Google Summer of Code Week Ke..Berapa ya ?

Today, I had a call with Matt to review my work. Well, how was it? I think I made a progress and completed my last week's target. For the first time, I committed the new code to the branch repository. w00t!
I got several feedback and todo list:

• Change the REST application to run in the existing servlet container rather than listen in the separate port.
• Add the acknowledgement feature.
• Integrate JME module to Maven. I managed to do this one but haven't committed the code yet. I feel very happy that I'm able to do this! I can build JME through Maven rather than the wireless toolkit. w00t!! Someday I will post how to do this hehe. Actually it's easy, if you know how to do it :-)
• Standardize the variable names. Write "m_blablaba" rather than "mblablabla"
• Put package for the JME Code.
• Change the style of the code to minimize comment. For example, rather than write "// Put up the waiting screen" it's better to write like this "putUpTheWaitingScreen()"
• Read "Refactoring" book and "Test Driven Development"

Ok, still many things to do! w00t!! w00t!! Hehe..
Hey, btw I have a wiki for this project. You can find it here

Google Summer of Code: Week 1

Google Summer of Code 2008, officially starts! So, what I've done these days?

1. Install the tools and development environment.
- Operating System: Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn)
- Eclipse 3.3 with the WTP to edit the source code.
- Subversion (SVN), to check out, check in source code from the repository.
- Maven, build the source code.

2. Download the source code of OpenNMS, build it, install it. Import the source code to Eclipse, build it via Eclipse try to run it on the server.This part is the most difficult part, many trials and errors. Almost makes me frustated :-) But I got very excited when I succeed to build, install it.

3. Visit the bugzilla to pick one bug to fix. Read the description of the bug, in which version of OpenNMS it occurred. Download the source code from repository , and again build, install. Finally, reproduce the bug. After that, look at the corresponding source code, try to find what goes wrong there. Change the source code, test it whether the bug fixed.

4. Audio conference with my mentor, Matt Brozowski. He has computer science degree from Carnegie Mellon University, after that he worked for IBM for 8 years and now he is the CTO of OpenNMS. He's a nice guy I think, provide me with many useful advices regarding this project. It's a nice experience to talk with him.

5. I got the suprise book from Google. The book's title is "Beautiful Code". In addition to that, my payment card has arrived too :D

Target for week #2: Create the use case diagram, read the SVN, Maven book.
Success!

Google Summer of Code 2008

Finally the results of accepted students in Google Summer of Code 2008 were out yesterday. As one of the applicant I was pretty curious whether I will be accepted or not. The schedule for the announcement was 21st April 2008 at 19.00 UTC but somehow when I logged in to the webapp the status of my applications still the same. There was no "rejection" or "accepted" status. Feel strange, I went to the google Soc discussion list and found out that there would be a delay in the announcement approximately 30 minutes or so. Curious to see the reactions of other students I logged in to #gsoc in Freenode. When I logged in, there were already about 850 people inside the channel!

Student's message from all of the world keep flowing through the channel asking about anything related to the announcement. They were very eager to see the results as soon as possible.After about 30 minutes, the admin explained that in few minutes they will push the emails. Well you can guess what happen after that, there were students that so excited that they're accepted and students that keeps wondering, asking why he got rejected. Me? Hmm, I was not in a rush to find out the result :D

Come on, more than 7000 applicants out there and I got selected? Give me a break :P Ok, I had my dinner first corned beef + fried eggs as usual, drank Red Bull Energy Drinks and....ok..ok..I will check my inbox. Eng.. ing..eng...New message from gsoc@google.com. The message is "Congratulations blablabla..." Hmm...this could be wrong, have to make sure to the dashboard. Went to the dashboard and just saw my project name, my name, and my mentor's name listed there. Still could be wrong? Thinking...Thinking..Ok, this is real, I got accepted. Excited? You bet! And I just go directly to Win's YM and typed " DAPAAAAAAAAAAT ".

So, what's the project all about? Luckily the project that I got accepted is the project that I'm interested the most, The project is ownered by OpenNMS my job is to make a cell phone interface to the OpenNMS system. Yeah, J2ME things.

Looking back through my effort to apply to this program, it wasn't easy. I applied for 3 organizations and sent 6 proposals. During the ranking phase one of the organization (SIP Communicator) asked me about how can I implement such functions to the existing software. Should I make a new implementation? Or should I use existing library? Or what? To be able to answer these questions I should look at the source code of the software!Wow..It would be difficult then... Thinking..Thinking...Ah come on previously I worked on RDPS in Divusi, I can manage to do Pak Riza's assignment in System Programming Course in IF..I can do this! Just try!

I downloaded the source code and tried to look at it. If you know about SIP Communicator, there are several protocols supported by it namely Jabber, YM, MSN etc and that's the first time I saw the codes how to implement such protocols. I just amazed and felt that, wow Opensource programmers are really rock! By the way SIP Communicator's source code is easier to understand I think, if you havent seen Pidgin's source code :D. Pidgin's source codes are written in C/C++, the GUI is using GTK and as a person that quite some time seldom to use C/C++ I can only see stars around the code :D (read: pointers) When I saw the codes what can I say was "RESPECT" (pake gayanya Ali G). So, Opensource, my respect to you ! (I think Arya will laugh and make fun of me if I say this :D )

Are there any other Indonesian accepted? As far as I know there are two others, Grady Laksmono (Moodle project) and I Nyoman Winardi Ribeka in OpenMRS (he's not Win!! Can you believe that?? ) I hope there are more Indonesian accepted.

Ok, to sum up, overall I feel happy but I think I was happier then this when I got accepted in IF ITB :D At least I don't regret that I quit IBM Extreme Blue selection in Amsterdam. But all in all, I still have exams to do, assignments to make, tons of papers to read, meetings to attend, interview to do etc. Wish me luck guys!

(Merdeka)+ (Ridho knows how to read this :D )

Review Sem-1 2007-2008

At last after waiting for about 1 month, the result of the exams are published. When I looked to my evaluation page, I was like freezing for about 5-10 seconds. The results are far more better than my expectation. Now, full 30 ECTS (6 courses) are already in my pocket therefore I passed the scholarship's limit that is 22 ECTS. Looking back to Sem-1, it's a tough semester since the courses are pretty new for me and I don't have high appetite for competing like I used to have in high school :P . So, what courses did I take in Sem 1? The courses are as follows:

1. Requirement Analysis Design and Verification
This course study about the process behaviour of a system, how to a specify requirement in a formal way, and how to verify whether the design already comply with the system requirement.It requires hard work in the beginning of the semester. Many mathematical proof in this course. Luckily, I did very well in the exam. Honestly, I'm not interested with this course, too many proofs we should make :P Why should we prove green its not equal to red if we already knows they are clearly different? Well, somebody may argue mathematical proof is a beauty (hoeeek) but for others its just a rubbish (me).

2. Generic Language Technology.
This course covers topics about language transformation. We use Meta Environment tool in this course. The documentation of the tool is very poor and we got into trouble since we have to use the tool for the assignments. Fortunately, Arya always found a magical way to conquer this tool in every assignment. I'm not interested with this course either. Even until in the mid semester I didn't know what actually the lecturer talk about :D But, I like the last part of the course, its about SLR, LALR parsing teqhnique.

3. Software Architecting
The BEST course in Semester 1. I really enjoyed this course (from System Architecture and Networking group). I like the topics and the assignment were challenging. I did very well in the quiz and assignment. The exam was a little bit tough than last year. Probably I will do master project in the area that related to software architecture. Oh yes, the lecturer is damn good! He's really expert in this area. By the way, he did his PhD under the supervision of Tony Hoare in Oxford.

4. Adaptive Systems
The idea of this course is a futuristic idea but the content doesn't reflect that. I do not know whether adaptive systems will have hot prospect in the future. Instead, I'm more interested to data mining topics in this course. For the assignment, again, the tool often behaves unexpectedly. But Arya still have his magic for this one :D

5. Metamodeling
Hmm...I don't want to comment on this one.

6. Web Information Systems
This is an interesting course actually. We learn about the web engineering, semantic web technology and Web 2.0. The lecturer is very strict. The exam was oral exam. It was a new experience for me. And I did not prepare well for the exam, but somehow I succeed hehe.

That's all folks, my academic journey in Semester 1. Not very interesting for me since I only like one course (that suits my interest). Does this statement mean I select the wrong program? I will keep the answer until the next post.

By the way, I think Semester 2 is more challenging! There is another course from SAN that is Real Time Architecture! How about the girls??? Still the same hehehehe Two dutch girls and one Asian girl. I will write about Semester 2 next time!

Jadi Detektif

Tadi barusan iseng-iseng ngeliat siapa aja sih yang ngakses blog ini. Wah asalnya bermacam-macam. Tapi ada yang menarik sih tadi, ada yang domain name-nya utwente.nl. Siapa ya? Kayaknya aku nggak kenal orang dari Twente. Dan ternyata, dia sudah beberapa kali mengakses halaman blog ini sejak sekitar tanggal 22 Januari 2008. Dan tahu nggak, sebelum dia ngakses blog ini, dia nge-search "samuel Louvan" di Google, habis itu keluar address blog saya terus dia masuk ke situ. Hari ini aku cek lagi, eh dikunjungi lagi sama dia. Tapi sekarang dia udah langsung ngakses ke louvandahsyat.blogspot.com ga pake search dulu ke Google, udah biasa kali ya.

Yang paling mungkin sih "pengunjung" ini temennya Grant/Bung Lesky/Pak Wayan. Soalnya beliau-beliau ini punya teman di sono. Kali aja, dia ngeliat gw di friendster, terus nge-search nama gw di Google. Atau jangan-jangan gw pernah nge-view dia di friendster? Siapa pengunjung laennya? Ada yang dari chello.nl, kalo ini mah temen sekos. Speedling.nl ini sih kayaknya si Arya hehehe. telkomsel.co.id, yah paling IF'01 yang kerja di telkomsel. unibz.it (Free University Bolzano), kayaknya si Bayu neh.

Kok aku jadi iseng gini ya? Jadi ingat jaman dulu, suka maen-maen netstat. Seru.

A Name, A City, An Unexpected Trip

As you might know before, my lastname is Louvan. Many people, especially new friends, wondered what does Louvan mean. As a hint, I was born in a city named Leuven. It is located in Belgium. That's why my father gave me Louvan for my lastname. But hey, Louvan it's not the same with Leuven! Did my father make a mistake?? Gave me a wrong name?? Hmm, unfortunately not my friend. He's not that stupid :D Well, I don't know the exact answer but sometimes the foreigners such as French people, recognize Leuven as Louvan. So, that concludes the history of my lastname.

Is Louvan is my family name? The answer is no. Actually my family name is Kakisina but I almost never use it, because in my birth certificate my name stated as Samuel Louvan. How can it be? How can "Kakisina" doesn't appear in the document? Did my father make a mistake? Yes, he did. He didn't fill in the family name. Well, but that's ok since I think Louvan is better than Kakisina, I guess hahaha. But someday when I have a child, definitely I will give him/her Kakisina as his/her lastname. Same mistake won't happen.

How long did I stay in Leuven? Well, I just stayed there for 2 months and then we went back to Indonesia. Have I visited Leuven again? YES! After 24 years 6 months and 19 days after my birth, I finally came to Leuven for the second time. Actually it was an unexpected trip. Last weekend I met my oldfriend, Agung who came from Singapore for training in ASML. When we had our lunch, he unexpectedly said, "Come on let's go to Leuven!" I was thinking that it was a bad idea since it's already 2 PM and we have to catch a train bla..bla..bla. But fortunately, Agung has a car! Not just a car, but also Tomtom. Car + Tomtom = Trip!


The trip to Leuven from Eindhoven lasted for about 1.5 hours. So, how does Leuven look like? I think it's a beautiful small city. The city center is located in a straight long street and in the end of the street you can see the town hall which is very sophisticated! We spent only 1 hour there, took some photos, walked along the city center, and went back home to EIndhoven. Well, nothing much to see but at least I've already visited my birth place. I wish I could go there again with my mother. Someday we will!

A Plan

Suppose I will pass 22 ECTS this semester, I would like to do following things in the next semester:
1. Read the lecture material before attend the class!
2. Manage carefully my study time. Use ECTS guideline!
3. Take as many courses as I could. Drop some if I could not cope with it.
4. Read algorithm books, solve TopCoder/ACM problem as many as I can.
5. Attend more party! Got to know more people here in Eindhoven.
6. Play badminton at least once a week.
7. Look for internship opportunity.
8. Build again the relationship with her. I'm kidding :D Ok, with her. I'm kidding again hehe.
9. Travel to Germany/Spain/Italy.
10. Choose master project topic among Software Architecting, Information Retrieval and Computer Network.

Actually, there are still many things to add but hmm..lets begin with this list first and then let see whether I can manage to do these things :D

Puas!

Setelah hampir seminggu tidur jam 4 atau jam 5 pagi. Akhirnya, hari ini aku bisa tidur panjang full 12 jam non stop ! Rasanya enak banget, damai, dan puasssss. Tugas-tugas sudah selesai dan sudah di-submit. Yah semoga bisa dapet nilai bagus deh. Dua hari ini bisa istirahat sebelum mengerjakan tugas-tugas lain :( di liburan Natal dan Tahun Baru. Semangat-semangat!

test

Today's date is 6-12. Three years ago on this date was a very emotional and memorable for me, as on that date my father passed away. At that time I still cannot believe why he left us so fast. In the middle of these busy days and I remembered about my father in the same time, makes everything very difficult. I just feel want to cry everytime I think about him, about his kindness, high sense of humor, confidence, leadership, and deep affection to his children. He is more than a father for me, he's more like friend. I can discuss anything with him and he is very supportive to me. When I am in a bad mood or feel want to give up to a certain thing, his words always can cure me.

I still remember clearly when he was in the hospital and I visited him on December 2004. He put all his energy to breath, his face showed like he was under very big pressure. He could not talk, he just could write something in the paper. Before I left to Bandung again, I showed him a piece of paper, "See you on July 2005". Because at that time I would be graduated from ITB on July 2005. He responded nothing. And that time was the last time I met him alive.

Now, I just can meet him through my dreams. He always shows his smile to me when he meets me. Yes, his special smile. He always come in my dream when I'm in difficult situation. Miss you Pa!

A Fork Will Do

I just realized that my hair now is getting longer and longer. That means I need to make it neat everytime I finish my shower. Several days ago, after took a shower, I looked into the mirror, wow my hair was so messy :D. I tried to find my comb but I could not find it. And then, AHA! I saw a fork near the washtub. Can you guess what happened next?