[MyAppleMenu] Dec 17, 2009

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
====================================

**** The Apple Store's Checkout Form Redesign <http://www.lukew.com/ff/entry.asp?968>
Luke Wroblewski, Functioning Form

Apple's online store certainly played a role in this achievement as retail sales data shows that Mac sales were up 21% year-over-year in the months of October and November. So it's interesting to note that Apple's primary online sales channel (Web-based checkout) was redesigned during this time.

**** And The Winner Is…Apple <http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/and_the_winner_is...apple/>
Ted Landau, The Mac Observer

I can hardly wait to see what Apple has in store for the next decade.

**** The iPhone Goes To War <http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=f9b7a84908eb71ca880ca0ae41aea13f>
Roy Furchgott, New York Times

The adaptation of the iPhone to military use is somewhat unusual, as technology more often trickles from the military to the consumer market. But this is a rare case of consumer hardware and software concepts being adapted for military use.

**** Apple Posts Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7 <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=b1d179f76087971ee75497c572a984bd>
Jonathan Seff, Macworld

On Wednesday, Apple released Digital Camera Raw Compatibility Update 2.7, designed to extend RAW image compatibility for Aperture 2, iPhoto ’08 and iPhoto ’09.

**** VLC For Mac Development On Verge Of Demise? <http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/12/16/lack.of.volunteers.hurts.project/>
MacNN

Production on a 64-bit VLC for the Mac has been put on hold, and VideoLAN warns that unless it can secure more developers, Mac support may be ended with the release of VLC 1.1.0.

**** iPhone, You Phone, Now We All Phone... <http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/dec/17/iphone-apple>
Roy Greenslade, The Guardian

Newspapers, national and regional, are going iPhone app crazy. Apple must be overjoyed. It will surely encourage people to discover the wonders of their mobile product, or, in their terms the "iPhone experience."

**** Review: Nisus Writer Pro 1.4 Word Processor <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=1d64f4ecc88d21f27703e59af5f8fdb4>
William Porter, Macworld

For an awful lot of users, including users with advanced document-production needs, Nisus Writer Pro is a solid and very satisfactory alternative to Word.

**** Five Misconceptions About iTunes And iPods <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=6e678db3ea5dee6400e16d000cc2b67e>
Jonathan Seff, Macworld

There's a lot of misinformation floating around about the iTunes/iPod/iPhone ecosystem. Here's a truthful look at a few of the more popular notions out there.

**** Review: TypeStyler X (v.10.6) <http://rss.macworld.com/click.phdo?i=542d7a65ad6b63e306bc27072d838e07>
Jay J. Nelson, Macworld

TypeStyler X's breadth and depth of its typographic features and constant visual feedback make it perfectly suited for teaching many aspects of graphic design



The Tomorrow Weblog
====================================

**** A Deluge Of Data Shapes A New Era In Computing <http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=0f1e22c455db986940cf88e139f4645f>
John Markoff, New York Times

In a speech given just a few weeks before he was lost at sea off the California coast in January 2007, Jim Gray, a database software pioneer and a Microsoft researcher, sketched out an argument that computing was fundamentally transforming the practice of science.



MyAppleMenu Reader
====================================

**** Can Anybody Make A Movie For Women? <http://feeds.nytimes.com/click.phdo?i=60880022d1c9e3db7d4e5596536754f1>
Daphne Merkin, New York Times

Nancy Meyers makes movies in which the middle-aged woman always triumphs. Is this what women want?

**** Are Classics Classy? The Roman View <http://blogs.nybooks.com/post/286358762/are-classics-classy-the-roman-view>
Mary Beard, The New York Review of Books

What is a “classic”? Is it simply (as Frank Kermode, I think, once put it) an old book that we still read? Or is there something a bit more sinister to the whole idea? An old book you feel you ought to have read? Or is it more casually serendipitous: An old book you have rediscovered and want to share with the world? And what does a “classicist” (in the Greek-and-Latin sense of the word) have to contribute to the debate?

**** The Year In Corrections <http://www.myapplemenu.com/reader/2009/12/17/IM010020/>
Heng-Cheong Leong, MyAppleMenu

This year’s winner is without question amusing — not to mention embarrassing for the news organization the published it — in that it demonstrates a certain amount of cultural/musical ignorance.



The year in corrections, typos, and unintended humor, as collected by Regret the Error [http://www.regrettheerror.com/2009/12/16/crunks-2009-the-year-in-media-errors-and-corrections/].

**** Second Thoughts On Rewriting <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/dec/17/second-thought-rewriting-al-kennedy>
AL Kennedy, The Guardian

The virtues of reworking, taking apart, breaking down, questioning, exploring, forgetting and losing and finding and remembering and generally testing your prose until it shows you what it needs to be.



SingaporeSurf
====================================

**** Not Cost-effective To Air For Free <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC091217-0000091/Not-cost-effective-to-air-for-free>
Joy Olby-Tan, MediaCorp, Today

MediaCorp needs to balance the substantial costs of bringing in the World Cup matches for our viewers with revenues from advertisers and sponsors.

**** Press Muse – The Good, Bad And Ugly (part Two) <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2009/12/press-muse-%e2%80%93-the-good-bad-and-ugly-part-two/>
The Online Citizen

**** The Young PAP Are Just As Spineless <http://seelanpalay.blogspot.com/2009/12/young-pap-are-just-as-spineless.html>
Seelan Palay

The spinelessness of the YPAP is not surprising, however. Their mother party the PAP has never dared to debate with the opposition publicly on national issues. They couldn't even defend themselves when the late J B Jeyaretnam tore their ill-logic to bits during his terms in parliament.

**** åœ¨æ–°åŠ å¡çœ‹å“¥æœ¬å“ˆæ ¹ <http://news.google.com/news/url?fd=R&sa=T&url=http%3A%2F%2Fnews.163.com%2F09%2F1217%2F00%2F5QMQOCK5000120GR.html&usg=AFQjCNHkqXi3Ty9oY40qOVt8wWCEJrI4mg>
李叶明, 新快报

**** The Challenger Disaster.... <http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2009/12/challenger-disaster.html>
Diary of A Singaporean Mind

**** Not Filling But Yet Not Starving <http://www.nowhere.per.sg/?p=1414>
The Lycan Times

**** Singapore's Big Gamble Begins <http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Southeast_Asia/KL18Ae01.html>
Muhammad Cohen, Asia Times

Under the guidance of Singapore's government - which even now, weeks before gaming begins, still hasn't issued its casino regulations - it was arguably a case of the blind leading the blind while throwing money down a hole.

**** Singapore Exports End Decline <http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iHDkSsEjXhIpj51ZqymP7foe95zw>
AFP

Singapore's exports rose for the first time in 19 months in November, government data showed Thursday, further strengthening the country's rebound from a severe recession.

**** Lee Kuan Yew On India <http://www.pressrun.net/weblog/2009/12/lee-kuan-yew-on-india.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+rana+%28Blowin%27+In+The+Wind%29>
Blowin' In The Wind

**** SingTel Says No Problem With Network Today <http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TheSingaporeIphoneGuide/~3/TtUSi1PRCeo/singtel-says-no-problem-with-network.html>
Jimmy Yap, iMerlion

I just got off the line with a SingTel spokesperson who said that she had checked with her network people and they said there was no problem with the network.