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Items by Patrick Gerard

Moved!

Posted: October 29th, 2007, 4:35pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Okay, life must go on, right? So with the spirit of Sumpah Pemuda and the recent festive of Pesta Blogger 2007. I officially announce that:

I have moved my blog here!

It’s just around the corner, not very far away.

The reason? Well you can say that I’m getting bored with Wordpress and I want to try something new. But trust me, I won’t move it anywhere else in the future, I will use patvandiest.com as my main blog, always. I promise you that!

So please… please update your bookmark, I will forever graceful if you do that. But if you are reading my blog through my Feedburner account, worry not, I will automatically update the link. That goes to my other social networking related link.

I won’t delete this blog, though. I will keep it as past archives of my writings.

So, sorry for this inconvinience. I hope you don’t mind. See you at my other room.

Sincerely Yours,

Patrick Gerard van Diest
www.patvandiest.com

Candy

Posted: October 17th, 2007, 5:30pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Candy’s her name. We’ve been nurturing her since she was just a baby. Her hamster-size body was the cutest thing I ever saw in my life. I never had a baby mutt before. She was the first one that we raised in the house.

As time goes by, she grew up to be a bitch. Literally, she barks to stranger’s way to often. As if, she got problems with trusting people. Nevertheless, she meant no harm, she did the barking because of her fear of stranger, she’s not a violent pup, and she never attacks someone.

She’s all grown now. Two days ago, she gave birth to four cute little puppies. Three female and a male. Aww, look at you, Candy… you’re a mother now. It means now you got more responsibilities. Stop running around the house chasing mice that you cannot get. You got babies to feed now. Settle down.

Here’s that cute little puppies of hers, aren’t they adorable?

In that Year 2000

Posted: October 16th, 2007, 5:35pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

"I said let’s all meet up in the year 2000.
Won’t it be strange when we’re all fully grown."
Pulp - Disco 2000

Last night I was looking for my lyrics book. Yes, I own a lyrics book. Whenever I found a good idea for a lyric, I will write it down there. I kept doing this for a couple of years. But since I got work, I leave out the book somewhere in the attic. When I did a search through the attic (God knows how hard it is, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack), rather finding that book, I found something more interesting. A box full of my stuff back in year 2000! Wow, how seven years can be so very different? So here’s some of the stuff that I found in that box:

Slipknot Cassete My Slipknot and 311 cassettes. Well this is a legacy in my last year of high school. That time I’m so in love with Slipknot’s first breakthrough album. I’m so much in love with them that I have to buy a second copy of that cassette, since the quality of the first one was degenerating. This is so way way before my CD eras. 311? I still love them. I remember traded this 311 first album with Nyoman, a friend of mine in High School.

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Idul Fitri Holiday and The Pollution in Jakarta

Posted: October 15th, 2007, 6:10pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

This is my contribution for Blog Action Day 2007

Picture 1

Picture 2

See those fogs in the background of picture no.1, well it isn’t a fog actually, it is the haze of pollutions in Jakarta. Now, you can see from the picture no.2 that the traffic were mild, since it’s still Idul Fitri. Most of the offices are still off and the employees are taking vacation. Whether taking a road trip to their relatives out of town (or what we called ‘mudik’) or just staying home enjoying quality times with family.

The point is the traffic in Jakarta this past two days are delinquently clear and quiet. No flocks of motorcycle, just a few running around. The traffic is so smooth that I managed to go to the office this morning in about 40 minutes when in normal working days it took me about an hour and fifteen minutes. The roads were seamlessly clear.

Yet the haze is still there. Good God. Is this how Jakarta has become? Yet in this holiday where less cars and motors are around, the pollution levels are still somewhat high.

A couple of days ago, the newly appointed governor of Jakarta, Mr. Fauzi Bowo said that the pollution level in Jakarta were less this past few days compare to normal work days. Yes, it was lessen but not necessarily in a moderate level.

On his campaign to become the new governor, he point out a couple of things, a workaround to this pollution problem in Jakarta: a monthly Car Free Day, Bicycle as a Feeder for Bus way, car control mechanism. This is actually some point to lessen the traffic in Jakarta, which in the end will lessen the pollution level too in some ways.

As you might expect, for me, my solution to lessen the pollution level is using Bicycle as an alternative transportation mode. This is a start.

You may think, “Gosh, I live in Bekasi and I worked at Pluit, it’s miles away! How the heck will I work, when all of my energy is consumed while I’m cycling, dude?” Yes, I concur. But every effort needs a sacrifice for a start. Trust me, after you cycle about 4-5 times, you will eventually get used to it. The important (yet the hardest) thing is to try.

Okay, if bicycle isn’t your choice, try mass transportation! Haa! I know, mass transit in Jakarta is a joke, once again I agree with this. Nevertheless, like it or not this option is considerably a better option than using your own vehicle. I know that the government should fix the quality of our mass transportation, hey, that’s why they build bus way, right? Whether you hate it so much with its construction that made traffic more complicated, yet we must condone this sacrifice for the greater good of good transportation. You can beg to differ with me on this one. But hey, I told you I prefer using bicycle then mass transit right?

So overall, pollution and traffic in Jakarta are getting worse and worse. But stop relying and blaming government for this problem. Try to fix it by yourself, use mass transportation or use a bicycle if you don’t mind since it’s far healthier. Do not litter. Start from yourself don’t rely on others. There is still hope for a clean air in this city. Make it a beautiful city again. I love you Jakarta!

Naik Motor Beramai-ramai

Posted: October 14th, 2007, 5:41pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Baiklah, saya tidak menepati janji saya untuk baru memulai blog lagi hari Senin besok. Yah, ini lebih disebabkan karena di tengah house arrest ini ternyata saya masih dapat terkoneksi ke internet. Selain itu, setelah melihat sebuah kejadian tadi pagi, tangan saya agak gatal untuk menulis lagi.

Hari ini adalah hari kedua Idul Fitri. Umumnya pada hari kedua ini masyarakat ibukota yang tidak ikut ritual mudik akan melakukan perjalanan. Entah ke rumah sanak saudara, ataupun bertamasya ke tempat-tempat rekreasi di ibukota.

Nah, ini yang lucu (atau menyedihkan?). Tadi pagi sepulang dari gereja, saya mendapatkan beberapa pengendara motor yang membawa motor yang diisi dengan keluarganya. Dari beberapa motor tersebut, entah kenapa banyak yang menggunakan formasi ini:

Duduk di belakang, sang ibu menggendong bayinya dengan membawa tas bayi.
Di tengah, sang ayah merangkap pengemudi motor tersebut.
Di depan, sang kakak berpegangan sambil tersenyum riang.

Dan dari mereka yang mengunakan helm hanya si ayah.

Oke, sebelumnya saya ingin menjelaskan bahwa saya tidak mempunyai kendaraan pribadi sendiri selain sebuah sepeda gunung. Dan saya belum mampu untuk membeli motor ataupun mobil sendiri. Biasanya saya hanya meminjam mobil orang tua saja.

Tapi saya tahu apa bedanya menjaga keselamatan dalam berkendara dengan melakukan perbuatan nekat. Yang dilakukan pengendara motor di atas menurut saya sangat tidak mengindahkan keselamatan keluargannya.

Saya tahu mungkin Anda, sang pengendara motor memiliki alasan-alasan tersendiri untuk membawa serta keluarga Anda seperti itu. Namun, apakah Anda tidak melihat dari segi keamanan?

Kenapa Anda tidak mencoba naik kendaraan umum saja, seperti bis kota atau angkot? Mungkin dari segi kemudahan dan kenyamanan akan berkurang, tapi apa bedanya dengan naik motor dengan membawa serta anak dan istri (beserta bayi!), bukankah hal tersebut juga tidak nyaman dan tidak mudah? Dan tidak aman pula!

Masalah finansial? Saya rasa Anda sudah bisa membeli sebuah motor atau paling tidak Anda sudah punya uang untuk menyicil motor tersebut. Tentu naik kendaraan umum tidak akan terlalu memberatkan Anda bukan?

Saya sangat menyayangkan melihat pemandangan seperti ini di jalan pagi tadi. Yang membuat saya sedih adalah saya tidak hanya melihat praktek seperti ini sekali saja, tapi berulang kali pada pengendara motor lainnya yang juga membawa keluarganya.

Rekreasi memang sangat menyenangkan terutama dengan keluarga sendiri. Tapi tolonglah tetap ingat keselamatan keluarga Anda.

Selamat Berlibur!

Previously on Patvandiest….

Posted: October 11th, 2007, 8:13pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Been hectic these past few days (not!). But I don’t know, maybe I’m just too focused on watching the ads flowing on FJB. Probably because of this holiday season that urge my “shopaholic” blood rises high.

So tomorrow the holiday will start for me, yet sadly it only lasted three days here according to the “company’s policy”. Shucks… :D

Anyway, three days will be sufficient since staying in the house for too long can be stressful nowadays, no no, there’s nothing wrong with the family or sort. It’s the house, the hot and damp conditions around the house (heck, it’s around everywhere) that is bothering me these days. Won’t bother buying an air conditioner though, my money is set to other useful things. (don’t ask…it’s complicated)

So to welcome this beautiful holiday I brought some of the newest episodes of Heroes (Season 2 episode 3), Prison Break (Season 3 episode 4, yeah! Why buying cheap rip-off when you can copy it from your friend, haha), and Bionic Woman (Season 1 episode 1-2) to home cause It’s TV Series frenzy my friend! Yeah!!

So, see you next week (literally, since I will come back to work on Monday) and oh yeah…

Selamat Hari Raya Idul Fitri 1428 H
Mohon Maaf Lahir dan Batin

Prison Break Season 3a

Posted: October 9th, 2007, 7:47pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Seri 10001 cara yang dapat dilakukan orang untuk mencari duit.

Cara #3922: Fresh from the oven! Sebegitu tingginya kah demand masyarakat kita terhadap serial TV di Amerika belakangan ini? Contohnya begini, yang saya tahu serial TV Prison Break sudah di musim tayangnya yang ke-3. Namun, serial ini baru memasuki minggu ke-3 nya dengan menayangkan episode ke-3 nya.

Tapi apa lacur! Saat saya iseng-iseng ke Ratu Plaza tadi siang, sudah tersedia DVD Prison Break dengan judul Season 3a yang berisi tiga episode awal tersebut. Wow! Update yang sangat cepat sekali! Belum apa-apa tiga episode tersebut sudah dapat dinikmati khalayak umum di Indonesia.

Betapa hebatnya negeri kita! Para pedagang DVD-nya dapat menyediakan kebutuhan Anda fresh from the oven! Langsung hadir di layar Anda dengan cepatnya!

Aktualitas! Ini yang menjadi nilai jual pada produk tersebut. Meskipun sebenarnya kalau dihitung-hitung, Anda akan rugi untuk membeli DVD tersebut. Karena sebenarnya satu piringan DVD dapat memuat 4-5 episode serial TV. Namun, kalau Anda orang yang tidak sabaran dan penasaran dengan nasib Michael Scofield di Sona sana, silahkan saja. Toh satu DVD hanya dibanderol Rp 7000 perak saja (tanpa boks).

Tapi coba kita hitung, misalnya musim ini Prison Break menayangkan 20 episode, dan jika pedagang tersebut menyediakan DVD tiap 3 episode, maka Anda perlu membeli kira-kira 7 buah piringan DVD untuk menikmati Prison Break Season 3 (Season 3a s/d Season 3g). Cukup mahal bukan?

* aah bodo amat Pat! yang penting gue up-to-date kalo anak-anak pada ngomongin Prison Break di kantor/sekolah/kampus/pesantren/asrama/tongkrongan * :D

Pesta Blogger 2007

Posted: October 5th, 2007, 6:11pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I definitely will go to Pesta Blogger 2007. I’ve register there this afternoon, hope they approved my application. Will go with Rifie. It would be fun!

Insomnia?

Posted: October 3rd, 2007, 8:45pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Kurang tidur itu sangat menyebalkan. Kemarin malam saya pergi ke rumah teman saya untuk melanjutkan proyek One Man Karaoke. Saking sibuknya kami dengan proyek tersebut, kami baru tersadar bahwa jam sudah menunjukan pukul 02.00 pagi!

Wah, saya harus pulang pikir saya, karena di pagi hari saya sudah harus bersiap ke kantor. Sesampainya di rumah saya baru ingat kalau ada pertandingan Liga Champions antara Manchester United versus Roma (yang tentunya dimenangkan MU dengan skor 1-0). Pertandingan tersebut berakhir pukul 03.30. Sejak saat itu hingga berangkat ke kantor, saya tidak tidur lagi.

Di kantor? Karena datang terlalu pagi saya menutup mata sebentar selama satu jam (jam 06.00-07.00). Ya hanya itulah jumlah tidur yang saya rasakan selama 24 jam ini. Dan ini rasanya sangat tidak enak, seperti ada beban berat di kepala, pening, dan keringat dingin. Tetapi yang paling menyebalkan adalah selama sehari ini saya tidak merasa ngantuk! Yang terasa malahan gejala-gejala di atas. Ah, pulang ah, sudah waktunya saya pulang untuk “membalaskan” kurangnya waktu tidur saya hari ini. Mudah-mudahan sampai di rumah rasa kantuk akan datang juga.

zzzZZzzzzZZzzzz

Tua di Jalan

Posted: October 2nd, 2007, 7:15pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Bersyukur, kadang-kadang kita jarang melakukan hal ini belakangan ini. Kita cenderung melihat sesuatu hal dari sudut pandang yang berbeda.

Saya kemarin untuk kesekian kalinya bersyukur, mengenai apa? Mengenai trayek yang saya tempuh dari rumah menuju kantor. Rumah saya di daerah Ciledug, kurang lebih berjarak 9 KM dari kantor saya di bilangan Palmerah. Saya biasa mengambil jalur "belakang" dengan melewati Joglo, Pos Pengumben, lalu ke Kemandoran. Memang sepanjang jalur tersebut ada titik-titik kemacetan.

Namun, tidak sebanyak titik-titik kemacetan di daerah pusat kota. Kemarin sore, jam pulang kerja saya pergi ke Blok-M untuk membeli sesuatu. Saya pergi dari kantor (Palmerah) ke arah Semanggi, di situ rencananya saya akan naik Busway ke Blok-M. Sepanjang perjalanan saya mendapatkan banyak titik-titik kemacetan yang cukup parah, ditambah pula dengan banyak dari pekerja yang ingin pulang cepat-cepat agar bisa berbuka puasa di rumah

Karena jarang melewati trayek tersebut pada jam pulang kerja, saya merasa agak terguncang merasakan kemacetan yang terjadi. Maklum, biasa lewat jalan belakang dan pulang di atas jam tujuh malam. Saya jarang mendapatkan pengalaman (ataukah rasa stress?) seperti ini.

Saya melihat tampang-tampang pekerja yang letih (mungkin karena mereka berpuasa juga ya?) berdesak-desakan di busway dan merasakan pahitnya kemacetan di Jakarta. Saya bersyukur saya tidak (mungkin belum?) mengalami perjalanan seperti ini setiap hari.

Ini yang mereka bilang dengan "tua di jalan" ya? karena saya sendiri sudah sangat lelah sesampainya di Blok-M. Betapa ruwetnya lalu lintas ibukota pada sore di hari-hari kerja. Membuat stress di kantor tambah meningkat di perjalanan pulang.

Saya bersyukur mendapat rute yang tidak (belum) membuat stress, dan saya bersyukur bahwa saya masih dapat menggunakan sepeda tercinta saya sebagai moda transportasi ke kantor yang nyaman, sehat, dan malah dapat mengurangi stress.

Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt and Abang Kenek

Posted: October 1st, 2007, 10:14pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt atau disingkat dengan FUD adalah sebuah taktik marketing untuk mempengaruhi publik dengan memberikan informasi negatif mengenai suatu hal. Umumnya informasi negatif yang disebarkan berkaitan dengan produk kompetitor.

Saya sendiri sudah lama melihat taktik seperti ini diluncurkan oleh pihak-pihak proprietary terhadap fenomena Linux. Linux susah lah, Linux tidak di-support oleh siapa-siapa lah, Linux tidak kompatibel dengan hardware lah, dan berbagai macam isu lain yang dihembuskan agar orang enggan menggunakan Linux.

Namun, informasi negatif yang dihembuskan tidak hanya berkaitan dengan produk kompetitor. Seperti contohnya, produk-produk antivirus yang sering menghembuskan hoax-hoax mengenai virus dengan maksud agar produknya tetap dibeli orang.

Tujuannya disini adalah agar produk/jasa bersangkutan dibeli dan tetap dipergunakan oleh publik banyak.

Seperti halnya sewaktu tadi sore, saat saya beranjak pulang dari Blok-M ke arah Slipi. Untuk menuju ke sana, saya naik Patas AC-69 jurusan Blok-M – Cimone. Ini yang menarik, sang kenek, dalam rangka meraih penumpang sebanyak-banyaknya mengeluarkan suatu bentuk dasar FUD yang sering kita dengar dikumandangkan oleh mereka:

“Ayo-ayo Slipi, Tomang, Cimone! Terakhir, terakhir, ini terakhir, abis ini gak ada bis lagi! Ayo!“

Dengan harapan orang takut akan habisnya ketersediaan transportasi sejenis yang menuju Cimone. Dengan kalimat sakti “abis ini gak ada bis lagi“ dapat membuat sejumlah calon penumpang cepat-cepat naik dan rela berdesak-desakan meskipun bus tersebut sudah sangat penuh sesak dengan orang.

Kesian deh lo, dibo’ongin kenek…..

Right-Click Refresh

Posted: October 1st, 2007, 4:44pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Went to Robby’s house last night. It was my first time there. I ask him to turn on his PC, since I want to copy one of his music collections. The funny thing was after it went to the desktop screen Robby goes to this ritual that some (or many) of us subconsciously do while waiting to do something. It’s the Right-Click and Refresh ritual.

Yes, if you want to know the detail its click your right mouse button then when a drop-down button appears you chooses the “refresh” option (only in Windows system by the way).

What it is with this ritual I mean? Even I do this once in a while. Usually, we do this when we ready to do something on our desktop, but couldn’t determine what the chores are. The level of addiction to this practice is separate by the frequency of the click. Robby is deep into addiction, he can do this twice in one second. Boy, that was fast.

Tell me, do you like doing this funny activity too?

The iPhone Brick Wars

Posted: September 28th, 2007, 10:44pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

And so begin the brick
wars! On the axis side, it’s Steve Jobs and its Apple. The Allied side
consists of peoples
who unlocked
their iPhone. But nooo, they’re not the only ones. According to Scoble, some regular iPhone user has
the same problem too after the update that Apple released. It’s getting hotter now. :)

Fast Breaking With Media by Intel Indonesia

Posted: September 27th, 2007, 9:33pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Baru saja saya pulang dari acara buka puasa bersama yang diselenggarakan oleh Intel Indonesia. Yah, walaupun saya tidak ikut puasa, tetapi kalau ada acara buka puasa yang notabene ada hubungannya dengan santapan makanan, pasti saya akan ikut.

Acara dengan tajuk “Fast Breaking with Media” ini berlangsung di restoran “Maroush“ di lantai 2 Crowne Plaza. Restoran dengan tema timur tengah ini menyediakan makanan-makanan eksotis khas timur tengah (saking enaknya saya nambah dua kali. Hmmm, bukan karena enak kali ya? Tapi lapar juga :). Selain itu mereka menyediakan juga Shisha di tengah bagi mereka yang ingin mencobanya. Terima kasih, saya berhenti menghisap asap (dengan sengaja) semenjak 5 tahun lalu dan tidak tertarik untuk mencobanya lagi.

Acara berlangsung meriah dihadiri oleh teman-teman dari media dan juga tentu sebagai tuan rumah, Intel mengerahkan petinggi-petingginya untuk menyambut kami. Yang unik para petinggi Intel diwajibkan untuk berkostum ala timur tengah. Ada Country Manager Intel Indonesia Bapak Budi Wahyu Djati dengan kostum seperti Firaun. Ada juga Mbak Alda Siregar, Marketing Manager Intel yang kali ini berpenampilan seperti Cleopatra.

Acara ini memang dikhususkan untuk media sebagai rasa terima kasih Intel kepada media atas kerjasamanya selama ini. Selain ada games dan doorprize, Intel juga membuat suatu acara penghargaan kecil-kecilan yang ditujukan bagi para teman-teman media.

Seperti biasa, akibat dari “Kutukan CHIP”, kami dari CHIP tidak ada yang berhasil memenangkan sesuatu pada acara games dan doorprize :)

Ngomong-ngomong, malam-malam begini kok saya masih di kantor ya? Pulang ah…

Erik Indarto: Akustik Segar dari Tangerang

Posted: September 27th, 2007, 5:27pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Malam kemarin Panji main ke rumah. Memang kita sudah sepakat untuk meluangkan waktu sejenak berkreasi, bertukar pikiran, brain-storming. Untuk apa? tentu untuk One Man Karaoke! Ya Panji mengajak saya untuk turut bergabung dalam proyek terbarunya ini. Sekarang sudah ada beberapa lagu dan tadi malam kami berkreasi untuk membuat sejumlah lagu lain.

Seperti biasa dalam proses pembuatan lagu diselingi juga dengan obrolan ngalor-ngidul. Kami juga bertukar informasi mengenai informasi lagu-lagu baru juga artis-artis baru.

Pada satu kesempatan Panji bertanya: “Pat udah pernah dengerin Erik Indarto belon?” Karena bingung, saya bilang saja belum. Kemudian dia perdengarkan saya dua lagu dari artis yang bernama Erik Indarto ini.

Saat itu juga saya jatuh cinta dengan lagu-lagu ini. Kedua lagu dari Erik Indarto ini mengingatkan saya kepada album Swiss Army Romance nya Dashboard Confessional balik di tahun 2002 dulu. Betapa segarnya mendengar lagu akustik emosional sederhana seperti ini lagi. Di tengah kejenuhan dengan segala macam genre yang ada berkutat komputer saya, lagu-lagunya bagai embun yang menyejukan.

Untuk Erik Indarto, jika Anda membaca posting saya ini, sukses buat Anda, terima kasih telah membuat mood saya sejuk sepanjang hari ini mendengar lagu Anda. Anda sangat berpotensi menjadi sesuatu yang besar di blantika musik Indonesia saat ini. Kembangkan terus talenta Anda, buat lagu-lagu baru yang semakin menyentuh. Saya yakin Anda akan sukses. Saya tunggu perkembangan dari Anda selanjutnya.

Oh iya, izinkan saya men-share satu lagu Anda yang menurut saya sangat luar biasa, Mendengar lagu ini seperti mendengar Duncan Sheik membawakan Screaming Infidelities-nya Dashboard Confessional. Pengalaman yang menarik!

Buat yang membaca posting ini, silahkan kunjungi MySpace resmi dari Erik Indarto. Kalaupun Anda tidak sempat, silahkan unduh sample lagu dari Erik Indarto ini yang sangat luar biasa.

Erik Indarto - Why Romance Obviously Not Good

iPod Touch

Posted: September 6th, 2007, 9:09am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Okay, my bet scores! It’s the new iPod Touch ladies and gentlemen, it’s like iPhone but without the phone.

Permalink for 'Patpat_s_Scrap_Notes/2007/09/02/What%e2%80%99s_up_with_September__5th_'

What’s up with September, 5th?

Posted: September 2nd, 2007, 10:48pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

What is with this "OMG, Apple will launch a spectacular something on September 5th" buzz. I mean it’s everywhere! A new iPod? new services for iPhone? I don’t know. We’ll just have to wait and see for the next 3 days then. (but my bet it’s on the new iPod)

The New Yahoo Mail

Posted: August 29th, 2007, 8:55pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Last Monday the news of Yahoo cut off its “Beta” tag on its Mail features were coming in. Herewith Yahoo finally released their crash-test dynamic web apps that were introduced back in September 2006.

I haven’t been using my Yahoo Mail account for ages now. Ever since Gmail came to town, the ever-so-static Yahoo Mail weren’t appealing no more. Yesterday I give it a go once again. Okay, much have change in its new interface, kudos to Yahoo for that. It seems the dynamic of AJAX has enclosed the entire page to make Yahoo Mail looks shiny and much more interactive.

Yahoo Mail interface

The first thing that comes up was the “Outlook-Style” panel in the Mail interface. The interface was consisting of three parts the left part, the reading pane in the middle, and the not-so-important banner ads pane in the right side. This is the thing that irritates me so much. That huge banner ad spends ¼ parts of the pages that’s located at the right side. I mean this is too much, you can’t expect a lightweight AJAX web-based e-mail when you had that big banner. Why can’t they put a couple of related ads there like what Gmail did?

One of the much talk about features on this version of Yahoo Mail was the text-messaging service. So basically now you can send a text-message to your friend’s cell phone right from Mail. Unfortunately I can’t try this nifty features since it’s only applied on certain countries such as U.S, India, Philippines and Canada. I’m not sure when it can be use globally.

The integrated RSS reader that they provided (can be accessed by clicking the “All RSS Feeds” link) weren’t good enough. You can choose feeds that you want to subscribe by browsing their Editor’s Pick and Recommendation. But I’m having difficulty to add an RSS feeds of my own since it’s seems that they only gave a search field for finding a certain sites. And they don’t provide categorization on their RSS Feeds either. So it wasn’t good enough feature.

The integrated instant messaging feature combined their famous Yahoo Messenger with Yahoo Mail. It’s a bold move, but I’m happy with this idea, since I’m rather sick with the stand-alone application of Yahoo Messenger and have turn to solutions like Pidgin or the web-based Meebo.

These IM features were rather concealed. You have to click the “Contacts” link; from there, it will show your contact list. To start chatting, you have to change your Status (located at the upper left of the page) to “Available”. Then you must click the yellow avatar on the contact that you want to chat with. This process is rather daunting for a newbie. The interface are similar than the real Yahoo Messenger but the feature are basic. Don’t expect many features of YM to show up there. So I think this integrated IM is handy when you want to chat to someone straight away from e-mail. But don’t use for day-to-day activities.

All in all, though all those nifty AJAX feature will certainly makes Yahoo Mail back in web-based mail business, the performance are still lack of that in Gmail. I personally still believe in Gmail and its interface is the right gun for me. No Yahoo, your “Unlimited Storage for e-mails” weren’t convincing enough to make me switch back yet. You got to give me something more special than that.

But worry not, Yahoo. You’re still the number one web-based e-mail service that is use in Indonesia. Right, people? :)

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Community Building 101: Beyond “Kopi Darat”

Posted: August 26th, 2007, 7:29pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Kemarin Sabtu, saya dan rekan-rekan kantor pergi mengikuti acara nonton bareng dengan anak-anak komunitas CHIP Online. Kami turut serta sebagai perwakilan dari CHIP Team. Di jalan, salah satu teman saya bertanya, “Pat, jadi ini konsepnya gimana? Kita nonton bareng dan bayar sendiri-sendiri begitu? Terus apa uniknya?”

Dari situ saya mulai berpikir, apa benefitnya dari nonton bareng seperti ini? Ya seperti yang kita ketahui dalam suatu komunitas maya, acara berupa temu bareng atau yang biasa di Indonesia dinamakan dengan “kopi darat” merupakan suatu hal yang tidak dapat dihindarkan. Keinginan untuk bertemu muka dengan muka dengan teman-teman yang biasa hanya dilihat di dunia maya pasti ada dalam suatu komunitas. Karena kita dasarnya adalah makhluk sosial, rasa ingin saling mengenal lebih jauh terhadap teman-teman lain dalam satu komunitas tentu pasti timbul.

Dari komunitas CHIP Online sendiri, kopi darat sudah dilaksanakan semenjak CHIP Online baru berdiri setahun, kira-kira tahun 2005 kemarin. Meskipun awalnya inisiatif datang para anggota komunitas sendiri. Tapi di akhir tahun 2005, kami dari CHIP Team melihat peluang ini dan kami memutuskan untuk meresmikan pertemuan-pertemuan kopi darat ini menjadi acara yang dinamakan CHIP Online Gathering. Acara yang umumnya dilaksanakan tiga kali dalam setahun ini mempunyai tujuan mempererat jalinan komunikasi antaranggota komunitas.
Tapi CHIP Online Gathering, tidak lebih dari satu kopi darat. Yang pada umumnya hanya berisi interaksi dan diskusi antar anggota komunitas. Meskipun pada setiap pertemuan kami terus berusaha mengembangkan format seperti ini.

Untuk itulah dari tahun 2006 kemarin, suatu inisiatif baru kembali dimulai dari para member sendiri untuk mengadakan acara aktivitas lain dari komunitas yang diisi dengan suatu aktivitas tertentu. Mulailah timbul acara-acara seperti Buka Puasa Bareng, CHIP Unofficial Weekend Getaway (CUWG), dan yang paling terkenal: CHIP Lan Party (CLP).

Acara-acara ini memiliki satu kesamaan, yaitu acara pertemuan antar anggota yang tidak hanya berisi acara diskusi tapi juga diisi dengan acara aktivitas yang dilakukan secara bersama-sama. Aktivitas ini bisa berupa: Ke luar kota bareng (CUWG), main game bareng (CHIP Lan Party), ataupun buka puasa bareng.

Lalu seperti yang ditanyakan teman saya di atas, apa benefit dari semua ini? Kalau dari segi finansial, hampir dari semua aktivitas ini dilakukan dengan biaya bersama yang dikumpulkan secara kolektif. Biasanya hal ini dilakukan selama lebih dari satu hari dan tentu saja setap anggota komunitas harus mempersiapkan waktu khusus dari rutinitasnya. Lalu apa?

Berkumpul dan melakukan aktivitas secara bersama-sama antar anggota para member dapat mempererat hubungan antaranggota. Perasaan senasib seperjuangan dapat mengikat tali solidaritas antaranggota.

Inilah yang menurut saya yang menjadi dasar dari acara aktivitas bersama di dalam suatu komunitas. Dengan adanya urunan bersama untuk membiayai acara ini, terdapat rasa gotong royong dan kesatuan di antara para anggota.

Untuk acara nonton bareng kemarin misalnya, benefit yang bisa di ambil berupa kebersamaan dalam menikmati hiburan dari suatu film yang baru keluar (kebetulan kemarin kita menonton “Rush Hour 3” yang menurut saya sangat lucu).

Tentunya ke depan, kami dari CHIP akan mengakomodasi aktivitas seperti ini sehingga para anggota dapat mendapatkan benefit-benefit lain (potongan discount, souvenir menarik, dll) agar aktivitas seperti ini dapat lebih menarik lagi.

Jadi bagaimana dengan komunitas Anda sendiri? Apakah Anda sudah melakukan aktivitas lain beyond kopi darat?

Update: Tambahan Foto dari acara nonton bareng Sabtu kemarin

Safari on Windows: A Rather Brief Review

Posted: August 24th, 2007, 10:55pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I’ve wanted to write about this for a long time now. Yes, I’ve missed the Safari going Windows hype. I’ve only try this Safari for Windows about two months now. Though the first month I literally neglected it, since it’s just crash randomly on my PC. Last week after they announced another update for the browser, which promises “better stability”, I decided to try it again (yet still in beta).

Okay I had a love at first sight moment to it’s font anti-aliasing feature. I only found this kind of rendering on Mac system. So looking at the beauty on PC is such a joy. But other than that, shame on you Safari.

They claimed that they are faster than on handling JavaScript, but other says different thing. The sudden random crashes were less, but still happen occasionally. Oh yeah, they don’t provide session restoring. So when your Safari crashes when you open five or so of your important webpage, don’t expect it to comeback when you start another instance.

Faster page loading? Yes, if you compare it to Opera. But with Firefox, I don’t see any difference. Back to JavaScript function, I find it very buggy on different websites. Some AJAX features on some website were not working at all, prove for that: JavaScript drop-down menus were off limit.

The proxy setting options is strangely disabled. So it follows the proxy from the Internet Option setting on Control Panel (which clearly set from the Internet Explorer setting)

Well you can read a full-blown review of Safari 3 here. For me the problems are irritating and I won’t use it for a day-to-day production browser yet. Now I use it for reading feeds and blogs since I love the anti-aliasing rendering. Other than that, though I expect a lot from this browser, it’s just not quite ready yet.

PS: Been trying to use Safari for my wordpress wysiwyg editor to write this post but stuck since it doesn’t provide any necessary (important!) text editing button. It just disappear magicly on Safari. Oh well, back to ScribeFire for now

The Blog Addict Cliche (in Bahasa Indonesia)

Posted: August 23rd, 2007, 9:46pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Mr. Budi Putra made a ritual post (the post that made him officially addicted to blogs too) of 32 signs of blog addiction. Funny stuff! but I guess this made me an addict too since I: “Wrote a post about someone that wrote a post about blog addiction”. LOL

The Anyer Experience

Posted: August 22nd, 2007, 7:08pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Sudah lama saya tidak pergi liburan yang benar-benar menyenangkan(kalau offroad sepeda tidak dihitung ya). Jadi begini ceritanya, sebulan yang lalu Nenez salah satu teman baik saya di kantor mendapat giliran menempati villa kantor di kawasan Karang Bolong, Anyer. Tentunya hal ini tidak disia-siakan dong. Ia mengajak teman2 di kantor untuk bersama-sama pergi ke Anyer. Dari seluruh redaksi, hanya beberapa yang bisa ikut. Yah tidak apa-apa, toh kuota individu yang muat di villa tersebut hanya belasan orang. Akhirnya terdaftarlah 16 orang dari rekan-rekan kantor untuk pergi bersama.

Kami pergi pada saat long weekend 17 Agustus 2007 kemarin, kalau dilihat-lihat, nasionalisme kami kemana ya? Orang lain sibuk upacara bendera kami malah pergi keluar kota untuk liburan. Yah, begitulah, memang kadang-kadang nasionalisme tidak bisa diukur dari pergi upacara saja. Saya sendiri lebih merasa bangga dengan bangsa ini pada saat ada pertandingan olahraga internasional dimana kontingen Indonesia ikut serta di dalamnya. Wah kok jadi ngomongin nasionalisme sih?

Sampai disana bermain di karang-karang

Oke, sampai di tempat tujuan agak siang. Villa tempat kami menginap memang tepat di pinggir pantai, namun pantainya bukan berjenis pasir putih, tapi berkarang. Mungkin keliatannya kurang enak ya, tapi kalau diperhatikan baik, sebenarnya karang-karang tersebut menampung banyak pernak-pernik dan makhluk laut yang indah.

Foto Bersama di atas Karang
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iPhone! On The Palm of My Hand….

Posted: August 3rd, 2007, 5:38pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I’m one of the view people in Jakarta who were lucky enough to get my hands on those cute little thing they called iPhone. That phenomenal over hyped gadget arrived at the office yesterday. A friend of my boss, an expatriate, graciously lends his newly bought iPhone, so it could be reviewed by CHIP.

The problem is, none of the reviewers in here are vacant, and they were kinda occupied with finishing their article, considering these are the deadline days. So, the boss ordered me to do a hands-on review for this gadget A.S.A.P since we had to give it back before 5 in the afternoon. Tough job, but somebody had to do it right? And there I am, examining that stuff quickly and find interesting features on it.

The results? We’ll you have to read it yourself on the next edition of CHIP magazine. :P

Meanwhile, here’s that cutie….

Not Yet a Geek!

Posted: July 15th, 2007, 8:01pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

When this Windows Guy tries Ubuntu 7.04 he proclaimed that “ I am a geek, but I do not relish spending 3 days to get a wireless card working when I can do it in 5 minutes in Windows.”
Well then my friend, you’re not a geek yet … :)

Intolerable Motorcycle Acts

Posted: July 8th, 2007, 12:16am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Okay, I admitted, sometimes (emphasize on the word “sometimes” here) I answered my cell phone when I’m driving. Yes, I’m aware that this was a sinful thing, and yes, the remorse is still there. No, I’m not proud of it, but sometimes, I have to pickup the phone when it’s categorized as an important call.

However, answering your cell phones when driving a frickin motorbike now that’s just intolerable! I found this very often nowadays in Jakarta. With all those motorbike chaotic driving that I despise very much, yet they still practicing this ridiculous cellphone stunt.

Now when I thought I have seen the entire senseless act by those motor drivers, last Tuesday I encounter the most intolerable act of motor driving! They now capable of text messaging with a cell phone while riding one-handed! That’s just… oh God I can’t explain it with words anymore…

Please oh please Mr. Motor driver sir, what it is with the decision to pull up your motorcycle, stop and doing you’re text messaging safely on the side of the road?? Do you so preciously care about every second that you spend so you can’t have a little time to stop for a while? Because I don’t care about your life now, but I still care about other road users, especially the life of pedestrians that could be in peril because of your imbecile act?? Please Mr. Motor driver sir…considers my rant here…please…

The Restaurant Around Me

Posted: July 2nd, 2007, 4:22pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Face it, I’m a lazy snob when it comes to lunch. Working hours at this comfortable office makes me kinda lethargic to go out and have a lunch. So the word "delivery" is the saviour to my habit. Day to day, when the lunch time comes, I just go to Boy’s complete delivery information page and dial the number there. Aah what a life this is….

Technorati Tags: foods

Transformer (2007)

Posted: July 1st, 2007, 11:47pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Transformer-2007 Yup, it’s official, Transformer is the number 1 movie on my guilty pleasure blockbuster movies for this year. Though at first I kind a skeptical with this movie and scoffing with all the hype that happening. But, sold-out tickets? that’s interest me. I mean, regardless of the hype, it’s still is a Michael Bay movie, I’m a fan of Bay’s work.

So, last Saturday I took a spin and watch that movie at Kartika Chandra. Wow, it was a two-hours of quite extraordinary experience. Yes, I had a thing with Transformer in my childhood. But this… This live-action adaption of Transformer was different from those cute robots from 1980’s. This one kick-ass!

Just like any other Michael Bay’s movie, this one has the same cars and machines blowing up in a pandemonium crash and burn stuffs. I just love these kind of scenes. Plus the storyline, though fiction, was still acceptable.

So, why are you still here reading my blog? Go, buy yourself a ticket and watch that Optimus Prime astonishing transformation to a Peterbilt truck

image via IMDB

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Compiz on Etch

Posted: July 1st, 2007, 11:01pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I’m currently playing with this new toy on my desktop. Just can’t get enough with it. But I’m still wondering, can anybody show me how to install the plugins for Compiz. Thanks.

Technorati Tags: compiz

Slightly Injured

Posted: June 26th, 2007, 8:10pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I twist my left arm the other day. This is the part of me where I should remember to back down a little bit. I have not crash or had a bicycle bails before this happened. My guts were way up high before then. I guess now I should think twice before trying something rather insane in the future

This is how it happened. Last Saturday, I went cycling to the forest of UI with the guys at the office. At one stop, I had to try a steep slope that I thought was jumpable. Me and my overly guts wins that time, but the experience had to stop me. I fell hard on the ground.

It’s been three days now and I think I have recovered from it little by little. However, that was a hilarious yet important experience for me because you wouldn’t know how sharp a knife is without having cut from it first, would you?

Moreover, this injury makes me realize that sometimes we forgot important things in us until we lose it. I’m right-handed, but I value my left arm now more than ever. We need something or someone to support our main things, I need my left arm to support my right arm, as do Batman needs Robin to fight crimes (this was quoted from the time where Tim Drake becomes the new Robin), even Jerry needs Dorothy to complete him (Jerry Maguire, 1996)

Aah, here I am with my oh-so-philosophical times…. screw it…I’m tired, I need to crash home and get some sleep. It has been a hectic day…

PS: You can check Dodi’s blog for more of that UI experience.

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Wordpress Permalink Pagination Problem

Posted: June 19th, 2007, 12:16am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Had a problem with the Wordpress engine of this blog. Yesterday, I notice that Google Webmaster’s tools report a number of “Page Not Found” errors on my site. After a quick look, I found out that this error related to the malfunction of the Permalink features of Wordpress. It seems that Wordpress would present you a 404 error when you want to navigate through another page in the category archive. The pagination doesn’t seem to work.

I’ve done my research to find a solution, The Codex gave some information on how to deal the bug, but it’s not working. So I try other methods, nope… not quite fixed, I even try to hack the code, but failed, because it differs from the Wordpress version that I used. Furthermore, I have try to deactivate all of the plugins just to find out in the end that it has no effect whatsoever. The problem still persist. Ah well, I’m tired…need to sleep now.

So, anyone had the same problem as I did? and did you find any solutions for it? Please do share it here…

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10 Unknown Linux Tricks

Posted: June 18th, 2007, 6:58pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

VentureCake gives you the 10 Linux Shell Tricks You Don’t Already Know.(They swear!). This may come in handy for those Linux administrator out there. The tips come along with its benefits, compatibilities, and drawbacks. They even gives some bonus tricks, nice!(via LinuxHelp)

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Monitoring Your Bandwidth Usage

Posted: June 18th, 2007, 12:31am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Speedy, those words brings pros and cons to the people of Indonesia nowadays. They were the pioneer of relatively cheap ADSL connection in Indonesia courtesy of Indonesia’s biggest telco company, Telkom. In the country where Internet were synonyms to slow and expensive, Speedy arise as a savior for the needs to connect to the Internet for some.

Speedy has two service methods that they provide. Quota based and Time based. In quota based, you’re giving the choice to pick a service based by bandwidth quota. In time based, you will be charged based by the time you spend using Speedy (much like a dial-up based ISP’s).

But it has its downside. Some Speedy user reports that Telkom deceived them with its Speedy bills. The problem was the lack of transparency Speedy provides regarding the details of bandwidth consumption that the user use (particularly for quota-based users).

I myself use the so-called Personal Package where I can use one gigabyte of bandwidth every months. They charge Rp 500/MB of over quota bandwidth.

I share this connection with my old man downstairs. Though he hardly ever use it, still I’m a bit comfortable by the reports. So I occasionally use a bandwidth monitoring tools to keep an eye of the bandwidth that I use every time I connected.

In Linux, using Gnome, we can monitor our bandwidth consumption anytime using the Network Tools. Just go to System -> Administration -> Network Tools. In the Network Device drop-down menu, choose the appropriate interface that you use in connecting to the ADSL router (e.g., mine using the network card “eth0” Ethernet Interface).

The information that you must pay attention is the “Interface Statistic”. Add the number from “Transmitted bytes” and “Received bytes” and you will have the amount of bandwidth that you use in a particular connection.

Well this is a rough method that I use as a precaution from bandwidth over-quota. I believe there are more graceful and simple method that we can use. Any suggestions are very welcome!

Technorati Tags: bandwidth usage, network, speedy, telco

The Guide for Soldiers

Posted: June 15th, 2007, 10:11am MYT by Patrick Gerard

What a hilarious post to start the day. The Danger Room found this 1943 GI’s Guide to Iraq. Gotta love this one: “If you see grown men walking hand in hand, ignore it. They are not queer.“

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Hi! I’m a Movable Type Newbie…

Posted: June 14th, 2007, 9:54pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

These past few days I spent time learning about Movable Type (MT), that newly open-sourced blogging framework based on Perl. The plan is to use it for one of my blog project. I’ve heard about the tricky installation of MT beforehand that made disconcert to some. But that’s the fun of learning, right? You do the hard stuff so you can learn something from it. So that’s exactly what I usually do and this goes to MT as well.

First, I install it on my local home box and quite frankly, it was not so difficult after all. I only had to do some usual stuff like changing database name in its configuration file. Better yet, you can do it via a wizard file (mt-wizard.cgi). Though different from Wordpress, MT is heavily base on Perl and you have to put the executable on the cgi-bin directory.

After playing it around on my homebox, I then try it on the live server yesterday. Right after the upload and database setting process has finished something peculiar happens. The process stuck on one of the installation page. That’s just great, another headache. I found a similar solution by googling. However, I still had the error after I implement it. Okay, after a couple of tries finally I found the answer. As stupidly as it may seem, I haven’t upload some of the files and directories to the appropriate place in the server. Doh! So that’s why…

Then the installation went smoothly, but since it was working hours, I have to stop for a moment. Am planning to tinker with it much more tonight. Will keep posted about this MT thing in future post.

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, movable type, perl

From Jakarta Bersepeda to StarDict

Posted: June 13th, 2007, 1:06am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Here’s a couple of things that happens in this past three days of my life:

The part where I enter The Matrix

Finally, after buying a 20 meter network cable, my home box (deathstar) has officially connected to the cyberspace(cyberspace?? wasn’t this a mid-nineties term). By stretching the cable and plug it to the ADSL router on my father’s room, I have manage to browse the internet using my newly Etch (Yes, I now use Etch and No, I haven’t got the time to blog about the switch,yet. Sorry…).

The part where I went to see the old Jakarta

I participated in the “Jakarta Bersepeda” fun bike event, an event where all of bicycle enthusiast can partake in a touring around some of the landmark of Jakarta. By taking the route from Monas – Medan Merdeka – Harmoni – Gajah Mada – Glodok – Balai Kota and vice versa, all of the cyclist were enjoying the experience (based from what I see and I experience myself), if you want a more complete report of the venue, please visit Dody’s blog. Personally it was okay, though it was so clear that the event had an implicit “sponsor” message in it. Knowing that in a couple of weeks there will be an governor election in Jakarta, and somehow “incidentally” one of the candidates were present and opening the event that day. LOL

The part where I found a good dictionary

The truth is I’m not very good in English. I learn English via movies, books and sitcoms (don’t ask, a long story). Yes, some formal education were there, but mostly I learn from experience. That’s why sometimes I needed a dictionary to help me find an appropriate word that I need. After googling for awhile I found out about StarDict. This GTK 2.0 based application is suitable for finding the right words swiftly. It’s a lightweight program. One thing though, this application does not include dictionary database. But not to worry, StarDict provides it for user to download in their website. There are many dictionaries available there, even an Indonesian – English dictionary. StarDict is very helpful indeed.

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Ocean’s Thirteen

Posted: June 10th, 2007, 11:42pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Ocean’s thirteen, the third installment of a professional con men saga. I always love this series. If I had children I want them to be as smart as Danny Ocean. He is the best thief in the world. This Ocean’s trilogy shows us you don’t need blood and violence to get cash (lot’s of cash), you only need your brain (and someone who will invest to your operation too)

Ocean’s Thirteen sets right after Ocean’s Twelve left off. The guys are back to Vegas to settled the score to a powerful hotel owner who hurt one of them (Reuben). They cast are all there (except of course, Julia Roberts and Catherine Zeta-Jones, I don’t know why they refuse to play in this).

If you’re following the series you’ll notice that in this movie, the team’s understand each other like they have the same mind or some sort. They’re more professional with what they do. The methods are more firm and the executions were flawless.Face it, these guys do the best when it comes to con jobs.

Overall, this is a nice movie for all of you who like genius storyline. The jokes are still there, but I don’t know, the plot are kinda “been there seen that”. Maybe it’s because I’ve seen the same stuffs in the previous two movies. Because sometimes I kinda knew what would happen next in some of the scene. It lack of creativity, lack of surprise factor. But it’s Danny, everybody loves Danny Ocean and his gang. They play it clean. This time they play it for revenge but in a special kind of way, because like the tagline says “revenge is a funny thing”.

image via About

Technorati Tags: artists, danny ocean, Hollywood

Ahmad Dhani The Plagiator

Posted: June 8th, 2007, 9:00pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Uhm…The Donnas…I think some self-proclaimed local rockstar in here has taken one your album cover and use it for his not-so-skillfull-but-profitable foster band of his… (via Tyas)

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“New Music From Indonesia” Podcast

Posted: June 6th, 2007, 4:25pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Equinox DMD is a company that distributes full track digital music downloads to the iTunes Music Stores. They emphasize on indie or less mainstream Indonesian music. They’re one of the pioneers of Indonesian first podcast with their "New Music From Indonesia" show (sponsored by Djarum).

The podcast consist of interviews with various people in our music industry (especially the independent ones) about various things regarding to the Indonesia’s music scene. The host, Jason Tedjasukmana has done great job on discussing topics that are very interesting. You can subscribe to that podcast free in iTunes Music Stores

from the beginning; CHIP has built a relationship to distribute the weekly podcast via its CHIP DVD. They even managed to do a live podcast last year on Indocomtech 2006. This is one of the means of CHIP to introduce and promote podcast technology to Indonesian people.

This is a good thing for us. It shows the world that Indonesian artists were as good (or sometimes even better) than their foreign compatriots. We now have the medium to promote our music to the world. Kudos to Equinox DMD for doing a great job.

PS: This post related to the old idea of mine to build a music blog consists of interesting artist that I listened. I am currently lining up the pieces for that blog. So stay tune for updates regarding the blog.

Technorati Tags: blog, indonesia indie music, indonesia podcast, podcast

The Lost…

Posted: June 4th, 2007, 9:16pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I have three TV series that I love the most, one is Heroes the most popular TV series these days. Next is Prison Break, I just love Michael Scofield and his master plan on escaping. And the last one is the now forgotten Lost.

A couple of months before Heroes shock your TV scene, Lost was the big thing. Now it seems that people were somewhat bored with it and with all the Heroes hype cloaking up our TV, Lost looks like… kind of lost.

But not for me, Lost still had it; I love their hangovers and twisted storylines. Last weekend I stayed up late to watch the third season right where I left it a couple of weeks ago, from episode 10 going through the season finale. Now, haven’t you all seen it? So much mysteries have resolved, yet Lost has not finished. I wonder what will come next season since many things has resolved in the end of last episode? Okay let’s keep that question asides for some time until the next season arrive (February 2008 to be exact).

Jimmy resigned as of last Thursday. It’s shocking news for me. Jimmy is one my dearest friend here in CHIP. He is one my mentor here. We did great things together. I ask his guidance if I had technical trouble and I had certain belief that he would help me. I never wrong. You would always help me, Jim.

But I respect his decision. You have to be rational with life. I know Jim, that working in here is paradise, but sometimes paradise isn’t enough. Well, maybe for you, but for me it still is enough, yet…

We lost one of our dear colleagues. Life will never be the same again here in CHIP without you Jim, something just missing. Nevertheless, we will learn to deal with it.

Then so long my dear friend. However, this is not goodbye. You will always come here now and then, and the “business” of ours would always continue. But, I will miss your morning noodles, your FC Barcelona and the morning and late noon lovely music. Thank you for all the memories….

Technorati Tags: friends, tv series

CHIP Tech Talk

Posted: June 4th, 2007, 4:49pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

This morning I have the chance to do a radio talk in Sonora FM. The magazine in which I work for had an agreement with Sonora Radio to make a weekly technology discussions called Tech Talk (yeah I know the title sounds a bit cliché). In the show, CHIP and one guest expert would talk about various topics in regards to information technology with a Sonora announcer as the host. The show is scheduled weekly every Monday morning on 9.00 AM till 10.00 AM WIB.

I’ve been appointed as the first speaker in today’s Tech Talk soft launch. Considering that I’m not an IT expert (the only things that I can speak fluently is topics on Linux or blogging), therefore I only discuss the general IT stuff. But it was fun. Though in the beginning I had some nervous breakdown knowing that Sonora is a bit conservative radio where you should choose words and tone carefully. However, what happened were the opposite of that. The atmosphere of the discussion was very warmth and friendly, full with jokes and laughs, no signs of tightness at all.

The enthusiasm for the show was astonishingly good. I can see it from the dozens of text message that coming to Sonora, congratulating and wishing good hopes for the shows. Some of them even do a discussion via phone. From this, I can say that people are eager to learn about the vast world of information technology.

Okay, it’s good for starter, but I hope I’m not assign to this talk show every week, I have to lift my gut every time I do a live radio cast. It’s very tiring.

Technorati Tags: CHIP, Radio, Sonora, Technology

Google Gears

Posted: May 31st, 2007, 5:42pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I’ve been using Google Reader for reading feeds in these past few months. Formerly I’ve used Feed Demon. The reason that I switch from a stand-alone to web based feed reader was simple I want a simple access to my feeds anywhere I want.

However, one of the weak sides of using a web-based feed reader is in its performance. Relatively speaking. Google Reader would probably excel for those who happen to have a reliable, fast or steady internet connection. In here (read: Indonesia) where Internet connections are still expensive and unreliable, Google Reader usage were not so comfortable yet. But I can live with it, somehow.

This morning when I opened the Reader, I notice a new link at the upper right corner of the homepage. It’s Google Gears, the application that enables user to read feed offline. Without any hesitation, I install it.

Google Gears provided one installation file that requires the closing of all browser windows. Yet the installation failed with this message popping up:

Then what they say was true:

Google Gears (BETA) is an open source browser extension that enables web applications to provide offline functionality using following JavaScript APIs:

Store and serve application resources locally

Store data locally in a fully-searchable relational database

Run asynchronous Javascript to improve application responsiveness

This is an early release of Google Gears (BETA). After installation, please pay attention to the warning dialogs and grant access only to websites that you trust.

Does anyone have the same problem as I am?

Technorati Tags: blogging, browser, google, google gears

100% Smoke-free

Posted: May 31st, 2007, 1:03am MYT by Patrick Gerard

To: manager of public places

Scientific research about the harms of second-hand tobacco smoke has been accumulating for over 20 years. There is no doubt that breathing second-hand tobacco smoke (SHS) is very dangerous to human health, causing cancer and many serious respiratory and cardiovascular diseases in children and adults, often leading to premature death.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has concluded that there is no safe level of human exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke, and the upcoming WHO policy recommendations on protection from exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke clearly state that the establishment of 100% smoke-free areas is the only way to protect the public to such exposure and its consequences.

The right to clean air, free from tobacco-smoke is a human right.

Therefore, we ask you to defend and protect the health of employers, workers and the public by implementing the necessary legislation that will make all public indoor working places, including bars and restaurants 100% smoke-free. We think this is a critical step to protecting our health and that of our children.

Sincerely,

Patrick Gerard van Diest

World No Tobacco Day 2007

Technorati Tags: cigarretes, smoke free, tobacco

Linux Crashes at Indy 500!

Posted: May 30th, 2007, 9:50pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

What? some Linux server crashes at Indianapolis 500 race? no. A Linux literally crashes at Indianapolis 500. This year, one of the cars was sponsored by Tux 500, a fundraising effort to put a Tux logo on one of the race car. But it crashes. And how ironic was that? Maybe the driver misundertands the implementation of “Free as in Free Beer” of the software freedom philosophy… lol

Technorati Tags: crash, Indy 500, linux, races

Hack your PS3 and put Linux on It!

Posted: May 29th, 2007, 7:56pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Hack your PS3 and put Linux on It! Helio’s Yellow Dog Linux has this great achievement on using Linux as a server for Sony Playstation 3. Using YDL you can now use PS3 as a server, offering entertainment features such as video games, movies and photos. They provide a quite comprehensive installation page. So c’mon you modders, what are you waiting for? try these babies out!

Technorati Tags: No Tags

That Time When Ubuntu was Number Two

Posted: May 28th, 2007, 9:20pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

My ass would probably be kick because of this by some Ubuntu zealots. Fine, I only want to write what I think without any bias. Yes, I used Ubuntu for some time. Nevertheless, I’m not a blind fanatic with it.

One of the interesting news on this past month is when Ubuntu declared not the number one distro in Distrowatch’s Page Hit Ranking.

Ubuntu, the over hype distro of all-time getting ass kicked by PCLinuxOS. So what? Sometimes we had to understand how it felt to be number two. How it felt down there…

But what is this has to do with us, I ask? Nothing! Nada! None! Would you change your lovely distro if it drop rank in Distrowatch? You wouldn’t, right? Therefore, this fact is somewhat meaningless. This kind of things happens and in my opinion, this means nothing at all.

Yet there were people who uphold Ubuntu with every breath they take. I felt sorry for them. Ah… the great religion war, you sure know what to expect…

Okay that was that. For now, Ubuntu has return back to its throne to be number one in Distrowatch. Don’t know what will happen in the upcoming days or months, well just wait and see…

In the meantime, let me go back to my Etch…. (wtf?)

Technorati Tags: distro, Distrowatch, PCLinuxOS, ubuntu

Blog,Upgraded!

Posted: May 25th, 2007, 11:48pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Finally, after a week of testing I’m quite satisfied with the fact that I’ve upgraded the Wordpress to version 2.2 for this blog. The upgrade went smoothly. I had no problem whatsoever. I’ve installed some plugins to make your visit here more comfortable. And of course, the Adsense, well I had to do it eventually. Somebody has to make a living right? hehe. But don’t worry; it won’t affect the content of my post. I put it there just to fill in the white spaces.

Just some minor glitch with the Popular Post plugin’s list in the sidebar. It seems that it display the same post repeatedly. Somebody had an idea how to fix this?

Moreover, I’m planning to change the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugins to Simple Tagging. Because the UTW plugins had an error where it delete the tags that I have made in some of the posts.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The theme! Yes, I have changed it a little bit. Now the menus are in the sidebar, you don’t have to go to the bottom of the page just to look at the menus. I don’t do an extreme makeover, so the theme name still called “Your Silent Face”

So, enjoy this blog!

Technorati Tags: blog, blogging, plugins

On Remote Working

Posted: May 24th, 2007, 8:44pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Last night, we had some kind of a glitch. The server somehow down again. And the fact that I received this news at 1.00 AM in the morning while waiting for the Champions League Final was a bit annoying.

Imagine you had an extreme headache caused by less sleep and you notice that the one thing you had to maintain all day was acting wild. Yeah, I’m a standby one-man-army web server administrator. No matter where, no matter when, I have to be ready if something happens to that thing.

So what I had to require is remote admin tools. This is the problem. Here in Indonesia, internetworking hasn’t reach us all. The meaning of the word “reach” here means two thing, monetary and coverage. Internet is still expensive and was not covered many areas yet. I’m fortunate to had internet access in my house. So last night I just plugged my Powerbook to the phone line, use that slow dial-up connection, open up SSH and do some remote task right from there. (Don’t ask about the Mac and SSH combo, please…it’s a very long story)

Okay the problem solved. But what If I were in the middle of nowhere and something happen to the server that I had to quickly resolve? Well, this can be a problem. I’m a very determinant curious geek. So when there’s something wrong with what I developed, then I would use my entire mind to resolve it.

For example, there’s this time where I was enjoying myself in the weekend, then my boss told me there was a problem with the server. Right that instance I stop my pleasuring moments and find a computer that can connect to the internet. I have to go to an internet cafe, use the computer and do a remote administration from there. That is not very comfortable.

I dream of a Jakarta that has covered with Wireless access with cheap price. So people like me whom needs instant Internet access can fulfill my needs to do my job. Then my long time fear of helplessly disconnected while there’s trouble in the cyberspace could be erased. (I’m feeling kinda “Neo” right now, hehehe!)

Technorati Tags: administration, powerbook, ssh, webserver, wireless

Finally! A Whopper!

Posted: May 23rd, 2007, 5:09pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

The quest is over, I don’t have to wait in a blistering 3 hours worth of queue, I don’t have to wait for the opening, and here it was:

One thing to say, It’s worth every damn penny that I spend to bought this menu… It’s taste as good as it looks.

On another thing, today I was lucky enough to went to the screening of “Pirates of The Caribbean: At World’s End”. It’s about time! I’m so desperately curious since the second episode. This movie has it all, good character, good storyline, and of cource a great ending to finish a trilogy. Plus…Keith Richards! yes, Keith Richards ladies and gentleman.

The funny thing is there wasn’t any mass-moviegoers outside the studios queueing up to watch the premiere like the one when “Spider-man 3″ came up. Because, hands down this movie is much much better than that last Spidey movie… :)

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Dragonforce Live At Senayan, May 19th 2007

Posted: May 21st, 2007, 9:17pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

It has been a while since I went to a good rock show. Last Saturday was one of them. A couple of month back, I heard great news that Dragonforce, one of my newly favorite band would play here in Jakarta. Back then, I was like WTF. Is this some kind of hoax or what? But no, this is a sweet fact.

The first time I have heard about them was back in December. My friend Panjie recommends this band via text message. I’ve known Panjie all my life, we’re like brothers, and his taste of music is my taste of music too. The album that I first heard was “Valley of the Damned”, their first album. I was blown away with that. Imagine Helloween on Kai Hansen era but 20 times faster! But I guess you won’t believe what I’m saying until you heard it yourself.

So I made a deal with Panjie that we would definitely watch them playing at Senayan. Last Saturday we went to Tennis Outdoor Stadium at Senayan. We arrived there at 4.30 PM, but the crowd wasn’t full yet. One of the reasons that get me exaggerated about this show was the fact that the event organizer had successfully lining up some great bands (including a legendary band) as an opening act for Dragonforce. Where else I could see Roxx (yeah, for you old school Indonesian Metalheads, I’m not lying to you, it is true, Roxx!!) lining up with Seringai, Painkiller, Edane, and Netral? It’s almost a dream.

(more…)

Tags: dragonforce, metal power metal

History of Video Game Console (with Pictures)

Posted: May 16th, 2007, 4:56pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

To commemorate the 40th anniversary of home video game console, Wired put a compilation of great images. It’ll brought our nostalgic side towards the consoles that accompanied in that lonesome geeky childhood of ours. :) (C’mon…I bet you geek out there would say “awww..” in some of this images, right?) (via BoingBoing)

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Wordpress Version 2.2 “Getz” is Out!

Posted: May 16th, 2007, 3:45pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I think this is the right time to update this blog. The launch of “Getz” a couple of hours ago, makes my wordpress version seems very-very outdated. Come to think of it, I haven’t updated this blog since it’s launch…hmmm…

Tags: blogging wordpress

Ubuntu Problems in Virtual PC 2007

Posted: May 15th, 2007, 7:02pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Yesterday, Dodi need help from me about a problem. He wants to install Ubuntu inside his Vista using Virtual PC. This is for an article that he wants to write about Virtual PC. Okay, we know that in order to install Ubuntu we must first use the Live CD then choose the installation process. The problem occurred whenever we went to graphic modes. The display would go fuzzy, garbled and unusable.

Therefore, he went googling for an answer and found out a small workaround to solve this issue:

Switch to a console via ctrl-alt-f1
Login with user/pass
Run “sudo sed -i “/DefaultDepth/ s/24/16/” /etc/X11/xorg.conf” and then reboot.

(via zdNet Blog)

Then I help him with this, (Because he didn’t want to touch console-based stuff). The problem solved, so I leave him, because I have to go somewhere else. That evening I came back again to found out that he cancelled the experiment. “What’s the problem?,” I asked. It seems that Ubuntu has problem with mouse recognition using VirtualPC. And with some googling, he found out that as of today this problem had not been resolved yet. (though there is a workaroud where you can use the keyboard as a mouse)

This is the fundamental problem with Linux in general. I know that Linux is a best solution for me. But not for everybody, at least not for now. Though it is more user-friendly nowadays, but when it comes to bug, you need a little bit effort to find a workaround yet a solution. The kind of effort that do not reside in every average users. This eternal problem would always creep in Linux. No matter how friendly it becomes.

I don’t know, is it just me and my pessimistic aspect of Linux or is this the reality of Linux after all this year?

So why am I that bummed out? it’s because I’m planning to use Virtual PC as a testbed for Ubuntu and other distros that I got. I want an alternative for VMware.

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Microsoft vs Linux in patent infringement

Posted: May 14th, 2007, 4:24pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Oh yes, the armaggedon has come nearer and nearer. Now, after a couple of years, Microsoft strikes back with a ridiculous statement that claims software like Linux violates their patents. Finally, they prepare for all out war regarding to patent infringement in codes that reside in Linux. They eventually going to lose. (did the name SCO ring a bell, heh Redmond?)

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Steady positioning of Ipod Earphones in your Ear using Facial Cotton

Posted: May 14th, 2007, 12:33pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Do you ever have a problem with iPod’s stock earphones? I mean for you who has big ear holes surely know what I’m talking about. Yup, those teeny-weenie small earphones seems does not fit with your ear holes. You got this huge ear holes yet they only produce small earphones for iPods.

Well, the default workaround is to use the stock black ear buds that comes with iPods. This will make the diameter of the earphones a bit larger so it can fit your big ass ear holes. But you know the problem with those black ear buds? It isn’t as firm as you think. When you covered your earphones with it, it tends to loose itself at times. And most of the times you won’t notice until it gone. Well you can replace it of course, Apple always give you two sets of spare ear buds. But it only a matter of time until the case above resolute again.

There is another method. When you can’t (or won’t) use an ear bud, you can use a facial cotton to fill-in the gap between your ear holes and the earphones. What? Facial cotton? Are you serious? Yup! In fact I am.

Just put your earphones in your ear. Plug it as firm as necessary then scrap a little cotton and put it where the gaps between your ear hole and earphone are. Don’t put to much cotton or you’ll end up like some guy/girl who has an ear problems or something.

Yes, it might look weird and it probably won’t be comfortable when you’re the kind of people who like to plug and unplug the earphones all the time. However, when it comes to steady positioning of earphones it sure does a good job. In addition, you will get a secluded sound environment when you enjoying music from your iPod.

Earphone With Cotton

Tags: apple, howtos, ipod, mp3 player music

3.000 MegaWatts

Posted: May 11th, 2007, 12:13pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Over 3,000 MW of New U.S. Wind Seen in 2007. Now that’s a good news for U.S as they are one of the biggest electricity consumers of the world. This too affect that global warming issue in some point. The use of Wind energy as an alternative resource to Coal is one step towards good clean air.

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Will CakePHP Bring Back My Soul?

Posted: May 10th, 2007, 3:55pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

I remember once wrote a network music crawler using PHP. Made it online and used by some goverment office to search music from their internal networks. They seem to like it, just for an entertainment purpose (or so they say). I missed my coding days. Yes, I’m debugging and hacking someone else’s codes daily (joomla, wordpress, vBulletin, other sort of stuff), but the glorious feeling of being a creator of something useful is far more exciting.

Yesterday, I decided to revisit CakePHP. The PHP’s RoR clone framework. I was once try it in it’s beta stages, I was dissapointed. Now, in it’s Stable-1.1.14.4797 version, it seems had matured enough to develop some large scale application. It use a standard MVC architecture, build-in validation, scaffolding, ACL’s, and some other neat stuff.

Finally, I get my hand dirty again, dealing with bugs again (my own stupid bugs that is). Turn my head upside down to deploy a feature, and other time-wasting-activities, just to fulfill that long-time feeling, being a coder.

Let’s see now, hmm what should I develop? how about a blog application of my own? Now that’s sounds interesting! Okay then, I’ll continue to update about this project in the upcoming posts.

Tags: cakephp, php programming

That Old Nintendo Feeling

Posted: May 9th, 2007, 4:28pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Last year, I started collecting Nintendo Entertainment System (or what we preferred in the old days just “Nintendo”) ROM’s. I occasionaly got this retro feeling to try stuff from the days of yore.

These days, you could download anything from the net. Started with ROM’s, emulators, 8-bit music, and of course the back end of a NES system, I became a NES junkie. But one thing missing there. I did not own a NES box. I mean, I once owned it, but I gave it to one of my nephews a couple years ago. One decision that would make me regret for the rest of time.

On Sunday, after having a conversation with my cousin, I accidentaly found out that he owns a NES box (damn, why I haven’t asked him before?). So we search it in his closet, Tested it, works fine. Bring it up to my room.Connect the audio/video cable (not surprisingly, it had only two kind of cable), the power adapter, and voila! Nintendo-1

Nintendo-2

Nintendo-3

He owns two catridges consist of a couple of games (one of it was that infamous ‘n-in-one’ catridge, where they put n number of games, which actually an extraction from some level of games in there, lame yet funny)

“Thank you for saving me, Mario. But our princess is in another castle“

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CHIP Forum Down

Posted: May 4th, 2007, 11:39am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Early in the morning, yesterday. I had an extremely bad headache for the lack of sleep that I did in the past several days. The reason? UEFA Champions League 2nd Leg Semifinal. Yeah, what a bummer, Man United did not go through to Athens. Well, at least Liverpool stopped Chelsea for seeing their first Champions League Final.

Okay, so that morning I went to the office just to notice that the forum is down.

Now that’s new…

Made some phone calls, talk to some guys, and the news that I received was quite shocking. It seems the hosting center had a power failure for about 40 minutes the night before. The reason that my server was down was because it doesn’t automatically reboot after the power loss in that hosting center.

Well I know this technical error regarding to the server was somehow unsustainable by my team. But a power failure in one of the biggest data center in Indonesia for that long? that was beyond me. What is the problem guys? don’t you have some sort of back up powers, you surely had it, right? But why was it not working as it suppose to?

I’m not complaining to anybody here, I’m just that curious….

Big sorry for the all the forum members. Really, I am so regretful for this unprecedented events.

Tags: IDC, Cyber Building, Data Center

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Google’s World Domination

Posted: April 26th, 2007, 5:47pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

It’s official: Google rules the world. Next stop, inter-planetary domination!

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Burger King Franchise is Back!

Posted: April 26th, 2007, 11:03am MYT by Patrick Gerard

So I’ve heard about this probably a month ago. The once-so-famous burger parlour of the 80’s has now come back from the dead. It has once again emerge in Indonesia. Burger King has open it’s new franchise in Jakarta, specifically in Senayan City.

The announcement banners was everywhere in Senayan area, my friends told. “So what are we waiting for? let’s just go there right now,” we thought. Then yesterday we went there to Senayan, the five of us, hungry burger lovers. With some sort of anticipation talks like: “hey, maybe the queue will like a mile long!” or “maybe they like sell voucher tickets to accomodate the massive needs!” or “hey maybe they just had run out of stock once we get there!” and so on….

But, the outcome was not what we once expected. The minute we went there, we were like, “what the heck is this?”. So the place was mounted with dozens of chairs and a small stage. We ask the lady there, was the Burger King had opened yet? she said that it has not yet been opened. That time they only held press conference first, then, it would be opened for public tommorow (today). Dang!

So instead of having some delicious burger delights, I ate Mie Tarik at the Senayan City Food Court for lunch, oh well.

PS: I’m still hoping the guys still want to go there today! :)

Pat at Burger King
Me in front of the Burger King. (taken with a crappy camera from my mobile phone)

Tags: burger king, food restaurant

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Limited Edition of “Ringleader Of The Tormentors”

Posted: April 23rd, 2007, 6:36pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Finally! after the dissapointment, I now had in my hand the beautiful limited edition of Morrissey’s “Ringleader Of The Tormentors“. It has a bonus DVD consist of Moz’s “You Have Killed Me Video” plus two behind-the-scene video. And when you thought you have it all, they included a limited edition poster of the album’s cover. Nice….

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Global Warming dan Sepeda

Posted: April 23rd, 2007, 6:18pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Jumat kemarin saya akhirnya mendapatkan pinjaman DVD “an Inconvinient Truth” dari teman saya di kantor. Sudah beberapa lama saya mencari DVD dokumenter pemenang Oscar tersebut tapi belum saja menemukannya, sampai Jumat kemarin itu.

Film dokumenter yang dibuat oleh Al Gore, mantan wakil presiden ini bercerita mengenai perjalanannya berkeliling kota-kota di Amerika Serikat dan juga kota-kota lain di dunia, untuk membangkitkan kesadaran masyarakat terhadap bahaya pemanasan global (Global Warming).

Dengan menggunakan narasi orang pertama, hampir 3/4 dari film ini mengambil adegan dari salah satu seminar yang ia pernah bawakan. Ia bercerita mengenai fakta-fakta yang bisa saya simpulkan “mengerikan” mengenai ancaman pemanasan global di muka bumi ini. Saya tidak akan menjelaskan secara rinci apa saja yang ia bahas pada film tersebut (karena di akhir film, ia memerintahkan para penonton film tersebut untuk mengajak rekan-rekannya untuk menonton film tersebut).

Memang kalau ditelaah, film tersebut lebih ditujukan untuk rakyat Amerika. Wajar saja, penyumbang emisi terbesar di muka bumi ini berasal dari Amerika Utara.

Yang paling menarik adalah, dari semua data-data yang diungkapkan oleh Al Gore, kesemuanya sangat masuk akal untuk pribadi saya sendiri. Pada saat menonton film ini di kamar saya, saya merasakan sendiri betapa tidak normalnya suhu yang ada di kamar saya belakangan ini. Selama beberapa bulan ini, panas terus saja mendera lingkungan sekitar saya, walaupun terkadang hujan, namun suhu di lingkungan sini tetap saja membuat saya selalu gerah.

Apakah ini dampak dari pemanasan global? saya rasa iya. Satu hal lagi yang memperkuat data-data yang dikemukakan pada film tersebut. Menurut Al Gore, pemanasan global akan membawa perubahan kepada iklim yang ada di muka bumi ini. Secara kebetulan, kemarin pagi saya membaca salah satu artikel di surat kabar yang menjelaskan bahwa adanya pergeseran musim hujan di Indonesia. Diramalkan musim hujan di Indonesia akan terus berlanjut hingga akhir Mei. Wow, melihat berita tersebut saya merasakan dejavu, rasanya saya pernah mendengar kalimat-kalimat ini? tapi dimana ya? :)

Pada akhir film, ia menceritakan hal-hal yang dapat kita lakukan untuk mencegah pemanasan global. Saya bangga bahwa saya telah melakukan salah satunya: menggunakan sepeda sebagai moda transportasi pilihan. Memang, sebelum naik sepeda pun saya jarang sekali membawa kendaraan sendiri. Untuk pergi ke kantor, biasanya saya akan naik kendaraan umum. Jadi, sebenarnya perpindahan moda transportasi saya dari kendaraan umum ke sepeda gak terlalu ngaruh dong?

Sebentar dulu…pilihan saya untuk naik sepeda dalam rangka menurunkan pemanasan global bisa dilihat sebagai bentuk kampanye. Biarkan ribuan motor dan mobil yang melewati saya di jalan bisa melihat saya. Paling tidak mereka bisa sedikit berpikir untuk mencoba naik sepeda. Bersih, sehat, dan hemat…dan tentu saja, membantu mengurangi tingkat emisi yang makin lama makin tinggi di Indonesia.

Stop Global Warming, ride a bicycle…

Image via IMDB

Tags: bicycle, climate, global warming nature

Mega Bazaar, FOCUS dan JAVE

Posted: March 7th, 2007, 8:51pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Mega Bazaar 2007

Hmm…Musim pameran dimulai. Mulai hari ini, tiga pameran besar digelar serentak di Jakarta. Mega Bazaar Computer, FOCUS Photo Digital and Imaging Expo dan JAVE atau Jakarta Audio Video Expo. Ketiganya digelar di tempat yang sama, dimana? ya dimana lagi…Jakarta Convention Center.

Ketiga acara ini dilaksanakan mulai hari ini 7 Maret 2007 hingga 11 Maret 2007. Tadi siang saya berkesempatan untuk menghadiri acara press conference pembukaan acara ini. Cukup sederhana saja, dihadiri oleh beberapa orang dari Dyandra sebagai pihak penyelenggara.

Untuk acara Mega Bazaar Computer, mereka terlihat sangat jor-joran. Hampir seluruh area Jakarta Convention Center digunakan untuk event-event tersebut. Dengan mengusung tema “Gelegar!! Teknologi Digital Dan Multimedia” tampaknya mereka ingin mengedepankan teknologi terbaru. Tapi tentunya, tujuan-tujuan finansial tetap masuk ke dalam prioritas. Menurut Dhoris Dorianti, Divisi Pameran Komputer Dyandra, mereka mengharapkan transaksi yang terjadi pada event-event tahun ini bisa menembus angka 150 miliar.

Untuk negara yang mayoritas penduduknya di bawah garis kemiskinan, angka transaksi penjualan komputer dan multimedia di atas memang terasa ironis. Namun, kalau dilihat dari faktanya, angka tersebut mereka ambil secara pesimis. Dalam arti, angka tersebut diambil dengan asumsi daya belanja masyarakat yang sedang menurun akibat musibah banjir.

Mega Bazaar 2007 ini rencananya akan masuk ke dalam rekor MURI sebagai pameran komputer terbesar di Indonesia. Terang saja, selain di Jakarta, MBC ini digelar serentak di enam kota besar lain di Indonesia, seperti: Bandung, Semarang, Yogyakarta, Surabaya, Makassar dan Banjarmasin.

Untuk pameran kali ini, tempat majalah saya bekerja (CHIP) mengadakan beberapa aktivitas seperti workshop,conference (untuk acara Mega Bazaar) kompetisi dan bedah photo (untuk acara FOCUS). Tampaknya saya akan turut sibuk membantu dalam acara-acara ini. Aduh, padahal deadline belum selesai…

Tags: events

[APRICOT 2007] All Wireless

Posted: March 2nd, 2007, 5:24pm MYT by Patrick Gerard

Satu hal yang menarik dari APRICOT 2007 ini adalah “Wi-Fi is in the air”. Koneksi internet di areal APRICOT 2007 ini didukung oleh beberapa pemain seperti XL, Indosat, Laxo dan juga Proxim.

Menurut berita, sudah lebih dari 28 Mbps yang dihabiskan pada acara APRICOT kali ini. Namun, saya mencobanya dengan laptop, tidak terlihat besarnya kapasitas bandwidth yang saya dapat pada saat saya coba mendownload sesuatu (“sesuatu” disini legal loh!). Mungkin, karena banyaknya peserta yang tersambung ke jaringan pada saat yang bersamaan. Yah, memang tidak lelet sih. Cukup oke lah.

Pemandangan yang unik terlihat di sepanjang area Anda dapat melihat banyak orang sibuk dengan laptop mereka tersambung ke Internet. Namun, saya melihat jumlah kontak listrik yang ada sangat terbatas sehingga banyak dari mereka yang hanya bergantung pada batere notebook mereka. Saya sendiri mengalami kesulitan mencari kontak listrik yang dapat digunakan untuk laptop saya.

Permasalahan ini terpecahkan pada saat saya mengunjugi auditorium tempat konferensi. Disana, kontak listrik tersedia dalam jumlah banyak, dan dibantu dengan bentuk tempat duduk menyerupai bioskop, saya dapat menikmati internet dengan tenang sambil menyimak konferensi yang sedang berlangsung.

Tags: apricot 2007 wireless

[APRICOT 2007] Pembukaan Konferensi di Hari Kedua

Posted: March 1st, 2007, 11:29am MYT by Patrick Gerard

Hari kedua di Bali, hujan turun deras dari pagi hari. Hal ini menyebabkan saya agak telat saat hadir dalam pertemuan yang ada. Untuk hari kedua disini saya mengikuti CEO Forum yaitu forum diskusi antar para pemain di dunia ISP dengan pemerintah. CEO Forum ini juga membahas mengenai hasil dari pertemuan Indonesia Stream di hari sebelumnya. Para panelis terdiri dari Menteri Komunikasi dan Informasi Bapak Sofyan Djalil, Ketua Umum APJII Ibu Sylvia W. Sumarlin, Dirjen Postel Bapak Basuki Yusuf Iskandar dan juga Bapak Brata T. Hardjosubroto dari PT Indosat.

Pada kesempatan ini mereka berbicara mengenai bagaimana peran pemerintah dalam melakukan regulasi untuk pengembangan jaringan ICT di Indonesia.

Pada CEO Forum ini juga diadakan deklarasi Roadmap ICT Indonesia yang dideklarasikan oleh Ibu Sylviana W. Sumarlin mewakili para praktisi ICT di Indonesia.

Meskipun acara telah berlangsung selama seminggu lebih, pada hari Selasa, 27 Februari 2007 ini dibukalah secara resmi Asia Pacific Internet Conference on Operational Technologies (APRICOT 2007). Acara ini secara resmi dibuka oleh Menteri Komunikasi dan Informasi Bapak Sofyan Djalil.

Pada pembukaan konferensi APRICOT ini keynote speech dibacakan oleh Vijay Gill, salah satu anggota divisi teknis dari Google, Inc. Ia mengambil judul, “How an ISP might attain Tier-1 status in two years”.

Setelah sesi tersebut, saya juga mengikuti beberapa sesi Plenary I dengan pembicara:
Dave Meyer: “Perfect Storms and The Future”
Vince Fuller (dari Cisco System): “Scaling of Internet Routing and Addresing”
Robert J. Berger (dari IBD): “Wireless Common Sense: Shifting The Collection of Prejudices”

Menarik sekali melihat para panelis yang berbicara di depan dengan presentasi mereka. Sama sekali tidak membosankan. Meskipun saya tidak banyak mengerti hal-hal yang mereka bicarakan, namun melalui penyampaian yang cukup jelas dan diskusi menarik dengan para peserta, membuat saya cukup mendapatkan maksud dari tema-tema yang mereka bawakan.

Tags: apricot 2007 conference

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