Backlog

Have been catching up on a huge backlog of blog posts which i should read, but can't find the time.

May '98 has been the prominent theme. Ahmadiyah also. It's like a backlog of pogroms.

That's another thing, why Tragedy '98? A tragedy to me is accidental, random. May '98 seemed to happen like a fucking Swiss clock. This is a good post.

Following on from that there's an anti-multicultural post. I dunno, what all the fussing is for. You break the law you get punished, real simple .

Imaginary Wealth

Over the last few weeks I've had this idea for a trading strategy. Basically a set of rules which describe when to buy or sell currencies. I input those rules into my PC which makes decisions for me really quickly.

The difference with programming a trading strategy and a potentially marketable piece of software, is that you know that you can get instant gratification once you have a trading algorithm. You don't need to market or distribute a trading algorithm or have a fancy front end, iron out the bugs and it's (hopefully) making you money from the word go!

Well that's the theory, I can always hope, eh?

Amazing how my psychology changed once I could see theoretical profits being computed in front of my eyes (based on data since 1999). The morning after, I went to work, and I was convinced I had this trading business licked. I was think about setting up my own hedge fund, living by a beach in Manado, maybe doing one or two trades a day and then devoting the rest of my time to teaching programming to kids in the local pesentren (for me programming is like mental kung fu, a bit like the kung fu in Shaolin Soccer).

Talk about getting carried away! Once I got home, I spotted two serious mistakes. I would now have made large losses over the last 9 years with the strategy. I could see my decades stuck in offices in front of me. Drudgery! But then I tweaked the strategy a little and was back into dreamland! :)

Everyday has been like that, I just hope on the final day of tweaking and poking, I'll have a strategy that'll reap me large returns on paper as well as in reality.

At the moment, I need new market data and have to nix a particularly dodgy assumption I made on price movements. But until I do that, the strategy is showing profits of around €200k with €1k initial investment over around 9 years.

I think I'll choose to live in ignorance a while longer, feels good to be imaginary rich :)

7,000 Rp Coin

Yesterday I spotted a 50c (7,000Rp) coin on Grafton Street in Dublin (one of Dublin's main shopping streets).

As an amateur economist, I thought I shouldn't bother picking it up, as if it was real wouldn't someone have picked it up already?

In the end I did pick it up, and I think I will incorporate the coin in my new EUR USD FX trading strategy.

Uncanny?

Next he'll be wearing gaudy Batik shirts -- why don't Europeans understand Batik??

Down in Smoke

The Indonesian government will get rid of its oil subsidy.

I don't have current figures to hand, but that would mean 10-20% of the budget won't go up in smoke, but could be invested for the future, e.g. education and healthcare.

This is a really positive move. Now if it turned to opening up rice imports (and exports) that would be really positive!!

Blogbrary 2008

Ppl are looking for book donations for kid's libraries in Jakarta.

I remember going to the libraries with my dad when I was a kid. The idea of getting an Asterix comic for *free* or a book about ancient Egypt or Rome was amazing...

Actually when I first went to Jakarta I asked about whether there were any public libraries, and ppl looked at me as if I had two heads... :/ Man I was so sick of going around malls after that trip... Aksara was the only relief I got, and that's damn expensive!!

A Photographer's PC

My dad's a photographer in need of a new PC. So this afternoon we sat down and ordered one.

The main goal of this PC is to process raw files into jpegs quickly.

Raw files are analogous to digital negatives, they contain *all* the information the sensor sucks in once a picture is taken, unlike jpegs which remove non-discernible information to keep files sizes small. Raws can be very handy once you are editing your pictures, raws give photographers way more room to manoeuvre when editing, e.g. tweaking a picture's exposure or recovering a picture from under or overexposure.

First thing to choose was between Apple, Windows or Linux.

I use Linux so I'm biased toward it (check it out here!) but unfortunately you can't get any pro quality raw processing software for it. Bumber!

So, it's that old chestnut again, Apple vs. Windows!!

I loathe Windows. I work on XP everyday, this OS is 7 fscking years old already (my Linux OS gets refreshed every 6 months, it's beautiful software btw...) and from all accounts Vista is like XP ME. Yuck!

I haven't used OSX all that much, but it's lovable! :)

So why then did I choose Windows over Apple? Well before I answer that, let's deal with another choice, dual core vs quad core processors.

A key ingredient necessary for quick raw file processing is cores, lots and lots of cores. Dual cores are great for everyday use, they're really snappy for users who do at most two heavy load tasks at a time, basically 95% of users.

Raw file processing is different though. My dad could have 20 files upwards being processed at one time! 5 files per processor will be gobbled up much more quickly than 10 files per processor, even if the individual gigahertz per processor is slower.

The problem with Macs is that however sweet they are, their quad core Mac Pros have a starting price of €2,000. iMacs are great machines, but are limited to dual cores.

So Windows it is. Did I mention how much I hate Windows?

Dell, Acer, Lenovo, HP all make good quality machines. Problem is, they never give you exactly what you want, and if you want something (like extra RAM or hard disk) you'll have to pay through the nose for it.

That's why I build my own PCs. Building your own PC is really simple, and pretty interesting. What you end up with is a tailor made PC for less than you would pay for an off-the-rails Dell model.

I used this guide to get an idea about what components to look out for at the moment and tweaked from there. Vital statistics:

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 2.50GHz 6M. Pretty much 2 iMac or MacBook Pro processors in one machine, sweet!! :) Interestingly Dell are still selling the older model to unsuspecting customers!

4GB Corsair RAM for €80. RAM from Apple or Dell is expensive - e.g. a 3GB RAM upgrade for a Mac costs €240, that's 4x more expensive!

1TB hard disk. Only an option on top end iMacs which start at around €1,900. And then the upgrade from 500GB costs €200. This Samsung 1TB hard disk cost a meagre €130 on the other hand! Lots of big image files means lots of storage is a must.

150GB 10,000 RPM hard disk. This baby isn't even an option with Dell or Apple as far as I could see. We'll install Vista on this disk as it runs 33% quicker than 99% of hard disks out there, giving Vista and all the other programs running off this disk a boost.

ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT graphics with 256MB memory. This is the graphics card in the €2,500 Mac Pro. Graphics cards aren't a huge deal for raw processing, this will more than suffice, and it only costs €75, yikes!

With the other bits and pieces we kept to top quality brand name components - another advantage over Dells or Macs -- you know you're buying good components from the ground up, not just shiny cases!

Everything including Windows Vista 64bit cost €1050 (from Dabs) beating similar systems from Apple and Dell on price /and/ on specs - my dad is getting /exactly/ what he needs to do his job as efficiently and cost effectively as possible.

Born to be Catholic

Reslian has an excellent post on inheriting religion.

In fact, I should be a Catholic, in mixed marriages Catholics have to sign a contract so that they'll bring up their kids Catholic. It's like signing a prenup with God.

99% of people don't choose the religion they practice. I remember some Indonesian pals of mine told me that Muslim converts are highly revered. It sounds like a good idea.

I'm an atheist. I used to be Church of Ireland (Protestant) and before that I was half Catholic half Church of Ireland. I went to a Catholic primary school, and when everyone else was doing bits and pieces for their confirmation (ceremony to become a gold card toting member of the Catholic church) I went through a hard time.

But I was only 12 and my parents thought it better that I was older to choose between those two great dialects of Christianity.

In the end I plumped for the Church of Ireland two years later. Two of my best pals were Church of Ireland back then, and time is money as they say (big religious rites of passage are accompanied by relatives giving kids lots of cold hard cash).

Thing was, two years later, I was asking much smarter questions at the pre confirmation bible classes. Which was good.

I'm an atheist now. I think I was an atheist for a long time, but for whatever reason, avoided calling a spade a spade. I'm glad I chose what I believe. I'm also open to new beliefs, maybe some day I'll be a Muslim, Daoist, agnostic or otherwise. Main thing is that if something intrigues me enough I'll investigate further and kick the tyres so to speak.

Actually here's an interesting documentary "Could I Stop Being a Muslim".

Freedom to choose religion is important, I suspect it will make for stronger self confident communities.

Formal vs Informal

Formal vs Informal, Indonesia vs Malaysia.

The Indonesia I've known always seemed to have had broadly sensible ideas on its law books, whereas Malaysia had bizarro whacky racist laws on its books.

Indonesia discriminated against minorities on an informal basis, Malaysia on a formal one.

I preferred the idea of Indonesia, because its aspirations seemed to be broadly sane, and well er aspirational.

Now? From all accounts Indonesia's prez is about to ban an Islamic sect that has 200k members and has been in Indonesia before Indonesia itself even existed.

Reading about Mosques being burnt in Sukabumi sounds like European Crusaders ransacking the Middle East. Mobs chanting kill, kill, kill and burn, burn, burn sounds like the KKK in the deep South. MUI members looking to reeducate Ahmadi followers sounds like Dutch Christian missionaries during colonial times. Most worryingly of all, banning a religion sounds like Wilders' legalistic racism.

To imagine, I almost went to Sukabumi on a couple of occasions while visiting Indonesia, a pal's cousin was studying at a pesentren there. Now? I wouldn't set foot in the place.

On the other hand I've heard a NU leader said that those attacking Ahmadis in Cirebon would have to go through him and his followers first. Indonesia needs more courageous people like him, but what good will his efforts be if SBY signs off on that law? Does he place himself and his followers between the Ahmadis and the police?

What happens if the Ahmadis refuse to apologise for their deeply held beliefs? Will SBY jail all 200k?

I love Indonesia. Part of the fascination is that Indonesia at times resembles a car wreck which I can't take my eyes from, I have to admit it's a morbid fascination, but now I feel I've almost had enough.

Another Great Post

About a war veteran.

Kids

Best blog posts in the blogosphere last week (by a country mile).

1, 2, 3

Along those lines, you know what the most environmentally helpful thing you can possibly do? Not have kids!

Megapixels II

Most people buy cameras based on megapixels. The idea is, the more megapixels you have, the more detailed and better quality your pictures will be.

In fact that's not always the case, having more megapixels can actually /reduce/ the quality of your pictures!

I noticed this with my second camera. My first camera was a Canon Powershot, the second was a Fuji E900. The E900 had a 9MP sensor, the Powershot 3MP and 2 or 3 years older. The Fuji's images were consistently fuzzier and lower quality than the Canon's. It SUCKED! And that 9MP camera was pretty damn pricey back in 2006 :/

Interestingly, it turns you just can't have a 9MP sensor in a compact camera without getting fuzzy pictures. Cramming too many Megapixels into a small space makes for low quality pictures. This site even recommends buying 6MP compact cameras tops!!

When you try to fit too many megapixels onto a chip the sensor's pixels start interfering with each other in lower light conditions (i.e. when you are asking more from the sensor, and using higher ISOs).

Of course you /may/ be able to get a good quality picture, but you better be sure that you are outside on a clear day with your subject as still as possible (i.e. limiting yourself to low ISOs). Basically you better be damn sure you know what you're doing!

All things being equal, lower megapixels will give you great pictures with less futz.

Ask yourself why Canon's 10MP 40D is a cut above its 12MP 450D on the food chain? 10MP will let the 40D take better quality pictures in a wider variety of circumstances than the 450D. The 450D is aimed at people who don't know much about photography and use megapixels as a guide to camera quality, the 40D is aimed at those who know more about photography (ht).

Why do some people use megapixels as a guide to camera quality?

1) because megapixels are easy to understand, it's much more difficult to get your head around other things that count, like ISOs, noise, lenses, RAW files, CMOS sensor sizes etc.

2) megapixels /were/ a good guide to camera quality when digital cameras had only 1 or 2 megapixel sensors and took pretty poor quality pictures.

Things have changed, megapixels are more likely to get in your way and make it harder to take good pictures.

Of course there are situations where megapixels can be handy but, as I explained here, unless you need to print large high quality prints and unless you know exactly what you're doing, you're better off not spending your money on more megapixels.

[Update! Wow, read this (the Canon G9 is THE upmarket compact camera):

It's the biggest irony of the compact digital camera market: since the cameras all use very similar sensors (often the exact same sensor) and many even share the same lens assembly, the price difference between the entry-level models and range-toppers such as the G9 simply isn't reflected in a commensurate difference in output quality. And it doesn't matter how much you are prepared to spend; you can't buy your way out of the 'compact camera problem' - a small, noisy sensor is a small noisy sensor no matter what kind of tank you build around it or how many 'professional' features you build into the body.

And this is from a review of a cheapo /6MP/ Fuji F31fd:

It is the perfect illustration of the oft made point that more pixels do not mean better quality; we've compared the F31fd to a whole range of much more expensive compacts going right up to 10MP, and - aside from a little extra resolution at base ISO - it puts most of them to shame. Once you get to ISO 400 there simply isn't a compact on the market that can hold a flame to it.

]

Innocent photographer or terrorist?

"Misplaced fears about terror, privacy and child protection are preventing amateur photographers from enjoying their hobby, say campaigners."

I am pretty self conscious about taking pictures in public, way too self conscious, I definitely need to loosen up! But hearing stories like these make me think twice again :/:/ OTOH, I think Ireland and Indonesia are probably more relaxed than the UK.

Pullitzer Prize Winner

Pictures here. Story behind his time in Rangoon here.

I wonder what his second lens was?

HT.

Mosque Internet

Just as mosques all over Indonesia get 224Mbps ultra fast internet connections for dirt cheap, porn websites are gonna be blocked in Indonesia.

I bet Imams all over Indonesia are fuming! At least it looks like they'll still be able to watch Youtube :)

Hugging Jews

Interesting article here.

Interesting thing that people forget is that historical Jew / Muslim enmity isn't really historical. Baghdad had the largest Jewish population of any city in the world at one stage (if I'm not mistaken) and Jews were considered as Arabs too; I suspect middle Eastern Jews were treated much better by their country folk than in Europe.

In any case, my own great great grandfather was a Yemeni Jew who married my Maduran great great grandmother and lived in Surabaya.

Indonesia - An explanation

[Link]

Sunday Morning Trail of Thought

"My family and others were forced out of the house at gunpoint and we walked and walked under the hot and burning sun (100F) for miles and miles with no food or water. Along the road leading us to hell on earth, I saw thousands of decomposed bodies, particularly a very young child trying to get milk from his mother but she died already and he was crying and crying of hunger."

[Link]

These stories never stop flowing, just as the blood and tears don't dry up.

Indonesia has had it's own massacres of communists, Chinese, Timorese, Acehnese etc.

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I remember visiting small churches in and around poor areas in Jakarta just after reading about FPI attacks on such churches. The thing you don't realise is, these "churches" are literally people's homes, they give most of their small homes over to worshippers in their community.

It was a humbling experience.

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When I visit Indonesia, I know I can always leave. Most expats keep their foreign passports no matter how long they live in Indonesia, as is their right. But solidarity means little when it's not credible.

I have heard about only a handful of mostly religious men who have given up their western citizenships to become Indonesian. Whenever I read about these westerners I am inspired by their story.

They are the Jedi Knights of Indonesia fans (Indophiles, are India lovers, what's the word for Indonesia lovers?) which mere beginner enthusiasts like me can only ever look up to in awe.

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Freedom of movement is important. It is something I believe in deeply.

Perhaps the best way to credibly make that point is by giving that freedom up some day.

Great Post

From Triesti.

Unity in Diversity

What does it really mean?

The motto is used widely in India, and is the official motto of the EU, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea and South Africa.

I have noticed that /often/ the understanding in both Indonesia and the EU is that the motto only applies to Indonesian and European citizens respectively (moreover, in the case of Indonesia it has sometimes been applied only to ethnic Indonesians).

How about jumping out of the nationalist, post colonial mindsets and understanding unity in diversity in a /global/ sense?