Gather information together using Yahoo Pipes

Recently, -indeed, almost one month ago- I have been looking for a service that can mix all of my blogs' feeds together so that readers can only subscribe to it and no need to worry about missing a post on one of them.

After, trying several disappointed services, I came across the Yahoo Pipes. Indeed, it is such a good service that it can be very useful for you. By using this tool, you can gather, filter and sort any information on the web.

Well, here in my IT blog I discuss how i used it to combine the blog posts that I write in several blog sites. I think you should give it a try.

A simple application of Yahoo Pipes

Today, I am gonna talk about a very useful service offered by Yahoo that makes your internet experience better than before.

The service is called as Yahoo Pipes. The service is a very good tool for users who want to get information within different resources on the web. You can gather, filter and sort –and possible more- the information from different sources and publish this information with different ways.

I suggest you to go to the site and play a little bit and you will grasp the details of the service and learn how it can be used for your convenience.

Here, I want to discuss how Yahoo pipes saves a lot of time for me and my readers. As you all know, I have been writing different blogs. And if any one of my reader wants to check whether I post a new message, it should revisit the site or subscribe for each blog's feeds. However, by using Yahoo Pipes, I combined the feeds of my blogs together, so from now on, everyone can get updates of my blog post just subscribing this newly created feed.

Let's see how I managed to do that.

When you visit pipes.yahoo.com and log on using your Yahoo ID, you see a link of "create a new pipe". Here from there, you can begin constructing your pipe.

Below, you see the graphical representation of my pipe.

As you can see there are four components of it:

Fetch Feed: This object can be added from Sources from left pane. After adding this object, I start adding my URLs of my blogs' feeds. That is just all.

Filter: This object is used for filtering the information. It can be reached from Operators category from left pane. Here, there is a very simple rule which tells that only the author of the item.author.name attribute containing Sinan can be permitted to go through this filter.

Sort: This is another object form Operators that is used for sorting. Here in my case, all of the items are sorted by item.pubDate in Descending Order. This means that all of my blog posts will be resorted by the newest at the top.

Pipe output: This is the final object that is to sell that pipe should give some output. When you click on it, you see the output of your pipe in the pane at the bottom.

Finally, I saved the pipe and published it using the buttons on the top right. Now, everyone can see the output of my pipe by going to the URL provided by Yahoo Pipes.

Notice that I also used FeedBurner to fetch this newly created feed in order to see the statistics of user activity. But it is totally different story and the service is not related to Yahoo Pipes. You can get information about how to integrate FeedBurner to your Blogger blogs from my another blog post.

That's all.

How much would you pay before marrying an investment banker?

Recently, I read an interesting article in which a divorce lawyer named Jeremy Levison warns the bankers that "Don't get married. If you must, make sure your other half is as rich as you."

As provocative as it sounds, the articles then looks at the underlying claims that make this warning a legitimite one. One of the cleverest guys in pricing complex securities makes an analysis of the situation and he concludes that "you might expect to see $187,500 to $375,000 being invested toward getting a junior banker to the altar".

Of course, this is for those of people who works in Wall Street or London. Maybe the situation in Turkey might be more different but here I want to address Turkish girls that it might be a good investments for you to find a guy who wants to work as a investment bankers or traders.

The Economist’s perspectives on Turkish presidency

The political climate in Turkey matters a lot for us. Moreover, the outsiders are also watching carefully what is happening in Turkey. Here, I want to highlight a few important points that I found in this article of the Economist.

Firstly, the magazine believes that what has been done in recent four and a half year was a quite success for the country and no other administration has achieved to the same over half a century:

Mr Erdogan's government has been Turkey's most successful in half a century. After years of macroeconomic instability, growth has been steady and strong, inflation has been controlled and foreign investment has shot up. Even more impressive are the judicial and constitutional reforms that the AK government has pushed through. Corruption remains a blemish, but there is no sign of the government trying to overturn Turkey's secular order. The record amply justifies Mr Erdogan's biggest achievement: to persuade the EU to open membership talks, over 40 years after a much less impressive Turkey first expressed its wish to join.

Then, the article gives an interesting perspective about what might me helpful to the army's recent sortie. It declares that recent rise of the opposition of Turkey's entry to the EU may have led to the army to be more confident of hampering the government's deeds:

But the perception in the country that so many current members are against it matters, for it reduces the EU's influence. Were the prospects of EU membership obviously brighter, the army would not have intervened as brutally. As it is, the EU's mild condemnation was shrugged off in Ankara, especially when the Americans said nothing at all. Their influence in Turkey is also much diminished, mainly because the war in Iraq has inflamed anti-American feeling.

As interesting as it sounds, the magazine also recommends that "for the sake of the state they are trying to protect, Turkey's soldiers should stay out of politics". I think that most of you are not unfamiliar with this recommendation. Well, who was the first person to put such a bold measure in the army's internal standing orders?

Recruiters' Top 10 Complaints

Recently, I came across this article in BusinessWeek in which several interviewers from different companies discuss the mistakes applicants do when they interview. The editor comes up with 10 of those mistakes. Here are a few highlights from that article:

1. Follow Interview Etiquette
   

   Some of the most embarrassing moments are caused by blunders a student didn't anticipate. A cell phone ringing in the middle of an interview can be an unwelcome interruption. Whatever you do, don't stop to answer it or check the number, says Connie Thanasoulis, director of campus recruiting at Merrill Lynch. Her advice: "Apologize, and immediately move on."
   

2. Keep Your Answers Short and to the Point
   

   Try to keep your answers under a minute if possible. This gives the interviewer a chance to consider whether they want to ask the candidate to elaborate on the answer. "If the interviewer wants more details, they will ask for it," Sullivan says.
   

3. It's Okay to Be Clueless
   

   The question can be an interesting test for Canale, who evaluates candidates by the manner in which they answer the question. He says that being honest about not knowing the answer is sometimes the best tactic. "Don't be afraid to say I don't know," says Canale. "I think that would be an area where everybody could improve."
   

4. Avoid Clichés
   

   It can irk a recruiter when students spend their allotted time talking about themselves in broad generalizations or clichés. Avoid common phrases such as "I'm a people person" or "I'm a creative person." Instead, Booz Allen's Sullivan recommends that you come up with pertinent examples or stories that clearly illustrate your point.
   

5. Keep Negativity Out of the Conversation
   

   
    

   "The problem is you don't know if the person sitting across from you may be a consultant," McLaughlin said. "You could be rubbing the person the wrong way. I always tell students stay away from anything that could be perceived as a negative comment."
   

   
    

6. Always Have Questions Prepared
   

   Students should walk into the interview with a list of thoughtful questions that take advantage of the recruiter's knowledge of the company, Sullivan says. He recommends avoiding questions that can easily be answered by looking at the company's Web site, such as whether the company has a Boston office. "You should have three or four really good and insightful questions that show self-awareness that you are in front of someone who is pretty senior," Sullivan says.
   

7. Keep Your Ego in Check
   

   
    

   If quantitative math is not your strong suit, don't pretend that it's your best subject. You could be sitting across from a derivatives trader who might want to put you on the spot, says Citigroup's McLaughlin. "Instead of making broad characterizations about your skill set, be more humble about your abilities," she says.
   

   
    

8. Don't Walk in Unprepared
   

   Learn as much as you can about the person who is interviewing you and the company before the interview. Recruiters say they are sometimes surprised when they see a student has done little to no research on the company before the interview. "We've seen students that may not know the company or firm. Some may not have visited the Web site or attended a briefing on campus," said Angela Marchesi, MBA recruiting program manager at Deloitte.
   

9. Don't Talk in Absolutes
   

   
    

   Students should avoid the temptation to tell a recruiter that their firm is the candidate's No.1 choice.
   

   
    

10. Never Bring Up Salary
    

    "Sometimes there is a tendency for candidates to overemphasize the compensation piece," he says. "They talk less about 'how can I contribute to the company?' and more about "what can I make here?'" Students should equate an initial meeting with a recruiter with a first date, Vijungco says: "On a first date, you don't want to talk about marriage."

The most important event of coming days...

70 millions Turkish citizens wait for the announcement of the candidate of AK party. According to some news, only Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Bülent Arınç and Abdullah Gül know the candidate. Well, we will get our answers to question through the middle of this week unless they miss the registration deadline. The issue is also brought forward by The Economist in the section of "The coming days":

THE registration deadline for candidates hoping to become Turkey’s next president expires in the middle of the week. The seven-year term of the fiercely secular incumbent, Ahmet Necdet Sezer, ends in May. Turkey’s mildly Islamist prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, may fancy the job. But recent massive demonstrations show that opponents, perhaps unfairly, fear that his ascent to the presidency would constitute a grave threat to Turkey’s secular republic. And his AK Party members want him to lead them into November’s parliamentary elections to boost their chances of maintaining their huge majority. Mr Erdogan may conclude that he is better off in his current role.

Lovefool...

Nowadays, I mostly listen Lovefool from The Cardigans, which is one of the most joyful song about the suffer of the love. Perhaps, you heard it for almost every romantic movies. Right after I watched the documentary of Enron, I said I gotta find it somewhere and listen to it again anda again. Well, enjoy the lyrics:

Dear, I fear we're facing a problem
you love me no longer, I know
and maybe there is nothing
that I can do to make you do
Mama tells me I shouldn't bother
that I ought just stick to another man
a man that surely deserves me
but I think you do!

So I cry, and I pray and I beg

Love me love me
say that you love me
fool me fool me
go on and fool me
love me love me
pretend that you love me
leave me leave me
just say that you need me

So I cried, and I begged for you to
Love me love me
say that you love me
leave me leave me
just say that you need me
I can't care about anything but you

Lately I have desperately pondered,
spent my nights awake and I wonder
what I could have done in another way
to make you stay
Reason will not pledge a solution
I will end up lost in confusion
I don't care if you really care
as long as you don't go

So I cry, I pray and I beg

Love me love me
say that you love me
fool me fool me
go on and fool me
love me love me
pretend that you love me
leave me leave me
just say that you need me

So I cried, and I begged for you to
Love me love me
say that you love me
leave me leave me
just say that you need me
I can't care about anything but you

(anything but you)

Love me love me
say that you love me
fool me fool me
go on and fool me
Love me love me
I know that you need me
I can't care about anything but you

Amazing security at Las Vegas Casinos

Here, I read a blog post about how the security of casinos are taken serious in Las Vegas. Well, the story of a woman might seem simple but it shows how serious every player is taken. Well, interesting story...

Room with a view...

Nowadays, there is this song that I listen when I find time to listen some music. Tony Carey sings "Room with a view":

Well he used to be
a tailor
Sew those suits so fine
And he never heard of failure
And he never tasted wine
And he used to be a leader
When he had someone to lead
And he used to be a father
When he had some mouths to feed

And they say it never rains in LA county
But it gets cold enough to wish you had a few
And he laughts tonight and says
""I finally found me a room with a view
How about you""

He was living in a castle
That he built with his own hands
Out of newspaper and cardboard
He was living off the land

What should I call you "Mister"?

Well, there has been a lot of discussion about Erdoğan's call of Öcalan as a "mister". And Ibrahim wrote a post about the issue after showing funny comics from Bizimcity. Well, I have a few words to say about the issue and you can see it in the comments section.