It works to be unique

Waktu masih SD, SMP, SMA dulu, saya sering mendengar guru bilang, bahwa hanya ada 3 macam murid yang mudah diingat guru: yang paling pintar, yang paling maaf (I'd like to say "underachiever"), atau yang fisiknya unik (rambut model punk misalnya). But I tell you what, setelah jadi dosen (tapi maaf masih berusaha jadi guru) ternyata the old saying still stands.

Dalam posting saya fokus kepada skill yang unik, yang tidak semua mahasiswa punya dan seringnya tidak didapat hanya dari kuliah, misalnya:

- berapa dari kita yang bisa mengecilkan ukuran file pdf?

- atau bisa mengubah format text menjadi angka dalam cell spreadsheet

- atau bisa membuat daftar isi otomatis

- mahir shortcut AutoCAD (kabarnya mahasiswa tambang menyusun proposal dengan AutoCAD karena mahirnya :))

atau skill yang lain... Yang bisa anda dapat dari bergaul atau blog walking disaat senggang. Ternyata skill seperti ini yang mudah diingat orang lain. Dan percayalah, anda bisa mendapat benefit yang lumayan dari skill itu.

satu lagi, ternyata ada orang yang dibayar atas jasanya membuat grafik, plot, and other visual information (http://feltron.com/).

-- ilustrasi dari: saveourpostoffice.com ---

Sistem Tata Suara Masjidil Haram dan Masjid Nabawi (Originally posted by @jsarwono)

Dear Students, berginilah kalau dosen nge-blog. Ada contoh yang ilmiah seperti blog Pak Joko Sarwono ini (beliau Dosen Teknik Fisika ITB) atau bisa juga yang campuran dengan yang ringan dan ditemui dalam kehidupan sehari-hari, seperti blog milik Pak Budi Rahardjo (beliau Dosen Teknik Informatika).

Ok… Selamat ngeblog…

The one with the email reply

I am very sorry for posting it in Indonesian Language, because it was originally a n email reply to a student, asking how did I write (nearly everyday).
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Sama-sama, semoga email reply ini bermanfaat. Saya membagi (sharing) bukan hanya untuk anda semua, tapi juga untuk saya sendiri. Supaya saya juga tidak berhenti mencari. Jangan dikira, saya tidak nonton TV dan mengikuti serial TV. Anda tahu serial Mentallist atau Bates Motel? itu sudah habis saya tonton. Utk video games, saya memang bukan gamers. Tapi kalau anak saya mengajak main games lucu-lucu (bahkan nge-dance di Nintendo Wii), saya juga pasti tidak menolak, walaupun badan habis keringetan.

Hanya saja, berapa jam sih kita nonton dalam 24 jam total sehari. Pastinya kan tidak 100%. Kita hanya perlu memastikan bahwa saat kita tidak nonton TV atau video games, kita memikirkan kegiatan utama kita… Riset kita. Mohon diingat ya, fokus saja ke riset anda. Kuliah akan mengikuti. At least itu terbukti untuk saya. Seperti yang sering saya sampaikan, arahkan semua tugas kuliah, pertanyaan kuliah ke rencana riset anda. Tapi saya sering juga bilang, buat dua rencana riset. Everyone must have at least onePlan B right.

Utk blogging. ini juga cara saya untuk stay awake. Saya sering sampaikan kepada mahasiswa saya, “bagaimana mana sih agar kita bisa dikenal orang?” (in a good way pastinya ya). Saya sambung:

Kondisi 1 — “kalaupun ganteng atau cantik, kita bukan tipe yang camera face, kalaupun lucu tapi pastinya masih malu-malu (yang masuk TV adalah yang lucu dan tidak tahu malu :-))

Kondisi 2 — “kalaupun kita bisa main musik, pastinya juga tidak berkembang pesat karena “disambil” jadi mahasiswa atau dosen”

Jadi kembali lagi, bagaimana agar kita “yang orang universitas” ini bisa dikenal. Satu-satunya yang masuk akal adalah dengan “menulis”. Mengapa saya beri tanda ” “, karena menulis sangat luas. Salah satunya adalah dengan blogging. Silahkan mulai “nge-blog” dengan platform yang mudah: WordPress(punya Yahoo) atau Blogger (punya Google). Tulis apa saja for a start, tapi selipkan materi riset anda. Satu paragraf saja. Salah satu mahasiswa S2 Prodi Teknik Air Tanah, sudah mulai menulis di ForumAnakbertanya.

Kalau sudah terlatih, bahkan email ini bisa juga jadi blogpost (tentunya setelah diedit dengan menghilangkan yang privacy).

Ok. Just do It (kalau kata sepatu mah)

Salam @d_erwin_irawan

(ilustrasi dariwww.intelligentbee.com)

The one with the GTD (Get Things Done)

I don’t mean to add another GTD (Get Things Done) system in your library. There are so many who share their GTD  system, that probably you have applied some of them. I just share my daily activities, as well as my new habit in Sydney. If something might interest you, drop your comment or send me email. I saw this GTD by Jamie Todd Rubin (I’m going to look for the link later), and made this short article. 

Currently I live in Sydney. I’m planning to stay here for one year,  accompanying my wife pursuing her PhD, and having sabbattical leave from ITB (Institut Teknologi Bandung). However, I also have collaborative research activities (the fun part) with Dr. Willem Vervoort from Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Sydney. My academic activities will take place in the Australian Technology Part area (near Redfern train station).

Here’s my daily GTD, and I will complete this post when I have time (scratches of time, if I may say). 

• My computers and mobile devices
  • Laptop: Macbook Air (13,1” and 128 GB model) (Circa 2012)
  • Phone: iPhone 5s (Black-Space grey). The recently-replaced iPhone was a 3 yo (3Gs). I was moving away from Blackberry since then :-).  
• Other gadgets I use regularly
  • I used to record my voice note using Sony Digital Recorder (1 gigs), but I use my iPhone now to do that.
  • I’m still using “old skool” classic notepad to write whatever, mainly my to do list. :-) 
• Frequently-used apps
• Google Apps: I practically live on Google Apps system. 
• Gmail: I use it on my MB (with Google Chrome) and on my iPhone (with standard mail app).
• Google Calendar: I put all of my todo list and activities on my Cal (iPhone) which is connected to the Google Cal app. This is how my devices stay connected.
• Google Docs: I use this app when I’m connected to the net, searching for some references. I always open the pdfs, docs/ppts/xls (opendable docs) with Google Docs, so that I don’t clutter my MB HDD with files that I don’t need (read: junks) . It will automatically saved in my Google Drive account. Therefore I can seek them again whenever I need.
• Google Notes: I always my “Notes app” in my iPhone just to take note on whatever crosses my mind. The app is connected to my Google and iCloud acc, then my devices will record the same note. I can access them later on, when I need to develop it. Last but not least, do to the limited internet connection, I often use the fast line at the office, instead of at my apartment. In offline environment I always use Growly Notes (it pastes anything on your copy-path) to store my ideas, for retrieving later on. 
• Office app: My main office app is LibreOffice. Because of its free (offcourse), and save all docs in default open document formats (to make sure it won’t catch viruses). Only a few docs I save in Microsoft formats, the selected ones that I think it is going to need collab with others (colleague) that use Ms Office.  I always share my work in pdf formats (offcourse reduce the file size before send it). 
• Evernote: I call it the souvenir from the 21st century, and it’s free!!! I use it in my Googling journey, make article clips, page clips of what I found interesting. I often take snapshots of my notes and my sketches (from my notepad) and make a few bits of thoughts afterwards. Almost forget, I always share my “discoveries” to my students, using Evernote. I send out my article links to them so that they know what I’m thinking, and what references to use, or just light chit chat to ease their.

Hello Sydney !!!

1st live broadcast from Sydney :-) Alhamdulillah… We flew with Qantas for about 6 hrs, plus 1 hr bus ride with Airport Shuttle Service, then arrived at Westmead area, western suburb of Sydney. We live at the Accommodation complex of Westmead Hospital. just a quick stroll for my wife to the hospital (where she’s doing her PhD) and 1 hr train ride to Australian Technology Park (where I do my research at Usyd).

Hopefully we can enjoy this year :-) – at Westmead Hospital Accommodation Complex

Socmed for academic purposes

This was my first tweet ever. It was 3 years a go. How time flies ... The first time I tweet, I did not realize that this media can be used for academic purposes. For commercial, marketing, maybe I saw the point, but academic ... But now, I tweet about my courses, references, schedule at least twice a week. It very much depends on my tight schedule. The responses are quite good. I usually tweet about my personal thoughts (mostly... again in term of academics). Throwing jokes at my wife (@putry_erwin), especially when I was away on a job. It's really fun to read other's thoughts, comments, protests (at some level), and appreciations. It's also keep bugging me that so many people have so many times to reply to every tweet mentioning their account.

So well I stick to my positive tweets then, I hope it gives values to all my 200 followers. :-)

PS: I tracked my first tweet using Topsy service.

illustration from: birdsontheblog.co.uk