Monday, March 28, 2011

From @aritokyo About Japan's Recovery

From @aritokyo via Gtalk:
There are 25,000 dead and missing, 300,000 homeless survivors of the disaster and everybody outside Japan is fussing about the radiation which has so far killed zero people (and potentially harmful to about, 200). At least we in Japan know which is the priority.

So there you go, ladies and gentleman.

 

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Lemme Outta Here

Sent from my BlackBerry®

New Touch-Friendly UI For Wordpress Blogs

I just noticed this last night; don't know when they started implementing it, but Wordpress blogs (not the self-hosted ones, though) have an automatic touch-friendly layout and UI if you open the blog on a tablet (I used an iPad for this). I think it's pretty cool, although I know some people would hate how this layout would override their original Wordpress theme.

Here are some screenshots:


Opening screen


Posts Overview


Post View


Sharing Options

After some digging, this feature was launched by Wordpress on March 23rd, 2011 - see the announcement here: http://en.blog.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/ipad-onswipe-theme/

Friday, March 25, 2011

2 Points On Why I Think #EarthHour Is Important

So, tomorrow, during 8.30-9.30 PM, the participating world will turn off their lights (and other electrical appliances, perhaps) for Earth Hour. If I'm home at that time, I will turn off the lights and the air conditioner (if the heat isn't devastating, I'll admit) and watch Earth Hour coverage on the news (if any).

I'm not privy to any numbers of power consumption anywhere in the world, but logic says that 1 hour out of 365 days of full power consumption isn't much. It's a statistic. We'd be impressed by the numbers announced by the organizers of how much power was saved during Earth Hour in whatever city, but if we compare it to the total yearly power consumption of said city... it most possibly will be a tiny fraction of it. But still, power conservation is a good thing rather than have no power conservation at all.

But here's why it's important.

Point 1: The only people who will participate (or enforce participation from their surroundings) will be the ones who realize it is important. That power conservation is important, and that somehow, some way, we have to learn to live using energy more efficiently. I dare say we don't turn off everything at the master switch on Earth Hour, but we keep the necessities powered. That's being efficient. Power conservation is not just about using less energy, but it's about using energy efficiently enough so that you don't require too much energy to begin with. Therefore, the more people who participate, the more people who are fully aware of the importance of power conservation.

Point 2: the power of collective sacrifice. Even if we're only switching off the lights for an hour, it's a sacrifice. We're probably sacrificing 1 kilowatt-hour. But if a city of 10 million people switch off lights for 1 hour, we're sacrificing 10 million kilowatt-hours. Sacrificing, for a good cause, at the same time, all together. Imagine what we can do if we sacrifice 1 cent a day collectively to donate to those in need, or sacrifice 1 day out of a week to use public transport instead of a private vehicle to go to work/school. Or perhaps, riding a bike 1 day a week to work/school. Imagine the impact.  And when we know what's worth sacrificing for a better world, it will be easier for us to do it together.

If enough people believe that they can make the world better, the world will become better. As long as we act on it - but leave the big gestures to the politicians, and do a small thing first - turn off your lights on Earth Hour tomorrow.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Tabrakan

Selama sekitar 5 bulan tinggal di HCMC, gue sudah mengalami 3 kali kejadian tabrakan kendaraan bermotor, padahal bahkan gue di sini hanya mengendarai taksi atau ojek. Bandingkan dengan 7 tahun gue tinggal di Jakarta, alhamdulillah hanya pernah mengalami kejadian tabrakan 2 kali, itu pun hanya berakibat rusak sedikit pada mobil.

Gue mau cerita kejadian-kejadian tabrakannya.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Good Things Are Never Meant To Come All At Once...

... Like chili chocolate flavored ice cream. There must be some profound philosophy to that, but it's Friday night and I used up my brain today already.

Sent from my BlackBerry®

Canned Wine

Sent from my BlackBerry®

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Terlalu Agresif Tanpa Perhitungan?

Kemarin malam, gue dan Saskia makan malem di sebuah restoran bernama Kep, di jalan Mac Thi Buoi, Distrik 1. Makanannya lumayan, harga agak mahal, dan menurut saya lebih enak restoran sebelahnya yang bernama An Bistro.
Anyway. Saat menunggu makanan, waiternya berusaha mengajak ngobrol dengan bahasa Inggris terpatah-patah dan logat Vietnam kental, menanyakan hal-hal standar yang sering ditanyakan ke orang asing. Biasanya ditanya asal dari negara mana (yang selalu gue jawab "Indonesia!" dengan lantang), di Vietnam berlibur atau bekerja (bekerja, tentunya), dan kadang-kadang bekerja di mana.
Saya jawab BHD, nama kantor gue. Mungkin karena dia kurang mengerti logat orang Indonesia, dia sampai minta dituliskan di kertas - akhirnya gue kasih kartu nama, sambil gue dan Saskia menjelaskan sedikit tentang apa yang dikerjakan BHD.
Nah, setelah itu mulai aneh: mungkin karena melihat jabatan di kartu nama, dia langsung bilang, "can I apply to you? Work with you?"

Gue kaget dong. Nih orang lagi ngelayanin gue di tempat kerjanya, kok malah minta kerjaan? Dia menawarkan diri jadi supir, sampai kasih liat SIMnya segala. Pas gue bilang gue ke mana-mana milih pake xe om (ojek), dia tanya, ya udah, mungkin perlu sekretaris? Gue geleng-geleng kepala aja, sambil masih bingung.

Di satu sisi orang ini bagus, dibandingkan dengan beberapa orang kantor yang bisa tiba-tiba minta berhenti kerja tanpa jelas rencana ke depan apa - dia agresif mencari penghidupan lebih baik. Tapi kok tetep, caranya agak salah ya. Gimana caranya gue mau mempertimbangkan sekalipun mempekerjakan orang, kalau ditodong CV pas makan?

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

[GEEK POST] My Cloud Adventures, and the Holy Grail of In-The-Cloud and Offline Working

I've been yapping about this on and off on Twitter for a few days, so let's get through the basics so we're all on the same page: I have been experimenting with "working in the cloud", so to speak, to figure out what all the fuss is about. So right now, this is my setup:

  • I carry an iPad (wifi only model) anywhere. This is great because it takes at least 3kg off my daily workpack (I used to carry a laptop everywhere) and since you can find wifi virtually anywhere in HCMC, it's not a hassle to go online. For the times there is no wifi and I need to go online, I have Joikuspot Pro running on my Nokia X6.

  • I have an old MacBook at home, which hardly ever leaves the house now.

  • I have a basic Core2Duo desktop tower at the office running Jolicloud (dual boots with Windows, but guess which OS I use more), which more or less is Chrome running on top of Ubuntu Linux.


Monday, March 14, 2011

Vietnamese Movie Festival Days

So BHD Star Cinema is holding a small film festival to commemorate the best and the box-office breaking Vietnamese movies of recent years, most notably Co Dau Dai Chien (which will still screen during the festival but not have the same ticket price). It's a good opportunity to catch up on your Vietnamese movies if you're in town.

Press release and schedule after the break.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

Ngayal - Keluar Dari Konsumerisme

Gue pengen.

Gue pengen bisa bikin daerah rumah gue (di Cinere) bisa swasembada listrik, pangan dan air. Daerahnya cukup luas untuk bercocok tanam untuk rumah-rumah satu kompleks, dan pembangkit listrik bertenaga surya akan lebih efisien jika infrastrukturnya disebar ke satu kompleks perumahan kecil (ketimbang hanya dibuat untuk setiap rumah).

Ada sebuah kendaraan bersama, berbentuk bis atau minibus, yang akan mengantarkan para pegawai ke kantor, siswa ke sekolah; paling tidak diantar sampai simpul-simpul kendaraan umum yang cukup praktis (seperti Transjakarta atau stasiun kereta api). Keperluan belanja barang sehari-hari dikumpulkan dari setiap rumah tiap minggu dan dikelola di tingkat kompleks perumahan, sehingga hanya perlu 1-2 mobil berangkat untuk belanja keperluan untuk satu kompleks, tiap minggu. Atau, semua keperluan disediakan oleh koperasi kompleks, yang akan memperbarui stok tiap minggu.

Koneksi internet cepat tersedia untuk yang membutuhkan, untuk memfasilitasi penduduk yang bekerja dari rumah. Untuk hiburan, ada hall khusus yang bisa digunakan untuk acara kecil atau layar tancep.

Apakah mungkin ini terjadi ya? Ini tidak mungkin hanya bermodalkan gerakan satu orang; penduduk satu kompleks harus sadar betapa pentingnya mengefisiensikan penggunaan energi (listrik, bensin untuk kendaraan dll) dan mengupayakan swasembada sumber daya yang mampu dikelola sendiri (misalnya, sumber makanan).

Ini merupakan pergantian gaya hidup yang cukup drastis untuk banyak orang dan membutuhkan pengorbanan... pertanyaannya adalah, apakah keinginan kita untuk berkorban seperti ini cukup?

Gue aja masih ngayal doang, belom tentu mau melakukan. Terjebak dengan gaya hidup dan pola konsumerisme. Tapi gue bertanya juga ke diri sendiri, nanti kalau kita masih berpola hidup konsumtif, tapi tidak ada yang bisa dibeli (karena semua sumber daya habis), lantas apa yang akan dilakukan?