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Blog/January 2015/Jan 2nd

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January 2nd (See this week's devar torah) Comments or questions? Click here!


Hi, again!

For those of you who care about the new secular year, happy new year! For those of us who don’t, just remember to write “2015” on your checks! In any event, it was another fun-filled week at the Aaron household. Lots to write about.

First some politics. If you’ve been following the Israeli political scene you know that Netanyahu called for early elections, to the consternation of many. The pundits (mostly on the Left) declared that Netanyahu was/is finished, done-for, out-the-door. They claimed that he would lose control of the Likud. Other pundits (mostly on the Right) declared that the “radical Right-wing” would take over the Likud, and the supporters of Moshe Feiglin were gleefully anticipating his rise.

Guess what? Reality bites. “King Bibi” consolidated his hold on the Likud, as those of us who are not blinded by ideology assumed would be the case. And Feiglin’s out and unlikely to get back in unless a miracle happens; again, as those of us etc., etc., have been saying. I even had a dream about Feiglin and his ridiculous position in the Likud one night this week — disturbing though it is to admit that.

The Sephardic-religious party “Shas” proved once again just how corrupt it is. Not to be outdone, Yisrael Beitenu, the party of Leiberman (the bête noire of Israeli politics) has outdone Shas in their scandalous behavior. Meanwhile, the farther Left side of the political spectrum is rubbing its hands in glee, as various polls put the Labor-Livni combined ticket ahead of the Likud, and the Right-side of the Likud seems to be defecting to Bayit Yehudi. As they say in Israel, it’s a long time until elections — anything can happen. I’ll go out on a limb, however, and declare Bibi the winner. Love him or hate him, he’s an extremely astute politician.

Enough politics. Well, maybe not:

  • I’ll reiterate: we need to wean ourselves off the American teat. Because of the undue influence the US has in Israeli politics, and the “honey deals” made over the years, we are on the hook for a large number of completely useless F-35 Strike Fighters. We should have resisted the American pressure in the 1980s to give up our Kfir and Lavie projects.
  • Pravda, American style.
  • Think you’re safe with Apple? Think again. Stay away from evil maids!
  • Data (and privacy) breaches in an infographic.
  • This is not what we mean by shabbat shalom!
  • I think I know why Sumatran tigers are endangered…

OK. So what happened with us this week? Work, work and more work. On the first day of the new secular year, we made the “RC” (release-candidate) release of 8th. That’s a huge milestone, because it means we are very close to making the first commercial release, probably in the next two weeks. Very exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time.

We had a lot of feedback from our beta-testers in the past two weeks, mostly issues related to improving the documentation. One of my testers said that 8th “is a pleasant language”. Another said “I couldn’t find any bugs” (which means he didn’t look too hard…). Yet another said that 8th is “very easy to learn”. So we have hopes that we can make a real go of it in the commercial sphere, though that’s a long uphill battle.

On that front, we had a meeting this week with a potential client, who would hire us to write an application for him using 8th. In a few weeks we should know whether or not that’s a “go”, but in the meantime we are not holding still. Lots of work in Q1 2015, lots and lots of work. Hopefully at least some money, as well.

And on that note, Esther had an interview this week for a part-time accounting job. She may start working in March, a couple days a week, to help us with the “some money” issue. I’m looking forward to becoming a “kept man”!

One of Sarah’s friends is getting married next week, so Sarah and her friends threw a party for her and we won’t see Sarah until after shabbat. Daniela’s on vacation and still enjoying it while her husband slaves away. His sister stayed with us a couple days this week while touring around. Dinah’s spending shabbat at her sister’s place, which means we have an empty house this week.

And on that note, Esther and I are home alone this shabbat. We’ll try to work past our tears and prepare:
mushroom soup, roast beef, oven-fried potatoes, traditional cholent, zucchini kugel, beet salad, oriental cabbage salad, eggplant two ways, and chocolate-chip cookies.


Until next time,
shabbat shalom!


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