Thursday, October 25, 2007

Cable internet speed-up

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...




Our family connection in Belgium (ADSL max. 6144/640 but locally only 3Mb download available) registers following speed:

Following the right path : follow the passion

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.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

JMS specific

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

  • Starting from scratch requires a simple JMS-WAS application and other articles by Saket
    • real starting points might be to read the JMS specification, but a brief idea can be gathered from wikipedia.org
    • wikipedia also describes a specific implementation here, which is handy for detailing the difference queue manager bindings and client connections (bindings connection is via direct software communication, whereas client connections use network). As always there is a pay-off to be had between speed and flexibility.
  • Handy links on developerWorks offered at foot of this XMS guide
  • When things go pear-shaped, then a WAS trace guide might be handy

More things specifically French

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

I shall seek to establish links within the local area of France to see what help I can offer...

If you get a chance - go see this

Walking the Digital Dog - by Roo Reynolds

Roo is a great speaker, and serially enthusiastic about metaverse technology
I wish I could attend...

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Jobs & Comments

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 Syndrome Diagnosis,{aka PMS : Post MBA Syndrome}


LOIC = Lack of Imperial College Syndrome, has the following symptoms:

  • Constantly need to login to see your Imperial email
  • You open your sleepy eyes in a dim room and you think you are back in the lecture theatre studying accounting...
  • Physically going through the motion of swiping your card next to a door as if gaining access to TBS next to the ground-floor lecture theatre
    • sign-up for the TBS Alumni card - and it will let you in (but foolishly not into floor 1 to see careers; but at least you can go to the coffee bar and steal paper from the print room - great)
  • Missing library resources such as RefWorks - for citations, or EBSCO - for analyst reports...
  • Feel a need for more learning...

Friday, October 19, 2007

Task list

external


internal

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

All things Digital

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...

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

GSM/Mobiles in France


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.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Lessons and investigations...

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...

Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Would have made for a great MBA project on novel technology...

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.