[MyAppleMenu] Nov 30, 2010

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Ubiquity And The iPad <http://www.i4u.com/43374/ubiquity-and-ipad>
Robert Evans, I4U

Will 'iPad' be to 'tablets' as 'iPod' is to 'media players'?

**** Apple Data Center Head Dies Following Heart Attack <http://www.macnn.com/articles/10/11/29/impact.on.new.center.uncertain/>
MacNN

**** The iPad: A Dubious Bet For Publishers <http://www.forbes.com/2010/11/29/apple-ipad-publishers-leadership-managing-magazines.html?boxes=techchannelsections>
Ron Adner And William Vincent, Forbes

The Apple iPad is a major and misunderstood strategy departure for today's most talked-about tech firm. With both the iPod and the iPhone, Apple launched products with value that was high on a standalone basis. External partners clamored to join the party once it got going, but their support was not needed to get the party started. In contrast, the iPad depends critically on buy-in and participation from other businesses for its success. But it's not at all clear that these partners really understand the game they've signed on for.

**** Steve Jobs, Romantic <http://www.economist.com/blogs/babbage/2010/11/apples_boss_steve_jobs_hidden_romantic_0>
The Economist

The inscription on the logo's border is a quote from William Wordsworth, a romantic English poet: "Newton... a mind forever voyaging through strange seas of thought... alone."  Could it be that Mr Jobs himself is a hidden romantic?

**** Apple, Microsoft And Google Attacked For "Evil" Plugins <http://www.pcpro.co.uk/news/363196/apple-microsoft-and-google-attacked-for-evil-plugins>
Barry Collins, PC Pro

A leading Mozilla executive has attacked Google, Apple and Microsoft for installing browser plugins without permission.

"When I installed iTunes, in order to manage my music collection and sync to my iPod, why did Apple think it was OK to add the iTunes Application Detector plug-in to my Firefox web browser without asking me?"

**** What Is The Best Mac Writing Tool For Projects? <http://mac360.com/index.php/mac360/comments/what-is-the-best-mac-writing-tool-for-projects/>
Bambi Brannan, Mac360

**** The MacBook Pro 17″ Bulging Battery Swindle <http://www.betalogue.com/2010/11/29/macbookpro-battery/>
Betalogue

Deep down, I cannot help but feel that there is a bit of a swindle going on here, something that Apple is aware of and not doing anything about because they know that the majority of customers involved can afford the extra cost and are only a small minority of Mac users globally anyway.

**** Why Apple's "Find My iPhone" Feature Is Useless <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/why_apples_find_my_iphone_feature_is_useless.php?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+readwriteweb+%28ReadWriteWeb%29>
Mike Melanson, ReadWriteWeb

Shouldn't the feature - meant to protect you from thievery - require you to enter a password to disable it?

**** Scammers Can Hide Fake URLs On The iPhone, Says Researcher <http://www.macworld.com/article/156058/2010/11/iphone_url_hack.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Gregg Keizer, Computerworld

Identity thieves can hide URLs on the iPhone's limited screen real estate, tricking users into thinking they're at a legitimate site, a security researcher said today.

In a pair of blog posts, Nitesh Dhanjani demonstrated how criminals can easily hide the true URL of a site from users by building a malicious Web application.

**** Exporting And Importing Outlook 2011 Messages <http://www.macworld.com/article/156045/2010/11/export_outlook_2011.html?lsrc=rss_main>
Christopher Breen, Macworld

**** Mac Of The Future: The OS <http://www.macworld.com/article/155914/2010/11/macofthefutureos.html?lsrc=rss_main>
John Siracusa, Macworld


>From its experience with iOS, Apple believes it has discovered—or perhaps rediscovered—the secret to selling consumer technology products: simplicity. This doesn’t mean that the Mac we know and love will disappear. Rather, by stealing the most successful ideas from iOS, the Mac OS of tomorrow could slowly shed its legacy constraints while still remaining true to the power, utility, and spirit that has always defined the Mac.


**** Now Playing In iOS Game Center: Your Real Name <http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20024076-260.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20>
Erica Ogg, CNET

Starting today, when you send a friend request or accept a friend request, your real name in addition to your gamer tag or nickname will be shown to that person. Apple added that new policy in a change to its terms of service agreement to Game Center.

**** How I Saved The Macintosh <http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/11/30/charles_eicher_computerland_mac_memoir/>
Charles Eicher, The Register

Today, Apple seems unstoppable - its new products dominate their markets or create entirely new ones. But there was a time, 20 years ago, when Apple seemed to have lost everything.

In 1984 I was caught in the middle of all this: I was a sales rep for ComputerLand Los Angeles; the top Macintosh salesman at the largest computer store in the world in Apple's largest metropolitan market.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Mozilla Is Designing A New Programming Language Language Called Rust <http://www.readwriteweb.com/hack/2010/11/mozilla-designing-programming-language-rust.php>
Klint Finley, ReadWriteWeb

Mozilla is designing a new multi-paradigm programming language called Rust. According to the Rust Project FAQ, the Rust team's goal is "To design and implement a safe, concurrent, practical, static systems language."



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Tongues Twisted <http://www.tnr.com/book/review/tongues-twisted>
Laura Marsh, The New Republic

These are convincing arguments, but they lead no further than a grim prognosis for English. Ostler’s grand theory that English will be the last lingua franca stands and falls with his vision of “virtual media.” One problem with such a vision is that there is no evidence that the technology on which it relies will ever be perfected.

**** For These Book Clubs, Food Is The Real Page-turner <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/foodwine/2013533926_bookclubfood27.html>
Kathleen Purvis, McClatchy Newspapers

Yes, the book is important. The mix of personalities is key. But with book club names like "Mostly We Just Eat" and "First, The Food," does anyone doubt what really pulls book clubs together?

**** Precedent And Prologue <http://www.newyorker.com/talk/comment/2010/12/06/101206taco_talk_toobin>
Jeffrey Toobin, New Yorker

Momentous Supreme Court cases tend to move quickly into the slipstream of the Court’s history. In the first ten years after Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 decision that ended the doctrine of separate but equal in public education, the Justices cited the case more than twenty-five times. In the ten years after Roe v. Wade, the abortion-rights decision of 1973, there were more than sixty-five references to that landmark. This month marks ten years since the Court, by a vote of five-to-four, terminated the election of 2000 and delivered the Presidency to George W. Bush. Over that decade, the Justices have provided a verdict of sorts on Bush v. Gore by the number of times they have cited it: zero.

**** Inside The Wild, Wacky, Profitable World Of Boing Boing <http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/151/boing-boing.html?page=0%2C0>
Rob Walker, Fast Company

It's eccentric. It's unprofessional. And it makes money. How four people who do exactly what they want run one of the most popular blogs on the planet.

**** Paradoxical Truth <http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/paradoxical-truth/?ref=opinion>
Graham Priest, New York Times

According to this theory, some contradictions are actually true, and the conclusion of the Liar Paradox is a paradigm example of one such contradiction. The theory calls a true contradiction a dialetheia (Greek: “di” = two (way); “aletheia” = truth), and the view itself is called dialetheism. One thing that drives the view is that cogent diagnoses of what is wrong with the Liar argument are seemingly impossible to find.

**** Beat And Dust: Tangier's Tang Of History <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2010/nov/23/tangier-william-burroughs-naked-lunch>
Sam Jordison, Guardian

The Moroccan port of Tangier was once a hub for experimental writers, even forming the setting for William S Burroughs' Naked Lunch. But how much of its countercultural heritage remains?



SingaporeSurf
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**** For City Dwellers, A Taste Of The Orderly Life <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/29/world/asia/29surabaya.html?_r=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss>
Norimitsu Onishi, New York Times

Replicas of Singapore’s iconic monuments, like the Merlion and the Fountain of Wealth, stand beguilingly at key entrance points to the 5,000-acre city within a city. Roads meander around well-planned parks, along tree-lined boulevards, and through residential areas with familiar names like Raffles and Newton. Cars move in orderly fashion through streets that are wide, smooth and protected by guards ready to pounce on traffic violators and litterers alike.

**** Sustainability Is The Key Issue <http://singaporealternatives.blogspot.com/2010/11/sustainability-is-key-issue.html>
Goh Meng Seng, Singapore Alternatives

One example I cited for GE2006 is that PAP didn't tell voters that they were going to increase GST from 5% to 7% in spite of me asking them openly in my rally speech for them to state clearly whether they are going to increase GST from 5% to 7% and then 10%. But we know that immediately after GE2006, the prime minister declared that GST would be raised "to help the poor"! However so far, we have not seen any concrete programs that utilize this increased revenue to help the poor! On the contrary, we have seen the increase of Singaporeans forced to live on beaches, collecting card boards and living in poverty

The health minister Khaw has tried to clarify during GE2006 that the means testing for healthcare would not take place that "soon" but it just kicked in just about a year later!

**** Man Found Dead At Queenstown MRT <http://sg.yfittopostblog.com/2010/11/29/man-found-dead-at-queenstown-mrt/>
Yahoo!

**** Median Income Of Singaporeans Rose 4.2% In 2010: MOM <http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1096348/1/.html>
Mustafa Shafawi, Channel NewsAsia

The Manpower Ministry (MOM) said the median monthly income of resident Singaporeans in full-time employment rose by 4.2 per cent over the year to S$2,710 in June, boosted by the strong economic recovery.

MOM said the growth in income this year came earlier and stronger than in the previous recovery, when the median income hardly moved from 2001 to 2006, before rising significantly in 2007.

**** 中国车本地惨淡经营 好些数月卖不出一辆 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp101130_001.shtml>
李静仪, 联合早报

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**** 经过九个月协商 建议书终获批准 白沙湿巴刹春节前可能开业 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp101130_004.shtml>
郑景祥, 联合早报

昇菘今年3月份收购了白沙伊萊雅路湿巴刹至今，曾经六度向建屋发展局提交湿巴刹的规划建议书。经过多次的商议与协调，昇菘作出让步，只包下10%的摊位自己做，其余90%的摊位将开放给摊贩来承租。也就是说，在获批准的31个摊位当中，昇菘只保留其中三个摊位来卖干粮和罐头等货品，其余摊位都要租出去。

**** Workfare Betterer Than Minimum Wage, Really? <http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2010/11/workfare-betterer-than-minimum-wage.html>
Singapore Notes

Translated in real world terms, it means only cash of $66.66 a month ($2.19 a day) extra is available for food, transportation and utilities bills. The substantial bulk of the Workfare handout is locked up in CPF, to be used as the "nest egg" for retirement at, presumably 85, as government guided trends go.

**** Singapore's Lee Calls N.Koreans 'Psychopathic' --WikiLeaks <http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20101130-306212/Singapores-Lee-calls-NKoreans-psychopathic---WikiLeaks>
AFP

Singapore's founding father Lee Kuan Yew called North Koreans "psychopathic" and leader Kim Jong-Il a "flabby old chap" who craved public worship, a US diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks said.

In the document detailing a conversation between Lee and US deputy secretary of state James B. Steinberg in May last year, Singapore's elder statesman said he would be surprised if the North Koreans agreed to give up their nuclear weapons.

**** Does Detention Without Trial Dull Police Skills? <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2010/11/30/does-detention-without-trial-dull-police-skills/>
Yawning Bread

Does the easy option of detention without trial — whether on suspicion of terrorism or criminal gang involvement — make law enforcement officers lazy?

It’s time to consider the counter-intuitive possibility: that having a sweeping law permitting detention without trial does not improve security for citizens, but does the opposite. Sloppy, lazy police can’t be good for us. Not to mention the many documented examples of human rights abuses that have been inflicted.

**** MFA Expresses 'Concern' <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_608945.html>
Hannah Koh, Straits Times

In a statement to the press, the MFA said that it was critical to protect the confidentiality of diplomatic and official correspondence, and slammed WikiLeaks' actions as 'damaging'.

'In particular, the selective release of documents, especially when taken out of context, will only serve to sow confusion and fail to provide a complete picture of the important issues that were being discussed amongst leaders in the strictest of confidentiality,' said the MFA.

**** No Singapore Exit For Swiss Bank Clients <http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/feedarticle/9384562>
Jason Rhodes And Kevin Lim, Reuters

If rich Europeans shift cash to Singapore, the Switzerland of the East, to avoid the deals the Swiss have struck with neighbours on banks' undeclared client assets, they should know the taxman won't be far behind.