SODEVE

Last weekend I went to Tanjung Pinang in Bintan Island to visit my cousin. She’s been staying there since 2003 but this will be my first time to visit her (sigh.. what a great cousin I am :-(). She’s staying there with her husband which is working in the Airbase in that town.

The ferry from Singapore to Tanjung Pinang departs Tanah Merah Ferry Terminal (take MRT to Bedok, and then take SBS Bus No. 35. The bus’s final stop is the ferry terminal). But since I was in hurry, I took a cab. To my dismay, I must waited for 1.5 hours before the ferry arrives. Unlike Singapore to Batam, the ferry frequency for Singapore to Tanjung Pinang is much less. I hope this schedule can help you to plan your travel better (unlike mine :-))

Monday To Friday

Saturday, Sunday and Public Holiday

Disclaimer: This schedule is valid for the time of this posting posted.

So I met her with her family. They have a very cute daughter (which makes her the cutest niece I have). She is 1.5 years old and tantrum-ridden toddler Need sometime before I could get along with her. But I think she had recognize me as her uncle She did cry when I waved goodbye and left for Singapore (which I don’t know whether she cried because her father or me, since my brother-in-law accompanied me going to the harbor)

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.26.2007 :: Travel :: 1 Comment »

I received collection of Banyolan Suroboyoan (Humor ala Surabaya) from my little brother. If you happen to be have a good command of Surabaya’s dialect of Javanese, these files might help you to put a smile or giggle in your face.

1. humor-suroboyoan-jilid-1.pdf
2. humor-suroboyoan-jilid-2.pdf
3. humor-suroboyoan-jilid-3.pdf

But if you don’t understand Javanese, these are for you:

I visited my friend for a sleep over. He said, “Sorry, but tonight you’ll sleep on the floor”. And I said, “Damn gravity, you got me again. You know how long I have been dreaming of sleeping on the wall, or the ceiling.”

Before I went to sleep on the floor, I asked my friend, “How many rooms this house has?”. He said, “Many. This is the room where I watch TV. That is the room where I always take a piss. And that is the the room where I keep my stove and fridge. And over there is the room where I put my bed. And out there is the room with grass-floor complete with a fountain. And finally that is the room which belongs to my neighbor … Oh wait…” (by Midge Hedberg, RIP)

There were two vampires called Vlad and Dracul flying around looking for prey. But that day was Christmas eve, so everyone were at home with their family. Tired of flying, Vlad gave up and went home. But Dracul was very persistent and continued in his searching. Near the dawn, Dracul went home with drips of blood in his lips.

Vlad was surprised and asked him, “Where do you got the prey? You must be fully sated.”.

Dracul then said, “Do you want to have what I had?”

Vlad nodded his head. “Follow me!”, said Dracul.

Both of them then flying and landed on the roof of a building. Dracul asked Vlad, “Do you see that pole in center of that field?”.

Vlad answered, “Yes. The one with the flag waving around right?”.

Dracul then slowly uttered,”I didn’t”.

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.26.2007 :: Humor :: 2 Comments »

I know this is not ‘news’ anymore, its soooo yesterday …. But I still have the itch to write why is it Hady Mirza won the first (considering this unexpected result, the last ? :P) Asian Idol. An itch must be scratched, and this is my scratches.

I watched the final showdown of Asian Idol at home accompanied by most of my flatmates. As expected, most of us were rooting to Mike Mohede (the Indonesian Idol). A minority (one person :P) was rooting for Vietnam’s Phuong Vy (sexyness was very likely was the most driving factor :D). But all of us was wow-ed by Malaysia’s Jaclyn Victor, she sang really, really good. We all agreed that the top three would be Mike Mohede, Jaclyn Victor and Philippine’s Mau Marcelo. Although we, as Indonesian, have a certain degree of animosity towards Malaysia (Malingsia? :P), we would still be happy should Jaclyn won the contest as she is a really good singer with amazing voice.

But life is unfair and Hady won the contest :P. So how did Hady Mirza managed to beat the better singers? Allow me to propose a few scenarios:

1. The rule of valid vote was to select two Finalists. But it is very likely most people didn’t vote for the best and 2nd best. Instead, they will vote for their best singer and other finalist which is not in the top three (Phuong, Hady and Abhijeet). For example, although I rooted for Mike, I will not vote for Mike and Jaclyn, but I will vote for Mike and Hady. So imagine if the Indonesians voted for Mike and Hady. The Philippines voted for Mau and Hady. The Vietnamese voted for Phuong and Hady, etc. In the end, Hady will have the biggest total of votes.
2. Most voters are female. And they want to have an Idol who is good-looking (read- not fat), and not married. Only Hady Mirza satisfy these two requirements (I know have a karma burn for this.. but there you go)
3. Hady is the only Muslim in the competition. There is a chance that he was voted for that particular reason. Maybe yes, maybe no, I just don’t know

I have other theories, ehm.. I mean conspiracy-theories but I don’t think they worth mentioning here and considering you need to wear some sort of hat, a tinfoil one, before you can understand the theory (something to do with intercepting the SMSes and manipulate the content of SMSes).

So those are my theories (theory no. 3 is credit to my Flatmates). Which one do you think the most possible to happen? Or do you have your own theory?

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.20.2007 :: Life :: 2 Comments »

Now that I have switched to Ubuntu Linux, I need a programming language where I can program simple GUI applications for fun (and profit?). I could have use C# using MonoDevelop, but I choose Python instead. It was more sentimental choice because the name Python was more connected to Monty Python (Nudge..Nudge..Wink..Wink anyone?) than to the a species of snake.

What I need now is a small GUI program which strip out all the dashes and white spaces and automatically copy the cleaned string to Clipboard. I used wxGlade to design the GUI and Eric as the editor for my first Python script.

If you are used to Visual Studio, designing your Form using wxGlade will be quite tricky. It will not straight forward just by drag-and-drop. You need to create containers first before you can put any Textboxes, Labels or Buttons. You will not able to position the Controls freely as the layout will depend heavily on the Containers.

Once satisfied with the layout, you then generate the XML file and the Python’s source code.

#!/usr/bin/env python
    def __set_properties(self):
        self.SetTitle("DashRemover")

    def __do_layout(self):
        sizer_1 = wx.BoxSizer(wx.VERTICAL)
        grid_sizer_1 = wx.GridSizer(3, 3, 0, 0)
        grid_sizer_1.Add(self.text_ctrl_1, 0, 0, 0)
        sizer_1.Add(grid_sizer_1, 1, wx.EXPAND, 0)
        self.SetSizer(sizer_1)
        sizer_1.Fit(self)
        self.Layout()

    def textEvt_Handler(self, event):
        # the Clipboard class that will help you interact with the
        # GNOME/KDE/Windows clipboard
        if wx.TheClipboard.Open():     #This is a must!
            #remove any dashes or empty spaces
            cleandata = self.text_ctrl_1.Value.strip().replace('-','')
            cleandata = cleandata.replace(' ', '')
            self.text_ctrl_1.Value = cleandata
            wx.TheClipboard.Clear()
            wx.TheClipboard.SetData(wx.TextDataObject(cleandata))
            wx.TheClipboard.Close()
        event.Skip()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = wx.PySimpleApp(0)
    wx.InitAllImageHandlers()
    frame_1 = fmDashRemover(None, -1, "")
    app.SetTopWindow(frame_1)
    frame_1.Show()
    app.MainLoop()

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.20.2007 :: Programming, Ubuntu, Python :: No Comments »

With the current trend of SOI (Service Oriented Architecture), it is very common for Web Application to use Web Service in their back-end. Since the back-end processing is implemented as a Web Service, the Front-End (UI Layer) must convert the data into XML-text before sending it for processing.

This conversion from a data-type to xml text, then back to its original data-type, will introduce a pitfall that will plunge many developers into a runtime error. Learning from my past mistakes, I come up with these points that hopefully will save you from experiencing a runtime error (read, an unpleasant call from your customer explaining the problem):

1. Always check your data before conversion. VB.Net has these functions to help you: IsDBNull(), IsNothing(), IsNumeric(). Use them wisely.
2. Always initialize a variable before assigning a value.
3. Try-Catch is there not for nothing.

To illustrate above points, I’ll make a few examples here:

Bad Code:

  Dim i as Integer
  i = Cint(myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Row(0).("MyValue"))
  ProcessMyVariable(i)

Better Code:

  Dim i as Integer = 0
  If IsNumeric(myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Row(0).("MyValue")) Then
      i = Cint(myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Row(0).("MyValue"))
  End If
  ProcessMyVariable(i)

Best Code:

  Dim i as Integer = 0
  Try
      If myDataset.Tables.Contains("MyTable") Then
          If myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Rows.Count > 0 Then
              If IsNumeric(myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Row(0).("MyValue")) Then
                  i = Cint(myDataSet.Tables("MyTable").Row(0).("MyValue"))
              End If
          End If
      End If
  Catch e as Exception
  End Try
  ProcessMyVariable(i)

Care to add more?

Hardono Arifanto :: Dec.17.2007 :: Programming, .NET :: No Comments »