[MyAppleMenu] Apr 6, 2012

[applesurf at myapplemenu.com]

MyAppleMenu
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**** The Beer Game, <I>Or</i> Why Apple Can’t Build iPads In The US ****
<http://blog.marksweep.com/post/20469283331/the-beer-game-or-why-apple-cant-build-ipads-in-the>
Mark[sweep]


> The U.S. has lost that industrial base and it’s extremely difficult to get it back. It’s not about unions, jobs Americans don’t want - it’s about delay. 



**** Ask The iTunes Guy: Compression And Lossless Encoding ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/1166214/ask_the_itunes_guy_compression_and_lossless_encoding.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Kirk McElhearn, Macworld



**** Apple Releases Second Update To Java In Two Days ****
<http://www.macrumors.com/2012/04/06/apple-releases-second-update-to-java-in-two-days/>
Jordan Golson, MacRumors



**** New iPad Complicates Life For HTML 5 Developers ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/1166226/new_ipad_complicates_life_for_html_5_developers.html#lsrc.rss_main>
John Cox, Network World



**** How To Use Brushes In iPhoto For iOS ****
<http://www.macworld.com/article/1166109/how_to_use_brushes_in_iphoto_for_ios.html#lsrc.rss_main>
Leah Yamshon, Macworld



**** Apple’s Highest Priority Is Obviousness ****
<http://daringfireball.net/2012/04/obviousness>
John Gruber, Daring Fireball


> The sliding camera button on the iOS 5.1 home screen is a perfect example of Apple favoring obviousness over simplicity and even elegance.

Also: <a href="http://brooksreview.net/2012/04/ui-design-2/">Obviousness Vs. Tutorials</a> (Ben Brooks, The Brooks Review).





The Tomorrow Weblog
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**** Searching The Small Screen ****
<http://www.technologyreview.com/web/40074/?ref=rss>
Rachel Metz, Technology Review


> A search engine like Google or Bing can help you find lots of things on the Web, from the mating habits of seahorses to driving directions. But what if you want to know, say, the last time Beyonce was mentioned on TV?






MyAppleMenu Reader
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**** Why Reading Aloud Makes A Book So Much Better ****
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/apr/05/reading-aloud?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+theguardian%2Fbooks%2Frss+%28Books%29>
Robert McCrum, The Guardian


> Aside from The Inimitable (as Dickens called himself), three English classics – all of them in the cultural news at the moment – owe a lot to having been conceived, wholly or in part, through the medium of the spoken word.



**** How To Write The Great American Novel ****
<http://www.theawl.com/2012/04/how-to-write-the-great-american-novel>
Jim Behrle, The Awl


> Suffering is a key essential to great writing. But there’s probably enough suffering in your life already—or suffering will come on its own.



**** Just One More Game ... ****
<http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/08/magazine/angry-birds-farmville-and-other-hyperaddictive-stupid-games.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all>
Sam Anderson, New York Times


> In the nearly 30 years since Tetris’s invention — and especially over the last five, with the rise of smartphones — Tetris and its offspring (Angry Birds, Bejeweled, Fruit Ninja, etc.) have colonized our pockets and our brains and shifted the entire economic model of the video-game industry. Today we are living, for better and worse, in a world of stupid games.






SingaporeSurf
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**** Yale’s Faculty Passes Rights Resolution On Singapore Campus ****
<http://webfarm.bloomberg.com/news/2012-04-06/yale-s-faculty-approves-rights-resolution-for-singapore-campus.html>
Michael McDonald, Bloomberg


> Yale University professors approved a resolution urging that a planned joint campus with the National University of Singapore respect and support human rights and political freedom.



**** Maid Agencies Call For Clearer Guidelines On Maids' Off-days ****
<http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/1193565/1/.html>
Saifulbahri Ismail, Channel NewsAsia



**** “I Just Stay At Home, Waiting For My Days To End.” ****
<http://theonlinecitizen.com/2012/04/just-stay-at-home-waiting-days-end/>
Jewel Philemon, The Online Citizen


> So what actually happened that day? How did Mr Lim sustain so many injuries? What kind of  'necessary force' was used on Mr Lim by the police?

> Mr Lim could have lost consciousness due to his medical condition. Or his rapidly digressing memory could have suppressed the details of the incident . His injuries could have been sustained due to the cancer that has afflicted him. Or the police officers' use of 'necessary force' could have caused those injuries. However, all of these are mere speculation and the withholding of appropriate information leaves Mr Lim yet to find closure on this episode.



**** OpenNet Commences Legal Action Against Government ****
<http://news.asiaone.com/News/Latest+News/Singapore/Story/A1Story20120406-338084.html>
AsiaOne



**** Singapore To Drive Road Through Historic Cemetery ****
<http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-17594008>
Rebecca Lim, BBC


> Believed to be the largest Chinese cemetery outside China, it hosts about 100,000 graves - many belonging to Singapore's pioneering immigrants and war heroes.

> But now the place of repose is in the spotlight. The government wants to build an eight-lane road through a part of it.



**** In Order To Engage, Government Must Adopt The Mindset Of “Servant Leadership” ****
<http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7483>
Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net


> If the government wants to earn the respect of the people and encourage them to step forward to engage the government constructively, it must first learn to respect them and treat them as equals.

> It must learn to be tolerant of dissent and differing points of view, and not adopt the mentality that it can sometimes be “deaf to criticism“, as Lim Swee Say once famously remarked to Low Thia Khiang in Parliament.

> The government must stop viewing the citizens as economic digits who need to “have spurs stuck in their hides“, or as people who should “repent” if they voted in the opposition.



**** Framework To Get Civil Servants To Watch Financials Dropped ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC120406-0000061/Framework-to-get-civil-servants-to-watch-financials-dropped>
Cheow Xin Yi, Today


> Today has learnt that the Net Economic Value (NEV) framework, which was gradually implemented among ministries and statutory boards since 2000, has been scrapped. 

> Senior civil servants told Today that while the framework discourages overspending, there was concern that the emphasis on revenue and cost would compromise the delivery of public services. One of them, who works in a statutory board, noted that the NEV framework may skew spending on public infrastructure, for instance, to become "overly conservative", even if it tends to help control costs and discourage overspending on items such as office equipment and manpower. 



**** S'poreans Can Be 'Good' Rather Than 'Cheap' ****
<http://www.todayonline.com/Voices/EDC120406-0000010/Sporeans-can-be-good-rather-than-cheap>
Tang Li, Today


> It is time we obsess and get excited about being "so good" instead. Singapore is no longer a backwater and will never be able to compete on price with places like China, Vietnam and India. We can only compete on quality, which investors do value.



**** Do Not Deter People From Alerting Others About Genuine Criminal Activity ****
<http://www.sgpolitics.net/?p=7479>
Ng E-Jay, Sgpolitics.net



**** Crackdown On Tax Havens Opens Opportunities For Bankers ****
<http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2012/04/05/crackdown-on-tax-havens-opens-opportunities-for-bankers/>
Mark Scott, New York Times


> As Switzerland and other locales tightened their financial controls, many people initially flocked to other tax havens like Singapore and Hong Kong, which still offer some of the world’s most secret accounts. But these places, too, are facing new pressures.



**** PM Lee Flags Two Worries ****
<http://blogging4myself.blogspot.com/2012/04/pm-lee-flags-two-worries.html>
Blogging For Myself


> When we have the courage to close off easy sources of growth, then we might find the solutions to our problems. We are at our best, the most innovative when we have no choice. We have to keep recreating ourselves or we will just simply grow old and wither. And we do not know of any other way than the one that brought us here.