I'm assuming that when you say "little credible real world evidence" you are not counting all those times in the past (including the.dom boom during the 90s) when outsourcing didn't kill off the economy?
Do you know what is even more amazing? That people who have no knowledge on the matter think they can do a better job than virtually every economist who has studied the issue.
"Although sometimes it may be difficult, this is far less likely to happen with someone who has English as their first language."
Uh, someone living overseas does not mean they do not know English as a native language. In India, for example, English is one of the most popular languages spoken (not too long ago they were a British colony after all). That is one of the big reasons India has grown as a major source of usable labor (as opposed to China or Japan).
" Over time this improves, which is why a high turnover of staff is counterproductive. "
Being that tech support is generally considered an entry level job which one hopes to hold just long enough to launch the rest of their career, a turnover of staff is going to happen regardless of where the call center is located. If anything, the turnover would be greater in the States where the job market is really good (contrary to what John Kerry is saying on the campaign trail, our unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world among large nations).
"The issue is the company is not fulfilling their purpose."
But said failure is not a result of offshoring, and any attempt to blame offshoring is usually just making excuses to justify bigotry.
No, they are not perfect, but they will improve in time as voice recognition technology gets better. This one was actually not that bad, so the technology is getting better.
There are methods other than just touch tone menus. When I called Penske earlier this summer to see if I could rent a moving van, I was presented with an automated menu where you just spoke in your choice, much like you would do with a person.
Add to that, a lot of tech support is moving to the Internet where you can input your choices using your mouse and keyboard (not everything can be done this way; I hate it when I call up Adelphia to complain that our cable internet service is down and they tell me about their website's customer service section).
There are two sides to the communication problems. While I agree that the tech support center should not be required to speak every dialect of the English language like a native speaker (that would be impossible), they should do as much as they can to understand the various dialects, whether it is Southern, Texan, New England, British, or Indian.
It should be noted that such a problem is not inherent to tech support centers overseas. A representative from Vermont may have just as much trouble understanding a caller from South Carolina as the representative in India. Thus this issue does not do much to support the racist/ethnocentric view that no one in California should go unemployed while people in India have work.
Similar exceptions exist in anti-mass marketing laws here in the States as well. Not sure if it is based on the same reasoning though, our First Ammendment is supposed to apply equally to all forms of speech (political, commericial, etc.).
" however the definition of science fiction basically says "set in space"."
Using whose dictionary? Space merely provides the stting for the story and nothing else. Usually some aspect of science is supposed to be present in either the theme or the plot as well.
Its like two points. Thats not what I would consider "quite a bit to dip".
Besides, I don't see whats wrong about looking at the recent tred. Sure a year and a half ago when they started the IBM lawsuit (I don't know what event you are considering the beginning all this, but that lawsuit was not filed years ago, but rather in March of 03) their stock was rising, but since then that trend has reversed and they are now at a low for the year.
I see a lot of posts suggesting something like an iPod, but isn't that sort of overkill? $250 just to store files? Add to that you will probably lose it within the year. Just get a USB flash drive. $20 for 128 megs or half a gig for under $60. Small, cheap, and easy to use.
The phrasings of the origional article certainly are. Thats what we were discussing, whether or not the campaign to use alternative browsers is a "fight against IE". RTFT.
Thats the first time I have ever heard home insulation called a "fight".
Besides, if an insulation company flooded the net with articles saying how their insulation is far superior to furnaces, I may be willing to consider that a fight against furnaces. Its not the product itself that is a fight against competitors, its the advocacy of it when that advocacy is focused on problems with the competitor.
The choir says "Halleluia"!
The congregation says Firewhat?
Seriously, does anyone who reads slashdot these days really need someone to point out the advantages of mozilla/firefox/opera/safari/whatever? Is this really news?
Even if Google did make such a service (and I know of no reason to believe they are), it would take a lot more than Google's name brand to sell it. The problem with an instant messaging client is not only do you have to switch, but so do all your friends.
Case in point, MS is likely the most powerful company today (and to all you mod nazis who will -1 Troll anyone who says something decent about MS, I said powerful, not best), yet has their instant messaging client reached near the popularity of aim's? Even with it integrated into the most popular desktop operating system they still cannot beat aim. Why? Aim got there first, and no one is willing to change.
You can't just divide up the population into "conservatives" on one side and "liberals" on another. The fact that Washington appears to be divided so is more of a byproduct of the electoral system than a representation of reality, and even then there is plenty of variety within the parties (compare McCain and Frist or Lieberman and Pelosi). Sure there are some schools of conservative thought that place an emphasis on reason and there are some schools of liberal thought that place an emphasis on emotion, but the respective political positions are not limited to those particular schools. Thus throwing everyone together will not give accurate results.
Define "fault". One could argue that the entire notion of free will is but an illusion, in such a case arguably nothing is anyone's fault. However, I would argue that one can still assign blame, even if you can pinpoint the biological mechanism in which a decision is made. The fact that I can pinpoint the coding error in a program doesn't mean I can't claim the program itself isn't wrong, in fact quite the opposite.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm assuming that when you say "little credible real world evidence" you are not counting all those times in the past (including the .dom boom during the 90s) when outsourcing didn't kill off the economy?
Do you know what is even more amazing? That people who have no knowledge on the matter think they can do a better job than virtually every economist who has studied the issue.
Remember the following 5 slashdot offshoring axioms:
Uh, someone living overseas does not mean they do not know English as a native language. In India, for example, English is one of the most popular languages spoken (not too long ago they were a British colony after all). That is one of the big reasons India has grown as a major source of usable labor (as opposed to China or Japan).
" Over time this improves, which is why a high turnover of staff is counterproductive. "
Being that tech support is generally considered an entry level job which one hopes to hold just long enough to launch the rest of their career, a turnover of staff is going to happen regardless of where the call center is located. If anything, the turnover would be greater in the States where the job market is really good (contrary to what John Kerry is saying on the campaign trail, our unemployment rate is one of the lowest in the world among large nations).
"The issue is the company is not fulfilling their purpose."
But said failure is not a result of offshoring, and any attempt to blame offshoring is usually just making excuses to justify bigotry.
No, they are not perfect, but they will improve in time as voice recognition technology gets better. This one was actually not that bad, so the technology is getting better.
Add to that, a lot of tech support is moving to the Internet where you can input your choices using your mouse and keyboard (not everything can be done this way; I hate it when I call up Adelphia to complain that our cable internet service is down and they tell me about their website's customer service section).
It should be noted that such a problem is not inherent to tech support centers overseas. A representative from Vermont may have just as much trouble understanding a caller from South Carolina as the representative in India. Thus this issue does not do much to support the racist/ethnocentric view that no one in California should go unemployed while people in India have work.
Similar exceptions exist in anti-mass marketing laws here in the States as well. Not sure if it is based on the same reasoning though, our First Ammendment is supposed to apply equally to all forms of speech (political, commericial, etc.).
Using whose dictionary? Space merely provides the stting for the story and nothing else. Usually some aspect of science is supposed to be present in either the theme or the plot as well.
Besides, I don't see whats wrong about looking at the recent tred. Sure a year and a half ago when they started the IBM lawsuit (I don't know what event you are considering the beginning all this, but that lawsuit was not filed years ago, but rather in March of 03) their stock was rising, but since then that trend has reversed and they are now at a low for the year.
Man, its a good thing we don't have that here, or else what fun would political campaigns be?
And while I'm sure there are other features that Word has that OOo lacks, most are unknown to the average user.
I see a lot of posts suggesting something like an iPod, but isn't that sort of overkill? $250 just to store files? Add to that you will probably lose it within the year. Just get a USB flash drive. $20 for 128 megs or half a gig for under $60. Small, cheap, and easy to use.
Yeah, because the record companies are the ones forcing the students to download music, legally or illegally.
They don't offer the service, they are accused of being too slow to accept change.
They do offer it, they are accused of extortion.
Get a fucking life.
And people wonder why record labels have been unwilling to try selling music online. When they do, people still criticize them.
The phrasings of the origional article certainly are. Thats what we were discussing, whether or not the campaign to use alternative browsers is a "fight against IE". RTFT.
Besides, if an insulation company flooded the net with articles saying how their insulation is far superior to furnaces, I may be willing to consider that a fight against furnaces. Its not the product itself that is a fight against competitors, its the advocacy of it when that advocacy is focused on problems with the competitor.
The congregation says Firewhat?
Seriously, does anyone who reads slashdot these days really need someone to point out the advantages of mozilla/firefox/opera/safari/whatever? Is this really news?
Case in point, MS is likely the most powerful company today (and to all you mod nazis who will -1 Troll anyone who says something decent about MS, I said powerful, not best), yet has their instant messaging client reached near the popularity of aim's? Even with it integrated into the most popular desktop operating system they still cannot beat aim. Why? Aim got there first, and no one is willing to change.
You can't just divide up the population into "conservatives" on one side and "liberals" on another. The fact that Washington appears to be divided so is more of a byproduct of the electoral system than a representation of reality, and even then there is plenty of variety within the parties (compare McCain and Frist or Lieberman and Pelosi). Sure there are some schools of conservative thought that place an emphasis on reason and there are some schools of liberal thought that place an emphasis on emotion, but the respective political positions are not limited to those particular schools. Thus throwing everyone together will not give accurate results.
Define "fault". One could argue that the entire notion of free will is but an illusion, in such a case arguably nothing is anyone's fault. However, I would argue that one can still assign blame, even if you can pinpoint the biological mechanism in which a decision is made. The fact that I can pinpoint the coding error in a program doesn't mean I can't claim the program itself isn't wrong, in fact quite the opposite.
Kant thought all of morality could be summed up in one logical rule. Sounds easier to code than this guy's ten.
They still are at risk, even if the terrorists don't try the exact same plot again.