By STEVE LOHR

A TOUR of its carefully tended, 300-acre corporate campus here leaves little doubt why surveys, year after year, rate the SAS Institute, the world’s largest private software company, among the best places to work.

There is the subsidized day care and preschool. There are the four company doctors and the dozen nurses who provide free primary care. The recreational amenities include basketball and racquetball courts, a swimming pool, exercise rooms and 40 miles of running and biking trails. There is a meditation garden, as well as on-site haircuts, manicures, and jewelry repair. Employees are encouraged to work 35-hour weeks.

Academics have studied the company’s benefit-enhanced corporate culture as a model for nurturing creativity and loyalty among engineers and other workers. Six years ago, in a report on “60 Minutes,” Morley Safer called working at SAS “the good life.”

But that good life is under threat today as never before. SAS’s specialty, a lucrative niche called business intelligence software, is becoming mainstream. Free, open-source alternatives to some of the company’s products are increasingly popular. On the other end of the spectrum, the heavyweights of the software industry — Oracle, SAP, Microsoft and, especially, I.B.M. — are plunging in and investing billions of dollars.

“It will be a dogfight,” says Bill Hostmann, an analyst at Gartner. “SAS has never faced a competitor like I.B.M. And I do think I.B.M. sees SAS as a big, fatted cow.”

The term “business intelligence software” applies to a wide range of products and services, but all the technology is aimed at helping businesses mine nuggets of insight from mountains of data. SAS has traditionally specialized in advanced software to analyze huge data sets and to generate predictive statistical models for large corporations and government agencies.

Credit card companies, for example, use SAS to detect unusual buying patterns in real time, and to spot potentially fraudulent charges. Giant retail chains use SAS to tailor pricing and product offerings down to the store level. Telecommunications companies use SAS to identify the few thousand customers, among millions, most likely to switch to another cellphone carrier, and to aim marketing at them. SAS software is also used to parse sensor signals from North Sea oil rigs, combined with weather and structural data, to predict failure of parts before it happens. Of the 100 largest companies worldwide, 92 use SAS software.

But as the stream of companies’ collected data turns into a torrent, SAS and other software companies are trying to find new ways to harness it. The information is generated not only by computerized systems for tracking operations, customers and sales. It also comes from new data sources like Web site visits, social network chatter and public records accessible over the Internet, as well as genome sequences, sensor signals and surveillance tapes, all in digital form.

This data explosion, experts say, is an untapped asset at most companies, which lack the tools and skills to exploit it. Yet the long-range potential, they say, is to use this data for far more fine-grained analysis of markets, customer behavior and operations, making business more of a science and less a seat-of-the-pants art.

“Now, the data is available so business can move toward evidence-based decision-making,” says Erik Brynjolfsson, an economist and director of the Center for Digital Business at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. “This market is a huge opportunity.”

That opportunity is not lost on SAS. “Our advantage is the incredible depth of our technology, developed over years and applied to specific industries,” says James H. Goodnight, the chief executive and a co-founder of SAS. “No one can match our toolbox.”

Indeed, no one underestimates SAS’s technical prowess. The big question is whether the company’s seemingly pampered culture can embrace the higher-octane institutional metabolism that it will need to succeed.

“We know we have to change — no question about it,” says Jim Davis, 51, a senior vice president at SAS. “Our market space has changed dramatically in the last 18 months or so, more than at any time over the 33-year history of the company. We can’t sit back. Things are only going to get faster.”

THE company traces its roots to a time when computing was costly and for the few. Originally called Statistical Analysis System, it was founded in 1976 by Mr. Goodnight and three colleagues from the agricultural statistics department at North Carolina State University. Its techniques were initially used to calculate the intricacies of soil, weather, seed varieties and other factors to improve crop yields.

To build an audience, Mr. Goodnight spent nights packing up boxes of computer tapes and manuals, which he sent to university and corporate researchers. Soon, companies wanted him and his academic colleagues to develop software tools tailored for industry. In 1976 at a users’ conference, 300 or so people showed up, many from business.

“That was pretty much an ‘aha’ moment for us, that it was time to expand beyond the university,” Mr. Goodnight recalls. “It was a little scary, cutting the academic umbilical cord. But I was convinced we could do it.”

He and his colleagues at SAS developed their own programming language and software tools, and designed them for eggheads like themselves. Users were analysts with Ph.D.’s, working with programmers and employed by the largest companies at the forefront of using computing in their businesses, including banks, national retailers, insurers and drug companies.

SAS invested heavily in research and development, and even today allocates 22 percent of the company’s revenue to research. The formula has paid off in steady growth, year after year. Revenue reached $2.26 billion in 2008, up from $1.34 billion five years earlier.

Yet the company also faces the classic challenge of being the innovative pioneer — enjoying rich profit margins but facing new competition from rivals seeking to gain market share with lower prices and substitute technology.

In the last two years, the major software companies have scooped up companies in the business intelligence market. Among the larger moves, SAP bought Business Objects for $6.8 billion, I.B.M. bought Cognos for $4.9 billion and Oracle picked up Hyperion for $3.3 billion.

Still, those companies compete in the broad swath of the business intelligence market for reporting and analysis products. Such data on sales, shipments, customers and operations amount to a numbers-laden portrait of the recent past. The SAS stronghold is a more sophisticated kind of software typically called “advanced analytics and predictive modeling,” which uses historical and current data to try to peer into the future and model likely outcomes.

The competitive thrust that really grabbed SAS’s attention came in late July, when I.B.M. announced that it planned to pay $1.2 billion for SPSS, a maker of predictive modeling software. I.B.M. has placed SPSS and Cognos into a new business analytics and optimization group. That business will be supported by 200 scientists, and the company has said it will retrain or hire 4,000 consultants and analysts to work in the group.

“This is the big growth strategy for I.B.M., the company’s next big play for this decade,” says Ambuj Goyal, a computer scientist who is general manager of I.B.M’s business analytics software unit. “SAS comes from the legacy world of statisticians and programmers. The real opportunity is in deploying this technology broadly in corporations.”

To counter I.B.M. and others, SAS is looking to forge a tighter relationship with a big technology services company. It is also shortening product development cycles to 12 to 18 months, down from 24 to 36. “That’s what the market expects,” Mr. Davis says.

The most sweeping change is the company’s move toward the Internet model of software delivery — as a service that customers tap into over the Web, much as Google and other Internet companies do. SAS has dipped its toe in, with some initial products. But a major expansion is planned, supported by a sprawling $70 million data center scheduled to begin operating next year.

The remotely delivered software is part of a drive to broaden the market for SAS technology beyond an elite corps of quantitative analysts and into the rank-and-file of corporate professionals.

Analysts say the company’s strategy looks sound, even if the outcome is uncertain. “SAS has to do a lot of things right to succeed,” says Peter Sondergaard, senior vice president of research for Gartner. “But if it executes correctly, it could be a winner.”

ACROSS its campus here, there are signs that the SAS culture is evolving with the times. Rick Langston, 54, a senior software manager who joined the company 29 years ago, smiles and shrugs when asked about the 35-hour workweek. After leaving the office, Mr. Langston routinely checks on work e-mail at home.

These days, he explains, SAS is a global company with far-flung project teams, and overnight e-mails can resolve problems and speed things along. Deadline work to meet product development schedules, he adds, can mean long hours at times. “But this is certainly not a place where you are working 60-hour weeks, week in and week out,” he said.

To be sure, the corporate cocoon in Cary can breed insularity. SAS, for example, was slow to recognize the brewing challenge from free, open-source alternatives to some of its products. A free programming language and set of software tools for statistical computing, called R, has become increasingly popular at universities and labs.

The company shifted course earlier this year and modified its software so programs written with R work seamlessly with SAS technology. “Shame on us for not engaging more with the open-source community,” says Keith Collins, senior vice president and chief technology officer. “But we’re committed to doing that now.”

THE architect of the SAS culture is Mr. Goodnight, a lanky, laconic billionaire. The benefits have built up gradually over the years as a series of pragmatic steps, he says. The day-care program began after a valued employee was about to leave to take care of her young child. The on-site medical checkups grow out of the belief that “good health is good business,” he says.

Today, SAS estimates that its health care center saves the company $5 million a year, by providing care more cheaply than an outside insurer and by not having employees leave the campus for doctor’s visits. Employee turnover at SAS averages 4 percent a year, versus about 20 percent for the overall software industry.

The office atmosphere is sedate. There are no dogs roaming the halls, no Nerf-ball fights, no one jumping on trampolines — no whiff of Silicon Valley. The SAS culture is engineered for its own logic: to reduce distractions and stress, and thus foster creativity.

“The SAS model is sensible and durable; there’s nothing faddish or ephemeral,” says Richard Florida, a professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, who has studied SAS and is the author of “The Rise of the Creative Class.”

During the technology boom at the start of this decade, SAS considered a drastic change in its model: going public. Goldman Sachs bankers were brought in as advisers, and in 2000 SAS recruited a former Oracle executive, Andre Boisvert, as its president.

Under Mr. Boisvert, SAS installed a new financial reporting system and paid the sales force incentive commissions rather than salary only. But when technology stocks plummeted, the appeal of selling shares to the public also receded. Mr. Boisvert resigned from SAS in 2001 and is now an independent investor and consultant.

Mr. Goodnight recalls those days as a brief period of New Economy surrealism, and going public as a path wisely avoided. SAS, he says, is a culture averse to the short-term pressures of Wall Street, which he characterizes as “a bunch of 28-year-olds, hunched over spreadsheets, trying to tell you how to run your business.”

Unlike many other tech companies, SAS has had no recession-related layoffs this year. “I’ve got a two-year pipeline of projects in R & D,” Mr. Goodnight says. “Why would I lay anyone off?”

Mr. Goodnight, though 66, has no plans to retire himself. His fingerprints, colleagues say, remain all over the business, especially in meeting with customers and in overseeing research.

He is not only a statistician, but also a bit of gambler who enjoys calculating his chances. For example, he is co-author of a paper that simulated millions of possible outcomes in blackjack.

Mr. Goodnight regards his new rivals the way a confident card player might. He likes the odds, and he likes his hand.

“We’re pushing as fast as we can to stay ahead — on the cutting edge of everything,” he says. “We’ll do fine.”

Dual (Hyperion) pronta a crescere in Italia per prepararsi all’ipo – MERCATI GLOBALI – Milano Finanza Interactive Edition

Dual (Hyperion) pronta a crescere in Italia per prepararsi all’ipo MERCATI GLOBALI

Lo sbarco di Hyperion in Italia è avvenuto nel 2000, con l’inaugurazione della controllata Dual Italia, società di sottoscrizione specializzata nelle polizze D&O e di responsabilità civile per i liberi professionisti e dei dipendenti della pubblica amministrazione.

Costo Punti per Abbonati: 0 – Costo Punti per Registrati: 2

Fonte:
http://www.milanofinanza.it/giornali/dettaglio_giornali.asp?id=1631811&codiciTestate=7

(click to enlarge)

Titan and Hyperion

Giant, haze-covered Titan sits in front of  craggy, potato-shaped Hyperion in this image from Cassini, taken on November 13.

These two vastly different moons occupy neighboring orbits and thus affect each other’s travels around Saturn…although Titan obviously takes the lead in this dance. 168-mile-wide Hyperion is forced to speed up and slow down as it passes Titan. It’s also prevented from being tidally-locked to its Saturn by the influence of its larger neighbor, and therefore exhibits an irregular, tumbling rotation through space.

The two moons are over 160,000 miles apart, even at their closest passing.

UPDATE: Below is an animation of the two moons passing, made from 19 raw images level-adjusted and rotated 90º.

Hyperion passes behind Titan: click to play

Image: NASA/JPL/SSI. Animation: J. Major.

2928 Avenel Terrace #5, Los Angeles, CA 90039
Spacious (1591 square feet!) town house in a great small complex. End-unit Tri level with 3 bedrooms and 3 baths. Large rooms. Direct access 2 car garage and 2 balconies for relaxing. New copper plumbing. Complex is recently re-landscaped and is beautiful. HOA includes water and trash. This is a regular sale. At a great location in Silver Lake.

Alternative Rock

Sky Swallows Challenger

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• An înfiinţare: 1995 (sub numele Hyperion)
• Localitate: Sighetul Marmaţiei

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Websait: www.skyswallowschallenger.com

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Sky Swallows Challenger este proiectul derivat din trupa Halat Alb. Rădăcinile trupei datează din 1995; atunci au început să-şi exprime experienţele de viaţă prin “doamna muzică”, sub numele Hyperion o formaţie de liceu din Sighetul Marmaţiei.

In ciuda modificărilor de nume sau de alte feluri, componenţa trupei se menţine şi astăzi aceeaşi.

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Noul EP este înregistrat şi mixat în Studioul Denever din Ungaria.

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Festivaluri. NOMFest, CokeLive, EastWestFest, Antidepressive Tour.

Oraşe. Cluj-Napoca, Bucureşti, Braşov, Baia-Mare, Satu-Mare, Sighetul Marmaţiei.

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Componenţa

• Emeric Balogh (bass, versuri)
• Richard Keltonik (tobe, versuri)
• Radu Lazin (chitară, voce, versuri)

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Discografie

• Demo (3 piese, 2006)
• Endorphin (EP cu 3 piese, 2009)

Summary: James, one of Peter’s original Lost Boys, is now working for Scotland Yard and suspects that the heir to England’s throne, Prince Albert Edward, is under the influence of shadow creatures who are after starstuff hidden in an underground vault which has only one key: the Sword of Mercy. Molly is determined to help, but when she suddenly goes missing, it’s up to her eleven-year-old daughter, Wendy, to keep the starstuff out of the creatures’ clutches … and Peter Pan may be her only hope in saving the world from a shadowy doom.  515 p., Disney/Hyperion Books.

Find it at WCPL

I am wondering how many of you have watched the ABC show Castle on television?  Last season, Richard Castle and Detective Beckett has this uncanny spark between them, that spurred Richard penning his latest book based on Beckett, which is titled Heat Wave.  Somewhat based on the other characters as well, Richard spins a web of intrigue and suspense to keep you going, along with some steamy scenes that haven’t happened on the show.  So, without further ado, here is my review.

A New York well known real estate agent falls to his death in Manhattan.  A woman narrowly escapes an altercation with her lover on the street shortly after.  How are they connected?

There isn’t really a whole lot of space in New York especially downtown Manhattan, but with a record breaking heat wave and subsequent rolling blackouts hit, murders are happening, and they need to find out who is doing them, and the reason behind it.  Really, isn’t there always a reason behind it?

Detective Nikki Heat and her reporter/writer tag along Rook comb the city for clues in the unbearable heat and humidity along with other team members (who are just as zany as on the show) to hunt down the killer or killers before they strike again.

Then of course in the background is the relationship and chemistry of Nikki and Rook.  Between the show and the book, the romance isn’t as restrained in the book as it is in the show.

I liked the book, there was some cheesy moments, but it was a well constructed work of fiction.  Similar to the show workings, if you enjoy the show, then you will definitely like the book.

HarperCollins / Hyperion

ABC – The Show Castle

The newly discovered giant in Redwoods National Park in Humboldt County, California, stretches 379 feet toward the sky, almost six stories higher than the Statue of Liberty. Here’s a cool video of the naturalists who spotted, measured and climbed it.

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Ever wonder what it would be like to climb the tallest trees in the world. Botanist Steve Sillett takes you straight to the top.

Nu există iubire de creaţie fără suferinţă. Iubirea pe care o trăieşte personajul interpretat, dar şi iubirea pură pentru teatru, determină suferinţa adâncă a actorului-creator, aşa cum am văzut-o iradiind pe faţa Emei Done. Ea are vocaţia de a pune pe chipul de tragediană, ca pe acela al unei statui modelată de un sculptor de geniu, o furtună de sentimente…

(Decupaj dintr-o fotografie publicată de ziarista Carmen Moraru pe blog)

De cum am văzut pantomima Drama Club, Statuile, mi-a revenit în minte o melodie a lui Alifantis, Dacă tu ai dispărea. M-au fascinat întotdeauna versurile cântecului, îmi era cât se poate de clar că sunt ale unui poet mare, însă tocmai de aceea eram încredinţat că nu sunt scrise de… Adrian Păunescu… Am vrut să fac o trimitere cât se poate de firească, în articolele anterioare referitoare de pantomima Drama Club şi astfel, căutând versurile într-o bibliotecă virtuală am dat, de necrezut pentru mine, peste:    

Adrian Păunescu – Dacă tu ai dispărea

Dacă tu ai dispărea
Într-o noapte oarecare
Dulcea mea, amara mea
Aş pleca nebun pe mare.

Cu un sac întreg de lut
Şi-o spinare de nuiele
Să te fac de la-nceput
Cu puterea mîinii mele.

Lucru lung şi monoton
Să te înviez, femeie,
Eu, bolnav Hyperion
Hai şi umblă, Galatee !

Dacă tu ai dispărea
Fi-ţi-ar moartea numai viaţă
Dulcea mea, amara mea
Aş pleca în ţări de gheaţă.

Să te fac din ţurţuri reci
Să te-mbrac în promoroacă
Şi apoi să poţi să pleci
Orişiunde o să-ţi placă…

De-ai cădea într-adevăr
În momentul marii frîngeri
Aş veni la tine-n cer
Să te recompun din îngeri.

Şi pe urmă aş pleca
Umilit şi iluzoriu
Unde este casa mea
O mansardă-n purgatoriu.

Dacă tu ai dispărea
Şi din rîsu-mi şi din plînsu-mi
Te-aş găsi în sinea mea
Te-aş zidi din mine însumi !

În versiunea cântată de Nicu Alifantis, poate şi din raţiuni de ritm muzical, creatorul este sculptorul mitic Pygmalion. Dar şi trimiterea poetică la Hyperion, în a treia strofă a poeziei, e cât se poate de motivată… Pentru poezia asta şi alte câteva, omului (cu toate demnităţile sale) Adrian Păunescu i se pot ierta toate, pus în ordinea creaţiei şi nu a mundanului. Cu doar câteva versuri şi nu cu excesiva Cartea cărţilor de poezie (1999), autorul şi-a dăltuit – spre a rămâne în termeni sculpturali – locul în literatura română. Poezia are această calitate subtilă de a fi perceptibilă în dozaje fine, e energie fără masă, nu are nimic de a face cu densitatea brută a cărămizii, fie ea şi de hârtie…

Over thousands of years, the remains of plants (and animals) that never fully decomposed have become part of the frozen soil in Alaska, Canada, northern Europe, and Russia. Scientists estimate that these frozen landscapes store twice as much carbon as is found in the atmosphere.  As permafrost melts releases carbon dioxide  which are going accelerate global warming in the coming century, but increased photosynthesis by tundra plants will help to lessen the impact for a time.

Methane clathrates are also known to be present on the seabed usually at depths of 200 metres to 400 metres. There is an increasing interest the last few years of clathrates as an energy source. But if methane started leaking, it could exacerbate global warming because it is 20 times more powerful at warming the air than carbon dioxide. The great worry though is that as gas is extracted its pressure will break up neighbouring clathrate crystals and there will be an uncontrollable chain reaction or “methane burp” which could trigger landslips, undersea eruptions and even tsunamis. It occurred 251 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period, when a series of methane burps came close to wiping out all life on Earth.

Back to how plant productivity is changing as permafrost thaws. NASA-funded scientists are using hyperspectral satellite images to map the extent of different plant communities in the northernmost part of the United States. This pair of images from the Hyperion sensor on NASA’s EO-1 satellite shows the lake-dotted tundra around Barrow, Alaska. The site is part of the Barrow Environmental Observatory, a large tract of Iñupiat tribal land dedicated to scientific research into Arctic climate and ecosystem change.

Image acquired July 20, 2009. False Colour

The top image ( in false colour) uses light in wavelengths that people can’t even see to distinguish landscape features that the eye couldn’t tell apart in photo-like imagery and photo-like natural colour. It uses shortwave-infrared light in place of red, near-infrared in place of green, and red light in place of blue. Water is dark blue, and undeveloped land areas range from bright green to dull orange to yellow. The natural-color digital image is made from a combination of red, green, and blue light.

Image acquired July 20, 2009. Natural colour

According to Fred Huemmrich, from the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, these colours reflect unique habitats and plant communities that are largely influenced by the amount of available water. The leafiest, most productive vegetation in the area appears bright green. The orange areas are slightly drier and would be favoured by mosses and some sedges. The yellow areas are the driest habitats, and would contain plants like heath along with lichens.

The lakes in this area are known as thermokarst lakes. They form when summer melt water ponds up on the permanently frozen ground below. As permafrost thaws, the lakes sometimes drain out through cracks that develop. The warmer soil and the availability of water make these former lake beds oases for plants in the harsh Arctic climate, and Huemmrich has found that these are usually the most productive locations on the tundra.

Source: Earth Observatory, NASA

Vedere din parcul Herastrau

Iata ca ce a fost mai greu a trecut si zilele acestea implinesc o luna de cand sunt in Bucuresti. Deocamdata niciuna dintre previziunile sumbre ale unor persoane de acasa nu s-au indeplinit si pot spune cu mana pe inima ca imi chiar place. Ma distreaza la maxim cand vad faze de genul oameni care se inghesuie ca idiotii in autobuz iar dupa nici 1 minut vine acelasi numar si e gol. Nici macar oamenii, mai acrii de felul lor decat prin zona mea, nu pot sa spun ca ma deranjeaza. Te adaptezi situatiei si raspunzi cu aceeasi moneda. In aceasta luna de zile am fost in destul de multe locuri precum lansarea la cinema a “State de Romania”, videochat-ul apropo.ro cu Loredana din Brown Sugar, concertele Alexandra & Alec din DejaFu si Violeta’s VK sau ziua mea de nastere (fara vreo petrecere anume ci doar cateva cafelute prin oras cu oameni dragi precum Sorina, Alexandra Ivan & Alec Sandor, Ada Bogoevici sau Alex).

La inceputul lunii am dat si startul facultatii (Jurnalism- Hyperion) despre care, pana acum, am o parere foarte buna. Am un orar destul de lejer, ore interesante si colegi…. well inca nu ii cunosc prea bine ca sunt enorm de multi si eu stau destul de prost cu retinutul numelor and stuff dar am cativa cu care ma inteleg foarte bine (aici ma refer la Alex, Dia, Andrei sau Anca). Zilele trecute am aflat ca am castigat un CD Inna cu postul scris de mine ceva mai jos (Inna things) si nu pot sa spun decat ca ma bucur pentru ca asta inseamna ca am scris quite well articolul. Hai ca m-am lungit destul de mult si ne auzim cu un alt post mai “personal” peste o luna. Chiar acum ma mut intr-o noua locatie si apoi zbor spre Arad pentru o saptamana. Ne auzim cu bine!

Hyperion Report Developers  OPPORTUNITY
 
Client :insurance
 
lOC:Columbus,ohio
  Citizen status : Green card,US CITIZEN  ,EAD
duration : 4 months plus ongoing
 
Hyperion Report Developers for the purpose of Enterprise Report Standardization.
They will be doing development enhancement utilizing Hyperion Reports and Hyperion Analyzer.
Skill Sets: Proficient in Delevopment and Hyperion Analyzer tools. With full competency, devises or modifies procedures to solve complex problems considering computer equipment capacity and limitations, operating time, and form of desired results. Designs, codes, tests, debugs, and documents those programs. Competent to work at the highest technical level of all phases of applications programming activities. Behavior Characteristics: Six years of experience in programming and systems analysis. Project management experience is preferred. Hyperion Reports Hyperion
 
 
Thank you
Kris Erravelli
Technical Recruiter
Phone: 614-337-6528
email :kerravelli@ssicom.com
kris.erravelli@gmail.com
Sophisticated Systems Inc
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kriserravelli

Hi
Our client is a leading Financial Institution with offices in Singapore. Outstanding opportunities immediately exist for skilled Teradata Professionals to join their growing team.
Interested candidates, please send all the below mentioned details along with your updated resume at meenal71@gmail.com
1. Total IT Experience /Relevant Experience
2. Contact Number (A) Mobile: (B) Landline:
3. E-Mail:
4. Reasons to leave present employer
5. Current Company and Location
6. Current Salary
7. Expected Expected
8. Visa Status
9. Joining time if you do well in interview
10. Two Professional References (With Designation & Contact number)
11. Open for Contract opening – YES / NO

Would highly appreciate if you can provide some references or forward this mail to your known ones as we have immediate requirements in the sphere of Business Objects, PeopleSoft, Hyperion, SQL/ DB2 & Teradata.

Please mail the resumes at meenal71@gmail.com

Pour fignoler ma réputation de geek sur ce site, et pour prouver que je ne lis pas que des BDS, j’avais envie de vous parler d’un livre de science fiction. J’ai choisi mon préféré, tout simplement… J’ai appris au cours des dernières années que “Hypérion“, parut en 1989, gagnant du prix Hugo de la même année, est et reste un “must” dans le milieu (geek ?? ). Mais pour moi, c’est un livre que ma sœur a eu à Noël il y a une dizaine d’années et que j’ai subtilisé sans vergogne, pour une très bonne raison : j’avais plus rien à me mettre sous la dent (littéraire), et ce que je ramassais sur la moquette de ma grand sœur a toujours été un gage de bonne qualité. (“Les derniers hommes”, trouvés de la même manière, par exemple). Je ne l’ai pas regretté, et j’ai reçu un choc. Si j’ai lu ce livre pour de “mauvaises raisons”, je l’ai relu au cours des dix années qui ont suivi pour de très bonnes…

Hypérion, basiquement, c’est un ensemble de 4 volumes, divisés en 2 cycles. Dans la classification, c’est un livre de science-fiction “space-opera” paraît-il… Dans le monde de l’imaginaire,c’est une perle.

Le monde d’Hypérion se situe dans quelques milliers d’années. L’espèce humaine a émigré et colonisé l’Espace. Bien leur en a pris, la Terre, déjà mourante, a disparu (Zzzzoooup la Terre !) dans des conditions mystérieuses. Parmi les survivants, certains ont terraformé les planètes rencontrées pour les adapter à leurs besoins, ceux là sont les “humains”, (auto proclamés :p) regroupés dans une immense nation, “l’Hégémonie humaine”, les autres ont préféré s’adapter aux milieux rencontrés. Ceux là sont les Extros, et ont coupé les liens avec leurs frères “humains”. (Ou les humains ont coupé leurs liens avec eux, c’est selon…).

L’Hégémonie aux milles planètes et les Extros se livrent perpétuellement bataille, le plus souvent sur les mondes des confins, qui ne sont que des protectorats du “Retz” ( l’Hégémonie, ndlr, si vous suivez ). L’un de ces mondes est Hypérion, la planète des poètes, baptisée ainsi en l’honneur de John Keats, poète anglais du 19e siècle. Or, sur cette même planète, des artefacts inconnus, appelés les “Tombeaux du temps” viennent de s’ouvrir. Et de lâcher sur le monde un monstre meurtrier de ferraille, voir peut-être même un dieu vengeur: Le Shrike. Certains l’adulent, d’autres l’abhorrent mais tous en sont terrifiés.

Le peuple d’Hypérion, massacré par ce monstre et terrorisé par l’avance de la flotte Extros, veut fuir à tout prix. Seuls, 7 “humains” et un bébé voyagent à contre-courant. Ils sont venus sur Hypérion avec un seul but : régler leurs comptes avec le Shrike. 7 pèlerins, d’origines et motivations variées. On y dénombre un prêtre d’une religion presque oubliée, en proie à d’horribles souffrances. Un soldat, (colonel, même, et palestinien, si quelqu’un s’intéresse aux quotas), taciturne et pourchassant un fantôme. Un poète dément, âgé de plus de 400 ans, persuadé de voir dans le Shrike sa muse. Un érudit, juif errant, père aimant, désespéré, accompagné de sa fille, qui n’est plus qu’âgée que de quelques jours… (si, si cette phrase a un sens !). Une détective, suivant la piste du meurtre de son amant, John Keats (mort depuis des siècles ?), Un capitaine, dirigeant le vaisseau-arbre Yggdrasil, venant de ce monde où les plantes sont plus importantes que le reste. Un consul de l’hégémonie, fonctionnaire réservé, calme… et torturé. Selon la légende, 6 seront sacrifiés au monstre. Le 7e verra son vœu exaucé…

Parmi eux, un traître. Autour d’eux : désolation. Au cours du leur voyage, ils décident de se raconter leurs histoires. Leurs terribles et sublimes histoires. Trouveront-ils ce pour quoi ils sont venus ? Ont-ils seulement conscience qu’ils vont livrer un combat dont l’issue scellera leur sort, mais aussi celui de toute l’espèce humaine ?

Je n’en dirai pas plus ici, je ne vais pas vous briser le rêve, mais sachez que si vous vous lancez dans cette lecture, vous ne le regretterez pas. Ce que j’ai échoué à transmettre dans mon résumé, c’est la multitude de petits détails et précisions qui font que malgré (ou grâce, cela dépend) l’environnement ultra-technologique, de la présence d’IAs, de portails distrans (ah, l’attrait de la téléportation), de vaisseaux spatiaux, ce qui prend le pas ici, c’est l’humain et sa nature (bonne ou mauvaise), avec ses sentiments, émotions et sa rationalité. On se met à se sentir proche de ces héros, (ou gens ordinaires ?), et la lecture, agrémentée de philosophie, en devient un délice.

Si le premier récit, qui s’intéresse à la religion et à l’immortalité, est celui que j’aime le moins, les suivants ne font que s’améliorer (à mon goût !). Mes préférés étant celui du consul et celui de l’érudit, suivis de près par celui du soldat et la détective. (gnagnagna, je sais que pour la plupart de ceux que j’ai cités, il y a une grande et belle histoire d’amour à l’intérieur, mais on peut être geek et girly en même temps, naan ??). Bon, je vous rassure, ça ne parle pas que d’amour…il y a le sexe aussi. Euh, non, en fait, je voulais plutôt dire de la philosophie, de la spiritualité, de la poésie, de la douleur (ça, il me semble que l’auteur entretient une fascination sur le fonctionnement de la douleur) et de la magie avec des petites phrases qui restent très très longtemps en tête ensuite. (Et aussi une IA qui s’exprime en koans zen, ça vaut le détour…). (oui, bon, ok, pour ceux qui se posent la question, j’ai dit sexe car le récit du soldat restera sûrement un de mes “fantasmes de papier” pour encore longtemps !)

Après avoir dit tout ceci sur le premier tome, je ne m’attarderai pas sur les 3 autres, non pas parce qu’ils ne le méritent pas, mais surtout pour ne pas spoiler, et je sais que je ne résisterai pas à la tentation, car, finalement, je crois même que je préfère le 2e cycle au premier. (Celui-là même où j’ai appris ce qu’était l’expérience du chat de Shrödinger, mais c’est tellement mieux si on utilise un homme plutôt qu’un chat… dommage quand il s’agit du héros de l’histoire…). Je dirai juste que je n’ai jamais autant pleuré sur un livre que sur le 4e tome.

Petit update : j’ai appris en surfant à la recherche d’images qu’un film est en cours de préparation. Les allergiques à la lecture pourront donc quand même me donner un feed-back !

Précision : The Shrike (en VO) = le Gritche en français ! (le vilain petit gritchou !)

Allez, bonne lecture, see you later alligators !

Pour en savoir plus sur le monde d’Hypérion : wikipédia, toujours wikipédia !

Les 4 tomes :

- Hypérion

- La chute d’Hypérion

- Endymion

- l’éveil d’Endymion

Du même auteur :

Si le “space opera” ne vous tente pas :

Terreur : Roman glacial relatant la disparation d’une expédition polaire (basée sur des faits réels) en 1848. Ours polaire mutant, Esquimaude sorcière à la langue coupée, marins en proie au doute, au scorbut, aux mutineries et au cannibalisme, un melting-pot alléchant, non ?

Si vous voulez encore plus de science-fiction :

Ilium et son sequel Olympos : Fan de la guerre de Troie, de la mythologie grecque, de robots, de Shakespeare, de Proust, de libertinage, de mystères, d’insultes, de guerre, de gadgets, et de non-sens, ce roman est fait pour vous ! (oui, tout ça, et en plus, c’est également un chef-d’œuvre !)

OAUG Hyperion SIG to put on Regional “Solutions” Mini-conferences

First, let me address Collaborate 2010….

They say that Collaborate next year will have a smaller footprint, and focused on more QUALITY information than quantity.  Either way, we have seen a steady decline on the inclusion of Hyperion/Oracle EPM.

Hyperion session breakout at Collaborate:

2008

Total Presentations:  800

Total Hyperion Presentations: 90-100

Ratio:  12%

2009

Total Presentations:  600

Total Hyperion Presentations: 54

Ratio: 9%

2010

Total Presentations:  400

Total Hyperion Presentations: 25-30

Ratio:  7.5%

Why is this?  What’s going on?

Collaborate is a joint venture between OAUG, Quest, and IOUG, and needs to satisfy the needs of everyone.  As a result, it looks like Collaborate is targeting customers who own or are considering multiple products, such as E-Business, PeopleSoft, Oracle, JD Edwards, etc.  I believe the Hyperion presentations will be more focused on those clients that want to integrate or supplement their strategies and knowledge with Hyperion. Presentations will most likely be focused on best practices, 900 foot views, success stories, challenges, etc.

After the death of the Solutions Conference…. EPM users are caught up in the mix, trying to figure out which conference to attend to get the content they need.  They are finding that OpenWorld does not provide a lot of detailed information, Collaborate lacks a lot of the focus on Hyperion, and Kaleidoscope is too technical and IT focused.  So where do every day users, finance leaders, and accountants go to get the detailed Hyperion content they need?

The OAUG Hyperion/BI SIG have been working with Oracle for that last year to answer this question and has come up with a regional Solutions-like “road-show” concept that is getting a lot of attention.

This is in direct response to the desire to get detailed Hyperion/BI specific content in a down economy that may not allow for expensive long distance trips. So, in essence, the SIGs have brought the content to YOU!  The user cost will be low by having each conference supplemented with vendor sponsorship.

The Plan (for now)

• There will be 3-4 regional mini-conferences….the first one being targeted for the New York/New Jersey region end of February / early March.
• Each mini conference will be 2 full days
• There will be at least 5 concurrent tracks
• The focus will be on the Finance user, however IT will not be excluded
• CPE credits will be awarded where appropriate.

The locations have not been defined yet, nor have the details on sponsorship been released yet.  However those details, along with attendance pricing, call for papers process, etc should be released by the end of the year.

Stay tuned to this blog and the OAUG and SIG web sites for more information.

Thank you, sir! May I have another?

I have no idea how today’s post is going to be perceived because I’m just thinking out loud, and it’s really hard to gauge my mood.   For lack of a better phrase, I am emotionally numb.  I am a writer, which goes hand and hand with copious amounts of rejection.  In the beginning, you are genuinely hurt by it.  Then with each subsequent rejection it stings a little less.  I received word yesterday from my agent about another rejection from a major player.  This rather “mousy” company asked for a second look at the Takers, and for a second time they passed.

I should be upset, and trust me it wasn’t fun getting the email, but I was surprisingly detached from the bad news, and I’m trying to decide if that’s a good thing or a bad thing.  I spent most of last night wondering if I have very thick skin or an incredible ability to suppress disappointment.  Is it okay to not care if I’m rejected by the gatekeepers to the industry?

I’m in a position where I’ve gotten closer than I ever have before as far as breaking through to the major traditional publishers.   They are actually holding meetings about my books.  I’m told that I should find solace in that fact alone.  And the first time, I did.  The fourth and fifth time it happened it wasn’t quite as comforting.  It was confusing.  How can the book get so close with so many publishers only to be turned away at the last step?

I love my agent and this is no reflection on her.  Ultimately, I have to take blame for the reception my book has received by the people in the know.  The reception I’ve gotten from the readers has been the polar opposite and frankly, may be why the rejection by the mainstream publishers doesn’t bother me as much as it should.  And yet, it does add to the confusion.  How can it be so well liked by the people who buy books, but  so uniformly doubted by those in the industry?  What am I missing?  I know that publishing companies want more than manuscripts today.  They want books that come with a built in brand.  While I’m not a complete unknown author thanks to the POD world, I am a little-known author.  Through this blog and Twitter and Facebook, I am building a platform that I hope to use to change that, and maybe that’s the only thing missing from the equation.

This is not my first time at the rodeo.  I have 8 books and 12 screenplays under my belt.  I’ve been rejected for 20 years by producers and publishers.  I’ve gotten close on several occasions, but I’ve never been able to close the deal.  Each time it doesn’t happen, I care a little bit less.  The question is at what point does not caring translate into not trying.    That point is not in sight as of yet, but it’s only logical to assume that I will get there.

I’m not writing anything new here.  There are literally tens of thousands of writers, a lot of them more talented than me, who feel just as overlooked and unloved by the mainstream publishing companies.  We’re all fighting for a very small number of publishing slots.  What my fellow writers and I have to keep in mind is that the publishing industry makes the wrong decision 70% of the time.  Only 30% of books published in the mainstream world make back the advance money they pay the authors.   Yet another reason I don’t feel so bad for being passed over time and time again.

I guess what I’m saying is while I don’t like rejection, I don’t sweat it either.  Thanks in large part to many of you out there who have accepted the books as they are written.  To the mainstream publishing world, the longer you wait, the steeper the price is going to be because I am going to fail my way to the top.  Just saying.

There was a silence in heaven as the dragon joined battle with the Archangel Michael.

A voice was heard, thousand upon thousand-fold, saying:
Salvation, honor and virtue to almighty God. Alleluia.

–Benedictus antiphon at Lauds on Michaelmas Day

The Christian calendar marks this day as the Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels or, as it is commonly known, Michaelmas. I like Saint Michael, an archangel and a fierce figure. I hate what our pop culture as done with angels though, placing them somewhere between Smurfs and unicorns.

There's a unicorn grazing near here

The first words from angels whenever they appear in the Bible was almost always, “Fear not.” You wouldn’t be terrified by a doughy little baby with cotton wings, would you?

Michaelmas is an interesting feast day and here’s an excellent essay about it from the Lectionary page http://satucket.com/lectionary/Michael.htm

 For fans of choral music and Anglican liturgy there’s a superb recording on the Hyperion label called The Feast of Saint Michael and All Angels at Westminster Abbey. The recording takes the listener through a day of worship at the Abbey with music for Matins, the Eucharist and Evensong. Some highlights include Michael Tippett’s Plebs angelica, Richard Dering’s gorgeous Factum est silentium and the Sequence for  St. Michael by Herbert Howells.

A must-have

You can sample bits of it and read the liner notes at the Hyperion website http://www.hyperion-records.co.uk/

Speaking of angels, here’s Claudio Monteverdi’s Duo Seraphim from his Vespro della Beata Virgine 1610

Raphael's Saint Michael

by Riadh Zellagui

Je remercie touts les candidats pour votre intérêt et votre candidature. La période de soumission est maintenant clause.

Toutefois, n’hésitez pas à envoyer votre profil pour des ouvertures futures.

Nous recherchons pour un client du centre-ville de Montréal, un consultant expert EC-CS / SAP – FI pour un mandat 5 semaines.

Compétences, connaissances et expériences requises :

• SAP FI module EC-CS (Enterprise Controling – Consolidation)
• Connaissances de l’outil Interactive Excel
• Connaissance de l’anglais et du français (parlé et écrit)

Atout : Connaissance d’Hyperion HFM

Tâches :

• Créer de nouveaux niveaux hiérarchiques dans la structure existante
• Intégrer de nouvelles compagnies dans cette structure
• Compléter et optimiser les rapports ECCS-Interactive Excel
• Élaborer et participer aux tests et en faciliter avec les usagers
• Effectuer le transfert de connaissance et la formation à la fin du mandat

Merci d’envoyer votre CV en format Word par courriel avant jeudi le 1er octobre 2009;
Les entrevues des candidats retenus auront lieu du 5 au 7 octobre.
Pour plus d’informations, merci de me contacter.
S.V.P. Indiquer le taux horaire demandé avec la présentation du CV

Riadh Zellagui

Riadh.zellagui@gmail.com

Vara a trecut, poate mai repede decat ma asteptam. A fost una plina de evenimente dar totusi plictisitoare din punctul meu de vedere. Primele doua luni din vacanta am lucrat la casa cu ai mei, am carat saci de ciment, roabe de pamant, am daramat soba, am vopsit usi,pereti si geamuri … Am ales ca anul acesta sa stau acasa, sa nu merg nicaieri pentru ca pur si simplu nu aveam dispozitia necesara .

Pe la inceputul verii m-am capatat cu un pisoias de toata frumusetea, cu ochii albastri, jucaus si plin de viata. Din pacate viata lui n-a durat prea mult pentru ca prin septembrie, cand l-am dus la veterinar, am descoperit cu stupoare ca avea o problema cu ficatul ce nu putea fi remediata iar unica solutie era eutanasierea. Am simtit atunci cum imi da cineva cu o ranga-n cap. Mereu am avut aceasta bafta cu pisicile si de aceea m-am hotarat sa o las balta cu aceasta pasiune pentru ele…pentru ca nu mai vreau sa mai sufar ( din nou) …

Acum vine facultatea, o noua facultate… un alt drum pe care eu am vrut sa-l incep . Desi anul trecut eram student la chimie, am hotarat sa renunt la respectiva facultate din cauza cadrelor didactice si a atitudinii acestora. Intr-un an de zile au renuntat 100 de oameni si nimeni nu s-a sesizat… In fine, sa zicem ca a fost o experienta frumoasa pentru mine, m-am obisnuit cu sesiunea si de asemenea am adorat laboratoarele si experimentele si profesorii de laborator…in schimb pe cei de la curs…..e o alta povestioara

Jurnalism – Hyperion … am fost convins de o prietena sa merg la aceasta facultate….Ea mi-a recomandat-o ca fiind una foarte buna, cu profesori foarte ok si din ce am citit si pe site-ul lor oficial, totul pare cat se poate de bine  ( thanks again Cris :* ) . Abia astept sa incep noul an si deja mi-am cunoscut un viitor coleg  si anume Patrik . Pana aici totul este cat de poate de bine… mai am doar o singura buba cu care m-am confruntat si anul trecut … cazarea .. Sa vad o sa rezolv pe 29 septembrie.. Din pacate singura mea solutie pe care ma pot baza este caminul facultatii…pentru ca in rest nu am unde apela … Mi-am epuizat toate resursele

Ce mi s-a mai intamplat luna asta….Ah, da.. Mi s-a intamplat ceva ce nu credeam vreodata ca o sa se mai intample…Am reusit sa reiau legatura ( cat de cat) cu niste oameni care au avut un rol important in adolescenta mea, atat munca lor cat si atentia pe care mi-au dat-o au reusit sa faca din mine un om cu picioarele pe pamant, un om care stie sa diferentieze raul de bine, un om de care eu pot fi mandru .  Le multumesc inca odata pe aceasta cale pentru tot si sper ca totul sa fie bine de acum inainte .

Si ca sa inchei intr-o nota cat se poate de optimista, luna asta a fost ziua de nastere a celui mai bun prieten al meu, care a facut frumoasa varsta de 20 de ani …. He,he..ce mai trec anii . Curand fac si eu 21 … Am imbatranit si eu …

English Classical Violin Concertos
Elizabeth Wallfisch
The Parley Of Instruments
Peter Holman
(Hyperion)

Manchicourt: Sacred Music, Volume I
The Choir of the Church of the Advent
Edith Ho
(Arsis)

Mozart: Idomeneo
Croft, Fink, Im, Pendatchanska
Freiburger Barockorchester
René Jacobs
(Harmonia Mundi)

Schütz: Symphoniae Sacrae III
Cantus Cölln
Concerto Palatino
Konrad Junghänel
(Harmonia Mundi)

Vivaldi: Gloria
Sara Mingardo
Concerto Italiano
Rinaldo Alessandrini
(Naïve)

Recordings by Karl Richter and the Munich Bach Orchestra were the Bach recordings that I enjoyed the most in the 70s. I was even fortunate to hear Richter  perform some Handel organ concertos at a Mostly Mozart Festival concert back in the day when tickets to the Festival were affordable. Here’s some Richter:

With the Munich Bach Orchestra in a Handel Organ Concerto:

And now for something completely different. Not historically informed Arne, but when it’s the magnificent Sarah Connolly singing who cares?

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(Business Sprouts)