Yovav (Jay) Meydad's Personal Blog

Most of the times blogging can be thankless since people rarely leave comments or join the conversation, while at other times it can be tremendously rewarding. Here’s an example of the latter.

The comment below was left by Vivek Golikeri who lives in Trinidad on my post about my personal memory related to the Israeli Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day.

You mentioned Amnon Kadmon. I was his family’s neighbor in Victoria Gardens, Diego Martin, in 1972 and 1973 when his father Gideon Kadmon was working as an agricultural advisor to the government of Trinidad and Tobago. Amnon was a baby at that time, and I in my final year of high school. I used to run around and play in the streets with Adi, his oldest brother. I remember his mother Miriam, and his siblings Adi, Noam and Tamar.

Amnon’s nanny, a black Trinidadian lady named Beulah, used to bring him out for walks in the evening. He was so cute, chubby and cuddly that I began calling him “duckling.” His mother, loved that pet name. Amnon would rest his head of curly golden hair on my shoulder and say “Uncle Veek!….I LOFF you!”

A few years ago I googled his name, wondering whatever became of the Kadmon family. Tears welled up in my eyes when I learned that my pet “baby duck” had been killed in a war. I used to say “If I ever have a son, I want him to be just like Amnon.”

If the Kadmon family ever see this post of mine, I ask them if they remember the Hindu family down the street on Jacaranda Avenue whose son, Vik, loved their baby so much. Later on, they moved to Orchid Avenue, a little away. I always walked there to play with my “baby duck.”

SHALOM, my little puppy. I hope you are at peace on the other side.

Last weekend I participated at the first ever Kinnernet USA, an un-conference, inspired by Tim O’Reilly’s foo camp, that was organized by Jeff Pulver and Yossi Vardi. The camp was at the beautiful Bolger Center at Potomoc MD and it brought together about 100 people who came from all over the US, Europe and Israel to interact, discuss, create, play (music and games) and share thoughts and ideas.

This was my 3rd Kinnernet (first two were the “original” ones in Israel). It was very enjoyable & also different than the Israeli version. Kinnernet USA had less of the wild outdoors activities Kinnernet is known for like drag racing, robotics, fireworks, water activities and others and there was more focus on workshops & discussions. Similarities included tons of food, very little sleep, very funny Eggstravaganza, extremely creative Gadgethon (winners were a  computer powered sand table and Zoozbeat created by the very talented Gil Weinberg), Midnight Cooking Madness (I think it was the best ever) and fun jam sessions.

The biggest evidence to how different this Kinnernet was compared to its Israeli version could be found in the gaming section. The game room, typically the most crowded place 24×7, was well equipped with plenty of gaming consoles, large screens and massive sound systems. However, it remained empty most of the time. At the same time, plenty of folks played all night long, sessions of Werewolf games thanks to Jimmy Wales who initiated this. Not only that, Werewolf has made it to future Kinnernet’s official playlist and got Yossi’s blessing.

Overall, it was a very fun weekend as you can see in some of the photos I shot and in the videos uploaded to qik here.

And here’s the presentation I gave at the opening ceremony. Named “Kinnernet For Dummies”, it is a quick start guide for newbies done using photos from past Kinnernets.

Remembering my childhood friends, Amnon Kadmon (died Nov 26, 1990) & Shaul Hilevitch (died Oct 29, 1991) and my wife’s boyfriend at the time Nir Evron (died Feb 2, 1994). It has been almost 20 years and I can not stop thinking what if…

I hope you all have a good Passover. The Huffington Post has an interesting article about Passover traditions from all around the world.

Happy Freedom Holiday.

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i send the locusts on a wind (365-169) – happy passover from the ten plagues!, originally uploaded by michele cat.

Earth hour 2009 is this Saturday, March 28 at 8:30 pm.

To participate, turn off your lights for one hour and help Mother Earth fight climate change.

Earth hour started in Sydney in 2007. More than two million Sydney businesses and households turned off their lights for one hour. This helped to send a powerful global message that it’s possible to take action on climate change. In just one year, Earth hour has reached more than 50 million people in 35 countries across 18 time zones, and the campaign shifted from a Sydney event to a global sustainability movement. In 2009, the goal is to reach one billion people in 1000 cities worldwide.

For more information, visit earthhour.org

btw, all year around you could help save energy & reduce your electricity bill using Snap’s CO2Saver. It is a lightweight program that manages your computer’s power usage when it’s idle, saving energy and decreasing the demand on your power utility. Download it here.

Mother Earth will thank you.

Last May I posted about the unbelievable achievement made by my long time favorite Israeli basketball club – Hapoel Holon. This is part two of the story.

Shortly after winning the Israeli 2008 championship the future of the team looked very dark. Miki Dorsman, the owner/manager/coach left the team, the budget for the 2009 season was unknown and the the entire squad moved on to other teams.

A few weeks before the current season began, the club somehow managed to resurrect itself. A tiny budget was formed, a young coach, Dani Franco, was signed, and a squad of  fairly unknown players was assembled. The fans had one hope – that the team would not fall apart and drop to the second division.

Well, apparently, this club has something else that is worth a hundred times more than superstars earning millions or experienced coaches. It has a big heart. And big heart is what wins big games.

Last year, it was Malik Dixon who scored the winning shot only four seconds to the end of the Israeli championship game against Maccabi Tel Aviv, one of the most successful basketball clubs in Eurpoe. It was Holon’s first championship title, and Maccabi’s 2nd lost of the title in 34 years.

Last night, in the Israeli Basketball Cup final against the favorite Maccabi Haifa Heat, the drama was even bigger. With less than a second on the clock, and Haifa leading 68-66, the seasoned Brian Tolbert scored an amazing three-pointer with the buzzer to give Holon a 69-68 win. It was the team’s first cup title ever.

Take a look at this great video, shot by one of Holon’s fans, to experience the drama and the excitement after the victory. Holonia plays in yellow, Haifa in green.

Holon is now holding “The Double” (when a team wins both champoinship & cup titles at the same season), and if you want to make an analogy to the high tech/venture capital environment, this is like seeing a serial entrepreneur building two companies on very little seed money, and scoring two huge home runs, one year after the other. And as a fan, I am as proud and happy as a share holder could be from these liquidity events.

Yesterday this blog & I reached some pretty encouraging milestones:

Milestone 1- My previous post, about Outbrain’s round B, was my 200th post since I began blogging almost 2 years ago. Who would imagine that would happen so fast?

Milestone 2 - The same 200th blog post made it to Techmeme and that was the first time my blog was featured on the popular tech news aggregation service.

Milestone 3 – My 198th post about Tropicana’s terrible re-branding was mentioned in this FastCompany article about Pepsi’s logo redesign. That article has been sending tons of new traffic to my blog. It was the first time a post I wrote received over 1000 unique page views in one day (to be precise, 1127 UPV on 2/11/2009).

I wonder what would be the next one?

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC just launched a new exhibit called “State of Deception: The power of Nazi propaganda”. Beyond the live exhibit which I hope to be able to see in DC someday, it also has a Flash based web site which contains a fascinating multimedia collection with all sorts of materials showing the sophisticated propaganda that the Nazi party created in order to spread lies about its political opponents, Jews and the need for war.

Those materials include photos, posters, books, videos, sound recording, newspapers articles, paintings and drawing and more. All have commentary and are categorized under 7 different themes that demonstrate how well the Nazis understood topics such as mass communication, marketing & branding, and how well they used them in order to promote alluring ideas that appeal to the masses such as freedom, unity and prosperity, rather than pure hate.

The Themes and Gallery Search sections gives access to these materials from the years 1919-1948. In addition, there is an interactive timeline section which goes all the way from 1919 until 2008 and it lists major events around the world that are related to anti-semitism as well as genocide.

I find the timing of releasing this exhibit & website extremely important, especially in light of the recent anti-semic voices the are spiking as a result of the current economic crises, the recent holocaust denial statement made by British Bishop Richard Williamson (“There was not one Jew killed by the gas chambers. It was all lies, lies, lies”) , and of course, the constant anti-Jews and anti-Israel speeches and announcements made by the leader of Iran, as well as other terror organizations such as Hamas & Al Qaeda.

This is by far of the most impressive website I have seen lately. Add to that the fact it is about such an important topic, that I have already selected it as my top website for 2009.

I highly recommend spending some time on the site, navigating through the different sections and reading the materials. It is important to remember what the Nazi’s did in Europe 60+ years ago and remind others, so it never happens again.

So, Share it, Bookmark, Digg, Twitt, StumbleUpon it, and use every other social media method you know to spread the word about this site.

Here is the link: http://www.ushmm.org/propaganda

ushmm.org - nazi propoganda exhibit - homepage

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I just came across these holiday icons that appear on SERP pages for holiday related terms.

I wonder if that’s a way for Google to boost holiday sales grabbing people’s attention and pointing them to the sponsored results rail on the right.

Menorah (kw=Hanukkah)

Candy cane (kw=Christmas)

Candy cane (kw=Kawanzaa gifts)

This amusing new year’s greetings video made by First Round Capital and their long list of portfolio companies, located in so many places around the globe (it was nice for me to see the two Ramat Gan towers, and that London pub looks like a really cool spot).

What is common to all of these people who bust their asses trying make it big? They are happy!

So, if you fill miserable at what you currently do, think of making a change and starting (or joining) a start up. Who knows, by the end of 2009 you might be dancing next to Howard, Josh, Rob and Chris.