Emre's life as he knows it

An idea for a new game

2010-02-24T22:24:00.002Z

Thinking about calling it cyber-labyrinth.

The idea is to get to a target site from another starting website by only using your mouse and clicking on the links that you see within your browser. The first person who gets to the target website's home page wins.

For example. All users start with CNN.com's home page in their browser and have to find their way to Techcrunch.com.

It can be a multi person game. No limit on how many people can play it at the same time.

Bonus: Think about doing exposing the sites in some sort of iframe page, and have random start and end point sites. Enough people join a session and the race begins. In the mean time while people are clicking away, you collect the data about which site is linked to another one without having to crawl the web. Do this enough times with enough users, you will have high level view of site links. Of course, long tail, low level pages' data will not be collected, but that can be another game.

iFad? Not for all.

2010-01-28T17:10:00.009Z

I am sure Apple did some market research, and did not build a product on a hunch. It's been two days since Steve Jobs introduced iPad, and the more I think about it, the more I realize how it is the perfect product for my mother. She has a laptop computer to play some of her favorite games, send and receive emails, and every now and then surf the web. She clearly does not need a laptop with a full operating system to do them, and her life can be much simpler with a simpler OS and device.

For power users of a laptop like myself, between a capable phone (iPhone, Android Nexus One, or Droid) and a pretty portable and powerful laptop, there is no need for an iPad. It is a giant iPod touch.

As one of the killer features, I was expecting some sort of wireless VGA or HDMI. How cool would it be if one could turn the iPad into a giant remote control that has all the content you want. Imagine being at home and playing games, or watching things on your home TV without having to plug anything in or running cables across the room.

How about a camera? How cool would it be to make a video call with it? Possibly the next generations of the product will have it.

Just one side note about the presentation: Steve Jobs is a master presenter. He is very calm and amicable when presenting. However, when he was pitching iPad's price, I found him very sleazy. He sounded like a used car salesman when he posted a made up anchor price of $999 on the screen saying everybody thought it should be priced just under $1000. And then, as if it is a real break through, with some sound effects, he declared that they crushed the price down to $499. By the way, $499 gets you the toy version of this device which you will have to update in 1-2 years, because the battery won't hold much charge and more importantly, you will run out of space due to storage heavy application. A proper one will cost you around $700. As my negotiation professor would say: "where did that $999 come from, and how is it relevant?".

I am sure they will sell millions of iPads to their target audience: Not technology savvy people who want to be on the "interwebs"; aka Mom.

Taping everything

2009-02-26T02:31:00.002Z

Lately, for some reason, I have been taping many things. I guess it is a side effect of always having my camera with me.
It first started with me taping the musicians of the NYC Subway, and starting my new blog about them, NYC Subway Musicians.

Today, after work, with a couple of friends from work, went to the driving range at Chelsea Piers. After a couple of swings I remembered that I had my camera with me. I thought, taping myself would be a great opportunity to observe my own swing and maybe to improve it. So here it is, a couple of swings that even impressed me :-) I guess I perform well when I know I have an audience.

Watch out Tiger Woods!

A new blog

2009-02-22T19:39:00.000Z

Lately, I have been noticing too many musicians in NYC subways, and I started taping them. Bits and pieces. With those just started a new blog called NYC Subway Music.
Enjoy.
e

I love my Android phone, but...

2009-01-10T00:57:00.003Z

I love my new Android phone, but I love my Blackberry Curve more.

Thanks to Google, I got an Android phone for Christmas. Since then, I have been in love with it. Love the availability of a full keyboard (rather than on screen touch-type madness) and all the apps you can download.

Compared to my Blackberry Curve, the plusses are many. The top one is the full browser. I can browse anything on the web and see the pages properly (I know this is already available on iPhone; but iPhone keyboard/typing sucks). However, here are the few important things that the current Android phone is lacking which still makes me stick to my Blackberry:

- Battery life: In my experience, the battery only lasts about 24 hours. It is a pain to plug it in all the time.

- Compactness: The phone is still a bit bulky. So far, nothing matches Blackberry Curve's compactness.

- Keyboard: Although, Android phone has a full keyboard, the keys have the same height as the rest of the phone. So, one cannot really feel the keys and the separation among them. I think the Blackberry keyboard style, with keys sticking out, is still better.

I cannot wait to see and own a second generation Android phone.

2008 Travels

2008-12-31T16:22:00.000Z

I had a feeling that this year I traveled alot. And then today I checked my passport. Below is the summary:

Zurich, Switzerland
Arlberg, Austria (twice)
Dublin, Ireland (several times)
London, England (for a while)
Titchwel, England
Mexico City, Mexico
Bahamas
Aruba
Dubrovnik, Croatia
Rhodes, Greece
Paris, France (twice)
Istanbul, Turkey (twice)
Gocek, Turkey
Cesme, Turkey (twice)
Shanghai, China
Amsterdam, Holland
Cologne, Germany
Dubai, UAE
Sri Lanka

Rip off

2008-11-02T06:37:00.002Z

Here is my monthly rant!

I was trying to check in online. While checking my ticket information, I noticed the following in the notes:

Airfare quoted amount:	$410.00	USD
Landing fees and taxes:	$425.60	USD
Airfare quoted total:	$835.60	USD

This is a rip off! 425.60!!!
I really would like to know where this money goes between JFK and LHR.

Istanbul and Turkey 101

2008-09-17T13:50:00.002Z

Many friends who plan to visit Istanbul have been asking me for pointers, suggestions. Here is an email that has evolved over the last 3 years or so. I hope you find it useful and use it to forward your friends. I am sure it will continue to evolve. As it does, I will amend it.
Enjoy
e

Things to do in Istanbul:

Go to the Topkapi Palace. Get an English speaking tour guide. This is the Ottoman Palace where the emperor lived. Quite historic and has many stories. Would take about 2-3 hours.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Topkap%C4%B1_Palace

In that area, there is also the Basilica Cisterns, it is quite cool. So, go in there as well. Although small and it will be a quick tour, About 30 mins.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_Cistern

Aya Sofya (Hagia Sofia) Very old church (1500 years or so) from Byzantine empire times which was converted to a mosque. Still has some old murals. Was burned down, restored, survived many earthquakes etc. Cool place. Again it is near Topkapi. Get a tour guide. There should be some in the area. (1-2 hours)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hagia_Sophia

Sultanahmet Camii (aka Blue mosque) very nice architecture. Should be walking distance from the Topkapi palace. (30 mins)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sultan_Ahmed_Mosque_(Istanbul)

Suleymaniye Camii (Suleyman Mosque) 2nd largest mosque. Worth seeing. should be 10-20 mins 3-4 euros cab ride from Topkapi.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S%C3%BCleymaniye_Mosque

Dolmabahce Sarayi (Dolmabahce palace): the neo-modern palace that the emperor moved in mid-late 1800 ( i think) it is ok. very nice, by the water etc)

Grand Bazaar (Kapali Carsi): Old style bazaar. Used to be horse stables during the empire, and now millions of shops. Quite big. Bargain for everything. They would not be selling it to you if there were making a loss.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grand_Bazaar,_Istanbul

Shopping/Food
Go to "Nisantasi" (Nisantasi is a mostly residential neighborhood) (ask where "Beymen" is, Beymen is a department store) That area has nice small shops and restaurants, and usually becomes livelier at night.

Another cool area is "Bebek" (by the water, right across the water from my house :-) there are some restaurants and small cafes there too.

Beyoglu neighborhood has a main street called "Istiklal Caddesi". Many shops there too.

Some big very nice modern malls:
- Akmerkez (in Etiler)
- Kanyon (in Levent)
- Cevahir (in Sisli)
- Metro City (in Levent)

Fine dining and clubbing
-360: Cool/hip restaurant and club as the night progresses. Has a very nice view hence the name 360. May need reservations, but should not be hard once you have the phone number.

-Tike and Kosebasi. Top 2 kebab places. They are both in "Levent"

-Another pricey but very cool/hip/popular place is called "Ulus 29". Awesome view, especially with full moon. If you go there, call in advance and make a reservation. I am sure any hotel concierge can handle it. It also has a bar and a club next to it, and becomes pretty active depending on the day of the week and time.

Water: Drink bottled water. DO NOT drink from tap. Usually they always serve bottled water at restaurants. Even none of the locals drink tap water.

TIPS and More:
Almost everyone at the touristy places and restaurant will speak some degree of English. Sometimes the taxi drivers may not, but they are nothing like their French colleagues, they will make a big effort to get you where you want to get to.

Don't take too much cash with you. Almost virtually every shop takes credit cards, and there are ATMs all around. Especially around old city. Be careful about your bags etc. Just be smart :-) Don't go waiving your money in the air.

Taxi- They are all yellow and hard to miss. They all have meters etc. If someone is trying to give you a deal, just ask them to turn the meter on. Usually no deal is better than the meter. One more thing about the taxis, take a look at the meter it should say "Gunduz" which means daytime, and not "Gece", night. The night meter is on between 12am and 6am. If you get in a cab during daytime, it should always say Gunduz. The night tariff has 50% premium. If you cross the bridges which I don't think you will, then you have to pay the toll (even if you cross it in the no-toll direction)

About money: The exchange offices will always give you the best rates. However, on 100-200 Euro worth of withdrawals from ATMs it will only matter a couple of Euros. So, usually not worth looking for the best deal. One thing, do not exchange at the hotels. They always have the worst rates.

Turkish Lira used to be in denominations of a million. However, January 2005 they have introduced the "new" Turkish lira ("yeni" Turk lirasi). In case you did not get it, "yeni" means "new". So 1 new lira is 1,000,000 old lira. The look and feel of the new lira is exactly the same (colors and size) it will just not have the additional zeros.

Simple Turkish 101:
English - Turkish (phonetics)
Yes - Evet (a vet)
No - Hayir (higher)
Please - Lutfen (loot fan)
Thank you - mersi (merci)
Hello - Merhaba (mer ha bah)
Goodbye - Baybay (buhbye)
Taxi - Taksi (taxi)
Water - Su (sue)
Coke - Kola (cola)
Diet Coke - Diyet Kola (dee yet cola)
Bread - Ekmek (ache make)
Menu - Menu (maeh nue)

Pointing at something with your finger will get you everything else :-) No words needed.

Only in England

2008-09-16T15:08:00.000Z

Last week, when I was biking to work, saw this traffic light on the Hyde Park corner.
If you look closely you'll see two buttons for requesting a red light so people can cross safely: one for pedestrians and another for equestrians.

Thought, I'd share.

Vodafone vs Vodafone

2008-09-13T14:52:00.000Z

An interesting thing happened to me last week when I was in Rhodes.

I was roaming with my UK Vodafone in Greece. Of course my phone automatically picked Vodafone Greece as its network. Up to this point all fine, what you'd expect. However, when I was then in the north side of the island, right across the sea from Marmaris, Turkey, I received a very interesting SMS from Vodafone UK. The message read something like: For cheaper rates switch to Vodafone Turkey. Currently your calls cost X, and with Vodafone Turkey they would cost Y.
Of course X > Y.

I was pleasantly surprised. For once a phone company not only looking after its customers, but doing it at its own expense. I guess Vodafone UK, likes Vodafone TR much better than their Hellenic counterparts :-)

e

Do you know what is using up your hard disk?

2008-09-10T15:48:00.002Z

Steffen Gerlach has this amazing tool that visually shows your hard disk, and what takes up space in it. It is the best tool I've ever seen doing that.

You can select a directory and deep dive into that directory and see what takes up the most space in it.

For those who would like to install it, just download it from here, and then extract the EXE file onto your desktop.

Here is Steffen Gerlach's web site.

e

Blindness, The Movie

2008-08-09T12:45:00.003Z

The other day when I was at the movies, I saw the trailer for Blindness.

The movie is adapted from the book by Jose Saramago, a Nobel winning author.

It is one of the best books I have ever read. It is about how people behave when everyone becomes blind after a mysterious virus quickly spreads. The book pulls you in from the very first page and doesn't let go until the very end.

The one thing that struck me in the book is that no one has a name, and no one refers to each other with their names. It's always names like, the doctor, the wife, the driver, the old guy, etc.
From the trailer, I can tell the director may have kept that in the movie too.

Can't wait to see the movie.

If you have not read it yet, get the book and read it. Well worth your time.

ConEdison you are wrong!

2008-07-30T04:38:00.001Z

The other day, I spotted this ad in the subway.

There are bunch of different energy tips. They are generally common sense and correct. However, when I saw this one, I could not resist. This is completely incorrect. The ad reads:

"Run your dishwasher only when it is full" Cool. Good tip, correct. This way it will reduce the times you run your dishwasher.

But the ad also says " Scrap dishes before placing them in the dishwasher". This is plainly wrong. Dishwashers are 1) pretty good at getting rid of scraps 2) do not spend extra power or cycles depending on the cleanness of your dishes, unless you have a super dishwasher that decides how many cycles to perform by checking the cleanness of your dishwasher.
What a BS. If you are going to encourage people to save energy, do it by telling the truth. Do not make up BS facts.

I like Biking

2008-07-28T15:00:00.002Z

On Saturday I apparently biked almost 20 miles.

This whole thing started on Friday. I took my friend's bike and did a tour in Central Park. It is apparently 6.1 miles. I did not time my self. This was kind of a trial. I enjoyed it.

Then on Saturday, I decided to actually try the bike path next to the Hudson river. I biked up for a while, and finally decided to go to my parents' place in Jersey to take care of some errands.

I left my friends' apartment around 70th Street and biked to my parent's place and then back via Ferry.

Map below. I started at the blue line in Manhattan and then took the Ferry (red line) and then back to my friends'.

View Larger Map

I really enjoyed, and I think I had a decent pace all around. More importantly I really liked it. When I ride the bike at a gym, I usually feel like a hamster on a wheel.
This time, I actually had to take care of some errands at my parents' so there was a goal. On top of all, the weather was beautiful. Not too hot, not too cold nor rainy.

On Sunday, I decided to do two full rounds at the Central Park. This time, I even timed my self to get a sense. Although, I think they were both slow, I did better in the second round than the first one (only by a minute, 24:22 and 23:27). However, this was quite surprising to me. I thought I would have been much slower in the second round.

I may actually do this more often.

Randy Pausch passed away yesterday

2008-07-26T21:56:00.003Z

Randy Pausch, a former computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University passed away yesterday.

If you have one hour, please watch his last lecture, it will be your best spent hour in the last several years. This is a truly inspirational and candid lecture about life and how to deal with it.

Here it is:

After giving this lecture, almost a year later, he also addressed the graduating class Carnegie Mellon for about 5 minutes. I love his speech. Especially when he defines love:
Here is his commencement speech (about 6 mins)

ABC also had a special about Randy Pausch in April 2008.
It is in pieces, so I put together a playlist for that. Here:

If you rather watch it on YouTube. Here it is.

His last lecture has also been published as a book.

A great man, a great vision.
Rest in peace.

Elections Video Gadget

2008-07-22T17:46:00.003Z

This is the coolest iGoogle gadget: Election Videos

It allows people to query the speeches of major candidates for any issue.
For example, you can type Tax and hit search. It will find every instance of Obama and McCain talking about taxes in their public speeches.

Great tool to figure out where candidates stand for all the issues you care about. Also, great for finding out if someone is flip-flopping on some issues.

Searching videos based on the transcript of speech. Awesome!
What's next? Making all talk shows searchable? Why not!

The IT Crowd

2008-07-03T15:04:00.000Z

This is one of my newly discovered favorite shows. It's a British TV show about help desk geeks at the basement of a company (Official Site)

It is a brilliant show where they came up with lines like: "If you type Google, into Google, you can break the Internet. So please, no-one try it, even for a joke."

Here is that brilliant clip:

I watched full two season episodes on YouTube and enjoyed it so much that I want to share and spread it around.

I put together a playlist for Season 1 of The IT Crowd here:
Season 1 Episodes of Channel4's The IT Crowd
- Yesterday's Jam
- Calamity Jen
- 50:50
- The Red Door
- The Haunting of Bill Crouse
- Aunt Irma Visits

If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, here is the link.

and the playlist for Season 2 of The IT Crowd here:
- The Work Outing
- Return of the Golden Child
- Moss and the German
- The Dinner Party
- Smoke & Mirrors
- Men Without Women

If you'd rather watch it on YouTube, here is the link.

Enjoy!
e

Reducing the fine on Parking Tickets

2008-07-02T09:13:00.002Z

Here is a tip if you live in New York and get a parking ticket. The following explains how to get a reduced fine.

Department of Finance, who you must pay your penalty to, manages the adjudication process. They are overwhelmed by the incoming disputes. If you get a ticket, just contest it via good old snail mail.
In a couple of days, you will receive a piece of mail from them offering you a reduced fine. Alternatively, they also offer you to appear before a judge and claim your innocence. My advice, take the reduced fine, because you know you are guilty :-)

I heard this from good authority, and they already got two of their tickets reduced from $65 to $42.

e

Accessing YouTube in Turkey

2008-07-01T11:01:00.002Z

YouTube is blocked once again in Turkey due to some lawsuit. This is one of the many blockings in the past. However, I believe this time it is blocked indefinitely. There are many work arounds for accessing YouTube such as using proxies and monkeying with DNS settings.

One other way is via iPhone!
I noticed that I was able to access YouTube videos via iPhone in Turkey, using a Turkish GSM operator's SIM card and their network. I also noticed that I was able to connect via WiFi.

Bottom line, if you want to watch YouTube in Turkey, get an iPhone, have it cracked so you can use your Turkish SIM card, and then tap on the YouTube icon.

e

Figurine Panini for Euro 2008 (Digital)

2008-06-07T01:49:00.005Z

Growing up I loved collecting the Figurine Panini stickers for every World and Euro Cup. I even had Paris-Dakar cars and several other cartoon related ones.

For those who have no clue what Figurine Panini are: They are similar to collector's cards for baseball, but they actually are stickers that stick on a book. There are many different collections, and in each one there always are very to hard find ones.

With every new collection, a friend of mine used to get a full box of stickers and almost complete the book at once. Of course there were many duplicate stickers which ended up on various things at their home, like walls, desks, cupboards etc.

Anyway, bottom line, like everything else Figurine Panini now has gone digital. I was surprised to see them online while visiting Euro2008.com site. Each day they give out a different code which gets you 10 players' stickers that you can stick on your digital book. They also have MSN messenger integrated so you can trade stickers with your friends. A rumor that I heard is if you complete the book, you get an option to receive a printed on in the mail. Here is the URL http://www.euro2008album.com/

Every day they issue a new code, and they also have a twitter page that displays them: http://twitter.com/euro2008album

And for those who are eager to search the web for codes, below are the ones that I already found. My book is almost complete now.
Here are some codes and more are in the comments.

0WJS8RZDN
0ZTMJ1SQP
14PV3BBMZ
1CGF5RZRC
1G5UTXR6F
1KF9KUZM9
1XUVSDDC8
2VRRVTRHX
362WRBSB7
3H6PTXDJG
3Z22ZC45M
465W50ZN5
4TBKFK3QC
4VC953N9B
4W09JN96M
5BGBPQCGF
5CQN7QDZW
5P14F224D
5XW75SHFT
6NZ46SG96
7KQKP1XTG
7RXDKGMNB
7Z6GNGN2V
884MXKRGJ
8928UVJ06
96THWC9MX
9DSUBBF9J
9FJ76XW6F
B2NNKHG44
BF0VWTPW7
BM2R0786J
C69S60Q4M
D4F78DJUG
DG7CVVJPQ
FKMCTFTKG
FRXW7GNPN
FTDRXT68U
FXH2D7BVG
G3XQ8FVP8
HUJ737UUX
JKSTMRUT5
JUCRK2RMZ
K58DZR6W2
K7KJQ9ND8
K9T8Z7WWZ
KPZRB988Q
N4W44P6HN
NQ1CHMP40
3254GF4F5
B717WWUMX

Texting your way to love

2008-05-08T13:39:00.000Z

It is hilarious!

Low Risk, High Fun Casino Roulette experience

2008-04-22T17:48:00.003Z

Over the weekend I was at the Bahamas. I was hoping to advance my kite surfing skills, however there was no wind :-( So I had to do some other interesting things like lying down on the beach all day, reading books and snorkeling. All this lack of activity also kinda kept me awake enough to go to the casino in the evenings and gamble some.

Both nights I played roulette. About 2 hours each night. I started with $100 and made an extra $40 first night and extra $10 the second night. At no point I was worried about my money, because played it in my own low risk and high fun mode.

If you do not know the rules of roulette, check them out here.

The table I was playing at had a $10 minimum limit. Which means, I had to put at least 10 $1 chips on the numbers, and at least $10 on anything on the outside (red vs black, odd vs even etc)

So here is the strategy:
- Put $10 on each column, which basically pays 2 to 1.
- Spread $10 among the numbers on the column you did not put bets on. You can put some between two numbers to cover more numbers, but remember that also means less return.
- For extra fun, you can also put some 2 or chips on your favorite numbers that are on the columns that you put your $10s on.

On average, if you do this right, you will only lose all your bets if the ball lands on Zero or Double Zeros, if exists.

The above mentioned method is fun and is very exciting when a number you picked hits.

There may be moments where you lose all the money you bet, the very occasional zero or the number you did not cover. In that case, I suggest the following:

Put $10 on red or black. If you win, great! You now have an extra $10. Do this again, and if you win then you are back to the original $30 that you were having fun with.
If you lose, then put $20 on red or black, if you lose put $40, and if you are still not luck put $80. The moment you win, go back to $10. You get the idea.

In case you do not hit the right color after 5-6 tries, then this is not your day. Go back to the bar and drown your sorrows.

Alternatively, you can use the first 12, second 12 and third 12 number outside bet, instead of the columns; and odd or even instead of black or red.

You can practice/test it here

Have fun!
e

PS: This method will not make you lots of money, but in case it does, you can donate some of it to me.

Gmail Custom Time

2008-04-01T17:39:00.002Z

Check out Gmail Custom Time. A service that guarantees you can be on time for any event.

You only get 10 predated emails, but I think that can help you solve the major crisis in your life.

Read more about it here

Great customer service. NOT!

2008-03-25T22:47:00.003Z

My dishwasher finally gave up on me. So I started looking around. Finally found one at homedepot.com and bough it. Great. It even allowed me to pick the delivery date. So I picked Friday. It originally said that they would call me 4 days in advance to let me know what time of the day they can deliver within a 4 hour window.

Today, I finally called them to see when they'd actually deliver. Mind you the delivery is on Friday.

They are actually worse than the cable company that gives you a 6 hour window, which basically means any time of the day.

They said that they will call me on Thursday, day before, and let me know of the four hour window. Basically I have to keep my entire day open.

Amazing customer service. Thanks for delivering it to my home and actually charging me on top of all this.

I wonder what time they will show up on Friday. I am betting they will actually miss the window. Any takers?

e

Family Guy: The must see episode: McStroke

2008-03-23T04:35:00.000Z

My amazement with Hulu's high quality videos continues.

If you have not seen any episodes of Family Guy before, you are missing alot! This is the best episode I have seen so far. Spare some 20 minutes to watch it. There are so many amazing references to funny things that happen around us: from stem cell research to social networking. It is worth 20 minutes of your life.