ToA an TC

I had just signed the “Fulbright Program Term and Conditions of Grant” and “Fulbright Foreign Student Program-Terms of Appointment and Special Instructions” and sent it to AMINEF. It basically contains information about financial and benefit terms, duration of stay, revision of term, renewal, revocation, suspension and termination of the award, visa, contact information, role of IIE, report and arrangements I should make, and my rights and responsibilities.

I will receive monthly stipend and fund to purchase books and computer. My tuition’s free, provided by Northeastern University. Fulbright will cover all fees, my health insurance, international travel. My grant duration is one academic year and it’s renewable only if I show satisfactory academic performance.
So, I’m short of like Fulbright’s employee whose job’s to study

By the way, I find this-Rights and Responsibilities cool:

“Grantees are private citizens retaining their rights of personal, intellectual and artistic freedom as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. All recipients of Fulbright academic exchange awards shall have full academic and artistic freedom, including freedom to write, publish and create. Pursuant to the Act, as amended, no award granted by the FSB may be revoked or diminished on account of the political views expressed by the recipient or on account of any scholarly or artistic activity that would be subject to protection of academic and artistic freedom normally observed at universities in the U.S. The FSB shall ensure that the academic and artistic freedoms of all persons receiving grants are protected.”

Posted in JouneyJournal | 4 Comments »

shopping time

Getting scholarship gave me lots of excuse for shopping Don’t worry, most of them I really needed. I think

So here’s my shopping..uhm, no, my preparation..no, shopping well, preparation list so far:

A very huge(29) traveler bag I can also use it as a cabinet when necessary. It’s so big that I’m too shy to carry it from the department store to parking area so my dad did it for me while I did more shopping with my mom
*love you dady..love you..love you..

Many many many clothes I think I need to buy lots of clothes because It’ll be hard for me to find long sleeves clothing, besides clothes are more expensive there(isn’t it?). If I bought them here I wont have to shop for any more clothes there” *honestly, I dont think I’ll be able resist buying any more clothes there

Digital Camera Off course. I want to document everything besides, I want my mom & dad & friends know that I’m fine there. They’ll miss me

Glasses, just in case I need one.

Winter suit. it’s hard to find it in Jogja. I intend to buy a mountain jacket, which is also designed for extreme weather, for a change but detty said it’s not fashionable. It’s true actually, I don’t wanna walk around downtown looking like someone who’s about to climb a mountain. So, she’s in charge to find me one
btw, detty’s so excited. She said, If only she’s not getting married this year, she’ll come with me She’s even more excited than I am. Asking me a lot of questions. Busy reminding me to bring this and that. hi..hi..I felt like I have a wife.
*I miss her already.

(to be continued..)

:: How many are on this posting? 10. Meaning: I’m very very happy when I wrote this *make it twelve

Posted in JouneyJournal | 6 Comments »

Sci-Fi

I watched midnite show at 21 last saturday- Ironman. When it comes to US military technology…dilemma oh dilemma. On one hand, I so against any kind of war and those military technology makes war even more advance, but on the other hand, isn’t internet was originally developed for military purpose? Yet, it give us so many advantages (and disadvantages) today.

But when it comes to Sci-Fi movies????? I’m so NOT against that

The cycle they created is great. To make a Sci-Fi movie ones must have advance imagination and also knowledge about recent available technology but once the movie’s on screen they inspired people to dream and think about how to actually build such technology.

I saw very interesting user interface that Tony Stark used to create his ‘costume’. You’ll see it too in Minority Report. Btw, that guy is so genius- oh!, and he went to MIT(dear God, let me be one of its PhD candidate :D) -oh! . Perhaps, they were inspired by the tangible user interface that Prof. Hiroshi Ishii developed at MIT Media Lab.

I watch a documentary show about The Terminator on Metro TV on Sunday afternoon. Developing the movie takes a lot of knowledge in robotics technology and also military vehicle that they had to visit places in which most advance technology were developed- you know, like NASA or Pentagon. Off course, In the movie, the technology is way more advance because they’re predicting technology of the future.

When terminator was on screen they soon become a box office. It made the lead actor very famous- a governor now. Many people was inspired by terminator. Among them was a men who now owned a company which built the best robot that can grip.

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.” -Albert Einsten

Posted in technology | 7 Comments »

scheme

Accepting the offer from NEU several days ago, I read the admission offer condition once again carefully. I’m shocked to find that before I can take CS G111-Principles of Programming Languages, which is MS core course, I have to take a Scheme test. Shooott.. !!!

Q: Scheme?!!! What the …
A: It’s one of the dialects of LISP (Lost In Stupid Parentheses, or Lots of Irritating Superfluous Parentheses :p), a sibling of Common LISP, which both I’m clueless by the way.

Q: Isn’t it old???!!! YES!
A: Originally specified in 1958, Lisp is the second-oldest high-level programming language in widespread use today; only Fortran is older. It quickly became the favored programming language for artificial intelligence (AI) research. Having declined somewhat in the 1990s, Lisp has experienced a regrowth of interest since 2000[wikipedia]

So now, I have to start studying. Hiks. I haven’t even packed yet. That’s not fair. My fellow Fulbrighter are all happily excited about their departure and I have to worried about those stupid parentheses already????

*Don’t tell daffe. He’ll say “Come On! you’re paid $ xx,xxx, you shouldn’t complain man” ha..ha

Anyway, about the course. It’ll be thaught by Prof. Mitchel Wand. He, together with Friedman and Haynes, is the author of “Essentials Of Programming Languages” published by MIT Press, which will be the text book for the whole course. Btw, I finally got the free e-book! *SSSssssstttttt

I have finished it…..It refers to table of content, foreword, and preface :p

It is said that the book uses different approaches. Let me quote a paragraph for you
“Consider again the basic idea: the interpreter itself is just a program. But that program is written in some language, whose interpreter is itself just a program written in some language whose interpreter is itself. . . . Perhaps the whole distinction between program and programming language is a misleading idea, and future programmers will see themselves not as writing programs in particular, but as creating new languages for each new application” bla..blaa.blaa..

What do you think it means? I have a feeling that instead of learning how a program(application) is built, I’d be studying how a programming language(interpreter) is?

I’m scared.. help..help..

Posted in computer science, myCourse | 2 Comments »

Pre departure

Disclaimer: Due to many questions I got about Fulbright Scholarship(M.A program) -regarding the process, time line, interview, testing, etc, I wrote this posting. Since you’re willing to study abroad, I assume you have no problem with English. This is meant to be a personal note(based on my experience). The experience of each candidate each year might or might not be the same. I hope this will help. If there’s any additional question you need to ask, feel free to contact me.

Cheers!

Arround April 2007 :
Submitted application that include completed application form, a study objective, a letter of reference (from UNY Rector: Prof. Sugeng Mardiyono, PhD) and copy of TOEFL score(ITP TOEFL test taken in AMINEF).

July 6, 2007 :
Initial Selection. I was requested to send a copy of identification card (KTP), academic transcript and diploma of undergraduate degree (S1).

July 25, 2007:
Interview notification and request to provide a personal statement (AMINEF provide the guideline).

Friday, August 3, 2007 (14:00 p.m.) at Ruang Sida Mulyo, Hotel Santika Yogya:
The Interview, lasted about 20-30 minutes.
The interviewer:

• Mr. Michael E. Mcoy(AMINEF Executive director) -american,
• Prof. Dr. T Jacob -in memoriam (Anthropology UGM Emiritus Professor, UGM Former rector, Fulbrighter) -Indonesian,
• Prof. Bana Kartasasmita(ITB Mathematics Professor, AMINEF Board of Management-Chair Manager, Fulbrighter) -Indonesian,
• 2 Fulbright senior researcher from US doing their research in Indonesia (I forgot their names but they’re kinda cute :D) -both American.

Since that was my first scholarship interview I was extremely nervous

October, 10 2007:
Notification as an Alternate Candidate. Requested to rewrite the Study Objective and Personal Statement, this time with guidelines, and university preferences. Since then the agenda was hunting for 2 more letter of reference. Got it from Rudy Hartanto, MT (research advisor), Herman Dwi Surjono, PhD(Head of Computer Center, UNY), Lukito Edi Nugroho, PhD(my former lecturer)

October, 26-29 2007:
Taken GRE and IBT test(Test fee, airplane ticket, hotel, meal and transportation during the test was free and organized by AMINEF). Score? Don’t ask!

December 2007:
Submission plan from IIE(Submission was taken care of by IIE on my behalf, each candidate have one staff to assist)
Huge thanks to Jordanna Berres-Paul who is responsible for submitting the university application on my behalf.

Febuary, 26 2008:
Notified as a Primary Candidate.

March 26, 2008:
Admitted to College of Computer and Information Science, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.

April, 2008:
Accept the Offer, signing Terms of Appointment for Pre-Academic program.

    [next]

May, 14-17 2008 at Hotel Borobudur, Jakarta
Pre-Departure Orientation Program

Medical Check Up

Granted a Visa

Posted in JouneyJournal | 18 Comments »

Technology Quotes

Hey, I found interesting quotes about technology here!

Inventor: A person who makes an ingenious arrangement of wheels, levers and springs, and believes it civilization. ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology.
~Alan M. Eddison

All of the biggest technological inventions created by man - the airplane, the automobile, the computer - says little about his intelligence, but speaks volumes about his laziness. ~Mark Kennedy

It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity. ~Albert Einstein
One machine can do the work of fifty ordinary men. No machine can do the work of one extraordinary man. ~Elbert Hubbard, The Roycroft Dictionary and Book of Epigrams, 1923

For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled. ~Richard P. Feynma

If it keeps up, man will atrophy all his limbs but the push-button finger. ~Frank Lloyd Wrigh

Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards. ~Aldous Huxley

Technology… the knack of so arranging the world that we don’t have to experience it. ~Max Frisch

Do you realize if it weren’t for Edison we’d be watching TV by candlelight? ~Al Boliska

The system of nature, of which man is a part, tends to be self-balancing, self-adjusting, self-cleansing. Not so with technology. ~E.F. Schumacher, Small is Beautiful, 1973

This is perhaps the most beautiful time in human history; it is really pregnant with all kinds of creative possibilities made possible by science and technology which now constitute the slave of man - if man is not enslaved by it. ~Jonas Salk

Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps its brain. ~J.K. Rowling

I like my new telephone, my computer works just fine, my calculator is perfect, but Lord, I miss my mind! ~Author Unknown

The production of too many useful things results in too many useless people. ~Karl Marx

The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. ~Isaac Asimov, Isaac Asimov’s Book of Science and Nature Quotations, 1988

It is difficult not to wonder whether that combination of elements which produces a machine for labor does not create also a soul of sorts, a dull resentful metallic will, which can rebel at times. ~Pearl S. Buck

The real problem is not whether machines think but whether men do. ~B.F. Skinner, Contingencies of Reinforcement, 1969

What the country needs are a few labor-making inventions. ~Arnold Glasow

The factory of the future will have only two employees, a man and a dog. The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep the man from touching the equipment. ~Warren G. Bennis

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. ~Arthur C. Clarke

You cannot endow even the best machine with initiative; the jolliest steam-roller will not plant flowers. ~Walter Lippman.

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. ~Carl Sagan

Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains. ~Eric Hoffer

Education makes machines which act like men and produces men who act like machines. ~Erich Fromm

Some people worry that artificial intelligence will make us feel inferior, but then, anybody in his right mind should have an inferiority complex every time he looks at a flower. ~Alan C. Kay

Lo! Men have become the tools of their tools. ~Henry David Thoreau

For a list of all the ways technology has failed to improve the quality of life, please press three. ~Alice Kahn

The real danger is not that computers will begin to think like men, but that men will begin to think like computers. ~Sydney J. Harris

uhmm… many of ‘em are ‘not so supportive’ for someone who is about to pursue a master degree in computer science don’t you think?

Well, I take it as cautions

Posted in technology | 6 Comments »

Prof. Dr. Anik Ghufron

Today, one of my colleagues at The Department of Curriculum and Educational Technology was awarded title ‘Guru Besar’, the highest academic acknowledgment in Indonesia, in curriculum development. He’s still very young to be one. He was born at November, 1962 so he’s only about 45(+) years old. Yet he deserved it.

In his speech today, which titled “The Optimization of Teacher’s Innovative Activity in Curriculum Implementation at School”, he mention eleven recommendations for teachers innovative activity:

“Amanah, Niat, Inspiratif, Komitment, Giat, Hasrat, Unggul, Faedah, Rasional, Optimis, Normatif”

(trustful, purposeful, inspirational, audacious, passionate, competitive, beneficial, rational, optimistic, normative)

Did you notice it was an anagram?

Our university president teased him by saying that when he was born his parents already knew that he was going to be a ‘Guru Besar’ in future that they named him after it

So from now on then, he is Prof. Dr. Anik Ghufron.

CONGRATULATION !!!

Posted in friends | 5 Comments »

What’s not to love?

“He was not too tall nor too short. He was medium sized. His hair was not short and curly, nor was it lank, but in between. His face was not narrow, nor was it fully round, but there was a roundness to it. His skin was white. His eyes were black. He had long eyelashes. He was big-boned and had wide shoulders. He had no body hair except in the middle of his chest. He had thick hands and feet. When he walked, he walked inclined, as if descending a slope. When he looked at someone, he looked at them in full face.

Between his shoulders was the seal of prophecy, the sign that he was the last of the prophets. He was the most generous-hearted of men, the most truthful of them in speech, the most mild-tempered of them, and the noblest of them in lineage. Whoever saw him unexpectedly was in awe of him. And whoever associated with him familiarly, loved him. Anyone who would describe him would say, I never saw, before him or after him, the like of him. Peace be upon him. “

How does one describe the indescribable? How does one form an image of that which cannot be portrayed? That is what the hilye does.

Posted in Islam | No Comments »

Strdust - On guarding the wrong side of the wall

My most memorable line from Stardust movie was a line by a very old guard, who was charged with guarding a hole in the wall, surrounding a territory, that the people believe to be the portal to another world. His job was to prevent people from inside the wall area to go out. Of course, some people-like tristan and his father when he was young, tried to.

After he saw a scary battle beetween two evil witches just outside the wall, tristan run to him in a rush. He taught tristan was trying to deceive him again and he said this:

“Be my guess, I quit! eighty years I’ve stopped people going out while what I should be worrying about was those people from the other side”

ha ha. Somehow, it remind me of the new Indonesian Ministry of Information and Communication’s policy to block ‘particular’ sites. Is it the best strategy? Let’s see in eighty years You should see the movie.

Posted in movie | No Comments »

The Chain of Request

Me: “Sir, what is the first thing I should do if I want to make a blue passport?” *smiling

Him: “Write a request letter to request a request letter requesting a request.”

Me: “Pardon me.” &*%#$$#*&^$#%

Him: “The first request letter is written by you to the dean, the second request letter is made by the dean to the rector, the rector then will write a request letter to DIKTI(The Directorate of Indonesia Higher Education).”

Me: I see..thank you *I bet DIKTI will make another request letter to The Imigration Office

Posted in JouneyJournal | 12 Comments »