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20080528 Archive

Kroll sur le site de Telemoustique
J'adore Kroll.

Je viens d'acheter un de ses derniers albums: Au pays des oranges bleues - P. Kroll - Petits dessins


Sur le site de telemoustique, on peut voir ses dessins qui sont publiés dans le magazine.
Google faced to the fishermen's problem
Google faces a lot of attacks from publishers to pay money for their supposedly non-authorized reuse of information.

There is a intellectual honesty that needs to be re-established around this "copyright" question.

When a company publishes something, it's means to give (or sell) it to the public. Can the public reuse that information once they access it ? Yes : they can at least talk about it. Now : what's the difference if Google takes it and talks about it on the web by indexing it and making it searchable ? If this information is not meant to be reused for free than why is it published and exposed without any serious protection ?

This makes me think about the fishermen's crisis in France. The fishermen's real problem is not the oil price : it's the fact that their real cost of fish is not reflected in their prices. They sell at loss.

Similarly if publishers have to claim money to Google it's because they just dumped their content on the web instead of finding ways to get something out of it from the start.

Claiming money to Google shows the weakness of those companies' business models which are outdated.


Links :


Coup de Chapeau a Yannick Noah
Alors là, Coup de chapeau a Yannick Noah qui n'a même pas essayé d'être politiquement correct sur RTL alors qu'il était interrogé sur l'arrestation de son fils...


Brèves d'Afrique - afrik.com :
Yannick Noah n?en veut pas à Joakim
Réagissant sur RTL à l?arrestation en Floride (Etats-Unis) de son fils Joakim, qui possédait de la drogue et buvait sur la voie publique, Yannick Noah a raconté comment il a rassuré son fils. « Je lui ai dit que ce n?était pas grave, a indiqué l?ancien champion de tennis. De ne rien changer. Juste d?essayer ne pas se faire choper la prochaine fois. Je lui ai dit, regarde moi chéri : ça fait vingt ans que je fais le con mais je reste populaire parce que les gens pensent que je suis un mec bien. Essaie de faire la même chose. » (Mercredi 28 Mai - 11:40)



Bon, je ne dirais pas la même chose à mon fils, mais au moins il n'a pas caché ce qu'il pense. J'adore. Chapeau Bas.

Thomas fait du mini-golf
Oostende voor Anker
Oostende voor Anker

This weekend we went to Oostende for "Oostende voor Anker".

You can have a look at some pictures here : 20080524TallShipsOstende.
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IBM : 7 "Stop Talking, Start Doing" Commandments
IBM has launched a campaign called "Stop Talking, Start Doing" recently and I really like the little movies associated with it.

1. The first one is really great : EMERGENCY

I sometimes have the feeling I attend meetings like that...



IBM TV Commercial on Business Resilience (When it Rains)

2. The second one is about Social networking...



IBM TV Commercial on Collaboration/Social Networking (BFF)

3. The third one... is on FLEXIBILITY



IBM TV Commercial on Business Flexibilty (Quicksand)

4. The 4th one : GREEN...



IBM TV Commercials on Energy Efficiency/Green (Tree Huggers)

5. The 5th one: GLOBALIZATION...



IBM TV Commercial on globalization (Tour)

6. The 6th : GENERATING IDEAS



IBM: Ideating

7. The 7th : MANAGING INFORMATION



IBM TV Commercial on Information Explosion (FYI)


And there are some more on YouTube...


Netlog is cool
Today I test Netlog, after a colleague tells me his son has invited him to join.

I already use/tested a lot of Social Networks.

I created a new Netlog profile : http://en.netlog.com/jfdeclercq.

Netlog is special to me because it has been created in Belgium (Gent). This make me want to use it. My first impression is really good. It could be a good alternative to Facebook if Microsoft buys it because they now support the Open Social standards.

Mon Commentaire sur "Et si Microsoft devenait le numéro 1 du Web ?"
J'ai posté un commentaire sur cet article : Et si Microsoft devenait le numéro 1 du Web ?

Pour moi c'est pas évident que Microsoft va en en coup devenir quelqu'un sur le web en rachetant Yahoo et Facebook....
Un Reader OLPC XO 2.0 en 2010
Le laptop de mes rêves...
FriendFeed
I just created a friendfeed. Long live content aggregation ! Note that I already aggregate on my website. Plaxo also does it verywell...
Don't assume...
Assumptions can be the cause of a lot of misunderstandings in everyday life (private and work):


"With ASSUME we make an ASS of U and ME..."


Think about it...
Restaurants
A list of restaurants I like. I just added La Serenata and Café de l'Opéra.
Business Architecture
Last week I had a course on Business Architecture and it was fascinating.

As IT Architect, it's quiet easy to jump from IT Architecture to Business Architecture. The Service Oriented Entreprise (SOE) concepts are very close to the SOA concepts, except that instead of organizing systems and functions, it's about organizing businesses (services, products, people, processes and technology). The methodology proposed by Niels Klinkenberg results in Business Architectures which look like those of IBM's Component Business Modeling (CBM).

During the course, I liked how the Growth Phases Model of Larry Greiner was used to explain that the agile business architectures of tomorrow are a network of highly entrepreneurial Business Units (called Domains) which are specialized, higly efficient (benchmarked), have to obey the corporate "Playing Rules" and have to add value to the company. This makes of Governance (Corporate, IT, HR, Financial...) a central success factor. How to govern a large company that needs to be agile ? To answer this question, you'd better first have a good idea of its Business Architecture...
BicyCity
This Sunday, we took the chance to ride our bikes on the Highway (E411) and on the largest roads of Brussels (petite ceinture, De Brouckère...) during the BicyCity. Very pleasant. Good atmosphere. We'll do it again. Note that our target this year is to complete "De Gordel" (100 Km around Brussels).


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Pride Concert @ Ancienne Belgique
This Saturday we went to the Belgian Lesbian & Gay Pride and we had a lot of fun. We went to the Pride Party because we tought the music would be good and it was... excellent.



The DJs were great and there were two concerts : Milk Inc and Kate Ryan. These two top artists are linked to each others with the tunes of DJ Richie 4Fingers (Phenomena, Apéro - Leuven; Cockpit XS/XL - Cologne).

Around 20:00, Milk Inc was super as last time we say them at the DruivenFeesten in Overijse. Unfortunately for them the Ancienne Belgique was not very crowded at that time. Not bad for us : we had a kind of private concert :-)

Around 22:00, Kate Ryan was good (but not as good as Milk Inc). The tracks of her new album sounded good : promissing ? We will see.
Visit of Nick Donofrio at IBM Belgium

Yesterday, Nick Donofrio gave a session on innovation at IBM Belgium.

I really had the feeling to be in front of a legend. For 44 years he has been working on the most innovative IBM projects : the transition to CMOS, the System/360, the RS6000... He has surfed all the important IT waves with style.



Mr Donofrio will retire in October this year and he mainly emphasized on what makes IBM a great company :
  • IBM values
  • IBM's strenght : the combination of Systems, Software and Services which allow to create value
  • IBM's strategy
    • Focus on open technologies and high value solutions
    • Deliver innovation and integration to our clients
    • Become the premier globally integrated company

Being global is an important topic for IBM, according to Nick Donofrio. And indeed IBM has lauched many initiatives around globalization:
  • the global innovation outlook with global topics on the agenda like Water, Security and the society in a global world...
  • the global citizenship portfolio which will provide IBMers with valuable tools to enhance their expertise and careers within a globally integrating economy.

To start and to finish his speech Mr Donofrio encouraged the IBMers to anticipate change and to use change as an opportunity. Or even better : create the change. He explained how his father created change for his family. He wanted the best for Nick and created the change by setting hard work as a mean to reach a better education level. (Was it a success ? Apparently yes.) The only explanation for this move was : "If nothing changes, nothing changes". Be an actor of change.

And for IBM one of the current changes is... globalization.


About Nick Donofrio

The postings on this site are my own and don?t necessarily represent IBM?s positions, strategies or opinions
Pour Arnaud Nourry PDG de Hachette Livre : Il faudra au moins deux générations? | Cluster21 : la communauté du digital, des médias à la e-démocratie...
J'ai commenté cet article sur le blog de Lorenzo Socclavo.
What famous leader are you ?
I took the "which leader are you ?" test recommended in the Bizz Blog,
I was very suprised to be a leader like ... Gandhi.



What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com


And you what famous leader are you like ?
Photos de notre weekend en famille a La Reid - Ardennes Belges
Photos de notre weekend en famille a La Reid - Ardennes Belges
Vive le printemps !
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Make a Yahoo Pipe and publish it using PHP
I really enjoy playing with the web and all the social tools. There is something that is quiet well advanced called Yahoo! Pipes. With Yahoo!Pipes you can reuse contents on the web and republish it in another form without programming.

Look at the following. The following Pipe allows me to collect 4 feeds (different places where you can comment my posts) and republish it as once.

To do that you drag & drop :
- 4 "Fetch Feed" Sources : you have to give the URL of the rss feed
- the "Union" Operator it merges the 4 feeds into 1
- the "Sort" Operator which allows to sort the new feed - by date descending for instance.

You can see the result of this Pipe here : Comments

There are much more drag&drops you can do. Check it out on Yahoo! Pipes by creating a new pipe.

After that what you want to exploit your new feed, you can burn it or obtain it as a bagde...


I personnaly use the PHP feature. The result can be streamed as a php array.

Here is the code I use to exploit my Yahoo! Pipe (download it here):

1 <!-- get comments via Yahoo Pipes -->

2

3 <?php

4

5 // Pipes Request

6 $req = 'http://pipes.yahoo.com/pipes/pipe.run?_id=YEJ5xyMG3RGadogljknRlg&_render=php';

7

8 // Make the request

9 $phpserialized = file_get_contents($req);

10

11 // Parse the serialized response

12 $phparray = unserialize($phpserialized);

13

14

15 echo "<table width=120 border=1>";

16 //Loop through all items of the feed

17 foreach ($phparray['value']['items'] as $item) {

18 //For all items :

19

20 //create a new table row

21 echo "<tr><td><div style=\"width:100%; overflow:hidden\"><small>";

22 echo "On ";

23

24 //print the day it was published

25 print_r($item['y:published']['day']);

26 echo "/";

27

28 //print the month it was published

29 print_r($item['y:published']['month']);

30 echo "/";

31

32 //print the year it was published

33 print_r($item['y:published']['year']);

34 echo ", ";

35

36 //print who wrote the item (it's a comment in my case

37 $name = $item['author']['name'];

38 echo "<b>";

39 //some more checks because sometimes the author is in its own tag

40 if (strlen($name)==1) print_r($item['author']);

41 else print_r($item['author']['name']);

42

43 echo "</b>";

44

45 echo " commented: ";

46 //write the description ofthe item within its link

47 echo "<a href=\"".$link."\">".$item['title']."</a>";

48 echo ":<br/>";

49

50

51 echo "</small></div></td></tr>";

52 //end of the row for this item

53

54 }//end of for each items

55

56 echo "</table>";
Citation - un peu de psychologie
"Un psychotique, c'est quelqu'un qui croit dur comme fer que 2 et 2 font 5, et qui en est pleinement satisfait.

Un névrosé, c'est quelqu'un qui sait pertinemment que 2 et 2 font 4, et ça le rend malade !
"


Pierre Desproges
Help me complete my JoHari test
I was today in a "Personal Improvement" course. During the course we learned about the JoHari window. It's a model that allows you to become more open by better stating your expectations towards someone else (openess) and by requesting feedback (self-knowledge).

See here : http://kevan.org/johari

A test is available, but for this test, you need to compare what you think of yourself with what I think of myself.

If you want to help me do the test, just drop me an email and I'll give your the link to my own JoHari window.

In return, I will do the test for you, if you wish.
Lettre d'une vielle dame a sa banque
Malgré la mauvaise nouvelle de la semaine passée essayons de garder le sourire avec cette blague : Lettre d'une Vieille Dame a sa Banque.
Very sad day
Today my ex-brother in law Olivier Mailleux (38) passed away due the consequences of his cancer.
As a real Engineer, he loved the power of 2. He died on 2008 04 08...

It's a huge loss for all the people who loved him as he was... and I'm one of them. :'-(
iNeZha.com(Anothr) : MSN/Skype/Gtalk RSS robot
Today I tested iNeZha. It allows to receive RSS feed updates in your Instant Messaging Client. In my case it sends to Gtalk.
Pictures of the Pecha Kucha Brussels Vol3
Some pictures - taken with my phone - of the last pecha kucha in Brussels (March 20th 2008)
Well done Coca Cola ! Light Plus Antioxidant
Yesterday on Europe1 I was listening to Luc Luc Montagnier, Virologue, ancien professeur à l'institut Pasteur, codécouvreur du VIH. He was saying that the antioxidants are widely used as ingredients in dietary supplements in the hope of maintaining health and preventing diseases such as cancer and coronary heart disease.

Today I was at our restaurant and what do I see : Coca Cola Light Plus Antioxidant ! I bought it to try. It seems Coca-Cola has very well understood what drives consumers to buy such a product... Wel done Coca Cola.
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Ne pas galvauder son talent
Ne pas galvauder son talent

Ce qui fait la valeur d'un être n'est :
ni son talent,
ni ses dons naturels,
ni ses capacités, ni sa beauté...

Sa valeur se juge
à ce qu'il fera de son potentiel;
aptitudes ou handicaps.

Il est si triste de vivre
en dessous de ses possibilités !

Le talent galvaudé ...
est de l'or jeté par les fenêtres.

Source : Petite philosophie pour ceux qui veulent atteindre le sommet de la montagne ", édition numéro 1, Catherine Rambert
Netvibes Public Page
Netvibes now also allows to build a network... As netvibes I than have a public page. I can flag what I like and re-publish it in "My Universe"
A nice bike
I think this is a nice bike. Don't you. ? Trek 1 Series 1.5




Print Media Technology on ePaper
Last friday (feb 29, 2008), we travelled to Switzerland to
participate to an event around ePaper organized by a company called iWare and heig-vd (Haute Ecole d'Ingénierie du Canton de Vaud).

It was a good opportunity to make a nice mini-trip in Switzerland and have a good overview of the ePaper market.

All the orators were quiet good. I also wanted to meet Mr Soccavo who is the author of the Nouvolivractu blog that I follow.


We could have a look at different eBook readers. Here : the Bookeen of Cybook.
Casse-toi, pauvre con : Sarkozy, on l'aime ou on l'aime pas.

Sarkozy, on l'aime ou on ne l'aime pas mais il ne laisse pas indifférent.
Moins les Français l'aiment, plus je l'apprécie.


Le Sarkozy que je n'aime pas.

Quand il était candidat je n'étais pas en faveur de Sarkozy. Tout simplement car mon coeur est plus à gauche.

Face aux nouveaux défis ? globalisation, compétitivité, émergence du BRIC, déclin des USA, défis énergétiques, il y a clairement deux approches. Jouer la compétitivité à tout prix ou au contraire promouvoir d'autres valeurs.


Je n'aime pas l'approche de Sarkozy : jouer la compétitivité

La première approche consiste à surenchérir sur la compétitivité. Vendre plus que les autres, être plus compétitif, rafler les marchés, suivre la loi du plus fort. Ca n'est pas mon approche préférée même si il ne faut pas être naif par rapport à la puissance des capitaux et de l'argent dans ce bas monde. Pour moi la compétition extrême c'est la guerre et il n'est pas étonnant que le pays qui se veut le plus compétitif (les US) sont en guerre aujourd'hui.


L'alternative à Sarkozy: l'approche Humaniste

La deuxième approche, celle que je préferre est plus humaniste que capitaliste. Elle met l'homme avant le capital, le social avant le libéral. Le Sarkozy que je n'aime pas c'est celui qui veut qu'on « travaille plus pour gagner plus ». Peut-être on gagne un peu plus, mais qui gagne « le plus » dans ce jeu : le management, les actionnaires, les employés ? Les traders ? Peut-être suis-je idéaliste mais je veux suivre ceux qui proposent autre chose que le capitalisme et « la main invisible » pour rendre les hommes heureux. « Et si le luxe c'était l'espace ? » : le temps libre, travailler moins, faire plus de sport, manger sainement, donner du travail et de la dignité à tout le monde, profiter d'une nature propre ? Et si ca coutait moins cher au final ? Combien coûte la guerre en Irak ?


C'est donc dans le domaine politique que je n'aime pas Sarkozy. Mais bon, les Français ont choisi et maintenant il est là !


Le Sarkozy que j'adore

J'aime vraiment le personnage Sarkozy, celui qui a des problèmes d'image aujourd'hui.


J'adore : Sarkozy parle Cash

Pour moi, l'épisode récent du « casse-toi, pauvre con » est avant tout super rigolo. (voir ici http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4hl90_sarkozy-casse-toi-pauvre-con_politics).


Sarkozy, on ne peut pas l'accuser de ne pas être direct. Il va sur le terrain et quand il n'est pas bien accueilli, il s'explique. Il est à l'opposé du Politiquement correct et c'est en fait cela qui me plait. Pourquoi ne pas dire « Casse-toi » à un type quand c'est tellement vrai, tout le monde le pense au moment même : pourquoi ce type est justement là s'il ne veut pas voir Sarkozy ?


Combien je le comprend ! Je suis si souvent obligé dans mon travail de ravaler mes pensées que si un jour je devient aussi bien placé que Sarkozy, je ne vais pas me priver de dire leurs 4 vérités à ceux qui n'ont rien à faire là où ils sont. Tout comme j'apprécierai qu'on me dise clairement quand je dépasse les limites, d'ailleurs. La communication du Futur, ca n'est pas une communication qui contient des tabous. C'est une communication directe et franche qui montre clairement ce qu'on veut. C'est une base saine pour la négociation.


Qu'on le veuille ou non, Sarkozy avec son style direct a su faire émerger les vrai sujets qui posent problème en France: le pouvoir d'achat, l'esprit d'entreprise, la langue de bois... La commission Attali en est un superbe exemple : quel pavé dans la marre Administrative Française !


(Il nous faudrait la même commission en Belgique mais il y aurait alors 2100 propositions, 300 par gouvernement - Fédéral, Wallon, Flamand, Bruxellois, Francophone, Néérlandophone, Germanophone)


J'adore : Sarkozy est sur le terrain


Il pourrait se cacher dans son agenda mais non. Il va au contact. J'aime bien ca. Parfois ca frotte un peu et il dérape. Peu importe. Il est la. Il est présent. Il y a un pilote dans l'avion.


J'adore : Sarkozy vit la vie qui lui plait


Il épouse une top model italienne, il va en vacances en jet privé, il se bourre la gueule avec Poutine... Il se fout du « Qu'en dira t'on ». Quelle liberté ! J'adore. Comment mieux dire « merde » à ceux qui savent mieux comment il faut vivre sa vie ?


J'adore : Sarkozy a un plan


Malgré les hauts et les bas médiatiques, Sarkozy a un plan. Contrairement à Chirac, qui dans le film « Dans la peau de Jacques Chirac » semble se demander qu'est-ce qu'il va faire à part gagner les élections, Sarkozy possède un plan essentiellement économique. Pour ce faire, il est maintenant le plus gros représentant commercial de la France. Il vent des avions (airbus, rafalle), des centrales nucléaires ou des trains à grande vitesse. Comme tout excellent commercial il utilise un jet privé, sors avec une top-model, fait des beaux voyages et a une Rolex. Il ne lui manque que la Ferrari comme dirait l'excellent Nicolas Canteloup sur Europe1. Le plan de Sarkozy c'est de vendre la France pour qu'elle soit plus riche.


Encore une fois ca n'est pas le plan que j'aurais choisi mais j'aime quand les gens ont un plan. J'admire donc Sarkozy pour cela.


Le Bilan : Wait and See


Le jugement se fera donc dans 4 ans, à la fin de son quinquennat. Je pense que Sarkozy aura un bon bilan. Il aura réussi à fouetter la France et à la rendre un peu plus compétitive. Si il n'y a pas de mauvaise nouvelle majeure entre-temps (nouvelle guerre, actions terroristes, crack boursier, famine), il en sortira grandi.


Malheureusement son succès aura créé encore plus de tensions sur le plan International car la France sera de plus en plus agressive sur les marchés. Cette approche menant un peu plus vers l' « Hyper Conflit » de Jacques Attali (tel que décrit dans son livre « Une brève histoire de l'avenir »).

Chimay : the social beer
Belgium is a beer country. One of my favorite beers is the Chimay.






I was really delighted when I read the "Authentic trapist product" text at the back of the bottle of Chimay Bleu:


An Authentic Trappist product follows the following criteria:
  • The beer must be brewed within the walls of a Trappist abbey, by or under control of Trappist monks.
  • The brewery, the choices of brewing, and the commercial orientations must obviously depend on the monastic community.
  • The economic purpose of the brewery must be directed toward assistance and not toward financial profit.
So the good news is that each time I drink a chimay I make a good action ! That's what I call win-win! :-)

Links :
IBM Solutions Builder
The IBM Solution builder is a powerful tool to help you design IT Solutions which makes use of IBM Software.
IBM Solutions Builder Express Session at Logix
I gave this session on SBE/SCE at Logix today.
Twitter / Gtalk integration
I have tested today the GTalk/Twitter integration. By sending an instant message to Twitter you can twitt and receive your friends twitts. It's really great : Twitter becomes a kind of broadcasting chat engine.

It's a common trend that I have seen at IBM also. You can add a service - called a Bot- as one of your buddiesand ask him questions. It's the computer on the other side who talks to you.

For example, at IBM we have a number of Instant Messaging bots available on Sametime to employees, including:
  • Calendar, which searches the calendars of specified people to find a mutually available meeting time
  • Dictionary, which looks up requested words in an online dictionary
  • Help, which allows users to search across multiple online help systems
  • RemindMe, which notifies users when a time/calendar event occurs (for example an upcoming meeting or vacation)
  • SkillTap, which finds and connects users with others possessing one or more requested skills
  • Stockquote, which retrieves price data from any online stock market ticker (not that we spend a lot of time doing this during work hours, of course!)
  • WhatIs, which defines IBM acronyms (and is therefore very popular)


There is a technical article over here : Building your own Sametime bots. If you know some good bots for GTalk, MSN or Yahoo, please let me know.
Marrakech
Marrakech, malgré la pollution, est une ville où il fait bon vivre. Nous avons profité de ses belles couleurs amplifiées par le soleil : le jaune des bâtiments, le vert des palmiers (c'est une oasis), les couleurs des souks, le jaune du jus d'orange, le bleu du ciel, le blanc de la neige au sommet des montagens de l'atlas...



Marrakesh c'est aussi un spectacle permanent. Notre attention est sollicitée par le grouillement de mobylettes, de vendeurs dans les souks, d' ouvriers sur les chantiers , de cireurs de chaussures, de personnes qui demandent ce que nous cherchons dans l'espoir d'obtenir un bakchich sur une vente improbable, de taxis et de calèches qui veulent nous ballader, de vendeurs de cigarettes ou de cacahouètes, de policiers qui surveillent chaque carrefour, des petites charrettes tirées par des ânes au milieu des bus et de gros 4x4...



L'album photo est ici:
Marrakech

Pictures of our trip to Marrakesh
We went to Marrakesh two weeks ago. You can have a look at the pictures over here :
Photos Marrakesh on PicasaWeb

IBM Lotus Symphony
Symphony is IBM's alternative to Microsoft Office. Lotus Symphony ha been crowned Office Productivity Software Product of the Year by Datamation Magazine for 2008.
Architectural Thinkings
I just completed a IBM course on Architectural Thinking. Here are the best quotes :

"Every Solution to a problem introduces new problems"

"At IBM, Architects must have a T-Shape"

"IT Architecture is a set of decisions that you take which will cost you a lot of money if you change them afterwards" (Robin Mulkers)

(In architecture,) "Good is good enough"
CoComment test going on
Still playing with technology. I tested today the integration of CoComment with my website. If you use CoComment, let me know here so maybe I integrate it everywhere in the future.
Le destin de Hai
Le destin de Hai : J'ai vu ça hier soir à la télé et je trouvais ça beau. Jetez-y un ?il.

The Programmer Dress Code
"I really want to know what it is about programming, or computers in general, that makes people want to grow a beard, have long hair, and dress like a slob."
Europalia - Expositions

Last weekend was cultural as we visited two Europalia expositions this sunday.

We first went to the Musée d'Ixelles for an exposition called 'All ways lead to Rome" ("Tous les chemins mènent à Rome - Voyages d'artistes du XVIe au XIXe siècles")

We than went to the BOZAR for a second Europalia exposition called "Encompassing the Globe - Portugal and the World in the 16th and the 17th Centuries" which shows how the Portuguese have travelled the world : Africa, Asia, America.



Visiting museums like this is also another way to enjoy Brussels.
Les différents sentiments : pourquoi ?
Je vois dans mes statistiques web (feedburner) que beaucoup de personnes cherchent et trouvent l'histoire "Les différents sentiments" sur mon site.

Vous qui cherchiez et avez trouvé, dites-moi : pourquoi cherchez vous "différents sentiments" dans Google ?
Second Night of Pecha Kucha Brussels
Yesterday (Jan 20th 2008) we attended the second pecha kucha night organized in Brussels. As last time, it was great. When Mr Nandi announced the last presentation, I was thinking : Already ! Time is flying when you are having fun.

Some of the things I've written down:
  • Joannes Vandermeulen, archaeologist & user experience expert:
    • Story telling is important and specific to the human race because "Stories are alternative futures"
    • Within 10.000 years, we will "Travel less but wander more"
  • Jan van den Bergh, Boondoggle:
    • The basis of Brand management is to master your customer database
  • http://www.flyinggrasscarpet.org/
    • Those guys have ideas and they work to make them true
Some Links :
Photos du salon de l'auto
Ce dimanche 20 janvier 2008 nous sommes allés au salon de l'auto avec Thomas.
Quelques photos ici : http://picasaweb.google.be/jfdeclercq/SalonAuto


Test du lecteur e-paper Cybook Gen 3 de Booken
Le test complet est ici. La conclusion : "Le Cybook Gen3 de Bookeen introduit une rupture avec le lecteur d'ebook traditionnel grâce à sa technologie d'écran e-paper. Lisible comme une feuille de papier, très peu gourmand en énergie, il apporte les solutions techniques qui manquaient il y a quelques années."

XeniT maakt documenten slimmer - Data News
'Making documents smarter' is de slogan van de start-up met hoofdkwartier op het Ladeuzeplein in Leuven'
Test du lecteur e-paper Cybook Gen 3 de Booken
Le test complet est ici. La conclusion : "Le Cybook Gen3 de Bookeen introduit une rupture avec le lecteur d'ebook traditionnel grâce à sa technologie d'écran e-paper. Lisible comme une feuille de papier, très peu gourmand en énergie, il apporte les solutions techniques qui manquaient il y a quelques années."

WikiPad : a great Notepad + Wiki tool !
Yesterday I think I have found an application I have been looking for for a long time.

It is called WikiPad : it's the fusion between a Notepad and a Wiki.

It's the ideal place to structure your ideas and you notes about your customers, your personal projects or even draft your blog entries like this one.

You can than export the database or parts of the database in HTML for publishing or archiving.

I just find it a GREAT tool.

Look at the website here : http://www.jhorman.org/wikidPad/

Citation of the day
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes. (Marcel Proust)
L'arme de communication d'aujourd'hui : le story telling
Vous savez peut-être que j'aime préparer des présentations convainquantes. Souvent je les construit bottom-up car je veux que mon argumentation soit sans failles. Cependant le storytelling me montre que c'est peut-être une erreur de vouloir trop démontrer. Il serait plus adéquat de raconter une histoire. Tout comme les publicités ne montrent plus les produits, ils évoquent plutôt le succès, l'image ou le bonheur de celui qui les utilise.

C'est notament pour cela que je m'intéresse aujourd'hui au Pecha Kucha. Ces présentations de 6minutes40 sont évidement des histoires qui collent au concept de Storytelling.

Quelques liens pour mieux comprendre le storytelling:

The web becomes my desktop
For a long time, I have been using Yahoo! Mail as my only personal email platform (no email client).

After having used Gmail for some time, now I realize that my personal stuff is more and more on the web:
- I use Google Notes to take notes
- I use Google Calendar
- I use Gmail as personal Todo list (using a todo and a done label)
- I use netvibes Webnotes
- I upload my important documents on my website, in Yahoo Briefcase, in Google Docs or I email them to myself (since there is virtually no size limit anymore)
- My knowledge base is built using my blogs that I aggregate in a Wiki on my website
- My bookmarks are in Del.icio.us
- My Contacts are now in LinkedIn, Plaxo and Facebook
- Most of the information I need comes from the web or from my company's Intranet

The only things that remain on my computer are the Office Documents, the pictures and the email archives. If I would upload all my pictures on Picasa or Flickr, I'd very close to have nearly nothing on my computer anymore.

If the Internet tone becomes as reliable as the phone tone, environments like DesktopTwo (https://desktoptwo.com) will actually become our computers. Desktoptwo provides you a virtual computer on the web, with the advantage that the only thing that you need is an Internet connection to access your virtual computer. All your documents remain on the server and are backed-up, archived...

You will find the same kind of concept in the WebOS eXoplatform (http://www.exoplatform.com/) : "This new giant step is an important one in the process to make the network the computer".

At JavaPolis, James Gossling said concerning Google that nobody could have predicted that the killer app of the web would have been "Advertisement". Maybe the next killer app is the computer itself, swallowed by the network, the servers becoming fully pervasive.
Take the Illusions of Entreprenurship Quiz - published by Yale University Press
Interesting facts about Entrepreneurship in a Quiz.
Natalia Meets En Vogue Shaggy Sportpaleis Antwerpen
We have seen the show this Saturday. Last time I was not convinced by Natalia but this time she managed to provide a great show by wearing nice blue and brown dresses and by sharing the scene with En Vogue and Shaggy.

Comment les lunettes peuvent changer l'impression que l'on a de vous
Je me dis souvent que si j'avais des lunettes, les autres me feraient plus confiance...
The best negotiation ever
Reading a story to your child before going to bed is the best example of a sucessful win-win negotiation.

At the beginning, there is no contract zone : he doesn't want to go to sleep. Than the value proposition comes :

"I read you a story and you go to bed."

"OK"

Deal ! And a win-win : being together to read a story is a real pleasure for both of us.

But children are excellent negotiators, when the story is finished they don't want to leave something on the table :

"Another story, Pleeeaaase?"

There you need the best of your sales skills : Objections handling and Closing... of the light.
Search me on Wikia
Just created a Wikia Profile in order to test. Wikia The alpha release still has ot of bugs today. Only the future will tell if this integrated social networking + wiki + google will be a success.
GEMS - Global Energy Management Solutions
If you wish to have advice on your energy usage I recommend you this company.
I just registered to the next Pecha Kucha Night
I have just registered to the next Pecha Kucha night (Brussels) on January 20th at 20:20.

In the registration form there was a "do let us know what your area of interest, themes" question. I answered : IT Architecture, Entrepreneurship, Management, Technology, Innovation and Cycling...

http://pechakucha.architempo.net/
Wayback machine : my website archived since 2001 !
Did you know that the web is archived every 2 months ?
My website has been archived !! Here is how my website looked like in 2001.
http://web.archive.org/web/20010809213009/http://www.jfdeclercq.com/
La politesse, ce nouveau luxe
En cette période de soldes, il est navrant d'observer les gens dans les commerces. Combien de personnes me dépassent, me bousculent, me marchent sur les pieds, ou bloquent le passage pour arriver en premier je ne sais où, voir un vêtement qu'ils vont jetter par terre sans l'acheter. Dans le métro de Bruxelles, ceux qui montent n'attendent même plus que ceux qui descendent soient sortis. Même dans les avenues les plus luxueuses de Bruxelles, l'impolitesse et le "moi d'abord" priment, à l'image des grosses BMW qui dépassent toute la file et, au bout de celle-ci, forcent le passage pour passer en premier...

En réalité, ca n'est pas vraiment de leur faute, ils vivent simplement comme ca. On ne leur a jamais dit. Ils ne remarquent même pas qu'ils poussent les autres pour passer.

Cela me donne envie de retourner à la campagne faire du VTT dans les champs et la boue mais là aussi un exité de la compétition va peut-être me crier dessus pour passer "A DROITE" ou "A GAUCHE".

Mais que dois-je dire à mon fils ? De se laisser pousser ou de pousser aussi, comme les autres ?

Que dois-je faire le matin ? Dépasser la file de l'E411 par la gauche avant de faire une queue de poisson juste avant le ring pour passer avant tous ceux qui ont attendu normalement ?

"Et si le luxe c'était l'Espace ?" demande le constructeur automobile Renault.

L'éducation et la politesse sont-ils aussi un luxe auquel peu de personnes ont accès ?
Comment être plus malin ?
Le self coaching pemet de se mettre dans un état cérébral plus productif.
Unconference
During JavaPolis we had a very good presentation by Bruce Eckel called 'Unconference'.

"An unconference is a conference where the content of the sessions is created and managed by the participants, generally day-by-day during the course of the event, rather than by one or more organizers in advance of the event" (WikiPedia).

The agenda of discussions is negotiated between the participants and those discussions than happen in open spaces.

I like it because I have more and more difficulties to follow a long session without interacting. Also often when you go to an event, the good part is not the presentations but rather the contacts that you could make. Very often what I retain from a presentation is the name of the speaker so I can ask him questions later.

In an unconference, you must think "conversation" and you must be interested in this conversation otherwise you drag the energy of the meeting down.

My feeling about unconferences is that you should carefully choose the conversation topics otherwise you'll might have some problems. I especially think about the problem of having conflicts of interests among participants (competitors for instance). So I guess it would be more interesting for a loose network rather that for one-to-many communications.

But I'm looking forward to participate to or organize an unconference !

See an example of unconference here : http://mindview.net/Conferences/ProgrammingTheNewWeb
Happy New Year 2008
As it is a tradition now, I send you my best shots of 2007 in order to wish you the best for 2008. This year I could not make a good selection : I have 77 pictures for you.

Click here to start the slideshow :
http://picasaweb.google.com/jfdeclercq/BestShots2007/photo#s5150550810699008482

You can find the album here :
http://picasaweb.google.com/jfdeclercq/BestShots2007

HAPPY 2008

PS : you can still have a look at my other years best shots here :

Last edited on Wednesday, May 28, 2008 at 22:16:29 pm.