I'm so p****d off!

Here I am, finishing some code for a Product Import routine for one of our customers, which I decided to try to write as an updated importer-style tool rather than falling back to the existing one (for 3 reasons: 1. My XSLT skills still dictate that it will be faster for me to write and maintain a c# tool than to write and maintain the XImporter XSLTs; 2. The client's paying for it; and 3. Let's admit it, it's just pure fun!), and as I was finishing the file upload mechanism (always tricky) $#@!#^&!% Visual Studio crashed on me! It's all GONE!

AAAAARRRGGGHHHH!

So, to release some steam, I decided to post back some news and other happy stuff.

AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHH! GNGNGNGNNGG!. **!@#(((%!@#%()))!@#%^&@#

And this thing keeps on underlining my insults as if they were mailto: links. Got to stop using @ signs on it. %%$###*&^!. That's beter.

Anyway, now that I've released my stress, I've been thinking a lot about the SDL deal lately, and what it means to us. Some of us, blinded perhaps by completely deserved pride on having been in Tridion for very long, might think that we "sold our soul". Others may just not feel that things will ever be the same. I'm part of the latter, and very happy with it. With one move - which I'm sure took quite some time to ponder and decide - we achieved many of our goals:

• Defined our role as the WCM for the Global company;
• Got rid of Venture Capitalists in the board;
• Hooked up with a very successful company whose main goal is to see SDL products on every desktop and server worldwide, developed by SDL developers and installed and maintained by SDL consultants.

All feedback I heard from 3rd party companies (mainly customers) is very positive. They bought Tridion because they wanted to go Global with their website. Our acquisition just means that they don't need to look for a translation company - they already have one. In a way, I'm even slightly disappointed that nothing changes in the next 2 years. Change is GOOD (1).

How simpler could it be: You're a global company, with business in 100+ countries (OK, 6+), and you need a solution for your global presence. Who you're gonna call? LanguageBarrierBusters!

Can't wait to have a proper integration with the SDL translation, and have it as part of the core product. Globalization is the real deal, in case you haven't noticed, and we're not riding the wave for WCM - we're defining the wave. There's many signs out there that analysts share my opinion (or is it the other way around?), so this can only be good.

.nuno

(1) As a consultant that has always been involved in implementation projects, I often bring change to companies. I know what change implies, and I know how people can resist it. But if there was no change, there was no evolution - and no customer would use our software.

Tridion to be acquired by SDL

It's been all over the news. What does it mean? For now absolutely nothing, as the Business Plan for 2007 & 2008 remains unchanged, as well as the product roadmap.

In the long run though, it means Tridion just graduated from an European small WCM player - with a lot of potential as recognized by most analysts - to become part of a huge services and software group (over 1500 employees) with loads of experience on globalization and localization needs - from web sites to software tools.

Time will tell, but I expect Tridion to finally start emerging and becoming a much bigger player.

Cold...

Got my apartment rolling, and I have now a bed. 1-800-mattress.com delivered it last Saturday (the same day I bought it) and I've no need for Chris' air mattress anymore.

Meanwhile someone higher up in the weather hierarchy decided we should pay for the good weather we had earlier in January, so it's freezing as hell in NY for the moment. I wasn't built for this type of weather, I really wasn't...

I'm now back at a Customer where I did the Proof of Concept last year, unfortunately doing some functional design work :-(
But aside from that, it's been nice to see all the guys again and see the difference in their approaches when you switch from POC to implementation mode. The view from here is mind-blowing, just check it out:

Again, a quick update

Just some catching up for those that follow up these things...

• Found an apartment in NY, not the best location, but still pretty much midtown Manhattan (West Side)
• Got a new phone. My dutch phone will work until next monday, as from that date you'll get a message with my new phone number (e-mail doesn't change)
• Got my L1-B visa request approved today, so no more illegal alien status (never had it, since I'm from a Visa Waiver country)
• Back in Holland for a few days, basically for the Tridion Kick-Off, which I'm sure will be a blast of a party!
• We continue to kick ass in the US. Last I heard, whenever the competition comes down to 2 vendors, and the other vendor is Day, Vignette or Stellent, they just give up... ;-)

Promise to do more updating when I get more of a life. For the moment just real busy trying to get all to work out...

The great adventure begins...

Just a few lose notes on day 1 of the great adventure...

• NWA on-board movie offer this month sucks. Best thing I could find was "Something about Mary"
• Glad I took the option to upgrade and took a car with GPS rather than the standard one... I would still be driving around Newark's airport by now...
• Took a quick drive through Princeton, looks like an interesting place to take the time to visit, hopefully will have the time to do it next weekend.
• No matter what Americans tell you, driving cars should require 2 hands and 2 feet, not just one of each! I spend my time wondering what to do with my right hand and left foot...
• Pretty nice hotel I'm staying in, got plenty of space here! This will change once I move into NYC in 10 days ;-)

More to come as it gets, stay tuned.

NYC Ramblings

Just a quick update on the whole NYC move business...

• Got a mail today stating that the L1B (or whatever it is) visa request got approved;
• Had to call the embassy to set up an appointment. Can you believe I had to pay 15 euros for that "privilege'?
• At best, I'll have the visa by the 23rd of January.

So it's really going to happen. Bye bye champions league football, I'll have to watch the replays ;-)

Man. U 3 - Benfica 1

Man, that hurts.

If we were down 3-0 and 2 minutes before the end we scored a goal, it would feel different. But that's not what we've done, no. We were 1-0 up at 27 minutes of play, and it was starting to look like they could spend 2 weeks trying and would never get a goal.

Well, they did. 3 times they did. And well diserved it was as well.

Today most Benfica fans are tearfull because we couldn't beat Man U at the theater of dreams, but I'm not, because I know it wasnt't today we lost.
We didn't qualify by drawing 0-0 at Copenhagen, loosing 3-0 in Scotland and loosing 1-0 in Lisbon against Man U. In the end, we were the only team not to lose in Copenhagen, but that's something nobody could guess at the beginning.

Anyway, we go through to the Uefa cup, we can still beat Spurs at same point in time (yes Will, we can beat YOU) and it's not shameful to lose to Man U (this season anyway).

N

Breaking the silence

Well, I think I can post again by now. I've been in some sort of pre-traumatic shock state for the past month, and it finally seems I'm starting to emerge from it.

I guess that in about a month's time I'll be fully into post-traumatic shock.

Anyway, the move to New York is finally going to happen, and this is what's been filling up my mind. Realising that it is going to happen, that I will indeed move away from my family for an unknown period of time (best estimates place that period's duration in just 7 months) and understanding that at times you _really_ must be careful with what you wish.

The current state of affairs is that I'm waiting for my Visa application to be accepted by the US authorities. Tridion applied for the accelerated application, which basically means we can officially bribe the US Government into accepting my application in 3 weeks time instead of the 6 months it might take using the "normal" route. Hurray for capitalism! Amazing what 1,000$ can do.

If everything works out as planned, I'll be flying into NY on the first week of 2007, and will be staying in a colleague's ex-appartment for the first month. Timing was perfect, as this colleague is scheduled to come back to Holland in 2 weeks and will not go back to NY (if at all) before the end of January.

We're hosting a few drinks in The Hague this saturday, so contact me if you want to be there.

Land of the free indeed...

Al-Jazeera starts today its English broadcast and is believed to reach 80 million homes in Europe, Africa and Southeast Asia.

What about the United States, that paramount of freedom of speech?

It was apparently unable to secure any deal with cable distributors, and it will only be available via the Internet (which might actually prove to be a better medium). BBC World Service was today discussing how "Commercial Interests" were behind this move.

Land of the free indeed...

More here and here.

Economics 101?

I admit I know nothing about economics, and I never tried to. I can't even apply basic economics to my bank account, let alone try to understand why large companies miss their targets.

But it always comes to me as a surprise when big airlines miss their targets by some small amounts, such as BA's 200 Million USD "miss". As I said, I'm not an economist, and I never tried to. I only can't understand.

A few years ago, let's lay 10 years ago, very often I'd fly anywhere on a half-empty plane. I could choose my seat, lie down and use 3 seats for my legs, have a decent half-meal, enjoy a good glass of wine, and all this was included in my ticket fare, which would be about 2 thirds of what I am paying today.

Now it's impossible to find a plane which isn't in overbooking already, you must pay for wine in most flights, all you get to eat (IF you get free food) is some lousy cheese sandwich, and, to top it all, companies loose more money than before.

What's wrong with this picture? I'd say that it doesn't take an economist to see that something about the whole business model is wrong, but I'll leave that to the experts...

Code search frenzy

So, we all had our code search frenzy searches by now, and finally I decided to search for "Tridion" in it.

Guess what? There IS one result coming back and I have to admit that the url it refers to does show the true nature of Tridion-powered sites... Just look at it:

 http://www2.oenb.at/tridion/institutsleitzahlen/abfrage_menu.php?contenturl=/de/stat_melders/standards_und_codes/Institutsleitzahlen/standards_und_codes.jsp

A php page redirecting to a JSP page? Which other {W|E}CM player would give you this level of flexibility?

So this is it! Summer's officially gone

Every year this time of the year comes. Every year it feels the same way.

This is it. I felt today, for the first time since last winter, the smell of open fires on people's homes. Damn, I miss Portugal...