Saturday, December 31, 2005

Language in Speech Communication

CommunicationIn our daily life communication skill is very important. If we want to send information to others, we can user our own way to communicate with them. Communication can be done via verbal, speech, signals, writing, or behavior.

Speech communication is the aural form of transferring ideas, thoughts, instructions and/or directives utilizing the speaker's vocal cords and mouth to stimulate the air, thus causing waves of sound to strike the audible receptors of the hearer, resulting in a transformation back into mental images and/or symbols to allow the receiver to process the meaning of what has been said.

In many companies, language skill needed for communication process. This is including business communication between company and intra communication between employee in the company. I remember last year when I attend a course at my school, the speaker said that in the international company, English language skill is very important, because English language used in so many country in the world.

I asked my friend who join to an international company and got information that they also use language other than English in daily communication in office. They use local language because it easier to understand, since most of employee in the office is local people. And sometimes they using mixed language.

I also remember Mr. hadi, my English teacher in my high school said that he met two people, one from Australia and the other from Indonesia. The Australian understand Indonesian, but cannot speak Indonesian, the Indonesian understand English but cannot speak English fluently. So finally they do communication with their own language, Aussie speak using English and the Indonesian sepak using Indonesian, and no problem faced in their discussion. Just maybe too strange for other people who know and listen the discussion.

I can take this from my own mind:

Good speech communication happen when you understand what I said, great speech communication is when you do what I said, and there is no language border in it.


So, the language border actualy is not a problem in speech communication. If we still have problem in speech communication, we can use signals, behavior, or writing to help speech communication.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

How to Manage, Stop Fear and Worrying

Dont Worry 'Bee' HappyFear is an unpleasant feeling of perceived risk or danger, real or not. Fear also can be described as a feeling of extreme dislike to some conditions/objects, such as: fear of darkness, fear of ghosts, etc. It is one of the basic emotions.

We don't know about our future, and we fear about it. Thats called worry. Wory and fear are source of unhappiness. This is happen in almost all people in the world. Certain situations throughout life are particularly likely to make us feel worried.

Once acquired, the habit of worrying seems hard to stop. If your worries aren't at least as frequent as your bowel movements, you're seen as irresponsible, childish, aimless. To the extent that worrying is learned/conditioned behaviour, it can be undone. There are psychological gimmicks for undoing the worry habit. There are also obstacles.

How to stop fear and worry? This is my opinion about how to start worrying:

Sunday, December 25, 2005

This is Christmas 2005 & Happy New Year 2006

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

Christmas is a traditional Christian festival marking the birth of Jesus. Most, although not all, Christians observe this festival on December 25th. Some do not celebrate it at all. However, Christmas is now celebrated as a holiday by many people and cultures besides Christians, and indeed many Christmas traditions originated with pre-Christian observances that were subsumed into Christianity (e.g. Saturnalia, Yule or the Winter Solstice).

In predominantly Christian countries, Christmas has become the most economically significant holiday of the year, and it is also celebrated as a secular holiday in many countries with small Christian populations like Japan. It is largely characterized by gifts being exchanged within families and being brought by Santa Claus, Father Christmas or by other mythical figures. Local and regional Christmas traditions are still rich and varied, despite the widespread influence of American and British Christmas motifs disseminated by globalisation, popular literature, television, and other media.

Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christmas

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Software Quality Assurance & Quality Control

Last night I talked with my Mrs. Tatik, Rita, Menik, & Noorchia. Mrs. Tatik asked me about software quality assurance. First I wonder why she so interested in IT, since she is studying in MSI UGM. Then I aware that in all kind of business, we should give great quality assurance for customers.

I remember that from history,we can see that failure in software engineering can cause big damage and deathly. You can read in Baselinemag. One the example that just happen is failure in Tokyo Stock Exchange last 2 weeks, where there is a system software error that cause USD 225 million lost.

In engineering and manufacturing, quality control and quality engineering are involved in developing systems to ensure products or services are designed and produced to meet or exceed customer requirements and expectations. These systems are often developed in conjunction with other business and engineering disciplines using a cross-functional approach.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Top 20 Replies by Programmers to Testers when Their Programs Don't Work

I think this is funny for software developers who have so many experience on software engineering. There are top 20 replies by programmers to software testers when their programs don't work:

20. "That's weird..."
19. "It's never done that before."
18. "It worked yesterday."
17. "How is that possible?"
16. "It must be a hardware problem."
15. "What did you type in wrong to get it to crash?"
14. "There is something funky in your data."
13. "I haven't touched that module in weeks!"
12. "You must have the wrong version."
11. "It's just some unlucky coincidence."
10. "I can't test everything!"
9. "THIS can't be the source of THAT."
8. "It works, but it hasn't been tested."
7. "Somebody must have changed my code."
6. "Did you check for a virus on your system?"
5. "Even though it doesn't work, how does it feel?
4. "You can't use that version on your system."
3. "Why do you want to do it that way?"
2. "Where were you when the program blew up?"
1. "It works on my machine"

Source:
quality-assurance-software-testing.blogspot.com

Tuesday, December 13, 2005

Everything in the Internet and Mobile Communication are Very Fast

I aware that everything in internet and mobile communication world is very fast and almost without border. Not just years, months, days, or hours, the information and decision can be judged in the minutes or even seconds. A day in internet world mean expired for some people.

Remember Herman Saksono case? After he caught, then in few minutes and few hours, the huge amounts of information and support came accross the nations via weblog and also via messenger.

Few hours after that, Mas Priyadi, also got information via slanderous SMS to his cellphone, in just few time after the SMS created by unknown people.

Monday, December 12, 2005

Support Freedom of Speech in Indonesia

My friend, Herman Saksono caught and investigated by police, because did mockup photos of President Republic of Indonesia SBY, and post the picture in his blog posting. I think that not a problem if we live in country like USA. I'm not politician, but as an Indonesian, I just want to say:



This is just my personal comments, and not related with any organization.


Related News:



Related Blogs:



The insurances houses are providing their customers with a variety of services which include cheap insurance plans for the life insurance. The range of services that the insurance companies are offering are very diverse in accordance with the needs of the customers starting from the boat insurance to instant home insurance plans. There are also so many fraud insurance companies in the market which take money from the customers and donĂ¢€™t deliver the services.

The Origin of Murphy's Law

I talked with Pakjo Simduk, the leader of Yayasan Sumber Mulya, that publish "Renungan Harian" & "Renungan Mingguan", and also an employee at Jogja City Government. He talked to me about his thesis when he studied at FISIPOL UGM. He said that Murphy Law is good law that can applied in entire of daily life, political, sports, and also including his bicycling hobby.

Then I tried to find out some articles and look at Murphy's Law. It's very fun, and i feel that the quotes in this law is so fun to read.

The Origin of Murphy's Law

"If there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it."


So who was Murphy anyway?

Wednesday, December 7, 2005

Abraham Maslow's Law About Needs

Maslow HierarchyThere is so many reasons in life about why people do something. People do work, do school, because they have needs. Each people have their own motivation, from covering daily basic needs (foot, water, etc), freedom, power, sex, and the self-actualization. I remember about Abraham Maslow with his theory. I quoted some from another website.

Abraham Maslow developed the Hierarchy of Needs model in 1940-50's USA, and the Hierarchy of Needs theory remains valid today for understanding human motivation, management training, and personal development. Indeed, Maslow's ideas surrounding the Hierarchy of Needs concerning the responsibility of employers to provide a workplace environment that encourages and enables employees to fulfil their own unique potential (self-actualization) are today more relevant than ever. Abraham Maslow's book Motivation and Personality, published in 1954 (second edition 1970) introduced the Hierarchy of Needs, and Maslow extended his ideas in other work, notably his later book Toward A Psychology Of Being, a significant and relevant commentary, which has been revised in recent times by Richard Lowry, who is in his own right a leading academic in the field of motivational psychology.

Each human being is motivated by needs. Our most basic needs are inborn, having evolved over tens of thousands of years. Abraham Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs helps to explain how these needs motivate us all.
Hierarchy of Needs - Physiological needs
These are the very basic needs such as air, water, food, sleep, sex, etc. When these are not satisfied we may feel sickness, irritation, pain, discomfort, etc. These feelings motivate us to alleviate them as soon as possible to establish homeostasis. Once they are alleviated, we may think about other things.

Hierarchy of Needs - Safety needs
These have to do with establishing stability and consistency in a chaotic world. These needs are mostly psychological in nature. We need the security of a home and family. However, if a family is dysfunction, i.e., an abusive husband, the wife cannot move to the next level because she is constantly concerned for her safety. Love and belongingness have to wait until she is no longer cringing in fear. Many in our society cry out for law and order because they do not feel safe enough to go for a walk in their neighborhood.

Hierarchy of Needs - Love and belongingness needs
These are next on the ladder. Humans have a desire to belong to groups: clubs, work groups, religious groups, family, gangs, etc. We need to feel loved (non-sexual) by others, to be accepted by others. Performers appreciate applause. We need to be needed.

Hierarchy of Needs - Self-Esteem needs
There are two types of esteem needs. First is self-esteem which results from competence or mastery of a task. Second, there's the attention and recognition that comes from others. This is similar to the belongingness level, however, wanting admiration has to do with the need for power.

Hierarchy of Needs - The need for self-actualization
This is "the desire to become more and more what one is, to become everything that one is capable of becoming." People who have everything can maximize their potential. They can seek knowledge, peace, esthetic experiences, self-fulfillment, oneness with God, etc.
It's a great things if we can follow to cover our needs step by step from bottom, so can learn what kind of life is.

So, where is your position in Maslow Theory?
If you plan on being anything less than you are capable of being, you will probably be unhappy all the days of your life. (Abraham Maslow)
Resources & more readings:
http://www.businessballs.com/maslow.htm
http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/leaders_maslow_hierarchy.html
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotes/abraham_maslow/