At Last....My Thesis is Finished

Well, I am still too lazy to write alot about my final presentation..So I let you have this pictures.

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Everyone has their own bad days....

Mateys,

Have you ever had a day when suddenly problem comes after another in the span of hours, like a combo?

• Received annoying emails,
  
• getting bad replies from the girl you'd flirt,
  
• bad and short-duration sleep, [due to...read next]
  
• bunch of unfinished tasks,
  
• headache & dizziness in the morning [due to two previous problems which made you]
  
• unable to play football [due to previous one]
  

Na ja.....still I (was forced to) stay in the bed a lil bit longer then my headache and dizziness flied away. Still, it did not stop there

• the demo (software) code you developed in the last few days suddenly bugged and can not be run in front of your supervisor
• dont know what to do while looked at by the supervisor
• dismissed feeling guilty and mad [my supervisor did not mad at me though]
  
• spending time to find out the error, just to find that the error can not be generated in other computer (I mean it only appeared in front on your supervisor, but ran pretty well in other computer)
  

Have you ever done something with all your might and gained nothing?
That's what I felt...
Have you ever felt that today is just a day full of problem?
I currently feel that

Do you feet that my life is so miserable here by looking at the latest entries on my blog in here and here?
Well you got it wrong, then. My life here is great. But yes...I tends to forget to write all my happiness (in blog) when I am happy but rather writing some bad, sad, painfull things. But my life here is great you know....

I have some really good friends who care for me.
My parents often call me to know my situation and health.
My best friend still contact me and chat with me.
My siblings and friends're still do good in Indonesia and Germany.

So, I just thought...everyone has their own bad days.....

More Codes, More Bugs found

Have you ever heard what bug means? If you go to wikipedia (here), you will find some definition of Bug. However, one definition of bug which I point out right now is Software bug. Its f*ck*ng annoying, man!

Just imagine when you've created a lot of sofware code and then you believe that these pile of codes work really well, but in reality it's not. There, hide some bugs. You'll tire your brain out just to find in which section, which lines, which algorithm that these bugs create their nest.

For two days in a row, I dealt with these kind of problem. It's f*ck*ng annoying, tiring and desperating.

Thesis Proposal Seminar

Alhamdulillah....

After, I have passed the n-th step of master thesis process. On November 13, 2007 at 15.00 CET, I've done my thesis proposal presentation. The title of my master thesis is PLEF: A Conceptual Framework for Personal Learning Environments. The presentation file is shown, as follows.

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Actually there are several accidents which put me under pressure and anxious. At first my seminar was scheduled at 16.00, so at 10.00 I still rest in my cozy and comforting bed. Suddenly, this cozy situation disappeared with a sudden call from Mr. Chatti (my thesis advisor) who told me that due to one-several reasons Prof. Jarke (my first supervisor) could not attend presetation at 16.00. So, my presetation time was changed to 14.00. Not only that, Chatti also asked me to fix several errors in my presentation file.

This lazily-laying-in-bed thesis struggler (which is ME, ofc) jumped from his bed, rushed to his computer to fix the presetation file, took a shower, ate and then did the last rehearsal. At 13.30, I arrived in my institute and met Chatti. The first thing Chatti said is "Do you receive my last email? Your presentation is moved to 15.00". OMG, suddenly my mood went to the lowest level. Why didn't I check my email before I went to the institute T_T. Na ja...no problem, at least I could still do my presentation that day.

Finally, my presetation is started at 15.10 because Prof. Jarke came a lil bit late (only 10 mins) due to his business. Alhamdulillah, my presentation is not attended by fixed trio-seminar-attender: me, my supervisor and my professor. FYI, it's very common in my institute if a presentation is only attended by the presenter, the supervisor and the professor. Some of my friends also attended my seminar, i.e., Ai, Henry and Cuong (my vietnamesse friend). I am really thankful for all their support and attendance.

So what next? Ofc, it's time to develop the software

Library SIALAN!!!

WH@+ +H3 F*@K!!

I am very angry right now! I have been working on my thesis coding for several days and I've been depressed and under great pressure since I found an error in my codes. I tried many possible ways to fix it but it came with no result.

Then, suddenly I tried to substitute several library I used in my code. And then it worked. SCHEISSE BIBLIOTHEK!!!! Even though the version of the library is more up-to-date but it contains errors which the older one don't have.

Na ja, Alhamdulillah...at least now I know what's wrong with my codes.

Suddenly Racist

Wew....what a terrible day. I just realized that sometimes I can became an ugly, hatefull racist. What I mean with racist? In my own definition, Racist is someone who thought the difference in race as a bad thing, like what I did yesterday.

I went to my campus to work on my master thesis. However, most of my plan (to work there) were ruined, since I could not meet with the network and computer administrator. I really needed to create an (UNIX) account to work in my institut's laboratory. It was a bad day. And then I logged in using my windows account. When I was working, suddenly a chinese student entered the lab room and spoke not really loud to two of his friends. Since I was concentrating on my work, I felt annoyed. In my mind, I shouted "WTF, you just came in here, disturb my concentration and speak the language I dont understand (chinese...I think). Huh..chinese!". Felt distrubed, I did not feel like to work anymore and then I decided to go home.

In halte bus (bus terminal?), I found three people talking. When I stood near them, I acknowledged their languange, its english. But when I heard them talking, I felt something weird in their conversation. Basically, they argued about the stupidity of Steve Jobs to share the codes of Mac to his rival, Bill Gates, in the beginning of PC history. OK, that's not the problem. But then again, I heard an indian (or pakistan person?) who argued really hard almost without giving any chances to his friends to talk back. I felt really annoyed with his accent (why the accent? maybe because it is very funny) and his behaviour. Then I shouted (again...only in my mind), "Indians!!!".

When I think again, I felt really bad. I threw all of those words just because my day was really bad. However, it was not a good reason to just throw all bad words and become a racist. Actually, I should also think my own condition. If in a bus, I talk with my fellow Indonesians, I think other people would also think "what kind of languange is that?" and perhaps they will also think that the Indonesian language and accent are very funny.

First Day in Cairo, Egypt

I slept at 5 am (Cairo time) in the morning (of course..it is AM, right) since I waited for fajr pray (sholat subuh). I woke up at 8 o'clock even though my body was still tired since I was very hungry. After took a shower and dressed, I went to have my meal. I met Mr. Chatti there who were having his breakfast. It's a good choice to wake up at 8.00, since at 9.00 we would tour around Cairo.

Mr. Faiz and Me

At 9, the representatives of Cairo University came, introduced herself as Dr. Magda and then she introduced our guide, Mr. Faiz. "Faiz" which means "winner" in arabic. He acknowledged that he can speak german but not english. It's a sad thing though since there's a representative of INT, French who can not understand german. His name is Joseph Pablo Escobedo.

The first tour started with withdrawing money from ATM. I dont know the kurs (between Egypt Pound and Euro) and how much do I need, so I only withdrew 100 LE. What is LE? LE is "Liver Egypt", a french term, it means "Pound Egypt" in english.

Mr. Faiz first explained how "Egypt" word came from. The delta in the middle of Nile river is named as "Kemet" in old egyptian language. Then, after a while, people also refered it as "Kebet". People said "a kebet" or "e kebet" to say "to kebet", in other word, "a" or "e" there become the preposition. From this "e kebet" then come the word "e Gebet" which transforms into "egypt".

See those three Pyramides? Le-Ri: Qiops, Kefrin and Makatoros.Me and Sphynx

First destination is Pyramides in Giza. Giza is another province near Cairo. Mr. Faiz said that there is only subtle border between Cairo and Giza, we can not clearly distinguish them. We visited the most popular pyramides of Egypt: Qiops, Kefrin and Makatoros. Actually I want to explain more about them, but I dont want to bore you by telling you the stories about it. After that we went to see sphinx and tal temple which are located near those three famous pyramides. The price to enter the Giza Pyramides location is 25 LE, since I am a student. So never forget your student card (especially international student card) when you visit Egypt. You'll get a lot of discount for that.

Me and the papyrous seller of Mena Papyrous Institut

It's already 12.30 when we left Giza, but hey it might be once in a lifetime opportunity to visit Egypt funded by other people (european people, to be exact). We then visit a store named "Mena Papyrous Institut". In store, we are told how to create a papyrus. It was very exciting moment since now I know how to create a papyrus from papyrus tree and also I saw a lot of beautiful painting on papyrus. I bought some papyrous painting for my families and friends.

Then I went to Cairo museum. To enter the museum, I payed 25 LE again (non-student pays 50 LE). The museum consists of two floors. You can see many historical or archeological things in this museum. Sadly, we were not allowed to bring our camera, since it is forbidden to take a picture inside the museum. However, later on my egyptian friends said that actually it was not forbidden. They forbade to take pictures since it would make a lot of crowds and disorganizations. However, my egyptian friend also said that it was many years ago, so maybe the rules has already changed.

Fata with Lamb

Left to Right: Cinnamon with Milk (in the cup), Lentil (in empty plate)

Then I went to eat in Felfala restaurant. It provides many vegetarian food and also traditional egyptian food. I try Lektil soup, Fata with Lamb and cinnamon with milk. To me, they are not to my taste, however I was very grateful to have opportunity to enjoy the traditional flavor of egyptian food for FREE. Huheuehuueh...the cairo university treated us, so that I should not pay for any food I ordered. It's a shame though that I felt really full really fast so that I can not order more foods. I just knew at the day after (the second day) that fata is not an traditional egyptian food but lebanese food.

At 18 o'clock I went to see Masjid Al-Azhar, Khan El Khalili market (the oldest market in Cairo) and tourist market. That time, I could not enjoy the tour anymore. I felt too tired. I just wanted to go back to hotel, found the bed and had a rest. However, Mr. Faiz was so excited to show us around and I could fully understand it. It might be once in a lifetime opportunity to see the situation of Cairo guided by a professor of Cairo university. I was very shocked and honoured to be guided around by a professor. Mr. Faiz is not ordinary person, in actual. He is a professor who gives lecture on tourism and history. That is the reason why he can explain all the details about Pyramides, Temples, Papyrouses, archeological history of things in cairo museum and many things. Last, he brought us to enjoy the scenery of Cairo night by drinking tea in the nearby cafe. We saw many people came and passed us by: muslims who just finished their praying in a nearby mosque, tourists who'd like to buy things in the nearby market, sellers who always try to sell us something and other things. After that we got back to hotel to rest.

One thing that I learnt in todays tour. 100 LE is not enough. When I wanted to pay the tea in the cafe, I realized that I only had 5 pounds (or 5 LE), but the price is 10 pounds. With a lil bit of shame, I asked my supervisor politely so that he could lend me the rest of 5 pounds.

I'm back

Wew, after a long time pause, here I come again.

Actually, it is not because I dont have time to create and publish new posting, it's just that suddenly I feel a lil-bit lazy to use blogspot. Why is that? Wew basically, because lately I dont feel like to create or maybe translate my posting in my other blog into english.

Now, I'm back. I have several idea but I'll inform you later, OK.

Last exams after two years

Yatta!!!! At last I have finished all my exams in my M.Sc. program here. Wuih..it's so tiring and heart-pounding. Because in the last exam I took (EDB = Einfuehrung von Datenbanken) just before the exam stated, I realized that I had a lil bit of headache, my body felt weak and I had problem to concentrate. So, it was really heart-pounding situation. Just before the exam started, the supervisor told us (exam-takers) that if we felt sick, we could cancel to take the exam but need to submit the statement from doctor afterwards. After hearing that, I became nervous. In one side, I wanted to take a leave from exam hall due to my condition. However, I realized that if I could overcome the situation and pass through the exam, EDB would be my last exam and I could concentrate more on my thesis. There's no guarantee that my professor or supervisors would allow me to take second exam in this semester. So, I just clenched my teeth and said "I can do it".

Well the exam was not as easy as I thought it would be. When I read the questions, I realized that I was still confused on how to decide a solution within 30 minutes. Yaaa, it is sometimes impossible, but I think this is how to do exams in my M.Sc. programme. I need to come up with an idea after I read the questions. But hey, even though I faced that problem, I can finish my EDB exam before the allocated time expired. I finished my solution in 105 minutes from allocated 120 minutes. But I was not the fastest one. The fastest one was a diploma student (german, I suppose) who finished the solution in 1 hour. When he stood up and left the exam hall, I thought two possibility. The first is he finished fast because he's understood the questions and written the solution fast. It was possible since I almost do the same if I did not rethought my solutions and rechecked my writings. The second possibility is he finished fast because he was hopeless and could not think of any other idea or solutions, so just left the hall rather than sitting there doing nothing ^^.


Now I can concentrate more on my thesis. FIGHT!!!!!!!

GW KESELLLL!!!!!!!!!!

Untuk posting yang kali ini, gw sengaja nulis dalam bahasa Indonesia. Bukannya gw mau menyalahi sumpah palapa gw, yaitu menggunakan bahasa Inggris di blog gw yang ini. Tapi, ini buat jaga-jaga. Barangkali aja supervisor gw nengok blog gw ini n ngebaca. Kalau dia sampai baca, bisa berabe, wong gw lagi kesel ama dia n professor kok.

Jadi begini ceritanya....(lah kok kayak acara tivi misteri di Indo yang menghadirkan paranormal ya?). Gw berusaha supaya akhir bulan ini, gw bisa seminar proposal thesis. Kenapa gw yakin gw bisa seminar proposal thesis akhir bulan ini? Yaaa..itu karena dari 4 bab yang diharapkan, gw udah sampai ke bab 3. Dan bab 4 itu berbicara lebih ke arah perencanaan bagaimana thesis akan dilaksanakan, misalnya apa teknologi yang dipakai dan timeline projek thesis. So, gw yakin begitu selesai ujian tanggal 16 dan 17 Juli 2007 ntar, gw bisa ngebut dan memberikan draft proposal thesis.

Namun, kenyataan emang pahit. Pada saat jumat, tanggal 6 Juli 2007 bersejarah itu (bersejarah ya..bukan berdarah...), ketika kupintakan jadwal seminar proposal, pembimbing thesis gw bilang, "Wah akhir juli gak bisa, karena bos professor lagi holiday alias urlaub. Si bos bakal ada di Aachen lagi di bulan Agustus." WHAT!!!!!!!! I'm shocked!!! Lantas, gw tanya lagi, "kalau gitu, tengah atau akhir bulan Agustus gimana?". Pembimbing gw bilang, "Wah saat itu saya yang masih liburan.". NOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Pembimbing gw meneruskan, "Paling cepat awal september kamu bisa seminar proposal thesis". OK, the rest of the story is not important.

GW KEEESSSSSEEEEEEELLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Terutama ama kebodohan dan kesalahan kalkulasi gw sendiri. Gw lupa kalau bulan-bulan Juli dan Agustus tuh bulannya urlaub atawa liburan. So, professor dan para mitarbeiter (asisten profesor) di sini pada pulang atau bepergian. Yang bikin gw BT dan pengen nangis tuh karena pengerjaan thesis di bidang keahlian institut gw tuh butuh waktu 6 bulan. So, artinya gw bakal di Aachen sampai (paling cepat) Maret 2008. Artinya, target gw pulang sebelum akhir tahun gagal. Artinya juga, gw harus nyari duit tambahan buat 3 bulan, dari januari-maret 2008. Hik..hik..hik.. I wanna cry... T_T

Ah udah ah..gw tambah kesel klo ingat-ingat terus....Mending makan malam dulu ah...

Aachen, 8 Juli 2007.

Sedih karena thesis dan lupa masak nasi...sedihnya dobel deh T_T

Dont care

Dont care, its just combination of two words, but believe me, the combination may deliver a fatal blow or unexpected impact. Depending on the situation you say this word, you can liven someone's heart up or even break it apart. By the way, this posting will only tell about what I heard, felt about the words "dont care".

If your friend came and told him his story (his story ya...not history. It would be boring...) and then you told him/her "dont care", the result would be depended on how you said those words. If you said it emphatically, then he/she might relieve a lil bit. But if you utter those words without your concern, moreover without even a feeling of care, then you'd likely gonna lose your friend ^^.

I have a friend who experienced something like that. One day he, call him Ajong, went home and talked to his friend (actually his friend is also my friend ^^), call him Bagong. Ajong only wanted to inform about something, and not to tell any sad, love or thrilling story. But Bagong, not only unattentively heard to Ajong, he even did not bugde from his chair and did not even look at the eyes of Ajong. Then when Bagong was asked, he only said "like I care". Yup, and the rest you might know. Out of rage and disapponintment, Ajong said "Gong, you're gonna regret this sometime" and then walked away. I heard this story directly from Ajong and since I knew almost all about Bagong's behaviour, I could assure my self that Ajong was telling the truth.

On some other time, Bagong chated (past from of doing chatting ^^) with my other friend, Najong (hehehe...nice rhyme huh^^). Often, when Najong said something to Bagong, Bagong replied with "dont care". Actually, it really hurted Najong's pride but he let it slide. Then again, when Bagong said something to Najong and Najong did not even reply (of course, since he was a lil bit mad), Bagong wanted Najong to reply. Wew..Actually I was a lil bit confused when I heard this story. I dont know whether Najong said something unimportant (so he was replied "dont care") or perhaps Bagong said something really important and he wanted Najong to reply?

This accident (not...it is a situation) assures me that your tongue is your tiger (lidahmu harimaumu). In a good story of Luqmanul Hakim, he explained that the 2 best part and also worst part of a man are the tongue and liver. A man/woman can be marked as a best human if his/her tongue and liver are used in the right way. So, anyway, I still dont like the use of "dont care" when I talk with someone. I think its rude and show disrespect. How about you? Nah, I dont care....

Aachen, 8 Juli 2007

Why did I choose to study Informatics?

Have you ever questioned yourself why you chose to pursue your degree in your current major? I've done that several times. Thus, the answer is I don't know ^^ I think I just like it. How about you?

I remember when the first time I chose to study Informatics. I graduated from high school and I was in my room and tried to sleep. I could not sleep. I was bothered by the question asked to me ,"Which major do you like to pursue in ITB?". OK, maybe you will ask, why ITB? How could I've already decide which university I would take before deciding my major? The answer is simple. I am very influenced by my father. I look up to my father as my idol figure in life. He always tells me how he was in his childhood. He must do some hard household chores together with his 12 brothers/sisters. If he could not be the first in his class, my grandfather would punish him, e.g, retrieving water from a river 1 km from home. When he was a middle-schooler, since he stayed with his uncle, he ought to do some househould chores (mopping, for example), newspaper delivery and other part-time job. With such hard life, he managed to survive and become a success person. So, I want to at least stand in the equal ground with him. He used to tell me that he would be very proud if I could enter and graduate from ITB, his almamater. That's why, I chose ITB as my university, since I want him to be happy and proud of me.

OK, that's the reason why I chose ITB as university. Let's back to the question "Which major do you like to pursue in ITB?". I kept thinking and imagining, what I want to do. Then, I realize that I like to play with my computer, and I hope that one day I could learn something about it. So, is it possible? Well yes, I heard that there exist such major, which is Informatics. So, with entering Informatics ITB in my mind, I studied hard (yeah...studying is always a hard thing for me ^^).

And, I graduated from ITB and again I made my father proud of me again. I am really happy. Then, my father told me that he actually had dreams to pursue higher education degree when he was given chance to pursue magister and doctoral program. But, since he's already worked at Pertamina and Pertamina asked him to come back and work, so he should forget that dream. He told me that my grandfather advice him "The measurement whether you succeed to bring up your children is whether your children could surpass your own education". That's why he told me that he would be very glad if I agreed to pursue higher education, especially in foreign country. He told me that he would provide fund to support me to do that. That time, I said that I will consider that because it will decide my future plan. Then, as you've known, I agreed and now here I am....studying in RWTH Aachen. Once more, I study Informatics.

I've never regretted my decision to study informatics. May be I deviate a little bit from my dream. My dream was to study computer and in informatics I do not study computer but algorithm to work with computer. At least I work with my computer, so a lil bit of deviation is still acceptable, right ^^

New stuff in course....

Wew, I'm speechles. Currently, I am in database course and listening (not really) to David who explains OODB chapter today. In informatik, it is not unusual to see some students who bring their own laptop into the course hall. But what I see right now is very unusual. A student, I believe from China (RRC) bring out his laptop, browse internet and book his flight. OK, that's not unusual too. But when he take out his credit card and enter his credit card number and security card, wow, that's interesting.

We are now in a course and he does something not related to course. That's fine, but paying your book while course is in action? Wew that's new... I hope I could see his credit card number and security code. If I could do that, maybe I could book my flight to Indonesia ^^

Write in english or indonesian?

Well-well today's course is soo boring. Moment mal, after second thought, I think it is not because of the lecturer, but myself. I only slept 6 hours today (only 6? It is usually enough for everyone? But not me ^^), so I feel unspirited and weak right now. While David are telling us some introduction to Object Oriented Modelling, I decide to write my blog.

After considering a lot of time, I realized that I have two blogs, here in blogspot and the other one in the multiply. Usually, I only create one posting in blogspot and let multiply system to aggregate my post here and add to my multiply blog. Maybe you are curious why I do it? If you're not, I keep telling you the reason why ^_^. Blogspot is my first blog and I use blogspot for my study and brainstorming idea, on the other hand, at first multiply is used to enable me download my friend's songs. Hey, Dude, dont tell anyone about it, OK ^^. I feel that writing blogpost in two place is time-consuming and not interesting. So, if I let multiply aggregate my post in blogpost, I will have more time to do other things.

But then again I realize, Dude, it makes no sense to have two equivalent blogs. What's the use? OK, I could argue that I have different community for both of them. In blogpost, my friends are mainly from Indonesia, such as, my best friend, my juniors, my colleagues, whereas in multiply, my friends are mainly from Aachen germany. But still, it does not make sense, at least for me, Dude ^^.

I've ever decided to differentiate topics for blogspot and multiply. I would like to use blogspot for academic and serious things, while multiply for other things. But then again, another problem appears. My friends in blogspot really like to write something so funny, unusual, interesting. So, if I became the only one who write something so serious and academical, where should I put my face ^^. Huheuehuheuheuue...

I also think that my english is still bad for academic use. You know what, Dude? My supervisor always tells me to work on my languages. Oh please Dude, You know how shameful it is to hear that from him T_T. OK from now on, I'd like to try to write english here and indonesia in my multiply blog.

Kisah-kisah di Sportfest Koeln 2007

Akhirnya, sesuai janji yang pernah gw berikan ke seorang temen, akhirnya gw nulis juga tentang Sportfest Koeln 2007. Mungkin bakal ada yang nanya, "kok baru sekarang nulisnya?". Hehehe ini semua karena ada cerita sedih di balik sportfest koeln 2007 ^^.

OK, sportfest koeln bisa dikatakan adalah acara tahunan yang diselenggarakan oleh kawan-kawan dari PPI Koeln. Seperti tahun lalu, PPI Koeln menyelenggarakan dua cabang olahraga yang bisa diikuti oleh kawan-kawan dari PPI yang lain, yaitu sepakbola dan bola basket. Untuk bola basket, pertandingan diselenggarakan untuk putra dan putri, sedangkan sepakbola hanya untuk laki-laki. Kawan-kawan dari Aachen pun ikut serta dengan mengirimkan tim sepakbola putra dan tim bola basket putra.

Malang tak dapat ditolak, tim basket Aachen tidak mampu berbicara banyak di sportfest kali ini. Tim bola basket Aachen menemui lawan yang tidak berimbang, yaitu Tim Bule alias orang asing Koeln. Gila aja...masa pemain tertinggi di tim basket Aachen lebih pendek daripada pemain terpendek di tim basket bule. Kawan-kawan Aachen jadinya super BT dan super kesel, tapi apa boleh buat. Bagaimanapun juga gw sangat bangga dengan perjuangan kawan-kawan. Untuk bermain di sportfest Koeln 2007, mereka telah berlatih berkali-kali dengan rutin.

Tim sepakbola ternyata juga tidak dapat berbuat banyak bahkan tidak dapat lolos dari babak penyisihan. Padahal tahun lalu, Aachen mampu lolos dari babak penyisihan walaupun kalah di pertandingan berikutnya. Yang sedihnya lagi, Aachen dikalahkan oleh tim yang tahun lalu mengalahkan Aachen juga dengan nilai yang sama, yaitu 1-0. Gol juga dicetak oleh orang yang menguburkan harapan Aachen tahun lalu, dari pojok yang sama, dengan gaya tendangan yang sama, ke sudut gawang yang sama, pada saat gawang menghadap arah mata angin yang sama, gawang pun dijaga oleh penjaga gawang yang sama, GW.... TTTTIIIIIIDDDDAAAAAKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!! Gw kembali teringat kejadian tahun lalu...sangat menyakitkan dikalahkan dengan skor 1-0. Anehnya selama dua tahun ini, Aachen hanya mampu mencetak satu gol dan kebobolan satu gol (yang sedihnya juga merupakan gol yang membuat angan-angan menjadi juara sepak bola tetap menjadi angan-angan.

Aaaahh...apaan sih..gw kan menulis ini karena udah overcome kesedihan gw itu. Yaa bagaimanapun juga, bagi gw ada hal-hal positif yang gw lihat selama dan setelah sportfest itu. Gw ngerasa kawan-kawan menjadi lebih kompak dan lebih dekat. Tim basket sekarang udah punya jadwal latihan tetap dan kawan-kawan dari tim sepakbola jadi lebih bersemangat untuk dapat bermain lebih baik lagi. Gw sendiri merasa lebih bersemangat bermain bola, walaupun gw mungkin gak akan bermain bola lagi di sportfest tahun depan karena gw mungkin udah lulus. Hahaha..ternyata pikiran gak bisa ikutan main di sportfest tahun depan bisa bikin gw sedih juga ya. Hahaha...yaa setelah dua kali mengikuti sportfest paling gak gw ngerasa kemampuan bermain bola gw berkembang, walaupun kemampuan sebagai kiper menurun, tapi mungkin kemampuan secara keseluruhan bertambah.

BANZAI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Data Mining

Ada yang sudah nonton film jepang yang berjudul Death Note 2: Last Name? Kalau sudah, mungkin bisa mengingat-ingat salah satu scene di mana Ligth menjelaskan tentang bagaimana cara mengetahui identitas 3rd Kira berdasarkan pembunuhan-pembunuhan yang dilakukan oleh Kira. Saya ga akan bercerita lebih jauh tentang film ini, namun saya ingin mengacu kepada scene tersebut. Di scene tersebut, ditunjukkan bagaimana identitas 3rd kira berdasarkan modus operandinya. Cara mendapatkan modus operandinya dilakukan dengan melakukan analisis terhadap kumpulan data pembunuhan. Data pembunuhan (yang mungkin juga dilakukan oleh orang lain) dikelompokkan berdasarkan waktu dan metode pembunuhan. Persoalannya adalah polisi tidak tahu bahwa pembunuhan itu dilakukan oleh siapa, apakah sudah pasti itu dilakukan oleh Kira atau mungkin juga dilakukan oleh orang lain yang membunuh dengan meniru metode pembunuhan Kira. Persoalan pengelompokan data ini dalam bidang informatik adalah salah satu contoh aplikasi Data Clustering di bidang riset/kajian Data Mining.

Data mining adalah salah satu bidang yang dipelajari ketika saya mengambil kuliah Pembelajaran Mesin (Machine Learning) yang saya ambil ketika kuliah bachelor dulu. Di RWTH Aachen ini, Data Mining dipelajari secara khusus dalam kuliah yang diberi nama Data Mining Algorithm. Data Mining menurut saya adalah teknik untuk mengekstrak pengetahuan ataupun pola yang menarik dari kumpulan besar data (biasanya tersimpan di dalam database). Pengetahuan ini bersifat tersirat karena pengetahuan itu tersembunyi di dalam data dalam bentuk suatu pola. Kalau kita pengen tahu data penjualan tahun 2007, dan ternyata itu udah ada di database, yaa berarti (sesuai namanya) data penjualan tahun 2007 bukanlah pengetahuan. Selain itu pengetahuan juga non-trivial karena ya tentu saja, buat apa kita mendapatkan pengetahuan yang telah kita ketahui (trivial/common knowledge). Contoh common knowledge adalah semua yang melahirkan adalah wanita. Kan tidak menarik tuh! Tapi kalau kita bisa mendapatkan bahwa, misalnya, wanita yang melahirkan pada usia di atas 35 tahun mempunyai kecenderungan untuk meminta mobil pada saat ngidam, sekali lagi ini cuma misalnya loh, nah ini baru menarik.

Ah, apa sih pentingnya data mining bagi perusahaan? Ok, mari kita bayangkan kasus di bidang penggunaan kartu kredit. Apakah anda punya kartu kredit? Ya, kalau orang tua saya punya, jadi saya punya contoh kasus. Suatu hari ayah ditelpon oleh bank yang menginformasikan dan mengkonfirmasi penggunaan kartu kredit yang tidak biasa, yaitu kartu kredit ayah digunakan di malaysia untuk membeli sejumlah besar barang. Cerita cukup di sana saja, persoalannya sekarang adalah dari mana bank tahu bahwa sebuah transaksi tergolong sebuah transaksi yang aneh. Hal ini dapat dideteksi secara otomatis dengan data mining. Data mining dapat mencari dengan pengetahuannya bahwa transaksi kartu kredit ayah saya tergolong aneh. Contoh kasus lain adalah program penawaran jasa/barang kepada customer. Kalau kita tahu bahwa sekelompok pelanggan biasa menelpon pada jam 17.00-18.00 (misalnya karena macet, maka iseng ngegosip dengan teman-temannya), maka perusahaan dapat menarik pelanggan dari kelompok ini dengan menawarkan tarif yang bersaing dan menarik pada jam-jam tersebut. So, data mining dapat membantu meningkatkan kemampuan layanan sebuah perusahaan, baik di bidang keamanan ataupun juga kualitas layanan.

Data mining sering juga disebut-sebut sebagai Knowledge Discovery in Database (KDD) padahal ini adalah dua hal yang agak berbeda. Data mining adalah salah satu langkah yang perlu diambil dalam melaksanakan KDD. KDD adalah proses otomatis untuk mencari pola ataupun pengetahuan yang terkandung di dalam database. Langkah-langkah KDD meliputi: data selection, data cleaning and preprocessing, data reduction and transformation, data mining, pattern evaluation dan terakhir knowledge presentasion.

Data Mining sendiri mempunyai 3 bidang kajian penting, yaitu Clustering, Classification dan Association. Di samping 3 itu, ada kajian-kajian lain yang tidak kalah pentingnya untuk menunjang mereka, di antaranya deteksi outlier, deteksi noise dan deteksi pola sekuens (sequential pattern). Tiga hal ini akan dijelaskan dalam blog lainnya.

Jadwal Pertandingan Sepakbola di Sportfest Koeln 2007

Turnamen Sepakbola Sportfest Koeln 2007

Peserta tim sepakbola Aachen untuk sportfest Koeln 20 Mei 2007:

1. Ridwan
2. Newin
3. Inov
4. Siendi
5. Rocha
6. Erico
7. Felix Taniata
8. Nick
9. Ferry
   
10. Gani
    
11. Bowo
12. Philip
    
13. Adi Linata
    
14. Samuel Muladi

Bagi yang ingin ikutan, tolong segera mendaftar dengan menghubungi saya atau posting comments di blog ini.

Berikut ini adalah Peraturan-Peraturan Sepak Bola :

1. Jumlah pemain inti setiap tim 8 orang
2. Setiap kontingen diperbolehkan maksimum mengirim 2 tim
3. Luas lapangan sepakbola adalah ½ x luas lapangan sepakbola internasional, atau tepatnya 50m x 35m.
4. Waktu pertandingan adalah 2x10 atau 20 menit tanpa istirahat. Yang jelas waktu 20 menit tidak akan dilampaui mengingat keterbatasan waktu.
5. Aturan yang diberlakukan seperti aturan sepakbola biasa tetapi aturan offside tidak diberlakukan. Dimohon kalaupun ada pemain yang offside, jangan terlalu berlebihan offside-nya
6. Sistem pertandingan yang diberlakukan adalah sistem setengah kompetisi, dimana juara group dan runner up masing-masing group akan bertanding kembali. Sistem pertandingan bisa dirubah sesuai dengan jumlah kontingen yang mengkuiti pertandingan sepakbola
7. Diharapkan kepada setiap tim menyediakan minimal seorang wasit untuk pertandingan
8. Diharapkan setiap tim membawa seragam tim masing-masing atau menyiapkan seragam gelap dan seragam terang untuk memudahkan dalam bermain
9. Tidak diperkenankan menggunakan pemain cabutan (Pemain Orang Asing), dengan kata lain seorang pemain hanya bisa ikut pada tim bola yang telah didaftarkan

Strategi Pengerjaan PR di Informatik RWTH Aachen

Gak kerasa udah semester ke-4 gw kuliah di RWTH Aachen. Ga kerasa juga kalau ternyata udah dua kali merasakan lebaran di negeri orang. Na ja, namanya juga merantau dan berjihad ^^.

Sampai saat ini rasanya saya belum pernah cerita bagaimana situasi belajar di sini dan bagaimana cara saya menghadapinya. Kalau meninjau kilas balik bagaimana saya kuliah di waktu bachelor dulu (ITB) kayaknya cukup beda deh. Waktu itu, cukup dengan disuapin oleh dosen dan para asisten, maka saya bisa dengan cukup lancar melewati masa-masa perkuliahan sampai ke tahap tingkat akhir (semester 7 dan 8). Begitu di semester 7 dan 8, barulah saya merasakan pentingnya untuk melakukan literature research dengan lebih baik lagi. Akhirnya atas saran dari pembimbing tugas akhir, saya memanfaatkan citeseer sebagai academic searching tools pribadi saya. Google pada waktu itu menjadi fasilitas utama saya untuk melakukan pencarian di bidang non-academic. So, kalau urusan manga, anime dan game, kepada Bang Google lah aku memanjatkan query ^^. Lalu dengan kedua hal itu, dan sedikit buku-buku pegangan yang didapat di perpustakaan, selesailah kuliah bachelor saya. Perpustakaan informatik ITB bagi saya adalah suatu tempat sangat asing dan tidak pantas untuk dikunjungi. Apa menariknya sih perpustakaan?

Namun, ternyata hal itu tidak berlaku untuk dilakukan di perkuliakan di sini, program M.Sc of Software System Engineering aka Infomatik an der RWTH Aachen. Saya kebetulan tidak mengetahui secara persis bagaimana kuliah anak-anak Diplom Informatik di tahap vordiplom, tetapi kalau untuk tahapan hauptdiplom atau kuliah anak-anak Master saya bisa cerita. Dimulai dengan saat pertama saya mengambil kuliah Statistical Methods in Natural Language Processing, dan diberi PR aka exercise aka uebung oleh asisten. Ternyata saya hanya sanggup mengikuti 3 kali tutorialnya. Saya ga mampu untuk mengerjakan PR di bidang statistik yang bagi saya sangat sulit. Terutama setelah saya bertanya kepada asisten tentang apakah ada buku panduan (textbook) yang dipakai dalam kuliah ini. Jawabannya adalah tidak ada, karena bahan perkuliahan adalah bahan yang uptodate yang sedang diriset oleh institut dan diresumekan dari berbagai sumber dan literatur.

Akhirnya, saya mengambil kuliah-kuliah yang mempunyai buku pegangan utama saja, sebab yaa bagaimana kalau suatu saat saya lagi bolos dan PR diambil dari bahan hari itu. Kan saya ga bisa ngerjain. Namun, semua itu akhirnya berubah setelah semester kedua. Di semester itu saya mulai memanfaatkan google sebagai academic searching tools pribadi. Sungguh mengagetkan bahwa ternyata bahan kuliah di berbagai universitas itu rata-rata sama. Bahkan ada beberapa slide presetasi yang dipakai oleh beberapa universitas, lucunya bahkan isi dan template-nya pun sama persis. Dengan begitu, cara pengerjaan PR-pun akhirnya saya ubah. Saat ada soal yang tidak dimengerti, segeralah kubuka citeseer (kalau perlu), lalu google, diikuti oleh google scholar untuk mencari tahu materi-materi sejenis yang ada di internet. Ternyata dengan sedikit ngotot (dan cukup banyak waktu bagi saya), banyak PR bisa dikerjakan, bahkan mendapat nilai sempurna aka voll Punkte.

Namun ternyata, di semester 3, ada hal yang lebih mengagetkan lagi. Bahan-bahan yang diajarkan di perkuliahan itu kan pada dasarnya diambil dari textbook (bagi yang berpegang pada satu atau beberapa textbook utama). Maka pergilah ke perpustakaan dan cari buku-buku di sana. Kesalahan saya selama 2 semester awal adalah ketidakmauan (super males lagi....) untuk membaca textbook bahasa jerman. Dan sialnya rata-rata professor dan asisten di sini ternyata mengambil bahan PR dari textbook jerman. So, kalau ada PR, yang pertama kali dibaca adalah textbook jerman. Sebab, ternyata professor dan asisten (yang kebetulan rata-rata orang jerman) sukanya ngambil bahan dari textbook jerman. Jadi walaupun bahasa jerman saya super kaputt - gemaputt, apa boleh buat. The need of survival memaksa saya buat mengkonsumsi beberapa textbook jerman.

Ternyata setelah saya resumekan, intinya cuma dua kalau mau ngerjain PR, yaitu textbook di perpustakaan dan Abang Google tersayang.

MUAK

Ketika sebuah perkembangan hanya dilihat dari sisi sebuah software
Ketika sebuah pembelajaran dilihat dari sisi sebuah pertanyaan
Ketika sebuah ketidakrutinan memutakhirkan hasil berarti ketiadaan kemajuan
Ketika sebuah ketidakmampuan mencurahkan ide dianggap sebagai kemunduran
Ketika lagi-lagi dihadapkan oleh kegagalan

Hanya satu kata yang terpikir
MUAK

Saat kebosanan menyeruak di dalam hati
Saat masa lalu kembali menghantui
Saat semua peristiwa kembali membawa arti
Saat hati kecil tidak mampu lagi untuk ditanya keinginan diri
Saat lagi-lagi pertanyaan-pertanyaan lama kembali hadir di sini
Saat nanar mata meneteskan setitik air di pipi
Saat kesunyian malam kembali menyelimuti
Saat hanya sebuah file mp3 diputar terus berulang kali

We didn't start the fire
It was always burning
Since the world's been turning
We didn't start the fire
No we didn't light it
But we tried to fight it
...

Lagi-lagi aku MUAK

Ingin rasanya melontar sumpah serapah
Namun, semua hanya tertahan di ujung lidah
Ide-ide brilian yang biasa dengan mudah tertumpah
Hanya terlihat sebagai sampah
Ingin rasanya menikmati nikmatnya sebuah rebah
Tapi saat mata terpejam, yang terasa hanyalah resah

Memang aku sedang MUAK
Untuk kesekian kalinya kututup mataku dan kudengar lagu itu dari komputerku

I CANT TAKE IT ANYMORE!!!
We didn't start the fire
But when we are gone
Will it still burn on, and on, and on, and on...
Billy Joel in We didn't start the fire

Bagus juga, pikirku....
kayaknya bisa menemani malamku yang sedang penuh dengan MUAK

Aachen, April 30, 2007

di tengah kesunyian pagi
ditemani komputer yang terus menyala dan mp3 yang terus berulang