Where am I? Where am I going?

Questions that I ask myself more often than I should, but don’t worry, I’m not here to talk about my memory problems. I was recently asked: where are you “virtually”? I barely tweet any more and I’m not blogging either here or there …

The explanation is simple; or double or triple. On the one hand, if I don’t say anything, it’s probably because I don’t have anything to say, yet, you know that even when I have nothing to say, I usually figure out something, so what’s going on?

I’m busy! Busy with problems that have no place here, but busy with events that are way more interesting and worthy of being shared.

Let’s start with Imagine Cup, the contest organized by Microsoft upon which I stumbled 2 years ago when I got to the world finals in Seoul. Since then, I’ve had trouble staying away and this year, since it’s my last as a student, I’m participating in the Software Design category for the first and last time. I’m part of team Dotnet-France (fr) with Julien Dollon (fr), Olivier Courtois (fr), Bertrand Vergnault (fr) and, our dear mentor, Yann Lautrédou (fr).

In one quick paragraph, thanks to our WikiChildProtect project, we want to make the Internet a safer place for children with a solution that should be more efficient, more secure and, especially, that integrates a citizen and community approach that does not currently exist. If you would like more information, do not hesitate to out our press release (in French).

The French final in this category will take place on May 14th, on the first floor of the Eiffel Tower. Only the first place of the national finals will earn the privilege of participating in the world finals in Egypt. Competition is tough this year since veterans that I know well are participating and/or coaching their own teams. I will let you know this Thursday evening whether I’ll be spending the first week of July in Cairo or not.

Finally, the other “projet” that has been nagging me is the three weeks following the finals on Thursday. I’m going to have to go to China to teach for SUPINFO at 山东科技大学, Shandong University of Science and Technology. Yes, I’ll admit that I did have a certain power to align the stars so that this would be my destiny, but that doesn’t change the fact that the following three weeks will not be easy.

There is a silver lining though: 10 days of vacation in the middle of these three weeks! The program for these 10 days: I have no idea!

I’m a little bit scared. I have a few clues of what I am going to do. I know that I’m not staying in China, I’ll rather explore Singapore and Malaysia. Aside from that, if you have any tips, suggestions, or friends in these countries that could show me around or even have a spare room for me in Malaysia, I won’t say no! There’s a thousand ways to contact me, so don’t hesitate ;)

What do you know about IT?

Pierre sent me a DM to let me know that I appear for a second or so in this Microsoft video:

I’m guessing that many of you won’t watch it until the end, so I’m just going to copy the part that caught my attention the most:

I bet you didn’t know this

42% of global IT employment…

relies on Microsoft technologies.

Wow!

Finally, as a side note to myself: do not accept interviews late at night, especially if you hadn’t slept much the nights before ;)

Your Avatars on the New Xbox Experience

I was really looking forward to it because I wasn’t fan of the “blades” at all, so I obviously logged on to Xbox LIVE last Wednesday to download the New Xbox Experience (NXE).

One of the new features of the NXE is the creation of avatars, which I was kind of forced to test even though I really, really needed to sleep. Avatars are not something new; we already had Miis on the Wii for example.

On the Wii they can be used as characters for certain games, but they’re still just a few elementary shapes with a face that more or less might look like you. On the Xbox, even though I haven’t tested any games that use the avatar as a character, the 3D model itself is of excellent quality! I don’t claim to have created a clone of myself, but I think that it’s recognizable enough.

Even better, Micrsoft is all about connecting devices, software, services, your car, … so it’s just natural that your avatars can also come out of the Xbox:

• http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/(gamertag)/avatar-body.png
• http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/(gamertag)/avatarpic-l.png
• http://avatar.xboxlive.com/avatar/(gamertag)/avatarpic-s.png

Just replace (gamertag) by your own—in my case it’s xboxMadd0 because someone had already taken madd0 :(

Download the NXE if you haven’t already and have fun sharing your avatars ;)

I'm almost famous!

A few weeks ago, I was followed around by a cameraman for a piece for France 24 (a French TV station). I knew that it would be broadcast on TV, their web site and on YouTube sometime during the summer and they told me that they'd let me know. But that's not how things work nowadays...

Last Sunday, a regular Sunday morning, I woke up at around 1 p.m. and opened my computer. Soon after the different IM systems started to show me online, a Costa Rican friend that's living in Taiwan popped up and said "hey, I saw your video on YouTube!" I must admit that I was a little worried, because people have put stuff up there that I'm not really proud of. But there was nothing to be worried about; he was pointing me to a video called World Class Teacher from Costa Rica. Just how cool is that?!

Here's the video in English:

And the same, but in original French:

I need to get them in better quality, but for now, this is as close as I've ever been to taking over the world ;)

I hate this guy

But only because I want to be just like him when I grow up :P

OK, maybe not just like him, but I'd love to be able to find the balance he seems to have reached of enjoying life fully and using his wealth to help worthy causes.

If you don't care about who my role models are, just take a look at the video. It's very interesting by itself too.

I guess it's my turn...

You cannot be a blogger and not have to go through this at least once a year. Of course, it's up to you to decide how you react, whether it's worth your time or not, whether the person who tagged you deserves a response...

Yes. That's right. I've been tagged with one of the myriads of blog memes going around. So, without further ado, here's ten things everybody already know about me:

1. Who tagged me:
   Well, that would be my dearest friend Stéph. Few are the people who could've tagged me and actually elicited a response. But Stéph is one of them.
2. My greatest dream (or at least the one more likely to happen):
   This is a good one... Hard one too... I guess my greatest dream is to do something significant for the world before I die. I know I'm kind of neglecting the parentheses there, but who cares...
3. An important moment soon to come:
   Hmm... I'm graduating this year. I think that counts.
4. The song that describes my current frame of mind:
   "Current" is a very volatile state, but if we're talking about an average, it's probably No Rain, by Blind Melon.
5. Big moments in the past year:
   I've been lucky to have had plenty of big moments last year, but I guess meeting Great people at La Sorbonne, including Bill Gates, ranks amongst the top moments. There was Korea too... Yes, there have been plenty...
6. What makes me happy:
   Oh, whoever knows me, knows I'm easily amused, but I guess "amused" is not the same thing as "happy." I'm usually happy with a job well done, after riding my bike, but most often, I'm happy when I know I've made other people happy.
7. What I miss:
   I miss going back to my country and to its beaches and forests. I still don't consider Costa Rica my first choice for living, but I'd like to be able to go back there more often.
8. My favourite movie:
   I don't have a favourite movie. It's that simple. I like all movies that help me forget about real life for a while.
9. My greatest project:
   With graduation approaching, I suppose I have to figure out what I'm going to do with the rest of my life. That feels like a pretty big project to me.
10. What I hate:
    There's lots of things I hate, actually. If you want to know more about them, I suggest you come here regularly for my rants or follow me on Twitter, where you're likely to hear me talk about plenty of stuff I like and hate.

Now, tradition has it that I must not break the chain. The thing is, I'm not very good at this, so I will not tag 7 people as expected... If you feel inclined to reveal personal information about yourself, though, consider yourself tagged, and don't hesitate to link back here.

Photo tonbut

Let's continue this talk on Twitter

Just before New Year's I created a Twitter account. Mostly out of curiosity, after all:

"What's the point of living, without curiosity?"

(That's from House, M.D. isn't it the best quote ever?) I also wanted to make sure nobody would hijack my nickname, but that's secondary...

Anyway, I started "tweeting," as it's called, on December 29 2007 and, man, is this addictive!

For those of you who don't know what Twitter is, I'll try to summarize it in one (made up) word: micro-blogging. The idea is to answer the question "What are you doing?" in no more characters than an SMS can hold (i.e. 140). If my explanation is not clear enough, take a look at the video Twitter in Plain English.

So, why am I talking about Twitter today? Well, because I'm talking on Twitter more and more lately (exponentially more since December if you believe my stats). I'm trying to use Twitter with micro-blogging in mind, as a complement to this blog. My tweets, as the short messages are called, even have an RSS feed.

My editorial line for this blog has always been clear (although not always followed):

Blogging about pretty much anything—but mostly Tech—in English, Français y Español

I intend to keep blogging and to keep following that line. On Twitter you'll find something more in the lines of:

Talking about pretty much anything—including Tech—in English, Français y Español

Although it's mostly French and English, since that's what my followers speak.

I really like the micro-blogging concept because I find that I don't always have enough to say about something that actually deserves a post here. Take my last tweet (as of this writing) as an example:

My favorite apps from my Utils folder: PureText http://tinyurl.com/38ra9p and Texter http://tinyurl.com/2xwg7v

Quick, simple, still tech, but as much as I enjoy writing, I wouldn't have opened Windows Live Writer and written a tri-lingual post for that.

So, if you want to share more of my wisdom, or just want to know more of "What am I doing?" click on the birdie to follow me on Twitter, or use the RSS feed I linked above if you don't want to go through the hassle of creating an account. Don't forget to come back here regularly, though, after all, Wisdom is sometimes too long for Twitter...

Great people meet at La Sorbonne

A few weeks ago I posted the pictures of the Imagine Cup conference that took place in Paris and during which I had the opportunity to interview Bill Gates.

An event like that was of course filmed and now the videos are also available for online viewing and for download from the web site of Microsoft France.

There are six videos:

• French (well, French and Costa Rican :P) finalists from 2007 (French)
• Bernard Charlès, CEO Dassault Systèmes (French)
• Ora Ito, Designer (French)
• Andrew Herbert, Microsoft Research Cambridge (English)
• Bill Gates, Microsoft Chairman (English)
• Q&A with Bill Gates (you can see me here again) (English)

Click on "Voir ..." to view the video online or "Télécharger" to download.

Have fun!

Photos with BillG

As usual these days, there were all sorts of cameras present at yesterday's activity. This is great because I of course couldn't take my own pictures. Here's a selection of pictures that I have received:

Yep, that's me, to his left first and then to his right.

And here are links I've received/found with pictures of the event. I'll be editing these as I find/get new ones:

• G-IT
• Photos by Séverin Ferrand
• Photos by Stéphane Rangaya
• Photos by Emmanuel de Taillac
• Photos by Maxime Gaillard
• Photos by Stéphane Rangaya
• Photos by Johanna Piou

A day of "firsts"

I'm exhausted!

Today was day of "firsts":

• First time in I can't remember how long that I wake up and it's still dark outside (yes, I know, what you're thinking. I'm not lazy, I just manage my time differently).
• First time I risk missing breakfast in a hotel because it's too early (I guess you're seeing a pattern here. It's just coincidence).
• First time I take a morning train in London to go down to Paris planning to come back up in the evening.
• First time I went to La Sorbonne and visited its main amphitheater.
• First time I'm asked to speak in front of so many people (although I'm not actually 100% of this one).
• And finally, the first time that I meet Bill Gates!

Since he was in the neighborhood, BillG dropped in La Sorbonne to demo Microsoft Surface and talk about Imagine Cup to a hall full of students. After all, this year's Imagine Cup finals will precisely take place in Paris.

I got to Gare du Nord at about 11:50 and had to be in La Sorbonne as close to noon as possible. I got there at about 12:45 because I had to go to my apartment first to change. Why was I changing? Well, because I was going to be onstage.

After a rushed rehearsal and discovering what I had to say and do onstage, I patiently waited with two other MSPs/French Imagine Cup finalists, Manon and Benjamin, for several hundred people to settle into the centuries-old main amphitheater of France's most famous university.

At about 14:30 (or at least I think it was that time, I wasn't really thinking about that by then...) everything started: Marc Jalabert, head of Microsoft France's DPE, gave an introductory speech and invited my friends and I to come onstage. We were asked a couple of questions about Imagine Cup and then sat down next to the other special guests: Bernard Charlès from Dassault Systèmes, Ora Ito and Andrew Herbert from MSR. In that order, the three guests gave their speeches.

After a couple of minutes of improvisation to make up for a slight delay, finally, the star guest arrived: Bill Gates. He gave a short speech and showed the "Bill's last day in Microsoft video". He also demoed Microsoft Surface, but that didn't go as well as expected. We'll blame the lighting.

Finally, it was time for our 15 minutes of glory. Manon, Benjamin and I went back onstage to join Marc and Bill for a Q&A session. We each got to ask two questions. After that, some pre-chosen students among the audience asked a question each and the afternoon was over. Or was it? We were rushed to a short photo shoot will Bill and then to a cocktail. The rest of the evening is much less interesting unless you're me, so I'll stop here.

I am now on a Eurostar heading back to London, actually suffering because there are no power outlets and (and here Windows went into hibernation because I ran out of battery)