Woland's

Google closing Aardvark

2011-09-06T20:21:00.001+03:00

Google has decided to close Aardvark.
I hope that they wouldn't.
Aardvark is a service that allows you ask a question and the system would refer it to a person (volunteer) that reported to have knowledge about the subject.
This system works best for question that a human would answer better than any Google search.
Let's hope that Google would use this technology in their searches someday, if they kill the project after all.

New GWT Tools

2010-09-23T20:53:00.001+02:00

Google has brought out some very elaborate tools for web development. Developing these tools must have required considerate effort and money. Why would a company develop these tools and deliver them for free?
My guess is that these tools are designed to come in complement with Chrome Apps store and intended for the coming Chrome OS.

Flotilla of Provocation

2010-06-01T08:39:00.002+03:00

This is my translation of "Flotilla of Provocation" by Voitenko Michael

The big headline of today - the storm of the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla" by the Israeli military, which, as declared, carried humanitarian aid intended for the Gaza strip, which is blockaded by Israel without proper authority.The fleet's flagship, cruise ship called Mavi Marmara (525 tons deadweight, buit in 1994, sailing under flag of Comora and operated by Turkiye Denizcilik Isletmeleri Denizyollari Isletmesi Mudurlugu), was taken by storm, resulting in several people dead, exact number unknown. The progressive mankind is furious and demanding that the Israeli war machine to be brought to justice. The old and familiar case - would the USSR still exist, by the evening the "masses of workers" would be brought to protest demonstrations, where they, yawning as usual, would ask each other, what is the matter and who do we protest against this time.

This whole story, from the pretentious name "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", to thousands miles and even more, smells like a very elaborate provocation. It has been declared that the flotilla cariies 10,000 tons of cargo, strictly humanitarian. Look at the photo of the fleet's flagship, the Mavi Marmara, and tell me where do you see the cargo holds. There are none. On the other hand there are 750 activists, that would eat and drink more than it would cost to deliver these 10,000 tons of cargo. There are 6 (six) vessels, while for the 10,000 tons, it would be sufficient to chart only one small cargo ship, which would cost much less than one Mavi Marmara. The question - why one would chart an expensive cruise ship and load on it 750 parasites, charting another 5 ships for the cargo, 5, when only one would be sufficient?

Let's assume that I'm set out to deliver 10,000 tons of cargo to the Gaza strip and I do not have any other hidden agendas. While at it, the shipper what's to save costs, as it should be. What would I do? I would freight a descent cargo ship, meanwhile I would make inquiries about the status in Gaza, and if my ship can reach it without issues. I would be told that it would not. Then I'd ask about the cargo. I would be answered that it would, under the condition that it would pass through an Israeli port, where it would be checked for restricted materials, since the strip is controlled by Hamas, which most of the world classifies as a terrorist organization. I'd make sure to inquire which goods are allowed and which are restricted. I woudl agree tho the terms. Next I would ask how can I make sure that the cargo would reach the target? I would be told, that I can take whoever I like, observers, journalists, as ling as they are peaceful and unarmed. I would take the ship, load the cargo, and a dozen of journalists and rights activists, and calmly set off on my way. The cargo could be in the strip a long time ago.

On the other hand, let's assume that my agenda is different - to make sure that the cargo is stopped, while at it someone to get hurt, and to make as much noise and yells for the whole world to hear. Let's assume that I was told thet the money is not an issue, and the humanitarian supplies and other nonsense, is all for cover, and the main goal is to show the world the inhumane face of Israel.Assuming that I was tempted by the offer, I would rent an expensive cruiser, which is totally unsuited to cargo transfer. I load 750 people, take whoever I can as long as they are loud and some are armed and violent. As for the cargo, which would contain, deliberately, forbidden items, so to make sure that it would be detained, I would chart 5 ships, since I don't need a cargo transfer. I need a "Gaza Freedom Flotilla". I would take this flotilla and for a long and boring trip around the Mediterranean, in order to produce the required hype. Finally, as I would be sure that the whole world knows about my flotilla, and everyone is already interested, I would rush the fleet to the forbidden waters, hopping that, in the last minute, the Israeli authorities wouldn't withdraw and storm the fleet.

I wouldn't be disappointed. The ships were intercepted. When they boarded the flagship, where they were met with my 750 noise makers, and not just them. I succeded in my mission - a scandal for the whole world, the progressive mankind is professionally indignant, Europe calling Israel to justice. Who cares about the cargo? I don't care and don't want to, since I wasn't hired for it.

This is, in my view, the whole story about the "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", which deserves a better name as a "Flotilla of Provocation".

Sharing a printer from Windows 7 to Vista/XP

2010-05-17T19:54:00.001+03:00

Many people encounter a problem, when trying to share a local (USB) printer from Windows 7 to it's older cousins, like Windows XP, or Vista.

The problem is that many manufacturers (HP, Canon, etc.) have decided to package their printer drivers into executable installer file, instead of using Microsoft's "inf" file format with libraries.
Windows printer sharing service allows to provide drivers for others versions of Windows for the guest computers, however it requires drivers in the "inf" file format. On the other hand, the guest system can use it's own drivers, if the server (host) doesn't have the correct version, then again it requires the "inf" format. So, apparently, we are in a deadlock.

Fortunately there is a trick that helps to avoid this deadlock.
You will need to:

Install the printer locally on the guest and host machines.
On the host machine to share the printer
On the guest machine

Go to the printer's preferences (right click -> preferences)
Go to port tab
Add port -> Local port -> enter the shared printer's network path (eg. \\PC\Printer).
Confirm

Check that it works.

This way we make Windows to use the installed drivers, even if the manufacturer didn't provide the "inf" files installer (probably on purpose).

Hat tip to user kgo08 on Tom's Hardware forums.

New Mail for Exchange breaks Google Sync support

2010-04-11T11:45:00.001+03:00

Nokia has never officially supported Mail for Exchange for use with Google Sync, however even without the official support, it worked. Unfortunately with the introduction of Mail for Exchange 3.0, syncing mail does not work anymore with Google Sync.
Google, obviously do not use MS Exchange, rather they provided with their own implementation of the protocol, possibly buggy and/or incomplete.
Nokia on their side point at Google that their implementation is incompatible, meanwhile made the previous working version unavailable, probably wanting to favor their Symbian over Android and crappy Ovi service over Google's.
Google on their side, do nothing, and being Google, probably do not care too much, and/or do not want to promote Symbian.

So here, users of Google services with Nokia devices are left out in the cold, without support from neither company.

Good work, Nokia and Google.

P.S.
My local Nokia representative was kind enough to provide me with a last working version (2.9.158) of Mail For Exchange for my device.

The bad, the ugly and copyright

2010-02-25T11:00:00.001+02:00

Recent developments in the the fields of copyright and the field of responsibility of the the hosting provider are more than alarming. They are outright dangerous.

Recent court verdict in Italy against Google, semi legal attempt to close down Russian torrent tracker Torrents.ru and several other cases show that we are at a very dangerous path that can seriously damage our cultural and technologic progress. Furthermore, copyright laws, quickly becoming into a weapon to ram anyone or anything, like business or political opponents.

If drastic moves will not be taken soon, we will see more such cases and they will be more and more dangerous and ugly.

Country’s leading paper

2009-12-05T11:34:00.001+02:00

I’ve reminded myself why I don’t read printed papers anymore. I happened to get the latest weekend edition only to see how little space is dedicated to actual content. I don’t even refer to commercials, which take up to 70% of the printed space. The rest, very much reminds of children picture books, where you get a few lines of text and a large drawing above or below.

That is a country’s leading paper.

eviL swodniW

2009-11-13T11:19:00.003+02:00

I keep getting disturbing messages from Microsoft about this mysterious "eviL swodniW".

Apparently Microsoft are unable to send an email correctly when using RTL.

Update:

Apparently is it a bug in Windows Live Mail desktop application.

Some things do not change

2009-09-01T10:35:00.002+03:00

Taken out of context, 101 years old, yet true as ever:

They just used to skedaddle off to work--I've seen hundreds of 'em, bit of breakfast in hand, running wild and shining to catch their little season-ticket train, for fear they'd get dismissed if they didn't; working at businesses they were afraid to take the trouble to understand; skedaddling back for fear they wouldn't be in time for dinner; keeping indoors after dinner for fear of the back streets, and sleeping with the wives they married, not because they wanted them, but because they had a bit of money that would make for safety in their one little miserable skedaddle through the world. Lives insured and a bit invested for fear of accidents. And on Sundays--fear of the hereafter. As if hell was built for rabbits!
H.G. Wells. The War of the Worlds (1898)

What’s the fuss about bing?

2009-06-23T17:31:00.000+03:00

Seriously, what is the fuss about bing?

What are the killer features that could sway customers from using Google? I can’t see a single one.

Results accuracy is quite similar, search features, I think are better at Google, with a little nicer visual design at bing.

Will bing become a Google killer, or Microsoft great success? I really doubt that.

Symbolic indeed

2009-06-16T17:18:00.002+03:00

"It is very symbolic, that president of Iran has chosen Russia for his first first to a foreign country after his reelection", said Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov. "We view it as a sign of active development of relations between Russia and Iran".

I say that it is symbolic indeed, that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad comes to Russia, while his country is torn apart by allegations of rigged elections, elections that he is being accused of rigging, due to Russia's great experience of rigging elections.
Perhaps Ahmadinejad should have come to consult with Vladimir Churov before the elections and not after, since the rigging din't go too well in Iran.

However Chinese representative to the summit in Russia, could instruct him on how to handle the opposition and the civil unrest.

A must read

2009-02-03T20:51:00.004+02:00

A Minority Report from the West Bank and Gaza
I'm not even going to quote parts of it, even thou there are a lot of thing I could quote from the article. I suggest you read it whole, for it's entire length.

The true meaning of "HAMAS"

2009-01-27T09:01:00.003+02:00

Got in an email message:
source "The San Diego Union-Tribune"

Spot on...

2008-11-30T06:50:00.002+02:00

I just hope that islamists would get it's own sting up in his own ass soon enough.

Annoying issue with FireFox 3.x and FireBug 1.2.x

2008-08-13T16:51:00.006+03:00

There is an annoying issue with FireFox 3.x and FireBug 1.2.x.
When trying to parse XML you get:

Error: Permission denied to get property Element.childNodes
Source file: http://www.w3schools.com/XML/tryit_view.asp
Line: 24

Apparently it is an issue with FF itself.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=434522
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=385676

Hopefully, since both issues are recently marked as solved, this issue would be resolved in the next FF update.

Update:
This issue was solved in FF 3.0.3

Update 27 Jan. 2009:
This is finally solved with Firebug 1.3

A must see...

2008-02-25T16:34:00.000+02:00

Is Putin delusional?

2008-01-19T17:24:00.000+02:00

I would like to combine what I've heard, read and seen for the last few years and combine it all into a theory that I've come to about Mr. Vladimir Putin.

There is a continuous trend in declarations and actions by Russian administration, that Russia is up again and ready to take the place of the former Soviet Union in cold confrontation with USA.
Many consider all of the anti American sentiments part of the Putin's government's propaganda for domestic consumption. I think that they are wrong. Even if they were right to some extend, it was obvious that some day it would make it to Russia's foreign policy.

I think that Mr Putin is caught in the soviet reality, and he projects this reality on Russia's policy on every "front".

I think that Putin actually believes in "The West's" ambition to conquer Russia and all of the former Soviet Republics.
If you assume that I'm right, you can easily understand Putin's position on NATO's expansion to the east and how it must fuel his suspicions. So goes for the war in Yugoslavia and Iraq. The situation around Iran and North Korea.
Now if you look the missile systems that US wants to deploy in Europe from Putin's perspective you can see nothing but another step in the plan to conquer Russia, and all the promises and explanations that these are steps against nuclear Iran, look, at best, as cheap trick to fool the public opinion.

Unfortunately such convictions, which are often called paranoia, are really hard to cure. Often such patients require compulsory hospitalization. Being the president of the state, Putin may only be hospitalized by the Russian people, but at this stage, they are either too scared, don't care, or share his delusions.

Stop these chain mails

2008-01-19T11:00:00.001+02:00

Damn, how I hate chain mails!
All of us have received tons of them. All those messages with shaman like prophecies:

"If you send this message to 'enter number of' friends you would get a 'enter time span' of 'enter a reward', if you send to 'enter a larger number of' friends you would get a 'greater time span' of 'the same reward', if you 'close/delete/ignore' this message you get a 'very long time span' of 'some cruel misfortune'."

Fill the italic fields with correct values.

Message like this, work on your feeling while bypassing all logic and sense. This is a marvelous display of the technique called social engineering and is often abused by various cyber criminal groups.

Therefore, I come to propose this set of rules to all of us:
If you get such a message by email, IM or SMS, you should be doing the following:

Reply the person or his whole distribution list and explain to him/her the error of his/her way. Perhaps even send him to a link to a resource that will do it better and save your time, while be more successful in delivering the message.
Delete this message permanently, even if it means fighting the urge to sending it to someone else.

I hope that some day we would convince all of our naive friends that forwarding all of these "I love you, my friend" messages is stupid and even dangerous.

Maybe this year Linus Torvalds is right

2008-01-16T09:25:00.000+02:00

Lets place some facts together:

Dell is successfully shipping desktops and laptops with Ubuntu Linux for quite a while, and recently has updated it's line.
Asus EEE PC is a huge hit in US and it is shipped with Xandros Linux.
Everex Green PC is one of the bestsellers at Wal-Mart and it is shipped with modified Ubuntu Linux (gOS) .
Acer is starting a pilot in Australia, shipping it's low end laptops preinstalled with Linux.
Shuttle introduced an Everex Green PC competitor for similar price. Also running Ubuntu.
Everex is expected to start shipping their Cloudbook laptops with similar characteristics as Asus EEE PC and also at similar price. Will be shipped with gOS.
Lenovo has announced , that it would ship R61 and T61 Thinkpad laptops with SUSE Linux.
There are small companies like System76, ZaReason that, for quite a while, offer Linux based systems.
There are companies that offer Linux based thin clients as products (Koolu) or as service (Zonbu).
There are OpenMoko and Google Android projects providing Linux in cellular phones.

Update:

Mirus are selling another sub $200 desktop, with Linspire Linux at Sears.

Do we have a trend here?
I think that we do.
Perhaps it is not long for Linux to go mainstream.

Microsoft at their game

2007-11-02T15:28:00.000+02:00

Want a perfect example of how Microsoft makes business?
Read an open letter to Steve Ballmer, in recent post on a blog by François Bancilhon.
Two best describing quotes from the letter:
This:

Then, your people get in the game and the deal got more competitive. I would not say it got dirty, but someone could have said that.

and this:

Wow! I’m impressed, Steve! What have you done to these guys to make them change their mind like this? It’s quite clear to me, and it will be to everyone. How do you call what you just did Steve? There is various names for it, I’m sure you know them.

In every joke... No2

2007-10-24T17:34:00.000+02:00

I've mentioned before, that often, jokes reflect our real life in great accuracy.
This one I've received over email, a few days ago.

A "Zaporojetz" has collided with "Volga" belonging to a General from the FSB.
In short, the driver of the "Zaporojetz" has turned out to be a smuggler, a terrorist, a spy....

Actually, one poor fellow was sentenced guilty for turning on some crazy hotshot path, who driving at speed just below 200Kph. Unfortunately for the poor guy, the "pilot" that had died at the crash site, was from the leading elite, dooming the unfortunate driver before the trial has even began.

The Russian way

2007-10-18T11:41:00.000+02:00

While American legislators work to promote freedom of speech, Russian legislators do it in their special way:

"Russian parliament was introduced a bill proposing to register information on each unit transfers of video/audio compilation, software and database on any medium. In addition, manufacturers will be allowed to sell equipment designed for copying listed information (such as typewriters CD and DVD drives), only those with a license for it. Approval of the bill could result in serious problems for the equipment manufacturers as well as for ordinary users who have to register even video recording made by a mobile phone. "

In short, welcome Orwell's 1984.

In my opinion it could be one of the two, or both:
First option is ground checking, what if
Second is a public relations stunt. To make Putin and his heir to be seen as a better alternative. Putin will come as a knight in shiny armor and "save Russia" from evil plot.

Useful Eclipse key shortcuts

2007-10-18T10:57:00.000+02:00

I've collected some useful Eclipse key shortcuts:

	Key combination	Effect
	Ctrl+Shift+C	Comment/Uncomment selection
	Ctrl+Shift+/	Comment selection
	Ctrl+D	Delete line
	Ctrl+Del	Delete next word
	Ctrl+Bksp	Delete previous word
	Ctrl+Shift+Del	Delete till EOL
	Alt+Shift+M	Extract method
	Ctrl+F	Find and replace
	Ctrl+K	Find next
	Ctrl+Shift+K	Find previous
	Ctrl+L	Go to line
	Ctrl+Shift+D	Go to matching bracket
	Ctrl+Shift+enter	Insert line above
	Ctrl+Enter	Insert line below
	Ctrl+Shift+F	Auto format selected code

Enjoy :)

Bloggers are included in the new federal journalist shield

2007-10-18T09:02:00.000+02:00

Read this piece by Nate Anderson.
We will just have to ask our legally literate friends, what does this new bill actually mean.

Hippo bites a 12 y.o. in a zoo

2007-10-17T08:55:00.000+02:00

A 12 year old boy was attacked by hippo in Ramat Gan zoo called "Safari".
You might ask, how might such thing happen?
Well, the explanation is simple, let's just quote the boy's father:

"There was row of a few dozens of cars has stopped, and everybody went out of their cars and began photographing. My son went out to take pictures, as well. Then, suddenly, the hippo ran out to him, grabbed him by his leg and flanged him into the air..."

Right...
It is not that there are about every few dozens of meters big signs telling in 3 languages "Do not leave your vehicles!". They probably should present them with pictures, just like in comic books. Writing in the man's mother language, apparently, just wasn't enough.

But wait there is more! Read what the man has else to say:

"Me and my brother in law, "jumped" at it pulled the boy. We fought it and threw stones at it, until it ran away. Usually I carry a knife, but today it wasn't on me. If i had it with me, I would have killed the beast. I've saved the kid, and luckily it ended this way. If it would grub him at the head it dragger to the lake, it would have ended with death."

What a moron.

African hippo is one of the most dangerous animals in the zoo, and in Africa, hippos are accountable for more human casualties than any other animal. They are highly territorial and will defend their territory fiercely from any intruder.

Business first, logic later.

2007-10-09T09:20:00.000+02:00

Our beloved OEM's keep stuffing their product's hard drives with all that annoying bundleware. It even comes to an absurd situations:
Lenovo tech support advises to remove Norton Antivirus in order to improve the appalling performance it causes, while Lenovo keeps bundling Symantec products with all of their consumer and many of the business products.
Pure genius.
This is where money dictates the logic.

Pricey future

2007-10-09T09:17:00.000+02:00

I'm so glad that Steve Ballmer saw that the future is in advertising. That's why Microsoft is loosing $1 billion on MSN.
Lucky them, to have deep enough pockets (on our expense).

"Hugo Chavez - a pop star"

2007-10-07T22:40:00.000+02:00

This is the headline that I've read in one of the online editions five days ago (I've been busy).
It says that Hugo has recorded an album and it will be shipped nation wide.

When a president records an alboum of traditional music with a bunch of leading artists on a TV show for the occasion, and the CD's are shipped nation wide on the state's expense, this is as a clear sign as it gets. It must be an autocratic regime.

Raw Trerapee

2007-10-07T20:39:00.000+02:00

Thanks to Linux Action Show podcast, I've learned about Raw Therapee - a cross platform raw image file editor.
It is free (as a free beer) and clearly based on open source projects, unfortunately it is not an open source project itself. Too bad.
On the bright side, it has a nice set of features, and a solid GUI.
Anyways it is a great piece of software.

A wish granted

2007-09-17T08:47:00.000+02:00

Remember me hoping for SCO filing for bankruptcy?
They are!
Not completely destroyed thou, but I hope that investors lost enough money to teach them a lesson.

It must be the date...

2007-09-11T09:23:00.000+03:00

It seems that my birthday is some sort of magnet for bad news...

Happy birthday to me!

2007-09-11T09:18:00.000+03:00

Birthday balloon from my sister. :)

Apple stubled upon Firefox's bug

2007-09-06T18:18:00.000+03:00

The new iPods are out, but I wont be writing about them, there are just too many who already do. ;)
I want to notice that Apple online store site manages to hang Firefox.
They have probably an undiscovered Firefox's bug since the site does load in both IE and Opera, very sluggishly however.

SCO "You are stealing from us, but we won't tell you what" looses legal battle

2007-08-14T09:52:00.000+03:00

Happy day to all!

Well, one idiotic, yet dangerous legal battle is over.
Court has stated that all rights for Unix and UnixWare are property on Novell and SCO can't claim any right on it. Furthermore, SCO can't sue anyone for "stealing" something that they don't own and must transfer all the royalties collected by SCO from Unix licences (often by using intimidation) to their rightful owner - Novel.
As a result SCO shares dipped 71% in a single day. I'm waiting for the day that SCO would file for bankruptcy.

Read Groklaw for more.

Inconceivable

2007-07-26T08:11:00.000+03:00

I can't believe that that Ehud Olmert is still our PM.
Not this imbecile is speaking of giving parts of Jerusalem to Palestinians.
In what kind of dream world he is living in I don't know.
I don't want to know.
I just want him gone.
For good.

P.S.
Speaking of Ehuds, I would be delighted to see Ehud Barak to join Olmert on his way out of politics.
Even more delighted, to see them go to the place where they belong - behind bars.

The road Internet sensorship laid with IP legislation

2007-07-08T07:52:00.000+03:00

Belgian court of law has concluded that the ISPs (Internet Service Providesr) are responsible for IP violation enforcement. Meaning that Belgian ISPs will have to block file sharing in their networks.
What next, the electric companies would be responsible for copyright violation, since the are providing electricity needed for file sharing?

The true meaning of this decision is that the ISPs will have to enforce censorship on the internet. ISPs, or actually the IP owners will tell you what you may or may not do with your Internet.

Lets help this poor oppressed Muslim

2007-07-08T07:42:00.000+03:00

Ynet reports that in Iranian newspaper "Ya-Asraat" published a story about the "horrible oppression" that Iranian Muslim "suffer" in the US. They needed some photo of an unknown bearded man for the illustration of "such oppressed" Iranian Muslim. They chose no one other then Avigdor Lieberman.
That just shows how "accurate" the media is in most Muslim countries.

Fedora 7 impressions

2007-06-24T19:40:00.000+03:00

I'm by no means a Linux guru. I do know how to make some thing done or how to setup some servers, but not building a Linux system from scratch.
I'm telling you all this since I'm about to tell about my user experience with Fedora 7.

The whole impression, that I have to work harder to get simple tasks done.

At a glance it appears to have more professional flavor than Ubuntu, great artwork (unlike Ubuntu) and a more security driven approach. Here, however the benefits that I've seen end.

For starters, YUM sucks. It is slow, unresponsive with a lot less packages than Synaptic.
Next the tools that were made for ease of administration, the one that would benefit a lot to the overall impression of the distribution, wouldn't work because of some security settings, even with root privileges.
I couldn't make VNC to work for no obvious reason.
Apache wouldn't serve any pages even thou the setup seems to be just fine.

My encounters with Fedora have always been brief. Perhaps it has something to do with the thing that I'm accustomed to, yet neither Debian nor Open Suse weren't as much frustrating as Fedora as has been.

So far, I'm stuck with Fedora because of some hardware manufacturer for a specific, project. It means that I'll have to give it another chance. Who knows, perhaps I'll change my mind?

When pigs cry

2007-06-20T09:34:00.001+03:00

A caricature in the 'Israeli' newspaper. The captions say: 'Go trust that Gaydamak!'
Commenting his withdrawal to buy 'Tiv Taam' and make it kosher.

Name your true reasons

2007-06-17T10:07:00.000+03:00

Everybody are concerned about the air pollution and the global warming.
One of the sides of this concern is many government's stimulation of more modern and less polluting vehicles. Newer and more economical cars, use less fossil fuels meaning less air pollution. Meanwhile the politicians and automobile industry are happy either, more new cars are sold more money pours, more jobs for the people, while less mechanical related accidents.

Well there is a pit fall that I wanted to mention. What about the pollution caused in the production of all the new vehicles? What about pollution from all the old cars needed to be recycled? Has anyone calculated the benefits of making new cars versus keeping the old? If someone did, who did get to see the results?

I have no issues with all the benefits to economics and traffic safety, just don't expect me to blindly believe that it is done for the ecological reasons and definitely not about global warming. You couldn't care less.

I had a hunch...

2007-06-03T23:41:00.000+03:00

I've always thought that the neo-Nazis are a bunch of jerk-offs. Well now it is a scientific fact.

A new study has found that many more women are leaving economically moribund Eastern Germany. The result is a new, frustrated and largely male underclass. And many of them find succor in the neo-Nazi scene.

I wish...

2007-06-03T22:56:00.000+03:00

Lebanon army is trying, not too successfully to crush the Palestinian terrorists. I wish them all the luck in the world at this task. I just wish that Israel would get at least half as much tolerance from the world when we try to do the same.

A non convenient victim

2007-06-03T20:09:00.000+03:00

As you might have heard, that a few residents of Sderot, backed by the ministry of the Foreign Affairs, went to Paris, with the remains of the Qussam and Al-Quds rockets to show the French and the world their suffering.

Guess what? Nobody (almost) cares. Just a handful of journalists bothered to come to the press conference. I don't expect any academic boycotts over Sderot's continues bombardment either.

RIAA: Radio Ga G...ive us your money

2007-05-30T15:01:00.000+03:00

RIAA is always on the prowl.
Now, they put their sights on the terrestrial radio. However the radio is there for a long time, and has some teeth also, therefore it won't be a helpless prey.

I call this whole RIAA and MPAA attitude a legal racketing.

The masterpiece

2007-05-29T21:48:00.000+03:00

A poster that I saw on one of the busy junctions:

The Hebrew captions say:
(Avigdor) Lieberman
(is) the "puddle" of
the Russian mafia.
(He is) Selling out Israel.

Mikhail (Michael) Chernoy (beside the photo)

I would really like to know who is the author of this masterpiece.
Unfortunately, he or she didn't bother to sign his or hers name on it.

Admissible vs inadmissible

2007-05-19T20:09:00.000+03:00

Quoting the IMAO blog: "You can't spell "unethical" without the UN".

Another screw up from the record industry

2007-05-14T21:37:00.000+03:00

It is another example of how greed managed to screw up a good thing.
Remember Pandora.com?
This fabulous web based music service, offers personally adapted internet radio, and thanks to some greedy IP owners, it is available to US listeners only. My guess that they weren't happy enough with the standard licensing fee.

They are so shortsighted that it....
Ahhh, what is the point in saying the same thing over and over...

Not so funny T-shirts

2007-05-14T19:11:00.000+03:00

There is a fashion to print all kinds of nonsense on T-shirts, and not surprisingly, it becomes ugly sometimes.
At best, it ends up with tourist in China buying a T-shirt with pretty hieroglyphs saying "I'm a stupid foreigner, who can't read Chinese".
At worst, a British company selling the following shirts with the following message:

For the non-Russian speaking folks, the writing around the Russian coat of arms says:
"We will clean Russia from all non-Russians".
Definitely not funny.

Thank you Novell, very much

2007-05-14T18:32:00.000+03:00

Novell - Microsoft deal goes according predicted path. After signing patent swap agreement they started their FUD attack on Linux.
This time Microsoft claims that Linux and other open source software violates about 230 patents owned by Microsoft.

Thank you Novell, very much.

Update:
The responses to MS FUD from Linux Torvads, Sun and Open Source Foundation.

The obvious confession

2007-05-08T07:08:00.000+03:00

According to Mignews.com (Rus), Hezbollah has confessed that all of their actions are coordinated and approved by Tehran.
That was much obvious, the only question stands, what do they have to gain from this confession?

One possible explanation is that the Iranians want their neighbors to know who is the boss in town.
Another, that the Hezbollah want their rivals to know that there is a greater power behind them.

Husband for rent

2007-04-29T22:51:00.001+03:00

Quite amusing. In case you have wondered, the add offers all kinds of household repairs.

Bringing the worst news...

2007-04-23T16:13:00.000+03:00

Yesterday I've watched a TV program dedicated to people whose job is bring the families the worst possible news.
Imagine that you have to knock on the door, to tell a mom that her son was killed.
Or to tell 5-6 y.o. kids that the father wouldn't come home anymore.
Would you be able to do that?

By the way, as far as I know, Israel is the only country in the world, where families get to knw about the disaster in a such humane manner. Anywhere else, it is done by phone call, at best, or by standard official letter delivered by mail, at the worst.

What a character!

2007-04-17T19:23:00.000+03:00

Yes, he is drunk. Loves to chat too.

Kazakh answer to Borat

2007-04-15T12:51:00.000+03:00

As if an answer to Borat, Qazaqfil'm has released the Nomad, an historical epic set in 18th-century Kazakhstan, where a young man is destined to unite the country's three warring tribes.

Boris Berezovsky decided to piss off Kremlin

2007-04-13T14:21:00.000+03:00

In his interview to the Guardian, Berezovsky has claimed to bankroll a coup against Putin.

I don't really understand, what did he try to achieve with this interview, since it only helps to the Kremlin gang to portray him as an ultimate criminal besides Mikhail Hodorkovsky. Actually Kremlin didn't really needed his help anyway since they were doing just fine even beforehand.

Like blaming the assassination of Alexander Litvinenko on him. One of the theories is that Litvinenko was assassinated in order to undermine Berezovsky's refugee status in the UK.

100% pirated

2007-04-11T20:01:00.000+03:00

Here is a perfect example for how DRM and skyrocketing the prices benefit only one party - the pirates.

Short vacation

2007-04-07T08:50:00.000+03:00

I'm going for a short vacation for 3 days. Long time since I had any. Perhaps I'll do some mobile blogging on the road.

Laughing at M$ Zune expense

2007-04-02T18:41:00.000+03:00

An oldie, but nevertheless.
Enjoy!

How much maliciously greedy can you be?

2007-03-27T23:47:00.000+02:00

How much maliciously greedy can you be?
The answer from American record and motion picture industries - never enough.

RIAA is suing another 10 y.o. girl, while suing the satellite radio service because there might be a way for subscribers to save the broadcasted compositions. Well done!

Non PC rant...

2007-03-27T23:26:00.000+02:00

In oder to fully demonstrate their readinesses for peace talks, Palestinians have conducted the following activities:

A week of the Holy Martyrs (Shahids) in Beit Lechem university, in order to commemorate the "freedom fighter" Sheikh Ahmed Yassin
New "celebration fireworks" rockets were tested in evacuated settlement Neve Dekalim by peace movement Hammas
The League of Arab Nations has presented a just claim to stop the Jewish immigration to Israel

Ahh... Anв we are supplying them with electricity and transferring money to them.
Let them drown in their own shit.

Microsoft Executive: If You're Going To Steal Software, Steal From Us

2007-03-15T21:50:00.000+02:00

Pirating Microsoft's software actually helps Microsoft, this is what many smart people said in the recent 15 years.
This time Microsoft's executive admits it. And this comes from a company wasting millions on DRM technology research, and infesting their products with it to the core.

While buying Microsoft's products is way worse then pirating it, pirating is a bad thing as well. Because in both ways there is only one looser, the consumer.

New banknote...

2007-03-12T15:12:00.000+02:00

From my email box:
The new banknote from the Bank of Israel:

Justice, sort of...

2007-03-12T13:41:00.000+02:00

One of the Neturei Karta who participated in Holocaust denial conference in Tehran, found out that he no longer welcome in the Haredi community.

Moshe Aryeh Friedman got famous for the lovely picture of him kissing with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Last Friday he was beaten by other members of the ultra religious movement during events to commemorate one of the leader of the Hasidic movement Ali Melekh from Lijaysk.
When the word passed that there is one of the Holocaust deniers is a member of one of the delegations, it caused a storm among the other delegations. A group of Hasidim have beaten him up and took away his clothes that identify his as a religious Jew, to the satisfaction of all other members.

For Geeks only

2007-03-03T12:13:00.000+02:00

OS/2 Warp

Purim!

2007-03-03T11:49:00.000+02:00

On a happy note.
It was Purim yesterday!
The kids were walking out of schools in costumes of every shape form or color. Many workers in various places like banks, offices and stores were wearing funny hats, and colors on their faces.
Even the beggars were not missing out:

Developer friendly

2007-03-03T11:34:00.000+02:00

I have a feeling that there is an aspect of GNU/Linux, *BSD and other open source development that should have more attention.
In recent years Linux has gone a long way, improving both in server and desktop applications. however in order to surpass it's competitors, it needs to satisfy the needs of both users and the developers.
There are a lot of great tools for developers in open source community, but there is almost no open source rapid development tools present.
One of the most valuable resources that a developer has is his time. This is the reason why many developers prefer Windows as a development platform. Open source community desperately needs something like the Visual Studio in order to bring the developers to their side.
Open source must become developer friendly again.

The media IS to blame

2007-03-03T11:30:00.000+02:00

I watched a press conference where MK Asterina Taterman defending herself from the onslaught waged on her by the media.
DISGUSTING!
Disgusting when the press keeps hammering the person, even after he or she presented the proof of the press being wrong. Disgusting was the attitude of the Channel 2, where the reporter allowed himself a cynical remark "the media is always to blame" commenting Taterman's defense.
In this case, yes, you are to blame and guilty as hell!
The attitude of the media, that it can crush anyone they wish, destroy his good name, just because they don't like his political agenda, without the opportunity to defend himself or herself is almost criminal.
Dear journalists, let me remind you your job, because it seams, that you have forgot, what is your job about.
Your job is about bringing the information to the people and letting them to draw their own conclusions. Your job is to bring this information in as objective way as it can be done, no matter how difficult it is. It is not your job to tell us what to think.

Could Dell's IdeaStorm be a roar of a comming avalanche?

2007-02-22T13:41:00.000+02:00

The whole tech related media is in a buzz about the Dell IdeaStorm project where Dell's customers had an opportunity to give feedback about the company's products and services.

The most common request was Dell machines with Linux preinstalled with or instead of Windows. Among other requests were: Open Office instead of Microsoft Office, machines without OS preinstalled and many more.

There are skeptics that say that talk is cheap, and it is quite possible that Dell would actually don nothing about people's requests. However there are publications that Dell executives are showing interest in the results of the project.

How comes the real question, should Dell adopt Linux, would it trigger other major players such and HP, Lenovo and others to follow?
If it would, then it would cause an avalanche effect, making Linux Desktop an industry standard in a single day.

What is also interesting, what dirty tricks Microsoft would attempt in order to prevent this from happening and what will they do, if, or when they fail?

There are still a lot of "if"s, but I will hold my fingers crossed, and no, not for Microsoft.

Just an accident

2007-02-09T16:36:00.000+02:00

Meir of Moscow, Yuriy Lujkov.

When I first saw this face, I hoped that someone had actually used his hands or some blunt object to cause this, but was disappointed to know that it was just a ski accident. After all, there are more then enough reasons to "rub" his face.

Disclaimer: this is not a call for violence, even if he is on a long list of crooked politicians that I deeply dislike.

Steve against DRM?

2007-02-09T16:24:00.000+02:00

Well, public opinion has started to bother Apple Computer's founder, Steve Jobs.
On Apple's site there is Steve's letter, where he opposes DRM, and points the blame at the recording industries.

I really don't know if he was sincere, or it was just to improve his public image, it is a good thing. The more time that DRM issue arises, the greater are the chances that it would make enough negative public sentiment and awareness, so the politicians would have no choice, but to outlaw the DRM.

Update:
Robert Cringely had an interesting insight on this matter. A must-read.

Peace keepers in Lebanon II

2007-01-30T10:57:00.000+02:00

Well, obviously, it was something to be expected.
Mignews reports (Rus) that there are already Hezbollah flags on the Lebanon - Israeli border, while the UN and the Lebanese armed forces prefer not to interfere.

For now there are just flags, but the bunkers are just a matter of time.

Remember me telling you that the UN is a joke?

Rephrasing Henry A. Kissinger

2007-01-28T14:21:00.000+02:00

Rephrasing Henry A. Kissinger:

Ninety percent of the UN members give the other ten percent a bad reputation.

Morning train prayer

2007-01-24T22:47:00.000+02:00

I saw something beautiful this morning.
On the train from Beer Sheba to Tel Aviv, I happened to be in a car with a few religious people. One of them started putting on a tefillin for the morning prayer, the "Shacharit" and soon others followed him. On the way more and more people started joining them. Old and young, army soldiers, and people going to work, Ashkeazi ans Sefearadi, all joined in a common prayer.
I was touched, by seeing this moving improvised synagogue.

Afterwards one of the soldiers asked me if I was a journalist. LOL! He saw me photographing the people praying. I told him that I'm a blogger. Had to explain, what it is a blog afterwards thou.

From him I understood, that was pretty spontaneous, thou it happens occasionally on praying hours of the "Mincha", "Shacharith" and "Arvit".

The farmer and the thief

2007-01-18T13:47:00.000+02:00

I suppose it is an old new for you, but I going to talk about the case when an Israeli farmer, named Shay Dromi, shot two of four Bedouin thieves, killing one, wounding another.

There are several perspectives to this incident.
One is that these farmers at the south of of Israel, and not only them are being robed of their property constantly for the last decade and it is getting worse. The police fails to stop or even minimize the proportions of this plague and the farmers and residents of nearby and not so nearby town and cities pay the price. A week and a half ago in Rehovot, a police officer was stubbed in the neck with a screw driver by a Bedouin car thief. He is still in critical condition.
In this particular case the farm owner has slept in his barn in order to protect hos property. Only one month before, like in this case, his dogs were poisoned and his tractor was stolen. This time they were back for sheep.
It is up to the court of law to decide was there an act of self defense or not, but our laws and our courts are a part of that problem.
Unfortunately, while the police is inefficient in apprehending the thieves, they are too effective in prosecuting the defenders of their property.
And the thieves know thins, and they get bold. They go to steal fearlessly, since they know that they are protected by the law.
Now this farmer is going to face criminal charges for murder, in best case for man slaughter.

The second perspective is that from the Bedouin side. The government, busy in filling their pockets and dodging criminal investigations, are too busy to take a look at the abysmal situation the Bedouin population is in. 80% of the Bedouin population in unregistered settlements are unemployed. They are driven away from their traditional way of life and left unequipped to move on. Therefore many turn to crime.

The third perspective, is how the press covers the event.
While most media channels described the impossible situation the farmer was in, and to some extent the situation that the of Bedouin population, some decided to look at it from their subjective point of view. Haaretz, for example, "forgot" to mention that the Mr. Drori was attempting to provide medical assistance to the men he shot when the police and the medical teams arrived. They have decided to tell that he "wasn't cooperative with the investigators and demanded a lawyer", which is, as far as I remember, his legal right.
The public, on the other hand, judging from the comments sections in the MSM web sites, are very supportive of Shay Dromi with an approximate ratio of 300:1.

What happened to The Thought Mill?

2007-01-18T13:23:00.000+02:00

I've just noticed that The Thought Mill, run by Deborah is not available.
I hope it is only temporally.

Deborah, is everything alright?

Changing the look

2007-01-15T08:21:00.000+02:00

Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert has passed a cosmetic surgery to reshape his brows.

Nice try prime minister, but your eyes still look lying.

Perhaps I'll be back this time...

2007-01-14T12:53:00.000+02:00

Every weekend I try to find the time to blog, yet every time I find other important things to do.
i thought that now that I have my new toy it would also help my blogging, but... yep you know the excuse - every time I find other important things to do.
Now that I do have ideas to blog about, I struggle to find the time.

I can't promise but I'll try to improve... :)

"What a wonderfull world"

2006-12-13T08:16:00.001+02:00

The caption (white on blue, above the photographs) says: "What a wonderful world". (Updated)
You got to love this caption for these photographs in the 'Israeli' daily paper.

Peace keepers in Lebanon

2006-12-06T23:01:00.000+02:00

Let me share a story I've heard from an IDF soldier , this evening on my way home.

About 500 meters from the border there are remains of a house that was destroyed during the last war. Of that house, only the concrete pillars left standing, therefore the house is called the "pillar house" among the soldiers. It is known, that in a bunker, hidden in the basement of that house, there is still, a large quantity of weapons and fighting gear.
Leaving aside the question, why didn't IDF remove these weapons during the war, I would like to convey you to you, a scene that the IDF soldiers witness from their watch post.
On the Lebanese side of the fence, from time to time you can see a group of people (Hezbollah without any doubt) arriving in their off-road vehicles and Mercedes taking out of the remains of the buatilding crates and boxes and loading them at their cars, while the UN soldiers peacefully observe, from a few meters distance, sometimes leaving their personal weapons in their patrol vehicle.

Quoting the soldier, "the UN forces are a joke", is something that was to be expected.

The Flying Spaghetti Monster

2006-12-02T20:49:00.000+02:00

It is probably an old news for most of you, but it is too hilarious not to mention.

Not so long ago, Kansas school board has decided to hold discussions whether the alternative theory of Intelligent Design should be taught along with the theory of Evolution.
Bobby Henderson has decided to present his own version of Intelligent Design, as one of the alternatives to be taught at schools. According to Mr. Henderson, the world was created by his Noodleness The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
He actually sent a letter to the Kansas school board members demanding that his version of ID to be included in the program. At first there was no response, but after he has opened his website, and the school board members were swarmed by email from the numerous followers of the "new religion" some of them decided to respond.
Read the letter, the responses and the hate-mail he gets daily. Fun guarantied.

Perhaps they are as bad as I thought they are

2006-12-02T20:11:00.000+02:00

Histadrut - the largest Israeli labor union, has arranged another strike in the last week. A short one at least, due to a court order.
I still hold grunge towart Histadrut in general, and Amir Peretz personally, for all the strikes they have organized, in many cases protecting the inefficient and overpaid employees of the ports authorities, or the electric company, meanwhile making insufferable damage to Israeli economics.
This time it seemed that they fighting for a just cause this time. There are several hundreds municipal employees that do not get their salaries for the last several months. In some cases over 7 (seven!) month without a single shekel paid to them.
According to Israeli law, there is an administrative responsibility if the salary wasn't payed till the 10th oh the next month. If the salary is delayed further than this period, it becomes a criminal offense.
The government is defying it's own laws? Isn't the government's job to uphold the law, rather than breaking it and having the Histadrut protecting it?
Well, there is a deeper problem. Most of the problematic municipal authorities don't have money to pay salaries since they are broke. They are broke because they have overblown staffs. A dire reorganization is needed, to save the situation, in order to have a sensible budgets and to have the government to agree to transfer money to them. The problem is that Histadrut prevents such moves, since it will involve termination of numerous jobs in the municipal sector.
Loop closed.

Perhaps the Histadrut are as bad, as I thought they are.

Enemies of the state

2006-12-02T11:44:00.000+02:00

Politics is dirty business. I just can't really to get used to it, and always find myself marveling, just how much dirty they are.
Neither Arkadi Gaydamak nor Avigdor Lieberman are my favorite characters. Lieberman is proving himself as just another greedy politician and Gaidamak has made his fortune from arms deals. But there is some people in the government and the media, that so much afraid of them, that they are ready to do all they can, to prevent them in their way to power, no matter if it is illegal, immoral or ugly. If you have read the Israeli papers in the past month, you would know what I'm talking about.
By the amount of filth that was poured in their direction, you could think of them as some enemies of the state, or criminals like Benny Sela.

Have you read "Running for Governor" by Mark Twain? Some thing never change.

Those beggars

2006-11-24T01:15:00.000+02:00

I never give money to beggars. Some of them I simply don't believe, others even piss me off.
A man that can spend 6-8 hours in the blistering heat on a busy junction, can and should work. These bustards are leeching on social security, meanwhile they are making a lot of money on the streets.
The problem is that there are so many of them. It seems that there are more of them as each year passes. At least, I don't see people on the street sleeping in carton boxes, yet.

Learning new skills

2006-11-04T12:49:00.000+02:00

A few days ago, I've finished reading a book about DHTML and CSS. Both of the are technologies widely used in web design. Right now I hope to find some time to apply my newly acquired knowledge on my blog.
So don't be surprised if you see some redesigning done.

In every joke...

2006-10-21T20:59:00.000+02:00

I remember an old and sad joke:

An old Armenian, on his death bed in Russia, calls for his sons. When they are all assembled, he tells them: "my sons, take care of the Jews, once they are done with them, they would get to us."

There is another paraphrased saying : "in every joke there is a grain of joke (originally truth)".
After hearing the reports how Georgians are treated in Russia at these days, I cannot but to be reminded of this joke. The vicious hunt and discrimination the Georgians are facing nowadays in Russia, alarmingly, remind of the situation the Jews were facing in the Nazi Germany at 1935.

The race for the second place

2006-10-21T20:48:00.000+02:00

I was wondering, which country would take the "honorable" spot of being the second Islamic country, after Pakistan, to possess nuclear weapons.
I have two likely candidates:
One is Iran, an orthodox Islamic state, which in defiance of international community, feverishly tries to achieve nuclear weapons. The other is France, which already possesses nuclear weapons, but not yet became officially Islamic.
Who would you bet on?

Like a bad dream

2006-10-09T19:32:00.000+02:00

For the last six months or so, I have this feeling that the world is going from bad to worse. Iran, Syria, North Korea, corruption, murder and all the other sick reports that I get to read, watch or listen, give me a surrealistic feeling. It reminds me of Saruman from "The Lord Of The Rings", how he watched dark future presented for him by Sauron in the palantir.

What is worse, it looks like very few in the world see the danger and where it comes from. This part scares me most. Using a different allegory, when playing the role of Cassandra, the only gratitude you can expect, are some poisonous snakes to bite you.

Don't you get this feeling sometimes, that this all is a bad dream and you just want to wake up?

The reason for blogging break

2006-10-05T08:40:00.000+02:00

This is the view that I get to see every day that I go to work. Unfortunately, I get to enjoy this kind of site seeing somewhere between three to four and a half hours each time. Combined with nine hour working day, that leaves me very few, if any, time and energy for anything else. As for weekends, they are busy and short. Perhaps, if I'll have a mobile computer, I'll be able to blog on the road. Till then, blogging will be scarce.

Goodbye Steve Irwin

2006-09-04T22:03:00.000+03:00

The famous wildlife expert, Steve Irwin, was killed today, by a stingray, while filming a new wildlife series. I always liked his shows, which were both informative and entertaining.
I know that I would miss to see another new show with Steve.
Rest in peace.

Hebrew blog

2006-09-02T22:54:00.000+03:00

After long delays I've opened a blog in Hebrew.
Had to struggle, a little, to make the template usable, due to issues with right to left writing order.

Delete Israel from the map, starting with Wikipedia

2006-08-29T23:24:00.000+03:00

It seems that someone, or actually a group of people, having administrative rights at Wikipedia, decided to follow Ahmadinejad's call to delete Israel from the map. They have decided to start with Wikipedia first.

In the last two weeks, at least three blogs/podcasts, all having a word "Israel" in the name, were nominated for deletion, two of them were deleted. The deleted references were to Israelisms podcast (deletion notice) and to Israpundit blog (deletion notice). The third page is a quite well known blog, by the name Israellycool (Wikipedia page with deletion notice) . There could be more.

All of them got the same lame excuse for deletion - "a non-notable page".
Yeah, right!
Even if, by using a very harsh criteria, it could be applied to the first two, it certainly cannot be applied to Israellycool. Israellycool's owner, Dave, was interviewed several times, and his blog was referenced numerous times, both by MSM and leading bloggers.

There is no doubt in my mind, that this is a deliberate attempt, to get back at Israel and it's supporters, by abusing the administrative rights, given to Wikipedia's moderators. It a shameful fact that such a noble project as Wikipedia is abused and corrupted because of political agenda.

How to get ready for Microsoft's innovations

2006-08-22T21:03:00.000+03:00

Want to try all the new features of the so often spoken about Windows Vista?
You can try them all, with much less problems with missing drivers, without endless security issues, while running it all on a modest computer. All this for FREE.
All you have to do, is to try Linux...

By the way, Mac OS-X users are enjoying them for about 5 years.

Cooking .com style

2006-08-22T14:25:00.000+03:00

A friend of mine has come up with an interesting approach to cooking. Having a bunch of ingredients and having no idea what to do with them, he entered their names into Google search and got a whole list of recipes to choose from.
I believe that it is quite a wonderful and useful idea.

How it would be nice, to be wrong about this one...

2006-08-21T17:45:00.000+03:00

I usually consider myself as a careful optimist. I believe that you got to be an optimist, at least at some way, otherwise there is no point in living.
Now however, I have a daunting feeling that this war was just a beginning and another one is coming soon, much worse than the one before it.

Israeli government's lack of determination and excessive care to what others would think, has conveyed a wrong message to Palestinians, Hezbollah and their patrons, Syria and Iran. They are now positively sure that military means are best way to deal with Israel. A mistake that would cost us, and them very many lives in the future.

To the dismay of all those who believe that peace is possible only by means of negotiations, it seems that the only way to assure peace, is for Israel to crush all it's neighbors hopes for victory in war with Israel. Unfortunately, the only way to do it, is by a war, as violent as a war can be.

I hate war, but if it is inevitable, then I want to make sure, that this would be the last one in the region, at least for another decade.

Little clarification

2006-08-20T21:36:00.000+03:00

When I started this blog, I intended to write about all the stuff that interests me, which is likely to make this blog into a "Geek blog". However, due to well known circumstances I wrote about politics more often than I intended.
I still want to write about the things I like to talk about, and they, as I have said before, don't conclude with politics. So, don't be surprised if you find an link on a page related to Middle East crisis to an article totally unrelated. It is obviously not me who adds them there. I think that every post that appears on any of the listed blogs, automatically added on the page.

P.S
I don't have any objections to be listed on that page, I just don't like to mislead the public.

Austria to Alexander Averbukh - "Don't come here"

2006-08-20T18:46:00.000+03:00

Mignews reports (in Russian), that the organizers of the Gugl Intersport international championship in athletics in Lintz, have asked from a defending European champion in pole jumping, Alexander Averbukh, not to come.

Their lame excuse was, that they cannot guarantee an sufficient security for an Israeli representative.

Alexander is entitled by every right to participate in this commercial competition. Moreover, by being a professional sportsman, this is his main, if not only, source of income.

The commentator on Mignews, has rightly noticed, that if they cannot provide sufficient security, then they should cancel the whole championship. As for the Austrian government, they should decide, who runs the country, they or the terrorists.

On my behalf I want to add, that I haven't found a tiniest notice about this in English anywhere on the web, which falls into the well known pattern.

Update:
As I've learnt today from the "Israeli" newspaper (yes, it is the newspaper's title), the organizers have reconsidered and decided to withdraw their request.
The excuse they have used in their initial statement was that they didn't want to cover the expenses for the security of Israeli representative.

Now it is up to A. Averbukh to decide, whether he still wants to participate.

In the good company

2006-08-18T18:49:00.000+03:00

Who did congratulate Fidel Castro on his 80th birthday?
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the patron of the Russian democracy, president of the Russian Federation, our beloved Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin.
Hell of a company, isn't it, Volodya?

Starship Troopers 3?

2006-08-05T15:22:00.000+03:00

Some time ago, a fellow blogger Master Durin, had pointed out (in Russian) some similarities between the current Israeli Lebanese conflict, and the plot of the famous animated motion picture called "Starship Troopers".
However, a popular opinion states, that Ahmadinejad has escaped from another movie.

That "ratio"

2006-07-28T19:17:00.000+03:00

I'm getting sick each time I read, or hear someone complaining about the "unacceptable ratio" of 5:1, 10:1 or more when talking about the casualties on each front Israel is fighting on.
Here is one perfect example by blogger calling himself Patrick.
Dear Patrick, or any other sharing his opinion, let me ask you a question. Would you be happier if there was a different ratio?
I can understand if you were concerned with casualties on both sides, or even just the Lebanese (in other cases Palestinian) side, but if you just care for the ratio....
Well, there is no pretty way to say it. You can always try to "fix" the ratio by joining the Hezbollah or the Al Qaeda, they are always recruiting. Just remember to stick a shooting mark on your forehead, if you do.

"We were right"

2006-07-28T18:39:00.001+03:00

A few days ago, on my way from work, I saw group of people from the settler movement setting up a big placate near the Arlosorov rail station in Tel Aviv. The placate was from black cloth, with big orange letters sewed to it saying "צדקנו", meaning "We were right" in Hebrew.
Consider the facts:

We are at war in Lebanon which Israel has withdrawn from.
There are warnings from intelligence that Gaza (another major Israeli withdrawal) is moving rapidly in direction to become a second Lebanon.
The Egyptian army has failed miserably to prevent weapons from being smuggled into Gaza strip.

I don't know if it is the right time to look for who was right or wrong, but I guess that few can argue with them now with a straight face.