Giving Positive Impact On People’s Lives

I’m not sure how you get interested to read this post. Maybe you are going to have interview at Balicamp and you are googling for information about the work environment in the company. Or maybe you are just interested about the company itself.

Whatever it is, I hope you find this post interesting and informative as I, myself, never found any blog post in the net that describe the work experience at Balicamp, one of the most known software developer house in Indonesia.

Workhour

Just get straight to the most important point, what is the workhour here in Balicamp?

Officially it’s 8.30 to 5.30 just as most regular office hour is…

But since we know that reality bites and life sucks, the “unofficial” workhour in the office is actually unlimited. For most of my first month here in the company, my worktime has changed to 8:00 to 9:30.

I think that won’t be a surprise for those of you who already know how work really is in a software house.

We have a joke that once you signed the work contract, you are actually have sold your soul to the company, just like in the movies where someone signed a contract with the devil who laugh loudly, “Bwahahaha…!”

Workload

Another most important point, how’s the workload at Balicamp? Hmm.. The answer actually depends on how do you perceive the workload.

Though in simple English word it’s simply called “endless”.

I think it is the common thing in a service company. There are many work to be done by so little resources in so little time.

Salary

Hmm, the most crucial part of a job and probably the most determining factor before someone signed a work contract, the salary.

Ok, I don’t know what will the company done to me once they know about this part of the post. I think I’m risking my life here..

Well, I’m not gonna post my salary nor will tell you about the salary range in Balicamp. For me it’s just enough for me, can’t say it’s one of the best though. But like most of the employees in the company, I’m after the knowledge and experience at this point so salary isn’t the issue.

I always think that I’m actually enrolled in a great software course here in Balicamp. When I think such then I will rather feel lucky because instead me who need to pay for the education fee, the course provider is the one who paid me.

Conclusion

Maybe some of the words I used here is to exaggerated in some ways. I also may not be much knowledgable to write a more accurate post about Balicamp because so far I have only work for 5 weeks in the company.

Anyway, the post certainly reflects the things that I’ve experienced so far. So just see it as another viewpoint of work environment Balicamp seen from a junior programmer.

So should you think about working here in Balicamp? Well, by all means please do so because it will be one of the best experience you have in life. Unless of course you have better option…

OMG! How could I lost the opportunity to get $50 for just writing 5 blog posts? (Ouch!)

Well, just today my friend who worked in a marketing research company asked me to be the respondent for a research. What was the research about? I don’t really know is it about, but he was looking for several bloggers who are willing to write posts with certain topic.

The requirement was so simple, male or female blogger (22-24 years old) of any religion but not fanatic, not gay, and in or have been involved in relationship with opposite sex.

What the best point? Each blogger will be required to write five posts and will get paid $10 for each post. Now won’t that be totally an easy $50..?

So how could I lost such wonderful opportunity? Well, simply because I write too much technical reviews and gadgets rather than social issues. OMG!!! It’s like I almost cried when my friend told me the reason… (Huaaa!)

Well, maybe it’s really not my luck this time. But it reminded me to write more posts about social life around me and prove to the world, “Hey, I’m not that anti-social…!” (or maybe sometimes..)

Once in a while you may need to change the SMTP IP destination of your mail relayer server. Last month our company installed a new anti-Spam software using Symantec Mail Security to reduce the significant number of incoming spam email. During this project test and deployment period I need to change the email smtp routes several times. Here I created the documented steps that I did during the process.

Just one comment about the Symantec Mail Security Anti-Spam feature. It is very good software that can help you reduce 99.9% of spam emails. It is 99% accurate in keeping the spam email from going to your inbox. Until now I only receive 1 spam email for the whole two weeks. However it needs to update its database every 20 minutes or less. And this update can take up to 4 GB of internet bandwidth every week. Well, that’s quite a price for keeping spam email out of your email huh!

Allright, back to how to change the SMTP routes of three most popular MTA (sorry, I don’t include Exim cause I didn’t able to tried it..) Continue reading →

To those of you who love to collect ebooks, most probably you have have the thought of how to print it with your own deskjet or laserjet printer. It would be really good to be able to read the ebook just like ordinary book. Because one of the great disadvantage of ebook is you need a computer monitor screen to display the book. While staring too long at your monitor screen can lead to eye fatigue or light dizziness.

Some of the printer driver have the capability to print your ebook into a book format. One of them is the HP Laserjet 4200 in my office. There is a print properties that I can choose so the printer will print the output in a half page format and after the print job is done, I can fold the papers in the middle and voila, a home-made (or office-made to be exact.. ;D) published book.

And then I thought of what if I can make it even smaller. Is there an option to print the book in 1/4 page size so I can make a pocket book? Well, unfortunately there isn’t any… So I tried to Google and try to find some kind of software that can do that. Continue reading →

I know, I know.. it is so so late to write a product review about iPod Nano. The product has been around in the market for more than 3 years already. But what can I do? I only managed to try one today guys! So be patient with me and just read the review if you want to.

iPod MP3 player has been a very interesting international buzz for several years. So much so until some people generally call MP3 player as “iPod”. I remember exactly two years ago when I just bought an Apacer MP3 player to record a one-day seminar. There was this guy who asked me, “Wow, cool iPod you have there? What brand is it?”. I said, “WHAT !? you just said it was an iPod and then you asked what brand is it?” (No, I didn’t said it in front of him actually…)

There were several reasons why I didn’t buy iPod when I decided to have an MP3 player:
Continue reading →

The Story:

Last week our Windows 2000 printer server had repeated problems in a single day. As the rule of thumb of Windows 2000 printer server troubleshooting says, I stopped the printer spooler service, waited a few seconds, and then started the service. Based on my experience, most of Windows service will show an fail message when I clicked on the restart service button. That’s why I prefer to click on the stop button and the start button after several seconds.

Anyway, it did solve the problem for about half an hour until the next user complained that she cannot print also. Then I restarted the Windows to make sure all the troubles caused by any lack of available memory resources will be solved. It came up and it solved the print problem.

But a few hours afterward the problem re-occured and so I did the restart ritual of both service and Windows all over again. I thought that was all for that day, but on the following day I discovered that my work colleague restarted the Windows once more after I left the office because of the same problem.

The problem no longer occur until today, but me and my work colleague has worked on plan to replace the printer server to new hardware and upgrade it to Windows 2003.

As always, we tried it in a testing environment with very similar condition. Here are the steps to upgrade Windows 2000 printer server to Windows 2003. Continue reading →

Scenario:

Last weekend we added a new storage for company File Server. We need to move all the Departments’ folders to the new storage while maintaining the folder security permission. There are thousands of folders inside around 50 different main folders. We certainly cannot afford the chance of losing the folder permission security properties that already created for several years.

What I know is Windows Server 2003 can only retain these security properties if the folder is copied in the same partition. While if you copy the folder across different partition, it will remove all of the security properties. Sounds like disaster to me…

My work partner then told me about the xcopy command that can be use to solve the issue. Continue reading →

OS: Linux Fedora Core 5 with Apache Installed
Lotus Notes 7

The Story:

Wow! It was a great experience for me when I researched around for articles on how to create a reverse proxy server with Apache and use it to secure Lotus Notes Webmail. Before deciding to use Apache I tried to use Microsoft ISA Server 2004 and its publish server rule, but I get pretty confused in the middle cause it’s not so customizable. I guess Microsoft created the publish server rule only for Microsoft Exchange Server OWA (Outlook Web Access).

Anyway, with Linux Fedora Core 5 and Apache you can do reverse proxying with a lot more options. So here is the documented steps on how I did it. Keep in mind that there could be some difference in your situation, but I hope I could help you with this post. So let’s start fellas… Continue reading →

I bought my Nokia 2610 one month ago when my co-worker offered me to buy it from him. He actually offered me two kind of cellphone, Nokia 1600 and Nokia 2610. As always before I bought something, I make a quick check about what people say about these two phones in the internet.

The problem with most of the review websites is they tend to give high scores on most of the products they tested. I know we should look on the positive side of everything. But when it comes to product review, the negative side is the most determining factor here. So every review that I read mentioned that both cellphones are good. Now, I should trust my instinct, and I hope it’s working…

One problem that I have, my co-worker did not allow me to open the phone package box to see which one looks better. “Ah… allright! I take the Nokia 2610!” I told him.

I chose the Nokia 2601 for two main reasons. First, it has larger screen size and resolution than the Nokia 1600, and everybody love a bigger screen. Second, it is the higher series, it must be better than Nokia 1600 somewhere else beside its screen. And at only around $10 more expensive, the price is still good.

After one month of use, here is my review about the phone: Continue reading →

I just had a thought to write something for the medtech intern recently. In the previous two articles, I only address tips for the clinical division students. I believe I should share some guidelines also for the interns since the world of CD and of intern are quite different.

My Intern times may have past almost three years ago, but all the lessons, pain, troubles, and fun will always be fresh in my mind. Like the one year I spent in clinical division, my one year (ok, plus several days I got because I had absent and sick leaves) is paradoxically one of the best “toxic” year in my life. Think about it, what other course could have force you to travel around Philippines and mess around in one year (I had my intern in Mindanao Sanitarium and Hospital, Manila Adventist Medical Center, and Cagayan Valley Sanitarium and Hospital).

If there is one thing that pay all of the hardships in clinical division, it’s certainly the internship year. But be careful, it’s not a “honey and milk” year. And I hope my tips can give some insights for those who are going to intern and those who are already there as well. Let’s get going: Continue reading →