What Japan should learn from Indonesia

If we talk about what Indonesia should learn from Japan, it might take more than one post to discuss about it, hehe, just kidding. Anyway, I found it more interesting to discuss of what a modern, sophisticated country like Japan should learn from a developing country like Indonesia instead.
So what are those things?It took me a while to think and answer that question, but I finally came up with some answers.

1. Indonesia can be proud of its cinema(theater) industry. People in Indonesia can enjoy the new movies in theater quickly. While here in Japan, the movies are out dated, and most of the time it takes quite some time until a movie is played in theaters in Japan. Not only that, the theater, the place where we can watch movies, in Indonesia is better than that in Japan. Well, actually I don't know if all Japan's theaters like that, but the one I found in Nanba Osaka was so not Japan. In Indonesia, when we buy the tickets, we can choose the seat through a monitor which displays seats available and not. But in Toho Cinemas in Namba, they only provide you with a sheet of paper displaying the seat inside the theater. Then we choose which seats we want to take, then they will check if it's available or not. That's why I tell you, it's so not Japan, 不便です。
2. Most supermarkets here in Japan will not put stuffs you buy into a plastic bag. They will just give you the plastic and let you do it yourself. Since in Indonesia, the supermarket always put your stuffs into the plastic bag, It makes me feel Japan's supermarket doesn't give much service to the customers.
3. The ATM machines here in Japan don't operate 24/7! This one's quite shocking for me, since it means if you're out of money in the middle of the night, you're doomed!
4. I don't know if this is true, but I heard that Japanese people only take a bath once a day, they only take a bath at night. Judging from their messy hairs in the morning, maybe this is true. Maybe they should learn to take a bath also in the morning just like Indonesian. Or are Indonesian people also like that? :p
5. They really should use the standard 24-hours-day.

Any other ideas?

Nokia Developer Contest: Calling All Innovators

September 18, 2008

Nokia Launches Developer Contest
Competition to create mobile apps that will better society

Forum Nokia has announced Calling All Innovators, a contest for
developers to create mobile applications that will help to better
society. The contest challenges developers to think big about the
opportunity to impact the quality of human life with mobile
applications. Nokia will award up to $150,000US in cash and prizes, in
addition to helping the winning developers distribute their mobile
applications.

Calling All Innovators challenges mobile application developers
worldwide to create applications that will enhance the use of mobile
devices in real world scenarios, in one of the three following categories:

* ECO-Challenge. Submit an application that works to minimize
mobility’s global environmental impact and develop ways to offer
mobile solutions that help consumers make sustainable choices such as
reducing their energy consumption or carbon footprint.
* Emerging Markets. This category opens up new opportunities for
developers to imagine the possibilities of pioneering applications and
services impacting the daily lives in developing nations, which could
include solutions for education, health data access, infotainment,
rural agriculture, or any other application that improves lives in
emerging markets.
* Technology Showcase. This is an opportunity to create and
showcase compelling, experience driven applications, using any
technology that runs on Series 40 or S60 devices, such as Flash Lite,
Java, Python, or open source.

“Calling All Innovators is not just about making mobile applications
that could help society; it’s about developing mobile applications
that will help society,” says Forum Nokia’s Tom Libretto. “Imagine if
an application could help relief workers reallocate resources in real
time for disaster-torn areas — how much could that help both those in
need as well as the relief workers in the area?”

First place winners in each category will receive $25,000US, a trip to
Mobile World Congress 2009 in Barcelona, and distribution of their
application for free through a variety of Nokia channels. Second place
winners in each category will receive $10,000US and third place
winners will receive $5,000US.

The contest opens on September 16, 2008 and all entries are due by
December 15, 2008. Finalists will be selected and notified in January
2009.

--copy-pasted from www.nicnocquee.com/blog

So Ignorant of Me

Who would've thought, while browsing here and there, searching through the marvelous Mr. Google with these keywords: "quran quote", I stumbled upon this post in this blog: Top 10 Quran quotes every woman MUST SEE. I thought the article would be something nice, but it's not. Reading the post, and then the comments, I realized something: I'm so ignorant of what's happening in this world.

For me, that article, especially the comments, are so awful. So full of hatred. So full of insults, misunderstanding, accusations, justifications, and generalizations. What happen to this world?Is it really what happens in this world now?

I am a kind of guy who always thinks that everything that happened, or is happening in this world is just what it's meant to be, some people called it destiny. War, disaster, plague, destruction, peace, happy family, victory, nice weather, and many other things that happen in this world are just because they are meant to be.

While many people fight with each other over something, war with each other, kill each other, quarrel with each other, I can find neighbors in my hometown who have different beliefs, laugh each other, smile for each other, help each other. While people stab others from the back, insult and curse each other, we can always see a mother smiles happily looking at her newly born child, we can always see kids playing with each others, laughing freely.

Conflicts indeed make this life colorful, but can we just decrease the intensity of hurting others?I'm not a saint, holy guy, or even prophet, but I hope each and every one of you who reads this post can understand how I feel, able to understand that there are still so many beautiful things in this world rather than just hatred. Spread the PEACE! Spread the SMILE!

Little things people tend to take for granted

Many of you might not realize them, but there are so many little things in this life which are so great and beautiful. For example,

1. Breathing. Have you ever tried to realize your breathe? Breathing is so great! If you're not breathing than you're dead. Most of the time because we're so busy in this life, we completely forget that we're breathing. Try this, every time you come home from work, or school, or anywhere, in some point on your way home, STOP! Just stop, close your eyes, and take a deep breath. Feel the air coming to your nose and lunge. You'll feel great!
2. Sneezing. You think I'm kidding? No, I'm f**king serious. Sneeze is one of God's greatest miracle. Have you ever felt like you're going to sneeze but you CAN NOT!??It's painful! And it feels so damn great when you are able to sneeze and let go of everything inside! Just so you know, we really need to be grateful for this so called "sneezing" ability. It means you're healthy, your body is responding because maybe there's some unidentified and dangerous object entering your body through your nose by sneezing so that that object can be blown away. That's why muslim people always say "Alhamdulillah" every time they sneeze which means "All praise belong to God". Good for them.
3. Taking a pee. Oh My God, when you can not pee, you can not move, you feel pain in your stomach area. But when you can release it, wooooooooooooooooooooow, a greatest feeling. Be grateful of it.
4. And many more.

Even if you are the richest human in the world, if you can not breath, sneeze, or take a pee, you'll suffer a lot. So be grateful of little things in life. Any idea what else?

First post

First try on blogger. Let's see what this blog can do.
Picture from www.nicnocquee.com. Visit the blog: www.nicnocquee.com/blog