Phoenix Burns

Sweet Sweet Home

noreply@blogger.com (Emre) — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 08:44:00 +0000

In my opinion, in these days which web 2.0 technologies are dominating the whole world wide web, homepages are the most important portals for the individuals. What I mean by homepage is a site that allows the user to access the news and information he/she checks every single time he/she connects to the web. Therefore such a web page has to be customizable to the extent which the user doesn't feel the need to visit any other website while checking his/her daily feeds. There are a lot of websites around that try to achieve exactly what I told here, such as iGoogle, Windows Live Homepage, Pageflakes and Netvibes. They allow the user to customize the page and create a personalized one, by allowing them to add RSS feeds and widgets. Many of them are sufficient in providing these basic features, but I think that the one that stands out from the rest is Netvibes.

Apart from its basic and cheerful interface and great widgets, the 2 features that distinguishes it from its counterparts are its feedreader(aggregator) and the Ecosystem. The aggregator is the best one around (among both web based and software based) in my opinion. Compared with other personalized homepage readers it beats them by far, since it includes its own reader. The other ones make me sick with the fact that they open up a new page every single time you click on a post! Where, then is the advantage of having a personalized homepage if you're gonna end up with having about 15 tabs open every time you sit in front of your computer? Netvibes, on the other hand, features a very simple and slick reader for each feed, which you can put anywhere you want in your personal page, which can have different tabs as well. So you can create a Web 2.0 news tab and have all the feeds related with web 2.0 in there, see the posts that are unread in a flash and select the ones you want among them by just throwing a quick glance to the titles. What makes Netvibes even greater is that you can share these tabs (or universes) with other people that use Netvibes in the Ecosystem. While sharing your own, you can search for other universes as well and import them to you own page. You want to know every single thing about Soccer? Just search for that universe, import it to your page and you'll be among the first to receive the news about soccer. Other than universes, you can also search for custom made widgets, event feeds, podcasts (yes, Netvibes has its own podcast player) and other RSS feeds. The Ecosystem, combined with the simple but complicated interface and the usability of your personalized page makes Netvibes the ultimate portal in a world where a standard web user wants to reach as many information as he can in the shortest period of time.

5 and counting

noreply@blogger.com (Emre) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 10:00:00 +0000

2007 Wimbledon mens final was played yesterday and the winner was once again Federer. It seems so easy to say right now that he won the title again for the 5th time (so what he's always winning) but having watched the match yesterday I can say that it was one of the most challenging matches I saw Federer play. Not only on paper (since it was the first grand slam final Federer won at the end of 5 sets) but also on the court. Other than his almost perfect play, Federer is also known for being a complete gentleman and not showing any sign of anger, frustration, being pissed of, or any other emotion. But in yesterday's match, in which he made a lot of unforced errors, he went through some emotional outbursts. Never had I seen him getting angry with the referee and shouting at himself. Some even say (though I missed it) that he even swore. Although these were un-Federer like behaviors you have to give him some credit. His opponent, Nadal, is to be feared; and Federer is indeed afraid of him. He's like an angry Spanish bull at times, chasing after each ball like mad. And I think his most frightening feature is that he's very young (21, whereas Federer is 25) and is getting better and better each match. But nonetheless he still is the best player in the world in my opinion. There are very few players in the history of tennis who can play so well from the baseline and make his shots hit the lines like missiles locked on to a single point. Although Nadal is a rising star, I think he still has a very very long way to beat Federer on the grass court (no word for clay though, he seems to be the best there)...

Başlamak gerekiyor...

noreply@blogger.com (Emre) — Mon, 09 Jul 2007 07:33:00 +0000

Bir işe başlamak o işin en zor tarafı olsa gerek. İleride yapacağın her şeyi kafanda şimdiden planlama isteği, düşündüklerinin tam yerine oturmaması, istediğin gibi olmaması, en sonunda da hadi artık başlamak zorundayım deyip saçma bir başlangıç yapmak. İş özellikle yazı yazmak olduğunda benim için defalarca tekrarlanan ve genelde başarısızlıkla sonuçlanan bir zincir. Okulda kompozisyon sınavlarında onlarca defa "Bu sefer güzel, planlı; diğer herkesi ve özellikle kendimi şaşırtacak bir şey yazacağım!" şeklindeki bir repliği kendi kendime tekrarlardıktan sonra ortaya çıkan yine ortalama bir yazı oluyordu... Ha çok arada sırada kendimi aştığım oluyordu tabi de o da insanın şanslı olduğu ender anlara denk geliyordu herhalde.

Niye böyle pesimist bir başlangıç yaptım yine yazmamı gerektiren bir olaya? Bu blogu okuyacak az sayıda insanı kaçırmak için değil elbet. Nasıl olsa belli bir konuda yazmam gerekmiyor şu an diye her seferinde aklmdan geçenler bir özetleyeyim dedim... Özetleyeyim de kendim de anlayayım, göreyim kendi düşüncelerimi. Bu seferki yazımda biraz olsun kendimi geliştirmemde yardımı olur belki de.

Her zamanki gibi bir ümitle başlıyorum yine yazmaya. Bu sefer bahanem var ama. Kendi kafama göre, kurallar olmadan, istediğim, sevdiğim, ilgilendiğim konularda yazabilcem en azından. Belki bu sefer kendimi şaşırtırım, güzel bir şeyler çıkar ortaya. İlk postumu da yazmış oldum böylece.
Sürçü lisan ettimse affola....

P.S. Biraz abarttım tabi, aşırı vasat da yazmam normalde =P