Thursday, January 28, 2010

SOLAR ECLIPSE by STELLARIUM

Salam,
Few days ago, on January 15, 2010, I and almost all of Indonesians who live in the country experienced a quite remarkable and stunning thing. It was the eclipse of sun, readers. This scarce happening is the second time I have ever experienced in my life. As far as I could remember, I first experienced it in 2008 and that was so fascinating that I could see the moon was blocking the sunlight at the daytime. I heard it many times when I was kid anyways, but it was just too hard to recall whether or not I saw the eclipse with my own eyes.

To me, talking about eclipse either solar or lunar eclipse has always been zinging, what about you? I am very much sure you have ever known what is umbra, penumbra and other terms related to these two eclipses. At least you have heard those when you were at elementary school and your teacher taught you about eclipse in the subject of nature science. Still remember about those kinds of things? Hopefully so.

Well, the eclipse of sun happens in day time in which serially, the sun, the moon and the earth are in line. The moon can be said simply passes the sunlight therefore we, who live in the particular areas might feel the day a bit dimmed or even dark. While eclipse of the moon happens in the night in which the sun, the earth and the moon are in a row. These occurrences are totally scarce and the exactly same solar eclipse for example, might happen again in 1000 years to come. It's therefore we've gotta roll the dice if we know there will be an eclipse in several days ahead.

For this solar eclipse, I didn't purposely go to any observatory or campus as frankly to say I little bit forgot about that. In last year solar eclipse I went to an event held by one of the faculties at my campus and luckily the committee gave us brief explanation bout eclipse as well as the preparation we need to do before observing solar eclipse. The committee said that we can never see the eclipse with our own naked eyes, instead, we have to wear particular spectacles made from kind of carbon or black polymeric. This material can hinder ultraviolet and any harmful particle from the sunlight. The price ranges from IDR 10.000 until 30.000 (US$ 1 - 4 ) which is only sold before the eclipse happened.

Something different I did to see the latest Lunar eclipse is that I utilized a computer software namely Stellarium. This software is a freeware and can be installed on windows, Linux and also Mac operating system. Stellarium gives us clear and accurate precision as if the reality. I by myself saw the moon was moving to thwart sun in many modes. Here is the picture:

By installing Stellarium on our PC or notebook, we can see constellations, stars, planets and many things. Aside from those, we also can go anywhere else on this earth or in our solar system to explore many sky's object. On that day, I observed the moon's moving from my city (Bandung) and also Jakarta. Here's the sampling picture:


While in other places are as follow:



Indeed, an eclipse is a super bona thing on my mind, I only experienced it once in awhile, nothing is great for God though as He is the most great.
A professor at The University of Arizona (whom I contacted recently) told me that he only experienced it 2 times (saw eclipse with his own eyes). In his email to me he said that it was also interesting for him to capture some snapshots of eclipse. I am proud of knowing this event and liking this as it reminds me about the might of Allah, the sustainer, the creator or this universe. Allah is great!

Friday, January 22, 2010

A bottle of water


A thing seems small, tiny and minuscule yet gives us huge impact is about to reveal. Yes, I am going to share with you a very simple thing that I have recently re-applied in my life. I am sure this is will help you out to improve your life although I obviously know that I am not that erudite to advise or give you tips on improving life. Anyways, it is to bring a water bottle wherever you go for your drinking!
Well, it was when I experienced 2-month intensive English Program at University of Arizona I first started doing this habit. Back then was in the late summer and since I wished to survive, I pretty much brought water in bottle with me wherever I went. Arizona is a desert and it's kind of killing you yourself to go somewhere without a bottle of water in your bag. Another experience is when I met some Japanese people at my campus (UPI), they were teachers of medical program who taught labors-to-be to be worked in Japan. I saw them also carried a bottle of water attached on their bag. From those two experiences, I re-start thinking why don't I re-apply that in my daily life now. I left this habit when I came back from USA as I thought it was not necessary to bring water in a bottle in Bandung - I could easily get it whenever I wanted. Well, I was wrong by thinking so, I realized that what I did approximately a year ago is an exceptionally great idea to improve my life, at least in some particular cases.

What I mean here by water in bottle isn't bottled-mineral-water you can buy at store or somewhere with particular brand, it is water in your own bottle and you don't throw the bottle when there is no more water in it – instead, you fill that up, clear? I guess so. Historically speaking, before mineral water existed, human drank water they previously boiled at their house and it didn't matter them for sure. They didn't buy water from companies or water vendors as such these companies had not existed. Now everything has changed and water business is so lucrative that everyone wants to get involved in it. It gives huge profits to those who own water processing company as they successfully take chance from the shifting of of our lifestyle into might be so-called instant oriented.

Bringing water in a bottle wherever you go can indeed benefit you. In view point of mine, it advantageously gives us some positive things in our lives. Here they are:
1.Saving money. Yes it indeed lessens your spending as you don't need to buy water if you wish to drink plain water outside. The price of bottled-water (mineral water) might be cheap but if you always buy an buy again, you spent a lot then. Please re-think to no more buy mineral water from store or street-seller as it will cost you – bring your own water!
2.Simpler. I think it's sort of causing a fuse to somebody whom you asked for water if you do it again and again. I mean, we won't have someone given us a glass of water when we visit his or her house if we have our own water. It often happened to me and I thought it would be a good idea not to make my host serves me just for quenching my thirstiness. Besides, you will know for sure the hygiene of water you drink if you yourself prepared that beforehand, you do not know if your host whether or not gives you purified and hygienic water.
3.Greener. It's a huge issue that today's people want everything environmentally friendly. Imagine if you always drink bottled-water you buy from store, you'll just produce tons tons of wastes which are definitely hard to be recycled. Plastic waste needs 100 years to be decomposed by soil. By bringing and re-filling your own bottle, without any doubt you save the earth from garbages. Isn't it good idea?

The thing that might matter you is probably about practicability. One of my friends told me that it is rather heavy to bring a bottle of water in her bag. Well, it might be right but please re-consider the benefits I have mentioned above. I think it doesn't give us huge burden to bring 500-600 ml water in our bag. Something that troubles us is when we spend money for buying mineral water, and meantime we also harm our earth by producing trashes. In short, carrying water in our bottle is much better than buying mineral-water. Please bring water wherever you go, I'll always do it insya Allah. If we can't do big thing to save this earth, at least we can do this ridiculously small and easy to do thing. Implement this and tell your friends if you find this tip useful. Thank you.

Picture from: http://mckinneyoatescereal.files.wordpress.com


Thursday, January 7, 2010

The 9 must-have software for your Windows


After thinking quite awhile before the laptop screen of mine, the idea to write this piece of writing flashed on my mind deliberately. I am not a computer science graduate or an ICT expert; I am just an amateur blogger and a so-called techno lover so that I’m eager to share with you all readers about computer’s stuff. Again it’s mere my personal judgment and experience I want to share with you, so if you find something irrelevant to your view, I beg your tolerance then. What I’m about to list here is that series of freeware software or no-buy ones, it means we can freely install and use those without having a fear of using non-genuine software. I'm using these following software both for laptop and PC at my home. By installing all of these, you'll be able to fully use your PC or notebook for almost of your computing works. Well, without further ado, here they are:

1.Browser: Mozilla Firefox
Having installed windows and all drivers for all hardwares on your PC, the next thing that you have to do is that to install a web browser. Browser is a program on computer that lets you surf internet and connect the world. By installing a browser we will be able to do anything such download programs, update software, ask people on forum about issues on our PC etc. That obviously means we can do anything if web browser has been installed (of course you do have internet connection such as dial up modem, LAN etc) on our PC. My favorite browser is that, damn cool Mozilla Firefox. Yes this web browser is the most comfortable and fastest I have ever used. I have ever used almost all web browsers such as Opera, IE, Google chrome, Safari. But I'm sticked on burned Fox as it has bunch of adds on what will make your surfing experience even more astonishing. Just download it at www.mozilla.com.

2.Office suite: Open Office
I am sure the first time you knew about computer, it was all about typing, wasn't it? Yes, almost all of us first learn using computer is to type on office suite application as it is the very basic we need to do to deal with computer. We can be called computer literate if we are unable to type. There are many office suites comprise text processing, spreadsheet, and presentation. Ms Office is the commonest one, since the price is quite irrational for me (now), I use Open office 3.1 which is freeware developed by Sun Microsystems. We can download, modify and distribute it. This office suite is resemble to Ms Office 2003 and you won't find substantial difficulties in using it. Even though the quality isn't perfect, the latest version of it enables you to open extension files of ms office 2007 such as .docx. .pptx, .xslx. What you need to do is that, work a bit harder to edit the file if you want to get better result. That's not a big deal anyways since you don't have to pay several bucks, right? It can be downloaded here : www.openoffice.org.

3.Picture manager/editor: Google Picasa
If you are like me, the most important pictures on laptop or PC is of course pictures of mine, family and friends. It is therefore I have to manage all of those snapshots so that I can easily access those at anytime. The choice of photo manager falls to Google Picasa. It's a giant Google's software that lets you manage, tag, edit pictures in just few clicks. The most recent version of it is almost similar to apple iPhoto in which you can tag the face and Google Picasa will then automatically find all pictures that are alike. Besides, we can blog picture automatically to our blog or upload it to our picasa web album right from Google picasa. I am definitely sure you will be impressed by this totally cool photo editor, just download and use it now! Here's the link: picasa.google.com

4.Music Player: iTune
Music collection in MP3 format is the most familiar one among us. It's concise and has good quality therefore many us prefer this format to others. I pretty much use iTune from Apple for playing and managing the music on my hard-drive. It has tremendous features that will make us easier to listen and organize music based on actress or album. What I love the most is that the “search” feature which lets me search song with ease. Get on this site to download: www.apple.com.

5.Movie player: Media Player Classic
This lite, tiny and simple movie player lets you play almost all of video formats such as WMV, vob, MPEG, MOV and everything. I guess almost all people obviously know and use it. Tough some of us might prefer to use Windows Media Player bundled by operating system, MPC is still much better as it works faster and uses small amount of RAM of your computer. Other media players such as GOM, VLC or Power DVD are also good, but here I just share with you the most frequently used one by almost all people, do you? Well, download here: download.cnet.com/Media-Player-Classic/3000-2139_4-10518778.html

6.Anti Virus: SMADAV
Data security is the hottest issue in the today's world. Document, software, spreadsheet, presentation file, and pictures are the target of those who love hacking and making people depressed. Once I have experienced computer of mine struck by virus and I couldn't do anything but re-install my PC, at that time was really novice about computer so that I didn't defense my computer with anti virus or something. Sometimes I think why do people love making and flourishing viruses, yes they are smart but they are truly wicked. It's therefore a must for us to protect our computer with anti virus, anti spy or whatsoever but for sure it's a protector. I used to use imported antivirus that I downloaded from net, but since few months ago I have been using local one and it is SMADAV antivirus. Yes it is made and developed by Indonesian people and I like that. I donated some money to get the Pro version and now I am using it to protect system and data on my laptop. Besides SMADAV, there are also ANSAV and PC MAV which are made by Indonesian, but I think smadav is better among others as it can scan and detect virus faster. I can download the update with no barrier as the Pro one lets me update automatically if I have internet connection. The free version is also good, but it works a bit slower than the pro one, you can get it here: www.smadav.com

7.Chat application: Yahoo Messenger
Chatting with people far from you is always interesting. Since using phone call will be really expensive, I instead use Yahoo Messenger to chat and talk to people I want to talk to. Asides from exchanging text, we can also talk and see the picture of person we talk to by using conference feature, but of course you have got to have webcam and microphone plus earphone to do it. YM can be installed or it's also available if you use Yahoo mail. Yahoo messenger also lets you send SMS to cell phone number near you, I have ever used that several times but now I am rarely use SMS feature as I am afraid the message won't deliver. Well, it's wort it to try though, just download here: id.messenger.yahoo.com/download/

8.Education: Kamus 2.04,
Kamus 2.04 is Indonesian-English (vise versa) dictionary contains thousand of words and phrases in both languages. This amazing software is also made by Indonesian and I really proud of using it. I can translate most words you find on internet or else, in case you couldn't, please add that word to the list by clicking plus button on it. You may get it here: www.ebsoft.com

9.Computer janitor: CCleaner
Cleaner is totally important to clean up junk files on your PC or notebook. There are many programs you can buy or get it for free, and I chose Ccleaner to deal with those unwanted files. It can fix registry and clean up almost so-called rubbish files such as internet cache, history, recycle bin file etc. You can find the latest version here: www.ccleaner.com

Well, that's all for now. You might be questioning why it should be 9 not 10, or what it should be those software I wrote here. The answer for that query is that, again, it's personal experience and of course totally subjective. You may have your own versions, so please share with me here.
Many thanks :).

*Unedited

Monday, January 4, 2010

Why do people learn Japanese?


Lovely readers, here I’ve got some things to give to you all. It is sort of reasons why people learn Japanese language as the second, the third or even the fourth language, it isn't actually that secret as I use the word “unveil” instead of “explain”, “describe” or any other words. These ideas are very much based on my experience by searching and getting involved with those who learn Japanese either at college or organization. May you find it useful, check these out!

1. Major at college. Want it or not, those who study Japanese at campus have to study it in a regular basis. Those who are stranded of course have to learn it as well. What I mean by stranded is that, some of us might choose wrong major at college. Me too, I was initially pointed by someone to study management. Fortunately, during my study I loved it very much. Either person with intention or not has to learn this language in order to reach success in the study.

2. Planning to work in Japan. Some of us might see the mouth-watering salary given to the employees in Japan is totally appealing, therefore, with all efforts we learn Japanese as we want to work there for about years. I think it’s a good idea as we will be able to do benchmark and know the quality as well as the spirit of kaizen. By knowing these things, we should actually implement and share the spirit with others when we come back to Indonesia. The most important thing is that of course money, I’m sure everyone will be with me talking about salary, right? As the example, a friend of mine gets more than IDR 10 million per month. Want it?

3. You love J-dorama, J-actress/actor, J-anime, J-pop, J-rock, J-style, or J anything. Drama movies from Japan have big share in making people to fall in love with Japanese language. DVDs are easily to be found in most cities in Indonesia. Anime such as Naruto and Bleach are so notorious among youngsters, both in movie and comics version. Yui, Erika Sawajiri are the examples of the popular actresses (as well as singers) whom loved by J-lovers in this country. Japanese rock and pop are also so well-known for its uniqueness among us. J-music lovers pretty much listen to and watch Larch en Ciel, Kobukuro, Flow, K and others on media such Youtube and myspace. They may also download free mp3 songs on particular site; try to search those if you want to have some then!

4. Academic reason. Japan has tremendous and exceptional universities, world class university such as university of Tokyo always redefines its quality and service so it becomes 33th world best campus around the globe. If you want to study engineering, ICT or something relates to these sorts of things, you’d better chose campuses in Japan as they have good reputation. If money is the problem, which is often the case, we’ve got to learn HARDER to get scholarship. GANBAROOOO!

5. You love somebody who's able to speak Japanese. Wow, what a nice yet odd reason I would say. Either man or women who have good look plus good Japanese skill will look so cool, won’t they? Sometimes we can easily be attracted by somebody who’s great talents in certain thing. It’s pure my opinion anyways haha…

6. Hobby. Yes, very simple, you just like Japanese. It makes sense if learning Japanese can be your hobby as practicing kanji, kana and anything relates to the country, language, culture and its people will sometimes look impressive to us. This type of person usually has greater motivation to learn, the more you learn it, the more you love it.

7. EAGER to visit Japan for vacation. Well, this reason might seem reasonable for the travelers. Even though they spend a lot of money, they will get experience that is worth it. But for those who don’t have much money, they have to think twice, trice or even more to just have vacation in Japan. Having holidays in Indonesia is also fascinating, we have got many remarkable places to visit and they are for sure a lot cheaper.

8. Be a dependent of spouse or parents. When we have to go to Japan with this reason, we of course have to learn Japanese and all things relate to it as we will burden parents or spouse if we didn’t. Being dependent can burden us or not as in point of fact we don’t have a plan to visit Japan.

That’s all I can write for now, I am sure you have more reasons why people learn Japanese, if you do have those, please share with me by commenting this post. Thank you and keep practicing Japanese!

Addition from some friends of mine, thanks guys :)
Nurlaila Ramdhani: hm... sebenernya nun jg lagi mandet belajarnya, tapi alasan awalnya dan masih sih... ingin membekali diri dengan sesuatu yang diperlukan untuk mimpi saya...

Lita Knowlitaedge: kalo ta awalnya sih karena ngerasa ga pede dengan apa yang lagi ta pelajari jadi pengen nyari skill lain yang emang ta sukai, mumpung ada kesempatan kenapa ga diambil....

Nur Einfach Eine Jemand: sometimes we do not need any particular reason for loving anything or anyone. And as one of my lecturers said, "Love is a verb. It's a doing word", what I do is just what my feeling wants. Another lecturer said that love is a mental process calling for real actions. It's such a pride to do what we love, even if I am still trying to find out what it is for in the future. Love what we do; do what we love. :)

Friday, January 1, 2010

It's been 1 year...


Last year, a friend of mine encouraged me to make a blog and write on it in a regular basis, her name is Dede and her blog is on my buddy list. Yes it was exactly in January 2008 I started producing some sort of writings and publishing those on this site. This blog contains no focus on something or whatsoever, it just does contain my ideas or experiences and it is also a means of mine to drill my writing skill in English. At that time I was still at college and still had access to the relatively fast internet connection at campus. Since I have graduated, now I pretty much use internet connection at my house, it is way slow though. Before she introduced me to the cyber writing, I thought that writing was not a juicy thing to do. I thought it wasn't great stuff to write and publish it; I was way off base back then. Nowadays I realize that writing is totally important to boost up my writing skill in English.

I obviously know that this blog isn't ideal yet, but at least I pretty much improve and write on it for now and then. I've tried several times changing the look of this site but the result wasn't really shocking, just mediocre. I'm still searching the best theme, contents and everything to maintain this blog anyways. Aside from that, the language I use here is might isn’t really correct if it’s referred to standard right English, I mean I sometimes use sort of slang words on it so you’d better to be picky if you plan to reuse any words or phrases from this site ^_^ . I haven't been able to be really focus on this as I am kind of procrastinating person to polish it up, may I’ll be able to make it better from this day on.

To me, writing on blog is more likely for self satisfaction, not yet for business or much further reason such as promoting, teaching, consulting something etc. I have a plan to buy domain and non-free hosting as I want to have more freedom in designing, uploading and developing site, but since the aim of mine to use blog is merely for the personal use, therefore the free provider such as Blogger or Wordpress is still preferable, I hope I can use dot com or dot org someday though.

This chance I just want to say happy birthday to blog of mine, it’s not so important to say though haha….
Well, I hope I can be more productive in writing on this site, and I also hope that everyone can take lesson or benefit from it. Let’s keep writing, let’s keep improving ourselves!!!

Thank you and Wassalamualaikum.