Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Thu, 7 Feb 2013 17:00:00 PST Michael Ho http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101111/18085511825/dailydirt-mostly-harmless-scams.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101111/18085511825/dailydirt-mostly-harmless-scams.shtml

Now that computers are better than humans at playing chess, it shouldn't be too surprising that chess engines are being caught in use in human vs human tournaments. One teenager was found using the Fritz chess engine during competition, and it could mean future chess tournaments will be held without any kind of technology near the competitors. [url]

A mid-40s software developer was caught outsourcing his job to a team of programmers in China (for about a fifth of his annual salary). And he would have gotten away with it, too, if he'd just covered his tracks a bit better. [url]

Prof T. Mills Kelly taught a class at George Mason University that encouraged undergraduates to enter fake information into Wikipedia. Don't believe everything you read, kids... [url]

If you'd like to read more awesome and interesting stuff, check out this unrelated (but not entirely random!) Techdirt post.

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]]> urls-we-dig-up http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101111/18085511825 Tue, 23 Feb 2010 23:58:38 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20100219/0109458233.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/blog/innovation/articles/20100219/0109458233.shtml
So here we are with articles popping up about how a company has saved millions of dollars by "insourcing" its IT and taking it back from an outsourced provider. Of course, the more cynical among you might suggest that the trend towards outsourcing was pushed mainly by consultants who made their money making those deals work -- and the trend in the other direction may be equally pushed by those same consultants looking for new business. The real story, of course, is that depending on the business and what a company is trying to do, there are always pros and cons to outsourcing or keeping IT in-house, but the claims of miraculous savings in either direction tend to overstate the benefits while ignoring the downsides.

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]]> and-so-it-goes... http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20100219/0109458233 Wed, 8 Apr 2009 15:57:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090408/0659264428.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090408/0659264428.shtml theodp writes "As we've seen before, sometimes all it takes is a little bad PR to get IBM to ditch a patent. More recently, Big Blue took a break from its stealth U.S. layoffs to withdraw a patent application for offshoring jobs while maximizing government tax breaks, saying it was 'filed in error'. And before bad PR lightning could strike thrice, IBM preemptively abandoned another patent application last Friday, this one for Selecting Shared Service Centers in another country ('e.g., India') and staffing them with less-productive-but-cheaper IT workers. Guess this one was 'filed in error' too!"

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]]> patent-review-by-pr http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090408/0659264428 Wed, 9 Apr 2008 15:31:00 PDT Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080409/144101801.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080409/144101801.shtml speculation that a bold step for Yahoo to take to revive its sagging prospects would be to ditch its own ad system and outsource it to Google. Despite Yahoo trying to catch up for many years, Google's ad system just works much, much better. It would save Yahoo a ton of money and probably create better returns -- even if it would help fuel Google too. However, Yahoo pretty much laughed off the suggestion... until now. Being aggressively pursued by Microsoft can have that effect -- especially as white knight rescuers seem few and far between (i.e., they don't seem to exist at all). So, with that, the news is breaking that Yahoo is finally going to test running Google's ads. It's a "small scale" test, only running for a couple weeks and only on a small percentage (less than 3%) of Yahoo's inventory. But, assuming it goes well, it'll likely lead to a much bigger shift. Of course, Microsoft was quick to denounce the deal, claiming that the Justice Department would have a field day over the antitrust issues raised, but so far Microsoft doesn't have such a great track record in getting the DOJ to act on its antitrust complaints.

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]]> now-that's-desperation http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080409/144101801 Fri, 9 Nov 2007 17:02:55 PST Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071106/084751.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20071106/084751.shtml theodp writes "To be fair, IBM isn't the only corporation guilty of demanding U.S. patents for outsourcing methods. For example, AT&T Knowledge Ventures has a patent pending for Managing Incoming Telephone Calls at a Call Center, an invention that calls for transferring callers to offshore call centers unless advance payment is received for the privilege of speaking to someone in the United States. 'Such an option may be beneficial to callers who have difficulties with accents or who have personal or political agendas against outsourcing,' explains Ma Bell 2.0. AT&T's patent claims also cover buying down wait time ('The current wait time is 34 minutes. You may reduce your wait time by a minute for each dollar you are willing to pay. Please enter the number of minutes/dollars you want.')."

Beyond the ridiculousness of the very concept, I've heard such an idea talked about for years. It's a pretty straightforward and obvious idea -- but it's one that few others were interested in implementing (or patenting) as it would likely piss off users. Apparently AT&T doesn't worry about such things. In the meantime, in March of 2004 (about a year and a half before AT&T filed for its patent), I wrote about how the company E-Loan was offering something quite similar. Rather than an upfront payment, E-Loan offered customers a choice of an onshore or offshore call center person, with the knowledge that an offshore support person would help them get a loan faster and an onshore one would take longer. That seems pretty similar to the idea of paying -- it's just that the cost is in time instead of money. Even if this isn't direct prior art, it certainly suggests that these types of ideas have been floating around for quite some time and hardly should be entirely "owned" by one company.

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]]> this-is-patent-worthy? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20071106/084751 Wed, 11 Jul 2007 09:58:00 PDT Joseph Weisenthal http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070711/075708.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20070711/075708.shtml business prospects for Indian IT outsourcing firms, particularly due to wage pressure, the strength of the rupee against the dollar and a shortage of talented workers. One of the big ones in this group, Infosys, has reported earnings that should help allay people's fears, at least to some extent. While the Rupee is predicted to be a drag going forward, the core business, as measured in dollars, remains quite healthy. In other words, labor and currency concerns aren't stopping the company from profitably carrying out its business, at least not yet. The fact that Infosys continues to thrive in spite of theheadwinds is likely a reflection of its recognition that it's not just an "Indian" outsourcing firm, as they're typically perceived as, but a global firm, with a range of value-added offerings that happens to have a large base in India.

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