Tag: people

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Umum

Thai Airways, Restoran Bertema Pesawat, dan Pa Tong Go

Dari sekian banyak industri dan bisnis di dunia, indsutri perjalanan mungkin salah satu yang terkena dampak sangat besar, dan sangat cepat. Tak butuh berbulan-bulan untuk dampaknya langsung dirasakan.

Karena orang juga mulai berpikir ulang untuk bepergian entah untuk urusan pekerjaan atau hiburan, industri penerbangan — yang otomatis juga memengaruhi industri lain dalam sektor pariwisata — langsung perlu penyesuaian. Mulai dari pengurangan rute, pengurangan frekuensi penerbangan, termasuk pengurangan beban operasional lainnya.

Sedih melihatnya. Ditambah ketika pembatasan perjalanan harus dilakukan karena regulasi dari otoritas.

Thai Airways salah satunya. Untuk tetap membuat operasional berjalan, mereka melakukan beberapa penyesuaian bisnis, melakukan adaptasi, seperti yang dilakukan oleh puluhan, ratusan, atau bahkan jutaan bisnis di dunia.

Restoran Thai Airways

Restoran yang ditawarkan oleh Thai Airways ini memberikan pengalaman makan dengan tema ‘penerbangan’. Dengan menu, armosfer, dan pengalaman khas ala Thai Airways. Tentu, ini juga sudah pasti Thai Airways tidak bisa mengoperasikan penerbangan komersialnya.

Patong-go

Berikutnya, Thai Airways juga mulai melakukan langkah yang lain yaitu berjualan roti goreng, dengan nama patong-go atau diistilahkan dengan deep-fried dough. Mungkin kalau di Indonesia, mirip seperti cakwe, atau bolang baling. Atau, mungkin odading lebih bisa lebih mirip dengan ini. Tentu, kita tak perlu mendebatkan mana yang duluan apakah pa tong go, odading, cakwe, atau bolang baling yang duluan. Atau malah galundeng?

(Photo: Chanat Katanyu/Bangkok Post)

Acting THAI president Chansin Treenuchagron told reporters that the fried dough sticks were popular and people formed long queues to buy them each morning at the airline’s five food outlets in Bangkok. Monthly sales were around 10 million baht. Encouraged by this, the airline planned to franchise its fried dough sticks, so THAI and its partners could mutually benefit from their popularity.

Bangkok Post: Thai Airways cashing in on fried dough

Semangat!

Categories
Umum

Hello, HEY!

Yes, I’m joining the crowd to give HEY — email service by the awesome guys at Basecamp — a shout. I wrote them to request for an invite three around three days ago. I am sure that they’re having lots of invitation requests, but today, I finally got the invitation code to register an account.

Before registering, I have read some key information about HEY: about how it works, the HEY manifesto, some key points on the FAQ page, and also how the pricing will work. I also understand that Imbox is not a typo.

Some key points about HEY

In my opinion, these are some key points about HEY. It’s not about my personal preference, but more about ‘what I — or probably you — should now by having a @hey.com account.

  1. It’s NOT an email client. So, it’s not like Gmail for Android/iOS. It’s not Outlook you can have on your Android, Mac, or iOS devices. It’s not even close to Spark, Postbox, or Newton.
  2. It’s an email service provider, with — currently — @hey.com domain for the email address created. That’s right, it’s like Gmail by Google, or Yahoo Mail, or Outlook. It’s also like how you have your email address, powered by your cPanel-based hosting, or maybe you have it installed yourself and having Roundcube as the interface. Creating an account at HEY is like you open an account at Gmail, or having an email at Yahoo Mail service.
  3. It’s not free. It’s a paid service. To enjoy the full service at the moment, with the upcoming features in the futures, we need to pay US$99/year minimum. We need to pay extra if for ‘shorter’ username. 2-characters of username costs US$999/year, and 3-character of username will cost US$349/year. And, we need to pay a year in advance.
  4. It offers “better” privacy. Hint: Gmail.
  5. It might change your workflow. It might be better for some people, but probably it’s not for everyone.

More features that might works better for you can be seen at HEY website.

Let’s give it a try

Reading some of those points above, I was curious about how it works. I mean about the interface, functionalities, workflows, and more. It’s 2020, and making working with email to become an enjoyable experience — for those who work a lot with emails — is still a big challenge.

I am a Gmail user — or Gmail-based email, because I also use Google App for Work — and I use lots of Google services. I signed up for my Gmail account when it was still ‘invite only’ period.

My first question about HEY was, “If HEY is that good, how the integration between services I currently use?”. I have an Gmail email, and once I signed up for it, I can use all the other services right away. The integration between those [Google] service is already that good.

I still believe that HEY is not ‘just another email provider’. Basecamp is a reputable company. I follow Signal vs Noise blog. I bought both REMOTE and REWORK. It’s built by people who know what they do, and who want to make the idea of working to become something efficient and fun at the same time. If we’re talking about productivity, Basecamp should be mentioned here.

I already logged-in to my email account. I have HEY app installed on my iPad and Android phone. I also already sent my first email to it.

Let’s see.

Categories
Umum

AirAsia Indonesia Terbang Lagi untuk Beberapa Rute Domestik Mulai 19 Juni 2020

Setelah Lion Air yang membuka beberapa rute penerbangan domestik pada 10 Juni 2020 lalu, AirAsia Indonesia melakukan langkah yang sama. Beberapa rute penerbangan domestik akan dibuka mulai 19 Juni 2020.

Mengutip dari keterangan resmi dari situs AirAsia, berikut beberapa rute yang akan dilayani.

No. PenerbanganAsalTujuanBerangkatTibaFrekuensi (hari)
QZ 7520Jakarta (CGK)Bali (DPS)09.2512.25Senin, Rabu, Jumat, Minggu
QZ 7521Bali (DPS)Jakarta (CGK)12.5013.35Senin, Rabu, Jumat, Minggu
QZ 192Jakarta (CGK)Medan (KNO)12.1014.40Senin, Rabu, Jumat, Minggu
QZ 193Medan (KNO)Jakarta (CGK)15.0517.25Senin, Rabu, Jumat, Minggu

Memang belum banyak, karena secara kebijakan dan karena perubahan standar prosedur operasional pasti banyak yang harus disesuaikan terlebih dahulu.

Rencana penerbangan saya bulan April 2020 lalu juga menggunakan maskapai ini, walaupun harus saya batalkan, dan sampai sekarang belum jelas juga status pengembalian dana karena pembatalan. Walaupun, kalau memang saya tidak eligible untuk mendapatkan refund ya tidak apa-apa, tapi status tiket kasus nomor 40585971 milik saya sampai saya tulis artikel ini juga masih “Sedang Berlangsung”.

Dear AirAsia Indonesia, I <3 you, but could you please check my case on the refund? If it should be closed and I could not get my refund, just close my ticket. Thank you!

Thomas Arie Setiawan, your happy customer
AirAsia Indonesia depart from Adistucipto Airport (JOG)

Secara prosedur, kurang lebih sama dengan bagaimana maskapai lain yang merujuk kepada Surat Edaran No. 7 Tahun 2020 dari Gugus Tugas Percepatan Penanganan Covid-19 tentang Kriteria Persyaratan Perjalanan Orang Dalam Masa Adaptasi Kebiasaan Baru Menuju Masyarakat Produktif dan Aman Corona Virus Disease 2019 (Covid-19).

AirAsia Indonesia sendiri telah memiliki “Panduan Terbang Bersama AirAsia Selama Masa Kewaspadaan COVID-19”, dimana penumpang (untuk penerbangan domestik) disayaratkan untuk:

  1. Menunjukkan kartu dentitas diri (KTP atau tanda pengenal lainnya yang sah);
  2. Melengkapi dengan surat keterangan uji Rapid-Test dengan hasil non reaktif yang berlaku 3 hari atau Surat keterangan uji tes PCR dengan hasil negatif yang berlaku 7 hari pada saat keberangkatan, atau Surat keterangan bebas gejala seperti influensa (influenza-like illness) yang dikeluarkan oleh Dokter Rumah Sakit/Puskesmas bagi daerah yang tidak memiliki fasilitas Test PCR dan/atau Rapid-Test;
  3. Mengunduh dan mengaktifkan aplikasi Peduli Lindungi pada perangkat telepon seluler

Dengan tambahan:

  1. Mengisi kartu kewaspadaan kesehatan elektronik (e-HAC) yang dapat diakses melalui aplikasi seluler e-HAC Indonesia (Android) atau http://sinkarkes.kemkes.go.id/ehac.
  2. Khusus penumpang dari/ke DKI Jakarta diharuskan memiliki Surat Izin Keluar Masuk (SIKM) yang dapat diproses di https://corona.jakarta.go.id/id/izin-keluar-masuk-jakarta#11sektor
  3. Khusus penumpang tujuan akhir Bali wajib menunjukkan hasil tes PCR (bukan rapid Test) dengan hasil negatif dan mengisi formulir https://cekdiri.baliprov.go.id/
  4. Khusus penumpang tujuan akhir Lombok wajib menunjukkan hasil tes PCR (bukan rapid Test) dengan hasil negatif.
  5. Mengisi surat pernyataan AirAsia. (Surat pernyataan dapat diunduh di Google Drive dalam format PDF)

Walaupun saya belum ada rencana untuk bepergian dengan pesawat — dan sebisa mungkin menghindari bepergian jarak jauh apalagi sampai menggunakan moda transportasi umum — persyaratan perjalanan memang jauh lebih ketat. Tapi, saya lebih setuju kalau memang pesyaratan ini benar-benar dijalankan oleh seluruh pihak, termasuk penumpang.

Stay safe, good people!

Categories
General

Third year: LastPass

I started using LastPass for my password manager application in March 2017. So, this year, it’s my third year now. Before LastPass, I used 1Password. I didn’t remember the exact reasons why I switched to LassPass, but I think it was about the integration with applications in mobile devices.

I am satisfied with LassPass features. For some people, Google’s Password Manager will work. But, when it comes to more complex password and identity management, I think LassPass fits me more.

Is LassPass free? Unfortunately, not. I started my subscription for US $12/year (for Premium package). A year later, LassPass increased its pricing to US $24/year. And, this year, they increased the subscription pricing again to US $36/year.

Hat tip: LassPass was acquired by LogMeIn back in 2015.

LassPass offers competitive pricing compared to its competitor like DashLane (US $40/year), 1Password (US $36/year), and Keeper (US $30/year). Since LassPass works for me (until today), I think I will keep my subscription.

Categories
General

Thank You, Flickr! Hello Google Photos!

When Flickr was acquired by Smugmug, I was happy. Rather than comparing between the two services, they finally under one team, even Flickr and Smugmug are still two separated services. I believe that Smugmug will work hard and listen to Flickr community to bring Flickr back with better features.

But, I decided to leave Flickr for Google Photos. Thank you, Flickr!

Flickr and I

Before Instagram era, or mobile-first photo sharing becomes so popular, Flickr was on the top service if it’s referring to photos/photography. Especially when there was Yahoo behind it.

I created my personal Flickr account back in 2004 — it’s 15 years ago — and I started uploading and sharing photos. When I was having close discussion with Public Communication Center of Ministry of Health and they asked me what kind of platform to choose to share photos, I recommended Flickr. The best part is they’re still using it until now!

Thomas Arie presenting flickr #ytownhall
Me sharing about Flickr during Yahoo Community Townhall event in May 2011 in Jakarta. I even still have the presentation slides with me. Thank you, Della and Gage!

Dear Flickr,

Probably, it’s just me. But, I wish you offer better experiences in — in my opinion — some of the key features.

First, help me to organise my thousand of photos. For me, it’s not that easy to put multiple photos into multiple albums. I am not sure about how you handle exactly-the-same photos, or…. duplicate photos. As far as I remember, it will be treated as different photos.

I wish you can also help me to organise my uploaded photos… automagically. There are lots of faces in my photos. Help me to organise them by faces so that I can easily and quickly find photos of my wife, my sister, and also my friends.

I know that sometimes it’s not about you. But, I feel that it’s slow to send my photos to you. I know, it’s also because you can also secure my photos in their original sizes.

I will stop talking now. I don’t hate you at all. I need something that works for me better now.

Continue reading “Thank You, Flickr! Hello Google Photos!”
Categories
General

Marketplace by Facebook

Marketplace by Facebook: buying and selling with each other

To help people make more of these connections, today we’re introducing Marketplace, a convenient destination to discover, buy and sell items with people in your community. Marketplace makes it easy to find new things you’ll love, and find a new home for the things you’re ready to part with. We’ll continue to build new options and features to make this the best experience for people.

In this initial release, Marketplace will be available in the US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand on the Facebook app for iPhone and Android. And, it will be only available for users over 18 years old.

Categories
General

G Suite

Google Apps for Work now has a new name. It’s G Suite.

G Suite is a set of intelligent apps — Gmail, Docs, Drive, Calendar, Hangouts, and more — designed to bring people together, with real-time collaboration built in from the start. And there’s a lot more on the way. Because we believe that when organizations break down silos, connect people and empower them to work together, we get the speed, agility and impact needed to compete in today’s market.

Categories
General

Moving to Google Apps for Work

Google Apps for Work

It’s been two for around two months since my small office moved the email service to Google Apps for Work. So far, it’s been a great experience and I think it was the right decision to make.

Why Moving?

Before moving to Google Apps for Work, we manage the email servers on our own. Meaning, we needed to do the setup, maintenance, including backup. There are less than twenty email accounts to manage under two main domains. The email was hosted on a cloud-based server — we used DigitalOcean. Everything was running almost without any issues.

We depend on emails on day-to-day operation. At the same time, we need to have (almost) zero maintenance and increase our productivity. Our small team needs to share lots of things like documents, spreadsheets, and agendas. The thing is that we need to use our personal Google account to share documents. The other things is on the storage. I have more than 6 GB of email (for work). So, moving to Google Apps for Work is an anticipation. Here are some main reasons on the migration:

  1. Zero maintenance. By outsourcing the email service to Google, we at least only need to keep the domain active.
  2. Integration with other Google services like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Calendar, and more. The integration also includes the seamless collaboratoin between coworkers.
  3. Flexible storage. By default, I have 30 GB of storage for my Gmail, Google Drive, and photos. If later I need to upgrade, the price is pretty reasonable. 100 GB for IDR 27,000 (per account) is a good deal.
  4. Simple setup and management. Setting up each service provided by Google Apps for Work is very easy.

Migration Process

The migration process was pretty easy. Since there were only around 12 email accounts, so moving them individually did not take too much time. My coworkers moved all the email account by themselves. The only challenge is not to have the downtime. There is a simple guide to work on this area. During the registration process, I only need to use a primary domain — and setup the secondary domain as domain alias later on.

For the cost efficiency, I worked on the settings on email routing. For example, if there is an email address that was only accessed by specific people in the organisation, I created some routing rules. By this, I can minimise the number of accounts.

After all emails (including attachments) had been migrated to Google Apps, we kept the “old” servers online for few days just to make sure that no data left behind. I was not sure how long the whole processes was completed, but it was around one week.

Categories
General

Android N is… Nougat

I think more people think that Android N will have Nutella as its new name. But, recently Android announced that the official name for Android N is Android Nougat.

Wait, Nougat? I personally not familar with this. According to Wikipedia:

Nougat is a family of confections made with sugar or honey, roasted nuts (almonds, walnuts, pistachios, hazelnuts, and macadamia nuts are common), whipped egg whites, and sometimes chopped candied fruit. The consistency of nougat is chewy, and it is used in a variety of candy bars and chocolates. The word nougat comes from Occitan pan nogat (pronounced [ˈpa nuˈɣat]), seemingly from Latin panis nucatus ‘nut bread’ (the late colloquial Latin adjective nucatum means ‘nutted’ or ‘nutty’).

ng01851-082-018rq0w8r1

And, here’s a picture.

Image source: http://toetenzo.nl/?p=315

Categories
General

Why I Pick Telegram as My Primary Messaging Platform?

Last year, I mentioned that I used Telegram and I enjoyed it. Been using for more than a year, I feel that it’s much better than the other messaging platforms. Well, I’m not using that many platforms to connect with other friends or colleagues if I consider the other options like LINE, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and many more. But, why Telegram?

Since I do not experience all messaging apps, I know that some other apps might be better. For now, I’m still considering that Telegram is the perfect option (for me) for some reasons.

Cross-platform and Multiple Sessions

Currently, I have multiple devices I use on my daily basis. Well, not really daily, but I usually switch between devices. I have 15-inch MacBook Pro Retina, iPhone 5, iPad 3rd generation, and Oppo Find 7. I have Telegram installed in those devices. It makes me stay connected. I can easily be in the conversation with friends, and especially colleagues. It’s flexibility to have multiple active session is my favorite!

Features

Telegram offers great set of handy features. Go to Telegram’s website for complete features, but here are some of favorite features:

  • File sharing made easy. I can share various types of files, not only photos, videos, but also PDFs, Android packages (yes, I use this a lot at work), spreadsheets, or any other document types.
  • API. It can be integrated easily to make useful tools. I will give some examples in the bottom part of this article.

Simple, fast, and lightweight

I like it’s simplicity. It helps me a lot in communication. I feel that it’s fast, a core feature that a messaging app needs. Of course, there are some extended features like stickers — even we can make our own stickers, bots (hello, @BotFather), event animated GIF.

Bots

It’s a Telegram account and operated by machine.

Bots are simply Telegram accounts operated by software — not people — and they’ll often have AI features. They can do anything — teach, play, search, broadcast, remind, connect, integrate with other services, or even pass commands to the Internet of Things.

The other one is an inline bots.

With the new inline mode, bots become omnipresent and can be used as a tool in any of your chats, groups or channels – it doesn’t matter, whether the bot is a member or not. Inline bots can help you with dozens of different tasks, like quickly sending relevant GIFs, pictures from the Web, YouTube videos, Wikipedia articles, etc.

At work, some of my colleagues made some handy tools based on this platforms.

Categories
General

Snapchat Daily Usage

Snapchat Passes Twitter in Daily Usage — The four-year-old messaging app is said to have 150 million people using it each day. I’m “thomasarie” on Snapchat and Twitter, by the way.

Categories
General

Let's talk about NOKN: A smart modular bag

I couldn’t remember how many bags I had. I was not so picky about the design, colors, or models. I only need some common criteria: it’s functional, and its price should be good. I don’t mind spending more cash on bags (or any other fashion items) as long as it’s good and it fits me.
Last year, I discovered NOKNbag. It’s a business by some cool guys in my hometown, Jogjakarta. One of them is my junior high school friend who I haven’t met for years. He  shared about NOKNbag products. I have to admit that it was cool. But, I decided not buying it right away. “Well, may be later…”, I thought. In some occasions, I saw more people having this kind of bag. And, I had a chance to experience this bag, to meet this bag in person. And, it only took me seconds to decide: I need to have one.
And, I didn’t buy one. Not two, but also bought  special vouchers (worth around 50% off) for all friends at work. We invaded NOKN’s studio — it’s not far from the my office — to do a live mix-and-match. These are some items we bought back in 2013.
NOKN
The collection has only simple name: NOKNbag v2.1. And, it’s only a single product, but each element can be purchased separately. Some color options are also available. This is my configurations (I don’t always have them at once, anyway):

  • One Metal Gun body color
  • 3 flaps (red, blue, and white)
  • 1 shoulder pad (Metal Gun)
  • Inside Partition (Grey)
  • Laptop case (Grey). I can bring my 15″ MacBook Pro Retina Display!

nokn-office-1824121724124
Some customers mentioned that they could bring lots of stuff in it. And, they’re right. When I need to do a short trip (2-3 days) to Jakarta for example, I only bring one bag that contains these following items: 15″ MacBook Pro (with its MagSafe), iPad (with charger), iPhone, 3 t-shirts, 2 skirts, 2 shirts, small towel, and some stationaries.
It’s  my primary (and daily) bag. It’s my companion for work, or business trip.

Continue reading “Let's talk about NOKN: A smart modular bag”
Categories
General

37signals' REMOTE is now available

When I found out that REMOTE was available for pre-order, it didn’t take minutes for me to make a pre-order from Amazon. I have read Getting Real, and it’s inspiring. Or, you probably have read REWORK.
rmt-17019274124
And, yesterday I got an email informing that the book is available. Here is how the book is described:

As an employer, restricting your hiring to a small geographic region means you’re not getting the best people you can. As an employee, restricting your job search to companies within a reasonable commute means you’re not working for the best company you can. REMOTE, the new book by 37signals, shows both employers and employees how they can work together, remotely, from any desk, in any space, in any place, anytime, anywhere.

To find out more about this book, or read some sample chapters, go to REWORK’s website. Also, I received a notification from Amazon.com about my pre-order status. I made the pre-order on August 10, 2013 for $13.80. Yeah, more than two months ago. It’s estimated that I will have this book — together with another item from Amazon.com — in the mid of November.
Actually, I also want to have the ebook version from Apple’s iBooks Store. But, it seems that it’s not yet available for the Indonesian Store. You can buy from iBook Store for $12.99.

Categories
General

Let's talk about the (new) Yahoo's email service

Recently, Yahoo redesigned its mail service again. I’ve talked about Yahoo Mail last August. I hoped for an improvements. Recently, on its 16th birthday, Yahoo gives a new look for its mail service. Quoting from a release published at Yahoo’s blog:

We redesigned Yahoo Mail to be more efficient, too. Things you do all of the time like search, starring, and deleting are now one-click actions that appear when you hover over an email. We also wanted to give you more breathing room in your inbox, so you can collapse the left-hand toolbar to be more productive.

I’m not a big fan of Yahoo email service actually, I’m sold to Google Mail. I use Gmail web-based interface on my daily basis. So, what Yahoo offered on this redesign this time?

1 TB of storage to handle email and attachments.

Yes, that’s huge! Currently, Google ‘only’ offers 15 GB of free storage (shared between Google Drive, Gmail, and Google+ Photos) with some detailed conditions. The 1 TB storage is tempting for marketing purpose and by number. Do I really need 1TB? I can live with 15 GB Google offers. By having 1 TB of storage, it can handles more than 54 million of emails.
Previously, if you’re a Flickr user, Yahoo also offers 1 TB of storage to store more than 500,000 photos in original quality. This one is really a good deal!

Themes

I’m not a fan of themes for email service. I left my Gmail in the standard look, without fancy themes. Yahoo — since it also owns Flickr — brings some selected photos from Flickr to choose as the background theme. Here how it looks.
Yahoo mail themes
For the web interface, I choose the of of the clean theme styles.

Continue reading “Let's talk about the (new) Yahoo's email service”