christof's blog

Running Sightseeing in Osaka

2007-09-23T21:13:00.001-07:00

I am on my next RTW trip. I arrived in Asia and passed through Seoul and Manila, before I touched down in Osaka to stop over for the night before going on to Tokyo because it's a holiday here on Monday.
Despite only 13 hours of layover, I managed to get a good Sushi dinner, go dancing, go sightseeing in parts of downtown including Osaka Castle from the outside and get nearly one hour of exercise.
Apparently, I didn't sleep a lot, but the trick was to go running and sightseeing at the same time, which was fairly easy in the empty city at 5:30am on a holiday. I ran along a river (which looked greener than it really was - photo) and ended my trip on Osaka castle hill among early morning Taichi practitioners.
A great experience, and the adequate answer to the Japanese 'Europe in 7 days'!
Flying out from the new Kansai airport, build on an artificial island in the middle of Osaka bay, was also an experience, though I was a bit disappointed from the architecture by Renzo Piano, the terminal building was big, but somewhat dull and unexciting from the user experience, not the mention the standard grey of most Japanese infrastructure installations and the flood of painsaikingly colored signs everywhere.

Netherlands

2007-08-19T21:33:00.001-07:00

Amsterdam 032
Originally uploaded by Christof Wittig

Just finished a great week traveling through different parts of the Netherlands for fun and work.
We started off in Maastricht where we staid with our friends Yuri and Steve and their beautifully renovated home. we learned about the history of Limburg, a small catholic enclave with their own language in the very South of the country, so small that if you start running you are crossing the Belgian border within some 15 minutes. We also saw a lot of very interesting pieces of remodeling of old cloisters, e.g. into a hotel, an archive or even a bookshop.
After stops in Eindhoven, Rotterdam, and Den Haag then some days in beautiful Amsterdam again. Meeting up with AC friends (Eric, Michiel, Mirenchu was there) and making new friends.

It's Raining Men in Munich

2007-08-11T07:25:00.001-07:00

Rain in Munich
Originally uploaded by Christof Wittig

Unfortunately, for the organizers of the 2007 CSD and for visitors like us, it is raining cats and dogs today in Munich, making all the planned outdoor activities very unattractive indeed.
Juan and I went to the beautiful 'Mueller'sche Volksbad', an Art Deco public bath similar to its famous sibbling in Budapest, but just a few steps away from John and Salih's place where we are staying. We went to the Roman-Irish steam bath and took a swim in the large swimming hall.

Back from a Terrific Reunion

2007-08-07T08:52:00.001-07:00

Reunion 85-87: Reception: Eric, Christof, Eva, Markus

Just returned from a terrific reunion of my high school Atlantic College in Wales. It was great to re-connect with so many interesting and smart people from all around the world.
Attending together with Juan I also realized how privileged I have been to attend this United World College school in 11th Century, Hearst-upgraded St Donats Castle at the Atlantic seashore of the Bristol Channel.
Photostream is here.

Now on Facebook

2007-08-07T06:55:00.000-07:00

Triggered by the Atlantic College Reunion 85-87 I have joined Facebook. If you are on it and my friend, please let me know and us connect!

In Munich at John and Salih's Place

2007-07-30T05:21:00.001-07:00

View from John and Salih's Place
Originally uploaded by Christof Wittig

Great welcome back to Munich, staying at John and Salih's place in Steinsdorfstrasse, with a splendid view over the roofs of Munich, the Isar river and a nice Saturday night firework. Meeting friends over the weekend, running a new course through the English Garden, starting right from Praterinsel opposite to our host's place.

... and Back to Europe

2007-07-25T17:31:00.000-07:00

I have been so bad in blogging, but I thought you might get tired of my travel stories, orbiting like a satellite around the globe. Since returning to the U.S. from England in May I have done another round the world trip (Asia/Europe) and now I am again on my way to Europe, this time for a few weeks staying and working from there, while seeing family and friends and attending my 20th year reunion of Atlantic College in Wales.
First stop is in Chicago (induced by the limited availability of free mileage flights in the peak holiday season), where we will hang out in Belmont tonight with friends.

Via Good Old Europe back to the US

2007-05-06T17:44:00.001-07:00

Canterbury Cathedral
Originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

This was a very short and condensed trip, leaving me little time to blog - and before short I have arrived back to the U.S. today.
Spending a nice weekend in London to see family and friends including a trip to the Kent countryside with my brother (picture: Canterbury Cathedral).
Before that, meetings in Madrid, Munich, Singapore, Beijing and Tokyo - all went very well and smooth. It was great to fell 'home' in most if not all of these places.

In Korea

2007-04-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Finally on the road again, giving me an incentive to blog. With some problems, because blogger.com will only offer me a Korean UI while in Korea. Well, I gather it's a good way to learn Korean...
This time I had much better access to Korea, its market, people and culture than on my prior visits. Having figured out the basics, I could, with the right introductions, meet a host of interesting people who can help us to further our interests in this comparatively small, but thriving and attractive country. Attractive because it is similarly structured like Japan, where we have huge success - with the right connections and people on the ground.
Among others I enjoyed meeting with Eun-Chul Lee, who won a gold medal in riffle shooting at the Barcelona Olympics in 1992. He was quick to point out that he never killed anything or anybody other than a spider that has crept into the target (in the light of the VT shooting).
I learned something very good from him: "He said you can shoot 10s if you learn to shoot tens. You'll shoot 9s, if you learn to shoot nines. Most people learned to shoot 9s. I learned to shoot tens." Consequently he set the olympic world record in riffle shooting.
I think this is a very profound statement and good guidance from him and his teacher.

Award Night

2007-02-26T08:13:00.000-08:00

Award nights with friends: a good show, surprises and lots of fun. Of course my ballot didn't win.
I had hoped that Babel made it best picture (you MUST see it, I loved it), while I wasn;t totally in love with the "Departed" which scored 4 Oscars incl. best picture and best director.
I am also happy that the Germans (rightfully) won an warad for best foreign language film with "The Lives of Others", a great, perhaps 30 mins too long movie about the spying of the East German police on its citizens. I watched it here in SF a week ago and it was great! Watch the trailer!

Race Season 2007 Started

2007-02-05T11:31:00.000-08:00

The KP Half Marathon opened my personal 2007 racing season, with a personal record in the 1:46hr. range. A great course through GG park (along the Japanese tea house and De Young museum - picture) and a long stretch along the Great Hwy (all the way from Lincoln to the SF Zoo and back).
A breakfast with co-running friends in Sunset before hanging out at a Superbowl party.
Next races that I am scheduled for are

10M Waterfront race on 3/4
Bay-to-Breakers on 5/20
SF Marathon (1st Half) on 7/29

See you there!?

Silicon Valley Rises Again

2007-01-30T09:41:00.000-08:00

This eWeek article on the recent boom in Silicon Valley offers some amazing statistics:

SV is an ethnically very diverse region (second only to Miami in the US)
...has one of the most global workforces, with 40 percent born outside of the United States
48 percent of the population speak a language other than English at home
40 percent of its population has a bachelor's degree (the most highly educated region in the US)
Over half (55 percent) of its science and engineering talent was born abroad, well over double that of the United States at large (20 percent)

SV ranks the highest in IT employment, but other world cities, such as Singapore, Taiwan, Tokyo and Munich, are quickly catching up. Within the United States, Silicon Valley is nearly neck-and-neck with Austin and Boston in terms of IT employment.

Sundance 2007: Skiing, Movies, Friends

2007-01-23T19:27:00.000-08:00

OK, it was maybe a bit too much of travels, but it was so much fun: Only 3 days after my return to CA we sneaked out to Utah to attend the Sundance film festival with Stanford buddies over a long weekend: 2 beautiful skiing days in Deer Valley (blue sky, sufficient snow, excellent service), 8 exciting movies and 15 friends!

My 2 favorite movies were:

Fido: Zombie comedy - sooo funny!
Ghosts of Abu Ghraib - excellent documentary on how the events erode America's supremacy based on human rights

Thanks, Mike, for organizing this!

Hong Kong Finals

2007-01-14T12:35:00.000-08:00

A peaceful day of sports and recreation ended my four week stay in Hong Kong and a busy and intense all-hands company meeting during the last week. After a long night of sleep, I went to run on the Happy Valley horse race tracks (photo), went to the gym and got myself a long massage. The final dinner in a simple, nice noodle shop somewhere on the East of the HK island with those of the company who were still around. I then hang out in Central and said goodbye to all those nice friends and acquaintances who have made this stay very memorable indeed. The return flight was only 11h short (thanks to tailwinds), uneventful and quite relaxing (due to emergency exit row seating).

db4o Meeting in Hong Kong

2007-01-12T12:43:00.000-08:00

I think the intense, week-long meeting in Hong Kong from 1/8 to 12 was an important milestone in our company's history, building foundations for years to come. While we also discussed short-term planning such as the product roadmap 2007 and adaptations of our business processes to reflect our growth, the most important results were IMO the personal bonds which developed between the 25 participants from all 5 continents and the reinforcement of our core values openness, agility in the pursuit of quality and excellence, and diversity, especially with respect to other cultures.
Sure enough, it is quite time-consuming and exhausting to discuss many details in a full week of meetings, but I cannot think of any better way to get so much information out of so many relevant heads in such a short time, to make so many fundamental decisions while achieving buy-in, alignment, and motivation at the same time. And then: We only have meetings twice a year. I think every staff member in a conventional company easily spends more than a total of 10 days (80 hours) in meetings per year.
Above all, it is a real pleasure to work with all these bright people from so many different backgrounds, to learn from them and to see them grow. The local team members did an awesome job to make our visit in an already exciting city even more memorable.

Happy New Year 2007!

2007-01-01T22:01:00.000-08:00

A wonderful walk with friends over sunny Lantau island and a late and long lunch at the South African/Mediterranean Restaurant "Stoep" opened 2007. If this first day was indicative, it will be a great year!
2006 ended with food, party, friends and work-out at the gym in HK, the last minute being experienced at the HK convention center promenade waiting for a firework which didn't take place (it's just a Western tradition you know - wait for Chinese NY!)...
All the best to you, your family and friends for a healthy, prosperous and peaceful year to come!

Hong Kong History

2006-12-29T02:10:00.000-08:00

While cut off the digital world (see below), I finally found some time to read the highly recommendable "Modern History of Hong Kong" by Steve Tsang on our sunny roof terrace in the midst of crowded HK Central.
The book is very well structured, well written and does a great job of keeping the academic stuff in footnotes at the end of the book to not disrupt the reading pleasure.
Staying in this amazing city with such a short yet turbulent history while reading about it was a great experience. It is a wonderful case how knowledge totally shifts your frame of mind, how you suddenly see the same things and people around you with totally different eyes, starting from street names to the faces of Chinese inhabitants, e.g. when you start to guess in which wave of immigrations did a given person come to HK which was just a barren island of 6,000 fishermen 170 years ago?
Also, it is amazing to see how deliberate history is and how much of it is, while driven by the balance of power between Britain and China, totally incidental and fragile.
Many of the founding and constituting principles of this phenomenon resonate very well with my own: Rule of law, entrepreneurial spirit, flexibility, global outlook.
All this certainly made Hong Kong more attractive to me, both through identification with (some of) its values as well as through familarity.

Taiwan Quake Freezes Pixels

2006-12-29T01:54:00.000-08:00

Old dependencies fade away, new dependencies arise for the mobile work and lifestyle: When the earth shook three times on the night of the 26th, making our building tremble and the wine gently swing in the glasses, we figured from earthquake watch that the epicenter of the 7.1 quake had been more than 500km away from our present location on HK island, so we didn't expect any further impacts - until I fired up my e-mail the next morning to take up my work after the Christmas holidays... Nothing. Opening websites? Nothing. Only local websites (and soon Google and some websites in Australia and NZ) were accessible.
Today, 3 days later, things have improved slightly but are still not normal (yahoo.com is still inaccessible, for the third day in a row). Blogger.com started to work a few hours ago, but I am not sure whether it is because the lines have been fixed/rerouted or whether the upcoming weekend has simply reduced the traffic within the limited pipes available.
The quake damaged 6 out of 7 submarine cables through the southern tip of Taiwan, which is apparently the lifeline to HK (rather than the PRC). News report that it may take weeks for the lines to be fixed, but rerouting was underway. Links to (westbound) worked considerable better (incl. db4o.com's own website) than (eastbound) U.S. based sites.
Well, the quake gave me a better understanding for the Internet's geography and better skills in surfing baidu.com. I didn't know that the web was so vulnerable by being concentrated in certain hotspots which intelligently enough also happen to be the most seismically active regions of the world.

Shenzhen Frenzy

2006-12-23T22:29:00.000-08:00

The first week in Hong Kong has passed already and was concluded with a daytrip to neighboring mainland-China Shenzhen city, a 12M metropolis which used to be a fishing village only 30 years ago.
Though only 30km away from HKG downtown (unfortunately for the air pollution spillover) it is still a ~2 hrs. passage to take local transportation and the KCR trains or direct busses, because you have to cross both the HK and the Chinese border. Also, if you don't have it already, you need to obtain a mainland China (or a special 5 day Shenzhen only) visa at the border post, which costs between HK$ 300 (US$40).
At Shenzhen I had the pleasure to have lunch with our local team in a very nice seafood restaurant. We cheered on a successful launching year of db4o in China and were bullish on the opportunities for 2007.
Before and after lunch we went to some of the huge IT shopping malls (picture), where you can buy a lot of cheap commodity electronics but no "latest" gadgets (better to get those in HK, SIN or Taipeh). The visit was well worth it. You walked through never ending halls of little stands selling computers or - mostly - parts. One could get a fresh, cheap and assumingly illegal copy of Windows Vista directly from the copy station.
Like the entire city, it was full of people whereever you looked. Everybody was busy, and people's faces looked very tired (though it was a sunny Saturday).
We concluded the day with a relaxing massage in the Shangri-La Club, a very nice and clean facility with a big spa, body rub, 2 hrs massage, relaxation and food - a full afternoon pleasure for only US$20 per head.
Back in Hong Kong in the evening felt like coming home, though. So civilized and Western... compared to the Shenzhen frenzy.

Settled in Hong Kong

2006-12-18T21:54:00.000-08:00

As part of my personal globalization efforts I have moved to HK for a month to find out how it is to live here.
I rented a service apartment in a nice area in Central (Hollywood Rd), conveniently located to the major (OK, OK: expat) venues incl. the Central escalator, Lang Kwai Fong, California Fitness, bars and restaurants.
Yesterday an extensive walk up to the peak (some nice pics here).
So far, work is going fine, though, of course, the time zone is a bit inconvenient for me and my business partners in the US and EU.
Other than that, life is very nice. Meeting with several friends and acquaintances over the weekend, and making new friends. Tonight dinner with Stanford classmate JNO (it's his B-day tomorrow), tomorrow classical music concert, Friday another dinner with friends, Saturday lunch in Shenzhen with business friends, and so on.
The biggest preoccupation here is space. It is just extremely tiny everywhere and you constantly run into people (literally). I think if you can't afford a large apartment (and it has gotten really expensive again), you'll probably suffer claustrophobia, esp. when you arrive from the US, the supersize country.
Weatherwise we have been extremely lucky: Apparently it was rainy until we came, now we have 3 days of blue sky and temperatures around 18C (65F). And the moment we left SF, the temperature there dropped to the low 40s, I hear.
The air pollution is not so bad this time, but that's probably a function of the wind direction and can change any time.
The food is great, though I eat much less and less frequently while I am here. Also, the food doesn't lend itself so much to alcohol, so in fact, Saturday, though having been clubbing from 10pm to 4am in the morning, I have been drinking only one Gin Tonic (part of my admission to pp) and (my newest discovery) Tonic water and Chai for the rest of the entire evening. Very healthy!
The Internet connection is decent, though a little slower than in the Valley. Some websites seem to be particularly slow, e.g. a German banking site where we have the online banking of ODBMS.ORG. Perhaps they block/filter access from China?
I love the Octopus card/payment system - so convenient - and the ability to shop/eat any time of the day or night (downtown, that is, as opposed to 24 hrs. Safeway shopping in the urbs in the US).
Oh, and, of course, HK is the big shopping town. I personally prefer Singapore, but it is still great and I have replenished some of my wardrobe. IT shopping is still to come, I just need to wait for my next paycheck to clear... ;-)
Allright, I keep you posted about more insights of this concept trip "live in HK like the locals do".

Via Europe, back to US - ready to go to Asia!

2006-12-08T11:27:00.000-08:00

Last week in Europe, this week in the US, East and West Coast, all driven by the db4o 2007 roadshow which has now come to an end.
In Europe (Munich, Paris, Berlin and London) also meeting with friends and family, e.g. in the Grissini (picture).
On the East Coast OMG meeting in D.C. and roadshow in Boston. Cool but sunny.
On the West Coast several meetings and holiday parties before...
going to Hongkong on 12/15 for 1 month, enjoying Christmas there, working and attending the db4o Developer Meeting in the second week of January. This stay is part of my concept to live in several homes at the same time. Now trying out whether HKG is a good location to host the Asian one.

US Half Pictures Out

2006-11-29T06:26:00.000-08:00

Asia Trip

2006-11-24T23:12:00.000-08:00

I am now wrapping up my 2 1/2 weeks of trip through Asia as part of the db4o Roadshow 2007 to present the new version 6.0 to users and customers and touch base with local communities and the press.
The first half week I stayed in Tokyo, Japan, where we had a roadshow event
and visited several customers - (more) interesting projects coming up there.
The second week I toured China with a short stop in Seoul, South Korea. In China we made three very successful roadshow stops in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, thanks to the excellent preparation of the local community. We also signed the contract with our first Chinese commercial customer to run the power grid of Shenzhen, the city next to Hong Kong, with a SCADA systen based on db4o.
The last week was focussed on India to meet our local team in Pune, to meet customers and users and to speak at FOSS.IN, India's premier open source conference. It was a well attended event and I spoke to some 500 attendees to "How we fix the software industry with open source". I also liked the Ghandi-style tents where we held our BOFs...
Next week in Europe to continue the roadshow in Munich, Paris, Berlin and London.

Running the Golden Gate Bridge

2006-11-06T07:41:00.000-08:00

A beautiful run over GG bridge yesterday in early morning sunshine.
I achieved a new PR of 1:49:29, exactly 137 secs faster than last year (1:51:46). I post the pictures as I get them.

Speechless

2006-11-02T18:37:00.000-08:00

Aparently my last blog post on the pope in Germany has left me speechless...
But I am still alive. Getting ready to run the U.S. Half (over GG bridge) next Sunday, before leaving town to Tokyo on Tuesday, then through Asia (Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Singapore, Pune, Bangalore, Bangkok) and Europe (Munich, Paris, Berlin, London) back to the U.S.. 2 days later I leave again for D.C. and Boston, and it'll be only another week until I leave for 1 month to spend our Christmas Holidays (and the db4objects company meeting) in Hong Kong between 12/15 - 1/14. Oh, and when I am back I think I need to go to the Sundance film festival in Utah, don't I? Crazy? Of course! Fun? Sure enough!
See you.

German Optimism

2006-09-10T09:50:00.000-07:00

Pope Benedict has arrived in his (and my) home town Munich, Bavaria.
A frontline report from a friend back there:
"Munich is upside down. Those who love him are afraid not to be close to enough to him. The others, who show no interest for him, are irritated because the whole city will be out of control for 3 days."
It's really difficult to make Germans happy!

Flickr now geo-tagged

2006-09-06T17:26:00.000-07:00

Flickr now allows geo-tagging pictures, cool stuff:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/db4objects/map/ (public)
http://www.flickr.com/photos/christof/map/ (only available to friends & family)

Note that there may be several pages for a given map.

49ers vs San Diego Chargers

2006-09-02T13:20:00.000-07:00

49ers vs San Diego Chargers - Monster Park,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

Yesterday, in Monster Park, my first professional American football game, together with Juan, Travis, and girlfriend.
It was helpful to have some native North Americans around, so they could help me to understand that there's no homerun in American football but only in baseball (oh, that's a different game?)
Oh, and I should have picked the red (49ers!), not the blue sweater...
The 49ers won anyway 23-14.
Thanks to Mark for the tickets!

Celebrating California - Wine Country

2006-08-28T19:08:00.000-07:00

Napa,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

A daytrip to Napa is one of those precious privileges of living in Northern California: Together with Stanford buddies Mike and Eve, and Juan we escaped the foggy Bay area yesterday and enjoyed ourselves in perfect weather conditions for a light pizza lunch, wine tasting (Corison, Stag's Leap, Silverado), and a wonderful dinner at Cindy's Backstreet Kitchen (same owner as Mustard's).

Back in California

2006-08-15T10:33:00.000-07:00

After over 7 weeks of travel in Europe and Asia I am finally back home in California. It was a great trip with lots of good business progress, and also fun, experience, good food, nice people, and the like.

I am thinking more and more about how one can live in a flat world, i.e., in several places, continents, at the same time. I am now trying to be regularly in a couple of "Hub" cities, tiered into 3 classes:

Tier A: "Home" (where I have a physical presence)

San Francisco
Munich
Thinking of adding a city in Asia, probably Hong Kong or Singapore

Tier B: Visit 3-4x a year, with friends, business, and basic infrastructure in place

London
Tokyo
Bangkok

Tier C: Be there with little setup costs

New York
Sydney
Beijing or Shanghai

This way I can create a sense of global personal presence while reducing travel cost (direct and indirect) to an absolute minimum.

Pavements of Beijing

2006-08-06T19:12:00.000-07:00

Pavements of Beijing - Tienamen Square,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

Hitting the pavements of Beijing yesterday, like here seen on Tienamen square. It is good to be back in town and surprising, how much has changed again in the 2 years since my last visit.
Evening visit to Beijing opera (finally - the first time it was closed due to SARS, the next time I was only one day in eijing), very nice.
Business meetings on Tuesday, and time out with Yan Zhu from Stanford, before leaving for Japan on Wednesday.

Shanghai

2006-08-06T19:09:00.000-07:00

Christof and Andrew Zhang,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

Business in Shanghai. The buzzling city full of new high rises, areas where you simply cannot tell the difference from the U.S., world record of high speed passenger train - the Maglev, nightlife in Pu Shi, good food with Andrew in Pu Dong.

Chengdu Hot(s)pot

2006-08-02T08:22:00.000-07:00

Chengdu Hot(s)pot,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

At least froma culinary perspective, the trip to mainland China is a full success: Chengdu turns out to be the hot(s)pot for spicy Szechuanese food - together with Rosen (tonight) and Jeroen (yesterday).
But apparently food is good for making business relationships and building community - the db4o Chinese Community is off for a good start!

db4objects in China: Guangzhou airport

2006-07-31T08:18:00.000-07:00

db4objects in China: Guangzhou airport,
originally uploaded by Christof Wittig.

After a few weeks of trip through Europe (including the db4o User Conference in London), India, and Hong Kong, I have now entered mainland China to build personal relationships with db4o's second largest user community (#1: US, #2: China, #3: Germany, #4: Japan).
Arriving in Guangzhou (Canton) airport today and lunch with Heaven.
Later on to Chengdu, capital of Szechuan province, and dinner with Rosen and friends.
Later this week I will move on to Shanghai, and I will conclude this trip in Beijing (and the Tokyo) next week.

World Cup Frenzy in Germany

2006-07-02T08:52:00.000-07:00

After a first stop in Boston I have reached Munich, where I stay a couple of days - in the middle of Soccer World Cup Frenzy. Crazy! Even the bathrooms have a soccer decoration...
And fun. The German team of (Californian living German) Juergen Klinsmann is now among the final 4...
Now on my way to Switzerland, but back in Germany for the semi finals. Finals (or game for the 3rd place) when I am in London...... Hopefully I will survive it (England is out of the tournament and traditionally not very friendly to the German soccer contributions)

Uuuh - Bad Blogging Discipline. World Cup

2006-07-02T08:37:00.000-07:00

No excuses, I have been lazy lately. And it appears that my drive to blog increases once I am on travels. Now I have started another round-the-world trip recently which brings me first to Europe and then to Asia and back home to SF - and I have started blogging again.
Oh, then there's an excuse: I have been watching (Soccer) World Cup ... starting at Gordon Biersch's in Palo Alto on 6/9 (picture) with the game Germany : Costa Rica (4:2)

London, Dublin with Friends

2006-05-04T08:00:00.000-07:00

My round the world trip concludes with some private events, today finding Sarah and Robin being just fine in London, lunching with me on a sunny terrace at the Thames riverside in Richmond. Tomorrow I'll hop over to Dublin for the weekend to celebrate Ed's big Four O in posh Dublin Temple Bar district. I have never been to Ireland and look forward to seeing it.

Good Old Europe - Madrid, Stockholm, Dublin

2006-04-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

My trip continues through good old Europe. Two new destinations: Stockholm and Dublin, are on the itinerary. Currently I spend a nice weekend in sunny yet chilly (windy!) Stockholm. A beautiful city.
Also promising for business, a tight schedule meeting prospects on Tuesday (Monday is holiday - 1st of May, how European!)

The Million Dollar Coup!

2006-04-29T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is a cool way to make a million dollars: www.milliondollarhomepage.com

These guys sell (sold) each pixel of this page for $1. At 1M pixels, they earned $1 Million in total.

Why would anybody buy pixels there? Well, we're part of this right now. By linking to their page, the page gets a high organic Google search ranking. By advertising, the page rank also "spills over" to the rank of the sponsor's URL, since it is a homepage link (which is more valuable than others).

So this is just another cool business model based on Google's search algorithm.

Hardware Commoditization

2006-04-17T21:17:00.000-07:00

Shopping gadgets in Singapore - I liked the "Why pay for China designed products with USA designed prices" tag.

I purchased a tablet PC (HP TC4200) as my new laptop computer, celebrating the mobile life- and workstyle.

Will need some days to transfer all data and apps, but so far it looks really promising.

Keep moving

2006-04-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

Seoul (South Korea; Picture), Sydney (Australia) and Singapore were the next stops on my trip to drum up business in Asia-Pacific. So far, a successful and enjoyable journey, with lots of new and old faces, sympathetic to our endeavors at db4objects.

Cherry Blossom in Japan

2006-04-10T18:08:00.000-07:00

A great week in Japan, both for business and for some leisure. Cherry blossom was full underway and Juan and I spent some nice days in Tokyo, Kyoto, Hakone, and Nikko.
Now I'm in Seoul, Korea, and on my way onwards to Sydney.

Just Another Great Day in SF

2006-03-25T19:07:00.000-08:00

Wow, I've been lazy, no blogging for a couple of weeks.
Life's just normal, great, wonderful. Today a stroll to the Ferry Building along Embarcadero, between rain showers and sun patches.
Next week we will leave for Japan to watch Cherry Blossom (and business blossom.)
Then I will go on to South Korea, Australia, Singapore, and on to Europe.
Stay tuned.

Which countries have you visited?

2006-02-26T21:22:00.000-08:00

I stumbled over the site from a Dutch guy called Douwe Osinga, who now lives and works in Zurich for Google. He has published a couple of really cool projects based on Google's API, and beyond.

Most "useful" to me is his project on visited countries, where I can depict the countries which I have visited. What it does, it creates a bi-colored gif by calling this URL with the parameter

?visited=CAUSSVGTMXNIARBRCLCOPEEGATBEDKFIFRDEHUISITNL
NOPTESSECHUKVAILTRAFKHCNINIDJPLAMYMMSGKRTWTHVNAUNZ

which is "just" a sequence of the two-letter Internet domain names of the countries that I have visited (CA = Canada, US = USA, and so on).

I will keep the result on the right margin of this blog and update it when I have visited new countries.

Oh, and I have visited 47 countries so far. You can see, that I am skewed towards Western Europe, the Americas and Asia. It's time to look into Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East.

Christof's Running Season 2006 Opened

2006-02-26T11:33:00.000-08:00

With the Dolphin South End 10M Waterfront Run along the scenic (and flat) San Francisco Bay waterfront, I have opened my personal 2006 Running season.
I made the 10M in 80:24 minutes, which makes a pretty good 8min/M. and gave me rank #37 (out of 75 male runners)

Here are my plans for 2006 -3 Half Marathons (up from 2 in 2005):

4/23 Santa Cruz Half Marathon (signed up)
7/30 San Francisco (Half) Marathon (signed up)
11/5 US Half - Running the GG Bridge

And yes, my long-term plan is to run a Full Marathon before I turn 40.

Lonely Genius and Mediocrity

2006-02-26T11:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday I once again watched one, if not my favorite movie: Amadeus. Apart from being a great piece, casted with good actors and framed by eternal music, the film broaches the issue of genius vs. mediocrity.
It was interesting to watch the movie, after I have enjoyed a Stanford business education. The way Mozart behaved, he has probably done everything wrong what you could expect from a person to be effective. Yet, he has become immortal.
My question is: Has he been such a genius because he ignored all the rules - or despite? One thing is for sure: for him personally it didn't pay off and didn't have a happy end. Probably, though, that's exactly the tension that unleashes true genial energy.
I personally derive much satisfaction from working in a team. I like to see many people excel, even if the are only regular guys like myself. Achievements are in general a personal, relative thing. I personally pay at least, if not more respect to a handicapped participating in the paralympics than to the son of a real estate magnate who successfully steps into his family's footsteps.
So is Peter Shaeffer's Salieri the real hero? No, this (fictuous) Salieri has achieved something, but then he became destructive. Rather than learning from or co-operating with the genius, he destroys it. My biggest wish during the play was, that - when Salieri takes the notes for the Requiem - that he repents and would become a genuine help, mentor and tutor for Mozart.
As a team they would have certainly been much more effective.
But would the rewards of such a cooperation have Mozart made complacent? Perhaps he would have spent the money on big parties and died of rheumatic fever anyway.

SAP Open 2006 : Andy Murray

2006-02-20T19:59:00.000-08:00

Andy Murray, an 18 yrs. old Scottsman, won his first ATP Tour title Sunday and became the youngest champion of the Bay Area stop since 16-year-old Michael Chang in 1988.

The unseeded Murray followed up his victory over third-ranked Andy Roddick in the SAP Open semifinals with a 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3) triumph over former No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt in Sunday's final before a crowd of 7,107 at HP Pavilion, including Christof, Juan, Peter and Ed.

The picture shows the award of the trophy by Hasso Plattner, chairman of SAP AG.

Thanks to the sponsors, SAP, Hobees (breakfast for the players) and Mercedes-Benz (free parking for Mercedes owners)!

Digital Lifestyle : Status

2006-02-19T12:54:00.000-08:00

The sun is shining, things are moving forward greatly.
A good moment to make a short status check on my digital lifestyle progress:

Web2.0

Sharing words: My blogging discipline has become much better, I'm quite happy with both my private and my work-related blogging frequency
Sharing pictures: I provide picture content, partly to the public, with Flickr
Sharing social bookmarks: del.icio.us

Mobility

My Dopod (I love it - it was a great buy!), my laptop and my docking station give me three tiers of mobile computing power
Whereever I have Broadband Wifi connection to the Internet (at home, at friends' places, in airports or soon - free because sponsored by Google - in the entire city of SF), I am in full control over my digital lifestyle.
Everything else computing related is hosted and outsourced (incl. IT administration)

Global Access and Networks

Airline Networks and special airpasses are a great enabler for my digital mobile lifestyle. Here are some numbers:

Last year I was 123 days on the road (34%), I have visited 22 countries (incl. double-counts) and still spent less than $20K on airfares
In comparison: At APSIS in 2001, I travelled 71 days (19%), I have visited 4 countries abroad, and spent an estimated $60K on airfares
Last year, I got overseas visit to SF from Raphael Leiteritz, Bernd Wiessner, Anou, Carl (2x), Petra & Family, German & Family as well as an all-hands company meeting in December.

Skype is the voice enabler, that connects me to colleagues, customers, my Mom as well as facilitates company meeting calls, customer conf calls and even our upcoming BOD call.
My skypename is cwittig, but you can also SkypeIn on the numbers +49-89-2351-3122 (in Munich, Germany) and +44-(0)20-7193-2469 (in London, UK)

Digital Workstyle

Our company db4objects is designed for the "flat world"
We're working heavily with our online community of users as an open source company by means of forums, Blogs and many other platforms
Our staff is distributed over 3, soon 4 continents and communicates by forums, e-mail, wiki and Skype
We are heavy users of networked buiness systems, esp. Salesforce.com which is entirely integrated with our website and community frontends. All customer interactions are digitally logged, automatically or as an activity entry by our sales and support staff, and is thus immediately available for reference to anybody else in our network of salesforce users around the globe (US, Japan, Hongkong, Germany, Brazil, Argentina)
We sell and ship our products entirely digitally, worldwide. A webshop for customers with transaction <$10K will complement the current mostly e-mail based approach

Digital Media

Photography: My new Dopod helps to catch moch more moments, which I then transfer to Flickr (where I now have 4,703 pictures online), with more and more friends and family joining into my contact network to view them (or share theirs)
Music: I have started to use my new Dopod as a portable music player, and - given that I never used walkmen before - certainly started to enjoy it. I play music both, transferred from my personal CDs as well as music bought from online stores such as Real's rhapsody.com (since they are our neighbors here in SF, up one block from where we live)
Movies: Current status is still heavy Netflix user, which is a hybrid of digital and analog lifestyle, but one I can live with for the time being. The service just rocks, you get really good and rare movies to see, and the whole thing is great value for your money! I have bookmarked Movielink, though, to start experimenting with Movies on demand, but then they don't support Firefox...
News: I read 4 online titles of general news (2 German, 1 British, 1 US) and some 6 IT related titles on a regular basis, often by means of a newsletter subscription
TV: Never had one, don't miss one. You have to make choices in life.

Back in California, Enjoying it!

2006-02-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

After bitter cold frost in Europe it was great to come back to California, where spring had already started, with Magnolia trees blossoming.
This week's much more chilly, though, but then, it's still sunny.

Google Earth of de Haro

2006-02-18T12:48:00.000-08:00

Here's our place on Google Earth

Another (more horizontal but static) view is here

Oracle Buying Spree: Open Source Looses its Innocence

2006-02-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Big changes in my industry. My comments on people4objects.org.

German and French Wine and Music

2006-02-10T11:33:00.000-08:00

Cool! Researchers from the University of Leicester did a little experiment with a display of French and German wines in a supermarket. On alternate days, the store played French, then German music in the background, and sure enough, on French music days 77 percent of the wine sold was French, on German music days 73 percent was German. Now, we are not talking subtle here -- this was cafe accordion versus an oompah band -- but at the end of the checkout line, only one of 44 shoppers mentioned the musical influence, and 86 percent were sure it played no role in their choice.

Royal Connection

2006-02-04T10:36:00.000-08:00

100 years ago, in 1906 (estimated), my great grandfather (1st from left) welcomed the King of Bavaria (the one who followed after the death of Ludwig II, Prinzregent Luitpold - the guy on the right) to his hometown Forchheim (Unterfranken) where he was the local governor.

Frosty Europe... brrr.

2006-02-04T09:10:00.000-08:00

Business trip to Europe with family meetings enhanced. Cold! In my birthplace Karlsruhe (picture) meeting with prospective customers but also with Stefan Graefe from Nuestros Pequenos Hermanos with whom I had done volunteer work in 2003 in Centroamerica.

Digital Lifestyle - More Gadgets

2006-01-28T22:04:00.000-08:00

... or at least: more connectivity.
Played around the entire Saturday (which was a cold, rainy day here in SF) to get my PDA/PC music sync going (successfully) to make my PDA a mobile music player with ribbed CDs from my collection as well as purchased songs from Raphsody.com.
Also, I managed to connect my bluetooth headset to both, my PDA-cellphone as well as to my PC-Skype (using vitaero, formerly SkypeHeadset software which I bought for GBP 10). Cool stuff. My Jabra BT 350 headset is able to pair with two devices at the time. Once I start my PC-bluetooth (and finish the PDA's), the headset automatically rolls over to the PC. Rolling back to the PDA is less easy: You need to refresh the "headset service" in the pairing profile to re-connect.

California Intermezzo

2006-01-26T21:51:00.000-08:00

One week in San Francisco to catch up in the office, attend meetings and enjoy the first concert of San Francisco Symphony this season (MTT conducts Russian oeuvres). Juan enjoys his champaign, the music or me being back... Next week I'll be in Europe.

2x Party on the Same Friday night

2006-01-21T21:58:00.000-08:00

Another 'first': I had a great Friday night out in Auckland, New Zealand, went to bed, slept, flew to Hawaii (picture) and went to party there on Friday night once again. Cool.

Picture: crossing the dateline on the flight from Auckland to Honolulu

Down Under!

2006-01-17T05:16:00.000-08:00

Arrived in Sydney - and I like it! Temperatures have been a moderate 25 degrees (after a record 45 degrees on New Year's Eve!), and with a cool white wine at the harbor in my hands, that was bearable!
I had a nice dinner with Ogi Pishev, who has one of the most exciting biographies you can imagine: Computer Engineer in Bulgaria before 1990 to reverse engineer Western products, then ambassador of the new Bulgarian gov't to the US (achieving, among others, the WTO membership for Bulgaria), and now a software expert in Australia with a focus on the electronic patient record, using object-oriented methodologies and products. Ogi will be presenting db4o at the Sydney roadshow tomorrow, which takes place at the Menzies hotel.
BTW, the picture is taken with the new dopod 818. Not perfect picture quality, but fun, because you always have it with you. And aren't blury digital images part of today's culture, too?

Digital lifestyle, now more mobile

2006-01-14T18:50:00.000-08:00

Just purchased the latest gadget here in Singapore -- a Dopod 818, a Chinese-made PDA running Windows Mobile 5.0 with Triband GSM/GPRS as well as WIFI and Bluetooth. It also has a 2MPix camera on board and many other features, among them the simple yet important ability to synchronize more than just the Inbox of your Exchange server to the device.
Cool stuff and certainly a step forward from my old, T-Mobile branded PDA with Windows Mobile 2003. This one seems to crash much less than the old one and is much better suited to be a phone (reception is much better).
All together a great help for the mobile digital lifestyle which I have subscribed to.

In KL: Petronas Towers

2006-01-09T22:20:00.000-08:00

Great view to see the illuminated Petronas Towers in KL the other night. When I saw the first pictures of the towers some 10 years ago, I thought they were ugly.

Now I think they are magical - especially at night: The Twin Towers very much remind of a gothical cathedral towering over a French city. And the white illuminated stainless steel is really attractive.

Talking of skyscrapers: I have seen the world's five largest skyscrapers just within the course of 18 months. Amazing!

Taipei 101, Taipei
Petronas Towers, KL
Sears Towers, Chicago
Jin Mao Tower, Shanghai
2 IFC, Hongkong

Another Step to Loosen Microsoft's Grip

2006-01-07T05:33:00.000-08:00

I must admit, that I am a lazy mainstream user - such as many other people, too - when it comes to selecting desktop software, and therefore used Microsoft's product often and convinced: "no experiments". According to my technology adoption behavior, Geoff Moore would certainly classify me somewhere in the early or even conservative majority.
Now, there should be some worries for Microsoft given the fact that I switched with another key software platform away from Redmond's products: Firefox turns out to be a much better web browser (tabbed, faster loading, less errors, etc.)
The decision was taken after I had used Firefox in a Laotian Internet Cafe. First I was looking for IE, because I thought that Outlook Web Access would work better with it, but then it turned out that Firefox worked similarly good. The last decisive step was the fact, that I couldn't access my Bank of America homebanking anymore with IE after they had introduced some fancy security features - but with Firefox I could.
In 2004, I had already switched from MS Office to OpenOffice - but so far only partly: For documents I use OpenOffice and am, in general, happy, unless it comes to more complex formatting tasks (such as our sales collateral). This is because documents have become much less important in our web-based business conduct - so much is done by mail, who bothers to write letters any more? For Excel (and PowerPoint, which I try to use less and less), I still rely on MSFT, since OO didn't convince me so far.
On many other product platforms, I was totally lost for Microsoft from the beginning. Hotmail, Messenger and everything with Passport was a total red-flag zone for me. For enterprise applications, I am very happy with on-demand products such as Salesforce.com (though a bit pricy). I'm also not a gamer, so I won't spend money on an XBox. And don't mention Microsoft search...
Give us another year, and perhaps I switch to Linux desktop (with a Windows VM from VMware for certain moments...), drop Excel in favor of OO, and switch Outlook (which I would love to do since I am rather unhappy with the stability and the very limited search and archiving functionality) to - I don't know - Scalix? -- and MSFT would be entirely replaced by Open Source and/or On-Demand Software.
Isn't this quite a big change?

A successfull business year comes to an end

2006-01-06T04:47:00.000-08:00

Proudly we wrap up the first full year of business conducted through db4objects, Inc. It has been a great ride with thousands of new users, many new customers and great accolades, e.g. being named "the most eye-opening technology of 2005".
I look forward to the development of the business, together with great customers, a very strong team and a very compelling and differentiated business model, which turns out to be a great showcase for Tom Friedman's Globalization 3.0 theory.

Some Pictures from Vietnam and Laos

2006-01-04T22:11:00.000-08:00

I uploaded my Vietnam and Laos pictures to my Flickr's page. If you are a friend you can see 'em all, otherwise you'll only see a small selection.

Happy Holidays!

2005-12-24T01:22:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I was a bit lazy in posting and writing lately. Nevertheless, I wish you happy holidays and a great start into 2006!
Currently, I'm pretty exactly at the spot where this photo is taken in the Furama Resort on China Beach in Central Vietnam. While I relax a little, I also have the chance to keep my work going - thanks to wireless broadband Internet access right at the pool.
Merry Christmas!
Christof

Run the GG Bridge

2005-11-06T13:25:00.000-08:00

My third US Half over GG this morning achieving a PR. Picture together with Ed after the race, before we had a great BF at Cafe Americano.

Results...

Doctor Atomic

2005-10-08T12:26:00.000-07:00

I went to the premier performance of this SF commissioned opera yesternight and I liked most of it. The theme is very compelling. The opera managed to capture the emotional complexity of this strange situation at Los Alamos when the Germans had surrendered but the scientists were still pushing ahead to build and test the bomb to give Roosevelt leverage over Stalin in Potsdam and on the Pacific front against Japan. It is arguable, though, whether an opera should have so little Belcanto and so much recitativo, often direct from Poems and even formly classified gov't documents. On the other hand I really liked the setting and the lighting.
Worth seeing!

Back in SF

2005-10-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

After 5 weeks I finished the round the world trip which led me to a dozen countries and many more impressions, business opportunities and pleasures. Here's my itinerary:
- Honolulu, Hawai'i: Great stay at Peter and Ed's place to stop over to Tokyo
- Tokyo, Japan: First int'l roadshow event of db4objects (see post below)
- Seoul, Korea: Exploring the opportunities in the land of Samsung and computer games
- Hongkong, China: Paving the ground for access to the dragon's empire; hiring Albert Kwan
- Singapore: Great companies, great research center (Bioinformatics Institute)
- Chennai and Bangalore, India: Second roadshow int'l event; visiting customers
- Bangkok, Thailand: Relax (see below), but also exploring business opportunities around field force automation of the state lottery system and the Thai Navy
- Madrid, Spain: deepening the relationship to our customer INDRA
- Munich, Germany: Oktoberfest, friends and family, third int'l roadshow event at Munich Airport Center
- Salzburg and Vienna, Austria: exploring the 'Sounds of the Music' with Peter, Ed and Juan, but also the application of db4o for Siemens HVAC systems
- Budapest, Hungary: a short day trip from Vienna to meet my brother and his new girlfriend
- London, UK: fourth int'l roadshow event in Imperial College, meet customers and local partners; stay with my brother

Oktoberfest in Munich

2005-09-18T10:38:00.000-07:00

Only a week after Bangkok - but worlds apart - I went to the Braeurosl Oktoberfest meeting on the first Sunday of Wiesn! Together with frineds from California and Munich we had a great time there...!

Bangkok Bed Supper Club

2005-09-11T10:11:00.000-07:00

There are few places as cool as the Bed Supper Club in Bangkok. Though I am probably lagging (it is 3 years old) I still find it an extraordinary place to chill out, dine or dance. Don't miss it when you pass through Bangkok next time! Thanks to Yanda and Mike for this suggestion!
P.S.: Jasmine City Executive Suites are a great place to stay nearby - book via Expedia!

Doing Business in Asia

2005-09-01T01:07:00.000-07:00

Currently I'm on a round the world trip to do business in Asia and Europe.
The first two stops (after an initial, relaxing stop over in Hawai'i) led me to Tokyo and Seoul. In Tokyo I initiated our partnership with TMT Inc. (picture) to market and sell db4o in Japan, where a localized approach is needed to succeed. A roadshow brought db4o users, prospects and customers together at the 49th floor of Roppongi Hills academy with a spectacular view over Tokyo.
Currently I am in Hongkong. My next stops will lead me to Singapore and India.

Running and Enjoying SF

2005-07-31T16:32:00.000-07:00

Today I ran the SF Marathon, well, at least the first half. It was a great run, starting from Embarcadero, along the Bay, up and across Golden Gate Bridge back to Golden Gate Park. I finished the 13.1M (21km) in 1:58hrs and I am very happy with this result.

Last week I had a short warm-up run at Santa Cruz' wharf-to-wharf, a scenic 6M course along the Monterey Bay to downtown Capitola.

Netflix is Just SuperCool

2005-07-23T21:31:00.000-07:00

I have abandoned TV alltogether and exclusively watch movies out of Netflix' list of 45,000 or so.
The system is simple: You select movies into a queue on Netflix' website. Within 1-3 days you'll receive the first set of (depending on your subscription) 2-4 DVDs. When you have watched one you'll return it with the same envelope - the postage is already paid for. After 2-4 days you'll receive the next from your list, and so on.
A dream! For just $11-$22/month. And (legal) video download is lurking round the corner...

Juan's First Night in a Tent

2005-07-23T21:25:00.000-07:00

Apart from this premiere it also my first, automated photo post right ouf Flickr. Good stuff!

I'm doing good!?

2005-07-22T20:14:00.000-07:00

OK, next attempt to make my Me2Me blog a living one.
First, a new mission statement: It will be my private blog so that people wherever they are can stay in touch and read up what I was doing, rather than a professional blog.
All professional blogging will take place on www.people4objects.org.
Second, more technology: Today, I finally chose the webhosting of my digital picture archive with www.flickr.com - it's just too great and the pro service is only $25/yr.
Third, a fresher design: Thanks to Blogger.com's resentless work to improve their product, I found a design that resonates much more with my taste but still uses db4objects' corporate green and hence my current favorite color (www.db4o.com).
Let's see whether this is compelling enough to make this a living blog...
Cheers!

Moved to San Francisco

2005-06-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

We moved to San Francisco and now live in a wonderful loft in Potrero Hills, an upcoming area South of South of Market, one of the sunniest spots of the "fog city" and convenient access to the Peninsula freeways 280 and 101.
We have a great view to downtown and the Bay bridge, especially at night...

World's First Me2Me Blog Launches

2005-01-12T17:05:00.000-08:00

Just read on Business Wire that the "World's First M2M Blog Launches" [1]. When I read the subtitle I was amazed what M2M stands for: Machine-to-Machine! I just started to imagine how machines would blog and other machines would read it, I was very disappointed when I found out it was a blog covering M2M topics, so there were still people writing for people (P2P, so to speak).

Anyway, this triggered action to finally fulfill my New Year resolution: I start blogging, too. Everybody blogs, I don't! Blogging grows at a 100000% rate, every day more than 1,000 new bloggers, a complete paradigm shift in the communication industry! I am not part of it!? Not an acceptable situation!

So I now start my own blog in the silent hope that nobody will read it. That's why I call it the world's first Me2Me Blog: I will write for myself. I'm utterly convinced that nobody will ever read my stuff because nobody will be interested. Right? Hello... OK. Nobody, out there.

Pooh. The first blog is the most difficult one. Enough for today. From now on, I will focus on more interesting stuff, like open source business models. Boring? Well, you do *not* want to read a blog about my last travels to South America, do you?

Cheers,

Christof

[1] http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20050112005345&newsLang=en