Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

Technologies move so fast. We all know that, but we wouldn't realize it until we face with it. Like right now. I am cleaning my cupboards. Lots of books in it and, wait for it ..., compact discs. Whoa. I used to keep these CDs for backups. So, I am looking at some CDs and don't know what they have on them. The problem is I don't have a CD drive anymore. Actually I have in my desktop machine, but it has been disconnected. I am not sure if there are enough cables inside the machine to reconnect the drive. CDs were God sent. They were cheap and relatively reliable. Now, they're just useless. Everything is stored online. Do you have a "tech-dinosaur"-story?

Technology does help me to be more healthy. At least that's what I believe. For the last month, I've been wearing Mi (Fitness) Band. It's a bracelet that keeps track you movement. It records the number of steps you have done at a particular time of the day. It can also record the number of hours you are sleeping. But, I am mainly focus on the number of steps (and the associated kilo meters I have walked). I can synchronize the data with my iPhone. Here's an example of the result. I can set a goal in terms of the number of steps per day. I set it at 8000 steps. Usually, I couldn't make it. Ha ha ha. I usually go from my car to my office, which is probably only 500 meters from the parking spot. That's not enough to achieve 8000 steps. Sometimes, I purposely park my car further so I have to force myself to walk more. I also use Nike+ to track myself when I walk. But, Nike+ requires GPS and that sucks my battery really fast. So, I use Nike+ when I know t...

Earlier I wrote that Indonesians are switching from Facebook to Twitter. Many - mostly folks from Facebook - don't believe me. Well, what can I say. (I was right in predicting things since late 80s or early 90s.) Here's a newer statistics about twitter. The number one place of active twitter users in the world is ... Jakarta, our capital city. My city, Bandung, is "just" number 6 (six) on the list. Can you imagine this? Oh, you cannot since you're not here. Ha. Like I said, you guys (Facebook, Twitter, and all those internet tech companies) should have an office here. Just to smell the coffee and find out the trend for yourselves. Oh, coffee here is also good! :)

There has been a new development in tech start-up companies in Indonesia. Online media companies are taken by big companies. The recent take over is detik.com by Chairul Tanjung. Wow! (Some people think that this might be related to politics; as preparation of Indonesian election. Electronic media is important in Indonesia!) The investor scene is also buzzing. Here's an example of Indonesian tech investors . When I have more time, I'll write more on these. In the mean time, let's get the party going on. Woohoo ...

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).