I often thought it would have been useful to own a Praying Mantis, to rid my bedroom of mozzies - but I would never have realised this small insect could challenge a bird : Mantis vs Hummingbird
(birdwatchersdigest.com) - no I am not a member
Doctor slang is a dying art
(bbc.co.uk)
although something tells me that my good Radiologist friend may actually be able to assist with this list, or indeed write a book on the topic!
no doubt there are new terms coming online with medical procedures done remotely or virtually (that sounds like NHS gimmick - you will be virtually better...)
Blue 1 : I am now a registered Voice Suite user!
This means that I can make calls from my laptop to colleagues in the UK, across the globe... and even local calls in whatever country I find myself. Excellent.
This makes up for loss of Siemens Hicom telephony option, and allows me to remotely operate - taking my office with me with my laptop and internet connection.
The lack of Siemens Hicom from IBM Bordeaux was poor. The phones are there, but without being able to login I couldn't join some conference calls. I ended up using my personal mobile to receive business calls. Thankfully I am online always online, and so people didn't notice that I was not at the end of a telephone - they would contact me by instant messaging (Sametime) instead.
Blue 2 : I cannot request a headset until 2008, due to end of year financial restraints. This did not stop me investigating how to setup my personal bluetooth headset! This did not work with the latest Lenovo-supplied drivers, as Windows XP did not fancy using my Plantronics M2500 headset as a supported headset/gateway. After hunting around I found different drivers, which appear to work for this function - and for connecting to my Nokia (6310i). This is exactly what I desire, even if the Bluetooth drivers do seem to fall-over during certain configuration steps...
The Plantronics Bluetooth headset has two faults. It is not fantastically comfortable, nor does it offer crisp sound quality. Both of these would make long conference calls rather more demanding on the body&mind. It is also important to realise that when receiving a call, you already need to have headset and laptop settings configured as needed - you cannot then decide to switch it on and turn the microphone and audio listening to Bluetooth. Thus charging the unit becomes important (daily) task, together with the alteration to the tool settings to switch between default and Bluetooth device options. Naturally, the headset has its place - the car or walk-about use connected to the Nokia is a good example... but I don't see myself using this as my ideal partner for my VOIP business calls. I may therefore yet take a look at the options for a USB headset.
If I could even be just part of the man that is Randy Pausch
Last Lecture, Carnegie-Mellon : September 2007
a lasting recollection of his contribution to inspiring young people in the Sciences shall be the Alice Project - the computer game that seeks to introduce children to computer programming through storytelling - what a wonderful "head fake" (as Randy would say)
Before
After
perhaps I should change back and see if there is an improvement?
then again, this makes use of a shared resource : the fibre-optic cable that heads out of the building... perhaps someone started a HUGE download between my tests? it is also the case that in the second test I have a secure connection to work going on - which will also reduce the observed efficiency of internet test results
Next day (bright and early, no VPN)
Better, but still not quite what I was expecting. I was wishing to see something closer to 20M than bordering on 10M. We are supposed to be on 30M, with fibre-optic upgrade due later this year...
My goals have been redefined in recent months. Or rather, the expression of my goals has been redefined. And this is done in 'opposition' to the pathways that many cohort members, and close friends and family have followed...
I have stated that I wish to bring my private life to the front of the queue, and to meld my professional life around this.
Symbolic reference to stones, pebbles and sand in a glass container (do a google search) would probably get the point across quite well. However I have opted for a quote from The Great Booch on career advice :
I've mentored six people in IBM, so I do this a lot. What I say is follow your passion, because if you don't you won't have any fun and if you're not having fun you should be doing something else.
As I am renewing my acquaintances with JMS in MQ I thought I should keep track of where I have been on the 'net... to leave behind some breadcrumbs for when I get lost - again
There exists a youth organisation for providing young people with business experience. This is one that has escaped my attention even though it is close to my heart. So the following links relate to Junior Entreprise
Walking the Digital Dog - by Roo Reynolds
Roo is a great speaker, and serially enthusiastic about metaverse technology
I wish I could attend...
Ubuntu : I adore you
and even more after seeing your mild humour that springs out from your employment pages. In a recent job posting asking for certain language skills, with preference for French and Spanish to Klingon and Esperanto. Although honestly, your business activity and methodology of operation is appealing.
As for Sophia-Antipolis, or rather the recruiters seeking to coerce a contract in the region... you are a little early! Yes, I would love to work in the area - it has magical reviving natural light, it offers sun, sea - and more importantly for me... mountains! the culture is great - and I would even accommodate the annoying tourists (and some locals) who execute stupendous parking manoeuvres up to a few km from the beach. To be honest, I would prefer to live slightly retreated from the sea, ideally on the hill-side that offers a superb view out over both countryside and water. The timing for this might be 2-3 years, to allow for some local acclimatisation (Bordeaux, France) and to permit my lady to undertake her first footsteps into her professional life ~ holding a job offer at a prestigious institution. And this thought-process is not influenced by the particular institution being located in the vicinity of a highly prestigious wine-making region of France!
For now, my desire is to find a role that offers me the opportunity to display my skill range - perhaps taking on a little more risk for the reward of greater experience. My current status permits me to look outside of my employer, although I am also very much investigating what is feasible internally too. A rapidly growing new business opportunity, a fledgling organisation, a new venture - these may well seek a variety of skills that will need to expand (and retract) with the evolution of the group. A monolithic arena may be appropriate if the mandate permits change management at a deep level --- in the style of the Italian card game Machiavelli - well at least the way I play it!
LOIC = Lack of Imperial College Syndrome, has the following symptoms:
external
Tasked to evaluate the options for Internet for flat in France.
Currently using cable service provider, with the following vital statistics:
Note: this was via VPN connection to work, and running a number of applications - so does not represent maximum rate for either upload nor download.
Must admit, the ADSL dependency on a telephone line does make the cable option seem more attractive - from a financial perspective. Being slightly tech-driven this is not the only issue at stake; a chat with a sales person from Numericable informed me that we should be getting an upgrade to fibre-optic shortly, and that from late November there is a new modem on offer (with deposit) that will solve our WiFi needs too.
The Cable option costs less, offers greater speed, and potentially will grant us wireless facility. It is not rocket science... but poor customer service - the charged an extra month when service was not available, have previously lied about contract details (3 month offer reduced price package, with option to change down to cheaper tariff at end of 3 months), costly customer service who speak with North African accent... etc - now less clear
related link: numericable.fr
And for those people in Belgium, take a look at the telecom comparison site of speed.be. With offers for reductions for subscribers.
In who do we trust? UK government IT projects don't have a particularly healthy track record, so it will be of great interest to follow the Stork Project, a proposal to validate the compatibility of different EU ID papers.
Odd-ball link: A website that serves to publicise new web-site launches. launchfeed.com. Certainly offers mild entertainment to see what people are creating...
Conclusion of personal market analysis:
Auchan "A-Mobile : Hyperlibre"
Why? simplicity of costs, including reduced international SMS charges.
How? Initially through online listing of options prepaidgsm.net, then individual costing verification based on intended usage.
Now to explore the 9 ADSL options...
Handy links:
Tech Shops : Planète Saturn, www.RueDuCommerce.fr
Sadly, from the experience of family and friends, it would seem that PhoneHouse.fr is not up to scratch in comparison to TheCarPhoneWarehouse.co.uk that I know from my years in UK. The customer service is shoddy.
Lesson 1 : do not hoover your laptop with the domestic vacuum cleaner.
Why? because it will suck up one or more keyboard buttons leading you to open up the bag and search for the missing pieces.
Oops - learnt from experience. At least I have a slightly cleaner laptop now...
End of lessons. Although today I also learnt something else - what could be seen as a .Net variant of the EU Provenance Project : networkedplanet.com. An ex-colleague has gone out to create their own company, with this as their core product offering. This appears to present a more database schema view of the data - rather than tracing the origins of the data, and what actions have been taken on the data itself.
Investigations include Project Zero (www.projectzero.org), to renew my professional and personal attachment to Eclipse activities... together with exploration of the ongoing development of IBM WebSphere products. That reminds me: JMS on WMQ, must search brain for existing knowledge... and perhaps give pointers to others
Job Applications. Seeking to work in Europe? then why not take a look at the Europass CV templates?
side-note: lemonade.com reminds me of quest from Hardip for self-sufficient business model...
Solar's Day in the Sun (businessweek.com)
(and there I was thinking it was something to do with The Sun newspaper...)
For those curious to know more about the technology, check out www.ausra.com.
OK, it is not fair - this I can admit, but it is not good when you try to book train tickets and the error message at the last stage is not helpful!
The SNCF website appears to suffer from a bug. Selecting to receive tickets to a foreign country is not recognised by the system - so once you have found the ticket (which no doubt goes up in price as you struggle to book a ticket) and you proceed to check-out... sadly at the end you are told you have selected a delivery address outside of France, so must start again. Tried Firefox, IE - even registered for a SNCF web-user profile - but all to no avail. Sadly there is only a premium rate number to call, which is quite poor really.
Thankfully I was able to locate a ticket using the English site for RailEurope - so paid in GBP with £5,- charge for recorded postage of tickets. Will look forward to "next day delivery" on Monday or Tuesday.
Future Task: to evaluate the use of the Carte Escapade for 25-40% off journeys over 200km from SNCF
So my journey continues...
Handy Links:
Money exchange saving ideas : Fool.com Travel Money and Fool.com Discussion board posting
Make a survey : surveymonkey.com
For statistics on education in higher education hesa.ac.uk
BCS Developing the Future (snippets of tech talent) bcs.org link
Article on FT.com is MBA curriculum correct?
Ft.com Business School - put house in order
MBA Gym mbagym.com
European Quality Improvement System (EQUIS) wikipedia.org, efmd.org
AACSB wikipedia.org and aacsb.edu
Assessment of AACSB from mba-courses.com
US view on EU MBA mba-courses.com
FT rankings ft.com
The business school in a busy world article link
RAE assessment rae.ac.uk
Creating the Entrepreneurial University: The Case of MIT abstract link
Babson entrepreneurship babson.edu link
Capability definition debate link to paper
Government goals and entrepreneurship education – an investigation at a Grande Ecole in France link to paper
European Academy of Business in Society eabis.org Governance
Strategy as Practice community link
Strategic Planning wikipedia.org
Strategy definition tutor2u.net what-is
GMAC gmac.com
GMAT mba.com
IESE Leadership GURU on iese.edu
IESE Faculty learning on iese.edu
Quote
Charles Handy - organisation culture (first definition using Greek Gods) link
Cervante's Don Quixote, "Ladran, luego Cabalgamos" - "The dogs bark because we are advancing..." Even more appropriate when the dogs in question are toothless. from: comment on ft.com
Extra
MBA Sports: MBAT Games
External
- Law at Harvard blogs.law.harvard.edu/cyberone
- Jazz jazz.net
- Project Zero projectzero.org/wiki
Internal
- Virtual Universe Community : wiki pages
- V team offerings: Getting Started, SL Sampler, Primer, Active Worlds, First Build Help
Building a performant computer, thanks to thefreegeek
Ft.com offers a take on volatility and risk analysis
Leadership development from mindtools.com
RAEng education sponsorship... (a little late now for sponsorship)
Efficiency measurements using isixsigma.com/library for 6Sigma & TRIZ
(internal company link) ExtremeBlue - previous projects, and curious (non-working) provenance link
David Seah thoughts on resource planning and task planning
watch out for the guy behind you with red eyes!
Since starting full time studies in September 2006, things have moved on through the core courses and into specialisation electives! but there are a few items to share from this period...
The first term was filled by core course topics. I could bore you with some description, but it is water under bridge now - perhaps my coursework and exam marks will offer suitable indication of how I view each course. ;o)
Sadly none of my photos remain from period as at this time some computer demons decided to play with my laptop hard-disk - which became "a little unavailable" (ok, to be honest - I formatted the first 7Mb of the boot partition in error - oops). A rebuild later and we are back up and running...
It might be fun to share some images and videos from exam study... watch this space
ok, so I arrived a touch late - sorry Matt!
For some reason Matt & Co thought that Miss N was with me... (the reality was that I had been helping some ladies a little earlier and hence was running a little late, but Miss N was elsewhere)
picture on right was taken as I ran from bottom of Regents Street to Covent Garden, as the bus had decided to stop moving forward! I arrived a touch after the starters had been served...
