Close to the end of the season we had some big event where all of the groups got together, all the weekend groups and all of the racing groups. Andrees son Michael there with some group of racing kids, most of whom were a bit older than the group I was teaching. Britt was hanging around there somewhere too, but I think she was already on a development team by that point so she was really just helping her mom out. For one reason or another all of my kids left early that day (it was a beautiful March day) and one of the coaches with the racing groups had to leave. That coach asked me if I’d ski down to the village with his group then let them go off on their own. I was about to head down for the day so that was fine with me. Michael happened to be in that group of kids.

Once we got started going down the hill I was flying down the hill, enjoying being able to ski fast and not worry about whether the kids I was leading could keep up or not. I thought I was keeping ahead of them no problem until I looked back over my shoulder to make sure they were all still there only to see Michael right on my heels and a look on his face of “Why the hell did we get stuck with the slow guy?”. I did everything I could to ski the fastest I possibly could, but I definitely couldn’t outrun any of those barely-teenage-kids. I like to think I did pretty good, but when I was skiing flat out I was barely keeping up with them! I won’t even get into how tough it was to keep up to Britt and her mom skiing out one day.

Now that both of them have been on the national team for years and Britt just came 6th in the 2010 Olympic downhill race I think my ego can bounce back from barely being able to keep up with them ;)

• Take the 40 minute drive to Chamonix and take the cable car to the top of the Aiguille du Midi, the view is absolutely incredible. If you’re a skier take some extra time and go skiing there
• Check out the many Swiss watch makers, most of them are based in Geneva and their watches truely are like works of art
  • Patek Philippe (My favourite watch maker, they also invented the wrist watch): www.patek.com/
  • Piaget (lots of flash and jewels): http://www.piaget.com/
  • Bucherer (they are not a watchmaker really, they sell many different brands/models and if you would like to compare different companies side by side this is a great place to do it: www.bucherer.com/
  • There are others (Audemars Piguet, Chopard, Girard-Perregaux, Breitling, Rolex), but Patek and Piaget are a good example of the pinnacle of watch making (although for very different reasons; Patek is the best in the business when it comes to the movement and it’s complexity while Piaget is all about the bling).
•  If you are into watches, or you get into watches after looking at some of the crazily expensive ones available from the Swiss watchmakers then check out the Patek Philippe Museum: http://www.patekmuseum.com/
• The European headquarters of the UN
• The WTO is also in Geneva, not sure if you can get in to check it out or not
• If you like chocolate as much as I do (and that is a lot!) then definitely check out this chocolate shop: www.chocolat-auer.ch/en/chocolate_factory.html
• Geneva is the home of Davidoff Cigars, anyone who likes cigars even a little bit should drop by their Geneva store. It’s not a big store, but it’s where Zino’s first shop was (and his father before him, but Zino is the one who really got them into cigars): www.davidoff.com/davidoff/

While you are there take taxi’s to get around, don’t bother renting a car. Parking in Geneva is totally brutal, especially during the workday. If you do rent a car, don’t take the car out for lunch or you might find yourself sitting in a long line waiting to get a parking spot again after lunch.

The old part of Geneva is a beautiful thing to see and shouldnt be missed. There is a train-like tour through the city that starts downtown near the main shopping area and takes you through the old part of town and past an incredibly beautiful church. If you’re like me and you love to see the old architecture of European buildings then take the tour, it doesnt take too long and is well worth it just for some of the views. Don’t forget to check out the Jet D’Eau, although that only takes a minute and you can do it from anywhere in downtown Geneva. Not the most exciting thing, but it’s cool to see (giant jet of water shooting out of the lake). Also there is a great little coffee shop type thing in a park right in the middle of the river just a little west of downtown. I have no idea what it’s called and can’t give you any directions so if that makes any sense to you or someone you’re with can decipher that then go check it out, it is a very quiet and relaxing spot in Geneva, although it might be a little too cool there now to sit out and enjoy. I believe that it’s just west of the Place D I’Ile in this map.

That is what I can think of quickly off the top of my head (with some quick searches for the links), anyone else have things they love to see/do in Geneva?

This caught be a bit by surprise and when I went looking for a button to change the language to English I couldn’t find one. I was using Firefox at the time and was getting the Google Firefox page, when bringing Google up in IE7 it does give a link to change the language which is good.

So this isnt really that important, but it was a minor little annoyance when I first saw it. If I lived here in Geneva (mostly French) and got the German page by default I might even be a bit put off, even though most of Switzerland speaks German primarily.

Phil

http://support.microsoft.com/Default.aspx?id=320220

That KB article contains the specifics on support for Exchange as there are a few pre-requisites that need to be met.

Personally I understand their need to move to DVD (for the additional space), but there are a very large number of servers around that do not have DVD drives and still have CDROM’s. Kudo’s to the Exchange team for bringing this out in the open very early (a year in advance) to give people some time to handle this and to also keep this in mind if they are purchasing Exchange hardware in the next year.

Good stuff; great use of the blog.

Phil

I’ll update this post when I hear more news, but right now CBC and CNN are just showing live pictures of the plane burning and haven’t been able to give any more information aside from the quick bit that I just wrote here. CNN is getting the Airline and Plane type wrong though, but it is an Air France plane.

CBC Coverage

Phil

[Edit: There are reports of passengers being taken to the hospitals nearby and they have had one passenger on the phone call in. They are also saying that there is an indication that there were no casualities which is great news]

[Update: There were 43 injuries and no deaths, the CBC link should have the up to date story]

RENOUF, Harold Augustus, OC, LLD, FCA – died peacefully July 4, 2005, in Halifax.

A graduate of Dalhousie University with a degree in commerce, Harold was a leading member of Canada’s business community. He was a partner in the accounting firm HR Doane and Company from 1942, serving as chair of the firm from 1967-1975. In 1974-75, Harold was president of the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants. During his years with HR Doane, he undertook a number of significant briefs, including the Nova Scotia Provincial Municipal Fact-finding Commission that reshaped and modernized the structure of the province’s towns and cities. He was sole commissioner for the Royal Commission on Gasoline and Diesel Oil Pricing in 1968 and was commissioner for the Royal Commission on the milk industry in 1967, which brought out in him an unexpectedly whimsical fondness for dairy cattle.

He left his accounting practice in 1975 to serve as the Atlantic region’s commissioner for the Anti-Inflation Board, moving with Dorothy to Ottawa full-time to become the Board’s chair from 1977 to 1979. From Ottawa, he and Dorothy moved to Montreal where he served as the newly formed Via Rail’s chair from 1982-85. In 1985, he retired and returned to Halifax, attending to his varied private business interests, serving on boards and splitting his time between Nova Scotia and his winter home in Sarasota, Fla.

Brilliant, with a logical and clear-headed approach to any task and an iron-clad sense of ethics, Harold became a valued advisor to many prominent businessmen and politicians from Frank Sobey to Pierre Trudeau. For his many acts of public service, he was made an officer of the Order of Canada, awarded the Commemorative medal for the 125th Anniversary of Confederation, named to the Accounting Hall of Fame at St. Mary’s University and awarded the Queen’s Medal as well as the Queen’s Golden Jubilee Medal.

Harold loved the challenge of his work but he loved his family still more. He was happiest puttering around his Pictou Landing cottage or his Sarasota home surrounded by family and friends. We, for our part, loved being around his quick wit and quiet strength. Harold’s was truly a life well-lived. He had a profound impact on many and all of us touched by him will miss him. In lieu of flowers, a donation may be made to the Nature Conservancy of Canada, Sandy Point campaign.

After a while I was going strong and had an above average stack, but never much more than above average. I think I made good plays this time, made some good calls, got all in when it made sense and stole some pots when I saw the opportunity. Not too many bad moves this time, but I think I have a far way to go before I am comfortable with my play. I am far to streaky a player right now.

The tournament had 2486 participants and I finished 62nd. No money, but a decent finish for that number of players I think, especially since I missed the first hour.

Oh, and I busted out with 2 pair (A9) and the guy drew a straight on the river. Guess I should have taken that straight draw more seriously, but he called a huge bet to get that hand so I think he made a bad call and got lucky. Or maybe I made a dumb move; I know I felt dumb afterwards ;)

Phil

Phil

• how they are treating bloggers
• their insistence on using only iTunes
• their insitence that no one develop cools apps for the iPod
• some of the underhanded business they are trying to pull with licensing the “Made for iPod” badges.

But in that entry Fred also states:

Microsoft is the poster child for a “they” company.

I don’t think that is true. While it certainly was true at one point Microsoft seems to have made a very big shift in it’s views on community and has started trying to become a “we” company again. I am not trying to say that just just because there are 1500 bloggers at Microsoft they have become a “we” company, I think that the push to help people develop communities around Microsoft technologies is where that effort is shining. I know that I’ve been following along with the blogs of a couple of Microsoft Canada employees who do the Technet events and they are actively out there talkng with the ITPro communities around Canada and trying to do anything they can to help people out. Channel9 is also a great example of this and although all of this may not be prevalent across the whole company it certainly seems to be spreading around.

Also, having people like Betsy Aoki around is another great step in the right direction.

Phil

Note: Yes I do work at Microsoft now, but I am not posting this with any inside knowledge of anything. This is purely my opinion and was actually an opinion I had formed before joining Microsoft and was one of the reasons I was very excited at the opportunity to work here.