Jullian’s Musings

Saya salah satu orang yang sangat jengkel bila media massa mulai angkat bicara mengenai dunia IT (yang saya geluti) dan sewaktu mereka mencari narasumber yang dipanggil adalah KRMT (Kumis Rimbun Muka Tebal) Roy Suryo.

Saya tidak akan menyebut diri saya pakar telematika, saya tidak pernah mengambil kelas di dunia IT. Tetapi saya sudah lebih dari 10 tahun bergelut di dunia industri yang berhubungan dengan teknologi informasi. Saya rasa pengetahuan saya mengenai dunia telematika ada di atas 95% penduduk Indonesia (maksudnya kalau tidak mengerti adalah begini: ambil 100 orang Indonesia secara acak, saya bisa bilang saya lebih mengerti dunia IT daripada 95 orang yang lain). Saya tidak menyebut diri saya pintar - malah programmer saja saya bukan, dan saya tidak ada ijazah yang berhubungan dengan IT apapun.

Tapi…., saya bisa bilang bahwa yang jelas Roy Suryo itu bukan Pakar Telematika seperti yang sering disebut media massa. Roy Suryo bukan pakar apapun, kecuali mungkin pakar obat penumbuh kumis. Jadi, tolong kepada media massa (contohnya RRI Pro3, Elshinta, banyak stasiun televisi), tolong, tolong, harap jangan memanggil Roy Suryo untuk diminta opini, pendapat, atau apapun yang berhubungan dengan dunia IT dan telematika. Saya dan banyak sekali orang lain (praktisi industri telematika) selalu sakit gigi bila mendengar ucapan: “Roy Suryo, Pakar Telematika”. Tolong panggil orang yang benar-benar pakar dan diakui di bidangnya, contohnya: Onno W. Purbo.

Sekian unek-unek seseorang yang katanya di industri IT.

You know guys, it’s that time of the year again, so here it is:

It’s confirmed, I’m moving work to Cyberjaya in Malaysia. I am planning to move there a week after Lebaran and the company’s name is RMG Technologies, a multinational firm with offices in the Isle of Man, Malta, and Malaysia.

I’ll be working there as a Linux Administrator, so I think it would be a good fit for me and focuses on my skills and interest. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

On the same token, if you would like to contact me, use my makanyuk email instead of my midas-solusi email, because obviously the latter one would be inactive once I leave Midas.

I was administering my domain today and noticed that I still have the subdomain banpu.makanyuk.com available. Almost hard to believe that it was from October and November last year that they started to screw - and then later - steal from me.

I contemplated taking it down because it is just taking up space, but it actually reminds me to be better, be more alert of liars - they can come in any form - multinational companies even, and last but not least, it keeps me being angry. It keeps me sharp, boy!

For all of you who haven’t joined me in discussing this whole fiasco via web developers and Linux maillist, I’ll soon (pending office work time availability) post the seedy details of this whole crap here on Jullian’s Musings.

I just hope that by posting this all will keep other IT workers from being screwed over by this corporation. Freelancers, check the background of the company you’re doing work for, and make sure you demand at least 50% down payment - No Exceptions!

Because I don’t have an internet connection anymore at home (I used to have a Kabelvision connection), I was quite excited to have a pretty advanced phone, a Nokia 6288. It’s pretty much 3G ready, it has infrared, bluetooth, and Java MIDP 2.0. It was definitely a step up from my old 5110, the original ‘handphone sejuta umat’.

Anyway, the appeal was simple, I want to connect my notebook, a NEC Versa E400 without a built-in bluetooth, to my handphone. I originally tried to connect my 6288 to the computer via the supplied CA-53 cable. However, I have figured out that Nokia’s cables (and their Window$ drivers and software) are basically junk. Their software was terrible in connection (if they can connect at all) they are useless.

First of all, you need to make sure that your phone can already connect to the internet. If it can’t, no need to continue here :).

So, I decided to connect it via a cheap USB bluetooth that I bought - Windows reported it as ISSC Bluetooth Device, the drivers reported it as Blue Soleil. It still won’t connect to the internet in Windows, so I then tried it in Ubuntu and hoped for the worst.

Because I am using MarkDown for this blog, make sure to remove the spaces in the lines colored red. Long story.

You gotta make sure that the needed packages are installed:

sudo apt-get install bluez-passkey-gnome gnome-bluetooth bluetooth wvdial

I inserted the bluetooth adapter and my tail -f /var/log/syslog:

May 17 22:14:22 localhost kernel: [ 474.468000] usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 4
May 17 22:14:32 localhost hcid[4543]: HCI dev 0 registered
May 17 22:14:33 localhost hcid[4543]: HCI dev 0 up
May 17 22:14:33 localhost hcid[4543]: Device hci0 has been added
May 17 22:14:33 localhost hcid[4543]: Starting security manager 0
May 17 22:14:33 localhost hcid[4543]: Device hci0 has been activated
May 17 22:14:33 localhost kernel: [ 484.680000] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

And my lsusb:


Bus 002 Device 001: ID 0000:0000
Bus 001 Device 004: ID 1131:1001 Integrated System Solution Corp. KY-BT100 Bluetooth Adapter
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 0000:0000

And my hciconfig:

hci0: Type: USB
BD Address: 11:11:11:11:11:11 ACL MTU: 678:8 SCO MTU: 48:10
UP RUNNING PSCAN ISCAN
RX bytes:662 acl:0 sco:0 events:19 errors:0
TX bytes:323 acl:0 sco:0 commands:19 errors:0

Now, I need to find out the mac address of my phone (make sure you’ve already turn on the bluetooth of the phone and set it to ‘Shown to all’):

iwlist scan
00:00:00:00:00:00 phone_name # of course these are not the real name and mac address of my phone, but you get the idea.

Make sure you write down the mac address, you’ll need this to connect.

sudo hcitool cc [mac_address]

Then you need to connect your phone with authorization:

sudo hcitool autho [mac_address]

To check your connection you can:

hcitool con
    Connections:
    < ACL [mac_address] handle 1 state 1 lm MASTER

If the device are not connected, make sure you keep trying it until connected. I found that on average I needed to try to connect it for around 3 times - I guess my bluetooth adapter is not good enough (it costs me only RP. 100.000).

Now, after it is connected, let’s setup the wvdial configuration file:

sudo vi /etc/wvdial.conf.indosat

And put the following in that file:


[Dialer Defaults]
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = USB Modem
Phone = \*99\***1\#
ISDN = 0
Username = ”
Init1 = ATZ
Password = ”
Modem = /dev/rfcomm0
Baud = 460800

You’re pretty much all set here, so now you can connect via:

wvdial -C /etc/wvdial.conf.indosat

This is the output:


--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.56
--> Cannot get information for serial port.
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT\*99\*\*\*1\#
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT\*99\*\*\*1\#
CONNECT
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}”}&} }*} } g}%~
–> Carrier detected. Waiting for prompt.
~[7f]}#@!}!} } }2}#}$@#}!}$}%\}”}&} }*} } g}%~
–> PPP negotiation detected.
–> Starting pppd at Thu May 17 22:43:12 2007
–> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/pap-secrets: Permission denied
–> –> PAP (Password Authentication Protocol) may be flaky.
–> Warning: Could not modify /etc/ppp/chap-secrets: Permission denied
–> –> CHAP (Challenge Handshake) may be flaky.
–> Pid of pppd: 7821
–> Using interface ppp0
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> local IP address 10.33.31.204
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> remote IP address 10.6.6.6
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> primary DNS address 202.155.46.77
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]
–> secondary DNS address 202.155.0.10
–> pppd: [0b][06][08][11][06][08]

You’re basically done here. Oh yeah, it will modify your routing table, so in case you are trying this out, make sure you disconnect your wifi or ethernet connection before you do this, else it will not know which connection to use to connect to the internet. Press Ctrl+C to disconnect from the console.

Enjoy!

Kemarin Bonny nanya gue tentang email2 dengan attachments yang ‘aneh-aneh’ seperti .mim, .bhx. Dibawah ada artikel tentang virus ini, dan bisa gue confirm bahwa virus ini emang ada, dan bukan hoax.

Satu lagi yang gue perlu add: kalau kita mendapatkan email2 dengan virus ini, kita bisa lihat bahwa ada address FROM:-nya. Cuma info aja, komputer asal virus ini dikirim adalah BEDA dengan alamat yang di FROM-nya. Dia automatis mengubah nama sipengirim dengan alamat yang ada di addressbooknya outlook dan outlook express.

Tips supaya 75% safe dari virus:

1. Make sure punya anti virus
2. Make sure virus definitionnya up-to-date. Punya antivirus software tanpa virus definition yang terbaru nggak ada gunanya. Kalo pakai Norton, sering2lah diupdate virus definitionnya dengan liveupdate
3. Buat kebiasaan setiap minggu bikin ‘Full System Scan’. Di Norton ada bagian schedule scan tuh.
4. Jangan pakai Internet Explorer. Pakai Firefox atau Opera.
5. Jangan pakai Outlook atau Outlook Express. Pakai Thunderbird atau webmail seperti Yahoo atau Google. Hotmail gampang kena.
6. Hati2 buka file pakai Windows Media Player. Sekarang banyak file .wmv yang isinya virus, walaupun videonya bisa kebuka
7. Kalau komputer anda tidak pakai password, pasang password. Oh ya, passwordnya jangan ‘password’, ‘admin’, ‘administrator’, ‘admin00′, ‘admin000′, atau password2 yang gampang diterka gitu. Virusnya sudah ada list password yang mereka coba
8. Sebisa mungkin jangan pakai user dengan kemampuan administrator.
9. Biasakan komputernya bukan dengan satu partisi aja, yaitu C:, tetapi dibikin 2 partisi, yaitu C: dan D:. Taruh semua data di D:. My Documents bisa di-move koq. Ini biar kalau virus mengakibatkan windows perlu diinstall ulang, tinggal format c aja. Ingat bahwa rata2 windows perlu diinstall ulang setiap 4 bulan.
10. Ingat bahwa virus itu datang dari beberapa source: network dan internet, floppy, cd, dan flash disk. Selama kita berhubungan dengan alat-alat tsb, kita bisa kena.
11. Kalau mau 100% safe dari virus, yah si acong bisa kasih tahu rule no 11 bukan?

This post only concern problems in Micro$oft Window$.

I have been informed that some people have had problems installing Firefox and / or Thunderbird and receiving an “Unresolved Error” from a window title “7-Zip”. I finally found the reason for this is the fact that the installation file that they downloaded was corrupted. So, how do you know when you download that the resulting downloaded file is corrupted or not? Well, there is no easy way to do it in Window$. In Linux however (or if you have an MD5 calculating software in Window$) you can easily do this by md5sum name_of_program and the computer is going to spit out the resulting md5 hash calculation. You then compare it from the md5sum that the download site supplies. So, in the case of Firefox: http://www.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/releases/1.0.4/MD5SUMS , just change the red-colored parts of the link with the correct product and version number.

But, if you can’t check the md5sum, just try downloading the file again. Trust me, it’s worthed.

I assume some of the readers here are also involved in some aspects of web development and / or being in the decision-making process of approving a web development.

I recently visited the website of my bank (Bank Permata - http://www.permatabank.com) and tried out their web. The look is quite OK, but it was extremely annoying to experience the usability of the site. It is practically unusable lest you use M$IE. I think this is a very fatal mistake that I know many other sites are committing. Some mistakes that they (and many other sites) makes:

1. Links that only works with JavaScript
   This is an unbelievably stupid blunder. Why do they need to make it so, although there are many other ways of doing it easier, simpler, and better? Other than that, these types of links are not spiderable by many search engines. Plus, get this…. they have a contact us link that, I’m not kidding, doesn’t lead anywhere.
2. Links that uses form elements (such as button)
   Also almost impossible to spider properly, and extremely unaccesible for screen reader, PDAs, and others. This also is a signal that the web designer never considers the structure of the document whatsoever.
3. Links that is totally with pictures (no alternate text)
   What if somebody deactivate image display? Any considerations also for the visually impaired?
4. Table-based design.
   Well, I’m not going to discuss this here. Just go to Google and look for why you shouldn’t use table as document structure, or you can browse here: http://www.hotdesign.com/seybold/everything.html
5. Never been tested other than with M$IE
   Some designers forget (or lazy) that they never test their sites on browsers other than IE. Never mind that IE almost always renders the wrong version of a website compared on how it should look like. Never mind that they can just download other browsers easily such as Firefox, Mozilla Suite, Opera, etc. I guess they are just extremely lazy, no other reason. These developers does not care that many users cannot use the site at all, remember, Linux users don’t have IE on their computers, but Windows users can install many browsers. So why not download these other browsers, develop on them because they are more standards based, and also check on IE whether it can be used there? It is much more productive and less time consuming to develop on Gecko-based browsers and fix for IE than vice-versa.

Well, why is it important anyway? There are a couple reason for this.

First of all, M$IE is a notoriously buggy and unsafe browser. Just by not using IE, users of Windows can cover many holes that are built in the operating system. Again, IE is notorious for that. By creating sites that forces people to use IE to function, people that have switched for IE are forced either to open IE again, making their computers vulnerable again, or not use the site at all. In my opinion, this is counter productive to say the least.

Secondly, M$IE does not support many technologies that potentially can make browsing a much better experience, such as:

• Proper CSS (cascading style sheet) rendering. Websites that are beautiful are many times screwed by IE. Look here to test your browser: http://www.meyerweb.com/eric/css/edge/
• Proper support for Transparent PNG http://www.libpng.org/pub/png/pngapbr.html. The horrible .gif that we all loathe are not needed anymore, but IE does not support it, because it does not easily support PNG’s alpha-transparency.
• IE still can not do tabbed browsing. What the hell? Why use many windows while you can use many tabs within one window? All Geckos support this, and even Opera. Why not IE?
• IE only works on Windows and Mac. Many other browsers works anywhere, such as Windows, Mac, Linux, Unix, Solaris, Handheld, etc.
• And many more reasons why IE sucks.

However, nothing illustrates why good design is so important better than what I’m going to say next: Bad design refletcts poorly on the owner of the website. What my bank is portraying through its site is that they are a bank that only support some of its customers, but not all. They only care of customers that they think exists, not those they they think aren’t. This is extremely fatal.

Some of you who knows me knows that I am a hard-core Micro$oft hater. Some of you who knows me better than that also knows that I am sometimes inconsistent. On that note, here I will give some arguments on why you should not use Windows as your operating system and use Linux instead.

• Linux is much more secure. Because of the inherent permissions built into Linux, regular users will not be able to screw the operating system as much as in Windows. Most Windows users use the administrative privilege everyday and doesn’t know better. They are able to install and uninstall programs anytime, but does not understand that many times this allows unauthorized programs to also install themselves and wreak havoc on their computer. That won’t happen in Linux.
• Linux is Open Source. The operating system that shapes Linux is Open source. It is mostly done non-profit, and regular people, hobbyists, are who makes this OS, not a major corporation. Why is this good, then? Because if you have problems, you just need to go to the internet and asks the millions of developers working on Linux for help. Contrast that to calling Microsoft to help with your problems.
• Your copy of Linux is legal. It can be safely assumed that most people in Indonesia uses pirated version of Windows. Even though most people do it and feel that there’s nothing wrong with it, it is still stealing. Linux is available free of charge if you are willing to wait for the downloads of the CD images. It is legal, halal, kosher, ok.
• It promotes good computing practices. The privilege system in Linux promotes good computing practice. Most people should not be able to install and uninstall, because it creates vulnerabilities on the system. Only people who knows what they’re doing should install and uninstall and make system-wide changes.
• Linux has become very user-friendly. Most people wouldn’t even notice that a coworker is using Linux as an OS if they didn’t look very carefully. Most people also would not have a lot of adjustment period in using Linux, especially if they use their computer for browsing, emailing and using office suites. There’s simply not many things that are different in terms of user interface.
• Linux is really multi-user. More than one user can use one computer at the same time and access their personal files and settings. I am talking of real multi-user capabilities. Not logging off and logging on again or the so-called switch user. Linux user just need to go to any computer that is connected to the network, log in remotely, and have their desktop and files right there. That is the power of X-desktop that will never be matched by Windows in the near future.
• Linux uses lower computing requirements. Users can continue to use their pre-Pentium computers comfortably. I know of some people who still uses 486s, load them with Linux, and uses these machines as file and internet gateway servers. It is good for the pocket and good for the environtment.
• Do your part in screwing a major corporation daily. By using Linux regularly, we are doing our part of giving a middle finger to a major US corporation. How else can you do that regularly?

Of course, these are just some reasons why you should use Linux. Other reasons are available, but I can’t go over them because it might get pretty technical. I invite you to post your comments on these. Oh yeah, I don’t deny that there are some good reasons on staying with Windows, such as that you are tied with some programs, such as Photoshop, CorelDraw, Final Draft, etc. But you know, you can always double boot, and ask yourself, is it really worthed to deal with all the hassles, and stealing at the same time?

PS: to know more about the security consquences of using Windows, read here and weep.