Sustainable Social Object Advantage.

When Jyri expanded the work of Bourdieu and Hyde amongst others and started to talk about object centred sociality, he used Flickr as an example. The photos were the object while sharing and commenting were the social gestures (or verbs as he would put it). The sociality was a source of competitive advantage.

An observation on her own behaviour made by Elizabeth Churchill in a recent talk prompted me to wonder about an unexpected side-effect of continuous improvement. What if your service develops in a way that changes your users behaviour and reduces their sociality?

Elizabeth spoke of how her former behaviour of being a frequent browser and commenter on Flickr had stemmed fom downtime while she waited for her pictures to upload. It is "former behaviour" because mobile upload has now been perfected. She uploads on the move and thus now uses Flickr solely as an archive and neither browses nor comments.

Yet again, improving a service towards seamlessness shows that seamfulness has its benefits. The formal raison d'etre may be improved, but is the overall user experience denuded? Perhaps social objects need to be in some sense "physical" (be that tactile or time-consuming) in order for the sociality to be sustained.

Marketing Isn't Just Promotion.

Proof, if ever it were needed, that the world hasn't changed that much and that the 4 Ps of marketing still prevail comes from the story of Stow Away Storage set up by two guys who noted an absence of storage facilities for sailors in their local harbour.

Obviously they'd need to attract customers and so they decided on a marketing budget of £10,000. But that didn't pan out.

In fact, they only managed to spend £3 and for that princely sum placed a postcard-sized ad in the window of their local post office for 6 weeks. They got orders worth £250,000. They'd spotted an unfulfilled need and met it.

The only aspect of the story that has any resonance with the world of new paradigms is their equivalent of the death of mainstream media. They can no longer advertise in the post-office window. It's been shut down.

Membuat Menu Vertikal (Vertical)

Sebelumnya kita pernah membahas tentang membuat menu horizontal, nha sekarang mari kita mencoba membuat menu vertikal. Menu vertikal ini cocok kalau dipasang di sidebar karena bentuknya berjajar sevara vertikal (ya iyalah). Contohnya seperti gambar disamping itu. Beginilah cara membuatnya :

1. Login ke blogger trus pilih "Layout-->Edit HTML"
2. Masukkan kode berikut sebelum kode ]]></b:skin> atau sebelum kode </style> . Pokoknya ditaruh di dalam Barisan kode CSS deh.

.glossymenu, .glossymenu li ul{
list-style-type: none;
margin: 0;
padding: 0;
width: 185px; /*WIDTH OF MAIN MENU ITEMS*/
border: 1px solid black;
}
.glossymenu li{
position: relative;
}
.glossymenu li a{
background: white url('http://kendhin.890m.com/blog/vertical/blue1.gif') repeat-x bottom left;
font: bold 12px Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif;
color: white;
display: block;
width: auto;
padding: 5px 0;
padding-left: 10px;
text-decoration: none;
}
.glossymenu li ul{
position: absolute;
width: 190px;
left: 0;
top: 0;
display: none;
}
.glossymenu li ul li{
float: left;
}
.glossymenu li ul a{
width: 180px;
}
.glossymenu li a:visited, .glossymenu li a:active{
color: white;
}
.glossymenu li a:hover{
background-image: url('http://kendhin.890m.com/blog/vertical/blue2.gif');
}

* html .glossymenu li { float: left; height: 1%; }
* html .glossymenu li a { height: 1%; }

Untuk memilih warna menu, perhatikan kode2 yang berwarna merah (blue1.gif dan blue2.gif). Ganti kode tersebut dengan pilihan warna dibawah ini. Misal jika kamu ingin memilih menu warna merah maka kodenya menjadi seperti ini :

.glossymenu li a{
background: white url('http://kendhin.890m.com/blog/vertical/red1.gif') repeat-x bottom left;

dan

.glossymenu li a:hover{
background-image: url('http://kendhin.890m.com/blog/vertical/red1.gif');

Pilihan Warna menu vertikal :

	blue1.gif blue2.gif
	green1.gif green2.gif
	red1.gif red2.gif
	pink1.gif pink2.gif
	black1.gif black2.gif

3. Kemudian di save.
4. Lalu pergi ke menu "Page Elements"
5. Pilih "Add a Gadget -->HTML/JavaScript" kemudian masukkan kode berikut kedalamnya:

<ul id="verticalmenu" class="glossymenu">
<li><a href="/">Home</a></li>
<li><a href="http://trik-tips.blogspot.com">Trik Blog</a></li>
<li><a href="http://x-template.blogspot.com" >Free Template</a></li>
<li><a href="http://getebook.co.cc">Free Ebook</a></li>
</li>
</ul>

Kode yang berwarna merah adalah linknya dan yg warna biru adalah teks yang ditampilkan. Kalau mau menambahkan menu tingal buat lagi kode seperti yg berkedip2 dibawahnya.

Dah gitu aja. Gampang kan???? :D

Guaranteed Quality?

My washing machine guarantee has recently expired. I know this because the manufacturer sent me a letter to to try to sell me repair insurance. Now, the selling of extended warranties at the time of purchase is big business, but I hardly think that those of us who refused in the first place are going to have a change of heart a year or two down the line.

The direct marketing spreadsheets will, presumably, indicate a positive cashflow on the excercise, but for the huge majority of customers who don't bite on this offer, the only message we've received is this. Your great product (replete with wonderful features and reliability) is now, in your opinion, a little bit dodgy and prone to expensive collapse.

I'm not sure about the ROI on that.

Chess-Boxing And Segmentation.

Just as brand extensions seek overlaps in imagined psychographic groupings, chess-boxing aims to bring together the number one "thinking" sport and the number one "fighting" sport. You win via checkmate or a knock-out.

This is not just transmedia planning, this is trans-sports marketing and about as sensible as much of the demographic targetting that masquerades as insight these days.

Traffic.

My current reading. Full of revelations about what people do rather than what they say or think they do. Full of thoughts that seem applicable to all sorts of human interactions. Out next month. Highly recommended.

Hardy Heron as a rescue CD

Ternyata,
ada beberapa kasus,
dimana kalau sebuah komputer dg OS windows di dalamnya,
dan dengan beberapa akun yang semuanya terlindungi password,
Hardy Heron tidak mampu secara langsung meng-mount partisi NTFS yang ada.
Lalu?
Sederhana sebenarnya.
Pertama, jalankan LiveCD Hardy Heron.
Kedua, setelah masuk, buka menu Places.
Di situ, semua partisi NTFS yang ada akan terbaca,
tetapi ketika kita coba masuk akan ada pesan error.
Nah, jangan buru2 anda menutup pesan error tersebut.
Baca dulu partisi yang kita baca berada di mana. (misal : /dev/sda1 atau /dev/sdb2 dan lainnya)
Setelah tahu,
buka terminal.
Buatlah direktori untuk meng-mount partisi NTFS yang kita inginkan.
Perintahnya (misal) sudo mkdir /media/windowsku
Lalu mountlah partisi windows yang kita ingini,
dg menggunakan aplikasi ntfs-3g
Perintahnya sudo ntfs-3g mount -t /dev/sda1 /media/windowsku -o force
Setelah itu, tunggulah,
dan partisi NTFS siap anda baca dan tulisi.
Begitulah.
Salam Linux>

Marketing Communication Breakdown.

Jargon often develops as a kind of short-hand designed to speed up communication about frequently discussed ideas. It is inclusive - a signifier of one having passed some rite of passage and developed a level of expertise that binds you to the gang. Trouble is, that also excludes those who are new to the game.

Some people contend that jargon is good exactly because it binds people to the world of the product/service. They have a point. Inclusivity is a great goal. But does it have to be so excluding?

It's worth thinking of better ways to welcome engagement with your business and to reward customer achivement and user effort without putting up pscyhological barriers to entry? The best jargon is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive - that which resonates with your distinctive voice but is couched in self-explanatory language.

Cara Membuat Menu Tab View

Karena sering ditanya tentang bagaimana caranya membuat Tab VIew (Biasanya nanyanya gini: "Mas cara membuat menu yg kayak punya mas gmn? yg ada "Tips & Trik", "Lain-lain", "Terbaru", "Komentar" itu lho). Ya kan? hayo ngaku... Tabview itu sangat berguna sekali, karena dengan ukuran kotak yang relatif kecil tapi bisa memuat isi yang buanyak. Sebenarnya dah dari dulu pingin posting tentang itu, tp karena yg dulu cara pasanganya sulit jadi belum bisa aku jelaskan. Trus akhirnya aku menemukan metode baru dalam pembuatannya. Cara yang ini mungkin mirip dengan punyanya o-om, tp scriptnya agak beda. Dan aku dapet script ini juga bukan dari o-om lho :D
Tab view itu contohnya seperti ini :

Beginilah cara untuk membuat menu tab view tersebut

1. Login ke blogger trus pilih menu "Layout --> Edit HTML"
2. Kemudian cari kode ini ]]></b:skin>
3. Kemudian masukkan kode berikut ini sebelum kode ]]></b:skin> atau kedalam tag CSS.

div.TabView div.Tabs
{
height: 24px;
overflow: hidden;
}
div.TabView div.Tabs a
{
float: left;
display: block;
width: 90px; /* Lebar Menu Utama Atas */ text-align: center;
height: 24px; /* Tinggi Menu Utama Atas */
padding-top: 3px;
vertical-align: middle;
border: 1px solid #000; /* Warna border Menu Atas */
border-bottom-width: 0;
text-decoration: none;
font-family: "Times New Roman", Serif; /* Font Menu Utama Atas */
font-weight: 900;
color: #000; /* Warna Font Menu Utama Atas */
}
div.TabView div.Tabs a:hover, div.TabView div.Tabs a.Active
{
background-color: #FF9900; /* Warna background Menu Utama Atas */
}
div.TabView div.Pages
{
clear: both;
border: 1px solid #6E6E6E; /* Warna border Kotak Utama */
overflow: hidden;
background-color: #FF9900; /* Warna background Kotak Utama */
}
div.TabView div.Pages div.Page
{
height: 100%;
padding: 0px;
overflow: hidden;
}
div.TabView div.Pages div.Page div.Pad
{
padding: 3px 5px;
}

4. Perhatikan text-text yang berwarna merah, itu adalah keterangan untuk pengaturan Tab View. Ada ukuran warna dll. Untuk mengetahui kode2 warna silahkan lihat DISINI
5. Langkah selanjutnya yaitu pasang kode berikut ini sebelum kode </head>

<script src='http://kendhin.googlepages.com/tabview.js' type='text/javascript'/>

6. Kemudian "Di save"
7. Lalu pergi ke menu "Page Elements"
8. Trus PIlih "Add a Gadget" --> "HTML/Javascript" di tempat yg akan km letakkan Manu Tab View ini.
9. Inilah script yg harus kamu pasang :

<form action="tabview.html" method="get">
<div class="TabView" id="TabView">
<div class="Tabs" style="width: 350px;">
<a>Tab 1</a>
<a>Tab 2</a>
<a>Tab 3</a>
</div>
<div class="Pages" style="width: 350px; height: 250px;">

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 1.1 <br />
Tab 1.2 <br />
Tab 1.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 2.1 <br />
Tab 2.2 <br />
Tab 2.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

<div class="Page">
<div class="Pad">
Tab 3.1 <br />
Tab 3.2 <br />
Tab 3.3 <br />
</div>
</div>

</div>
</div>
</form>

<script type="text/javascript">
tabview_initialize('TabView');
</script>

Keterangan :
- Angka2 atau text yang berwarna biru (350px) adalah ukuran tinggi dan lebar tabview.
- Kode yang berwarna Hijau Adalah text yang di Menu utama (Menu Atas).
- Kode yang berwarna merah adalah isi dari tabvie tsb. Kamu bisa mengisinya dengan link, gambar, banner, script dll.
- Untuk menmbahkan jumlah menu maka perhatikanlah text yang berkedip2. tambahkan menu tersebut dibawahnya.

Self Awareness And The Long Tail.

The diagram comes from Seth Godin's blogpost about the long tail which he illustrated with movie examples. It's a nice device but he missed out the classic example, Snakes On A Plane.

If this had been a foreign language horror movie, it would have had very little but cult appeal and been buried in the low profit anonymity of pocket 3 where the aggregators hang out. But it wasn't. It was clearly a genre movie destined for the profitable, popular cult status of pocket 2.

However, this very fact and the noise that potential fans made on the internet caused its producers/distributers to conclude that it was, in fact, a mainstream movie with the industry holy grail of pocket 1 at its mercy. It wasn't and, as I've written before, this led to bad reactions from the first view mainstream audience, arguably a lesser box-office performance and cetainly a less profitable one in light of the increased marketing spend that was wasted.

The lessons are as follows.

1) Know and be what you are and act consistently and coherently in relation to that.

2) Don't be what you're not because you'll be found out quickly and negative word of mouth will follow.

3) Let the customers decide what you are to them. They may decide you're more than you initially thought and that will be a nice surprise.

Under Old Management.

People like change. They like dynamism. They don't want boring, but they also like reassurance that what they're getting is different but the same.

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Houston, We Have A Problem.

Apple turned the launch of the iPhone 3G into an event, but the first day was marred by the fact that credit checks are individual and don't benefit from economies of scale. There was lots of publicity but also considerable unhappiness.

In an age of always in beta, it surprises me how many companies still focus on launch days and events and risk anti-climax as a result of being unable to service the instant demand they've generated.

Even if day one goes fabulously, you're going to have cumulatively more customers to deal with on day two and beyond, so why this obsession with hitting a home run on day one? It's not how you built your business, so why change a successful formula?

10 Marketing Lessons From Conferences.

What started as a list of observations derived from recent experiences at conferences and speaking events has evolved into a somewhat contrived list of general marketing lessons designed to improve "customer satisfaction". As always, they can be extrapolated to other situations as well as making conferences more successful. For audience read customer, for speaker read product/service.

1) Know Your Subject.
The curator/organiser must be someone who really understands their subject - not some PR person focussed on selling, but someone who will craft an event that will have resonance and relevance to its audience.

2) Stay Focussed.
Keep it brief. Lectures like business books are too often padded out with extraneous examples and bogus rationalisation. Focus your speakers' minds by creating a time limit and you'll focus the minds of the audience.

3) Facilitate Interaction.
Ensure the speaker is visible to everyone at some stage so that even if sightlines are imperfect, the audience will know who to collar later when they want to follow up a point. Good talks stimulate conversations. Make sure you facilitate them.

4) Maintain Engagement.
Presentations are distilled and information-rich. They demand concentration of their audience. So don't bombard them late into the day. Inform them when they are likely to be receptive. Give them time to ruminate, relax and rehash when they are not.

5) Avoid Downtime.
Start when you said you would start. Ensure that your technology is double-teamed and flawless. Provide a seamless experience with no unexpected downtime that interrupts the flow.

6) Believe.
Trust your speaker. If you have say Sir Tim Berners-Lee in a room (not that I'm talking from recent experience), you don't need to put him on a panel. That only distracts attention from what brought you an audience in the first place and leaves your audience bemused and disgruntled.

7) Dialogue Not Monologue.
The audience is there to listen to the speaker not the egocentric ramblings of questioners, so when you open up the conversation, insist that questions are limited to one sentence and start with an interrogative. Maximise the exposure of the speaker, minimise distractions.

8) Disintermediate.
Discussion works best when one person speaks and another responds to them, so don't invoke the inefficient democratistion of taking groups of questions. The questions will be forgotten and/or unanswered and the whole process requires the unnecessary expansion of a chairman's role as intermediary. Speakers can hold their own conversations.

9) Ensure Relevance.
Ban speakers from dissipating their initial impact by laying out the structure of their talk. It's good they know where they're going but it's a creative aid not an insight. Audiences want to hear what speakers have to say, not what they are going to say.

10) Demand Passion.
The speaker must want to be there and want to tell the audience something. Speakers who dial in their talks, hate the experience or merely restate the obvious in an obvious way are anathema. If they don't care, then why should the audience care about what they're saying?

Image via planebuzz

I Blame The Education System.

As seen at the UK's premier design/art school graduation show. Click the image to see the problem.

Mengganti Kotak Komentar Haloscan menjadi Commentbox Blogspot

Dulu sebelum kotak komentar blogger/blogspot bisa muncul dibawah postingan, banyak yang menganti kotak komentarnya dengan commentbox dari pihak ketiga, misalnya dari haloscan. Namun setelah blogger merilis kotak komentar yg dibawah postingan maka kini banyak yg berbondong beralih ke kotak komentar original dari blogspot ini. Tapi bagi yg sudah terlanjur memakai haloscan dan sudah terlanjur mengobrak-abrik templatenya tentu akan sayang jika harus mengganti templatenya demi mendapatkan kotak original blogspot ini. Nha berikut ini akan aku ulas bagaimana cara mengembalikan kotak komentar haloscan menjadi kotak komentar original dari blogger.
Ikuti tutorial berikut:

1. Login ke blogger, kemudian pilih menu"Layout--> Edit HTML"
2. Beri tanda centang pada kotak "Expand widget template"
3. Kemudian cari kode berikut :

<!-- start haloscan (part 1) -->
<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/kendhin' type='text/javascript'> </script>
<span class='post-comment-link'>
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/comments/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;HaloScan(&quot; + &quot;\&quot;&quot;+ data:post.id + &quot;\&quot;&quot; + &quot;);return false;&quot;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCount(&#39;<data:post.id/>&#39;);</script>
</a> |
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/tb/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;HaloScanTB(&quot; + &quot;\&quot;&quot;+ data:post.id + &quot;\&quot;&quot; + &quot;);return false;&quot;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCountTB(&#39;<data:post.id/>&#39;);</script>
</a>
</span>
<!-- end haloscan -->

4. Kalo sudah ketemu maka gantilah dengan kode dibawah ini :

<b:if cond='data:post.allowComments'>
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>1 <data:top.commentLabel/><b:else/><data:post.numComments/> <data:top.commentLabelPlural/></b:if></a>

5. Kemudian cari kode berikut ini :

<!-- start haloscan (part 2 - post) -->
<script src='http://www.haloscan.com/load/kendhin' type='text/javascript'> </script>
<span class='post-comment-link'>
<p><a class='comment-link' expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/comments/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;HaloScan(&quot; + &quot;\&quot;&quot;+ data:post.id + &quot;\&quot;&quot; + &quot;);return false;&quot;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCount(&#39;<data:post.id/>&#39;);</script>
</a> |
<a class='comment-link' expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/tb/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;' expr:onclick='&quot;HaloScanTB(&quot; + &quot;\&quot;&quot;+ data:post.id + &quot;\&quot;&quot; + &quot;);return false;&quot;'>
<script type='text/javascript'>postCountTB(&#39;<data:post.id/>&#39;);</script>
</a></p>
<script expr:src='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/comments/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/?m=1&quot;' type='text/javascript'/>
<noscript><a expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/comments/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;'>Comments</a> | <a expr:href='&quot;http://www.haloscan.com/tb/kendhin/&quot; + data:post.id + &quot;/&quot;'>Trackback</a></noscript><br/>
</span>
<!-- end haloscan -->

6. Kalo sudah ketemu trus ganti dengan kode dibawah ini:

<h4>
<b:if cond='data:post.numComments == 1'>
1 <data:commentLabel/>:
<b:else/>
<data:post.numComments/> <data:commentLabelPlural/>:
</b:if>
</h4>
<dl id='comments-block'>
<b:loop values='data:post.comments' var='comment'>
<dt expr:class='"comment-author " + data:comment.authorClass' expr:id='data:comment.anchorName'>
<a expr:name='data:comment.anchorName'/>
<b:if cond='data:comment.authorUrl'>
<a expr:href='data:comment.authorUrl' rel='nofollow'><data:comment.author/></a>
<b:else/>
<data:comment.author/>
</b:if>
<data:commentPostedByMsg/>
</dt>
<dd class='comment-body'>
<b:if cond='data:comment.isDeleted'>
<span class='deleted-comment'><data:comment.body/></span>
<b:else/>
<p><data:comment.body/></p>
</b:if>
</dd>
<dd class='comment-footer'>
<span class='comment-timestamp'>
<a expr:href='data:comment.url' title='comment permalink'>
<data:comment.timestamp/>
</a>
<b:include data='comment' name='commentDeleteIcon'/>
</span>
</dd>
</b:loop>
</dl>
<p class='comment-footer'>
<a expr:href='data:post.addCommentUrl' expr:onclick='data:post.addCommentOnclick'><data:postCommentMsg/></a>
</p>

7. Trus simpan template kamu.
8. Jika inging menampilkan kotak komentar blogger/blogspot dibawah postingan maka ikutilah LANGKAH DISINI

Semoga beruntung....

Change Happens.

I recently heard an Australian resident of the UK interviewed on the radio. She was being asked about healthcare, but her comments apply to many other areas and many other organisations here and elsewhere.

This country is so wary of change. It seems to analyse everything to death and never do anything.

Analysis is good, doing something is better.

Is Improvement Something To Shout About?

Is improvement something to shout about or is it simply what your customers should and do expect? If you're going to boast about an award, shouldn't you ensure that it's an award that will impress? More importantly, won't it be the customers themselves who decide if it's been a significant improvement and give you their personal loyalty award?

But very appropriate that it's improvement number 2.

Contest on Jackbook.com

This contest will not be determined by a draw like most contests. Luck will absolutely play no role here whatsoever as the top thee (3) contestants with the most number of points on July 10 (12:00am Jack's Time) will automatically go home with the price. Basically, what you have to do is collect all the points that you can get.

Prizes up for Grabs

• 1st Place : $50 hard cash + 10,000 EntreCard Credits


• 2nd Place : 1 month 125×125 Banner ad on Jackbook.com (On the sidebar) value $50 + 5,000 EntreCard Credits


• 3rd Place : 5,000 EntreCard Credits

How to Earn Points

2 Points x The Blog's Pagerank ? Placing a blogroll link from your blog to www.JackBook.com. 1 Point for a Zero pagerank Blog

2 Points x The Blog's Pagerank ? Placing a blogroll link from your blog to RomeUy.com. 1 Point for Zero pagerank Blog

5 Points x The Blog's Pagerank ? 5 points for every blog post. Jackbook will not set a requirement for how many words your blog post should contain for as long as three (3) links be present on it and the links will be on a paragraph. (2 Points for Zero pagerank Blog)

• One (1) link to www.Jackbook.com


• One (1) link to RomeUy.com


• One (1) link to this contest post

Again, that is 5 points for every blog post. The more blogs you make with three links on it, the more points you get.

Jackbook will not count links from newly created blogs to avoid the creation of new blogs for the sole purpose of gaming this contest. Also reserve the right not to count links from blogs that do not qualify for the contest. Don't worry, if this will ever happen, jackbook will make sure to inform the contestant including the reason why they were not able to accept the entry so that he/she could take the links down ASAP.

Copied from Jackbook.com Contest

Mencuri data dengan LiveCD Hardy Heron

Saya punya teman kuliah dengan karakter yang cukup tertutup. Selain tertutup, di sisi lain dia juga suka berceramah ini-itu. Jujur, saya cukup gemas dengan rekan saya ini. Salah satu yang cukup gemas masalah pacar. Dia sering bilang tidak mau pacaran, tapi sering juga saya pergoki sedang mojok di telepon dengan seorang cewe.
Nah, suatu saat saya pernah memergoki dia sedang buka-buka foto di komputernya dengan ada gambar seorang cewe, yang cukup cantik. Saya pun makin penasaran. Akhirnya saya pun pinjem komputernya, dan sayang sekali, komputer Windows XP milik rekan saya itu dibuat dua akun, dan akun milik rekan saya di password. Nah, saya pun tidak bisa liat2 data pribadinya.
Saya langsung teringat dengan LiveCD ubuntu hardy heron. Dulu saya pernah baca kalau LiveCD linux bisa “mencuri” data di Windows XP, termasuk data di akun administrator yang dilindungi password.
Tanpa banyak pikir, saat rekan saya kuliah, saya coba LiveCD Ubuntu Hardy Heron di PC rekan saya tersebut dan eureka! Sunguh LiveCD Ubuntu bisa membuka semua data yang ada di PC dengan Windows XP tersebut, tanpa masalah sedikit pun! Dua partisi Windows XP dengan format NTFS dapat terbaca dengan sangat-sangat lancar saat pertama boot. Kita tinggal klik Menu-Places-nama_partisi maka dengan lancar Ubuntu me-mount partisi Windows NTFS yang ada. Dan ternyata, benar seperti dugaan saya, ada begitu banyak gambar cewe yang cantik milik rekan saya itu. Ada beberapa yang berdua dengan rekan saya tersebut. Wah, saya puas sekali. Dan ajaibnya, ternyata Ubuntu Hardy Heron ini sudah mampu melakukan penulisan ke partisi berformat NTFS dengan sangat lancar! Maka dengan agak nge-les saya beri pesan text di folder koleksi foto rekan saya itu “nggak usah jaim bung!”. Hahaha, saya sungguh puas. Ternyata Ubuntu Hardy Heron kali ini memang sudah sangat hebat, dengan banyak perbaikan dan penambahan tool-tool yang makin meningkatkan kemampuannya.
Di sini saya sedang tidak berbagi trik mencuri data dengan Ubuntu, tetapi justru sebaliknya. Dari kemampuan yang semakin meningkat tersebut, LiveCD Ubuntu bisa kita jadikan rescueCD yang sangat lengkap. Dimana saat PC kita sedang error, dan banyak data penting, kita bisa menggunakan LiveCD Ubuntu sebagai penyelamat yang sangat menarik.
Yah, begitulah pengalaman saya “mencuri” data milik rekan saya dengan Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

The Commodification Epidemic.

There is a lot of talk about commodification around these days, but let's not forget what a commodity actually is. A commodity is defined as a product that can only be differentiated by price.

You don't have to have a remarkable innovation to avoid commodification. A me-too product does not necessarily have to be a commodity. It may be very similar to the competition, but you can still differentiate it by distributing it in a different way. You can decommodify its delivery and retail channels.

You can even decommodify it by focussing on another aspect of the product. I'm not talking about faux emotional differentiaton here, but an aspect that is common to all your competitors. An aspect which they've chosen not to emphasise because they've overlooked the fact that its customers who decide what it is that they like about a product. You surely don't see your product as uni-dimensional?

Technology and transparency certainly mean that commodification is more prevalent than before, but that's no reason to bow to it without a fight. As I've said before, if you compete on price, you are explicitly saying that you have no belief in the intrinsic value of your product. If that's true, you deserve to fail.

The Power Of Discovery.

“If customers feel like they have discovered a brand themselves, they become much more loyal,”

Ray Kelvin - founder Ted Baker

That's because they haven't been on the end of broken promises or general disappointment. Loyalty is given by the customer. It's not captured by the business.

Linux Tanpa Internet? Siapa Takut?

Masalah utama bagi para pengguna pemula Ubuntu adalah : tidak bisa memutar VCD/DVD dan juga koleksi MP3. Ada Rhythmbox untuk manajemen musik, dan juga Totem sebagai default video player. Tapi tetap saja kedua aplikasi tersebut hanya mau memutar format-format open source yang sangat asing dan jarang digunakan.

Solusinya adalah : instal w32codecs sebagai codec multimedia komplit, dan install Mplayer sebagai default video player baru. Kemudian install XMMS sebagai music player yang baru.
Banyak forum-forum ubuntu di internet membahas hal tersebut, namun (setahu saya) semuanya menggunakan solusi online. Artinya, untuk menambah paket-paket tersebut, komputer ubuntu kita harus terhubung ke internet. NAH, DI SINI LAH MASALAH TERBESAR PERKEMBANGAN LINUX DI INDONESIA!

Sebagian besar pengguna komputer di negeri kita, belum terhubung ke internet. Masalahnya simpel, langganan internet (dalam paket apapun) masih tergolong kebutuhan yang mahal, dan masih sangat sedikit yang sudah mempunyai koneksi internet.

Padahal, solusi di forum-forum ubuntu di internet semuanya merujuk pada solusi online, bagaimana ini? JANGAN TAKUT! SEMUA ADA SOLUSINYA!
Baiklah, mari kita cari solusi itu!

Pertama, cari dan download paket w32codecs di internet.dari hasil searching saya, saya menemukan alamat server yang menyediakan w32codecs adalah sebagai berikut :
http://packages.medibuntu.org/pool/non-free/w/w32codecs/
Setelah masuk link di atas, ada daftar paket w32codecs dalam berbagai versi dan rilis. Downlodlah rilis yang terbaru (ada nama dengan rilis sesuai tanggal).

Kemudian, download Mplayer dan XMMS di repositori resmi ubuntu, yang beralamat di packages.ubuntu.com. Setelah masuk, carilah paket Mplayer dan XMMS di form search, setelah itu muncul daftar banyak paket yang dibutuhkan, komplit dengan semua dependency-nya. Sangat rumit, tapi tidak perlu bingung! Cari saja paket utama installer-nya, downloadlah paket itu.

Setelah terdownload, taruh semua pkaet download tadi di home, lalu install semua paket di atas, dengan perintah sudo dpkg -i *.deb

W32codecs akan lancar diinstall, tapi Mplayer dan XMMS pasti akan error, karena begitu banyak dependensi yang belum ada. Nah, disini kita harus telaten sedikit. Ambil selembar kertas, catat semua paket dependensi yang belum ada tersebut, lalu kita kembali ke warnet, dan download-lah semuanya satu per satu secara manual dari repositori resmi ubuntu.
Setelah semua terdownload, taruh di home, dan install ulang dengan sudo dpkg -i *.deb

Nah, sekarang ubuntu kita sudah siap memutar bermacam-macam file multimedia.
Untuk jaga-jaga, dan agar sewaktu-waktu diperlukan lagi, kumpulkan paket multimedia yang sudah kita download tadi ke dalam satu direktori, kemudian burn-lah ke CD, sehingga kapan2 kita butuh, tinggal di install.

Jadi, Linux tanpa koneksi internet, SIAPA TAKUT?