Yesterday my request for taking JNCIP-M exam was rejected by my superior. When I heard the news, it hit me like lightning strike on the broad daylight. Well, I have been doing several routing projects in the last three months. The first one is Excelcomm MPLS separation in which I involved as mere project engineer, i.e : helping my colleagues doing router configuration. It's very easy and it was a very good way for entering routing world once again :)...
The second one was Indosat Hongkong gateway upgrade phase 1. This task was very easy too since we encounter power capacity problem at the Hongkong site. Therefore, Indosat decided to split the delivery of the project into two phase. The first one - which had been done just recently - was meant to deliver the router physically into the site and doing some initial configuration on them. The second phase - which far more challenging and interesting since there will be migration activities - will be begun in early January.
The third one is the current project I and my team handle. This is the most interesting task I do between these three projects. In this project, we coorporate with Ericsson Indonesia delivering 3G Network for Axis, one of very fast-growing GSM provider in Indonesia.Ericsson engineer is very nice and I must say he possess networking skill more than mine right now. Being inactive for two years in routing activities is enough for me to forget many things. I'm still struggling reviewing back all the material needed for doing decent configuration.
It's really fun anyway. I realize I still need time to be back even at JNCIS level. And for taking JNCIP-M at the end of January, actually I think I'm still capable to pursue the deadline. Since there are only two more chapters in JNCIP-M that I haven't practiced. My plan previously is to sacrifice this year's Christmas, New Year and Chinese New Year event for practising JNCIP-M.
So, when my superior rejected my request and ordered me to do routing work for at least 6 months, well....first thing I feel is upset. Of course, I have already planned it since three months ago. But now well, I think that's not a really bad decision anyway. In this way, I could reduce my stress and having fun for New Year's event :). And meanwhile waiting for JNCIP-M exam opportunity again in the next 6 months, I could use the time to take another exam. My CCNA is also going to expire in less than 6 months later.
I am going to take the next level, either CCNP or CCIP, and this time I must use my own money since my company doesn't support this exam. Well, 6 million rupiahs (about $600) is not a small amount of money for me. (Well, There must a reason that keep me still single until this day, mustn't there?). My savings will decrease a lot so I don't want to waste any my hard-earned money this time.
Still a long way to go to be a truly networking expert....;)
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Kworld TVBox 1440ex review
Well, having injured my back somehow my appetite is decreasing a lot. On the peak pain hampered me, I even ate nothing for a whole days except bread. Thank God, I stored bread in my room so when I was unable of getting up from my bed, at least I could reach them and ate them :D. The result is I lost 4 kilos. It's a new record since the biggest loss I was able to manage is 3 kilos when I got "germany measles" 5-6 years ago.But the good "side effect" of losing my appetite is I'm able to save my penny - that suppose I spend for buying food - and buy this good : Kworld External TVBox 1440 ex. After toying with it for a while, here is the verdict.
Kworld is designed for no brainer. Even an idiot can use it without any sweat. There are tiny buttons on the tuner box that feel a little bit uncomfortable to press for controlling the tuner functions, but nevermind we won't use them a lot since the remote control will take over anything most of the time. The remote control use infrared as its transmission so we must point it to the tuner straightly. The remote control button is really good but for those with big fingers may wish the buttons there are slighly bigger too.
Hooking them to the monitor and the CPU is really easy. As I said in the beginning : this product is for no brainer. It's too easy to use! That's a good thing anyway ^_^. Using this product, we can watch television with our computer monitor without need to turn on our pc. But when we use our PC and want to watch tv for a moment, for example for watching news, we don't need to turn off out PC before turning on the tuner. Not necessary!
Just press the power on button on the remote control and the monitor will switch to display tv programmes instantly. And when we power off the tuner, we can continue using our PC just as we left off for watching tv. There is no data loss, no hassle. Very good product.
And for those who like to multitask a little bit, can use PIP function offered by this tuner. For example, when we want to kill the time by playing solitaire but we don't want to lose any single scene from our favorite movie broadcasting on the tv, the PIP surely come into useful. We also can arrange the position of PIP windows so that it won't disturb area we want to view. Very nice feature.
But inspite of the great features this product offers, there are two weakness I note. The first one is the sound quality it produces. While it seems a really good idea for including small speaker inside this tuner, the quality of speaker is proven to be too bad for music and movie. Those who really are music and movie lover should think of investing more money for buying better speaker and hook them to this tuner.
The second and last one, since computer monitor is more superior in displaying pictures than analog tv we usually use in our daily life, the weakness of analog tv signal is become more and more apparent. But this is actually a problem for every tv tuners if they are paired with digital monitor anyway. Kworld TVBox 1440ex provides us with noise reduction function, but I noticed that it doesn't help a lot for a very bad tv signal.
Anyway, this is a very good product for daily use. It's very easy to use and that's what makes this product fun to use :).
And last note, for those looking for better resolution, they can go for its sibling, Kworld TVBox 1680ex, which is nothing but a same product with better max resolution support (1680x1050) instead of 1440x900.
Be a fans of Chelsea Olivia...
I'm not a kind of person who likes to spend all my evening for watching drama tv series. But in the recent year I recognized a girl who played - and still plays - a lot of drama tv series. First time I saw her acting, I think she needed more polish from other senior actresses. Her acting just like an "acting" not actual scene.But now after several drama tv series, she is getting better and better and I really appreciate her improvement. Especially when I knew that she is only 16 years old! Oh boy. Now that sounds like a really great accomplishment. At that age I am nothing but an ordinary teenager looking for my self identity :P.
Go Chelsea! I'm rooting for you ^_^
Why are you so happy, Steve?
Approximately one months ago, I shocked one Excelcomm guy because I looked very different. He said to me "This is the first time I see you very happy" and he wondered why I looked that way. The reason is simple. At that moment, I just can barely walk without pain after thinking I will be in doom forever. The physiotherapy that doctor treat me in Bandung was really worked. And two weeks ago, all the pain disappeared. It's like a gift God give to me ^_^. And as usual I cannot resist the temptation of practising basketball again. But that was foolish decision - I realized it after it was too late!
Be in basketball field after a long time really made me happy. The wooden floor and leather basketball was acting like they called me. "This night will be a perfect game again", I thought at that time. Everything felt great, no pain no restriction. All system clear! And I tried to do several movements like layups and long shot. And one missed three points made me felt really awful. Not only because that was a bad shot, but when I did that, I felt something gone from my back. Like there was numb muscles and suddenly the pain came back again. Oh my!
Fear of unable being a normal person again, I rushed emailed my superior, asking for medical treatment the next days. She brought me to the hospital. Graha Medika hospital. The doctor there analyzed me and then he injected something - later on known as some painkiller - to my lower back and my upper bottom. 4 injections and I felt better. The pain was remedied a little bit but I felt slightly dizzy that day. And tomorrow will be two weeks since that incidents happened again. The pain is relieved slowly day after day. Even now I still have to be careful and wear a belt around my back everyday to prevent a wrong movement again...
And the worse thing is the doctor forbade me to do any sport activity at least for one month except swimming. But as you may know, I can't swim. And I have no time to learn swimming at the moment. The tasks from my office has already made me suffer enough in the recent weeks since my productivity decreased because in the recovery period, I need more rest than before. I don't care anyway, I'll do anything to be cured from my back injury totally and be able to playing basketball again in the future.....
Be in basketball field after a long time really made me happy. The wooden floor and leather basketball was acting like they called me. "This night will be a perfect game again", I thought at that time. Everything felt great, no pain no restriction. All system clear! And I tried to do several movements like layups and long shot. And one missed three points made me felt really awful. Not only because that was a bad shot, but when I did that, I felt something gone from my back. Like there was numb muscles and suddenly the pain came back again. Oh my!
Fear of unable being a normal person again, I rushed emailed my superior, asking for medical treatment the next days. She brought me to the hospital. Graha Medika hospital. The doctor there analyzed me and then he injected something - later on known as some painkiller - to my lower back and my upper bottom. 4 injections and I felt better. The pain was remedied a little bit but I felt slightly dizzy that day. And tomorrow will be two weeks since that incidents happened again. The pain is relieved slowly day after day. Even now I still have to be careful and wear a belt around my back everyday to prevent a wrong movement again...
And the worse thing is the doctor forbade me to do any sport activity at least for one month except swimming. But as you may know, I can't swim. And I have no time to learn swimming at the moment. The tasks from my office has already made me suffer enough in the recent weeks since my productivity decreased because in the recovery period, I need more rest than before. I don't care anyway, I'll do anything to be cured from my back injury totally and be able to playing basketball again in the future.....
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Hero and anti-porn law
Can't sleep today. Time to write my blog, I think. This month people in Indonesia are celebrating their Heroes day at November 10th which just past a few days ago. In this particular days, commonly goverment gives reward to someone which it thinks deserve it. The reward usually a national hero title, and it always been a discussion in the newspaper about the struggle he/she did in the past before he/she are recognized by government and given that title.
So....national hero eh? While maybe people with that title will be admired for time to time, generation by generation, it doesn't mean people without it must not be admired. In our society, there always heroes around us. We see them everyday, feel their presence, being part of their good will and sometimes we even forget to say thanks.
People doesn't need to have a super power in order to be a hero for somebody else. What people need is only conducting good act for someone else and he will be regarded as hero for that person. But sometimes it's really hard to find the true hero since capitalism has change the world into its further form. Nowadays, when we see someone helping others, many accusations and suspicion will emerge since if we don't know the person personally, we easily judge him/her as doing it for expecting any rewards.
There are many kind of people nowadays. People who has lost their shame and doing everything for their stake, people who stay in their faith and walk across their path sturdily, people who choose to live in honesty, etc. But what kind of people can be categorized as hero now? Good question.
The answer is somehow blur, but I can assure that hero won't be entitled to people who enforce anti-porn law in Indonesia. It's insteresting that anti-porn law always invites controversy. Some people argue that it will maintain good society, while others are against it, saying it's an insult to our civilization. Well, if you ask me my opinion, I tend to say that anti-porn law is not necessary.
Humans are free, they have free mind, free will and free soul. It's not government who must tell us what to do in our daily activities, but our conscience. By saying we need anti-porn law, the government are saying that we are not trusted enough to build a good society. I think it comes back to every personality in each person. People who agreed to be bound to anti-porn law must be people who realize they do not have a decent conscience to supress their passion. I know some people cannot control their act when they happen across sexual scene. And yes, that kind of people must be "protected" so that they cannot conduct sexual crime. One way to "protect" them is to telling them the good and the bad stated in a law. Sense of fear being punished by law often can overcome other senses.
But others who are educated enough, have strong sense of conscience and faith of their religion will feel this law is inevitably b**ls**t. What does the use of a law if we have already know the good and the bad and can control our action and mind precisely in our daily activities? Well, anti-porn law is a stupid law that unfortunately is still needed by our immature society. The more people claim its importance, the more people admit that our society is a nothing but rubbish.
But nevermind, so who're heroes anyway? Simply said, hero is the one who play his/her role in the society well, donate his/her life for the goodness of society. There are many good examples of heroes in our daily life, but unfortunately there are much more good examples of non-heroic action. Parents who wake up early in the morning and sleep late in the night for pursuing welfare for their family are nothing but true hero for their child. But do they are a hero for others? Not necessarily.
It's near impossible to be a hero for everyone. In fact, universal heroes don't exists!. Indonesian national hero may be regarded as traitor or immortal enemy by other countries. So what the use of that title anyway? Nothing.
People who are hoping for being a hero, won't be a true hero. True hero will be hero since they have all prerequisites naturally not because they struggle for. True hero is a hero by heart not by title! It's very hard to be a true hero and I myself do not qualify to become one ;).
So....national hero eh? While maybe people with that title will be admired for time to time, generation by generation, it doesn't mean people without it must not be admired. In our society, there always heroes around us. We see them everyday, feel their presence, being part of their good will and sometimes we even forget to say thanks.
People doesn't need to have a super power in order to be a hero for somebody else. What people need is only conducting good act for someone else and he will be regarded as hero for that person. But sometimes it's really hard to find the true hero since capitalism has change the world into its further form. Nowadays, when we see someone helping others, many accusations and suspicion will emerge since if we don't know the person personally, we easily judge him/her as doing it for expecting any rewards.
There are many kind of people nowadays. People who has lost their shame and doing everything for their stake, people who stay in their faith and walk across their path sturdily, people who choose to live in honesty, etc. But what kind of people can be categorized as hero now? Good question.
The answer is somehow blur, but I can assure that hero won't be entitled to people who enforce anti-porn law in Indonesia. It's insteresting that anti-porn law always invites controversy. Some people argue that it will maintain good society, while others are against it, saying it's an insult to our civilization. Well, if you ask me my opinion, I tend to say that anti-porn law is not necessary.
Humans are free, they have free mind, free will and free soul. It's not government who must tell us what to do in our daily activities, but our conscience. By saying we need anti-porn law, the government are saying that we are not trusted enough to build a good society. I think it comes back to every personality in each person. People who agreed to be bound to anti-porn law must be people who realize they do not have a decent conscience to supress their passion. I know some people cannot control their act when they happen across sexual scene. And yes, that kind of people must be "protected" so that they cannot conduct sexual crime. One way to "protect" them is to telling them the good and the bad stated in a law. Sense of fear being punished by law often can overcome other senses.
But others who are educated enough, have strong sense of conscience and faith of their religion will feel this law is inevitably b**ls**t. What does the use of a law if we have already know the good and the bad and can control our action and mind precisely in our daily activities? Well, anti-porn law is a stupid law that unfortunately is still needed by our immature society. The more people claim its importance, the more people admit that our society is a nothing but rubbish.
But nevermind, so who're heroes anyway? Simply said, hero is the one who play his/her role in the society well, donate his/her life for the goodness of society. There are many good examples of heroes in our daily life, but unfortunately there are much more good examples of non-heroic action. Parents who wake up early in the morning and sleep late in the night for pursuing welfare for their family are nothing but true hero for their child. But do they are a hero for others? Not necessarily.
It's near impossible to be a hero for everyone. In fact, universal heroes don't exists!. Indonesian national hero may be regarded as traitor or immortal enemy by other countries. So what the use of that title anyway? Nothing.
People who are hoping for being a hero, won't be a true hero. True hero will be hero since they have all prerequisites naturally not because they struggle for. True hero is a hero by heart not by title! It's very hard to be a true hero and I myself do not qualify to become one ;).
Friday, October 31, 2008
Getting back to work!
It's really good be able to work again after a while. Spending your days for lying down in the bed over and over again is a bit too much for me :(. Recovering from my back injury lights my days again for sure :). And today is the first day I back to work as Juniper engineer. Well today, I start it with learning the system my colleagues have built for years. I have not touched Juniper devices for 2 years, concentrating my all for Infovista. Therefore there are many things I need to remember!
InfoVista and Juniper are two different beasts. Both are excellent for creating flawless network infrastructure. And it's really a golden opportunity given to me for I am be able to be acquainted with both products. Well, both have their own complexity that will take your lifetime for sure, but that's really fun, actually!
After finishing this year's InfoVista projects, I decided for taking time for a while. Taking breath from Infovista and rejuvenating my Juniper memory. Of course, next year there will be more exciting projects for InfoVista, but I saw capabilities from my colleagues and I think this is the right time for entrusting them with the full responsibility for InfoVista.
Meanwhile, I will spend almost my entire time for Juniper things. Having been failure two times in JNCIP-M test is not a pleasant experience I endured in the past. And there's still a small fire inside of me that urge me to pass that exam successfully. Well, I think if I am diligent this year and concentrate all for Juniper, I will be able to do it.
Only three keywords I must do from now on : Practice, Practice and Practice!
InfoVista and Juniper are two different beasts. Both are excellent for creating flawless network infrastructure. And it's really a golden opportunity given to me for I am be able to be acquainted with both products. Well, both have their own complexity that will take your lifetime for sure, but that's really fun, actually!
After finishing this year's InfoVista projects, I decided for taking time for a while. Taking breath from Infovista and rejuvenating my Juniper memory. Of course, next year there will be more exciting projects for InfoVista, but I saw capabilities from my colleagues and I think this is the right time for entrusting them with the full responsibility for InfoVista.
Meanwhile, I will spend almost my entire time for Juniper things. Having been failure two times in JNCIP-M test is not a pleasant experience I endured in the past. And there's still a small fire inside of me that urge me to pass that exam successfully. Well, I think if I am diligent this year and concentrate all for Juniper, I will be able to do it.
Only three keywords I must do from now on : Practice, Practice and Practice!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Car accident...
It's been a long time since last time I wrote in my blogs. Well, this is because in the past few weeks there is an event that change my life direction towards this happening. What is that? You will find out in just a moment.
It happened on September 27th, 2008. That was the days when I (supposedly) began to enjoy a long holidays. I woke up very late in the daylight (well, every holiday always turn me to a lazybone, no wonder :P) and I realized that I had to go back to my hometown that day as promised to my mom. So then I prepared myself. Ate decent and proper meals and packed my bags with things and then hurriedly moved on to the train station.
I was in bad luck again. (Hey, have I told you that this year I had many bad lucks?) The tickets were all sold out. So I must make a decision fast, either to go to bus station and try my luck again there, or take an offer to ride unregistered car travel service easily found on train station. Because at that time, it was getting dark outside and moreover, I carried all my things - which were very heavy, then I conclude to one decision -> Take the unregistered car travel.
It will cost me 70 thousand rupiahs (~ 7 dollars) which is more expensive than to take bus or train, but for a long pleasantful holidays, I didn't think much about it ;). Before we go, the driver seemed like he ill prepare because we must wait for another passenger who he said taking a dinner first. It was an old man, who turned out to be a public transportation driver.
At first the ride seemed okay. The musics was loud, though it was not enjoyable to listen to because of cheap automotive speaker he used. And the air conditioner was very nice. We didn't feel hot at all although there are eight people in the car. At then at one point, the old man - the public transportation driver sat beside me - warned the driver that he felt something loose. He hinted about somethings in the car and urged the driver to check them out. So the driver stopped the car at nearest checkpoint for quick check. He only examined them very fast and said that everything were okay.
So the journey was continued but not for long. In the km 63 at Cipularang highway, suddenly I feel a shock. The car whose speed 70 km/hour was then out of control. It swayed to the right and left before the driver managed to stop it at road shoulder. Fortunately, the car was not turned upside down, so none of use had any serious wound. I noticed I only got bump on my back and some scratches in my legs. Nevermind about the wound, the one I was worry about was how we could continue the trip safely.
The one which I thought was tire explotion turned out to be tire loose. When I saw that incident with my bare eyes, my first comment was it very unfortunate for me not to bring any cameras at that time otherwise I could have shot and documented the accident for memory :P. I wanted to laugh, but just couldn't. Anyway, we'd trapped between Bandung and Jakarta. So in short, we all decided to take a bus afterwards. We encouraged ourselves to stop the bus and fortunately one of the bus was willing to stop and carried us.
It was very hectic in the bus, but noone minded that. Everyone was thinking howto be safe and able to be with their family as soon as possible because it had already near midnight at that time. I myself, was able to come home at midnight. Feeling very exhausted, I realize my back felt hurt. So in the next days to come, I spent time on bed, lying because it felt hurt to shake my back. I didn't go to the doctor instantly because at that time I didn't think that was necessary.
Three years ago, I had incident on basketball field which prevented me to walk normally for a month and gave me pain in my back for almost two years, but I managed to go through that without seeing any doctors. I think this time the incident was better that three years ago, because at least I can still walk even feeling hurt. So when the holiday was over, I went to work at my office as usual.
But soon I realize there was something wrong with my back. More serious than I felt after the accident happened in instant. I felt pain when I sat and walked. The only one position which relieved me from pain was lying down. Maybe that's why I didn't feel the pain mostly when I'm still in holiday, because at that time, I managed to spend almost entire days by lying in my bed. But going to office and enduring daily activities is a different story. The pain was growing stronger and stronger.
The peak was last Tuesday, when I could not wake up at all without using my hand 100%. It was really painful to change any position from lying down to sit ot stand up. After spending three days with that condition without significant improvement, then I decided to go back to my hometown for treatment. The trip was really painful but I managed to kill the pain by using koyo cabe.
The first place I go for my treatment was traditional massage as suggested by my mom. It was really short and successfully tighten my loose ankle (I had broken ankle several times in the past) but not cured my back pain 100%. But at least the pain I felt when walking was decreasing. So then I decided to go for physiciatrist. I went there two times and the doctor said I need to rest for a full weeks. So here I am, ended up lying in my bed again, hoping this will be recovered as soon as possible. The good side of this story is I have much times to write in my blogs again :)...
It happened on September 27th, 2008. That was the days when I (supposedly) began to enjoy a long holidays. I woke up very late in the daylight (well, every holiday always turn me to a lazybone, no wonder :P) and I realized that I had to go back to my hometown that day as promised to my mom. So then I prepared myself. Ate decent and proper meals and packed my bags with things and then hurriedly moved on to the train station.
I was in bad luck again. (Hey, have I told you that this year I had many bad lucks?) The tickets were all sold out. So I must make a decision fast, either to go to bus station and try my luck again there, or take an offer to ride unregistered car travel service easily found on train station. Because at that time, it was getting dark outside and moreover, I carried all my things - which were very heavy, then I conclude to one decision -> Take the unregistered car travel.
It will cost me 70 thousand rupiahs (~ 7 dollars) which is more expensive than to take bus or train, but for a long pleasantful holidays, I didn't think much about it ;). Before we go, the driver seemed like he ill prepare because we must wait for another passenger who he said taking a dinner first. It was an old man, who turned out to be a public transportation driver.
At first the ride seemed okay. The musics was loud, though it was not enjoyable to listen to because of cheap automotive speaker he used. And the air conditioner was very nice. We didn't feel hot at all although there are eight people in the car. At then at one point, the old man - the public transportation driver sat beside me - warned the driver that he felt something loose. He hinted about somethings in the car and urged the driver to check them out. So the driver stopped the car at nearest checkpoint for quick check. He only examined them very fast and said that everything were okay.
So the journey was continued but not for long. In the km 63 at Cipularang highway, suddenly I feel a shock. The car whose speed 70 km/hour was then out of control. It swayed to the right and left before the driver managed to stop it at road shoulder. Fortunately, the car was not turned upside down, so none of use had any serious wound. I noticed I only got bump on my back and some scratches in my legs. Nevermind about the wound, the one I was worry about was how we could continue the trip safely.
The one which I thought was tire explotion turned out to be tire loose. When I saw that incident with my bare eyes, my first comment was it very unfortunate for me not to bring any cameras at that time otherwise I could have shot and documented the accident for memory :P. I wanted to laugh, but just couldn't. Anyway, we'd trapped between Bandung and Jakarta. So in short, we all decided to take a bus afterwards. We encouraged ourselves to stop the bus and fortunately one of the bus was willing to stop and carried us.
It was very hectic in the bus, but noone minded that. Everyone was thinking howto be safe and able to be with their family as soon as possible because it had already near midnight at that time. I myself, was able to come home at midnight. Feeling very exhausted, I realize my back felt hurt. So in the next days to come, I spent time on bed, lying because it felt hurt to shake my back. I didn't go to the doctor instantly because at that time I didn't think that was necessary.
Three years ago, I had incident on basketball field which prevented me to walk normally for a month and gave me pain in my back for almost two years, but I managed to go through that without seeing any doctors. I think this time the incident was better that three years ago, because at least I can still walk even feeling hurt. So when the holiday was over, I went to work at my office as usual.
But soon I realize there was something wrong with my back. More serious than I felt after the accident happened in instant. I felt pain when I sat and walked. The only one position which relieved me from pain was lying down. Maybe that's why I didn't feel the pain mostly when I'm still in holiday, because at that time, I managed to spend almost entire days by lying in my bed. But going to office and enduring daily activities is a different story. The pain was growing stronger and stronger.
The peak was last Tuesday, when I could not wake up at all without using my hand 100%. It was really painful to change any position from lying down to sit ot stand up. After spending three days with that condition without significant improvement, then I decided to go back to my hometown for treatment. The trip was really painful but I managed to kill the pain by using koyo cabe.
The first place I go for my treatment was traditional massage as suggested by my mom. It was really short and successfully tighten my loose ankle (I had broken ankle several times in the past) but not cured my back pain 100%. But at least the pain I felt when walking was decreasing. So then I decided to go for physiciatrist. I went there two times and the doctor said I need to rest for a full weeks. So here I am, ended up lying in my bed again, hoping this will be recovered as soon as possible. The good side of this story is I have much times to write in my blogs again :)...
Friday, October 3, 2008
Thank you Juniper Team ^_^
Recently, I checked my email and whoa, I got an unexpected email from Juniper Team. It says that they make special arrangement for me so that I will receive the mystery gift they offer for free! This is the email from Juniper Team :).
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Hi Stevanus
Thks for your valuable feedback. Juniper had made a special arrangement to add you into the list eligible for the First 30 rewards. Hence, you will be receiving 1-set of the 1GB thumbdrive + pointer together with your T-shirt and bagpack.
Congratulations!
Regards,
Juniper Networks Campaign (ASIN) - AROM
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I really must thank Juniper for this ^_^. They are so kind, listening to my complain. Well, for certain people, maybe usb thumbdrive and pointer is not valueable. But for me, what makes it really valueable is this prize can be considered as achievement of my efforts. And well, it boosts my morale for studying Juniper products even more :).
However, since I have decided to be serious in Juniper products beginning in next year, then certainly I must prepare myself for it. I still have 3 months for preparation and there is one certification that I aim to have in near future : JNCIS-FWV. Time to study right now :).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Stevanus
Thks for your valuable feedback. Juniper had made a special arrangement to add you into the list eligible for the First 30 rewards. Hence, you will be receiving 1-set of the 1GB thumbdrive + pointer together with your T-shirt and bagpack.
Congratulations!
Regards,
Juniper Networks Campaign (ASIN) - AROM
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I really must thank Juniper for this ^_^. They are so kind, listening to my complain. Well, for certain people, maybe usb thumbdrive and pointer is not valueable. But for me, what makes it really valueable is this prize can be considered as achievement of my efforts. And well, it boosts my morale for studying Juniper products even more :).
However, since I have decided to be serious in Juniper products beginning in next year, then certainly I must prepare myself for it. I still have 3 months for preparation and there is one certification that I aim to have in near future : JNCIS-FWV. Time to study right now :).
Friday, September 5, 2008
Out of Luck...
Well, in the recent months I've been super duper busy executing infovista project in Excelcomm. This year project is divided into 3 phase. And I'm in the middle of the third a.k.a last phase now :). The previous two has been done, but not without some hurdle and obstacles. Btw, it's rare anyway to have a 100% smooth project anyway :).
Sometimes this project requires me to work more than 14 hours. So I was down several times. Well, every human has it's limit ;). I know my company will be more than please seeing me work like that, since they never pay for my off-office hours work anyway.
And then came up news that there will be an employee gathering held in Borobudur Hotel. One of the main event is employee award of the year event. Well, in a moment came a thought maybe I would be recognized because of my hardwork this year and receive it. But after seeing how they determine the winner, i.e. through employee polls, I knew that I wouldn't be a winner anyway.
It's rare people in my office know me anyway since I spend most of the time in Excelcomm. So the event is more suitable called as popularity contest rather than achievement contest :). Even I could guess the winner before the event held. And in the end, I wasn't there anyway. There is no use to attend such an event. It will waste my time and make my spirit lower and it will impact to the project I'm working on...
Well, this is misfortune number one this year.
The second misfortune has just happened. It upset me for a while, but anyway, I'll have a nice bagpack as relieving present from Juniper. Well, honestly I should not complain about this. Juniper has been really nice for offering many gift to network engineer who pass their certification.
But since this is the second time I fail to have the gift I'm hoping maybe I have the right to call it misfortune :P. The first incident happens a few months ago when I request for BOSE headphone because I passed JNCIS-ER. At that time, I email Juniper, asking to change my gift from Casio watch to BOSE and they replied me that they still have BOSE and will ship it to my company address. So I was waiting for my BOSE but it seemed that they mistakenly sent me the Casio. Well, in the end, I sent an email to Juniper informed them about my situation but I said thanks anyway since Juniper has already been too kind for giving their Casio to me freely :).
The second incident is when Juniper announce that there will be a mysterious gift for anyone who has already passed both JNCIA-EX and JNCIS-ES. Well, as a very lucky man, I passed both with "remarkable mark". Why I said that? Because the score is so close to the passing grade that in the end of the test I stopped and said thanks to God, something I rarely do :P. Anyway, I'm more proud have that score because that was pure my understanding, not come from some cheat dump test easily found on the internet :D.
So I hurriedly email them and claim the present. It would be nice to have a recognition from Juniper of my hardwork. Well, it's really hard for me in the recent months of learning things out of infovista since my infovista projects itself has already occupied almost of my time so I deserve to call it as hardwork!
In the first email, I only be able to send them my claim along with certification pass notification from Juniper since I'm out of office. (All of my certification are kept in my office. It's my company policy) Juniper replied me and asked me to sent them scanned result slips or certification. I was very happy since the claim number is JN2-001. Wow, 001! So I was the first man ever to claim that prize :D
So in the next day, I reserve my time specially for visiting my office and asking for my certifications being scanned. After it I emailed them at the first place. Somehow my email are returned and there is a message that my email address has been blocked because of excessive spam. Well, it's really weird since I never spam anyone anyway. But maybe this is the sign of my inability to capture the great prize :).
Later I decide to sent them through my gmail. And here is the thread for you to read:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Anyway, everything has passed. This year is really not a good year for me. Out of luck here and there. But yeah, as I said in the email, nevermind :).
Maybe next year I'll get my prize I deserve to have. I still aim for JNCIP-M today. I failed the test twice and that make me feel like in hell. The failure is in me, which cannot allocate enough time for practising juniper because of my business with infovista. But next year would be different, I have determine to change that.
Beside, I have come to my boss explaining of my situation and he said that he cannot appreciate my work since my company is network-hardware based. So there is no use for being stubborn and risking all of my future with something like this. It's really pity because I've got used to infovista by implementing many projects in Excelcomm and Telkomsel this year. And I have met and worked together with several nice infovista people like Nguyen Vinh, Nitin A., my mentor Philip Brown, M. Zamri, and others.
But if this is something I must throw to garbage can for more promising career, well, I have no choice. Every big thing always needs sacrifice :).
It reminds me that once in the past I shocked everyone because of my anger. Well, at that time I cannot stop it. Well, I think everyone will be like that if they know they are being paid like one hundreth of other people payment. Hmm, I exaggerate it a little bit, but that's a sad true fact in indonesia. I can still remember my first salary as system engineer in my first company. At that time, I receive less than $150/month! Can you imagine that? As an employee we can do nothing here except struggle, struggle and struggle since there are approximately more than 40% unemployee in indonesia and the number keeps increasing each year.
That's life.
Actually I don't know what will happen in next year. Maybe the worst case is I have to resign from my company in pursuing for higher career. Or maybe a more serious company will hire me for doing infovista for their projects? Or maybe....I don't know...
All for all, I have to prepare my all for next year!
Sometimes this project requires me to work more than 14 hours. So I was down several times. Well, every human has it's limit ;). I know my company will be more than please seeing me work like that, since they never pay for my off-office hours work anyway.
And then came up news that there will be an employee gathering held in Borobudur Hotel. One of the main event is employee award of the year event. Well, in a moment came a thought maybe I would be recognized because of my hardwork this year and receive it. But after seeing how they determine the winner, i.e. through employee polls, I knew that I wouldn't be a winner anyway.
It's rare people in my office know me anyway since I spend most of the time in Excelcomm. So the event is more suitable called as popularity contest rather than achievement contest :). Even I could guess the winner before the event held. And in the end, I wasn't there anyway. There is no use to attend such an event. It will waste my time and make my spirit lower and it will impact to the project I'm working on...
Well, this is misfortune number one this year.
The second misfortune has just happened. It upset me for a while, but anyway, I'll have a nice bagpack as relieving present from Juniper. Well, honestly I should not complain about this. Juniper has been really nice for offering many gift to network engineer who pass their certification.
But since this is the second time I fail to have the gift I'm hoping maybe I have the right to call it misfortune :P. The first incident happens a few months ago when I request for BOSE headphone because I passed JNCIS-ER. At that time, I email Juniper, asking to change my gift from Casio watch to BOSE and they replied me that they still have BOSE and will ship it to my company address. So I was waiting for my BOSE but it seemed that they mistakenly sent me the Casio. Well, in the end, I sent an email to Juniper informed them about my situation but I said thanks anyway since Juniper has already been too kind for giving their Casio to me freely :).
The second incident is when Juniper announce that there will be a mysterious gift for anyone who has already passed both JNCIA-EX and JNCIS-ES. Well, as a very lucky man, I passed both with "remarkable mark". Why I said that? Because the score is so close to the passing grade that in the end of the test I stopped and said thanks to God, something I rarely do :P. Anyway, I'm more proud have that score because that was pure my understanding, not come from some cheat dump test easily found on the internet :D.
So I hurriedly email them and claim the present. It would be nice to have a recognition from Juniper of my hardwork. Well, it's really hard for me in the recent months of learning things out of infovista since my infovista projects itself has already occupied almost of my time so I deserve to call it as hardwork!
In the first email, I only be able to send them my claim along with certification pass notification from Juniper since I'm out of office. (All of my certification are kept in my office. It's my company policy) Juniper replied me and asked me to sent them scanned result slips or certification. I was very happy since the claim number is JN2-001. Wow, 001! So I was the first man ever to claim that prize :D
So in the next day, I reserve my time specially for visiting my office and asking for my certifications being scanned. After it I emailed them at the first place. Somehow my email are returned and there is a message that my email address has been blocked because of excessive spam. Well, it's really weird since I never spam anyone anyway. But maybe this is the sign of my inability to capture the great prize :).
Later I decide to sent them through my gmail. And here is the thread for you to read:
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,
It seems that my company email has been blocked so I send this through my gmail account.
Thanks..
This is the Postfix program at host dtcmail.datacomm.co.id.
I'm sorry to have to inform you that your message could not
be delivered to one or more recipients. It's attached below.
For further assistance, please send mail to
If you do so, please include this problem report. You can
delete your own text from the attached returned message.
The Postfix program: host
smtp.where.secureserver.net[64.202.166.12 ] said: 553 124.195.5.* mail
rejected due to excessive spam (in reply to RCPT TO command)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Stevenus
Your certificate is not in full (the "En___" got truncated). Appreciate if you can resend it in full, alternatively, you can email us your result slip.
Rgds
Juniper Networks Campaign (ASIN) - AROM
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Juniper Team,
Wow, it seems that the lady in my office scanned it wrongly. I must ask her to scan it again since I'm totally out of office in this week.
It may take sometime so that I send you screenshot from my certification progress. Maybe this can be used as a temporary proof before I'm able to get my new scanned certification. Just don't wanna lose my chance of getting "mystery" gift :D.
Thanks..
Regards,
Stevanus
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Juniper Team,
Wow, it seems that the lady in my office scanned it wrongly. I must ask her to scan it again since I'm totally out of office in this week.
It may take sometime so that I send you screenshot from my certification progress. Maybe this can be used as a temporary proof before I'm able to get my new scanned certification. Just don't wanna lose my chance of getting "mystery" gift :D.
Thanks..
Regards,
Stevanus
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Stevanus---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I apologise but the first 30 had already submitted and closed even before
your submission. Due to overwhelming response for this project (we have
approx 100+ submissions so far).
* But what I will do is issue a new bag pack to you (it is the new range
from Juniper and it looks better than the previous one). It will arrive in
approx 1 weeks time and that should be just nice for the next round of
dispatch after your office lady had scanned the complete certification.
Will look out for your certification then, thks.
Rgds
Juniper Networks Campaign (ASIN) - AROM
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi Juniper Team,
Actually I'm really upset receiving your
notification. I thought I was the first one submit the request because
my claim number is JN2-001.
But nevermind. Attached is the certification sent once again. This time she did it correctly :).
Anyway, what is the "mystery gift" you offered previously? J-Series router :P?
Or maybe a job opportunity in silicon valley :P? Just still curious ;).
Thanks..
Regards,
Stevanus
Anyway, everything has passed. This year is really not a good year for me. Out of luck here and there. But yeah, as I said in the email, nevermind :).
Maybe next year I'll get my prize I deserve to have. I still aim for JNCIP-M today. I failed the test twice and that make me feel like in hell. The failure is in me, which cannot allocate enough time for practising juniper because of my business with infovista. But next year would be different, I have determine to change that.
Beside, I have come to my boss explaining of my situation and he said that he cannot appreciate my work since my company is network-hardware based. So there is no use for being stubborn and risking all of my future with something like this. It's really pity because I've got used to infovista by implementing many projects in Excelcomm and Telkomsel this year. And I have met and worked together with several nice infovista people like Nguyen Vinh, Nitin A., my mentor Philip Brown, M. Zamri, and others.
But if this is something I must throw to garbage can for more promising career, well, I have no choice. Every big thing always needs sacrifice :).
It reminds me that once in the past I shocked everyone because of my anger. Well, at that time I cannot stop it. Well, I think everyone will be like that if they know they are being paid like one hundreth of other people payment. Hmm, I exaggerate it a little bit, but that's a sad true fact in indonesia. I can still remember my first salary as system engineer in my first company. At that time, I receive less than $150/month! Can you imagine that? As an employee we can do nothing here except struggle, struggle and struggle since there are approximately more than 40% unemployee in indonesia and the number keeps increasing each year.
That's life.
Actually I don't know what will happen in next year. Maybe the worst case is I have to resign from my company in pursuing for higher career. Or maybe a more serious company will hire me for doing infovista for their projects? Or maybe....I don't know...
All for all, I have to prepare my all for next year!
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Living in North Korea...
A few days ago I watch national geographic channel about living in North Korea. Surprisingly, the picture I saw is not what I expected to be. National Geography shot many places in North Korea, from Pyongyang to small village there. So I can see the reality of living there.
People in North Korea are mostly thin. And poor too (but they are seemed happy with their life). This is caused by long embargo by United Nations because of America suspicion about weapon of mass destruction (WMD) whereabouts in North Korea..Hmm, this is if I'm not mistaken..well someone please CMIIW :).
Most people in North Korea hate American because of this. A few years ago, there was famine widespread in North Korea and there were many victims - innocent ones - died. But it seems that United Nations closed their eyes and refused to help those people because of North Korea political status. Well, so the situation there can be easily understood. Politics is always used as an excuse for powerful people to justify their cruel acts. It's happened everywhere.
I still cannot accept the fact that people in North Korea are still using their bare hands for farming. And yet..there are no gas station in villages..wow. This depicts how underdeveloped North Korea is compared to South Korea. Another contrast scene can be seen at the border between North Korea and South Korea. North Korean army are really thin, yet they have full of nationalism and pride of being Korean, keeping guard of their borderline. While South Korean army are accompanied by American army there, looking in much better shape.
It's easy to see why South Korea is much more advanced than North Korea. They ally with USA and then get enormous benefits. Maybe in the eyes of North Korean nationalism, that maybe a disgusting act, selling their soul to the another country. That's why, tension between North Korea and South Korea is always high.
If you want to reach something higher, there always be something to be sacrificed for. At least that what I learned from watching this. And the other lesson I learned is even in the communism country there exists people who are more equal than others. This is the word I keep into mind deeply.
There are always unfair situations everywhere in the world and we cannot expect to receive same treatments as others who have higher level of society than us. In order to do so, it would require limitless efforts, efforts we do from our eyes opened in the morning until we go to the bed at night - exhausted....
But this is what makes life is more interesting....:)
People in North Korea are mostly thin. And poor too (but they are seemed happy with their life). This is caused by long embargo by United Nations because of America suspicion about weapon of mass destruction (WMD) whereabouts in North Korea..Hmm, this is if I'm not mistaken..well someone please CMIIW :).
Most people in North Korea hate American because of this. A few years ago, there was famine widespread in North Korea and there were many victims - innocent ones - died. But it seems that United Nations closed their eyes and refused to help those people because of North Korea political status. Well, so the situation there can be easily understood. Politics is always used as an excuse for powerful people to justify their cruel acts. It's happened everywhere.
I still cannot accept the fact that people in North Korea are still using their bare hands for farming. And yet..there are no gas station in villages..wow. This depicts how underdeveloped North Korea is compared to South Korea. Another contrast scene can be seen at the border between North Korea and South Korea. North Korean army are really thin, yet they have full of nationalism and pride of being Korean, keeping guard of their borderline. While South Korean army are accompanied by American army there, looking in much better shape.
It's easy to see why South Korea is much more advanced than North Korea. They ally with USA and then get enormous benefits. Maybe in the eyes of North Korean nationalism, that maybe a disgusting act, selling their soul to the another country. That's why, tension between North Korea and South Korea is always high.
If you want to reach something higher, there always be something to be sacrificed for. At least that what I learned from watching this. And the other lesson I learned is even in the communism country there exists people who are more equal than others. This is the word I keep into mind deeply.
There are always unfair situations everywhere in the world and we cannot expect to receive same treatments as others who have higher level of society than us. In order to do so, it would require limitless efforts, efforts we do from our eyes opened in the morning until we go to the bed at night - exhausted....
But this is what makes life is more interesting....:)
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Rainy days....
This night I listen to the radio. My previous plan was reading some technical documentations but my mood took me away anyway. Have been given a moment to breath in and breath out, I feel something strange. Like something has been missing from me for all the time. Weird....
The radio host told me a story about an orphan. He invited all of us to cherish what we have had right now and never complained about our life. Yes, it is a fact that there are a lot of more unfortunate people, poorer than me out there. But it is also a fact that the world are going to more cruel state.
People are getting colder and colder day after day. They tend to think only about their joy, their interest, their racism, their religion, their party, their country and so on. Different people live different purpose. Some of them fight really brave and taste the glory, some of them fall and must admit defeat. This is our society right now. The days which we can feel the warm of love have been gone. And the fact that I'm part of this society gives me mixed feeling....
I believe everyone hopes for better future. But no matter how big the cruiser ship we take, even it's as big as titanic, sometimes it still won't be enough for carrying all of us. Just like the scene in the falling ship in titanic movie, sometimes people must be sacrificed for others' survival. And the survivor is normally the strongest in the society. They have strength more than other people, whether the strength is positive or negative, that's out of questions. Some people do play tricks for being able to survive. It's no wonder because our nature teach us like that...
Have you wonder why butterfly has different color? Have you wonder why chameleon can change its color instantly? Even some birds fool others for nurturing their offsprings. This world is full of tricks and hallucination! Some tricks are easy to guess in the blink of an eye, others are really hard to digest. It makes our life journey more interesting and challenging, to pursue the righteous and honest life will always be faced with a swaying road. Sometimes we stumble and fall in the path we decided to take. Sometimes we take a glimpse of others and envy of them, it's natural....
Imagining what if we are in different path than we have taken, maybe our life story will be different. Every single days, we wake up and endure our routines without a chance for thinking what is the purpose of doing it. Sometimes our mundane activities just too much, hence we play our role automatically. Seems like our brain has been infected by some nasty resident programs we could not erase. Any effort for eliminating it would be a general failure and create a very famous BSOD. Damn it!
It's been a long time for me longing for meeting someone I admire and need me the most. Sometimes I wonder, is my destiny ended up in other continent? Maybe there I will meet girl with honest smile and pure heart, who loves me because of my all. Like the staring of shy girl I met in the Orchard road a few days ago. She is cute and we both feel really shy. We did nothing but stealing chances for take a glance at each other :).
Will I meet someone like the Orchard girl again, will I meet someone who will take my hand and accompanying me in sailing through our life?
The road is still a long way to go. It's so interesting, makes me excite everytime I think of it. Because we will never know what're waiting for us tomorrow. Everytime we wake up, we are given a blank paper which we write our adventure into it in the end of the day. I really hope I can fill in into its fullest, never wasted anything and hope someday I will be able to write somebody's name into it. Someone I adore and love for the rest of my life........
The radio host told me a story about an orphan. He invited all of us to cherish what we have had right now and never complained about our life. Yes, it is a fact that there are a lot of more unfortunate people, poorer than me out there. But it is also a fact that the world are going to more cruel state.
People are getting colder and colder day after day. They tend to think only about their joy, their interest, their racism, their religion, their party, their country and so on. Different people live different purpose. Some of them fight really brave and taste the glory, some of them fall and must admit defeat. This is our society right now. The days which we can feel the warm of love have been gone. And the fact that I'm part of this society gives me mixed feeling....
I believe everyone hopes for better future. But no matter how big the cruiser ship we take, even it's as big as titanic, sometimes it still won't be enough for carrying all of us. Just like the scene in the falling ship in titanic movie, sometimes people must be sacrificed for others' survival. And the survivor is normally the strongest in the society. They have strength more than other people, whether the strength is positive or negative, that's out of questions. Some people do play tricks for being able to survive. It's no wonder because our nature teach us like that...
Have you wonder why butterfly has different color? Have you wonder why chameleon can change its color instantly? Even some birds fool others for nurturing their offsprings. This world is full of tricks and hallucination! Some tricks are easy to guess in the blink of an eye, others are really hard to digest. It makes our life journey more interesting and challenging, to pursue the righteous and honest life will always be faced with a swaying road. Sometimes we stumble and fall in the path we decided to take. Sometimes we take a glimpse of others and envy of them, it's natural....
Imagining what if we are in different path than we have taken, maybe our life story will be different. Every single days, we wake up and endure our routines without a chance for thinking what is the purpose of doing it. Sometimes our mundane activities just too much, hence we play our role automatically. Seems like our brain has been infected by some nasty resident programs we could not erase. Any effort for eliminating it would be a general failure and create a very famous BSOD. Damn it!
It's been a long time for me longing for meeting someone I admire and need me the most. Sometimes I wonder, is my destiny ended up in other continent? Maybe there I will meet girl with honest smile and pure heart, who loves me because of my all. Like the staring of shy girl I met in the Orchard road a few days ago. She is cute and we both feel really shy. We did nothing but stealing chances for take a glance at each other :).
Will I meet someone like the Orchard girl again, will I meet someone who will take my hand and accompanying me in sailing through our life?
The road is still a long way to go. It's so interesting, makes me excite everytime I think of it. Because we will never know what're waiting for us tomorrow. Everytime we wake up, we are given a blank paper which we write our adventure into it in the end of the day. I really hope I can fill in into its fullest, never wasted anything and hope someday I will be able to write somebody's name into it. Someone I adore and love for the rest of my life........
Saturday, July 5, 2008
Best $200 Digital Camera...
For those folks who are looking for new digital camera to replace their old one which obsolete, recently I read many digital camera reviews and there are several $200 digital cameras which are worthy to be mentioned ;)
The first and second are FujiFilm S5700 and its sibling S5800 which both are sold at $195 and $210. Let's talk about them one by one ;)
FujiFilm S5700 is a 7.1 MPixels camera. It has 10x fujinon optical zoom lens which are good for long-distance zooming. From what I see in digital camera reviews, this camera has good image quality but suffer from purple fringing. But the features it offers are superb, besides for prosumer digital camera, its price is the lowest while carrying fuji famous name.
Now, let's talk its big brother, S5800. S5800 has many similar characteristics like S5700 has : long 10x fujinon optical zoom lens, good -typical fuji- image quality and even share the same purple fringing problem. The price difference is only $15 and with it we will get additional 1 GB SD Card bundled and a little more pixels size since this camera can shoot 8 MPixels picture.
Now, let's us come to the last contender. Canon Powershot S720 IS. Canon Powershot S720 IS is sold at $220. While it is the most expensive among the others and bundled with nothing, Canon Powershot S720 IS has the best image quality among the others. The sharpness it produces is so damn good and with 6x optical zoom capability, this camera is fit for every home user who want to capture beautiful images. Although if we compare with both fuji's prosumer digital camera above, this Canon lacks of more advanced features and simply offered as point and shoot camera.
So which one I would choose personally? Definitely, I'll choose Canon over Fuji. Although Fuji has many features and its 10x zoom lens is really appealing, but I really love the image quality produced by Canon. The differences is not really obvious but as an ordinary user who doesn't understand of how to operating digital camera professionally, simple point and shoot camera is just better for me anyway :)
The first and second are FujiFilm S5700 and its sibling S5800 which both are sold at $195 and $210. Let's talk about them one by one ;)
FujiFilm S5700 is a 7.1 MPixels camera. It has 10x fujinon optical zoom lens which are good for long-distance zooming. From what I see in digital camera reviews, this camera has good image quality but suffer from purple fringing. But the features it offers are superb, besides for prosumer digital camera, its price is the lowest while carrying fuji famous name.
Now, let's talk its big brother, S5800. S5800 has many similar characteristics like S5700 has : long 10x fujinon optical zoom lens, good -typical fuji- image quality and even share the same purple fringing problem. The price difference is only $15 and with it we will get additional 1 GB SD Card bundled and a little more pixels size since this camera can shoot 8 MPixels picture.
Now, let's us come to the last contender. Canon Powershot S720 IS. Canon Powershot S720 IS is sold at $220. While it is the most expensive among the others and bundled with nothing, Canon Powershot S720 IS has the best image quality among the others. The sharpness it produces is so damn good and with 6x optical zoom capability, this camera is fit for every home user who want to capture beautiful images. Although if we compare with both fuji's prosumer digital camera above, this Canon lacks of more advanced features and simply offered as point and shoot camera.
So which one I would choose personally? Definitely, I'll choose Canon over Fuji. Although Fuji has many features and its 10x zoom lens is really appealing, but I really love the image quality produced by Canon. The differences is not really obvious but as an ordinary user who doesn't understand of how to operating digital camera professionally, simple point and shoot camera is just better for me anyway :)
Friday, July 4, 2008
Frustrated....
Today, I'm taking my time for intropecting all that happens in my life. Somehow, it makes me frustrated. Having been a middle age man, I realize what I have achieved today is nothing!
All my achievement is still ordinary one and remembering the fact that that sacrifies many things, I feel very disappointed :(.
As a technology enthusiats, I really love to read a new technology invention everyday. Tomshardware and anandtech is two compulsory website I must visit everyday :). But sometimes this makes me really upset, knowing what I can do is only see and watch new technologies discovered day after day without any opportunity to experience them....Somehow it's getting me frustrated!
What can I do? As a ordinary civilian who strives in hectic days everyday, I must save my bucks mostly for the future as there are many basic needs that I must fulfill in. These needs of course override my nerds instinct. Everyday, I must try hard to supress my longing of having newest technology at hand. What a shame considering I, myself, are working in IT industry....And yes somehow it's getting me frustrated!
And while my colleagues, one by one, are getting married, I can only watch the scene in distance. My unique and stupid situation does not allow me to be close to somebody else. How regretful. The most funny thing is when people greet me and they assume me have a wonderful life. They just couldn't get the picture, aren't they? What lies beneath the surface, they won't know if they don't dive deeper. But as I am the guardian of the watergate, I can't allow anyone drive closer to the bottom. It's so complex that it's getting me frustrated!
Terrible global economy also hampers my daily life. Our government has raised liquid petroleum gas price two days ago, following the raising of fuel price. It's a snowball effect and I can expect electricity and water bill will increase in near future. But our government is still tolerance for its poor people since the fuel is only raised about 30%. Well, not because the number is very small, but if we compare it to our neighbor countries like Malaysia and Singapore, for example, Indonesian people can be considered lucky!
To be frank, at the day the fuel price is raised, I felt anger as well. Feeling like I want to be part of mass demonstrating in front of our MPR/DPR building. The feeling is getting even more stronger after I read john perkins' book titled "Confession of economic hit man" telling his story of fooling our government for making it fell into debt web and therefore be loyal for capital emperium. That's really a damned story which will make every reader from third world countries want to rebel againts the supreme countries like USA and England.
Now the anger has reduced a little bit but I feel very sorry as living cost has raised much because of this global oil price problem. It's kind of walking backward. Thank god, my salary has been raised this year. At least I can stand still this year, not move forward nor backward. But standing still is not good option either, somehow I really dislike the idea. And this thing make me frustrated at best!
Why some people who have been in the top of power never think about the people who have in lower position? Many people suffer because of small number of selfish stupid people like George W. Bush or Osama Bin Laden. Will they ever think of others instead of their own interest?
And the most funny thing I see today is the news that Toyota, a famous car brand, reported that it has gained increase in car sales outside Java island. Really funny! Some people demonstrate on the street yelling that the fuel price hike cannot be tolerated since it will kill many people by starvation slowly. The other story, the car sales fact, tells us that some people aren't impacted by this situation and go ahead of possesing their dream car. What an irony!
Maybe it's time I slap my cheek so hard that I can be sober for living my life as is. It needs more patience - which I lack - and persistence for enduring hardship through my lifeline.
Sometimes I really wish there had already been someone beside me, supporting me and preventing me of retreating to my shell.....I really wish...
All my achievement is still ordinary one and remembering the fact that that sacrifies many things, I feel very disappointed :(.
As a technology enthusiats, I really love to read a new technology invention everyday. Tomshardware and anandtech is two compulsory website I must visit everyday :). But sometimes this makes me really upset, knowing what I can do is only see and watch new technologies discovered day after day without any opportunity to experience them....Somehow it's getting me frustrated!
What can I do? As a ordinary civilian who strives in hectic days everyday, I must save my bucks mostly for the future as there are many basic needs that I must fulfill in. These needs of course override my nerds instinct. Everyday, I must try hard to supress my longing of having newest technology at hand. What a shame considering I, myself, are working in IT industry....And yes somehow it's getting me frustrated!
And while my colleagues, one by one, are getting married, I can only watch the scene in distance. My unique and stupid situation does not allow me to be close to somebody else. How regretful. The most funny thing is when people greet me and they assume me have a wonderful life. They just couldn't get the picture, aren't they? What lies beneath the surface, they won't know if they don't dive deeper. But as I am the guardian of the watergate, I can't allow anyone drive closer to the bottom. It's so complex that it's getting me frustrated!
Terrible global economy also hampers my daily life. Our government has raised liquid petroleum gas price two days ago, following the raising of fuel price. It's a snowball effect and I can expect electricity and water bill will increase in near future. But our government is still tolerance for its poor people since the fuel is only raised about 30%. Well, not because the number is very small, but if we compare it to our neighbor countries like Malaysia and Singapore, for example, Indonesian people can be considered lucky!
To be frank, at the day the fuel price is raised, I felt anger as well. Feeling like I want to be part of mass demonstrating in front of our MPR/DPR building. The feeling is getting even more stronger after I read john perkins' book titled "Confession of economic hit man" telling his story of fooling our government for making it fell into debt web and therefore be loyal for capital emperium. That's really a damned story which will make every reader from third world countries want to rebel againts the supreme countries like USA and England.
Now the anger has reduced a little bit but I feel very sorry as living cost has raised much because of this global oil price problem. It's kind of walking backward. Thank god, my salary has been raised this year. At least I can stand still this year, not move forward nor backward. But standing still is not good option either, somehow I really dislike the idea. And this thing make me frustrated at best!
Why some people who have been in the top of power never think about the people who have in lower position? Many people suffer because of small number of selfish stupid people like George W. Bush or Osama Bin Laden. Will they ever think of others instead of their own interest?
And the most funny thing I see today is the news that Toyota, a famous car brand, reported that it has gained increase in car sales outside Java island. Really funny! Some people demonstrate on the street yelling that the fuel price hike cannot be tolerated since it will kill many people by starvation slowly. The other story, the car sales fact, tells us that some people aren't impacted by this situation and go ahead of possesing their dream car. What an irony!
Maybe it's time I slap my cheek so hard that I can be sober for living my life as is. It needs more patience - which I lack - and persistence for enduring hardship through my lifeline.
Sometimes I really wish there had already been someone beside me, supporting me and preventing me of retreating to my shell.....I really wish...
Saturday, June 14, 2008
Choose cheaper desktop computer: DIY versus branded - part 2
In the last article, I have reviewed whether it's worth the hassle to build your own desktop pc. This time, I will take a look at what the famous brand - HP- offer to us with their latest promotion, "Kungfu Panda" desktop series :P. The desktop pc I will use for comparison here is HP Pavilion M9222 with the following specifications :
- Processor : AMD Quad-Core Phenom™ X4 9500 (2.2 GHz, FSB 2200, Cache 4x 512 KB)
- Motherboard : Unknown with chipset nForce 430
- Memory : Standard 2x1 PC 6400 DDR2
- Vga Card : NVidia GeForce 8500GT 256 MB
- Audio : onboard 7.1 channel
- Harddisk : 320 GB Serial ATA-II/300, 7200 RPM, Cache 8 MB
- Keyboard : HP PS/2 Standard Keyboard
- Mouse : HP Optical Scroll Mouse
- Card Reader : 15 in 1 Media Reader
- Operating System : Microsoft* Windows Vista Home Premium
- Monitor : HP 19" LCD
- Chassis : Mini Tower ATX
Tadaaa, the specifications is as follows:
- Processor : AMD Quad-Core Phenom™ X4 9550 - $194
- Motherboard : Asus M2N (chipset nForce 430) - $66
- Memory : Corsair Twin 2x2048 - PC6400 - $58
- Vga Card : Asus 8500 GT 2500 MB silent - $91
- Audio : onboard - none
- Harddisk : Seagate 320 GB SATA II - $77
- Keyboard : Logitech KB Multimedia - $19
- Mouse : Logitech Optical black (bundled with keyboard)
- Card Reader : 15 in 1 Media Reader - $15
- Operating System : Microsoft* Windows Vista Home Premium - $115
- Monitor : Samsung 19" 940BW - $270
- Chassis : CoolerMaster Centurion C5 tower - $78
- Printer : HP F2180 - $74
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Choose cheaper desktop computer: DIY versus branded
In this article, I will try to compare the cost required for building a DIY desktop pc versus buying the branded pc. The branded pc used for comparison is HP Compaq DX2300MT which does not bundled with monitor. DX2300MT is priced at $559 (price is taken from www.bhinneka.com) and has the following specification :1. Processor : Pentium Dual Core E2160
2. Motherboard : OEM with P946GZ intel chipset
3. Storage : SATA HDD 80 GB
4. Front panel : card reader, esata
5. Memory : 1 GB DDR2
6. Optical Drive : DVD/CDRW Combo
7. Operating System : Windows XP Pro oem
8. Chassis Form Factor : MicroATX
9. Keyboard and mouse : HP standard
Now lets count the all the components' price. Would it worth it to buy branded desktop pc instead of build your own and save $$$? Let's find out then and let the cheaper win!
After googling and seacrhing a while for all components used in HP Compaq DX2300MT, the result is listed below :
- Processor : Pentium Dual Core E2160 -> $63
- Motherboard : OEM with P946GZ intel chipset (use Asus P5B-MX)-> $81
- Storage : SATA HDD 80 GB -> $42
- Front panel : card reader, esata -> $15
- Memory : 1 GB DDR2 -> $25
- Optical Drive : DVD/CDRW Combo -> $32
- Operating System : Windows XP Pro oem -> $135
- Chassis Form Factor : MicroATX (used SimCool ATX 450W) -> $48
- Keyboard and mouse : HP standard (used logitech multimedia) -> $18
The conclusion is straighforward. Let's spend a few extra hours for making our own desktop pcs instead of buying from branded if price is always be a concern for you :).
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Comet series from Divoom, affordable home theater speaker system
Divoom always continue to provide us cheap and affordable speaker with sufficient quality. For the home theather segment, Divoom has their comet series product line. Comet series are really cheap for home theather speaker class. For example the Comet-D2 is bundled with price tag at approximately Rp 1.350.000,- while Comet-A1 is bundled with price tag at approximately Rp 2.300.000,-.How about the specs? Each Comet-D2 and Comet-A1 come with similar specification. The most obvious thing is the subwoofer design. They are really look alike! And both speaker are featuring 100 Watt RMS output. However Comet-A1 do come with hardware decoder for Dolby/THX which makes its price higher than Comet-D2 ;). And Comet-A1 is bundled with speaker stand as well which will make the satellite allocation is easier than Comet-D2.
The specification for Comet-D2 and A1 series is as follows :
- Total RMS Power : 100 Watts
- Subwoofer : 50 Watts RMS
- Satellites : 50 Watts RMS
- Total Peak Power : 200 Watts @<10%>
- System THD : Better than 0.05% THD before clipping
- Signal to noise ratio : >95 dB
- Frequency Response : 20Hz - 20 KHz
- Driver size : 3"x2 + 1" (tweeter) high excursion satellites, 8" high excursion subwoofer
XForce5, Affordable 2.1 computer speaker from Divoom...
Divoom, a speaker manufacture from Singapore, has their good products too. Although their brand is not as Creative, Altec Lansing or Klipsch (or soon-Edifier) in computer speaker class, their product is not all crap. Some of their product do deserve a buying consideration while taking a look at their design and specification. One of them is XForce5 from their XForce series.XForce5 is the biggest 2.1 from XForce series offered by Divoom. Its price range is Rp 890.000,- or under $100. It's really cheap if we consider Divoom packs XForce5 with 8" subwoofer, remote controller, 2 full range 3" driver plus 1" tweeter in each satellite, and fm/am radio function as bonus.
Besides rich in feature, XForce5 also features 2 aux in in form of rca input for common audio use. This means that you can hook one input for permanent use such as for tv or game console and the other for your mobile devices such as ipod, etc. Very nice features.
The subwoofer design is really like a computer case. And if it's put side-to-side with a real computer case, maybe it can fool anyone who take a quick glance at it. For the sound quality, since Divoom use 8" subwoofer, we can expect the bass can go low at least until 40 Hz. The spec Divoom use stating frequency response range from 20Hz-20Khz is over optimistic on my opinion.
On its price range, Divoom provide us a very good speaker with affordable price, making it's worth to consider for buying this one. If you like the design and it fit with your budget, just grab this one but expect no miracle! As every cheapo speaker on the market, don't ever turn up the volume level to its max if you don't want to hear noise or distortion coming from your speaker! But anyway, since this is marketed for computer use, you will seldom turn up the volume to its max anyway. 100 watt RMS would be already overkill for long-term listening in small space!
The quest for the most beautiful woman....
Every year we have Miss Universe contest, Miss World contest, etc. While the purpose is to find the most beautiful woman in terms of body, mind and soul, the winner is often not the most good-looking person. I think in terms of beauty, every women has their own charms, but men's eyes have been trained for decades to quickly grab the beauty image from a woman. Don't you agree :P?I have searched the internet a little bit and found several beautiful women which are really eye-catching. After browsing for hours, then I decided to pick three most beautiful women for being displayed in this blog. It's nice though to have beautiful women in your blogs anyway :P......
The first and the most beautiful woman is Victoria Silvstedt. Her name is really hard to spell since she comes from Sweden. Just take a look at the picture of her above. She is really fascinating, isn't she? She has everything she need to be awarded as the most beautiful woman in the world. Sharp eyes, sexy cheek bone, good-shaped body, what else?
The second title goes to Alessandro Ambrosia. Her name is also hard to spell (Does every beautiful woman have a hard-to-spell name :P?). She is a professional model and chosen by AskMen.com as the second beautiful women in 2008 as well ;).She has brown hair and very sexy and seducing eye-stare. But she can look cute too if she smile, just like in her picture. For her body, hmm, I think anyone will agree with me that she is hot!
And soon we will come to the third place :)...
The third place goes to Marissa Miller. She is being said as the successor for the phenomenal Cindy Crawford. Her occupation is also a professional model (No wonder why many says she will replace Cindy Crawford position soon or later).How beautiful is she? Just see at her picture on the left and judge yourself! Hmm, very sexy smile......but in my opinion her eyebrows are the center of attraction.
Note : This three beautiful women are chosen solely for fun and not involve any professional opinion at all. Everyone can have their version of woman's beauty and just let it be :). Peace.......
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Have you choose your fate?
Fate is an action role playing diablo-like game created by WildTangent. The story is really simple. A village was underattacked by mighty demon which reside in the cave afterwards. And our hero will have its destiny to fight those demon by using his/her special skill.
At the beginning of gameplay, we can choose 4 difficulty setting i.e: Page, Adventurer, Hero and Legend. And then we can choose hair style, face, etc. Some unimportant stuff :P...
Our hero will be accompanied by a dog/cat as his/her pet during the mission. Surprisingly, our pet cannot die while in the battle so its will come to really helpful in supporting our hero. Just let our pet fight for our hero and then heal it when its health is in danger. Very simple...
The uniqueness of this game come from fishing mode. Our hero can catch many different fish for feeding our pet and let it transform into another monster form. Each monster our pet transform into has a special skill and ability. But after spending hours fishing, we can become very boring of waiting and buy the fish directly from the fisherman there instead :P...
The game doesn't put some restriction of what our hero will be. We can choose every skill and magic we like to be learned by our hero. Of course, there are limit of what skill our hero can learn at any given time. Every level our hero gained, there are only 2 skill point given.
The similar situation comes apply for our hero charateristics. We can let our hero become witch by raising its magical point but of course with trade-off of lowering his/her strength or maybe dexterity. For each level gained we only get 4 stats point. But the choice of make use these 4 stats points is up to us completely.
In summary, Fate is a average game, with average gameplay. The upside of fate is that it's not require so much processing power nor graphical processing power. You can use your notebook with integrated graphics card for playing it. The downside, of course this game can be really boring. Imagine going 50th level down in the cave full of monsters with the similar enemy and no surprise at all. Wild tangent can do much better by adding some puzzle and secret enemy/character, but they didn't do it while creating fate, making it only deserve 6 from scale 1 to 10!
Monster sound from edifier!
Edifier, a chinese speaker manufacture, recently release a super montrous heavy metal speaker for music lover. It's S550 and S730 that will captivate heart of enthusiast people around the globe. Let's take a look at both of them ;)
S550, as we can see from the image on the left, is a really nice-looking design speaker. The speaker is designed and inspired by Phil Jones, one of the most famous audio artist who settles in Japan currently (if I'm not mistaken). Except the design, Phil Jones has fine-tune the overall sound of this speaker too, to be sound as please as possible for everyone.
But how about the specification. Below is the specification for S550 taken from Edifier website :
Specifications:
Meanwhile S550 will be targeted to hit small home theater market, S730 is another beast from edifier targeted for music lover. This 2.1 speaker with its total 300 RMS has the power needed for shaking your small room!
The design looks similar with S550. This is really obvious because this one was also designed by Phil Jones! Phil Jones interference in the design and fine-tuning process will ensure S730 will have a maximum overall sound for music lover. Especially bass lover since it's using 10" subwoofer for 2.1 configuration. Only logitech with its Z5500 has doing the same thing. (Well, audiophile will say it's really overkill to have 10" in 2.1 setup, but who care anyway :P)
Okay, let's take a look at the specification, shall we?
Specification :
With both speaker, it's clearly seen that Edifier has put so much effort for entering new level of computer multimedia speaker market. I think now they can be put at the same level as Klipsch, Altec Lansing or JBL in this criteria ;).
If only Edifier put the lower price tag for this speaker, I would be at the front row of sales queue, then :P. Absolutely!
S550, as we can see from the image on the left, is a really nice-looking design speaker. The speaker is designed and inspired by Phil Jones, one of the most famous audio artist who settles in Japan currently (if I'm not mistaken). Except the design, Phil Jones has fine-tune the overall sound of this speaker too, to be sound as please as possible for everyone.But how about the specification. Below is the specification for S550 taken from Edifier website :
Specifications:
- Power output: RMS 5 x 35W + 120W (THD=10%)
- Signal to noise ratio (amplifier): >=85dBA
- Input sensitivity: 5.1Ch: L/R: 480mV +/- 50mV SW: 175mV +/- 30mV
- Stereo: L/R: 520mV +/- 50mV SW: 200mV +/- 30mV
- Frequency response: L/R: 140Hz ~ 20kHz SW: 20Hz ~ 133Hz
- Luxurious 5.1 speaker system with 10 inch subwoofer- Wooden MDF housing for all speakers
- Passive radiator on both sides on the subwoofer to exaggerate bass performance
- Magnetically shielded drivers for all speakers
- Switchable dual input ports for both 5.1 channel and stereo inputs
- Multifunctional wired controller with 2.5 inch LCD display (dimmer included)
- Headphone output on wired remote controller
- Master volume controls both speaker output and headphone output
- Volume booster for extra power output
- Separate bass and treble adjustments
- Multifunctional wireless remote controller included
- Dolby decoder circuitry included in digital version
Meanwhile S550 will be targeted to hit small home theater market, S730 is another beast from edifier targeted for music lover. This 2.1 speaker with its total 300 RMS has the power needed for shaking your small room!
The design looks similar with S550. This is really obvious because this one was also designed by Phil Jones! Phil Jones interference in the design and fine-tuning process will ensure S730 will have a maximum overall sound for music lover. Especially bass lover since it's using 10" subwoofer for 2.1 configuration. Only logitech with its Z5500 has doing the same thing. (Well, audiophile will say it's really overkill to have 10" in 2.1 setup, but who care anyway :P)
Okay, let's take a look at the specification, shall we?
Specification :
- Total Power Output: RMS 75W x 2 + 150W
- Frequency Response: 20Hz~20KHz
- Heavy metal 2.1 speaker system with 10 inch subwoofer
- Wooden MDF housing for all speakers
- Multifunctional wired controller with 2.5 inch LCD display (dimmer included)
With both speaker, it's clearly seen that Edifier has put so much effort for entering new level of computer multimedia speaker market. I think now they can be put at the same level as Klipsch, Altec Lansing or JBL in this criteria ;).
If only Edifier put the lower price tag for this speaker, I would be at the front row of sales queue, then :P. Absolutely!
And the winner goes to......Cook?
At the end of American Idol season this year, the result is quite shocking! In the end, David Cook is the one who is crowned as the king, ultimately defeat David Archuletta by 12 million vote! Very confusing, because at the show itself, all three judges had clinched the decision that David Archuletta is the absolute winner. Even Simon said David Archuletta knocked out David Cook in all three rounds.
So it seems that American people are disagree with all three judges and they defended the red boxer-David Cook as their only supreme idol. Weird decision, because it's clearly seen that David Archuletta has a singing talent which surpass David Cook by ten thousand miles!
But the recipe for the idol is not only voice, charm would make everything different. American pop idol Britney Spears, in my opinion she has a average voice if we compare her with Mariah Carey and Whitney Houston, but she has many successful albums sold there. Why? Because this is live. Not everyone care about singing, while the tone is undesireable or not, because they have no professional experience in music anyway. Folks like me who listens music from ordinary tv with mediocre speaker or from boombox radio with worse sound quality than CD, can only judge based on personal preference of melody.....
Anyway, both are winner! David Cook win American Heart while David Archuletta win professional opinions. This will open their doors to professional stage evenmore. Success for both of you!
It's been a while....
Whoa....1 month not update my blog.
Damn, pretty busy recently...
But at least now, I can update it now ;)
So much has happen in this month. The most distinguished event in this month is fuel price rise by the government. This event spurs several demonstration on the street, but luckily the mass not ran amok this time (maybe haven't :-S)..
Our government decided to rise the subsidized fuel price by 28.7% the day before yesterday. This is not a popular policy and will take more burden on people in Indonesia. While the poorest can stand still because they will receive donation cash from the government, the medium welfare society will suffer most. Why, because we as workers are being paid flat every month. And our salary rise, which just happened last month, is not even close to the fuel price rise.
Then the conclusion is, we will have to lower our standard of living to cut cost. Otherwise we will have none for saving. It's really hard pill to swallow! And as survey says that after 40 years of working hard :
Struggle for living is seemed a job never end in Indonesia. Only small amount of people in Indonesia can enjoy the "cake". The others can only dream...what will happen if someday blablabla...
Just like me who can only dream of having a mainstream desktop pc. Still keep on dreaming and believing that someday my dream will come true....:)
Peace.....
Damn, pretty busy recently...
But at least now, I can update it now ;)
So much has happen in this month. The most distinguished event in this month is fuel price rise by the government. This event spurs several demonstration on the street, but luckily the mass not ran amok this time (maybe haven't :-S)..
Our government decided to rise the subsidized fuel price by 28.7% the day before yesterday. This is not a popular policy and will take more burden on people in Indonesia. While the poorest can stand still because they will receive donation cash from the government, the medium welfare society will suffer most. Why, because we as workers are being paid flat every month. And our salary rise, which just happened last month, is not even close to the fuel price rise.
Then the conclusion is, we will have to lower our standard of living to cut cost. Otherwise we will have none for saving. It's really hard pill to swallow! And as survey says that after 40 years of working hard :
- only 1% will be live in prosperity
- 4% will safe for enjoying standard living with their saving money
- 5% still have to work to earn small amount of money for keep living
- 54% will live under poverty by depending to pension money or their relatives
- 36% have already dead
Struggle for living is seemed a job never end in Indonesia. Only small amount of people in Indonesia can enjoy the "cake". The others can only dream...what will happen if someday blablabla...
Just like me who can only dream of having a mainstream desktop pc. Still keep on dreaming and believing that someday my dream will come true....:)
Peace.....
Sunday, March 30, 2008
Unique watch design by Tokyoflash
Just check this out! I just found a very rare and unique watch design. Look at the picture on the left. Is it really glow :P? Whoa, what kind is this watch?From the Tokyoflash website, the designer of Tokyoflash watches said "Our design philosophy is to create something unique. If it's been done before - sorry we're not interested." Wow. This is a really confident statement! But if we take a look at how many magazines having Tokyoflash watches as article news, then we know the statement is made not for nothing.
Beside in my opinion, Tokyoflash watch design is proven to be unique and the only in the world. Well, equalizer in the watch like shown in the image on the left...what can I say ;). I can imagine how this rare things will be priced.....Must be outrageously pricey.Will anyone donate me some :P?
Cheap soundcard for music..
Via has been famous in soundcard era for the recent years - thanks to its flagship Via Envy chipset. Via Envy has a characteristic that make it very suitable for music lover-the chipset never resamples any sample rate for songs. Every songs will be played "as is". This feature is really important for audiophile because fidelity and accuracy is the most determine factor for high quality music.
But Via Envy also has always been associated by its high price, especially for guys like me who cannot afford, or maybe at least must think ten thousand times before buying a Via Envy soundcard priced more than $100. Of course, Via offered us a cheap alternative solution - Via Envy PT, which was used in Chaintech AV710. Unfortunately, the card is rarely be seen in the market. Once in a time, I even has tried to contact Chaintech distributor in Singapore, asking about this $30 soundcard and got answer "out of stock".
Maybe Via sees this matter and recently, Via had launched some new chipset intended for cheaper market - Via Tremor. Via Tremor will support maximum 6 channel output and 2 channel input. And it will support maximum resolution 24 bit and 48 KHz sampling rate for analog, while for digital, Tremor will support resolution 24 bit and 96 KHz sampling rate - very similar to Via Envy 24 PT. Along with Via Tremor, Via also launched Via Envy 24 MT which is intended for notebook or mobile devices. But forget about Via Envy 24 MT as this seems not a cheap solution anyway :P. Let's see all the features Via Tremor offers below...
Benefits of VIA Vinyl Tremor
But Via Envy also has always been associated by its high price, especially for guys like me who cannot afford, or maybe at least must think ten thousand times before buying a Via Envy soundcard priced more than $100. Of course, Via offered us a cheap alternative solution - Via Envy PT, which was used in Chaintech AV710. Unfortunately, the card is rarely be seen in the market. Once in a time, I even has tried to contact Chaintech distributor in Singapore, asking about this $30 soundcard and got answer "out of stock".
Maybe Via sees this matter and recently, Via had launched some new chipset intended for cheaper market - Via Tremor. Via Tremor will support maximum 6 channel output and 2 channel input. And it will support maximum resolution 24 bit and 48 KHz sampling rate for analog, while for digital, Tremor will support resolution 24 bit and 96 KHz sampling rate - very similar to Via Envy 24 PT. Along with Via Tremor, Via also launched Via Envy 24 MT which is intended for notebook or mobile devices. But forget about Via Envy 24 MT as this seems not a cheap solution anyway :P. Let's see all the features Via Tremor offers below...
Benefits of VIA Vinyl Tremor
- High audio performance - With up to 24-bit resolution/96kHZ sampling rates for digital input/output and 20-bit/48kHZ analog connections, the VIA Tremor is capable of providing superb audio playback and recording quality to the PC audio enthusiast.
- Flexible range of connection options - 6 outbound streams and 2 simultaneous input streams, along with an integrated S/PDIF transmitter, allow for a wide range of connections that can support Dolby Digital/Dolby Digital EX Surround Sound. A direct access general purpose connector allows for easy use of expanded connection boards, and a MIDI port is also provided.
- Multiple applications - Applications include gaming, high fidelity home theatre entertainment, music playback and recording.
- Easy to integrate - I²S and AC-link input and output for easy connection with many codec or ADC/DAC solutions. Also supports Windows® WDM drivers.
So has any company decided to use Via tremor and produced cheap soundcard for music lover? Yes, there are several company like PPA International and Encore Electronics that has started producing several soundcard based on this chipset. This soundcard is really cheap, some even can be found as low as $10 in newegg.com! But please keep in mind that you will always get what you've paid for. For a $10 soundcard, you cannot expect the card will use a high quality ADC and DAC from respective companies like AKM or Wolfson :).
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Logitech speaker update...
After a while, Logitech updated their speaker product line. And this time, Logitech designs their can very neatly. This is a vast improvement from Logitech's previous product line. But is it only design or the sound quality is improved as well? Let's find out real soon!
Logitech has been a major player in computer speaker for the recent years. Their speaker characteristics are best suited for gaming and video purpose since their bass capability is able to shake room! And it seems that Logitech keeps their speaker characteristics to be just like that in the current product release. Enough said, let's take a look at two speakers worth buying from Logitech :)
The first one is Logitech Z4. Priced below $100, this speaker product will hit the market for gamers and movie lovers on budget. Why? Because there are no competitor so far that seems to offer 8" subwoofer on their speaker products for this price range. This is the main strength for Logitech Z4 - Bass. You may wonder, why size does matter for subwoofer? Because the larger the subwoofer, the lower frequency it can produce...
Logitech bundled their 8" subwoofer with 2" dome driver in Z4's satellites. Somewhat, we feel that this is unbalanced system. How can 2" satellite driver keep up with 8" subwoofer? The mid and high will be easily overwhelmed by bass the subwoofer produce.
To tackle this problem, Logitech invent a new technology which they call it pressure driver. Pressure driver is a passive driver whose membrane will be moved along with the real active driver. If we see from the image below, we can see that in each satellite, Logitech included 2 pressure drivers. And to reduce the massiveness of bass produced by Z4's subwoofer, Logitech apparently uses 8" pressure driver in their subwoofer with unknown size of active driver....
Logitech has been a major player in computer speaker for the recent years. Their speaker characteristics are best suited for gaming and video purpose since their bass capability is able to shake room! And it seems that Logitech keeps their speaker characteristics to be just like that in the current product release. Enough said, let's take a look at two speakers worth buying from Logitech :)
The first one is Logitech Z4. Priced below $100, this speaker product will hit the market for gamers and movie lovers on budget. Why? Because there are no competitor so far that seems to offer 8" subwoofer on their speaker products for this price range. This is the main strength for Logitech Z4 - Bass. You may wonder, why size does matter for subwoofer? Because the larger the subwoofer, the lower frequency it can produce...
Logitech bundled their 8" subwoofer with 2" dome driver in Z4's satellites. Somewhat, we feel that this is unbalanced system. How can 2" satellite driver keep up with 8" subwoofer? The mid and high will be easily overwhelmed by bass the subwoofer produce.
To tackle this problem, Logitech invent a new technology which they call it pressure driver. Pressure driver is a passive driver whose membrane will be moved along with the real active driver. If we see from the image below, we can see that in each satellite, Logitech included 2 pressure drivers. And to reduce the massiveness of bass produced by Z4's subwoofer, Logitech apparently uses 8" pressure driver in their subwoofer with unknown size of active driver....
Something that is missing from this product is tweeter. If only Logitech include tweeter on their satellite, maybe this speaker will have more musical characteristics, but anyway this is a really good multimedia speaker for gamers and movie lovers. Just take a look for its specification and you'll realise that for its price - below $100 - this is a really good offer.
Z4's Specifications :
- Total RMS power: 40 watts RMS - Satellites: 17 watts RMS (8.5 watts x 2), Subwoofer: 23 watts RMS
- Total peak power: 80 watts
- Frequency response: 35 Hz–20 kHz
- Drivers: Satellites: 2-inch dome driver, 2-inch pressure driver, Subwoofer: 8-inch pressure driver
- Speaker dimensions (H x W x D, inches): Satellites: 9 x 3 x 3.75, Subwoofer: 9 x 9 x 9.37
- Signal-to-noise ratio: >92 dB
Another product worth buying is Logitech Z2300. This is Z5500's sibling, another great product from Logitech which is highly recommended. Catch a glimpe at the image below and we can see that the design of Z5500 is superior than Z4's. But how about the specification? Is it really superior? Let's see it!
Hardware
- Drivers: Satellites: 2.5-inch polished aluminum phase plug driver
- Subwoofer: 8-inch long-throw ported driver with sixth-order bass reflex enclosure
- Speaker dimensions (H x W x D, inches): Satellites: 6.75 x 3.5 x 6, Subwoofer: 11 x 11 x 15
- SoundTouch™ wired remote control: Master volume, Subwoofer volume, Headphone jack, Power/standby
Technical Specifications
- Total RMS power: 200 watts RMS Satellites: 80 watts RMS (40 watts x 2) Subwoofer: 120 watts RMS
- Total peak power: 400 watts
- Frequency response: 35 Hz–20 kHz
- Signal-to-noise ratio @ 1 kHz: >100 dB
- Amplifier: Ultra-linear, high-capacity analog
- Compatibility:PC or Mac, CD playerDigital, (MP3) music player, DVD player, PlayStation®, PlayStation®2, PLAYSTATION®3 (with provided game console adapter), Xbox®, Xbox 360™ (with provided game console adapter)
Z2300 has 200 watt RMS power! It's more than enough to make your computer table be shaken when you turn up this beast to its maximum. Z4's with modest 40 watt RMS really looks pale compared with Z2300. Being high in RMS power means that this speaker can be played at loud volume without have any perceived distortions. Logitech Z2300 also has been THX's certified which marks this speaker capability as small home theater speaker.
This speaker is offered in price range $160, making this speaker will face Edifier's C3 directly. Who will be the winner? You'll decide :)
Friday, March 21, 2008
The Battle for Wesnoth...
There are a lot of freeware games that can be downloaded from the internet, but only some of them are worth playing ;). One of them is The Battle for Wesnoth. The Battle for Wesnoth is a fantasy turn-based strategy game. It's licensed under GPLd. It means that everyone has a freedom to download the source code and modify it to whatever they like.
The Battle for Wesnoth can be played across many platform. So far it has supported Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux and Open Solaris. Maybe in the future it will support more :). Compatibility accross many platform like this is really great because there are multiplayer mode that can be played online. To be played in online multiplayer mode, there is one restriction, i.e : all players must use the same version of this game. The latest version of The Battle for Wesnoth is 1.4 and player who wants to play online are encouraged to download 1.4 version because this version has the biggest online community players among other versions.
Just take a glimpse of this game for a while and soon our memory will recall classic games like "Romance of three kingdom" or "L'empereur" published by Koei long time ago. Don't expect graphical pleasure when playing this game, but for core gamers, graphics is second below storyline. That's what maybe will make this game have a big community. So far, The Battle for Wesnoth has been downloaded many times, until the number reached 2,1 millions. Wow.....
Wanna try it? The installer size is more or less 150 MB and it can be downloaded here.
Have fun ^_^
Monday, March 17, 2008
Current top line of Altec Lansing Computer Speaker...
Just like Klipsch, Altec Lansing had being been famous in the home theater speaker systems first before they entered the computer speaker market. Later on, Altec Lansing is ultimately known as well-known computer speaker vendor because of their build quality and sound quality. Altec Lansing is close to Klipsch in terms of sound quality, but slightly cheaper at that time. So in this case, design is the determine factor for most people for choosing one. Besides for people who are willing to spend more than $250 for computer speaker, the difference of $10-$20 would not be a major factor anyway ;).
FX-6021 is the latest and the current top line of speaker Altec has right now. It features an unique design by introducing 12 microdrivers, 6 on each satellite. While the subwoofer design is minimal, it complement the satellite perfectly. Altec also include a wired remote controller for this speaker system. Just take a glance at this speaker and we easily become interested for its design. But how about the sound quality? Just take a look at the specification below first ;)
SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS :
Altec Lansing’s superior sound comes from our proprietary technology, which utilizes custom-built, high-fidelity drivers, state-of-the-art equalization circuitry, and a harmonious mix of the following specifications:
In my opinion, this is a good speaker system. Excellent design with absolutely famous Altec Lansing sound quality in mind will certainly makes this speaker find its way into its lover ;).
FX-6021 is the latest and the current top line of speaker Altec has right now. It features an unique design by introducing 12 microdrivers, 6 on each satellite. While the subwoofer design is minimal, it complement the satellite perfectly. Altec also include a wired remote controller for this speaker system. Just take a glance at this speaker and we easily become interested for its design. But how about the sound quality? Just take a look at the specification below first ;)
SYSTEM SPECIFICATIONS :
Altec Lansing’s superior sound comes from our proprietary technology, which utilizes custom-built, high-fidelity drivers, state-of-the-art equalization circuitry, and a harmonious mix of the following specifications:
- Sound pressure level (SPL): 105 dB
- Total continuous power: 75 Watts RMS
- Front Speakers: 12.5 Watts/channel @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @ 180 - 15000 Hz 2 Channels Loaded
- Subwoofer: 50 Watts @ 4 ohms @ 10% THD @40 – 180 Hz Single Channel Loaded
- System response: 32 Hz – 18 kHz (-10dB)
- Signal to Noise Ration @ 1 Khz input: > 75 dB
- Drivers (per satellite) : Six 1" fullrange Micro Drivers
- Subwoofer driver:One 6.5" long-throw woofer
In my opinion, this is a good speaker system. Excellent design with absolutely famous Altec Lansing sound quality in mind will certainly makes this speaker find its way into its lover ;).
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Where do you go, Klipsch?
It seems that Klipsch which is famous with Promedia series in computer speaker category, has reduced their model. I saw in their website, it's only Promedia GMX A2.1 speaker that still exists. This is a pity because Klipsch, a major player in home theater speaker systems, has been well-known as an excellent high-end computer speaker vendor as well for the recent years. Maybe Klipsch decided to focused only on home theater speaker systems market, abandoning the sub $500 computer speaker systems.
While I think many Klipsch fans will regret this, I think this is a good strategy for company like Klipsch to maintain its fame. Well, as we know, not many people find it necessary to buy a very high-end computer speaker, because a lot of us find it easier and enjoyable to watch movie through our home theater systems rather than watch it through computer. Compatibility problems and a lot of major issue make us rather lazy to use computer for this purpose :). That's why home theater speaker systems is easier to be sold rather than high-end computer speaker systems....
But I hope Klipsch will still make computer speaker in the future, as their design is always fascinating. Just look at Klipsch Promedia GMX A2.1 in the picture above. Don't you think the satellite design is superb?
While I think many Klipsch fans will regret this, I think this is a good strategy for company like Klipsch to maintain its fame. Well, as we know, not many people find it necessary to buy a very high-end computer speaker, because a lot of us find it easier and enjoyable to watch movie through our home theater systems rather than watch it through computer. Compatibility problems and a lot of major issue make us rather lazy to use computer for this purpose :). That's why home theater speaker systems is easier to be sold rather than high-end computer speaker systems....But I hope Klipsch will still make computer speaker in the future, as their design is always fascinating. Just look at Klipsch Promedia GMX A2.1 in the picture above. Don't you think the satellite design is superb?
Labtec Elite 840 review..
When I was a college student a few years ago, I acquired this headphone. At that time, I was looking for cheapest solution for enjoying music since as a college student, I was always short of money. Looking for decent computer speaker for music, I realise all are too expensive. The excellent computer speaker for music at that time was Altec Lansing 621 and is priced about $150. A price that I couldn't afford...Then when I had windows shopping in Dusit, Mangga Dua, I saw this headphone. I thought for a while: why don't give it a try? Priced about $25, I still can afford it with some saving money I had :). Then I looked for this headphone specification thoroughly. The specs is as listed below:
Features:
- High-performance audio for home or portable use
- Velvet touch ear pads for extended wear
- Acoustic air vent for enhanced bass
- Self-adjusting headband for superb comfort
- Tangle-free single-side cord
- Driver Magnet: Neodymium
- Cord Length: 10'
- Impedance: 32 ohms
- Ear Pads: Deluxe Padded
- Stereo Plug: Gold Plated
- Frequency Response: 20 - 20,000 Hz
First impression, when using this headphone in my old cheap computer, I found the sound reproduced is not too good. Searching a little bit for the culprit, I found two reasons causing bad sound. The first is the onboard soundcard I had (CMedia-8738) and the second is the source of mp3 file I played. So after pairing it with decent soundcard, Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, I found this headphone can produce a very clear and nice music. I was surprised by the amount of details this headphone produced. The only thing lacking in this headphone is the bass. This headphone characteristic is producing a little bright sound. For bass lovers, they will absolutely be disappointed by this headphone-better go for Koss UR40!
The construction of this headphone is so well built. It's just the headphone cable is so thin that I sometimes was getting scared of tear it apart. But I found it would be unpleasant for wearing it for more than two hours since my ears will feel hot if I wear it for a long time. For comfort, I could not compare it with Sennheiser HD series anyway, which is being said as the most comfortable headphones in the world, it would not be fair. In its price range, I find this headphone offers the biggest driver (50mm) among its competitor. This is really nice as the bigger the driver, the more detail sound can be produced by this headphone...
After owning it for more than 4 years, then finally this headphone broke. I think it has exceeded its lifetime anyway. Time to start for hunting a new one....:)
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