[MyAppleMenu] Jan 20, 2012

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Fri Jan 20 18:59:00 EST 2012


MyAppleMenu
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**** Why iBooks Author Is A Big Deal For Publishers ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/164907/2012/01/why_ibooks_author_is_a_big_deal_for_publishers.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Jason Snell, Macworld


> The ebook world was ripe for a tool that would let publishers create snazzy ebooks, ones that would knock your socks off like The Elements or Al Gore’s Our Choice—all without the technical barrier of app development. And with iBooks Author, that tool now exists.



**** What Kind Of Precedent Does iBooks Author Set? ****
<http://rc3.org/2012/01/20/what-kind-of-precedent-does-ibooks-author-set/>
Rafe Colburn, rc3.org


> As an author, I can say that this doesn’t seem fundamentally different from signing a contract with a publisher.

> The big difference, though, is that if Publisher A publishes my book, it can be sold in any bookstore, online or offline. In the new electronic world, choosing a certain publisher means that you are also choosing only one channel of distribution.



**** Apple's Mind-bogglingly Greedy And Evil License Agreement ****
<http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apples-mind-bogglingly-greedy-and-evil-license-agreement/4360>
Ed Bott, ZDNet


> As a publisher and an author, I obviously have a dog in this hunt. But what I see so far makes this program and its output an absolute nonstarter for me.



**** Macworld Transitions To Macworld|iWorld As Conference Begins Next Week ****
<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/19/macworld-transitions-to-macworld-iworld-as-conference-begins-nex/>
Mike Schramm, TUAW



**** iBooks Author: Under The Hood ****
<http://www.tuaw.com/2012/01/19/ibooks-author-under-the-hood/>
Erica Sadun, TUAW


> The iBooks format appears to be an EPUB-like variant specific to Apple. Like EPUB, it's a zipped up file that contains an archive of the materials that make up the book. Inside, you find an Open Packaging folder and a META-INF Open Container Format folder, with its container.xml file. Unlike EPUB with its application/xhtml+xml mimetype, .ibooks uses application/x-ibooks+zip.



**** Punched Up Lectures: Hands On With The New iTunes U App For iOS ****
<http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2012/01/punched-up-lectures-hands-on-with-the-new-itunes-u-app-for-ios.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Jacqui Cheng, Ars Technica


> Everyone, whether they're a student or not, can download course materials through iTunes U and take a free at-home lecture on a huge variety of subjects, sometimes from the world's leading universities. While the concept of iTunes U has been around for years, Apple has finally decided to make it into something more than a glorified university podcast with the launch of this app, and we really like what we see.



**** Apple’s New Math. Or: Why A $15 E-Book Equals A $75 Paper Book ****
<http://allthingsd.com/20120119/apples-new-math-or-why-a-15-ebook-equals-a-75-paper-book/>
Peter Kafka, AllThingsD


> Normally, McGraw-Hill would sell its books directly to public schools, which would keep the texts for an average of five years. Under Apple’s new textbooks plan, though, McGraw-Hill will try something different: It will sell its books directly to each student (the student could either pay out of pocket, or the school could fund the purchase via a voucher/code), who will use the book for a year, then move on. They’ll be able to keep the digital text, but won’t be able to resell it or pass it along to another student, and McGraw-Hill anticipates that another set of students will buy new books the following year.



**** Apple Releases iTunes 10.5.3 ****
<http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-releases-itunes-10-5-3/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macstoriesnet+%28MacStories%29>
Federico Viticci, MacStories



**** Unprecedented, That’s For Sure ****
<http://daringfireball.net/linked/2012/01/19/unprecedented>
John Gruber, Daring Fireball


> With these licensing restrictions, Apple is attempting to get the lock-in benefits of a proprietary file format without the proprietary file format.



**** Apple Releases iBooks 2 With Support For Interactive Textbooks ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/164888/2012/01/apple_releases_ibooks_2_with_support_for_interactive_textbooks.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Serenity Cladwell, Macworld


> Apple vice president of productivity software Roger Rosner took to the stage to demonstrate the app’s new features for textbooks, which include a revised index for easier search, page thumbnails, virtual study cards, interactive multiple choice questions for section and book quizzes, and new portrait and landscape views.



**** Apple Releases An iTunes U App ****
<http://www.macstories.net/news/apple-releases-an-itunes-u-app/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macstoriesnet+%28MacStories%29>
Graham Spencer, MacStories


> Apple has just announced and released the iTunes U App for iPhone and iPad. It’s a new app that lets teachers manage their iTunes U course and an app that helps students track all the content, assignments and messages from the courses that they study. iTunes U gives teachers the ability to customise their topics that they teach, give students information about office hours, post messages to their class and give students assignments.



**** Apple iBooks Author And Textbook Store A Significant Publishing Step ****
<http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/10103841-452/apple-ibooks-author-and-textbook-store-a-significant-publishing-step.html>
Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times


> It’s an ebook-authoring app geared towards a new generation of publications: detailed, tightly-formatted books that include nigh-unlimited range of media and interactive elements.






The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** A New Faster Fourier Transform Can Speed One Of IT's Fundamental Algorithms ****
<http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2012-01/new-faster-fourier-transform-can-speed-one-its-fundamental-algorithms>
Clay Dillow, Popular Science


> A team of MIT researchers is this week presenting a new algorithm that boosts the performance of the FFT in a large number of cases. That’s good news for you, as it spells a future where, for instance, mobile devices might transfer large video files without burning all their bandwidth and battery in the process.






MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Swallowed By A Whale — A True Tale? ****
<http://www.salon.com/2012/01/15/swallowed_by_a_whale_a_true_tale/singleton/>
Ben Shattuck, Salon


> An idea’s been floating around for some time that whales more than chewed people — that they swallowed them, and people might have survived in the stomach. Jonah’s story came first, and then there were rumors from the 19th century Yankee Whale Fishery — whaling ships leaving New York and New England ports for years on the open ocean. I’d like to believe in swallowings, but it’s tough. There is no air in the stomach, for one. There are acids. And if we are talking about sperm whales, which we are most of the time, there is the deadly passage through the 30-foot jaws lined with 8-inch teeth.



**** A City Portrayed By Diarists Who Had Their Own Problems ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/20/books/new-york-diaries-1609-to-2000-review.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Dwight Garner, New York Times


> This book’s editor, Teresa Carpenter, a longtime Village Voice writer, has had the ingenious idea to comb through hundreds of diaries, written by the famous, the infamous and the unknown in New York, and to liberate these chronicles of their crunchiest and most humane bits.



**** Writing Adrift In The World ****
<http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2012/jan/19/writing-adrift-world-mix/>
Tim Parks, The New York Review Of Books


> Every year I send a number of my Italian students in the Masters in Translation program at IULM University, Milan to England on an exchange. Years ago they would take general courses in English and American literature; then it was post-colonial literature; now they study “world literature.” Looking at the reading lists, which range far and wide chronologically and geographically, from the Epic of Gilgamesh to Ernest Hemingway, the Tale of Genji to Jorge Luis Borges, it is hard to imagine how a strong sense of context can be built up around any of the individual works. Or rather, the only relevant context is the human race, planet Earth, post 5000 BCE, circa. The stress will be on the essential and universal rather than the local and accidental; the subtext, as David Shields insists in a recent polemic on contemporary fiction in <i>Little Star</i>, that “Every man contains within himself the entire human condition.”

> But does he? Or she?



**** Ways And Means ****
<http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/01/16/ways-and-means/>
Sadie Stein, Paris Review


> Many people engage in dubious experimentation in their youth. Some get involved with intravenous drugs. Others sleep with problematic men. A few tattoo their faces. I, for my part, went on a spree when I was nineteen of cooking exclusively from a 1917-era cookbook.






SingaporeSurf
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**** Ground At Bukit Timah Road To Be Stabilised, Work On Downtown Line 2 Stopped ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120120-0000175/Ground-at-Bukit-Timah-Road-to-be-stabilised,-work-on-Downtown-Line-2-stopped>
Channel NewsAsia



**** Flash Floods Hit Singapore Yet Again ****
<http://news.insing.com/tabloid/flash-floods-hit-singapore-yet-again/id-e5293f00>
InSing



**** PAP MP Questions WP Flip-flop On Political Pay ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1178038/1/.html>
S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia


> Minister of state for education and defence, Lawrence Wong has argued that when political parties and their leaders change positions on issues, they have a responsibility to explain to the public as this was about being accountable and transparent.

> Mr Wong said the three days of debate showed that Singapore still has quite some way to go to achieve a First World Parliament - an often used phrase by the Workers' Party during the last hustings.

See: <a href="http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120120-0000170/Reflections-on-the-salary-debate">Reflections On The Salary Debate</a>, by Lawrence Wong.


**** Public Prosecutorial Discretion Exercised Carefully ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1178035/1/.html>
Channel NewsAsia


> The AGC said the exercise of prosecutorial discretion is a responsibility that is undertaken with full recognition of its impact on and importance for society. It said there may be cases where two offenders with apparently similar levels of culpability or who offended in apparently similar circumstances are charged with different offences.

> It said this stems from the fact that a wide range of factors are carefully weighed by the Attorney-General. These include all the facts surrounding each person's offending behaviour in each case, the strength of evidence, the level of cooperation provided by accused persons to the investigation authorities, as well as the existence of personal mitigating circumstances.



**** 40% Discounted Ministers Anyone? I’d Say, ‘No Thanks!’ ****
<http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/01/forty-percent-discounted-ministers-anyone-no-thanks/>
Ravi Philemon, The Online Citizen


> Yes, I do agree that the Salary Review Committee was unbiased and that it went above and beyond its call of duty in trying to fix the Ministerial salary conundrum. But the Committee was shackled by the directives of the Prime Minister – ‘substantial discount on comparable salaries in the private sector’.

> Why was this shackle placed in the first place upon the Committee? Only the Prime Minister can truly answer that question. But I’m guessing because quite a few in his Party believe that “a reasonable payout will help to maintain a bit of dignity”.

> But do I want a Minister who has made this great ’40 percent discount’ sacrifice to serve me? I’d say, ‘No thanks!’ It feels lousy to be beholden.



**** The Ministerial Pay Debate That Will Never Be ****
<http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/01/the-ministerial-pay-debate-that-will-never-be/>
Howard Lee, The Online Citizen


> The failure lies in the fact that there seems to be no intent, deliberate or otherwise, on the part of the political elite to address the real reason behind why citizens are unhappy about high ministerial pay.

> In other words, the PAP is still clueless, or appears to be so, about the political culture that has swept over this nation leading up to GE2011: A growing desire for social justice and fair play.



**** 克兰芝郊区也需公共巴士服务 ****
<http://www.zaobao.com.sg/yl/yl120120_005.shtml>
李喜梅, 联合早报


> 这里是新加坡,提供公共交通本来就是巴士公司(新捷运和SMRT)的责任,为什么偏偏这里被巴士公司遗弃?



**** Why The Adversarial Tone During Salary Debate? ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120120-0000040/Why-the-adversarial-tone-during-salary-debate?>
Kelvin Quek, Channel NewsAsia


> Ironically, most of the hostility originated from the People's Action Party's backbenchers. These were mainly the newer MPs who seemed eager to make an impression or showcase their debating skills.

> The General Election is over. Singaporeans expect their elected MPs to engage in rigorous debate on policy alternatives in Parliament, with the nation's interests at heart.



**** Back To Basics For The PAP ****
<http://www.publichouse.sg/categories/topstory/item/405-back-to-basics-for-the-pap>
Andrew Loh, Publichouse.sg


> What it is about is how the PAP is and has been perceived – cold and with an overt demeanour of pragmatism taken to the extreme, arrogant, impatient and lacking in the ability to empathise with the common folks.

> How can one who is such be paid such amounts from the public coffers?

> And so, if the PAP is to learn anything, it is this: there are no short-cuts in politics. The same ancient wisdom holds true – that the higher you climb, the more humble you must be. And in this day and age, you must also be seen to be so - in your words, actions and deeds. In real life as in cyberspace.



**** The PM On Paying For Talent ! ****
<http://sonofadud.com/2012/01/19/the-pm-on-paying-for-talent/>
Kenneth Jeyaretnam, Reinventing The Rice Bowl


> In any case this government should not pretend that it wants talented people to step forward and enter politics. For fifty years they have taken the harshest steps to raise the barriers to entry to politics for Singaporeans and to ensure that those who dared to have different ideas paid an enormous financial and personal cost.



**** Ministerial Salary – It’s Not (Just) About The Money ****
<http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/01/ministerial-salary-–-it’s-not-just-about-the-money/>
Tan Yin Hoe, The Online Citizen


> One has to enjoy the work – not (just) the money – in order to perform well. One who views his job as a burden that needs to be compensated can never do well, no matter how talented or well-suited he may be. A salary formula that overlooks these facts can only erode work ethos while serving the pockets of the political elite.









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