Orlando

Phil Fersht:

Orlando is my version of a very, very bad dream: a world where you can actually buy a fake Guinness in a fake Irish pub, and get stuck behind entire families in lengthy queues where the kids start at 220lbs… you never normally ever see people like this, but somehow Orlando acts as a magnet for over-sized, under-cultured plasticity.  Seriously, why bother with Guantanamo for interrogations? Just lock suspects in Epcot for a couple of days and we’ll find out who killed JFK, which Ritz-Carlton Osama Bin Laden resides in these days, and even where Bernie stashed his $50 billion…

Could no agree more…

Cool Tools and more

The more gadgets you carry, the more loose cables fly around your bags. One solution is shown over at Chiefhomeofficer.com: Cables astray no more

Customer satisfaction surveys anyone?

Phun is a free game like 2D physics sandbox where you can play with physics like never before. The playful synergy of science and art is novel, and makes Phun as educational as it is entertaining.

(via)

SkypeKiller claims to be able to remotely kill Skype installations in corporate networks. Anyone having experience with this tool?

ThinkGeek with a hacked FlashDrive for the Uber-Geek that has everything.

HomeOfficeVoice with 7 simple steps for a Clutter Free Home Office. How much would I love to get there (at least almost…).

Twitter moves closer to Google Friend Connect instead of going the open way. (via) We´ll see what that means. Maybe on the MBC09 this week – and no, I cannot be there due to some obligations I cannot turn down.

Another free mindmapping tool, yet to be tested: XMind

Ben Casnocha on Caitlin Flanagans writing, especially her piece in the December 2008 Atlantic. I have two girls, so this is at least interesting for me.

10 Inspiring Last Lectures and Commencement Speeches Everyone Should Watch. Quite good ones, actually…

I guess no one has a clue yet how Twitter wants to make money from his service, but they are going to hire a Product Manager. Probably they should have thought earlier about that. Related, it looks like others have figured out how to make money off Twitter. Over at Scoble: “Tumblr’s CEO brainstorms microblog monetization“. Probably now it is more important than ever to have the monetization right early.

Need to understand flowcharts? Here it is:

Lifehacker with the Most Popular Free Windows Downloads of 2008

Cloud Computing Corner:

1. How to set up Amazon Cloudfrom to work with S3. ´Nuff said.
2. A Beginners guide to running JumpBox on Amazon´s EC2 service (via)
3. Cloudfront Management Tools (via)

Seth Godin: How to send a personal email. Priceless:

Just because you have someone’s email address doesn’t mean you have the right to email them.

Google has released Blog Converters. (via)

Scoble on how you have to socially network in case you are laid off. Ok, from an US perspective, but a lot holds true also in Europe or elsewhere.

I am traveling quite a lot, so always interesting to see how others do when it comes to packing. WebWorkerDaily:  How Travel Veterans Pack For a Trip

Worth to read as well is the list of things that Tim Ferriss has learned and loved in 2008.

The TOP 25 Most Dangerous Programming Errors. Yes, that might be the 25 most dangerous, but do we believe they get eliminated?

Stunning: Earth, observed. From the – probably – best picture blog in the world.

This is courage: The Man Who Said No to Wal-Mart

Mobility Packs of german bloggers (in German):

• Nico Lumma
• Konstantin Klein (bluelectric.org)
  
• Jens Matheuszik (pottblog)
• Thomas Gigold
• Sven Rohweder (rowi)
• Andreas Turm (Wortwerkstatt)

Shocking. Matthew Alexander on irrogation techniques and  torture in Iraq (via)

• in the Washington Post
• in Harper´s Magazine

Interesting. Russ Juskalian in Columbia Journalism Review interviewing Clay Shirky.

How Newspapers tries to invent the Web. But Failed. Jack Shafer in Slate. Recommended.

In case you didn´t know: How to burn a Windows 7 .ISO to DVD

Leo Babauta (ZenHabits, Power of Less) interviews Tim Ferriss (4 hour workweek). Take the time.

From the Personal MBA blog:

Here are the three best resources I’ve found to explain what’s happening in the financial markets – they make great “Friday Reading”:

• A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis by Jess Bachman
• The End of Wall Street’s Boom by Michael Lewis
• Inside Wall Street’s Black Hole by Michael Lewis

NY Times (now only for subscribers/registered users): The End of the Financial World as We Know It (via)

Charlie Rose interviewing Malcolm Gladwell. (via)

Balsamiq Mockup helps to create application mockups in minutes. Even more interesting than the tool is the commercial success of the creator, described here. Fan-tas-tic. (via)

Tech, Economy and more – in english and german

The End. Michael Lewis on the end of Wall Street as we know it.

Google is also tightening its belt: Google Gears Down for Tougher Times, see also here: Google Cost Cuts Take The Company Away From Its Engineers

Quite some short-term actions:

• A sense of urgency about diversifying the business, which means new priorities include display ads, mobile ads and enterprise software.
• Non-revenue generating products will starve if they’re not killed altogether. Project the company is just “fiddling with,” Schmidt told the WSJ will get “will get “naturally smaller as people get plucked off.”
• Reigning confusion. One Google  current operations manager told the Journal: “It’s not exactly clear where that bottom line is now. I don’t think they know that either.”
• Dispirited engineers. Google no longer belongs to the dreamy engineers and it’s going to make them feel bad. Quoth the Journal: “Some engineers complain they can no longer tap the employees and machines they need to develop their ideas. This is no small issue among elite programmers, many of whom joined the company for the chance to work on such projects, according to current and former employees.”
• Cramped quarters. Google will close offices in Dallas and Denver.
• Shutting off services. Search sandbox SearchMash, virtual world Lively and Google Page Creator will soon be gone. Google Audio Indexing and Google Notebook could follow.
• More grunt work. Google wants to “significantly” cut its 10,000 its contractor workforce and somebody has to pick up the slack.

possibly related: 10 Resources for Beginning Freelancers

I mentioned already twice reviews of Malcolm Caldwells Outliers. Garr has a look on Malcoms presentation style. Spend the time, it´s worthwile.

This is just fantastic. Queen Rania of Jordania in her acceptance speech explaining why she has launched her channel on Youtube, Letterman Style. Awesome. (via)

BTW, Joi has married today. Congratulations and all the best for you!

Honestly, I get a bit tired of all the “Green Computing” meme going around. And while I like basically the concept, I do not like the notion used in this particular context, but the new Lotus Domino attachment and object service (DAOS) looks quite interesting. (via and via).

Und noch ein paar Links in Deutsch:

Spreeblick mit ein paar Ergebnissen einer Studie über das politische Verhalten von Migrantengruppen im Internet: Migranten im Netz

Ein Interview mit Henning Kagermann im Handelsblatt: „Die Welt wird anders aussehen“

Do´s and dont´s auf der Weihnachtsfeier im Büro: Eine folgenschwere Party – aber das wisst ihr ja schon 😉

Ich gehe auf die re:publica’09 vom 1.-3.April 2009 in Berlin. Das Thema: Shift happens

2008 Latest Edition – Did You Know 3.0 – From Meeting in Rome this Year

Catch of the day

Some good picks from the last days in english, a post with german picks will follow right away:

• ZDNet: 5 reasons to kill IT projects – seen them all, but why get companies trapped over and over and over again?
• Seth Godin: How to make money using the Internet – simple: Connect.

Connect the disconnected to each other and you create value.

* Connect advertisers to people who want to be advertised to.
* Connect job hunters with jobs.
* Connect information seekers with information.
* Connect teams to each other.
* Connect those seeking similar.
* Connect to partners and those that can leverage your work.
* Connect people who are proximate geographically.
* Connect organizations spending money with ways to save money.
* Connect like-minded people into a movement.
* Connect people buying with people who are selling.

• Dave Winer: It’s about the users, dummy! – true, so true:
  

  Listening is hard. But all people who create products for users must listen if they want to do well at making products. That includes doctors, bus drivers, mailmen, entrepreneurs, programmers, and yes, reporters and editors too. Because if you don’t listen you might miss a corner-turn and end up going off a cliff, just like the news industry is doing. They see the cliff, they know they’re headed for it, but they don’t ask how to turn the car. They don’t really want to know. I think sometimes what they want is to be missed when they lie dead in a crumpled car at the bottom of the cliff. But we don’t want that to happen. Not because we love them, but because life without them is pretty hard to imagine. They should turn the corner, no matter how painful it is. But in order to do it, they’re going to have to look out the front window and the mirrors and listen to the person in the passenger seat.

• related, Garr Reynolds: Design means putting yourself in the user’s shoes
  

  Design is about many things. Above all, it’s about clarity, and intentions and about putting yourself in the position of the end users (or the customers, students, audience, etc.). When designs are not well thought out, even though it may all look good from our point of view, users get frustrated, confused, or even angry.

  The example of the hotel keycards is just brilliant.

• Ed Brill reporting from his recent business trip to New Zealand and why good relationships are so important:
  

  People sometimes ask me why I think Twitter is so valuable. While we’re not directly conducting business on there very often, I do learn a lot through what others are talking about, and it helps me get a clearer picture of names in the industry. One fine example took place at the customer luncheon in Sydney last week. Someone stood up to ask me a question, and he started by telling me that he was @hollingsworth on Twitter, who had been giving me restaurant recommendations for the last few days in Sydney. Knowing who he was and that he was a Twitter user was helpful in answering his question, because it gave me an opportunity to mention TwitNotes, the Twitter plug-in for Lotus Notes 8. Our connection was immediately stronger despite having never met in-person nor even so much as heard Tony’s name before.

• David Pogue giving a deastrous verdict on the Blackberry Storm: No Keyboard? And You Call This a BlackBerry?
• John Maynard Keynes: The Great Slump of 1930 – interesting to read in this trouble some times. (via)

Another day, another city

and another Blogpost, today from Lucé, France, close to Chartres.

• Doc Scrubber is supposed to clean your Word documents from hidden relics of earlier edits (via)
• CIO Magazine reporting “AT&T iPhone Official Tethered Modem Solution Coming Soon“, but linking to three interesting posts for us poor Blackberry addicts:
  • BlackBerry How To: Use Your RIM Smartphone As a Tethered Modem for Your PC
  • why tethered, when you can have it work via Bluetooth: RIM Smartphone How To: Use Your BlackBerry as a Bluetooth Modem for Your PC
  • and the BlackBerry Bible: Everything You Need to Know About Your RIM Smartphone
  • and yes, I know that Volker had long time ago an article on how you could use the Blackberry as a tethered modem, later also via BT
• The Dumb Little Man with The 10 Most Useful Google Reader Productivity Tips – I use some already and will look at the others. Thumbs up!
• and, as we had the Blackberry earlier, Lifehacker with 10 Great Free Apps for Blackberry – again,  know some and will look at the rest as well.

• Bailout Humor from Vinnie – just had to take a fullquote:

  Heard on Wall Street and Main Street

  “This is worse than a divorce – I have lost half my net worth and I am still stuck with my spouse” 🙂

• Lot of people are concerned that President-elect Barack Obama will have to abandon his Blackberry usage – or is this just a program to cure a Crackberry addiction?
• Joel pointing to a review of the newest book from Malcolm Gladwell. Cem had a link lately to another review, but the NYT is quite critical.
• been in meetings of this kind (thanks Scott):
• 
• Chris Anderson on “The miraculous power of scale“. Great article with a excellent conclusion: “Free is not a business–it’s zero-cost marketing for a business. And it works best at the largest scale: a small percentage of a big number is a big number.”
• and a last one, in german for us travelers that occasionally have to drop one flight segment. A new ruling from a german court keeps the return ticket valid, even if the first flight was dropped: “Rückflugticket bleibt bei verpasstem Hinflug gültig“

Thursday evening linkdump

Eine Woche mit ziemlich Aktivität geht so langsam zu Ende. Und ich räume mal wieder die angesammelten Tabs in Firefox ab:

• Wenn man zuviel Zeit hat…. – Matt Westcott hat in Javascript einen Sinclair ZX Spectrum programmiert, komplett mit Spielen von damals
• Garr Reynolds über Seth Godins Buch “Tribes“. Wir gehören ja alle zu einem (oder mehreren Stämmen). Kommt auf die Wunschliste.
• Ich lese gerade den “Black Swan” von Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Faszinierend. Hier zwei Artikel aus der FAZ:
  • Frank Schirrmacher “Da staunte der Truthahn“
  • Jordan Mejias im Gespräch mit Nassim Nicholas Taleb “Banker weg, wir brauchen eine Revolution!“
• GTD. Auch so´n Hype. Und ein Tool, das einem dabei helfen soll: GTD-free. Mal bei Gelegenheit antesten.
• Und ein Schwung Posts von Nick Carr. Irgendwie ist sein Blog ein must-read, auch wenn man nicht immer seiner Meinung sein kann oder muss:
  • Zur aktuellen Blog-Sinnkrise: Who killed the Blogosphere?
  • Über Zuckerberg’s Second Law. Es besagt “The amount of information we disclose about ourselves will, like the number of transistors on a slice of silicon, double every year.” So, was war nur Zuckerberg´s First Law? Ach ja: “Once every hundred years media changes.”
  • Ein Kommentar von Nick zu einem hochinteressanten Artikel in der LA Times: “The Internet vs. books: Peaceful coexistence“. Im Post der Kommentar von Tom Lord, den Nick nochmal komplett repostet hat: “Tom Lord on ritual, knowledge and the web“. Das macht Blogs so viel interessanter und reicher als kurze Tweets oder Dents. Die dienen dann nur zum Verweis an den Ort der echten Debatte.
  • und über “The new economics of computing” – Möglichketen und Potentiale, die Cloud Computing eröffnet.
• ein Testbericht über die Nikon D700. Wenn das Teil nicht so verdammt teuer wäre (und ich mehr/besser fotografieren könnte)
• finde last.fm so langsam richtig gut. Auch da bin ich der authsider
• Vinnie findet “Enterprise SLAs are so yesterday” und sagt “while outsourcers have some very demanding clients with 24x7x365 uptime SLAs, the majority of their contracts have plenty of evening and weekend downtime hours where their SLAs do not even apply. It is ironic that many outsourcers brag about “enterprise grade SLAs” and actually look down on Google and other SaaS availability as consumerish and amateurish.” Tja, 99,9% Verfügbarkeit oder mehr hört sich ja gut an, aber nur wenn das ganze Jahr gemeint ist und wir nicht jede Woche eine Nacht für planned maintenance abziehen müssen.
  
  Im Post ein Link zu einem Post von Daniel Druker: SaaS Service Level Agreement 2.0
  Gute Merkpunkte, wenn man SLAs für SaaS vereinbaren will oder muss:
  • Establish a system availability SLA, based on average monthly availability, with bonuses for overachieving and increasingly steep penalties for downtime beyond the agreed level.
  • Establish a system response time SLA, based on average monthly response time, with penalties for slow system performance.
  • Establish an error resolution time SLA, with different windows for different severity levels (system down vs. workaround) and again with penalties for not being responsive.
  • Establish a fail over window for disaster recovery SLA in the case of a catastrophic failure of the vendor’s infrastructure.
  • Ensure that you can get your data back if you ever decide to leave, and that the vendor will assist you in migrating away, for an appropriate professional services fee.
• Der Economist mit einem netten Bericht, wie Porsche kürzlich die Hedgefonds und andere Leerverkäufer abgezogen hat. Wendelin Wiedeking und Holger Härter sind die besten Zocker im ganzen Land.
• Das US-Justizministerium hats auch gemerkt: DOJ Taps Google as New Microsoft – “The Department’s investigation revealed that Internet search advertising and Internet search syndication are each relevant antitrust markets and that Google is by far the largest provider of such services, with shares of more than 70 percent in both markets.”
• Jürgen Dollase in der FAZ über Olivier Roellinger, einen französischen Spitzenkoch, der seine Michelin-Sterne zurückgibt: “Abschied von den Sternen“. Respekt.
• Google beginnt auch mit cost-cutting. Zumindestens in New York.
• Zoho Status. Das ist Transparenz, die man sich von IT-Dienstleistern – egal ob für Services in der Cloud oder klassiche Hosting-Services wünscht. (via)
• Killer Consultant Florian Hollender mit einem Post über besseres packen für den Business-Trip und einem Verweis auf einen klasse Podcast bei Manager Tools zum Thema. Anhören!
• Vinnie nochmal, hier mit einem Rant über SAP, gescheiterte Projekte und den Ausstieg aus dem Hostinggeschäft: “Those who ignore history…“. Ja, ist eine Menge wahres dran…
• Robert mit einem Verweis auf “Das Schweigen der Quandts“. Jaja, ich bin zu spät, aber er hat doch den Link auf Google Video drin, zum spätergucken.

So, das isses. Alle Tabs abgeräumt. Schönen Abend noch.

Dixie Highway

Ja, wir sind auch kurz auf dem Dixie Highway unterwegs gewesen, daher jetzt die Hymne von Journey zur guten Nacht:

Beobachtungen in Amerika

Diese Woche war ich für ein paar Tage geschäftlich in den USA. Über Chicago O´Hare nach Kalamazoo geflogen und von dort aus mit einem Kollegen drei Werke besucht. Gestern wieder retour und heute morgen kurz vor sieben wieder in Düsseldorf gelandet.

Im Süden von Michigan kann man die Auswirkungen der aktuellen Krise hautnah sehen: An jedem zweiten Haus steht eine Werbetafel für einen der Kandidaten bei der bevorstehenden Präsidentenwahl. Das ist ja an sich nicht bemerkenswert, wären an den anderen Häusern nicht auch Schilder zur Strasse hin. Auf denen steht allerdings weder “Obama” oder “McCain”, sondern “For Sale”. Das ist schon ziemlich bedrückend, man hat den Eindruck dass fast jeder dort von der Krise unmittelbar betroffen ist und sein Haus verkaufen muss.

Und dann hört man von den amerikanischen Kollegen täglich das Update über die aktuellen Wertverluste ihrer 401K-Pensionspläne. Da wird einem echt übel. Und die Aktionen von Regierungen und Nationalbanken verpuffen im nichts, kaum dass sie bekanntgegeben werden. Frustrierend.

Ich hatte auch das zweifelhafte Vergnügen, die Kandidatendebatte dieser Woche live bei CNN – zumindest in Auszügen (bin irgendwann eingeschlafen) – sehen zu dürfen. Danach würde ich mich sehr wundern, wenn der nächste Präsident McCain hiesse. Und damit ist alles zu diesem Thema gesagt.

UMTS-surfen mit pay as you go

Ich weiss ja nicht, wie Robert immer die Perlen aus dem Wust herausfischt, der tagtäglich auf ihn einströmt, aber dieser Tip war wirklich gut. Ich habe nämlich auch schon länger nach so einer Lösung für akute Notfälle gesucht wie: kein WLAN, kein LAN oder nur prohibitive Angebote. Dann ist das Angebot von Fonic ohne Grundgebühr mit einem Flat-Tarif von 2,50 EUR pro Tag eine gute Alternative, auch wenn der Surfstick mit SIM-Card einmalig 90 EUR kostet.

Montag bestellt, Donnerstag geliefert, abends noch Aktivierung durchgeführt und heute mittag blinkt das Lämpchen blau und die Kiste geht. Prima.

Bella Roma

Ja, Rom. Einer meiner Lieblingsstädte. Das Zentrum überschaubar und gut zu Fuß zu erschließen. Kirchen, Monumente überall und der Atem der Geschichte weht durch jede Strasse. Überall Eiscafés und Kaffeebars, wenn man eine Pause machen will.

Kiki war gerade da und hat ein schönes Schild in Trastevere gefunden (gesehen bei Cem).

Ihren Eindruck über die kulinarischen Genüsse kann ich absolut bestätigen, sogar in den hochtouristischen Ecken Roms, z.B. in der Nähe der spanischen Treppe bekommt man ausgezeichnet zubereitete Gerichte zum angemessenen Preis:

Kulinarisch ist Italien natürlich grundsätzlich ein ”Wow”-Erlebnis, schon mittags. Die simpelsten Gerichte sind ja gelegentlich die am schwierigsten zuzubereitenden und ich war daher freudig überrascht von der durchschnittlich hervorragenden Qualität der dargebotenen Spaghetti al Pomodoro, Scallopine al Limone, den Antipasti oder auch einem einfachen Bisteca.

Bei Kaffee habe ich persönlich einen anderen Favoriten als sie, auf den uns ein paar liebe Kollegen (Danke Maurizio und Fabio!) gebracht haben. Zwischen Pantheon und Piazza Navona liegt die Kaffeebar Sant’ Eustachio, die auch selber röstet. Der Kaffee ist fantastisch, auf die Hand geht der Café (= Espresso) für ca. einen Euro mit. Und immer daran denken: im Laden an der Kasse bezahlen, dann den Kaffee mit dem Bon beim Barista abholen. Nie draussen hinsetzen und bedienen lassen, das ist nur für die Touristen – und ein mehrfaches teurer. Die Bohnen zum mitnehmen für die Macchina zu Hause sind nicht billig, aber absolut ihren Preis wert.

Lustig ist das Logo, der Hirsch erinnert mich allerdings an Jägermeister (Achtung, Flash-Alarm!).