Category: English

My Bloggers Code of Ethics

Following a few incidents I had, here are 6 simple rules that comprise my code of ethics. They are simple straightforward and logical. I’ll be glad for feedback:

  1. No spam.
  2. Comments: Please respond to the contents of the post.
  3. Credit for help: If I’ve helped you with something on your blog that required significant attention – more than answering a single question – please thank me with a small link to the blog.
  4. Picture usage: Use freely and credit with a small link to the blog.
  5. Content usage: Want to quote / copy /recycle my content? Please copy no more than two paragraphs and link to the original post.
  6. No insults: No unnecessary insults, to the blog owner, guest writers, or commentators.

That’s it! I’ve probably sinned more than once, and broke my own rules, here and in other blogs. Please tell me, and I’ll fix it immediately. Electronic media allows easy fixing…

What do you think? Did I miss something? Am I too strict?

Last time I wrote about it was almost two years ago, and in Hebrew – here.

* The last rule was added after a comment from the Guinness Bartender.

Of courae, this also applies to my Forex Trading Blog.

Free Lunch 2.0

After complaining on Twitter that a meal of noodles wasn’t tasty, the restaurant contacted me and sent me again the dish I ordered. 

I’ve mentioned before that I began using Twitter (@yohay), and I use it more frequently now. Due to the growing popularity of the #fiddme tag (thanks @yosit), I occasionally post my experiences from various meals that I eat.

Last Wednesday, a colleague of mine and I ordered some Asian food to the office, from a restaurant called Giraffe. We ordered their “Spicy dish” of noodles with meat and vegetables. We both felt that it wasn’t spicy, nor hot, nor warm. It didn’t have too much of a taste. I usually order other dishes from this restaurant, and I’ve always been pleased. I guess it’s a matter of taste.

I complained on Twitter, saying that it was a disappointment. On Sunday, I suddenly got an email from a guy from the restaurant, saying that he saw my complaint, and that they’re taking it seriously.

This guy monitors the Twitter account of the restaurant, and he reached my mailbox via the contact form in my blog. My blog is linked in my Twitter account. Web 2.0 magic!

After a few emails, he asked for my phone number, saying that the restaurant’s manager wanted to speak to me. I told the whole story to the manager. He just asked if I’ll be in the office in the next 40 minutes, saying he’ll send the dish again.

After 30 minutes, the dish arrived at the office. They also sent a dessert. My colleagues helped me with eating up all the food. Thanks Gil and @taltalush This time it tasted really good!

I ran lots of tweets when the story unfolded. @lisang urged me to write a blog post about this story in English, so that Israeli Anglos that are used to appalling service, will see an example of good service. Not only good service, but also sophisticated means of communication!

Here’s the dessert, courtesy of Taltal:

Pearl Jam coming to Europe

Pearl Jam, one of my favorite bands, is coming to Europe this summer. I’m going to Werchter Rock festival in Belgium at the beginning of July. They won’t be there, but rather in mid-August in other cities in the old continent. Details here.

But I might make an extra effort, and if I’m lucky, I might make a quick jump to London or Berlin and see Eddie Vedder and the gang. 

I grew up in the 90s, when Seattle grunge music was at its peak. Here’s one of my favorite songs, Rearviewmirror:


Pearl Jam – Rearviewmirror. – Click here for the funniest movie of the week

Holiday Thoughts

The spring is here again, and in Israel there are always days of extreme heat – Hamsin. Yesterday was a day of suffering, with hot temperatures and sand storms. Although I don’t live in the desert, I still get my share of sand.

Lying in bed, waiting for the heat to go, I recalled a trip to Peru, where I deliberately went into the sand – and skiing! It was very fun for me, a little less for my camera, that needed repair afterwards. Check it out:

 

Sand Skiing in Haucachina
Sand Skiing in Haucachina

After I saw that sand can be fun, I needed to cool down, at least mentally. Later on in that trip, I’ve been to the Cordillera Blanca, near the city of Huaraz. It sure was cold there:

 

Santa Cruz Trek
Santa Cruz Trek

When I first started blogging, the trip to Peru was high on my blogging agenda. I managed to write only 3out of 5 planned posts. I thought that in this Passover holiday I’d complete the task, but the heat, oh the heat..My laziness won. I hope to get to it sometime…

I did manage to cover my trip to Ethiopia quite thoroughly though

Happy holidays!

Web 2.1 – The Resurrection

The weak economic environment is also hitting Web 2.0 companies. Two of my favorite companies went under, but managed to survive somehow. There is a light at the end of the tunnel!

JPGMag: This is a website that lets users upload quality pictures and vote on them. The best pictures are printed out in a monthly magazine. I also submitted my picture to this site, and called my readers to vote for it.  My picture didn’t get enough votes, but I kept on visiting this site. 

The picture was of a homeless man sleeping on a bench near a bright globe, part of an exhibition of globes on Rothschild avenue in Tel Aviv, an exhibition praising globalization.

Anyway, on January this year, JPGMag “went under”, stating it had failed to raise money to keep it running. O was sad to read their goodbye letter…

During January and February, they went into serious negotiations, and finally got themselves a new owner and new funding. This process was pushed by the community, that made a lot of noise over the web. Anyway, I’m happy they’re back.

Picli: This is a “Photo Digg”, which ranks photos that the community uploads in a similar upcoming/popular style like Digg. I wrote about them twice, first time saying how they could be gamed, and the second time about how serious they are in responding to the community. 

They launched their site 2 years ago, but struggled to get out of the beta phase.The development stalled on Picli and so has traffic.

Now, they have gone out of beta, and launched a redesigned site which is beautiful and full of cool features. It’s amazing that the site is solely run by two guys from London, without strong backing. And they ride on!

Talking of Web 2.0, also my employer Metacafe, has undergone a site redesign. Bigger changes to come. Follow them on Twitter: @metacafe.

And talking of Twitter. You can follow me at @yohay.