Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Our company ( indocisc ) has a new initiative this year, learning day . We set a day that we learn together. The idea is that we teach each other about technology (or anything actually). This IT field is moving so fast that we cannot learn by ourselves efficiently. We have to jump-start each other with topics that we know. Topics that we have done are: typesetting with LaTeX (I did this), VPN (Hargidi did this), Certificate Authority or CA (Andhi did this), routing (Andika did this, although it wasn't scheduled formally), and RCS/CVS (Maman is going to do this today). All of these were (are) done with hands on. Now, the difficult part is that we have two offices in different cities; Jakarta and Bandung. We decided to use Yahoo Messanger to do the communication. Experiments were done on Linux-box(es). Everybody must have remote access to those boxes through ssh. (Since we got VPN going, these Linux boxes are inside our LANs.) We tried using voice through Skype, but the qua...

I have quite a number of audio collections in tapes, CDs, LPs, DVDs. I am starting to convert my tapes to MP3s. I rip my CDs into MP3s. I can then hide my tapes and CDs in a cupboard. They are still accessible though. My audio collection is now sitting on my harddrive. Now, if I want to listen to music I have to sit in front of my computer. Many times it's uncomfortable. Sometimes I want to listen to my collection in my bedroom. The small boombox in my bedroom only takes audio CDs. Samething with the stereo in the living room. Then, there's this carstereo problem. My cars have cassette tapes. (I know I should get a CDs instead. I did that to my other car.) So, occasionally I recorded songs to a blank tape. Well, to do this I have to bring my stereos in the living room to my PC. Basically, it's a hassle. What to do? I thought what if I get a USB-to-FM transmitter. That way I could transmit my collection to any stereos in the house. Or I can bring my notebook to my car,...

I've been searching for the "perfect" content management system for our group (company, to be exact). I need something that can be used for internal communication, write books (reports) together, and something fun to play with. Originally (long time ago), I played with phpnuke. But unfortunately, it has too many security holes. Although I was going to use it for intranet site, I still don't want to keep track of security holes. Then I found drupal . It looks like what I needed. So I installed a drupal's debian package. It was not the latest version. I played with it for a while. The learning curve is steep! That was a while ago. Yesterday, I decided to give it another stab. But this time I grabbed the source and installed it from scratch. You know, it is easy. In fact, it felt easier than before. Maybe because I have played with it before. It is still difficult to use, but I am more than ever convinced that this is the program that I am going to use. (Many f...

I got tired of my default Microsoft Windows XP setting. So I decided to get a new theme. Here's the story. The first thing to do is to look at preinstalled themes. None, unless you call the "Windows classic" is a theme. The next step is to search the internet. What would be the proper Google's keyword? I used several keywords and got several Windows XP Theme. Some of the themes look ok. I really want to get a Mac-like theme. But, there's a problem . Apparently, all the good themes I found are either not-free or require additional software (which is not-free). It's not like I don't want to pay. (Well, it is.) But, having worked with Linux and other FSF/GNU software changed my preference. I want to use free software. So, I came empty handed. I wasted 2 hours for all of this. Well, I just have to go reboot the machine and use Linux if I get bored with the theme. (I have fluxbox, blackbox, afterstep, (and even plain twm), KDE, and Gnome - and there ar...

It's official now. Directorate General of Post and Telecommunication has officially liberated 2.4 GHz in Indonesia. (Does anybody have the official announcement?) I still don't know the implication. Whether we will have (yet another) 2,4 GHz war or not is something to be seen. A while ago I wrote an opinion article in InfoLinux magazine saying that the lack of regulation will create "tragedy of the commons". It has happened a couple years ago when warnet ( war ung inter net = internet cafes) in Indonesia started to use 2,4 Ghz. Interference was a big problem. (And everybody started installing power amplifier.) It was a "wireless-wild-world" situation. Let's go west ...

I mentioned about technorati a while back. Now, they came up with a "tag". Not sure what it does, but here is a tag on rahardjo or budi rahardjo . Let see how it does ... [... this is an experimental page, like the rest of blog universe ...]

[I wrote this on Jan 3rd, 2005, but never had a chance to make it online. So here it is.] Well, I started my academic gig this new year with an exam. I guess, at 7 AM, our class is one of the first to do exams in this university . My class is "Foundation of (object-oriented) computer programming". This class is not really a true-strict object-oriented programming. It is taken by second-year students in EE. The first year teh students take what I think basically a review of high-school topics; like physics, math, chemistry, and biology. All students, regardless of their departement, take these classes. So, my programming class is their first formal course on programming. Unlike CS students, we don't have plenty of time to teach programming. There are other topics to teach in a limitted time. We don't want to make students stay longer than what they should. So, we have no option but to pack the programming material into one semester course. We have to teach the...

On Jan 4th-5th 2005, our company ( indocisc ) had a family trip. Actually, it was started with a meeting: 2004 evaluation and 2005 planning session. Then we went to visit this place where they make tea. It was fun. Look at the happy faces. Well, that was before we took a tea walk. (Pak Andika was missing - he took the picture. Pak Maman was also missing in the picture.) 

This is the infamous picture about me being caught. Go get the latest Komputer Akt!f magazine. (Magazine snapshot taken by Koen) 

As if the news of Quake and Tsunami dissaster in Aceh and surrounding areas is not bad enough, I have to watch / see / read people trying to become heroes. Not, I am not talking about those people who are actually do something helping the victims without trying to be popular. No, sir! They are usually unknown, faceless. Sometimes, all they can do is pray and pray they do. God bless you folks. I am talking about those who milk this situation to gain popularity. We know who you are. You want your name (group name, affiliation, or what have you) be known. Yes, we know who you are. We know that you're in for the popularity contest. Get heck out of the way! You are taking resources from people who are really in need. There have been news about high-rank people, celebrities, and the like (unfortunately, including news persons) who are flocking the disaster area. They are taking planes, places, water (and other limitted resources) from people who are really in need. Some people coul...

On December 26th, 2004, a huge earthquake (9.0 on the Richter scale) hit Aceh and surrounding areas. The epicenter of the quake was in the ocean. The quake was then followed by tsunamis which then hit the surrounding area as far as Srilanka and Maldives. The effect was devastated! More than 100.000 were dead, of which 80.000 were from Indonesia. We are shocked, dazed, and sad. I created a page for this at http://myindonesia.org/quake-tsunami/index.html