What could you do with 45 million shekels (nearly $12 million at NIS 3.80/dollar)? Retire, probably. But what could you do with that kind of money if you were a government official who had to spend it on the public? Well, let’s see:

1) You could provide 45,000 poor families with 1,000 shekels a month for food and expenses

2) You could pay the rent for a year for 2,000 families (12 months @ $500/month)

3) You could provide a decent paying job for 450 people (annual salary of NIS 100,000 a year)

Or,
4) You could buy licenses for Windows and Microsoft Office for all the computers in Israel’s schools (about 200,000 altogether).

All worthy endeavors, for sure. But some are less worthy than others – like number 4. If the country is in such bad financial straits (which every politician will tell you it is), why not use Linux and OpenOffice instead Windows and MS Office? We have nothing against Microsoft, but when a quarter of the country’s residents are said to be poor, doesn’t it make more sense to use free open source operating systems and office suites, which work just as well as Microsoft’s?

According to this article in Hebrew business daily Calcalist, it comes down to laziness – both on the part of teachers and the Education Ministry, which doesn’t want to “rock the boat” and make teachers learn “new technology,” or seek out technical support from people who know Linux, preferring to stick with what they’re used to. Not that that they get free support from Microsoft for either Windows or Office – for that, they have to hire technical people and pay them separately. That NIS 45,000,000 is just for licenses.

So the next time some politician wails about how poor the country is, just tell him/her you know how to save an easy 45 million shekels – all it takes is having teachers download a free copy of OO (which you really have to look at hard to realize that it’s not MS Office) and installing Linux on their PCs. May I suggest that instead of spending $39.90 on each Windows/Office license (the cost per machine which the NIS 45 million deal works out to), the Education Ministry invest in a few copies of Linux for Dummies for each school!

Note this sentence from the Calcalist article: “The Education Ministry, as far as it is concerned, sees the deal (NIS 45,000,000 for Windows and Office on all of its computers) as a very good one, since all other government ministries are paying $130 for each package.” (!)

Related articles by Zemanta

• Google Chrome OS: Q&A (telegraph.co.uk)
• Free Software for All Russian Schools in Jeopardy (mt-soft.com.ar)
• Bad News For Ballmer & Co. – Enterprise Still In No Hurry for Windows 7 (lockergnome.com)

On Saturday – Shabbat – Hareidim will be protesting the fact that Intel’s brand new Jerusalem fabrication plant will be operating on the holy day. And come Saturday night, Israel’s media is going to be all agog. I can already picture the headlines and the stories in papers like Ha’aretz, the Jerusalem Post, Yedi’ot, etc. – each paper has its own style, or if you prefer, slant. But they are all going to get the story wrong. You want to know what’s really going on? Keep reading!

Over the past several years, the intensity of “Shabbos protests” has increased, most recently with the ugly scenes in the center of Jerusalem over the opening of a parking lot by the city. But Intel is no local parking lot or supermarket, and the story, as it will be portrayed by all the mainstream media in Israel, will portray “fanatic Hareidim” pitted against the essence of modernity – the computer chip. Editors should have a field day with that one!

Then there will be the stories about how the Hareidim, who “don’t work,” aren’t just satisfied to sit around themselves, but have no problem jeopardizing the jobs of other Jerusalem residents, by trying to drive Intel out of town – and maybe out of Israel altogether! And, of course, there will be the take on how the Hareidim just want to throw their weight around, and are doing this just to get back at the city for electing a secular mayor – because after all, it’s located in Har Hotzvim, an industrial zone where no religious people (or people of any sort) actually live – so the plant is not going to directly damage anyone’s “Sabbath peace.”

It’s just too easy a story not to be stereotyped, but in this case, things may not be so simple. The anti-Intel protests are being organized by Knesset members from United Torah Judaism (UTJ) – the issue was pushed by UTJ Knesset member Uri Maklev. Although the epitome of what is called “ultra-Orthodox,” UTJ was very reticent when it came to the Karta mess (those protests were organized by a private group, and was steered by “ultra-Hareidi” Hassidic groups). UTJ represents Hareidi “yeshivish” circles, of course, but it also represents the average working Hareidi family, and engages with all the institutions of the state, and much of its Knesset activity involves getting tax breaks and benefits for large families, etc. They’re frequently accused of being “non-Zionist,” but they’re certainly no less (and probably a lot more) Zionist than groups like Peace Now. And while the secular media often disagrees with their positions, no one would consider them to be “fanatics.”

So if there’s any group you would think would not be leading this – who would understand that a fab plant needs to operate 24/7 – it would be these guys. Despite the stereotype, many Hareidim are “plugged in” to some extent, using the internet, e-mail, cellphones, etc. And they certainly understand what’s at stake in this battle. Even more: Considering that the old Intel plant in Jerusalem also operated on Shabbat and nobody seemed to care, and that other Intel plants around the country are open Saturday as well without anyone complaining – and that nightclubs and restaurants even in the center of town, much less in places like Talpiot, are open on Shabbat, without anyone protesting – you have to wonder exactly what is going on here.

Like I said, taking on Intel is not like taking on a parking lot, and the UTJ Knesset members who are leading this have to know that they are going to have a very hard time defending their position to the secular public. Ergo, we can take them at their word – that the reason they are doing this is, besides defending the “honor of the Sabbath,” they are worried that other businesses will take their cue from Intel and open on Shabbat as well (this is one of the top reasons mentioned by the organizers).

However, I believe something else is going on here; we’ve been handed a hot potato from the One Above, who wants to see how we are going to manage.

In this issue, we’re faced with a stark choice, it seems – the sanctity of the Sabbath versus the pull of modernity, the essence of modernity; the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips! But in this battle, the side that “wins” loses, too; if Intel packs up because of this, no one will be happy – including the Hareidim, because members of their community (mostly female) work at good jobs at Intel, supporting their husbands in Yeshiva. Without those jobs, the financial situation of dozens of Yeshiva families will be very precarious.

And if Intel “wins,” the Jewish people as a whole lose; the Sabbath is not an institution to be regarded lightly, as Jewish history tells us. Religious Jews believe they have an obligation to protest against desecration of the Sabbath, and there are plenty of sources in Jewish writings that mention this. As an observant individual, I take Shabbat seriously, and personally I believe that figuring out how to integrate the modern world with Shabbat – and vice versa – is one of the major challenges G-d has given our generation.

It’s been said that G-d often does things with an “ironic” twist – as in, “you wanted X to happen so badly, well let’s see how you handle it when it does.” Seen in that light, the Intel story is a challenge to both “sides”. While the Hareidi leadership has an obligation to lead battle to preserve the Sabbath (if they don’t, who will?), they’re also a part of the Jewish people, and the modern State of Israel. So, apparently, it’s been decided on High that the time has come to work out a balance between the two. The same goes for Intel; for years, it’s been profiting off the genius of Israel, the Holy Land – a place where the Sabbath means something. The time has come for it to figure out how to respect the moral Law of that land, even with a fab plant that has to operate 24.7.

So that’s our choice – coming together or oblivion, one way or another. The latter is too painful to picture, regardless of who “wins.” The fact that this showdown is being waged by those who are considered the “safekeepers” of Shabbat in Israel, and the epitome of modern computer technology, is so rife with symbolism and meaning that you have to be blind not to get it. But imagine if both sides manage to pull it off – if they do figure out a way to preserve the Sabbath, and keep the plant going! Imagine being able to meet that G-d given challenge successfully! Who could imagine the benefits – the “blessings” – that would emerge?

Not to take away anything from Microsoft on its big day – everyone seems to love Windows 7 – but $179 for an upgrade? I mean, you don’t have Vista, right? You’re going to be upgrading directly from XP, which means you’re going to have to pay the upgrade fee, if you want the upgrade.

From what I read, MS doesn’t expect that much upgrade business from upgraders anyway; the bulk of Win7 users will get their first taste of the OS when they buy new desktops and laptops, where the cost of the system will be absorbed into the price of the computer. Of course, Microsoft will still be getting its $179 (or whatever they are charging for the OEM version of Win7).

Why do software companies issue new versions of their programs – or operating systems? Well, there are incremental improvements, security upgrades, and compatibility with new hardware. But honestly, all that could be accomplished in the context of an existing OS, via patches (a concept MS is certainly familiar with). But then they wouldn’t be able to collect $179 from users, would they?

So we know why the OS distributor sends out upgrades. But if the system works on your computer, why would YOU want to upgrade? As good as Windows 7 is, the “upgrade 1.0” rule – as in, don’t be the first on your block to install something brand new – still applies. And even if you install something tried and true, it takes weeks – many months – to get things working the way you want. So, if Microsoft XP works, why not just stick with it?

Well, because MS won’t let you; eventually, you have to upgrade, because they are going to stop issuing updates and patches for the “old” OS. I still have a machine that runs Windows 2000 – and which I have no intention of upgrading – but other than security patches, MS has stopped issuing performance upgrades long ago. The same thing is going to happen with XP – despite the fact that if you took a poll, I am sure the majority of people would rather stick with what they know.

But what if you could upgrade XP indefinitely – if you could ensure that it was up to day in fighting viruses, and was able to support new hardware as it came out? Under those circumstances, you could probably save yourself $179 – and a lot of hassle, too!

Unfortunately, there’s little you can do to prevent MS from phasing out XP. But if you like the way XP works and you want to keep it’s “look and feel” – and you don’t mind investing twenty five bucks – you might be interested in the very XP-like operating system made by an Israeli company with the unlikely name of “Affordy” (as in, “here’s a version of ‘Windows’ you can afford!)

Affordy’s Titan LEV (Linux Extended Version) looks and feels a lot like Windows XP, runs Internet Explorer, Outlook Express, and many other Windows programs you’re familiar with, and can even run MS Office – but it’s not Windows. It’s a souped-up version of Ubuntu Linux, built specifically to make Linux palatable for Windows users. The difference between “real” XP and Affordy XP is that the Affordy people will be maintaining their OS, issuing upgrades and integrating programs into the OS, making it a “living thing,” unlike the case with Microsoft’s now-defunct OS.

The programs, by the way, are mostly open-source, but come pre-installed with the OS. The whole thing is “XP Compatible” – meaning, according to the company, that you can receive and edit a file from Windows or send a file to a Windows based PC, print onto a network printer connected to a Windows PC, and operate Windows and DOS programs.

According to Israel-based Affordy, the hassle of tracking down and figuring out how to install applications that work the way Windows users are accustomed to has been one of the major reasons why Linux hasn’t really taken off among consumers, among other reasons. “ Users who were used to a certain application could not find a suitable Linux replacement.  There are about 23,000 open source programs.  Finding and installing the right program takes time, expertise and experience,” the site says. You can even buy a laptop or desktop from these folks (including the super-cheap Coby netbook pictured below) with the Titan OS preinstalled – or just buy the OS on disc for about $25. Last I checked, that was $154 less than $179 – not a sum to be sneezed at in today’s economy!

In my Jpost article today, I talked about the alternatives to Israeli phone ex-monopoly Bezeq. While only Bezeq can still offer traditional PSTN phone service, a host of challengers have arisen to provide consumers with broadband-based home phone services, usually on a POP (pay one price, like at Great Adventure) basis. Until customers can connect to the internet at more than the current 8mb/s (most people here have 5mb/s or less), I wrote that transferring for your home phone service to the internet – which for various reasons is dicey enough in Israel (the infrastructure sometimes hems and haws) – might not be such a good idea, at least until Bezeq’s NGN fast data transfer infrastructure (reputed to provide up to 50mb/s capabilities) reaches your neighborhood. And the truth is, Bezeq’s prices and service aren’t all that terrible.

Now. Now they’re not so terrible. As one reader commented on the Jpost site, Bezeq’s prices and service aren’t so terrible now because the company has five competitors breathing down its neck, who are actually having an impact on its customer base. For me, with a network of five or six home computers that are always on and active, downloading, processing, or presenting and playing this or that, adding internet-based home phone service would be just another strain on the system (I’ve been down that road anyway, with both Skype – which usually behaves, but sometimes doesn’t – and a dedicated softphone, complete with VoIP box). But for  any folks who aren’t heavy web surfers, saving 50 or 100 shekels a month on their phone bills by switching away from Bezeq. Many are doing so. It makes lots of sense – and can be a very satisfying experience.

That’s because everybody has their “Bezeq story.” You can’t really blame them for the crappy service in the “old days,” before 1984, when the culprit was the government-controlled Ministry of Communications. But you can blame them for the crappy service after 1984, when the Ministry spun-off Bezeq into a separate – but still government-controlled – enterprise.

Even just a few years ago, on the eve of its becoming a private company, Bezeq was still mired in its old ways. Example: You have been able to pay your Bezeq bill by credit card anytime, day or night, over an automated system for nearly a decade. You call their service number (199), press some buttons, and input your credit card number using your keypad. The process is pretty efficient – now. Until about a year and a half or so ago, however, it was much easier to call during business hours and get a real person; that virtual cashier would go on and on for eons, making you repeat input, checking and rechecking things.

Perhaps they planned the system like that for uptight Israelis who expect to be given a hard time by the people they pay for services, but what should have been an easy input-based bill paying exercise turned out to require your full attention for as long as ten minutes! Note that this situation prevailed even during a substantial period when Bezeq was a private company. They’ve cleaned up the input manager now, and it now takes about three minutes to go through the process of changing things.

But that’s not my Bezeq story – instead, this is it: About seven years ago (2002) I was getting ready to leave with my wife and kids for a family trip to U.S. relatives. The flight was to leave quite early, I remember, and we were up long before dawn making last minute preparations. Then it hit me – I forgot to pay the phone bill, which was already overdue by a couple of days! But where was the bill? Already edging on towards late and trying to take care of a plethora of last minute details, I search and searched, but couldn’t find the bill.

When you call Bezeq from your home phone, the computer identifies your phone number and account  – and that feature was active in the 2002 version of the Bezeq online payment system. So no problem, right? You don’t really need a bill; call the automatic payment system, let it identify your account  via your phone number, let it tell you how much you owe, and pay.

That’s the way you would expect it to work – but not at Bezeq circa 2002. While the system could identify who you were, it couldn’t tell you how much you owed! You had to have the bill in front of you in order to input the full – exact, down to the agora – you were supposed to pay. What if you didn’t have the bill, or wanted to pay in advance? Could you, before, say, going out of town and having lost your bill, input a clearly inflated sum like NIS 500 (instead of the NIS 200 the bill usually was), and let them hold it for you on account?

You could try – as I did – and be told that the payment had been recorded in the system. And you would go on your merry way, confident that Mamale Bell was watching out for you. And you wouldn’t even realize you had a problem until you sauntered back home three weeks later and picked up the phone – and heard nothing!

Why nothing? Because Bezeq had cut off your service. And why had they cut off your service? Because you didn’t pay your bill. But Ms. Bezeq lady, you beg, I lost the bill and input much MORE than I owed, so you would get your money! It’s just not fair! To which the Bezeq lady would reply, in more or less words, “tough.” To get your service back, you had to pay your bill PLUS a cutoff fee, EVEN THOUGH your payment was seemingly accepted at the time of payment by the system!

And you, left holding the bag, seethe with rage. And you tell the Bezeq lady, “All right for you. But one day the government is going to allow competition, and on the first day they do, I am dumping you for anyone else that can offer home phone service, even if they charge more money than you!”

So much for dreams of sweet revenge. Nowadays, it would seem that the revolution is over, that Bezeq has joined the family of humanity and positive human relations. But people like us remember – and our day will come yet!

At first it sounded like another dream deal: An Israeli company sold a one third interest in a medical device it developed to a British-Taiwanese company for $370 million – making the total value of SafeSky’s LifeKeeper Patch over $1 billion. The deal, between SafeSky and Micro-Star International (MSI), is one of the biggest ever in relative terms for an Israeli hi-tech industry.

According to the company, the LifeKeeper patch can read information about the wearer’s medical state – recording data such as body temperature, heart rate and rhythms, blood pressure, and blood sugar levels. When you wear the patch, the information is transmitted via Bluetooth to a cell phone, where an application records the information. The phone program evaluates the data, and if the information being recorded indicates that that wearer is in danger of a heart attack or stroke, it can send an emergency message out to doctors or emergency services, who can then locate the wearer using the phone’s GPS capabilities. (I’m proud to say I had the first full English-language report on this, which you can read here)

Sounds like a medical miracle! And the fact that a company was willing to stake so much money for just a partial ownership seems like a miracle, too – in fact, it’s pretty miraculous that any company would have that kind of money around today!

Maybe it’s jealousy or politics (one of the co-inventors of the patch is said to be a good friend of Prime Minister Netanyahu), but a smattering of reports have appeared in the Israeli press over the past day or so questioning whether there was a deal, or whether the patch even exists! This, despite assurances by the owners that the deal was done and the check from MSI is already in the hands of SafeSky’s Tel Aviv lawyers. In an interview for a print publication (whose name I am not authorized to reveal online!) the interviewer asked co-inventor Amos Bouchnik about the reports, and he dismissed them:

“We’re not paying attention to them at all. We’ve kept the device under wraps at the request of the purchaser in order to ensure maximum industrial security. MSI will conduct a presentation in Tel Aviv in the near future and demonstrate it to doctors. The company has been examining this device for the past 18 months and it is indeed a device that will change the face of medicine.”

SafeSky is a private company, it made a deal for a product it owns, and it doesn’t have to reveal any details of its work – including to the media. But apparently the media doesn’t agree. Channel One ran a rather snide report questioning whether the device even exists! As if Bouchnik and his partner Arik Klein (Netanyahu’s friend) made the whole thing up! Note that both are very successful dentists, of all things – entrepreneurial dentists, who own chains of dental clinics and are involved in several other businesses. SafeSky, which they wholly own, has other products as well, such as “a better solar panel,” which can collect 100 times more energy than panels currently in use.

Not only do the two own the exclusive patents to the patch: They have never taken VC or other investment money, meaning they don’t owe anybody anything.

And therein probably lies the root of their spate of bad press, if I know my Israeli reporters. Probably some goon demanded to see the patch in action, and Bouchnik and Klein told them no way – to which the reporter got very offended and threatened to do a hatchet job on them. Unimpressed, the two sent the reporter his or her way, and s/he made good on the threat by running a nasty story questioning not only their ethics and reliability, but their sanity (as if they made the whole thing up!)

And if you think I’m being too hard on the reporter, I invite you to listen to the news magazines on Israel’s second radio channel (Reshet Bet), at 9 AM, 10 AM, Noon, and 5 PM. In the many live interviews with newsmakers they conduct, the speakers – ranging from politicians to plain old Joes – have to contend with constant interruptions, innuendo, and overall nastiness and rudeness. I mean it; speakers get interrupted by the hosts at nearly every sentence. It’s as if the hosts have to hear themselves speak every few seconds, in order to make sure everyone knows they’re in charge! That’s the caliber of reporter in Israel’s media – and making up a story just to get back at a company that doesn’t want to play ball with them is definitely not out of the realm of possibility. (Note: Picture is NOT of the LifeKeeper Patch, but for illustrative purposes only!)

According to an e-mail I got this week, the next meeting of the Israel Internet Society, ISOC, will focus on “the phenomenon of nazism in virtual worlds, like Second Life.”

Huh?

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about in the first life! Although in a recent interview I did with Efraim Zuroff of the Israel branch of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, nobody pays attention to “real” Nazis, the ISOC – a very respectable organization – has found it necessary to address nazism in Second Life, and the meeting will discuss a demand by Israeli users of the platform to ban nazi symbols, uniforms, and group. According to the e-mail I got, the “Israelis” in Second Life have been demanding that the site close down a virtual uniform store which sells uniforms of different nations and time periods – including Nazi uniforms. The store claims that it’s only interest in historical period pieces, but the protesters say it’s just a front for Second Life Nazis to buy paraphernalia. At it’s meeting, ISOC will discuss the ramifications of asking to censor a virtual world.

Naturally, this was too good a story not to pursue – and at this site, I found a full dossier on the Second Life Nazis. Known as the “Furzis,” the group operated a Second Life store which sold Nazi “memorabilia” and banned Second Life Jews. The whole story was documented by the “Jewish Defense League of Second Life” at their site, which managed to get the Second Life admins to close the store down (because it was violating SL’s TOS by promoting hate). As the site says,

“Whether they are white, black or arab antisemites, we have remained vigilant in our efforts to free SL from intolerance, and have also grown in numbers.”

So they got them on a violation of TOS. If only things were that easy in “First Life!” But based on the e-mail I got from ISOC, the Nazis (perhaps no longer in the form of furballs) seem to have returned. The SLJDL recommends all users who observe this kind of behavior to nudge the SL admins.

BTW – did you know there was a magazine specifically dedicated to “Jewish Second Life?” Check it out at http://www.2lifemagazine.com/. Lots of interesting stuff, about Jewish life and culture – except it’s virtual. And all this time, I thought Second Life was just another dumb game!

Cynics would say it’s about time Microsoft released a free anti-virus program – after all, aren’t most of the viruses that infect Windows systems the result of the all too easy to bust registry?

But we’ll leave aside the politics of the registry for now. What I like about the new, free Microsoft Security Essentials is that it was developed right here in Israel! As of today (June 23), the package is available for download (I found a link for all versions here, but by Wednesday it should be on the official MS security page).

The download is free, and available for now to users in the U.S., Israel, and Brazil. According to a bunch of articles I read, the reasoning is that the U.S. has lots of computers, Israel is where it was developed, and Brazil has lots of infected computers, so the feedback will help MS improve the product. It’s not exactly an anti-virus suite like Norton or the others, but it’s good at nabbing trojans and viruses in e-mail and downloads.

At a press conference, Moshe Lichtman, the director of Microsoft Development in Israel, unveiled not only the antivirus program, but 13 other innovations the Israeli unit came up with, including a new version of Messenger for dual computer/cellphone use, that will display messages on the phone as SMS messages, and as regular Messenger messages on the computer – automatically.

Microsoft’s Israel labs have had a long tradition of innovating killer products for the company. Like – developing much of Windows NT (the precursor of Win2k and XP)! From an article I wrote a couple of years ago, where I tried to ascertain Israel’s role in the creation of Windows:

After lots of Web surfing, I decided to give Microsoft Israel a call. Apparently, they get this question a lot; the very pleasant young lady I spoke with said that “Parts of Windows NT were definitely developed in Israel,” but that she could not specify which ones – other than to say they were “probably” mostly “security related.” Security, of course, was NT’s biggest selling point, so this young lady may have said more than she meant to. Hmm. On the other hand, she seemed to indicate that NT, as all of Microsoft’s products are, was a team effort, with different research groups working on different parts of the program.

Which would mean that Israel, although perhaps an important contributor, did not necessarily develop “most” of NT or XP. I was ready to take that as the situation, in fact – attributing the statement on the poster to overenthusiastic Israel-loving (not that there’s anything wrong with that) – until I came across this site (http://tinyurl.com/nwe5w), a technical site that made this statement, in the context of a computer show it was covering in Tel Aviv: “Microsoft also announced Windows NT Embedded which is to be released this year and is being developed at Microsoft R&D centre in Haifa, here in Israel.” Well, if they developed NT Embedded, why not NT itself?

I was never a good writer. Not the kind of writing that you read to get information from (that kind of writing I’m not too bad at). I mean the kind of writing where you take a pen and start jotting things down on paper. Suffice to say that when I was in seventh grade “they” sent me to the school psychologist because my handwriting was so bad.

Nowadays, except for signing checks and the like, I do all my writing via the keyboard. For me, it’s not a choice – nobody would be able to read anything I wrote on a pen and paper anyway! And now, after so many years of keyboarding, I’ve practically lost the penmanship skills I ever had anyway!

But for normal people who know what to do with pen and paper, there’s an Israeli invention that lets them digitalize what they’ve written. Pegasus Mobile Note Taker, you can take notes anywhere and on anything, and automatically have it transformed into text, editable in MS Word and the like!  Note Taker doesn’t scan your writing, but actually converts what you write into text. And while there are plenty of digital pads and pens out there that can do the same thing, the chidush here is that you can use regular paper – pads, notebooks, or wherever you take notes.

That sounds cool enough, but if you already have your laptop on the table, why would you want to take notes on a pad using a regular notebook? Seems as if it would be easier to just type directly into the computer! Ah, but Note Taker goes beyond the screen; you can connect the device not just to a computer, but to a cell device too – via Bluetooth! So, if you have a smartphone, you don’t need to shlep a laptop to meetings – just turn your phone and your Note Taker on, start writing, and your text will get recorded as a document in your cell device, for later uploading to your computer!

That in an of itself makes Note Taker extremely useful. But I thought of something even better: Besides a small piece of hardware that you connect to your pad, the system includes OCR software that automatically reads and converts your writing into onscreen text. But it works with graphics as well – so if you’re an artist who draws on paper or even canvas, you can automatically digitize your artwork while you work, with a digital copy of your canvas masterpiece on-screen. Thinking about this aspect of Note Taker’s capability, I got a good business idea for artists – professional or even aspiring:

Paint something good and get the original  of your work into an art gallery or even public institution somewhere, and then sell digital prints of your masterpiece that’s hanging in, for example, city hall! You can appeal to civic pride of town residents, who no doubt would be motivated to buy a reasonably priced copy of a work that graces one of their fine city’s prestigious institutions. Plus, if you’ve donated the original work, you get credit for your public mindedness – always a marketing plus! Set up a website promoting your work and put together an e-mail marketing campaign to reach your customers; as orders come in, you can print out your work one piece at a time, saving money on the up front investment you usually have to make in producing copies of artwork. Find a printer, make a deal on production, and you’re on your way to fame and fortune!

You’ve probably tried out CamSpace, the Israeli “Wii Killer” that lets you interact with your computer screen without a mouse or keyboard – just using your body. And if you haven’t, shame on you, because you didn’t read my great article about it at Israel21c. CamSpace is still maturing, but already you can play dozens of games that let you be “in” the game, waving your hand around while playing tennis, boxing, playing Donkey Kong type games, etc.

Well, it turns out there’s yet another Israeli company working in this space – and its technology is apparently going to be at the heart of Microsoft’s Project Natal which will be included in future Xbox editions. According to Engadget, Israel’s 3DV Systems’ ZCam, which

“is at the size of a typical webcam, and provides home users revolutionary gesture recognition capabilities in addition to real-time background replacement, enabling them to control video games and personal space through intuitive body gestures and immerse themselves with virtual reality”

will be the piece of hardware Natal uses to connect users to the their screens!

The ZCam is actually a hybrid between the Wii’s approach and the CamSpace approach (but closer to CamSpace); using dedicated motion detection hardware and software like the Wii does (CamSpace is software and works with any web cam), with a full body orientation like Camspace allows, instead of just limiting you to interactivity with the remote control, like the Wii. According to Engadget,

“Project Natal really couldn’t be further from the Wii when it comes to motion controls. Instead of representing potentially arbitrary controller motions and gestures, Microsoft has its sights set on capturing the motion of the entire body. The technology is certainly impressive, combining an infrared camera and traditional camera to capture motion and 3D location in with glorious resolution and responsiveness — from furious full body flailing to the subtle motion of an imaginary steering wheel, gas pedal and gear shifter.”

And that camera combination will apparently be coming to you courtesy of Israeli startup 3DV Systems. Apparently a deal for MS to buy 3DV has been or is about to be completed, and it’s possible the first ZCams (or whatever they evolve into) will show up in Xboxes next year.

Israeli hi-tech may be down – but it certainly isn’t out. That’s the conclusion you would have to reach if you spent time at Tuesday’s Israel Venture Association annual conference. The IVA brings together investors – VC’s and angels – with Israeli companies looking for funding. Over the past couple of years, the organization has been responsible for getting tens of millions in funding for Israeli companies. At the IVA convention, investors and industry folk meet, with the idea that some deals will emerge from the balagan.

While I attended some of the sessions, I found the “startup pavilion” most interesting. While many of the companies presenting in the organized sessions – with sessions on gaming, telecom, cleantech, mobile, and “traditional” areas like semiconductors – were startups too, they were “mature” startups, who were already well funded and, in many cases, already making money. The startups I spoke too were far younger, although some were on the verge of signing contracts (they said) in the areas they specialized in. Some of the more promising ideas: a company that has figured out a way to conduct wide-scale and accurate TV and radio ratings, a better system for oil and water exploration, and an easy way to move pictures between different social network photo sites.

There were also in-depth sessions, as I mentioned, with VC’s choosing companies in their portfolios to present their technology at the show. I went to a couple of them to see the presentations, as did many others. I made sure to check out the Cleantech presentations, sponsored by the California-Israel Chamber of Commerce. Very nice, with discussions of what might be one day great technologies that will save the environment. Of course, with Cleantech a hot area for investments – private and government – the session was jam-packed.

But the discussion was a bit too theoretical for me – lots of “ifs” and “we believes” and “at some point in the futures.” In other words, there are a lot of great ideas and a lot of possibilities – as well as a lot of speculation. A little bored (to tell the truth), I moved on to another session – the one in the next room, called “Semiconductors.”

Well, if I was bored at Cleantech, I’d probably end up taking a nap at Semiconductors! I mean, could there be a drier, less “modern hi-tech” topic for discussion? Apparently, most of the people at the show felt the way I did, because there were barely two dozen people in the room, as opposed to the couple of hundred in the Cleantech room (as well as at the other presentations). As it turned out, though, there was plenty to hear in Semiconductors – plenty of great ideas that are much more likely to change the world – and make their investors a lot more money – far more quickly than Cleantech investments will, at least for now. Let’s just say that the two companies I saw presentations for – Sandlinks, and especially Siverge – have amazing products that will really impact on society.

The lesson? DON’T follow the crowd – it’s usually as lost as you are! For Israel, “old,” tried and true hi-tech is where it’s still at!