Yellow Ox

Now I am gonna narrate a typical story we have in Turkey. I will not comment on the conclusion so that whoever wants what can get it in the way they want/understand.
Once upon a time, in a wild land, there was a herd of oxes living in peace as a group. Everything was perfect, the rain, the food and no illness...
However one day, a group of lions came to their region escaping from rainless lands because of the drought. The lion attacks were so tiring for the oxes. But they could handle it as when they are together they can easily defeat the lions. One day, when lions started thinking to move to another land, the weakest, puniest and the lame lion came up with an idea by saying

- We are not moving! I will handle this.

He went to the oxes with a white flag saying that he came for the peace. He started explaining why they had attacked the herd so many times. He said:

- Dear Oxes!!! We attack you because of the yellow ox (the only one with that color in the herd). Give us that one then we will stop attacking you...

The leader of the herd returns to the herd for discussing the offer within the council... They all had found it reasonable with only exception, the wise ox. Anyway they had given the yellow ox for the peace. Truly, there had been a peace for a while after giving the yellow ox. However, lions had started attacking again because of the hunger and the taste they got from the yellow ox. This time, the same lion came with another offer to the oxes. He said:

- Give the long tailed ox, then we will stop attacking your herd.

The council of oxes joined again and they decided to give that one too. After this, the same scenario had repeated so many times day by day, causing the lions to get stronger and stronger and oxes to get weaker and weaker. After this, the herd even started offering by itself, saying :

- Let's give this one and don't attack us!

This had kept going for a long time till the oxes can't say no. Then, they had understood that they had made a mistake somewhere. The conclusion was simple :

- WE MADE A MISTAKE BY GIVING THE YELLOW OX!!!

Hope you enjoy it...

Stay tuned.

Some Turkish Timbres

Recently, I found myself listening to and searching for different timbres of Turkish music. I didn't know that it was so rich. This is possibly because of its unique location, long past and interactions with many different cultures. I prepared a potpori of different timbres to give a quick taste:

(Youtube Link, Singer/Composer, Name of the Song)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFgyiBPW2OE
(Anonymous, Madimak Turkusu)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MoCtishqrY
(Mustafa Sandal Isyankar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o5-HOZordQ4
(Yavuz Bingol, Yagmur Ol Gel)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GW9M_VEC6fQ
(Ismail Turut, Oy Kemence)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLAP0bJohPg
(Hande Yener, Askin Atesi)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1pYHFIAyFyI
(Ferhat Kasikci, Oy Kemence with Baglama/Guitar)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esKfb4rN5V8
(Gulay, Babuba)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDIFF1bNJuw
(Sibel, Al yazmalim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsM75DPng1U
(Hasan Genc, Pancar Pezik)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZjgqUWLLNA
(Sezen Aksu, Sinanay)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlTUvcYQ1Q0
(Orhan Hakalmaz, Misket)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5s1wdUl9sw
(Yeni Turku, Firtina)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQf_ocN7Jk0
(Cengiz Kurtoglu, Hain Geceler)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W_b3Sxnyrw4
(Cengiz Kurtoglu, Oy Oy Usaklar)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA5xbP784ws
(Muazzez Ersoy, Duydum ki Unutmussun Gozlerimin Rengini)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8YDK0bX5ilI
(Davut Guloglu, Ham Yaparim)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0x5rhNL_7s
(Volkan Konak, Dido)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_bPQwdfKOYg
(Sertab Erener, Everyway that I can)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POO-gW62e4k
(Sertab Erener, Zor Kadin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_7WxA3QkmA
(Mustafa Sandal, Aya Benzer)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3xx72NGrUc
(Tarkan, Simarik)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BEhZYWtZIM
(Mustafa Sandal, Araba)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQav56obYDo
(Edip Akbayram, Hakim Bey)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-THthQRuuY
(Mahsun Kirmizigul, Nemrut un Kizi)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eofikubv1j0
(Ibrahim Tatlises, Yaraliyam)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JAlqR1jU9M4
(Zara, Zeytingyagli)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Au0FmWXkpeU
(Orhan Hakalmaz, Gonlum Ataslara Kandi Gidiyor)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjKEy2TePJc
(Manga, Bir Kadin Cizeceksin)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VlnC0dUY3o
(Kenan Dogulu, Onuncu Yil Marsi)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sS85NMtQ80E
(Mustafa Yildizdogan, Turkiyem)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zP2y77W2nD8
(Ferhat Tunc, Can Dost)

Ps: It is better to obtain the actual album musics of corresponding singers as the videos on youtube are usually manipulated.

Stay Tuned...

Cheap Flights / Charters

I have been recently looking for cheap flights in Europe (especially the ones flying to Turkey). Here is a brief summary about the companies that I found:

• Pegasus Airlines: It is a Turkish charter company with cheap prices and high on-time take-off rate. It flies to the majority of European countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy etc.). I flew with Pegasus within Turkey and had no problems.
• SunExpress: Another Turkish flight company. I haven't used this company but never heard of a problem. However its prices are slightly higher than Pegasus.
• Myair: An Italian charter company flying all around Europe with cheap prices. I flew with this company several times and had no problems but I heard some complains about high number of delays.
• Germanwings: Germanwings is one of the first companies started charter flight business in Europe. It has a good coverage in Europe and good prices. I used it only once and had no problems but apparently there is no much of improvement in the coverage despite being old.
• Ryanair: A British charter company leads the way in charter style flight business in Europe. This company is one of the first companies coming to the mind when talking about the cheap flights. It has so many destinations with really good offers. I will test it in two weeks.

Besides the above ones, there are the following well-known flight companies: Turkish Airlines, Lufthansa, KLM, Swiss Airlines, Alitalia, British Airways, Air France, Japan Airlines and United Airlines.

MySQL on Vista

After some struggle I could finally set up a MySQL database server on my Vista system. Apparently, there is a mismatch between the installation configuration of MySQL and Vista user management. There is a good hint on the installation at the end of this link: http://bugs.mysql.com/bug.php?id=30823

Recent motto : Endless endeavours...

Fresh-up

It has been some time I couldn't update my blog. The reason is simple : I am trying to do my part for the contribution to the computer science in the size of a nail tip...

So what I do: I basically try to secure Web Services (more generally SOA - Service Oriented Architectures). I specialize on Access Control but the things we do cover all security aspects of services.

I just wanted to let you know, I am not sleeping or in hybernation...

I am awake, and reading/listening/observing/imagining and lots of writing.

Rubik Cube

What is it?
Rubik cube is built from smaller cubes (or their edges) whose surfaces are differently colored. The number of cubes changes according to the size of the cube (2*2*2, 3*3*3 ...) designed. The purpose of the game is to pile up the same colored edges of the small cubes on the same edge of the big cube. The game was invented by a Hungarian sculptor Ernő Rubik. It has been renamed as Rubik by Ideal Toys. The youngest person solved the game is 7 years old Lars-Erik Anderson from Norway.

Rubik cube fans can find some online information from:
http://www.rubiks.com/

BerkeleyDB , SFS and TSocks

Although it is really useful and popular in academia, there is an ongoing chaos with BerkeleyDB. I am not sure if there is a commercialization process behind the scenes (I mean removing the project from the open source etc., after takeover of sleepycat) but it is highly possible nowadays that you will get a "404 page not found" error on BerkeleyDB related web page. Anyway, BerkeleyDB owner company Sleepycat has been taken over by Oracle and hopefully the stable downloads are from here any more.

SFS (Self-certifying File System, I prefer Secure File System) is a popular file system with fine authorization and sharing (in a decentralized manner) mechanisms. More information here.

I just discovered TSocks. It is a really useful tool for Socks based connections. Tsocks wraps the application that requires Socks connection and takes it through the way it knows. You can find the details here.

Stay tuned...