Wednesday Again

Next semester, Wednesday will be my busiest day in a week (again). I had the same busy day as last semester. I will be teaching three classes on Wednesday (down from four classes actually), and the rest are split from Monday until Friday.

I'm still not in the mood preparing my lectures notes up to today. Let's hope tomorrow i will get the mood i need to tackle all of my classes this semester.

FireGPG 0.7.8 and Indonesian version, but.

FireGPG 0.7.8 has been released and as i said before, it will contain Indonesian version and it does. But, somewhat this release is considered broken by some people and by the author itself. There's a big warning on the website saying that we should wait for a few days. Probably he's working on a patch to make it working again with GMail.

Here's the changelog for 0.7.8:
- Disabling autosave working again
- Gmail working again
- Fix problem with files's signs
- Fix problem with hashes and Firefox 3.0
- Id and lv added

Surprised

This afternoon, i was really surprised when Professor Volker Müller (yes, he's a professor now) came into our campus. He left Indonesia at 2005 to Luxembourg after teaching at UKDW for about seven years (i was quite lucky to be taught by him and he was my supervisor for my final project). I learned lots of new things when i took his classes back when i was studying for my undergraduate degree.

He came to Jogja since last week, but he managed to drop by to UKDW today for about two hours. He brought his wife and his cute daughter which is going to be 2 years. We talked a lot about the condition in here and also in his place.

Many lecturers were also surprised to see him coming without prior notifications first. Too bad he will leave from Jogja tomorrow and head for another city to meet his family (his wife's actually, but it's his too now).

Have a nice vacation in Indonesia and have a safe trip

On and Off

In the last two days, my Speedy connection is going On and Off frequently. When i browse normally, suddenly the link and data LED turned off and then after some time, it blinks and it's on again.

I had this experience before and it turned out that my modem which was broken. But i asked one of my students and he had the same symptoms. His case is much worse, because when the LED goes down, it won't reconnect again for a long time. I have asked him to shut the modem off for about 10 minutes and start it again, but the problem still persists (it solves my problem whenever the authentication fail message is displayed in the modem's status page).

Does anybody else experience this kind of problems with Speedy lately?

CodeBurner and Free PDF

SitePoint is giving a BONUS ebook, Build Your Own Firefox Extension, (valued at $9.95) for FREE when you visit this page. You also have the chance to install CodeBurner for Firefox.

This offer only last for 30 days, so be quick

New Translation Project: FireGPG

I'm now working on a new open source translation project which is FireGPG. It's an extension for Firefox which can be used as an interface to GnuPG so it enables the users to do operations which can be done by GnuPG, such as encrypting/decrypting emails, signing/verifying signatures, and so on.

I have requested the role today and i'm hoping to finish the translations by tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. Currently, there are still 137 strings to be translated and it's possible to have Indonesian language on 0.7.8 version when it's released (unless major problem occurs and the author is expected to release 0.7.8 earlier than expected).

Update (19:28): I decided to finish this translations today and it's already reached 100% now. Indonesian language should definitely be available on 0.7.8 version.

Cool Wedding Entrance

This is a cool wedding entrance by Kevin Heinz dan Jill Peterson :
For those who can't see the embedded video, clik on this link

Much Better

Thanks to a good sleep, i'm feeling much much better today. Even though i sleep less than my usual period (i had to woke up at 4 AM), still it's better than having no sleep at all like yesterday.

Getting a good sleep is the best steps to recover from illness besides taking a medicine

Resting For Today

I'm not feeling very well today, so i just spend my weekend resting at bed

The worst thing is that i can't sleep, which makes the recovery took longer than it should be. At least i'm not cold anymore and my cough is getting better.

Let's hope i can make it to the office tomorrow as i have a meeting with my students tomorrow

Liferea 1.6.0 Released

Finally, the final version of Liferea is ready. It has taken some time to stabilize this version into a stable version, but the waits are now over. I may not going to use this version, as GTK+2 version included in Slackware is lower than required version for Liferea. Too bad. I think Liferea is a very good application.

Perhaps someday in the future, i will upgrade mine with 1.6.x version.

Captcha Plugins Competition

As i have said last week, next release of phpBB (3.0.6) will have new Captcha system. Few days ago, phpBB team announced a captcha plugins competition for public.

There will be three categories: Community Choice, Team Choice and First Approved. The winner will get a free bertie (phpBB mascot).

Check this page for more information about the competition.

Good luck and have a good competition guys

BitDefender For Linux

I have just finished installing BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices which is free for personal use. You can ask for the license here.

It's very easy to setup, easy to update, and also quite fast on my desktop which only has 512 MB of RAM. It has a GUI interface, so you will have a fancy window-based application.

I know that Linux is virus-proof, but sometimes i wanted to disinfect files on my flash disk which was infected by Windows' virus/worms when they are plugged on other computer.

I'm Back

After spending almost one week in Jakarta and Bandung, i finally back to my home town again. I took a flight with AirAsia this evening and i arrived safely at the Adisutjipto International Airport at around 4:20 PM. The flight was very convenient, except for the slightly rough landing (due to short track).

Pending requests has been approved, all mail has been replied and read, and my desktop and laptop has been updated with the packages on Slackware-Current which i missed during my vacation.

The only thing left is upload the photos i have taken to my FB. It will be done shortly

MTIX Loaded

I just got a phone call from my colleague. He was planning to watch Harry Potter today at Empire XXI and trying to get the ticket from MTIX service. What happened? At 7.45 AM, the tickets has been sold out for MTIX users

MTIX in Jogja started to operate on 7 AM, and less than 45 minutes later, it has been sold out. It's a bit strange since i can order HP tickets for today's show since yesterday if i am in Jakarta. Seems like they had different strategies for Jogja

With only 1 theater providing MTIX service, i don't think it's quite effective for the users.

Good luck for you who will queue in Amplaz this morning. I will watch it next week probably (or in Jakarta/Bandung)

Off to Jakarta

I am leaving to Jakarta today and i will be back next week at Wednesday. I'm attending my cousin's wedding at Bandung (Congratulations Erlin ). As usual, requests to join Indonesian Linux Forum will be delayed a bit (you can always check your email for activation link as it will be sent on your email).

I have subscribed to TelkomFlash for the temporary Internet connection. I hope i can check my emails regularly with this as i have installed Nokia Messaging also on my E71, so i can have push-mail-like features .

I probably will miss lots of Slackware updates while i'm in Jakarta, but that won't be a problem. I will catch up with the updates later on.

OK, see you guys in a week

New E71 Firmware

Nokia has released a firmware update for their E63 and E71 phones. The latest version currently is 300.21.012 which is available from NSU.

What has been changed in this version? ALOT
New Functionalities:
• Mail for Exchange 2.9
• Numonyx USB Flashing support
• Gimlet 5.2 (v 9.5.2.65)
• Turkish SMS Support
• Support for Rapido Yawe 1.15
• Myspace, Youtube and Facebook support (NA for HK and Taiwan variants)
• User experience improvements
• Increased robustness of the Home Key functionality. This helps avoid the problem of Home key not opening the menu.

Changes and Improvements:
• Improved Switch application functionality
• Internet Radio 1.14 – Increased Functionality and Stability
• VoIP upgrade – Improved functionality and stability
• Download Client 3.2 – Greater stability and improved functionality
• Email Setup Wizard Update – Supports Gimlet 5.2
• Simplified MMS Notification handling support
• Support for conference numbers longer than 24 digits
• Improvements in Browser for seamless YouTube support
• Language menu can be accessed when Chinese Language is used
• Bug fixes for the Nokia PC Internet Access Application
• Improved BT headset connectivity
• Many functionality and Stability improvements in MfE.

General:
• Stability and functionality improvements
• Increased robustness in handling SMS
• Updated Time zones
• Updated Operator names database
• Localisation improvements
• Updated Startup settings
• Security Updates and vulnerability fixes
• Phone not suspending packet data connection when receiving call – Fixed.
• Many bug fixes for MyNokia feature.
• Minor audio related bugs fixed
• Updated helps

Browser:
• Minor stability improvements

Call Handling:
• Minor improvements in Call handling and quality

Calender:
• Stability and Minor Functionality improvements

Connectivity:
• WLAN functionality Improvements
• Fix to prevent Wifi Certification issues when Wifi alliance moves to Win 2008 as the test server
• Fix for the one way audio problem seen in Cisco VoIP client
• Memory leak fixes

Contacs/Phonebook:
• Minor UI Improvements
• Stability and functionality improvements for search functionality

E-mail:
• Mail for Exchange upgraded from 2.7.22 to 2.9.158
• Gimlet updated to v5
• Email setup wizard updated
• Support for Exchange Server 2007 in MfE
• Many functionality and stability improvements in MfE
• Robust Synchronisation of Calendar and email items.

Internet Radio:
• Improved functionality
• Increased application stability

Location/GPS:
• Increased A-GPS stability
• Better stability in location services.

Messaging:
• Usability improvements

QWERTY Keyboard:
• Usability improvements
• Keyboard mapping corrections

SMS:
• Support for receiving more SMSs. Allows more than 4000 messages in inbox.

Switch Application:
• Application updates and many stability and functionality improvements

VoIP/SIP:
• Many Usability, stability and functionality improvements

Should you upgrade?
Read this discussion first and decide. For me, it's worth to update, but probably i will skip this version for now.

IMHO, the updates are not so critical and there has been many reports that it has worse battery life than in previous firmware. Also many users reports that many things are broken after the update.

Cool, but Nightmare for Administrators

The phpBB team has discussed and posted some news (actually i was a little outdated) about the upcoming phpBB 3.0.6. While it will contain bug fixes, it will also introduce some new features that be nightmare to some administrators, since they *may* have to revamped their forum to the original state before they upgrade to the latest version.

In general, next phpBB release will contain:

• New (pluggable) CAPTCHA plugins
• ATOM feeds
• Cache/ACM plugins
• PM Reply/Reply for All
• Quick Reply (i love it very much, as i don't have to deal with PM Quick Reply again)
• Log search
• Many bug fixes

You should read the news here and here (special discussion about CAPTCHA plugin)

Comic into Drama

I really liked to read a Japanese comic called God Hand Teru. It's a story of a clumsy doctor called Teru which was the only survivor of a plane crashed who made his father died while rescuing him. His father was a great surgeon and he made a CPR on Teru to revive him and thus made a hand print on Teru's chest.

After surviving the accidents, Teru become a doctor who has great spirit to not letting other people died again, and so that is the main story of a doctor who can transform his personality like his father and rescued many people.

The drama version has been made and it's now on air. You can watch the movie by streaming via this link.

Too bad it only contains 6 episodes.

Another Aggregator

A new aggregation site made by Vavai has been published. It's called Blogger Planetarium. The main idea of this aggregation is that because Planet Terasi, maintained by Ronny Haryanto no longer aggregate posts from other blogs.

I have been using Planet Terasi for some time because i can read all in one page. Let's contribute to Virtualisasi for now

Migrating Speedy

On Saturday, i went to Plaza Telkom to migrate my Speedy into multi speed which is now available on Jogja. I browsed the website before i went there and finally i decided to take the Game package, which has 1 Mbps for downstream and 256 KB/s for upstream (even though i didn't use it to play Online Games).

At first, i really wanted to take the LOAD package, but there is a major limitation of this package. You will only get full speed (theoretically) when you have consumed less than 3 GB. After that, your maximum speed will be reduced to 128 KB/s until the end of the month. The counter will reset at the beginning of the month.

The migration took less than 24 hours, since at night i have been migrated to Game package.

Beta Removal

It has been few days since Google release their beta label on several products, such as GMail, GTalk, Google Docs, and many others. For me, as an individual users who used GMail everyday, this change doesn't have too much effect on my daily activities nor my decision on using Google's products as i have found them quite stable for years. I believe many users agreed with this opinion as well (well, they have glitches sometimes, but it's still considered minor and it's very rare to happened).

This might not be true for corporate who wanted to have a solid status of a product before they decided to used them. That's why Google release Beta label on Chrome just to make Chrome can be used on corporate instead of IE or Firefox or Opera.

For some people, Beta can be big different, as Beta is still considered on public testing and most software engineering text books do not recommends beta products to be used on a production situation.

Enabling Video Call

This is just a reminder for myself, but i hope you will get the benefit of this short (very short) tutorial on enabling video call.

It happened when i bought my new E71 few months ago. I have set it up correctly and i'm able to set up a video call with other people who have used 3G-enabled mobile phones. Unluckily, my girlfriend's phone are unable to receive 3G signal even though we uses the same provider and her phone is capable of using 3G networks (since she is using the same model that my father used and i have tested with my father's phone).

So here's the simple tutorial for enabling the video call on your phone.

1. You must have 3G-enabled phones with front-camera
   
2. Make sure you have GPRS (and optionally MMS) activated. In some providers, you must asked them to activate this features (mostly done via SMS OTA).
3. Make sure you have selected UMTS or dual mode on the Network settings. On my E71, this can be done via Tools > Settings > Phone > Network > Network Mode. The path may differ for each phone models and vendors, but i think most phones do have this settings if it's capable of using 3G networks.
4. Make sure there's a 3G label under your signal strength bar
5. When calling your friend, use Video Call instead of Voice Call
6. When the receiver accepted your call, you will have a video call

On my experience, using video call is cheaper than voice call, so use it more frequently if you can. Besides, you can see receiver's face instead of hearing only his/her voice

Getting colder?

In the last few days, Jogja were getting colder at night. I don't know whether it's just my feelings or not, but lately i felt so. But it's getting hotter at the afternoon, so the amplitude is very high. No wonder many people got sick lately. Keep the stamina up and be healthy

Firefox 3.5 and Libsafe

I have had problem with Firefox 3.5 on my Linux box (laptop). I finally solved this problem by commenting libsafe entry on /etc/ld.so.preload (Thanks to olego from LQ who posted the solution).

What makes me curious is that why does Firefox does not work with libsafe? Libsafe works by replacing insecure C functions with secured one, and with libsafe installed, it does not work at my system. Does that mean Firefox has used insecure functions on the code? Or is it libsafe that is considered outdated and does not work with newer applications?

MTIX

Today i register myself to MTIX service at Empire XXI due to many movies are now being played only in Empire XXI and no longer played at Amplaz (Studio 21). I also took this chance to watch Ice Age 3. It has been played since last week, but i didn't have a chance to see this movie due to many reasons, but today i finally managed to see it.

Two Sites Down

Planet Terasi has been a good source of other people's blog for some time as it aggregates many blogs on a page and displays them. But since late last month, the site stopped aggregating after there was some problem with the hosting site. I just hope it would recover soon and it will soon publish other people's blog again.

Also, Slackware's main site is also down for now. Let's just hope it will be up again in no time and we should hear a good news from Pat and the crew about the next development cycle of Slackware Current which will eventually be Slackware 13.0.

Firefox 3.5 is a Disaster?

Some people have waited for Firefox 3.5 for some time and when the final version was released few days ago, some people were disappointed due to many bugs that should not be there for the final version.

That's why Mozilla team decided to release 3.5.1 as soon as possible (which is supposed to be released by this month, but no date has been confirmed yet). I found it very stable, unless for one problem that only occurred on my laptop which is under Linux where it couldn't do anything as no output comes from firefox invocation. This is the first problem i encountered with Firefox since i have used it before 1.0 has come out.

Type Firefox 3.5 Bugs on Google and you will get lots of information saying that Firefox 3.5 is too premature to be released due to lots of regression and unfinished features.

101st Marriage Proposals

I have just finished watching an old Japanese drama, called 101st Marriage Proposals. Actually lately i have been watching several old Japanese drama (they were broadcasted back in 1991, but they were a great movie), such as Love Generation and Star No Koi and they all ended with a happy ending, but i think this movie gives me better impressions.

I would recommend you to watch it if you have some spare time. For those who had trouble finding a good source, you can watch them by streaming via this link. It's so good to have those kind of movies archived up to now (it's been 18 years).

Looking for another great old Japanese drama

Rsync Service

One of my students who have finished his final project presentation wanted to test the Slackware Current and he had trouble downloading all the massive updates to -Current since he hasn't following -Current for some time.

I asked him to grab the packages from my computer at my office, since i have a copy of Slackware-Current packages on my computer and i ran Samba to share it. He asked me to ran a rsync services in order to make sure that every packages are downloaded on his computer.

This is a new experience for me, as i have never set rsync services before, but after reading the manuals and finding some HOWTOs on the Internet, it's quite easy and it should be running less than 10 minutes.

I will post the simple tutorial shortly and i will publish it on my web, so stay tune. If you can't simply wait, just go to Google and type "setting up rsync daemon". You will get lots of good resources on how to do that

Upgrading to PHP 5.3.0

I have successfully upgraded to PHP 5.3.0 on my Linux box (Windows box will follow soon). There are some changes that forces me to tweak my scripts in order to work for PHP 5.3.0, but that was minor. In general, i like PHP 5.3.0 as it gives PHP more OO minded and thus supports more features than ever.

Several functions has been declared deprecated and will be removed upon PHP 6.0, which is a good idea (giving time for developers to adjust their codes before totally eliminate them).

PHP 5.3 Released

PHP has released their major upgrade, PHP 5.3.0 yesterday with LOTS of changes (see Changelog for detail). It comes with different naming for Windows binary, so you should read the instructions or you will end up with useless installations. No changes on Linux releases, so i think you can start ./configure, make, and make install just like normal way

Strange Firefox

I have successfully upgraded my Firefox on my desktop and workstation at my house and my office, but the strange thing is that i couldn't upgrade my Firefox on my laptop. I have tried to use Automatic Updates and Offline installation, but both failed. The upgrade process is working, as i saw the installation process, but when the browser is re-launched, it gives me nothing. Not a single window. But the strange thing is that the PID is active, meaning that there is a process running.

I have tried to run it on safe mode, removing .mozilla directory and many other solution i found on the Internet, but no luck. Running from terminal also gives me nothing. Not a single error message

Any ideas ??