Some reasons why your room isn't fit to be a good workplace (at least, not from my experience).
07:00 - Wake up, take a shower to freshen up, eat some breakfast.
08:00 - Turn on the PC, play some music.
09:00 - Start working.
12:00 - Stomach starts to rumble.
13:00 - Grab a bite, it starts to rain outside.
14:00 - Stuffed. Get back to work.
14:15 - Feel really stuffed (ate a bit too much for lunch), plus it's really raining hard outside.
14:30 - That bed starts to look more and more tempting with each passing minute...
14:45 - Zzzzzzzzzz...
I really need to move my working space out of my room...
Saturday, 23 May 2009
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
General Election and Overall Indifference
It’s been almost a month since the election for Members of Parliament, and since the results started to take shape a few weeks ago, we can clearly see what a total joke the whole political & election system in Indonesia is.
From the fiasco of the voters list to the behaviour of failed candidates, from the campaign period to Election Day, everything is one big joke. The only reason I voted was to keep those radical parties out of the parliament and government.
The list of voters published by the Election Committee left several million people stripped of their voting rights. Although I doubt that it would have severely altered the election results, it is still a problem that needs to be fixed before the presidential election. Otherwise, the Election Committee would lose all credibility they have left (which, at the moment, is already at a record low). And to show how indifferent people are about this election, even 40% of those registered as voters don’t show up to vote. Go figure…
And then we have the whole campaign period with every political party and MP candidates revealing all their programs and promises. Of course, it’s not like everyone believes what they promise anyway. But beside that point, this country’s government runs on a presidential system. The MPs have jack sh*t to do with deciding what the government programs will be. That’s up to the president and his ministers to decide. Those candidates can promise all they want, but none of them will ever be possible unless they get elected as president. Even if they do get elected president, it’s not as if they will live up to their promises anyway.
The candidates… Aaah… This is one touchy topic. Every candidate promise heaven on earth, but how true are their promises? To date we have seen failed candidates committing suicide, failed candidates going into shock and cardiac arrest, failed candidates signing up at mental facilities, and failed candidates repossessing the gifts they’ve given out during the campaign period (which ranges from computers to water pipes to mosque carpets). Not to mention candidates that have been caught red-handed being involved in theft, extortion, fraud, robbery, etc during the campaign period. Again, there is no indication whatsoever that those who DO get elected into office are any better. And those same politicians wonder why everyone is so indifferent about elections.
This country is moving closer to being a failed state with each passing day…
From the fiasco of the voters list to the behaviour of failed candidates, from the campaign period to Election Day, everything is one big joke. The only reason I voted was to keep those radical parties out of the parliament and government.
The list of voters published by the Election Committee left several million people stripped of their voting rights. Although I doubt that it would have severely altered the election results, it is still a problem that needs to be fixed before the presidential election. Otherwise, the Election Committee would lose all credibility they have left (which, at the moment, is already at a record low). And to show how indifferent people are about this election, even 40% of those registered as voters don’t show up to vote. Go figure…
And then we have the whole campaign period with every political party and MP candidates revealing all their programs and promises. Of course, it’s not like everyone believes what they promise anyway. But beside that point, this country’s government runs on a presidential system. The MPs have jack sh*t to do with deciding what the government programs will be. That’s up to the president and his ministers to decide. Those candidates can promise all they want, but none of them will ever be possible unless they get elected as president. Even if they do get elected president, it’s not as if they will live up to their promises anyway.
The candidates… Aaah… This is one touchy topic. Every candidate promise heaven on earth, but how true are their promises? To date we have seen failed candidates committing suicide, failed candidates going into shock and cardiac arrest, failed candidates signing up at mental facilities, and failed candidates repossessing the gifts they’ve given out during the campaign period (which ranges from computers to water pipes to mosque carpets). Not to mention candidates that have been caught red-handed being involved in theft, extortion, fraud, robbery, etc during the campaign period. Again, there is no indication whatsoever that those who DO get elected into office are any better. And those same politicians wonder why everyone is so indifferent about elections.
This country is moving closer to being a failed state with each passing day…
Friday, 20 February 2009
Once upon a time...
... I had a 384kbps internet connection that didn't have an unlimited quota. Somewhere along the line, the ISP decided to upgrade the connection to 1Mbps for the same price. And it was good, except that their price for unlimited quota still sucks (about US$75/month).
Thus I went and signed up for another ISP (in addition to my existing connection), because sometimes I needed to be online for longer than 50 hours/month... Okay, that's a lie. Not sometimes, always... :) And since it was a wireless connection, I could bring and use it anywhere I want. It's also cheap (by internet rate standards here), at around $10/month ($11 if you include VAT) for unlimited usage, although the speed varies from 64-256kbps (256kbps for the first 2GB of usage). And it was good... At least for the first few months.
Then came along the need to download MySQL Server 5.1, because the old 5.0 version that I had lying around in my hard drive didn't work so well with Mac OS X 10.5.6, which comes to no surprise because it was a 10.4 binary package. Since my usage is well under 2GB, I figured I'd better use my wireless connection, rather then let it go to waste. It's cheaper anyway, and I'm not so much in a hurry to get said database server. And while I'm at it, I'd better download the 10.4 binary too, because some of the systems I work with still use 10.4.9.
WTF? It should run at 256kbps! OK, maybe the server is overloaded, let's try again after a few moments...
A few moments later...
OK, that's much better, but still, I don't have a whole week just to download a database server...
WTF? It just timed out. *Hit retry*...
Timed out again? !@#$%^ *Hit retry again*...
5892379862397 retries later...
It just seems there won't be cheap (quality) internet here in Indonesia at the moment... *Sigh*
(Disconnects wireless connection and turns to broadband cable connection)
Wednesday, 28 January 2009
Between Hamas and Israel.
Ever wondered why it's so hard to have peace in the Middle-East? No, not just between Israel and Palestine, but in general. We have seen so much bloodshed, not just on the Israel-Palestine front (or other Israel-Arab conflicts), but also between Arabs themselves. Look at Iraq and Lebanon for recent examples.
This is just my personal observation, but it seems to come down to a few things:
1. Every warring faction in the Middle-East (not just the Arabs), view their faction as the only faction with the right to rule (and most of the time, they bring up stuff about a divine right to rule the lands they claim). All other factions beside their own are viewed as infidels and demons.
2. The Middle-Easterns have no concept of defeat. Every conflict ends in a "major victory" for everyone. Sounds too good to be true? It is. Just look at the history of conflict in the Middle-East. To mention some of the recent ones:
The Israel - Hezbollah conflict of 2006 ended in a victory for Israel, because they don't have anything to destroy anymore in Southern Lebanon. And for sure, Hezbollah also claimed major victory, they claim that despite the destruction of Southern Lebanon, it has not weakened Hezbollah (of course the destruction doesn't count).
The recent Israel - Hamas conflict also ended in a major victory for both the Israelis and Hamas. For the Israelis it's the same reason as above, for Hamas it's the same reason as above (and of course, the total and utter destruction of Gaza doesn't count).
But you don't have to take my word for it. It has been like that since the 6-day war of 1967.
In short, everything in the Middle-East easily results in religious zealotry and a "major victory" for everyone. It might be easy to claim "major victory" for all the leaders who sit safely away from all the conflict areas. More than just claiming victory and creating more conflict, they should go to the affected areas to see for themselves what their "victory" looks like up close.
My heart lies with all Israeli and Palestinian citizens alike who have been victims of all these conflicts for decades.
Can't they all just make some compromises and get along?
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