Blog/March 2016/Mar 18th
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| Mar 18th (See this week's devar torah) | Comments or questions? Click here! |
It was a cold and somewhat rainy week. Cool March weather, in the main — welcomed by the thirsty Land. The cool weather didn’t keep us from our appointed rounds, however.
This week I noticed that the online version of the Jerusalem Post — an otherwise innocuous site — started complaining because I have an “ad-blocker” installed in my web-browser. It complained that by using an ad-blocker, I’m preventing them from getting income from advertising. That’s true, and were I so inclined I might apologize to them. But I’m not, and I won’t.
In a display of serendipity, just after I noticed the JPost’s plea for mercy, this article came to my attention. In case you’re not interested in reading it, the gist is that a number of high-profile web-sites were dispensing “malware” along with advertisements. And of course, people without ad-blockers got infected. What to do, what to do?
If you’re using the Chrome browser, install ScriptSafe and AdBlock. There are comparable plug-ins for Firefox and Safari. Don’t use “Internet Explorer”, even the new version (called “Edge” — whatever that’s supposed to imply). Even though these plug-ins can be irritating at times (or even prevent a legitimate web-page from acting properly, as happened to me just yesterday), they can help keep you out of trouble; and if necessary (as for me, yesterday) they can be temporarily deactivated. Please, practice safe hex! Of course, the “powers” want you to be unsafe enough for them to get your information.
The US continues to astound us. It looks like the US elections in November will present the voters a choice between Clinton and Trump. That is to say, between a scheming, lying harridan and a boorish, megalomaniacal thug. What a choice! Socialism or Fascism — take your pick; both roads lead to the same ultimate end: the dissolution and ultimate end of US power. After eight years of the most extreme President the US has ever had, the pump has been primed for Xtreme Politics™ — the “reality-TV” show with global consequences!
We started doing “cold calling” (actually: cold emailing) to companies here in Israel, looking to stir up interest in our product and/or contract work. It’s a lot of hard work, but so far we’ve got some activity. In the meantime, one of our contacts did give us a small contract (which may develop into a long-term relationship), and another contact is going to get back to us next week on a larger project. So things are starting to turn around, and we’ll continue with the cold-calling. As the saying goes, “once Adar enters, we increase our workload”. Or something like that…
We also fielded an inquiry from one of our customers, who was interested in perhaps being a sales-representative for us in China. As he said, “I noticed 8th, and was infatuated with it”. We started discussing the matter with him, but it turns out he had a misconception: he thought that we would suffice with him selling “one or two licenses a quarter”. If our licenses were $50,000 that might be OK… so we had to let him know that we really needed a more aggressive sales force than that.
Sarah has taken a lesson or two from her mother, and has started crocheting. So far she’s made a scarf, gloves and slippers. They even look good!
The weather is supposed to be changeable for at least the next several days, so we can expect pleasant weather on shabbat, followed by some rain and then warming.
Just us this shabbat:
pot roast with herbs,
vegetable soup,
roasted veggies,
veggie fried-rice,
salatim,
and “just cake” with strawberries.
Until next time,
shabbat shalom!
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