Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Do you want to know the statistics of my main web site ( budi.insan.co.id )? Here it is. Notice that the montly traffic is quite huge ! Summary by Month Month Daily Avg Monthly Totals Hits Files Pages Visits Sites KBytes Visits Pages Files Hits Mar 2006 7041 3723 1755 692 18670 44678393 21482 54424 115417 218294 Feb 2006 4874 2651 1531 783 18537 24163775 21930 42889 74241 136496 Jan 2006 6381 3500 1670 628 17779 35715341 19479 51776 108508 197834 Dec 2005 6101 3119 1492 549 14681 39218593 17024 46272 96709 189145 Nov 2005 712 410 189 62 3600 3139710 1818 5505 11914 20652 Totals 146915812 81733 200866 406789 762421

Finally, I've got my Google Analytics invitation approved. Horray. I put two sites in the analysis: (1) gbt.blogspot.com (obviously) and (2) budi.insan.co.id . I want to put my other web sites and blogs under Google Analytics, but could not do it since I have to insert a small script (provided by Google Analytics) in the web site. Sometimes I don't have the ability to do that. For example, I wanted to add my blog at rahard.wordpress.com , but wordpress.com does not allow the user to edit the template. (Any idea how to get around this?) Anyway, I am fiddling with the result now.

I've just got three music DVDs; (1) Transatlantic - Live in Europe, (2) The Flower Kings - Meet The Flower Kings, and (3) Yes - Symphonic Live. These are great musical DVDs for classic progressive rock lovers. Right now I am enjoying watching and listenting to the first DVD, Transatlantic - Live in Europe . It's awesome! I forgot where I knew Transatlantic the first time, but the players of this band are big names; Mike Portnoy (drummer of Dream Theater), Peter Trewavas (bassis of Marillion), Roine Stolt (guitarist of The Flower Kings), and Neil Morse (keyboard player of Spock's Beard). The nicest thing about this band is that they are different with their own bands. Transatlantic has its own nice, excellent, awesome sound! Before getting this DVD, I already fall in love with their song " all of the above " which shows that they are virtuoso in their own domains. After hearing and watching the live version of " duel with the devil " I also really love t...

One of the highlights of my last trip to Singapore is going to band performance of Sekolah Menengah Anderson. My daughter bought the ticket for both of us. So we went there on Saturday evening. We took MRT to Ang Mo Kio and walked from there. Apparently the place is not far from the MRT station (but enough to make you sweating ha ha ha). The big band, Anderson Military Band, was excellent. The players (I don't know how many. Maybe 40 or 60 students?) seemed to enjoy the music. So did the audience. I lost the booklet which has the list of songs they played. There was classic, pop, and even swing. Anyway, we enjoyed it.

Before this it was Gmail. Now, it is Google Page. Reliability? Can't complain because it is a free and BETA service right? Wrong!

[Picture of me during company's yearly meeting. Smiling. Does that mean we are doing okay? Yes, we are!] One of the things that I do in my company is providing vision and direction . Even though we are a small start-up company, we have a yearly meeting. During this meeting I talk about our vision. In my opinion, company without direction is like a (star) ship without direction. Lost (in space?). A few days ago, I was browsing books at Singapore's National Library when my eyes struck on Louis V. Gerstner's book " Who Says Elephant Can't Dance? " There is a sentence in the inside sleeve that bothers me: "The last thing IBM needs right now is a vision" Boom! What does it mean? Not having reading the book I do not understand what he means. (I wanted to read the book, but right now I already have more then a dozen books waiting to be read. In due time I will read it.) The question is, "when do we need a vision and when do we don't?" Can ...

Have a look at http://007google.com/BudiRahardjo.aspx Interesting ...

Now, it's Google's gmail turn. Server / service reliability is a problem. I've been getting this error: 502 Server Error Server Error The server encountered a temporary error and could not complete your request. Please try again in 30 seconds. Arrrggghhh . . . I am counting on gmail for my emails. Now, I have to rethink again. I need to access my gmail account badly. (I have to get an address there.) It seems that my own server is more reliable for this. Hmm...

I always tell my students to find the most suitable ways to study. Sometimes, they way we study (or work) may look strange to "normal" people. So be it. Don't worry about it. I remembered a story about a poet who always use paper with different colors when he typed his poem on his typewritter. (I guess this is a pre-computer/Internet era, eh?) He did that to make him more productive. There is no direct relation between the color of papers and productivity. You'll be crazy to research about this. So, now here's what I do. I like fonts a lot. So when I type something on my computer, sometimes I use different fonts . At the end of the day, I converted the fonts back to the "standard" ones so that whatever I write - reports, papers, or just notes - can be shared and worked on by other people. That is why the use of " paragraph styling / formating " in word processor is important to me, because with one change I could change the whole document. Man...

I like reading my emails with fixed-width fonts . Gmail by default does not provide this feature. So, I have to tweak my browser, Firefox, to accomodate this. Early on I edited Firefox *.css to do this. But that would mean I have to edit those CSS on every computer I am on. Besides, other people who use the same computer (and firefox) may not like the configuration. I am glad that I found this greasemonkey script (from persitent.info) that can be used to toggle the fonts in gmail. After installing this script, there is a " Toggle Font " link in the right side of my email. I can click on it to switch to fixed fonts and back as needed. The nicest thing about this is that other people can use the same Firefox with their own configuration. Now, if only greasemonkey works on other browsers ( Safari , Camino , Flock , Opera ). Yes, I have five browsers in my Apple iBook and Mac mini!

I put both my iPod nano and cellular phone (Nokia 6230) in my shirt pocket. I noticed on several occasions that if I received an SMS the volume of my iPod suddenly was turned down . Has anybody noticed this? I don't know whether this is by design (a feature?) or an accident (a bug). In one occasion I cannot control the volume after that (the respon was slow). So, I am assuming that this was not by design. I even affraid that this could harm my iPod in the future. Good thing the volume is turned down not up ! Otherwise I would hurt my ears. How does it work, anyway? Why is it happening? Can electromagnetic wave effect the volume of my iPod? I want to know the physics (theory) behind it. Hints?

I decided to starting-up again! This time I am going to dive into selling digital music (or anything digital for that matter). I am looking for Indonesian Indie Bands! If you know (or you are) an Indie Band, or artists without labels and want to join us, send me an email at: rahard @ gmail.com We will promote, sell, and manage your songs. Let's grow together.

There is a chance that I am visiting Singapore 16 March through 19 March 2006, Thursday through Sunday. I am just visiting my daughter. I've got an idea ... Would there be an interest to have a discussion with me in Singapore? Perhaps we can have a discussion on: Internet in Indonesia Education / R&D in Indonesia (or in Singapore) Story of high-tech initiatives (such as Bandung High-Tech Valley) or specific topic that I know such as security If there's an interest, I've got more questions: Is there a place that we can use for free (or cheap)? Maybe on campus? What would be the preferred time? Morning? Noon? Evening? What day? (I am coming on Thursday, so that is probably out of the question. Friday? Saturday? Sunday?) Or ... perhaps there's no interest at all. In that case, I could just enjoying myself (searching for books and food). Drop me an email.

while waiting for a meeting, here is what I brought with me: iPod nano, book (currently reading "blink"), and coffee latte. ahh... heaven... foto taken at wisma/hotel sawunggaling, bandung, 3rd march 2006.

A picture of my cassette collection. Most of them are progressive / classic rock, hard rock, and fusion jazz. I've been buying tapes since I was in high school (late 70s). Then I moved to Canada (in 1987). My collection stopped. Now, they are replaced by CDs and MP3s. Some of them are really old (vintage?) tapes that are not available in stores. (Examples: Khan "Space Shanty" anybody? Brand-X, Ekseption, Angel, London Symphony Orchestra - plays Classic Rock) So, right now I am trying to convert them to MP3 format. Some of them are in a bad shape. Humidity (and ants) is my enemy.