The rise of natural user interface

The term natural user interface means that when a computer device which has user interface can be used without series of learning beforehand. Natural user interface, or in short NUI, dictates that user can perform series of actions / control to the device by using daily motions, movements, and gestures. The most descriptive identifier of NUI is the lack of physical keyboard and mouse.

Such good example of NUI on action is the iPhone interface. You can do a flicking hand gesture to scroll through your contacts, or pinching on picture to change its dimension. Such action is actually more natural than clicking / dragging scroll bar button. we can say that a standard GUI is of exploratory nature while NUI is more intuitive. The most common application of NUI can be seen in the multi-touch technology. See the diagram below on how the user interface has evolved since the DOS era to nowadays.

Currently, this NUI concept is being considered as the future for user interface implementation. It was all started with iPhone, and then Windows 7 soon follows. Microsoft makes an investment of $24 million on multi touch technology developed by an Iranian company, N-trig. Windows 7 then support multi touch interface by default. Not only that, Dell and HP also brought the multi touch technology to the PC and laptop market.

More and more device in the future is going to incorporate Natural User Interface concept. For the tech watcher, I am sure you already know that Windows Phone 7 is on the making, and Microsoft already released some promotional videos. As you can see, it uses a kind of user interface that we never seen before in mobile device. In my opinion, the user interface looks slicker than the one Apple has. But then, Apple has their upper-hands in the app market which tolls more than 140 thousand apps.

I predict that in the future, we will see more and more different markets use natural user interface for their application. Starting from children, where they will have a table like notepad to make drawing and do their homework. Note that I don't refer specifically to iPad is it sucks, according to my previous blog :) Imagine you are an architect, where you can make a CAD model directly by using hand gesture. Or an office worker, where you can show the draft of your document directly to your manager, and apply rectification in-place only by gesturing through the document. Take also an example of showroom, say a cellphone showroom. You can use such multi touch technology as your virtual showcase. You will not need any dummy anymore, and it can provide informations about the device at the same time. The applications are vast, and it goes as far as your imagination can. I am quite interested about it, and I have placed a question at N-trig about ordering their multi touch hardware. Well, I hope that the prices is not that expensive ;)

Disney back to the classic with The Princess and the Frog

At last, the long awaited Disney classical has come to the cinema. I just watch this cartoon movie tonight, and I must say that Disney has found its root back. Since the beginning, Disney is always the best in making such classical cartoon. I must admit that the story can be categorized as cheesy by some type of people, but heck I like cheesy stuffs. In fact, the princess and the frog is more beautiful to me than cheesy. It is something that you haven't seen in ages since the story of Aladdin, Little Mermaid, Cinderella, Snow White, or Beauty and the Beast.

The movie was made by the same team who brings Little Mermaid and Aladdin to live. The think tank behind it is John Lasetter. He is currently the chief creative officer for Disney and Pixar, and also the director of Toy Story. Apart from that, the story and the music score intertwine perfectly in this latest installment of Disney. The story is not really heavy, and perfect for children. It also introduce them with fairy tale about prince and princess, live happily ever after, and wishing upon a star. A good norm is also taught in the movie, that you must work hard to reach your dream.

The setting takes place in New Orleans in year 1920. The story revolves around a waitress by the name of Tiana. Tiana comes from poor family, and she would like to build a restaurant in New Orleans. One day, A prince from Maldonia came to visit New Orleans, and there, he got tricked by a witch doctor. The witch doctor turned him into frog, and he met Tiana by accident. Tiana tried to help him, but instead she got turned into frog too. The story goes on about their attempt to turn themselves back to human again. There are a lot of things happen in their journey. The prince is a spoiled brat who only knows how to have fun, while Tiana is a hard-working person.

So that was a bit about the story. It is simple, right? if you are a Disney lover, you gotta see this movie. It is not a 3D cartoon, and you don't need to use those 3D glasses, it is not as long as Avatar, but you will enjoy its 100 minutes duration ;)

Why new IPad is a FLOP

By reading the title of this blog, I think you already know which side I choose. Yes, I choose a side that criticize Apple of its latest move releasing IPad. But before criticizing it, I would like to compliment Apple hardware house which release a new processor called Apple A4. Apple is the only company out there where you can innovate in such hardware and software level. Hey, even Microsoft doesn't make their own processor, not even Google. The performance of this processor is comparable to the "Moorestown" atom processor which is used in the Google Nexus One phone. It is considered as the fastest mobile processor out there.

Other compliment goes to the Apple ability to expand its revenue stream by making book store app inside its device. Apple cuts deal with a big publisher in New York in order to fill its virtual shelf with books. And this deal actually can be good for Apple, because publishers now have the chance to get out from the clutch of Amazon's Kindle. This can be good for publishers because with competitor for Kindle, they can bargain over the price.
























Now let me explain why it will be a FLOP. Let me start first with the presentation of IPad's spiritual father, Steve Jobs. If we compare the presentation between IPhone and IPad, the presentation of IPad just missed flares and optimism from Steve Jobs. It might just be my feeling, but for people who knows Steve Jobs, you should also look at his presentation when he is unveiling the first Apple computer in 1984. It is just not electrifying enough. And God knows what Steve, if you make such device that just simply an oversized IPhone, I don't think that you will be happy with your achievement. Hey, where is your famous "BOOM" word when you presenting IPad!

Second, I have problem with the price. The cheapest variant is 16 GB, sell with the price tag of 500$. 16 GB is not enough if you plan to put music, HD movie, and pictures there. I even choke with a 100 GB harddisk. So let us buy the 64GB variant, and it has price tag of 700$. If you have a data plan attached, then the price will be 829$. Compared to the price of Amazon's Kindle which is 260$, this device from Apple is still expensive. Compared to the price of netbooks in the market, they are all priced in the price tag around 250$ - 300$. But of course Kindle can not do web surfing as good as IPad!! but then let us look at netbooks. Netbooks can surf the web, and you can also read books with Netbooks. So IPad has to compete with netbooks in terms of functionalities.

Third, the operating system used is the same OS as the IPhone one. Only Apple made some built in app in order to make this device appealing. Also, all games that are made for IPhone can be played in IPad. And the backdraw of this OS is that there is no MULTITASKING!! Yes, it is not possible to chat with AIM while you read a book you bought in Apple Book Store. I chat occasionally, and I think it would be nice if I can chat while browsing through my favorite website.

Fourth, is the design of IPad. IPad use on-screen keyboard, which will be shown when you are typing mail, or having need to input something. If you know the shape of IPad, it is just like a flat slate, and imagine the position you have to take to type on that thing. You must put that thing on your lap, and by then you can type comfortably. Having to type on your lap for a long time is actually not good for your arm. As your arm is straining, it can cause some pain if the duration are long. Perhaps in the future, Apple will release a docking station and keyboard for its IPad. But if that happens, then its just Apple admitting the mistake of its INTUITIVE DESIGN. I better of with a tablet from HP where it has multi touch screen, and it has normal keyboard.


So All in all, this product is so NOT STEVE JOBS. I can say Mr.Jobs is proud of his multi touch, app store, itunes, book store concept. But for the device itself, probably he just feel so-so. If Mr.Jobs reads this blog, he can send me a personal mail to say if I am correct or not. No need for NDA because I will not tell anyone :)

Using Gmail as your mail server

Few weeks back, I face a problem when I am trying to setup a mail server for my website, SeleraKita.com. I found out that exim, the default mail server from my VPS is not working properly!! After looking the problem with a support technician from a web company, Pondok Media, it is actually broken because our previous sysadmin upgrade the Apache and PHP module manually through UNIX command, while he supposed to do it through WHM..... The moral of the story here is to always use your built in management control panel for your VPS. If you can't do it yourself, always contact the administrator of the VPS first, instead going on your own saga to do something that you will regret later :( :(

The solution of using Gmail as mail server was actually proposed by the web company I am working with. Kudos to the owner, William Sutanto who proposed this. So, instead of re-installing a new mail server, I can just outsource my mail server entirely to GMail. This is considered better solution than reinstalling the mail server, because a new mail server means that you must administrate it yourself. Using Gmail, it is administrated by google. Using Gmail as mail server falls under the feature of Google apps. There are already worldwide companies using this approach, such as Genentech, Salesforce.com, and Motorola. In this case, we are using only the gmail feature, but we can use many of the Google features such as Google calendar, groups, Docs, sites, and Video. all can be configured specific for your own company, and zero maintenance cost of course ;)


To use gmail as your mail server is actually very simple. You have a selection to use either Premier edition or standard edition. For cheap asses, use standard edition, its free!! You can see the comparison between standard and premier edition in the picture below



















SeleraKita only using standard edition because only gmail is used, and other enterprise functionalities are not yet needed. The steps to configure your VPS will be explained once you register to Google Apps. The nice about this is that you can use a mail address under your domain name, while the mail will be routed to Gmail server. For example, If I send an email to support@selerakita.com, then this mail will be sent to a gmail account that I made using Google Apps Control Panel. If you are enterprise company, you might be interested to use more advanced feature such as push mail, and this is also available. Even Single Sign On is supported by Google Apps.



















To cut the long story short, what you need to do is only modifying your DNS record. To verify that a certain domain is indeed yours, you have to add a CNAME record. In the configuration process of Google apps, you will be presented with a unique apps code. This code will have to be added as CNAME. Actually this step can be skipped entirely, and go straight to MX ( Mail Exchange ) record configuration. This is the entry that indicates that an email should be routed to Gmail server. You can see the example here below:

It's about SeleraKita technology

While approaching the release of my culinary website for Indonesian market, SeleraKita, I want to deal some of the technology used by it. As SeleraKita, we position ourself as service provider for people who wants to search for their culinary needs in a fast manner. We aim to provide comprehensive database of food around Jakarta initially, and later on targeting the whole indonesia. We hope the support of Jakarta citizen who are food-savvy to enrich our database by writing articles for us. This information will go back to the citizen, and solely used to make our service better for the sake of our user.

By leveraging current technology, we try to build an environment where it can scale up good in the future. As the first consideration, our server is located in Singapore, which is the closest internet landing point to Indonesia. We have chosen a service provide in Singapore because of their competitive price, and their proven support. If the demand increase in the future, we planned to locate the server back to the home country, Indonesia. Having a close landing point means that selerakita page will load faster.

Internet speed in Indonesia is also a concern. Jakarta is well exposed by broadband connection, but there is still noticeable amount of dial up connection user. Shared connection in internet cafe also not work as fast as a private broadband connection. we aim to provide a website where user which use dial up can access within time window less than 20 seconds at max. Having this target, we implement server side archiving of content before being sent to your browser. By archiving the content, a smaller package can be sent to you, effecting on a faster load of the web page.

SeleraKita website is fully javascript driven, using professional packages to drive its functionality. The same packages have been used by Google, Apple, and NASA to power its website, which are Prototype and Scriptaculous library. The decision to use javascript is to evade the excessive usage of Flash content. Scriptaculous provides animation framework which give the user a rich user interface experience. We will keep on working iteratively to make the user experience better in SeleraKita website.

SeleraKita has a search engine capable to analyze the current trend on the market. The result of the search will be given in a sorted order from the most famous to less famous location. All thanks to KulinerKita algorithm which runs every day to analyze the data of our user behavior. The searchengine is implemented by using Stored Procedure in MySQL database to attain the highest query speed possible. The reason that stored procedure is chosen is because we can gain the favor in speed if we bring the search process closer to the heart of the operation, MySQL itself by using the built in SQL programming language. Through time, we will keep improving the performance of the search engine so it can be as blazing fast as Google.

To speed up the building process of the website, we leverage industry standard PHP framework, Symfony. By using Symfony, Selerakita can build its website within time span of 30 days. The coding is supported by Eclipse IDE using various plug in for its Database modelling, Clay, and script editor, YAML. Symfony make use of Propel, capable of generating a fast way to access the database while eliminating the header of writing too much SQL query.

In our core, we are on the same time service-oriented team as well as technological team. we tried to deliver the solution using the most efficient technology there is. And of course the aim is better user experience for our user. In the end, no matter how advance our technology and how much we have spent, our users are the ones we serve. Within our business model, we would like to invite the user to take part in the process of inventing SeleraKita website. We are welcome for any suggestion through our community forum in Facebook and Friendster. If we think that the community of the users have good idea, we will answer their challenge by implementing it.

Stay tune for the launch on 16 July!!!! Around that date, I will release the second iteration plan to make SeleraKita better, such as mobile version, and the rest is surprise... ;)

It's about Shaping Business - Business 101 Part 2

On my last entry in the series of Business 101, I have talked about how you should answer to idea that pops up in your head. The focus on this series will be about taking this idea one step further to reality, carve its first shape. This is comparable to the step taken by artisan who made sculpture. He will get a big lump of stone, which he carved roughly to represent the shape that he wants. That’s exactly what we are going to do here. Note that it is dangerous not to plan carefully in giving shape to your business. Fail to plan means plan to fail.

Let us start first with branding. Branding is notably the most important aspect for your business. The term branding is also famously known in marketing world. According to my experience, product with weak / no branding will evaporate rather quick from the customer’s mind. Branding is all about the impression that your business get from your customer. It’s not about how you position yourself in the market, but how your customer will look at you. Do you see the differences? While the one has focus with competitor, the other focus more on the customer. Take for example when you heard the name Google. The first impression that comes to your mind is “Search Engine”, and yet the best “Search Engine”. When I say “BMW”, the first impression that might come ( or at least come to my mind ) is “Luxury car”. That’s what it means by branding. I consider branding to be more abstract and you have to work your way to get that branding, like Google effort to employ thousands of PHD to make Google the best search engine on earth. I’m not at any way affiliated to Google, but make them as example simply of their disruptive and innovative way of thinking. Which I apply also to a project I’m currently working on: SeleraKita.com , The Indonesia’s first culinary search engine.

Then we have to look from our point of view, who is our market?? Determining market is important, unless you have a product that is so general that it can reach all kinds of people, take for example TV- set. Even if your product is only meant for a niche-market, it will still sell. If you don’t believe, you can ask Lamborghini how it’s car is made. While all other automobiles factory depends on robotic arms, Lamborghini assembled its car by using man-power. And it’s only sold for limited amount of each type of car and which is BTW really expensive!!! So it is clear which market does the Lamborghini serve. So make sure you know your market, or community!!! A good targeted market can make a community by itself, and they generate more revenue. This practice is applied successfully by Harley Davidson, where you can see such community around the motorcycle sprung up in different countries. With the advent of internet, there is more and more chance to target different market segment. Internet disparate everything. Internet makes organization easier because it doesn’t have the demographic boundary and physical presence. You could imagine how many kinds of opportunity available in the internet. This is marked with the birth of Web 2.0, the social web paradigm. Due to long discussion around Web 2.0, I will not cover it right now. I’ll make sure to cover about it in coming articles.

And of course no one will believe / buy your product if it doesn’t have unique selling position. There should be something unique which you can offer to your customer, even if it’s not your main product. You can offer a good service around your product, and you will notice that the customer will pledge their loyalty to you. And be careful with angry customer, because they can do more damage than you may think of. First of all, they can tell their associates that your product / service sucks. And if they are internet-savvy, they will post in their blog, Digg, Facebook, or even You Tube!!! The next thing you will know is that you might have lost small percentage of your sales. If you don’t react to this, it is guaranteed that you will lose more. The same thing had happened to Dell before, where a group of angry customer wrote blogs about their service desk’s bad quality. This group succeeded to stall the sales of Dell in America, that Dell see significant changes in certain region. Luckily, Dell reacts rather quick, and it manage to save itself on time. And this experience gave birth to Dell’s Idea Storm where customer can propose idea to Dell. The product of the community around Dell was the roll out of Dell computer with Linux operating system in it. With your uniqueness, you want to broadcast the message that you are different from the other player. Unique Selling Position means also Differentiation. The way you differentiate your brand determines also who your market is. If you have a Mac, I’m pretty sure that you understand how you differentiate yourself from PC/Windows user ;) An example of unique selling position is coming from our Japanese friend, Nintendo. Nintendo released the Nintendo Wii around 2 years ago, and it directly become a hit thanks to its revolutionary way of playing game by using movement.

Another point which is known in the marketing world is positioning. I will not bother to do this, because in my point of view, positioning is rather same with branding. Although some people states that it’s different…. One example that I can see about positioning is a rent-a-car company in North America. I can’t remember the name, but there are two major companies playing in this field. The second best make their second position in the market as a slogan. If I remember clearly, it sounds like this “Because we are second, we works harder to be the first” :D I think it’s really catchy, and quite funny. So if anyone has idea about the main difference between positioning and branding, they are welcome ;)

And for the final act, I would like to add my own theory about social responsibility. I have coined this term after reading book about the management of Starbuck, and the founding of Google. I want to deal the vision of both these companies. The vision of these companies are not to be the best bla bla bla whatever or for the money, but they are aiming to improve the quality of mankind. Vision of Starbuck is to make human life better. Starbuck paid good incentive to their Barista, and they give leadership lesson to the people working in their shop. They strive to make a better human out of their current employee. The same with Google, with their vision of making information freely available for mankind ( and organized!! ) So you see, neither of these companies want to be the best coffee seller, or the best search engine, but they aim for something higher. Something social that make mankind life better. I believe that company with such social responsibility is able to attract various different parties to be involved with them. Everyone would like to have their shares to make earth / mankind better, but someone has to press the ignition button. And as the topping of my theory, I have included this social responsibility theory into the project I’m currently working on. It is done not based on a financial cause, but more for my willingness to prosper my home-country, Indonesia. We would like to bring the innovation of technology to the Indonesian market, and to disrupt the current way of working so that the people and government will benefit more with IT and internet.

And my social responsibility statement closed this article about shaping up your business. As time goes on, I will prepare yet another interesting article for you, especially technology-savvy and entrepreneur people.

It's about Long Weekend

There is nothing more fun than a really long weekend. I just had a chance to have 4 days free, thanks to The Queen of The Netherlands :) Long live the queen!!!! It was a celebration to commemorate the birthday of the late queen. We called it "Koninginendag" here in The Netherlands, or literally translated as Queensday. The Queensday celebration was held on Thursday, and I was entitled to take a leave on Friday, the day after. So it was a vacation starting from Friday till Sunday.

First of all, I had planned a trip to Turkey for this long vacation. But since the financial situation makes people think twice to spend money, no one are interested to go to Turkey. So my friends thought something nice to do on this vacation. We had a picnic!!! we were having a picnic alongside a river nearby people's favorite meubel store, Ikea. In that area lies a big river surrounded by nature park. We went there by bicycle and it took almost 40 minutes :( Talking about far.....

Upon arriving on the riverside, we directly fill our empty stomach with home-made sushi. thanks to Alia AKA "Lili" and Lia for the sushi. it was delicious, although some of them are wrapped with aluminium foil, in place of dried seaweed ( Nori ). It's ok, I don't prepare anything anyway, so I don't complain.... :D We were finished around 6 PM. Afterwards, I went to the movie to watch "Wolverine", a movie about a character named Wolverine in X-Men.

Friday was ok. I spend half of the day preparing my website. It is a culinary platform specially designed for Indonesia. We are going to soft-launch on July, so the schedule is quite tight. A man gotta do when he gotta do.... I guess this is the main fundamental difference between men and women. Men are so result-oriented. Women are also, but to certain degree. They enjoy to discuss about the "steps" to reach the result, while men only wants to go to the result.

On Saturday, I went to a barbeque party at my friend place. We had everything prepared for the day. The menu are hamburger, salad, stay made of various things ranging from chicken meat, paprika, and mushrooms. It's all thanks to Ze Wen that prepared for all of them. Although small in size, Ze Wen is really good at cooking and cleaning. This is ZeWen preparing the barbeque.

We finished around 5 PM. After that, everyone gather at my house to play Wii. In my last post, I mentioned that I bought a Guiter Hero set for my Wii. It is a fun game, you really can enjoy it especially if you like to play game and to listen rock music.