Archive for September, 2006
September 18, 2006 at · Filed under books
this book was lying on my "to read" shelf for over a year, and by the time i picked it up i forgot how it got there. anyway, i decided to give it the benefit of the doubt that if i put it there then i probably heard from somewhere that it is good.
it was written by Panos Karnezis and it is a collection of short stories all taking place or related to a small poor village in greece.
it is a good book. i came to the conclusion that i like books that depict life set in less developed countries, with people that are leading simple lives backed by strong determinism. i think there should be a genre for these type of books.
usually i have trouble with a book which is a collection of short stories. but in this case there is still a common thread, so you're not thrown away to a different place with every story. still took me a while to finish the book, maybe because i didn't have time, or was tired, but probably also because i never quite got into it.
September 17, 2006 at · Filed under music
last night i went with a friend to see a concert of zero 7 , jose gonzalez and sia.
it was a really great performance starting with jose gonzalez that looked very uncomfortable on stage and with all the attention from the crowd, but did magic with his guitar and authentic voice. after about an hour zero 7 and sia took the stage. sia has enough energy for the whole group. she dances awful, and has a poor tastes in clothes, but she gets the crowd going. she has a great voice and charisma, and her presence on stage makes all the difference.
it was the first time i saw a band that part of their setup on stage includes a bar where whomever is currently not playing/singing is making drinks for himself and the rest of the group. they certainly seem to know how to have fun.
overall it was a great night. and we should do it more often.
new york is a great city!
September 15, 2006 at · Filed under food
we had an amazing lunch at the city today. at an italian place called l'impero. it was one of the best food.experiences we ever had. i have been hearing about l'impero good things for a while, but never got to go there, but we had to be in the area this morning, so decided to give it a try.
my only regret is that it took us 6 years before we "discovered" the place. it is the best italian in town (at least judging based on the places i went to).
below is what we ordered:
appetizer:
Thai Snapper - pickled baby mushrooms, leeks and champagne grapes
it is a sashimi-like piece of snapper. the leeks and grapes matched perfectly.
appetizer #2:
Grilled Mediterranean Octopus - chickpea 'panissa' and roasted vegetable
the octopus was of great quality, and together with the sauce it worked out even better.
Warm Fagiolini and Goat Cheese Salad - truffled vinaigrette and baby greens
green salad with warm goat cheese is an easy pick of any menu. the salty mustard dressing combined well with the fagiolini and goat cheese.
main course:
Duck Foie Gras Agnolotti - moscato passito di sardegna reduction
WOW!! every bit is an experience. the home-made past was very light and stuffed in it was a delicious foie-gras. with all our love to animals. foie-gras is a sin we can't seem to get rid of. sorry little duckies :(
House-Made Fontina Raviolini - truffle reduction and parmigiano
small raviolis stuffed with cheese and tossed with truffle sauce.. very delicate. very good.
desert:
Coconut Panna Cotta - guava soup and coconut sorbet
a very light desert. the panna cotta was combined with guav soup is a great duo.
Banana Terrine - chocolate sorbet and sesame nougat
banana can be a bit overwhelming. this one was not over powering and let the other tastes come out.
September 14, 2006 at · Filed under general
i signed up for writely 8 months ago.
never got beyond creating the first 'test' document.
now i am testing it essentially as a way to write blog posts.
don't know if it makes sense.
i am not producing many documents these days.
more on the side of presentations and excel sheets..
it does seem as a great way to collaborate in writing a document.
September 14, 2006 at · Filed under technology
following apple's release of the new ipod microsoft provided more information about their coming zune player.
few highlights:
- comes in white, black and brown???
- 30GB
- WiFi
- FM Tuner
- 3 inch display
- supported formats: WMA, MP3, AAC; photos in JPEG; and videos in WMV, MPEG-4, H.264
bottom line: much better than current iPod
i think i'll wait till its available rather than buy one of the new iPods.
September 11, 2006 at · Filed under internet
i saw that dead 2.0 reported that youtube has started to put advertising on its site, so i went to check it out.
it was (still is last time i checked) a premium placement for an ESPN ad for their new Monday Night Football. The ad is not that good, but what pisses me off is that youtube did not put some sort of disclaimer to the users saying it is a paid advertisement (which also seems to be what the dead 2.0 guy didn't like).
i agree with fred wilson that believes youtube should use short video ads into the content. he also went into the trouble of putting together the excel sheet business model. i think users will be willing to accept this type of advertising, and i think the revenues should be shared with the video creators/uploaders.
i disagree with those who think that much of the youtube content will scare off advertisers. i think the tie between the ads and the content will most likely completely disappear, and it will be driven more by intelligent profiling of the end-user and search based targeting.
in any case one thing for sure. whenever the video content is an advertisement, the user should know it is the case.
September 11, 2006 at · Filed under middle east, politics
i wanted to subscribe to Foreign Affairs for a long time, and i finally did so today.
the first essay i read was by Niall Ferguson titled The Next War of the World. I read his essay with the bias of knowing he is an historian who is favored by neo-cons, for his strong support for american foreign intervention, realpolitik, and US acting as the empire that it is without a troubled conscious.
in his essay niall is trying to explain why the 20th century was the bloodiest, and later on he predicts that most likely the 21st century will be the same. just that this time it would be the middle-east and not the balkans that will incubate the global conflicts. considering the current state of things this is not a very creative line of thinking. it is harder to find someone that holds an optimistic view for the region.
niall attributes the time and location of the violence to ethnic disintegration, economic volatility, and empires in decline. today the "empires in decline" is not very relevant, though the US may be regarded as such. the other two factors are very much in play in the middle east.
his remedy for the middle-easy situation is more intervention by the US, and economic progress. i am not sure about either.
September 11, 2006 at · Filed under general
maskit said there is no easy way to navigate between the photos in flickr (the basic "back" and "forward" buttons), which i thought is inconceivable since it should be the most basic feature.
so the answer is that of course there is a way, it is just not very intuitive.
when you look at a photo on the right side of the page there is a picture of the previous photo and the next photo on the set. clicking on the right photo (the next) will move you forward in the set.
i still think they should add a simple back & forward buttons.
September 11, 2006 at · Filed under internet, technology
after several years of using imagestation to store and share my photos, i have moved to flickr.
i even paid flickr $24.95 for the PRO account, so i could upload all my photos in their original size and store them there forever*.
i should have made the move long ago. but i liked the fact that imagestation lets me store as much photos as i like, and did not charge me anything. but now that they want $4.95 a year, my recent frustration with their uploading tool, and the fact that flickr is just so much better, made me move.
* forever meaning as long as i keep paying..
September 8, 2006 at · Filed under general
i was in israel, on vacation and working , so i kind of neglected my blogging duties.
but anyway now i am back.
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