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Saint Barth – Part I

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First news from St Barth!

The travel…

…was quite long this time ;-) We first took a flight from the EuroAirport to Paris-Orly, then from Paris to Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe (about 7.5 hours and 6’800 km). Flight on time, quite good, only about 1/3 of the plane was full, as there are some heavy strikes in Guadeloupe since weeks now. When we arrived in Guadeloupe, we were “informed” (in the French West Indies, the proactive information has another definition as in the rest of the world, i.e. you *have* to get information by yourself, customer or not, it doesn’t matter!) that our direct flight from Pointe-à-Pitre to Saint Barth was canceled and that we have to take a flight to Saint Martin and then, from there, to take a boat to Saint Barth. This cancelation was clearly due to the strikes.

Actually, it was funny because we had flight-tickets with Air Caraibes, which has delegated our “canceled” flight to Air Antilles Express. After a while, Air Antilles didn’t have any plane left, so they had to delegate themselves to … Air Guyane Express! The flight was very nice (some pictures below), the landing extremely tough (lots of wind and turbulences). On the other side, we have discovered the second (super small) airport of Saint Martin, Grand-Case…

After that, we had to take the so-called Voyageur (high-speed boat) to Saint Barth. The trip takes about 1.5 hours, but this time, the sea was really awful, with a very strong lateral swell. A nightmare, specially for my wife and my son, who were both sick during the whole trip.

All in all, and as usual, I must say that the service and the people from Air Caraibes were just *extremely* bad. And I am not talking about customer-orientation, just about the minimum level of politeness we should all have among human-beings… These Air Caraibes employees just deserve … nothing! On the other side, the Air Antilles Express people were informative, polite and have really tried to find a solution for everybody. Our detour through Saint Martin was properly organized, we had to pay nothing, and we had also the full excuses from the company. Well done!

Anyway, we arrived at St Barth “by night”, in the harbor instead the airport, with about 4 hours delay, which is definitely not catastrophic ;-) We had also the chance to see some great sailboats before entering the harbor, illuminating in a fantastic way! Great experience.

 

The flight between Guadeloupe and Saint Martin

We had the chance to have a marvelous sunset before landing at Saint Martin.

 

 

And a good view on Saint Martin before landing.

 

The villa…

…is really cool, with a nice swimming-pool and fantastic views on the ocean!

The back-side of the villa, which is called “L’Abricotier”:

 

And the main terrace with the “infinity” swimming-pool, and the view on the Lorient beach, Saint Jean Bay and the airport, plus the Anse des Cayes in the background:

 

Gouverneur beach today

This morning, we were at the Gouverneur beach, one of our preferred. Fantastic colors, and the ocean and its waves were quite … interesting for having fun with my son ;-)

The weather is typical for Saint Barth at this time: 28°C during the day with a very strong sun, 23°C during the night, 26°C in the ocean. Some sudden rains this afternoon, but during perhaps 10 minutes.

Click on the different pictures to see the full-sized versions!

More to come when I will have time again!

Twhirl v0.9 is out!

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The new version of Twhirl is out after a good organized and dynamic private beta phase. You can download it here.

This version is very stable, no problem to attend on this side.

I’m quite a fan for a while of Twhirl as a Twitter client. Now, it allows also to broadcast your messages to Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc. through the ping.fm service.

By the way, do you know this ping.fm service? Really great! It allows to publish centrally and to push your messages to the different “status” services of the main social networking websites. Worth a try, it’s free!

twhirl

Below, some information about Twhirl.

Twhirl features

  • multiple Twitter, laconica, Friendfeed and Seesmic account support
  • runs on Windows and Mac OSX (and Linux)
  • notifications of new messages across all of your accounts
  • shorten long urls easily (using snurl, twurl or isgd)
  • post images to TwitPic
  • search tweets using Twitter Search and Tweetscan
  • timeline filtering
  • groovy color schemes to personalize your experience
  • automatically checks for new versions

What’s new in Twhirl v0.9

  • spellchecker (currently English only, can be deactivated in settings if you use Twhirl in other languages)
  • your Twitter @replies will display even if you are mentioned in the middle of a tweet – don’t miss anyone quoting your name
  • share all your updates to all your favorite social software via Ping.FM support: Twhirl now posts to Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and more
  • follow any topic in near-realtime: searching for a term or a brand and then activating it as a saved search it will bring all future mentions of it into your timeline
  • record a video and post it straight to Twitter, then get your Seesmic video replies and follow the video conversation
  • get new Seesmic replies and videos in realtime thanks to XMPP support
  • support for bitly url shortnener with stats and history
  • support for direct messages and favorites on laconica/identica

Actually, I’m using Twhirl as micro-blogging client, without being a seesmic user ;-)

Have a look also at the video from Loic, showing how Twhirl is working.

Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, is to depart Sun

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via 451 CAOS Theory

It seems that SUN will not communicate on that, but Marten Mickos, the former MySql CEO, is leaving SUN, after about 1 year… I remember one of my post in February 2008 with some explanations about the “why” of this merge, directly from Marten. Outch. Something didn’t work as planed there.

Some more information below.

I just got news that Marten Mickos, former MySQL CEO, is to depart Sun amid a reorganisation of its infrastructure and database business units. Don’t expect an announcement from Sun on this, but the news is confirmed.

[…] Marten will be transitioning out of Sun by the end of the company’s (current) third quarter.

Marten’s departure is a big loss for Sun and follows quickly after the departures of Monty Widenius and David Axmark.

[…] Matt Asay is right, Marten’s departure “is likely to lead to an exodus among MySQL’s deep talent pool”. This needn’t be a complete disaster – the same thing happened at JBoss and Red Hat has recovered from that, but this is going to be a serious test for Sun’s ability to maximize on the potential of MySQL and its other open source assets.

Matt also writes that “Mickos was the backbone of MySQL’s rising revenues, as an open-source pragmatist and visionary. He was the face of MySQL, but also of the rising open-source industry.” This is true, and for that reason I hope it’s not too long before we see him taking charge at another vendor.

Good luck to Marten, hope to see him asap in a new role!

Gosh, 37 years old!

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Yes, today is my birthday. 37 years old.

Thanks to Laurent and Mathieu for their wishes via Twitter.

And thanks to Stephen, Thomas, Patrick, Robert, Géraldine for their nice words via Facebook.

And thanks to all my friends and colleagues who have sent me a mail, as Martine, Doris, Bruno, Manu, Olivier, Andreas, Salah.

And thanks to all, my friends and family, who has contacted me per telephone today.

And thanks to my wife and son, Laurence and Julien, for their surprise this morning :-)

Special thanks to Martinique for her Frangipani (picture taken in Senegal).

birthday

And to the Xing team for their virtual birthday cake ;-)

birthday

From an Innoveo CI/CD point of view, Andreas (our designer) won the price ;-)

birthday

A year more, but thanks to everybody, a nice and brilliant day!

PS: yesterday evening, we had a cool dinner at “La Table de Louise”. Very nice local, very friendly and professional service, great food, and … 3 birthdays to celebrate the same evening at 3 different tables :-)

Innoveo Skye – Product strategy workshop

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Yesterday and today, workshop with the Innoveo Management Team near Zurich for refining and documenting our Innoveo Skye™ (content, scope, roadmap) software solution for insurances (front-end and distribution).

More information there about Skye™.

 

2nd HD video from Saint Barth – Villa Ella

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As mentioned in this post, I am publishing some HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280×720 resolution) on SmugMug.

Below, the second one (embedded in DVD quality). Topic is still Saint Barth, this time, with some views of the villa we were in, and the fantastic panoramic views on the Saint Barth airport and the Saint Jean Bay.

You should also have a look at the high-res version here.

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

Some other new HD videos to be published in the coming days!

Vincent Laforet is just great!

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via Marc Silber

Marc Silber, who is regularly bringing very interesting information and inputs concerning photography and visuals (his blog, his portfolio, his press-room), has posted a link to a video from Vincent Laforet.

I haven’t known the work of Vincent before and … what for a visual shock! This is a MUST-HAVE-SEEN to my mind. Very innovative, fresh, emotional, and just beautiful at the end.

“Waiting for the swell”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

“Taking off”

 

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

The absolute must-seen HD (720p) version

 

Who is Vincent Laforet

 

From his blog, impressive bio!

Vincent Laforet is a New York based commercial and editorial photographer who is regularly commissioned to work on a variety of fine art, advertising, corporate and editorial projects. His approach to aerial photography has been singled out as one of the most unique and interpretive amongst photographers today.

At the age of 33, his work has been published in most major publications around the world and he has been sent on assignment by Vanity Fair, The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Sports Illustrated, Time, Newsweek, and Life Magazine. In 2006, Laforet modified his staff position at The New York Times to become The Times’ first national contract photographer. 

Vincent’s fine art prints are exhibited in galleries internationally including the International Center of Photography in New York City, and Visa Pour L’Image in Perpignan, and are part of numerous private collections.

Vincent was recognized as one of the “100 Most Influential People in Photography” by American Photo Magazine in 2005 and was named one of the “30 photographers to watch under 30″ by PDN in 2002. He and four other photographers were awarded the Pulitzer Prize in Feature Photography for their post-9/11 coverage overseas in 2002. His work has been recognized in the Communication Arts Annual, PDN Annual, The SPD Magazine Cover of the Year, The World Press Photo Awards, The Pictures of the Year Competition, The Overseas Press Club, The National Headliners Awards, The Pro-Football Hall of Fame. Vincent is a Canon Explorer of Light and Canon Printmaster and serves as consultant to companies such as Apple, Bogen, Lexar, and X-Rite.  He and his work have been profiled on CNN and Good Morning America.

Vincent has been invited as a keynote speaker by a variety of organizations and universities from around the world. He has served as an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism, and the International Center of Photography. Vincent is represented by the Stockland Martel Agency. He resides in Manhattan with his wife, Amber, and son, Noah.

What you should look at

 

A lot of great visual material are available online on the portfolio website of Vincent Laforet.

Have a look, for example, at the Paniolo cowboys Hawaii in the Adventure section, or at the Golf digest in the Sports section.

HD Video from Saint Barth

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I have published my first HD video (720p, i.e. a 1280×720 resolution) on SmugMug, with our last Saint Barth winter break in February 2008 as “topic”. I will continue to regularly publish some short sessions about this travel in the coming time.

The embedded version below is the so-called DVD version (640×480 resolution).

You may like to have a look at the HD version here.

http://cdn.smugmug.com/ria/ShizVidz-2008120101.swf

I am using Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 as a video editing software (yes, I have a license…) and my Sony Handycam HDR-HC3.

The music used to illustrate the video is coming from ccMixter.org, very nice source for good-quality Creative Commons licensed tracks!

All the best for 2009!

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Some thoughts concerning 2008+ and wishes for 2009.

Looking back to … 2008+

Actually, 2008 started for me already in 2007 :-)

Difficult to make the cut in January 2008, as we have started Innoveo in October 2007…

So, below, some pictures which are representing my 2008+, a mix of private and professional stuff, as usual.

And, without explanations, for sure ;-)

All in all, 2008 was again extremely “different” and “stable”.

  • Different, because I could learn a lot of new stuff, a bit more about myself, meet a huge amount of persons, very smart and people-oriented. A lot of new experiences, in so many different fields, wow :-) And, on top, a strong and deep feeling of being very lucky to be able to lead our own company with Nick . Different also, because it is the first time that I feel so clearly the quite high pressure, even positive, of leading a company and being “responsible” for this company!
  • Stable, because I had the chance, first, to work with and for the same great people! I like very much this ecosystem! Stable, secondly, because my family and private life is solid, full of happiness and great private moments. I don’t like stability, excepted in these two fields ;-)

What about 2009?

Looks interesting, isn’t it? As during all the downturn and crisis time, we will all have our ups and downs.

Hopefully with more “ups”, and not too deep “downs”!

Flexibility will be essential, as speed.

I wish you and your beloved ones all the best for the exciting coming year, a lot of fun, good wines and meals (!), success in your new business(es), and a lot of new learnings!

And keep dreaming :-)

Take care, Didier

[click on the calendar-zone to enlarge]

2007-2008