[MyAppleMenu] Feb 12, 2009

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Thu Feb 12 18:59:00 EST 2009

MyAppleMenu
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**** 7 Ways To Take Your Docs On The Go With Your iPhone <http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2009/02/7-ways-to-access-your-documents-from-your-iphone.ars>
by David Chartier, Ars Technica

Apple doesn't let iPhone owners store files on their devices, but there are plenty of third-party options for getting the job done. Ars rounds up our favorite Web services, desktop clients, and native iPhone apps that allow iPhone users to access files while away from their desks.

**** IBM Study Ranks Mac As Most Vulnerable OS <http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/02/11/mac.os.vulnerabilities/>
by MacNN

IBM's security research and development group, X-Force, has released an annual report that suggests Mac is the most vulnerable operating system. The percentage of patched vulnerabilities compared to the total number of disclosed vulnerabilities was used for the rankings, with Mac OS X and OS X Server each leaving 14.3 percent of the problems unresolved.

**** Foxmarks Synchronizes IE, Safari, Firefox Bookmarks <http://www.macnn.com/articles/09/02/11/foxmarks.update/>
by MacNN

Foxmarks, Inc. has released several variants of its browser add-on, Foxmarks, that can now be used to synchronize bookmarks between Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

**** Check That Authentication Dialog! <http://www.itwire.com/content/view/23172/1151/1/1/>
by Stephen Withers, IT Wire

"We advise that Mac OS X users don't rely simply on familiar icons or messages from the authentication dialog box, but take an extra little step in order to verify the execution path of the program that is asking for the password."

**** Google: Go Tell Apple To Shove It <http://blogs.zdnet.com/perlow/?p=9466>
by Jason Perlow, ZDNet

**** iPod Touch Helps Mobile Internet Grow &amp; Grow &amp; ... <http://gigaom.com/2009/02/11/ipod-touch-helps-mobile-internet-use-grow/>
by Om Malik, GigaOM

**** Solving Font Mysteries With iPhone <http://cultofmac.com/solving-font-mysteries-with-iphone/8220>
by Lonnie Lazar, Cult Of Mac

Using the iPhone’s built-in camera, users can photograph the text in question (or choose an existing image from the camera’s photo albums). The app allows you to crop the image, focusing on only the important parts before uploading to the WhatTheFont web-based identification service.

**** Virtual TimeClock Adds Time Deduction Rules, New Reports <http://www.macworld.com/article/138788/2009/02/virtualtimeclock.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Peter Cohen, Macworld

Virtual TimeClock helps employers track their employees' comings and goings.

**** Curio Integrates With Evernote <http://www.macworld.com/article/138791/2009/02/evernotecurio.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Peter Cohen, Macworld

Zengobi and Evernote on Thursday announced new integration between their respective products--Curio, Zengobi's brainstorming software, and Evernote, the company's eponymous information capture and retrieval software

**** App Store Lessons: The Tao Of Running Contests <http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2009/02/app-store-lessons-the-tao-of-running-contests.ars>
by Erica Sadun, Ars Technica

Apple has started cracking down on contests and sweepstakes associated with App Store products. Ars investigates and learns how you can work around these rules to better market your product.

**** VMware Fusion Imports Parallels Desktop 4 Virtual Machines <http://www.macworld.com/article/138803/2009/02/fusion.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Peter Cohen, Macworld

The new 2.0.2 update features the ability to import virtual machines created using a competitor product -- Parallels Desktop 4. The update supports Parallels Server as well.

**** Review: Spreadsheet Editing Apps For The iPhone <http://www.macworld.com/article/138784/2009/02/iphonespreadsheet.html?lsrc=rss_main>
by Rob Griffiths, Macworld

How well can a spreadsheet work on a 3.5-inch screen?

**** Apple Recasts iMovie With Improved Features <http://pogue.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/apple-recasts-imovie-with-improved-features/>
by David Pogue, New York Times

The new iMovie offers so many satisfying time-savers that I would embrace it wholeheartedly, if it weren’t still missing one critical option.

**** MacBook Owners Frustrated By New Audio Jacks <http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/02/12/macbook_owners_frustrated_by_new_audio_jacks.html>
by Zach Spear, AppleInsider

A few owners of Apple's new unibody notebooks are experiencing backwards compatibility issues with the units' redesigned audio jacks, which offer a snug connection for the company's latest headphones with integrated microphones at the expense of a few legacy stereo headsets and speaker connectors.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Tech Layoffs: The Real Numbers Aren't So Bad <http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/02/11/06NF-tech-layoffs-reality-check_1.html>
by Tom Sullivan, InfoWorld

A series of announcements suggest 35,000 or more tech-vendor workers lost their jobs this winter; the real figures are far, far less.

**** New Kindle Audio Feature Causes A Stir <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123419309890963869.html>
by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Jeffrey A Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal

Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice.

**** Twitter? It's What You Make It <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/12/technology/personaltech/12pogue.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper>
by David Pogue, New York Times

It can be a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source &mdash; whatever. There are no rules, or at least none that apply equally well to everyone.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** <i>Our American Cousin</i> Revisited <http://www.slate.com/id/2211071/?from=rss>
by Timothy Noah, Slate

Was the play that ended Lincoln's life any good?

**** Last-Minute Changes <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123440723977275883.html?mod=rss_Books>
by Christopher F. Chabris, Wall Street Journal

Scientific orthodoxy says that human evolution stopped a long time ago. Did it?

**** Why Are We So Fascinated With US Literature? <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2009/feb/11/poe-ballantine-american-literature>
by Sutart Evers, The Guardian

The reasons, I suppose, are ones of personal taste and individual prejudice. The fact is, I prefer American English: I like the way it sounds; its rhythms and its cadences. Give me a diner over a café, a sidewalk over a pavement, a bar over a pub and definitely a gas station over a petrol forecourt.

**** Dawkins On Darwin <http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article5707143.ece>
by Richard Dawkins, The Times

Why we really do need to know the amazing truth about evolution, and the equally amazing intellectual dishonesty of its enemies.

**** How Could 9,000 Business Reporters Blow It? <http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2009/01/how-could-9000-business-reporters-blow-it>
by Dean Starkman, Mother Jones

In looking back on how we got here, the business press assumes a tone of rueful omniscience, as in this late-2007 New York Times piece on regulatory laxity under Alan Greenspan: "Had officials bothered to look, frightening clues of the coming crisis were available." Of course, the clues the Times cites in the very next sentence--the ceaseless research of the North Carolina-based Center for Responsible Lending--were available had anyone bothered to look. So, a reader might well ask, why didn't the media?



SingaporeSurf
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**** Singapore Sees Tourism Revenue Down 19 Percent <http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2009/02/11/business/AS-Singapore-Tourism.php>
by The Associated Press

Singapore expects tourism revenue to plunge as much as 19 percent this year as a global economic slowdown undermines spending on travel.

**** 新加坡“开国库”的启示 <http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2009-02-11/152617194188.shtml>
by 李永乐, 新民周刊

政府“居高”的模式，表面看是强调政府权威，实则这并非权力的争夺，而是有其现实的意义，若政府权威不足，在 劳方资方矛盾激化之时，必然无法扮演公正有效的协调与仲裁角色。这次新加坡政府“开库放水”的做法，则已超越“协调与 仲裁”，而达到“排忧解难”的高度。

**** Singapore Is A Secrecy Jurisidiction <http://www.taxresearch.org.uk/Blog/2009/02/11/singapore-is-a-secrecy-jurisidiction/>
by Richard Murphy, Tax Research UK

Singapore is a secrecy jurisdiction. Secrecy jurisdictions are places that intentionally create regulation for the primary benefit and use of those not resident in their geographical domain that is designed to undermine the legislation or regulation of another jurisdiction and that, in addition, create a deliberate, legally backed veil of secrecy that ensures that those from outside the jurisdiction making use of its regulation cannot be identified to be doing so.

**** 就地养老和就地终老 <http://www.zaobao.com/yl/yl090212_501.shtml>
by 吴俊刚, 联合早报

老有所养，就地养老；老有所终，就地终老。

**** Temasek And Our Unanswered Questions <http://wayangparty.com/?p=5082>
by Kelvin Tan, The Wayang Party Club

Temasek’s losses should be seen in a more balanced light: a combination of bad timing, inhospitable global developments, and, the likelihood that Ho Ching was simply not up to task.

This last point can either refer to Ho Ching’s ‘ability’, or her role as the PM’s wife that has become an obstacle when investing abroad. In this regard, Ho Ching’s stepping down is the first step.

**** Crisis Spoils Singapore Celebrations <http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/8f3e5d78-f87a-11dd-aae8-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1>
by John Burton, Financial Times

The economic crisis is putting Singapore's political system to its severest test since independence in 1965. "Officials appear scared about the public reaction. I've never seen them so concerned before," said a Singapore-based regional political analyst.

Terence Chong, of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies in Singapore, says: "Political order and economic stability may go hand in hand, but there is increasing awareness, even within the PAP, that that may no longer work."

**** Banks Turn Away Business <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporebusinessnews/view/408497/1/.html>
by Kelvin Chow, Today

Financial institutions across Singapore are being cautious following accusations last year of mis-selling complicated financial products, triggered by the Lehman Brothers minibonds saga.

**** Wayang Party Club Proposal Is Irrelevant <http://eternal-hap.blogspot.com/2009/02/wayang-party-club-proposal-is.html>
by Making History Relevant

Mass discontent against the PAP government has been imagined by Wayang Party Club.

**** Active Citizens And Effective States - Are They Compatible? <http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=293250>
by Duncan Green, Dispatch Online

Widespread awareness of rights means that economic growth alone, while necessary, will not guarantee legitimacy, much less bring about the deep transformations that constitute real development.

**** Watch It Live! <http://www.choongyong.com/2009/02/12/watch-it-live/>
by Koh Choong Yong

**** Expect More Goodies To Be Rolled Out In The Days Ahead, Thanks To Temasek <http://wayangparty.com/?p=5093>
by Eugene Yeo, The Wayang Party Club

The bitter medicine has been forced down our throats, now is the sweetener to wash away the bitter after taste.

**** Physical Training Phase For NS Enlistees Extended <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/408531/1/.html>
by Channel NewsAsia

The Ministry of Defence has decided to extend the Physical Training Phase (PTP) for National Service enlistees who fail to get NAPFA test silver.

**** Data Protection In Singapore <http://stngiam.wordpress.com/2009/02/11/data-protection-in-singapore/>
by Shih Tung's Wordpress Blog

As it turns out, the government really has been reviewing privacy legislation in Singapore for a v...e...r...y long time - 20 years in fact.

And still, consumers have no protection.

**** 李显龙夫妇共写传奇佳话 <http://www.mzrb.com.cn/news/0902/12/090212086.htm>
by 梅州日报

经历过批评与磨砺，也经历过加冕与荣誉，生活中的李显龙与何晶更比常人多了份淡定与从容。有人说，走近两人时，看到的不是政界与商界的强人，而是传统的相夫教子、尊老爱幼的普通的东方人。

**** Circle Line Stage 3 To Open May 30 <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/408574/1/.html>
by Channel NewsAsia

The five stations to open are: Bartley, Serangoon, Lorong Chuan, Bishan and Marymount. The other stages of the Circle Line are expected to open from 2010 onwards.

**** Okay To Foldable Bicycles <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_337515.html>
by Straits Times

Foldable bicycles will be allowed on trains and public buses during off-peak hours from March 15, senior parliamentary secretary for transport Teo Ser Luck announced in Parliament on Thursday.

**** NS Deferments For Rare Talents <http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking%2BNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_337593.html>
by Kor Kian Beng, Straits Times

Rarely is approval given because it is vital to uphold the NS system's strength and integrity, by making it universal and fair to all Singaporeans, said Dr Ng Eng Hen, second minister for defence in Parliament on Thrusday.

How is it fair that you cannot defer if you have special talents? How is it universal when different vocations brings different benefits and hardship?

**** LTA To Spend S$43m On Building Cycling Tracks In Public Housing Estates <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/408594/1/.html>
by Channel NewsAsia

The Land Transport Authority (LTA) will spend S$43 million to design and construct dedicated cycling tracks next to pedestrian footpaths in HDB estates. The first phase of this programme will be implemented in Tampines, Yishun, Sembawang, Pasir Ris and Taman Jurong.

This is a mistake, I feel. The tracks should be build next to roads, not pedestrian footpaths to emphasis bicycles belong to roads and not footpaths.

**** Graciousness Out Of Whack <http://geraldgiam.sg/2009/02/graciousness-out-of-whack/>
by Gerald Giam




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