Outsourcing From the Other End

My boss is great with comparison shopping - she helped me choose my mobile phone provider, which kept us on the same network. I chose the Sprint Network because they have the cheapest plans - and give me the most bang for my buck.

Apparently one way of keeping their plans low cost is to outsource their network operations to Ericsson. This means that starting in the third quarter of this year 6000 Sprint employees will become Ericsson service employees. Outsourcing is not a very popular term in recession-ridden America. Outsourcing means that jobs are taken from local employees and sent abroad where labor is cheaper. Although Sprint is converting 6000 of their own employees to work for Ericsson, it says that it will be counting on Ericsson's team of trained experts to operate their CDMA and iDen networks.

I was on the receiving end of outsourcing projects in the Philippines once - our trainer who was a petroleum engineer confessed candidly that he didn't expect us to learn what he did so quickly. When he saw our almost all-new-graduates team, he thought they sent him babies - but our capacity to learn amazed him. The quality of education in our country is exceptional, first world countries outsource to us because labor may be cheap but the quality of work is world class!

Now that I'm on the other end of the spectrum, I understand the sadness our trainers had as they passed the torch to us then. What they taught us was their livelihood - it's their career, it's what they enjoyed doing for so long - and because of budget cuts they have to give it up. An uncertain future for local employees so that companies can stay afloat. It is indeed a sad prospect.

Hopefully, the Sprint employees who will be affected by the outsourcing are moving on to better things. Good luck and stay positive - we will recover from this tough economy and we will come out stronger afterwards!

Web 2.0 Encouraging Class Participation

I found this great article on CNET about educators using social networking tools creatively to encourage participation in their classrooms as presented in the 30th annual National Education Computing Conference (NECC).

I was a very shy kid at school during my gradeschool years. I did not enjoy recitation at all and actually tried to hide from my teacher just so I wouldn't be called to stand up and talk with all my classmates watching me.

I eventually grew out of it, initially because I prepared for every recitation extra hard and then I just got used to interacting in class. I must admit when I took my graduate courses, most of my professors knew me because I asked questions during the lectures and contributed when I could. It was the time in my life when I learned the most because I was taking advantage of my professors' vast experience and wealth of knowledge.

Web 2.0 tools are ubiquitous and so are the use of computers in the classrooms - so it is only logical to try and use these tools to benefit the students in some way. I applaud these creative educators who are not afraid of technology - I am constantly in awe of their resourcefulness and support their goals of helping students learn and grow in their fields of study. The online classroom tools are customized for education, but limiting yourself to these tools is limiting your potential to explore other technologies that may be more effective with your students.

Good job, educators - you are truly innovators in your own right!

Volunteer Today: Give a Day, Get a Night

Remember my post with US First Lady, Michelle Obama, encouraging Americans to volunteer and help the community?

Sage Hospitality, a hotel management company, shows their support by rewarding volunteers to 50% discount on hotel rooms or a complimentary night stay. Their program is called, "Give a Day, Get a Night." Give 8 hours of your time doing community service and they'll give you a free night stay or a big discount on a hotel room. Planning on going on vacation? Check out their list of hotels by state. This offer is valid until December 20, 2009.

Now isn't that a great incentive to go out and help your community? Thank you, Sage Hospitality!

Happy volunteering, everyone:)

Make Home Safe Again With ADT Home Security

When I lived in my parents’ house, we had to deal with several break ins and it was a very scary and unsettling experience. Home is where you supposedly feel safe. It is the place where you don’t need to worry about your possessions getting stolen. Having our home broken into shattered this false sense of security in my mind.

My husband will tell you how adamant I am on checking the locks before we go to bed or before we leave our home. It’s my home; it’s my responsibility to keep it safe. It’s my responsibility to protect the things I worked so hard for – especially since I keep business records at home. My client’s information is also my responsibility because they entrusted it to me.

A home security system is definitely a great investment. When considering a system, I would look at the company’s reputation and customer feedback – I would ask my friends and neighbors about their home security system and how it works for them. I would definitely ask the company’s clients about how reliable the alarm system was and how fast help got to them when they needed it. Was the home security company helpful? How did they attend to any reports or complaints you made? This is a service and therefore customer satisfaction is my number one consideration. And though we want to secure our home at all cost – we must be realistic with budget especially during this tough economy.

One of the companies I would definitely consider is a d t. They have been in the home security business for 131 years and secure 90% of Fortune 500 companies so they are definitely trustworthy. They handle more than 19 million calls daily to their customers’ satisfaction and they are affordable. So what’s not to like?

Secure your home – invest in a home security system that will truly protect you and your loved ones.

Grow Your Business With Business VOIP

When my husband and I produced our first beauty pageant together in 2005 – we started out as a two-man team, but we never let on. We tried to be as professional as possible with printed materials like business cards, flyers and marketing presentations. Several big companies agreed to sponsor our little venture because we presented an established front. We even had an 800 number so that even if we ran our business from home at first when we eventually move into an office, we don't need to change our contact information.

I know a lot of small businesses that have difficulty getting clients because of their size and the age of their business. People are wary of new companies because they are unsure of how reliable or how long they will last. That is understandable of course, but it makes the market for new businesses even more challenging than it already is.

One of the dead giveaways of the size of your company is your telephone system. Big companies often have expensive office phone systems and installing a system like this for a small company can be a huge expense. My sponsor, Vocality, offers the Business Voip solution – a hosted PBX that is easy to implement, cheaper than an on-premise solution and reduces phone bills up to 80%. Vocality offers enterprise level features without the price.

That will definitely help small businesses get ahead and grow while keeping overhead costs low. Times are tough, but with a little help from companies like these and a little research on low cost solutions for our business' challenges – we can still start and grow our own business in this economy.

Good luck, entrepreneurs! You may just be one of our country’s new brand of heroes.

DIY Water Feature Resource

Every other Friday when I meet my friends at St. Teresa of Avila Church in Los Angeles, I pass by Echo Park. One of the most eye catching attractions in this park is it’s floating pond fountain. Those streams of water that shoot straight up into the air are effectively aerating the water and giving oxygen to the fish and other animals that make the lake their home.

I love water features like ponds, waterfalls and fountains. I often think about installing one in our place. I love the soothing sound of water everything just seems much more refreshing around a water feature.

My aunt in Los Banos built her own pond with her family. They made it a weekend project and now enjoy a pond full of coy fishes all year long. She said it was not hard to make, she downloaded instructions of the internet and bought the materials they needed. Then they figured it all out and built it.

In water features, the most important thing you will need is your pump or aeration mechanism. Living Water Aeration has every water aeration product you can imagine; they even have kits that run on solar and wind power! They have commercial and residential grade products available for sale on their website and convenient methods of payment. If you’re thinking of building a water feature for your backyard and do not know where to start looking for materials, try Living Water Aeration; it is definitely a great resource for water feature building!

Youth Ministry Concert + Great Printing Deals

Our church's Youth Ministry is organizing a concert for one of our young members who passed away so suddenly. I promised to help out by referring them to printing companies where they can get great deals on what they needed for the concert. I think they should print thermal transfer labels for ticket and souvenir program bar codes. Nationwide Print Solutions offers great deals on a large variety of commercial print products including brochures, envelopes and labels. Their website is easy to navigate and provides an easy way to order printed materials in the comfort of your own home. And their prices are very affordable, I'm sure they'll be able to get a good deal on printing.

Our honoree's birthday is on September 11th, which is their target date for the event, but they had to move it to September 12th to make it a Saturday so more people can attend. I think it is a worthy cause and will truly show their love for the girl who touched their lives with her smile and the short life she had offered to helping God reach those who are hurting and in need of His love. She had spent her life volunteering in mission classes, fundraising activities and attending spiritual activities inspiring her friends to do the same.

They want to buy an In Memoriam Plaque for her on the church's Culture and Arts Center wall so that she may be remembered by all who go there.

So if you're not doing anything on September 12th and you’re in the southern California area please check out this concert. Email me for more information if you are interested in going. Thank you!

Concert in the Sky: An Excerpt

I just wanted to share with you an excerpt of the fireworks show we went to last July 4th at the Disneyland Resort. This is a video posted on CastTV.com of the July 2nd show, which was a shorter version of the July 4th Concert in the Sky.

I decided not to bring my camera into the park that night because I wanted to enjoy the fireworks display and the music without looking through my viewfinder for a change. We just stood there and marveled at the amazing sights and sounds. It was beautiful! It was worth the wait, the crowds and the foot traffic we had to muddle through.

Thank you, Disney, for such a magical fourth of July!

Buzzirk: VOIP Wireless

Of all the smart phones available in the market, one of my favorites is the iPhone by Apple - especially the 3Gs model that just came out. So why do you ask have I not gotten one, it's exclusively available on the AT&T network that's why. We used to have AT&T as our landline provider and they charged us so many fees - it was completely ridiculous to stay with them. So you understand my reservations on signing up for a two-year contract with the new iPhone's provider. I'm actually very happy with my cell phone service provider - Sprint - but the only great phone on their line up is beyond my budget, the $299 Palm Pre.

The news of another mobile company, Buzzirk, which is at its pre-launch stage is exciting to me. Buzzirk Mobile will allow users to signup for unlimited voice and data plans for as low as $79.95 - which is significantly lower than the $99.99 simply everything plan by my very cost-effective provider. Plus Buzzirk Wireless does not require you to sign a two-year agreement. I can switch my old phone number to their network for convenience and I can add lines for $10/month/line. Now, that's a great deal!

Why is their service so inexpensive? They will be routing their services through the internet instead of an actual physical network. I've never tried using voice over IP services, but for this value, I may just try the service for a few months and see if I am satisfied with it. In these hard times, any income saved can help a lot in the long run.

Stay connected, everyone!

Back Up Drivers

Last year my DVD drive just suddenly became inaccessible and unusable. I couldn't see the drive when I pulled up the My Computer window and therefore I could not use it. At first it only affected the DVD player drive, but before long even my DVD writer was not working. I must admit for the first few weeks I tried to work around it because I did not have the time or energy to bring my computer to the shop. But every time I needed to install software, I needed my DVD drive and I needed my DVD writer to burn my pictures into DVDs for sharing with my offline friends - in short, I needed to have my DVD drives functional as soon as possible.

I searched for solutions online and found that I needed my drivers software updated. So I eventually figured out the type of computer drivers I needed - which wasn't easy considering it's name sounded more like a serial number than anything coherent. Considering how important drivers are, I decided to make copies of the drivers I needed to keep my computer working from then on. So always remember to make a back up copy of all the things you may need to restore your computer to the way you need it to be and make sure to bookmark website resources that make restoring your computer easier for you.

Have you had a similar experience? How did you go about fixing your problem? Did you find any helpful websites that made solving your computer problems easier? Share them by leaving me a comment.

Movie Night: New in Town

I must admit I thought the premise of this movie was funny that was why I convinced my husband to rent it. After watching it, I thought it was a movie filled with cliches and sweeping generalizations. The characters saw each other as stereotypes of the city girl/corporate honcho; the beer-drinking, truck-driving country man; rural America's women who gathered together to scrapbook, talked about Jesus and thinks everyone should get married and start a family. In the beginning of the movie they were so wary of each other that they took each other at face value - without looking inside and getting to know each other.

But human nature won out in the end - the characters connected and enjoyed the fellowship they found in their small community. They worked together to keep their livelihood and the city girl ended up coming home to Minnesota to stay. The end.

My husband thought it was quite cheesy and I must admit it lost me in some of the scenes, but it was funny. The story line was predictable but adequate. It's a nice romantic comedy for a rainy day at home - it does have a happy ending and the guy does get the girl. I give it 3 out of 5 stars personally. What do you think? Share your thoughts by leaving me a comment.