Eric Gayer's BlaBla

I thought I should share this with you guys... I just read some pages of the new book from Allastair Campbell (Spokesman of Tony Blair and in charge of the 10 Downing street press machine) in which he speaks about the Tony Blair's years...
There is a funny story in this book regarding Jacques Chirac (one of the funniest French president ever). Campbell reports that at the G8 conference in 2000, while Larry Summers (American secretary of the treasury) started a long explanation, Chirac just made himself at home in his chair and started to sleep and snore... after few minutes Tony Blair reports that Chirac woke up and started to shout out "too long... too long..." while Summers was still speaking... Campbell reports that Tony Blair said " I have never seen something so indelicate and so anti-american"...
I had the chance to be present at the conference that Al Gore presented 3 years ago at Harvard (before to launch his movie), invited by Larry Summers who was at that time Harvard president (Gore is an alumni...) and I have to say that I have been really impressed by those two guys... and I tell you that nobody in the audience was sleeping...
Now the funny thing is to think about that the English world does not believe that french people are arrogant just because they have bad time talking to parisian when they are in Paris... but also because even at the top of the French Pyramide... a French guy is a French guy...

I am interested in video editing since I have discovered the VHS video camera of my father 22ish years ago... In the late 90s my father baught a PC (Penthium pro 180Mhz) and a Miro DC30+ (an analogic video capture card)... Since then I didn't quit video editing on computer and I moved from analogic to digital (obviously) and from PC to MAC (OBVIOUSLY :o)))))...
Few years ago I have been involved in different artistic projects in France (Nancy CCAM) and I met people doing music with strange software like MAX... Then I thaught that it would be cool to mix music and image live... But at that time I was too interested in just video editing and I had no interest in playing music...
However, since I am learning guitar, this idea of generating image or animation, or create something, in response to music keep knocking my head... and I finally found something that allow me to explore this new field (new for me, not for people creating this)... here is my new toy : Processing.. a language that allow to create almost any animation in response to movement and/or sound etc etc... it's free.. it's in beta for the moment but it works when you are not a pro... check the link out to see what it is capable of and why I love it !

A wild ago I burned my small 15w Marshall amp (from US) by plugging it on the wrong adapter in UK... Then I looked for a way to improve my installation and save money... I had then the idea to use electronic amp using my mac, and then I just plugged my guitar using the input line of the PowerBook, and I used the amp from GaragBand... I did that for a wild but the main problem here was that the input line is really bad...
Then for my birthday, I decided (2 days ago) to buy an interface to get good sound... I baught the Line6 TonePort GX... and IT'S AMAZING ! this thing is just an interface, but it's delivered with GearBox software which is a virtual amp with tons and tons of preset Tone and tons and tons of configs... the sound is clear and perfect... and it is perfectly compatible with GarageBand and Logic ! it's so great I love it !
The main problem I got was that I could not use my old PowerBook Titanium 667, because GearBox needs at list a 1.5 G4... but it works great on my already old PowerBook Alu 1.67.
Now I just need to learn how to play guitar !
Here is a pic of my installation :

NOOOOOOOOOO !!!! ARRRGHHHHHHH !!!!!!! WHY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TimesOnline reports that O2 and T-Mobile are the provider that have been already chosen to carry iPhone... and the same Journal reports that... guess what... Orange should be the one in France !

Damn it..... I can't believe it... the worst provider ever !!!! it's for France... why not SFR or others ! it's not even Orange in UK !
You know what ! if this report is confirmed then I would really reviewed my decision of getting an Iphone as soon as I am back in France... Damn it...

Why Do I have problems with the fact that Orange will maybe be the provider ? just because this company sucks like I have never seen a provider sucks ever... Those people are just BAD ! they can't provide support, they can't respect dead line, they can't repair any single thing... AND PLEASE tell me that if this company is the iPhone provider, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE Steve ! just do not allow them to touch anything of the iPhone OS !!!! (I am sure not but who knows...) you can't imagine what they are capable... I am experimenting that kind of problem every single day with my Nokia... Orange wanted to add cool new feature on the nokia OS, the result is that I don't need those cool, bad features and I CAN'T GET THE NOKIA WORKING PROPERLY because ORANGE JUST WASTED THE OS BY ADDING THEIR BAD STUFF !!!!!

ORANGE I HATE YOU.... Please Steve could you ask another provider to carry the beatiful iPhone ?
Thanks....

That's it !... it's OUT... and because I get back to France soon I can't get one before it hits Europe (around October)... In a sense it' a good thing to wait because the first release of a new product is never the best call... However to see a real update on the iphone, or even to see second generation (or iphone mini) we'll have to wait more than 5 months... so basically... I'll buy it as soon as it'll pop up in France (thanks to the euro, we'll pay 20% more than what we would have paid in Boston...) but... I am waiting for it since so long !... what the hell ! I am gonna get it.. even if it's with the baddest cell phoe provider ever, I mean ORANGE...

By the way... since yesterday, all employees from apple (even part time) got an iPhone !.... So I just sent my CV this morning...

You all know about the Home Theater big thing since years... What a pleasure to be able to watch a great movie on a screen bigger than a regular TV and with good audio effect around your living room... yeah it's good... but I still want to go to the movie... not because I like the "spirit" of a movie theater but because I like to see the movies as soon as they are out on screen...
Yep... it's clearly not for the "spirit" that I like the movie theater... Sincerely what's wrong with thoses people who go to the movie and make themselves at home ! Is it because they can't see the difference between their living room and the movie theater ?
I don't even speak about the noise that people make when they eat and drink... I am tired with people who can't understand the movie and ask their "husband or wife or boyfriend" to explain the movie every 5 mins like : "is this girl the one that killed the blond guy that we saw behind the door... ?" I am tired of people going to see a movie and who make comments during the movie because they think that what is on screen is not possible... OF COURSE IT'S NOT POSSIBLE, the name of the movie is "Fantastic 4" !!!!!
Now when you add to that, the fact that you paid and that sometimes the movie is really bad... it Looks like I'll be a "Home Theater" lover soon...

While the revolutionary iPhone is supposed to be released at the end of this month, Microsoft also want to show us that they can do touch screen and multi touch screen..
The new Device/Interface or even Computer (I don't know how to call it)... is named "surface" and uses this amazing tech of multi touch screen... it's not new but the cool thing that we can see on the demo (link below) is that this Computer can communicate with other devices by downloading pics from a camera and uploading them on another device as easy as you fill and empty a glass of water... It's really impressive... and I am sure that it is not running under Windows...

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/620211/details_of_ms_surface/

As you might know...Worldwide, many different mains power systems are found for the operation of household and light commercial electrical appliances and lighting. Do not ask me why or how... I could not found the proper explanation, even on wikipedia... The bottom line is that when you travel you need an "adaptator" to plug your computer, camera etc etc etc...

But sometimes an adaptator is not enought and you need a transformer... that what I forgot when two days ago I plugged my "american" Marshall amp into the UK wall socket using an adaptator without fuse in it...

Nice surprise... I just burned my guitar amp... like a genius...

So what to do ? buy a new one ? yeah but I am not ready to spend money yet to buy a new one... I am too pissed off...
Stop playing guitar ? and hang my startocaster over my bed...

NO ! there is another solution.. a cheap solution...

Use your mac as an amp ! it's so easy... the only thing you have to do is to buy 1/4" to 1/8" adaptator and plug your guitar in the "line in" of your Mac. Then you can download a small freeware or this shareware : audiodia (http://www.artistictechworks.com/audiodia.html) and that's it ! You can play through your mac...

However, the sound is not that great... you also might have a delay between the guitar and the speakers, and finally I still need to find filter to simulate the "saturation". To fix all of this you need 1) a pre amp ($40), and 2) a USB audio interface ($40)... and 3) a real sound software with a plug in that simulate the amp...

I didn't solve it completely yet... 1) and 2) are easy... but regarding the 3) I still need to sneak around...

I am sure you know that STRESS is bad for you... it can make you sick or ruin your life... But even if we know that, STRESS is not that easy to control... actually if we could control it... we would not be stressed...
But there is a way to fight the bad effects of stress on our body... we need to laught... because by laughting you just secrete hormones related to plaisure, that are blocked by stress...
People shown that to feel good, we need to laught about 6 mins every single day... wait a minute... 6 minutes ? wow... do you know how long it is 6 mins ? I think it is long... especially if we consider that a laughter goes from 4 to 8 secs... so it means that we need to laught about 60 times in a day...
Now if we consider that we spend most of the day at work... and if we consider that co-workers are not the most funny guys that you know... it looks like we could be stressed because we are affraid to not reach our average of 60 laugther a day !
But luckly, since few years... we got the solution... the solution is called Youtube.com, Metacafe.com, Dailymotion.com etc etc etc... You all know about those websites... and you all already did research about your favorite comedian, or favorite bloopers... so here we are !
To get your 6 mins of laught... just watch 6 mins of bloopers on line every day !
Every morning, after checking my e-mails, I check the new vids on Metacafe.com (and this since 2 years)...and when I feel bad... I just do a search for "Bill Dance" (English) and "Jacques Gourrier" (in French)... after 2 mins of their bloopers... I am on fire again !

I am not a specialist in political history, and in american politics but... I have in mind some pictures...
Today, Sarko became the French President, and this morning we had the official ceremony live on the french TV... Since a wild a lot of people and expert say that Sarko is facinated by the American way of life, and the American enonomic and political model...
With this in mind, the ceremony of this morning looked really "kennedyan"... the comparison is racy... but I am speaking about the image only... a young president, a young and very nice wife (compared to the previous ones) and a very young kid, looking up to his father... I have seen that before on TV...

Just a word about politics and about the politics in France... we will, in two days, know the new government made by the new President, Mr. Sarkozy... but half of the minister names is already in the news paper... and I am surprised... I really do not remember this guy talking about offering ministers position to people from the "left side"... it doesn't mean that I am against this idea... of course I like it but I am surprised because that was clearly the point of Bayrou, the third guy (center) who made an extraordinary good score after the first round... and who, based on this score, created a new "center" to be different to the "old center" who joined Sarko and supported him for the second round.
You might know that in less than a month, a new big election will happen in France... the "legislatives" to vote for "deputies" that will represent French people in the "Assemblée Nationale". And this is important because the left and the right need both a big group in there to, respectively, support or fight the politic of the government...
Now, because this new election is very close to the last one, and because history shows that French are consistent, I mean they always gave the majority to the president that they just elected before (a month before), every body think that the right will get the majority... but because of his extraordinary score during the presidential, Bayrou has a plan for the legislatives... he wants to present deputy from his new group, and ask french to vote for them and then allow this new formation to be a big group in the "Assemblée Nationale" and then be there to discuss the government politics...
Not a lot of expert see right now how Bayrou can make such a big group, because the rules of this election is quite complicated, nevertheless with his score... why not... we are not sure that people that voted for Bayrou did it because of him or for other reasons...
But now, it looks that it is quite bad for Bayrou... since Sarko is playing his game, and maybe will "realize" what Bayrou said (by having left hand side politics in his government)... People will not have a lot of reason to vote for the Bayrou's group...
It looks to me that Sarko "fais d'une pierre deux coup", he's offering a new way to drive the country and then seduce a lot of people and... He's definitely killing Bayrou... (He's not the first one and will certainly not be the last one..)

I am sad... I am so sad... since last sunday Laure Manaudou, the french siren broke up with her mentor.. the guy who helped her to be the current best swimmer and maybe the best ever...(just wiki her name and you'll see her prize list)

I am sad because that was a nice story... a very nice girl and a "beast" : the kind of guy that, at the first sight, you don't want as your brother in law (I mean as the boyfriend of your sister)... yeah it was nice to see how this girl could win everything and see this guy saying "she's a great champ" and nothing else.. just the minimum needed...

But that's it.. since the last sunday she decided to leave France and to live in Italy close to her boyfriend (she's 21 by the way... just saying...) and then she left her manager/trainer/physical therapist/mentor, Philippe Lucas... So you can imagine the impact of such a decision on te french press and since then they speak to each other via news paper saying stuff that they surely regret later...

Obviously I wish her to succeed even without Lucas, but... I can't stop thinking that it would be good if she could have hard time in the next few races, just to demonstrate that Lucas was a part of her success... I know it's bad... but... as a french, I always support the loosers (Poulidor syndrome) and then I support Lucas and I wish Lucas to find another "pearl" and build up another champion...

PS: Speaking about supporting loosers, everybody knows that it's typically french, and that thing could be interpreted wrong. Just an exemple, I have been surprised by the interview of Lance Amstrong by Larry king during his show, a month after his last success in the Tour de Fance, (he was investigated for dopping by the french anti-dopping organisation). here is the transcript of the interview: (Aired August 25, 2005 - 21:00 ET)

'''KING: Why don't they like you there? Is it just because you're American?

ARMSTRONG: Well, you know, I hate to say that. Because I actually have on an individual basis, I've had great relations with the French people. If I go to a restaurant or -- I lived there for four years. I lived in the South of France for four years. I had great friends there. I think it's a great country, But the style of the media and obviously certain people in the organization are not up to par. But I don't know what it is. At one time had I a French teammate and he says, "look, Lance, forget about it. They don't like the winners."'

Well you can imagine how those words could have been interpreted in US (when they are from one of their Hero)... But I don't want to speak about it, but just want to tell the french guy who seems to think that french do not like winners... just that french make the difference between the result and the way to get the results... and we are equivalently impressed by people fighting untill the end and by winners... it is call "panache"... there's a big difference between loose with "panache" and just loose...

Do you believe in "destiny" ?

Don't worry I am not gonna write something about the girl I met twice at the gym, plus once at the coffee shop and that happens to be a waitress in one of my favorite bar... (she's just killing me everytime I see her...) and I always met her when I was not ready to meet her... Yeah, I already tried to go back in this bar at the exact day and time that I saw here the first time, so did I at the gym and the coffee shop... but... nothing...

Anyway I was not gonna speak about that... but just about the way we see destiny... I went to see "next" tonight at the movie theater, and I saw "déjà vu " last night on DVD... and basically those two movies ( I think déjà vu is much better than next) speak about people able to see the future, and then able to modify it... my question is then :

Instead of saying that by knowing the future we can modify destiny... I would say that the destiny IS that we can see the future (if we could obviously) and then everything that happens after by modifying the present is a part of the destiny and not a slight modification of the previous destiny...

In other words, even if I tried to see this girl again by going where I saw her before... my destiny was that I tried to see her by going there... and it's not by going at the gym or at the bar where she works that I modified my destiny...

Anyway... the bottom line is that... HER destiny is to not meet me again...

I have a cell phone since 1997, and if I had money before that time I would have buy one... yes I am a "tech junky"... a real one, the one who baught the first generation of DVD player when they cost a lot of money, the one who baught cell phone every two years because they got smaller and smaller, the one who is just talking and thinking about mac and apple product 24/7... but today I am lost... I don't know what to do... For the first time this year I had to get a cell phone that did not and still does not fit my needs... and my problem right now is that... I don't see how to solve this problem...
Until 3 years ago I was looking for the tiniest cell phone... then the manufacturers came up with this idea of incorporating a camera in a cell phone... and all the cell phones came up with this camera... it was fun... but not really usefull when you know how bad the resolution of those cameras was, and still is... So basically since about 3 years there is almost no cell phone without any camera and then almost no tiny cell phone... But I managed to find this small nokia 6230...

But since... another thing has been added to the wireless comunication... the wap and now the internet... and this make things very interesting but really complicated for people looking for tiny cell phone... If I don't care about having a camera on my cell phone (to reduce the size), I really like the idea of being able to check my e-mails and be "connected" 24/7 everywhere... But then you face a new problem: the size of your cell phone or "terminal" needs to be big enought to make the connection to internet usefull... Actually I have to say that it's not a problem anymore to me... I can deal bigger size against an increase of usefull functionality (and not for a stupid camera)... but NOW we are facing another problem ! the dictature of the wireless phone providers that charge you billion and billion for downloading data ! I have to say that if I am willing to pay a big price to buy the latest blackberry that seems to me the best "terminal" right now... I am not really happy to pay a fortune to the provider to just check my e-mails... and because I am not in a business company.. I can't have a blackberry for "free"... and then I am desapointed because I need to stay stuck with a very bad cell phone that has a freaking camera that I don't use, with the size of the first cell phone I baught ten years ago...

But remember... I am a tech juncky... and when the iphone will land in europe (yep I can't buy one now since you need to sign for a 2 years contract in the US).. well I'll have to get it... even if it is linked to Orange (that I hate by the way)... Or I'll find the courage and the force to wait a little bit... because "the future is bright" (commercial for orange in UK...) for the custumer... why ? Just because "Skype" and others, plus the development of the wifi network in cities... already forced manufacturers to think about how to use wifi to comunicate... I can't wait the iphone with wifi that will let you IP call someone and then let you surf on the web at low cost... Obviously, this will not happen in the next two years but... we are on track... and before that... we will use IP cell phone next to wifi rooters in the street, like some people did 20 years ago in france when they used the Bebop (they had to be close to an antena to call with a cell phone)... so you see the bebop was not that bad... just too early !!!!!!!

I am sorry folks, I have been busy busy busy and far from any connection lately... But I am back with so many things to say...

First I am in Paris and it's so good to be here... I feel like I am in holliday... it's sunny, it's warm... and everybody is beautiful...

Second, as you might know, this week in France is a busy week... the next sunday, a new "président de la république" is gonna be elected, and everybody is talking about it... It's really weird how you can feel the mood of people... Although everybody I know here forecast "Sarko" as president... since monday (before her huge meeting) I bet 2 euros on "Sego"... and since last night I have 5 euros on her ! yep last night was the big discussion between Sarko and Sego... I have to tell you that I planned to watch the champions league semi-final instead... but after the first goal from Kaka, I switch to the other game "Sarko-Sego" and I have to say that I really enjoyed it... but the best part is still the interpretations of every single move and every single word they said, by the journalists...
I am affraid that this debate helped people to choose... I know that it's suppose to help... but if you consider that 1) image as a huge effect on people mind and 2) politicians know that and play with it... you understand that the debate of last night has not been really focused on politics and project... but at 80% fucused on "how to break the bad picture that people have in mind when they think about me" for Sarko and on "how to show to this people thinking I am a nut, that I am not a nut" for Sego !
Basically, fot the politic and the future... we'll see on monday...