Categories
Umum

Layanan Panggilan Ganti Aki Mobil di Shop and Drive

Sudah beberapa kali saya melakukan perjalanan ke luar kota ( dan ) dengan menggunakan kendaraan pribadi dalam periode dua tahun terakhir ini.

Perjalanan terakhir saya lakukan di awal tahun 2022 lalu. Semuanya berjalan dengan cukup baik, perjalanan lancar tanpa hambatan yang berarti.

Setiap kali melakukan perjalanan, saya selalu mengecek kondisi kendaraan mulai dari isi angin, cek kondisi aki, radiator, dan lain sebagainya. Semua untuk menghindari potensi masalah yang mungkin timbul.

by Moose Photos from Pexels

Aki Soak

Setelah kembali dari perjalanan, keesokan harinya mobil tidak dapat saya starter. Duh! Saya coba kembali ternyata memang gagal. Sepertinya ada masaah di aki. Sejak beli, memang saya hampir tidak terlalu memerhatikan kondisi aki. Ini kesalahan yang akhirnya saya sadari.

Karena kendaraan perlu segera dalam kondisi semula, saya akhirnya memutuskan untuk menggunakan layanan pengecekan aki yang bisa dipanggil. Saya teringat ada Shop and Drive yang ada tidak jauh dari tempat saya.

Memesan Layanan Shop and Drive

Catatan

Pengalaman menggunakan layanan Shop and Drive merupakan pengalaman pribadi pada Januari 2022. Saya tidak menerima imbalan, atau memiliki kerjasama dengan Shop and Drive. Seluruh biaya merupakan biaya pribadi. Pengalaman berbeda mungkin didapatkan.

Awalnya, saya mencoba menggunakan aplikasi Shop and Drive (iOS) di ponsel saya. Ternyata, aplikasi ini tidak terlalu memberikan pengalaman yang menyenangkan. Akhirnya, saya telepon langsung saja. Saya informasikan mengenai masalah di kendaraan, dan berakhir dengan saya minta dibawakan aki baru untuk ganti. Sebelumnya saya sempat fotokan kondisi aki terakhir, dan melihat kondisi serta usia aki, mengganti aki menjadi keputusan yang paling bijaksana.

Sebelumnya, aki yang digunakan merupakan aki basah dan saya minta diganti dengan aki kering.

Saya lupa persisnya, tapi sekitar lima belas menit kemudian saya dihubungi oleh teknisi Shop and Drive yang mengkonfirmasi masalah dan pesanan saya. Karena lokasi rumah dan bengkel Shop and Drive tidak terlalu jauh, tak lama kemudian teknisi sampai di rumah menggunakan sepeda motor.

Teknisi langsung memeriksa kondisi aki dan melakukan pengetesan dengan menggunakan alat. Proses ini berlangsung cepat saja, dan hasil pengetesan menunjukkan memang aki sudah dalam kondisi yang tidak ideal. Belakangan bahkan saya baru tahu kalau aki “ternyata” sudah berumur 5 tahun. Duh!

Proses penggantian aki baru juga berjalan cepat saja. Berikut beberapa hal terakit proses pembelian/penggantian aki ini:

  1. Aki lama saya saya “tukarkan” dengan yang baru, jadi ada sedikit potongan harga dari harga total keseluruhan.
  2. Total biaya yang saya keluarkan adalah Rp870.000,- sudah termasuk baterai/aki (kering) baru, potongan aki lama, dan biaya jasa. Pembayaran menggunakan non-tunai, jadi cukup nyaman.
  3. Aki mendapatkan garansi 18 bulan. Terkait ini, disarankan untuk setiap 3 bulan dapat dilakukan pengecekan di Shop and Drive mana saja, sehingga garansi dapat terus aktif.

Secara umum, layanan dari Shop and Drive ini sangat baik dan efisien. Sepertinya untuk ke depannya jika membutuhkan layanan terkait kendaraan, Shop and Drive ini bisa jadi solusi.

Untunglah…

Awalnya, saya agak kesal juga karena ada kondisi aki soak ini yang jadinya ada pengeluaran tambahan yang di luar rencana. Tapi, banyak yang lebih disyukuri.

Puji Tuhan, hal ini terjadi ketika saya sudah sampai di rumah dari perjalanan. Saya agak ngeri juga membayangkan kalau kondisi ini terjadi ketika saya masih dalam perjalanan dari Bogor/Jakarta ke melalui tol. Permasalahan ini terjadi di rest areea atau bahkan dalam perjalanan di tol, sepertinya bukan hal yang menyenangkan.

Jadi, sudah cek aki?

Categories
General

macOS Catalina

Kemarin, saya melakukan perbaruan sistem operasi di saya dari macOS High Sierra ke macOS Catalina. Dengan begitu banyak fitur dan perbaikan yang ditawarkan, sebenarnya tidak terlalu banyak fitur yang saya akhirnya manfaatkan.

Beberapa highlight mengenai yang baru di bisa dilihat dalam video dibawah ini. juga menyediakan halaman khusus mengenai apa yang ditawarkan oleh sistem operasi versi terbaru mereka.

Saya sendiri saat ini hanya menggunakan dua produk Apple dan saya bukan termasuk yang ingin melengkapi diri dengan produk terbaru dari Apple. MacBook Pro Retina 15″ saya keluaran mid-2012, dan ada sebuah Mini 2 yang tidak mendapatkan dukungan iOS 13. Namun, saya mungkin termasuk yang sebisa mungkin memperbarui aplikasi atau sistem operasi — jika memang masih bisa diperbarui.

Perbaruan sama seperti proses sebelumnya. Sempat saya ragu, apakah saya perlu menunggu terlebih dahulu untuk memperbarui atau langsung saja. Kemungkinan terburuk paling ada beberapa aplikasi yang belum diperbarui jadi tidak dapat digunakan.

Musik, podcast, dan TV

Salah satu perbaruan yang cukup besar ada pada fitur . Namun, sepertinya tidak ada yang akan saya pakai. Untuk musik — termasuk mendengarkan podcast, saya lebih sering mendengarkan (dengan berlangganan Spotify Premium). Kalau menonton film atau video, pilihan saya ke Netflix dan YouTube. Bagi saya, layanan yang saya pakai tersebut sudah mencukupi kebutuhan saya.

Photos, Notes, Reminder

Aplikasi , Notes, dan Reminder juga mendapatkan perbaikan. Namun, saya saat ini sudah cukup nyaman dengan menggunakan Photos. Saya hampir tidak menyimpan foto — dari kamera ponsel — di MacBook. Semua langsung saya unggah ke Google Photos. Untuk pencatatan, saya paling sering masih menggunakan Google Keep. Reminder saya jarang gunakan. Kalaupun perlu reminder paling hanya berupa alarm atau saya buat saja di Google .

Jadi, semua perbaruan terkait fitur diatas sudah cukup terfasilitasi oleh layanan Google di ponsel Android. Soal sinkronisasi juga tidak ada masalah sama sekali.

Categories
General

Hi, Google Photos!

Google Photos logo

After leaving Flickr, it took few weeks to have all organised in Photos as my primary photo (and !) .

What's the difference?

Using , I upload more photos. I think, this is because of some key factors:

  1. It's easy to upload photos. I almost always upload my photos directly from my .
  2. It feels fast to upload. Besides photos, I also upload some videos.
  3. It's addictive. Because it's not only about having all photos stored in the , but also how Google handles my uploaded photos. The “Assistant” which helps me to create animation, collages, and also movies makes me feel more engaged with what I have uploaded. And, let's not forget also its face recognition and face grouping feature.

Secondly, it's nice to share memories with others. Even I have lots of private photos, I also have thousand of photos I took in my daily with friends at the office, church during Saturday , and other occasions.

So, it's not only about me, not only about my family, but it's also about friends, coworkers, relatives, and those who we care about. I create hundreds of albums to keep all photos organised. I label those faces, and created shared albums so that my friends can also see their photos.

I already have around 28K photos uploaded for free to Google Photos. Let's see how many photos I have at the end of the year. 20K? We'll see.

Categories
General

Thank You, Flickr! Hello Google Photos!

When Flickr was acquired by Smugmug, I was happy. Rather than comparing between the two , they finally under one team, even and are still two separated services. I believe that Smugmug will work hard and listen to Flickr 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 if it's referring to /. Especially when there was Yahoo behind it.

I created my personal Flickr 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 in May 2011 in . 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.

Categories
General

WhatsApp Updates: Message queue, more photos/videos to send

Even I use Telegram more than WhatsApp, but I still have installed since some of my contacts are still there. The latest WhatsApp for iPhone — I haven't checked the version — has some that I think needed to be noted.

  1. Message queue. Any messages being sent/received while not being connected to the will be queued up and delivered after it's connected.
  2. Previously, we can only send up to 10 /videos at once. Now, we can send up to 30 photos/videos.
  3. Redesigned usage screen to help cleaning up the storage space.
Categories
General

123RF’s Credit Reminder Call

Few days ago, I got a call from 123RF. A lady on the phone asked me why I didn't make other purchases after I used my credits. She made sure whether I had problems with my or else. I told her that for now, I don't need to purchase any .

Categories
General

Unsplash

Unsplash — Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution .

Categories
General

Bye Google’s Panoramio

Google Local Guides

Google will shutdown its Panoramio in November 2016. It's a in which all can be accessed on Earth and Google . But, its popularity is left behind since Google Photos and Google Maps are more favorable in a way how photos will be functioning as the primary contents or additional information.

I almost never look at Panoramio since I'm more on . Google Maps already has deep integration with photo contents especially using its Google Local Guides. And, I have started contributing few months ago. Google Maps and Local Guides integration is just seamless and I have nothing but enjoyable experience.

Categories
General

Telegram’s Photo Editor 2.0, Masks, and GIF Creation Tool

Telegram just released some new features to work on the pictures that hopefully will make the communication (chat) become more fun and enjoyable. For those who love to edit , add additional texts, drawings, or even stickers, offers the functionalities directly in the app. I wish Telegram adds “Call” feature.

Categories
General

Find and Remove Duplicate Photos on Flickr

I'm organising my and want to find the easy way to remove duplicate photos that are already in or outside albums. Flickr does not offer the simple tool to work on this task. After searching for a while, there is Flickr Dup Finder 2. It's a simple tool to search for duplicates and remove them. It's utilising Flickr's and it works really good. At least for now, I already found more than 1,600 duplicate photos.

Categories
General

iPhone 7 Plus Sample Photos

iPhone 7 Plus Sample Photos (from the Titans-Vikings Game) by Sports Illustrated. Since I had my first — it was , I upgraded to iPhone 5. The recent iPhone 7 Plus offers a great for the .

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 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 -based 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 . 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 like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google , and more. The integration also includes the seamless collaboratoin between coworkers.
  3. Flexible storage. By default, I have 30 GB of storage for my , , and photos. If later I need to , 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 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

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, 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, 5, 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 . Go to Telegram's website for complete features, but here are some of favorite features:

  • 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.
  • . 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 — not — and they'll often have AI features. They can do anything — teach, play, search, broadcast, remind, connect, integrate with other , 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, videos, Wikipedia articles, etc.

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

Categories
General

Lifehacker Faceoff: Google Photos vs. Flickr

Last month, both and Yahoo introduced big changes to their , and (4.0), respectively. Both offer identical, useful : automatic photo backups, intelligent organization, online editing , and capabilities. So which one should you use? (Source: Lifehacker Faceoff: Google Photos vs. Flickr)