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‘personal’ Category

  1. been busy

    January 9, 2007 by Saar Drimer

    All good things, though…

    On Christmas day, Steven Murdoch and I decided it would be fun to post a video of a Chip & PIN terminal playing Tetris on our group’s weblog. It was an excuse to say merry Christmas and happy new year to our readers. Then, I spent a week in Edinburgh, which is a lovely city, even in the winter. If you haven’t been, I’d recommend. Rosslyn chapel was really nice. They are doing really well due to the “Da Vinci Code Effect”–people flocking places Brown mentions in the book. Regardless, worth a visit. The Scottish parliament was nice, people were nice… I’ve seen enough castles for a year or so, though. I also learned about the Scottish history and now understand better the “situation” between them and the English. The Hogmanay on new year’s eve was canceled due to 70 mph winds, but that wasn’t a big deal.

    When I got back I found out that a paper of mine got accepted to a workshop, and I need to produce a final version. Then, our little “Tetris stunt” was picked up by some blogs and it went crazy from there… newspapers, radio… I’ll save you the details. It did, however, culminated in a Slashdot mention, which made us pretty damn happy.

    Since no one is reading this very weblog anyway, I can say that there is more surprises to come on the “Tetris” front! Stay tuned.

    Category personal, security, tech | Tags: | 1 Comment

  2. exposed: online, people sometimes lie about themselves

    December 23, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    Todd Shriber contacted, what may be considered, random people online soliciting them to hack into his former college and give his GPA a face lift. He gave them all his personal information, including SSN, and some pictures of local squirrels the “hackers” required as “proof”. They, in turn, put the e-mail correspondence online, of course.

    Turns out the idiot works as a communications director for a Montana congressman. He was later fired after his extracurricular contractual endeavors were publicized in sites like reddit.

    So, two things. Firstly, not everyone who talks shop is an expert… this applies to real life too. Secondly, if people still have not realized that other people are not who they say they are (in real life too!) they deserve this kind of treatment. The more this happens, the more people be careful what they say or write, mostly in consideration of their future. In our world, where everything is recorded and archived, nothing is forgotten. Memory is cheap. Remember this when, in five years’ time, your potential employer asks you about the time you got drunk, busted, and jailed on new years’ eve, as you detailed with pride on your now moldy myspace page. Old-school cool becomes new-school stupid.

    Oh, yeah, some fucker stole my bike; the joy of living in Cambridge. Somehow, uncharacteristically to the island, no security cameras covered the scene.

    Category blogging, cambridge, security, unintended consequences | Tags: | 2 Comments

  3. greetings

    December 21, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    balls of furyJust a ping to say Happy new year, Merry Shopping Christmas, Greasy Hanukkah, or whatever else people are celebrating at this time of the year.

    I know for a FACT, though, that something awesome is waiting for us all next year!

    Balls of Fury

    YEAH! It’s going to be awesome! I hope it shows on this island here… but I doubt it. I’ll just have to fly over to the US for the premier.

    Category personal | Tags: | 1 Comment

  4. anyone still here?

    November 11, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    Cambridge apple dayGood.

    Good news I am still alive. Bad news is that I lost the mood to blog, for now.

    Doing OK, busy with trying to make some productive progress towards the PhD thing. Been to Spain at the end of September and going to Ireland this coming weekend. In the meantime I attended the 10th annual “Apple Day” in Cambridge’s Botanic Garden. I sampled many apples (roughly 30 kinds) with the favorite being “Ashmead’s Kernel“, an “old” apple concocted in the 1700 England:

    Ashmead's Kernel

    An old English winter russet, medium size, golden-brown skin with the crisp, dense, yellowish flesh, characteristic of russets: sugary and aromatic with intense flavor. Winner of taste tests and has some resistance to scab and cedar apple rust.

    (These descriptions remind me of wine labels… they mean absolutely nothing until you’ve had a sip. They are so silly too! But I digress…)

    Not much else to publicly report.

    Category cambridge, personal | Tags: | 4 Comments

  5. UK scenes

    October 15, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    High-tech church (Norwich Cathedral): can you spare some credit card? Just slide it in the slot.

    Norwich donation machine

    Norwich donation machine

    “Eat British Beef with Confidence” or, “We’ll do our damn best to keep the existence of mad cow in your beef to ourselves.” I’ve never eaten with my confidence, I wonder what it is like.

    (more…)

    Category cambridge | Tags: | 2 Comments

  6. lose some, win some

    September 12, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    Warning: personal reflections ahead. If you are prone to crying, move to something else, or get a tissue ;)

    I left Israel at 22, lived in the US for 8 years and now have spent a year in the UK, looking at at least two more there. I no longer speak perfect Hebrew (some say I have an “American” accent, but it is hard for me tell) and my English isn’t perfect either. While in Israel, I don’t feel I belong anymore, I have not felt home in the US (couldn’t afford it, hehe) and I’m certainly not feeling it in the UK.

    The conclusion is that I’m in-between—this is the life I chose. Looking for the positive side of all of this I concluded that while I gave up feeling “home,” I gained the ability to live anywhere. So, basically, I am open to any place without much hardship. This attitude is in contrast to the people who are perpetually afraid to leave their comfort zone—and yes, family and friends—and move on to something different with ease.

    Was it worth it? Not sure, but it is too late to futz about it. Oops… I just did ;)

    Category personal | Tags: | 7 Comments

  7. leighvoice

    July 20, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    I’m going to attempt coining a new term now (if you are aware of an existing one, let me know.)

    leighvoice: The change in voice pitch men have when they talk to their significant other over the phone.

    You know what I’m talking about. I’ve noticed this before, but certain members of our group have reminded me of this phenomenon as I eavesdropped for my research. The “leighvoice” is named after the wife of a certain member who exhibited the most pitch differential I’ve had the privilege of hearing.

    Category ideas, personal | Tags: | 8 Comments

  8. the greatest movie EVER is nearly here!

    July 16, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    miami viceYes, I’m talking about Miami Vice! The best actors of Hollywood team up to give us a thrilling ride, full of depth and introspection. We’re going to get a rare glimpse into the lives of the people who make this world safe (it’s based on a true story, the original Miami Vice TV series.)

    Some notable quotes:

    Foxx: There’s “undercover” and then there’s “which way is up.”
    Ferrell: You think I’m in so deep, I forgot?
    Foxx: I never doubted you.

    and

    Chief: Things get emotional, moves get messy; moves get messy and the wrong people die!

    Deep stuff! I’m SO going to see it!

    (OK, so I think I’m going to have some trouble getting someone to come see this with me, if there are any volunteers out there, let me know; we can negotiate how much I pay for your ticket ;)

    Category personal, reviews | Tags: | 2 Comments

  9. two versions to every story

    July 11, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    I had an idea for a research project and pitched it to Markus… after a brief intro, Markus constructed his own version of where this will go and I constructed my own… each in our own minds. This was a couple of days ago.

    Today, we sat down to talk about it; we were both excited about the prospects… Markus laid out his mental version and I found it a bit uninteresting. Then he asked me to describe what I had in mind… after I was done, he said “that’s exactly what I was saying!”

    We figured that we both used terminology that we are used to and took it where we were comfortable with, but we were in fact having the same ideas.

    This happened to me in the past, but it was never this pronounced.

    Category education, personal | Tags: | No Comments

  10. testing administration

    June 24, 2006 by Saar Drimer

    Exam administration in large is fundamentally flawed because it
    1) tests mostly for memory capability rather than analytical ability, and
    2) tests for performance under extreme pressure.

    Both are very bad metrics for predicting the academic ability of a person because in the real-world these conditions are rarely present, BOCTAOE. And sure, memory is somewhat of an indicator for capability but not without the other (and besides, we now have Google to compensate.) Einstein said that “education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in school.” In other words, education = understanding, not memory.

    I’m a poor test taker, so you might question my motivation for changing the system although I honestly feel that what I propose is fair for all and a much better indicator for capability than current methods.

    All exams should be
    1) open material (anything paper allowed except for the one in front of the person sitting next to you,) and
    2) loosely bounded by time (say, x3 the present settings.)

    This will allow for
    1) hard questions based on understanding rather than memory, and
    2) elimination of the pressure element that is a differentiation factor that has very little to do with real life requirements.

    The only down side to this is that it requires more work from the people who write the exams, which is the very reason why it will never be implemented. I had two teachers at UC Santa Cruz who implemented the above; they were the best educators I have ever had (if you are curious who they are, email me.)

    Category personal, rants | Tags: | 6 Comments

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