"Apathy is greater threat to democracy" -an article at San Jose Newspaper.

This week the euphoria seems doomed, while American now taking morning after pill facing grim of their economy future. Some people seemed envy with Obama party in Indonesia, I choose to sit. Either mourning to the death of terrorist nor sorry for the families of the Bali's victims and the JI's.

Mr. C off to Formosa so this is round-up weekend mostly on my own :

• Photographer David Katz produced candid photos of Obama and family before acceptance speech on 4th November 2008. It's gave insight view what happen behind the stage.
  
• Chicken in California also welcomed with Election 08. Proposition 2 which gave  protection against animal cruelty won 63% to reserve its welfare. Means : Chicken will free cage to produce eggs and better environment on the farm. Hmm increase price?
• Officially I am member of Sierra Club founded by John Muir. This is second club I've joint after National Geographic. 
• Planning an escape route sometime on December. I want to see white snow!
• Making second Ciabatta bread. This time more flavor. I told Mr. C that I am better on kneading than him :)
  
• Sneak in watching RocknRolla (Guy Ritchie) on Friday. It's darn AWESOME!
  
• Spent some bucks for pizza stone. We've need it to achieve crisp layer when baking. 
• Saturday was gray weather, manajed to cycle down to Farmer Market in Sunnyvale. Buying some exotic fruits called guava (aka jambu). Taste awful compare to javanese one. The skin bit bitter and tough.
  
• Pop in book shop to get a second hand book by Prof Lawrence Lessig : Remix. It's about copyright and derivative artworks. He gave evidence on case of JK Rowling who want to stop a fan publish companion book of Harry Potter. Lessig also founder of Creative Commons (CC). I spent Saturday evening read this book. Radical change that I can not accept it yet.
  
• Sunday morning I spent reading newspaper (I addicted with Sunday paper). Then off to Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve at 10.30am. Already packed with people, I choose PG&E Trail which is very quiet. This route pretty demanding, although straight forward to the hill. It took me 1 hour 20 minutes to reach the peak without stop. Then another easy down while enjoying blue jay birds and deer among the trees.  

I am bit tired now.



Note :
Prof Lessig published another book called Free Culture. You can download at here as under CC. If you interresting more try Cory Doctorow's collections of essays : Content.

"If we want an innovation economy, one that generates more Googles each year, then we have to invest in our future innovators.”  Senator Obama

“I am uniquely qualified to lead our nation during this technological revolution.” Senator John McCain

Ada isu yang begitu serius saya ikuti sejak kampanye presiden US yakni bagaimana mereka akan membawa tehnologi ke arah yang lebih netral dan stabil. Sejak 8 tahun kepemimpinan Republikan dibawah Bush yang cenderung kanan, bidang ini mengalami kemunduran luar biasa. Perdebatan soal stem cell, net-neutrality, hingga inovasi energi baru untuk mengurangi indepensi amerika terhadap minyak.

Secara prinsip keduanya sangat berbeda. Bukan hanya Obama yang paling karib menggunakan Blackberry dan Youtube dibanding Mc Cain tapi juga kemampuan untuk memahami visi tehnologi mereka  jika menjadi presiden paling berkuasa bumi ini. 

Hanya Obama yang menjelaskan tentang visi tehnologi cukup detail dalam bukunya "Audacity of Hope" yang ditulis tahun 2006 ketika menjadi Senator. Dalam lawatan ke markas Google di Mountain View, ia melihat bahwa kebanyakan pekerja disana adalah berasal dari Asia atau Eropa Timur. Menurutnya, Amerika tidak akan mampu menandingi China dan India dengan memotong biaya dan mengecilkan pemerintah.

Sebagai wujud inovasi ekonomi, "Yakni untuk melahirkan perusahaan seperti Google, kita harus menginvestasikan penemu masa depan -dengan menggandakan bantuan pemerintah untuk riset dalam lima tahun kedepan, melatih 100,000 insinyur and scientist dalam waktu empat tahun ke depan atau menyediakan dana riset bagi para scientist muda negeri ini".

Mc Cain walaupun sudah menerbitkan lima buah buku, tidak satupun membicarakan bagaimana Amerika mengembalikan sebagai pemimpin tehnologi. Tapi di tahun 1997 Senator Mc Cain mengepalai Komite untuk Komersial, Sains dan Transportasi hingga tahun 2005. Salah satu jasanya adalah membatasi eksport  sensitif tehnologi (senjata dan satelit) dengan alasan keamanan nasional ketika Amerika di awan perang terorisme dengan Al Qaeda dan negara lain seperti China, Iran, Korea dan India. Menurut beberapa pengamat, pembatasan ini sebenarnya tidak perlu dan makin menjauhkan dari kompetisi yang sehat. Saat ini India dan China muncul sebagai kekuatan baru di bidang tehnologi angkasa, bergabung dengan Rusia.


Jasa Mc Cain yang lain adalah di tahun 2005 ia mengajukan UU di bidang pembatasan panas akibat gas sebagai awal munculnya tehnologi hijau yang ramah lingkungan. Di tahun itu pula, terlihat bahwa Amerika menjadi importir tehnologi terutama dari China. Angka defisit itu hingga $60 billion.

Saat itu Obama bergabung dengan Senator lain mencari sponsor untuk meningkatkan dana riset dan pendidikan di bidang sains. RUU 18 itu berhasil melewati Senat, dengan Mac Cain abstain. Setelah ditanda tangani Bush, RUU itu kemudian menjadi American Competes Act atau UU Kompetisi Amerika.

Beberapa hal yang cukup menghantui adalah isu penting seperti energi alternatif, kontroversial soal Intilligent Design Vs Evolution Theory, Aborsi (Roe Vs Wade). Khusus untuk lingkungan, tampaknya White House kalah jauh dengan Gubernur California Arnold Schwarzenegger yang berkomitmen mengurangi emisi gas hingga 25% di tahun 2020.

McCain sebenarnya mencoba menjaring Silicon Valley yang secara tradisional pendukung Hillary ke dalam barisan kampanye dengan merekrut Carly Fiorina (mantan CEO Hawlett Packard), juga mendekati Meg Whitman (CEO Ebay). Sayangnya sentuhan mereka kurang terasa dihalau makin progresif-nya gerakan hijau dan kegalauan resesi yang diambang pintu. 

Sejujurnya, saya mulai mikir Gubernur saya ini lebih pantas memimpin Amerika ketimbang Sarah Palin.

Sumber :
NY Times
The Republican War on Science by Chris Mooney
Obama's Science tech policies top McCain's by Anna Escho


Photo : Daniel Acker Bloomberg

In this economic downturn situation, managing personal finance become a crucial issue.  When the first time setting up accounts in this country, I was facing disparities. Mainly because the financial institution so widely spread, even separate from one another. For example, I have a bank account in Bank of America with an online service. Then I have a credit card from those bank, that hopefully link to my bank account (well, assumed to pay your monthly of CC debt). Instead I have two sets of user account to access both rather than one to review in whole system. This is also happen with Store Cards or Investment Banking. I ended up with list to access each of one.

When we used to live in Singapore, we were virtually having no big problem. We were limit ourselves with one or two banks (including debit and credit card), make life simple as possible. The financial system that Singapore inherited from British's felt seamless, rather smooth transition for me including taxes system etc.

But in States, those system so different. We now have to deal with complex and intertwined system, but also keep conscious about the spending. Overall, the connections was not there. That's why we need integrative money management. How's to simplify view of your personal finance situation.

At first I choose Quicken Online since they're leading in this industry. With monthly cost $2.99 (it's free from October 2008), Quicken answered many problems. My big relieve is I am now able to track down my spending, make database and also feeling in control.

Then a few weeks ago I introduced by Mint, another web based money management. The experience with both (or three actually), with addition Easy View (Yodlee), might give better perspective which one that probably the best for you.

Accounts setting

Quicken Online (QO) is the best in this. It's easy and comprehensive. The only concerned is if you deleted the account, it will not effect straight away. The system record as you put in until few days later. Mint was quite easy but they don't working in the vast financial institution in US. In this case Mint did not recognized the investment account from E*Trade, but indeed on it's bank. But I noticed  Mint also having Paypal to record.  This is smart when you already open online retail. But for me is useless.

Transactions

The best thing about web is you can download the file to create database. It's time saver, specially you don't need to type in manually. QO and Mint both can be download into .csv file but only in limited numbers mostly under 100 transactions. This is bit problem as you have to schedule to download for every week or so (depend how's your life style is), and also did not record the cash spending. It does show the ATM withdrawal but ups to you to enter manually some of you add in info. Mint have capability to split the transaction, say you take $100 for cash and using half of it for dining.

But Mint did not record for cheques records. This is the big hole that should be fixed, otherwise the system did not reflect actual spending. I thought I have to report as a bug :) Updating data is also bit concern for Mint. They are bit late for current transaction. Usually takes about a day or two to appear, leaving me to  relay on ebank which served better real life data.

Transaction in Details

I have to put attention on this because QO is facing a big big problem with their Auto Category. The system records my pattern based on the card that I've used. Unfortunately the card only show an address rather than the Retail/Restaurant/Cafe. Somehow Quicken did not simplify this information and take the previous similar address to put in same category. I did numbers of time to contact the team and asking help in Forum. But this problem still occur leaving me in desperate effort.

What make this matter because if the transaction wrong (even the amount correct), the database became useless. I will having huge bill of spending in Electronics, while in fact most of it goes to Groceries.

Control the spending

Yes, using Mint and QO give an overview what your spending spree went. This month probably we are bit hit the roof as buying new disk for backup. The pattern can be view as bar chart or pie chart to follow route of categories. Also we can put budget planning for several sectors such as Food and Dining or House Bill. I can reduce my spending in some and also review area that I can scrap altogether. Again it's not save you, but it will give sort of sense of reality. You've probably don't  realize how much you've spend until you face the numbers.

Mint and QO able to send alerts for any payment due, for example credit card or utilities bill. It's really good to avoid excessive charge for late payment. Also send SMS/email if you overspending or over your budget or you only got some amount money left in you bank. It can be set, easy to maintain. You've also given a summary weekly, and review your goals. The goal can be anything such as : pay the car or set aside for saving, or reduce eating out :)

Trends Info

The best Mint can offer is Trends, by looking your spending compare to other users by city or states. Example : to see your average house bill to people who living in San Jose or San Francisco. This is great tools, to justify others people pattern. I called this passive interactivity. In some point it can be "gray area" for data sharing, but since it stored anonymously I can predict usability of data getting accurate each time depends of how many users and level of errors.

Ways of Save also feeds the info about financial scheme that been offered to make your benefit. In UK this comparison table chart really taken off as been use by Financial Analyst to see which institution having better products for consumer. But in US, with this facility on Mint helps lots for first timer like me :)

Quicken got funny way to organize that withdrawal to saving records as spending. It's really bothered me if I open QO, the front page saying that "I Overspent $$$" but in reality I moved to other saving account.





Well, both not perfect and still developing. In my opinion Mint got better grasp for what people wants. Easy to use, interactive and the most important giving  people information about situation. How to manage wisely and safely. Just a note : all these services only for US  (dunno about Canada). Mint been feeds by Yodlee, who also works with other banks such Wanchovia and HSBC. But the user interfaces is really different. The way of deliver the data to user, Mint got advantages. No wonder it's been praised by WSJ or PC World.

QO try to catch the development of Mint by offered FREE now. If they are not fixed the commons bugs most people like me probably will switch to Mint. For some people it did not change the financial habit, but by having better management it 's the key to survive in this storm.

Duduk menikmati debat terakhir sebelum pemilu di USA tiga minggu lagi, saya bolak-balik mencet tombol channel teve. Pilihan saya hanya dua, yakni CNN dan Current TV. Keduanya menampilkan  system interaktivitas yang berbeda.

CNN walau terlihat keperpihakkannya pada Obama dengan split view kandidat membuat saya bisa melihat bahasa tubuh masing-masing. Juga di sebuah tempat yang dirahasiakan, CNN menghimpun 480 calon pemilih dibekali sebuah alat yang memberikan reaksi spontan atas program2 yang ditampilkan kandidat.

Rapid response ini sengaja diberikan pada pemilih yang masih ragu. Terutama pada negara negara tangguh dengan beda suara yang tipis (3% point) seperti Ohio dan Florida. Pada debat ketiga ini sepertinya pilihan kota New York menunjukkan akar problem Amerika saat ini. Ekonomi.

Current TV adalah bentuk baru interaktivitas melalui komentar Twitter. Saya nonton di channel 107 lewat Comcast. Bentuknya sama, tapi dibagian bawah ada streaming komentar pemirsa. Twitter menamakannya Hack The Debate, mengawinkan antara teve dan internet. Masalahnya walaupun teve saya juga diset home media, tapi akses ke Twitter harus dilakukan diluar teve. Tadinya saya kira bisa make satu layar –satu comcast satu firefox.  Apakah bisa dengan IM laen atau feed lewat hape? Nah ini yang belum dicoba. Menurut saya sih jadi ngga ada bedanya sama interactive yang sudah ada walau lebih bersifat chat atau kirim video music.

Pengalaman dengan Current TV ini adalah distraksi yang cukup mengganggu. Masalahnya saya jadi baca komen daripada konsentrasi pada debat. Isu penting seperti health care jadi ketimpuk komen soal Joe si tukang pipa yang dibahas dalam masalah pajak untuk small business. Dalam hal ini Twitter jadi membuat saya tidak fokus.

Nonton kedua tipe interaktifitas ini menarik. Tidak ada yang baru untuk CNN karena sudah berjalan sejak 1992. Hanya saja demografik cuma menunjukkan gender, mungkin demi menyederhanakan tampilan. Isu seperti aborsi, health care dan uang mungkin paling menarik bagi perempuan, sedangkan laki2 lebih mengomentari masalah keamanan (keterlibatan Obama dengan domestik teroris Ayers), atau politik luar negeri. Dari data CNN bisa dilihat masalah mana yang menjadi pokok perhatian pemilih.

Dari ketiga debat, yang terakhir ini terlihat berhati-hati. Saya berikan pujian pada moderator Bob Schieffer. Nah kenapa democrat diasosiasikan keledai dan republican adalah gajah? Well, itu karena kekuatan kartun. Ah tentu saja bukan si Donkey-nya Shrek.

.

In the past three weeks I’ve been deal with infringement copyright issues in Indobackpacker. Two blogs eventually taking contents from mailing list, put on their own blog. One of those even created auto feed posting which once the email system appeared on the mailing list it will also posting on this blog.

Some mailing list said that Moderator and Owner have a right to publish discussion on the forum to open public. In my opinion, they’re only responsible for distribution but not the contents. Since Indobackpacker is fully moderated, it should be known that these are NOT similar kind of censorship. Mainly to reduce amount of dodgy viral email and spam, Moderator are taking action against this type of email. We also try to introduce member become more prone what they’ve been doing, including posting email in groups, which have member around 7,200. If you want to post something that you don’t know where it came from or don’t know is it true or rubbish, don’t do it.

This message becomes clear when it comes to copyright. When I heard about one of the moderator at Forum Pembaca Kompas been interviewed by police regarding the contents, I become more aware that people in Indonesia even don’t really understand how the mailing list works. Including copyright issues and whose has responsibility for distribution outside the mailing list.

The case I brought to Blogspot apparently little bit complicated. The mailing list hosted in Yahoo Groups, while this guy obviously have blog on Blogger, which is now part of Google. I thought it’s going to be a long winding road, especially the case related with Indonesians. But I strongly believe that I got a good case since both provider Google and Yahoo using US Digital Millennium Copyright Act as their based of Term of Services.

Blogspot known for not so responsive regarding contents or infringement copyright. The worst about this is Blogspot become easy to be capitalize since integrated nicely with Google Adsense. Some young lad living in students fees with no money but able to set up blog, and then He/She will fill the contents with anything he/she can find. Including copy paste from others blogs, or just copied from mailing list for the sake of so called traffic. The more you’ve put the contents (God’s know where it came from) the more Google picked as the search engine and the more you get traffic and dollars. I called this as one of Google paradox. They are turned to be blind.

One case that created anger among Indonesians was when a blog called ihateindon.blogspot.com preaching full of hate toward Indonesians. (It was indicated that’s came from Malaysia because using Melayu). The reactions even severe. Indonesians created a massive viral campaign to flag this account, notify Blogspot and then successfully take it down offline. In Indobackpacker's case I chose not going to do the same way. I want exercise my right and Blogspot’s response due this particular rare complaints. (Most of Indonesia blogger who been copied paste preferred keep silent or grudgingly blamed the provider).

On the 16 September 2008, I wrote complaint to Google Legal Support, Blogger DMCA Complaints with mail. Google want paper mail or fax rather than email possibly because they’ve need original signature. But before I took that action, I tried to contact the blog by leaving comments three times, giving 3x24 hours rest and extra two days to think again. During that period she/he stop the feeding from mailing list but keep the posting (emails) as long as 2008 calendar. In total about 4200 posting.

On 26 September 2008, Google received my complaint, logged it and said will looking on the case closely. Four days later, they sent email said that those account been taking down. I don’t know if Google removed the blog or also terminate the account completely since she/he got several other with typical copied paste contents.

Learning this, I confident that if your writing or photos been copied paste without consent, you got right to complaint. This is a good precedent that even the platform different (Yahoo to Blogspot), it did not make those culprit get away easily. Even if you act as individual you still have a change to exercise your right.

May be I am not taking the Wisdom of Crowds, but yes this is works.

Bagi pemakai setia Adobe Photoshop Lightroom (LR) Beta 2.0 atau edisi sebelumnya membuat watermark sebenarnya tidak susah. Hanya saja kelemahannya adalah watermark itu berujud default yang tidak bisa disetting seenaknya baik jenis font, gradasi, besaran font ataupun letaknya. Ini cukup menjengkelkan terutama jika photo2 itu memerlukan watermark yang letaknya tidak terlalu obscure (kliatan jelas).

Berikut prosesnya :

Langkah I Menambah informasi pada Metadata
Membuat "Presets Metadata" yakni memberikan info tambahan di photo termasuk hak milik yang secara otomatis akan terpatri (embedded) didalamnya.

• Pilih photo yang akan dirubah.
• Klik bar "Metadata" pilih "Edit Metadata Presets"
• Ganti/tambah informasi disana pada IPTC Copyright  berupa Copyright, Copyright status, Right Usage Terms (saya memakai CC Non Commercial), dan Copyright URL.
• Di bar atas pada Presets, klik "Save Currents Settings as New Presets"
• Namai Preset tadi dengan nama unik misalnya "Ambar" (jika si tukang upload lebih dari satu photographer untuk memudahkan identitas).

• Klik Create
• Klik Done
  

Langkah II Mengeksport photo dengan watermark didalamnya
Biasanya dalam file asli photo saya tidak mencantumkan watermark karena kemungkinan diminta dalam hi-res. Jadi biasanya yang saya watermark adalah yang khusus ukuran web (lowres) saja.

• Pilih photo yang akan dieksport
• Shift + Apple + E untuk Export lantas muncul kotak dialog.
• Isi info yang anda inginkan termasuk folder destinasi, kualitas photo (ukuran dan resolusi), file naming etc..
• Tambahkan presets export di kolom sebelah kiri dengan klik "add" menjadi nama unik misalnya "Ambar Medium Size HiRes"
  

• Pilih pada Metadata info > tick "Add Copyright Watermark"
• Klik Export

Sampai disini bisa dibilang proses telah selesai dengan sepenuhnya bekerja di LR Beta 2.0. Catatan bagi pengguna LR 1.3 atau versi sebelumnya, fasilitas ini kagak ada tapi bisa dilakukan ketika photo diupload untuk pertama kalinya dengan membuat Preset Metadata seperti langkah I.

Hasilnya adalah seperti ini :



Watermark yang baik adalah bisa memproteksi gambar tapi juga ngga menghalangi pandangan. Nah saya jarang memakai LR untuk watermark karena alasan diatas. Biasanya saya import ke Photoshop CS2 lalu dikirim balik ke LR sebagai file dengan text. Jika photo anda berujud RAW maka photo watermark itu bisa dalam bentuk file yang lain (jpg, png, tiff) atau apapun yang membuat layers dimampatkan (flattened).

Workflow saya biasanya adalah LR 2.0 (RAW) > eksport (JPG) > Photoshop (bikin watermark aja, save as copy) > back to LR 2.0 (JPG distack dengan photo asal)

Dalam Lightroom ada fasilitas "stacking" atau naruh photo dengan nama sama dalam thumbnail yang berurutan (bisa dikompres view, misalnya punya 10 identical photo tapi hanya kliatan 1).

Posting ini menjawab pertanyaan Hiung.  Nah kalau membuat watermark di Photoshop CS bisa kan?

Ternyata banyak sekali kabar-kabur ngga penting di Silicon Valley yang berkaitan dengan personal, aktiftas dan peristiwa. Sudah jadi kayak gossip dah. Dari si anu dengan si ini, indikasi akan menjual Wikipedia (masih rumor nih) dan kisah wawancara Mark Z dari Facebook yang menghebohkan itu.

Jadilah kemudian saya kompilasi disini. Daripada menuh2in yang lain mending saya taruh di tempat yang khusus aja. Blog ini didedikasikan dalam bahasa Indonesia tentang cerita (tidak penting) yang terjadi di dunia tehnologi. Memberikan peta  siapa dan apa di balik kekuatan besar industri tehnologi. Cuma sebagai jembatan cerita saja, soalnya mana ada detikhot disini? He he he...

Mampir di http://ceritaambar.wordpress.com

Today at 19:20 PST I was comitted suicide of my Facebook account. I did intentiously killed myself in these social networking for many reasons. One of them is I can not cope with spammers sending emails that I don't want to. It was fun first, and you'll drag into hours and hours spending more time ( I should say Multiply as well but since I made this site as mirror Cerita Ambar I can not delete it straight away).

Some may know that you can not delete account in Facebook permanently. Yes, there is no facility to delete the account, Facebook only allow you to 'deactivate' which did not erase anything from their server. People still can see your page and read your chit-chat.

The more I involved with Facebook the more demand I have to dedicate myself on it. If you think that everybody have to have Facebook just like a fashion, ok forget me. I am not. Remember Friendster, Friends Reunited ?

In UK itself Facebook declined of 5% in the last year which shows sign of user's fatique. I am probably not using as many people do, that's was because my friend refered me to get the account so we will 'connected'. Apparently I'm bit piss with spammers (or called himself internet marketing) who bombarded me with 'fun walls' or 'pokes'. Yes I can ignore those but if you've got one or two a day it would be OK, but how about tons in same time?

Others is Facebook attitude not 'fun' for me anymore. It's getting flooding with applications which glued you to the computer. If you decide to 'deactivate' account, Facebook came up with check boxes try to find out why you want to get out. And if you fill one of the box, there another box assured you that you've not have to deactivate the account. Such hard life isn't?

And to kill myself permanently, I followed the instructions from Wiki How. Yes, I am deliberately say goodbye to friends in Facebook. If you want to know me just pop in email, messages or have a lunch together. Send me real "pokes" this time

Steve always known for his tight-lip of personal life. Apple Inc also runs with these culture that ask people  to put secrecy on high priority. Most of facts here gathered by third parties or people who used to work for him but decline to be named. But yes these are facts that might shocking for some.

1. He is a devotee budhist and a strict vegetarian

2. Kobun Chino, the Zen Buddhist monk who was his spiritual guru and would later preside at his wedding

3. His adopted parents Clara and Paul Jobs, were working class in California who raised and sent him to Stanford Uni

4. Joanne Simpson, his biological mother, whom he'd tracked down as an adult with the help of a private detective

5. His first serious girlfriend, Chrisann Brennan, the mother of Lisa, his daughter.

6. His biological father is Abdulfattah "John" Jandali,  a Syrian man who Jobs has never discussed publicly. Jobs had been born to Jandali and Simpson, a pair of 23-year-old unwed University of Wisconsin graduate students, in 1955.

7. Just months after giving their baby, Steve to up for adoption, Jandali and Simpson  married, then had another child, whom they kept: Mona Simpson, who grew up to become a critically acclaimed novelist and never knew her famous brother existed until she was an adult.

8. Jandali later abandoned his wife and 4-year-old daughter, moving from job to job as a political science professor before leaving academe.

9. Steve sister, a novelist Mona Simpson wrote "The Lost Father," is based on her quest to find him.

10. Jobs had his own illegitimate child, also at the age of 23, name Lisa. Even he was millioners at time he denied responsibilies. At one point Jobs even swore in a signed court document that he couldn't be Lisa's father because he was "sterile and infertile, and as a result thereof, did not have the physical capacity to procreate a child."

11. He later acknowledged paternity of Lisa, married Laurene Powell, a Stanford MBA, and fathered three more children. Lisa Brennan-Jobs, now 29, graduated from Harvard and is a writer.

12. In October 2003 Steve been diagnosed for pancreatic cancer. During 9 months Apple directors did not published to public amid his 'celebrity status'. Steve refused to operate and chose the altrenative methods and strict diet.

13. In the end, Jobs had the surgery, on Saturday, July 31, 2004, at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto, near his home.

14. He was worth $200 million by 25, made the cover of Time magazine at 26, and was thrown out of the company at age 30, in 1985.

15. He has listed himself as "co-inventor" on 103 separate Apple patents, everything from the user interface for the iPod to the support system for the glass staircase used in Apple's dazzling retail stores.

For how he operates Apple in such crude and tyrant you might look at this article.
Picture taken from Treehugger

I’ve got new friend called Bernie. She’s black, tiny about few inches square with robotic sounds. She will telling you what you’ve should do. Her craggy American accent says “Keep – left -  on -  U-eS - one – zero – one -  then -  exit - at  - San -  Thomas Expressway.”  Few minutes later broke her silence order me to,  “continue – onto - next - one – point – one -  mile”

It took few minutes toddle her buttons. Tell her where I need to go, sometimes places that I don’t know exactly. I hate her really. This is the very first time I had her. As you see I don’t like people give me order, specially a machine. Mr C pressed me to stick with the old paper based map, but since America is lots bigger than UK or Singapore then yes I need something more sophisticated. I hate her but need her badly.

I am used to go online maps such as streetdirectory, theAA, multimap, yahoomap, or googlemap. They are quite reliable. You’ve only input the destination and whoa…they’ve created path to you or such step-by-step directions. But Bernie, she is just so different. She is the only buddy when I am driving albeit being my static navigator. I began familiar with her voice. Sometimes it reminded me to learn English, probably it will give  TOEFL test result better.

I wonder if the reason to have Bernie totally unfashionable. First, it looks cool to have SatNav as everybody having on their car. But I have got it free anyway. Reason two, because I am too lazy to open pages of map book. Indeed has some fancy contour etc but who cares? All you need just how far and how long it should be to do the journey.

Reason number three, I have got funny snare when study the route. What? A girl read the map? I started to believe that girl cannot read the map. They are hopeless. It's just like doing pararel parking. We discussed about why man have a very good space conscious than woman. Is that related with brain? How they are working in distances? Is it related with genetics, some funny protein produce better DNA? or because boys plays motor car since they were not stand on their own foott?


When Google producing Street View make you looks like walking on the street in California (not all Silicon Valley covered yet), it 's create furore about security and  privacy. Pentagon seemed not happy with 360degree view of it’s based in Texas, meanwhile people in Europe thought it can be violate personal privacy, but in USA American might found this amusing. You might check 10 bizarre sights on Street View. Some of them need great imaginations.

Bernie or Street View is just one of our obsessions to looks things in details. We are living in the edge of Big Brother society. You actually create a robot. It's you.

I don’t have TV set at home; we’ve dumped it in the rubbish. Enjoying television on computer screen becomes an alternative. Internet TV here means that we’ve using online connection to download the program and then watching it (on demand TV). So don't misinterpret as watching conventional TV on computer screen. Unlike others Joost works on P2P which is different with other format. It’s bit like Digital TV but some of the program using video streaming. At the moment BBC iPlayer not available for Mac, while Apple TV is rather more friendly for iTunes user.


Joost


The unique system of Joost created millions of tester since introduced to public early 2007. I’ve got invitation and play along. The only things I spot from Joost is works based on P2P  it’s runs quite smooth. Joost been created by Skype and Kazaa founder Janus Friis. The only thing that annoy me some of the programs only available in US and Canada. Most of the channels were live music or interview/documentary of the artist. Joost software quite easy to download, but it will consume your screen and bandwidth.

Predict : love it! But not for my daily basis.

MIO TV


I had a change to try this out last year (May 2007?) for about two weeks while in Singapore. Mio TV designed for SingTel subcriber to allow user integrate with broadband to enjoy on demand programs. It looked posh –yeah yeah specially with shiny HD TV, but the interfaces was horrible. Really slow moving from one to another programs albeit buying it.
The price of programs use credits which then you paid for subscriber in the end of month. Say I bought 2000 points that would be enough for 10 programs Life Style. It integrated nicely under Window Media, only comes really clustered and painfully slow.

Most of interesting programs come free such as Top Gear from BBC (yups I finished the whole season without paying it). But program for 6-10minutes cost about 200 point. Why I call Mio is ridiculously expensive.

Predict : not going to use the service for new comer, but if you already Sing Tel subscriber you’ve might go for it


Apple TV


Ok I don’t have a fancy Apple TV box but instead I enjoy it through iTunes video podcast. What you do just choose the program from iTunes directory > Apple TV and download from there. Some of the programs actually  on High Definition (HD). I download from Washingtonpost.com about China through iTunes, watched it in amazement.  Indeed good quality, and all you do just control the preview using Front Row. I had a chance tried out YouTube and Flickr integrated with Apple TV in Taipei Apple Store. For quality of video, Youtube came on the bottom class as most of video submitted there in low-res make it unpleasant experience.

Now Apple TV has better performance for renting video/movie. You have to watch it in 24 hours otherwise you lose it.

Predict : not going to buy it as I am already have apple computer

BBC iPlayer


Just been launched Christmas last year but iPlayer already got lot attentions in UK. BBC  is really catching up in digital era by moving most of it's program download through internet. It allows back to 7 days program combined from different channel of BBC. All FREE but only for UK viewer. But already BBC has deal with Apple to sell their program on iTunes. Popular programs such : Dr Who, Ashes to Ashes or Life in Cold Blood with David Attenborough could be enjoy outside UK.
The interface quite neat and tidy. The search is not easy unless you know the name of program and the schedule on air. Once you download you’ve got 7 days to watch it and then self-deleted. I love this facility specially when you struggle with disk capacity.

Compare to Channel 4  On Demand (which it’s news collaborated with CNN), BBC need something to make search better. In Channel 4 I enjoyed Grand Design by Kevin McCloud and let you watch for longer than 7days.

Predict : love it ! but to buy through iTunes? Hmmm…

Warning : terlalu banyak narsisnya.

Inilah oknum-oknum yang saya temui di Pesta Blogger. Ada yang intens diskusi ada yang cuma narsis photo2 doang. But anyway love to see you all guys!

1. Mas Rane

Sesama peserta dari Singapura ini ketemu pertama  ketika ngobrol dengan blogger lainnya. Hanya say hello karena beliau meneruskan liputan untuk Radio Singapura versi Indonesia (RSI). Saya sering baca blog-nya yang bercerita tentang remeh temeh di Singapura, juga langganan podcasting radio via iTunes. Suaranya empuk dan menyenangkan. Khas penyiar deh. Orangnya ternyata juga empuk dan renyah!


2. Kawan2 Blogfam
Saya anggota murtad blogfam (hi hi ...ndaptar tapi jarang aktip). Untunglah para pembesar Blogfam enggak jitak saya. Ketemu Linda, Yaya, mbak Sibarani. Saya sampaikan salut terhadap majalah online Blogfam BZ yang menurut saya adalah terobosan menarik. Isinya juga ngga kalah dengan media cetak.




3. Kawan Makassar (sori..Minang sesuai ralat Kiky)
Diwakili Kiky. Halah secara kita juga ketemuan di mimbar narsis ini (empe) tapi saya dulu sering baca komennya di blog Bunda Inong dan kawan karib saya di Singapura, Hany. Katanya saya enggak seperti yang dibayangkannya. Oh mungkin lebih mirip Nila Tanzil yah *ngarep*  Kiky dengan mudah saya kenalin karena photo2 terakhirnya betebaran. Seneng banget!


4. Blogger disamping kanan-kiri saya
Ah dua mas disamping saya dengan tekun mengikuti sesi pertama dengan laptopnya. Beliau ternyata bagia technical. Dan ini lucunya, salah satu langsung mengakses blog saya hanya untuk ngintip. Lah wong orangnya samping loh!
Dua blogger disamping kanan saya ternyata sangat serius blogger.

Yakni mbak Inna yang mengaku menulis blog tentang post abortion syndrome. Wow! saya yakin perbincangan tentang sesi Grup DIscussion Panel Woman Issues akan seru. Sayang saya ngga bisa ikutan, karena blog saya memang ngga bicara tentang perempuan (atau hal2 yang berkaitan dengan itu). Satunya adalah Grace Susetyo yang kelupaan ngasih blog. Please contact me if you read this!

5. Kawan2 Bahtera, Citizen Journalism
Retty langsung menuduh saya. Waduh saya ngerasa terhormat sekali. Kami ngobrol tentang citizen journalism, keterkaitan dengan mainstream media. Harry saya temui pas sesi diskusi Bridge Blog (bridge dengan menggunakan bahasa inggris untuk menjembatani audiens luar).

6. Habibie Centre officer
Mbak Kanti ketika diskusi di sesi 2. Menarik banget karena dalam panel kami diskusi cukup dalam soal bridge blog. Sayang saya enggak sempat kenalan personal, padahal pengen. Banyak yang ingin saya tanyakan terutama blog sebagai corong media riset.

7. Ndara kakung
Salah satu favorit bacaan saya. Soalnya tulisan beliau lucu dan penuh renungan. Terkadang nakal. Saya jawil sebagai bentuk hormat saya. Orangnya ramah loh, dan ngga setua yang dibayangkan. Salah besar kalau imej ndara kakung itu seperti dalam kolomnya Pak Umar Kayam di KR. Yang ini lebih glidhik ...

8. Blooger dari Global Voices dan Wikipedia
Salah satunya Preetam Rai dari Singapura. Ternyata dulu kita pernah ketemuan di sebuah cafe di acara Singapore Blogger Conference dua tahun silam. Sekarang ia mencari orang Indonesia yang bersedia menjadi penulis untuk Global Voices. Beberapa blogger Indonesia seperti A Fatih Syuhud dan Enda adalah salah duanya. Tapi karena mereka ini super sibuk, Preetam mencari muka2 baru. Ada yang tertarik?

9. Seseorang yang mewakili negara USA.
Beliau ngga mau disebut namanya, tapi kami sharing berbagai hal. Dari kepentingan Amerika dengan membaca blog Indonesia. Oho...ia ini bisa bahasa Indonesia loh! Ia mengaku pembaca blog tapi bukan penulis blog. Ia menunjukkan rasa ingin tahu yang besar terhadap perkembangan cerita di khasanah blog (hmmm...misterius juga ya). Dari kasus Lisa Tansil, Microsoft booing etc.

10. Ibu presiden Multiplay
Iyah walaupun saya pemakai MP tapi baru kali ini bisa ketemu beliau. Orangnya bedaaa. Ngga seperti yang saya bayangkan. Ketipu deh sama photo2 yang betebaran disini. Hm tapi manis loh!

11. Pak Ong dan Nila dari Maverick. Saya pembaca Pak Ong terutama ketika ribut soal Malingsia. Tulisan beliau soal ini sangat menarik. Blognya banyak menjembatani antara Malaysia-Indonesia dari sisi yang berbeda.

11. Seseorang yang mengaku dari Microsoft SE Asia.
Orangnya agak aneh. Mobile sekali dari satu negara ke negara lain. Kami ketawa ketika cerita soal 'being a citizen of the world"  Lucunya ia mengaku membawa mac computer di tasnya. Ngga kerasa saya dikelilingi mac user.

12. Siska si Kopi morning.

Kenapa gituh kita bisa ketemuan ya? aneh bi ajaib ngga ngira bisa gaprukan. Ngga janjian segala. Saya suka gaya cerita Siska yang jawani dan to the point, membuat saya senyum kecil. Sangat berkesan. Orangnya? haduh persis seperti di halaman blognya.


13. Seleb blog.
Saya hanya berhasil dengan Lisa Tanzil. Ngga sempat dengan Pak Wimar Witoelar walau pengen sekali. Juga dengan Enda, Budi Putra, Priyadi, Lita ataupun lainnya. He he he....saya memilih yang sama-sama bukan seleb aja deh

Full coverage will follow soon.










.

Pesta Blogger 2007 (Blogger Party) - Indonesia's first Nationwide Blogger Meeting will be held in Jakarta on 27 October 2007. I am fortuned to have invitation from the Committee. Only 100 bloggers will be invite personally as representative of Community Blogging or Agregate Bloggers. And another 100 will open for registering in first come first served based through web submissions.

I’d thought the ‘meeting’ will be just party or kopdar (kopi darat –or meeting in real live, not virtual), but then I have a look on their purposes. Oh yes…this would be different.

I will be in Indonesia sometimes next week until mid November for pulang kampung. Then when I knew that there are no representative from Singapore Blogger to join so I raised my hand. Indra Pramana –the admin of Planet Singapura aggregates Blogs from Indonesian living in Singapore said he would contact Enda –the chair Committee to get one seat.  In the other hand I was trying register online as well. When I received email confirmation two days ago, I felt delighted.


The themes would be "Indonesia's New Voices"  a bit like proclamation of emerging  alternatives media. I am probably one of few believe that conventional media and blogs can works together. I met Corry Doctorow –prominent BoingBoing  bloke two years ago in Singapore. We had nice discussion about how blogs became a partner rather than a rival for the current mainstream media.

Indonesia now is facing on the right direction of positive blogging. One of them is empower of ‘common’ people participated into masses of voice or  opinions. There are more tunnels to speak about politics, corruptions, local governments, even technology.  I would not say that there are good opinions around but again blogging is about process. We’ll see what will happen.

Thanks again for Enda and Indra.



Indonesia's Blogger agregates :
Cah Andong (Jogjanese)
Angkringan - kok ngilang?
Blogfam
Planet Terasi
Planet Singapura
Merdeka
etc

Asia Blogging Networks (ABN) if you interested about Asia's issue in whole

Advert of Nokia's campaign against iPhone. Since been launch the software updated last Thursday, Apple might have to face been sued by unsatisfied consumers.

* iPhone is being sell exclusively to T&T
* iPhone did not give price rebat that usually given by mobile maker to provider, then
* iPhone cut the price nearly $200 on beginning of Sep
* iPhone been hacked by teenager that it can be used by other provider.


Picture taken in NYC from here

Sama Yahoo. Mereka mempekenalkan Mash social networking untuk menggantikan Yahoo360. Dan juga pelampiasan kegagalan membeli Myspace.

Hayoh sapa mau?

Ada beberapa alasan karena ini dan ini juga ini.

Facebook suicide: the end of a virtual life

Back in Weymouth I’ve been worked out to updating Adobe Lightroom (LR) . Since I am traveling lots I've carry Macbook and an external HD to backup my photos. On March 2007 I managed to buy US version of Lightroom 1.0 which is cost less than Apple Aperture.  At home in Weymouth the big G5 with 2 others external HD still using Lightroom Beta 4 version. Oh yes I need to do something.

Adobe  launched the updated Lightroom 1.1 on 25th June 2007. But I was waiting until the two computer machines together so I can integrated both systems. Things that I noticed changes from version 1.0 are mostly photos managements  :

Catalogue
Lightroom using Library (lrlb) and Database (lrdb) to store the preview and negative photos. But now they decided to use Catalogue (lrcat) to enable you keep separated photos databases. For example : Holiday Photos or Business Photos. I can create a new catalogue and ask other computer to read it. I am also have control of the catalogue to store with negative photos or just preview. Even I can create catalog from folder or selected photos. Sweet....

Metadata Sync
I found the metadata set is amazing. Now I can preset metadata when uploading photos from camera. The addition information I’ve added mostly about copyright, location, and links. The Metadata browser is really powerful as it divided into what type of camera, lens, file type, location, creator etc. It help me when as now we have several camera and lens.

Keyword/Tagging
I haven’t play lot with keywords set but managed to used tagging add in the photos. It makes me easy to find particular photos based from information. Really powerful indeed.

XMP Sidecar
The XMP sidecar is an addition information that you've put at RAW file embedded as part of the catalog that created from LR. The information contains the editing you've done as metadata.

More about other updated tools at O'Reilly Digital Media.

I found frustrating updating from Beta4 to LR 1.1. It made such a jump to do it. Adobe also little bit cheeky by NOT put the English version of 1.0 to bridge the distance version. We then updated Beta4 to French version LR 1.0 then moved over to the LR 1.1. The problem I faced is Library and Databases. These steps may explain :

1. Backup all photos (I ask G5 to do it once in a week) > as database and library with negative
2. Update LR Beta4 to LR 1.0 French version
3. Again create backups Database
4. Update LR 1.0 to LR 1.1 English version
5. File > Open Catalog > point to your databases created with LR 1.0
6. All photos will back as the main database again..

Anyway, working on big screen also make me more productive than ever. Little 14inc Macbook has preview limitation when working on editing. It took me whole evening to actually updating the version, databases, tidy-up the folders and integrated two machines.

Another 2.5 days to wait iPhone. The review of David Pouge from NY Times :

...As it turns out, much of the hype and some of the criticisms are justified. The iPhone is revolutionary; it’s flawed. It’s substance; it’s style. It does things no phone has ever done before; it lacks features found even on the most basic phones.



These are compilation based from CNet TV today :

Five Worst Things about iPhone
1.The price. It's quite expensive for typically new product compare with iPod or other smart phone.
2. Battery . You cannot take the battery out like the normal smartphone. Instead you've got to buy new one for replacement if your guarantee year is over.
3. Two years contract. Yups it's quite common now to lock the consumer up 1 year.
4. Small capacity : only available 4GB and 8GB.
5. No 3G : it will takes ages to browse

Five Reasons to buy iPhone
1. It's soooo pretty.
2. No button, just your fingers touching the screen
3. Basically it's an iPod.
4. Wi fi ...hmmm you can surfing while waiting someone in coffe shop
5. Third party applications (Safari allow to browse more app)

Anyway, I tried open TV ads on the Apple site using Safari. It crashed several times. I thought Safari not ready enough embedded into this 'cute' phone or I am not ready to get one. Gosh...still not convinced me at all. See people start queuing in NY Apple Store here

Apa hubungannya? kagak ada....Hanya secara kebetulan ketika mencoba buka2 lagi Technorati blog search membuat beberapa websites yang berhubungan dengan tulisan saya nongol juga. Heibatnya eh...lha kok nongol di Priya Punya Syalera dan Koran Tempo.

Sebenarnya udah lama saya tahu, mungkin hampir sebulan lalu. Tapi karena lagi puyeng mudik barulah diurus. Untuk kasus GG agak parah karena menyangkut corporate website atau situs resmi perusahaan. Terlepas dari manajemen yang terpisah antara GG dengan agent pembuat/pengelola web itu menunjukkan adanya itikad yang ngg benar sejak awal. Pikir saya, halah hebat nian gw...sampe cat-per konyol gituh aja bisa "dimasukkin" ke website corporate. Yang saya takjub adalah bahwa disitu saya disebut kontributor (walaupun bisa dibantah sbg Kontributor website lain yang kebetulan di copy paste). Lha masalah link yang ngg salah-pun saya kira sebuah hal yang sangat mendasar bagi seorang web admin. Lha wong biasa nulis blog MP aja bisa kok apalagi yang admin web. Guampang iku..

Koran Tempo lebih bisa dipahami sebagai ketidaktahuan saja bahwa pernyataan di milis tidak bisa serta merta dikutip untuk sebuah liputan. Keanggotaan milis adalah bersifat tertutup untuk member-nya dan untuk membawa informasi ke publik haruslah meminta ijin nara sumber. Haduh...kok kayak kuliah jurnalistik wae yah...jelek2 gini juga dulu pernah dapet he he he.

So dunia internet memang kecil yah...Donya mung sak godhong kelor (dunia hanya selebar daun kelor).

December last year before leaving San Francisco Airport back to Heathrow I was facing a strict immigration rules. Being finger printed, taking photos and also gave reference number and stored it digitally.

Homeland Security launched US-VISIT (United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology) since September 2004 in aim to increase security of visitor traffic enter and out US. Basically they try to match your identity against data captured by US Embassy where you’ve applied visa that you are the same person enter the US. They reckoned the system also reduce the passport fraud or even identity theft.

So yes I was convinced that this technology will good enough to do itself. When in the kiosk just before boarding to the Virgin plane, I was facing a doubt. I did not see immigration officer around but only two big machines looked like a cash machine for me.

I read the command on the screen. OK put my passport in. Hang on… the machine simply could not scan. I started feeling uncomfortable because the guy next to me did it instantly. I started all over again, still came up with the same conditions. I gave up.

A middle age lady turned up and helped me to deal with the machine. She explained how to do if my passport couldn’t be scanned. She manually put the passport number and also personal ID. Ah she actually on duty for helping desperate person like me.

Then she asked me to check if the information stored correctly. I pushed the button said OK. Seconds later just like the cash machine it turned out the printed statement with had funny digital data on it. My biometrics data stored on this piece a paper.

I impressed but not really.