Wurbe is the informal web developers meeting group, from Bucharest Romania. Meeting #5 was focused on automated testing (unit, TDD, BDD, other stuff). This is my presentation:
Archive for the ‘Romania’ tag
Figure of the day : 350
Recently, an Indian poster on a Slashdot thread ('India Outsourcers Find Back Door in Canada') mentioned that:
Software Developers in India (including me) are paid 350 times the prevailing minimum wage in India.
I thought it would be interesting to make a comparison with the same data in Europe:
- in a country such as France, this makes 402.640EUR/month.
- in one of the countries wich has recently join EU, such as Hungary, this means almost 67.000EUR/month (Hungary does not have the biggest wages in the recent wave of new EU members).
- finally in a country such as Romania which is scheduled to join EU in 2007, 350 times the minimum wage is however close to 25.000EUR/month and rising with two figures percentage in the last couple of years, due to economic growth. Romania and Bulgaria are considered the poorest countries to join EU in the next years.
Outsourcing in India is more than just a temporary industry trend … and will touch all EU as strong as it does with US. Dear US developers, would you please let us join the club ? (we'd rather not, but you know …)
The long hand of RIAA or simple plain dumbness ?
Went with my wife yesterday to see Master & Commander at Hollywood Multiplex, the only cinema multiplex in Bucharest (that is, until June 2004 when they'll finish the one that they're building just 500m away from where I live, which supposedly is a positive thing). It's a great movie, less haunted by the usual clichés and I do recommend it. But that's not the subject.
At the beginning of the movie we had the right to see a nice scrolling text on the screen, proving that RIAA&friends had already thrown some stones in the troubled waters of Romanian (quickly growing !) DVD/DIVX market. “In order to protect author rights, usage of video recording devices in the Multiplex is strictly forbidden. Please note that in case of infringement, your camera will be immediately confiscated.” Well, we are already a little on the abusive side (they COULD retain the camera and give it back to you at the end of the movie, don't they ?). But there's more : “Dear customers, please watch carefully around you. Should you see any video recording device, please report immediately to Multiplex staff.” Now, that's really murky. First, I have paid my ticket and just want to eat that damn popcorn and watch the movie, not spy on my neighbors. Second, it is not my job to assure that the rules are respected in the cinema. It's for the first time I see anything like this. Is delation promoted as common practice by the copyright-protecting agencies or just the Multiplex guys stupidly over-zealous ?