Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

I was reading a book. It was in "the about the author" section, where there is a list of work the author has done, when I had to stop. Should I read this long list of stories, novels, that the writer had written? Do I really want to know? Or to be exact, do I need to memorize them? I always have this idea that if I use my brain too much it will detoriate. It's like using a floppy disk too many times. It wears out. Thus, if I memorize things too much, my brain will wear out? I don't like to memorize things for this [silly?] reason. Or, if you use a battery - charge and discharge - too many times, the quality will go down quickly. But is our brain really like that? On the other hand, if I don't use (anything), then whatever it is it will not function proprely either. An example of this is exercise. I don't work out regularly. So, when I play badminton with my kids, my body aches. I concluded that if I don't use my brain regularly, it won't be in a good ...

I think I need help. I am addicted to blogs. I go many (free) blog providers and setup account in each one of them. I have not done this extensively though. But looking at the trend, it probably will. If you tell me another place to create a blog, I would probably go there and set it up. Please, please, please, ... tell me ... My latest blogs are: www.livejournal.com/users/rahard/ rahard.tblog.com rahard.multiply.com Yours truly, Petualang Blog

Here's a picture of me in a Microsoft Security Ads. It appeared in "Bisnis Indonesia" newspaper today (14 Feb 2005). 

As I've promised before, here is the review of Dewi Lestari (Dee)'s latest book: "Supernova: Petir." Before I start, I should make some disclaimers. It this common? It shows my inexperience. But, who cares. First, I am not a literature expert. I am just an ordinary book reader. Secondly, I have no relation what so ever with the author and publisher. I have no financial gain from this review. Come to think of it I have met the author once in quite an extraordinary situation. It was in a seminar. Dee, the book author, was giving her presentation. I was about to go the back (I forgot why) when she called me from the stage. She said, hang on, don't leave yet. (I wasn't going to leave, though.) I have sent you an email but you have not replied to it. I was shocked. How did she find my email address? The problem is not finding my email address. It's finding the most effective email address to get a quick response. I have too many of email addresses. In any case,...

Well, do you backup your blogs? If, yes, how do you do it? Do you copy (duplicate) your blog entries? I am especially interested if your blog is hosted somewhere else, not in your own machine. (Even if it's in your own machine, how do you do the backup? Do you backup your database separately, or is the db backup part of OS/system backup?) Right now, I don't do backup. I don't know what's gonna happen if blogspot goes down. (As if my articles / entries are important, therefore worth backing 'em up.)

In an earlier post , I mentioned that I am looking for a computer to FM transmitter. I decided to get a portable FM transmitter with an audio input instead. After posting to various mailing list, I got a lead that there is a store in Jakarta that sells such as device. I went to the store, Wasabi Gadget. Sure enough, they have an Arkon Sound Feeder SF 150. This little device takes an audio input and broadcast it in FM between 88-95 MHz. I bought the device. I turned out this device only works in a short distance. In my first experiment, I plugged this device into my notebook (running winamp) and put it close to an FM receiver. I could listen the song in the radio. I then moved the notebook away from the radio. The quality of the signal faded away. Three (3) meters was the maximum distance. I tested again with another FM receiver. This time it was even worse. It faded quickly. 30 cm was the maximum distance. My original idea was to broadcast around the house, or at least 10 or 1...

Relaxing, playing guitar at home. (Saturday afternoon.) 

This morning my daughter class (junior high school - equivalent to grade 8 or 9) went to my lab. I explained what I do at the university; research in VLSI. My background is in IC design and verification. In this picture I showed them how we make bipolar transitor. Unfortunately, we could not enter our clean room. (We can make a 10um transistor.  

In this picture I showed them a VLSI chip that we designed in our lab. You can't see it. I am holding it in my hand. It was an image processing chip. I was not the designer though. Also, we did not fabricate it in our lab. We only designed it. 

It's a beautiful morning. Sipping my Earl Grey tea, I am enjoying this beautiful weather. What a beautiful and enjoyable life ... Thank God for this. (Picture was taken 5 minutes ago. 9:00 AM, 3 Feb 2005.) This afternoon I am going to make a presentation (on broadband network). Hopefully, it's going to be a beatiful presentation too. (Define 'beautiful presentation'? What is it, eh?)  

When I was in high-school, I used to write things. From poem to short stories. Some were beautiful. Some were trash. Then, I went to university. I was thinking of going to Arts, but ended up in Engineering. Electrical Engineering, to be exact. It's a long story. When I wanted to buy an electric guitar, I came back with an Apple ][ computer. The same story over and over again. It seems that I was destined to be an engineer. When I went to Canada to do my post graduate studies, again, I went to an EE department. If anything, engineering taught me to be logical, responsible, practical . I sounded like Supertramp's " logical song ." From then on, my mind was molded into a logical machine. I could no longer be able write beatiful sentence. It's got to be logical, responsible, and practical. Damn you, EE school!