San Servolo #1

Well, it seems this year I have to start preparing early for conference season, but if all goes well it really is going to be worth it. The first one on the line is a small one taking place in a small island near Venice, called San Servolo (the island, not the conference).
I am really exited at the opportunity of going to Italy, since I haven't gone back since leaving it behind me 14 years ago, only there's a small problem: the student admission fee is 150 Euros, while board and lodging is another 650 - that's a lot. My prof. told me to write a letter to the organizing prof. and ask him to cut me some slack and grant me "financial support".
On one hand, my prof. has the money - he's just cheap, and it really makes me uncomfortable writing and asking for support, but on the other hand, the prof. doesn't owe me anything, does he? It's not like he has any obligation to send me abroad, right?

In any case, I updated my CV, and sent it along with the letter and the registration form. All that's left is crossing my fingers.

More then meets the eye indeed

My generation, if you'll allow me for a moment to speak in very general terms, seems to be comprised of people who hate transformers, and people who love them. Obviously, I love them, like any self respecting geek, and that's why I'm quite exited about this post. Check this out:



Well, that's not all.
Some dude figured out that "In the Transformers movie trailer between :37 and :39 the frame shows "Sector Seven Org" at the top and "Takara 83" at the bottom. If you go to SectorSeven.org and type in takara83 as your password you are treated to a screen full of mess. It looks like a person's desktop and clicking on the exclamation mark on the dock brings up a video sequence where a Lt. Col. Powers talks about discovering a "blip."

If you want you can go straight here, to bypass the super-secret-password-screen. I know it all seems pretty childish, but the site is pretty cool (although not very informative). I guess as the movie release date gets closer, they intend to update it with more info...

Short #2 (I told you more were coming)

Obviously you read my last post, and diligently followed the links, and watched all the pretty videos. So now, just for you, because you deserve it:

SPOILER ALERT: do NOT watch it before you see the videos linked in the last post!

Will it blend?

I really don't know why blenders seem so cool to me, how much do you really use a blender, really? Maybe during the first few weeks or two after you buy a new one, you drink a few smoothies to quench you thirst while also trying to justify the expense, but after all - It's just a kitchen utensil, like a stove or a can opener.

Now forget everything, and take a look at what Blendtec is offering. No, it not a hoax, it really is a blender that costs 825.00$, and it really is equipped with a 1500-watt motor. This beast is able to vaporize a bag of marbles, or a huge stack of ballpoint pens, and lately it even crushed an Ipod! See for yourselves (under "don't try this at home").

I think that settles it then - until there is a stove that can turn hockey pucks into dust, or a can opener that can crack a nutcracker, the blender remains the undeniable king of all kitchen utensils.

James Kim

At first I didn't really think about writing something about him. There's already so much stuff about his story on the net: news articles, pieces written by his friends, family and coworkers, and bloggers too - people like me that hadn't even met the guy but only followed his work.
Thing is, it dawned on me that only net-geeks like me really knew anything about him, as events were unfolding I tried desperately to find someone to talk to about this (flesh and blood, not a virtual-over-the-net kind of someone). I guess in America things might be a little different - it's such a "juicy" story, tragic, smelling of "family life", yet without a gory aftertaste - I bet American television had a field day with it; but here in Israel I couldn't find anyone who knew anything, and no one even reported anything, not even a little post on Ynet or anything.
In any case, I hope I've got you interested enough to devote the next five minutes of your day to read a bit about what happened to him, his wife, and their two kids. I'm not going to give you a play-by-play of what happened, as I said, there's so much already out there, I'm just going to give you a few links I deemed good enough for you two skim through:

First of all, Wikipedia. It gives a good overview of the whole ordeal. In case they take it down, you can read a bit it in this articles from the NYTimes. C|Net wrote a lot about him, he was working there at the time, so their pages are the most emotionally compelling: this one is a news update from when they found his wife and kids, and this one is from when they found him.
C|Net also has a nice "In memoriam" article dedicated to James, which includes a small video.

If, after all of this, a benevolent philanthropic mood strikes you, you can donate some money to the "James Kim Memorial Fund", so his girls can go to college when they're old enough, and the family can cover the expenses of the costly search-and-rescue helicopter-missions.

It's alive! ALIVE!

A while back I got this link sent to me, and while I was able to enjoyed it, I didn't find anything that really made me jump out of my seat. I know I need a new thumbdrive, because all I've been using for the last two years has been an old 256MB PQI specimen, but when today I ran into the following clip - I knew I had found its replacement:



All that's left is flying to Tokyo to pick one out, or maybe just settle for this diamond-encrusted thing of beauty (it's true what they say - people gold-plate anything nowadays...).