|
Short-term memory problems in Toefl |
|
Saturday, 27 May 2006 |
|
Three weeks ago, I entered Toefl examination in Istanbul. My doctorate studies had forced me to score at least 213, and luckily enough, I got 243. The problem was that, I completely amazed (steamed up?) regarding the listening section: Think of two people standing and talking about something for a few minutes, including a 6 to 10 mutual conversation (i.e each person speaks 6 to 10 times). After than, computer asks you a very detailed question about the very first sentence and demands a perfect short-term memory! I wish I remembered what I've eaten in the morning!
Albeit, my high school English teacher Nurhan Gencer has declared to me personally that I was the one who was learning "the last" (if I could learn at all) in the classroom. About 15 years later, Toefl reminded me again. I should probably check two things: My ear or things I know about myself.
|
|
|
What they are up to in MIT |
|
Sunday, 21 May 2006 |
|
You bet, the urinal game. Details here. |
|
|
Little child experimenting Pardus |
|
Tuesday, 16 May 2006 |
|
A nice photo, here. Barış Metin had taken this during 5th Linux festival held in Middle East Technical University. Did you notice the new gull above? This shot was also taken from the same camera ;-) |
|
|
OpenDocument format is now ISO-26300 |
|
Saturday, 06 May 2006 |
|
The Open Document Format has been approved as an international standard by
the International Standards Organization, a move that supporters say will
serve as a springboard for the adoption and use of ODF around the world.
ODF allows the retrieval of information and the exchange of documents
without regard to the application or platform in which the document was
created. The format is supported by Corel, IBM, Novell, Opera Software,
Oracle, Red Hat and Sun Microsystems.
More information here. |
|
|
Wednesday, 03 May 2006 |
|
I'll be attending Linux Festival, organized by Linux Users Association of Turkey between 11-14 May 2006. There, I'll talk about tOSSad project: what we did in the first year. After this, I'll be moderating a panel with the title of "financial, administrative and legal issues of F/OSS in turkish public institutitons". Speakers are not fixed yet - to be announced here later. See you there. |
|
|
We're at HP Linux Roadshow |
|
Wednesday, 03 May 2006 |
|
HP Linux and Open Source Roadshow EMEA - İstanbul will take place in Ceylan Intercontinental Hotel (as before) on May 17, 2006. Among the speakers are Eva Beck (HP Linux Business Development Executive), Jean Michel Argenville (HP EMEA Consultant) and various ISVs and Linux distributors. I'll be moderating a panel, with speakers from HP, Novell, SAP, Oracle and Intel. More information here. |
|
|
US advised to promote open standards |
|
Saturday, 22 April 2006 |
|
A business- and university-led public policy group has issued a
downloadable 72-page report examining open standards, open source
software, and "open innovation." The report concludes that openness
should be promoted as a matter of public policy, in order to foster
innovation and economic growth in the U.S. and world economies.
The report was released by the
Committee for Economic Development (CED),
a non-profit, non-partisan public policy research organization comprised
of about 200 senior corporate executives and university leaders. It can be
downloaded from here. |
|
|
3 F/OSS competency centers in Asia! |
|
Wednesday, 05 April 2006 |
|
In order to address the growing information and technological needs of the
Asia and Pacific region, the International Open Source Network (IOSN) has
established three new Centres of Excellence – IOSN ASEAN+3, IOSN PIC
(Pacific Island Countries), and IOSN South Asia. Together, these Centres
will continue the research and development, networking, institutional
strengthening, and training undertaken by IOSN over the last three years to
advance the adoption of free/open source software, open standards, and open
content across the region.
PS1: This is an excerpt from the e-mail sent by Sunil Abraham to apdip.net mailing lists. More information here.
PS2: I'll be in my wonderful hometown, Antalya, to give a speak about the upcoming 10 years' technologies and their impacts in our lives.
PS3:Back from Bulgarian F/OSS conference - had quite nice time there. Good (Ottoman-featured) food, nice weather, and thanks to Julia & Dessi for their flawless organization. |
|
|
Claros is in touch with the rest |
|
Tuesday, 21 March 2006 |
|
Umut has finally released 1.0 version of Claros In Touch (previously known as Claros Webmail). It has full MIME support and built in spam protection (no server setup needed), provides folder support for the POP3 protocol, is bundled with an addressbook, calendar and a notebook application. Download Claros In Touch and other goodies from here, or get the FAQ.
Ps: Claros is an ancient Ionian city in Turkey, the city of prophecy and wisdom. There are Homeric hymnoses about the city from 6th 7th centuries BC, but most probably the city has its roots from long ago, maybe since the Hattian civilization (2000BC). |
|
|
tOSSad workshop in Como, Italy |
|
Friday, 17 March 2006 |
|
tOSSad workshop will be held in Como, Italy on 10 June, 2006. It will be organized around parallel and/or serial sub-tracks. The technical nature of the workshop will consist of presentations of technical reports and/or scientific papers; case analysis; demonstrations followed by interactive discussions.
Although relatively focused studies from tOSSad project are planned to compose a part of the workshop, primarily, contributions from other related EU/non-EU projects, researchers, and practitioners are expected.
Submitted papers, reports, case analysis or proposal for demonstrations will be collected by related conveners and will be reviewed by the programme committee. Accepted papers will be presented at the workshop and will be published as tOSSad2006 proceedings.
I'll be the convenor of 3rd theme (F/OSS usability) with Sandra Frings from University of Stuttgard. This subtheme is intended for practitioners, software developers, HCI specialists and project managers who want to deploy user centered design process of a distributed and/or F/OSS project.
For more information, please refer to tOSSad 2006 workshop page. |
|
|
Monday, 13 March 2006 |
|
I've been contacted to be a speaker in BIMY'13, which will take part in Side, Antalya - also my hometown. The panel with other speakers being from Oracle, IBM and Microsoft will last about two hours. I'll probably will extend my Antalya adventure to see my parents after a long time. |
|
|
