Not the way to succes.. or not?

"Never write when you can talk. Never talk when you can nod. And never put anything in an e-mail" is what Eliot Spitzer, New York state attorney general, proclaims to be the golden rule for succes. "Choose your mistakes carefully" by Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist is another one. See the rules on Business 2.0 and decide for yourself if this is gold or utter utter cra%^.. Be yourself!

Barcelona.

Today I visited Barcelona. Got up at 5.00 h. and just returned home (23.00 h). Our company has the intention to add a Spanish company to our succesful portfolio of European companies. We are in due dilligence right now. I enjoyed the visit although we mostly talked business talk, this is a great company with great management. Several months ago I was able to visit Barça more in depth. In fact we were dropped on bycicles on Montserrat mountain and had to drive down ourselves..

Letter to God

Dear God,

This is my record of eternal gratitude to You.

You gave me birth in a most respected Hindu family, but not high enough in social status to make me proud.

You gave me a physical form well-admired for its perfection, but it was small enough to keep me humble.

You gave me education high enough to be most useful in life, but not high enough to make me proud.

You gave me success in sports high enough to be satisfied, but not proud.

You gave me a career in which You took me high enough to be admired, but not high enough to make me arrogant.

You gave me a wife and family for which I have always been eternally grateful, but You did not spare me some grief to remind me not to forget what life is all about, and to be always grateful for what I do have.

You did not forget to place an adequate number of temptations in my way so that I may not be too critical of others who have to face their own temptations.

I am now 84, and perhaps the only wish that remains is that the long life You have given me will not carry a burden at the end. But in that case, I know You will also give me the necessary'courage to go with it.

You gave me a lot to show me how little is needed to be content and how much could be given away. And, undoubtedly, the most important of all - as if the bounty You have showered on me were not enough - You crowned Your achievement by using this psychosomatic apparatus to convey to the world the most important message of Advaita.

Truly I amblessed. Or, indeed, my Beloved, have You not blessed Your self?!

Finally, it occurs to me, if You were to design for Yourself a life in phenomenality, could it have been much different from this one?

And, for this thought, no tears are enough to wash Your Noumenal feet.



Written by Ramesh S. Balsekar and published in the book 'The Ultimate Understanding'

Rare whisky lovers pay for a taste of the future

(TimesOnline) THE distillery has not yet been built, its first single malt will not be ready until 2017 and the exclusive members’ club it aims to create is still a derelict old hayloft.

You might think that investors who coughed up £1,850 for a rare dram that is no more than a twinkle in its creator’s eye might be advised to take more water with it. Already, though, more than 330 whisky lovers have paid that for the privilege of being first in the queue for this new private members distillery.

What if you find out the sky is falling..

Today, my little chicken and me saw Disneys movie Chicken Little (The sky is falling, Aliens, Underdogs, etc.) in the cinema. Looked like War of the worlds in drawings. Well, he got scared and I got sad despite the fact that we laughed a lot too. Anyway, the chicken saved the world.

Sam gone dogheaven

(CNN) Sam, the three time, undefeated champ of the "World's Ugliest Dog" contest (2003, 2004, 2005), no longer howles . The beautifull little K9 died last week. Rest in peace little beast..

Fourteen

Look, it cannot be seen - it is beyond form.
Listen, it cannot be heard - it is beyond sound.
Grasp, it cannot be held - it is intangible.
These three are indefinable, they are one.

From above it is not bright;
From below it is not dark:
Unbroken thread beyond description.
It returns to nothingness.

Form of the formless,
Image of the imageless,
It is called indefinable and beyond imagination.

Stand before it - there is no beginning.
Follow it and there is no end.

Stay with the Tao, Move with the present.
Knowing the ancient beginning is the essence of Tao.

Dutch Lord of the Rings

More positive news: Yuri van Gelder won gold on the rings at the world gymnastics championships in Melbourne. This flying Dutchman rules, congratulations Yuri! If my arms were only half the size of yours :-)

http://www.first8.org/

Frau Merkel (positive news, right?)

As a Protestant east German woman Angela Merkel, 51, broke the leadership mould in the CDU, traditionally dominated by Catholic west German men. She wants fundamental reforms to pull Germany's economy out of the doldrums - especially reducing staff costs and red tape for employers and raising sales tax.

Observers say she will need all her reputed toughness to push them through while holding a potentially fractious "grand coalition" with the Social Democrats together.

I hope Germany will not provide Europe a second Iron Lady. But for now she has got the benefit of my doubt. Go Angie! Make that economy rock!

Positive news!

Yesterday I was invited for a beautifull diner at Jan Baan's "De Vanenburg Castle". We discussed (to be honest I listen and learn most of the time and sometimes feel like an imbecile) the way that the Dutch government utilizes IT and how the private sector can attribute to it. I feel positive about the outcome of the evening and inspired to contribute. I skippped the afterparty and decided to post positive news on my blog (after reading some other;-)

It took me a while but I found some on FoxNews: Students Return Lost Purse Containing $43,000.- Saturday, November 20, 2004

CASPER, Wyo. — Two Casper College (search) students returned a purse to its owner, not knowing it contained $43,000.
Derek Hepner and Adam Simanton were driving along South Durbin Street on Monday when they saw the purse in the gutter. They turned around, got out of their car and walked up to it.
The two pulled out a wallet and found an Arizona driver's license, and without looking further into the handbag, took it to police.
What they didn't see was an envelope containing $43,000 in cash.
It turned out to be the life savings of the woman who owns the purse, police Sgt. Larry Baker said Friday.

According to police, she was traveling through Casper, stopped briefly and misplaced her purse.
The woman on Thursday phoned Hepner to inform him of a $200 reward for the two, who graduated from Kelly Walsh High in 2003.
The students said they never thought of rummaging through the purse or keeping it, although they took some ribbing from their friends.

Dutch people have an unwritten law that the finder receives 10% finders fee. And WE are called niggardly all over the world?? From now on I call this tight-fistedness DOUBLE AMERICAN ....and another Ducth prejudice is enfeebled..:-)))

Head, Shoulders Knee and Toe

Best web-site I found on Relativity :-) this week. I'm done. Sleep well!

Via Janine

The Dirty War: Torture and mutilation used on Iraqi 'insurgents'

(Independend Online) Behind the daily reports of suicide bombings and attacks on coalition forces is a far more shadowy struggle, one that involves tortured prisoners huddled in dungeons, death-squad victims with their hands tied behind their backs, often mutilated with knives and electric drills, and distraught families searching for relations who have been "disappeared".

Last week the Pentagon admitted using white phosporus as an offensive weapon in last year's assault on Fallujah. Its official use is to create smokescreens to shield troop movements, but if fired into trenches or foxholes it can burn victims to the bone. The legality of this use is debatable. Last year the US also admitted, after previous denials, that it had used napalm - which Britain has banned - against Iraqi forces during the invasion. There is also controversy over the deployment of cluster munitions, which Britain has said should not be used in or near civilian areas.

Also, British-trained police operating in Basra have tortured at least two civilians to death with electric drills, The Independent on Sunday reveals today. I feel sad :-(

I am

The Sense of "I am" (Consciousness)

When I met my Guru, he told me: "You are not what you take yourself to be. Find out what you are. Watch the sense 'I am', find your real Self." I obeyed him, because I trusted him. I did as he told me. All my spare time I would spend looking at myself in silence. And what a difference it made, and how soon!

My teacher told me to hold on to the sense 'I am' tenaciously and not to swerve from it even for a moment. I did my best to follow his advice and in a comparatively short time I realized within myself the truth of his teaching. All I did was to remember his teaching, his face, his words constantly. This brought an end to the mind; in the stillness of the mind I saw myself as I am -- unbound.

I simply followed (my teacher's) instruction which was to focus the mind on pure being 'I am', and stay in it. I used to sit for hours together, with nothing but the 'I am' in my mind and soon peace and joy and a deep all-embracing love became my normal state. In it all disappeared -- myself, my Guru, the life I lived, the world around me. Only peace remained and unfathomable silence.

Nisargadatta Maharaj

Remember this!

Forget quantum physics, parallel universes and space time distortions. Forget everything else that I am driveling on and don't have the faintest clue of what I am writing down. Next year I will become an uncle for the first time. Five and a half years ago I allready became the father of my beautifull little boy Jord A.
I suddenly realized that there is only one thing I know for sure and that is my unconditional, unquestioning and universal love for him. Never forget that!

Article 1

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Take the Big Bang tour..

..and enjoy the ride!

Time is a waste of gravity

Time: earthbound time, space-time and timeless time. When I look upward, I earn time. When I look forward, I utilise time. When I look inward, I save time. When I look backward, I waste time.

Einstein, the world-renowned scientist, said something most striking: "When we sit with a nice girl for two hours, we think it is only for a minute. When we sit on a hot stove for a minute, we think it is for two hours. And that is relativity."

The Maya calendar uses three different dating systems in parallel, the Long Count, the Tzolkin (divine calendar), and the Haab (civil calendar). Of these, only the Haab has a direct relationship to the length of the year.

In our day-to day human experience we very often feel that time destroys us. Herbert Spencer, on behalf of suffering humanity, says, "Time is that which man always tries to kill, but which ends in killing him." We try to kill time.

But what actually happens is that time ultimately kills us, devours us. Our hopes are dashed, our desires are frustrated. When founded on insincerity, doubt, worries and anxieties, our aspiration unfortunately fails to bear fruit. The pity of mankind.

Earthbound time: In our day-to-day life we use earthbound time. I call that gravitational time. This Newtonian time measures all our activities and can itself be measured-one hour, two hours, three hours. Again, one hour is divided into sixty minutes, one minute into sixty seconds. We can break earthbound time into pieces. We can pick the time; we can be on time. Early in the morning, at six o'clock, we will get up. At eight o'clock we shall be in the office. At eleven o'clock at night we will go to bed. Time is registering our life-activities.

Eventually Einstein concluded that gravity was an effect of the space-time through which objects fall. What is space-time? It's an abstraction that causes physicists, in desperation, to start babbling about sheets and bowling balls. When a massive object (the ball) distorts space-time, then other objects tend to fall toward the resulting "valley" of space-time.
Thus for gravity, Einstein substituted geometry. Gravity thus, is a direct consequence of time.

But timeless time (non gravitational time) is totally different. It is like a river flowing into the sea, merging into the sea and finally becoming one with the sea. On the strength of its oneness, it becomes the boundless vast. In this über-dimension (see former article) all information exists everywhere and allways. Scientists talk about space-time distortion where space-time loops back onto itself creating instant acces to history or future. Try to imagine an infinite number of space-time distortions everywhere at the same time. The meta-universe as a container to every possible parallel universe.

Here the finite enters into the Infinite and loses itself. But what happens when the Infinite plays its role in the finite?

Mind does matter!

When Descartes speculates that some "evil genius" may be deceiving us entirely about the nature of reality he has literally anticipated the holding tanks and program architecture of the Matrix. According to dr. Nick Bostrom it could well be possible that we all live in a matrix without even knowing it..

I couldn't agree more on that thought. If we look at our four dimensional world, it's not possible to explain many things. Why do twins feel each others pain even when they live on seperate continents? Why can we sometimes read each others mind? Why do we feel a telephone call coming?

If we consider the possibility of a multiple dimensional world where we only understand four of them at the moment, the other dimensions on a quantum level could be the cause of the unexplained. One of these dimension we could call an information matrix. When we tap into that dimension, we have an infinite and timeless source of information available. Our mind is subconsiously connected to this dimension (in Yogic terms called Akasha).

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.” Our thoughts determine the present and future of what is contained within our lives. It’s all about our choices. Mind is matter. How and what we choose, upon what we focus, concentrate, or direct our attention, and where we spend our mental and emotional energies -- this is precisely what we will attract or draw to ourselves.

And the universe always provides :-)

Short on copper?

Liu, a trader in London with the State Reserves Bureau (SRB), has disappeared after building gigantic short positions in the metal, said to range from 100,000 to 600,000 tons. Liu apparently decided that prices of the metal would fall, and tried to take advantage of this by selling vast amounts of copper he did not actually possess for December delivery. Traders in London guessed that losses to the Chinese government could amount to US$200 million, and warned that China could find itself excluded from metal markets if it failed to cover Liu's contracts. Liu himself remained missing, although the South China Morning Post reported that he was believed to be at home in Shanghai.
The solutions looks simple to me: Just melt down the many million copper statues of the short red-book chairman! Again another problem solved. Seems like a good time to start the weekend!

Asteroid Apophis 500 meters in diameter to ram into Earth in 2029

(PRAVDA) On April 13th, 2029, the asteroid may crush into Earth causing an explosion 100 times bigger than the blast of the A-bomb dropped on Hiroshima in 1945. A large part of Moscow is likely to disappear. Apophis was discovered by Steve Chesley at NASA in June 2004. He stirred up a lot a buzz among his colleagues by saying that the thing is definitely going to ram into Earth. The colleagues rushed to telescopes and checked the photographs of the celestial sky. They found the asteroid on a photograph taken back in March.

Five billion years ago the planet Phaeton - located between Mars and Jupiter, the area where the orbit of most asteroids lie - exploded into millions of bits after being hit by an asteroid 1,000 meters wide. The asteroid that destroyed Phaeton also went on to cause the demise of life on Mars, when one of the fragments of the shattered planet whacked into Mars, causing it to sink into a grim nuclear winter that killed all life forms and turned it the bright red color it is today. I hope that "little rock" doesn't hit the Ost-Alko distillery in the Moscow region where they make the delicious Smirnov and Absolute Vodka..

Outsourcing?

Yesterday evening, I was invited by KPMG to join a discussion on shared service centers, nearshoring, offshoring and outsourcing. The seminar took place in the Royal Hilton Hotel Soestduinen. The outcome of the seminar was not surprising. "Be carefull with big-bang outsourcing", "make sure to have a bullet proof business case".. To my knowledge it is advisable to insource the outsourcing partner a year before you want to give away your processes.

Oriah Mountain Dreamer

The Invitation

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love for your dream for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon... I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shrivelled and closed from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain - mine or your own - without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy - mine or your own - if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful be realistic remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. If you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul. If you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty even when it is not pretty every day. And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure - yours and mine - and still stand at the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up after the night of grief and despair weary and bruised to the bone and do what needs to be done to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the centre of the fire with me and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keepin the empty moments.


© Oriah Mountain Dreamer, from the book The Invitation


After having read the beautifull prologue of Bertrand Russell's autobiography on Atanu's blog I was inspired to look up a poem that my girlfriend once showed me. She searched and found..Thx Max.. (I Googled the poem and instantly found the website)

The last mile gassed

The company Nethercomm claims to have the solution for the last mile problem in the copper-wired dsl broadband TV cables.
Just use the GAS-supplier network for broadcasting the high frequency signal over gas.
99% of the Dutch households are connected to the gas network. This makes the Netherlands world's no. 1 worldwide.
All we have to do is to collectively cook Brussel Sproutes at 18.00h while downloading the evening TV program on the Microsoft mediacenter. I can't describe the "home sweet home" feeling this new technology gives me allready..

10 blog mistakes

I started blogging only one month ago and am getting pretty addicted to it. Have met new creative minds and many people with the same field of interest. Found these 10 blog mistakes I shouldn't make by Jakob Nielsen (summarized):

1. No Author Biographies :-)
2. No Author Photo :-)
3. Nondescript Posting Titles :-)
4. Links Don't Say Where They Go :-)
5. Classic Hits are Buried :-)
6. The Calendar is the Only Navigation :-(
7. Irregular Publishing Frequency :-(
8. Mixing Topics :-(
9. Forgetting That You Write for Your Future Boss :-(
10. Having a Domain Name Owned by a Weblog Service :-(

hmm..'think I won't be making money out of it..

Tibetan and Indian monks still master the art of levitation

(PRAVDA) The art of levitation still exists both in India and Tibet. Many scholars engaged in oriental studies also mention the phenomenon of "flying lamas." Alexandra David-Neel, a British explorer, one day witnessed the flight of a Buddhist monk. The monk flew a few dozen meters over the alpine plateau Cnang Tang. He was bouncing off the ground like a tennis ball to rise in the air again and again. He kept his eyes on some guiding star hanging somewhere in the distance, the monk was the only person who could see the star in broad daylight.

Just an illusion

Very nice, try it yourself..

Via Atanu

Want to see what Bush is after?

Click this ..and click on Blair to see what he is after..

Via Atanu

Pirates of the Caribbean

(CNN) -- Officials are searching for a "mother ship" believed to be used to launch high-speed boats for several recent pirate attacks off Somalia. Since November 5, when pirates tried unsuccessfully to attack a 440-foot cruise liner operated by Seabourn Cruise Lines, at least five other attacks have taken place, most of them northeast of Somalia, said Andrew Mwangura, program coordinator at the Kenyan Seafarer's Association.

From paperclip to bungalow

The story begins with a paperclip that was traded with Rawnie and Corinna for which a fishpen was exchanged with Annie for that Shawn saw and bartered his doorknob that was then swapped with Sgt. David J. for the current item: ."I'm not going to stop trading for bigger or better objects until I get a house". What's the next step up? You tell me.

Management guru Drucker dies at 95

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Peter Drucker, a man largely credited with creating the school of thought that governs most modern corporate management styles, died Friday at 95. Drucker reportedly died of natural causes at his home in Claremont, Calif., near Oakland. Thank you dr. Drucker, rest in Peace..

The day my wife met my girlfriend..

Just listen, scroll down for the video (double click for full screen) and turn up the volume up on Rodney Carrington :-)

If you like that..try THIS (even better)...

Freakonomics

Which is more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? What do schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers have in common? Why do drug dealers still live with their moms? How much do parents really matter? What kind of impact did Roe v. Wade have on violent crime? Through forceful storytelling and wry insight, Levitt and co-author Stephen J. Dubner show that economics is, at root, the study of incentives - how people get what they want, or need, especially when other people want or need the same thing. In Freakonomics, they set out to explore the hidden side of … well, everything.

A beautifull day

Thursday we had a meeting in the Schiphol Sheraton were we discussed on several management topics. It's allways a pleasure to have meetings in such great places. Thursday evening turned out even better.

I was invited to join a dinermeeting together with 6 cio's and cfo's of big Dutch companies. We dined in the wine cellar of the two-star Michelin restaurant La Rive in the Amstel hotel. Top chef Edwin Kats surprised us with a personal signed version of his book and:

Ceviche de coquilles Saint-Jacques aux huîtres pochées prises en gelée, caviar Osciètre, tempura de citron et cibouletteCeviche of scallops with poached oysters set in aspic jelly, Ossetra caviar, lemon tempura and chivesRueda 2004, José Pariente

Filet de sandre à la tête de veau fondue, « risotto » de pomme de terre, salsifis et coulis de homard Pikeperch fillet with melted calf’s head, potato ‘risotto’, salsify and a lobster coulis with Zöbinger Heiligenstein 2002 Bründlmayer Saint-Pierre wine

Glacé garni de carottes bretonnes, polenta frite et sauce aux artichauts et au beurre noisetteGlazed John Dory served with Breton carrots, deep-fried polenta and artichoke sauce with noisette butter with St. Aubin 1er Cru 2001, Marc Morey wine

Filet de râble de lièvre du polder et son boudin noir, topinambour dauphine et chou rouge étuvé aux figuesFillet of hare saddle from the polder with its own black pudding, dauphine Jerusalem artichoke and braised red cabbage with figs with a Château Laffitte-Teston 2001, Madiran wine

Foie gras d’oie poêlé en ‘cocotte’ flambé au cognac, cannelloni de céleri-rave, dés de rognon de veau et truffeSautéed goose foie gras ‘en cocotte’ flambéed with cognac, celeriac cannelloni, diced calf’s kidney and truffle with Badia a Passignano 1999, Chianti

Votre choix du chariot de fromages fermiers affinés par M. Antony, Vieux-Ferrett FranceYour choice from the cheese trolley with farmhouse cheeses aged by Mr. Antony, Vieux-Ferrette FranceCoup de Coeur du Sommelier

Ananas glacé aux épices, couscous au café et crème glacée au chocolat Pur CaraïbePineapple glazed with spices, coffee couscous and Pur Caraïbe ice creamEiswein PMC 2001, Neusiedlersee

FANTASTIC! Theme of the evening was Corporate Performace Management

Gravitational sea (GEO 600)

"It will be a big event for two reasons: it will be yet another confirmation that Einstein's Theory of General Relativity is correct, but it will also open up a new kind of astronomy that will allow us to look inside the most violent events in the Universe."
(BBC News on GEO 600)

New marketing way of promoting a VW

See how (VW) car marketing is changing into little movie marketing

Jeder zweite US-Teen publiziert online

Mehr als die Hälfte der jugendlichen Internetuser in den USA nutzt das Web um eigene Inhalte zu publizieren und auszutauschen. Eine Studie des Pew Internet and American Life Projekts kommt zu dem Ergebnis, dass fast 90 Prozent der 12- bis 17jährigen US-Amerikaner regelmäßig im Internet surfen und 57 Prozent ihren eigenen Content produzieren. 20 Prozent geben an, in Online-Tagebüchern (Blogs) zu schreiben.

Out of office reply examples

1. I am currently out at a job interview and will reply to you if I fail to get the position. Be prepared for my mood.
   
2. You are receiving this automatic notification because I am out of the office. If I was in, chances are you wouldn’t have received anything at all.
   
3. I will be unable to delete all the unread, worthless emails you send me until I return from holiday on 4 April. Please be patient and your mail will be deleted in the order it was received.
   
4. Thank you for your email. Your credit card has been charged £5.99 for the first ten words and £1.99 for each additional word in your message.
   
5. The e-mail server is unable to verify your server connection and is unable to deliver this message. Please restart your computer and trysending again. (The beauty of this is that when you return, you can see how many in-duh-viduals did this over and over).
   
6. Thank you for your message, which has been adde d to a queuing system… You are currently in 352nd place, and can expect to receive a reply in approximately 19 weeks.
   
7. I’ve run away to join a different circus.
   
8. I will be out of the office for the next 2 weeks for medical reasons… When I return, please refer to me as “Margaret” instead of “Steve”.

If President Chirac thought he was going to gain peace with the Muslim community in France by taking an appeasement line in the Iraq war, it certainly looks like he miscalculated. Today the streets of the French capital are looking more like Ramallah and less like the advanced, sophisticated, happy Paree image Monsieur Chirac likes to portray to the world, and the story, which is just starting to grip the world's attention, is full of ironies. The French-African underclass with their pimped-scooters, bling bling jewelery, i-pods, cell-phones and golden teeth claim that they have no future.

One is tempted to suggest that Prime Minister Sharon send a note cautioning Monsieur Chirac about cycles of violence.

Taxi!

Nice example of the recent viral marketing way of reaching new (internet) audiences. Use the cursors and letters on your keyboard and see the effects. Click picture and discover..
Click here to make a chicken dance, sit and..

Around Texel in two days

Last weekend I was invited to go sailing on a Bavaria 42, owned by a dear colleague together with two colleagues from the Holding. We sailed from Hindeloopen to Oudeschilde (Texel) and back with windforce 7 at max and blue skies. The dinner in the harbour restaurant The Compagnie was simple but great as was the closing diner in the Hindeloopen harbour restaurant. We slept on board and our host Hugo prepared us bacon and eggs in the morning after we helped him with his on-board food and drink supplies the evening before. Great!

This week's CIO hardship

Last monday evening, I was invited to have diner in the Palace Hotel in Noordwijk aan Zee. Together with ten other colleague CIO's and CFO's we discussed on the issues of outsourcing. There was a good discussion and the diner was excellent. The other morning I was invited to visit the ITSMF congres in Noordwijkerhout which was also very interesting.

The most interesting part of the week however was the Innovate session that we organized with the ICT directors, systemmanagers and -architects from our European workingcompanies. We organized a nice teambuilding the night before where we had to make original samba music with different percussion instruments, after that we enjoyed Spanish tapa's and we had a short night of sleep in hotel Karel V in Utrecht that appeared to be one of the best hotels in the Netherlands.

Friday morning I was invited to see the making of The Grote Beurt. This program is sponsored by one of our working companies. The program is presented by Jorinde Mol and is shot in the Dronten subsidiary (I lived in Dronten for two years). It was fun to see the making of.. Of course the most important part was to talk about the business with the local management :-)

Shave your Yeti

Yet(i) Another great example of viral marketing.

Japanese company claims fibre-optic data transfer record

A Japanese company has developed technology to transmit a two-hour movie in 0.5 seconds, the world's fastest speed achieved with fibre-optic cables in the field, it says. Kansai Electric used fibre-optic cables on power-transmitting steel towers to achieve the speed of one terabit per second, which is more than 100 times faster than inter-city data transmissions currently in use, a spokesman says.
The company, Japan's second-largest power supplier, has not decided when to put the technology into practical use but says it is possible that it would come in 2010 or later.

CIO Goals Shift Toward Profits, Away From Cost-Savings

According to this month's CIOInsight study on alignment, 80 percent of for-profit companies say increasing revenues rather than reducing costs is their primary strategy for improving earnings. That means the never-ending task of aligning IT with the business is now focused on launching new products, improving speed and service, and supporting mergers and acquisitions.
The survey of more than 1,000 business and IT executives has good news for CIOs: Business executives understand just as well as IT executives do that alignment is critically important for growth. It also turns out that the same practices that help with alignment, such as collaboration between IT and business and a flexible IT infrastructure, really do help companies grow.

Switching addictions!

A German company has come up with a novel way of beating bans on smoking in pubs - put the nicotine in the beer. A new beer, known as NicoShot, is undergoing testing in Germany with hopes it can be moved toward approval in the next few months. Each beer contains three milligrams of nicotine and a 6.3% alcohol reading.

Its German maker, Nautilus, claims the beer is designed to help smokers quit the habit rather than make the drink addictive. "While NicoShot can lessen cravings, it is not a 'cure' for smoking," Nautilus said. "But it can help you make changes in your lifestyle without having to walk out of the bar for a quick smoke to deal with sudden withdrawal symptoms.
"Over time, when you are more comfortable being a non-smoker, the use of nicotine beer can be reduced and then stopped."

Hosanna, Nautilus! Smokers all over the world will be grateful. But isn't nicotine addictive? Won't stuffing nicotine down the beer drinkers' throats simply encourage a new generation of smokers to trade yellow teeth for beer bellies and bad hangovers?

German company would beg to differ. In fact, it is hoping that NicoShot will help people smoke less. "While NicoShot can lessen cravings, it is not a 'cure' for smoking," the Nautilus spokesperson said. "But it can help you make changes in your lifestyle without having to walk out of the bar for a quick smoke to deal with sudden withdrawal symptoms."

Perhaps we can ask the Dutch Wageningen university to do research on the possibility to add alcohol to Big Mac's and French fries. Again another addiction solved..