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We have to Remember the Holocaust !!!

Trip N' Burn — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 09:23:38 +0000

Tonight will start the Israeli Holocaust Memorial Day...

I know it is out of the blue - and, that you probably expected me to post another Tit Photo (or something goofy like that), But - you know I'm from Israel (and also a proud Jew) and tonight - We Israelis, will start our Holocaust Memorial Day (a day before our Independence) - its a sad time for us to Reflect on our Past and to Remember those who did not make it out (and Honor those who did survive that Crazy thing).
In Israel Sadness is Followed by happiness (so we will be left with a good taste in our mouth) and Historically our Independence came right after our personal disaster - The Holocaust - in which 6 Millions Jews were killed in various ways of monstrosity, only because they were Jews. Even now, Israel is still fighting for its Independence (against nations that seek its' destruction) - But, I don't wanna get into that politics of the present...
Now, I also know the world today - is not clean of crazy genocides, and that many people suffer today (mainly in Africa) as we suffered more than 60 years ago - But, in order for us to become more human - We must Remember (and try our best not to repeat the pasts mistakes).

Trip N' Burn presents : United States Holocaust Memorial Museum - (wikimedia commons) ©

Remember, for you are Human !

For those of you in the U.S.A (and want to) -
Here is a list of Museums that will help you Remember.

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Three New Art Exhibitions in Tel Aviv Galleries – A Recommendation

isragirl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 14:12:08 +0000

Rosenfeld Gallery Presents : Work from "Revolution Song" by Zoya Cherkassky ©

If visiting Galleries and enjoying art is an integral part of your vacation in a foreign country, I would like to recommend 3 exhibitions opening in Tel Aviv today and tomorrow. At Rosenfeld Gallery, two new exhibitions by Zoya Cherkassky and Doron Rabina - leading young Israeli artists - will open tonight. Cherkassky's exhibition includes two projects: "Revolution Song" - presents symbols of protest that over the years turned into Clichés and lost their political features, while their esthetics had been adopted by popular culture. The second project, "Explosion at the Noodle Factory" is a parody on documentary art pretending to investigate social problems. Rabina's exhibition - The Araq Champion - presents illustrations and Photos dealing with human desire to draw the face of loss.

Both exhibitions offer refined mourning, alternative and decorative, leaning on syntax and context.

Nomi Faran, a successful Israeli artist, has a new exhibition of sculptures opening tomorrow at the Beit Assya (Asia) Gallery. Many of Faran's sculptures are included in collections throughout Europe, North America, Australia and Israel, including the New Orleans Museum of Art. It is said that by caressing her sculptures, viewers find they are instilled with a sense of sureness and tranquility.

Isragirl recommends: Check out all three exhibitions. Tip: The Asia House is one of the most beautiful buildings in Israel and worth a visit regardless of the exhibition.

Where: Rosenfeld Gallery, 147 Dizengoff St. Tel Aviv, Beit Assya (Asia House) Gallery, 4 Weitzman St. Tel Aviv

When: Cherkassky and Rabina (Rosenfeld Gallery) Apr 3^rd - May 10^th, Faran (Asia House) Apr 1^st - Apr 29^th.

New Art Exhibitions in Tel Aviv - A Tourist Attraction

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Featured links and friends’ posts » Travel Israel - Guide, Trips, Tips, Photos and Videos, Burning Man Art, Tel Aviv Travel Guide, Tel Aviv Galleries, Israel Photo Gallery
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9 reasons why you should improve your CRM with intelligent virtual agents (IVA's)

visionarymarketing — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 18:27:50 +0000

Virtualisation of customer services interaction was quoted by Time (March 2008) as being one of the '10 ideas which are changing the world'. Pascal Levy-Garboua, Director, Business Development of Virtuoz.com, a leading-edge provider of IVA (intelligent virtual agents) technology, is giving us more insight into the future of customer relationship management in this post written on behalf of Visionary Marketing.

Intelligent virtual agents improve Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Intelligent virtual agents are changing the face of online customer service and are fast becoming the main channel of customer support communication for generation Y. However, the domain of artificial intelligence and its presence on the Internet today is still relatively unfamiliar to many. "Intelligent virtual agent" has yet to become a widespread buzz word in the field of CRM, but it is full of potential.

So what exactly are virtual agents about, and what can they be used for?

IVAs are artificial intelligence programs which translate to autonomous, graphically embodied agents which appear in an online environment. Graphic design for each individual virtual agent may vary from video animation to a photo or an avatar, in an interactive 2D or 3D environment, in order to fit with a company's brand image.

Intelligent virtual agents can be designed and built with the capacity to fulfill a multitude of functions on the Internet. They offer a large variety of online functional abilities which allows their missions to be accurately defined according to their role in the customer cycle. Be it for marketing purposes, help and advice with website navigation, sales functions, customer support or sales follow up, intelligent virtual agents are increasingly being sourced by companies to bring more personalized interaction to their CRM.

IVAs in the CRM cycle

IVA strategies for improving online CRM

Immediate and ubiquitous real time access to answers. IVAs offer customers immediate and ubiquitous real time access to answers using a variety of functionalities. Customers are thus saved from frustrating time on hold with a customer service center or, as is the case with traditional search engines and FAQ explorers, from trawling through mountains of web content in order to find their answer.
A personalized, tailored service. IVAs can mirror the in store experience from a customer standpoint. The ability to connect to company back office databases allows agents to retrieve personal information to provide the most tailored answer.
Encouraging online self help and increasing web content ease of access. Online virtual agents encourage online self service and increase web content accessibility to even the Internet beginner. Helping e-customers efficiently zero in on the information they are looking for is consequential to CRM, helping to alleviate customer frustration when they cannot find a certain page, or certain information. Through facilitating online services discovery, virtual agents are becoming an invaluable tool in cross and up-selling as well as in the maintenance and reinforcing of a company's brand strength and recognition.
Proactive approach to customer issues. By simulating a text chat session with a live agent, encouraging customers to visit certain pages, and offering co-browsing, the Virtual Interactive agent is an efficient and low cost method of internet guidance, helping people perform tasks such as locating information, placing orders, or making reservations. Virtual agents are proactive in their approach to customers' issues, identifying the customer problem and providing a personal, pertinent answer. Occupying sales and marketing roles, agents can be an effective viral marketing tool, acting to increase a customer contact base using proactive questions and features which push the customer to action. Market studies have shown an actual increase in customer satisfaction after IVA implementation, owing to the virtual agents' ease of use and the pleasant customer experience they provide.
Personalized human-like interaction. The humanized nature of virtual agents makes them easier for customers to approach. IVAs have a personality defined to compliment their professional mission, which allows them to convey a more bespoke service and add a human touch to online customer care. It has been observed that this humanized approach is reciprocated from the human end, where a reported 70% of visitors greet and say farewell to virtual agents. Indeed in a world where e-commerce is becoming a driving force, increasing competition will require e-businesses to humanize online interactions, mirroring the in-store experience with more tailored, engaging conversations.
Supplementing outsourcing with virtual sourcing. IVAs allow companies with large customer service flows to supplement service center outsourcing with Virtual Sourcing. An agents' ability to handle unlimited requests at any one time helps to take a dramatic load off traditional call centers, reducing the need to invest more time and money as businesses' CRM needs grow.
The most advanced technologies offer a predictive dimension that allows real time adaptation to customer behaviour. Contrary to previous generation "keyword-based" chatter bots, recently developed IVAs, such as those produced by VirtuOz, can evaluate a customer's previous behaviour and trends to predict the course of an interaction. This allows the agent to adapt its strategy in real time to meet the clients' needs and fulfilling a variety of missions simultaneously.
Existing call center productivity optimized. IVAs all have well calculated exit strategies to ensure the customer is never left with their issue unsolved and has not wasted their time. Agents can be interfaced with other CRM tools such as webforms, callback systems and live chat, to render the customer service process more efficient. Agents automatically categorize customer issues, enabling them not only to transfer to the most relevant customer channel, but also to only transmit information pertinent to the customer's problem. This allows for quicker resolution, therefore increasing existing customer service centres productivity levels. Comprehensive reporting tools, where all conversations are registered for monitoring, allow stringent quality control and ensure that agents are performing to the required standard, a quality which of course is near impossible with human customer care.
Integration with other web based services. IVAs, such as the recent French development Skaaz, (www.skaaz.com) can be integrated with Instant Messaging services, blogs and social networking sites; such artificial intelligence technology may also soon appear in virtual worlds, such as Second Life, where AI software will be able to profit from interactions with humans and increase its knowledge base according to its experiences.

Several major players in the business world have already jumped onto the band-waggon of excitement surrounding IVAs and their ability to revolutionize online CRM. The French arm of eBay, www.ebay.fr, integrated Louise, an IVA made by European leaders VirtuOz, onto their site in 2007 in a bid to reduce the high volume of emails and calls received by their call centers. After only 2 months the volume of emails received by eBay.fr's customer service department diminished significantly, while email qualification was increased, allowing the existing CS systems to experience a sharp increase in productivity. Communications giant Neuf-AOL, also in France, economizes 1 phone call per customer per year with their IVA, named Chloé.

IVAs and the future

Contrary to public belief, the roots of the technology were planted several years ago. Simple keyword based agents such as Colloquis' Encarta on MSN Messenger and Ikea's agent by Artificial Solutions provided a broad technological base from which more flexible and powerful agents have stemmed. Having already developed the predictive dimension now associated with agents, European leaders in artificial intelligence, VirtuOz, are currently in the process of developing voice recognition for their IVAs, which will add yet another dimension to online customer support. The popularity of agents is ever growing amongst brand companies who are looking to revolutionize their online approach to CRM and profit from rapid ROI. Customers can already access agents across a wide range of channels, and when IVAs become even more accessible over mobile media channels (PDAs, cell phones), agents will surely be commonplace not only for business CRM strategies across the web, but for personal use also. IVAs will give users even greater and easier access to information than currently is the case.

Burning Man Cat Video

Trip N' Burn — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 15:23:24 +0000

A random Burning Man Cat Video - I love Sphynx cats...

Here's another fun mini video of Sphynx Cat in a Burning Man Event Nudist Resort -
This mini video found on YouTube, shows a cat - with a hat...

Trip N' Burn presents : Video by Boosweetpea ©

It seems that since the Austin Powers Film -
Sphynx cats Rock and Roll and - - - Burning Man, Ye Baby !

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Akses Internet Broadband Lewat Telepon Umum Koin

ivn — Thu, 21 Feb 2008 04:56:11 +0000

Detik-Jakarta - Telkom membuat inovasi baru. Selain untuk layanan dasar percakapan suara, telepon umum koinnya kini bisa digunakan untuk mengakses Internet dengan kecepatan tinggi (broadband).

EGM Telkom Sumatra, Muhammad Awaluddin menjelaskan, layanan tersebut hadir berkat penyatuan terminal telepon umum koin dengan modem broadband Internet Speedy.

Sebagai tahap awal, satu unit telepon umum koin broadband berhasil dibangun dan mulai dioperasikan di Medan, Sumatera Utara. Awaluddin mengaku baru saja menggelar soft launch layanan tersebut.

"Bila proyek ini berhasil, tidak menutup kemungkinan upaya ini akan terus diperluas hingga seluruh Sumatera," ujarnya pada detikINET, Kamis (21/2/2008), melalui surat elektronik.

Saat ini jumlah telepon umum Telkom telah mencapai 3.543 sambungan di Sumatera. Layanan tersebut diklaim masih memberikan kontribusi pendapatan yang tinggi meski dirasa telah kalah pamor dibandingkan telepon seluler dan telepon tetap nirkabel.

Masih Gratis

Namun satu hal. Telkom dalam menggelar telepon umum broadband ternyata hanya menyediakan titik aksesnya saja. Sehingga, Internet baru bisa diakses melalui perangkat komputasi bawaan sendiri, semisal laptop atau ponsel pintar. Akses yang tersedia bisa melalui kabel (dengan konektor RJ 45) atau lewat nirkabel Hotspot.

Selama tahap uji coba, mengakses Internet di booth telepon umum broadband masih gratis. Namun setelah tiga bulan, layanan tersebut tak lagi cuma-cuma. Pelanggan harus membayar aksesnya dengan menggunakan kartu iVAS, yaitu alat bayar micropayment keluaran Telkom untuk berbagai jenis layanan internet yang ditawarkannya.

"Inovasi semacam ini akan menjadi ikon untuk mendukung visi besar Divisi Regional I Telkom yang ingin menjadikan Sumatera sebagai pulau digital dengan cara mempermudah masyarakat dalam hal mengakses internet," Awaluddin menandaskan. (detik.com)

The future looks bright

jayfcf — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:32:26 +0000

Ok so we have experienced the "Credit Crunch" and seen many Lenders and Finance Professionals hang up their gloves to the "oh so great" world of Bad Credit History Loans.

Truth of the matter is things are starting to look up.

Bad Credit History Loans

Advantages of an IVA

agorton11 — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 15:07:22 +0000

Avoid Bankruptcy And Discover The Advantages Of An IVA

At the moment, the UK is in debt more than has ever been known before. Mortgages, secured loans, unsecured loans and credit card debts total to billions of pounds and the overall debt is increasing by a whopping £1 million every four minutes, as of July 2007. With this in mind, it is no wonder that individuals are finding it harder and harder to cope with their own personal debts and are failing to keep up repayments. However, there is far more than their individual credit ratings at stake today. They face the very real threat of bankruptcy. Or at least they would do if there were no other viable solution. This is where the IVA comes in.

The Individual Voluntary Agreement, or IVA, is an arrangement that individuals put into place with the consent of their creditors in order to get rid of their debt within a fixed period of time. It can help them to get back on the straight and narrow where their finances are concerned. However, there are some conditions that may affect whether or not the IVA is actually put into place. Firstly, an individual would have to qualify. They would have to have debts totalling greater than £15,000 that are also more than their individual annual income, and they would also be unable to keep up with their monthly repayments. When the initial proposal is made, 75% of the creditors involved in the overall debt would have to agree to the IVA proposal in order for it to come into force and automatically and legally bind all of them to the agreement.

If you are considering an IVA as a viable debt solution then there are several advantages that may actually enable you to make up your mind one way or another as to whether you would like to set the process in motion:

Your debt can be reduced by up to 75% - The whole point of an IVA is that you cannot repay your debt and so have to come to an arrangement with your creditors. As a result, your debt could be drastically reduced to a level at which you can afford to make repayments. Depending on your finances and your circumstances, you could actually have your debts reduce by up to 75%, but this is obviously subject to approval.
You only have one fixed monthly payment to deal with – Instead of paying several creditors at different times of the month you simply have to manage one repayment, which is a fixed amount. There is never any variance of how much you repay and this can help you to manage your finances effectively and prepare for life after debt.
The repayment schedule is based around what you can afford – There are no inflated payments with an IVA because the final settlement amount is based around what you can afford. You set the repayment level based on your proposal so that you do not have to struggle or live on the breadline for the duration of your IVA.
Your debt will be gone in five years – Most IVAs last three to five years, depending on the level of your debt, after which the remainder of your debt will be wiped out. You therefore only have to stay in debt for the period of the IVA before starting afresh!
Interest and charges stop – As soon as your IVA is put into place, all charges and interest stops. Your debt is frozen and you finally have a running total to pay off. Your debt reduces rather than increases and this can give you peace of mind that everything is in hand.

As you can see, the advantages of an IVA are great and may well prove to be a far better alternative for many than bankruptcy. You can manage your debt effectively and work towards that debt free day that may indeed prove to be a little chink of light at the end of the tunnel.

Pity to the powerful

jonathanlangley — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:00:29 +0000

It’s not fair. It is also not right. Right now I am stamping my foot, shouting “no, no, no!” and pouting, so you know I’m serious. I’m expressing my intense, yet mature exasperation at the deep injustices facing a few people in last week’s news. And no, I’m not talking about starving Africans, those imprisoned without trial or victims of violence. Those people are the voiceless. They have Bono. But what about the rich, the powerful and the obscenely privileged? Who will speak out for them? They are the ones I want to talk about. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you: people you might find it hard to feel sorry for.

The first of the waifs and strays selling matches in the merciless blizzard of international news are Barclays Bank. Barclays (and, to be fair, the other high street banks too) sought our pity last week because more and more people are opting for Individual Voluntary Arrangements (IVAs). IVAs are agreements that enable people with massive debts they cannot repay to have part of their debt written off in exchange for regular repayments. Banks have accused private debt advice firms of encouraging people to go down the IVA road just to secure commissions for themselves. What? Companies profiting off the misery of unsustainable debt? Surely banks have the right to defend their monopoly? I know you may find it hard to side with an industry that is once again boasting of record profits (Barclays alone unveiled £5.2Bn profits last month) and has recently faced criticism from the Office of Fair Trading for overcharging customers. But try.

Try also to feel sorry for that nice David Cameron, leader of the Conservative party, baby-kisser, hoodie-hugger and cyclist without portfolio (it’s in the car behind him). Yes, I know he is ahead in the polls. But pity him. Because last week a dastardly Labour MP put a video on the YouTube website that aimed, hard as it is to believe, to mock the Tory leader’s attempts at being “down with the kids”. The rather amusing spoof was removed from the site (though copies are easily found through searching YouTube for “Sion Simon” I hear), but don’t feel sorry for YouTube, fans of political satire or even the unfortunate Labour MP who has caught it in the neck for being funny. Think of David, his thin skin and hurt feelings.

Think also of Walmart (the struggling little company that owns Asda and almost everything else in the world) as it has to pay $78 million to employees who were lazy and greedy enough to expect not to be pressured into giving up lunches and breaks guaranteed by law. Think of Kim Jung Il, too, as crushing sanctions against his nation cut off supplies of essentials like lobster, French wine, jet-skis and caviar to his administration in North Korea. Think also of George W Bush, as he tries to deal with a country that not only has nuclear capabilities but may be willing to go against UN wishes and attack other nations. It must be hard to deal with a concept that foreign.

But most of all, pity Christians in our country who may soon face outrageous discrimination concerning the expression of our faith, as experienced by a British Airways worker who was forbidden from wearing a cross with her uniform last week. Pity especially those Christians who thought Muslim women were making a lot of fuss about nothing concerning a supply teacher forbidden to wear the veil last week. Yes, irony can be harsh.