👋 from me-s
108 days later: engagement, myRota, engineering with AI, a four-language blog, and moving to burakbayram.com. A personal 2026 update from Burak Bayram.
Alhamdulillah. We shouldn’t forget to be grateful. It’s been almost a month and a half since I last wrote. From time to time, I feel like writing just for the sake of writing. I went back and read my previous piece as well you can check out “2026 + 67” if you’d like. First of all, after a long break, I started working out again…
It has been 67 days since we entered 2026. The days are passing by so quickly once again; may Allah grant us good and healthy lives. The song “Happy to Be Here” by Wookiefoot, which played during my 3-month Asia tour, is in my ears again. Today is Sunday, March 8, 2026, and I am in Siirt. I have a flight to Istanbul today at…
I was fortunate enough to enter 2026 in Tokyo, Japan, while returning from Roppongi to our rented house in Koto. One of the best things I’ve done since 2017 is to keep a short summary of goals for the year at the beginning of each one. You can reach the posts I’ve written since 2017 on my Annual Journals page. Before I start writing: I…
Of course, what set me off on this nearly 2.5-month journey wasn’t just these videos—but the videos you’ll watch here were the ones that especially coincided with my high school and university years. Back then, there weren’t many people you could really call travelers. A world tour, in my eyes, was something massive, and I didn’t even have 1% faith that I could ever do…
Although I neglected it somewhat as of 2023, the idea to write this piece came to me in the 4th month of 2025. If I say I don’t quite remember where I was or what I was doing at the end of last year, don’t believe me—since I was filming 60eksi at home, it means I was hanging out there and working on my projects….
Life has become all about work. Nothing else really came to my mind to write about. I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing. Working is good, of course. But what was it that I wanted to do, and what am I doing now? I think it was around 12–13 years old when I first started making educational videos and similar…
Today, the first day I will write a blog post in English. I am not familiar with English grammer for now. İnşallah one day it will be happen. And I know i will write some wrong words or I will use a wrong sentence but I don’t care becasuse I try. This is for me not for you. Whatever, I read a blogpost about travel…
Those who know, know: there’s a Youtuber called Ali Abdaal. He used to be a doctor and later turned into a full-time content creator. In one of his recent videos, he talks about the resumes people prepare. He actually wants to hire someone, and while hiring he goes through the resumes he received and turns it into a video. It’s a 30-minute video — you…
As someone who’s been on Youtube for many years and is a solid viewer, I’ll talk about one of my own pleasures: some couples who make informative videos about caravans — a topic I love watching — who talk about their dreams and who are travelers at the same time. Why did I say couples? Because I just realized that all of the channels I…
Sometimes I get e-mails that make me not want to reply at all. There is actually an etiquette to writing mail, but a certain group doesn’t follow it, doesn’t want to, or doesn’t know it. As the saying goes: not knowing isn’t shameful — not learning is. The other day a mail arrived. It had no subject line, no body text, no greeting — in…
Today we’ll try to answer the question I get asked the most. First off, I’ll write an Istanbul-focused piece and look at things from a computer engineering perspective, because I’m someone who lives in Istanbul but studied Computer Engineering at Kütahya Dumlupınar University. I think the most sensible thing is to pass on what I know, as well as I can. Based on my experience,…
For the past four years, I’ve continued this tradition, but now I’ve decided to move it to Medium. The reason is simple: unlike personal websites, Medium works more like a social network, with a culture of following and interaction, which allows you to reach more people. Of course, thanks to APIs, I can still pull these posts to my own website, just like you can…
We were camping at Yalova / Çınarcık. This time I wanted to eat slightly fancier meals and mix it up, so I packed mostly ingredients I could turn into something hot. The first dish I made was pasta. I’ll list the ingredients now, but I’d recommend dialling the amounts to your own taste and the number of people you’re cooking for. My batch was enough…
When I sketch, a tilted surface has always felt more practical and comfortable than a flat one. So instead of buying an expensive drawing desk, I decided to build my own — in the style I wanted and fitted to a spot in my room. Here’s the result and roughly how I made it. As you can see in the video, the leg is hinged…
Ways of Seeing by John Berger opens with: “Seeing comes before words. The child looks and recognizes before it can speak.” The book is made up of 7 chapters, and the part that nudged me to write this post was the seventh — the final one. The earlier chapters lean heavily on historical artworks, especially the nudes, which didn’t quite match what I’d hoped for…
If you get the “PHP update required” error while installing or updating to WordPress 5.2, your PHP version is too old. The fix is to bump your PHP version from a section inside cPanel. To do that, log into cPanel. (To reach cPanel, just append :2082 to your site address — for example https://www.burakbayram.com:2082/. Ask your hosting provider for the username and password.) Once inside…
Imagine a project — a spouse-selection project. But nothing is going the way you planned. You’re looking for someone to share your life with and you’ve got specific criteria; meanwhile the person you actually spend all your time with, and enjoy spending time with, is the exact opposite of those criteria. What would you do? What would you think? Spoiler ahead. As the title suggests,…
Started: 24 Feb 2019 — Finished: 05 May 2019 As the subtitle goes: “How we lost the ability to focus, and how we can get it back.” A solid book that offers as-rational-as-possible answers to that question. (The Turkish edition is titled Pür-dikkat; the original is Cal Newport’s Deep Work.) I genuinely lose focus so much while working that I neither enjoy nor really absorb…
First, let me explain what I’m basing this post on. In the summer of 2017 we put together a 15-day Interrail trip, and I came back having spent a total of just €25, all in. I’ll try to write up how that happened. The Interrail Ticket — TAÇ Sponsorship Our first step in this Interrail journey came in early 2017 with a contest run by…
In this post I’ll walk through how I got a Schengen visa. Three of us friends were planning an interrail trip between July 1–12, starting from Italy and looping through Switzerland, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany. One thing to keep in mind: get your Schengen from the country you’ll enter first. I haven’t personally tried getting one from a country other than the entry…
In this post I’ll cover both what we did in Trabzon and what you can do if you head there yourself. We flew to Trabzon in December 2017 with my friend Enes Beşinci. We booked the round-trip on Turkish Airlines. Having an airport makes getting in and out really easy. The airport isn’t far from the city centre either. Of course, a taxi will hit…
Gezgin Harfler A notebook trying to become a story as it travels from hand to hand. What Is Gezgin Harfler? In short, it’s a story notebook built by several people each writing 3 pages. Whoever has the notebook reads the story written by the previous contributors, writes their own 3-page continuation, and then ships it on to the next person. What Is the Goal? To…
Our rocket project “How to Build a Rocket?” — pretty attention-grabbing as a title, right? I’m not going to lay out the whole how-to right now; once we’re done, Furkan and I will write everything up step by step. We hunted around for Turkish-language resources and basically couldn’t find a thing, so we decided this is something we’d document ourselves. But first, we need to…
A quarter of a century… I just turned 25. 🙂 In primary school I had Serpil Hocam, a teacher with 25 years of experience. Back then I’d think, “wow”. And now I’ve matched her years just by being alive. I don’t know how early I am in my journey — 25 good years. I’m putting together a series called Career Talks, and I ask everyone,…
Video ideas Finding a fresh angle or a new topic is genuinely hard these days, because the number of creators has gone up massively. But here’s the thing: entertainment content tends to be what surfaces on YouTube, and it usually piles up in waves — once a topic gets popular, every entertainment-focused channel starts making the same video. That content can break up the boredom…
You might be asking, “What is Urban Sketchers Istanbul?” From the name we can at least guess it’s something that happens in Istanbul. So what is Urban Sketchers? Let me share their own description from Urban Sketchers Istanbul‘s blog: We’re a group of Istanbul residents who love to sketch. Thanks to social media we discovered each other and started taking sketch walks together around Istanbul….
I’ve been refreshing the site recently and picked a fixed title and description for every page. In this post I’ll walk through what each one is and why I chose it. For the titles I leaned on Sufi Sözlük (a Turkish dictionary of Sufi vocabulary) as the source of the words I kept coming back to. Home I didn’t use any unusual phrase on the…
I want to tell you about the new step a community I’ve been following since high school took. They cover pure technology, no waffle. The new step is the TeknoSeyir Plus(+) membership. Before getting into the model, let me briefly introduce TeknoSeyir for anyone who doesn’t know it. TeknoSeyir is in fact a technology site founded in 2011 — more accurately, a technology news site…
I just finished a book — Beni İçinden Sev (“Love Me From the Inside”). My favourite line: “It’s a beautiful story because you’re in it.” Author: Ahmet Batman. This is the first of his books I’ve read and, honestly, I enjoyed it. With most books I read I find at least one or two things I disagree with — but this one had so much…
The title might make it sound like I’m complaining about rules — quite the opposite. I genuinely don’t get why people in our country can’t follow the most basic everyday rules. Let me give a few simple examples. In Istanbul, on the metro platform there are two lines next to where the train stops. Those lines are there so people queue properly. But what actually…
Like everyone else, I’d done watercolour in a few primary-school lessons. Those were all the watercolours I’d ever done. The other day, while browsing Tumblr, I came across someone doing this kind of work as a speedart — i.e. sped up — and that’s what finally got me to pick up a brush. Note: there’s a difference between watercolour and gouache, but I’ll just say…
It’s been exactly a month since I shut down my social accounts. “Why did you put yourself on pause? And why are you switching them back on now?” — let me explain briefly. I did this because I felt I was spending too much time on social networks. I wanted to find out whether I could redirect that time toward myself, my personal growth, my…
Welcome to 7102 🙂 In other words, welcome to 2017. Now, you might be thinking of the news about martyrs and asking yourself, “What’s so welcome about that?” Honestly, when I hear such news, I don’t feel like doing anything and just drift aimlessly… but that’s not how it should be. What I can do right now is work—work to bring my country, my state,…
If you ask how and where this journey came about, we can actually say this friend’s video was the source of inspiration. Then, after about 5 hours of research on what it’s like and how to do it, we formed a team and set off. And this journey was going to be another adventure for us. Initially, saying what should we do, how should we…
Read, read, read. In short, read. Why? Because the things you need to remind yourself of must be read and repeated nonstop. Whatever the topic, whatever the situation, on some topics you need to keep updating yourself and keep reading. I wasn’t sure which topic to give as an example, but let’s say there’s a side of you that you don’t like, and there’s a…
In 2016 I got out of bed at 6 AM to write this short manifesto. Ten years later it still resonates. Republishing with what life taught me since. Original post (2016, translated): It’s almost 6 AM. If you ask me why I felt the need to wake up and write this, I don’t know. Maybe to inspire you. Maybe so you can feel this. Sometimes…
(Background music for reading) And when that day came — actually, that day already came. Writing a blog is hard work, well, not very hard — once you sit down the words come alive in your head and you start writing. Two days ago, on the evening of Regaip Kandili, this post came to my mind at the mosque. The beginning of the three holy…
You’ve got a message! Yes, you’ve got a message, but you don’t see it — actually you can’t see it, because you’re missing a small detail. The matter is about the WordPress widget on the right side titled “STAY INFORMED!” There I had added a short note: “From now on you’ll be the first to know about every post I publish. Sign up immediately with…
We’re coming to the end of another item. Item #24 / Build a collection. I’ve finally built that collection. The building stage isn’t quite done — it’s continuing — but still, it’s come along pretty well. So it’s come to the level I’d call a “collection.” By the way, let me explain for those who don’t know. I have a list called 27 things I…
Tonight we’ll attend the Pebble Meetup being held for the second time in Turkey. Along with our friends organizing the Meetup, Fatih Dumanlıand Bertuğ Berkay Yemen, we’ll start developing our first Pebble application. If you have no knowledge of Pebble at all, or are hearing about it for the first time, let me try to give you a summary. Pebble, in May 2012, while trying…
Once a person becomes a designer — they can stay glued to the computer for hours, addicted. Of course, those hours don’t pass without something. There needs to be music constantly playing in your ears. To solve this too, I’m going to try to create monthly playlists titled “Tasarımcı Kafası” (Designer’s Head). If you have music you’d like to recommend, you can share your own…
What we call a notebook is actually something very important. “Why important when there are tons of apps on the phone?” you might say. But a notebook — like reading a book printed on coated paper instead of in a virtual environment, or, I’m not sure what example to give. The place of a notebook will always be separate. Pulling out a pen and writing…
I’d been saying “I’ll start, I’ll start” for a long time, but it just didn’t happen. Finally, with a moment’s decision, after stopping into a bookstore and buying 5 postcards, we started our adventure. After getting the postcards I of course didn’t immediately send them to people, but a very short time later I filled out the postcards nicely and sent them to the given…
What I call “Boxes” are the names of my new series that wrap my pages Music Boxand Movie Box. Why English? Couldn’t it have been Turkish? Honestly it could have. Just at that moment it came to mind and I slapped it on, no lie. Hopefully you won’t make this an issue. From now on I plan to gather this kind of topic under one…
Our next hackathon is the Garanti Hackathon. We attended this one too with our ingbank team. And right now in total 9 hours 38 minutes are left. By the end of that time we need to stop coding. This hackathon really beats every hackathon I’ve attended by 10 — I can say that. Of course, the fact that the number of teams attending is 11…
Another Hackathon we prepared for after Master of Code was ING Bank’s Hackathon. But we hadn’t made any prior preparations for this hackathon, nor had we fully formed the team. In fact, we applied on the penultimate day without even knowing the deadline. And we hadn’t taken this application seriously because the team could change; Furkan and I just submitted it so we would have…
We have embarked on a new YouTube channel venture with İzzet Öz, who is both my schoolmate and one of my best friends. As for how we came up with the channel, it happened while we were eating. 😀 Because of the derby, we published the first video for the idea we found around 11:00 PM under the title “Fenerbahçe – Galatasaray Derby”. Hopefully, we…
I think it was Sunday, I don’t quite remember. It was a sunny day, and while sitting at home, Esat and I started thinking about going out for a stroll. We had been wanting to go to the islands and ride bikes for a long time. To make this happen, we got up around noon, got ready, and hit the road. We made a few…
Let me switch things up today. I’ll tell you what I did from the moment I woke up — or, you know what, never mind 😀 The day’s first guest was Ekin Çağlar, co-founder of Woto. Çağlar is a true entrepreneur at heart — you can take my word for it. He talked about three different ventures he’d been part of, what they ran into…
After saying good morning to another day at the Microsoft office, the day’s first guest was Melek Pulatkonak, founder of TurkishWIN. Pulatkonak told us about leaving her role as Microsoft Deputy GM and how she built TurkishWIN from scratch, the challenges of growing membership from zero, and the place of women in the tech and business world — and how to be more proactive about…
Our second week’s first Summer School guest was CNN Türk reporter Ahu Özyurt. In her talk, Özyurt covered the connection between news broadcasting and technology, details about the CNN Türk website, who controls and publishes these broadcasts, and her thoughts on what journalism will look like in the future. Our pre-lunch guest was Daron Yöndem — MVP, XOMNI CTO and Microsoft Regional Director. Since Daron’s…
And we’d reached the last day of the first week. Another packed day was waiting for us. The day’s first speaker was Kadir Şener, Windows & Devices Business Group Leader. He briefly covered his background, his high-school and university years, his memories from the U.S., and finally Windows 10 and IoT technologies. He particularly stressed that for a product to sell, three traits have to…
And we’d reached day 4 of the internship. Wearing those blue t-shirts. Everyone was eating — one person on a simit, another on a poğaça, the rest sipping tea or coffee. Right before the 09:00 – 17:00 sessions, everyone was getting themselves ready for the day with those blue, mysteriously binary-coded t-shirts… and there I’ll wrap up the storytelling. Enough description — let’s get back…
I’m two days behind in sharing these posts, but here we are again. Today I’ll do my best — as far as my words and keyboard cooperate — to tell you what happened on August 5. The day kicked off with Windows Technical Evangelist İbrahim Kıvanç. In his opening he talked about the stages and experiences he went through to get here, about being a…
For day two I hit the road again to be at the office by 07:30. Metro after metro, I made it in, brought myself back to life with a cheese-filled simit and we kicked off the first session. In this session, Microsoft’s occupational health and safety specialist Kerim Koçoğlu walked us through what the signs around the office mean, what to do in emergencies, and…
Greetings everyone from Microsoft Açık Akademi Summer School 2015 🙂 The summer school I’d been waiting for — along with my internship at Microsoft — has officially started. Our regular start time was 09:00, but for the beauty of day one I set foot in the Microsoft Türkiye office at 07:30. By the way, it had been a long time since I’d kicked things off…
The camping trip we set off on around noon on July 20 — what we did, what we brought along, what happened (or didn’t happen) on the road. This might be a slightly image-heavy and a bit long post, so thanks in advance for sticking with it 🙂 We had started planning before July 20, but it was Eno — that is, Enes — who…
May 23 and 24 became two days I will never forget. To start from the beginning, we took part as MSPs in the Istanbul leg of the globally organized Win10 Game Jam event. Under normal circumstances, only Istanbul MSPs were on duty for the event, but since I was in Istanbul, I joined in too. By the way, the event took place at Bahçeşehir University’s…
JuJu is a game concept I came up with about two months ago but couldn’t quite bring to life—that is, until Burakhan and I joined Win10GameJamTR and turned this idea into reality. The name JuJu is actually short for “Just Jump.” The idea sparked on one of those nights when you wake up randomly and just start overthinking. While working on the game-style project Microsoft…
I have completed my second MSPMeetup in my first term as an MSP. In the meetup we held on May 5th, we had gone from Kütahya to Eskişehir. This time, we gathered from Kütahya as 7 people and went to the Istanbul Meetup. I would like to express my gratitude to Ahmet, İzzet, Safa, Mehmet, Esra, and Emre, who came all the way to Istanbul…
One night in May 2015 I was scrolling YouTube, watching old Nick Jonas and Miley Cyrus videos. The contrast between their teen years and their then-present made me wonder about how some lives unfold with such precise order. The original post + 2026 reflection below. Original post (2015, translated): It’s exactly 01:47 AM. I was wandering on YouTube, showing my friend a Nick Jonas video,…
I wrote this in 2015 when I was 22 — I’d been recording tutorial videos since 8th grade (2008). Eleven years on, I’m republishing my content-creation origin story with the original preserved, plus a 2026 commentary. Original post (May 2015, translated): For people asking how I got started — even though I don’t do this professionally — let me share what I lived through. When…
If you are asking, “What is this Mecnun is Coming?”, let me explain at length. Mecnun is actually the username I changed to after a long break. So, what do I owe this change to? While playing Dota 2, my cousin and his friends had added the names of characters from the TV series Leyla & Mecnun to their Steam usernames. When entering a match…
In 2015 I wrote about why design is harder than “two strokes and you’re done”. Eleven years later, with AI image generators and Figma everywhere, the question is sharper than ever — what actually makes a design valuable? Original post (2015, translated): Design — being a designer — looks simple to most people. But it’s a craft that demands real effort. Some think: “a couple…
I wrote this in 2015 when Microsoft Turkey’s Talent Explorer Program launched. Eleven years on, Microsoft’s intern/recruiting programs have evolved — original post plus 2026 current programs below. Original post (April 2015, translated): For Microsoft internship opportunities, check out the Microsoft Talent Explorer Program. Candidates go through various exams and assessments; the most successful are accepted for long-term internships at Microsoft Turkey. The program starts…
In 2015, as a computer-engineering student at Dumlupınar University, this question kept nagging at me: do students enrolled in engineering programs actually become engineers? Eleven years on, with an actual engineering career behind me, here’s the updated take. Original post (2015, translated): This question has been on my mind a lot lately: do engineering students actually deserve the title of engineer? Or rather — do…
In 2015 I started a series on no-code game development with Construct 2. Construct 2 still works, but Construct 3 (browser-based) is the standard now. Original intro preserved + 2026 roadmap below. 2015 — Original Intro Starting a series on game-making from scratch with Construct 2. Why Construct 2? A game engine that doesn’t require coding. The free version supports up to 100 events, which…
After shaking off the fatigue of the previous day and recharging our energy, we said hello to the third day. On this final day, we didn’t need to travel from the hotel to the Microsoft office because the last seminars were scheduled to take place right in the hotel’s conference hall. We started the morning with Daron Yöndem hoca, whom I already knew from social…
After completing our first day as a Microsoft Student Partner, I woke up in the morning to dive into a new 9-to-5 event routine. Actually, I owe my waking up to the reception; bless them, they didn’t neglect to wake me up by ringing the room phone. And the barrier of not being able to meet people on the first day—whether I missed out or…
MSP stands for Microsoft Student Partner. Before starting my first day, I want to rewind a little bit. I had previously published a post saying that I applied for Microsoft Student Partner. In fact, on February 9th—which was the final day for applications—I both submitted my application and wrote that title. After that, we moved on to the waiting stage of the process. A few…
While watching a movie, we can easily use the pause button to stop it for 1-2 minutes to go to the kitchen and grab a glass of water. But in real life, we cannot say, “Let’s pause time for 5 minutes and delay the sunset,” and we never will be able to. We must realize that time is more valuable than the most precious treasures…
HTML uses the <img> tag to embed images. Works with both URLs (remote) and local file paths. Basic Usage <img src=”image.jpg” alt=”Image description”> <img> is a void element — there’s no closing tag. Key Attributes src: URL or file path (required). alt: alternative text — fallback when image fails to load, and for screen readers (required). width / height: pixel dimensions. title: short tooltip on…
This lesson covers HTML’s most common basic tags: paragraph (<p>), bold (<b>, <strong>), italic (<i>, <em>), subscript/superscript (<sub>, <sup>) and horizontal rule (<hr>). Each Tag in Detail 1. Paragraph — <p> Groups text as a paragraph. Browser adds spacing above/below. <p>This is a paragraph.</p> 2. Bold — <b> vs <strong> Both render bold, but their meaning differs: <b>: purely visual. <strong>: signals importance — screen…
Standard paper sizes give designers, printers and everyone else involved in printing or publishing a convenient, efficient way to agree on product specs and keep costs down. The standardisation of paper sizes traces all the way back to the paper makers of Bologna, Italy. A-series paper sizes go from largest to smallest as A0, A1, A2, A3, A4, A5, A6, A7 and A8. The basic…
After setting your goals, one of the most important things to do is to put them in writing. Because writing has incredible power. Plan to do something you have the talent and the strength to do. Pin that plan somewhere you can easily see during the day. At the bottom, write motivating sentences like “I will succeed in this, God willing. The other name for…
Three beautiful books penned by Sinan Yağmur. My mom was the one who first recommended them. I started with the second in the series — “Aşkın Gözyaşları Hz. Mevlana” — since I was more familiar with the name. While reading, I really wanted to get to the end fast: it turned out I knew almost nothing about Mevlana (Rumi). And because the book reads more…
Today, thanks to a link a friend shared, I discovered a site called Suffagah. The site generally offers examples and lessons rooted in faith. The articles don’t carry useless content. Compared to similar sites, Suffagah was one I genuinely enjoyed reading. By the way, the title should have been “21 Things I Learned at 21,” but the person translating it on the site skipped item…
We are chasing after leadership; hopefully, it will turn out for the best for us. Following the acceptance of the form we initially filled out on the YGA website, the road to the YGA Summit appeared before us. And so, another journey began for me. From our class, 4 of us, including me, passed YGA’s first elimination round, and since we had a +1 who…
The closing (20th) lesson of the Site Setup Guide series: how to add a photo gallery to a WordPress post. The 2014 approach still works, but the modern Block Editor (Gutenberg) is far more flexible. Note: The original YouTube video for this lesson is no longer available. This post contains a written step-by-step walkthrough instead. 2014 — Classic Gallery Insertion Place the cursor in the…
This part walks through what kind of hosting to buy. First, get clear on the site you’re building, then pick a plan that matches the expected disk size and traffic. Most people should start small and graduate to reseller, VPS, and eventually a dedicated server as the site grows. Hosting Types (2026 Glossary) Shared Hosting: cheap starting point, multiple sites on one server. Managed WordPress…
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The StatPress plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. In 2014 StatPress was one of WordPress’s most-loved visitor-stats plugins. Daily/monthly/total visitor counts, pages-per-session, Google bot hits, the search query that landed people on your site, referrer, browser/OS/IP — a quick at-a-glance…
WP-Postviews is one of WordPress’s simplest plugins: it counts how many times each post is viewed. You can show the count to readers, or keep it private and use it as a personal scoreboard for popular content. Use Cases Popular posts widget: surface the most-read titles in the sidebar automatically. Content decisions: see which topics get traction and lean into them. Reviving evergreen: re-promote underrated…
Akismet is WordPress’s oldest and most trusted comment-spam filter — built by Automattic and still actively maintained. This part covers installing the plugin, activating it, and the one piece that trips most people up: getting an API key. API Key Steps (Same in 2026) In WordPress admin, activate Plugins > Akismet. Open Akismet settings and click Set up your Akismet account. Create an account at…
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The Gzippy plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. Is your WordPress site getting sluggish? In 2014 the Gzippy plugin compressed your HTML/CSS/JS to shrink page weight and speed up rendering — also a small win for Google’s crawl/index cycle. 2026…
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The WaterMark My Image plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. To stop people stealing your images, the 2014 plugin WaterMark My Image automatically stamped your site URL (or a custom watermark image) onto every image you uploaded. 2026 Replacement Easy…
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The Clean My Archive plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. If you wanted readers to see every post title on a single page or a richer archive than the XML sitemap, in 2014 Clean My Archive did exactly that. It…
This part sets up the permalink structure for your WordPress site. Getting permalinks right is one of the simplest SEO moves you can make — Google likes clean, predictable URLs. Path: wp-admin → Settings > Permalinks. The video uses this pattern (post title + date in URL): /%year%/%monthnum%/%day%/%postname%.html If your audience is local, also localise the Tag base and Category base (e.g. etiket, kategori for…
After installing WordPress, your first job is finding a new, attractive, and useful theme. But how do you actually install and activate it once you’ve found it? The video below walks through the whole process. Themes are just half the picture — most sites also need a handful of plugins. Some themes even ship with their own bundled plugins. The video also covers where those…
One of the most useful plugins for speeding up your relationship with search engines is Google XML Sitemap Generator. Its job is simple: index every page, post, and tag on your site and serve them to Google (and friends) as a sitemap file. Faster indexing = your new posts showing up in search faster. 2026 Note — Modern Alternatives If you already use Rank Math…
Jetpack is a mega-plugin that bundles many WordPress features in one package. Developed by the official WordPress.com team, it’s still actively maintained. What’s inside? Subscriber management, real-time visitor stats, link shortening, share buttons, LaTeX math support, a Twitter follow card, and lots more. The only requirement: a free WordPress.com account. Jetpack Modules That Still Earn Their Keep in 2026 Stats: a lightweight, privacy-aware analytics tool….
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The Shareaholic SexyBookmarks plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. Despite the name, SexyBookmarks (later renamed Shareaholic) is not an adult content tool. It drops social-share icons beneath your posts (or beside titles on the homepage). The only job: make it…
2026 note: This post is from 2014. The SEO Search Terms Tagging plugin has since been removed from the WordPress repository or is no longer maintained. Modern alternatives are listed at the bottom of the post. WordPress’s SEO Search Terms Tagging plugin used to read the search query that brought a visitor in, and automatically attach that term to the landing page as a tag….
Once you have a domain and hosting, the next step is installing WordPress. The video below walks through creating a MySQL database in cPanel, uploading WordPress, and running the famous “5-minute install”. The Short Recipe Open cPanel → MySQL Databases. Create a new database (e.g. user_wp01). Create a new user (e.g. user_wpadm) and stash the password. Attach the user to the database with ALL PRIVILEGES….
Your WordPress site is up — now how do you actually write a post? Pick a category, attach images, and hit publish? The video below walks through writing a post in WordPress from start to finish. What to Watch For When Posting From the left menu open Posts > Add New. The slug auto-fills from the title — accents and special characters get cleaned up…
They didn’t do things like this at my school. I’m in university now — still don’t. Everyone’s just chasing the next class. There’s basically no work on creating something new. Maybe in the years to come something changes, God willing. Anyway — what I wanted to share is Yüreğil Elementary School. About 2 years ago I came across them through their parody video for the…
If you’re starting a site from scratch, your first step is to define the purpose. Starting without a focus is the easiest way to lose interest. For example, if you want a sports site, don’t try to cover everything — focus on one branch (say, basketball). You’ll keep returning visitors far more easily, and you’ll actually be able to feed the content pipeline. Once the…
Shyness. I’ll admit I was pretty shy as a kid. But as I started handling my own affairs, things changed and I became more talkative. The catch is, sometimes if the other person doesn’t speak up, I don’t either. Once we get going, we end up talking like we’ve been friends for years — by the second conversation with someone, I can usually get things…
Let me introduce you to a YouTube cover artist I discovered around 2008–2009: Alex Goot. The guy’s been steadily covering popular songs on YouTube for years, and his style — clean vocals, simple but well-produced backing tracks — is really easy to listen to. Many of his covers are honestly better than the originals, in my opinion. I check his channel from time to time…
Happy Eid al-Adha to everyone. We’ve made it to one more Eid morning, thank God. Many more Eids to come. No need to drag the message out — just tell the people you love that you love them, share whatever you have with people, no act of help is too small. Don’t forget to give kids some pocket money or candy today. I remember being…
Microsoft announced Windows 10 (codename: Threshold) in September 2014. Unexpectedly, Windows 9 was skipped entirely. This post breaks down the first preview build and what to expect. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. I wrote this when Windows 10 was first announced in 2014. Twelve years on, Windows 10 support ended in October 2025 — Windows 11 is now mainstream. Below I compare my 2014…
This post walks through formatting a PC and installing Windows 8.1 from scratch. The same flow applies — with only UI differences — to Windows 10 and Windows 11. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. Windows 8.1 support ended in 2023. If you’re formatting in 2026, pick Windows 11 — the steps are nearly identical. This guide stays useful for older hardware running 8.1. Preparation…
While trying to prepare a video about Anatolian culture, I found myself among the amateur-yet-quality videos that have been shot about Turkey on Vimeo. The guys really do quality work. And they truly deserve the praise. A month ago we said “let’s do something like this too,” and we did. There were nice comments — really, thanks to those. But to the ones who showed…
I realized today that I cannot stay idle without doing something, working, or acquiring knowledge. I can’t stop; I keep thinking that I need to do something, that I need to improve myself. Rest assured, there is no feeling as beautiful as working in this world and having fun while doing the job you love. Thousands of thanks to God that I am in good…
AIESEC, which I found out about thanks to a friend at university, is an abroad project where you go overseas for an internship, to help with global issues, or to promote culture. The project is divided into two tracks. The first part is Global Citizen. This part is for current university students and offers a 5-6 week experience. The other part is Global Talent, which…
Who am I? Most people remember me from YouTube with my opening line “Hello, I’m Burak Bayram. In today’s lesson, …” Why did I start these tutorial videos, and why do I keep doing them? Sometimes I think — if I gave private lessons or prepared DVD training sets, I could make a serious amount of money. I actually could have. Many people have reached…
Leyla ile Mecnun; poems, stories, tales, and novels have been written about it, but such a TV series was truly unique. I really used to enjoy the series when it was on the air. By the way, I didn’t start watching it when it first began, but rather when the second Leyla arrived. I generally followed it on the internet. As far as I know,…
Leyla ile Mecnun… A name poems, stories and novels have been written about — but a TV series like this was something else. While it was on air I genuinely loved it. I didn’t catch the first season; I jumped in around the time the second Leyla arrived, and mostly followed it online. As far as I remember 103 episodes aired, and after the show…
I was once one of those people who kept insisting, “I want to get into Computer Engineering.” As it turns out, I got in, and currently, I am a Computer Engineering student. How did I get in, and what is my life like after getting in? Honestly, nothing has changed. Except for the increase in the number of computers I format, of course. Although formatting…
After beating Finland with a last-second basket, our latest victim Australia couldn’t escape us either. Last seconds again, Turkey again. Our teams really love the last moments and reserve the right to have the last word for themselves. There have been so many late-second comebacks recently that you start to wonder. I don’t believe in coincidence, so let’s call it fate or providence. I keep…
How did I get into all this? When? Where? Why? Hope it goes well, God willing 😀 Let me think for a moment, I’ll come back to you. Right around when OKS (Turkey’s old middle-school placement exam) ended, internet got hooked up at our place — I remember it very clearly. ADSL was just starting to spread. I even remember the first modem I got….
The part we call Istanbul consists of the historical peninsula. 105 video clips were shot by wandering around Istanbul continuously for 13 hours. This video was prepared using 64 of these 105 video clips. The video was shot with a Canon 600D, and 18-55mm and 50mm lenses were used. The shooting was done by Burak Bayram and Furkan Çınar. The video editing was carried out…
This lesson softens wrinkles naturally in a portrait — the goal is reduction, not erasure, so the face stays alive. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Quick Method (No Frequency Separation) Duplicate the background layer. Pick Spot Healing Brush (J)…
This lesson cleanly replaces a photo’s background — useful for CV headshots, product shots, social covers, anything. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Steps (Classic Method) Duplicate the background layer. Select the subject: rough out with Quick Selection (W), refine…
This lesson shows how to realistically change hair color in a portrait — without losing strand texture, and with a natural finish. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Steps Duplicate the background layer. Select the hair: rough out with Quick…
This lesson covers a natural way to whiten teeth in a photo — bright and healthy without overdoing it. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Steps Duplicate the background layer. Use Lasso (L) to roughly trace the teeth — precision…
This lesson turns your photos into professional black & white the right way — keeping tonal control instead of flatly desaturating. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. The Pro Approach Duplicate the background layer (Ctrl/Cmd + J). Add a Layer…
This lesson shows a fast and realistic way to change eye color. 5 minutes start to finish, with a result that reads natural. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Step by Step Open the photo and duplicate the background layer…
A million things to do keep popping into my head. “I’ll do this, I’ll do that” — and I notice I haven’t actually done a single one. Why am I doing this? Laziness? Boredom? Loss of enthusiasm? None of them, I think. It’s that I start every single thing that pops into my head. Starting another task before finishing the previous one isn’t a great…
They say “one language is one person, two languages is two people,” and I don’t think they said it for nothing. To understand different people from different countries, you need to learn different languages. But my main goal is to learn from the source in its own language. For example, the languages I want to learn are Japanese, Arabic, English, and if possible, German and…
This lesson covers HTML’s heading tags — <h1> through <h6>. Headings drive both visual hierarchy and SEO. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. How heading tags work hasn’t changed. The only update: Google in 2026 is more lenient with hierarchy (multiple h1s are tolerated), but proper structure is still the best practice. Six Heading Levels <h1>Page main title (largest)</h1> <h2>Section headings</h2> <h3>Sub-sections</h3> <h4>Smaller</h4> <h5>Rare</h5> <h6>Tiny…
This lesson covers HTML — what it is, how web pages work, and exactly what you need to build a page from scratch. The right starting point if you’re new to web development. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. HTML’s fundamentals haven’t changed in 12 years — the tags and page structure shown here are still correct in 2026. The biggest shift is HTML5 becoming…
The final part of the Apple iHome project — and the closing lesson of the entire Photoshop CS6 Tutorial Series. We apply color grading, exposure matching, and the final retouch. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. Final Pass Stamp Visible:…
Part two of the Apple iHome project focuses on furniture placement and building light + shadow. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher….
New manipulation project: Apple iHome. We stage an Apple-styled smart home concept in Photoshop. Part one covers the concept, scene setup, and perspective. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version;…
Final part of the manipulation: color grading and the finishing touches that turn a composite into a poster-grade image. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is…
Part two of the manipulation: place the model, clean the edges, match the lighting. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher. This Part…
The series shifts gears into photo manipulation. Part one of this three-parter covers the concept, source assets and background prep. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography…
This lesson installs .atn Photoshop action files and shows how to run them. An action is a saved sequence of steps — hours of repetitive work become one click. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the…
This lesson installs .pat pattern files in Photoshop. Pattern libraries — textiles, backgrounds, UI elements — are part of every pro design workflow. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version;…
This lesson installs downloaded .abr Photoshop brushes. Hair, water spray, light effects — custom brushes dramatically speed up design. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is…
This lesson shows how to install a font for Photoshop (technically: install it system-wide so every app — Word, Illustrator, browsers — picks it up). 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the…
This lesson covers Photoshop’s measurement tools: Ruler, Eyedropper, Color Sampler, Note, Count. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher. Ruler Tool (I) Reads…
Build a landscape wallpaper from scratch — a practical recipe for sculpting atmosphere with color and fog. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit…
The final lesson of the Blogger series covers monetizing your blog with Google AdSense. Since Blogger and AdSense are both Google products, this is the smoothest monetization path on the platform. 2026 note: Recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe sells Photoshop via Creative Cloud subscription now; about 95% of the menus and shortcuts in the video still match the modern version. AdSense Approval Requirements…
This lesson designs an Amazing Spider-Man wallpaper, combining everything we’ve learned so far — layers, masks, filters, color grading — into one composition. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version;…
This lesson tours the Filter menu’s most-used groups: Sharpen, Blur, Distort, Noise, Render, Stylize. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher. Filter Gallery…
This lesson covers the technical steps and SEO considerations for publishing a post on Blogger. You’re not just hitting “Publish” — labels, title, permalink and preview all matter. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. The editor has been modernised (rich-text + HTML mode both still available), but the publish flow is unchanged. Pre-Publish Checklist Title: 50-60 chars including your target keyword. First paragraph: states the…
Part two of the color-correction series: Hue/Saturation, Color Balance, Photo Filter, Vibrance, Selective Color and Black & White. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a…
This lesson covers photographers’ core color correction tools: Levels, Curves, Brightness/Contrast. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit fresher. Levels — Quick Tone Fix…
This lesson covers Blogger’s Gadgets (sidebar, header, footer widgets) — how to add, remove and configure them. The right gadgets dramatically improve reader experience. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. The Gadget framework still works the same way in 2026 — add and edit from the “Layout” tab. Most Useful Gadgets Search box: a chunk of visitors search. Labels / tag cloud: helps content discovery….
This lesson covers the Brush tool and its siblings — Pencil, Eraser, History Brush. Painting, masking and retouching all start here. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the…
This lesson covers the Marquee and Move tools — your first two moves in Photoshop: select and move. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a…
After creating a Blogger blog, the first job is configuring the settings correctly. Title, description, language, privacy and search visibility — these tell Google how to read your blog. 2026 note: Originally published in 2014. Blogger’s UI has been refreshed since, but the Settings logic is largely the same. The list below captures what still applies in 2026 plus a few new bits. Settings Checklist…
This lesson covers the Crop and Slice tools. Crop reshapes composition; Slice cuts a single image into pieces. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a…
This lesson covers the three flavors of the Lasso Tool: Lasso, Polygonal Lasso, Magnetic Lasso — the classic way to make freehand selections. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version;…
This lesson covers the Clone Stamp and Pattern Stamp — your bread-and-butter for retouching and texture fills. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit…
This lesson dives into Blend Modes — the engine behind serious color and light work in Photoshop. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit…
The top-bar Layer menu holds every advanced layer operation. This lesson walks through it line by line. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the modern version; only the iconography is a bit…
This lesson tackles Photoshop’s most important concept: the Layer. Working in Photoshop without understanding layers is like navigating a city whose language you don’t speak. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the video still match the…
The first lesson of the Photoshop CS6 Tutorial Series covers two fundamentals: creating a new project and understanding save formats. Nail these and the rest of Photoshop opens up. 2026 note: This lesson was recorded on Photoshop CS6 in 2014. Adobe no longer sells the CS line — Photoshop now ships via Creative Cloud subscription. About 95% of the menus and shortcuts shown in the…
Today I went surfing the internet again. By surfing, I mean reading articles that come my way; while reading topics that catch my interest, I read a few articles about disciplining the ego (nafs). Then, while I was looking at articles related to the hunger or fasting aspect of it, I came across a short text that I really liked. I wanted to share this…
Dreaming and chasing — before reading on, think for a second: do you have a dream? Dreams aren’t big or small. Your dream could be going into space to do research, or just getting good grades and not having to retake any finals. The whole point is in dreaming. You need to have a dream, otherwise you can’t see where, why, how and with whom…
Now let’s start from a bit further back. Before coming to Kütahya, even before taking the LYS (undergraduate placement exam), I had it in my mind that I would study at a university in Istanbul. As time passed, we took the exam, and then I kept saying Istanbul, but I had only set my sights on the Mathematics Department in Istanbul; however, in my rankings,…
I won’t lie, it was my first time going to a gaming convention in my life. But I don’t know, a voice inside me says it didn’t meet my expectations. If you ask why, the gaming area was limited. The number of people kept increasing non-stop and the area was small, but there was also this situation: the area at the very end of the…
Today I went around Eminönü for some reason, and I saw that they had set up a place like a Korean house in Sultanahmet, and a rather large museum made of models in Korean architecture towards the New Mosque (Yeni Camii). When I say a model, it’s a structure built right on the huge street. Anyway, you’ll understand what the inside is like when I…
Today I was watching the anime Fairy Tail. While I was watching, a thought hit me. In the show, the main characters’ friends get frozen for several years and then thawed out years later — picking up exactly where they left off, none the wiser, while everyone around them has changed. I started thinking: what if that happened to me? Imagine they froze me right…
Thank God I finally have a university. And when I graduate they’ll call me a Computer Engineer. Wishing it all goes well. I looked at the courses and I liked them. (Even if I hadn’t, I’d be enrolled anyway.) For the record, the university is Kütahya Dumlupınar University, Computer Engineering department — as I mentioned before. So yeah, may God grant me the best from…
When I say “Photo Shop, the store,” some of you may not get it. The common name is Photoshop. But here’s a thing: when you try to translate “Photoshop” into Turkish via Google Translate, it returns “photographer.” I just said it that way to be playful. Anyway, on to the main point. Most of the friends following me on YouTube and Facebook are following because…
Cursing — back in the day, it was a chain of words people spat out when they got really angry and couldn’t hold themselves back. I have no idea what happened, but now people curse freely, openly, at everyone — passers-by, friends, even their closest ones. What can I say. If I say “cursing is a sin” or “it’s improper,” not a soul cares. I…
Honestly, our people really do have a problem. I prepare Photoshop and Sony Vegas tutorials for free, and folks still find a ton of things to complain about — I just don’t get it. If they had to pay, they wouldn’t make half the noise. Friend, if you don’t like it, don’t watch — just leave. Someone said about one of the programs, “we’d find…
In 2012 Sirius CMS was a promising open-source WordPress alternative built by Turkish developers. Fourteen years on, here’s where the project ended up — and where the Turkish open-source CMS scene stands today. Original post (2012, translated): Sirius CMS is a WordPress-style open-source content management system — admin panel + blog frontend — being actively developed by a Turkish developer. Free and web-based. Why Sirius…
Back in 2012 I wrote a post on how to learn Photoshop. The core idea still holds — learn by doing — but in 2026 the resources and methods are completely different. Both versions below. Original post (2012, translated): Photoshop is an Adobe app for editing and improving photos. How do we learn it? Which techniques get us there faster? You can’t learn Photoshop overnight…
A subdomain is a prefix you add to a domain to create a separate space — forum.example.com, blog.example.com, shop.example.com. We did this with cPanel in 2012; in 2026 the basics are the same with modern DNS alternatives layered in. Original post (2012, translated): Want to add a subdomain to your site, or wondering what a subdomain even is? A subdomain is a word added before…
In 2012, designing a blog meant drawing in Photoshop and converting a PSD into a theme. By 2026 the workflow is totally different: the Block Editor, Figma kits, and AI-generated themes. Original post (2012, translated): Want a blog design that’s yours? Easy — you just need some Photoshop skills and imagination. In the video below I redesigned a blog I’d seen before, with my own…
With Photoshop you can completely clean the background of an image or make it transparent. How? Read the short steps below and watch the video walkthrough underneath. In the video I walk through an example: imagine a photo of us taken at Taksim. We want to cut out only the part with our body and erase Taksim Square and the rest of the background. That’s…
Back in 2012, monetizing YouTube was still novel in Turkey. Becoming a “Partner” was an invite-only dream. Fourteen years on, the YouTube Partner Program (YPP) is a totally different machine — thresholds, revenue streams and tax treatment all changed. Original post (2012, translated): Thousands of original videos go up on YouTube every day. Why? YouTube has a thing called “Creators & Partners”. It lets you…
Back in 2012 I did some high-school research on how the internet actually works. Below is that original post preserved, plus a 2026 update — the actual infrastructure is far more complex and far faster now. Original post (2012, translated): Have you ever wondered how the internet works? I hadn’t until a minute ago — I knew vaguely, but never deeply. I searched “how the…
Fourteen years ago, while social media was just taking off, I wrote a post asking “why do I blog?” Below I’ve kept the naive 2012 manifesto intact, with a 2026 reality check appended. Original post (2012, translated): Before I start: the title is a bit narrow for what I actually want to talk about. I’ve crammed everything I think about blogging into this post. I…
In 2012 Google Plus rolled out a new design update. The original post is preserved below, with the full story of Google+ from that day until it shut down. Google Plus officially closed on 2 April 2019. Original post (2012, translated): Google Plus must have copied Facebook — they just rolled out a new page layout. Honestly, I think Google Plus is about to hear…
Sending warm, heartfelt greetings to everyone. Welcome to my blog. Don’t expect video tutorials and the like here. To be honest, this place will be for the topics that catch my eye, mostly written for fun. For those who are curious, let me introduce myself: my name, as you know and as it says in the title, is Burak Bayram — with 2B. As I’m…
A cinemagraph is, in short, a GIF where most of the frame is frozen and one small part keeps looping — water flowing, a curtain swaying, hair drifting while everything else stands still. From a distance it looks like a photo; the tiny motion only catches your eye on a second look. This guide walks through making a cinemagraph in Photoshop from a short video…
I made this wallpaper for a friend’s site, Karyotip.Com. The piece combines Photoshop CS5 and Cinema 4D, and I published the process as a sped-up speed art clip. Below is the final artwork and a quick written recap of how it came together. Note: The original speed-art video for this piece is no longer available because the source YouTube channel was taken down. The final…
Changing the hair and eye color of a photo in Photoshop isn’t actually hard. With a clean selection and color adjustment layers you can keep the result natural. Below is the short version for both hair and eyes. Note: The original tutorial videos for this post are no longer available because the source YouTube channel was taken down. A written walkthrough follows. Changing Hair Color…
You have a PNG cut-out and a landscape photo, and you want to drop the PNG on top of the photo. In Photoshop this is straightforward — here’s the short version. Note: The original tutorial video for this post is no longer available because the source YouTube channel was taken down. A written walkthrough follows. 1) Where to Find a Transparent PNG The object or…
Hey everyone — as someone who is currently finishing 11th grade (I should normally be finishing 12th 😀), I want to talk about a problem I’ve faced myself: passing the year, passing by average, and so on. First of all, what does “passing the year” mean? You can pass plainly, with a “Teşekkür” (Thanks) certificate, or with a “Takdir” (Honors) certificate. Before I jump in,…
I spent about an hour looking for a blog theme — on foreign sites, of course. Why? Because there isn’t really anyone on Turkish sites sharing a proper, well-made theme 😀. So I jumped on Yahoo, did a quick search, and tons of free themes came up. All of them were beautiful in their own way. But some of them forced you to add images….