Asia's 50 best companies to work for. Huawei is only company in top-20

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Source: Universum

Have a look and you'd be quite surprised at the results. No facebook or Yahoo in the list. From Singapore again there is none.

What surprises me is the position of Huawei in the list. I was under the impression that the work life in Huawei is not that great based on my friends feedback. Either my friends expectations are quite high or there is a different picture of Huawei outside of Singapore. In any case Huawei got three notches above Cisco which is one of its competitors. The traditional telecom competitors like Ericsson were ten notches below @ 27.

Interesting survey I'd say.

Newsloop - New app from SingTel

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Source: http://www.newsloop.co/about

NewsLoop brings traditional media to the next level by putting together news and lifestyle content into an elegant app. With over 230 content sources and 25 categories of stories to choose from, NewsLoop lets you discover news that matters to you.

I've installed it on my iPhone few hours ago and trust me, this is by far the best news app available in Singapore (or region). 

Some screen shots below showing the granularity of customization. wish I could show the functionality but you must try to get a feel :)

It's available from Appstore. Give it a try !!!!!

Egg consumption per person by country - 2007 data.

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Just now I saw an article in CNA, saying that Egg shortage in malaysia creating some issues. In the same article it was mentioned that Malaysians consume 320 eggs / year on average which is one of the highest in the world.
So that's where I started to wonder about the rest. A quick search resulted in some links but more authentic one was from a website called wattagnet. I can't paste the data here without their permission here but the details there are up to 2007. Based on 2007 data, the top most consumers are from Brunei.

But the study is in KG so another quick search led me to answers.com, BBC, and convertto. On an average the assumption is ~40 grams. So approx 25 eggs/KG.

• Brunei - 20.99 kilo grams / person / year or 524 eggs 
• Followed by Denmark, Japan, Paraguay, Mexico, Netherlands & China
• China - 17.41 kilo grams / person/ year or 435 eggs.
• USA - 14.29 kilo grams / person / year or 357 eggs. It stood at 16
• Malaysia - 12.21 kilo grams / person / year or 306 eggs. It's rank is 21.
• India - 2.07 kilo grams / person / year or 51 eggs. Rank is 128 :)

I couldnt find Singapore data in the study but from AVA, I've got this info.

• Singapore - 302 eggs in 2007 (rank is 24); Or 308 eggs in 2011.

Well, finally why did the chicken crossed the road ?? (Don't ask me for the answer; Neither the question what is the point of this blog post)

Multiple Gmail extension in Chrome - Checker Plus for Gmail

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Source: Checker Plus for Gmail
Install here from Chrome Web Store

Most of you understand the pain to check emails from multiple gmail accounts. Whether it's a family PC which is shared among the family, or single person with multiple gmail accounts, the task of checking one after one is not an easy one. On top of it, there are plenty of not-so-urgent mails which simply needs a view.

With this little extension, you can save all the hassle. Be it just glancing through the content of the mail before deleting it, or clicking on links, or forwarding.. You can do almost all the regular tasks within the extension. I've installed it on my family PC and right now we're using it for 4 accounts and it works perfectly fine.

You can find more reviews and WIKI for FAQs in above links.

English Language Proficiency - Country list

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Source: EPI or English Proficiency Index

Here is an interesting article (full study can be downloaded from the above link) on nations English proficiency. I was under the impression that Nordic countries language skills weren't great as my encounters with the companies (e.g. Ericsson, Nokia, ) wasn't that great.
There is a strong correlation between 'english' and 'economic progress' which is not a surprise given the domination of English in world markets and business.

Singapore occupied the top place in Asia. It is no surprise but again my observations of is similar to India. More people can communicate in English but few people can articulate well & think well in English. It's still a 'foreign language" than native.

I found another interesting part which is the 'progress' or 'change' in proficiency over years. From the chart, I see India jumped 16 ranks, while countries like Korea, Hongkong, Saudi dropped by double digits. In fact India is the only country with double digit growth in ranking.
The only reason I could think is due to the overall literacy rate improvement. In my observation India's English speaking skills are worsening (just like me who can't communicate as effectively as my dad/mom). Similar to Singapore, many Indians can communicate in English but we can't 'think' in English. that's the problem English speaking in Asian nations. So you can here people asking 'how much is the time'; or claiming, some relative "expired"; or put down the baby; or asking a question " when did you passout ? ;) ;)

Well, I can't stop thinking about Russel Peters now :)

What makes 'bad' so hard?

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I enjoyed this quote from the movie 'As Good As It Gets':

Carol(Helen Hunt) - OK, we all have these terrible stories to get over, and you-...

Melvin(Jack Nicholson)- It's not true. Some have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But, a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good.

Jack Nicholson was so damn funny in this :)


The take away from this (for me atleast) was that- what others get in life should not be a yardstick to measure what you get.. Lets appreciate that each of us is unique and lets bring out the best that we are capable of!

IT Staff on Bench - Why can't INFY, Wipro take them to do something worthwhile?

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Source: Economictimes

One would agree that IT firms need to have a good strategy on managing bench, but at the same time what I am surprised is why can't companies like Infosys could use the resources for some creative purposes. Instead of paying them 50% or 70% salaries and let them sit in cafes why can't they be assigned a task?

I am sure they hired the best of minds and these minds can be used to innovate the next Facebook or iTunes. Even they can be used for some out of box ideas to solve the problems faced by common man. Be it the solar power, or simple native language conversion or for that matter even try to 'digitize' the old paper based knowledge..