via Seth Godin

An *excellent* post from Seth. He is explaining the differences between strategy and tactics and how a good strategy can simplify our life. Or the contrary, if you haven’t defined the right strategy…

[…] The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing your tactics perfectly.

Here’s the obligatory January skiing analogy: Carving your turns better is a tactic. Choosing the right ski area in the first place is a strategy. Everyone skis better in Utah, it turns out.

If you are tired of hammering your head against the wall, if it feels like you never are good enough, or that you’re working way too hard, it doesn’t mean you’re a loser. It means you’ve got the wrong strategy.

It takes real guts to abandon a strategy, especially if you’ve gotten super good at the tactics. That’s precisely the reason that switching strategies is often such a good idea. Because your competition is afraid to.

via news.com

It seems that Marc Fleury, the former CEO of jBoss and now responsible by RedHat for the new corresponding division, is not feeling so good since the integration…

“I am going to take some time off to take care of family and myself. I am increasingly experiencing diminishing returns on my emotional and professional investments at Red Hat,” Fleury said in the December note seen by CNET News.com. “Working with all of you at JBoss has been a pleasure and probably the apex of my short career.”

Fleury complained that the JBoss research and development budget “really hasn’t benefited from a huge investment, which I was hoping for and was the main reason I went to Red Hat…That’s a bit of a point of frustration for me personally.”

In 2005, analysts raised doubts about the JBoss integration. But when reporting financial results for its most recent quarter, Red Hat reiterated its expectation that JBoss would generate between $22 million and $27 million by the time the company’s fiscal year ends on February 28.

Strange weather, a kind of “March-feeling”…

I have been tagged by Sandrine from profession-web.ch (in French). Thanks Sandrine. Scoble doesn’t like this, on the other side, Stephen, Dragos, Jeremy, Pierre … are playing the game. So let’s try it :-)

1. I am quite crazy about (very) powerful and fast cars and I have changed from Mercedes to BMW in 2006 (and I am very happy about this change). I know, I know, it is just “male – ego – non-environmental – …”
2. I have participated to some big projects developed in C and C++, as a developer. And yes, I know, it was better for all that I have left this part :-)
3. I was taken two times in (little) avalanches when skiing, that is one of the reasons why I have stopped skiing (too risky) for some years now. Also because of my back (I have quite a lot of issues there, my osteopath likes me :-)
4. I was a glider and private pilot when I was younger (glider when I was 16). I have lost all my qualifications because of … a lack of time
5. I like the US band Toto very much, and specially the period with Jeff Porcaro. Jeff is one of the best and innovative drummer ever (and I know about what I am talking about). He died in 1992. Actually, *all* the musicians of the band are just phenomenal session musicians.

Next in line are Laurent, Rodrigo, Jeff, Marc and Mathieu.

P.S. I will update this post as those tagged post

Laurent has given me an interesting link to an article about Vista, and specially the x64 version.

Unlike with 32-bit XP versions, many hardware devices will not work on XP x64 because of a dearth of 64-bit drivers (32-bit drivers will not work in a native 64-bit OS). Likewise, many software applications will not install or run because of various issues, including a surprising amount of 16-bit application installers and poorly-designed version detection. […]

All Windows Vista editions, except for Vista Starter, will come with both 32-bit (x86) and 64-bit (x64) versions in the box, on separate DVDs. This includes the Home Basic (and Home Basic N), Home Premium, Business (and Business N), Enterprise, and Ultimate editions of Windows Vista. […]

Vista Home Basic (and Home Basic N) with support up to 8 GB of RAM, compared to 4 GB for all 32-bit versions of Vista. Home Premium, meanwhile, will support 16 GB. And Business (and Business N), Enterprise, and Ultimate will all support 128 GB or more of memory. (The “or more” bit refers to the fact that there are no client PCs available yet for over 128 GB of RAM; when that happens, these Vista versions will support it.) […]

Most dramatically, the Windows Vista x64 versions include a new secret security feature that will virtually eliminate remote system attacks for the first time on the Windows platform. This feature, previously undisclosed, ensures that system files load at random (1 in 256) memory offsets at every system boot, compared to previous Windows versions where system files always loaded to the same offset memory location. Because of this change, most (approximately 99 percent) remote attacks will simply fail on x64-based Vista versions. […]

Those hoping to upgrade should be aware of a few issues, too. 32-bit versions of XP can only be upgraded to 32-bit versions of Windows Vista. And Windows XP Professional x64 Edition can only be upgraded to 64-bit versions of Windows Vista (Business and above). […]

Dear readers, I wish you all the best for 2007:
– first of all, a good health
– a lot of fun
– a lot of new meetings with nice and smart people
– a lot of nice places to visit and (re)discover
– a lot of laughs
– a good work life balance
– a lot of nice challenges.

And for all of us, enough freedom and peace, so that we can improve a bit the strange world we are living in.

Take care!

[via 35 degrees]