Since I started using goodreads for my book reviews, the blog will be even more silent.
Here is my goodreads profile: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/76262523-ulas-ergin
03 March 2024
26 November 2023
Book Review: Een kleine geschiedenis van Rusland
The author paid great attention to the early Rus and following Russian Empire but fails to reflect the Soviet Era which contributed greatly to modern Russia and the formation of modern Russian society and norms.
Post Soviet period is even worse. The 2008 and 2014 Russian wars were mentioned in 1 line.
The author fails to give background info and reasoning about that is going on (RU-UA) war.
If you are already informed in Russian history then this book is not for you, it is a bit light reading.
I read this books with 2 things in mind, I know a bit Russian history (see my previous posts under book review label ) and I am trying to learn Dutch so a Dutch language book on Russian history was an relatively easy read.
12 November 2023
Nice TV Series on NPO (in Dutch)
After I watched several Dutch-Language series on Netflix, I wanted to switch to something else, since the series on Netflix were mainly Drama or Comedy while I like action/adventure the most so I became a NPO Plus member and started watching crime series on NPO.
Here is a list of some series that i liked:
28 July 2022
Dutch Language Movies on Neflix
- Riphagen
- The Resistance Banker
- The Forgotten Battle
- Suskind
- Elvy's Wereld So Ibiza!
- Misfit
- Misfit 2
- Misfit : De Finale
- De Boskampi's
- De Storm
- DikTom
- Kruimeltje
- Pietje Bell
- De schippers van de Kameloon
- Kameloon 2
- Zwaar Verliefd!
- Meskina
- Wat is dan liefde
- Marokaanse Bruiloft
- Penoza
- Herri in Huize Gerri
- Captain Nova
- De Inspirator
- Soof
- Soof2
- The Takeover
- Lucia de B.
- F*ck de Liefde
- F*ck Love Too
- Weg van Jou
Dutch TV Series on Netflix
I have been trying to learn Dutch for the last 2 years and I try to watch series/films in Dutch to practice.
Unfortunately most of the Dutch series on Netflix are in drama/comedy genre while I like thrillers/action/detective. Luckily Belgian content on Netflix has more of thriller/ action kind.
Yes, they are in Flemish with a heavy accent but still...better than nothing, toch?
Some Flemish movies have the option of Dutch subtitles.
I hope you enjoy (and benefit) my list.
03 January 2014
Java WebSocket Sample
I have not been updating this blog for some time but I was unsatisfied with my search on Java Websockets topic on the client implementation in Java and configuration so I decided to post one.
There is valuable info on several blogs and presentation slides on Java WebSockets, but generally the samples are about the implementation of server side and websocket client is implemented on html/JavaScript, I wanted a client implementation in Java.
I decided to provide a complete sample, with both a Java websocket server and java client together with the html/javascript one.
The sample application is a virtual USD Exchange rate publishing server and the websocket client consumes the new USD rate as it becomes available.
How to Configure:
1. For the server implementation: WebSockets standard is included in JEE7 so you app.server must be supporting JEE7.
WebSphere Liberty 8.5.5 did not run this so I went with GlasssFish 4.0 (build 89)
Just deploy the application as a war or ear file. Since annotation based approach is used no need to configure a web.xml/deployment descriptor.
2. For the Java client implementation: JSE7 does not include WebSockets so you should add necesessary jar files yourself. I used Tyrus as the websocket api implementation.
Use javax.websocket-api.jar and tyrus-standalone-client-1.3.3.jar from https://tyrus.java.net/
3. Java client should have a file named javax.websocket.ContainerProvider in MEFA-INF/services folder with the content org.glassfish.tyrus.client.ClientManager to introduce Tyrus to JSE7 environment as WebSocketContainer provider . (see ServiceLoader API for details)
4. For the html/javascript implementation: IE9 does not support websockets,IE version must be at least 10.
For Firefox and Chrome...they have been supporting websockets for a very long time so it won't be a problem.
see caniuse.com for more info on browser support.
Here is the server application
package websocket.server;
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.*;
import javax.websocket.*;
import javax.websocket.server.*;
@ServerEndpoint("/ratesrv")
public class CustomEndPoint {
private static Queue<Session> queue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Session>();
private static Thread rateThread ;
static
{//rate publisher thread, generates a new value for USD rate every 2 seconds.
rateThread=new Thread(){
public void run() {
DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("#.####");
while(true)
{
double d=2+Math.random();
if(queue!=null)
sendAll("USD Rate: "+df.format(d));
try {
sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
};
} ;
rateThread.start();
}
@OnMessage
public void onMessage(Session session, String msg) {
try {
System.out.println("received msg "+msg+" from "+session.getId());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
@OnOpen
public void open(Session session) {
queue.add(session);
System.out.println("New session opened: "+session.getId());
}
@OnError
public void error(Session session, Throwable t) {
queue.remove(session);
System.err.println("Error on session "+session.getId());
}
@OnClose
public void closedConnection(Session session) {
queue.remove(session);
System.out.println("session closed: "+session.getId());
}
private static void sendAll(String msg) {
try {
/* Send updates to all open WebSocket sessions */
ArrayList<Session > closedSessions= new ArrayList<>();
for (Session session : queue) {
if(!session.isOpen())
{
System.err.println("Closed session: "+session.getId());
closedSessions.add(session);
}
else
{
session.getBasicRemote().sendText(msg);
}
}
queue.removeAll(closedSessions);
System.out.println("Sending "+msg+" to "+queue.size()+" clients");
} catch (Throwable e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
and here is the Java WebSocket Client:
@ClientEndpoint
public class WSClient {
private static Object waitLock = new Object();
@OnMessage
public void onMessage(String message) {
System.out.println("Received msg: "+message);
}
@OnOpen
public void onOpen(Session p) {
try {
p.getBasicRemote().sendText("Session established");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static void wait4TerminateSignal()
{
synchronized(waitLock)
{
try {
waitLock.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
WebSocketContainer container=null;
Session session=null;
try{
container = ContainerProvider.getWebSocketContainer();
//WS1 is the context-root of my web.app
//ratesrv is the path given in the ServerEndPoint annotation on server implementation
session=container.connectToServer(WSClient.class, URI.create("ws://localhost:8080/WS1/ratesrv"));
wait4TerminateSignal();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally{
if(session!=null){
try {
session.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
The html/javascript client is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>WebSocket Client</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
var wsocket;
function connect() {
wsocket = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080/WS1/ratesrv");
wsocket.onmessage = onMessage;
}
function onMessage(evt) {
document.getElementById("rate").innerHTML=evt.data;
}
window.addEventListener("load", connect, false);
</script>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
<td> <label id="rateLbl">Current Rate:</label></td>
<td> <label id="rate">0</label></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
I hope this helps
There is valuable info on several blogs and presentation slides on Java WebSockets, but generally the samples are about the implementation of server side and websocket client is implemented on html/JavaScript, I wanted a client implementation in Java.
I decided to provide a complete sample, with both a Java websocket server and java client together with the html/javascript one.
The sample application is a virtual USD Exchange rate publishing server and the websocket client consumes the new USD rate as it becomes available.
How to Configure:
1. For the server implementation: WebSockets standard is included in JEE7 so you app.server must be supporting JEE7.
WebSphere Liberty 8.5.5 did not run this so I went with GlasssFish 4.0 (build 89)
Just deploy the application as a war or ear file. Since annotation based approach is used no need to configure a web.xml/deployment descriptor.
2. For the Java client implementation: JSE7 does not include WebSockets so you should add necesessary jar files yourself. I used Tyrus as the websocket api implementation.
Use javax.websocket-api.jar and tyrus-standalone-client-1.3.3.jar from https://tyrus.java.net/
3. Java client should have a file named javax.websocket.ContainerProvider in MEFA-INF/services folder with the content org.glassfish.tyrus.client.ClientManager to introduce Tyrus to JSE7 environment as WebSocketContainer provider . (see ServiceLoader API for details)
4. For the html/javascript implementation: IE9 does not support websockets,IE version must be at least 10.
For Firefox and Chrome...they have been supporting websockets for a very long time so it won't be a problem.
see caniuse.com for more info on browser support.
Here is the server application
package websocket.server;
import java.text.DecimalFormat;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.*;
import javax.websocket.*;
import javax.websocket.server.*;
@ServerEndpoint("/ratesrv")
public class CustomEndPoint {
private static Queue<Session> queue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Session>();
private static Thread rateThread ;
static
{//rate publisher thread, generates a new value for USD rate every 2 seconds.
rateThread=new Thread(){
public void run() {
DecimalFormat df = new DecimalFormat("#.####");
while(true)
{
double d=2+Math.random();
if(queue!=null)
sendAll("USD Rate: "+df.format(d));
try {
sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
};
} ;
rateThread.start();
}
@OnMessage
public void onMessage(Session session, String msg) {
try {
System.out.println("received msg "+msg+" from "+session.getId());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
@OnOpen
public void open(Session session) {
queue.add(session);
System.out.println("New session opened: "+session.getId());
}
@OnError
public void error(Session session, Throwable t) {
queue.remove(session);
System.err.println("Error on session "+session.getId());
}
@OnClose
public void closedConnection(Session session) {
queue.remove(session);
System.out.println("session closed: "+session.getId());
}
private static void sendAll(String msg) {
try {
/* Send updates to all open WebSocket sessions */
ArrayList<Session > closedSessions= new ArrayList<>();
for (Session session : queue) {
if(!session.isOpen())
{
System.err.println("Closed session: "+session.getId());
closedSessions.add(session);
}
else
{
session.getBasicRemote().sendText(msg);
}
}
queue.removeAll(closedSessions);
System.out.println("Sending "+msg+" to "+queue.size()+" clients");
} catch (Throwable e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
@ClientEndpoint
public class WSClient {
private static Object waitLock = new Object();
@OnMessage
public void onMessage(String message) {
System.out.println("Received msg: "+message);
}
@OnOpen
public void onOpen(Session p) {
try {
p.getBasicRemote().sendText("Session established");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static void wait4TerminateSignal()
{
synchronized(waitLock)
{
try {
waitLock.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
WebSocketContainer container=null;
Session session=null;
try{
container = ContainerProvider.getWebSocketContainer();
//WS1 is the context-root of my web.app
//ratesrv is the path given in the ServerEndPoint annotation on server implementation
session=container.connectToServer(WSClient.class, URI.create("ws://localhost:8080/WS1/ratesrv"));
wait4TerminateSignal();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
finally{
if(session!=null){
try {
session.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
The html/javascript client is:
<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>WebSocket Client</title>
<script type="text/javascript">
var wsocket;
function connect() {
wsocket = new WebSocket("ws://localhost:8080/WS1/ratesrv");
wsocket.onmessage = onMessage;
}
function onMessage(evt) {
document.getElementById("rate").innerHTML=evt.data;
}
window.addEventListener("load", connect, false);
</script>
</head>
<body>
<table>
<tr>
<td> <label id="rateLbl">Current Rate:</label></td>
<td> <label id="rate">0</label></td>
</tr>
</table>
</body>
</html>
I hope this helps
24 October 2010
Vor- Thief (1997)
This movie was nominated as the Best Foreign Language Movie in Oscar, European Film Awards, Golden Globe and many others, see the IMDB page for all list. It has a total o 7 awards in several organizations.It is a nice and warm movie, Sanya's father is dead, they meet a soldier on a train with her mother, romance starts between the soldier and mother and they start to live together but it appears that he is not a real soldier but a thief!
I liked this one and highly recommend.IMDB
Voditel dlya Very -A Driver for Vera (2004)
This nice movie reminded me the Turkish movies of 60s, a young soldier is assigned as a driver for a Soviet Army General in 1962 in Sevastopol, Crimea, General's daughter is physically disabled and has a hard-spoilt personality but later a romance starts between these two...
Doesn't it remind you Ayhan Isik and Belgin Doruk concept:)
it was a nice movie, I can recommend this one to everybody.
06 October 2010
Sorok Pervy -The Forty-First (1956)
During Russian Civil war, a Red Army unit captures an important white officer who is believed to carry important information from Kolcak to Denikin [both are white commanders].The only female member of the team is a sniper who has shot 40 whites already but misses this 41th but takes him prisoner...after many events a romance occurs between this two..
DVD of this movie is also sold on amazon.com and more movie info is available on IMDB and wikipedia. I personally liked this idea.
15 September 2010
Mimino(1977)
This Georgian comedy Mimino(means Falcon) is a nice watch, it is funny and warm. I would recommend it but I must say that it is not completely in Russian, some parts are in Georgian.
More info here.
05 September 2010
Little Moscow(2008)
Great! movie,I liked this one very much. Highly recommended!!
Mała Moskwa is set in the 1960s in the southwestern Polish city of Legnica, where Krzystek(the director of this movie) was born in 1953. Legnica was the headquarters of the Soviet forces stationed in Poland from 1945 until 1990 and much of the city was a Soviet enclave closed to outsiders, including Polish citizens, during this time. Yuri (Dmitry Ulyanov) is a young Russian pilot and failed astronaut posted to Legnica with his even younger wife Vera (Svetlana khodchenkova, judged best leading actress for her performance). Vera learns Polish and becomes fascinated with Polish music and poetry. She meets Polish officer and musician Michał (Lesław Żurek) at a Polish-Soviet “friendship song contest” which she wins. The story inexorably leads to tragedy as Vera desperately tries to stop herself from falling in love with Michał, equally desperately tries to hide her infatuation when this fails, and finally kills herself. The grave of the Russian woman on whose life Mała Moskwa is based still attracts visitors.http://www.foriegnmoviesddl.com/2009/04/maa-moskwa-little-moscow-2008-waldemar.html
04 September 2010
The Ascent (1977) - Voskhozhdeniye
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Yet another famous Soviet Movie, The Ascent (Voskhozhdeniye ) is listed in the 20 Must See Films list of Russian Life magazine (20 Must See Russian Films of course :) )
Two soviet partisans separate from their group to go yo the nearest village and find some food but they are captured by the Germans, you can feel the cold and freezing snow ..one more time remember how wild and cruel is the war, especially the WWII.
BUT I must say that the movie is only average,it can be considered slow on today's basis.More info on this black and white movie is here.
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (1964)
Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors(Tini zabutykh predkiv) is another famous Soviet movie, but I personally did not enjoy it very much, maybe I did not get the implications or symbols. The movie has 8.1/10 on IMDB.
The only good thing about this movie is you can see the daily village life, clothes, music in the Carpathian region.
22 August 2010
Igla (1988)
This '88 Soviet Movie is in fact not very interesting, its only point is the main actor is Victor Tsoi and this makes this movie important, worth seeing.For those who do not know him: He is one of the pioneers of Russian Rock with his group Kino during Perestroika years. You can watch his song "A star called sun"
I personally did not like his songs in the movie very much, but for some reasons I understand that Russians love him.
The wall above, people who know Moscow will easily recognize, is on Arbat Street, it is a memorial site for Victor Tsoi who died on a car accident at the age of 28.I found the movie here.
edit:in the meantime I liked this Kino song very much : ЗВЕЗДА ПО ИМЕНИ СОЛНЦЕ
21 August 2010
Some Russian Songs
Other than Инфинити, there are several very good Russian pop songs, I would like to share some of them with you.
ВИНТАЖ is a very good group, here are some songs of the group that I like.
I came into this X-Mode & DJ Nil in my 2005 trip to Moscow, their album is for sale on amazon.com but unfortunately their music videos are not widely available here is one of my favorites La Peregrinacion. I also love their song Leto!.
Turkish music listeners will immediately recognize this song Капкан from group Пропаганда . For those who insist not to recognize here is the Turkish video.
Beautiful Russian Madonna Valeriya Perfilova has many lovely songs, here is only one sample:
Капелькою .
AND last but not the list, this great song...Whenever I went to a club/bar in Moscow this song was played at least once! I always wondered what is was but i could not find out since i could not understand a word:) Now I accidentally came across this song and happily know what it is :
"Музыка нас связала" from the Group Мираж.It is very good, give it a chance i am sure you will like.
Note: I have written about Alla Pugacheva already in a previous post so i don't repeat one more time here.
ВИНТАЖ is a very good group, here are some songs of the group that I like.
I came into this X-Mode & DJ Nil in my 2005 trip to Moscow, their album is for sale on amazon.com but unfortunately their music videos are not widely available here is one of my favorites La Peregrinacion. I also love their song Leto!.
Turkish music listeners will immediately recognize this song Капкан from group Пропаганда . For those who insist not to recognize here is the Turkish video.
Beautiful Russian Madonna Valeriya Perfilova has many lovely songs, here is only one sample:
Капелькою .
AND last but not the list, this great song...Whenever I went to a club/bar in Moscow this song was played at least once! I always wondered what is was but i could not find out since i could not understand a word:) Now I accidentally came across this song and happily know what it is :
"Музыка нас связала" from the Group Мираж.It is very good, give it a chance i am sure you will like.
Note: I have written about Alla Pugacheva already in a previous post so i don't repeat one more time here.
18 August 2010
Инфинити(Infiniti)
I love Инфинити !!!.
This must be my first sentence of a topic on Инфинити, because I have their both albums "Где ты" and Я так хочу(2010) and they are great!. They are both excellent, all the songs, yes all songs with no exception are great in these albums.
Both albums are very very good.Try to find them both.
The official site of Инфинити is http://www.infiniti-music.ru/ and you can listen them on http://infinity.pdj.ru/.
Here is the official Infiniti youtube channel: INFINITIofficial.
Here are some of the music video of this great group, I guarantee that you will like.
This must be my first sentence of a topic on Инфинити, because I have their both albums "Где ты" and Я так хочу(2010) and they are great!. They are both excellent, all the songs, yes all songs with no exception are great in these albums.
Both albums are very very good.Try to find them both.
The official site of Инфинити is http://www.infiniti-music.ru/ and you can listen them on http://infinity.pdj.ru/.
Here is the official Infiniti youtube channel: INFINITIofficial.
Here are some of the music video of this great group, I guarantee that you will like.
15 August 2010
Юленька (2009)
Not a superb movie, but still can be seen to spend some time. Note the small girl's(Darya Balabanova) acting skills.
I am quoting the plot from IMDB : "A university professor, who wants to slow down a little, moves with his wife and daughter, from the big city to a small town and starts a new job as a teacher in a girls' gymnasium. Something weird is happening with the class, they seem to hide a secret. As it turns out, these girls don't play with dolls, they make a toy of human lives - and soon teacher's life and family are jeopardized by something evil. And whether he'll be able to get out of this nightmare, depends solely on a little girl, who claims: "all I wanted is my mommy to be happy"
1612: Khroniki smutnogo vremeni (2007)
The Time of Troubles (Russian: Смутное время, Smutnoye Vremya) was a period of Russian history comprising the years of interregnum between the death of the last Russian Tsar Feodor Ivanovich of the Rurik Dynasty in 1598 and the establishment of the Romanov Dynasty in 1613. At the time, Russia was occupied by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the Dymytriads, and suffered from civil uprisings, usurpers and impostors. [From Wikipedia ]So, the movie taked place in those times were a slave[serf] becomes a hero during the war against the Poles.A historical movie with war scenes with humor in it, I liked this warm movie.Not a bloody war movie, recommended for everyone.IMDB page is here.
Buzkiran
Another anti-soviet propaganda book, the author which is himself a KGB officer also, claims that Russians forced Germans to attack them.He claims that due to the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact Hitler had confidence in Russia that there won't be a war among these two.But Stalin planned to attack Germans suddenly and made preparations for this purpose, Germans sensed this an prepared a sudden counter attack....Details are here
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