[via BetaNews]

The free open source database leader MySQL has some new competition from expensive enterprise database leader Oracle. The company on Monday unveiled a beta release of 10g Express Edition, otherwise known as Oracle Database XE, which is free to develop, deploy and distribute.

Oracle’s new edition is aimed at students, small organizations and software developers looking to integrate a database into their applications. Although it offers the same core as Oracle’s more pricey business offerings, XE is limited to systems with a single processor, 1GB of RAM and 4GB of database storage space.

[...] Oracle Database XE is slated for a final release before the end of the year. Downloads are available for both Linux and Windows.

[via Heiko]

Cool, Scott Adams opened a Dilbert’s blog since October 25, 2005!

[via CICLOPS]

Great view of Hyperion, another moon of Saturn (diameter: 360x280x225 km).

This stunning false-color view of Hyperion reveals crisp details and differences in color across the strange, tumbling moon’s surface that could represent differences in the composition of surface materials. The view was obtained during Cassini’s very close flyby on September 26, 2005.

Hyperion has a notably reddish tint when viewed in natural color. The red color was toned down in this false-color view, and the other hues were enhanced, in order to make more subtle color variations across Hyperion’s surface more apparent.

Images taken using infrared, green and ultraviolet spectral filters were combined to create this view. The images were taken with the narrow angle camera from a distance of approximately 62,000 kilometers (38,500 miles) from Hyperion and at a Sun-Hyperion-spacecraft, or phase, angle of 52 degrees. The image scale is 362 meters (1,200 feet) per pixel.

Remember what is gVisit? I have posted about this visitors’ map generator in August. gVisit allows to generate this kind of maps:

I find this service pretty cool because it materializes the different visitors’ locations much more than the logs. For example, on this blog in the last hours, I had the visit of people from (just some exotic – from my point of view – destinations, a *lot* of you are “just” coming from the US, which is not quite exotic, but hey, thanx to have a look here from time to time, you are warmly welcome ;-):

I searched a way to integrate a kind of “uptodated-short-list” of my last 10 visitors directly in my blog. gVisit gives a tip how to bring dynamically an RSS feed within a page, with the help of PHP and Javascript. This service called Feed2JS is free, you can also installed the code directly to your website, if you’d like to (GNU license). You can now have a look on the right-side of the blog, you could find the discussed short-list (RSS reader, come and have a look :-).

PS: the visitors log is updated every few hours, so do not refresh each minute, not really efficient/useful ;-)

Wow, I am back and happy to be at home again for the week-end. It was definitely great but exhausting this year. I had 24 face-2-face in 3 days + the conferences + workshops + … the good foods and wines ;-)

Different themes this year:

• Growth strategies – expanding the corporation by Christoph Lechner, who is Professor of Strategic Management at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland. I *have* to come back to this one, one of the best strategic inputs in my last 2 years. Impressive.
• How to develop a Sales Channel Management Strategy by Marcus Schoegel, Professor in Marketing Management at the University of St.Gallen, Switzerland
• Last but not least, the first inputs concerning the new strategy 2007-2010 of the Helvetia Patria Group. This part is … confidential ;-)

Very good contacts, a *lot* of great talks, very inspiring! And what for a weather, crazy!

Again, a “mark-this-day-without-having-the-possibility-to-say-more”. In fact, it will be tomorrow, before the start of my fourth Management Forum.

The name is choosen, the logo is great, the domains are reserved, the partnership contract is on the good way, the last legal clarifications are on the good way, the … is defined. And tomorrow, I will have the honour to live my first foundation …’s meeting. So great! An incredibly exhausting 12 months process, with some huge political games, *so* interesting. I am so proud.

I am completely excited, a bit stressed, my dream (perhaps nightmare in the future, but NOW it is *still* a dream) is coming true!

So, as last year, I have the chance to be able to participate for the fourth time to the Helvetia Patria Group‘s Management Forum.

What is the Management Forum?

This is our yearly group-wide Executive Managers meeting (Board of Directors and local Executive Board members, special Group functions). About 50 persons from the 4’800 employees within the Holding. A great honour for me! Near all the strategic workshops and presentations (some very interesting guest-speakers as last year), these 3 days are a great opportunity for me to discuss with all my internal clients from the different subsidiaries (CEO, CIO).

Main topic this year

The main topic this year is linked with growth as future source of additional earnings. Cool, I am quite excited.

I have searched some good earphones for a while and I have bought the Shure E2c isolating earphones.

Technicals specs

• Speaker Type: Dynamic MicroDriver
• Sensitivity (at 1kHz): 105dB SPL/mW
• Impedance (at 1kHz): 16 Ohm
• Cable Length: 1.57m
• Net Weight: 30g
• Input Connector: 3.5 mm gold-plated stereo plug

Sound Isolating Technology: How it works

The E2c’s in ear design works like an earplug to block background noise naturally. This enables you to listen comfortably at lower volumes — even in loud environments. And unlike bulky headphones utilizing active noise cancellation technology, no artifacts are introduced into your listening experience. Sound isolating earphones are also much smaller and don’t require batteries.

Canal phones: How it works

Canal phones are a cross between ear buds and earplugs. They actually fit into the ear canal, and the tiny speakers vibrate the air between the drivers and the eardrum, producing sound. Since the phones seal off the movement of air in and out of the canal, outside sounds are muted and only the vibrations of the driver are pushing air against the eardrum. Historically, one annoyance with canal phones has been micro phonics – unintentional sounds that are amplified by the design of the canal phones. Contact with the wires may produce a scraping sound and footsteps a deep thudding.

Some reviews

• DesignTechnica
• amazon.com
• HomeTheater
• cnet.com

My review

- tricky to place in ears
- somewhat expensive (but worth it…), about 100$

+ excellent pro sound quality
+ very precise and detailed rendering
+ ambient noise isolation
+ storage case
+ different size of flex sleeves
+ you can really decrease the volume to obtain the same rendering feeling

I registered in September for the 2nd edition of the conference Les Blogs in Paris. A draft of the program is published here. Interesting.

It is not only about blogging, it’s about changing the way we think

What defines this new way of thinking and acting ? Difficult to say, let’s try to define it together. I would say that transparency, openness and collaboration are the key values that drive this phenomenon. It is not only about blogging, not only about social software and other tools, it is much broader. Of course bloggers are at the forefront of this way of life: unformal, friendly, no powerpoint and no ties…

Let’s define together these new values and understand :
1. How they challenge the corporate world
2. How they change the media landscape
3. How they bring more democracy in politics
4. How education evolves
5. What are the tools used and how we can all best benefit from them
6. Where we are going in the near and longer term future

A companion wiki is also opened here.

I am very proud to announce you that Nick Stefania and myself are invited by hp Financial Services Industry to present our ecenter solutions case at the coming International Life & Pension Insurance Conference in Moscow, Russia. We are integrated in the following session:

Energize the Life Insurance Market with Hot New Technologies.

The title of our presentation is:

An innovative approach to support new products and multichannel distribution.

We are very excited to be able to show how we are supporting the Business with our technology. Great opportunity!

Now some information about the Conference itself.

It is about…

“We are proud to announce the first ever international life insurance congress to be held in Moscow, Russia. We have brought together many highly regarded international experts in the field of life insurance who will share with the audience their ideas and strategies for successful investment in emerging markets. Among the speakers are CEOs and executive managers of leading USA, European, UK, CIS and Asian financial services companies; Heads of Financial & Insurance Supervision Authorities; International Actuarial Association; Senior Representatives of Financial and Investment institutions; “cutting edge” information technology firms, and other insurance experts. We are sure that this important conference will help to boost the development of the life insurance industry in the CIS region”. Olga Ruf-Fiedler, Chair of the Organizing Committee and Vice President of Winterthur Group, Switzerland

Conference topics

• International experience in developing life & pension insurance in emerging markets. Lessons and opportunities
• Investment climate for Eastern Europe, CIS and Asia
• Regulatory framework and economic climate in Russia and CIS. Prospects and tendencies. International standards for life insurance supervision
• Life insurance local features Eastern Europe & CIS (regional peculiarities) – Transformation process Eastern Europe
• Marketing & Distribution strategies for long term life insurance – how to increase demand and win customers’ trust
• Bancassurance – global trends and developments
• Modern technologies in life insurance – learn from the experience of Western European insurers and technology firms
• Asset liability management – popular financial instruments and Long term financial instruments

We will address¨the above-marked 3 topics in our presentation.

Who should attend

CEOs and senior managers of leading CIS, Asian and International insurance companies, Heads of financial and insurance groups, Banks, senior actuaries, insurance and IT experts and consultants.

You can register here.