Google +1 vs. Facebook
Of course, there are countlessly-many such comparisons on the web. What I’ll say will be very brief:
Google +1 requires that your profile is public whereas what you share on Facebook can only be seen by whom you authorized to see !!!!
That’s why I never used Google Buzz, and that’s why I will never use Google +1
My New Book: Efficient Cryptography for the Next Generation Secure Cloud
The book is very recently published and now available for purchase at
Even if you do not end up buying, please have a look, and spread the word.
Title: Efficient Cryptography for the Next Generation Secure Cloud
Author: Alptekin Küpçü
ISBN: 978-3-8433-6576-5
Grupanya
Her gün %50 indirimle değişik şeyler için kupon satışa sunuyorlar. Satın aldıktan sonra genelde 3 ay kullanma süreniz oluyor. Yani eğer 3 ay içerisinde o kuponu kullanacağınızı düşünürseniz yarı fiyatına satın alabiliyorsunuz o hizmeti. Ben denedim, gerçekten kullanımı çok kolay ve baya karlı (üye olmak için aşağıdaki linke tıklayın:)
http://www.grupanya.com/d/u-HFGIWSIFGD
Not: Groupon’un Türkiye versiyonu.
METRO Turizm Otobüserine Binmeyin: KAZA
Metro Turizm (Metro Tur) otobüs şirketinin pek çok kazaya adının karıştığını hepimiz biliyoruz. Bu trafik kazalarından bir tanesini de ben kendim yaşadım. Otobüste hiçbir zarar yoktu ancak tabii çarptığı araçtakiler için hemen ambulans çağrıldı.
30 dakika sırf kaza yüzünden geciktik, sonrasında da 1 saat servise binmek için bekletildik: Neden? Çünkü bizim otobüsümüzün kaza yaptığı ve gecikeceği bilindiği halde servisleri birkaç dakika olsun bekletmemişler! En fazla 2-3 dakika ile kaçmış servisler.
Ayrıca seyir halindeyken muavinlerin tavrı da çok kötü. Su istediğinizde doğal olarak bunu gören birkaç kişi daha su istiyor. Benim yanımdayken muavinin “birine su getir hemen hepsi istiyor, al başına belayı” diye söylendiğini duydum!!
Özetle, tek kişilik oturma ayrıcalığına ve koltukların konforuna kanmayın. Metro Turizm otobüslerini KULLANMAYIN.
Impressions from Greece Part 2
Let’s continue with something serious: Serial Smoking Problem. We can go into more details and conclude that economically underdeveloped countries have this problem, and seen as a perfect market for smoking industry. See “Thank You For Smoking“, it’s a very nice movie.
Another problem is that, a 500 ml bottle of water costs 50 cents, whereas diesel fuel costs 1,2 Euros and unleaded fuel costs 1,5 Euros per liter. Therefore, fuel is almost at the same price as water. I don’t think that the main reason is that the fuel is too cheap. On the contrary, the water is too expensive. A side note: The Duty Free shop in İstanbul was a little cheaper than the one in Athens.
There were many Yorgos-look-alikes and Aris-look-alikes in Greece, just as there were many “businessman” in the beach and at the traffic lights. The sea was really nice, just like the Aegean Sea, it was going deep first, then shallow again, and then deep once more…
Final word: I loved Athens 
Impressions from Greece Part 1
OK, number one impression is nothing new, it is the obvious that everyone knows about: Greece ~= Turkey
Best advantage of Greece over Turkey: You can buy porn magazines or play cards on the streets. Don’t get stuck with the details, the main point is that it is a more open culture.
Advantage of Athens over Ankara: You can go swimming in 30 minutes
Athens is a very nice, lively, and historic European city. This made me realize that the (possibly) only things American about New York City are skyscrapers.
Girls are not afraid of showing skin. Feels like a summer place (which it is).
There are lots of mini markets, bagel or corn dealers on the streets. Protests, angry wall paintings, street shows and concerts, on-the-street eating at restaurants, possibly with live music players asking for money, or the rose-seller guy chased off by the waiters: everything you’d expect.
The bad: Some people. Just as in Turkey, there’re always people trying to take advantage of the fact that you are a tourist.
Alice and Bob (Aliye ve Bora)
Alice -> Aliye
Bob -> Bora
Carol -> Ceren
David -> Davut
Eve -> Havva: the source of all evil in cryptology (and…:)
Who needs Last.fm ?
Recently Last.fm announced that they are charging subscription fees for all users outside US, UK, and Germany.
http://blog.last.fm/2009/03/24/lastfm-radio-announcement
Don’t want to pay for something you have much better alternatives for? Yeah, right. Try these two:
Jango: A very nice service, with very good selection of music and similar (up-to-3) artist-based radio channels as Last.fm.
http://www.jango.com
AccuRadio: This is not an artist-based radio station, but the available channels are very well-picked, and you can even mix-and-match channels with their radio-builder now. Definitely worth a shot. Also try their iPhone/iPad app…
http://www.accuradio.com
Worth mentioning: thesixtyone
YEMEYİN (DO NOT EAT): Yaka Balık
İstanbul Galata Köprüsü altındaki Yaka Balık Lokantası’nda sakın yemek yemeyin. Hem fiyatları çok pahalı, hem de gerek balıkları gerekse servisleri çok kötü. Çok kazık bir fiyata azıcık bir balık getirdiler. Balıklar doğru düzgün pişirilmemişti bile. Hemen kazıklamaya çalışıyorlar. DİKKAT!
Do not eat at the Yaka Balık Restaurant under the Galata Bridge in İstanbul. The place is very expensive, and both the fish and the service is really bad. The first and the last time I was there, they sold a very small amount of fish for a very high price, and the fish wasn’t even properly cooked. The moment they understand that you are not a native, they try to cheat you. BE CAREFUL!
Get 250MB Free on Dropbox
Just use this link to open a FREE Dropbox account and get 250MB more space on top of your 2GB.
DO NOT eat at Shanghai
DO NOT eat at Shanghai Restaurant on Thayer Street, Providence, RI.
The last time we have ordered food, there was a bug in it!
DO NOT use Expedia
Do not use Expedia for booking your travel. I used them, and their customer service is really bad. They make you wait on the line for hours, really, and even then they do not solve your problem. They are mostly simply incapable, but also they do not care once they charged you for the ticket.
So, DO NOT use expedia.com
GeekXperts
GeekXperts:
http://geekxperts.blogspot.com/
Check out our new blog on everything geek. No geek should miss out on it. Subscribe not to miss any posts. We will post multiple hints weekly, and the archive is easily searchable.
The idea is to put hints about the most needed software applications for windows/linux/mac, new gadgets, iphone apps, and more. Tell me what you’d like to see there please.
Dropbox
Dropbox: One of the best inventions. It synchronizes your files online, and keeps versions for 30 days for free. It is extremely easy to use: After installation it creates a Dropbox folder. Just copy any files you want to that folder, and they are synchronized. You don’t need to change anything, just change the folder name you use.
Join through this link for extra 250MB free space (on top of 2GB)
https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTIxODM4MjM5
Important trick: For using it under linux with no root access, download it from (or find a newer build in the forums)
http://forums.getdropbox.com/topic.php?id=12922&replies=67#post-81845
Unzip, untar and run
~/.dropbox-dist/dropbox
Hacı Bektaş Veli
Hacı Bektaş Veli’den seçme şiirler. Az sayıdalar ama güzeller…
Big mistake of AT&T
A while ago, I stopped receiving SMS text messages. Later, I realized I could not even send one. When I called AT&T and they sent me a text message through their system, I received it. But their system apparently overrides all calling plan settings, and they are not aware of this. After that, I found out that, without me requesting for that, they disabled any SMS plan on my phone line. How stupid…
Physics lectures by Richard Feynman
Unbelievably valuable physics lectures given by Richard Feynman himself at Cornell University in 1964. It is a must see for everyone regardless of the knowledge of physics.
Linux Mint
Based on Ubuntu/Debian, Linux Mint is designed for ease-of-use. Give it a try (possibly on Sun VirtualBox).
Sun VirtualBox
Free VMWare alternative from Sun: VirtualBox
Try the latest Open Solaris on it or obtain already installed images here.
Karacaoğlan
Karac’oğlan şiirleri de koymaya başladım. Again, poems are in Turkish only.
ask.com
I was looking for an alternative to google for a long time, and I finally found it
www.ask.com
First of all, the search results are good enough and very similar to google. Also, try to search for the following to have fun:
“washington dc weather”
“seattle wa events”
“what is the height of mount everest”
“europe news”
or perform a video search for “obama” and see their built-in player
Lastly, go and explore city.ask.com
Tip: perform a regular web search for “providence ri movies” on ask.com and let it show you the cinemas and time table on the map.
Turkish-English translators needed
Hey,
As you probably have noticed from my earlier posts, I am putting some very nice poems online. To be able to reach more people, they should be translated to English. Some of the poems already have translations (which we need to find out), but some others don’t.
If you are interested in this voluntary translation effort, leave a comment.
