Connect Samba Server of Linux/Ubuntu to Windows PC

My Samba server usually have trouble detecting Windows PCs on the network. Instead of restarting the Ubuntu to hard refresh the list, just enter the computer name manually:

smb://<insert computer name>/

No need to wait for a correct list to show up.

 

Beautiful Architecture (Software Engineering)

At first I thought this was a book on computer architecture, it turns out that it was on software design. Overall the book shows examples on examples of software architectures that are “beautiful”.  Beautiful architecture exhibit universal principles:

• When change occurs, only one place needs to be modified.
• They have adequate construction tools.
• Not only beautiful at run-time, but also at construction time.
• They use a minimum set of mechanisms, as long as the requirements are met.
• Use controller objects. Base the architecture on use cases and one function at a time.
• Considers the likely growth of the system.
• Resists the entropy, does not become more disorganized over time.

The book gives an analogy of a software architecture as a music composition. It may be played by different musicians or at different places, but the composition is supposedly beautiful as it can be suited to the corresponding environment. There are architectures that meet functional requirements, but it does not imply that it meets quality requirements. For instance, there are numerous ways on how to set up web pages: JSP, PHP, Static HTML, CGI are just to name a few.  Choosing a technology is a very significant architectural decision.

Since I have been working in a software development company, I feel how important it is to have a good company structure and healthy development process as mentioned in the book. Newly recruits should be able to understand the system without heavy effort, and fixing bugs should have a predictable timescale. Quality software have good cohesion, where related functionality are gathered in modules; and also minimal coupling, in which there is few wiring between those modules. As I said on how bug fixing should be predictable, is that the architecture should help us locate funcionality. We should know effortlessly on which module should be fixed. The architecture should also be malleable and refactorable,  as this also encourages simple and easy to change designs.

Have you ever played online games? How about Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) games? Jim Waldo wrote a chapter on Architecting for Scale, which describes on different approaches taken to tackle the scale problem of MMOs. Two common ways of dealing it was by geographical areas and sharding. Sharding is practically duplicating the world on a different server, but users on different shards cannot interact with each other. He described an alternate approach, which is called the Darkstar architecture.

Another interesting chapter in the book was on the Facebook platform by Dave Fetterman. Facebook is conceptually a standard n-tier stack, where we request a certain social data, which is then processed by Facebook’s logic and then becomes a display output. Facebook then grows broader of the stack, and makes itself integrateable by outside systems through applications. While the social data remains the center of the architecture, the platform has grown into an array of Web Services: FB API, FB Query Language, and FB Markup Language.

The book goes on telling stories on Xen (virtualization), Emacs success, and KDE. The final part of the book is on functional vs object oriented programming and somehow describing beautiful building architectures. Though they are physically different (software are practically intangible), the same design principles can be applied to create beautiful architectures.

 

Cultural Tolerance

Sometimes when we do what we think is polite, can be interpreted as rude by others. For example, when we are visiting as guests; in American customs the host would ask the guest about his/her preference, such as what drink to serve, hot or cold, with sugar, milk, or even add cookies . In Indonesia, it depends, the host will adjust according to his closeness to the guest, but would most likely offer options. In Japan, the host never ask the guest about his preference. (This is just simple generalization for comparative analysis).

“Please help yourself” can have an unpleasant ring on Asian ears. The Asian traditional sensibility interprets it as “nobody will help you” instead of “please take what you want”. Nowadays as people get more exposed to foreign culture, they have more sense to tolerate and understand these cultural differences.

 

Penggunaan Istilah Teknik Komputer di Indonesia

Seringkali saya ditanya,

X: “Kamu kuliah jurusan apa?”
Saya: “Elektro”
X: “Oo.. ngambil ke bagian mananya?”
Saya: “Teknik Komputer”..

Biasanya direspons dengan salah satu pernyataan dari:
X1: “Apa bedanya sama Informatika?” (Grrr..)
X2: “Gw mau beli komputer baru nih, bantuin dong milih spec-nya”
X3:  “Kebetulan, komputer gw kena virus nih..”

Berikut kutipan beberapa definisi Teknik Komputer di dunia maya:
- Berkutit seputar hardware komputer. Mau upgrade memori? Masang HardDisk baru? Panggil si geek teknik komputer beres.
- Selain kerja otak, mereka juga harus kerja otot, misal nyambungin kabel LAN dari satu gedung ke gedung lain. (nyambung kabel kerja pake otot ya? wew..)
- biasanya berisi cwo cerdas, gaul tapi tetep setia.. bukan yang selingkuh tiada akhir ya 

Sejauh pengamatan saya, banyak sekali calon mahasiswa  yang bingung mencari arti hadirnya Teknik Komputer. Dan saya memaklumi hal itu terjadi karena memang penggunaan istilah teknik komputer sangat variatif di Indonesia. Pada beberapa program D3 digunakan untuk mengajarkan perakitan hardware dan instalasi jaringan. Lalu ada juga program S1 yang lebih fokus pada jaringannya, sistem embedded, dan software engineering. Kemudian ada kampus yang Teknik Komputernya merupakan “pecahan”  dari Teknik Elektro, dan secara keilmuan memang demikian asalnya. Yang ingin saya tegaskan, Komputer sebaiknya diartikan secara luas, bukan hanya berupa Desktop/Laptop, tetapi juga dan tidak terbatas pada mobile phone, pemancar Wi-Fi, sistem kendali pesawat terbang, dll.

Jurusan/Program Studi Teknik Komputer bila ditelusuri padanannya di kurikulum Amerika Serikat seharusnya mengacu pada Computer Engineering. Program Teknik Komputer biasanya berdiri dalam Departement of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, atau Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Yang perlu dicermati disini adalah Computer Engineering senantiasa terpisah dari Electrical Engineering maupun Computer Science, namun selalu berdekatan (benci tapi cinta). Maunya deket-deket tapi tak ingin bersatu, bandel juga (anak) Teknik Komputer.

Taken from http://stei.itb.ac.id

Lalu, apa itu Teknik Komputer? Survey membuktikan! Jreng2: tidak ada satu jawaban yang dapat menjelaskan Teknik Komputer secara keseluruhan di Indonesia. Bukan wewenang saya menyatakan bahwa telah terjadi  penyelewengan dan kurangnya pengawasan pengunaan istilah Teknik Komputer di Indonesia. Saran utama saya bagi seluruh calon mahasiswa adalah mempelajari kurikulum dari setiap program studi yang dituju. Baca daftar matakuliah berikut silabusnya agar mendapat gambaran jelas. Lebih baik lagi, tanyakan langsung alumni/dosen dari jurusan tersebut. Search saja di Facebook salah satu mahasiswa senior/alumni, siapa tahu ada yang super baik hati (seperti saya) yang mau menjelaskan detilnya.

Program S1 Reguler Teknik Komputer di Indonesia? Setahu saya baru UI dan mungkin beberapa universitas swasta. Untuk STEI Institut Teknologi Bandung, Teknik Komputer masih berupa rencana studi di Departemen Teknik Elektro, dan menurut pengamatan/pengalaman saya, program Teknik Komputer ini mengacu dan dalam proses akreditasi pendidikan engineering Amerika Serikat (ABET). Belajar dari sistem jaringan elektronik, hingga programming software, sampai proses menjadi bahasa mesin, sampai merancang prosesornya, sampai menjadi rangkaian transistornya. Mau belajar teknologi komputer (arti luas) secara menyeluruh? Harusnya ada di Teknik Komputer dong..

Cheers!

 

Internet Explorer Script Error MFC (Line 815 Char 3)

I am using Visual Studio 2005 SP1 (C++), and I wanted to add a class for a dialog when the IE error showed up. Needed to find a quick fix and here is what I found: (turns out it was because I installed IE8)

http://blogs.msdn.com/vcblog/archive/2009/03/28/some-vs2005-and-vs2008-wizards-pop-up-script-error.aspx

Please follow these steps:

-          Open regedit (on a 64-bit OS, open the 32-bit regedit)

-          Under “HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings\Zones”, create a new key called 1000 (if it isn’t already there)

-          Under 1000, create a DWORD entry with:

o   Name = 1207

o   Type = REG_DWORD

o   Data = 0×000000

 

Activate Push Email (Yahoo, Gmail/Google Apps), for free!

No need to subscribe Blackberry for push email! A standard mobile/smartphone with an internet connection (minimum recommendation GPRS) can have the push mail feature with free applications.

I used Emoze to connect my Google Apps account (or Gmail) to my PDA (WindowsMobile 6.1). For the Nokia E63 I used Seven to connect with a Yahoo!Mail account. Worked perfectly, and emails arrived to my mobile in seconds! No need to search for a PC again to check for my important emails

Push Email for Everyone! Hope you can set it up

Ga perlu langganan Blackberry untuk push-mail! Bila anda memiliki mobile phone/smartphone yang mempunyai koneksi internet (rekomendasi minimal GPRS), push email bisa diaktifkan secara gratis menggunakan aplikasi.

Saya telah menggunakan Emoze untuk menyambungkan email dari Google Apps saya (Gmail di domain sendiri) langsung ke inbox PDA (Windows Mobile 6.1). Sedangkan untuk HP Nokia E63 yang menggunakan OS Symbian, aplikasi Seven dengan lancar terhubung pada inbox Yahoo!Mail.

 

Restore Ubuntu Jaunty Panel

My friend played with the panels (its position, size, etc) it turned out to cause a tragedy. He nearly couldn’t do anything with the freshly installed, keyboard-shortcut-less Ubuntu. After searching the web, here’s the fix:

1. make a new folder in desktop, to open the nautilus file browser.

2. run gnome-terminal in /bin/ (if not mistaken)

3. Type in

gconftool-2 –shutdown

rm -rf ~/.gconf/apps/panel

pkill gnome-panel

sudo debconf gnome-panel

Hope it works for you.

 

Howto: Troubleshoot MCP-55 Ethernet on Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04

I installed a fresh Ubuntu Jaunty on a desktop and couldn’t connect to the local area network (DHCP). I tried the following tweaks, and finally it worked.

add to/etc/modprobe.d/options

options forcedeth msi=0 msix=0

sudo rmmod forcedeth
sudo modprobe forcedeth

sudo /etc/init.d/networking restart
sudo dhclient eth0

During the last line, the ethernet will start listening and start DHCPDISCOVER on eth0. I clicked the network manager to reattempt a connection and it worked.

 

Japan’s Fun Facts,, Did you know….?!

1. Japanese like to eat “Nattou” for breakfast. Nattou is a food destined to either be hated or favored for your entire life. It is sticky, salty and “ammoniacally” smelly. If you do happen to eat it for the first time, you will get caught in stringy “natto” spider web. No wonder it’s tasty, since it is partly made out of fermented soy beans, mustard, raw quail egg, and bacteria (Bacillus subtilis natto). The good part: I nearly threw up after chewing 10 times. The bad part: it’s healthy. Itadakimasu!

2. Japanese (female) students like to wear high heels to campus. More than half at mine. Some like to save up to buy Louis Vuitton bags. And while I shiver of the dreaded winter, they have the “heroes” ability of wearing mini-skirts even in those conditions. Envy that! (not the skirts, the ability). Urayamashii yo.

3. Sometimes you can find escalators that are crazily steep, nearly perpendicular to the ground. It’s nearly like an elevator. Not only that, they can also be so long. Beware of the local customs though. At Kyushu-Kanto area we stand still on the left, and walk on the right. In Kansai (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe, etc), it is the exact opposite. Stand still on the right if you don’t want to be bumped with “Sumimasen!”

4. Bring your passport if you go shopping at Akihabara, which the Japanese refer to as “Electronic City”. We can get discounts by showing a tourist visa (6 months max stay). Too bad my visa was for one year, so no luck for me. Zannen desu ne..
Also be careful in this area, there were crime last year. Kiotsukete ne..

5. For romantic hotspots in the Kansai area, I would go for Kyoto and Kobe. Kyoto’s atmosphere is uniquely, traditionally outstanding. There are romantic paths of Gion area. But be sure to bring money, a (romantic) dinner here on average can cost $120 per person.
For hungry moneysavers, go to Kobe, there is a Wonderful all you can eat restaurant for only $20. They have delicious crab, meat, seafood, Italian food, pudding, ice cream and even chocolate topping if you need to get fat. One plus, the waitress were very fine Another plus, it is located by a lake/sea and we can view Kobe city from there.
Oh, Kobe have significant number of foreigners, and the first mosque built in Japan was in the city of Kobe! Sughoi…!

 

Repository Open Source di Indonesia (Ubuntu)

Pasca kepulangan dari Jepang, saya mencari server repository utk mengupdate Ubuntu. Mengapa repot2 mengubahnya? Sebab di kampus saya ada batasan filesize yang bisa didownload, yikes X|

Pertama saya mencoba http://kambing.ui.edu. Kecepatannya lebih baik dibandingkan server luar, namun masih kurang memuaskan. Setidaknya saya mencari yg melebihi 1 MB(yte)/detik. Dimana lagi selain server intranet.. Akhirnya setelah susah payah mencari , saya menggunakan ftp://ftp.itb.ac.id/pub/ubuntu/

Untuk Ubuntu, karena server ini tidak terdaftar pada pilihan repo, kita harus edit manual file /etc/apt/sources.list (sudo gedit /etc/apt/sources.list).

Untuk masing2 baris, tambahkan dengan server yang kita inginkan, misalkan dari:
deb http://ubuntu-ashisuto.ubuntulinux.jp/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
menjadi (copy-paste-edit):
deb ftp://ftp.itb.ac.id/pub/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted

Kemudian, comment isi file yang lama, misalkan dari:

deb http://ubuntu-ashisuto.ubuntulinux.jp/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
menjadi:
#deb http://ubuntu-ashisuto.ubuntulinux.jp/ubuntu/ hardy main restricted
sekedar untuk berjaga2.

Hasilnya update jadi kenceng (>2 MByte/s)

 

IM3 PUK

Kalau salah memasukkan PIN berkali-kali (atau tidak sengaja seperti kasus adik saya), akan diminta nomer PUK yang tertera di kartu perdana.
Kalau malas menelfon call centre, atau mengambil kartu perdana (atau hilang), coba masukkan 12345678.

Tidak perlu repot2 nelfon call centre (dan membayar)

 

Babylon A.D.

I watched the movie last night. The story wasn’t that great, but the action was thrilling.

I just hope that I don’t turn into a freak in the movie, who made a supercomputer as a mother, to create a genetically mutated child. (strange concept)

 

My Japan Aftermath – One and a half month -

When things get really busy, time really flies by. It has been one and a half month back in Indonesia. I noticed some changes, some important, some insignificant.

1. Price of goods went up!! Significantly!! For every meal, it is now 1.5x more expensive compared to before I left Indonesia. For everything, every food, every drinks, every juice. 50% inflation in one year, wow.

2. Transportation cost goes up, fuel too. Before it costs Rp.1000 from my area to campus, but now it costs Rp.1500. One litre of fuel before cost Rp. 4000, now it is Rp.6000. The 1,5x law still applies. I thought I was going on a shopping spree coming home from Japan, but looking the inflation, it’s best if I save my money.

3. My campus work doesn’t seem busy at first, but considering all of my courses are project-based, I’m gonna have nightmares at the end of this semester if I relax now.. Here is the big picture: Environmental Impact Analysis (Case Study), 3D Game in OpenGL, Digital Design Contest (VLSI, Capstone Project) in Verilog, and my Bachelor Final Project on Multi-core Microcontroller.

4. To top it up, I signed up to be a teaching assistant, and two laboratory course assistant. Offered a microcontroller project by a lecturer. Also another contest for the multi-core multicontroller if I manage to get an idea

5. A new mini-mart opened nearby. (Yippie!)

6. Indonesia’s politics doesn’t seem to change much. It’s all about power and money here. Practically a capitalist nation, you won’t survive, be healthy nor get education without money. Indonesia have state companies, but do they seem to benefit the society more than its wealthy and spoiled officials? Do they have the potential misuse their monopoly rights and abuse their power?

7. Somehow my team won the Academic Support Category in a university level business plan contest. Uniquely, while it is supposed to be a 3-person team, I did my presentation alone! Thank God I managed.

8. It’s gonna be a busy but fun and hopefully last semester here at the one and only Bandung Institute of Technology.

Cheers!

 

Nampang di majalah kampus online Oita U

Di sela-sela acara pesta perpisahan, majalah kampus mendatangi tiap mahasiswa pertukaran yang akan pulang akhir semester.  Kami ditodong untuk menuliskan cita2 di whiteboard kecil, kemudian difoto. Ada yang serius, ada yang melucu. Pose saya sedang tidak bagus, jadi lebih baik tidak saya pajang.. hehe.. Bocoran linknya saja.

Bundai Oita adalah nama majalah kampus. Bundai Oita memiliki situs online: B-net.  Bundai berasal dari Bunga Daigaku, nama kampus ini sebelum menjadi Oita Daigaku.

Situs online kampus Oita U cukup bagus (versi Japanese), namun yang versi English kurang termaintain. Website B-net lebih menarik dibuka oleh mahasiswa, karena memang buatan mahasiswa sendiri. Isinya seperti kegiatan ekstrakurikuler, profil mahasiswa, acara kampus; semua diliput mahasiswa.

Mungkin mahasiswa ITB bisa meniru membuat website kampus sendiri?

PS: Hampir seluruh mahasiswa asing di kampus yang berasal dari negara barat (Eropa/Amerika) adalah exchange student. Maklum, sulit sekali mempelajari kemampuan baca tulis bahasa Jepang untuk kuliah normal.