Posts Tagged 'מילואים'

Disconnected. Not by choice.

Published June 30, 2009 Uncategorized Closed
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Tuesday started early for me, 06:30, getting ready for my army reserve training day. With my new rank and position at the army, and the goal of the day – paintball training – I was looking forward to it. Unfortunately, my cellphone wasn’t as thrilled as I was.

After getting into the car and pulling my phone to open twibble and Gmail and start the day, I noticed my N95 screen went black. OMG!! And being away from home there was no way my cellular provider will send a replacement device, so basically I was stuck. The phone was working, but I couldn’t see who’s calling, and had to guess the location of my buddies at the address book – apparently I’m good at that.. 😉

Long story short – excellent day, a true learning experience, paintball fighting in an urban environment, although it was hot. Very hot. Very, very hot. Some pics will be posted later this week.

Disconnected. By choice

Published October 4, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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I’m back!

These past 10 days at the army were an interesting experiment for me, to see how I, a very connected dude, handles in a not so connected place. Before all my Israeli friends shout out ‘WTF’, let me make it clear that the entire state of Israel is pretty much covered in cellular reception, so being disconnected was more of a choice than a reality. Not to mention the fact that my internal clock completely freaked out, being awake every night, going to bed at 7/8 am.

Still, I opted not to open twibble, Opera Mini or check my gmail (thus minimizing my GPRS consumption), and even thou I had my laptop with me, it was used mostly for syncing pictures than actual work related stuff. I guess being away on Rosh Hashana sort of helped, as most of the people I interact with were away on holiday, so my calls (you know, sending/ending calls, what most people use their cellphones for) were also minimized. I did however sent out some text messages, congratulating friends with Shana Tova.

Nevertheless, I definitely saw a case of ‘you can take the technology out of a person, but not the person out of the technology’ – as I noticed how my social mind works, and often thinking ‘I can tweet about this’, ‘picture that for facebook’, ‘would make a great blog post’, etc.

So, my bottom line is this:
I can live without the tools.
But, being connected is more than having access to the tools – it’s almost a second nature.

Army reserve training – back soon…

Published January 4, 2008 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Spent the last week somewhere in the south of Israel, training with my unit. Army reserve is really the only place I can see a sunrise, since I’m more of a night person than a morning person. But when you wake up before the sun (5:30 am), there’s a good chance of catching the sun waking up, roughly an hour after you…

Couple of things worth mentioning, if you plan to go army training anytime soon:

  • don’t take too sophisticated phones to a place with sand and high winds. My N95 will remember this past week for a long time – luckily I found a very powerful air pump at the base, that cleared any memory of the sand…
  • there’s never, never, such a thing as enough warm cloths. We had the privilege of sleeping outdoors at the coldest night of the year in Israel. Temp was 0 (zero)! I slept with everything I had, including 4 small warming bags – nothing helped. F#&king cold.
  • Bring snacks. We got 3 meals, no complaints there, but since we were in the field all week, breakfast, lunch and dinner were at odd hours.. snacks are always welcome.
  • Facebook. Other than updating my status, facebook and social networks were a very popular discussion during the long days and nights. Only 1 of the soldiers didn’t know what facebook is, although he did hear about it.
  • Thanks to my cellular provider for covering Israel with good signal. 3G was on and off, but GPRS was good enough to get the scoop Dec. 30th (3 days ahead) that IBM will acquire XIV (Hebrew)- a storage technology start-up from Israel, for $300M. XIV will keep its existing development center in Israel, and will be part of IBM Storage Division.

More pictures and videos (captured with my N95 – superb) will be available later on Flick and YouTube. See you soon…



Mobile & Media Consultant. I help startup companies launch products to the consumer market. Reach out: dvir.reznik [at] gmail.com
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This is my personal blog. The postings here do not represent the thoughts, intentions, plans or strategies of my past employers or of my clients. It is solely my opinion.