Been on the Israeli SIGGRAPH chapter yesterday, in Tel Aviv university. Raanan had a presentation of his Gradient Domain High Dynamic Range Compression paper (which will be published at SIGGRAPH 2002). Personally, I thought most other presentations less interesting. Ho well.
I’m stucked with the Data Structure exercise I had to submit on Thursday. Of course, it still ain’t ready and I can’t submit it, which makes the whole issue a little embaressing to me, since Dani, the head of the lab, is also the teacher of the course. I think the main reason I’m so late is that I’m working alone (it’s an exercise for pairs) – I do have experience in programming which might gives me a better starting point, but it also means I only get half the work done in the same time interval, and not really someone to consult with during the work (explaining someone the whole drill and then show him my problem takes too much time for most people). Anyway, I’m really making an effort to complete this. To complicate the issue, the network where our lab drivers are at fell for the weekend so I can’t access my files. so, to atleast make something done during the weekend I’ve coded all the data types from scratch again, on my local computer and re-implemented things like LinkedList and Stack. Hell, It’s 20:22 now and I’ve got a headache (and 3 annoying bugs to solve). I’ll have to ask extention tomorrow. I was hoping to avoid it but seems I’ll have to.
On to other things. Terry Mitchell sent me an email asking to plug his website. Since I hardly ever do that, I took the time to browse it and see if I like it. And I do. Terry, a real party dude from Amsterdam, got a really nice site. I liked his travelers tips most, and was happy to discovered I’ve done some really smart choises when I was in Amsterdam, though unknowingly… Pay him a visit and decide for yourself.
I’ve also started a little webcams portal. There are too many of them around, right? So my little ‘portal’ only lists Israeli webcams. If you wish to be added (and you’re from Israel, mind you) then just email me. By the way, I’ve got to reveal that I was quite surprised by reactions to some of my photos. I used HotOrNot to see what rates different pictures of mine are going to get (feel free to rate my current pic). Anyway, this picture, which I thought to be the best, resulted in 6.8 points. This pic resulted in 6.2. However this pic is currently resulting with 7.6!! Whats wrong with the girls, huh?! I was sure they will rate that pic as ‘childish’. hmpf!
Continue reading ‘Been a while’
Ok, seems I got to apologize and correct myself over previous statement. First, I do not have anything against europeans personally. I’ve traveled in Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Holland, England and Ireland, mostly having a great time meeting really nice people which were either excited to hear I’m from Israel, or didn’t care at all. I have family in France and Denmark, too, as well as many many friends all over Europe. So I don’t have anything against Europeans, really.
However, I am – like many jews – worried about anti semism that flourish in Europe at the moment. Israeli media reports it’s the strongest wave of Anti-Semism since World War II. I see demonstrations from different countries in Europe with people raising signs like Magen David equals Swastika and other hate signs. I don’t really know from here if it’s a minority or not, I just get both scared that I’m seeing Nazism raising it’s head again, while getting really pissed off. Even when I just want a little quiet from all the news and stuff, and just sit to see a basketball game on TV with my GF and another friend, suddenly the spanish fans start rising the same signs and throwing things on the Israeli players! At the same moment it happen you feel so angry, like a stupid rerun of the old Europe. And these are the people coming to lecture us for peace? Give me a break. I got some friends which came to Israel from France (did “aliya”) and they tell me that the majority of hate comes from arabs and arabs originated people living there. They spit every time they come cross a jew and that’s the ordinary thing there. As someone who never lived as a minority in a land I find it hard to accept. If someone had done that (not to mention bigger things like yelling or attacking) to me, I think I would have punched him. Racism should not be tolerated, cause it GROWS.
So, just to end this unexpected entry, I do not have anything against europeans at all. I am worried about the situation there, and I hope it’s just a bad period and it will be over soon. I’m sorry if anyone got hurt from something I said in a previous post. It was not my intention to generalize. 
Continue reading ‘Clearing a thing or two…’
One of my favorite authors is Roger Zelazny. He wrote my all-time favorite series of Amber, and few other books as well (Lord Demon, Donerjack). Yesterday night I’ve started reading the fisrt Amber five again, and decided to have a page on my site with interesting links and stuff about his work. It will start with only links but will probably continue to additional stuff. If you haven’t read Amber yet, be sure to grab it. You (probably) won’t be sorry…
Continue reading ‘A Tribute to Zelazny’
Ok, I’ll just fill you up on some of the past week happenings. First, wednesday was Israel’s 54 Independence Day which we celebrated, as costumed in Israel, with doing a bar-b-q party. We gathered most of the extended family (my grandma, the 3 sisters of my mother and one of the borthers, along with my cosins and all) and had an excellent, noisy and fun gathering. You can see my mom making some of the meat in the little picture, btw. Most of the pics went out pretty bad since it was to bright that day. We had a couple of fighter planes and chopers crossing the sky as they were doing salute flights all over the country. Anyway, wednesday was really fun (and tasty!)
Yesterday night, just before the basketball game, Nir and me went to ACE and got the stuff we needed to fill the holes in my room’s wall. Why? You gotta hear this: Last week, my mom was sitting in my room (in Ashkelon) working at the computer, while I was in university (Jerusalem). Suddenly, the books cabinet we have on the wall above my compter dropped down and hit her in the head! Luckly, it was only a pile of books hitting her head while the cabinet fall to her side. It damaged my monitor a little and my mom was diagnosed as suffering a concussion, but considering the whole cabinet could have killed her she was lucky. Anyway, the representatives of the ompany we bought the cabinet from 2 years ago were about to come the next day so I called Nir and we filled up the holes in the wall, where the cabinet was. There are pictures of that as well (Yonit used to webcam to take some…) – if you’re bored enough, come have a look!
come and watcu us 
(us = Nir, Yonit (my GF) and me!)
Press the cam on the right for a big picture, updated every 40 minutes.
– The game is over, Maccabi Tel Aviv has won with over 30 points advantage over TAU (spain). Our guys played really well, Beshok and Parker were the best (personal opinion). However, what really aggraveted me was that the spanish fans (in their home hall) carried racist signs against jews and Israel, and tryed to hit the israeli team members with object they threw from the seats. What kind of sportive behavior is that!? I don’t care that much, we kicked their lilly white asses and Maccabi is ut ot the european final four, but still… There’s a feel here, in Israel, that Europeans are just revealing their true face again, all the anti-semism that lays beneah the politicly correct mask. I’m aware that in France, most anti-semism is practiced publicly by muslims but I what I saw on that simple basketball game was outragious.
Continue reading ‘Watching a basketball game!’
Yea, it’s the weekend, Yonit and me are here in university. Yonit study for her lab exam due on sunday, and I try to finish the data structure programing exercise. The coming week is going to be pretty easy, since we’l only study on sunday and monday. Tuesday is Yom haZikaron (IDF Soldiers Remembrance Day) 
, Wednesday is Yom HaAtzmaut (Independence Day 
) and we don’t study on both. Since university never have studies anyway on fridays, most people are going to do a ‘bridge’ and take a monday afternoon to sunday vaccation. We’ll probably do so as well, though I might come to the Geometric Modeling and Computational Graphics seminar on Thursaday.
Anyway, I just found out I’m a loser, since in my age so amny people done so many great things, unlike me. Here, check out what others have accomplished when they were your age. Hmpf. Well, I think I’ll start slowly returning this site being just my little page again. I got SOO MANY hits cause everybody are looking for “webcam israel” or “webcam jerusalem” lately.
On that subject, we had another terror attack yesterday. I was at my flat, making dinner when I’ve heard dozens of ambulances with loud sirens rushing under my window (I live on the street that leads to Sheari Tzedek Hospital). I ran to the TV and switch channels. Both israeli channels were shoing thier regular shows, but the CNN had started a report on a serious suicide bombing in the entrance of the Mahne Yehuda market. So, basically about 6 people died and 80 injured. According to the latest news on the radio, 60 or more are still in the hospital today and 7 are seriously injured. Another thing I noticed in the broadcasts is that there is a big difference between people from Jerusalem (which frankly, are pretty used to all these terror attacks) and the people from Tell Aviv. Here, in Jerusalem, people are saying back, letting the cops and the medics do their work. In Tel Aviv, those idiotic people did nothing but disturb the police and medics. A bunch of stupid morons. I’m a medic myself and I think I’d kick some of the people in Tel Aviv if I was being disturbed. Anyway, onced they started showing those same captured pictures in a loop, and started all that boring blabla about powell here and arafat there I closed the TV. One can take just up to here with all this endless talking. They kill us, we kill them, what a lovely party. Where have you said the drinks are? 
Anway, here are a couple of links/articles I would like to check later:
Earth rips space rocks asunder – Google Web API – Impressions after riding a Segway HT: Part 1 – Nuclear-Tipped Interceptors Studied – Inkjet printers used to “spray on” displays – New space station craft enters production – Edible HIV vaccine breakthrough – Space station expansion work begins – New enzyme a step towards exercise pill – US military creates indestructible sandwich – Exotic star is made entirely of quarks – Second space tourist cleared for launch – Fungicide “irreversibly damages immune system” – $1 million mathematical mystery “solved” – Chemical block boosts nerve re-growth – Dust from dawn of time – Mars Odyssey’s Picture of the Day: The so-called ‘Face on Mars’ – Social Scientists Prepare for Asteroid Impacts: Any Intelligent Life Would – China reports faster-growing seedling space experiments – New insect species discovered in Sussex
Net surveys. what do they say about me?
Continue reading ‘Surveys says I’m…’
Do you really need the approval of a person in order to use his picture for your own benefit? Yes you do.
Seems I’m not alone in finding my pictures posted around without my permission. Meg from not.so.soft found her passport picture on an advert in a newspaper. Read her story and comments. I mean, the nerve people have sometimes! (to make sure I won’t piss off James – he’s the guy that found the ad in the first place.)
About my own case, I got a msg from Tapuz managment saying they are sorry and that my picture will be removed. Lucky for them I thought the whole issue was a great laugh, I know a lot of people that would have sued them for this.
It is the Holocaust Memorial Day today in Israel. It started yesterday’s evening with the traditional official ceremony in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem, and continues today, when a siren was herd at 10:00am through out the country and each place had a local ceremony. We had one in the Givat Ram Campus (the Nature Sciences Faculty of the Hebrew university). This year’s Holocaust day is even more important then past years as anti-semism rises again in Europe, being the worst wave ever since WWII. The internet also serves as a stage to Anti-jewish hate propoganda, like this Sharon as Hitler picture.
BTW, I can’t really understand how arabs can be “Anti-Semics”, since they are semic as well! If they were present in Nazi germany they would have been gassed/burned/shot as well, just like the Gypsies and other “non-Arie races”. They can be anti-israeli, but not anti-semic… And I’m still bothered that Europe has anti-semism buried so deep it still exists today. Germans, due to the painful history they have, are making efforts to silence these “weeds”. France, on the other hand, doesn’t even bother hiding it’s hate. Go figure.
Continue reading ‘Holocaust Memorial Day’
I’m ded tierd today, got up really early and almost fell asleep in the lab while waiting for my first lecture to start. I’m really not concentrated today, so far, tough I think it started yesterday. The Radio is on and there are some boring announcements from the Knesset (israeli parlament). Anyway, I’ll be off soon to an exercise I got, I just wanted to post this really cute piece:
(click “full story” to read it)
Continue reading ‘Cats and Dogs’
Hey, what do you know, EarthCam Top Ten ranks this cam site 3rd as I write this… Understandable, since with all the recent happenings in Israel people are probably looking for personal cam sites from Israel. Well, this weekend Yonit and me are in Ashkelon, spending the weekend at my home, but we’re going back to Jerusalem tomorrow’s morning (end of passover vecation and but to study). I really don’t feel like going back to university, but hey, I bet most students don’t…
Anyway, even though I hardly available for chats on the net, specially now that the vaccation is over, I’ve decided to install Live Person here. When I’m not around it will allow you to leave me a message on my email, and when I WILL be online we’ll even be able to chat in person!
I’ll finish the theoretic exercise I’m doing at the moment and will go see what’s new on Global Affairs Forum. I already know some of the visitors here started reading the posts on the Hot Spot: Israel forum…
As much as I usually try to get as far as I can from politics on any regular day, the recent happenings ‘enforced’ themselves on me. It’s not politics – it’s my life. I can be called to reserve duty any minute and I can be cought in a suicide attack even by going out to buy milk at the local supermarket here. I’m not talking about going out with Yonit or anything, that is really risky. Yonit is slightly histeric, to tell the truth. She calls on her parents and sister, she refuses taking buses and even objects going with me to buy food. I don’t think she’s TOO histerical, actually, I know a couple of people which are much worse, and you can’t even blame them. (Don’t tell her that, though, I’m trying to make her feel she’s too histeric, to counter any further downgrading)
Anyway, most of my time this week is dedicated to a test I have on Thurdsay, but since it’s an easy test I allow myself to visit few online sites for a short period each day. As a regular at Global Affairs forum, I’ve had the cance of reading a truely interesting column by DAVIS HANSON over here. I’ve also read the reactions, just to see what goes.
Anyway, I’ll try to reserve all real world stuff related to this subject to the forum, I’ll try to make this page as free as possible from such issues. hmm.. Notice I wrote try… 
Continue reading ‘politics and life’
A few days ago I got an email from a nice guy called Gary, asking wheter I can point my webcam out to show Jerusalem. I explaind to him that my webcam sits inside a university labratory and that I don’t think I can see a lot of the city from where we are. However, I’ve promissed to try and have a look. Apperantly I can hardly see the campus itself, as the trees outside my window blocks almost all the view. Anyway, here are a couple of captures to show you what I could catch. It’s not much, I’m afraid…
Continue reading ‘Showing the city on the cam’
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