ARS: Alternatif Remittance System Rawan Digunakan Teroris

Fahmi Rizwansyah says:

Pengiriman uang alternatif (alternatif remittance system/ARS) dan pengiriman uang secara elektronik (wired transfer) diindikasikan masih menjadi sarana para pelaku kejahatan semisal aksi pencucian uang (money laundering) dan penggalian pendanaan untuk aksi terorisme.

Hal itu terungkap dalam konferemsi pers APEC Seminar on Securing Remittance and Cross Borders Payment from Terorist Use, yang diadakan oleh Pusat Pelaporan dan Analisis Transaksi Keuangan (PPATK) bekerja sama dengan Asia Pasific Economic Cooperation (APEC) di Jakarta, Rabu (22/10).

Menurut Public Relation PPATK M Natsir Kongah MS dalam perkembangannya, jasa alternatif pengiriman uang dapat disalahgunakan karena ARS tidak terdeteksi dalam sistem keuangan.

Dari data yang dikeluarkan oleh APEC, Indonesia menduduki peringkat keempat dari lima besar pengiriman atau penerimaan uang ke dalam negeri, dibawah China, Meksiko dan Filipina. "Pada tahun 2006 jumlah pengiriman yang masuk ke Indonesia setara dengan 1,6 persen GDP," kata Natsir.

Sedangkan, dari mulai 2002 jumlah penerimaan uang yang masuk terus meningkat dimana pada 2002, jumlah uang yang masuk ke Indonesia sebanyak 1,259 juta dollar AS. Untuk 2003 mencapai 1,489 juta dollar AS. 2004 sebanyak 1,865 juta dollar AS, 2005 sejumlah 5,419 juta dollar AS. Dan 2006 berrtambahn menjadi 5,722 juta dollar AS. Sedangkan pada tahun lalu jumlahnya meningkat lagi menjadi 6 juta dollar AS.

Nantinya, diharapkan hasil dari seminar tersebut dapat membuahkan pemahaman yang lebih komprehensif bagi instansi terkait yang ada di Indonesia. Seperti kepolisian, kejaksaan, bea cukai maupun imigrasi. "Selain itu juga seminar ini untuk mendukung tugas dan fungsi PPATK sebagai financial intelegence unit," terang Natsir.

Seminar 2 hari ini diikuti oleh 100 peserta baik yang berasal dari instansi terkait di Indonesia maupun perwakilan dari negara anggota APEC.

by kompas.com

Cheers, frizzy2008.

Ten Smart Travel Packing Tips

Fahmi Rizwansyah says:

1. Plan ahead. Know what weather to expect and what your activities might be, then pack the right clothes for the climate and your events. Ignore the urge to add in “but what if…” items.

2. Pack less. Pack only 3 pair of quick-drying underwear that can be washed out and dried overnight: one to wear, one to wash, and a spare. Expect to wear each outer clothing item more than once. Choose versatile pieces that can be worn in different combinations.

3. Pack a “go-anywhere” wardrobe. Take clothes that blend in with the local population and provide safety from those who target tourists. For instance: modest necklines for women, long pants or skirts, and shirts with a collar and sleeves.

4. Pack easy-care clothes that you love. To ensure that you will look and feel great on your trip, choose clothes from your closet that still appear fresh at the end of a long day. If things wrinkle at home, they will surely wrinkle while traveling.

5. Take comfortable shoes. You will not have a good time if your feet hurt. Three pairs of shoes are the maximum for most trips: one to wear and two to pack.

6. Choose the right bag for the trip. Structured bags with wheels protect the contents and offer independence in airports, while unstructured bags without wheels are generally easier to squish into small places, as in the trunk of a car.

7. Know the current airline luggage rules. To avoid additional fees and confusion at the airport, understand how many pieces of luggage may be checked, plus the maximum dimensions and allowable weight for each bag. Call your airline or check www.smartpacking.com for the latest information.

8. Pack smart. Use smart packing tricks to fit items into your luggage in the most space-efficient way, and to provide easy visibility during security checks. For example, group small items in see-through containers or in self-sealing plastic bags. Pack less to speed the security check process—an over packed bag takes longer to manually inspect and is more difficult to repack.

9. Travel light. Wheels are helpful on smooth terrain, but you must still be able to carry your bag on rough streets and up and down stairs. Two smaller bags are easier to manage than one larger bag, although changing airline checked baggage rules might make this cost more. Lighten up cosmetics and toiletries; these often make up half of the bag weight. Travel and sample-sized items are a good trick, as is transferring the amount needed into a small container. Dual duty products such as moisturizer plus sunscreen eliminate one entire bottle.

10. Use or pack a lock. Today’s airport security requires luggage to be unlocked, but pack a lock so you can secure your bag at your destination. Or purchase a new TSA-approved lock—a combination lock that is set by the owner with TSA holding the master key—and lock while traveling.

The moral to the story is if you follow these simple guidelines, you will have the freedom to go everywhere — independently and comfortably — and travel will indeed be the relaxing break you anticipate.

©2008 Susan Foster, Smart Travel Press, P.O. Box 25514, Portland, OR 97298-0514, Susan@smartpacking.com

Cheers, frizzy2008.

True story of Stanford University

Fahmi Rizwansyah says:

Untrue story:

The Stanfords visited several great universities of the East to gather ideas. An urban legend, widely circulated on the Internet but untrue, describes the couple as poorly-dressed country bumpkins who decided to found their own university only after being rebuffed in their offer to endow a building at Harvard. They did visit Harvard's president but were well-received and given advice on starting a new university in California. From the outset they made some untraditional choices: the university would be coeducational, in a time when most were all-male; non-denominational, when most were associated with a religious organization; and avowedly practical, producing "cultured and useful citizens" when most were concerned only with the former.



True story:
taken from http://www.stanford.edu/about/history

The Birth of the University

In 1876, former California Governor Leland Stanford purchased 650 acres of Rancho San Francisquito for a country home and began the development of his famous Palo Alto Stock Farm. He later bought adjoining properties totaling more than 8,000 acres. The little town that was beginning to emerge near the land took the name Palo Alto (tall tree) after a giant California redwood on the bank of San Francisquito Creek. The tree itself is still there and would later become the university's symbol and centerpiece of its official seal.

The Stanford Family

Leland Stanford, who grew up and studied law in New York, moved West after the gold rush and, like many of his wealthy contemporaries, made his fortune in the railroads. He was a leader of the Republican Party, governor of California and later a U.S. senator. He and Jane had one son, who died of typhoid fever in 1884 when the family was traveling in Italy. Leland Jr. was just 15. Legend has it that the grieving couple said to one another after their son's death, "the children of California shall be our children," and they quickly set about to find a lasting way to memorialize their beloved son.

The Stanfords visited several great universities of the East to gather ideas. An urban legend, widely circulated on the Internet but untrue, describes the couple as poorly-dressed country bumpkins who decided to found their own university only after being rebuffed in their offer to endow a building at Harvard. They did visit Harvard's president but were well-received and given advice on starting a new university in California. From the outset they made some untraditional choices: the university would be coeducational, in a time when most were all-male; non-denominational, when most were associated with a religious organization; and avowedly practical, producing "cultured and useful citizens" when most were concerned only with the former.

The prediction of a New York newspaper that Stanford professors would "lecture in marble halls to empty benches" was quickly disproved. The first student body consisted of 559 men and women, and the original faculty of 15 was expanded to 49 for the second year. The university’s first president was David Starr Jordan, a graduate of Cornell, who left his post as president of Indiana University to join the adventure out West.

The Stanfords engaged Frederick Law Olmsted, the famed landscape architect who created New York’s Central Park, to design the physical plan for the university. The collaboration was contentious, but finally resulted in an organziation of quadrangles on an east-west axis. Today, as Stanford continues to expand, the university’s architects attempt to respect those original university plans.

Cheers, frizzy2008.

The Wealthy Use Google, The Poor Use Yahoo

Fahmi Rizwansyah says:

Talk about a digital divide. Hitwise recently performed some analysis of the traffic patterns on the Google (NSDQ: GOOG) and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) search engines. Google users tended to be older and spend more money online. Yahoo users, conversely, were often younger and spent less money online. Which is the better audience to have?

Why is it that Google users are likely to be older and spend more and the opposite for Yahoo? Is it the blend of services available? The result Hopkins finds of highly-indexed Google users being 55+ seems odd to me. My parents fall into that age bracket and hardly use the Internet for more than the most casual searches. Meanwhile, my peers, ranging from 25 to 40, seem to have adopted more of Google's services than our parents have. So when Hitwise says Yahoo users are younger, does that mean younger than 25? Younger than 20? Are teenagers the biggest users of Yahoo services?

Why would Microsoft want to buy a company that caters to teenagers? Granted, the 18-34 advertising bracket is highly coveted, as younger people are falling into the purchasing patterns they will likely follow for the rest of their lives. But older people, 34-54, generally have more disposable income.

taken from http://www.europaluxury.com
Cheers, frizzy2008.

Depkominfo Selanggarakan Instalasi Open Source Software Secara Massal

Fahmi Rizwansyah says:

Kementerian Ristek dan Depkominfo menyelenggarakan instalasi Open Source Software (OSS) secara massal pertama di Indonesia untuk 288 unit laptop. Setelah proses instalasi selesai, ke-288 laptop tersebut akan menjalankan aplikasi OpenOffice secara massal pertama di Indonesia, di mana setiap 3-4 laptop dijalankan oleh seorang peserta.

"Ini akan dicatatkan di MURI (Museum Rekor Dunia Indonesia -red)," kata Asisten Deputi Pendayagunaan dan Pemasyarakatan Iptek Kementerian Ristek Kemal Prihatman di sela proses instalasi massal Open Source Software di Jakarta, Sabtu (2/8). Dalam kesempatan itu, MURI juga mencatatkan hotspot dengan akses SSID terbanyak dalam satu waktu secara bersamaan dan konten blog terbanyak dalam waktu tiga jam.

Sementara itu, Pakar Telematika Onno W Purbo yang juga merupakan panitia acara itu mengatakan ada dua filosofi diselenggarakannya kegiatan pencatatan.
"Kita ingin tanamkan bahwa meng-install software open source itu mudah dan yang kedua kita ingin tanamkan bahwa menulis dalam blog itu juga mudah," katanya.

Kemal mengatakan sejak penandatanganan kesepakatan bersama penggunaan OSS di 18 Kementerian/Departemen pada Indonesia Go Open Source (IGOS) Summit Mei 2008 lalu perkembangan open source sangat positif.
"Namun memang tergantung kesiapan dari bagian di masing-masing instansi, ada yang masih proses dan ada yang sudah menggunakan," katanya.

Untuk Kementerian Ristek sudah 100 persen untuk server dan 95 persen desktop yang telah menggunakan OSS, sisanya tetap menggunakan software proprietari karena memang belum ada penggantinya. Sedangkan Dirjen Aplikasi Telematika Depkominfo Cahyana Ahmadjayadi mengatakan, pemassalan OSS di Departemen Kominfo khususnya di Dirjen Aplikasi Telematika sudah 98 persen dan dua persen dengan proprietari.

Semangat OSS sudah dimulai di Indonesia sejak 30 Juni 2004 dengan deklarasi lima instansi pemerintah yakni, Kementerian Ristek, Depkominfo, Depdiknas, Depkum dan HAM serta Kementerian PAN disusul dengan diluncurkannya OSS versi Indonesia IGOS Nusantara pada 12 Juli 2005, ujarnya. Kementerian Ristek, kata Kemal, juga sedang mempersiapkan delapan aplikasi khusus untuk Kementerian/Departemen seperti aplikasi inventaris kantor, aplikasi kepegawaian, aplikasi pengelolaan anggaran, hingga aplikasi pelayanan publik. Aplikasi tersebut nantinya bisa di-download di web Depkominfo dan bersifat customized karena terbuka untuk dimodifikasi, ujarnya.

Perangkat lunak open source sudah disediakan secara gratis oleh pemerintah dan merupakan pengganti perangkat lunak berbayar (proprietari) yang di pasaran cukup mahal seperti Microsoft.

taken from mediaindonesia.com
Cheers, frizzy2008.