Currently, I’m reading Google Hacks, a very good book which gives a lot of tips and tricks on using and programming Google.
I’ve been a fans of Google for long time, so reading this book is a real enjoyment for me. Furthermore, this book gives me a deeper insight about Google’s capabilities and how to maximize it.
Well, I just hope that I can get a lot of new ideas about Google after reading this book …
I am very interested in blogging. It’s a relatively new thing for me (I’ve known blogging for only a few months) and now I’m interested in tweaking blogs to add new functionalities.
The first thing I try is Haloscan commenting and trackback system. I like it. It makes the commenting process easier than the default commenting process. Even more interesting is trackback which is a new thing for me. I’ve just learned about trackback today and, again, I like it. Trackback allows us to create ‘related links’ for our posts and make it richer. You can find futher information about trackback here and here.
The second thing I try is adding chatterbox to my blog. Not to this blog, but to another blog I create for my lecture at STTS. Since the blog has tens of members, I think the chatterbox will make the interaction among members even richer.
I have tried two desktop search application: Google Desktop and Copernic Desktop Search. I have been using Google Desktop for months because it is the first player in the ground. But later, I decide to give Copernic a try. The reason behind this is an article I read which compares desktop search applications. The author gave Google Desktop only a C+ (the second worst) but he gave Copernic an A (the best). This made me curious about Copernic.
Copernic is indeed cool. Google Desktop cannot index PDF files, but Copernic can. In fact, Copernic supports several more file types than Google Desktop. I think this is the main advantage Copernic has over Google Desktop. The searching process is also fast: while we are typing our search query, the results will be displayed on-the-fly. If we click an item at the result pane, a quick preview will appear below the result pane with the queried words being highlighted. Unfornately, in my case, the indexing process took so much time (several days). Well, that is understandable because it indexes so many file types and it run in my home computer in which I store gigabytes of e-books. But it’s quite frustrating for me to see one big e-book (with 900+ pages) can take more than ten hours to index.
Now I will describe about Google Desktop. Google Desktop runs inside a browser, unlike Copernic which is a standalone Windows application. The look and feel of Google Desktop is very similar to the online version of Google, so everybody can directly use it. If you are connected to the Internet, the result will be mixed with the result of Google’s online search. It can index e-mails, Office documents, HTML files, text files, and chat transcripts, all of which can also be indexed by Copernic. In my case, the indexing process is fast: my computer can be completely indexed in two to three hours. But of course, one reason for it is because it doesn’t index PDF files like Copernic does.
Well, so which one get my preference ? Despite the fact that Copernic got an A and Google Desktop got only a C+, I personally prefer Google Desktop over Copernic. Why ? One reason is its faster indexing process. It’s frustrating for me to wait days for Copernic indexing process to finish. Even more frustrating is seeing one file could take so much time to index. Of course, different people may have different opinion about it.
Nevertheless, the main reason I prefer Google Desktop over Copernic is the way it displays results. Copernic only displays the file names and I must click those file names one by one to see the preview and to find the document I’m looking for. In the contrary, Google Desktop directly gives us the preview of each files it finds, just like the online version of Google does. This way, I can quickly figure out the document I’m looking for without having to go through each documents manually.
So, that’s the result of my observation. Google Desktop is still the one who sits in my computer for daily use. Who knows, someday it will be able to index PDF files too …
I’ve just read a story from Slashdot about broadband Internet access in South Korea. Well, South Korea is the world’s leader in broadband penetration, with 25 % of its citizen have a broadband Internet access, far beyond other countries including United States.
The man who tell the story pays only $30 a month (less than Rp 300,000) (!) for an Internet access with 1.5 Mbps speed (!!). Wow ! It’s amazing ! This is what I call an Internet dreamland. Here in Indonesia, I will have been very glad to have an unlimited Internet access for Rp 300.000 a month with 10 Kbps speed, but this guy has a 1.5 Mbps connection with such very cheap price ! Unbelievable.
I just imagine, if only I have such Internet access here in Indonesia …
Talking about productivity, there is no doubt that search plays a very important role. Why ? Because search enables us to find the information we need, and of course, having the right information in the right time means an increase in productivity. And that’s why Google is very popular: they enable us to find the information we need from the huge information forest of the Internet.
Ironically, when it comes to our own desktop, things can be very different: it’s hard to find the information we need from our own desktop ! So it’s funny here: it is easier to find information from some thousands-of-miles-away servers than from our own desktop that sits right in front of us ! Wow ….
And so here come the new playground of search: desktop search, a service that enable us to find the information we need in our desktop the way we do in the Internet. Now can you guess, who is the first player coming to this ground ? Well, you guess right: Google.
Google Desktop is the first player in this ground. Actually it’s a shame for Microsoft, because months before they said that they would beat Google by introducing a desktop search tool, an area Google had never touched. But what happen then ? Google made a direct hit on Microsoft by releasing their desktop search tool months before Microsoft’s !
And now, the field of desktop search has some other players too beside Google and Microsoft: Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, and Copernic. It’s a hot ground these days; seems like everybody tries to get their feet on it.
Well, I think it’s enough for now. I’ll talk more about this topic later, especially about my experience with this tools and how they affect my productivity.
Recently, many people around me talk about The Purpose-Driven Life, a book authored by Rick Warren. This book is written with a single goal of helping the readers find the purpose of their life, and live accordingly based on that purpose.
This book is unique because, unlike other books, it is specifically designed to change the readers’ life. It is organized in forty chapters, and the readers are told to read no more than one chapter a day. Why ? Because the author wants to be sure that they have time to think and meditate what they have read.
Up till now, I have read six chapters, and I’m truly impressed. The book emphasizes on eternity, that the reason we live in this world is as preparation for another life, a greater one, that is life in eternity. And thus, we should see everything in the perspective of eternity. Whatever we do today will have the impact on eternity.
This view really gives us a broader perspective, because people usually think only in the term of their lifetime, that is tens of years. Having the perspective of eternity will cause us to see everything in a very different way. What was previously important for us may no longer be important if we see it in the perspective of eternity (things such us wealth, popularity, etc). And what was previously seem unimportant may suddenly become important (things such us personal relationship with God, good relationship with others, a simple touch of love, etc).
The key is we must do the will of God when we live in this world, and not the will of ours. And that will make everything different.
I’ve just changed my blog title to Digital Lifestyle (previously it was Donald Latumahina, my name). The reason behind this is I want to express more clearly about my personal vision and what I am going to write about, and I think Digital Lifestyle is the representative term for it. What I mean with Digital Lifestyle can be seen clearly from the subtitle: Life with maximum productivity, based on the right attitude and with the help of IT. Well, I’ll talk more about that later, it’s been late in the night now … so see you soon !
If you wonder why I recently write my posts in English, then, well, that’s because I’m preparing myself for TOEFL. As you may know, there is a writing section in TOEFL in which you are given a topic and then asked to write an essay based on that topic. And I think the best way to prepare myself for the writing section is by writing my blog posts in English. That will be a good exercise for me.
And, yes, I have been preparing myself for other areas of TOEFL too. For reading, I think I have been reading quite a lot of reading material in English every day, so that can be considered as the exercise for reading section. For listening, I prepare myself in a fun way, that is by watching DVDs with the subtitles turned off. So I can get two benefits at once: increasing listening capability in English and excitement from the film ! Isn’t that a fun way to learn English ?
I have another motivation to learn writing in English, and it comes from an excellent article written by Joel Spolsky entitled Advice for Computer Science College Students. In that article, he wrote that English writing skill is a very important skill in the computer field (well, actually not only in the computer field). The ones who can write well in English is the ones with the most power and influence. Why ? Because other people can only understand and appreciate what you’ve done if you can communicate it well with others. So, he encourages the reader to start a weblog, because “the more you write the easier it will be, and the easier it is to write, the more you’ll write, in a virtuous circleâ€. I agree with him, and that’s exactly what I’m doing right now !
I’ve been talking about my thesis in ITS (Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember) in the last post and the whole things are over now. I’ve attended the defense at January 25th. The sad thing about it is I didn’t pass. Actually, all lecturers but one have approved me to pass the defense. But one lecturers didn’t only give me a bad mark, but she also refused to sign my thesis.
I think it’s unfair because other lecturers gave me good marks. My supervisor gave me an A, and the other two lecturers in the defense committee gave me ABs. Only this lecturer gave me a D, plus a refusal to sign my thesis. I think it’s unreasonable because I have strong arguments on what I’ve done, and it’s all based on strong scientific evidences. But she saw the problem from a different point of view – which in my opinion is not comparable to the problem at hand – and refuses my arguments.
Well, my supervisor had counted the marks and, in fact, my final mark should actually be AB, even with that one D. That’s because the supervisor’s mark weights 40 % and the defense committee’s mark weights 20 % per person. AB is definitely enough to pass. The problem here is the thesis book must be signed by all four lecturers in order for it to be valid. So, although my mark is enough, I just can’t pass.
I was so sad because of this. I’ve been working very hard for the thesis, and it failed for very unreasonable reasons. But later, while I was thinking and praying, I got an insight that it must be God’s plan. There are very good things He is preparing for me, and this is the way to get those things. You know, usually the biggest enemy of the best things are the good things. I can’t tell you in detail now about what I think is God’s plan for me, but one thing I can tell you is that after getting that insight, I got a peace of mind until now. I’ve talked about it with the people around me, and they all agree and support me. So here I am, filled with spirit and motivation. You know, whatever happens, the show must go on.
It’s been about two weeks since the last time I update my blog. And this is because I’ve been busy working on my thesis. I spend a lot of my time finishing the thesis book, and I’ve submit it last Tuesday. Now I am waiting for the defense which is scheduled at next Tuesday, January 25th, 9.00 am.
This thesis is much harder than my final assignment when I was in the undergraduate program. But I think this is a good thing, since it means that I am moving to the next level. I’ll be talking more about this later.
For now, I’m concentrating on learning for the defense. I will do my best for this. I don’t know what the final mark will be, but as long as I’ve done my best, there won’t be many things to regret.