[MyAppleMenu] Monday, Dec 29, 2003

Mon Dec 29 21:05:00 EST 2003

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Monday, Dec 29, 2003

MyAppleMenu : Top Stories
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Executive Of The Year (Lizette Wilson, San Francisco Business Times)
<http://sanfrancisco.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2003/12/29/story1.html?page=1>
Steve's Jobs: Balancing performance at Pixar, innovation at Apple.

MyAppleMenu : News
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Online Music Finally Starts To Rock 'N' Roll (Benny Evangelista, San Francisco Chronicle)
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2003/12/29/BUGQV3V3L01.DTL>
The success of Apple Computer's iTunes Music Store, which has sold more than 25 million songs, set off a new Internet gold rush of online services that had even mainstream retailers like Wal-Mart joining the stampede.

2004 May See 'Bit Of A Gold Rush' For Digital Tunes (Byron Acohido, USA Today)
<http://www.usatoday.com/tech/techinvestor/techcorporatenews/2003-12-29-loudeye_x.htm>
With consumers fast getting used to the idea of buying songs online, scores of companies are readying launches of digital music initiatives.

MyAppleMenu : Opinions
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Rob Enderle: Putting The 'Anal' In 'Analyst' (John Gruber)
<http://daringfireball.net/2003/12/enderle>
If the purpose of the rumored iPod expansion is to lower the price, why in the world would Apple switch to a higher-priced storage medium?

MyAppleMenu : Reviews
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Sight For Sore Eyes (Troy Dreier, PC Magazine)
<http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1423329,00.asp>
Apple iMacs are always beautifully designed, but the latest, a system with gorgeous 20-inch flat screen, is almost too striking to relegate to a desktop.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: Top Stories
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The Duel Of The Dual-Layer DVD Formats (Ed Frauenheim, CNET News.com)
<http://rss.com.com/2100-1041_3-5130905.html>
One side of the ongoing recordable DVD format battle is expected to be first with products that nearly double the amount of data held on one disc. But that victory may not put an end to the feud.

MyAppleMenu Tomorrow: News & Opinions
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The Personal Links Of Three Social-Networking Sites (Joseph Menn, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-fi-friendster29dec29,1,6343397.story?coll=la-headlines-technology>
If there's one place where knowing the right people is as important as it is in Hollywood, that place is Silicon Valley.

Communication Breakdown Threatens VoIP (Ben Charny and Marguerite Reardon, CNET News.com)
<http://rss.com.com/2100-7352_3-5133196.html>
As cable and telephone companies begin offering Net telephony services to consumers in earnest, complications on the back end threaten to crimp cost savings for providers and ultimately dampen expectations for the much-hyped technology.

Offshore Jobs In Technology: Opportunity Or A Threat? (Steve Lohr, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/22/technology/22neco.html>

An Industry Watches Japan's Experience (Ken Belson, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/business/media/29cell.html>
Having drawn 300,000 subscribers to its 3G service in the first 18 months, DoCoMo added about that many in September, and by the end of November had 1.6 million subscribers.

Will Google Take The Plunge? (Laurie J. Flynn, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/business/media/29google.html>
Many investors are eagerly waiting for Google, the Web search titan, to go public. But those same investors, many of them still smarting from losses when technology stocks plummeted, may not be ready to jump at just any new technology offering in 2004.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Science & Tech
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What's It Do? Nothing, But Mathematicians Relish The Quest (Fermando Q. Gouvea, Los Angeles Times)
<http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-gouvea29dec29,1,3520845.story?coll=la-news-comment-opinions>
Although proving theorems usually doesn't add up to anything practical, the intellectual allure is powerful.

Wins, Losses And Algorithms (Thomas K. Landauer, New York Times)
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/12/29/opinion/29LAND.html>
When people try to divide subjective opinions into components and put them together to get more accuracy, they often end up disagreeing with the result.

So, Scrooge Was Right After All (Ross Gittins, Sydney Morning Herald)
<http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/23/1071941734365.html>
Gift giving is irrational -- unless, perhaps, you hare hedging your bets.

MyAppleMenu Reader: Life
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Library Books Play Second Fiddle To Videos, CDs (Michael Booth, Denver Post)
<http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~78~1854022,00.html>
As budget-squeezed public libraries rush to buy DVDs for an insatiable public, branches must act more like multimedia centers and less like temples of the printed page.

Oh, R-o-ob, The Bad Words Won't Go Away (John T. McWhorter, Washington Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A33486-2003Dec26?language=printer>
Just like clothing, our language reflects who we are, and we are a people who can only deem most profanity "evil" if we are ready to be seen 50 years from now as being as laughable as the producers of "Gilligan's Island" who required Mary Ann to keep her navel covered.

Japan's Empire Of Cool (Anthony Faiola, Washington Post)
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A33261-2003Dec26.html>
Even as this country of 127 million has lost its status as a global economic superpower and the national confidence has been sapped by a 13-year economic slump, Japan is reinventing itself -- this time as the coolest nation on Earth.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : Top Stories
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Departmental Stores, Unable To Change Price Tags, Will Continue To Charge 4% GST (Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/print/64022/1/.html>
It has been a busy time for retailers -- with Christmas sales and New Year's offers. But on top of the huge crowds and extended shopping hours, sales staff have also been busy preparing new price tags.

MyAppleMenu SingaporeSurf : News & Opinions
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Credit Card Spending By Affluent Singapore Falls: Nielsen Media Research (Chan Hwa Loon, Channel NewsAsia)
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/64009/1/.html>
A survey on credit card spending indicates that affluent Singaporeans have also been pinched by the recent hard times.

No Way To Treat Women (Today)
<http://www.todayonline.com/articles/12327.asp>
Steve Chia must rethink power dynamics in marital, boss-maid relationships.

Opposition Will Expose Their Own Flaws: PM (Straits Times)
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/singapore/story/0,4386,227484,00.html?>
Goh Chok Tong yesterday rebutted the claims of some opposition politicians that the ruling People's Action Party can no longer deliver on its promises of material well-being for Singaporeans.

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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 (C) 1996-2003 Heng-Cheong Leong. All rights reserved.