Check this out: Today i leave with reps of 15 israeli startups for a week long “roadshow,” in which the companies will be presenting their stuff in 4 ?cities- New York, Baltimore, Chicago, and LA. They’ll be presenti their products, services and idea to angel investors, in the hope of comig home with a bundle of cash for their ventures. the whole thing is beirun (and paid for) by the Trendlines Group.

I’ll be blogging and tweeting the experience. Shold be a doozy,

It’s a bit of a delicate topic, but “evacuating” – going to the bathroom – is one of those things we all need to do. We don’t think about it too much – until we experience one of those minor “bumps” in our internal plumbing that hold things up. Only then do we realize what we’re missing!

Unfortunately, there are millions of people around the world whose waste system is completely shot – and are unable to go to the bathroom like the rest of us. When waste can’t leave the body through its regular channels, doctors open up a hole in the stomach and redirect the colon to channel its waste through the hole – into a bag that’s attached to a catheter.

It’s called a “stoma,” and I am not making it up.  If you’ve never seen one, or have never known anyone who admit to having one, there’s a good reason for that: The loss of control and the problems that come with the stoma are enough to cause bouts of depression among those who have them, and many of the patients with stoma – who tend to be elderly – turn into shut-ins, embarrassed by the whole thing and fearful that something might go wrong with the stoma like leaks, smells, and other unpleasant features.

Even worse – patients with stoma have no control over what and when they, ah, evacuate. The body does what it wants, and when it produces waste, the patient does not have the option of “holding it in;” they just go, with the waste sloshing into the plastic bag attached to their body. Imagine being at a business meeting or at the movies, with your waste dropping itself into the bag – which now has to be emptied, and cleaned, for the next round. Who would want to live like that? But the irony is that, without the stoma, these people wouldn’t be living at all!

This is exactly the problem Israeli company Stimatix solves. It makes an artificial sphincter which allows patients with stoma to schedule their evacuations when they want, giving them back control over their vital bodily functions. When the patient is ready to “go,” they open up a liquid-proof cap that keeps the waste inside until they can get to an appropriate place to take care of business (like a bathroom). They can then fill up the bag and clean it out, without having to worry about social opprobrium. It’s not just about going to the bathroom – it’s about dignity.

Related articles

• Living With a Stoma After Throat Cancer (everydayhealth.com)
• Colon Cancer Treatment and Ostomy (everydayhealth.com)

To the list of Israeli hi-tech “firsts,” add this: Two Israelis are suing Facebook as the principals in a class-action lawsuit over the by now infamous Facebook/LOLapps privacy breach. This, as far as I can tell, is the first lawsuit over this issue (probably won’t be the last, though). Talk about being on the cutting edge of hi-tech!

The background of the lawsuit is by now well known. On Friday, after a Wall Street Journal investigation, FB admitted that ten of its top applications – including Farmville (what do people see in that?) and Texas Hold’em, had been transmitting user IDs to advertising and Internet-tracking companies, with the result being that if you these apps used FB pages which are supposed to be secure as referrer pages, enabling advertisers (in this case, data-gathering firm Rapleaf) to see them and get your FB ID number, and, no doubt, use them for nefarious commercial purposes.

According to the lawsuit, filed in a Jerusalem court on Tuesday, three days after the WSJ report appeared, the security breach “provides advertisers with information about users, and as a result advertisers net huge profits, without the knowledge of the user and against all the privacy policies of Facebook. It is clear to all users that Facebook is responsible for the damage caused by its negligence and error.”

There is so much wrong about that statement it’s almost impossible to know where to begin deconstructing it. What damage? Have you investigated the books of “the advertisers” and seen their “huge net profits?” Is it not clear that just using the internet in almost any capacity reveals information about you as a user – far more than you probably realize (for an object lesson in this, check out Spokeo – or, as many call it, “Spooky-o,” because it’s spooky how much *publicly available* information it can find about you on the internet!)? What about AdWords and the amazing profiles modern algorithms can build about you? Isn’t Google more deserving of a lawsuit than Facebook?

The worst part is that these guys have determined that they suffered NIS 300 (about $85) damage as a result of Facebook’s folly. And, since there are at least a million Facebook users in Israel, they decided to sue for NIS 300 million. Three hundred shekels? Where did that number come from exactly? Doesn’t sound like a sum that would impress high-flying and high-profit advertisers!

My take: Either these two are themselves or have been heavily influenced by recent law school graduates (alas, Israel is awash in them these days) looking for business. I feel bad for Facebook, because this actually has a chance of succeeding, at least to some extent, since the judges who are likely to hear the case are probably clueless when it comes to online privacy issues. You mean you reveal details about your internet surfing habits when you go online? Bummer! Why didn’t someone tell us?

How much you wanna bet these two people are still going to be using Farmville etc.?

Related articles

• Report: FarmVille ‘Breaks’ Facebook Privacy Rules, Sends Personal Info To Ad Firms [Zynga] (kotaku.com)
• Some Facebook Apps Return After Privacy Breach (blogs.wsj.com)
• FarmVille Leaks Facebook User Data to the Internet (escapistmagazine.com)

Oy vey. Once again Israeli buyers of a hip gadget are about to get ripped off – with the “authorities” doing everything they can to make sure they get “theirs” (as in their money) out of the pockets of the schnook customer.

I know it sounds cynical, but it’s the only logical explanation I can come up with for why the Communications Ministry is banning iPads from Israel. In this age of instant communications, fast and efficient shipping, and open markets (ie nearly zero customs duties), getting a device like an iPad should be a piece of cake. For example, at this site, with shipping costs and taxes, you would be able to have a $499 iPad delivered directly from Apple in the U.S. to any Israeli address for $660 – a pretty reasonable price.

But like with so many other items (coincidentally, mostly from Apple), the markup is going to be much higher, because “they” are going to do their best to prevent customers from getting reasonably priced iPads – basically forcing Israelis who want one to get it from the local Apple license-holder (the iDigital retail store, which is NOT an Apple store!) for a premium price, just like they did with the iPhone. The difference is that the iPhone was a lot easier to hide, so the customs people have a much better chance of nabbing iPads when people try to smuggle them in!

So why can’t you bring an iPad into the country? According to this article in Ha’aretz (the same story appeared in numerous Hebrew publications),

the decision follows the refusal of the ministry’s engineering staff to compromise on testing the device’s suitability and compliance with Israeli wireless networks… For now, the ministry has not given the device categorical approval required for wireless devices; and ministry officials say its wireless technology is not compatible with Israeli standards.

“The iPad device sold exclusively today in the United States operates at broadcast power levels [over its Wifi modem] compatible with American standards,” explained the officials. “As the Israeli regulations in the area of Wifi are similar to European standards, which are different from American standards, which permit broadcasting at lower power, therefore the broadcast levels of the device prevent approving its use in Israel,” said the officials.

Huh? Doesn’t the whole world – U.S. and Europe included – use IEEE 802.11 Wifi standards? Aren’t there all sorts of Wifi-based devices produced all over the world that can be used internationally? What do they mean by “broadcast levels?”

Here’s the picture I have been able to put together – and it ain’t a pretty one. Without getting too technical: The Wifi chipset used by the iPad is BroadComm’s BCM4329 Low-Power 802.11n with Bluetooth® 2.1 + EDR and FM (Tx and Rx). 80211N is a relatively new addition to 802.11 standards, and it’s relatively rare in Wifi devices, so far. The fact that it is “low power” is also apparently behind complaints by many users that the iPad drops out of networks more readily than other devices, like Macbooks. This chipset includes Wifi and FM radio reception and transmission capabilities (in order to allow you to, for example, use your car FM radio to listen to music from your device while driving).

So, it’s possible that this is what the engineers meant when they said there were “different standards,” although 802.11n is in use in Europe as well. It would seem to me that they main bugaboo here is the chipset’s ability to broadcast, usually frowned upon in Israel.

But here’s what gives the game away: The BroadComm BCM4329 chipset is the SAME ONE in use in the latest editions of the iPhone and the iPad Touch – both of which are sold right here in Israel, by iDigital! Get it? If the problem is the Wifi chipset, then what difference does it make if it’s installed in an iPhone, iPod, or iPad? None! It only makes a difference to someone (or some entity) that has an interest in carving out for itself as much of a monopoly as they can get away with!

Now, I’m no engineer, but I do know how to Google – and it took me about 45 minutes to come up with this data (the things I go through for you people!). But certainly one would expect engineers from the Communications Ministry to have put two and two together and realized that they had already approved use of this Wifi chipset in Israel! If I could figure it out, they could too.

The thing is, there is no one to lobby for approving the iPad, no one to point this out to – and now that the engineers have made their decision, any change is going to have to go through “channels.” And where will those channels channel through? Why, right through iDigital, the Israeli “experts” on all things Apple. And what do you think iDigital is going to say when asked if they recommend unfettered importation of an item they are planning to sell eventually, for more money of course? I may be a cynic, but I know how the game is played!

Related articles by Zemanta

• iPad has same Broadcom BCM4329 FM Tx/Rx radio capabilities as iPhone, iPod touch (9to5mac.com)
• Apple delays international iPad launch by one month (network.nationalpost.com)

I saw this story about Israel’s supposed efforts to recruit Arabs in Gaza for spy work via Facebook, and following the tried and true principle of “it takes one to know one,” began wondering what the “other side” is using Facebook for. Using the services of my old buddy Google Translate, I started checking various likely terms on Facebook (in Arabic) to see what I could come up with. And what do you know – on the very first Facebook page in Arabic I scrounged up is a tale of hatred, misunderstanding – and sheer stupidity!

The hatred in question is that of “the Arabs” (or at least 465 of them) for Jews. Not Israel, because Israel has nothing to do with this page, which is dedicated to trashing the URL shortener Bit.ly – for “celebrating” Chanukah!

Here’s the unbelievable story, via the Google translation of the home page of the Facebook group called “No Bit.ly” So what did Bit.ly due to get on the Arab boycott list? It seems that the Bit.ly people used a graphic that looks vaguely like a dreidel (sevivon), I suppose around Chanuka time. On the graphic can be seen more clearly the Hebrew letters hay and shin, which is indeed found on dreidels. Like this:

Here is, as Google translates it, what the Facebook fan page gives as its reason for existence:

Anas surprised the site shortcut links to add the famous Bit.ly the form of a strange character written on Abbarip symbolize the Jewish holiday that is named the “Chanukah” or “candlestick.” In response to this step, a group of young people create a page of solidarity on Facebook to boycott the site “bit.ly” and noted that this was due to “the herds of settlers attempted to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque, and they set up flags and Jewish symbols on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem Jews are trying through breeding history H Muhom in Jerusalem, according to Al-Aqsa Foundation for the stop and heritage.

So I get that they don’t like Israel or “settlers,” but what do they have against Chanukah? Doesn’t this give the lie to the constant Arab claims that they are not anti-Jewish, but only anti-Zionist? In modern times, Chanuka is, at least in the West, the most “domesticated” of Jewish holidays, having been denuded of much of its meaning in order to fit in with “the spirit of the season.” I mean, even diehard leftists like Peter, Paul and Mary wrote a song about it,  stressing its “universal message!” No Zionism here, folks – just a Jewish holiday, and the boycott by these folks shows that it’s not just Israel they hate, but Jews as well.

Unfortunately for these jerks, their boycott of Bit.ly (which is located in New York City and has, according to its About page, a staff made up of Jews, Christians, and Muslims – not a “Zionist” Israeli in sight) drove them to come up with alternative URL shorteners, listed on the link area of the Facebook fan page. Well, checking out the alternatives they listed, I noticed that there is one that was developed – in Israel! Which one? That’s for me to know and for them to find out! Talk about shooting themselves in the foot – they boycotted a service that has absolutely nothing to do with Israel, because they hate Israel, and they end up helping Israel!!!

Interestingly, some Jews on Facebook have a problem with Bit.ly as well. The Avid Editor says in his/her blog (it’s also discussed at the Creeping Sharia blog) that using Bit.ly supports Jihad. Huh? Well, it seems that the .LY domain is the one used in Libya, “which is a Jihadi state.” By registering and using a .LY domain, part of the company’s domain name registration fee is going to fill the coffers of the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, as it is popularly known. As Creeping Sharia says,

Bit.ly’s only doing a trivial amount of business with Libya – the domains sell for $75 per year from the registrar Libyan Spider Network – but its use of .LY domain is helping to popularize and legitimize the top-level domain for general use on the Internet.

What to do? Boycott Bit.ly, says AE, especially because Bit.ly is now the default URL shortener for Twitter. Using Bit.ly, AE says,

comes at the cost of your soul IMHO. It is supporting jihadist and the terrorist state Libya. So write to anyone that still uses this service and the people that make it a default on twitter clients.

I’m starting to feel for the Bit.ly folks. The Arabs don’t like Bit.ly, and neither do the Jews (what ever happened to “the enemy of my enemy is my friend?”)! Can we get some Christians, Hindus and Buddhists to weigh in here too?