Why is C considered the Judaism of programming languages? And what's the connection between C# and Mormonism? You can find out the answer in the a funny article I ran into today -titled "If Programming Languages Were Religions"... It's programming humor at its best, undoubtfully a must read!
I just got an e-mail from Yaron Galai, CEO of Outbrain, regarding Outbrain's security breach I reported earlier in my blog. As expected, Outbrain reacted immediately to the issue and it was solved promptly. Yaron also commented on the issue in my blog.
Recently, I installed the Outbrain rating widget on my blog. Outbrain is a great tool that enables readers to rate each of your posts, and suggests relevant posts to them depending on their rating history. I'll write more about Outbrain in one of my upcoming posts, as it is one of my favorite widgets. But as I discovered today, Outbrain still has its flaws - and today I think I found a serious one.
Earlier today, when I checked entrances to my blog using my FEEDJIT widget, I saw I got an entrance from a URL in the Outbrain domain (www.outbrain.com). When I clicked that URL (as I often do, curious to see who's referring to my Blog), I saw that it was actually some kind of testing website of Outbrain, containing information about blogs that recently installed, updated, or uninstalled the Outbrain widget. Nothing extraordinary so far... However, by further browsing in the page, I found out that the site also contains some personal information, like registered users' e-mail addresses, or statistics which I think should remain only with the registered user, like how many outbrain clicks he got so far...
I won't expose the specific URL I'm talking about here, as I don't want to increase the potential damage from this security breach. I will however share a partial screenshot of the mentioned site (blacking out all personal data, of course).
On discovering this issue, I immediately contacted Outbrain's CEO and one of their support employees (with whom I'm familiar from previous support sessions). Past experience proved me that Outbrain's response is usually prompt and efficient, and this was also the case now - after approx. two minutes I got a response from the CEO, saying they're looking into the matter ASAP. I'll update this blog once I get an official response from them.
FEEDJIT launched a new version of their service yesterday (17/11/2008). Up until now, FEEDJIT allowed you to view a live traffic feed of visitors to your blog, providing the visitor’s location, operating system, browser and landing page, plus some interesting statistics such as popular pages per for each area. FEEDJIT’s new feature now allows you to view what are the most popular and relevant blogs in your area (or any area in the world, for that matter). You can do it by browsing to http://www.feedjit.com . FEEDJIT calls this service “Geoblogosphere”. If your blog is popular in your town/area/country, it will appear in the Geoblogosphere for your
area. You can access your local Geoblogosphere by going to the FEEDJIT homepage.
Here is another sketch I did with my new Wacom tablet. This time, a self portrait.
I just got my new graphic tablet. I'm a bit embarrassed to say, but it's also my first graphic tablet (and I've been using digital art tools for several years now). I decided to buy one a couple of months ago, when I realized that this tool is a must for any serious artist. After talking to some friends in various art forums and reading some review sites, I decided to go with the Wacom Bamboo Fun - it's professional enough to give professional looking artistic results, yet simple enough to make it affordable. The medium sized one cost me just below 200$ in Amazon (October 2008 prices).
Recently, I launched the second season of my webcomics series, called My 25 Percent. The comic series tells the tale of a young software engineer, who one day found himself working in a large software company, called CRAP.
A new recurring character in this season is Benjamin, a member in CRAP's senior management board. Benjamin takes charge of CRAP's recovery plan, in light of the latest economy crisis , and launches a series of harsh reforms. I decided to draw Benjamin in the image of former prime minister of
I decided to share with you a glimpse of Benjamin's appearance in the new season. For reading the comics, you can visit the My 25 Percent Website.
Yesterday when I tried to Google my comics website (as I often do), I encountered two new icons near every result in the Google search results page: Promote and Remove. Promote allows you to move a result to the top of your search page, so that next time you search the same keyword, that result would appear at the top of your page. Remove allows you to remove a search result from your search page, so that next time you search the same keyword you won't get that result.
Living in
Therefore, I was more than happy when I bumped into a new comic book last week, while browsing through my local bookstore. After some hesitations I bought it, and immediately started reading it. It was so good that I finished reading it in 30 minutes, and couldn't help reading it again the next day.
The comic book is called "Beyond the Line", by Shay Charka. It is the story of a comic artist, called Charter, who decides one day to migrate, along with his family, from the suburbs of Tel-Aviv to a small village (a.k.a a Jewish Settlement) in Judea and Samaria (a.k.a the turbulent West Bank). All of this is hinted by the title of the book, "Beyond the Line", the line referring both to Charter's drawing lines, and to the Green Line, distinguishing Judea & Samaria from
Charter soon finds out that life in a Jewish Settlement is not easy, especially for an "outsider" like him. His new neighbors find him too liberal in his opinions, while his old friends from Tel-Aviv think he's an extremist. He regularly drinks coffee with an Arab shepherd from the neighboring village, and both of them are sure that if it were up to them everyone would live in peace (as long as the Jews convert to Islam and the Palestinians relocate to
The book elegantly portrays the complex (some may call it absurd) life in today's
Mind that the book is not all about laughs, and a handful of the strips deal with serious issues. In fact, the book starts with a strip describing survivors from the Jewish Holocaust fleeing from their Nazi prosecutors and ending up in
Although it is not an autobiographic story, Charka admits in interviews to the press that Charter's character is loosely based on him, and that the stories are inspired by true events that happened to him. Charka himself lives in Jewish Settlement, not unlike Charter's, and participated in the evacuation of Gush Katif, which was part of Israel's unilateral disengagement plan, considered by some to be one of the most traumatic events in the short history of
Charka's book is recommended for anyone wishing to explore the depths of Israeli society, although some of the jokes would be understood only by those already having this knowledge. The book is currently available only in Hebrew, but I hope it will be translated to other languages, so that non-Israelis could also get a glimpse what
BEYOND THE LINE, by Shay Charka, 73 pages, Modan Publishing (Hebrew only).
Being a fan of ancient history, and ancient Roman history in particular, I have read my fair share of history books. I seldom enjoyed the experience. While I always enjoy learning new historical facts, most of the books that I read were nothing more than a list of facts that, at best, were poorly spiced with some commentaries and author interpretations. When thinking about how best to describe such books, I recalled a quote from the movie "My Big Fat Greek Wedding". They were "like a piece of toast. No honey, no jam, just dry".
Recently, I finished reading a book which proved me that history books could be written differently, or rather, interestingly. The book is called Rubicon: The Triumph and Tragedy of the Roman Republic, by Tom Holland (That's the book's title in the UK. In the US it's sold under the name Rubicon: The Last Years of the Roman Republic).
The book tells the story of the last years of the republican regime in Rome, focusing roughly on the last century of the republic. Rubicon is the name of the small river in Italy that Julius Caesar, along with his army, crossed in 49BCE. By this act he broke the Roman law, which prohibited the Rubicon from being crossed by any Roman army legion. The act of crossing the Rubicon marks the end of the Roman republic, as the resulting civil war ended with Caesar being proclaimed as a dictator.
In his book, Holland manages to tell the tales of this period in history as a story; Moreover, as an interesting story. Perhaps it is because he also has experience in writing fictional novels, or maybe it's just a gift. Whatever the reason may be, when you read this book you feel like you're reading a novel. You have character build-ups, you have conflicts, you have tensions build-ups, and finally a climax (which is followed by the next tension build-up, and so on).
Holland also manages to put the reader in the actual context of the events, feeling the spirit of the time and place in which they occurred. He even shares with you the gossips of the time (and gossip was a big weapon in Rome, much as it is today…).
Needless to say, this does not come at the expense of historical accuracy, as the book relies on an extensive list of sources. Whenever there is an uncertainty or controversy about a certain fact, the book bothers to mention it specifically.
Rubicon is also spiced up with historical quotes from the greatest personas that lived at the time (or several centuries after), be they historians such as Livy, poets such as Horace, or politicians such as Caesar and Cicero.
All of this makes reading Rubicon a fun experience, and this is no small achievement. After all, how many times could you say "history book" and "fun" in the same sentence?
Image: Gaius Julius Caesar. Gave the final killing blow to the Roman republic.
Blogus Magnus is the personal blog of Yours Truly. As it name implies, it is a great blog, dealing with everything and nothing. This blog hosts articles about my various areas of interest, including: humor, history, politics, current affairs, software, programming, computer games, literature, art, comics, and much, much more.Hope you enjoy your stay.
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