Author Archives: Didier

Happy sysadmin appreciation day, Olivier!!

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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 ;-)

olivier

Network cable sorting exercise

olivier

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

olivier

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

olivier

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

olivier

OLIVIER HOPE YOU HAD A GOOD SYSADMIN DAY ;-)

What Marc Fleury is now doing

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via CAOS Theory

Marc Fleury, the founder and former CEO of jBoss, has left RedHat after some months of incorporation. He seems now again to be quite busy with his next project called OpenRemote.

The OpenRemote team also includes the creator of Asterisk Mark Spencer, JBoss veterans Juha Lindfors, Christian Bauer, Java X10 project creator Wade Wassenberg, and Linux Home Automation founder Neil Cherry.

Together they, and others, plan to create a complete open source home automation including the OpenRemote Controller hardware, OpenRemote Console Applications to make use of the iPhone and iTouch as a universal remote (although any device with browser will work), the OpenRemote Manager, and the Beehive Database.

“Figuring out the business model, this is one thing I can help with. But for right now, let’s focus on a community. Without a community, there is no OSS model. The community is what you do with it.”

Exciting idea and project!

Innoveo Launches New Corporate Identity

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Dear customers, partners and friends

After 9 exciting and successful months on the market, we are proud to introduce our new corporate identity. It now represents our personality, culture, spirit and soul in a more appropriate way, as it has been built on our company’s…

VALUES /

  • INNOVATION
  • QUALITY, PROFESSIONALISM AND TRANSPARENCY
  • TRUST AND RESPECT
  • DYNAMISM AND FUN

MISSION /

  • ENABLING BUSINESS INNOVATION

VISION /

  • BE RESPECTED LEADERS IN CONNECTING THE INSURANCE BUSINESS WITH TECHNOLOGY

 

Find below our new Logo and get additional information about our CONSULTING SERVICES and our insurance framework INNOVEO SKYE by visiting our new company WEBSITE.

 

We are looking forward to a continuous successful co-operation and collaboration with you all under our new brand!

For the Innoveo Team,

Didier

PS1: a BIG THANK to Laurent for the great and efficient .Net implementation.

PS2: another BIG THANK to Andreas Koch, our absolutely great designer, for his support, commitment, and creativity.

PS3: another THANK to evaluant for their great Open Source product, EUSS (Evaluant Universal Storage Services).

PS4: and the last THANK to wygwam for their great help in the field of CSS.

Coming to light

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via CICLOPS

Again, a fantastic view of Saturn.

As seasons change on Saturn, and sunlight creeps farther north, the region surrounding the north pole is steadily coming to light.

This scene reveals many features in Saturn’s dynamic and beautiful atmosphere, including a detail largely obscured from the imaging cameras until now. On the terminator at center right is part of the polar hexagon, which was previously observed by Cassini’s Visible and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS) and Composite Infrared Spectrometer (CIRS). These instruments used heat radiated from Saturn to observe the polar hexagon (rather than reflected sunlight, as is the case in this view). The hexagon was first imaged by the Voyager spacecraft more than 25 years ago.

The view looks toward the unilluminated side of the rings from about 38 degrees above the ringplane and is centered on a region 63 degrees north of the Saturnian equator.

The image has been brightened to show details at high northern latitudes, where solar illumination is presently weak.

LVMH acquires Hublot!

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So, it seems that my preferred watch brand, Hublot, is joining LVMH (Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton), i.e. the Group which owns my preferred champagnes (among others: Dom Perignon, Veuve Clicquot, Krug and Ruinart!) and my preferred perfumer (Guerlain)!

Indeed, the LVMH Group has just announced yesterday the acquisition of the Swiss watchmaker Hublot. You perhaps remember, I have just published some news about Hublot for about 14 days.

 

hublot00

 

From the official press release

LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world’s leading luxury group, announces
that it has signed an agreement to acquire the Hublot group, a top of the range
watchmaker enjoying very strong growth.
LVMH will acquire Hublot from Mr Carlo Crocco, who founded the group in 1980, and a company controlled by Mr Jean-Claude Biver, who has managed Hublot since 2004. […]

Having grown at a rapid pace since 2004, the brand achieved net revenue of more than CHF150 million in 2007 with an excellent profitability. A very significant increase in revenue is expected in 2008.
Today, Hublot has a very selective and efficient distribution network which is limited to 300 stores worldwide. […]

Jean-Claude Biver, the architect of the success of the Big Bang collection and the recent strong growth of Hublot, commented: “I am delighted that Hublot will be able to benefit from LVMH’s support and strategic leadership in the luxury goods industry and so maximise its growth potential in the years to come. I am happy to be pursuing this adventure and to be able to contribute to the development of LVMH’s watchmaking division alongside Philippe Pascal.”

 

Some extracts of the official presentation

 

hublot01

 hublot02

hublot03

 

Some information about the acquisition

 

The Hublot company was founded in 1980 by Carlo Crocco, who owned 80% of the shares, 20% being acquired by J.-C. Biver, when he joined Hublot as CEO in September 2004.

The acquisition price was not published but, based on different interviews and articles, it seems that the deal looks like the following:

  • J.-C. Biver remains the CEO of Hublot, assisted by Ricardo Guadalupe as Managing Director.
  • acquisition price = between 450 and 500 million CHF, i.e. 2.2x of the expected revenues 2008 (220 million CHF) and/or 12x of the projected operating profit of 2008
  • 5-years objectives: doubling the revenues
  • expansion market =  Asia
  • willingness to continue to produce only 60% of the demands!

 

Conclusion

 

Let’s see now how this merge will work, and especially if Mr. Biver, the current CEO of Hublot, will stay at his position. He has recently stated in one of his interview, that he was not able to block the acquisition of Hublot by another company because he hasn’t reached the level of shares which would has allowed this control… On the other hand, it seems that he has some guarantees concerning his freedom and the one of his team.

And, it is funny to observe that Mr. Biver is one of the top5 worldwide collector of Château d’Yquem, Château which is owned by ….. LVMH!

Montreux Jazz Festival – Alicia Keys

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montreux2008

As usual (2004, 2005, 2006, 2007), we are going to the Jazz Montreux Festival this year. We will have the chance to listen to Alicia Keys (seems to be already sold-out):

Nine-time Grammy Awards winner Alicia Keys is back in Montreux after the release of her 3rd album: As I Am. Her 2004 show already seduced the audience of the Auditorium Stravinski. Since 2001, she has sold over 20 million albums worldwide. One of the few artists who can capture an old-school vibe and make if feel refreshingly new, Alicia tackles this feat once again with this new album.

The program this year is absolutely fantastic! Some examples:

  • Al Jarreau
  • Buddy Guy
  • Gilberto Gil
  • Herbie Hancock
  • Katie Melua
  • Leonard Cohen (!)
  • Paul Simon
  • Quincy Jones
  • Robert Cray
  • ….

If you cannot find something interesting in this program, you should perhaps buy new ears ;-)

Cobol is the future…if you agree or not!

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via Ed Cone

Okay, I am a bit provocative ;-)

Cobol is surely not the development language you want to program with as Software Engineer today.

On the other side, one figure remains in my mind since more than 12 years. In 1995, there were more than 80 billion (billion, not million) SLOC (single line of code) developed in Cobol worldwide and in production. 80 billion! People thinking that you can get rid of these in the midterm are just….wrong ;-)

It was funny to read this post of Ed this morning:

And the hot new tech job is…COBOL programmer?

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, but readers of this post about antiquated Pentagon systems are crowing about demand for old-school skills.

Says a commenter who goes by “Sing”: I do not know any young programmers that are interested in learning COBOL, but I do know a lot of older programmers that are looking forward to the inevitable jump in salary.

A recent report claimed that 65 percent of core systems at surveyed companies in the insurance industry were written in legacy code, including COBOL. And a computer science prof I spoke with says the skills crunch is for real, with big iron outlasting the folks who know what to do with it.

Related: Vint Cerf says, “Over time the bits we accumulate that represent value will not be able to be interpreted. We have to maintain the meaning of the data we accumulate.”

I am working in the Insurance Industry for a while and I personally think that much more than 65% of the legacy systems are written in Cobol… My perception is that we are near a 80-85% level, at least… Perhaps more the case in Europe? Could be!