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Samstag, 28. Dezember 2013

SmartPhones love H&M gloves!

If you still live in Spain or in the south of France you might find this post a little bit exaggerated. But if you're living in Germany you will thank me 1000 times.

How often have you been walking on the street on a freezing winter evening, wearing leggings under your jeans, three pairs of socks, your winter jacket, a flannel scarf-blanket around your neck and half of your body, wood hat and earflaps together, and you feel a vibration in your handbag? Of course you are also wearing gloves! And of course you cannot find your phone in your bag. You try to follow the vibration until you put out your wallet, your tissues, your agenda, and... your smartphone! Great! You have already passed 3 tones, you don't have much time, you try to pick the call but you have to put off your gloves, put them in your bag and answer while you don't feel your hands any more, so it's still difficult to press anything on the screen of your evil device! TOO LATE! It was your last night date, or someone offering you a job at NASA.

This wouldn't have happened with high-tech gloves that enable you to use a touch screen while wearing them. These gloves exist and have to be extremely expensive, right? They should be called "smart gloves"... 50-100 euros? There's no need to pay that much! H&M has saved our lives again! 10 euros is what you have to pay for your perfect smartphone-friendly gloves that will keep your hands warm on the street if you want to pick up a call or even write whatsapp messages while you're waiting for the bus or in a cue for entering a disco.


I had already black "smart gloves", and now I've bought a red pair, the colour of the season. Highly recommended!!!

Donnerstag, 26. Dezember 2013

Meeting with Parisian Entrepreneurs : Julien, Simon and Remi

I was reading books about start-up giving some example in the US. I found it hard to picture myself doing the same. And I thought: I know people doing this in my country, who are my friends. Why not just talk with them? Simon and Julien are entrepreneurs in Paris. I had lunch with them in order to know more about their adventures.


Simon and Julien are working in two different start-ups:

Julien and his associate Remi (in the mirror on the picture) are working on a web-based system with a mobile segment for emergency mechanic in the Paris Area. They hope to be on the market mid-2014.

Simon (on the right on the picture) Start-Up Incenteev wants to develop professional tools to motivate employees in a company. Incenteev is developing its product since 2012.

From our talk, I remember three tips:
  1. First think target user then think product. When developing a product it is important to know your customer, very well. Meet them, talk with them, identify their needs and be as specific as you can. Then you will design the product fulfilling their needs.
  2. Get your software/application tested by your customer before while developing a software/application, it will allow you to identify the weaknesses of your concept. If the product is intuitive and easy to use, you will be successful!
  3. To be successful, no need for great innovative idea. Find a niche, jump in it and do better than the competition.

Well Simon, Julien and Remi, thanks a lot for this first chat! And I hope we will have such successful lunch together in the future and I will learn more about your adventures as entrepreneur in Paris!

Samstag, 21. Dezember 2013

Apps for Android 101

A couple of weeks ago we decided to start an Android Apps Programming 101 course. Everybody programs apps nowadays and I feel I have to contribute to this community!!

We work 40 hours a week and it looks like we have plenty of time in the evening and on the weekends, but it is extremely difficult to force and commit yourself to such an online and FREE course... I can summarize everything I learnt in my first lesson:

1. Download ADT* Bundle (developer.android.com)
2. (try to) Install the Bundle in your computer
3. Freak out because you don't have a free MB in your computer (IT'S A 1300€-MACBOOK, THIS CANNOT BE TRUEEEEE)
4. Feel shame because the main problem was the ridicoulous amount of photos in your laptop... and then transfer them to an external hard drive.
5. Install the Bundle in your computer!!

Yes, this was the first lesson, don't be upset. Take it as a message to clean up your laptop from time to time. It can be a real challenge if you don't work with it (most companies provide a computer and if you're lucky enough you won't have to work at home). I can never find time to take care of it and give it the love it needs and deserves! I hope our relationship will get better by writing this blog... and by programming apps!!!!!!!!!!




*Android Developer Tools

Mittwoch, 18. Dezember 2013

The Salty Tomate- Feta Cake

Rosa and I often have lunch together at the office. In the evening, I would whatsapp her and tell her if I cooked something. Once I wrote: "I made a carrot cake just bring a little bit of salad".  Rosa freaked out because she thought that it would not be enough. CULTURAL DIFFERENCE. We, French people we happen to have salty cakes. It is like a cake but you can have it as you main dish. Anyway, today I will tell you about the tomatoes and feta cake I made this week-end.

It is super easy:




- 250 g of Flour
- 4 eggs
- 8 cl oil
- 8 cl of white wine (a glass for you... a glass for the cake)
- 200 g of feta
- 250 g of cherry tomatoes
- 150 g grated gruyere cheese
- 1 pack of yeast (levure(fr), back pulver(de), levadura(es))
- Herbes de Provence

Mix the eggs and the flour together. Add the oil, wine, cheese, Herbes de provence, yeast, feta and the tomatoes. Drink a glass of wine. Put all of it in a dish that you can put in the oven about 45 to 50 min at 150°C.



Then enjoy, either as tapas, apero or starter while having guest with the rest of the bottle of wine or as a main dish with a salad at work!

Freitag, 13. Dezember 2013

Christmas Market in Bremen

Our first post will be about one of the most beautiful events in Germany: the Christmas Market. Emma and I live in Germany and we are surprised this market isn't within the top 5. Bremen has a gorgeous market in the city center and a magic medieval one on the Schlachte, next to the river.

I love the Christmas market! In Winter, when it is not rainy, it is dark and this from 16:00 to 08:00. So when you are out in the street you don't recognize anyone, you just see shades of people. You best friends could walk you by, you would not see her/him.

Every year it's worth it to pass by (several times) and see groups of grandmas that meet up once a year to get completely drunk with Glühwein, with their red noses and loud laughs. Because this is the Christmas spirit, at least in Germany. And you can join the grandmas and accompany this hot sangria with high caloric food like sausages, fried Schmalzkuchen, fruit with chocolate cover... This makes you forget that you're freezing and that the humidity is penetrating until your bones. You will hate this beverage the first time you try it, but after the third cup you will open your jacket and won't care that you've poured half a cup on your expensive leather gloves or your new snowwhite coat. This is a picture with my parents (freezing before the first cup of Glühwein), who visited me on the weekend.


At the Christmas market, there is light! People! Faces! Smile! All the best diet German Food! And warm drinks to help you survive the winter!!! Just go out and enjoy breathing the lovely & sweet & salty & spicy & alcoholic German Christmas atmosphere!!