Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Titip menitip dengan layanan GO-JEK Indonesia dan Bistip.com

Mau nonton laga Timnas Indonesia tapi males ngantri tiket? Apa mungkin ngantri tiket Laskar Pelangi yang ticket box-nya buka siang-siang? Atau mungkin pengen beli barang di kota lain? Di luar negeri? Tapi butuhnya cepet kalo nggak males kena shipping fee? Mungkin dua layanan di bawah ini bisa elo coba.

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GO-JEK Indonesia

Pertama kali tau ada layanan ini dari twitnya @arief_aziz. Pertamanya gw pikir ini cuma sebatas order ojek by phone/Y!M/BBM/Twitter aja, tapi ternyata bisa buat titip-titipan juga. Waktu meeting @TEDxJakarta beberapa bulan lalu, adiknya Arief yang jualan House of Lumpia pake GO-JEK ini buat delivery service. Makin lama ngeliatin timeline di Twitter, malah ada yang nitip tiket laga Timnas Indonesia buat diantriin, terus ada beberapa orang juga yang pake buat beli tiket Musikal Laskar Pelangi yang cepet abis itu.

Berbekal testimonial orang-orang, gw akhirnya memutuskan untuk nyobain layanan GO-JEK ini. Pertama kali gw cobain buat nitip benerin rantai jam tangan Casio gw yang cuma bisa dikerjain di Casio Service Center di deket Harmoni sana yang buka cuma pas office hour. Kalo gw musti ke sana pas lunch break, dijamin waktu gw abis di tengah jalan. Akhirnya gw coba telpon call center GO-JEK, prosedurnya cukup cepet, kita tinggal kasih tau detail pickup barangnya di mana, ntar mereka bakal calculate, dan kalo udah deal mereka bakal dateng sesuai jam request kita. Even ada konfirmasi SMS segala yang ngasih tau siapa driver yang bakal ngambilnya. Total bolak balik dari Permata Hijau - Casio Service Center - Permata Hijau cuma abis 2 jam.

Kali kedua gw nyobain, gw pake buat beli Mini DisplayPort to VGA Adapter di iBox Senayan City. Cukup ngasih tau detail barangnya, nanti mereka bakal beliin barangnya dan anter ke alamat kita. Kalo ini Permata Hijau - iBox Sency - Permata Hijau cuma butuh 1 jam. Overall ada beberapa poin lah yang bisa gw bikin setelah pake layanan GO-JEK ini:

  • Platform buat ngehubungin call centernya banyak
  • Sekalinya udah pernah pake, mereka bakal record datanya jadi gak ditanya-tanya ulang detail alamat kita
  • Kalo beli barang di bawah IDR 200.000, bisa dibeliin dulu sama mereka, ntar bayar pas barangnya dateng. Kalo di atas itu, mereka musti pickup dulu uangnya
  • Entah belom ada apa gw nggak dikasih semacem bukti pembayaran gitu
  • Tarifnya mirip kayak taksi tarif bawah (CMIIW)

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Bistip.com

 

Nah, yang kedua ini gw taunya sebenernya udah agak lama. Dulu tampilan webnya nggak sebagus yang sekarang ini, gw baru tau lagi pas webnya udah revamp. Sempet masuk DailySocial juga kalo nggak salah. Waktu itu gw emang lagi mau beli Crocs Crostail. Ya ya ya, gw emang penasaran sama si sendal yang banyak orang gak suka ini. Tapi yang Crostrail ini modelnya nggak gitu-gitu amat kok *pembelaan*. Back to topic, jadi setau gw ada beberapa model yang emang kalo di Indonesia suka abis gitu, nitip ke temen yang lagi trip ke SG mungkin bisa, dan ternyata di timeline juga ada yang rekomendasiin buat nyoba @bistipes.

Pertamanya gw kirain gw ini service sejenis Bistip dan ternyata ini justru semacem sub-service di bawahnya Bistip yang bisa dititipin barang tapi nggak usah bayar tip si orang yang dititipinnya. Jadi sebenernya si Bistip ini nyediain wadah buat orang nitip-nitipan barang, misalnya mau beli barang di Bali, tapi kitanya di Jakarta, kita bisa pake Bistip ini buat nyari orang yang bakal jalan dari Bali ke Jakarta, nego seputar tip yang mau dikasih, nanti kalo udah deal dibawain deh barangnya ke Jakarta.

Setelah daftar di webnya, akhirnya langsung kirim message ke Bistipes yang udah ada akunnya di Bistip.com, dan kebetulan @nathaliezileta juga mau nitip yang model Shayna. Prosesnya cepet aja, gak pake repot, dan sesuai jadwal pas dia balik ke Jakarta, barangnya dibawain. Useful banget buat yang mau nitip barang yang agak mahalan dari jauh, both nitip beliin apa nitip bawain, tapi harganya jauh lebih murah dari shipping yang terkenal-terkenal itu. Kalo poin-poin dari gw:

  • Kalo kirim dokumen dari US ke Indonesia abis sekitar IDR 300.000, kalo pake Bistip kemaren sempet nanya-nanya salah satu user, kenanya cuma sekitar IDR 100.000, dan itu udah nitip barang, bukan dokumen
  • Cocok buat kirim-kiriman dokumen apa barang ke sodara/temen di luar kota/negeri
  • Kalo mau pake jasa nitipnya, mending cek dulu reputasinya, sekalian background check aja soalnya alamat web, FB, sama Twitter si user juga dicantumin kok

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Kira-kira segitulah review gw buat dua layanan baru yang rasanya cukup meringankan orang-orang yang maunya banyak tapi nggak mau repot. Udah ada yang pernah nyoba juga? Silakan tinggalin komentarnya di bawah ya.

Monday, August 15, 2011

Perfect Running Form, Perfect Race

Everyone dreams of running the perfect race but not everyone has the drive to work on their running form. That’s a shame, because when it comes to marathon running, form is incredibly important. If you can perfect your form then you have a much better chance of getting the time you want at your next marathon.

To help you along, consider five effective tips for improving your running form:

#1: Stay off your heels.

Never extend your leg out so far that your foot lands on the heel. Many beginner and casual runners do this and they end up with shin splints, back pain and a whole host of other problems. When you are training longer distances for marathon running, you have to make sure you are not landing on your heel. This will not only make your running stronger, but it will make training more comfortable on your body and reduce your chances of injury.

Aim to bring your foot down on the front ball or land flat-footed. This will give you the strongest spring off for smoother run and will protect your joints and muscles from strain.

#2: You are not a kid hopping puddles.

Did you ever try to jump over large rain puddles when you were a kid? When you try to leap over a large area and make it fully to the other side before you hit ground, it is natural to stretch your front leg out as far as possible. You are reaching.

Proper running form does not reach like that. You are not trying to make it over the puddle and there is no reward for taking the longest strides. Your strides must be adequate to keep your body propelling forward with consistent speed and grace, but you don’t want to look like a ballet dancer leaping through the air.

If you are over reaching in stride you will be forced to land on your heels. That is one way of determining if your stride is adequate or beyond what is necessary.

#3: You are not a camel.

You can’t go back to hopping puddles and you can’t act like a camel in marathon running, either. Some runners want to hunch forward too much when they run, creating an unnatural posture and throwing the body off-balance. This can be bad for your back and very bad for your time.

While focusing on your running form, try to stay as upright as possible. You can lean just a little forward if it helps you feel centered and balanced, but this should not be a hunched position. Keep the bumps out of your back and shoulders!

#4: Don’t bounce your way through training.

Next time you head out for a run, pay attention to the amount of bounce you have in your stride. If you feel you are bopping up and down just as much as you are propelling your body forward, then you are too much like the Easter bunny and not enough like a successful marathon runner.

All that extra bounce is going to do is eat up your energy so you have less to give to your training. Marathon running is incredibly demanding on your energy, so this is a very important aspect of running form to correct if you feel it applies to you.

#5: Keep your body strong and lean.

It is very difficult to perfect your running form if you don’t have the lean muscle to sustain that perfect posture. Similarly, if you are eating the wrong foods or packing on the pounds you won’t have the energy needed to sustain marathon running with proper running form.

Besides getting out there for your training sessions, you have to cross train. Add in some strength training for your upper body so your arms and chest balance out the muscle that naturally develops in your legs, buttocks and hips. Do other forms of cardio exercise that burn fat and keep your body tone, limber and ready for the road.

When you run short distances, you might do fairly well without focusing on running form. Once you cross into the longer distance and take up marathon running that form becomes far more important. It can control the impact felt on your joints and muscles and give you a smoother stride. In the end you will find it easier to keep to your marathon pace and make your goal time in an upcoming race.

Sunday, August 7, 2011

Nokia N8: The World’s Largest Stop Motion Film

Nokia is making another big push to promote the quality cameras on board their latest range of phones, by partnering with Aardman Animations and Wieden + Kennedy once again to create the Gulp animation, a new Guinness World Record animation filmed on the Nokia N8.

The stop motion fim is shot entirely on the new Nokia N8, and aims to showcase the Carl Zeiss optics and its 12-megapixel photography capabilities. They managed to place three phones elevated some 36 meters above the ground on a cherry picker on a beach in South Wales, in the UK, to cover a canvas of 42 meters x 24 meters… Basically creating the “World’s Largest Stop-motion Animation”. Crazy effort…

Do you remember the last world record stop motion animation by these guys?
It was the “World’s Smallest Stop Motion Animation