Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management: OpenProj Review

Pawel Brodzinski on Software Project Management: OpenProj Review

Wordpress.com is Down!

Happened in 13.50 local time Indonesia, exactly on Indonesia's Independence Day, Wordpress.com experiencing error. Every wordpress.com website is inaccessible...

anyway, approximately at 14:20, wordpress.com is Up again. here are some of the error messages...

Whoops!

There was a small systems error. Please try refreshing the page and if the error is still there drop us a note and let us know.

Goshdarnit!

Something has gone wrong with our servers. It’s probably Matt’s fault.

We’ve just been notified of the problem.

Hopefully this should be fixed ASAP, so kindly reload in a minute and things should be back to normal.

The Husband is now Unleashed

Inspired by the growing trends of blogging, I have decided to create another blog as a media to express my personal thoughts on IT related stuffs.

It is launched in http://autogebet.wordpress.com, see you all there :)

The Game of Pride

Apparently, I enjoyed sports which “compete with someone” instead of “compete with myself”. Since recent months, I have been enjoying table tennis (or “ping pong” in Bahasa). Well, by competing with someone, you will definitely got “Pride” involved.

I recalled years ago, when I was in junior highschool, I was completely beaten by a friend of mine in table tennis. At that moment, my pride was lost. So I have never played table tennis ever since.

Just few months ago, I feel like trying table tennis again. So, I embrace myself to play with a friend of mine, here in my workplace. Well, as what happened years ago, once again I got completely beaten (and my Pride once again lost). But this time, I don’t quit. I learn table tennis techniques from many friends here. I also played a lot, with many opponents, hoping I would play better than before.

I am currently undergone a table tennis tournament. I have had hard and intensive table tennis trainings for a few months, hoping this time I would be able to regain my Pride.

You can see the pics here some of my “style” while playing table tennis. Yesterday, I played 7 games with my sparring partner. It was a very rough game, because my thumb is injured :p

Transformers, Two thumbs up! 5-star Ratings!

This movie is highly recommended! You really can’t missed this one!

I really impressed with this movie! Although I’m not much a fan of the cartoon series of Transformers, I really surprised with the story and the marvellous 3D animation. I would say, this movie outrank Fantastic Four: Return of the Silver Surfer and Spiderman 3.

Non-stop action starts from the beginning. You will see many fully-loaded action scenes. You can really feel the excitement boosting your adrenaline. I have never seen such realistic 3D animation. The animation looks very much real, blends perfectly with real world objects. As said by Cinemags, the rendering took 36 hours to create super-realistic 3D objects. The movie Toy Story (or was it Cars) only took 2-3 hours rendering.

Besides the impressive 3D animation, I really love the U.S. military’s chain-of-command and technology. I love it how every military commands given by top authority get executed very efficiently, especially in infantry units. Cinemags said that US. Dept of Defense really involved in the making of Transformers, especially showing off the prototype of next generation fighter jets: F-22 Raptor. I also love it when A-10 Thunderbolts gives stunning action very early in the movie.

Just as in Spiderman 3, this movie gives not only superb cinematic experience, but also words of wisdom. Some of which I recall was “one shall stand, one shall fall”, “no sacrifice, no victory”. Optimus Prime is not only the strongest autobots, but also a charismatic leader who is willing to sacrifice itself to achieve victory.

A bit out-of-topic, you will definitely notice many sponsors in the movie, such as: eBay, the military communication equipment has Cisco logo (the IP telephone), Nokia handphone get destroyed, the Japanese got many credits in robotics, and some others which unfortunately I have forgotten. I really want to see the movie again, just to enjoy the animation, and to take note of the complete sponsors :p

Thanks to mr.Neofreko, I finally got some pictures of Transformers. Complete pictures available from http://movie.yahoo.com/ ^_^

I just got a very nice article on "The Making of Transformers Movie". It spells out everything I wrote here, about how they design the robots, the military involvement, the selection of cards, and many more. Enjoy the article here ^_^

One Man Can Make a Difference

It’s an awesome movie. It’s really worth the effort where I had to stand in line for 45 minutes just to buy 2 tickets on Saturday night (and I got the seat for Sunday night… hahaha).

This sequel is definitely the best among the previous one. The movie duration is only 2 hours, but it felt like 2,5 or 3 hours. The movie not only gives you super amazing special effects, but also inspiring. Spiderman 3 had a really nice drama plot, showing the transition of Parker’s emotional and behavioural trait when wearing black-alien spidey suit. We can nicely see how Parker gradually undergone conflict of relationship with MJ, and of course, the best part of it, they got back together again (ohhh so heroic…).

Spiderman 3 is inspiring. Many wisdom scattered around the plot. I especially love the tag “One Man Can Make a Difference”. I also love it when there was a “deep forgiving” for Sandman.

All I can say, you definitely had to see it for yourself. Marvellous!

Lala's Birthday

May 4th, 2007, is the happiest moment ever. Lala is very happy on her birthday, the sweetest moment ever. Here are the pics, there also a picture of mine who was "happy" also :)

Core Duo

Let me share you the pics on my birthday few days ago. the Super Cake was from Bunda Lala :)
You can see me eager to eat the Super Cake :p

Here's another pic of me with Master Yuda. Yes, we BOTH celebrate birthday at the same day. Master Yuda is the director of Inspira, which recently launched Jogja Early Warning System and Jogja Mobile City.

The Legendary Dopod 900

Since few weeks ago, I was in search of a new gadget to replace my Dopod 900 since it has shown signs of malfunction (the red cancel button need to be pressed few times just to disconnect active phone calls).

After an exhaustive search, I conclude that there is no product as compelling as my Dopod 900. The Nokia high-end series (9300, 9500, etc), which many people regarded as prestigious or exclusive gadget, just don’t have touch screen. Samsung’s dual standby handphone, W579, was really compelling. It has touchscreen and eliminates the need of another CDMA phone. But unfortunately, although set at premium price, W579 just don’t have Wifi feature. In short, there is no match for Dopod 900 which had the widest screen, rotated screen, built-in keyboard, Wifi and 3G, all in one gadget.

Dopod recently has launched its 900 successor, the U1000. I have tried the product myself. It really really compelling, combining 3.5G, GPS, 3MP Camera and a VGA/TV-Out (yes, impress your client just simply connect U1000 to viewer). For a plain businessperson like me, I’d say this U1000 is a state-of-the-art, really no match with Nokia.

On the counterpart, I can sense some drawbacks: to quickly write SMS without touch-screen, you need to take and plug the keyboard (it is really quick on Dopod 900 since keyboard is already built-in). to make phonecalls, you cannot tap it on your ears just like Dopod 900, you must always bring the bluetooth headset.

Mahi Mahi is Not Recommended

On my last weekend, we decided to try to have lunch in new place. So, as many friends suggests, “Try Mahi Mahi, the seafood is good.”

Well, Mahi Mahi is not that good. The place itself is good, it is designed much like Jimbaran, I’m sure its cozy at night. There is also beach sands as kid’s playground. But first thing that counts is the food, and unfortunately the food is tasteless. If you previously had tried Mang Engking, Mahi Mahi is really not a comparable one, in price as well as taste. For example: the legendary honey-fried shrimp (udang bakar madu) costs Rp. 250.000 in Mahi Mahi, while you can get the best one for Rp. 90.000 in Mang Engking.

Lala’s First Day in Playgroup

Lala was very happy and excited when she first knew that she would be going to school. She was happily tried out the outfit, even she use the outfit all night long. I really felt happy as well, hopefully she would learn many things in school. Checkout the pics here.

The Beta Release of portalreksadana.com

alhamdulilah... after a long wait, the beta release of portalreksadana.com is finally up and running... checkout the snapshot below.




The portal has the most comprehensive mutual fund historical data in Indonesia. It covers mutual fund data from 2005 until 2007 (so far: March 4, daily update feature will soon be available), I just need more time to collect the 2003-2004 data. The database size is 15MB, containing over 180 thousands records. It took over 12 hours to get all of those data from Bapepam, and of course, a blazing speed of internet connection.

The portal had a long development roadmap. In the near future, this portal will be upgraded with useful features for registered members. for example: portfolio tracker will help investors in managing their net investment value in multiple accounts. registered members will also have access and download to raw data (not only mutual funds, but also indexes data from JSX), to be further processed with other applications.

Yes, all of these features and information will still be available for FREE. portalreksadana.com aims to be the most comprehensive mutual fund information provider in Indonesia, enabling access to everyone for FREE.

I'm open for comments and ideas, keep up the spirit of investing!

Bunda Lala's Birthday

February 3th, its Bunda Lala's birthday!

checkout the pics, we had a super wonderful moments dining at Mang Engking...

The Wonderful 2 Hours Saturday Night

we had a wonderful dining at Hartz Chicken, the whole family had wonderful dining experience. we were dining for almost over 2 hours, we enjoyed the pleasant service, cozy place, and a movie projected on the screen.

here we are:


of course, what makes the event so special, is LALA. she loves the place, she enjoyed meeting and talking with people, she played everywhere with everyone. checkout the pic here, she introduced herself to a cute foreigner. she also got really acquainted with the restaurant manager. :)

The Power of GTFW

I am impressed with the power of GTFW!
GTFW stands for "Gamatechno Framework". It is very easy to use, and far much more advance compared to other framework I knew before. Even a novice like me found GTFW very easy to use. GTFW is one of the masterpiece of Gamatechno, developed primarily by sicopak, neofreko, Ageng, Pakdhe Paydjo, heribertus, teguh, trias, widodo.

You can crosscheck with pak Endar, he saw me creates new project only in seconds, and within 3-4 hours I was able to fetch data from JSX (Jakarta Stock Exchange). I have fetched all of the market index data, everything from 2004 up until today. I really need those data (related with my previous article), but JSX has the same characteristic with Bapepam: they don’t provide a user friendly interface. By now, if I need JCI (IHSG) data, I don’t have to go to the Faculty of Economics.

Soon, I will publish the data, for free… *winking to momon* :)
Here is the the snapshot, showing my customizations from the default GTFW template.

I Really Hate Pocket Cameras...

the last several days, you can see Mt.Merapi clearly, one of the most beautiful view ever. the blue sky is everywhere, clear from clouds. it really challenges my "photographic sense".

but as you can see from the pictures, pocket (or automatic) cameras can't reproduce picture as it seen from our eyes. i really missed my old professional camera, with its filters, I'm sure I can freely set the camera so it will reproduce the best picture as our eye can see.

*sigh*

The Fresh New Vista Fonts

impressed by the presentation made by a colleague of mine, I curiously hunt for the new vista fonts, the new fonts which gives much better clarity and readibility in documents or web pages. try it in your presentations, and you will definitely want it.

review and snapshots about these fonts is available from Poynter. the next picture is a a replacement for Arial: Calibri and Corbel.





the next picture is a replacement for Times New Roman: Constantia (a great complement for Georgia also).



if you need these fonts, you can download it here.

The Wedding Week

Last weekend was a happy and adventurous week. There was a total of 5 couple engaged in a wedding, uniting them into unbreakable family bonds. Of course, five is the number where we got invited. I’m sure there’s plenty more couples getting married in early January 2007.

We travel from Yogya to Tegal, and then crossing the Java Island through Cilacap back to Yogya. The first wedding was my own younger brother, held in Tegal. The second was the wedding of a very good friend of mine, Haris (also a fellow colleague at Gamatechno), held somewhere near Cilacap (this is where the adventure begins, keep reading). The rest is a subsequest wedding namely Hesti (my fellow colleague at Inspira), Hoki (my postgraduate friend) and Wuri (one of my wife’s colleague during in Trijaya).

The travel was adventurous, because we got lost during the search of the second wedding location. Haris should have guided me using a much more accurate map, such as Google Earth. He misestimated a lot. We departed from Tegal at 14.30, we already in Kondangan suit (batik) because we should have reach the location within one or two hours (as estimated by Haris). Well, in fact, during the search of Wangon intersection, we got lost somewhere around Ajibarang, Rowulu and Maos and Cilacap. The tense and stress even higher, because there was a full blackout (mati lampu) after Wangon, and we still had to travel all the way through the pine forest (yes, again, Haris also forgot to mention this), alone in the complete darkness. Alhamdulilah, we arrive in location at 19.30, after a total of 5 hours driving. Due to the misestimation, we were facing another threat: nearly out of gasoline. Luckily, there were many bottled gasoline retailers nearby. After having a full meal, we departed back home, another 5 hours drive to Yogya. We arrived at 02.00 a.m. in the morning, completely exhausted. anyway, it was a very challenging and fun adventure :)



Enough for the short story, enjoy the pics.

Indonesian Mutual Fund Historical Performance Data

Finally… I have completed the beta development of “Mutual Fund Manager” (“Reksadana Manager”). With this application, I can have historical performance data on every mutual funds available in Indonesia. You can rely on this data, because it is originated from from Bapepam itself, the Indonesian Capital Market Supervisory Agency.

When I decided to enter the mutual fund market, I personally got stressed because I could not found sufficient historical performance data as one of the basis of my decisions. It is very contrast with overseas financial information provider, such as MSN MoneyCentral or marketwatch.com. Unlike stocks, information for mutual funds were very hard to find. Previously, I found e-samuel.com and bisnis.com were one of the most up-to-date information. But later I found out that they don’t provide sufficient historical data. E-samuel.com came up with the historical data available in charts, but their data is incomplete, they don’t have data on every mutual funds available in Indonesia. Even JSX and SSX (Surabaya Stock Exchange) don’t have the information I need.

Finally I got the most representative source of information, the Bapepam (www.bapepam.go.id). Although they got details on every mutual funds available in Indonesia, but the user interface is not convenient for users who needed daily data. I had to do multiple clicks, and copy-paste the screen to Excel (not to mention reformatting and adding more columns). So again, I decided to automate these tasks, get myself back with Delphi to develop the application I needed. Checkout the snapshot.




There would be many improvement for the next release. One which need improvement is the synchronization process, I need to upgrade it by using threads. More features will be available to make this application as a personal mutual fund manager, e.g. you can check how much your investment worth at any time. I look forward for your comments and suggestions.

You also need this application? Contact me, and I’ll send it to you, its free. Of course, you should be patient to wait until a stable version is available.

Overheated!

4 days ago, I got overheated so that you can see some light smoke fades away from my body. It happened after a fresh another 1-hour-walk in the morning. Apparently, this phenomena is an early warning system, it indicates that I will be sick, or requires substantial bedrest.

This had happened about at my early years of college (around 10 years ago). At that moment, I was so excited in hiking. I always smoked after several intensive activities, my brother and relatives noticed also. Few days afterwards, I got hospitalized for 10 days, undergone treatment for typhus.

Just happened 3 days ago, I was in a full bedrest. The early simptoms was severe breathing problem (sesak napas), always occured in everything I did, even a minor one. At night, the simptoms enriched with high fever. Gladly, the fever lasted only for one night. Surprisingly, after a delicious dinner in Bakmi Kadin, the simptoms I mentioned before has gone completely, no more breathing problem. But at that moment, new simptoms emerged, and Bunda Lala positively identified it as gastritis (maag). Oh dear… I never had gastritis before… all night long I had my stomach twisted, going back and forth to the washroom. Again, gladly, this inconvenience lasted only for one night.

After another boring bedrest in Sunday, I am back with my 1-hour-walk this morning. As always, such as after a hard exercise, I felt much energized than before. From a positive perspective, I think this body has been “upgraded” to the next level.

Of course, there is a always cause or trigger for every simptoms. 10 years ago, It was caused by non-hygienic foods. What happened recently, would be most likely a psychological cause (e.g. stressed). By correctly identified the cause, you can identify your body’s limitations. Therefore, you will know how much you can push yourself to the limit. But don’t forget, as time passess, the limit always “grows” fulfilling the challenge of time.

Power Up!