Rogel's Blog

AT&T Nears $65 Billion Deal To Buy Bell South

2006-03-05T05:36:00.000-05:00

The consolidation in the Telecom market continues with the possible acquisition of Bell-South by AT&T

read more | digg story

New Pictures of Tseela

2005-11-12T00:37:00.000-05:00

As I wrote in my previous post I will post here notices when I'm having updates in my new blog. So I wanted to let you know that I posted new pictures in the new blog - here is the link to the pictures .

Tseela Pictures New Blog

Farewell

2005-11-12T00:11:00.000-05:00

Blogger was the first platform I used for bloging, and for start it was great. However it has some limitations that as I develop my needs as blogger held me back.
As of today I'm starting to blog on different platform and my new blog will be using wordpress. Since the new blog is still under development I will post here notices with links to the new posts. I'll keep it up for about a week - which will allow most of the readers to subscribe to the new address.
As part of the improvements I intend to provide RSS links to specific subjects so although the Blog will be used for variety of subjects each user will be able to subscribe to the posts which my interest him/her.

I hope to see you in my new blog

The UN weekly rant

2005-11-11T14:30:00.000-05:00

Readers of this blog know that I have small obsession with the UN. My opinion about this organization is that it is wasteful organization which provide very little, if at all, good. Since every country has equal vote in the general assembly it's pretend to be "Democratic" organization. However since the delegations are not elected, and most of them represent dictators and non-democratic regimes, that is a parse of democracy.

While this organization did not stop any war since it was founded it provide a lot of occupation for many bureaucrats that do simply nothing. This Organization was incapable, or worse - unwilling, to stop neither the genocide in Sudan and Somalia nor any action of tyranny. However, as we in recent years found out, was safe place for corruption as with the food for oil program.

This Organization is now the tool for some countries, mostly from the EU, to drive an effort to move the governing of the Internet to the UN. These Countries that made no investment, and took no risk developing the Internet want to control the closer thing to free market. Annan's claim that “Everyone acknowledges the need for more international participation in discussions of Internet governance...” is fallacy - The Internet is governing by the organizations that invest, and took risks, developing it. If the Europeans believe that the Internet governance, as it is now, give too much power to the American government they are welcome to build their own network.

Technorati Tags : UN, Internet

Judith Miller and Shield laws

2005-11-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

Judith Miller published on her site her resignation letter from the new york times. In her letter Judith Miller claims the following: " On July 6 I chose to go to jail to defend my right as a journalist to protect a confidential source, the same right that enables lawyers to grant confidentiality to their clients, clergy to their parishioners, and physicians and psychotherapists to their patients."

This is very interesting argument which need to be examine. Lawyers, Physicians, psychotherapist and Clergy need to be licensed and the govern be ethic comity. Journalist or Reporter do not need any licence, the right to be journalist is the good old freedom of speech. Practically anyone can be reporter, Journalist or columnist no education or test required - all you need is a medium or readers. Ms. Miller is still under the impression that only few talented and fortunate few can be call journalist, does she believe that the right to protect a confidential source should be granted only to someone that is working for a newspaper? or should we grant the freedom of speech to everyone?

Journalism, The New York Times , Freedom of Speech , Politics

Back from Kindergarten

2005-11-08T21:52:00.000-05:00

I'm posting here few new pictures of Tseela as she came back from kindergarten. She had her picture taken professionally, or so the say, for the year book - so she was a little more dress up then usual. The rest of the pictures can be found here.

Technorati Tags : Tseela, Flickr, Pictures, Family, Kindergarten

The UN, again...

2005-11-07T13:56:00.000-05:00

This is actually not really a new issue, but I could not resist it. "...of a plan favored by China, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Cuba* that would terminate the historic U.S. role in Internet government oversight, relegate both private enterprise and non-governmental organizations to the sidelines, and place a U.N.-dominated group in charge of the Internet's operation and future"

Do I need to add any thing?

*Bold by me

WSJ.com - Beware a 'Digital Munich'

Technorati Tags : UN, Internet

Tseela Dressing up

2005-11-06T18:20:00.000-05:00

Tseela announced that she is getting dress so she can go to school. The result are infornt of you:

Technorati Tags : Tseela, Dressingup, Pictures, Flickr

Two More Videos of Tseela

2005-11-04T04:25:00.000-05:00

I'm very impressed with the service provided by YouTube, its actualy solve a real problem for me and my family.

Here are two more clips made today.

Technorati Tags : Tseela, Video, YouTube

Reading Queue (or what to take with me to vacation)

2005-11-03T11:19:00.000-05:00

Recently I noticed that my book purchasing exceed my reading pace. So instead of participating in Yuval's survey (in Hebrew) about the worsth TV show I decided to list here the book list and to ask you which one should I read first.

So here is the list:

Technorati Tags : Books, Amazon, Mitos

Testing Video Files

2005-11-02T12:05:00.000-05:00

I came across a site that allow users to upload, tag and share video files. I was surprised that Flickr didn't do it before but it seems cool. The name of the site is YouTube and I'm testing here the service, We will see the result together. I'm going to use two options the first will be a link to the video the second will be embedded HTML code inside the post. I'll be very happy to get feedback about this.

[Tseela] [Family] [Pictures] [Video] [YouTube]

Weekend with Friends

2005-11-01T19:18:00.000-05:00

This weekend we visited friends. The occasion was Halloween and the children were thrilled. With Schedule that include dressing up like pirates, preparing lollipops, baking cookies and painting pumpkins I would be thrilled as well.Tseela decided that she is going to be the cute pirate of the seven seas, while Catherin was a beautiful butterfly.
Tseela enjoyed the cookie's baking and she was very much involved in the process, while the other "helped" Preston carving the pumpkin.

Julian was the leader of the Pumpkins painting but Tseela did not stay far behind.
The weather was wonderful and we were we enjoyed beautiful day outside.

We have many more picture that can be view as slideshow or one by one

[Tseela] [Freinds] [Halloween] [Pictures]

What can we Learn from the Iranian President Speach

2005-10-31T20:51:00.000-05:00

Reading the last speech held by the Iranian president, one might wonder about the political wisdom of the Iranian officials. The fact that Iran's leadership hoping, and actively perusing, the destruction of Israel is not new but it was below the horizon for long time. Why did they need to emphasize the hard-line ideology they are holding while so close to achieve nuclear ability?

One would assume that the strategic goal of becoming regional and global superpower achieved through nuclear weapons is too important. Furthermore, when American forces are at the Iranian border the danger of loosing all that achieved will be too high to risk. However this risk emphasize that such assumptions were probably wrong.

I can only speculate but it seems to me, base on the timing of this speech, that:

1. The Iranian government considering American attack as completely not possible. Either because of internal American politic or because of the Geo-politic status, The Iranian government is not worried from American Attack or its results.
2. The Nuclear Weapon project is in a point that military attack will not be able to destroy it. This is a pure speculation but I'll not be completely surprised if the Iranian project is much more advanced then we realized.
3. The Islamic politic is much more important then the international "noise". In its effort for hegemony in the Muslim world, and considering the challenges by Sunni's movements (such as "Al-Kaida") the Iranian president had to hold hard-line publicly.

What will be the reaction of the west for such danger? Are we going to deal with the real threat or take on Syria, the easy target? We will have to watch.

MEMRI: Iranian President at Tehran Conference

[Iran] [Middle East] [Diplomacy] [War on Terror] [Syria] [Nuclear Weapon]

Is Close networks are the only Solution?

2005-10-31T12:39:00.000-05:00

Evslin's post deals with the question of incentive to open any network for other companies use. In his post Evslin describe the incentives for companies to build "walled Garden" around there network.

The arguments, describing why companies would want to prevent other companies from accessing their network, making perfect sense only if the access to the network is free for everyone. However it doesn't necessarily need to be so: a company can charge different rates for different use of their services. The smaller company (or in Evslin's terminology the n+1 company) then needs to decide if the price it pays worth entering the network.

This is not a new approach, telecom companies developed many ways to charge for traffic on their networks - the economical incentive for cooperation is big enough.

Fractals of Change: Bubble 2.0 Bubble 2.0 Â Why ThereÂs a Wall Around Your Garden

[Networks] [Web 2.0] [Free Market]

VOIP Wiretaps

2005-10-30T08:43:00.000-05:00

It is hard for me to point a single occasion when I herd about FCC decision and thought - this will improve people's life. In fact I can point too many occasions were the government and this agency held back improvement.
The entire involvement of the FCC with VoIP is a story built on regulation divorced from reality, lack of basic understanding in the technology they are trying to regulate and the notion that government has to regulate every aspect of our life.
I truly hope that the appeal process will overturn this decision.

A Venture Forth » Blog Archive » VOIP Wiretaps: A Means to an End or A Waste of Time?

[FCC] [Goverment] [Liberty] [Free Market]

The UN Weekly posting

2005-10-28T20:21:00.000-04:00

I wrote about the UN before, I think to open here a special RSS for the UN stories. The idea that some Iranian representative will govern the interment is so ridiculous that I'm sure this is going to happen.

TCS: Tech Central Station - Will the Internet become the UNTERNET?

[UN] [Internet]

Google Job Ad

2005-10-28T18:12:00.000-04:00

Why is Google looking for native Hebrew speakers in its Dublin office when it has an office in Israel?

GoogleAd.jpg (JPEG Image, 635x517 pixels)

Source in Hebrew: Room 404

[Google] [Jobs]

The top 5 red flags of software development - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

2005-10-28T16:44:00.000-04:00

This post is right on the money. I heard these statements, I also used them - the results were never good.

The top 5 red flags of software development

[Software Development] [Project Management]

If you Tag it they will come...

2005-10-26T18:48:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I posted my short comment on Google's blog announcement regarding "Google Base". I suggested that the blog announcement was PR work and did not provide any real information. I also tagged the post with several tags, one of them was [PR]. Later when I came back from work I checked Technorati to see if anyone else check this angel of the story and I found the following post: POP! PR Jots: Google Base ... from October 11: "POP! PR Jots" and I found out two things: firstly I found interesting blog which I'll keep read and secondly I found that the story about "Google Base" was already out on October 11th.
It seems that the tagged worked for me again.

[Google] [Google Base] [PR]

Google Response for the "Google Base" Rumor

2005-10-26T05:34:00.000-04:00

Maybe it is because my English isn't perfect, but it seems like they did not say anything.

Official Google Blog: Rumor of the day

[Google] [Google Base] [PR]

Microsoft using AJaX?

2005-10-25T05:34:00.000-04:00

I found the following beta site by Microsoft very interesting. Not that it contains something that we did not see before but the idea of Microsoft using AJaX and not one of the Microsoft solutions is fascinating.

[Microsoft] [AJax] [Web Sites] [Portal]

Cambridge Researcher Says Humans Can Live For 1000+ Years

2005-10-24T20:46:00.000-04:00

As my Mother in-law saying: He should live so long...

read more | digg story

No Reason to Wonder

2005-10-24T13:23:00.000-04:00

I would suggest another reason why Bloomberg is not being attacked by the liberal blogs. It is not because of the fact that the liberals focusing on the national politics and it is not because they do not understand the political power of blogs (really ? after the 2004 elections?).
It is mainly because Bloomberg isn't really a republican. He only joined the republican party after he failed in the democratic party. Moreover the policy he run in the city isn't so different or offensive to the liberals. Do I need to remind anyone how the liberals reacted to some of Giuliani's acts?

Update:
this page disappeared and is being republished

Mayor Bloomberg wonders: where are the liberal attack blogs?. Corante New York:
TrackBack URL

[Politics] [NYC]

Why did I uninstall Feeddemon?

2005-10-22T23:57:00.000-04:00

I tried today the FeedDemon application and I have many good things to say about it. Their added values in the features of auto discovery and watch list, in addition to the channel methods are cool and useful. However after playing with it I uninstall it.
The first reason, but not the most important, is that it did not handle very well. Since many of the feeds I'm using are in Hebrew its make my life less comfortable. I would not expect FeedDemon to bother with such small section of the market, but seems other do I enjoy using them.
The second reason is the fact that FeedDemon was an application and not extension or a toolbar in my browser. I got use to have my news/feed reading activity combined with my posting and the, less and less, general browsing. However, and despite the fact that FeedDemon has browsing abilities, FeedDemon isn't competing on the browser market and therefore is very limited.
Using sage as an extension in Firefox, and hopefully soon also with Flock, is very comfortable. The Feed handling combined in instinctive way with my general browsing and bloging. In addition feature like BlogIt making my experience even smother.
If FeedDemon would offer the feature and approach of feed handling combined in my browser I would be more then happy to try them again.

FeedDemon [Feed] [Browser] [RSS Reader] [Firefox] Sage RSS Reader

The UN, who the hell need it?

2005-10-22T18:26:00.000-04:00

Earlier this week I red the following an article about "UNESCO Adopts Cultural Diversity Pact". My understanding of these resolution is that the UN allow dictators blocking Western influence, such as human rights and freedom of speech, under the umbrella of local cultural protection. The free market of ideas need to be protected by the UN.
But just when I though that they cannot top themselves came another piece about the UN doctoring, stupidly, with Harriri's murder. Not only evil organization, but also dumb .Venture Chronicles: UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri - World - Times Online

[UN] [Lebanon] [Cultore] [Freadom]

One if by Land, Two if by Sea

2005-10-22T05:15:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary. We choose to celebrate it in a nice romantic restaurant and we went to “One if by land Two if by sea” and we did not regret it. This is one of the most, if not the most, romantic places we ever saw. From the entry

Through the dining rooms

this place is beautiful. The food was very good and the service was excellent.We will definitely will come again.

[wedding anniversary] [restaurant] [romantic places] [NYC]

The case for universal broadband Internet access in New York City. Corante New York:

2005-10-21T16:29:00.000-04:00

I already see the claim that broadband internet connection should be a protected right, and therefore I should pay (with my taxes) for someone else connection. In fact someone already start making this claim: "Only an estimated 38% of New Yorkers currently have broadband access, but an ever-higher percentage of Internet content (such as video) requires this capability. The “digital divide” between higher and lower income communities may never be closed completely, but municipal broadband and wireless initiatives represent a concerted attempt to narrow this gap..."

The case for universal broadband Internet access in New York City. Corante New York:

Broadband Tax Liberty

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Huh?

2005-10-20T22:36:00.000-04:00

I do, I think. Newspapers can never bring the last minute story. This battle was lost when the TV start broadcasting, definitely after CNN. However I would rather wait sometimes and get more comprehensive story not the repeated news flash and the 30 seconds coverage.

The problem is that newspapers trying to fight the TV news and the blogs in the only area they cannot win.

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Huh?

news blogs

Flock at first impression

2005-10-20T21:03:00.000-04:00

At first impression flock is rather disappointing. the expectation for "Social" browser seems unfulfilled. As a browser it seems to be stable and run smoothly, even with better results then its source the Firefox.

Areas of weaknesses as experienced in 2 hours of browsing:

RSS Reader:

The integration is not natural and browsing is not comfortable to the end user.
The sidebar, that exist in Firefox and IE, doesn't exist in Flock and since the RSS Reader is integrated in the favorites you have to jump between these windows.
No marking of RSS for new/unread postings.
The RSS aggregator is not user friendly.

Bloging:

The top bar is very nice idea
The posting option existed in firefox as extension. Anyway its working well.

Flickr Top Bar Cool
del.icio.us: Flock added favorites to my accounts with my permission, all of them are obviously Flocks… I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and mark it as bug.

That is all after short period of time using the application. I'll try posting this blog through Flock, if it to check the quality (include screenshots and links).

Flock favorites and feeds screen (with the bloging topbar open) :

Flock RSS Aggregator (With the Flickr topbar open):

Flock Firefox Flickr del.icio.us blog web 2.0

Tseela's first Costume

2005-10-19T22:49:00.000-04:00

Tse’ela got today her first costume. She is going to a pirate, a scary one according to her.

Tseela Costume

Tseela's new bed

2005-10-19T19:25:00.000-04:00

Tseela101905_0214
Originally uploaded by RogelSM.

Finally we got Tseela’s new bed, the mattress will come later.

Tseela

Web base IM

2005-10-19T18:55:00.000-04:00

I'm failing to see how converting messaging into Web application is a great idea. How taking a small application and tie it into my browser makes it better to me as the end user? It seems to me like it is actually less comfortable.

I played with the application meebo and realized that most of the advantages of the messaging applications achieved long ago do not exist in this application: you are notified of message only by having the browser window open etc.

Maybe Jeff Nolan is right when he claims that messaging it the new hot thing I just don't see why. From a user point of view I couldn't care less about the AJaX, or any other programming technique, I only care if its make my life more comfortable - and its not.

IM AJaX Browser Web Desktop

How far can it go?

2005-10-19T12:28:00.000-04:00

It is amazing how we are willing to except such action described in “eBay Nation and the Golden Goose”. I have hard time seeing where is the protection provided for us, the people, by such actions.It is sad to watch how Americans, previously known for the individualism and liberty, willing to let the government to control their life.

Tax Liberty News Goverment

Looking for Job?

2005-10-18T11:22:00.000-04:00

I wonder how good is the relocation service at Google. Any volunteers for this Job?

Promoting Mediocre?

2005-10-18T07:12:00.000-04:00

In his posting "The amorality of Web 2.0" Nicolas Barr pointing out clearly some of the problems involved with the so called WEB 2.0. In the rush to declare that the old fashion journalism is dead and replaced with the blogsphare we lend ourselves into mediocre. Yes blogs are fun and useful but they cannot replace journalism (in its true sense). It is hard for me to see any blog replace “The Atlantic” in its depth analysis and scholarly essays any time. Moreover every time that “Old fashion” newspaper or magazine tried to modify itself to the up bit changes presumably required by the internet as a medium we, the users, lost twice: the good old newspaper is no longer exist and the new “Online” newspaper is, in most cases” a bad blog.

In his article, The Long Tail, Chris Anderson demonstrate how the attempts to appeal to the general public “want” tend itself to limited market. He is pointing out a good use of technology that overcome the traditional inventory and warehousing limitations. In the same way I hope we will not loose the old fashion newspapers and magazines for mediocre blogsphare but learn to enjoy both.

Web 2.0 blogs technology news

The check is in the mail…

2005-10-17T21:14:00.000-04:00

If someone was looking for the best campaign award, here is a candidate:

New York City: Pirro hits up Clinton for money to battle Clinton

Politic, NY

Additions and Modifications

2005-10-17T19:52:00.000-04:00

I made additional modification / improvements to the blog today. Firstly I added link to technorati and I start to use technorati's tags. secondly I added google add sense. after short modification I was able to move it from the top of the page to the bottom of the sidebar.

In addition I'm testing the feature of posting directly from my e-mail. if this feature will work as I hope it will make sense to use it in the future.

I'm still struggling with the best way to combine text with pictures and I'll probably keep making experiments here and there.

Tseela Blog Setting

Testing Trackback

2005-10-17T02:37:00.000-04:00

This is a test for Trackback. I'm not sure that I'm fully understand how it should work. Anyway here is the link

Blog Setting

Two New Pictures of Tse'ela

2005-10-16T23:01:00.000-04:00

This is another test in combining pictures in the body of text.I'm trying to check if this is better method then the one i used in the post earlier today. I'm trying to combine here two pictures of Tse'ela just so I can check if the this method will provide better results. one problem that I can see is how to align the height of the picture to the begging of the text, but it seems like easy to solve issue. I also wonder how to combine the Flickr HTML into text but the results will show if my method was successful.

Tseela

Picture of Tse'ela posted directed from Flickr

2005-10-16T20:17:00.000-04:00

Tseela101605_0210
Originally uploaded by RogelSM.

This is a test of posting to the blog directly from Flickr. It seems that it limits me for one picture per posting.But it is cool anyway.

Tseela

דברים: Oppening statement

2005-10-16T16:41:00.000-04:00

דברים: Oppening statement

Oppening statement

2005-10-16T16:35:00.000-04:00

This is the initial post for this blog. I do not know what use I'm going to have for it, beside updating family that we posted new pictures.

That is all for now

Rogel's Blog

AT&T Nears $65 Billion Deal To Buy Bell South

New Pictures of Tseela

Farewell

The UN weekly rant

Judith Miller and Shield laws

Back from Kindergarten

The UN, again...

Tseela Dressing up

Two More Videos of Tseela

Reading Queue (or what to take with me to vacation)

More Video's of Tseela

Testing Video Files

Weekend with Friends

What can we Learn from the Iranian President Speach

Is Close networks are the only Solution?

VOIP Wiretaps

The UN Weekly posting

Google Job Ad

The top 5 red flags of software development - Signal vs. Noise (by 37signals)

If you Tag it they will come...

Google Response for the "Google Base" Rumor

Microsoft using AJaX?

Cambridge Researcher Says Humans Can Live For 1000+ Years

No Reason to Wonder

Why did I uninstall Feeddemon?

The UN, who the hell need it?

One if by Land, Two if by Sea

The case for universal broadband Internet access in New York City. Corante New York:

BuzzMachine » Blog Archive » Huh?

Flock at first impression

Tseela's first Costume

Tseela's new bed

Web base IM

How far can it go?

Looking for Job?

Promoting Mediocre?

The check is in the mail…

Additions and Modifications

Testing Trackback

Two New Pictures of Tse'ela

Picture of Tse'ela posted directed from Flickr

דברים: Oppening statement

Oppening statement