New Monitor

This morning, when i turned on my monitor, i was surprised to see that my monitor was kinda damaged. It blurred badly, but then it went back to normal after few seconds. So i tried to reproduce the problem by turning it off again for a little while. When i turned it on again, the same problem persists. But if i waited for several minutes, it went back to normal. Strange

So finally i decided to buy a new monitor, which is LCD. Why? Because it consumes less power and it has different technology compared to CRT monitors. I picked LG Flatron L1753S and it's sitting in front of me right now

Good by my AoC monitor who has accompanied me for over than 7 years (i bought that monitor when i entered my college). I will repair that monitor and if it can be fixed, perhaps my girlfriend will use it (she has 15' in her house and mine is 17').

Trip Day 4

On day 4, i was planning to see UEFA Champion League because MU was playing against their rival, Chelsea. I slept earlier and was hoping that i could get up at 2 AM because it's when the match started. Well, i didn't set any alarm, because it would woke up the other (who didn't like watching football).

Lucky me, i could woke up at 2 AM sharp and turned on the TV. It was broadcasted by RCTI, but i can also see it in star sport, since the hotel subscribed to TV Cable. One problem solved, another one come up. I watched the match silently (mute) because i would woke the other people if i don't do that (you know how football fans behave when there's a goal).

Well, 90 minutes of official match plus 2x15 extra time and shoot-out penalty, finally MU won the match and i went to bed around 4.30 AM.

In the morning, we were packing our stuffs because we would leave Surabaya at 3 PM. We put our luggage at the hotel because the checkout time was 12 PM. We went to Delta because it's too far to go to other places and finally we went to Jogja by train around 3.10 PM.

Well, that's my 4-day journey to Surabaya...

Registration Day

Today is registration day for short semester in my campus. I have been assigned to teach Software Engineering class for both Computer Science and Information System faculty. The materials are already finished, but i will need some adjustment due to the unexpected things i saw today.

Last month, the faculty asked students to filled in a form and write down what subject that should be opened in short semester. That form was being used as a parameter for discussion before the short semester opened. Because the students that were interested beyond the minimum requirement, it was decided to be opened.

At 9.50 AM, i got a phone call from one of my students saying that the quota for the two blocks were already full (it was set to 40 at initial settings). I was quite surprised, since the number who filled in the form was less than that. He asked whether it's possible to add 5 more. So i agreed to add more capacity. Just in a few minutes later, he called again and asking for more, since it's already full again
I was on my way to the campus, so i told him to wait for me at the campus.

When i arrived, it was very crowded. I entered the lab where the registration took place. Students were asking for more capacity for my class, and i decided to make new adjustment again to 60 and 50. I couldn't fulfill all of their request to add more, since with limited time, it's impossible to finish all the correction done in just few days and also since this class has a project, i need time for presentation. More students means i need more time, so i set the maximum limit and no more adjustment.

Since then, many students came to my office and asked me over and over and i keep rejecting them. I'm sorry for this, but i have no other choices. You still have an opportunities in regular semester

Trip Day 3

Not much i wanted to talk about in my third day of my vacation in Surabaya. I was pretty sure that my inbox would be filled with lots of email messages from my friends and also from mailing list that i subscribed to. While i didn't bring my laptop with me, i need to find an easy way to monitor my inbox. The only media i had was my cellphone that already accompanied me since 2002 (it's been six years).

In the past, i have tried GMail Mobile Access, but it refused my cellphone since it didn't support HTTPS protocol (it didn't have mobile browser like most modern cellphone, so it's very limited). When i was waiting for the other to shop, i tried to connect to my GMail account again with a little hope that they would have changed their system to permit non-secure connection.

Guess what? They did!!! GMail now permits you to connect via insecure connection with a warning after you input your username and password. By using GPRS connection (i used Telkomsel), i can monitor my inbox everywhere, thanks to new policy of GMail. I can also reply, delete, or trash any messages on my inbox just when i accessed it via web browser, but with a limited features. The rate was very cheap. Since GMail displayed 10 messages per screen, i need to load the page 15 times and it only charged me around 1000 IDR (note that i only look into my inbox, not looking at each messages).

Actually, you can also use GMail Mobile Access on your browser, mostly if you are using slower connection. It will display all your email messages just like it was displayed in cellphones, so it uses very simple interface.

Too bad my cellphone doesn't support Java application, so i can't install IM application on my cellphone

Trip Day 2

My trip continued and second day's target was Pasar Atom. We got a ride from a friend (a couple) of my girlfriend's mother so we don't need to spent money to use taxi (even though it's not too far from our hotel). While i was on my way to Pasar Atom, i talked with the guy who took us a ride and he was talking about IT (he was working in Finance section though). He asked whether i knew about Navision or not. I said no, and he explained what it is. At that time, i didn't have any idea what that is, but when i went back to Jogja, i tried to get an information about the application and it was called Navision before Microsoft bought it and rename it to Microsoft Dynamics NAV.

Microsoft Dynamics NAV is a business management solution for small and mid-sized organizations that helps you simplify and streamline your highly specialized business processes, rapidly adapting to the unique way you do business. Microsoft Dynamics NAV provides you and your people with industry specific functionality that’s relevant to the local needs of your regions of operation, even for the most highly specialized industries and organizations

When i last visited Pasar Atom, there was only one Pasar Atom, which didn't have AC (air conditioner) yet. Now, it has two version of Pasar Atom (the new one has AC) but both of them are interconnected, so it's located in one big area. I met two of my students here, which went there together. We traveled along all the shops there and we also bought lots of foods for people in Jogja. We were in Pasar Atom until 4 PM, because it's closed at 5 PM (i don't know why it closed so early). We went back to the hotel and take some rest before we went to Delta Plaza which was adjacent with the hotel. It would take less than 5 minutes of walking to go to Delta on foot.

As usual, i tried to find a book store on Pasar Atom and i found Gramedia. I bought one book on this book store, which was History of China. On this book store, i also found an interesting education tools which can read book content and equipped with speech devices to say the pointed text using some kind of pen. It was said that the device can read all kind of book published by several publisher which has a contract with the developer of the device. It's very handy to teach small kids how to spell English or Chinese language. The price was about 1.5 million IDR.

At Delta, i also bought new sandals, because mine was about to broke. I went to Sports Station and buy a black Reebok sandals which fit on my feet. Lucky me, there was a promotion on that store, so i got 20% off and that day was the last day.

Well, that's all for second day. It's quite busy day, but i enjoyed it

Trip Day 1

So my first story began when i left Jogja to Surabaya last Monday using Sancaka at 7.30 AM. We were leaving from Tugu train station because it's near my house. We arrived there at 7.15 AM, so we still have plenty of time before the train departed. We get on the train and we were a little bit surprised when we saw Amien Rais was on the train. It appears that he's not leaving Jogja, but his relatives did (his daughter i guess).

At 7.30 AM (no delay), the train departed and we were having five and half hours trip. We arrived at Surabaya around 12.30 PM and we went to the hotel to checked in. The hotel that we picked was Surabaya Plaza Hotel, which is close with the train station and also with any other malls in Surabaya. In front of the hotel is Surabaya's WTC building and in the left side is Delta Plaza (one of the oldest mall in town). If you want to go to Tunjungan Plaza, then it would only take about 10 minutes using a taxi from the hotel. It has a strategic location for those who likes shopping

After unpacking our stuffs at the hotel, we went down and ordered a blue bird to go to Supermall Pakuwon Indah SPI. It was big and quite far from our hotel. It took us about 20 minutes (my rough estimation) to reached Pakuwon which was a big mall, just like TP. In this mall (actually it's not only in this mall), i saw an interesting thing about their book store (Tri Megah Book Store, but also in Gramedia in other malls). They dare to uncover one book as a sample book (not all books though) so people could see what's inside the book before they buy it. Sometimes, people wanted to buy books, but they wanted to see what's inside the book first to know exactly the content of the book (mostly for references and imported books because it's expensive).

They also provide some seats for people to sit down and have some time reading books without having to stand up for hours. I also saw a higher reading habit in Surabaya rather than in Jogja, mostly for books that requires more concentration. Maybe it's the effect of the sample book i mentioned above. Perhaps Gramedia in Jogja should try this out for several of their books. Give people a chance to take a peek on the book and if they like the book, they will buy the book, since it's inefficient to go to the book store just to read per chapter every day and people usually won't have much time to read the whole book in one day.

Pakuwon was a great mall, but i guess they lack of E-Directory services. New people (like me) who haven't been there will be confused and find it harder to shop if we don't know what's in the mall. Also if we get separated, we don't know a good meeting point. By providing a E-Directory services, we will know what floor are we now, how to get to area 1, or any other direction that would help us.

We spent our day in Pakuwon and went back around 8.30 PM. After arriving at the hotel again, we rested and watching TV and went to bed earlier since tomorrow, we will have one day shopping

Change of Look

21 Cineplex has changed it's website. It's way better than the old black style and it has more contents rather than displaying the current and future movies. The interface is good, but i think they have too many unused steps. Look at the SEARCH MOVIE part. You will be asked name of the city, then name of the theater, and then, name of the movies being played at that theater. When you clicked GO, you will see all of the movies listed on that theater (the movie you selected will be highlighted in red though). It's something useless when you can do that in one or two clicks by looking at the theater section.

They added trailer links in each movies, which is a huge improvements on the website. People could see the trailer before the movies are available on the theater. Too bad the full screen option is not yet working (a bug probably?).

Several new sections are Slow Motion, The Stars, 21 Exclusive, and Gallery, which are more like a news portal and biography site. It's not completely related with the movie theater, but it does provide some information about artists.

It has 11 errors on the main page (checked with HTML Validator Extension) and 23 Accessibility errors (checked using Wave WebAim). I'm sure most of the errors can be fixed by the developer. The question is are they willing to fix it?

I'd say 8/10. What's your opinion Thomas?

I'm Back

Finally, after four days without Internet connection (i didn't bring my laptop too) in Surabaya, i'm back here in Jogja at 8.20 PM using Sancaka (train). I feel so strange for being out of Internet, even though it's only for four days.

It's a great vacation and good for me too, since i never had quite a long vacation before, so it's my chance while i'm not too busy. It's also a great chance to see Surabaya after my last visit many years ago. I have seen lots of things here and i have recorded some interesting points on my mobile phone to be posted on my blog in the following days (it will be like a short summary of what i saw in this city).

By the way, congratulations for Manchester United for their double title this year (EPL and Champion League). Even though you didn't repeat the treble title this year, it's been an outstanding performance you have shown us from the beginning of this season until the end of the title race. You deserved the title.

Finally, Fedora 9 DVD

Finally i can download Fedora 9 DVD from UGM. In the last few days, i have been trying to download the ISO from my campus and from my house, but it all failed. So last Sunday, when i had a class, i took my laptop and download via WiFI provided by UGM and i can download it directly from their repo with approximately less than one hour (3,3 GB). The speed varies, but it's faster than 800 KB/s (since it's considered local network in UGM).

Too bad, Yahya already ordered the DVD from Vavai If only he would wait a little bit longer, he might be able to get it free of charge from me

Installing Windows XP SP 3

Normally, people waited for Service Pack to include the latest protection for their Windows operating system, but in some cases, Service Pack sometimes caused troubles, thus people are afraid of installing SP and they prefer to wait for public review first. Few weeks ago, Windows XP SP 3 has been officially released (after having several delays, as usual) and like always, i have download it, but i didn't install it directly on my computer. I'd prefer to wait for public reports whether it would cause new problems or not.

After waiting for few weeks, i finally decided to install the latest SP into my desktop and laptop. The process is faster than installing SP 2 (perhaps because SP 2 introduces quite a big changes compared to SP 3 which focused mainly on security fixes only). All i need is double clicking the .exe file and let the installer do the rest. After the process is finished, it asked for a restart (which can be postponed if you are still busy doing your activities).

Upon restarting your system, your system will finish the upgrade process and finally, your system will have Service Pack 3 installed perfectly. I found no problem at all after installing this Service Pack, so i guess it's relatively a smooth upgrade process compared to SP 2.

Please note that by installing SP 3 doesn't mean that you are 100% safe, as security threats are evolving very fast. SP 3 only help you to reduce the risk, but it won't swap all the potential risk that can affect you.

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Escape Shortcut

In Yahoo Messenger, every time you press ESC (escape) keys on your keyboard, it will close the current chat window (not the main application though), very handy for closing unwanted chat session (if you have too many of them in your screen). This feature was not available in Pidgin 2.4.1 and previous version.

Well, that's about to change as in 2.4.2, Pidgin developers has added a shortcut to close the window by using ESC keys. To do that, open Tools > Preferences > Interface. Look at the bottom of the screen and tick the option "Close conversations with Escape key".

Here's the changelog entry:

Add a preference to set Escape as the keyboard shortcut for closing the conversation window.

By using this shortcut, it's getting more usable and it saves time (not much though).

Trip to Surabaya

Well, it seems that i haven't take any vacation for some time and i think next week is a good time to do that since my class will start next month and i have finished the material for the whole semester along with the assignments. I can have a relaxing vacation there.

It will be a four day trip and i don't think i can access my emails while i'm there, so i'm sorry for long replies if you send me a message on the next four days. I will reply it as soon as possible.

For those who registered to Indonesian Linux Forum and still in pending, please check your inbox (or probably in the BULK or SPAM folders) for the email confirmation to activate your account. Please mail the other admin while i'm in Surabaya. I will take care of it as soon as i came back.