Posted by indra on July 9th, 2010 — Posted in Kejadian Terbaru, Obrolan Santai
Para alumni Bemonet akan mengadakan acara reuni pada hari ini, Jum’at 9 Juli 2010, jam 18:00 di Urban Kitchen, Pacific Place, Jakarta. Acara reuni ini diprakarsai oleh salah satu alumni Bemonet yang juga sekarang terkenal sebagai pakar telematika paska video heboh para artis, Abimanyu Wahjoewidajat, dan dedengkot Bemonet yang juga mantan sysop Barong BBS yang merupakan pusat node Bemonet, T.A. Coen.
Selain Abi dan Coen, beberapa Bemonetters lain yang sudah konfirmasi akan hadir diantaranya adalah Harry Sufehmi, pasangan Kuncoro Wastuwibowo dan Enggar Dwipeni, Kukuh TW (kurang tahu apakah Gunawan “Wawang” TW mau ikutan juga?), Boyke Bader, Hilarion “RiO” Suharjo, Eko Prasetyo dan Indra K. Hartono. Sementara yang mungkin (“may be”) hadir diantaranya adalah Heryudi Ganesha, Derry Santoso, Jerry Djajasaputra, Catur “Joko” Sudiro dan Marcelus “Celloz” Ardiwinata. Johar Alam juga katanya “may be” hadir karena waktunya bentrok ama acara ulang tahun Detik jam 19:00.
Wah, kayaknya bakal seru banget nih reunian. Sayang saya nggak bisa datang, karena sedang tidak berada di Jakarta hari ini. Beberapa Bemonetters yang memastikan tidak dapat hadir diantaranya adalah Priyadi Iman Nurcahyo yang katanya lagi di luar kota, Eko Juniarto yang katanya lagi di luar pulau (Lombok, tepatnya), saya yang lagi di luar negeri (Singapura, tepatnya) dan Gerry Santoso (kembarannya Derry) yang lagi di luar benua (Australia, tepatnya).
Semoga sukses acara reuni-nya, guys! Good luck and have fun. I wish I can be there as well. Ditunggu foto-fotonya. 
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by indra on June 29th, 2010 — Posted in Informasi, Komunitas Singapura
Selama saya tinggal di Singapura, saya jarang naik Garuda Indonesia untuk pulang ke Jakarta. Alasan utama adalah harga. Harga tiket Garuda Indonesia cukup mahal dibandingkan maskapai penerbangan lainnya yang lebih “budget”. Kalau untuk pangsa pasar Singapura, Garuda Indonesia adalah airline kedua termahal setelah Singapore Airlines untuk penerbangan Singapura – Jakarta.
Itu sebabnya, saya dan keluarga lebih memilih alternatif penerbangan lain seperti AirAsia, Lion Air dan Jetstar (Valuair) karena harganya bisa jauh lebih murah, walaupun memang tetap tergantung kapan kita membeli tiket dan apakah waktunya peak atau tidak. Apalagi sejak jalur penerbangan Singapura-Jakarta dibuka (open skies), beberapa maskapai penerbangan lain yang lebih semi-budget (walaupun ngakunya full-service airline) seperti Sriwijaya Air dan Batavia Air pun berlomba untuk melayani jalur ini.
Namun, sekarang kelihatannya Garuda Indonesia sudah mulai berbenah. Menghadapi kompetisi yang kian ketat dari maskapai penerbangan budget dan semi-budget tersebut, Garuda Indonesia di Singapura memberikan promosi harga tiket murah untuk warga negara Indonesia yang tinggal di Singapura. Promosi ini tidak berlaku untuk warga negara asing. Informasi lebih lanjut mengenai promosi Garuda Indonesia tersebut bisa dilihat disini.
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by IndraPr on June 26th, 2010 — Posted in problems, technical, microblogging
If I’m accessing Koprol via its mobile interface and go to Home, when I click the “Older” hyperlink to see the earlier timeline for the first time (to go to page 2 of the timeline), it’s working properly. But when I click the “older” hyperlink for the second time (to go to page 3 of the timeline), I see very old updates (around 7 days ago) instead of the earlier timeline.
The problem only happens if I use my mobile phone to access the mobile interface. If I use my laptop, I don’t encounter the same problem.
Not too sure why. Is it my mobile phone’s browser issue? I’m using Opera Mobile on my HTC HD2.
Update on 27 June 2010, 10:30hrs SGT: I have performed further troubleshooting last night, upon getting some advice from Daniel Armanto, one of Koprol's bosses. It seems that the problem only happened if I'm using SingTel's 3.5G connection. When I switched to my wi-fi connection at home, I didn't encounter the problem, despite it's connected to the same ISP, SingNet in this case.
Thus, I'm convinced now that the problem is not on Koprol's server nor on my mobile phone's browser, but it's most probably my 3.5G Internet service provider issue. Looks like it's SingTel 3.5G's proxy issue?
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by indra on December 10th, 2009 — Posted in Kejadian Terbaru, Blogging, Informasi
Mohon maaf atas keterlambatan saya meneruskan informasi ini.
Beberapa hari yang lalu, saya menerima e-mail dari Yuniman Farid, redaksi Indonesia di Deutsche Welle yang menginformasikan bahwa The BOBs, kompetisi blog internasional, kembali diselenggarakan oleh broadcaster terbesar di Jerman itu. Untuk penjurian dalam bahasa Indonesia, The BOBs akan kembali diwakili oleh Budi Putra, rekan blogger dan pendiri Asia Blogging Network yang sekarang bekerja sebagai country editor Yahoo! Indonesia.
Berikut cuplikan informasi dari mas Yuniman:
Jadwal penyelenggaraan The BOBs kali ini:
- 07.12.2009 - 14.02.2010 Tahap pendaftaran dan pengusulan blog dalam kompetisi.
- 15.03.2010 - 14.04.2010 Online voting Blog nominasi
- 15.04.2010 Pengumuman pemenang pada acara re:publica di Berlin
- 22.06.2010 Penyerahan penghargaan bagi pemenang pilihan juri pada acara Global Media Forum di Bonn.
Artikel singkat mengenai pembukaan The BOBs bisa dibuka di: http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,4971261,00.html
Dan penjelasan lainnya mengenai kompetisi blog ini bisa dibuka di: http://www.thebobs.com/
Dari jadwal diatas, pendaftaran dan pengusulan blog untuk diikutkan dalam kompetisi sudah dibuka sejak tanggal 7 Desember 2009 yang lalu, dan masih akan dibuka hingga tanggal 14 Februari 2010. Jadi masih cukup banyak waktu untuk rekan-rekan blogger menata kembali blog-nya dan mengikutkan blog-nya dalam kompetisi tersebut.
Sekedar informasi, pemenang The BOBs kategori bahasa Indonesia tahun lalu adalah blog Media Ide, milik Pitra Satvika aka @anakcerdas.
Selamat mendaftarkan blog-nya di ajang kompetisi The BOBs!
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by IndraPr on November 6th, 2009 — Posted in travel, europe, france, louvre
This article is part of our Europe Trip series:
1. From Singapore to Paris via Dubai
2. Châtenay-Malabry, Eiffel Tower, Seine River Tour
On Tuesday morning, 2 June 2009, a Kide dropped us off at the nearest RER station around Châtenay-Malabry, Robinson (pronounced: ro-bang-song). Our first destination for the day is the centre of the Paris: the Île de la Cité island and its most famous attraction: Notre-Dame cathedral. Since we enter the Robinson station from the side entrance, we had to use the automated machine to buy the tickets for the RER train, using Euro coins since the machine doesn’t accept notes. Luckily, we had enough coins. Only couple of later then we found out that at the main entrance, there’s a ticket counter where we can buy tickets using notes. :P
RER trains charge by zones, so we had to check on which zones the starting and destination station are located, to ensure that we purchase the correct tickets according to the number of zones travelled. We can either buy single-trip (one-way) tickets, return tickets or a carnet of 10 tickets (with discounted price) which can be shared by different passengers. If you’re not sure, you can just go to the ticket counter and inform the staff your destination station, and the staff will advise you on the price.
The Robinson station is on a branch’s end of RER line B, so we took the train towards the city and we alighted at St. Michel – Notre Dame station, the RER station closest to the Île de la Cité island. It was the first time we used public transportation in Paris, and we enjoyed it very much. The RER trains are similar to Kuala Lumpur's KTM Komuter trains, slightly bigger than Singapore’s MRT trains and it’s quite convenient, provided it’s not too crowded.
From St. Michel – Notre Dame station, we crossed the bridge across Seine river to Île de la Cité and walked towards Notre Dame cathedral. We took our time taking pictures in front of the cathedral, near the statue of Charlemagne and at Point Zero, the “real” centre of Paris where distances to other locations in Paris (and perhaps France?) is measured. From there, we proceeded with our walking tour around the island, covering Pont d’Arcole and Hotel de Ville across the Seine river, Hotel Dieu, Pont Notre Dame overlooking the Tribunal de Commerce building, Place du Chatelet and the gloomy Conciergerie building, before reaching the Palais de Justice and Sainte Chapelle buildings.
After taking some rest in front of Palais de Justice building, we then left the island by crossing the Pont St Michel bridge, and walked along the Seine river towards Pont Neuf. After taking some pictures and having another rest in front of Institut de France building, we then crossed the Pont des Arts bridge and walked towards Louvre. We bought some ice creams at the end of the Pont des Arts bridge before entering the Louvre via its Sully wing. Since it was a Tuesday, the Louvre museum was closed for the day, so there’s not much people traffic there, allowing us to enjoy taking the photographs near the Louvre pyramid and the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel.
We then met mbak Enik near Louvre, and we proceeded to have lunch at McDonald's which is located along Rue de Rivoli, one of the most famous roads in Paris, not far from Louvre. After lunch, my wife, my mother and mbak Enik then visited a duty free shop around the area, while I took Irza and Inka for sightseeing around the area. We walked past Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel monument towards the Jardin du Carrousel garden behind it. After taking pictures in front of the Joan of Arc statue at Places des Pyramides, we then walked north towards Avenue de l'Opera.
Our next walking destination was the Palais Royal and the garden, Jardin du Palais Royal. Passing through the garden until the end, we exited Palais Royal complex through its back entrance and walked along Rue de Petit Champs, located around Paris' 1st arrondissement to go towards Avenue de l'Opera again. Our next destination was the famous Opera National de Paris Garnier building. By that time, we have walked several kilometers and myself and the kids were also very tired, so we decided to take the public bus back to Rue de Rivoli to meet my wife and my mother.
That was the first time we took public bus in Paris. :) Since we haven't purchased our carnet of t+ tickets yet (will share about the advantage of buying the carnet of t+ tickets later), we purchased the tickets on board of the bus from the bus driver, and pay in cash. The ticket purchased from the bus driver can only be used on the bus itself and doesn't allow transfer to other mode of transportation (e.g. the metro train).
More pictures can be found here and here.
(To be continued)
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by IndraPr on November 3rd, 2009 — Posted in opinion, gadget, happening, thoughts
Photo: My Sony Ericsson Xperia X1
After almost a year using my Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 mobile phone, I have come to a conclusion that its sliding keyboard is a design flaw. If you really a heavy user of the keyboard, I would not recommend the phone at all. On the other hand, people normally choose Xperia X1 because of the keyboard, otherwise they would opt for other cheaper phones such as HTC Diamond or Samsung Omnia. Therefore, it’s not worth spending your money for that expensive phone. For Xperia X1 wanna-be user, I would suggest you buy another phone instead.
Lousy Phone
I bought the phone on November last year, and after becoming a happy user of the phone for just several weeks, I have started to experience the problem on its sliding keyboard some time on late February or early March 2009, which was just several months after it was bought. I will not go into details on the problem, you can just click the above-mentioned hyperlinks for more info about the problem. In short, the problem was fixed after I sent the phone for repair some time on July 2009. Basically, they changed the keyboard with a new one to fix the problem, although since they confirmed that it was a hardware issue, I had concerns that the new keyboard would eventually have the same problem when the time comes.
And… guess what? My concerns came true. Since last month, again I started to experience similar problem with the keyboard. And yes, it *is* the new keyboard which is having the same problem. And I am not alone, many other Xperia X1 users experience the same problem after several weeks or months using the phone. With even new keyboard experiencing the same problem, I conclude that the problem is due to a design flaw which will cause the keyboard to have the problem after several weeks or month of usage, depends on how often the user uses the sliding keyboard.
Lousy Service
I brought the phone to the Sony Ericsson Service Centre at Wisma Atria again last Sunday (1/11). Since the warranty period is nearing the end, the customer service officer said that the service will be chargeable, even though I brought the warranty card, because I was unable to provide her with the receipt as proof of purchase. She said that she was not able to determine the exact date of purchase because it was not on Sony Ericsson’s database.
She advised that I can try calling SingTel Mobile’s customer service and get them to fax the copy of my mobile contract to Sony Ericsson. When I called them, they said that they can provide the service, however it would take 5-7 working days and it costs me $30. The SingTel’s service officer advised that I might be able to get the copy of the mobile contract from the shop I purchased the Xperia X1 from. Sigh, I ditched the idea and decided to search for the contract on my pile of files at home on Sunday night. Alhamdulillah, thank God, I found it after almost two hours combing my files, and I have faxed it over to Sony Ericsson earlier this morning to ensure that I don’t get charged for this service.
No More Sony Ericsson Phones For Me
With such an experience with a lousy phone with a lousy service from the service centre, I have promised myself that I will never buy another Sony Ericsson phone. Well, some might said that since Xperia X1 was built by HTC for Sony Ericsson, that means the design flaw might be HTC’s fault, but I have friends who have HTC Touch Pro and the newer HTC Touch Pro 2, and they are happy users of the phones. My friend Arga suggested me to upgrade to the upcoming Xperia X2 phone which will be released this month, or even the future Android-based Xperia X3, but how can I ensure that similar design flaw will not apply to the newer phones as well?
Photo: HTC Touch Pro 2 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)
Photo: Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO (courtesy of gsmarena.com)
Photo: Sony Ericsson Xperia X2 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)
Photo: Nokia N97 (courtesy of gsmarena.com)
Yes, I intend to replace my Xperia X1 soon, if the problem still happens again after this second round of servicing. But I’m still not too sure which phone I should buy. It has to has a sliding keyboard, and it cannot be another Sony Ericsson phone. :P So, Xperia X2 is definitely out of question. I was considering Nokia N97 before my friends advised me that it’s not really a good phone, since it hangs quite frequently. I am currently considering either HTC Touch Pro 2 or the new Samsung B7610 OmniaPRO (the sliding keyboard type-one, not the Blackberry-alike OmniaPRO B7320). Do you have any other phones I should consider? :)
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by indra on October 28th, 2009 — Posted in Blogging
Menurut Ndoro Kakung:
Jadi benarkah blog itu hanya trend sesaat?
Bagi para pionir itu mungkin iya. Tapi jangan lupa: selalu ada orang baru, generasi penerus, yang tergoda oleh blog dan tertarik mencobanya. Mati satu, tumbuh seribu ….
Komentar Pitra di artikel yang sama:
jadi ingat riset IndoPac Edelman + Blogfam, di mana usia blog umumnya sekitar 2 tahun, lalu setelah itu mengalami penurunan kualitas dan kuantitas posting. Sebabnya beragam, dari menikah sampai urusan pekerjaan.
Kalau melihat yg senior memang sudah banyak yang bertumbangan. Mereka mencoba “tantangan” media baru. Yang junior pasti akan selalu bermunculan.
Yang kurang adalah, bagaimana yang junior ini bisa lebih dekat dengan senior. Supaya tongkat estafet pun bisa dilakukan. (kok kayak alih kepemimpininan ya?) Intinya sih, supaya yang junior pun tahu bagaimana awal muawal blogging di Indonesia, dan bagaimana mereka menentukan visi blog mereka di masa datang.
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by indra on October 27th, 2009 — Posted in Blogging
Dalam rangka Hari Blogger Nasional yang dirayakan oleh seluruh blogger Indonesia pada hari ini, Pitra “Media Ide” mengadakan sesi tanya jawab seputar blogging melalui media microblogging Twitter. Undangan sesi tanya jawab tersebut tentu saja mendapatkan respon positif para tweeps yang sempat membuat Pitra kewalahan, walaupun akhirnya beliau menjawab semua pertanyaan yang diajukan dan menulis rangkumannya disini. Mas Nukman Luthfie bahkan mendukung Pitra untuk menjadi ketua panitia (chairman) Pesta Blogger 2010.
Dalam kesempatan sesi tanya jawab tersebut itu, saya menanyakan soal Hari Blogger Nasional, yang dirayakan setiap tanggal 27 Oktober, apakah masih relevan mengingat Pesta Blogger, yang diadakan setiap tahun, tidak tepat diadakan pada hari tersebut? Hanya Pesta Blogger yang pertama diadakan pada tanggal 27 Oktober 2007, untuk tahun-tahun selanjutnya diadakan pada tanggal yang berbeda. Pitra menjelaskan bahwa Pesta Blogger selalu diadakan pada hari Sabtu, supaya banyak orang yang bisa datang. Kalau diadakan di hari tertentu lainnya (apalagi hari kerja), takutnya banyak yang tidak bisa datang.
Supaya Hari Blogger Nasional bisa dirayakan oleh blogger Indonesia tepat pada waktu Pesta Blogger diselenggarakan, saya mengusulkan agar Hari Blogger Nasional jangan dipatok ke tanggal tertentu (27 Oktober) seperti sekarang, tapi dibuat “floating” mengikuti tanggal Pesta Blogger diadakan untuk tahun tersebut. Mirip lah seperti Hari Raya Idul Fitri atau Idul Adha yang tanggal-nya juga floating setiap tahunnya, mengikuti kalender Hijriyah.
Ada beberapa pertanyaan lain seputar blogging yang cukup menarik, diantaranya adalah pertanyaan dari Rhesya, yang menanyakan kapan gerakan blogger aktif pertama marak di Indonesia. Pitra menjawab kalau Enda Nasution udah mulai nge-blog sejak tahun 2005, yang kemudian dikoreksi oleh Enda sendiri yang mengklarifikasi kalau beliau sudah nge-blog sejak tahun 2001. Saya sendiri menambahkan kalau blog di Indonesia sudah ada sejak tahun 2000, sambil memberikan tautan ke artikel lama saya mengenai sedikit sejarah blogger Indonesia di tahun 2000 yang saya ketahui, dimana pada waktu itu para blogger yang saya kenal adalah alumni BemoNet. Aulia juga menambahkan kalau Boy Avianto juga sudah mulai blogging sejak 2000, yang kemudian bales bilang kalau Thalia aka @turniptopia, yang kebetulan tetangga saya di Singapura, pertama ngeblog di tahun 1999 dan MASIH AKTIF sampai sekarang!
Rangkuman dari seluruh pertanyaan dan jawaban dari sesi tanya jawab seputar blogging tersebut bisa dilihat disini. Terima kasih, Pitra.
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by IndraPr on October 20th, 2009 — Posted in happening, singapore, thoughts
I was attending a friend's wedding event at An-Nahdhah Mosque, Bishan on Sunday, 11 October 2009 and when I went back, I inadvertently and carelessly left my bag, containing my HP Mini netbook, at the basement carpark, before I went into my car. It seems that I might have left the bag when I needed to put on my shoes, and I only realised it after I reached my home at Bukit Batok.
I immediately called the mosque's management after getting the number from SingTel's directory service (100). While driving back from Bukit Batok to Bishan (which seemed like forever), I had Mr. Jamal on the other line, who patiently listened to my panic voice explaining that I had left my bag in the basement carpark. I even wrongly informed him that it was a blue bag, while it is actually a purple backpack. Mr. Jamal said he would check and advised me to call him back in 15 minutes.
Fifteen minutes later, I was already exiting PIE onto Lornie Road when I tried to call the mosque again, and was nervous when nobody picked up the call. I kept on calling using my handsfree but unable to reach anyone in the mosque, until I reached the mosque itself and went into the basement carpark. I was even more nervous when I couldn't find the bag at the place where I might have left it, and immediately took the lift upstairs to the first floor to go to the management office.
I met the mosque's staff at the office (I'm not too sure whether he's Mr. Jamal or another staff) and, alhamdulillah, thank God, the bag was there and he gave it to me. He mentioned that upon receiving my call, he immediately went to the basement carpark and found the bag near the carpark's lobby entrance. There were some other people around when he found the bag so he asked them whether the bag belongs to them, and they said no, so he brought the bag to the management office and kept it there. Thank God!
I also met some of my friends from the wedding event there, and shared my experience with them. Because of that, I didn't manage to thank the mosque staff properly. Thank you, Mr. Jamal and An-Nahdhah mosque's staff, for helping me to locate and keep the bag for me.
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
Posted by IndraPr on October 18th, 2009 — Posted in indonesia, travel
This article is originally posted on ABN's Asia Travel Blog here.
Pangandaran is a famous tourist attraction, located at the south-east end of West Java province, Indonesia. Its beaches are reputably the best and finest in Java island, and also offer excellent surfing. Other than its fine beaches, Pangandaran also offer a beautiful national park and its own version of green canyon.
However, its location at the southern regency of Ciamis in West Java makes Pangandaran not really appealing to Jakarta and Bandung tourists, let alone foreign tourists. By road, it takes around 5-6 hours to reach Pangandaran from Bandung, the capital city of West Java province, and it takes around 7-8 hours to reach Pangandaran from Jakarta, capital city of Indonesia, by road.
Fortunately, there is now a faster alternative to reach Pangandaran, which is via air. Susi Air, an airline previously specialised in chartered services, has started scheduled services from Jakarta and Bandung to Pangandaran. This will cut down the travel time between Jakarta and Pangandaran to only one hour. It will operate a Cessna Grand Caravan aircraft with a capacity of 12 passengers to service the Jakarta-Pangandaran route twice a day, one direct flight and another one with a stopover in Bandung.
The flight from Jakarta will depart from Halim Perdanakusuma airport, located east of the city and closer to the city centre compared to Soekarno-Hatta International airport.
Comments disabled here, visit the original permalink by clicking the title to add comments.
