Posts Tagged 'israel'

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5min with FuxyTunes and Mudo

Published February 7, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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There have been several announcements recently regarding Israeli hi-tech companies – either bought by large corporations or introduced what could be the next big thing in the business. Respect.

The first time I heard about 5min.com was over at Ouriel’s blog, when the company was chosen (along with 14 other) to travel to California for IsraelWebTour. I thought it’s a nice concept, making a 5min tutorial videos, but the only differentiator between YouTube for instance is that 5min.com are limiting the content in terms of time (5min max) and type (tutorial). My opinion still stands, and I guess only time will tell if I’m right or wrong. I hope I’m wrong.

On related news, Yahoo! announced earlier this week they are buying Israeli company FoxyTunes.com, which lets you control almost any media player and find lyrics, covers, videos, bios and much more with a click right from your browser. Again, Respect! I think FoxyTunes was the first extension in my Firefox – had no idea (at the time) it was an Israeli company…

Last but not least, is ModuMobile.com, from M-Systems founder Dov Moran. The company is said to introduce the next big thing in the world of mobile devices. And the short video they released to the web (excellent viral marketing example) didn’t shed more light on the mystery. Now I’m reading they will introduce their mobile solution in October 2008 – a mobile device that takes your personality where ever you go – laptop at work, mp3 in the car, GPS, media system at home, etc. Interesting.

These are only 3 examples of Israeli innovation. No wonder IBM Corporation decided to open up the Global Technology Unit (GTU) in Israel at 2001 – a corporate initiative to promote world wide business for IBM with Israeli-based technology companies. Not to mention the numerous Software and Storage acquisitions IBM made in Israel – XIV being the last one – and the excellent work IBM Haifa Research Lab are doing, both locally and worldwide.

Snow trip up north

Published February 2, 2008 Uncategorized Closed
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After 3 serious winter days in Israel, it was time to kick-off the snowboarding season.
Every mountain over 700m experienced some whiteness, and even down south, at Mitzpe Ramon, home of the Ramon Crater, the snow piled up on the ground.

Although the Hermon Mountain was not officially open yet (opened today, Sat.), I convinced my friend to tag along for half-day travel to the north of Israel. The sights were amazing !!
The entire Golan Heights and parts of the Galilee were covered in snow, the roads icy at some sections, and the temp was low, 2-3 C. Even Nimrod Fortress got a taste of white…
We stopped by for late breakfast at this beautiful spot (Hebrew article) in Nimrod, a small village 10 min from Hermon Mountain.

[Building a snow dude]

You can enjoy some pictures here, or head over to flickr.com and check out more.

[The Golan Heights in white]

I didn’t get a chance to snowboard, but no worries – by next weekend my board will have its first taste of snow, and I’ll show you some tricks…

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…

The 40 year old virgin in army uniform

Published December 2, 2007 Uncategorized 2 Comments
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Last week around 6pm I got a call. ‘Blocked number’ blinked on the screen – I have couple of customers, mostly financial institutions that have blocked numbers, so I picked up the phone.
An automated machine started talking to me, asking me if I am who it thinks I am (well, security, you know), and then popped up the main surprise of the evening – an army reserve drill. Now.

For those not familiar with army service, I’ll explain in a nutshell. In Israel we have a mandatory service for men and women reaching the prime age of 18. Men serve 3 years (more if you’re an officer, special course/forces, etc) and women serve just under 2 years. At 21 you discharge, start college, work, life – and army reserve. Discharging from reserve is between 40-45, depending on the rank and role you perform. Some (like in my platoon) continue to volunteer until 50 and even more.

So, last week, the call, the drill. The rumors said we’ll have to sign-in, spend 3-4 hours in the base and they go back home. Told my significant other ‘I’ll be back’ by midnight. Left work, put on the uniform and started driving to somewhere in Israel (didn’t think I’ll actually tell you the location, right?). When I arrived, the (very) cold truth hit in the face: we’re in for a long night (3-4 hours sleep) and next morning we’re heading for ‘an excursion’, touring an area with the platoon. But, since we got in at 10pm, we had some time to burn. The good people from our battalion have arranged for a projector and a portable DVD. So, we sat in this hugh warehouse, watching The 40 Year Old Virgin. The wax scene is still hilarious, even after 5 times…
The pictures explain much better…

Lotus Symphony does Hebrew as well

Published September 27, 2007 Uncategorized 4 Comments
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Since the announcement of Lotus Symphony in Lotus Collaboration Summit at NYC, I’ve been doing some research into the Hebrew support of the product. My main concern was whether there’s an inherit bi-directional support for complex text languages (such as Hebrew and Arabic), which basically allows for both Hebrew and English to appear in the same sentence/paragraph, while maintaining the original meaning. Bidi support is what gives us (in Israel) the ability to write in English and Hebrew, with the text right aligned, at the code level, not visual (align to right/center/left) icons. Every software product that is sold in Israel must support this requirement, otherwise it’s not suitable for Hebrew (or Arabic for that matter). Ed Brill even did a little research back in March this year, prior attending a Lotusphere Comes To You event in Israel.
BTW – Announced only last week, Lotus Symphony already reached its 100,000 downloads mark. Very impressive.

Hebrew enabled, thanks to China…
Now back to the Hebrew issue. Although Lotus Symphony is based on the Productivity Tools which are embedded in Lotus Notes 8 (which in turn are based on OpenOffice.org), my first impression from the Hebrew support was not good.
I opened all the tool bars, trying to find those 2 little icons, that determine the direction of a paragraph (see first screen shot) – couldn’t find any. I consulted with some colleagues, from the product management as well as from product development, and finally, the answer came from China (Jian Fang – thanks again!). A small checkbox needed to be checked in Lotus Symphony Preferences in order to enable the RTL icons (second screen shot). And there’s even the more advanced option to change the layout of Lotus Symphony – from right to left (third screen shot below).

Available in right aligned UI as well
Below you can see Lotus Symphony’s user interface aligned to the right (interface still in English, but mirrored to the right).

And here are some sample screenshots of Lotus Symphony Documents, Spreadsheet and Presentation (respectively), with files created in Office applications.
Lotus Symphony Documents:

Lotus Symphony Spreadsheet:

Lotus Symphony Presentation:
More Lotus Symphony pictures and screen shots are available at my Flickr account.

To finish this post – a very cool animated TV ad, that I got from a friend at work. The animation looks so real, but the big story is the concept – superb !
Fight for Kisses:

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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.