February 2012
1 post
The true power of Big Data
Amazing story in the New-York times about how much retail companies know about our shopping habits:Andrew Pole had just started working as a statistician for Target in 2002, when two colleagues from the marketing department stopped by his desk to ask an odd question: “If we wanted to figure out if a customer is pregnant, even if she didn’t want us to know, can you do that? ” If you’ve ever...
December 2011
3 posts
One Feature Phone To Rule Them All
See the full gallery on Posterous Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Siri isn't how Jobs cracked TV
Evidence suggests that Jobs had other ideas in minds when he referred to TV saying he had “finally cracked it”.It seems to me that the following passage in Steve Jobs’ biography should cast serious doubts as to whether Siri is the idea Jobs had in mind: At one point Forstall showed off a voice recognition app. As he feared, Jobs grabbed the phone in the middle of...
London - Winter 2011
I was in London last week for the Online Information 2011 conference. I took the opportunity to stay there for the week-end. The progress made on the The Shard since my last time there were pretty amazing! I also discovered St Katharine Docks, definitely a great location. I highly recommend going to the Starbucks overlooking the basin! Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s...
November 2011
6 posts
Software - On making the possible easy
Right now at XWiki we’re hard at work on building a new feature that we think will change the way people will interact with our software. It’s a wizard called “Application Within Minutes” which aim is to let users take advantage of XWiki’s structured documents functionality much more easily than it is possible now. It will look like this: This feature has been...
Address is Approximate - Amazing video
Very cool - thanks @jvelo ! Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Why making technology easy matters
I’m at my mum’s this week-end. She missed one of her favorite shows yesterday evening and she wants to watch it today. She tried accessing the TV channel website in order to watch it from her netbook, to no avail. Not a good experience. So I got my ipad out, downloaded the TV channel’s app and immediately found a replay of the show she missed. She’s now sitting in the...
Article: Why Startups Should Pay Attention to...
Hi was reading this article by Mark Suster:But here’s the magic. With Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul all in the race nobody should even be talking about Herman Cain. You have the fringe candidate in Ron Paul. You have the red meat social candidate in Michelle Bachman. You have the groomed and polished candidates like Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman. You have the “anybody but Mitt”...
Article: THE TWEAKER - The real genius of Steve...
Great article. The geist of it: “It’s not over until it’s been done right.” (THE TWEAKER - The real genius of Steve Jobs. (Malcolm Gladwell/New Yorker)) http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/11/14/111114fa_fact_gladwell?currentPage=all This guy badgered me about how Microsoft was going to completely change the world with this tablet PC software and eliminate all...
My New (Experimental) Setup
After reading an article recently on a developer using his iPad as his only machine for a full week, I felt tempted to revive my old Apple Bluetooth Keyboard. After a trip to the local convenience store to pick-up new batteries and some fiddling with pairing and keyboard locale, I’m all set! First impressions: * Being able to type on a keyboard is a real plus for longer-form posts such as...
October 2011
2 posts
A Sales Guy: Good Speaks for Itself
Well, go read it by yourself:We spend a lot of time these days telling everyone how good our products are, or how good our service is. I can’t help but wonder if we’d be better off is we spent that time and money on just being really good; — good speaks for itself. http://asalesguy.com/2011/10/24/good-speaks-for-itself/ Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Don't be afraid
I was reading this post from Conrey is for closers :I was asked a great question by a salesperson I was consulting with recently: Chris, how do you deliver an estimate when you know that it is going to be significantly higher than what they expect or can afford? Original postI used to (and, in some ways, still do) face this issue. You’re being asked something by a potential client and...
September 2011
1 post
When the wiki's down
Our intranet is currently getting upgraded to the latest version of XWiki. This pretty much means that I cannot work. It’s late Friday afternoon so most of our customers and prospects will not return emails and phone calls at this hour. As it turns out, I believe that this is a good thing.We have come to a point where almost all of our internal communication and processes are done through...
August 2011
3 posts
On "The future of enterprise 2.0 is apps" (by...
I was reading an article outlining the vision for the future of enterprise collaboration platforms by John Tropea. He discusses existing options for collaboration software and outlines a vision for an unified platform. The question he ends up asking himself is the following: “Could we actually move in reverse and make some of the tools a little less unstructured? Anyway, to come to the focus...
On "The future of enterprise 2.0 is apps" (by...
I was reading an article outlining the vision for the future of enterprise collaboration platforms by John Tropea. He discusses existing options for collaboration software and outlines a vision for an unified platform. The question he ends up asking himself is the following: “Could we actually move in reverse and make some of the tools a little less unstructured? Anyway, to come to the focus...
3 (very) cool videos
EAT LEARN MOVE Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
July 2011
1 post
I'm looking for a sales guy
The year started very well at XWiki with a number of new and exciting projects coming in. The company’s growing, now we need to grow the team as well.I already wrote in the past about what it’s like to work at XWiki. You can go and read that to get a feeling of what being a XWikier entails. As for the new member of our sales team, here’s who I’m looking for: You’re...
June 2011
3 posts
Paris Air Show - 2011 Edition
I was at Le Bourget today for the 2011 edition of the Paris Air Show, along with several XWikiers. We enjoyed a day in the bright sun, watching aicrafts on display as well as the performance of pilots in the sky. We got to see an impressive demonstration of the Rafale as well as a part of the Patrouille de France’s show. We also saw an A380 flying - so big, yet flying so seamlessly! It...
Dolphins are cool
I was at Parc Astérix about 2 weeks ago, where I saw the dolphin show. I gotta say, dolphins are cool. See the full gallery on Posterous Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Why Safari Reader won't kill Instapaper
After this week’s announcement that Apple will introduce a Reader capability to mobile Safari and a new feature called “Reading list” to the Safari browser across all platforms, I thought it would be interesting to review the differences between Instapaper and that new option.A number of key points quickly emerge when trying to compare both options: Safari isn’t cool:...
May 2011
5 posts
My bet about Mac Defender
Interesting confluence of 2 stories today: One one hand, ZDNet is confused that Apple expressly asks its customer support reps NOT to do anything about the Mac Defender situation: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/apple-continues-to-tell-support-reps-do-not-help-with-mac-malware/3375 On the other hand, John Gruber at Daring Fireball has a post explaining Apple’s implicit policy with regard to...
XWiki Enterprise 3.0 - Highlights
I don’t necessarily speak about my job at XWiki all of the time around here, but when such a huge release comes out I still feel compelled to post about it :-)Go give a look at the XWiki Enterprise 3.0 Release Notes!! Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Comics of the day - May 13, 2011
Good batch: From: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2011-05-13/ From: http://xkcd.com/898/(Don’t forget to check the XKCD alt image text) Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Video - Trinity Orchestra plays Daft Punk
Awesome :-) Via Raffaello Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
White House Correspondents' Dinner speech
Very nice speech by Barack Obama: Wish we would do the same in France :-)From: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obamas-white-house-correspondents-dinner-speech/2011/04/30/AFMDqbOF_video.html Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
April 2011
5 posts
Article: cdixon.org - There Are Two Kinds Of...
Nice article:You’ve either started a company or you haven’t. ”Started” doesn’t mean joining as an early employee, or investing or advising or helping out. It means starting with no money, no help, no one who believes in you (except perhaps your closest friends and family), and building an organization from a borrowed cubicle with credit card debt and nowhere to sleep except the office. Read it...
Redundancies
From: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/DilbertDailyStrip/~3/Mtyk12p-sJY/ Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
La fin de la garde à vue sans avocat
This is so hugely important:http://www.maitre-eolas.fr/post/2011/04/15/L-arr%C3%AAt-de-la-Cour-de-cassation-sur-la-garde-%C3%A0-vue Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Being Ready
Now that I’m in charge of both sales and customer projects at XWiki, the following resonates strongly with me: If you’re going to be selling stuff, you had better not have the same problem that the dog chasing the car does – What are you going to do when you catch it? You had better be sure that you and your organization is ready for what’s to come if you get a yes From:...
Article: Microsoft's Odd Couple | Business |...
Great article by Paul Allen. It gives a better understanding of Microsoft’s early years. Definitely worth reading. Microsoft’s Odd Couple | Business | Vanity Fair http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2011/05/paul-allen-201105?currentPage=all (via Instapaper) Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
March 2011
5 posts
Amazing Underwater Pictures
From: http://www.behance.net/gallery/Another-World/863938 Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
The Big Picture - Japan: Continuing crisis
More unbelievable pictures: From The Big Picture Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
The Big Picture: Japan - Vast Devastation
This picture is unbelievable: From the Big Picture Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
On Google Circles
I’m not sure where and when Google will launch Google Circles:http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_to_launch_major_new_social_network_called_c.php But the presentation embedded in that post is a definite must-read. Version 1 was great:http://guillaumelerouge.com/great-presentation-the-real-life-social-netwo School and work, friends and family, the sacred and the profane; we’ve...
Geek & Poke: Coders are Humble
Indeed :-) From: http://geekandpoke.typepad.com/geekandpoke/2011/03/coders-are-humble.html Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
February 2011
13 posts
Sunday's Miscellanies
Three items to end the week: “Risk and Reward Are Not Obvious” from Fred Wilson of A VC at: http://www.avc.com/a_vc/2011/02/risk-and-reward-are-not-always-obvious.html http://www.miscellanies.info/index2.html , the home of Ben Schott’s Miscellanies (I’ve only read the French version of his first book, it’s pretty much packed with awesome stuff) A Dilbert strip to end...
Michael Jordan
Upon seeing those 2 pictures of Michael Jordan on a blog I’m following, I watched a couple videos of his greatest moments:IMAGES VIDEOS You can definitely why the guy’s such a legend. I followed up by reading his Wikipedia entry ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Jordan ). Impressive. Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Quora really is fascinating
This thread caught my eye:http://www.quora.com/Why-did-Twitter-suspend-UberTwitterOn the same page, we’ve got a well-known VC, the head of UberSocial (formerly called UberTwitter) and Twitter’s Communications director discussing the news about Twitter blocking UberSocial’s apps from accessing its API. Where formerly such discussion would have taken place in fragmented parts of...
Conrey is for Closers: When to Risk?
This is something I need to work on…http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/conreyisforclosers/~3/Cwei-CsRt0g/ Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
The Big Picture: World Press Photo Winners
Some very impressive / shocking images in there. Full set at: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/world_press_photo_winners.html Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Article: The Danger of Crocodile Sales | Both...
This article is great as well: The Danger of Crocodile Sales | Both Sides of the Table http://www.bothsidesofthetable.com/2010/02/03/the-danger-of-crocodile-sales/ 1. YOU Selling – My wise old friend & mentor, Ameet Shah, once told me after a meeting we had with clients (when I worked at Accenture), “there are two ways to run a meeting: asking or telling. You’re a persuasive guy but be...
Free Software, Paid Support by Fred Wilson
In keeping with my posting frenzy of the afternoon, an article from Fred Wilson on the topic of Free Software: If you dissect the model, you’ll see that the one time effort of building something is something many software creators are willing to do for free. But the ongoing time and effort of supporting and maintaining the software is not something that can be done for free. This closely...
Article: Improving Sales: The Excuse Department Is...
The whole article is worth a read. This quote is very true: Also, don’t give your sales teams too much authority on price negotiations. Given them small authority to discount, give the sales leader a slightly larger level and anything above that comes to your desk for negotiation. Too big of a discount authority will lead to price drops because it’s easier than selling value and doing the hard...
The importance of a killer feature: XWiki's...
This article caught my eye: One killer feature When working with startups, Ferriss sees one problem popping up over and over. “The biggest weakness I see is companies getting focused on implementing new features,” he says. “That’s the biggest waste of time that I see. They have a viable product that people are paying for and instead of identifying their cheapest avenue for acquiring profitable...
The Big Picture - Afghanistan, January 2011
From: http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/02/afghanistan_january_2011.html Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
Emotion & Design
Emotional story: http://www.azarask.in/blog/post/my-father-final-gift/ Good design: http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2762-csa-a-fantastic-web-site Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
A couple articles
Catching up on unread feeds after a 1-week-long vacation. Some good picks: http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/01/24/monkeys-you-ordered http://daringfireball.net/linked/2011/01/24/ios-mail-new-messages http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2011/01/winter_sports_beat_winter_blue.html http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2011/01/100_to_put_a_bo.html Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s...
Video: A Mystery: Why Can't We Walk Straight?
Interesting and funny. Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »
January 2011
2 posts
No articles in a while...
I just realized I hadn’t been posting in a little while. It’s actually good news, after a slow month of December projects are seemingly piling up at the beginning of the year!! More on this later… In the meanwhile, here is a short selection of recent articles I enjoyed reading: http://bhorowitz.com/2011/01/04/when-smart-people-are-bad-employees/ http://xkcd.com/850/...
Dilbert - the usual food dilemma
Happens every day at the XWiki Office in Paris: Posted via email from Guillaume Lerouge’s blog | Comment »