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Re: Glisha Yashira (fwd)



Roman Shterenzon <roman@xpert.com> writes:

> From: Roman Shterenzon <roman@xpert.com>
> 
> From: Direct Banking Department <ieshira@bll.co.il>
> To: Roman Shterenzon <roman@xpert.com>
> Subject: Re: Glisha Yashira
> 
> Dear Roman.
> 
> I'm sorry but our service (Glisha-Yeshira) support only Windows OS. 
> 
> 
> >Hello,
> >I've a question regarding the "Direct Browsing" - "Glisha Yashira".
> >I'm using Linux/x86 at home and Solaris/sparc at work, therefor I'm only
> >interested in this deal if there's support for one or both of this
> >systems. I could't find an answer to this question on the bank leumi site.
> >Looking forward to hearing from you,
> >
> >--Roman Shterenzon, System Administrator
> >[ Xpert UNIX Systems, Bnei-Brak, Israel. Tel: +972-3-6181118 ]
> 
> You may find it interesting, you may even sign a petition ;)
> 

First of all let's figure out what service we are talking about.
Brilliant minds at BLL came up with two distinct services: "gisha
yashira" for on-line banking via a proprietary program, and "gLisha
yashira" for on-line account information via a Web browser and
(surprise!) a proprietary applet/plug-in/protocol/you_name_it, which,
of course, exists for Windows only.

I had an EXTREMELY BAD experience with the "gisha yashira" group:
their program SUCKS: for example, it REQUIRES Windows95 with Hebrew
support. Despite the fact, that it is actually able to work in English
mode, it won't work on a non-Hebrew Windows. The technical group's
attie was extremely arrogant: when I called them and complained about
that "feature" (I had W95 regular), their response was basically
"sorry, it's your problem". When I tried to make a suggestion (and I
do have some experience in Windows programming), they basically told
me they didn't care and they weren't going to introduce any changes in
that particular area.

Aside from that issue, the program itself looks extremely clumsy and
makes a strong impression that it is created by someone with an
experience at the level of a "Windows programming for dummies" book
and absolute lack of taste and design skills.

Finally, the program doesn't allow exporting data in any sane
financial data format - don't even expect to read its output using
Quicken or MS Money.

I tried to get my hands on the protocol they use, but their response
was something like "No. It's not confidential, but we don't give it
away." All my arguments, that this would create more clientele for
THEM were in vain. BTW, somebody on this list mentioned his
acquaintance with some person in the BLL GY group and told he'd ask
about the protocol. Any news? ;-)

Instead of writing a petition to make them write a program for UNIX,
I'd rather suggest pressing them (with a petition or by other means)
to disclose the protocol. In this case chances would be much higher
that we'll see the Linux version soon. Besides, according to my
experience with the Windows version, you don't want them to write a
program for Linux. Imagine a program that would require a very special
distribution or a version of a kernel, or a RAID driver to work. :-)))


-- 
Alexander L. Belikoff
Bloomberg L.P. / BFM Financial Research Ltd.
abel@vallinor4.com, abel@bfr.co.il