FiberGeneration

That's Why French Are Set To Miss The Digital Bandwagon

Academy-Award winning actor and cycling fan Robin Williams has it right : French people will never cross the Chasm.

[Fiber To The Fun] Episode 11 : Malaysian Dream

You're tech-savvy, you're curious, you've always wanted to see what's inside a FTTH' street cabinet ? 

Here's a video that will make your dream come true. Sort of.

[Fiber To The Fun] Episode 10 : That's Why FTTH Don't Go Mass Adoption

Imagine this in your town ? Scary, huh ?!

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 9: Troubleshooting Nightmare

Digital Nomad Evangelist and TED Bangkok presenter Chris Smith, aka Shamblesguru in Second Life, has posted a quite interesting video on YouTube:  "Internet Infrastructure (East vs West)".

This video demonstrates why Fiber Install & Maintenance tasks are so, well, hum, "easy" in Asia...

 

Not The Fiber You Think

Optical Fiber versus Carbon Fiber ? The outcome is already decided : I go for the latest.

 

Planet Bike from Planet Bike on Vimeo.

Here's Why You Need Fiber-To-The-Home [episode 2]

Here's Why You Need Fiber-To-The-Home [episode 1]

To Infinity And Beyond !

Ever wondered what makes the Middle East so attractive ? Watch this ad for Bahrain' s telco Batelco, and you'll get the answer.

The Making-Off is quite a enjoyable moment as well.

You can join the hype on Facebook here.

post-scriptum to Batelco's Top Management : shall you need some seasoned FTTH builder, I'm yours.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 7: Que Viva El Telepresence !

For those of you who still wonder why Cisco' s Telepresence and Apple' s FaceTime are such big deals, here is the answer. Enjoy, and have a nice landing.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 6: That's Why I Don't Blog Those Days

As FTTH Network Deployment Director somewhere here in France, my days since the last twelve months have been pretty busy. Here's why. Enjoy.

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 4: Fibermercial

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 3: Home Cabling Made Real

Have Fiber-To-The-Home ? Want high-speed home network cabling ? Better choose the right contractor...

[Fiber-To-The-Fun] Episode 1: How To Deploy Fiber (un)Safely

Deploying Fiber-To-The-Home ? Think you need to block the streets ? Watch this, and think twice !

iPad, Ergo Sum.

"You're not buying an unnecessary electronic device, you're buying a family." David Letterman, The Late Show, CBS, April 1, 2010.

Direct link to the video via YouTube here

Disclaimer : The Russian Bride Isn't Mine !

Dear Fibergeneration Readers,

I sincerely apologize for the sudden apparition of ads for dating services on this blog.

I swear I've set the Google Ads widget as described by the Mountain View' Giant itself. 

My take is : a nice bug. Not surprising majority of people don't trust Cloud Computing so far ;-)

[TED][Augmented Reality] Mapping Microsoft]

May be the first time ever I like something made by Microsoft. The question is: when will Redmond partner with Cupertino in order to screw up Mountain View's plans ?...

Quote Of The Day 10-29-09

" Just finished a @platinumfitness workout/torture. Felt like merde."
Lance Armstrong, on his Twitter @lancearmstrong

The Genius Touch

What a better way to kick off the week than watching a Genius at his best ? Enjoy.

Why I Went To The Broadband World Forum Europe

Despite my decision last week, I went to the BBWF'09 yesterday. Here's why.

Quote Of The Day [09.6]

" Germany has nearly 100 percent more 'granny sex' searches over 'naked chicks.' No wonder these guys lost World War II. "

The folks at Cracked, in an hilarious yet almost accurate description of Google.

post-scriptum: Special thanks to @guykawasaki AC for the heads-up.

Product Launch, The Apple Way

This is the Apple.com' homepage as of today Monday 24th of August, 3:00PM CET. Just the confirmation of the official launch date of Apple's Mac OS X 10.6, which most of us already knew thanks to the rumor mill.

 

What's interesting to me is the name of the picture (which you get when you download it) : "Hero_OSX". Somebody' s going to save the Cheerleader here ?

TED On The Fly, episode 2: "Tidying Up Art"

After watching the Swiss comedian Ursus Wehrli deconstructing the work of some well known artists to build its own vision, you will never see the World the same way. Enjoy.

ps: if you don't understand swiss-german, here's the transcript of Wehrli's show.

PayPal For Dummies - sort of :-(

No need to read french to understand it's a trap. I wouldn't appreciate being a novice here...

It's About Team Building

I recently stumbled upon this video of a Southwest Airline flight Attendant doing his announcements the Rap way. Simply a refreshing moment of pure groove, as only Black people know how to spread joy and happiness just singing and/or dancing - I remember a nice saleswoman at a Duty-free store at Johannesburg' airport some years ago: she was dancing on the desk.

Actually, this moment reminds the one I enjoyed myself back in May 2000 during the first European Distributors Seminar I've organized at Agilent Technologies. A 3-days intensive workshop aimed a creating a tight bond between us the ONT Optical Network Test Division and our european reps, the outcomes of the event have proved being tremendous. From pure technical insights to creative ways to support our customers, this seminar has been a true milestone in the (unfortunately short) life of the Agilent ONT Division.

The "funny" thing is that on the last day of the seminar, I have had to let the people brainstorm without me: I had to work on a tender. A very last minute call from the regional Sales manager, who was unable to write the proposal himself. Of course, as usual, this was on Friday, for a hard deadline on the Monday. You can imagine how I felt: upset because this guy didn't follow my recommendations and suggestions, all made weeks before, and depressed because we were set to lose the tender anyway then.

Knowing me as a brother do, my friend Peter Schweiger came to my room to pick me up for the coffee break. It was almost 10:30AM, and I was almost shaking, as I was nervous as never before. As I entered the meeting room, all the distributors and my Agilent colleagues welcomed me like I was a Rock star (sort of ;-) : they knew I needed warm positive thoughts to get rid of my nervousness.

That's where this rap by the South West flight attendant comes in: deeply touched by their sincerity, I decided to ask all the participants to sing a french song with me. "Melissa", by Julien Clerc. I tell you: seeing 20 people clapping their hands in rhythm, and hearing them singing "Matez ma métisse" with the english, scottish, german, spanish, italian, danish, american (and french ;-) accents was a pure moment of joyce. They made me forget this bloody tender, and they made us a true, real team.

Almost 9 years after, when I meet some of my former reps, we always remember this very moment, when we all became part of the same group.

Keep in mind, the next time you have to create a team: let's sing together.

Quote Of The Day [09.6]

"Microsoft inflicts Internet Explorer 8 today at noon; Mac users unaffected"

MacDailyNews, Thu, March 19, 2009.

Twitter Made Simple

Ever wondered what the heck is this "Twitter" everybody is talking about those days ?

Watch the best journalist and interviewer on Earth Jon Stewart explaining the social service (I know, it's a couple of weeks old in the Blogosphere, but it's still very funny ;-)

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Twitter Frenzy

Daily Show Full Episodes
Important Things w/ Demetri Martin

Political Humor
Jim Cramer

Watch Your Steps ;-)

I've just got this email. Sent by... me, to... me. Welcome back, f*cking spammers.

PS: I'm done with this type of watch. Shall you look to please me, better offer me a Polar cardio with GPS and stuff.

Just This [18-08] Or The Car Fairy Tale

As I was here in Pau just for two days (unfortunately, business was northbound this week), I've decided to rent a "different" car than the usual mid-size I'm used to hire when I stay longer. Here's the decision process.

Twittering FTTH

Seems Asia is leading the way for FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home. See here.

FiberGeneration Blog Optimized For iPhone

Click here. Enjoy.

Thanks to TheSMESpace folks to allow us non-developers to test proof-of-concept so easily. More about TheSMESpace here.

ps: the iPhone screenshot is made with Apple's iPhone Simulator, which is part of the iPhone Dev Kit. You can find online simulators here and here.

Making Some Money Out Of The Crisis

Here's an email I've got this morning. Fact is, I don't have an account at Chase. A good laugh worth $50 ;-)

    From:     [email protected]
    Subject:     Customer Survey
    Date:     November 25, 2008 12:20:09 PM CEST
    Reply-To:     [email protected]

Due to the rumors of financial crisis, we decided to make a nationwide survey.
For the completion of this survey, we will credit your account with $50.

To take part, please click here.

Note - The information we gather from this survey will not be handed down to any third party.
 

Copyright 2008 JPMorgan Chase & Co.

How To Go Faster Than A 7-Times Tour de France's Winner

See this. Thank you, Twitter ;-)

This Is My First e-Passport

Thanks to Orange Labs's ePassport tool, everybody with a presence on the Web can get her e-passport. Here's mine. Well, not exactly, as there seem to be quite a handful of "Marc Duchesne" out there in the CyberSpace.
Anyway, once such minor glitch will be fixed (maybe I should find a unique cyber identity ?), I hope someday such an electronic ID will be enough to travel to the US - hey, imagine your e-Passport on the iPhone : seamless/painless security checks, thanks to RFID, voice/eye/fingerprint recognition, etc. Maybe Administration Obama will go for it...

Finger In The Win-nose

That's the snapshot of the message panel I've got today on my %)/&# Dell laptop.

For those of you who don't read french, Microsoft Windows was protecting my PC against Microsoft Windows. That's how you build trust & confidence with your end-users ;-)

Financial Crisis 101

Want to relax a bit ? Watch Stephen Colbert explaining how Corporate America f*cked up everything.

Still The Most Common Thing On The Internet

Of course, I'm talking about sex here. Weird : this blog got a hit from a search result made from a website that is definitely not about Fiber Optics, iPhone, Broadband, or whatever Vilnius thing.

The query ? "Wild Wide". It appears that the tags my friend Andrew uses for his posts are "Wild Wide West" and "Wild Wild West".

Now I see which kind of application would become the famous long-expected "Killer App" on FTTH networks ;-)

Call For Editors : The History Of Fiber Optics

Thanks to Dipity, I've created the Fiber Optics History Timeline.
Based on Science & Technology author Jeff Hecht' s "The City Of Light", this is the Web 2.0 version of Jeff' s own chronological page.

The beauty of Dipity is that you can display any type of content in a chronological order (Timeline view), on a carousel (Flipbook view), or on a map (Map view, surprisingly ;-). For teachers and instructors of all kind, what a nice tool to keep your audience up and running.

As any true Web 2.0 app, Dipity is UGC : User Generated Content. In this case, it means that  teachers and instructors can call for help to create a better content - think Wikipedia.

Well, Dear FiberGeneration Readers, I'm therefore calling on you ! I'll continue to edit the current timeline, for instance adding the missing locations, photos, URLs, etc. What I'm asking you is to add relevant content. For instance, as you can see the timeline ends in 1996. As some of you may have notice, quite a few interesting events occured between then and now in the Optical Communications arena. Those are typically the things you can contribute to, shall you have the relevant experience, knowledge, or insight ;-) Major milestones, breakthrough technologies, interesting field trials : please feel free to add !

Just drop me a line at : marc[dot]duchesne[at]mac[dot]com, and i'll set you as editor for this History of Fiber Optics. Thank you.

 

post-scriptum : for those of you who are not familiar with Fiber Optics, Jeff is publishing the "Understanding Fiber Optics" series since almost two decades now. The fifth edition was released in 2005. It's available here at Amazon.com. Enjoy the ride !

We Feel Fine : Emotional Rescue For The Back To Business Days

Flying back home recently, I watched Jonathan Harris' talk at TED2007 : "The Web's Secret Stories".

A New Yorker artist and scientist, Harris is leading an outstanding project : "We Feel Fine".

It's all about people' s feelings. Amazingly captivating. Just this little warning : it's so captivating that you may end up spending the whole day exploring the Web through Harris and his team' s eyes. Quite a nice way to forget the rude reality of the daily life at the office ;-)

The We Feel Fine website is here. The core stuff is there. Peace Out, Buddies.

That's Why I Need A 24/7 Up-And-Runing iPhone

See here.

Just This [11-08]

geo:tool=blockrocker.com geotagged geo:lat=45.76362 geo:lon=4.857682 See this post's geographical context.

OMG, Mr. Barack Obama is following me !

On Twitter. Not a joke. See by yourself here. Now I've got to stand out of the crowd if I want to get my green card ready ;-)

That's Why I Love San Francisco

Watch this. The story is here. Awesome, yet typically californian ;-)

Microsoft SMS : the Stupid Me-too Strategy

Microsoft has just launched its Windows Mobile Apps online store, apparently (you bet) to compete against Apple' s AppStore for the iPhone.

As I've both an iPhone and a PocketPC, I can do head-to-head comparison. I swear, it's not because I'm an Apple Fanboy, but the AppStore rocks and the WinMobApps sucks. A matter of product design, of course : the user experience per se, with the integration of the store into a global solution, the ease-of-use, etc.

For instance, the Microsoft store requires you to install Silverlight, to enable the caroussel type of product selection. Guess what : this feature is embedded into Mac OS X (ever heard of CoverFlow ?)...

That is a pretty stupid strategy from the guys in Redmond (another one ? ;-), proving that Microsoft is struggling like hell to stay... alive.

Funny MacDailyNews take on that one : "Any day now, we expect a post-liposuction Ballmer to show up at some trade show dressed in jeans and a black mock turtleneck saying "Boom!" a lot."

ROTFL (Rolling On The Floor Laughing) Seriously ;-)

Here's an ATM machine' s screenshot, captured last night in downtown Pau. What a brilliant customer experience, is it ?!!!

For you geeks reading this blog, here's the MS Windows' s error message :

Question : Who the heck developed this mission-critical app ?

Next question : When the hell will the big guys (hey, you're seeing a large bank here) realize that Windows really sucks ?

Who Said Fiber Is Secure ?

See this !

For the sake of your PC, better not visit the site (Mac users : you can ! ;-)

Cycling At The Fiber Age

Le Tour de France will make its annual stop here in Pau next week. The city is readying for the big show, with signs, ads, and welcome events popping up everywhere. In the meantime, the new release of the blockbuster "Pro Cycling Manager" game is on the shelves.

Among the key features of this 2008 version, there's one which rings a bell to me :

" Play in single and/or multi-player mode (allows up to 20 players over the Internet or via LAN). "

Imagine the benefits of FTTH Fiber-To-The-Home for such a game : no more players number' s limitation, so that you could be part of a *real* 200+ racers' peloton, even better graphics, and a faster speed of reaction for you to counterattack your rivals...

FTTH does offer many other possibilities to practice sports like Cycling or Skiing. For instance, imagine home-trainers connected to the Internet, simulating a real competition between cyclists for their  indoor training during winter...

Shall you be a game developer loving Sports (e.g. Cycling, Tennis, Ski, Rafting, etc.), please feel free to drop me a line : Pau is the place you should be.

When P.R. Brings You Joy & Faith (sort of)

For those of you who still have doubts on the bright future of Fiber To The Home, this press release will wipe them out right away.

ed. note : to read with a grain of salt, of course ;-)

The World In A Words Cloud

This is my Del.icio.us tags' list as seen by the lovely yet addictive Wordle cloud generator.

A wonderful tool to analyze a text to find out the most frequent words in it.

See here the result on a 12-pages document I wrote back in 2002 at Agilent Technologies for the introduction of a new product : the Modular Network Tester. This document was aimed at presenting the new platform to the sales channels. Look at the corresponding cloud, and you'll get the message ;-)

Thanks to Bruno Giussiani for the heads up.

Broadband Washroom

The lovely city of Pau is truly The Broadband Country. See this hand dryer in the restrooms at the Pau airport. The Dyson Airblade™. It wipes your hands dry in a matter of seconds, the time for you to realize that it's done. When hygiene and fun meet. That's innovation, Folks !

For more details on the Airblade™, go here.

You may read the whole "Why Airblade" section : it's a pretty nice lesson of product marketing.

Also, the Customer Service part is a model. I never thought hands drying could be so interesting.

Freak This

Seen in Pau yesterday, this banner at a perfume shop. Just curious to learn what a "Nail bar" consists of.