PRIVATE: We canceled our holidays in Maldives...

Asia: more than 119'000 people killed, thousands still missing, up to 5 million displaced.

Maldives: 75 confirmed death, 42 missing, 9'000 evacuees, 12'000 homeless people, numbers are still moving quickly and daily.


I published in October a post about our next holidays in Maldives. We decided with my wife to cancel them. It was a difficult decision for us, not financially speaking at all, but more a question of ethic vs. risks vs. helping people. Let me summarize our thoughts. As a reminder, we have a little boy who is 3 years old and we planned to visit Maldives at the beginning of February, in about 4 weeks.

Risks

This part is quite factual, although some people don't want to face them.
- The real state of the resorts is not easy to find out. There is a kind of positive and reassuring propaganda (understandale in a way...) from the Maldives' Ministry of Tourism, which is difficult to trust if you have also seen some images on TV.
- It will be difficult to resupply the islands for the coming weeks, which is already the case (tourism, inhabitants).
- The specialists are concerned about the long-term supply of fresh water (see this article).
- The substructure of the islands could be strongly damaged. This is not already apparent, but could be very dangerous for the stability of the buildings on the islands. A lot of water reserves are integrated in this island substructures and could be lost (contamination) (see this article too).
- "There is a chance that we could have at least as many dying from communicable diseases as we had dying from the tsunami" (see this article). I heard at the radio yesterday (a doctor specialized in disease epidemics) that the first effets should be first visible in about 4 to 6 weeks, specially because of the mosquitos which are transmitting a lot of diseases.
- It is very difficult to know how far this region will be confronted with afterschocks/earthquake replica. There were already a lot, and there will be a bunch in the coming weeks.

So, as a conclusion, a lot of uncertainties and under-estimation of the seriousness of the situation, to our point of view. And too risky for us and specially our little boy...

Ethic

"People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming 'help, help'. And after a few minutes you didn't hear the kids any more."
- I heard a lot, also in our travel agency, "Visit Maldives in effort to save tourism!". This argument is driving me bad, really. Just have a look at the quote above.
- Priority is still set to tourists and not to the local inhabitants. Which is completely crazy and unacceptable. We do not want to participate to that... (see this article).

The reconstruction of Male' appears to be more important than saving the lives of the thousands of destitute people scattered in more than 200 islands.

- How is it possible to lie down on the beach while people in the surrounding are fighting to re-build and re-construct?

Our little problem as tourists is definitely NOT important. And for some time, also not for this country! A lot of people lost one or more relatives. We are talking about people. Hey, please, a little respect. Let give them a little time to reconstruct and to be in mourning!!

Helping people

- A lot of possibilities to make some useful donations. Have a look at this Google page, which is handling the donation and relief websites.

- A good idea could be also to visit them, but first in some months!

Consequently, we are going to visit Saint Barthelemy. More to come in some days...

PRIVATE: last 2004 "business lunch" at ZicZac

I had my last 2004 business lunch today with Cédric and Nick in Zürich. And what for a lunch :-) We were at ZicZac, which is a quite funny place: very good and loud music, excellent and huge self-made hamburgers, self-made French-fries (quite uncommon at this time) and a cool atmosphere. All in all, really the right place to finish our "2004 business lunch tour".







PS: guess with what I took the pictures ;-) More to come tomorrow.

BUSINESS: Lessons Learnt from Richard Branson

Knowledge@Wharton published an article about the way Richard Branson, owner and founder of The Virgin Group, is managing.

Interesting!

It is difficult to separate the success of the Virgin brand from the flamboyant man behind that brand. [...] "Advertising costs enormous amounts of money these days. I just announced in India that I was setting up a domestic airline, and we ended up getting on the front pages of the newspaper. The costs of that in advertising terms would have been considerable." Visibility is good, says Branson, "as long as you're not in the headlines for the wrong reasons."

What is the most important quality of a good leader? "Having a personality of caring about people is important," he says. "You can’t be a good leader unless you generally like people. That is how you bring out the best in them." He reinforces that message with all his CEOs and top managers.

Branson places enormous value on time management skills. As chairman of a large group of firms, Branson says he spends about a third of his time on trouble shooting, another third on new projects, both charitable and business, and the last third on promoting and talking about the businesses he has set up. He also makes time for family and vacation.

In order for this process to work, employees must be happy. Branson says his philosophy of "look for the best and you'll get the best" helped him build an empire recognized for its young, fun culture. "For the people who work for you or with you, you must lavish praise on them at all times," Branson says. "If a flower is watered, it flourishes. If not, it shrivels up and dies. It’s much more fun looking for the best in people. People don’t need to be told where they’ve slipped up or made a mess of something. They’ll sort it out themselves."

Motivational strategies extend to innovative ideas. The key to encouraging innovation within the Virgin ranks, suggests Branson, is to listen to any and all ideas and to offer feedback. Employees often leave companies, he reasons, because they are frustrated by the fact that their ideas fall on deaf ears. Interaction between employees and managers is fundamental. For the companies in which he serves as both chief executive and chairman, Branson writes his staff "chitty-chatty" letters to tell them everything that is going on and to encourage them to write him with any ideas or suggestions. He gives them his home address and phone number. He responds with a letter personally, even if he doesn't follow up and deal with the details.

"Some 80% of your life is spent working," says Branson. "You want to have fun at home; why shouldn’t you have fun at work? I think leaders have got to make a bigger effort to make sure the people who work for them are enjoying what they’re doing. If a chairman of a company visits Seattle, that chairman should take all the staff out in the evening and have a few drinks together, talk together and party together and not be embarrassed about the staff seeing the weaker side of you. They don’t lose respect for you because they see your human side. They actually gain more respect for you."

When asked what motivates him to grow now that he has money and fame, Branson says he sees his own life as the long university education he never had. "Every day I meet new people, challenging them and being challenged." Virgin is poised, he believes, to make a real difference. "Because I don’t see Virgin as a company but as a way of life and I fully enjoy it, I don’t think I’ll ever retire," says Branson.

BUSINESS: Original "Giftmas"

We received a quite original Christmas gift from our hosting partner in Germany, Triaton - an HP company. We found that quite a good idea: a calendar from the magazine Geo (in French, in German). Its title is "Top view of the earth", really amazing!

NEWS: Gartner to acquire META Group

Gartner To Acquire META Group For $162 Million

STAMFORD, Conn., December 27, 2004 — Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT and ITB), the leading provider of research and analysis on the global information technology industry, and META Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: METG), a premier information technology research and consulting firm, today announced that the companies have reached an agreement under which Gartner will acquire META Group in an all-cash transaction valued at $10.00 per share, or approximately $162 million. The boards of directors of both companies have unanimously approved the agreement.

TOOLS: Konfabulator v1.8.3

Pixoria released a new version (1.8.3) of Konfabulator for Windows. I have already tested Konfabulator for a while.

What is Konfabulator?

Konfabulator is a JavaScript runtime engine for Windows and Mac OS X that lets you run little files called Widgets that can do pretty much whatever you want them to. Widgets can be alarm clocks, calculators, can tell you your WiFi signal strength, will fetch the latest stock quotes for your preferred symbols, and even give your current local weather.

What sets Konfabulator apart from other scripting applications is that it takes full advantage of today's advanced graphics. This allows Widgets to blend fluidly into your desktop without the constraints of traditional window borders. Toss in some sliding and fading, and these little guys are right at home in Windows XP and Mac OS X.

The format for these Widgets is completely open and easy to learn so creating your own Widgets is an extremely easy task.

NEWS: Tragedy in Asia

We are now confronted with a huge human tragedy in Asia. On day after my last post, the last information talked about more than 23'000 dead people with thousands more missings, specially in some Indian islands near Sumatra. Millions of people lost their homes......

The quake, the fourth largest recorded since 1900 and measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale, occurred after a rupture on the Indian Ocean seabed caused by the violent grinding of two tectonic plates.

Sri Lanka and India were severely hit with respective death tolls of 10,897 and 6,597, while the number of dead in Indonesia rose to 4,725. A further 866 deaths were reported in Thailand, 51 in Malaysia, 43 in the Maldives, 30 in Myanmar and two in Bangladesh.

Huge waves swept some 7,000 kilometres (4,000 miles) as far as Africa, crashing on to the shores of Kenya and Somalia, affecting the islands of Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles on the way. More than 100 Somali fishermen were reported missing feared dead.

NEWS: terrible earthquake in Sumatra and 6'300 dead across Asia

All the people dead, all these children dead....
Four weeks later and we would have been under the wave, too. God.

6,300 Dead as Quake, Tsunami Devastate Asia

The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years hit south Asia Sunday, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India and swamped tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives, killing more than 6,300 people.

A wall of water up to 30 feet high triggered by the 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra caused death, chaos and devastation.

PRIVATE: Merry Christmas :-)

I wish you and your family a very happy and restful Christmas. Have a good time.
We also tried hard ;-)

A Christmas tree







A Christmas table








A Christmas fire








A Christmas capon (3.4kg)








Mumm Brut Rosé











Château Coutet (Sauternes)
1er cru classé 1999










Château Saint-Pierre (Saint-Julien)
Grand cru classé 2000









Château des Rocs
Bordeaux supérieur 1985















And...the whole family :-)

WEBSITE: new pictures published (France - Vosges)

I published some pictures of a one-day family trip me made in the mountains last week-end. Have a look!

PRIVATE: Winter time

BUSINESS: The Bootstrapper's Bible - Seth Godin (02)

We had an apero this afternoon and I presented one idea of Seth Godin to the team. The main idea developped is that a small unit and big unit could benefit from each other, a kind of symbiosis.

RULE 9: OBSERVE THOSE LITTLE BIRDS THAT CLEAN THE TEETH OF VERY BIG HIPPOS

There's a giant rhino, bigger than a Volvo, with its mouth open. And there, in the mouth of the beast, are a bunch of little birds.
The birds eat the bugs the rhino can't get to. The birds are happy because they get an easy meal. And the rhino is happily bug-free.
There's a lot a bootstrapper can learn from these little birds. By creating a mutually beneficial relationship with a hippo, you can make a lot of money, generate credibility, and avoid being eaten.
Find bigger, richer, more stable organizations. Partner with them. It gives you credibility and access and sometimes, cash flow.
Most big-company founders hate what their companies have become. They rail against the slowness, the bureaucracy, the inability to get anything done anymore.

Reminder: you can download the pdf version of the Seth Godin's book - The Bootstrapper's Bible.

BLOG: my weblog statistics

As I am not using any "public" statistics tools like SiteMeter, I would like to give some information about my weblog/website statistics. Both sites (didierbeck.com and didierbeck.net) are hosted by OVH and I have a full-access to my raw-logs (apache logs). To analyse them, I am using the same utility as the one for my professional job, i.e. urchin, which is definitely very powerful and extremely efficient. With my laptop for example (hp nx7000 with 1GB RAM), I can generate full reports of websites with hundreds of thousands of pageviews monthly in....minutes!! For those you use WebTrends, have a look at urchin (the license is very cheap for this kind of powerful tool, $895 for 100 websites!).

OVH had some problems in September with the filers where the logs were copied, so that I put a forecast in the following statistics for this month, as for the December, to be able to close the year. The period of analyse is March to December 2004.



For the first two December's weeks:

• 660 pageviews daily (min: 404, max: 890)


• 317 sessions daily (min: 166, max: 407)


• 79% of the traffic is generated by my blog, 11% by my website, 7% by the robots and 3% by the Seth Godin's book (!), the Bootstrappers Bible, about 300 downloads in 5 days!


• So, 79% of traffic is coming from the weblog, and 54% from the atom.xml, which is my Syndicated Newsfeed. This part is increasing quite rapidly.


• Interesting also to note that the browsers and feed readers structure accessing my blog and website is changing massively. In the last two weeks, 25% of the accesses are coming from IE, 22% from Firefox/Mozilla, 23% from Newsgator (!), the rest - 30% - from a *lot* of other feed readers (Bloglines, SauceReader, etc.)

To have a comparison, I took the liberty to have a look at two weblogs I am reading very regularly, the one of Rodrigo Sepulveda and the one of Loic le Meur, who are giving their statistics openly with SiteMeter here and here (Rodrigo, Loic, if you have a problem with my comparison, let me know ;-):

Loic (period=last week)

• Pageviews daily: 543


• Number of visits daily: 362

Rodrigo (period=last week)

• Pageviews daily: 243


• Number of visits daily: 183

As usual in this field, it is just an indication, specially for the number of visits which is always defined in different ways by the different tools. The number of pages should be representative on the other side. I am wondering if SiteMeter can integrate the traffic generated by the newsfeed (atom or RSS). I don't think so, which is quite a problem, if you know that this part is generating more than 50% of my traffic...

NEWS: Spread Firefox - Ad released in the New York Times today

As already mentionned in October, the Mozilla Foundation has called on its supporters to chip in on a full-page advertisement in The New York Times for the launch of its Firefox 1.0 browser.

It's out!

MOZILLA FOUNDATION PLACES TWO-PAGE ADVOCACY AD IN THE NEW YORK TIMES

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - December 15th, 2004 - The Mozilla Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving choice and promoting innovation on the Internet, today announced that it has placed a two-page ad in the December 16th edition of the New York Times. The ad, coordinated by Spread Firefox, features the names of the thousands of people worldwide who contributed to the Mozilla Foundation's fundraising campaign to support last month's highly successful launch of the open source Mozilla Firefox 1.0 web browser.

[pdf]

As I said, I participated to this program. Need an evidence?



Where are YOU??

BUSINESS: the top 1'000 things to learn - part II

[via Seth Godin]

Seth wants to add the following 10:

1. Basic understanding of electricity.


2. How to drive a nail, drive a screw, cut a board, build a box.


3. How to drive a car in the winter, how to pull a car out of a skid.


4. How to ask for help.


5. How to read a table and a chart


6. How to read the media for spin and for insight


7. The importance of doing things for other people (yes, this one among others is mostly a parenting job, but yes, it can be taught)


8. How to work really really hard, sometimes on things that aren't fun.


9. What it's like to be in jail.


10. How to create an internal dialogue that makes you happy.

BUSINESS: the top 1'000 things to learn

[via Seth Godin]

So what are they? What are the one thousand teachable things that every third grader ought to start learning so she'll know them all before before she graduates from high school?

Here are twenty to get us started.

1. How to type.


2. How to speak in front of a group.


3. How to write clear prose that other people actually want to read.


4. How to manage a project.


5. The most important lessons from American history.


6. What the world's religions have in common.


7. Evolution.


8. Formal logic.


9. The 15,000 most common English words.


10. Conversational Spanish.


11. How to handle big changes, with grace.


12. How to run a small business.


13. Basic chemistry.


14. Not arithmetic, but algebra.


15. A little geometry, a little calculus.


16. The most important lessons from ten other world cultures and their history.


17. Speed reading with comprehension.


18. How to sell.


19. Pick one: how to paint, write a poem, compose a song or juggle really well.


20. Understanding the biographies of 500 important historical figures and 200 fictional ones.

BUSINESS: The Bootstrapper's Bible - Seth Godin (01)

I've started to read very conscientiously the new e-book of Seth Godin for a while. This book is really great. I will surely publish some insights in the coming days. What's also great is that The Bootstrapper's Bible was available online for free during 2 weeks. The book is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial - No Derivs license. And, Seth gives an explicite authorization to spread his work electronically!

You are given the unlimited right to print this manifesto and to distribute it electronically (via email, your website, or any other means). You can print out pages and put them in your favorite coffee shopʼs windows or your doctorʼs waiting room. You can transcribe the authorʼs words onto the sidewalk, or you can hand out copies to everyone you meet. You may not alter this manifesto in any way, though, and you may not charge for it.

So, you can find a PDF copy of The Bootstrapper's Bible of Seth Godin here.

Who is Seth Godin?

Seth Godin is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and agent of change. In Free Prize Inside, his follow up to the best selling marketing book of 2003, Purple Cow, Seth helps you make your product remarkable with soft innovations. You need to make each of your employees idea champions so they can find the Free Prize. Godin is author of six books that have been bestsellers around the world and changed the way people think about marketing, change and work. Seth is a renowned speaker as well. He was recently chosen as one of 21 Speakers for the Next Century by Successful Meetings and is consistently rated among the very best speakers by the audiences he addresses. He holds an MBA from Stanford and was called "the Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by BusinessWeek.

WEEK-END: Frozen trees and Sea of clouds

As the weather was again awful - the fog is blocking the nice sunny weather since days, we decided to proceed further and to make a tour in the mountains, over this annoying clouds. That was definitely a good idea :-)

-4°C at home when we left (altitude: 230m) and +8°C when we arrived at "Le Grand Ballon" (altitude: about 1'300m!). Have a look!

Frozen trees

 

Sea of clouds

NEWS: incredible pictures

[via vowe]

Have a look at the Norio Matsumoto Gallery about Nature:

• The Alaskan range


• Northern lights


• Whales of Southeast Alaska


• Alaskan Forest

Really *marvelous*!! I would like to publish three of them (it was difficult to choose...), just to convince you (if I'm damaging any copyright, let me know, I will put them back)







PS: for a time, an interesting use of the Flash technology on the Norio's website.

PRIVATE: Christmas Downtown in Mulhouse

This evening, we visited the Christmas Market of Mulhouse with our little son. Really nice!

And, no, I don't agree with the Christmas Resistance Movement ;-)







One of the renowned shop downtown is organizing very nice windows for Christmas.

BUSINESS: industrialization of Software development

An interesting article about industrialization of Software development in 01net (in French).

My friend and colleague Laurent (Microsoft MVP), who is working in my Business Unit, participated to this article. Let's have a look at his interview (also in French).

The whole article is also available in PDF form (still in French).

Bravo Laurent :-)

MUSIC: Montreux Jazz Festival 2005

Great, the first information concerning the Montreux Jazz Festival 2005 is coming out . I've seen the Pat Metheny Trio in July this year.It will take place from July 1st to July 16th, 2005. This time, the poster is from Zep.

BUSINESS: IBM selling PC business? It's done

[via BetaNews]

Rumors are confirmed...

IBM has officially confirmed it will sell its PC business to Chinese computer maker Lenovo for a total of $1.75 billion. [...]

Lenovo will pay IBM $650 million in cash, another $600 million in common stock, and assume $500 million in debt from Big Blue. IBM will become Lenovo's second largest shareholder with a stake of 18.9 percent in the company, and over 10,000 IBM employees will migrate to Lenovo.

The deal creates the third-largest PC company in the world behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard. Lenovo will receive a 5-year license to use the internationally recognized IBM brand name and "Think" trademarks on its desktop and notebook PCs.

Lenovo's new PC business will be located in the United States, with headquarters in New York and principal operations in Raleigh, North Carolina, where IBM currently handles PC development. Stephen Ward, current IBM senior vice president and general manager of IBM's Personal Systems Group, will become CEO of Lenovo. Current Lenovo CEO Yuanqing Yang will become Chairman of the company.

BUSINESS: 17 common mistakes to avoid and 5 tips for Entrepreneurs

[via entrepreneur.com]

Mistake 1: Failing to spend enough time researching the business idea to see if it's viable.
Mistake 2: Miscalculating market size, timing, ease of entry and potential market share.
Mistake 3: Underestimating financial requirements and timing.
Mistake 4: Overprojecting sales volume and timing.
Mistake 5: Making cost projections that are too low
Mistake 6: Hiring too many people and spending too much on offices and facilities.
Mistake 7: Lacking a contingency plan for a shortfall in expectations.
Mistake 8: Bringing in unnecessary partners.
Mistake 9: Hiring for convenience rather than skill requirements.
Mistake 10: Neglecting to manage the entire company as a whole.
Mistake 11: Accepting that it's "not possible" too easily rather than finding a way.
Mistake 12: Focusing too much on sales volume and company size rather than profit.
Mistake 13: Seeking confirmation of your actions rather than seeking the truth.
Mistake 14: Lacking simplicity in your vision.
Mistake 15: Lacking clarity of your long-term aim and business purpose.
Mistake 16: Lacking focus and identity.
Mistake 17: Lacking an exit strategy.

Is there any difference between doing nothing wrong and doing everything right? Peter Russo, director of Boston University's Entrepreneurial Management Institute, says that while you're avoiding John Osher's 17 mistakes, you should also try to do five key things right. "If you do those five things, you're probably not going to make those other mistakes," he says. Here are Russo's five things start-ups should do:

1. Know your goals for the venture. "A lot of people see an opportunity without ever asking themselves what they're doing it for," says Russo. "Are they trying to make a quick buck? Create a legacy? Have a lifestyle? There are a lot of reasons. It's critical that you know from the beginning what your goals are, because everything else is going to revolve around that."

2. Recruit and hire the best people. "It sounds almost cliché now to say I'd rather have an A team with a B idea than a B team with an A idea. The right team can fix a lot of problems. If you don't have the right team, you don't have much of a chance," Russo says. "Get the best people available at the time."

3. Develop a forgiving strategy. "Things are going to go wrong," he says. "They're going to be harder, take longer and cost more money than you think. You have to have a strategy to survive. A lot of people put together a plan that will work only if everything goes right. It's not going to."

4. Be honest with yourself. "Recognize shortcomings, weaknesses and problems immediately. Do not ignore them or try to talk yourself out of them," Russo says. "Address them head-on."

5. Commit to the business. "You can't really do anything significant without fully committing yourself to it. A lot of people try to dabble," he explains. "They think they'll do it part time [and] see how it works out. If you plan to be successful, you have to commit."

BUSINESS: IBM selling PC business?

[via BetaNews]

New era?

IBM has put its consumer PC unit up on the auction block, refocusing its efforts on the more profitable corporate server and computer service markets, according to a report in the The New York Times. The sale would likely include all of Big Blue's desktop workstations and ThinkPad portables, for an estimated price range of $1 billion to $2 billion. Sources tell the Times that Chinese computer maker Lenovo -- formerly Legend -- is the current top bidder for the business unit that represents 12 percent of IBM's $92 billion annual revenue.

PRIVATE: earthquake this night

Oups, we were wake up this night by an earthquake at 2:53 AM (1:53 GMT). The epicenter was in Germany, at about 30 km from where we are living. The magnitude quake was 4.9 (Richter). No reports of damage or injuries, also by us, but quite impressive.

BUSINESS: Novell and SuSe

Novell financial results for 2004 / 4Q.

2004:
- revenues: $1.16 billion
- net income: $31 million

4Q 2004:
- revenues: $301 million
- SuSe $12 million thereof $7 million from sales of SuSe Linux Enterprise Server (SLES)

NEWS: what is a Firefox?

I always thought that a Firefox is a kind of ... fox, which is not true. It is a kind of Panda.

The Red Panda or lesser panda, is a mostly vegetarian cat-sized (60 cm long) mammal. Its classification is uncertain. It was formerly classified in the raccoon family (Procyonidae), but now many experts, including Wilson and Reeder, classify it as a member of the bear family (Ursidae) or in its own family the Ailuridae. It is native to the Himalayas and southern China. Fossil evidence suggests that it once also existed in North America.

Its Western name is taken from a Himalayan language, possibly Nepalese, but its meaning is uncertain. One theory is that "panda" is an anglicization of "poonya", which means "eater of bamboo". Its Chinese name means "little panda," named after the Giant Panda. It is also commonly known as the Firefox and, because of its distinctive cry, the Wah.

Have a look in Wikipedia.

Nice mascot for a nice product :-)

NEWS: weblog, connections and reputation

[via Jeremy]

The interesting thing about weblogs is how they are able to enable both of those while lowering the barriers to them at the same time. By starting a weblog and sticking with it, you find yourself knowing more people who you'd have otherwise never met. But more importantly more people will come to know you. And at the same time, you're writing and writing frequently. If what you say is interesting to enough people, that reputation builds quickly.

Blogs make it easy to establish connections, a reputation, and do both with nearly infinite reach compared to the traditional approaches.

BLOG: I was off three days

I was of from Monday till Wednesday for a strategic workshop in the "middle of nowhere". So, after having tested a Benedictine monastery ("Kloster Fischingen") in July for a session about Change Management, we will stay at a Carthusian monastery ("Karthause Ittingen").

Really a nice place, somewhat outside the world.

At this rate, I will be able to write a kind of "Michelin guide" of the religious locations in Switzerland ;-)

From Wikipedia:

The Carthusians are a Christian religious order founded by St Bruno in 1084. There exist both Carthusian monks and nuns. They follow their own Rule, called the Statutes, rather than the Rule of St Benedict (as is often erroneously reported) and combine eremitical (hermit-like) and cenobitic monastic life. Carthusians are sometimes considered the highest order of the Catholic Church, in terms of strictness (this refers to the idea that one is only allowed to switch your religious order if you are going to one that is more strict, and the top being the Carthusians).