troubleshooting my life

...sometimes life troubles me...

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Operator yang baik

Baru tahu beberapa waktu yang lalu kalau CEO-nya Axis, Erik Aas itu adalah mantan CEO-nya Grameenphone, Bangladesh. Buat aku ini menarik karena Grameenphone adalah sister company-nya Grameenbank yang menginspirasi dunia itu.

Entah kenapa aku jadi berharap banyak sama operator ini. Paling tidak memimpikan semangat pelayanannya Grameenphone untuk rakyat kecil bisa dibawa juga kesini. Walau ada sedikit ragu juga karena komposisi manajemen Grameenphone, yang dimiliki Telenor Norwegia dan Grameen Telecom Corporation, berbeda dengan Axis (Natrindo), yang dimiliki Saudi Telecom dan Maxis Malaysia.

Yah, kita lihat saja bagaimana kontribusi mereka. Uhm...apa mereka bisa melejit meninggalkan 3 dan Smart telecom, ya? :-)

update:
Ternyata ada konflik alot antara Muhammad Yunus dan Telenor disini dan disini. Dalam hal ini Telenor dianggap mengingkari janjinya untuk menurunkan saham kepemilikannya yang 62% menjadi 35% saja pada tahun 2001. Mereka menolak menjualnya kepada Grameen Telecom Corp yang dalam hal ini erat bekerja sama dengan Grameenbank, dimana 97% nasabahnya adalah perempuan miskin.

I especially touch by way of Muhammad Yunus said about his dream of the future of the Grameenphone.

"Professor Yunus' dream is to see a day when Grameenphone is owned by the poor women of Bangladesh , as Grameen Bank is owned today. He believes that the people of Norway too share that dream."

In Bangladesh, poor women are the owner of a state's bank and desired to be the owner of their country's biggest telecom company, for me, poor women has never been heard so powerfull and desirable.

Monday, April 28, 2008

The day I found X300



Two weeks ago, when I had my ThinkPad T61 notebook exmined by an IBM technician at IBM service center, I saw an interesting leaflet which showed a new product of their Thinkpad X series. It's name is ThinkPad X300 UltraPortable. What interested me at the first sight was that this notebook was finally equiped with an optical drive. Previously, IBM/Lenovo has avoided to incorporate a CD/DVD drive into this series, perhaps due to weight or electrical power issues.

Another breakthrough of this ultra light notebook was that, it now has a touchpad along with its traditional track point device. It seems that this time, Lenovo finally listens and accomodates the two most desirable X series' features of its customers.

Besides those new features, Lenovo put a new hard disk technology as well. This is called a "Solid-State Drives" or SSD. This technology is different from the common implementations of hard disks today, as it no longer uses a motot mechanism to spin the disk. Instead, it uses a circuit chip to store its bits of data. Such circuit board is used in popular flash disks.

To my surprise, the IBM technician suddenly handed over a demo product of this awesome little notebook. I instantly got the feeling of lightness, yet solid, as I held the notebook in my hand. I even found myself gaping at it, just after I stroked and rubbed its keyboard surface. The body was amazingly smooth and every part was meticulously crafted. This time Lenovo coated its inside body part with rubber coating, to avoid the keyboard keys from becoming shinny when worn out. And as always, the keyboard is still among the best in the industry. It seems like you will never get tired typing on it.

I spent as much time as I can admiring the notebook. I especially love the way Lenovo has brought back the blue and red strips of the trach point, which was previously removed during the transition period from IBM to Lenovo. Another old memory detail that Lenovo put back was the tiny eject button of the CD/DVD drive that slightly sticks out so users can just run their finger over the CD/DVD tray, which definitely make the CD/DVD ejection easier. In overall, I like the way Lenovo retains the sleek, clean and elegant design of the legendary ThinkPad. One significant effort was to eliminate the protuded battery at the back and remove it under the front part of the notebook. Thus, this 13.3 inch notebook is so light that you can hold it easily under your armpit just like you carry a newspaper or a book.Thanks to its 1.43 kg weight.

All and all, I have to admit that this notebook is a masterpiece since IBM sold its Notebook and PC Division to Lenovo in 2004. I'm glad that Lenovo finally decided to keep IBM's esthetic engineering heritage in making a sturdy, yet professionally looking notebook. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to experience the full operation of this notebook, as this demo version was faulty. It happened that a few days ago, an enthusiastic salesperson poured a glass of water onto it in trying to impress his potential customer, alas, the notebook died instantly. Let's just hope that the customer would be wiser than the salesperson.

**this is my Post-BEW writing project under Mrs. Mathilde's guidance. special thanks to Bpk. Fahri at the IBM Indonesia service center.

Update on May 02nd 2008
A computer salesperson at Ratu Plaza just informed me that for the initial launch of X300, Indonesia only gets 15 of it, five of them has been ordered by Japanese consultants. :-D

Tuesday, January 22, 2008

And so they said am a dreamer

Click to view my Personality Profile page

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Thinkpad T61, Gutsy, Brightness, Command Line

Video card: Nvidia Quadro N140 with restricted driver from Nvidia

to see all levels of brightness:

cat /proc/acpi/video/VID1/LCD0/brightness

to set brightness to certain level:

echo 50 > /proc/acpi/video/VID1/LCD0/brightness


change '50' with your preferred level.

note:
to go to Terminal window "ctrl+alt+F1"
to go back to X window "ctrl+alt+F7"
to gain root shell "sudo -s"

Monday, December 10, 2007

Thimerosal dan Autis

Beberapa waktu lalu aku mendapat email terusan dari seorang teman yang berisi cerita sedih seorang ibu yang memiliki anak Autis. Dalam cerita itu sang ibu menyalahkan vaksin yang mengandung Themirasol sebagai penyebab sakitnya anak beliau.

Mengenai Autis, aku sendiri tidak tahu banyak, namun isi email itu menggugahku untuk mencari tahu disamping keinginan untuk memberikan sedikit ketenangan pada temanku yang kebetulan sedang hamil itu. Berikut adalah email jawabanku atas email tersebut semoga saja ini berguna untuk yang lain. Aku sepenuhnya sadar bahwa informasi yang kusarikan disini mungkin tidak lengkap dan sumber-sumber yang kukutip mungkin tidak menampilkan hasil penelitian yang berimbang. Namun aku sungguh-sungguh berharap bahwa tulisanku ini bisa menjadi penyemangat bagi orang banyak untuk selalu bersikap bijaksana dan hati-hati dalam menyikapi sebuah isu yang berkembang.

Aku ikut berdoa untuk ketabahan ibu itu dan juga untuk kesehatan anaknya. Semoga Tuhan meringankan beban sakitnya.

Untuk diskusi yang lebih seru bisa dilihat di blog ini. Sedangkan untuk informasi lebih lanjut silakan googling atau bertanya kepada dokter dan para ilmuwan untuk mencari informasi sepuasnya. :-)

***

Hi Li,

'ma kasih, ya buat ceritanya yang ada gw jadi penasaran deh hehe...Coba deh lihat alamat2 berikut untuk referensi lebih lanjut:
1. http://www.idai.or.id/hottopics/detil.asp?q=90
2. http://www.fda.gov/cber/vaccine/thimerosal.htm

Untuk situs no. 1 disitu ada tanya jawab (faq) lengkap tentang themirosal dari Ikatan Dokter Anak Indonesia. Sebagian besar sangat mencerahkan hanya ada sedikit kesalahan pada point no. 7, yaitu: "Rata-rata per bulan/ kg berat badan 5 : 5 = 5 mcg" seharusnya itu " Rata-rata per bulan/ kg berat badan 25 : 5 = 5 mcg". Lalu untuk no. 19, menurut situs FDA (lihat URL no 2 diatas) produk vaksin yang sudah tanpa Themirosal sudah banyak dibuat. Loe bisa lihat merek vaksin2 tersebut di di tabel-tabel yang ada di situs FDA itu. Dan iya, semua itu vaksin dosis tunggal sehingga lebih mahal dari vaksin multi dosis yang mengandung pengawet Themirosal tsb. Karena akan sangat berbahaya kalau vaksi multi dosis tidak diberi bahan pengawet (untuk pertanyaan apa itu vaksin multi dosis dan vaksin dosis tunggal, gw gak bisa jawab jd mending tanya temen2 yang dokter aja, ya...hehe)

"Beberapa jenis vaksin dapat segera dibuat bebas thimerosal, namun vaksin tersebut tidak mengandung preservasi. Hal ini berbahaya untuk vaksin multi dosis tanpa thimerosal. Solusi pertama adalah membuat vaksin dosis tunggal (single-dose vial), namun akan mahal sekali harganya..."

Untuk vaksin Hib yang beredar di Indonesia tidak ada yang mengandung Thimerosal.

"Pada bayi yang mendapat Hib pada umur 2, 4, dan 6 bulan tidak menambah jumlah kandungan merkuri karena vaksin Hib yang beredar di Indonesia tidak mengandung thimerosal."

Sedangkan untuk situs no. 2 disamping penjelasan tentang Themirosal juga dibahas issue yang menghubungkan bahan pengawet Themirosal itu dengan Autisme. Yang kalau kalau boleh gw kutip disini tidak menunjukan hubungan sebab-akibat.

"In 2004, the IOM's Immunization Safety Review Committee issued its final report...The committee concluded that this body of evidence favors rejection of a causal relationship between thimerosal-containing vaccines and autism, and that hypotheses generated to date concerning a biological mechanism for such causality are theoretical only."

Jadi dalam hal ini tidak ada hubungannya antara Themirosal dan Autisme. Namun, saran dari ibu ini untuk bernegosiasi dengan dokter agar anak kita mendapatkan vaksin yang tidak mengandung Thimerosal juga tidak salah. Karena hal ini sejalan dengan usaha komite IOM itu tadi untuk meminimalkan paparan merkuri kepada bayi, anak-anak dan ibu hamil (Thimerosal adalah derifatif dari Merkuri--jenis ethylmercury namun ia tidak sama dengan methymercuri yang biasa ditemukan pada industri makanan atau dari ikan laut--sea food. Bayi (tubuh manusia) mampu membuang paparan Thimerosal/ethyl dari darah dan tubuhnya jauh lebih cepat ketimbang menghilangkan methylmercury. Keracunan akibat methylmercury umumnya terjadi pada mereka yang sering mengkonsumsi ikan laut/sea food).

"The Committee believed that the effort to remove thimerosal from vaccines was "a prudent measure in support of the public health goal to reduce mercury exposure of infants and children as much as possible." Furthermore, in this regard, the Committee urged that "full consideration be given to removing thimerosal from any biological product to which infants, children, and pregnant women are exposed.""

"Mercury is an element that is dispersed widely around the earth. Most of the mercury in the water, soil, plants and animals is found as inorganic mercury salts. Mercury accumulates in the aquatic food chain, primarily in the form of the methylmercury, an organomercurial. Organic forms of mercury are more easily absorbed when ingested and are less readily eliminated from the body than are inorganic forms of mercury. Humans are exposed to methylmercury primarily from the consumption of seafood (Mahaffey et al. 1997)."

Ok, Li semoga informasi ini berguna...kita tunggu ya kelahiran your cute baby. ;-)

Cheers

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Open house republik tirai mimpi

Adikku yang kecil itu sekarang doyan celingukan ke kamarku kalau pintunya sedang terbuka, dulunya dia tidak begitu dan aku pun juga jarang membiarkan pintu kamarku terbuka kalau aku lagi didalam. Tapi sekarang kecuali tidur (itu kalau keadaan cuaca sedang tidak panas keterlaluan, ya) aku pasti buka pintu kamar minimal 3/4 terbuka. Jadi kayak open house gitu...keluargaku yang mondar-mandir bisa ngintip kedalam ngeliat apa yang lagi aku kerjain. Umumnya aku akan terlihat sedang baca buku, bengong atau ngetik-ngetik diatas laptopku.

Aku pribadi memang bukan orang yang suka mempersilakan orang-orang masuk ke dalam kamarku. Biasanya hanya orang-orang yang kuanggap sangaaat dekat saja yang boleh masuk. O, iya aku gak punya pacar saat ini tapi walaupun punya aku gak akan pernah mengijinkan dia masuk kamar. Buat aku kamar pribadi itu...sangat_pribadi. Jadi orang-orang yang aku kategorikan sangaaat dekat itu kemungkinannya hanya anggota keluargaku atau sepupu terdekatku atau seorang sahabat super-terdekatku. Hihihi...alamak ekstra bener tuh keamaannya. :D Jadi selain orang-orang itu aku pasti sebelumnya kasih seribu-satu pertimbangan kalau ada orang lain yang mesti masuk berkunjung ke dalam sana. Dan biasanya aku sudah wanti-wanti untuk mereka yang diijinkan masuk untuk tidak memberi makan, eh, memberi komentar apa pun mengenai aku-dan-kamarku. Pelanggaran dalam memegang aturan ini sangsinya bakal tidak dipercaya seumur hidup. Sadis, deh.

Jadi setelah adikku itu sekarang mulai berani celingak-celinguk ke dalam, aku pun jadi senang mengomentari orang-orang yang mondar-mandir di depan kamarku. Ada perasaan senang dan geli melihat dia melakukan hal itu, seolah-olah kamarku itu istana mainan atau kamar hantu yang misterius buat dia. :D Aku jadi ngebayangin aku pingin bergantung terbalik kayak spiderman dan ngagetin dia waktu kepalanya menjulur kedalam lihat aku gak ada. Hua!! hihihi :p

Tapi yang paling menyenangkan bukan hanya hal itu, kenyataan bahwa sekarang adikku itu lebih mampu mengekspresikan perasaan dan pikirannya lebih bikin aku senang. Dia jadi lebih rileks sekarang. Karena itu aku suka banget lihat dia ketawa terkikik-kikik atau mendengar lontaran-lontaran komentarnya yang konyol. Dia jadi tampak jahil dan aku suka anak kecil yang jahil. ;-)

Menuliskan rasa gentar dipundakku

Malam ini hujan deras sehingga aku harus pontang-panting menyelamatkan jemuran yang kupajang siang tadi, untungnya beberapa pakaian sudah kering hanya ada bbrp helai yang masih lembab. Selain menyelamatkan jemuran, Bu En juga mesti menyelamatkan lantai dan barang2 dari kebocoran jadi seperti biasa dia mondar-mandir membawa-bawa ember kemana-mana, ke ruang tamu, ke kamar sampai ke ruang makan...iya, cakupan area kebocorannya memang cukup luas.

Namun disamping hujan deras, malam ini pundak kananku terasa ngilu bukan main. Kata si Rinny itu berarti ada 'tension' disana. Iya, memang dia bener kalau aku mendiagnosa hal ini sebagai: "aku memikirkan hal yang tidak suka aku pikirkan". Jadilah aku 'menginterogasi' diri malam ini, "hayo! kamu mikir apa?" dengan mulut kecut dan manyun aku jawab, "uh...uh...mikirin belajar Inggrisku". Iya, itu bener...kamu lagi ketakukan kan? kata diriku sendiri..."iya, aku takut ngebayangin prosesi belajarnya yang bakal nyerap seluruh tenaga dan pikiran..uh..uh...bisa gak ya?" Kamu pasti bisa, jawabku...kalau kamu mau sungguh-sungguh menikmati prosesinya pasti gak mules. Pikirin aja kalau belajar Inggris itu menyenangkan (aku tahu pasti menyenangkan) tanpa perlu memikirkan hasil akhirnya atau 'tujuan-tujuan' tersembunyi dibalik semua ini. Gmn, merasa lebih baik, gak? Humm....humm....perlahan-lahan aku mulai merasakan rasa ngilu itu timbul tenggelam....pundakku jadi lebih rileks dan aku bisa merasakan nikmatnya bernafas dengan tenang...

Semua akan baik-baik aja, kataku dalam hati.

*/ Aku menulis saban hari tanpa berharap dan tanpa putus asa - Isak Dinesen

* creative wisdom for writer (Roland Fishman) p. 13 edisi bhs Indonesia

How happy our world is?


If you look at this map, you will see how its major areas were colored in RED.
It seems no different between living in Africa, America or in Eurasia. Is it right?

What about you? In which country are you living? Are you Happy?





The map is courtesy of Happy Planet Index © The new economics foundation 2006.

My happiness in figure numbers

What I like most from this index is Personal Functionings and Social functionings sections which, if I put in one sentence it would be "personally and socially feeling dysfunctional" :D I think the proper emoticon should be :-( Ah, no point whining about this.


Happy Planet Index

Your personal Happy Planet Index (HPI) is 56.3, which is similar to that of countries such as Samoa (Western), Slovakia or China. Not bad. This is above the world average of 46, but still below the target value of 83, so there is more you can do to improve your health and well-being, or reduce your environmental impact. Your score is about the same as that of your country, 57.9.

Below is a breakdown of the various components that make up your HPI score.

You:
56.3
Average:
43.4
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Expectancy

Congratulations. Your life expectancy is above average for your gender and country. Whether it's eating well, not smoking, getting regular exercise, or just being lucky enough to have the right genes, you're doing something right. However, nobody's perfect and we could all improve our health a little! Aside from getting all the above bits of your lifestyle right, there are some more surprising factors that can influence your life expect - for example, giving up your car, avoiding living alone, moving out of the city or shrugging off stress.

You:
75
Average:
80.7
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Ecological Footprint

Your ecological footprint is 1.33 global hectares, or 0.74 planets. This is equivalent to the average in countries such as Bhutan, Cape Verde or Botswana.

Your ecological footprint is about average for the country you live in.

Congratulations. You are achieving 'one-planet living'. If everyone in the world lived like you, there would be enough resources for the entire human species, if not for other species. If you are living in an industrialised country, be aware that this is no mean feat. Given the infrastructure and society you live in, it is very hard to reduce one's footprint, even when making a big effort. No doubt you take environmental issues very seriously - avoiding motorised transportation, minimising meat in your diet and conserving and recycling where possible.

You:
1.33
Average:
5.36
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Carbon Footprint

Your carbon footprint is 0.43 global hectares, or 0.24 planets. This is about the same as the average for your country (0.26 gHa).

You:
0.43
Average:
3.02
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Life Satisfaction

You reported a life satisfaction of 6. This is just above our estimated world average life satisfaction of 5.9. At a national level, your score matches the means for Portugal, Iran and Vietnam. In Britain, just over a quarter of respondents reported a life satisfaction of 6 or lower.

You:
6
Average:
6.76
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Well-being

The new economics foundation (nef) recognises that there's more to life than feeling good, which is why our model for well-being is based on four domains – personal feelings, personal functionings, social feelings and social functionings. 'Feelings' refers to your attitude to the way you, your future and society are. 'Functionings' looks at whether you have the opportunities to do the things that bring you well-being. Like with life satisfaction, a score of 5 is theoretically the middle score, but, given the way most people respond to surveys, is below average.


Personal Feelings

In this online questionnaire, personal feelings are assessed with two questions – one testing your optimism and one testing your self-esteem.

You are very secure about yourself and about your future.

You:
7.58
Average:
6.05
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Personal Functionings

In this online questionnaire personal functionings are assessed with five questions – two evaluating your subjective opinion on your health and how activity you are, the other three testing you for feelings of autonomy, purpose and worth.

In various ways, you are unable to function in the way you would like. You may be having problems with your health, feeling unable to make your own decisions, and/or failing to find opportunities to get involved in activities that give you a sense of purpose and ability. No doubt this is affecting your overall well-being. Is there any way to take more control over life, perhaps by making some space for yourself? Once you have done this, taking up different activities (sporting, creative, political, etc.) can provide an excellent focus for your abilities and offer a purpose. Voluntary work, in particular, can provide one with a strong sense of purpose and worth.

You:
4.28
Average:
6.16
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Social Feelings

In this online questionnaire social feelings are assessed with four questions – three assessing your opinion of your community, whilst the last looks at personal relationships.

You are unsatisfied with, or perhaps indifferent to, the community within which you live. Sense of community is an important aspect of well-being. It is often lacking simply because there is little engagement taking place, as people lead atomised lives.

Another reason for this score, may simply be that you are currently unsatisfied by your personal relationships.

You:
5.2
Average:
5.69
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]
Social Functionings

In this online questionnaire social functionings are assessed with four questions – two assessing your job / studies, one your free time, and one your community participation. If you did not respond to the work / study questions, your score is judged purely on the other two aspects.

Your job / course is really not treating you well. Somehow it is at the same time dull and stressful! Either you're just going through a bad patch, or you really should consider moving on to somewhere else.

You:
3.79
Average:
5.6
[Average is of all online responses to this survey - not the average for your country]

Calculations for the Footprint are based on, and are copyright of, Best Foot Forward Limited. Please note that calculations for the Footprint and life expectancy are based on UK statistics. Conversion factors are used for other countries, but these are conservative and may underestimate differences.

From The (Un)Happy Planet Index web site.
Calculate your personal HPI: join the 102,081 other people who have calculated theirs!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Today's playlist:

1. The windmills of your heart - Sting (Ost. Thomas Crown's affair) video
2. 4 In the morning - Gwen Stefani (Sweet Escape) video
3. You can never ask too much (of love) - Take 6 (Join The Band) video

See any pattern? ;-)

Sentimental towards (almost) anything

I feel so low tonight that almost everything I dealt with touch me emotionally. Things from my Oma SMS, to serial story at Kompas newspaper, until the last and the only movie I watch 4 times within 2 days since I bought it.

Oma's SMS: U said: "...am glad if u happy :-) U know...am glad i found u :-)" I wonder why, Sis..bt I've learned to live with all my 'why's' ;-)

I replied: "That same 'why' was for me too...but I want to learn to live with all those 'whys' :-)

Which I added in another reply: "Kalau menurutku pertanyaan 'why' kalau kebanyakan atau untuk hal-hal tertentu hanya akan mengurangi kenikmatan dan kebahagian. Ini bukan karena ada yang salah dengan 'why'. Aku tetap percaya hidup yang tidak direnungi tidak layak untuk dijalani dan disinilah 'why' berguna. But bertanya 'why' semata-mata demi 'why' itu sendiri hanya akan membuyarkan segalanya. Don't you think?"

Serial story "Gerhana Bulan" written by Clara Ng has since captured me emotionally from the day it was published.

While "The Girl In The Cafe" reminded me of how my dream of romance should be.
Gosh, I really wished those two were exist in my life! I want to congratulate them for giving such an awkward-yet-sincere-romance a chance :-) Four thumbs up for the actors Bill Nighy and Kelly Macdonald and also the script writer Richard Curtis.

Now, tell me, how can I escape from this sentimental feeling....except writing it down?

About Me

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I am "The Girl In The Cafe" and "The Orange Girl" at once. ;-)
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