Author: Ashley Bischoff

“As American as Curry Pie”

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It appears that several companies are opening call centers in India, where the labor is cheap, but them tutoring them for an American accent to complete the illusion:

“Hi, this is Betty Coulter and I am calling because I have a great deal for you today. I am going to offer you a credit card at a low 2.9 percent with a whole bunch of free gifts.”

Yeah, yeah, you’ve heard it all before. You try to get off the phone, but Betty just drones on and, amazingly, never takes a breath. You try to place the accent. Iowa maybe? No, the “a” sound is too flat. California? Maybe it’s a crowded call center in some business park in Kansas City.

But Betty is actually calling from Bangalore, and her real name is Savita Balasubramanyam. And she is indeed in a crowded office, but it's not dinner time, it’s the middle of the night. And her perfect American accent is the result of rigorous training and an employer-encouraged addiction to Ally McBeal. […]

“Big Brother 3” Booze Bust

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As uncovered by The Smoking Gun, one of the Big Brother 3 contestants was apparently busted for drunk driving in early-May, but still made it onto the show:

[Chiara] Berti was arrested by California Highway Patrol officers at 2:40 AM on Sunday, May 26. She spent about five hours in custody at the Van Nuys jail before being released on $2500 bail. On June 11, Berti was formally charged with three misdemeanors: driving under the influence, driving with a blood alcohol content above California's .08 limit, and driving without a license. Her attorney, Sherman Ellison, told TSG that Berti's case was “very likely to settle,” lawyerspeak for “she’ll probably take a plea.” […]

“irrational depression”

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From Logophilia, today’s coined-word of the day (or, coined phrase, in this case) is “irrational depression”:

Investors have coined a new phrase for the relentless declines: “irrational depression,” a play on the famous phrase “irrational exuberance” uttered by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan to describe the stock-market surge of the late 1990s.

“Whereas two years ago, it was get me in at any price, now it's get me out at any price,” said Alfred Goldman, chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards & Sons Inc. in St. Louis. “Unfortunately, investors are thinking with their emotions and not their minds.”
— Amen Sachdev, “Dow slides below 8,000 to ’98 level,” Chicago Tribune, July 23, 2002

Hmm, yeah, I can relate to that one :-/.

Mozilla 1.1 Beta

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Ah, I see that Mozilla 1.1 Beta has been released!

It’s here! Mozilla 1.1 Beta. New to this release are full-screen mode for Linux, BiDi Hebrew improvements, Arabic shaping improvements for Linux, and significant improvements to Venkman, the best cross-platform JavaScript debugger on the planet. […] And if you’re confused about all these alpha and beta releases (and what ever happened to that 1.0 branch?) then take a look at the nice picture available at the Mozilla Development Roadmap.

Grab it here:

Or, if you don’t have one of those OSs, there’re more downloads on the release page.

Slashdot Meetup

Ashley Bischoff3 Comments

The Slashdot Meetup for Dallas is tomorrow (Thursday), I’ll have to make sure not to forget about that. For those not aware, Meetup is:

A local gathering of a group of people brought together by a common interest. Over coffee, over a beer maybe.

Basically, it's a means of meeting meeting and organizing people with common interests (such as Slashdot, Blogging, or even Xena).

And, hey Julie, there’s even a Meetup for Buffy fans in Dallas ;).