The world is a noisy place – certainly noisier than it was just a few years ago, according to experts in the area. Cars, trains, planes, and the constant whirr of air-conditioners, fans, computers, and the myriad noise-making gadgets that we all have today, from iPods to TV sets, are the culprits – as is the shouting we have to do to make ourselves heard over the noise!

All that noise – that unwanted sound we’re all forced to tolerate – is probably unhealthy for us, doctors say. But even it it weren’t, noise is – well, noisy. And noisy gets annoying very fast. Noise interferes with your train of thought, your sleep, your ability to hold a conversation on the phone, and with many other day to day tasks.

Worst of all though, as far as the business world is concerned, excess noise is a real drag on business productivity, as attendees of audio and video conferences will attest, as they strain to hear what the person on the other side of the microphone is saying. As a result, a major industry has sprung up in recent years, aimed at curbing the worst excesses of noise interference – and many of the latest developments in the field are on display this week in Tel Aviv, at the 12th International Workshop on Acoustic Echo and Noise Control (IWAENC). Taking place every two years since 1989, when the first one was held in Berlin, IWAENC has become the place to be for researchers dealing with all aspects of acoustic signal enhancement and noise suppression.

And the fact that the show is taking place in Israel is a sign of how advanced Israel is in research and development in the area, says Professor Sharon Gannot, Bar-Ilan University’s premier researcher in the area of noise control, and chairman of the conference, along with Professor Israel Cohen of the Technion. “IWAENC is the premier event for noise control research and is attended by researchers from countries around the world – and they only choose countries that have a lot to offer in the field. And Israel has been one of the greatest contributors to knowledge in noise control,” he said. Those ideas have already been put to good use by Israeli startups in this growing field, and the exciting developments that will be unveiled at this year’s conference will no doubt follow the same pattern, he says.

The program schedule for IWAENC (being held at the Sheraton Tel Aviv, and organized by Israeli convention producers Ortra), seems about as theoretic/academic (dare I say “geeky?”) as you can get, featuring lectures and workshops with titles like “De-Noising of Acoustic Breathing Signals” and “Complementary N-Band IIR Filterbank Based on 2-Band Complementary Filters.” But it’s just those kind of presentations, representing the cream of research in the noise control field, that leads to the commercial products that have already put several Israeli startups on the map, and will undoubtedly do so for others, says Gannot.

“Among the innovations we will be discussing will be new algorithms to remove noise from video and audio conferencing sessions, ensuring that the person who is doing the speaking is the one listeners on the other side get to hear,” says Gannot. “Besides the background office noise, conferencing is often an audio free-for-all, with the loudest person the one heard on the other side.” New technology will ensure that the person who is doing the speaking – ie the speaker listeners want to hear, not the loudest one – will be the one whose is heard. Other technologies  to improve video and audio conferencing include echo-cancellation (often a problem when you are speaking directly into a microphone).

Besides conferencing, researchers will discuss improvements to devices like hearing aids. “Users of the new, sophisticated hearing aids sometimes have difficulty telling where the person they are hearing is located,” says Gannot. In a one on one conversation, visual cues would be enough to enable the listener to know who s/he’s speaking with – but in a group setting, the sensitivity of the devices sometimes prevents users from determining the origin of the desired “noise” – the conversation.  “Inserting the algorithms that do this work in a cellphone or Polycom conferencing device is relatively easy, since the improvements are software based,” says Gannot. “The trick is getting the technology right, and that requires a high level of mathematics – the more advanced the math, the more advanced the algorithms, and the greater impact of the technology.”

Israeli companies, meanwhile, have been capitalizing on the research being done at Bar Ilan (which, Gannot says, has one of the most advanced labs in the field anywhere) and in other places. Israeli startup Silentium, for example, developed several years ago a system that incorporates both passive (barriers, foam etc.) and active (electronic “anti-noise” signals) that keep all manner of electronic and industrial equipment seen, and barely heard. Silentium, is a sponsor of the conference, as is former startup (and now “big boy”) Audiocodes, which has incorporated noise control and acoustic enhancement in a whole slew of its products.

Unlike other universities, Gannot says his department does not sponsor an incubator for a commercial project stemming from the department’s research – yet. That could change someday, he says – but for now, he is satisfied helping to solve the world’s noise problems through his research. “Our mandate is to keep improving things, and we are definitely moving in the right direction,” he says.

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It’s amazing how cavalier we can be with secrets – or stuff that should be secret. Next time you’re on the bus or train, or even in an elevator, do a little eavesdropping on the folks holding conversations on their cellphones. Most of them are “throwaways,” but a couple will sound important – really important. Kind of makes you curious as to what the other side is saying, too!

Many of us tend to bandy secrets about, believing that we are the only ones who know/care what we’re talking about. But there are secrets that could be very damaging to a lot of people if they got out. Not security secrets, necessarily; we would expect the people in charge of those things to protect information our enemies would stop at nothing to acquire. Although sometimes those secrets get out, as well. During the 2006 war in Lebanon, for example, Hizbullah terrorists said that they had managed to crack IDF radio signals using Iranian technology. According to reports, Hizbullah hackers monitored IDF radio signals, and were able to penetrate communications even when the signals changed.

And there are other secrets that many of us would prefer remain secret; the kind of secrets that when they get out become the stuff the news is made of. Political parties, organizations that treat those in mental distress, lawyers, stockbrokers – all hold information that can make or break careers, families, and even whole societies. Those who hold that information do their best to keep it to themselves, at least the information on their computers and servers.

But those secret-keepers have overlooked a major security hole; they may have protected their computers, but what about their cellphones? While hacking into cellphone conversations or hijacking  SMS messages isn’t as common as other forms of data invasion, cellphone hacking is a useful way for someone to get “dirt” on their political enemies, or otherwise acquire information that can compromise the innocent and semi-innocent. In fact, it’s more than useful; cellphone hacking is an excellent way to get compromising information, since people are more likely to spill something in conversation that they might be a little more reticent to in writing. Loose lips sink ships, and all that.

Far from being a paranoid’s nightmare, this kind of thing goes on every day, says Alex Argov, CEO of Israel’s Tikal Networks. A telephony integrator, Tikal has a variety of VoIP solutions for businesses, including its unique Cryptone system, which uses end-to-end encryption to prevent hackers from invading private cellphone conversations – protecting both the data and voice parts of the conversation.

“Using our special encryption software, people on both sides of the conversation can be assured that what they say in confidence remains their affair,” Argov says. “Unlike other companies offering encryption for phone calls, we don’t install our protection on a central server or PBX, which would allow hackers to hijack the information directly from the handset,” if they had been able to install a hacking program, he says. “Our protection is installed on handsets on both sides of the conversation, and the data and voice are encrypted, sent through the network, and descrambled on the other handset.” Thus, he says, even hackers who hang around the area with scanners and other tools designed to catch   voice signals are thwarted, “because all their equipment will be able to pick up is static,” says Argov.

Developed after a request by the Italian Navy for a secure communications system, the Tikal security system uses triple DES encryption, about as strong as you can get, and effectively sets up a VPN between the two sides of the conversation, for even more security. Cryptone can encrypt all calls from either PSTN phones or cellphones, and can even encrypt video, Argov says. It’s ideal for anyone looking to keep their secrets secret, and indeed, Tikal’s web site lists a number of security organizations, financial firms – as well as political parties and social service organizations – using Tikal products, including Cryptone.

And while they’re getting their phone calls protected, most of the organizations go for some of Tikal’s other products, like the CrystalManager, a fully featured call manager, personal monitoring tool and CTI for Asterisk PBX systems, or the Crystal Call Center, which offers graphical control over call centers and other business telephony functions. Tikal even offers a solution for Israeli businesspeople working abroad – the EZCall, which intercepts phone calls being made abroad and reroutes them to a local IP phone number, and then routes then via VoIP to their destination abroad, thus saving companies big money on international phone calls. The Petach Tikvah-based company helps out not only Israelis; it has installed systems throughout Europe, the United States, Russia, and even Africa, with its latest contract for a huge telephony project along 1.300 kilometers of train track in Zambia, stretching from Victoria Falls to the South African border.

But it’s the security package that’s the star at Tikal – at least to the folks like us, who have definitely wondered about the security of their cellphone conversations. It’s nice to know that at least one company is doing to help us mind our own business!

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Paying for a modern wedding could be seen as good budgeting practice for the young couple; if they can handle the expenses of their first special day together, dealing with a mortgage and credit card bills should be a piece of cake! The cheapest thing – and most financially sensible – of course, would be to elope, or at least go for the lowest priced options out there. But often the kids don’t have the opportunity to be sensible; parents and other relatives want a nice party, and nice, as anyone who has ever made a wedding knows, doesn’t come cheap!

So what’s an engaged couple to do? Here’s one idea: Check out a new Israeli web site called Win-Win Wedding (in Hebrew only), join the site’s auction, and put in an NIS 290 bid on a wedding package worth a generous NIS 150,000!

It’s a brand new way to make a top-class wedding for very little money, says Avi Blum, one of the startup entrepreneurs who came up with the idea for the site. “It’s almost impossible for a young couple to have a decent wedding today without going deep into debt,” he says. “My partner, Ilan Braf, and I have been in the events, catering, and restaurant business for over 25 years (Avi was trained as a chef), and I believe that Win-Win Wedding is a great opportunity for young couples to be able to fulfill their dreams.”

The site is in the midst of its first auction right now; according to the site’s terms of service, no auction can continue for more than 60 days, and this one will end around Rosh Hashana (As more bidders participate, future auctions will open and close within two weeks, Blum says). Regardless of auction length, Blum says, the maximum number of bidders participating in any auction will be 1,000. When an auction is in its latter stages, participants are informed by SMS that time is running out, so they have an opportunity to check out the current price and bid higher, if they wish.

So what do the winners get? “The wedding of their dreams, from engagement ring to honeymoon,” says Blum. Winners have two options; either take the cash and spend it on products and services available on the open market, or use Win-Win Wedding’s partner catering halls, DJ’s and bands, wedding planners, etc. “We don’t force anyone to use any of the services our partners offer,” says Blum. “Winners are free to take their winnings and build their wedding their way. However, our partners offer Win-Win Wedding customers excellent deals that they are not going to get anywhere else. Not only that, but if there are any glitches with partners we recommended, we can ensure that they are resolved with minimum hassle to the couple.”

While he promises to do what he can for those who choose to go the independent route, Blum says, he can’t give the same performance guarantees for service providers he hasn’t worked with. Regardless, though, all weddings – inside or outside the Win-Win “umbrella” – are fully insured with a policy issued by the Harel insurance company (one of Israel’s largest), ensuring that winners are protected in case the catering hall they paid for closes down, the lead singer of the band they hired and paid in advance gets laryngitis, etc.

While the auction is clearly a “win” for the winners, all those participating in the bidding process win as well, Blum says. “Our partners offer coupons and discounts worth thousands of shekels to anyone who places a bid, allowing them to save the cost of their bid many times over.” The deals are far better than those the general public gets, he adds (you can see a sample of some of the discounts on the Win-Win offers page).

Future auctions will be more ambitious – and more specific. The next auction will raise the bar on wedding fanciness, offering an NIS 200,000 prize! In addition, says Blum, the site will also auction off specific services, like music, wedding dresses, and honeymoons. That one will provide winners with NIS 50,000 for travel anywhere in the world; winners book the trip, says Blum, with or without Win-Win’s help, and he foots the bill.

And don’t worry about Blum; he and his partner, Braf, are winners as well. “We award prizes from the bids placed by participants, and deduct a service fee from the auction’s proceeds,” Blum says. “In the future, we will also include ads from service providers on the site, as well as enter into marketing arrangements with outside organizations.” Eventually, the partners plan on exporting the Win-Win Wedding model to countries around the world, either by opening sites or selling franchises. “It’s the first time anyone anywhere has done something like this, and we’ve copyrighted the process, so we’re pretty confident that we will be successful abroad.” He’s got a point; candy and cake weddings don’t seem to be in vogue anywhere these days, which means that couples all over the world are faced with the same dilemma Israeli couples face– elope, or bid and win!

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But who will invest in the ultimate startups – the places where the magic begins? Those entrepreneurs have to start somewhere, and that somewhere is in school. Not just university – elementary school, too! It’s there that the future hi-tech leaders of Israel get their training, education, and motivation. And there’s no question that there’s a major payoff for the country from a successful education system.

But while the general Israeli economy benefits from good education, investors don’t get a direct payoff from the money they sink into the country’s schools. As such, most VCs and investment firms don’t see the schools as a place to invest in. At best, they may be persuaded to give an occasional donation, for good PR, if not out of conviction. But even though they are likely to benefit from an educational system that turns out skilled information workers, such investors want to see more direct payoffs for their investment shekels.

But there are those who take the longer view – companies like Rad Communications and Radware, who were once startups themselves. Now that the Rad family of companies – led by the members of the Zisapel family – are large, established, organizations, they’re taking that long view, and investing in the country’s true “startups”: Elementary schools, high schools, and universities.

“Supporting education works on both ends – both for the recipient of the help, and those providing the help,” says Roy Zisapel, CEO of Radware. “Hi-tech accounts for half of Israel’s exports, and we need to groom and encourage young minds to get involved in those areas, for all our sakes.”

As a result, says Zisapel, the company conducts a wide-ranging program where workers go into schools in local communities, both well-to-do and disadvantaged, and preach a gospel of hi-tech success, in the hopes that they will encourage youth to emulate their example and get serious about the subjects that are the building blocks of the hi-tech future – math, science, and of course, computer technology. “We are strong believers in encouraging workers who have made it to give back to society,” Zisapel says.

Radware has indeed made an impact on Israel’s cash-strapped education system, both materially and via employees’ presence in the field. Employees have worked in schools in Bat Yam, says Zisapel, providing training, guidance and inspiration to students who might otherwise have chosen a “lesser path.” In south Tel Aviv, the company runs a unique after-school program, “where we provide intensive guidance for 40 promising students who have the potential to advance, but are having a hard time getting ahead,” Zisapel says. “We provide tutors to work with these students one on one, helping them advance in math, English, and the sciences,” he adds. And that’s not the end of it, either: “We follow their educational careers, helping to keep them on top of their studies, with the result that they are able to live up to their potentials.”

Radware does what it can for more advanced levels of education as well, Zisapel says. The company runs a special program with the Technion, where it takes students with potential from northern development towns and puts them on an educational track to get into the Technion – providing them with the help they need to move from three bagrut units to the five needed to get into top Technion programs, and to score high marks. The company also provides numerous scholarships for university students, and even works with the Technion on developing startups in an incubator.

Of course, Radware isn’t the only company that puts an effort into working with schools and advancing the education of Israeli students, but it is one of the most active – and one of the most modest. There’s barely a hint of the company’s activity in education on its website, and a brief scan of the English-language internet showed almost no mention of the company’s prolific educational work. But Radware isn’t doing this for the fame and glory; the company knows where its Israeli bread is buttered. “There’s a lot of competition out there, from up and coming third world countries,” says Zisapel. “We have no choice but to remain competitive, if we intend to stay ahead.”

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A far better solution, says Rotbart, is the one his company came up with – a solution noteworthy enough for Morpho, one of the biggest makers of cellphone SIM cards, to adopt. “Our system enables anyone to have a ‘name number,’ allowing others to dial them by choosing a letter, rather than a number, combination,”says Rotbart. “What’s more, the system is virtually unlimited, allowing anyone to adopt any user name they want, with spaces or symbols between the first and last name, for example.” Even better, he says, users can have multiple names or terms ringing at the same number.

Businesses, for instance, can choose to advertise names such as “Rose Flowers”, “Handy Man”, or “Mortgage Direct” as an impossible-to-forget call- name to be easily reached by their clients. Individuals can choose call names such as “Dave Anthony” or “Cool Dave” to identify and brand themselves.And, it works on all phones, old and new (and according to Rotbart, on many of the new smart phones, like some Blackberrys and the Nokia E71, you can’t dial letters for numbers at all using current technology available – but you can make such calls on those devices using NTTM technology.

The technology behind this miracle was developed by NTTM over three long, hard years, says Rotbart. “There have been other attempts at enabling users to dial using words instead of numbers, but not have succeeded, because they took the wrong approach,” says Rotbart. “There are several methods of accomplishing this, but nearly all of them would require either phone manufacturers or service providers to adopt a new set of standards – something that is unlikely to happen anytime soon. All these methods worked in the lab, but in the field, it was a different story.”

Nearly all methods – except for the one NTTM has adopted, which has proven to be a smashing success. Instead of attempting to install translation panels for letters to numbers on phones or at the switching office of service providers, NTTM places the technology for translation on the SIM card itself. Currently, the technology is available for GSM networks, and by the end of the year, says Rotbart, it will be available for CDMA networks as well.

This approach has several significant advantages, says Rotbart. “Installing this technology on a flexible SIM card is much easier than setting it up on hardware, whether network or cellphone. In addition, the number of SIM card manufacturers is much smaller than the number of service providers,” he says, meaning that it was easier to make arrangements with their limited numbers, as opposed to the plethora of phone companies.

And the SIM card makers are interested – so much so that NTTM has already signed its first deal with one of the biggest makers of SIM cards, Morpho (Safran group), which makes about a million of the things every day. As a result of its deal with NTTM, Morpho will be loading the SIM card up with a program that will enable the sophisticated translation that NTTM has developed to become available to hundreds of millions of people around the world.

Commenting on the deal, Rotbart said that “the adoption of our technology by SIM manufactures will make it a de-facto industry standard. Mobile operators will benefit from a ‘plug and play’  solution requiring no investment in either network modification or mobile handset replacement. This will spearhead the global adoption of call names, and the business revenue that goes with it.”

The company has a major research center in Israel, and has smaller facilities in Russia and the United Kingdom. Until now, the company been funded until now by a series of private investors, but as a result of the Morpho deal (and possible other ones now in the pipeline) it’s likely that NTTM will actually make a profit at the end of the year. That sounds good to Rotbart. “We’re proud to have developed an important product that no one else was able to do just right, despite their attempts,” he says. “Finally, anyone can ‘brand’ themselves any way they want, using names or terms that make it easy for others to recognize and remember just whom they are calling.”

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But in recent years, Spring in Israel has been about more than inspirational weather; it’s been an inspirational time for anyone who appreciates Israel’s contributions to making the world a more interesting, more efficient, more healthy – and more fun – place. Two recent exhibitions portrayed Israel’s great contributions to making the world a better place – and the progress yet to come.

First on the agenda was the High-Tech Industry Association (formerly the Israel Ventures Association) Conference, held in Jerusalem in early June. The annual conference (first held in 2007) brings together heads of Israeli tech firms, venture capitalists, bankers, investors, and (for now) small companies seeking funding for their “big idea.” Sessions deal with marketing strategy, technology trends, and, of course, financing and investment issues. And this year, there were special sessions dedicated to expanding Israel’s hi-tech reach to partners in India and China, with special sessions held specifically for delegations from those countries.

Represented at the conference are all the major players in Israeli hi-tech – venture capital firms (Carmel, Gemini, Genesis, JVP, and many others.), top corporations (IBM, Microsoft – both sponsors – as well as Nice, ECI, Checkpoint, and others), along with startups that have “made it” – LiveU, PageOnce, Axxana, and others (many of which I have written about – clearly there’s a connection here!). The conference is just what you’d expect; a little geeky (it was at a presentation by Amdocs that I heard an exposition of the “Terra Play” – more about that next week), a little glamorous (there were some very big “big shots” there), but mostly lots of fun. And educational!

Not to take away anything from the HTIA, but the follow-up show about a week after the Jerusalem conference – the Israel Life Sciences Industry BioMed show – is in a class unto itself. Said to be the largest medical industry trade and technology show outside the United States, BioMed in Tel Aviv attracted thousands of visitors (some 7,000, according to show organizers), with sessions discussing the latest advances in medical devices, pharmaceuticals,  biotechnology, government approval issues, patent issues, ethical issues, and much more.  According to ILSI, first 2010 quarter exports of the Israeli life sciences industry in 2010 totaled $ 1.7 billion, an increase of about 14% over Q1 2009.

Here, too, top players from Israel – and around the world – were in attendance, sponsoring events and giving presentations. At least four U.S. cities and states and half a dozen European governments were also at the event, looking to make deals with Israeli partners or venture capitalists, who were also on the scene. Israeli universities and venture capital accelerators, where many of tomorrow’s innovations are being created right now, were also well represented.  As far as companies making presentations or sponsoring booths – name a big pharma or medical device player, and they were probably there.

It’s heartwarming to see industries celebrating themselves, but I’m a bit coldhearted – I tend to shy away from the glamor and glitz. When I go to these shows, I don’t seek out the “fat cats,” who can afford fully-staffed PR agencies and inundate you with press releases; I’m interested in the sleek, skinny “alley cats” – the outsiders looking in, the ones who struggle for a piece of the pie, trying to sell themselves to an angel. Companies with a great idea, but without the connections – the ones who, with a little luck, could become the big players at next year’s conferences. That’s the kind of story you buy a newspaper for!

Those are the kinds of companies I sought out at both conferences, and fortunately for me, the organizers made it easy, with the newest startups occupying areas on the fringes of the shows. Naturally, the snacks weren’t as good in these outlying areas, but that’s to be expected, I suppose. But what they lacked in materialism – lacking the “good” chocolate croissants, as well as major funding – they made up for in spunk, gumption and moxie, presenting the ideas and products that may become tomorrow’s must-have technology.

Ideas like these: a product that takes even lo-res cellphone camera pictures and turns them into high-resolution, high-definition beauties (HTIA); a cellphone app that lets you get personalized coupons and offers, and lets you connect with other users, when you walk into a store or a mall (HTIA);  a matchmaker service that lets startups easily find angels and VC’s interested in investing with them (HTIA); a product that will keep track of every piece of equipment in a huge hospital complex, so that a stretcher, bed, or defibrillator can always be found when it’s needed (BioMed); a device to treat wounds using ultrasound (BioMed); and a revolutionary and inexpensive device that promises to put laser dental technology in the hands of every dentists – with the device 15 times more accurate than those already on the market (BioMed). It’s appropriate these two conferences are in the Spring, the season of hope; considering the innovations presented by these and many other companies at the shows, Israeli hi-tech and life sciences has a lot to be hopeful about!

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Fortunately, most of the pages that were hacked were front pages for businesses, organizations, etc. – nothing that couldn’t be fixed without a little effort by web programmers. But what if the sites that were attacked weren’t just front pages – but e-commerce sites, databases, government or corporate sites with sensitive information? As experience has shown us, even the most secure sites aren’t always so secure; couldn’t a dedicated group of hackers pooling their resources cause a major problem for the Israeli economy, at least temporarily? What if they made a major effort to bring down a major banking site, a government database, or the Bank of Israel? I think it would be safe to assume that some of the more sophisticated anti-Israel hackers out there are working just such a plan.

And unfortunately, the models of security used by most sites – even the most secure ones – lend themselves to hacking, says Ittai Weissberg, founder and CEO of Israel’s Otenti. “Most authentication for secure websites is not dynamic, but static, meaning that the user must identify him or herself when challenged by a server using a password or token (such as a smartcard). While there may be several security layers that try to ensure the authenticity of the response, passwords and smartcards are not changed all that often, so hackers have time to work on cracking them. Even the most sophisticated security systems are, in essence, sitting ducks,” Weissberg says.

Otenti’s Access product is one of the most advanced implementations of “out-of-band” authentication – a system that presents the challenge and accepts the response on a medium other than the object of authentication. For example, subscribers of several Israeli cellphone companies, like Orange, use out-of-band authentication when they want to retrieve their account statements. You get an e-mail telling you your bill is ready; you click on the link and log onto the company’s secure server. Then you are sent an SMS with a secret code you are supposed to type on the site, and you can then download your bill. It’s a lot more secure than “in-band” authentication, where all challenge and authentication is done using the same channel.

But why stop at SMS messages, asks Weissberg. “What the cellphone companies do is fine, but they, of course, make use of their own phones to do the authentication. While that makes sense for them, it doesn’t always make sense for many other sites. Sites not associated with cellphone service providers can’t be sure that users have phones they can use to send their messages out on, or that users even have cellphones at all. Other sites and organizations use things like smartcards, USB tokens, etc. But all those things can be lost, stolen, or even hacked as well.” Once again, the time factor comes into play; the more time hackers have to work on an authentication system, the more likely they are to figure out a way to hack it, regardless of how secure it is. And if you need to authenticate yourself at more than two or three sites, you need to either carry multiple cards and tokens, or remember all sorts of complicated passwords. Other organizations use biometrics for authentication, but even biometrics isn’t foolproof, as fans of many TV spy shows are probably aware.

Far better, says Weissberg, to use Otenti’s authentication system, which makes it far more difficult for hackers to get hold of the data they can use to invade secure systems. Instead of using specific objects as authentication devices, Otenti’s system uses just about anything – any device, hardware or software, that you can communicate with – to send temporary out-of-band authentication codes. Hackers who want to invade a system using an individual’s account have to figure out what device the user has chosen for this round of authentication.

Will customers use the web, cellphone, landline, Facebook account, or plain old PC for authentication? While hackers have they ability to tap into any of these devices, it’s a lot of work – too much for even a sophisticated hacker team to handle. Unless they’re willing to dedicate all their resources to hacking into all these devices all the time, performing analyses on all the data going through all the pipes – and are able to analyze the information and figure out the security codes in a matter of seconds, and use them to invade the system during the short window that the authentication process is active – they will not be able to find their way into the sensitive security sites they seek to crash or compromise. “While I can’t say that it’s impossible that a site won’t get hacked using Otenti security, it’s safe to say that such an outcome would be virtually impossible,” says Weissberg.

Otenti’s system is currently installed in several Israeli medical centers, and on a major government website and database – and the company is set for a major campaign to promote its products both here and abroad in the coming months. One attractive feature of Otenti is its low cost, says Weissberg – since there is no hardware purchase involved (several of the biggest security companies providing authentication make most of their money from hardware, smartcards, etc., Weissberg says), the costs are low – “for organizations of 5 to 5 million,” he says. “Otenti’s solution is also perfect for the cloud, enabling users to securely access their data on servers on remote servers,” says Weissberg. “Wherever you are, what ever you do, you can be confident that your identity can be verified safely and securely.” With Otenti, the anti-Israel crowd will have one less way to attack us.

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For those who like a divergence of opinion, the internet is heaven. But for the easily swayed – or those lacking decision-making skills – life has gotten harder. There’s more noise than ever, and making sense out of all the ideas and opinions is almost a full-time job. It’s bad enough when you’re trying to figure out, say, the news. But if you’ve got money riding on figuring out those opinions, it’s enough to drive you crazy!

Here are some facts and figures, courtesy of Gadi Shvadron, co-founder of Bulloonz: Each year, 20 million Americans trade stocks on-line, and 10 million actively post “authoritative” information on trading – in the form of news and opinion articles, blog posts, or “open comments” (many of which are often barely-disguised ads pushing potential customers to purchase often-dubious “products”). In all, there may be as many as 70 million opinions for traders to choose from – traders who have real money riding on that advice!

“Our slogan at Bulloonz is creating order out of chaos, and that’s exactly what our technology does for people who follow stocks online,” says Shvadron. “Today, there are great tools for users who want to trade on-line, but there is no way for them to get reliable advice on what to invest in – especially if they’re casual traders, and not day traders who are totally immersed in the markets. With Bulloonz technology, they’ll be able to get a broad picture of the sentiment surrounding the market as a whole, as well as of specific stocks,” he says.

As everyone knows in this post-bubble world, investing is often more about “sentiment” – the opinions, ideas, feelings, emotions, and other not-necessarily logic-based features of the human psyche – than it is about the “fundamentals.” Whose opinion do you rely upon when you “play the market?” Is it the person who posts longest and loudest at the forums on Yahoo Finance? The talking heads on Bloomberg or CNN/FN? The bulls? The bears? The contrarians? The gold bugs?

Obviously, the answer is – must be – none of the above, at least exclusively. But then what is the answer? Until now, there hasn’t been one – you picked an opinion (or formed one on your own, using your limited resources), you took your chances, and you paid your money. But with the technology developed by the Bulloonz team – which includes computer, finance, and text analytics experts – consumers need no longer choose investment opinions by throwing darts (as good a system as any, in the pre-Bulloonz world).

Instead of presenting you with a single stream of opinion, a website equipped with Bulloonz will parse through the gamut of web opinion (from the experts and the hoi polloi), and present you with easy to understand and handle results. Depending on the site and the way the technology is used, Bulloonz could, for example, present users with a “sentiment rating” – a number that would “grade” the positive or negative sentiment on a stock, based on what the rest of the world thinks of it. The technology could also be used to differentiate between sentiments – listing the chief positive, negative, or indifferent opinions, allowing users to follow the leading lights professing that sentiment, and enabling them to discover opinion makers they may not have been aware of. Or, it can help them get expert or average investor thoughts on how specific news stories will affect industries or specific stocks.

Shvadron stresses that Bulloonz does not presume to be a predictive tool, but an informational one. “Consumers are in the final analysis responsible for what they do with their money,” he says. “Our role is to make sure they have an opportunity to get the information they need to make educated decisions. Sentiment and psychology are such an important part of investing, but until Bulloonz there has been no rational way to get a handle on it,” Shvadron says. “We allow users to sort through the noise and discover the information they need to help them make better investment decisions.” Thanks to the development of powerful algorithms, large databases, and superior search and sort tools, it is now possible to parse through huge amounts of opinion and translate it into quantifiable or otherwise manipulable sentiment, turning it into a tool for investors to deploy when deciding how, where, and even if to invest, he says.

This isn’t exactly the “wisdom of crowds,” but a different approach to handling mass amounts of data, Shvadron says. “We don’t restrict our search and analysis algorithms to experts or specific types of opinions. We’re interested in what everyone has to say about a stock or the market in general, because if enough people are saying it, they are influencing the psychology of the market and creating sentiment.” It makes sense, too; if investor sentiment on a stock is too negative – even if that sentiment is based on inaccuracies – that negativity cannot help but affect the bottom line, the price of the stock.

It also works the other way around, Shvadron says. “In recent days, for example, we’ve seen a lot of negative opinion about stocks in general, but we see many specific stocks continuing to do well – and the ‘buzz’ about those stocks is generally positive.” Without Bulloonz to help investors out, that positive sentiment would probably have gotten lost in reams of opinion out there, accessibly only to the most dedicated online investors – if, indeed, even they could have “heard through the noise.” With Bulloonz, accessing that positive sentiment – now turned into another tool for investors to use before deciding where to park their money – is as easy as clicking on a few buttons.

Shvadron and his partner Omri Braun set up Bullloonz about a year and a half ago, and the company – which has 16 employees, soon to increase to 25, says Shvadron – is set to deploy its technology on several financial web sites in the coming months, after bringing in Orey Gilliam, formerly head of AOL Messaging and CEO of ICQ, as Bulloonz CEO. And don’t worry about that name – Shvadron says it’s set to change in the coming months. The name Bulloonz has nothing to do with the circus or birthday parties, he adds; “When we first started the company, we wanted something that would evoke stock market bullishness.” But considering how online investors – who for years have been stabbing in the dark when it came to understanding sentiment – will benefit from the technology, any name would probably be just fine!

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Or, in our case, someone who can sell to cellphone service providers a system that allows – get this – customers to offload their expensive cellphone call to their much cheaper voice over-IP systems! It’s either a fantastic product, or Ehud Sharar, CEO of Focus Telecom, is one fantastic salesman.

Actually, it’s a combination (although Sharar is too modest to take too much credit). “We sell IP services to a number of cellphone and landline phone companies, including Bezeq, Cellcom, and others,” says Sharar. “Of course, if communications companies had their way, everyone in the world would use their product alone, but in today’s world companies and individuals usually have a combination of services to meet their communications needs. There’s an added value for any communications company to act not only as a provider, but an integrator, since they can continue to increase and grow their relationship with customers.”

That dictum applies to any number of services in our increasingly integrated world, but Sharar’s company is the first to bring that integration to the cellphone and VoIP worlds. Focus Telecom’s Mobi2Save application lets users offload their contacts to their VoIP phone automatically, and integrates it into their VoIP application, enabling them to save up to 70% on their phone bill, since they can make calls using their cheaper VoIP service.

Of course, nobody’s forcing anyone to make expensive cellphone calls instead of cheaper VoIP calls; all you have to do is open your VoIP interface and start dialing. But, says Sharar, few bother. “Nowadays, most people keep their contacts in their cellphones, and they’ve gotten used to the idea of making calls directly from their cellphones by clicking on a name or pressing a button. They would rather spend more money for the expensive cellphone call even when they’re at home or in their office next to their computer or landline phone, instead of looking up the number in their contacts directory and typing that number into their VoIP phone or punching it out on their landline phone. It’s just easier that way,” he says.

And while, for many readers, the term “lazy” comes to mind (“foolish,” “wasteful,” and other choice adjectives may pop up as well), I can relate; life is so busy today, many people really can’t spare (or at least think they can’t spare) the ten seconds needed to search for the contact and dial the number manually. And so was born Mobi2Save – a seemingly simple application that automatically syncs between your cellphone and your computer, ensuring that you have one-touch access to all your contacts from your VoIP dialer. The syncing is done automatically via a central server, so there’s absolutely no extra work involved.

It sounds like something someone would have thought of long ago, but, Sharar says, as far as he knows, Mobi2Save is the only completely automated cellphone-VoIP syncing system around. To make things even easier, especially for corporate customers, who are moving in droves these days to VoIP, Sharar suggests outfitting the organization with SNOM VoIP phones (Focus Telecom is the authorized Israel representative for the German makers of the phones). “It’s an ideal combination,” says Sharar, because even the configuration is done by the Focus Telecom back office, as the phones are already programmed to sync with the Mobi2Save servers; all users have to do is install the syncing app on their cellphones. And the cost of the syncing is included in the service provided by Focus Telecom for SNOM system customers (Sharar says the syncing service will be available to anyone in the coming months, and will cost between NIS 5-10 in Israel and its equivalent overseas). Bottom line: With absolutely no extra work on your part, you can find yourself paying ten agurot for a phone call that would have cost you 40 agurot on your cellphone!

While Mobi2Save is new (it was invented in Israel by Assaf Dahari; Focus Telecom has worldwide licensing rights), the Caesaria-based company itself has been around since 1995, and has been best known for providing atomic clocks for synchronization in telecoms, where 100% synchronization is essential for ensuring the integrity of data moving along data and voice networks. So, adding synchronization for the end-user is right up the company’s alley.

And as mentioned, Bezeq, along with Israel’s cellphone service providers, are working with Focus Telecom, integrating its IP phone systems with other communications solutions – and that integration will continue with the Mobi2Save product as well. Even though a company like Orange, for example (another Focus Telecom customer) gets less money per call if a customer uses its VoIP service as opposed to its cellphone service, they’re at least getting something out of the deal, says Sharar; and the fact that the user is still an Orange customer, and that the company doesn’t have to go out and recruit him/her from another service provider, is a big boon for the company right there.

And cellphone and landline providers do like the product, says Sharar. “We got a lot of positive attention at the recent CeBIT show in Hanover, and we expect to be working with many partners on this. It gives a big added-value to IP telephony, making it more attractive and convenient,” he adds. With Mobi2Save, even the very busy (not to mention the lazy) can start saving money on their phone calls!

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