March 2012/Mar 30th

Mar 30th (See this week's devar torah)

Hi, again!

There's only one week to go until pesaḥ; we made some efforts this week to prepare ourselves, but of course we're not finished. So far, we made our butcher happy and also lifted up Rami Levy's spirits, I think. This coming week we need to go to the shuq and get all the green things for the week of the holiday. Oh, and we need to get wine! Four cups, baby!

Other than those various preparations, we all worked like demons this week. Not that we actually accomplished much (speaking for myself, anyway), but a great deal of effort was made. Esther will not be going to work next week, so she can get us "into shape" for the holiday. I still have to work, and so does Sarah. Daniela is sad she won't be here for our famous lamb-and-fava stew, but there's not much we can do about that this year. Maybe next year, God willing.

Just a short rant you might find offensive (and tough if you do) -- but it needs to be said: Islam is a virulent mental disease, not a religion. It was GW Bush who famously stated "we are not at war with Islam, which most Americans respect as a religion of peace". He may have been right about what "most Americans" think, but he was dead wrong (fatally so!) about the substance of Islam. America and the entire non-Muslim world is "at war" with Islam, and has been since the megalomaniac mass-murderer and pedophile Muhammed (may his name be blotted out) started spreading his vision of peace by the sword. So long as "the world" thinks Islam is a religion (let alone one of peace) and not a violent, virulent virus to be extirpated -- Islam will indeed succeed in its ultimate goal of dar-al-Islam everywhere. Apologists for Islam will tell you that dhimmi people are safe in dar-al-Islam. The truth is different.

One of my interests and concerns is "data integrity". That is, how can one make sure that one's information is kept safe and intact in the event of any of a number of problems? As you know, I manage a number of projects and other various data streams. Up until now, I made a weekly backup on my laptop, and copied the backed-up data to a USB key. This is a very good backup plan, but ... what if someone were to break in and steal my machines, or some other disaster occurred and my machines were disabled somehow? The answer is "off-site storage" -- meaning that one puts copies of whatever data need saving in some location which is physically separate from the machines on which the data originally reside.

Enter Ubuntu One, a free "cloud"-based storage solution. It gives you 5GB (5 billion bytes) of storage for free, with more available for a low yearly fee. For my purposes, 5GB is plenty... and their service works seamlessly with Ubuntu (and kubuntu, the variant I use), and it also works with Windows. So what I did this week was to set up a nightly process which would back-up my data, and take those data which had changed (most of my projects don't change every day), encrypt them (since the data are going 'external') and push them up to my Ubuntu One account. Voilà, secure and dependable off-site backups for free! The only real downside of the Ubuntu One backup approach is that it is pretty slow to transfer a (say) 500MB backup file there. On the other hand, if all my machines blew up tomorrow I would at least be able to get the last backed-up data.

Some tidbits:

Some of you are not getting my emails. I'm sorry about that, it's a technical problem I am trying to work out with my ISP (internet service provider). Hopefully it will be solved by next week!
The Sun also Sets
The Iranians are sending Ahmadenijad into space! May he breathe vacuum, amen!
Sometimes, the Middle East really is funny!

This shabbat is shabbat hagadol, the shabbat just before pesaḥ! We're going to take one last crack at our ḥameṣ food: baked salmon, baked chicken, salatim, tabouleh, meatballs and couscous, and semolina cake

Until next week,
shabbat shalom!

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