Sunday, July 30, 2006

EasyEclipse - Free, open source, easy-to-use

EasyEclipse - Free, open source, easy-to-use Eclipse distributions and plugins for Windows, Mac and Linux

I was looking around for a decent Struts plugin for Eclipse when I came across this.

As the developers of EasyEclipse say:
Our focus is supporting Eclipse-based IDEs from the point of view of an individual developer or a small development team. As a developer, you need a specific and robust set of development tools in the smallest and simplest package possible – this is what EasyEclipse provides.

Each EasyEclipse distribution is tailored for a specific development environment with just the right functionality for that environment – no more complexity than necessary and one easy download and install procedure. And EasyEclipse is free.

Well, I think they are just about there. EasyEclipse is a neat package, not much clutter to tinker around with. There are specific packages tailored to your needs, whether you work more on desktop, mobile or server-side development. And of course you can install plugins if a particular distribution lacks a few tools that you need. While not as polished as MyEclipse, it serves my needs well, with support for Tomcat, Struts, Hibernate and Spring ready out-of-the-box for server-side distribution. I can can spend more time on learning rather than fiddling around with the IDE, or what some people call Eclipse Download Hell.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

MOM’s Report on Wages in Singapore, 2005

MOM's Report on Wages in Singapore 2005

The above link is broken.......use this one instead...

This is an extremely interesting report from the MOM. If you're interested in how much the grad from NUS EEE earns on average or how much a bellboy earns or what is the average differential in earnings between males and females for the same position, this report will shed some light.

I have yet to study the report in detail (not sure if I want to), but here are some observations from the report.

Diploma holders who graduate and then go on to serve NS earn more

They earn more than than their counterparts who do not have NS liability or served their NS before going on to study. I would have thought those who enter the workforce immediately after graduating would have earned more. They still earn less than degree holders though, by what I think is not a small margin.

Income bracket grouping for CPF contributors

All earnings refer to monthly wage.
About 14.2% of them earn $5000 and above.
About 29.2% of them earn $1499 and below.
The largest group (for intervals of $1000 in monthly wage) stands at about 22.8% for those earning $2000-$2999.

Wage differentials between the sexes

I gave it a quick look and found that most of the time, men do earn more than women.

For managers, the guy gets about $1000 more each month for basic and gross compared to the gal.
For professionals, the guy gets about $400 more each each month for basic and gross compared to the gal.

Information technology positions were among the lowest earning group among professionals.
Quoting the report "Highlights on Occupational Wages, 2005":
Occupying the lower five positions were mainly information technology related occupations, namely systems designers & analysts ($2,200); software engineers ($1,711) and applications programmers ($1,700). This reflects the strong competition of programmers from low-cost countries.

Not very surprising huh? From what I know, degree holders still have a better cut of the deal, as in most of them will still earn above $2.2K. Asking around, diploma holders are a lot worse off, I have heard of them being paid from $1.4K to $1.6K. This also ties in with my observation that there are many PRCs, Indian nationals, Indonesians and Vietnamese working in IT locally because the barriers to entry for the IT profession in Singapore is much lower than say, medicine, law, engineering or teaching, and the strong Singapore dollar.

The situation is more complex than that since wages are rising in India and PRC, in addition to other costs brought about by the high turnover rate. Moreover, mutual recogntion agreements that accompany FTAs will lower the barrier to entry to various professions including doctors and accountants. What we may see could be stronger competition in professions other than IT in a few years time.

Other interesting information

The report is really full of interesting tidbits, like what is the average commencing salary of fresh grads from each course in the local universities. One of the more interesting tables is the one titled "Median Monthly Basic and Gross Wages of Selected Occupations by Age in All Industries". If you believe in benchmarking yourself against others from the same job and age group, this one could give you a sense of bearings.

If you are interested in salary guides, here's another one from Kelly Services, but I don't think it'll be as accurate as MOM's but it's a guide.

Thursday, July 13, 2006

Budak Pantai - Assorted Nuts

Been planning to get this for some time, finally got it over the weekend over coffeee at the Esplanade. First heard them perform during my secondary school days (about 10 years ago)on this CD called Aka Acapella, which is a compilation of local acapella groups. The following year, I got to watch them live at Victoria Concert Hall, and they impressed me with their vocals, humor and creativity.

Assorted Nuts

You can sample some of the tracks here. You're bound to find some familiar songs in this album, such as David Tao's Ai Hen Jian Dan and Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin, Abba's medley, Sandy Lam's Qing Ren De Yan Lei, Emil Chau's Wo Shi Zhen De Fu Chu Wo De Ai, Blue's All Rise but with Budak's twist to them.

Here's the lyrics to the hilarious "All Rice".

All Rice

  • Lyrics by Joe.

  • Arranged by Budak Pantai


U always say that u don't like what I cook
U never touch my curry or my soup
I must confess that I just about had enuf
From this day on, got to put this to a stop

Baby I swear I know what u do
U feed the dog with the food I give u
And if u thot u had me fooled
I'm telling u now, this is what I'm gonna do (so listen)

CHORUS
One, no vegetable, no meat
Two, from now, u only eat
All Rice
Plain Rice

Three for the dog u've been feeding
U eat his dinner, no kidding
That's right That's right

One, no vegetable, no meat
Two, from now, u only eat
All Rice White Rice

Three for the dog u've been feeding
U eat his dinner, no kidding
That's right (let me tell u now)
That's right (I rest my case)!

Sunday, July 2, 2006

No TV set but fine stays

After reading Jeremiah's story at the HWZ forum, I thought that he deserved to be fined.

I would agree with ringisei that since Jeremiah didn't respond to MDA's payment advice and reminder letter, he should bear the consequence of not doing so. The impression I have from reading his letter is that he has previously paid the tv licensing fee save this year, hence it is not his first time paying for it.

Moreover, in the annual payment advice, the amount to be paid for the TV license fee is boxed out and clearly labelled. It is distinct enough as it is, so it seems unlikely he could have missed it if he had read the letter. He should clarify with Licensing Services staff when he received the letter and not assume that he won't have to pay.

A common gripe is that the opt-out system penalises the minority who doesn't own TV sets and is therefore unfair. I don't think so because:

  • MDA does inform those who may need to pay with clearly-marked letters and reminders so the minority who don't need to pay can still inform them. They can't claim ignorance.

  • it is more cost-effective than using a heuristic that assumes the majority do not own TV sets. This doesn't tally with the reality on the ground and would lead to greater administrative costs in collecting the license fees.


As for the issue of why we need to pay TV license fees, here's what the MDA has to say.

Why MDA collects TV and vehicle radio license fees

What are Public Service Broadcasts

I wasn't sure where the money goes to, but Mediacorp's FAQ provides some enlightenment.
7. I pay the annual TV license fee but why can’t I choose what I want to watch?

The annual TV license fee is not paid to MediaCorp but is in fact, managed by the Media Development Authority of Singapore. Based on their developmental policies and regulations, MDA will then accord funding to the various production houses, television stations, media agencies etc. to stimulate the production of quality programmes and development of new media technology and infrastructure.

Some people think that we are one of a few countries which collect TV license fees. Apparently it isn't so. Countries like France, Germany, Switzerland, UK, Japan, New Zealand and South Africa collect them too. BBC is paid for through TV licensing too.


BBC license fees

Key facts of the license fees
Perhaps if our TV license fees actually helps to churn out high quality programmes, people won't complain so much?