Archive for June, 2006
June 27, 2006 at · Filed under general
in its weekend edition the wSJ had a piece (paid site) about copycat chefs, taking ideas for dishes from other restaurants and offering it on their own menus.
it gives the example of dishes from WD-50 in NYC (which i really like for its innovative courses), and how a chef in australia basically copied a dish. the chef admitted to copying, but said he is often telling his customers that the dishes were inspired by certain american chefs.
egullet.com did more research on the issue and found that indeed many restaurants are copying dishes from other restaurants (not only the ingredients, but also the style of serving, as can be seen in the picture).
this prompted certain chefs to look into IP rights, patents and other means of legal protection for their recipes, which i think is ridiculous, and also does not make business sense. to submit a patent the chef will probably need to spend over $15K, and by the time he gets the patent (2-3 years later), probably already spent over $50K. and with the constant innovations in the kitchen, what used to be hip and novel 2 years ago, may be irrelevant today. plus lets assume the chef get the patent, then he need to go look for people who violated the patent, and take them to court?.. sounds like a waste of time and money.
i think it is perfectly ok to copy a dish you saw somewhere (you still need to reverse engineer the actual recipe), and that when you do copy a dish just add in the menu "inspired by/based on <_____> "
June 26, 2006 at · Filed under general
In a letter to Gates and his wife, Buffett wrote: "You have committed yourselves to a few extraordinarily important but underfunded issues, a policy that I believe offers the highest probability of your achieving goals of great consequence."
Gates and his wife said in a statement on their foundation's Web site: "We are awed by our friend Warren Buffett's decision to use his fortune to address the world's most challenging inequities, and we are humbled that he has chosen to direct a large portion of it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation."
this is truly amazing. hopefully it will set an example to other billionaires to do more for charity. this represents 80% of his net worth (so his kids still have what to look for..).
June 24, 2006 at · Filed under books
I finished reading The War of the End of the World.
It was one the best novels i have read recently. It tells the story of a tragic even in Brazil's history. The massacre of a an anti-government cult located in north (and extremely poor) brazil. It's a fictional tale, but based on some of the googling i did on the subject the key time-lines and events are correct.
The story is very engaging and easy to follow and the characters are not banal and flat. It touches on the cynicism of politics, the craziness of civil war, and human behavior in times of crisis. I recommend this book highly!
I don't have much experience with south american writers, but if you'd like a taste i'd recommend The War of the End of the World over One Hundred Years of Solitude.
June 23, 2006 at · Filed under internet, technology
last week there were several reports about the RIAA sending cease-and-desist letters to YouTube users who created videos using music protected by copyrights.
the WSJ reported about it and other major news sources, and the blogging world went crazy. but so far i have not seen any copy of these cease-and-desist letters, nor any credible person claiming that he received such a notice. which leads me to believe this story is a hoax.
i have very little respect or regard to the RIAA, but i doubt that they could be that stupid (though they were stupid enough to sue 12 year old girls for file sharing..).
June 22, 2006 at · Filed under general
i read about the nightmare call some guy had trying to cancel his AOL account, and then tom sent me a link to an interview with the guy that includes a recording of the call.
this comes as no surprise to me. i been through similar experiences with AOL, Vonage and TiVo, and the only reason i don't remember more examples is that i usually just don't deal with these guys (my wife does…).
you can sign up for services on the web. they will take your billing information willingly, but when it comes to canceling, it's a different story:
- they don't let you cancel the account online (including online-only services, which is ridiculous)
- you have to be an online detective to find the phone number for customer service, or to a special number in case you want to cancel (so they can keep you on hold an extra 10 minutes).
- when you finally call them (during business hours only) you have to wait a v-e-r-y long time to speak with an actual person, and i believe the waiting music/infommercials are designed to make you hang-up
- then dealing with the customer service rep is another torture
AOL claims they fired the employee who took the call. it is probably true, but i doubt he did something which is really against the company's policy. the calls i had with customer service reps from different companies trying to cancel stuff are too similar. i believe there is an industry practice and guidelines on how to deal with customers calling to cancel, and known tactics to use in order to avoid the cancellation.
i know for a fact that some companies have special customer service reps to deal with cancellation calls, and i am sure they are measured on their success rate in preventing the customer from leaving. they'll use tactics such as give you credit for 1, 2 months for you to give them another chance (knowing that in many cases you will not pass on a free offer, and then forget to cancel), upgrade your service for free for a while, etc. it does not sound too evil, but the result is people forget to cancel. this approach is a bit similar to rebates, which is a topic for another post.. but the thing about rebates is that much less than 50% of people actually submit/collect them.
June 21, 2006 at · Filed under internet
to those of you who didn't hear. MySpace was sued by a 14 year old and her mom for $30M. claiming that MySpace failed to protect teens from sexual predators.
"Solis contacted the girl through her MySpace Web site in April, telling her that he was a high school senior who played on the football team, according to the lawsuit.
In May, after a series of e-mails and phone calls, he picked her up at school, took her out to eat and to a movie, then drove her to an apartment complex parking lot in South Austin, where he sexually assaulted her, police said. He was arrested May 19.
The lawsuit includes news reports of other assault cases in which girls were contacted through MySpace. They include a 22-year-old Wisconsin man charged with six counts of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a 27-year-old Connecticut man accused of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old girl." — read more here.
i believe the responisibilty in this case lies with the parents. if you let your kid surf the web, use IM, chat, webcam, use social networking, etc. without monitoring his use you are an irresponislbe parent.
everytime there is a new technology that enables people to communicate on the internet, there are these cases who make the headlines, and there are calls to restrict use of these technologies. it was the case with bulletin boards, chat rooms, IRC, mailing lists, IM and now social networking. as virtual worlds (e.g. second life, habbo hotel) will get to critical mass it will happen there as well.
the answer in my opinion is not to legislate and regulate, but rather to educate. and this is the role of the parents. they should talks with their kids about the danger of speaking with strangers online, and try to give them tips on how to identify suspicious users. and whenever they have a doubt to come and talk. and whatever relationship you have with your kid (and how much you trust him), from time to time ask him to take a look at the IM buddy list, MySpace buddies, etc.
needless to say i think this lawsuit is without real merit and greedy.
MySpace can enhance its age verificiation, provide monitoring tools to parents and more, but it should not be told to do it by the courts or the legislator.
June 19, 2006 at · Filed under general
in response to gorillasushi's post.
Four jobs I have had in my life:
1. Cleaning apartment buildings
2. Busboy
3. Crepe-flipper
4. Security guard
Four movies you would watch over and over:
1. Pulp-fiction
2. Sounds of Music
3. Matrix (just the first one)
4. Trainspotting
Four places you have lived:
1. Israel
2. East Village, New York City
3. Upper West Side, New York City
4. Montvale, NJ (current)
Four TV shows you love to watch:
1. Sopranos
2. Lost
3. Seinfeld
4. American Idol
Four places you have been on vacation:
1. Tanzania, Africa
2. Kauai, Hawaii
3. Costa Rica
4. Greece
Web sites you visit daily:
1. Wall Street Journal
2. MyYahoo
3. TechCrunch
4. PaidContent
Four of my favorite foods:
1. Penne Bolognesse
2. Humus
3. Sushi
4. Foie Gras
Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Sandy beach
2. Mountain Peak
3. Diving
4. Anywhere reading a book
Four friends I think will respond: (but don't have to)
1. Maskit
2. Tom
3. Itai
4. Anonymous
Now, here's what you're supposed to do… and please do not spoil the fun. Copy the entire text in this blog, create a blog of your own, paste this text, delete my answers and type in your answers. Post your blog. The theory is that you will learn a lot of little unknown facts about each other.
June 16, 2006 at · Filed under internet, technology
disclosure: i just bought my sister a new iPod…
it's not surprising, but probably will not be accepted well by Apple's hard core users, who are probably also tree-huggers, dolphin saving, tofu eating, save the planet, fight the corporate type people.
i think i'll stop buying iPods, but i doubt any of the other MP3 players are manufactures by $25 an hour with medical benefits employees.
Apple Investigates Allegations Of Poor Work Conditions in China
Associated Press
June 16, 2006 7:20 a.m.
SHANGHAI, China — Apple Computer Inc. is investigating claims of poor working conditions at a Chinese iPod factory, the company said Friday, vowing not to tolerate any labor violations.
The Cupertino, Calif.-based company was responding to a report by a British newspaper, the Mail on Sunday, that alleged workers at an unnamed iPod factory were paid as little as £27 (US$50) a month to work 15-hour shifts making the music players.
"Apple is committed to ensuring that working conditions in our supply chain are safe, workers are treated with respect and dignity, and manufacturing processes are environmentally responsible," Apple said in a written statement from spokesman Steve Dowling.
"We are currently investigating the allegations regarding working conditions in the iPod manufacturing plant in China. We do not tolerate any violations of our supplier code of conduct," it said.
Apple's iconic iPod players are made abroad, mainly in China. The company has sold more than 50 million of the devices since its debut in 2001.
Apple adopted a code of conduct for its suppliers last November, saying it was modeled after the Electronic Industry Code of Conduct and other labor standards. It bans child labor and sets a maximum of 60-hour work weeks, including overtime. The provisions also require suppliers to comply with applicable laws on minimum wages and to keep worker dormitories clean and safe.
Copyright © 2006 Associated Press
June 15, 2006 at · Filed under internet
an interesting piece the guardian about griefers.
Griefer is the term for a player in an online computer game who deliberately sets out to discomfort other players. A Griefer is a kind of troll.
i must confess that i too was abused.
it was about a year ago (maybe more). and i was playing Final Fantasy Online. i invested several weeks in building up my avatar. i was building up my skills, weapons, armors and treasure. it was then that i met up with a group of fellow adventurers. we chatted for a while, when one of them suggested that we go out for a short hunting trip.
i was excited about the opportunity to go on this hunt, as i was a newbie to this world. on our first encounter with a few monsters i was literally placed in the front of the group. before i realized it my character was dead, beaten to death by the monsters and i suspect my hunting "friends". the group then jumped on the loot, all my belonging that i gathered over the past several weeks were divided among my "friends".
i learned several lessons:
- if i want to be able to play in these MMORPGs i must invest *much* more time in building my character
- get to know your partners before you trust them with your virtual life
- i'll have to wait till i either retire/be unemployed before i can get serious about playing in these worlds..
my experience was relatively harmless (beside my hurt emotions), but for people who invest much more time in their characters, or in cases like second-life, where virtual assets are starting to have real dollar value the harm could be much greater.
letting the community police itself is probably the best way to handle the griefers. it seems to have worked well for Xbox Live and some other online services. not only it gives players a sense of ownership, but it also saves real dollars for the company offering the game.
June 14, 2006 at · Filed under politics
read an amazing article about the CIA handling of information regarding Eichmann and other top Nazi officials post WWII (i am quite surprised it didn't get more coverage).
according to recent findings (based on declassifying of millions of documents) the US government has worked closely with a good number of ex-Nazi officials post WWII. the main purpose was to gain information that will help in the cold war against the soviet union.
the logic was the usual realpolitik. the greater good. the cause justifies the means. a lesser evil?, my enemy's enemy is my friend..
the work on the archives started after Congress passed the Nazi War Crimes Disclosure Act in 1998, the Inter-agency Working Group worked to declassify over 8 million pages of documents from the period, and came up with some interesting conclusions.
- the CIA knew about the whereabouts and alias of Adolf Eichmann in 1958, but have not share the information with other agencies or the israelis
- the CIA has asked Life magazine to omit a mention of Hans Globke Nazi's past from an article. Globke was a former Nazi government official that at the time served as the national security adviser in West Germany
- the intelligence service of west germany (that was heavily supported by the US) and included many ex-Nazis was penetrated and compromised easily by the KGB. apparently the ex-Nazis were easy targets for the KGB. many of them harbored bad feelings towards the west, and their nazi past was an easy button to push in terms of extortion
the american public should be concerned about the morality of this policy and the secrecy and censorship that came together with it. in retrospect it looks like the strategy of recruiting ex-Nazis to serve against the soviets was not effective, and in many cases worked against the US.
looking at the US government conduct over the last two decades and today, i am not sure much have changed in terms of policy. the evil we are fighting today is terrorism, and the administration thinks that giving up on some personal liberties, breaking a few rules (both US and International), running secret prisons in europe, Guantanamo, etc. all are justified in light of the battle that is being waged (and the cruel/merciless/inhumane enemy we are facing).
in the case of US policy in afganistan/pakistan we didn't have to wait too long, to see the result of "my enemy's enemy is my friend" and questionable values of our selected partners backfiring.
maybe i am naive on this issue, but i believe foreign policy can not be disconnected from the values the country stand for. and while in the short term opportunistic approach may look effective and rewarding it seems that with the perspective of time these decisions turn to be a long term liability, overshadowing the short-term gains.
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