Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Looking at the statistics of this blog, I realized that I am missing one of my targets. I wanted to write more for this blog, but in the end I have too many things to do so that I've been neglecting this blog. I did write many things but they are in my wordpress blog. Next year, which is starting tomorrow - ha ha ha, must be better. I want to write more. I want to re-design the blog. I want ... Well, I guess too much want is not good. I'll stick with simpler target; next year write more than this year.

There have been dreadful events lately. People are being killed for no apparent reasons. And, the fingers are pointed to Muslims (as the persons) and Islam (as the religion). All Muslims must be responsible for these actions. Since no Muslims are voicing their disapproval, then Muslims are supporting those actions. That's the message that I read in many news forums. Over and over again. And here I am. A Muslim. Confused. In my mind there is a clear message. No decent human would approve terrible actions done by those people. Note that I use the term "human" because it has nothing to do with religion, race, or whatever. We, human. All of us. (I always think about "human vs. nature" or "human vs. robots".) This (the disapproval) is so obvious to me that I think I (or Muslims) don't need to say it explicitly. It's as true as motherhood. Unfortunately, in this information age, people are too lazy to seek, read, think, and understand this...

Technology does help me to be more healthy. At least that's what I believe. For the last month, I've been wearing Mi (Fitness) Band. It's a bracelet that keeps track you movement. It records the number of steps you have done at a particular time of the day. It can also record the number of hours you are sleeping. But, I am mainly focus on the number of steps (and the associated kilo meters I have walked). I can synchronize the data with my iPhone. Here's an example of the result. I can set a goal in terms of the number of steps per day. I set it at 8000 steps. Usually, I couldn't make it. Ha ha ha. I usually go from my car to my office, which is probably only 500 meters from the parking spot. That's not enough to achieve 8000 steps. Sometimes, I purposely park my car further so I have to force myself to walk more. I also use Nike+ to track myself when I walk. But, Nike+ requires GPS and that sucks my battery really fast. So, I use Nike+ when I know t...

Ok, so I failed to update this blog regularly. My excuse is still the same, busy. No, I am not joing. I am super busy. I thought, when you're ageing, you're supposed to be winding down. I believed in that. But, again, I was wrong. Now, I am busier than ever. Yeah, I know, I choose to be busy. It is my fault. I am not supposed to complain and I am not. This is just to let you know what's happening in my life. These days, I am doing lots of things and wearing various hats. I am still a lecturer at the university (Institut Teknologi Bandung), still running business, and still contributing to society through various organizations. I cannot document all of the things I do, but trust me, there are a lot of them. ... and now ... back to my busy life ... (winding me up, just like Alan Parsons' song)

I guess nobody is listening at Google. Let me say it again. Gplus (g+) is not popular in Indonesia because it is VERY SLOW to open the page. That's the first problem. It takes me a while to open and interact with my gplus page. This is Indonesia. You have to come down here to understand it. (Google reps are in Singapore and only occasionally come to Indonesia. You wouldn't know the reality.) Second, it is difficult to interact in gplus. There is no notification and threads about the interaction. For example, if somebody comments in my post, I wouldn't know. I know there is a notification feature, but it is not as visible as Facebook, for example. I have more than 9000 followers in g+ and 5000 in Facebook, but there are MORE interactions in Facebook than in g+. In fact, there is close to zero interaction in my g+. Are you listening Google?

Want to know something hot in the Indonesia's start-up domain? It's Go-Jek . It's the Uber of Indonesia. What is Go-Jek ? It's an application to search for " ojek ". Ojek is a motorcycle transportation for public done by individuals. Or a motorcycle taxi. It's an Indonesian - or, I should say, Asian - thing. Many places in Indonesia are easier reached by motorcycle; streets are narrow. Motorcycles are much cheaper compared to cars. Everybody owns motorcycle here. And, if there are traffic jams, ojek is your best friend. It can get you there faster. Ojek is not regulated in Indonesia. Everybody can become an ojek operator (driver), while if you run a business using cars you have to get a license. It's a grey area. In any case, if think Uber can be illegal in Indonesia. Ojek is perfectly legal. You can also transport goods using ojek. It's a threat to courier business. By the way, this is yet another reason why you should be in Indonesia. T...

If you want to know, gemstone currently is very popular in Indonesia. I repeat, VERY POPULAR . There, I shouted. At least, this is true in Bandung. Everywhere you see, there's gemstone. Even on the sidewalk, people just open their own gemstone "store" or "boot". ("Lapak", in Bahasa Indonesia.) I believe, now the gift from Indonesia is "batu akik", the Indonesian's name for gemstone. To be frankly, I have no idea why gemstone is this popular right now. I've seen people wearing rings with gemstone from as far as I can remember. But, those days, they were not this popular. What causes this popularity?

There is a classic reason why I have not updated this blog, busy. Yes, I've been too busy with many things. No, really, I am not trying to make excuses. I am truly, really, busy. Sometimes, I wonder why other people seem to be relaxed. Nothing to do. But, then again I could be wrong. They might be busier than I am. Although, I doubt that. I know that there are people who are as busy as I am, and some are busier, but most people have simple things to do. Being busy is a choice. I cannot blame others but myself for being too busy. So, I guess, I should enjoy being busy. This is a good problem. Meanwhile, I should find time to blog again.

I hate it when people comment on my blog, but they don't actually want to comment. What they want to do is to put their link(s) into the comment so that they generate traffic and backlink to their site. It's one of those SEO thingy. Yes, I notice some of you are doing this in this blog. One thing I notice is that they don't actually read the posting (article). They just post their comments blindly. I suspect, some of them are also using some sort of tools to do it. Thus, it doesn't matter if I say this bluntly or not. They'll never read it anyway. If you do read this post, don't put comments unless you mean it.

Just tested Photoscape 3.7 under Wine under Linuxmint 17. Looked okay, but then when I edited an image ... preview of all images became broken greyscale. It looked like this: Don't know where to report. Posted here for the benefit of others. Any fix(es) out there?