Gerakan Bawah Tanah - Mr. GBT

In a WhatsApp group discussion, we were talking about Def Leppard. One thing led to another, I found out that most of my friends stopped listening to Def Leppard after the Slang album. Not sure why. Yes, Def Leppard older albums are great albums, but they also have good songs in latter albums. I decided to create a (play)list of Def Leppard from their newer albums. Taste is something you cannot argue. Thus, my list may not be what you like, but at least it is an attempt to keep people who may have the same taste but did not know that there are good songs in newer Def Leppard albums. So here is the list ... (From time to time, I am going to update this.) Love (the Sparkle Lounge album) Unbelievable (from X) Let me be the one (from X) Take What You Want (from Diamond Star Halos)

 This is my first post in 2023. It's January 1st. This blog is actually my first blog after doing a lot of homepages - that's what they were called at that time - with a lot of HTML codes. Blogspot was one of the first blog services that I use in 2002. Yes, this blog is older than some of you, 21-years old. Although I have not updated this blog regularly - kinda neglected in a way, I am still keeping this. This is one of those relics that is still around. Standing still. Oh, btw, this blog was considered one of the top-10 blogs in Indonesia in 2005. You wouldn't believe it. But then again, maybe there were only 10 blogs at that time. Alas.

It takes time to heal when you're older. Physically, that is. But, mentally, the time it heals could be the same. It may even be possible faster. This creates frustration. Mentally, you are ready to work, but physically you're not ready. Aaarrrggghhh.

Many people ask questions because of many reasons; to look smart, to look important, or to test another person ... other things. On the other hand, I ask questions because I don't know. As simple as that. Most people would not believe that because they think I know many things. That is true, but when I learn new things, they are usually come with new questions. So, if originally I have 5 questions and answer 1 question, I actually end up with 3 more questions. Now, I have 7 questions. The number of questions grows. I don't mind that I have more questions than when it was started. That is not my problem. The problem is that people do not want to answer my question because they think that they are being tested. They become defensive and I don't get the answer. That is the reasons for me writing this blurb. So, I asked a question, I do need help finding the answer(s).

Yes, I am still alive and well. But, how come I seemed to abandon this blog? My energy was focused on my YouTube channel. It's in https://youtube.com/user/rahard. Year 2020 and 2021 were the time I was trying to understand the YouTube behavior. Now, I got it up and running. It is time to resurrect my blogs; this one and the one in medium. Blogger (Blogspot) seems to be way behind Medium in terms of user experience (and look-and-feel too). Thus, I am inclining to write on my Medium account. I just wish there is a way to make me interested to write in this blog. Really. Maybe a better template? Or at least, look and feel. Oh well.

 It is official that I am having difficulties in keep on blogging. These days I am doing vlog almost everyday. My way to create vlog is just shoot the video and upload. No edit. That is way I am so productive in generating vlog. This used to be time consuming, if I have to do more edits. I am still trying to keep this blog. I should post more, which is at least one a month. No promises, though. So, see you next month. Or earlier. Ha ha ha.

I've been searching for ways to do podcasting. Years actually, but I could not find an easy way to do a podcacst. I am a techie person. If I cannot do it, then it is going to be difficult for ordinary person to do a podcast. Enter anchor.fm. I am not sure how I came across anchor.fm, but this is the solution that I am looking for. If you want to do a podcast, all you have to do is record your voice in a file and then upload the file to anchor.fm. That's it. They will distribute your podcast to all kinds of podcasting sites. Spotify is one of them. Interesting. Then, I realized that anchor.fm is actually part of Spotify. Ha. Now, I am podcasting. It's in here: https://anchor.fm/budi-rahardjo What I do is actually take the audio part of my YouTube videos and upload them to anchor.fm. Most of my YouTube videos do not need the video parts. They can be listened to. So, that's what I do. Enjoy.

Last night, I was part of a discussion on the new WhatsApp (WA)'s privacy policy. What is the impact to all of us. My points were actually the same as the one posted in my blog. ( Here . In Bahasa Indonesia.) It's just a different audience and different way of delivering the content.   Anyway, I hope the event is useful to the audience. On to next topics.

For the last a couple of weeks, I've been wasting my time watching Netflix. Our family has subscribed to Netflix a few months ago, but we didn't watch it seriously. At least, I didn't. But, for the last weeks (I think it's more than 2 weeks) I have been watching Netflix. What do I watch? Many things. Nothing new, actually. For example, yesterday I have just finished watching Sherlock Holmes, the TV series. I should list movies that I watched. Just for the references. Classes are starting today. I am teaching 4 (or possibly 5) classes. I should stop watching Netflix. But, I wouldn't cancel my subscription yet. I know it is expensive compared to Disney's Hotstar. I know. Let's just wait and see.  

My telegram feed shows a lot of people subscribing to Telegram. What gives? Apparently, many people are starting to install Telegram because they are worried with the latest WhatsApp's privacy policy update. (I should put links here.) So, that's it. In short, in my opinion there's no need for the migration. I have an explanation in a video, but it's in Bahasa Indonesia. It's here. Now, back to the "euphoria" (if you can call it that). Would people start abandoning WA (WhatsApp) and switching to Telegram? Is it for good? I don't think it is happening. It's like abandoning Microsoft Windows for Linux. Linux is as good as Microsoft Windows. (In my personal opinion, Linux is actually better, but this is from a techie person who have been using Linux since its early stage. I am biased.) Have you seen majority of people migrating to Linux? No. People are staying with Windows. Why? Because, we are used to Windows. Linux as a nice desktop too, but it is no...

Here is my "problem", if you can consider this a problem. For some reasons, I feel that I am wasting my time if I am reading. There are many books and other documents that I need to read. Not want, but need. I have to. However, I feel  like I should be writing instead of reading. But to write something I have to know it. How do I know the subject if I don't read it? This "problem" has been there for quite sometime. Because of this I am actually wasting my time; not reading and not writing. I guess, I have to read and give it a time (and schedule) so that I know that I am working. Reading is working . That's what I should have felt. It is still a problem for me to digest that. Reading is working. Reading is working. Reading is working. Maybe if I say it many times, I will believe in it.

 Happy new year, 2021. This year I have a new resolution. Usually, I don't have a resolution. This year, I am going to write more in this blog. I am going to challenge myself. In my other blog (the one with wordpress.com), I challenge myself to write daily. I want to do the same thing here, but I don't think I could do that. So, I am not going to go there. But, I do want to write more. It's just not daily. On my social media front, this is what I am starting with this year.   Let's go!

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?

Some of you may know that I do quite a bit of presentations. Some of the are private or for internal organizations, but many times they are open for public. As an example, the next "presentation" (actually discussion) is on electronics industry in Indonesia. What are the issues relating to that?   I am going to have a discussion with pak Adi Indrayato whom I know for quite a while. We went to the same school since 1982. He is the best person to talk about the electronic ecosystem.This discussion is going to be in Bahasa Indonesia though. So, if you want to know more about electronics industry, then be there (or be square).

I am lucky. I am in the right place and in the right time (for certain kind of technologies). I had this feeling when I had access to a NeXT computer and was introduced to WWW during its infant stage. The same thing with Linux. But, that's another story. Right now, I am in Indonesia, one of the "biggest" internet community (market) in the world. If you have a product to test or a market to penetrate, Indonesia is the place. To see how big it is, have a look at this stats.   There are many countries that are smaller compared to Indonesian's netizen (cyber citizen). Even if the whole population - and the cats and dogs - in those countries have access to the internet, their numbers are still small compared to Indonesian's number. Now, what do we do with this opportunity?

Some of you may know that I have a YouTube channel. It's here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3S4LLQIPK1TT5S2LmieCYg When I started the channel, it was like starting this blog. To share what I know and to challenge myself to be creative. I still do it in two ways; with writing (this blog) and with video (YouTube channel). Before, it was difficult to do the video part because technology was not there yet. Now, it is simple and inexpensive. It was like creating a "homepage" - that was the web site called long time ago - using HTML and blogging using tools that were provide. Now, the challenge is the content. I love numbers, so I like watching how my YouTube channel grows. It was like watching this blog grew. I don't like doing artificial growth. I just watch them grow. Here is what the status of my YouTube channel right now. It is going to hit 5000. A new milestone.   When I said I love numbers, I mean it. When I was a kid, I would watch cars passed on the street in ...

Once in a while, I found a funny and interesting thing related to coding. I love coding (and to code). So, when somebody forwarded this - Stalin Sort, I laughed so hard but at the same time was intrigue. (Here is the link: https://github.com/gustavo-depaula/stalin-sort) The main gist of this "Stalin Sort" is that if you found an element that does not met with the sort criteria, you send it "to Gulag". Ha ha ha. That is so funny. You just delete or drop the element. Just like what Stalin would do. Later, I checked the github codes. Lots of codes there. The first thing I do is to find Perl implementation. I love perl. There, I found exactly what I wanted to see, a beautiful implementation. No, not the one-liner but the more verbose one. I love to explain things. When I see code that "no need to explain", you know you find a good code. It's just like jokes. If you have to explain it, it's not a good joke. Few days ago, I just had to roll my own Python...

It's 2020 and I am still blogging. For many, blogging is a thing in the past. Not me.  This is because I am using blog as a place to challenge myself. To be creative. What do I mean by creative? Well, one of the biggest challenges in blogging is to come up with a topic and then write it beautifully. Okay, the last part is actually not easy, but for many people the first part - to find a topic - is already a challenge. They cannot pass that part. Without a topic, what would you write? Thus, the challenge is to come up with a topic. That is my challenge to myself. That is my training ground to be creative. And then writing it is again a creative exercise. Oh yeah, my main blog these days is not this, but the one in wordpress. It's rahard.wordpress.com. In that blog, I write mainly in Bahasa Indonesia. You can check it out to see that I am still blogging. As for the English blog, I have started a new one in medium.com, but I think I should write in here. One of the reasons I shoul...

We wear the scars today Just because there's no better way to get here Going back to future time May not give us better lives We may end up else where

There are too many sad songs Not enough happy songs This was started to be a happy song but, ended up as a sad song Such a life There are too many hopes Not enough reality We started rough but, we'll end up happily ever after Such a life #BR2020