NEWS: Microsoft Company Meeting 2005 follow-up

[via vowe & Mini-Microsoft]

Oups.

As for Mr. Ozzie: where I was sitting, the murmuring of people having low-level conversations grew louder and louder as he talked and people stopped paying attention. He wasn't engaging the folks around me with whatever he was strutting around about ("De cloud! De cloud!"). Sorry, Ray, you need to earn our respect with results right now. Lotus Notes and the saved-from-the-brink of bankruptcy Groove isn't endowing you with much currency.

TRAVELLING: Corsica - Calvi (05)

Some beautiful landscapes of Corsica

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NEWS: Vols blancs

Lionel Charlet, a Swiss-French filmmaker, released last year a documentary called "Vols Blancs" (White Fligts) on the Mirage III and F/A-18 Hornet, both combat jets used in Switzerland. This film is *amazing*, incredible! The Swiss pilots are just crazy, some scenes are unbelievable, specially the ones in the valleys of the Alps. Very very low altitude... Have a look at what Lionel says:

The men who are lucky enough to fly carry a serious responsibility - confronted as they are every day to maximum risk and spectacular sceneries - alone in their cockpits they stay focussed on their mission.

There is seriousness in this beauty… if only because war exists. But also because the beauty and transcendence of nature that pilots discover marks them deeply. They don't indulge in experimentation with "Fun" flying, where one seeks, above all, intense sensations.

The beauty of the three dimensional universe reveals the beauty of the earth and the landscapes, an immense glacier just below the jet, flying head down, perspective is carried away.

Thanks to the Swiss Air Force, I've had the occasion to log many hours in FA/18, F-5, Hawk and Mirage, long hard hours gathering the best pictures possible. Each flight is a new challenge, with its struggles and victories.

BUSINESS: Open Source business models

[via Marc Goldberg]

Marc is pointing to an interesting presentation of Tim O'Reilly (PDF) at the last Eclipse conference. It is about Product Design and innovation in the web2.0 world.

Design for Participation

An open source operating system consists of "small pieces loosely joined."
Discussion: Linux, Apache, Perl and CPAN
Therefore: Architect your software in such a
way that it can be used easily as a component of a larger system. Use a license that does not hinder such a combination. Keep your software modular, and make certain that you document all of the interfaces.

User-Centered Development

The benefits of open source come from sharing your development efforts and processes with your users
Therefore: Release early and release often. Set up mechanisms for users to submit bugs and patches. Promote your most active
users into roles of greater responsibility.

Don’t Differentiate on Features

When useful components are abundant and free, adding proprietary features will only slow you down.
Therefore: Focus your development efforts on speed of testing, assembly, and integration so that your users can always have the best components that the marketplace has to offer.

Follow Industry Standards

Users want choice, but not too much of it.
Therefore: Offer your products in a number of proven, industry-standard configurations, and let your users choose between them. As new application domains emerge, develop configurations to support them.

The Perpetual Beta

When devices and programs are connected to the internet, applications are no longer software artifacts, they are ongoing services.
Therefore: Do not package up new features into monolithic releases, but instead add them on a regular basis as part of the
normal user experience. Engage your users as real-time testers, and instrument the
service so that you know how people use the new features.

Leverage Commodity Economics

Scale matters. A successful internet service may need to scale up rapidly, at low cost.
Therefore: Use Linux, Apache, and other open source components running on commodity PC hardware as the basis for any internet service. Arrange these components in fault-tolerant arrays, with management tools that minimize the number of required sysadmins.

Users Add Value

The key to competitive advantage in internet applications is the extent to which users add their own data to that which you provide.
Therefore: Don’t restrict your "architecture of participation" to software development. Involve your users both implicitly and
explicitly in adding value to your application.

Network Effects by Default

Only a small percentage of users will go to the trouble of adding value to your application.
Therefore: Set inclusive defaults for aggregating user data as a side-effect of their use of the application.

The Long Tail

Many limiting factors from the physical world are absent from the internet.
Therefore: Use the power of the computer to monetize niches that formerly were too small to be commercial.

The Mechanical Turk

Services need to be robust, but because they are typically data-driven, they also need to be updated constantly.
Therefore: Build your core services infrastructure with traditional software components written in languages like Java,
C, and C++, but build your interfaces with templating systems and with dynamic
languages like Perl, Python, and PHP. Think of your programmers, designers, and
admins as part of the application.

Software Above the Level of a Single Device

The PC is no longer the only access device for internet applications, and applications that are limited to a single device are less valuable than those that are connected.
Therefore: Design your application from the get-go to integrate services across handheld devices, PCs, and internet servers.

Platforms and Tools (The Eclipse Pattern)

Third party developers are an essential part of the success of new platforms.
Therefore: Reduce complexity for developers by building tools that specifically support new classes of application, and use those
tools to simplify access to underlying components and services.

Intel Inside

Inside every open system there are proprietary, single-source components. The open PC architecture has Intel Inside; the open internet has Cisco Inside.
Therefore: Look for opportunities to be the single source for an essential subsystem of an open system.

Dual Licensing

The GPL allows special rights to the creator of the software to distribute the software under other terms.
Therefore: Make sure to obtain copyright assignment for all contributed code.

Data is the Next "Intel Inside"

Applications are increasingly data-driven.
Therefore: Owning a unique, hard-to-recreate source of data may lead to an Intel-style single-source competitive advantage.

Own the Namespace

Some data is a commodity and impossible for any one party to own, but access to the data can be controlled through legal means.
Therefore: If you can’t own the data, use legal means to own the namespace or
registry for the data.

PICTURES: Taipei 101

Do you know this new skyscraper?

Taipei 101

Taipei 101 (臺北 101) is a 101-floor skyscraper in Xinyi District, Taipei, Taiwan. Its original name was Taipei Financial Center, based on its official Chinese name: the Taipei International Financial Building (臺北國際金融大樓). It is the tallest building in the world by three of the four standards designated by the Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat.

[...] Taipei 101 has 101 stories above ground (hence the name) and five under ground.

The building holds the records for:

• Ground to structural top: 508 m (1667 ft), a record formerly held by the Petronas Twin Towers at 452 m (1483ft).


• Ground to roof: 448 m (1470 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower (442 m = 1454ft)


• Ground to highest occupied floor: 438 m (1437 ft). Formerly held by the Sears Tower.

It does not hold the record for

• Ground to pinnacle, which is held by the Sears Tower 529 m (1703ft).

[...] The entire tower was opened on December 31, 2004, amidst an extravagant New Year's celebration, complete with live performances and fireworks. President Chen Shui-bian, Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou and Legislative Speaker Wang Jin-pyng cut the ribbon. Several floors are already in retail and office use.

Total buildable area will be 450,000 m² with:

• 214,000 m² of office space


• 77,500 m² of retail space


• 73,000 m² of parking space

The tower includes a six-floor retail mall with shops, restaurants, and other attractions. The architecture of the retail mall includes both retro gothic-style pinnacles and modern industrial structures.

[source: Wikipedia]

Tuned mass damper

A tuned mass damper is a device mounted in structures to prevent discomfort, damage or outright structural failure by vibration. Typically, the dampers are huge concrete blocks mounted in skyscrapers or other structures, and moved in opposition to the resonant frequency of the structure by means of springs, fluid or pendulums.

[...] Tuned mass dampers stabilize against violent motion caused by harmonic vibration. The presence of a tuned damper forces a comparatively lightweight structure to overcome the inertia of a great mass, such as a giant concrete block, placed in such a way that the mass only begins to move in one direction just as the structure begins to move in the other, thus damping the structure's oscillation. The counterweight may be mounted using massive spring coils and hydraulic dampers, and if the axis of the vibration is fundamentally horizontal or torsional, leaf springs and pendulum-mounted weights are employed. Tuned mass dampers are engineered, or "tuned" to specifically counter harmful frequencies of oscillation or vibration.

[...] A 660-ton tuned mass damper is held at the 88th floor, stabilizing the tower against earthquakes, typhoons, and wind. The damper can reduce up to 40% of the tower's movements.

[source: Wikipedia]

NEWS: Swiss vote allows new EU nations' workers

[via BusinessWeek]

Wow, great move Switzerland! That's cool :-)

Switzerland took a step closer to the rest of the continent Sunday when a majority of voters approved a government-sponsored initiative to allow citizens of 10 new European Union member states to work here.

About 56 percent of voters supported the government-sponsored proposal in a referendum, extending cooperation between this traditionally neutral country and the European Union, according to final results.

Allowing citizens of eight Eastern European countries and two Mediterranean island countries -- Cyprus and Malta -- to travel and work freely in Switzerland has proved to be a touchy issue. But the result is a second boost within four months for advocates of closer relations with the EU, after Swiss voters approved joining the bloc's "Schengen" passport-free area in June.

NEWS: Russell's experience with Mac

[via Russell]

Russell explains why he doesn't want to stay on Mac after 7 months. Interesting. He is illustrating his thoughts with 33 (!) arguments.

Now that I’ve been using Macs for a while, I’m wondering if they’re all that special. The hardware is nice, but OS X can be as slow, buggy, non-standard, frustrating and annoying as any other operating system. Also, I don’t really use most of the included apps, so most of what makes OSX so special doesn’t really apply to me.

I don’t think I would give a Mac to my Mom and expect any magic, for example. I think Apple has sacrificed their vaunted simplicity, usability and consistency in the face of sloppy Windows competition. They’ve settled for “good enough” I think, and if that’s the case, then I might as well stick with the more popular OS, which ends up being the easier OS to deal with becuase of its popularity. Much of the ability to even function at a basic level is by the Grace of Microsoft for supporting the Mac with Office and Windows Media, otherwise I’d be blind to tons of online media and and all of the enterprise.

His first arguments are quite....embarrassing for the MAC:

1. Anyone who says that Macs are more stable than Windows are smoking dope. I have two brand new Macs and they regularly go wacky and need reboots.


2. My mini and PowerBook are 1.42Ghz and 1.5Ghz, with 1GB and 512MB respectively. They are both sloooooow. Though the PowerBook is a bit better, neither is as snappy as my two year old Celeron, and not anywhere near the cutting edge x86 laptops.


3. Also, the graphics power suck. ATI Radeon 9200 is anemic in 2005. Playing Halo on either computer is a drastically reduced experience than on my Celeron 2Ghz Toshiba.

BLOG: bloody spammers

Hey you, bloody spammers!

You *cannot* post your fuckin' damned stupid pseudo comments with your ri-di-cu-lous ads. No chance to benefit from my little Google Juice.

All the comments are *moderated*, ok? Soooo, just go away, you are just losing time and....wasting my own time.

Pfffuuuu.......

PICTURES: Canon IXUS 700

I recently bought a new digital camera, to be able to complete the usage of my great SLR digicam - the Canon EOS 20D. In some case, I do not want to transport the "whole stuff" and I would like to have a very small camera to put in my pockets. After some searches and readings, I decided to stay by Canon and to buy a Canon IXUS 700, also called PowerShot SD500 in the US (what a mess to use different names worldwide...).

Specifications

• 7.1M pixels


• focal length: 7.7 - 23.1mm, equivalent 35mm: 37-111mm


• f/2.8 - f/4.9


• zoom: x3 optical


• focusing: TTL, 9-point AiAF, 1-point AF


• ISO speed: auto, 50, 100, 200, 400


• shutter speed: 15 - 1/2'000 sec


• viewfinder: real-image zoom, optical viewfinder


• LCD: 118'000 pixels


• Image size: 3072 x 2304, 2592 x 1944, 2048 x 1536, 1600 x 1200, 640 x 480


• Compression mode: Superfine, Fine, Normal


• Movies:


• 640 x 480, 30/15fps


• 320 x 240, 60/30/15fps


• 160 x 120, 15fps


• Interface: USB 2.0 High Speed


• Memory Card: Secure Digital (SD) Card


• Power source: Rechargeable Li-ion Battery NB-3L (battery and charger supplied)

Some pictures

Other reviews

• dpreview.com


• Pocket-Lint


• Digital Camera


• Megapixel.net

Still Image Devices

I haven't known this new standard on WinXP - StillImage. Interesting. Have a look at the Windows XP Resource Kit.

Windows XP Professional supports still-image devices through Windows Image Acquisition (WIA), which uses the WDM architecture. WIA provides robust communication between applications and image-capture devices, allowing you to capture images efficiently and transfer them to your computer for editing and use.

WIA supports SCSI, IEEE 1394, USB, and serial digital still image devices. Support for infrared, parallel, and serial still image devices, which are connected to standard COM ports, is provided by standard infrared, parallel, and serial interfaces. Image scanners and digital cameras are examples of WIA devices. WIA also supports Microsoft DirectShow®-based webcams and digital video (DV) camcorders to capture frames from video.

Conclusions

After about 2 months of usage, I can recommend this camera. Really great, right size, fast, possibility to catch movies, amazing results :-)

Three limitations:

1. Red-eyes effect present with the flash


2. You *have* to buy a small case to put the camera! It is not possible to lock the buttons and if you are just putting it in a bag and/or your pocket (its size definitely allows it), you could damage the optic engine (off/on and


3. It is a 7M pixels, so you need some good and big SD cards ;-)

NEWS: Les Blogs 2 - Registered!

Done! I am now registered to the coming two-days conference in Paris on December 5 and 6, 2005. Have a look at the confirmed speakers (wow :-)

• Robert Scoble, Microsoft


• Shel Israel


• Mark Rogers, CEO, Market Sentinel


• Fegus Burns, CEO, Nooked


• Scott Rafer, CEO, Feedster


• Jan Ni, Nokia Lifeblog


• Steve Olechowsky, CTO & co-founder, Feedburner


• Philipe Borremans, External Communications, IBM Belgium & Luxembourg


• Roy Lindeman, Country manager, Readspeaker


• Bob Wyman, CTO & co-founder, PubSub


• Jeff Clavier, Soft Tech VC


• Hugh MacLeod, Gaping Void


• David Sifry, Technorati


• Rebecca MacKinnon, GlobalVoices

I have seen that Rodrigo, Marc and Jeff will join (among others).

If you are also attending this event and want to get together (hey, that could be great!), feel free to send me an email at:

didier [dot] beck [at] gmail [dot] com

BUSINESS: The soul of a company

[via Jeff Bussgang]

Again, a *great* post of Jeff Bussgang (have a look at his blog). It is crazy, I think that I am blogging each post of Jeff ;-)

Worth a read, it is about emotion in a start-up and what is the soul of a company. These inputs are remembering me some things.....

Emotion in a start-up

Entrepreneurs tend to approach start-ups with extreme emotional attachment beyond any rational borders, seeking the answer to the question: "Will anyone love and appreciate my [professional] baby (which, by the way, I hope makes me money so I can retire and get back to spending time with my family)?" Anyone who's been involved in starting a company knows what an incredibly emotional adventure it can be. The ups and downs are incredibly exhilirating yet terrifying. One moment you're king of the world, the next you're afraid you're going to run out of money, and then it flips again.

Soul of a company

You don't have to be a religious person to appreciate that every start-up has a soul. Webster defines the word as "the immaterial part of a person". The soul of a start-up is thus the immaterial part of the company that personifies its unique character and culture. The soul of a company typically comes from the founding team, although I have also seen it come from mid-level hires, often young, who so completely embrace the company's mission that they begin to deeply eminate it in all of their activities.

I like very much the Jeff's definition of the soul of a company: The soul of a start-up is thus the immaterial part of the company that personifies its unique character and culture.

TRAVELLING: Corsica - Calvi (04)

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We stayed in a beautiful hotel in Calvi, called La Villa. Superb design, good service, very quite, 4 different swimming-pools. The restaurant of the hotel, l'Alivu, is really great (one star Michelin).

Perched on the hills of Calvi, La Villa hotel offers a peaceful setting only 5 minutes drive from the town center. La Villa is aptly named for its beautiful design is that of a Roman villa overlaid with element of a Corsican Monastery with arcades to frame the splendid view of the bay with Calvi, and its citadel, quiet cloisters, luminous mosaics and hand-make terracotta tiles.

To create a more personal and intimate ambience, the hotel has been made in to 4 residences composed of 52 rooms and suite with view on the sea and on the mountain.

Nice view on the Calvi's citadelle

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Breakfast and restaurant near the central swimming-pool

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Beautiful garden

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...And beautiful design

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NEWS: Skype through years

[via Skype News]

BUSINESS: Open-source and Marketing

[via Jeff Clavier]

Blake points to an issue of some open source projects: generally made up of brilliant technologists who consider that code is what makes the value of a project, as opposed to a means to an end. The Firefox team was built on a different approach that led them to really focus on users and deliver a product solving their needs. They also innovated by deploying a true marketing compaign to push the deployment of Firefox, through the site SpreadFirefox.com and the now famous $200K NY Times ad that was paid by 10,000 members of the community.

BUSINESS: Gates on Google

An interview of Bill Gates in News.com.

server-equal-service

The idea that the computing industry can simplify its offerings dramatically by having this server-equals-service approach, and having richer services, absolutely I believe in that, and we need to be at the forefront of that. The idea that management can be more automatic and software updating can be more automatic, state-replication more automatic--there are some big things here that can drive the industry forward. They are very complex, because we have to make things very reliable and very secure if you are going to do this. It's just now that we have the maturity of XML and the Web Services protocols that we can start to do (this).

Positioning difference between Google and Microsoft

So Google is not offering development capabilities yet. Of course, I expect they will. But they're not in that game at all today. In fact, they have this slogan that they are going to organize the world's information. Our slogan is that we are going to give people tools to let them organize the world's information. It's a slightly different approach, based on the platformization of all of our capabilities and not thinking of ourselves as the organizer.

Information at our fingertips?

Do we have information at your fingertips today? No. Do we have a lot more than we had in the year 2000? A huge amount more. We're getting decent Web search, we're getting RSS. So software as a service has been moving along. We needed the Internet. We needed low-cost connectivity. We needed XML. The scale economics of doing large server farms...you can do those and do those well.

Free and commercial software

The industry will always be a mix of free and commercial software. So there will be a balance between those. I think that we are going to have a lot of both. There are some zealots that think there should be no software jobs, that we should all, like, cut hair during the day and write code at night.

TOOLS: MS Office 12 - Part II

We have already seen some screenshots of MS Word, Excel. Powerpoint and Access, in their new version 12. Laurent wanted to see the new Outlook look&feel. Dragos found them ;-) Have a look below!

Microsoft Outlook 12

Thanx dragos

TOOLS: Foxit PDF Reader

[via BetaNews]

Version 1.3 available, not in beta anymore.

Foxit PDF Reader is a reader for PDF (eBook) documents. You can view and print PDF documents with it. This program is small (the download size less than 1MB), and does not require installation.

Latest Changes:

• Installer for Foxit Reader available


• Changed visual design for most of our UI elements: icon, About box, toolbar buttons, etc


• Fixed most of the bugs reported by users during beta phase of version 1.3. Including printing crash problems, errors on Windows 9x platforms, etc

eCENTER: IT Strategy Forum - Part II

As already explained in one of my post in July, we were invited by Mr. Boydak (in German) at the third IT Strategie Forum to talk about innovation and the eCenter.

About 40 IT Executives from different industries were present, some very nice and refreshing talks, and good contacts.

The Forum took place at the Hotel Panorama, near Zurich. Marvelous landscape and view on the lake of Zurich!

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NEWS: Google Blog Search

I know, I know, you have *all* already tested the new Google's service ;-) The end of Technorati?

This functionality, in case you haven't seen it:

Can I subscribe to search results?

Yes. At the bottom of each page of search results you can find several links, offering the top 10 or 100 results as either Atom or RSS feeds. Just grab the links from here and subscribe to them in the news aggregator of your choice and you will get updates whenever new posts are made that match your query.

NEWS: Riding giants

I have seen a superb documentary on surf history, lifestyle and ... big waves surfing, called Riding giants. Specially the third part about big waves surfing and Laird Hamilton makes this movie different. I have already seen a lot of shots with big waves but these ones...are just unbelievable.

"Riding Giants" has 3 parts or acts, each concentrating on one surfing innovator and the culture in which he thrived.

1) The first act explores the world of Greg Noll, surfing's flamboyant celebrity of the 1950s and 1960s. Interviews with Noll and other surfing giants of the time, including Ricky Grigg, Mickey Munoz, and Mike Stang, take us through the genesis of the surfing lifestyle in Southern California to Hawaii's Waimea Bay, through the explosion in surfing popularity brought on by "Gidget" in 1959, up until Noll surfed "the greatest swell of the 20th century" at Makaha in December of 1969.

2) "Riding Giants"' second act focuses on Jeff Clark and the surfers of Maverick's in Northern California. Clark tells the story of surfing Maverick's alone for 15 years before finally convincing 2 other surfers to join him in 1990. Maverick's surfers talk about the challenges of cold water, fog, and rocks and the day that Mark Foo died.

3) The third act of "Riding Giants" profiles Laird Hamilton, a man who has been described as the "best big wave rider the world has seen", and explores the relatively new field of tow-in surfing, in which surfing becomes a partnership instead of a solitary pursuit. A tow-in by a jet ski provides surfers with the speed required to catch enormous waves -up to 80 feet- at considerable peril. Hamilton and fellow surfers Darrick Doerner, Dave Kalama, and Gerry Lopez talk about discovering the tow-in technique and surfing Peahi (Jaws).

NEWS: Blog 2.0 - more information

[via Rodrigo]

More news published about the coming event:
- have a look at the official blog.
- dates are confirmed: 5th & 6th December, in Paris
- Robert Scoble and Shel Israel confirmed as speakers
- costs: 200 euros (without VAT) for the 2 days + lunches + cocktail party on Monday evening
- "merge" (it is in the air ;-) between Around the blog and Blog 2.0
- registration and program will be available in a few days

TOOLS: MS Office 12

[via ZDnet.de]

First screenshots of the new look&feel of Microsoft Office 12, presented at the Professional Developers Conference 2005 in Los Angeles.

Microsoft Word 12

Microsoft Excel 12

Microsoft Powerpoint 12

Microsoft Access 12

BUSINESS: And now, Oracle buys Siebel for $5.85 bn

[via BusinessWeek]

It is just me or I have a problem today to understand these acquisition-deals?

Oracle Corp. is buying its struggling rival Siebel Systems Inc. for about $5.85 billion, continuing a recent shopping spree that has eliminated two of its biggest competitors as it aims to topple Germany's SAP AG in the business applications software market.

Under the terms of the deal announced Monday, Redwood Shores-based Oracle will pay $10.66 per share in cash or stock for San Mateo-based Siebel, a once rapidly growing maker of customer support software that has fallen on hard times during the past three years.

The price represented a 17 percent premium from Siebel's market value entering Monday.

Siebel shares rose $1.18, or 12.9 percent, to $10.31 during midday trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market, where Oracle's shares gained 12 cents to $13.40.

Siebel has $2.24 billion in cash, reducing Oracle's net takeover cost to $3.6 billion.

[...] In the past nine months, Oracle has either completed or announced five takeovers of business applications software makers, an expansion that has cost more than $17.6 billion so far.

The spree has swept up two of the industry's best-known names, Siebel Systems and PeopleSoft Inc., both of which were run by former Oracle executives who had developed a frosty relationship with their former boss, Oracle CEO Larry Ellison.

For its part, SAP downplayed the significance of Oracle's latest conquest. "Oracle is in the business to buy customers. Ours is to service customers," said SAP spokesman Tony Roddam.

The Siebel acquisition, expected to close early next year, affects about 4,000 customers.

[...] Industry analyst Richard Williams of Garban Institutional Equities predicted Oracle will lay off more than 2,000 workers, based on the percentage of jobs that the company eliminated after devouring PeopleSoft, which had about 11,000 employees. Oracle fired 5,000 workers after that deal.

BUSINESS: eBay buys Skype for...$2.6 bn

[via News.com]

I have a lot of respect for eBay, I am a big fan and convinced Skype's user. But this move is just incomprehensible for me:
- The valuation is incredibly high. is the bubble back? oh no..... I mean, linked with the number of downloads/clients of Skype. Come on ;-) Let's see how the "normal non-geek" guy will move on, when MS / Yahoo / Google will integrate VoIP's functions in their very very largely spread tools.
- What are the real differentiators / entry barriers of Skype? I mean, Yahoo and Microsoft already acquired VoIP technology through start-ups, the technology is not in the center.
- Finally, and the most important point: what is the strategic link between Skype and eBay?? I mean, the idea that the current users are waiting for a way of communicating and discussing the deals per VoIP is....again incomprehensible.

On the other side, big congrats to the Skype's team. What for a deal :-)

Have a look at the more professional analysis of Rodrigo and Jeff. And some inputs well summarized by News.com:

Company executives said Monday that eBay plans to pay $1.3 billion in cash and $1.3 billion in stock to the global communications company. It has agreed to hand over up to an extra $1.5 billion, for a total payout of more than $4 billion, if Skype meets certain financial targets by 2008, according to a presentation to investors on Monday morning.

[...] Luxembourg-based Skype, founded in 2002 by Scandinavian entrepreneurs, offers free computer-to-computer voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) calls and low-cost connectivity between computer and landline or mobile phones. It is considered the market leader in nearly all of the 225 countries and independent territories where it does business, according to a company press release. The company expects revenue of $60 million this year and more than $200 million in 2006, a Skype representative confirmed Monday. Skype has not yet posted a profit, an executive told Reuters.

Skype generates nearly half of its revenue base in Europe, about a quarter in Asia, and about an eighth in North America. The fast-growing company said it has 54 million subscribers and adds 150,000 users each day. There is currently about a 1 percent overlap among Skype and eBay users, according to the eBay investor presentation.

eBay CEO Meg Whitman told investors in a conference call that she hoped a power trio of eBay, Paypal and Skype would deliver an "unparalleled e-commerce and communications engine" by "removing a key point of friction between buyers and sellers."

TOOLS: PrintScreen

If you need a good and easy-to-configure tool to enhance the printscreen capability (eg. to capture some DVD's printscreens), Gadwin is not bad:

There are several hotkey combos to choose from (PrintScreen is the default). Once you've chosen your favorite combo, head to the Destination tab and have the screen print out instantly, copy the capture to the clipboard, save it to a specific folder, or even send it through e-mail. You can perform full screen captures, or only capture a specific window.

Gadwin PrintScreen is an easy to use freeware utility that allows you to capture any portion of the screen, save it to a file, copy it to Windows clipboard, print it or e-mail it to a recipient of your choice.

There are also six different image formats to choose from, and each one can be resized.

BLOG: "post-pages" structure changed

After having installed the version 2.2 of blogkomm, I have also changed the way my posts are archived. I have enabled the "Post pages" option in Blogger, that means:

Post Pages give each of your posts their own unique web page, in addition to appearing on your blog's front page.

That's quite the standard today, I haven't taken the time to change that before. Clear that google doesn't really like the other structure I used, with one archived page and the different posts within this page with different post-ID's.

So, the changes concretely?

• The permalink of each post is targeting a separate php page. The other structure is still active, that means that all the old links to my posts are valid, no problem here.


• The permalink-URLs are now much more clear than before. For example, the permalink to my post about Vint Cerf is http://www.didierbeck.com/2005/09/news-vint-cerf-joins-google.php


• The old comments are still in place and working.


• The publishing of my entire blog with the 540 posts takes more than 10 minutes. Before, I needed less than one minute...

So, sorry for the last instability, it was not very long but you could have been impacted. Now, I would like to change some little things in the design ;-)

BLOG: blogkomm v2.2 installed

So, I have taken some time to install the last version (2.2) of blogkomm developped by Holger Kreis (under Creative Commons licence). Have a look also at my last post about blogkomm in February 2005.

What is blogkomm?

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 (since Version 2.1)
* comments moderation (since Version 2.2)
* gravatar-feature included

What's new in v2.2?

• added Comments-Moderation feature. Comments can be reviewed before being approved and shown in your weblog (anti-spam)


• added Gravatar-Support. For more infos check out http://gravatar.com


• changed e-Mail Policy, e-Mail will be shown in admin-mode only


• added textile waiting for license clearance


• added css :hover pseudo-class, and css- classes for "even" "odd" and "mod"-rows


• added css-moderation enblng during setup


• added norwegian language file

NEWS: Vint Cerf joins Google!

[via Joi]

That's an incredible move! Vint joins Google as Chief Internet Evangelist. Have a look at the Google press release.

Cerf joins Google from MCI, where he led technology advancements since 1982, with a break to return to research at the Corporation for National Research Initiatives from 1986 to 1994. On his return to MCI in 1994, he helped to put MCI on the Internet map. With Robert Kahn, he recently received the ACM's A.M. Turing Award, considered "the Nobel Prize for computing," for his achievements in computer networking. Cerf is also working on the Interplanetary Network, a project of NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab, which aims to extend the Internet into outer space for planet-to-planet communications. He will also continue in his role as the Chairman of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

BUSINESS: softwareCEO

I have discovered a website called softwareCEO.com, quite interesting for those who are working in this field. You can find an interesting interview of John Cimral, serial entrepreneur, and CEO of ProSight.

In 2003, ProSight had $9.2 million in sales, and last year it hit $12.8 million; that's a one-year bump of 39 percent. During the last four years, company revenues have grown 2,399 percent. [...]

ProSight helps customers measure and manage every component of their IT investment, to minimize risk and maximize return, and (often) to justify that investment to upper management or shareholders.

Their software plugs a critical gap for CIOs challenged to evolve beyond managing technical details like network performance and take on more strategic issues like IT risk management.

So, John Cimral is giving us his 14 success strategies:

1. It's not enough to know who your customer is; you need to know how your customer buys.


2. Reference accounts are everything; in the early days, get your investors to help line them up.


3. For your first reference sites, give a bit on software, but not services.


4. Choose your investors wisely.


5. Let opportunity steer your business plans, but keep your eyes on the road.


6. Use corporate sales to leverage government sales.


7. When the herd starts running, think of lemmings.


8. The CEO must articulate — and embody — the company's values.


9. Use partners (and their cash) to expand internationally.


10. Use partners (and their clout) to pull in leads at local events.


11. Never underestimate your competitors' ability to steal your thunder.


12. Invest your marketing budget to give your customers a voice.


13. Don't dilute the power of your user conference by letting in non-users.


14. Adopt a "customer intimate" business model, starting with sales.

I like the corporate code of ProSight: Make money, have fun, be ethical.

For each success strategy, you find an explanation and some good examples to illustrate. Worth a read! Be careful, I think that the article is not staying on-line for a long time...

NEWS: New design

Helvetia Patria Group, the company I am working for, launched its new website design.



Have a look!

TRAVELLING: Corsica - Calvi (03)

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Notre Dame de la Serra

The Vault of the Madonna di A Serra is to be discovered on the heights of CALVI.
This vault of the XIXe century is at 6 km in the south-west of CALVI. One reaches it by the littoral road of PORTO.
It is a splendid view-point from where one can admire CALVI's bay and the mountains of Balagna.
This place is to be visited without moderation more especially as in the vault, you will be able to listen to an excellent violinist in concert during all the summer season.

[click]

[click]

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TOOLS: Firefox 1.5 beta

[via Beta News]

Some information about the coming new version of Firefox:

Mozilla has announced its beta schedule for the upcoming release of Firefox 1.5, according to a posting on its developer news Web site. Beta 1 will be released on September 8, followed by a second beta on October 5.

Furthermore, the first release candidate of the browser is expected on October 28, which indicates the final version of Firefox 1.5 would likely come sometime during the month of November.

Some of the current enhancements include a better software update system to serve browser upgrades, the ability to reorder tabs through drag and drop functionality, and improved pop-up blocking.

Early alpha versions have also shown the 'SnapBack' technology that allows for faster navigation through Web pages. Also, better support has been announced for Mac OS X.

NEWS: About the New Orleans' disaster

What happened and happens now in New Orleans, because of the hurricane Katrina, is pure horror, the hell on Earth. Again, a natural disaster, which is now hitting the US, after the Tsunami, and a lot of others...

Some much flooding. Homeless and dead people now (perhaps more than 20'000). A disaster...



I was *very* impacted by the thoughts of Russell in one of his last posts.
It is not the time for politics, critics or controversy. But, on the other hand, I think that we have to face the brutal reality...

I’m sorry, you can’t blame the people of New Orleans for living there, like some people have online. Everyone in the Bay Area - in most of California really - live on massive earthquake faults. Saying we shouldn’t live in this beautiful area because some day we might have a natural disaster just doesn’t work. What does work is preparation, as the catastrophe in New Orleans has shown us.

I won’t start in on the systemic problems where the poorest people were the ones that were not able to evacuate before the hurricane, and were essentially ignored for 24-48 hours after as well. Under President Bush the poverty rate in the U.S. has risen to an incredible 12.5% of the nation. We’re now watching the consequences of that massive number.

Found in the Wikipedia, just to confirm the input of Russ:

Evacuation issues.

[...] Evacuation was mainly left up to individual citizens to find their own way out of the city. Officials knew that New Orleans has the lowest percentage of people with cars of any major city in the United States. A 2000 census revealed that 27% of New Orleans households, amounting to approximately 120,000 people, were without privately-owned transportation. Officials also did not take into account the fact that New Orleans has one of the highest poverty rates in the United States at about 38%. These factors prevented many people from being able to evacuate on their own. Consequentially most of those stranded in the city are the poor, the elderly, and the sick

I hope that the US nation, with the help of other countries, will begin to manage the next steps better than now. It is *so* dramatic...

My heart goes out to all those involved in the disaster.

Donate now.

BUSINESS: your participation is kindly requested

Gordon is organizing a survey about blogging and its impact and link with knowledge management. It takes about 5 minutes to answer this short survey.

It really helps if you could invest this short amount of time! Thanks in advance for your help.

http://www.adenquire.net/pd5g0022/

It is a very short survey (3-5 minutes) about the influence of weblogs on knowledge work. We think that it will help webloggers to understand, what they really do.
[...] Be sure, the scope of the questionnaire is academic and non-profit. The data you submit are kept strictly confidential and anonymous.
[...] P.S.: The summarized results of this survey will be published on our website

http://www.ku-eichstaett.de/Fakultaeten/WWF/Lehrstuehle/OP

BUSINESS: last Seth Godin's eBook for free

If you are reading my blog for a while, you know that Seth Godin is a great source of inspiration for me. In fact, not just for me ;-)

Seth already gave one of his book for free - The Bootstrapper's Bible (pdf still available here) - and encouraged his readers to host the file. Done. And quite succesfull: the pdf file was downloaded exactly 2'100 times from Dec.2004 till Aug.2005.

Seth made a second eBook called KnockKnock available...and again, incited his readers to host the pdf file. The book is a kind of "how to" in the field of ... building websites ;-). Worth a read.

Knock Knock is now available for you to read for free. It's a short take on how to use the new online marketing tools to make any website work more effectively.

You'll notice on the second page of the PDF that there's a link that makes it easy to contribute to the Red Cross. I hope you'll take advantage of that.

BLOG: Visitor log - Part III

I have already talked about gVisit here and here. You know, the service which allows you to visualize where your visitors are coming from. After a donation (what you want), you can see your last 100 visitors on a map. Without donation, that means completely free, the service is limited to the last 20 visitors.

It is really funny to see how far this simple visualization is *much more* concrete as the ones based on reporting tools (to my mind). I am each time impressed by the quite international geographical distribution of my visitors. Yes, I mean you, my dear readers ;-) Not really a question of ego, more a small shock each time I have a look at the visitors' maps. Which are, again, a more concrete materialization of the traffic....

It is also funny to observe the different distributions on my blog, quite "US-loaded", and on my website, which is more "European-loaded".

didierbeck.com visitor map

didierbeck.net visitor map

PICTURES: Enceladus

[via CICLOPS]

This unprocessed image was taken during Cassini's close approach to Enceladus on July 14, 2005.

The image was taken with the narrow angle camera from a distance of approximately 103,230 kilometers (64,140 miles) from Enceladus and at a Sun-Enceladus-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 50 degrees degrees. Resolution in the image is about 610 meters (2,020 feet) per pixel.