Simon's Cat :"Let me in"

I've never had a cat, I don't like them that much (cats or any other pet... smelly, drooling, scratching, losing its hair, eating your shoes and socks...) and I find in Simon's Cat series many reasons to go on thinking this way...

Coming back

Here Am I ! After several week of very emptiness and absence on my poor blog, I come back !
You probably need some explanation :

- I went through a tough exam period on december / january... This kind of time when you keep repeating "I should have listened in class... I should have written it down... I should have begun earlier... I should have so many many things !!" But hopefully, I passed those #$@"#§#! exams !

- Last exam on Friday, first day of job on Monday ! Youpya ! I entered Rapp Collins Paris, the relational marketing agency belonging to DDB as a Project Manager Assistant (actually a 4-project manager assistant). Hummm what to say about it, knowing that I'm still working in there... Give me just 3 extra months till I finish my internship and I'll tell you ! For now, all I can say is it's a very "absorbing" job ! :)))

- And now, besides my job, I've got to write my term paper to end my "MASTER 2"... Youpya again ! I'm studying the different business models of P2P platforms that are "partly" used to share copyrighted contents... I don't care about if it's good or not, it's not the purpose of my work, I'm just trying to analyze the economical mechanism behind it... Any information about this subject is very very welcomed !

My Geek's place

A short video to show you how technology affects my environment...

M. JEANNERET and The Page

Here is a great article about pages and how to deal with page issues on the Internet :
Pagination Gallery: Examples And Good Practices
CELSA MISC students are pretty familiar with this issue thanks to M. Y. JEANNERET and his courses on the "Page" ... He was the former research professor in charge of the research group "The GRIPIC" at the Celsa. He's now replaced by M. E. SOUCHIER.

Beware of "la paââage"... ;)

Social Actions

Like a response to the previous post on Prosper.com, Techcrunch (a fantastic blog for everyone interested in new technologies) talked,a few days ago, about a new website dealing with money lending and personal investments to help others : Social Actions.

It's a digg-like specialized in "social actions" developed by a Montrealer team ....
You can use the website to start an action or spread an existing action on the Internet thanks to a widget. Then, users vote for the actions they like the most (digg-it). The platform is aggregating the actions coming from : BringLight, Change.org, ChangingthePresent, DemocracyInAction, Firstgiving, Fundable, GiveMeaning, GlobalGiving, Kiva, PledgeBank, Razoo et SixDegrees... and Paypal is in charge of the transaction guarantee !

Source : Techcrunch

Mind mapping

A little bit too long demonstration of what is mind mapping. (I did the video on my own using the following softs : Recordmydesktop, Avidemux, VLC and YouTube uploader... And all I have to say is that I hate codec issues !!!!!!!!!! That's why I didn't try to make a new shorter one... It will be for the next time!)

Two softwares :
- PersonnalBrain
- FreeMind (here is a very smart demo)

I choosed the free one ;)

My hardware

Here is a picture of my real desktop... kind of messy ...

- Laptop : SAMSUNG Q35 - little, not heavy, reliable, not so that expensive....
- Webcam : a CREATIVE one - a gift from a previous internship ; it was an old webcam that we found in the depths of dusty cabinet. What's the matter ? It works ! (otherwise, I got some issues to make it work with Linux softwares ...)
- Headphones + micro : 5€ from Carrefour ; essential for Skyping..
- Speakers set 2.1 : CREATIVE-Cambridge SoundWorks - another gift from a previous internship (thanks AOL !)
- Mobile phone : SONY ERICSSON bright new mobile (I'm still learning how to use it !)
- Extra hard drive : waiting for its external box actually sent back to the after sales service.
- Pen and post-it because digital tools did not kill traditional ones yet...

Video in my car

Here is a little home-made video in my car with my mobile phone during the traffic jam in Paris (due to the strikes.... ) Sorry for the poor quality of the image, of the sound and of the main character who was a little bit exhausted by the circumstances...

However, it's an opportunity to show you what can be done with the Mojiti Video Subtitles Tool.

For more testimonies, have a look at the No Strike Zone.

YouTube and young terrorists videos

A little over a week ago, a Finnish student went on a rampage with gun after warning about this with YouTube's videos. It reminds us the grievous case in Virginia Tech... Who is to blame ?

The proper question to ask should be : who is not to blame ?
In my opinion, I should not blame :
- YouTube which is only a way used by those student to express their uneasiness and malaise...
- Video games despite that they're more and more violent and that we could have notice some similarities with video games heroes in their behavior and dressing...
- Media in general : some people accused the TV, series, movies, Internet to get young people more and more used to violent scenes etc... We've got here some example such as Silent Hill, Resident Evil, God of War, Carmageddon, Manhunt (this last have been prohibited for players under 18)... If those video games are as dangerous as some would say, there would be a lot of "Virginia Tech-case" more !

As a French citizen, I would blame the fact that in the US, carrying a weapon is legal... (classical accusation !) and I just ad a thing : nowadays, the smallest and insignificant current affair is so strongly forwarded and broadcast by the media that everybody focuses on it. I think that those incidents have already occurred before and will continue in the future... It's just not a new trend !

Google : bad or evil ?

Do you know how much applications Google owns ?
Let look over them... So, we have :
- 3D Warehouse : Sketchup's functionality that allows you to search, share and save 3D templates.
- Accessible Search : Accessible Web Search for the Visually Impaired.
- AdSense : Google AdSense matches ads to your site's content, and makes you earn money whenever your visitors click on them.
- AdWords : You can display your ads on Google advertising network. You pay only if people click your ads.
- AdWords API : Google's AdWords API service lets developers design computer programs that interact directly with the AdWords platform.
- AdWords Editor : Google's free, downloadable account management application for your computer.
- Alerts : Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your choice of query or topic.
- Alternate Views : Google's technology extracts key dates, locations, measurements, and more from select search results so you can view the information in a different dimension. You can see results on a timeline, map, or in context of other information types.
- Analytics : Helps you learn even more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site.
- Android : Set of software for mobile devices: an operating system, middleware and key mobile applications. (Open Handset Alliance)
- Apps for your Domain : service from Google for using custom domain names with several Google products. It features several Web applications with similar functionality to traditional office suites, including: Gmail, Google Calendar, Talk, Page Creator, and Docs.
- Apps Premier Edition : it's the enterprises' version ; it offers 25 GB of e-mail storage and other special features. (It is 50 USD per year, per account.)

And I'm gonna stop here this terrifying alphabetically sorted list !!!! Help yourself in Google services and have a look at the 130 left Google services (in bold, the funny ones):

Audio Ads, Base, Blog Search, Blogger, Book Search, Bookmarks, Browser Sync, Calculator, Calendar, Catalogs, Checkout, Checkout API, Code, Co-Op, Current, Custom Search Engine, Daohang, Dashboard Widgets for Mac, Desktop, Documents, Dodgeball, Earth, FeedFetcher, Finance, Froogle Mobile, Gmail, Gmail Mobile, Gmail Notifier, Google Web Toolkit, Googlebot, GoogleGuy, Googleplex, Grants, Groups, Gulp, iGoogle, Image Labeler, Images, Jaiku, JotSpot, Labs,Language tools, Local Business Ads, Maps, Maps API, Maps for Mobiles, Mars, Measure Map, Mini, Mobile, Moon, Music Trends, News, News Archive Search, Notebook, OpenSocial, Orkut, Pack, Page Creator, PageRank, Patents, Phonebook, Picasa, Picasa Web Albums, Product Search, Project Hosting, Reader, Reader Trends, Referrals, Ride Finder, Scholar, Search API, Search Appliance, Search By Number, SearchMash, Send to Phone, Sets, Shared Stuff, Flight simulator (with Google Earth set up on your computer), SiteLinks, Sitemaps, SiteStats, SketchUp, SMS, Space, Spreadsheets, Store, Suggest, Summer of Code, Talk, Toolbar, Toolbar API, Transit, Trends, Trends, TrustRank, Video, Video Upload, Wallet, Web Accelerator, Web Search, Webmaster Central, Website Optimizer, Whack, Wifi, YouTube, Zeitgeist, Zingku …

Little video stuff from the CELSA

A little bit of e-terminology

Internet has created lots of new words... Here is Erin Jansen, author of "NetLingo The Internet Dictionary" and founder of NetLingo.com ; she explains Internet terms and brings online jargon to life!


Her YouTube Channel.

E-mailing : do's and don'ts

E-mail is omnipresent in business and personal communications. But there are a number of pitfalls and ways to miscommunicate with e-mail. Here are some guidelines you can follow :

1. Ordering your e-mails
- Use tags to mark your e-mails ; one tag per category (person / event / task...)
- Create filters to order automatically your incoming e-mail (the filter using the sender's e-mail address seems to be the most relevant...)
- Create folders to save your important mail

2. Write e-mails
- The e-mail subject : use the words "Important", "Private", "Urgent" ... advisedly ! (some people may have created filters to automatically have alerts on "Important" mail) ; regarding professional mails, write understandable, short and clear subject ; use the same subject when replying to a first mail.
- The e-mail body : short sentences, use the bullet and other layout tools efficiently, not too much !
- The signature : write again your e-mail address below your name (you can add phone / cellphone / IM ...)
- The attached files : beware of its weight and name it properly.

3. Send e-mail
- DO NOT SPAM ! Check-out the recipient's list before sending your mail.
- Use the "To" and "Cc" fields properly : the first for the directly involved recipient and the second for the others.

4. Other tips
- Absence e-mail : it can be useful during long vacation to remind your colleagues of your return to the office.
- Return receipt : use it only for important mail unless it will spam your own mailbox.

.... and there are certainly many other tips ...

SMS

Actual different uses of the SMS :

- phone communication improved by photos and videos (MMS)
- TV shows interaction (SMS sent during realTV programs to vote for the candidates)
- services of SMS alerts (online banks services, news alerts, purchase confirmation, birthdays reminders...)
In France, during the presidential elections, it was possible to receive by SMS the first results at 18 o'clock...

Here are interesting data and figures about SMS in Europe.

Future uses of the SMS :

- payment. It's one of the most important issue companies have to deal with. Here is an example of a company working on that subject and providing secure way to pay by mobile : SMS Kambi