Thursday, December 30, 2010

Winter with her great white coat :) was on Fiduciastrasse!



It is quite impossible to work without staring from time to time at the beautiful landscape outside our office, in the Fiducia back yard...
Winter and her great white coat :) 


And what to do  in your lunch break, outside, especially if you are Panamanian, Brazilian or Colombian and it is your first snow ever?

Paulo, cybernetical specialist, Brazil




Well, improve 'snowball making' skills now...
Aldo, one of our techies, Panama



...for future projects, later :))






Please applaude the team for giving birth to a new member inside the Fiducia IT AG, the Snowman that will help us programming :)) and lead the project to success!


                                   

                               Have a 'New Happy Year!' and a lot of energy for your future 'projects' !

                                                   The bBox team :)

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

bBox Christmas Video :)

Hello, everyone!

This is how we imagined a nice day together with our project initiators and...it happened! :)




bBox project initiators and us :)
Mr. Jens Zimmermann (1st row, left corner)
Mrs. Leonie Bartz (2nd row, left corner)
Mr.Herbert Ziefle, Mr. Uwe Joas, Mrs. Simone Te-Strote (3d row, from left to right)




And this is our little surprise for them!










 We also received presents: new devices!




Aldo, the biggest Apple fan





The most fashionable purses :)








Thank you for sharing your time with us!


bBox :)
  

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Berlin: a city that left us speechless...

 


Hello, from Claudia!

Here are a series of photos that describe better than words what the bBox team together with friends from AIESEC Karlsruhe did in only a two days time in Berlin...

From happy to sad, we experienced a wide range of states, due to the places we visited. Let the pictures raise your interest and, hopefully, make you admire Germany for the country that is today.


Checkpoint Charlie (or "Checkpoint C") was the name given by the Western Allies to the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War.



Mauer Museum (Wall Museum)


The national Parliament of the Federal Republic of Germany
(Reichstag refers to the building, while Bundestag to the institution)

The current Reichstag dome is a glass dome constructed on top of the rebuilt Reichstag building in Berlin. It was designed by architect Norman Foster and built to symbolize the reunification of Germany.
 
What an imposing modern sort of a flag was waiting to be admired!










A large and very plump version of the eagle decorates the chamber of the Bundestag: it is sometimes called "Fette Henne" (Fat Hen), with a similar representation found on the Euro coin.


Reichstag – A place where history meets contemporary architecture



In recent years, the German Bundestag has developed into a major visitor attraction. More than 15 million people have visited it since the transfer from Bonn to Berlin.






 
Berlin Hauptbahnhof (Berlin Central Station), is the main railway station in Berlin, Germany and the largest crossing station in Europe.


It began full operation two days after a ceremonial opening on 26 May 2006. It is now Europe's largest two-level railway station.




The true historical center of the city is in the eastern half. Probably the most easily recognized monument is the Brandenburg Gate, which was the main gathering place for celebrations following the fall of the wall in 1989. 

The Branderburg Gate

                                       On its eastern side is Pariser Platz.
















The Berlin Wall, today...













Alexanderplatz, also known as Alex, is one of Berlin’s liveliest squares and public transportation hubs. Looming above it is a 1 200-ft-/365-m-high TV tower - the tallest structure in Berlin (you can go to the top for an excellent view of the city).




Berlin has got so much to reveal: history, culture, tradition, modern, art... and the people, who put so much effort into keeping it vivid and interesting.

 Maybe you set it as your next destination..I am surely doing so, since a weekend was not enough to dedicate to it!

Friday, December 10, 2010

Saint Nicholas :)


          Sankt Nikolaus, in Germany, as well as worldwide within christian communities, is celebrated on 6th December. Every year, on this date, we commemorate the one that dedicated his life to serve Christ and taught the good through the power of his own example.

Why does he look like Santa Claus, some would ask themselves? Including our chinese colleague, Xi Huang, or even the Latin Americans? :)) 

            Traditionally, Nikolaus is associated with an old man that would visit children and reward them with little sweet gifts if they behaved well the entire year and with a little wood stick if not :)





And why were they so many in our office?
           1. Because we are a good good team that is very hard working?
               Yes, true, true...
           2. Well, Fiducia IT AG has its own tradition: every year, people working in the company can make  chocolate little Saint Nicholases gifts and express their good thoughts and wishes to their colleagues on a  card. The money paid for the gifts would then be raised and donated.




Here you can observe how amazed and curious my colleagues were... :))




And here, the joy and happiness... :) Our colleagues from Fiducia thought of us :)


 Imagine 5000 Saint Nicholases being delivered inside the whole company...
 We actually 'caught' one of Saint Nicholas's Assistant...Christian Schuler, also an intern at Fiducia IT AG.

 Thank you, Christian!



    Thank you, Fiducia!

Monday, December 6, 2010

Moving on to the next stage

Last Tuesday, AIESEC Karlsruhe held a highly formal presentation to the board of AIESEC sponsors to get more supported. As members of such an important project raised by AIESEC Karlsruhe, we attended as well – in suites, ties, shirts, high-heels, and presented our bBox project. To our delight, the chiefs were satisfied with our work and showed the will to welcome us back to work in Karlsruhe.

well arranged meeting place

Besides, with presentations of our research work on user interfaces and the last brainstorming of favourite toys with Mr. Ziefle and Mr. Zimmerman, our first stage – ‘thinking’, came to an end successfully. It’s really nice to see that our ‘brainstorming wall’ is full of ideas on both sides! And we are eager to ‘cook’ them together! To achieve this, we worked in 2 groups -- one had to categorize ideas, and the other one had to decide evaluation criteria, to find an efficient way of evaluation and choose the most interesting but feasible ideas. With everyone’s effort, the bBox project is able to move on to the next stage from this week!


Full brainstorming wall


And guess which sport we like the best in winter? Snowball fight! And of course the Latin boys were the most excited ones.



For me, the most exciting thing is Christmas! I’ve never celebrated Christmas before – it’s not a traditional holiday in China. Therefore it will be my first real Christmas with beautiful Christmas market, Glühwein, and secret Santa!


Xi Huang
Cybernetic Specialist