Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Your boyfriend needs a laptop, Pawn your jewellery
A totally distasteful ad. I wonder who was the "creative" brains behind it. Pawnshops in the past were used when people were in dire need of immediate cash. Like hospitalization or paying of creditors, now, maxi-cash attempts to convince Singaporeans that pawning away your un-used jewellery and items is the way to go.
We dont think the Asian mindset has changed, indeed Maxi-cash is daring enough to suggest that.
Money-max on the other hand, has hired Huang Wenyong to endorse their pawnshop chain, we think the ad was short and apt. Nothing too fanciful but convincing enough. However, we cant find the advertisement clip on youtube.
Anyway, the following is a dated news from Channelnewsasia.
Is it true? The Integrated Resorts in Singapore has generated more business for pawnshops?
Talk about it here on WhySG Forums - http://www.whysg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=36311
Some pictures of Marina Bay Sands taken from E72 too. A little grainy though
Friday, April 23, 2010
Google's image search is crappy
While Google's old image search was probably the next best thing to fresh baked bread. It has now gone the way of the dodo. Google has decided to change the interface of its image searching function.
The new (well, not really) Google image search is not just user-unfriendly, but also retrieves irrelevant results.
I went into the default Google search page, typed in a specific term, in my case: "breakfast in office" and pressed "Enter".
Wooh! Almost immediately, a list of results is immediately generated and I was given organized, comprehensive rows of thumbnails related to what I searched for.
Or so I thought.
Let's take a look:
Yes, I need a fancy slideshow to side-scroll through a list of images that has got nothing to do with my search term.
I had more luck with Yahoo.
Is Google's image search not as good as Yahoo's? Or maybe it's because they already had agreements with third party image providers/websites to show up irrelevant images?
Maybe Im just the Internet conspiracy theorist who has too much time to spare.
The new (well, not really) Google image search is not just user-unfriendly, but also retrieves irrelevant results.
I went into the default Google search page, typed in a specific term, in my case: "breakfast in office" and pressed "Enter".
Wooh! Almost immediately, a list of results is immediately generated and I was given organized, comprehensive rows of thumbnails related to what I searched for.
Or so I thought.
Let's take a look:
Yes, I need a fancy slideshow to side-scroll through a list of images that has got nothing to do with my search term.
I had more luck with Yahoo.
Is Google's image search not as good as Yahoo's? Or maybe it's because they already had agreements with third party image providers/websites to show up irrelevant images?
Maybe Im just the Internet conspiracy theorist who has too much time to spare.
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Singapore's GDP expands strongly by 13.1% on-year in first quarter of 2010
SINGAPORE - Singapore roared back from recession in the first quarter, the government said Wednesday, as it sharply raised its economic growth forecast and tightened monetary policy to check inflation.
Preliminary estimates showed first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 13.1 per cent from a year ago and 32.1 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
The strong results prompted the ministry to upgrade its growth forecast to 7.0-9.0 percent this year from the previous 4.5-6.5 per cent.
Trade-reliant Singapore's revised growth target comes amid signs that the global economy is continuing to recover from the financial and economic crisis that struck in late 2008 and extended well over into last year.
Singapore's economy, the first in Asia to slip into recession, contracted 2.0 per cent last year as the crisis hammered demand for its exports.
Banking giant DBS said the 32.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter expansion "will go down in the history book as the strongest quarterly growth ever recorded" for the affluent city-state.
The surge also marked a strong turnaround from the same period last year, when GDP shrank 9.4 per cent annually and 7.1 per cent from the previous three months.
Singapore's Straits Times Index closed 1.62 per cent higher at 3,019.74 on Wednesday as the stock market cheered the news.
Construction grew 11.3 per cent annually and services-producing industries surged 8.4 percent, the trade ministry said.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday announced it was adopting a tighter monetary policy stance to tame inflation as the economic recovery gains traction.
Singapore's monetary policy is conducted via the local currency, which is traded against a basket of currencies of its major trading partners within an undisclosed band known as the nominal effective exchange rate.
MAS, the country's central bank, revalued upward its targeted trading band for the Singapore dollar and said it would now allow a "modest and gradual appreciation" of its currency, shifting from "zero appreciation".
Analysts described the MAS' policy move as "aggressive" but the central bank said it was necessary to curb inflationary pressures.
With the strong first-quarter growth, Singapore "has now fully recovered the output lost during the recession, and economic activity in a broad range of industries has exceeded its pre-crisis peak," MAS said.
Along with economic growth, however, "inflationary pressures are likely to pick up, driven by rising global commodity prices as well as some domestic cost factors," it added.
Singapore uses the local currency, rather than interest rates, to conduct monetary policy because of the economy's huge reliance on external trade. - AFP/vm
---------------------------------
The expansion of GDP does not necessary translate into higher earnings for Singaporeans as the outflow of funds may be more than what is being retained in Singapore itself.
I guess we can expect inflation to rise at a faster pace - despite Govt's efforts to strengthen the Singapore dollar. Afterall, during economic downturn, prices of goods and services remained high.
Preliminary estimates showed first quarter gross domestic product (GDP) expanded 13.1 per cent from a year ago and 32.1 per cent on a quarter-on-quarter seasonally adjusted basis, the Ministry of Trade and Industry said.
The strong results prompted the ministry to upgrade its growth forecast to 7.0-9.0 percent this year from the previous 4.5-6.5 per cent.
Trade-reliant Singapore's revised growth target comes amid signs that the global economy is continuing to recover from the financial and economic crisis that struck in late 2008 and extended well over into last year.
Singapore's economy, the first in Asia to slip into recession, contracted 2.0 per cent last year as the crisis hammered demand for its exports.
Banking giant DBS said the 32.1 per cent quarter-on-quarter expansion "will go down in the history book as the strongest quarterly growth ever recorded" for the affluent city-state.
The surge also marked a strong turnaround from the same period last year, when GDP shrank 9.4 per cent annually and 7.1 per cent from the previous three months.
Singapore's Straits Times Index closed 1.62 per cent higher at 3,019.74 on Wednesday as the stock market cheered the news.
Construction grew 11.3 per cent annually and services-producing industries surged 8.4 percent, the trade ministry said.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) on Wednesday announced it was adopting a tighter monetary policy stance to tame inflation as the economic recovery gains traction.
Singapore's monetary policy is conducted via the local currency, which is traded against a basket of currencies of its major trading partners within an undisclosed band known as the nominal effective exchange rate.
MAS, the country's central bank, revalued upward its targeted trading band for the Singapore dollar and said it would now allow a "modest and gradual appreciation" of its currency, shifting from "zero appreciation".
Analysts described the MAS' policy move as "aggressive" but the central bank said it was necessary to curb inflationary pressures.
With the strong first-quarter growth, Singapore "has now fully recovered the output lost during the recession, and economic activity in a broad range of industries has exceeded its pre-crisis peak," MAS said.
Along with economic growth, however, "inflationary pressures are likely to pick up, driven by rising global commodity prices as well as some domestic cost factors," it added.
Singapore uses the local currency, rather than interest rates, to conduct monetary policy because of the economy's huge reliance on external trade. - AFP/vm
---------------------------------
The expansion of GDP does not necessary translate into higher earnings for Singaporeans as the outflow of funds may be more than what is being retained in Singapore itself.
I guess we can expect inflation to rise at a faster pace - despite Govt's efforts to strengthen the Singapore dollar. Afterall, during economic downturn, prices of goods and services remained high.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Salary of Singapore Graduates for 2009
The latest graduate employment survey reports are out.
The 2009 batch of graduates from NUS, NTU and SMU were asked about their starting pay and whether they were employed on a permanent basis.
The highest starting salaries come from the 4-year Information Systems Management programme at Singapore Management University. Those who graduated from this course with at least a Cum Laude (“with honour”) got a median starting pay of $4,000. One quarter of them earn $4,600 and above. However, only 72.2% of them are employed on a full-time permanent basis.
The worst performing course is the NTU Art, Design & Media. A mere 61.7% of the graduates are permanently employed. Half of them earned $2,300 and less.
Source: http://www.salary.sg/
---------------------------------
Figures real? You decide.
The 2009 batch of graduates from NUS, NTU and SMU were asked about their starting pay and whether they were employed on a permanent basis.
The highest starting salaries come from the 4-year Information Systems Management programme at Singapore Management University. Those who graduated from this course with at least a Cum Laude (“with honour”) got a median starting pay of $4,000. One quarter of them earn $4,600 and above. However, only 72.2% of them are employed on a full-time permanent basis.
The worst performing course is the NTU Art, Design & Media. A mere 61.7% of the graduates are permanently employed. Half of them earned $2,300 and less.
Source: http://www.salary.sg/
---------------------------------
Figures real? You decide.
Singapore needs to find it's "edge"
As I browse through many of the job websites and forums such as jobsdb, jobstreet, jobscentral, I realized a trend - many of the jobs demand for experience and a wide range of skills. However, the pay listed is lower than what most job-seekers would have expected. Of course, the Singapore government feels that market forces would be able to determine the correct salary package for each individual. However, the situation is further complicated by the influx of foreigners who compete solely on lower salaries.
Singapore does not have the means to compete with our neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia on natural resources, therefore we must look towards specializing in industries that are not already being established in nearby countries.
Singapore does not have the means to compete with our neighbours such as Malaysia and Indonesia on natural resources, therefore we must look towards specializing in industries that are not already being established in nearby countries.
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