Call center conference

SAN FRANCISCO--Sun Microsystems, a longtime participant in the Xen open-source hypervisor project, has named its Solaris-based offshoot xVM, short for x86 Virtual Machine. "Because Xen is trademarked, we don't want to call the code we've implemented Xen," said Marc Hamilton, Sun's vice president of Solaris marketing, on Wednesday. It works only on computers with x86 chips such as Intel's Xeon; those with Sun's newer UltraSparc processors use an equivalent technology called logical domains, or LDoms. Virtualization, blossoming as a technology foundation for x86 servers, lets a single computer run multiple operating systems simultaneously to increase data center efficiency and flexibility. It's a decades-old technology, but it's now spreading like wildfire across the x86 server world. Most of the flames are coming from ***

Workers in India handling tech call-center tasks face long hours and forced, unpaid overtime, according to a report published recently on a union group's Web site. The Washington Alliance of Technology Workers story said regular shifts of 9.5 hours at outsourcing giant Wipro are usually preceded and followed by an unpaid 15-minute team "huddle." In addition, the story reported a former Wipro employee said that "local managers often 'stretch' shifts by up to two hours, with short notice, no overtime pay and no option to refuse." Linguistic training "designed to obliterate all traces of local accent" adversely affected the personal life of another former employee, according to the story: "...[T]he linguistics training and cultural impact of the job was so strong even now he occasionally finds it difficult to pronounce some words in his native language. ***

As much as 15 percent of all customer relationship management software sales will involve application hosting services within the next few years, predicted Tom Siebel, chief executive of Siebel Systems. Siebel, whose company recently entered the customer relationship management (CRM) hosting market, made the forecast Wednesday while discussing the company's fourth-quarter financial performance with securities analysts via teleconference. The outspoken CEO also claimed that Siebel would become a top player in the software hosting field, much as it dominates the CRM software market today. "We'll indelibly change the dynamics of the hosted CRM marketplace for the next couple of years," Siebel said. ***