n00bie to everythin'

2010-05-07T13:05:00.002+07:00

Ngeblog pertama setelah sekian lama tidak ngeblog memang bener-bener bikin kagok, bukan hanya karena otak harus dibiasakan untuk menuangkan pemikiran dalam bentuk tulisan runtut, tapi juga ada suatu "kewajiban" untuk say hello lagi setelah hiatus cukup lama.

Wordpress atau mesin blog lainnya tampaknya cukup cerdas melihat kekagokan penulis pemula ini untuk memulai blog, sehingga biasanya menyertakan sebuah tulisan awal, yang biasanya punya judul Hello World. Tapi bagaimana kalo habis hiatus, hehehe?

Jadi ingat waktu jaman kuliah dulu. Paling gampang membuat contoh bahasa pemrogaman, ya bikin program Hello World itu. Program sederhana yang menulis tulisan Hello World ke layar. Jadi pemula pun samasekali tak tahu pemrograman, bisa langsung tanggap, tanpa harus melalui logika pemrograman yang waktu dulu itu begitu susah dipahami.

"Ooooh, jadi kalo mau nulis di dos prompt itu gitu toh caranya," biasanya sambil manggut-manggut terkagum-kagum trus langsung pengen nyoba, dan, duuh, rasanya kok puas banget begitu bisa memunculkan tulisan Hello World itu di layar. (Kesan dramatis biasanya didapatkan kalau kita memunculkan Hello World itu di sebuah Windows Prompt, yang biasanya diikuti dengan suara khas sistem operasi Windows, yang cruungg gitu bunyinya!)

Jadi inilah tulisan Hello World saya, setelah sekian lama tidak ngeblog, dan sudah lupa rasanya ngeblog.

John, have you ever been to Indonesia?

2005-09-29T17:49:00.000+07:00

Imagine there's no heaven
It's easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today...

And we'll live peacefully without all those so-called religious sinetrons .... where obeying God is all about hell and heaven, and "thou shall receive the wrath of God if not" paradigm.

Imagine there's no countries
It isn't hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace...

And we'll live peacefully without all those fanaticism and "In the name of God" anarchism ...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will be as one

Imagine no possessions
I wonder if you can
No need for greed or hunger
A brotherhood of man
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

And we'll live peacefully and happily without all those greedy monsters called Corruptors, or representatives at parliament, or ... (us?)

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one

I certainly hope so.

Tentang penerimaan pegawai ...

2005-09-09T17:08:00.000+07:00

Note : Post in Indonesian Language, just for this time, because I found so many Indonesian acronyms and

terms that is difficult to be translated and hate to write in gado-gado (see what I mean?) :D

Beberapa hari yang lalu di milis alumni, saya melontarkan sebuah pertanyaan mengenai syarat-syarat

penerimaan pegawai untuk mengisi lowongan di sebuah perusahaan BUMN. Syarat-syarat itu meliputi :

Harus mengirimkan salinan ijazah dan transkrip
Harus membuat surat keterangan tidak menggunakan narkoba yang ditempeli materai 7000 dan ditandatangani dokter umum
Harus menyertakan SKKB (Surat Keterangan Kelakuan Baik)
Harus menyertakan amplop yang sudah diberi nama pengirim untuk balasan dari perusahaan tersebut

Pertanyaan saya waktu itu : "Apakah perusahaan BUMN ini sudah mengenal media yang bernama email, atau online recruitment?". Pertanyaan saya ini sederhana saja. Dengan email, kedua pihak saling diuntungkan.

Perusahaan diuntungkan karena tidak perlu menerima ratusan, atau bahkan ribuan, tumpukan map dan kertas yang berisi lamaran. Automasi juga bisa dilakukan, misalnya dengan mengirim tanggapan automatis (automatic reply) untuk memberitahu pelamar bahwa lamaran mereka sudah diterima. Pelamar juga diuntungkan dengan cara ini. Dengan email, paling tidak sudah menghemat waktu dan biaya pengiriman. Pelamar cukup mampir ke warnet dan mengirim email ke perusahaan, paling lama 15 menit, dengan biaya yang murah. Pelamar juga tidak disibukkan dengan kegiatan mencari surat-surat di atas, yang tentu saja, di republik ini, tidak ada yang gratis.

Pertanyaan saya itu mendapat balasan dari beberapa teman. Teman pertama beralasan bahwa bukan perusahaan itu yang melakukan tugas perekruitan, melainkan pencari kerja (Head hunter). Teman kedua menjawab, bahwa dengan strategi itulah, perusahaan tersebut melakukan eliminasi awal terhadap pelamar-pelamar yang malas melakukan proses tersebut di atas (hi Fier :D). Namun toh, ada tanggapan yang agak lain (dan saya juga setuju, hihihi), bahwa ungkapan "Kalau bisa dipersulit, kenapa dibikin mudah?" memang benar adanya :D

Saya mengerti sekali kenapa penerimaan pegawai bisa mempunyai syarat-syarat seperti itu. Membaca kertas akan lebih nyaman daripada membaca dari monitor. Kertas, juga masih dianggap sebagai bukti yang meyakinkan akan sesuatu. Surat pernyataan bisa merupakan bukti legal apabila di kemudian hari pelamar ketahuan berbohong. Masalahnya adalah, Apakah tidak sebaiknya, proses memberikan syarat-syarat tersebut dilakukan setelah proses seleksi selesai? perusahaan itu tampaknya menggunakan headhunter, dan seharusnya jika dilogika, akan lebih mudah proses seleksinya. Nyatanya tidak :(

Saya teringat perusahaan tempat saya bekerja dulu, bahkan sama sekali tidak menanyakan Ijasah dan transkrip saya, dan menerima saya bekerja hanya dengan membaca CV saya.

Apakah hanya perusahaan BUMN yang melakukan seperti ini? Saya rasa tidak. Banyak juga yang memberlakukan syarat-syarat seperti ini dalam proses perekruitannya. Apakah salah juga jika seperti ini? Tidak, hanya tidak praktis dan cenderung memberatkan di sisi pelamar.

Kalau penerimaan PNS bagaimana? Wah, kalau itu jangan ditanya :D

Long Live Commuters !

2005-09-08T18:12:00.000+07:00

On the long weekend few days ago, as usual, I went home (Jogja) to meet my dearest family and friends by train, specifically Senja Utama Jogja, like I always do in the past 1 year. But, not as usual, this time I did not buy ticket. An old friend of mine told me (hi Ben!) that there is another way to go by train without using a ticket. Well, I supposed to buy an 80.000 rupiahs' ticket for Senja Utama Jogja, but my friend offered me a mere 25.000 rupiahs if I wanted to go with his way. I've heard such things before, but I never dare to try it. But, heck, why not, a 55000 rupiahs' discount was worth the effort (at that time), hihihi. Time to be an ILLEGAL PASSENGERRR! (Dr. Evil mode).

Then, We went together to the Senen train station. Since it's a long weekend (Friday to Sunday), train station was so crowded. We walked straight to a corner in the train station, and there I saw fellow passengers, who seemed to have similar minds with me and my friends (hihihi). And then, my friend pointed someone, who happened to be a coordinator, who collects money from these illegal passengers to be "handed" to the train officer (let's say that way since I don't have English translation for masinis kereta api). So, this is what I called organized crime, hehehe.

Afterwards, we headed to the train, and yes, you're right, we didn't get seats, and yes, we had to sit in the aisle with used newspaper we had prepared before. Hohoho, actually, the train officer had spared 2 seats for our group, but it was the coordinator and his fellow who happened to get those seats. Yeah, it's all right.

So, we spend an exhaustive 8 hours in the train, chatting and so on (since I couldn't sleep, you know, with all that ). On our so-called conversation, I figured out why they did it (being illegal passenger). It's all about commuting on weekly basis. most of them had a family in Jogja, and their family simply won't go to Jakarta. To avoid huge expenses on train ticket (hey, 4 weeks, you have to buy an 80000's ticket, go and come back, it's 640000 rupiahs per month), they choose Illegal passengers as an option. Why don't they choose Economic Class? It's only 38.000 rupiahs for god sake!, you say. Without further explanation, if you agree, I will show you the economic class looks like, for free. :D

Now, I'm little bit guilty for that action. Huhuhuhu. For next time, I think I will go the "right" way. No guilty feeling, no hassles.

Ah, Indonesia. Creativity kills. LONG LIVE COMMUTERS!!

I don't know ...

2005-08-31T17:42:00.000+07:00

But my passion for blogging seems reduced now, given a heavy load of works, and a ridiculously slow internet connection. Well, it aint reasons, anyway, just a lazy mind, hehehe.

Nuff babbling. Few days ago, call me nuts or something, Me and my friends decided that we should met on so-called reunion in a place called, guess what, Ragunan Zoo (ya ya ya, you may laugh now).

It was kinda refreshing you know. Meeting old friends (not that kind of old, mind you), talking in Javanese (oh yeah, I miss those old days when we can throw a joke in javanese language, and actually get the meaning), seeing animals (which apparently quite attractive, hahaha). One of the most attractive view on Ragunan, was Schmutzer Primate Center. I've actually been there once, but on this occasion, we did not make it to get there.

The most interesting part was, I actually enjoyed the view, and it was so refreshing. I love green, I love the sight of leaves, and bird songs (and extra view : young moms with their babies, hehehe). It's a luxury you know, in skyscrapers jungle like Jakarta. Ofcourse, seeing caged animals was not so enjoyable, but at least, I can breath a fresh air here.

Hoho, too bad, eating in Ragunan was not so pleasant experience. It's amazingly expensive, and tasteless (bad combination, eh?).

The picture? you can see it here.

Whooa, I'm back

2005-07-20T17:28:00.000+07:00

Finally I made it, going back alive on the blog. Yeah, it's such a hard work, considering the internet connection here is so f**king slow. C'mon, 64KBps for nearly 100 employees?

So, a quick brief :
I'm moving to a new company, with very restrictive, I mean very very restrictive internet policy, so please, pardon me not updating this blog regularly.

Next mission :
get a grip, hehehehe, and commited to blog regularly. I've plenty on my minds right now :D

Stop Blogging temporarily

2005-05-27T13:45:00.000+07:00

Uhm, really sorry that i have to stop blogging temporarily (for unknown period) because of something beyond my control (hehehe, kidding). Actually it's just because the Internet connection

Sorry for you all, guys who have been a very good blog friend of mine. After all, it's temporary.

Buhbye for now.

Keen on extremist?

2005-05-27T13:41:00.000+07:00

You know, I've been an avid fan of Indonesian television lately, due to the fact that I always go home early from work and have nothing (useful) to do. So, what I always watch is, ofcourse, Sinetron (ya ya, blame me!). No, I don't want to create a huge flame war on Indonesian Sinetron, but instead, give my .02 on some of famous Indonesian's Sinetrons.

Let's say for example, Kisah Sedih di hari Minggu. At the beginning, this sinetron, like other Indonesian's Sinetron, is a so-so story about mean auntie (played by Meriem Bellina), and the struggle of a beautiful girl (ya ya ya, it's Marshanda allright, hehehe) and her mom in the auntie's house. And then, the story progress to the next level of absurdity to my opinion. The girl's mom began to get a mighty power from unknown sources, beat the auntie, and then rule the house. She dumped the auntie out of the house with her superpower. And then the auntie fight back with unknown mystical power. and so on and so on.

And then, another example on how Sinetron makers love extreme situation, Tangisan Anak Tiri, where abusive actions are exploited.

Mainstream theme of Sinetron, whether it is realized or not, is always about extreme characters or situation. Protagonists which are usually super duper kindhearted, antagonists which are super duper bad, super idiotic characters, extreme changes (from an idiot person into a very handsome and smart guy, for example). Not to mention involvement of supernatural powers such as Angels, fairies, demons in (supposedly) real life, and how the good always win against the bad in a very spectacular way.

Is it a sign that sinetron viewers love extremists? extremely good characters? extremely bad characters? extreme changing in life?

Finger licking good?

2005-05-11T17:45:00.000+07:00

How often do you eat your lunch or dinner or breakfast with your hands? I mean, use your hand instead of spoon and fork? Is it good or gross?

There's something with this eat-with-hands thing. Something unexplainable. Something spiritual (hahahaha) when you do that. You know, my father always suggest to use hand when we eat chicken with lalapan (dressing?) and sambal (spicy ketchup?). It's much much better eating those kind of food with hands, right? Admit it, which is one better when you eat, for example, KFC, with hand or spoon? And, don't tell me about practicality.

And at the end, you just lick your fingers clean. Yummmmmy (or gross?) ...

Irritating ....

2005-05-09T18:10:00.000+07:00

Things that usually irritate readers (ya, ya just me, :D) in someone's blog :

AlTERnAtInG lETtErS. it reduces readability and really really is annoying.
SMS speak, like : aq udh mkn td. skrg aq udh kenyang. lo bs bc ini ga? klo bs, hebat bgt. You don't want your readers think that you can not write a proper words in English or Indonesia.
Frames. Be careful in using frames in blog. Things that scroll usually irritate readers.
Too-small fonts or instead, too-large fonts. Think this way, not everyone love reading tiny letters, especially readers with glasses, heh.
Too many colors in letters. Okay, you can emphasis one or more sentences, but it's safe to use one or two colors like red or blue. beyond that, you just bleed my eyes.
Bright Background. Please, do please, avoid bright colors like pink or yellow for the background. The intensity can make readers' eyes bleed. And also, avoid using high contrast for blog, like white letter on black background.
Banners and hotlinking. This can be irritating if you hotlink tons of banners in your blog. Remember, the most important thing is your blog content, not banners. I know that you want to give credits, but beyond that, avoid hotlinking banners to your side. Keep it as clean as possible. Oh, and that includes background image.
1337 sp34k is annoying. it doesn't do anything but make you look retarded.
Blinking text. Avoid blinking text. it doesn't do anything useful, and it's blinking for godsake!.

You know, I got most of this stuff from my textbook on Human Computer Interaction, authored by Mr. Insap Santosa, back in my college days, and some, from my own experiences. So, it's basically common rules in readibility.

How about you? What irritate you most? Improper English perhaps (like this blog, bwuahauahauahauaha)?

Note : I have difficulty now in accessing the Internet, so please forgive me if I don't update the blog regularly. I will keep blogging though :D. At Clodi, Kukuh, Fier, Andi and others who stumbled upon this website from search engines like Yahoo! and Google, thanks a bunch guys for keep visiting this blog.

Jogja Urban Dictionary a.k.a Walikan

2005-04-25T15:03:00.000+07:00

What is Basa (read : Boso) Walikan (Inverted Language)?
Walikan is a language, created by Jogjanese, at the beginning to cover (to encode) a conversation between Jogjanese. Often said, Basa Walikan was created by criminals in Jogjakarta long ago so that the authority failed to track or spy their plan. Kinda different with other Malang's Basa Walikan, which reverse the words, Jogja's Basa Walikan use Javanese letters to encrypt words.

The encryption is actually very easy, this is how it works :

It begins with these letters' structure (Javanese letters) :

ha na ca ra ka (read : ho no co ro ko)
da ta sa wa la (read : do to so wo lo)
pa dha ja ya nya (read : po dho jo yo nyo)
ma ga ba tha nga (read : mo go bo tho ngo)

The rule of encription is : if you found a word, let's say mabuk (drunk in English), split it by suku kata (uh, sorry, I can't find an English translation for it, phonemes maybe?). So for the above example, split it into : ma-buk.

Find the corresponding suku kata (phonemes?) in the javanase letters' structure in point 1. That would be : ma ba and the end consonant is k(a). In this step, remember the vowels also (a and u).

Now, let's find the suku kata for the encryption.

ha = pa
na = dha
ca = ja
ra = ya
ka = nya
da = ma
ta = ga
sa = ba
wa = tha
la = nga

Find the matches for given encryption above. for the example : ma ba ka will read da sa ny(a) in Basa Walikan. Adding up the vowels, you will get da su ny(a). And at the end, dasuny (read it without y/silent y) is Basa Walikan translation for mabuk.

It would be very easy if you are a Javanese native speaker. But, hell, you can learn it anyway.
Another example :
Jape Methe : n. Kanca dewe.
Friend. Usually spoken when you need a free cigarettes :D

Poya Muthig : adj. Ora (duwe) dhuit.
Doesn't have money, Usually spoken when you need a free cigarettes :D or refuse to go to the movies.

Dasun : n. Mabuk.
Unsconscious state after you drink some good ol'e beers :D

Hongib(i) : n. Polisi.
Kind of job, usually depicts heroic action in American's movies, or brutality in Indonesian's news.

Now, the exercise. Translate these words into Basa Walikan :
1. Aku :
2. Ibu :
3. Bapak :

Edited, thanks to Kukuh, hehehehe.

Unethical Vacancies

2005-04-19T16:00:00.000+07:00

I would say, there are so many unethical vacancies laying around in front of us. On the Internet, newspaper, and mailing list, three popular sources to find jobs (oh, ya, and JobsDB, ofcoures). Why unethical?

They don't post a clear description about the company, such as line of business, state of the company (Multinational, local, joint venture), and location.
They don't post a clear description about the job they advertise.
Using free e-mail. Although I'm not, whatsoever, against free email to advertise vacancies. This means 2 things, the company doesn't want to be recognized (remains confidential) mainly because of competition, or The company doesn't want to be recognized because they hide something. The later is not good.

Covering company's identity in the vacancy is pretty common in vacancy advertisement. Some companies use that to cover newly setup business, and to avoid giving too much information to the competitor. Some companies prefer anonymity because of lack of popularity. It is not considered unethical however, since the information given to the candidates is enough and not misleading.

Unethical vacancies, as mentioned above, is usually deployed to

Trick candidates to do something irrelevant to the job advertised. It may includes ambiguous position's name (such as abusive usage of words like Management Trainee position, Business Development Executive, Consultant), to further convince candidates. They may also add a very tempting salary for candidates.
Gather personal info from CV. although there is no proof (yet) on the misused data on CV, we must pay special attention to our CV, because it contains confidential information.

So please be very very careful when you apply to company that fit into the description above. I've warned you !

Wasting Time

2005-04-11T16:33:00.000+07:00

Nowadays, when life's been so hectic, I found a way to keep my sanity. Yeah, Wasting time, a lot, in Junking in this mailing list, and posting deliberately in this forum.

UH, Internet can be such a waste, isn't it? I am not proud of it, but right now, it's the only way to keep my sanity in this office.

Buhbye.

Updated (19/04/2005) : I've unsubscribed from this mailing list, because of ridiculous action taken by moderator.

Requiescat in Pace, Holy Father

2005-04-04T08:34:00.000+07:00

Requiescat in Pace

Thank you for your enormous effort in World's peace, a leader across the nations and globe, the most influencial leader of the ages.

Thank God for giving you to this world, Amen.

Internet Acronyms

2005-03-24T12:34:00.000+07:00

Been a slashdot user for about 4 months and some online forums, I often found some unusual acronyms (it might be common, though, but I just don't know it). Well, after googling, I found the meaning eventually. It might be very useful when you join an online forums (especially English-speaking forums). And pardon my illiteracy on Internet. I'm a n00b, you know.

FYI : For Your Information, is used when someone informs something that is (maybe) unknown to others.
CMIIW : Correct Me If I'm Wrong, is used when someone states an opinion which needs further clarification on the facts presented (if any).
YMMV : Your Mileage May Vary, A standard disclaimer to note that the particular topic under discussion may not hold true for all people. Example : I've been using Windows for 4 years now, and not even a single reboot. YMMV though.
IANAL : I Am Not A Lawyer, A disclaimer which is usually followed by a legal opinion. Example : IANAL, I think some countries doesn't follow DMCA
WTF : What The F**k, I think you know what that means
RTFA/M : Read The F**king Article/Manual, Suggest the reader to read the manual or article first prior asking/commenting.
IM(H)O : In My (Humble) Opinion or IMAO : In My Arrogant Opinion, A shorthand appended to a comment written in an online forum, IMHO indicates that the writer is aware that they are expressing a debatable view, probably on a subject already under discussion.
LoL : Laugh out Loud,You know what that means :D
STFU : Shut The F**k Up, You also know what that means
BS : Bull S**t, no further comments :D
KISS : Keep it Simple, Stupid/Sweetheart, pretty clear
AFAIK : as Far as I Know or IIRC : If I Recall Correctly, clearly understood?
FUD : Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt, from Wikipedia, FUD is a sales or marketing strategy of disseminating negative but vague or inaccurate information on a competitor's product.
OTOH : On The Other Hand
HTH : Hope This Helps
DIY : Do it Yourself

More complete lists on internet acronyms/abbreviation can be found easily via google query.

Rebuttal to MLM holy book :D

2005-03-17T16:05:00.000+07:00

Nothing personal, I just hate MLM. I just hate their ways in persuading the client and downliners.

Some people in the past has persuaded my parents (and me) with many ways to join their MLM business. They said (in many ways), that MLM business will be the "right" way to reach our dreams. For some people, may be. But for another people, it's not.

But it's not what I want to say, anyway. I just want to give another view for their "holy book", a book that is always used by some marketers to gain interests from their audience (in seminars, workshops, and so on). Yeah, Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki.

The content itself (the book I mean) is pretty interesting. Inspiring yet motivating .... until I found this link, John T. Reed's writing on Rich Dad Poor Dad. This link certainly got my attention, and most probably Kiyosaki's fans too. I won't rewrite Reed's explanation here, since the explanation is clear enough to understand. Let's move to the point that caught my attention, quote from the site :

Can the ordinary person get rich? Yes
Is it as easy as Kiyosaki makes it sound? Not even close.
Can it be done as fast as Kiyosaki says? Nope.
Is education as worthless as Kiyosaki says? Every pertinent study has shown that the more education you have, the higher your net worth and income. Also, educated people live longer, have fewer divorces, better health, and so forth.

Although that isn't not the important point of Kiyosaki's book, I found that questions above make sense, especially after reading the book carefully.

Second quote from the site :

What Kiyosaki is really doing is operating a cult of personality. Anna Quindlen had an excellent article about such cults in the 8/14/00 Newsweek. She was talking about politicians and says they seek to elicit the words, “I don’t know why. I just like the guy.” Politicians want to be judged by their personalities, not their character or policies. To members of Kiyosaki’s cult, it matters not how many false or probably-false statements I find in Kiyosaki’s writings. They just like the guy. Personality is an appropriate criterion for selecting someone to hang around with. But it is a highly inappropriate criterion for evaluating Kiyosaki’s advice, because he’s not going to let you hang around with him and your family’s finances are serious business.

Whoa, Politician does it also, and I guess this statement is quite suitable for Indonesian, especially in the election period :D. Well, so much for Kiyosaki huh? And I hear many people quote this up, over and over. Looks like this book has become MLM, and so-called marketer (or whatever), holy book. Well, guess what :

From now on, if you think I missed the point, don’t paraphrase Kiyosaki’s point to me. Give me an exact quote and the page number in Rich Dad, Poor Dad where it appears. I suspect everyone who is tempted to send me the point of Rich Dad will be unable to find in the book any of the wonderful advice they imagined was in there.

OK?

Have you ever been ...

2005-03-09T11:12:00.000+07:00

in this situation before?

1. A very crowded bus
2. You're standing
3. Get caught in horrible traffic jam, for specific, a traffic jam caused by train intersection
4. Crying baby in the bus, I mean a very very loud crying
5. You're still far away from you destination
6. Sweating all over your body, and others too (hihihihi)
7. Someone's smoking

Perfect situation eh?

Entrepreneurship?

2005-03-08T17:33:00.000+07:00

Recently, my class' mailing list was overwhelmed with responses to one of mailing list's member. This guy apparently loves to post something controversial, and most probably, expects controversial replies also. His post's topic is not far away from his so-called business, and how he gets it. Something like that. Too many times, he asks other mailing list's members to join his (so-called) business, and often complain about it, because soo many times, many members are not interested with it.

Okay, nuff said about this guy. What I notice is, he always mention Entrepreneurship on his posts. It's actually very interesting to know more about being an entrepreneur, on how it can be done, and so on and so on. But this guy never mention any single clue about how it can be done. Like I said, nuff said about this guy.

To me, my interest on Entrepreneurship began at the campus, when someone said to me : "Why don't we be our own boss?" Let it be clearly stated that someone who said this is a genius on programming, so it's not difficult for him to get a very decent job. He preferred joining a startup company owned by his classmates over a job in one of the biggest cigarette maker in Indonesia. Too bad that when he offerred a job in his company, I refused. I was not so sure about taking risk in a startup company.

The second story is when applied for an IT job in an Institution in Jogjakarta. The mind of being an entrepreneur was already on my mind. The interviewer asked me a question, What are you going to do in the next 5 years? I said, I want to be an entrepreneur. Ok, on what area? I said, will think about it later. So, you plan not to stay here long enough, heh? I said, no (what a dumb answer ya).

On the above story, one thing I can learn about being an enterpreneur is willing to take risks. It's a major barrier for me I guess, because one of my weaknessess is lack of courage to take risks. Recently, I got an offer from my brother-in-law to invest on wrist-watch store. He gave a proposal (really!) on how much the profit will be. What a hell, this is first time I take a risks financially (believe me!). Right now, I'm still waiting the result. Is is what we called being Entrepreneur? or just a mere Investment?

Second thing is, learn before being a entrepreneur on specific area, IT for example. My brother-in-law often told me about some failed entrepreneurs, some are his friends, merely because they failed to observe carefully before engaging in the business.

On entrepreneurship, I remember one lesson in the my faculty which failed terribly in endorsing entrepreneurship to the students. It was called Entrepreneurship ("Kewirausahaan"). I wonder if such lessons still exists in campus today. if yes, I will tell them "THAT LESSON S**KED HORRIBLY. PLEASE REVIEW IT CAREFULLY!". Uh, there I said it. There is another lesson that s**ks, but it's a different matter (something called "Ekonomi Teknik").

A few questions for you, readers. What is Enterpreneurship for you? care to share some experiences?

Childhood memories : Bung Smas

2005-03-03T17:26:00.000+07:00

I love to read. That's obvious and there's no question about it. Since elementary school, I was told by my parents to read a lot, newspapers, books, and novel. But not comic. And that's why, I don't like comic books (with exception of TinTin and Asterix). Ok, nuff said (I don't want to create enemies here, hehehehe).

Onwards.

One day, when I was like 8-9 years old, my sister gave me books, Nony series. It's authored by Bung Smas. The story is about adventure of a little girl named Nony. She has a friend, a man who was convicted for murder, a fugitive who always tried to prove that he's innocent, by helping police secretly. They live in Semarang, a big town. Being a very socialized kid, Nony has so many friends, and her relatives and neighbor love her also. And that how the story usually goes. There were many thrilling experiences involving Nony and Godek. Together they solve criminal cases. It was always started accidentally. Nony's friends somehow got trouble, and Nony was there. And somehow, Godek was there too. Godek, being a fugitive, is a master in undercover. And together, they save their friends from their troubles. Really, for such children novels, Nony series are unbelievably creative.

Addicted to Bung Smas' novel, I bought another series, Pulung. Yes, another heroic stories from Bung Smas. these books tell the story of Pulung, a boy from small village somewhere in Central Java. He master martial art, and he often use it to help his friends. Following Pulung's adventures with his friends were really enjoyable to me at that time (I mean when I was a children :D). Pulung is also playting detective thing, same as Nony with Godek.

You know, all those novels mentioned above really affected me, since I (always) love the image of being a Hero. more than that, Bung Smas' creation is sooo down-to-earth. Writing some conversations in Javanese, some funny kid talks, and using local settings (unlike Enid Blyton stories, for example which took England settings) are some of Bung Smas' strengths.

Until now, I haven't figured out who he/she really is. I just want to say, Thanks for livening my childhood up with such great stories.

Incognito = being Nobody

2005-02-25T15:42:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : This is another Incognito, not the one related to the famous Jazz band Incognito. And, I believe what I posted here is not the real meaning of Incognito (not revealing the true identity as in Anonymous), but more to being Nobody.

Living in a big city can be really hard, especially when somebody is relatively well-known in his/her hometown. Nobody knows you, and you have to start the whole things from the scratch again. Building relationship, especially.

Walking down the big street, all alone. Lurking around the mall, all alone. Eating, all alone. And then we start knowing people, making friends, and yes, you are not alone again.

What I've stated above, I believe, is sickening for extroverts like me. Being all alone is not the way we live, right? (Yes Ye, I mean you :D)

And then, I remember a very good story from one of my favorite authors, Umar Kayam. He once told a story about him going to the mall for a lunch when he was in Jakarta (he had two homes, Jakarta and Yogyakarta). He said that nobody knew him in that mall. He ate lunch, alone, but felt comfortable with the situation. Nobody greeted him, asked him for a signature, or something else. He could do something he liked without annoyance. It's a privilege for him. Sometimes. When he was in Yogyakarta, he was a celebrity. Wherever he walked, everybody knew him. Everybody greeted him, maybe a little chitchat with him.

Many people enjoy being Incognito. On the Internet, being Incognito is one way to protect the privacy. On the real life, many celebrities will pay much for being Incognito (I doubt that, but hell ...) to avoid those papparazzis (am I right in spelling it?).

To me, being Incognito sometimes is really enjoyable. Sometimes. It's a privilege. It's a matter of being myself. Enjoy the feeling, the mood, things that can be done alone. What a pleasure.

Sending me a virus?

2005-02-24T09:56:00.000+07:00

2 days ago, there was an e-mail sent to my Yahoo! account, replying my message (as a moderator) to the mailing list. This e-mail was sent from the yahoogroups account (@yahoogroups.com). Since the yahoogroups account never send emails other than notification, this is most probably a virus, and that was also Yahoo!mail thought. So, This message was found in the Bulk Email folder. What I was interested at that time is the subject of the email. It was a reply to something that I sent. I rarely see this kind of message. So, instead of trashing away this message, I opened it. The message body contained nothing, except my message. It's not that surprising, until I saw the attachment. It's in Indonesian Language (not Bahasa, mind you). See for yourself :

I was sooo curious. I wanted to download the attachment the attachment, but when I clicked it, Yahoo! told me not to open it because it contained Bugbear Virus. So I browsed Symantec website to know more about this kind of virus. I couldn't find any info on virus propagation in Indonesia using Indonesian Language. Well, OK, then again, I opened the full header, and it seemed that the sender using Microsoft Outlook Express to send the message.

Is it true? somebody was trying to send me virus?
I hope not.

Desperate in looking for a job?

2005-02-22T15:59:00.000+07:00

Privacy has always been a serious concern in foreign countries, for example USA. Everybody treats their privacy seriously, from their license, social security number, home address, phone number, and even e-mail address. Whenever possible, everybody protect their personal information to avoid identity theft or fraud.

Maybe i'm a little bit too late in mentioning this, but I've seen many evidences of ignorance, resulting in ways you can't describe, shortspeak, harrasment.

I am now a moderator of pretty busy mailing list on Human Resources in Indonesia. It's terrible job, frankly speaking. Currently, this mailing list has 3 moderators to manage all message postings, but still, too much noise over the signal :D.

What I wonder is, there are too many postings asking for jobs, and the posters blatantly post their resumes, along with their personal info, such as address, ID number (KTP, SIM, mind you), phone number(!), straight to the mailing list. What are they thinking? Posting such sensitive info to more than one thousand emails, and not all of them have a good intention. And then, what I usually do is rejecting their message, and telling them that their message can't be displayed to protect their privacy. Yet, they still try to send their resumes, over and over again. I've seen too many times that they post their resumes like 4-5 emails perday. Damn. Do they use some kind of bot to send resumes? Or they're just soooo desperate and hit the send button several times?

Man, They just don't get it. Once, one of my friends mistakenly sent her resume to the mailing list, because she somehow just hit reply button, and sent it to the mailing list (yeah, yeah, I know, it sounds unreal, but believe me, it's real). And then, suddenly she got unsolicited phone calls from person she didn't know. They literally harass her, like asking for dates, offering jobs, and other scumbag-like phone calls. She's so scary at that time, and swore that she would never done something like that again. Then again, Why do some people still do it?

So, what is the benefit of sending resumes in mailing list? Tell me and I will give a free umbrella, :D

I want to go to India !

2005-02-18T16:45:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : contains SEO whoring, bwuahauhauhauha.

"Man, if someday, you have this scholarship, it's not much but enough, and you are free to choose where you want to study, which country you want to go?"
"India."

***

"Man, If you dream that someday, college education in Indonesia would better than now, what country do you want it to be?"
"India."

***

Why?

It's cheap.
Its graduates are known globally, some works in HUGE companies.
It's one of third world countries, and yet it succeds in promoting education.
Outsourcing rules.
More and more International Companies to open Labs/R&D Center in India. What can possibly be better than that?

Chain letters

2005-02-15T13:10:00.000+07:00

Have you ever received Chain Letters from someone? I have. Back in 1996(7?), I got a chain letter from anonymous person. Yupe, straight to my address. I didn't know how the person got my address, and I didn't know him either. What kind of chain letter? A so-called "religious" letter. The person somehow knew that I'm a Christian, and forwarding me this letter. A letter from Pope John Paul II, who got vision from God, and so on, and so on, you know the rest. Kinda funny actually, since it contained testimonies on how forwarding chain letter can be rewarding. And you know Indonesia. People tends to believe The one who forward this letter will get luck, it said. But that was in nineties. And I think it was dead.

Well, Chain letters find a new form now in the era of Internet. E-mail. And Friendster. Not so long ago, a friend of mine in Friendster forwarded this message to the bulletin board. I was choked to death. Laughing histerically. This "urban legend" message apparently revive again in the Friendster. And more laugh because this friend of mine is not google illiterate, he's programmer. Why didn't he bother to look up Google for this Progesterex thing prior forwarding? I replied him immediately, "Hey man, don't ya know that it is a hoax?".

And the third, Mailing list. Ya ya, I know, mailing list can be very disturbing. Everybody want to forward everything they got. Pfiuhh (I got this term from Nony, my friend from previous employer). And yes, I got those emails again, a so-called religious chain letters. And someone replied with kinda similar letter, but this time for Moslems. hehehe. Somebody thought that the obligation to forward it to 20 people or more will give him luck. or so I read.

Forwarding chain letters, what can be worse than that? I mean, it's spamming, you know.

Luckily, there is always our beloved Google....
Oh ya, and Happy (belated) Valentine's Day, whatever it means.

Et Tu ... ?

2005-02-08T16:58:00.000+07:00

I remember one quote from Shakespeare's Caesar, said by Caesar when he found out that Brutus also betrayed him, "Et tu, Brutus?", "you also, Brutus?".

***
An unreal conversation.

Somebody asked me few days ago, "So, you're blogging now?".
"Yeah," I replied. Proudly.
"What for?"
"For fun, express my opinion, practice my english," I said.
"Okay, but who will read it?"
"Errr, everybody who's interested, lah ..."
"And how will they know the "existence" of your blog? Do you tell them?"
"Sort of. I guess it's enough to list my blog in Google ..."
"So, you expect that someone, accidentally, find your blog through Google, and then become your so-called faithful reader?" She asked again.
"I do promote my blog, you know, through BBs, lurking around, blogwalking, comment here comment there," I replied.
"Yeah, tell me the probability that someone, or some people, out of the blue, click on your link ...," she said.
"...."
"Okay. I understand. Then again, what makes you think your blog is worth-read? I know you put a counter in your blog? how does the statistic say? How long they read your blog? Or appreciate it like commenting or trackbacking?"
"...."

***
"So you try to write your blog in English, eh?" She asked again the other day.
"Yupe. What's wrong with that?"
"Unless the lack of vocabulary and some errors in grammar, nothing actually."
"...."

***

Et tu ...?

Nobody blog about Kitab Omong Kosong?

2005-02-07T15:50:00.000+07:00

Well, incase you don't know, Kitab Omong Kosong is a novel by Seno Gumira Ajidarma (SGA). I read it couple months ago. But, it seems that review on this novel is scarce, or I can say there is no review on this novel. I dunno. I searched everywhere on the ALMIGHTY Google, and it come up nothing, except a very brief review in Kompas. Kitab Omong Kosong means A Book of Bullshit in English (hehehe).

In the era of chicklit and teenlit, this novel is truly a refreshment. A nostalgia to the era of wayang (Javanese puppet), with background of one of best stories ever told (at least to me), Ramayana. For an old-fashioned reader like me, who always love epic story, Kitab Omong Kosong is just brilliant.

At the beginning, it's been told that Rahwana, defeated by Rama, had decided to fight back by spreading bubbles, influencing people around the world to become evil. So, the world is in chaos. and, surprisingly, Rama is also possessed by this spell. He don't believe in Sinta, his wife, who's at time being pregnant. He accuse Sinta of being deceitful to him. So, he expell Sinta from the Ayodya palace. Sinta then go to the jungle, seeking for refuges, and deliver twin there, Lawa and Kusa. Later, they live happily and peacefully in the jungle, with a monk named Walmiki. Lawa and Kusa, born as Rama's sons, are mighty.

Evil from Rahwana's bubble possess Rama. And then, he decide to become a ruler of the world. He begin a Horse Sacrifice, a scary ritual. He casts a spell on a white horse, so this horse will run without being tired. Every land passed by this white horse, should be conquered by Ayodya. This sacrifice destroy every civilization in the world, and left victims everywhere. Among the victims of this war, are Satya and Maneka. Satya, whose parents was killed by Ayodya's warriors, and Maneka, who was raped because of the white horse tatoo in her back (if you read the book, you will get the clue). Unsatisfied with their destiny and thier life plot, they decide to ask the grandmaster of the story to let their life out of his plot. Upon searching the grandmaster, they accidentally meet a courier who brings the map of Kitab Omong Kosong, the book of all knowledge, that was destroyed before by Ayodya's warriors. In the journey, they love each other.

So, There is the narrator, the grandmaster, who arrange the plot of the world in this book. The one creates all character of this story. And who is he? hehehe.

Another prominent character in this story is Anoman, who lives alone in another world, guarding Kitab Omong Kosong. Anoman is being told as a half god-half human creature. he who can travel around the world, enter the god's heaven. A wisdom yet a mighty creature. And at the end, he meet Satya and Maneka.

Well, I have to admit that SGA is a good story builder (or teller?). The complexity built upon the tale of Ramayana, is impressive. The story development, although picking some content from the original Ramayana tale, is pretty genuine. SGA is also generous in providing quotes from ancient books, or some poems on his own, supporting the emotional experience of the character. It's simply beautiful.

There's sense of humour in this book too. While many books provide testimonies (or whatever it called) suggesting people to read the book, this book comes with unusual testimony. The testimony comes from Togog, a civilian in the wayang world. He says "Please tell eveyone not to read this book, because it will only waste their time, mind, and energy. Really, this is truly bullshit. Really sorry for this. Really really sorry."(Tolong sampaikan agar cerita ini tidak usah dibaca, karena membuang waktu, pikiran dan tenaga. Sungguh hanya suatu omong kosong belaka. Mohon maaf sekali lagi untuk permintaan tolong ini. Maaf, beribu-ribu kali maaf.")

I am not a book reviewer whatsoever. It's just that I am compelled to blog about this book.
Just my 20 rupiahs (if USD 1 = IDR 10000)

I want my right !!

2005-02-03T16:07:00.000+07:00

I love to walk. I always walk whenever I could. It's a habit. It's a hobby too. Whenever I have a chance, I walk. It's healthy, and it's cheap. Supposedly.

So, yesterday I went to church as always, and I chose to walk. My church is on Rawamangun area, near the famous Tiptop Supermarket. Walking in the afternoon would be great, I thought. But, apparently, I was wrong. dead wrong.

So I walked along East Balai Pustaka street. Well, the first 100 metres was great, since there were many trees in the middle of the street, covering the street from sun's heat. And then I walked aside TipTop's parking area. It was terrible. there was not enough space to me, or any pedestrians, to walk comfortly. cars and motorcycle blocked the pedestrian path also. There were so many bajajs, angkot (public transportation), and cars, literally blocking the street. even worse, many bajajs did not turn the engine off, so you can imagine how the smoke was. That ruined my day, actually. It's supposed to be fun, walking in the afternoon, but it was not. On the way home, the other side of the street was filled with car, parking serially (not parallel, can you imagine it?), blocking the street.

Second story. Walking down the alley to my boarding house is not fun either. It's about 3 metres wide, and it's a pretty busy alley, with cars, ojek, and bajaj pass by. And yes, no place for a pedestrian like me. ojek parks everywhere, while some gerobak selling ketoprak, nasi goreng take the side of the street.

Some of you may think, Yeah, that's common, lah. It's Jakarta man. get over it.
Yupe. I can live with it. It just doesn't feel right, knowing that a very big city like Jakarta doesn't regard their walking citizen.

uh, I want my right ! Walking peacefully without disturbance.

oh, this stupid box ...(the Extension of Man, perhaps? :P)

2005-02-01T13:55:00.000+07:00

Yeah, I love this stupid box, filled with sinetron, movies, talk shows, reality shows, news, cartoons.

Yeah, I love this stupid box, and kinda addicted to it, though the content sucks horribly, but I just love it anyway.

Watching this stupid box for 4-5 hours a day, with snacks in my hand, imitating Bart Simpson, is not healthy and productive activity, you know. But I just love it anyway.

Uh, stupid box, what should I do with you? Blame you for culture degradation? or mental degradation? or lack of morale values? or promoting violence? or something bad?

Uh, stupid box, filled with beauty, physical perfection, life images, all that stupid entertainment, and yet, filled with tragic and traumatic moments. You make me cry (darn, not that often !) and laugh.

To me, you are just a stupid box. nothing more. Blaming you is just sooo stupid to me, it is not you that has to be blamed, it is your owner, the one that watches you everyday and everynight. And their lack of maturity.

Stupid. again Stupid. you, stupid box and me, your owner.

Ssst. Another memory of Umar Kayam, I guess. I just borrowed his words to call your name. Interesting indeed.

From your stupid lover.

PS : Thanks for promoting local stations. When I go back to Jogja, reminds me to watch JogjaTV, tuguTV, and RBTV.

Several things should be left alone or .....

2005-01-28T13:22:00.000+07:00

Following a little chit-chat in Avianto's blog, I am compelled interested to write down my little view here about Indonesian BBs. Well, as we talked about fallacies, I mentioned about argumenting in Indonesian BB's and Avianto responded by saying, "... most Indonesian BB's are craps anyway ...". Quite a statement, and my response was : could not agree more, hehehe.

Onwards..

First, I just want to state that I don't have much experiences with Indonesian BBs. Mostly found accidentally, I guess. In fact, I only join a very few, and mostly just enjoy lurking forum after forum. From well-managed forum to less-managed. Massive users to a few. Topic to topic. most active to abandoned. I guess I don't have much work to be done as any professionals should be (bahh !).

Not all forums will be included in my view. I just want to write about forums that have flammatory (this is NOT a medical term, I repeat, NOT a medical term) subjects in it. What is flammatory subject? Very loose definition would be : A subject usually leads to flame war. I would recommend readers to visit these sites first to get some hints (warning, viewer discretion and maturity is advised) :

Kaskus, on Fighting Club forum (you should first register to obtain access to this forum)
Ajangkita, on Forum Dialog Antar agama
Plasa, on forum Dialog Agama
Faithfreedom, on every forums

In the forum i mentioned above, basically they provide a forum to discuss religion or belief or faith (so-called Inter Religion/Faith/Belief Dialogue), except Kaskus which is deliberately providing Fighting Club to those who wants to start flame war.

And, what I got in these forums? Nothing. Yupe, absolutely nothing but thinking that these threads should not be started from the beginning. If I may ask to the owner of these forums, Why is the purpose of these forums (Kaskus is an exception)? To get an understanding about others' beliefs? To respect others' belief? getting common perception? or just testing others and at the end blaming them?

Ok, forget about that. Let's see the quality of the "discussion". Avianto's post that I commented was about fallacies in argumenting. He was right though. Too many fallacies happens, and spreads throughout the conversation/"discussion". At the end, it gains nothing but flaming and character assault (Ad Hominem). And they discuss faith, a sensitive thing that beyond our comprehension. Instead of get an understanding on others' belief, they prefer to push their own beliefs, and blame others' belief.

Faith, IMHO, is thing that should be left alone. And politic. And religion-science. and other sensitive things that many Indonesians are not ready to talk about. We, I think, must learn much about fruitful discussion, and respecting others more. But, there were a few fruitful discussions happened there. Just a few, unfortunately.

This reminds me on forum in Defcon.org. The administrator decided to close Politic and Religion forum, for a reason. There's a little benefit there. So much for secular people in US, huh?

Several things should be left alone. That's the final conclusion. Or we can embrace differences happily. That would make a difference.

Thus said, I would recommend this site for fruitful discussion on faith. They call themselves INFIDELS. ha!

Plagiarism, copyrights, infringement, bla bla bla on Mailing List and Blogs

2005-01-26T11:58:00.000+07:00

Note : all definitions are taken from Dictionary.com

Well, plagiarism, per definition is :
n 1: a piece of writing that has been copied from someone else and is presented as being your own work
2: the act of plagiarizing; taking someone's words or ideas as if they were your own

Copyrights :
The legal right granted to an author, composer, playwright, publisher, or distributor to exclusive publication, production, sale, or distribution of a literary, musical, dramatic, or artistic work.

Infringement :
A violation, as of a law, regulation, or agreement; a breach.

First thing first, Hell, I want to state that I don't want to talk about ethics. This is not my intention. Judging people is not my specialties, hehehe.

In the beginning was THE ALMIGHTY INTERNET. an Information heaven. and the obligation to create papers, writings. and lack of creativity. and superego. therefore, there was Plagiarism. and copyright infringement. and on, and on, and on.

And then, blogs and mailing list. Blogs, are intended to express writer/owner's point of view on something, or just a journal, updated (almost) in daily basis. Mailing list, is a group of people share common things. Blogs and Mailing Lists are the common tools in sharing information in Indonesia nowadays. Not that I care though. What I care is more and more people practising plagiarism, intentionally or unintentionally, on mailing list and blogs. The nature of mailing list in spreading information, to massive users, has supported plagiarism and copyright infringement, directly or indirectly. Blogs too. Well, I've seen several facts on this (and yes, I admit that I do that, and I verymuch ashame) :

Publishing other's writing without enough credit. Well, some people are kind enough to let their work to be published on other sites, providing enough credits to them. Some other people just forget to provide credits, or well, claiming as their own.
Some site copyright their content to avoid plagiarism, but some people just don't understand.
Images are abused in the blogs, ignoring its copyrights (if any).
Forwarding copyrighted content in mailing list.
Quoting without credits or link to the quoted site or author.
And more...

I think we have to build awareness on this issue. Copyright Infringement is big issue in US and (maybe) other foreign countries. They treat it as a serious matter. And afterall, Is it that difficult to provide credits to the original author? or just linking to them if they don't allow the content to be published on another site?

Aha, even the famous author Dan Brown, was accused for plagiarism...

Bla bla bla ....

PS : I think we should consider this approach : Creative Common License in our blogs. ( yeah, I know I'm late again, hehehe)

My First Poem to her

2005-01-18T10:12:00.000+07:00

This is my first poem to her, in English. Pretty bad, huh?
But I always remember the smile she gave to me that day. Priceless.

Our love is like toddler
(A song to beatiful girl)

Our love, is like toddler
Gaining its weight, because of caring and trusting each other
Gaining its height, cause we try to reach our dreams
Gaining its strength, cause it grows and grows more

Our love, is like toddler
Where love is pure
Where the feeling is nature

Our love, is like toddler
Where God, says that, you must become a child to reach the Heaven
Where the world, although it seems difficult to face, we face it together

Dear, I hope that our love, is like toddler
Grows each day…………….

Me

IT workforce, Outsourcing, bla bla bla

2005-01-17T11:09:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : This article is purely opinion. Generalization & Over-generalization may apply, since I don't have accurate infos/statistic about this.

There are abundant IT workforce in the city, nowadays. Some of you might not believe it, but you can find some IT guys easily in the city, for any IT jobs, from EDP (electronic data processing), until Programming. Just open up a vacancy in Mailing List or newspaper, and voila, you got a bunch of IT guys applying. IT has become a trend.

Well, where demand exists, there will be supply. But, if there is abundant supply, the price will go low (I'm not economist you know, but I guess it is a reasonable economic law). So, in case of IT workforce, I've seen some of these facts (just don't ask me where to get these facts. This is simply my observation) :
1. IT Fresh grad's salary is surprisingly low.
2. Companies usually hire IT huys on contract basis.
3. Companies usually hire IT guys with all-in-one knowledge, like they have to master programming, networking, troubleshooting. It is just ridiculous.
4. Companies usually treat IT division as a supporting role, hence try to reduce its size by using outsource company. Becoming an IT guy in a non-IT environment can be very frustrating, you know. Been there, done that. Everyday you will hear questions like "Can you please teach me how ...?", "Can you please fix this thing?", "OMG, I have viruses. Can you please, please help me remove it?", seemed that we, IT guys, have to fix Projector also, hehehe.
5. Turnover rate in IT jobs is high, but that doesn't matter. Replacement is easy. If your company is huge or quite popular (or you just put your email in newspaper), your recruitment email will be filled with hundreds of IT's resumes everyday (believe me, I have seen that).
6. Outsource company rules. Advantages from companies' point of view is, they don't have to hire a bunch of IT Guys, outsourcers are always ready with their needs, the cost of hiring is relatively higher than using outsource company.

Ofcourse, there are still plenty high-priced IT Jobs. Good grades in so-called reputable universities (I mean in Indonesia), Certifications, solid prior experiences, always make a difference. Hell, even with a little experience in using some ERP applications (read:SAP, Microsoft, JD Edwards, PeopleSoft, Oracle), you still can make a good bucks.

What's my points actually? Well, I just want to make an opinion here. With all the opinions above (I am affraid to state facts), IT grad's value is declining. Once it was a high-priced job, offering fortune to everyone with some IT titles in it. It is now, but only for selected people.

Several questions/opinions may rise in you after reading this post :
1. Yeah, right. like I believe it. This guy is paranoid. Move on guys, nothing to read here.
2. Heh, What should we do then, especially for us fresh graduates?
3. Yeah, I agree in some points, but declaring that IT grad's value is declining is just ridiculous and biased.

Ha!
for number one, Mod -1 Ignorant (Slashdot style, hehehe).
for number two, Err, I always think that working while studying in college is useful, if balanced. It also makes your resume looks good when you graduate. Some workshops and seminars would be helpful, too. Yupe, I know this sounds cliche, but I would repeat it after and after again.
and for number three, care to share your opinion?

As you all know that I am a Slashdot junkie, there were several discussions about this in Slashdot about Outsourcing and the decline of IT Jobs in USA & UK. So, I do believe that this opinion, sooner or later, will be an issue.

Is your son computer hacker?

2005-01-14T13:55:00.000+07:00

Parents, you should be very, I repeat, very, careful when you find your son acts like this. This could be dangerous. Your con could be a hacker. Hacker !!!
Please read this article from Adequacy.org, dated Dec 02, 2001. Ya, ya, it's old but still relevant. And please read all comments for further info on the prevention, and to prove that this article is actually ...

A joke. bwahuahuahauahuahauha.

A brief about Knowledge Management

2005-01-14T13:46:00.000+07:00

This week has been a busy week. A confusing week. A lot works to do, so little time. yesterday i did manage to register trial account on Far Eastern Economic Review (FEER). Why? It was all started when I worked in my previous employer. The VC (Vice Chairman) wanted to build a Knowledge Management System where we can share our knowledge & expertise. he gave us a scanned copy FEER (July 2004 ed. if I am not mistaken) about Knowledge Management. The content itself is interesting, but it was scanned. It was horrible scan, so I decide to get the softcopy from FEER.

It's about Knowledge Management System and its implementation in the Corporate. Yes, this is tough topic, but I like illustrations given in these articles. First article, "Forcing Changes : Sharing lessons learned is all in the course of duty for Singapore's police force". It is interesting to know that after working, officers across city-state logs on to post perusals or ideas to be learned by the other officers. The institutionalization of collective wisdom. And the result was amazing. Less public complaints, and police mistakes was reduced.

The second story is titled "Mind Over matter : How do you get reluctant colleagues to share what they know? Try smiling". Building pool of knowledge in one of the largest consulting firm s in the world, E&Y China office, is not easy. The main problem is reluctancy to share knowledge, in the climate of corporate belt-tightening dan global lay-offs. Other problem is each has to spend time inputting information onto databases. And how the director of knowledge handle reluctancy? His move is pretty interesting to quote : creating an "influencer". "Influencer"'s job is to approach heads of different business units, inform them sufficiently about know-how and how-tos, and persuade them identify team members who will work to help updating the databases, the knowledge evangelists. My previous employer tried to use that way. We had the influencer and content provider team. But, I haven't seen the result because I left soon after that.

Third Article is "Putting Heads Together". This article showed common mistakes in the implementation of Knowledge Management (KM) in Asia. There are cultural hurdles in traditional hierarchical companies, resistance to sharing expertise, over-reliance on tehcnology to manage information, problem in evaluating and disseminating knowledge. and, yes, this is prettymuch the problem I faced during KM implementation in my previous employer. A good quote from this article, "I hear of more failed implementation than successes."

Other problem is (surprisingly) information overload. And the art of KM is how to share and use the information. This is the era of Internet and WWW, man.

A good Quote from Bryan Gladstone, Consultant and author of KM book From Know-How to Knowledge
"Information overload was universal in global business by the mid-1990s," says Gladstone. "Now the bottleneck is, how do we share and use information? That is really at the heart of knowledge management."

Last thing, the problem is not just the tool, but the user. Yupe, I fully agree on that.

Keberadaan Ruang Publik di Jogja

2005-01-13T13:48:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : Saya tidak bermaksud untuk (lagi-lagi) memprotes keberadaan mal-mal di Jogja dan tidak bermaksud untuk menimbulkan debat soal itu. Dan jangan dibaca dengan dahi berkerut, ndak mundhak tuwo.

Kemarin Minggu tidak sengaja saya membaca artikel Kompas tentang Keberadaan Ruang Publik, sebuah artikel arsitektur mengenai pentingnya ruang publik (duh, saya cuman baca sekilas tapi kok terngiang terus ya). Di artikel itu, salah satu contoh ruang publik adalah pinggir Rel Lempuyangan, yaitu sepanjang rel dari Stasiun sampai bawah jembatan layang. Saya jadi teringat kenangan ketika kuliah sore dulu. ketika pulang lewat bawah jembatan layang, terlihat aktivitas publik yang menyenangkan, dengan pemandangan surya yang hampir tenggelam, tertutup bayang gedung Hotel Natour Garuda. Asik & romantis. Di situ ada bapak-bapak dengan anak-anak mereka, nongkrong melihat kereta lewat, ada tukang sate juga. Bocah pada ngundho layangan. Rame sekali. Artikel tersebut menekankan keberadaan ruang-ruang publik sebagai sarana aktivitas dan rekreasional (kurang lebih seperti itu).

Sampai sekarang saya belum menemukan definisi ruang publik yang pas untuk konteks di atas. Definisi saya adalah sebatas ruangan yang menyediakan kebebasan berekspresi, beraktivitas, dan memberikan makna lebih bagi komunitas, dan suasana hati yang nyaman dan tentram (very loose definition, sorry). Dari konteks artikel di atas, saya mengambil kesimpulan bahwa ruang publik tidaklah seharusnya sesuatu yang berorientasi ke bisnis, tapi berorientasi ke arah aktivitas komunitas, dan rekreasional (lagi-lagi very loose) dengan aksesabilitas yang mudah dan murah (dan bahkan gratis samasekali). Atau pun jika berorientasi ke bisnis, tidaklah tercerabut dari akar komunitas yang membangunnya. Shopping di Senopati misalnya atau Pasar Beringharjo.

Saya menangkap kekhawatiran banyak orang ketika mereka membahas bahwa pembangunan mall-mall di Jogja akan menghancurkan privilese (kurang tepat tapi saya belum menemukan istilah yang lebih baik dari ini) ruang-ruang publik itu, juga posting-posting blog dan komen sebelum ini. Dan kekhawatiran ini tidaklah baru. Jakarta oleh para pakar tata ruang dikatakan hanya punya Taman Monas sebagai satu-satunya ruang publik. Yang lain cuman Business Center karena it takes money. Waktu banyak warung bermunculan di sekitar UGM pas Minggu pagi pun, banyak sekali yang menentangnya. “Merusak ruang publik” katanya. Muncul pertanyaan di benak saya :Apa iya Jogja akan menjadi seperti itu, someday? Kota yang kehilangan Ruang-ruang publiknya? Atau mall-mall itu akan menggantikannya, menjadi ruang-ruang publik baru, dengan sederet business center yang menawarkan kemudahan, kemewahan hidup, different lifestyle?

Saya tertawa ketika memikirkan bahwa Angkringan sendiri merupakan import ruang publik (from Klaten), dan kemudian mengalami semacam proses internalisasi, dan akhirnya diklaim menjadi salah satu ruang publik (asli) Jogja. hehehe. Jangan marah ya, wong cuman usil-usilan aja kok.

Dan off the topic, ruang publik apa dan dimana yang berkesan menurut anda?

Why I love Indonesian Sinetron

2005-01-11T15:17:00.000+07:00

Almost Everybody in the blogosphere/net is agreed that Many Indonesian Sinetron sucks. Horribly. So, It is the time for to play "Devil's Advocate" here. I love Indonesian Sinetron. sounds evil enough?
For those who doesn't know what Sinetron is, Sinetron, stands for Sinema Elektronik (Electronic Cinema), is Soap-Opera like, TV series, which usually tells fiction stories, ranging from fictious tale, until family relationship (in any forms of it).

Well, I always think about this fact. In the amount of Sinetron's blasphemous (I always want to use this word) comments/articles/blogs/sites (yes) in the Internet (just search for Sinetron Indonesia in the Google) or other medias, Sinetron's growth is amazingly enormous. there are two or three sinetrons filling TVs primetime, in my part time research (actually it's opinion, but hell....). And after all, Sinetron has very large viewer base in Indonesia.

I love Indonesian Sinetron for one reason only, it gives entertainment to my uncle's family, while they are waiting for customer in their little kiosk (they sells groceries). It gives entertainment to my sister's housemaid, who even doesn't know how to operate remote control (really!). It gives entertainment to Warung Tegal's waitress (or so called, hehe). They watch it, they laugh at it, sometimes cry at it (really!). And I just love to watch them happy, after hours of working hard. As simple as that. In this cruel and lonely city (Josh Groban's lyric modified to reflect Jakarta), last thing they all need is serious talk shows, english-talking movies, and news. They just need an entertainment, in that "stupid box" called TELEVISION.

I once read a comment from the maker of Doraemon in Kompas, in the answer of opinion "Your creation is lack of education value in it", he said "Our goal is purely entertainment for kids". That's all. A noble answer, Kompas said.
I found this good article upon lurking on the web, free from hate and biased opinion, I think. It says that viewers is the most important point of culture phenomenon review (a free translation of pembacaan fenomena kebudayaan). At the end, I believe that we have to face Sinetron Indonesia as a product, whether we like it or not. Watch it if you like it, and leave it if you don't.

As an Indonesian Sinetron's lover, I just want to say : Viva Sinetron Indonesia !!

Sad Ending of 2004

2004-12-31T15:40:00.000+07:00

It is a sad ending of 2004. and to all of us. A tragedy in Aceh, and some of Asian countries. Facing a new year with deep hurt, feeling what Aceh's people are feeling right now.

Deepest condolence for my brothers and sisters in Aceh.

Be strong, never give up. You are not alone.

Wikipedia

2004-12-29T16:46:00.000+07:00

One more hobby to add, Reading Wikipedia, especially English Wikipedia. I always interested in reading encyclopedia, since my friends, Mark, back in 1998, introduced me to Microsoft Encarta 1997, and Yogi, introduced me to Encyclopedia Britannica (if I'm not mistaken, many many books, from A to ZZ). We were doing project for presentation in Electrical Material (or so-called).

Why Encyclopedia? Dunno. it is fascinating, at least for me, to read facts, biographies, true stories, with pictures as an added bonus. But one thing for sure, it's darn expensive. That's way I never have a chance to have an encyclopedia.

and then I met Wikipedia, as the opportunity to browse the Internet is a whole more often when I was in university. Accidentally. And the rest is history.

Upon lurking on Wikipedia, I found many gems that pretty entertaining, actually, in the boring office. for example, I found a spoiler (hehehe) from best-seller book, Da Vinci Code. Actually, I really want to read it, because of its controversy (Intentionally not giving the link).

So, what is your gem in Wikipedia?

Time Management Facts and Figures

2004-12-28T13:03:00.000+07:00

Interesting facts on Time management & figures. And, wait, I believe some these facts are truly applicable in Indonesia, hehehe, and yes, I am the one who do it. You can see it as a funny facts, but it can be seen as a tool for reflections, how we works in the office, how we communicate in the family, how we improve ourselves. So, happy reading. Thank you for SDM-Utama mailing list for forwarding this message. it's truly inspiring yet funny. Apparently this article is quite famous, because when I searched for "Time Managemen Facts and Figures" on Google, the top two is the similar article mentioned in the different sites.

Time Management Facts and Figures
By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore

During the last twenty years, after making over 2,000 presentations around the world, I have gathered some interesting facts and figures about Time Management and Personal Productivity for your use and enjoyment.

During the last twenty years, after making over 2,000 presentations around the world, I have gathered some interesting facts and figures about Time Management and Personal Productivity for your use and enjoyment.

95% of divorces are caused by a "lack of communication"
The average working person spends less than 2 minutes per day in meaningful communication with their spouse or "significant other".
The average working person spends less than 30 seconds a day in meaningful communication with their children.
80% of employees do not want to go to work on Monday morning. By Friday, the rate only drops to 60%.
The average person gets 1 interruption every 8 minutes, or approximately 7 an hour, or 5060 per day. The average interruption takes 5 minutes, totaling about 4 hours or 50% of the average workday. 80% of those interruptions are typically rated as "little value" or "no value" creating approximately 3 hours of wasted time per day.
On an average day, there are 17 million meetings in America.
By taking 1 hour per day for independent study, 7 hours per week, 365 hours in a year, one can learn at the rate of a full-time student. In 3-5 years, the average person can become an expert in the topic of their choice, by spending only one hour per day.
20% of the average workday is spent on "crucial" and "important" things, while 80% of the average workday is spent on things that have "little value" or "no value".
The average reading speed is approximately 200 words per minute. The average working person reads 2 hours per day. A Speed Reading course that will improve the reading rate to 400 words per minute will save an hour per day.
9 out of 10 people daydream in meetings.
60% of meeting attendees take notes to appear as if they are listening.
It takes approximately 30 days to establish a new physical or emotional habit.
The average worker sends and receives 190 messages per day.
The average American watches 28 hours of television per week.
Angry people are twice as likely to suffer a heart attack as a person in better control of their emotions.
75% of heart attacks occur between the hours of 5:00 a.m.-8:00 a.m., local time.
More heart attacks occur on Monday than on any other day of the week.
25% of sick days are taken for illness. 75% of sick days are taken for other reasons.
95% of the things we fear will occur, do not occur.
Taking 5 minutes per day, 5 days per week to improve one’s job will create 1,200 little improvements to a job over a 5 year period.
75% of American workers complain that they are tired.
The average worker gets a 6 hours and 57 minutes of sleep per night.
80% of "Crisis Management" events are preventable.
The average worker spends 35 minutes per day commuting.
When someone is asking for our time for a meeting, 80% of the time, there is an alternate date and time that will be acceptable.
Good Time Managers do not allocate their time to those who "demand" it, but rather, to those who "deserve" it.
70% of business and professional people use a "to do" list on a regular basis to administer their "have to’s".
5% of business and professional people use a "to do" list on a regular basis to administer not only their "have to’s", but also their "want to’s".
"If you want to get something done, give it to a busy person."
It almost always takes twice as long to complete a task as what we originally thought it would take.
"A project tends to expand with the time allocated for it." If you give yourself one thing to do, it will take all day. If you give yourself two things to do, you get them both done. If you give yourself a dozen things to do, you may not get 12 done, but you’ll get 7 or 8 completed.
Delegation is an unlimited method to multiply time for achieving results.
The hardest part about delegation is simply letting go. "If you want a job done right, you have to do it yourself."
1 hour of planning will save 10 hours of doing.
Hiring a college student to do routine tasks (grocery shopping, yard work, household chores, etc.) will free up as much as 20 hours per week for the average person to devote to more productive uses.
The "20/80 Rule" tells us we will typically accomplish 80% of our results through 20% of our effort. The other 20% of additional results comes from about 80% of additional effort.
"Stressed" spelled backwards is "desserts".
We retain 10% of what we read. We retain 20% of what we hear. We retain 30% of what we see. We retain 50% of what we hear and see. We retain 70% of what we say. We retain 90% of what we do.
Half of what is known today, we did not know 10 years ago. The amount of knowledgein the world has doubled in the last 10 years. And it is said to be doubling again every 18 months.
Time Management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That justgets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing the right things.
"If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always got." To change our output, we must change our input.

Sad Christmas

2004-12-21T15:37:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : Contains hate post.

Fact :
Christmas becomes commodity. A great business indeed.

In the era of Santa Claus (who's on earth this guy anyway? I just hate him) and Christmas Tree. Very bright Christmas indeed. In the mall(s), churches, houses. Jingle bells, Jingle bells.

Spirit of Christmas? Forget it. after all, it's all about the "The Merry & Bright" Christmas, isn't it?
Baby Jesus, who is He? celebration of His Birth? c'mon, His Birth was in Stable. in a humble way.
So yes, Christmas slowly becomes secular holiday nowadays, IMHO.

I miss the old days, when Christmas was celebrated in the real spirit of Christmas, Jesus is born in a humble way.
I miss the old days, when people went to Church, sang Holy night, with joy (yes, joy) in their heart. Together.
Yes, I miss the old Christmas. Is it still there? I certainly hope so. Really hope so.

Now, I miss Christmas because of one thing, I can not go home this Christmas. Yes, this is sad.

So, Merry (humble) Christmas everybody. Wish you a warm, spirited Christmas. The born of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

PS :
1. dear, have a wonderful Christmas ya. Don't forget to bring Charlotte Church's cassette. sungkem buat Bapak dan Ibu. Sorry for not being there this Christmas.
2. Pak, Bu, Mbak, Sorry for not being there for Christmas. I miss you all.

Umar Kayam : In memoriam

2004-12-17T10:47:00.000+07:00

I don't know where to start. Somehow the memory of Umar Kayam just flashed through my mind when I read this blog. hehehe. His writing style reminds me so much of him.

Did I know Umar Kayam? Nope. Just admire his writing.

Went back to old days, when I was still in High School. My sister bought me a copy of Umar Kayam's book, Mangan Ora Mangan Kumpul. It's actually a collection of his column published in Kedaulatan Rakyat newspaper, Yogyakarta's local newspaper.

The column told the story of Pak Ageng, an ex civil servant, middle class aristocrat, yet a humble, warm, very socialized person. Another character in the story were Mister Rigen, Pak Ageng's assistant or butler-(so called), with his family. Actually, this column often been told resembling Umar Kayam's real life. It's a collection of stories of life, life of Pak Ageng and his family, Mister Rigen and his family, their unique friends. The stories were hilarious, often philosophical, and close to real life. The language was simple, wrote basically in Indonesian, but with Umar Kayam background as a Literature's professor, language was not the barrier. Jumping from Indonesian to Javanese, from Javanese to Dutch, and from Dutch to English.

It was a pity that i just got the first books of the series. it was actually 3 books in the series. Hiks. I really want all those books. Really. Where can I get those books these days?

Para Priyayi was the second book by Umar Kayam I've read. My mother gave it to me. You know what? the book was a grant, a long with other books, from Depdiknas, to be supplied for Elementary School. hehehe. My mother decided that this book might not be suitable for children, so she brought it home. yay!
Para Priyayi, IMHO, was one of best novel I've ever read, comparable with Romo Mangun's Burung-burung Manyar (Weaverbirds). It's the story of love, life, journey in the memory of Japan Colonization, in the middle of communist rebellion. Here some excerpts from The World & I about Para Priyayi (the most comprehensive synopsis I found in google) :

"Wanagalih," the opening chapter of Umar Kayam's Para Priyayi, is the name of the town in East Java where much of the novel is set. This chapter, like the others, is told in the first person by one of the main characters--by Lantip, who was born in a village outside of Wanagalih but now lives in Jakarta. Unlike the other chapters, however, its title is a place-name, which is important in a work concerned with those layers of experience separating us from the past; for a place asks to be entered, to be delved into, and is something suited to revealing the sedimentation of life and events laid down by time.

The town of Wanagalih is the embodiment of a storied past, of the long memory of Japanese civilization with its roots in myths and legends and of later, more visible encrustations. Lantip's narrative, observing the life of the present-day town, inevitably encounters the signs of an earlier history, or histories, built up over centuries. He sees the town square with its markets crammed with foreign-made appliances, for example, and tells us that it was the site where, during the revolutionary struggles of the late 1940s, communist forces hanged all of the local officials, and where, even earlier, the Dutch put up a regency palace. Wanagalih is a composite of various temporal strata; it is a map of the life, and the epochs, that have marched through East Java. The river children swim in after school was the birthplace of the Javanese Ratu Adil, or Just King, we are told; and Wanagalih's rich babel of languages--Old Javanese, modern Javanese, Indonesian/Malay, Dutch, Chinese, and, increasingly, English--demonstrates that its history, in some measure, lives on in the present.

It is Umar Kayam's complex moral response to the past, to history as a kind of primary inheritance, that distinguishes him from two of the central strains in modern Indonesian literature. Writers in the formal or aesthetic tradition, on the one hand, comprising mostly playwrights and poets but also such writers of experimental fiction as Danarto and Putu Wijaya, have sought to expand the range of available artistic techniques but have shown, for the most part, little interest in history.

Thanks, Pak Umar Kayam. your works certainly enriches ( you see the simple present here?) my life, and my view.

PS : an interesting read about Umar Kayam's life can be found in the Ford Foundation's website.

Anonymous Proxy

2004-12-10T10:03:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : Yes, I know this is an old technology, for you all geeks. So, please, bear with me :P (kiddies here). After all, it's a matter of curiousity. nothing more.

This was all started because of one thing : I just wanted to download anime from this site. At the first day, i managed to run a this software to download some DVD ripoff (mind you). It was huge download, 234 megs. It went smooth at day one, and then suddenly, at day two I got this message : "403 Forbidden". And I still got 24 % content. Oops (or Aarrgh?). Yes, I still can browse that site, but not downloading the content. The site is in Russian, so I didn't understand at all what it means. So I just grabbed my favorite fish, Babelfish to translate the content for me. And then some enlightenment. "You can not download the content from outside Russia". Damn. the site owner changed his policy. So i had to figure out how to resume my download. There was a suggestion though, " If you still want to download the content, try using Russian Proxy. Just search it and you will find it". Well, my, I thought, where the h*** can I get a Russian Proxy for that purpose? So yes, googling and googling. So, I ended up in this, this, and this site.

Few days later, I visited Kevin Rose's blog again. on the DarkTech, found an article about SwitchProxy plugin for FireFox (my fave browser, mind you), for anonymous browsing. Hehehe, out of cuoriusity, I downloaded it from this site, and then, trying to browse anonymously using proxy from previous experience.

It turned out to be a disaster.
1. Many proxies are down (so the list is not updated).
2. Many proxies don't allow browsing to certain types (pR0n, hehehe), and even Yahoogroups (oh, my!)

So, I quick using anonymous proxy. Period. I'll stick with Uninet, lah.

PS : 10 days without blogging, :(

DVD Player Buyer's Guide - Chapter Three (Last one)

2004-11-30T10:02:00.000+07:00

7. Video Connections
Katanya, The state-of-the-art dari koneksi video adalah output component. Dalam sistem component, sinyal video dibagi menjadi 3 bagian : Luminans (Y), Red (R), dan Blue (B). Sistem ini akan memberikan gambar yang lebih bagus (jika TVnya mendukung). Setelah Component, transmisi S-video adalah yang terbagus dalam kualitas gambar. Terakhir adalah koneksi komposit (yang memakai kabel RCA Merah Putih).

8. Widescreen Playback
DVD sekarang kebanyakan ada tulisannya : widescreen-enhanced or anamorphically squeezed, yang berarti gambar yang sebenarnya dikompres ke bingkai yang lebih sempit secara horisontal (digepengin). TV yang widescreen dengan aspect ratio 16:9 (TV biasa aspect rationya 4:3/Letterbox) bisa menampilkan format terkompresi itu full-screen.

9. CD Playback
Keuntungan lain dari teknologi DVD adalah kualitas suaranya. Kualitas AudioCD paling bagus saat ini adalah 44.1 kHz/16 bit sampling. Kualitas suara DVD biasanya berkisar antara 96-192 Khz/24 bit sampling.

So, it's finished. For more info about DVD and Home Theater, I suggest you to visit one of the best buyer's guide link, Home Theater at About.com.

DVD Player Buyer's Guide - Chapter Two

2004-11-26T17:17:00.000+07:00

4. Kinerja Video
Ketika kita melihat kinerja sebuah DVD player, sangat penting untuk memeriksa kualitas gambar keseluruhan dan fitur-fitur yang relevan. Saat ini semua DVD menawarkan fitur 10 bit DAC video processing, untuk kualitas gambar yang bagus, terutama pada waktu penayangan gambar bergerak yang intensif (high motion). Bahkan beberapa player sudah menawarkan video processing 12 bit, yang tentunya lebih bagus kualitas gambarnya.

5. Progressive-Scan Technology
Untuk memahami apa yang dimaksud dengan progresif-scan, terlebih dahulu kita harus tahu mengenai interlaced scanning. Secara singkat, Interlaced scanning adalah teknologi penampilan gambar di TV. Pada dasarnya, gambar di TV dibentuk oleh bingkai-bingkai gambar (frames) yang terdiri atas garis-garis horizontal (525 garis-625 garis). Setiap bingkai dipindai bergantian. Pertama untuk garis-garis yang ganjil (1,3,5,…), dan kedua untuk garis yang genap (2,4,6,…). Efek samping dari sistem ini adalah adanya kedip (flicker) dan gambar menjadi kurang tajam, terutama saat menampilkan teks.
Teknologi DVD-Video sekarang menggunakan teknologi non interlaced, yang memberikan gambar yang lebih tajam dan mengurangi flicker. Bedanya dengan interlaced, pemindaian bingkai gambar tidak dilakukan bergantian, tapi berurutan, dari 1,2,3, sampai garis terakhir, dari atas kebawah, dalam sekali pindai. (comment : But, tidak ada gunanya teknologi ini selama kita masih memakai TV-TV Interlaced). Kalau di Indonesia sudah banyak orang jualan HDTV (high definition TV), baru …..

Learning Math everybody?

2004-11-26T09:20:00.000+07:00

I am simply amazed when I read Calculation Record by this guy.

A 38-year-old with degrees in psychology, education and computer science needed only 11.8 seconds to calculate the 13th root of a 100-digit number in his head, setting a new record, organizers said.

This news also got a coverage on Slashdot, though I'm rather late, since the post of the article is yesterday. You can then follow interesting discussions in Slashdot on this topic. Few (or several) tricks has been applied to get faster result, and apparently Gert Mittring got the result faster than anybody else. Upon lurking in the Slashdot discussion, I found this interesting link. It explains what it called Trachtenberg Speed System, to calculate in THE HEAD!

This is interesting, and yes, maybe someday, if I have spare times, I will learn some of these interesting stuff. Trying to be a geek? Not really. just for fun and to sharpen my mind (yeah !!).

New Hoax Form : Messages in Yahoo! Messenger

2004-11-25T10:32:00.000+07:00

First thing first, the definition of hoax in Wikipedia :

A hoax is an attempt to trick an audience into believing that something false is real....a hoax is often perpetrated as a practical joke with a humorous intent, to cause embarrassment, for personal aggrandizement or to serve political purposes.

Now, with the rise of Yahoo! Messenger (YM) as a chat media (In Indonesia, of course, where I live), there are more and more hoaxes sent as messages. And to add the hilarity, hoaxes are sent to the group, to make sure that everybody get it (hehehe). all hoaxes are always ended by the term : "Please send this to everybody you know, because bla bla bla". And, yes, suddenly everybody start sending same messages to others, and so on, and so on. Hilarious? Yes. Fool? also yes, although I am not blaming others who forward hoax messages for not checking the validity of the messages. This is my recent hoax from my YM (this morning) :

[some_ym_id] (10:39:55 AM): sebarin nih berita buat yg punya hp.. Sebarkan informasi ini kepada teman-teman Anda. Buat yang punya HP, kayanya penting untuk berita ini: "Bila Anda menerima telepon dari CELLNET dan mengatakan bahwa mereka sedang melakukan pengecekan terhadap HP Anda, maka: SEGERA MATIKAN HP ANDA. Ada sebuah perusahaan penipu yang akan menyuruh Anda menekan #90/90#,nomor tersebut akan mengakses SIM anda dan melakukan sambungan telepon atas biaya/pulsa SIM anda". Sebarluaskan informasi ini sebanyak mungkin kepada teman2 Anda

Judge it for your self. as for me, it's just hilarious, hehehe.

Cellphone blows up !

2004-11-24T10:03:00.000+07:00

Be careful with your phone battery, as it might hurt you one day. This might be an old news, but this can be growing problem, as reported in My Way News. There were 83 reports of exploding cellphones (my !), in US. Eh, and just want to say (I'm late, sorry) : Selamat Idul Fitri 1425 H, Minal Aidin Wal Faidzin. Wuah, Not posting for 13 days, and my hands feel itchy, hehehe. Currently translating Amazon DVD buyer's guide and Hometheater guide at about.com for you.

DVD Player Buyer's Guide - in Indonesian (not Bahasa)

2004-11-09T09:04:00.000+07:00

So, this is the first chapter of DVD Player Buyer's Guide in Indonesian Language.
Fitur-fitur yang harus diketahui :
1. Video Outputs
Semua DVD player menawarkan banyak video output; Yang terpenting adalah memastikan bahwa DVD player yang anda beli cocok dengan TV kita. Video Composit (dengan kabel RCA berwarna kuning) dan koneksi S-Video seharusnya ada pada DVD player, tetapi beberapa juga yang menambahkan component-video output, cocok untuk TV-TV modern teknologi tinggi. Component-video output memisahkan luminansi (kecerahan), sinyal biru dan merah, sehingga menghasilkan level kontras yang bagus dan reproduksi warna yang lebih tajam dan nyata. Progressive-scan outputs adalah koneksi component-video khusus yang digunakan untuk HDTV (high definition TV). Koneksi ini memeberikan gambar yang lebih realistis, dengan memindai (scan) dari atas ke bawah dalam satu langkah, meningkatkan resolusi dan mengurangi distorsi serta kedip (flicker).

2. Digital Audio Output
Output ini dihubungkan ke penerima audio-video dengan prosesor Digital Theater Systems (DTS) and Dolby Digital yang memproses output track digital-audio atau 5.1-channel surround dari DVD. Jika DVD Player mempunyai output optical (fiber-optic) and coaxial (75-ohm) digital, maka akan ada banyak pilihan untuk menikmati musik dan film melalui home entertainment system anda. Jika anda membeli DVD-audio player, pastikan bahwa penerima audio bisa mengakomodasi output analog 5.1-channel.

3. Surround Formats
biasanya setiap DVD player mampu untuk memberikan kualitas suara Dolby Digital 5.1-channel surround sound. Walaupun hampir semua DVD mempunyai kualitas suara Dolby Digital, ada beberapa DVD yang menggunakan teknologi 5.1-channel DTS (Digital Theater Systems), yang hanya menggunakan sedikit kompresi dan biasanya dianggap lebih bagus kualitas suaranya. Jika anda berminat menikmati kualitas suara DTS, anda harus mempunyai DTS receiver, atau DVD player dengan prosesor DTS built-in.

end of chapter one.

Whuahaaha, I told you ...

2004-11-04T11:06:00.000+07:00

Just a mere yesterday, I said about China e-crackdown, and this morning I read about this. In my town. Yogyakarta. sounds like old news to me. Back to that days, when surfing the Internet is a mere hobby, and all junk contents were soooooo tempting. Wel, that's just me or ... huaha, looking for justification. OK, anyway, why some internet cafes have to low themselves (itselves ada ga ya?) into that degree? No other way to get some bucks? Internet cafe is Internet Cafe, VCD Rental is VCD Rental, s****r !!! By the way (I really don't like the use of BTW abbrevation), I add this link also, in the theme of Internet Control by Government.

Totally Out of the Topic/Announcement : Starting tomorrow I will post about DVD Player's Buyer's Guide. So, at least you will see more useful content in my blog :)).

Edited November 4, 2004 by Andri Wardhana : add DETIK link.

China's e-crackdown

2004-11-03T16:17:00.000+07:00

Citing its concern for the effects of violent and pornographic content on China's impressionable youth, Beijing permanently closed down 1,600 Internet cafes and suspended the operations of another 18,000 between February and August. Pity Beijing didn't demonstrate similar sensitivity for its youth on Tiananmen Square in 1989. It's also unfortunate that Beijing wasn't more concerned about the public good during the SARS epidemic of the summer of 2003, when it covered up the extent of the crisis. Read more on The Washington Times.

Huaha, so there will be no more pr0n in China huh? Hehe, just an interesting article for you to read. I wonder if the same rule is applied in Indonesia despite of the original intention of the decision makers.......

Disclaimer : This is not some anti-China posts. So, please read it as an interesting article, not intimidating or threatening one. Thanks.

Whoa, toughest Slashdot conversation ....

2004-11-02T09:16:00.000+07:00

Well, this is the toughest conversation i've ever read on Slashdot. It discussed Creationism vs Evolution. Seeing a lot of inspiring thoughts there, as well as the famous flamewar between Christian and Atheist. So, I leave the rest for you to read and to give it a thought.

Edited November 2, 2004 by Andri Wardhana : fix some iritating typos.

Fun with Google

2004-10-29T16:04:00.000+07:00

Pick this thing up from kevinrose.com :

APPZ
XVID (Xvid is open source version of DivX, if I am not mistaken)
GAMEZ
MP3

Search Google with this query yields interesting result. You can create your own query, for example : add mpeg after "parent directory", and remove the -xxx restriction (ooops, that's naughty!). Actually, you will end up browsing the entire search results, wuakakaka =)). Trust me!

This is somethin'

2004-10-29T15:45:00.000+07:00

Disclaimer : I am not affiliated with this site. so, f**k off !!!!

Just found this site and I think this is truly somethin'. personality tests and many more at similarminds.com. It even lists MBTI (Myers-Briggs) Test. so just try it out ! Found when I went lurking around, somewhere, I forgot ;)

What I really don't like about Friendster ...

2004-10-28T08:44:00.000+07:00

Don't get me wrong. I do like Friendster because it helps me connecting to old friends of mine. that's cool. but :
1. Everybody tells somethin' private to be posted in bulletin board, like I wore blue pants yesterday, bought this bought that, bla bla bla. That sucks. who cares anyway..
2. shallow testimonials. Damn, I really hate that. if you don't know that person, just don't post the testimonial. You got it?
3. Everybody seems happy getting shallow testimonials. I don't.
4. Ads. That crazy things in the top, left, right side of Friendster make me dizzy. Thanks Firefox & Adblock extension, no worry anymore.
5. Porn. you have to believe me. you will easily find pornography in Friendster.
6. Bugs. I hate bugs. it's annoying me much.
7. If you are polite/considered polite, you have to reply a testimonial. I am not polite. I will write testimonial when I am ready. Otherwise, you know the answer.

More objective review of friendster is in Slate Magazine here.
I just want to add a quote by Chuck Klosterman of KeepMedia

"I can't believe I'm writing about Friendster.com. In fact, I can't believe I'm on Friendster.com. Every single time I think about it, it seems even stupider than the last time I considered its existence. But you know what? I don't care anymore. I'm gonna write about Friendster because it's fascinating, no matter how many hipsters tell me it's over. And I'm gonna stay on Friendster because it's the most awe-inspiring cultural entity since Van Halen II . I concede that Friendster is ridiculous and unnecessary, but there is also something perfect about it. There is something advanced about it. We can understand people more effectively through the fake world of Friendster than we can through the tangible world of reality, which is why we needed the Internet in the first place."

If you disagree, just comment.

Slashdot junkie - Are u?

2004-10-26T16:28:00.000+07:00

Now, it seems that i slowly become a Slashdot junkie. really. i read every single articles on that site, read every single comments, and become one of slashdotters (by contributing to the famous slashdot effect). Damn. I really like this site. It's inspiring, funny, and full of insights & knowledge, though some people said that some discussions in slashdot is less in quality, many flamings and jokes. hehehe. so just share my thought. how bout u?

You can learn about Slashdot here.

my (now) favourite song - Here, There, And Everywhere

2004-10-26T16:05:00.000+07:00

Here, There, and Everywhere
The Beatles
To lead a better life I need my love to be here...

Here, making each day of the year
Changing my life with the wave of her hand
Nobody can deny that there's something there

There, running my hands through her hair
Both of us thinking how good it can be
Someone is speaking but she doesn't know he's there

I want her everywhere and if she's beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share

Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there

I want her everywhere and if she's beside me
I know I need never care
But to love her is to need her everywhere
Knowing that love is to share

Each one believing that love never dies
Watching her eyes and hoping I'm always there

To be there and everywhere
Here, there and everywhere

Dari Menara Imperium lantai 32 Kuningan

2004-09-10T10:48:00.000+07:00

Pagi. 10.00.
Seperti biasa, sibuk banget di depan kompie. Mejaku tepat di menghadap jendela ke arah Jl Rasuna Said. Dari sini ku bisa liat beratus gedung sepanjang Rasuna.

sekitar 10.15.
Ada suara ledakan seperti meriam bumbung (semacam mercon dari bambu, waktu aku SD dulu). Aku terhenyak. Rasanya langit seperti runtuh. Lantai bergetar, dan pintu yang terkunci magnet pun bergerak (kunci pintu dikantorku memakai password). Aku meliat cendawan putih membubung persis di depan mataku. Cendawan itu semakin tinggi dan aku liat kaca2 gedung Mulia, rontok seperti daun. Kuliat sendiri dari semula gedung penuh kaca, menjadi gedung tanpa kaca. Suasana pikuk. Orang2 terpana. Aku ga bisa ngomong. Bener2 takut saat itu. Sungguh.
Dari lantai tempat aku bekerja, aku liat bahwa mobil-mobil kacau balau. Mobil2 berbalik arah, sehingga pada satu ruas jalan, ratusan mobil berhadap-hadapan arah tanpa bisa bergerak sama sekali. Aku bisa melihat kepanikan yg sangat. Aku juga panik.

10.30
Aku bersama temanku turun untuk melihat apa yang terjadi. Dan kami tidak sendiri ternyata. Pada saat yang sama ribuan orang keluar dari gedung2 sepanjang Rasuna untuk meliat apa yang terjadi. Ribuan orang sibuk menelepon pada saat yang sama menelepon kemana-mana.
Dari tempatku, lokasi ledakan berjarak sekitar 1 km. Kami berjalan cepat menuju lokasi ledakan, dengan perasaan tak menentu. Dalam perjalanan itu, kami melihat satu Kopaja (angkutan umum) teronggok di pinggir jalan, tanpa kaca. Aku sempat berpikir, bagaimana dengan penumpang di dalemnya saat itu terjadi. Kami terus berjalan diantara lautan manusia yang juga turun ke jalan pada saat yang sama.

Di seberang jalan kulihat satu Kopaja lain teronggok di tepi jalan. Keadaannya sepertinya lebih parah. Ada lubang sebesar bola tenis di dindingnya.

Sampai di depan kedubes, aku sengaja ga mendekat. Aku bener2 ga tega untuk melihat apa yang disaksikan orang2. Kulihat Gedung seberang Gedung kedubes (Gedung Mulia) habis kacanya. sama sekali habis. demikian juga Gedung 89(?) disamping kanannya, luluh lantak tanpa kaca. Aku heran, gedung Kedubes sendiri tanpa cacat. Kaca-kaca masih tegak berdiri. Temboknya tanpa cacat. Dari tempat aku berdiri, ku bisa melihat sebagian pagar pembatas remuk redam. Di depan persis, ada sebuah mobil polisi semacam truk yang luluh lantak. Ada juga onggokan sepeda motor, tapi tidak terlalu jelas dari tempat aku lihat (dan aku pada saat itu juga tidak memakai kacamata).

Perasaanku kalang kabut waktu itu. Aku menangis dalam hati. Bagaimana makhluk ciptaan Tuhan yang bernama MANUSIA bisa melakukan hal sekejam itu?

Aku pulang bareng temenku naik mobil. Tidak ada angkot waktu itu. Dari radio aku dengar salah satu kesaksian dari korban. Waktu itu dia menyupir mobil melintasi Rasuna. Saat ledakan, mobilnya hancur depan dan belakang. hampir seperti meleleh katanya. Mukanya terasa tebal & panas sekali. Dia masih sempat untuk menyiram mukanya dengan air aqua sebelum dia keluar dari mobil, dan belari sekencangnya.

-----------------------
ditulis dengan rasa duka yang mendalam untuk Para Korban
-----------------------

important decision

2004-09-09T10:04:00.000+07:00

Yesterday i made a critical decision. Pfiuh, kinda hard actually, but i really aware of the consequences. Have to say goodbye to my current employer, Charoen Pokphand, and say hi (hehehe) to my new employer, PT. Demos. New challenges ahead, i hope. Everybody asked my decision regarding this. asked me to reconsider this decision. but, What a hell, keep movin' on!

My first Blog

2004-08-10T11:55:00.000+07:00

Just my first blog. nothing special, but will be special, hopefully.