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Local Contents & Talents in Jogja

7 March 2011 Blog / StartupLokal / Technology / Thoughts / Web
3 comments

I am writing this because I can’t code lol. Due to another unprecedented harddrive failure with my Macbook, the night before going to Jogja, I had to reinstalled everything. Some installed right but most of them is still barebone. I did get Xcode to install though :) So instead of writing codes, I’m writing this. A 1 hour flight back to Jakarta will be the deadline.

This trip to Jogja made me realize a lot of things. As always whenever in Jogja, the 2 persons you’d want to meet is Fachry Bafadal (@fachrybafadal) and Didiet Noor (@lynxluna). The duo are entrepreneurs with their own web development agency One Bit Media (@onebitmedia), one of the more “advanced” agency in Jogja. They love to code, the basic recipe of anything great.

On my first day, I met with Didiet in a cafe near his office and started our #YKode session also with @masbog. The topic was Objective-C for iOS development. It was sublime humbly speaking. Didiet is well known with his deep roots in C/C++ development and Objective-C as he told me and I quote “Coding in Objective-C is all about chatting or having a conversation with you project”. The foundation of  Objective-C development are sending/receiving messages in such a way that it’s exactly what Didiet told me. A fun and refreshing way of widening my development perspective.

The night lasted until around 10 PM when we call it a quit (for that session lol). The second session at One Bit’s office was more about understanding the bigger concept of mobile development. We talked about various programming languages and platforms for mobile development. I must say this session was the most interesting session for the 3 days I’m at Jogja. What I respect the most from Didiet, he is well versed with his development efforts but he is open to new things. Usually when you’re rooted to a particular language/platform, you’d go all chauvinist against the others, that’s not the case with him.

Me as an Android developer, the paradigm change from Android’s Java to iOS’ Objective-C was tough especially syntax-wise. There were a lot to take in and I truly do hate pointers. With all the concepts being thoroughly explained by Didiet, memory management have never been easier to understand. It’s not only just alloc or dealloc, it’s about performance. No wonder C apps runs very fast, the nature of optimizations is by default. This was exactly what I needed, to gain a better grasp of Objective-C, the big picture behind it and the #YKode sessions with Didiet was quite the experience.

I stayed for 3 days and 2 nights in Jogja. The second day was looking for Batik my aunt wanted me to buy for her. This was my third time in Jogja and I wanted to know the city more so I got on a Taxi to look for motorbike rentals and guest what, met a driver Pak Mulyono and he escorted me all around Jogja to look for the Batiks my aunt is looking for. I gotta be truthful, Jogja is amazingly humble, that’s a very different experience with what Jakarta has to offer. Pak Mulyono told me that although people are making relatively lower amounts of money in Jogja, they never worried about what to eat today, the next day or any other days.

Food is very cheap in Jogja. I can see why Jogjakartans respected The Sultan very high, not only food is cheap, The Sultan is in support for SME’s in Jogja. Becak and Andong flourish in Jogja, local contents are of high regards. Culturally, Jogja is already amazingly rich with its handicraft industries, hand made everything is keeping its economies strong together with local attractions for tourists. Well everyone knows that, what we don’t already know is the potential Jogja has to offer when local contents are strong coupled with strong endorsements from The Sultan. It will be interesting in the times to come to see The Sultan lending a hand when the startup traction in Jogja is well acknowledge. The utmost regret for not attending the last Bancakan, seeing those many developers hacking their way through the night is the root of any startup. I love it :D

All and all, the last 3 days was full of Geekdom and programming philosophies, it gave me great insights into native developments from perspectives that are new, fun and full of surprises. As do with anything going on in the world wide web, every day is never the same. Didiet will call this our “Uncomfortable Zone”, a zone where we’re constantly uncomfortable dying to get ideas into executions and most importantly, doing it all with heart and passion. Thanks for the reminder guys!

It so happens that I didn’t finish this blog post while in my flight back to Jakarta, the flight time was merely an hour, well at least it was too fast to be noticed. So here I am now at MOI, Kelapa Gading waiting for Jakarta’s special to pass by. Traffic Jams never failed to surprise Jakartans because it’s just too common, I hate it, you hate it, everyone hates it and voila, hatred towards traffic jams is now the new normal so rather than be too upset about it, I’m having a Thai Ice Tea now while waiting for a friend to meet me here.

Time to wrap things up. Back in Jakarta and ready for more action, now’s the time to execute!

 

Bancakan 7th Meetup Trip

29 November 2010 Blog / LokalID / StartupLokal / Technology / Web
5 comments

Wow my second trip to Bancakan, Jogja was full of positivity, optimism and of course knowledge. The trip was 2 days 1 night but the experience I absorbed was well beyond the quantity. The theme for the Bancakan event was WordPresspreneur. Startups and entrepreneurs as speakers came from Bandung and in and around Jogja. The lineup was very enlightening to say the least :)

From Jakarta, I went with Sagad (@sagad) and Ollie (@salsabeela) by train. We arrived at 6 AM Friday and was welcomed by Fachry (@fachrybafadal). Stayed at Hotel Maharani with the gang from Bandung which are Agus (@agoes82) of GantiBaju.com, Anggi (@icreativelabs), Valent of WordcampID (@ValentMustamin) and Bima.

It so happens that our hotel’s location is supposedly where most tourists stayed in Jogja but due to the natural disaster of Merapi, the area was quiet and only saw a couple of tourists coming from overseas. Let’s all pray that this condition is temporary, Jogja has shown the world how great they were handling crisis. They unite as one and they recover as one, hopefully this sets an example for all of us that by uniting we are stronger than ever before when we need to right now.

As a nation with a multitude of diversity, we are rich in creativity and innovation. This is not a theory, the speakers at Bancakan showed how well they use this opportunity to their benefit. Make it great, make it free and make premiums. It sells, the top earners in WordPress theming are Indonesians. Now we can see how great a nation we are!

I was up to present about @lokalID. People ask me how it’s gonna protect the ecosystem, simply by uniting that’s enough, LokalID is a first step, the next steps are entirely in the community discretion. Plant the idea in each of our minds that we are the biggest Internet market by traffic and that’s only 10% of the population. Everyone from in and around the world are of course eyeing their interest to our market, each one of you is the owner of your own startups, make that count big or small. LokalID is non-profit and non-commercial, LokalID is not just me or just you, it’s the whole ecosystem, a community of startups from Indonesia uniting as one and support one another. Make that a reality with execution, let’s make Indonesia a nation deservedly as innovators, we are great, get used to it!

After the event, exactly like a few months ago, we went to Gudeg Batas Kota to eat Gudeg, what else lol. I ate Gudeg 4 times that day and had no regrets! Not everyday I got the chance to enjoy it and wasn’t missing the opportunity :) We were exhausted that night and the gang from Jakarta parted early including me to rest. After a while, Agus and the Bandung gang retired to the hotel. All the guys took turn to shower because once we’re all done, access to the bathroom was restricted until morning time :p

All the guys were already asleep when me and Agus continued our afternoon conversation about Git and what it can do for you. So I followed a tutorial by him, as with any versioning system, it helped a lot with collaborating source codes, it’s back to the coders to discipline themselves with the codes and have a firm grasp of the versioning system used. Anyways the conversation grew longer while we were exploring ideas and practical implementations of them, I surrendered that night, was very tired.

The next day, it was full of laughters, jokes, optimisms and geekness :p Fachry and Didiet (@lynxluna) joined us and we went around Malioboro to “accompany” Ollie with her shopping intentions. Well you know what, it turns out that Ollie was accompanying the boys shopping instead lol. We stopped at 2 things, FOOD and souvenirs. Where else can you eat such crispy and tender Lumpia than in Jogja? Here’s a video of a new startup we all are joking about.

[vsw id="XIqqJgED3oE" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]

When night falls, we were determined to eat Sate Kambing Klathak. It was a long drive from our hotel to Bantul. We waited for at least an hour for the Klathak to come. Each portion only have 2 sticks and it was a pain waiting that long so when the first batch of portions came, we ordered another round lol. I must tell you that you haven’t ate any Sate Kambing until you taste a Klathak. You’d forget the long wait and the overly expensive taxi ride for a taste of Klathak!

So anyways, we went to @OneBitMedia afterwards and another video was recorded about Ollie and The Cat. Watch it below:

[vsw id="9HyyAHefdEU" source="youtube" width="425" height="344" autoplay="no"]

After a full night of Jogja experience, we went back to the hotel to rest. Our train was leaving early in the morning. In the morning, we hurried up and went to train station altogether. Sadly for Agus and Anggi, they refused to bring GantiBotol’s premier product which forces Agus to change his clothing to compensate for the hot air :p We met with Mas Irwan (@IrwanKarta), one of the organizing committee of Bancakan while we were there. Yeah he was going to Oslo with the Pramex train, yeay Jogja :)

When we boarded the train I told Sagad and Ollie how boring 8 hours can be so why not make a startup from zero and deliver an alpha before arriving at Gambir. And so we did! We brainstormed a concept based on an earlier concept Ollie and me were talking about earlier and Sagad guided us with a Business Model Canvas. I’m sure any startup would want to know about. Either creating a startup or a feature, I’m sure it’ll be useful.

Ollie designed the whole look and feel and she coded everything for me to implement it. It’s amazing how passion fueled 8 hours of our lives on that trip. We couldn’t care less about anything and were very focused in what we are doing at the moment. It’s not just about the product nor the startup, it’s about each one of us sharing the same passion and the same purpose. The very foundation of LokalID. We proved to ourselves that all 3 of us were from different startups and yet we spawned another one only in 8 hours. It’s about perspective, guts and being ourselves. We are who we are, GEEKS! As Didiet say it, THAT’S A COMPLIMENT!

Every one of us is able to achieve more from your current selves right now! We deservedly have the rights and obligations to be on the top of the food chain, we need an ecosystem supporting this idea and each one of you counts. Make yourself significant and appreciated as an Indonesian Startup, we all deserve it, we are a great nation and most definitely, YOU ARE GREAT!

PS: We finished the #GOATChallenge before reaching Gambir while the train was stopping at Jatinegara station. Plain proof that passion encompasses differences = Bhinneka Tunggal Ika.

Sell yourself by being yourself!

30 July 2010 Blog / StartupLokal / Thoughts
1 comment

YOU are your own Startup!

Bancakan v5 – Selling Me 
package me.myself;
 
import humility.*;
import geekdom.*;
import google.*;
import experience.*;
import vision.*;
 
public class Me extends Myself throws NegativityException {
	public String me = "Batista Harahap";
 
	public Humility humble;
	public Geekdom geek;
	public Experience exp;
 
	private Ideas idea;
	public Vision v;
 
	Handler h = new Handler() {
		@Override
		public void handleMessage(Message msg) {
			switch(msg.what) {
				case GOT_EXPERIENCE:
					exp.open();
					break;
				case BRANDED:
					vision.add();
					break;
			}
		}
	};
 
	public Me() {
		humble = new Humility(me);
		geek = new Geekdom(me);
		exp = new Experience(me);
 
		while(1) {
			new Thread() {
	            public void run() {
		            try {
		            	String s = geek.learn("l33t");
						exp.add(s);
		            } catch (StupidException e) {
		            	e.printStackTrace();
		            }
 
		            Message msg = new Message();
		            msg.what = GOT_EXPERIENCE;
		            h.sendMessage(msg);
	            }
		    }.start();
 
			new Thread() {
	            public void run() {
		            try {
		            	geek.branding();
		            } catch (StupidException e) {
		            	e.printStackTrace();
		            }
 
		            Message msg = new Message();
		            msg.what = BRANDED;
		            h.sendMessage(msg);
	            }
		    }.start();
		}
	}
 
	public Vision getVision() {
		return v;
	}
 
	public int setVision(Vision w) {
		if( v.gotFoundation() && 
			v.greatProduct() && 
			v.coolFeatures() &&
			v.isMonetizable() ) {
			v = w;
			return 7;
		} else {
			return -1;
		}
	}
 
	public Ideas getIdea() {
		return idea;
	}
 
	public int setIdea(Ideas s) {
		if( s.feasible() ) {
			idea = s;
			return 7;
		} else {
			return -1;
		}
	}
 
	public String encourage(Ideas idea) {
		Vision vision = new Vision(idea);
 
		return vision.fastForwardToEnd(idea);
	}
 
	public String encourage(Startup startup) {
		Vision vision = new Vision(startup);
 
		return vision.fastForwardToEnd(startup);
	}
}

Android Apps for Travelling

29 July 2010 Android / Augmented Reality / Blog / Location Based Services / Mobile / Nexus One / Technology
No comments

Today is a start of a 2 days trip to Bacakan, Jogja and FOWAB, Bandung. For this reason, I started hunting for Android apps that are tailored made for travelers. Definitely the kind of apps offer travel-ease and maybe some local content if available. By the way, I haven’t used all of them extensively but worthy of installation nevertheless.

So let’s start with the list!

  1. Wikitude – wikitude.org
    This is the first app that came into mind. Also one of my 7 must-haves. With its Augmented Reality feature, I’m sure it’ll give me a different experience. Someday I’ll be layering for them when the time is right. They have Indonesian contents but I’m not sure it’ll be large enough to cover Jakarta-Solo-Jogja-Bandung. Let’s find out then ;)
  2. My Augmented Reality – mobikats.com
    Now this is a handy app. It basically gets geo coordinates from GPS of your location and lets you tag the location. This will be my number one app for geotagging.
  3. 3D Compass – android.a0soft.com
    Thanks to HTC, my Android has its own compass. With this app, I’m sure it’ll be a neat survival tool if I ever get lost.
  4. Lookator – loftdev.com
    A very cool app to scan for Wifi APs and show you where it is and if you ever get low signals, just head towards the AP in Augmented Reality view to get stronger signals. Need Internet, this is a Must!
  5. TravelCamerAR – futurescope.jp
    This app will take pictures using the camera hardware and automatically geotag the pictures taken. By the way, it’s another Augmented Reality app. I just love AR.
  6. AugSatNav – phyora.com
    One of the best Turn-by-Turn Augmented Reality navigation app for Android. Once I found a cool place to go, I need to know how to get there! Used this app over and over to look for addresses while driving. Very useful and a Must Have!
  7. Twidroyd - twidroyd.com
    I need to tweet so a Twitter client is a Must Have. Java here I come :p

So there you go. My must-haves for travelling with an Android!

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