We are all of us very arrogant and conceited about running down other people`s ghosts but just as ignorant and barbaric and superstitious about our own.

Robert M. Pirsig
Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An inquiry into Values.

At last my PhatBox arrived. It has 20 GB removable media. I started to rip my CDs already in mp3 format. So far lots of Sandra Collins, Paul Oakenfold, etc… ripped and stored. It has a nice gui for windows platform and a handful of scripts for Linux. Tonight I`m going to install it to my car. It is VERY straightforward since it directly connects to my headunit by using one single cable.

I still don`t have a decent computer. So I need to work on my Linux box soon so that I can abuse my PhatBox more

I went to see Dream Theatre and Megadeth yesterday to Atlantic City with my buddy Ufuk. The concert was awesome! AWESOME! I lost some money in gambling in Atlantic City. I am also some sort of loser when it comes to love. So you don`t lose in gambling and win in love or vice versa… That`s a lie (turkish saying: He who loses in gambling wins in love…)

I miss home…

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values

by Robert M. Pirsig

ISBN: 0060958324

Nice senelere Can Alaz!!

Lots of friends come and visit me and when they want to check their email or just browse some pages on the internet, etc… they use my linux system. Usually after the first 5 mins, they ask me: What is this? What kind of Windows? My answer is classic: This is not Windows, this is Linux. For geeks that`s ok, because they know what I`m talking about. But average user usually looks at me and says: What? And I explain…

The second phase is: But why? Why to use this instead of Windows. When I`m lazy (99% of the time) I say because it works… But when I`m not lazy (now…) I usually explain them why… (I am writing this also to give some people as a link when I am lazy… 99% of the time)

– It is Free: What does that mean? It is usually free of charge, but this is not what it means. Linux is a free operating system means that I (and anybody else) have the freedom to use, change, distribute the heart of the operating system and the surrounding applications. But why do I want that? I don`t want to be a “slave” of an organization`s marketing strategies. I don`t want to be dependent on what these companies want in their products. I want the freedom to suggest ideas, needs to the core developer team of the software that I am using. I want to be able to change the software when I can or when I want. I want to feel free when I am using my computer.

– Because it works: I believe in free software, because it simply worked great the last 7 years I`ve been involved in it. I can give you gazillions of examples in my experiences. But I`m not gonna do that. Because examples are boring. If you really want to see one go here.

– Latest and greatest: I pull my hair most of the time with my desktop system, because it crashes a lot… (Should I say that my desktop is Linux?) My friends possibly know that. But the reason is not that Linux is baaaad, the real reason is: I go bleeding edge all the time. This is another beauty of Linux. You can either live on the edge, or stay stable like a rock. You can live with a kernel 2.4.* for the rest of your life, or you can start compiling now 2.7.*

– I have options: I can do many things in many ways. I love this! There are many ways in a unix world. Many many many ways. You can create a list of all your mp3s, resize an image, calculate the disk size, draw a circle, block an intruder, be an intruder, browse a web page, backup, restore, clean disk, format a hard drive, etc… etc… in sooo many ways that you can never think about!

– It is stable and secure: I might be bashed for this, and I don`t care. My systems (servers) are always very stable and secure. I can turn on iptables and have a firewall, install Snort and automagically capture bad network traffic around me (good traffic too ), patch my system remotely with couple of easy keyboard clicks, or even with a gui, without rebooting my system 99% of the time (if this is not a kernel update), etc…

– Wide variety of programs and ease of installation: The next generation package management tools are awesome. (apt-get, portage, etc…) I can found and install again 99% of the time any program I want in just a matter of minutes, seconds, depending on your internet connection. They are smart to understand if a program depends on something, and asks me to install the dependencies. The variety is amazing. You can find applications to browse the web, read emails, write office bullshit, chat with friends (or enemies ), create a web server, database server, mail server, weather station, car computer system, personal video recorder, etc.. etc… Talk about variety… Did I say: FREE (as in freedom) ?

I have soo many little/big reasons that I want to add here, but maybe in the future. (I just felt lazy now) I love to work with Linux, I can never put my mini penguin aside and continue living with a non free operating system. I highly recommend it to you too…

Here is a nice article about Istanbul:

After so many decades of trying to become Western, Istanbul glories in the rediscovery of a very modern identity. European or not, it is one of the coolest cities in the world…

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9024840/site/newsweek

I don`t think so… I am starting to lose all my faith to long term relations. I`m not writing this post because I`ve been ditched by my girlfriend after some years of relationship. On the contrary I am not even in a relationship right now. (Chicks! Be careful… RAWR! 😛 ) But when I look around me nowadays, for the last two years, Every long relation is coming to an end or crawling… And this end is not even a happy end.. I don`t know if all this is a bad coincidence, but it looks like all of my friends are somewhat screwing up their relationships.

From what I see, there are several reasons for all these ends… One of them being jealousy. Now, I`m not going to be a easy fella and blame one specific gender here. Every relationship has its own pace, personality, etc… But why the fuck all girls around me are acting like their guys are going to screw another female?! What is that neo-jealousy? Look, if someone is going to cheat on you, (s)he will do it no matter what… Jealousy WILL NOT HELP! On top of it, it hurts the relationship. So stop being jealous and trust your partner… Or just break up and try your luck with someone else.

One other is marriage, commitment, etc… Ok we, men, are afraid of marriage. Whole world knows it. We feel we will not be free anymore, commitment is scary, blah blah blah… BUT this doesn`t mean that we are going to spread semen all over when we see a woman at the bar… If you believe that human is a social creature, you gotto believe that your (future) husband will talk at some point of time, with a female… Again I repeat, this does not mean that the guy is hitting on her. He might have like her, and that is normal, you like airplanes, you like soccer, you like a flower, you might like a woman too. If your guy does not like a woman, there is a problem with him!

Given the fact, it is very normal to hurt him if he does something stupid with that woman… The abnormal thing is: to hurt him thinking that OH! he will screw her anyway! Hey… If your guy is screwing another girl, or thinking about it, why are you with that guy? Just ditch him! And don`t believe any lies he says abut how your relationship will be better, etc… That is bullshit! I don`t think a relation will ever be the same after you cheat on your partner. So fuck it… There are gazillions of other man… Ditch the guy and byebye

Well anyway, I started to be out of my league I guess… Longer posts, lesser readers… So yeah, the main idea is: Just relax, live your relationship, don`t push too much your partner for the things (s)he never did or will do, make your point and get over with it. If you think that things are not working out, just leave… Shit happens, and will happen…

If you want to dive into awk, I would recommend you this awk tutorial. Full of examples and techniques.