About Me

AHA!! You have come across this page. I’m assuming that you must be either very bored or very interested to know more about me or accidentally clicked on a link that happens to be this page. Either way, I will satisfy your appetite for information with this “About Me” page. Enjoy! 😀

As you can see from my blog’s title, my name is Andryan Prakasa Gouw. I was born on August 11, 1985. I graduated as Bachelor of Applied Science (Information Technology) with Distinction from RMIT University (Melbourne, Australia) in 2006. Prior to my departure to RMIT University, I was a student of Bina Nusantara International University (BiNus International) in Jakarta, Indonesia. I enrolled at BiNus International (February 2003) after graduating from IPEKA Christian High School (December 2002). I was a social science student at high school, taking economics and business subjects. I was also a teaching assistant/lab tutor at BiNus International. My bachelor program was double degree, but I did not complete my BiNus S.Kom degree upon returning from Melbourne. Now I only have my RMIT bachelor’s degree.

Ever since I got my first computer (it was a 286) for my birthday present in the 1990s (IIRC it was 1992), I have been a fanatic of technology-related stuff (mostly computers). During my second year of junior high, I was introduced to Linux by a classmate. At that time Red Hat 5.1 was only a few months old. Prior to my encounter with Linux, I had been using the Internet since the sixth grade on a US Robotics 28.8Kbps dialup modem.

In my high school years, I started learning more about Linux, although not as much as FreeBSD at the time. Michael Band of Alternative Web Services asked for my help to maintain his FreeBSD 4.X servers (for web/DNS/email hosting), so I learned a lot of FreeBSD stuff including jail. Later Alternative Web Services started using Linux servers, and I had a chance to know more about Linux.

During my university period, I started using Linux (again) after many years of FreeBSD. This time I tried Ubuntu Linux. Well, I thought that I was finally going to be able to ditch Windows as my desktop OS. However after repeated attempts, I couldn’t get the feel even with a desktop-oriented Linux distribution such as Ubuntu, so I failed.. (again). I decided that Linux is not going to be my desktop OS ever, it is an OS of choice for servers but certainly not desktops — some people may disagree but at least this is the case for me. Fast forward a few years, finally I gave up and bought myself a MacBook. I fell in love with Mac OS X! This time I felt that I’m comfortable with an OS that is not Windows for desktop for the first time in my life. Now I get to put Mac OS X in my CV. 😛

From mid 2006 until recently, I had been using Fedora Core for servers extensively at a wireless ISP I worked for (Hasindo Net). As you can see from some of the blog entries, these are actually my real life encounters with a range of scenarios (combination of software, hardware, requirements, etc.) These days I still use Fedora and CentOS for my servers.

In case you wonder why I started this blog.. I get annoyed when people don’t document their problems (especially computer-related problems, be it software or hardware) and (possible) solutions to the problems. Since then I realized that if I can start documenting things, then some people may be able to find them and use them without having to waste their time trying to figure out what I or others have solved. Therefore if you learn something from my blog, please leave a comment to show your appreciation. Thanks! 🙂

A more personal “About Me”..

I’m a self-proclaimed life expert, who takes nothing less than perfect (typical perfectionist). I may be a perfectionist, but I’m far from perfect. I consider myself ambitious in a positive way (some people say so too). Oh, I’m a pedant too. I pay close attention to details. I think I’m easily touched (for a guy). I cannot see animals suffer, let alone humans. Yep, I care so much about animals.

I’m a dreamer — I dream big dreams. I have so many dreams to realize, but so little resources to put them into realization. I’m a nationalist and at times a patriot — I love my country, no matter how bad its people are. I will never leave my country to find a job — I’m certain that I can help to build this country to be better.

I believe that I have excellent analytical skills, which I consider to be my greatest asset. I consider abundant wealth to be a capital towards improving others’ life — there is nothing wrong with being wealthy, but there is no reason to be extremely wealthy. “With great power, comes great responsibility. With great wealth, comes great social responsibility.”

Normally most people judge me negatively before they really get to know me, and very often I get underestimated. I believe some, if not all, of the following apply: arrogant, evil, stubborn, annoying, cruel, heartless, ruthless, insensitive, snobbish, disrespectful, and many many more! (I believe you can find more in the testimonials section of my Friendster account 😉

However, if you get to know me well enough, you may find a different me. This is normal and it is the expected behavior. For those who have known the real me, lucky you! 🙂

You must be one of the select few. (just like The Kew Garden Residence’s slogan: crafted for the select few)

Some people think that I’m very complicated, but that cannot be true since I like to be realistic and very much believe in simplicity, practicality, and feasibility. I like to be expeditious too, hence ‘effective’ and ‘efficient’ are two of my favorite words.