Around 5 months ago Seth Godin built a social networking site for people learn leadership and connection, which his book Tribes is all about. When he first open the the networking site, i can’t buy the book (and automatically unable to sign up to the site) since Amazon don’t ship to my country. Several weeks later i purchased the book from a local bookstore. I read. Inspired and have fun thought provoked Seth Godin’s way.

Earlier today i found that Seth is re-opening application for his networking site Tribes. However, in the sign up page, people should add their Amazon’ receipt which i don’t have. So i took a snap of myself with my Tribes book and put the link when i signed up. I waited nervously, but then several minutes later my invitation came. Brilliant!

According to Chinese New Year, i’m an Ox. Happy New Year!

Picture via Ayi Bali.

A picture is not always paint a thousand words. This presentation shows you that a thousand words can speak a thousand million words.

It’s our 3rd anniversary today. We’re grateful to know that we can save the world starting by saving a girl. We won’t promise anyone that we will be able to save girls in poverty out there (who knows), but we promise ourselves that we will start by saving our own daughter, since we let her born to this messy world 1 year and 5 months ago.

Full presentation video at The Girl Effect site.

This was happened last month.

September is a tough months for me and my family, as it was the month we move to Bali 2 years ago. We didn’t know how we can pay our big recurring bills that occur in September, then somehow the magic happen in Sunday. We went to church as usual at the morning then back at home at about 8 in the morning. I turned on my computer, check some news then went back to sleep. At about 11 AM i woke up, get some meals, took a bath then back to my computer. What i first saw was an email from a long time friend.

I had approach him and offer my service to make a website since like 6 month ago. Then suddenly we lost touch. I even forget that i’ve ever contact about that matter and already delete the folder planned for his future website. Then suddenly he email me offering the project i can’t resist. This job pay our bills.

This is not the first time we receive ‘something’ after we go to church (we don’t go that much in the last several months, and i feel so sorry about that).

However, I believe it’s more than a simple sense or a coincidence.

This is the second time LippoBank do stupid things to me and this time i believe it will be more if i continue to use their banking services.

Got this phish email yesterday:

Dear valued users LippoNetBank,

Thank you for using LippoNetBank in your daily banking transactions. Providing you with the best internet banking service is an honor for us.

as accomplishment of our commitment, we have already added Best security system into LippoBank’s website www.lippobank.co.id where you can find some principal hints to carry secured transactions through LippoNetBank and to safe your private identity at LippoNetBank as well as some other important information we’ll protect with best security system.

Please update your LippoNetBank for apply best protection system in your account

We always keep developing new features of LippoNetBank to provide convenience and serenity in your internet banking transactions, anytime and anywhere.

Sincerely yours,

LippoBank

I immediately updated my account, i remember doing that while talking to my wife, so i was careless. However, this morning, i got the same email. I was curious, i double checked the link, then s**t i realized that that was a phish email. The phisher was careless, they send me the same email twice!

This is the phish email link to login page:

http://ebanking.lippobenk.com/Retail/login_ret_user.htm

While this one is the official login link:

https://ebanking.lippobank.co.id/Retail/login_ret_user.jsp

So i was dumb and careless. Heck. I immediately call the call center and the customer service name Erna asked us a permit to block our account. So we give her the permission, we didn’t have the choice, did we? Soon after blocking the account, she said that we should open a new account. We were like WTF? Why didn’t she said so? She was so offer to solve a problem by creating another problem, she knew it and she didn’t tell us. Now we must open a new account and tell all our customers about it. I don’t understand, it’s a retarded solution, and remember, they’re a f**ing Public Company!!

However, as i said this is the second time they do stupid things. First was several months ago, when they charged our ATM with the money we never received (they silently gave our money back).

I might be wrong, but i have use several others local online banks and 1 foreign bank for our banking purposes, all of them are just fine. This is the first time i got phished, after using LippoBank service for 2-3 times.

The thing is, according to Whois information, this domain lippobenk.com has been there for several months and it is registered by

Robert Hervington
202-516 cannon barry
Oshawa, OT L1G 2Z6
CA
Email: luizgonzelas049@gmail.com

I believe i’m not the first victim who has stupidly giving bank information, considering that the domain has been registered since March 2008. But LippoBank has done nothing about this. They can simply send spam/phishing notification to the registrar (register.com) and to the hosting company (abuse@websitewelcome.com), but i guess LippoBank just don’t f**cking care!!

Oh i forget, LippoBank do one thing that they think could prevent the phishing, they put this warning sign at the banking login page:

Make sure the address of Login page LB NetBank is https://ebanking.lippobank.co.id/Retail/login_ret_user.jsp

Oh well, smart ass . It is copied by the phish site so well. I have said i was careless, but why they don’t do something to close the phish site? It’s so easy, i believe it will only take 24 hours to execute at the most. Say i’m an internet savvy who understands internet URLs, still cheated when careless how about those who don’t?????

I have one lesson learned. Never trust mediocre organization like LippoBank. No hope. I’m so over them. If you come to Indonesia please don’t use LippoBank because they’ll surely cheat on you. I hope somebody sue them in the future because of their ignorance and stupidities which i guess will continue for a long time until somebody sue them. Someday somehow if the day come, i’ll throw a barbeque beach party. Bill on me…

Attachment:

Phishing site:

Official site:

Update (August 5th):

This morning someone name Sondang called my wife tried to explain the whole situation. Her explanation didn’t solve our problem and i believe will bring their customers into similar problem in the future. The problem is not at her side, it’s in the system as a whole. Lippobank will continue to have terrible service to its brand, attached and tacked into customer’s mind, as long as they don’t hold a system, which build based on what its customer’s needs. Not the other way around.

The WordPress default category is ‘Uncategorized’. By not deleting this default category will show how lazy the blog owner is or simply show that the blogger has no idea (like i used to be). Many times Once or twice i forget to assign my posts to categories and then after i publish it, WordPress will filed that uncategorized posts under the default category. So i change the default category into Thoughts and Discoveries, which i think is quite general and can be assigned to most of posts i have in this blog because this is a personal blog. Hey!

Anyhow, in case you didn’t know that you can actually delete the uncategorized category, here’s how to do it:

1. In your WordPress dashboard go to SETTINGS and go to WRITING.
2. You’ll find Default Post Category. Choose one that can generally assigned to your blog posts.
3. Now push SAVE CHANGES at the bottom of the page.
4. Go to MANAGE then go to CATEGORIES. Tick on UNCATEGORIZED and press DELETE.

Notes:

• WordPress will not delete your posts under the deleted categories, instead it will automatically assigned the posts into new default category.
• If you don’t have default category yet, then you can first create it at MANAGE click on CATEGORIES then click on ADD NEW and save. Then go to the first step above.

Source: WikipediaThe first SEO blog i read was Aaron Wall’s SEO Book. The reason was not because i interested in SEO (i didn’t know WTF is SEO), but because of his blog design. To me, SEOBook.com is truly the best damn blog in the planet. So i subscribed to his blog, read his daily thoughts, that lead me to more and more SEO blogs.

Most SEO Blog i know are mostly techies and make a living by selling Google related news. These blogs are written by techies and read by techies. I mean, SEO is surely technological but most SEO blogs are all about tech industry. However, the internet market is dominated not only by the tech industry. (You can check Stumble Upon buzz for example).

I didn’t realize how big the search industry was until i read SEO blogs. I didn’t even know that i can apply some strategies to get my sites into the first SERPs, until i Google myself. I found several stupid (back then it was cool ) websites that has my name on it. That’s when i decided to learn something and clear my name at least at the first 3-4 pages of Google’s SERPs.

Back to SEO blogging. Do we need another SEO blog? My answer is yes. Here’s my list of reasons:

1. SEO is not a rocket science and applicable in non tech industry.
2. Internet market is beyond tech industry.
3. Localized Search is a growing field.
4. Local people read local language, apply local techniques, and search for local business.

Therefore, last week was my first experience in SEO blogging. I took part in Aaron Wall’s Spread SEO Goodiness and Peace project. The project was simple, worldwide SEO Book readers were invited to write the famous article Blogger’s Guide to SEO into their language, and every language finished, Aaron will donate $50 to Amnesty International. I take part in Indonesian Language.

It’s awesome, when you really ‘read’ an article using more than your eyes,  in this case your brain and your hands involved, you can get deeper into the topic and learn more. It’s amazing because i always consider myself as an SEO retard. But by reading the article, i found out that i already applied some of Aaron’s suggested techniques and some of my blogs are improving its ranks. The fundamental different is, by reading his well structure article, i can have more structural step by step knowledge on how to apply decent SEO techniques for blogs. Now that’s what you can call SEO .

So i make up my mind. I’ve setup my own SEO blog. Written in Indonesian Language, and will cover beyond tech industry SEO. At least in my niche, where i do web design, life loving Manchester United, Boardriding and Pranks. Anyway, before i start to continue to talk about the new damn blog, guess who will be my guest post in the next article.

Indonesia is currently sit 100th place in World Press Freedom according to Antara among 167 countries in the world as surveyed by Reporters Without Borders (RWB). In South East Asia, Indonesia ranked 2nd after Cambodia. In fact, Timor Leste rank #92th is better than Indonesia.

The position of press freedom in 10 ASEAN member countries indicated that Cambodia was in the 85th rank, followed by Indonesia in the 100th rank, Brunei Darussalam 118, Malaysia 124 and the Philippines 128.

Do you feel the freedom?

Yesterday, i’ve past my first experience: undergone a surgery. Back to the days before the day, i keep wondering what to expect because i had no idea whatsoever.

When the time was come, accompanied by my wife, we went to Unit Gawat Darurat (Emergency Room) at Kasih Ibu Hospital in Denpasar Bali. They asked me to change my clothes and preparing necessary set ups. After about an hour waiting, i was brought to the surgery room using a wheelchair (i felt retarded) and get into a cold (scary) surgery room.

There was a scary surgery bed waited for me, covered with green nylon. I was brought into the bed, tied up with some medical equipments to my body and to my blood. After waiting like 15 minutes, the head of surgery team (the head doctor) finally arrived and said hi to cheer me. Soon after his arrival, the team came to do the final check on installed equipments, then suddenly one of them said, ‘we’re going to make you unconscious now.

I was like, yeah whatever, been waiting for hours for this. A couple of seconds later, i woke up outside the surgery rooms with some new scars on my body. I was like, wow! I didn’t even realize when the surgery was done!

I ask the nurses to call my wife and we were brought back to the Emergency Room. After half an hour, i asked the nurses if i can go home. I just can’t stand staying (resting) at their ER because there are people that hurt whom also stay at the room. They took another check on my body then they let me go.

After i got home, i felt asleep rightaway and woke up the next morning not in the best mood. Apparently, the drug effects they gave me are going away so i kinda start to feel my scars. In all, the surgery was not that bad (not that scary) but the moments after are painful.

Just wonder if those medical geeks never found these method to cure people. Thank you doctors.

Sorry to cover in such shallow angle but here’s what i learn today, the difference between Intrapreneur and Entrepreneur:

1. If you’re an Intrapreneur (read: employee), and you’re backstabbed by your colleague, then you’ll know it, because bad things spread fast in work environment. That way, it keep you stronger and willing to find the best way to survive in the condition. Or worse, leave the company.

2. If you’re an Entrepreneur (read: small business owner), and you’re backstabbed by your somebody who for for your client. You wouldn’t reckon the difference, you’re just lost your money.