Didier Beck's Weblog

Back from St Barth

2008-08-27T22:09:00.001+02:00

So, we are back since last Friday. As usual, the “landing” is quite difficult after 2 weeks on this incredible island. And not just because of the jet lag…

I would like to share with you 8 pictures from our trip. And no, I don’t know why 8, but it sounds good ;-)

From Guadeloupe to Saint Barth, beautiful lights

Saint Jean Bay, the west part

Petite Anse, from the beach

Petite Anse, from the top

Colombier Bay

Grand Cul de Sac

Petit Cul de Sac

From the Gustavia lighthouse

Saint Barth - Last day in paradise...

2008-08-21T19:58:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Last day in paradise..., originally uploaded by didierbeck.

So, it is our last day on Saint Barth, our "paradise" (kind of ;-). No better beach to finished as Saint Jean Bay! And we could observe two sea-turtles for quite a long time during our last snorkeling-session. Beautiful gift, actually :-)

This evening, back to Pointe-à-Pitre (Guadeloupe), and then back to Paris tomorrow. Long trip!

See you on the other side!

Saint Bar h - Geography (2/2)

2008-08-20T21:29:00.001+02:00

Saint Bar h - Geography (2/2), originally uploaded by didierbeck.

And behind the villa, the "highest" point of St Barth: Morne de Vitet, 286m!

Saint Barth - Geography (1/2)

2008-08-20T21:24:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Geography (1/2), originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Just finishing my cigar near the swimming-pool (Davidhoff Robusto Millennium Blend). About one day left before the flight back...

Again, a stiched picture from the villa. From left to right, you can see some of St Barth islands:
- Ile Fourchue
- Ile Bonhomme
- Ile de Boulanger
- Ile Pelé
- Ile Frégate
- Ile Toc Vers
- La Tortue
- Les Grenadiers

And completely behind, you should see (?) the Saint Martin island.

Saint Barth - Petite Anse

2008-08-19T22:03:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Petite Anse, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

And then, a long snorkeling session at "Petite Anse". First time there, quite impressive!

Saint Barth - Flamand

2008-08-19T22:01:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Flamand, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

First, a nice walk at Flamand Beach.

Saint Barth - The king of the beaches (2/2)

2008-08-18T21:35:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - The king of the beaches (2/2), originally uploaded by didierbeck.

And a second picture, taken directly from the beach.

Saint Barth - The king of the beaches (1/2)

2008-08-18T21:31:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - The king of the beaches (1/2), originally uploaded by didierbeck.

After the usual 20' walk with the fabulous view on "Petite Anse", we were at the Colombier Beach today.

Really the mostly beautiful beach of the island, with great snorkeling sessions!

Two pictures for Colombier, I think this should be ok ;-)

Saint Barth - Saint Jean Bay, the other side

2008-08-18T02:46:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Saint Jean Bay, the other side, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Today, Saint Jean Bay, but the other side!

No snorkeling but the colours there are just terrific.

Saint Barth - On the Beach

2008-08-17T00:25:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - On the Beach
Originally uploaded by didierbeck

Again at Saint Jean Bay today :-)

We've seen another beautiful sea-turtle, really "flying" in the ocean. Fantastic!

Saturday evening, we are in Saint Barth, we will have our dinner at the Eden Rock (best dinner ever in St Barth there in February). I am lucky, I know, I appreciate. Life can be really cool sometimes :-)

Take care!

Saint Barth - Saint Jean Bay

2008-08-15T23:09:00.001+02:00

Saint Barth - Saint Jean Bay, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

So, sun and high temperature are back. Actually, the tropical depression was on the island mostly during the night.

Today we were at the Saint Jean Bay. We've seen there (snorkeling) for the first time a small ray and our first sea-turtle (quite a big one). Marvelous spectacle!

St Barth - From the villa + tropical depression

2008-08-14T23:18:00.001+02:00

St Barth - From the villa + tropical depression, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

A "stiched" picture (3 original pictures, automatically stiched by my HTC Touch Cruise, no idea about the quality ;-) taken from our villa.

It is now 17:00 local time. Concerning the meteo, we are in an "orange alert level", which means that a tropical depression will hit St Barth this night and tomorrow morning. Meteo was ok today, but is now changing. A lot of rain expected (about 80ml/m2 in 12h!), as a lot of wind. And afterwards, the sun again ;-)

Let's see! More information tomorrow ;-)

St Barth - Lunch at Shell Beach

2008-08-13T21:14:00.001+02:00

St Barth - Lunch at Shell Beach, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Today we had a great lunch at the restaurant "Do Brazil". Located at the famous Shell Beach! Great food and fabulous View on the Beach ;-)

St Barth - View from the villa

2008-08-12T21:10:00.001+02:00

St Barth - View from the villa, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Just exceptionnal!

St Barth - Arrival :-)

2008-08-12T21:01:00.001+02:00

St Barth - Arrival :-), originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Hi from St Barth!
We arrived on Friday, everything's fine, excepted that the Wifi is nothing working properly in our villa :-)
Weather is absolutely great. Above 34°C today, but windy.
Our villa is very nice.
Restaurants, some shopping and the beaches : our heavy daily pogram ;-) With some readings and long snorkeling sessions....
Small hurricane expected on Friday, wow!

St Barth - 2nd step

2008-08-08T10:57:00.001+02:00

St Barth - 2nd step, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

We are now in Paris, bad weather here. But not an issue, as we don't stay there!
Our plane, a Boeing 777-300ER, is now being prepared. We should fly to Pointe-à-Pitre / Guadeloupe in about 1h (boarding).
Next post on the other "side"!

St Barth - 1st step

2008-08-08T06:39:00.001+02:00

St Barth - 1st step, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

We stood up at 04:30 (gosh!) and we are waiting now for the boarding to Paris-Orly, our first step to reach St Barth.
Actually, a good date to travel : 08/08/08 :-)

Extremely good news for Innoveo today!

2008-08-07T17:35:00.001+02:00

Although I am already on holidays, I would like to mark this day and to share my excitement with you all!

:-)

After about six months, we have reached a a great team-achievement again.

More “explicit information” to share with you in the coming time!

(and no, this has nothing to do with the fact that we are going to St Barth in some hours!)

Another colleague seen at the McDo!

2008-08-07T14:45:00.001+02:00

Another colleague seen at the McDo!, originally uploaded by didierbeck.

Yesterday, we had a short lunch with Philippe at the McDo. For the first time, Cédric has joined :-)

Off to Saint Barth till August 22

2008-08-07T14:23:00.001+02:00

Dear friends, colleagues, partners, customers and competitors … and readers :-)

I am off to St Barth with my wife and son till August 22. The first time for us there … during the summer!

If there will be no strike, if the weather will be ok (no hurricane, it is the season now), if there will be no issue with the plane, etc., we will be again in St Barth tomorrow, exactly there:

Temperature:

Day : 34°C
Night : 26°C
Ocean : 29°C

This is actually the case only if we don’t have any hurricane :-)

I will publish some videos & pictures there, stay tuned.

Have a good time and take care!

Alicia Keys at the Montreux Jazz Festival

2008-07-31T02:14:00.001+02:00

I had the chance to be at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Thursday, July 17, with my friend Manu, the CEO of Boomerang. This year, Manu has chosen the concert and wanted to see Alicia Keys. I haven’t really known Alicia, excepted the 3 hits everybody knows ;-)

And what for a great surprise! The concert was just fantastic! First, Alicia was introduced very nicely by … Mister Quincy Jones himself. Wow, what for an honor! Absolutely great band and musicians, extremely soul and “motown” oriented, less “over-produced” than in her albums. Alicia Keys is really a marvelous singer, with a lot of good energy. And a special mention for her groove. Come on!!!

So, if you have the opportunity to see and listen to Alicia Keys at a concert, do not hesitate!

Google vs. Cuil

2008-07-30T00:57:00.001+02:00

via Seth Godin

Seth is comparing both search engines, not on a functional or on a “index-size” level, but on an “icon” level.

Interesting, and, in my opinion, true!

Markets love icons. We seek them out. […]
Once there's an icon in place, it's there because it's working. It serves a purpose, it carries useful information and performs a valuable function. There will never (or not for a generation, anyway) be the next Marilyn Monroe because this Marilyn Monroe isn't broken.
Google, of course, is the Marilyn Monroe of search. […]
The challenge for organizations is this: the easiest projects to start and fund are those that go after existing icons. The search for the "next" is easy to explain and exciting to join because we can visualize the benefits. But success keeps going to people who build new icons, not to those that seek to replace the most successful existing ones.

The current claimed differentiations (privacy, size of index) are perhaps not so evident, so that cuil can win enough market-shares against google.

IBM announces plans to acquire ILOG

2008-07-28T13:32:00.001+02:00

Wow, again, a big consolidation in the Software industry!

IBM and ILOG today announced they have signed an agreement regarding a proposed acquisition by IBM of ILOG to be implemented by way of concurrent cash public tender offers in both France and the United States. Through this proposed transaction, IBM will combine its business process management (BPM), business optimization, and service oriented architecture (SOA) technologies with ILOG’s Business Rules Management Systems software. This will enable IBM to help clients deliver critical business information in real-time, allowing them to make better business decisions faster.
The cash tender offer will be at a price of €10 per ordinary share and the U.S. dollar equivalent per American Depositary Share (“ADS”) based on the Euro/U.S. dollar exchange rate as of the settlement of the tender offers, amounting to an aggregate purchase price of approximately €215 million or approximately $US340 million on a fully diluted basis. This price represents a premium of approximately 56 percent compared to ILOG's one month average of closing share prices prior to July 28, 2008, and a 37 percent premium to the closing price of Friday, July 25.
ILOG’s board of directors has approved the transaction between the two companies and, subject to the receipt of a satisfactory fairness opinion regarding the financial terms of the offer, is expected to give a final recommendation prior to September 15, following which the offer should be filed with the French stock exchange authority (AMF).

You can find the press release here.

My Digital Identity certified by MyID.is

2008-07-27T23:53:00.001+02:00

Charles Nouÿrit (I have met him at the last leweb3 – cgs dinner last year) kindly asked me to join the private pre-alpha-test of MyID.is.

What is MyID.is?

MyID.is trying to answer a simple question, how can we provide our users with a digital ID that have been certified with the same level of trust as if we met in real life with a valid ID delivered by a government administration but without the need to actually meet in real life?
By certifying your ID you’ll be able to certify all of your online presence, such as your blogs, your Facebook, LinkedIn… profiles, your comments,… and any kind of online presence that is part of your Identity 2.0.
After months of developing our solution, we are now ready to open our platform to the public.

Status of my certification and first feedback

Since Friday, July 25, I am a certified user and I have a certified Digital Identity :-)

The whole certification costs some EUR and is very simple to follow. So, till now, everything is fine.

Congrats to the MyID team for the preparation work.

I have already started to play around with the badges and I could already certified my blog ;-)

You can follow the project on their blog here and on twitter here.

PS: and yes, MyID is clearly supporting interoperable data portability (dataportability.org)

Happy sysadmin appreciation day, Olivier!!

2008-07-25T23:20:00.001+02:00

Today, July 25 2008, is … the System Administrator Appreciation Day!!

As a reminder, what is a sysadmin

A sysadmin unpacked the server [...] from its box, installed an operating system, patched it for security, made sure the power and air conditioning was working in the server room, monitored it for stability, set up the software, and kept backups in case anything went wrong. [...]
A sysadmin installed the routers, laid the cables, configured the networks, set up the firewalls, and watched and guided the traffic for each hop of the network that runs over copper, fiber optic glass, and even the air itself to bring the Internet to your computer. [...]
A sysadmin makes sure your network connection is safe, secure, open, and working. A sysadmin makes sure your computer is working in a healthy way on a healthy network. A sysadmin takes backups to guard against disaster both human and otherwise, holds the gates against security threats and crackers [...]
[...] A sysadmin is a professional, who plans, worries, hacks, fixes, pushes, advocates, protects and creates good computer networks, to get you your data, to help you do work -- to bring the potential of computing ever closer to reality.

So, now, as you see again what we are talking about, what is this sysadmin appreciation day?

What is this sysadmin day?

Consider all the daunting tasks and long hours (weekends too.) Let's be honest, sometimes we don't know our System Administrators as well as they know us. Remember this is one day to recognize your System Administrator for their workplace contributions and to promote professional excellence. Thank them for all the things they do for you and your business.

By us at Innoveo, we have Olivier, our sysadmin!

So for us at Innoveo, we have Olivier, our sysadmin :-)

Olivier: this is your day. Umh, already finished, but anyway!

Illustrations!

Olivier, as usual, kissing his servers ;-)

Network cable sorting exercise

Sometimes, you have to be alone to solve some prod issues…And, at the same time, others are just eating a great dinner. Pfffuuuu….

But, after the effort, some comfort…and cigars. Guess with whom ;-)

It seems that we still have some “room for improvement”. Gosh!

OLIVIER HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD SYSADMIN DAY ;-)