2008-03-30

"This is the WAY" Art Movement

I was watching "The Pink Floyd Story: Which one is Pink?" documentary broadcasted by BBC1.

The documentary features extensive archive footage, some of it rarely or never seen, alongside original interviews with the four surviving members of Pink Floyd: David Gilmour, Roger Waters, Richard Wright and Nick Mason.
It "traces the journey of a band that has only ever had five members, three of whom have lead the band at different stages of its evolution".

It was nice to watch experimentations that made the band hit the mainstream, and the evolution of the band by the atmosphere of the changing times.

This documentary made me think about the mainstream today.
No one experiments. No one is encouraged to do so..
Contrary to the speed things are changing in our age, there's nothing new in the mainstream art scene!
No one that has something to say can make it to the mainstream.
There's no your way to do so. There is only the way!
"This is the way" is also strongly propagandized!
All you have to be is a pretty white boy/girl. Or lets say a black boy/girl with a sense of rhythm. Or an architect drawing some amorphous sketches!
No special skills that make you different from the rest of the %90.
You earn millions! and millions love you! You just party and enjoy the heaven on earth.
You're mentally and probably physically the slave of the producer and/or who choose you to be in the mainstream. But it's just a minor detail never need to be mentioned!

Of course Pink Floyd had a similar relationship with EMI. But it was more like a mutual symbiosis.
When you produce ordinary, you can keep it on a thighter leash!

Off the top of my head, I see two reasons why:
1) Media Empire doesn't want an individual or a collective work that has a personality, that may grow on people and gain political power.
Political Power held by a non super rich always meant trouble for them in history.
2) SLUMBER. People love to protest anything that has no significance in their daily lifes.
But when it comes to their major problems, they choose a deep sleep.

Don't get me wrong. For the present time I'm no different from the rest of the herd.
As an architect I'd love to see the super rich as clients! And also I admire their intelligence and their hard work on finding innovative ways to control herds!
It's just that I'm aware! As an Architect I recognize a plan when I see one!

It's hard to name a period when you're living in it. We usually leave this task to the future historians.
Here is my humble attempt:
Welcome to the era of "This is the WAY" Art Movement!

Tell your grandsons and granddaughters the good ol' days when you had no significance and had nothing that belongs to you in your mind!

2008-03-29

Norman Foster: Building on The Green Agenda









Architect Norman Foster discusses his own work to show how computers can help architects design buildings that are green, beautiful and "basically pollution-free." He shares projects from throughout his career, from the pioneering roof-gardened Willis Building (1975) to the London Gherkin (2004). He also comments on two upcoming megaprojects: a pipe to bring water from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea, and the new Beijing airport.

2008-03-22

"Gender of Angels" Byzantine Argument Part II

I'm not sure if it really happened. It's an often referenced story that "The elite of Byzantine were still arguing about the gender of angels, while Sultan Mehmet II the Conqueror was imposing a siege upon their Capital."

After 555 years later we have the second episode of the Byzantine Argument! Same place, different topic. And this time it's pretty real!

What's the Major Problem of Higher Education in Turkey? Clothing? Secularity?

As I'm the namesake of The Great Conqueror Mehmet, I'll try to be scientific as he was, to bring a different perspective..

Here are some world maps scaled by statics:
(Click on to see larger image)

Absolute Wealth 2002
This wealth map shows which territories have the greatest wealth when Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is compared using currency exchange rates. This indicates international purchasing power.
Turkey isn't as poor as it's assumed to be.


Research and Development Employees
Is Turkey smaller than African countries? Still not bad..


Royalty Fees Received
Royalty fees are the payments received from someone who wants to use an idea, invention or artistic creation that legally belongs to you.
Everyone talks the talk on the importance of producing knowledge and science, but doesn't walk the walk as clearly seen on the map!

Commenting on anything about this "gender of angels battle" makes me a side which I have no time and absolutely no desire for.

I just wanted to remind that when you analyze your problems scientifically you get self explanatory results.

2008-03-21

Autodesk can't decide what to do with Impression

Autodesk Impression is a brilliant application for generating presentation ready raster images directly from *.dwg and *.dwf files.

What differentiates Impression from the competitors is its easy to use interface.
It imports cad files preserving the layer structure so you can easily assign styles to layers.
It also recognizes blocks. For instance if you have same tree block all around the drawing in different scales, you can manipulate all of them by assigning a raster for the particular block.

Cons: It has major bug problems resulting in crashes. Especially occurs when you assign styles to individual objects. Also needs some optimization as it slows to a halt when working on 3d cad files and/or big size files.

How will this promising software commercially available?
Autodesk Impression free 40-hour runtime trial is available for most countries.

First it was said to be retailed around $400-500. It would be an affordable tool, most people would like to have in their arsenals.
But now Autodesk says it would be a free download for the Subscribed Users.
Free sounds good at first, but it also means "Demo Forever".
Autodesk Subscription, as all know, is an other story..

Seems like Autodesk doesn't want to market anything that isn't priced in grands..

2008-03-19

Timer Alternative for Canon 300D 350D 400D 450D Rebel

For the second Jury of my "Sali Pazari" Project I wanted to make a time lapsed video.
There's a die for gadget for this purpose. Canon TC-80N3 Timer Remote Control.

But as usual, there were problems ahead of me:

1) It's not compatible with my Canon 400D or known as Rebel XTI.

I've searched for the input values(V,I) of my camera. It's compatible with the Canon TC-80N3 output but the socket needed to be changed with a 3/32" connector.
With the chart below doing some soldering seemed to work for me..



2) Expensive for a one time project. $140 + s&h from US and nearly €160 retailed here.

I've found the Chinese Vendor Aputure which produces imitation of TC-80N3. Contacted them if they could build me one with the specified connection.
The answer was yes!(Now they also sell it this way)
Solving both my problems for $29.99 + s&h!!!


Tested and it works like a CHARM!!! Now all I need is a shiny sky at 5:30 am on this Friday!!
--edit--08.06.10--
I see this article gets a lot of attention. If there is anything you want to ask about this gadget, just shoot in the comments. And I'll be answering all..
Thanks again for reading!

2008-03-17

YouTube

TurkTelekom "the saver of the Human Race" put a dns block to YouTube.
This time TurkTelekom invented the innovative technology named "packet filtering".
For those of you who are not bright enough, this is one small step for TurkTelekom, one giant leap for Mankind!!

All the citizens of the Planet Earth and a few out there in the orbit! Horaayyy!!
We are safe again!!!

I'm not going to comment on Banning Procedure as I can not figure out what I've done wrong to be prohibited from accessing things the rest of the world can.

Is it a crime committed by YouTube or by us? As we're the ones paying for it..
Let's say there's a terrorist who murdered someone and left the country..
What you gonna do? Ban international telephone calls out to stop him communicating with anyone in the country?
Or try to get the guy to make him pay for his crime?

Unlike you guys, some of us, your humble servants, were using youtube for Educational Purposes!
Like video tutorials, previews, reviews, diys, presentations ,how tos etc.

F U! U F F! You're the Dead Loads we bear!!

P.S. Bad guys at Ktunnel give a proxy service for youtube! Save us again TurkTelekom please!

2008-03-13

We need to go "Back to the Future" Martin!!!

In the Age of Reason, in the age of Enlightment.
Horoscopes tell as who we are..
Enlighteneds tell as what we believe in..
This one tells what we think, that one tells who the enemy is..

Ironically the most efficient way to control herds scientifically.. Real Estate Biz on minds..
Rentals, for sales, on sales...

We are back in the Past Doc
. We ain't got our hoverboards with us to ride..

We are back in the pre-renaissance here..
What time is it there?
"Where the past hell you been?"

2008-03-12

Hacking Life


'
I've managed to live and work with no programming expertise. Mostly because I didn't have the time to invest in it.

Need to write an ini file for my favorite game? Need a script for AutoCAD? Sure.. Get all the examples available. Get the tutorials. Plan what you want. Dive in!

I worked 3 days and nights and today I managed to finish my first vb6 program. A physical environment controller I needed for my "Sali Pazari" project. With almost no knowledge in Programming Languages.
Marvelous isn't it?

I don't like the word hacking. It's something else. Information Literacy is the key.
Processing is becoming more important than storing!

  1. Have something you want to achive!
  2. Understand it's nature
  3. Get yourself a game plan
  4. Orchestrate the process
  5. And do it elegantly..

I find the same essence in The Architectural Thinking..
Knowing everything (if there ever such a thing exists) sure is a great deal of help.
But being creative (also hate that word) and being a thinker is more important.

It's not a safe base to cover as it sounds as is. If you like the clichés here is a term for you
"Life time education". Sounds like evergreen doesn't it! Bull..

It requirs everything you are!

Will write more about this as "Sali Pazari" project gets all my attention at the moment.
Enjoy the video! If it's your first "TEDTalk Video" thank me! Thank me a lot!

2008-03-06

Everybody falls the first time...

It's been a long time..

Back in 1999 I've experimented on a non profit architectural site under the domain name www.taskisla.com.
It was the first legitimate Architecture site in Turkish and one of the few in the world. In those years www was still wwWest.

Project goal was to establish a young community of Turkish Architects, which cooperates in thinking out of the box, without the pressure of financial issues, loyalties and educational doctrines.

Sounds naive now, but not in 1999. I've spent nearly half a grand just for the backbone of the system, and almost all universities of architecture had horror stories about CAD usage resulting in the growth of hair in the palms in those days.
(Döndüler sonra panik yok!)

Building the system in Turkish wasn't about Nationalism and was somehow a challenge.

Truth is I was a kiddo and I thought: "Missing the Industrial Revolution, the brilliant people of Turkey would be the most eager ones to be a part of the current Digital Revolution."
Now that was more than naive but I don't want to insult myself in my very first post.

Even it was in Turkish all the ftp, bbs, usenet flow caught attention of various programmers, students and geekiest architects around the world.
I've met some of the most remarkable minds in my life. Although we had gifted coders among us, we were no Technologists.
The main concern of the community was thinking about "Human and Architecture".

Sometime in 2001 www.taskisla.com turned into a lame html site with a hidden link to a sharenet.
(Under the "about taşkışla" page a 3*3 pixels black dot on a same colored background.)

It's really boring to blog so I'm gonna cut to the chase. I've dropped the domain name, a dotcom millionaire wanna be kept it for a time without using it, dropped it, I said why not and got it back.

No goals, no public bla bla, just got it for my love of taşkışla building and a cool email address.
End of story.

Man I really hate writing.. Blogging was a bad bad idea..