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Showing posts from 2010

Journey with a book of the dead

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From 4 November 2010 to 6 March 2010 the British Museum , London, shows a special exhibition on the Egyptian book of the dead. The complete title of the exhibition is " Journey through the afterlife. Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead ." I was happy to visit this extraordinary exhibition together with my English class.

Samsung Galaxy Tab: Flashing new ROM Update

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It seems difficult, but in reality it isn't. I read in the Samsung Galaxy Tab forums that many people have problem flashing the new EURO ROM P1000XXJM6 . I flashed the new ROM straight forward without any problem. So I want to share the steps I followed. Notes: There are different types of Galaxy Tab available. Please make sure that you have EURO version if you want to follow the steps below. I got my Samsung Galaxy Tab from carphonewarehouse.co.uk (it offers the cheapest GTab in the UK. If you buy the keyboard together with GTab you pay only half).

The strength of Caritas Sibolga in the first five years

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Five years ago I was privileged to start and build up an humanitarian and social organisation called Caritas Sibolga . It has become a strong local NGO with international network (long term MoU with some international partners). In the first five years of its existence Caritas Sibolga implemented programmes with the value of 6 million Euro. Although it didn't hired the best professionals and consultants, Caritas Sibolga demonstrated the ability to design and implement big scale programmes with local staff, which could compete in quality with that of big INGOs. What was the key to this success? Let find out in an article  Kunci Kesuksesan Caritas Sibolga  I published on my Indonesian blog. * The author was Programme Manager and Deputy Director of Caritas Sibolga from 2005 to 2009. During his professional work in Caritas Sibolga he has developed implemented 22 projects with the support of donors from different countries (among them Caritas Italy , Secours catholique , Caritas Au

iPhone 3GS? Better than that!

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For those who try to stand outside the commercialisation trend of our world, it is amazing to see what the community of open source software   and free software movement could do. Many people work together and contribute to a better software without the main concern for profit. One of them is xda developers . They and the others show us that there is a world of humanity beyond the commercialised world. I just realised this when I was trying the work of the community around Android , which has modified the look of my Nexus One to be like iPhone. As an iPhone 3GS owner I can say that this one is even better than the iPhone. Why? Read more

Nexus One with new look

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I bet that the iPhone users and other mobile phones are envy if they look at the new UI of my Nexus One. The appearance of my Google Nexus One has now transformed into that of HTC Desire . I got this after I deleted the previous ROM and replaced it with the new one from a xda developer called Evil's NXSense . I even impressed somebody in the cinema last week, who amazed said, "Wow, you've got a Desire?" (You know, Desire is now the best mobile phone in the UK). As the screen-shots below show it, the new UI is really beautiful. Read more here . Although I like the new mod, I personally prefer to use the ROM version of CyanogenMod . CyanogenMod has built into the ROM some extra tweak settings that I miss in the other ROM. It is good so. Android user has more choice than the others!

User experience on Nexus One: Google Translate, Browser, News

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In the previous article I wrote about my experience with Google applications Calendar, Contacts and Gmail on Nexus One . This time I will write about my experience with Google Translate , built-in web browser , and news application. An exciting user experience. Of course I'll show also the screen-shots. Life hasn't been so easy and mobile phone hasn't been so fun to use. Read more here .

User experience on Nexus One: Calendar, Contacts, Email

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I've been using three leading smart-phones for a while now and I want to share my experience. The three are Apple iPhone 3GS (iOS4) , Google Nexus One (Android) , and Nokia E72 (Symbian) . I used to be heavy Nokia fan and was a proud owner of almost all its best smart-phones (E90, N95, N97, E71, E72). Unfortunately Nokia E72 lost the competition against iPhone 3GS and Google Nexus One. With its Symbian Nokia E72 seems to be out of date, so that I always left it home. After using the other two smart-phones browsing and IMAP experience on E72 feels really frustrating. The other two are more advanced in terms of innovation and technology and therefore can accompany my day everywhere. I the following I'll show some screen-shots and brief description of my excellent user experience on Nexus One. Read more here .

Listen to FM Radio on Nexus One!

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As Nexus One owner most probably you don't know, that it is possible to listen to FM Radio with it. Basically you can't, because the stock kernel doesn't support it and there is no application available. I don't know whether Google knew it and has done it on purpose: the Nexus One chip is capable of receiving FM radio signal. How? Read more here . Yesterday I downloaded the newest ROM from CyanogenMod and was surprised that among some new added apps I found a new application called FM Radio . I tried it and it worked perfectly (see the picture). While writing this article I was listening to BBC2 Radio, which was reporting about the huge spending cuts programmes of the UK government approved in the parliament yesterday (20/10/2010).

Google and the movement to make our world more human

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Google is profit -company, but it has a totally different approach compare to other companies. As if Google bridges two worlds, has one foot on the profit side and other foot on the non-profit side. Non-profit organisations define itself by providing its services for free for better world, better humanity. But they are not alone now. Although a profit company Google provides a broad spectrum of services for free too and makes other profit and non-profit organisations make profit out of Google services. Google Maps, Gmail, Calendar, Google Apps, Google Earth, and a lot more; Android, Chrome, Google TV and so on; Google releases them all for free. Imagine how many people, organisations and governments are using Google services and therefore keeping the cost low. Even if you hate Google, you can't help but acknowledging this. No other company has contributed so much for better world and better humanity like Google. Even if Microsoft donated recently 2 million dollar for education,

At the crossroads of modernism

Islam world ( Orient ) experienced its golden times, when Western world ( Occident ) was still struggling in Middle Ages. At the 8th century for example Baghad had developed to be a cosmopolitan city with all its scientific innovations in mathematics, astronomic, medical, and philosophy. At that time the Occident had to go to the Orient to study. But in the following centuries the science stayed stagnant in the Orient, while the Occident went through enlightenment and the emerging of sciences. The result: in the 21st century the Orient seems to love the Middle Ages of the Occident, while the Occident sits on the driving seat of the science. Why? This month the well-known German Magazine Der Spiegel published an edition on Islam. 1400 years of faith, wars and culture (edition 5/2010). The summary of it is published in an article: Am Scheideweg der Moderne: Sturz in den Schatten . A highly interesting and recommendable article.

The profile of Papal visit opponents

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The visit of Pope Benedict XVI has been used by his opponents to demonstrate against him. Who are they? They are a mixture between militant secularists and radical humanists. BBC has published their profile and can be read at BBC News - Papal visit: Pope Benedict XVI's opponents . The only group not mentioned in this profile is the radical Islamic group, which also demonstrated against the Pope.

Pope's visit is deemed to challenge stereotypes

The visit to the lion's nest has proved to be not harmful to the Pope Benedict XVI, who visited the UK 16-19 September 2010. The Pope team said even that the success has gone beyond their expectation. This is the resume of BBC: Pope's visit is deemed to challenge stereotypes .

Hamad Abdel-Samad

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Today I missed Germany a lot. Therefore I sat down and browsed German Newspapers. Die Welt wrote an article about " As a culture Islam will vanish ". In that article Die Welt published an interview with the Egyptian writer and scientist Hamad Abdel-Samad , who is also an expert in political science. At 23 he went to Germany to study. He was known as anti-Semitic and anti Western world. But now Hamad Abdel-Samad wants to reform Islam as a culture. It is really worth to read the interview . I just recommend it.

Arab-Israel conflict

Today I visited the website of  guardian.co.uk . The article on the newest conflict between Lebanon and Israel attracted my attention. " Soldiers dead in Lebanon-Israel border clash ," wrote guardian.co.uk . I've heard and read a lot about the conflict between Arab and Israel, but I always have the feeling that I know very little. Sometimes I'm confused reading the news or articles on that topic, because very often they are bias and I don't know any more, what is true or false. This brief history from  guardian.co.uk  helped me to understand better.

The real challenge in development work

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One of the houses built as part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction projects in Nias, after the 2005 Nias earthquake (Photo: Private archive) Although emergency response after a big disaster is a challenging work, according to my experience the reconstruction and rehabilitation is the more challenging one. Basically to do emergency response is not more than distributing basic needs of the beneficiaries. The only challenge is to set up an prestigious distribution method, so that more beneficiaries can be reached in a rapid way. Reconstruction and rehabilitation presents itself more complicated than it seems in the first sight. Especially in the NGO way of work, i.e. to put a high value on participation and empowerment of the beneficiaries, this challenge will appear to be real. Working together with the beneficiaries to build a resilient community seems to be easy but in reality could be difficult and complicated. No wonder that many NGOs, even the big ones, take a more pra