Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Carlos mentioned in our mailing list about Guy Kawasaki's "Top 10 Lies of Engineers." It's quite funny. There are truth (not lies) in it! Here's the URL: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/04/the_top_ten_lie.html Read ... (and weep?)

Yesterday, I taught my Engineering Concept class in English. This class is for 1st year EE students in their 2nd term. Most of our textbooks are in English, so I should not be to difficult for students to understand English. At least, they should not have a problem reading English. Listening is another matter though. I don't know how difficult it was for them to understand my lecture. I do speak fast in Bahasa Indonesia and English. When I write and talk in English I don't translate the idea from Bahasa Indonesia to English. It just flows naturally. (My biggest problem with my English is my vocabulary. I don't use it often so that I am losing words. I should spend time with friends from India. Usually their English is good and sometimes it's even better than Americans or Brits. Anyway, back to the topic.) I think most of the students understood what I lectured yesterday. There were students asking questions in English. That's a good sign. In earlier class I told th...

I've just got some debian merchandise ... T-shirt, mug, and cap (got root?) Here is the picture. (ehm, ibook in the background. he he he.) So ... got root?

Last Wednesday (19 April 2006) I did a presentation at XL Business Solution Customer Gathering. The event was held at Le Meridien Hotel, Tanah Lot, Bali. Yes, Bali, land of paradise . (Photo on the right side was taken by Donny BU.) The place was beautiful. The place was surrounded by beautiful beach. I heard that sunset (around 5:30 pm) is beautiful. To bad when I was there it was couldy so I could not see the sunset. The weather in morning was cool. Breakfast outside, looking at the beach, was excellent. By midday, it was hot and humid. Evening was cool again. I arrived Tuesday evening. Actually, it was like midnight. The next day, Wednesday, I did the presentation and moderating a session. (For those who were present in the even, tell me about my presentation. Was it good? Send me pictures of me if you have.) The following day, Thursday, everybody went to play golf, fishing, or going to a spa. Leisure time. Me? I have to go back to Jakarta for another meeting. Arrrggghhh ... So, I ...

I've been watching people face on the street in Indonesia and Singapore. In Indonesia, I watched (and still watching) people walking on the street. In Singapore, I watched people on MRTs. One thing I noticed, these people do not smile! I don't know about Singaporeans, but Indonesians used to smile a lot. Something has hapenned to us that made us lost the smile. What is it? Hardship (of life)? But people in other countries are experiencing the same thing, aren't they? I could understand why Indonesians have less smile nowadays. (Although that does not mean that it is okay not to smile.) Our lives are becoming tougher, compared to years ago. But, Singaporeans? I thought they live better now. Places are clean and well organized. What's on their mind? Aren't they happy with what they have? Why there's no smile then? Let's smile (more) . . .

My next public presentation Sharing Vision: Menentukan Kewajaran Harga & Feasibility Pengadaan IT Tanggal: 27 & 28 Apr 2006 Tempat: Hotel Preanger, Bandung Bagaimana sebetulnya pembiayaan IT itu? Mengapa banyak kasus yang masuk ke KPK soal pendanaan IT? Bagaimana menaksir biaya hardware, software, konsultasi. Itu yang akan kami bahas dalam acara sharing vision yang dikelola oleh LAPI ITB ini. Pembicara adalah Dimitri Mahayana, Arry Akhmad Arman, dan Budi Rahardjo. Acara akan berlangsung di Hotel Preanger Bandung. Kontak: Intan, Agus, atau Yasser (022) 2534098 - Fax: (022) 251-4758 Selain itu sebetulnya saya juga memberikan beberapa presentasi, akan tetapi presentasi tersebut bersifat tertutup (internal companies plus pers).

I love music so much that at one point I think I wanted to become an artist. (Don't you?) Well, yesterday I dug in some old photographs related to music. So here they are. The first one is this very old picture taken in 1980. This is me with my drum kit in my bedroom. You could see the bunk bed in the back. My room was not sound-proofed. Of course it was loud. I don't know how our neighbour could stand us (me). Ha ha ha. I was skinny by then and had lots of black and curly hair. Now they are thin and dominated by grey hairs. Look at that T-shirt that says " We Believe in ROCK N' ROLL ". Nice. I did take a formal drum lesson in a music school, taught by a rock drummer. So, I knew drum partitur at one point. It didn't last long though, because I was so bored with many things at that time. I just jamming around with friends and family, renting studio basically, playing Beatles songs. I pushed them to play Styx ("Suite Madam Blue" anybody?) or Rush (...

When I visited my daughter in Singapore last month, we went to Secret Recipe restaurant. We ordered pasta and of course cheesecake. To tell you the truth, that was the real reason we went there. Cheesecake . If my wife found out, she would be furious. Well, that's too late now. She knew now. ha ha ha. Look at the picture. It was a Marble Cheesecake. (At the far side was Bannana cake. My daughter ordered that.) Oh, I love you cheesecake. I want more and more and more. Hi hi hi. Unfortunately, I could not eat to many of them because I am getting fatter. That's what my doctor (actually the diet expert who my physician referred me to) told me, but I don't agree. I am okay. Look at me. I am not that cubby, am I? Okay I am not that lean. I am only a couple kilogram over weight. But the bad part is that, I don't do regular exercise. When I have the time I walk up the hill around our house. That should be enough, right? The thing is, I am always busy with many things. Sometime...

Ah ... finally this afternoon, I finished reading " blink " by Malcolm Gladwell. It is a good book - there are many interesting facts that I am going to test - but not as good as his " Tipping Point " though. I wanted to write a review for it, but I don't think I have the time and energy to do it. I do have a list of good books list (in Bahasa Indonesia ). It's in http://budi.insan.co.id/buku-bagus . Tipping Point is listed in that page. I made an effort to go to Starbucks (at Ciwalk, Bandung) to finish it. It has been dragging me for quite a while. (It was in my backpack all the time, but for some reasons I just didn't have time to read it. I had to make time for it.) With a mug of caffee lattee , I gulped the last chapter. Done. Now I can move on to the next book(s) in my to-read-stack .

Last night I couldn't sleep! I don't know why. I decided to do something conventional, that is reading books and magazines instead of reading the Internet. I turned off my computer! Yes, it was hard for me. Let me go back to my "scientific root." I pulled three of the latest magazines I just received from the "to-read" stack (it's about two feet tall!) and grabbed whatever book on the table. Of course I also took my iPod nano while I headed to my bed. Let the fun begin. First, the book. It was " blink " by Malcolm Gladwell. I've been carrying this book like forever! I just could not get it going. I have bought other books since I bought " blink " and have finished a couple of them (one of the being the biography of Phil Collins, the drummer of Genesis). You've seen this blink book in many photos that I have taken and maybe more if I cannot finish it quickly. (Here's a link to the photo , and here's a clearer view .) Bl...