Streaming RCTI

Today I read some tweets from Indonesian artists in Twitter, so I knew that some of them will perform in a TV program called Dahsyat. Dahsyat was broadcasted by an Indonesian TV station called RCTI (Rajawali Citra Televisi Indonesia). I tried to googling (searching by using Google) and I got some result from www.binus-access.com/bee-watch/

Picture 1 Binus Access

but it is not possible to establish a network connection at that time. I searched more and I found this website is useful since I could stream RCTI from http://www.mivo.tv/

Picture 2 Mivo.tv

If you need to stream RCTI as well, you can try to access it and choose RCTI.

P.S.: This is some of the thing that might happen to us, the international student.

Communication through Twitter

Twitter, as a social networking site, is viewed useless by many people, but when I checked out its rank in Competeinc, based on unique visitors within a month it was in top 50 (it got the 38th position). Twitter looks simple and lack of features, but it could manage to be popular. Hence, I am trying it.

This is the screenshot from Twitter.com (without log-in) when I searched for "@dell":

Picture 1 Twitter Main Page

It is (mostly) possible for people to search and read Twitter user's posts about certain topics. Twitter has many users from around the world who post various topics, so the results (which are sorted based on time of latest posts) can be considered as up-to-date news.

As a Twitter user, I could follow (receive posts) from other users that I follow, so whenever they post a tweet (= a message) I will receive it. The good thing is, Twitter user could only make a message (= a tweet) within 140 characters limit (look at the picture below), so Twitter could send it to the Twitter user's followers through text message. In that way, information could be spread from a Twitter user to his/her followers in short time (time is valuable).

Picture 2 Twitter Home (after log-in)

For personal purpose, if I follow my friends and they are active users, they will often tweet and I will get up-to-date information from them about themselves, rumors around them, world news, etc. (similar practices were seen on Gossip Girl Season 1 Episode 1). Basically I will get information from users that I follow, so if I follow the right users, I may get information that I wanted such as weather forecast, discounted products, match results, world news. It can be like making your own newspaper. Furthermore, it can be used for team work. If each team member follow each others, spreading information can be faster. As an example, a team is separated into small groups in different locations. One group has a problem, the group post a tweet, then everyone in the team receive the tweet. When another group has already done something about the problem, they post another tweet and everyone don't have to worry about it anymore.

For organizational purposes, if I follow a firm then when the firm has a special offer, the firm posts a tweet and its followers will get the information about that. Furthermore the followers may also re-tweet (RT) the post to their followers, and so on. Thus, information can spread to many more people. Moreover, the firm itself will be able to get responses, such as the keywords get into trending topics can mean that it is interesting, people's comments on the tweet, etc.

Those are some uses of Twitter.

Additional Information:
1. You can visit http://bit.ly to shorten URL (because URL usually consumes a lot of character, for example URL for this post is http://icetrack.blogspot.com/2009/10/communication-through-twitter.html
(71 characters) and we only have 140 characters to write).
2. Share your photos with http://tweetphoto.com (log-in with your Twitter account).
3. You can browse Twitter data through Bing Twitter (a search engine).
4. See statistics about Twitter user at http://twittercounter.com.
5. When you visit Twitter, if you find Twitter down such as

Picture 3 Twitter down

Picture 4 Twitter down-2

Don't worry, it usually will not take a long time, just refresh a couple seconds later.

Easy Way in Maroubra

I went to Maroubra Junction. Before I crossed the street to the shopping mall, I saw a crowd.

Picture 1 A Crowd in Maroubra Junction

I crossed the street and took a closer look.

Picture 2 Easy Way Announcement Board

Due to an opening of new store in Maroubra, Easy Way made a promotional program for about a week. This was seen to be successful looking at the queuing.

Star Trek in Hoyts IMAX

Picture 1 Star Trek (J. J. Abrams version)

Last night I watched Star Trek in Hoyts IMAX, Fox Studio. Here are some of my experiences:

1. On the ticket counter, my friend argued with the ticket-man because my friend saw on the website that the ticket price is $20/person and the ticket-man told us that it was $22/person. He told us that it was because it's IMAX, but then he checked it again for us. In the end, it's only around $17.33/person. I am happy with that, but I also think that it is important to be careful with it.
2. I felt fantastic when the movie started and then a couple minutes later I realized that something was missing, something important. Then I figured out that THERE WAS NO SUB-TITLE. It destroyed my hype in an instant.
3. There was a scene when James Kirk, as a student, told his friend, Leonard McCoy, that he would re-take a test which nobody has ever passed. The next scene was he did something on a bed with a green female alien and it was over when her room-mate, Nyota Uhura, returned and found out about him. After that, Kirk and some other students including McCoy and Uhura did the simulation test and beat it. Later, Kirk was in the court because he was found cheating on the test.

About no.3 The bed scene seems unimportant. Later I found in memory alpha that the name of the green alien was Gaila and she worked in the computer lab. Kirk asked for her help to release a cheat patch to the simulation test. That is the reason of the bed scene. Without knowing this, it is difficult to understand the story. It is also appear that something is not important but it is actually important if we can put the right frame (Framing is a technique of adding words into a sentence to give it more context).

Overall, the film is good.

Google is ...

After trying Twitter, I suddenly think about Google, my favorite search engine. Google has auto-complete feature, so when I type something in Google's text box, Google will show me some suggestion or prediction. I tried to write "Google is " and the result was as shown below:

Picture 1 Google is in Google.com

It shows a lot of phrases that unveils bad sides, users' expectations, people's perceptions, rumors, etc. Then I tried the same phrase in Bing and the result is as shown below:

Picture 2 Google is in Bing

I was interested with the last one, 'google is my resume', so I chose it and the result was as shown below:

Picture 2 Google is My Resume

I was quite surprised when I saw that the result referred to Google Docs file. I was a bit worried about this since I put some of my assignments in Google Docs to make collaboration with my friends easier and those will be checked with turnitin.

Marketing through Facebook

I have used Facebook to keep in touch with my friends around the world. The statistics show that Facebook is very demanding. Today, Facebook gets second rank in Top Sites by Alexa.com. Thus, Facebook can be considered as a successful business.

I was born in Indonesia, so I am Indonesian. Last Friday, 2 October 2009, Indonesian people was suggested to wear batik (Indonesian traditional clothes) by Indonesian Government. Since I am in Australia and I do not really hear much Indonesian news, it is difficult for people like us to know it unless it was advertised. I saw the advertisement in a very unexpected place as shown below:

Picture 1 Advertisement

The advertisement ("Batik, Proudly Indonesia") is in the right side in my Facebook page. I am an Indonesian and I got an advertisement that was targeted for Indonesian people. In other word, I would like to say that in this case, the advertisement reached the right person.

I think most of Facebook users give their personal data voluntarily to Facebook. That data can be used by Facebook to know each of its user better, for example: I set my birth date in Facebook, so Facebook can estimate my age (how old I am). Every product in the market (out there) was invented, developed, and built for certain group of people or, in marketing it is called, target market. An example of this is that milk powder products in supermarket, like Enfa A+, usually has a range of age written on its box to tell the buyer that the product was intended for a group of people in that age range.

Picture 2 Enfa A+

Target market is usually detail (consist of several criteria) such as gender (male/female), status in familiy (mother/children), condition (pregnant/growing), age range, country, etc. Many firms try to reach their target market. Facebook has various data of its users. Firms can ask Facebook to put their advertisement in certain users' Facebook page (target market). The more variations Facebook has, the more accurate Facebook can reach target markets. The more user Facebook has, the more people in each target market Facebook can reach.

In old days, Firms put their advertisement on billboards, newspapers, television, and any other medias that are used by many people, not specific people. Facebook has make it possible for the firms to reach more specific groups of people that become their target markets. In terms of marketing, it can be viewed to be a more effective way to reach the target market (some people like me see it as a revolution in marketing). No wonder Facebook grows like this.

ACE Leadership Competition - Testimonial

This is my testimonial for ACE's committee:

"Being a international student in UNSW means focus in studying by reading course materials, attending lectures, working on assignments, etc. to gain technical skills. It was me before I joined ACE Leadership Competition. The more I involved in the program, the more I realized that I need other skills beside technical skills and those are people skills through various challenging activities. Challenge drew me out of my comfort zone and entered learning zone which was perfect to develop myself. ACE Leadership Competition gave me not only the knowledge, but also chances to apply the knowledge and know myself better. I recommended this program to all postgraduate students in Australian Business School because I believe that everyone needs and is able to be a better person for his/her life and community."

I share this to the world because I found it quite good to motivate myself...^^;

8< - - - - - - - -

After the competition, I got
- 1 certificate of attendance
- 1 $50 voucher from UNSW Bookstore
Later, I got an e-mail from Student Development Office

Picture 1 e-mail

The content of the e-mail is that I got FREE TICKET to Magical Masquerade Ball worth $68. Thus, I have a very good impression to both the committee and GSA (Graduate Student Association).

Google Wave

This was how it will be when I haven't got an invitation to Google Wave but I tried to log in:

Picture 1 Google Wave (failed to log in)

My friend was invited by his friend on Thursday and on Friday he got the invitation, then he invited me. On Saturday I did not get the invitation. Next week, on Friday, I got the invitation to Google Wave. So, I thought the invitation was probably sent weekly on Friday.

This was how it looked after I logged in and post some "wave":

Picture 2 Google Wave (after Logged in)

It can even be simplified by minimising all of those:

Picture 3 Google Wave (simple)

Google Wave is claimed to be a system for people to exchange messages (in old days it was called a letter) in this days using current technology. This is how I see the difference:

• Post system (before up to now):

Picture 1 Post System

• Google Wave:

Picture 2 Google Wave

Personal Comments:

• Google Wave is another email. I need to check it quite often and it is still lack POP3, IMAP4 or other similar service. In this stage I think it is still difficult to send the wave to e-mail, what is more possible is sending notifications to the account holder.
• Google Wave is not another Office Suite. It can be used to make documents, but it is still lack of features to edit or format the documents compared to office suites.
• Google Wave is not another Facebook or Twitter. In Facebook or Twitter, I add my friends to my account. In Google Wave I just need to remember their contacts (e-mail) or just use Google Contacts to keep the information.

Facts:

• Google Wave is still in preview version
• Google Wave is linked with Google Contacts which is still in beta version

Magical Masquerade: Preparation

There will be a ball at the end of this teaching period (week 13). I volunteer to do marketing for the event. One of my job is making posters.

I found this websites are very useful to supply non-royalty pictures:
1. Stock Exchange
2. deviantART
(there are some that are free, but the rests are not free)

I found a website that can assist me to determine matching colors through themes, that is Adobe Kuler. I chose "africa" by "Sifa" from Kuler. Here is what the theme look like:

Picture 1 Kuler Theme: africa by Sifa

I used the color in the middle (third from left and right) as background like it is suggested by Kuler. This is an example of a poster that I made from that source:

Picture 2 Sample Poster

In the end, this poster was not chosen as one that will be used, but I think it looks good (since I am the one who made it.

FAQ about designing poster:
1. Q: What should I care about paper?
A: There are some different sizes and types of paper. As an example, that poster was printed in A3 (equals to 2 times A4 or 29.7 x 42.0 centimeters) in a glossy paper (200 grams).
2. Q: Which file format should I use for the poster?
A: It depends on your purpose. If it is to edit further, a raw file that still keep the picture as detail as possible is better. If it is to print, .pdf file would be sufficient.
3. Q: How to make sure that the picture quality will be good?
A: It is better to make sure that the pictures at least have a resolution of 300 dpi (dot per inch) and it is different with ppi (pixel per inch). Don't get messed up!