Here is how to claim the credits, set up your billing and project without getting hit by trial quota limits, and wire everything into gcloud, gemini-cli, and VS Code Copilot agents.

1. Claim the $300 Credit and Pass Verification

To sign up for the free trial at Google Cloud Free Features, you need a Google account and a valid credit or debit card.

A few practical details about payment methods: – Google runs a small temporary pre-authorization charge ($0 to $1) to verify you are human and prevent bot abuse. Google reverses this charge automatically. – Standard credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) work best. Debit cards usually work as long as your issuing bank supports international transactions and online 3D Secure verification. – Prepaid cards, virtual disposable cards, and some regional gift cards almost always fail Google's fraud checks. If your card gets declined, try a standard bank-issued card.

2. Consumer Gemini vs. Gemini Enterprise (Deploying Models Like Ollama)

Before spending credits, it helps to separate what Google sells to consumers from what Google Cloud provides to developers.

Consumer / Individual Gemini (Any Tier)

When you use the free Gemini web app (gemini.google.com), buy Google One AI Premium ($20/month for Gemini Advanced), or add Gemini to your personal Google Workspace, you are buying a finished consumer application: – You interact through an opinionated chat interface with pre-packaged consumer tools (Google Drive/Docs integration, Gems, Imagen image generation). – You pay a flat monthly subscription. – You do not get raw API endpoints, custom system telemetry, IAM permissions, or VPC network controls. – Your prompts and data fall under consumer terms of service unless covered by a commercial enterprise contract. You cannot connect this account to external coding agents or custom software.

Gemini Enterprise on Google Cloud

Gemini Enterprise (formerly Vertex AI, now part of Google Cloud's Agent Platform) works like a remote, cloud-scale version of Ollama.

When you run Ollama on your local machine, you do not pay a monthly subscription for a chat application. Ollama downloads raw model weights (like Gemma or Llama) and runs a local server that accepts HTTP POST requests with prompt payloads, token counts, and temperature settings.

Gemini Enterprise on GCP does the exact same thing, but hosted across Google's infrastructure: – Raw API Endpoints: You do not buy an app subscription. You query managed endpoints for models like gemini-2.5-flash or gemini-1.5-pro (or deploy open weights directly in Model Garden). – Pay-Per-Token Billing: You only pay for what you consume—fractions of a cent per million input/output tokens, context caching seconds, or dedicated GPU/TPU hours. – Enterprise Data Privacy: Under Google Cloud terms, your prompts, context, and completions are never logged or used to train Google's base models. – Pluggable Backend: Because it exposes standard endpoints, you can plug your Gemini Enterprise backend into any client: terminal tools (gemini-cli), VS Code Copilot extensions, backend microservices, or direct cURL calls.

3. The Free Trial Catch: Upgrading to Paid

By default, the Google Cloud Free Trial runs inside an isolated sandbox. You cannot request certain quota increases, access GPUs, or use some production APIs until you lift trial restrictions.

To get full API access, you need to upgrade your Cloud Billing account: 1. Open the Google Cloud Console. 2. Go to Billing > Billing Account Overview. 3. Click the Upgrade button in the top banner.

How Billing Works After Upgrading

Many developers hesitate to click “Upgrade” because they assume it wipes out the free credit balance. According to official GCP documentation: – You keep your remaining $300 credit. Upgrading ends the trial status, but your remaining balance stays active until the original 90-day window expires. – Google burns the credit first. Any eligible usage draws down your promotional credits before charging your card. – Credit limitations: The $300 credit applies to Google Cloud services, including first-party Gemini models on Vertex AI. It does not cover Google AI Studio (which is billed separately) or third-party partner models offered as Model-as-a-Service on Vertex AI. – Post-credit billing: Once your credits hit $0 or 90 days pass, Google bills your card for ongoing usage.

4. Create a Project and Enable Vertex AI

Google Cloud groups all resources, IAM permissions, and billing inside projects.

Create the Project

In the GCP Console or via terminal, create a fresh project:

gcloud projects create gemini-trial-lab --name="Gemini Trial Lab"

Link your billing account to the new project in the console under Billing > Account Management, or run:

gcloud billing projects link gemini-trial-lab --billing-account=YOUR_BILLING_ACCOUNT_ID

Enable the Required APIs

To send requests to Gemini models, enable the Vertex AI API (aiplatform.googleapis.com):

gcloud services enable aiplatform.googleapis.com --project=gemini-trial-lab

5. Set Up Authentication on Linux

Tools like gemini-cli and the Google GenAI SDK look for Application Default Credentials (ADC) to authenticate against Google Cloud.

Install the Google Cloud CLI (gcloud) if you have not already:

# On Debian/Ubuntu
sudo apt-get install apt-transport-https ca-certificates gnupg curl
curl https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt/doc/apt-key.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/cloud.google.gpg] https://packages.cloud.google.com/apt cloud-sdk main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-cloud-sdk.list
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install google-cloud-cli

Authenticate your user account and configure ADC:

# 1. Log in to the CLI
gcloud auth login

# 2. Generate local Application Default Credentials (ADC)
gcloud auth application-default login

# 3. Set your active project
gcloud config set project gemini-trial-lab

# 4. Set the quota project so billing attributes correctly
gcloud auth application-default set-quota-project gemini-trial-lab

6. Configure and Run gemini-cli

gemini-cli can target either Google AI Studio (via API key) or Google Cloud Vertex AI (via ADC and GCP project settings). When using your GCP trial credits, you want Vertex AI mode.

Set Environment Variables

If you currently have a GEMINI_API_KEY or GOOGLE_API_KEY exported in your shell, unset them so the CLI does not default to AI Studio:

unset GEMINI_API_KEY
unset GOOGLE_API_KEY

Then tell the CLI which Google Cloud project and region to query:

export GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="gemini-trial-lab"
export GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION="us-central1"

To persist these variables across terminal sessions, add them to your ~/.bashrc or put them directly in ~/.gemini/.env:

mkdir -p ~/.gemini
cat <<EOF >> ~/.gemini/.env
GOOGLE_CLOUD_PROJECT="gemini-trial-lab"
GOOGLE_CLOUD_LOCATION="us-central1"
EOF

Test the CLI

Run a quick prompt to verify the connection:

gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash -p "Explain how a reverse proxy works in two sentences."

If you prefer interactive mode, start a session directly:

gemini -m gemini-2.5-flash

7. Hook into VS Code Copilot Agents via Extensions

You can use your Google Cloud project and $300 trial credits directly inside VS Code's native Chat and Copilot agent workflows.

VS Code exposes a Language Model API (vscode.lm) that lets extensions register custom language models. Once installed, these models show up alongside default choices in the VS Code Copilot Chat panel.

Option 1: Use the Vertex AI Models Chat Provider Extension

The community extension Vertex AI Models Chat Provider connects the native VS Code Chat interface directly to your GCP project using Application Default Credentials.

1. In VS Code, open the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X or Cmd+Shift+X) and search for Vertex AI Models Chat Provider. Click Install.
2. Make sure you already ran the ADC authentication command in your terminal: bash gcloud auth application-default login
3. Open your project folder in VS Code, create a .vscode/settings.json file (or edit your user settings), and specify your project ID and region: json { "vertexAiChat.projectId": "gemini-trial-lab", "vertexAiChat.location": "us-central1" }
4. Open the Copilot Chat panel (Ctrl+Alt+I or Cmd+Alt+I). Click the model selector dropdown at the bottom of the chat box. You will see your Vertex AI Gemini models listed. Select one, and all chat questions and agent turns will route through your GCP project and draw from your trial credits.

Option 2: Use the Official Gemini Code Assist Extension

If you want codebase indexing, whole-repo awareness, and inline code suggestions in addition to chat:

1. Install the official Gemini Code Assist extension from the VS Code Marketplace.
2. In your Google Cloud project, enable the Cloud AI Companion API: bash gcloud services enable cloudaicompanion.googleapis.com --project=gemini-trial-lab
3. Click the Gemini status item in the VS Code bottom status bar, sign in with your Google account, and choose gemini-trial-lab.

Clarification on GitHub Copilot's Built-in Model Picker

GitHub Copilot natively offers Gemini 2.5 Pro in its dropdown for Copilot subscribers. That option runs on GitHub's infrastructure and burns your GitHub subscription quota, not your Google Cloud $300 credit. To draw from your Google Cloud trial balance, use the Language Model Provider extension approach above, which routes your queries through your own GCP project ID.

8. Calling Models from Code or cURL

You can also call the same models in scripts using your trial credits.

Python (google-genai SDK)

Install the official SDK:

pip install google-genai

Run a generation query with vertexai=True:

from google import genai

client = genai.Client(
    vertexai=True,
    project="gemini-trial-lab",
    location="us-central1"
)

response = client.models.generate_content(
    model="gemini-2.5-flash",
    contents="Name three practical use cases for Redis."
)

print(response.text)

Direct cURL Request

To test from bash without installing Python packages:

TOKEN=$(gcloud auth print-access-token)
PROJECT_ID="gemini-trial-lab"
LOCATION="us-central1"
MODEL="gemini-2.5-flash"

curl -X POST \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer ${TOKEN}" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  "https://${LOCATION}-aiplatform.googleapis.com/v1/projects/${PROJECT_ID}/locations/${LOCATION}/publishers/google/models/${MODEL}:generateContent" \
  -d '{
    "contents": [
      {
        "role": "user",
        "parts": [{"text": "Hello from curl!"}]
      }
    ]
  }'

9. Budget Guardrails: Avoid Surprise Bills

The $300 credit gives you plenty of room to test, but you should set limits so you avoid unexpected charges when the trial ends or credits run out.

Set Up a Budget and Alerts

1. In Google Cloud Console, navigate to Billing > Budgets & alerts.
2. Click Create Budget.
3. Set your target budget amount (e.g., $300 during trial, or $20/month if continuing on your own funds).
4. Configure threshold rules (such as 50%, 90%, and 100% of actual spend). Google sends email alerts to billing administrators whenever your spend crosses these thresholds.

Model Cost Awareness

Gemini pricing on Google Cloud scales by input and output tokens: – Flash models (e.g. Gemini 2.5 Flash, 1.5 Flash) are inexpensive: fractions of a dollar per million tokens. You can run hundreds of thousands of test prompts before making a noticeable dent in the $300 credit. – Pro models (e.g. Gemini 1.5 Pro, 2.5 Pro) cost significantly more per token and consume credits much faster, especially with long context windows and audio or video inputs.

When You Are Done Experimenting

If you decide not to keep using Google Cloud after testing: – Delete the project via gcloud projects delete gemini-trial-lab or from the console's Resource Management page. Shutting down the project immediately stops all billable services linked to it. – If keeping the project, disable the Vertex AI API:

  gcloud services disable aiplatform.googleapis.com --project=gemini-trial-lab

Closing Takeaways

Using Google Cloud's $300 trial credit for Gemini models gives you 90 days of high-end LLM infrastructure without paying a subscription. You can run hundreds of thousands of requests through gemini-cli, build prototypes with the google-genai Python SDK, or route your VS Code Copilot agent turns through your own project.

Two practical habits will keep this setup painless: 1. Always check your active project: Run gcloud config get-value project before starting a session so you do not accidentally send requests to a production or unmonitored project. 2. Watch your budget thresholds: Keep billing alerts active so you know exactly when the trial balance is running low. When the 90 days end, Flash models cost only pennies for casual development work, but shutting down unused projects ensures you are never billed for background idle resources.

Sources & Official Documentation

• Google Cloud Free Program & Trial Features: cloud.google.com/free/docs/free-cloud-features
• Upgrading to a Paid Cloud Billing Account: cloud.google.com/billing/docs/how-to/modify-project
• Vertex AI Generative AI Documentation: cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/docs/generative-ai/start/quickstarts/quickstart-multimodal
• Vertex AI Pricing & Token Rates: cloud.google.com/vertex-ai/generative-ai/pricing
• Application Default Credentials (ADC) Setup: cloud.google.com/docs/authentication/provide-credentials-adc
• Gemini Code Assist for VS Code: cloud.google.com/gemini/docs/codeassist/overview
• VS Code Language Model API: code.visualstudio.com/api/extension-guides/language-model
• Vertex AI Models Chat Provider (VS Code Marketplace): marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=GoogleCloudTools.vertex-ai-models-chat-provider

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

Kang Dadang Supriatna anu BEDAS

Pembukaan

Dari semenjak aku masih kelas 1 SD (2010) hingga masa kuliah saat ini (2026), aku sudah melalui banyak kehidupan dalam masa pemerintahan kedua Dadang ini yang membawa banyak perubahan di tempat kelahiran aku, yakni Kabupaten Bandung.

Yang selalu aku perhatikan dari mereka ketika menjabat sebagai bupati Bandung, baik kang Dadang Naser maupun kang DS (Dadang Supriatna) yang saat ini menjabat yakni janji manis mereka yang sebenarnya masih banyak kendala dalam pelaksanaan dan hingga saat ini masih belum selesai masalah tersebut.

Kedua Dadang ini berhasil mengubah Kabupaten Bandung menjadi salah satu wilayah administratif yang mulai berkembang pesat, akan tetapi masalah birokrasi masih ada aja terjadi (yang salah bukan mereka yang menjabat, tapi para pejabat dan rakyat nya sulit koordinatif).

Masalahnya apa?

Masing-masing dari kedua Dadang ini memiliki visi misi yang berbeda-beda dalam menjalankan pemerintahannya, tetapi punya satu tujuan yang sama dalam artian luas. Salah satunya yakni infrastruktur. Selama mereka menjabat, banyak sekali perubahan yang dilakukan dalam perjalanan mereka dalam menjalankan pemerintahan yang berusaha memenuhi prinsip good governance. Akan tetapi, mereka juga masih banyak pertimbangan dalam menentukan kebijakan tertentu yang berdampak bagi warganya.

Ketika Kang Dadang Naser tak lagi menjabat sebagai Bupati, beliau tahu bahwa apa yang dikerjakan beliau saat menjabat semuanya masih ada yang belum sempurna, dan pada akhirnya beliau memutuskan untuk menjadi anggota DPR RI (dari mencalonkan hingga terpilih ketika Pemilu 2024) sebagai alat bantu untuk menyampaikan aspirasi rakyat dan usahanya yang sudah terbangun saat masih menjadi bupati menjadi bahan evaluasi yang perlu dijalani hasil evaluasi nya. Di sisi lain, beliau yang berasal dari Ciparay ini juga merupakan DKM dari masjid Al-Karomah di Ciparay.

Nah, terus bagaimana dengan Kang DS? Beliau menurut aku awalnya seperti kurang serius, tetapi setelah 2 tahun menjabat akhirnya beneran serius dalam menjalankan program yang beliau rencanakan waktu Pilbup lalu, salah satunya fokus ke infrastruktur dan program BEDAS lainnya yang beliau rencanakan. Beberapa rumah sakit dengan nama BEDAS beneran dibangun dan beberapa jalanan kampung beneran di cor. Insentif ke guru pengajian juga salah satu program beliau yang membuat warga di Kabupaten Bandung pada tertarik. Namun ya, di sisi lain masih ada ketimpangan dan pelaksanaan yang kurang matang.

Di era Kang DS, beliau juga membangun program “Bewara DS” yang sebenarnya menyediakan layanan Internet gratis di wilayah kerja dan wilayah tertentu yang ditujuk, tetapi pada nyatanya mereka hanya diletakkan di balai desa yang jarang menyediakan lounge untuk warganya menggunakan internet publik tersebut, dan juga tidak semua fasilitas milik penerintah kabupaten tercover dalam program tersebut

Jadi, evaluasi nya bagaimana buat bupati sekarang?

Kang DS yang saat ini menjabat di masa kedua, tolonglah revisi lagi apa yang sudah pernah dijalankan di masa pertama dan matangkan kembali goal dan plan yang sudah dibangun selama ini dan usahakan untuk mendengarkan aspirasi rakyat

Disclaimer kecil

Tulisan ini hanya mencatat soal pengalaman kedua Dadang ini saat menjadi bupati Bandung, tidak bermaksud untuk merendahkan mereka berdua atau berniat buruk lainnya. AKu hanya menilai dari sisi perspektif aku saja. Jika ada yang salah, mohon maaf dan hubungi aku untuk koreksi artikel ini.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

Sometimes I am looking stupid, sometime I am looking insightful, yeah that's part of Autism which I am facing until now. And the thing I need to control is:

• controllable behavior
• languages
• lust of something
• circle of emotion

Also, as of the time I am writing this, I have new allergen of some seafood that makes me heavy influenza and has impact to body immune. Also, my dead teeth which has been patched is sick again. I am feeling like I am in the hell of the world.

For now, that's it from me. This post is just update of my condition right now, which soon would be outdated.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

After I am shocked and asking help to my close friend, I decided to detox myself from using any social media, both centralised and decentralised. With exception, I keep my accounts on Peertube under MakerTube, Funkwhale under Funkwhale Italia, YouTube (with new account), and some podcast platform both for consuming good content and content creation.

I was already told people on Facebook that I am stopping to use fediverse due to the unstable behaviour behalf on myself. Until then, I just make them as “newspaper” rather than communicating with them. Sometimes, I have too much consuming the inappropiate content like what my friend Yonle told me. History stuff, geopolitics, government stuff, hot news, and more. Those have effect to my brain and affects how I am communicating with people.

Also, my friend Runa told me to do what she was doing to make detox effective. She told me to getting back to old style communication modes such as emails and IRCs (I was there, and still registered at Libera Chat), and also reducing to follow the trends. Well, it seems not complicated at theories, but for practices, I am trying hard. Well, since I have joined bunch of communities that suits with my job both as Software Developer and SysAdmin, I am getting new insight and I decide to put my times into more reasonable hobbies such as making programs and learn about developer experiences (DX).

The thing is, detoxing is quite hard at first, but this is the requirments that I should face to prevent more damages on my mental health. Also, as people with bipolar, I am really need to control my neuronic environment and manage the stress to prevent unstable behaviour breaks out. That's why I choose to detox both on centralised and decentralised, except for content distribution. I am nearly compared to Lain Iwakura from SE Lain, but worse.

During my detox time, I am just communicating with close relative and few communities that I trusted. Also, I am keep writing the post when I needed to on this instances and start over from zero for content comsumption by making new Google account and subscribe some insightful channels about vintage computers, tech stuff, and more on YouTube in new accounts. For my presence on Facebook and Instagram, I want to abandon again in my detox time.

How's my future as VTuber? Since I cannot follow their culture, I decided to be hybrid content creator and start over from zero. I want take the inspiration from my friend Faiz Intifada and do my own. Not because VTuber culture is niche, but because it won't fit in my behave.

So, I'll start over my life from zero again and if you want to communicate with me, just email me or find me in communities such as IMPHNEN, The openSUSE Project, Cursor Bandung Community, and GNU/Weeb. I am there and open for you to communicate.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

As a person with sysadmin skills, sometimes I need to test the program that I made without thinking about looking for another computer hardware (unless for ARM, that I need hardware for testing), and I have been familiar with VMware for nearly 2 years, and somehow VMware isn't fit for me because it's really obese, and sometimes it cannot interoperate like what VirtIOFS does. I don't want to run a Docker-based container because it wastes my storage, and I don't necessarily need it for now. After a few months trying QEMU/KVM, I guess we finally have a virtualised environment that we can tweak whatever we want without the limitations that VMware and VirtualBox didn't offer.

Basically, when I want to run the subsystem that could integrate like what WSL2 did, I am trying to learn how to utilise the KVM by reading some docs that exist so much on the Internet, even on openSUSE Docs regarding KVM, I would give an try for this one, since I want to be less dependent on VMware, and it's amazing. They did have running under libvirtd with some other components that were required for running the VMs. The performance I faced when running is really great since the module is built into the Linux kernel.

For management, I am using virt-manager, which is a program made by Red Hat for managing virtual machines. Since QEMU is a free and open source emulation program, and they require you to understand the commands and have comfort using the terminal, I guess these management tools like virt-manager really help. KVM only accelerate the architecture that you're using on your computer. If you have x86_64, then it only accelerates on Intel/AMD's 64-bit architecture. But if you're on ARM64 or aarch64, it could be the same as what Intel/AMD's 64-bit does. I even think of running the first Intel-based Mac OS X using QEMU/KVM if I could.

Well, I guess this is just the beginning of using QEMU/KVM in my daily computing. Should you use QEMU/KVM? If you want to learn and use it on your Linux computer for your daily work, then you should try it. For beginners? If you want, take it.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

Itulah psikosomatik. Aku bukan dokter, tetapi aku penyintas. Dengan kondisi disabilitas yang aku miliki, psikosomatik dari efek samping jaringan sosial memang membuat aku menjadi mudah sakit-sakit dan sering ke Puskesmas. Di sisi lain, aku memang memiliki ADHD dan impulsif, yang dimana itu penyakit lama sejak lahir. Dari sejak kecil, psikosomatik ini sudah lama ada sejak mulai berkembang dan sering menerima trauma dari orang tua karena kinerja otak aku yang lamban dan terkadang liar.

Berbeda dengan anak lain yang menikmati masa kecil dengan bermain di luar, aku lebih sering berada di rumah dan diberikan handphone untuk bermain, Disaat itu aku mulai mengenal benda elektronik. Rasa ingin tahu aku terhadap benda elektronik masih muncul hingga sekarang, bahkan pernah sampai merusak karena rasa ingin tahu yang ada di pribadi aku waktu masih balita.

Masa balita aku yakni masa emas karena pertama kali mengakses dunia internet yang belum banyak dikunjungi orang-orang saat itu, dan aku juga memiliki minat untuk bermain dengan komputer saat itu. Ini masa yang masih jauh dari jaringan sosial seperti Facebook atau Kaskus yang populer saat itu. Masa awal memiliki psikosomatik dimulai ketika aku dididik orang tua secara kasar, bahkan hingga melarang untuk mendekati minat yang justru merusak tujuan mereka mendidik aku, tetapi sejak mereka sudah tau jika aku bukan anak biasa, orang tua aku terkadang mengizinkan untuk bermain dengan hal tersebut.

Masa aku mengenal sosial media atau jaringan sosial ini yakni 2013, ketika semua masih baru masuk, aku saat itu baru mengenal dan belum bermain banyak. 2015 merupakan tahun pertama aku bermain jaringan sosial, dan saat itu masa awal aku mempelajari dunia luar. Waktu itulah yang berawal aku memulai halusinasi yang terkadang membuat misinformasi atau hal aneh lain. Internet saat itu sudah mulai ramai dan aku pun tersesat saat itu.

Halusinasi ini masih ada dan menghantui hingga sekarang, ketika aku membuat asumsi liar atau misinformasi, itu di trigger dari halusinasi yang sudah ada sejak masa lalu. Kurang lebih sudah 11 tahun memiliki hal ini. Aku jadi ingat ketika 4 tahun lalu ketika mengalami psikosomatik hebat dari terkena drama yang menyakitkan bagi aku dan aku saat itu memutuskan menjadi anonim. Saat aku mengenali fediverse, aku rasa aku menemukan dunia yang asing dan terasa sepi saat awal, tetapi sejak mendalaminya, masalah halusinasi tersebut masih ada. Banyak yang bilang jika itu merupakan perilaku yang disadarkan, padahal bagi aku yang lumpuh secara sosial bukan seperti itu, melainkan dari halusinasi yang tidak terkontrol.

Disana pun aku mengalami sakit kepala hebat dan sempai diperiksa di RSUD Welas Asih, tetapi hasil MRI dari otak aku tidak menampilkan kecacatan yang aneh di otak. Berarti aku mengalami disabilitas mental, bukan fisik. Disanalah aku merasa aku harus mengurangi frekuensi. Aku sempat berkutik mengenai kehadiran seseorang dan selalu memaksa, itu berasal dari halusinasi aku yang tidak terkontrol dan aku pun meminta maaf dan ia ingin aku menjadi orang yang lebih baik. Aku tidak bilang kalau aku disabilitas, demi menghindari drama.

Apa ada solusi untuk hal ini? Aku tidak tahu.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

I was thinking that I am in wrong community, and it's true. I was on wrong community at the time. As people who cannot made people entertain and I am always take anything seriously, I think I need to reshape anything and start again from zero. Also as disabled person, I need to stay away from society that harms me in any way that occurs. Also, using terms like “VTuber” or “VCaster”, it made me being minorities who have different vision. In global terms, “VTuber” are mostly entertain people by their live stream or any on-demand content that they made for entertainment purposes. Meanwhile, since I can't entertain people, I choose different path. Some few virtual content creator has taken different path and their goal seems running perfectly.

The challenge in Social way

Some of them could engage people to follow them are utilizing algorithm by active on centralized social network like Meta's Empire (Facebook, Instagram, etc.), Elon's Kingdom (X/Twitter), Bytedance's Garbage (TikTok), and more. Well, some how I couldn't survive there due to limitation that I am facing it. Also, when I realized that I have ADHD and since in real life also disconnected with current society, I don't know how to grow there and I have no idea.

Since then, I am trying to adapt with fediverse, which is combination of federated social network due to decentralization and another universe, finally I found the right place for myself to grow. Since they don't have an algorithm and any posts could be seen by everyone on fediverse, I am feel lucky that I found the right place. To understand the place that I feel like home, I learn about how ActivityPub protocol works and how difference between centralized and decentralized social network works, both from their infrastructure, ownership of the server, and social side that much different on biggest centralized social network.

I know fediverse currently have a few million active users and nearly 12 to 14 million people registered and a thousand of servers active on the network that no one owned it, but as minorities I feel safe and I could adapt there rather than on centralized social network where their black algorithm made me sick and insane. Got more following rather than followers? Not a problem. I want to build the relationship with people to people, not with masked bot.

How's my rebrand plan going on?

Yeah the older name “Everything with Jim” I decide to be an legal business name and I changed it as “Learn with Jim” where it have same goal as previous, but I decide to serve the content in English and publishing first on fediverse, before I share on YouTube for video content, Spotify and YT Music for Audiocast. I made the priorities where it called “fedi-first” where I publish the content on fediverse via Peertube under MakerTube instances for video and Funkwhale under Funkwhale Italia for audiocast (another name of podcast in audio format). Also, I want to share to anyone about FOSS, GNU/Linux, SysAdmin stuff, and anything that related to my hobbies.

That's it from me for now.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.

Para VTuber yang populer

Pembukaan

Sebelum aku menceritakan bagaimana aku tertarik pada dunia tersebut dan aku mendalaminya sebagai tersier, berikut ini penjelasan pendek dari Wikipedia.

A VTuber (Japanese: ブイチューバー, Hepburn: BuiChūbā) or virtual YouTuber (バーチャルユーチューバー, bācharu YūChūbā) is an online entertainer who uses a virtual avatar generated using computer graphics. Real-time motion capture software or technology are often—but not always—used to capture movement. The digital trend originated in Japan in the mid-2010s, and has become an international online phenomenon in the 2020s. A majority of VTubers are English- and Japanese-speaking YouTubers or live streamers who use avatar designs. By 2020, there were more than 10,000 active VTubers. Although the term is an allusion to the video platform YouTube, they also use websites such as Niconico, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, and Bilibili.

Berdasarkan penjelasan diatas yang diambil dari Wikipedia English tentang VTuber, secara singkatnya itu merupakan seorang creator yang menggunakan avatar baik L2D (Live2D) atau 3D (dari yang murah seperti VRoid hingga dibuat sendiri di Blender/Unity). Sebenarnya ini tidak terbatas dari sebatas creator saja, siapapun yang ingin tampil di publik dapat menggunakan figur avatar baik bergaya VTuber maupun bergaya sesuai preferensi yang kalian mau. Trend ini berawal dari eksperimen yang dilakukan di 2011 lalu ketika Nitroplus selaku perusahan yang berfokus di pengembangan novel visual yang mengunggah konten di YouTube dengan figur yang dibuat dengan 3D yang menampilkan maskot mereka saat itu yakni Super Sonico.

Tren ini mulai populer ketika figur publik bernama Kizuna AI mulai naik daun di Jepang, yang membuat perusahaan agensi bernama Cover Corporation melalui anak perusahaan Hololive dan perusahaan agensi lain bernama Anycolor inc melalui NIJISANJI mereka. Saking populernya, ini pun membuat banyak yang berdiri sebagai independen hingga sekarang.

Bagaimana aku bisa tertarik?

Awalnya aku tertarik mengenai ini karena aku ingin mengetahui tentang tren ini yang memang menarik di sisi popularitas nya, tapi aku juga mau tau dari sisi lain yang jarang orang lihat. Dimulai dari sisi sosial hingga sisi pengembangan baik karakter maupun software yang mereka pakai, aku ada ketertarikan untuk mencari tahu soal itu. Bersama dengan temanku @runachin, aku mencari tahu tentang itu dan menelitinya, dan aku pelan-pelan bergabung ke dalamnya sebagai independen.

Di lihat dari latar belakang aku sebagai software developer, aku melihat belum ada VTuber di Indonesia yang punya latar belakang seperti @HoshinoLina yang punya latar belakang yang sama seperti aku, dan ketika aku debut secara sederhana di tanggal 20 Feb tahun lalu, aku mulai masuk ke universe yang tergolong niche ini, dan aku yang pertama dari Indonesia yang berlatar belakang software developer menjadi VTuber.

Tantangan yang di hadapi

Setelah beberapa hari aku masuk universe tersebut, aku mengamati banyak VTuber di sekitar aku yang aku lihat dari tujuan mereka hingga engagement mereka di social media sentralis yang mungkin sudah aku coba tetapi gagal karena aku minim pengalaman soal ini, tapi ketika aku masuk komunitas yang tepat, akhirnya aku dapat bergaul. Kebanyakan dari VTuber yang aku lihat itu ada tujuan yang mungkin melenceng dari tujuan awal aku masuk kesana, salah satunya yakni menghibur pemirsa. Tujuan aku masuk kesana selain mau meneliti, aku juga mau mengedukasi pemirsa dan berbagi ilmu pengetahuan, yang dimana pada nyatanya SULIT untuk dilaksanakan. Ada beberapa VTuber yang punya lore yang menarik dan terdengar mau mengedukasi, tapi nyatanya mereka tidak menjalankan apa yang mereka rencanakan dan berfokus menghibur pemirsa daripada menjalankan rencana mereka sebelumnya.

Tantangan lain yakni mencari audiens dan mencari VTuber yang punya tujuan yang serupa. Kalau soal audiens, aku hanya menargetkan kepada mereka yang mau mencari ilmu pengetahuan dan mau mencari teman untuk diskusi bersama mengenai bidang yang menarik untuk dibahas. Aku tidak punya tujuan untuk menghibur, karena aku tidak bisa menghibur orang lain.

Masalah lain yang dihadapi

Aku sendiri setelah berbulan-bulan disana dan mencoba melakukan apa yang biasa mereka lakukan (seperti live streaming), aku sebagai individu berkebutuhan khusus merasa sangat sakit ketika aku seperti berusaha untuk melakukan engagement ketika live, ya karena yang menonton kebanyakan yang aku kenal dan sebagian orang yang tertarik saja. Di sisi lain, membuat video rasanya sulit karena keterbatasan pada skill editing video yang aku miliki.

Setelah beberapa bulan aku berjalan, aku memutuskan untuk menjeda (pausing) dan menjadi dormant dahulu dikarenakan kondisi fisik dan mental yang tidak memungkin aku untuk tetap untuk seperti itu. Pada akhirnya, aku kembali mengambil fokus sebagai virtual figure untuk sementara waktu dan mulai aktif di komunitas FOSS (Free and open-source software) yang justru lebih mendukung dan aku jaga jarak pada saat itu.

Sisi baiknya yang di dapat

Dari sisi baik yang aku dapat, aku mendapatkan relasi yang punya tujuan serupa dan juga yang sama-sama paham tentang komputer. VTuber yang aku kenal seperti @Cleonium sangat menarik dan punya tujuan yang serupa, meski aku lihat pemirsa yang tertarik pada kontennya sedikit tapi itu bukan halangan baginya dan berbeda dengan aku yang halangannya dikarenakan sulitnya bergaul dengan yang lain dan sulit menarik perhatian. Aku anggap dia sebagai teman dan aku belajar dari pengalamannya.

Di sisi lain, ada orang yang udah punya pengalaman menjadi VTuber dan berniat untuk kembali jika dia mumpuni, dan dia punya hobi yang sama dengan aku terhadap komputer, aku kenalkan @y2karyl. Dia punya ketertarikan terhadap komputasi dan pemograman, dan juga terhadap perfilman. Aku belajar lebih dari pengalamannya berdasarkan apa yang aku dengar dari percakapannya dan sebagai orang yang punya hobi yang sama, aku tidak merasa sendiri saat aku kenal dia.

Strategi yang perlu penyesuaian

Dari tantangan yang aku hadapi, jika dilihat lagi ya strategi aku yang memang tidak cocok dengan audiens dari Indonesia yang memang jarang sekali yang mau cari ilmu (lebih banyak cari hiburan daripada ilmu untuk membuang penat). Dari sanalah aku berpikir untuk coba menyesuaikan dengan keaktifan aku di komunitas FOSS dengan hal niche ini, yang sebenarnya lebih populer di barat.

Dari sana aku belajar, yakni jangan berkecil hati. Aku lihat VTuber lain seperti Kylo Neko yang punya pendekatan seperti aku tapi diterima oleh netizen disana. Aku lihat lagi, memang hampir nihil jika aku lihat fandom di Indonesia yang punya ketertarikan terhadap itu.

Apakah aku akan berlanjut disana?

Aku menghadapi banyak tantangan dan ujian dari memdalami itu semua, dan aku memutuskan untuk melanjutkan begitu aku sudah kembali sehat baik otak maupun jiwa. Setelah diagnosis di psikolog, aku disarankan untuk membuat konten dengan target pemirsa yang cocok. Aku menargetkan kembali di 2026 dan mungkin aku mau berfokus membuat konten dalam English agar dapat diterima siapa saja baik dalam format podcast (audio) maupun visual (video). Darisana pun aku berencana untuk tetap mempertahan profesi aku yang lain. Mungkin sedikit rebranding bisa membantu.

Bagaimana dengan relasi di komunitas VTuber Indonesia?

Aku memilih untuk jaga jarak dan membuat relasi dengan yang aku kenal dan dapat dipercaya saja disana, dikarenakan aku seperti tidak diterima berada disana. Tapi bukan berarti aku akan bermusuhan, siapapun dapat reach aku dari sana, tapi aku tidak akan berfokus mencari audiens dari orang di Indonesia.

Bagi kalian para VTuber atau fans VTuber yang mau reach aku, boleh periksa biography aku di openSUSE Wiki dan hubungi aku melalui alamat email yang ada disana, reach aku di fediverse (mengingat waktu aku lebih sering disana), atau hubungi aku dari kontak yang aku sediakan disana.

Penutup

Mungkin itu saja yang dapat aku sampaikan di artikel ini. Artikel ini merupakan informasi berisi pengalaman dan opini aku didalamnya, jadi mohon untuk dibaca dahulu dan jika ada yang tidak dimengerti, boleh hubungi aku. Dan mohon untuk tidak membuat artikel ini viral hanya karena pendapat aku yang mungkin bersebelahan, lebih baik hubungi aku dan minta klarifikasi langsung!

Sumber

• Wikipedia English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VTuber)
• Sumber gambar (https://vchavcha.com/en/vtuber-info/2024-vtuber-recap/)
• Sebagian yang aku tulis murni dari aku pribadi sebagai penulis artikel.

All content authored by James “Jim” Ed Randson on this blog is published under the GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL). You are free to copy, distribute, and modify any content found here, provided that you comply with the terms and conditions of the GFDL, including proper attribution and the preservation of this license notice in any derivative works. For the full license text, refer to the GNU Free Documentation License.