Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

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.

This shot was taken with my brand new Nokia N8. Not bad at all.

Okay I am blown by the look and feel of Flipboard (on iPad). I was wondering if anybody would be interested in developing blogspot theme that looks like Flipboard? Please, please, pretty please ...

It's a beautiful Sunday morning in Bandung. Clear sky with cool breeze (I think it's around 20 degree Celcius). Time to jog and take some photos around the house or nearby sites. So here it is ... There are beautiful houses in my area, which is quite hilly. You can see the sourounding mountains. And on a different neighborhood, I found these beatiful houses Good morning folks ...

I am blown by Flipboard application on iPad. You just have to see it to believe it. Basically, it takes data from your social network streams (twitter, facebook, etc.) and layout the content in a magazine like display. You can flip between pages just like you flip a magazine. The thing is, they layout the data in an elegant fashion! Now, I am looking for Flipboard application for my Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux :) Please somebody, write one ...

Bandung is so cold this morning. I posted this in my facebook status and then there was a question, is this winter? or is this compareable to winter? Obviously, it is not comparable. Especially, if we were to compare this to Winter in Winnipeg (place where I lived for a while). Now, do I miss winter? I don't know the answer to this question. There were times that I hate winter with passion. But, there are times when I remember the good winter times. Especially, spending time with friends and family. Once in a while I do get dreams about winter time. I don't know if you could interpret that as missing winter. So to answer the question, my answer would be ... maybe :)

This week is a busy week for me. Many things to do starting from early morning (like 3 AM) till night (like 11 PM). Good thing I am in good health so I can cope with the schedule. Thank God for that. Perhaps it is the end of the year, where everything is kinda must be closed. Projects must be closed. Courses must me marked. Financial reports must be generated. And such. Next week? We'll see. I have turned down some offers (to give presentations and such). I don't think I can handle that. Hey, I need a break. I am not a robot (am I?).

Sometimes people do not understand the reason(s) that I do certain things. They are usually simple and yet, people don't get it. For example, I help people just because it is the right thing to do. Or, I give respect to a dead person because of respect (among humans). The thing is, many people do things just to impress other people. When there are people around, they look like doing things. But when they are no people looking, they'll stop doing. I think, that's wrong. But, who am I to judge? I'll keep doing things the way they are now ... They make me happy and I think that's the most important thing.

For some reasons, I got the feeling that access to my other blog ( rahard.wordpress.com ) is slower. Maybe they're getting too many users? Or is this just my feeling? Samething with twitter. What's going on? Is the slowness happening only on my end? (that is, too many users in my area / Indonesia?) Oh well ...

[taken a couple hours ago around the house. bandung, 5 december 2010] Good morning ...

yesterday, I was asked to tutor a bunch of students on how to give presentation in English. Mind you, English is not our first languange. Heck, it is probably our third or fourth languange. So, it was a challenging situation - an undestatement. On top of that, my tutorial was part of a 3-day tutorial. I didn't know what was given before my sesion. The session started with a contunuation of previous session, which was making a presentation. (Again, I didn't know what they were taught before.) So, I went along. Then, it was the presentation session. I divided the class into 5 to 6 person groups. There were 6 groups. And I told them that each of the member has to talk in front. How they divide was up to them. Presentation was set at 18-minutes/group. I asked the group to come forward one by one and I took notes of their presentations. At the end we discussed their presentations. The result was okay. All of them made their presentations in time! It was amazing. I was afraid they wo