Difference between revisions of "Blog/January 2014/Jan 24th"

Revision as of 11:32, 24 January 2014

Jan 24th (See this week's devar torah)

Hi, again!

It was an alarming week: Sarah’s school burnt down, a family in Jerusalem was killed and many injured by a cooking gas explosion and another family was mostly wiped out when the exterminator they hired left open containers of the poison in their apartment, killing or injuring them.

Monday morning I was supposed to take Sarah’s camera equipment with me to work, so she could pick it up and take it back to her school. Very early in the morning she texted me, to inform me that there was no need for me to bring her cameras with me to work, because her school was cancelled since it had burned down. As far as the investigators know, an electrical fire started late at night in the school’s office, and quickly gutted that part of the school. The rest of the building survived mostly intact, since it’s a traditional stone and concrete structure; but the office was an addition made mostly of wood and since it was also full of paper, it went up like a tinderbox. Thank God, nobody was injured! Apart from the office (which was totally destroyed), the rest of the building and most of the equipment survived intact. The school is not even going to delay the semester, since the damage was localized enough.

The other two tragedies I mentioned above have one thing in common: carelessness. I suppose it’s timely to point out that this week’s Torah portion speaks extensively about damages, carelessness and liability.

I mentioned two weeks ago that we were setting up a meeting with someone I know and trust to act in the rôle of business executive; someone who can help us direct our efforts to best effect and incidentally help us get funding. This week we met with my first boss in the Land — the guy who was CEO of the company I worked at when we first made aliyah, and who I like and trust. It so happens that he is currently a partner in a firm which specializes in giving strategic advice to companies; however, they deal primarily with much larger companies than ours, so he was hesitant at first.

As our meeting with him progressed, there came a point at which he had an epiphany and, in common with our business consultant, realized that our company does have a product idea which could do really well. Not the product I actually want to make, but rather the product I have to make in order to produce the other. I always considered “8th” as a means to an end; but two independent consultants have told us that it’s an end in and of itself. Not only that, but the fellow we met with this week advised us to concentrate fully on making “the best version” of 8th we can, and start marketing it. He’s going to review some information we sent him, and next week we’ve got another meeting with him to see if we can reach some kind of agreement on how to proceed (since we have very limited funds, and his company usually deals with much larger enterprises).

The feedback from the 8th “beta program” has been very useful, and this week I made some substantive changes because of it. I won’t bore you with all the details, but the biggest change was “parameter ordering” so that the concatenative nature of 8th could be more easily used. Good feedback indeed. I also implemented (for Windows, so far) an installer which Sarah indicated would be helpful. So thanks to the beta testers and to Sarah! I’m planning on making the first “RC” (release candidate) of the “CLI” (command-line) version in about two weeks.

Stuff and nonsense:

Those evil, racist Amerikkkans don’t like a black man as President. Really?
Maybe it’s just that they don’t like the unemployment numbers
Leftist Israelis are not immune to fantastic illusions. Thank God, their numbers are dwindling!
And just think of the poor physicists!

And speaking of physicists, this week Esther made me go and buy replacement innards for the toilet in our bathroom. The toilet was hissing and gurgling and my lovely wife was incommoded by the midnight symphony from the commode — so off I went to the hardware store, skipping to the loo section.

The thing I ended up getting was a complete kit, and in contradistinction to most every other thing I’ve ever got from the hardware store, this had very detailed instructions with very detailed diagrams. It gave me pause. I mean, I have no problem deciphering programming languages but plumbing is another matter altogether! It looked like something that belonged inside the LHC and not our water-closet. In any event, I managed to get it installed; and after a bit of adjustment, it seems to be working well. I just hope it doesn’t blast us with high-speed particles.

Esther’s been knitting up a storm. I think we need to invest in a yarn-manufacturer, or maybe get a sheep or two. Well, acrylic-producing sheep anyway. This week she almost finished a pretty impressive pair of socks, knitting the pair simultaneously on some continuous needle apparatus. It makes my head hurt even to think about it. Maybe this could be a sideline for Aaron High-Tech? OK fine, it doesn’t match the company’s name, but maybe we could have a subsidiary: Aaron Low-Garments?

Dinah, her father and brother are joining us for dinner. We’re having lunch at a friend’s place. On our menu:
homemade ḥallah, ginger-carrot soup, brisket, roasted turkey thighs, kebabs, cauliflower couscous, roasted zucchini, roasted eggplant, roasted sweet potatoes, salatim and coconut brownies.

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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 It was an alarming week: Sarah’s school burnt down, a family in Jerusalem was killed and many injured by a cooking gas explosion and another family was mostly wiped out when the exterminator they hired left open containers of the poison in their apartment, killing or injuring them.
-Monday morning I was supposed to take Sarah’s camera equipment with me to work, so she could pick it up and take it back to her school.  Very early in the morning she “texted” me, to inform me that there was no need for me to bring her cameras with me to work, because her school was cancelled ''since it had burned down''.  As far as the investigators know, an electrical fire started late at night in the school’s office, and quickly gutted that part of the school.  The rest of the building survived mostly intact, since it’s a traditional stone and concrete structure; but the office was an addition made mostly of wood and since it was also full of paper, it went up like a tinderbox.  Thank God, nobody was injured!  Apart from the office (which was totally destroyed), the rest of the building and most of the equipment survived intact.  The school is not even going to delay the semester, since the damage was localized enough.
+Monday morning I was supposed to take Sarah’s camera equipment with me to work, so she could pick it up and take it back to her school.  Very early in the morning she ''texted'' me, to inform me that there was no need for me to bring her cameras with me to work, because her school was cancelled ''since it had burned down''.  As far as the investigators know, an electrical fire started late at night in the school’s office, and quickly gutted that part of the school.  The rest of the building survived mostly intact, since it’s a traditional stone and concrete structure; but the office was an addition made mostly of wood and since it was also full of paper, it went up like a tinderbox.  Thank God, nobody was injured!  Apart from the office (which was totally destroyed), the rest of the building and most of the equipment survived intact.  The school is not even going to delay the semester, since the damage was localized enough.
 The other two tragedies I mentioned above have one thing in common: carelessness.  I suppose it’s timely to point out that this week’s Torah portion [http://www.mechon-mamre.org/p/pt/pt0221.htm#28 speaks extensively] about damages, carelessness and liability.

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