Objective? Even sided? You must be joking!

What have been bothering me and many other on the blogosphere, is that the media in general is politically biased, including the titles that claim to be, or considered objective.
The bias is often so obvious, that I wonder how the hell those titles manage to keep their reputation as objective.

I have noticed some of the most common "techniques" that the media uses in creating a biased article report etc.

• Putting on the same moral ground two sides that no descent, self-respecting man with common sense would. Therefore misleading the non competent target audience that constitute most of the public.
  
• Telling half truths or putting the emphasis on only one side of the issue. The most common use of this technique is to make a big headline like "X sues Y for z" while only at the end of the report/article the audience/reader would find the crucial circumstances that would put the issue into the right perspective.
• Deliberate use of words discriminating one side over another.
• To air/print unconfirmed damaging information, and when it turns out to be incorrect to publicize a hardly noticeable confirmation of the opposite. Just if you would print a big headline on the front page saying "X accused in doing Y" while the notice that the person X was completely exonerated would be printed somewhere in tiny add in the middle end of the paper, somewhere nobody would notice.

Most of the techniques are legally proof and nevertheless they don't smell right.

Sony is proving Cory Doctorow right again

When Cory Doctorow in his Microsoft DRM speech said that DRM is bad for business and gave Sony as an example, he didn't know how right he would be. Reading peoples responses from different sources over the internet, I see that many are deeply disappointed by Sony's actions and are going to refrain from buying Sony's products in the future. It's not just the music CD's, but their electronics and computer divisions are going to suffer from the consequences of this affair. And not just them. Quoting one of the blogs: "Nobody would want to pull a "Sony" now".

My time with a Mac

From time to time I get a chance to spend a few minutes using a Mac. Today I had 20 spare minutes in which I wanted to check my Gmail account.
I would like to state that, despite the fact that the Macs I get to play with, are incredibly slow, (900 MHz G4 iMac even comparing to 1 GHz Pentium 4 in our computer labs) the still have their appeal. It feels good working on a Mac, but...
Getting back to Gmail. For complete usability with Gmail you need IE 5.5+ Mozilla Firefox 1.0+ or Safari 1.2+. This Mac has OS-X 10.2 and Safari 1.06. I didn't want to install Firefox on that computer, but I tried to upgrade the existing Safari to the latest version (the only version I saw available). Instead I found out that I couldn't upgrade, since it requires OS-X version 10.3 or newer. I tried to look for a solution but didn't find any. So my question to any Mac'ies out there: Is it a way for Apple to make you upgrade your OS, or simply I wasn't looking in the right places?

Why McAfee Viruscan is a bad antivirus software

I'm looking for a good antivirus software for a windows machine. One of my options was McAfee Viruscan. I tried to enter their online store, but instead of getting to the store I got "Incompatible browser" notice and an invitation to download Microsoft Internet Explorer. I contacted their customer support team. To their defense, it is quick and offers a live chat with a human representative. From the representative I learned that McAfee probably will not support anything but IE in the near future, and what is worse, if you are using a different browser you would not be protected by McAfee Viruscan. Therefore I can conclude without any shade of a doubt that McAfee Viruscan is a bad antivirus software.

Football Fatwa

According to the Guardian, the Saudi newspaper Al Watan recently published a fatwa setting out new rules for football. It looks like a joke, but most likely its not.

Kiko

From a Ynet artcile (Hebrew), I've learned about Kiko web calendar. Sleek and simple, yet very usefull, it is the best web calendar I saw. It is written using AJAX (like Gmail) and fully compatible with Mozilla Firefox.

Interesting details about ISM & co

Reading some blogs I'm subscribed to, I found some interesting articles about ISM and other security fence protesters. I won't quote, I'll just offer some links.
My Internet tour:
ISM Undercover -> Cameo Appearances -> Ah... meet Lazer (a comment on the previous page) -> A typical protest Part I - on the way to a protest -> A typical Protest - Part II - the violence begins

I suggest to read not just the articles, but also the comments by other people.

AMD Turion vs Intel Pentium M

Looking for a descent comparison between these processors?
Here are some could be useful links that I've found:

• Review by Laptop Logic.
• Notebook PC's / Laptop Buying Guide
• Very interesting comparison between Pentium M 760 and AMD Turion 64 ML-44 by Tech Report.

My preference would be AMD. Which one will be yours?

amaroK

I was surprised when I saw this fabulous program. This is one of the best music playing and managing programs, is not the best. I have learned about it from Liron's podcast. Liron thank you!
Works only in Linux, no Windoze version for ya!

People fight back against RIAA

Well, we have waited long enough. I hope that RIAA will loose. I really do.

How sad....

How sad to see this. Microsoft is now a monopol in pocket devices too.

Shame

Shame! It is a great shame, what I see on my TV screen from the Likud party meeting. Shame on Likud, shame on the Knesset and shame on Israel. The disrespect shown to a head of state is unfitting to a ruling party.
I hope that the public will remember this day on the next elections. I sure will.

Because of the spam

Because of a spam attempt on my blog, I have placed requirement for word verification when commenting. Sorry for the inconvenience.

The great "success" of the disengagement

It's not even a month after the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, and it's all over again.

Yesterday, during the military parade organized by Hamas in Jabaliya was an explosion in a truck loaded with Hamas militants and home-made weapons, resulting in 15 dead and about 80 wounded among the crowd and militants, including some Hamas leaders. Even the PA has admitted Hamas fault in this. But what a splendid opportunity for the Hamas to put the blame for their own screwup on Israel! Sure thing they took it, and this night, about 3 past midnight more then 20 Qassam rockets exploded in Israeli town Sderot, resulting in 5 wounded. Few hours later IDF retaliated in several locations in Gaza.

If the developments are going to proceed in this manner, then we will see another massive IDF operation in Gaza in a month, or so.

Was it all worth it?

So many visitors

Suddenly my web server became "popular". And people were mostly interested in one directory. What it could mean?

Music videos hurt the music

Sadly I can constitute that in the last two years I have seen only a handful new artists that I want to listen to. The music industry became mostly industry leaving music behind. For the businessman music doesn't matter, the money does. Instead investing in young talents, they would hire another lawyer for RIA.
Back to the videos. On the radio you can sell record only by music or lyrics. On TV you can use other, less relevant to music, but nevertheless effective means like sex. And it took over. Sex rules both in male and female performances. Shaking ass and boobies took over singing and music. The sad thing, that they play the same crap on the radio!
That's why I hardly watch MTV anymore. Nor listen to most of the radio stations. I do watch the VH-1 channel, mostly for the old videos, when music did matter.

Great quote

Ryan: FireFox's tab system is ANNOYING
Seth: Just middle-click to open one... middle-click on a tab to close it... what's easier than that?
Ryan: I dunno, eating pie?

MSN Chat

Taken from Seth Kinast's blog

IE compatibility

Here is another idea I'm carrying for the few last days. There are just too many internet sites written with IE specific instructions. Some of them are critical like banks, cellular communication companies, government and academic institutions. This presents a serious handicap for people using non Microsoft operating systems, since there are no compatible IE versions (not counting obsolete IE for Mac).
There are two possible solutions I have been thinking of:

1. To use Netscapes's approach, by integrating IE compatible engine into Mozilla, or adding IE specific instructions. The drawbacks are that it is legally problemtic and it will encourage even more progrmers to use the lazy IE specific code.
2. To learn from Microsoft and making Mozilla more programmer friendly than IE by adding extra instructions with better API, but unlike Microsoft, making it free.
   

Idea for desktop user interface improvement

Some programs have been designed for large resolutions, making life difficult for people with small monitors or compact laptops. The most common problem is when the configuration window is too large to fit the screen making it impossible to reach th "OK" button.
The solution is simple: to shift the view to the missing part of the window by "shifting" the desktop in the needed direction. It could be done with simple key combination like Ctr+Arrows. Note, it is not supposed to enlarge the desktop making it scrolable (wich is very unconfortable), but to simply temporeraly shift it.

I would like to propose this idea for the Gnome and possible KDE projects.

The calm in Blogger

In the last two weeks, it was quiet in my friend's blogs at Blogger.com, since even the most resilient ones ;) were forced to open an LJ account. It a sign to the things to come?

Back to Ubuntu

After a few weeks with Fedora Linux, I have decided to move back to Ubuntu Linux. Even that Fedora is cosidered more advanced and prestigious, I have decided that Ubuntu answer my needs better, since it doesn't requirs you to build the system for your needs. It just works. I don't yet have the knowlege, nor the time to figure out how to setup Fedora the way I take for granted in Ubuntu. Nor Fedora has that advantage in newer software, since the last Ubuntu apdates. In general, I believe that the future of Linux in desktop lies (if at all) in the Ubuntu like distros, which allow newbies to use Linux without the need to learn lots of geek data.

My third blog

I have decided to changke my LJ profile. It will no longer be as my private diary, but my own blog in Russian.

Jerks on the road

In the past two weeks I've got to drive more that I'm used to, and consequently got more than my usual dose of jerks behind the steering wheel.
So I got this idea to make a web site called something like www.jerksontheroad.org.il (or something like that), and with help from the public, armed with their digital (or other) cameras photographing all the jerks and traffic offenders on the road, and posting their photos on the site with brief explanation of the scene.
Not sure that idea would work or do any good, but if it would...

Robert Kiyosaki is right

I hope that I'm quoting it right:

The most important lesson we could learn from history, is that nobody learns from history

I his book "Rich dad, poor dad" Robert Kiyosaki has stated that the rich will always find a way to work the current situation to their benefit. One example that was given by him is the history of tax law. Before the twentieth century there was no general income tax in US. There were special taxes for specific reasons, like an for a specific war. Then people thought that making general tax will make the rich to pay for the people needs, but they were outsmarted. In fact most of the tax burden lays on the shoulders (and pockets) of the middle class, while the rich get richer.
Now, after a brief history lesson, I come to the main idea. The socialists made a variety of laws to protect the rights of the employees. Guess what? Right! They were outsmarted again. The manpower companies were introduced, allowing companies, even at considerable expense, to clear themselves from the responsibility toward the employees. Sounds familiar?

Intel will build a new plant in Israel

Congratulations colleagues! Yesterday Intel has announced that a new plant will be built in Kiriat Gat which will employ about 2000 employees directly and some 200 more in services.

The disengagement will be disastrous for the Palestinians

Even that the disengagement has barely began, there are already fighting among the various Palestinian groups. Two days ago a PA armored vehicle was burned by the crowd. It is only a matter of time until the real fighting will break out, and by the time Israel would completely pull out of the Gaza strip, the will be complete chaos.
If it was Mr. Sharon's plan to destroy the PA, then, I believe, it is going to succeed.

After a long silence

The last few weeks were busy. So busy that I hadn't the time or the will to update my blog. Even thou that this period is not yet over, I hope that I won't be absent for so long again.

Ugly politics vs bliss of ignorance

Durin is right, politics is bad for digestion. It's a slime ball and the future doesn't seem too bright. Unfortunately, putting your head in the sand, thou would do the trick for digestion, in general is a bad idea. It won't solve the problem, even worse, it leaves the solution of your problems in the hands of people, with whom you wouldn't want to trust your fate. Ignorance is a bliss, some say. Well it is, but there is too high a price to pay. Ignorance in not in my book.

(11/07/2005)
Так как, к сожалению, обсуждение на этой теме перешло допустимые границы, и перешло на личности, пост я закрываю.

I changed my mind

Couple of days ago I had an interesting conversation about software patenting. It is good to hear another point of view. I actually changed my mind about the matter. From being totally anti, I believe that software patents should exist, but not in the form that they are today.
Software patents were made to protect and uphold healthy competition, not to choke it. Unfortunately current legislation (in US) is often abused, mostly by big corporations in order to establish monopoly, or as a mean to blackmail those corporations. Therefore, as is, software patenting causes more damage that good, and shouldn't be used. On the other hand, ideas should be protected, that's patents are for.

Costly negligence

So sad to know, that so many disasters are caused by simple stupid negligence, or combination of greed and stupidity. And I'm pretty sure that the last train crash was one of them.

You start to respect freedom when you loose it

It is true with every thing. From small things to the real important ones. Now I write these words on a computer in Ben Gurion University. I often was annoyed by the lack of professionalism of the IT staff in HAIT, but after a brief acquaintance with BGU computer policies I prefer what I'm used to. As a user here, you are confined to a little space the put you into, and nothing more. You can change or adjust nothing, not even use right click anywhere but in the allowed programs.
Well, this encounter taught me a couple of things. First - be happy with what you have, it could be a lot worse. Second - now I know why people so opposed to the little new rules applied, you never like when someone takes your freedom.

Downsome

In my nature I'm a cautious optimist, but lately I'm getting melancholy. Want to hope the bright future, and then, mercilessly, the reality shows it's unpretty face. How do you fight it?
To all the good souls out there, getting stoned is not an option! :-)

Pen and Paper

Using my notebook (real one, not a computer) I revived my blog. Funny considering myself a part of the digital age, I still feel more comfortable writing down my thoughts at first at paper and only then transferring my them to the web. Is it just because I type badly, or there is something about the old pen and paper?
Fixed a few mistypes (thanks Durin), sorry I usually proof my posts.

Voice of Moscow

Or should I call it "Voice of Kremlin"?
Russian newspapers report that, concerned by "misinterpretation of events" in Russian Federation by the West, RF government decided to launch a new satellite broadcasted TV channel called "Russia Today", or RTTV that will report from Kremlin's perspective. A Russian version of the "Voice of America".
This is a long wished dream of Mikhail Lesin, minister of (dis)information of RF, who on numerous occasions claimed that "Russia must have it's own propaganda, otherwise RF will always be perceived as a Russian bear". "Our goal is to represent Russia's position on key issues of international politics and to inform people living abroad about various aspect of life in Russia".
The channel will broadcast to America, Europe and several Asian countries. It will employ about 200 loyal to Kremlin journalists.

Our tastes change with us

Last Wednesday to Thursday I was at the Ben Gurion university annual student party. Besides all the commotion that went there, there were five live performances by known Israeli artists. Being an immigrant, in my first years in the country, I didn't feel attached to Israeli music. Later on I began liking some of the songs, but without having any favorite Israeli artist. On last Wednesday I was surprised to enjoy so much the performance given by band called "Mashina". They really made great performance.
Wonder what I would start liking next.

Piracy, again...

Recently I wrote about piracy, now I want to add a few words on software piracy issue. I want to point out what I think are a few differences between software and audio/video copyright.

• Unlike in music and movies, you can have competition. You can have numerous programs that offer similar features. For instance, there are dozens of audio file playing software. The situation differs with music and movies. There are no two vendors of "Pirates of Caribbean" or "Yellow Submarine" by Beatles. Of course it stays true as long as there is no software patents law in Europe as it is in US.
• There are free software replacements to most of the common software.

So when it come to software I'm more sympathetic to copyright, since there are good ways to battle software sharks like Microsoft and Adobe, by using free software. Furthermore, by using pirated software you damage both the software company you pirating from and it's free competitor, whom you could be helping just by using it. Microsoft actually quietly approved pirating of it's products, in order to wipe out the competition.

P.S.
Even Microsoft realized that software patents are a bad idea, and using it's influence to overrule this law.

Collective amnesia

A few day ago I received an email saying:

When my grandfather left Europe in 1935, there were graffiti all over the walls:
"Jews, go to Palestine!"
Now, when I visit Europe, the graffiti says:
"Jews, get out of Palestine!"
What short memories Europeans have?

I wonder it is just the memory that's to blame. Perhaps the logic fails too.

Wars of civilizations

Grimly, as I look at the development of the situation around the world, I see a frightening trend, that could endanger the very existence of the western civilization and culture.
In recent decades, there was a wide spread of beautiful ideal of equality and human rights in the western societies. Unfortunately many in the western world, in their believe in their values, forget that there are different cultures with different values and attitudes. Ironically, in our believe in freedom of choice, we forget that some cultures made their choice centuries ago, and it differs from ours. No wonder that they call us hypocrites, and the use our values and believes against us.
We as carriers of western civilization and culture, must remember that there are others, who don't share our principles, and act accordingly, not just for our values, but for sake of our culture, for sake of our civilization.

P.S. (Added at June 6)
To anyone who might had misunderstood me, I believe that society that isn't capable of defending itself, can't exist. If we don't learn to speak the language of those who don't want speak ours, then we are in trouble. And if it is a language of force, then so be it. It is a matter of survival.

Antisemitic out – anti-Israeli in

I read today about the latest vote in the UN. Amazing, amongst all countries including Libya, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Cuba and others there is no other country, except maybe for SAR, that ever received so many resolutions against it. It looks like being anti-Israeli is more then just a fashion, it's a way to acceptance in global sandbox.

Not so long ago, French ambassador complained about anti-French moods in Israeli press. He said, that in Israel, there is a common opinion that everybody is against us, and wondered that every time France is accused in antisemitism. I wonder why...

One wise person, I don't really remember his name, said that today, it is regarded a bad tone to be an antisemite, but there is a neat solution – to be anti-Israeli. That's not xenophobia, that's condemnation of Israeli politics. So pure and moral of them!

If only Israel's population was not a mere 6+ million, but at least 45 the situation would be much different.

The copy-unrighteousness or I had enough...

This got to stop. The big corporation are pushing it, beyond the red line. The whole thing about copyright and patents is pushed out of proportions. It is used not to protect intellectual property, but hammer competition, prosecute opponents and to do many more ugly things. There has to be made a clear difference between actual property and intellectual one. Because knowledge has to be an asset of all humanity and not some privileged individuals. There has to be made a fair compromise. There were time that intellectual property was underprotected, but now it has become overprotected, to an absurd extend. An obvious example is software patents. By definition software cannot be patented, it can only be copyrighted. It is an obvious and ugly attempt of big corporations (who lobbied this law) to get rid of the competition. The whole patent idea was created to protect a small starting business from such corporations, but nowadays it is cynically used by the corporations to crush such firms.
My opinion is:

• Software patents have to be abolished, unconditionally.
• Copyright has to be limited to 40 years.
• DRM systems are to be prohibited.
• Copyright must be separated from the media carrying the protected content. What I mean, is when you buy a copyrighted content on one type of a media, you won't have to pay for copyright again when you buy the same content on a different media.

If piracy is the only measure I have to combat them, then I'm proud to be a pirate!

Writing

Writing. Just another form of verbal communication. So easy for some, so hard for others. I wonder, could it have changed my life if I could write? Would it now?
A good one isn't it? This thousands of years old question. The - "what could have been if I could"...
You might say - Then try!
well I'm trying. Maybe not as hard, as I should, but...
No "but"s! No more "but"s! I'm writing till I get enough! Writing till I'm out of words of ink or of paper. I'll write till I...
Till what?! I know that I can't write. What the hell m I trying for? To prove something to someone? What then, and to whom?
To prove that I can write, and prove it to myself!
Well I did, I did waste two pages of paper already, and what came out of it?
Nothing yet, but there will...

You might think I crazy... I just was thinking "aloud".
Hoping. Hoping, just maybe...

Some improvemets are wished

There are a few issues I would like to improve in this blog. They don't bother me in this blog, but they do in other. One in particular is no easy acces to comments. Second is that you can't edit your comment.

Started new team blog

We have just started new team blog. Proudly saying, this was my idea :)
Let's wish the project luck.

Skype

It looks like this lovely program is going to save quite a few bucks. I demonstrated very good quality, and I like the price - "0". Hooray to V.O.I.P.!

Blogger - Mozilla Firefox fan

Nice to know that Blogger.com is a Mozilla Firefox fan. I anticipate the time when Gecko engine will match I.E.'s popularity.

Ubuntu Linux - continued

My small dream switching to Linux is closer then before. I was convinced to switch even before the computer arrives. I'll star preparing next week, backuping all data, and making free space for Linux. I'll keep the Windows thou, at least for now, as a backup option.

Def Leppard - my new passion

It's funny, just a month ago I was quite indifferent to this rock band and heavy rock in general. Now, on the other hand, I can't get it out of my head. I is no wonder how they get so famous. Good music is good music, no matter what the genre is.
Another interesting aspect is that I had a similar passion to an entirely different artist - Yanni. Froid would be intrigued, wouldn't he?

Another man looses his freedom :)

Another friend of my is getting married today. It's true what people say that minutes crawl, hours pass and years fly. It looked so far away a just few years ago! Wonder who will be next...

Ubuntu Linux

Well, it seems that, my long wished desire to switch to Linux is quite near. But it slips away yet again. I can't abandon windows altogether but I neither want to make dual boot system since I don't want to boot each time I need another O.S. My favorite option when I my PC run without a reboot as long as it needs to.
As far for choice for distribution, I decided to choose Ubuntu over Fedora core. Hopefully I will be able to try it at full soon enough.

Open source looses a battle?

As I hear, that EU decided that for software patents. Deamn... How stupid can one be? This is one of the disatrous laws ever created.

Live Journal vs Blogger

Just opened a blog at L.J. Don't know which is better. It seems that L.J. is more popular, but popularity is not what I seek. Frankly, I prefer blog as an sort of a public diary, rather then a sort of a forum.
What I don't like is that many blogs are used as hosting for commercial sites, rather what they were created for : sharing peoples ideas.

P2P suits have reached Israel...

Fuck!
Damn, how I hate those guys!
They think that they will get more money by doing this. Damn they will.
Piracy is not the cause, it is the consequence of their actions.

Just started

Well I'm new to this....
Lets see how it goes.