On that note, I’ve also upgraded to firmware version 3.1.2 and it is predictably better than 3.0.

Also, since I’m mentioning it now, unlocking/jailbreaking an iPhone should never cost money. If you paid someone to do yours, as many people do in Israel, you got ripped off. In the future, you can always follow directions in an iClarified tutorial or just ask somebody for help.

Protect Your iPhone is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

Occasionally I make up “missed connections” and post them in other cities’ Craigslists. At first I wondered if anyone would notice them, but then people started replying and it grew to be awesome.

One of my favorite takes on missed connections is the wonderfully illustrated Missed Connections NY blog. Here’s the latest from it: We Shared a Bear Suit.

Missed Connections: The Blog is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

My brain hurts from this. is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

By linking to it here, I hope that everyone I know will go to it and read through it, and then recommend it to their friends, who in turn will recommend it to their friends, and so on, until it gets recommended back to me dozens of times and enters my consciousness so thoroughly that I’ll never forget it again.

Reggae Reviews is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

Here is visual proof (source: Google) that almost no one says “information superhighway” any more:

Information Superhighway is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

The results are interesting enough to sap at least a half hour of anyone’s time.

Could you have guessed, for example, that “The Holy Bible” is considerably dumber than “The Bible” and that both of those are dumber than “The Book of Mormon” (!!!!!)? I wouldn’t have – but I was not surprised that all three of those are dumber than “Atlas Shrugged.” I also love that “I dont read” is smarter than a good several books, including “Fahrenheit 451″ and a few in the “African American” category that I’ve never heard of.

On the music side, “Beethoven” is way smarter than “Classical,” which I suppose means that it takes a bit of brains to name even a single classical composer. Also, “Rap” is smarter than “Hip Hop,” but “Oldies” is dumber than “Rock.” It’s pretty cool also to break things down by genre. I am amused at how much smarter “Outkast” is than “Lil Wayne,” and also intrigued by the gradual shift in intelligence by genre from Hip Hop toward Indie.

This is totally fun and I could spend a day on it. Maybe I will some time.

Making yourself dumb is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

Robert Hersov runs the European branch of NetJets, a company owned by Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway that sells shares in private airplanes. He came to NetJets after founding Marquis Jet Europe. Hersov also founded Sportal, which specializes in online video and gaming geared toward sports fans. Mr. Hersov is the director of Triplecrown Acquisition Corporation, a company with significant planned investments in the financial services sector.

Robert Hersov was born in South Africa in 1960 and is the son of Basil Edward Hersov, chairman of the mining conglomerate Anglovaal. He completed his bachelors degree in South Africa, served in the South African army, and has a Harvard MBA. Mr. Hersov worked in Business Development for Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp in New York and spent two years in investment banking with Goldman Sachs.

Robert Hersov has two sons and lives in London. He has recently been romantically linked with 36-year-old Kate James, a medical researcher from New Zealand.

An Exercise: Robert Hersov is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

1. Personalize your domain. My first several websites were on Geocities, believe it or not. My next few sites after that were on other people’s servers: my local ISP in Maryland and then NYU’s. But by summer 2000, I already owned a domain. If you don’t have at least one domain yet, that means you’re a full nine years behind me. And if you’re only going to reserve one domain, shouldn’t it one that expresses exactly who and what you are? YourName.com will one day be priceless, so stop hesitating and buy it while it still has a price.
2. Join everything. If you’re already on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, and all the other popular social networks (excuse me, social utilities), you’ve already started. But everything means everything. If you are Yossi Cohen or Sanjay Patel, do you really think it’s wise to let all the other Yossi Cohens and Sanjay Patels stake a claim to having that prized username on tomorrow’s Next Big Thing? Didn’t think so.
3. Create content. Anyone who says that content isn’t the most important thing is clueless. A regular stream of high quality content is the first, last and best way of getting recognized by search engines. If you’re going to do only one thing to control the way your name appears online, sign your name up for a blog and start writing in it. By the way, text is essential because the search engines read it easiest, but Google also loves images (make sure you optimize your alt tags) and video (embed it from Youtube).
4. Share. Just like in life, on the web you can go on indefinitely in your own little world, but you probably won’t amount to much until you have a community. You must participate in the discussions around you. Comment on other people’s sites with tasteful and unobtrusive links back to your own. Use social networks and your blog to let people know what you’re reading, listening to, watching and thinking about. Sharing also has the benefit of being an excellent stand-in for original content, for those people who feel like they don’t have a lot to say.
5. Relax. One day is all it takes to ruin a person’s reputation. But neither Rome nor the web were built in a day, and a person’s tarnished name can’t be restored in that time either. Search engines index content at their own pace, not at anyone else’s, so it might take a while before they pick up your content and it might take considerably longer until they reach all of it. Take a deep breath and wait it out!

An Exercise: Personal Branding is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

To address some of them:

People on the bus who put their feet up on the seat.

On many of the buses, there are actually posted signs that specifically tell people to keep their feet off the seats. I’m less literate in Hebrew than the average Israeli, and I have no problem figuring out the signs, so this behavior is obviously one of contempt and not of ignorance. Kind of like on the day I made Aliyah, in the airport hangar where we were being fêted, there was a giant NO SMOKING sign with a group of idiot soldiers smoking directly under it.

Dog shit.

Not much to say, except that I always pick up Sharav’s. I hadn’t noticed a discrepancy in the above- and below-Rothschild dog shit distribution, though I guess spending 99.9% of my time above Rothschild could have contributed to that. What I have noticed is that plenty of dog owners in central and northern neighborhoods have a lot of trouble cleaning up after their dogs. Should I assume they’re just visiting Florentians?

People reserving their spot at the supermarket.

I don’t tolerate this practice; nor do I tolerate those who tolerate it. If I ever see a checkout line at the supermarket with an unmanned cart or basket at the end, I take the cart or basket, move it somewhere else, and then get in that line. Sometimes the owner protests, and I just explain how shopping in a supermarket works – First we choose what to buy, then we stand in line, then we pay – as if to a child. Occasionally they’ll curse me vehemently for my chutzpah, but then I suddenly forget how to understand Hebrew.

The absolutely ridiculous public transportation system.

Right! There’s no bus from the beach to my house.

Also, there’s absolutely no indication at bus stops as to when the fucking bus may arrive or the frequency with which it runs, all you get is a map and a timetable that says the bus runs from 5AM to midnight.

Correction: sometimes you get a map at the bus stop, but you almost never get one on the bus. Imagine trying to maneuver the subway in New York, a much simpler system than the buses in Tel Aviv, without maps on the trains. When you call the bus company here to ask for information about a bus route or how to get from one place to another, you find that their hours are something ridiculous like 7 am to 7 pm. The buses run until midnight … so what are we supposed to do if we need information in the evenings?

People on scooters who think it’s perfectly acceptable to use the pavement when the road is clogged.

People on scooters, period. Everything is wrong about them. Everything they do is wrong. Also people on bicycles, except the ones who wear helmets, ride in the street (or in designated bike lanes) and follow traffic regulations.

The amount of Hummers in the city.

I also don’t understand this. To be a driver in the army – that is, to drive a Hummer – is not considered desirable or interesting. So how is it that people leave the army, travel in Thailand or South America, come back to Israel and suddenly, in their civilian lives, want to be seen driving a Hummer?

The penis building off the Ayalon.

I wish I didn’t know what building she’s talking about. But I do. And that really bothers me.

Shutterfool's Urban Annoyances is a post from Lines Writing Lines.

• Maps of War
• Strange Maps
• WorldMapper (thanks to LB)

Who likes maps? is a post from Lines Writing Lines.