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A New Bewitched Road In Israel Has Been Found

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The First Bewitched Road In Jerusalem. Thanks To Dribal.com (In The Photo: Road No. 1 To Jerusalem, And Road 38 Is The Bewitched Road)

Would you believe it if we told you that there’s a certain spot in Israel, that if you drive your car there and leave it in Neutral or just release your foot from the breaks, despite standing downhill, your car will start moving backward?

And would you believe us when telling you that there is more than one such spot in this enchanted country?

Well, for all your doubters, you’re welcome to try it yourselves, and drive either to road no. 65 in the lower Galilee area at the north of Israel, or to a small road in Jerusalem, located under the Armon Hanatziv Promenade in the Jabel Mukaber neighborhood of Jerusalem. Both of these “bewitched roads” will provide you with a similar thrill – having your visual and physical perceptions conflict.

Of course there’s a scientific explanation for this bewitched roads phenomenon (there always is, isn’t there?). The explanation lies in an optic illusion caused by the physical features of the landscape around these roads. Whether it’s a hill, a mountain, a valley or a building that is situated near the road, when looking at them and comparing them to the road it appears to extend in a certain slant. But the actual slope, compared with the actual terrain, is spread the other way around.

We’re sorry if we’ve disappointed you, those who prefer to believe there’s still some magic left in this world of ours. But whether you’re a believer or a down-to-earth realist, you’ll still like to see it for yourself and put your perception to the test. Make sure you include the lovely Galilee road or the small Jerusalem neighborhood in your Israel road trip, to enjoy a bit of magic as experienced in one of these bewitched roads.

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Angela Merkel’s Historical Visit to Israel

 

A historic visit to Israel of several members of the German government, lead by Chancellor Angela Merkel, was recently concluded. The visit included a joint cabinet meeting that was held in the Israeli Knesset, in which mutual praises were exchanged by the two heads of states, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Chancellor Merkel. Due to the sensitive history of the relationships between the Germans and the Jewish people, the visit has caused quite a lot of fuss both in Israel and in Germany.

Merkel, the first German head of government to address the Israeli Knesset, used the opportunity to pledge her unwavering support for the Jewish state on the eve of its 60’s birthday, having been founded shortly after the Nazi Holocaust in World War II. She also criticized Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israel and Iran’s threats against Israel’s existence.

In Germany, newspaper editorials actually praised Merkel’s conduct in Israel, but they also warned that Germany must not appear too pro-Israeli, as this might interfere with its ability to play a mediating role in bringing peace to the Middle East.

On the Israeli side, several angry voices were heard regarding Merkel’s speech in the Israeli Knesset, which was to be held in the German language. Several members of the Knesset voiced their opinion about the lack of sensitivity shown by the decision to enable that speech, especially toward the living Holocaust survivors, for whom the German language represents their worst oppressor. Those Knesset members chose to skip the event in order to stress their disapproval.

Perhaps in regards to that controversy, Merkel chose to open her Knesset address in a short speech in Hebrew, saying that the Nazi Holocaust causes her and her fellow Germans to be filled with shame. Her speech was made at the end of a 3 days trip to Israel which included a visit to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem.

The historic visit was sealed with a joint statement by the two cabinets indicating the strengthening of the political, cultural, economic and social relations between Germany and Israel, which included a signed agreement instituting future annual meetings at prime ministerial, ministerial and cabinet levels.

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Make Your Meetings Quick And Easy To Schedule

scheduleonce1

ScheduleOnce is a dead-simple web 2.0 service that helps you find a time for your meeting with absolute accuracy across all time zones and daylight saving changes. The service is specifically designed for those hard-to-schedule meetings with multiple time zones, many invitees and different calendar systems.
ScheduleOnce is based on a patent-pending method that converts timeframes with absolute accuracy across any combination of time zones and daylight saving changes. When scheduling meetings with ScheduleOnce you can rest assured that all invitees receive the correct time, anytime in the year and anywhere on the globe.

Why do I need ScheduleOnce? I just email my invitees about the meeting…

…and they email back, and you send another email, and then there’s a phone call, and someone’s canceling at the last minute, and… With ScheduleOnce you find the optimal time to meet fast and with no hassle.

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Why do I need ScheduleOnce? I can use a facebook event…

A facebook event only tells you which of your invitees will make it. ScheduleOnce helps you find the optimal time for the meeting, and you’ll know in advance who’s free to participate.

Why do I need ScheduleOnce? I’m already using outlook…

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Daylight saving time started in most of the US this Sunday. It starts in Europe on the 30th and ends on the 29th in Australia. Everybody’s moving their clocks, and if you have a virtual meeting with anyone who’s outside your time zone, you could be in a mess. ScheduleOnce is the only tool that solves this problem, and converts times with absolute accuracy.

You can Watch the introduction video, and sign up to the service. from my opinion and Regardless of the calendar system you use, ScheduleOnce can make your meetings quick and easy to schedule then any other service.

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Special Interview with Streamsoft CEO, Michael Iron

Israel On Blog: Hi it’s nice to have you hear on Israel-On-Blog

Michael Iron: Thanks, it’s great to be here.

Israel On Blog: We hear you are very busy at Streamsoft these days

Michael Iron: Yes, we are busy preparing our launch of the Streamsoft player. It’s an exciting time for us. The online video space is very hot and so is the P2P landscape and we believe we will have a major impact on both.

Israel On Blog: First some personal questions for our readers.

Michael Iron: Please go ahead.

Israel On Blog: How did you get started in this business?

Michael Iron: I’ve wanted to be a high tech entrepreneur since I was ten years old.  When I had the idea, it was classic high tech mode: I got my team behind me, got some investors and went straight to the garage.

Israel On Blog: Where were you educated?  Did you study technology?

Michael Iron: I studied computer science at Tel Aviv University but I value ability over formal education. The important thing in our business is execution.

Israel On Blog: What are your professional passions?

Michael Iron: I love to create products that people like to use.

Israel On Blog: How do you manage the company and staff, we hear that you are hiring top notch developers these days?

I am a macro manager.  I am the guy in charge of vision, and I hire people who are independent self starters and best of breed in what they do.  We are a team of MVP’s.

Israel On Blog: Describe a typical day at Streamsoft.

Michael Iron: The work environment is conducive to creativity: we’ve a beachfront office; we come in on bicycles, shorts and sandals.  There’s a healthy lunch. But not to forget – everybody works like hell and deadlines are strict

Israel On Blog: Thank you very much for your time, Michael Iron, CEO of Streamsoft.

Michael Iron: Thank you for giving us the opportunity to talk Streamsoft and our team.

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Tersus - The Easy Way to Create Web Applications

Tersus 

Tersus is best for building rich web applications. Since Tersus employs AJAX techniques "under the hood", you don’t need to master different languages (like JavaScript and Java) and complex client/server integration techniques to building web applications with rich, responsive user interface. With Tersus, a single person or a small team can quickly accomplish what would normally require a larger team and at least twice the effort.

But Tersus is a general purpose platform that can be used to develop a variety of software solutions. The Tersus technology has already been used successfully to develop a range of software solutions, from small tactical applications to high-end, mission critical systems.

With Tersus you can develop any of the following:

  • Stand-alone applications
  • Integrated solutions (we call these Appligrations™ = "application of integration")
  • Back-office server-side systems (with no GUI or minimal GUI)
  • Enterprise 2.0: Client-server web applications with rich browser interface
  • Mixture of automatic processing and human interactions
  • Asynchronous, event-driven processing (e.g. message based)
  • Composite applications assembled from any combination of built-in components, self developed components and Web Services
  • Tactical rapidly developed application
  • Enterprise scale and distributed systems

Cool Features

  • Building and running a first web application within minutes
  • Online validation of your application model
  • Using any HTML page as part of your application
  • Using external web services as built-in building blocks
  • Automatic deployment from the Tersus Studio
  • Visual Debugging
  • Not only English – support for any language
  • Model Exchange for sharing libraries, modules and applications

To develop an application with Tersus, just draw a diagram of your application. The Tersus Server will automatically execute the diagrams, taking care of all that is required to "bring your application to life".

Tersus development is 100% visual. No coding or scripting is needed. The diagram of the application (called "the model") defines it all: screen layout, rich client side behavior, and server side processes.

You can easily create your screen layout by dragging display elements (buttons, tables, fields …) into the model.

Here is an example of what a Tersus model looks like:

Behavior is added by drawing process diagrams inside user interface elements.

The following diagram defines what happens when the user clicks the ‘Delete’ button:

In this example, pressing the delete button brings up a confirmation dialog. If the user confirms, the record is deleted from the database.

Processes can contain sub-processes. By zooming into a sub-process, you can see its behavior.

Click here or on the image below to see zooming in action:

 

Tersus Studio the Tersus development environment contains a palette of building blocks you can use to create your own applications.

Built-in building blocks include:

  • Data types (like Text, Number and Date)
  • GUI elements (like Buttons and Text Area)
  • Mathematical functions (like Add, Substract and Multiply)
  • Database actions (Insert, Update, Delete and Find)
  • Document handling actions (actions for things like generating PDF documents, sending email messages or reading XML and Excel files)
  • Application modules (like ‘Authorization’, a ready-to-use module for managing users and permissions)

You can add your own building blocks to Tersus. Basic building blocks are implemented in code (Java or Javascript), while composite ones are modeled with Tersus.

Below is a screenshot of the palette of building blocks (focusing on database actions):

About Tersus Software Ltd.

Tersus Software Ltd. is a privately held company founded in May 2003 by Ofer Brandes, Youval Bronicki and Joel Barel.

The vision of Tersus is to fundamentally change the way software is created and maintained. Instead of coding or scripting, developers draw diagrams of their applications (called "models"), which define everything: screen layout, rich client side behavior, and server side processes.

Develpoment becomes simpler, and more people can take part in it.

To make this vision a reality, Tersus has developed the Tersus Visual Programming Platform, an innovative development and execution platform that enables users to easily create enterprise web applications by drawing visual diagrams instead of writing code.

The platform is released as open source.

For organizations seeking the benefits of agile application development, Tersus provides a commercial enterprise version of the Tersus platform, together with supporting services (technical support, training and consulting services).

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Browse And Interact With Your Friends On-line

webspeakup

WebSpeakup is an application that integrates into Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Users that install it get instant information and discussions about the web sites they visit. They can also see where their friends are and hear what they say.

Imagine you just know where your friends & like-minded people are. You can see what they see & discuss the same things. You visit a web page and instantly hear what a group of your friends, experts and other web users say about this site, page or topic. As you browse you discover new sites, ask questions, get help & recommendations, read & rate reviews and ideas. You might even help others and speak-up your own mind.
Imagine browsing like you do today and having the people YOU want available to you, whenever you need them. Imagine having the power to express yourself & connect with the people you need, whenever you need them. Imagine empowering yourself.

A New Way To Browse And Interact On-Line A New Way To Browse And Interact On-Line1A New Way To Browse And Interact On-Line

This is really interesting as users can learn about their friends and the sites they visit, conduct discussions with them and discover new websites. WebSpeakup lets people interact with their friends in a whole new way, all from within Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox.

About Privacy

You only share with your friends websites that are public.
This means when you visit secure or password protected sites (like online banking, webmail, etc) your friends cannot see your private information. (this means they cannot read your email, or see your balance, and so forth)
In general all sites with password protection would not be accessible to your friends – we do not interfere with the security on the sites you visit (in fact WebSpeakup doesn’t work on https and secure sites at all)

Users have full control of their visibility and how others see them. WebSpeakup offers, easy to use, privacy modes. Users can hide where they are or completely disable the application with a single click.

To read the full press coverage and media release visit:

http://www.webspeakup.com/Media.aspx

To see more detailed tour of the application visit:

http://www.webspeakup.com/Tour.aspx

or visit their website:

http://www.webspeakup.com

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