Sunday, December 30
Lexdon is reporting that Microsoft is forming a stronger relationship with Indian development powerhouse, Infosys. Im sure Im not the only one who has some big concerns with the level of quality churned out by the likes of Infosys and Wipro, and cant help wondering if things are set to get worse. Afterall Microsoft had a hard enough time turning out software without critical flaws when IT WAS paying its developers a decent wage.
Friday, December 28
Its almost becoming a joke now, it seems that companies are completely unable to keep their customers information safe. This comes as the news that Skipton, a UK building society has misplaced customer information.
The real question is why the government or whoever isn't fining these companies. Its probably because the UK government has admitted that its misplaced millions of records of data concerning parents, and child support payments (you know, that thing that you have to pay your ex-wife so she can by the latest xbox).
The real question is why the government or whoever isn't fining these companies. Its probably because the UK government has admitted that its misplaced millions of records of data concerning parents, and child support payments (you know, that thing that you have to pay your ex-wife so she can by the latest xbox).
As well as being addicted to the web, I'm also a keen property developer. So I took great interested when RightMove, a UK property website completely overhauled its design, embracing Web 2.0.
In my opinion the site looks a lot clearer now, I did however like the layout of the old site with the floorplans etc all in the same place.
One problem persists however, and that is the fact that lots of estate agents seem intent on not putting up the full details of a property, and until this is overcome the site will never fulfill its true potential.
In my opinion the site looks a lot clearer now, I did however like the layout of the old site with the floorplans etc all in the same place.
One problem persists however, and that is the fact that lots of estate agents seem intent on not putting up the full details of a property, and until this is overcome the site will never fulfill its true potential.
Wednesday, December 12
GlaxoSmithKline seems to have revamped their website. Interestingly theyve added an Ajax story browser to the main page. The site itself tries its best to make you think they are a soft company, but in truth I imagine they are quite opposite, afterall they charge people to stay alive.
Another interesting point is the site is littered with spelling mistakes! Oops!
Another interesting point is the site is littered with spelling mistakes! Oops!
Interesting that the darling of the internet world, Facebook, has a rather murky past. According to this article about the history of facebook, there might be some truth to stories that Mark Zuckerberg stole the idea.... interesting, but Im sure he can afford lawyers to make sure he keeps it!
Friday, July 27
Orange is without a doubt, the worst broadband provider I have ever come across.
To begin with, some bright spark decided to move technical support to India. When a user calls up they get an Indian call center worker with an impossibility heavy accent reading from a script.
While this does make for some funny moments, most derived from the inability of the operator to speak English (I was once told the system was under "upgradation"), it is mostly painful.
For the last two weeks my broadband has been down, after calling Orange every single day I have been told to call back in 24 hours no less that 9 times. This all stems from the fact that the Indian operators have no real power, if an engineering team had not logged an update in 48 hours they simply tell the customer to call back, instead of requesting an update from the engineers.
A more serious problem is that they are highly arrogant, and almost borderline rude. One had the audacity to say "You wouldn't understand the problem if I explained it". If reading from a script wasn't bad enough, reading from a poorly written one is awful.
All Indian workers are instructed they have to end the call with the same question. So a conversation can have a rather surreal moment when you say "So you are telling me that you cant fix the problem for another 4 weeks!". "Yes. Is there anything else I can do for you today?"
Orange is a cheap and horrible company, there is nothing good about them. Their broadband speed is among the slowest in the industry, and worst of all 20% of their upgrades to the LLU network are believed to fail.
The company hides behind its Indian help desk, and won't even give you another number to complain to.
More recently they have announced a deal with PC world, where you get a £300 laptop if you sign up with Orange for a 24 month contract. 24 months is excessive! Trust me, while the deal may look good on paper, in reality it is waste of time, you will find yourself without broadband more often than not, and paying to call the pathetic mess they call a help desk.
In summary, if you are with Orange, then I can only pity you. After threatening them with legal action they agreed to cancel my contract. I will be transferring away from them as soon as possible, as well as cancelling my mobile contract with them. I have no desire to ever do business with this company again, in fact, I intend to actively disuade others from doing so.
To begin with, some bright spark decided to move technical support to India. When a user calls up they get an Indian call center worker with an impossibility heavy accent reading from a script.
While this does make for some funny moments, most derived from the inability of the operator to speak English (I was once told the system was under "upgradation"), it is mostly painful.
For the last two weeks my broadband has been down, after calling Orange every single day I have been told to call back in 24 hours no less that 9 times. This all stems from the fact that the Indian operators have no real power, if an engineering team had not logged an update in 48 hours they simply tell the customer to call back, instead of requesting an update from the engineers.
A more serious problem is that they are highly arrogant, and almost borderline rude. One had the audacity to say "You wouldn't understand the problem if I explained it". If reading from a script wasn't bad enough, reading from a poorly written one is awful.
All Indian workers are instructed they have to end the call with the same question. So a conversation can have a rather surreal moment when you say "So you are telling me that you cant fix the problem for another 4 weeks!". "Yes. Is there anything else I can do for you today?"
Orange is a cheap and horrible company, there is nothing good about them. Their broadband speed is among the slowest in the industry, and worst of all 20% of their upgrades to the LLU network are believed to fail.
The company hides behind its Indian help desk, and won't even give you another number to complain to.
More recently they have announced a deal with PC world, where you get a £300 laptop if you sign up with Orange for a 24 month contract. 24 months is excessive! Trust me, while the deal may look good on paper, in reality it is waste of time, you will find yourself without broadband more often than not, and paying to call the pathetic mess they call a help desk.
In summary, if you are with Orange, then I can only pity you. After threatening them with legal action they agreed to cancel my contract. I will be transferring away from them as soon as possible, as well as cancelling my mobile contract with them. I have no desire to ever do business with this company again, in fact, I intend to actively disuade others from doing so.
Tuesday, April 17
It never ceases to amaze me. InfoSys has just announced record profits as more companies offshore work to them.
There is a huge lack of quality in work produced by companies like Wipro and InfoSys, afterall their job is to churn things out as fast as possible.
Its also becoming more of a myth that offshoring is cheaper, prices have risen dramatically, and when you factor in the time it takes to correct mistakes you quickly find you're spending more.
The lesson? Offshore with caution.
There is a huge lack of quality in work produced by companies like Wipro and InfoSys, afterall their job is to churn things out as fast as possible.
Its also becoming more of a myth that offshoring is cheaper, prices have risen dramatically, and when you factor in the time it takes to correct mistakes you quickly find you're spending more.
The lesson? Offshore with caution.
Friday, April 13
TrustE... not worth the paper its printed on.
I've always been skeptical of the truste certification program, mainly because its founding members are a bunch of big companies and the organization can hardly claim to be impartial., and who enjoy some good old back patting.
But what has made me even more furious is the pricing. A truste seal costs over $10,000 per year! This incredible pricing structure guarantees nothing, as their own terms of service shows how little they actually enforce.
For example, last year AOL (a founding member) disclosed 100,000's of subscribers info, including details on what they were searching for. And truste's response to this was? Nadda. Zip. Nothing.
I've always been skeptical of the truste certification program, mainly because its founding members are a bunch of big companies and the organization can hardly claim to be impartial., and who enjoy some good old back patting.
But what has made me even more furious is the pricing. A truste seal costs over $10,000 per year! This incredible pricing structure guarantees nothing, as their own terms of service shows how little they actually enforce.
For example, last year AOL (a founding member) disclosed 100,000's of subscribers info, including details on what they were searching for. And truste's response to this was? Nadda. Zip. Nothing.
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