NEWS: Bono’s Irish rock star with the Toxic Texan

Posted on by
Reply

[via dragos]

A great long interesting interview from Times Online of U2’s singer, Bono.

So you liked this man? [Talking about G.W.Bush]

Yes. As a man, I believed him when he said he was moved to also do something about the Aids pandemic. I believed him. Listen, I couldn’t come from a more different place, politically, socially, geographically. I had to make a leap of faith to sit there. He didn’t have to have me there at all. But you don’t have to be harmonious on everything – just one thing – to get along with someone.

Don’t respond to caricature – the left, the right, the progressives, the reactionary. Don’t take people on rumour. Find the light in them, because that will further your cause.

What was your gut feeling the first time you came face to face with President Bush?

He was very funny and quick. Just quick-witted. With him, I got pretty quickly to the point, and the point was an unarguable one – that 6,500 people dying every day of a preventable and treatable disease [Aids] would not be acceptable anywhere else in the world other than Africa, and that before God and history this was a kind of racism that was unacceptable.

And he agreed: “Yeah, it’s unacceptable.” He said: “In fact, it’s a kind of genocide.”

But you must have disagreed with him at some point.

He banged the table at me once, when I was ranting at him about the ARVs [Aids drugs] not getting out quick enough. I’m Irish. When we get excited we don’t pause for breath, no full stops or commas. He banged the table to ask me to let him reply. He smilingly reminded me he was the president. It was a heated debate. I was very impressed that he could get so passionate. And, let’s face it, tolerating an Irish rock star is not a necessity of his office.

So who’s your favourite politician?

It would have to be Gorbachev, a genuinely soulful man who, following the courage of his convictions, left himself so open to criticism in what was the USSR. Some people despise him for the dismantling of that old giant. But without him the 20th century might have had a very different end.

NEWS: Google testing new indexing approach

Posted on by
Reply

[via BetaNews]

Since its inception, Google has tried to make sense of billions of Web documents and using advanced in-house technology. But now, Google is experimenting with a new concept to better its search crawlers: ask webmasters for help. The program, called Google Sitemaps, could revolutionize how the Web is indexed.

Specifically, Sitemaps will direct Google’s Web crawlers to content that has been changed or added, removing the need for Google to spider an entire site. Sitemap files are based on XML and contain a number of parameters to aid in the search indexing process.

To aid in the creation of Sitemap files, Google has developed an open source generator utility that runs on Web servers. Sitemaps are then submitted to Google, which uses them to create a better index of the site. Google says the end result will be the search engine crawling more pages and staying up to date with any changes.

But Sitemaps aren’t restricted to Google. The project has been released under the Attribution/Share Alike Creative Commons license so other search engines, such as Yahoo or MSN, can easily implement the same functionality.

BUSINESS: Entrepreneurship and fromage in France

Posted on by
Reply

[via Dragos]

Dragos pointed an CNEt’s article about technology and France….

The blunt truth is that France, a country with a $1.7 trillion economy, is still better known for its fromage than its technology.

I don’t mean to pick on the French. Truth be told, I’m an unabashed Francophile. I love their food, adore their language and admire their culture. But when it comes to high-tech innovation, there’s no escaping the fact that France does not punch its weight.

There’s no shortage of technical ability in France–but a brain drain is hurting the company’s economy. About 200,000 French men and women, graduates of their country’s best technical schools, are living in the Bay Area, part of the reason there’s a technology gap.

“Lots of new technologies are getting developed in France,” [Gauthier, dean of HEC MBA] said, “such as the ones that went into the Airbus. That’s not being widely communicated.”

Gauthier may have a point. But no amount of spin and marketing is enough if you don’t have the goods. And so far France still has not risen to the challenge.

BUSINESS: “Vision Guidance Leader”

Posted on by
Reply

[via Mihai – in French]

Have a look at this “company” called huh?.

Their motto: we do stuff.

We have *all* already met these kind of consultants, haven’t we? I have some examples in mind ;-) Just hilarious.

Our main consulting strategy is to convince clients that we do stuff they can’t do themselves, and that we deserve lots of money for it. The best way to do this is to always look good, and always sound like we know something you don’t. Because we do.

Are you confused yet? Of course you are. And that’s just how we like it. Our marketing professionals are constantly coming up with new ways to make you feel inferior and stupid. Because you are. And we’re not. We’re new-age, eMoving, marketing consultants.

If you call our office, the phone will be answered by a very disinterested intern, giving you the impression that we’re too important to talk to you. Because we are.

We have really smart people who are always thinking up totally cool shit. We have a meeting room with a big, round, expensive table. When you hire us for marketing and consulting projects, we spend lots of time sitting around the table having meetings.

Our CEO is rarely in his office, and all female team members are expected to sleep with him, or at least pretend like they want to. Our designers ride Razor scooters around the office, while wearing mail-bag style backpacks to hold their iPods.