Category Archives: General

Fatwa on Ahmadiyyah by Indonesian Ulama Council


Pictured in this post is Gus Dur (GD) / Abdurrahman Wahid (right) and Ulil Abshar Abdalla (UAA) (left), on a conference to oppose / reject a fatwa released by MUI (Majelis Ulama Indonesia / Indonesian Ulama Council). The fatwa is about the Ahmadiyyah, stating that they are kafir / non-muslim.

These people usually said that you should not judge somebody like that. However, they missed a huge point in this particular case.

Ahmadiyyah like to show themselves as the True Muslims, saying that their religion is the true Islam.
However, when you have your own prophet, then it’s a different religion. Especially when it’s a religion based on so many deceptions, and based on British imperialists’ agenda.

It’s like you’re buying apple (read: Islam), and getting grape (read: Ahmadiyya) instead. The buyer, naturally, would be angered due to this.

Or another example, if I create my own religion, which looks like Christianity – but based on Monotheism (instead of Trinity).
Would the Christians be happy if I call this religion as the true Christianity ?

That fatwa by MUI is basically that, telling that apple is apple, and orange is orange.
It helps to avoid the confusion spread by the Ahmadiyyah missionarists.

This is where GD & UAA got confused. On the website, it’s said that the Ahmadiyyah has the rights to practice their own beliefs.
Indeed, but when you’re saying orange when it’s really apple – then somebody has to notify everyone which may suffer because of this.

Saying that Ahmadiyyah is kafir doesn’t mean that we can’t coexist with them. Quran itself said that the Christians & Jews are kafirs, but Muslims – under the guidance of wise rulers and ulama – have been able to live peacefully together with them.
This is another subtle FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) that’s currently being spread – that when a kafir fatwa was released, that means the muslims will start attacking them.

The attack on Ahmadiyyah’s base on Parung, Indonesia is something that we all should regret. However, we should not just blindly comment on the event, but try to look a bit further. Why it happened ?
From history, such attacks usually happened because formal complaints were ignored by the authorities. After years with nothing being done, people (who felt cheated/misled) usually have ran out of patience.
I haven’t found such investigation in this current event.

My Rp 2 on the subject.

[ISOC-ID] Laporan Meeting di Gedung Cyber

Subject: [ISOC-ID] Laporan Meeting di Gedung Cyber
From: Irwan Effendi Sat, Jul 23, 2005 at 12:10 AM

Hari ini, Jumat jam 10:30 pagi, saya menghadiri rapat informal di Gedung Cyber lt. 7, tepatnya lokasi kantor IDC dan ccTLD.
Pembicaraan berkisar tentang bagaimana eks chairman kita, Teddy A P telah memanipulasi publik mengenai sejarah berdirinya ccTLD, yakni dengan mengatakan bahwa rekan Budi Rahardjo diberikan mandat oleh IANA atas rekomendasi APJII, padahal yang dimintai rekomendasi oleh IANA pada saat itu adalah bapak Joseph Luhukay dan bapak Sanjaya dalam kapasitas mereka sebagai pribadi yang pionir kegiatan internet di Indonesia, bukan dalam kapasitas sebagai anggota APJII.

Bagi rekan-rekan yang tidak mengetahui sejarah internet Indonesia, bapak Joseph Luhukay yang sekarang adalah eksekutif Lippo, adalah orang Indonesia pertama yang mengikuti konferensi di internet (silahkan di google untuk detailnya), sedangkan Sanjaya adalah orang yang dikenal aktif di APNIC di awal masuknya internet di Indonesia. ccTLD sendiri dulu awalnya akan dikelola oleh bapak M. Samik Ibrahim yang nota bene adalah mentor bapak Budi Rahardjo, namun mengundurkan diri karena alasan pribadi.

Mengenai tindak tanduk TAP, dulu sewaktu dia non aktif di APJII, ditawari oleh bapak Marcelus untuk mengembangkan Chapter Indonesia di ISOC, yang mana kegiatan awal dan segala informasi teknis diurus oleh Marcelus, sedangkan TAP bertugas mengumpulkan fotocopy KTP untuk charter member. Sebagai catatan, dari 25 orang yang didaftarkan sebagai Charter Member pada saat itu, salah satunya tadi mengatakan sendiri bahwa dia baru sadar bahwa namanya dipakai untuk mendirikan Indonesian chapter sekitar 2 bulan yang lalu.
Selanjutnya, selama dua tahun, TAP sibuk menggunakan nama ISOC untuk mematikan kegiatan-kegiatan APJII dan mempublikasikan bahwa APJII seharusnya tidak mengelola IP, dan bahwa ia ingin mengambil alih pengelolaan IP atas nama ISOC. Saking sibuknya, sehingga tidak mengembangkan organisasi, bahkan tidak membuat mailing list untuk anggota. Mailing list member@isoc-id.org baru dibuat sekitar 4 bulan setelah milis yang ini aktif.

Sekarang, setelah dia kembali di APJII sebagai sekretaris, dia memutarbalikkan semua perkataan dia selagi “ngambek” terhadap APJII dan malah menggunakan nama APJII untuk mengambil alih ccTLD, yang akan disusul dengan mengambil pengelolaan server ENUM (dikatakan sendiri waktu pertemuan terakhir di Tulodong).

Nokia 9500

After 6 months back in Indonesia, I realize that sometimes I was more mobile than I expected. There have been occasions where bringing my laptop was causing problems.
So I bought a Nokia 9500 Communicator, and fingers crossed this will be of significant help for my work.

First thing’s first – I installed SSH (MidpSSH) pretty much straight away onto it. Installation couldn’t be easier, I just browsed to http://xk72.com/wap, and follow it from there. Very nice.

Let’s see how productive I can be with this thing. (not at all ??? 🙂 )

Sabar

Beberapa waktu yang lalu saya mendapatkan sebuah hikmah mengenai sabar dari seorang kawan saya.

“Sabar itu, bukan hanya selalu berupa pasrah dalam menerima musibah/ujian. Mungkin sabar yang lebih utama adalah tabah dalam berjuang untuk mengatasi sebuah musibah / cobaan.”

“Jika ada orang yang zalim, sabar yang lebih afdhol adalah sabar dalam berjuang melawan kezaliman orang tersebut. Bukan pasrah menerima kezaliman. Karena yang demikian akan menjadikan orang zalim itu bisa leluasa dalam berbuat kezalimannya, dan mungkin akan menyebabkan mudharat kepada lebih banyak orang”

Indonesian Media Watch

Syukurlah kini telah terbentuk situs [ Indonesian Media Watch ], terimakasih kepada [ Anthony Fajri ] atas kontribusinya.

Barusan saya sudah memposting beberapa artikel disitu, dari berbagai bahan yang sudah ada di weblog saya. Kebetulan mengenai Kompas semuanya, mungkin akan menyusul beberapa lagi mengenai Republika & Koran Tempo (kebetulan itu beberapa yang kadang saya baca).

Sudah terlalu banyak pembodohan yang dilakukan, baik sengaja maupun tidak sengaja, oleh media massa selama ini. Sudah saatnya sekarang ada yang bisa mengkoreksi mereka. Dan kini kita semua bisa melakukannya. Jadi, mari …

Kotak Pos 9949 Jakarta 10000

Salah satu jalur langsung ke presiden yang agak kurang terpublikasi adalah Kotak Pos 9949.
Berbeda dengan layanan SMS Presiden yang langsung terbanjiri habis-habisan, surat masyarakat ke Kotak Pos 9949 jauh lebih sedikit jumlahnya. Namun, kelihatannya kualitas dari berbagai saran/informasinya lebih bagus.

Jika Anda perlu mengkontak Presiden mengenai suatu masalah penting, mungkin Kotak Pos 9949 adalah jalan yang terbaik pada saat ini.

Permohonan uji materil UU SDA (Sumber Daya Air) ditolak oleh MK (Mahkamah Konstitusi)

Permohonan uji materil atas UU SDA yang diajukan oleh beberapa LSM dan lembaga lainnya telah ditolak oleh MK. Walaupun ada anggota MK yang menyatakan bahwa UU SDA bertentangan dengan UUD 45, seperti yang tercantum di bagian “Dissenting Opinion”, namun MK tetap memutuskan bahwa permohonan uji materil atas UU tersebut tidak bisa dikabulkan.

Informasi lebih lanjut mengenai keputusan tersebut bisa dilihat di [ http://www.mahkamahkonstitusi.go.id ].

Not that I’m surprised or anything…

RADNET tidak suka duit ?

Hari ini saya men-setup (lagi) koneksi Internet [ RADNET ezytry ]. Di-setup sebagai koneksi Internet utama, dengan Telkomnet instan sebagai koneksi Internet cadangan.

Koneksi Internet PAYG (Pay As You Go), seperti radnet ezytry dan telkomnet instan, ini sangat menyenangkan, karena sangat praktis. Bisa langsung digunakan, tanpa perlu berlangganan terlebih dahulu.
Memang kita jadi membayar agak mahal, tapi kadang kita lebih memerlukan kepraktisan daripada harga murah. Karena itu sudah berkali-kali saya memasang radnet ezytry di berbagai tempat.

Tapi siang ini saya tidak bisa lagi browsing kemana-mana dengan koneksi ezytry ini.
Setiap kali saya mencoba mengakses suatu situs, langsung dibelokkan ke [ halaman registrasi RADNET ] tanpa izin dan tanpa diminta sama sekali.

OK, mereka mungkin tidak suka duit, ya sudah jadi saya ubah saja koneksi Internet utama menjadi Telkomnet.
RADNET baru saja kehilangan satu lagi customernya.

PSN / IgOS

Today I looked at my browser in awe, seeing that there have been [ 3 (three!) Linux distros and 1 billing software released ], all GPL-licensed.
It’s made possible thanks to collaboration of Indonesian Ministry of Research and Technology, Indonesian Ministry of Communication and Information, PT. Pasifik Satelit Nusantara, and many other parties.

The 3 distros are: Igos Berdikari (stand alone Linux distro), Igos Laba-laba (Linux thin-client distro, based on LTSP.org), Igos Kwartet (1 PC, but 4 keyboards/mice/monitors)

Igos Kwartet is quite intriguing, with 1 PC, 4 VGA cards, and 1 USB hub (8 ports), you can have 4 people to use this single PC together, without interrupting each other.

Igos Laba-laba is a must if you want to have better chance of success with the Internet Cafe business. By using old / cheap workstations, you can minimize your investment. Thus enabling faster ROI (return of investment).

Indonesian Linux scene is very interesting now.
However, I hope that the parties will realize that their work has just begun. They’ll need to maintain, promote, and continue to enhance this. Otherwise, this project may fade away in the future, which I’d really hate to see.

Kudos to everyone involved in this.

Just say NO to APJII – conflict on .id domain management

Budi Rahardjo sounded the alarm on .id domain management, with his post titled [ Just say NO to APJII ].
To those following the topic, this actually has been going on for quite a while now (ok, this is the first time I heard about the litigation threat though)

I freely admit that I don’t know all the details about this issue. However, I’d like to testify that to my knowledge and experience, Budi Rahardjo is a person that cares. He has done much good to Indonesian IT community, and without hidden (selfish) agenda like many others. Indeed he sometime speaks rather harshly, but I think he’s somebody that you can trust.

If you agree, let’s help spread the word.

Oh, one more thing – I HATE backstabbers. (been there several times myself)
You, mr / ms backstabbers, discourages people from doing The Right Thing. The world sucks because of people like you.

Linux –> Sanex SC-7090 –> StarOne Indosat

Ini isi file /etc/wvdial.conf saya :

[Modem0]
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
Baud = 115200
SetVolume = 0
Dial Command = ATDT
Init1 = ATZ
Init3 = ATM0
FlowControl = NOFLOW

[Dialer StarOne]
Username = starone
Password = indosat
Phone = #777
Stupid Mode = 1
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Inherits = Modem0

Untuk konek, cukup ketik perintah berikut ini dari console / terminal :

wvdial StarOne

nb:
1. Baud harus persis 115200, kalau tidak maka komputer tidak bisa konek ke SC-7090
2. demikian juga setting FlowControl harus NOFLOW

Confession of the Economic Hit Man : How American Gov’t managed to make the world as its slave

If you still don’t understand why people all over the world hates America so much, then you owe yourself to read the article below.

I can testify that it’s indeed what’s happening in Indonesia :

1. “Generously” give as much loan as possible, making sure it’s so big that there’s no way the receiving country would be able to repay it
2. Make sure that most of that loans is being used to pay American companies for various projects
3. Enjoy the huge yearly interest payment, which should be used to to make life better for the country’s citizens instead
4. Make the debts as a hostage – demand ransoms; make the indebted country to do American gov’t biddings
5. If the country’s leader ever dared to refure the command, then just kill him / her.

Result:
1. Creation of ultra rich elite class
2. America gov’t enslaving many countries
3. Extreme poverty in the enslaved countries – clean water a luxury, thosands daily death due to hunger, extreme suffering put on the children and babies, and so on.
4. A lot of people hates America, and become terrorists – and terrorize American people

So if you’re an American citizen, most likely you’re a victim as well. Only a few people on the ultra elite class are benefiting from all this.You need to do something to change this, and you’re the ones most likely will be able to do something about it.

Please, help us all.


AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to
Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term,
“economic hit man,” e.h.m., as you call it.

JOHN PERKINS: Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do
is to build up the American empire. To bring — to create situations where
as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations,
and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the
largest empire in the history of the world. It’s been done over the last 50
years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It’s
only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last
resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been
built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through
fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic
hit men. I was very much a part of that.

AMY GOODMAN: How did you become one? Who did you work for?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I was initially recruited while I was in business school
back in the late sixties by the National Security Agency, the nation’s
largest and least understood spy organization; but ultimately I worked for
private corporations. The first real economic hit man was back in the early
1950’s, Kermit Roosevelt, the grandson of Teddy, who overthrew of government
of Iran, a democratically elected government, Mossadegh’s government who was
Time’s magazine person of the year; and he was so successful at doing this
without any bloodshed — well, there was a little bloodshed, but no military
intervention, just spending millions of dollars and replaced Mossadegh with
the Shah of Iran. At that point, we understood that this idea of economic
hit man was an extremely good one. We didn’t have to worry about the threat
of war with Russia when we did it this way. The problem with that was that
Roosevelt was a C.I.A. agent. He was a government employee. Had he been
caught, we would have been in a lot of trouble. It would have been very
embarrassing. So, at that point, the decision was made to use organizations
like the C.I.A. and the N.S.A. to recruit potential economic hit men like me
and then send us to work for private consulting companies, engineering
firms, construction companies, so that if we were caught, there would be no
connection with the government.

AMY GOODMAN: Okay. Explain the company you worked for.

JOHN PERKINS: Well, the company I worked for was a company named Chas. T.
Main in Boston, Massachusetts. We were about 2,000 employees, and I became
its chief economist. I ended up having fifty people working for me. But my
real job was deal-making. It was giving loans to other countries, huge
loans, much bigger than they could possibly repay. One of the conditions of
the loan­let’s say a $1 billion to a country like Indonesia or Ecuador­and
this country would then have to give ninety percent of that loan back to a
U.S. company, or U.S. companies, to build the infrastructure­a Halliburton
or a Bechtel. These were big ones. Those companies would then go in and
build an electrical system or ports or highways, and these would basically
serve just a few of the very wealthiest families in those countries. The
poor people in those countries would be stuck ultimately with this amazing
debt that they couldn’t possibly repay. A country today like Ecuador owes
over fifty percent of its national budget just to pay down its debt. And it
really can’t do it. So, we literally have them over a barrel. So, when we
want more oil, we go to Ecuador and say, “Look, you’re not able to repay
your debts, therefore give our oil companies your Amazon rain forest, which
are filled with oil.” And today we’re going in and destroying Amazonian rain
forests, forcing Ecuador to give them to us because they’ve accumulated all
this debt. So we make this big loan, most of it comes back to the United
States, the country is left with the debt plus lots of interest, and they
basically become our servants, our slaves. It’s an empire. There’s no two
ways about it. It’s a huge empire. It’s been extremely successful.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to John Perkins, author of Confessions of an
Economic Hit Man. You say because of bribes and other reason you didn’t
write this book for a long time. What do you mean? Who tried to bribe you,
or who — what are the bribes you accepted?

JOHN PERKINS: Well, I accepted a half a million dollar bribe in the nineties
not to write the book.

AMY GOODMAN: From?

JOHN PERKINS: From a major construction engineering company.

AMY GOODMAN: Which one?

JOHN PERKINS: Legally speaking, it wasn’t — Stoner-Webster. Legally
speaking it wasn’t a bribe, it was — I was being paid as a consultant. This
is all very legal. But I essentially did nothing. It was a very understood,
as I explained in Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, that it was — I
was — it was understood when I accepted this money as a consultant to them
I wouldn’t have to do much work, but I mustn’t write any books about the
subject, which they were aware that I was in the process of writing this
book, which at the time I called “Conscience of an Economic Hit Man.” And I
have to tell you, Amy, that, you know, it’s an extraordinary story from the
standpoint of — It’s almost James Bondish, truly, and I mean–

AMY GOODMAN: Well that’s certainly how the book reads.

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, and it was, you know? And when the National Security
Agency recruited me, they put me through a day of lie detector tests. They
found out all my weaknesses and immediately seduced me. They used the
strongest drugs in our culture, sex, power and money, to win me over. I come
from a very old New England family, Calvinist, steeped in amazingly strong
moral values. I think I, you know, I’m a good person overall, and I think my
story really shows how this system and these powerful drugs of sex, money
and power can seduce people, because I certainly was seduced. And if I
hadn’t lived this life as an economic hit man, I think I’d have a hard time
believing that anybody does these things. And that’s why I wrote the book,
because our country really needs to understand, if people in this nation
understood what our foreign policy is really about, what foreign aid is
about, how our corporations work, where our tax money goes, I know we will
demand change.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to John Perkins. In your book, you talk about how
you helped to implement a secret scheme that funneled billions of dollars of
Saudi Arabian petrol dollars back into the U.S. economy, and that further
cemented the intimate relationship between the House of Saud and successive
U.S. administrations. Explain.

JOHN PERKINS: Yes, it was a fascinating time. I remember well, you’re
probably too young to remember, but I remember well in the early seventies
how OPEC exercised this power it had, and cut back on oil supplies. We had
cars lined up at gas stations. The country was afraid that it was facing
another 1929-type of crash­depression; and this was unacceptable. So,
they — the Treasury Department hired me and a few other economic hit men.
We went to Saudi Arabia. We —

AMY GOODMAN: You’re actually called economic hit men –e.h.m.’s?

JOHN PERKINS: Yeah, it was a tongue-in-cheek term that we called ourselves.
Officially, I was a chief economist. We called ourselves e.h.m.’s. It was
tongue-in-cheek. It was like, nobody will believe us if we say this, you
know? And, so, we went to Saudi Arabia in the early seventies. We knew Saudi
Arabia was the key to dropping our dependency, or to controlling the
situation. And we worked out this deal whereby the Royal House of Saud
agreed to send most of their petro-dollars back to the United States and
invest them in U.S. government securities. The Treasury Department would use
the interest from these securities to hire U.S. companies to build Saudi
Arabia­new cities, new infrastructure­which we’ve done. And the House of
Saud would agree to maintain the price of oil within acceptable limits to
us, which they’ve done all of these years, and we would agree to keep the
House of Saud in power as long as they did this, which we’ve done, which is
one of the reasons we went to war with Iraq in the first place. And in Iraq
we tried to implement the same policy that was so successful in Saudi
Arabia, but Saddam Hussein didn’t buy. When the economic hit men fail in
this scenario, the next step is what we call the jackals. Jackals are
C.I.A.-sanctioned people that come in and try to foment a coup or
revolution. If that doesn’t work, they perform assassinations. or try to. In
the case of Iraq, they weren’t able to get through to Saddam Hussein. He
had — His bodyguards were too good. He had doubles. They couldn’t get
through to him. So the third line of defense, if the economic hit men and
the jackals fail, the next line of defense is our young men and women, who
are sent in to die and kill, which is what we’ve obviously done in Iraq.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you explain how Torrijos died?

JOHN PERKINS: Omar Torrijos, the President of Panama. Omar Torrijos had
signed the Canal Treaty with Carter much — and, you know, it passed our
congress by only one vote. It was a highly contended issue. And Torrijos
then also went ahead and negotiated with the Japanese to build a sea-level
canal. The Japanese wanted to finance and construct a sea-level canal in
Panama. Torrijos talked to them about this which very much upset Bechtel
Corporation, whose president was George Schultz and senior council was
Casper Weinberger. When Carter was thrown out (and that’s an interesting
story­how that actually happened), when he lost the election, and Reagan
came in and Schultz came in as Secretary of State from Bechtel, and
Weinberger came from Bechtel to be Secretary of Defense, they were extremely
angry at Torrijos — tried to get him to renegotiate the Canal Treaty and
not to talk to the Japanese. He adamantly refused. He was a very principled
man. He had his problem, but he was a very principled man. He was an amazing
man, Torrijos. And so, he died in a fiery airplane crash, which was
connected to a tape recorder with explosives in it, which — I was there. I
had been working with him. I knew that we economic hit men had failed. I
knew the jackals were closing in on him, and the next thing, his plane
exploded with a tape recorder with a bomb in it. There’s no question in my
mind that it was C.I.A. sanctioned, and most — many Latin American
investigators have come to the same conclusion. Of course, we never heard
about that in our country.

AMY GOODMAN: So, where — when did your change your heart happen?

JOHN PERKINS: I felt guilty throughout the whole time, but I was seduced.
The power of these drugs, sex, power, and money, was extremely strong for
me. And, of course, I was doing things I was being patted on the back for. I
was chief economist. I was doing things that Robert McNamara liked and so
on.

AMY GOODMAN: How closely did you work with the World Bank?

JOHN PERKINS: Very, very closely with the World Bank. The World Bank
provides most of the money that’s used by economic hit men, it and the
I.M.F. But when 9/11 struck, I had a change of heart. I knew the story had
to be told because what happened at 9/11 is a direct result of what the
economic hit men are doing. And the only way that we’re going to feel secure
in this country again and that we’re going to feel good about ourselves is
if we use these systems we’ve put into place to create positive change
around the world. I really believe we can do that. I believe the World Bank
and other institutions can be turned around and do what they were originally
intended to do, which is help reconstruct devastated parts of the world.
Help — genuinely help poor people. There are twenty-four thousand people
starving to death every day. We can change that.

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins, I want to thank you very much for being with us.
John Perkins’ book is called, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man.

[ http://www.pithrecords.com/articles/showarticle.php?articlenumber=958 ]

Download Email (POP3) via fasilitas SSH port forwarding

Selama ini saya perhatikan, kalau pada saat yang bersamaan kita download email dengan browsing situs, maka biasanya download emailnya seperti kalah prioritas. Kadang jadi melambat luar biasa, atau malah kadang-kadang jadi timeout.

Setelah sebal karena download ratusan email kadang bisa butuh waktu berjam-jam, iseng-iseng kemudian saya setup SSH port forwarding di Putty. Jadi, koneksi ke port 110 di localhost akan di-redirect ke port 110 di mailserver.
Supaya tambah mantap, kompresi juga saya enable di Putty.

Saya cukup terkejut ketika kemudian kecepatan download email jadi naik drastis. Proses download email kini tidak lagi tersendat-sendat.

Wah, memang luar biasa SSH ini ya 😀

Azan 5 waktu di handphone

Tadinya mau posting ini sebagai [ komentar di blog-nya mas Khairul ], tapi diblokir sama spaminator yang menjaga blog tersebut. Jadi saya posting disini saja.


Kalau handphone Nokia terbaru mustinya bisa mengumandangkan azan 5 waktu.
Caranya:

1. Buat reminder pada setiap waktu sholat
2. Set agar repeat setiap hari
3. Ubah alarm tone, menjadi dari file .AMR azan.

File .amr azan bisa didapatkan dari sini:
http://www.harrysufehmi.com/juz-amma/mobile-amma/index.html

Enjoy 🙂

3D accelerators untuk aplikasi matematika ?

Dari Slashdot, sebuah aplikasi yang sangat menarik – [ pemanfaatan GPU untuk aplikasi matematika ].
Wow.

GPU (Graphical Processing Unit), atau 3D card, atau 3D accelerator; seperti NVidia GeForce, ATI Radeon, dll; memang sudah lama melampaui kemampuan CPU (contoh: Intel x86, AMD, dll) untuk satu hal – 3D rendering.
Saya jadi teringat dulu memainkan game Quake di Pentium dengan rendering OpenGL. Kecepatan framenya adalah 2 detik per frame 🙂 masih mending kalau 2 frame per detik, ha ha.
Setelah saya memasang card 3Dfx Monster 3D (masih ada yang ingat benda ini?) kecepatan renderingnya naik drastis – komputer yang sama bisa memainkan game Quake dengan kecepatan sekitar 30 fps (frame per second).

Kini, para peneliti komputer mulai melirik GPU untuk melakukan hal-hal yang lainnya. Karena GPU biasanya sangat powerful kemampuan untuk memproses floating point, maka inilah yang dilakukan oleh program GPUsort tersebut.
Hasilnya, dengan menggunakan GPU, maka performa yang dicapai bisa mencapai lebih dari 2x lipat dibandingkan dengan CPU yang paling powerful sekalipun.

Mudah-mudahan makin banyak software yang bisa memanfaatkan GPU, mengingat telah memasyarakatnya ini, sehingga investasi GPU kita tidak hanya terpakai untuk main game saja.

Asma

Setelah beberapa hari berusaha menyembuhkan serangan asma dengan beristirahat, akhirnya hari ini saya menyerah. Karena sesak napasnya makin parah, dan kelihatannya sudah dibarengi infeksi, walhasil tadi sore kami pergi ke [ Jakarta Respiratory Centre ] (nomor telponnya adalah 7397494, 7244560, 7228126).

Dokternya kelihatannya cukup ahli / spesialis, penanganannya juga cukup baik. Sebelumnya saya pernah mengobati serangan asma saya di sebuah rumah sakit internasional di daerah kampung melayu, waduh lumayan overkill. Saya langsung disuntik 4 kali, dengan dosis yang kelihatannya cukup lumayan, sampai jantung saya berdebar-debar dan badan saya gemetar.
Di JRC ini saya diobati dengan penguapan dulu, lalu karena kelihatan masih agak sesak napas barulah saya disuntik satu kali saja.

Waktu penulisan resep juga cukup mengesankan, dokternya minta izin dulu karena obat yang akan dia resepkan agak mahal. “Oh, enggak apa dok”, kata saya, sambil jantungan. Soalnya, di rumah sakit internasional tadi itu dokternya tidak minta izin, tapi total biaya yang kami keluarkan nyaris 1 juta rupiah untuk satu kali datang itu (glek). Saya bilang ke istri saya, bayar pakai kartu kredit saja, karena kebetulan sedang tidak membawa banyak uang cash.
Ternyata, alhamdulillah total obatnya hanya sekitar 170 ribu, fiuh 😀 padahal sudah obat racikan (yang biasanya lebih mahal).

Tapi yang paling mengesankan adalah, ketika kami selesai berobat, dengan ramah dokter itu minta izin untuk memfoto saya dengan handphone Nokia Communicator 9500-nya. Buat apa ya… ternyata, supaya dia ingat kalau saya menelpon dia, saya itu pasiennya dia yang mana.
“Menelpon dia ?” – ya, kemudian dia memberikan 3 nomor telpon yang bisa saya kontak; dua nomor handphone, dan satu nomor telpon rumahnya. “Silahkan pak kalau ada yang ingin ditanyakan, telpon saja saya langsung”.

Coba tebak, kemana saya akan pergi kalau asma saya kambuh lagi ?
🙂

Sayang JRC ini kelihatannya kurang dikenal oleh masyarakat, kelihatannya karena lokasinya yang agak masuk ke dalam dari jalan Arteri (jl. Sultan Iskandar Muda, Keb.Lama), dan papan namanya yang dipinggir jalan agak tertutup / tidak jelas terlihat dari jalan.
Jadi mudah-mudahan posting ini bisa menjadi informasi yang bermanfaat bagi yang membutuhkannya.

Backup Blog Anda sekarang juga

Alhamdulillah, sekarang sudah banyak sekali yang mau berbagai pengetahuannya di Internet dengan berbagai cara, yang paling populer mungkin adalah via blog.
Tapi, apakah Anda sudah membuat backup dari blog Anda tersebut ? Kalau sampai blog Anda lenyap karena berbagai hal, maka sayang sekali karena berbagai pengetahuan di dalamnya juga potensial ikut lenyap.

Cara termudah adalah dengan membuat agar blog Anda tersimpan di [ Internet Archive ].

Caranya ? Mudah & gratis ternyata (demen gak loh, he he)
Silahkan [ baca ini ].
Kemudian, kebanyakan orang akan memilih untuk [ mampir kesini ]

Mari kita backup blog kita sekarang juga.

Tech Update – June 2005

I haven’t visited [ Tom’s Hardware ] for quite a while now. Used to be part of my daily routine, since nearly the beginning of its service. Today I thought I’ll give it a quick peek. My, it’s still as excellent as I remember it.

A few goodies :

  • [ USB VGA adapter ] – very cool, and potentially very useful. Definitely very interesting !
  • Last year I thought that both Intel & AMD has hit the physical limitations, so it seems that they won’t be releasing any revolutionarily faster CPU for quite a while. I decided to ignore the scene, and focuses my concentration somewhere else. Looks like I was correct.
  • [ Wireless Camera ] can be a good solution for many problems, including security monitoring. It can be placed almost everywhere, it can record just when there’s motion in the room (saving hard disk space), etc. The one reviewed by TH is pretty expensive, but I’m sure there would be alternatives to it.
  • Shocking – [ Pentium M – the new Celeron 333A ? ] – Celeron 333A was famous for its excellent quality, enabling it to be overclocked even at more than 50% of its original speed. It seems that Pentium M, based on PIII architecture, has the same qualities. The reason is even more interesting – looks like PIII’s architecture is superior to Pentium IV. PIII hit thermal problems however, and then replaced by PIV. But now Intel has found the solution, it used PIII as the basis for Pentium M. [ And the result is quite amazing ]. Pentium M will be definitely in my shopping list next time.
  • [ HyperThreaded CPU actually performs better than dual CPU ] – see point number 3.
  • Ever wonder what happens in a Data Recovery Lab ? [ Wonder no more ].
  • [ 100 GB, 5400 rpm hard diskfor laptop (2.5 inch) ] – not much performance difference with the 7200rpm ones, so it gives better value.
  • The biggest reason to do regular hard disk defrag – [ To give better chance of data recovery ] in case of hard disk failure.

Tolong! Anak Saya Bukan Anak Jenius!

SUARA PEMBARUAN DAILY Jum’at, 17 Juni 2005
———————————
Surat Terbuka kepada Mendiknas:

Tolong! Anak Saya Bukan Anak Jenius!

BAPAK Menteri yang terhormat. Saya telah me-layangkan surat ini ke lembaga Bapak. Akan tetapi, mengingat surat ini ditulis bukan oleh orang yang penting, melainkan dari rakyat jelata, dari seorang ayah yang merasa prihatin melihat nasib pengajaran anaknya, besar kemungkinan Bapak tidak akan menerima surat ini. Atau, kalau toh Bapak menerimanya, besar pula kemungkinan Bapak tidak bersedia membacanya.

Karena alasan itulah, saya memutuskan untuk menjadikan surat ini “surat terbuka” yang dapat dibaca oleh semua orang, khususnya para ayah-ibu yang prihatin melihat hancurnya sistem pendidikan dan pengajaran di sekolah-sekolah tempat anak mereka menimba ilmu. Sebab, menurut saya, apa yang terjadi pada anak saya lebih kurang dapat juga dirasakan pada anak-anak seusianya.

Bulan ini, jika tidak ada aral melintang, anak saya akan menghadapi ujian kenaikan kelas. Kini ia kelas II di sebuah SLTP Katolik yang cukup terpandang di daerah Jakarta Timur. Akan tetapi semenjak dua-tiga bulan terakhir, kata “sekolah” dan “belajar” baginya telah menjadi hantu yang sangat membebani pikiran dan perasaannya. Awal Mei lalu, tepat pada “Hari Pendidikan Nasional”, misalnya, anak saya menyatakan mogok pergi ke sekolah. Alasannya sederhana: “Aku benci sekolah!” Sebagai orangtua, saya memang dapat memaksa agar dia tetap pergi ke sekolah. Namun, menurut saya, model pemaksaan seperti itu tidak akan memecahkan persoalan. Jadi saya membiarkan ia tidak pergi ke sekolah, dan menjadikan hari itu sebagai kesempatan untuk mendiskusikan alasan-alasan ia mogok bersekolah.

Hasilnya sudah dapat diduga, akan tetapi tetap mengejutkan bagi saya sebagai orangtua. Pertama-tama dia berkeluh kesah tentang begitu banyak mata pelajaran yang harus dia telan mentah-mentah, tanpa dia tahu untuk apa dan mengapa dia harus menelannya. Kata “telan mentah-mentah” sengaja saya pilih, karena hanya itulah padanan yang paling tepat bagi system pengajaran yang (masih terus) mengandalkan pada “hafalan mati” – walau pun sudah begitu banyak kritik pedas ditujukan pada sistem seperti itu.

Standar Kurikulum Memang benar, dewasa ini orang berbicara tentang KBK (Kurikulum Berbasis Kompetensi) dan “otonomi khusus” masing-masing sekolah. Akan tetapi, pada praktiknya, tetap saja setiap sekolah akan berusaha memenuhi standar kurikulum yang dibuat Depdiknas, agar tidak dinilai “ketinggalan” dari sekolah-sekolah “favorit”. Apalagi, dalam sistem KBK, faktor pendidikan guru sebagai “fasilitator” (perhatikan: bukan sebagai guru tradisional, sumber-segala-sumber ilmu pengetahuan!) akan sangat menentukan. KBK mengasumsikan tersedianya sumber-sumber ilmu pengetahuan yang terbuka, seperti internet, fasilitas perpustakaan, lingkungan yang memadai, dan seterusnya, serta kemampuan guru mengolah mata pelajaran tanpa harus membebek pada standar kurikulum. Kedua asumsi itu, pada praktiknya, merupakan kemewahan yang tidak dimiliki oleh sekolah-sekolah pada umumnya. Alhasil, sistem “telan mentah-mentah” kembali merajalela. Mari! saya beri contoh konkret. Seorang siswa SLTP di Jakarta,
seperti anak saya, paling tidak harus “menelan” 16 mata pelajaran (mata pelajaran umum, ilmiah, dan khas daerah), mulai dari Agama, PPKN, Fisika, Ekonomi sampai Komputer dan PLKJ (Pendidikan Lingkungan Kehidupan Jakarta – untuk siswa di Jakarta). Itu berarti, setiap siswa harus “menelan mentah-mentah” setidaknya 15 buku – saya mengasumsikan Matematika tidak menghafal! – untuk menghadapi ujian kenaikan kelas. Masalah lain yang disinggung anak saya, bukan saja jumlah mata pelajarannya sangat banyak, tetapi juga kandungan masing-masing mata pelajaran sangat rinci, dan karena itu terlalu berat bagi seorang siswa SLTP kelas II. Ini mudah dicermati jika Bapak Menteri sempat meme-riksa buku-ajar standar yang dipakai di sekolah-sekolah kita. Mungkin Bapak Menteri tidak memiliki waktu cukup untuk memeriksa dengan cermat isi buku-ajar itu. Jadi, izinkan saya memberi contoh yang saya petik secara acak dari buku-ajar anak saya.

Untuk mata pelajaran ekonomi, seorang siswa SLTP kelas II diharapkan mampu memahami mulai dari koperasi sampai pembangunan nasional. Dan, masing-masing subjek bahasan diurai dalam rincian yang hanya dapat dipahami oleh mereka yang kuliah ekonomi di perguruan tinggi. Misalnya, subjek bahasan koperasi, dirinci mulai dari pengertian, asas, landasan (idiil, struktural, mental, operasional), fungsi dan peran, macam-macam kegiatan dan jenis, sampai segala peraturan yang terkait! Dan, subjek pembangunan nasional dirinci sejak kegiatan negara dalam kehidupan ekonomi (seluruh aspek budgeter, APBN-APBD, jenis-jenis pajak, bagaimana menghitung pajak, dan peraturan yang terkait) sampai tahap-tahap pembangunan jangka panjang (Pelita I sampai Reformasi). Hal yang sama juga terjadi dalam mata pelajaran lain. Ambil contoh buku-ajar biologi untuk SLTP kelas II. Siswa diharapkan memahami mulai dari sistem pencernaan (manusia dan hewan), sistem pernafasan (manusia dan hewan), sistem transporta! si
(manusia dan hewan), sistem saraf, sistem indera, dan seterusnya.

Lagi-lagi, masing-masing subjek bahasan diberi rincian yang luar biasa mendalam: siswa SLTP kelas II harus memahami perbedaan antara Diapedesis dengan Fibrinogen, gambar penampang kulit lengkap (Anda tahu Globmerulus dan di mana letak Kapsul Bowman?), gambar hubungan antarsel saraf (mana bagian Akson, Dendrit, Vesikel Sinapsis?), dan seterusnya. Karena itu, tidak heran jika seorang dosen biologi di sebuah universitas berkomentar, “Kalau SLTP sudah sejauh ini, apa lagi yang perlu diajarkan di Universitas?”

Perlukah saya menunjukkan materi PLKJ, mata pelajaran khusus untuk siswa yang (kebetulan) tinggal di Jakarta, kepada Bapak Menteri? Seorang siswa SLTP kelas II di Jakarta harus menghafal mati pasal-pasal mana dalam KUHP yang dipakai untuk menghukum “perkelahian pelajar secara per orangan yang mengakibatkan satu pihak luka atau mati”, pasal-pasal mana untuk “perkelahian pelajar secara berkelompok”, dan pasal-pasal mana yang dipakai jika “pelajar menyerang guru”!

Juga, jangan lupa, pasal-pasal KUHP mana yang dipakai jika “pelajar mabuk-mabukan, minum-minuman keras”, atau jika terjadi “pemerasan oleh pelajar”, atau “pencurian di kalangan pelajar”, atau “pelajar membawa senjata api atau senjata tajam”…

Bapak Menteri yang terhormat. Sengaja saya menguraikan secara rinci beban mata pelajaran yang harus ditanggung anak saya setiap hari saat ia pergi ke sekolah, dan khususnya saat ia menghadapi ujian kenaikan kelas. Menurut saya, hanya anak jenius saja yang mampu menanggung semua beban itu tanpa masalah berarti. Dan, saya harus akui dengan jujur, anak saya bukan anak yang jenius, seperti juga anak-anak pada umumnya.

Jumlah mata pelajaran yang begitu banyak, dan kandungan informasi yang sangat padat tanpa memperhitungkan kesiapan mental maupun kognitif anak sesuai tahap-tahap perkembangannya, membuat guru tidak memiliki cara lain kecuali kembali pada sistem kuno: Telan Mentah-mentah! Jangan Tanya, Hafal Saja! Itu pula yang dituntut oleh soal-soal ulangan umum. Mungkin di permukaan, cara itu kelihatannya berhasil. Tetapi, jika dipandang dari sudut pendidikan, sesungguhnya kita telah gagal total! Kita telah ikut berpartisipasi menjadikan kata “sekolah” dan “belajar” momok yang sangat menakutkan bagi anak-anak didik – mereka yang akan menggantikan kita di masa depan.

Seorang teman anak saya bahkan hampir bunuh diri, karena frustrasi menghafal mata pelajaran Biologi. Saya tidak mau peristiwa itu terjadi pada anak saya. Karena itu, Bapak Menteri, tolonglah! Anak saya bukan anak jenius! Dan jutaan anak Indonesia juga bukan anak jenius! *

Penulis adalah Direktur Eksekutif MADIA (Masyarakat Dialog Antar Agama), Jakarta