Tag Archives: computers

Business/Economics, International, Technology, U.S.

Corporate Incompetence & What Economic Recovery? Another U.S. computer company, Dell, spends big, and loses big, in Taiwan. Want to work for Dell? Move to Taiwan

Taiwan’s Ministry of Economic Affairs named U.S. based Dell their third biggest foreign buyer, after Hewlett Packard and Toshiba.

This comes after Dell was ordered (some says ‘suggested’) by the Taiwan government to honor a pricing mistake on 19 inch monitors and pricey laptop computers.  The monitors were mistakenly priced at U.S.$15.00 and the laptops at $563.40.

Dell tried to get customers to pay full price, but was threatened with a $759,000 fine by the Taiwan government.

“To avoid further confusion to our customers and to facilitate further investigation Dell has made the difficult decision to close our Taiwan online store.”-Dell statement

Dell is still trying to get the Taiwan government to let them recoup their loses, and avoid something like this in the future, after all Dell spends about $10 billion on Taiwanese made products every year!

Buy the way, if you want to work for Dell, be willing to move to Taiwan.  As of November 27, Dell has at least 40 openings in Taiwan: “Thank you for considering a career in Taiwan at Dell”

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Technology, U.S.

What Economic Recovery? Idaho chip maker, Micron, in trouble

September 29, Boise based Micron reports losing money for the first time since 2009.  For the quarter ending September 1, Micron lost U.S.$135 million.

That’s a big drop compared to the previous quarter when the Idaho memory chip maker (they also make computers) reported a $75 million profit!

The loss is being blamed on a drop in chip prices, and a drop in sales.

Things got so bad in 2009, that Micron laid off more than half it’s Idaho work force! It has not recovered.

To make matters worse, Micron is facing a court case in which a California competitor claims Micron colluded with a South Korean company to price fix certain types of memory chips.  If they lose the case Micron could be hit with a $11.9 billion fine!

Business/Economics, Idaho, International, Opinion, Technology

Japan not number one when it comes to computer skills, girls better at digital reading, computer use at school of little value, Idaho needs to get their act together

A survey by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows which countries are the top for computer/internet skills among teenagers.

Japan did not come in first.  South Korean teenagers are number one in computer/internet skills, followed by New Zealand, Australia, then Japan and Hong Kong/China.

The OECD study looked at the digital reading comprehension and computer operating skills of 15 year olds.  16 countries were involved with the study, the United States did not take part.   It turns out that girls are better at digital reading than boys (studies show that girls are better at print reading as well).

A surprising find was that use of computers in schools showed little benefit.  It could be because they aren’t used at school as much as at home.  The study showed that most teenagers learn their computer skills at home, not at school.

“But computer use at school had little impact on results, while using a computer at home had a more marked impact on results. To help students at school, computer use should be integrated into curricula and more invested in training teachers to use them for teaching and to help students learn, says the OECD.”

I can attest to that.  Almost every year here in Idaho, the Albertsons Foundation gives our schools new computers.  One year, right before the start of the school year, I was visiting Chubbuck Elementary school to meet one of my daughters teachers.  The teacher was busy trying to set up some of the new computers, she was also complaining about it.  She admitted that she didn’t “understand the things” and tried “not using them at all”.   Over their elementary school years, my daughters, and my son, confirmed that most of the teachers did not allow them to use the donated computers.  My kids learned their computer skills from me and their mother (passed away).   We did so well that I have to go to my now adult kids for help with any computer problems.

The state of Idaho is pushing a new computer system on our schools, they hope to give high school students their own laptops.  I’ve already read stories of how other states have done the same thing, then actually used those laptops to spy on the kids while they where at home.  This new study by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development blows holes in the argument by some education officials that pushing more computers in schools is the answer for our country’s educational disaster.  In fact the study proves that kids learn better at home.  It’s too bad most parents don’t have the luxury of home schooling.