Viking Waters - News from the computer world 040108

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News from the Computer World

Jan. 08, 2004

Overseas Job Exports Political Hot Potato During Election Year

Leading technology companies urged Congress and the Bush administration Wednesday not to impose new trade restrictions aimed at keeping U.S. jobs from moving overseas, where labor costs are lower. The companies said such policies would do little to resolve long-standing problems more broadly affecting America's global competitiveness, such as low-scoring schools and inadequate research spending. Erecting barriers, they said, "could lead to retaliation from our trading partners and even an all-out trade war."

In a report by a trade group for some leading technology companies, executives argued that moving jobs to countries such as China or India -- where labor costs are cheaper -- helps companies break into lucrative foreign markets and hire skilled and creative employees in countries where students perform far better than U.S. students in math and science.

"Countries that resort to protectionism end up hampering innovation and crippling their industries, which leads to lower economic growth and ultimately higher unemployment," said the Washington-based Computer Systems Policy Project.

One of the big advocates for the plight of the working man, Hollywood, routinely films outside the country when their own pocketbooks are on the line.

EarthLink Cutting Another 1,300 Jobs

In a related story, EarthLink Inc. is cutting another 1,300 jobs, or 40 percent of its work force, and outsourcing the work of some of its call centers to other companies as part of a major restructuring that started a year ago.

The nation's third-largest Internet service provider said Tuesday it will close its call centers in Harrisburg, Pa., Roseville, Calif., San Jose, Calif., and Pasadena, Calif., and reduce its call center operations in Atlanta by the end of the first quarter of 2004. About 1,300 of the Atlanta-based company's 3,300 employees will lose their jobs, spokesman Dan Greenfield said.

The cuts are on top of 1,300 jobs EarthLink shed in January 2003, meaning the company will have reduced its work force by 60 percent in a year. Attrition also was a part in the reduction.

EarthLink said Tuesday customer support functions will be routed to its remaining Atlanta staff and to outsourced contact center providers. Currently, more than 70 percent of the company's calls are outsourced, many dealing with billing, tech support and sales. Currently, the company outsources to a handful of companies in the United States, India and the Philippines, Greenfield said. It will add Jamaica to the list with the latest job cuts.

Brother Shows Sub-$1,000 Color Laser Printer

Brother launched a sub-$1,000 color laser printer that spews out pages at a clip of 31 black-and-white pages per minute, or 8 color pages per minute at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The HL-2700CN, which will retail for $899 when it ships later this month, works with either Windows or Mac systems, and includes a 10/100 Ethernet port for connecting to a network. Brother's pointing the new color printer at the small business market.

Intel Creates $200 Million Fund To Accelerate Digital Home Innovation

Intel Corporation announced plans to invest $200 million in companies developing innovative hardware and software technologies for the digital home. The Intel Digital Home Fund represents a significant step in the company's strategy to enable people to enjoy digital content - including music, photos and video - on multiple devices in the home and beyond.

The new fund, which will be managed by Intel Capital, will invest in companies developing hardware and software, as well as connectivity and supporting technologies. Through this and other work, Intel is leading efforts to drive the convergence of personal computer and consumer electronics devices on a seamless, wireless home network.

"More people want the ability to have their content available anytime, anywhere and on any device," said Louis Burns, Intel vice president, general manager, Desktop Platforms Group. "They want to wirelessly transfer MP3 files from a PC in the den so they can listen to them on their stereo in the family room, they want to view digital photos on their big screen TV, or to watch video content on handheld wireless devices. Intel will continue pursuing its vision of unifying computing and consumer electronics functions for the benefit of consumers."

IBM Unveils New 4-Way Blade Server

IBM on Wednesday unveiled a high-density extension to its blade server line which fits up to seven 4-way servers into a 7U rack-mount footprint.