Jullian’s Musings

Woohoooooo!!!! After lebaran vacation basically I’m gonna be able to start downloading Ubuntu 7.10 - Gutsy Gibbon….. The new features are here….

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?

The clash between the art community and FPI (Forum Pembela Islam - as if Islam needs Pembela) has shown that the art community in Indonesia is neither mature nor powerful. There were hardly any organized protests coming from ‘pembela seni’ against these hooligans. This should be greatly lamentable, because by silently ignoring these tresspasses against freedom of speech, art lovers in Indonesia is basically saying that these raids are OK and will be tolerated, never mind that most Indonesians also do not agree or even like the FPI.

This whole episode is a great shame for the Indonesian art community.

Last weekend Me and Tian watched Gie in PS21. It was a great movie, and actually the best Indonesian movie I’ve seen for a long time. Afterwards, of course me and Tian discussed the movie endlessly, but what was most intriguing was the differences of young people from Soe Hok Gie’s times with people from the present.
We got the impression that people from that time are better educated, and have not yet been brainwashed because of education under Suharto. They are more likely to read quality books, feel unfoolish to discuss them, and place higher values on logical thinking (instead of religion and beliefs) and ideology.
We young Indonesians I feel should seriously look Gie to seek inspiration not only from Soe Hok Gie, but to look within ourselves whether we have been doing the best with our time on earth or are we just wasting oxygen? I might sound bleak by saying that, but one look around in Jakarta sometimes feel that way, ya know?

I was helping my coworker today moving web domains where I have to log into the domain registration company’s website at http://www.techscape.com. This later turns to be a nightmare when I found out that this website only works with Internet Explorer, under windows and have to have the latest flash plugins available. I had to move computers to the only computer in the office with Windows that was available to me and do my job there. Afterward though, I looked inside the codes for that website, and I tell you,… these people created a web that is classic list of “do-nots” for web design and building:

1. Stupid thing 1: Force people to have flash. At first, I thought that they might be using flash for interacting with databases, but apparently not. They siply use it for banners and eye candy! If they really want to use those crap, why not let people without flash or whatever still access the site?
2. Stupid thing 2: Forcing people to use IE and Windows for no good reason whatsoever
3. Stupid thing 3: No using web standards whatsoever such as DOCTYPE, still using table-based design, and minimal use of CSS. This is just plain uneducated

I would have understand if this is a corporate website for a non-technology company. The problem is, that this is a website for a IT company. I hope they are not an illustration of the present picture of IT in Indonesia, though I’m afraid that it might be somewhat true.

I have just finished uploading some of my wedding pictures to this site. Just click on the Photos Collection link on your right and browse the pictures. Oh yeah, for you who doesn’t understand Indonesian, akad means wedding reception and resepsi means, well, reception. Enjoy the pictures, and comment on those are really welcomed!

For all of you out there who knows me, you know that I like to customize things. However, I don’t have time just yet to customize this website other than changing the pre-built themes from the wordpress repository. So, just to be clear, I am going to change the theme, and I am not pretending that I made this theme you are seeing, hehehehe..

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.