The Gothere.sg new version launched

My previously recommended online street guide http://gothere.sg launched its new version which has street view similar to Google Earth and some additional feature.. Good work and very useful site for any one in Singapore

More details : http://blog.gothere.sg/

Good comparsion on VOIP

Today i found good comparison on VOIP service providers' rates specially Betamax providers

http://www.backsla.sh/betamax

Corruption Perceptions Index 2009 - NZ & SG well done.. improvement there

Transparency International's this year results for Corruption Perceptions released and compare to last year values. NZ moved from 2nd to 1st place. SG from 4th to 3rd. Good to see leading the world in Anti corrupted country and best place to live...

Rank	Country/Territory	CPI 2009 Score	Surveys Used	Confidence Range
1	New Zealand	9.4	6	9.1 - 9.5
2	Denmark	9.3	6	9.1 - 9.5
3	Singapore	9.2	9	9.0 - 9.4
3	Sweden	9.2	6	9.0 - 9.3
5	Switzerland	9.0	6	8.9 - 9.1
6	Finland	8.9	6	8.4 - 9.4
6	Netherlands	8.9	6	8.7 - 9.0
8	Australia	8.7	8	8.3 - 9.0
8	Canada	8.7	6	8.5 - 9.0
8	Iceland	8.7	4	7.5 - 9.4

2008 Results :   http://life-at-singapore.blogspot.com/2008/09/corruption-perceptions-index-2008-well.html

Cheap calling card for India, Malaysia, Sri Lanka,...

I have used several phone calling cards in Singapore and few online voip solutions as well. However when found this Hamara card details last week, it looks most cheapest option and still i have to see how quality and charging works with this card. In mean time, it would be useful for any one search for cheap calling card.

Be careful on mobile phones

It is really surprised news that due to stolen phone, phone owner paid S$ 2K as bill. I feel that it is unfair to consumers. Mobile operators should have some credit line based on phone usage or agreed amount with customer, which could safe guard both parties. And there could be chance to find the theft with phone numbers called. So, it is not difficult case to track. I am not sure why it ended like this.

Read full story: Today's letter

Suprising pay to Bank's CEO - UOB and DBS CEOs among top 10 best paid

It is surprise that Bank CEO's highly paid among the other industries even though financial crisis there in that sector...

Interesting news read full story at Channel News Asia.:

Chief executives at Singapore banks UOB and DBS are among the top ten best paid executives in the Asia Pacific.

A report by management consultancy Hay Group and The Asian Banker - which ranks the top 50 best paid CEOs in the region - said that UOB's Wee Ee Cheong is the 8th best paid CEO, taking home between US$3.82 and US$3.99 million a year.

In 9th spot was former DBS CEO Richard Stanley, who was due to be paid between US$3.3 and US$3.47 million. Mr Stanley died of cancer in April this year.

OCBC's David Conner was the 11th best paid CEO, with a salary range from US$2.6 to US$2.78 million.

Singaporean entrepreneur gets €2m

The latest mobile technology venture from Singaporean entrepreneur Eric Barbier has raised €2 million in first round funding to expand the service internationally.

The mobile micro payment service Transfer To facilitates the transfer of mobile phone credits across borders, letting users give friends or relatives more calling minutes in their mobile phone account. The funding came from new investor Ingenico Ventures.

By sending text messages to Transfer To, foreign workers can use the service to recharge the prepaid mobile phones of their relatives back home. The cross border business of airtime remittance is estimated to be worth €202 billion a year and features 200 million migrant users.

Transfer To allows workers in countries Brazil, China, Egypt, India, Mexico and Poland to send the equivalent of money in the form of airtime minutes to relatives.“Thanks to Transfer To, mobile operators, retailers, banks and money transfer companies can offer an innovative and differentiating service to their ethnic segment – an underserved market with a high telecom spending usage,” Barbier said  

Barbier is the founder of Mobile 365, which was acquired by Sybase for €286 million in 2006 and now operates as Sybase 365.

Source : Telecom Europe

Good Luck Eric Barbier...

Recommended Blog for Financial Planning

Recently i found an interesting and useful blog regarding financial planning and investments. Tan Kin Lian's Blog, Mr Tan is former NTUC Income chief executive and shares his views and others experiences in financial planning and investments. I recommend others to check it. Mostly  helpful for people living in Singapore.

URL: http://tankinlian.blogspot.com/

low crime doesn't means no crime

I have seen following sentence in many times here "low crime doesn't means no crime". It is true and felt very happy on that it is alert the people. Today i saw i news about robbery of 4 taxi drivers at knife point yesterday morning and 41 years old guy arrested. (Ref :Todayonline). I had similar bad experience in Sri Lanka around 2-1/2 years back and lost around 6K SLR to  bad guy got into my car as acting like ask for help. I was helpless. and that guy escaped. Surprise  here that the poor guy got arrested in within a day and good to see the law and order. And recently i found another news about try to bribe the traffic officer for S$20 for illegal parking.

The interesting and key success point in Singapore is giving good punishments for these crimes. Even though those are minor crimes, it does not mean no crimes.. :-) For $20 bribe, that lady could be fined up to S$100,000, or jailed for up to five years, or both. The poor robbery guy could  get punishment of imprisonment of at least 3 years but not more than 14 years, and a minimum of 12 strokes of the cane.

Low Crime doesn't means no Crime.. be alert...

21Mbps download speed for Mobile Broadband from M1

M1 will be offering mobile broadband service with download speed of up to 21Mbps island wide.. And now M1 HSPA+ network first in Asia Pacific to deploy MIMO to achieve Singapore' s fastest download speed of 28Mbps... With recent iphone deal and plan for fixed broadband and mobile TV in next year. Looks strong competition within mobile operators soon... Good for consumers...

See the MIMO network launch press release from Huawei web site:
http://www.huawei.com/news/view.do?id=11034&cid=42

"The HSPA+ network upgrade and deployment of MIMO are part of our ongoing efforts to provide our customers with an advanced and innovative high speed mobile broadband network. We will continue to work with Huawei to implement state-of-the-art technology to ensure that our HSPA+ network remains one of the most modern and sophisticated networks in the region capable of offering our customers a rich suite of mobile data services," said Patrick Scodeller, Chief Technical Officer of M1.

M1 to offer iPhone latter this year... - breaking news

As per Today online news, M1's press release states abt offering iPhone latter this year. Currently only Singtel is the one offer iPhone to customers.. Hope this will be happy news for iPhone fans specially M1 subscribers...

http://www.todayonline.com/Tech/EDC091013-0000172/M1-to-offer-iPhone-later-this-year

QS World University Rankings 2009 - NUS 30th & NTU 73rd Ranked

Great to see NUS & NTU universities ranked within top 100 universities.

Here First 100 universities list:

1	1	Harvard University	US	100	100	98	100	85	78	100.0
2	3	University of Cambridge	UK	100	100	100	89	98	96	99.6
3	2	Yale University	US	100	99	100	94	85	77	99.1
4	7	University College London	UK	98	99	100	90	96	99	99.0
5=	6	Imperial College London	UK	100	100	100	80	98	100	97.8
5=	4	University of Oxford	UK	100	100	100	80	96	97	97.8
7	8	University of Chicago	US	100	99	97	88	77	83	96.8
8	12	Princeton University	US	100	96	82	100	89	81	96.6
9	9	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	US	100	100	89	100	31	95	96.1
10	5	California Institute of Technology	US	99	72	87	100	100	89	95.9
11	10	Columbia University	US	100	99	97	92	28	89	95.6
12	11	University of Pennsylvania	US	96	99	85	98	82	60	94.2
13	13=	Johns Hopkins University	US	98	79	100	99	28	71	94.1
14	13=	Duke University	US	95	97	100	93	29	62	92.9
15	15	Cornell University	US	100	99	85	94	28	73	92.5
16	17	Stanford University	US	100	100	71	100	25	96	92.2
17	16	Australian National University	Australia	100	91	75	74	99	92	90.5
18	20	McGill University	Canada	100	97	92	61	67	95	90.4
19	18	University of Michigan	US	99	99	85	81	57	52	89.9
20=	23	University of Edinburgh	UK	97	99	84	65	93	86	89.3
20=	24	ETH Zurich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)	Switzerland	97	80	55	99	100	94	89.3
22	19	University of Tokyo	Japan	100	97	98	70	28	42	88.9
23	22	King’s College London	UK	91	98	90	67	92	88	88.4
24	26	University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	96	89	87	56	100	95	87.5
25	25	Kyoto University	Japan	100	93	81	85	32	26	87.1
26	29	University of Manchester	UK	94	100	79	58	90	87	85.7
27	21	Carnegie Mellon University	US	94	93	56	88	62	96	85.6
28	28	Ecole Normale Supérieure, Paris	France	94	87	100	53	76	61	85.4
29	41	University of Toronto	Canada	100	96	63	74	82	51	85.3
30	30=	National University of Singapore	Singapore	100	96	40	75	100	100	84.3
31	27	Brown University	US	88	85	67	97	53	55	83.9
32=	30=	University of California, Los Angeles	US	100	98	46	100	21	33	83.5
32=	33	Northwestern University	US	86	97	78	79	28	100	83.5
34	32	University of Bristol	UK	83	99	84	69	85	77	83.4
35	39	Hong Kong University of Science and Technology	Hong Kong	89	86	84	54	100	99	83.3
36=	34=	Ecole Polytechnique	France	76	99	100	65	63	95	83.1
36=	38	University of Melbourne	Australia	100	100	57	61	59	97	83.1
36=	37	University of Sydney	Australia	99	97	58	53	99	95	83.1
39	36	University of California, Berkeley	US	100	100	25	100	86	34	82.7
40	34=	University of British Columbia	Canada	100	93	51	77	34	60	81.2
41	43	University of Queensland	Australia	94	95	47	67	99	82	80.7
42	50=	Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne	Switzerland	67	70	92	84	100	100	80.6
43=	44	Osaka University	Japan	92	73	90	68	24	33	80.1
43=	49	Trinity College Dublin	Ireland	88	96	72	49	98	83	80.1
45	47	Monash University	Australia	98	99	56	42	95	96	80.0
46	42	Chinese University of Hong Kong	Hong Kong	87	77	77	55	97	79	79.6
47=	45	University of New South Wales	Australia	96	99	39	62	82	93	79.0
47=	50=	Seoul National University	South Korea	99	69	92	47	29	33	79.0
49=	53	University of Amsterdam	Netherlands	93	81	73	62	71	32	78.9
49=	56	Tsinghua University	China	98	83	95	34	45	34	78.9
51	48	University of Copenhagen	Denmark	84	67	100	48	71	73	78.8
52=	40	New York University	US	94	94	75	53	26	52	78.4
52=	50=	Peking University	China	100	93	89	35	24	30	78.4
54	46	Boston University	US	87	87	68	67	25	89	77.8
55=	78=	Technical University of Munich	Germany	73	90	92	58	56	74	76.3
55=	61	Tokyo Institute of Technology	Japan	81	79	72	80	31	49	76.3
57	57	Heidelberg University	Germany	90	47	77	58	58	80	76.2
58	69	University of Warwick	UK	86	100	63	39	85	97	75.7
59	74	University of Alberta	Canada	88	71	65	52	91	66	75.4
60	64	Leiden University	Netherlands	89	58	35	97	74	40	75.3
61=	65	University of Auckland	New Zealand	95	96	36	45	93	99	74.7
61=	55	University of Wisconsin-Madison	US	90	76	44	87	29	36	74.7
63=	81=	Aarhus University	Denmark	83	51	65	75	69	66	74.5
63=	71	University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign	US	92	66	23	93	72	49	74.5
65	72	Katholieke Universiteit Leuven	Belgium	94	80	35	73	55	55	74.2
66	75	University of Birmingham	UK	78	93	57	63	83	76	73.9
67=	66	London School of Economics	UK	89	100	53	29	100	100	73.7
67=	88	Lund University	Sweden	84	59	55	78	57	62	73.7
69	95	Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology	South Korea	84	52	77	65	47	31	72.6
70=	67	Utrecht University	Netherlands	87	65	61	71	43	24	72.4
70=	81=	University of York	UK	63	95	75	61	95	83	72.4
72	68	University of Geneva	Switzerland	68	36	54	96	97	100	72.3
73=	77	Nanyang Technological University	Singapore	86	84	44	44	100	100	72.0
73=	60	Washington University in St Louis	US	57	50	95	98	30	53	72.0
75	63	Uppsala University	Sweden	89	51	42	80	68	40	71.9
76=	58	University of California, San Diego	US	98	51	17	100	22	27	71.5
76=	70	University of Texas at Austin	US	93	92	29	65	55	41	71.5
78	102=	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill	US	72	78	72	82	23	26	71.3
79	73	University of Glasgow	UK	73	83	67	64	58	60	71.2
80	59	University of Washington	US	83	46	45	99	25	36	71.1
81	106=	University of Adelaide	Australia	78	87	38	62	87	96	70.8
82	76	University of Sheffield	UK	65	97	70	59	81	76	70.6
83	78=	Delft University of Technology	Netherlands	78	88	57	49	84	73	70.4
84	83=	University of Western Australia	Australia	72	81	50	63	99	87	70.2
85	54	Dartmouth College	US	58	93	60	100	34	52	70.1
86	83=	Georgia Institute of Technology	US	76	81	23	99	36	77	70.0
87=	99=	Purdue University	US	83	83	38	58	94	60	69.8
87=	83=	University of St Andrews	UK	57	92	74	61	91	99	69.8
89	108	University College Dublin	Ireland	72	94	67	37	95	90	69.7
90	62	Emory University	US	51	68	94	90	41	45	69.6
91	86	University of Nottingham	UK	70	99	61	48	84	86	69.4
92=	120	Nagoya University	Japan	67	77	89	61	28	34	69.2
92=	106=	University of Zurich	Switzerland	79	37	22	98	99	71	69.2
94	137=	Free University of Berlin	Germany	87	31	28	92	49	63	69.0
95=	99=	University of Southampton	UK	64	87	66	59	86	76	68.9
95=	124=	National Taiwan University	Taiwan	93	82	39	57	29	25	68.9
97	112	Tohoku University	Japan	67	58	98	58	36	32	68.6
98	93=	Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich	Germany	86	45	34	76	53	66	68.4
99	104	University of Leeds	UK	73	99	57	48	75	62	68.3
100	78=	Rice University	US	56	44	86	87	38	67	68.1

NZ, Auckland University also ranked within this top 100 as at 61. To see complete list:

http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/Rankings2009-Top200.html

Two women trapped on train

   When i was in Telok Blangah area, i have seen few passengers came to Habourfront MRT from ChinaTown/Outrom Park station and stay in train as it will go back to Punggol.

  As i understood that it is get comfortable seating and there is no extra cost on that.This news story show some warning to those passengers and thought to share in blog. However SBS Transit action looks impressive and how passenger care taken care by them.

  Some of countries which i know, i can not see this type of apologies as they to argue for their side point of view than consider passengers as customers.... Good reaction SBS Transit. Keep it up..

http://www.todayonline.com/Singapore/EDC091009-0000049/Two-women-trapped-on-train

Singapore NBN IP, GPON contracts to Huawei & ALU

As i read from Telecomm news site, Huawei wins Singapore national broadband network contract. Looks deals valued Huawei and ALU are in 70% and 30% respectively.

Huawei will roll out an end-to-end network with IP MPLS core, GPON and an active ethernet access network. It will also deliver professional services, CPE and network management.

Alcatel-Lucent will supply the OSS/BSS and act as systems integrator. The contract will include service assurance, customer care and billing and is targeted for completion by July next year.

Full news can be found from telecomseurope website..

MediaCorp news can be subscribe via MMS & SMS....

Mobile One (M1) and MediaCorb teams up to give new feature to subscribers such get the news alerts to phone via SMS/MMS. SMS normally i have seen in other places. MMS would be new for this news service... See Channel News Asia for more details:

MediaCorp teams up with M1 to provide news to subscribers via MMS & SMS

Higher pay rise next year as bosses turn upbeat...

Good to see economic situation getting better for every one... See this news in Channel News Asia

Higher pay rise next year as bosses turn upbeat

Economy Ranking - Doing Business - Singapore 1st, NZ is 2nd,... Others follows...

Good to see the world bank report on economy rankings regarding doing business...

Singapore in first place as usual and next one is New Zealand. Both are lagging in some areas however overall rank better... It is good for some start up companies to plan based on these ranking and decide the location.

NZ is 1st and best one for starting business and protecting investors, while Singapore is for employing workers and trading across the borders. For closing business, Japan is number one...

Other countries ranking as follows... Hong Kong, China 3rd, Next ones are USA, UK, Denmark, Ireland, Canada, Australia,...

Sri Lanka ranked 105 and India 133..

Full ranking available at http://www.doingbusiness.org/economyrankings/

Cost of Living....

World Cost of Living July 2009: Tokyo returns to the top position and Dublin ranks 25^th of 143 in the Mercer 2009 Cost of Living city rankings, dropping 9 places from 2008.The decline of rental and food prices in Dublin, coupled with the fall in the value of the euro against the US dollar, has caused Dublin to drop down in the rankings. Noel O'Connor, Senior Consultant at Mercer, commented: “As a direct impact of the economic downturn over the last year many currencies, including the Euro and British pound, have weakened considerably against a strong US dollar causing a number of European cities to plummet in the rankings.”

Tokyo has knocked Moscow off the top spot to become the world's most expensive city for expatriates according to the Mercer survey. Osaka is in 2^nd position, up 9 places since last year, followed by Moscow in 3rd place. Geneva climbs to 4th position and Hong Kong moves up to 5th. Johannesburg in South Africa is the least expensive city in the ranking.

The survey covers 143 cities across six continents and measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment. For example, a large fast food hamburger meal can cost up to €7.15 in Dublin compared to €2.68 in Beijing.

The data is used to help multinational companies and governments to determine compensation allowance for their expatriate employees.

O'Connor also noted: “With significant exposure to multiple economies and currencies, multinational companies continue to be greatly affected by the financial crisis. The cost of expatriate programmes is heavily influenced by currency fluctuations and inflation rates. It is important for multinational companies to continuously review their compensation packages and ensure they are in line with the rest of the market.”

Europe

Moscow remains the most expensive city in Europe for expatriates in 3^rd place. However, a dramatic depreciation of the rouble against the US dollar has led to a sharp fall in the city's index score compared to 2008 (115.4 in 2009 V's 142.4 in 2008). The next European cities in the ranking are Geneva and Zurich in 4th and 6th place, up from 8th and 9th respectively.

European cities have experienced some of this year's steepest falls in the ranking, with Warsaw plummeting from 35th to 113th and Glasgow (129th place) and Birmingham (125th place) in the UK falling 60 and 59 places respectively. German and Spanish cities all fell between eight and 11 places, whereas cities in Sweden, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Romania and Hungary all fell between 36 and 48 places. “As most European currencies have weakened against the dollar it has become more costly for companies based in this region to send expatriates and their families to US cities,” said Mr. O'Connor.

Oslo and London, both previously in the top 10, are now in 14th and 16th place respectively. “The decline of rental prices in both London and Oslo, coupled with the fall in the value of British pound and Norwegian krone against the US dollar, have caused these cities to plummet in the ranking,” said O'Connor.

The Americas

New York remains the highest ranking city in the region and has also joined the global top 10 list this year, jumping from 22nd to 8^th place. Los Angeles is up 32 places to 23rd and Washington is up 41 places to 66th. Winston Salem is the cheapest US city surveyed, ranked at 126. All cities in the US have experienced a rise in this year's ranking due to the strengthening of the US dollar.

Canadian cities have slipped down the index with its highest ranking city Toronto down 31 places to 85th. Ottawa drops 36 places to 121st and Montreal is now in 103rd place, down from 72nd in 2008.

In 15th place and up 74 places from 2008, Caracas in Venezuela is the top ranking city in South America. Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro have experienced a reverse move, plummeting from 25th to 72nd and 31st to 73rd respectively. Buenos Aires has climbed 26 to reach 112th place. “Although the Argentine peso has lost value against the US dollar, the high inflation rate observed on goods and services have caused Buenos Aires to rise in the rankings,” said O'Connor

Asia

Tokyo moves up one place in the ranking to become the most expensive city for expatriates both in Asia and globally. The Japanese yen has strengthened considerably against the US dollar which also lifts Osaka into 2^nd place from 11th in 2008. Hong Kong follows in 5th place and Singapore has moved up three places to reach 10th. In 140th place, Karachi continues to be the least costly city in this region – up one place from last year.

Australia and New Zealand

Cities in this region have taken a significant plunge in the ranking following a dramatic depreciation of the Australian and New Zealand dollars against the US dollar. Sydney remains the most expensive city for expatriates in this region but has dropped from 15th to 66th. Melbourne follows in 92nd, down from 36th. Auckland has moved down to 138th place from 78th and Wellington follows in 139th down from 93rd.