Updates on the digital metamorphosis

To pick up from where I left off, I'd like to share an update about the computer related stuff that I posted initially.

• Mac Switch. Am I still 'passionate' about the switch. Well, yes. It's been an eventful ride so far, but no regrets whatsoever. It's not always smooth, I've had my share of crashes and calamities (yes, Mac do crash occasionally, albeit more gracefully.) Plenty of those were the results of tinkering and extreme experimenting. But I've learned a lot, and I'm quite happy with my current 'config'
• MacBookPro. Compared my previous notebook, Vaio SZ, the MacBook Pro is heavier, bulkier and hotter (you could fry your eggs on it if you don't watch out!) But it's cheaper, more powerful, and most importantly, runs Mac OS. Needless to say, I've pimped it out to the max. RAM is 4gb, harddisk is 320gb. Plus I equip it with a couple of external harddrives of 250gb (SATA on USB 2.0) and 100gb (IDE on Firewire 400). Overkill? Perhaps. But one can never, ever, have too much space, ever!!
  
• FirstMedia. Still good? Most certainly. So much so that we added another connection at home. Now we have a 768 and a 512. Why? The bandwidth on the 768 was constantly hogged by rapidshare and torrent. So rather than duelling for bandwidth, we thought might as well spend just a couple of hundred thousand rup for another link. That's why. At peak speed, we got almost 100kbps from the 768 and over 60kbps from the 512. Life's a cruise at this speed.
• Harddisk space. It's surprisingly very expensive. It's still around Rp 3mio per TB of data. Anyhow, I just added another TB to the 1.5 that we had. But it's filling up fast. It's like the flood. Maybe we should consider Blu-Ray burner. I heard one disk could store up to 50gb. It would be cheaper.
• iPhone. Still love it. Nothing I'd really like to see changed. Maybe Flash plugin on the Safari. There are still a number of kinks and gaps, but many were either solved or mitigated by the plethora of apps available conveniently on a jailbroken iPhone. I've installed something like 50 apps on my bloody phone, and it's been great fun. Next on the list, Wikipedia on iPhone: offline access, all 2gb of it. Insane, right?
• Social Net. I'm afraid to admit a little, just a teeny bit, boredom. Overdose perhaps. But still, I firmly believe it's the future.
  

There you have it, the updates.

Regards,
Tony

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Shame, shame, shame.

It's been a full two months after my New Year Resolution, and I hadn't managed to write even a single post. Worse, I don't even have the excuse of lacking news to talk about. Nor of being so busy that I couldn't spare several minutes to drop a few lines. Not even a convenient slip of mind, on account of the kind reminders from a dear friend. There's really no good defence. There's simply shame left.

Tonight I'll try to make good on that promise. Partially anyway. So, don't let's dwell on past mistakes. Let bygones be bygones, auld lang syne! Hahaha… Blogging's supposed to be fun for the blogger too, not just the bloggee.

There's plenty to share, in various fronts too. And I shall organise them neatly by topics in the following posts.

Looking Back at 2007 - Digital Metamorphosis

Year 2007 has been quite great for Indonesians, digitally speaking. For myself, it has been a huge turning point. During the last three months, I've migrated to a new OS, replaced almost all of my digital gears, adapted to a new mode of computing, and changed the way I used Internet. The transformation is dramatic, not unlike a metamorphosis.

In my opinion, some of the most important aspects of the change are:

• The 'switch' to Mac. For me, it started as value buying. My bank offered a no-interest installment plan to buy iMacs, at a remarkably low monthly payment. It was small decision that eventually led to a total migration. I eventually sold, traded or gave away all my previous Win PC stuff lock, stock, and barrel, and got myself a new set of everything Mac. It's now several months after, and I've gotten comfortable with the new system, even somewhat skilled at it. I can honestly and heartily say: Life is indeed better, simpler and prettier in this new land.
• The web goes 'social.' My close friends introduced me to Multiply. Out of curiosity, I checked out almost everything else: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, etc. I couldn't get into Orkut though. I opened accounts at YouTube, Flickr, del.icio.us, Shelfari, LibraryThing, etc. My conclusion, the web has changed fundamentally and will continue to change dramatically, probably as important as the emergence of previous giants.
• Filesharing via RapidShare, MegaUpload, etc. Coupled with dropping cost in bandwidth and diskspace, filesharing reached a new critical mass. If BitTorrent represent a new level of filesharing over conventional file download, then these new services represent the following level. It's much more productive and useful. During the last three months, I must have downloaded nearly a terabyte of stuff through RapidShare. I bought a couple of 750gb hard disks (WD MyBook) in anticipation. It been only a couple of months, but it's rapidly filling up.
• Affordable broadband. This is probably one of the best things of the year. I'm thankful that I live in the southern part of Jakarta that's quite well-served digitally. We've had cable modem service for many years and then late 2006, TelkomSpeedy became available. It was actually quite okay. Its main problem was price. Unlimited use is possible but pricey. Usage limits made subscribers worry about getting hit by huge overlimit charges. And then a sweet solution arrived the form of FirstMedia: affordable and fixed price, unlimited use, reliable, and very good speed. Such combination actually changes the way people use the Internet. It became more like a utility service such as tv or radio. There is no rush and no hesitation or worry. It opened up many new areas of the Internet such as media-heavy sites youTube etc.) or highly dynamic sites or Web 2.0 sites.
• iPhone. It was an iPod touch that I first tried in a Singapore MacShop. I was looking to change my mobile phone (Samsung i320) and I've whittled down my options to either htc touch, blackberry, or iPhone. Remarkably they were all in similar price range. In the end, it was the Mac platform and the memory of the tactile experience that clinches the decision. As is the Mac case, it's a couple of months after, and I can repeat the above admission. Simply put, it's a category-buster. Definitely not just a phone + an iPod.

There are of course other exciting events, but I think these are the cornerstones.

Tony J. Djohan

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Happy New Year 2008!

My New Year resolutions for 2008 start with... starting a blog! So, here goes... Hope you all like some of it somewhat.

This blog will be about observations, opinions, suggestions, or perhaps just musings. The topics covered won't be restricted, but it'll will emphasize particular interests such as our modern lifemode. At the risk of sounding pretentious, I chose that term because I would like to reach areas deeper than those typically meant by the term "lifestyle."

Being a certified geek, I suspect many of the posts will have an IT feel, but there will definitely a significant portion that goes outside, into music, movie, arts, current affairs, etc. However, I will make sure that each post is tagged well to help if you would like to filter.

Final words for my first post, do feel free to contact me about anything at all. And should you like to add your blog to my site, please let me know.

Warmest regards,
Tony J. Djohan

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