Last day of 2009. How was it?

For me (us) it has been a great year.
It all started in December 2008. Nuria got a new job at The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. A considerable jump in her career in a place where most of us would love to work for what they do, which is to save lives. 4.9 million to be precise.

Once we learnt that, I was working at Shelter Centre where I was the Web Communications Chief, I asked for leave without pay, so we could have a dream trip around the world February and March. They accepted. The new Drupal website was up and running now it was just a question of fine tuning it.

We bought a round the world ticket with roundtheworldflights.com very nice people (thanks Jarvis) and very good price.
We did Geneva, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tahiti, Auckland, Christchurch, Hong Kong, London, Geneva. All flexible. In Tahiti we bought internal flights to Moorea, Bora Bora and Huahine (see photos at http://norai.net)

Well we blogged every day in our TDM (tour du monde), so you can see our adventures, skydiving, and 9000 km driving in New Zealand.

There we conceived Kai. Our Christmas present for 2009.

Once back in Geneva Nuria started her job, and I was called by my former employer (the ITC) where I worked nearly for 5 years as a consultant and they asked me to join them, so I finished the site at Shelter Centre and joined ITC in July, where I have been an Advisor in Export Strategy and Competitiveness up to present, traveling extensively to Africa (Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda…).

When kai was born, 23 days ago, we also got our new car. We said bye to the 1989 red Golf GTI and said Hi to the new Fiat 500.

Now I can go to work in the car rather than in my Ducati. It is pretty cold and rains often. I’m very happy with my new little car too. Pack of technology by default (bluetooth for mobile, reads mp3 from USB key, vocal commands, … etc…)

So as you see, even if for most of the world it has been a bad year, not for us.

My brother lost his job. Nuria’s brother’s too. The economy is in pretty bad shape, but 2009 has been a very good year for us.

Now it is coming to an end. In less than 6 hours in fact. It is also the end of a decennium.

What happened this decennium technologically speaking?

This decennium has been a huge change in technology. Internet has changed the world. We carry our computers in our phones, specially since the iPhone came out. Internet is fast web2.0 has brought us video and ajax. The web experience has reached unthinkable limits. Google has become bigger than General Motors and one of the most profitable companies in the world… and it is in internet… who could have imagine something like that 10 years ago! They are even on the phone industry!

Information is now at the tip of the hands. Mobile phones have spread like mushrooms and have given Africa a huge step towards development and poverty reduction.

Now the big media companies (CBS, CNN and so) are not that big. Internet has provided real time news and information has been democratized with tools such as twitter or Facebook. We know what it is going on firt by social media tools than from BBC or CNN. We are the writers and we control the content with tools such as digg or delicious. Now we have millions of people feeding the news. It is a user generated era, even companies have started to learn that they should have API’s or be open source (google). Look at the contribution in kind done to the iphone platform! nearly 100.000 apps!

The hardware has progressed a lot too. My iPhone 3GS has 32Mb. Solid state memory has increased at huge steps too. Who could think 10 years ago that a mobile phone could have 32Gb or/and a 8Mp camera? 10 years ago we had 3Mp with a terrible screen. Now cameras like canon 5d mark II provide video at a HD quality with the plus of professional lenses.

What else have we seen… the web… the web has gone from a showroom to a two-way collaborative tool making our live more efficient. We buy all via internet now. I bought not only my car via internet but most of the stuff I own. And I have been doing that for a while already. My 42 LCD TV I bought in ebay in 2003. In my house, the shower with sauna, the massage chair, all the kitchen appliances and most of the stuff I bought via internet.

Last that I can think of for this last decade, having kai and Nuria sleeping on my right, is that finally the LHC (at CERN) is working! I am proud as I worked for 3 years in the conception phase of the LHC 10 years ago. To see it now running is great, specially when I contributed to it.

What can we expect in the next 10 years?

Obviously the hardware will continue to explode. Hard disk, processors, screen technology (LED or something new, ebook readers, tablets), internet speed and connectivity (wimax, 4g)… that will make information easier to access and to share. Now a smartphone has GPS, accelerometers and a lot of sensors. I foresee a step towards this sort of uses: location, using the camera of the phone to take a photo from anything and have image recognition, reviews, who is there, where is cheaper, banking, payments… all!!. Search engines will go one step further and they will have other ways to search than text, photos videos, voice… everything indexable. With my phone I will be able to see where my friends are, what they are drinking, etc… reviews are important. I use internet to review and read reviews of what I buy, the hotels I go (tripadvisor), google, tell me where, etc… so location, location, location.

But not everything are flowers… I think that because Internet is going to be so big, Internet Governance is going to be a big issue. Now the US controls ICANN and a lot of other stuff. Internet Governance is going to be a difficult topic. Also Internet as a human right. ISP (internet providers) will try to get the maximum out of it, by capping, limiting connectivity, filtering content (like in China) and so. If this is the case, Internet could be in danger. It should be a 100% open platform. No restrictions. I hope governments intervene to avoid this sort of issues that we are already starting to see in the US with ISPs. Access to Internet should be unlimited and unrestricted. Government should be careful also not doing like in Finland where they are going to filter content at ISP level… a biiiiig mistake.

Privacy is also going to be an issue, but I guess we will be living in public. There is no problem for me, but privacy should be seriously managed. Specially when companies are outsourcing for instance email to google apps, or google docs and calendars…

Cloud computing will be big, and I don’t know if computers will trend to be more like terminals and run all the programs in the cloud. I do use google docs a lot I must say. Online photo services, backups, etc… I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The combination of cloud computing and terminals with strong browsers with offline technology could be a way. If you think about it, why not log in at any computer/terminal and have your files programs and so? Well this could be achieved with good connectivity and good cloud computing. But again, if this is where we go, we will start to see issues of compatibility and standards. Exporting things from a cloud to a computer or to another cloud… it should be standardized.

But the I wonder… when I bought my fiat 500, I printed out the price I was getting in internet and went to my local Fiat dealer. The salesman was furious. He said he could not compete with that. They have cost of personnel, stocks, training, etc… while the guy in internet buys bulk and gets incredible prices… so it made me think. There is no point in having shops or car dealers. They are simply not competitive with internet. So where is the business? Well, services I guess. Garage to repair. Warehouse to collect parts. Advise… but not in selling goods. I told the guy in Fiat that his business model was condemned to die.

There is another ethical question you could ask yourself. If you could buy cheaper 98% of people would buy cheaper. What about paying extra if it manufactured at home, or uses organic stuff, or is environmentally better? It is a difficult question. Specially for our generation. I hope next generation will think differently. Developed countries can not live from services alone, and the rest is more expensive than to do it abroad. So what to do? Free trade has given a lot of opportunities to developing countries, but we have seen with Doha failure that one size does not fit all. What about free movement of people? Goods and people are not strangers. If I am a farmer in France and all farming goes to … China (just a stupid example), then what happens to the french farmer? Should he go to China? Move to something else? Should we cluster activities wherever they are more productive? I don’t know. That would not be sustainable for the environment. Look at Indonesia, they have destroyed the forest to put palm oil plantations. It is so sad. Al fauna is dead and most of the country is monocorp…. but this is where we are going! Look at the farmers in the US. Maybe it should be studied where the environmental impact is lower and do it there.

If you go to Africa you will see how developed countries have destroyed. We imposed the capitalism there. The richer continent in earth is the poorest. Before people there did not have to work. If they were hungry they would take it from the trees. No effort. Simple and happy life….

The end of it is that we can not avoid to spread wealth with this model, meaning that developed countries will have to lower their living standards, otherwise I don’t see how this is sustainable. Closing borders? Big mistake… Anyway that is whole new story.

Happy new year!!!

Having your first baby? Here some gear you might want to consider

As you have noticed we had our first baby, kai, last 8th of December, so today 31st December he is 23 days old.

I would like to share my experience on the gear I think we have and what I think.

As the geek I am I started thinking about:

• stroller: that is the first thing a father looks at. At least I did. If you do a bit of research online you find out that there are very funky strollers, and very expensive too. Some are super cool in design, and most of my friends started buying some of these… for instance the stokke, quinny or bugaboo. Both are super cool. Bogaboo has the pack with the stroller, the car sit and the carrycot (be careful bugaboo carrycot is not homologated for car use) and when you see the videos you do want them… but… after talking to most of my friends with kids, who have bought one or another, they ended up confessing that at the end of the day, what you really want is a practical light stroller, that you can fold and unfold with a single hand, and that for that reason, the classical umbrella ones are the best… and they all ended up buying one of those. In this list we can find maclaren and red castle. You even consider to buy a 3 wheel one, in case you go to the mountain, or off road… bah! if you do, then it is better to buy a baby carrier…
  Now I knew I was going to skip the mistake of spending $1000 on a funky stroller, the question was: is there a light umbrella type stroller that can fit a maxi-cosi (the seat for the car) and a carrycot? Well the winner for me was a new model of 2009 from bebe confort, in particular the mila. Why? Well it is light, you can open it and fold it standing and easily, it is less than 1meter folder (so it can go as cabin baggage, most of maclaren can’t) you can push it while it is folded, it has a huge basket, and the most important is that with an adaptor you can put the maxi-cose and the carrycot, and the carrycot is homologated for car use.
    
• Car sit (also known as maxi-cosi): if you have chosen a stroller, then probably there is either a car sit model that goes with, or it is a standard maxi-cosi so you have more choice.
  You do need this piece of equipment. The reason why is because in the hospital they will not let you take the baby home unless you have one, as they are mandatory if you travel by car. Well you can use an homologated carrycot too, sure. In my case I bought the one on the photo above: the creatis fix. I just used it twice so far. People say that newborns can not be in one of these for too long, as their back is not flat like in the carrycot. I understand it is far safer in the car than the carrycot as the baby sits with his back to the front, so in case of an accident is much safer.
  In the car you have the isofix system to attach baby seats. Well not for the maxi-cosi. I guess this system is for proper big baby chairs. When I first bought it I attached it with the belt. It was damn complicated, so I ended up buying a support for the car with a simple click system. I bought it in ebay.
• Carrycot: We did not want to buy this in a first place. Most of the people would say that they used it only for a couple of months and they are very expensive. In our case the baby is ALWAYS in it. We bought it in ebay too. Second hand. New is very expensive (more than $350) and we paid less than 50%. It can go in the mila, and we put it inside the baby cot (that we bough in ikea). How is that we use it so much? well the baby cot is too big for a new born. This is confined. You can take the baby around even if he is sleeping (and he sleeps a lot!). Ours, windoo.
     
• Baby cot: that was a present. It is a cheap model from IKEA. We put the windoo inside. For the time being in our bedroom.
  
• Baby video camera: I bought this in ebay. I searched for a baby cam with pan and tilt and infrared. It is a key thing. You could do with audio alone, but isn’t it nice to see you baby? even in the most absolute black?. In our house the audio has some interferences, not 100% happy, but it is a house. During the day they told us that the baby should stay in his room rather than in the living room with all the noises, so we put him there with the camera, on the first floor of the house.
  
• Thermometer: One the key things you need is a thermometer. Well in fact you do need 3 of them. One to measure the room temperature, which should be between 19-21 degrees (celsius), one for the bath (37 degrees) and one to see if he has temperature.
  I found one in amazon that does the 3 things seamlessly. The Hartig-Helling 6 in one.
  • 6 functions: measurement of forehead and ear temperature, room temperature, and surface temperature (e. g. baby food or bathwater), stopwatch, time/date
  • easy-to-read LCD display
  • including multifunctional adaptor for measuring in the ear and on the forehead – no special adaptor for forehead measurement necessary
  • audible tone when measurement is complete
  • fever alarm when temperature is over 37.5 °C (99.5 °F)
  • storage of the last 9 measurements
  • 12/24-hour display
  • choice of °C or °F
    

• Travel baby cot: This you can find very cheap in big surfaces. We bought the ferrari of travel baby beds: babymoov. It costs more than $150 and you can buy it in amazon too. It has a changing table, light, music, pockets…

  They told us you might need one of this. We have not used it so far, but I guess if you travel, or once you are done with maternity/paternity leave and you have to leave the kid with the baby sitter, then this a fundamental piece of equipment you need. At the beginning we thought we might leave it in the leaving room but we end up having him on the carrycot all times.

  

All these gadgets we bought before kai was born. Now, once he was born we realized we needed a bath tube, a practical place to change his diapers…

Also you want to add some control on the breastfeeding, on the pooing, baths, and so.

I found a great iPhone app for that: Total Baby. There is a good review here. Looks like it is the best of its class. The problem is that Nuria has no iphone… and she is the one breastfeeding, obviously… but I am consider buying it myself, in order to control the visits to the doctor, and to try to extract some patterns se we can have a routine. It is important for the baby.

Finally we were given as a present one of this baby carrier that you put in front of you. We heard that it is not the perfect way, as when they are so small they cannot be there for more than a couple of hours.

The one I like a lot is this french one, looks like is very ergonomic and great for the baby. I am wanting to have kai always with me with this gadget. It was recommended at the hospital where he was born (la tour).

It is called “je porte mon bebe” which means “I carry my baby”. Look at the video… is elastic and so cool! They even organise gatherings to show you how to use it… but looks great. A bit expensive though…79 euros plus shipping.

Kai having a bath

tokao not being updated

As you’ve notice I am not updating tokao as often as I normally do.
There is good reason for that.
I am a father for the first time.
Kai was born on the 8th of December at 5.09am. Now he and his mother are at home.
I am very busy this week at work and at home. I will gradually increase the amount of postings as next week.