RonMertens.com

I’ve been interviewed for an article on OLEDs, on the Digital Signage Today web site, which was nice. OLEDs are slowly getting mainstream, and hopefully OLED-Info will benefit

I’ve got me a new camera (don’t worry, I didn’t buy more junk - I’m just borrowing this one). It’s a small canon IXUS-70. It’s nice to have a small camera (my Panasonic is a bit larger, and my smaller Canon died in Switzerland).

Check out the photos we took at the beach

If you have 20 minutes to spare, check this out. A great video about the consumer way of life - and what are the implications to our planet, and society, and happiness. So Michal and I are doing at least one thing right - we do not watch TV (we do watch DVD movies and shows - but no ads, and we don’t really watch a lot).

I also try to limit the stuff I buy. For example I try not to buy a lot of presents for all my nephews - I’m sure I’m less popular because of it, but it’s for the greater good.  Actually this year my sister and I decided that instead of buying birthday presents - we’ll give a donation in each other’s behalf. Cool!

I need to stop wanting new gadgets (I really need a new camera… damn). And to stop buying stuff I don’t need (which I’m getting better at). It also saves money, which is a good thing when we’re both almost not earning anything

I just received a large parcel in my mail. It was from Microsoft (which was suspicious at best). I decided to take the risk, and open it.
It was this large cylinder, saying that “the writing is on the wall - Microsoft Software as a Service”. Inside was a spray-paint can (!) with a small leaflet telling me that’s it’s time to tell the world that I know it too (that the writing is on the wall) with my name and instructions to cut out my name and spray it.

I really got annoyed. This is a huge waste - I’m sure thousands in Israel got this junk (I never actually had anything to do with Microsoft Israel - beside buying my copy of Windows XP). Probably 90% of it was thrown right away. And it’s probably really damaging to our environment - a can of paint!

Obviously I only had one option - to phone Microsoft and tell them they are annoying, they kill our planet, and should be ashamed. The phone number on the box lead me straight to the delivery company, who was as annoyed as I was, and said he doesn’t know why everyone phones him and asks whether his is Microsoft (which he is not).

So I opened the small leaflet, and found another phone number. I phoned, pressed 3 like was told to do in th leaflet, and I got a nice many with an Indian accent explaining to me that I got to the Calcuta technical support. I love india - but this guy didn’t really help me out.

At this stage I got even more annoyed, and e-mailed YNet and NRG which I hope will publish this in the ‘eco’ sections (YNet phoned me, so I hope they will indeed do something).

I then phoned microsoft again, but didn’t press the ‘3=Calcuta’, and then I got to a hebrew speaking microsoft-lady. She was nice, and later they phoned again and listened to my complains. I hope someone got my message.

So now I have this stupid can of spray on my desk (colour royal blue, or azul real). Anyone wants it?

I had my birthday a couple of days ago…

To celebrate, Michal took me to a ‘dinner and a show’. Or actually a movie and dinner. So we went to see Indiana Jones IV (secret of the crystal skull or something like that). Anyway it was a fun movie! Recommended (if you like that sort of thing, anyway). The dinner was great too.
Happy birthday to me

So we’re back from Jacob’s ladder festival! It was really great! I really like that country and Irish folk music, and there was some good shows in there.

It’s also cool that we know so many people there! This year Rani joined (I thought she deserves a mention - she’s one of the few who read this blog…).

We had a lot of fun! Can’t wait for next year…

Too long have I written “oled-tech” kinda news in my blog. So some personal matters now…

The big news obviously is that we (Michal?) are pregnant - we’re expecting a baby girl in 3 months! This is both exciting and scary and hopefully all will be well. What can I say more?

I decided it was time now to tell the world (or the part of it that reads this blog). Obviously if you read this blog you probably know me and so you heard this one already, so no point in me blabbering.
Other than that? We’re going tomorrow to a cool folk-music (Irish/British/County) festival (Jacob’s ladder) for 2 days which will be a hoot I hope! yee-ha!

So people always ask me - why are you a vegetarian? I have several reasons, so here they are, at no particular order:

• It’s healthy - there are some evidence that vegetarians live longer. It’s complicated to prove, because usually a vegetarian will lead a better lifestyle (eat better, doesn’t smoke…). But still.
• I don’t like killing animals, especially when it’s so easy to not do so
• Environment issues - it’s now argued that eating meat is a major cause of global warming. The amount of energy that has to be ‘invested’ in meat is a lot more than an equivalent vegetable based dish. Also people are cutting trees to make room for growing food for animals, and there are other reasons too.
• It annoys people
• It makes for an interesting life (especially combined with other funny food habits)
• When I’ll look back when I’m old, I think I’ll be happier a bit.

I think that’s it

I just finished reading a great book - Jennifer Government (by Max Barry). It’s a fun packed, er, book. The idea is that the US has gone totally capitalist - no taxes, government has almost no power, people use their company name as surname (John Nike) and the police needs to raise money before it can investigate a crime. And that’s just the beginning, it goes totally “whacky” as it evolves.

It’s funny, but also quite insightful - it’s great to read about an extreme situation like this.

Recommended!

R.

Check this out - the world’s first OLED lamp, and a beautiful design, too!