Eriawan's Thoughts

Indonesia:

Tanggal 20 Agustus kemaren aku mengikuti ujian sertifikasi 70-502, tentang TS: .NET 3.5 Windows Presentation Foundation. Hasilnya gagal, tapi tinggal sedikit lagi scorenya!

Passing score adalah 700, tapi scoreku 630, waaaahhh! Tinggal sedikit lagi! Dalam waktu 2 minggu sampe 3 minggu, harus aku ambil lagi ujiannya. Semoga segera lulus, kalo enggak nantinya .NET 4.0 keluar aku gak siap.

OK, tujuanku adalah menjadi .NET 3.5 TS (Technology Specialist) untuk WPF (70-502), ASP.NET (70-562), and Windows Forms (70-505). Tetapi ujian Windows Forms 3.5 akan tersedia setelah Desember 2008. Lebih baik aku memfokuskan dulu ke WPF dan ASP.NET, karena dua topik ini sudah lumayan berat untuk dikuasai.

English:

On August 20th 2008, I was taking a MCP certification exam of 70-502, TS: .NET 3.5 Windows Presentation Foundation. The result was clear: I failed. But the score, yes the result score is sooo close!

Passing score is 700, but my score was 630. Arrrghhhhh! It's so close! And now, within the next 2 to 3 weeks, I have to retake the exam again. I have to pass and wish me luck, otherwise I can't keep up with the next .NET, the .NET 4.0.

Oh, my goal is becoming a .NET 3.5 TS (Technology Specialist) for WPF (70-502), ASP.NET (70-562), and Windows Forms (70-505). But the Windows Forms 3.5 test exam will be available after December 2008. I guess I should focus on WPF and ASP.NET first, since these two topics are already heavy topics to be mastered.

For more about Microsoft certifications on .NET 3.5 and Visual Studio 2008:

http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcts/vstudio/2008/default.mspx

Today, is a very hot afternoon in Surabaya. So hot that the sun rays can hurt my skin if I was exposed long enough.

Oh, I'm quite embarassed to tell you this, but my skin is quite sensitive to sun rays, especially afternoon sun rays. And long exposure can also made me dizzy and weak due to dehidration.

Also, this month is the transition period from rainy season to dry season. This is the month of where the illness comes: mild flu, diarrhea, and also light bronchitis inflammation.

Indonesia, my home country, is a tropical country, which is why it had 2 seasons. But it's also having a bad side effect from global warming. Some climactic changes has been undergoing, and this month should have some rains but as a matter of fact, it doesn't have it.

Now, with the raising awareness of going green globally, this should be a good lesson for all of us to be aware of these environmental issues across the world.

I hope it's not just words and ads from big commercial companies selling their products. It should be more actions.

Definite actions, including me doing it. You too.

Happy Earth Day!

This entry generated by Muse.

I don't know how to react about this news. It was Saturday, 26th January, 2008. At 1:10PM (GMT+07), Soeharto, former Indonesian 2nd President, died at 86 years old in Rumah Sakit Pusat Pertamina.

During his active role as President of Republic Indonesia, many things have happened, including the overwhelming alleged corruptions, nepotism, and negative collusion among his cronies. For about 32 years ruling Indonesia, Soeharto has been considered as a harsh dictator, not just by me.

Read these news:

• http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/world/asia/28suharto.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin
• http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1707280,00.html

And if you can speak Indonesian, these are the news:

• http://www.antara.co.id/arc/2008/1/5/riwayat-kesehatan-hm-soeharto/

Wow... This is different than Soekarno, the first president of Indonesia. Soekarno was known not treated exclusively prior to his death.

The truth is, I was part of the democratic protest in January to March 1998, although I wasn't the one of the first thinkers. It was horrible at that time. I truly saw it. Many activists were captured, tortured, and often kidnapped. Me? I was captured for more than 2 days in a local district precinct, and I was more fortunate than most of my friends. Some of my friends were shot in Jakarta, especially at the time of "Tragedy of Trisakti".

Although I'm now enjoying my life as a decent software developer, I can't forget that.

Still, the memories of those whom were hurt can't disappear completely. We can forgive, I too can forgive. But the debt left by enormous money siphoning, militarism repressive, and corruptions can't be eliminated. It has to be paid and returned to about 220 millions of Indonesian citizens.

I'm not talking about the new VS 2008. It's already on my previous post.

I'm talking about the tools has been around us for more than 3 years and really, really useful.

First, now Reflector from Lutz Roeder reaches version 5.0.50.0. You have to download it, since if you have older version, Reflector will force you to download the latest! This is not good. But, this tool is so damn useful. And, by the way... you can't decompile Reflector using Reflector. It's heavily obfuscated.

Must have SDK from Microsoft: Windows SDK 6.0. Download and install it. Because you'll get XAMLPad, and many things. But you must have this SDK (damn 1.2GB in size!) if you want to develop for .NET 3.0. This is the latest version of Windows SDK 6.

Ahh... don't forget to use free tools from SlickEdit called SlickEdit Gadgets! I highly recommend it.

VB 2005 Power Pack can be a useful addition for you. But, after you use it, I bet you can name it as a must addition! Watch for the updates from Microsoft Connect website.

Again, let me remind you, please take notes, all of them are totally free!

Yes, I almost missed this! .NET 2.0 SP1 is available. For about 2 months already. But why this good news is not broadcasted heavily?

The latest and current release of .NET, .NET 3.5, is already contains the SP1 of .NET 2.0. Your .NET 2.0 will have this version signature, 2.0.50727.1433, after you install .NET 3.5. Yes, it's already blogged everywhere, including my other new blog (but .NET and Java specific blog), the Eridotnet.blogspot.com. Yes, you'll read some news about .NET and Java here, but more detailed and geek specific blog. My previous rant about confusing updates of .NET 2.0 and not to be put in one place such as SP1 has been answered by Microsoft, looks like.

Other geeky aspects of me are still available here, in erikuma.spaces.live.com

For my other programming knowledge such as PHP, common SDLC (software development life cycle) concept, and other geeky things, are still available. I admit, I'd like to also have .NET topics discussed here, but Spaces Live doesn't provide me many flexibility comparing to other blog services such as Blogger.com and WordPress. I need some basic blog features such as trackbacks, to engage conversation with other bloggers. I can't just rely on blog comments.

To tell you the truth, some of blog entries in this blog has been trackbacked many times by other bloggers but only few of them showed. I won't leave Live Spaces for good, and I still believe in Live Spaces as one of the best blog services besides Blogger.com and WordPress. I've tried LiveJournal before, and for me it sucks. I can't do many things in LiveJournal, especially some hot features such as embedding video, basic commenting editor (LiveJournal comment editor is so basic, they won't easily permit very basic editing such as having bold types). WordPress in some degree is not so appealing, since Wordpress doesn't allow JavaScript modules. This means also not allowing monetization script module such as Google AdSense.

My first entry into Adsense adventure and other monetizations

In the last 2 months, I have had installed Google Adsense on my Eridotnet.blogspot.com blog. It's quite new for me to have Adsense installed, but I have known Adsense concept before. Almost all of my friend that blogged, make some extra cash using Adsense, although the money flow isn't always good. Compared to those high profile bloggers such as Problogger and Chris Pirillo, monthly average Indonesian bloggers earnings of US$200-US$300 is nothing. For example, Chris Pirillo earns more than US$2000 monthly from affiliates such as paid-to-click and Adsense combined. Another fact: Pirillo's bux.to PTC (paid to click) is already generating about 300$ a month!

I also have bux.to, if you're interested, you can sign up using my referral here. For bux.to, all you need is email and Paypal account. That's all, simple.

Sad fact of this week: Google retires Adsense Referrals outside North America, Latin America, and Japan

Google Adsense itself began to loose its potential publisher since their announcement about retiring Adsense referrals (outside North America, Latin America, and Japan) on their Adsense Blog (not surprisingly, using Blogger.com service).

This is the original announcement of Google Adsense Referral international retirement.

The announcement has harvested numerous critics in forms of anger such as these:

• Probloggers
• Google Retires Adsense's Referral Units For Asia

And many more from the blog's trackbacks!

What do you think? For me, Google's reason of geographical diverse is not an excuse. Almost 60% of Internet world traffic comes outside North America and Japan. It's not from US anymore, the traffic domination has proven the fact that Asia and Australia are potential market, and many facts are supporting this. After all, it's Google decision, and they have their own rights to do it and exercise it many times. Google dominates, and we the humble minions are unfortunately must follow the rules.

But more time will tell. I know I can be assumed as a not so newbie in this area. But for extra money of US$300 monthly, I think life on the Internet is good. Really good. At least, it sure pays my electricity and Internet bills.

Today, it's cloudy in Surabaya. But the air feels so humid, and I get sweat quite easily. I assume the humidity percentage is quite above 85% but less than 90%. It's sure enought to make you feel hot and go dizzy.

I'm now still working on migrating class library of Cebes Windows Forms to a new model of our own Cebes business objects binding. It's quite fun and near finished. But still, there are some glitches on the business object side. I have to wait for some updates, but I also still need to oversee some of other old controls.

Now that Indonesia is entering rainy season, I hope Surabaya doesn't undergo floods. But, we'll see. :)




This entry generated by Muse.

Yes! On Monday, 19th November, Microsoft has released Visual Studio 2008!

Visit the official Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 web page and then for quick intro for getting your feet wet soon, you can download the Visual Studio 2008 Express Edition from there.

Cool!

Ever wonder why your .NET 2.0 assemblies show version changes from 2.0. 50727.42 (on Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows Server 2003 SP1) to version 2.0.50727.832 if you had Automatic Updates turned on?

There's this blog entry from MS' .NET developer, Doug Steward that provide a rough .NET 2.0 versions fixed list and what has happened. Judging from the long list, looks like MS .NET 2.0 really needs Service Pack, since it's quite expensive and tedious to obtain this update manually and separately. Microsoft has been gone thru this quite slow process for updating service pack. For example, after Windows XP SP2, have you tried to install post SP2 updates one by one manually? Now, it's been more than 2.5 years after the release of Windows XP SP2, but SP3 is still not yet released.

The moral of this story:

• No regular service pack release schedule, even when users are crying out loud for long time. Try search in Google for "Microsoft update policy" and see for yourself!
• Therefore, when it comes to releasing service packs, Microsoft often goes "deaf". They listen your feedbacks, indeed, but they won't listen to your cry about service packs.

Anyway, here's the MS Security Bulletin of MS07-040: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/bulletin/ms07-040.mspx

And here's the download page for MS Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2, Windows 2003 SP1: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=BA3CEB78-8E1B-4C38-ADFD-E8BC95AE548D&displaylang=en

...not yet finished, here, this is the description of update for the download page above: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/928365 

And here's the MS KB description about the MS Security Bulletin MS07-040: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931212

.. finally, this is KB description for Vista: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=929916

oh, download page for Vista: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyId=CBC9F3CF-C3C3-45C4-82E3-E11398BC2CD2&displaylang=en

ARRGGHHHH! Why doesn't MS put these links in just one page instead of scattered on many pages?

A dual language of my blog entry. This time is about my last bad experiences.

In English:

Hmmm. My credit application request was rejected by Prima Finance this day. It was just a phone call from Prima Finance that said I was rejected. For no reasons.

Flashback

I was applying for credit application at Prima Finance last week. I always want to buy an HP Compaq Presario V3613, and it's valued at RP 9,979,000. It had this spec:

• intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB harddisk, WiFi 802.11b/g, installed Windows Vista Basic

This sweet deal was available on HP Store, in THR Surabaya Mall (a.k.a. HiTech Mall Surabaya). I can't buy in cash, since I don't have enough money at that time, but I need it, so I decided to lease. I have chosen Prima Finance, since they have the lowest credit interest rate compared to Adira and Kredit Plus.

Application requirement? Not too much. Comparing if you want to apply for a new credit card, I think it's not that hard.

At the first time I apply, Prima wanted these:

• a copy of monthly salary check with at least has Rp 1.000.000 salary per month (I get more than Rp 2 millions per month)
• a copy of ID card (KTP)
• a copy of family card (KK/KSK)

Yesterday (Sunday), I was surveyed and they asked more than above! They want a copy of my latest electricity bill and a prove from my parent. WTF? This is not a good service at all.

Today?

Yes. This afternoon I got a phone call from Prima, and a man told me that I was rejected. No reasons.

What I couldn't understand is, they don't tell me anything why I was rejected. Fine with me, but last year (2006) I have experiences with other financing, and they told me why. I don't know what about this year, but the fact that they told me why, it did give me some relief.

Conclusion? Even if you have a decent monthly salary like I do, your credit application can get rejected by simply no reason! Am I a criminal? Also, be careful when chosing any financing company.

Bahasa Indonesia:

Pengajuan aplikasi kreditku ditolak Prima Finance dengan tanpa alasan!

Hmmm. Hari ini permintaanku tantang pengajuan kredit ditolak Prima Finance. Hanya melalui telpon, mereka bilang aplikasiku ditolak tanpa alasan.

Sebelumnya

Minggu lalu aku mengajukan permohonan aplikasi kredit ke Prima Finance. Dari dulu aku udah menginginkan membeli notebook HP Compaq Presario V3613, dan dihargai Rp 9.979.000. Specnya:

• intel Core 2 Duo 2Ghz, 1GB DDR2 RAM, 120GB harddisk, WiFi 802.11b/g, installed Windows Vista Basic

Penawaran menarik ini ada di HP Store, bertempat di THR Surabaya Mall (alias HiTech Mall Surabaya). Saat itu aku gak bisa bayar tunai untuk membeli tunai. Tapi aku butuh sekali, maka aku putuskan untuk memakai jalan kredit. Aku pilih Prima Finance dengan pertimbangan bahwa mereka memiliki bunga yang paling rendah dibandingkan Adira dan Kredit Plus.

Persyaratan? Tidak terlalu sulit. Dibandingkan dengan pengajuan permohonan kartu kredit baru, tidak serumit persyaratan Prima Finance.

Pada saat itu, mereka mengajukan persyaratan sebagai berikut:

• Salinan slip gaji bulanan. Minimal perbulan adalah Rp 1.000.000 (gajiku lebih dari Rp 2 juta sebulan)
• Salinan KTP
• Salinan KK/KSK

Kemarin (hari Minggu), aku disurvey dan mereka meminta lebih dari hal tersebut di atas! Apa-apaaan ini? Ini sudah jelas-jelas bukan layanan yang baik.

Hari ini?

Ya. Siang ini aku ditelpon Prima, dan seseorang laki-kali memberitahukan kalo aku ditolak. Tanpa alasan.

Yang (bagi aku) gak bisa dimengerti adalah, mereka tidak memberitahukan alasan mengapa aku ditolak. Tidak terlalu masalah buat aku sebetulnya, tapi tahun lalu (2006) aku sudah pernah berurusan dengan financing lain mereka memberi tahu alasannya. Untuk tahun ini bisa saja berubah. Tapi adanya fakta kalo aku diberitahukan, sudah membuat aku lega.

Pelajaran hari ini: meskipun punya gaji cukup besar, aplikasi kreditmu bisa tidak disetujui tanpa alasan! Apa gue dianggap kriminal? Juga, berhati-hatilah bila memilih perusahaan financing.

Suddenly, my PageRank has dropped from 5 to 3! This article says that Google is penalizing blogs/websites that selling links! And it's been confirmed by others! WTF? I'm not selling links at all!

What is the meaning of this? Not making sense, if the reason is only about selling links. Like I said, I'M NOT SELLING LINKS. Period. But I'm not using PageRank to increase funding from this blog. As a matter of fact, I can't. It's forbidden by Live Spaces to put Google AdSense, for example. Is there any easy explanation about this silly move?

I'm speechless.

The relevancies

The relevancies can be blurred or can be very clear distinction in term of multi discipline nature of computing majors.

Simple factors to ask about relevancies are: (from easy to difficult)

1. Is it used?
2. Does my current software development project need this knowledge? This is quite simple. If your current software project is an organism growth simulator, you definitely need some Biology and some Artificial Intelligence. If you create software that doing some stock price forecast, you need to have deep knowledge of General Economics, Macroeconomics, Statistics and Probability, not just how to code well.
3. If it is used, do I have to use it in everyday work as an IT person/staff or as a software architect? Normal software development project doesn't need Artificial Intelligence or even Data Mining, unless you face the fact of factor #2.
4. Is it simply related? For example, biology to information system is clearly unrelated. But it can be used, depends on factor #2.
5. Is it important and can be as an added value if I have knowledge in it, especially in the future? Now this factor requires you to always stay at the current technology and happenings.

If you want to pursue Management Information System related, there should be no Biology or Physics at all. Are Physics and Biology used in managing information systems? No. This is a simple answer. Is it simply related? No.

Now, here are my rants about subjects in Computer study, especially Software Engineering. These subjects are a must!

Mathematics irrelevance and relevance

What about mathematics, such as Algebra, Geometry, Trigonometry, Calculus? There should be no single major of Mathematics. While I was having studied at STTS, the subjects were named as Mathematics I, II. At that time, the subjects were simply Calculus that combined with Analytical Geometry. Could they simply just use Calculus I, II, instead of Mathematics? I don't get it. This ambiguity can be found also in other college and universities in Indonesia. Sadly enough, in my previous post, it also happens in UNSW (Australia).

Mathematics is a very big subject that can't be simply described and digested in one or two semesters! Unless you're one of the undergraduate student of pure science such as Mathematics, you can't have it all. Do you really need basic Algebra? Yes, in a sense of overview, not all. But the rise of advances in programming language such as C# lambda expressions, you have to have some basics of Algebra and also intermediate knowledge of Calculus.

Computer Graphics theory popularity awakens!

Now, since many of us are also beginning to concern about full graphical UI and this can be tricky.

Many facts as examples:

• Latest development of .NET 3.0 and 3.5 has brought us a new set of WPF API that fully utilize DirectX. This brings us into realms of 3D computing, not just in a gaming software development.
• Java has Project Looking Glass which is fully graphical, just like WPF.
• MacOS X and the upcoming Leopard have their own already famous UI and own sets of graphics API.

With those facts, would you still want to avoid Computer Graphics subject, even as an overview or introduction? According to factor #3, it's still quite relevant, especially reason #5. But, Computer Graphics need Calculus and Geometry Analytics.

Web standards knowledge such as HTML 4, XHTML 1.0 and 1.1, CSS level 2, DOM 2, and (not so) basic JavaScript skill

Unless you're coding desktop applications for your whole lifetime programming, then you definitely need the above subject. Unfortunately, not all of the universities I know, especially in Indonesia, are willing to make this into a full semester study.

As far as I know, many and most of all Indonesian web programmers doesn't care about web standards! Try to validate most of Indonesian websites such as these (famous) websites:

• Detik, http://www.detik.com
• Jawapos, http://www.jawapos.com
• Astaga, http://www.astaga.com

Sadly, these big Indonesian software development companies also have deployed non standards websites:

• Balicamp, http://www.balicamp.com
• PT SIGMA, http://www.sigma.co.id/
• Jatis,
• MitraIS, http://www.mitrais.com/

...and many more! Sadly enough, most of these websites are showing high usages of images, therefore they always assume that you have enough bandwidth to view their pages. Nowadays, the high usages of images are gone. Look at digg, furl, youtube, and also flickr. Also look at the multinational corporate websites such as IBM, Sun, and Opera. They sure know how to handle images properly.

What about bandwidth conscious? There's no such things to be considered in any universities in Indonesia! I had been interviewing many young software developer prospects from many universities graduates in Indonesia, and still I have no clue about how dull are they when I talked about bandwidth concerns. The universities are busy with arts and aesthetics, but they offer no discussion about web standards and yes, bandwidth conscious.

Even if there are talks about aesthetics, these guys can't be considered themselves as good aesthetics experts, since most of them come from IT majors, not graphic design. Hard conclusion is: if you are really having IT background especially in creating web pages, you MUST have web standards knowledge (at least in HTML 4.0, CSS Level 2, and DOM 2, and some JavaScript). Period.

Otherwise, you'll be known as a bullshit guy in front of web developer community, especially in web forums such as Sitepoint, W3C.

There are many other irrelevancies! Are there any real software development companies that have real background knowledge about web standards? Are they also care about what are the real traits of a good enterprise software developer and what should they get in colleges and universities? (Continued in next post...)

Yes. this is so confusing. No, I'm not talking about any named universities in Indonesia, but it's mainly based on my own observation about general curricula in Indonesia and therefore may contain subjective views. I will try to be mostly objective as far as I can.

Do you want to study computer software in Indonesia? Be prepared. It's not easy as you might think. You'll face a lot of irrelevancies along the rough road you choose.

Choice of major #1: Informatics Management (this was my major)

I enrolled at STTS in 1993. When I heard that major, my mind was imagining that there's something about information system and information technology as a whole but not specifically as a theorist. But the fact was different, but fortunately, I was lucky enough to have this study on my previous college, STTS in Surabaya. STTS at that time was not so far from my imaginations, I got basic Management Information System for one semester. But some of the other subjects were taken from Computer Science discipline, such as Discrete Mathematics. If I got Discrete Mathematics, it should be in the form of overview and introduction (in Indonesia can be called "Pengantar"), not in the form of the whole concept of Discrete Mathematics that being compressed into one semester! It's not just that, I also got Logic Digital Circuitry!         

As far as I know, the relation of any circuitry related to Information system is so unrelated. Do I have to delve into the technical workings (also inner workings) of a computer circuit? It makes no sense to me. I have checked by asking questions on some alumnis of 1999, the circuitry subject was still there.

What about other universities and colleges? Could be worse. I have some friends who graduated from quite two big reputable universities on south part of Surabaya, and they got Physics on semester one or two. What is the relation of Physics with Information system? No clue. Is it part of the government curriculum? I don't think so. STTS was so different. I've checked on Binus and Untar (in Jakarta), they are also dare not to have Physics as part of the curriculum.

Choice of major #2: Computer Science

Again, when I compared Surabaya to other catalogs and prospectus from universities in Jakarta or even in Australia, the results are horrible. As far as I know, Computer Science as a major is now being part of major in UGM (in Yogyakarta) and UNIBRAW (in Malang). In UNIBRAW, Biology and Physics were one on the subjects in Computer Science. Can you see the relevance? I can't. In UGM, there's Physics.

Choice of major #3: Software Engineering

Now, I heard that this major is very rare, even does not exist. But there's a small college but they're brave enough to open this major. What I imagine? A dream major! Since I do need a lot of knowledge, not just practical knowledge that was obtained by my own experiences. This is a sample curriculum subjects of Software Engineering from UNSW, Sydney, Australia.

Program Description

The Software Engineering Program is jointly administered by the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the School of Information Systems, Technology and Management. Day to day administration is conducted through the Computer Science and Engineering Student Office, to which enquiries should be directed.
The stages of the program are shown below. It should be noted that it is possible to adapt the program by moving courses, subject to prerequisite requirements. Approval should be obtained for changes.

Note:

The School also offers the combined degrees
BE(Software Eng)/BScprogram 3651,
BE(Software Eng)/BA program 3652,
BE(Software Eng)/BCom program3653,
the concurrent degree BE(SoftwareEng)/MBiomedE program3749
and also the fast track program BE(Software Eng)/MEngScprogram SENGL13648

Program Objectives and Learning Outcomes

For further information please visit the school website at http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/seng

Program Structure

Year 1

• INFS1603 Business Data Management (6 UOC)
• MATH1081 Discrete Mathematics (6 UOC)
• SENG1031 Software Engineering Workshop 1 (6 UOC)

And ONE of:

• COMP1911 Computing 1 (6 UOC)
• COMP1917 Higher Computing 1 (6 UOC)

And ONE of:

• COMP1921 Data Structures and Algorithms (6 UOC)
• COMP1927 Higher Data Str. & Algos (6 UOC)

And ONE of:

• MATH1131 Mathematics 1A (6 UOC)
• MATH1141 Higher Mathematics 1A (6 UOC)

And One of:

• MATH1231 Mathematics 1B (6 UOC)
• MATH1241 Higher Mathematics 1B (6 UOC)

Year 1 - Free Electives (6 UOC)

Year 2

• COMP2111 System Modelling and Design (6 UOC)
• COMP2121 Microprocessors & Interfacing (6 UOC)
• COMP2911 Engineering Design 2 (6 UOC)
• COMP3711 Software Project Management (6 UOC)
• INFS2603 Systems Analysis and Design (6 UOC)
• MATH2859 Prob, Stats and Information (3 UOC)
• SENG2010 Software Eng Workshop 2A (3 UOC)
• SENG2020 Software Eng Workshop 2B (3 UOC)

General Education (3 UOC)
Year 2 - Free Electives (6 UOC )

Year 3

• COMP3141 Software Sys Des&Implementat'n (6 UOC)
• SENG3010 Software Eng Workshop 3A (3 UOC)
• SENG3020 Software Eng Workshop 3B (3 UOC)

And ONE of:

• COMP3331 Computer Networks & Applications (6 UOC)
• INFS2607 Business Data Networks (6 UOC)

General Education (9 UOC)
SE Electives (21 UOC)

Year 4

• SENG4903 Industrial Training (0 UOC)
• SENG4910 Thesis Part A (6 UOC)
• SENG4911 Thesis Part B (12 UOC)
• SENG4921 Professional Issues and Ethics (6 UOC)

SE Electives (24 UOC)
Electives
The 8 electives (48 UOC) for stages 3 and 4 may include any third and fourth stage COMP, INFS and 3rd year MATHS courses. Electives and more information can be found at www.cse.unsw.edu.au/seng.

See? It's full of relevant information and subjects about software engineering. Can Indonesian education do this?

Questions, questions, and lots of questions!

Now, back to Indonesia. the reality comes: there are many unrelated courses and subjects of computer topic. Then these questions arise from the most bottom of my heart and my consciousness:

• Who are the one that create those curricula?
• I assume the Indonesian government that handle these stuff, the Indonesia's General Directorate of Higher Education, have any attention on this, or does he/she really care?
• Since some people, especially lecturers in many university always blame the regulation of setting curricula. Or, is it just a classic defensive reason of having no capabilities to supervise/monitor this, or simply matter of ignorance?
• Are they, either those guys from government and the guys from universities, really know the relevancies? Judging from the fact, it should be clear enough!

Conclusions? Please...

There is no conclusion from me. Simply, I feel left in the dark. Very dark.

Next: What exactly are relevancies related to these computer software studies? Are there enlightments/hopes in Indonesian education system available for all of us, especially the newbie software developers (also wannabes)?

Begins with this blog entry, I'll try to write my entry in English and in Indonesian, especially when it contains local Indonesian content and also local event in Indonesia.

In English:

Ten days ago, at 6.30pm, I was phoned by Airlangga. He asked me to accompany him having an informal interview on Suara Surabaya FM. I was then phoned by Restu, one of the Suara Surabaya's radio announcer/broadcaster (in Indonesia, we simply called it "penyiar radio"). She asked me for confirmation and I said yes. I hurriedly go to Suara Surabaya.

After I arrived, I was then interviewed by Muhammad (sorry for misspelling the exact name), also one of the radio announcer in Suara Surabaya. So the interview began while some of the listeners were participating in.

In short, it was interview about the Impact of Internet to the Youth generation of Indonesia. At first, Elang and I were asked about my first time of knowing and get acquainted with Internet. We said that we had known Internet since 1996, when we were studying in university.

And then we were directly and straightforward asked about the pornographic content of Internet and the growing habits of being narcissist either by showing your own movies of having sex. There the topic was later developed to be the ways to handle the negative effect of Internet.

Mostly Elang and I agreed that the best solution to this is the parents role is very important. Parents today have to realize that Internet itself, can't be avoided and be denied. The best way for them instead of having paranoid is just be with their children while the children surfs the Internet.

And then the school and environment also plays important role too, but if the youth generation has been given a decent but simple briefing about the Internet, we think it'll also give views of Internet as a positive way.

Some pauses occured since Suara Surabaya had to give information about traffic report. But overall, the interview was fun and we enjoyed it.

Right after the interview was over, Restu offers me to be interviewed after Lebaran (after 17th October) about computer security. And you guess it right, I said yes.

In Indonesian (Bahasa Indonesia):

Hai, berikut adalah entri pertama blog saya, Eriawan Kusumawardhono, dalam bahasa Indonesia. Sepuluh hari yang lalu jam 18.30, saya ditelpon oleh Airlangga. Dia meminta saya untuk menemaninya dalam suatu interview santai di Suara Surabaya FM. Kemudian saya ditelpon Restu, salah satu penyiar Suara Surabaya. Dia menanyakan konfirmasi dan saya menjawab iya, kemudian saya segera meluncur ke Suara Surabaya.

Setelah saya tiba di sana, saya diinterview oleh Muhammad (mohon maaf bila namanya salah), juga salah satu penyiar Suara Surabaya. Kemudian interview dimulai, dan pada saat itu beberapa pendengar juga ikut berpartisipasi.

Secara singkat, interviewnya tentag Dampak Internet terhadap generasi muda Indonesia. Saya dan Elang pada waktu awal ditanyai tentang saat pertama mengenal dan akrab dengan Internet seperti sekarang. Kami mengatakan telah mengenal Internet sejak tahun 1996, di mana saat itu kami masih kuliah di universitas.

Selanjutnya kami langsung diberi pertanyaan tentang meningkatnya gejala narsis yang salah satunya adalah kebiasaan membuat film kita sendiri yang sedang berhubungan seks, serta konten pornografi di Internet. Kemudian topik ini juga berkembang menjadi bagaimana menanggulangi dampak negatif Internet.

Secara umum kami setuju bahwa solusi terbaik dimulai dari peran orang tua, yang dalam hal ini sangat penting. Orangtua jaman sekarang harus menyadari bahwa Internet tidak bisa ditolak dan dihindari. Cara terbaik untuk mereka adalah mendampingi anak-anak mereka pada saat memakai Internet.

Yang tidak kalah penting adalah peranan sekolah dan lingkungan, tapi jika generasi muda telah diberi arahan terlebih dahulu dari orang tua, maka Internet akan selalu dipandang sebagai hal yang postif terlepas dari dampak negatifnya.

Beberapa jeda terjadi karena Suara Surabaya harus mengudarakan laporan lalulintas jalan. Tetapi secara utuh kami menganggap interviewnya sangat menyenangkan dan kami menikmatinya.

Setelah interview selesai, Restu langsung menawari saya untuk interview lagi setelah lebaran (setelah 17 Oktober) tentang keamanan komputer. Dan bisa ditebak, saya menerimanya.

 

PS:

What do you think?

Yes! Fortunately for all of us, .NET developers, Microsoft has released a post VS 2005 SP1 updates. Funny thing is, the update is available from MS Connect website (a Windows Live ID (formerly .NET Passport) is required), not from the usual MS Download Center.

This is the original MS Knowledge Base article:

FIX: A Web site is not published when you try to publish the site by clicking "Publish Web Site" on the "Build" menu in Visual Studio 2005

This update is critical for me. It's been waited for a long time. What do you think?

Now, the discussion is raging everywhere! But one think is true, Dave Winer is the true blogger before Jorn Barger. Duncan Riley (a quite well known blogging evangelist) has an interesting blog post with many remarkable facts!

This is a quote from him:

Tunku Varadarajan at The Wall Street Journal wishes blogging a happy 10th birthday; one problem, blogging is not 10 years old, it’s actually older.

According to my history of blogging (still No. 3 on Google BTW, and heavily researched at the time) blogging turned 11 on January 10, the date in which the first credited blogger (according to Wikipedia as well) Justin Hall commences writing an online journal with dated daily entries, although each daily post is linked through an index page. On the journal he writes “Some days, before I go to bed, I think about my day, and how it meshed with my life, and I write a little about what learned me.”

In February Dave Winer follows up with a weblog that chronicles the 24 Hours of Democracy Project.

Winer has often claimed that he was the first blogger, I’ve long disagreed but whether it was Hall or Winer is a moot point: both were blogging in 1996, and yet Varadarajan writes this rubbish:

“We are approaching a decade since the first blogger — regarded by many to be Jorn Barger — began his business of hunting and gathering links to items that tickled his fancy, to which he appended some of his own commentary. On Dec. 23, 1997, on his site, Robot Wisdom, Mr. Barger wrote….”

Brrr.... this is an interesting post! If you read the comments, you'll see that some people tried to defend WSJ, but the fail to mention the fact. Additional fact according to Duncan Riley, Jorn Barger was using Dave Winer's CMS software! So, who's the first?

This media circus always driving me nuts! Not to mention wrong definition on Wikipedia!

On July 14, 2007, Wall Street Journal has an article about the history of blogging. Thanks to this blog entry of CrunchNotes, he pointed out that the most fatal flaw is about the very first blog by Jorn Barger. The fact as we all know, the true very first blogger is Dave Winer. Yes, Dave Winer is the father of blogs!.

CrunchNotes » Will Someone Who Actually Cares About Blogging Please Write the History Of it?

The CrunchNotes entry also initiated other debate on many blogs (including mine):

• This one by Robert Scoble
• This one by Don MacAskill
• and many more on Technorati

This the response from Dave Winer:

http://www.scripting.com/stories/2007/07/15/wsjAndTheHistoryOfBlogs.html

Then, how come big media company such WSJ makes these silly but notable mistake?

Update (July 19, 2007 10:29:00 +0700 GMT):

Scott Rosenberg has discussed this blog history also, and he has some inspiring fact about the true blog father, Dave Winer!