Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

http://rahard.wordpress.com/2005/12/30/kebingungan-seorang-dosen/ Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya bertanya kepada beberapa kawan; “nilai-nilai apakah yang ingin kita ajarkan ke mahasiswa?” Sampai sekarang saya belum mendapatkan jawaban yang mengena. Kata orang, fungsi perguruan tinggi tidak sekedar untuk mengajarkan mahasiswa mengenai hal-hal yang spesifik kepada bidang ilmunya akan tetapi juga untuk mendidik mahasiswa. Sebetulnya nilai apa yang ingin kita wariskan kepada para mahasiswa (murid) ini? Saya ambilkan beberapa contoh: Bahwa bertanya itu bukan aib, dan bahkan cenderung baik. Atau, bertanya itu merupakan cerminan kelemahan! Ayo belajar lebih baik! (Saya mengutarakan hal ini karena saya temui bahwa mahasiswa saya takut bertanya. Ketika saya kejar lebih jauh, ternyata mereka tidak diajarkan untuk bertanya ketika masih SMA oleh guru dan oleh teman-temannya. Akibatnya mereka menjadi malu dan tertekan kalau bertanya.) Bahwa kegagalan (mendapat nilai buruk, tidak naik kelas, tidak lu...

What the hell is a " meme map "? Internet search gave links to Web 2.0 articles. Well, I tried to search and find the meaning of "meme map" exactly because I was reading Tim O'Reilly's article on Web 2.0 . It's kind of recursive, isn't it? Would somebody enlighten me?

Diambil dari: http://rahard.wordpress.com/2005/12/27/globalisasi-30/ Thomas Friedman dalam bukunya “The World is Flat” mengatakan bahwa kita sudah memasuki globalisasi 3.0. Nah, apakah itu globalisasi 3.0 dan adakah versi-versi sebelumnya? Globalisasi 1.0 dimulai ketika jaman penjajahan (kolonialisme) dahulu. Pada jaman itu beruntunglah seseorang yang menjadi warga negara besar (negara penjajah? seperti Inggris, Belanda, Spanyol, dan seterusnya). Rugilah individu yang menjadi warga negara yang dijajah seperti Indonesia. Kemakmuran seseorang ditentukan oleh kewarganegaraannya. Itulah sebabnya orang berbondong-bondong ingin menjadi warga negara dari negara besar tersebut. Globalisasi 2.0 terjadi karena adanya industri dan bisnis. Peta kesuksesan berubah dengan munculnya perusahaan besar (multinational companies). Tidak penting lagi warga negara seseorang. Anda boleh menjadi warga negara Nigeria, Indonesia, India, Inggris, atau Amerika, yang penting adalah Anda menjadi bagian dari perus...

I have just updated my wish on 43things: http://www.43things.com/person/budi The new entry says that I want to do a stand-up comedy. No, I am not crazy. I want to do it. Just a few minutes ago I watched Richard Quest on CNN's Quest. He tried to do a stand-up (comedy) at Caroline's (?), which is supposed to be the place for it. But before doing that, he went to a school (for a week). Anyway, it looks fun. I want to do it. Job opening: comedy writer(s)

Diambil dari: http://rahard.wordpress.com/2005/12/25/akademisi-vs-industriawan/ Ada yang aneh dari hasil pengamatan saya (amatiran tentunya) terhadap pandangan akademisi dan industriawan tentang pengembangan sesuatu yang berbau teknologi tinggi (high tech; biotech, nanotech, dan *tech lainnya). Akademisi, yang biasanya diwakili oleh dosen, cenderung untuk berpikiran negatif. Ada ketakutan-ketakutan. Mereka sering berpendapat bahwa seharusnya kita meneliti (mengembangkan ilmu) yang low tech saja. Padahal, di kelas mereka mengajarkan ilmu yang bisa digunakan di high-tech. Apakah ini disebabkan rasa bersalah mereka karena telah dididik dengan ilmu yang “tidak bisa” (dalam kacamata mereka) diimplementasikan di Indonesia, sehingga mereka merasa harus berpihak ke sisi lain? Di sisi lain, industriawan umumnya berpikiran lebih positif. Saya melihat betapa seorang Iskandar Alisyahbana yang dengan terampil memotori perkembangan teknologi satelit di jaman dahulu (70-an?) dan kemudian melirik ke ...

Me and my 1st glasses. Taken Friday morning (just woke up - eyes are not adjusted yet - ha ha ha), front porch of our house. 

I was interviewed in Intisari magazine (December 2005 issue) on the security of Internet Banking. (See cover page on the left. "Transaksi aman Bank Internet, halaman 142 .) In the interview I said that the security of Internet Banking is already good enough. What do you think? 

Diambil dari blognya BHTV: bhtv.blogspot.com Percaya atau tidak, Bandung merupakan “talent magnet.” Tanpa iklan ataupun promosi besar-besaran, lulusan sekolah menengah atas di Indonesia berbondong-bondong menuju Bandung untuk sekolah. Kebanyakan dari mereka adalah juara kelas. Inilah “harta karun” dari Bandung. Mulai dari “The World is Flat“-nya Thomas Friedman, sampai ke “The Flight of the Creative Class: The New Global Competition of Talent“-nya Richard Florida, dan masih banyak buku serta tulisan semuanya membahas mengenai pentingnya talenta-talenta ini. Sumber daya alam, seperti minyak, bukan hal yang utama lagi. SDM yang utama. Mengapa hal ini sulit kita pahami? Sayangnya, hal ini kurang dimengerti oleh banyak orang sehingga talenta-talenta ini meninggalkan Bandung setelah mereka lulus. Alasannya sederhana, tidak ada bisnis dan lapangan kerja di Bandung. Itulah sebabnya BHTV melobby perusahaan besar (multinational companies) agar membuat perusahaan, research center, dan support di...

Last Wednesday, I gave a keynote speech at Cisco Security Summit 2005, in Jakarta, Indonesia. My speech was about " Compliance to ISO 17799 (or BS 7799, or ISO 27001). " Don't worry about the numbers. They don't mean much I am not sure whether it was good, so-so, or bad. I was on the stage with bright lights so I could not see the audience. I think there were more than 400 people in the room. The only measure I use as a feedback was when they laugh. That's a good sign. After the speech I was taken by some journalists for interview. So I ran out. The night before the presentation was tough for me. Tuesday, I had to go to a court in Surabaya (that's around 1000 km from Jakarta) as a security expert (witness?) in a cellular case. I took the last plane from Surabaya to Jakarta. I arrived at the hotel (Shangri La) around 10:00 PM (or so). I didn't have dinner and everything was already closed. So, no dinner for me. Fine. I am not that hungry anyway. I ate lots ...

Dari blog saya yang di rahard.wordpress.com Saya mendapat forward-an SMS yang intinya adalah sebagai berikut (tidak saya kutipkan persis): saya memantau para blogger di milis. mereka adalah komunitas yang cenderung tanpa tata etika. merekalah menjadi aturannya. di masa yang akan datang mungkin akan ada masalah lain. Welah. Saya tidak tahu milis mana yang dimaksud oleh SMS tersebut. Dugaan saya adalah milis id-gmail, yang saya sendiri tidak ikutan karena terlalu urakan . (Hoi para gajah! Gak boleh marah. Milis Anda memang urakan .) Mungkin urakan inilah yang disebut tanpa tata etika? Saya kok menduga bahwa yang bersangkutan memang tidak memahami maksud dan tujuan dari milis id-gmail tersebut, yaitu memang untuk urakan! ha ha ha :)) Saya yakin lebih banyak blogger Indonesia yang seperti saya, yang lebih senang duduk sendiri berkontemplasi kemudian menuliskan hasil pemikiran, renungan, atau lamunannya. Sangat tidak adil menuduh para blogger Indonesia sebagai sebuah komunitas yang tanpa ta...

It's official. I am wearing glasses now. I've been denying that I am old. (I am 43 now.) It is becoming more difficult for me to read small text (fonts). So, last week I went to check my eyes. Sure enough, I have to wear glasess (+1.25). Last night, I picked up my first glasses. Now, I am adjusting my life with glasses. (Picture will follow.)

[Note: Continuation of my trip to Singapore. I almost forgot to post this and the next one.] We left the hotel a little late, around 10:30 AM. We decided to go to Toa Payoh by MRT. We picked Toa Payoh because our daughter told us so. Being a bus interchange, Toa Payoh was a busy place. This was not a tourist place. It was a place where Singaporeans go, I guess. I went to a bookstore called “Popular” to get school supplies for my daugther. My son and I had lunch a Mc Donald’s. I opened my iBook to find for public Wi-Fi. I was told that Mc Donald's has public Wi-fi. I found “skynet”, but could not connect. I asked around but nobody knew how to connect. So, no Wi-Fi at Toa Payoh's Mc Donald's. From Toa Payoh we headed back to Orchard Road with MRT. We bought inexpensive gifts at Lucky Plaza. S$10 for 3 T-shirts. Keychains for S$1 each. While my wife went shopping, I went to Starbucks to get a tall Latte. Again, I opened my iBook to find wi-fi signals. I found four or five sign...

Let me start with this. I am a fan of Roine Stolt. He is the guitarist of The Flower Kings (Transatlantic and other bands). So, when I saw this Kaipa CD (with a sticker in front: "feat. Roine Stolt also of Transatlantic and The Flower Kings") at a music store, I have to buy it. It is expensive though (Rp. 227000 or US $22). That's 1/4 of my formal salary. Ouch. I am glad that I bought this, because this is a good album. It is progressive (or classic) rock in nature. If you like old Genesis (during Gabriel era), you'll love this band. It has lots of keyboard and guitar duels. Keyboards, music, words, and the like were done by Hans Lundin. I have never heard him before, but I like him. His compositions and music are exactly what I like. Melodic. Romantic. Well, you know, classic rock. For classic rock album, sometimes you have to play it many times before you actually like it. This is an exception. The first time I gave it a spin, I already love it. (Right now, it'...

Taken from my new blog: http://blog.efx2.com/user/budi/3181/view/10278/ I give presentations a lot. And I mean a lot! Most of my presentations are technical in nature, but many times (lately most of the time) are aimed at not technical audience (like managers, directors, shareholders, and the like). Yesterday, I did two inhouse presentations for a multi-national company. They were on network security. I don't want to brag, but they loved my presentations. My presentations rocked! Everybody laughed all the time, enjoying the presentations. How do I make my presentations understandable, fun, and yet not watered down? Do you want to know the secret? Ok, here it is: stand-up comedy. Believe it or not, I learned my techniques from Johnny Carson, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Seinfeld, and ... other (stand-up) comedians. I found out that it is difficult to do it. You have to have a good script (or at least a guideline). You can write it yourself or hire somebody else. In my presentation, I...

In earlier article, I wrote about problems in my other blogs (modblog, etc.). Now, it's happening on this blog. For some reasons I could not access the main page, gbt.blogspot.com , but the individual articles are just fine. That is, you have to get the articles directly not from the main page. Arrrggghhh. What's happening ...

Johar and Aie gave me this T-shirt. It says, "Be NiCE to me, or I'll blog you" Nice T-shirt. Thanks! There are two meanings of this. First, NiCE is our National Internet Conference and Education. An event that we organized last year (2004). This year we were supposed to make it happen. But, due to many things ... it didn't happen. Hopefully next year (2006), we'll have NiCE again. The second meaning, true to the words. Somebody has threatened me (with legal action) because I wrote about him/them in my blog. What I wrote is true, but they just don't want me to write it. I wouldn't budge. It's my freedom of speech. So, "be nice to me or I'll blog you" is actually true to the words. Blog is so powerful.

Saturdays are usually for meetings. Yes, we work on Saturdays. The reason is that in weekdays usually we (our team) are on clients' sites, securing their networks and systems. Saturday is the time we organize ourselves (and joke around - you know, the joy of start ups). This Saturday was the same, although some of us were taking a break (after pushing ourselves to the limit last week). I used the the time before the meeting to do some cleaning up (stack of books, magazines, CDs, emails, and other stuff). This time I had a chance to read articles from IEEE Spectrum, Biophotonics magazine (I love the pictures, a few pages of "The Search" (a book about Google, more about that later on), and a few pages from "Network Security Assessment." I had IEEE Computer in the queue, but didn't have the time to read it. After meeting, I played PS2 a bit with my son and then read some more. In the evening I had a meeting (and dinner) with a friend from Cisco to discuss their...

Do you think you need a large space to store your emails? Well, I do. My Gmail account is now more than 800 MB already. (I delete unused emails. I could only imagine if I keep junk emails in my mailbox.) So when somebody told me a while ago about 30gigs.com , I decided to give it try. At first, the system was slow and the user interface was confusing. But, I stuck with it. Now, it has a better user interface. At least, it is less confusing. One thing I notice is that it is VERY SLOW in receiving emails. For example, I applied for an account at Kinja . I gave 30gigs as my email address. Kinja said that I should check my email address for verification. Here I am, 30 minutes later on, still waiting for that email to reach my 30gigs account. I am not sure whether it will arrive (today? - note: the mail did arrive) or not. I decided to open another Kinja account. This time I use my gmail address. And sure enough, I checked my gmail account and the mail was there. I could continue with Kinj...

I dream too much. That's one of the comments I heard from many people. By dream I mean imaginating new postive ideas, ventures, activities, and so on. I always believe that dreams are important. They drive and motivate you. I was reading Thomas Friedman's "The World is Flat," and strucked the following paragraph: Analysts have always tended to measure a society by classical economic and social statistics: its deficit-to-GDP ratio, or its unemployment rate, or the rate of literacy among its adult women. Such statistics are important and revealing. But there is another statistic, much harder to measure, that I think is even more important and revealing: Does your socienty have more memories than dreams or more dreams than memories? By dreams I mean the positive, life-affirming variety. The business organization consultant Michael Hammer once remarked, "One thing that tells me a company is in trouble is when they tell me how good they were in the past. Same with cou...

There's nothing more I value than friendship. It hurts when somebody crossed my trust as a friend. It happened many times. Fortunately, I have many friends who stick with me in tough times. I am thankful for that. I am going to make sure that I would do the same thing to them; stay in good and bad times. Those who know me know that it is my trait. I am listening to Sting's song, "My funny Friend and Me." It's one of the songs in "The Emperor's New Groove," which is also a very good and touching movies. What else, it's about friendship. The lyrics touches me: But you stayed and you called my name When others would have walked out on a lousy game And you could've made it through ... We'll stick together till the day we die If I had to do this all a second time I won't complain or make a fuss You and I, we are friends forever.