Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

I was teaching an engineering class the other day, and notice that my students were lost when I mentioned Finite Automata or Finite State Machine. I guess I have to give them a brief introduction to Automata. Can anybody suggest a good reference on FA (preferably available on the Internet)? One that can be presented in one (2-hour) class. On a similar note, I am also looking for a good explanation on BNF notation. I forgot where I learned those things, Hopcroft & Ullman perhaps? (but this is to detailed for my students).

A long time ago (1996), I did my post graduate work at TRLabs in Winnipeg , Manitoba, Canada. Well, a couple weeks ago, a journalist from Indonesia went to TRLabs and took a picture of wall of honour. On the top right there's my name. He asked me whether that was me. Yup, that was me allright. 

Baru selesai memberikan training security kemarin, saya disodori surat. Surat tersebut dari APJII (Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia) yang isinya melarang kami (pengelola domain .ID) untuk menggunakan nama ID-NIC. Padahal kami sudah menggunakan nama tersebut sejak tahun 1996. Alasannya adalah bahwa nama tersebut sudah mereka daftarkan sebagai merek di tahun 1998. Karena kami malas ribut, akhirnya kami putuskan untuk mengganti nama layanan kami menjadi ccTLD-ID saja. Itu singkatan dari Country Code Top Level Domain Indonesia. Selain perubahan nama, banyak hal lain yang terpaksa harus kami ubah. Saya capek betul. Kalau anda lihat, saya kan super sibuk. Eh, ketambahan masalah ini lagi. I don't need this sh!t. Tapi apa boleh buat. Karena (pengelolaan domain) itu masih menjadi tanggung jawab saya, ya harus dibereskan. I won't forget their treatment to us. That's for sure.

Finally, I got "Genesis: Three Sides Live" video CD again. I lost my VCD and have been searching for it. Fortunately Indra KH has a copy. Now, I can enjoy the video CD again. (Right now, I am playing it in my computer with closed door. The sound is too loud for the familly. Well, it has got to be loud !) My favourite is the second CD, which has "In The Cage (medley - Cinema Show - Slippermen)". All the players were good. During the keyboard solo, Tony Banks fingers were shown. Or, the part where Mike Rutherford was shown playing bass with foot pedal. Or, the part where Daryl Streumer played his guitar. Or, the part where Phil Collins was duelling with Chester Thompson. They were beautiful. Not to mention, the songs are great in the first place. All of these make me want to play ... Unfortunately, not many people like this idea...

Kepada Hacker & Cracker Indonesia & Malaysia, Saya mengharapkan anda tidak melakukan penyerangan atau/dan pengrusakan situs-situs Indonesia dan Malaysia. Saya mengerti bahwa akhir-akhir ini beberapa masalah di dunia nyata membuat kita kesal dan marah. Namun kekesalan tersebut sebaiknya tidak dilimpahkan ke dunia maya (cyberspace). Semestinya sebelum melakukan aksi yang berdampak negatif, kita bisa melakukan langkah-langkah positif seperti melakukan dialog (melalui email, mailing list, bulletin board, blog, dan media elektronik lainnya). Kita harus ingat bahwa kita hidup bertetangga dan bersaudara. Yang namanya hidup bertetangga pasti mengalami perbedaan pendapat. Mari kita belajar bertetangga dengan baik. Saya berharap agar kita yang hidup di dunia maya mencontohkan bagaimana kita menyelesaikan permasalahan dengan kepala dingin dan hati yang lapang, sehingga para pemimpin kita di dunia nyata dapat mencontoh penyelesaian damai. Mudah-mudahan mereka dapat lebih arif dan bijaksana...

Yesterday (March 2, 2005) I attended Software Developers Day in Jakarta. The event was organized by Aspiluki (Association of Software House in Indonesia). I arrived a little late, since I have to take a train from Bandung to Jakarta. I arrived at the venue just at the very end of pak Putu's presentation. He is from Departemen Perindustrian (Ministry of Industry). There were other representatives from the Government side. After that there were representatives from multinational companies; Microsoft, Cisco, IBM, Oracle, HP, and Sun. They were asked to tell the audience about their software roadmap and what can the developers expect from them. One of the insteresting questions was put by the moderator (Didik from Inixindo). He asked whether at one time or another the panelists have idea to tell their CEOs that they should bring work to Indonesia. The answer was dissapointing, in my opinion. I've got an impression that they don't believe the non-technical capabilities of Indon...