[MyAppleMenu] Jan 4, 2011

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Tue Jan 4 18:59:00 EST 2011

MyAppleMenu
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**** HandBrake Update Adds New Presets, Goes Intel-only <http://www.macworld.com/article/156821/2011/01/handbrake_095.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Jonathan Seff, Macworld

HandBrake 0.9.5 adds presets for the iPhone 4, the iPad, and the second-generation Apple TV; allows editing of queued jobs; includes support for SSA subtitles; can now find the VLC media player (required for HandBrake to convert encrypted DVDs) in the user’s Application folder; supports the Blu-ray disc structure (but doesn’t decrypt Blu-ray discs); and more.

**** New Apple iTunes Movie Features Allow Script Searching, Scene Sharing <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/11/01/03/new_apple_itunes_movie_features_allow_script_searching_scene_sharing.html>
Katie Marsal, AppleInsider

Movie studios have quietly expanded the feature set of content available on Apple's iTunes Store, allowing users to search a film's script for specific words, or select a clip and share it with others on a social networking site.

**** How To Stay Safe At A Public Wi-Fi Hotspot <http://arstechnica.com/security/guides/2011/01/stay-safe-at-a-public-wi-fi-hotspot.ars>
Glenn Fleishman, Ars Technica

You have a variety of strategies to choose from, some of which are free and some of which have a modest cost attached. None are terribly complicated, but just require a commitment on your part if you feel at risk. Which you should.

**** After Apple Says Otherwise, iPhone Alarm Still Remains Silent <http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/03/after-apple-says-otherwise-iphone-alarm-still-remains-silent/?src=twrhp>
Nick Bilton, New York Times

On Sunday I wrote an article about an iPhone programming bug that failed to activate the phone’s built-in alarm, leaving a lot of customers upset, confused and late. In the article, I noted that Apple had acknowledged the problem existing but said it would automatically fix itself by Monday, Jan. 3. Yet on Monday morning the problem did not seem to have gone away. A lot of angry iPhone owners wrote in to The New York Times complaining that they had missed flights, were late for work or had failed to drop their kids off for the first day of the 2011 school year — all because the iPhone alarm didn’t work again.

Apple did not respond to a request for comment asking if there was an update to the programming error.

**** Apple Replaces The Out-Of-Warranty iPod Touch I Broke For Free <http://consumerist.com/2011/01/apple-replaces-the-out-of-warranty-ipod-touch-i-broke-for-free.html>
Phil Villarreal, The Consumerist

**** Apple's iPad: Restaurants Uploading Menus To Tablet For Diners <http://www.mercurynews.com/business-headlines/ci_16999385?nclick_check=1>
Caryn Rousseau, Associated Press

The upscale eatery on the northern bank of the Chicago River has invested in 40 iPads at about $700 each for wine selection. Since April, when Apple debuted the tablet, the device is now in use as a full menu at upscale restaurants, hamburger eateries and quick-service chains like Au Bon Pain. Restaurateurs said that's just the beginning.

**** Posterino 2.0.4 <http://www.atpm.com/17.01/posterino.shtml>
Linus Ly, ATPM

**** Apple Bumps UK Prices As VAT Rises <http://www.macrumors.com/2011/01/03/apple-bumps-uk-prices-as-vat-rises/>
Eric Slivka, MacRumors

Some observers had hoped that Apple might choose to simply absorb the tax increases by reducing their prices slightly in order to maintain the psychological price points used for many of their products, but the company obviously decided that it needed to pass along the tax increase to consumers in order to maintain its margins.

**** CarTrip Will Connect Your iOS Device And Your Automobile <http://www.tuaw.com/2011/01/04/cartrip-will-connect-your-ios-device-and-your-automobile/>
Kelly Hodgkins, TUAW

**** Apple Updates GarageBand, iMovie <http://www.loopinsight.com/2011/01/04/apple-updates-garageband-imovie/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+loopinsight%2FKqJb+%28The+Loop%29>
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop

**** The Crapification Of iTunes’ Classical Music Store <http://www.mcelhearn.com/2011/01/04/the-crapification-of-itunes-classical-music-store/>
Kirk McElhearn, Kirkville

Apple has clearly caved in to Wal-Mart style classical music sales.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** The Surprising Usefulness Of Sloppy Arithmetic <http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2010/fuzzy-logic-0103.html>
Larry Hardesty, MIT News

A computer chip that performs imprecise calculations could process some types of data thousands of times more efficiently than existing chips.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Man Of Mystery <http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2011/01/10/110110crat_atlarge_acocella#ixzz19yyoS4BK>
Joan Acocella, New Yorker

Why do people love Stieg Larsson’s novels?

**** The Classics As The Antidote To Modern Malaise <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/books/04book.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Michael Roth, New York Times

The philosopher Hubert Dreyfus and his former student Sean Dorrance Kelly have a story to tell, and it is not a pretty tale for us moderns. Ours is an age of nihilism, they say, meaning not so much that we have nothing in which to believe, but that we don’t know how to choose among the various things to which we might commit ourselves. Looking down from their perches at Berkeley and Harvard, they see the “human indecision that plagues us all.” In “All Things Shining” they offer readings of classic texts to show both how we got into this mess and how we can overcome it.

**** Flying Machines, Amazing At Any Angle <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/04/science/04birds.html?_r=1&ref=science>
Jim Robbins, New York Times

The flying abilities of even the most prosaic bird put airplane maneuvers to shame, and experts here at the University of Montana Flight Laboratory are cognizant of that every day.

**** Spin Cycle: On Tim Wu And Kevin Kelly <http://www.thenation.com/article/157297/spin-cycle-tim-wu-and-kevin-kelly>
Paul Duguid, The Nation

Kelly and Wu speak for a new technocracy, and their books epitomize its libertarianism and its frustration with the political system. Both seem at best hostile and at worst indifferent to politics.

**** Philosophy Lives <http://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/12/philosophy-lives>
John Haldane, First Things

Why Stephen Hawking’s attempt to banish natural theology only shows why we need it.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Let Voters Decide If I’m Credible: James Gomez <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/01/03/let-voters-decide-if-im-credible-james-gomez/>
Faris, Yahoo!

**** 'Lemon Law' Can Benefit Small Retailers <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_620237.html>
Paul Chen, Straits Times

A small retailer, buying products to resell for profit, should enjoy the same statutory rights as his customers to demand remedy when goods are not of 'satisfactory quality'.

**** When School And Grassroots Work Do Not Mix <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110104-0000144/When-school-and-grassroots-work-do-not-mix>
Siew Kum Hong, Today

Partisan activities that favour a specific political party or politician should not be officially sanctioned and endorsed by the Ministry of Education (MOE) or schools.

And that is where I think MOE and RI(JC) got it wrong with BLYC.

**** Works There, Why Not Here? <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110104-0000152/Works-there,-why-not-here>
Rick Lim Say Kiong, Today

In the last six years, however, I have noticed that even workers with three O-Level credits are granted PR status once they have worked here for a year or two. Skilled as they may be, do they contribute to our economy by creating jobs or do they take jobs that can be done by locals? If only real foreign talents are given PR to work and stay here, and they do create jobs for the locals, then my guess is that most Singaporeans would not mind their growing numbers.

**** 人民的选择 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/yl/yl110104_007.shtml>
林冠雄, 联合早报

这些人的政治参与，就主要表现在大选时去投票。至于年轻人在网上发表言论，也是高科技时代的产物，他们可在网上畅所欲言，发表他们的政治评论，这就满足了他们对政治的参与感。所以对一些年轻人来说，他们作网上的谈论或是在大选时去投票，就是政治的参与了；其参与政治的精神是可嘉的。

**** AGC To Contest Ex-detainee's Lawsuit <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_620373.html>
Tessa Wong, Straits Times

A spokesman for the AGC said on Monday a memorandum of appearance was filed in the High Court last Thursday, in response to the lawsuit by 77-year-old Michael Fernandez. This means the AGC intends to contest the suit. It must file a defence by the end of next week.

**** Immigration Not Panacea For Singapore Population Woes <http://guanyinmiao.wordpress.com/2011/01/04/immigration-not-panacea-for-singapore-population-woes/>
Guanyinmiao's Musings

**** PAP Updates Electoral Rolls To Rope In More New Citizens As Voters <http://www.temasekreview.com/2011/01/04/pap-updates-electoral-rolls-to-rope-in-more-new-citizens-as-voters/>
Temasek Review

According to the statistics from the National Population Secretariat, the PAP regime gave out some 20,000 Singapore citizenships to foreigners last year, most of whom will be eligible to vote this year.

The PAP regime has been courting the votes of the new citizens for the last few years by splurging taxpayers’ monies to make them feel ‘accepted, welcomed and happy’ in Singapore.

**** If Mumbai Can Have A Crooked Bridge, Why Can’t We, Asks Dr M <http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/malaysia/article/if-mumbai-can-have-a-crooked-bridge-why-cant-we-asks-dr-m/>
Shannon Teoh, The Malaysian Insider

**** The Much Overlooked No Man’s Land Between The MDP And Calls For Its Abolition <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/01/the-much-overlooked-no-man’s-land-between-the-mandatory-death-penalty-and-calls-for-its-abolition/>
Ng Xiao Quan And Kirsten Han, The Online Citizen

It is perhaps more reasonable and sustainable for Singapore to drop the mandatory suffix while enforcing a series of qualifications and benchmarks for applying the death penalty at all.

**** 土管局招标出租 嘉龙剧院有望“重出江湖” <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp110104_007.shtml>
吴淑贤, 联合早报

不过，与一般租用地段期满后可续约的方式不同，租下嘉龙剧院的业者不可续约，租期是少过三年。这显示政府可能在短期内有意使用剧院地段作其他发展。卓登新达国际研究部主管陈瑞谨受访时说，嘉龙剧院的优势是地点适中，不过三年租期却是一大局限，导致它的租用潜能大打折扣。

**** Liberal Democracy Gives Rise To Social Ills? Part 1 <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/3799-liberal-democracy-gives-rise-to-social-ills->
Singapore Democrat Party

In truth, it is not that liberal democracy causes social breakdown as Mr Lee would have us believe, rather it is the wayward policies forced on the population by this regime.

Much of this is fueled by the PAP's lust for all that glitters. Its relentless push to achieve GDP growth, no matter the havoc that it wreaks on society, is inflicting much injury on the social arrangement in this country.

**** Telcos Counter New Rules On Free Trials <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2011/01/04/telcos-counter-new-rules-on-free-trials/>
Kai Fong, Yahoo!

**** Competition And Professional Fees <http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/2011/01/competition-and-professional-fees.html>
Tan Kin Lian

**** Get Real <http://hardhitting-nobs.blogspot.com/2011/01/get-real.html>
Musings From The Lion City

Now we have all heard stories of rich foreigners who buy a house in Singapore, get PR, and then disappear from our island for months. Here we have a woman who had stayed in Singapore for 30 years but still unable to get PR status. Why is that the case if not for money?

**** The Current Generosity Of The State <http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2011/01/current-generosity-of-state.html>
Singapore Notes




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