NEWS: New Technorati

[via BetaNews]

Technorati continues to improve its services, and introduced a new interface. Have a try!

Blog aggregator Technorati relaunched its popular site on Monday, redesigning the site to make it easier to use while making changes to the backend to improve indexing time of new posts. Additionally, the site has improved its link-counting mechanism, which in turn will improve its ranking and authority features, it says. [...]

A "discover" section will group interesting Web log posts into categories, which uses an algorithm to give a snapshot of whats being talked about in the blogosphere at any given time. The favorites section also has received a facelift, allowing a registered user to see posts from the blogs he or she most commonly visits on the front page of the site.

Finally, the site has also launched an area where it plans to highlight bloggers across the Web, putting faces to the blogs that people may read on an everyday basis. "I hope you'll enjoy seeing the many ways in which we try to highlight the people who are the real power driving everything we do," Sifry said.

Tags: technorati

NEWS: AMD buys ATI for $5.4bn

[via BetaNews]

For one time, I think that this merge deal makes sense, from an industrial and customer-offering points of view. Great.

AMD confirmed rumors Monday and said it was merging with graphics chipmaker ATI in a transaction worth $5.4 billion. The first computer systems that would take advantage of the strengths of the combined company will begin appearing in 2007, the company said.

The merger will allow AMD to offer integrated processor and graphics solutions to its customers. By 2008, AMD plans to introduce new processor configurations that would integrate the CPU and graphics processor into a single unit. The end result will be smaller, more powerful computers. [...]

The transaction also carries financial benefit: while positive impact would be limited next year, by 2008 AMD expects it to have a noticeable impact on its bottom line. Combining the two companies would save as much as $75 million in operating expenses.

ATI CEO Dave Orton will now serve as executive vice president of the ATI division. Two ATI directors would join AMD's board of directors after the merger closes.

Tags: AMD - ATI

eCENTER: Article published in Insurance Networking

An article from Daniel Joelson, business journalist based in Washington, D.C., published in Insurance Networking on July 1, 2006. Have a look here or here as pdf. The article is called "Helvetia Patria Architects A Drastically New E-Look".

Some quotes:

Flat-footed Helvetia Patria had to first invest in a new IT system for a new distribution channel. Its headache only worsened when, as its web of systems grew, it had to adapt the systems to accommodate new products. This process is debilitating for insurance firms such as Helvetia Patria that want to experiment in finding the most effective distribution channels through which to sell its products.

"In the past, the back-office systems were like closed systems that were used only in-house," [Nick Stefania] says. "And in-house, the systems are open so it is easy to access a lot of information regarding the customer, the policies and the claims. And when the e-business systems were opened for the outside brokers and partners over the Internet, we had to make sure data security and data protection was ensured."

Tags: hp - ecenter solutions - SOA

BLOG: Nick has finally started :-)

Good and great news, my preferred-business-partner, Nick Stefania, who is managing ecenter solutions with me, has finally started to blog - Zone out.

As you can see below, we are managing the stuff together. Really, count the number of fingers, we are 2 :-)



Why should you subscribe to his blog / RSS feed (I am giving you the URL of the feed, Nick has forgotten to make an explicit link to it :-) ?

1. He is a very smart, experienced (old? 44, umh, let's say it is ok) and nice guy


2. He is "just" the best project manager I have ever seen in action, world class!


3. He is an incredible communicator


4. If you are reading my blog, you are sharing some values and points of interest with me. So do I with Nick. Consequently Nick will be interesting also for you


5. He has some strong Italian roots, which is annoying for soccer's discussion, which is great for wines / meals / restaurants / etc.


6. He has a marvelous and very nice wife, also with "some" Italian roots, but more from the south of Italy ;-)


7. Great humor, excepted for soccer's discussions


8. I am irritated, just because your are asking, I have a *lot* of respect for him, so have a look ;-)

Two great post-examples from Nick:

• about our discussion with Stephen Wallis (bio, blog), VP of Optaros, who is helping us to define a commercial license with Open Source advantages and components (hehehe, you are interested? Stay tuned :-)


• about Dabbawala (Wikipedia's article), an absolute great Indian story coming from our last hired colleague, Roy, who joined us in Mai and who is coming from Bangalore.

Just forget the post about the Italian victory, less important....

So Nick, welcome in the blogosphere!

BUSINESS: BioXell goes public!

I am very proud to announce that one of our Board of Directors' mate from Boomerang, Alex Martin - CFO of Bioxell and Member of the Executive Committee, has organized the IPO on the Swiss Exchange (SWX: BXLN) of the company he is working for. BioXell is a biotech company based in Milano - Italy and is coming from a Roche spin-off in 2002. It is focusing on the discovery, development and commercialization of novel therapeutics for urological disorders and inflammatory diseases that represent large unmet medical needs. They have raised to date a total of approximately €76m through top healthcare VC investors including MPM Capital, Index Ventures, BB BIOTECH, AlpInvest Partners, Life Sciences Partners, and TVM Capital, as well as Finlombarda. About 60 people are working now for BioXell.



Some links to the news:

• Press Release from BioXell (pdf)


• BioWorld: Italy's BioXell Goes Public On Swiss Market, Gets CHF57.8M


• Forbes: BioXell says new shares priced at 44 sfr/share, at bottom of price range


• AltAssets: BioXell lists on Swiss Stock Exchange

Congratulations Alex, great step :-)

Tags: bioxell - alex martin

NEWS: Founder of Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, died

[via Cambridge Evening News]

Syd Barrett, founder of pop super-group Pink Floyd, was laid to rest at a family funeral in Cambridge. [...] Syd, whose real name was Roger Keith Barrett, died earlier this month aged 60 at Addenbrooke's Hospital, after living in Cambridge for 30 years. He was born in the city in 1946 and formed Pink Floyd in 1965, but later withdrew from public life and returned to live in the basement of his mother's semi-detached house.

The band carried on without him, and penned one of their hits - Shine on You Crazy Diamond- as a tribute to their missing frontman.

Have a look at the great Wikipedia's bio of Syd Barrett, as usual, great material, lots of interesting links. There is also an official website.

Tags: pink floyd

PRIVATE: "Holiday-like" week-end

With such kind of beautiful weather, it is just wonderful to stay at home, to rest yourself, to make some reserve of sun, to play, to read, to swim :-)

These types of week-ends are as holidays. And, by being in the garden and the pool, I really remember of far we are lucky and why we are working hard.

I hope you also had a great time during the last days.

Tags: pictures

eCENTER: Article in ComputerWorld New-Zealand

ComputerWorld New-Zealand published an article SOA hurdles forcing changes in IT units (pdf) from Heather Havenstein on May 15, 2006.

Helvetia overcame the “tough exercise” of bringing developers on board by using a change management programme from Hewlett-Packard, says Didier Beck, director of Helvetia’s eBusiness Centre.

Beck says the HP tools and services helped developers integrate 15 systems into a centralised SOA platform. “The way we are working today is really very different because before, there wasn’t any contact between the different subsidiaries — they had all their own development processes and tools,” he says. “The consequences and impact were really quite high.”

Tags: ecenter solutions - HP - helvetia patria - computerworld

MUSIC: Montreux Jazz Festival 2006 :-)

As planned, my old mate Manu, the CEO of Boomerang, and myself were at the Montreux Jazz Festival the day before yesterday evening.

As usual, great evening, great atmosphere, great organization, music and public. Perfect :-)

Manu and myself with ... Freddie

Freddie Mercury

Fourplay (Bob James, Nathan East, Larry Carlton, Harvey Mason)

Montreux by night

Tags: fourplay - montreux festival

OPEN SOURCE: Microsoft and the Open Source approach

[via eWeek.com]

Open Source approach and Microsoft, there are links, have a look!

A commercial company has to build intellectual property, while the GPL, by its very nature, does not allow intellectual property to be built, making the two approaches fundamentally incompatible [...].

Licenses like the BSD (Berkeley Software Distribution) and commercial software, on the other hand, are quite compatible with one another [...].

"One of the things I have learned is that engineers who work on commercial software really can't work on open source on GPL and engineers who work on GPL can't work on commercial software. You really have to separate the two".

Asked what Microsoft had learned from the open-source community and what it could still learn, he said the development methodologies are very interesting, and in fact Microsoft has made community development process a standard part of its process.

"There were definite learnings for us on that. Open source was way ahead of us on that five years ago and we have learned from them. This whole thing where Microsoft is an open blog environment is about us trying to really embrace these existing trends that are very important in the industry and to being open to our communities across all of our products. Fascinating things happen there. That model is the way of the future and we're embracing it".

Tags: open source - microsoft

BUSINESS: OpenBC

I am using both LinkedIn and openBC for keeping in touch and managing my small network. I could find an interesting presentation about openBC from an Optaros' conference about the web2.0 trends. Interesting stuff.

• openBC was founded in 2003 and is currently the foremost business networking platform in Europe and Asia with 1.2 million members.


• openBC’s innovative networking and communications technology is offered in 16 languages and operates across all industries.


• openBC is an open and secure network. The "six degrees of separation" theory is put into practice both professionally and visually here.


• openBC offers a basic and a premium membership. This business model makes openBC a profitable business networking platform.


• Member numbers have increased approx. tenfold since Jul 04


• Monthly user growth 12%


• openBC usage: Over 220 million page impressions per month


• 70% of users have visited openBC in the last 30 days


• Groups on openBC: More than 3,300 groups on openBC, over 170,000 group articles per month


• The company


• Open Business Club GmbH was founded in 2003 in Hamburg by Lars Hinrichs (HH) and Bill Liao(AI)


• In 2004 it raised a first round through swiss matching platform BrainsToVentures within Business Angels serving as "Network Angels"


• Reached opeational break-even end of 2004


• In late 2005 a second round of financing lead by Wellington Partners and the initial investors raised over 8.7 Mio CHF


• In 2006 openBC is forcing its internationalisation acquiring First Tuesday Zurich and launching JV in China and India.

Have a look at my OpenBC's profile here and LinkedIn's profile there.

Tags: linkedin - openBC

PICTURES: Geoportail and St.Barths

I am playing a bit with geoportail.fr, a new service like GoogleMaps. geoportail is more limited because it just shows the French territory, which is sometimes an adavantage :-)

Indeed, geoportail has some very good representation from the ... French West Indies, including St.Barths. Hehe. Let's have a small tour: geoportail picture, and then some "real" pictures from by two travels to St.Barths.

Baie de St-Jean

Les Salines

Plage des Salines

Plage du Gouverneur

Flamands

Gustavia

Tags: pictures - st barth

PRIVATE: French Samba, France - Brazil 1-0

World Cup 2006: Our "sooooo-old-French-players" have just won against the favorite team, Brazil.

What for a great match, after having won against Spain on Tuesday :-) What is also just crazy is that the Brazilians had just one shot on goal during the whole game.

And what for a game for Zidane :-)

[via forbes.com]

In front of France President Jacques Chirac, the French made Brazil look so ordinary - at times amateurish - that the yellow-clad Brazilians in the crowd even were whistling at their team late in the match.

[via worldsoccer.com]

Ronaldo had a couple of fierce shots that Barthez managed to deny, but overall, the attacking quartet of Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Kaka and Adriano simply had not functioned and on the night the French, and in particular the imperious Zidane, fully deserved their win.

The favourites are out, but they can have few complaints about their exit. They had struggled to justify their status as favourites from the moment they began the tournament and the lingering suspicion that the team were not as good as their individual reputations, looks fully justified.

For France, the dream continues, and on this form, they must fancy their chances of emulating their 1998 success. Such a thought seemed unlikely two weeks ago, but one can only marvel at their current renaissance.

[via cbc.ca]

France's victory also keeps alive the career of Zinedine Zidane, who was sensational against Brazil with his magical play in midfield. Considered one of the greatest players of his era, the midfield maestro plans to retire at the end of the World Cup.

eCENTER: First article published in Switzerland!

First 2-pages article published in Switzerland (in German, hehe) from netzwoche and written by Michael Fritschi. Great stuff to our point of view! You can find the article here in pdf (the article is not available online).

Helvetia Patria E-Business Center wird zum autonomen Branchen-Provider

Der Aufbau einer Multi-Channel-Kommunikationsplattform für die sechs Ländergesellschaften der Helvetia Patria Versicherungen hat zur Gründung eines E-Business-Tochterunternehmens geführt. Dieses will als Provider die in den vergangenen Jahren entwickelte Lösung an branchenverwandte Firmen weiterverkaufen.

Tags: hp - ecenter solutions - SOA