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).