Call Center - My Life in IT

On part of my responsibility is running and IT Service desk. Some people call these call centers. A co-worker on my team sent me a link to the following video. It is based on some truths, as an example many call centers in India will train there employees to adopt American names and accents if they service customers in the US. It's worth the watch if you work in IT or have every been disappointed when talking to someone at a call center.



Here is a link to 'part 2' if you want to see it.

Fighting with the PC, What Do I Do?

I've been fighting with my PC lately. About 3 weeks ago it starting going BSOD on me quite regularly. Now it will run for about an hour and a half before in goes south.

As a result I have had to put my technical hat on, trying to use various system tools to find the problem. The problem with BSOD is that most of the time the best fix is to rebuild the machine from scratch. Enter an interesting problem. When Dell ships there machines they no longer ship installation CDs. You have to explicitly contact them and ask them for the CDs while your computer is under warranty. Of course I didn't do that at the time because I didn't need the CDs but now that I do and the computer is out of warranty it has been a bit diffult and frustrating to try to get the CDs.

Which has lead me to look at another option. Should I just through in the towel and buy a new PC? The problem with that is of course the language of the operating system. I haven't spent a lot of time looking into it but I would imagine most computers in this area come preloaded with German, maybe French. I know that the more recent version of windows ask you a few questions about timezone settings and things the first time you turn on the PC but I don't every recall being asked about language.

So I might have to look for an online option to see if I can order something loaded with a American English operating system. If I can find something I'll have to way the cost of the PC versus the cost of my time to continue to battle the blue demon. I have a feeling the new PC may win.

Returning Home (To Baden)

The last week I have been traveling on business. It was a bit of a long trip considering I am not a fan of business travel. The trip was prolonged by the fact that I decided to take advantage of a 4 day event in Paris and stay for a weekend. My wife had decided to join me in Paris Friday evening.

The weekend in Paris was beautiful, the weather was unbelievable for this time of year. Sunny and in the 70's (lower 20's for those on Celsius). Just a really great weekend to find a plaza, some grass to sit on, and hang out people watching.

This trip I feel like the dog poop issue was really under control. I remember a few times walking down the street when my mind was wandering and all of a sudden realizing I better snap back to attention and turn on my poop radar, but miraculously I didn't have a problem. I wonder if the city has been on a campaign to clean things up. With the poop issue apparently resolved
my only grip about Paris is that wherever you go it seems to smell like urine.

But after all that 6 nights away from home is a long time. Hotel rooms, business dinners, late nights working on presentations for the next day, it takes its toll. On the way home on the high speed train (TGV) some women got on at Strasbourg and began speaking to be in German asking about the seats. I didn't panic, I understood what they asked, and replied correctly. It was a strange experience. The reason being after a week of being surrounded by French, I was actually pleased, and somewhat relaxed to hear German. I never thought German could be so calming to the soul.

And for one of the first times, when I got off the train returning to Baden I had a sense of arriving home. Surely, not the same sense of the word when you arrive at your childhood home, but it was one of the first times I felt relaxed to arrive in Baden.

I was looking forward to jumping into my own bed, making my own dinner from that should surely include some form of Cheese, Pork, and potatoes, and getting back into the routine.

Magazines, German Will Have To Do

Lately I have felt a need to catch up on the digital photography market. I haven't had a chance to really read any magazines lately and sometimes I just prefer to page through a magazine as opposed to clicking around online.

On Saturday we went to the local kiosk, similar to a news stand, to look through the titles. The Kiosk in the Baden train station has a fairly large English language magazine section carrying titles like Self, GQ, Vanity Fair, and National Geographic to name a few but unfortunately they don't carry any photography titles.

I was disappointed at first but then thought to myself, why the heck have I been taking German lessons?! I walked over the the photography sections, found about 20 titles and picked up a few to skim them so see if I could read them. Aside from a few words here and there I actually found I could follow the articles quite well. So, I chose one, walked over to the register and made the purchase.

I've been paging through the magazine and reading bits and pieces here and there. It is a challenge but the topics are things I am interested in, and it is another way to get a little German practice in. Lets see how far this goes.

Post Card From The General Registrar

Yesterday I received a post card from the General Registrars office confirming that they had received my request for an absentee ballot for the upcoming U.S. Presidential election. The card didn't say much else other than that I will receive my ballot about three to four weeks before the election which is scheduled for November fourth.

This election is clearly important to our future and the history of the country. I will undoubtedly not be forgotten in the history books. For this reason I wanted to be sure to vote, even it it required a little extra effort (and postage) to have my voice counted.

I am both excited and fearful for the future of the U.S. I sense that the next few weeks, and impending election will have a impact on the moral, and spirit of the country. It is clearly time for the exit of President Bush, he is not doing the U.S. and favors, and is a lame duck in office. Wasting time as I see it, just riding out he last couple of months before his predecessor takes over.

All Americans must remember their responsibility to vote. I surely won't tell you who to vote for, that is your decision. However, don't complian afterward if you don't vote. If someone doesn't stand up to be counted when given a chance to speak their mind and put their vote on paper I don't have a lot of tolerance for complaints afterward.

There Is A Bug Going Around

My wife was sick last weekend, and I think it is finally catching up to me. Around lunch time today I felt the first twinge of the flu coming on. That slightly warm, sore muscle, with a scratchy throat feeling.

As I was just finishing dinner this evening it really started to hit me. I'm just about ready to get into bed and try to fight this off before it gets any worse.

I'm supposed to do some traveling for work next week. I'll be gone most of the week and I don't want to be feeling under the weather if I can avoid it. When I start to get sick I usually tend to get into be and stay there. Even if I feel only a little sick. I find that if I just get plenty of rest at the start of a cold, I usually recover pretty quickly.

So with that, Its 9:00, usually too early to really turn in, but tonight I'm going to jump into bed, practice a little German grammar which will surely make me tired, and hopefully I'll feel better in the morning.

Got a Flame Today, 100 Images Sold

I have been selling some of my photography through a web based stock photo agency for several years now. I do it not for the money but more as an excuse to keep me actively using my camera.

Today I reached a mile stone. One of my images just hit 100 sales. On the site when an image sells over 100 times the website displays a flame next to the image. In the photography community on the site getting your first flame is almost like a right of passage.

I guess I'll have to post on the photographer community discussion board and formally announce 'my coming of age.'

Sking in the Alps, Zurich Airport, Apenzeller Villages All At Swissminiatur

Waiting for a Train At the Swissminiatur Museum

When we were in Ticino last weekend we made a stop at the Swissminiatur museum. Swissminiatur is an outside exhibit of small models of the most famous buildings in Switzerland built at a 1:25 scale. The park also includes over 3500 meters (2.1 miles) of model railroad track.

I had not known quite what to expect when my wife announced she wanted to visit the park. I told a Swiss co-worker from work before we left that we were going to visit and he explained that a visit to Swissminiatur was a right of passage for Swiss children. It is a popular school field trip destination for those in the region.


With that in mind I was expecting something that was aimed towards children. In that sense the park was targeted towards a younger audience with train rides, bumperboats, and a few other activites for children. However, the models did manage to capture my attention and were interesting to see first hand.

As a photographer the park was a great opportunity to practice my skills. Depending on the angles and distances from the models I was able to get some facinating images that in some cases look almost as good as the real thing.

Exhibits featured boats cruising on miniature lakes, working trains that stopped at varios stations throughout the park and even several functioning model cable cars. There was even a model of a popular highway rest stop overpass in our region of Switzerland with a working 4 lane highway of cars passing underneath.

The park was opened in 1959 and the care takers are in a constant cycle of reparing and updating their models. Despite the revitalization efforts some models are clearly in better shape than others. We spent about an hour and a half wondering the grounds and getting lunch.

If you are in the area I would consider it worth a visit. It is good fun for both kids and adults and you'll go home with some great snap shots as well.

HDRI with Picturenaut

Zürich at Night

A friend introduced me to a freeware application used for creating HDR images. HRD High Dynamic Range images are a neat way to enable a photographer to combine a series of pictures to expose more details in the shadows while also brining back highlights that are often blown out in overexposed areas.

The premise is that you shoot multiple images at different exposures and then use a software tool to reassemble the series. Above is my first example uisng the picturenaut software. I found a short tutorial on youtube that gives you a 5 minute intro to develop an image.



The software lets you quickly select a series of images and with a few clicks puts them together. To make this work well, you must shoot the original images using a tripod.

Just to demonstrate how the concept works its wonders I am also posting the three images that I used to create the HDR image. The images were taken with the -2 EV, 0EV and +2 EV exposure settings.

The final outcome is amazing. Seeing as this is only my first attempt I can't wait to see what happens if I actually experiment a bit with the tool. Looks like I have a new photo toy to keep me busy for a while.

Night of Photography in Zürich

Downtown Zürich at Night

Last night I went with a friend down to Zürich for a photography outing. We where there before the sun went down, took some pictures, had dinner, and then headed out into the evening darkness to see what other low light images we could capture.

The one above was one of my favorites from first glance. I still need to go through all of the images in more detail. That might be a task for this weekend. My friend was also telling me of how he works with HDR. This is a method of combining 3 images, a underexposure, and neutral exposure, and an overexposure. The concept is that by combining these three images you can achieve greater tonal range in your photograph.

He explained how I need to bracket a few shots, and he would send me a link to the software that I can use to experiment. I have a feeling I'll be playing with the rest of the photos this weekend.

Where is the Compassion in Swiss Culture

I am continually reminded in daily life in Switzerland that the Swiss do not have the same sense of compassion, courtesy or respect for other people. There words and actions sometimes strike me as being self-centered and egotistical. Everything seems to be done for the benefit for oneself without a consideration for the greater good.

Go ahead, smoke, and blow it right in my face, please, I beg of you.

That would be fine, just run your shopping carts, and bikes into me and don't bother saying excuse me.

And yes, every seat in this train car is clearly reserved for you even thought there are 20 people standing in the aisle and your friends aren't getting on for another 4 stops.

I had an experience this past weekend where a gentlemen was being what I would consider so absolutely rude that I confronted him in German. I told him he was being discourteous. He acted like he did nothing wrong and I passed him and went on my way to find another seat in the train. My comment must have gotten the better of him because after a minute or two he changed his behavior.

So one small victory in building a bit of compassion and respect in Switzerland.

Ticino, Italy Swissified

Gandria, Switzerland

During our recent family tour we spent some time in canton Ticino. The small canton is right on the Italian boarder. Italian is the local language and the architecture, food, and tempo of life seem to be greatly influenced by the Italians.

However, there are a few things in Ticino that you will not find in Italy. Clean streets and timely and efficient transportation to name a couple. Having visited Italy and then Ticino I found myself thinking that Ticino had all the same pleasures as norther Italy (Como, Belagio, Milan) without the problems associated with those cities.

I wonder what it would be like to live in Ticino for a longer period of time. From a culural perspective it would interest me to find if there the people had more in common with the German speaking regions of Switzerland or their close Italian neighbors. If they do inherit some traits of there Germanic Swiss counterparts what other characterisitcs other than cleanliness have they adopted. Don't know that answer to that question, but it would be interesting to find out.

Getting Back From The Tour

Tour boat on Lake Lugano, Switzerland

This evening we just returned from a 3 night stay in Lugano with family. It was a big group, 6 of us in total. As much fun as it was, it is time for everyone to head back to the US tomorrow and for me to return to my normal work schedule.

I really do enjoy traveling with friends and family and showing them around our host country, but there does come a point when you spent too much time with family. I think 9-10 days is about my limit.

So tomorrow I will say good bye, head to work to decompress, and probably stop at the spa (thermalbad) after work to relax and get myself back in order.

Visitors Update

I've been tracking the visitors to the blog for some time but I haven't shared the information with my readers lately. So I have posted a graphic from my google analytics account to show where all of my readers are in the world. The data are from the last month.

The usual leaders remain the same, the US and Switzerland. Although now it seems I am also getting a few visits from folks in Asia.

So thanks to those that are reading. And if your a regular reader be sure to post a comment. I enjoy hearing from you.

Day trip to Rapperswil

Yesterday we took the family for a day trip to Rapperswil. My mother had wanted to visit the Polish museum in the castle there. The local Swiss Polish community had opened a museum in the castle the celebrate and commemorate the exchange of citizens between Poland and Switzerland.

The museum was large by Swiss standards and had captions in English, German, and Polish. The material was interesting for someone with Polish heritage but I don't know if others would enjoy it.

We stopped for lunch along the restaurant at a place called Marsala. The restaurant had a terrace just above the tree line along the lake so you had a wonderful view of the lake and the mountains across the lake. The food was a bit salty but I thought it was better than most Swiss food.

Playing Tour Guide

Cows on Rigi

I have had family in town since last friday. They are staying with us all this week. So, I have taken some vacation time to to play tour guide.

We took a day trip yesterday to one of my favorite mountain trains, Rigibahn. It is an hour boat ride from Luzern. It was an all day trip tomorrow we were out from about 9:00 in the morning and didn't return home until about 9:30 at night.

Today is a quiet day for us. We'll do some small shopping, and probably stop at the spa this afternoon. We have day train passes lined up for Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. They cost 38 CHF for a day pass that is good for all of Switzerland. We need to rest up for alot of traveling in the comming days.