Skeptic's Corner

So the day before yesterday I bought an ATI graphics card - with a fan - and installed it.

Fiddling around with Mandriva to make it load the proprietary driver seems to have worked - but I can't make it work with Compiz. Which is rather a shame. The computer is strong enough to run eye candy so why not?

So while trying to make it work I sent it through a lot of reboots, and then all of a sudden my keyboard is starting to have trouble. The keyboard works with an old PS/2 connector. No, actually, something even older - but with a connector to PS/2. So anyway, when I start the computer it makes a noise as if I pressed several keys together. Then strings of repeated characters start appearing on screen. I tried restarting, then the bios started to complain (beeep,beep, beeep - which I can't find anywhere). I waited a while, opened the computer, made sure all the internal contacts work, restarted. It seemed to have worked nice - only the "YUIOP" section of the keyboard doesn't work. Tried disconnecting and connecting the keyboard - it now speaks in tongues.

I suppose I can by a cheapo USB keyboard and give up on this one. I just hope that this doesn't mean I have a motherboard issue that will crop up. Also, I'm very loath to give up my $200 ergonomic keyboard.

I don't need all this. I have a situation at work and I'm on the verge of being sacked because of something I can't really control. I don't want to be fighting with my computer as well.

Israel's business world is all agog about a recent announcement of an investment, that turned out to be a con, motives yet unknown.

I always love reading about frauds and cons, and so I read some of the articles published in Israeli media around this issue, and something not directly related caught my fancy.

The company in question is called "Safesky". One of the articles included comments from former potential investors who rejected the approaches that company made. Apparently, before the company was formed, representatives came up with a portfolio of over a hundred alleged patents, and offered to sell a significant part of that portfolio for a suspiciously low price. When asked to demonstrate some of the patented inventions, they dithered.

Now, why is the company called "Safesky"? Because one of its patents was supposed to be a rain shield, based on an electromagnetic field, that could potentially allow people to play sports in an open stadium on a rainy day and stay dry. Yoo-hoo! shields up, we're going to watch some football!

Now, let's suppose that setting up a force field that deflects rain drops is feasible. Of course, I seriously doubt that, but suppose. Why would this be better than your good old roof? I suppose the idea is that this will somehow hover right above the field and because it's transparent, spectators protected by the usual stadium roofing, which only covers the seating area, will be able to watch the game from above the "shield". That would be much better than panes of conventional transparent materials, which would distort the view...

But wait a moment, what happens when rain falls on such a force field? What does the shield do - pose a physical barrier or evaporate the water? If it is a physical barrier, you get the usual effect of rain on a windshield: Drops exploding on the barrier, becoming droplets, obscuring everything and eventually accumulating and streaming down. Result: not much visibility, right? And if evaporated - you get a nice fog cloud right in the middle of your stadium. Not much visibility either. So what you actually want is a shield that makes rain drops disappear entirely. And even then, it would be much better visibility if you simply had a roof over the stadium.

The investors in question, being sane business people, asked for a demonstration, and when they didn't get one, went away. Eventually someone believed the con man enough to actually name the company after this patent. Just thinking about the patent for two seconds - without getting into whether it's physically possible at all - should have caused them to go "eh...".

Symptoms: sudden freezes of X server. Well, not exactly freezes, as it grabs 100% CPU. More endless loop thingy.

I usually use the commercial Nvidia driver. With it, I can't even log in. Using the Linux free driver, I can log in and work for a while, but anytime I do anything heavy (like scroll aggressively or move a window quickly) it gets stuck.

I try the usual command (in Mandriva it's "service dm stop" for stopping the display manager using its rc script). That doesn't work. X remains alive. I try to kill it using the TERM or QUIT signals. It remains alive. With nvidia commercial driver - it keeps on stealing CPU. With linux driver, it doesn't.

Using kill -KILL indeed kills the process (at least under the free driver) but that doesn't help much - I can't start a new one as it can't find the device. I need to reboot for it to recognize the graphics card again. Other processes are not affected (e.g. apache, sshd).

I suspect that the card just can't take the heat. I suppose it heated up too much and is now beyond repair. I specifically bought a card without its own fan, in an attempt to have a quiet system. I guess the passive cooling is not sufficient when there are 32°C in the room for most of the day.

If all of this chain of "suspect" and "suppose" is correct, I'll have to go buy a new card. And I guess I'll buy one with a fan this time. I wonder whether to buy Nvidia or ATI (my Mandriva subscription includes easy installation of commercial drivers and matching kernels).

I'm out of the loop - why is Illiad recycling old comics?

Summer in Tel-Aviv is hell. No other way to describe it. Hot, humid, unpleasant. My kitchen feels like a sauna. The air conditioning doesn't reach it. I put an electric fan to somewhat help me when I'm there. Not much of a comfort.

I'm making a roast. I cooked "matbucha" as well. In Israel, Matbucha is considered a salad, though I guess in the western world it would be considered a dip or something like that. The word means "cooked" in North-African Arabic. It consists of tomatoes, hot peppers, garlic, olive oil and seasonings. It's hot, even when it's served cold... And it's yummy. And it requires some time spent in the kitchen.

The only justification for summer are muscat grapes.

And I haven't even made lunch yet. That will require me to go back into the kitchen...

I also thoroughly cleaned up the litter box. It needed it for a while. Add that to the activities one doesn't want to do in the summer.

Blah.

Anyway, I had a visit with the doctor on Tuesday. He pronounced me recovered, and I can do whatever I want (other than get pregnant, I suppose :), hence the flurry of activity.

Next week it's my mom's birthday party. Her actual birthday was on the 24th, but she delayed the party a bit so that my niece will be back from her trip abroad. My niece recently finished high-school with distinction, despite her learning disabilities, and my mom is very proud of her. Now she has to join the military, and is planning on being an actual combatant. My sister, I can tell you, is not very happy about that.

A game on a forum drove me to look up gumbo in Wikipedia, and it seems yummy. I'd like to try to make some, preferably authentic (local recipes tend to be kosher, hence far from authentic). One based on okra is good (because there is no way I can lay my hands on filé powder, and I like okra anyway).

Yesterday I replaced the tires on my scooter. It isn't 3 years yet, but I was worried about small cracks in my front tire, indicating that it's dry. I went to a specialist tire garage, and the guy said it's a borderline case - they were not "disqualified" yet. I decided to go ahead and replace them, because I'm to go visit my mom at the end of the month, and I don't want to be a headline on that Sunday paper reading "Scooter rider killed in tire explosion, passing drivers did not notice body lying by the side of the road". So now I have a set of new Michelins, and I'm to take turns cautiously for the next 200km. It may be just my imagination, but they do seem to have a better interaction with the road.

I finally got the poster I ordered from Japan, consisting of all the common-use kanji. A friend of mine has a similar poster and I have always envied her (she bought it when she was in Japan), so when I saw it in an online shop, I pounced on it. So now it's here, and now I have to find a pair of 120cm poster hangers in order to hang it. I have no idea where to buy a pair - last time I bought one I was living in Beer-Sheva. I found an online shop but it sells up to 98cm. I thought of going to Dizengoff Center (Israel's oldest mall where I seem to recall there are poster shops), but I'm hesitant because today is Tel-Aviv's Gay Pride Parade, and most of the central city - especially my route back home - will be blocked off.

I need to get back on track with my studies. While I was recuperating from my surgery, I got back into the bad habit of watching television. I really should cut back. I find myself only practicing vocabulary and writing, and not learning anything new. On Thursday, though, I'm hosting a small meeting of the local Japanese Language & Culture online forum. The idea is to speak only Japanese amongst ourselves to practice. I wonder how well it will work.

Oh, yes, and today is the 5th anniversary of my sister's death. My mom will probably refrain from calling me, though she usually does on Fridays. She tries to occupy herself with things and keep away from being alone on the anniversary and on my sister's birthdays. My living sister will probably go to visit the grave.

I was looking forward to have the cleaner sort out the house, and at least vacuum the (now dry but yucky) rug a bit. She was an hour and a half late... And she started vacuuming the sofa, when suddenly the vacuum cleaner started wheezing, and then gurgling, and then stuttering... Nasty smell came from it, and it was scalding hot.

My guess is - total loss.

Which means no vacuuming the rug today. No vacuuming anywhere in the house. With all the cats in full shedding mode... Suppose I manage to buy one somehow after work tomorrow - I'll have to, again, carry it upstairs. And probably do the vacuuming myself. I'm really not suppose to do all this stuff for three weeks yet.

Yesterday I had the air conditioner on, and I didn't notice that the draining pipe fell off the outgoing tube. I was sitting in the other room, and when I entered the living room, I found a large puddle of water (It's not supposed to be that humid in May!)

Anyway, I wiped the floor with a floor rag, but the water has sipped into the rug as well. So I figured I'll leave it be, and in this weather, it will just evaporate in no time.

Bad mistake.

I returned home tonight and the place smelled like somebody stole the litterbox leaving the cats to their own devices... Led by my nose, I checked the rug, and it turned out that the water simply sipped deeper and stagnated. And it isn't the cleanest rug anyway, after about three weeks my cleaner has been playing hookey.

Moving furniture is not exactly up my alley right now, but I had to anyway. I took the rug and draped it over the (plastic-covered) folded bed on the balcony - first, to get the smell out of the house, and second, in hope it will dry somehow in the relatively open air. There was an ugly - and rather huge - wet spot left on the living room floor - thankfully, in Israel we have tiles rather than wood for floors - but it seems to be slightly moldy. Yuck. I hope tomorrow the cleaner finally deigns to come. And I don't know what I'll do about the rug if it doesn't dry.

Bah. Just what I needed after my first full day of work + calligraphy class.

See you all after I reboot!

...when you start recognizing the referees by name.

Or at least, all over my neighborhood in Tel-Aviv.

It's the holiday hush. It's kind of like Saturday hush. From time to time, a car passes, but there is a definite difference to the usual busy sound of rush you get every day.

Tomorrow is Passover eve.

My sister invited me for lunch with her and my mom on Thursday.

I've been neglecting my calligraphy in the past few days. I was waiting for the holiday. I'll attack it with vigor starting tomorrow.

There may be a Forum meeting of the local Japanese Culture & Language forum on Monday. Or maybe not. Somebody brought up the idea of doing a forum meeting followed by a visit to the cinema, to watch Departures. I haven't been to the cinema in ages. Anyway, it's hard to organize a meeting on such short notice, and the Passover semi-holiday is extra short this year.

I'll have to call the clinic on Sunday to find a window when I can give them the results of the tests and perhaps talk to the doctor in more details about the surgery. By my calculation, between the clinic operating three days a week, the Passover holiday (which is national holiday so they won't be working), the fact that they are closed on vacation between the 20th and the 30th, and the results of my tests only arriving on the 13th, if I don't catch them on the 19th, I'll only be able to talk to them in May. That's way too late in my opinion if I plan to have the surgery on May 4th! So I'll call them this Sunday even though I still don't have the results, to see if the 19th is good.

So, the emerging to-do list:

• Buy meat (Wednesday)
• Bake bread (Wednesday)
• Practice calligraphy (all week, starting Wednesday)
• Visit sister (inc. check air pressure in tires). (Thursday)
• Enjoy quiet weekend, studying and practicing.
• Watch calligraphy DVDs. At least one of them during weekend.
• Call clinic (Sunday)
• Order folding bed. My mom doesn't like my inflatable bed, and she'll have to sleep here during my recovery. So a folding bed. (Sunday?)
• Get lab results (Monday, but next Thursday also an option.)
• Go to meeting, if it takes place (Monday)
• Renew prescriptions (Sunday or Monday)
• Buy more food
• No plans other than study/practice on Tuesday/Wednesday. May watch another DVD.
• Have ECG (Next Thursday if I'm to be at clinic on 19th)
• Yet another weekend, and then break's over!

Good, there are enough gaps in there for actual rest.

I'm looping in thoughts about work, and although there are some annoyances there, they really aren't worth all that worry - even at the worst case my position will not be hurt. I'm listless, and I can't concentrate on my studies for more than 15 minutes straight. I'm annoyed at the building association - although I know that even if they don't help me (there is a leak from the roof to my apartment), I can just dump the issue on my landlord and forget it.

So there is no real, objective reason for me to feel annoyed and worried. So I'm thinking it might be something hormonal. After all, I know my body is not going through the best phase right now.

Doctor's appointment this Tuesday. Vacation on April 8th. I have to try focus on positives, now...

Otherwise, how did I end up with four printers? And I'm talking about printers which are actually connected.

In the beginning I had just the one ink-jet printer. It had all the drawbacks - slow printing; not really good for printing articles and long stuff; expensive ink; printing head kept getting blocked and needed cleaning etc.

Then I discovered that laser printers were cheap as chips and cost a lot less in toner. So I bought a basic HP B/W, and started using that, keeping the old inkjet in case I needed color prints. I didn't. It just collected dust and I recently threw it to the recycling bin. So the laser printer served me for my letters to my pen friends and the various printed study materials I make (cue cards, lists, etc.)

But I couldn't print photographs with it, to send to said pen friends. So I decided to buy something to print photographs with. Being skeptical of inkjet printers and their quality and expense, I bought a little Canon Selphy dye sublimation printer, and used that to print photographs. So that's two printers.

Then... I heard that color laser printers were now in a price range a home can afford. Ooh, I'll be able to add color to my letters! And to my study materials! So I went and bought a huge HP Color Laserjet, and indeed started printing all my letters and envelopes. But I didn't throw/give away my old B/W Laser, because I'm still using it for card stock. I don't want to ruin the expensive color printer on that stock - it's too thick for a laser printer, really, but the cheap one copes with it.

So that's three.

And now the last straw... As I was copying all my VHS stuff onto DVDs, I inadvertently bought printable DVD media. I was looking for TDK media, and the only ones they had were these funny white ones... After I realized what I bought, I got an urge to use them in the way they were meant, and not just scribble the titles on them with my bad Japanese handwriting... You can see where this is going: I went and bought an Epson stylus photo printer with CD printing capabilities.

I guess the Selphy is redundant - I can do photos with the new printer - but I like the quality prints it produces which look like real photographs. And it can also print directly from camera or from a memory stick. So it stays. And I have four printers on two computers...

And a little story just to show how silly I am: yesterday I got that CD printer. So I worked for a couple of hours preparing a nice label for one of the DVDs. Based on the note I kept with the DVD I located the original posters for the films, arranged them nicely together, clipping edges, filling spaces with gradients, and ended up with a very nice label. I printed it on the DVD, and it looked smashing. But then something hit me - there were tree movies on the note, but only two in the DVD. I forgot that I copied the third movie onto a different DVD. So I spent hours and printed the DVD with the wrong label... Yay memory loss...

After we finished today's calligraphy course session, the teacher started talking with one of the other students about something they had in mind. So he says to her "Well, let's wait until more people come - today two students were missing - and then ask them." Then he reconsiders, turns around and asks me:

"Would you like to go to Japan with me?"

That's just not fair! Exactly when I'm saving any sum of money I run into in hopes of buying an apartment, he comes up with such an offer? If I buy a home this year I'll never be able to afford this trip. If I spend ~$10,000 on a trip to Japan (which will not be confined to one city, and will require hotels, travel, admission fees to various facilities, so no economy trip there) I won't be able to buy a house for years... And if I don't, I'll miss the chance of a lifetime.

Aaaaaaagh!

( rant hidden for your convenience )

15-20 years ago there was this commercial in Israel, encouraging people to buy local. It showed an Israeli woman, traveling to Europe, and while in London, shopping for fashionable cloths in a trendy shop. When she got back to her hotel, she took a look at the label on one of the shirts, and the label said "Made in Israel". That was when Israel still had a textile industry... Anyway, the moral was that we make great products and you can get the most fashionable things right here in your back yard.

Anyway, back to the 21s century. Remember that I study Japanese? A guy in one of the forums pointed out a nice gadget - a Quicktionary capable of reading Japanese. As soon as I laid eyes on it, I wanted it.

In alphabetic languages, looking up stuff in a dictionary is a breeze. In Japanese, it's a real pain. There is no alphabet, so you can't just leaf through the dictionary in order. You have to locate the characters one by one, using coding methods based on the shape, the number of strokes, and the primitive graphic elements in the character - it takes about half a minute for each character. Electronic dictionaries are no help there - if you don't know how the word sounds, you can't type it on a keyboard. So again it's codes voodoo.

So a scanning dictionary is a great idea for material that isn't online - like books and comics. It looks like a real time-saver. And I decided to buy it. But you see, its price in Japan is nearly 30,000 yen (1320 NIS), and that's before shipping and duties. Too expensive.

So I trawled the web, and found a web shop in Britain which sells the thingy for a little over 120 pounds sterling. Add 15 for shipping, and Israeli VAT, and it sums up to around 950 NIS - a good saving. I waited for them to have the whatsit in stock, and happily bought it. Got it today.

Excited about my new gadget, and being at work (I picked it at the post on the way), I couldn't do much more than look on the outside of its box for the time being. So I read stuff like "So-and-so software licensed from such-and-such company", and "copyright this" and "based on that". And...

"Made in Israel"

Um, what?

And I was so proud of myself for saving nearly 400 NIS...

You Are Silver

You are a flexible person. Being open to opportunities in life has served you well. You are very polished and sophisticated. You're probably in a higher class than you were born into. You are naturally popular and quite influential. You are a bit of a trend starter among people you know. And while you are well liked, you don't let it go to your head. You remain contemplative and wise.

Well, actually, that's total bollocks. I like silver - but I'm not popular, not influential, I don't start any trends, I'm not well liked. Quite the opposite. That may be because most of the answers in the quiz just didn't fit me. Like "You prefer Jewelry that is" - "none, thank you" was the missing option. Or "What is a life goal of yours" - "not to have to work anymore" would do nicely.

Yesterday was national election day. I decided to vote for Kadima, although it doesn't really represent my politics, because they were running very close to the Likkud, and the last thing I wanted was for Binyamin Nethanyahu to become prime minister again.

Apparently, many others like me, who are left of center, did the same. Some proper right-wingers as well, because Nethanyahu is considered untrustworthy even by those who share his political views.

Nevertheless, he is very popular, and the results currently show Ms. Livni of Kadima heading the race by one seat (elections in Israel are for parliament), and this may change still while the last percent of the ballots are being counted, plus military ballots.

Once the seats in parliament are decided, the president instructs one of the new MKs to establish a government. The president doesn't have much freedom of choice in this. It's usually the head of the largest party that gets the presidential mandate, but in this case, it may not be so, because the right wing (in Israel the right wing is also identified with the hawks, while the left is also the doves) apparently has a majority of the seats in the Knesset. The president has to take the advice of the various heads of the elected factions, and apparetly, most of them are going to recommend Nethanyahu, despite the fact that his party is currently the second largest.

The real left wing has taken a serious beating. The labour party dropped to fourth largest from second largest. Meretz, though united with a second left-wing movement, dropped from 4 to 3 (though they had 10 members in the 90s). The communists and the Arab parties maintain their (small) shares, because the Arab vote doesn't go to Zionist parties. None of the "green" parties managed to get into the Knesset, and the senior citizens' party, which was the darling of the previous elections with 7 seats and a share in the coalition, was wiped out because of its internal bickering and lack of any achievements.

So it seems that the next couple of years (no Knesset in Israel survives 4 years) are going to be dominated by hardline policies towards the Palestinians, maybe even the fascist ideas of "Israel Beitenu", the third largest party that calls for denial of citizenship from people who are not "loyal to the state". And hardline capitalism in the economy, Nethanyahu's darling - which is going to do us no good at all.

+1 (insightful)