Siegfried might be the least mentioned part of Der Ring Des Nibelungen tetralogy. But it is not the least important. Got stuck with the beauty of Die Walküre for months (many versions of music, excerpts, on stage performances, and complete operas), then the sound of hammer of Siegfried forging his sword fill in my ears, with acute violin & viola screams as the background, for weeks. It is Siegfried. The monologues, dialogues, and music are obviously written by a philosopher. Wagner was a comrade of Bakunin, a devout follower of Schopenhauer, and then a friend and mentor of Nietzsche.

Act 1 started with a gloomy dwarf who complained a lifetime oppression (reminds me to the opening of any Srimulat operas). He took care of thankless strong boy Siegfried, whom he gave food and taught wisdom. Came then Siegfried with a bear, fearless and careless. The dialogue opens our eyes what really happened. Mime taught with word, but his deeds were indeed ugly, just like Indonesian contemporary politicians. The cunning plan of Mime’s dialogue now reminds us of any Indonesian all low quality sinetrons. The fearless Siegfried was once copied in one episode of Astérix. OK, now you know that I watch sinetron, Srimulat, Astérix, and those ugly Indonesian political stages. Sorry to let you know .

Back to Siegfried. Since Wagner’s year, Bayreuth is the center, and the standard, of Wagnerian culture. It sets new standard of the opera: in classical style, in contemporary style, in Star Wars mode, etc. In this 1980s records, the stage was shifted to display a huge smithing installation. A huge and quasi-functional . That’s where in the fantastic visualisation Siegfried reforged his father’s Notung sword. As the strong sword was finished, the Act 1 ended.

Act 2 started with a gloomy music I have discussed a few years ago on Isnet mail group (discussing music as a way to communicate ideas). Then … then who cares. It is only a century old story . Hahah . I just impressed on how Siegmund (Siegfried’s father, performed in Die Walküre) is a total contrast to his son. The compassionate yet unlucky Siegmund carried the world upon his shoulder, loved his betraying god & father. Siegfried was totally free, fearless, careless, and took anything in his way in almost no expression on his face. Many criticized Manfred Jung because of his poor expression as Siegfried, but I think that’s the correct expression of a Siegfried. He could make the strongest sword (a stronger version of Notung), he could kill the dragon and cunning Mime without second thought. In Act 3 he could easily defeat his grandfather (who was easily defeat his father, and frightened all powerful valkyries) and called him ‘coward!’ — plus he could find a lovely companion. That’s what Wagner’s concept of a hero. Let’s laugh at Wagner . Let’s laugh at whoever wants to win the world, or the universe.

No, Wagner knew that. He easily killed Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, in a stupid way . The world needs no hero. And the god’s palace must be burnt. And that’s not the end. Life goes on. Gloomily or cheerfully as you may choose freely. You are the only one to choose the universe, to choose the way you are. Among Schopenhauer and Nietzsche, Wagner is possibly an existentialist. But let’s throw all labels. Let’s just live the life.

IEEE Communications Society, Indonesia Chapter, will carry out a seminar to introduce the aspects of 4G Mobile Communication Technology & Business. Seminar will be conducted in Bandung, 21 November 2009, from 08:00 to 17:00. The speakers of the seminar, among others, are Kuncoro Wastuwibowo (chairman of IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter), Arief Hamdani Gunawan (vice chair of IEEE Indonesia Section), and Muhammad Ary Murti (past chair of IEEE Comsoc Indonesia Chapter).

The topics will include:

• The Aspect of 4G: its necessity and requirement, OFDMA transmission, all IP network
• The candidates: LTE vs WiMAX II
• LTE: environment, architecture, and standardisation
• WiMAX II (802.16m): challenges, architecture, & roadmap
• Applications, regulations, and business situation.

Registration fee is IDR 1.000.000 for professionals, IDR 500.000 for universities, and IDR 300.000 for students. 20% discount is applied to members of IEEE or MASTEL.

• For more information, please contact M Ary Murti NOW at 081-6421-0426 or m_ary_murti@ieee.org.

His letters, his diaries (where are those?), has disabled me to stop writing. These blogs are his fault .

Eh, happy birthday, Dad. Five years you had left us; just about a week after the card with the email address. Hahah, it’s not like five years. You still come to my dreams, and we still discuss those paradoxes. Hahah. You used to be proud of your student — the current president of the republic. Five years ago you came in hurry from Pekanbaru only to vote for him. Sigh, I still cannot find a reason to share the proudness  :(.

Btw, I love you. And proud of you.

Since SDP has no standard, companies could easily make a concept of SDP 2.0 (ala Accenture or Telecom Italia) or even SDP 3.0 (HP version). Also there were some alternatives to map SDP to other infocom management concept, such as SOA, SDF, IMS, and even Web 2.0.

When describing the architecture of SDP 2.0, Telecom Italia explores the necessities for service & network abstraction & virtualisation, including reusability and interface standardisation. Scalability & modularity would include plugins capability. Sounds a bit like Accenture version (I have blogged this version in my Indonesian blog), where the objective of SDP 2.0 is to facilitate a self-service for service developer & provider in commercializing their services & contents.

But then Hewlett-Packard introduces this term: service governance framework. It encourages the use of open standard, reusability, and other issues to ensure an effective SDP implementation. Other issue delivered is the utilisation of data mining toward users profile, applications, etc, etc, to make it SDP 3.0.

In the similar spirit, Telemanagement Forum discusses the linkage to business: SOA, SDP, Web2.0, etc, mainly SDF. Great pictures, indeed. They somewhat remind me to C++ standard template library. Discussions with operators, providers, & consultant who are in progress of implementing SDP in Asia & Europe make the days richer.

I guess then I need to make a presentation to summarize them all, and present it to my colleagues this week. Hmm, maybe after the IEEE 4G session(s).

You might have known the standard IEEE 802.16e, a.k.a. the Mobile WiMAX. This is the standard for the first mobile broadband access solution that enables the convergence of mobile & fixed broadband network through a common wide-area radio access technology and flexible network architecture. The OFDMA transmission is used for both downlink and uplink. WiMAX II, or  the incoming standard IEEE 802.16m is the amendment to develop an advanced air interface to meet the requirement of ITU-R / IMT-Advanced for 4G systems. The data transfer rates will reach 1 Gb/s, but it must have full backward compatibility with existing Mobile WiMAX. The protocol stacks of WiMAX II is as follows:

The objectives and advantages of WiMAX II are, among others:

• Multi hop relay architecture
• Self configuration
• Advanced single-user / multi-user multi antenna schemes and interference mitigation techniques
• Enhanced multicast broadcast service
• Increased VoIP capacity
• Improved cell-edge user throughput
• Support of vehicular speed (? 500 km/h)

To discuss deeper on the issue, I invite you to attend the seminar. Visit the IEEE Comsoc site .

The first time I read about Coventry was when I read «The Secret Seven» by Enid Blyton. The term «being sent to Coventry» according to the book means being excommunicated. There is a real history about that, actually. But interestingly, then I lived in Coventry to study communications . I lived one year in that historical town to pursue my postgrad in telecommunications technology in Coventry University.

Both Coventry and Coventry University has a phoenix as their logo. Also there is a history about that. In World War II, The Luftwaffe has bombed almost all essential part of the city. The city was totally destroyed into dust and debris. But from the ashes, a new Coventry was born. Like a phoenix, it was born from its ashes, created itself with greater spirit. It tied itself with Stalingrad as sister city for solidarity, but then also with Dresden for reconciliation. The spirit of Coventry makes the world believe that even from a great catastrophe we can rise and shine the world. Coventry inspires.

Sometimes I use or wear the picture of the Coventry’s phoenix. It inspires to see the phoenix in me. I am not an all-time winner. But I surely know that each time I fall: I will rise, and I will shine.

(Effendi Ghazali)

Wahai anak-anak di Republik Mimpi Buruk
Malam ini nikmatilah mimpi sebagai Kapolri
Karena Kapolri bisa mengelabui Komisi III

Komisi III ramai-ramai menguji Kapolri
Tapi disandera dengan cium pipi kanan cium pipi kiri
Ini membuat penonton menjadi geli

Wahai anak-anak Republik Mimpi Buruk
Jangan mimpi jadi Superman, tapi mimpilah jadi ‘Super-Anggodo’
Karena Superman tidak bisa mengatur polisi
Tapi ‘Super-Anggodo’ bisa mengatur polisi dan Kejaksaan RI.

‘Super-Anggodo’ juga didukung oleh orang nomor satu di negeri ini
Lucunya Presiden kita tidak sakit hati karena tidak lapor ke polisi
Karena katanya belum ada bukti

Wahai anak-anak Republik Mimpi Buruk
Kita hanya ingin menyelamatkan KPK, Kejaksaan dan Polri
Tidak ingin kita melenyapkan mereka semua
Negeri ini masih butuh mereka
Tapi harus dibersihkan dari orang-orang kotor.

Logo baru Telkom dan brand positioning ini sendiri baru disoftlaunchkan malam tadi, sebelum diluncurkan secara lebih besar bersamaan dengan penganugerahan Indigo Awards tanggal 23 Oktober mendatang. Aku sedang cukup disibukkan oleh persiapan Indigo Awards, jadi tak sempat menghadiri soft launching :). Tapi sekilas melirik, tampaknya aku langsung jadi fans logo Telkom yang baru ini.

Pesan Life Confident sendiri langsung membangkitkan optimisme. Hidup bukan sesuatu yang mudah bagi siapa pun. Tetapi deretan perjuangan hidup mewarnai jiwa kita dengan nilai-nilai yang membuat tak memiliki alasan untuk tidak menganggap hidup itu indah. Di atas sinisme jenaka kita, kita memiliki optimisme. Di atas beku udara (brrr), ada hati dan jabat tangan hangat yang menemani perjuangan kita. Dan dengan kecerdasan hidup kita, kita bisa mencapai kegemilangan negeri ini.

Ayo, ini dunia kita. Isi dengan warna-warna kita, dengan keyakinan diri dan kelincahan langkah.

Catatan:

• Logo Telkom yang baru ini memiliki warna latar belakang putih terang, bukan transparan. Klik di sini untuk melihat logo yang orisinal dengan latar putih.
• Kenapa tangan, lingkaran, biru, kuning emas, huruf ramping, dan Indonesia? Aku bahas di blog yang lain. Klik di sini.

Bertahun kadang aku dikunjungi mimpi yang sama. Bahwa suatu hari kami harus kembali ke sini. Tapi dalam mimpi itu, kami mengenakan seragam putih abu2, kembali masuk ke kelas masing2, dan meneruskan diskusi yang dulu tertunda, dipimpin Walikelas III. Kali ini diskusinya diperkaya dengan apa yang kami pelajari setelah lulus dan setelah mengelanai dunia. Duh mimpi. Dalam realita, hari itu kami harus pakai kaos yang didesain serupa dengan yang kami pakai waktu masih kelas I, waktu kaon didesain dengan optimasi harga pewarna :). Lucunya, di dalam kaos itu, kami kehilangan semua waktu berpisah. Rasanya kayak baru berpisah 3-4 bulan dengan makhluk2 yang mukanya nggak jauh berubah. Cuman the ladies banyak yang sudah pakai kerudung, dan the gentlemen banyak yang sudah gemuk. Ah, klasik.

Nukov sebenarnya bukan satu2nya namaku. Dulu (eh, 3 bulan lalu) aku jadi wapimred, baik untuk mading maupun majalah Gema. Kadang banyak tulisan yang masuk dari rekan2. Tapi kadang hampir tak ada satu pun. Sementara setiap minggu (dan kemudian setiap dua minggu) mading harus diupdate seluruhnya. Jadi untuk mengisinya, aku harus banyak menulis juga. Dan daripada banyak nama “CrVaçtu” di sana, aku pakai nama2 lain: Cruiser, Neko Niichisan, Nukov, dll. Tapi entah kenapa pimred kami, Handy, menganggap nama Nukov itu lucu. Jadi suatu hari di sekitar 3 bulan yang lalu itu, dia meneriakiku dari lapangan basket: NUUKOOOOOV! Dan semua orang jadi memanggilku Nukov. Aku jadi merasa nama itu lucu juga, lama2 :).

Sayangnya Handy tak hadir kemarin. Seperti banyak makhluk Bhawikarsu lain, dia luar biasa. Dulu kepsek kami diganti. Penggantinya berbeda sekali dengan pendahulunya, dan membuat kami kurang nyaman. Dan tentu sindiran plus protes dilampiaskan para siswa ke mading. Waktu sekali lagi kepsek itu melakukan pungutan kurang jelas, salah satu siswa (bukan redaksi) mengirim kartun protes. Kartun :). Aku lagi sendirian hari Minggu itu. Aku pikir kartun itu selain amat lucu, juga konteksnya pas, biarpun sarkatis. Aku pasang. Trus aku pulang. Dan tentu saja di hari Senin, itu jadi masalah besar. Pimred dipanggil. Aku menawarkan diri menemani. Tapi Mr Handy Trisakti cuman bilang: «Aku penanggung jawab»  trus dia masuk ruang kepsek sendirian. Aku sempat berpikir bahwa aku sedang menghadapi HB Jassin.

Percuma menggunakan nama samaran yang berbeda, kalau gaya kita menulis tak berbeda. Maka CrVaçtu menulis essai serius tapi santai, becanda tanpa melupakan EYD (di sisi grammar, bukan di sisi kosa kata). Neko Niichisan mengasuh English Corner dan Dasar Bahasa Jepang (sekarang sudah lupa semua). Cruiser artikel2 kecil, dan jokes in Indonesian and English. Nukov, apa yang tersisa? Chaos :). Permainan kosa kata ala CrVaçtu diekstrimkan. Esai dipelesetkan. Dll. Kurasa blog ini masih meneruskan gaya CrVaçtu, dengan EYD yang sudah dicemarkan dengan tata bahasa dari budaya2 lain. Buat yang sedang mempelajari Bahasa Indonesia baku, mohon jangan gunakan blog ini sebagai contoh.

Nama2 samaran juga suka jadi masalah. Nama samaran yang bukan samaran, CrVaçtu, aku tulis di buku2, LKS, lab reports, dll. Jadi kalau hilang, tidak semua rekan tahu ke mana harus mengembalikan buku itu. Seorang teman, Antin, yang menemukan lap report-ku dari Lab Kimia, hanya bisa menebak itu report-ku bukan dari nama CrVaçtu, tapi «Soalnya banyak huruf2 asing di dalamnya. Siapa lagi kalau bukan kamu.» Haha, aku masih ingat beberapa kata asing untuk kimia. Tapi sebagian lagi lupa. Dan di kelas, tumben Bu Zaenab (calculus wizard) kami nekat mengumpulkan buku untuk checking siapa yang bener2 bikin PR. Peristiwa langka. Beliau tertib sekali. Jadi buku harus rapi (hah, buku matematika bisa rapi?). Satu per satu dipanggil untuk menerima bukunya. Tapi bukuku ditahan. Tinggal satu. Aku maju mau ambil. Beliau melarang. “Itu bukan namamu. Memang namamu siapa?” Aku cari ide, dan untungnya tidak perlu lama. “Wastu, Bu.” Beliau melirik nama crVaçtu dengan font acakadut itu, terus mengembalikan tanpa komentar. Di reuni minggu lalu, Calculus Wizard ini termasuk yang bersedia hadir. Duh, jadi terharu ketemu beliau, masih dengan mata cerdas dan gaya acuhnya. Diadu kalkulus, kayaknya aku masih bakal kalah — thanks to MathCAD.

Eh, aku tadi menyebut kimia. Entah kenapa guru2 kimia kami keren2. Aku jadi terpaksa memaksa diri punya nilai tinggi di Kimia. I mean, kita perlu kecerdasan untuk bisa bagus di matematika. Tapi untuk juga bagus di kimia, selain memanfaatkan kecerdasan, kita juga harus meluangkan waktu untuk banyak menghafal. Aku jadi harus banyak baca buku gituan di balik selimut tipis pada udara malam Malang yang … brrr. Tak mengecewakan sih hasilnya. Cuman para guru itu umumnya tak terkesan. Salah satu seniorku dulu namanya Dimitri Mahayana. Dia doolooo selaaloo punya nilai yang bagusnya ajaib. Dan setelah itu tak ada lagi murid yang lebih mengesankan, haha :). Eh, one day, selimutku di rumah diganti yang lebih tebal dan lebih hangat, dan nilai kimiaku sempat turun, haha :). Salah satu guru kimia, Bu Rukmini, kemarin hadir, dan kami sempat berbincang panjang. Masih tentang kimia. Gila nggak sih?

Dan sesuai isi mimpi, harusnya kami diskusi dipimpin Wali Kelas III. Beliau namanya Bu Henny, sekaligus mengajar Fisika. Ketemu beliau, aku langsung menjabat tangannya, bertanya apa kabar, dan dengan ceria bertanya «Masih ingat saya nggak, Bu?» Beliau tersenyum manis, dan menjawab tenang «Nggak. Duh. Nggak sama sekali.» Hihihi :).

Heh, oh ya, di zaman Nukov ini juga pertama kali aku baca teks dari Derrida — «There is nothing outside the text». Waktu itu aku belum paham :). Sekarang? Heh, there is nothing outside the tweet :).

Applications are now invited for these prestigious scholarships

The British Chevening Awards programme, funded by the British Government (Foreign and Commonwealth Office) and administered by the British Council, has awarded over 1000 scholarships in Indonesia since 1984 [Yeah, including Yours Truly :)]. Full scholarships are offered for one year Master degrees in the United Kingdom (UK).

The scholarships can support courses at various universities and professional institutions in the UK including courses in media, finance, economics, politics, law, management, engineering, gender, environment, democracy etc.

A very competitive scheme, only the best applicants are invited for further test and interview. The scholarship covers living costs in the UK, tuition fees and return airfares.

Employees, employee’s relatives (or former employees who have left employment less than two years before) of the FCO (Foreign Commonwealth Office), including FCO posts, the British Council and the sponsor will not be eligible to apply for these awards.

Who can apply?

• Indonesian Citizens.
• Excellent first degree with minimum GPA >=3.0.
• Adequate level of spoken and written English language (IELTS 6.5).
• Minimum of 2 years full time working experience after graduation from S1.
• Excellent career prospects.
• Commitment to career development, and ability to demonstrate motivation.
• Field of study should be relevant to educational background or current profession.
• We regret that we are unable to receive applications for MBAs.
• Previous recipients of a Chevening scholarship for Masters degrees are not eligible to reapply.
• Must be able to demonstrate future leadership potential and the capacity to play an important role in Indonesia’s development.
• Ability and potential to contribute to future bilateral relations between Indonesia and Britain.
• We particularly encourage candidates from Eastern Indonesia to apply.
• Candidates are welcome to apply for various subjects, but subject areas of particular interest are: Climate Change and Forestry, Counter-terrorism and International Security, Democracy and Governance, Religion and Islamic Studies, Economic Reform and International Trade, Human Rights, Conflict, Justice and Peace Building.

When to apply?

• Applications must be submitted from 1 October – 31 December 2009 through on line at E-Chevening www.chevening.com