[MyAppleMenu] Dec 9, 2002

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Monday, Dec 9, 2002

MyAppleMenu : News
------------------
Microsoft Releases Query X (MacMinute)
<http://www.macminute.com/2002/12/09/macbu>
Microsoft's Macintosh Business Unit today released Query X, software for Mac OS X that uses Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) to allow users to import data from databases into Excel X.

Macworld Expo Tokyo Cancellation Disappoints Users (Kuriko Miyake, Digit)
<http://www.digitmag.co.uk/news/display_news.cfm?NewsID=2441>
Many of Japan’s ardent Mac users have been online expressing their disappointment with the cancellation of Macworld Expo Tokyo 2003.

Siglap Set To Revive Its Glory Days In Art (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,159601,00.html>
The secondary school, known as an art powerhouse in the 1970s and 1980s, will be the art centre for schools in the east zone.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
----------------------
Rants & Raves: Worshipping At The Altar Of Mac (Dan Snodgrass and Steve E.M. Ployment, Wired News)
<http://www.wired.com/news/rants/0,2350,56755,00.html>
I can assure you that the term "cult" is misapplied, both in this article and throughout the tech media.

Mac Or Windows? (Jonathan Gennick, O'Reilly Network)
<http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/2398>
On the one hand, I'm very annoyed with Microsoft right now. On the other hand, the Windows/Intel platform is the clear winner when I look at performance-for-the-buck, and also in terms of knowing that I'll be able to buy the software and hardware that I need two and three years down the road.

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
---------------------
The 18th Annual Editors' Choice Awards (Macworld)
<http://www.macworld.com/2002/12/features/eddy/>
If 2001 was the year that Mac OS X finally arrived, full blown, on the scene, then 2002 was the year that the people who make Mac hardware and software accepted OS X as their own.

Month With A Mac: Can The Mac Replace My PC? (Adam Scheinberg, OSNews.com)
<http://www.osnews.com/story.php?news_id=2326>
Doing the job best has to be proportionate to the value, and Mac's hefty price tag along with some of the (admittedly trivial) pet peevish annoyances along with an untraditional layout left me PC hungry.

Firing Up Jaguar On Older Macs (David Frith, The Australian)
<http://australianit.news.com.au/articles/0,7204,5633461%5E15397%5E%5Enbv%5E,00.html>

Crisp Apple Displays Not For Faint Of Wallet (Jim Coates, Chicago Tribune)
<http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/index.ssf?/base/business-3/1039417817119860.xml>
As the proud owner of a $999 17-inch Apple Cinema Display, I can tell you that it is, indeed, awesome in delivering full-color digital displays that are crisp, solid, unwavering, unflickering and unusually delightful to behold. It's also almost unbearably expensive.

MyAppleMenu : Wintel News
-------------------------
Why You'll Own A Media Center PC Someday (David Coursey, ZDNet)
<http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2901138,00.html>
We used to call this convergence. I am not sure what to call it today except the natural process of PC evolution.

In Software, Still Testy After All These Years (Steve Lohr, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09BLUE.html>
This time, IBM and Microsoft are the leading rivals in the unfolding era of networked computing.

More Wintel News at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/wintel/>

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow : Top Stories
----------------------------------
Some Call It Fair Play (Ed Foster, InfoWorld)
<http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/12/09/021209opgripe.xml>
Free speech demands that biased customers, wrong-headed reviewers, and scurrilous competitors get to have their say.

Accessing A Whole New World Via Multimedia Phones (Dan Gillmor, San Jose Mercury News)
<http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/4693890.htm>
The people who use multimedia phones are not passive consumers of next-generation mobile services. They are extending the boundaries of mobile communications.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow : News & Opinions
--------------------------------------
Bluetooth Gets Some Teeth (Carmen Nobel, eWeek)
<http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,3959,754106,00.asp>
Ever-optimistic backers of Bluetooth are pinning their hopes on advances they claim will help make the nascent wireless protocol cheaper and easier to combine with other, more popular wireless platforms.

Bright Light For Wireless? (Ben Charny, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1033-976560.html>
Analyst firm IDC on Monday issued an upbeat report about 2002 cell phone shipments, the latest in a recent spate of positive news for the otherwise battered U.S. cell phone industry.

HP, Microsoft Reaffirm .Net Ties (Martin LaMonica, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1001-976499.html>
Hewlett-Packard and Microsoft on Monday tightened their partnership to promote the latter's .Net software initiative.

Open Source J2EE 1.4 Gets Sun Green Light (Gavin Clarke, ComputerWire)
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/53/28472.html>
The first open source implementation of the latest specification for enterprise Java is expected in JBoss Group LLC's increasingly popular open source application server next year.

Yahoo Launches Web Hosting Services (Jim Hu, CNET News.com)
<http://news.com.com/2100-1023-976455.html>
Yahoo on Monday will launch a new Web hosting service that will target small businesses looking to promote themselves online.

Fix Found For Linux Data-Loss Bug (Stephen Shankland, ZDNet)
<http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-976427.html>
Programmers have found a bug in newer versions of the Linux operating system that, under unusual circumstances, could cause systems to drop data.

The World According To Google (Steven Levy, Newsweek)
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/844175.asp>
What if you had a magic tool that let you find out almost anything in less than a second? Millions of people already have it-—and it’s changing the way we live.

Replay It Again, Sam (Farhad Manjoo, Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/12/09/pvr/index.html>
Personal video recorders already have Hollywood running scared. Now Microsoft is pushing a new computer that will make trading TV shows as easy as using ... Napster.

Mystery Shopper Checking Her List (David Colker, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-mystery8dec08,0,3195214.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dtechnology>
A marketing researcher anonymously buys from online retailers to determine whose Web sites and services are naughty or nice.

E-Mail Overload Is A Myth, Study Says (Shannon Henry, Washington Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A24684-2002Dec7.html>
Most American workers are not -- repeat not -- overwhelmed by stuffed e-mail inboxes or vast amounts of spam, according to a new study that contradicts conventional wisdom that e-mail has become a major burden on people's lives.

A New Tack In Fighting Spam (Matt Richtel, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09SPAM.html>
Two California companies, taking a new tack in the spam war, are focusing not on filtering out unwanted e-mail, but on ensuring that notes that are welcome make it through increasingly stringent mail filters.

Sites Become Dependent On Google (David F. Gallagher, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09NECO.html>
Much as eBay spawned an army of entrepreneurial auctioneers, Google has become enough of a Web gatekeeper that its leads now prop up plenty of commercial sites.

Wi-Fi Internet Access Is Hot, But Its Profit Potential Is Tepid (Barnaby J. Feder, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09WIFI.html>
Many industry analysts say it could be hard to make money in Wi-Fi, which is unlikely to represent more than a tiny fraction of the overall telecommunications equipment market for at least several years.

Free Content Online? Publishers Are Divided (Saul Hansell, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/technology/09FREE.html>
Is the era of free information and entertainment on the Internet over? That was one of the more provocative assumptions put forward by the new management of America Online in its presentation to analysts last week.

Fliers Will Soon Be Able To Go Online On Board (Matthew L. Wald, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/travel/08rep.html?ex=1039928400&en=0f52a613b39a9b69&ei=5007&partner=USERLAND>
The Internet, pervasive wherever planes land, is now penetrating higher altitudes as well.

MyAppleMenu Reader : World
--------------------------
Dirty Dealing (Donald L. Barlett and James B. Steele, Time)
<http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101021216/story.html>
Indian casinos have fallen far short of benefiting the wider Native American population.

MyAppleMenu Reader : Science & Tech
-----------------------------------
Replay It Again, Sam (Farhad Manjoo, Salon)
<http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2002/12/09/pvr/index.html>
Personal video recorders already have Hollywood running scared. Now Microsoft is pushing a new computer that will make trading TV shows as easy as using ... Napster.

MyAppleMenu Reader : Life
-------------------------
I'm A Better Mother Since I Left My Child (Daylle Deanna Schwartz, Newsweek)
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/844312.asp>
My decision cost me my friends, but staying would have cost me the chance to grow up.

Wanted: A New Personality For MSNBC (Jim Rutenberg, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/business/media/09MSNB.html?8hpib>
MSNBC, the cable news network, has repeatedly failed to reinvigorate itself. The job now falls to Neal Shapiro, the NBC News president.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
---------------------------------------
JI Plot To Use Truck Bombs (Kimina Lyall, The Australian)
<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,5641286%255E601,00.html>
Jemaah Islamiah's foiled plot to destroy foreign embassies in Singapore, including the Australian high commission, would have used suicide bombers at the controls of deadly truck bombs, a US interrogation of a key JI figure has revealed.

Before You Build That Water Recycling Tank... (Sharmilpal Kaur, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,159629,00.html?>
Ban on diverting rainwater to private collection tanks to ensure nation's supply, particularly during droughts.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
-------------------------------------------
Siglap Set To Revive Its Glory Days In Art (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,159601,00.html>
The secondary school, known as an art powerhouse in the 1970s and 1980s, will be the art centre for schools in the east zone.

Tampines Jobless Set Up Stalls At Sunday Market (Sharmilpal Kaur, Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/topstories/story/0,4386,159630,00.html?>
It is part of a self-help effort thought up by the area's MP, Ms Irene Ng, who said the germ of the idea for the Tampines Changkat Sunday Market came from what her mother had done.

More Singapore News at <http://www.myapplemenu.com/singapore/>

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MyAppleMenu is edited by Heng-Cheong Leong. This site is not affiliated with Apple Computer, Inc., or any other companies in any manner. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, Power Macintosh, PowerBook, iMac, iBook, iPod, and eMac are registered trademarks of Apple Computer, Inc. All other brands or product names are trademarks of their registered holders. Copyright &copy; 1996-2002 Heng-Cheong Leong. All rights reserved.