I just bought an iPod and it kicks ass! Just a note for those of you interested in an iPod: if you are running windows, make sure to install iTunes for Windows. The iPod comes with a CD that installs MusicMatch, but the iPod support in that product sucks. After getting pissed trying to get MusicMatch to sync a playlist to my iPod, I decided to try iTunes instead. The difference is incredible. iTunes makes it very easy to sync content on your iPod. 9:50:13 AM    comment []  

When I first started using Struts, I was very excited that someone had built a web application framework to do all the hard work of mapping application logic to HTTP. Well, after using it a bit I started to see the limitations of Struts and eventually came to almost hate it. I decided to go see what else was out there and found a site that had comparisons of a whole bunch of OSS web application frameworks for Java [Wafer]. There's a new book on the topic called Java Frameworks and Components [Slashdot]. 9:28:35 AM    comment []  

My wife has been working in India for the past few months as a contractor for Microsoft. Microsoft has a new telephone support center in Bangalore and she is helping setup an internal program to improve the English language skills of the telephone support personnel. The interesting thing about this project is that the center primarily handles calls from the U.S.

The motivation for putting support centers in India is to reduce costs. Obviously, the amount of money that needs to be paid to employees in India is much less than what would need to be paid in the U.S. This is especially true of technically proficient employees. India has a highly educated population and a large base of technically skilled people.

However, there are problems, as Dell has discovered [Fox News]. Dell has pulled all their technical support out of India due to a high level of complaints.

The language barrier can be very difficult to overcome. This is compounded by the difficulties that many people already face when discussing technical problems. Throw in the simple communication failures that are common when people from different cultures try to talk and you are setting yourself up for customer dissatisfaction problems.

My wife is helping Microsoft establish an English language program designed to lessen the communication failures of Microsoft's India based telephone support employees. By focusing on accent and cultural language issues, they hope to bridge the communication gap between their Indian employees and American customers. 10:55:53 AM    comment []  

It seems that telecommuting is on the rise as companies continue to try to lower overhead costs [Slashdot]. 4:41:58 PM    comment []  

Dave Barry demystifies the difference between the brains of men and women [Miami Herald]. 2:36:07 PM    comment []  

Silbo Gomero is a human language that is whistled instead of spoken or signed [CNN.com]. 1:19:56 PM    comment []  

At home, I have a pretty large MP3 collection that I have created by ripping and encoding all of my CD's. I have that collection hosted on a Linux box and I play the collection at home through a networked laptop. It is a pretty nice setup, since I use the laptop as a thin client and access the collection through a web browser using andromeda on the hosting server. However, should I decide to upgrade at some point, I might go with a solution like the new Squeezebox from Slim Devices [Product Overview]. 1:15:02 PM    comment []  

For the past year, I have been fighting with character encoding problems in order to support a Japanese client. Unfortunately, the application that I am supporting was originally written without internationalization in mind and for a long time, we have been storing shift-JIS text as Latin. Over the past month or so, I have been working on a complete rewrite of that codebase to switch everything over to Unicode, but it has been a painful process. Trying to figure out how it all works has been like finding your way around an unfamiliar room blindfolded. Anyway, I have been successful, but only after a great deal of pain.

Today I ran across an article that I would have liked to have had months ago that gives an easy-to-read overview of character sets and character encoding [Joel on Software]. 11:25:34 AM    comment []  

There are numerous reports that the economy is improving. Certain indicators have been growing for months, but now it looks like employment rates are starting to improve as well [CRN]. 10:57:12 AM    comment []  

A few weeks ago, I was telling some friends of mine that MapQuest map directions where made possible by people actually driving around and inputting data about intersections, turns, etc. into their database. I was ridiculed at the time for believing in something so "obviously" untrue. It turns out I was right afterall.

TechTV has an interesting story about the company that builds the mapping technology behind popular map services like Mapquest. The company, Navigation Technologies, is decidedly low-tech in its approach to making its maps: two people in a car drive around endlessly, inputting street information and landmarks into databases. Navtech's map databases are used in everything from Garmin GPS units to Alpine in-dash auto navigation systems. So next time you turn the wrong way down a one-way street, know that there are real people behind the controls [Slashdot].

I know it seems unlikely, but it isn't hard to prioritize main roads over lesser traveled roads. As you go, filling in more and more road and intersection data, the quality of the directions provided by the automated system should improve. In the mean time, the system is able to fill in missing data with less perfect directions from it's less accurate map data. 10:38:12 AM    comment []  

I read a weblog entry today about the wikipedia [Yarr!] and I was intrigued. So, I decided to go see what the widipedia had to say about "Papiamento". Papiamento is a human language that I learned while living on the island of Curacao in the Caribbean. The widipedia's full text search tool was broken, but it suggested that I do a Google search of the term on the site. I did and found an article discussing "Lingua Franca". In the article there was a link to the word "Papiamento", but when I clicked the link, it told me that there was, as yet, no entry for that word and it gave me a text form to fill out to create a new entry for the word. So, being the good netizen that I am, I added a new entry [Papiamento]. What a cool concept! 3:14:16 PM    comment []  

Xopus has come a long way since I first wrote about it [Oct 29, 2002]. Go check out what it now has to offer [Xopus.com]. 2:54:11 PM    comment []  

A technique for running multiple versions of IE on the same box [Insert Title Web Designs]. This help overcomes the problem that developers have testing their web apps and pages against older versions of Internet Explorer. 2:48:56 PM    comment []  

"Cougaar is an open-source Java-based architecture for the construction of distributed agent-based applications. It is the product of an eight-year DARPA-funded research project in highly scalable and survivable multi-agent systems" [Slashdot]. Sounds very cool. I think I would like to build something like this. 10:34:20 AM    comment []  

Microsoft offers a bounty of $250,00 for information leading to arrest of the individuals responsible for writing the MSBlast and SoBig viruses [Slashdot]. My first reaction is to concider what kind of unforseen consequences might arise if this practice were continued. This would create a market for information. Imagine an inventive person creating a virus, framing someone else as the writer of the virus and then turning that individual in for the reward. I wonder what other ingenious scenarios could be invented.

However it goes, I think this is probably a smart move on Microsoft's part. $250k is a lot of money for most people, but a drop in the bucket compared to the damages that Microsoft has to pay when these viruses hit. A little incentive of this type might actually stand a chance of making a potential virus writer think twice before releasing his ideas on the world. 10:32:07 AM    comment []  

Scientists are pursuing many different methods to fight cancer, from the well known techniques of chemotherapy and radiation. Positive results have now been achieved using a virus that attacks cancerous cells while leaving normal cells alone [Slashdot]. This type of approach combined with nanotechnology is going to open up some very interesting possibilities for fighting disease in the near future. 4:05:26 PM    comment []  

Red Hat just announced that they will no longer be supporting their consumer oriented Linux offering. Instead they will be focusing solely on their Enterprise line [ArsTechnica]. This should help to consolidate the Linux market and should push many users over to one of the alternative distros. 9:53:52 AM    comment []  

Technology spending my finally be on the rise [New York Times]. 9:39:44 AM    comment []  

I've been curious about rule-based development frameworks for a while. I haven't used any of them yet, since I still don't think I fully understand how I would use them. Jess in Action is a book that introduces, with examples, one of the OSS rule-based systems [Slashdot]. 9:27:11 AM    comment []