Blogging My Life...Funny Bathroom Sign in Israel
I am in Israel now and I was at a cafe last night where I saw this funny bathroom sign. I thought I'd share it with everyone. Here it is:
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February 26, 2010
February 22, 2010
Jewish Prayer Times While Flying
Ever since building the Zmanim (Jewish times) feature in the iPhone Siddur I have been intrigued by the algorithms that go into calculating these times. For those of you who are programmers, there is an open source project on this at KosherJava where you can dig into that code.
I am flying to Israel soon and one topic that comes up when you fly at certain hours is when can you pray. In fact, there was a story recently about an emergency landing due to praying on a flight. But if you can get away with praying on a plane, the question for a Jew is when can you do so?
When you are standing in a single place, it is simple, because you are not streaming through time and space at 500 miles per hour. You are not jumping from one time zone to another and you are getting a full cycle of sunrise and sunset.
I was recently told about a web site that lets you plug in your departing airport and destination airport, the times, the airline and it then tells you, based on the standard flight path, what times you can pray. The web page is Chai Air Tables and it tells you, based on your take off time (if there is a delay, it accounts for it) when you can pray certain prayers.
This is pretty cool, in my opinion.
February 18, 2010
Confession: I Was Rude To The Barber
I hate getting hair cuts, not cause I have a fear of getting stabbed with scissors but because I don't care much about appearances (better yet, my appearance) and it takes time.
When I go to get haircuts, they ask me, "How do you like it?" I typically say, "FAST, please." Typically, I am in and out of a haircut within 7 minutes.
This week, I went to get a haircut and it was a distaster! It may have been one of the best haircuts I ever got - but it took forever! I think it took at least 40 minutes, 40 minutes I'll never get back. And many of you know how obsessed with time I can be.
The whole time, this barber was talking to me. I was being nice the whole time, responding and so on. Trust me, it was hard - he was talking about things that I found to be incredibly inappropriate. For example, he was telling me about how he does wedding parties and what extra stuff he does at those wedding parties. Now, I don't need to hear that from a guy I just met. In any event, I talked to this guy about how many hair cuts he did, all his girlfriends, his girlfriend's fathers, his schooling, education, and so on - heck, I even talked to him about his computer virus.
He then wanted to shave my face. I put my foot down. I said, no thanks. He said, "you really need it." I said, I know, but no thank you. He then cleaned me up, continued chatting and finished up.
I asked him how much. He said $12. I gave him a $20 and said, "keep the change, goodbye." I just walked out and didn't give him a goodbye hug or anything. Heck, I know all about this guys personal life, from his girlfriends, childhood and even his computer viruses and all I said was "keep the change!"
I was rude - but ugh, 40 minutes!
Get Your Updated iPhone Megillah
Apple approved a semi-large update to our FREE iPhone App for Purim, the Megillas Esther iPhone App. We made some big improvements to this holiday app, just in time for Purim, which is just about a week away.
First change we made was to add the brachos (blessings) before and after the reading. Here is a picture of the bracha before:
We also bolded the sections the congregation repeats:
Also, we added the ability to add 6 more sounds for 99 cents. We wanted to play with in-app purchases, so for only 99 cents, you get 6 additional sounds. The additional sounds include a telephone ringing, a car crashing, guns, bombs, air raid horn and a whistle.
There are some other small changes we made to the app, so I hope you like it. You can download it for free by clicking here.
Also, we released a new Siddur update today, which I will talk more about when it goes live.
This is a cross post with the RustyBrick Blog.
February 17, 2010
Yep, AIM Down For Many, Including Me
Yes, AIM is down for me. My primary mode of communication with everyone and anyone.
AIM being down is much worse, to me, than Twitter being down. Not as bad as email or phone being down, though.
At first, I thought it was just me. But I checked Twitter and it is many others.
February 16, 2010
The Winning iTunes Song Will Be Next Tuesday
I am making a bold prediction that the winning iTunes song, where you can win a $10,000 iTunes gift card for downloading the 10 billionth song, will take place on February 23rd, Tuesday, in the morning.
Why am I so confident? Well, the geeks at RustyBrick built an algorithm to predict when exactly the 10 billionth iTunes song will be downloaded. In fact, they built a widget countdown that is updated every hour. We are constantly collecting data to make our predication better, every hour.
Our current best guess is on Tuesday, February 23rd at 11:00:10 AM (EST). That means there are 126.8881 songs downloaded from iTunes every second!
Here is the widget:
10 Billionth iTunes Song Countdown!
Powered By RustyBrick.com
00 days 00 hours
00 minutes 00 seconds
00 minutes 00 seconds
Powered By RustyBrick.com
Do you think it is about right? I do.
To get the widget on your site, go to the RustyBrick blog and copy the code.
February 15, 2010
"My Friend" - Should It Be Used So Freely?
There are certain people and cultures that use the word "friend" too loosely, at least - I think they do. People who call or email you and say, "my friend." Hey - I never met you.
There are people I grew up with and people I spend a lot of time that I would not call a friend. Calling someone a friend, means to me that they are indeed someone you trust, that you share stuff with and that you can talk to about personal stuff.
Random people who email me or meet me once or pick me up in a cab to drive me somewhere - for a fee- are not my friends. They may be nice and we may have a nice conversation for the time we speak - but they are not people I would share my deep dark evil secrets with.
Again, I know it is mostly a cultural thing - where certain cultures use the word "friend" instead of saying "hello." But it still bothers me when I hear it.
Am I totally off here?
February 11, 2010
It Snowed Here, Google Buzz Told Me
Normally, when I write about the weather here, I will show a picture of the forecast or my car buried in snow (got a garage now) or the snow covering my deck - but now, I can just show you guys, nearby people Buzzing about it.
Yea, it snowed yesterday and how did I know it was snowing? People in my area, who were on Google Buzz couldn't stop talking about it:
On a more personal note, it was my kids first blizzard and we took her out for 5 minutes or so to play in the snow. It was cute, very cute.
And you can follow me on Google Buzz via my Google profile.
February 9, 2010
I'm a Worrier
Not many people who follow me here and around the web know this about me, but I am a worrier. I blame my mother, who worries about everything and anything. I am not as bad as she is, but I do worry.
Looking back at what you worry about is always somewhat comical. Oh, in High School, I worried about X or Y - how small it feels now that I have a family and run a business.
I know many people who never worry. Maybe they don't show it, but they seem to be incredibly carefree. I personally do not worry about everything, like some people, but I do worry about things.
Are you a worrier? If not, why not?
February 5, 2010
How Often Do You Check Your Bank Account Online?
I check my bank accounts online almost every day. I check in more often then I use to, but mostly cause I go online to pay business bills and check deposits. In the old days, I mailed checks and I never received direct deposits from clients. Now, I pay virtually all my bills online and receive some payments via wire or direct deposit.
Recently, someone I know had their bank account broken into. Someone was withdrawing funds. He was so paranoid, until he got things switched, that he checked his bank account several times per day. Understandable!
How often do you check your bank accounts online?
February 4, 2010
Check Out My New Office
I moved, well - kind of. Check out the details at the RustyBrick Blog.
February 2, 2010
SphinnCon Israel 2010 Sold Out - March 7th
On December 15, 2009, I announced the return of SphinnCon, a small SMX event, to Israel. In just a week, we sold half the tickets.
I am delighted, I think, to say that the event is completely sold out now. On Sunday, January 31st, we sold our last ticket. 200 seats, gone.
We still have over a month until the event - so I apologize if you are just learning about it now and you were unable to get a seat. We did open a waiting list, but I am not sure if that will open up or not.
In any event, we are now finalizing the agenda, placing speakers and so on.
Again, I would like to thank our sponsors, including Jerusalem College of Technology, Compucall, Answers.com, Whired Rhino.
Of course, this would not be possible without the help of my friends in Israel:
- Olivier Amar (@olivier_amar) of WhiteWeb
- Ophir Cohen (@ophirco) of Compucall
- Eli Feldblum (@Feldbum) of RankAbove
- Roi Hildesheimer of Tens Technology
- Charlie Kalech (@charliekalech)of J Town
- Itay Paz (ItayPaz)of Affilicon
- Mayer Reich (@mayerreich) of RankAbove
- Branko Rihtman (@neyne) of WhiteWeb
- Gilad Sasson (@algoholic) of Nekuda
I am also excited about having a few Googlers coming and speaking at the event. I was hoping for some from Bing, but they have zero presence in search in Israel (or so I am told).
Anyway, thanks for making this conference a success so far. Looking forward to seeing you all!
