Oggix’s Antispam Code Implementation

I received a report from my friend Tata that she was not able to make any comments on my shoutbox. She said that the shoutbox kept on asking for the antispam code. I then tried myself and was able to replicate the problem on my Oggix’s shoutbox. After I entered one entry, it will prompt me to enter the 3-digit antispam code shown.

The problem is that even though I have entered the correct code, it kept in prompting me to enter another code. So it looks like the system didn’t accept my code, even though the code I entered is correct. After trying, I found out that the code would be accepted if I put a space before the 3-digit code. For example, if the code to be entered is “466” (without the quotes), then I would need to enter “ 466” (without the quotes, with a space before the first digit), then the entry would be accepted.

It looks like this is a bug in the anti spam script, which need to be fixed by Oggix administrator. I have contacted Ogi (Oggix’s administrator) on this matter. In the meantime, if you would like to add comments on my shoutbox, don’t forget to put the space before the 3-digit code.

Update on 2 July 2006: In the meantime, Ogi has disabled the antispam code feature until the problem is resolved. Thanks, Gi. :)

BTW, should anyone would like to give feedback to Oggix.com, you can do so by visiting their forum at http://www.oggix.com/forums/.

[Indonesian version]

Planet Singapura is now Equipped with Shoutbox

As you can see, the comments on Planet Singapura are turned off. This is to prevent visitors from leaving comments regarding one of the contributors’ posts there. This will encourage visitors to visit the respective contributor’s blog and leave comments on the original blog instead.

The only page which allow visitor to add comments is the About Planet Singapura page. This is where visitors can give comments and feedback regarding Planet Singapura, the aggregator site, itself. So far, nobody has added any comments yet. :)

To make it easier for visitors to send feedback about Planet Singapura, I have added a shoutbox, which you can find on the lower right sidebar of the site. The shoutbox is powered by Shoutmix. Feel free to give your suggestions, comments and feedback regarding Planet Singapura there.

Al-Ameen Eating House

Al-Ameen Eating House is a popular “makan” place around Bukit Timah area, near my place. It is located opposite Beauty World Centre, along the numerous coffee shops on Cheong Ching Nam Road, not far from Al-Azhar, another favourite makan place there.

This place opens 24 hours, and all the food served is halal. One of the best things about this place is its variety of food being served, from seafood, Thai food, Indian food such as roti prata, naan, masala, and varieties of fried rice, all under one roof. Although, certain menu only available on certain periods of the day. The service is friendly and efficient; with most of the staff are Indians who, surprisingly, can speak Malay.

Last month, I and my wife went there because my wife wanted to have the roti naan and masala, one of our Indian food’s favourites (see right picture). Roti naan is similar to roti prata, except that it’s oven-baked, not fried, and it comes with different flavours, such as butter, onion/garlic, cheese, or just simply plain. Roti naan is usually served with masala, mutton or chicken minced meats covered with thick curry from Indian spices, similar to Malay’s rendang curry. Previously we tried the chicken masala and chicken tikka masala, so last month we tried the mutton masala, and it’s as good as the chicken one.

[Indonesian version]

Valuair

On my trip to Jakarta this month, I had the chance (again) to try Valuair, one of Singapore’s budget airlines. Valuair previously positioned themselves as a semi-budget airline, providing value-added services normally not given by full no-frills budget airlines such as snacks on board and assigned seats. This caused their tickets to be slightly more expensive than any other budget airlines such as Air Asia or Tiger Airways, although it’s still cheaper than full-service airlines such as Singapore Airlines or Garuda Indonesian Airways. Its business concept is similar to Indonesian Lion Air’s and Adam Air’s.

Unfortunately, such concept was not working well. They almost went bankrupt before they were being acquired by JetStarAsia, another Singapore-based budget airline which is a subsidiary of Qantas, Australia’s main airline. Even though Valuair is now acquired and managed by JetstarAsia, however Valuair still retains its logo and flight code.

Similar to AirAsia, Valuair uses ticketless system. Purchase of its flight tickets can be done over the Internet, at their website: http://www.valuair.com.sg/, or you can also visit its parent company’s website: http://www.jetstarasia.com/. Payment is made online using credit card, and a printable ticket will be sent through e-mail on PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format. We just then need to show the printed ticket during check-in, together with our passports. Very efficient.

Valuair’s service is quite good, and two things which make its service is slightly better than AirAsia are (1) assigned seats during check-in; and (2) snack, water and coffee/tea which are provided on-board, free of charge. As for the rest, its service is comparable to AirAsia’s. The food provided on sale is also generally more expensive than AirAsia’s. My flight at that time was on-time, taking-off from Singapore’s Changi airport at 8:40am sharp and reaching Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta airport at 9:15am local time, 5 minutes ahead of schedule.

[Indonesian version]

Upgrade “Minda Indra” to Wordpress 2.0.3

Wordpress has just released its newest stable release version, Wordpress 2.0.3. This new version was released to address a security bug raised on Bugtraq couple of weeks ago. This security vulnerability affects Wordpress version 2.0.2 (which I used for my Indonesian blog, Minda Indra) and earlier versions. Two thumbs up for Wordpress which released the new version just days after the vulnerability was being raised.

I was just about to go back to Jakarta for a short one-week holiday when I read the news on the 2^nd of June, so I decided to perform an upgrade before I leave. This is the first time I upgraded Wordpress since I first installed the version 2.0.2 for “Minda Indra” last April.

Wordpress upgrade turned out to be quite difficult for a beginner like me. All the Wordpress files have to be replaced manually, and there’s no such thing as automatic script which can do the upgrade seamlessly for us. I have tried to follow the upgrade instruction carefully, nevertheless I was shocked to find out that all my permalink pages were gone, leaving 404 error message! Luckily later I found out that the problem was due to missing .htaccess file, and all my permalink pages were back up after the missing file was restored.

Other than that, I didn’t encounter many problems during the upgrade process, except some small problem while I was performing mysqldump to backup my Wordpress database. For those who want to perform the same upgrade, I would recommend you to read all the upgrade instructions carefully, and don’t forget to backup all your Wordpress files before you replace the files.

[Indonesian version]

"Road Rage" Cases in Jakarta

There is an e-mail currently spreading in some Indonesian mailing lists about a road rage case involving a black Honda CR-V in Jakarta's expressway. The e-mail is in Bahasa Indonesia, and a copy of the e-mail can be found here.

Of course, we are not able to confirm whether the case is really true or not, in fact, quite a lot of Indonesian bloggers are discussing about the issue here (in Bahasa Indonesia, unfortunately). However, this is a sign that road rage cases in Indonesia, especially in its big cities such as Jakarta, are growing. I agree that road rage cases happen anywhere in the world, however I believe that the number of cases in Indonesia, especially Jakarta, is much higher than other big cities around the region, such as Singapore, Kuala Lumpur or Bangkok. I noticed that these might be the reasons of the high road rage cases in Jakarta:

1. Unclear traffic rules, and even if there are rules, they are not fully enforced and implemented.
2. Jakarta's very bad traffic, increasing the stress level of Jakarta's drivers.
3. Jakarta drivers' bad driving culture and habit, always kiasu and inconsiderate to other drivers.

And, unfortunately, the third problem has become more common on almost all Jakarta drivers, regardless whether he's a minibus driver or a high-rank government official.

Here are some tips if you have to drive in Jakarta, especially for those who are used to drive in built-up cities such as in Singapore or cities in Australia:

1. Drive relaxedly, no need to hurry. Plan your journey, allow some extra time to accommodate some unexpected traffic jams, which unfortunately are common in Jakarta.
2. Traffic jams are common in Jakarta, don't allow traffic jams to increase your stress level.
3. Drive defensively, to avoid road rage. Cutting off other cars is the most common issue in Jakarta which can lead to road rage.

Overall, defensive driving is the best way to avoid road rage, or to avoid become a victim of road rage.

[Indonesian version]