I'm a blogger and web designer from Jogjakarta, Indonesia. See my other blog in Bahasa Indonesia. I love photography. Currently, I live in Jakarta.

§ Sebuah Contoh Penyampaian Informasi Berita (di detikinet)

Hari ini, Detikinet menampilkan berita tentang status domain .id melalui artikelnya yang berjudul “Besok, Domain .id Terancam Mati“. Saya sendiri tahu berita ini dari Lala. Ya, karena saya memang tidak terlalu menjadikan Detik sebagai sumber berita saya.

Karena kebetulan saya memiliki beberapa domain .id, saya jadi penasaran untuk membaca artikel tersebut. Karena setahu saya, Depkominfo sendiri belum mengeluarkan sebuah kebijakan yang jelas mengenai sistem pengelolaan domain, terutama terkait dengan masa aktif domain .id.

Setelah membaca berita tersebut, saya merasa berita ini aneh. Mungkin sangat aneh. Judul berita memang cukup membuat pembaca penasaran (paling tidak saya merasa demikian). Namun, isi berita yang disampaikanlah yang langsung “membantah” judul berita tersebut.

“Jadi domain-domain .id yang masa berlakunya berakhir 31 Maret 2007 akan otomatis diperpanjang. Tidak mati. Kita tidak membunuh nama domain yang ada,” paparnya (Teddy Sukardi, Ketua Pengurus PANDI) saat dihubungi detikINET, Jumat (30/3/2007).

Semua kembali kepada kesimpulan dari tiap pembaca artikel berita tersebut.

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§ Finding inspirations

Dolphin and cow

Few days ago, I had a brief conversation with Nurdin Nurudin Jauhari. He asked me, “Where did you get the inspiration from (especially in design)?”. The questions seems so simple, but hard to get the best answer.

I do not allocated a certain period of time to get inspirations. Inspiration can come anywhere, anytime. And sometimes, I (you) don’t even realize it. For me, it’s getting harder if I push myself to get inspirations. For example, I am so tired, lack of inspiration… but I need one. I do tend not to push my head to think too hard. I just take a rest and do other things — absolutely different — that what I usually do. If you want to solve a complicated knot, you (probably) will do it slowly, not in a hurry. Why? Because, if you do something not right, it will make it more complicated.

These are my personal thoughts about “inspirations”.

  • Do not push yourself too hard. You know yourself better than anyone else. You know your limit.
  • Find a partner. It is not only about having your partner solve your problem. Talk about interesting topics.
  • Spoil yourself. Say “thank you” for your body. Your body might be too tired.
  • See, read, and listen more. Find out what happen near you. Watch television, listen to your favorite song, read newspaper. Go with your boy/girl friend.
  • Take a bath and wash your hair. Aha!

I am sure that there are many things you can do to make yourself inspired. What about you?

§ links for 2007-03-29

§ Few things you should know about RSS template in Movable Type

I have been using Movable Type for quite long time. And one of my favorite features is its flexibility to manage the output file using our own template tags. Now, I will share some information about few things related to your RSS feed.

Before I go further, there are few things you should know about how Movable Type build the RSS file (of course, using its default template). Well, not all these facts will be directly related to RSS

  • If you leave the “excerpt” field blank when you post an entry, MT will automatically generate an excerpt automatically. The excerpt length can be defined from your weblog settings. Go to Settings → General. You will see “Excerpt Length:” there.
  • You can exclude some HTML tags using sanitize="" attribute. And you can easily manage whether you want to automatically convert breaks into new lines or not. Hint: Use the convert_breaks="" attribute. 0 means “no”.

Getting started

First, we should know about the RSS 2.0 default template, escpecially the “item-related” part. You can find other default templates in your /default_templates/ directory (packed with MT core files). Take a look at these lines:

<MTEntries lastn="15">
<item>
<title><$MTEntryTitle remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></title>
<description><$MTEntryBody encode_xml="1" convert_breaks="0"$></description>
<link><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$></link>
<guid><$MTEntryPermalink encode_xml="1"$></guid>
<MTEntryCategories>
<category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#category"><$MTCategoryLabel remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></category>
</MTEntryCategories>
<MTEntryIfTagged><MTEntryTags>
<category domain="http://www.sixapart.com/ns/types#tag"><$MTTagName remove_html="1" encode_xml="1"$></category>
</MTEntryTags></MTEntryIfTagged>
<pubDate><$MTEntryDate format_name="rfc822"$></pubDate>
</item>
</MTEntries>

Here are some points:

  • You will have last 15 entries displayed in your feed. Hint: <MTEntries lastn="15">
  • All the entry part (title, body text, category name, and permalink) will be encoded to XML format. Read more about encode_xml attribute.
  • Your entry body text will be used as the description. If you have new lines in your post, it will not automatically converted to breaks; focus on the convert_breaks="0" attribute.
  • If you supply the entry tags and categories, those will be displayed too.

Now, if you want to modify the RSS 2.0 default template, you know what you should modify.

Continue reading »

§ links for 2007-03-28

§ Deliver your information correctly

If you build a site, you will deal with HTML tags. Like or not, it is a must. You will deal with headings, paragraph, list, definitions, etc. To be more spesific, if you have blogs, you will see many tags.

When we make a web page, we make a document. Just like when you work with document editor like Microsoft Word or Open Office. What are the characteristics?

  • Your document has many headings
  • Your document has paragraphs
  • If you want to display a list of information, you will display them as “list”
  • If it is a definition, you will display it as a “definition”
  • and more…

“Hey, but the most important thing is that I can display the information, the information is there!”

That’s probably a common answer. But, if you call yourself a web designer, you should — once again, “should” — know how information should be delivered in a web document. To be more clear, take a look at these two examples:

<h2>This is a title</h2>
<p>You put some information here.</p>

and

<p>This is a title</p>
<p>You put some information here.</p>

Both have exactly the same “information”. But, they are displayed in different way. Which is the better? Which one is correct?

Another example:

<ul>
<li>List number one</li>
<li>List number two</li>
<li>List number three</li>
<li>List number four</li>
</ul>

and

- List number one<br />
- List number two<br />
- List number three<br />
- List number four

Now, you can see the difference, right?

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§ Checking Account Balance (Klik BCA)

I have been a customer of BCA for years. And, one of its services I use regularly is the internet banking (also known as Klik BCA); to check my account balance. I just realize that it takes ‘too many steps’ only to check it.

If I want to check my account balance, these are some steps:

  • Log on to https://ibank.klikbca.com/, and fill in User ID and Password. After logging in, you will be prompted to a welcome page. Here, you will see last login information, and a greeting. (see Figure 1 and 2)
  • Click on the “Informasi Rekening” (Account Information) tab. (Figure 3)
  • The after having the “Informasi Rekening” tab opened, click on the “Informasi Saldo” (Account Balance Information). (Figure 3)
  • You will see your account balance now. (Figure 4)

Klik BCA Login page

Klik BCA Customer Welcome page

Klik BCA Balance Information menu tab

Klik BCA Balance Information page

Well, why not having the account balance information directly after logging in?

Just my 2 cents.

§ links for 2007-03-17

§ links for 2007-03-16

  • MicroAkismet
    This is intended as a simple and compact method for adding Akismet protection to any user-submitted content.
    (tags: akismet spam php)

§ Informasi tentang Movable Type dalam Bahasa Indonesia

Movable Type telah menjadi pilihan alat bantu blog yang saya gunakan saat ini. Dibandingkan dengan alat bantu blog lain seperti WordPress, Textpattern, Expression Engine, Blogger, maupun layanan penyedia blog, Movable Type mungkin kurang populer di kalangan blogger Indonesia. Maksud saya dengan istilah “populer” ini adalah dalam arti jumlah pengguna.

Sering saya mendapatkan pertanyaan mengenai Movable Type. Dari mulai yang sangat sederhana, sampai dengan yang cukup sulit (bahkan saya sendiripun tidak dengan mudah dapat memberikan jawaban). Dari yang saya temui, salah satu hal yang memicu timbulnya persepsi bahwa “Movable Type itu sulit” adalah minimnya panduan dan informasi (terutama secara teknis) mengenai Movable Type dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Saya tidak sedang mencoba mengatakan bahwa saya sangat (paling) tahu mengenai Movable Type. Hal-hal yang saya sebutkan diatas memberikan sebuah pemicu untuk mencoba memberikan alternatif informasi seputar Movable Type. Nah, inilah saatnya memperkenalkan tentang: Situs informasi tentang Movable Type dalam bahasa Indonesia.

Movable Type dalam Bahasa Indonesia

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§ Empat Mata Trans 7 (dan Tukul Arwana)

Tukul Arwana

Empat Mata, sebuah tayangan acara Trans 7 saat ini mungkin menjadi topik yang cukup banyak dibicarakan. Dan, tentu saja sosok Tukul Arwana yang memiliki nama asli Tukul Riyanto semakin dikenal. Saya masih ingat beberapa minggu lalu, media (terutama infotainment) di Indonesia cukup gencar mengulas mengenai sosok yang satu ini.

Yang banyak diulas, selain kesuksesan seorang Tukul Arwana bersama dengan Empat Mata, juga mengenai sosok personal yang dimiliki oleh seorang Tukul Arwana. Selamat untuk Tukul Arwana dan Empat Mata untuk pencapaian ini!

Jargon-jargon baru juga muncul dan semakin populer. Yang pertama tentu saja “Kembali ke lappp… topp!”. Ungkapan ini semakin akrab saja di telinga. Tentu saja disamping jargon lain seperti “Katro!”, “nDheso!”, “Tak sobek-sobek mulutmu!”, dan lain-lain yang identik dengan Tukul Arwana dan Empat Mata.

Empat Mata Trans 7

Saya sendiri memang tidak terlalu mengikuti acara ini. Dalam artian bahwa saya tidak secara khusus melihat acara ini. Walaupun acara ini sebenarnya sudah dimulai pada 26 Mei 2006 yang lalu, saya mungkin baru beberapa kali (saya yakin kurang dari 20 episode) melihat acara ini. Setelah mengalami perubahan jam tayang-pun, saya juga tetap tidak terlalu excited dengan acara ini. Kenapa?

Continue reading »

§ Garuda Indonesia GA-200 crashed in Jogjakarta

Today, another plane Garuda Indonesia Boing 737-400 (GA-200) crashed in Jogjakarta. I heard this news for the first time from Jogja TV (the local TV station) by phone. She — I think she is a Jogja TV reporter — told me the story (about the plan accident). Then, she asked me about Mr. Suwardjono‘s phone number — he is my uncle. I think she got info that Mr. Suwardjono was one of the passengers.

I directly gave her his phone number (also his house, and his wife’s). I had no idea what happened at that time. I was cleaning my room when I got the call. I was not in front of my computer. I did not watch television. I was panic.

Then, I dialed Suwardjono’s mobile number. He replied. We had a brief conversation. He told me that he was fine, his seat was near the emergency exit. Thank God! Having got the information from him, I went back to my computer, reading the news. Oh my…

I sent an email to his daughter in US, to let her know about the accident (and tell her that her dad is fine).

Photo courtesy Detik.com

§ Category Basename in Movable Type

When using Movable Type, you can easily organize your entries by categories. And, if you want to have something a little bit different, you can take advantage from MTCategoryBasename. This tag will produce the dirified basename defined for the category in context.

When you make new categoris (or subcategories), your category name (or, you can call it Category Label) will be dirified automatically. For example: Your “Me and Business” category will be dirified as me_and_business. If you enable category-base archive, your archive link will be something like this: /archives/me_and_business//.

But, if you think that it is too long, you can shorten it easily. For example: business. So, rather than having /archives/me_and_business/, you can have /archives/business.

Continue reading »

§ Zookoda, your blog’s friend

Zookoda logo

If you are a blogger, do you have a plan to have these features for your blog?

  • You want to build traffic and readership to your blog.
  • You want to send announcement to your blog reader on a certain event. Not always related to blog, but information you considered as “important” or “they’d better know about this”.
  • You want your readers to subscribe to your RSS feed. Once they are subscribed, your readers will received an update directly to their email inbox.
  • You want your readers put information you need. Not only email address, but also some other fields e.g. mailing address, city, country, etc.
  • You want to do those things above easily, from a single account, from a friendly interface.
  • You want them to be hosted by a service, because you do not have your own web hosting account.
  • You want to have a professional look.
  • You want to build traffic and readership to your blog.
  • You want to have a report for each feature.

If you want to have something like I mentioned above, you should try Zookoda, blog email. You can get all those features by registering to Zookoda. And, the best thing that it’s free! For its rich features, Zookoda is a blog email. It is a solution for your blog.

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§ Budi Putra, the first Indonesian full-time blogger

First, congratulation Budi Putra!

Yes, congratulation for you brave move as a full-time blogger! I heard about this rumor — well, Budi Putra confirmed that it was not a rumor — when reading Kuncoro Wastuwibowo’s post.

Who is Budi Putra?

  • He was a journalist for Koran Tempo Daily and a content manager for Tempo Interactive.
  • He wrote some books (all in Indonesian language):
    • Sejarah Masa Depan [The Future History] (Pustaka MM, 2000).
    • Imperium Digital: Pusaran Budaya Abad 21 [The Digital Empire: A Turning Point of the 21st Century] (Pustaka MM-Cisco Systems, 2001).
    • Planet Seluler: Ketika Teknologi Bergerak Mengubah Hidup Kita [The Planet of Cellular: How the Mobile Technology Changed Our Life] (Jakarta: Logicom Publications, June 2004).
    • Planet Internet: Jaringan Pintar yang Mengubah Dunia [The Internet Planet: Smart Network that Changed the World] (Jakarta: Logicom Publications, December 2005).
    • Planet Digital: Manuver CDMA di Indonesia [The Planet of Digital: CDMA Maneuver in Indonesia] (Jakarta: Logicom Publications, Agustus 2006).
  • He writes for CNET Asia Blogs

If you want to know more about him, you can start reading information from Wikipedia.

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§ Tumblelog using Movable Type

It seems that tumblelog is getting more popular. And I am sure it will be more popular after Davidville, Inc. released a tumblelog service called Tumblr.

And I see more Indonesian tumblelogs there.

I created an account at Tumblr. My first impression was: it’s nice. Simple and it works.

I started my own tumblelog last September 2006. It’s called sambl. Well, if we have a Tumblr account, we can set the “publishing” setting to our own domain. It’s an easy process. I post from Tumblr, and use my own domain as the public URL. But, I choose not to use this feature.

I decided to use Movable Type as the platform. My tumblelog is 100% made using Movable Type. My only reason is that Movable Type can do exactly what I want (at least for now) to have. I can manage all posts by category, tags, individual entry link (permalink), paging navigation, etc.

Enjoy!

§ Pecel

Makanan ini terdiri dari beragam sayuran, mulai dari bayam, kacang panjang, daun kemangi, kol, dan juga tauge. Disajikan dengan bumbu kacang. Ya, itulah pecel. Di Jogjakarta, makanan ini cukup mudah ditemukan. Di pasar (terutama pasar tradisional), atau di beberapa warung makan, pecel ini dijadikan sebagai salah satu menu. Ngomong-ngomong soal pecel ini, saya sendiri juga tidak tahu asal mula mengapa makanan ini diberi nama “pecel”. Tapi satu hal yang pasti bahwa makanan ini termasuk cocok di lidah saya.

Ketika saya dan Lala berjalan-jalan di daerah Malioboro, beberapa kali memang menyempatkan untuk membeli makanan ini. Bukan di warung makan, melainkan di tempat makan pinggir jalan, tepatnya di depan Pasar Beringharjo (di sisi selatan Jalan Malioboro). Disekitar pasar Beringharjo sendiri cukup banyak penjual pecel ini, walaupun memang belum pernah membandingkan diantara para penjual (baik dari segi rasa, maupun haga). Hehe…

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from dadio.tv

Dadio.TV is a videoblog I created with my friend. Most contents are about Indonesia.

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1,061 posts since Nov 2002