Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Thinking what lies ahead in 2008. Talk to me my box! Photo taken by Julianto Soeroso , somewhere in Jakarta.

Actually, I just want to post pictures. I don't know what to do with many of my pictures. They're siting in my disk, doing nothing. I guess, I'll post them on the internet.

Recently - well, not so recently - I talked to a friend of mine who is now living in the States. He is an American citizen and a successful businessman. He's now thinking of investing in new regions and at the same time becoming a philanthropist. When I asked him which region he was thinking, he said Africa. Why Africa? I don't know. Can somebody enlighten me? In another occasion I met with an investor (originally he started a company and was bought by a larger company - I am not naming name here. :) ). He visited Indonesia and met with me in Bandung. He's been around in the region looking for an investment area. You know what he picked? Vietnam. In a sense I should be happy that people in Africa and Vietnam are getting investment from abroad, but I am a little sad that not many come to Indonesia. What's wrong with us? I've been living in North America for quite a while (to know some of the culture - heck, I am a bit westernized in thinking and action) and traveled

I cannot live without (blog) comments. I have created (too many) blog postings and I am hungry for comments. So far, I am doing okay. Lots of visitors are coming into my blogs (especially to my wordpress-blog ). But, sometimes early in the morning, I check my blogs to see if somebody has read and commented on my blogs. Many times, I found nothing. Like right now (early morning). Maybe they're all still sleeping. Ha ha ha. Or it's just I am too addicted to internet and blogs. The thing is I am craving for comments. My digital life cannot live without comments. How about yours? twitting and kronning ...

I cannot get over this song, " La La (Means I Love You) ". There are many versions, but the one that I like is Swing Out Sister's version. In my other blog, I have been musing over this song multiple times. Ah ... what one can do? I could never say "I Love You". All I could say is "La La La" ... So, to my family ... "La La La". You know that I love you all! Here's a picture taken years ago, when my kids were still ... well, kids. They're bigger, even taller than me.

My cellphone has just died recently. Now, it's in a repair shop. There's a problem. I put most of my contact numbers in the phone. The memory of my SIMcard is limited. I could only store a few numbers (under 100). My contact list has more than 100 numbers. I did backup the content with the software that came in with the phone. The problem is, I cannot seem to run the software without the cellphone attached to my computer (through USB port). The program waited for the cellphone, which obviously not there. It's in the shop! Damn you program! All I wanted to do is run the backup / sync program and do a quick lookup of an address. I couldn't do it. I should have exported the contacts to a plain text or some sort of standard format. Is there a standard address book / contact format that is supported by major cellphone vendors (Nokia, Siemens, Sony Ericsson)?

It's official, the internet - and more specifically blog(ing) - is efficiently wasting my time. I spend too many hours in front of my computer creating blog posts or reading blogs of other people. I have not read newspapers more than six months, perhaps close to a year if I count subscribing to newspapers but didn't read them. Do I need professional help? ;-)

I like to study in a (little) noisy environment. For some (strange?) reasons, I feel that I am getting more if I do my work in public places. At home or places, where it's quiet, I am thinking of sleeping all the time. Ha ha ha. So what do I do? Well, I usually head down to Starbucks in Ciwalk or Bandung Super Mall (BSM). Yeah, many friends tease me of too much Starbucks (and not going to traditional coffeeshops). The thing is, I am not only looking for the cofffee alone, but I also want the environment. In those Starbucks premises, I could read books, reports, presentation materials, and other stuff. I got my reading "work" done. Here's an example of a photo taken at Starbucks Bandung Super Mall. Yup, an iPod is with me all the time. So, Starbucks lovers, if you're in Bandung you'll feel at home. There are plenty of Starbucks outlets. By the way, I don't work for Starbucks. I hope they'll give me a free supply of coffee latte for this endorsment. Ha h

This morning (and tomorrow), I am giving a presentation on IT Outsourcing. We looked at the landscape - looked at Wipro, Infosys, Tata, trend in China, (call center in) Phillipines, Vietnam, and what not. We evaluated why companies outsource (their IT). There was a question about Indonesia's postion in IT outsourcing. Well, we are not know in the world (yet), but there are some IT outsourcing companies. (I happen to run a small one :) ). We're in a different league, though. We then have the following chart to show our position: (The text is in Bahasa Indonesia. I just took a snapshot of the page.) In terms out positioning, I believe that Indonesia should focus on the "art" portion of IT. We are very different with the rest of the pack in terms of art (and taste?). At least, that's my gut feeling. (I rarely wrong. ha ha ha.) There's a longer story about this focus, but I have to find more time to write it down. It is easier for me to tell it in front of people.

Looking around at planet terasi , I found a link to IP's posting about top 100 Indonesian blogs . What's this? I headed up to the list . I found out that this blog is listed number 9 along with my wordpress blog (listed at number 8). Interesting. Two of my blogs (out of a dozen of them) were listed. I don't know the formula they use for the rank, but it's quite interesting. I noticed that there's something interesting. In my wordpress blog ( rahard.wordpress.com ) the rank in technorati is 10 millions, meaning it doesn't count(?). Hmm... that blog is actually more popular than this blog. Maybe I have to register the blog in technorati? Or, it's just technorati is not friendly with wordpress.com blogs? I am not sure (and I don't care). As long as my readers still visit my blogs and happy with them, I am happy. Apparently I have to claim that blog. It's done. But, for this blog, I have to claim by creating a link to: Technorati Profile I hope it work