Tsunami Aid and Schapelle Verdict

I believe if Schapelle is innocent, but I don't believe in that people should make a parallel consideration between Tsunami Aid and Schapelle Verdict.

Corby supporters have condemned Indonesian authorities as ungrateful, after the Australian government committed more than 1 billion Australian dollars (US$780 million; euro600 million) in grants and low-interest loans for disaster relief after the Dec. 26 tsunami.
But the secretary general of the Australian Red Cross, Robert Tickner, rejected calls for charities to refund donations made to Indonesian tsunami victims. (link)

Even John Howard doesn't believe in that analogy at all.

LOUISE YAXLEY: Mr Howard rejects calls for him to contact the Indonesian President over the Corby case.
JOHN HOWARD: Some people will think that I can fix this; because this country gave a billion dollars of assistance to Indonesia in the wake of the tsunami, that I can ring up the President. (link)

There is a fine line between the help ethics and the law ethics and people should know this.

Netscape 8, I Can Do That, I Can Do This

With Netscape 8.0.1 browser, I can do that, I can do this.



Firstly, I can swap displayed browser between Firefox and IE. So, I don't bother with any compability of display requirement anymore.

Secondly, I can save browser windows, because the new browser is opened in the current window with tabbed browsing.

Thirdly, I can check both my Yahoo and Gmail accounts. It's good.

Fourthly, I can bookmark the RSS feeds of a site, which is identified automatically, and watch it live in a scrolling headline feeds.

You can check out it more from this link and GET NETSCAPE 8.

Google 4.0 Browser in My Stat

Browser: Google 4.0


Interesting, because I've never found this kind of browser before.

Schapelle

I'm Indonesian but it is true that I got my tears trickling down a bit for Schapelle after the verdict was read. For 20 years in Bali prison is something that I can't imagine for such a sexy and gorgeous girl like her. But apart from that, I believe that she is innocent and doesn't deserve such kind of punishment at all.

Just say if she could be guilty, 20 years is her quite lucky verdict as the death penalty or life sentence is the normal options for the judges. I again can't imagine if the prosecutors would appeal for the worst scenario later on.

Chief prosecutor Ida Bagus Wiswantanu said he would probably appeal if the sentence was 20 years unless the judges had good legal reasons for a sentence of less than life imprisonment. (link)

The issue on drugs in Indonesia has been prejudiced as part of foreign intelligence strategy to decrease the productivity of society. Most of middle class parents have been telling this prejudice to their children. Obviously, most of them tend to blame foreigners for deliberately transferring such drugs culture to the Indonesian society. That kind of rumour has actually spread among Indonesian parents after the Vietnam War relating to the Air America activity.

The Nugan Hand Bank of Sydney was a CIA bank in all but name. Among its officers were a network of US generals, admirals and CIA men, including fommer CIA Director William Colby, who was also one of its lawyers. With branches in Saudi Arabia, Europe, Southeast Asia, South America and the U.S., Nugan Hand Bank financed drug trafficking, money laundering and international arms dealings. In 1980, amidst several mysterious deaths, the bank collapsed, $50 million in debt. (link)

Schapelle, I believe, is only a victim of the bigger ring of drugs trafficking in South East Asia, which, I think, has well been organised and supported by some bad people.

Schapelle Corby timeline video

I just watched the Schapelle Corby timeline video from Ninemsn News. It's so intense and sad.

I have no idea and opinion regarding this, but I hope she could be sent back to Australia.

How to protect yourself

Identity theft has become the fastest growing crime nowadays.

Identity theft has become an increasingly common and widespread crime overseas. It is also on the rise in New Zealand.
Identity theft occurs when a criminal uses another person's personal information to take on that person's identity. This mainly involves stealing personal details to commit theft or fraud. (link)

Despite it is actually rare in New Zealand compared to the USA, it is still important to protect ourselves.

One of the most common forms of credit fraud is committed by ‘stealing’ the identity of another individual. Someone obtains your identity details and uses them to obtain credit for themselves, leaving you with the potential liability for this debt, a damaged credit reputation and the inconvenience of amending your credit file. (link)

I started this blog from ZERO

This is my first template when I started blogging with Blogger in September 2004.

It's totally Blogger's template and I didn't know anything about HTML and web designing as I'm actually a finance student.

But, as time goes by, I've been learning a lot from the net about HTML and web designing and also collecting javascripts (from Dynamic Drive) for some nice effects on my blog. I also got some blogger template hacks from blogger help, BloggerHacks and jsierra.net.

Recently, I've organised and created new pages for my blog at no cost using Blogger hosting. I have three blogs at the moment: my blog, my photoblog and my community blog. For me, internet is such a free lunch so I don't bother to spend any money for keeping my webpages on the net. That is why I keep blogging with Blogger because the hosting is free.

Without the passion to keep blogging, I wouldn't have come this far.

My dream is that some day I want to create a comprehensive financial planning weblog with some financial networking tools and calculators so that people can always be linked one to another financially.

NZ govt will subsidize Broadband

The government of NZ will subsidize $ 400 million to the people for broadband connection for the next five years. This commitment is part of the objective of "ICT for All New Zealanders".

The government has committed to spend up to $400 million over the next five years to make the Digital Strategy happen. But this won’t be enough on its own to achieve our objectives. So we plan to use government money to stimulate action and commitment by others - to provide seed funding and to stimulate activity.

Vision of The Digital Strategy itself is that all New Zealanders get access to digital information and communicaton with broadband connection.

The Digital Strategy is about how we will create a digital future for all New Zealanders, using the power of information and communications technology (ICT) to enhance all aspects of our lives.

It is similar to what has been proposed in Indonesia by ICT evangelist Dr. Onno Purbo, but the different is that since there is no subsidy from the government, some wireless internet centres will commonly be funded by the society.

Finally, RSS feeds for Indonesian News

I've looking around for RSS feeds URLs for Indonesian News to be subscribed into my bloglines feeds and I'm almost desperate actually.

But, finally I found them in this blog.

Kudos to Johan who had created those feeds. Excellent work. I don't think there are any other sources for such kind RSS feeds on the net.

Salam Pax's "shut up your fat whiner"

It's too late for me to know it, but tonight I just subscribed Salam Pax's blog of "shut up your fat whiner!" into my bloglines feeds.

Some say his previous blog of "where is Raed?" has been published in a book and is interesting to read even the latest video clip can be found on BBC.

I never think there is such kind of blogger before. It must have been hard for him.

Blogger Salary = USD 2,500 a Month

According to the IWantMedia's excerpts of the conversation with Lockhart Steele, managing director Gawker Media, a blogger at his company can get paid USD 2,500 a month and more.

We pay a set rate of $2,500 a month. But one thing that's interesting about Gawker is that we've begun to incentivize our writers based on the traffic to their sites. Our bloggers can earn more money that way. They can more than double their salary based on the number of pages [viewed].
We want people to come to our sites and look at the pages. So we want each of our writers to feel a little bit like an entrepreneur. One of the ways you get traffic on the Net is to get links. There needs to be an incentive for our writers to do that. (link)

Man, it's not bad, really, for a kind of freelancer.

Anyway, blogger jobs have in fact got the market place. Go bloggers !

My Site Score

Based on the link recommended by Enda, I tested my site score on Silktide.com and the result is 7.5. I then took the button award.

It's not bad aye for an amateur...

Ages ago

Suddenly, I wanted to listen my midi jukebox and this midi reminded me the time when I still went outing with my hurray fellows. Uuuhh... It's ages ago, man.

A Bloggers' Code of Ethics

I've just finished reading all links on my bloglines feeds, which consist of some interesting blogs and news. Whooh... it's such a long tiring reading. You can have a look and suggest your blog to me if you want to.

Anyway, from my reading, particularly at CyberJournalist.net, I found a good concept of "A Bloggers' Code of Ethics":

Be Honest and Fair
Bloggers should be honest and fair in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.
Bloggers should:

• Never plagiarize.
• Identify and link to sources whenever feasible. The public is entitled to as much information as possible on sources' reliability.
• Make certain that Weblog entries, quotations, headlines, photos and all other content do not misrepresent. They should not oversimplify or highlight incidents out of context.
• Never distort the content of photos without disclosing what has been changed. Image enhancement is only acceptable for for technical clarity. Label montages and photo illustrations.
• Never publish information they know is inaccurate -- and if publishing questionable information, make it clear it's in doubt.
• Distinguish between advocacy, commentary and factual information. Even advocacy writing and commentary should not misrepresent fact or context.
• Distinguish factual information and commentary from advertising and shun hybrids that blur the lines between the two.

Minimize Harm
Ethical bloggers treat sources and subjects as human beings deserving of respect. Bloggers should:

• Show compassion for those who may be affected adversely by Weblog content. Use special sensitivity when dealing with children and inexperienced sources or subjects.
• Be sensitive when seeking or using interviews or photographs of those affected by tragedy or grief.
• Recognize that gathering and reporting information may cause harm or discomfort. Pursuit of information is not a license for arrogance.
• Recognize that private people have a greater right to control information about themselves than do public officials and others who seek power, influence or attention. Only an overriding public need can justify intrusion into anyone's privacy.
• Show good taste. Avoid pandering to lurid curiosity. Be cautious about identifying juvenile suspects, victims of sex crimes and criminal suspects before the formal filing of charges.

Be Accountable
Bloggers should:

• Admit mistakes and correct them promptly.
• Explain each Weblog's mission and invite dialogue with the public over its content and the bloggers' conduct.
• Disclose conflicts of interest, affiliations, activities and personal agendas.
• Deny favored treatment to advertisers and special interests and resist their pressure to influence content. When exceptions are made, disclose them fully to readers.
• Be wary of sources offering information for favors. When accepting such information, disclose the favors.
• Expose unethical practices of other bloggers.
• Abide by the same high standards to which they hold others.

The term of "should" is to explain something ethical. However, something UNETHICAL does not mean UNLAWFUL. In fact, I never heard about blogging law so far.

Linked by Indonesian Embassy NZ

Do you remember the community blog I've made before? It's been linked by Indonesian Embassy in Wellington.


Hopefully, the blog is not just temporarily occupied. It needs co-operation between the current and former community members to keep it alive.

Weblog for my community

Today I just announced a weblog for my community. It is going to be a common source for everyone in the community to post anything they want to share.

Despite the template is similar with my anymatters, only the header is different. This is because I don't have much time to create something new. Or, I was just lazy I think.

Anyway, we'll see how it is going.

Surprised Party

Tonight I had just been fooled by my wifey and her friends. They've just threw me a surprised party that I knew it was supposed to be a surprised party for Erny, our country fellow and neighbour. The party was actually held at her place.

After dinner I got boring with the socializing conversation with others. I then sat on the corner and watched TV by myself. Suddenly, the light was turned off and the cake with candle lights was coming towards me. It was really surprised me. I love you, Nina.

surprise....!

thanks everybody...especially you Hon !

May Day My B'day

May Day, May First, today is my b'day and I'm glad to have such day as my b'day as the international workers celebrate it. I remember two years ago my friend gave me a NZ$33 second-hand book as a present. A book that has opened my view broader and put a little bit aside my capitalist view for a while as a finance student.

There's nothing wrong with the capitalists actually, but they just have too much ideas and capital to add and transfer value too far from the human resources can get in return for the sake of cost reduction. I know it because I used to make the budget. 

I am now blogging from Starbucks using the NZ telecom wifi connection, which costs me NZ$8 per hour and NZ$6 cappuccino. The cappuccino is as great as Starbucks.

Starbucks is a good example of how coffee commodity value is transferred too far. From Indonesian Islands to the mug on my table. Go Starbucks Workers !