[MyAppleMenu] Dec 2, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Network Congestion Issues? Apple Has You Covered With iOS 4.2.1 <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-31747_7-20024335-243.html>
Joe Aimonetti, CNET

Tests conducted by Nokia Siemens Networks confirmed that Apple has included support for the Network Controlled Fast Dormancy technology developed by Nokia to reduce network congestion and improve battery life in iOS 4.2.1.

The NCFD technology works by keeping smartphones in a perpetual "intermediate state" and "makes the network and the handset work together to create the best conditions for smartphones to work quickly, yet have a long battery life and minimize network congestion."

**** Ending iPod Autoplay <http://www.macworld.com/article/156114/2010/12/end_ipod_autoplay.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

**** iMovie Makes Anyone A Filmmaker <http://www.loopinsight.com/2010/12/01/imovie-makes-anyone-a-filmmaker/>
Jim Dalrymple, The Loop

I’ve made videos in previous versions of iMovie, but none have turned out so good as with iMovie 9. If you’ve ever wondered when you should jump in and start making movies, this is it.

**** Realmac Software Releases RapidWeaver 5 <http://www.macworld.com/article/156101/2010/12/rapidweaver_5.html?lsrc=rss_main>
David Chartier, Macworld

RapidWeaver sits comfortably in the space between drag-and-drop Website creation, like Apple’s iWeb, and everything-plus-the-kitchen-sink suites like Adobe’s Dreamweaver. While it is based around themed Website templates and provides no direct access to your site’s code, you can customize many behavioral aspects of your sites, install a wide variety of officially supported add-ons and themes, and add things like reusable text snippets and Website traffic analytics.

**** Xserve's Death Not A Deterrent For Many IT Admins <http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20024209-260.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=News-Apple>
Erica Ogg, CNET

**** Review: RipIt And Evom <http://www.macnn.com/reviews/ripit-and-evom.html>
MacNN

**** Old Macs Still Rock: Putting An iBook G4 Back Into Service <http://smokingapples.com/opinion/old-mac-in-service/>
Milind Alvares, Smoking Apples

Most of the tasks we use the computer for remain the same. You can’t type faster than *any* computer. The iBook ran MS Office just fine, it ran Safari just fine, and email worked perfectly. If it did so much back then, why not make it do all that today?

**** Aperture 3 Worfklow Four Times Faster Than Adobe Lightroom 3 <http://aperture.maccreate.com/2010/12/01/aperture-3-worfklow-four-times-faster-than-adobe-lightroom-3/>
Thomas Boyd, Mac Create

Here’s why, Aperture has the ability to allow a user to browse, adjust, and export before  all of the images are done copying off the card.

**** Libraries In OS X <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20024318-263.html>
Topher Kessler, CNET

There are four main libraries in OS X that serve similar but different purposes, and if you have a font or other item you would like to install, placing them in these different libraries may have different effects on the system.

**** Apple TV: Streaming And Renting From Devices <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704594804575648723976746774.html>
Walter S. Mossberg, Wall Street Journal

Overall, Apple TV is a reasonably priced, well-designed device. It is especially attractive for viewing videos and photos from your computers, and Apple devices, on your TV. But it doesn't deliver most Internet video sources, or even all online network programs.

**** Conservative Christians Blast Apple Decision To Discontinue App <http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2010/12/01/conservative-christians-blast-apple-decision-to-discontinue-app/>
Dan Gilgoff, CNN

A coalition of conservative Christian leaders blasted Apple on Wednesday for discontinuing an app the group had created because the technology giant said the app was offensive.

Colson and two other declaration drafters sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs on Monday asking that the app be reinstated. In an interview, Colson said that if the quiz was considered offensive, he would have it removed.

**** Users Unable To Log In After Updating OS X <http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-20024344-263.html>
Topher Kessler, CNET

**** Majesty 2 Arrives On The Mac <http://www.macworld.com/article/156127/2010/12/majesty2news.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Stephanie Kent, Macworld

Aspiring pages, knights and wizards: rejoice! Majesty 2: Fantasy Kingdom Sim, an epic real-time strategy game set in a high fantasy world, has finally arrived on the Mac.

**** New 'iPad Is Amazing' Ad Touts iOS 4.2 Features <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/01/new-ipad-is-amazing-ad-touts-ios-4-2-features/>
David Quilty, TUAW

Apple's latest iPad commercial, "iPad Is Amazing", is touting iOS 4.2's new features including AirPrint, AirPlay, multitasking, and folders. Seemingly trying to reign in some of those holiday shoppers, this new ad definitely offers up something for everyone in the family.

**** Apple Premieres New Michael Jackson Song <http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/apple-premieres-new-michael-jackson-song-912519>
Adam Hartley, TechRadar

The new tune, from Jackson's posthumous record, Michael, represents Apple's latest attempt to kickstart Ping, which has got off to something of a slow start since launch back in September.

**** On The Manhattan Declaration And Apple's Curation Of The App Store <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/02/on-the-manhattan-declaration-and-apples-curation-of-the-app-sto/>
TJ Luoma, TUAW

Apple has made it clear from day one that the App Store is "curated" according to its standards, and included in those standards is a clear message that attacking religion is off-limits.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** See The Future With A Search <http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/26452/?p1=BI&a=f>
Tom Simonite, Technology Review

A startup called Recorded Future has developed a tool that scrapes real-time data from the Internet to find hints of what will happen in the future. The company's search tool spits out results on a timeline that stretches into the future as well as the past.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Top Of The Crops: Cabbages In Art <http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2010/dec/01/alexandra-harris-cabbages-art-first-book-award?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Alexandra Harris, Guardian

Why are artists – from George Orwell to Stanley Spencer – obsessed with cabbage?

**** Unveiling Hidden China <http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2010/dec/09/unveiling-hidden-china/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+nybooks+%28The+New+York+Review+of+Books%29>
Christian Caryl, New York Review Of Books

Napoleon famously described China as a sleeping giant that would shake the world when it finally awoke. Well, now the giant is up and about, and the rest of us can’t help but notice. 2010, indeed, could well end up being remembered as the year when China started throwing its weight around.

Why this should be happening now, in precisely this way, is not immediately obvious. For years Chinese leaders seized every opportunity to assert that their country’s growing power posed no threat to the international status quo. Talk of the “peaceful rise” was all the rage. Chinese diplomats deftly disarmed the concerns of their neighbors in the region, reassuring anyone who would listen that Beijing would never stoop to the sorry unilateralism of those imperialists in Washington. Journalists spoke of China’s “charm offensive.”

**** An Odyssey Through The Brain, Illuminated By A Rainbow <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/science/30brain.html?ref=science>
Abigail Zuger, New York Times

“Portraits of the Mind: Visualizing the Brain From Antiquity to the 21st Century,” newly published by Abrams, includes short essays by prominent neuroscientists and long captions by Mr. Schoonover — but its words take second place to the gorgeous imagery, from the first delicate depictions of neurons sketched in prim Victorian black and white to the giant Technicolor splashes the same structures make across 21st-century LED screens.

**** Consider Ginger <http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/wordofmouth/2010/nov/30/consider-ginger>
Oliver Thring, Guardian

No one knows where ginger evolved, and it no longer seems to exist in the wild. In Sanskrit, singabera means horns or antlers, and the plant may well have spread from south Asia, but we can be no more precise than that. It lends itself supremely to cultivation: at the right latitudes, you can plant a stick of ordinary ginger in your back garden, and the tan or green rhizomes will knobble and seep into the earth. This is a plant we were destined to enjoy.

**** Speaking In Tongues <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/12/01/speaking-in-tongues/?ref=opinion>
Mary H.k. Choi, New York Times

Manhattan, after eight years here, still reminds me of Hong Kong. There are parts of Chinatown that are the spit and image of streets in Wan Chai and I am held in thrall by the Chrysler building as much as I was by I.M. Pei’s Bank of China Tower. But in the consolation facsimile I had first sought for superficial reasons — the dense, disparate population, spellbinding skyline, internationally recognized address — I hadn’t considered the implication of the city’s pace or the composition of its inhabitants. I fit in. It’s not just that the ingrained muscle memory for social navigation and a hearty tolerance for alcohol acquired in Hong Kong turned out to be felicitous traits in New York. It’s that here sometimes I get to sound like myself.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Why Council Proceeds Cautiously <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/Story/STIStory_609421.html>
Lim Hock San, National Council On Problem Gambling, Straits Times

It is precisely because of the family tension and conflict that accompanies every single application for a family exclusion order that we had designed the workflow to start with a family conference with trained and experienced counsellors.

We will change our workflow such that all applications will be heard by NCPG while Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre will concurrently try to encourage families to work through the often complex and difficult family issues that problem gambling would have caused.

**** A Winning Political Baptism Of Fire <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101202-0000176/A-winning-political-baptism-of-fire>
Eugene K B Tan, Today

If the next GE is to induct the new generation of leaders, then it is important for some of the more promising rookies (and political office-bearers) to be fielded in SMCs. Former prime ministers Lee Kuan Yew and Goh Chok Tong, and current prime minister Lee Hsien Loong all fought electoral contests in their maiden elections. Would it not be deeply meaningful if our future prime ministers can walk that same path and wear the badge of honour, so to speak? 

If politics is about serving the people and improving their lives, then the hustings must be an invigorating learning experience for our political representatives and leaders. There is no better initiation for a fledgling MP, especially one with the makings of a potential prime minister, than to have an electoral battle. Better still, in an SMC. 

**** MediaCorp Loses Suit <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_609384.html>
Chua Hian Hou, Straits Times

A small start-up offering an online service that allowed consumers to watch national broadcaster MediaCorp's programmes online will be able to resume service, after the Court of Appeal ruled in its favour.

**** Singapore Should Have Its Own Definition Of Being Modern <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC101202-0000182/Singapore-should-have-its-own-definition-of-being-modern>
Mellissa Ang Siew Ling, Today

By adopting appropriate methods from the West as well as the East so as to successfully run and making those methods our own, Singapore would truly define what it takes to be a modern nation in its own right. 

**** Alan Shadrake, Singapore’s Death Penalty Use Debated In UK House Of Lords <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/12/alan-shadrake-singapores-death-penalty-use-debated-in-uk-house-of-lords/>
The Online Citizen

**** Cost Of Living Comparison... <http://singaporemind.blogspot.com/2010/12/cost-of-living-comparison.html>
Diary Of A Singaporean Mind

The rising cost of living especially the cost of public housing means that the struggle for ordinary Singapore to stay afloat becomes tougher with each passing year. For the elderly and low income Singaporeans, the pain of poverty becomes harder to bear as the cost of living spirals up. Many ordinary Singaporeans are beginning to ask...what is the selling our system? One that makes them struggle their whole life without a good retirement in Singapore to look forward to.

**** The Plight Of Foreign Maids <http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=4417>
Patrick Kee, Sgpolitics.net

The government should impose a higher minimum salary for the maids and reduce the levy. It is not right that we as a nation should compound the problems of the poor in our neighbouring countries. The monies collected from the levy should also be used to equip the maids with skills which they can use when they return home.

**** Temasek, GIC Raise $9.9 Billion, Most Among Sovereign Firms <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-12-01/singapore-s-temasek-gic-raise-9-9-billion-most-among-sovereign-firms.html>
Netty Ismail, Bloomberg

Temasek Holdings Pte and Government of Singapore Investment Corp. raised about $9.9 billion from international investors over the past year, selling more debt and equity than any other state investment firm.

**** SDP: We Don't Need Political Handouts <http://yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4395-sdp-we-dont-need-political-handouts>
Singapore Democrat Party

Under Workfare low-wage workers are still underpaid. They may get assistance but let's be clear here: They are still undperpaid. The obvious question is why must workers, young or old, not be paid sufficiently so that they do not have to depend on grants and handouts?

It is really a simple principle: All workers working on a full-time basis must, at the very minimum, be able to meet the basic cost of living in Singapore. No one putting in a honest day's work should have to go to the Government and prove that they have met some criteria in order to get monetary assistance just so that they can make ends meet.

Self-worth is an important concept, not just in social terms but economic ones as well. A poorly paid worker is an insecure worker is an unproductive worker.

**** Shadrake To Remain In S'pore, Plans To Sue For 'Malicious Prosecution' <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1096880/1/.html>
Zul Othman, Sara Grosse, Channel NewsAsia

British author Alan Shadrake has decided to remain in Singapore while appealing against his jail sentence and plans to sue Singapore both here and in Europe for malicious prosecution.

A defiant Shadrake told reporters: "I am going to fight it, I'm not backing down, not ever."

**** Encourage People To Rely On Own Efforts Instead Of Handouts: PM <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1096850/1/.html>
S Ramesh, Channel NewsAsia

Singapore has avoided a massive welfare bureaucracy, thanks to its own comprehensive social safety net. The key is to encourage people to rely on their own efforts instead of handouts, says prime minister Lee Hsien Loong.