Words...

Recently I found an interesting project on the net. It's called Many Eyes and it's purpose is data visualization. They provide different visualization types and anyone can upload some data (usually statistical) and present it in one of the provided ways.

One of the visualization types is a Tag Cloud. It counts words in some text and presents the most common ones, where the biggest words represent the most common ones.
Why is it interesting? Because I took all the texts from our blog and entered them there. So see what came out of it:

Don't forget to look at the "two words" view, it's also interesting.
Another amusing tag cloud somebody has built is here, take a look.

Mexican Gems

I was wandering the streets of Mexico City looking for a decent film to watch. While I was out and about I came upon a little gem in the form of a Mexican movie which had just been released. I doubt this film will ever make it to our neighborhood or even JFK’s for that matter.

Unfortunately I had already missed the start of the film so I could not go in and tell you what it is about. What I can say is that it’s a horror movie and that according to the reviews in IMDB is “one of the worst messes in recent Mexican cinema”, “A huge stinker”, and, of course, has a major plot twist that is “silly but can hardly be called disappointing, since by the time it comes around the viewer neither cares much about the characters nor expects anything better”.

By now a question should be nagging at you: “why the hell is he bothering me with this information about a movie he hasn’t seen and that everyone says is terrible?”.

For the answer all you have to do is follow this link:

The movie's official site (or on IMDB)

Now I know what “Frequent Flyer” means

I’m about half way through this trip to South America and I have to admit that I now truly understand the meaning of the term “Frequent Flyer”. Here’s my collection of boarding passes thus far:


It took me three flights to get to Brazil. My luggage, however, decided not to accompany me on this journey and went on a little trip of its own. So I had to attend some meetings with jeans and a shirt. I did look a little bit like a clown but at least I didn’t have to wear my suit in the searing heat and humidity.
The Brazilian leg of the trip was very rushed and I had no time to walk about and enjoy myself, or even take any pictures.

I am now in Bogotá, Colombia. Mr. Bush is visiting South America and is following me around. He came to Sao Paulo on the day I left and he’s now also in Bogotá. I think he will also follow me to Mexico.

I had big plans for today, as it is a Sunday. The historic center of Bogotá should be very interesting and I was eager to start exploring. When I arrived there I found that the devious Mr. Bush had apparently had the same plans and that the entire area was closed down. His entire trip had been accompanied by demonstrations and Bogotá was no different.

Many demonstrators lined the streets and congregated in the central Plaza del Toros.


The police was also there in force – regular policemen, mounted police and quite a few units of crack riot police.


The media was also there and ready for any situation. How about a reporter and camera-man with gas masks? Reminds me of back home ;)


All of this activity had to come to a clash, I suppose, but most of the face to face action seemed to be relatively controlled.


The crowds did however erect some burning barricades and shattered many storefronts and whatever else seemed to focus their anger.


Exploring the center is going to have to wait for a future trip I guess. Tomorrow I have a very hectic day and after that I go to Mexico again. I hope the Bush administration decides not to disturb me this time.

Adios!

Living on the other side of the planet

Finally I'm settled in Salta, Argentina ... Actually, I wanted to post some pictures earlier, but, it is so easy for me to concentrate on my studies here, that new ideas just keep coming, and I couldn't stop even for a moment. The truth is that I took some pictures of the local Carnival, but, unfortunately the camera broke before I copied them to the computer (it is not exactly the truth, but good enough as not to make of myself a total idiot). So instead I'm posting some pictures from Salta la linda (it is not a joke, this is the slogan of the city). Sorry for the quality ... I took the pictures with my PDA.

Salta's congress

View from the Congress' Plaza

As usual, a bird pays some respect to a local statesman

My "country club" (La Sociedad Espanola). Here I go to swim.

The smallest chapel in Salta ...

... And the building above it. The red car is a Taxi.

And this is the Taxi stop ... just in case you can't read :-)

And to finish this chapter, this is the view from the Loft's window. One of the evergreen mountains that surround Salta can be seen in the background.

That's it folks. Now the only question is who comes to visit me first :-) My guess - it will be Ofer.

BTW, have you noticed from the pictures that it is summer here? It is so nice that the globe has two hemispheres :-)

Oren

Happy Purim

Today we had a Purim party at the office, and I wanted to share with you a picture of my costume.
As some of you may know, our company has recently moved to a new office, which was designed specifically for the company needs. The design was a bit strange though: a lot of plastic, polygal and way too much red-colored shelves.
So I made this costume to mock our new office design, and it was quite a success. Here it is:

Behind me - the original wall :)