carrying heroin. In another case, according to Shadrake, a Malaysian Indian was executed on the evidence of an undercover officer who himself was arrested just two days later and convicted of corruption and attempting to bribe a witness.

**** Workers' Party Welcomes Scrutiny Of Its Manifesto <http://www.straitstimes.com/GeneralElection/News/Story/STIStory_656415.html>
Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times

Responding to criticisms that People's Action Party (PAP) leaders have levied on the party's election manifesto, Ms Lim told reporters on the sidelines of the Hougang meet-the-people session: 'We believe in transparency and we want to be seen as a serious party.'

WP chief Mr Low said on Sunday that the party is prepared to debate and defend its manifesto, which he described as the work of many people since 2006. He also said its manifesto may mean more government spending or a reallocation of funds as it stems from a different philosophy from the PAP.




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