Alleluia : Twittervision on the iPhone is there !
Just installed Twittervision on my iPhone. Absolutely stunning app. The potential uses in business are countless. I better hurry up creating my Web 2.0 start-up in Pau ;-)

Just installed Twittervision on my iPhone. Absolutely stunning app. The potential uses in business are countless. I better hurry up creating my Web 2.0 start-up in Pau ;-)
Since beginning of this year I owe have sent approximately 5 tons of CO2 to into the precious air of Mother Earth to date.
I'd better define my compensation plan quickly, shall I want to stick with the Sustainable Development concept...
Looking for some info to get the most out of FriendFeed, I found this post by Digital Inspiration.
Although a pretty interesting article with lots of useful tips, an ad banner catch my eyes : " Muslima.com, the International Muslim Matrimonial Site." That was kind of a surprise to me, since I always thought Islam religion would forbid such of dating services.
Says the About page :
" Muslima.com is a specialist Muslim dating and matchmaking website that assists Muslim ladies to find their perfect match anywhere in the world. We offer friendly service combined with sophisticated search and messaging facilities that will make your search for true love fun and enjoyable. "

"Based on a rough analysis, we estimate that a doubling of food prices over the last three years could potentially push 100 million people in low-income countries deeper into poverty," World Bank President Robert Zoellick said in a statement at the end of the World Bank Spring Meeting in Washington, DC.
You may want to read the whole AFP article here.
Prices of rice, wheat, corn, cooking oil, milk and other foodstuffs have all risen sharply in recent months, sparking violent protests in many countries, including Egypt, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Mauritania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, the Philippines and Indonesia.
I took this photo last saturday, just a few miles away from home. See the cows ? Of the popular Holstein breed, the european dairy cattle. Guess what : the farm just ceased milk production, killed by european regulations and french policies. For years, I've been drinking its natural milk, direct from the cow. Tasty, just enough fat. You could tell the seasons just by looking at the liquid in your bowl : light in winter, more creamy at summertime, thanks to the green grass of the Champagne' hills.
Now, it's over. My kids won't know what's real milk is before long. But this is not the problem. The problem is the kids in Africa and Asia. They even don't know what's industrial milk. Because some guys in Chicago do speculate on food prices.
If I am correct, we're in 2008 - at least that's what the calendar on my iPhone says. 2008 : people are fighting for food, everywhere in the World (don't tell me that we Frenchies are safe : more and more people have to go to the Restos du Coeur and the likes for survival). Something going wrong there, when you seriously think about it.
Now, here's my point : back in 2003, a french scientist published a report on fractals and Economy *. The outcome of his studies : fractal models show that the World is set for planetary crisis until 2020. If this is true, then the one we're entering is just the beginning (because the Subprime stuff is like a little bump on the road, isn't ?).
* I don't remember the name of the guy, since I lost the post-it where I wrote it down during the radio talk show where I heard him first time back in september 2003. I keep googling for "fractals and economy crisis" since then, with no luck but a tremendous list of interesting materials on the subject.
Dan Lyons aka Fake Steve Jobs has the point with Bob Metcalfe' s EnerNet idea. His "one pair of glasses" theory is worth reading. Trust me. Because I'm a proponent of this idea that the Internet, Broadband, and Fiber can help solving the Climate Changes issues.
Google did it again. A true breakthrough online app, which is set to be the next revolution in the Internet mattress - ooops, sorry, matters. See here for more details.
To my friend Handy.
Direct link to AlternativeEnergy' Comedy here.
Note to all Fiber Generation Readers : this is a call for help. Help the Tibetans to change their world, to change OUR World, to change THE World.
If you are not part of the 924,138 World' Citizens who signed the petition as of today March 25th, 2008, 5:20PM GMT, please read the following :
"After decades of repression, Tibetans are crying out to the world for change. China's leaders are right now making a crucial choice between escalating brutality or dialogue that could determine the future of Tibet, and China.
We can affect this historic choice -- China does care about its international reputation. But it will take an avalanche of global people power to get the government's attention. The Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, has called for restraint and dialogue: he needs the world's people to support him. Fill out the form below to sign the petition--and spread the word."
Petition to Chinese President Hu Jintao:"As citizens around the world, we call on you to show restraint and respect for human rights in your response to the protests in Tibet, and to address the concerns of all Tibetans by opening meaningful dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Only dialogue and reform will bring lasting stability. China's brightest future, and its most positive relationship with the world, lies in harmonious development, dialogue and respect."
You can sign the petition on Avaaz.org website here
[http://www.avaaz.org/en/tibet_end_the_violence/]
On behalf of the Tibetans, and on behalf of your children' s children, thank you.
_Marc
Wired Magazine has published an excellent article on Apple : "How Apple Got Everything Right By Doing Everything Wrong". A must read, including the Evil/Genius and Online Extras side articles.
For an Applemaniac, Jobsian Fanatic like myself, those type of readings just confirm what we already presume on the Product Marketing & Industrial Design way at Apple (at least since Jobs' s return in 1997).
It also raises three questions in my mind :
1. when even a pure self-made man like me can understand quite a bit of the underlying long term strategy and the tactics at Apple, why the heck no other company is applying the same methods ? Can you think of another name, in any other industry, with this level of perfection in Industrial Design and Marketing at large ? Maybe Trek ? Or maybe I'm too much Apple-branded that I'm too blind to see outside the Reality Distorsion Field !
2. why can't we French people enjoy the beauty of an AppleStore, whilst the Mac/iPod/iPhone/iLoveIt maker is to open a superstore in rainy Liverpool ? Is there something we Frenchies don't get about Apple and/or Steve Jobs ? Hey, we've bought into the iPhone hype - even restaurants' s maîtres d'hôtel have iPhone now.
3. the last yet most important : when will I get a job at Apple ? ;-)
To end Human Rights abuses in Tibet, go to RaceForTibet.org here.
Back from San Diego, I had a meeting yesterday night in Paris with the VP Sales & Marketing of a new startup working on some *fiber network monitoring* stuff. I can't disclose anything of course, just that it's about Fiber-To-The-Home.
Things we've discussed until late in the evening were on the forthcoming changes in the optical comms industry per se and our own lives.
Like this one : thanks to FTTH and 40G/100G/etc. networks, we're going to be "online" everywhere anytime, with our entire "life" relying on *The Net*. Fine.
Now, since we'll do everything - working, watching TV, training, sharing life, etc. - through a single fiber strand, this one better stay up and running 24/7 : we won't accept being cut off for 2 days until the Repair guys come in. Hence the need for monitoring systems, which would look after the faults on the fiber right up to our living room.
A tremendous challenge, provided the numerous FTTx networks topologies and technologies. A challenge which requires to think out of the box. Something the legacy Test & Measurement firms can't do. Something a well funded startup can do. How much do they need ? $5m. Which is not that much for a solution which will help change the World (because it'll guarantee your fiber stays okay).
Ed. note : French world-famous blogger Loic Lemeur got $6m for his Web 2.0 video-sharing platform. Raising $1m less to produce something which really serves the World shouldn't be that much a problem. At least in a perfect World...
Read here. I'm glad this blog is named after the Fiber Generation...
According to Mr Metcalfe himself, the Communications world is now based on a 4-layers model : Ethernet > Internet > Web > Google.
Google : recruiting at OFC. Of course we know Google has its own fiber infrastructure. But. What if... Google is the only company on Earth able to do what Bob Metcalfe asks the whole Communications industry to do : re-invent the Network.
Okay, the idea of having one single company managing the whole stuff could be scarring off some people, but heck, that would be an exciting journey.
Doesn't Google have its own switches now ? So, imagine Google coming up with some fancy optical transport technology. Like Soliton, for instance...
This are my running notes of Bob Metcalfe' s keynote speech at the opening plenary session here at OFCNFOEC'08, San Diego, California. Posted after the speech, for misspelling corrections and irrelevant stuff deletion.
I'll comment some of them later on, in a further post. Just this personal note : Mr Metcalfe himself confirms that good times are ahead for the the Fiber industry. Should she wants to reinvent herself.
Running notes :
- BM has no ppt slides.
- uses instead 3 cards stacks, today will use 5 packs - reads the cards either on the table or hand held.
- the agenda of the day is to get the answer to two questions : "why should we be Terabit Ethernet ?", and then "how ?".
- 20 years between the first optical Ethernet in 1978 and the real commercial one.
- BM has a new project : create the Ether-Net, to solve energy crisis.
- SONET vs Ethernet : Ethernet won because of prices slash on cost per bit.
- BM prefers the terminology "telephon television and data" vs "voice video and data".
- the Internet is now carrying video, mobile, and embedded apps.
- Internet was not designed for none of them.
- Bubblephobia : people still afraid of traffic growth after the 2000 burst.
- expects growing traffic on embedded apps : first were mainframes then mini-computers then PCs then laptops then palmtops, so what's next ? : embedded.
- "alien wavelengths" : fiber people don't allow computer people to send their own wavelengths on the fiber.
- Ethernet technology will continue to ramp-up on a 10x slope, not 4x : 10G, then 100G, then 1T.
- Terabit Ethernet needs break out the existing infrastructure, otherwise it will be chaos.
- chaotic infrastructure because of too many levels, pieces, components - too much complexity.
- BM to the audience : "it's good news for you : it's gonna be fun". invent new stuff. means new business.
- BM lists some directions : new fibers : maybe carbon fibers ? how about no fibers at all ? how about free space mesh ? OOO (no more OEO conversion) ? etc ?
- we will never hear the word "OC3072" because of Ethernet 100G.
- Intel Sales & Marketing VP says TbE will not happen on terminal devices - it will be WiMax instead.
- when Tim Berners Lee invented the WWW, he never thought there will be a Google.
- today we have 4 layers, no more the 7 of the OSI model : at the bottom : Ethernet, then Internet, then WWW, then on top : Google.
- we need to re architect Ethernet because online video : download needs bandwidth, streaming needs QoS, interactive needs low-latency : Ethernet never been good at that.
- re-architect Ethernet : routing, switching, etc.
- meet people needs for lower energy consumption.
- Ethernet will help reducing transportation needs etc.
- BM asks the audience : "you fiber communications people are you ready to help solve the energy crisis ?"
Short biography of Dr. Robert M. Metcalfe: MIT engineer, Harvard mathematician, Internet developer, Xerox scientist, Ethernet inventor, Stanford professor, 3Com founder, Cambridge fellow, InfoWorld pundit, and now Polaris partner.
Read the OFCNFOEC plenary session program here.
See Bob Metcalfe' s recent interview by Light Reading here, and read more here.
Get the clear picture on why online video naturally changes the World here.
Last but not least, the legend of Bob Metcalfe is here, by Wired.

[updated 10:06PM]
Reading Robert Scoble' s latest post, on how small teams can make a big difference within large companies, I thought about... the Agilent Mini-OTDR. This little box, which is not as sexy as the iPhone of course, was the GameBoy of his kind at its release back in 1996.
To make it short, this product was a breakthrough-paradigm shifting optical tester, inventing a brand new category - the so-called handhelds - for a brand new type of end-users : the fiber optics installers. Almost 12 years after its release, the Agilent Mini-OTDR is still the reference, as the two main competitors JDSU and EXFO (ever heard of those names ? ;-) even do copy & paste - including the naming system.
What's the link with Scoble' s post ? Small teams. The Mini-OTDR has been defined, designed, and engineered by a 6-people team, within the HP Optical Communications Division group (aka Agilent Photonic Test Division or something like that as of today). Take Scoble' s text, replace "Microsoft" by "HP", "Yahoo" by "EXFO" and you get the same picture.
Who said "Less Is More" ?...
post-scriptum : the hands carrying the Mini belong to my dear buddy Dieter *John* Gustedt, the guy who made the Agilent Modular Network Tester real.
CNN Dubai reports :
" High-technology services across large tracts of Asia, the Middle East and North Africa were crippled Thursday following a widespread Internet failure which brought many businesses to a standstill and left others struggling to cope.
Hi-tech Dubai has been hit hard by an Internet outage apparently caused by a cut undersea cable.
Industry experts are blaming damage to two undersea cables but it is not known what caused the damage.
Reports say that Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Bahrain Pakistan and India, are all experiencing severe problems.
Nations that have been spared the chaos include Israel -- whose traffic uses a different route -- and Lebanon and Iraq. Many Middle East governments have backup satellite systems in case of cable failure."
As stated by one of the interviewed ISPs, this pretty severe outage is a wake up call for the region. But also for the whole Telecoms industry : it's time to stop lay offs and start lay out new cables. Dear submarine systems makers, you've got a bright future ahead of you !
Just like in the mid-90's, when the big projects such as FLAG and SeaMeWe appeared.
The difference ? Today, there are people at the end of the fiber. Applications. Business. Users.
It's showtime for the real Net Economy, folks !
Buddy Blogger Benoit Felten has posted a very interesting article on the recent report from the French business owners/managers' Union MEDEF : "How to make of France a leader in the Digital Economy." (link and pdf document in french).
Belgian startup Radionomy has been officialy launched yesterday night in Paris, from the Eiffel Tower (where the very first TV signal has been broadcasted some decades ago).
According to the Radionomy folks, the concept is pretty simple :
With Radionomy, everyone is finally going to be able to create their own radio station on the Internet!It’s easy.
By tapping into the contents of vast music libraries.By integrating their own musical creations.
By adding their own audio content, sequences, reports and podcasts.It’s free.
Radionomy will broadcast these radio stations around the world and take care of all costs, including royalties. Radionomy even shares its revenue with radio station creators, based on the size of their audience.
Pretty cool, huh ?
So, we're going to see - er., hear - tons of "Pirate" radio channels, just like in the good old days of Radio Caroline.
Will be interesting to watch the outcomes. How this concept will find users, and how those ones will use it.
What's quite funny to me is the fact that the WebRadio concept emerges AFTER the WebTV stuff, whilst the original technologies were on reverse order : Radio first, then Television.
Also funny to me, the fact that Radionomy launches whilst traditional radios start doing live TV webcasting of their shows and programs.
Conclusion : Convergence is coming fast. Within the next couple of years, we're going to have a brand new "Web" space, where everyone will be able to create, share, and use any kind of content that will be available one way or another on the Net. Exciting.
To subscribe to the Radionomy Beta Testers Waiting List, follow the link here.
Ed. note : thanks Jean-Michel for the heads up.
According to Yahoo! a few minutes ago : Oil Futures Rise to $100 a Barrel. Read here. Better consider swapping your 4x4 truck for an hybrid.
Dear FiberGeneration Readers :
To all of you who do celebrate Christmas, I wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday.
To everyone else *, enjoy the day and the night.
To all : enjoy the time with your loved ones.
Peace Out, and Carpe Diem.
* especially to You, Dear (Un)known Reader from Ankara, Turkey.
I took this photo today, somewhere nearby Disneyland Paris. Look at the sky : the only clouds you see are those generated by the airliners's prop' engines. Scarring.
See this post's geographical context.
geo:tool=blockrocker.com
geotagged
geo:lat=48.86309
geo:lon=2.85328
Earlier today, Al Gore addressed the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia. You will find lots of reports and comments on his speech over the days to come, starting here, thanks to Associated Press and Yahoo.
I won't comment Mr. Gore's sentence : "[] I am going to speak an inconvenient truth: My own country, the United States, is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali."
The story is, since a couple of weeks I was looking for a nice photo to illustrate an old saying from my first General Manager at the Optical Communications Measurements Division of Agilent Technologies. Coming directly from India to Germany, he often used sayings to push his ideas.
This photo of Al Gore, Nobel Prize, former US Vice-President and former future President, is the perfect illustration of an indian saying on finger pointing.
What is it ? When you point your finger on someone, or vice-versa, when someone points his finger on you to blame you of something, here's the reality : since human beings got 5 fingers at birth, the one you point on the person in front of you tells that this guy is accountable for 20% of the problem; your thumb points either to the ground or the sky : that's Mother Earth, or God (or The Force, you name it), for 20%. Your last three fingers, gently folded on your palm ? they're pointing on you, Buddy. YOU are responsible for 60% of the problem.
Next time you do finger-pointing against someone, better think twice.
post-scriptum : in the case of Mr. Gore, he already apologized for not being able to fight Global Warming when he was at the White House.
Photo Credit : AP Photo/Dita Alangkara.

Over the last few days, I've been dealing with people who should learn the true meaning of "teamworking". For those guys, "sharing" and "collaboration" are obscur concepts promoted by some psychologists. Don't talk about the Web 2.0, whilst they even don't use email to communicate with their so-called team mates.
In the meantime, I also discussed with those team mates. I realized one thing : give people a smile, and they'll give you the World. It works both ways : when I play the Pierre Cardin salesman at this menswear store, I always welcome the visitors (not yet customers, see the difference ;-) with a large smile and big "hello, how are you today ?" kind of greeting. Outcome : 80% of those visitors become customers, most of them loyal. When I go shopping myself, the same large smile on my face will bring me a better service 80% of the time.
Conclusion : smile, and you'll make the World a better place.
The fabulous Common Craft Show is here.
Once again, His Highness FSJ goes straight to the point. Peace out. And enjoy the ride.
Madame Christine Lagarde, French Minister for the Economy, Finance, and Employment (that's a title as big as the Ministry itself...) recently asked the French citizen to use bicycles instead of cars, in order to not spend their money on gasoline (and diesel).
Nice try, but she better had read this survey from Virgin Vacations before going with such a stupid statement. The survey is about : The eleven most bicycle friendly cities in the World.
Here's the list :
1. Amsterdam, Netherlands
2. Portland, Oregon
3. Copenhagen, Denmark
4. Boulder, Colorado
5. Davis, California
6. Sandnes, Norway
7. Tronheim, Norway
8. San Francisco, California
9. Berlin, Germany
10. Barcelona, Spain
11. Basel, Switzerland
That's seven cities in Northern/Central/Eastern Europe and four in the US. Paris, Bordeaux, Strasbourg, France ? Nowhere to see. I've been in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Boulder, San Francisco, Barcelona, Basel : I'd love to ride my bicycle there. I live nearby Paris : I would never ever jump on a Velib. Life is way too much important to me.
Full survey and more here.
Bicycle Friendly Community here.
Photo credit : George Bosela
Last night on Franco-German TV channel Arte, I saw a young kid riding an old refurbished bicycle made by his father. Of course, it was about Poverty, the real plague of Western European countries (not speaking fo the rest of the World, of course). To the question "what if you got 3 wishes to tell to a Genie ?", the little boy answered this :
"Wish number one : a brand new bicycle. Wish number two : a PlayStation. Wish number three : a 1000 more wishes."
Since then, I keep thinking about this last wish...
How to make it real :
Just a reminder...
I once took an elevator with a former US President (Bill Clinton, Roissy Charles De Gaulle airport, Feb.2002), but I never got a message from a Nobel Prize until today. Read this :
Dear Marc,
I am deeply honored to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. This award is even more meaningful because I have the honor of sharing it with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change--the world's pre-eminent scientific body devoted to improving our understanding of the climate crisis--a group whose members have worked tirelessly and selflessly for many years. We face a true planetary emergency. The climate crisis is not a political issue, it is a moral and spiritual challenge to all of humanity. It is also our greatest opportunity to lift global consciousness to a higher level.
My wife, Tipper, and I will donate 100 percent of the proceeds of the award to the Alliance for Climate Protection, a bipartisan non-profit organization that is devoted to changing public opinion in the U.S. and around the world about the urgency of solving the climate crisis.
Thank you,
Al Gore
Now, to understand why the former Vice-President and ex-future President may become the new President, watch this video.
On October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America. 499 years later, I discovered Columbus Avenue.
[photo credit : Don Klosterman]
Jason Lewis, 39, is back home after a 13-years incredible journey. Together with his buddy Steve Smith, Lewis left the United Kingdom on the 12th of July 1994, for one of the greatest adventures of the Modern Times : a circumnavigation around the World.
Their goal : " to circle the World by means of human power alone, to use the adventure as a classroom learning tool, to encourage World Citizenship between cultures, to promote environmental responsibility, to live fully and enjoy the experience."
More on Smith & Lewis venture Expedition 360 here. on Jason' s arrival on the Greenwich' s Meridian Line here and here
A new tricycle of some sort ? Quite not. Check this out.
Thanks Andrew for the heads-up.
Another photo showing lots of people. Who said Macs don't make it against Windows ?
To fight the Dark Ages which seem to come - Global Warming is just one of the many aspects of it, together with the actual riots in Burma and so many other apparently isolated or disconnected events all around the Planet - Human Kind needs to unite.
The previous post is a (very) little contribution to this fight.
Thanks JMP for the heads up.
Ten years after leaving my own firm to do something else, I'm back in the Fiber Optics Training & Consulting business. Since Monday this week, I'm in charge of the creation of a ad-hoc subsidiary at a 20-yrs old / 50-people / fast-growing company here in France.
It's a little bit strange to me : I'm paid to do what I haven't had the chance to achieve with my own firm ten years ago.
The good news is : today, the market is there (thanks to YouTube, Facebook, and MSN), the customers are there, and the tools are there (thanks to the Internet and the Web 2.0).
And thanks to those ten years out of this particular business, I've learned so many different things myself in so many different domains that I'm more capable to run this business successfully than in the 90's.
For instance, this : today, I've been working at Production, assembling and testing fiber patchcords. For the first time since 1983 when I first put my fingers around an optical fiber, I've been shaking. I was afraid of breaking the fiber whilst stripping it. Now I understand my attendees fifteen or ten years ago, when they were shaking and I was saying "come on guy, look at me, am I shaking ?"...
Over the last ten years, I've learned a lot of things, for sure. Maybe the most important one is humility.
On Lunch Over IP : Picnic07: Stefana Broadbent and why everything is moving into the background.
I read Bruno Giussiani's running notes just before watching Jerry Maguire again. Kind of interesting answer to the question at the end of Bruno' s post : " how important something is to you to makes you make that specific choice of focusing on it? "...
On TechITeasy : Sustainable, Information Technology?
A detailed fact sheet by Jeremy Fain of Microsoft on Green IT. Among lots of other pretty serious stuff, this one : " Every second that passes sees 24 Kg of PCs produced, 1.8 tons of raw materials aimed at the Information Technology market, half a ton of CO2 generated by hardware heat, 108 Kg. of PC-related garbage."
On How To Change The World : Ten Questions with Chris Brogan.
The Social Media expert answers Guy Kawasaki' s famous ten questions (which are eleven, by the way) on Twitter. You've got to like the twittering app after that (don't miss the comments).