Holyland Technology

Keeping High Tech in Israel

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:03:00 +0000

The New York Sun ran an excellent article about the problem facing the Israel hi-tech industry. Basically, it has one major problem - the Israeli government.

Many of Israels best and brightest prefer to study abroad and/or work abroad in the high tech sector because the Israeli education system is in decline, the high costs for higher education and the bureaucratic controls on the high tech industry - all dependent upon the decision making of the Israeli government.

As the NY Sun article summarizes so succinctly:

"To help high-tech thrive, Israel must continue with radical reforms like the immensely successful financial market reforms that reduced costs and enhanced competitiveness and that were implemented by the former minister of finance, Benjamin Netanyahu. Markets can create prosperity in Israel, as they have done elsewhere, provided that the government will be cut from involvement in high-tech as well as elsewhere in the economy."

I hope some influential Israeli politicians read the New York Sun.

100 virtual layers for storage at a "fraction of the price" of other storage solutions on the market

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:59:00 +0000

With all of our lives being run more and more online (ok - my life), I always have the concern in the back of my head of "the day" when all information online will be wiped out. Maybe I'm just paranoid.

Anyway, I have started looking for hard drive solutions to be able to back up as much information as possible.

I just read about an Israeli company called mempile that is developing a 1 terabyte disc that has the ability to store the equivalent of 212 DVD-quality movies, 250,000 MP3 files, and 1,000,000 large Word documents on one CD/DVD like device.

Personally, I would love it. I just bought a 500gb hard drive that I use to back up all the digital files from my home computer and laptop. If I had a very portable disc to back up 1 terabyte of information without the need for hookups, rebooting ro installing software, that would be great.

Well, if mempile accomplishes what it wants to, then this will be possible. They already announced in March, 2007 that the technology works and now they are developing the prototype to be ready to reach market in 2010. After that the terabyte sky is the limit - the company predicts that with future optimization and the jump to blue laser technology, it will be able to follow the TeraDisc up with a blue-laser version that could store up to 5TB.

All us paranoid data-backer-uppers can't wait to see.

Scent Detection Technologies

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 11:25:00 +0000

It seems like an Israeli company has developed a scent detection technology that can compete with the best detection technologies already used in the security market. While Smiths Detection seems to cover all the security bases by offering a range of technologies to deal with different threats, Scent Detection Technologies proclaims to have a generic technology that can be "trained" to deal with all types of vulnerable industries. I'm very intrigued to learn about its learning technology that allows it to learn about dealing effectively with all different types of threats in one device.

Here is the recent article that introduces SDT's new handheld device that uses its scent detection technology.

Another Boost for Israeli Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 11:16:00 +0000

Globes newspaper reports that Yamaha director Hirokazu Kato was one of the prominent guests at the Lightspeed Conference held in Israel recently.

Hirokazu is responsible for Yamaha's technology vision as well as the company’s R&D center. He supposedly met with a number of executives of Israeli start-up companies during his visit.

Jeff Pulver in Israel for a Music Festival!

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Sun, 02 Sep 2007 10:57:00 +0000

Even though this headline has nothing to do with Israeli technology (Jeff is one of the major movers and shakers behind this Jerusalem Rocks music festival), the following comment made by Jeff (in an interview about his involvement with the music festival) has everything to do with Israeli technology:

"Whenever I invest in an Israeli start-up I know it will become a global company!"

Not bad support for Israeli technology and start-ups.

(I apologize to all the English readers - the original article with this quote is in Hebrew - you just have to trust me on this.)

Helping US Troops - the Hi Tech way

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Sat, 01 Sep 2007 10:47:00 +0000

Check out this article on a new Israeli technology positioned to help US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My question is when is this technology supposed to be ready for use?

Turning your email into a phone?

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 10:22:00 +0000

What a concept - A web based calling program that calls all emails!!!

On the yoomba website they position themselves as "calling all emails" - differentiating their web-based calling/instant messaging platform from the competition - whereas the others (skype, gmail chat, Yahoo chat etc.) all are closed systems, only usable with other same-system users, yooomba claims to be an open system that works with all users - regardless of their differing email/instant-messaging platforms.

Check out this article with more information on this new web-based calling technology from Israel.

I'm currently a skype user myself. It would be great to see if yoomba actually works they way they say it does - I would definitely try it out.

My only question is what if one uses multiple email accounts? Can one yoomba account integrate all the email addresses from the seperate accounts?

The next logical step for technology being developed in the Holyland

noreply@blogger.com (Avi) — Thu, 23 Aug 2007 07:16:00 +0000

Have you ever heard of theoretical linguistics, nanosyntax or natural language understanding? Well neither did I until I started doing media relations for an ultra-orthodox Jerusalem start-up company, called Linguistic Agents, as part of my new job!

You must read this article to understand what this is all about:"Achieving Mobility by Typing with Your Tongue"

This company has developed an award winning technology called Streaming Logic that will allow computers to understand human language!

What does that mean? Well very soon we will be able to write coherent questions into search engines or website FAQ sections and get the listing of pages with the exact answers (instead of having to browse tens of potential sites that might have the answer to our query).

Further down the road we will be able to talk to our car to open the driver's window or turn down the air conditioning, or ask our alarm clock to turn off without turning over or lifting a finger!

Earlier this week, Computerworld Magazine announced that Linguistic Agents’ natural language Streaming Logic technology was one of the 10 winners of its Horizon Award for "cutting-edge technologies on the horizon now" (together with HP and Standford University). (Here are links to the articles on the win and the technology).

This is unbelievable news for a small ultra-orthodox start up company in Jerusalem.

The future is not that far away and it is exciting to know that a Jerusalem based company will be a big part in making it all happen.

Check them out yourself: www.linguisticagents.com