Almost a Year In...

Woah, it's been almost a year since I have posted an update on the blog. Most of my discussions and ideas have been pushed mostly through Twitter.

The simplest of reasons... Work has been eating my time up and when it wasn't work I was fighting uncontrollable pains in my legs. Well after 4 or 5 different tablets, finally found one that is controlling the pain and has minimal side effects.

I would tell you to watch this space once more, but to be honest, i am not sure at all when I will be able to post on a regular basis! Thanks for watching & reading, keep following me on Twitter.

Related Links:

• FVT on Twitter

Thus Begineth a New Chapter in my Career

Tomorrow [1 October 2009], I am embark on a new job and role. I am moving away from the general IT consultant & internal architect role in the big corporate environment to a more focused architect/consultant role for a security software company. I will be more focused on helping customers pull together IdM solutions using the company's product.

This will be an interesting change providing a much more focused activity on one specific subset of security but I hope to carry on exploring the vast and interesting subject that security is. My last position lasted almost 10years and in itself was quite interesting considering the variety of activities and projects I was involved in. This new position will be just as challenging if not more as I will be participating in the growth of this company as it evolves internationally (they are already a major player in the domain in this country and are planning to expand heavily in the rest of Europe, middle-east and the US).

On the other side and for my personal growth, I am still working on a few things including passing my GCIH (that happens next wednesday), doing the CISSP (end of October) and continuing to look at developing for the iPhone & Android platforms. Hopefully, I will also be able to finalize a couple of blog entries I am working on the subject of the real-time web, a micro-blogging feature request and some thoughts on Vanish.

Wish me luck!

Old Posts Appearing in Feed...

So you maybe seeing some old posts appearing that had not be published before. I finally got down to finalizing and editing the content of some older drafts that I think needed to be published just for the historical content.

I am hoping to avoid this situation in the future and should be able to keep a normal release schedule between draft status and published. Let's hope it works!

Another Day, Another Year

So the new year has come and gone, I've been queried a few times to see what kind of resolutions I was taking or if I wanted to join some challenges (like my friend Nigel is attempting).

Truthfully, for me the new year is potentially just SSDD (same s$#% different day). Resolutions are ok but tend to imply that you need to change something in your life for whatever reasons you might have. This is where it doesn't work for me for in general my life is what it is and I've accepted it as is. Granted things could much better and don't match where I saw myself at my age but I've spent too much of the past years trying to change things with no success - I seem to be plagued with bad vibes - and I'm not inclined to invest anymore energy in fighting it. Some might call it being comfortable with things as they are but at least I know what my crappy personal & work life entails...

Sure I know what needs changing and how to change them but that may mean spawning even more difficulties and issues. So this year, taking things as they go!

Aside from that shoddy rant, I expect that I'll try to do more of the same:

• 1 new video game a month;
• achieve some form of regularity in my blogging (I foresee a move to video blogging);
• and generally accepting my pains physical & moral alike.

And of course continuously complaining about it... Although I probably should try to stop sounding like a broken record!

Ian Curtis, in Joy Division's Heart & Soul, once wrote:

The past is now part of my Future
The present is well out of hand!

a motto I seem to be fully embedded in :-(

Change of Plans

So, I was supposed to be in Houston right now but the damage caused by hurricane Ike has put a hold on that. Now the thing is I was hoping to get some tech shopping in ( before all my Euros are gobbled up by the tax collector) while over there giving me a significant savings. Maybe this will happen next month!

So in the mean time, I am thinking of passing the time by either getting a Dell Inspirion mini9 or upgrading my home PC a bit with the following components:

• ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro - 45 CFM
  
• ASUS P5Q Deluxe - Chipset Intel P45 / ICH10R
• CRUCIAL Ballistix - 4 Go ( 2*2G ) - PC6400 - 800MHz
• INTEL ® Core™2 Duo E8500 3.16GHz FSB 1333MHz 6Mo cache socket 775
  

This upgrade would give a nice all purpose machine good enough for some good gaming. Money wise, this would cost roughly the same.

What's your vote?

Update 20080921: Looks like if I buy the kit in the US I'd be saving anywhere between 20% to 30% - so going to wait.

B'Day Equals Gamerific!

Today, August 30th, is my son's birthday. Both he and I really look forward to this period as it's a damn good excuse for dad to go crazy on the new games (Christmas is also a good excuse).
This year it's: one PSP game - Naruto2; one xbox360 - Soul Caliber IV; three Wii - Ski, Boom Blox & Smash Bros Brawl.
I'm satisfied with the general game play and am quite enjoying the fast paced & quick to pick up action gaming that both SC4 & Smash Bros is providing. I was to a certain extent impressed with the graphics and overall customizablity of both games. These were games that were quick and easy to jump into and get a lot of fun out of
I still need to try out the other three fully but so far my son's has been having a good time and doesn't seem to want to put down Naruto. The Family Ski on Wii was especially fun with the Wii Board. Its a much more interesting ski simulation than the default one on Wii Fit. Boom Blox was fun as well, and remind me of long evening hours of playing jenga with friends while on vacation,
Maybe more on this crop of recently obtained games in future posts!

It's Been Awhile, Again

Well it has been awhile since I took the time to blog anything! To be honest, I've had a few drafts in the works but never enough personal energy to complete them. I thought that migrating my iPod Touch to version 2.0 and using the wordpress applet would help but I've been having other issues with the iPod Touch (will have to be the subject of a different post).
Once again, I find myself torn between personal issues and work related emptiness which has driven me into a relunctant on effectiveness. Hence my inability to get my stuff together and try to do sensible things.
To be honest it's almost a form of depression and I don't think things will change until I hit The Deepest Rock Bottom possible...
Meanwhile I think that trying to get those drafts and new articles finished will be the only way to try and fight this effectively. Maybe even using my blog(s) as a venting ground might help.

Let's see what happens. ;-)

We Say Goodbye to Princess

After 15 years of sweetness, we unfortunately had to say goodbye to our cat Princess. A number of months ago, she was diagnosed with cancer. The first time, we had the vets remove the cancer but it quickly came back and there was not much more we could do. Over the past few days, she had stop eating and was starting to have problem moving around. Her physical state was getting hard to bear and she was not herself.
Princess joined the family some 15 years ago when she grabbed my wife's hat through the cage as we walked passed her in the pet store. My wife knew at that time that the cat was «supposed» to come with us! Princess was a gentle and sweet little lady but was very shy. She will be missed. More picture of her on this Flickr page and in my Picasa web album (look for Princess the tri-colour persian)

Ulla's Puppies

My parents have a wired-hair dachshund dog, named Ulla, who gave birth to 6 little puppies last night. 3 males and 3 females, a full litter!

Congratulations Ulla and her parents... ;-)

Pictures here!

Most Interesting Operation Yet!

Yesterday, Thursday 3rd April, was my operation day. I have been back in the hospital since Wednesday to have the hardware, that was put in Dec.06, removed from my left ankle area. The operation in itself turned out to be one of the coolest I have had in a long while. Note that this is my 10th or so operation on my left leg.

The operation started with a local anesthesia. I thought that like previous times, it would be an epidural too numb the lower half of my body. It was in fact a left leg nerve block. Nerve blocks are strange. They start by sticking an electrified needle into the main nerves in your backside and then upper calf. At that moment your leg starts to twitch and move by itself - a strange feeling- which is followed by the injection of the anesthetic. Your leg then slowly starts to become numb... you know that pins and needles feeling you get if you sit on your arm for a long time. They started operating when I could basically no longer move my leg as it felt like a ton of gold bars and I could no longer feel any sense of temperature (those where the tests they carried out to see if it was ready).

The surgeon then began to operate! I felt, smelt and heard everything that was going on! The nerve block in fact only kills the pain sensor...you still feel and touch, etc. I won't recount the whole operation as it was a long 2.5 hours but here are some of the highlights:

• They used a laser scalp to cut through the flesh - smelt the searing meat


• To remove the screws and plate, they had to chisel away and use a hammer to pry the screws loose


• They scrapped away some set-in arthritis and irrigated my ankle

The advantage of having had the operation this way was less down time as you don't suffer the secondary effects of the anesthetics from a GA.

Off to the Hospital

For those following my blog, you may remember that back in December 2006 I broke my left leg. Tomorrow I go back to the Hospital, to be precise the C.H.U Henri Mondor in Creteil.

My angle is still swollen and I am still in pain. The Doctor said that it might be a good idea to remove the screws and plate. He thinks that it will reduce my pain but it in most likelihood would not completely alleviate it. So as I said it is time to go back to the hospital and on thursday the doctor will take out the metal and wash out (irrigate) my angle (to reduce any arthritis that may be settling in).

I will keep you informed...

One Lap or Two?

This is one heck of a long swimming pool! I wonder how long it would take to swim one or two laps. Definitely a good work out!

Photo credit: Spluch

Also seen on Crave.

Interactive Bar in London

Just saw this Crave post regarding a new bar in London called the TwentyFour. The bar looks cool with wall-to-wall high-techiness! The description points out that the place is filled with the latest technology for lighting and drink making. The pictures from both the Crave article and the Bar web site are definitely intriguing.
I think that this will be a place to visit on my next trip to London.

A Memorium to Glouton

Over the past week, one of our cats named Glouton has fallen deathly ill. He has renal failure. The last of couple of days it has been getting worse.
The cat is not doing very well... Its having trouble moving & keeping its head up. I suppose that's what happens with renal failure, well from experience (note: we have lost two other cats that way as well so we kind of were expecting this).So we took the decision to take him to the Vets this evening and end his suffering. He had not eaten for two or thee days now and was crying out in pain.
The cat has had a good life been with us for close to 17 years. He turned 16 last year. Kept us company over 2 continents and has been an overall pleasant cat apart from the times we need to bath him as he soiled himself with diarrhea. To see more of this cute Persian pedigree take a look at these photos.

R.I.P Glouton, 2007-08-24 19:40 we will miss you flat pirate face...

Job Hunting Madness

So during my convalescence, I realized that it was definitely time to start exploring new job opportunities. There are many reasons for this decisions but primarily because I realized that my current job is not going anywhere and has little or zero growth potential.

I have had contacts with some of the major players in the IT world but with no luck for the moment.

However this is where I have fallen into a catch-22 type situation. Why? As it would seem that the IT/IS industry is much more interested in looking for young cheap staff (and I suppose more dynamic)! But what happened to the need for experienced professionals to be give guidance and strength to those IT projects...

My search continues, I have my CV and search engines posted on most of the major online job sites (monster, stepstone, ...)

Welcome to FVTer's Blog

Hello!

This is my first post on blogspot.com but not my first attempt at blogging. I recently decided to go back to blogging.

A first step to this was to decide which service to use? Should I use this one (blogspot.com) or Wordpress (wordpress.com). Anyway, it is very difficult to decide as each service has some good point and some bad points. So to start off, I decided to open on both. And for the first month or so post my messages on both! Well see what happends...

So for Blogger, this new 2.0 interface is quite slick and very easy to use. The interface is considerable simplified. However the template editing is quite powerful and include sidebar widgets with javaScript so that I can have twitter badge, wijit or other.

My sucky X-Mas 2006!

On the 26th of December, I went out for the traditional Alsacien boxing day hunt. The day was one of the coldest of the week and the landscape presented a nice and frosty/icy appearance. Walking back down from position back to the jeep, I hit a patch of dark ice while trying to avoid a much bigger patch of ice. My left leg slide under me inwards and twisted. My body weight landed on an unstable foot and my bones when CRACK! I fell to the ground - more pissed off than in pain. My left Tibia and Fibula are broken!

For those who follow football (soccer), I did something like what Djibril Cissé did about 8 months ago in a France football match.

The rescue team was called (sapeur-pompiers) and I was transported to the hospital in Mulhouse. I have a moblog of the rescue and the day here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fvt_moving_being. I even made the local news (l'Alsace Newspaper)!

The 27th I was operated and a plate and screws were inserted! Spent the week (until 3rd) in hospital taking lots of pain killers, antibiotics and blood thinners (there is a risk of an embolism with these kinds of breaks because of blood clots). The Doctor actually said that I really did a great job breaking my leg but was lucky not to have torn the ligaments.

So what's next, well here is a list:
- no putting my foot down for 6 weeks
- continued pain and thinners with regular checks/controls for the next months
- House bound until March and maybe then some depending on how I heal.
- A long period of reeducation and all the crap that goes along with loosing muscle mass, etc.

The good side is that this happened to my left leg and I know what it takes and how things work... Have had a lot of experience in bone fractures, etc on my left leg. While in the hospital and after close reflection, I realized in fact that I have had a problem with my left leg on average about every 15 years - this is the 3rd time!!!

Such is life, things happen!

Thanks ahead of time for your support and well wishes..