I was reading Chris Pirillo’s blog today and found a post about a feature in Windows Vista: ReadyBoost. I went to Microsoft’s web site and found a page listing the feature within the performance features of Vista:
Windows Vista introduces a new concept in adding memory to a system. Windows ReadyBoost lets users use a removable flash memory device, such as a USB thumb drive, to improve system performance without opening the box. Windows ReadyBoost can improve system performance because it can retrieve data kept on the flash memory more quickly than it can retrieve data kept on the hard disk, decreasing the time you need to wait for your PC to respond.
Now, I don’t claim to be up on the technical details of flash memory. However, I was always under the understanding there was a limited number of times flash memory could be overwritten. I was reading in a computer magazine around 10 years ago about how you could only flash your BIOS 10,000 times because it was a flash memory limitation (OK…I know, “only” isn’t a word you tend to asssociate with the number 10,000). About 3 years ago, Microsoft sent me 4 32MB flash drives for attending one of their Windows Server 2003 Partner Readiness events. The packaging said it could be re-written approximately 100,000 times.
Every once in a while, I read articles talking about replacing hard drives in laptops with flash drives. I’m sitting here wondering about the practicality of this. Think about how often the swap file must be written to. I’ve been on support calls where they’ve had me use regtrace. It’s amazing, the number of times the registry is written to during normal computer operation. Now, Microsoft has ReadyBoost. Again, I must wonder at the practicality. The flash drive will basically be an extension or RAM — just like the page file.
Last week, during my musings on flash drives replacing hard drives in laptops, I decided to search for limitations on the number of times flash drives can have their memory rewritten. My searching lead me to an article at AskLeo! that addressed my concern:
The “problem” is that memory can be flashed only so many times. I’m finding numbers between 10,000 and 100,000 times – though as with anything, I’m sure that is increasing over time as well. Regardless, there is a limit. When that limit is approached, some portion of the memory may not properly remember what was written to it, resulting in corruption. It may only take a single bit of information to be wrong, or to “wear out”, for the entire contents of a flash memory chip to be lost.
Hmm. However, that’s followed up by this:
Some flash memory chips, perhaps even most, now also include circuitry to avoid “bad bits”. Meaning that if portion of the flash memory finally wears out and goes bad, the chip itself can compensate and look like everything is fine. But that only lasts so long … it doesn’t prevent failure, it only postpones it.
So there you go. Sure, 100,000 is a lot of times. For regular file archiving or transport, you’re extremely unlikely to re-write any of the flash cells on a flash drive 100,000 times before you’d be looking into upgrading to a higher capacity. However, the number of times RAM and a swap file get written to can add up very quickly. I’m interested to see how this ends up playing out.
Apple drops plans for Indian call center
Posted by massnerder on June 5, 2006
So, I did my daily browsing of stories at C|Net today. I came across about a story about Apple putting the kibosh on plans for opening a call-center in India:
The story has generated a number of comments. One of them mentioned this was planned to be a call center for customers in countries other than the U.S. I have no idea whether this is true. If this was planned to be a call-center for U.S customers, I'm glad the plans were dropped — for the sake of Apple customers.
Now, I read an article several years ago about how outsourcing is good for America for some macroeconomic reasons. I can't remember any of the article and I doubt I really understood what I was reading (I never took macroeconomics in college — I just did the basic econ classes required by the university and the the micro class the business school required). I think it had something to do with the world economy or some such. Outsourcing jobs will strengthen the economies of other nations which will provide them with the capital to purchase American goods and will in turn, strengthen the American economy… or something like that.
OK. I'm all for the strengthening of the world economy. In principle, I'm OK with outsourcing some jobs to India or wherever else. The problem is, what works on paper doesn't always for in practice. The world is not just economic theory. People are involved. And where people are involved, things get complicated.
Ever since tech companies started outsourcing their call-centers to India, I've found it increasingly tougher to get good support. It used to be that whenever I called Microsoft support, I could be relatively confident the technician on the other end of the line was going to resolve my issue in relatively short order. Now, it's a crap shoot. I had an issue with Microsoft support last year that took two weeks to resolve and I actually ended up resolving it with the help of a colleague. I had another issue last year that wasn't entirely resolved yet but I ended up ending the call (which was a couple weeks old) because I was just fed up with dealing with what they were passing off as support engineers. Yes, both times the calls went to an Indian call center.
One of the problems is the Indians just aren't experienced enough yet. That should work itself out over time. I'm certain there are plenty of capable folks in India. However, I think too many American executives have bought into the stereotype that Indians are oh-so intelligent and highly technical people. India has their dunderheads just like any other country.
As I see it, the big problem is communication. I get so drained while talking to Indian tech support because I have to keep so much focus on what they're saying in order to figure it out. The English is more or less fine but the accent alters words enough that it's sometimes hard to figure out what they're saying. The same must go for the other way around because it takes so much effort to try to get information across to them. I wasted several days on a call with Microsoft because the tech either didn't understand what I was tellign them or didn't care because they were so focused in on whatever script they were working from. I told the tech I knew what the problem was (and I explained what I thought the problem was) but I was having trouble fixing it. It took two or three days and several techs before one of them finally declared what the problem was and it was exactly what I told them it was the day before.
I've had similar problems with Dell and have talked to many others sho've shared my experiences. I've wasted hours on resolving trivial matters and days resolving sometimes business critical issues because of outsourced technical support. Outsourcing has led to productivity problems and a destrution of good will. I will advise anyone against buying a Dell computer. If they have to buy a retail computer, I'd probably end up recommending Gateway because I'm pretty sure their support is still American based (and I used to cringe whenever I saw a Gateway out on support calls).
My dad has even experienced problems with call centers being outsourced. A couple years ago he had a dispute with some charges to his credit card. It took several days to work it out because the operators at the Indian call center couldn't understand him (he has no speach impediments and speaks clearly). His issue didn't get resolved until he could talk to an American and explain his issue with them. That wasn't such an easy thing to do because the first couple times he called he got transferred right back to India.
I hope companies will eventually realize a lot of the money they save by outsourcing call centers to India or other foreign countries (technical in nature or not) will be lost when consumers turn to their competitors. If you want to outsource some jobs to countries with cheaper labor, then fine. But in my opinion, it's a bad idea to outsource anything that's public facing. People don't want a hassle when they call you.
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