brain tags Je Maintiendrai

Signed comments

Sometimes I post comments on my own pages, usually in reaction to other comments. I usually use only my first name ‘Jeroen’ to post these comments, but everybody is free to use any name he/she wishes, including my first name. After all, I am not the only Jeroen in the world.

But how do you know that it was really me who posted the comment? From now on all my comments are PGP signed, so you can verify them with my public key. This way you know for sure that the poster of the message is the same guy as the one who created this site.

Of course you are free to sign your own comments as well.

Quote of the day

Maybe I am convinced

CeBIT 2004 Recap

Now that I am back home again and took some time to catch some sleep, it’s time to tell about the CeBIT experience. It was my first time at the biggest technology fair in the world, and the first time ICG was present with their own stand. Therefore I did not really know what to expect. I assumed to see many new things, but not in the area where we have our stand. The POS world is a niche market after all.

Since we never did this before, we did not spend huge amounts of money on the stand. We simply ordered a basic stand and transported all other materials ourselves. That meant that we spent two days on the autoroutes and autobahn and one day constructing the stand. As a result, we were already tired before the show started, and looked very jealously at all consultants freshly arriving at the Microsoft stand and finding their cup of coffee already prepared.

Like I already said, our stand was situated in a specialized POS corner, so the big public did probably not pass our stand. However, the people walking around in that particular section were exactly the people we wanted to talk to. We made many good contacts, and we have very good hopes on a good number of dealer wanting to distribute our software.

What surprised us was the change in visitor types by day. On the first two days (Thursday and Friday), the audience was very international. We attended people from all over the world, but did not see many Germans. In the weekend, many students and families visited the show, which did not bring us many contacts. Monday and Tuesday suddenly the Germans and Dutch showed up, while the foreigners seemed to have gone home. On Wednesday the only visitors to the show were some teenagers begging for goodies, so it was very quiet. This made the Wednesday a perfect day to visit other exhibitors, and they also visited us.

What I really missed at the CeBIT was the new technology buzz. I did not notice any excitement, did not see a single new gadget. It was even very difficult to get internet access. I expected it to be a lot more on the forefront of technology.

CeBIT, here I come

The last week we have worked very hard. Not only to prepare for the CeBIT, but also to do our regular work and the work that we normally should have done the next two weeks.

Now, we’re almost there. Tomorrow we will load the truck with all material for the stand, and Monday morning we will drive to Germany. After two days of travelling we’ll have a day to construct everything and then… let the show begin! I don’t know what exactly we can expect but I am convinced that the show will be a big success for our company.

I will tell you more in two weeks, when I’m back.

Birthday

Just a small message to give you the possibility to congratulate me. ;-)

Black

Out of respect for the victims and out of protest towards terrorism, today I put my site on black.

What happened this morning in Madrid is inhuman and cannot be justified. I can only guess for the reasons behind this horrible deed, but know that whatever they were trying to reach is not going to happen, in contrary.

If they wanted to put political parties up against each other, they failed, since all parties now form one front against terrorism. If they wanted to show their strength, they will fail, since the government (whoever will win the elections the coming weekend) will be very convinced in finding the people behind this attack.

I cincerely hope that the Spanish government does the right thing as a reaction to the events today, without limiting the rights of the Spanish inhabitants.