[MyAppleMenu] Jul 25, 2004

Sun Jul 25 13:15:00 EDT 2004

MyAppleMenu Newsletter
Sunday, July 25, 2004

MyAppleMenu
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<http://www.myapplemenu.com/index.html>
Mac News for Mac Users

[News]

*** iPod Minis Already In Short Supply
<http://www.thepost.ie/web/DocumentView/did-243803656-pageUrl--2FThe-Newspaper-2FSundays-Paper-2FThe-Market-2FTechnology.asp>
by Adrian Weckler, Sunday Business Post
Two days after its official launch in Ireland, the tech world's hottest new gadget is already in short supply.

*** I-Pod, U-Pod, We All-Pod
<http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/opinions/articles/0725macdonald25.html>
by John MacDonald, Arizona Republic
Do I really think the iPod is hell on Earth? Not exactly. But does it chip away at humanity? Yes, a little, and here's why.

*** Death Of A Sales Format?
<http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7948-1189033,00.html>
by Robert Sandall, The Times
This year's Mercury shortlist has just been announced -- but in the iPod age, is a best-album award obsolete?

*** Powerful New Computer Cluster Will Tackle Complex Problems In Physics And Computer Science
<http://currents.ucsc.edu/04-05/07-26/cluster.html>
by Tim Stephens, UC Santa Cruz Currents
Playing the ancient Chinese game of go is among the tasks that awaits a powerful new cluster of Macintosh G5 computers set up at UCSC to tackle complex problems in physics and computer science.

*** Long Lines Await iPod Mini's Tokyo Debut
<http://maccentral.macworld.com/news/2004/07/24/ipodminitokyo/?lsrc=mcrss-0704>
by Martyn Williams, IDG News Service
Apple began international sales of its iPod mini digital music player on Saturday and opened the doors of its Tokyo store to a line of more than one thousand people.

[Opinion]

*** New iPod's Hidden Niceties
<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/archives/000269.php>
by Jason Snell, Macworld
If you've only got a set of headphones connected to your iPod via its mini jack, and that jack get spulled out, the iPod senses it and automatically pauses.

[Review]

*** Thinking Inside This Box Brings Music To Our Ears
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/nearwest/chi-0407250333jul25,1,5506169.story?coll=chi-newslocalnearwest-hed>
by Kevin Hunt, Hartford Courant
Many people now use a computer as their stereo system. Some have never even heard an actual stereo system in their home. With the MicroWorks II hooked up to their PC, they'll get an idea how much better music can sound.

*** Filemaker Pro 7
<http://www.machome.com/reviews/display.lasso?grr8=247>
by John Brandon, MacHome
This business management tool of choice is a clear winner, especially in light of almost nonexistent competition.

*** In A Wireless World, Hearing Is Believing
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10788-2004Jul24.html?nav=rss_technology>
by Rob Pegoraro, Washington Post
The AirPort Express and the Squeezebox have their faults, but they get most of the basic tasks done; if you could just combine their best parts, the results would be close to perfect.

[Sidetrack]

*** Boston Week on MyAppleMenu Reader 
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/2004/07/25/#20040725bg000001>
by Heng-Cheong Leong
All this week, my other blog, MyAppeleMenu Reader<http://www.myapplemenu.com/reader/>, will be featuring writings from the city of Boston. This is part of my experimentation to bring in some variety to my blogs. If you are interested in short stories, poems, and such, please do take a look. Thank you.

*** Oh, So You Are Not Listening? 
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/2004/07/25/#20040725bg000003>
by Heng-Cheong Leong
Jason Snell<http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/archives/000269.php> describes a new feature of the iPod, where the music will automatically pause when you pull out your headphones from the iPod.

The world is now waiting for Apple to invent a new headphone which can detect whether you are listening to your tunes.

Imagine: you are grooving to your iPod, a phone ring, you pull out the headphone from your ears to attend to the phone, and the music automatically pauses. After the phonecall, you put back the headphone, and the music automatically resume from where you left off. Cool, isn't it?

[Wintel]

*** iWar Looms As Gates Muscles In On Music
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/news/story/0,11711,1268858,00.html>
by David Smith, The Observer
Music fans are facing a 'nightmare' clash of technologies as Bill Gates' Microsoft prepares a multi-million pound launch into the digital music market.

*** Microsoft's Clean Slate
<http://weblog.siliconvalley.com/column/dangillmor/archives/010630.shtml>
by Dan GIllmor, San Jose Mercury News
We are paying dearly for Bush's deal with Gates, and we'll continue to pay for years to come, in lost innovation and high prices.

The Tomorrow Weblog
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<http://www.myapplemenu.com/tomorrow/index.html>
Emerging Technology. Innovative Applications. New Economy.

[News]

*** Web Phone Service May Have It All, Except Many Users
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/business/yourmoney/25voip.html?ex=1248408000&>
by Ken Belson, New York Times
Once the province of techno-nerds, new voice-over-Internet phones are going mainstream.

[Internet]

*** 7 Things RSS Is Good For
<http://www.newmediamusings.com/blog/2004/07/7_things_rss_is.html>
by JD Lasica

MyAppleMenu Reader
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<http://www.myapplemenu.com/reader/index.html>
The other things in life

[Feature]

*** Boston Week 
<http://www.myapplemenu.com/2004/07/25/#20040725bg000002>
by Heng-Cheong Leong
Many many moons ago, when I first started MyAppleMenu Reader (known as Applesurf Reader then), it was a weekly blog featuring writers, poets, and such. One feature artist per week. Somehow, through the months, this idea was abandoned in preference of the current format.

Today, I'll be bringing back some of that earlier flavor through an occasional series which I'll simply call, "Feature". (I'd be the first to admit that I'm no writer. I'm not even a headline writer.) The way I envision this is a series of articles over a week, loosely tied by some theme. It will not be available every single week, for this does take up quite a bit of my time, which I don't have a lot of. But I'd imagine I'll be doing this a little more frequent than monthly.

So, what better theme to start off than with some writings from the city that is in everybody's focus this week? Presenting, works from Boston, starting with Ms Elizabeth Graver.

*** Surtsey
<http://www.doubletakemagazine.org/mag/html/backissues/21/graver/>
by Elizabeth Graver
The institute looks like it's made of Legos, or like it's an architect's model of itself. Inside, it's all shining floors and sleek Scandinavian furniture. You can't feel the elevator move. On the walls of the auditorium, chunks of rock hang. Phoebe thinks they look too rough, like a mistake. She had expected something different -- dinner in a mansion in the old section of Reykjavik, a brief ceremony followed by a robust, fishy meal. Instead, the speeches were long and windy, and now frail vegetarian hors d'oeuvres are being passed around on translucent plastic trays.

*** The Mourning Door
<http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=4916>
by Elizabeth Graver
The first thing she finds is a hand. In the beginning, she thinks it's a tangle of sheet or a wadded sock caught between the mattress cover and the mattress, a bump the size of a walnut but softer, more yielding. She feels it as she's lying, lazing, in bed.

*** Scavenger Bird
<http://www.pshares.org/issues/article.cfm?prmArticleID=3840>
by Elizabeth Graver
Finding things had always been her greatest pleasure. She was not systematic, not one of the ones who bought the local paper and mapped out a route between all of Saturday's yard sales. What she loved was driving down the road and coming upon the sign -- a rough paper bag tacked to a telephone pole, or a neatly lettered cardboard square stapled to a pieced of wood: Garage, White Elephant, Rummage, Yard, Moving, Estate, Porch, Tag Sale.

[World]

*** Looking For Madam President
<http://www.boston.com/news/globe/magazine/articles/2004/07/25/looking_for_madam_president/>
by Laura Pappano, Boston Globe
Barbara Lee, the former wife of multimillionaire businessman Tom Lee, is looking past Bush and Kerry and using her fortune, zeal, and web of political connections (Hillary's practically on speed dial) to put a woman in the White House. But are we ready?

*** Origin Of The Species
<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A64984-2004Jul20.html>
by David Von Drehle, Washington Post
Up from the ooze, into the mud -- a brief history of American political evolution.

[Life]

*** Don't Write Off Penmanship Just Yet
<http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-et-weir24jul24,1,4899092.story?coll=la-headlines-technology>
by William Weir, Hartford Courant
Despite the inroads of the computer keyboard, handwriting advocates and educators say longhand still matters.

*** The Other Mother
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/magazine/25CUSTODY.html>
by Peggy Orenstein, New York Times
K. provided the eggs, her lover the womb, and for nearly six years the two women raised the twin girls thus conceived. But when the women broke up, K. learned how fragile the definition of motherhood could be.

SingaporeSurf
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<http://www.myapplemenu.com/singapore/index.html>
Life in the city

[News]

*** Singapore Filmmaker Takes Cut At Censors
<http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/world/2698260>
by Jack Lloyd-Smith, Associated Press
Government film censorship has Asia's equivalent to Michael Moore in an outrage.

*** New Cabinet Line-Up Likely Before Aug 12
<http://straitstimes.asia1.com.sg/news/story/0,4386,263315,00.html?>
by Straits Times
The line-up of ministers, including the choice of deputies, is almost complete, he told reporters.