E-Monk's Live Blog

When I was younger, I was a great believer in the idea of paperless office. I was excited about the idea that technologies like computers, PDAs and Tablet PCs will completely replace the paper for transferring and managing information. At that time, in the beginning of the former decade, it seemed promising, however both technical and conceptual problems prevented this dream from happening.  And I left this concept behind as well. I couldn't leave my notebook and replace it with a laptop or a PDA. To make things even "worse", I found out that using paper actually helps the environment: apparently most of the world's paper is made in North America where trees for paper production are being grown in huge tree farms, or as we call them "artificial forests". The paper companies want to keep producing papers, which means that for every tree they cut, they have to plant at least one to replace it. This means that ironically enough, paper is one of the more ecolo...

I have been an Israeli since the age of 3 years and one month. I was not born here, but I don't know any other reality. The fact that I travel quite a lot and hold a double citizenship does not change this fact either. I wonder if in other nations you have this feeling, that we have right now. It feels as if the whole country is holding its breath, waiting for the deal to go through and we'll be able to finally see our boy back home. It is not similar to the feeling of watching a sports team playing abroad. This feels more like waiting for a complicated surgery to end after a long period of suffering. And like the surgery, there's going to be a long recovery process, which will include a risks and dangers. But this wound has to be healed, and I hope our government will have the sense and courage to make this decision. This decision might have negative and tragic consequences in the future, but at least we will enter this future united. Update: the deal was approved and will...

I'm tired of politics and economics. So I started looking for a new phone, and I decided to to try and understand the evolution of the mobile phone through the phone that I owned, and to figure out what I'm actually looking for in my next device. So here it goes: Ericsson T388 Year of purchase: 1997. Wireless technology: brain-frying TDMA Battery life: standby time of 40 hours, easily replaceable. Display type: 3-line, alpha-numeric, black and white LCD. What I liked about it: It was my first mobile phone, it was fairly compact, it never restarted and it fit perfectly inside a military vest. What I disliked about it: It was small but bulky, awful battery life (and it tended to detouch), the mouth piece broke easily and was mostly useless. Conclusion: You never forget your first one. For good or worse. Nokia 6120 Year of purchase: 1999 Wireless technology: TDMA Battery life: About 2 weeks. Display type: black and white LCD What I liked: It was much slimme...

I don't believe in invisible, unproven things. They may exist, and people surely religiously believe in them (literally) but when they fail, they do it so spectacularly and inexplicably. When an airplane crashes, it also does it spectacularly, but at least you can gather hard evidence and explain what happened, how it happened, and whether we can prevent it in the future. When one of the "invisible hands" - the of god and the one of the market fails, we can usually explain what happened, but we can rarely explain how it happened and we can never prevent things of happening in the future. When an airplane crashes, the solutions that are being given may include re-engineering the failed parts, changes to the maintenance procedures or sometimes, simply decide to stop using the aircraft altogether, like the Concorde in 2003. But the believers in those invisible hands, will still religiously protect their beliefs, saying things like "we lost our faith, that's why we...

XERXES: The Internet? REG: What? XERXES: The Internet. REG: Oh. Yeah, yeah. They did give us that. Uh, that's true. Yeah. COMMANDO #3: And the GPS. LORETTA: Oh, yeah, the GPS, Reg. Remember how ships and vehicles used to get lost befor that? REG: Yeah. All right. I'll grant you the Internet and the GPS are two things that the Americans have done. MATTHIAS: And the afforable car. REG: Well, yeah. Obviously the afforable car. I mean, the afforable cars go without saying, don't they? But apart from the GPS, the Internet, and the afforable car-- COMMANDO: Green revolution. XERXES: Electronics. COMMANDOS: Huh? Heh? Huh... COMMANDO #2: European Union. COMMANDOS: Ohh... REG: Yeah, yeah. All right. Fair enough. COMMANDO #1: And Coca Cola. COMMANDOS: Oh, yes. Yeah... FRANCIS: Yeah. Yeah, that's something we'd really miss, Reg, if the Americans left. Huh. COMMANDO: Rock music. LORETTA: And it's safe to speak your mind, Reg. FRANCIS: Yeah, they certainly know ho...

It's not for me to decide if god exists, I can only choose whether to believe in its existence or not. One of my main issues with any organized religions is the idea that ordinary human beings assume the authority to speak for god and interpret its meaning. Hence if I decide that god doesn't exist and try to convince others, I'm not better than any of those rabbis, priests, qadis and ayatollahs who do the opposite. I don't believe god exists. I don't think god exists, but co-existence is a more important than the question of god's existence. I see no reason act like a jerk during religious ceremonies, in the same way that I hate the fact that as a Jew in Israel I cannot marry in a civil ceremony. The status quo between religion and secularism in Israel has to change and become more flexible and understanding for the sake of both sides.

Some people will understand you if you talk to them and say what's on your mind. Others will not react to words, but will react to actions. The people who are close to you will understand that something is bothering you just by observing your behavior. And a few will simply not get it. They think that they have a synaptic connection to everyone, and if they get no information through this connection, then everything is alright. Regardless if you talk to them, behave strangely or even go through extreme measures. Maybe they do understand that something is wrong but choose to ignore the problem, maybe they think it will just go away, but most probably they are too self absorbed to actually notice. Try to avoid these people. It's simply not worth your mental health.