April 2008

From NYTimes.com: Debt Collection a New Frontier of India Outsourcing

In a glass tower on the outskirts of Delhi, dozens of young Indians are on the telephone, calling America’s out of work, forgetful and debt-stricken and asking for cash.

“Are you sure that’s all you can afford?” one operator in a row of cubicles asks politely. “Well, how do you take care of your everyday expenses?” presses another.

Americans are used to receiving calls from India for insurance claims and credit card sales. But debt collection represents a growing business for outsourcing companies, especially as the American economy slows and its consumers struggle to pay for their purchases.

I never understood when companies outsourced sales and customer service to other countries.  These are points of contact with your customer and in my experience with these calls, this is a poor way of dealing with customers.

Collecting debt is extremely difficult.  In an already difficult situation, you add constant calls and harassment from someone that doesn’t speak the language well and you’ll have a recipe for disaster.

Hong-Chih Kuo, from Tainan City, Taiwan is starting tonight against the Cincinnati Reds for the Los Angeles Dodgers.  The Taiwanese Association of Cincinnati has organized a group to go down to cheer him on. 

But I won’t be there. 

I’ll cheer him on later when he’s not playing against my hometown Reds.

This is a random Battlestar Galactica thought that I had while driving to work.

There are 12 human colonies.
There are 12 Cylon models.

But if you count Earth, there are actually 13 colonies.  Maybe there are actually 13 models of Cylons instead of 12 with 2 that have not been revealed.

If they reveal the 12th Cylon sooner as opposed to later and is a relatively minor character like Tom Zarek or equivalent, I believe that it would be a decoy for the biggest surprise, the 13th Cylon that would be revealed in the finale.  I believe that the 13th Cylon would then be a very major character like Starbuck, Admiral Adama, Baltar, or President Roslin and would happen near the very end.  It would be a total surprise for all the characters and the audience because we’re all thinking that once the 12th Cylon has been revealed that there are no more unknown “skin jobs” left.  But, then we’d be wrong and surprised in the finale.

I know that the show states that there are 12 in the opening sequence, but this show is all about breaking conventions, so what’s one more here?

From ABCnews.com: ‘Bodies’ CEO Resigns After ’20/20′ Report

The CEO of a company that runs a controversial exhibit of “plasticized” Chinese bodies, Premier Exhibitions, has resigned, according to an SEC filing by the company.

Arnie Geller submitted his resignation in March, weeks after a “20/20” report on the company’s practices triggered an inquiry by the New York attorney general’s office. The company, which never announced the change in management in a press release according to a review of its Web site, said Geller’s resignation was not connected to the questions raised about the human bodies or to Geller’s appearance on “20/20.”

UPDATE: As a commenter on this blog pointed out, that Bruce Eskowitz was actually appointed CEO in September 1, 2007.  This can be seen in the Form 8-K filed by Premier Exhibitions.

I had written about the CNN Headline Shirt earlier today, but I just noticed that the headline and the date are stored in the URL, so it’s pretty easy to change the shirt to whatever you want it to say!  I wonder if they’ll actually print out these shirts!

UPDATE: No.  They won’t let you put these shirts in the cart.

No, not a recipe for cooking SPAM, the meat-a-like, but a SPAM email that’s actually a recipe.  Not sure of the strategy of this type of SPAM.  No attachments, nothing being sold.  Perhaps, they’re just trying to get me to approve of this message and get around my SPAM filter.  No chance of that.

Recipe for great BBQ Sauce:

INGREDIENTS
1 quart apple cider vinegar
1 (20 ounce) bottle ketchup
1/4 cup paprika
1 pound dark brown sugar
1/4 cup salt
1 tablespoon black pepper
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup lemon juice

DIRECTIONS
In a large container, mix together the apple cider vinegar, ketchup,
paprika, brown sugar, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, garlic powder,
Worcestershire sauce and lemon juice. Pour into an empty vinegar bottle,
ketchup bottle or other container and store in the refrigerator for up to
1 month.

From NYTimes.com: No Fortissimo? Symphony Told to Keep It Down

Tests showed that the average noise level in the orchestra during the piece, “State of Siege,” by the composer Dror Feiler, was 97.4 decibels, just below the level of a pneumatic drill and a violation of new European noise-at-work limits. Playing more softly or wearing noise-muffling headphones were rejected as unworkable.

But across Europe, musicians are being asked to wear decibel-measuring devices and to sit behind see-through antinoise screens. Companies are altering their repertories. And conductors are reconsidering the definition of “fortissimo.”

Alan Garner, an oboist and English horn player who is the chairman of the players’ committee at the Royal Opera House, said that he and his colleagues had been told that they would have to wear earplugs during entire three-hour rehearsals and performances.

“It’s like saying to a racing-car driver that they have to wear a blindfold,” he said

It’s great that the Europeans care for their workers, but this seems to be a little bit on the extreme.  Music can be loud.  That’s part of being a musician.  It’s one of the very few occupational hazards of being a musician.

I noticed a new “feature” on CNN.com today.  Next to some of the headlines, there’s a new t-shirt icon.  When you click on the icon you can buy a t-shirt with the corresponding headline on it.
Here’s a close-up of the icon

So if I want a t-shirt that says “Weird fish leave sea, spawn on beach”, I click on the T-shirt icon.

This will yield you a inane t-shirt that if you wear will guarantee you a life of loneliness and sadness.  I wonder if CNN will intentionally try to “pump up” their headlines to make them outrageous enough for t-shirts.

The seems like something more for the NYPost.  At least their t-shirts would be entertaining!