Yovav (Jay) Meydad's Personal Blog

Update (1/26/2010):
There is a new iPhone app that eliminates the need to configure FStream. Read about it here.

Original post starts here:

This tip is mainly for Israelis and other Hebrew speakers who live abroad or just travel and want to listen to Israeli radio stations on their iPhone while on the go. Getting this done is pretty simple:

1. Install the free FStream application on your iPhone via the AppStore

2. Open FStream and set up your favorite stations. You can do it on the iPhone or you could use a web interface which makes the input process quicker (see instructions under the More -> Web Management tab inside FStream)

3. Last thing, make sure to turn on the “Cellular Network” option otherwise the application will only work when you are iPhone is connected to a wifi hotspot.

I have collected urls for some of the popular Israeli stations streams:

• 88fm – mms://s67wm.castup.net/990310006-52.wmv
• Galgaltz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/gglz
• Galatz – mms://stream.msn.co.il/glz-stream
• Reshet Gimel – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310004-52.wmv
• Reshet Bet – mms://s4awm.castup.net/990310001-52.wmv
• Radio Tel Aviv 102fm – http://switch3.castup.net/cunet/gm.asp?clipmediaid=30795

Update (3/1/2009, thanks to Tal Barnea):

• Galgaltz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/gglz.asx
• Galatz – http://glz.msn.co.il/media/glz.asx

I have found many other urls on different websites but those were broken. The streams above were tested and as of today (1/30/2009) (3/1/2009) are working.

If you know of other stations’ streams, feel free to add in the comments section.

Update (11/28/2009): I posted an updated list & more stations here.

Aptera Motors is an Idealab company that makes the Aptera 2e, a three-wheeled two-seater electric car, that is highly efficient.

This afternoon, after a few months of hard work on refinements and improvements, the Aptera team drove the latest model of the car to the Idealab offices.

The updated model looks really cool and is pretty comfortable once you get inside. I have noticed couple of cosmetics improvements since the last model was in our offices:

• Side mirrors were added (despite their impact on drag)
• The camera was moved to the roof. It projects its image on a small LCD display that is on the driver’s main mirror.  Image below.
• The solar panels on the roof, that are used to power the A/C fans, were redesigned and look beautiful
• Logo was added (it would be cool if it illuminates at night). Image below.
• the seats were cloth rather than leather (of maybe they have not brought the Limited edition)

I did not get a chance to drive it but did sit in the driver seat and took a close look & felt at the interior, but those who will attend the TED conference next week could drive it as two cars will be there.

Here are some photos of this very cool car.

[Show as slideshow]

[View with PicLens]

One of my new year resolutions was to refresh the design of this blog with a new theme. I am happy that it took me less than a month to complete it and get it off my task list.

I am now using the stylish iNove theme, created by mg12. I like its simplicity, cleanses and how it brings the content to the front. I also find the RSS button implementation very cool (hover over the button to see it). Hopefully it will get more people to subscribe to this blog and consume my thoughts regularly via RSS readers or email.

I kept only the essential widgets on the site in order to shorten page load time:

• Twitter badge shows the number of followers I have on twitter (if you are not one of them, now it is a good time to do it) and the latest twits.
• MyBlogLog gives me information about the community who reads this blog
• Disqus powers the comments and integrates very well with this theme and WordPress
• Outbrain lets you rate my posts and provide feedback that helps me improve my writing over time
• And of course, all external hyperlinks are enhanced using the product we have created at Snap – SnapShots
• For analytics I use both SiteMeter and Google Analytics.

The last credit goes to Alex Sirota, founder of FoxyTunes, who took my portrait picture that is displayed at the top right corner.

I hope you will like like the new design as much as I do.

I still come accross iPhone users that don’t consider jailbreaking their iPhone because “they can find all the apps they need in the AppStore” or “jailbreaking could break my iPhone”.

The truth is that Jailbreaking has become a very simple process thanks to application like QuickPwn (available for Mac & Windows). Once you do it, your iPhone becomes a much more powerful and customizable device than what AppStore applications offer.

Here are 10 good reasons, meaning applications that can only be found on Cydia (the “AppStore”/installer for jailbroken devices):

• QuickGold – the quickest way to call or email someone and launch applications. Much like Quicksilver for Mac OS.
• BossPrefs – the quickest way to change settings such as Wifi, Bluetooth, Brightness and others.
• Copy & Paste – Clippy or the hClipboard (more powerful than Clippy but not suitable for users with more than one keyboard)
• Snapture – full featured advanced camera
• Cycorder – video recorder with real-time compression
• MxTube – download YouTube videos
• Backgrounder – keep applications running in the background while using others (very useful for IM or a Twitter app like TwitterFon)
• iCallBR – delete individual entries from the recent calls history
• OpenSSH – access the file system so you could get videos off the device after downloading them using MxTube or recording using Cycorder
• HebDev – full Hebrew support for the iPhone and iPod Touch, free of charge.

These were only ten and I am sure there are many others that are listed under the different sections within Cydia. Feel free to leave recommendations for apps in the comments section.

Screen capture is a utility that I use daily. Ever since I switched from a PC to a Mac I was looking for one that has the same features as SnagIt, which is the best screen capture utility for a PC.

I tried many screen capture utilities for Mac OS. None of them support all four requirements which I consider to be a must:

• Capture multiple region types: selection (most important), full screen & window while providing a clear preview of the captured area
• Save in different file formats including PNG
• Capture video
• Fast and easy to use image editor, built into the screen capturing utility (no need to copy image to another application), that allows me to add basic elements like arrows, boxes and text to the captured image. I use this often to do quick and dirty mockups, report bugs and just take visual memos of stuff I see on the web

What I have found is that most utilities for the Mac support the first 2 requirements, a few also support the 3rd (Video) but very few support the last one (image editor) which is what I find to be the killer feature of a good capturing utility.

Until I discovered Jing, a freeware that has it all and more (like a one click upload of the captured image to Flickr).

BTW, it was created by TechSmith, the same company behind SnagIt — these folks clearly understand screen capturing.

You can download it for free here.

P.S.

PC users – You are not forgotten. Jing has a Windows version as well.

I came across this post earlier today and had to try it. I was stunned.

The entire experience is very cool and gives you the feeling as you are visiting the museum.

The level of details of each one of the 14 high-res paintings is exceptional. You can keep zooming in to discover the fine details, such as individual brushstrokes, textures of the canvas, and in some cases cracks in the surface of the paint.

You have got to try it. Simply do the following:

• In Google Earth find and enable this layer: “Geographic Web -> Preview -> Museo de Prado“
• Double click on “Museo Prado” placemark to fly to the museum
• Enable the museum in 3D option to render the museum building in 3D
• Click on the “Museo Nacional del Prado : Masterpieces” placemark to open a pop up window that has thumbnails for the 14 paintings
• Start exploring individual paintings

And a close look at Jacob’s dream

I was using Microsoft Excel the other day and had that Eureka moment. I typed in a simple formula that had a closing parenthesis but forgot to put an opening parenthesis. An error message popped up and I realized that I have been getting that same error message, for doing the same mistake, ever since I have been using Excel. And even though Microsoft has released several Excel versions along these years, this specific problem has been carried from version to version without getting an elegant solution.

I am pretty sure that the same exact error happens to millions of users every day, and many of them are clueless and do the same thing – they get frustrated, delete the formula that has a minor error and start over.

So, here’s my suggestion to a very simple killer feature – AutoParenth. Excel should automatically add an opening parenthesis whenever it detects that a cell: (a) has a function (first character inside the cell is minus, plus or the equal signs) and (b) it has a closing parenthesis. This feature should be built similar to the AutoCorrect feature to give the users greater control.

If that’s too difficult to implement, Excel should at least provide an informative error message, just like Apple Numbers and Google Docs do. This is such a common error that a specific error message with clear instructions is necessary.

Apple Numbers informative error message.

Google Docs also provides enough information to guide the user.

I hope that someone at the Microsoft Office team will read this post and add this request to their todo list.