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.

§ Kalibata for Durian, and Pasar Minggu for Fish

I have been staying in Jakarta for almost two months now. But, I haven’t got any chance to explore this city further. Last weekend I decided to visit some areas in Jakarta with my friend Teguh. We went to Kalibata Street to have some durian and also Pasar Minggu — one of the biggest traditional market in Jakarta — to see the market at midnight.

At Kalibata, we had durian. Yay! Finally! The price was not too expensive I think. I bought two durian and shared another one durian for some kids I met there. We had three. I spent IDR 50,000. Fair enough.

I went there at around 10 PM. After that, my friend and I went to Pasar Minggu. The plan was that we want to go to Muara Baru with some people to get fresh fish. But, we’re late. We arrived at Pasar Minggu around 8 PM. We decided to have durian first, and go back to Pasar Minggu at midnight.

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§ Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta: First Impression

Two days ago, I gave Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta a try on my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This application will help Nokia users to keep update with the social media services — in this case Facebook and Twitter. Of course, it’s still in beta so I should not expect too much.

The installation process was easy and I didn’t have any problems. Everything was smooth. This early preview is available on the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5530, Nokia 5800, and the Nokia X6 devices. Go to messaging.nokia.com if you want to see applications from Nokia Messenging for your device.

After having this application installed, I used it right away. When running the application for the first time, I got this welcome screen:

Home Screen

I use Twitter more than Facebook. First, I use the Twitter feature. Here’s the login sreen:

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§ Facebook Privacy Settings You Should Know

Sun Server Key Chain (by Subzero Blue) I’m using Facebook, and found this useful post about privacy settings. In short:

  1. Understand your friend lists
  2. Remove yourself from Facebook search results
  3. Remove yourself from Google
  4. Avoid the infamous photo tag mistake
  5. Protect your albums
  6. Avoid the post-breakup Facebook effect
  7. Control what information applications can access
  8. Make contact information private
  9. Avoid embarrassing wall posts
  10. Keep friendships private

Of course, every user has its own privacy level settings. But, I think most of them are few good points to consider. See details about each setting.

§ Jogja Wall Nation: Mural Competition

There will be an event in Jogjakarta called “Jogja Wall Nation” this weekend (October 14-15). It’s a mural competition. The competition will take place in Malioboro area. What makes it different is that the event will start in the evening until early in the morning. I got news that right now (when I write this post), there are already 150+ registered participants.

Jogja Wall Nation

Now, if you’re journalists, bloggers or social media users who want to come to this event, you’re all welcome. Malioboro street will be closed from around 10 PM (October 14th). If you want to know more about this event you send your questions/inquiries from its website or don’t hesitate to contact me directly. More info about this event can be found at Jogja Wall Nation official website.

§ Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Error During Start

Yesterday, on my way home to Jogja from Jakarta, my Nokia 5800 didn’t work at all. Last time I checked before boarding — it was in Soekarno Hatta airport — it worked without any issue. I just switched to “Offline” mode. Few minutes after that, I only had blank white screen with the Nokia logo. Something was wrong, and I decided to switch off my phone. I waited after I touched Jogjakarta.

When I was in the airport in Jogjakarta, I tried to switch it on hoping that it’s back to normal. It gave me the same error. Nothing I could do. Damn! When I got home, I tried to find the solution, and I used these solutions.

Your memory card is corrupted.
Firstly hard reset your device without inserting the memory card. And after hard resetting just insert back your memory card.
If still the problem persits just attach your device to your PC in Mass Storage mode and right click your memorycard and select properties and select tools and select check now..i.e. scan disk your memory card for errors… (source)

This is what I did:

  • Switch off the phone and pull out the memory card.
  • Switch on the phone without memory card. It’s back to normal now.
  • Switch it off again and insert its memory card back, and turn it off.
  • It’s working again.

I was worried that the only solution was formatting my memory card. At least, next time I get this kind of problem, I should know what I must try. Is there any other solution to solve this kind of error?

§ Dear Yahoo! Meme, I think…

When I heard about Yahoo! Meme and looked its website, in brief I was thinking about tumblelog. Seriuosly, I couldn’t fine any new features, compared to similar service like Tumblr (my Tumblr) or Posterous (my Posterous page). That was before I got a chance to try Yahoo! Meme.

Yahoo! describes Yahoo! Meme as “where you share everything you find that’s interesting”. If we go to Yahoo! Meme page, Yahoo! tells us about these following details:

  • Things have to be quick, easy and simple to do
  • You should be able to share whatever kind of content you publish or find in the web
  • Your posts should get around without you having to be a part of any specific social network
  • You keep the credit for your discoveries and creations
  • You should easily find what’s drawing everyone else’s attention

I’ve been using Tumblr for few months, and when I firstly logged in to Yahoo! Meme (after got an invitation), I see nothing but similar features — like Tumblr. This is Yahoo! Meme’s dashboard when you’re ready to post/share something:

Yahoo! Meme Dashboard

Currently, it supports some post types: text, photo, video and music (audio). For non-text contents, you can directly upload (only images) or embed external contents. So, some contents should be “somewhere” on the internet first. Anyway, Yahoo! already has a video service called Yahoo! Video, but its videos can’t be inserted? Yahoo! Meme only supports YouTube and Vimeo now. What about other video sharing providers like blip.tv or Metacafe? Or, what about any video files that can be inserted using embed codes?

Now, let’s compare it to Tumblr. Tumblr offers more type of posts. And it’s so easy. We don’t need to deal with complex post customizations. For example, we post video embed codes, it will be automagically processed by Tumblr system. Neat.

Tumblr Dashboard

And, let’s not forget about various features including theme customization, custom domain, and more. I know, Yahoo! Meme is still new. They might have improvements in the future. Or, it will be closed down just like Yahoo! 360? Anyone can give me a good reason to use Yahoo! Meme?

§ Telkom Speedy Review (first month)

It has been a month since I started using Telkom Speedy service. So far, I have nothing but positive service. I’m an active internet user and I use internet everyday. I haven’t experienced any connection problem.

Few days after I had my internet connection, I had a phone call from Telkom Speedy representative. She asked me whether I have my internet connection working or not. She also welcomed me and said thank you for using Telkom service. I got information also if I have problem with the connection, I can call the customer support. I already know about this but I never try it until today.

Today, I got another call from them. They informed me that they’ve received my payment and asked me about their service so far. I told the guy that I don’t have problem so far. I’m not sure about the other customers in other city, but here in Jogjakarta (in my place), I have a good experience.

Anyway, I tried to pay my Speedy bill using bank transfer (from ATM), but it seemed that the system is not ready yet here in Jogjakarta. Anyone got the same experienced?

§ 14th Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival 2009

ygf

Yogyakarta Gamelan Festival (YGF) is an annual music event in Jogjakarta. This year, it’s the 14th festival and has “EVERYWHERE” as the event theme. Anyway, this event is organized by Gayam16. There are many agenda during this event including music performance, exhibition and also workshop from July 16-18.

This event also invites musicians from some cities like Pamekasan (Madura), Tolitoli (Central Sulawesi), Solo, Jakarta and also from United Kingdom, USA, France and Japan. It’s a little bit different now. Sapto Raharjo, a gamelan music maestro, was passed away in February 2009.

The music performances will be held in Concert Hall, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta from July 16-18, 2009. And here’s the program schedule:

  • Thursday — July 16, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Y. Pamulangan Beksa Sasmita Mardawa (Yogyakarta)
      • Kutiplak Ndang Tak (Yogyakarta)
      • KPH9 (USA and Yogyakarta)
      • Agus Bing and Prabumi Ethnic Jazz Band (Solo)
      • Stupa (Yogyakarta)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo
  • Friday — July 17, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Gita Rarya (Yogyakarta)
      • Kito Siopo? (Japan, UK and Yogyakarta)
      • Alex Grillo and Friends (France and Yogyakarta)
      • Singgayan (Tolitoli, Central Sulawesi)
    • Talkshow (3PM – 5PM)
      • Cultural Dialogue (at Amphitheather, Taman Budaya Yogyakarta)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo
  • Friday — July 18, 2009
    • Concert (8PM – 11PM)
      • Youngsters Gamelan 16 (Yogyakarta)
      • Rene Lysloff and SaKAna (USA)
      • Kabud Hitam (Pamekasan, Madura)
    • Workshop (1PM – 4PM)
      • Gamelan Nowadays (at Auditorium of Lembaga Indonesia Perancis)
    • Exhibition (10AM – 11PM)
      • Tribute to Sapto Raharjo

§ i-teve and YouTube

Few days ago, I joined a discussion on other site about i-teve. I thought, I need to respond some comments there. Why? OK, someone wrote this:

wahhh parah banget nih i-teve. Niru2 youtube banget. Malu gw sama bangsa Indonesia. Bikin yang baru gitu dong, apa kek

OK. What about this:

Iya, tapi menurut gw kurang aja nih i-teve kalo konsepnya bener2 njiplak youtube. Plagiat mungkin adalah kata-kata yang tepat, atau mungkin copy cat?

The question is: does he — who gave comments above — already understand what i-teve and YouTube are? But, thank you for your comments… :)

Related: my other posts about i-teve.

§ White House’s The Official Photostream

When I heard about White House Photostream page from Yan Arief Twitter status, I visited it right away. No waiting. I’m an Indonesian, and I love seeing the topic like this — related to my own country — but, it’s not easy to find. Do we have great pictures of our President, or Istana Negara? Anyone?

I like seeing what happen in the White House. Not from political perspective. I just like it. If I have to choose some, here are some photos I like.

P020109PS-0339

P021809PS-0069

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§ Douglas Bowman’s Farewell Post

I like reading Douglas Bowman’s farewell post. He left Google after three years. Here’s a paragraph:

Yes, it’s true that a team at Google couldn’t decide between two blues, so they’re testing 41 shades between each blue to see which one performs better. I had a recent debate over whether a border should be 3, 4 or 5 pixels wide, and was asked to prove my case. I can’t operate in an environment like that. I’ve grown tired of debating such minuscule design decisions. There are more exciting design problems in this world to tackle.

Other comment about this farewell post:

This is, I believe, why Google’s products (many of which are great and innovative–I remain a devoted Gmail fan, for example) will always fall short of achieving the emotional connection that people feel to an iPhone. There’s no one with real power there who has a good sense of what makes a product beautiful or when it feels “electric.” You can’t quantify that sort of thing through study or harness collective brainpower to coerce it–someone just has to know it when they see it. (source)

§ Follow and follow back on Twitter

On Twitter, I have some personal preferences about who I follow. When someone follows me, I usually do not follow them back directly for some reasons, mostly it’s because of spammy users. If someone starts following me, I usually check his/her profile first. I tried not to follow people back without reading about their profile (and their updates).

I will not follow other Twitter users back mainly because of these two reasons:

  • I do not know them. The word “know” here is not about I have met them in real life. I look up their profile. If they have no profile, website/blog URL, or short biography. I will not follow them. I might block them.
  • They follow many people, but have less follower and updates, e.g. Following 800+ users, less than 10 followers, and the first update is few minutes ago?

Usually, I block them right away. Anyway, I follow other people not because I want them to follow me back.

§ Indonesia: A band from Russia

indonesia_band_logo

If you think that Indonesia is only being used as a country name, it’s not. There is a Russian band named Indonesia also. (Hat tip: fisto). Since its website is not in English, MySpace described it as:

Indonesia – band was founded in St-Petersburg in autumn 2007.The musicians’ main aim is to play high-quality rock-music including original arrangements and perfect melodies. There is a strong accent on expert combining of classical western rock and modern progressive sound elements. After the months of the rehearsals and recording demo sound-track “Pretty Colours” Indonesia regularly performs in numerous clubs of St.-Petersburg and Moskow. Mad dynamics and drive distinguishs each Indonesia set, that immediately helps the band to find their own fans. (source)

More about this band can be found at Last.fm, MySpace, and also its official site. When I surfed its MySpace, I saw that there’s a Dream Theater fans club. What’s interesting about this fans club is its logo — well, I’m not sure whether it’s the official logo or not.

§ twibble Desktop Application

Twibble Logo

I’m installing twibble on my mobile device and so far, it works great. I use this as a primary application to upload photos from my Twitter account.

Today, I tried twibble for desktop application. Anyway, I’m having TweetDeck and TwitterFox (for Mozilla Firefox and Flock). Well, I use TwitterFox most of the time. I don’t know, I just like TweetDeck being installed, as an application to learn about interface design. :)

If you have TweetDeck installed, you can install twibble for desktop application since both are using Adobe AIR technology. Compared to TweetDeck, I think TweetDeck is much better. BUT, I like these twibble (for desktop) features:

  • Multiple Twitter accounts — if you manage multiple account. I do.
  • Location awareness — it understands GPS position sent from twitter mobile.
  • Easy to post pictures/photos.
  • twitter search
  • identi.ca support

When I firstly installed, I was a little bit lost about the menu and interface. For example, on the configuration screen, I could not see the “Go” or “Save” links/button. Well, it’s there, using a small green arrow icon.

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§ WordPress will be much better with your help

As WordPress users, we can contribute to its development in many ways. But, if you do not involve actively in the development, you can get involved by participating in a survey.

This survey will help WordPress developers to determine which features should be on the top priority for WordPress 2.8 (and/or 2.9 and beyond) . If you’re WordPress users, it’s recommended that you’re using WordPress latest stable release: WordPress 2.7. As a WordPress user, here few things I want to have (not in a particular order)

  • Sort by column on list-type screens. It will be useful!
  • Bulk edit on other screens. If it’s similar to bulk edit for entries, that would be great.
  • Choose number of items to display on list-type screens (20/50/100). When doing a batch edit, I can edit more posts at a time.
  • OpenID in core. Even I’m not using it for my blog, I think it will be useful for those who want to have an OpenID-enabled blog.
  • Site closed/maintenance mode. When working on the design, or something is broken, I want to have my blog displays a maintenance screen. Just a simple page, but can be handled from the dashboard.
  • Improve category management. Mmm… can I have built-in category thumbnail? :D
  • User permissions based on categories. Hey, this should be great for blogs with multiple users!
  • Bundle DB backup plugin. Backup is important, so I want to have this. Also, some other DB-related management features e.g. to optimize overhead tables?
  • Better custom fields management
  • Option to delete inactive plugins.
  • More built-in plugins for special purposes like videoblogging or podcast. Can we have podcast plugin like Podpress built-in shipped in the core?
  • Built-in search and replace for posts. Actually, there is a plugin for this purpose.
  • Additional user profile fields.
  • More settings managed from dashboard (web-based). For example to disable/enable Post Revisions. So, the wp-config.php should not need to be edited.

I don’t use widget extensively so I’m fine with widget-related features. Oops.. it’s a long list. I know, those list is based on my personal preferences. You can have different wishlist. :)

§ New design for this blog

I have been very busy in the last few weeks, many things to do. I needed to recharge my energy. And this is the result: a new design for my blog. I created this theme for fun, at least to keep my mood in balance, to bring my mood back to the other design work.

After upgrading to WordPress 2.7 few days ago, I wanted to have some changes here, especially by taking advantages from new features introduced in the latest WordPress, e.g. built-in threaded comment. Here are some notes on my new blog design.

Template tags

Still related to template tags, I try to take advantage from the way WordPress produces CSS selectors. Here is an example. Open index.php in default theme folder, you should see this for the entry loop:

<div <?php post_class() ?> id="post-<?php the_ID(); ?>">

The code above will produce something like this:

<div class="post hentry category-services category-sites category-www category-webdev tag-htaccess tag-facebook tag-linkedin tag-service tag-twitter tag-url" id="post-1026">

Do you see the pattern? It will produce some post classes on the entry data (categories and tags). This function is called post_class(). By this, we can customize how each entry (inside the loop) should be displayed, just work with the stylesheet.

If you want to make you theme compatible well with WordPress 2.7, just head to Migrating Plugins and Themes to 2.7 article at WordPress Codex. There are some other useful information for theme designers — and also for you as bloggers.

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§ Videoblogging, anyone?

I decided to start a videoblogging now. When I am with my camera digital, sometime I capture videos and photos. So, why not bring the videos online? I know it is probably not popular — especially in Indonesia. But, why not?

After doing comparison steps among some video hosting providers like Vimeo, YouTube, blip.tv, Yahoo! Video, Google Video, etc, I decided to host all my videos to Vimeo and embed to my videoblog. I capture all videos using both camera digital and my mobile phone Nokia. Just in case you find a low-quality videos, you know the reasons. :)

My videoblog is built using WordPress and Viper’s Video Quicktag plugin with template modifications — also some other plugins. Right now, not every video has a story/descrption, but I will add some later. Okey, here is my videoblog URL: http://video.orangescale.net

§ Podcast, videoblog and Pesta Blogger

Okey, let’s make it short. I have started a podcast channel and videoblog few days ago. If you visit my blog, you might have seen in on the sidebar. The reason was pretty simple: I like doing it, and I enjoy it. :)

Just go to my podcast channel and videoblog. About Pesta Blogger 2008 — I will join it! — you can listen to foreign bloggers’ comment during their trip to Indonesia few days ago. Some videos are also available.

I will be going to Jakarta this evening using Mandala Airlines with Lala, depart from Adisutjipto International Airport at 5:15 PM. If you subscribe to my blog, you probably did not get updates from my feed. I’m enjoying Twitter very much now.

Have a nice weekend all, and… Jakarta, I’m coming!

§ Mud eruption ’caused by drilling’

porong_lapindo

A further 16 scientists believed the evidence was inconclusive, and the remaining 13 felt that a combination of earthquake and drilling was to blame.
“The geologists voted overwhelmingly that drilling was the most likely cause,” said Prof Underhill.
“The atmosphere was very tense, so all credit to them for not sitting on their hands. (read more)

via Aku Ingin Hijau. Photo by REUTERS/Sigit Pamungkas, taken from The Big Picture.

§ Canon EOS 450D (Digital Rebel XSi / Kiss X2 Digital)

No, no. I haven’t bought it. It’s still in my wishlist. (specifications/review)

§ Blocking More Twitter Users

Today, I blocked many Twitter users who followed me. I already did it before. I have some spammy followers. They just published some links to visit their websites or other sites. I don’t know.

Searching using Come OR visit gives me lots of spammy tweets (hat tip @budip). Sometime I did not check every followers directly after I got a notification from Twitter. Luckily, my “followers” page shows me the recent followers. So, it’s easier to check.

§ Seven Years of Movable Type

Movable Type celebrates its 7th anniversary this month. Happy birthday Movable Type! Even now I’m not using Movable Type, I used Movable Type for few years. I want to make few posts related to Movable Type. I think I used Movable Type when it was Movable Type 2.6x.

  • Dec 22, 2003 — Why: Migration from one to another. I write about why choosing Movable Type, at that time.
  • May 14, 2004 — MT 3.0 is ready, I am not. I was lucky to be one of the Movable Type 3.0 beta testers. And, it was the first time Movable Type introduced a new pricing scheme.
  • May 16, 2004 — WordPress vs. MovableType. Since I tried many blogging tools before, I wrote a small comparisons between two leading platform.
  • Aug 15, 2004 — Removing .php in permalinks. Movable Type already had a built-in permalink structures. And, I tried to make it nicer.
  • Aug 26, 2004 — Upgrading to Personal License. Hey, I purchased a Personal License. And I think it was the first time I received a comment from a person at Six Apart. It was Mr. Anil Dash.
  • Oct 06, 2004 — MovableStyle. I mentioned about Movable Style.
  • Oct 16, 2004 — Why I still use Movable Type? Here, Movable Type probably is not popular among other blogging engines. But, I still use it. So, I wrote some reasons why I sticked to Movable Type.
  • Jul 26, 2005 — Post to MT (3.2) from del.icio.us. As del.icio.us (now delicious) user, I wanted to post my delicious links directly to Movable Type. And, it was soooo easy. It’s still easy right now.
  • Sep 22, 2006 — Combining entries from two weblogs (Movable Type 3.3x). One of the best features from Movable Type is that it support multiple weblogs. Was it difficult to combine multiple weblogs and display them in the order we wanted? No, it’s easy.

The stories continues…

I learn many things from Movable Type. Not only Movable Type, but also the company behind it: Six Apart. There was a joke between Ikhlasul Amal (he’s still using Movable Type now). He said that Six Apart should here hire me for Indonesian market. Hehe!

Okey, need to stop writing. Happy birthday Movable Type!

§ Pesta Blogger 2008

Last year, I joined Pesta Blogger (Indonesian Bloggers Gathering — official site). It was a great event (Flickr photoset). More than 500 bloggers gathered at Blitz Megaplex. This year (2008), Pesta Blogger will be hold in Jakarta again. At first, it was scheduled on October 25th. The commitee announced that it will be hold in November. Still haven’t got valid info about “when” and “where”. Ayway, this-year theme is: blogging for society.

§ Organizing My Feed Subscriptions

I use RSS reader to follow updates from my favorite sites. When I subscribed for the first time, I just loved those sites. I found them useful. But, right now I am thinking of re-organizing my subscriptions. Even the feedreader — I use Google Reader — has ability to keep the headlines, I don’t think that I can follow them all. I tried, and I was failed.

I ask myself about those feeds:

  • Do I need them? I mean, I really need to read those updates?
  • If I do not subscribe to those feeds, will I get impact? I mean, my work, my job, etc.
  • Do I need to subscribe to multiple feeds having similar contents?
  • Can I get updates using other methods? For example, having combined feeds using Yahoo! Pipes or RSS Mixer so that I only need to read contents I really need?

Those are some reasons. Right now, I review my subscriptions. Will delete some.

§ IDR 100K to Update Domain Registrant Contact and Domain Transfer for .ID Domains

If you’re having .ID domains — I do have some, you might heard about the news. That’s right, the news (it’s official!) said that starting from November 1, 2008, we need to pay IDR 100,000 (around US $10) to update Registrant Contact and/or Admin domain information. And, what makes it even better is that we need an formal letter. But, if we only need to update billing, technical contact and nameservers… it’s free.

Anyway, I posted about my experience about .ID domain renewal last year. With this new policy, I think I’ll avoid using .ID. If my clients want to register .ID domains, they should know about this first. It’s much cheaper — and easier — to have .COM!

§ Back to Ubuntu

More than a year ago, I installed Ubuntu as another operating system in my computer. During that time, I tried to explore its features and got some new experiences using many open source softwares.

I did not know when I finally decided to remove my Ubuntu installation. After that, I tried another distro. It was OpenSUSE. Anyway, I feel so lucky because I have some friends who are also using some distros. Thanks to Yan Arief and Redy! I bugged them with many basic questions. How to do this? How to do that? And many other HOW-TO’s. :)

In the last two months, I went back to Ubuntu again. I removed OpenSUSE on my PC and installed Ubuntu (Hardy Heron). When I bought a new laptop, I also installed OpenSUSE. But, I have some problem with the network settings. Not major, but sometime it’s annoying.

Right now, I am using Ubuntu for my PC and laptop. So far, I like it. Again, big thanks to Yan Arief and Redy for their supports and patience!

§ Road to 2,000 Flickr Photos

Last June, we marched to reach 1,000 photos in our photostream — and we made it! Now, we’re close to 2,000. Last month (August), we posted more than 860 photos. Blame Jogja Fashion Week 2008 and Jogja Food Festival! :)

I think, we’re just addicted to Flickr more, and more.

§ Do You Block Other Twitter Users?

My short answer is: Yes. Sometimes, I do block some Twitter users (followers). The main reason is pretty simple. I think they’re spammy users. For example, here are their ‘condition’:

  • I could not even see his/her profile. No URL, no short bio.
  • He/she follows too-many users, but only have little followers.
  • He/she only promote what he/she’s doing. Okey, I am not talking about @cnnbrk — it’s a different story.

So, I blocked them. In Twitter, blocking a person means:

  • You will no longer show up in the blocked person’s list of friends.
  • Your updates won’t show up on the blocked person’s profile page.
  • The blocked person will not be able to add you as a friend.
  • You can unblock people. You’ll have to add them as a friend after unblocking, though.

I’m fine with that. I’m just curious, are you also blocking other users?

§ Fight Global Warming and White Roofs

A recent study found that there is a connection between global warming and white roofs.

A can of white paint should be part of the planet’s arsenal against global warming, say California researchers, who have calculated that installing white roofs in the world’s cities could offset 1.5 years of man-made carbon emissions. (source)

For related article in Bahasa Indonesia, please go to akuinginhijau.wordpres.com, a very informative blog about environment. Anyway, I painted my room green. Just curious, if I painted white, does it help to lower the room temperature? Please don’t suggest to get air conditioner. :)

§ When and Why I Need RSS Reader

Some people might want to read information by going directly to the original websites. Even nowadays. But, for me I can’t live with that kind of strategy. So, when RSS technology was found around 10 years ago (#1, #2), it might not be popular. But, it was 10 years ago. With the fast information flow, I think RSS is the technology people must experience.

Almost regularly-updated sites offer their contents in RSS format, not only read-from-the-browser format. By this, peole do not have to visit the site only to check whether there are new updates available or not. Thanks to the other technology: RSS Reader or Aggregator! Okey, I will not talk why they should provide RSS for their content or how RSS affects their content readership. Here, I will write some reasons why I need/prefer to use/have RSS readers.

  1. I only have 24 hours a day. It’s not impossible for me to sit in front of the computer, reading all information. RSS readers keeps the new updates (from sites I subscribed to) for me so that I can read them later.
  2. I have limited internet connection. I do not expect the sites designed as I wanted. So, other than visiting all sites one by one, loading not-the-real-content elements on a site, I only need to read the real content. When the RSS does not provide me the details and I need those details, I can easily go to the original article sources. Easy.
  3. I only want to read what I like. News portals, blogs, and other resources sometime provides too-much information. But, I do not need them all. Sometime, I feel lucky to have sites that offers many types of RSS so that I can have flexibility. The control is in my hands. I can read what I need and what I reall like.

Of course, you have your own considerations whether you decide to use RSS reader or not.

§ Google Reader Problems

Today, I had problem opening Google Reader. I am not sure what caused it, because I did nothing unusual using my laptop. I noticed that it happened after I had Google Chrome installed. But, I am NOT saying that Google Chrome caused this issue. Not sure about this (Thanks Yogi for the correction).

The problem was that I have my browsers stopped loading. I even tried almost all browsers installed on my laptop. No luck. Doh! I am sure it’s not about the internet connection. Because I could not figure out how to solve this issue, I tried to re-install Google Gears. Before I did that, I disabled Greasemonkey script used by Google Reader (in Firefox).

After having Google Reader re-installed, I opened Google Reader page again. Surprise! It’s back to normal again now. At least I do not have to switch to another web-based RSS reader.

§ Some Opera Features I Don’t Use

Even Opera offeres many features to get the most from a web browser, I do not use all of them on my daily basis. Sometime, I do not use them at all. This is similar to other technologies like mobile phone. There are many features, but usually, we do not use them all even they’re all there. So, here are some Opera features I do not use (or, I only use some of its features):

  • Opera Built-in Email Client — I like reading email from the web (using browser). This is because email client does not suit me — especially related to my internet connection speed.
  • Feed Reader — I already have hundreds of feeds in my Google Reader.
  • Chat — I am not comfortable using Opera built-in chat.
  • Opera Widgets — I use it but only some (less than 10 widgets).

There are still many Opera capabilities, of course. I just like when I use Opera to browse the internet; using Opera as web browser.

§ Road to 1,000 Flickr Photos

flickr1000

We‘re about to reach 1,000 photos in our Flickr Photostream. When we upgraded our Flickr account last February 2008, we added more photos into our sets and collections. Yeah, we do not have super camera, lenses, or any other great gadgets. But, we want to capture moments. We believe that we can reach 1,000 photos this month. It should be easy, because there is Yogyakarta Art Festival 2008. It means: more photos!

§ Joining FAM Trip Journalist as bloggers

FAM TRIP Journalist

Last week, Yan Arief told me that we’re invited to join an event called FAM Trip Journalist. Yan Arief got the news from Pak Octo Lampito from Kedaulatan Rakyat, the biggest newspaper in Jogjakarta. Anyway, what is FAM Trip?

A FAM (familiarization) is a trip offered to meeting professionals (including planners, journalists and travel agents) in which event venues and destinations highlight–and, thus, give attendees first-hand experience with–their products. FAMs may be fully or partially sponsored by venues or destinations. (source)

We’re invited as bloggers. Yes, as bloggers. Yan Arief already knew Pak Octo for long time, but I just met him (Pak Octo) when Yan Arief took me to Kedaulatan Rakyat in last February. At that time, we introduced our unofficial TransJogja.NET website. (Read more about it — in Bahasa Indonesia). Luckily, Pak Octo already knew a bit about blogger and he told us that there would be an event that would involved bloggers. Great!
• • • Continue reading • • • .

§ FAM Trip Journalist (Yogyakarta, Indonesia, 2008)

FAM TRIP Journalist (by Orangescale)

We’re invited… as bloggers. Read the detailed story (in Bahasa Indonesia).

§ The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian? Not yet…

Yesterday, my girl and I had a plan watching The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at 21 Theather. I haven’t read many reviews about this movie, but a short review from Willy was more than enough. I did watched the first sequel of Narnia — The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Not my favorite, but I just like it.

When we tried to get tickets, there were only 3 seats available. And, they were on the front row. No way! Okey, next time!

§ Withdraw Paypal funds to Indonesian bank account

Last week (April 20th, 2008), we (Lala and I) decided to withdraw our funds at Paypal into our bank account. We use BCA right now. Since we already had our Paypal verified, the process was not difficult at all. It was very easy. And here are the process and few things you might want to know (if you want to get your Paypal fund, too):

  • First, make sure you have a verified Paypal account. And you already added your bank account information.
  • You have to know that there will be a fee (Rp. 16.000,00) if you withdraw Rp. 1.499.999,99 or less. But, for Rp. 1.500.000,00 or more there is no extra cost. So, we took the second option.
  • It takes 5-7 business day to process. But, we got our fund faster — I think it was 2 or 3 days only.
  • Paypal has its own currency system I guess. So, before sending your funds, make sure that you get the right amount. There is a currency calculator available. The exchange rate was “1 U.S. Dollar = 8.944,22 Indonesian Rupiah”. It might change.
  • If the transaction failed, your fund will be returned to your Paypal account. And, there is Rp. 50.000,00 administration cost for this. Well, I am not sure about the exact number. You will see a short notification before you confirm your transaction.

Pretty easy, right? It was our first time getting funds from Paypal to our local bank. Everything was great. So, if you want to send fund into my Paypal account (donate[at]orangescale.net), I can receive it. Hehehe… :)

§ Some notes about 21Cineplex website

Before going to theaters for a movie, I checked the schedule first. And I want to get the information about the movies — their schedules — I go to http://www.21cineplex.com/. It’s informative, but I found annoyance there.

  • I can’t bookmark a theater page. Whenever I want to go directly to a theater page, it takes me to frontpage. I think it’s because my browser does not send HTTP_REFERER?
  • Because I can’t add a theater to my bookmark, it means that I can not send a permanent link to other people. If I want to show a page to someone, for example: “Go to theater in Yogyakarta”, how to do that? “Open the site, then click this, then scroll down, you should see the link there”. Like that? Doh!
  • Every theater has its own RSS feed. This is good. But, it seems that the feeds are out-dated. I just open a feed few minutes ago (April 20), but I got the feed for April 9 (as seen from <pubDate> value).

A question: why?

There are some answers, but I am just guessing. Probably:

  • they put advertisement there. More page views, more value?
  • they think people are not interested to subscribe to RSS. RSS — in this case — means less page views?
  • nobody complains about this, so there is nothing wrong with the site.
  • the point is: “All information are there. There. The most important thing is that users can find them.”

Okey, I will stop complaining now.

§ When strangers add you as his/her contact

Few days ago, I had someone added my Flickr account as her contact. Well, I am not sure whether it is her own real account or not. Probably, it is someone’s account. I assumed that it’s a “she”. I noticed that I was not familar with the name. Okey, I looked at the profile. And, boom! The account has many pornographic material there. And, it seems spammy.

flickr blocked

I just quickly blocked her account. I did not have any other reason to accept that. And, probably this is the first person I blocked. I am not a person who put ‘numbers of contact’ as a goal. I prefer to have less contacts rather than having numerous contacts but most of them are stragers. Remember what happened to my Facebook account? Currently, I have still many ’stragers’ there. It is fine if those who added me have a ’safe content’, but I am not comfortable when someone who has pornographic and any other distracting materials added me.

Okey, I blocked that person (as my Flickr contact). According to Flickr, blocking means that they:

  • can’t comment on my photos. All comments on my photos that they make are deleted.
  • are removed as my contact, and you are removed as theirs.
  • can’t add me as a contact again.
  • can’t add my photos as favorites. Any of my photos marked as their favorites are removed.
  • can’t blog my photos
  • can’t add notes or tags. Any notes and tags they added to my photos are removed.
  • can’t send me FlickrMail

§ Telkom blocked more sites

A sad news for people in Indonesia who use internet, including bloggers. Few days ago, some people reported that YouTube was blocked from their internet providers. Telkom Indonesia as the largest internet provider in Indonesia followed the action. According to the news release (in Bahasa Indonesia) Telkom blocked these following sites (including blogging service providers):

  • Youtube
  • MySpace
  • Metacafe
  • Rapidshare
  • Multiply
  • Liveleak
  • Themovief****.com

Sad, really sad. There is no further information about how long this situation will happen. Anyway, about the reason: those sites are blocked because it contains articles/posts about a video. One thing we have to remember is that: only because of a single content material. Too bad. Anyway, Boy Avianto has a very great article about the issue.

§ Good bye YouTube

The decision is final, YouTube is blocked in Indonesia, from internet access using Indonesia Internet Exchange (IIX). Asosiasi Penyelenggara Jasa Internet Indonesia (Indonesian Internet Service Providers) came into this disappointing decision.

According to the news, this decision was triggered because of the case of an uploaded video entitled “F**na”. The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology of The Republic of Indonesia said that they already contacted YouTube to remove “F**na” from the website. The govt of Indonesia gave two days for YouTube to remove it. But, it seems that YouTube did not gave an expected response.

What does this affect the Indonesian blogosphere? I visited some blogs having embeded YouTube videos, and all failed — of course, because my internet connection is blocked already. Some people said that they still can access YouTube… But, I think it’s about time.

I just don’t get it. YouTube has move good contents (compared to ‘bad content’), I think. Argh!

Update (9 PM): The information said that there was a technical error about the blocking. It’s said that it’s related to human error (wrong blocking mechanism). Many people are still able to visit YouTube, some are unlucky. My ISP has some proxies and right now, I can still open YouTube — not like this morning. BUT, I found some sites (BIG sites!) already blocked.

§ Why no emoticons in this site?

I am not a fan of emoticon. But, I am fine if I see smilies used in websites, blogs, or discussion forums. Nowadays, smilies/emoticons are widely used by many web applications, etc; and I have to confest that I do not know each of them, do you?

Okey, what’s emoticon anyway? According to Wikipedia:

an emoticon is a symbol or combination of symbols used to convey emotional content in written or message form.

To be more spesific, current web applications have a built-in emoticon feature. For example, if you’re using WordPress, we can manage how smilies should be presented: only symbols or converted them into graphics/icons. There are some reasons why I do not use emoticons in this site.

  • I do not want to display text, images and any other important message and I presented many icons at the same time.
  • Smiley symbols are enough to represent emotional content.
  • I do not want to give symbols that’s hard to understand. Okey, I think it’s more about me who does not know much about smiley symbols.

This is — of course — more about my personal preferences. I am fine with emoticons at other sites/blogs. But, if there is an option not to use the icons, I will choose not to see that. For example, if we registered at a discussion forum, we can have options on how smiley symbols should be treated.

§ Those sites keep me busy!

Social networking sites raise everyday — well, not everyday actually — but there are many (too many!) services there. I joined some like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Friendster. When I had my friends invited me, I ignored most invitations. Sorry. It does not mean that I do not appreciate — or do not want to be connected — but, it’s more about me.

I only have 24 hours a day. Doing my works. Having my “real” social-life. And, I have a not-too-friendly internet access. Opening those social networking sites take time. What made it even worst is that I have to deal and spend my time checking the messages, friend requests, bulletin boards, applications.. you name them! When I joined those service, the first thing came up on my mind was that I want to connect with people I really know. Not just for a competition to have as many contacts as possible. There are some pending requests, messages, applications, etc. I just leave them. Most of them because I do not even know the people there. “Someone wants to be connected, but I don’t even know him/her”. So, what for?

• • • Continue reading • • • .

§ Musical Malaysia

Some steps to find out what-so-called Malaysian Music.

  1. Open Musical Malaysia website: http://www.musicmall-asia.com/malaysia/
  2. Go to Musical Instrument Index page. If you were Indonesian, or you have visited Indonesia before… the musical instruments probably look so familiar.
  3. Read the detail for each instrument. For example, read the information about “angklung“.
  4. If you want to find out about “angklung”, this site offers you a search engine too.
  5. Enter “angklung” (without quotes), and if you’re lucky you will be redirected to a page. There, you will find more detailed information about “angklung”.

You will find more interesting information there. Thank you Pak Rovicky for the inspiration!

§ Pesta Blogger 2007: What a great event!

Yes, I went to Pesta Blogger 2007. It’s the blogger’s biggest event this year in Indonesia. I met super bloggers from Indonesia. I met my favorite bloggers. I knew them from their blogs… and when I met them in person I feel that I have met them for ages.

Pesta Blogger 2007

It was a great event. I will write more about this event — from my perspective, of course. You can find more blog posts, photos and video from Technorati, Flickr and Youtube. Anyway, Pesta Blogger 2007 official site is a good place to start searching, too.

Photo by fistoriza.

§ I am going to Pesta Blogger 2007

I am going to Pesta Blogger 2007

We (Lala and I) already got the invitation to join Pesta Blogger 2007. So, it will be next week. Last night, I talked with Yan Arief and we decided to go together. And I think Yeni, too. We will go there on October 26 by train. I still haven’t got info from other bloggers from Jogjakarta.

Okey, see you there!

PS: The event will take place at BLITZ MEGAPLEX GRAND INDONESIA. Jl. MH. Thamrin No. 1, not Hard Rock Cafe.

Added later: Here are the list of participating bloggers.

§ It is not official, because it uses WordPress

I found an interesting feedback on a not-yet-ready site that still uses WordPress default theme. The designer decided to user WordPress because the site only needs news section, and some static pages. In short, WordPress can do the work.

This is the feedback:

I think this site should not use WordPress. It will look like an ordinary blog, not an official site. I think it’s better if we use Joomla or Mambo so that it looks more official.

It uses an official domain name. The contents are provided from official institution. But, it is not official because the site uses WordPress? I don’t think so.

§ Beberapa Informasi tentang Pesta Blogger 2007

Logo Pesta Blogger 2007

Bulan Oktober 2007 ini ada sebuah agenda yang terkait dengan dunia blog di Indonesia. Agenda tersebut adalah sebuah acara bertajuk Pesta Blogger 2007. Informasi mengenai acara ini dapat dilihat melalui situs resminya di alamat http://pestablogger.com/

Berikut beberapa informasi yang terkait dengan acara Pesta Blogger 2007. Oh ya, saya bukan bagian dari pihak penyelenggara, jadi jika ada pertanyaan, saya mungkin tidak dapat memberikan jawaban/informasi yang paling akurat. Jika ada informasi yang sekiranya belum lengkap disini, dan Anda ingin berbagi informasi, silakan menuliskan dalam bagian komentar.

• • • Continue reading • • • .

§ Solidaritas kita itu tinggi… tinggi sekali!

Solidaritas antar warga bangsa ini menurut saya bisa dikatakan tinggi. Tapi tidak jarang pula solidaritas ini jadi kebablasan, jadi terlalu tinggi. Tidak perlu sampai ke tingkatan nasional, hal-hal tersebut sepertinya sadar atau tidak muncul dalam keseharian. Dan sialnya, solidaritas dalam melakukan hal-hal yang tidak seharusnya.

Saya ambil contoh masalah pelanggaran aturan yang menjadi sangat biasa. Beberapa bulan lalu, saya menggunakan jasa kereta api. Di stasiun kereta (sepertinya hampir di stasiun kereta), jelas-jelas terpampang sebuah aturan yang kurang lebih mengharuskan penumpang harus memiliki tiket/karcis. Siapa yang akan menegakkan aturan ini? Tentu saja para pihak-pihak terkait seperti petugas dari PT. Kereta Api.

Tapi nyatanya di lapangan, tidak hanya sekali saya melihat hal yang sedikit lucu (sekaligus menyedihkan). Waktu itu, petugas pemeriksa karcis berkeliling. Tidak jauh dari tempat saya, saya melihat bahwa ada penumpang yang tidak memiliki karcis. Yang terjadi selanjutnya: penumpang berbasa-basi, memosisikan diri sudah akrab dengan petugas (atau memang sudah kenal ya?), dan yang terjadi berikutnya petugas berlalu begitu saja.

Solidaritas begitu tinggi, tinggi sekali…

Misalnya lagi… ah! Terlalu banyak. Saya cuma bisa heran. Atau, apakah saya seharusnya tidak perlu heran?

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