Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Last week I was invited by Microsoft (Indonesia) in a small discussion. They have a guest from Redmon, Martin Taylor, who is the GM for Platform Strategy. We had a small roundtable discussion. Martin explained what his job is and his experience touring around the world. It was interesting that the people who were invited (four of us) were people who are slanted towards open source. I think the aim of this meeting is to understand more about IGOS (Indonesia Goes Open Source) movement. What's the main goal of this initiative? Can it be done without specifically use open source? Why limiting the option? Well, I am not part of IGOS, so I cannot answer those questions. (In fact, I have similar questions.) I pointed out that open source is not their "enemy". Perhaps, Mac OS X is. I am thinking of switching to Mac OS X. I don't feel the excitement with Linux anymore. GNU/Hurd is more interesting. You may laugh, but GNU/Hurd is coming along nicely. It's unfortunate I do...

I got this audio CD. The cover says it's Lee Ritenour "Alive in L.A." . Great. But, when I put the CD in my computer, Media Player says that it's " Kilauea featuring Daniel Ho: Diamond Collection ". Which one is right? The first song acording to Media player is " She Wore Diamonds ", but according to the cover is " A Little Bumpin' ." It's a jazzy song with accoustic guitar. So, I still think that Media Player is wrong. But listening to the rest of the songs, I am more convinced that this is Kilauea. The number of tracks matches Media player description. Either way, this is a great CD. I really like track 3, " Malibu Wave " (hopefully it is the right title). If I were to write more songs, this is the type of song I would write. (Unfortunately, I don't have the time and equipment to compose.) I think I want to know more about Kilauea. Time to check the Internet.

Ok, I'll confess. I've been watching Numb3rs lately. It's a story about an FBI agent with his brother, a math professor. The thing that I like is how they try to integrate math into the problem at hand. I am not a math expert. In fact, during my undergrad years, I hated math. Schrodinger and Maxwell equations gave me nightmares! I did poorly in math. I did love math (and numbers) since I was a kid though. I am not sure what happened in those undergrad years. My grad years brought back the interest in math to me. So, now I am interested in math. Another thing I like about this TV show is that it introduces scientist to laymen (although, I am not sure who the viewers of the series are). We use to see lawyers, doctors, and military personnels. Now, it's time for scientists. But, not the kind of absent minded professors. The "regular" scientists. In the future, perhaps, engineers?

I know the ins and outs of a computer. But somehow I still view it as magic. The fact that the parts interact with each others to do something is amazing. When I write a program, design a web, write a document, and tinker with electronics I can feel the thrill of creating something from nothing. The power of creation. The feeling is so strange. Strange magic!

I've been searching for a simple web tool to format HTML pages into a nice consistent web site. Available tools are (a) complicated, (b) require GUI, (c) require database, (d) must be dynamic, (e) written in language that I am not familiar with. All I want to do is create files and a directory and generate static pages. I don't want to tax my server with all those dynamic pages. Then, by following links to links to links (more like a breadth-first browsing), I stumbled this excellent tool: Blosxom . The slogan said, " the zen of blogging ." That's exactly what it is. It's a simple ( one ) perl script. (Okay, it is not simple, but what can you say to a 16715 bytes-sized script?) You have to check the web site for more information. Blosxom can generate a web site / blogs based on files located in a directory (and sub-directories beneath it). Blosxom (a) is simple, (b) does not require GUI, (c) uses regular files (no need to setup a database), (d) can generate st...

A snapshot of stacks and shelves of books that I have to read. The stack on the right side is actually on a chair. You can't see the bottom of it. It's a mess. Actually, it shows that I read them. 

When you published information on the Internet and Goggle & Yahoo have found it, is it possible to remove it? Here is the case. Our friends from Canada (Richard Lewko and Evelyne Bemben) were listed as still missing from the Tsunami dissaster in Thailand. Fortunately, they are alive and well in Canada. They were not in Puket at that time. They were in other areas. Their names are listed in web sites, such as: http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/04/email.appeals.thailand.i.to.o/ and http://www.tsunamis.com/missing-people-tsunami-disaster-thailand.html I have asked the web masters to remove the entry or to add comments that they are alive and well in Canada. Let see how it goes. In the mean time, I'll add the following information. Richard Lewko and Evelyne Bemben are alive and well in Canada. I hope this information is found at the top of Google & Yahoo search engines. They are getting a lot of phone calls. I hope this information can clear that.

Yesterday, I spent my whole day writing. I updated two books I am working on. I only got 15 pages though. The first book (on formal methods) was written in LaTeX and I have not used it for quite a while. I kind of stumbled here and there trying to memorize how to do things. I had to open a couple of books on LaTeX and browse CTAN . There were also a lot of equations to type. That didn't help. The second book, on information security, was a breeze to type but a lot of information I have to digest and type. I got around 10 pages on this one. Enough writing, or so I thought. Wrong! Today, I had to write again. But this time, I wrote draft of research reports and a proposal. (There are plenty proposals to write in the queue. Clients are waiting.) Again, a lot of typing and reading here and there. Late afternoon, a huge and heavy package arrived. It's from San Francisco. Pak Chandra Liem sent a huge box of books through pak Eddy Budisanto who are coming to Indonesia to visit his fam...

The first time I read Simon Singh's book was "The Code Book". That book is about the history of secret messanges. It is a very readable book. I enjoyed it very much. He could explain complex things in an easy to understand, without too much watering them down. This is the same approach I take in my teaching. How do I explain this complex things (formula, ideas, concepts), so that my students could understand? Then, I realized that he wrote "Fermat's Enigma," which is also very readble book. Again, I enjoyed the book. Last week, while wandering around in a book store, I stumbled upon his third book, "Big Bang: The Origin of the Universe." It's the hard cover edition. A bit expensive and too big for my knapsack, but I just had to pick it up. So I did. Now, I just have to find time to read it. I think I am going to enjoy reading this book. By the way, you can visit Simon Singh web site for more information.

While browsing Andika's blog , I found a link to Blogshare . Actually, I found a link to my blogs being traded at Blogshares. Hmm, it looks interesting. So I joined them. Blogshares is a virtual trading place where blogs are considered public companies. We can buy and sell "blog shares". The value of the share depends on many things, including the number of inbound and outbound links. You can add your blogs to the list of traded blog companies. I found that my web site ( budi.insan.co.id ) has a high-priced value, while the other one ( gbt.blogspot.com ) was just starting. I didn't have shares in those two blog companies. I claimed them, and got 1000 shares in each blogs. Now, I am adding my other blogs (as you know, I have too many of them, such as my blog at modblog , at tblog , at multiply , at Yahoo 360 , at ITB , friendster, and many more). We'll see how it goes. Since I started with a very small amount of money, I could only buy shares that are of low value....

I don't write blog entries as often as I wanted. I'd like to write more, but there are too many things to do at this point in time. And another thing, writing takes too much time and effort. I have this believe that if I write something - be that a blog entry, an email, a book, a poem, a short story, a comment, or even a one-liner - it has to be worth reading for. I have taken your time (to read) and my time (to think and write). Time is so precious. We cannot take it back. I have no patience with people that are taking too much time to get into the point. So, whatever I write it must be direcet and have an impact, a meaning, or touch our hearts and souls. If not, it's useless. Don't bother writing it down. As a result, I am not as productive in writing as I want to be. But, it's alright. A small number of ideas, but potent!

Macnoto lent us an iMac. It has been sitting in our sarang for a few weeks. I haven't had a chance to play with it since I was way too busy with things. When I had a chance to play, it was converted to GNU/Linux Debian by Andika . Well, Linux is Linux. Although, it is impressive, I didn't want to play with it. I logged in into the iMac, but it was no different than my Intel-based Debian. My encounter with Mac was way back in 1987 when I did my grad studies. I even played with Linux on PowerPC sometimes around 1996 or 1997 or perhaps earlier. At that time, when I typed fdisk (or was it df ?), then system went panic. It reminded me of my earlier experience with GNU/Hurd . It went panic with df . Anyway, I don't want to play with this iMac in GNU mode. I want to play it native! So, today, I have a chance to try it. Andika has restored this iMac into dual boot mode. I rebooted the machine in the Mac OS X mode, and here I am typing this entry on a iMac with Safari. I hate to...

[I posted this earlier, but didn't make it to blogspot. sigh] The last two weeks have been hectic for me; preparing and making presentations, reports, teaching classes, and work. By the time I got home, I was too tired. I didn't have time to read books or magazines. I did read stuff. But, those are the stuff that were related to work. It felt different. Now, I have a spare time to read books. (At least, for a couple of days.) Last night, I took three books and a magazine to read before I got to bed. I picked the first book. Read a few pages and fell into sleep. Dang.

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...

I was reading a book. It was in "the about the author" section, where there is a list of work the author has done, when I had to stop. Should I read this long list of stories, novels, that the writer had written? Do I really want to know? Or to be exact, do I need to memorize them? I always have this idea that if I use my brain too much it will detoriate. It's like using a floppy disk too many times. It wears out. Thus, if I memorize things too much, my brain will wear out? I don't like to memorize things for this [silly?] reason. Or, if you use a battery - charge and discharge - too many times, the quality will go down quickly. But is our brain really like that? On the other hand, if I don't use (anything), then whatever it is it will not function proprely either. An example of this is exercise. I don't work out regularly. So, when I play badminton with my kids, my body aches. I concluded that if I don't use my brain regularly, it won't be in a good ...