About This Web Site
Oh, you didn't know?
The Bet Is Better Web Site is the official web page of Kvutzah Bet. Started in 1996, we have been working to bring you the best possible web site your money can buy. Our email list is the most current and most accurate one available, and our Profiles section keeps track of everyone.
The full history of how this web page came to be:
| September 1996 | Paul Feinstein comes up with the term "Bet Is Better" during the first week we were in Karmiel (exactly one week into the program, but not before two people had already been deported). It wasn't exactly a name for a web site at the time, but more of a general statement that everybody could pretty much agree upon. |
| December 1996 | Ian Isanberg comes up with the idea of having a Kvutzah Bet web page. At the time, we had been kicked out of the absorbtion center in Karmiel and were crammed into Beit Riklis for winter break (before the evil Dalled people had moved out and we would be allowed to get our regular rooms). There were four computers in Beit Riklis, but only one phone line, as per Year Course Official Rule Number 4. The color for the background of the original page was chosen at random by Jonathan Weiss, who managed to weasel his way into the project by claiming that "HTML was really easy to learn". |
| January 1997 | Jonathan Weiss somehow managed to get the permission of the education director (the same person responsible for the questionable Beit Riklis computer policies, so while he has our gratitude his name will not appear on this web site) to use his scanner. So BIB had pictures, despite the fact that Jonathan Weiss had not brought a camera to Israel and Ian Isanberg had spent several months taking pictures before noticing that his camera required film. At the same time, we did not want to have to pay to use Comp-U-Serve, the chosen Internet diety of the same educational director, so we did all of our uploading from Strudel, the only Internet wine bar in Jerusalem. At the same time, the Beit Riklis Newsletter, the archives of which would later be featured as part of BIB, was also started. |
| March(?) 1997 | Ian Isanberg and Jonathan Weiss are interviewed for an article describing their web site. The article fails to mention the web site's address, so no one ever sees it. |
| May 1997 | By now the web site had become too big to fit on one floppy disk so the contents of the site were kept on one of the computers in the Beit Riklis computer lab. Unfortunately, this was the computer that decided to break, at which point a computer "expert" (and we use the term loosely) decided that the best way to fix the problem would be to wipe out the hard drive completely. Several weeks of work was lost because we had been planning to upload the new files "soon". (Note: Jonathan Weiss also lost two of his final papers under the same "soon" policy.) |
| September 1997 | Jonathan Weiss, too cheap to buy web space, moves BIB onto the Rutgers CS undergraduate server. They only give him 5 megabytes of space, so he has to petition for more space (which he eventually gets). The old black-on-blue web page is changed to blue-on-black, and most of the web site content is changed. |
| February 1998 | The Society to Rescue Jason Comrov Webring is formed. BIB joins the webring, even though Jason was not on Bet. |
| August 1999 | Ian Isanberg gets his own web space, ian-ian.com. For legal reasons, he is forbidden to reveal what his site's counter is for. Official BIB email is sent to this new site. |
| January 2000 | Jonathan Weiss goes back to Rutgers and decides to reopen the site under the name "Bet Is Better 2000", 2000 being the number of times that he has asked people to send in their Year Course pictures. Most of the jokes are the same, although the Profiles section is mysteriously absent. He is still envious of Ian's fancy private domain, but he is broke. |
| October 2000 | Beth turns 23. The world fails to end, despite rumors to the contrary. |
| January 2001 | After several undocumented blackmail incidents, BIB has about 200 pictures from Israel, more than any other Year Course web site, with more to be scanned. Pictures from Ronit's birthday party have yet to be donated. |
| May 2001 | Resurrection of the Profiles section begins. While the actual profiles have yet to appear, an updated list of where people are is present. |
For more information about our web page, please consult our frequently asked questions page, or feel free to contact us.
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Click here to email your comments.Click here to email Tino Martinez. |