Lessons from Kung Fu Panda

I’ve seen this movie in cinema few weeks ago and I can say this is one hilarious movie that worth the penny to watch. Lots of valuable lessons can be taken from the story.
I got a forwarded email today about the lessons that people can learn from this animation movie that concluded pretty much everything that can be learned from this movie. Took the liberty of translating it to English.

The secret to be special is you have to believe you’re special
Po was desperate as he hadn’t been able to break the secret inside the Scroll of Dragon, which was simply a page without any writings. His father’s words were the one that actually brought Po back to the spirit and look at himself in the positive side. When we think of ourselves as special persons, then we will have the force to do special things; just like Master Oogway said: “You just need to believe”.


Go after your dream
The fat panda who could hardly move actually mastered Kung Fu. How many of us that actually gives up and fails to reach our dream obstructed by our own negative thoughts? Like Master Oogway (again, he’s the wise) said: “Yesterday is history, tomorrow is mystery, but today is a gift; that is why it is called the present”. Don’t let ourselves be blocked by failures of the past and fear of the future. Fight and be grateful for the present that God has given to you.


You can’t develop someone before you believe in his/her capabilities, and yours too
Master Shi Fu was reluctant in training Po; he viewed Po as hopeless fat panda. But the condition turned 180 degrees after Shi Fu was convinced by Master Oogway that Po was really the Dragon Warrior and Shi Fu was the only one who could train him.


As teacher or parent, one thing that must stay away from our mind is labeling that this kid has no chance to change (or hope for it matters); it is very easy for us to consider others have no future. Troubles often cause us to lose confidence that we can still guide them.

Every individual learns with its own way and motivation
Shi Fu finally came to realize that Po would be motivated and expressed his full skill if there were food had come into the picture; that Po couldn’t go through training methods the 5 had gone through.


So does every child. There might be different learning styles and the combination of those styles make everyone having a unique learning style; so does the variations of motivations in each and every people. When we forcibly standardize the process of learning, it is assured that there will be kids in risk.

Overly proud of child/student/self will blind ourselves of the true conditions, even leading them to the wrong way
Master Shi Fu loved Tai Lung, his first student so much. He formed Tai Lung such way to fit his (Master Shi Fu’s) hope; giving him the dream that Tai Lung would become the Dragon Warrior and inherit the highest of Kung Fu. Unfortunately, Shi Fu didn’t see the evil side of Tai Lung and had to pay a great price, even nearly lost his own life.

Often we possess the false image of our own child/student/self; and sometimes deliberately putting more lies into the image by allowing channel of information that only suits to our ears, discrediting other true and valid information channel only to please our heart and mind. When we possess the wrong image, we will head to the wrong direction.

Life is full of bitterness, but don’t let it stay in your heart
After betrayed by Tai Lung, Shi Fu never again showed his price and love towards his students. The worst side of bitterness is that we can’t feel nor share love.


Family is very important
In the worst and desperate time, Po was welcomed warmly by his father. It was for his father as well that Po could resolve the secret of The Scroll of Dragon and became the true Dragon Warrior. Have we expressed our support towards our family members?


God Bless.

Methodist Church in Tanggerang is asked to cancel their Sunday service

In the times where I've felt so much comfort, here comes problem that really disturbs my mind.
Got this email from local Methodist mailing list.

Hari minggu 22 Juni 2008, bertepatan dengan pertukaran mimbar Hamba Tuhan GMI Distrik-3/II, sekelompok massa yang meng-atasnamakan masyarakat Gelam Jaya, datang konvoi meminta kami membubarkan ibadah minggu yang sedang berlangsung. Kronologis kejadian sebagai berikut: Sekitar pkl 07.30 pagi massa mendemo Gereja Katolik yang baru buka, yang terletak di komplek yang sama. Pihak Kepolisian datang memberitahukan hal ini, meminta supaya kami bijaksana dan berhati-hati. Pak polisi berkata “ kami tidak minta supaya ibadahnya dibubarkan, tapi menyerahkan pengamanan sepenuhnya kepada pihak gereja, mohon dupaya ditanggapi dengan bijaksana” Jam 08.00 WIB sebagaimana biasanya kami memulai ibadah. Kebetulan kami sedang melakukan minggu PRMI yang pertama sesudah 12 tahun GMI SolaGracia berdiri, dan semua petugas ibadah PRMI. Pengkhotbah adalah ibu Pdt. Lismawati, dan saya sendiri berada di lantai 2 mengajar anak sekolah minggu. Jam 08.30 WIB massa datang, lebih kurang 20 sepeda motor, dan berteriak “ ini juga gereja …..bakar …. Bubarkan……. “ mereka membawa batu besar di tangan mereka. 3 orang perwakilan minta bertemu dengan pimpinan gereja, (Pdt. Sabam tugas pelayanan di GMI Maranatha Tebet) lalu majelis meminta saya dengan didampingi Lay Leader Jemaat (Bpk. B. Lumbantoruan) bernegosiasi dengan ketiga perwakilan tersebuut. Dalam negosiasi tersebut mereka tetap menuntut supaya ibadah dibubarkan, karena keberadaan gereja ini juga tidak ada ijinnya (katanya). Mereka mengancam bahwa massa akan mengamuk dan melempar, dan lain sebagainya …. Setengah dari jemaat kami keluar karena ketakutan (walau bukan ini yang saya harapkan – tadinya saya berharap jemaat semakin teguh bertekun dalam doa – di dalam gereja). Akhirnya kami minta diberi waktu untuk beribadah hingga jam 09.00 WIB, sehingga boleh dikatakan ibadah kami hanya 1 jam saja. Pengakuan dari perwakilan massa dan pengakuan dari pak Polisi, bahwa kami hanya imbas dari persoalan Gereja Katolik, karena pengurus Katolik mendesak massa dan berkata “ kalau kami dilarang, mengapa yang lain boleh”, sehingga GMI Sola Gracia, GBI El Rapha, dan Kasih Abadi Ministry ( 3 gereja) yang jam ibadahnya sama dengan Katolik, jadi sasaran massa, sedangkan HKI, dan GKPS, yang masuk jam 10.00 pagi tidak diganggu lagi walaupun mereka sama dengan kita beribadah di ruko. Kami melakukan ibadah ke II jam 6 sore seperti biasa, tanpa ada gangguan apa pun. Kami tidak mempunyai bukti photo, atau rekaman Video tentang insiden ini, karena jemaat kami terlalu “takut” untuk melakukannya, dan tiba-tiba semua mengaku tidak punya HP yang ada kamera atau Video (biasanya sih ada, lucu ya…) Sebagai istri gembala sidang, saya harus mengatakan bahwa jemaat kami Di GMI Sola Gracia saat ini, sudah mulai ciut, dan ketakutan, karena ini adalah pengalaman mereka yang kedua kalinya. Saya pribadi tidak “takut” sedikitpun, namun saya sedikit”tawar hati” karena ternyata jemaat yang kami gembalakan, nyalinya tidak sebesar omongan alias belum siap mati untuk Kristus (he…he…he…). Karena itu mohon dukungan doa para bapak/ibu, jemaat sekalian. Kami kini mempunyai dua tugas yang maha berat, yang pertama masalah internal yaitu menyembuhkan trauma dan mengembalikan iman jemaat, dan masalah eksternal yaitu status hokum dan sosial kemasyarakatan rumah tempat ibadah kami ini. Untuk masalah eksternal ini, mungkin Tim Hukum GMI Distrik 3/II sudah harus mulai “menggeliat” dan kita harus bersinergi menyelesaikan masalah ini. Kemarin Sola Gracia yang mengalami, mungkin esok lusa GMI yang lain, kenapa kita harus menunggu? Ada baiknya pro-aktif dari pada reaktif… Mohon tanggapan dari Tim Hukun … What should we do? Terpujilah Allah yang sudah melepaskan kami dari jaring maut. Mohon terus mendoakan kami. Minggu depan gembala sidang dan lay leader ada di konta-Palembang, kalau sampai ada kejadian yang sama, siapakah perpanjangan tangan Tuhan untuk membantu kami ? In His Grace

Someone did a short translation here or here.

Form Border and Title Bar of .Net WinForm

I came across a case where I've got to display a form right under another's control and found out that the Left and Top property is based on the Form, not the screen. Thus, the form border height and form title bar height must also be considered in the codes.

Here are the codes:

'in VB.NET

Dim BorderWidth as Integer = (Me.Width - Me.ClientSize.Width) / 2

Dim TitlebarHeight as Integer = Me.Height - Me.ClientSize.Height - 2 * BorderWidth

//in C#

int BorderWidth = (this.Width - this.ClientSize.Width) / 2;

int TitlebarHeight = this.Height - this.ClientSize.Height - 2 * BorderWidth;

Fortunately, other guy had solved the problem.

Open Source Library

I've been searching for open source library system for the past 2 weeks and finally concluded that I'm going to implement OpenBiblio in the church library.

The first step is changing the operating system from the pirated version of Windows into a legal Ubuntu copy. ^_^

I came across few nice other open source OPAC and ILS in the Internet; here's the review.

1. OtomigenX
   This Indonesian-made library system is nice and sleek, but I've got some errors for simple tasks like adding new bibliography records at first experience.
2. Senayan Library
   A web-based library automation system which is one of the open source projects that supports IGOS. I find this system very robust. However some of the AJAX features are quite annoying:
• lots of message boxes (JavaScript) that displays silly information like "Welcome to Library Automation, <Username>" and user must click the OK button
• The page goes black (supposed to be some kind of animation) every time I click something; perhaps the developer wants to express that the system is loading but it's kind of annoying to me

Of course there are more open source projects that can be more complex, but I'm looking for something simple enough to be implemented in a small library. So the winner for now goes to OpenBiblio.

I'll update with the result when I'm finish with it. ^_^

Open Source Church

I wrote a small desktop application that runs on top of Microsoft .Net Framework and now I don't feel like implementing it in the church's library.

I promised them of that system long time ago and I don't feel much of confidence lately, moreover this naive thoughts of legalizing the software in church.

I've been thinking of implementing open source systems to the church. I wrote this post some time ago and still no action has been taken (even from myself, I don't know why.. Perhaps the fear of rejected and not able to convince the council that they shouldn't use pirated software.)

I just spoke out with some close friends of installing Ubuntu into two of the computers in church (the administration and library).

Happy birthday Mom

Years passed by and my mom is now 48. Happy birthday Mom. We love you so much.. ^_^

A fresh Sunday

Woke up fresh this morning despite of late sleep last night. Went down and rush to wish my mom a 48th birthday and a happy father's day for my dad.

Schedule for today is not so relaxing.. Got 2 church meetings today, a friend's wedding reception to attend in the evening, and mom's little birthday cake ceremony. :-p

Happy weekend. ^_^

The next generation

"The next generation will surpass the previous one".. As what Kakashi said.. And it's what I've hoped for almost everything including the future of P3MI..

Today should be my last day as the secretary for P3MI.. It has been a pleasure to have worked with them serving God.. I do hope that it does not end here.. It must not end here!

The next generation

Today is the inauguration of the new committee of the youth fellowship in local branch. I've decided not to join the new team. I've also decided to take less part in some of the operational services in church. Don't get me wrong.. I've got other things to do.

Firstly.. I have great plans in re-organizing the computers in church, cause everyone can tell that they're so messed up. Virus and Trojans are in almost every computer, no networking, and the worst of all, they're all using pirated software (I'm so not proud of it!!).

I'm still new in Linux but it seems to be one of the best options I've had in mind. Consulted with some people in the domain for the possibilities and thinking of proposing it to the church council after the election.

I'm determined to fix this infrastructure! Do hope and pray for it can bring glory to God.

One Night With the King

Okay.. Since today is an unofficial holiday... ;-p ^_^ I decided to watch One Night With the King (which I've kept the file for long enough).


A Google Search will return a lot of this movie.

It's a story of Esther, of the book of Esther in the Bible. It's basically a love story with a thick Christian background.

I find this movie quite boring in the first place, but it gets more interesting as it flows. You will grasp the value of this movie better if you have read the chapters in the book of Esther in the Bible.

Well I haven't until I watched the video.. (actually I read the chapters after I watched the movie ^_^)

A very nice movie I can tell. ^_^

Diarrhea saves the "I hate Monday" thing

Okay.. bad start of the week with diarrhea.. Started yesterday already even before I visited Rosman's house warming (I didn't feel good, but didn't think of having this diarrhea -_-)

Well.. I ended up getting an MC for the day for I can't stand going to the toilet all day.

Too bad I can't wish Ronny a birthday today. ^_^.. Happy birthday.. ^_^

Windows Live Writer

Just installed Windows Live Writer on my home PC. Looks cool too. Haven't got the time to play around with it yet. This blog entry is posted using Windows Live Writer.

Fuel price is up

Yeah.. the title says it out. The fuel price is up.. again. Effective tonight at 00:00 hours. I totally forgot that there were gonna be a long line for refueling, but the bad news was my car had been out of gas.. I had to refuel no matter what..

I recall 2 years ago on October 1st, 2006 when I was still in Serpong working for Sigma, the government did cut off some amount of fuel subsidies.. resulting the increasing price.. My bike was running out of fuel too. And I had to queue for half an hour for some petrol to get home.

What a deja vu. -_^

My birthday

I'm now a quarter of century of age.. ^_^
Feel so grateful that I've got lovely ones to be around. Thanks for all the wishes from families, friends, collages, and others.

Beach Kongkow 2

Today is public holiday and we went to a river an hour drive from town. I didn't get the way cause I was so sleepy on the bus that I slept. Slept quite late yesterday.

Today has been fun. I never knew that we've got such a beautiful place nearby. Sometimes we just travel too far from where we live and not knowing that there are beautiful places nearby.


Some of these guys even took their water cannon toys just to bully people. And she reminds me of Jane Bond. ^_^


It is a wildlife around here.. Not much of contamination yet; and I hope it lasts.


Group photo of everyone.. as always.. ^_^

Converting DV

Installed Hardy Heron on my laptop, but there seems to be some problem with the display adapter. Have been struggling with it with no luck.. I'm not a hardcore user any way -_-'

I just want to install Ubuntu to convert my DV videos into XviD using mencoder in Kino. Don't know exactly why, but I seem to like to do it in Linux and open source software.

Ubuntu 8.04

I simply forgot about the new release of Ubuntu 8.04 today. I was so excited to see new things in Ubuntu. So here I am.. downloading 8.04.

Care to try it out? Get Ubuntu!

SQL Server Compact

I've been browsing the Internet for some lightweight SQL-based database engine that is easy to deploy with Microsoft .NET application that I'm writing.

All this while, I've been using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition for database engine. I find it very powerful and quite pleased with it. However, the installer size is huge and not so easy to deploy.

I'm looking for a simple method to store my data as I need without the hassle of huge and troublesome installation. I came across Microsoft SQL Server Compact Edition 3.5. First glance looks nice and easy to deploy; it does not require some huge installation files and goes along with Microsoft .NET Framework (as usual ^_^)

However, I realize a huge speed difference with the Express edition. Just to query a record, it takes some time (compared to instant speed with Express edition). Another turn down is the lack of views; I cannot have views in the database.. :-( I use lots of views in my system. In fact, I made my own user control just for that and I've been using it in almost every application I write.

I'll do more reading in this subject.. ^_^
It's late and I've got to be up for work in less than 6 hours.

Internet dictatorship

It comes to the time where Indonesia is one of those countries who block the Internet. Now YouTube, MySpace and other sites that might contain the movie Fitna to be blocked.

What a dumb ass.. Once it is in the Internet, it is no possible way (that I can think of) to stop it being distributed, unless they shut down the internet. ^_^

Fitna

Came back to usual routine, and found out about the fuss of Fitna in the Internet forums. Haven't checked the actual video, but everyone seems to take some serious conversations there. The ridiculous part is that the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology sent a letter to YouTube asking them to remove the video from their hosting or they will block all access from Indonesia to YouTube.

Firstly, it shouldn't have been the Ministry of ICT; it should have been the Ministry of Religion initiated the act and asking the Ministry of ICT to do so, but then the Ministry of ICT is still stupid enough if they wanted to block YouTube (even though it proves me that they are stupid enough).

We'll see how it goes for the next 2 days.

Trip with cousins

It's the time we've been up for quite some time.. Sien has more details on what happened here. My impression of China? The worst toilets I've ever seen.. Haha.. In fact, I couldn't understand myself how can a country grow so fast, so modern with the people's mindset like that.

However, I admire the country as it has grown from almost nothing into almost everything. I remember visiting the Wong Fei Hung Memorial Museum in Foshan; 100 years ago he was there with all the background settings (imagined in old movies ^_^) and now, they've got skyscrapers around.

Japan Tour in Chinese New Year 2008

Holiday season is coming. I'm not missing my time for some family trip. I've learned that I should not miss occasion like this; u'll never know when would be your last time being together in laughters.

Took off Polonia at 9th 15:25 and the next flight to Osaka was in midnight GMT +8, so we went around KLIA for a few hours.

The trip was Medan - KL - Osaka - Kyoto - Lake Kawaguchi - Tokyo - KL - Medan.
Had the chance to get to Universal Studio Japan, Tokyo DisneySea and Tokyo Disneyland.

Most of us never actually seen snow with naked eyes, so just imagine the snowball war in the Fuji Visitor Center.

Gong Xi

Happy Chinese New Year..
All by myself in this CNY; suddenly I feel that I'm really alone, that I don't have many friends like I did. Life sucks eh? But at least I get to travel. Going to Japan in 2 days.

Ishak's wedding

Another special day for a good friend of mine, the 120% man (I call him that way coz he always does thing more than expected, even in the small stuffs)







All the best for everything, my friend. God bless you.

St. Thomas Reunion (Taipan)

Angles came back to Medan for holiday and they called up for a gathering at Taipan (again; we just had one). This time Sylvira, Yenda, and Fenny also joined.

Yeah.. that's Angles on the left with her son.

Anton's wedding

Now the next two days are gonna be a busy and exhausting day for the Edens. My cousin is getting married. This morning was in church and followed by a lunch for almost everyone in town (his late father was an important person in the community); another dinner at Aryaduta Hotel, Medan tomorrow evening.

Happy days for the family. ^_^

Of course I'm not gonna miss some pictures with my gf. ;-p

and my cousin..

and my cousins...

Happy wedding

The time has come for my dear cousin to move on to a higher level of relationship with his love. Yeah.. he's getting married this week. It's gonna be a busy week.

I've been doing video for slide show in the wedding day, He requested for the song I believe I can fly, which later on I found out that he's been putting that only song in his Winamp player in BroCom.

The next week after this is Ishak's on the 3rd of Feb.

private void

Things haven't been quite as good as it looks in the beginning of this year; too much of shit happened. I started to grumble on my life; suddenly everything has gone blank. Have been doing lots of wrong things.. or at least people around me tend to think so, which kind of intimidating my mind lately that I haven't been such a person I should be.

I haven't been reliable in doing things, forgetting things (way too much, too often).. Being human is so complicated..

Have been so far from God lately.. I feel empty..

Piracy in Church (IN)

Some of my friends in P3MI had me to write an article about software piracy and link it to church activity quite some time ago, so.. here it is in Indonesian.

Sleepless

It has been good 2 days for the beginning of this year; but for the first time in my life (as long as I can remember), I couldn't sleep. It was 3:34 AM and all I had was the character Nicolae Carpathia. I felt something deeply terrible that I couldn't move on the bed.

I was watching Left Behind while waiting for my mom in my car in the airport parking lot.

I decided to turn on the PC and put some music for the room; it worked for me. ^_^
"Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matthew 3:2)

Installed Citadel @ office

I managed to successfully install Citadel Groupware on Ubuntu in office. I asked for a junk PC so I can play around with.

Used the Easy Install and sorted it out nicely.
I had some problem before with an old machine; at first they gave me an old machine since it was just a testing, but that machine was troubled indeed.

So the entire IT department is playing around with the groupware. We even have hilariously funny discussions.. ^_^

Good laugh for the day.

St. Thomas Reunion

First day of 2008, hopefully a good one.. Had a gathering with old friends of St. Thomas 1 senior high school, where I spent my last 2 years of high school.

I met some of those that I haven't seen since I left high school in July 2001.
Had one big meal in Hanamasa Medan and straight to Imperial Cakery just after it.





Hadi showed up with his wife (they're new weds ^_^) Still as funny as before and mature of course.






For those of ex 2C 2000 @ St. Thomas 1 Medan, I've made a private group here. Apply for membership to join.

Lucky Draw System

I made a small program to accommodate the lucky draw in my church. Simply put the parameters (number range) and start the timer to randomly select the values in the listbox.

I uploaded the exe here. Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0 is needed to run it.

I used this small program 3 times for the past 1 week.

Happy New Year 2008

Another year has passed by and we all welcome the year 2008.
Many wish for the best in this new year, but I just got a new year SMS from my manager that changed the way I should think of new years.

Do not only pray for the good year, but most importantly, that we can enjoy the challenges; ask for the strength and wisdom as this year goes for we can cope with the new year.

God does not give out hard times that we cannot handle.
Happy new year to all.. ^_^

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!!

Do you know Jesus?
"God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life" (John 3:16 NIV).

Little Christmas party (P3MI)

Had a little Christmas Party in youth fellowship tonight. Quick prep I may say, but it turned out to be a success celebration of Christmas.



Free snacks & drinks for everyone; we've got some games that involves the adults and youths in teams. I'm glad that everyone enjoyed the time.
Merry Christmas. ^_^

Must have free software

Home/Desktop

1. VLC media player
2. OpenOffice.org
3. Adobe Reader (Windows)
   
4. Paint.NET (Windows, Linux possible on Mono)
   
5. The GIMP
6. Picasa
   

Internet

1. Mozilla Firefox / Opera
2. Thunderbird Email Client
3. Free Download Manager (Windows)
   
4. Ad-Aware (Windows)
   

Utility

1. 7-zip (no GUI on Linux)
   

46.4 KBps of download speed

Okay.. the last one wasn't the fastest after all. This is.. ^_^

almost sick but wanting durian

Okay.. not feeling too good today. The cousins are planning for a group photo and I don't think I can make it. -_-

Mom just called, they've got durians at home. Mm.. I think it has been quite some time that I haven't been sick. ;-p

the worst again

The thing I fear the most finally happens.. again for the second time; and this time it hits where it hurts the most. After years, the time has finally come. I thought I would never come across it anymore, but I'm indeed wrong.

Can I still save it? (y/n) _

Kid gets detention for using firefox

And they called it "foxfire.exe"

read more | digg story

PHG Christmas 2007

Some of the new employees of PHG came up with an idea of celebrating Christmas in office. I don't know how but last month, the put me in charge of the event after office hour.

This is the day, though I felt somehow reluctant doing it, it turned out very much successful party. It was incredibly fun if I may say.



Lots of feedbacks that the same event is expected next year.

Family Gathering

Another family gathering at Grand Kowloon Medan, this time we've got more cousins around. My brother and San was also there.

I didn't take my camera but San did. Haven't got the pictures yet, but we did some 'all cousins' photo taking. ^_^

the Choice

Choosing something might be one of the worst part of my life. Making a choice is definitely not my favorite thing.

My dad asked me if I could join them to Japan this Chinese New Year. It would have been no problem if it had stopped there, but we (cousins) had planned to go for a holiday since months ago. I'm so doubtful that I can get a leave for that (twice in a 2 consecutive months).

At one point, I've dreamed of going out with cousins, especially Hui's going too. But I also don't want to miss my moments with dear family.

I did quit my job just for a trip to Thailand with my family and until now I do not regret it. It was definitely good memories, especially now when I think about it that it was the last time I went out with my uncle. I feel that I have to put more time with my family; that I don't want to loose my precious time.

Have been thinking of this matter for the past 2 weeks -_-.

the Cross and the Crescent Moon

I've been seeing provocative sites lately and I feel sorry for them; both sides. -_-'

Here's some of them that attack Christianity

• Data Kristen and many more in the links section
  
• mostmerciful
• Answering Christianity
  

Here's some of them that attack Islam

• TheReligionofPeace and many more in the links section
  

My opinion? Don't believe what people say.. and stay out of the war. We should respect each other. If you think what you believe is true, do what you can to tell the others while at the same time respect their beliefs! It's their right to accept or reject.

TV Movie: Sebuah Penantian

I received a message through YM saying that on 15th December 2007 16:30-17:30 GMT +7, RCTI will be showing a Christian movie entitled "Sebuah Penantian". I have no idea what will it be, but I'm very much interested in watching it. I've also checked the schedule and it seems legit.

I also came across some sites that promote the show; this is one of them.

However, there seems to be many extreme (is it?) Muslims that sees this as a great threat and propagates that Muslims should not see this movie at all. The more they say it out, the more curious people get. Haha..

Hope that I can get back in time to watch.

Good day.. ^_^

The Indon haters

I came across this site that expresses deep hatred towards Indonesia(ns). But it seems that it's rather too far to say it that way.

This guy is insulting a country's attribute; the symbol of a country, which everyone should always respect. Even a sovereign country do not insult the symbol of rebel forces in it's country.

But still, I'm not surprised on how the world thinks. Why can't people just accept their differences?
Hope this tense does not continue for long though.

I've lived in Malaysia and it has been a wonderful time. I urge the Indonesians to not provoke themselves or others.

Rainy morning

Friday morning.. raining since dawn..
Felt so sleepy when waking up; I'm driving to work today. -_-'

Felt like want to sleep some more, but don't know why couldn't sleep anymore. Good morning.. ^_^

Running other operating system in PS3

I just came across Ahmed's blog about PS3s used for scientific platform and that is so cool. I have never really paid attention in consoles since the birth of PS1.

After I did some more reading, it doesn't seem to be so hard to install Ubuntu in PS3 (it seems.. :-p)

Here is some guides from PSUbuntu.
U can still Google it and find quite a number of results.

Do farmers need the Internet?

Yesterday the former president of Indonesia Megawati publicly suggested that farmers in Indonesia should learn to user the Internet to know the market price and marketing their crops.

This obviously doesn't sound right.. Come on.. here in Indonesia? farmers? The Detik Forum made tonnes of critics on this dumb idea.

Imagine the (operational) cost of maintaining computer and Internet connection in Indonesia just to know the price of tomato; or maybe the better question is, "where can I find the market price for tomato in one area?"

I bet those farmers (mostly happen to be less formally-educated) end up in porn sites instead of searching for information. Such info like market price can easily be gathered via phone call (how hard is it to call a dealer in the nearest town and ask him how much a kilo of tomato is worth today?) than dialing to ISP (if there is one around).

Perhaps this idea derived from the success story of India and those are successful farmers that can afford computers. I think what Mega said was ok, but still she needed to explain more things like how those things are going to be done, any plans whatsoever. It just seems that she suddenly popped that idea during lunch hour thinking what to say; without much preparation.

I did some searching and found out that countries have implemented this idea successfully. Indonesia is just moving on. And I think that the Internet can be an excellent source of information on how to do things (like seeding, planting, etc) and also knowing possibly better alternative ways to do those things like plantation solutions and technology.

But for this years, the farmers can still get their critical info (commodity prices) from the radio every morning. Other more important things should be prioritized before like providing seeds, and taking out those middle persons who bullies the farmers.

Greenpeace & PHS

Greenpeace activists block palm oil shipment from Dumai which carries palm oil from Permata Hijau Sawit in the protest against forest destruction blamed on plantations.

References:

• Greenpeace Blocks Shipment of Indonesian Palm Oil
• Palm oil blockade

I've got not much knowledge of palm oils, but I know one thing that biodiesel is one of feasible solutions since petrol, that it can be reproduced. However, after some little reading, It seems that many environmentalists are against palm oil; that the cost of biodiesel is far more devastating towards the environment.

References:

• Palm Oil, Biofuel and Deforestation
• No More Sustain Land for Palm Oil!
  

40.1 KBps of download speed

This is the fastest download I've had at home with Speedy.

I feel much faster downloads with Ubuntu instead of Windows. I've had up to 35 KBps in Windows whereas 37-40 in Ubuntu. I guess I've never known if Windows is secretly sending or downloading something behind that I don't know of.

Loosing more

Can't believe it has been more than 12 years I've been around you; and that you have been faithfully taking care of us all. Thank you for everything, it has been great times with you.


Come to think of loosing people in my life, first uncle, then JHH, then pak Par. The world is changing rapidly... -_-

All the best for everyone. ^_^ God bless.

Funny Naruto cartoons

Check this out.
Or maybe this cute Deidara & Tobi.

Cute Naruto & Sharingan

While waiting for Naruto 377 episode, I've been browsing Naruto thingy on the Internet and found some funny things. Came across naruto-xx.blogspot.com and saw the cute picture of some Naruto characters.

Did more browsing and saw some Naruto geeks with their cosplay.
Want to experience some Sharingan?



Some funny MasterCard commercials:

Babel tech dept.

Found a funny cartoon in reverendfun.com

Original page here.

PHG visit to Sahabat Anak Orphanage

With minimum organisation of some people working in PHG Medan office, we manage to gather some cash to help the orphans in Panti Asuhan Sahabat Anak.

This is one of those in needs; I mean indeed.. they even sleep on ground without pillows. Can't live without helping them.



Panti Asuhan Sahabat Anak holds 35 orphans (October 2007) of which most of them were the kids who lost their family during the tsunami incident in Indonesia. They live in a very limited space, limited supply of food.

For those who wants to help, please visit them at:
Panti Asuhan Sahabat Anak
Jalan Pantai Timur, Gang Makmur No. 4
(Depan Perumahan Taman Hako Indah)
Medan, Indonesia

Contact Person: Talizomboi Laia +62 81370966468

Special thanks to:

• Jeanny Puansari
• Rosman Hindra
• Wihendry

Jimbaran Dinner (Anton & Lidya)

A wonderful family dinner @ Jimbaran, Medan. Everyone close to the family were invited; there were about 30 of us.

Wonderful dinner, wonderful time. Anton's family took their time to propose Yen2's. They're getting married in 3 months.



All the best. ^_^

Farewell Dinner Djoni H. H.

Djoni H. H. resigned as the church administrator and heading to Batam for a job. It has been a great pleasure to have worked with him; a decent and distinct person of low profile and with neutral position in almost every event.



I miss him already.. ^_^
A good friend indeed. All the best, brother.. and God speed.

Busy life

I've been so busy with almost everything for the week. In fact, I haven't been online at home for the past 4 days.

Got a small project doing small application. Hope to finish it in 2 weeks. In the other hand, still have to finish the library system for church.

Documentation and compiling Youth Camp 2007 video recording are also in the list. So.. I'm trying to list it out here:

1. Library System for GBC
2. StockSys for new client
3. Audio recording (YC 2007)
4. Video recording (YC 2007)

I'm going to bed soon. More work tomorrow at office.

Closing the Youth Camp 2007

Final and closing meeting for the Youth Camp 2007 Project this afternoon. Had tons of evaluations and input from internal and external. Hope we all can do more of the best next year.

While the committee is dismissed, I have to do documentation for the Camp. Reports are coming in from each section since 2 weeks ago and I still have video that we recorded to edit.

I made online Google Groups for the Youth Camp here. For those interested in sharing in the community, do not hesitate to do join. It would be a nice cyberspace to play around and discuss in.

Less of Windows, more of Ubuntu

I am starting to line Gusty Gibbon more and more. Have been using it for most things to do with computing tasks at home. I still use Windows at office; still got some .NET programming to do (Yeah I know there is Mono Project, but my team is using Visual Studio and I can't force them to convert).

I like the visual effects in Gusty, seems more robust. I remember using the wobbling windows in Feisty as it was quite unstable.

This Gusty Gibbon is worth to try; doesn't cost much money. ^_^

Gusty Gibbon is here

The long awaited version of Ubuntu is here now. 7.10 named Gusty Gibbon. I have been looking forward to seeing this one. It has been said that lots of features including dual monitor management without shell command anymore (yeah...)

Downloading now... I think I can have it installed in a couple of days.

Youth Camp 2007

Another project finished. This time I feel so exhausted; in fact most of us feel so much exhausted unlike the previous camps. I don't know why.

Anyway, I had this feeling that we've done something great... Hope we (or they or whoever next year) can make it better next time.

Heaven & Hell

Came across some articles about Heaven and Hell. Just read the hell part and it really freaked the hell out of me. Hell is surely the last place I want to be.

I don't know if these stories are real or not, but I believe and know that it will happen no matter what. It's in the Holy Bible.

Indonesian version available here.

initConflict(Indonesia, Malaysia)

I first noticed the conflict since the Rasa Sayange being used in Commercial Website of Visit Malaysia.

So what? Even the Indonesian cannot prove that the song belong to Indonesia.

But from many problems that Malaysian has caused towards Indonesia, I now have the thinking that Malaysia is trying to cause trouble.

Links:

• Isteri atase pendidikan KBRI ditahan RELA [perkara remeh?]
• Malaysia: Disband Abusive Volunteer Corps
• Indonesia Lodges Protest Over New Malaysia Arrest
• House mulls reporting Malaysia to UN Human Rights Commission
• Indonesia protests to Malaysia over detention of diplomat's wife

Internet @ home

At last.. I'm connected even when I'm home. Telkom finally got their Speedy to Binjai. Not as cheap as TM Net @ Malaysia, but still much better than nothing. In fact, I'm impressed with the speed. 37+ KBps of download speed. I hope it doesn't get worse as time goes.

Addicted to Blogging

68%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?
Not so addictive at all.. ^_^

How many germs live on your keyboard?

I ran through the test and came out with this:
2,067,240How Many Germs Live On Your Keyboard?

Worship tools for church

I've been wondering if there were any tools/software to maintain songs and slides projected to the screen in churches. How dumb I was not searching it in sf.net as it has tons of resources. I know there were EasyWorship but it's commercial software (not free).

If you are running Microsoft Office PowerPoint just for simple slides (which does not provide great maintenance of your song database), you might want to check out openlp.org and OpenSong, and QProjector and free your church from unlicensed software (that means stealing).

I simply choose OpenSong since it manages the songs in individual files; easier to manage for small churches while QProjector uses MySQL database.

I'm planning to run OpenSong for tomorrow's youth service.

Tech in Church

I've been browsing sf.net for a while for some open source systems that can be used in church. I myself have been doing some Windows based systems for church using .NET; however, I just want to seek for open source alternatives.

I first came across ChurchInfo for church database and some other similar system, but this one fits the profile much better.
Tested most scenarios in my church and it appears that the system fulfills almost all of the requirements in my church. Might want to implement it using Linux; I like the idea of Open Source especially in church. ^_^

If I want to serve God with my capacity, I want to do the best out of it; and I think this is I do best, putting technology into church. If this project goes successful, I'm making a portfolio to implement in churches.

With this solution, we can have a running and working system with just hardware cost; no Windows license, no buying anti virus, less risk of spyware.

The funeral

Had the funeral at 15 PM; short one. Nobody could stand seeing the family mourns too long before the coffin. I'm out of tears for the last 3 days. Almost every church hymn reminds me of my uncle's beautiful voice. I can't imagine how we're going to survive next Sunday's service.

The cousins went to have some snack (the usual meatball) after the funeral as it has been like that since the last 3 funerals of the family. Had some laugh, but still something is missing; just time can heal this.

Be strong everyone.. God did not take him for nothing, He's got a much bigger plan.

In Memorial of Daymin Eden (莊達明)

Couldn't sleep yesterday, my mom was ill; and I know it's the burden of loosing the loved one. My dad blacked-out in the hospital. I was so confused when I reached the hospital yesterday morning; shocked by the view of my uncle on the bed, and my dad next to him barely conscious.

Slept late yesterday and woke up early, I decided to browse my photo collection (more than 40 thousand of pictures) and manage to find 43 of my uncle's picture. I just noticed that he's quite low profile that in most family occasion, he stood at the back or at the corner.

Compiled to photos into a short video, and I couldn't watch it myself as it made me cry. Still hope that this is a dream; just that it would be least likely to be a dream. -_-



Higher resolution available here.
I'll see you later, uncle; we'll meet again.

Sad day of the Edens

Today, the Eden family lost one of the best Eden, my uncle, a decent man, faithful, kind, and loves God.

Literally everyone cannot believe that this is really happening. I couldn't hold myself the first time I saw him lying on bed in the hospital.

I bet almost everyone pops the question: "God, how can this be happening? Why? Doesn't he loves you more than anything? Doesn't he still have so many things to do for you?"

I'm going to miss his beautiful voice in the church, his smile in every Sundays and every family gathering.

I came to know that he just had his 29th wedding anniversary yesterday.

I can say that today is the worst day of my life so far; still hope that this is a dream.

Excel 2007 math calculation bug

Microsoft Office Excel 2007 contains a serious bug in its calculation. Try multiplying 850 and 77.1 and Excel 2007 produces 100000 instead of 65535.

OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office Excel 2003 seems to produce the correct result.

You'll never know if there are other calculation bugs in it; imagine having the wrong numbers of your profit and loss sheet in excel. ^_^

They'll be back

"The truth of the matter is, we don't want this to happen. And one easy way to stop that from happening, is to continue our work on AutoPatcher. Maybe not in its current shape and form, but still, we will be back soon (that much I guarantee)."

Taken from the post: The next day (What's in store) by Antonis Kaladis

AutoPatcher vs Microsoft

I just went to AutoPatcher after a month to get my monthly patches and guess what, they said that Microsoft is trying to stop them.

I have not been so DISAPPOINTED in Microsoft in my whole life. I was so sure to leave Microsoft's Vista for it's bug and now I'm even more committed.

I've used AutoPatcher before and I can't think of any bad out of it; saves my time and bandwidth. Imagine an administrator has to install the patches (hundreds of them) manually won't do any other administration work.

In fact, AutoPatcher has given me the hope to use Windows in a more secure and patched way. Now that the hope is gone, my desire of Microsoft's product is at the lowest level.

I'm now committed to promote Linux more than Windows.

It has been an excellent tools you have been and I thank the developers for helping countless people with your useful patching tool.

In case you wonder what Microsoft wrote, get it here.
More comments from AutoPatcher users.

Too much of HOAX

Got this message a few times in my hotmail inbox:

[
Hey, people
Sorry to break the news, but looks like all of those warnings were real!
The use of MSN and e-mail will cost money from Summer 2007 onwards. If you send this message to 18 different people from your list, your little MSN Icon will turn blue and that will make it free for you. If you don't believe Me, go on to (www.msn.com) and see it yourself. Don't forward this message, But copy and paste it so that people will actually read it. It is Andy and John - the directors of MSN - sorry for the interruption, but MSN is really closing down. This is because too many inconsiderate people are taking up all the names (e.g.. Making up lots of different accounts for just one person), and we are only left with 578 names. If you would like to close your account, DO NOT SEND THIS MESSAGE ON. But, If you would like to keep your account, then SEND THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE ON YOUR CONTACT LIST.
This is no joke, as we Will be shutting down the Servers. Send it on, thanks. WHOEVER DOES NOT SEND THIS MESSEAGE, YOUR ACCOUNT WILL BE CLOSED AND IT WILL COST YOU 100.00 (pending) A MONTH TO USE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE
ON YOUR CONTACT LIST. NOW YOU KNOW WHAT TO DO. PLEASE DO NOT FORWARD THIS OR REPLAY. COPY THE WHOLE E-MAIL. RETURN TO YOUR INBOX AND CLICK ON NEW. THEN PASTE 'THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION'. Hey everyone, I don't normally send this sort of stuff out, but I had a Look on the Internet and its actually true that by the 30th November, we Will have to pay for the use of our MSN and e-mail account(s), unless we Send this message to at least 18 contacts on our contact list. It's no joke, but if you don't believe me, then you can see for yourself -Go to the site
(http://news.BBC.co.UK/1/hi/business/1189119.stm) - and See For yourself.
Anyway, once you've sent this message to at least 18 contacts, your MSN icon Will turn blue. Please copy and paste, but don't forward it, as people won't Take notice of it
]


[Image taken from http://www.librarysupportstaff.com/forwardemail.gif]

Now.. I've seen too many hoaxes going around in e-mails until today, so I feel that posting the real issue won't make any harm.

In this case, if you check the link up there, it was dated Sunday, 25 February, 2001, 11:00 GMT, which is long.. long.. time ago, but then it says that we have to pay for improved services of the MSN portal.

My suggestion, check out the article you want to forward in the Internet for it's truth. There are a few sites that list out hoaxes or truth; Truth Or Fiction and Museum of Hoaxes are two of my favorites while you can obtain more of them here.

So don't simply take for granted everything you read in the email forwards!

Have you ever wonder why your email is filled with spam and unwanted advertisement? Forwarding emails is one of them. Say.. if one forwards one message to all of your contact list in your email, one usually use the [Forward] button and put the recipients in the [To:] field. Now.. try search into your forwarded emails that you receive and tell me how many email addresses that you have (friends and foreigns). What would happen if a spammer receive your email with those active email addresses in it? Use your imagination. ^_^ Here is another article about forwarding and spam.

So if you have done that before, or your friends have sent you such message, congratulations you have been subscribed to a mailing list of spam. ^_^

If you can't live without forwarding, at least use the [Bcc:] field, which will not expose other recipients' email addresses.

Audio in Ubuntu

Spent 2 hours in having my Ubuntu upgraded to the power to do audio as in UbuntuStudio. Managed to install the ubuntustudio-audio from apt and running Ardour.

Had me half an hour to deal with the sounds so that I can record, mix, and play especially in mp3 files. Took me few minutes to realize that I have got the LAME encoder in my ubuntu, but still have to run aptitude install liblame-dev on the shell.

Home sweet home, new favorite spot

Since the desk arrived last week, I've been so comfortable working on my desk. Enjoying (still) programming on the bigger screen on my PC (I've got 15" in the office only) for longer code view and bigger design view in the IDE.


Got an extra laptop of my brother (the one that broke, and repaired); not so powerful, but at least I can try out UbuntuStudio on that machine.

Ubuntu vs Vista

I came across this blog that briefly compares the prices in Ubuntu and Vista, a nice way to slice up your budget if you've blown it up on hardware.

Another objective comparison from InformationWeek is also a good article to check out.

Google Earth Flight Simulator

Have you played Microsoft Flight Simulator yet? Feel like playing it for free? Try the new version Google Earth (4.2) with it's new hidden feature of flying around the planet.

Watch this video from the Google Earth Blog.

You can find more of these videos at You Tube.
This is too cool to be happening for free!!!

"We assure you.. no more blackout!" is not an assurance

Heard from the radio this morning saying that the electricity company (PT. PLN) (which is monopolized by the government) is almost assured to not able to keep their promise to keep the light on as power outage is still going on in the area.

Previously, they had stated publicly their apologize and promised to ensure that electricity will be fulfilled before and during this Ramadan.

And now they're saying that they won't keep that promise.. again..

Mayor?

On the transport this morning, I was awakened by the siren sound of the mayor candidate of Medan Ali Umri's convoy.

The traffic was fairly ok, not jammed, but still vehicles are running slow. And out of nowhere these convoy simply rushing over the crowds like he owns the road or something.

One point I feel the officials should notice is that they should live their life as normal citizens so that they would know what's wrong with their area. If they simply put a loud siren on their car and have police escorting their way, they'd not know if that road is actually so bad, or at least the traffic.

Definitely not the type of guy I would choose to run the government, but who knows.. :-P

Another dinner party @ home

I kind of like it being at home now (as in living here, working here). Most of any celebrations in the family gather almost all members of near family in the town (which doesn't happen a lot since everyone is working already).

This time my aunt's birthday, so we had a BBQ at the rooftop. Had the usual family and family friends, not so crowded, but I like it where it cheers me up. ^_^





And not forgetting the cake ceremony. ^_^


And usual, the jokes were still available. ^_^