Kicking files
If there’s something I resent, it is files that you can kick. I just passed the better part of last night going over my real mail and filing it. I don’t do it as often as I should and if Debbie hadn’t kicked me to do it I probably would’ve never done it.
As I was going over the mail I noticed a few things. Of all the services and entities that offer to send statements and other junk through electronic mail, only the cellular company really stopped sending me a little forest to the mailbox. I registered at the credit card company at least twice but they completely ignored my request. Perhaps I should have send them a fax or a letter to that effect.
I also found out that I was getting ripped off by my bank and by an insurance company. The bank charged on of my credit cards 380 NIS as a membership fee. I am enraged but I highly doubt that there’s anything I can do about it. The insurance agency sends me a yearly renewal of the renter’s insurance and this year they hiked the payment by more than 150%. This I will get back, but I’m just happy I caught it now, about a month after they sent it.
Now I have a stack of papers marked with IMMIDIATE ATTENTION and ACTION REQUIRED!!! laying in my backpack. Once I’m done writting a powershell script I will start going over it.
When I recycled the medium sized rain forest that was the outcome of my activity, I remembered Lea’s post about recycling containers. The bin was ridiculously stuffed, and the tiny slit on the top was annoyingly small. I don’t enjoy shoving a hundred papers one by one when I’m on my way to work in the morning. Why can’t the bin open like a regular garbage bin? Are there so many people who would dump there their kitchen sink?
Many things in Israel are aimed to stop the small percent of people how are melcious at the expense of the vast majority of law abaiding people. I truly believe that making things easier by assuming that most people will do the right thing won’t only encourage social behaviour – it will be cheaper and save resources at the end.
When I grow up to be a politician, this will be one of the main issues in my campaign:
- Shorten the delay between the car’s red light and the pedestrian’s green light to encourage people to cross lawfully
- Eliminate the big system to validate unemployment payment by not requiring people to stand in the unemployment line once a week, just sign that they are still not working – and establish incredibly severe punishments to those how lie
- Remove the dumb rule that children under the age of 14 cannot ride elevators by themselves. Why make them feel like criminals as soon as they learn to read?
There are a million others. You’re very welcome to contribute.
Filed under: Rant and rave | Leave a Comment
Tags: bank, online statement, papers, politics, recycle, tel aviv, unemployment
Santiago city tour
Santiago has a few separate locations that can be seen as city centers. Climbing up the mountains of Cerro San Cristobal you see them all. Once you get to the top, you can finally appreciate how tall are the Andes on the other side of the city.
On Sunday I did just that. I hiked for the first time in, well, a long time. The pictures show you how polluted is the air of Santiago; in clear days I could see the mountains completely and not just the tips. The humming bird and the cactus are a source of pride – my travel camera is quite broken and I’ve been taking all these pictures without LCD to either see what I’m shooting ot control the camera…
I walked down and passed by the zoo. There were hordes of kids and parents running about, buying junky candy, laughing and bagging to go to the zoo or any other place. It really made me miss having a family weekend day; there was nothing fancy about the experience and nothing sophisticated about the fun yet it was very noticable what a great time the children were having.
I went to eat fish at the Mercado Central which was good but somewhat overpriced (and way too touristic for my taste) and from there to the Bellas Artes museum which had an interesting Japaneses art/design exhibit and impresive photography show. The best thing about the museum was Daniela, a guide working for the museum that had real enthusiasm and knowledge about the artifacts. Right next to the museum, an artisinal ice cream shop with flavors like green tea and mango or spicy chocolate left a beautiful taste in my mouth – Emporio de la Rosa, Merced 291.
Filed under: travel | Leave a Comment
Tags: Chile, hike, ice cream, pictures, travel
iPhone in Israel? Not so fast.
The coveted iPhone will not be sold in Israel through either of the possible channels, Orange or Cellcom. This fact is quite sad for all Israeli technophiles especially considering how difficult it is to purchase the new iPhone 3G without a contract. Ebay prices for this unique piece of technology exceed $800.
The speculated reason can shed a light on the way Apple does business as well as the way Israeli large enterprises are interwoven. The list of countries where the iPhone will be available does not explain why Israel is not a part of this glamorous club. Some of the countries are smaller, less technologically advanced than Israel and definitely have a rate of cellphone penetration smaller than Israel’s insane > 100%.
In my opinion, Apple approached both GSM cellphone providers and tried to reach an accord. Such an agreement must have included revenue sharing in percentage that was too high for the providers. Rumor has it that Apple charges the phone company a whooping $10 per month per phone. The deal probably included exposing to Apple a fair amount of data regarding usage and revenue that the providers refused to reveal. Being such a sexy revenue generator, I must conclude that Orange and Cellcom jointly decided to reject the deal having their on agreement that neither company will let the iPhone manufacturer in. Even the steep $10 a month is a very reasonable price if you earn a customer that pays at least five times that amount a month.
In its deregulation frenzy of the 1990s, Israel divided such lucrative markets as cellular telephony and cable TV to few selected companies and made competition almost impossible. TV Cable providers were divided geographically so you could not choose your provider unless it was important enough for you to justify a move. The second broadcast channel was granted to three grantees, each broadcasting on a different day making customer choice between them impossible (again, unless it was important enough for you to alter the time-space continuum).
The cellphone industry seemed somewhat different and more competitive. You can switch phone companies until your fingers hurt and can even now keep your number – but it sure smells like a duopoly, the legitimate but ugly sister of a monopoly.
Instead of selling its product at market value and free the customer to choose her phone company, Apple is imposing restrictions and play the cop, pretending to cell the iPhone for $199 while the actual price is much highr.
I love Apple product as much as the next guy, and probably more. I enjoy my iMac immensely and have a burning itch to buy anything Apple even when my cousin (who is a survivor of the Apple Newton) ridicules me at every opportunity for it. Still, I do think that Apple is evil. It is at least as evil as Microsoft, but it sure makes better functioning sexy products. At least I know on whose minions I am
Filed under: Geek | 1 Comment
Tags: apple, evil, GSM, iphone, israel
Santiago de Chile
In my last travel assignment I finally was able to capture the essence of Santiago, after visiting it before and not really getting it.
Santiago is a gray city, especially at this time of year. Indeed, Brazilian tourists are crowding it but somehow they do very little to color the scene.
I finally made it to Concha y Toro, after in my last trip I was chasing the winery with an old taxi driver who did not know where it was, my clueless self who forgot the address at the hotel and did not go back for it because ‘everybody must know where it is’, being the largest winery in all of Latin America. At the end I realized I will not make it there and catch my flight so I took the metro back. This time I had plenty of time and although contemplated taking the organized tour from the hotel I thought better of it and took the metro to the last stop and from there a micro – a small bus crowded with rowdy youngsters.
I felt like my good old Muchilero self after, well, probably ten years or so. There’s no better way to get the feel of a place than to do (or at least, feel you do) what the locals do daily.
I heard (again) the fable about Casillero del Diablo; the owner Don Melchor spread a rumor that the devil frequents the cellar to deter thieves. I visited the cellar, and invested the money I saved on the organized tour in a tasting of the Don Melchor, the most prestigious wine they make – or at least, the most expensive one.
The wine and the seafood here are amazing, and most of all the vistas of the Andes. One of the peaks visible from here might even be Aconcagua.
More about Cal y Canto, cerro san cristobal and the museum of Bellas Artes in the near future.
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Tags: Chile, travel, wine
