The conversation thing

following the last two year’s tradition, here is a list of things I did for the first time in my life, during 2010. Enjoy!

1) was a paranymph at my fiancee’s doctoral defense at VU Amsterdam.
2) witnessed a full ceremony doctoral defense at Vrije Universiteit
3) was asked and got the ring on the Zeedijk bridge in Amsterdam
4) locked the love lock on the Hohenzollern bridge in Cologne

5) got married in Bucharest’s Town Hall with all my dearest friends and family and had a great party afterwards
6) helped organised my fiancee’s doctoral party and enjoyed the first official party in Amsterdam
7) got invited to an interview in Amsterdam
had my first Europe adventure when the volcano exploded
9) appeared on bbc.co.uk with my europe travel story
10) met Dr Calin Fabian Romanian ambassador in the Netherlands at Andrei’s doctoral defense
11) had my biggest so far extensive illustration animation job.
12) my team extended its reach from EMEA to Global.
13) created a new team in Guadalajara and met very interesting young designers there
14) had a personal business record of 186 email communications in one day with teams from around the world spanning across different timezones
15) fired the first team member from my people management team
16) accepted a new job offer in another city
17) had my first relocation to another city, and another country
18) got residence from another country
19) traveled to the Boston, United States
20) traveled to Stockholm, Sweden
21) traveled to London, UK
22) got our first neighbor party invitation
23) rented our first apartment with a rent of over 1000 eur/month
24) live on a small island 8 minutes close to the city centrum
25) visited Delft
26) were invited to the Romanian embassy in den Hague for the Romanian National Day party
27) traveled to Paris, France
28) got married in Church in Amsterdam in a Russian Orthodox church by a Dutch converted priest
29) had our friends and family fly over and enjoy the ceremony with us
30) bought our first real bed
31) had a lovely honeynight in a 4 star one-of-a-kind hotel on Keizergracht in Amsterdam
32) woke up to a lovely morning and left the hotel with the water taxi to our home
33) ran barefoot in the airport
34) had my first transatlantic flight
35) ran with Amir Kahn at 6:30 in the morning on a 5 miles track
36) ran 4 km on Sunday mornings with Andrei
37) discovered the marvel of Fallopian tubes
38) bought my first city fancy bike
39) had my first fall off the bike and sprinkle my left ankle
40) rented our first luxury car
41) had our first Christmas in Amsterdam
42) had our first guests to stay over at our place
43) bought my first Nude shoes
44) bought my first blue cocktail dress
45) had 3 hair coloring in a 7 days period - not good, I can tell you that
46) had a professional make-up artist session
47) got awarded at worldwide HP CIRCLE Awards for a digital marketing project with a ROI of over 130 times the investments
48) managed my first 6 figures budget
49) rented my first 1920’s theater costumes
50) designed and published my first professional book cover
51) got a 10 year visa for the US
52) I met for the first time Sint Niklaas, full ceremony
53) made my first pickles
54) painted my first series of portraits
55) lived more than one month in a business hotel
56) went to my first Sail festival
57) sailed with a sail vessel for 5 hours
58) went to the AC\DC 2010 tour concert in Bucharest
59) skied for the first time on the Varfu cu dor peak in Bucegi
60) visited the Vienna Art History museum

I have always been interested in how publishers, and I mean, big publishers, have constructed their presences online, and BCC and CCN - just to make a silly joke - were THE ones I have always looked up to and always checked their online presence for the trends.

In the last three months, though, I’ve rather watched BBC on telly, than checked the news online, while for CNN, I only watched during some business trips to US.

Today, after a long long time, I had again this idea … let’s see what news CNN has & what is on BBC, what are their designers doing … well, I was in it for a surprise .. : the sites look like each other. One might get to the idea that BBC and CNN will soon merge. Hehehe … I don’t really wish I’ll see it, cause that really means economy goes to dust … though it does look like the two want to make a pact of non-aggression, or they’ve both found the key to usability going through the same layout and color codes. Ah, another explanation could be that they share the same design agency designer

I am mean, I know. But look at the two printscreens, and then remember how many and significant differences were between the two giants, just half a year ago. To be even more mean, I would say that in this merge CNN is the one buying out BBC, since CNN’s design is a bit better. Eh, just being mean.

As I’ve said earlier in my posts, this page will make history. Pretty soon we’ll experience new ways of interaction with mass-media. The name will change as well .

While we’re at Channel 4 let’s take a look. It’s a gorgeously simple website. British like hell : perfectly balanced, colorfull, yet stylish and easy to read. Kinda old fashioned as I compare it to the new bbc beta face, but then again, channel 4 is more about entertainment than news, and even if it weren’t so, I would’ve still liked it.

Speaking of BBC, this personalised type of interface is going to mark a huge step for the mass-media. The news will no longer be delivered, but channeled while end-users will have different perspectives on the same amount of events the site provides. Normally, there will be a gaussian distribution in the users preferences, but still, 2 different users will access two different bbc homepages. This will bring a shift in media sociology: the provider of the news will no longer controll the way information is received. Maybe online ads will reflect your preferences, but a puzzling question is how will the user choices influence the posted information? TV works on ratings, but internet provides a more specific way of quantification… so will the change be major, what is your take?

I am begining to love BBC they’ve got the most interesting news about this industry… Nokia has launched today the new music and games download service, challenging both rival handset makers and mobile phone network providers. Most importantly, the iPhone. It was about time. BBC reads the store will charge 1 euro ($1.40; 70p) per single track and from 10 euros for an album, while games will cost between 6 and 10 euros.

It is interesting to observe the competition in this area. Nokia is one of the best mobile producers (proud 2ys owner of a 6680 ) still, I’ve noted that while their mobiles are good and reliable and always with the latest technology, they lack some features in usability. For instance, Nokia’s good-to-everything button needs clicking on it, while Sony Ericsson’s small joystick is sooo flexible and silent and interaction friendly. Same tool, lack in usability. I cannot argue though … Nokia is one hell of a resistent mobile so maybe some features need to be adjusted so as the poor mobile will not to crush into pieces at the first big encounter with the floor

I love Nokia, and my next mobile will most probably be a Nokia, but I’d like them to improve in this “cool” interaction area. Not to misunderstood me, it’s not that they don’t have the features, but usability for interaction features is still a little behind competition.

For this launch, they’ve thrown a big event NokiaGoLive . Liveblog for it can be read here 5 mobiles are released: N95 8GB / 5610 Xpress Music / 5310 Xpress Music / N81 / N81 8GB

Another Go Play event is held today and on the 30th in Singapore

Haven’t got an invitation, nor a ticket to Singapore or London… promise at their next 5 mobile launch to be among the ones invited

BBC again with a very good interview with Vinton Cerf

Good news that AT&T is no longer the sole operator of iPhone. As George Hotz shows on his blog on thursday, there are 10 steps to break in …

BBC reads that “Before George Hotz’s announcement on his blog, the iPhone was made to work on overseas networks using another method, which involves copying information from the Sim (Subscriber Identity Module) card.

However, special equipment was needed and the actual phone was not unlocked, with each Sim card having to be reprogrammed for use on a particular iPhone. ”

George, do us all a good favor and unlock it for the European market… we love iPhone just as well !!