While I have heard of Israeli’s using nuclear waste, solar energy and animal waste to power their cities, this is the first time that I have heard of them using commuters.

(Haaretz.com) An Israeli company has developed a method of generating electricity from road traffic, and Israeli may look to implement the system on the nation’s highways.

The system works by using generators implanted in the asphalt that create energy when cars drive over them. Each generator produces 2,000 watts per hour, which is stored in batteries along the side of the road.

The technology was developed by the Israeli firm Innowattech, with the cooperation of the Technion University.

While Innowattech’s invention is only good enough to power street lights, these innovative mechanical devices could help large cities like Tel Aviv and Jerusalem save some serious shekels when it comes to their electric bill.

Innowattech has a funky video (that needs to be on YouTube) highlighting how this works in the real world, although this video below showing pedestrians should also give you a clue as to how this will work.

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Well, after many weeks of coding, debugging and fighting with plugins (I swear their is a mini civil war going with half of them!) I’ve finally finished customizing the new template for IsraGood (which use to be on Blogger–you can see my former site here).

For those wondering this theme was originally designed by Nick Roach of Elegant Themes (aff), who has some of the best WordPress themes online IMHO!

Anyways, you are probably wondering what’s new with the site other than a facelift? While most of the changes are “under the hood,” here are a few extra features you may enjoy.

Commenting To Go! (in 9 different flavors)

Current readers to IsraGood will be thrilled to discover that I no longer have CAPTCHA’s enabled on this blog (thanks in part to WP-Spam), which became a necessary evil thanks in part to the numerous spam I was receiving daily (some of which was NSFW).

Anyways, readers on IsraGood will be able to comment using the standard interface (i.e. name, email, website) or through their social networks/blogs/etc. like Twitter, Facebook, Blogger, WordPress.com, their Google Account or even OpenID (which should cover everything else under the sun!).

Users can also post video comments using Seesmic, or you can simply register with IsraGood as well.

Gotta Be Mobile (iPhone and Palm Pre Included!)

For those of you with smart phones (such as an iPhone, Palm Pre or even a Blackberry Storm) IsraGood is now optimized for your viewing pleasure!

There is no need to visit m.isragood.com anymore (and if you do, you’ll receive an error). Rather just type in the domain, and the blog will adjust itself for your viewing pleasure. By the way, you can even comment from the mobile interface too!

Stay Updated!

Aside from the site feed (powered by Feedburner), you can also subscribe to updates via Twitter at @IsraGood or via iTunes via Odiogo (who also powers the audio broadcasts).You can also subscribe to my personal twitter feed on @Darnell as well (hint, hint) which will post updates from IsraGood—among other things.

The site is just about 99% done (as there are several more upgrades I have yet to accomplish in the background), although if you have any suggestions, find any bugs or just want to chat, feel free to contact me (as I am only a tweet/call/email/etc. away).

Shalom!

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Testing to see if this will show up in my feed reader.

Please ignore.

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Okay, so after some “minor” server issues, I think I figured out why my blog refused to “port over” to my server. I have to contact my host to resolve this, but give me a few hours and the WP site will be up (at least for this blog).

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Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start blogging!

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Now I’m not making this decision based on “WordPress is better than Blogger” because IMHO they both have strenghths where the other has weaknesses.

Anyways both IsraGood & Colony Worlds will be down throughout the day, as I import comments, posts and attempt to maintain permalinks on the site.

I will also be sporting new premium themes for each site so stay tuned!!

–Posted via iPhone

Update (6/9/9): After being slightly concerned about WordPress 2.8, I can now say that the process to transfer it over has now officially begun. Stay tunned!

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If there is one thing Gmail (an email service by Google) is known for it is its archiving and anti spam features. While gmail is great and dandy (note: this author loves Gmail) some companies may want something similar to handle mail on their own servers instead of Google’s.

PineApp, which is located in Nesher (which is right underneath Haifa) has created some interesting hardware/software combo to help companies “defend the gates” against the ever annoying spammers (who need to be destroyed).

(Israel 21st Century) Protecting and archiving e-mail is PineApp’s business. What firewalls have done for computer networks, PineApp aims to do for e-mail. The company’s first appliance, Mail-SeCure, is a separate piece of hardwire that isolates bad messages in a safe zone and prevents them from contaminating the rest of the system, ensuring maximum security for organizations and users.

PineApp’s ArchiveSeCure keeps a record of corporate e-mail activity, allowing managers to reproduce records when required to by government or courts. And SurfSeCure protects organizations from the hazards of web-based e-mail, as well as other online web threats. [...]

“The PineApp appliance is attached to the mail server, and evaluates each message that comes in,” Michaeli explains. “Messages are scanned for suspect attachments, and are ‘killed’ before they make it onto the mail server or into a user’s inbox. And any messages that don’t have a valid destination are also eliminated before making it onto the server,” thus preventing hackers from performing a DOS attack.

The appliances, which are designed for small and medium sized companies, are built on a custom Linux platform that is encrypted on several levels and cannot be easily compromised. This makes it hard for hackers to write viruses or Trojans.

PineApp seems to be gaining ground around the globe, as they already have offices in New York, Florida, England, Russia and Germany–not to mention Israel as well (which they dominate with a 40% market share according to Israel 21st Century).

Time will only tell whether PineApp will be able to challenge the tech giants in the US of A, although if their technology is as good as a lot of people are saying, we may find their company assimilated by Microsoft (who  is currently in talks to purchase yet another Israeli company).

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While this is not the first time Microsoft has courted the Jewish state (as they previously purchased Secured Dimensions and YaData), this latest move could hint at what the Redmond giant is planning for their gaming console Xbox.

(Globes Online) Software giant Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) is negotiating to acquire 3DV Systems Ltd. for $30-$40 million.

IVC reports that 3DV Systems has raised $38 million in investment funds to date. [...]

3DV has targeted the video gaming market. It has developed video camera technology capable of capturing the depth dimension of objects in real time, enabling it to sense motion and recognize shape within a dynamically defined three-dimensional space.

While no word has yet emerged what Microsoft plans on doing with 3DV Systems (as they are still negotiating), although if they did find some way of integrating 3DV Systems 3D technology into a future Xbox, they could dethrone Nintendo’s Wii as the king of gaming consoles (at least internationally).

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Not too long ago there was news that Israel discovered a large amount of natural gas off the coast of Haifa.

While discovering large reserves of natural gas is not really “breaking news” (as it is discovered all over the world very frequently) this one treasure trove may help Israel become energy independent (at least from foreign gas).

(Israel National News) A massive natural gas find off the coast of Haifa which was lauded as capable of fueling all of Israel for 15 years is actually more than 60 percent larger than originally estimated, according to the American partner in the drill, Noble Energy Inc.

Israeli companies Isramco Negev 2, Delek Drilling, Avner Oil Exploration, and Dor Gas Exploration had the majority of the stake on the dig – named Tamar-1 – which is estimated at a potential of 5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas. That estimate is up from January, at which time the partners believed the well contained 3 trillion cubic feet of gas.

Even though Israel already receives gas from Egypt, having a large secondary source should greatly benefit Israel (as they have not made too many friends abroad ever since defending their borders in Gaza).

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In order to avoid future problems down the road, this weblog is going under the DNS knife (so it may appear choppy for 48 hours).

I’ll update this post as soon as it is back up.

– Post From My iPhone

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