[MyAppleMenu] Sep 23, 2011

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** Apple Offers A Sneak Peek In Hong Kong <http://blogs.wsj.com/scene/2011/09/22/hong-kong-buzzes-ahead-of-apple-store-opening/?mod=google_news_blog>
Polly Hui, Wall Street Journal

Apple’s first Hong Kong store hasn’t even opened yet, but the buzz is building and the fanboys are ready to pounce.

**** 全国抢先!香港最奢华Apple Store内部实拍 <http://tech.hexun.com/2011-09-23/133646255.html>
太平洋电脑网

è¿™æ˜¯é‡‡ç”¨é’¢åŒ–çŽ»ç’ƒåŠä¸é”ˆé’¢ç‰©æ–™å»ºé€ è€Œæˆçš„æ¥¼æ¢¯ï¼Œæ­£æ˜¯ç”±Steve Jobs所设计，半透明的楼梯看似非常脆弱，却能承受行人的重量，香港Apple Store为两层式建筑。

**** First Hong Kong Apple Store Opens <http://www.cnngo.com/hong-kong/shop/hong-kongs-first-apple-store-opens-604612>
Jason Beerman, CNNGo

Located at the eastern end of the IFC shopping mall, the two-story Apple store manages to remain somewhat understated at first glance. It's indoor location doesn't afford it the space for any architectural statement-making, unlike the one in Shanghai.

Walk a few steps inside the front door, however, and you're greeted by the Apple Store's signature glass staircase with an oversized Apple logo and the view of Hong Kong's cityscape in the background.

**** Video Monkey Review <http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/reviews/index.cfm?reviewid=3303655&olo=rss>
Jonathan Seff, Macworld

Convert, encode and tag videos with metadata at the same time.

**** Apple's Thunderbolt Display A Compelling Device For 2011 MacBook Air <http://www.macworld.com/article/162442/2011/09/apples_thunderbolt_display_a_compelling_device_for_2011_macbook_air.html#lsrc.rss_main>
James Galbraith, Macworld

For owners of the 2011 MacBook Air, the Thunderbolt Display is a fantastic way to get iMac-like features while still being able to walk away with one of the lightest laptops available. If your Mac has Thunderbolt, FireWire 800, and gigabit ethernet, the case for buying the comparatively inflexible Thunderbolt display is a little less interesting.

**** Padlock 1.0.1 <http://www.macworld.com/article/162453/2011/09/padlock.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Dan Frakes, Macworld

It’s a great utility for those of us who want to lock our Mac’s screen when we step away but who prefer pressing a keyboard shortcut to moving the mouse.

**** The Apple Thunderbolt Display Review <http://www.anandtech.com/show/4832/the-apple-thunderbolt-display-review/1>
Anand Lal Shimpi, Anadtech

The real improvements here are obviously those enabled by Thunderbolt. Apple is turning its line of displays into docks for its mobile computers rather than just external displays.

**** QuickCal 3.0 Gets Redesigned UI And BusyCal Support <http://www.macstories.net/reviews/quickcal-3-0-gets-redesigned-ui-and-busycal-support/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+macstoriesnet+%28MacStories%29>
Federico Viticci, MacStories

**** Moving To A New Mac: Lessons Learned <http://tidbits.com/article/12511?rss>
Michael E. Cohen, TidBITS

**** New Mac Malware Variant Surfaces, Poses As PDF <http://www.macworld.com/article/162470/2011/09/new_mac_malware_variant_surfaces_poses_as_pdf.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Serenity Caldwell, Macworld

When downloaded, the Trojan-Dropper:OSX/Revir.A puts what appears to be a multi-page Chinese PDF—containing potentially-volatile political opinions—up on your screen. That's just a bit of misdirection, though: if you open the supposed PDF, the Trojan horse installs Backdoor:OSX/Imuler.A. As the name implies, that component opens up a backdoor connection to a remote server.



The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Taking Touch Beyond The Touch Screen <http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/38662/?ref=rss>
Duncan Graham-rowe, Technology Review

A tablet computer developed collaboratively by researchers at Intel, Microsoft, and the University of Washington can be controlled not only by swiping and pinching at the screen, but by touching any surface on which it is placed.



MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Radiolab: An Appreciation <http://transom.org/?p=20139>
Ira Glass, Transom

I marvel at Radiolab when I hear it. I feel jealous. Its co-creators Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich have digested all the storytelling and production tricks of everyone in public radio before them, invented some slick moves of their own, and ended up creating the rarest thing you can create in any medium: a new aesthetic.

**** A Writer’s Voice, Now Muted But Still Lively <http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/books/life-itself-by-roger-ebert-review.html?_r=1&partner=rss&emc=rss>
Janet Maslin, New York Times

And although Mr. Ebert can no longer eat or speak, for reasons that the book explains, he has grown better than ever at replaying “the jokes, gossip, laughs, arguments and memories I miss.” The book sparkles with his new, improvisatory, written version of dinner-party conversation.

**** Is That A Fish In Your Ear? By David Bellos - Review <http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/sep/22/is-that-a-fish-bellos-review?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Michael Hofmann, The Guardian

A frolicsome cover, and a title and subtitle that perform in two different registers of cool, mask a disquisition of remarkable freshness on language, speech and translation. In short, punchy, instructive chapters that take in such things as linguistics, philosophy, dictionaries, machine translation, Bible translations, international law, the Nuremberg trials, the European Union and the rise of simultaneous interpreting ("the Soviet delegate has just made a joke"), David Bellos, Princeton professor and translator of Georges Perec, Ismail Kadare and others, makes a maximalist case for translation as perhaps the definitive human activity.



SingaporeSurf
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**** GIC Manages Its Investment Portfolio For The Long Term <http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC110923-0000332/GIC-manages-its-investment-portfolio-for-the-long-term>
Lim Bee Khim, Ministry Of Finance, Today

Revealing the exact amount would, taken together with the published assets of MAS and Temasek, expose the full size of Singapore's financial reserves. This is against our national interest. It would make it easier for speculators to attack the Singapore dollar during periods of vulnerability.

**** F1, The Haze And The Way Forward <http://www.yoursdp.org/index.php/news/singapore/4959-f1-the-haze-and-the-way-forward>
Singapore Democratic Party

The worship of Mammon by this government is the driving force behind this growth-at-all-cost approach. It is crass, it makes money for the elite rather than for the locals and it has a huge negative social impact on our society. Most important, it is unsustainable. 

**** Time To Free Up Singapore’s Media <http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7146>
Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net

However, the government has far too much administrative leeway and discretion, with little accountability and transparency in the way it censures or restricts both local and foreign media. The law is no doubt crafted under the ambit of responsible reporting. However, the government has betrayed this good intention and abused the law to serve its own ends instead.

**** Lee Boon Yang Slated To Take Over From Tony Tan As SPH Chairman <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110923-0000312/Lee-Boon-Yang-slated-to-take-over-from-Tony-Tan-as-SPH-chairman>
Ong Dai Lin, Today

**** Our CBD Is Losing Its Green Edge <http://www.todayonline.com/Commentary/EDC110923-0000256/Our-CBD-is-losing-its-green-edge>
Richard Hartung, Today

It is easy to sell off green spots and build buildings. It's far harder to retain the greenery that differentiates Singapore's downtown from the many drab valleys of skyscrapers elsewhere in Asia. 

By eliminating these pocket parks, Singapore seems out of sync with trends in other cities and risks losing the greenery that makes it so attractive. The Sustainable Cities database says that Copenhagen and Chicago, for example, are among a number of cities actually acquiring more land to create small parks. 

**** Singapore's Laws Must Change With The Times <http://www.straitstimes.com/STForum/OnlineStory/STIStory_715530.html>
Lee Seck Kay, Straits Times

**** Formula One Revs Up Singapore's Businesses And Economy <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15015158>
Puneet Pal Singh, BBC

Its just not the businesses that are benefiting. The government's investment into bringing Formula One to Singapore is paying off as well.

**** GIC, UBS And The Death Spiral Of Your CPF Funds <http://sonofadud.com/2011/09/23/gic-ubs-and-the-death-spiral-of-your-cpf-funds/>
Reinventing The Rice Bowl

The real question is what were GIC doing investing in a deal whose implicit risk they appear not to have understood and via an instrument they shouldn’t have touched with a barge pole? Certainly if reports on Bloomberg are true then they made the decision to invest with unnecessary haste and little due diligence.

**** ISA Not Used For Political Beliefs In Singapore? Sure? <http://singapore-lighthouse.blogspot.com/2011/09/isa-not-used-for-political-beliefs-in.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2Fymrch+%28Singapore+Social+and+Political+Thoughts%29>
Singapore Social And Political Thoughts

How many of these people were arrested for being anti-establishment whom leader was PM LKY them? Were they arrested for terrorism? No.....

**** No Way Out Of Great Recession Without New Economic Model <http://yawningbread.wordpress.com/2011/09/23/no-way-out-of-great-recession-without-new-economic-model/>
Alex Au, Yawning Bread

Whichever way we look at it, income distribution has to be fixed. We cannot have healthy economies when wealth accumulation for the rich and indebtedness for others and governments, keep rising.

**** Singapore Inflation Unexpectedly Accelerates, Complicating Policy Decision <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-09-23/singapore-inflation-unexpectedly-accelerates-complicating-policy-decision.html>
Stephanie Phang, Bloomberg

Singapore’s inflation unexpectedly accelerated to the fastest pace since 2008 as housing and food costs climbed, complicating the central bank’s decision ahead of a policy review next month as risks to growth rise.

The consumer price index rose 5.7 percent in August from a year earlier, the Department of Statistics said in a statement today. That compares with the 5.2 percent median estimate of 18 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. Inflation was 5.4 percent in July, according to previously reported data.

**** MHA's Response To Statement Issued By 16 ex-ISA Detainees <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110923-0000991/MHAs-response-to-statement-issued-by-16-ex-ISA-detainees>
Ministry Of Home Affairs, Today

These sixteen ex-detainees were not detained for their political beliefs, but because they had involved themselves in subversive activities which posed a threat to national security.

**** Rising Number Of Drug Abusers Forces Govt To Re-look Anti-drugs Strategy <http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC110923-0001007/Rising-number-of-drug-abusers-forces-Govt-to-re-look-anti-drugs-strategy>
Today

Minister of state (home affairs), Mr Masagos Zulkifli, has said the rising trend of drug abusers over the past three years was a cause for concern. In a statement issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), Mr Masagos said he was particularly concerned with the high number of new drug abusers, which was higher than what they had previously thought.

**** Borders Parkway Parade Store To Close On Sept 26 <http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/Singapore/Story/STIStory_715887.html>
Straits Times

The Borders Parkway Parade store will close at 9pm on Monday evening, Sept 26. The book retailer has started a final closing down sale with a 70-per-cent discount of all stocks in the store, the company announced in a press release on Friday.