With less than 100 days from YOG, which is touted as one of the biggest events of the year (second maybe only to the World Cup?), you would think that Singaporeans would be excited about it.
You cant be further away from the truth
And I agree.
Just look at what they've come up with for the theme song.
Unbearable tune, crappy singing and cheesy actions. Looks like JJ Lin or the composer was undecided on whether to write a song that talks about simple values, morals, youth, vigour and such, OR something that cracks people up. So, they decided to write and perform something totally out of this world! (or rather, just something really incomprehensible)
What does doing "hadouken" or "hamehameha" has got to do with Youth Olympic games? Inspiring? I'd rather they substitute the entire video with a Dragonball Z episode if they loved manga that much that they couldnt do without mimicking the actions.
Everything you need for a recipe of disaster
Utterly, horrijiber.
But it's always so politically right to come up with something like that...... every attempt to outdo themselves
Here we have one of the most epic singing by our Trade Union leader to "encourage" Singaporeans with his deaf-toned frog singing........ and getting everyone to work cheaper, better, faster.
Monday, May 3, 2010
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.
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Support my site @ WhySG.com
Well, this is some shameless plugging I have to admit... However I've been too busy to update this blog of mine because I was busy (and still busy) setting up WhySG.com with the help of some friends. Things are going fine but not as fast as I would like. These are the things that I've been busy with.
-Search Engine Optimization (Been testing and trying to optimize results, still playing around with the Vbulletin forum software)
-Search Engine Marketing (well, I cant waste too much money on this though I've set it up on Google and Bing).
Well I've seen many websites and forums in Singapore but few are focused on providing information (tips, events, guides, news, reviews and other stuff on Singapore), which was why I started WhySG.com as a platform for Singaporeans (business owners and individuals) to share their opinions and also as an affordable online channel to advertise online.
So, let us take a look at other Singapore based websites/forums
-SgForums:
Pros - Traffic, diversified audience
Cons - Lack of features, "fragmented" forums. Fierce admin... RAWR!
Hardwarezone:
Pros - Traffic, arguably the most famous forum in Singapore (especially EDMW)
Cons - Generally focused on Technology, less on Businesses, few benefits and features for members (even paying business members)
SgClub:
Pros - Forums for both guys and girls, generally nice administrators and diverse topics
Cons - Few features, forums has some kinks (hard to navigate)
Flowerpod:
Pros - Uncluttered and clean interface, focused on relevant topics to women
Cons - Caters to female netizens, no difference from other forums except the fact that it is targeted at female online users. Some might remember and question the integrity of erm, the people behind it....... (remember MissKat forums)
Cozycot:
Pros - Better impression of this than Flowerpod
Cons - Lack of features, generally targeted at female users
Keeptouch.net:
Pros - Appeals to both sexes
Cons - Lack of features. Domain name isnt very apt and might not appeal to Singaporeans
Vr-zone:
Pros - Simple and uncluttered interface. Close-knitted community (I think)
Cons - Appeals more to male gamers and computer geeks than girls. Not much features, too.
WhySG:
Pros - Simple Interface (Give me more suggestions!), Features, cater to both male and female Singaporeans. Caters to individuals and businesses. Relatively affordable advertising (22USD per annum)
Cons - Lack of content as of now. Need more articles, memberships, sponsors... Lack of members (due to SEO in the works and people not willing to give WhySG.com a chance, heh) We're still resistant to change I guess.
Will need you guys to support me in getting WhySG.com up!
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