One of the lesser known Live services, provided by Microsoft, is a test version of a new machine translator from Microsoft Research.

Some examples:

The machine seems to improve with longer text passages, as indicated by the first two examples. Actually that doesn't look too bad - with the exception of the weird "Gates testimony" example. Having said that, you should be aware that this is a 1:1 translation - it obviously doesn't adapt to the different grammar of another language. :-)

Still pretty useful, if you understand the other language a little bit, or if you simply want to understand the meaning of a foreign language statement. Live Gallery has a button to be added to the Live Toolbar.

Twenty four years ago my wife presented me this collector's item as a birthday gift, based upon a recommendation of my favorite airline's Sommelier.

The label of the disrupted violin was created by french painter and sculptor Armand Pierre Fernandez. The case was quite expensive at that time, and although it is not considered one of the great vintages it's value has significantly increased: Wine Searcher shows a price range of US$120 (auction starting price) to US$320 (retail price) per bottle, depending .

The company that currently pays my salary is asking me to relocate to the USA. At the same time they´re refusing to relocate my wine cellar, therefore effectively forcing me to drink excessive quantities of alcohol in a short period of time. Normally I'd ask my friends for help, but most of them aren't not prepared to take on this challenge, every day.

This bottle, the last one of the original case, was another one which had to go. So we had it for lunch, only my wife and me, remembering good old times. On an ordinary Wednesday, for no special reason. With a good steak. Wonderfully rich, firm with a full body. Beautiful plum, berry, toasted oak, and tobacco character. Baronesse Philippine's public tasting notes are a little more elaborate:

"The wine has a vivid red colour with a slightly brickish-orange tint and a nose which expresses a wide range of aromas, mingling cedarwood and black fruit with the caramel, mocha, toast and smoke of pleasantly vanilla oak.
Freshness and refinement combine on the palate with well-integrated, creamy tannins, delicately enfolded in flavours of coffee, spice, chocolate, cinnamon and fruit liqueur.
Elegance is the distinguishing mark of this vintage, now full of charm, displaying plenty of presence in the mouth and great style, entirely typical of the great Médoc classics."

Delicious, and ready to drink now. I wish I could enjoy such decadence more often. So we'll continue at today's dinner: Fresh french pâte de fois gras, accompanied by a bottle of 1976 Riesling Eiswein.

One of my colleagues in the APacJ time zone praised a consultant, concluding with the following:

"There are a few things that you need to do right to build a market around a product, (If you do these right, the market gains it own momentum and the product lifts off.) :-

1. Technical readiness in the market
2. Lighthouse wins
3. Sales Readiness
4. Marketing coverage."

While I completely accept that his intention for abusing the consultant as an evangelist, I completely disagree with his statement: It's not only the wrong order, more importantly he completely misses the aspect of the partner-driven eco system!

Andre, from Hong Kong, sent me a reference to a research paper from AMR Research (The ERP Terabyte Club: Are You Joining Now, or Later?), written by former colleague and well reputed analyst Derek Prior. The interesting quote that caught Andre's attention:

“A surprising 12% of respondents run their [SAP terabyte] production instances on Windows platforms, which shows the power and reliability of modern 64-bit, low-cost hardware.”

Way to go, my friends: 88% up-sell potential are not addressed yet :-) They'll just need to work through their activities in the correct order, and crack that partner thing.

Today was another enlightening day: Once again I was forced to question my own thinking, and actions. Twice.

First I had to kill an interesting business idea. Not because it was a bad idea. It was just not thought through. The management came up with this visionary idea, and expected the board to approve an investment proposal. Without any preparation. Without any due diligence. Without a business plan. Without any risk mitigation. In unknown territory, and with people they didn't know. And without having thought a millisecond about potential customers, or these customers' potential requirements.

During the discussion they were able to address some of the objections, but I decided to veto the decision if they wouldn't accept postponing the decision, and do their home work first. They surrendered. My issue: I think it was a pretty good idea - but execution will suck because they didn't prepare. I hope they understand the difference and will address the issue appropriately.

Number two was even worse. Fred made a funny comment for me calling it a convent - but exactly that was my impression during this business review. It seemed a discussion of "a community of women who live a life devoted largely to religious worship". Completely ignoring the facts of reality. Acting firmly on beliefs.

During this two hour review nobody talked about customers. They addressed all sorts of internal process deficiencies and praised their inward focusing achievements. Politics. But who cares? Obviously everybody within that company. It only happened at the very end when Ray raised the voice of the customer - and was shot down. Rationale: "We'll need to categorize that, in order to gain the buy-in of of the other internal stake holders." What a nonsense. I do understand that some bold customer statements need to be operationalized for assigning accountabilities, but I completely disagree with the intent of the statement because it was addressing subject matter experts. If you, as the leader, don't intend to listen to your SMEs, because you don't like what you hear, you'd better not ask them for an opinion at all. If you do ask them for an opinion, you have to accept it, and execute upon their proposal.

The primary task of a leader is to create value. Value is defined by customers, it's them who assign a monetary value to a product feature of service. It's not a bunch of company internal sovereigns that are completely disconnected from reality. Ignoring the voice of the customer is a deadly mistake which is typically not tolerated by the market.

This is all wrong. Competition is going to nibble them to death, bit by bit. The issue: This is a company where nobody cares about what you do or what your credentials are, but everybody makes sure he/she knows who you are, and what your hierarchical position is. As a result, fiefdoms evolve, and business doesn't matter any more.

Just did some calculations concerning cheap or fuel-efficient cars, but found a Prius close to unaffordable.

And then I ran into this one: 775 HP under the hood, translating to 650 HP at the rear wheel with 691 lbs ft. seem insane - but I'll need a new car anyway, and this one promises at least some fun :-)