Category Archives: Work

All about my work at Vodafone, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Ok, so I got a Mac… :)

I received a new work-horse for my job some days ago, a MacBook Pro. It’s very nicely equipped, featuring the following items:

  • 2.5 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
  • 4GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM – 2x2GB RAM
  • 200GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
  • extra power supply
  • AppleCare Protection Plan

The whole package cost almost EUR 2.900. 🙂

What I found strange is that the MacBook came preinstalled with 2 RAM sticks of 1G each, which I had to remove and replace with 2 sticks of 2G each, “Kingston” brand. I don’t know whether this is Apple’s official policy, or whether it was our local dealer who wanted to earn some extra bucks. 😉 Anyway, I now have two spare 1G sticks which I will put into the old Dell D810.

The MacBook already has the new multi-touch trackpad, but it hasn’t got the fastest CPU available today, which is the 2.6 GHz model. I don’t think it makes that big of a difference, tho. 🙂

I’ve already installed a lot of applications I need, and so far I like the Mac very much, altho I must admit that it’s quite different than a Windoze PC which I have been using for the last 20 years. 🙂

Debian distro upgrade to Etch

A few days ago I upgraded my personal Debian server in the office from Sarge to Etch, considering that it’s only approximately two weeks until Etch will be officially released, and I wanted to be prepared for what’s to come when I upgrade other (important!) boxes to Etch.

As always I was amazed about how smoothly the upgrade went. I used

apt-get dist-upgrade

to upgrade the box. APT downloaded about 300 packages, if I remember correctly. In the configuration phase that occurred afterwards, it asked me the usual couple of questions about some of the packages in case the existing configuration files didn’t contain all the necessary settings, or in case I had changed config files for which a new version is available in Etch.

Continue reading Debian distro upgrade to Etch

How to convert a techie into a marketing guy… ;-)

We had an all-hands meeting yesterday where our CTO announced another re-org. From April, 1st on (and that’s no April fool’s joke!) our department will be relocated from our company’s technology branch to the marketing branch.

At first this sounded strange, but on second thought this might even be quite a clever move and also of benefit to both the marketing guys and us.

Continue reading How to convert a techie into a marketing guy… 😉

Eindrücke einer Dienstreise

Zweck meiner bzw. unserer (ich bin mit zwei Kollegen geflogen, ein weiterer kam am Dienstag vormittag nach) Reise nach England war die Teilnahme an Projektmeetings zu einem Prototypen für einen kommenden Dienst im Web- und WAP-Umfeld, welchen wir für Vodafone UK entwickeln. Mehr kann ich an dieser Stelle natürlich nicht erzählen. Vielleicht gibt’s ein bißchen mehr, wenn der Prototyp in Form eines Piloten live geht… 🙂

Continue reading Eindrücke einer Dienstreise

Die Engländer sind auch nicht besser… ;-)

Am Dienstag Abend bin ich von meiner Dienstreise zu unserem Corporate Headquarters in Newbury zurückgeflogen.

Und wie zur Bestätigung, daß die Engländer uns Deutschen in Sachen Bürokratie nicht nachstehen, habe ich dann auch in Heathrow ein “What the f…?!” erlebt. Natürlich wieder bei der Sicherheitskontrolle… 😉

Continue reading Die Engländer sind auch nicht besser… 😉

Deutsche “Gründlichkeit”?!

Eben bin ich auf dem Flughafen Düsseldorf angekommen und hatte direkt schon das erste “What the f…?!”-Erlebnis…

Da ich einen Flug nach Großbritannien antreten würde, habe ich mich schon auf strenge Sicherheitskontrollen eingestellt. Aber daß die Vorschriften oder die sie auslegenden Menschen dermaßen kleinkariert sein würden, hätte ich dann doch nicht gedacht…

Continue reading Deutsche “Gründlichkeit”?!

Farewell party

Today, I gave a farewell party for my colleagues at D2. Mona spent 9(!) hours in the kitchen, baking party snacks and cake for me.

To make a long story short, the party was a great success. Everyone praised the snacks, and they all agreed this was one of the best farewell parties they have ever been invited to. What made me a lil’ bit proud is that even my heads of group and department took themselves the time to attend.

I’ve made some photos to document Mona’s great work. You will find them in a few days in my gallery.

Mongolian BBQ…

Have you ever had a BBQ? I bet you have.

But have you ever had a Mongolian one??? I bet you haven’t. 🙂

I’ve been to Mongo’S Restaurant yesterday with my colleagues from our integration team. We had a great evening, and the dinner was excellent.

So what’s so special about a Mongolian BBQ? First, you choose one of 8 marinades. You then choose among a great variety of veggies, fixings, meat, and fish, and put it all into a bowl. You then hand the bowl to the cook. Everything gets roasted on a hot stone plate. The waiter then brings your bowl back to your table. And then it’s your turn: Eat it all up! 🙂

They have some quite unusual sorts of meat and fish there. Among others, I had kangaroo and zebra filet, tilapia (some sort of perch,) and surimi. I’ve never tasted these before, but I liked everything I tasted apart from zebra, which I found to be very stringy.

Overall, I can absolutely recommend this restaurant.

Wind of change…

Ok, I promised you some weeks ago that I will tell you about a substantial change in my life with regard to my job.

I will change jobs and switch from Vodafone D2 GmbH to a group company, namely to Vodafone Deutschland GmbH, our “Global Services Platform (GSP).” The change will take place effective September 1st.

The reason for this quick change is that I have a two-year limited employment contract at D2, and that more than 12 months had already run out. So I applied internally as well as externally. In the end, I had three offers, two internal ones plus one external one. For reasons I won’t explain at this place, I chose the one at GSP.

Again I will work in the field of software integration, but this time I will be employed as a “specialist,” and I will have much more responsibility than in my current job. Our work language is English, which I see as a great opportunity to improve my spoken language. And from time to time, I will have the change to visit our OpCos thruout the world, such as in Milano (I), London (UK), or in Tokyo (JP).

Altho I really enjoyed the time at D2, I look forward to getting started in the new job.

Stay tuned for further news!

Aleae iacta sunt…

I might soon face a severe change regarding my job. At this time I can’t tell you more, but hold on for a few days, and you will get more concrete info at this place. It all has to do with a phone call I received last Thursday… 🙂