Brainy programmers

Summer time in Western Europe.

Actually, it is a no-brainer. All you had to do is to get up at 2 a.m. on March 28th, put your clock ahead by one hour to 3 a.m. and go back to sleep. A no-brainer? Well, not quite. One of my computers has both Windows Vista and Windows 7, on two separate partitions. Guess what happened?

Microsoft’s brainy programmers managed to automatically turn the computer’s clock ahead by TWO hours on Sunday morning.

New gTLDs, ICANN and the EOI

Does ICANN need to learn from the EOI collapse? @kierenmccarthy thinks so http://bit.ly/9CW1tg but I beg to differ.

Kieren’s article is well written and he certainly put in a lot of thought and experience, yet it fails to see the bigger picture. Kieren himself is trapped in the trenches, of the ICANN battles in this case.

Who the heck feels the need for new gTLDs in the first place? The internet to many people out there means dotcom. Full stop. Unless the community starts questioning this underlying assumption, nothing is going to come out of this anyway.

With or without EOI.

Cebit 2010 - English version

Having skipped attendance of Cebit in 2009, I decided to have a “light version” this year. I only went to Hanover on the last day, which was dubbed “family day” since it was the only day children were allowed to enter the fairgrounds. My son, who is nine years of age, was happy to come with me this time. He wasn’t exactly the only child around, so the atmosphere was a little less business-like and most people were in weekend mood.

The sun was shining brightly on the fairgrounds, but the air was cold. The newly fallen snow was on the grass between the 26 halls, only 18 of which had been filled, this year, creating a fairy tale mood. We were given small presents all the time, small sweets and cookies, and a big queue formed at one booth which offered free popcorn. Some companys were giving away high-end pens and stainless steel water bottles, and we reached a climax at the IBM pavillion where people were handing out a cuddly Linux penguin. So we were soon in an even better mood.

I had some interesting talks with reps of IT security companys, the Federation of the German IT industry BITKOM and a few contacts doing Africa business. The Google booth really was ridiculous and the political discussion on data storage law at the Heise stand was cut short by the fact that my son had had enough of boring adult talk by then.

Whether Cebit will be able to continue like this, every year, is open to debate. Exhibitor numbers dropped again, this year, by about 10 per cent compared to last year, and I don’t think people in general were in an upbeat mood. But perhaps my perception was skewed, since obviously business on Tuesday through Friday probably was much more brisk than on a Saturday.

Cebit 2010

Nachdem ich im Jahr 2009 die Cebit ausgelassen hatte, wurde es dieses Jahr eine “Cebit light”. Ich war erst am letzten Tag, dem Familientag, in Hannover, und diesmal mit meinem neunjährigen Sohn. Wir waren natürlich nicht die einzigen, die am Samstag etwas in “Wochenendstimmung” waren und entsprechend untypisch locker war die Atmosphäre in manchen Hallen.

Auf dem Messegelände schien die Sonne, aber die Luft war kalt. Der Neuschnee lag auf den Wiesen in der Mitte des Messegeländes und schuf ein märchenhaftes Ambiente. Andauernd gab es kleine Geschenke, wie Gummibärchen und Kekse, aber auch größere Sachen wie noble Kugelschreiber oder Trinkflaschen. Als Höhepunkt erhielten wir am IBM-Stand einen Linux-Stoffpinguin. Das lockerte die Stimmung noch weiter auf.

Ich konnte einige gute Gespräche führen, etwa mit IT-Sicherheitsanbietern, dem BITKOM und Afrika-Kontakten. Der Google-Stand war ein Scherz und die nachmittägliche Diskussion über Vorratsdatenspeicherung mit Alvar Freude und anderen Chaoten bekam ich dann leider nur am Rande mit, weil mein Sohn keine Lust mehr auf noch eine langweilige Erwachsenenrunde hatte. 

Ob die Cebit in dieser Form langfristig eine Zukunft hat, wird sich zeigen. Wäre ich Aussteller, hätte ich kein gutes Gefühl. Aber vielleicht täuscht mein Eindruck; die ersten vier Messetage, also Dienstag bis Freitag, waren sicher geschäftsmäßiger, als das der Samstag war.