Pesta Blogger 2007

When Ong Hock Chuan phoned me a few months ago asking my time to come to the preleminary meeting which unfortunately I couldn’t attend for geographical and time barrier, deep inside I was very happy back then. I dream of such event that will enable blogging activities–a representation of Indonesian transformation from conventional tradition of talking into the next level of modern traditon: a tradition of writing–into a limelight of conventional media in a big way. And I don’t see any person who fit to that task but one and only: Ong Hock Chuan. From the first time I knew him through our blogging activities (I haven’t met him in person), I can feel his honesty, dedication, professionalism and determination to something he believes in. He didn’t failed me and, indeed, all Indonesian bloggers, a bit with this effort. No less important, he picks the best blogger Indonesia to head the day-to-day activities in the run-up to that event: Enda Nasution.
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Azim Premji

He is obviously the only Forbes 2007 Top 30 Billionaires who drives a humble Ford car, wears non-branded suits and flies with Economy class. An idol all Indonesians, including the corrupt bureaucrats, the haves and the stupid celebrities, should follow.

A few days after I came home some months ago, a friend who works with the UNDP (United Nation for Development Program) came to me asking me a difficult and very important question: how to earadicate corrupt practices in this country. I know him well. His integrity, honesty and gut to go against a corrupt trend is well known and earns him a national fame. His question must’ve been serious. And my answer should be as serious as it can get.

I talked about it from various angles; socio-cultural, politics, religion, etc. How every aspect of lives we, Indonesians, associated and affiliated could be used either way–as weapon for negative and positive purposes. And most important, who can do the best job for that.
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Ahmadinejad, Bush and Israel

The Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad got a worldwide fame simply because of mainly three factors. First, he is the President of Iran with its nuclear controversies which the US regards as among the axis of evil besides North Korea. Second, he speaks bravely against the US, the only world superpower of everything: economy, military and, no less important, the media. Third, he speaks controversially against the state of Israel and partially the Jews–the mogul of world media. You need to have those three “lucky” factors to enable you getting a global media headlines every now and then.
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Indonesian According to Google

Google sees Indonesians as primitive, barefooted and backward

If image speaks a thousand words, then Google makes it clear what Indonesia is all about. You’d understand what I am saying if you try to search for Indonesia through the most popular search engine. To make it brief, open google.com, write key word “indonesia” in the search box and click search. What you’d see is top ten links heading towards ten most popular websites that discuss or write about Indonesia.
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How to Avoid AdSense Disabled Nightmare

Well, with a lot of news we heard from many bloggers whose AdSense account has been disabled by Google, allegedly violating AdSense TOS–things that some of AdSense publishers denied, it’s no wonder if many AdSense publishers express their concern over this matter.

Fortunately, AdSense team seems to be aware of this. In recent official announcement in its official blog, AdSense introduces a new way called the Allowed Sites list to avoid your AdSense account being misused by third malicious party which will lead to your account closure. Here’s what the program all about:
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Another Bird Flu Death Case

A 30-year-old Indonesian woman suspected of being infected with bird flu, died Sunday in Bandung City hospital, West Java, reports say.

According to Bandung’s Hasan Sadikin general hospital staff member Herdi, blood samples from the woman have been sent for testing in the capital Jakarta [full story]

The 400 Richest Americans 2007

Rank	Name	Net Worth ($bil	Age	Residence	Source
1	William Gates III	59.0	51	Medina, WA	Microsoft
2	Warren Buffett	52.0	77	Omaha, NE	Berkshire Hathaway
3	Sheldon Adelson	28.0	74	Las Vegas, NV	casinos, hotels
4	Lawrence Ellison	26.0	63	Redwood City, CA	Oracle
5	Sergey Brin	18.5	34	Palo Alto, CA	Google
5	Larry Page	18.5	34	San Francisco, CA	Google
7	Kirk Kerkorian	18.0	90	Los Angeles, CA	investments, casinos
8	Michael Dell	17.2	42	Austin, TX	Dell
9	Charles Koch	17.0	71	Wichita, KS	oil, commodities
9	David Koch	17.0	67	New York, NY	oil, commodities
11	Paul Allen	16.8	54	Mercer Island, WA	Microsoft, investments
12	Christy Walton & family	16.3	52	Jackson, WY	Wal-Mart inheritance
12	Jim Walton	16.3	59	Bentonville, AR	Wal-Mart
12	S Robson Walton	16.3	63	Bentonville, AR	Wal-Mart
15	Alice Walton	16.1	58	Fort Worth, TX	Wal-Mart
16	Steven Ballmer	15.2	51	Hunts Point, WA	Microsoft
17	Abigail Johnson	15.0	45	Boston, MA	Fidelity
18	Carl Icahn	14.5	71	New York, NY	leveraged buyouts
19	Forrest Mars Jr	14.0	76	McLean, VA	candy, pet food
19	Jacqueline Mars	14.0	67	Bedminster, NJ	candy, pet food
19	John Mars	14.0	71	Arlington, VA	candy, pet food
19	Jack Taylor & family	14.0	85	St Louis, MO	Enterprise Rent-A-Car
23	Donald Bren	13.0	75	Newport Beach, CA	real estate
24	Anne Cox Chambers	12.6	87	Atlanta, GA	Cox Enterprises
25	Michael Bloomberg	11.5	65	New York, NY	Bloomberg

For complete list of 400 richest American visit http://www.forbes.com/

Hobbits of Indonesia were Different

Photo: An artist impression of Indonesian ‘Hobbit’.(Dailymail)
It turns out that hobbits of Indonesia were different human species at least that’s what the latest finding reveals. What does it mean?

… these differences imply that LB1has retained characteristics of a primitive wrist and thus represents a human lineage that appeared before the modern wrist evolved with Homo sapiens and the Neanderthals, who share an ancestor that lived between 0.5 and one million years ago.

Rank	Name	Net Worth ($mil)	Age
1	Aburizal Bakrie & family	5,400	60
2	Sukanto Tanoto	4,700	58
3	R. Budi Hartono	3,140	66
4	Michael Hartono	3,080	68
5	Eka Tjipta Widjaja & family	2,800	84
6	Putera Sampoerna & family	2,200	59
7	Martua Sitorus	2,100	47
8	Rachman Halim & family	1,600	60
9	Peter Sondakh	1,450	55
10	Eddy William Katuari & family	1,390	56
11	Anthoni Salim & family	1,300	58
12	Mochtar Riady & family	950	78
13	Murdaya Poo	900	66
14	Arifin Panigoro & family	880	62
15	Hary Tanoesoedibjo	815	42
16	Trihatma Haliman	790	55
17	Sjamsul Nursalim & family	550	66
18	Chairul Tanjung	450	45
19	Paulus Tumewu	440	55
20	Prajogo Pangestu	420	56

21	Soegiharto Sosrodjojo & family	355	77
22	Sutanto Djuhar & family	350	78
23	Hadi Surya	345	71
24	Aksa Mahmud	340	62
25	Harjo Sutanto & family	315	81
26	Soegiarto Adikoesoemo & family	310	69
27	Husein Djojonegoro & family	305	58
28	Kartini Muljadi	260	77
29	Edwin Soeryadjaya	250	58
30	Jusuf Kalla	230	65
31	Tan Kian	225	49
32	Ciputra	205	75
33	Bambang Trihatmodjo	200	54
34	George & Sjakon Tahija	195	49/54
35	Kris Wiluan	185	59
36	Eka Tjandranegara & family	170	61
37	Alim Markus & family	140	56
38	Husein Sutjiadi	135	53
39	Jakob Oetama	130	76
40	Boenjamin Setiawan	120	74

Google Gadget Ads

Adsense official blog just announces a new type of Adsense ads called Google Gadget Ads. Google briefly explains its main features:

- Gadget ads enable advertisers and agencies to engage audiences on the Internet’s largest ad network with a rich and interactive new ad format.

- Beyond Rich Media Advertising with “Websites within Websites”
Think of gadget ads as mini versions of your website in any AdSense ad size.
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