1 Month without a mobile phone

It all started 2 months ago. I read an article on The Age Melbourne Magazine about a guy who survives a week without a single penny. So there my journey begins, trying to find some social experiment to try. So I followed that guy, trying to spend $0 for a week, but failed miserably. So after a month of finding something to try, on the eve of 10th of August 2007, right after Mika warned me not to go to the loft, I lost my phone.

I treat this misfortune as an opportunity to do my social experiment – 1 month without a mobile phone. Now the hardest thing is that this incident took place right before kafe art. This compounds my problem, due to the necessity nature of a cell phone in event planning. First week without a phone, combined with kafe art makes my life an absolute hell. Luckily I’ve backed up most of my contacts online (Thank you google) so I was still able to make contact to a lot of people.

Now, the second week is OK, nothing is going on. I’m starting to get used to not having a mobile phone. After all, I did go through an era where not everyone have mobile phone and still managed to survive. In this second week I learn to communicate via email and responding them as soon as I read them. There were time where there is multiple email messages, but once again thanks to google, it organizes them into conversation that is so simple to read. The third week… I’m 100% used to it. I realized that a mobile phone is not a necessity; it’s just another luxury item. One of my workmate got his first mobile phone 2 months ago after 27 years without one. So it’s not really a necessity. The world around us makes us think it’s a necessity, but it’s nothing more than an overrated luxury.

Fourth week, the final week, another observation is that people can’t take other people’s word. People always try to call to confirm appointment, and if they can’t contact you, they leave you. I must say my only bad experience was with watching Ratatouile, I promised that I’d come and watch movie, but I was running late due to serving nature’s call, but I did my best and came 5 minute late, but I was ditched. I remember back in SMP, we would wait for the other party to show up before watching a movie because we have confidence in the other party’s word. Has the world now become such dependent on mobile phone, that even if the other party already said that they are coming, the words have no values unless they can contact you?

Now my analysis for the matter is that we don’t really need a mobile phone if only we can trust someone’s words. When you said you’ll be there, please be there. Don’t change plans in the last minute if the reason for changing it is not satisfactory. I realized that it is hard for some of you to contact me and I do apologize, but it’s all for the sake of experiment. I also apologize for coming in late when I already promise to be there on time. Just to inform you I now have a mobile phone and keeping the same number.

So much for Rating Companies

In the midst of US sub-prime mortgage crisis. People blame the credit rating companies for not being able to foresee this. I personally thought that it’s the investors’ fault for believing them. Rating companies does provide a sense of security to investor. Having a myriad of tools and data at their disposal to analyze the risk of a particular treasury bonds they really should have known better. I give my sympathy to my friends who receive a blow on their portfolio because they believe in these rating companies.

Anyhow, I would like to tell you why I don’t take what these rating companies (the World Bank included) say 100%. The first one is the most crucial one. 2 years ago they underestimated Indonesia’s economic growth by 0.35%. 6 months ago Sarapan Ekonomi commented again that they also underestimated Indonesia’s growth by 0.25 %. Which I think is quite embarrassing. Is that really the quality we are looking for in a rating company and/or forecasters?

Second of all is my purely personal thought without any evidence. These rating companies are complicit at being biased. Most of the big names in Rating/ forecast providers are US based. Although one might argue that their loyalties lay with the dollar not the country. I think that it’s not 100% true. Their sense of patriotism (arrogance) is what makes overestimating their own economy and other estimating other economy, more specifically in the ASEAN region. To make matter worse, these ratings are what investors are looking at before they decide to invest.

You might say that the second reason might apply to me as well, and I don’t deny it, I might be biased to the ASEAN region. But let’s face it, America’s economy is in a downward spiral, they are experiencing a continuous deficit, their interest rates are climbing. Isn’t it time to call their bluff and become a more rational investor? In Indonesia, people are crying that foreign ownership have taken over, but its our own fault for not believing in our own economy. SBY once said “Kalo investor dalam negeri aja ga mau menanamkan modal di Indonesia, gimana investor asing bisa percaya” But now foreign investors have seen Indonesia’s potential, it is now time to build up our economy.

Leaking Battery

My ramblings for today will concern one of the most notorious 'urban legend' in Indonesia. Its called leaking battery. The story goes like this, one day, I just got home from work, and there I found my sister studying on her laptop. So being a nice brother I approach her and talk about the day. BUT then I noticed something, Theres a black bar next to her laptop. So I asked her "Itu apa?". "Batere" she replied. "Emang kamu ada 2 batere?". "Ngga, cuma satu tapi khan ini lagi dipake." she said. That got me thinking, I wasn't sure what she meant. Once again I asked "Emang kenapa dicopot kalo lagi dipake? Khan bisa langsung ngecharge." She stared at me and goes "Lho kalo dipake khan bisa bocor?" I was dumbfounded with that answer, So I checked the battery its a Lithium-Ion. It makes sense for her not to know any difference in batteries, but for other people who told her about , especially the engineers, I was shocked. Any engineers more specifically electronic engineers that survives first year should know the difference in batteries. 'Batere Bocor' literally means leaking battery, but I think they meant 'Memory Effect' (Otherwise known as Voltage Depression) in batteries where the battery cant be used as long as it used to. But the thing is... LITHIUM BATTERIES DO NOT SUFFER FROM MEMORY EFFECT!!!

Now I will try to give a concise explanation of NiCd, NiMh and Lithium battery with respect to both Leaking in literal term and 'Memory Effect' and to hopefully rebut the concept of 'Leaking Battery'. I'll try not to be too technical and give you some references at the end of the article if you want to pursue this further. (For the technically adept, the memory effect I am discussing is Strictly Voltage Depression and nothing else)

I'll start my discussion with NiCd otherwise known as Nickel Cadmium. This is the type of rechargeable battery that suffers from 'Memory Effect'. Memory effect happens due to over-charging in NiCd which creates an extra resistance of the battery, which is why my sister took her battery out every time its fully charged. In terms of literal leaking, as the name implies, NiCd contains cadmium, a kind of heavy metal toxic material. Constant exposure to Cadmium may cause cancer or other diseases.

Second, NiMh, Otherwise known as Nickel Metal Hydride. One thing to mention is that the memory effect in NiMh batteries are more obtuse than than NiCd. Which means that although the battery can decrease in performance it can be fixed by doing some discharge-recharge cycles. So still no harms done, It can easily be fixed. Regarding literal leaking. I cant find any reference to the toxicity of NiMh So I wont be able to comment on it.

Third, Lithium batteries the one that my sister is using. This is taken from wikipedia "Lithium-ion batteries (sometimes abbreviated Li-ion batteries) are a type of rechargeable battery commonly used in consumer electronics. They are currently one of the most popular types of battery for portable electronics, with one of the best energy-to-weight ratios, no memory effect, and a slow loss of charge when not in use." There you go... And also true leakage in Lithium batteries can cause explosion.

In short, THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH LEAVING YOUR BATTERY IN YOUR LAPTOP WHILE USING IT AS LONG AS THEY ARE LITHIUM ION. The only caused of it not as good as it was originally is the obvious, Which is "Older battery will NOT last as long as new batteries" If anything, the cause of it the degradation in performance is the heat of the laptop, but most modern laptop are well ventilated so this is not an issue. I hope that clear something up