I just cleared my spam box. 40 messages since this morning (yey, Google)
Allow me to suggest an Axiom:
You will never (NOT EVER!) find a good deal marketed through spam-email campaigns
Anybody cares to disagree?
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Free Entertainment
The next time you find yourself bored, looking for something interesting to read or do, I highly recommend going through the "legal threat" section of the piratebay.org website. I swear it is absolutely hilarious!!
For those you not familiar - the pirate bay is one of the largest infringe-ware websites in the world, allowing you to search through millions of torrent files and downloading copyright infringing material such as music, games, videos, etc (you download it from other peers, not directly from their website, and that's what may protect them legally). Without going into whether that's OK or NOT, I guess one interesting point is that the pirate bay consistently claim that they are not breaking any laws, since they're hosted in Sweden "land of vikings, reindeers, Aurora Borealis and cute blonde girls" (quote) oh, and also the land of "sane copyright laws".
I'm gonna quote some of their response as teasers, but you really must go there and read for yourself.
To DreamWorks lawyers: "As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States"
"It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ....... morons, and that you should please go s**** yourself with ..." (cover your ears)
To EA: "Hello and thank you for contacting us. We have shut down the website in question. Oh wait, just kidding. We haven't, ..."
"Please don't sue us right now, our lawyer is passed out in an alley from too much moonshine, so please atleast wait until he's found and doesn't have a huge hangover..."
To WB in response to them asking them to remove all links in the search result here: http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=billy+corgan: "Sorry, but I can't remove search.php - our users would get upset if TPB suddenly lacked a search function. "
Bookmark it and read when you have a minute. Entertainment guaranteed.
For those you not familiar - the pirate bay is one of the largest infringe-ware websites in the world, allowing you to search through millions of torrent files and downloading copyright infringing material such as music, games, videos, etc (you download it from other peers, not directly from their website, and that's what may protect them legally). Without going into whether that's OK or NOT, I guess one interesting point is that the pirate bay consistently claim that they are not breaking any laws, since they're hosted in Sweden "land of vikings, reindeers, Aurora Borealis and cute blonde girls" (quote) oh, and also the land of "sane copyright laws".
I'm gonna quote some of their response as teasers, but you really must go there and read for yourself.
To DreamWorks lawyers: "As you may or may not be aware, Sweden is not a state in the United States"
"It is the opinion of us and our lawyers that you are ....... morons, and that you should please go s**** yourself with ..." (cover your ears)
To EA: "Hello and thank you for contacting us. We have shut down the website in question. Oh wait, just kidding. We haven't, ..."
"Please don't sue us right now, our lawyer is passed out in an alley from too much moonshine, so please atleast wait until he's found and doesn't have a huge hangover..."
To WB in response to them asking them to remove all links in the search result here: http://thepiratebay.org/search.php?q=billy+corgan: "Sorry, but I can't remove search.php - our users would get upset if TPB suddenly lacked a search function. "
Bookmark it and read when you have a minute. Entertainment guaranteed.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
Google Health
HIV Positive? May we suggest this great cocktail, which will extend your life two weeks longer than the competition can!!
I couldn't help it, but this sort of imaginary ad was my first response to Google's new health service. I'm a huge fan of Google, and half my life is stored on their servers - be it all my business emails, my calendar, all my notes, some of my documents, and even files. I'm very small on big brother conspiracy theories, and I think anyone can get your information unless you make extreme-almost-unreasonable steps to protect it. I even use clipperz for storing most of my passwords "online" (read the service description - it's not that simple).
And still, after I logged in, and the site suggested it would automatically access my records in my doctor's clinic, just like facebook offers to access my gmail account to look for friends - that really did make me feel uncomfortable.
When you come to think of it, since a lot of health services in the country have all your information exposed online for your convenience, Google can be no different. In fact, I believe that the folks in Google, on average, are better programmers than the rest of us, and so your information there is likely more protected than your information on your health-service provider's website (if you've had the luxury of working with an IT department of some health service providers, you may actually be getting a weird itch right about now). But, giving access to your medical records to an organization with a business model that relies for the most part on being able to provide personalized ad-serving, still somehow gives me the chills.
Anyways, who cares what I think. Enjoy the service.
I couldn't help it, but this sort of imaginary ad was my first response to Google's new health service. I'm a huge fan of Google, and half my life is stored on their servers - be it all my business emails, my calendar, all my notes, some of my documents, and even files. I'm very small on big brother conspiracy theories, and I think anyone can get your information unless you make extreme-almost-unreasonable steps to protect it. I even use clipperz for storing most of my passwords "online" (read the service description - it's not that simple).
And still, after I logged in, and the site suggested it would automatically access my records in my doctor's clinic, just like facebook offers to access my gmail account to look for friends - that really did make me feel uncomfortable.
When you come to think of it, since a lot of health services in the country have all your information exposed online for your convenience, Google can be no different. In fact, I believe that the folks in Google, on average, are better programmers than the rest of us, and so your information there is likely more protected than your information on your health-service provider's website (if you've had the luxury of working with an IT department of some health service providers, you may actually be getting a weird itch right about now). But, giving access to your medical records to an organization with a business model that relies for the most part on being able to provide personalized ad-serving, still somehow gives me the chills.
Anyways, who cares what I think. Enjoy the service.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Am I spending too much time on the Internet? (Virtual Bonfire)
My wife was talking to my son the other day, telling him that on Lag-Ba'omer, I'll be going with him to his school bonfire party, whereas she'd be taking his younger brother to his own school's bonfire party. The idea behind telling him that in advance was some setting of expectations, since our kids are used to the family sticking together on such occasions (or, if nothing else, at least stick with Mom. Going with Dad without Mom can be regarded as some sort of punishment).
In any occasion, the goal was to make him feel comfortable about this in advance, so Merav went on to tell him how much fun it was going to be, and knowing that he likes doing outdoor activities with me, also told him that him and me would probably be going out to look for burning material - such as wood in its different forms. She used the word "search" - search for wood.
Well, my 6 year old, hearing the words "search" and "dad" in the same sentence immediately came to the right conclusion and asked (very seriously) - where would Daddy be searching for wood - on the Internet?
In any occasion, the goal was to make him feel comfortable about this in advance, so Merav went on to tell him how much fun it was going to be, and knowing that he likes doing outdoor activities with me, also told him that him and me would probably be going out to look for burning material - such as wood in its different forms. She used the word "search" - search for wood.
Well, my 6 year old, hearing the words "search" and "dad" in the same sentence immediately came to the right conclusion and asked (very seriously) - where would Daddy be searching for wood - on the Internet?
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Got GA
I added Google Analytics code to my blog today (not that you'd care).
Used an excellent post from Andy Wibbels which took me step-by-step through it. I love these posts for dummies - they work great for pseudo-professionals like myself.
It also seems like Google Analytics is going to be inherently supported in blogger, but right now it's just private beta (don't you just hate how they get a blog before they even release a product for general availability?)
Don't know about you, but I'm still excited about being able to get all of this nice software for exactly $0.00.
Used an excellent post from Andy Wibbels which took me step-by-step through it. I love these posts for dummies - they work great for pseudo-professionals like myself.
It also seems like Google Analytics is going to be inherently supported in blogger, but right now it's just private beta (don't you just hate how they get a blog before they even release a product for general availability?)
Don't know about you, but I'm still excited about being able to get all of this nice software for exactly $0.00.
Monday, May 12, 2008
חופש הביטוי
בימים אלה יש רעש גדול בעקבות פיטוריו של העיתונאי שלמה מן ממעריב. מן, שהסתתר מאחורי הכינוי ייגרמייסטר, כתב בלוג שבו ביקר את כתיבת עיתוני הספורט בישראל. קצת מצחיק, בהתחשב בכך שהוא עצמו היה עיתונאי ספורט של מעריב. האיש טוען, ונראה שיש לכך סימוכין, שכתב תמיד באופן אובייקטיבי וביקר גם את מעריב, ובאופן מצחיק גם את עצמו, אם גילה טעות לאחר שכבר פורסמה . כמו כן הוגשה נגדו תביעה ע"י אתר One (אתר ספורט). האמת שאני לא מתעניין בספורט, אלא אם אני עצמי הספורטאי. אבל יש פה משהו מדאיג מאוד אם עיתונאי כבר לא יכול לכתוב דברים אובייקטיביים לכאורה מבלי שייתבע ויפוטר ברגע שמתגלה זהותו. עוד משהו מדאיג כאן היא חשיפתו של מן, שנהג להסתתר מאחורי שם עט. למי שמבין די ברור שזה בטח לא מאמץ פשוט לחשוף מישהו בנבכי האינטרנט ללא צו שופט. ישנן טענות לכאורה להתנהלות בלתי חוקית של אתר One ומפעיליו בניסיונם להוציא את "ייגרמייסטר" מאנונימיותו. מכל מקום, לא נעים בכלל. יש כאן הרבה עניינים של הגנת חופש הביטוי, ובכלל נשמע ונראה מוזר כל ההתעסקות של העיתונים בסגירת פיותיהם של מי שמעזים לבקר אותם. מי שמעוניין לחתום על עצומה שכמה בלוגרים, מן ביניהם, הקימו יכול לעשות זאת כאן: http://www.atzuma.co.il/petition/themis/1
Friday, May 2, 2008
Hebrew in Gmail
Final Update, Sep. 12 2008: Google now has the new RTL button right there at the top of the email body section, rendering this script completely obsolete. If you're still using this script, or are now downloading it, consider looking for those buttons I just mentioned. Many thanks to everyone who downloaded, used, commented, became fans of, reported bugs and cursed me quietly when the script didn't work.
I'll be seeing you next time that the RTL user community is neglected by Google ;)
--itai
I'll be seeing you next time that the RTL user community is neglected by Google ;)
--itai
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