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Andri Yadi

A geeky technopreneur, trying to do something big with his startup

April 2009 - Posts

  • Indonesia Celebrates It

    9 April 2009 adalah hari bersejarah. Indonesia merayakan sesuatu yang luar biasa. Pada hari itu seluruh rakyat Indonesia, well...mungkin tidak seluruhnya tapi sebagian besar, berbondong-bondong menuju ke suatu tempat yang sama, kemanakah mereka? Mungkinkah bangsa Indonesia sedang merayakan Ulang Tahun seorang anak manusia sekaligus putra Indonesia? Mungkin saja, tapi yang pasti, pada hari itu Indonesia sedang merayakan sebuah pesta demokrasi, Pemilihan Umum Legislatif 2009. Suatu hari dimana rakyat Indonesia menggunakan hak pilihnya untuk memilih partai politik dan calon wakil rakyat, dan calon DPD.

    27 tahun lalu, tepatnya hari Jumat dini hari, lahir seorang Homo Sapiens di negeri Nusantara ini. Kicking, Crying, and Screaming ketika ia menembus alam dunia fana ini. Mungkin awalnya ia menangis dan bertanya, "why I have to be born to this world". Tapi selama 27 tahun hidupnya, tak sedikitpun ia menyesal, malah bersyukur. From his perspective, many great things he've done. Walaupun semuanya masih belum cukup, but still..ia bersyukur.

    He is Andri Yadi, a geeky technopreneur that trying to do something big with his startup and his life. Datang dari keluarga dengan ekonomi menengah dan dari kampung antah beranta (yang cukup lama dilupakan oleh negeri kita tercinta, sampai akhirnya menjadi Provinsi sendiri), tidak membuatnya merasa kecil hati dan patah semangat. Hampir selalu memperoleh peringkat pertama (dan hanya 2 kali peringkat kedua) sejak SD sampai SMA, dan ditutup dengan pencapaian Cumlaude sewaktu kuliah di sebuah kampus ternama, adalah pencapaian yang berharga dalam hidupnya. Walaupun lapangan pekerjaan terbuka lebar, ia memilih menjadi pengusaha sesaat setelah lulus. Walaupun awalnya berdarah-darah, but still he enjoys his life as an entrepreneur.

    Memilih antara hidup sebagai karyawan di perusahaan ternama dengan gaji besar, atau memulai usaha dari nol dengan awal yang berdarah-darah, tentunya sebagian besar orang akan memilih pilihan pertama. Tapi tidak baginya. Pernah hidup pas-pasan dan hilang dari peredaran di masa awal pendirian perusahaannya, tidak membuat semangatnya surut untuk tetap melanjutkan hidup sebagai pengusaha. To him, money (and all kind of rewards) is a consequence, not an objective. Hidup sebagai entrepreneur membuat seseorang menjadi lebih matang, tolerir, sabar, dan berkemampuan untuk problem solving yang lebih baik. Entrepreneurship is one of the hardest yet most rewarding personal journeys we can take.

    Salah satu pencapaian penting di umur 26 tahun adalah Microsoft MVP award, yang diterima pada bulan Juli 2008. Di-recognize dan diberikan award sebagai Microsoft MVP untuk teknologi VSTO, satu-satunya di Indonesia kala itu (dan sampai hari ini), adalah suatu kebanggaan yang luar biasa. Lihat cerita selengkapnya di sini.

    Jika kebayakan orang bersuka ria di hari ulang tahunnya, bagi Andri, ulang tahun kali ini lebih membawa kesedihan. Kenapa? Karena baginya, begitu banyak yang masih harus dilakukan, tapi semakin sedikit jatah umur yang ada. Lihat saja entrepreneur-entrepreneur besar dunia, yang sudah bisa dibilang berhasil di usia rata-rata 24-25 tahun. Di usianya sekarang, Andri merasa masih belum terlalu terarah dalam berkarya, masih banyak distraction dalam jalannya. But still, he's thankful for all achievements he had so far. Hopefully, he will find that true path in the near time. Mudah2an dalam waktu dekat, akan ada sesuatu yang "wow" darinya. Tunggu saja.

    Di ulang tahunnya yang ke-27 ini, Andri ingin berterima kasih kepada Tuhan untuk 27 tahun hidup yang luar biasa, mudah2an masih ada tahun-tahun mendatang baginya untuk tetap berkarya. Terima kasih kepada Bapak dan Ibu, sepasang orang tua yang luar biasa hebatnya, yang telah memberi kelahiran, memberi kasih sayang dan pelajaran hidup. Terima kasih juga kepada semua teman-teman yang telah menambahkan makna dalam kehidupan.

    Terima kasih yang luar biasa dan amat dalam atas semua ucapan, harapan, dan doa dari teman-teman di Facebook. Mohon maaf jika tidak bisa dibalas satu persatu. Untuk makan-makan, mudah2an kita bisa schedule-kan satu persatu :)





    Thanks to Facebook for a great wall :)

    And special thanks to someone special for this delicious cake and other presents. I love you.


    Terima kasih Indonesia, yang telah ikut merayakan Ulang Tahun kali ini.

     

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    Posted Apr 10 2009, 12:53 PM by andriyadi with 4 comment(s)
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  • My First English ScreenCast: About Excel, Virtual Earth, VSTO, and WPF

    It’s a must-watch screencast if you’d like to know about the possibility of creating something useful using technologies: Excel, Virtual Earth, VSTO, and WPF.

    Yes, you read the post’s title right. Several days ago I made my first screen cast in English. I’ve already did some screencasts (here and here), but this is the first audible one in English. Before you judge it, I have to admit that my English is terrible, it is more Indonesia-English (Inglish). However, if you’re Indonesian and geeky enough, I’m sure you’ll understand the content. This screencast is just for fun, no sponsors that endorse me to do it. Anyway, any endorsements are welcome :)

    Here it is, have a nice watching..

    It’s a long screencast (49 minutes), so you better prepare a cup of coffee (or some cigarettes, if you’re smoker) before you watch it.

    If somehow you cannot watch it in this page, you can download the video file directly from this Link. If the video or link are unavailable on April 12, 2009, then screencast.com (where I host the file) is in maintenance.

    Let me explain the content. If you attended MSDN Day at Microsoft Indonesia on March 25, 2009 ago, you’ve seen the demo. In this long screencast, I talked about Excel, Virtual Earth, VSTO, and WPF in one demo. It’s all about:

    1. Binding SQL Server table data (sales data) to Excel’s ListObject using LINQ to SQL
    2. Customizing Excel Ribbon
    3. Adding and configuring chart to Excel’s Worksheet programmatically
    4. Accessing Virtual Earth (VE) from WPF user control
    5. Embedding WPF User Control to Excel’s Action Pane using ElementHost control
    6. Programmatically adding pushpins to Virtual Earth (based on sales persons location data)
    7. Displaying VE pushpins’ InfoBox (detail) programmatically when user click Excel ListObject rows by handling ListObject’s SelectedIndexChanged event

    The completed solution of the demo can be downloaded at: http://dycode.com/files/folders/msdnday/entry190.aspx

    Virtual Earth WPF Control
    For the demo, I use WPF user control that’s originally posted here: http://mtaulty.com/CommunityServer/blogs/mike_taultys_blog/archive/2008/10/03/10813.aspx

    For my demo purpose, I did some modification to:

    • Allow to display pushpin's InfoBox programmatically by calling ShowPushPinInfoBox() method. That method is added to PushPin class.
    • Allow to change Map mode to 3D. We add MapMode dependency property to VirtualEarth user control.
    • Add DetailsPushPinClicked event to VirtualEarth control. That event will be triggered when user click "Show Details" link located inside pushpin's InfoBox. The technique show how we can link JavaScript event with WPF.

    The modified control can be downloaded at: http://dycode.com/files/folders/codesamples/entry192.aspx

    That’s it. Have a nice watching and exploring.

    Links in this post:

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    Posted Apr 06 2009, 01:09 AM by andriyadi with no comments
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  • Windows 7 Build 7068 Successfully Installed

    [Updated] Yesterday (March 31, 2009), after 18 hours of downloading 3.23 gigs, finally I had Windows 7 Build 7068 x64 disk image. After burning the disk image, and ready to install it. Instead of doing fresh installation, I choose upgrade. After more or less 2 hours of upgrading my system, I finally had latest Windows 7 build. Well, actually it’s not latest build, since I just did searching and finding people talking about Windows 7 build 7072…that’s s**k.

    Anyway, this is my screen capture of Windows 7 build 7068 installed on my baby.

    image

    Few notes:

    1. Upgrading from Windows 7 beta build 7000 is successful

    Upgrading take more/less 2 hours. No error/warning messages during upgrading. It goes as smooth as Monica Belluci lips.

    Why I did upgrading instead of fresh installation you may ask. Well, I don’t wanna spend 10 hours that I usually spend to setup and configure all programs and environment for me to do my daily work. I can confirm that it’s safe to upgrade. All your settings and data are safe.

    2. All previous programs are running well

    Except:

    a. MacDrive 7.2.6
    if you have MacBook/MacBook Pro and use MacDrive to access Mac partition from Windows, you probably will have issue. After first time login, you probably will encounter MacDrive failed to start due to “File System Driver Did Not Start” error. To resolve the issue, use MacDrive 7.2.5 instead. So, uninstall MacDrive 7.2.6 and make sure to stay connected to internet so it will deactivate your serial no. Then install MacDrive 7.2.5 and activate using the same serial no. It works for me.

    By default, MacDrive cannot be installed on Windows 7 since the creator won’t support Windows 7 until its final release (RTM). So, you need to do a little hacking. Refer to this link: http://forums.macrumors.com/archive/index.php/t-632996.html or http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=142438&st=60

    b. Windows Media Player
    WMP runs well except it does not retain previous library.

    c. Internet Explorer 8
    It also runs well. My concern is it has two icons on the taskbar. So, you need to remove one on the middle, not on the most left. Looks like it causes by the difference of Internet Explorer’s version. In this build, the include Internet Explorer 8 RTM. I can confirm that by openning http://geeks.netindonesia.net/ page and there is no “need to upgrade” message appears :)

    Beside all of those, Windows 7 runs well on my system…so far.

    Some fixes/improvements I notice and I thank for:

    1. LINQ to SQL Classes Designer of Visual Studio 2008

    I’d rather use Bahasa to explain this since many friends experience this. Di Windows 7 build 7000, ketika membuka file dbml (LINQ to SQL Classes), seperti biasa akan tampil tampilan designer. Anehnya, jika salah satu gambar model diklik maka segera dia akan hilang tanpa sebab. Coba designernya ditutup dan dibuka lagi, same result. Masalah tersebut dialami oleh banyak (bahkan mungkin semua) orang yang menggunakan build 7000.

    Fortunately, masalah itu gak terjadi lagi di build 7068.

    image

    2. No Blue Screen, so far

    Blue Screen on build 7000 has become a routine :) I usually encounter blue screen in many circumstances, such as: when I build my Visual Studio 2008 project/solution, when I close VS 2008, etc. Using build 7068, I do open and close VS 2008 several time, and still no blue screen. Thanks God.

    3. Nice login/shutting down screen

    logonandshutdownscreen1 

    4. Windows Experience Index

    Using build 7000, I only got 2.3 of Windows Experience Index due to lower score of primary hard disk that is only 2.3. Using build 7068, finally my system got what it deserves, 5.3.

    image

    What else? Hmmm… I think that’s all for now.

    So, to all Windows 7 (not patient and wanna be tester) users, I recommend you to upgrade to the latest build. I won’t tell where you can download disk image since it’s not released formally by Microsoft yet. You better start searching or waiting formal release from Microsoft.

    That’s all. Enjoy…

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    Posted Apr 01 2009, 06:32 AM by andriyadi with 10 comment(s)