What is SNA

- how can I measure, analyze, predict a social network
- focus on relationships
- actors are viewed as interdependent
- high complexity
- nodes and edges

- example maps of science http://tinyurl.com/arqu6f
- flat analysis, eg keyword analysis
- SNA-approach, eg. actors position, reputation measurements

Theory

- one mode: single set of actors
- two mode: two actors (eg books, buyer)
- metrics connectivity how is a graph connected
- metrics centrality: who is the most important node in the network?

I know there are some more, Axon Active is having some more on their analysis…

Business case “content curation”

- you have 2493 new updates, I want only top 5% content
- based on social position of person/posting
- 7tweets

Business case “social search”

- sth between Google and your friends
- leverage friends of friends
- output is people that potentially can answer your yuestion
- aardvark

Looking ahead

- still a lot to discover
- parallel computing
- geolocation
- politics, legal and privacy is a big issue (eg. voice over ip, calendars, email, chats, …)

Technical set of tools

- database, index
- visualization max to 40 points
- no further details
- analyzing twitter: 10Mio people, 20Bio connections on flat files

Discussion about twitter vs. buzz…

Website

- they use magento and drupal as base
- website is a mashup of lot of services (eg. wordpress, picturepage, twitter, …)
- logo with logotournament
- website is a mess, this is on purpose (working progress)
- they use google wave and gdocs for meetings and similar

Opensource Business

- they try it the open source of their business and post everything related on their site
- even their calendar is public!
- private blogs, images, links of every member of the company is integrated

Specializing

- some specializing is needed
- selling stockings for girls
- stockings eshop already exist a lot
- shouldn’t be a 0815 shop
- trying to get a relationship with the customer with their opensourcness
- service-oriented commerce

Shop A vs. Shop B

- Shop A is their trial shop (where they can try some fancy stuff)
- Shop B is their real shop

Trial on Shop B

- shopping cart as a service
- shopping from a picture: click on a item in a random picture to buy the item (similar to video)
- when time goes on, replace magento features with “services”

Difficulties

- Get the products from the manufacturer for a devent price

They are at the very beginning but with some general interesting ideas. Imo they are a little dazzled by the revenues of the private sales from Germany and France. Some ideas will be really difficult to realize.

- everybody can be a future customer of you
- if you can explain yourself, take the chance
- focus on loud voice, benefits of your products or service

Whats important

1. you
2. your business card for opportunities, see moo.com for inidividual cards
3. your website (do it on your own)

Introduce yourself

- introduce yourself is very important, so practice!
- tell what you’re doing from a point of view of the customer in the first sentence!
- try to be specific, eg special project, your specialisation
- what are the benefits for the customer
- talk about something what makes the customer curious
- what does it mean

Elevator pitch

- try to get appointment with your customer
- give additional information by introducing yourself
- make a relation to your counterpart (eg. tell him about your experience after listening to his presentation)
- offer benefits (eg. save money, innovative product)
- make him curious
- get an appointment (eg can I call you …)
- trust, so keep your promise!

Business Success Teams

- This is kind of a product or procedure which has been defined by her consulting company.
- SMART = Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely
- Mtg: 1) Info status 5min, 2) mutual support with advice, action 15-20min, 3) Home Work

- Indian difficult to work with
– boss decides
– not self driven
– always says “yes”

- eastern europe near shoring works better
– culture near ours
– good workers
– managers from eastern europe can be too hard in negotiations (loose-loose situations)
– most are in EU (can freely move, “legal” law, less bribing, but more expensive)
– best choice: 1-2 time zones away, none european state like Russia or Ukraine
– big cities more expensive, more fluctuation, more competition, but less expensive fligths easier to reach
– the further east the lower salary
– 20-40 US$ / hour

Selection criteria

- select large, non patriarchic company (stability, structure)
- small companies have large fluctuations, because most of the developers there don’t want to work for small companies
- check 2-3 references (still active)
- look for pragmatic contracts (non US contracts)
- some companies have mgmt in Europe, workers offshored might be a good option

Is it cheaper on the bottom?

- first criteria still pricing, but in the future it will be more and more not finding the people
- costs by factor ~4 in Eastern Europe (without communication costs, unproductivity, …)
- even with all costs taken factor will be down > 50%
- marketplaces like rentacoder.com or odesk.com only for very small projects

Howto pay

- Bank transfer

Availability / Expertise

- depends on technology ruby seems very rare in Eastern Europe
- if longterm perspective check network of company

What to offshore?

- everything important is kept here
- several options possible
- e.g. mgmt, CTO here and 12 developers offshore
- part of developer here, part of it offshore

Collaboration, Direct communication

- I want to have the developer near me (eg for scrum, pause talks, 1:1 communication, …)
- IM, video conference instead phone only
- Very important: you have to see each other on a regularly base. At least once 3-4 month

For one, sth completely different. Howto for some awesome cookies:

Zutaten:
* 150 gr Butter
* 100 gr Zucker
* 80 gr Rohrzucker
* 180 gr Mehl
* 2 Pack Vanillezucker
* 1 Ei
* 100 gr Haselnüsse gehackt (ich nehm da jeweils gehackte Mandelsplitter)
* 1/2 TL Backpulver
* 1/4 TL Salz (nehm da meist etwas mehr)
* 150 gr Schoggistückli

Zubereitung:
1. Butter und Zucker schaumig rühren
2. Vanillezucker dazu
3. Ei zugeben
4. Mehl, Salz, Backpulver dazu
5. Nüsse und Schoggi dazu

Teig ganz einfach in kleinen Häufchen aufs Blech klecksen und bei 175 Grad 12 - 14 Minuten backen

Distance:   48.19km (singletrail: about 13km)
Elevation:  931Hm
Duration:   3h01
Avg. Speed: 15.9km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by TobiTobi I chose the well known Altberg extended by the Elefantentobel.

The trip goes along the Limmat until after Höngg in Zurich. Interesting part of Zurich! Didn’t know this scenery there so far. At the beginning it was quite cold and foggy, but short after going up I got into the sun! After about 250Hm you’ll reach the Altbergtrail. You’ll follow the trail on normal forest tracks until you reach the restaurant Waldschenke

From the Altberg I crossed the ETH Hönggerberg (they have very modern sports facilities, haven’t seen that one until now!), going trough Käferberg until Irchel then going up to the Zoo of Zurich on some interesting trails (tricky one going up as well). Shortly after passing the Zoo and the skating park of Dolder I reached the Elefantentobel trail which follows a small stream. Nothing special there, but okay as track extension.

With this track I reached my year goal of 100′000 elevation meters by cycling (normal work drive excluded).

So I upgraded my tool by keeping some gauss filtering and mainly adding the Douglas-Peucker algorithm for more reliable results.

I’m now quite happy and it’s even faster and easier to use. You can try the tool with any tcx garmin course file.

Go to the tcx extender

Distance:   72.12km (singletrail: about 19km)
Elevation:  1944Hm
Duration:   5h01
Avg. Speed: 14.3km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Inspired by TobiTobi I did my longest mountainbike track yesterday. I knew most interesting parts of the whole trip, but it was still interesting. Sometimes it was too muddy and slipery to bike

There are 4 hills to climb: Üetliberg, Heitersberg, Lägern (Hochwacht) and Altberg.

5′186 Hm left to reach the 100′000 by cycle this year.

Würde ich an einem HMO-Modell teilnehmen, wäre die Erhöhung deutlich niedriger. Doch habe ich 2 Gründe, wieso ich das HMO-Modell nicht möchte:

1. Ich will nicht 3 Tage auf einen freien Termin meines Arztes warten.
2. Wenn ich eine Sportverletzung habe, weiss ich, dass ich zum Spezialisten muss. Der Umweg über den Hausarzt kostet *mich* dabei nur zusätzlich Geld.

Es gibt dennoch eine Möglichkeit, sich nicht zu verpflichten zuerst zum Hausarzt zu gehen und der Preiserhöhung trotzdem zu trotzen:

1. Ich wähle einen Hausarzt nach Wahl. Der kommt nur ins Spiel, wenn ich ernsthaft krank/verletzt bin.
2. Ich trete dem HMO-Modell mit dem oben gewählten Arzt bei.
3. Bin ich nun krank, gehe ich zB zur Permanence am HB. Wo ich hingehe, spielt mir keine Rolle, denn ich zahle in der Regel den Betrag sowieso selbst (Franchise erreiche ich kaum).
4. Sollte ich vermuten, dass ich ernsthaft krank bin, oder bemerkt dies die Permanence, dann breche ich hier ab und gehe zum Hausarzt.

Im besten Fall gehe ich selten zum Arzt, kann frei wählen wohin ich gehe und zahle trotzdem pro Monat weniger Krankenkassenbeiträge. Verloren habe ich dabei nichts, weil ich die Franchise nie erreiche.
Im schlimmsten Fall bezahle ich die Franchise doppelt, in der Annahme, dass ich bereits bis fast zur vollen Franchise beim Arzt meiner Wahl (nicht Hausarzt) war und ab jetzt eine längere Erkrankung oder Verletzung habe.

Ich gehe aber davon aus, dass ich sehr selten zum Arzt gehe und deshalb meine monatlichen Kosten dank HMO-Modell stark reduzieren kann, ohne mich daran zu binden.

Ich habe nicht definitiv herausgefunden, was passiert, wenn ich im HMO-Modell nicht zum Hausarzt gehe, ausser dass die Kosten dann nicht gedeckt sind. Aber da ich bei einer schlimmeren Krankheit sowieso zum Hausarzt gehe (auch wenn der Befund zu Beginn von einem anderem Hausarzt diagnostiziert wurde), sehe ich keine Nachteile.

Distance:   41.39km (singletrail: about 6km)
Elevation:  1736m
Duration:   4h21
Avg. Speed: 9.4km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

On the last day we took again some shorter trip, but boah. Just hard. If you are the person able to cycle 25% and more (!) of grade over a longer period, ie 3-5km on a stony path, this is your paradise! You’ll be rewarded with a nice flowing single trail slightly going down from the top.

If on the other hand you prefer to cycle most of the part, you should do the tour in the opposite direction.

8′000 Hm left to reach the 100′000 this year.

Distance:   53.23km (singletrail: about 16km)
Elevation:  1850m
Duration:   6h05
Avg. Speed: 8.7km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Second day in Ticino with Röbi we chose some longer tour, which was highly promoted on different websites. We were not disappointed. We already did the upgoing part to Monta Bar this year, but it was amazingly easier this time!

Then came a 12km long singletrail all around the valley. Great! Fantastic. Not everything was cyclable though (just some smaller parts) and the trail is not that easy neither. But “Freude ohne Ende”.

We stayed in a bed&breakfast at Isabelle Bernasconi’s place we can highly recommend. Very nice. And by chance 2 of our tracks were just quite near the house

Distance:   35.29km (singletrail: about 8km)
Elevation:  1532m
Duration:   3h49
Avg. Speed: 9.2km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Röbi and me went on a 3 day short holiday trip to Ticino to do some biking. As the weather was predicted to be lousy in the north, this came very handy. Even it was quite cold in the south as well.

First trip started near Minusio and the plan was to bike along the south mountain parts to profit from the warming sun. Well, it was cold and the tour wasn’t too much on the sun. The upgoing part is all on paved roads until almost to the top. The last part you probably will need to walk some 15min. From the top it goes down on some nice singletrails until you get back to the starting point.

Nice trip for these cold season.

Distance:   28.7km (singletrail: about 6km)
Elevation:  743m
Duration:   2h01
Avg. Speed: 14-1km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

I was looking for a short track around Zurich today. I came across the Birmensdorfer-Runde (see “Zurich”) which I bookmarked some time ago.

The tour is not too bad and has some interesting single trails you wouldn’t expect. Some are quite easy, some require some higher skills. The most difficult part is almost at the end, going down the Biketrail from Üetliberg.

I’ll definitely redo it, probably by night.

PS: At some point I didn’t find the path and had too drive around until I got it. Maybe I’ll get the correct path next time.

Distance:   22.3km (singletrail: about 7.5km)
Elevation:  1054m
Duration:   2h22
Avg. Speed: 9.5km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Short but hard tour. It starts quite ok, with a decent ascend. But soon it’ll be very steep. Especially from about the middle station from Parsenn until to the Panoramaweg it’s very hard. Rocky street and probably always more than 20%.

As soon as you get to the Panoramaweg you have about 7.5km of singletrails in front of you. After Schönboden it’ll go down, sometimes very steep as well until you reach some forest tracks to Davos.

Not for beginners.

Distance:   35.7km (singletrail: about 16km)
Elevation:  988m
Duration:   3h07
Avg. Speed: 11.5km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

From Davos to Clavadel up to Rinerhorn into the Sertig valley and back to Davos. From the beginngin you’ll deal with some easy singletrails to warm up. Shortly after Clavadel you’ll have the main part going up. But as soon, as you are on top shortly after Rinerhorn, the singletrail orgy will start! Great stuff from easy to somehow more tricky always on small hiking pathes! When arriving in Sertig you’ll just cross the street and soon be on singletrails again. The whole valley down you won’t have any large road.
On weekends there might be a lot of hikers on these trip, but just keep in mind to be polite and everything will work as you want!

Loved it!

root@ramses:/opt # port install mysql5-devel
--->  Computing dependencies for mysql5-devel
--->  Fetching mysql5-devel
--->  Attempting to fetch mysql-5.1.39.tar.gz from http://ftp.plusline.de/mysql/Downloads/MySQL-5.1/
--->  Verifying checksum(s) for mysql5-devel
--->  Extracting mysql5-devel
--->  Applying patches to mysql5-devel
--->  Configuring mysql5-devel
--->  Building mysql5-devel
Error: Target org.macports.build returned: shell command "
cd "/opt/local/var/macports/build/_opt_local_var_macports_sources_rsync.macports.org_release_ports_databases_mysql5-devel/work/mysql-5.1.39" &&
 /usr/bin/make -j2 all " returned error 2
Command output:       _rl_library_version$non_lazy_ptr in mysql.o
  "_write_history", referenced from:
      _mysql_end in mysql.o
  "_add_history", referenced from:
      fix_history(String*)      in mysql.o
      read_and_execute(bool)  in mysql.o
      read_and_execute(bool)  in mysql.o
  "_history_length", referenced from:
      _history_length$non_lazy_ptr in mysql.o
  "_rl_readline_name", referenced from:
      _rl_readline_name$non_lazy_ptr in mysql.o
  "_rl_add_defun", referenced from:
      _main in mysql.o
  "_rl_attempted_completion_function", referenced from:
      _rl_attempted_completion_function$non_lazy_ptr in mysql.o
  "_rl_insert", referenced from:
      fake_magic_space(int, int)in mysql.o
  "_history_get", referenced from:
      not_in_history(char const*)in mysql.o
  "_readline", referenced from:
      read_and_execute(bool)  in mysql.o
  "_read_history", referenced from:
      _main in mysql.o
ld: symbol(s) not found
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status
make[2]: *** [mysql] Error 1
make[2]: *** Waiting for unfinished jobs....
mv -f .deps/mysqltest-mysqltest.Tpo .deps/mysqltest-mysqltest.Po
make[1]: *** [all] Error 2
make: *** [all-recursive] Error 1

Error: Status 1 encountered during processing.

The same happens with the port mysql5. You can switch to 32bit by setting build_arch to i386 in the file /opt/local/etc/macports/macports.conf.
So I’ll try to use a precompiled package and hope it’ll work with my development environment.

Distance:   14.8km
Elevation:  813m
Duration:   1h44
Avg. Speed: 8.5km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Short but challenging trip! It’s going up quite steep (sometimes even too much). Starting with a large road you’ll reach a single trail going up after about 4km. You’ll stay on hiking trails until Marguns. The major part downhill is (unfortunately) on forest tracks.

Btw: Just before you start going up, there is a bike park on the left side, which looks quite difficult…

Imagick 2.3.0 seems to have problems while compiling. So you need to compile an earlier version yourself (no pecl install!)

wget http://pecl.php.net/get/imagick-2.2.2.tgz
tar xvfz imagick-2.2.2.tgz
cd imagick-2.2.2
phpize
./configure --with-imagick=/opt/local
make
sudo make install

Add “extension=imagick.so” to your php.ini (or in my case to php.ini-add_local)

Thx to Chris for the help!

Installing php extension pdo_mysql with MacPorts requires to compile php with the option:

"--with-pdo-mysql=/opt/local/bin/mysql_config5"

Distance:   18.2km
Elevation:  603m
Duration:   1h19
Avg. Speed: 14.9km/h
Details:    gpsies, trainingstagebuch
TCX file:   TCX file (including elevation alerts)

Did a short evening track today and tried a downhill trail I already knew (the one just north of “Leimbach” in the map, going down from Üetliberg).
I tried to run that trail going up. But at some places it was just too steep. At that time I thought “Wow, who the f*** cycles this path down?!?”. Today I did it and it was very fun!

BTW: It’s already getting dark very early nowadays Aaargh.