[MyAppleMenu] Dec 20, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

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

**** 10 Fresh Mac Apps With Beautiful Interfaces (And What We Can Learn From Them) <http://designshack.co.uk/articles/software/10-fresh-mac-apps-with-beautiful-interfaces-and-what-we-can-learn-from-them>
Joshua Johnson, Design Shack

The next time you’re faced with the task of designing an interface, why not learn from those who have already succeeded? Below we’ll take a look at the interfaces of ten beautiful and fairly new Mac applications and discuss what went right.

**** Apple Posts Free Developer Documentation For iBooks Users <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/19/apple-posts-free-developer-documentation-for-ibooks-users/>
Steven Sande, TUAW

**** Demand <http://waffle.wootest.net/2010/12/18/demand/>
Waffle

Raw demand is a computationally cheap and good indication of what people want, but it takes extensive editing, thinking and experimenting to go from that to what’s actually right. Sometimes, you can’t even trust your own intuition to find out if something is awful or awesome. Where most software projects fail is in taking this in account.

**** App Store Price War Continues, Prices Drop Pre-freeze <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/20/app-store-price-war-continues-prices-drop-pre-freeze/>
Mike Schramm, TUAW

**** Microsoft Updates WP7 Connector For Mac With Improved Setup, Bug Fixes <http://www.tuaw.com/2010/12/20/microsoft-updates-wp7-connector-for-mac-with-improved-setup-bug/>
Aron Trimble, TUAW

Microsoft has released an update for Windows Phone 7 Connector, the still-in-beta OS X application that works with iPhoto and iTunes to allow you to sync your DRM-free multimedia with Microsoft's 'wares.

**** Tap Tap Revenge 4 Released <http://www.macworld.com/article/156542/2010/12/tap_tap_revenge.html?lsrc=rss_main>
James Fudge, GamePro

**** Syncing Multiple Google Calendars To iPhone <http://www.macworld.com/article/156541/2010/12/sync_google_calendars.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

**** Find Special Characters In Pages <http://www.macworld.com/article/156533/2010/12/pagesspecialcharacters.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Lex Friedman, Macworld

**** Office Apps Showdown: Presentations <http://www.macworld.com/article/156478/2010/12/officeshowdownpresentations.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Joe Kissell, Macworld

You can create impressive, professional presentations in both Keynote ’09 and PowerPoint 2011, and can do so more easily, and with more pizazz, than in the previous versions of each. But each has its unique strengths.

**** WSJ's Concerns Over App Data-sharing May Be Overblown <http://www.macworld.com/article/156535/2010/12/wsj_app_data.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Lex Friedman, Macworld

The true significance of the Journal’s supposed exposé seems less sensational than the piece’s tone would indicate. Basically, these apps are sharing the same kind of data as nearly every Website you’ve ever used.

**** USB 3.0 For Mac Review And Benchmarks (With A LaCie 2big USB 3.0) <http://www.engadget.com/2010/12/17/usb-3-0-for-mac-review-and-benchmarks-with-a-lacie-2big-usb-3-0/>
Darren Murph, Engadget



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

**** Azul's Pauseless Garbage Collector <http://www.artima.com/lejava/articles/azul_pauseless_gc.html>
Artima



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

**** There Goes The Sun <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/20/opinion/20cohen.html?_r=1&ref=opinion>
Richard Cohen, New York Times

What is the winter solstice, and why bother to celebrate it, as so many people around the world will tomorrow? The word “solstice” derives from the Latin sol (meaning sun) and statum (stand still), and reflects what we see on the first days of summer and winter when, at dawn for two or three days, the sun seems to linger for several minutes in its passage across the sky, before beginning to double back.

**** GOOD RIDDANCE <http://www.slate.com/id/2277926/>
Christopher Beam, Slate

What's most shocking about Google's announcement isn't that it's scrapping Caps Lock—it's that the button has lasted this long.



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

**** It's A Part-time Job <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC101220-0000142/Its-a-part-time-job>
Jeffrey Law, Today

By keeping their jobs during their tenure as MPs, they can fall back on their careers if they are not re-elected ot leave the political arena later on.

**** RWS Urged To Make 'Moral Decision' <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101220-0000145/RWS-urged-to-make-moral-decision>
Today

Wildlife-rescue group Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (ACRES) is urging Resorts World Sentosa (RWS) to "make a moral decision rather than a business-minded, profit-making one" - by aborting its plans to house dolphins as entertainers following the death of two bottlenose dolphins which were bound for RWS ' Marine Life Park.

"Our economy and tourism sector must grow, but it is time for us to ask, 'At what cost?'. We must remember that the two dolphins who died were sentient individuals who only a year ago swam freely in the vast open oceans. They died despite the team of marine experts and best care that RWS promised."

**** TOC Face To Face Forum: Meeting Of Bodies But Not Of Minds <http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=4448>
Wong Wee Nam, Sgpolitics.net

With so much in agreement and so little discernible differences, I was wondering, why no one embraced one another at the end of the evening and tell each other, “Hey we share the same views. Why don’t we meet up and see how we can work together to advance a common cause?”

**** Singapore Research Changing Gears <http://biologyrefugia.blogspot.com/2010/12/singapore-research-changing-gears.html>
The Biology Refugia

**** Training Centres To Domestic Workers – You Have To Obey <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/12/training-centres-to-domestic-workers-you-have-to-obey/>
Sha Najak & Roderick Chia, The Online Citizen

**** Singapore Needs To Get Over Its Condom Phobia <http://www.cnngo.com/singapore/life/tell-me-about-it/glenn-connley-free-condom-debate-forget-pre-marital-sex-nonsense-lif>
Glenn Connley, CNNGo

A generation later, in Singapore, heads are still well and truly buried in the sand. It's time to wake up.

**** Conscription – An Illusion Of Security <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2010/12/conscription-an-illusion-of-security/>
Ajax Copperwater, The Online Citizen

This half-hearted defence policy will doom Singapore to defeat by both internal and external threats. Singapore’s conscription is an illusion of security which does not keep us safe when the time comes. Not only it deprives Singaporeans of much needed funds for health care and other welfare, it infringes on basic human rights and puts us on par with groups like the Taliban, who utilise conscription to spread fear and genocide among its people.

**** Should Singapore Apologize To Malaysia For Diplomatic Snub? <http://malaysia-update.blogspot.com/2010/12/should-singapore-apologize-to-malaysia.html>
Malaysia Update

A rising number of Singaporeans are getting sick and tired of their leaders’ propensity to shoot off their mouths and offend their neighbors. After all, this is not the first time that Singapore was embroiled in a diplomatic spat as a direct result of a faux paus.

**** The Malaysian Settlement In Singapore And The Memory Of Charles Edwin Spooner <http://trainsnboatsnplanes.wordpress.com/2010/12/20/the-malaysian-settlement-in-singapore-and-the-memory-of-charles-edwin-spooner/>
Trains and Boats and Planes

There is an obscure little corner of Singapore which many do not notice, nestled between Kampong Bahru Road and the railway yard that stretches to Keppel Road. Stepping into the area, you could quite easily forget that you are still in Singapore except for the two blocks of flats that resemble our own blocks of public housing built by the HDB in the mid 1970s, as you will be overcome by a feeling of stepping into a different world. It is a different world in many ways, being part of the land which is owned by the Malaysian State Railway, KTMB, and very much a part of the lost world within the KTM Railway Land that with the agreement between the Singapore and Malaysian Governments to redevelop the land in place, that will probably be consumed by modernity which has relentlessly swept across much of the island in the last three decades.

**** Confidence In Public Sector Shaken This Year: Experts <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/12/20/confidence-in-public-sector-shaken-this-year-experts/>
Alicia Wong, Yahoo!


>From the bumpy hosting of the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) to the Orchard Road floods, confidence in the public sector may have been shaken this year, according to some political observers.


**** "Lemon Laws" Proposed To Help Consumers <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1100181/1/.html>
Mustafa Shafawi, Channel NewsAsia

The task force found that the key features of lemon laws, as implemented in developed economies such as Britain and the United States, were already present in Singapore's legislation. However, it recommended that express provisions for repair and replacement be added to empower consumers to seek these remedies from retailers, and to give greater latitude to the courts when considering what remedies to award to a consumer.

**** Revised Criminal Procedure Code To Come Into Force On Jan 2 <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101220-0000347/Revised-Criminal-Procedure-Code-to-come-into-force-on-Jan-2>
Today

Under the revised code, judges can exercise discretion to pass lighter, community-based sentences on young offenders or those who commit minor offences. Judges will no longer be bound to sentencing such offenders to jail or a fine, which could have an adverse effect on their jobs and families.

**** O水准母语成绩呈下跌的趋势 <http://realtime.zaobao.com.sg/2010/12/101220_54.shtml>
联合早报

**** Electric Bicycles For Rent At Singapore's First Eco-precinct <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC101220-0000471/Electric-bicycles-for-rent-at-Singapores-first-eco-precinct>
Ng Lian Cheong, Today

Residents of Singapore's first eco-precinct, Treelodge at Punggol, may soon be able to rent electric bicycles within their estate. This eco-friendly and cost-efficient way to travel is a $40,000 pilot programme by Sanyo.