by Peter Gaechter

E-asy to vote

Voting has never been easier. I always thought it was cool to wake up on the Sunday morning of voting day, and go on down to the voting place, which in my case was the local gymnasium. When I moved across the border to France, things changed. As one of the many Swiss abroad, I could only vote by mail.

Now there’s another option.  For the first time, the Swiss abroad who are registered to vote in Geneva may vote by internet. There is really nothing to it. Once you go to the secure server, you’re asked to key in the 16 digit voting card number (the voting card is the one you usually put your date of birth on and sign), then you vote, you confirm, and it’s done. It really is that simple. This is a demonstration of how it works, in English.

In addition to all the Swiss abroad, residents of 11 communes (Anières, Bernex, Chêne-Bourg, Collonge-Bellerive, Cologny, Grand-Saconnex, Onex, Perly-Certoux, Plan les Ouates, Thônex and Vandoeuvres) can vote electronically. The vote is limited to 20 percent of the electorate because there are two federal issues on the ballot, which need to be approved by both a majority of the popular vote and by a majority of the cantons.

The federal council limits the vote to 20 percent of the canton’s electorate by means of the 1978 law on political rights, as amended for electronic voting.

This post appeared on brandingthroughpeople. Author Ago Cluytens has previously shared posts from his marketing blog with GenevaLunch.com

Recently, I went to buy a mobile phone, and came out of the store with a computer, printer and MP-3 player.  Now, those of you that know me can confirm I’m usually a level-headed guy who doesn’t throw money out the window. So what happened ?

I recently became interested by the new Apple iPhone 3GS, because it contains a number of functions that I can see myself use on a daily basis; I was especially interested by the recently included video camera, which means I can now use it for a new project I’m working on. After lurking in the shadows for a while, I decided to go to the Apple Store to check it out. And there, it happened. Not only did I buy an iPhone, but I also sprung for a brand new Macbook Pro and a printer !

I decided to analyse what happened, and here’s what came out: Apple provides you with a brand experience that is more guaranteed to make you buy than the average carpet salesman in a Moroccan soukh …

Read more…

Peter Gaechter lives in France, near Geneva

By Peter Gaechter

The other day I received an email with an attachment.  The subject line said it was the poster of the Madrid Book Fair and it shows a woman being embraced by a wall of words. The poster comes with a poem ascribed to Pablo Neruda, the Chilean poet and Nobel Prize winner.

Don’t ask me to take something at face value, especially when it comes attached to a mail. I decided to test the new, improved Google search engine that the company announced on 12 May at their searchology symposium to determine what was what about the poster and the poem. I was looking for a translation and the origins of the poster.

Try switching to Spanish and see what happens

On the Google page, I switched my preferences to Spanish, typed in “Pablo Neruda afiche”, the Spanish for poster, and hit return. In the blue results bar at the top left, you now have a “Show options” panel. If you click on that, the page reorganizes and you get further options: you can have results organized by time (past 24 hours, past week, past year), which is useful if you’re looking for news stories, by relevance or by date. Among the options for standard results, is one, “images from page”.

Since I was looking for an image, I tried this and restricted the time frame to the past week, hoping that my attachment would be returned. I got 61 results that linked Neruda with poster in some way, and the actual images of posters were returned as well. None of them were the poster I was looking for, however.

So I tried another of the new options, one Google is quite pleased about. It’s the aptly named wonder wheel. Once you click on that, the results are pushed to the right side of the screen and in the centre is a blue circle with the search criterion in the middle of it.

To put it through its paces, I typed in Swat, as in the conflict region in Pakistan. The blue circle is surrounded by related terms, each connected by a line. This is Google’s attempt at relational search management, I guess you’d call it. The search engine doesn’t know what I want with “Swat”, and until I type in “Swat, Pakistan” it assumes I’m interested in the game. Once it sees that my interest is in Pakistan, the related options it offers me are military operations, curfew and Rehman Malik (the interior minister).

Google is trying to read its customers “intent”

Google says that it is attempting to understand its customers better, and to understand their intent. “The real goal is that we have many users and we have to solve their problems. What is user intent, what do they need and get it to them,” says Udi Manber, vice president of engineering at Google.

The results on the right side of the page reflect my choice of options on the wonder wheel. The great thing for someone who easily gets sidetracked by following links willy-nilly is that the wonder wheel keeps track of your original blue circle so that you can hop right back to it. Neat feature.

Not Neruda!

Back to my search. I repeated the exercise to find a translation of the poem on the poster. It turns out that the poem is not by Neruda. It’s by a young man who lives in the Basque country in Spain.  But he’s probably not too distressed to have a poem of his confused with one by Neruda. It hasn’t been translated yet.

It also turns out that the poster isn’t from the Madrid Book Fair, either. I sent them an email and asked.

Background: ZDNet Blog

from Bruno Giussani’s blog, Lunch over IP

LiftAsia08: an Dubno knows a cool gadget when he sees one; Sarah Marquis has walked across the Australian desert solo; Philippa Martin-King talks about energy

(Running notes from LiftAsia08, in Jeju, Korea. I’m moderating this session, so only partial blogging.)

Dan Dubno — technologist, broadcaster, producer, conference host (the invitation-only Gadgetoff), blogger (Gizmorama), pioneer in the use of graphic and visualization tools on television, and more — is Mr Gadget. He is the opening speaker of the sustainable development session which, sponsored by WattWatt, is becoming a permanent feature of the Lift conferences. So Dan talks also about (and shows) “green” gadgets — although, he says, clearly no gadget is really sustainable.

Read more…

At no other time of the year do so many people think about personal growth
all at the same time. Fifty percent of Americans make resolutions to improve
themselves or their lives in some way during the yearly transition. There is an
overwhelming perception that change is possible. The hope for something new,
different and better in their lives is higher than at any other time of the
year.

This tradition of celebrating the New Year goes back at least 4000 years to
the ancient Babylonians who celebrated it during Spring equinox. The tradition
of making New Year’s resolutions goes all the way back to 153 B.C. Janus, a mythical king of early Rome was placed at the head of the calendar.
With two faces, Janus could look back on past events and forward to the future.
Janus became the ancient symbol for resolutions.

Have you been swept away in this wave of
positive intentions and made your New Year’s resolutions yet? If not, here is a
list of what other people resolve to do. This may just spark your
introspective self to aspire to new heights. Of the 10 most popular New Year’s goals, four involve physical health related issues, three involve
mental health, two involve social activity and one deals with financial
improvements. Here are the top ten:

1. Spend more time with family and friends
2. Work out regularly
3. Lose weight
4. Quit smoking
5. Enjoy life more
6. Quit or reduce drinking
7. Get out of debt
8. Learn something new
9. Help others
10. Get organized

Research shows that 60% of these resolutions will be
broken as of the 6-month mark. The most important factor in preserving the
change is in the process of goal planning and writing.

The most comprehensive assistance for
writing effective resolutions comes from Gary Ryan Blair, “The Goals Guy.” On his site, you are able to download a free
21-page report which details the five stages of successful resolutions, taken
from the psychology of behavior modification, and also lists four important
resolution guidelines. Gary
also provides forms to guide you through the process.

If you don’t want to spend that much time
with it, I suggest that you at least use the S.M.A.R.T. guidelines in writing your resolutions. These
traditional goal-writing guidelines are used to insure that your goals are
specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time-bound.

Suite101.com stated, “A more recently devised goal-setting process called S.A.F.E. combines the best aspects of S.M.A.R.T. with the power of the Law of Attraction.” In the S.A.F.E. procedure, you:

• See
  
• Accept
  
• Feel and
  
• Express your goal.
  

Whereas S.M.A.R.T. goals may appeal more to the analytical left-brain
dominant types, S.A.F.E goals may appeal more to those who are generally more creative
or right-brain dominant.

Once you have your goals written, check out
these seven recommendations from two University of Maryland psychiatrists
on how to maintain your resolutions.

If you need free online assistance to reach your goals, check out this impressive collection of web application tools at the
website lifehacker, specifically designed to help you manage your New Year’s
resolutions online including the goal areas of financial gain, weight loss and
fitness, calorie management and goal tracking.

And finally, here are some suggestions to stretch those of you who live more from your heads than your hearts. Inspirational personal development expert James
Arthur Ray , featured on the movie, The Secret, gives
the following five suggestions for self-actualizing yourself in 2008.

1. Find inspiration and something you are excited about.
2. Specify your intentions. Use the S.M.A.R.T. or S.A.F.E. goal
   guidelines above.
3. Maintain attention and focus. “Energy flows where attention goes.”
4. Be grateful. See www.gratefulness.org for more information.
5. Be enthusiastic! Go three for three by aligning your thoughts with your feelings with your actions.

Happy New Year!

David Schiesher is a psychotherapist practicing in Geneva.