Competition heats up for IT-trained graduates, Job Seeking Guide, Singapore Jobs, Job Resources - STJobs

Competition heats up for IT-trained graduates, Job Seeking Guide, Singapore Jobs, Job Resources - STJobs

Competition heats up for IT-trained graduates

Fast-growing tech firms in various sectors want same pool of IT talent

The Straits Times - June 2, 2014

By: Rachael Boon

-- ST ILLUSTRATION: CHNG CHOON HIONG

OVER the past decade, tech giants such as Apple, Google and Microsoft have given the information technology (IT) sector a sexy facelift that is luring more students and graduates to the industry.

But the newly trendy image of the sector and the increasingly intense competition for tech talent have also made it difficult for some companies here to find the workers they need.

Part of the allure of the tech sector is that its salaries have been heading north, say local universities and companies.

Mr Anand Sampath, chief financial officer of eG Innovations, says pay has generally been rising - and quite steeply at that - especially in the past three years.

A Singapore Management University (SMU) spokesman also notes that survey data from 2011 to 2013 show that IT salaries have been progressively increasing.

SMU information systems management graduates earned a median of $3,300 to $3,725 last year. In 2012, they earned $3,000 to $3,775.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), graduates of some IT-related courses earned a median monthly pay of $3,000 to $3,400 last year, compared with $2,880 to $3,300 in 2012.

For Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduates in similar disciplines, salaries have stayed mostly flat, at a median of about $3,100 to $3,400 last year, from $3,200 to $3,400 in 2012.

The numbers come from the universities' surveys of students who graduated and started work last year.

Associate Professor Lee Wee Sun, vice-dean of undergraduate studies at the NUS School of Computing, says the NUS survey also found that fresh graduates in computing generally received higher pay than the overall average of full-time employed fresh graduates. He says computing graduates are keen on jobs not just with Google, Facebook and Microsoft, but also in the banking and finance sector.

On top of that, Prof Lee also notes a new trend: "We are also seeing more computing graduates who start their own businesses, such as Zopim, which was acquired by Zendesk for $30 million, and Touch Dimensions, an award-winning game developer."

As tech companies grow exponentially and start-ups begin making big bucks, companies across a range of sectors are clamouring for the same pool of IT-trained professionals.

More than 14 per cent of NTU graduates who found full-time jobs joined the IT industry last year, said Professor Kam Chan Hin, senior associate provost for undergraduate education at NTU, citing NTU's survey results.

An SMU spokesman says the most popular career choices for its School of Information Systems graduates include IT project manager, business consultant and software, Web and multimedia developer.

One of the university's graduates, computer science major Saraswathy Aruna Annamalai, is an associate analyst in the compensation and benefits team at LinkedIn, a professional networking website. Ms Annamalai, who graduated this year, says the salary was not a key factor in her choosing the job as she prefers to focus on the company culture.

Even though her role is in HR, she says the beauty of IT is that it is useful in any industry.

Mr Yasu Sato, LinkedIn's regional human resources director, notes: "The demand for and supply of software development talent in Singapore is the highest among all South-east Asian countries, based on LinkedIn's talent pool data.

"These professionals in Singapore are seven times more likely to be contacted by a recruiter than those in Indonesia."

LinkedIn has also grown its presence in the tech world in recent years. It started its Asia-Pacific centre in Singapore three years ago with two employees, and Mr Sato says that the talent required to support its growth has increased many times, with more than 150 employees here today.

Prof Lee from NUS says that the use of IT is becoming one of the main avenues for improving productivity, adding: "IT talent is becoming critical for companies in Singapore and there is increasing global competition for the best computing graduates."

But this competition is putting a strain on some companies like eG Innovations, which uses big data to monitor the health of corporate IT facilities.

Mr Sampath says: "There is a mismatch between the skills the IT industry needs and what graduates are trained to do."

He says the company has struggled for several years to hire Singaporeans for technical positions.

"Local graduates are unwilling to do pure technical work - what the industry calls 'grunt' work - even for a few years. They would rather do work that has some marketing or sales component in it."

He also notes that those willing to remain in technical positions would rather be in management than writing or fixing computer code.

He feels that Singapore should have a thriving homegrown IT industry, given its headstart in IT several decades ago and its superb business climate, but "what we have are branches and subsidiaries of software companies from the rest of the world".

While some blame the lack of homegrown entrepreneurial drive for this, Mr Sampath believes the education system and the expectations of graduates have contributed to the phenomenon.

He says: "We would have been happy to invest in more technical teams and groups in Singapore, but the lack of enough people of the kind we need has forced us to invest in research and development elsewhere. Singapore has definitely lost out on jobs that could have been created."

OVER the past decade, tech giants such as Apple, Google and Microsoft have given the information technology (IT) sector a sexy facelift that is luring more students and graduates to the industry.

But the newly trendy image of the sector and the increasingly intense competition for tech talent have also made it difficult for some companies here to find the workers they need.

Part of the allure of the tech sector is that its salaries have been heading north, say local universities and companies.

Mr Anand Sampath, chief financial officer of eG Innovations, says pay has generally been rising - and quite steeply at that - especially in the past three years.

A Singapore Management University (SMU) spokesman also notes that survey data from 2011 to 2013 show that IT salaries have been progressively increasing.

SMU information systems management graduates earned a median of $3,300 to $3,725 last year. In 2012, they earned $3,000 to $3,775.

At the National University of Singapore (NUS), graduates of some IT-related courses earned a median monthly pay of $3,000 to $3,400 last year, compared with $2,880 to $3,300 in 2012.

For Nanyang Technological University (NTU) graduates in similar disciplines, salaries have stayed mostly flat, at a median of about $3,100 to $3,400 last year, from $3,200 to $3,400 in 2012.

The numbers come from the universities' surveys of students who graduated and started work last year.

Associate Professor Lee Wee Sun, vice-dean of undergraduate studies at the NUS School of Computing, says the NUS survey also found that fresh graduates in computing generally received higher pay than the overall average of full-time employed fresh graduates. He says computing graduates are keen on jobs not just with Google, Facebook and Microsoft, but also in the banking and finance sector.

On top of that, Prof Lee also notes a new trend: "We are also seeing more computing graduates who start their own businesses, such as Zopim, which was acquired by Zendesk for $30 million, and Touch Dimensions, an award-winning game developer."

As tech companies grow exponentially and start-ups begin making big bucks, companies across a range of sectors are clamouring for the same pool of IT-trained professionals.

More than 14 per cent of NTU graduates who found full-time jobs joined the IT industry last year, said Professor Kam Chan Hin, senior associate provost for undergraduate education at NTU, citing NTU's survey results.

An SMU spokesman says the most popular career choices for its School of Information Systems graduates include IT project manager, business consultant and software, Web and multimedia developer.

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One of the university's graduates, computer science major Saraswathy Aruna Annamalai, is an associate analyst in the compensation and benefits team at LinkedIn, a professional networking website. Ms Annamalai, who graduated this year, says the salary was not a key factor in her choosing the job as she prefers to focus on the company culture.

Even though her role is in HR, she says the beauty of IT is that it is useful in any industry.

Mr Yasu Sato, LinkedIn's regional human resources director, notes: "The demand for and supply of software development talent in Singapore is the highest among all South-east Asian countries, based on LinkedIn's talent pool data.

"These professionals in Singapore are seven times more likely to be contacted by a recruiter than those in Indonesia."

LinkedIn has also grown its presence in the tech world in recent years. It started its Asia-Pacific centre in Singapore three years ago with two employees, and Mr Sato says that the talent required to support its growth has increased many times, with more than 150 employees here today.

Prof Lee from NUS says that the use of IT is becoming one of the main avenues for improving productivity, adding: "IT talent is becoming critical for companies in Singapore and there is increasing global competition for the best computing graduates."

But this competition is putting a strain on some companies like eG Innovations, which uses big data to monitor the health of corporate IT facilities.

Mr Sampath says: "There is a mismatch between the skills the IT industry needs and what graduates are trained to do."

He says the company has struggled for several years to hire Singaporeans for technical positions.

"Local graduates are unwilling to do pure technical work - what the industry calls 'grunt' work - even for a few years. They would rather do work that has some marketing or sales component in it."

He also notes that those willing to remain in technical positions would rather be in management than writing or fixing computer code.  (why? shit?)

He feels that Singapore should have a thriving homegrown IT industry, given its headstart in IT several decades ago and its superb business climate, but "what we have are branches and subsidiaries of software companies from the rest of the world".

While some blame the lack of homegrown entrepreneurial drive for this, Mr Sampath believes the education system and the expectations of graduates have contributed to the phenomenon.

He says: "We would have been happy to invest in more technical teams and groups in Singapore, but the lack of enough people of the kind we need has forced us to invest in research and development elsewhere. Singapore has definitely lost out on jobs that could have been created."

The real-life hacking behind Watch Dogs' virtual world

The real-life hacking behind Watch Dogs' virtual world

BY Timothy J. Seppala @timseppala May 23rd 2014, at 11:00:00 am ET 50

It starts out simply. One day, you're scrolling through the Naval Criminal Investigative Service database, identifying a perp's body when an alert flashes red on your monitor. "INTRUSION DETECTED," it screams. You're getting hacked and there's only one solution: Call your bumbling partner over and have him join you at the keyboard. The two of you frantically bang out rapid-fire key sequences as random program windows flash onscreen. The hacker's getting further and further into the system. Your partner's never seen code like this before and his usual tricks to combat it aren't working. That's when the display goes dead and your silver fox of a boss saves the day by pulling the power plug of your workstation.

That is how the entertainment industry wants you to think hacking works. But, like most Hollywood fantasies, it couldn't be further from the truth. Ubisoft (the studio responsible for Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time) knows this and for its upcoming cross-platform release, Watch Dogs, the company went to great lengths to ensure its game world didn't fall into those same tropes. Watch Dogs focuses on mega-hacker Aiden Pearce as he manipulates a Chicago run by the CenTral Operating System (CTOS) using only the smartphone in his hand. This CTOS controls everything from the simulated Windy City's traffic lights and ubiquitous surveillance cameras, to the drawbridges that cross the Chicago River. It's a fictitious, near-future vision of connected urban life, but still Ubisoft wanted it to hew as closely to hacking reality as possible.

The development team's reasoning for this was simple: "We're trying to be relevant," Watch Dogs Content Manager Thomas Geffroyd told me. "We felt that by understanding how negatively this culture has been portrayed, we could try to present the public with a more positive and accurate view of hacking and hackers."

A Hollywood depiction of hacking on the show NCIS

To do this, Ubisoft tapped the cybersecurity experts at Russia-based Kaspersky Labs. Together, the companies worked to vet every shell script and brute-force attack portrayed in the game to keep the intrusions plausible. Accuracy is the linchpin of Watch Dogs' world, so having one of the largest internet security firms read over the script, play early versions of the game and point out any inaccuracies was integral to the game's development process.

AN UNUSUAL REQUEST

In January 2013, Kaspersky released a report on a long-running cyberespionage campaign, dubbed "Red October," that infected computers in 43 countries and stole countless encrypted files from government agencies, military contractors and nuclear research facilities. In the days that followed, the lab received a number of requests from private-sector companies asking for extra investigation about the attacks -- likely to see if they'd been targeted, as well.

In that batch of emails, though, was a different question from an altogether different firm. Ubisoft wanted to send the script for Watch Dogs over so Kaspersky could make sure all the hacking details were accurate. The studio had already spent three years researching cybersecurity and hacking; information the team readily found online. Still, they wanted a second set of eyes -- Kaspersky's eyes -- to make sure small details weren't overlooked along the way.

"We felt that by understanding how negatively this culture has been portrayed, we could try to present the public with a more positive and accurate view of hacking and hackers," Geffroyd said.

Principal Security Researcher Vitaly Kamluk said it was a pretty unusual query, but he didn't see the harm in his team helping. "We're fans of video games," he said, "and we said why not?" For Kamluk and his coworkers, the opportunity to work on Watch Dogs was a welcome change of pace and so they agreed to the task.

All of Ubisoft's research had paid off: The suggestions from Kaspersky were relatively minor. "We didn't do anything stupid in the first place," Geffroyd said. Though he acknowledged that research may have attracted the attention of a few three-letter agencies. "It'd mean we did our job right!" he said. "I'm pretty much on any watch lists the NSA may have. I don't have a doubt about that." To Ubisoft's credit, Kaspersky found little issue with Watch Dogs' script and instead focused on polishing the game from a technical perspective. "We know how hacking happens," Kamluk said. "What skills are required ... the order of the actions." This, he told me, framed the team's approach.

For example, at one point in the game, Pearce has to steal a sizable database and copy a hard drive from a server that's tucked away in a protected datacenter. The script's first draft had him log in by brute-force attacking the system (i.e., trying all possible character combinations of a short password) and then transferring the data to a network drive. That scenario wasn't quite right according to Kamluk. "It may happen in the movies, but not in real life."

Instead, Kamluk said a hacker would have to reboot the server via a hard reset, boot a custom operating system from an external device and then start copying an image of the hard drive. This type of action would realistically trigger an alarm, prompting security to come and check for physical intrusions. Which, as it turned out, was the immediate next part of Watch Dogs' story anyhow. In this case, Ubisoft's decision to not follow the Hollywood model should actually help intensify gameplay.

Watch Dogs' lead writer explains the project's originsAnother suggestion that added to the realism, while also likely upping the tension, was a change to an in-car sequence. Ubisoft had originally written for Pearce to throw a GPS tag on his target and then follow him, but Kaspersky changed the sequence to make it a little more authentic. "[Pearce] has access to the surveillance cameras, can see through them and hack the bad guy just by jumping from one camera to the next without moving a finger," Kamluk said. So, instead, he suggested Ubisoft have Pearce shadow his target while copying data over a Bluetooth connection. "That would make more sense to be in close proximity to the target; stealing data instead of just tracking where he goes," Kamluk said.

In Watch Dogs' version of Chicago, smartphones, closed-circuit TV surveillance cameras and even natural gas lines are all connected to the CTOS. With that many devices on one network, Ubisoft's initial idea to use IPv4, the current internet protocol system, for the game's IP addresses (e.g., the 192.1.0.11 used to log in to many routers) wasn't plausible. The problem? IP address exhaustion: The more users or devices on a network, the fewer unique, assignable addresses that are available. Kamluk advised the team to adopt IPv6 instead since it would offer more addresses and be more realistic for a near-future city. "We went through the whole game and fixed all the visuals to make sure we could get that right," Geffroyd said. "These are the little details [Kaspersky] helped us with."

Even though Ubisoft is striving for accuracy with Watch Dogs, Geffroyd maintained the developer's focus has always been on gameplay first. That goes for potential sequels, too.

Aiden Pearce identifies a hacking target with the in-game smartphone

"We're not a simulator. With Watch Dogs, we provide entertainment and we strive for authenticity," he said. "If we'd [implemented Kaspersky's input] sooner, it would have been harder to get all of their information and try to fit it in, because it probably would have had an effect on gameplay." And because of that, Geffroyd would have had to reject some of Kaspersky's suggestions. Having the lab run through the script afterward, he said, was probably the best way to go.

Where Watch Dogs strays from reality is in how long a hack actually takes. Depending on the complexity of a real-world security system, a hack can take days or, in extreme cases, months. That's where realism is a speed bump to fun and could make the game boring -- it's something Kaspersky acknowledged must be altered to fit the constraints of a video game. That isn't to say that Watch Dogs is inaccurate, though. "Everything happening in the game is feasible in one way or another," said Geffroyd. "The issue inherent with gaming is we have to extrapolate shortcuts. We have to respect the medium and make a compelling experience."

Geffroyd knows that hacking is often boring, but said its effects are "pretty straightforward" and he thinks that's what Watch Dogs does well. There are real shell scripts present in the game (UNIX command lines), but they're counterbalanced with interfaces and components that most people would understand. "They tried to be as accurate as possible," Kamluk said. "I was impressed that the developers actually asked us to share some typical screens of what hacking tools look like." To make the game's hacking more appealing, Ubisoft also emphasized physical results of hacking, like blowing up steam pipes and lifting drawbridges -- stuff that's immediately fun.

"Everything happening in the game is feasible in one way or another," said Geffroyd.

The day I spoke with Geffroyd, he said a hacker friend told him that work's being done to create a phone like Pearce's. And, more importantly, the project had just secured funding. How? By showing the investors some Watch Dogs trailers. "I would say that everything we've extrapolated is pretty ensured to happen," Geffroyd said.

These in-game hacks aren't video game fantasy, either. Kamluk said he's seen hacking tools like network and vulnerability scanners running on modern smartphones, and added that it's possible for a phone to act as a front-end device that's connected to a more capable, off-site file server. "The list of vulnerabilities that you see on the phone in Watch Dogs? Similar things are possible," he said.

According to Geffroyd, when Anonymous wants to attack a website with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS), it uses a desktop app that you don't even need technical knowledge to operate. "It's a very simple app you can download after a Google search," he said. All you need to do is enter an IP address and the app will start to DDoS the target. "The reality of hacking applications is already there," he said. "We're just extending it a little." Essentially, anyone can be a hacker nowadays.

SMART CITIES FOR SMART MASSES

Instances of Watch Dogs' smart city tech are already in place around the globe, albeit on a much smaller scale. New York City's plans for Hudson Yards, a sensor-laden neighborhood that monitors seemingly every aspect of life, show progress on the domestic front. IBM has had Rio de Janeiro wired with a vast emergency monitoring system since 2010. And in Songdo, South Korea, Cisco has invested $35 billion to create an embedded telepresence infrastructure and energy-management system. There isn't a single operating system akin to Watch Dogs' CTOS running an entire city just yet, but, like mobile hacking tools, Geffroyd and Kamluk don't see it as being too far off. The threat of an Aiden Pearce may not be, either.

"The more we develop, the more devices we have, the more realistic this scenario [of hackers controlling a city] is," Kamluk said. "We're getting surrounded by an enormous number of digital devices connected over a network, which creates a lot of opportunities for hackers."

Sometimes the hacker becomes the hacked in Watch Dogs

When Kamluk says "devices," that term isn't limited to what's in your pocket. Case in point: Last year, a hacker took down a portion of Moscow's networked speed cameras by uploading malware to the police computer system, and destroyed some of the cameras in the process. The attack put the traffic system out of commission for several weeks. Kaspersky was hired to investigate, but is contractually prohibited from disclosing any further details.

"People tend to create systems extending capabilities and implementing new features that are so attractive to the customer, but they don't consider security," Kamluk said.

One of the easiest points of intrusion right now are the supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems that operate on unencrypted networks. In-game and in the real world, SCADAs control traffic lights, drawbridges and natural gas pipelines. "Thousands and thousands" of them have been installed in the past 15 years and are connected to the internet, according to Geffroyd. And because the laborers putting them in place aren't security technicians, an absurd amount of the SCADA traffic is open to the public and access is a search result away. "You'd be surprised what you can do without doing anything technically advanced," Geffroyd said. "You just have to put in the very easy-to-guess default password and login [credentials]." You don't need to be in the same city or even the same country to exploit these sensors, either.

Geffroyd told me that he hopes an actual smart city wouldn't have as many weaknesses as Watch Dogs' version of Chicago, but complex systems are more apt to have security gaps. Because the first smart cities will be the likes of New York or even London, they'll probably have a lot of legacy tech in place. Those older, unprotectable elements are what Geffroyd sees as weak links in a viable security system.

"People tend to create systems extending capabilities and implementing new features that are so attractive to the customer, but they don't consider security," Kamluk said. "Security must be considered extremely seriously; human lives will depend on how secure these systems are."

Star spills on 'Big Bang Theory' romance | AOL Features

Star spills on 'Big Bang Theory' romance | AOL Features

▶ Who Is X-Men's Apocalypse? - Comics History 101 - YouTube

▶ Who Is X-Men's Apocalypse? - Comics History 101 - YouTube

'X-Men: Days of Future Past' Post-Credits Scene Hints 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Plot

'X-Men: Days of Future Past' Post-Credits Scene Hints 'X-Men: Apocalypse' Plot

By Keerthi Mohan
May 24, 2014 18:15 IST                                                                                      

X Men: Days of Future Past

The "X-Men: Days of Future Past" post-credit scene has created quite a buzz among fans of the superhero franchise as it gives viewers a glimpse of the villain of the next instalment of the franchise."X-Men: Apocalypse" is set for a May 2016 release, but fans who had gone to watch the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" were teased with a brief view of the first mutant of the Marvel universe when a cloaked character was shown at the end of the movie.The mutant has grey skin and blue lips and thousands are seen chanting his name, En Sabah Nur, and bowing before him as he builds the great Pyramids with his mind."The post-credit sequence is a tease into what will be the Apocalypse movie," writer-producer Simon Kinberg told IGN. "Now the Apocalypse you see – that young boy – may not be the actor who plays the character in our movie. It's a deep back story glimpse into the character, but our movie doesn't take place in ancient Egypt and will likely not star a young boy Apocalypse."For the uninitiated, the Apocalypse is one of the earliest Marvel villains who believes in the theory that only the strongest should survive; whether it is a human or a mutant.This makes him a bigger threat as it will be evident in the 2016's instalment of the X-Men franchise.

According to Kinberg, Apocalypse will be the "darkest leader in the franchise" who will be a threat to both Magneto and Professor X.

"We're definitely approaching him as a super charismatic leader that will draw people to his cause," Kinberg said, according to Comic Book Movie. "So far, in the X-Men movies, there are really two leaders. You know, there's Eric/Magneto and what he did with the Brotherhood and Charles/Professor Xavier and what he did with the X-Men. Apocalypse presents a new leader, the darkest leader in the franchise."Apocalypse has a number of powers that include the capabilities to change his form at will, strength, speed, immortality, capability to manipulate objects with his mind and teleport among other. Because of these powers, Apocalypse was worshipped by a section of the human race.On and off, he has also been able to recruit other mutants to be on his team and this includes Angel, Gambit, Sunfire, Deathbird, and the Wolverine.'X-Men: Apocalypse' will have Michael Fassbender, James McAvoy, Nicholas Hoult, and Jennifer Lawrence. The movie will be produced by Bryan Singer.

Singapore Tourism Board's Horrid Promo Vid - YouTube (and a parody)

Singapore Tourism Board's Horrid Promo Vid - YouTube

Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad's Xbox Live account

Watch a 5-year-old spam the spacebar to access his dad's Xbox Live account

BY Timothy J. Seppala @timseppala April 4th 2014, at 12:28:00 pm ET 82

Kids: they're our future, and apparently are also great at finding backdoors within video game security measures. Take 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel from the San Diego area, for instance. His parents were curious about just how their son was accessing games on Dad's password-protected Xbox One profile. Well, as KGTV in California reports, it was as easy as spamming the space key on the password verification screen. If you thought Kristoffer's dad would be mad though, you'd be 100 percent wrong. The elder Von Hassel works in computer security and was pleased as punch when he learned how. The father and son team reported the backdoor to Microsoft, and Redmond rewarded Kristoffer with a year of Xbox Live, four games and $50. Had you been abusing this exploit yourself and were wondering why it went away, well, now you have the answer. The most ironic aspect of the whole ordeal? In the video below, Kinect recognizes the younger Von Hassel's guttural vocalizations and takes him to the Xbox One dashboard -- most of the times we ask nicely to launch Titanfall nothing ever happens.

[Image credit: KGTV]

▶ Godzilla - Extended Look [HD] - YouTube

▶ Godzilla - Extended Look [HD] - YouTube

If Google Was a Guy (Part 2) - YouTube

If Google Was a Guy (Part 2) - YouTube

▶ 『共闘ギルド』プロモーションビデオ - YouTube

▶ 『共闘ギルド』プロモーションビデオ - YouTube

ゆず「表裏一体」 - YouTube

ゆず「表裏一体」 - YouTube

▶ The Wind Rises - Official Trailer - YouTube

▶ The Wind Rises - Official Trailer - YouTube

Land of Giants - YouTube

Land of Giants - YouTube

Yeah! Seed is second!

NTT DoCoMo Survey Ranks Best Gundam Series - Interest - Anime News Network

Interest

NTT DoCoMo Survey Ranks Best Gundam Seriesposted on 2014-01-29 17:00 EST by Bamboo Dong

NTT Docomo's December "Voice of the People" survey asked users to vote on their favorite Gundam series. The results are shown below.

1. Mobile Suit Gundam
2. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed
3. Mobile Suit Z Gundam
4. Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Destiny
5. Gundam W
6. Mobile Suit Gundam 00
7. Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ
8. Mobile Fighter G Gundam
9. Mobile Suit Gundam V
10. Gundam Build Fighters
11. After War Gundam
12. Turn A Gundam
13. Mobile Suit Gundam AGE

Votes were tallied between November 28 and December 12, 2013, with 5,347 people participating. Mobile Suit Gundam won by a large margin, with 2,883 votes; Gundam Seed was second with only 485 votes.

What do you think? What's your favorite Gundam series? Let us know in the comments!

ATTACK ON CUTEST TITAN | ANIMATION DOMINATION HIGH-DEF - YouTube

ATTACK ON CUTEST TITAN | ANIMATION DOMINATION HIGH-DEF - YouTube

Chinese guy speak English in 9 accents! Extremely Funny!! - YouTube

Chinese guy speak English in 9 accents! Extremely Funny!! - YouTube

FORESTER 進撃篇CM 【実写・進撃の巨人×スバル フォレスター】 / The Attack 【Live-action "Attack on Titan"】 - YouTube

FORESTER 進撃篇CM 【実写・進撃の巨人×スバル フォレスター】 / The Attack 【Live-action "Attack on Titan"】 - YouTube

Fan Tops Congratulatory Messages to Kana Asumi with Itasha - Interest - Anime News Network

Fan Tops Congratulatory Messages to Kana Asumi with Itasha - Interest - Anime News Network

Interest

Fan Tops Congratulatory Messages to Kana Asumi with Itashaposted on 2014-01-15 18:00 EST by Bamboo Dong

Fans of Kana Asumi (Yuno from Hidamari Sketch, Ran from Shugo Chara!) have been showing their happiness for the voice actress' marriage by offering their congratulations on Twitter, and by drawing fanart.
However, Asumi fan @Kashiken_N took it upon himself to top the rest by making his own itasha (car decorated in anime girls), which has already been driving the streets of Tokyo and spotted by other Twitter users.
Here's some shots of the car in action:

Just for fun, here's some more congratulatory fan-art from the community.

[Via Otakomu; Images from @Kashiken_N, @altofox, @postquotehome

In Singapore? Odds are, you’re looking for a new job

In Singapore? Odds are, you’re looking for a new job

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 Published: Tuesday, 7 Jan 2014 | 1:31 AM ET

By: Dhara Ranasinghe | Senior Writer

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New year, new job for Singaporeans?

Tuesday, 7 Jan 2014 | 2:00 AM ET

The latest report from recruitment firm Hudson suggests more than 70 percent of Singaporean employees are hunting for a new jobs this year. CNBC's Julia Wood reports.

A significant number of workers in Singapore intend to change jobs in the coming year, according to a new report by recruitment firm Hudson, in the latest sign of tight labor conditions in the city-state.
In its '2014 Salary & Employment Insights' report for Singapore, Hudson said that about 40 percent of workers surveyed have changed jobs in the last two years while about 71 percent are currently on the hunt for a new employer.
(Read more: Singapore economy hits a bump in fourth quarter)
"My feedback to a lot of organizations is that if you look around your room, 71 percent of people you are staring at are actively or passively looking for a new role and of that 71 percent, 87 percent expect to have a new job in the next 12 months," Andrew Tomich, executive general manager for Hudson Singapore, told CNBC. "For Singapore, this is a relatively high number."
Unemployment in the Southeast Asian state stands at 1.8 percent, well below levels in most developed countries. The unemployment rate is about 3.3 percent in Hong Kong and 4 percent in Japan.

Rosland Rahman | AFP | Getty Images

People walk over the bridge across the river overlooking the financial district in Singapore on December 11, 2013.

Another key finding from the report by Hudson, whose clients include a number of multi-national firms, was expectations for a modest pay increase this year.
According to the survey, conducted in November, 86 percent of employees in Singapore expected a pay increase with almost 20 percent wanting an increase of more than 10 percent.
(Read more: For foreigners, has securing a job in Singapore just gotten harder?)
An rise in the cost of living and a high level of performance were the main reasons cited by workers for expecting a pay increase, Hudson said.
A majority of the employers surveyed by the firm, about 53 percent, expected to keep a steady headcount in the first three months of this year and aim to peg salary rises at 3-5 percent for the coming year.
That's still above inflation. Singapore's consumer price index stood at 2.6 percent in November from a year earlier, according to latest official data.
(Read more: Wage-cost worries creep up in Singapore)
"When you have a low unemployment rate and have the ability to secure another job very quickly, then it makes it very tough for employers to retain their people," said Hudson's Tomich.
"We looked at the other things you can do besides just raising salary. And we found that 90 percent of people valued bonuses and the next thing was flexible working hours. There is a change in the Singapore market because this doesn't normally come up," he added.
Salary increases are expected to be modest this year as the economy slows, a weekend report in Singapore's Strait Times newspaper cited recruitment, remuneration firms and industry associations as saying.
Data released last week showed Singapore's economy grew 4.4 percent on year in the fourth quarter of 2013, slowing from a 5.9 percent pace in the third quarter.
The Singapore government forecasts the economy to grow by 2-4 percent this year.
The Hudson report was based on a survey of 477 employers and 1,292 employees.
— By CNBC.Com's Dhara Ranasinghe; Follow her on Twitter

@DharaCNBC

Man named Sam Sung no longer works at Apple

Man named Sam Sung no longer works at Apple

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 Published: Tuesday, 10 Dec 2013 | 1:31 PM ET

By: Eli Langer | CNBC Social Media Producer

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You may not have known that they were together, but Apple and Sam Sung have parted ways.
CNBC has learned that Sam Sung, a one-time specialist at an Apple store in Vancouver, hasn't worked at the giant tech company for months.
It was just a year ago when Sam Sung—or at least his business card—became a viral sensation when a visitor to an Apple store in Canada noticed the interesting name of the specialist assisting a family member.

This week, this CNBC writer called the number on Sung's business card to confirm Sung's departure. We reached Apple's Pacific Centre, saying we were from CNBC and speaking with an employee who gave his name as John. It played like a scene from Abbott and Costello.
"Hi, I'd like to speak to Sam."
"Sam who?"
"Sam Sung."
"Oh. Sam Sung no longer works at Apple."
"Where did Sam Sung go?"
"He decided to move on. He may have wanted to do something else."
Sung was said to be very friendly to Huffington Post reporter Andree Lau before Thanksgiving 2012 when she visited the store to confirm his identity. "He said he was aware of the Internet interest but couldn't say much because of Apple's strict media policy," Lau wrote.
Apple declined to comment to CNBC on the status of the man who bears the name of its biggest rival.
At first, Sung did not respond to a message on LinkedIn. Once this story went live, though, we found our way to him.
"Want to know where [Sam Sung] went?" tweeted Victoria Welsby, a Vancouver-based headhunter and recruiter. "We stole him. He is at Holloway Schulz."
Holloway Schulz is a corporate recruiting firm.
Welsby put us in touch with Sung who said he would prefer not to comment for the time being out of respect for his current (and former) employer.
Proud of the accomplishment, Welsby offered the story this headline: "Sam Sung ends relationship with Apple to join top recruitment firm."
This got us thinking: What would be the best worst possible names for an Apple employee?
Here's our running list:
• Sam Sung
• Ann Droid (via Jack Baker)
• Mike Rosoft (via @jaslusher)
• Eric Son (via @donohuechris)
• Wendy Sfone (Windows Phone, heavy accent)
• Galaxie Esfore (via @AllDaveAllDay)
• Elle Gee (via Bobby Isaacson)
• Moe Terola


—By CNBC's Eli Langer. Follow him on Twitter at @EliLanger. CNBC's Ryan Ruggiero contributed to this story.

(ha) Razer Kills Their Intern | The Final Episode

Uncut Sheet of Magic cards - Page 2

Uncut Sheet of Magic cards - Page 2

Uncut Sheet of Magic cards

I've never seen one before (although, perhaps many of you see them all the time, I don't know). I know almost nothing about things like this. Is this worth anything? I realize it is worth what someone is willing to pay for it. I was hoping for dollar value guesses.

(!!! 20K)Magic MTG Beta Uncut Sheets Original Owner Employee Owned Beta Uncut Sheet | eBay

Magic MTG Beta Uncut Sheets Original Owner Employee Owned Beta Uncut Sheet | eBay

My brother and best friend won this at PAX East. Any idea what it's worth? : magicTCG

My brother and best friend won this at PAX East. Any idea what it's worth? : magicTCG

Info on a foil GateCrash uncut sheet, 2013 post, saying the sheet might be worth "These are typically worth between 100$ for the sheets of Commons, $150-$200 for Uncommon sheets, and $250-$500 for the rares/mythics depending on the popularity of the set. These are not "magic cards" and I doubt you'll find many people who can convert these into magic cards, the cutting process is very very specific and it's not like you could take scissors to it to make them.".

StarCityGames.com - Not In The Cards

StarCityGames.com - Not In The Cards

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - OFFICIAL Trailer - In Theaters May 2014 - YouTube

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 - OFFICIAL Trailer - In Theaters May 2014 - YouTube

Hokkien Beng Vs Cantonese Beng! - YouTube

Hokkien Beng Vs Cantonese Beng! - YouTube

SeaA disbanded? Kinda sad...

Nine factors that determine if you’re an otaku for sure - with some help from Anime Festival Asia’s performer Valerie - Are you an otaku? The ultimate test - xinmsn Tech

Miku - Winter ver.

Kahotan reveals new Snow Miku 2014 nendoroid and streetcar - SGCafe

【Follow-Up Report】“Miss Korea” Entrants’ Similar Features Not the Product of Plastic Surgery | RocketNews24

【Follow-Up Report】“Miss Korea” Entrants’ Similar Features Not the Product of Plastic Surgery | RocketNews24

【Follow-Up Report】“Miss Korea” Entrants’ Similar Features Not the Product of Plastic Surgery

• Michelle Lynn Dinh Apr 29, 2013
• 0

When head shots of this year’s Miss Korea entrants surfaced on the Internet, the world was shocked at how similar each girl’s features were. With the same pointed nose, slender chin, and eerily matching smile, it was easy for anyone to guess that these ladies all went to the same plastic surgeon. However, a second set of photos has surfaced, showing each girl wearing light makeup and dressed in very informal attire, confirming that this year’s Miss Korea entrants actually aren’t identical manmade clones.


As you can see, each young lady has her own set of unique features, confirming that someone on the Miss Korea Pageant staff went a little heavy on the photoshop with the first set of pictures. We aren’t sure what’s more shocking, the perception that each girl has undergone the same plastic surgery or the fact that each one was photoshopped to meet a certain standard of “beauty.”