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Food I ate in Jakarta

Published November 7, 2008 in Life Log. 1 Comment

At Jakarta, I had all my meals in air-conditioned restaurants. No no.. don’t get it wrong. Not that I’m so well-paid to only spend my meals at air-conditioned places, but I wasn’t too comfortable with the road-side food stalls served in mobile carts.

Anyway, even in the restaurants found in shopping malls, I was still paying less than what I’m paying in KL and PJ. So, why take the risk :p

On the first day of arrival (arrived in evening), I didn’t travel out for dinner. Instead, walked out 5 minutes from Aston Rasuna, and came to Pasar Festival. There were a few common fast food names spotted, but none of my interest. Then, I decided to give Bakmi Top 17 a try. In Indonesia, Bakmi means “noodles with meat”. It is brought into their culture by Chinese merchants.

Ordered a plate of seafood bakmi and a cup of Vietnamese coffee. Looks good, but taste was normal. Not bad, but I consider it an average one.

Breakfast? Of course I had it in hotel lo hehe… Aston Rasuna was quite generous in the breakfast servings. Considering drinks, there were choices ranging from coffee, tea, fresh milk, plain water to 4 types of fruit juice (orange juice was served every morning). Besides cooked dishes, a wide variety of breads and cakes were served too.

My workplace was Menara Duta. There were 2 air-conditioned restaurants at the basement serving lunch. One selling beef satay, and another selling cooked dishes. For all 3 lunches there, I was at the restaurant selling cooked dishes. The portion of serving and pricing of food were good. For about RM5, I had a decent meal with a cup of fruit juice. I simply just love the fruit juices there - very very thick.

They served quite a variety of set meals. This, laksa ayam (chicken laksa) and a plate of rice, came in a set. Portion was quite big, as the bowl of laksa actually came with beehoon too! Continue reading ‘Food I ate in Jakarta’

Kuala Lumpur City Night View from Lookout Point

Published November 5, 2008 in Shutterbug. 4 Comments

Went to Lookout Point yesterday evening after work, even though the weather wasn’t promising. The rain has just stopped when we were about to leave office.

GPS coordinate: N3 07.803E101 47.757

So, as expected, the type of sunset view that we would have imagined, wasn’t there. It was just too misty. At times, the KL Tower and Petronas Twin Towers were totally covered by mist. Being able to get the above picture was lucky enough :p

The roof of Bread & Olives Restaurant at Lookout Point.

Some photo kakis all geared with their photography gears.

Due to the discouraging view, I decided to temporarily “sao gong“, headed for our dinner at a western food restaurant there, known as Bread and Olives.

When we’re done with our dinner, wohohohoho…. the view was totally clear from mist. We had a clear night view of the Kuala Lumpur skyline.

Zoomed in to the Petronas Twin Towers.

The Twin Towers rendered blur by manipulating manual focus.

A Place for Night View, Not Food

My only comment for Lookout Point is, it’s undoubtedly a place for a very wide angle of Kuala Lumpur skyline, but probably not a place for food I have only went to Bread & Olives, so not fair to generalize the statement. However, generally, comments on food places there are quite negative.

I couldn’t accept the fact that Bread & Olives doesn’t accept credit card. Ya we were asked to pay in cash. Wah lao.. if a guy brings a girl there for first date, and thinking it should be possible to depend on credit card, that would be damn bloody embarassing. Couldn’t find any ATM machine at hill-top too.

How Did I Travel in Jakarta by Taxi and Bus?

Published November 3, 2008 in Travelogue. 5 Comments

As mentioned in previous post, when I first arrived at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, I engaged with Garuda Bird taxi counter, as I couldn’t find Blue Bird. Later on, by asking Blue Bird taxis in city, I was told that there’s actually a Blue Bird counter at the airport.

Right in front of Aston Rasuna, there was a service station dedicated to Blue Bird. So, traveling around was very convenient, as taxis were readily available. Similar experience I had in some big shopping malls as well; dedicated Blue Bird depots were available.

Is Blue Bird The Only Trusted Name?

Contrary to general believe, Blue Bird is not the only Indonesian taxi operator you should trust. However, we should recognize Blue Bird Group, instead of just Blue Bird. Another major group under the Blue Bird Group’s umbrella, is Pusaka. Have a look at this page to learn about all logos under Blue Bird Group.

The most prominent feature, the a windscreen sticker labeled with “Blue Bird Group”.

Transjakarta Buses

There’s no light rail transportation in Jakarta. However, they have a close-match alternative - Transjakarta. Transjakarta buses operate in a fixed route with fixed stops. Besides, at most places (not all), Transjakarta buses have dedicated busway lane too.

At fixed rate of 3,500 Rp (about RM1) / trip, you can get to any station within the route map. Yes, no matter how you transit, still same flat rate.

There’s a Transjakarta station (GOR Sumantri, corridor 6) just about 5 minutes walk from Aston Rasuna.

How did I travel to some places with Transjakarta?

Menara Duta - From corridor 6, stop at Setiabudi Aini.
Grand Indonesia / Plaza Indonesia - From corridor 6, stop at Dukuh Atas and transit to corridor 1 (heading to Kota). Then, get down at Halte Bundaran HI (Hotel Indonesia).
Plaza Blok M - From corridor 6, stop at Dukuh Atas and transit to corridor 1 (heading to Blok M). Then, get down at Halte Blok M.
Glodok (Chinatown) - From corridor 6, stop at Dukuh Atas and transit to corridor 1 (heading to Kota). Then, get down at Halte Glodok.
Monas (National Monument) - From corridor 6, stop at Dukuh Atas and transit to corridor 1 (heading to Kota). Then, get down at Halte Monas. Alternatively, you can also stop at Halte Gambir 1 of corridor 2.

Tips for traveling with Transjakarta: Continue reading ‘How Did I Travel in Jakarta by Taxi and Bus?’

My Comments on Aston Rasuna, and First Impression on Jakarta

Published October 27, 2008 in My Thoughts and Travelogue. 2 Comments

Before reading this post, you may want to check out some pictures I took at Aston Rasuna.

Overall, I have a very good impression on Aston Rasuna. Of course la… 2-bedroom penthouse for myself :p Ok, let’s get to some concrete negative comments:

I am staying at 26th floor, but there’s only 1 lift serving even floors ><” Hate waiting for the lift, and I need to stumble upon many stops too, before coming down to G floor.
Called house-keeping to get me a universal AC power plug, but waited for more than 20 minutes. Not just that, they brought me a malfunctioning plug! Really sweat. So called again and waited for awhile. That time, my laptop battery was already running very very very low.
Balcony is locked! So-claimed, for resident’s safety. I want to take some night view pictures also cannot.
Free broadband access is provided, with pass-code to be renewed daily. However, the Cat 5 network cable given is a bit short. Not long enough to reach the access point from the table at living room, without moving the table away from center of the TV.

OK, that’s all some negative comments I have for Aston Rasuna. On the positive side are:

Security is good. Each bag and baggage is scanned at hotel entrance, and there’s also a security check-point before coming into Rasuna residential compound.
Penthouse is very spacious (if I say this one more time, sure kena hantam when I back to office)
Bed sheets, furnitures, toilet and cupboards are very clean.
Breakfast is satisfyingly good. I love the fruit juices.
There’s a Blue Bird taxi station outside of Aston Rasuna. So, convenient and reliable transportation mode is readily available.
Swimming pool is designed for swimming, not water-splashing :p (I don’t like a nice-to-see pool with many curves here and there)

OK what’s next? My first impression on Jakarta. Continue reading ‘My Comments on Aston Rasuna, and First Impression on Jakarta’

I’m at Aston Rasuna

Published October 27, 2008 in Travelogue. 5 Comments

Boarded from LCCT, and arrived at Jakarta Soekarno-Hatta International Airport on Sunday at 2.45PM (GMT+07:00). Will be in Jakarta for work, till Thursday.

I couldn’t find any Blue Bird taxi counter at the airport. So, walked to Garuda Bird counter, and was quoted for 200k Rupiah for my destination - Aston Rasuna. As Edwin (he was here last week) paid the same amount too, so ok la… at least I’m not paying more :p

Even though I purchased Garuda Bird ticket, but I wasn’t greeted by a formal taxi labeled with company logo. In fact, it was a normal black Suzuki MPV just like any private car. To be on the safe side, I actually fired up my GPS to make sure that the taxi was taking the right route :p

There was a bit of jam, but considered quite a mild one.

When I did my check-in at Aston Rasuna receptionist, I was told that there’s no more non-smoking executive suite. For a second, I was like “ha??? booked adi one wo~~”

Then, the receptionist said “Sir, we offer you a free upgrade to 2-bedroom penthouse at no extra charge” Continue reading ‘I’m at Aston Rasuna’

All Geared for JasperReports Training

Published October 27, 2008 in At Work. 0 Comments

Finally, I can declare that I’m all geared for the 3-day knowledge sharing on JasperReports, starting tomorrow in Jakarta.

Slides prepared
Exercises prepared
Gone through the whole complete cycle myself
Prepared skeleton of the directory structure for development purpose
Burn all necessary materials, project skeletons and tools into CD for distribution
Drafted a mind map for my reference

If this outline is consumed way faster than my plan, then I have no choice but to revise the slides on Tuesday to add in more topics hehe. Hope not la :p

I’m now a millionaire

Published October 25, 2008 in Life Log. 4 Comments

I’m now a millionaire, for the second time, in Indonesian Rupiah :p

I’m flying to Jakarta on tomorrow for work. Will be back on Thursday evening. My millionaire status will not last long, most probably will be invalidated by tomorrow’s evening hahaha.

Expectation

Published October 25, 2008 in Life Log. 0 Comments

Ability to manage the right expectation with project stakeholder throughout project life cycle, contributes to a huge portion of project success factors. Even though it’s always better to promise less, but in reality, sometime we just got to promise more to look good, especially for commercial reasons. At times, the bare truth just doesn’t sound convincing.

When I’m checking mails this morning, spotted the following phrase from an email from project partner.

“Anyway Tien-Soon is very efficient. He only takes about half-day to up the system and never fail to do so until now!”

Leaving with little choice, I just got to get the system remotely deployed in shorter-than-expected time frame. For a second, this compliment is undeniably a cheering one. However, I hope this will not turn into a new benchmark in expectation

MySQL Table Names could be Case Sensitive in Unix

Published October 22, 2008 in Database and Tips & Tricks. 0 Comments

Something notable about MySQL case sensitivity that my project team has encountered last weekend. On Windows and Mac OS X, all object identifiers (such as names of database, table, column, index and etc) are case insensitive.

So, even if someone doesn’t practice consistency of identifier naming on Windows and Mac OS X, you will not encounter table 'tbl_name' doesn't exist error, as long as spelling is correct.

However, if you have a MySQL table named as PRODUCT_ITEMS, you will encounter table 'product_items' doesn't exist error on most varieties of Unix and Linux, when the following select statement is executed.

select * from product_items;

Such a simple select statement isn’t it? But will fail in Unix and Linux as database names, table names and table aliases are case sensitive by default.

Solution 1: Ensure Identifier Naming Consistency

The most elegant solution, is of course to ensure identifier naming consistency in database and codes. But if you’re working on a mammoth project, this is not the quickest solution though.

Solution 2: Alter lower_case_table_names System Variable

The quickest solution in this case, is to alter the database default behavior, such that table names are always treated as case insensitive.

By default, lower_case_table_names is set to ‘0′ in Unix. So, you can do the following to alter the lower_case_table_names variable.

Ensure that the database name and all existing table names are lowercase.
Open to edit /etc/my.cnf file
Add “lower_case__table_names=1” (without quote) into /etc/my.cnf
Restart MySQL

After restart, the lower_case_table_names variable of your MySQL database should appear as ‘1‘. So, regardless of the case of identifier naming in your codes, all should work like case sensitivity is never an issue at all.

Refer to http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/en/identifier-case-sensitivity.html for further information.

Rainbow at Kelana Jaya

Published October 14, 2008 in Shutterbug. 8 Comments

It was drizzling yesterday’s evening at Bandar Utama and Kelana Jaya area, and yet the sun was shinning with warm rays directing from Kelana Jaya towards Damansara area. This has formed the wonder of nature - rainbow.

When I came back from my appointment in KL, I was totally trilled when I saw the rainbow. Wow! What a perfect timing. Got a few shots with my SE P1, sent MMS and uploaded to Twitpic, to share the moment.

That wasn’t enough. I rushed back home, grabbed my camera, hoping that the rainbow will wait for me (:p), went to the Kelana Jaya LRT pedestrian bridge again, and caught a few shots

Wai Pei is right, there was double rainbow too! But couldn’t be seen from the pedestrian bridge; only saw it when I reached home, from the angle at my house.