8.31.2006

Eksikliklerimiz Artılarımızdır

Japonya'da bir çocuk 10 yaslarindayken bir trafik kazasi geçirmis ve sol kolunu kaybetmis. Oysa çocugun büyük bir ideali varmis . Büyüyünce iyi bir judo ustasi olmak istiyormus.Sol kolunu kaybetmekle birlikte, bu hayali de yikilan çocugunun büyük bir depresyona girdigini gören babasi, Japonya'nin ünlü bir Judo ustasina gidip yapilacak bir seyin olup olmadigini sormus..

Hoca:

- Getir çocugu ..bir bakalim, demis.Ertesi gün baba-ogul varmislar hocanin yanina..Hoca çocugu süzmüs ve

-Tamam demis..yarin esyalarini getir, çalismalara basliyoruz.


Ertesi gün çocuk geldiginde hocasi ona bir hareket göstermis ve bu hareketi çalis demis. Çocuk bir hafta ayni hareketi çalismis.. Sonra hocasinin yanina gitmis."Bu hareketi ögrendim baska hareket göstermeyecek misiniz?" diye sormus.Hocanin cevabi:

-Çalismaya devam et olmus...2 ay,3 ay,6 ay derken çocuk okuldaki bir yilini doldurmus.. Çocuk bu bir yil boyunca hep o ayni hareketi tekrarlamis. .

Hocanin yanina tekrar gitmis:

-Hocam bir yildir ayni hareketi yapiyorum bana baska hareket göstermeyecek misiniz?

- Sen ayni hareketi çalis oglum . Zamani gelince yeni harekete geçeriz..


2 yil ,3 yil, 5 yil derken çocuk judodaki 10.yilini doldurmus.Bir gün hocasi yanina gelip..."Hazir ol ! " demis.. "Seni büyük turnuvaya yazdirdim. Yarin maça çikacaksin!"..Delikanli sok olmus.. Hem sol kolu yok hem de judo da bildigi tek hareket var. ..Ünlü judocularin katildigi turnuvada hiçbir sansinin olmayacagi düsünmüs ; ama hocasina saygisindan ses çikarmamis...Turnuvanin ilk günü delikanli ilk müsabakasina çikmis. Rakibine bildigi tek hareketi yapmis ve kazanmis. Derken.. ikinci ,üçüncü maç....çeyrek, yari final ve final...Finalde delikanlinin karsisina ülkenin son on yilin yenilmeyen sampiyonu çikmis. .Tam bir üstat delikanli dayanamayip hocasini yanina kosmus..


-Hocam hasbelkader buraya kadar geldik ama rakibime bir bakin hele..Bende ise bir kol eksik ve bildigim tekbir hareket var..bu kadar bana yeter..bari çikip ta rezil olmayayim izin verin turnuvadan çekileyim..


-Olmaz demis hocasi. Kendine güven,çik dövüs. Yenilirsen de namusunla yenil.Çaresiz çikmis müsabakaya. Maç baslamis.Delikanli yine bildigi o tek hareketi yapmis ve tak.!Yenmis rakibini sampiyon olmus. Kupayi aldiktan sonra hocasinin yanina kosmus:


-Hocam nasil oldu bu is? Benim bir kolum yok ve bildigim tek bir hareket var. Nasil oldu da ben kazandim.?


-Bak oglum 10 yildir o hareketi çalisiyordun. O kadar çok çalistin ki , artik yeryüzünde o hareketi sende daha iyi yapan hiç kimse yok. Bu bir, ikincisi de o hareketin tek bir karsi hareketi vardir.Onun için de rakibinin senin sol kolundan tutmasi gerekir.!Bunu anlatan dostumuz bir de sunu ekledi: Insanlarin eksiklikleri bazen ,ayni zamanda en güçlü taraflari olabilir: Ama yeter ki bu eksiklik kafalarinda olmasin...

8.17.2006

Finansbank Kredi Kartı Kullanıcılarını Çok Seviyor

Amerika'da internet erişimi hizmeti sunan AOL (American Online) 'nın kullanıcıları, üyeliklerini telefonla iptal ettirmek istediklerinde, müşteri temsilcilerinin lafı mümkün olduğunca uzatarak müşterilerini yıldırıp vazgeçirdikleri Amerikan halkı için bilinen bir gerçektir: http://youtube.com/watch?v=xIVZ9b0RgmY


Böyle şeyler sadece Amerika'da mı olur diyorsunuz? Gelin bir de ülkemizdeki duruma bakın.


Bir yandan basın ve tv kuruluşlarımız, sendikalarımız, sivil toplum kuruluşlarımız bilinçsiz kredi kartı kullanımı ile ilgili vatandaşlarımızı uyaradursun; bu baskılardan hükümet kredi kartı kullanımı azaltmak için yeni kanunlar çıkaradursun, bir yandan da bankalarımız hala daha kredi kartı kullandırmak için müşterilerine cazip teklifler sunmaya devam ediyor.


Burada da bizzat şahit olduğum bir olaydan bahsedeceğim. Kahramanlarımız kredi kartlarının sahibi babam, onu kredi kartları konusunda bilinçlendirmeye çalışan oğlu yani ben ve bir de bir kaç Finansbank müşteri temsilcisi...


Efendim olaylar bundan bir bir buçuk yıl önce, babanın kredi kartının son kullanma tarihi yaklaşınca başlıyor... Birgün Finansbank'tan bir müşteri temsilcisi hanımımız arar, babaya bu durumu hatırlatır ve en yakın zamanda yeni kartının gönderileceğini söyler. Hatta bu hanımın babaya hoş bir sürprizi de vardır. Artık kendisi bir GOLD kart sahibidir, harcasın, harcasın daha çok harcasın, harcadıkça daha çok kazansın(!) diye.. "Eski kredi kartı ne olacak?" diye sorar baba. Cevap çok basittir: "Son kullanma tarihi geçince kapatılacak hiçbir yerde geçerli olmayacak". Çok güzel..


Çok geçmeden yeni altın sarısı kartlar gelir, harcamalar devam eder. Ve aradan birkaç ay daha geçer, ama o da ne?. Eski CLASSIC diye tabir edilen kartların yenileri de gelir. Hem de son kullanma tarihi birkaç sene daha uzatılarak.. Herhalde bir yanlışlık oldu denilir ve olayın üzerinde durulmaz. Fakat birkaç ay sonra bankanın hiç kullanılmayan klasik kartlarına içinde sadece yıllık kullanım aidatı olan "çok cüzi" miktarda bir ekstre gelir. Herhalde bu geçtiğimiz sene için der baba ve ekstreyi öder. Bu arada bu klasik kartlar da yastık altında saklanmaktadır.


Aradan bir yıl geçer ve geçen ay yine bir ekstre gelir. Tahmin ettiniz değil mi? Yabancı sermaye deyip yunanlılara sattığımız bankamızdan karta dair yıllık ücret talep edilmektedir. Yine miktar cüzi olup 25 YTL kadardır. Tabi, hiç kullanmadığı kart için yıllık ücret gelince "okumuş çocuktur anlar" deyip durum oğula açılır. Oğul da zaten kredi kartını kullanmadığından bankayı arayıp kredi kartlarını iptal ettirmesinin iyi olacağını tavsiye eder. Banka aranır ve telefondaki "hanıma" durum izah edilir. "Ama," der hanımkızımız, "Önce bu ekstreyi ödemelisiniz, ondan sonra tekrar arayın kartınızı iptal edelim". "Nasıl olur?" der baba ve de "Bu geçtiğimiz yıl için alınan bir ücret beyefendi" der yine bu "hanımkızımız". "Peki" der baba ve ertesi gün oğluna parayı yatırmasını söyler. Oğul da teknolojiyi kullanıyor ya girer bankanın internet sitesine parayı yatırır ve nasıl olsa iptal olacak bari bu puanları Gold karta aktarayım" der. 300 puan da puandır sonuçta. Neyse ertesi gün akşamı tekrar aranır banka. Bu sefer karşı tarafta sektöre MT olarak ama büyük hayalleri olan, kariyer basamaklarını tek tek çıkmayı planlayan bir delikanlı vardır: "Beyefendi, başvuru kaydınızı aldım, yarın gün içinde size döneceğiz" der ve kapatır.


Aradan bir hafta kadar geçer. "Yahu baba, ne oldu kredi kartı işi, aradılar mı seni?" diye olayı soran oğula baba "Bak gördün mü yarın ararız dediler, hala aramadılar" diye cevap verir. Oğul bu cin gibidir. Üniversitede okumaktadır, az çok stajlarda, derslerde falan öğrenmiştir bu alemi... rekabet çok büyük boyuttadır... Bankalar kıyasıya mücadele ediyordur vatandaşlarımıza daha fazla harcatmak için, harcatırken kazan(dır)mak için...


Oğlunun telkinleri sonuç verir, "Şey ben kredi kartımı iptal ettirmek için rahatsız etmiştim, durumunu soracaktım" diye halini arzı endam etmeye çalışan babaya etkili ve inandırıcı konuşma konusunda onlarca seminere katılmış, kişisel gelişiminin zirvesinde bir insandan geldiği anlaşılan tok bir ses yanıt verir:.


"Beyefendi, bu işler bir hafta 10 gün sürer, Merak etmeyin, bu hafaiçinde biz size döneceğiz."


"Peki" der baba "İyi akşamlar efendim" der ve kapatır. Emekliliği için gün sayan, yıllarını işçi olarak tüketmiş babadan başka ne beklenir ki? Devlet kapısında el pençe durmayı ilk kural bellemiş, asıl sahibi olduğu kurumlarda bile el üstünde tutulacak yerde o kurumları, şirketleri yöneten kişilere karşı mahçup, saygıda kusur etmemiş bir vatandaştır kendisi en nihayetinde... Bu ülkede işçi, köylü, vatandaş, devlete ve onun temsilcilerine karşı hep korkarak yaklaşmıştır. Özel sektör aldı başını gidiyor gitmesine de vatandaş hala daha olayı anlayamamış, bir kaç on yıl geride kalmıştır, özel sektör de olsa tok sese sahip insanlara karşı nasıl davranılması gerektiğini iyi bilir vatandaş.


-Nasıl konuştun öyle ya baba? Sen müşterisin, müşteri ne demek? Müşteri her şeyden üstündür. Hangi devirde yaşıyoruz, biraz daha sert olup hakkını arasana!" diye kendini yer oğul. CRMden, müşteri memnuniyetinden, müşteri odaklılıktan hiç mi haberi yoktur şu babanın? "Ah, der şimdi ben olacaktım o telefonda", ama eli ekmek tutmaya başlamamıştır daha, okumaktadır bir üniversitede...


Aradan birkaç hafta daha geçer ve babayla oğulun beraber oturduğu bir zamanda babanın aklına durum gelir:


-"Bugün beni Finansbank'tan aradılar oğlum!"

-"Söyle bana iptal ettirdin di mi kartı?"

-"Dur bir dakika ya, bak şimdi adam dedi ki..."

-"Ya baba inanmıyorum ya, ne dedi? ne?"

-"Dedi ki.. Hani bizim ödediğimiz yıllık var ya o önümüzdeki sene içinmiş...

"Madem ödemişsiniz beyefendi, niye iptal ediyorsunuz ki.. Hem türlü türlü şey olabilir bu hayatta. Gold kartınızın "chip"i bozulabilir, yanınızda bir tane yedek bulunsun, lazım olur" dedi bana... ...


Ulan bu memlekette kredi kartı olan bir insan sanki sadece bir tane taşıyor ya? Biri bozuldu mu -ki kredi kartı nasıl bozulur?- öteki bankanınki ile alırsın. Olur mu???? İşlem öbür bankaya yazılır. Kar ona gider. O kullandırmış olur krediyi... Yok yok, yedeğini de göndermek şart oldu bu memlekette vatandaşa.. Baksana bu kadar kullanıma iyi dayanıyor şu melet...


-Sen de bunu yedin he?" der oğul iyice sinirlenmiştir artık.


-Yer miyim oğlum? Adam 50 milyonluk puan koydu karta. 50 milyon. İlk harcamada kullanabilecekmişim.


-Tamam ya, baba, bırak ya tamam sus, daha fazla dinlemek istemiyorum. Hadi sen işe gitsene ya.. Bak geç kalıyorsun...


50 milyonmuş, chipi bozulurmuş... Ne ala memleket ya.. Ondan sonra bu memleket niye kalkınmıyor? Biz de bu tür yaklaşım olduktan sonra... Ah baba eğitim eğitim diyorsun okumuş adamın sözünü de dinlemiyorsun ki... Böyle açılımlara kulak ver. CRM ağladı be..


Evet dostlar, biz burada istediğimiz kadar atalım tutalım, dolar kuru şöyle, cari açık çok böyle diye... bu kadar reel faizle bu borç yükü kalkmaz diye... dış piyasalarmış, sıcak paraymış, ülkemiz üzerinde kötü emelleri olan dış mihraplarmış, hepsi hikaye... Kafalar değişecek önce kafalar.. Hala anlamadınız mı? Sorun biz de... biz de.. Benim işçim değişecek, benim köylüm değişecek, benim gencim değişecek, benim bankacım değişecek, benim bankam değişecek... Yani hepimiz, vatandaş değişecek..


Yoksa NE OLACAK BU MEMLEKETİN HALİ?


NOT: Be yazıyı ANET'in haber gruplarında ekonomi grubuna atmıştım. Buralarda da bir kopyasının olmasını uygun gördüm.

8.15.2006

Arap Dünyası Neden Sessiz?

arapların sessiz kalmasının altında yatan en büyük sebeb arap ülkeleri ile abd arasında var olan ekonomik ya da siyasi işbirliği değildir. bunun altında yatan en büyük sebeb burada üzerinden pek geçilmeyen hizbullah gerçeğidir.


konuda bahsi geçen ülkelerin halkının çoğu sünnilerden oluşmaktadır ve de bu nedenle sünniler tarafından yönetilmektedirler. fakat israil'in hedef aldığı hizbullah ise ortadoğu da şii direnişinin bir simgesidir ve daha önceki eylemlerinde yalnızca israil'i değil bölgedeki sünni etmenlere karşı da mücadele etmiştir. kaldı ki lübnanda yaşanan iç savaş sırasında etnik kimlikler birbiriyle çatışırken bölgedeki şiileri hizbullah ve onun arkasındaki güçlü ülke iran desteklemiştir. yine aynı savaşta şiilere karşı savaşan sünnilerin arkasında ise bahsi geçen arap devletleri vardı. dolayısıyla iç savaştan kalma husumetler ve de şu anki ortadoğuda müslümanlar arasındaki çıkar çatışmaları arapların meseleyi uzaktan takip etmesine ya da birleşmiş milletler çerçevesinde hareket etmeye sevk ediyor.


asıl ilginç olan ise bu süre zarfında hamastan ya da el fetih'ten israil'e yönelik hiçbir saldırı ya da taciz yaşanmamasıdır. diğer arap ülkelerinde olduğu gibi onlar da meseleyi izlemekle yetinmektedir -bu sürede ateşkes çağrısında bulunmaktadırlar fakat kendilerinden "beklenen" fiili bir harekette bulunmamışlardır. buradan da onlara göre meselenin "israil-hizbullah sorunu" şeklinde anlaşıldığını çıkarabiliriz.


tüm bu olaylardan anladığım kadarıyla arap dünyasının ve amerika'nın meseleye biraz daha seyirci kalmasında ortadoğu'da son zamanlarda yükselen şii dalgasının etkileri neden olmaktadır. ırak'ın işgalinin ardından kurulan hükümetlerde şiilerin hakim güç olmaları, öteden beri şii milliyetçiliğinin adeta kalesi olan iran'ın son zamanlarda abd'ye ve israil'e yönelik cüretkar tavırları, bunlara örnektir. anladığım kadarıyla kuruluşundan beri batı medeniyeti'nin ortadoğu'daki maşalığını yapmış olan israil'in hizbullah ve de arkasındaki şiilere karşı bu tutumunun sonuçlarını görmeden kimse harekete geçmek istemiyor. sonuçta abd de, araplar da son zamanlarda artan şii dalgasının akıbetinin israilin lübnan'daki başarısına göre belirleneceğini düşünüyor.


bu noktada ise asıl ilginç olan ise israil'in bölgeden çıkmasının kimsenin işine gelmeyeceğidir -savaş karşıtları ve de katliamları kınayan bütün insanlık dışında-. aslında israil'de harekatın başarılı olmadığını kabul ediyor -zaten dün yapılan atamalarla operasyonun eleştirilen yönetim kadrosunda değişiklik yapıldı-. fakat çekilirse bu bölgedeki hizbullah'ın etkinliğini ve de halktaki sempatisini daha da artıracaktır. bu da şiilerin ve iran'ın işine gelecektir. deminden beri söylediğim gibi bu durumdan ilk rahatsız olacak olanların başında da araplar gelecektir. israil'in başarılı olması durumunda ise hizbullah'ın bölgedeki etkinliği zarar görecektir. bu durumdan ise daha geniş perspektifte şiiler rahatsız olacaktır ve de buradaki kayıplarını diğer taraftan kurtarma olasılığı ortaya çıkacaktır. bu diğer taraflarında başta Irak ve İran olmak üzere şii nüfuzunun etkiliği olduğu yerler olacağı kesindir. buralardaki gelişmelerden ilk etkilenecek olanların başında da -"guess who"- bölgeye çakılı kalan ABD'dir.


Görüldüğü gibi mesele hakkında biraz etraflıca düşünüp olayların arkasındaki siyasi dengeler incelenmeye çalışıldığında siyaset denilen işin ne kadar ilginç olduğu ortaya çıkıyor. Lübnan'daki meselelerdeki açılımlara burada bir nokta koyup başka bir yorumdan devam edeyim.


ortadoğu özellikle petrolün bulunduğu günden beri batı medeniyetinin her daim ana meselelerinden birisi olmuştur. 100 yılı birazcık açan bir tarihte devirlerin en önemli siyasi güçleri ortadoğu meselelerinde taraf olmuş ve de etkilemeye çalışmıştır. ikinci dünya savaşına kadar çoğunlukla ingiltere ve onun kadar olmasa da Fransa, ikinci dünya savaşından sonra da ABD ortadoğu'yla yakından ilgilenmiştir. fakat batı medeniyetleri ortadoğu'yu aradan yüz yıl geçse dahi yine çözememiştir. sıradan bir batı insanına göre mesele o kadar da karmaşık değildir. sonuçta ortada çok değerli doğal bir kaynak vardır. onların tek istediği petrolün yerini bulmak, kazmak, çıkarmak, rafine etmek, dağıtmak,satmaktır. ve de bütün bu aşamalarda hiç birşey yapmasına gerek kalmayan -ki yapmakta istemezler, zira o sıcakta nefes almak bile zor- araplar ise karşılığında çok büyük paralar alacaklardır. bu kadar basit olan bu iş yüz yıldır uygulanmaktadır. fakat bu araplar'ın ya da daha doğrusu ortadoğuluların zoru ne?


sorunun cevabı petrolün bulunduğu yüzyıllık asırda değil ondan önceki bir kaç asırda saklıdır. zira batı medeniyeti petrol ve ona benzer diğer gelişmiş üründe bahsedilen onca işi yapabilmek için o asırları çalışarak geçirmiştir. bilim ve teknolojide ilerlemiş, ekonomik ve sosyal açıdan kendini yenilemiştir. peki bu asırlarda ortadoğu insanı ne yapmıştır. o sıcağın altında her ne kadar nefes almak zor olsa da bir şekilde vakit geçmelidir. ve de en iyi vakit politika yaparak geçer -burada"politika" yı siyaset bilimince belirlenen en geniş tanımı dikkate alarak kullanıyorum. Ve de birkaç asırlık tecrübeden olsa gerek bu insanların yaptıkları en iyi iş politikadır, siyasettir. Amerika'yı 90'larda ekonomik açıdan müthiş bir kalkınma sürecine sokan Bill Clinton'ın Yaser Arafat'tan öğrendiği tek şey de budur.


Bu kadar yazdık meseleyi biraz da Türkiye'ye bağlayalım. Aslında Türkiye olarak da bizler de o asırları ortadoğulu din kardeşlerimizle aynı kafada gerçekleştirdik. 17.asırda geri kalmaya başladık, 18.asırda geri kaldığımızı anladık. 19. asırı ise ne yapacağız diye geçirdik. 20.asırda ise nasıl yapacağımızı düşündük. 21.asırda ne olacak?.


Hemen bu perspektifte bugüne dönelim isterseniz. Suud Kralı'nın tarihte ilk defa Türkiye ziyaret etmesi -1960'taki Faysal'ın ziyaretininin içeriği uluslararası olduğu için es geçebiliriz- ve de bunun Lübnan'da olan olaylarla aynı zamana rastlaması sürpriz değil herhalde. Özellikle 11 Eylül sonrasında Batı'da İslam'a karşı olan kutuplaşmadan dolayı bu ülkelerden çekilen ve de son petrol fiyatlarıyla artan "arap sermayesi"nin yeni kapısı için güzel bir yer var: Türkiye. 10 yıl öncesine kadar bu yatırımların merkezi olan Lübnan'ın şu anda "busy" ya da "appear to be offline" olduğu bir durumda Türkiye'nin "available, ready to chat" olmasında yarar var.


Bu yazıyı daha önce www.capaaol.com forum sayfalarında bahsi geçen konu hakkındaki görüşlerimi belirtmek için yazdım. Buralarda da bir kopyasının olmasının iyi olacağını düşündüm.

8.14.2006

Fever

Nowadays, I have been listening the soundtracks of notorious TV series : Nip / Tuck. The songs are all awesome. Especially, I like the song named "Fever". I have listened the same song from others (Madonna, Bon Jovi, etc), but I gotta tell you that Daniel Ash really rocks. Here, I will write the lyrics. By the way, the lyrics are perfect for me since I have been feeling fever for very special person :)

Fever
Never know how much I love you,
never know how much I care
When you put your arms around me,
I get a fever that's so hard to bear
You give me fever -


when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight
Fever - in the the morning, fever all through the night.

Sun lights up the daytime, moon lights up the night
I light up when you call my name,
and you know I'm gonna treat you right
You give me fever -

when you kiss me, fever when you hold me tight
Fever - in the the morning, fever all through the night.

Everybody's got the fever, that is something you all know
Fever isn't such a new thing, fever started long ago.

Romeo loved Juliet,
Juliet she felt the same
When he put his arms around her,
he said "Julie baby you're my flame"

You give me fever, when we kiss me, fever with thy flaming youth
Fever - I'm afire, fever yes I burn for year.

Captain Smith and Pocahontas had a very mad affair
When her Daddy tried to kill him, she said "Daddy-baby don't you dare"
He give me fever -

with his kisses, fever when he holds me tight
Fever - I'm his Missus, Oh daddy won't you treat him right.

Now you've listened to my story, here's the point I have made:
Chicks were born to give you fever, be it Fahrenheit or Centigrade
They give you fever -

when you kiss them, fever if you live and learn
Fever - till you sizzle, what a lovely way to burn.
What a lovely way to burn.
What a lovely way to burn.

Knowledge versus Information

"... Information, by itslef, is not knowledge. Knowledge is evidenced by the ability to make predictions."
Amitava, when he describes third component of the Deming's System of Profound Knowledge.

Word of Wisdom : Nicolo Machiavelli

“..the gulf between how one should live and how one does live is so wide that a man who neglects what is actually done for what should be done moves towards self-destruction rather than self-preservation. The fact is that a man who wants to act virtuously in every way necessarily comes to grief among so many who are not virtuous. Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must be prepared not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to need.”

Nicolo Machiavelli

GBP Volunteers Participate in Nationwide Program

Genç Bakış Projesi (GBP), one of the projects of the Bilkent Toplum Duyarlılık Projeleri/Toplum Gönüllüleri Vakfı (TDP/TOG) group, is contributing to a nationwide program that aims to acquaint primary and high school students with the concept of volunteerism.

Last year, TOG, a non-governmental organization based on the volunteer activities of university students, signed a protocol with the Ministry of Education (MEB), which is intended to increase awareness of volunteer work among students in primary and high schools by involving them in volunteer projects. This will help them to develop a sense of social responsibility, enable them to take part in solving social problems within the local region of their schools and emphasize to them the importance of civil society.

The GBP program has been carried out both of the past two academic years, in collaboration with Þentepe Lisesi the first year, and Sincan Ahmet Andiçen Lisesi the second. During the program, high school students came up with their own volunteer projects, such as cleaning and reopening the library in their school and giving computer courses to the children in Çocuk Esirgeme Kurumu. The success of these projects has inspired many other university branches of TOG, and also had an effect on shaping the TOG/MEB protocol.

GBP volunteers are currently making plans for this year's project and are looking at four candidate schools, one of which will be chosen as the partner school for this academic year. In addition, the volunteers are receiving training for the work they will be doing during the project and coordinating with MEB regarding further details of the program.

If you would like to get more information about the project and how to participate, you can visit http://tog.bilkent.edu.tr

This essay was published in Bilkent News Volume 12 Number 7.

A "Volunteer" Start for Change

In today’s world, countries fall into three groups: undeveloped, developing and developed countries. In undeveloped countries, the governments or political structures oversee all of the institutions that handle the needs of the citizens such as health, education and security. On the other hand, in developed countries, we see that private organizations share aforementioned responsibilities of caring for its citizens. For instance, in Turkey, governmental institutions mostly provide education, health and security but others such as manufacturing, entertainment are provided by the private organizations. Apart from this, in the developed countries we see the rise of the third kind of organizations: non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

A non-governmental organization can be defined as a nonprofit group or association organized outside of institutionalized political structures and whose goal is to realize particular social objectives (such as environmental protection) or to serve particular constituencies. Developed countries already grasped the importance of them and are aware of how they can assist governments for better services. On the other hand, Turkey, as a developing country, has only started to realize this. The number of NGOs is around 10,000 and if it is compared to developed countries (in the US, this number is two millions, for instance), there is a long way to go in this area.

Community Volunteers Foundation (CVF) is one of these NGOs that exist in Turkey. It was founded in 2002 by a group of university students from different universities in Turkey under the sponsorship of the grown-up volunteers. CVF aims to realization of the peace in Turkish society through the efforts of the youth. While attaining this aim, it also enables the changes in the society in the good direction, improves the social awareness and self-esteem of the youth people and transforms their energies to the good of common benefit instead of wasting it.

Today, CVF has local branches in 65 universities (out of 76 universities in Turkey). It reaches more than 3500 volunteers of university students and they carry more than 150 sustainable social projects that target different social problems and aims changes in the current status quo. Since all of these volunteers come from different backgrounds, the CVF has some principles that unites them all. The first one is impartiality which means that everyone understands the differences of others and respects for them. Secondly, all of the decisions in the projects are taken through participatory democracy. All of the activities in these projects can be observed by anyone and questioned for their purposes within the context of third principle: transparency and accountability. CVF has only one prohibition. It does not allow any political sentiments in their projects (though each individual can have his own political thoughts) in the name of their forth principle: no politics.

The branch of CVF in Bilkent University was founded by five undergraduate students in 2003. Today, it has more than 70 volunteers who work for four different projects. In the first project, ÜPDP (Support to University Personnel Project), they help children of the non-academic staff of the university, and support their education in the middle schools. In the second one, SLP (Street Lamb Project), they help for those children that have to work but also continue their education in the primary schools. Third project, BEP (Computer Training Project) aims to spread computer use among the high-school students.

The forth is GBP (Youth Look Project) which is carried out one of the high schools in undeveloped districts of Ankara in each year. The project has three aspects. First, social and cultural activities are organized for the students in order to improve their social and cultural skills. Secondly, by providing trainings in teamwork, mutual relationships, public speaking, the project aims personal development of the students. Finally, perhaps the most important one, students come up with their own social projects that target the problems in their local environment. For instance, in previous years, one of these projects was opening a library in their school. Another example was giving computer courses to those in the institution of abandoned children. The success of GBP in previous years has inspired many other university branches of CVF and it drew the attention of the ministry of National Education (MEB).

Last year, CVF and MEB signed a protocol that has similar aims that GBP has. According to this protocol, a pilot project program is initiated in different high schools in different cities of Turkey within the collaboration of the local CVF branches. If the pilot ones succeed, the project will start in all of the high schools in Turkey next year. Nowadays, volunteers from 25 different branches of CVF work hard for their projects to be successful, if so, they know that the steps they take today will lead nation-wide change and difference in the society. What a cause worth of hard work!

CVS : Setting up Eclipse and TortoiseCVS for Freepository

One of the great functions of Eclipse IDE is that it can be tightly integrated to the any repository, which is very useful especially you want to share your codes with others and works on them together. Even, CVS is a very useful tool for your own since you can easily track the changes you make your source codes while you are developing your programs on Eclipse. Here, in this blog we try to set up a CVS system on Windows XP and we will explore the usage of it within different programs. Notice that in order to this we use the service provided by Freepository which is the perfect online CVS repository service that you can deploy your codes.

Requirements

First of all the instructions provided here is on Windows XP machine so I do not know whether it can be used in other operation systems but it should work if you apply some modifications whenever necessary for your system.

The programs that you should have during this process are Eclipse, TortoiseCVS. The versions of these programs that I have are:
TortoiseCVS 1.8.26 (CVSNT 2.5.03 Build 2260)
Eclipse 3.1.2

Also you need an account on Freepository. And you should have at least one installed repository. During this blog the name of the repository I have is "cvsroot". In order to use it for Eclipse or TortoiseCVS, we need to see the parameters of that repository. To do that, in the website of the Freepository, we select the repository "cvsroot" and then click "My cvsroot". If it is the first time, the server warns you that you should first create secure entries. Thus, you should click the link left to "My cvsroot" which is "Secure ID entries". Then you can click "My cvsroot". If everything goes well, then you can have a table as following which gives you the parameters you need to configure Eclipse or TortoiseCVS:


We will return these parameters later during the installation.

Installation Process

First of all, in order to use CVS function on Windows machine, we need to set up CVSNT. Since the installation of TortoiseCVS does this already, we do not need to install it separately.

Configuring TortoiseCVS
After installing TortoiseCVS and restarting the PC, we move on any folder in any directory in the file system and right click on the mouse.

Then select "CVS" > "Make new Module". The screen will look like as the following:

Here you should supply the following information:
Protocol : SSL(:sserver:)
Protocol parameters : version=1
Server : freepository.com
Port : the port number that you see in the table of parameters of your Freepository repository.
Repository folder : the information under "fq cvsroot" of the table above.
User name : your user name.
Module : if you already have a module, then write its name or write "." (without quotation marks).

When you click "OK", TortoiseCVS will attempt to connect to the Freepository Server and prompt for the password. Write your account password and get a connection to the repository. If everything goes successfully you will have a connection to the repository. Again in an any folder right click on an empty place and click to "CVS checkout" to see if everything works fine.

Configuring the Eclipse

Before configuring the Eclipse, we need to install CVS SSL plug-in for Eclipse. To download the version of that plug-in for the usage of Eclipse 3.1, click the link here:
http://home.arcor.de/rolf_wilms/cvsssl/rwi.eclipse.team.ccvs.ssl_3.1.0.zip
After downloading the plug-in, extract the context to the Eclipse's "plugins" folder and restart the Eclipse.

To start configuring the Eclipse, first of all we need to switch to CVS perspective by "Window" > "Open Perspective" > "Other" > "CVS Repository Exploring".
In the left pane, right click on an empty place and select "New" > "Repository Location". The screen should look like this:


The settings should be as the following:
Host : freepository.com
Repository path : the information under "fq cvsroot" of the table above
User : your Freepository account name
Password : your password
Connection type : cvs-sserver
Use port : the port number that you see in the table of parameters of your Freepository repository
Also check "Validate connection on finish" and "Save password" settings for your inconvenience.

Just after that click "Finish" and if everything goes well, you can establish a connection to your Freepository repository from Eclipse.


After that you can create new projects and deploy them to your CVS repositories. I will discuss the usages of CVS repositories and modules both on the Eclipse projects and TortoiseCVS in further blogs.

Installing PHPEclipse on Eclipse including Debugging Engine

To write PHP codes, you do not need to have a sophisticated IDE or program that helps you. Because PHP script language is perhaps one of the easiest script languages in the world. On the other hand, when your project tends to increase in the size and you do not know exactly where it is going, it will be your advantage to use some alternatives IDEs in the market.

One of the best ones is Eclipse. It is easy to use and of course free to develop your PHP codes. On the other hand, you should install the packages that you are required carefully. I spent hours on the internet to find out a very good way of doing that. There are plenty of good resources on the internet. So I thought that I can contribute to those by writing this blog.

Well, first of all I use a PC running on Windows XP, so all the instructions that I give here will depend on it. To start with I use Eclipse 3.1.x (I need to check for the exact version later). Actually I installed WTP-all-in-one-sdk since it includes Eclipse 3.1 along with Web Standards Tools. This package is very useful since you do not need to install the packages you need in web development separately. Of course, you also need to install PHP engine prior to the PHP development. For that I preferred to use PHP 5.1.2. And I used Windows Installation package so that I do not need to extract the zip files required to certain folder that is alternative to Windows Installation package. By the way, I have to tell that I do not use XAMPP that is I installed Apache Server, MYSQL Server and PHP separately.

So far so good, our configuration is as following:
Eclipse 3.1.2
WTP 1.0.2
PHP 5.1.2

The very first thing we need to do is to install PHPEclipse (the version I use is 1.1.8). Well the installation can be done very different ways but I preferred to extract the zip files to Eclipse folder. When I started to use Eclipse I managed to create a "PHP Project" and a few lines of codes of PHP worked fine on the program. However, the real question for me is to use debugging features and this is where all the troubles occur.

Debugging

Well, to do that we need to certain things. We need to install DBG Debugger. The version I used is 2.13.1 and it can be downloaded here:
http://dd.cron.ru/dbg/downloads.php

In that side, you only need to download the modules so you do not need to download listeners. In that zip file find the correct DLL for your version of PHP. For instance I use PHP 5.1.2 so I find the file "php_dbg.dll_5.1.2" and rename it with "php_dbg.dll" and put it under Windows root folder (in my case it was "C:\Windows").

At this point, you need to change some lines in your "PHP.ini" file. It can be found under the Window's root folder. Here are the things you need to do in that file:

Find out the lines starts with "extension_dir" and the change the entire line as following (do not include the codes in brackets):
extension_dir = "c:/windows/" (Here, this is my root folder for windows).

Then, at the end of the file, put the following lines of codes:
[debugger]
extension=php_dbg.dll
debugger.enabled=on
debugger.profiler_enabled=on
debugger.hosts_allow=localhost (host names or IP's that are allowed to use debuggers)
debugger.hosts_deny=ALL
debugger.ports=7869, 10000/16


Save the file and close the file.

Now it is time to test the settings by using Eclipse. Start your Eclipse and create a new PHP Project named "test3". Then create a php file named "debugTest.php" and add the following line of codes in it:


Now to make a blue dots there, go to that line and double click on that area. This indicates a break on the program which we will use in debugging. Now, change the perspective to Debug ("Window > Open Perspective > Debug"). After that, click "Run > Debug.."
In the File tab, change the "Name", "Project", and "File" fields as indicated in the image below:


Then move to "Environment" tab and in "Remote Debug" sub tab, tick "Remote Debug" and write the absolute path of your project to the text field of "Remote Sourcepath". It will look like as this:


Finally, in the "Interpreter" subpart, point the absolute location of where your PHP program's application file is located:


Then Click the "Debug" to run the debugger. If everything goes well (I hope), you will have a screen like that:



As you can see, from now on by using the same approach, you can debug your PHP files by using Eclipse. If you have some problems, you can use the information provided here:
http://www.plog4u.org/index.php/Using_PHPEclipse_:_Installation_:_Installing_the_DBG_Debugger
It is very good resource and deal with some problems that you can have.
That's all. Enjoy your PHP codes in Eclipse.

A few words about installing java apps on Razr V3

Right after you enjoy sleek design of Razr V3, you wonder whether the software is as good as the design. One of the weak points about the phone is that by default it does not allow installing java application using the associated usb cable or bluetooth connection. Well, the only way you can install a java application is that you have to download it over the air (OTA) which means that you should point the URL of the application internet by using, say, the mini browser on the phone, and then download the associated files for the application.

On the other hand, this approach can be costly if you want to install applications so often for design purposes (which is my first intention, I really like to program those small applications and see that they are working in my phone). Normally, I am planning to write a blog in details that gives the step by step instructions. Indeed, I came across this link that gives a fair guide that can be very helpful. You can reach it from here:
http://viciousglitch.tripod.com/motorola.htm

Well, according to the author, some people even tried to sell the instructions on Ebay. Well, it is free and is worth trying.

By the way, there is an another way that you can activate the java application loader but it needs some kind of concept called "seem editing" and it can be very dangerous if you are not careful enough or do not know what you are doing. Still, it is tempting to do so after the moment you see that there is no limit for you to change the software on the phone by seem editing. :)

Syncronization with Motorola Razr V3

One of the key functions of Motorola Razr V3 is that it comes up with a calendar that can be easily synchronized with Microsoft Outlook. After installing the latest version of Motorola Phone Tools and having a proper connection with the phone, you can easily synchronize the calendars. Here rather than explaining how you can manage synchronization, I will try to give some tricks that solve the problems that I face while synchronizations:

  • One of the bad points of the calendar that comes with Motorola Razr V3 is that it does not support the reoccurrences of events that last before specific date or specific amounts of occurrences. Therefore in order to avoid such cases, you should set those events reoccurred in every week, month or years than delete those occurrences that you do not want to have.
  • It is always a good practice not to determine the priority between the cell phone and the computer. Let the program to ask you what to do in those kinds of situations those conflicts occur. Otherwise, you might lose some valuable data (such as contacts, information about where an event occurs, etc).
  • Before going into synchronization, you should always make backup of your data. Of course, it does not mean that every time you should make backups of your data. But you should periodically especially before some significant changes occur.

    That’s all for now. I am planning to add more if I have time for that.

User Authentication in Apache

Say you want to restrict your visitors by user authentication mechanism in your Apache web server. There are several ways of doing this, but I found the followings are the most simple and easiest way of doing this.

In this case, we want to give access to our web server for those that supply the correct user name and password. First of all, we need to create the file that usernames and passwords will be restored.

Before, going into the details of how we can do that, there are a few points about this file. We should save it to the folder that are not accessible through our web folders (e.g. it should not be located in the C:\Apache\htdocs folder). The good place for that is the root directory of the Apache server (e.g. C:\Apache). Even if someone gets that file anyhow, since the passwords in that file is encrypted by MD5 algorithm (default in Windows system), he will not be able to get exact user name and password combination.

With these in mind, we have to run the utility that makes the files for user lists. This program is named htpassword and should be located in the bin directory under the installed Apache root (e.g. c:\Apache\bin\). By using console, we write the followings:

htpasswd -c ../users can

Here, "-c" is used for the first time in order to create the user file. and the "../users" describes the name of the file "users" and the location of it (by relative path, it means C:\Apache\ since right now we are in C:\Apache\bin\). "can" is the name of the user we specify.

Then the console prompts for the password for that user. We verify this password in the next step. If everything goes well, you will get "Adding password for user can" indicating that the operation is finished.

At the second part, we have to declare to Apache that we need basic authentication in accessing the web server. To do this, we open the Apache configuration file (located in C:\Apache\conf\httpd.conf). We find the lines that includes . If you don't change it before, after a few lines of comment there should be lines similar to this one:

Order allow,deny
Allow from all


Just after that, we include the following lines:

AuthName "restricted stuff"
AuthType Basic
AuthUserFile users
require user can

AuthName will appear at the top when the user name and password screen in web browser appears. And the AuthType is the method we use in this example. AuthUserFile is the file that user name and password is stored (here it is relative to the path C:\Apache\). Finally require user is used for the users that we want to give access to our web servers.

Here, there are a few remarks that might help you:



  • You can give access for different directories to different users by using the directory directive.
  • Notice that, you can add same description in your .htaccess files provided that the usage of the .htacces files allowed in your Apache configuration file (is given by the directive AllowOverride).
  • If your server is not accessible outside your computer, check for your firewall settings. If you use Windows Firewall, you should give Apache the required access (This can be done by adding Apache to the programs listed in Special Cases in the Windows Firewall configuration file).

After restarting Apache server, you should be able to see effects of these changes when you access your web pages with your web browser. The password and user name screen should appear. After giving the correct combination, you should access your web pages. If this is not the case or there are some errors, the very first thing you should look is the Apache's error log file (located in C:\Apache\logs). Reviewing this will give you best clues of what went wrong. Please feel free to ask me questions by using comments in this blog.

Disabling Directory Listing in Apache

One of the things that sometimes become nasty is that Apache by default lists all the files in the same directory if that directory does not contains the default index page (e.g. index.html, index.htm).

To disable Apache's directory content listing feature, you should configure the Apache Configuration file (httpd.conf that is located in the "conf" directory of the Apache installation directory).

Find the line that includes "Options Indexes" that is couples of lines after the line "" than replace it with "Options -Indexes". After saving the file, restart the Apache Server.

To illustrate, the following codes:

...
#
# This may also be "None", "All", or any combination of "Indexes",
# "Includes", "FollowSymLinks", "ExecCGI", or "MultiViews".
#
# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
# doesn't give it to you.
#
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
...


is replaced with:

...
#
# This may also be "None", "All", or any combination of "Indexes",
# "Includes", "FollowSymLinks", "ExecCGI", or "MultiViews".
#
# Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
# doesn't give it to you.
#
Options -Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
...

Changing Directory Index in Apache

When any directory is called from Apache web server, the web server checks whether the directory has index.html file. If it is not, it will show all the files that are in that directory. If someone wants to change the default index file or add more files, he should modify the Apache httpd.conf Configuration File.

htttpd.conf file is located under the "conf" directory of apache installation directory (for instance C:\Apache\conf). After opening it with notepad or other text editor, find the tag named "directory". By default, it has only one file named "index.html". By separating with comma, you can add other files such as index.php, default.php, index.htm.

An example of the same line is as follows:

DirectoryIndex index.html index.php

Firefox with Google Toolbar: A Great Couple

Recently, one of my friends sent me an interesting shockwave flash file (swf) and asked me to look at it and wanted to hear my thoughts about it. On the other hand, I could not find a program that opens swf files. Here, Internet Explorer, since it is a browser, is supposed to view it. On the other hand, every time I tried, I got a silly error indicating it is belong to forbidden sites. That drove me crazy and I started to find workarounds.

Hundreds of trials, I could not come up with a player that plays swf files. Even Macromedia web site lacks of it. Therefore, something occurred my mind and I asked myself that “Why don’t I use another browser?”.

Since, I am kind of using an advertisement program of Google (yeah, those huge ads), I clicked the link at the left of my web pages and downloaded the Firefox with Google Toolbar.

Well, prior to this, I had some experience with Firefox, and to tell the truth, I did not really like it since I am true fan of Internet Explorer and I really stocked with it. Well it is always easy to get habits, and it is always difficult to quit (though I am one of those quite a few lucky people who witnessed the Netscape Navigators’ triumph over IE).

But the work that both Firefox and Google community put together is quite fascinating just after a few trials of which-button-does-which-job.

Well, I gotta tell you that Google Toolbar is bundled with Mozilla Firefox so perfectly that it enables you to exploit the web faster and efficient than before. Let me briefly discuss the advantages of Firefox over IE:

  • Firefox loads pages faster than IE and the reason for that it browses the content just after it is downloaded. IE waits for all the components to be downloaded in most cases.
  • Firefox uses the technology called taps that it offers great flexibility in terms of navigating for those of me who has at least five pages to be opened in any time.
  • Firefox has more quite efficient system of error handling. It gives the details of error codes along with proper suggestions that can be useful for us who are involved in web design projects.
  • Well, having a project leader who is former drum-acrobat, Firefox has flexible and pleasing interface that looks quite stylish.
  • Last but not least, it is OPEN SOURCE.

Moreover, I really like to point the perfect tool: Google Toolbar. I think that Google is one of those things that become necessity in our lives. My eight-years-old cousin complained me he can’t find gogle (Turkish pronunciation of Google) just after I set-up his new computer. And I was quite surprised when one of my uncles who is technologically illiterate -he uses his 3G mobile phone just for calling-, suggesting my father to use Google, to get the address of the bank he works with. Google is becoming so popular that, perhaps, Bill Gates should review his claims that their main rival is IBM.

Enough with anecdotes, here is the list of what Google Toolbar offers:

  • You can search via Google, any time while you are using Firefox. And it also provides search in other Google services (images, news, etc) along with current site, and Gmail (that is another super service from Google after Gmail notifier).
  • Page ranks can help you for the importance of the page, that is very helpful especially when you are looking for something.
  • Spell checker, can help you while you are filling web forms.
  • Autolink and Autofill are very useful tools that help you to find your way between the virtual and real life.

Well, I have to acknowledge that Google Toolbar can be used with IE but it always seems to me that Google Toolbar becomes superficial and it is not integrated to IE as tight as Firefox.

Of course, there are some weak points for FwGT (odd to remember using abbreviation for that at the end of writing). Turkish is not allowable when you download the product (though Firefox has Turkish version). And similarly, some functions of GT is only limited to English and other popular Western languages and some services of GT is offered in limited geographical places (well US or UK for instances).

Well, back to the point that I started, with Firefox, I was able to open the swf file just after I downloaded flash plug-in. That is very unlikely in the internet age, -to be able to get back where you start.

Email Settings for Razr V3

Motorola RAZR V3 comes with a small application that is a simple e-mail client. It supports POP3 / IMAP and SMTP. After couple of tries, I could not be able to set up a simple account for this simple client for Motorola Razr V3. I was pretty sure that the settings of my GMAIL account are ok but still I could not connect to the server.

After several hours of working on it (though I do not count the bill I incurred), I finally managed to get the decent method of reaching the server by using the email client in Motorola Razr V3. By the way, I have to say that that customer representative in Turkcell was very angry on the phone that I called with a phone that I would like to set. She insisted too much to call her with another phone and then get the parameters. I think someone should make it clear for them that customer can take notes.

Well, here are the secret settings that you can not find over the web site of Turkcell. This is for Motorola Razr V3 but similar settings can be used in Motorola V series.

ISP Settings

Connection Type: GPRS

APN address: internet

User name: leave empty

Password: leave empty

DNS IP: leave empty, if not able to do so, leave as 0.0.0.0

Email Provider: Custom

Protocol: POP3

User ID: username@gmail.com

Password: your password

Sending Host: smtp.gmail.com

Sending port: 587 (Here is the key for sending mail with GMAIL, it is odd but other ports cannot be reached!)

Receiving host: pop.gmail.com

Receiving port: 995

Return address: username@gmail.com

Name: Your Name

Cleanup: None (is used for cleaning mails from the server after the days you specify)

Save on server: Yes (well, I could not figure out the differences between this one and the previous one)

Notification: On

Check new msgs: No (If you want to check your mail periodically, choose other options)

Hide fields: leave empty (though it is up to you)

Auto Signature: leave empty (thoug it is up to you)

Security

Use SSL for sending: Yes (GMAIL supports SSL)

Use SSL for receiving: Yes (GMAIL supports SSL)

Warnings in Background: Proceed

Size restriction: 65535 (messages that are bigger than this amount of byte are not downloaded).

Well, that is basically it. Here though I showed here setting of POP3 account, it is always good to use an IMAP mail account for cellular phones (Indeed, I moved to an IMAP client). However, it is a different story :)

Çok uzun bir aradan sonra merhaba...

Uzunca bir aranın ardından blogger'da yeniden merhaba!!!

Pride

Another awesome song from the soundtracks of the Nip / Tuck: "PRIDE". Well, words are not enough to tell the feelings that I have when I listen this song. Well, I don't know too much about the Syntax, but I got to tell you that they made a great job.

Here are the lyrics of the "PRIDE":

its made up of lonely moments
there was always a moment there when i knew
you always gave instalments
always knew u concentrated and grew


and i believe in reinvention
do you believe that life is holding the clue
take away all the lonely moments
give me full communication with you

your smile shine a little light, alright
dont hide, shine a little light
give up on your pride

do you believe in reinvention
do you believe that life is holding the clue
any way to face the silence
any way to face the pain that kills you

your smile shine a little light, alright
dont hide, shine a little light
give up on your pride

give up on your pride, the moment's gone
give up on your smile, life is long
so i seen a bad dream, that you were gone
i got bitten on the soul, my blood will run

give up on your pride, the moment's gone
give up on your smile, life is long
so i seen i bad dream, you were gone
you're bitter and cold, my blood will run