mercredi, novembre 23, 2011

Reverse Engineering

What is the global energy strategy but reverse engineering... Well nothing else I'd say. Economic forecasts from audit firm never got it right, so to gain and keep control you have to start from the solution and engineer your way to there.

mardi, novembre 15, 2011

Banks, from 2008 till today

What can we say? At least not that the truth was being unfolded. I just navigated through some news. Starting with this one, then I navigate from there, interested in bank stress tests because I never really understood how it work (I still don't and I need to resolve this one day). I realized that HSBC and Santander were to be noticed within the weak banks when you tweaked the input conditions (like, bad conditions but still). As I am a client at these banks I decided to look for myself and see what they said about the stress test. So I googleled "HSBC bank stress test" and saw a couple of strange strings from 2009 (following the 2008 Lehman Brother's crash). One of which was disclaiming so wikileak-type information (Assange might have close to these guys back then). Then it showed a couple of links, some of which where banned (by blogger itself). Others showed very amazing information and counter information on how American banks where heavily investing over their risk-based capital (up to 10 time for Goldman Sachs). That information was asked to be silenced by US Federal Reserves to avoid problem within the share holders. All that during recession and we all know what happened and what still happens. Now when you see that new information coming straight from the latest G20 committee. UK banks will have to get their shit together or else... obviously not said like this but the tone seemed pretty clear. One positive point is, eventually government are thinking of intervening into these multinational banks because it seems that in 3 years we are not learning from our mistakes. Good thing to hear also is that, because it depends on the country (at least banks can be contained), Brazil having strong conditions make that banks are healthy and not in position of breaking (for whoever can read portuguese, try this website).

jeudi, novembre 10, 2011

Reality Check

Today's discussion with my colleagues, over lunch. It's not always that I have matching experience with people, usually where I am now (research center) I look very much like a big time traveler, that went to a lot of places and seen a lot of things. Back there in ops it was a different pictures, I looked more like a newby learning his place in the World. So yeah I heard a lot of stories, some are in this blog already, some other might not have their place in it (this can be revised). One of my colleague, which is now a good friend of mine actually had similar experiences. Not the same places nor the same experiences but that what makes it nice, the sharing is always interesting.
So we were talking about nothing and everything when came the subject of the work places and their images in the human pre-conceptions. We sometimes see people, friends, acquaintances going to work to foreign places for what it represents rather than what it really is. Best example are places like Barcelona, Paris or NYC. For new industrialized countries like South American or developing countries the image of Europe is idealized by it's life style and "joie de vivre" oftenly coming from broadcasting and enhancements of the experience by natives going abroad wanting to show that life is what it looks like on TV (it never is but they wont say it not to look bad or simply not to worry their own familly, but that how the cycle goes on). Seems like a total paradise and promise of a better future. Truth is it most of the time was like this, but not anymore and it is very easily debunkable by doing a "reality check" (term happily chosen by my buddy but very accurate): A brazilian thinks of Barcelona like it's a wonderful city, lots of culture, good food and nice weather. You make good money easier because of high employment and, well, it's Europe so it just cannot be bad. What you see on TV corroborates what your representation from the place is (oftenly travel documentaries or movies). You have not a good life where you live, so you decide to join the money and leave your place for this new TV fancied Barcelona. The example my friend gave had a good diploma but probably had very high expectations of what it would be like with her diploma in Barcelona. Result is, she is in Barcelona a waitress earning minimum wadge with a lawyer's degree. She argues that she would not earn that much money as a waitress in Brazil, true. Now she left at a time where Brazil was probably experiencing some difficulties but as now the economy is booming a lawyer's salary in Brazil would probably be much higher than in Spain where competition is fiercer. The problem was probably elsewhere and she never wanted to face it. Going to some other places looking for an El Dorado nowadays is overrated because El Dorado simply never existed and doesn't exist. If it does the counter part is heavy enough for you not considering it as one at all. The "reality check" will probably have her realized that she was better off in Brazil than abroad, but it might not have looked that glamorous. In Brazil being in Europe represents the quintessence of good taste and success (don't ask me why, European are desperate to look for an excuse to go work in Brazil, at least the Latin Europeans). It is very rooted within the culture of the country and in most layer of the society it is highly considerated (modest layer dream of it, wealthy layer insist on going there). A simple fact is Paris being the number 01 dream destination of all (or most of) Brazilian.

TBC

My corporate Dell is a shitbag (and I mean it!!)

Corporate contracts are probably the best way to sell out ll the dropped product, which is why one corporation can get a better deal on purchasing items "corporatively" (also I did start a reboot of my slow ass computer at that moment, I am handwriting this blog now). You can easily deduct that the quality goes heavily impacted. This is where I will share some of my experience, not only as an energy professional but also as ajust-arriving-senior employee (that after 5 years of industry right??). It all started 5 years ago (image blurring, my legs goes all moving and I have now a bad shirt and a stupid smile on my face.. gosh I'm a newby again!!), when I joined Schlumberger (SLB) I received a Dell computer (and a yellow fever shot) like 50000 other employees (not the YF shot, and not at the same time.. are you still following?). The computer is a standard SLB computer with a standard image consisting on a Microsoft (MS) Windows XP pro SP2, MS Office pro, Eureka mailbox and a McAfee AV (OMG). This is why you can distribute it to 50000 employees. It's all in there, you cannot mess around, you better go to work now! But that whole combination of "corporate" software proved (and still does) to be disastrous. Six months later the problems starts, when the system is not that clean, your computer is filled with cookies from notorious and less notorious sites, fragmented like champolion's rosetta. These corporate things don't really care about that, they will run using their necessary memory at whatever cost, even the cost of your work! So the AV would scan at anytime thoroughly using 100% of available memory so that I could lose my work confidently. As you know I was in a remote place so there is no IT support (on my own!) and calling would not solve because it meant sending the computer to the nearest available IT center from Pointe Noire: Paris!! I then decided I would manually kill the AV whenever it was poping up and working. That went up to 2 to 3 times a day as the image was configured so that the AV would reboot if killed (clever beast!). Next step has been to uninstall McAfee and switch for a free little but powerful AV (petit mais costaud!!) which was doing a great job, until.....
Until I discovered that deep burried within the realm of the company there was a group of anonymous yet powerful few that would protect the SiNET from the bad and the ugly:

 The Justice League of SLB intranet!! 

That day, when uninstalling McAfee, I became the bad and the ugly while uninstalling THE GOD OF CORPORATE ANTI VIRUSES. 
An anonymous email was sent to me warning that "someone" was running "an asset" without "protection", a dozen of other emails CC'd to me arrived on my mailbox showing the importance of the reaction my felony engendered. I was an outlaw, I felt the unbearable forces of righfulness and Close-To-God's mightyness. I was about to forget myself on my boxers!!
I never unsinstalled McAfee AGAIN and I do not wish to my worse enemy. But the problem has not stopped and has been recurrent independantly of the OS or the machine, the root of evil was embedded in the image developped between Dell, SLB and MS (my machine just switched off, 10 min for a motherboard not handling the docking station).
So what happens when you are reporting a computer problem? Well, when you report a problem on your machine to Dell, unless you litterally work across the street from their firm it takes up to 2 months to receive the new equipment and I am being air here! I know stories worse than mine. It is my second corporate Dell computer since I started the company and the problems survived al updates on the image, so they are everywhere (damn you justice league). On my latest battle with the Third Kind (the Electronic Kind), as if I hadn't enough, my computer start to slow down and I eventualy was unable to do any work. My first thought went to my old ennemy of always: McAfee-The-Devil, so I went on a holy hunt again and start to kill the application. That was without counting on.. you already know who I think of... yes, the Justice league of SLB Intranet striked again by implementing an immediate reboot upon killing.. policy: thy cannot stay without protection on the net!!! I was on the dark side, trying to ripp away the corporate justice, attacking them, keeping them busy. I was angry at them but then I realized the problem was not them (at least not anymore), it was deeper: it was hardware. This was a way deeper but nevertheless corporate problem.
You see it seems Dell makes its net by selling at low price a high volume of equipment that would also have a lower quality than the ones they sell to homes. It sounds easier to replace faulty items on a standard PC than on a customized one and items don't need that level of attention anymore. Mass production for mass sells for corporate uses trying to cut prices as a policy. The only thing that would be increase is After Sale Services (ASS). A normal PC you would sell to a home needs a more dedicated, nurturing ASS taking more time, needing more caring because the customers aren't computer literate. You want to sell equipments that work to avoid ever-long ASS requirements. Now corporation is different, they have a huge park of computer, hence dedicated IT personnel and Dell's ASS would deal with these pros and not the mere customer. Professional to professional ASS, you already know the needs so 1 ASS rep can attend much more at a time. So it does not matter so much if the equipment fails more, your dedicated ASS will deal with the situation. Eventually it is all about how Dell can make things integrated and cut down prices.
But here I am, slow computer with an apparent hardware issue. Our IT tries to help, but he is no ASS so he quickly propose "let's talk to the ASS!" "to whom?" "To dell!" "are they that bad?" "No they've got a good ASS"  "Wow they're that good?" "well I've seen better ASS" "What?" "What what?"...
My buddy said once when I was crying my problems at him I had 3 possible origins for that problem: the cables, the boards, the docking station. So basically as a researcher you try all possibilities one by one and pray it's not the motherboard.
So I changed the cables but the computer remained slow. I moved on to the docking station and waited 8 weeks to get the new one shipped. You know how corporation company work: you pass your order to the system, it goes from local to regional supply chain, from then the orders goes to Dell Global. This already took at least 4 weeks (oh yeah we're that good). Then Dell ships it back to us it takes 4 more weeks so if you sum it all I would have waited less by walking there taking my docking station and coming back home with it!
But nevermind I do have the docking station and my problems should be over. Well I did wait 8 weeks only to realize that it was the motherboard that was failing after 10-20 minutes of using the docking station. They probably extended tests at Dell, but the cards passing all the tests go for whole sale and the ones passing all the critical tests but not all the tests are reserved for corporations if the other boards all falty. If I had to go through all these problem for my personal Dell I'll be dead angry asking for a refund and going to buy an ASUS or (OMG!!) a Mac. But because I am in a corporation, laws of corporations are much more compliant with that sort of incident (or they understand each other because they all do the same).
Sweet Corporation Deals!!

Expensive Oil, Cheap equipment

I don't know how it is in other industries but, in mine there is like a motto: it must be economical (aka cheap). I may be a bit caricatural and extremist, but if you look at a particular segment of our industry it is totally turned towards that motto. Unfortunately I am talking about the field part, the extraction part of the industry, the one directly in contact with the oil, the field, environment and all what it means (aka Macondo disaster, just look for the spill containment technology at that time). Looking at a rig you can see that companies will look at building it the cheapest way, within the boundaries of the technically possible and the economically feasible, the human or environmental factor is not a priority into the equation unless governmental pressure. Security measures are written in blood because people wouldn't work on it or using it otherwise and also because it is safer, not the contrary. Our industry we don't work to create the value, we work to extract it so in a way it is for free. Aeronautics are workers creating a value, same for automotives or space commuters. Mining extract something that originally came out of pure luck. In Africa some countries have to import flower and eggs because the inhabitants are not stimulated to go to the field and harvest. They prefer the 8-12 hours of rig hours where they have less responsibility and the security of the salary rather than the never ending farmer prospecting and the varying income of an independent. I don't blame, I have that but governments should stimulate stability in order to diversify economy and get their country away from fragility. That's why we have so much accidents, a lot of them aren't divulged not to stimulate the media and give bad advertising.
To resume (but not to spit on production companies, some really show a different behaviour) the main difference between operating companies and service companies lies from the fact that the latter are delivering a value added where the earlier extract value without creating it. Where it becomes complicated is when within the same company you have also research or services. These people create value added hence the difference in philosophy (and a possible window of change). But the essence of the producing company is to get from the soil something that they have not created. The notion of property comes from the money and the odd you put into prospection in order to get the oil.

Denver Colorado yihaaaaaaa!!



J'ai toujours tendance a venir pas trop prepare pour les voyages. Probablement un instinct de fuite des idées préconçues. Me voila à Denver dans le Colorado et le pays des T-Rex. Toujours bluffé par la taille de leurs installations et mon admiration infantile pour les camions américains (ooo Optimus!!). Les rocky mountains sont vraiment jolies et me rappelent le ski.
En fait cette ville est preparee pour la neige, on se croirait autour de Perpignan avec les longues barrieres en bois pour arreter la neige en cas de vent. Vu que Denver est au pieds des montagnes (d'où le surnom Mile High City) mais aussi au bout de 1000 km de prairies le vent doit vous en décorner plus d'un. Le Colorado on dirait que c'est des plaines a perte de vue (depuis l'avion, ce qui impressionne) aux pieds des montagnes. Denver ne parait pas une grande ville, on arrive vite au centre.

Cette ville est à taille humaine et très propre. Elle a une forte histoire liée á l'exploration minière, l'or et la ruée vers l'ouest. Ancien outpost d'échanges entre la civilisation et le Wild Wild West. Moi qui voulait satisfaire ma culture personnelles je voulais faire les musées (histoire naturelle, musée du dollar puisse que Denver est une des villes qui sert de marché aux farmers du mid ouest...) mais j'ai fini par satisfaire les besoins des autres et j'ai passé ma journée dans un autre symbole de l'Amérique: les shopping malls (erfff!). N'empèche que Denver donne envie de prendre ses pompes de trecking et partir faire 50km dans la montagne. En plus Aspen est pas loin donc :-D.
Maintenant vous vous demandez ce que je suis venu faire à Denver? Non je ne suis pas partis en vacance, pas l'habitude de laisser ma femme à la maison à s'emmerder seule. Je ne suis pas venu faire un séminaire de rodéo (énormément de foire aux bébettes par là), j'ai assisté à une rencontre internationale de mon travail. Un peu les oscars du pétrole, une foire gigantesque du petrobiz ou tout le monde se regarde et montre comment il est beau et fort (avec une image comme ça comment voulez vous qu'on se foutte pas de votre gueule, non mais franchement!!). C'est comme les oscars du pétrole en gros. Des stands énormes avec des écrans dans tous les coins, des stands de display pour les nouveaux équipements. Il y en a pour tous les goûts! Les gars ont tellement de merchandizing que le dernier jour je suis allé faire mon shopping et j'ai faillis casser mon joli bag!!! mazette mazette 50 stylos, 4 tasses, 3 protèges bouteilles et 8 revues plus loins, il était temps de rentrer. Si vous êtes plutôt un NERD (ça arrive) vous pouvez suivre les présentations dans les salles annexes, près de 100 par jours sur les 3 jours, ça donne mal à la tête. Sinon  c'est un défilé de personalités locales du biz qui arborent leurs décorations que la conférence vous donne. Genre vous avez un badge, et puis un fagnon de présenteur si vous faites une présentation, et si vous avez plus de 30 ans de métier on vous en file un autre, vous pouvez être special guest (un autre..). Au total vous avez un tapis sur le sein gauche où on viens de vous acrocher le badge d'admission (si maman j'te jure, ils m'ont filé un rouleau entier!!). Sur la photo il y en a un qui a un petit bout de tapis taggé sur le sein (deuxième en partant de la droite) ça peux descendre assez bas. Je ris pas mal de tout ça mais j'ai beaucoup aimé quand même, c'est sympa de participer à un évènement comme celui-ci