[MyAppleMenu] Aug 22, 2011

applesurf at myapplemenu.com applesurf at myapplemenu.com
Mon Aug 22 18:59:00 EDT 2011

MyAppleMenu
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**** How To Speed Up An Aging MacBook With A Solid State Drive <http://arstechnica.com/apple/guides/2011/08/how-to-speed-up-an-aging-macbook-with-a-solid-state-drive.ars?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=rss>
Chris Foresman, Ars Technica

Depending on the age of your machine and in some cases BTO drive options, the amount of the speedup will vary. Still, even our old original Intel MacBook—which, as we'll explain later, actually represents a worst case scenario—went from just barely usable to actually productive in just a few hours. Here, we'll tell you how to perform the same upgrade.

**** First Look: Adobe's Muse Code-free Website Designer <http://www.macworld.com/article/161816/2011/08/muselook.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Adam Berenstain, Macworld

Many applications let you create websites with little or no coding, but Adobe is betting print professionals are ready for one more. Adobe’s new Web design program, code-named Muse, lets users take advantage of their familiarity with InDesign to build entire sites as easily as they might create brochures. But while Muse transports the page-layout paradigm to the Web intact, it offers features that establish it as an exciting new tool for making sophisticated, interactive sites.

**** Techspansion Releases Free VisualHub Updater For Lion <http://www.macworld.com/article/161852/2011/08/techspansion_releases_free_visualhub_updater_for_lion.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Lex Friedman, Macworld

A strange chapter in the history of Techspansion’s long-ago-retired video conversion tool VisualHub is now drawing to a close with the release of a free update straight from the developer.

**** Glassboard Takes Social Networking Private <http://www.macworld.com/article/161859/2011/08/glassboard_takes_social_networking_private.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Moren, Macworld

Sepia Labs’s new iPhone app, Glassboard, is aimed at giving users the ability to share information with just certain people.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Font Pain And Poetry: So Much Depends On A Curve <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/22/books/just-my-type-a-book-about-fonts-by-simon-garfield-review.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Janet Maslin, New York Times

This is a smart, funny, accessible book that does for typography what Lynne Truss’s best-selling “Eats, Shoots & Leaves” did for punctuation: made it noticeable for people who had no idea they were interested in such things.

**** Vodka Nation <http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/vodka-nation_582069.html?nopager=1>
Victorino Matus, Weekly Standard

How the flavorless, colorless, odorless spirit became a billion-dollar business.



SingaporeSurf
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**** Saddest Statistic Ever: 200,000 Families Helped? <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/08/saddest-statistic-ever-200000-families-helped/>
Leong Sze Hian, The Online Citizen

Despite numerous media reports of good economic growth, jobs creation, wage increase, I think we should be alarmed that there are so many more needy Singaporean families seeking financial assistance.

**** Security Breach At SMRT Bishan Depot: A Rail Security Headache <http://kementah.blogspot.com/2011/08/security-breach-at-smrt-bishan-depot.html>
Senang Diri

**** The Kiasu And Kiasi Of Being Singaporean <http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2011/8/22/focus/9342647&sec=focus>
Philip Golingai, The Star

“In Singapore nobody has pure intention. Everybody has an agenda. So I understand why the older you are, the more you lose hope in life.”

**** Can Elected President Be Above Politics? <http://singaporegirl.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/can-elected-president-be-above-politics/>
Food Fuels Me To Talk...

**** MRT Breach: Security Firm Says It Is 'Not At Fault' <http://news.insing.com/tabloid/mrt-breach-security-firm-says-it-is-not-at-fault/id-c0823e00>
InSing.com

A security firm says that SMRT is attempting to shift the blame for its latest security lapse. The firm, Evtec Management Services, hired by SMRT for security, says that it is not at fault for the intrusion.

Evtec denied SMRT's claims yesterday by saying that the area that was breached is out of bounds to the firm's staff.

**** 选区办中元节晚宴 陈硕茂被拒于“宴”外 <http://www.zaobao.com.sg/sp/sp110822_014.shtml>
林诗慧, 联合早报

人民协会受询时说，人协和旗下的公民咨询委员会并不规定社区活动的主办单位邀请谁出席。

巴耶利峇公民咨询委员会主席人在国外，委员会副主席李木利受询时也说：“我们从不限制主办单位请谁或不请谁，因为这是他们办的活动，我们没有权力这么做。”被问及上述道歉卡说的“分歧”指的是什么，李木利说，他需要知道活动是几时在哪里举行，才能够回答这个问题。

**** Adoptions In Singapore Fall By Half Over Last Decade <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_704713.html>
Janice Tai, Straits Times

The number of adoptions here is at a 10-year low, having fallen by half in the last decade.

**** Politics 1, People 0 <http://singaporedesk.blogspot.com/2011/08/politics-1-people-0.html>
Singapore Notes

We look forward to the day when we have to declare our political persuasion before being allowed to visit the public loo. Come to think of it, didn't something like that happened during the May 7 elections?

**** CPF For Older Workers Should Be Reviewed: Seng Han Thong <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110822-0000643/CPF-for-older-workers-should-be-reviewed--Seng-Han-Thong>
Monica Kotwani, Today

NTUC assistant secretary-general Seng Han Thong says employers' Central Provident Fund (CPF) contribution for older workers should be pegged to their "job worth".

The labour movement is taking a closer look at the current practice in which the CPF contribution rates of workers are cut when they reach 50 years old, and cut further when they turn 65.

**** Time To Put A Stop To Grassroots Partisanship <http://thesatayclub.net/2011/08/time-to-put-a-stop-to-grassroots-partisanship/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=time-to-put-a-stop-to-grassroots-partisanship>
Cheryl Chan, The Satay Club

If the powers-that-be in Singapore are serious about national reconciliation, it is time to take politics out of grassroots organisations. You can’t go around telling people to be “above politics” without practising what you preach. Any attempt to subliminally impose your dogmatic political paradigms on the electorate is likely to get ripped apart, with voters being more educated and more sophisticated than ever before.

**** SMRT Will Take 'Full Responsibility' For Recent Vandalism Case <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110822-0000728/SMRT-will-take-full-responsibility-for-recent-vandalism-case>
Tan Weizhen, Today

In a press conference this afternoon, SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa said SMRT will take "full responsibility" for last week's security breach at Bishan depot, which saw a train vandalised with graffiti.

All interiors and exteriors of all trains will be "100-per-cent checked" before they leave the depots, while the perimeter of each depot will be thoroughly inspected every day, she said.

**** GST Cut Or Grow & Share Package? <http://newasiarepublic.com/?p=32040>
Kelvin Teo, New Asia Republic

**** Media Release On Use Of Public Sites At Aljunied GRC <http://wp.sg/2011/08/media-release-on-use-of-public-sites-at-aljunied-grc/>
Sylvia Lim, Workers' Party

It appears to us that the unilateral decision by the HDB to lease these sites to the PA and to have them excluded from common property under the management of AHTC without any consultation with the AHTC or its elected members is politically motivated and an abuse of power.

First, the HDB as part of the government machinery is abusing its power as land owner of common property in HDB estates to help PA to achieve the political objectives of a) preventing elected MPs from holding activities at the excluded sites which are strategically located and convenient to residents; and b) curtailing the ground presence of the elected MPs, by warning the residents that their applications for events at those sites may not be approved in subsequent years if WP MPs were invited.

Secondly, the PA, a statutory board funded by tax payers’ money and chaired by the Prime Minister, appears to capitalize on its close connection with the government to serve the political interests of the ruling party. The PA is leveraging on HDB to enable PAP candidates who lost at the last elections to re-emerge at community events as “advisors” to PA grassroots organizations. The move to let PA control the sites previously managed by the Town Council would give PAP candidates a ground advantage and permanent presence, in advance preparation for the next elections.

**** On Economic Numbers And Reality; Or GDP Is Just A Bloody Number!!! <http://logos-pistis.blogspot.com/2011/08/on-economic-numbers-and-reality-or-gdp.html>
The Logic Of Faith

**** Do We Still Want A Nathanesque Presidency? Part 1 <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/08/22/do-we-still-want-a-nathanesque-presidency-part-1/>
Au Waipang, Yawning Bread

In short: Since, within the confines of the constitution, presidents have a little bit of influence, especially when expressed privately, therefore, voters deserve to know how each candidate intends to exercise that influence. So, if candidates talk about income distribution, death penalty, social safety nets — none of that is truly irrelevant, despite what the government would have us believe.

**** Transparency On Our Sovereign Wealth Fund <http://theonlinecitizen.com/2011/08/transparency-on-our-sovereign-wealth-fund/>
Hazel Poa, National Solidarity Party, The Online Citizen

The National Solidarity Party (NSP) regrets the continued lack of transparency surrounding our sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). The NSP believes that sufficient public information in the internal workings of GIC and Temasek Holdings is undoubtedly in the interest of all Singaporeans, as is a demonstrably robust system of check and balances in the management of our SWFs.

**** Sand For Singapore's Growth Comes At Environmental Cost To Poorer Neighbors <http://www.newser.com/article/d9p934900/ap-enterprise-sand-for-singapores-growth-comes-at-environmental-cost-to-poorer-neighbors.html>
Denis D. Gray, Associated Press

Lush jungle hills give way to a flotilla of dredgers operating 24 hours a day, scooping up sand and piling it onto ocean-bound barges. The churned-up waters and fuel discharges, villagers say, have decimated the fish so vital to their livelihoods. Riverbanks are beginning to collapse, and the din and pollution are killing a promising ecotourism industry.

What is bad news for the poor, remote Tatai community is great tidings for Singapore, the wealthy city-state that is expanding its territory by reclaiming land from the sea. Sand from nearby countries is the prime landfill and also essential building material for Singapore's spectacular skyline.

**** The Government Bully The WP At Aljunied GRC <http://blogging4myself.blogspot.com/2011/08/government-bully-wp-at-aljunied-grc.html>
Blogging For Myself

This is outrageous and unacceptable.




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