The main things that changed this week were: I finally had a few good lectures in a row, which improved my self confidence, and, I have a brand new Lenovo laptop. Being the mega-geek that I am (as you well know), a new laptop is a big celebration for me, and I enjoy it very much. It’s a Lenovo T400, with a 14.1 inch display, 3 GB DDR3 memory, 2.26 GHz Intel Core Duo CPU, and the best thing: it runs Windows XP. I don’t know how this happened, because the laptop has a sticker of Windows Vista and the IT guy (see below) promised me he didn’t do anything to downgrade it to Windows XP. So, basically, I got a PC capable of running Windows Vista which runs XP Pro, and it works like a lightning.
Better yet, it didn’t cost me a cent, as it is a perk for a new faculty member, who can select a computer to help him or her with research and teaching. All I had to do was send a System Specification (and that’s something I know well to do) and choose from a list of options that the IT guy in the department sends in reply. The IT guy is a huge enthusiast of Apple and Macs, and a very small fan of Windows (especially Vista, which he described as a pig that eats all system resources and come back for more). So, initially he tried to convince me that all I need is a Mac Book, but he eventually agreed with me that I should use Windows if I want to run applications freely. However, he insisted on getting the Lenovo, which was much more expensive than the other options I suggested, because he likes their service much better than Toshiba’s or Dell’s. The nice thing about this guy is that he really believes in what he preaches. He says that his mother (he is 50-60 years old, so she must be in her 80s) uses a computer running Linux OpenSuse, which he personally installed and tweaked for her. Now, that’s my kind of guy. As you can understand, we had a lot to talk about this stuff in the last week or two.
Continuing on the tech notes, as of today, we have internet connection through Roadrunner broadband connection. The theoretical download speed is 15 Mb/sec, and when connected directly to the modem it even gets these results. When connected through a wireless LAN the results are a bit less, but still impressive: 10 Mbps download and around 700 Kbps upload. Now we can use Hulu web based television, which unfortunately do not work in Israel, in order to see some of our favorite programs: Heroes, Saturday Night Live, and so on. The only problem is that we don’t have too much time to watch TV. Oh, and I found a link that allows to watch Israeli TV. Not that I miss the Israeli reality shows, but I still would like to catch a (real) football match from time to time on channel 10, and channel 10 itself bans IP addresses from out of Israel during the matches. I just finished watching Maccabi Natanya beat Maccabi Tel Aviv.
After all this techie geekiness, I can start describing our lives here, which are, really, quite boring. We have been working very hard since we arrived here. D has some work left from last weekend because of our shopping spree and I am teaching 2 classes three times a week each. As you know, last week I was disappointed about my lecturing skills so I decided that I will work harder on preparing myself. I would even say that now I actually rehearse before each lecture, in an attempt to avoid situations where my lectures get stuck on missing words or terminology. This method has been proving itself, and lack of preparation proves to be problematic, as I realized only in my last controls lecture, so eventually it gets me to work harder than ever. Yes, even harder than the times I was working at Ness. This week there were 3 days of 12 or more hours a day. We also work during the weekend (both Saturday and Sunday) in order to make up for the lost time. By the way, all this work is still voluntary, as I still haven’t got into “the system”. When I was in the army, my (stupid) commander in the IAF flight academy said that “the system” does not exist, and it is the sum of all the doings of people working in the IAF. However, as any person who works (or worked) for an IT company knows, “the system” is what runs our lives. So, I am not yet in the university’s system. This means that I communicate with my students over emails and not the Blackboard application, which is the preferred way, and that I can’t login to anything but my mail (to which I login as a student and not a faculty member). Most importantly, I don’t get paid for the work I’ve been doing in the last two weeks. The department head seems concerned about this issue, and promised to do something about it, but I guess that nothing can move the “system” from its course or speed. That’s what Newton called “inertia”. By the way, the university is so bureaucratic, that it even beat the great American bureaucracy and now I have a Social Security Number before I am officially a worker at the university. My trip to the organization that issues these numbers was actually a relatively nice experience, albeit it being in a security-tight federal building. Of course, there are only two things certain in life: death and taxes.
In an unrelated issue: we saw a Bambi (actually two moving together) yesterday. No, not the movie, the animal, which is by the way the state animal of Ohio. The strangest thing is that we didn’t see the animal in some wildlife expedition; rather, it was in Victoria avenue on the half a mile drive from our home to the mall. They just browsed the yards, as if it was their home and they were the pets of some extravagant owner. Squirrels are abundant here, but these two were a nice surprise. We did what any other good tourist do: stop the car and take a picture. Unfortunately, the only cameras we had with us were the cellular phones, which are equipped by a bizarre operating system Verizon makes the manufacturers install in the name of a unified user experience and branded look & feel, so we didn’t get the cameras to save the photos. We suspect that it is a Comverse product. If you find a way to hack it and remove this awful thing it will be highly appreciated.
Finally, I heard that Daylight Saving Time is over in Israel as part of the annual Shana Tova. So, first of all Shana Tova and Zom Kal to everyone. Here the DST is still on, the sun shines around 7:30 AM, but summer is officially over. After a first week which was blessed with great weather, with highs in the 80s (25-28 Celsius) and lows in the 50s (10-15), last week became much cooler. The coolest night was even in the mid 40s, which is just 5-6 Celsius and it even rained one night. The locals say that they “desperately” need rain, because it’s not getting to the usual average of 80-100 mm of rain each month. Ohio teams also desperately seek a win in the NFL; the only win Cleveland has is over Cincinnati, and the Bengals are probably the worst in the league. At least the Bearcats (university team) are doing well. You can’t imagine how everything in the university revolves around the athletic teams.
Short summary:
- Mood-o-meter in the high 70s.
- New laptop
- 15 Mbps
- Football on internet
- The university is run by bureaucrats
- 2 Bambi not on camera
- Getting cold
Elad
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