Blog,Upgraded!

Posted on May 25, 2007
Filed Under Wordpress, Daily Notes, Software | Leave a Comment

Finally, after a week of testing I’m quite satisfied with the fact that I’ve upgraded the Wordpress to version 2.2 for this blog. The upgrade went smoothly. I had no problem whatsoever. I’ve installed some plugins to make your visit here more comfortable. And of course, the Adsense, well I had to do it eventually. Somebody has to make a living right? hehe. But don’t worry; it won’t affect the content of my post. I put it there just to fill in the white spaces.

Just some minor glitch with the Popular Post plugin’s list in the sidebar. It seems that it display the same post repeatedly. Somebody had an idea how to fix this?

Moreover, I’m planning to change the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugins to Simple Tagging. Because the UTW plugins had an error where it delete the tags that I have made in some of the posts.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. The theme! Yes, I have changed it a little bit. Now the menus are in the sidebar, you don’t have to go to the bottom of the page just to look at the menus. I don’t do an extreme makeover, so the theme name still called “Your Silent Face”

So, enjoy this blog!

On Remote Working

Posted on May 24, 2007
Filed Under Internet, Daily Notes, Software | Leave a Comment

Last night, we had some kind of a glitch. The server somehow down again. And the fact that I received this news at 1.00 AM in the morning while waiting for the Champions League Final was a bit annoying.

Imagine you had an extreme headache caused by less sleep and you notice that the one thing you had to maintain all day was acting wild. Yeah, I’m a standby one-man-army web server administrator. No matter where, no matter when, I have to be ready if something happens to that thing.

So what I had to require is remote admin tools. This is the problem. Here in Indonesia, internetworking hasn’t reach us all. The meaning of the word “reach” here means two thing, monetary and coverage. Internet is still expensive and was not covered many areas yet. I’m fortunate to had internet access in my house. So last night I just plugged my Powerbook to the phone line, use that slow dial-up connection, open up SSH and do some remote task right from there. (Don’t ask about the Mac and SSH combo, please…it’s a very long story)

Okay the problem solved. But what If I were in the middle of nowhere and something happen to the server that I had to quickly resolve? Well, this can be a problem. I’m a very determinant curious geek. So when there’s something wrong with what I developed, then I would use my entire mind to resolve it.

For example, there’s this time where I was enjoying myself in the weekend, then my boss told me there was a problem with the server. Right that instance I stop my pleasuring moments and find a computer that can connect to the internet. I have to go to an internet cafe, use the computer and do a remote administration from there. That is not very comfortable.

I dream of a Jakarta that has covered with Wireless access with cheap price. So people like me whom needs instant Internet access can fulfill my needs to do my job. Then my long time fear of helplessly disconnected while there’s trouble in the cyberspace could be erased. (I’m feeling kinda “Neo” right now, hehehe!)

Ubuntu Problems in Virtual PC 2007

Posted on May 15, 2007
Filed Under Internet, Linux, Daily Notes, Software | 5 Comments

Yesterday, Dodi need help from me about a problem. He wants to install Ubuntu inside his Vista using Virtual PC. This is for an article that he wants to write about Virtual PC. Okay, we know that in order to install Ubuntu we must first use the Live CD then choose the installation process. The problem occurred whenever we went to graphic modes. The display would go fuzzy, garbled and unusable.

Therefore, he went googling for an answer and found out a small workaround to solve this issue:

Switch to a console via ctrl-alt-f1
Login with user/pass
Run “sudo sed -i “/DefaultDepth/ s/24/16/” /etc/X11/xorg.conf” and then reboot.

(via zdNet Blog)

Then I help him with this, (Because he didn’t want to touch console-based stuff). The problem solved, so I leave him, because I have to go somewhere else. That evening I came back again to found out that he cancelled the experiment. “What’s the problem?,” I asked. It seems that Ubuntu has problem with mouse recognition using VirtualPC. And with some googling, he found out that as of today this problem had not been resolved yet. (though there is a workaroud where you can use the keyboard as a mouse)

This is the fundamental problem with Linux in general. I know that Linux is a best solution for me. But not for everybody, at least not for now. Though it is more user-friendly nowadays, but when it comes to bug, you need a little bit effort to find a workaround yet a solution. The kind of effort that do not reside in every average users. This eternal problem would always creep in Linux. No matter how friendly it becomes.

I don’t know, is it just me and my pessimistic aspect of Linux or is this the reality of Linux after all this year?

So why am I that bummed out? it’s because I’m planning to use Virtual PC as a testbed for Ubuntu and other distros that I got. I want an alternative for VMware.

Will CakePHP Bring Back My Soul?

Posted on May 10, 2007
Filed Under Internet, Daily Notes, Software | Leave a Comment

I remember once wrote a network music crawler using PHP. Made it online and used by some goverment office to search music from their internal networks. They seem to like it, just for an entertainment purpose (or so they say). I missed my coding days. Yes, I’m debugging and hacking someone else’s codes daily (joomla, wordpress, vBulletin, other sort of stuff), but the glorious feeling of being a creator of something useful is far more exciting.

Yesterday, I decided to revisit CakePHP. The PHP’s RoR clone framework. I was once try it in it’s beta stages, I was dissapointed. Now, in it’s Stable-1.1.14.4797 version, it seems had matured enough to develop some large scale application. It use a standard MVC architecture, build-in validation, scaffolding, ACL’s, and some other neat stuff.

Finally, I get my hand dirty again, dealing with bugs again (my own stupid bugs that is). Turn my head upside down to deploy a feature, and other time-wasting-activities, just to fulfill that long-time feeling, being a coder.

Let’s see now, hmm what should I develop? how about a blog application of my own? Now that’s sounds interesting! Okay then, I’ll continue to update about this project in the upcoming posts.

Peluncuran Windows Vista di Indonesia Tertunda

Posted on February 13, 2007
Filed Under in Indonesia, Daily Notes, Software | 2 Comments

Tadinya kantor saya berencana ikut berpartisipasi dalam peluncuran perdana Windows Vista di Indonesia. Tetapi, tampaknya Microsoft memutuskan untuk menunda peluncuran tersebut. Memang, alasan yang dikemukan mereka sangatlah masuk akal, Jakarta baru saja tertimpa musibah. Namun apa dampak yang bisa terjadi akibat penundaan ini? karena terus terang penundaan hingga hampir dua bulan ini bisa dibilang cukup lama.

Terlepas dari penundaan tersebut, peluncuran Windows Vista di Indonesia (yang tadinya akan dilaksanakan hari Kamis, 15 Februari 2007 ini) termasuk telat. Di tempat asalnya, Vista telah diluncurkan sejak bulan Januari kemarin. Jadi Vista telat masuk sini? enggak juga, Vista sudah bisa dimiliki sejak Desember kemarin kok. hehehe.

Sekali lagi saya menulis entri tentang Vista (kok gak bosen-bosen ya?) :)

Vista and The Blogosphere

Posted on February 2, 2007
Filed Under in Indonesia, Software | Leave a Comment

Jalan menuju rumah saya macet total. Saya terdampar di kantor ini. Untuk menghindari kebosanan yang menumpuk akibat semua aktivitas yang sudah dijalankan, lebih baik saya nge-blog saja. (Pat, ini udah jam 10…tidur pat…at least makan gitu loh… jangan baca reader mulu Pat…)

Pagi tadi saya agak tersenyum simpul melihat artikel di The Telegraph yang menjelaskan mengenai rendahnya antusiasme blogger mengenai rilis Windows Vista. Mereka mengambil kesimpulan tersebut setelah melihat kecenderungan yang terjadi di beberapa web blogger yang masuk ke dalam “A-List”. Menurut mereka, dibandingkan dengan artikel-artikel mengenai Macintosh ataupun Linux, porsi mengenai Vista tergolong sedikit.

Apakah ini bisa menjadi suatu barometer bahwa penggunaan Windows tidak terlalu populer di kalangan blogger? Terlalu dini untuk menyimpulkan hal tersebut. Namun, melihat dari pandangan saya, setelah sedikit banyak blogwalking, momentum rilisan Windows Vista agak sedikit kurang mendapat spotlight. Bila dibandingkan dengan pada saat Ubuntu merilis versi 6.10 beberapa bulan yang lalu, atau pada saat Macintosh melakukan p review untuk seri MacOSX nya kemarin itu, launching Windows Vista tidak terlalu muncul ke permukaan (dalam hal ini permukaan blog).

Lalu, mengapa hal ini bisa terjadi? Apakah divisi marketing Windows tidak melihat peluang dalam dunia blogosphere? Apakah dari kampanye bernilai USD 500 Juta itu tidak mencakup strategi untuk membangun hype di komunitas online? Pasti ada, tapi mengapa kurang efektif?

Saya tahu, “Macintosh”, “iPod”, “Ubuntu”, dan yang terbaru, “iPhone” merupakan jargon-jargon yang deras berkeliaran di dunia blogosphere. Lalu kenapa jargon “Vista” belum menjadi trend terbaru? Saya yakin ini bukan karena Vista produk yang gagal. Mungkin Vista perlu waktu agar bisa masuk ke dalam dunia blogosphere secara lebih dalam. Hanya waktu yang bisa menjawab.

Piracy My As*!!

Posted on September 25, 2006
Filed Under Linux, Software | 2 Comments

A week ago, I had an interesting chat with one of my good old friend. He had established an internet café a couple months ago and just like what Chris would do, he bought Windows XP licenses for his computers.

That day he wanted to talk to me about Vista, considering that my magazine bundles up Vista Beta 2 on our July issues. He asked sort of stuffs about what he can do with Vista. So I told him what I knew about it. The conversation went well until he mentions about Vista’s activation method.

He told me that from what he knew and experience, the logic behind Vista Activation Method was so simple. It’s just a bunch of If – Then – Else (I forgot the details, no, no..I don’t care about the details actually). So you can bypass it with ease. He asked me if that’s the way it can be done, then what’s the difference between the genuine activation method and the illegal one. What advantage would he received by buying a (soon) Vista license.

I told him about the Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) feature by Windows were he could use certain features when he validates his copy of Vista. Then comes his big statement: “WGA my as*!!”. He thinks that the WGA is just penetrable like the other Windows protection technologies. He still can bypass that in a matter of seconds. He even told me that, I only had to copy one file to the windows system to bypass the activation method. Really? Okay, That thing aside, I’m questioning the true purpose of his intentions on using Vista.

New Ubuntu System

Posted on August 21, 2006
Filed Under Linux, Hardware, Daily Notes, Software | 1 Comment

A couple of week ago, I want to maximize my old system. My old Leprechaun wasn’t a wrecked, the only thing that’s not working in there was the hard drive. I was planning to change the hard drive with a new one and use it to test Ubuntu.

But I tend to change my mind rapidly. Last week after days of researching the perfect specification for my needs, I decided to build a new PC, rather than polishing the old one. With long discussions with my best friend Chris, I bought this new system. : AMD64 3200+ with 1 GB of DDR RAM, integrated graphic card and 80GB hard drive.

This specification is perfect for my purpose. After working at CHIP a year ago, I barely use my desktop PC at home. I gave my brother the one PC (I called it the amusement PC :) that I had and stuck with my old Leprechaun, but actually, I barely touched it. I’ve been busy using my dad’s laptop for my needs, cause face it, laptop’s are more flexible.

However, after some time, I missed using a desktop. I used Linux in a daily basis on my job, but as a server system. I want to use Linux for fun just like old times. After testing Ubuntu, I believe that Linux can be now be fully used as a desktop system just like Windows and Mac.

So I’m guessing that I do not need a state-of-the-art hardware, I even use an integrated graphic card. My emphasis is on memory; 1GB of memory seems more than adequate for Linux, especially on Ubuntu. 80GB of hard drive? Well I can live with a less capacity, but that’s the minimum specification out there in the market.

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