Driss-A-Blog

True Martyrs

Shira — 2008-05-06T00:53:41-05:00

What is a "martyr"? Plainly stated, it's a person who dies for G-d. Judaism does not ask for martyrs. We're generally told (except for three specific instances) to live for G-d and keep the commandments and not to die for G-d. But sometimes we're not given a choice, and the choice is made for us.

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--Shira

Never Again - The Empty Mantra

Shira — 2008-05-01T15:37:37-05:00

Here we are, commemorating Holocaust Memorial Day a week before celebrating Israel's 60th birthday. This is the day where we bring out the Holocaust survivors to listen to their stories of survival and victimhood. This is the day we sit around wondering what went wrong in Europe and mumbling to ourselves "Never Again".

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--Shira

The writers' strike and copyright

Avi — 2008-04-27T23:55:45-05:00

Lessig posts about the writers' strike. A writer claims it wasn't about royalties at all, but about copyright issues. (PDF, but worth it.)

--Avi

Tell me how you really feel

Avi — 2008-04-16T12:02:54-05:00

I'm writing a little app using Core Data for storage (no, not NSPersistentDocument-based). Trying to write the store out, but when I call -[NSManagedObjectContext save:] I get an error. Great! What is it?

Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=134030 UserInfo=0x16a0fce0 “An error occurred while saving.”

Oh, that's so helpful. Thanks, Cocoa.

Edit: Yes, there is userInfo:

<CFDictionary 0x16923db0 [0xa03f61a0]>{type = immutable, count = 1, capacity = 3, pairs = (
2 : <CFString 0xa04222b8 [0xa03f61a0]>{contents = “NSUnderlyingException”} = An error occurred while converting metadata to a property list: Property list invalid for format
)}

That actually is helpful. Thanks, Cocoa.

--Avi

Facebook and iCal: BFF

Avi — 2008-04-09T22:24:31-05:00

Go to your Facebook Events page. Click “Export Events” at the top of the page. Copy that URL and subscribe to it in iCal.

Yay for open standards!

[Edit:

Oh. So if you want to move an event to your calendar, you have to cut/paste. At which point iCal will insist on sending email to the “invitees” which is just the planner of the event. And then when you remove the event from the calendar it insists on emailing the planner that the event is cancelled.

Er. -1 for emails unexpectedly sent in your name.

]

--Avi

Google Awesome strikes again

Avi — 2008-04-07T23:11:57-05:00

App Engine shipped.

Write your web app in Python, store data in BigTable, authenticate against Google Accounts. We handle the scaling and storage.

I love shipping.

(No, this isn't my project. Just sharing the joy of a service, long hidden behind the scenes, getting its moment of glory. Don't worry, mine'll come when it's ready.)

--Avi

Cars and Gas Mileage

Talya — 2008-04-04T10:51:44-05:00

Ok, I'm slightly aggravated so I have to vent. I have to return my Jeep Liberty very soon, and have many choices for my next car. I have done a LOT of research on all the different cars, and have looked into numerous makes and models, from the Volvo to Mercury to Ford to Honda.

First off, I had to suffer people's comments about gas mileage when I got my Jeep three years ago. I happen to love my Jeep. I don't love the mileage, but darn it, I live in Michigan, and I've never been so happy with my Jeep than when I could 4WD my way through piles of snow and ice and laugh at others who got stuck.

Anyway, as gas prices rose and my lease approached its end, I thought about what was important in a car for me...

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--Talya

Trying out IPv6

Avi — 2008-03-31T23:07:21-05:00

IPv6 came up in conversation the other day when Google announced its IPv6-only site http://ipv6.google.com/. How hard is it to get up on IPv6?

Step 0: Get good firmware on your router. I'd moved to DD-WRT a long, long while ago on my WRT, so that was done.
Step 1: Google “ipv6 dd-wrt” and get a tutorial page written by the DD-WRT guys. Eyeball it and decide that 6to4 seems the simplest.
Step 2: Click two radio buttons, paste two chunks of text into the appropriate boxes, and click two buttons.
Step 3: Try accessing Google's IPv6 site with Camino, only to have it fail. Try Safari and smile at how simple it was.
Step 4: Use ping6. Attach screenshot to blog.

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--Avi

Yes, You are Judged by the Company You Keep

Shira — 2008-03-30T19:13:11-05:00

When we elect a leader, we not only look at the individual – we also look at the people and advisors that they surround themselves with.

Barack Obama has an interesting list of advisors and friends: Samantha Power, Zbigniew Brezinski, Robert Malley, Merrill McPeak and of course the Reverend Jeremiah Wright Jr. Let’s take a look at these people.

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--Shira

Obama - where do you really stand?

Talya — 2008-03-24T16:25:45-05:00

I thought I would share some excerpts from an article - feel free to read the whole thing (link is in the extended entry):

"I first met Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Barack Obama almost ten years ago when, as my representative in the Illinois state senate, he came to speak at the University of Chicago. He impressed me as progressive, intelligent and charismatic. I distinctly remember thinking 'if only a man of this calibre could become president one day.'

...

On Friday Obama gave a speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) in Chicago. It had been much anticipated in American Jewish political circles which buzzed about his intensive efforts to woo wealthy pro-Israel campaign donors who up to now have generally leaned towards his main rival Senator Hillary Clinton.

...

Obama offered not a single word of criticism of Israel, of its relentless settlement and wall construction, of the closures that make life unlivable for millions of Palestinians.

...

As he [Obama] came in from the cold and took off his coat, I [a pro-Hamas editorial writer] went up to greet him. He responded warmly, and volunteered, 'Hey, I'm sorry I haven't said more about Palestine right now, but we are in a tough primary race. I'm hoping when things calm down I can be more up front.' He referred to my activism, including columns I was contributing to the The Chicago Tribune critical of Israeli and US policy, 'Keep up the good work!'

...

If disappointing, given his historically close relations to Palestinian-Americans, Obama's about-face is not surprising. He is merely doing what he thinks is necessary to get elected and he will continue doing it as long as it keeps him in power. Palestinian-Americans are in the same position as civil libertarians who watched with dismay as Obama voted to reauthorize the USA Patriot Act, or immigrant rights advocates who were horrified as he voted in favor of a Republican bill to authorize the construction of a 700-mile fence on the border with Mexico" (Emphasis has been added).

Author: Ali Abunimah is the co-founder of The Electronic Intifada and author of One Country: A Bold Proposal to End the Israeli-Palestinian Impasse.

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--Talya

Lesson of the day

Avi — 2008-03-21T02:29:24-05:00

Got back from a Havalight party.

Lesson learned:

When a girl says (very unexpectedly) “so, do you want my number?” apparently the correct reply is not an instinctual snappy comeback, “should I?”

--Avi

The story of the ribbon

Avi — 2008-03-19T11:07:55-05:00

One of the biggest changes in the latest Microsoft Office for Windows is the ribbon rather than menus. Jensen Harris gave a talk about it, and video is up.

It's absolutely fascinating. A must see.

--Avi

WWDC 2008

Avi — 2008-03-14T09:55:05-05:00

WWDC: June 9–13.
Shavuot: June 9–10.

Guess that's not happening.

--Avi

There are No Innocents Here

Shira — 2008-03-06T22:02:34-05:00

In response to the massacre at the Yeshivat Mercaz HaRav Kook in Jerusalem, Ehud Barak, former prime minister of Israel and current minister of defense suggested that the innocents of Gaza should be moved out of harms way so that the Israel Defense Forces can operate freely and kill terrorists operating out of Gaza, never mind that the perpetrator of this attack was an Arab Israeli citizen.

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--Shira

Meeting the right one

Avi — 2008-03-03T15:14:02-05:00

There's a huge amount of fuss over Cosmo's article about where to meet guys. Everyone is noting it for its suggestion to go to Apple Stores. However, it also mentions tech companies, though it doesn't bring Google as an example.

Shame. Digging through my IRC comments (originally posted on June 27, 2006 to my internal Google blog):

avi: Something from Seventeen magazine: How would you fit in at Google? 15 questions to find out if it's your dream job
markd2: “question 1: David Hasselhoff. Is he a) great b) greater c) completely dreamy”
pinkerton: c!
markd2: pinkerton wins a job on the Google Mac Team! wooO!
avi: When a cute guy comes into a party, do you a) look at him and smile, b) look away, c) ask about his former girlfriends and do a regression analysis about their psychological characteristics to see if you have a chance?

--Avi