Month: April 2004

MIT OpenCourseWare

Some people might not know that Massachusetts Institute of Technology (aka MIT) has started a very interesting program few years ago. They aimed at providing materials for all of their courses on the web and for free. If I remember correctly, it’ll take them about 10 years to complete the publishing of all prior courses. Until now, they are on schedule, and they have published about 700 courses from all of their schools and majors. Here is a list of all courses. Anything and everything you ever wanted to know from history, throught mathematics, to artificial intelligence.

Materials provided for each course include the schedule, syllabus, suggested reading, lecture’s notes, tests and exams, and virtually anything you’ll need to complete the course yourself. The only thing that MIT OpenCourseWare does not provide is the certification. Pure knowledge only. Check it out.

Cyprus rockers

It seems that I am not alone feeling a lack of activities in Cyprus cultural life. I’ve been pointed to the site of Rockathon, which tells about a bunch of people helping youngsters to organize different music events (mostly Hard & Heavy, but all sorts). I’ve been pleasently surprised by the design and content of the site – nice photographs, bands’ pages with lyrics and sample music, event calendar, forums, etc. Unfortunately, there is nothing yet scheduled for this year, but the site mentions that activities will start again after May. I guess it has to do something with majority of members being students and May being the last school month. :)

Anyway, this is one of those resources I should keep my eye on for updates.

Rock Concert in Nicosia Intercollege on May 22

It came to my attention that there will be a rock concert in the amphitheatre of Intercollege‘s Nicosia campus. Anyone interested should probably call them for information (reception tel.: +357 22-841500).

All I know is that one of the groups will be Katastrofa. This is the first time I hear about this band, but I got fortunate and received some information from one of the members – Andrey Shvachko. Katastrofa was founded in 1997 by two Russians and two Yugoslavians. Nothing special was happening to them until 1999, when after the concert (in the Intercollege again) they have recorded their demo CD with three compositions (distributed by “Virgin” shops). Later their vocalist left Cyprus and the band didn’t have any activity what-so-ever. In 2001 they’ve got a new bass guitar player who became also their vocalist. Katastrofa started to experiment with different styles. In spring of 2003 they performed at Rockathon music festival under the name of “Night & Day Project”. They have few compositions of their own now. They also play music by Led Zeppelin, Marilyn Manson, Metallica, Deep Purple, and other well known bands. I’ve also got fortunate enough to get a sample song – “Katastrofa – Mister P.mp3″ (6MB,160Kbps) – very not bad considering the “home made” recording.

Amateur Song Festival on May 15

Picture from ASF 2003
On 15 of May, there will be a second gathering of Amateur Song Festival. Mostly there will be Russian people and, of course, they will song mostly Russian songs. Gathering place hasn’t changed – picnic place of Kakomalis. There are a couple of threads at forum.russiancyprus.net discussing preparations for the event. Here is the map of the areaa (picnic area signs are around Kalo Chorio village, which is on the Agios Filaxeous exit from the highway).

Last year October’s event was a total success with almost 100 people present. There are a lot of pictures here (I’ve borrowed one for this post). This year there will be more promotion on the radio and in the newspapers, so, theoretically, more people should show up. The only problem that I see is with the date, which clashes with Cyprus stage of the World Rally Championship. I am not sure that I will make it there, but I will try my best.