Google bisa ngitung!

Google, you've done it again. I'm impressed :)

I love you, Google (okay, and you too Yahoo)

"Excuse me, is femto the power of minus 15?" tanya temenku ke aku. Kalo mikro kan 10 pangkat minus 6 (atau sepersejuta), nano 10 pangkat minus 9. Jangan2 femto tu pangkat min 12 ya?

Duh, kenapa ga cari di google dari tadi ya? (kebetulan kami didepan komputer waktu itu :D) Yup... ini yg kudapat:

Link pertama yg dikasih google keliatannya bukan yg kucari. Link kedua dan ketiga cukup bagus. Di link yang ketiga ni malah udah ada jawaban yang kucari :) Jadi ga perlu repot2 ngeklik.

Okay, mungkin ini dah biasa ya. Tapi ada satu hal lagi yang bikin aku rodo kaget. Misalnya PR ku sekarang tentang "MOS noise model". Seperti biasa, aku ketik keyword itu di toolbar google di mozilla firefox ku, dan ini yang kudapat:

Mmm... apa ini? Kok muncul tulisan "9 results stored on your computer"?? Waks, ternyata google nge-search file-file komputer ku juga, termasuk yg PDF!

Not bad... not bad... pikirku.

Aku baru ingat, beberapa minggu lalu aku memang nginstal google desktop. Tampaknya itu yang bertanggung jawab atas "fitur" ini.

Wah wah... jadi aku skrg ga perlu takut donlot jurnal yang sama berulang2 hanya karena aku lupa naruh di folder mana :p

Eko Warsono kayaknya juga penggemar berat google. Dia yang ngenalkan aku dengan istilah "googling". Sejak kapan tho google jadi kata kerja? :p

Terlalu banyak fitur google yg bikin aku makin jatuh cinta: scholars.google.com, gmail, google earth, kemampuannya searching file ms office, pdf, ps, dan gambar. Dan sadarkah kalian, blogger.com tu punya nya google!!!

Tentang google earth, ini program asli uapik tenan! Peta kota Sydney keliatan detil banget, sampai tempat tinggal ku keliatan beserta mobil2 yg parkir dekatnya. Sayang, peta Jogja masih kurang jelas. Buat kalian yang belum pernah liat, ni rumahku dilihat dengan google earth:

Kalo gambar itu diperhatikan, di pojok kiri atas ada tulisan Kensington Public School, itu SD ku yang dulu. Deket banget ya :) ? Oh iya, gambar di google earth bisa di rotate dan di zoom dan bisa gerak animasi, dan yg heboh.. bisa di-tilt. Dan, kita bisa mbedakan tinggi permukaan, dengan kata lain kita bisa liat bukit dan gunung secara "3d" (tapi tidak dgn bangunan). Liat aja merapi di google earth kalo sempat, asli keren bgt.


Tapi untuk urusan messaging, Yahoo masih nomer satu buatku. Yahoo messenger with voicenya yang terbaru = simply remarkable! Nelpon temen2 di gamatechno, nelpon temen di melbourne, nelpon adikku, semua jadi lebih MURAH :) Buat kalian yang blm sempet ngupdet YM nya dan blm pernah liat YM w/ voice atau YM 7 beta (kalo ga salah ada juga), ada tambahan tombol "Call" ini:

Pff... aku ga bisa mbayangkan hidup tanpa google dan yahoo :)

Sydney Children Hospital

Hari rabu kemarin, Tanti, Grace, Ida, Inta, Sophie, dan aku ke Sydney Children Hospital di Randwick. Acaranya: ngenalkan Indonesia ke anak2 hospital school di situ.

Liat aja foto ini, ada beberapa anak yg secara fisik emang keliatan kalo sedang sakit. Contohnya gadis asia yg berdiri depanku. Kemana-mana dia mesti bawa mesin infus, yg kupegang itu. Ada juga yg sekedar nemenin adiknya dirawat di RS, seperti Stephanie yg berbaju merah (dugaanku aja si :D). Syarat sekolah di sini kalo ga salah, si anak harus tinggal lebih dari seminggu. Dan rata2 mereka malah dari luar Sydney, bahkan beberapa dari luar NSW.


Awalnya si rasanya agak kaku presentasi depan anak2. Tapi alhamdulillah, setidaknya kami sempat bikin anak2 ini tersenyum :)

"Who am i?", tanyaku memulai sebuah permainan.

"I am an endangered species." lanjutku.

"Koala?" "Nop"

"Actually i have two legs, but i prefer swinging on trees :)"

Langsung byk anak yg ngacungkan tangan. "A monkey!", kata salah satu anak.

"Yes, but what kind of monkey?"

"Gorilla?"

"Chimpanzee?"

Terus ada gadis lucu di depan yg ngacung. "Yes, you", kataku sambil nunjuk dia.

"Orangutan"

Tepat sekali. Si anak pun dapet hadiah dari Ida+Inta :)

Semoga kesembuhan & kesehatan dilimpahkan ke anak2 itu.

Sydney Buses

Lucky Me

"I'd like to go to eastgardens, plz", said me to the bus driver. I have no more bus tickets on me, so i had to pay for a ticket on the bus.

"Just take a seat," answered the driver, quietly.

The doors were shut, and the bus moved. I was still confused with the driver's answer. So i sat down close to him. When the bus stopped for a red light, i approached him again, trying to pay for the ticket. He said,

"That's the LAST thing to worry about."

"(Oh) okay" :)

All other passengers used their travelten or travelpass bus tickets, so they do pay. But at that night, i didn't! Hihihi... i feel like that i'm the luckiest boy on earth :) I saved $1.30, without any intention to cheat
----

"Sorry, i fell asleep"

Last monday, i also felt very very lucky. Dyah gave me her husband's blue TravelPass ticket! That means, i can go anywhere i want by bus or ferry within Sydney Metro. Although the ticket was valid only that day, that doesn't matter. I still can go anyway, it's still better than nothing. I started by visiting Maroubra to see some bicycles. Than off i went to Bondi Junction, to check out bicycles again. (just to let you know, someone stoled my dawes bicycle last friday in the uni)

At noon, i wanted to ride a ferry, so i took the bus to Circular Quay. It was a hot sunny day, probably 23 degrees Celcius. Luckily the bus was air conditioned, it felt very nice. Feeling very comfortable, i began to shut my eyes when the bus passed Hyde Park. Hyde Park isn't so far from Circular Quay, but you know what? It felt quite long for me, coz i remembered that i dreamed about something that time, and it wasn't short. Hihihi... when i woke up, everyone has gone. I was the last passenger. The bus engine had just been shut down. And the most embarassing thing is that the driver just realized i was still there. He laughed :)

"Sorry, i fell asleep", said me to the smiling driver.

The bus door opened, and i quickly stepped out from the bus. After a few steps i start to realized that i was not in the place i should be. I mean, "hey, this isn't the usual bus stop!" I was right. I was on the opposite side of the block where the bus usually ends in Circular Quay.

I wonder how long i stayed in that empty bus :( ??? Probably almost ten minutes? :-/

------

"Thank you, driver!"

Very often, people say thank you to the driver everytime they get off from the bus. Some aussies shout, "THANK YOU, MATE", "THANK YOU, DRIVER!" No, we don't say "Thank you sir" or "thank you, madam"

We don't use the word "Sir" of "Madam" often. If someone use it, probably he or she isn't from Australia :)

----

Powered by Gas

Sydney buses are all the same. They have white and blue body paint. But if you look closer, there are at least four models. One is the good old sydney bus with no air conditioner and with not a too long body. The other models are almost like some jakarta Patas buses, especially those ones imported from China (you know, the ones with an exit door in the middle?)

These new model buses have several different stuff. One model even is powered by gas! It has some kind of large air conditioning unit on top of the bus, where a large label "Powered by Gas" is clearly readable. Inside, the back part is higher than the front, but the door floors are always on a low position such that weelchair and baby trollies can easily pass enter and alight the bus. Some buses have special seats which can be folded for wheelchair space.

One thing that i noticed it that all these buses have similar sound. And i am pretty sure, these buses sound differently than any other buses i know in indonesia. I think, i repeat, i think that all "sydney buses" buses have automatic transmission. I can tell from the sound of its engine.

And just to end my story, i think Sydney buses is owned by the State government. There's no other public bus company here, all the buses have the same color :)

Oh yeah, i forgot to tell you. Ticket price for the shortest distance (up to two sections) is 80 cents if you pay by cash and you have a concession card. But for normal adults, it costs twice as much. You can also use a blue travel ten for this, which is slightly cheaper. For traveling up to 5 sections, you must use a brown travelten, or a blue travelpass, or you can pay by cash $1.30. I hope i didn't confuse you :) (yes, it was confusing at first !!!)

Wide Lens photography

Kali ini kita bahas ttg teknik motret pake wide lens. Kalo ga salah, wide lens tu lensa dgn ukuran 35 mm-an. (mbuh, ini tu focal length nya atau apa, i'm not so sure)

Yang jelas, dgn wide lens kita bisa motret dengan pandangan yang SANGAT luas. Ada beberapa kegunaan penting dari lensa ukuran ini:

- motret di dalam ruangan kecil, supaya bisa memperoleh gambar sebanyak2nya dalam satu frame. Misalnya kalo kita pengin foto temen2 kita yg ngumpul byk bgt di dalam ruang tamu yang sesak, kadang kan gak muat dalam satu frame kan? Biasanya kita terus ngapain? Mundur bbrp langkah kan? Nah kalo ruangannya sempit kan mustahil gitu.

- motret pemandangan. Akan sangat bagus kalo pemandangan alam atau kota bisa keliatan luassss... :) Contoh:

Skyline kota Sydney. Detil bangunannya ga jelas, tapi krn awannya kebetulan bagus, jadi ada lah alesan utk pake wide lens :)

(btw, foto ini ta ambil dari atas ferry jurusan circular quay-paramatta senin kemarin krn stress mikirin sepeda ku yang hilang dicuri di kampus)

- motret objek yang dekat dan pengin latar yang keliatan luas. Tahu maksudku kan? Bisa aja kita motret sebuah objek dari jauh dengan di-zoom biar keliatan dekat. Tapi dampaknya ini membuat luas pandangan menyempit, jadi latarnya ga keliatan luas. Sebenarnya mana yg harus dipilih tergantung juga dari apa yg kita inginkan. Yang perlu diingat, motret dengan wide lens membuat foto keliatan terdistorsi bentuknya, jadi aga melengkung. Contoh yang kurang jelas:

Foto ini pakai zoom terkuat kamera ku.

Foto ini pakai wide lens terlebar kamera ku.

Bandingkan kedua foto mini cooper ku di atas (btw, kapan ya bisa punya mini cooper beneran :-?). Di foto yang bawah, botol Aqua (merknya bukan Aqua si sebenarnya) nya keliatan sedikit, sedangkan di foto yg atas, botol sama sekali tidak terlihat. Padahal objek mobilnya relatip ga berubah. Ukurannya tetep. Dan menurutku, ini bukan karena arah kamera yg bawah dinaikkan dikit.

Pesan moral dari artikel ini, kalo mo beli kamera saku yang bisa zoom, pastikan ukuran lensa terkecil nya cukup "wide", misalnya smp 35 mm. Ada bbrp kamera yg minimal nya 38 mm, dan walopun selisihnya dikit, ternyata cukup ngefek. Apalagi ada juga kamera yg hanya bisa smp 45mm, ini malah hampir kayak lensa standar. Setahuku, bbrp kamera saku yg lebih murah daripada normalnya, ternyata dia ga se-wide normalnya. Just trust me, lensa wide itu sama pentingnya dengan lensa zoom yg kuat (bahkan mungkin lebih penting :D)

nb: foto2 di atas dipotret menggunakan canon powershot a75 3.2megapixel

Getting start on your research

Getting started on your research

This week I got a research induction class, together with a bunch of postgraduate research students. I only noticed one guy who is a masters student like me. The rest of them are all PhD students. And most of them were young people, probably still at their twenties.

Okay, now forget about the people in the class. What draw much of my attention and made me start to worry much is the presentations of the speakers and the discussions with others.

Let me summarize what i got from the class:

Getting Started

1. SWOT analysis is all about awareness. You should be aware of:
- your weakness, from day one! E.g: better time management
- opportunities; you would never know what one small thing can lead you to something unimaginable :)

2. Understand your transition, from coursework to research, which is a transition from a "reactive" style of learning into a "proactive" study method.

3. Understand the big picture.
Make reference maps. It's a map consisting of:
- project description of TOP institute websites
- TOP conference proceedings announcements
- invited talks in proceedings
- panel sessions in proceedings
It is important to make sure your reference map do not end up like a soup :p You need to categorize the research articles into groups, which may overlap in some papers or so.

4. Read extensively, not intensively. Initially you need a big picture, then eventually as time progress you can get deeper. As a practical suggestion, read only these:

abstract - conclusions - intro - related works

How to make best use of time for research

1. Make a plan.

2. Have a clear research direction.

3. Review and summarize periodically.

4. Make data backups!

5. Sleep enough and stay healthy :)

bonus: regular writing for reflection and to develop ideas

How to improve relations with your supervisor

1. Meet regularly.

2. Discuss problems as soon as they arise.

3. Record meetings, and send it back to your supervisor.

4. Set expectations up front.

5. Exchange ideas

bonus: BE TRUTHFUL AND HONEST

It's very easy to understand and say these stuff. Now what i need to do is... do it :(