Albert Tanutama

Hotel Rwanda is a powerful and soul-striking movie about one of the largest murder in history, the 1994 genocide in Rwanda. It’s based on true story of Paul Rusesabagina, who saved the lives of 1,268 refugees by using his powerful connections and resources. He was a man who know how to build relationship with people, calm and able to take control over the situation – showing great capacity as a leader.

The movie itself is really tense – without actually showing much blood and close-up murder. In a way, the situation reminds me of 1998 riots in Jakarta, where everything happened so fast and so sudden. The fear and helplessness of people in a way is what I felt that time. It is amazing that in many of those bad situation, some heroes do appear – standing for what is right, even against their own community.

Yeah! I’ve completed my one and only paper this afternoon It was quite straightforward analysis – more toward case studies format. I kinda like it because it gives some sort of freedom to show how you’d handle the situation as an information professional (And of course, I need to wait about 1 month to know if my approach in answering the questions really work).

Well, so given my first taste of “freedom” after these 3 years of study what will I do? Tentatively, I’ll catch up with things that wasn’t really my priority last time (aka. blogging again?) Perhaps. Drawing, painting, clay modelling – plenty of stuffs to occupy my days, speaking of which I’d have to fill from home due to doc’s instruction ^-^”

First: Singapore has finally decided to allow casino to operate, in the form of “Integrated Resort”, where casino is just one part of broader attraction. Although this decision will obviously cause disappointment to those who oppose casino, the decision has been made, and the government has decided to move forward. It’s time to think how we can minimize its negative social impact.

There are five measurements proposed: restrict admission of locals, system of exclusions for those in financial distress or receiving social assistance, no credit extension to locals, channel profits for charitable and worthy causes, and national framework setup to address problem gambling. I was also thinking in the line of planned visit – where reservation followed by credit must be arranged in advance. There at least should be delay and constraint involved to minimize sudden impulse to gamble.

Second: Macromedia is acquired by Adobe. Whoa! It’s really a big news in the Flash community. I think many people (designers and developers alike) are really surprised by this decision. Macromedia has been a really great company with strong community base. It is one of the leading companies that successfully embrace weblogs as a communication tool to connect with its users.

The acquisition news is pretty emotional – because macromedia as their common bonding is suddenly replaced. This causes some uncertainty to the existing “sense of community”. At present, I think the community wants to hear personal message from macromedia itself. Unfortunately, there are some regulations that need to be followed. This few days could be very interesting to see how the community are reacting, trying to find what lies ahead for its survival.

It’s kinda outdated, but last Wednesday Google actually introduced satellite images in their google map services. It was really amazing! Never before I saw such cool map services. After seeing the illustration, you can click on the “Satellite” link to see the place in actual context. Enough to help you figure out how to get around. (Well, I haven’t really tried it – but it’s just cool).

So what’s interesting things that I found? Hmmm, let’s see, I managed to see golden gate, excalibur hotel las vegas, Knott’s Berry Farm (I need to find the actual address to get into this), and many more! In fact, I could try its direction search to find a way from disneyland, anaheim to knott’s berry. (just a side note: both are theme parks that I visited more than 10 years ago ) Amazing. Very interesting to find how they managed to do that.

However, its searching features sometime yield unexpected result. Sometimes after searching certain places, Google seem to take local context search. Thus, I didn’t manage to find Grand Canyon after searching for Disney. Seems that I need to retype Google Map’s URL again. The search results are pretty irrelevant.

Anyway, interested to find more stuffs? Check this Google sightseeing blogs. It’s amazing what you kind find in blogs sometimes.

I’m back! Well, not exactly. I spent these past two days at home due to fever. Gee. Never now that I could reach that high temperature – 39.3! Anyway, I managed to rest and watched some movies. In fact, today was special because I watched Pope’s funeral on tv. Another highlight, I watched new reality movie called Trading Spouses. It’s about two families where their mom’s are swapped for few days. It was amusing to know how they adapted in the new environment. In today’s episode, it was really hilarious, because one the mommies is totally clueless about how her “new” family perceived her. Woah. (Btw, it is on Channel 5 – Friday, 730pm)

Pope John Paul II has departed early this morning. It was a sad that he is no longer in our midst. However, I’m glad that peace has finally come to him. He has showed us examples of not being afraid to love, forgive and persevere. Farewell, beloved Holy Father.

I had a discussion with my project team this afternoon, and it was exciting because we were using a new software called OneNote. It was my second attempt to use the software and it was a totally different experience to it in notebook rather than in PC.

Using a notebook has positive effect, because everyone was able to look at the same screen. We were able to focus and to have common understanding. I decided to try OneNote just to find out if it is helpful in a real meeting. Well, our meeting suddenly turned into really interactive. I could easily add, modify, and rearranging points discussed by dragging and dropping them. The ability to rearranging content is the feature that I like most because it gives me the flexibility needed in a discussion.

Had I a TabletPC , I would be able to use it fully since I love to draw concepts. It’s kinda a hassle to draw using mouse in notebook. I guess, if I have one, it’ll totally replace all notepads and papers that I have. It’s a great tools, and I’m looking forward to use it again in my next meeting

I’m currently listening to this song for Pope John Paul II. A quick search on Google news today reported that he’s reaching his end of journey this evening or this night. 3 years ago, I remember of watching christmas mass celebrated by him in television, early in the morning. And the year afterwards. Last december, however, since I didn’t go back to my hometown, I wasn’t able to watch the mass. It is going to be a sad departure – but hopefully, the next pope will be able to continue the message of peace and love. The prayer dedicated to him can be found in the catholic.org as well.