I do not drink!

“I do not drink” I often said those words here. Almost everybody drinking alcohol, my roommates, and colleagues in the office, and they offer me drink to show their kindness and friendship.

I am from Indonesia, large country consist of more than 17.000 islands. The population in Indonesia is about 250 millions people. 80 percents of its population is Moslem, but Indonesia is not an Islamic country, it’s a Republic. Most Moslems do not drink alcohol. We are not drinking because our religion told us to, beside the fact that drinking is not good for health. Not only bad for liver and neural systems, it also socially unhealthy.

In my country, some people will perceived the one who drink and get drunk as bad guys, and better if you stay away from them. The fact that drinking alcohol in my country really the way how bad people show that they are different from common communities.

Right here, in America, I see drink alcohol is part of culture. Almost everybody drink alcohol almost in every occasion. It’s one of their ways how to interact with other. Drinking alcohol together means that I love to make friends with you. When you drink alcohol, you will feel relax and feel like destroy the wall between two people, that’s how everybody builds bond with others. In building business relationship with customer, sometimes drinking alcohol is really help. My friends from Korea ever have joke with me

“Come on, Dessy, drink. It’s good for building relationship. You will never get PO if you do not drink. Haha”. I said he is liar and crazy.

In Indonesia, there is no specific way to build bond with others. Basically, if someone first meet with new people, they will just chatting, and asking about some private matters, it’s just like a formal conversation. Different than American who easily shows their feeling, most of Indonesian is agreeable; it’s hard for them to reject an offer. A Native American will not understand how they feel unless they have interacts with them for long time. So, suppose someday an American offer alcohol to an Indonesian, if the Indonesian smile, it doesn’t means that the Indonesian accept their offer, it could mean something else, like do not know how to say “No, I do not drink”. Poor Indonesia.

amircool
Life is great!

*picture taken from [here]

I really happy, I can help you!

I met with Bob, the owner Bob’s Landscaping, yesterday. He showed me his IT infrastructure including the Data Centre. It was a wonderful experience, since I can learn new things while I can get in touch with him and hearing his story about how he build the company from zero and how the IT can help his company to be more efficient, productive and gaining more money.

Bob told me that the company want to upgrade its infrastructure, but he do not have any idea, what should he do, what technology should be implemented in the new network. He ever heard about IP Telephony and wants to implement it in the network, but he really concerned about money. He has network engineer and trust them about all the implementations. I really want to help Bob at that time, give him recommendation about what to implement in his network, so Bob recommend me to meet his network engineer. Nadine Fakhoury, the network engineer was so nice, I never imagine, a women like her works as network engineer.

“Hi, how are you? I am Dessy from Cisco Systems” I try to build rapport with her, introduced my self; asked her about the holiday and so on. From the main conversation, I understood that she wanted to implement IP Telephony, just like Bob have said, but she do not have bunch of network engineer that can help her. I also gathered a wealth of information regarding the network she maintains. She has to maintain 6 sites right now. Each site uses old switch infrastructures from a vendor other than Cisco, so she could not implement IP Telephony in the network. With only 15 users in average in each site, I started to thinking, what Cisco Catalyst switch that really met her need.

Cisco Express 500 seemed to be perfect for her network. The markithecture (marketing architecture) for Express 500 are Smart, Simple, Secure and Affordable. The switch is Smart because it supports Power over Ethernet (PoE) and Quality of Service (QoS) which are good technology to support IP Telephony. The word Simple derived from the ability to configure the switch using GUI (GUI Based) rather than command line based. This GUI based is called Cisco Network Assistant (CNA) and good since the Bob Lanscaping do not have many IT staff. This Express 500 support standard security, this how the words Secure come from. It’s also inexpensive, Affordable, really good for company with tight IT budget. Na

I also thinking about Catalyst 2960 as recommendation for the Network, actually those two switches are look alike, except that Catalyst 2960 do not support PoE right now. The one that will support PoE will come to the market on February 2008. But, beside that weakness, the Catalyst 2960 better than Express 500 because it support more PoE, enhance security and advance QoS. It also support Common Spanning Tree (CST), Rapid Spanning Tree, and Multiple Spanning Tree (MST), compare to Express 500 that only support Common Spanning Tree (CST). But, since the company only put one switch, Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) absolutely is not their consideration. Nadine asked about the price between both of the switch, but crap! I left all my belonging, including the product portfolios with Bob. I promised to grab her the price list, and she seemed to be so happy. Before I grab my stuff, she asking me my recommendation between the two, I recommend her to pick Express 500, it meet her requirement, and then I said, if she wanted to do cool stuff, like better IP Telephony support or wanted to add more switches in each site, she better implement Catalyst 2960.

Looked at her face after she talked to me, I was really happy. I am really happy when I can help my customer. I imagining a world, where I can help not only my customer, but also my friends, families, the one I love, many peoples. But sometime I feel so powerless.

amircool while listening Sweeney Todd opera song
looking for chance to help people
Raleigh, North Carolina
6.25 pm

It’s a New Year, it’s a new knowledge

It was lovely and tiring day. I came to my apartment at 8.30 am from Florida and have to go to office at 9.30 am. Actually it’s a little bit late, but my manager said ok so it’s ok. First day in the office, there was a course about path options. I thought it’s about career path, I really glad to get the course. But, the fact was really different with imaginations. The course was about WAN (Wide Area Network) path options. Well at least I got new knowledge.

The course began with explanation about WAN technologies. Like Classic WAN (dial up, ISDN, satellite), traditional layer 2 (L2) WAN technology (Leased Line, Frame Relay and ATM).

Problem occur when different client or host want to connect to other client in other side of the cloud that using different WAN technologies. They cannot communicate each other. Technology to help solve this problem called L2VPN (layer 2 virtual private network). There are 2 different technologies for L2VPN, the VPWS and VPLS.

If using VPWS or virtual private wire speed, consumers feel like they implement hub and spoke technology. The most important thing is, client with different L2 technology can communicate each other using this technology. VPWS run over IP and MPLS incorporate pseudowire technology to address this need.

VPWS technology actually gives most benefit for service provider, why? By implement VPWS over MPLS, SP can save cost by using one backbone to supports many L2 technologies.

VPLS is also L2VPN technology but it only supports Ethernet. You can say that VPLS is an emulation of a giant switch. It is good above the paper, but really difficult to implement.

How to make the communication secure? There are several Layer 3 (L3) technologies that can help customer to secure the communication. IP Sec with GRE, DMVPN, and GET VPN are some of them. Using IP sec with GRE, data traffic is directed into GRE tunnel and encrypted. It allows non IP traffic and multicast to traverse over it, but it has scalability issues and it also painful to configure.

DMVPN (Dynamic Multipoint VPN) gives better solution, because using this technology, it is not painful to configure. It also more scalable, but it has multicast issues. Other technology that SP can deploy is GETVPN. This technology runs like this each router registers with the Key Server. The Key Server authenticates the router, performs an authorization check, and downloads the policy and keys to the router. This technology is very popular on MPLS-VPN link, and also very effective, because it doesn’t need tunnel for IPSec, using original IP addresses, no need to overlay routing and only need single SA.

What an awesome technology!

amircool Sambil ditemani lagu operanya Sweeney Todd
Saturday January 5, 2008
11 pm

Resolusi 2008

1. Being Good and Kind to People
2. More Productive
3. Put Professionalism in Job
4. Put Hardwork and Whole Heart in Life
What am I gonna be?





amircool
happy new year
somewhere in US

Blue Man Group, Totally Blue

Awalnya salah satu kakak kelas saya SMA yang ada di Boston menyarankan untuk menonton pertunjukan Blue Man Group di downtown Boston, tiket loket lebih murah daripada tiket online. Pada suatu malam, tiga laki-laki berjalan menyusuri downtown Boston untuk melihat pertunjukan ini. Sampai diloket, atas pertimbangan harga akhirnya rencana ini dibatalkan.

Di New York City, ada juga pertunjukan Blue Man Group, di Lafayette St., Manhattan bawah. Sayang, kunjungan ke NYC kali ini terlalu singkat, beberapa spot terkenal sempat dikunjungi, tapi tidak Blue Man Group.

Universal Studio Florida ternyata juga memiliki spot untuk pertunjukan Blue Man Group. Harga tiketnya hampir sama dengan harga tiket di Boston, lebih mahal 1 dollar, akan tetapi demi rasa penasaran yang ingin terpuaskan, jadilah pertunjukan ini ditonton.

Pertunjukannya luar biasa, dan berkelas. Pemeran utamanya 3 orang laki-laki, berwarna biru. Mereka melakukan pertunjukan tanpa kata-kata, hanya mengandalkan ekspresi mata, gerak tubuh dan dukungan multimedia yang sangat beragam, mirip pantomime,tapi bukan. Kadang ada joke sinis tentang kehidupan disekitar kita. Misalnya tentang perilaku kecanduan internet, alih-alih mau berkomunikasi dengan orang yang ada(disekitar), pecandu berkomunikasi seru dengan orang yang tidak ada (disekitar). Sebuah realitas kehidupan yang suram. Ada juga sindiran tentang banyaknya informasi junk yang diterima dan dibaca setiap hari dengan gaya penyampaian pesan yang kocak dan cerdas. Unsur edukasi tidak lupa di tunjukkan, misalnya tentang asal muasal animasi, disini Indonesia disebut-sebut, membuat dua orang penonton dari Indonesia sedikti merasa bangga. Ada permainan music menggunakan pipa yang terdengar ok, ataupun pelibatan audience secara interaktif yang membuat pertunjukan menjadi lebih fun dan memorable.

Beberapa foto dengan pelaku pertunjukan dan souvenir berupa video pertunjukan tentunya akan membuat tontonan ini layak di ingat. Siapa tahu bisa menunjukkan video souvenir ini pada anak seni rupa ITB maupun IKJ sehingga mereka bisa membuat pertunjukan serupa tapi tak sama.

amircool
ORL, FL
31 Dec 07

Do you know I’ve played ski?

It’s in Wachusett. Salah satu kota dari Negara bagian Massachusetts. Daerah pegunungan ini bisa ditempuh dari Boston dengan mobil sekitar 1,5 jam. Ini pertama kalinya main ski, so fun and challenging, apalagi jika dilakukan beramai-ramai.

Apa yang paling krusial pada saat main ski? Yang pertama adalah posisi pada saat jatuh. Saat hendak jatuh, jangan mencoba untuk menahan dengan kaki, jatuhlah sejatuh-jatuhnya, hal ini lebih bagus dari pada menderita patah tulang kering atau lutut. Pada saat jatuh usahakan agar posisi badan sejajar dengan kemiringan gunung, ini berarti posisi papan selancar melintang pada saat posisi telapak kaki rileks. Posisi ini menjaga agar tubuh tidak merosot ke bawah dan terluka karena tertarik oleh gravitasi.

Hal krusial kedua adalah pada saat mengerem dan bebelok. Ngerem dan berbelok penting untuk menghindari terjadinya tabrakan dengan pemain lain, selain itu, belok sangat berguna agar permainan ski menjadi lebih artistic, apalagi jika ditambah dengan meliuk-liukkan badan dan pinggang sambil mengangkat satu kaki. Belok artisitik semacam ini sangat tidak dianjurkan untuk pemain ski amatir, apalagi bagi seseorang yang baru pertama kali meihat salju seumur hidupnya.

Bagaimana cara mengerem yang baik dalam permainan ski? Buka pergelangan kaki lebar, mengangkang dengan rileks, posisi papan selancar menutup dibagian depan dan terbuka bagian belakang, mirip anak panah, kemudian miringkan telapak kaki ke arah dalam. Berbelok lebih mudah lagi, mungkin sulit untuk yang pertama main ski. Untuk berbelok kea rah kiri misalnya, tekan jempol kaki kanan ke papan ski, kaki kiri rileks dan tidak menekan papan ski, demikian sebaliknya.

Jika merasa kecepatan meluncur terlalu cepat, jangan panic, itu hal yang biasa. Rileks dancoba untuk mengerem sedikit demi sedikit, belok sebenernya bisa membantu untuk menurunkan kecepatan, tetapi jangan belok terlalu cepat, hal ini bisa mengakibatkan posisi badan yang memutar, tubuh menghadap ke puncak, papan meluncur mundur dan akhirnya bisa jatuh. Jangan pernah melakukan trik belok mendadak semacam ini didepan gadis cantik dari Vietnam, yang dengan mengambil master degree di Harvard University dan funnily smart. Anda akan malu sendiri.

Permainan ski bersama dengan kolega akan lebih terasa nikmatnya jika ditutup dengan makan malam bersama di restoran China, apalagi ditambah dengan momen ulang tahun, sehingga tidak perlu mengeluarkan uang sepeserpun untuk dinner. Selamat ulang tahun untuk diriku sendiri!

amircool
ORL, FL
31 Dec 07