Things and stuff – Yohay Elam שטויות בשתי שפות – יוחאי עילם
In the past few days, there are serious clashes between Hamas and Fatah. It’s mostly taking place in the Gaza strip. Tens have been killed and tens have been kidnapped. Armistice agreements haven’t passed the extent of several hours. Anarchy rules.
For many Israelis, this is a wet dream come true: Palestinians fighting each other and forgetting about us. “Let them run their own business, kill each other, and we’ll stand on the sidelines (and smile)”, is something I often hear.
I don’t watch television at home for nearly 4 years. I don’t miss it at all. There is something stupefying about lying on the couch and staring at the TV. You disable your thoughts and hand your mind to the box.
I do own a television set, and I use it for watching movies that my roommate and myself download from the web. In these occasions, I don’t feel that I’m handing in my mind. I choose when to watch a movie, and I can always stop and continue watching it later on.
In the few times that I do come across a television set, I usually don’t find anything to watch. It usually happens to me at the gym, when I’m running on the treadmill. There is a sophisticated touch screen with cable tv on every touch screen, and after a minutes of zapping, I lose interest and switch to the console screen. I prefer watching my speed, gradient, distance and calories rather than another tv show.
On the other hand, sitting in front of my computer, reading articles and blog posts is much more fun. I feel that I’m challenging my mind. I don’t become tired and weary so fast. I guess that the Internet has lots to do with quitting television.
This square toilet seat’s design might have been inspired by the television. Well, there’s no connection to the post’s content. I just found it amusing, and wanted to share:
Captured in the “Coffee Tree” in Kfar Saba (suburb of Tel Aviv).
There many ways to demonstrate. A mass jam session is surely a unique way. I attended such a demonstration on today’s sunny afternoon in Tel Aviv.
Officially we were making noise, as opposed to being silent. This kind of fun protest is a good way to bring important issues to people’s attention. Despite very low publicity, about 100 showed up. More pictures.
Update: Here’s a video of the event by Carmel.
What’s the story?
Hundreds of women are held against their will in central cities in Israel, and “employed” as prostitutes. The authorities know where they are, and don’t act to release them. The media usually ignores these cases.
In the USA, president G.W. Bush can lie to the public for a very long time. But if the president would be charged of rape, would he still stay in office?
In the USA, president G.W. Bush can lie to the public for a very long time. Almost 4 years after the stupid war in Iraq, no WMDs were found. Also connections of Saddam’s regime to Al-Queda weren’t not. It’s amazing that even after the Democrats gained control of both houses, the impeachment of the president is still not on the agenda.
But if the president would be charged of rape, would he still stay in office?
Well, here in the middle east’s wonderful democracy, president Moshe Katzav is to be indicted with charges of rape, alongside other severe charges, that come from many women. He still awaits a hearing with Attorney General Meni Mazuz in the next 3 months.
He refuses to resign until charges are officially pressed, talking about a blackmail conspiracy, blaming the media the media for lynching him, etc. The intense inquiry took half a year and tens of witnesses. I’m sure that the decision was carefully considered.
The president’s role in Israeli democracy is mostly symbolic, and doesn’t affect the country’s decision making. Still, this symbol, this man that represents Israel around the world, is now a great embarrassment.
With the chief of staff Halutz escaping an enquiry committee by resigning, prime minister Ehud Olmert investigated over several corruption allegations, and now the president officially accused of rape, our country has seen better days.
We are seeing the first signs of a bubble in the hi-tech industry, like in early 1999. These signs can be well seen in the vast amount of start up companies and the excellent job market. The over valued stock market of the previous bubble isn’t here yet, but the steam is rising.
We are seeing the first signs of a bubble in the hi-tech industry, like in early 1999. These signs can be well seen in the vast amount of start up companies and the excellent job market. The over valued stock market of the previous bubble isn’t here yet, but the steam is rising.
The job market is excellent nowadays for software programmers, especially for those with web expertise. I have personally felt it here in Israel in August. The papers are full with stories (Hebrew link) about companies offering very high salaries, and hearing their candidates say that they’ll “think about it”.
Tiny Israel isn’t the only place where the tech job market is hot. In the UK,web developers are in high demand as well. And of course, in the US, especially in Silicon valley (where most of the action takes place), there is enough evidence of a very attractive job market, with excellent predictions for this year.
But the stock markets are relatively solid. So where does the money come from?
Venture Capitals are pushing lots of money into startups, many times for companies who have many competitors in a very small niche. For example, the photo slide show creation field is quite crowded. FilmLoop fired most of their workers in an early stage, but there is still too much fuel out there.
Raising funds via VCs is not only for young start ups. IPOs are harder to make today than in the Bubble 1.0 days. To bypass it, some companies raise a significant cash from VCs. Brightcove got $59.5 million from investors! This kind of money is more typical to IPOs or acquisitions. Brightcove is a video sharing site, like Google’s Youtube, Metacafe, Daily Motion, and approximately 200 others. Brightcove has to be very very special for this sum.
And what about the bigger Web 2.0 companies that are trading? Yahoo, hit by competition and problems in management, has a price to earnings ratio of 35, which is not too high, but shiny Google has a P/E of 62 – overpriced (unless you believe this conspiracy theory).
Michael Arrington’s interesting post on TechCrunch explains why Web 2.0 isn’t a buuble. I see things differently and I do think we are seeing the early signs of it. Todd Dagres has a few more good arguments here.
How will we know when it bursts? Dave Winer says that signal will be the crash of Google’s stock. I disagree with him that Web 2.0 is totally dependent on Google, but I think its a good signal.
When will it happen? Well, prophecy is fools, but nevertheless, I bet that 2007 will see big growth in Web 2.0 activity, and that Bubble 2.0 will burst in the spring of 2008.
(I do hope that I’m wrong…)