No Vacation :(

Recently, I was so stressed with so many things. Mostly because of wondering the birth of my son in this early January. So sad when I realize that I can't be a companion physically to my wife while she gives a birth to our son. It was just a month before I departed to Aussie when I married...But here, I learn new things specially on how keeping up the spirit even when I were far away. I feel glad and so happy that my wife always supports me since I realize that I'm weak physicologially actually.  Lord will make a way.
Last three weeks, I was imagining that I will have a great vacation this summer. relax... enjoy the holiday, Christmas at Sydney, etc..... Yeah, I still enjoy my activity, but not holiday actually :(. Now, I work as a full time programmer in a Sydney based company. And also, I develope a shopping site which will be launched soon (different company). Hem, but thanks I still have time for myself, my family, friends and God.

StuVac.... I love it

the session is finish.... glad to pass all the exams (and glad with the marks as well)... It's student vacation now.... and almost three months. Unfortunately, I won't be able to go home in this StuVac.... but fortunately, I have an opportunities to work as a full time programmer in an IT company in Sydney... a fun job... hehe..... at least I don't need to be well dressed (something that hard to do for me, heheh.... my wife always complains about that).... Those Unfortunate and fortunate things are really hard choices actually... It means that I won't be able to be my wife's companion (physically) when she gives a birth to my beloved son. But, anything that I do, will always for them. It will be better for our family future. Lord will make a way........

(Wondering to cut my hair soon)

A father to be.....

Last night, I was laying down in my room and I saw the sky which was so beautiful. I did not know what was it means, but I really enjoyed it. My apartment is an old apartment (very old perhaps) but it's really cozy. Large room with sun room, television, and of course cheap (perhaps the cheapest room in Sydney?). But I do love to live in here with my beloved friends who make me happy when I'm homesick, he2....
Ups... back to last night... My old Nokia phone rang, there was a text message. Slowly I opened it and yay... my wife said that Aji jr is a boy......... Suddenly, I woke up and pray, thanks God for your kindness, for all your gift to me, my wife, my family, my friends, and my baby..... This weekend, our baby is seven month old... two month to go, we will have a cultural ceremony at my home in Klaten. Hopefully, our baby will bring joy to the world.... Hem... any suggestion for name? but please do not use your name, he2....

What I've done so far

It has been almost 6 month since I came in Sydney.... many things I have done here, travelling, studying, sleeping, he2... I do need to evaluate my life here... yes, a reflection. I've just remembered when I was in high school, I must write a reflection every day, hiks... that's why my homepage called "carpe diem"... seize the day. I enjoy living in Sydney, but Indonesia is the best for me, he2.... It's a kind of milestone for me to do more and more for other people, especially my students and my environment.
When I was teaching my students, I always encourage them to do more and more, hard work, but don't forget to enjoy your life. Hard work is a must, yes it is... but enjoy your life, pursuing happiness is more important than anything. A balance life will lead you to have a happiness and makes your life more exciting.
As a student, now I am trying to work hard all the time, but I always keep relax and enjoy what I've done..... So never ask me am I busy?, he2.... because I have no time to be busy. What is caused that? A good time management will be the most important aspect of your life. Have I worked hard? sure... In the past 6 month, I've done many things, and I have so many great experience, including passing Google internship programming test, Google phone interview, etc... even I must wait for any project from Google that suitable with my background.

So, here what I've done in the past 5-6 month...

- Google internship interview (I really enjoyed this step since I have a one hour interview with google maps developer and having experience to code in an online mode using google docs)
- Almost DB Nerd certification (yeah, I finally got it..... even I only in the 4th position, but I must work hard during this session to get the top ten)

- Google internship programming test (duh, this is the hardest thing that I've done so far... I must analyze many algorithms (AI, learning machine, etc), write the code, and find the optimal way of a 15 slidding puzzle only in 1 week, but I'm glad I've passed it)
- Database System course (my favourite subject, PL/SQL, Oracle, etc)
- Principal of Programming course (my favourite as well, really this one is not as easy as you think... but I enjoy it)
- Microprocessor and Interfacing course (my favourite lab, he2... using AVR lab board and doing something in low level machine, really interesting)
- Microwave Remote Sensing course (Wow.. my first impression in learning RADAR and satellite technology. Hopefully, in the future, I'll have a research in this field)
- Travelling arround Sydney (This is my favourite activities)
- Learning to cook (Oh, perhaps this is the hardest thing, he2)
- Another unfinished research, he2.. many ideas but lazy to implement.... but no worries I'll finish it in this summer vacation, he2....
- Other things that I can't tell you, he2...

Now, I'm facing the final exam and before that, I must submit some assignments... I do not want to delay all the work, so I've done almost all. Now, I will relax and enjoy some weeks before the final exam in my personal laboratory, he2....
So, never delay your work mates, he2....

Indonesian student barbeque in Cogee Sydney

Today, we have a great brabeque which held in Cogee, Sydney. More than 30 students and their family came and joined this ocassion. We were so happy to meet each other and at least we knew each other.
Beef, lamb and chicken are those kind of animal that joined in this barbeque party. Those meat marinated for a night using many kinds of spices made by a Master of Food Science candidate (so it must be delicious, he2...). Just go to http://aehm.multiply.com to view some pictures of this ocassion.

The Power of Google

This week google changed its mathematics formula in the search engine. Many web sites influenced by this acting.
Almost 80% of internet user find a desired web site using search engine, and the most popular is google. So, if google change the way how they rank the crawled web sites, it will have a big impact on how many peoples fine the web sites. So, it's always good to make sure that your web site is listed in the top ten or at least in the first page of any search engine (google mostly) when the keywords related to your website requested by user.
There are so many ways to improve your web site so it will have a good pagerank in a search engine. If you want to learn more about this, you can find what algorithm is used by the search engine and find the best keywords that can represent your web site. Some search engines have gave some clues how to get a good pagerank. For example, in google you can visit http://www.google.com.au/webmasters/ and find any information on how you should build or improve your website. Is it important? yes, sure.....

Have I implemented it in my website? yes.... sure... and how is it going?
for specific keywords I got a good rank, for example my full name, specific writing, etc... but for the common word, mine is perhaps in page 1000 or more, he2.... how to improve that, hem, you should use google adwords or adsense service, he2.....
or your domain should has known well :)

read this for further information on the power of google
http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/google-algorithm-tweak-spooks-www/2007/10/26/1192941308334.html

My blog in German language

For you who are interested to see my blog in German language, just click link below

http://72.14.203.104/translate_c?hl=en&langpair=en%7Cde&u=http://a-ehm.blogspot.com/

this is a google translation for my blog. You can try to your website, Lets google translates your website. Wow, I really admire what google can do for internet user.....

For Gmail user, now you'll be able to use IMAP for your Gmail instead of POP method. By using IMAP, you can use your favourite email application and what you will do in your client aplication will automatically synchronized with your web based gmail.

Setup is easy, just go to your GMAIL setting and enable the IMAP method (for you who hasn't the setting yet, just wait don't worry, for a couple days you'll get it).
In your application, you need to point the IMAP server to imap.google.com.
You can do it in your email application, mobile phone, etc..... ask google for more and detail instruction.

ayam goreng trancam

Hi kawan2.. ada yang tahu resep bikin ayam goreng trancam... wah nafsu tak tertahankan nih, kuangen banget... susah tidur nih pasti klo lagi pengin gitu.
Makanan ini khas Jawa Tengah lho, hayo negara lain dijamin ga punya deh klo ga salah, he2....

serius ki, siapa yang tahu, he2.. tolong dong. atau temen2 di sydney ada yang bisa masakin, he2....

Find the differences

Find the differences from pictures above (Einstein and his brother, he2....)!

Einstein was born in Germany in 1879. A great physician, but loves classical music and plays violin as well. He2... perhaps he was just like me: put the bow above the violin string and plays "meditation from thais" when stuck to something. Perhaps he played the violin just before he found the relativity theory... (ha2... perhaps I will found something after mastering the Toccata and Fugue by Bach)

For some people, listening to a music or playing a music instrument will be a great way to relax yourself and enter the beta situation which leads you to work optimally. There are a lot of music genres, you should find the most suitable one. But, for some people, it will be different from time to time. For example, In the morning I do like to listen to Baroque classical music which gives me spirit and wakes me up. I love to enjoy it while I'm having my breakfast and cup of tea.. (not wine he2..). In the afternoon, I do like to listen to soft blues music, which leads me to have a twenty minutes sleep, he2...
Dream Theatre, Queen or other rock groups will accompany me every evening with their skilfully music, Inspire me to learn anything that I want to learn. Then in the night, pop music with love theme will always sounding in my atmosphere, he2... Usually I get new idea in this period of time (10-12pm), then followed by chatting with my wife or friend till drop, ha2....

===
The picture of Einstein is taken from http://www.larouchepub.com/spanish/lhl_articles/2006/0714_ataque_india.htm

Weird dream

Two days ago, I got stuck on my assignment. I couldn't solve two last questions from fourteen questions provided. Actually it was OK if I just left it since it'll give me less than 20% of overall assignment mark. I got the other 12 totally correct, I do believe it. So I just left it and having a great weekend, some beers and (unfortunately) a cigarette (believe me, it was just social smoking.. I'm not a smoker now,he2...).

Sunday night I still had a chat with my beloved Ling till 2pm (thanks for a communication company which provided her with free of charge GPRS connection, hi2... ssst). Then, I felt a sleep and I started to dream about anything, hi2.... last time, I dream about my project, bwahaha in my dream, I tried hard to solve my project (It's a usual dream if you get stressed with something), but I enjoyed it.. I didn't get stressed because of anything, I tried to enjoy my life here, no time to be busy..... Finally, I just said 'horray' because I can solve my problems. I wake up and directly go to my laptop, connect to campus's server and write what I've done in my dream and compile it.... ha2.... it works, totally correct. Great and weird dream. I wonder I could have this kind of dream for my projects, ha2....

So, here, what're the recipes?
1. Keep relax when you do something, don't let it burdening you
2. Keep focus to all what you want to do (sometimes if we can't solve a problem, it's because we aren't focus to the problem)
3. Reward yourself if you can do something... Just make a time management for a week and if you can reach the target, you should reward yourself... Anything.. (last week I reward myself because I can finish all the projects before my own due by buying an electrical violin (ha2... don't do this, will lead you to bankrupt if you do this all the time....), I plan to go to the beach if I finish this assignment... and it's my time to do it, he2....
4. Make your own due date (should have enough spare time to check it twice or more before submit)
5. Spell my name three times if you have problems, hi2.....


-- My messy heaven taken this morning

Letter from my friend

Ji (Sorry mate, I change it since it will be read by many people, he2...) , it's really nice to hear from you.
your stories and your experiences make me start to dream again....and again...
i really want to go abroad...learning many things there...visiting beautiful places...
then going home with abundant knowledge to share...hmmm. ...sounds nice...
what you have done is an inspiration for me...
making me never stop dreaming...and wake me up to face the life....
good luck mate....
no worries...

life will lead you to places that you've never known...
but love will lead you home....


if you have any information about any scholarship. ....please let us know....
best of luck for you....
take your time....

====

Many thanks mate, I'm trembling to read your letter, he2... I know that you can... If you have any problem, just let me know... Sorry to post your letter here, but I will keep it anonymous, no worries... Let your spirit be a spirit to others. This is my third months I have been here, and I really want to go home (homesick fever) he2.... So many challenge here, specially when I really miss my wife, family, friend, environment, pollution (bwahaha).... Before, I never dreamt to study to Australia, he2... Germany was the best for me, so I learnt "Mine name ist Aji, Ich komme aus Klaten, Ich wohnen in Semarang, ..." he2... Now I realize that Australia is closer to Indonesia and I'm suffering from homesick fever (but it's still 1100$ for the return ticket, he2), How if I live in Germany, ha2.... However, I found many interesting things here, many friends, interesting culture, beautiful landscape, interesting objects, great study methods, many things that you can adopt for a better life, he2....
I learn that faithful friendship, travelling, rapid communication with your family will help you to face this problem, he2... How long will I stand.. I don't know ha2...

I always remember my community (Pak Mul, ex Seminarist community) words "Amo et Facio Quod Volo" which means I love and do what I have chosen

So, stop your dream now, realize it, he2... do your best. About scholarship, ADS program will be closed at September 7, 2007. Just go to http://www.adsjakarta.or.id for more information. I'll help you if you have any problem.

Cheers,

Global Warming Confusion

Watching movies "An Inconvenient Truth" and "The Great Global Warming Swindle" respectively perhaps will change your mind what does lead the global warming.

"An Inconvenient Truth"
This film which is very popular, is a documentary of former Vice President of USA Al Gore's presentation about global warming. Here, Al Gore describes clearly that human leads the global warming by producing Carbon dioxide. He presents supported data which explain the relation of CO2 production and the warm weather. CO2 production drives the weather becomes warmer. This situation which is called Global Warming has so many negative effects. The ice in the pole is melting and this condition leads the rising of sea water. CO2 mass production really dangerous for world's future and Global Warming is a big threat caused by human activities.


The Great Global Warming Swindle"
This is a documentary film made by British television. This film is controversial because contains so many contra argument about global warming. Here, Scientists, Economists, Journalists, disagree with Al Gore description about Global Warming. They argue that human do not lead the global warming. They think that Global Warming issue is just used by some big country to stop the third world to develop their country in industrial aspect (which is a threat for global warming).
They give an example of an African country which has no electricity and gas, but other big country suggest to use solar panel which is very expensive and unaffordable by people in that country. Why, because if they use modern electricity which produces CO2 in the process, this will support the global warming.
In this film, scientists also disagree the statement that human leads the global warming by producing CO2. Their contra argument based on their research which has the different result about what leads the global warming. First, CO2 produce by human is not as many as sea, volcano or other production. Secondly, The production of CO2 does not lead the warm weather but the warm weather caused the increasing of CO2 production. The sun activities is more appropriate reason about who drives the global warming, and the climate change will happen based on the sun activity.


Both of this film is a great way to exercise our critical thinking ability, he2.... Both of the films provide data and argument that really easy to understand and make us agree what they are talking about. So, what do you think? he2....

I personally think that human is responsible of this climate change. Why? Hem, not based on the data or any academic argument, but just because if I live in a city which has so many vehicles or industrial activities, I feel that the air quality is bad compared to other city which has small amount of industrial activities or vehicles.

So, let's make our world green, plant as many as trees, walk or ride bicycle to go to your office and decrease your electricity usage.

Here the link of the video (unfortunately there is no link to the "An Inconvenient Truth" video, if you have, let me know)
- The Great Global Warming Swindle

New Book

G'day

Hereby I would like to launch my new book published by Andi Publisher (but not listed yet).

The title is "Server Linux Client Windows".
Here, I and Suyanto EA supervised my two beloved students (Edward Christophorus Moa and Feby Lotan) in doing their experiment about communication between Linux and Windows operating system. This book discuss the combination of the power of Linux server and the easy to use Windows OS. Linux is a reliable and open source operating system, so it would be great if we use it as a server. Here, we share about how to share the data, printer, etc between server and client in a simple way.
This session, Feby Lotan finished his study and he got a high GPA which is second to none in Computer Science Faculty.

Moon Eclipse

Last night we had a beautiful moon eclipse. I took some pictures of it using my "not" SLR camera... Fuji Finepix s6500 fd. I uploaded those to http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-ehm/, so enjoy it. These are some of the pictures.











Ups the moon slipped.... no, it's because I didn't use tripod, he2....

Today's snapshoot

Should it be "n" turn, not "u" turn?




Offenders will be prostituted, oh sorry, perhaps prohibited, no it must be prosecuted....




Lovely forest for modern people




God's office? No, it's still in the earth..




Jesus love you too, mate..




check other photos here : http://www.flickr.com/photos/a-ehm/

Hiduplah Indonesia Raya

Happy Independence Day to my beloved Indonesia

Today is the the 62th of Indonesian independence day. We are invited by the Consulate General of Indonesia in Sydney to have a flag ceremony and gathering at Wisma Indonesia Rose Bay. Hem... great experience to have a flag ceremony here. The most important is we can meet many Indonesian there (Even, Sydney is full of Indonesian, he2...).These are some pictures of this occasion.


UNSW students and the Consulate General (3th from left... no it's me, the General is 4th)




Acehnese Dance



"Poco-poco"




Fanfare




Merdekah....

ADS Scholarship

G'day mates,

Some people asked me how to get the scholarships from AUSAID. I'm an APS holder, but this program is the last period, no more APS program this year. But, no worries... you can try to apply ADS program which is the default program runs each year. You can get the information by visiting http://www.adsjakarta.or.id

Tips

1. Improve your English. Although the requirement is only 500 for TOEFL score or 5.0 for IELTS, it will be worth if you can reach the score as high as you can and improve the ability to speak, listen, read and writing in English.
My tips:
- Watch movies as much as you can... (English language and try without subtitle). This will help you to improve your comprehensive listening. Do it with fun.
- Find a sparing partner for speaking exercise. Expressing an idea in a speaking is not as simple as you think, he2... (In my case, I have my wife who is ADS alumni)
- Read any English books. As many as possible. Trust me, if you like this, you'll feel easy when you do the reading test
- Write as many as possible. (I did it by wrote something in this blog.... You know, even my writing is full of mistakes, I always celebrate my mistake (Michael's words)
- Think in English, start to think, speak to yourself in English. Learning English language is not as simple as translating your language to English. It's different. Hopefully you get dream in English
- Celebrate your mistake (again Michael's words)

2. Answer the questions in application form properly
There are a lot of applicants (perhaps more than 7000 and they will choose only 600 for the next tests), so answering the application form properly is the main gate to the scholarship

tips
- Choose a program that suitable for you but stay close with your educational background. You must think also what will you do after you finish your program... Surely supporting Indonesia's development is important.
- State your aim to get the scholarship clearly and shortly.
- Include any supporting documents, project you've done or you're doing, references, etc. Supply all documents you have. Nothing to lose
- Supply your best photographs (he2.. in my case, no worries)
- Make a good personal statement which describes yourself clearly in a page
- make correspondences with any lecturer from an University in Aussie if it is possible (or the school) - They are welcome to answer any question, specially about research. if it's possible, arrange an outline proposal about research in one page.
- Answering the application form question in English will be worth for you

3. Pray for your best


Hem, This is the first step that you must do if you wanna come to Australia in Ausaid account, he2... Remember, this scholarship is not only for lecturer, ... if you are a teacher, employer, or even a fresh graduate, you have the same opportunity. Try it, nothing to lose

I'll update this thread after I finish my assignment, he2..

Cheers

Long time no see

Hi mates, long time no see. Sorry, I was struggling with so many activities (including travelling, he2...) Hem, Few days ago, my wife sent me a picture of my baby in her womb. So,let me introduce my kid (I don't know what's the gender and let me don't know till he/she born). He/she (people usually address an infant with "it" but I don't want... he/she is not something, but someone) still 3 months and hopefully will born at January next year. Unfortunately, I can't accompany my wife when she will give a birth to my kid. I can't take the reunion airfare (A facilities for Ausaid student to go home if he/she don't bring her/his family). I must wait for 12 months to get it. It is not worth if I fund the trip by myself, he2... It's better for me to work here at summer and save the money for my baby (and my wife surely... don't be angry babe, he2...)
I have so many plan including having some researches with some colleges. I will tell you later about this.

Courses have started

Session two has started. Now, I'm fully a student. My first course is Human Computer Interaction. HCI is a course that learning about how should we design something for end user. He2.. this is something that I like, because this course has a strong relation with psychology and arts, not only computer science.
I spent my weekend in Canberra and Snowy Mountain. I realized that I'll be busy with my courses after the session start, so I decided to spend my time travelling to other state and finding new experiences.
Together with Ppia Canberra, I went to Snowy Mountain (3hours from Canberra). Something weird was Sydney much colder than snowy mountain, hem...
The weather was very good, sunny and the snow was very tick. I played toboggan and learnt to play sky. He2... it was very interesting.
I slept at Dian's apartment in Australian National University (ANU) Unilodge together with Jati and Ichsan. I found that Canberra is a quiet city. I went to Questacon (Museum of Science and Technology) and it was really interesting. I tried the zero gravity simulation (free fall) and I swear I'll not try it again, hem... Visiting museum in Australia is a great way to relax and learn something new. It is a popular activities here. Hopefully students in Indonesia love the same.

Don’t Sleep Away The Night

Daniel Sahuleka
(my favourite song, I always listen to it when I drive my car with my wife)


Tomorrow’s near, never I felt this way
Tomorrow, how empty it’ll be that day
It tastes a bitter, obvious to tears to dried
To know that you’re my only light
I love you, oh I need you
Oh, yes I do

Don’t sleep away this night my baby
Please stay with me at least ’till dawn
It hurts to know another hour has gone by
And every minute is worthwhile
Oh, I love you

How many lonely days are there waiting for me
How many seasons will flow over me
’till the motions make my tears run dry
at the moments I should cry
for I love you, oh I need you
Oh, yes I do

Don’t sleep away this night my baby
Please stay with me at least ’till dawn
It hurts to know another hour has gone by
And every minute is worthwhile
It makes me so afraid

Don’t sleep away this night my baby
Please stay with me at least ’till dawn
It hurts to know another hour has gone by
The reason is still I love you




Ling with "si Hitam"

APP oh APP

Academic Preparation Program at UNSW has ended. Many new things I got from these activities. Thanks to Brownie (Sorry, I always forget how to spell your name), Maria, Pam, Ian, etc.... who have supervised us in this APP. Although I've got an English for Academic Purpose Program in Indonesia, still I got another new things... That's why life is so interesting if we can get new things in our activities.
Finally... we closed this program with a barbecue party.... he2... Every student brought their own special food.... Me and Richie bring tempe which was the most favourite food there.....



Yesterday, we have a Harbour Cruise activity. Wow.... Thanks to UNSW, thanks to ISS, thanks to Anna Rees who led us in this activity.... It was so cold but we were happy... Although it was only 1.5 hour cruise... It was still so wonderful... An unforgettable moment.


Wista (Phd student), Anna (ISS UNSW Senior Advisor), Me






Other pictures... visit http://www.flickr.com/photos/adsstudents/

Kuringgai, The Great Walker

Saturday, July 14, 2007... I woke up early and caught the bus to Central Station. There, I met Dian, Ichsan and Jati. We bought 4 train tickets to Mount Kuringgai.
Mount Kuringgai is located 60km north of Sydney. It has a great view and it is one of a national park in NSW.

The great North Walk sign.... jati and me (right)



We decided to take the Great North Walk route from Mt. Kuringgai Station to Berowa Station. It was 10km (5 hours walk)
I can say that it was a fantastic journey. We walked along the river and finally found a lake (unfortunately we didn't go to the lake because it was 5pm and we must catch the train)

The Leader... A-ehm




Dian and Ichsan..




I do believe Indonesia's bush walking or national park is better than here. The different is that in here, everything is well maintained: safety, clean, etc... If our park is maintained well... I think I'll not spend my weekend to go to the mall, he2.....

Borobudur isn't part of the world's 7 wonder anymore

Information from http://www.new7wonder.com shocks me. Borobudur temple, which is located in Magelang, Central Java, Indonesia is not anymore stated as one of world's 7 wonder. Even, this temple isn't nominated at all.
I try to find the information whether this web site is an authorised web site from an authorised organisation or not. But, I think the problem is not about this information comes from an authorised organisation or not. There must be something wrong in our tourism industry.
From computer science world.. I guess Indonesian government must has better web site to improve tourism promotion. There are a lot of ways to do it. Not only create the web site and then update it regularly, Indonesian web site must also has a relationship with other site, specially search engine such as google, yahoo, altavista, etc.... make sure that the web site will be the first on the list. Improving the website to be more interactive also could be a good way to attract people around the globe to visit it.. and make sure... there is a Borobudur's picture in the index page.

Except, Indonesia wants to lose it..... losing one of our proudly status....
Above all, I love Indonesia....

First Time to Get Loss

Preparation course in UNSW not make me feel busy. I prefer to use my spare time and get loss around Sydney and enjoy this city. As I told you, this is an easy city... I mean, just buy the travel weekly ticket and you can go anywhere in Sydney by bus. Hem...

Okay, these are some of interesting things that I got from a few days ago.


me and a famous family... but I'm not part of them, he2...


UNSW library building captured from Randwick



Bicycle and pedestrian road....



If you come from European country or US, this sign will really help you


Vandalism not only happen in my country


In Indonesia, it's called "kereta kelinci"


memorial for bali bombing victims... Cogee beach


Cogee beach...

Sydney first week

I came to Sydney three days ago, picked up by senior UNSW student. It was a long flight from Jakarta to Sydney (6.5 hours).
14 celcius...... on the average.... sometimes 5 degree, hem... it's winter here. I live in Doncaster Avenue, 15 minutes walk to University of New South Wales.

Today, I spend my time to have a site seeing in Sydney CBD, Darling Harbour, Harbour Bridge, Sydney Opera House, and enjoy the easy life in Sydney by using bus and train....

Here are some of my pictures.

My wedding

May 5, 2007 became an important day for me... I was married.....

Robertus Setiawan Aji Nugroho., ST & Bernadia Linggar Yekti Nugraheni., SE., MCOM., Akt




I played violin and my wife sang "The Prayer", together with "D'Angelis Chamber Orchestra"

Sorry for being lazy

It has been more than one month since the last time I wrote something here.... To many activities and lack of internet connection just made me easily forgot this blog.....

"In Finem Omnia" Football Club

From left to right
Up : Setyo "plenthi" Hari (keeper), Prima "kocan" Damar (defence), Setiawan Aji (me, striker), Danang "jinguk" Pamungkas (defence), Joko "Jiwo" (playmaker), Andreas "Kristin" Ari (striker)

Down : Andon "Kothak" (right wing), Hari "Kace" Sigit (Left Wing), Dimas "Celeng" Ariyanto (defence), Budi "Cakil" Gunawan (playmaker)

Yesterday I surfed the Internet. I want to write a blog, but there were no ideas at all. I looked for a picture and found an old picture of me and my football team. Since high school, I joint the Seminari Mertoyudan football club. Every year we have an league and in 1999, my team won as the first. Unfortunally, I already stopped to play football. To many other bussines in my life. Sometimes I really miss to wear a footbal shoes, team's shirt, kick the ball, play as striker and make a goal. He2....

IT-ers reunion

Saturday, March 02, 2007, there was a reunion of alumni of Informatics Engineering of Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University. Five alumni joined this occasion. They were (from right to left) :

1.Sinung (TF'99), now works in Sclumberger Oil Company as a Drilling project manager
2.Bimo (TF'00), owner of PT. Mahkota Dewa Indonesia
3.Aji (TF'00), Computer Science lecturer of Soegijapranata Catholic University, owner of Nugroho IT Solutions and Australian Partnership Scholarship awarder
4.Deddy (TF'00), works in Berca as a storage system IT specialist
5.Johan (TF'00), Master of Informatics Engineering student at Atma Jaya Yogyakarta University

Hopefully they can bring this country to the better one.

Lord make me an instrument

Lord make me an instrument of Thy peace;
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy;

O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love;
for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

St. Francis of Assisi, 13th century

Terrible day, I broke my glass

I didn't know what happen, suddenly the glass losed from it's frame. Hem, now I must buy the new one. It hurt my eyes.

Maximize your Laptop

Have a brand new or old laptop? How to deal with it?

Nowadays, people prefer to have a laptop rather than a personal computer. It is because the mobility aspect of a laptop. We can bring and use our laptop wherever we want to go. Two or three years ago, laptop is an expensive device, but now we can buy a laptop for only 7-8 million rupiah. That is why laptop so popular in our community now. Some people often ask how to choose the best laptop for them. I will try to describe some laptop classification based on the purposes, prices and specifications.

1.Future purpose
As an accountant has different job compared to an architect or programmer. Your profession can be a good way to choose your brand new laptop. An architect maybe need a high specification laptop to deal with image processing or designing something. An accountant or social worker will use office application in his/her daily activities and need a middle laptop specification only.

2.Budget
First thing you must consider when planning to buy a laptop is your budget. Price still play important role in our community. Laptop prices vary between 6 to 20 million rupiah depend on it's brand and specification.

3.Specification
There are so many laptop specifications, based on it's processor, memory, hard disk, graphic card, sound card, optical devices, port, etc. We can find many different types of processors whether in 32 bit or 64 bit such as Intel Celeron, Intel Centrino, Centrino Duo, AMD, VIA, etc.
Celeron is the lowest type of Intel processor. It's enough for you if you just want to use your laptop for office application or watching DVD. Centrino or Centrino Duo is faster than celeron. You can choose this type of processor if you want to do image processing or playing 3D games. AMD is the competitor of Intel and it has a lot of variants same as Intel but has cheaper price. You can find review of each processor by googling it.

How to maximize your brand new laptop?

1.Software
There are a lot variant of Operating System such as Linux, Microsoft Windows, Macintosh, Solaris, etc. Linux is an open source operating system. It means that you can directly use it legally without buy it first. Proprietary software like Windows is another choice, but you must buy it first. For people who don't need a specific software, you can consider open source software as your solution. No need to worries about the support because open source software means deployed by a lot of programmer that will help you if you have a problem using it. The other advantage is almost free of viruses. Two years using Linux, I never have a problem with a virus.

2.Memory
Have more memory means have more performance. Random Access Memory used to store temporary files needed by operating system to do your job. Upgrade your RAM and you will get performance improvement.

3.Battery
Battery life depends on many aspect. Recent laptop have longer battery life because it support by new technology such as speed step on Intel and using a lithium cell. Battery maintenance also have effects to your laptop. First time you use your battery, charge it until 8 hours to get maximal performance. You can find information about battery maintenance in Internet by googling it.

Let's move from plastic to paper bag

Two weeks ago, I had a discussion with some peoples about sustainable development. It was a very interesting topic. Unfortunatelly, I didn't have sufficient knowledge about sustainable development. One speaker talked about sustainable development in terms of politic, the other one had his own angle of view from economic field. My turn, I spoke about the use of paper bag to change plastic in our daily life activities. It was only a small angle of view, but this brought us the a deep discussion about environmental sustainability.

If we buy some groceries or any other things, the stores usually give us a plastic bag to bring the things we already bought. Sometimes we don't realize that this kind of plastic could not be recycled. Just imagine how many plastic bag used every day. It will increase the non-recycled garbages that have a lot of negative effects to our environment such as issues of global warming, environment destructions, etc.

Many countries in the world didn't use plastic bag anymore. They already used paper bag to change the plastic bag. They choose paper bag because it can be recycled. They aware about the future environment.

Today's International Herald Tribune newspaper gives us a lot of example of the efforts of many countries to recycle the trash. You can read it at http://www.iht.com/indexes/special/trash/index.php. This one is highly recommended to be read.

Indonesia has a lot of problem with trash. Plastic bag still used in a lot of sectors. why don't we try to change the easiest one. Start from supermarket, restaurant, etc?

Finally, it was just a discussion.

A session about Critical Thinking With Tim Moore

Today we (3Mont-ers) have an opportunity to meet Tim Moore, a representative of some Australian Universities. Tim Moore presented a topic about critical thinking from some different point of views. He interviewed some lecturer in Monash University from three different backgrounds. They gave a definition and comment about critical thinking from their perspective.
I try to understand the aim of critical thinking in each of background. I found the same purpose even it says in different ways. The main purpose of critical thinking is to understand whether something is a rubbish or values for us. Critical thinking is a way to identified something so we can say it needed or not.

There's no exact definition about critical thinking. A lecturer from Monash said "It's an interesting word, isn't it? it can be mean anything".

Again :

"The main purpose of critical thinking is to understand whether something is a rubbish or values for us"

Do a lot of reading!!!!

Christopher Abimanyu and B Linggar Yekti Nugraheni Performance in a Charity Concert

“I pray you'll be all right
and watch us where we go...”



A day before having a conference in Bali and Padang, My fiance Linggar performed a duet with Christopher Abimanyu, an Indonesian famous tenorist. “The prayer” song beautifully performed by them in a charity concert held by “Gratia”, Soegijapranata Catholic University Student Choir.

hey Ling, I'm proud of you....

Timebased Internet Connection using CDMA mobile phone

Everday I connect to Internet using my cdma mobile phone and laptop. Unfortunatelly, I must pay to much for the internet cost. If I use mobile-8, I must pay 5Rp for each Kb.
Finally, I got an information about timebased internet connection using CBN. Timebased internet connection is much cheaper for me compared to volumebased internet connection. I do a lot of download and email everyday as a consquences of my project and timebased internet connection gives me a lot of advantages, not only for the cost, but also on the connection speed.

It's an easy steps for you to have an timebased internet connection.
Requirenments:
- Laptop/Desktop
- Windows or Linux Operating System (I never try to other OS)
- CDMA phone or CDMA modem (more expensive)
- Cable data
- Mobile-8 or StarOne (prepaid or postpaid)
- CBN prepaid (actually there are a lot of company that provide timebased internet connectio, e.g : ipnet, jalamedia, etc)

Comparation :

Timebased
Price Rp. 220,- every minute

Pro - better used for a ot of download activities
- 2.5Kbps on average (depends on some aspect)
- on demand connection

Cons - You must refill your account separatelly from your mobile credits

Volumebased
Price Rp. 5,- every Kb

Pro - better used for chatting
- 4-5Kbps on average (depends on some aspect)
- long connection (that sometimes you not used it)

Cons - Another application use the connection, e.g windows update, etc (costly)

Email from Linggar..

Today I get an email from my fiance, it's better if I share it to you....

dear my Aji

life have sharpen our mind, thought and sense.... furthermore we'll never know what life would bring us to... every road should be traveled, every home must be stayed, and that's it how relationship would happen to us on the way we live our live.

Life is too short.. and what i believe is : "the more you give to life the more you'll receive..." You have so much dreams, and it would be enough to enrich your life in so many ways that you never imagine before. Keep moving, keep doing things you want, seize your dreams no matter what life take you to.. and don't let anyone take your dreams away from you.

You are very bright person, with your brain you can change the whole life itself, with your hand you could also change somebody's else life, you have beauty inside that makes people respect to your life... you have so many wonderful life that you must thank for.. such bless.!!

I am a woman that comes to your life when you're traveling around the world... we met on the cross road, with so much hope to travel our live in our own way and getting closer in every crossroad. No matter what road we choose, they will never lie to us.. and it's worth traveling.

take good care in your road, and i thank GOD to have you in the road i am traveling in right now.

lots of love
yours...

Another two days vacations....

It's not because a national holidays, it's caused by flood in Jakarta. I have another two days vacation because the electricity in "Wisma Budi" didn't work. It just bored for me. I prefer to have a class than stay in my boarding house. Why? because I already have a weekend for take a rest and doing something other than in the resource center. I just watched some movies and Linggar and Cristopher Abimanyu concert. Hem, they sang "the prayer" together, that's way I'm proud of my fiance. She has a high quality of sound, smart and mature..... (he2...). I'll give some pictures of them as soon as possible.
It's more than two weeks since I met my fiance, also my family. Hem, I miss u all.... see you

Flood Everywhere in Jakarta

I have an IELTS simulation test today. I waked up early at 6.30 and the rain was not stopped yet. I took a bath and ate some biscuits, I still not aware yet about the rain. Finished with my biscuits, I went up hurry to IALF.
I must have a breakfast first, then I go to "WARUNG TEGAL" around my boarding house. I arrived at 07.45 and a lot of my friend got late because some road in Jakarta covered by water.
If you want to know the recent situation in Jakarta, visit http://thejakartapost.com or http://www.detik.com

Wonderful Day

What a wonderful day, I got my monthly stipend from AusAid. Hi2... this just a joke. I'll give you another story later because I am in the middle of the computer class now.

A journey to Taman Anggrek Mall.....

I wake up late that morning. I have a date with Elis and Wulan (my pre-departure program classmate at IALF) to go to Taman Anggrek Mall. But unfortunately Wulan must look for a boarding house for her sister. I went to Sarinah Plaza by busway and met Elis there. That was the first time I use busway. It was a first good impression about Jakarta's transportation. Maybe this was a good decision made by "Bang Yos" to develop a mass transportation.
Finally, we met at Sarinah Plaza and continued our travel to Taman Anggrek Mall. Firstly we go to Ratu Plaza by taxi and then we use the "kopaja 66" bus to Komdak (it's a place near the Metropolitan Police Department). We change our first bus with other bus to go to Taman Anggrek Mall. It was an interesting place because it was a big Mall and I have never seen it before in Semarang. (hem, so poor I am)... Just walking around and we not found any laptop store there cause Elis need to buy a new laptop. We just share about anything and it made me comfortable to this city.
We went home at 3pm but I decided to go to Ratu Plaza and walk around to look for a card reader and buy my daily needs.
Hem it was a good journey for me. That was my first experience take a walk in Jakarta. It was my first experience to go by bus in Jakarta (or maybe in other city because I usually drive my own car).
At least I have a good impression about Jakarta in terms of friendship and transportation....

see you in my next journey....

Critical thinking

As a students, sometimes we must summarize a book, article or anything. After summarizing, we must write our opinion to that article or book and this opinion will be discussed later in the class.
To write a good opinion to an article or book isn't easy. We must try to understand the writing rationally, objectively and maybe subjectively according to the author's aim. We need a critical thinking ability in this term.
There are so many definitions of critical thinking. Complete definitions is :

"Critical thinking is the intellectually disciplined process of actively and skillfully conceptualizing, applying, analyzing, synthesizing, and/or evaluating information gathered from, or generated by, observation, experience, reflection, reasoning, or communication, as a guide to belief and action. In its exemplary form, it is based on universal intellectual values that transcend subject matter divisions: clarity, accuracy, precision, consistency, relevance, sound evidence, good reasons, depth, breadth, and fairness"
(A statement by Michael Scriven & Richard Paul for the National Council for Excellence in Critical Thinking Instruction, http://www.criticalthinking.org/aboutCT/definingCT.shtml)

This definition sounds hard to understand, but actually by learn it day by day and implement it in every situation, we will train our critical thinking ability.

So, critical thinking is not only for understand an article, or a book? No, we can use it for any situation. Listening a headline news, watching TV, film, etc. The first thing we must do in critical thinking is focus to what we want to learn. Focus means give a full attention. After that, we can try to make some questions or arguments about what we learn. Questions or arguments not only for what we don't understand, but maybe if disagree or agree with the statement. Of course, we must do it in the rational and objective way when we try to analyze a case.

Sometimes we can try to think in the way of constructive skepticism. Constructive means that the aim what we want to do is give a positive effect to the author. Critic not always give a negative sides. So think rationally and objectively be a key in constructive skepticism.

(This writing based on my discussion in the IALF course)

== Beside critical thinking, there is critical literacy, I'll discuss it as soon as possible ==

Great Discussion About Plagiarism

Today's session is about Plagiarism. Our English lecturer, Michael, gives us a reading material about plagiarism fact in a University. This reading material shocked me because there are a lot of people that do plagiarism and now they become a professor. I shocked because a thesis supervisor whom he's a professor, do a fatal plagiarism when he did his thesis to get master degree.
I realize that culture on aware and avoid plagiarism still hard to follow in Indonesia. But why? Who's wrong if a lot of students in Indonesia just stealling idea or words from other people's works?
Maybe there's no education about plagiarism in formal school?

Plagiarism is about honesty and morality....
I learn much from this day's discussion.

Rainy day in Jakarta

It was two days ago since Jakarta cooled by the water from rain. Everyday always rain here, morning, noon, or afternoon. A lot of effects caused by this situation. Flood in same places, "kaki lima" food seller become more dirty, etc. It's not comfortable to take a walk in some lane specially arround my boarding house. The positive effect is the wether is cooler now compared with the average wether.

I really want to give you some picture of the condition, but unfortunatelly I don't have usb cable for my camera. Anyone have it?

Two biggest Linux groups merge to be Linux Foundation

www.chinaview.cn 2007-01-23 09:30:28

BEIJING, Jan. 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The two biggest supporters of Linux software have merged to form the Linux Foundation.

A San Francisco non-profit, the Free Standards Group, have merged with Open Source Development Labs of Beaverton, Ore., the organizations said on Tuesday in a joint statement.

The Linux operating system competes with Microsoft Windows and Unix as the computer platform for other software programs to run on. It is open-source software, which means the code is publicly available and can be changed by anyone.

The Linux foundation's members include major technology companies such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM and Oracle, as well as the two largest Linux makers, Novell and Red Hat. It will be led by Jim Zemlin, former executive director of the Free Standards Group.

The new group will defend Linux vendors and customers against intellectual property lawsuits. It also plans to help increase usage of Linux by aiding development of the software and helping the operating system work with open-source and proprietary software.

(Agencies)

from http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-01/23/content_5640559.htm

From me :
Indonesia has a lot of capable and competent person to develope many open source system. Unfortunatelly, The government not too concern about this. Government of Indonesia must pay a lot for proprietary software. It doesn't mean that we can't use the propietary software, but there are a lot of software that can be used freely to support their work.
I'm wondering if all of intelectual in software engineering work together with government to use and develope a cheap software...... hem... maybe I can join it.

Mandala Airlines, what happens?

I have reserved ticket to go to Jakarta long before the day I want to go. I reserved one ticket for me, and one return ticket for my viansee. The flight was delayed at 18 January 2007 from 18.25 to 21.00. It's so long even there were an announcement about this problem early in the morning before I went to airport.
I enjoy the flight at night, and I arrived to Jakarta almost at 10pm. But unfortunatelly, a day before my viansee flight at Sunday, 21 January 2007, Mandala call us and said that all flights at 21 to 25 January was cancelled beacuse the planes not suitable to fly. Hem, I'm dissaponted but it's Ok because it's better that they cancelled the flights then there would be another risk.
This announcement is too late. We were confused because there's no airplane ticket alvailable for the next day because it's a holiday, there's no agent that give a service (or we don't know).
My viansee's brother helpe us to fine the ticket via online service, and finally we got the Garuda ticket....

Hem, a nice experience. this night, my viansee must be in the midlle of her profession examination. I hope that you successfuly past the test.

My First day in IALF

I've been in Jakarta for one week, I stay in Jl. Setia Budi Tengah 10A Jakarta Selatan. This is my first day in my course at IALF. What a huge facilities here (free and fast internet, a lot of collection of book, many television connected to satellite, hotspot, exclusive class, native teacher, etc). I'm wondering that some of you (PAK MUL Community) increase your English ability to get an Australian Government Scholarship.
Actually, the English requirenment is not too high, only 500 (TOEFL) or 5.0 (IELTS). It's easy to reach if you learn hard.

Hem, Cakil has came to my boarding house last day, he came accompanied by his girl friend. We plan to go to Frater Sigit's house and maybe Jonte's house if the busway project is finished. I don't know yet about Komeng's house. I'm sorry if I can't go to your places because I have no car or motorcycle.

Good bye 2006

2006, year that full of colors. awarded an Australian scholarship, engaged. But a year that full of disaster too. Earthquake in klaten and yogya, tsunami in pangandaran, mud flood in porong sidoarjo, etc.... A lot of people died caused by that disaster. I hope we can find the "Blessing in disguise" from 2006.

2007, started with some transportation accidents, such as airplane and ships. A lot of people must die in that accidents. Who's fault? weather? navigation? human error? Until now, there are a lot of people still missing in the adam air accident and km senopati. hem, is this a sign for us?