It looks obvious

Nir Ofir presenting blog day 2006 :

BlogDay was initiated with the belief that bloggers should have one day which will be dedicated to know other bloggers, from other countries or areas of interests. In that day Bloggers will recommend about them to their Blog visitors. What will happen on BlogDay?

In one long moment In August 31st, bloggers from all over the world will post a recommendation of 5 new Blogs, Preferably, Blogs different from their own culture, point of view and attitude. On this day, blog surfers will find themselves leaping and discovering new, unknown Blogs, celebrating the discovery of new people and new bloggers.

To be honest I’m pretty skeptical about the whole idea. Aren’t we linking and connecting throughout the year? How much blog promotions do we really need, and how much exposure blogs will receive as a result of this day?

However this seems to be mainly harmless and I marked it in my calendar. 

DubbleDB that offers online databases starts sending invitations to close beta of the application. The Idea behind DubbleDB is interesting and they offer plenty of features that can attract current users of excel and Microsoft access.  Its offer easy to use data import, manipulation and presentation which make it very cool.

The lack of API, ability to store transactions and the question mark on the subjects of how this database will handle high volume and security will prevent the more sophisticated users from using the new service. However in the effort of building web alternative to Microsoft office DubbleDB is going to be important addition. Currently You can check the demo and request invitation.

The assumption behind projects like Wikipedia is that the masses will write the content and edit it; and that its basically honest use will allow correction of mistakes and misrepresentation. It seems that this concept is now under severe challenge since only wealthy organization can stand a PR attack with budgets like Wal-Mart’s PR budget.  

In order to maintain credibility Wikipedia will have to either appoint fact checkers, step that is in complete opposite to the philosophy of the project, or built mechanism to identify who wrote, or edit content, and allow the users to grade their reliability. This idea isn’t simple to built and maintain but it seems like the only solution to keep Wikipedia somewhat reliable source.

Link:  Wal-Mart winning war against negative articles on Wikipedia

For up to two years Wal-mart lobbyists have successfully waged a war against a fair viewpoint on Wikipedia’s Wal-mart page. Although the Wal-mart page was originally highly critical of Wal-mart, it has slowly shifted to a very positive perspective. Although Wikipedia maintains a ‘Neutral Point of View’ (NPOV) policy, the Wal-mart page is highly biased. Additionally, all criticism has, contrary to policy, practice, and the general opinion of those concerned, been moved to a Debates Over Wal-mart section. Even that page has noticeable resistance to negative points of view about Wal-mart.

Who said that MBA program is complete waste of time? (Mosif, this one is for you)

(Via The Columbia Business School Advantage )

Enrico think this is the definition of Chutzpa, I just think it’s funny.

What can be better than being advertised by your customers? Common wisdom is that the best advertisement campaign is the “word of mouth”, when your customers spreading recommending your product.

Firefox take this approach one step further and having its users submit short advertisement they made. Some of these ads are really good, this one is my favorite:

And don’t forget: get firefox !  

Socialists just can’t understand that allowing to businesses to fire employees actually creates jobs. It seems that Europe start to wake up, and although the French street will fight every step of the way, and start to realize that you can’t survive by oppress those who create wealth.

Link:  The test of the reforms

Last August, the French government managed to peacefully pass one amendment: Businesses that employ up to 20 workers are entitled to take on employees on a new contract that includes a trial period of two years (instead of only a month and a half,) with no need to justify dismissals. Between August 2005 and January of this year, 335,000 workers were employed under the new contract; one-third of them would not have been employed on the basis of the regular contract, according to a survey of businesses conducted by the IFOP marketing intelligence company. In light of the "success" that the rebels had in canceling the "first employment contract," there are signs of preparation for a new fight against the amendment from August of last year. This will be another pyrrhic victory, which will shut the door to jobs for several additional tens of thousands of unemployed.

This is simply amazing. It seems like we are so concern about workers rights that we forget that they actually need to work…

Link: Judge: Web-Surfing Worker Can’t Be Fired

NEW YORK — Saying surfing the web is equivalent to reading a newspaper or talking on the phone, an administrative law judge has suggested that only a reprimand is appropriate as punishment for a city worker accused of failing to heed warnings to stay off the Internet.

Administrative Law Judge John Spooner reached his decision in the case of Toquir Choudhri, a 14-year veteran of the Department of Education who had been accused of ignoring supervisors who told him to stop browsing the Internet at work.

And the punch line:

Martin Druyan, Choudhri’s lawyer, called the ruling "very reasonable."

(Via Dvorak uncensored )

Tomorrow is the holocaust memorial day. In Israel, the holocaust Memorial Day use to be very important day. However the effect of the holocaust was all around and it shaped our world view in many ways. Growing up we had many question, most of them remain unanswered. How come one of the most cultural nations, with so many achievements, could have carried such murder? How could it continue for so long?

But the most disturbing question is, are we different? Would we, with the knowledge of what happened in Europe 61 year ago, behave differently?  Unlike our grandparents generation we cannot claim that we don’t know, because we do. Unlike our grandparent generation we cannot say that we couldn’t realize what is happening, we can.

The only question is do we care?

My grandparents escape Poland in the last minute, taking advantage on the border changes during the short honey moon between Hitler and Stalin. But their entire family was murdered. My grandparent use to tell me about them, reminding me that I had a big family.  In their name and honoring their memory I cannot afford myself not to care.

I cannot understand how the French can sit across the border from Sudan, in Chad, and do nothing. I cannot understand the American administration wasting time in diplomacy games while thousands of people being murder. And I cannot understand Israel not being loud, reminding to the world that the genocides are still common event.

I heard about development of technology that will provide advance protection to armored vehicles long time ago, but never paid too much attention to it. The idea of surrounding protection that is not involved better armor seemed like science fiction at the time. Seeing it, in this Fox news report , is pretty amazing.