In a world we live in now, we often separate religious and secular matters. We often tend to think that we are doing secular matters from Monday to Saturday, and then on Sunday, we are doing religious matters. It should not be that way. As you will see in the video below, work is also an act of worship to God. As worship is our reaction and respond to God’s unmerited love, worship should encompass every area of our life, especially work, where we spend over half of our time there.

I hope this video can stir your heart and make you rethink where do you put work in your act of worship?

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Apple is undoubtedly the most creative tech company in the world. Just when you think that you’ve got their coolest gadget, iPad 2, they just now released “iTea”. Hit the video for more information.

You might have already noticed that this video is not real (or maybe you have not! LOL) Steve Jobs is NOT selling Taiwanese Tea now. He’s still sitting in his office trying to wash people’s brain to think that Apple’s products are the coolest products ever….at least that’s my humble opinion. No offense if you are Apple’s fans. This is actually an advertisement that was aired on Taiwanese TV network for Tong Yi Cha, a Taiwanese tea product. Nonetheless, who ever impersonated Steve Jobs did a pretty good job!

If you think that this is the end of the story. You are wrong. An attempt to impersonate Steve Jobs continues with MTR release of their subway apps.

If you like this post, please “like” it on facebook and share it with your friends and family. Thanks!

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The long anticipated alliance between Facebook and Skype is finally bringing forth its fruit with the rolling out of Facebook Video Chat.

There are 3 new features that Facebook is now rolling out:

• Group Chat
• Video Calling
• and new design

However, the most anticipated one is Video Calling. Even though Facebook is one step behind Google in terms of the release date, I’m looking forward to see how Facebook Video Calling is compared with Google+ Hangout.

If you are so eager to try this new feature, you can now go to http://www.facebook.com/videocalling to activate the new feature. If everything works like it normally does. You should see this screen below.

What do you think about Facebook’s latest move to compete with Google+? Do you think the mighty social media giant would triumph? I don’t know. Let’s give both Facebook and Google+ sometime to prove themselves. Meanwhile, we, as their customer, would gladly accept this new addition to our social media tools disposal.

If you enjoy this post, please like it on Facebook and share it with others. Thanks!

Source: Wired.com

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1. Will Google+ Beat Facebook? (Invitation Available) Apparently, the rumored news about Google’s own social network is...

Apparently, the rumored news about Google’s own social network is proved to be a fact. Starting few days ago, Google launched their own version of social media network, rivaling Facebook, that’s called Google+.

Some of the features that are currently being rolled out are status updates, check-ins, huddle, and hangout. You can read a complete Google+ overview from Search Engine Land to see in detail about Google+.

My main question now is….”Will Google+ be able to beat Facebook?”

It might be still too early to tell for sure if Google+ would be able to beat Facebook in terms of popularity and user base. However, I see that Google is moving to the right direction with Google+. They sure learned a lot from Google Wave failure. I mean Google Wave is cool, but it’s too complicated and impractical to use for a non-techie person. I can see how Google Wave technology could be developed into something great in the future, but in its current state, I don’t think it’s gonna go anywhere.

On the other hand, I can see a great potential already in Google+. I have been using Google+ for about 2-3 days now and I think Google+ could beat Facebook, for several reasons: 

• Google+ is able to limit/control to whom your post/updates will be shared with. This gives me a greater control to make sure that my message could only be read by the people (circles) I intended the post for. In Facebook, you don’t have this ability. Once you post something on Facebook, it will go out to ALL your friends.
• Easy access from Google.com. Since most of our homepage is Google.com, Google+ is one tab-click away from it, so it’s really easy to access. Plus, Google+ notification bar is always there sit at the top of Google.com so if you have any activity on your Google+, it will show at the top right hand-side bar.
• Google+ Chat will allow you to invite more than one people in a text chat. Plus, your conversation will be archived and searchable for later use. Facebook has finally caught up on this by combining Facebook Chat and Facebook Message, but you still can’t combine more than one people in your Facebook chat.
• Moreover, Google+ Chat will allow you to audio chat with your friends, something that still hasn’t been seen in Facebook even thought rumored says that Facebook is working with Skype to enable this feature soon.
• Google+ Huddle. If you are using Android (and soon for iPhone), you can download Google+ Android apps and do a “huddle” together with your friends. Google+ Huddle is basically a mobile chat feature that enable several people to quickly chat over the phone. I think this is great to save on your text message money.
  
• Lastly….Google+ Hangout. I’m saving the best for the last. Google+ Hangout will allow you to do a simultaneous video conference chat with up to 10 people. You could also pop up a Youtube video on it and watch it together with your friends. Off course you could also send text and audio chat while watching Youtube among the 10 people to make your “hangout” even more enjoyable.
  

My point is that Google+ is a purer form of social media platform. Its focus is to connecting people and it does that very well. There are still minor glitches and improvements they could do to improve Google+, but overall, I’m very pleased with it.

Now…if you are not a Google+ member yet, you now have the chance to get an invitation. How? Very simple. Since I made this as a closed-invitation now, I need your participation on this. As I need to raise money to fly back to Indonesia, I will send out a Google+ invitation to whomever chip-in for my plane ticket. Any amount will do, so if you were only able to chip-in $5…that’s fine, but if you were able to chip-in $10…that would so “uber” awesome Just click the chip-in button below and MAKE SURE you put your Google account email address where the invitation will be sent to in the “Instruction to Merchant” box. I appreciate your generosity. Thanks!!!

If you enjoy this post, please like it on Facebook and share it with others. Thanks!

Update: 07/01/2011

• Facebook is planning to launch something “awesome” next week. (Source: Reuters)

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Samsung did it again. After their success with Samsung Galaxy S mobile phone series, they now come up with an amazingly thin 10.1″ Android tablet that top their previous 7″ Android tablet in every aspects. Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 (P7150) is now the thinnest and lightest Android tablet out there, even thinner and lighter than Ipad 2.

I just ordered mine 2 days ago, which should arrive today, so I’ll try to do a quick review of it once I got the product. Meanwhile, take a look at the commercial video ads below and the full specification at the bottom.

Galaxy Tab 10.1 WiFi Official Info Clip

Galaxy Tab 10.1 Commercial Ads

I got mine from Amazon for $499. It is packed with 16GB internal storage memory. The 32GB Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is little more expensive with the retail price of $599. Best Buy and some other retail stores also have them in stock; however, I highly recommend you to buy it online. You might ask “Why?? I want it NOW.” Well…if you can’t resist the urge, I can’t stop you. But if you want to save some money, you would better off buying it online. By buying online, you don’t have to pay taxes. For example, if you buy it from Best Buy, you would be charged $35.63 more for taxes. If you buy from Amazon, you can save $35.63. Plus, if you are an Amazon Prime member like me, you can get it in 2 days for free.

Latest News Update about Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1

• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Get Rooted
• Samsung Released Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Source Code
• Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 Coming Soon to Sprint on June 24th

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Japanese people would never stop to amaze me with their creativity. One particular one that intrigued me lately was Karakuri.

Karakuri (Karakuri Ningyo) was developed recently within the last 300 years (in the 1800s) by Japanese people as the embodiment of their robotic technology advances in the most traditional way. Karakuri is a mechanized automata doll/puppet that was designed in such a way to perform certain task without using any electricity.

Karakuri is basically used in three areas:

• Butai karakuri (舞台からくり or stage Karakuri) is used in theater
• Zashiki karakuri (座敷からくり or tatami room Karakuri) is small and mainly used at home
• Dashi karakuri (山車からくり or festival car Karakuri) is used in religious festival

Here are some amazing Karakuri videos that I found around the net.

Karakuri in General

A Karakuri Shooting Arrows

A Karakuri Writes a Japanese Character

A Karakuri Serving Tea (Chahakobi Ningyo)

You can read more about Karakuri origins at http://www.karakuri.info/origins/index.html

If you like this post, please like and share it with your friends and family. Thanks!

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There are 2 easy ways I found so far to transfer money to outside countries easily.

1. Creating Paypal Overseas Account.
   Paypal is expanding its network rapidly to countries all over the world. You can see the complete list of countries where you can open your account. Some countries might have certain limitations on the things you can do. Also, different countries have different requirements for withdrawal. For instance of Paypal Indonesia, I need to have the minimum balance of $10 for withdrawal and I’ll be charged a transaction fee of $1.6 if the withdrawal amount is less than $150. 

   Make sure that you create a separate account for each countries you want to transfer your money. You will be asked the country/region of you account when you sign up. Remember, this setting can’t be changed. Once you set one account to particular country, you can’t change it to another one.

   You will also need the local bank account for whatever country you open your new account at, so make sure you have one. You can always use someone else’s local bank account, so it doesn’t have to be yours.

2. Adding Your Overseas Account as One of Your Bank Transfer Profile.
   This option is not available for all banks. I know, in U.S., Bank of America and Chase have this feature available. 

   In Bank of America, you can add a profile account to transfer money to. It can be to another Bank of America account or to outside Bank of America. For outside Bank of America account, you can set either the account inside U.S. or outside U.S. For outside U.S. bank account, you need to have the foreign bank’s SWIFT Code.

   I actually just sent a test transfer to my family back home using my Bank of America account.The process was pretty easy and straight forward. Some information needed from the destination bank: swift code, account holder name, account number. If everything goes fine, you will get this confirmation email.
   
   and after few days, you will get another email saying that the transfer has been successfully sent.
   

   To get your bank’s swift code, look it up at http://www.swiftcodesinfo.com/swift-code/index.php
   Here are the list of popular banks swift codes in Indonesia:

• ABN AMRO Bank: ABNAIDJA
• Hagabank: HAGAIDJA
• Bank Artha Graha: ARTGIDJA
• Bank Bumiputera Indonesia: BUMIIDJA
• Bank Mandiri (not Bank Syariah Mandiri): BEIIIDJA
• Bank Niaga: BNIAIDJA
• Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI): BNINIDJA
• Bank Rakyat Indonesia (BRI): BRINIDJA
• Bank Bukopin: BBUKIDJA
• Bank Central Asia (BCA): CENAIDJA
• Deutsche Bank AG: DEUTIDJA
• Bank Mizuho Indonesia: MHCCIDJA
• Hongkong and Shanghai Banking (HSBC): HSBCIDJA
• Bank Internasional Indonesia (BII): IBBKIDJA
• Bank Indonesia: INDOIDJA
• Lippobank: LIPBIDJA
• Bank NISP: NISPIDJA
• Bank Rabobank International Indonesia: RABOIDJA
• Bank Tabungan Negara (BTN): BTANIDJA
• Bank UOB Indonesia: UOBBIDJA
• Bank Maybank Indocorp: MBBEIDJA
• Bank Chinatrust Indonesia: CTCBIDJA
• Bank Sumitomo Mitsui Indonesia: SUNIIDJA
• Bank OCBC Indonesia: OCBCIDJA
• Bank DBS Indonesia: DBSBIDJA
• Bank Mega: MEGAIDJA
• Bank of China, Jakarta Branch: BKCHIDJA
• Bank Syariah Mandiri (not Bank Mandiri): BSMDIDJA

===============
Updates 06/06/2011:

• It seems that the list of popular Indonesian bank SWIFT codes above are outdated (taken from 2008). For the list of current SWIFT Code, please check http://www.swiftcodesinfo.com/swift-code/index.php

===============

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Have you ever heard a saying that goes like “a picture is worth a thousand words”? Wordle.net seems to take that saying seriously with a smart twist that makes it almost too fun to experiment with.

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At first, it’s hard to believe this bold statement that “Indonesia is the Best Place to Start a Business,” even surpasses USA. However, it’s very true. Indonesia has now emerged to be a business utopia for many entrepreneurs. This phenomenon is confirmed by BBC’s economic correspondent, Andrew Walker, on his article – Indonesia “Top” for Entrepreneurs.

Index derived from the mean scores (on a scale from 1 to 4) of four questions:  Valuation of creativity/innovation in own country Difficulty to start own business in country Valuation of people who start own business Ease of putting ideas into practice Source: BBC.co.uk

1. Indonesia is a huge market
2. Young Indonesian are very tech savvy
3. Indonesians are inspired by what has happened in US
4. Low startup cost

For these reasons, few tech-startup companies have been acquired by international companies, such as Disdus by Groupon and Koprol by Yahoo in relatively short period of time.

Not only in technology field, Indonesia is also a fertile land for any type of business you can imagine of, especially in retail.  You can find people with crazy business idea in the Inspiration section of Kompas.com and Business Opportunity section of Kontan.co.id. Many of them are retailers. However, it just surprises me how these people can come up with their products:

• Paintings from the trunk of a banana tree
• Souvenirs made of cocoon from silk worms
• Heart-shape meatball
• Recycling soda cans
• Cow dungs

So what do you think? Are you ready to taste this lucrative business opportunity in Indonesia?

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The day that has been feared by many Georgians is finally come. Governor Nathan Deal has just signed the House Bill 87 (HB 87) today, on 05/13/2011, that will enable police to check the immigration status of anyone that they suspect of not having proper immigration documents and require employers to register their employees through “Federal  E-verify” verification process. Supposedly, this new immigration law will take into effect starting July 1st, 2011.

Image taken from www.coastalrivers.org

Couple highlights from HB 87:

• Companies that employ more than 10 people in their company are required to register their new hires through Federal E-verify.
• Police can stop you at anytime to ask for your immigration paperworks. Therefore, you need to always bring your immigration paperworks with you at anytime, especially when you are driving. If you don’t have proper immigration paperworks, I advise you to not driving at all to avoid you getting into trouble.
• Don’t use fake IDs. You can be charged with 15 years in jail and up to $250,000 in fines.
• If you got caught for violating HB 87, don’t try to defense yourself, because whatever that you said can be used against you. Exercise your right to remain silent and ask/call your lawyer to come and consult with your lawyer the best way to deal with your case.

Please pass along this information to your friends and family by sharing it on Facebook and/or Twitter.

Sources:
- http://www.ajc.com/news/georgia-politics-elections/governor-signs-arizona-style-944703.html
- http://www.numbersusa.com/content/news/may-13-2011/gov-nathan-deal-signs-georgia-immigration-enforcement-law.html

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