Rodrigo A. Sepúlveda Schulz

live TV on the Internet : THE FOUNDING START

Yep, traditional TV is going to be left to the less technologically advanced countries...

Pure IP TV is here, absolutely, certainly, definitively.

I'm watching the Live Earth concerts from around the world on my computer (2*24" monitors). I learned about the event on the web (on Twitter from all places), not on traditionnal printed media nor TV / radio.

And I tuned into this global event online. Did I check whether any of my local TV channels were carrying it  ? Nope... Direct to the web : google://live+earth and found the site.

It even brings interactivity enabling me to switch from one "channel" to another one. From Brazil, to DC, to China, to Hamburg, to Japan, to London.
Content wise, it"s "just" Madonna in Wembley. Awesome entertainment. Live on IP TV.

No clue who is providing the CDN and streaming technology this time, but it's WORKIIIIIIIIIIIING ! at last.

Huge congratulations to MSN for doing it right. Live 8 on AOL had their own issues last time.

Update: I didn't have time to record Al Gore's vibrant pledge to fight global warming. Here's a previous reading :

My guess is that Al Gore should win the Nobel Peace Prize in the next 5 years with his relentless fight.

Brian Cox at LIFT Conference (LIFT07)

I published my own video of this talk the other day. Here's a much much better edited version of it. It's totally amazing content.

"Brian Cox is Physicist at University of Manchester / CERN. He presents about "CERN's 27km Big Bang machine" at the LIFT07 conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on Friday, February 9, 2007"

Ben launches grandchelem.net...

…the first free online mag about Tennis in French. You can download the whole issue in PDF, and read the blog at www.grandchelem.net.

well done!

The beauty of Fibonacci numbers

And a final nightly post for all mathematics aficionados out there. Here’s a wonderful site (you can tell the guy never went to art school or studied web design) about the Fibonacci numbers and the golden section. My friend Fred. H. will appreciate certainly.

And here’s a link to another similar theme you should explore.

Just joined the Advisory Board of Epitech, a French computer science school

We had tonight the first meeting of the Advisory Board of EPITECH, a French Computer Science school, sister company of one of EPITA, the engineering school I attended over 10 years ago.
EPITECH had an interesting approch: it aims to create vocational training, exclusively on IT, in a 5 year program. There is a very strong focus on hands-on learning, with 140 projects to be completed by every student in the course of the 5 years program. As early as the 3rd year, students are requested to work part-time at corporations, and complete 2 full 6-month internships as well.

From what I saw tonight, the ambiton is pretty impressive for a school created only 5 years ago. Last promotion saw 135 students receive their degree, with 100% of them finding a job in less than 3 month (75% get hired before graduation). Average salary is near 32K€ at graduation time.

I am joined at this Board by about 12 people, from Apple, Wanadoo, Nagra, Sophos, Accor, etc. It should be very interesting and I am honoured to contribute to the steering of the learning of these young graduates. I'll update this post with pictures shortly.

Draft book for the Da Vinci Code

I seldom get the impression of reading the same book again. Even weirder when you read the 'sequel' before the current book.

Half-way into one of Dan Brown's (the author of the Da Vinci code) other opuses, Angels & Demons, and into 3 murders already (out of 5 supposedly), the similarities are striking:

• the main character is Robert Langdon, the - same - Harvard professor running around Paris in the Code. He is assisted - again - by a lovely lady, daughter - again - of the first murdered character - again - and very knowledgeable about her father's work (Vittoria here is some kind of particle physicist...)
• the plot deals with an -again- obscure brotherhood from medieval times (the Illuminati - traces all over the web...), trying to destroy the Vatican -again-; followers of the brotherhood are very well connected (read infiltrated into the upper ranks of society), with links to the Masons, and almost brain-washed followers. Both brotherhoods use expert killers, and descriptions of both brotherhoods are said to be factual in the preface.
• Langdon is woken up in the middle on the night -again- and is supposed to follow a plot, and like in a mistery trail -again-, follows hints found in art; each new discovery leads to the next (here it starts somehow at the Vatican Archives)
• murders are committed with a complex symbological set up
• etc. I'll update this post when I finish the book, but coincidences are all over

And if you are into conspiracy theories, a very similar story can be found in the cartoon series "Le Triangle Secret" (8 volumes). Another very disturbing book is close to the plot in this story: 'In God's Name: An Investigation into the Murder of Pope John Paul I' - many unswered questions and details with a background of conspiracy by Banco Ambrosiano, Masonic Lodge P2, Opus Dei, etc...

I am sure these stories are going to make great action/suspense fiction films. I understand from the web that the Da Vinci Code is already being planned; the books have a fantastic kind of ambiance, such as those found in the great 'Silence of the Lambs' or the less good but still interesting 'Seven'.

Has anyone read both books ?
Don't get me wrong. Even this one is VERY entertaining (give it a try Pascal !)...