News

Holidays in Namibia

Quetzal — Sat, 11 Sep 2010 16:35:00 +0200

This year, Anaïs and I decided to go to Africa for our holidays. We chose Namibia for its deserts and wildlife.

We stayed in this country for a bit more than 2 weeks and we really liked it! Anaïs for example, enjoyed the different landscapes. I drove on the left side of the road for the first time (nice experience, especially because it was on gravel roads).

Our preferred experiences:

Tok Tookie Trails: a 3 day hike in the Namib desert with 2 night under the stars
Okonjima: a very beautiful lodge with activities from Africat foundation (leopard and cheetah tracking)

You can visit this Flickr album to go through some pictures.

Skaaz

Quetzal — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 23:28:00 +0100

I added several weeks ago a character in the right menu of the blog French version. It is called a Skaaz. It is not hard to explain the concept, however it is much harder to define why to use it. A colleague has even told me: Are you raising a tamagotchi?

This Skaaz is kind of an avatar as it should represent someone. In this case, this Quetzal should talk like me. He should answer back instead of me in MSN or on my website. I guess Skaaz website tries to imitate Cyworld which I have mentioned in an article.

I have tested this feature as it is from a company working on language research. VirtuOz's technology is used by organizations like Neuf Cegetel for its after sale FQA, SNCF on its travel agency website...

You can test it if you want and this will also enable me to train him better in English (as new combinations will enrich his knowledge).

Grenelle de l'environnement

Quetzal — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 23:46:00 +0200

French president ended up thursday the Grenelle de l'environnement which was a meeting with climate experts, NGO representatives, industry leaders... Its purpose was to try to elaborate an action plan together to fight against global warming. This may result in France to a series of useful measures, despite what we could be afraid of.

Recently awarded Nobel Prize, Al Gore suggested to organize a Worldwide Grenelle to fight this climate crisis.

News from work

Quetzal — Mon, 22 Oct 2007 22:54:00 +0200

My fixed term contract at JP Morgan was changed to a permanent contract. I will therefore stay longer in Geneva's area. I should not change my address in the near term.

Film on EU

Quetzal — Sat, 22 Sep 2007 16:17:00 +0200

I already announced that the European Union was celebrating its 50th anniversary. In another article, I also mentionned that EU had its own YouTube channel.

Here is a short movie that reminds Europe's history.

Love Earth

Quetzal — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 15:08:00 +0200

A new movie showing how rich is Nature will be in theatres on October 10th: Earth.

Here is the link to the movie website.

Rugby: France - Namibia

Quetzal — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 22:31:00 +0200

Here is an extract of the rugby game France - Namibia during the current Worldcup.

As we do not know where will France end up during the competition, we can enjoy watching this.

Partnership between Sogeti and Polytech

Quetzal — Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:13:00 +0200

This week, Mohamed alerted me about a weird article from a newspaper: Polytech'Grenoble, the engineering school we were graduated from signed a partnership with Sogeti, a subsidiary company of Cap Gemini. The firm commits to recruit all students graduating in 2010 (about 110 engineers).

This news in Polytech'Grenoble 's Website was also mentioned by computing newspapers, local TV channels as well as the economic newspaper La Tribune.

This is surely good promotion for the school. Is it something interesting for students? This can be debated. However, as it is written in several articles, it reflects that it is currently hard to hire employees for IT consulting companies.

Polytech'Grenoble 's alumni, do not forget to subscribe to the alumni association, APOG.

Briançon

Quetzal — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 17:37:00 +0200

Last week, we went to Briançon. Fabrice could show us his new camera. He can take really great pictures.

Honeybees' death = Human disappearing?

Quetzal — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:31:00 +0200

Currently, I regularly buy an economical newspaper, Les Echos. This monday, I read an article that completely amazed me. Its title was La mort des abeilles met la planète en danger (bees' death puts in jeopardy the planet). When I read it, I understood that the author was mentioning living species instead of the entire Earth.

According to quoted figures, between 60 and 90% of honeybees have disappeared in the United States, between 15 and 95% in France. This phenomenon is called colony collapse disorder. Bees go missing... 80% of vegetal species need honeybees for reproduction purposes though. Without them, no pollination, no fruits, no vegetables... If we want to focus on mankind, what will we eat? Broadly speaking, this means less vegetation, therefore less animals as well... The article mentions that Einstein had already pointed ou our dependancy towards bees.

There are several explanations for the colony collapse disorder. However no one is really sure which ones are right. This article (in French for the ones who understand and a similar one in English) should help us understand our relationship with the Nature and our obligation to protect the planet.

Fireworks and lakes

Quetzal — Wed, 15 Aug 2007 22:04:00 +0200

On Saturday July 21st, Anaïs and I were at Bourget du Lac. There was an event that people liking the Middle Age should appreciate: la Médiévales des Dames. This was to celebrate an historical event where ambassadors from the Milan's Duke went to this place to ask for a marriage with the daughter of Amédée VIII, Savoie's Duke. There were activities and reenactments. The day ended up with fireworks launched from the Bourget lake.

August 4th, we did it again, but this time at Annecy: we assisted to the Fête du Lac. Fireworks were together with music and laser lights. The show lasted around 45 minutes. There were more than 40 000 persons. I really enjoyed all these moments. To go back to Annemasse, we had to wait until 2:00 in the morning.

August 11th, the same kind of event happened at Geneva. This time, I was in Lyon...

When I will find my pictures, I will post them.

EU in YouTube

Quetzal — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 22:08:00 +0200

The European Union has launched its own YouTube channel. This way, it will be able to promote some of its actions through short movies. I personnally think it is a good initiative because some European citizens feel the European Union is a lot of bureaucracy and nothing concrete. However, what will be the real impact of this:

who knows that this account exists in YouTube?
what is the ratio of persons watching movies through YouTube on the Internet vs watching TV programs?

I guess it is cheaper to broadcast these films this way.

Here are the movies I have chosen to illustrate this post.

Dealing with AIDS

One of a film series promoting EU financial aids towards producers

About research programs

There are more videos on other topics like roaming, global warming... Check them out here.

Blog post coming back

Quetzal — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 21:42:00 +0200

Hello to everyone.

I will progressively write again some posts in this blog. I stopped due to my job hunting and I was travelling.

To give brief news:

I am working since end of April at JP Morgan as a Business Analyst
I have settled myself in a studio in Annemasse (France) because the job is in Geneva (Switzerland)

Soon, more news and an update to the Web site...

YouTube awards

Quetzal — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 18:03:00 +0200

Movie sharing website YouTube, bought by Google, organized for the first time (as far as I know) a contest. None of the movies I prefer won but, some of them still are worth to watch.

Category Most Inspirational: campaign for free hugs (and I guess peace in the World).

Category Most Adorable: an animation about a Kiwi (disappeared bird species unable to fly).

Happy Birthday to EU!

Quetzal — Sun, 25 Mar 2007 01:00:00 +0200

Through this post, I would like to congratulate the European Union for its 50 years! It was in 1957 that the Rome treaty established the European Economic Community which became the current EU.

At the beginning, Henrik can remember this, I was not really in favor of Europe. When I arrived in France, I could observe daily implications of this Union, and I changed my mind. I love discovering new cultures and I am really excited when meeting people at the university coming from all over Europe. We can travel freely, share a money, a parliament... I really enjoy it!

I am disappointed to see that currently in France, a lot of people are deceived by the EU. I hope this day of celebrations could make things better in their mind by showing all that is brought by this alliance.

Here are some links:

The European Union portal
The website dedicated to the birthday.

An outlook to future technologies

Quetzal — Thu, 22 Mar 2007 18:03:00 +0100

I saw this movie thanks to the very good InternetActu website. It was made by a British incubator, Cenamps. Innovations presented are not revolutionnary for those of you who follow the high tech news. However, in my opinion they are described simply.

Do not hesitate to leave comments on this topic.

Some new features for the website design

Quetzal — Fri, 09 Mar 2007 18:29:00 +0100

I have just made slight modifications on the site. It was something I wanted to carry out but that I was constantly delaying.

These are the few new features:

background color similar to the blog's
navigation colors similar to the blog's
menu moved from left to right

They are details, but this might allow a better coherence between the Website and the blog.

If you have any comments or suggestions, please contact me or leave some words below.

Stories from the past

Quetzal — Fri, 02 Mar 2007 19:07:00 +0100

For you who can read French, I have added in the Nouvelles section old posts. They are archive from my former website. I read them all again and they remind me when I was in California: from my course subscription to my hunt for an internship. I am a bit disappointed though because I could not find what I have ben writting when I was in Idaho.

Holidays in South of France

Quetzal — Thu, 11 Jan 2007 19:43:00 +0100

We celebrated the New Year with our neighbors and Mohamed at Gruissan, near Narbonne. Therefore, Anaïs and I decided to spend our holidays in this region.

We chose to stay 3 nights in a chambre d'hôtes, near Perpignan. If you do not know what this concept is, please, leave a comment. We picked Le Magnolia at Ille sur Têt. We were warmly welcomed by Hélène and Pierre! They shared with us their knowledge about the region and they pointed us the sites to visit. We had one dinner with them and it was excelent! If you go around this place, I recommend to stop over there.

When we were at Ille sur Têt, we visited the Rodès' castle. We saw the Serrabonne abbey and the Montalba village, among other things. We also went to Perpignan and to Collioure. To sum up, we did a brief tour to the French Catalonia. We enjoyed it a lot! We did not see everything, of course, but the point was also to have some rest!

When we came back, we were thinking of stopping at Toulouse, but it was a long way to go. We went to Montpellier instead.

As usual, pictures are on Flickr. To see them, check this page.

Happy New Year!

Quetzal — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 08:23:00 +0100

Folks, I would like to wish you a Happy New Year 2007! May your best wishes become true as well.

I personnally want an exciting first job and to find a better appartment in Lyon.