BUSINESS: Interview of Jeff Bezos

Wired published an interview of Jeff Bezos realized in January 2005.

Some interesting inputs:

How much of retail sales do you think eventually will be online, and how much offline?
I think online ultimately will be 10 to 15 percent of retail. The vast majority of retailing will stay in the physical world because people have acute needs, they want things now. Also, there are products, like a yard rake, where the economics of delivery don't make sense. But a 600-pound table saw is a great item to sell online because it always gets delivered. And it's expensive enough that there is enough profit in it to cover the cost of shipping. Plasma TVs, same idea.

Do physical bookstores have anything to offer that Amazon doesn't?
One thing is face-to-face meetings with authors. And what Howard Schultz at Starbucks likes to call a third place, where people go and sit and spend time. We humans are a gregarious species; we like to mingle with other humans.

In the magazine world, we rely on ads. Should we be terrified?
I'm not saying that advertising is going away. But the balance is shifting. If today the successful recipe is to put 70 percent of your energy into shouting about your service and 30 percent into making it great, over the next 20 years I think that's going to invert.

PICTURES: Sun, plasma eruption

[via NASA Planetary Photojournal]

A handle-shaped cloud of plasma erupts from the Sun.

Extreme Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope (EIT) image of a huge, handle-shaped prominence taken on Sept. 14,1999 taken in the 304 angstrom wavelength - Prominences are huge clouds of relatively cool dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, thin corona. At times, they can erupt, escaping the Sun's atmosphere. Emission in this spectral line shows the upper chromosphere at a temperature of about 60,000 degrees K. Every feature in the image traces magnetic field structure. The hottest areas appear almost white, while the darker red areas indicate cooler temperatures.

BUSINESS: International Labour Organization

Do you know that the worldwide unemployment level decreased last year? That the worldwide unemployment level reached 6.1% in 2004, which represents 184.7 million people? I didn't know...

I discovered the ILO - International Labour Organization - in one of my last holidays readings. Interesting. Their motto:

Promoting decent work for all.

The International Labour Organization is the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights. It was founded in 1919 and is the only surviving major creation of the Treaty of Versailles which brought the League of Nations into being and it became the first specialized agency of the UN in 1946.

The ILO formulates international labour standards in the form of Conventions and Recommendations setting minimum standards of basic labour rights: freedom of association, the right to organize, collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour, equality of opportunity and treatment, and other standards regulating conditions across the entire spectrum of work related issues. It provides technical assistance primarily in the fields of:
• vocational training and vocational rehabilitation;
• employment policy;
• labour administration;
• labour law and industrial relations;
• working conditions;
• management development;
• cooperatives;
• social security;
• labour statistics and occupational safety and health.

It promotes the development of independent employers' and workers' organizations and provides training and advisory services to those organizations. Within the UN system, the ILO has a unique tripartite structure with workers and employers participating as equal partners with governments in the work of its governing organs.

One of their last worldwide statistics published about unemployment:

TRAVELLING: Frankfurt

I was two days in Frankfurt for some business meetings with our outsourcing provider - Triaton. On last Thursday evening, we had a *very* good dinner at the Old Opera House's restaurant (Alte Oper). Great building!

The Old Opera House still looks as magnificent and imposing as it did when it was opened by Kaiser Wilhelm I in 1880. The building was financed by wealthy Frankfurt citizens and was designed in Italian Renaissance style by Richard Lucae. Destroyed in a 1944 air raid, it was rebuilt in 1964-81 and renamed the 'Old Opera Concert and Conference Centre'. The main auditorium, with seating for about 2,500 people, is the central part of the building and is used for concerts, conferences and other events. Smaller rooms can be hired for functions. Visitors can obtain refreshments in the café, the restaurant or the bistro.

TOOLS: Firefox v1.0.1

New version 1.0.1 of Firefox available! Install this one, it includes several security fixes.



Latest changes:

• Improved stability


• International Domain Names are now displayed as punycode


• Several security fixes


• Internationalized Domain Name (IDN) homograph spoofing


• Unsafe /tmp/plugtmp directory exploitable to erase user's files


• Plugins can be used to load privileged content


• Cross-site scripting by dropping javascript: link on tab


• Image drag and drop executable spoofing


• HTTP auth prompt tab spoofing


• Download dialog source spoofing


• Download dialog spoofing using Content-Disposition header


• Overwrite arbitrary files downloading .lnk twice


• XSLT can include stylesheets from arbitrary hosts


• Autocomplete data leak


• Memory overwrite in string library


• Install source spoofing with user:pass@host


• Spoofing download and security dialogs with overlapping windows


• Heap overflow possible in UTF8 to Unicode conversion


• SSL "secure site" indicator spoofing


• Window Injection Spoofing

PICTURES: Mimas, satellite of Saturn

[via NASA Planetary Photojournal]

A beautiful picture of Mimas, a satellite of Saturn (mission Cassini-Huygens).

Mimas drifts along in its orbit against the azure backdrop of Saturn's northern latitudes in this true color view. The long, dark lines on the atmosphere are shadows cast by the planet's rings.

Saturn's northern hemisphere is presently relatively cloud-free, and rays of sunlight take a long path through the atmosphere. This results in sunlight being scattered at shorter (bluer) wavelengths, thus giving the northernmost latitudes their bluish appearance at visible wavelengths.

At the bottom, craters on icy Mimas (398 kilometers, or 247 miles across) give the moon a dimpled appearance.[...]

The images were obtained using the Cassini spacecraft narrow angle camera on Jan. 18, 2005, at a distance of approximately 1.4 million kilometers (870,000 miles) from Saturn. Resolution in the image is 8.5 kilometers (5.3 miles) per pixel on Saturn and 7.5 kilometers (4.7 miles) per pixel on Mimas. The image has been contrast-enhanced to aid visibility.

PICTURES: Impressive Golf place

[via Heiko via SonnyRadio]

The following are pictures of Tiger Woods practicing off the heli-deck of the Burj Al Arab hotel in Dubai, UAE. They were taken when Tiger was in Dubai for the Desert Classic, March 2, 2004. $1 million appearance fee, and he gets to hit shag balls from the tallest hotel in the world.

Yes, Tiger is paid $1 million each year just to play in the Dubai Desert Classic, regardless of how he plays. But hitting golf balls off the top of this "hotel" is really neat. Bet you've never seen golf balls hit like this, or a hotel like this.

For best effect, view pictures in the order shown below. The last picture really puts it in perspective. Extraordinary!!!

MUSIC: On heavy rotation

I received a "thank-you" gift for a while from a friend of mine, who had the very good idea to give me the DVD No Quarter - Jimmy Page and Robert Plant Unledded.

This DVD is pure happiness, really a-m-a-z-i-n-g :-)

Originally released on CD in 1994 and then in a remastered version simultaneously with this DVD, the 115-minute program (including bonus footage) was recorded on a London soundstage, in the hills of Snowdonia, Wales, and outdoors in Marrakech, Morocco. It finds guitarist Page, vocalist Plant, and an array of other musicians performing some new material, but for the most part, the repertoire focuses on their Led Zep legacy--not a surprise, considering that what they did together in that group was better than anything they've done separately, including some pretty good Plant solo efforts and Page's regrettable stint as a member of the Firm. Yet instead of simply parroting their Zeppelin period (and relying on tired warhorses like "Stairway to Heaven" and "Whole Lotta Love"), they've given the music new life, adding exotic instruments like the bodhran (an Irish drum) and the hurdy-gurdy (played by cranking a rosined wheel against a set of strings) to less familiar fare like "The Battle of Evermore" and "Gallow's Pole." Add to that three brilliant new songs performed with a quartet of Moroccan players, a full complement of strings from the London Metropolitan Orchestra (on "Since I've Been Loving You" and others), and a host of Egyptian percussion and strings on an epic version of "Kashmir" (also from the London session), and you've got a world music blend that is at times genuinely thrilling--especially for those with 5.1 Surround Sound capability.

BUSINESS: about job-finding / person-finding

Seth publlished 3 posts (1, 2 and 3) about job-finding / person-finding. I really like what he says and totally agree with his position.

Consider a few facts:
1. The traditional way to get a job is to send a boring resume in response to as many posted jobs as you can afford. Your resume will be scanned, culled and if it doesn't stand out too much, a person might look at it.

Then you go for a job interview and try to be coglike in your malleability and desire to fit in. If random acts are working in your favor, you get the job.

2. Then, the big Fortune 1000 company that hired you complains that all their people act like cogs, don't care enough, aren't creative in solving problems and don't push the status quo.

3. Then, the big Fortune 1000 company realizes that as long as they've got interchangeable cogs, they ought to just move jobs offshore, cause that's cheaper.

Let's start with one assumption that has changed in just a generation:

It turns out that 100% of all job growth is now coming from small (under 500 person) companies. In fact, the big companies are shedding jobs, not adding them.

That wasn't true for our parents. It's true for us.

Also true: more likely than not, the best jobs, the most interesting jobs and the most secure jobs happen in small organizations.

NEWS: we know where the spam is coming from :-)

[via Dilbert - 1 & 2]

BUSINESS: Customer development

[via @rgumente]

Dragos pointed a great presentation (pdf) about customer development in product-oriented start-ups. Worth a reading!

BLOG: new version of Blogkomm installed

I've installed a commenting tool as a complement of Blogger called blogKomm developped by Holger Kreis, since March 28 2004. At this time, Blogger didn't integrate any commenting functionnality. This incredible lack was first filled in April 2004. I didn't move to Blogger because the comments are hosted by Blogger and I don't like that. I want to have my data under control and to be able to have a full access on the raw logs for the statistics. Without a dedicated hosting - as far as I known - it is impossible to know exactly how many visitors and pageviews you have on your blog because of the access on your RSS feed which are only visible in these raw logs. My blog and website are hosted by OVH, my web hosting provider.

I made the step this morning and I installed the version 2.1 (beta) of blogKomm. Holger integrated some very interesting functionalities and the protection possibilities against comment spam is really better than in the version 1.7 I used before. This is perhaps the only positive effect of spam: it forced me to take the time to install the new version ;-) Which was quite easy.

blogKomm features

blogkomm integrates the reader's comments into your blog without any pop-ups. Besides this you have different features coming along with that, like

* different notification services
* preview feature
* user remember feature
* quick-Editing admin-tool
* recent comment-list
* multilingual interface
* a setup and configuration tool

BUSINESS: The best Seth Godin posts of 2004

If you are a bit lazy, or of you do not have enough time (problem to prioritize correctly? ;-), Seth Godin published a kind of "Best of - 2004" of his posts. As usual, a bunch of ideas and interesting inputs. I would like to know how Seth did the choice ;-)

The Best Seth Godin Posts of the Year (2004)

Easier than checking the archives! More efficient than wading through inane banter.

If you're only going to read 2 of my posts a month (that's 24 for those of you without a calculator) then this is where I'd have you start

NEWS: fire in Madrid's skyline

You surely saw that, one of the biggest building in Madrid (106 m) completely burnt on last Sunday. For chance, nobody was injured! It remembers another story in NY with other consequences...

TOOLS: Mega Codec Pack v1.18

Again, a new version (1.18) of the K-Lite Mega Codec Pack released here. Still free and really great!

Mega Codec Pack includes everything needed to play online and offline computer media. This pack is from the makers of the K-lite codec pack. This version includes the Full K-lite codec pack as well as Quicktime and Realplayer codecs, and BS Player. This Pack includes codecs for the most popular compressions like Divx and Xvid as well as some of the less popular but still necesary codecs. This is your one stop codec resource.

BLOG: back home

Outch, the landing in the real world is quite difficult :-) After some completely beautiful days at St.Barth, I'm confronted with - well, you know - real stuff again...
- lot of email spams, but correctly and automatically managed (more than 1'400 spams within 14 days on one email account...)
- 138 comment spams on my blog, these guys really *suck*.

- I was here yesterday (about 30°C and 26°c in the sea)


- and I'm here today....something went wrong or what??


And finally, do you know Air France? I can tell you, this company sucks too. I will tell you more in the coming days about our incredibly bad customer experience in *all* the aspects of this company. And they are talking about Quality Insurance and Customer-Focus....

BLOG: holidays :-)

[via LetterJames]

PRIVATE: Milano :-)

I celebrated my 33rd birthday yesterday evening in Milano - Italy. I had a great dinner in a Toscana restaurant in the center of Milano with my two colleagues Nick and Wolfgang (good choice, Wolfgang ;-).



It was also the first day of Nick by us in the eCenter, after having worked for a quite long period as an external consultant.



We had a great time together, some very interesting discussions, and....some very exciting food, including one of the best "mozzarella di bufala" I ever eat :-) I have also to say that the wines were great!

We went back from Milano by train, as usual a very nice trip, with some beautiful and impressive landscapes, despite of the quite bad weather.







And, by the way, our business meeting was very successful!

PRIVATE: I'm 33 today :-)

Pfuu, "already" 33 years old. I know, I look older;-) This picture left with my son is already 18 months old... We have celebrated for 2 weeks the 3rd birthday of my son, today my 33rd anniversary.

When I look back, I have a very good feeling because I was challenged a lot as a person, I could do a bunch of errors (and some people let me do them ;-) and experience, I could learn so much. A *very* enriching year!

The last 12 months were for me very "dense", and on different levels:

• professionally with all the "ordinary" and "extra-ordinary" developments of my business unit


• privately with my son (this phase is *so* interesting, what for a development between 2 and 3!), with my wife (she opened very succesfully her own surgery), with the death of my grandfather (I miss him a lot...)


• humanely with all the great people I met the last time, with all my long-time friends, with all my so funny and smart colleagues.

All in all, I am very lucky.

I hope I could also give this "luck" back to other people, by helping them a little bit to develop themselves too, by letting them do their own experience and errors too, by organizing a motivating (and stressful, I admit) environment for all, by pushing as far as I can our values (responsability, commitment, trust, innovation, fun, excellence and professionalism, being open-minded) and by giving some sense to our work. I didn't manage it all the time but I keep trying :-)



Thank you *all* very kindly for having a look at my weblog :-) That was also an important part of my last 12-months experience!