Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

I looked around in my neck of the wood. It seems that youngsters want to become artists, singers, and the like. Basically they want to be in the entertainment industries. Nobody seems to be interested in engineering anymore. That's scary. Being an engineer, I love the idea of building stuff. Creating things. Building the world. Sometimes it is man againsts nature. It is not easy, but it is fun. Let me emphasize it again, it is not easy. Period. There is an illusion that being popular is fun. In reality, it is not always. It's a grand illusion. On the other hand, youngsters don't know what it's like being an engineer. Maybe we should write more about this. Tell stories. Heck, even make a great movie about it. No, not Inspector Gadget-kind of movie, but a cool movie. Any takers?

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).

It's that time of the year (again). School is back. I am teaching a couple courses this semester; one for undergrads and one for grads. As usual, I ask my students to create blogs. Assignment should be written in their blogs. They have to have blogs. No option :) Before, I had to bring papers home (and back to the office) if I want to mark their assignments. Now, all I have to do is access the net. It is interesting that most students mix personal writings and assignments. To me, this is interesting because I can see the other side of them, not just the technical (assignment) aspect only. Yeah, I have to go through some unrelated posts, but that's ok. Sometimes I even find interesting writings. So, my students, keep on writing!

I am teaching an IT course for non-IT students. It's a challenge, especially for me the teacher! Now, I am trying to teach number conversions. I have to teach them how to convert decimal numbers to binary (octal and hexadecimal) and vice versa. I know the theory, but I need a better explanation. Remember that this class is a non-IT class. I am looking for an animation or some sort to make the explanation simpler (better). Any pointers?

Just to let you know that I am teaching a new course this term. It's an " Introduction to Information Technology " course. You think that this is an easy topic for me, eh? Apparently not so. Well, I am familiar with the topic, but I have to follow the class according to the textbook. This is also a paralel class, which means I have to sync the class with the other classes. Since this is a new class, I have to prepare the course material. There are some power point presentation files from the publisher of the textbook, but they're ugly! (I don't understand why a good publisher could release such a crappy presentation materials.) Anyway ... I have to work hard(er). As if I have nothing else to do. Grrr...