Fortune Cookie

Yesterday evening I read the phrases in my wallet which I got in the last months from some fortune cookie.

Here the text in English if you can not read German:

You will go through a lot of changes before you retire.

A magic encounter is waiting for you.

Wow, so in one change I am really in at the moment, so fine I will life long :) and the magic encounter I really had already!

Is life a game or serious?

Well this morning I was swimming and in the locker room I just ask me this question. Well I remember in the last few weeks sometimes I told some people something like:

... this is just a game ... you just have to know the rules

So well it seems like in my mind I already had some thoughts about this topic. But lets see, what are requirements of a game (sorry I am engineer *smile*).

• Their are rules
• You usually play not alone - either you have other people or a simulated opponent (computer) or in some special cases you play for you own.
• It is usually a competition where you like to win
• FUN - very important for me :)

Did I forgot one? Mmm at least this are the major points.

So whats the different to life? Let's analyze ... :)

Rules

Well in life are rules too. Some of them somebody named "Law", other are cultural or some are just social (ever heard for a guy called Knigge?).

But all of them have something similar, your are free to respect them or not. Well in some cases you run into problems when you don't respect them. Depending of what you not respect you have to pay money, visit a nice building with bars at the window or lose in worst case you life. So yes sure their rules which are really serious!

But their are much more rules which everybody do not respect and this purposely!

e.g. one of the "Ten Commandments"

No. 9: "Do not bear false witness against your neighbor"* - or the version I learned in German school " Thou shalt not lie"( *I took Judaism version and I just realize, even this kind of rule set is very complicated! take a look on the wiki page) I took

lie because it is a very interesting topic and I will investigate more time on this in the future. But I already spend some time one this. So well, what is a lie? Their are several kind of lies but in a general view you can split them into black and white lies (bad and "good" one). But according the rule above, you shall not lie.

Well you may say know, are I am stupid and "I am not a liar!" - Well your are sure?
What do you usually say on this question?

How are you?

You usually may say something like:

Well, ok/fine/good and you.

You would never come say something like:

Well bad, this big fat blain on my nose, you see? .. killed my day.

Or would you? If yes, I am sorry! If no ... liar :)

So for many rules, and this was just one, we "play" and are not serious.

Play not alone

Well their is just one comment on this, If you are in your life alone. Change something in YOUR life and don't think it is the fault of the others.

"Every man is the architect of his own fortune."

Loneliness is something terrible,

I have my own experienced on that. But I started to change myself and this work very well!

Competition

Well at least spoken as a man (woman have a different view - read " Why Men Don't Listen and Women Can't Read Map") sure all life is about competition.

• Who is the best at school?
• Who's car is faster?
• Who earn more money?

And for many people on earth it is a competition about life or die. How can I get the food for my family and me? - This is really the serious part where other people play with.

Fun

I really have fun in my life, but just I the moment it is hard to enjoy because, my own word make me contemplative.

Well I personally think life is like a game because I like having fun and not take all to serious.

I have the luck to reach this level and maybe as an result I should do more, that other people reach this level too.

But this is one reason why I write this blog.

Happiness

Now .. after almost 16 years, I understood a song of a band which I heard very often as was young. In the years 1992 to 1996 I was at least four times on a PUR concert.

The song I understand now much better as in former times is " Geweint vor Glück". (Sorry the text is in German)

Now I usually listen different music, but from time to time you have some experiences where such memories will come up ...

... this morning I think the song "Prinzessin" almost fit perfect. (Thx for the beautiful weekend)

btw. Chocolate Muffins spend happiness too, but don't eat to much of them ;)

Merci

Today is the first of December and Christmas time is coming up....

So well is it not a good time to start with a very very simple exercise to feel good and let other people feel better?

That what you have to do is very simple, just say "Thanks", "Dankeschön", "Merci" or "¡ gracias!" to somebody who did something for you.

But take care, don't just say it! The situation should be real and you have really believe on that what you say. Otherwise I think it is wrong and usually other people will notice that you don't say the truth (especially woman *smile*).

You may think what a effort, just so say ALWAYS thanks for stuff.

Well, do you remember when you got your last honest thanks?

Do you remember how you felt at this moment?

Did you l like it?

Isn't is nice if you know, just a small word can change feelings.

What do you think, how people see other people who say honestly thanks?

Just few questions to think about...

I would say give it a try and see how people react, in some cases it is really great!

And I personally think it is worth do it ... you will get it back several times!!

PS: similar applies on "I am sorry" ... but more on this ... later on .. we learn step-by-step :)

Quote to love...

Happiness comes more from loving than being loved; and often when our affection seems wounded it is only our vanity bleeding. To love, and to be hurt often, and to love again -- this is the brave and happy life.

Buckrose, J.E on Happiness

Quote from Quotations Book


Why I state this here? - Just because ;)

Values

The base of our doing, we should have some high prior values, otherwise we have no scale we can measure our self.

Here the list of values I think are very important:

• honesty
• respect
• integrity
• loyalty
• trust
  
• ...

But we should not forget stuff like

• humor
• kindness
• ...

I am still working on this list, so it is still not final, but I just like to give the reader and some for me very important people some impressions :)

This should come all from the heart!

Objectives

Yesterday I discussed my last post "The Human Factor" with some friends and one question came up.

What is the objective of the principle?

Well to be honest I am not 100% sure yet. There are some quotes which may help to understand.

The journey is the reward.

I like this quote very much, because I think I didn't get yet the complete picture. I am even not sure to get a complete picture even in my life, so the first part will give at least an overview of the major things. First part? Yes :) ... there are so many topics, I think to give a complete picture I need more the one part, but the first goal is the first part :).

And other answer I gave on this question is more for the philosophic part of the readers.

The objective is to find the question on the answer 42. :)

The Human Factor

In the last weeks I was very busy I changed several thinks in my live, some cleanups in my flat, much work and my private goal moved a bit.

You may be interested how... well let's say it like this, a very beautiful woman entered my life. Yesterday I had one of my best day in my life and I am just so thankful to have such a beautiful day. I am now pretty sure "love" is one answer of the question of the meaning of life and there is one great quote in the movie: City of Angles (1998):

Seth: I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.

In my case more "One smile, one look into her blue eyes, on single touch and one moment see here happy ...". So my feelings are at the moment up side down .. but well ... I realized, build up a relationship take time, situations are often more complicated and you can not change to world in just one day.

So yes I lost a bit the track on writing here but I my spare time on waiting ... I can detail more my principle. :)

I finished in may this an company internal course for project management and one where we learned even thinks like how to communicate, team building, motivations, social feedback and so on. One very important result for me was the human factor!

We are all humans, humans work on projects and so the most important factor in a project are the humans. But I seems the world has not realized this.

Why I think that? Just take a took into the "Chaos Report" of "The Standish Group" the top three "The most important aspect of the research is discovering why projects fail." are :

1. User Involvement
2. Executive Management Support
3. Clear Statement of Requirements

And this is the result of a survey 386 of responds across several segments of the industry and sizes of companies.

So I couldn't find the human factor of those people who do the project they only mention the users.

I think this is one of the major problem why projects and all kind of groups (even relationships) can fail.

They just ignore more or less, at least partly: "The Human Factor".

So this is one of the key topics of my principle.

In one of my next posts I will add other key topics and afterwards refine them with more details (e.g. love or more general feelings is one part of the human factor).

New Blog...

what I just realize ... I forgot to mention here ... I open a new Blog for tech stuff.

So in future watch "The Zehrer Tech View" for all news there

So my OpenID project will be "maintained" on this site too. :)

Project 01: OpenID - confirmation on morzilla.org

On 10/26 2007 ... the my request for OpenID support got his conformation see

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=400598

www.the-zehrer-principle.com is online

I just have to announce you can access to this blog at

http://www.the-zehrer-principle.com/

Project 01: OpenID - mozilla.org add support

I just created a request to support OpenID on mozilla.org
Please join and support it by a vote.

Rename this blog

Welcome :)

I decided today to rename this blog cause of some new ideas.
Well the old name was very abstract (zone out) and I did not have concrete objectives of writing.

But now this changed, as I mentioned in the about on of my new goals are to write about my ideas. (ok not much better *smile*)

Well I think in the last few moths my point of view has been changed. I started to take a closer view on psychology, social competence, relationships (man/woman) , communication ... and so on.

The main driver were several thinks :

• My training for project management we learned basics about communication, team, motivation, conflict management and social feedback
• The end of a relationship and thinking about reasons (thx B.)
• Discussions with my best friends Marcus and Paddy
  

So keep in touch what kind of informations I will present here about stuff I learned :)

Today: copper kills bacteria and algae (Source - sorry German)

Greets

Steve

PS: see the description on the top ("blue" box under the blog name)

Google and OpenID

take a look on http://blog.javia.org/google-openid/ I added some comments.

tag management

When comes the tag (or labels / groups in GMail - did i forgot a name?) management application which can be integrated as components in SOA system?

Ok well according my one definition the internet is not SOA yet .. but will I expect it will be in the next years.

I just worked on the management on may tags on del.icio.us but my wiki does not support tags yet ( as far I know *g*) and there is not integration.

What I like to have (and not develop for my self .... *g*)
- One tag management application for all my accounts (even e.g. amazon, wiki, mail ...)
- a graphical tool to manage all tags
- automatic sync (e.g i tag my article here, then it is added automatic added to del.icio.us with the same tags - ok this is not a feature of a tag application :) )
- many ideas more ... :) - maybe I think about If i got payed :)

OpenXML -> ISO/IEC DIS 29500

I never read the standard documentation (ISO/IEC DIS 29500) of OOXML ... but I took a look on the comments of Norway :) According this comments, I personality would say NO too!

What I don't understand is why the Germany organisation voted yes?

So I just signed at http://www.noooxml.org/

New killer feature for Applications...

Do you ever setup a tool or application (Software) with try and error do get a working configuration? And afterwards you remember only the major settings. Or you have your notes but know it will take hours to write a good documentation.
Why?
Who else as the tool / application itself know in all details how the current configuration is?
Well is it not a logic feature to let the tool generation this documentation based on the working configuration?
At least it can create some major parts of it. To get it CMMI compliant sure you has to add reasons and other parts but it would be a much better starting point as an an old document or even a empty page.
But stop to start now to add this feature in your tool, is there a standard available or even an open source solution? What I don't want is this function in several tools in several kinds ..so please start with a standard!

Or what do you think?

Google and SOA

Well.... I just had an idea ...

On my wish list is an integration e.g between Google Calendar and GMail and much more integrations , ... but wait ... does this not lead again to the old problem ... and what was the solutions ... SOA .. in this case EAI. Mmmm is this the topic Google workin on at the moment?
Or next step in my view is BPM ... mmm is Google maybe jump directly to this step and brings but a new KILLER APP where we all can define and manage our Processes??

Cool idea isn't it? ;)

Update..

Allmost all application has its own update tool ...

• Nokia Updater
• Apple Updater
• Windows Update itselfe
• Picasa2 Update
• Firefox
  
• Java Updater
  
• and so on

Would it not time to have an Open Software Update platform?

Integrated in the OS... open source, platform's independent ... ?

CMMI

On Thursday/Friday I had my first CMMI Appraisal , ok well it was just a dry run but it was very interesting to see what kind of questions and capabilities are in the focus of each maturity level.

But I think this kind of model is not only valid for "Software Engineering" in almost every company such a approach make sense.

Even or specially governmental authorities it should bee required that they work on high maturity level, otherwise they wast money. After each election period new people come in and have to do something new and don't know how the process was before.

Btw. process, where can I find all mayor processes documented, in the same language, in the same style and on the same description detailed level?

There is so a high potential to improvement in the world. :)

Flickr and Map / Picasa Web

I just played a bit with the map feature on Flickr. I nice to move the image on the map to see where i took the photo. So search for "Ravensburg" and you will find some of my pictures :)

But i think in the next generations a digital camara has an GPS integrated and stores this data direct in the picture. I have already seen some models.

We will see long it will take that every standard cam and even mobiles have an GPS receiver.

Addon:

I tried the same with Picasa Web and i must say it is much faster and it more detailed maps !
sorry Yahoo :)

Google Maps on mobil

I just tried Google Maps on my mobil. Not bad simyo has in Germnay low prices for data transfer so i bought just for fun a card.

And I am pretty sure in several years we have UMTS (or the next generation) flat and in the car we use an online navigation system. Just the position is received in the car all other information map data, traffic jam, speed cameras and so on is provided by the net. Maybe the other way around too. Are many cars on a street and they stay you get a traffic analyze online in real time.
At the end Goggle even knows where you was at which time and with which car :) (just with whom is missing)

See the next nice feature, you have you drivers log book online directly integrated in Google maps. And your wife can see when the estimated time is for dinner. You will know which fuel station is the cheapest on route and the system can lead you to the best steaks in town.

Google Features Part One

Here my wish list of Google (Mail) features, which just reported :) ....

- Create the address book as a separate application.

- Add support for Birthdays in the Address Book and show them in the Calendar

- Change group function to Labels in address book (or add Labels to, the restriction Group Name and Label Name is duplicate blocks) or add a View

- improve import/export functions support standard format for address book.

- sync address book for LDAP/Mobile/PDA/Outlook/Notes... and so on

- integrate orkut with address book / XING Web serivces( www.xing.com)

- add picasa to Domain Serices

- Support off line functions

- add flash video chat

XING creating a webservice...

You can get more information on there page: https://develop.xing.com/

Maybe the first step to a centralized address book?
At the moment a manage my contact's in Google Mail ( www.zehrer.net) is my private domain powered with all the Google services. But I have to update manual my contacts on Google.
Manage them on my Palm and sync my mobiles more or less automatically.
I just hate the situation.

Is it not possible to have a central system where I can hold all the information and all my gadgets :) are in sync. Mmm not simple. Each device has it's own philosophy and data model.

Lets start to collect some requirements ...

• One main "System"
• Source of all other Systems (e.g. Mail Client, Mobil, PDA, Other Portals).
• If they are available let the people update data
  
• Solve the sync/replication problems ( not again a deleted contact)
• Store the history
• interface to calendar ( I hate to forget birthdays ... see below)
• support tags/labels
• ...
  

Btw. Birthdays is it so complicated to have a field birthday in your contact and show them in a calendar? My Palm work fine with this. In Google ... no .. why? .. My Mobil .. no the field exists but not information in the calendar, please solve this in next versions of the software.

Will they even integrate an SSO service? (see here)

Blog on my Homepage

cool ....

a little setup there and adding a CNAME on DNS and you have a blog directly on your homepage :)

See the address is now http://blog.stephan-zehrer.de


Well I know for a engineer with some internet knowledge this is nothing special but there are so many people out there which have no clue about all this stuff behind :)

well now this blog is on my domain :)

How do you manage your passwords?

or when will come a standard to manage identities?

I have this simple application on my palm to manage accounts ( http://gnukeyring.sf.net ) it is nice and it works. Then i have some of my passwords under the management of Firefox. For my personal homepage is it possible to access to restricted areas only be a certificate (ooppps ... expired). My server accept only ssh certificates. For Email I have some S/MIME certificate of www.trustcenter.de.
And i am sure i have forgotten something.

Mmmm oh yes once i tried CardSpace from Microsoft and I have to "cool" toke from PayPal :)

So where is the open and free Singel Sign On (SSO) solution? Or will we ever reach such a level?
Google has it's own system, MS has one. Yahoo another one. There a several open source solutions out there. Well to may cooks ....

My dream is, I have a card with a certificate and all my important information were I can log in, at all my accounts form my bank up to this blog and even for login on all my computers or other systems. No collection and manage of password and account ID's (how often was stevez already used by somebody else).

Well at least in Germany to upcoming password will support parts of this scenario, but i expert it will take several years (or longer?) as long we have word wide standard. I am pretty sure a technical solution already, but politics is the problem (not only for countries, I mean company politics).

Start Up

Why?
Well I just thought i need to right down some of my ideas. So maybe sometime they will become reality. :)

I just tried out the internet login of one of my investment banks ( trying to finish my tax return).
And again this bank publish again the same service as several other. You can update your address.
Nice know next time I will move, I don't have to write several letters, I can go to all the websites and update my data there :)

Well ... seems for me not much better. Where is the Service where I can enter all my personal data and other sites can receive updates or get a notification. Where I can manage who sees which information and where I can see all my relationships.

Which is the organization of defining a standard for such a service and the process?

Well ... we will see