Farewell

Farewell, o cruel world…!!!

Nah… I’m just kidding

Well what I actually want to say is after blogging on wordpress.com for about 6 years, I decide to put this blog to it end. Kinda sad, isn’t it?

Not really.  This blog will not be updated anymore. As simple as that. The good news is I still have no plan to quit blogging at the moment. If you would be so kindly, please visit my new blog. Not that new, honestly, because all of my old stuffs can be found there.

From now, I’ll leave this blog as it is. Probably for documentary purpose. Yet it’s very possible that somewhen I’ll close this blog, though.

So long wordpress.com, and thanks for all the fish!

Goodbye. 🙂

 

Gak Bohong

Ngapain saya bohong. Gak ada gunanya itu. Percaya deh sama saya…”

Kata sang penipu.

 

Orang Kaya vs Orang Miskin

Yang namanya orang kaya itu sombong adalah hal yang sangat wajar. Wajar dalam pengertian dia punya sesuatu yang memang bisa disombongkan. Misal:

Gw biasanya tiap akhir pekan liburan di Europe. Sayang punya villa disono tapi gak ditempatin.

Atau:

Eh tau gak, gara2 banjir kemaren Rolls Royce gw jadi rusak. Ya udah deh gw beli 2 lagi yg baru.

Ya begitulah kira2.

Sementara jika orang miskin sombong… eh tunggu sebentar. Is that even a valid sentence? Miskin dan sombong, per definisi, tidak valid berada dalam 1 kalimat. Apa yang bisa disombongkan seorang miskin? Gak ada. Jadi gak heran kalo orang miskin yg sombong pas sekali jadi bahan caci maki. “Ini orang otaknya dimana ya? Miskin tapi kok lagaknya gede banget. Gak nyadar apa? Kalau seandainya dia gak sombong pasti gw tetep respect ama dia”. Mungkin seperti itu…

EOM.

 

What Is 0 ^ 0?

Quick questions:

What is 2 ^ 3? 8

What is 10 ^ 2? 100

What is 912873683428920348791239817231928370 ^ (200 – (40 * 5)) ? 1

Very good. It is an easy test, right? Yes indeed. OK let’s try another question: what is 0 ^ 0?

I repeat: what is 0 ^ 0?

..

..

Give up? OK. This time I’ll answer this question programmatically, not mathematically (there are several approach used to tackle this problems: limit, set theory, etc). Here’s the X86 assembly to outline the idea:

format PE console 4.0

include 'win32a.inc'

entry start

section '.data' readable executable
num1 dd 0
num2 dd 0
fmt db "%d",0

section '.code' code readable executable
start:
mov ecx, [num1]
mov eax, [num2]
mov ebx, ecx

process:
cmp eax, 1
jg multiply
je done

multiply:
imul ecx, ebx
dec eax
jmp process

done:
invoke printf, fmt, ecx
invoke ExitProcess, 0

section '.idata' import data readable writable
library kernel32,'kernel32.dll', msvcrt, 'msvcrt.dll'
import kernel32, ExitProcess, 'ExitProcess'
import msvcrt, printf, 'printf'

The output is, surprisingly (or not surprisingly) 0.

I expect careful readers to complain that I’m cheating, since the output of the code will always be 0.

No, I’m not cheating. May I suggest you to play with the code yourself? Probably you’ll be even more surprised

Les Misérables

I watched the movie yesterday. Conceptually, the story is fascinating. We have several issues presented in a pretty solid way:

1. An parolee who tries to escape his past by repentance and working hard, becoming a good, honest, reputable man.
2. A police officer who believes only in blind justice: law is everything, once a criminal, always a criminal.
3. A mother who is willing to do everything (even becomes a prostitute) to support her daughter.
4. A young idealist man commited to social change who eventually organizes a rebel movement.
5. Some petty crooks… who are crooks :p
6. etc

No conclusion about this movie at the moment, though. Probably I’ll watch this movie once again. But one thing for sure:

musical drama is and has always been a turn off to me. It makes me go Zzzz….

 

 

Musik Sekarang Kok Jelek-jelek?

Berikut ini adalah kutipan percakapan antara 2 orang penggemar musik yang sedang makan siang di suatu cafe.

A: “Eh brur, musik sekarang itu memprihatinkan yah? :-x”

B: (sambil asik mengunyah makanan) “Emang kenapa?”

A: “Ah lo pake acara pura2 gak tau segala. Coba lo perhatiin deh. Musisi era 70-an & 80-an itu kebanyakan pake skill beneran. Punya talenta. Emang bisa nyanyi. Sementara mulai 90-an dan sampe sekarang kualitas musik drop. Liat aja musisi kayak Jastin Bibir, Ledi Gagal, Mili Sirup, Sikilreks, dst dst mereka sebenernya bisa apa? Cuma bisa bikin polusi suara…”

B: (berhenti mengunyah) “Bro. Gw kasih tau yak. Yang namanya musisi jelek itu dari dulu sampe dunia kiamat akan selalu ada. Itu lo gak bisa ubah. Nah apa yg bisa lo lakukan adalah memilih musik yg bagus atau gak (sambil menyebut sejumlah nama musisi/band yang talented but obscured). Nih iPod gw. Coba lo dengerin deh”

A: “….. Eh iya bener bro. Keren banget ini :D”

B: “Apa gw bilang. Musisi sekarang pun sebenernya banyak yg bagus. Cuma jarang kedengeran aja. Dan sejujurnya gw setuju kalo kebanyakan musik sekarang yg mainstream itu emang jelek. Jadi kalo lo bilang musik sekarang itu jelek-jelek, sudah pasti either lo dengerin musisi jelek, atau musik yg mainstream “

Ya sebenernya dialog diatas itu hasil imajinasi saya. Bukan dialog nyata. Tapi seandainya suatu saat ada orang melontarkan pertanyaan yang sama, maka itulah jawaban saya.

Bagaimana pak mikebm, ada komentar?

 

Catatan:

1. Jika ada kesamaan/kemiripan nama-nama, itu hanyalah kebetulah belaka. Sungguh. Serius.
2. Post ini sama sekali tidak disponsori oleh perusahaan IT ternama yang logonya buah.
3. Post ini tidak dibayar untuk mengkritik sejumlah artis yg namanya mirip dengan yg disebut di post ini (jika memang ada). Ini serius juga loh.

 

 

 

2112

I think I ordered this album several days before Christmas last year. Just in case you don’t know who Rush are, they are the famous Canadian progressive hard rock trio.

And today, after arrived from office, I found a little surprise on my desk.

Sweet! I got my order!

Let’s crank the volume up, shall we?

 

Orang Kaya

Sepasang kakak beradik yang masih kanak-kanak duduk beristirahat di tepi trotoar, dibawah terang lampu jalan. Sudah dari siang hari mereka mengamen, dan hasilnya belum seberapa. Si adik sedang merasa lapar. Lalu ia mulai bercerita dengan kakaknya…

Adik: “Kak”

Kakak: “Ya kenapa dik?”

Adik: “Orang-orang kaya itu sungguh berbeda ya kak?”

Kakak: “Beda apanya dik?”

Adik: “Yah… mereka jauuuhh lebih kaya dari kita kak. Mereka tinggal di rumah bagus, bisa beli baju setiap hari, dan bisa makan enak. Sementara kita kadang untuk makan malam saja pun harus berjuang…” Tatapan si adik separuh hampa. Dan air mata mulai menetes.

Mendengar perkataannya seperti itu, sang kakak terdiam untuk beberapa waktu. Lalu ia menepuk-nepuk pundak adiknya sambil berkata

“Yah dik, mereka memang jauh lebih kaya dari kita. Kamu mau kan kita bisa hidup enak seperti mereka? Mungkin kita harus bekerja lebih keras dari mereka dik…”

Kemudian sang kakak memeluk sang adik. Mereka berdua pun hanya bisa berdiam diri. Lalu mereka mulai menangis…

 

 

Inside MP3

If you are curious about the structure of MP3 file, please take a look at this:

MP3 File Structure Description

MP3 file is divided into a small blocks – frames. Each frame has constant time length 0.026 sec.
But size of one frame (in Bytes) varies according to bitrate. Eg. for 128kbps it is (normally) 417 Bytes and for 192kbps 626 Bytes.

The first 4 Bytes of each frame is frame header and the rest is audio data…

I have a strong felling that I’ll mess with this soon.

Ouch.

Sheep

We had the famous Psalm 23 preached in one of the Sunday services last December:

1 The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.

2 He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

3 He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

5 Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.

6 Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Of course the bottom line of the sermon is The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He provides our need (take note: our need, not our want). If we are still complaining that our need are still not satisfied, then probably The Lord is not our shepherd.

Actually, what is more interesting is Pink Floyd used this passage cleverly in their song, Sheep (Animals is a brilliant album, anyway). Roger Waters tounge-in-cheekily tooks this passage to describe how the sheeps (low class workers) are being controlled by the pigs blindfully (rich men). The pigs are leading the sheeps to slaughterland, not the promised land, unfortunately. They are following the false leaders. So what they do then? They beat the pigs (“judo kicks”). And once everything falls apart, they march into freedom. Hooray for the sheeps!!

Even though this songs seems religious, actually it’s not. It describes any kind of political or corporate culture very well, and somehow Psalm 23 fits this idea.

Nice analogy, isn’t it?