Distributed Information and Traveling People

Mobile Broadband over Bluetooth on Ubuntu

2008-11-20T08:53:00.016Z

I am using Blueman GTK Bluetooth Manager on Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid) for connecting to the internet using my mobile phone Nokia N95 and netbook Asus EEE PC 901.

As far as I know, the built-in Bluetooth functions in Ubuntu can not provide Dial-Up Networking, so we have to install Blueman first. These are the repositories if you want to add manually:

deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu intrepid main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu intrepid main

or you can add them using this command [thanks IntuitiveNipple]:

sudo sh -c "echo 'deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/blueman/ubuntu $(lsb_release -sc) main' >/etc/apt/sources.list.d/blueman.list"

Now you can install Blueman using the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install blueman

After the installation is complete, run Blueman:

Click Menu -> Accesories -> Blueman Bluetooth Manager

That should bring a window similar to this but without the devices of course:

Complete the pair, bond and trusting steps between your Mobile Phone and Computer. Your view should resemble the screen capture, with the lock and the key icons. Also you should authorize / trust the computer in your mobile phone which would make connections seamless in the future.

After the bonding is complete, we should create a Bluetooth Modem connection, click the following on the Blueman interface.

Menu → Edit → Services

Which should open a window like this:

Click the Red Button next to Serial. It should turn Green like above.
Click Configure next to Autostart box (rightmost icon)

That should open a window like this. Do the following to add a Bluetooth modem connection:

Click Add New Serial Port to bring up Host and Service areas.
Select the Phone you have bonded as Host
Select Dial-Up Networking as Service
Click Add Port

You should have something like /dev/rfcomm0 yourphonename 00:00::0F:0E:0D Dial-Up Networking in the text area as shown in the screen shot, now:

Select This is a GSM/GPRS/EDGE/3G dialup connection.

Your phone is recognized by the system as a Bluetooth modem. Next step is for defining your Mobile Connection in Ubuntu. In Intrepid you can do the following:

Click Menu → System → Preferences → Network Configurations
Click Mobile Broadband Tab
Click Add

Follow the wizard and add your service provider. After this step is complete, you can:

Click Network Connections icon

Where you should see:

Wired Networks (eth0 your ethernet adapter)
...
Mobile Broadband (your configured connection I.e. T-Mobile, O2, Orange etc.)
...
Wireless Networks (if your wireless is enabled any connections in the vicinity)
...
...

Just click the connection you have created under Mobile Broadband and you should be able to connect to your phone and internet.

Under the Bosphorus Bridge

2007-09-03T14:45:00.000+01:00

I do not have much to say in this post. Please click on the picture to go to my Picasa Web Album and enjoy some nice pictures taken while passing from the Bosphorus Strait.

The pictures are taken by a friend from a Turkish Coast Guard boat, accompanied by another TCG boat. The pictures are from Kadikoy on the Marmara Sea to the Black Sea. You can also see pictures of the very expensive waterfront estates, with prices reaching as high as $100 million.

Enjoy...

The Leeds Castle

2007-09-02T21:17:00.001+01:00

Looking for "The loveliest castle in the world"? If your search engine is Google, Yahoo or MS Live, the answer is Leeds Castle in Maidstone, Kent. If you use another one and the first result is something different, switch immediately.

I first saw the Leeds Castle as the cover on a promotional calendar from Altair Filters for the year 2002. The calendar is called "On the Wing" followed by the year. I have received all the calendars from 2002 to 2007, and every month contains another nice view from the beautiful United Kingdom; great castles, towns, dark blue sea shores, various hues of green. Unfortunately this year while moving out from my house the years 2002 to 2004 got lost. So is the best picture of the Leeds Castle gone.

But the Castle was still there, so I should visit.

Together with my girlfriend we went to London Paddington and asked for 2 tickets. The price for one person is 52 GBP including admission to the Castle, but you should queue at the ticket office before entering the Castle and exchange your railway tickets for some other ticket, very unnecessary.

Anyway we had time, it was around 10:25am and the train was on 11:00am, we walked around the Paddington station looking for some breakfast / lunch. No fast food seemed delicious at the moment and we decided to buy some sandwiches from Marks & Spencer. We went there, some lady in front of the queue poured fruit juice on my girlfriends outfit, and then she took ages asking some questions the cashier and...

It was 10:55, we were running for the train, my cell phone fall and broke apart, I tried picking the pieces while still running and some very dramatic moments finalized when we saw the train closing the doors in front of us. Well one of the polite employees of the Southeastern rail service has been nice enough to wait for us, and we managed to catch the train. These both paragraphs are only to thank our anonymous savior.

After 1 hour of train journey, when we ate and drink our hard earned M & S prize, we have reached the Bearsted Station, where a friendly coach driver has greeted all the passengers going to the Leeds Castle. This guy told jokes to everyone while checking the tickets and we have liked him very much. Oh the coach was ancient, vibrating and noisy, I am glad we made it to the Castle safely.

The Castle has large grounds including an aviary, a golf course, maze, many ducks, black swans and white swans, two restaurants, picnic area...

The Castle is in very good condition and alive, because I think many rooms are still being used for the meetings of the Leeds Castle Foundation. It is a very nice area for a whole day visit, go and see for yourself...

The Cow Pub

2007-09-02T13:54:00.000+01:00

In Notting Hill, London there is a very popular Pub, different from other Pubs I have been, with its seafood oriented menu. It is rated very high in Zagat Survey as other Tom Conran Restaurants. In my last night at London together with my girlfriend we went there... I wish we did not.

I am very disappointed at how they handle customers, the thing was not about what they did, it is how they did. I do not recall any time I was treated so nervously in a restaurant, so we have sent the following email to mail@tomconranrestaurants.co.uk to express our disappointment, and guess what, we have never received a response.

---
I am a tourist from Turkey who will be coming to London for an MSc degree in September. Tonight (30 June 2007) is my last day in London and I have visited together with my girlfriend The Cow Pub, London.

Together we have ordered a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc and a "Small Platter" of seafood. To our surprise (because the menu did not mention it) most the platter consisted of raw seafood.

We tried not to ruin our night but unfortunately we could not eat anything on platter. By reactions of the neighboring tables we understand that this is was the "Best seafood in London" but we just did not know it was raw food while ordering.

We complained our waitress, she took the food away to "see what she can do", some minutes later a nervous (my girlfriend thinks he was extremely rude) guy came to our table and explained that he cannot cancel the platter, because he said that "if we did not pay, he should pay for the platter".

At the end we have paid for the full price even though we did not eat anything. We believe that the management of the Pub could have handled the situation completely differently. First of all they could have approached us in a more kind and understanding manner. Even though in most of the places, if the customer is that unsatisfied with the food, they do not let the customer pay, if this is something that they are indeed unable to do, they could still have offered anything else in the menu (could be just salads for example of which the cost to the Pub is very low) or could have offered a discount. However, because they were so unpleasant and requested us to pay the full price (because it was our fault not to know that the seafood was raw -which was not mentioned in the menu), we left the Pub without even drinking the wine.

It was a very unpleasant experience for us and it was very unfortunate because we specifically went to The Cow Pub because it was rated high in the reviews. (e.g. Zagat).
---

I think people should not get jobs in the service sector, if they do not how to be nice and kind and companies should not use email addresses or web sites if they do not mean to answer.

Highly unrecommended!

Please also consider this before eating raw seafood.

Istanbul - Sultanahmet

2007-09-01T08:30:00.000+01:00

The Old City of Istanbul, bounded by the Bosphorus, Marmara Sea and the Golden Horn is such a place you can almost smell history, feel the way people lived since the times of Byzantion.

There are so many places to visit in this area with surprisingly rich cultural heritage. Hagia Sophia (picture on the top left) Sultanahmet Mosque, Topkapi Palace, Yerebatan Cistern, Soguk Cesme Street (picture on the bottom left), and Istanbul Archeology Museum just to name a few.

I am very impressed with the Istanbul Archeology Museum which owes it's current state to Osman Hamdi Bey the pioneer of the Museum's Curator profession in Turkey. In this museum you can see the first ever written documents, including Treaty of Kadesh, Alexander the Great's Sarcophagus (picture on the right) and so many artifacts from the earliest civilizations of the history.

You sohuld also not miss Topkapi Palace which was the primary residence of the Sultans, inside the Palace are some great exhibitions like Treasury (including religious relics like Staff of Moses and Beard of Mohamed) Armory and Palace Kitchens.

To enjoy the glory of the Old City of Istanbul I would highly recommend a knowledgeable tour guide, as a local Istanbul'er since at least 3 generations my opinion is that there is so much history around this district, a normal human being cannot simply explore everything to the full extent.

This district is very touristic, there are many hotels, restaurants and souvenir shops. Local people try to talk english and they always assume you are a tourist there. Answering them in Turkish will make them stare at you confused.

Istanbul - Rumelihisari

2007-08-30T15:53:00.000+01:00

One of the best and relaxing places to visit in Istanbul is Rumeli Hisari. It is a little fortress built in almost 4 months on the European side of the Bosphorus for the upcoming Siege of Constantinople in 1453. Rumeli Hisari can be visited everyday between 9:00 - 16:30 except Wednesdays, and while there you will understand why Istanbul was the choice as the Capital City for the many greatest Empires who managed to get there.

Despite the lack of urban planning in Istanbul, many areas can be still be considered as one of the most beautiful.

I would recommend Istanbul as a must visit for every tourist, but do not try to live or work here for a long time. She may be unforgiving, hard to get along. Heavy Traffic, not many mass transport choices; high crime rate in some places because of the periodic general amnesties, decreasing signs of the modern Turkish Republic that Atatürk has built, will make you feel uneasy.

Anyway while in Istanbul, do not forget to visit Rumeli Hisarı and then have a coffee at Starbucks Bebek, directly on the shore of Bosphorus, maybe the nicest placed Starbucks.

Istanbul - Miniaturk

2007-08-30T14:51:00.000+01:00

Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality has opened a park named Miniaturk in 2001 containing 1/25 scaled models of buildings that are or once were inside Istanbul, Anatolia and borders of the former Ottoman Empire.

It is roughly a 2 hour visit, which encourages you to go see the real places very soon. Mostar Bridge on the left and Sumela Monastery on the right are the pictures I have chosen to display here.

Overall it is a cheap and nice visit at 5 YTL adult / 3 YTL student. (approx. 2.5 € / 1,5 €). However like many other museums, these prices are for local people only, please expect to pay 10 YTL (approx. 5.5 € in todays currency) or a fixed rate of 7 € as a tourist. A strange but common policy in Istanbul.

As with my other posts, clicking on the images will open my Picasa Web Album

Visiting the US

2007-08-28T18:43:00.000+01:00

Having visited France and UK in just 3 months, another visit was due. For a users meeting for our company's ERP Software QAD MFG/Pro we were invited to Denver, Colorado, USA. ERP stands for Enterprise Resource Planning ang QAD is one of the biggest companies producing ERP software, arguably most popular being SAP.

From Istanbul, Turkey I've reached Chicago in a 10-11 hours flight and then picked up a connecting flight to Denver Airport, finally taking a Shuttle to the Hotel Teatro. The door to door journey time was 21 hours and was very exhausting.

US is a different country, the layout of the cities, the roads, the cars are different. The lifestyle is strange. I felt like I was starring in the movie 13th floor I can almost walk to the end of the city and see the desert or the mountains setting the limits. It was like the end of the world was out there.

I have stayed for 5 days in Denver, Hotel Teatro is a beautiful Hotel, the city has the 16th Street Mall as a tourist attraction, a couple of nice restaurants, Colorado Convention Center and the "typical American" grid style roads and building blocks. Sim City could not be born anywhere else then the US.

After Denver I had a single night and a morning visit to New York. It is "the city" in whole movies, games, songs but I am in no position to comment about New York, I stayed only for a very short time. Something may be obviously wrong with me; but I've felt alone there.

I am pretty glad I have visited the US, the country I am more familiar then the country I have born in. I want to salute everyone spreading the American Culture for doing such a good job.

My First Web Cam

2007-08-28T06:11:00.000+01:00

I have recently bought a V-Gear Talkcam Tracer CCD WebCam, the cheapest CCD camera I could find in hepsiburada.com. I have installed the camera software from the supplied CD and plugged it in to my Acrox Mini Titanium USB HUB. The camera was working, the image was very crisp and the frame rate was very low (0,5 fps / sec).

Some searches on the internet provided the following information:
1. Replace the drivers.
I have done a system restore to remove the drivers (taking extreme measures, maybe?) , I have installed new drivers from the web site, the result being (0,5 fps / sec)

2. Do not connect WebCams through an extension cable or USB Hub.
Not connecting through an USB Hub is not something I preferred, I want all the USB extensions to be removed easily from the notebook. (a poor mans docking station solution; the Western Digital My Book 500GB, Logitech Mouse, V-Gear Webcam are connected and disconnected with a single move). Nevertheless I have tried connecting to an USB port directly and relieved to see (0,5 fps / sec)

3. Webcams give full frame rate in good lighting conditions and slower in dark settings.
This was it, deactivating the Auto Exposure setting and trying until reaching the specific top value (63 in my case) has been successful. (30 fps / sec at 640x480)

I have used my web cam flawlessly, with full screen very good quality video, for two days.

Yesterday I tried using the cam again, but it won't display anything, I've tried the options 1 to 3. Leaving the computer for 3-5 minutes, I realized the cam was working, very slowly, no display for the firs 3 minutes and then 1 frame in 3 minutes. To cut the story short, the problem went away the time I plugged the WD Mybook HDD to electricity.

I believe, this is a power issue. The USB Hub can not provide enough power for a CCD camera (I have read that a CCD has a much higher power requirement then a CMOS). The adaptor of the Western Digital MyBook somehow provides power to the hub, and if it is disconnected the camera won't work.

Paris - travels continue...

2007-08-27T15:42:00.000+01:00

Following the Chippenham travel, together with my girlfriend on a suny January Saturday in a national holiday week, we just got into a travel agent and bought tickets to Paris. On the same night we have arrived in Paris CDG Airport, and by asking the lady on the information desk we got into a bus to central Paris.

While I do not remember exactly where we got off the bus, Paris is so compact compared to "mega" cities like London and Istanbul, we somehow ended in deciding between hotels found in the Rue de l'Arcade. I have always heard and I continue to hear that French refuse to speak english. In our experience this was a total lie. Every single person we tried to speak in Paris were trying to help us, many of them were very good english speakers, the security people working in the underground (metro, subway) bus drivers, people on the information desk were all very nice.

The first night we stayed in Tim Hotel, it was a room looking into the central space in the building, and was somehow depressing. In the 2. and 3. nights we stayed in a room looking to Gare Saint Lazare and this shiny beatiful hotel (picture on the left).

The Hotel had only 2 stars but we vere very satisfied with our room for only 65 euros per night for 2 persons.. On the 4th. day we are told that the hotel was full for next days, and we had to leave. We have loaded our backpacks and started walking around Paris looking for a hotel. On that day we have travelled 1/2 of central Paris by walking, visited three Gares (train stations) and wew hired another room in a 3 star hotel Rue de l'Arcade. The hotel was 100 euros per night for 2 persons and I think Tim Hotel was much better.

One of the impressive things I have learned in Paris is that many of the historical looking buildings are not so historical, the Petit Palais, with a very nice statue of a french woman is only built on 1900 for the world fair. We have met a nice Turkish guy, working as a member of the security who gave us his MSN adress, unfortunately I have lost the paper, and was never able to add him. So anyone knowing him, send my greatest regards to him.

And in our last day, we have visited Notre Dame de Paris climbed upstarits for a very nice panoramic view of Paris accompanied by gargoyles... A nice day in Winter. There is much more to write about our 8 day visit of Paris, vicinity of Sorbonne, St. Dennis, Sacre Cour, Foacault pendulum, Versailles, Pantheon, Louvre, the river tour... Trying to explain Paris in a blog would be too ignorant for my taste. No matter how hard I try to write about, there would be something left. Rodin, Mona Lisa, Arc de Triomphe...

Overall I liked Paris very much, the subway system is great, very tasty Bordeaux Wine was sold at Carrefour for only 1 euro, different types of cheese were very cheap, the city itself is very beautiful the cafes and all the waiters were very very nice. Paris is a nice city for a tourist, and living there should be as nice.

Chippenham - How it began

2007-08-27T15:39:00.001+01:00

This is my first day of blogging, so I assume in the following days I will post a good amount of data...

Now with the previous blog titled Moving to London is there, it may be worth reading "how it began"

Yonca - Onuk JV. has bought a new software Preactor in 2005 to plan / schedule the construction phase. Preactor International is located in Chippenham, a nice British Town, around 1.5 hours away from London Paddington.

Here you can see me set foot on Chippenham in the garden of our beatiful Hotel, named the Angel Hotel, a very nice Best Western Hotel. At 2005, this visit was my first visit outside of Turkey as an adult. Being from Istanbul, a much noisy and crowded city (that never sleeps?) I found the town to be very peaceful. I did get up early and walked around the town. Visited the park, walked along River Avon, had dinner on the restaurants and did enjoyed my stay there. I also took some pictures around Chippenham. The last 25 pictures are from London, and some pictures are taken from the train while riding to London from Chippenham.

I have visited various european countries as a little boy while I was 3-5 year old, remembering my dream country as Switzerland, for the upcoming years I planned on building a life in the beatiful Switzerland, someday. The visit to Chippenham made me think, moving to UK may be an option.

Of course I am just a MSc student for 1 year in the UK, but completing my studies, I hope to get a job to extend my stay...

Moving to London

2007-08-27T12:47:00.000+01:00

As of 24 August 2008 I have completed my provisional enrollment for my upcoming MSc degree, Enterprise and Distributed Systems Development. My top two choices were Queen Mary, University of London and Brunel University, by visiting both campuses I have made my decision and I hope I will be happy in the future.

I have graduated from Anadolu University in June 2007, and I will be quitting my almost 5 year old job as the IT Supervisor at Yonca - Onuk JV. in Turkey, which is an industrial-scale enterprise with a modern shipyard capable of serial production of state-of-the-art pleasure, commercial and naval craft, to move to London. This job experience on diverse IT subjects allowed me to get into higher education.

In my time at Yonca - Onuk JV many and multi-sized High Tech Coast Guard boats have been built, which are considered the best in their class by many authorities and sought after by many countries, including the USA. In the picture on the left is Yontech S23, a yacht built by Yonca - Onuk JV. capable of speeds up to 75 knots. That is a company thats existence is something to be proud of for its entreprenuership and technical superiority.

Military Service

2007-08-27T12:31:00.000+01:00

As a graduate Turkish Male Citizen I am obliged to give a military service for 6 months as a private or 12 months as a reserved officer, people worked outside Turkey for 3 years until they are 38 can pay a fee to reduce the service to 21 days.

When the high school days are over and if you are over 18 years old, all Turkish Male Citizen are to visit the Military Offices and ask for permission to go the University. The permission is given automatically upon receiving some health checks. Until the age of 29 the service is postponed on a yearly basis by the University. However students opting for higher education can postpone this service until they are 33 old. Upon graduation from the University you should visit the Military Offices again (in August if you have graduated in June) and request for a date to start the service. The date given is approximately 1 year ahead. In that time you should start your higher education and postpone the start of service or wait for the day to come.

I was 29 years old when I have graduated from the University and I am moving to London in September 2007, start of my service is in August 2008, while in London I will be visiting TC. Londra Büyükelçiliği Eğitim Müşavirliği to postpone the service further.