You are beautiful

An interesting project is going on at You are beautiful. I have a lot of sympathy for the people doing it (I like the song by James Blunt too).

"The intention behind this project is to reach beyond ourselves as individuals to make a difference by creating moments of positive self realization in those who happen across the statement: You Are Beautiful."

An example:

So....

You are
beautiful

Brüksel teaser

Kamuyounun canhıras "Brüksellll Brükselll" ve "Şamil abi bizi tiskoya götür" tezahüratları şu an ikamet ettiğim Gebze vilayetine kadar ulaşmıştır. Merak etme ey halkım, elbet götürecek abiniz sizi tiskoya (merkeze de olabilir - cinsel tercihe bağlı).

Si yu canlarım.

ŞK (Şahane Kişi)

UML

We are in the preliminary design phase of a software project. Nowadays we have to start representing our design in the Unified Modelling Language (UML). We need to

1. Define scenarios and draw use cases
2. Draw package diagrams
3. Draw activity diagrams

A good short intro is at Practical UML by Borland (contains everything we need to know at this stage).

Being a methodology sceptic, I enjoyed Death By UML Fever. In our project, I will watch the symptoms closely!

"Developing good software is a difficult enough task without having to endure the preventable and often painful complications of the dreaded UML fever." — Grady Booch, The Fever is Real

"It is characteristic of wisdom not to do desperate things." — Henry David Thoreau

"Furious activity is no substitute for understanding." — H. H. Williams

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance--it is the illusion of knowledge." — Daniel J. Boorstin

Un-intelligent design

"Actually I would write more, but I have to go pee in Morse code, because some idiot designed my aging prostate."

from The other I.D

Wikitraveller

"[Crew] wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages. Bitter cold. Long months of complete darkness. Constant danger. Safe return doubtful. Honour and recognition in case of success." -- Recruitment poster for 1914 Antarctic expedition of HMS Endurance

Wikitravellers are members of a world-wide community of contributors to Wikitravel. I will be in Brussels from 11th to 16 th december. I will take pictures and notes for both my blog and Wikitravel. You guys out there travelling could help it too.

Veresiye satan - peşin satan

Almanya'daki Türk bakkalında asılıydı "veresiye satan - peşin satan" resmi. O günlerde bono ne diye çok merak eder, bonodan ürkerdim. Umut'un katkılarıyla işte huzurlarınızda:


03.02.2019: Resmin arasındaki yazı: "Veresiye veremem, arkan sıra gelemem, gelirsem de bulamam, bulursam da alamam."

Age of Enlightenment

"Age of Enlightenment -- The ultimate goal of Maharishi Supreme Military Science is to create this age where "[n]ot only will no one harm anyone, but everyone will be a joy to everyone else in the most spontaneous manner, and every nation will be a joy to every other nation" (Maharishi, 1986a, p. 49)."

from Invincible Military - A Vedic Approach to Military Defense

Sendika üzerine

İşçiyim ve Tez-Koop-İş sendikasına üyeyim (Tez-Koop-İş = Türkiye Ticaret, Kooperatif, Eğitim, Büro ve Güzel Sanatlar İşçileri Sendikası). Geçen hafta işyerinde sendika işyeri temsilcileri seçildi. Adaylarla sohbetlerim sonrasında bu konuda bloglamanın zamanının geldiğini düşündüm.

İşyerinde iki farklı sendika görevlisi varmış: Bunlardan biri işyeri temsilcisi, diğeri de sendika delegesi. İkisini aynı şey sanıyordum, değilmiş. İşyeri temsilcisi işçilerle işveren arasında olan, işçilerin dilek ve temennilerini, şikayetlerini işverene görüşerek çözme sorumluluğuna sahip. Delege ise sendikada kariyer yapmanın ilk adımı sanki... Bir çeşit parti delegesi gibi... Seçimlerde oy verme hakkına sahip olan delegedir. Biraz garip çünkü elini taşın altına koyan işyeri temsilcisi, kariyer yapan delege imiş görüntüsü var. Sormak lazım.

Notlar:

- Yaşasın-kahrolsun slogan edebiyatından daha derin analizler bekliyoruz. Tüm basın açıklamaları ve eylemler sanki birbirinin kopyası.

- İşyerinde verimlilik, işçilerin eğitim ve becerilerinin arttırılması, gayrı safi milli hasılanın artması konusundaki laflar yüzeysel olmalı çünkü bu alanlarda laf var aksiyon na-mevcut. Mevcut pastayı büyütmekten çok var olanı yağmalama düşüncesi ülkemizdeki temel sıkıntılardan biri. "Üretim" içi boş bir palavra...

- Sendikaların birbiri ile ilişkilerini merak ediyoruz (örnek: Nakliyat-İş'in TÜMTİS'e silahlı saldırısı!).

- Sendikalarla ilgili enteresan haberler çıkıyor. Örnek: Sendika Ağaları Burjuvazinin Safında. Bu haberi ciddiye almaya imkan yok çünkü klasik "yaşasın-kahrolsun" formülleriyle dolu.

- Sendikalarda görev almanın beceriden çok siyasi parti, mezhep, ırk vb. unsurlara bağlı olduğu dedikodusu var. Ülkemizde aksi zaten çok şaşırtıcı olurdu.

- Tez-Koop-İş tarihçesi, TÜBİTAK ne zaman ve neden bu sendikaya (başkasına değil) üye oldu?

- Sendikalarda tartışmadan, eleştiriden ziyade kavga izlenimi var.

- Sendikanın hayatıma etkisi yok. Mühendisim ve kendi sorunlarımı kendi idari yapımızla çözebiliyorum. Mühendisler ilgi göstermiyor. Mühendislerin ne istediklerini merak eden de yok sanırım. Geçen haftaki işyeri temsilcisi seçiminde seçilenler arasında mühendis bulunmuyor.

- Daha önceleri bir elemanı işten attık ("kendi isteği ile ayrıldı"), işyeri temsilcilerinin en azından benden bilgi almasını isterdim. Kimse birşey sormadı. Biz çalışma arkadaşlarımıza açıklama yaptık.

- Medyaya yansıyan sözleşme pazarlıklarında hep aynı senaryo: Önce görüşmeler krize girer, sonra anlaşılır. Aceba danışıklı döğüş mü var? Sendikacıların görevlerini yaptıklarını göstermek için kriz mi çıkması gerekiyor?

- İşe başlarken otomatikman sendikaya da üye oluyoruz. Bu sırada bize kimse bilgi vermedi.

- Sendikadan ayrılmak mümkün mü, yoksa bu aleme giren bir daha çıkamaz mı?

Tez-Koop-İş web sayfası eleştirileri:
- Sayfa güncel değil sanırım. Genel Başkan Sadık Özben görünüyor.
- Alt sayfalara doğrudan link veremiyoruz. Örneğin Nakliyat İş'in TÜMTİS'e saldırısının linki şu ancak sayfa izin vermiyor.
- İşyeri temsilcisi, delege vb. işlerin tanımları yok.
- Sendika yöneticilerinin özgeçmişleri yok.
- Her işyeri için temsilci listesi, delege listesi, bunların fotoğrafları ve özgeçmişleri olsun.
- Dergi sayfasındaki linkler çalışmıyor.

Binanaleyh, sendika konusunda kafamda net bir resim yok, hayatıma etkisi de yok. Hal böyleyken sendika benim için yılda bir iki kere rey verdiğim bir işten öteye gitmiyor. Bir müddet daha durumu izleyeceğim ve sendikanın benim için abesle iştigal olduğunu değerlendirirsem sendikadan ayrılmanın yollarını arayacağım.

On belief

"...all obscenity is less insulting than, How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do. So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something."

"Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have."

from There is no God by Penn Jillette

Questions to ask before you start a business

Five questions that need to be answered before you start a business:
1. What you're going to do
2. Why users need it
3. How large the market is
4. How you'll make money
5. Who the competitors are and why this company is going to beat them. (That last has to be more specific than "they suck" or "we'll work really hard.")

from Paul Graham

Mastering language

Look at this message: People are grown up under different circumstances, so it is hard for them to really understand each other, especially on complex matters.

That's not very exciting. Here is a better way:

"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music." Nietzsche (thanks to Rahmi)

Now that strikes a sentimental as well as logical chord. A very powerful way of conveying a simple message... Be the master of language. And a blog is a good step in that direction.

And here is another one:
"Where you stand comes down to where you refuse to sit." - Jack Higgins

What should I do with my life?

"The previous era of business was defined by the question, Where's the opportunity? I'm convinced that business success in the future starts with the question, What should I do with my life? Yes, that's right. The most obvious and universal question on our plates as human beings is the most urgent and pragmatic approach to sustainable success in our organizations. People don't succeed by migrating to a "hot" industry (one word: dotcom) or by adopting a particular career-guiding mantra (remember "horizontal careers"?). They thrive by focusing on the question of who they really are -- and connecting that to work that they truly love (and, in so doing, unleashing a productive and creative power that they never imagined). Companies don't grow because they represent a particular sector or adopt the latest management approach. They win because they engage the hearts and minds of individuals who are dedicated to answering that life question."

"The ruling assumption is that money is the shortest route to freedom. Absurdly, that strategy is cast as the "practical approach." But in truth, the opposite is true. The shortest route to the good life involves building the confidence that you can live happily within your means (whatever the means provided by the choices that are truly acceptable to you turn out to be). It's scary to imagine living on less. But embracing your dreams is surprisingly liberating. Instilled with a sense of purpose, your spending habits naturally reorganize, because you discover that you need less."

"Those who are lit by that passion are the object of envy among their peers and the subject of intense curiosity. They are the source of good ideas. They make the extra effort. They demonstrate the commitment. They are the ones who, day by day, will rescue this drifting ship."

http://www.fastcompany.com/online/66/mylife.html

Mad cows

(From ikodidit)

Spyware removal

I got infected by ISTBar while searching through astalavista. I accidentally must have clicked on the "install activeX". It installs the following toolbar to all Internet Explorer windows:


I tried symantec's removal tool which said it removed the bar whereas it didn't. I had to manually kill processess, edit registry and delete files. It took me 2 hours to track the files and delete them. They were istsvc.exe, pblbpsqo.exe, istbar.exe. Later I heard of Microsoft's AntiSpyware removal tool and used to have a last clean up:


Interesting side effect of ISTBar: Word and Excel slowed down to their knees. It took around 30 secs to open a document. It was resolved after removal of ISTBar.

Karikatür

Rahmi abimize el sallıyorum...

Pop art

By Rahmi:

"My name is Payne, Şamil Payne babe..."

Reminds me of Sin City and Max Payne.

Words I hate

Some words are so often used and abused that it makes me sick to hear them. Worse, they are inappropriatly used. For example, instead of talking about a merely good game we say "incredible" game. I'll throw up! Avoid such words.

English:
- really ( I don't care really)
- you know
- you know what I'm saying
- cool
- adrenalin
- incredible, unbelievable (The meal was incredibly tasty)

Turkish:
- öncelikle (öncelikle herkesi saygıyla selamlıyorum)
- falan oldum
- yani
- gördüm sizi (kıllanmış gördüm sizi)
- mesela
- tarzı
- duyum (aldığımız duyumlara göre)
- inanılmaz (yemek inanılmaz lezzetliydi)

İhale üçkağıtları

Devlet ihalelerinde hilenin ("ihaleye fesat karıştırmak") önüne geçmek için sürekli artan karmaşıklıkta kanunlar çıkarılır, ne kadar kararlı olunduğunu dair demeçler verilir. Mevcut ihale algoritmasını inceleyelim:

1. Hizmet talebi ile mevcut karmakarışık tüzüklere göre ihale açılır. Temel kurallar:
- İhale duyurulur (sanırım resmi gazetede)
- En az üç farklı fimadan teklif alınması gerekir

2. Hizmeti sunabilecek firmalar tonla belge hazırlayarak ihaleye başvurur ("zarf atar")

3. Mevcut başvurulardan "en uygun" olan seçilir. Seçimi yapanların akıl sağlıkları açısından en rahat yol en ucuz teklifi vereni seçmektir. En ucuzun dışındaki seçildiğinde murakıplara (bir çeşit müfettiş) kan ter içinde açıklama yapmak gerekir. Aslında en rahatı hiç ihale, dolayısı ile de hiç iş yapmamaktır. Mevcut denetim mekanizmaları iş yapanı canından bezdirebilir.

4. İş tamamlanınca para ödenir.

İhale hilelerinde hizmeti talep edenin hile yapması nispeten azaltılabilir. İki mekanizma söz konusu:
a) Vicdan, aile terbiyesi gibi elle tutulamayan şeyler
b) Kanunlar (sadece üçkağıda azimli insanların işini arttırır, önleyemez)

Ancak hizmeti sunanların üçkağıtlarını önlemek çok daha zor. Üçkağıt yöntemlerine bakalım:
- İhale olmaması için söz konusu iş ihale bedelinin altında kalan alt parçalara bölünür, her alt parça da "dost" firmalar tarafından yapılıyormuş gibi gösterilir, i.e. faturayı "dost" firmalar keser. Böylece hiç ihale bürokrasisi olmadan iş bağlanır. En büyük sorun işleyebilmesi için müşteri işbirliğinin gerekmesidir.
- Firma birkaç tanıdık firma ile ihaleye katılır, aslında teklifi veren tek firmadır.
- Katılmak isteyen diğer fimalar rüşvetle, tehditle sindirilir. Meblağ arttıkça tehdit işlevini daha şöhretli kişiler yerine getirmeye başlar (örnek: İnci Baba, Alaattin Çakıcı)


- Zavallı müşteri sonucu belli bir ihale ile hizmet almak zorunda kalır.

Şimdi denebilir ki "ihale gazetede duyruluyor, tehdit edilenler hakkını mahkemelerde arasın". Memleketin hukuk mekanizmalarının ve hukuk kadrolarının verimliliği ortada. İşin daha da vahimi mahkemeleri tartışmak tabu. Herhangi bir borcu mahkeme kararı ile tahsil etmeyi bir deneyin. Bir yakınım 4 yıl süren mahkeme sonunda davayı kazanır (miktar 30 Milyar), ancak davalı yargıtaya götürür mevzuyu ve dava yargıtay raflarında tozlanır. Geriye iki yol kalıyor: a) Vazgeç b) Yukarıda bahsettiğimiz tehdit mekanizmasını işlet.

Hukukla ilgili iki parantez:
- Dava süresince kararı etkileyebilecek konularda yayın yapmama kuralı var ki memleketteki dava sürelerine bakarsak mahkemelere aksetmiş olaylar hiçbir zaman tartışılamayacak gibi gözüküyor.
- Kanunların esas amacının vatandaşın haklarını korumak değil, devletin haklarını korumak olduğu gibi bir inanç var içimde.
İlerleyen yazılarda değiniriz.

Belediyelerle ilgili durum: Belediye ihalelerini kazanacak olan nihayetinde başkanın seçim masraflarını karşılamış kişi/kurumdur. Belediyelerle çalışmak pek arzulanmaz zaten çünkü belediyeler borçlarını ödemeleriyle meşhur değildirler.

Çözüm önerilerim:
1. İhalede sorumluluk alacak kişileri "dikkatli" seç. İnsan kalitesini arttır --> Eğitim
2. Kanunları karmaşıklaştırma, basitleştir. İhale yapanları canından bezdirme. Üç kağıt yapan zaten yapıyor. Bırak iş yapan rahat etsin.
3. Şu hukuk mevzusunu hallet. Etkin bir hukuk sistemi olmadan diğer öneriler işlevsizdir.
4. Vatandaş olarak kötü hizmet sunanların canını sıkalım. Bağırıp çağırmadan, kararlı bir şekilde yapalım, bol bol mizah kullanalım, dalga geçelim. Bloğumun bir amacı da budur. İnternet çok faydalı olabilir.


"Sevgili okur", senin bildiğin başka üçkağıtlar/çözüm önerileri varsa duyalım, analizi derinleştirelim.

Elin oğlu nasıl tedbirler almış aceba?

Yataklı Tren

Gebze yolculuklarında bir de yataklı treni denedim. Biletin parasını TCDD web sayfasından ödedim. Trenin kalkmasından önce de gara gidip bileti bilet otomatından aldım. Sorunsuz... Fiyatı biraz tuzlu (62 YTL). Gece 22:30'da Ankara garından yola çıkıyor ve sabah 07:10'da Pendik'te oluyor. İlk bakışta ümit vaadediyordu. Kompartmanın lavabosu, elektrik prizi (laptop için lazım) var:


Yatak da rahattı:


Ancak doğru düzgün uyumak mümkün olmadı. Tren seyri sırasında çok sallanıyor ve gürültü çıkarıyor. Hadi gürültüyü kulak tıkacı ile önlemek mümkün olur ancak sallantıya çare yok. Sallantı periyodik olsa belki beşik etkisi ile uyunabilir. Ancak sallantı gayet aperiyodik, bu nedenle de 10 dakikadan fazla dalmak mümkün olmadı. Kısacası iş değil...

Introductory Physics

If you would like to have an introduction to physics with as little formulas as possible, like Mr. Atalay, then get Newtonian Physics by Benjamin Crowell which is located at the Newtonian Physics page

Advanced MS Word

I notice that a lot of people struggle needlessly with Word while it could be their best friend. It is especially tragic for documents > 5 pages. Below is a list of features I think might be useful:

- Styles, headings
- Good picture and table captions
- Overcoming the numbering nightmare by linking numbers to styles
- Creating your own Normal.dot: The perfect Normal.dot
- Document map is your friend
- Outline view is your friend too
- Using the page splitter on top right to view a document in two windows


- Cleaning up the toolbar to gain space
- Page breaks, section breaks
- "Keep with next"
- Cross references
- Format painter
- Using "seq" field
- Pressing F9 to update fields (Ctrl+A and then F9 updates everything)
- Inserting page numbers
- Fine cropping inserted pictured while pressing "alt" key
- Using word for drawing arrows etc.
- Equation Editor/Mathtype tips, shortcuts
- Using Autocomplete for things like turning "-->" into an arrow
- Table insertion button "TableInsertGeneral"





- --> işaretini Autocorrect’te normal copy paste ile koyunca olmuyor, word’e yazıp seçmek ve sonra autocorrect’i çağırmak gerekiyor. Böylece formatted text aktif oluyor.
- Outline view + doc Map ile easy copy-paste
- Compare docs özelliği
- Compare side by side, synchronous scrolling
- Using Seq to have number format like 001, 002, 099. Bullets and numbering only allows 01,02..10,11. However, then you loose automatic bookmarking to use in cross referencing. You have to insert bookmarks manually into Seq.
- Let's say you have two people who write two sections of a document. You can create a master document to host their subdocuments. Choose outline view --> insert subdoc inserts a subdoc and saves it separately so that everyone gets to work only on their section in a separate doc. If you want to embed the subdocs then choose remove subdoc.

If you know of other interesting features, drop me a line so that we can share.
To be continued...

Winter arrives...

The first snowflake has fallen in Ankara (around 16:00). Waiting for the ski season!

Migros sanal market

Migros'un sanal marketinden alışveriş yaptım. Çalışıyor. Yalnız yumurtanın yanındaki adet meğersem paket adediymiş. Ben 4 yumurta beklerken 4 paket geldi! Artık eşe dosta dağıtıciiz :P

Why blog?

Here is my shortlist for blogging reasons:

• To remember (links, ideas, photos, memories).
• Develop ideas through systematic, critical thinking. You can come up with solutions while writing down the problem.

Talking about your ideas with other people is a good way to develop them. But even after doing this, you'll find you still discover new things when you sit down to write. Paul Graham

• While writing I do google searches, look the subject up on wikipedia and become more informed about the subject I am writing about.
• Improve writing skills: Other people should be able to understand what you say. Good writing is very important both socially and professionally.
• Share ideas, get in touch with like-minded people.
• Market yourself.
• Hone observation skills: Once you start to blog, you look out for things to write.
• Improve English.
• "When you get an idea, go and write. Don't waste it in conversation." --Kenneth Koch
• How to Write Without Writing:

The difference between a tolerable programmer and a great programmer is not how many programming languages they know, and it's not whether they prefer Python or Java. It's whether they can communicate their ideas. - Joel

• You should write blogs:

The important thing to realize here is that you can save work by blogging. Many people have figured out that this is true of Wiki: rather than explaining the same thing over and over, you put your explanation in Wiki once, and you're done. From then on you can just point people to it. Some of the stuff you write as part of your ordinary workday will be interesting and useful to others. All you need to do is keep an eye out for things you've written that might be worth publishing. Then the "I'm too busy" argument just evaporates, because it's almost no effort to dump some document or email rant or whatever into your blog. ...you can't please everyone, and you won't please everyone, so focus on making yourself happy. ...practically nobody will read your blog. Unless it's good. Even then, it'll be a very long time before lots of people have read it. Don't worry, though. If you put in the effort, and you write honestly, people will eventually find their way there.

• The Ultimate Code Kata:
  

The people who can write and communicate effectively are, all too often, the only people who get heard. They get to set the terms of the debate.

• What to do when you are screwed:

...writing stuff down is a great way to make information scale… because you don’t

• What is going on here:

"It also encourages you to capture 'fringe-thoughts': various ideas which may be byproducts of everyday life, snatches of conversation overheard in the street, or, for that matter, dreams. Once noted, these may lead to more systematic thinking, as well as lend intellectual relevance to more directed experience."

• How To Achieve Ultimate Blog Success In One Easy Step:

Every time I wrote, I got a little better at writing. Every time I wrote, I learned a little more about the topic, how to research topics effectively, where the best sources of information were.

• ...and the last reason is to know myself:

"We must not cease from exploration and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we began and to know the place for the first time." -- T. S. Eliot

Blog best practices

One of the main reasons I write this blog is to keep track of my ideas. However, they usually pop up when I am not in front of the computer and later I forget most of them. I decided to jot ideas down in a small notebook. Below you see such a page that I scribbled while waiting for the bus in Istanbul. The bus had a 1 hour delay and for the first time I was happy with that.



I suggest to get a small notebook that you can carry with you at all times and write your ideas when they come up.

Live from ulusoy

Finally Ulusoy managed to install a "working" wireless in its Royal Class buses. Right now I am writing from 18:45 İstanbul-Ankara line. Feels good ;)
If this wireless thingy starts to spread, I guess I have to buy a laptop!

The blogosphere is expanding!

New discoveries in blog physics revealed that the blogosphere is expanding at an accelerating rate. Evidence: Umut'un doktorası, Koray blogs here, Umut'un günlüğü.

Being effective

How do you do effective research (or any job) and how do you publicize it? Read on for wisdom:

"People who are masters aren't afraid to speak simply and clearly"
Olin Shivers

" Why shouldn't you do significant things in this one life, however you define significant?
...
Once you get your courage up and believe that you can do important problems, then you can.
...
If what you are doing is not important, and if you don't think it is going to lead to something important, why are you at Bell Labs working on it?
...
You have to learn to write clearly and well so that people will read it, you must learn to give reasonably formal talks, and you also must learn to give informal talks...The technical person wants to give a highly limited technical talk. Most of the time the audience wants a broad general talk and wants much more survey and background than the speaker is willing to give. As a result, many talks are ineffective.
...
You find this happening again and again; good scientists will fight the system rather than learn to work with the system and take advantage of all the system has to offer. It has a lot, if you learn how to use it. It takes patience, but you can learn how to use the system pretty well, and you can learn how to get around it...I didn't say you should conform; I said the appearance of conforming gets you a long way...By realizing you have to use the system and studying how to get the system to do your work, you learn how to adapt the system to your desires. Or you can fight it steadily, as a small undeclared war, for the whole of your life."

Richard Hamming, You and Your Research

Ghost Image

My pc has the fine habit of going completely down every 6 months. Since it has a SATA hard disc, I need its special floppy too. It's a pain in the butt. I guess to have a ghost image might cure my pains (not the SATA problem though). Read Radified Guide to Norton Ghost. It explains the basic idea.

The combination of the small program file (ghost.exe, on a bootable floppy, or on a bootable CD/DVD) .. and the large image file [file_name.gho, stored on a drive/partition other than the one you plan to restore, or on a CD, or on a series of multiple "spanned" CDs if your image is larger than 650MB, or on a DVD] .. gives you the ability to restore your system to an earlier, working configuration .. in minutes! .. no matter how badly you screw things up. Sound rad? It is!

Another interesting link is about slimming down Windows XP. Ever wondered what those millions of files that come with XP do and whether you could safely erase them? Read the slimming guide by bold_fortune.

Folder Icons

I use total commander for file manipulation instead of windows explorer. Total commander is much more versatile. A good feature is the ability to add folder shortcuts to the toolbar. I added shortcuts to My Documents and Desktop folders. However, if you want the original icons on those shortcuts, you have to hunt the files containing the icons. It took me half an hour. So, i spare you lucky folks that time. Step 1: Add folder shortcuts to toolbar: Step 2: Find file with icons (e.g. c:\Windows\System32\shell32.dll) and select icons:

Hukuk

Güncel hayatımızı ilgilendiren 657 numaralı devlet memurları kanunu vb. çekici hukuki konular için hukukcu.com sitesine bakalım.

Kiracısınız ve hukuki durumunuzu mu bilmek istiyorsunuz? Kira el kitabını alınız efendim.

Weblog usability guidelines

Jacob Nielsen writes about usability:

Whenever you post anything to the Internet -- whether on a weblog, in a discussion group, or even in an email -- think about how it will look to a hiring manager in ten years. Once stuff's out, it's archived, cached, and indexed in many services that you might never be aware of.

Bureaucracy

I am a critical user of formal quality procedures, i.e. I use them but I am their harshest critic too. The wikipedia article about Bureaucracy hits some nerve:

...left uncontrolled, the bureauracy will become increasingly self-serving and corrupt, rather than serving society.

Bureaucracy is ... always a cost to society, but this cost may be accepted insofar as it makes social order possible, and maintains it.

If ... the state owns the means of production itself, the state bureaucracy can become much more powerful, and act as a ruling class or power elite.

Central to the Marxian concept of socialism is the idea of workers' self-management, which assumes the internalisation of a morality and self-discipline among people that would make bureaucratic supervision and control redundant, together with a drastic reorganisation of the division of labour in society. Bureaucracies emerge to mediate conflicts of interest on the basis of laws, but if those conflicts of interest disappear, bureaucracies would also be redundant.

...as bureaucracy creates more and more rules and procedures, their complexity raises and coordination diminishes, facilitating creation of contradictory rules.

Pricing simulation software

If you are assigned to come up with a price for a simulation software product use the following algorithm:

- List major tasks:
1. Coding
2. Requirements and design (these two go hand in hand)
3. Documentation (from requirements to the final test reports)
4. Testing (...at least 4 test cycles of FORMAL testing. I stress FORMAL, meaning tons of bureaucracy)
5. Project management (all tose nasty meetings, travels, coordination, logistic arrangements etc.)
6. Work done by support people (quality assurance, configuration management, project coordination, FORMAL reviews)
7. Debugging (zillion of times)

- Pick the task with which you are familiar and give it a number representing effort under best circumstances. In our case that's coding. Let's give it a 1

- Using your previous experience, assign effort numbers to other tasks:
1. Coding = 1
2. Requirements and design = 2
3. Documentation = 5
4. Testing = 5
5. Project management = 4
6. Work done by support people = 3
7. Debugging = 5

- Sum effort = 1 + 2 + 5 + 5 + 4 + 3 + 5 = 25

- Think how much time coding will take. It depends on a lot of things, mainly on your experience in the problem domain. In our example, let's say it is something easy and coding will take 1 week. So our total effort would be 25 weeks.

- Round it up to the nearest month = 7 months.

Ok, under best conditions, we would need 7 man X month effort.

If you have a good customer (i.e. he is an experienced engineer and has a vague idea about the requirements), chances are that you will end up with 50% more effort. If he is not an engineer, that extra would be 100%. If he is an idiot...well, don't do it!

Now, let's say he is a reasonable man but not an engineer. That would increase our cost to 14 man X month. That's your base cost. Anything less this amount, and you pay the project from your own pocket. Ignore it at your own peril.

On top of this number you add your profit. How do you determine that? Well, it depends on the market pressure, how much the customer wants the product, negotiation skills, bribes you pay etc.

For more in depth coverage read joel and eric.

Note 1: If you are a novice you could easily promise 1 week for a simulation and then end up in a miserable cycle of updates, rewrites etc. I have been there, done that. My current record is 6 years!

Note 2: If you work for a paying customer and adhere to quality and documentation, the easiest simulation project is..ta taa.. >10 man X month! "Let's throw quality and doc. out of the window" you say..."Throw yourself too" I reply. Life is too short to work on a simulation project without quality procedures and documentation.

Away from home...

I am away again...One week in Gebze...Will be back next Tuesday (hopefully)


Tech tip of the week: If you have thousand files in a directory which has thousand subdirectories, trying to delete it can be painfully slow if you use the usual windows way. At these times, our good old friend DOS comes to rescue. Lets say the uppermost directory is "samil". To delete it with all its subdirectories type the following in a command window:

del samil /s /q

You ask about those "/s" and "/q"? Type "help del" in command window. You don't know what the command window is? Get the hell outta here!

Karamürsel

A view from my hotel room...

And, yes, children need some beating now and then:

"The problem is that kids today think their opinions matter. By not beating your kids, they get a skewed perspective of reality where they start thinking that they have it rough and that they can get away with dying their hair and listening to Insane Clown Posse."

What I want to be

While cruising through reddit, I found this article about Feynmann. Feynmann comes pretty close to be the person I would like to be...

"Actually, I doubt that it was "progress" that most interested Richard. He was always searching for patterns, for connections, for a new way of looking at something, but I suspect his motivation was not so much to understand the world as it was to find new ideas to explain. The act of discovery was not complete for him until he had taught it to someone else."

Irrelevant fun site: The best page in the universe (which is Banned in Saudi Arabia)
"I exaggerate everything, except for my manliness which is enviable"

USA report - 3

Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) is a nice place...


We ate our lunches at the "Top of the Bay"...


By the way, Americans are obsessed with security these days...



There was an ordnance museum inside APG...


...with a giant bomb at the front...



...and lots of tanks on display outdoors...


...plus howitzers...


They had interesting stuff inside too. The antitank rifles were impressive. They look like ordinary rifles, only much bigger...



There was even an ENIAC computer!

Visual illusion

Here is a visiual illusion that amazes me everytime I look at it. Cognitive explanations, anyone? ;)

Sosyal ayrıntılar

Geçmişte "suratsız" olduğuma dair eleştirler almıştım. Bazen "abi neyin var?" sorularına muhattap olup şaşırırdım, çünkü o sırada gayet keyifliyimdir, sadece düşünüyorumdur (bkz. introvert). Epey bir zamandır yüz ifadem ve ses tonum üzerinde çalışıyorum. Artık dürüstçe gülümseyebiliyor, kulağa garip gelmeyen bir şekilde "teşekkür ederim" diyebiliyorum. Özellikle de yurt dışında olduğumda bu özellikler kişiliğimin bir parçası oluyor. Hiçbir efor sarfetmeden herkese selam veriyorum.

Peki neden yurt dışındayken daha başarılıyım? Sanırım etrafımdaki insanların davranışları ile ilgili. Geçenlerde Amerika'da iken insanların birbirilerini tanımadıkları halde gülümseyerek selam vermeleri çok hoşuma gitmişti. İçten miydiler değil miydiler bilmiyorum, ama güzeldi.

Peki ya memleketteki durum? Yurtdışından Türkiye'ye ayak bastığımda ilk dikkatimi çeken hep insanların yüzleridir: Yüzlerinden fiziksel ve ruhsal sağlıkları hakkında fikir edinirim ve İstanbul havaalanında gördüklerim canımı sıkar: Sarı-gri yüzler, çökmüş yanaklar, çatık kaş, ürkek bakışlar...

Birkaç yıl önce bir arkadaşım ile sohbetim aklıma geldi. İşyerinde (eski binada) uzun bir koridor vardır. Bu koridorun iki ucundan hareket eden iki kişi birbirilerini herhalde 30-40 saniye görürler. Bu iki kişi samimi veya "küs" değillerse şöyle bir muhasebe başlar:
- Hmm, karşıdaki kişi X (hafızadan X ile ilgili +,- data yüklenir)
- Aramızda henüz mesafe ver. Şunlardan birini yapiim
a) Birşey düşünüyormuş gibi davraniim
b) Sağa, sola bakiim ama kesinlikle onun yüzüne değil
- Eyvah, artık birbirimizi görmemiş gibi yapamayacağımız kadar yaklaştık.
- Bana bakıyorum mu (göz ucuyla kontrol et)
- Bakıyor ise ben de ona bakiim.
- Gülümsiim (İçten yapan azdır)
- Kısa bir selamlaşma ve...oh be bitti

Gözlemlerime ve kendi deneyimlerime dayanarak yukarıdaki senaryonun fena halde stresli olduğunu söyleyebilirim. Peki ben ne yapıyorum? İlk andan itibaren karşıdakinin yüzüne bakıyor ve gülümsüyorum. Gülümsemem artık suni değil, gerçekten o kişiyi gördüğüme memnunum. Bunda çalıştığım işyerindeki yüksek insan kalitesinin payı büyük. Yanına geldiğimde de artık herkesin benden alışık olduğu bir espiri olan "Sayın X.soyadı" diyorum. Minimum bu. Arada ufak bi sohbet de olabiliyor. Genellikle sıkıntılı bir durum olan kısa süre sonra tekrar karşılaşma durumu da "Sık görüşür olduk" espirisi ve müstehzi bir gülümseme ile küçük bir hoşluğa dönüşür. "Müstehzi" kelimesini kullandığım için gururluyum xP

Enteresan olan dalgınlıkla birini görmeyip selam vermediğimde canlarının ne kadar sıkıldığıdır. Bir dahaki karşılaşmada sizi görmeyerek öçlerini alırlar. Acayip...Varın daha karmaşık sosyal olayları düşünün. Kendimi bazen mayın tarlasında gibi hissediyorum.

Yakın çevremdekilerin de bu tür davranışlarını gördüğümde onlara rahatlamalarını, en ufak mevzuyu kişiliklerine hakaret gibi algılamamalarını öneriyorum. Geçenlerde kaldığımız misafirhaneden iki örnek:

1. Taksi ile MAM ana giriş kapısına geldik, görevlinin bariyeri kaldırmasını bekliyoruz. Acelemiz yok. Görevli telefon ile konuşuyor. Arkadaşım bariyeri açar mısınız diyor. Görevli eliyle bir saniye işareti yapıp konuşmaya devam ediyor. Arkadaş orantısız bir öfke ile sesini yükseltip tartışmaya başlıyor. Herkesin canı sıkılıyor.

2. Misafirhanedeki görevli bir diğer arkadaşa giriş kimliğini soruyor, arkadaş sülalesine sövülmüş gibi davranmaya başlıyor.

Alla alla, abi nedir bu memleketteki artislik? Biraz rahat olun kardeşim... Enerjinizi gerçek kriz durumlarına saklayın. Belki kendine güven eksikliğindendir... Kendime güvenim arttıkça insanlara olan toleransım ve empatim de arttı.

Eh haliyle Türkiye'de gülümsemek biraz daha zor olabiliyor. Ama azimliyim :)

Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg?

I am interested in methods of propaganda. One of its masters is Joseph Goebbels. I just downloaded a short section of his famous Sport Palast Speech. You can find the original german text here. A very good example of effective propaganda indeed.

Goebbels: Ich frage euch: Wollt ihr den totalen Krieg? Wollt ihr ihn, wenn nötig, totaler und radikaler, als wir ihn uns heute überhaupt noch vorstellen können?

Antwort: Ja! Sieg Heil!

Consequences of 1/10 in binary

A while ago we had a chat with Mr. Atalay about the interesting fact that you can't express the decimal 0.1 exactly in binary (try it!). I just read a report related to this fact which was the reason of 28 soldiers getting killed in the Gulf War. Excerpt:

"On February 25th, 1991, a Patriot Missile system that had been running for over 100 hours at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia had failed to intercept a SCUD missile. The SCUD hit an Army Barracks, killing 28 Americans. On the next day, the Bug Fix for the system arrived at Dhahran[2].

The reason this bug occurred is because of a problem with storing time in a 24-bit register. The problem is that time is stored to an accuracy of 1/10th of a second, but a 24-bit register does not have enough precision to store 0.1, so a small fraction of each second is lost. The result is that the register used to keep track of time is off by 0.0001% of the amount of time that the system has been in operation. The problem is that computers do not store information as a standard decimal. Instead, they use binary code, which can not accurately store 1/10th of a second...It was estimated that after running the system for twenty hours, the calculations made using the old algorithm and those made by the new algorithm differed by as much as 1/3 of a second[3]. A SCUD missile can travel more than one mile per second."

Click here and here for other cases of software malfunctions.

By the way, our chat with Mr. Atalay can be summarized as follows:

One aspect of the chaotic systems is that you need an infinite amount of knowledge about the initial conditions of the system to make some prediction (see butterfly effect). Might there be a possibility that with some other form of representation, to solve the difficulty of infinite information requirement? As an example take the decimal 0.1; If we knew only the binary system, we would need an infinite number of digits to represent 0.1 exactly. And if one day a super-intelligent alien visited us and taught us the ultra-high-tech decimal system, voilla, you have exact representation with just 1 significant digit! Of course, instead of adopting this new wisdom, we would quickly proceed to burn that infidel alien (!)

Care to think about Pi and sqrt(2)? Or shall we rather wait for the green guys in flying saucers to drop by?

Tip for bargaining

...when you go to an eastern bazaar you never ask the salesman the price of something you like a lot. You just ask for the price of something you don't like and after you disagree with the give&take price, you say "Ok I give up, I'll take that one(the thing you liked on the first place)

Anonymous

Google calculator

Just discovered the Google calculator while trying to find how many km's 75 miles were. Just type "75 miles=? km". Very useful feature.

Caring for your introvert

I guess I can be called an introvert. Here is a very entertaining article about it. Excerpts:

Do you know someone who needs hours alone every day?...Who has to be dragged to parties and then needs the rest of the day to recuperate?

...introverts are people who find other people tiring... Extroverts are energized by people, and wilt or fade when alone. They often seem bored by themselves, in both senses of the expression. Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially "on," we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn't antisocial. It isn't a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: "I'm okay, you're okay—in small doses."

If we introverts ran the world, it would no doubt be a calmer, saner, more peaceful sort of place.

How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice? First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.

Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"

Third, don't say anything else, either.

Evolution by Daniel C. Dennett

A nice article by Mr. Dennet. Excerpts:

"First you misuse or misdescribe some scientist's work. Then you get an angry rebuttal. Then, instead of dealing forthrightly with the charges leveled, you cite the rebuttal as evidence that there is a "controversy" to teach."

"The fundamental scientific idea of evolution by natural selection is not just mind-boggling; natural selection, by executing God's traditional task of designing and creating all creatures great and small, also seems to deny one of the best reasons we have for believing in God. So there is plenty of motivation for resisting the assurances of the biologists. Nobody is immune to wishful thinking. It takes scientific discipline to protect ourselves from our own credulity, but we've also found ingenious ways to fool ourselves and others."

"Brilliant as the design of the eye is, it betrays its origin with a tell-tale flaw: the retina is inside out. The nerve fibers that carry the signals from the eye's rods and cones (which sense light and color) lie on top of them, and have to plunge through a large hole in the retina to get to the brain, creating the blind spot. No intelligent designer would put such a clumsy arrangement in a camcorder, and this is just one of hundreds of accidents frozen in evolutionary history that confirm the mindlessness of the historical process."

USA Report - 2

I am back in Turkey. Let's continue our report. Where was I? Ah yes, I rented a Nissan Sentra...

...notice those dam dents (circled in red in larger picture)? I didnt notice them when I was renting the car. They almost charged me for it when I returned the car at the end of week! Lesson learnt: Look carefully at the car before leaving car rental park.

I finally found Aberdeen and settled in Red Roof Inn...

The next day I went to Aberdeen Proving Ground Building 305...

...3rd floor...

to be continued...

USA report-1

I am still alive. Right now I am at the Harford County Public Library, computer #5, having some trouble with the US keyboard. Yesterdays adventure was as follows:

- Got up in the morning (7:15) -> breakfast(7:30) -> taxi (7:45) -> blue bus from Gebze to Istanbul (8:00)

- Reached Istanbul 4.Levent (9:00) -> Got to the metro and reached Taxim (9:30) -> Went to Aksaray metro via Taxi from Taxim (9:45) -> Got to the aiport via metro (10:15)

- Went through x-Ray -> Found thy to check in, but they told me that I first had to go through security check -> Went through questioning -> Got hungry and ate Twix -> Went through another x-ray -> Baggage was searched manually (11:15) -> They told us not to worry 'cause the plane was 50 min. late. -> Check in accomplished -> Got on an internet machine at a photo express to amend my car reservation due to late flight.

- Passport control -> Bought Snickers, seeing the huge gate que -> Qued up and ate Snickers -> Through x-ray again -> Another manual baggage search -> Boraded plane, my seat being 37G (3 rows before the last row)

- Concerned about the fact that the family next to me having a 4 year old child -> Captain anouncing a flight time of 9 hours flight (darn!) -> Plane take off (13:00)

- Eating lunch -> Kid spilling cola over my trousers (I knew it!), me keeping cool -> Being through the journey in a half coma state, neck aches (reminder: bring a pillow with you, the plane wont have enuff) -> Watching a Bruce Willis movie -> Eating dinner -> Filling immigrant and custom forms-> Plane touching down JFK airport at 15:55 (which came as a surprise for me - I was expecting it at 16:50)

- Going through passport control, fingerprints and photos taken (16:30) -> Taking the airtrain in JFK to car rental -> Gettin my car, a Nissan -> Investigating car -> Looking at the maps, trying to figure my way down Aberdeen (17:30)

- While still in the car park, a girl and a guy asked me if I could them give a lift to the airport terminal since they were late (plane @ 18:00). They promised me 20 $. When they saw me struggling with the automatic transmission she said that I have to press the brake first and then move from P to D and asked if it was the fisrt time i drove a car. I assumed it was a joke (!). They were from California. The guy was from Mexico I think. She knew 4 Turkish people, they were nice bla bla. After making a few circles (they were not sure about the way to terminal 7), we arrived. 20$? I am a gentleman...

- After wiping the sweat from my forehead, I slowly proceeded to exit the airport. There was heavy traffic up to Verezano bridge, but I had no trouble. Paid 9 bucks at the bridge. Next target: Goethals bridge. I somehow missed it, thinking New Jersey Turnpike is the wrong way since NJ is in the North. Well, NJ Turnpike was correct. Found myself at a restraunt, asking them about I-95S. Misinerpreting their direction, I found myself at the Goethals bridge, but at the wrong side. Paid 6 bucks for nothing. Made an exit, got to a gas station, bought silly items (e.g. peanut butter - essential traveller item (!)) to change my 100$ bill. The nice people there told me to follow 40s (on which I was) down to overbridge crossing and then follow NJ Turnpike. I thought it would not be far, but boy I was wrong. After anxciously driving 60 miles I reached NT Turnpike (sigh of relief) (21:00)

- After some time, I realized that I could fall asleep, I stopped at a service station and had a 1 hour nap. Woke up with the alarm while I was having strange dreams. Continued driving and everyting went OK. At 23:30 I finally reached Aberdeen Red Roof Inn. I fell asleep totally exhausted.

- Woke up at 7:15, ate the slice of cake with sprites that I bought last night (wise decision). Shower, shaving, way to Aberdeen Proving Ground (APG) (8:15). At the APG gate I met people I knew from previous meetings and followed them. Unfortunately, it was the NABK meeting. Asked Mr. Lieske about the NIFAK meeting. Building 305. Did I find it the first time? 'course not! After 2 iterations I finally found 305, which looks like a maze to the un-trained eye. At 9:15 I found the NIFAK guys.

Samil reporting from Aberdeen-Maryland, 17:49 local time, 00:49 Turkey time.

Flying to the USA

I will travel to the USA and stay there for a week. I will fly from İstanbul to New York.

From the airport I will rent a car and drive to Aberdeen, Maryland (MD) where I will attend business meetings and come back on sunday.

I will stay at the Red Roof Inn. The weather in Aberdeen seems partly cloudy, with a few raindrops. You want to convert Fahrenheit to Celcius? Here is the formula: C = 5/9*(F-32). For example, 83F=28C (about the average during my stay in Aberdeen). Places I plan to visit after meetings:

Barnes & Noble
Harford Mall
Bull on the Beach
Outlet
Loonies Pub
Havre de Grace

By the way, http://www.demis.nl/home/pages/wms/demiswms.htm has a nice map tool written in Flash.

Goethe

Heidenröslein

Sah ein Knab ein Röslein stehn,

Röslein auf der Heiden,

War so jung und morgenschön,

Lief er schnell, es nah zu sehn,

Sah's mit vielen Freuden.

Röslein, Röslein, Röslein rot,

Röslein auf der Heiden.

Knabe sprach: "Ich breche dich,

Röslein auf der Heiden!"

Röslein sprach: "Ich steche dich,

Daß du ewig denkst an mich,

Und ich will's nicht leiden."

Röslein, Röslein, Röslein rot,

Röslein auf der Heiden.

Und der wilde Knabe brach

's Röslein auf der Heiden;

Röslein wehrte sich und stach,

Half ihm doch kein Weh und Ach,

Mußt es eben leiden.

Röslein, Röslein, Röslein rot,

Röslein auf der Heiden.

Goethe (1771)

Şamil'in aile ağacı

Aşağıda henüz eksik olan aile ağacım var. zaman içinde tamamlamayı umuyorum.

Gücük Hikayeleri

Gücük’teki sülaleler şunlar: Dabılar, Çöçiler, Selimbiler, Tankolar, Bolatlar, Bozkurtlar. Sülaleler adlarını sülalenin başlangıcı sayılabilecek kişilerin lakaplarından (Dabı Musa, Tanko Musa, Çöçi Memmet) veya soyisimlerinden almışlar.
Selimbiler Türk çoban ve kahyalara sahip olduklarından Türkçe’yi, dolayısı ile Türkçe küfürleri daha önce öğrenmişler. Veysel Korkmaz küçükken Selimbilerin çocuklarının küfürlerini anlamadığını, garipsediğini nakleder. Bugün dahi ağızlarının bozuk olduğunu söyleyebilirim.
Tankoların asıl sülale ismi ğordloy. Bu sülalenin temsilcileri Ürdün’de de bulunuyor. Bazen Türkiye’ye tatile geliyorlar.
Köydeki baskın sülaler Dabılar ve Selimbiler. Hem nüfusça kalabalık, hem de fiziksel olarak güçlü olmaları baskınlıklarının anahtarı. Köyü Dabılar+Selimbiler vs. diğerleri diye ikiye ayırmak mümkün. İlişkiler dostane olmaktan çok gergin.
Yorum: Yıllar içerisinde çok olay olmuş ve bunlar kuşaktan kuşağa nakledilerek husumet kültürü oluşturulmuş. Herkes kendisinin zulme uğradığını, herşeye hakkı olduğunu düşünüyor. Bu kültürü kırmanın tek yolu köyü terketmek gibi görünüyor. Örneğin ben köyü sadece tatillerde gördüğüm, akrabalarımla yılda ancak birkaç hafta geçirdiğim için eski hikayelerin propagandasından uzak kaldım. Uzun zaman köyün geçimsiz karakteri benim için bir bilmece idi. Gücük hikayelerini derlerken anlamaya başladım.

Gücük Hikayeleri

Nenem Ördek’in annesinin adı Ya’ (genç kız anlamındadır). Ya’, Dabı Musa’nın kızı ve Hacı İbreem’in eşi. Dabu Musa ile Hacı İbreem arasında çıkan bir anlaşmazlığın ardından Hacı İbreem Ya’ı babasına geri göndermiş. Ya’ bu sırada Ördek’e hamile imiş. Ördek’in annesi doğumundan kısa süre sonra ölmüş. Hacı İbreem Ördek’i teslim almış. Ördek annesini hiç emmemiş, köydeki Türk kadınlar süt annelik etmiş. Bu nedenler babamın pek çok Türk “dayısı” var. Bunlardan biri de Göksun’daki köfteci Faruk’un dedesi. Hacı İbreem Besir ile evlenmiş. Bu evlilikten Mirza ve İzzet doğmuş.
Ördek iki defa evlenmiş. İlk evliliğinden (adı?) Koka, Güle, Eşe, Nazlıhan doğmuş. İkinci evliliğini Süleyman ile yapmış. Bu evlilikten Veysel, Ramazan ve Şamiye doğmuş. Süleyman’ın ilk evliliğinden (adı?) ise Nadir ve Makbule doğmuş. Süleyman askerdeyken Tanko Musa eşini boşamış, kadın da Sivas’a akrabalarının yanına dönmüş ve orada evlenmiş. Kadını Sivas’tayken görmüştüm. O evlilikten de Sivas’taki Şükriye doğmuş.
Tanko Musa, kardeşi İshak (İshak ne olmuş?), annesi (adı?) ve babası Ta’z Bi ile birlikte Kafkasya’dan gelmiş. Önce bir yere (adı?) sonra Türkoğlu’na gelmişler. Ta’z Bi bu hasta imiş. Türkoğlu’na geldikten kısa süre sonra ölmüş. Güncelleme 14.04.2006:  T’az bi pazarcıkta ölmüş. İshak ve Musa ayrı babalardan. Hangisi T'az bi'den bilmiyorum.

Gücük’te bulunan Elbruz Duk (Türçe adı İsmail Kahya) bu kadını duymuş ve Türkoğlu’na görmeye gitmiş, daha sonra da evlenerek Gücük’e dönmüşler. Kadın Elbruz Duk’tan ayrılmış, 9 kez evlendiği rivayet edilir. Elbruz Duk tekrar evlenmiş (adı?) ve o evlilikten Hacı Kadir doğmuş.
Şamil'in yorumu: Yakın zamana kadar Gücük’te kadınlar kuluçka makinesinden hallice değere sahipler. Başlarına ne geleceği düşünülmeden kocaları, kayınbabaları tarafından boşanabiliyorlar. Tek evlilik istisna gibi görünüyor.

Gücük'ün Kuruluşu

1850 civarlarında Kafkasya’dan yoğun göçler başlamış. Bu göçler Anadolu, Suriye ve Ürdün ağırlıklı. Anadolu’ya gelen Behli isimli Çeçen bir imam köye adını vermiş. Köyün çeçence adı Behli Öyl (Behli’nin Köyü).

Zaman içinde Behli ile köylü arasında anlaşmazlık çıkmış ve Behli köyü terketmiş. Behli giderken köyde hiçbir zaman cinayet işlenmemesi dileğinde bulunmuş. Köyün ilgünç özelliklerinden biri o kadar ters insan olmasına rağmen bugüne kadar köy içinde cinayet işlenmemiş olması. Bunda kan davası korkusunun da payı büyük. Babam İstanbul’da üniversite’de iken Behli’nin Ürdün’den gelen kızını görmüş. Köyün resmi ismi önce Gücüksu olmuş, sonra Küçüksu olarak değiştirilmiştir.
Emin Bayazıt (dedem) köyün kuruluş yerinin hırsızlık yaptıktan sonra kolayca saklanmaya izin verecek bir yer olmasından dolayı seçildiğini söyler. O zamanlar köyün yerinde orman varmış ve ilk gelenler bu ormanın ortasına yerleşerek çevrelerinde terör estirmişler. Türklerin kullandığı bir söz varmış: “Dağlardan bir millet geldi. Gözleri göö, yedikleri darı, giydileri deri.”

Fitness

I am doing some serious fitness these days. Here are some pictures showing the action:

HTML Tip

I wanted all my links to open in a new window. Did a quick google and found the following:

If you want all the links on your page to open in a new window you
don't have to modify every one. It's a simple matter to apply a default
setting for the page so that all the links behave the same way. Here's
how: Insert the following code...

<base target="_blank">

...into the header of your document's HTML (i.e. anywhere between the <head> and </head> tags but not inside any other pairs of tags already there). (http://www.fontstuff.com/frontpage/fptut05.htm )

Now, in blogspot you go to your template (which is html code) and insert <base target="_blank"> right after <head>

Wedding...Chechen style

Ali, who is a relative and friend of mine married. It was a nice wedding in Çardak with all necessary ceremonies. The only problem was the August heat. "Who is that handsome guy on the left?" you ask... Şamil himself of course!



On the right, uncle Erol dances with my sister.







Here is little İlker, son of my uncle Cuma.






As a gift for the couple, we bought a few bracelets. Here you see my mom presenting them to the bride.