Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Sunday, 27 March 2011, I gave a presentation at TEDx Bandung . If you don't know what TED is, check this out. My topic is " Digital Entertainment in Indonesia: the future of ". In essence, there are research and bussiness opportunities in Indonesia. Our culture is so much different, in that entertainment is our lives. It was a great event, with interesting speakers. I was told that the video will be available and uploaded. Will see... I am going to upload my presentation material this weekend.

I have close to 5000 friends in my facebook account. Facebook does not allow me to add more friends. I guess they have design issues related to this. Let me give you and example. If I want to do something (say tagging a photo) which requires a list of names, it is so slow. It tries to download the list of all friends that I have (including their icons / avatars). I could imagine what 5000 friends will do. This is even worse with slow internet connection like what I have (and perhaps what other people have in developing regions). Imagine if I have 10.000 friends :) and this is possible. I've been ignoring friend requests because I just couldn't add more friends. Currently there are more than 500 requests waiting. Almost all of them are legitimate requests. And why I get all these friend requests? Well, I hate to admit it but I do quite a bit of talk (to univesities' students, etc.) and in each talk there are more than 100 people. If 10% of them want to be friends with me, t...

[effects are in the bag] These were the gears Luqman dan I took to our gig yesterday.

I think Simon said it a while back, your show has to be memorable (hopefully because of good not bad). So, I am using that criteria to measure yesterday's performance. For me, the last two performances, James Durbin is the best. Maybe it's because I love rock music and get it? But, I think James has a great vocal. I thought he can only scream, but yesterday's performance - Maybe I am amazed - shows that he can control his voice. My vote for him ... My other fav contestant is Thia ... (but yesterday's performance was okay only).

CrackBerry visited Mangga Dua Mall in Indonesia and was surprised by the number of stores selling BlackBerry :) Check this video out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OB0lquizhE This is what I said in earlier post; you won't believe it until you are here and see it for yourselves. But, next time you'll come here, it would be Android all over ...

I know that all markets are different, but Indonesian cyber market is quite unique. People outside Indonesia don't know that Indonesia is the biggest market of BlackBerry products. Or that we rank #3 in the number Facebook users. The most important thing is why? I believe the answer to this question is related to our culture. For example, we tend to talk not to write. When people have minutes of meeting in writing, we don't have one :) [no, I am not joking.] Perhaps, we are more youtube than wikipedia. Our lives are mostly entertainment, not a learning one. If Westerners get a bigger bandwidth, they will think of distance learning. But for us it is time for karaoke online or online games or online chat :) Do you know the main driver of BlackBerry success in Indonesia? It's because of women and facebook. That was the main, original, driver. Many Indonesian women bought Blackberry to chat with their friends through Facebook. And when I say, chat, it is really really intense...

Last week I was asked to give a lecture at IT Telkom . The topic was " IT Audit ". I just had to squeeze this into my busy schedule (and I wasn't feeling well at that time). The class went okay. I am receiving emails from students asking guidance (what to do after they graduate). Well, this is actually another topic. On a side note, during the class there were only two questions from the students, but now I am receiving a few emails. I guess this is an-Indonesian culture thing :) [do not ask in class]. Oh, maybe this is an Asian thing. I took picture some of the students: here it is ... Outline of my presentation is here (at scribd and slideshare).

The meeting that I had yesterday (I can say yesterday because now it is 2 AM and technically it's already another day :) ) got me excited. It brings back the energy and spirit in me. It reminds me why I went back to Indonesia (instead of staying abroad). And when I got to this zone, I want to write. Thus, I blog. Even though I now I should be sleeping right now. There are many things that I want to write, but first I have to show to the world that I believe in our technical abilities. Do I really believe it? He**, yes! I met many tech savvy persons. Some of them were my students. My biggest problem is to keep them in Bandung. They go abroad and become the asset of those countries :( But what can I do? I don't have the money (and toys) to keep them in Bandung. I wish Google would open their research lab in Bandung. [Head spinning. Too many ideas and things to write ... and that's a good thing!]

I've just finished having an informal discussion with Steven Koltai, a Senior Advisor for the US State Department in charge of Global Entrepreneurship program. We talked about many things, but manily I talked about Bandung - or why Bandung is the tech center of Indonesia. There are so many things that I wanted to talk but could not because of time. He had to go back to Jakarta. Then it dawned on me that I should write things in smaller bits, so that they are more digestable. I could use this blog to do that. It would be useful not just for Steven, but for others who are interested in learning about tech-related situations in Indonesia. Wish me luck (so that I have time and energy to do it).

It looks like that I photo food a lot. The reason is very simple, there are always food around me :) So I just have to photograph them. (Some thing with flowers, actually.) Maybe I should learn (and focus) more on food photography?

I am typing this while serving as a jury on an e-government award. It is interesting to see how e-government is becoming better. (I wanted to say more mature, but it is still a long way to go.) Most e-government applications are related to citizen complaints or permits-related.

These are pictures of food that I have taken recently. Look at their colors ... wow!

There will be times when we have differences (in opinions, ways to do things, etc.). It is sad if those differences can break relationships and friendships. The most important thing is that we don't have bad or malicious intention toward each other or do things that make the other parties ill feel. Folks, I hope we can have long lasting relationship and friendship.

This year I've been blessed with new photo gears. They are: Pentax Optio H90 (pocket camera) Nokia N8 (cellphone) Nikon D3100 (DSLR) I bought the Pentax as a replacement for my great Samsung L730. My daughter took the Samsung. Pentax Optio H90 is an inexpensive digital camera, yet it can produce great photos. The next one, Nokia N8, was given to me as a gift. The quality of its camera is superb. It even beats the Pentax. Of course, N8 has 12 Megapixels and Carl Zeiss lens. The next one is Nikon D3100. I've always wanted to have a "real" camera. After asking questions and reading various reviews, I decided to get Nikon D3100. It's a great camera. So now, I have no excuses but to produce great photos. Now, if I can only do that ... :)

I was looking for new (and better) twitter client(s). So, I started googling with the terms "best twitter clients". Suprisingly, there was only one article dated 2010. There rest were dated 2009. Does that mean "there's no new twitter client?" Or, the best twitter client is still the best. Or, nobody wrote a newer article. Which one is it? So, what's the best twitter client? Or, is there a newer twitter client around? BTW, I am still using seesmic.com web interface.

This is to let you know that Vol.2/No.2 (2010) of the Internetworking Indonesia Journal (IIJ) has been published. You can see the papers at the following site: http://www.internetworkingindonesia.org/iij-current-issue.html We would like to thank you again for your papers and for your support of the IIJ. We hope the IIJ can one day become Indonesia’s national journal for the field of ICT and Internet development. We look forward to receiving your future papers. On behalf of the IIJ, we wish you Happy Holidays and best wishes for New Year. Regards. Thomas Hardjono (MIT) Budi Rahardjo (ITB) Kuncoro Wastuwibowo (PT Telkom)

It amazes me to see how many people claim that they are experts in {social network, tech gadgets, ... name what you like}. Reading their blogs doesn't convince me that they do. Most of these people did not even work in the field, nevermind starting companies in that field. Me? I don't know. I am a builder (meaning I code and also start [tech] companies) but I also dreams (meaning I envision things and convince people to get into the bandwagon). Most of the time I do things based on my guts (and previous success or failures) and then looking for the theory behind what I did. Most of the time, a few years latter somebody found the theory behind it. And only by then, the "experts" started to yap ... Oh well ...

I think holidays are overrated. To me, holiday is just another day. Instead of working on campus or client site, I work at home (or whatever places that I want to be). That's the difference :) Maybe I am lucky to have a working environment that is like this; work, play, family, friends, hobby, etc... they blend in. I don't have to separate things. And I do love what I am doing.