Dassault launched its new Falcon 7X mid of February 2005. This plane – really beautiful – is a very important milestone in the virtualization of the concept, prototyping, tests, model and production of the Dassault’s airplanes. A very good example to my mind, how a piece of software can totally change the way an industry is working.

For the first time with the Falcon 7X, Dassault could save the required investment due to the first three prototypes which are normally used as validation and test platforms. The three first Falcon 7X will be simply….sold!

This fast complete virtualization of the conceptual process is based on a software developped by Dassault – Catia. Catia was developped at the beginning of the 70’s by Dassault Systems as a simulation tool. All airplane producers are using Catia, including Boeing and Airbus. 65’000 clients of Catia around the world in 80 different countries. With the last version of Catia, the engineers have the possibility to work directly with the numerical models thanks to 3D-glasses, at a 1:1 scale! This allows for example to check if all the technical elements are accessible easily by the technicians during the maintenance phases…. You can imagine the kind of optimization you can bring in the field of repairing processes. Impressive.

How complexe is it to produce an airplane as the Falcon 7X?
– 27 different companies are integrated and associated to the production process
– the conceptual phase required 18 months, with about 400 engineers from 7 different countries
– they all used Catia (with a central database called Enovia) to work on the concept
– the airplane is made of 40’000 elements, 200’000 fasteners and….25 kilometers of cables

Dassault Systems, with Catia and Enovia, defines a complete Product Lifecycle Management system for:
– the conception of the plane
– the definition of all the technical elements in detail
– the definition of the production industrial process with all the integrated partners
– the management of the final “put-all-these-things-together”
– the definition of the maintenances for the coming….30 years.

The numerical model is also used in the selling process. The potential client has an acces to the virtual plane, can choose the color and leather of the seats, the type of crockery and toilets, etc.

Great example of a piece of software which is changing the complete production and conceptual process of an industry.

Hi all, sorry for not having posted the last days, I’m ill since last Saturday, cannot do anything, beurk… See you in some days, I return to bed ;-)

Update: I enter slowly the normal world again….

General atmosphere

Very safe, I felt as in some small towns in Switzerland. The children are always welcome, also in the restaurants. The service level and customer orientation (restaurants, hotels, shops, etc.) is quite high. There aren’t a lot of people on the island and on the beaches, although we stayed in St.Barths during the high season. Local people are friendly and cool, also on the streets with their cars. The beaches are very clean. See the funny ashes they are using. Some tourists felt some kind of snobbish atmosphere. I don’t agree at all: all the people are dressed *very* informal and casual, sometimes that was really too much, specially in some very good restaurants :-) I didn’t see one tie during our whole stay. The local people and the tourists are really really very cool.

Getting to St.Barths

The principal gateway to St. Barths (SBH) is through Juliana Airport in nearby Dutch St.Maarten, where flights arrive daily from both the USA and Europe. International carriers arriving at Juliana include American Airlines, Continental Airlines and US Air from the USA, and Air France, Corsair and KLM from Europe.

From St. Maarten, WINAIR, Air Caraïbes, and St-Barth Commuter, make the ten minute shuttle flights to St. Barths(SBH).

Air France and Corsair also fly regularly from France to Guadeloupe.

From Guadeloupe, Air Caraïbes offers a few direct flights to St. Barths (45 minutes) and others via St-Martin departing at times meant to accommodate the arrival of the bigger planes from France.

Air Caraïbes also has sereral flights a week between San Juan and St. Barths via St. Martin. And new this season (03/04) Inter Island Express based in San Juan, offers two direct flight a week from San Juan to St. Barths.(SBH)

Locally based charter flights are also available. The airstrip in St. Barths is small, and pilots are required to have special training to land. For many, the landing, especially on a windy day, is an adventure in itself.

[via St-Barths.com]

Laurent is actively participating to the Microsoft .NET community for a while through his very well-known French information portal “Tech Head Brothers“. Microsoft has recognized his high competence and active participation to the spreading of the .NET technology with a Most Valuable Professional title since April 2002.

The management of this kind of community website is very time intensive, as you know. The content of the site is copyrighted in a simple way, not to generate money, but to keep the control of the content. A simple contact, a link to the original article and it’s already over. Simple, isn’t it?

Now, Laurent tells us in one of his post (English) that Mr. Patrice Harmegnies just copied one of Laurent’s article (in French) on his own website, without taking contact with him, without mentionning the author, without linking to the original article. Sorry, but that really sucks!

Patrice Harmegnies seems to be an IT professional and a teacher in the field of web technology….

Mr. Harmegnies, what for a dishonesty and impoliteness! Please respect first the work of the other people… Be a little more respectful with professionals who *really* participate to this kind of communities, who *really* invest time in sharing their know-how and please avoid to make this kind of shitty copy… Definitely ridiculous.

[via Seth Godin]

Being *just* good is definitely not enough today…

Customers don’t switch for very good. What they’ve got is already very good! Google wasn’t a very good alternative to Yahoo. It was something far bigger than that.

The only way to beat Google or Kodak or Fotomat or McKinsey or JetBlue or you name it is to be over-the-top better, to be remarkable, to change the game.

It’s a great time to be a consumer. And it’s harder than it’s ever been to create stuff worth switching for.

[via Dragos via cph127]

How much are you creative? Try the self-assesment (about 10 minutes) of Creax.

I got a “creativity index” of 84.29 (typical: 61.46). Dragos got a 70.12.

No idea what does that *really* means. Anyway, it sounds good and the analysis of my profile is not bad for a “ten-minutes-test” ;-) What about you?

So….to be able to prolong my last holidays in st.Barths a little bit, I will publish some posts and pictures of our travel. As a bridge, till the spring will come….

Where is St.Barths

History of St.Barths

Saint-Barthélemy is a French island located in the Caribbean at 17°54’N 62°50’W . Administratively it is part of Guadeloupe, which is an overseas department of France. The island is also known as Saint Barts, Saint Barths, or Saint Barth. In 2003 the population voted in favour of seccesion of Guadeloupe in order to form a separate territorial collectivity.

Saint-Barthélemy was first claimed by the French in 1648, and except for a century as a Swedish colony, between 1785 and 1878, it has remained in French hands. Located approximately 150 miles east of Puerto Rico, it lies near the islands of Saint Martin, Saba, and Anguilla.

Most hotels in Saint Barts are small and exclusive, but private villas are also a available. There are no timeshares. Saint Barts has a small airport (IATA identifier SBH) that is served by small regional commercial aircraft and charters. Most visiting aircraft carry less than twenty passengers, such as the Twin Otter, a common sight around Saint Barths and throughout the northern West Indies.

It is rumored that Jimmy Buffett wrote “Cheeseburger in Paradise” at now famous Le Select, a restaurant and bar located in Gustavia. Gustavia, which is the main town of the island, was named after King Gustav III of Sweden, and remains as a reflection of the Swedish period.

[via Wikipedia]

Hey, some information about the coming Montreux Jazz Festival 2005!

39th edition of the Festival : some names

After a very icy winter, the whole Festival team is hard at work on the 39th edition, which is to take place from July 1-16, 2005, and is proud to announce the upcoming Auditorium Stravinski performances of Laura Pausini, B.B. King, Robert Cray, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Daniela Mercury, Brian Wilson, Alice Cooper, George Benson and Chic avec Nile Rodgers. The Miles Davis Hall will be playing host to Queens Of the Stone Age, The Hives, Audioslave, Zap Mama, Seu Jorge, Kraftwerk, Underworld and LCD Soundsystem, while the Casino Barrière will be opening its doors to Peter Cincotti, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Ritenour, Steps Ahead, Manhattan Transfer, Bobby McFerrin, Gipsy Kings, McCoy Tyner and Ray Barretto.

[via Laurent, who explained us for about 3 years, that Microsoft will acquire Groove]

We are using Groove very intensively since about 3 years. Really a *great* tool, nothing to do with Lotus Notes ;-) And, wow, what for a news! MS acquires Groove, Ray Ozzie, the CEO and founder of Groove (who created Lotus Notes), will be the Chief Technology Officer of Microsoft. VERY interesting!

Microsoft announced early Thursday that it will acquire Groove Networks and integrate Groove’s Virtual Office collaboration software into the Office System lineup. Groove’s founder, Ray Ozzie, will become chief technology officer of Microsoft and report directly to company chairman Bill Gates. […]

Ray Ozzie, who invented Lotus Notes, is perhaps an even more significant catch than Groove’s software, noted Wilcox. “Ozzie is an esteemed innovator — and longtime Microsoft rival when at Lotus and later IBM — whom I expect to bring much value to his new employer. From a technology and personnel perspective, the acquisition is a win, win. No doubt about it.”

“Ray and his team are true innovators. Microsoft and its customers will greatly benefit from their experience,” said Bill Gates. “After working with Ray for years as a close partner, it will be great to have him on our senior leadership team.”

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, although Microsoft was previously a major investor in Groove.

[via Seth]

Again, a great post from Seth Godin. This guy is incredible, so much to learn here :-)

Seth refers to a “10 things I have learned” from Milton Glaser, an American graphic designer. Have a look, the entire text is really very interesting and illustrative.

1. You can only work for people that you like.
2. If you have a choice, never have a job.
3. Some people are toxic, avoid them.
4. Professionalism is not enough, or the good is the enemy of the great.
5. Less is not necessarily more.
6. Style is not to be trusted.
7. How you live change your brain.
8. Doubt is better than certainty.
9. Solving the problem is more important than being right.
10. Tell the truth.