Guido's Blog

Waze–free turn by turn navigation

2011-12-22T17:53:00.001+01:00

…check this out!

www.waze.com (and in the AppStore)

Rigi

2011-10-09T14:56:00.000+02:00

Trip to Rigi Kulm (from Vitznau)

Why 30 days?

2011-09-21T17:03:00.001+02:00

Here is the guy that says you need to try new things for 30 days to make an impact:

Matt Cutts: Try something new for 30 days

Find his 30-day challenges here: http://www.mattcutts.com/blog/type/30-days/

Find my current status here: http://runkeeper.com/user/guidooswald/profile (add 1 day that is was not tracked with RunKeeper)

Biking to work–day 2 of 30

2011-08-22T20:45:00.001+02:00

Looks like RunKeeper is more battery efficient than Everytrail. Despite the speed and distance announcements all the time… What´s missing is a heart rate sensor that transmits directly to the iPhone (maybe Bluetooth or so?).

Route option two…

2011-08-20T11:49:00.001+02:00

Office -> home (road route) at EveryTrail

also this route along the main streets is a little shorter, its no fun biking next to the cars all the time… I’ll probably stay with the route along national bike trail No. 5…

Biking to work–day 1 of 30

2011-08-19T12:03:00.001+02:00

Today I took the bike to work instead of train or car. Goal is to do this for 30 days now…

There is still room for improvement regarding the route I’d say…

To the office at EveryTrail

Dana's First Steps

2011-07-12T10:20:00.001+02:00

Lucerne

2011-06-22T09:48:00.002+02:00

Pictures from our trip to Lucerne...

Skype experiencing problems (again)

2011-06-07T14:48:00.001+02:00

Skype crashed on all windows PCs about an hour ago… again!

At least they are working on it:
http://heartbeat.skype.com/2011/06/problems_signing_in_to_skype_f.html

Is this the influence of Microsoft already?! Hope not, I really love that service, since this is our main telephone line for all our German friends and family.

Good that the standalone Skype-Telephone still seems to work…

Wohnung Würenlos

2011-04-06T10:20:00.000+02:00

Dana Shorts (Part 1)

2011-03-06T10:30:00.001+01:00

...learning to walk

Rüsler

2011-01-18T15:43:00.000+01:00

test from PicasaWeb..

iPad

2010-04-11T17:34:00.001+02:00

just bought the brand new iPad – and I am pretty happy with it. Despite all the drawbacks in terms of missing functionality, the experience is awesome.

Unfortunately there are no iPad Apps on the German or Swiss AppStore, yet, but the Apps from the US AppStore are pretty good already (although not all relevant to Europeans…)

Now I am hoping for a new Skype App that supports the big screen and the new OS 4.0, which is due in summer, to add multitasking and some other new features…

Getting my new camcorder…

2010-03-26T15:04:00.001+01:00

I ordered a new camcorder last week, since there will be a new actor joining, soon…

I had a long discussion with a close friend and finally decided against the Panasonic HDC-SD 707 (/ HDC-HS-700 / HDC-TM 700) and for the Sony HDR-XR550VE – which I will pick up later on.

I am really curious how the quality compares to the Panasonic, since it offers 1080/50p and has three sensors compared to one on the Sony.
The reasons for getting the Sony is the availability / price here in Switzerland and the built in GPS, which I will definitely use to geotag my videos (still looking for a solution for my Canon DSLR).

Comparison report will follow here when I had the time to properly compare the two… stay tuned!

Google Nexus One?

2009-12-31T12:25:00.001+01:00

I am thinking of getting a Nexus One (Android based) phone when I’m over in the US in Jan…

http://gizmodo.com/5436673/leaked-nexus-one-documents-530-unlocked-180-with-t+mobile

The question is if i really want to spend 530 US$ on another mobile phone? My iPhone 3G is actually doing pretty much all I want it to and there are only few downsides with it. I guess I need to think that over and make sure I have it physically in my hands before I buy it.

iPhone or Android?

2009-11-04T21:50:00.001+01:00

As it looks like Google and Apple finally discovered they are competitors (and Schmidt Resigns His Seat on Apple's Board), I might have to make a decision soon if my next mobile device (I am avoiding the term phone here :) will be a new iPhone or an Android powered one.

Following the latest news about the increasing functionality and the upcoming hardware I think this might get an easy choice…

Maybe Apple should re-think its decision to ban Google apps from the iPhone (like Latitude). Google ‘power-users’ like me will go for the free and independent OS and hope that the hardware will become somewhat stylish as the iPhone.

Looking forward to be eligible for a new phone in four month…

Technorati Tags: iPhone,Android

Throwing hats…

2009-10-11T22:53:00.001+02:00

I got the invitation for the graduation ceremony, which takes place Oct. 23rd in Munich.

Unfortunately I will be in UK the whole week and my flight back arrives in Zurich late Friday evening. I hope it will be possible to change flights and get to Munich in time (instead of Zurich). Maybe I could also leave a day early and drive to Munich on Friday… I really don’t wanna miss that event!

Finished the Thesis Defense and my MBA studies…

2009-09-21T14:50:00.001+02:00

So – I am finally done with my MBA studies :)

I successfully finished my Thesis Defense on Saturday and now waiting for the invitation to ‘throw hats’ in October.

I’d like to thank the whole FOM team (especially the Munich team) who did an amazing job organizing the classes and dealing with all the issues we had!

Of course a big Thank-You to all the Professors that ran the classes and evaluated our assignments. Special Thanks to:

Dr. Charles Savage (for teaching us how to think out of the box and using refreshing new teaching methods – and of course for all the support during the Thesis!)
Dr. Thomas “Tom” Peisl (for his open door policy and the nice Summer School in Wales)
Dr. Thomas Städter (for the nice discussions at the defense)
Christina Regul (for the Summer School at Pfeiffer University in Charlotte NC)
Dr. Niklas Lampenius (for making me understand the NPV, APV, WACC and all the other obscure financial terms.. quote: “is nur n’ simpler Dreisatz!”)
Dipl.-Kfm. (univ), Mag. rer.soc.oec. Bjørn Lillegraven (for admitting that some of this stuff is just common sense)
Dr. Sven Winterhalder (for being so convincing in the introduction sessions)

Not to forget all my fellow students – we had a nice time despite all the pressure sometimes! I’m gonna miss the group assignments…

Looking forward to spend my weekends with…. *thinking” …. whatever people do on weekends again…

Thesis Defense

2009-09-13T11:38:00.001+02:00

Got my confirmed date for the thesis defense for next Saturday, Sept. 19th.

Currently preparing a 20 minute presentation for the defense, which will take about one hour in total. It will probably take place in the new residence of the FOM near the Munich station. Looking forward to an interesting discussion and a nice celebration afterwards…

Sundown over Bodensee...

2009-08-23T21:09:00.000+02:00

Sundown near Bregenz, Bodensee (Lake Constance)

Thesis is done and filed…

2009-08-18T12:23:00.001+02:00

…now waiting for a confirmed date for the defense. Looking forward to present the results and answer some nasty questions :)

Writing the thesis was a great experience. I could have worked for much longer, but the 3 month time limit is a good thing, cause otherwise it would be a never ending story!

Now I have time again for my private life, my job and (not to forget) blogging.

As Windows 7 showed up on the MSDNAA for download end of last week, I couldn’t resist and install it on my desktop and my netbook on Sunday. It actually runs quite smoothly – except of some immature drivers for the netbook (notably the Intel GMA500 display driver).
The current Vista driver works, but crashes with a BSOD after a couple of minutes when turning on the Aero (glass) UI. At least the standard theme works pretty stable.

Funny enough, Microsoft does not have any Bluetooth headset drivers included anymore, so I had to install the Broadcom (Asus package) BT-Stack to get my headset working with Skype and the SIP phone…

Will test a nice little device driver tool this evening (Device Doctor) that is already tested on Windows 7. Let’s see what that will find…

The Clock is ticking…

2009-05-15T23:38:00.001+02:00

I got my topic for the Masters’ Thesis officially fixed now. This means the clock is ticking… deadline is August 13th.

Topic is : “CRM 2.0 – Next Generation Customer Relationship Model”

This means full steam ahead and keep writing for the next 3 Month.

Research is pretty much all done. I just need to get some more data (probably from analyst reports) to fortify the statements made in the thesis. Often difficult to find the right book to cite from – the topic is so transient that some of the data or knowledge is already outdated (although only 2-3 years old).

new wheels

2009-04-29T10:40:00.001+02:00

Finally decided on the new wheels and tires last Saturday and ordered right away as I got a good offer from Adam Touring.

The “pit stop” was close to Formula 1 :) Took me 10 minutes to get in, get the wheels changed, pay and get out. Excellent Service, I’m impressed!

The new Barracuda Tzunamee wheels and Pirelli P Zero rosso (255,30,19 and 225,35,19)

The future of mobile devices?

2009-04-04T19:07:00.001+02:00

Interesting where the road might go in the future… I like the idea of having a small projector in my mobile :)

Reading the barcode and checking prices is already working. Perfect decision helper in a store.

Checking out Internet Explorer 8

2009-04-03T14:09:00.001+02:00

I just installed IE8 on my Vista32 and there are tons of new features to discover. Looks like IE is finally an alternative to Firefox and Chrome again.

The first crash affected only a single tab (like in Chrome) – good threading/process model. Speed seems to be ok as well. Let’s see how long our IT department needs to test the internal websites and app to approve IE8…

Foxmarks for IE installs actually on Windows and keeps bookmarks up-to-date (synced with different machines and browsers). Good Stuff.
Hopefully the tool will stay for people that are just looking for the sync (not the new ‘Xmarks’ social bookmarking features…)

Technorati Tags: Internet Explorer 8,Browser,Bookmark Sync,Foxmarks

Windows 7 – a smart move from Microsoft!

2009-01-30T12:58:00.001+01:00

After having a first look at Windows 7, I came to believe that Microsoft's strategy is actually pretty clever.

If you as a software company want to shorten the release cycles and increase license revenue, how would you do that? Create a perfect Software w/o any bugs that will be usable for the next 10 years – or better push out a nice looking one that has some flaws and get at least the geeks and OEMs to buy it? And then follow up with a better, faster and more stable one soon after, to sell again to all the early adopters and additionally to all businesses that now see the requirement and value in an upgrade?

Maybe Vista really was only intended to act as an intermediate to sell more copies?! Maybe it was not planned but an ‘accident’ ? Anyway, the differences from Vista to Windows 7 are not too big. But I guess Microsoft will get a lot of revenue out of Windows 7 in 2009 and 2010 (lets assume it will be released this year). Given the economic background, this could be the golden shot and ensure ongoing license sales at MS in a difficult time…

Technorati Tags: Microsoft,Windows 7

Getting into writing mode…

2009-01-28T00:15:00.001+01:00

I took a week off this week to get a full start with my thesis. I think I did enough research and need to get things done now… (If I would only have time to read the GTD book :)

Yesterday was hard to get back into my writing style as I didn’t do any assignments for a full year. Guess I was too lazy and the new job took more of my time than I expected… but since today I am confident that I will find back into the flow soon and become productive.

Project Plan still expects the end in May/June so I can do defense in August latest.

Spazieren...

2009-01-11T16:30:00.000+01:00

new car

2009-01-05T11:12:00.001+01:00

ah, forgot that I also got my new car last week. I love it... can't wait for the spring so we can get rid of the roof

Welcome to 2009

2009-01-05T11:09:00.001+01:00

We had a good start into 2009 - although we didn't go to Zurich to see the fireworks as initially planned (due to slippy roads and icy rain...)

Focus for the new year is seeing as many customers as possible and educate them about SOA and finishing my masters' thesis until Summer.

Pictures Jungfraujoch

2008-12-24T11:22:00.002+01:00

unfortunately there are very few outside pix due to the snow-storm ;)

Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe

2008-12-21T16:01:00.000+01:00

We had a very nice trip to the "Top of Europe" (Jungfraujoch, 3454m) on Friday. Although we found ourselves in the middle of a snow-storm with zero visibility, it was an experience!

Pictures will follow soon...

Back from a good Sales Kick-Off in Miami

2008-12-17T11:09:00.001+01:00

It was an enjoyable and informative week at the Doral Golf Resort in Miami. There is a lot of movement in the company and many changes happening, but I believe most of them going into the right direction.

Focus will be on the customer and their business needs in 2009. In times of economical downturn, there is no demand for long term strategical SOA projects. It's about the current issues and how to solve them quickly and most efficient.

I think Progress Software is very well equipped with its current set of products and solutions to help getting SOA up and running and deliver on its promises quickly.

Coming back to Switzerland is a (temperature) shock. This morning we are completely snowed in. I decided to work from home as it took me 25 mins to get to the next small town (about 3km)...

Took a day off for my birthday next Friday. Planning to go to the Jungfraujoch - Top of Europe :)

Let's hope the weather get's a little better until then...

Digsby

2008-11-25T09:25:00.001+01:00

added a Disby chat widget - the web 2.0 at its best...

Check out the Multi-Protocol IM and SN-Client at http://www.digsby.com/ !

Sunday walk

2008-11-24T01:06:00.000+01:00

We had a nice long walk down the Reuss today. Really nice area we moved to...

Getting the message across...

2008-10-14T17:41:00.001+02:00

The Power-Messaging course last week really helped me to better prepare and focus my presentations to the customer needs!

The workshop showed all the different techniques that are available and gives some insights into the listeners mind (e.g. they will only remember 20% of the main/middle part of the presentation).

Combined with Toastmasters I think this could be a perfect preparation to become a good speaker. I will definitely try to use this in my future presentations...

Technorati Tags: Speaker,Power Messaging,Toastmasters

Power Messaging

2008-10-03T11:26:00.001+02:00

preparing the Power Messaging course next week in London... really good stuff in there!

It's all about the psychology of selling and the techniques to leverage it.

http://www.powermessageexpress.com

Can you believe that?

2008-09-30T15:07:00.001+02:00

Price development for petrol and beer on the Oktoberfest...

Back to Munich for a week

2008-09-10T11:10:00.001+02:00

will stay in Munich next week and organize the move - lots of contracts to quit and letters to send :)

The hotel in Zufikon I stayed in was not the very best (pretty loud and old) but the food was extremely good.

Picasa 3 beta

2008-09-07T11:41:00.000+02:00

Some new and enhanced features in Picasa 3... Red Eye correction seems to have improved - that's good :)
Possible to blog pictures now as well and geotag in Google Earth. Nice!
Also the webalbums were updated and seem to load much faster now...

First week in Switzerland

2008-08-28T16:16:00.001+02:00

had a busy but successful week and a great start into the new job.

Driving back to Munich later today - need to return all my stuff from the old company tomorrow.
We settled the new apartment and made progress with the moving planning. So if everything goes right, we will be leaving Germany earlier than expected - which is good :)

my new office at Progress Software...

2008-08-25T19:27:00.001+02:00

IMG_0309, originally uploaded by odiugdlawso.

no cubicles anymore :)

Searching for an appartment in Baldham near Munich?

2008-08-21T16:57:00.001+02:00

ours will be for rent next month :)

http://www.immobilienscout24.de/47145023

work-life balance?

2008-07-31T01:52:00.001+02:00

I am trying to find the right work-work balance at the moment... trying to balance between my job and my Masters' Thesis.

Although this sounds as if I would work all day, which is not true. I'm still enjoying life! Looking forward to see my MBA fellow students for a BBQ on Saturday... cross fingers that the weather will be ok!

that's how far I got....

2008-07-19T16:19:00.001+02:00

iFlickr, originally uploaded by odiugdlawso.

if the resolution would be higher, you could see the Alps in the background...

had a good bike tour...

2008-07-19T16:18:00.001+02:00

iFlickr, originally uploaded by odiugdlawso.

...36km through the local forests. Unfortunately my bottom bracket is gone, so I need to replace that asap!

The iPhone is a good tool to keep track on where you're going when there are no signs around :)

Email post

2008-07-05T10:44:00.000+02:00

Posting via Email...

Sent from my iPhone

iFlickr

2008-07-05T10:39:00.001+02:00

iFlickr, originally uploaded by odiugdlawso.

can blog from Flickr as well... Web 2.0 gets connected :)

Flickr

2008-07-05T10:33:00.001+02:00

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Charlotte 2007 Revival

2008-07-03T17:12:00.003+02:00

Peggy, Andi and I had the feeling that we need to organize a come together of the Charlotte 2007 Summer School folks.

First Idea is Amsterdam... created a Google Group to act as a mailing list to discuss this.
Unfortunately I am still waiting for the invitations to be reviewed by the Google staff and finally sent out :-s Hope that happens today...

Subscribe to Charlotte2007Revival

Email:

Visit this group

Two month to go...

2008-07-01T11:23:00.002+02:00

Today is July 1st - means I must not forget my mothers B-Day and that I have two month left before I start my new job in Zurich.

According to my project plan I am still doing ok with my thesis. I plan to bring it to a stage where I could hand it in until end of August. As I will anyway extend one semester (looks like everybody from my class will do that...) I have the chance to give it to some native English speaking ppl for proof reading and fine tune the layout until the handing in.

I am getting pretty excited about my new job in Zurich. SOA is a really interesting topic and the feedback from people I talk about the company I will join is really positive (which underlines my impression). Currently my wife applies for a pretty good job in Zurich which would be an excellent fit for her skillset. Let's hope she gets some positive feedback from them soon...

Back to work...

2008-06-19T01:46:00.003+02:00

Holidays r over - working life got me back...
Reading a lot for my thesis at the moment. Need to rethink the structure, I think the current one is not intuitive.
Mother in law will visit us next week. But I will probably need to show up in the office next week as we prepare a customer demo with colleagues.

Ripping my old VHS videos from all the parties while I am working on the thesis - funny to see us celebrating back in the 90s...

Back home

2008-06-12T17:11:00.002+02:00

we spend some days in Mainz, Trechtingshausen and Bingen. See Pictures here...

Had a good time, but need to get back to my thesis now!

Auer Dult

2008-05-07T12:15:00.001+02:00

crowded as usual on a Sunday :)

Starting Masters Blog

2008-04-14T09:55:00.003+02:00

I decided to start documenting the creation of my Master's Thesis in an own blog.
This will be a dairy containing all my experience and learnings and a reference for future MBA students to get a rough feeling what needs to be done and how.

You can find the new blog here...

Bachelor Party

2008-04-03T12:47:00.002+02:00

I just came back from a Bachelors Party in Riga last weekend. We had a lot of fun :)

My master's thesis is suffering from this and some other activities. But I still hope to finish it this summer. My two week holiday in April is fully allocated to the thesis so hopefully this will give me a head start into this...

Master Thesis

2008-02-09T17:16:00.000+01:00

Its time to start my Master Thesis now, so that I can finish my MBA this summer as planned.
Topic for the Master Thesis will be something like "CRM 2.0 - How social networking can help managing customer relations" or something similar.

I need to figure out the scope now and try getting commitment from my company and the university.
..stay tuned

XING group for FOM MBA in Munich

2008-01-14T12:29:00.000+01:00

Jens created a XING group for all MBA students at FOM Munich:
http://www.xing.com/group-14326.166668/3237538

Google Group for the MBA class

2008-01-06T14:24:00.001+01:00

I created a new Google Group to share infos and knowledge amongst the MBA students at FOM:

FOM MBA

Visit this group

Wer-kennt-Wen.de

2008-01-06T03:11:00.000+01:00

Funny how social networks helps finding old friends :)
Found my buddy from junior high and a very good friend I didn't see for 20 (10) years!

I created a group for the class of 1989 at secondary school in Bingen (Realschule) and the "Kerbejahrgang" of 1971/72...
http://www.wer-kennt-wen.de/club.php?id=5lfzrcvr
http://www.wer-kennt-wen.de/club.php?id=nru2ayxj

Master Thesis

2007-12-11T09:46:00.001+01:00

As I am done with the last big assignment, I will start thinking about my master thesis now.

I have some ideas in mind, but they need to be developed and evaluated before I can start with the research and find the right lecturer.

I will try to post the progress continuously into this blog to get a kind of journal of the development and maybe develop a kind of guideline or best practices afterwards.

Blogged with Flock

Pix now in Picasa web

2007-12-04T10:58:00.000+01:00

Looks like Blogger.com integrates to Picasa now... It creates its own Album there. Nice!

test from Flock

2007-11-08T14:19:00.001+01:00

test the west :)

no integrated picture upload here...

Blogged with Flock

2007-11-08T13:58:00.000+01:00

test using wen interface...

in San Jose

2007-01-09T06:09:00.000+01:00

...until Thu for a training.

MBA

2006-12-07T15:50:00.000+01:00

I finally started my MBA in September. Progresses good so far...
Finished my 1st Assignment this Monday.

look up...

2006-08-21T06:18:00.000+02:00

cloud lights effects

nochmal Sonnenuntergang

2006-08-20T03:01:00.000+02:00

auf dem Weg zurück nach Baldham...

Sunset

2006-08-20T02:59:00.000+02:00

neben dem Biergarten in Ingelsberg...

WARM :)

2006-07-26T10:31:00.000+02:00

Was n Wetter ...

2006-06-29T10:53:00.000+02:00

Fan Fest München (gegen Schweden, Achtelfinale)

Irgendwo in Tschechien....

2006-06-16T12:20:00.000+02:00

alte Mauer

2006-03-06T13:35:00.000+01:00

Wahnsinn was da fürn Schnee runtergekommen is...

2006-03-06T13:23:00.000+01:00

Unsere SAT-Schüssel war auch zugeschneit...

2006-03-06T13:21:00.000+01:00

Dachte wir hätten das hinter uns für diesen Winter :-s

2006-03-06T12:41:00.000+01:00

Hi there...
This will be my personal Blog to post pix and thoughts for my friends and family.

Have fun,
Guido Oswald