It's raining

Seems that it has come to the time of the year where it rains a lot. I can see ponds all over the road; and in many places (especially on my way back home) the the water covers the entire road up to 20 cm. I could imagine that I'm actually in a boat instead of a bus.

Who wants to be a Bible lover?

During the Youth Camp just now, I popped out an idea of some Bible quiz with some real questions just like the game Who wants to be a millionaire.

The problem was how do we display the questions, select, identify it as true or false. Moreover, features like 50:50 won't go away from it.

So I made a small program out of VB.NET with MS SQL Server Express for the game. A simple program that just grab questions and the options randomly in each level it is.

Lack of the interface to input the question though; that I did it in only 1 night. So I have to put the questions and options and answer directly to the database table using the IDE.

There was a bug in the application and it popped out during the quiz. After the 50:50 (where I hide the visibility of random options that are not the answers), I forgot to enable the visibility upon next question.

Yes.. It was a dumb bug I admit, but it was a 1 night programming and I didn't even have the time to thoroughly test it out. However, eventually the game had a positive response from most people.

In fact, we at the youth fellowship (P3MI) are gonna take this quiz up again on next Saturday, 11th Nov 2006. Anybody insterested to join? See how good u know the Bible.

Here's the screenshot of the game.

The 50:50 hides two options that are not the answer.

And the setup screen for the questions. The system randomly chooses any question with the same level that has not been displayed before.


We found this game very educating since this would promote interesting facts about the Bible that many of us do not know of.

Clear roads

Still in holiday and I'm going to work already. I can see many of my friends are still enjoying their holiday and I'm confronted with work already.

The roads are clear though, at least I have the pleasure of driving for these 2 days (the bus is not running since it's still in holiday.

Happy Ramadhan for those who celebrate it.

Youth Camp 2006

4 days Camp at Parapat, North Sumatra; what a great week. Despite of the smokey atmosphere, everything was very much enjoyable.

I departed on Sunday morning for lots of prep from the comitee and had only 5-6 hours of sleep in between tons of work; but everything turned out to be cool. ^_^

The theme was "Make Things Happen" with the theme song "Nothing is impossible" (GMB)




Great blessings were passed on, and almost all correspondents responded positively for the project.



And some muddy games.. U can see the custom-made BodyGlove we've had. ^_^

And group photos of virtually everyone who's there.

The PDF softcopy of the book can be downloaded here.

Leave granted :-)

With the prayers and workaround, I manage to get leave for 2 days (23rd and 26th Oct) for the Youth Camp.

Never... ever.. underestimate the power of prayer and fasting. In fact, I just read in the news that based on research, those whom are prayed more by the loved ones are proved to be healthier. I can't recall where I read it, but I'm pretty sure that I have seen the article.

Have a nice day.. ^_^

Projects...

I got some programming projects going on here. Both with VB.NET. One windows application and one web application. The interesting part is the web application; it is an online text-based game based on DarkThrone.com. I can say that the concept is pretty good; having people to play RPG online and text based some more.

No heavy 3-D graphics, only texts. Build, train, attack, defend...

Aside from the excitement, it's gonna be hell of two weeks.

Leave not granted :-(

I submitted my leave application form for Youth Camp yesterday I got the reply today. It was a negative. The sky seems like falling down all over me.

Ouch.. the activity that we have been planning for the past half year.. and I won't be there to see it. I'm so dissapointed.. Though my IT manager approved the form, but the form has to be signed by one of the directors.

This is what I don't understand. For such (relatively) big company, such simple things (and many more silly simple things) are being handled directly under the directors. Since the managers have approved it, doesn't it mean that the managers have the responsibility?

Well.. Don't wanna say much of it.. I lost the mood for a few moments there. But I still think that perhaps it's God's way for the best. ^_^ U'll never know..

Anoter half-way SAP implementation

I'm assigned to another trip to the same remote site for SAP implementation. And this time I'm bringing my laptop with me (I found out that it would take at least a week). So it happened to be a whole week (2-6 Oct 2006)

The same story this time as previously; as expected, my module couldn't run smoothly coz MM didn't run smoothly.

Had a heavy flu on Thursday.. couldn't work properly.. I was supposed to supervise the production operative to key in data into SAP system; so I ended up in bed. Took some medicines and another happy good morning the next day. ^_^

Came back on Saturday early morning (5 am) and reached office before 1 pm. I drove half way (3 and half hours, bout almost 200 km). Still half ill.

A week has gone without being in the main office. ^_^

Mad policeman

Another day is in progress..

This morning when I was in the bus (felt asleep), suddenly the car was stopped by a man with motorbike shouting rudely to the driver telling him to pull over. When the driver asked him gently if anything had happened, but what he got was another impolite answer.

The guy with the bike happened to be a policeman claiming that the driver gave him a splash of water when he drove (it has been raining recently, and the road is wet; in case that u guys don't know, the physical conditions of some (many if I may say) of the roads would allow ducks to swim due to the holes. (please don't take the words literally)

It really ruined my day.. Such a bad attitude of a police officer; as a matter of fact, he wasn't even in duty but still demanding the license and registration in a very rude way.

If he doesn't want to get splashes, then don't ride near the watery road. And what good is a car if one just drive it 5 km/hour? This is totally ridiculous..

I really hope that people like that would get the lesson.. For it matters, I just recall that people are vasting; so regardless if u r a Muslim or not, u should respect them (at least try not to yell at them especially when they're not guilty).

1 year ago today

It was 1 year ago today that I worked at Sigma @ Serpong, it was 1 year ago today I met Rama and the rest of the Core Banking Team 3 with their RPG.

It has been a good memory that I worked there; the knowledge, experience (though not much), and obviously friends. ^_^

A small birthday celeb @ office

Happy birthday for Wihendry, the Audit Manager @ PHG. He was one of those who first accepted me when I joined in. Such a dicipline I can see out of him, but at the same time the funny soul that causes laughter for his environment. And I can feel that it feels so safe being with him.


A lunch the next day..

Apacer HA202

Got myself a new 2 GB flash disk of Apacer Handy Steno HA202 today.

It has a really cool design with a blue light when reading data. However, the cap is pretty annoying though. Fortunately, it can be removed easily and it looks much cooler without the cap.

No need of the cap because it has a slider that pops out and in the USB.

Transporting myself to work

Aq Awi is now staying in Medan, which caused me to turn to other alternatives of getting myself to work everyday. Fortunately, Hui's transport has an empty seat... so I decided to go with her.

Human knowledge belongs to the world

I've got some cool sites here about FREE e-books.

The last time I downloaded e-books were during my college times using P2P network client, but this time it can be downloaded using http access.

Most of the books are uploaded to RapidShare; so u all have to wait for about a minute to download it for free.

Most of the books are all new.. so enjoy the knowledge.

Get it here:



Human knowledge belongs to the world, share it...

P3MI.com

Out of the millions of pages in the Internet, I came across www.P3MI.com that joins the whole youth in the country in the bond of Methodist together virtually.

I myself and Ishak have been planning to do the same, but it has been concepts and it wasn't even finished. It seems that someone else has started it out.

With lots of processes, I managed to know the person who maintains the site and I'm officially in the service of this information handling to bless people.

He made me an administrator in the forum and had me manage the forum, so I guess I've got another thing to add to my everyday-to-do list. ^_^

God bless u all..

Bazaar

Fund-Raising activity @ school yard for the Youth Camp 2006 with various of foods and drinks.
Top-scorer food: Spagetti, drink: Pop-Ice


Met Erwin there, good to see him safe and sound.

And after everything settled, we took the chance of taking pictures, although many were not still around.




It finished at around 3-4 pm and we packed up until 5. Another day has passed... What a day. ^_^

Hope u all have had a nice weekend.

Sien's Birthday Dinner

Happy birthday for dear cousin, Sien on 29th Aug.

Had dinner at Cemara; another good time chilin with cousins.

I'm tired...

For the past week, I've been very tired of life; as if I've got nothing to live for (in which I know I'm not supposed to be like that). I have no idea what happened or what have triggered this feeling; perhaps I've gone through lots of things lately. I don't feel like doing things, I started to talk in a rude way, being sensitive, and lazy. Haven't really got a good time since last week.

Work, SAP, nStation, church, friends... [Arggh...]
I feel like leaving all of this for a while and refresh myself. But I can't seem to find the time for it coz I've got too many scheduled time for the next 2 weeks; no public holidays some more.

It's definitely not easy being human, or for it matter "someone".

Happy Birthday Linux

Linux is now 15 years old since Linus Torvalds first announced it in August 15, 1991.

"Hello everybody out there using minix -

I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones. This has been brewing since April, and is starting to get ready. I'd like any feedback on things people like/dislike in minix, as my OS resembles it somewhat (same physical layout of the file-system (due to practical reasons) among other things).

I've currently ported bash(1.08) and gcc(1.40), and things seem to work. This implies that I'll get something practical within a few months, and I'd like to know what features most people would want. Any suggestions are welcome, but I won't promise I'll implement them :-)

Linus (torva...@kruuna.helsinki.fi)

PS. Yes - it's free of any minix code, and it has a multi-threaded fs. It is NOT portable (uses 386 task switching etc), and it probably never will support anything other than AT-harddisks, as that's all I have :-(. "

I've not been forced to use linux yet, but I really look forward to the time that I can fully use linux. ^_^ I'm too busy with other things and it is very unlikely to explore on linux unless I'm told to.. ^_^

OpenOffice.org

I know OpenOffice has been around for long enough.. and I have actually resired to try it on (however it never really worked coz the environment I've been working in depends too much on Microsoft Office).

But now I've got a chance to use it in a more independently from Microsoft Office.

I'm so glad that my boss wanted me to try some alternatives for office applications beside Microsoft, I've finally had my eyes again towards OpenOffice.org.

Considering the complexity of the utilization of office application (word processing, spreadsheets, presentations) in my company, I do not see the compulsion of Microsoft Office. Instead, OpenOffice.org is good enough.

The main use of th office apps are:

• typing letters, simple WYSIWYG documents, and reports
• spreadsheet documents with simple calculations (SUM, AVG, etc)
• viewing presentation files

in which all of the functions can be found in both OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office.

Now the difficult part is the users.. it has always been the users.. that they're used to Microsoft Office and (at some point) not willing to update their knowledge to other options. So... for now, I and some of the IT guys i've managed to persuade are trying it out; making it default office apps; get the hang of it; and eventually write a report (conclusion) of the research (comparison between OpenOffice.org and Microsoft Office).

As of now, I can only point out that there are two products from Microsoft that are not available in OpenOffice.org:

• Microsoft Visio
• Microsoft Project

especially considering the compatibilities of both OOo and Microsoft Office products.

I'm still looking for other alternatives for it.