Acer Aspire 4736G, Nice Laptop for Everyone

Acer Aspire 4736G is a very nice laptop for everyone. Though the specification vary in several countries, but the main feature is the same which is the best in it's class (at same price)

The Acer Aspire 4736G specification in my country is as follow :

Intel Core2Duo Processor T6600 (2.3 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Nvidia Geforce G105M (512MB video memory, up to 1791MB of share system memory)
14.1" high-brightness (200-nit) Acer CineCrystal LCD, supporting HD 1366 x 768 pixel resolution
4GB DDR3 Memory
500 GB SATA HDD
Integrated Acer Crystal Eye 1.3MP Webcam
Integrated 56Kbps modem, 10/100/1000 mbps LAN, WiFi, Bluetooth
Integrated 8X DVD-Super Multi double-layer drive
OS Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
Audio Two built-in Dolby-certified sound system speakers, Headphone/speaker/line-out port
Power 6-cell Li-Ion Battery Pack (about 2,5 hours battery life)
Dimension 339 (W) x 243 (D) x 29/39 (H) mm, Weight 2.48kg

With the price around US$750 in my country, definitely is an all around notebook. With this specification you can edit photo nicely, use it for video editing, and also 3D editing. The performance for playing games is quite good too. Although the graphic card is near the entry level, but the 512 MB dedicated memory is a plus so that you can almost play all moderate game nicely. This laptop can play some high resources game too but will need a little tweaking.

The most interesting thing in the notebook is that it use DDR3 to replace the 5 year old DDR2. With 4GB DDR3 and Windows 7, your job will be much more light. The hard disk capacity is HUGE that can store almost everything.

I recommend this laptop for those who want to buy a new notebook for personal use. This is the best in it's class.

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Google Challenge Bing with "Caffeine"

Facing the though competition in the Internet market, Google developed a faster search engine. Therefore, Google invites developers to test the new web search engine and provide feedback to them.

Matt Cutts, Google's chief developer, and Sitram Iyer, Google's software developer staff post a message on Google Blog. They invite the developers to try out their new innovations. In these blogs, they also wrote, "For several months, teams of Googlers have been working on a secret project: A new generation architecture for the Google search engine. The new project is called Caffeine.

A Google spokesman added that Google is always try to create new technologies to improve the quality of its search engine. We hope this system will improve the quality of search in terms of size, speed, accuracy, and completeness.

Google also acknowledged that the project Caffeine is to challenge their rival Microsoft with Bing.

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Chrome OS and The End of Virus

Google promised "The End of Virus" with the presence of cloud-based operating system, Chrome OS. Google has promised to Internet users that Chrome OS will make the era of malware, viruses, and trojans are over. Google promises the so-called paradise for anti virus in Chrome OS. Google also promises high security architecture in Chrome OS that users will not be bothered with viruses, malware, and security updates.

But ironically, Google also bothered with the security hole in Chrome browser. Two of the security hole present in the Chrome browser, the malicious code in Chrome tab and processes tab sandbox with corrupt memory, which has been improved.

So whether the future of cloud computing will be more secure than the system we use today? Now we still have to download the security patches to fix software that we use. As we know, Google has a high reputation in security issues. Spam filter in Gmail, and phishing detection in the Google search engine is a good security system. We can expect Chrome OS can actually make the end for the virus.

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Facebook Lite, a New Challenger for Twitter

Facebook seems to plans to challenge twitter. This biggest social networking service will launch Facebook Lite, a version of facebook which is more simple and "lighter". The Facebook Lite website looks similar to a Microblogging services.

Facebook has invited several groups of users to try out the beta version of Facebook Lite. The decision to develop Facebook Lite was seen differently by others. Industrial sector sees this as Facebook wants to compete with twitter. But others argue that the lesser service was developed to be used in countries with limited bandwidth. This version also makes users to access facebook via mobile phone easier.

In order to boost download speed on their pages, Facebook Lite make the display the images smaller, Facebook lite will also feature a video with lower resolution. This service is being tested in India and planned to be released first in Russia and China.
The sample of Facebook Lite used to be able to be seen, but now the service has been terminated. So let's wait the official announcement of this Facebook Lite

Read also :

Twitter Spreading Koobface Worm
Paid Access to Youtube and Facebook ?

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Romance of The Three Kingdom XI PC English Version

After the successful of PC based Warriors Orochi, Koei seems to think that this is a good time to enter into the world of RTK XI (Romance of Three Kingdom) on PC. This is certainly good news for the fans in the PC RTK series. As you might know, the chinese and japanese version of this RTK XI PC is already released about two or three years ago. But last year Koei released the English version of RTK XI PC. For me, this was like a dream come true.

Just like the previous series, RTK XI PC version is a turn-based strategy game. In this RTK XI PC English version you can choose to play different warlord from different era. There's some improvement in the battle system especially in one on one combat between the generals. The AI seems to have become smarter a little bit, although if you know how to play they still seems dumb enough. I guarantee you'll be addicted once you have played this game.



Here is the download link for the game (thanks to irfree.com who have uploaded it)

password : http://irfree.com

http://rapidshare.com/files/142357632/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part14.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142358063/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part13.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357919/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part12.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357912/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part11.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357913/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part10.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357903/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part01.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357891/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part02.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142358038/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part03.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357905/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part04.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142358022/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part05.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357917/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part06.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357920/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part07.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357910/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part08.rar
http://rapidshare.com/files/142357904/ROTTK.XI-RELOADED.part09.rar

Hope you enjoy the game.

Read also :

The Sims 3 - Better and More Interesting
BattleStation Pacific

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Google's new Operating System : Chrome, Challenge Microsoft

Google Inc. intentions to rule world of computer cannot be taken lightly. After introducing a mobile operating system named Android, the giant search engine company based in Mountain View, California is challenging Microsoft Corps.

Beginning last July, Google announced plans to develop a free operating system for computer users. The operating system will be developed with a base of Chrome, Google's web browser which is 9 months old, and will be released in mid-2010.
In order to develop Chrome, Google hold a community of open source programmers. An early version of Chrome will be embedded OS plan at first netbook product.

Chrome OS would presumably be a challenge for Microsoft, who also plans to release a new operating system, Windows 7. This two large companies are in more intense duel in recent years, after Google successfully dominated the Internet business.

Google's plan was greeted warmly by many hardware developer companies, including Acer, Asus, HP, Lenovo, and Toshiba. This Chrome OS is designed to work with Intel chip which is widely adopted in most desktop computers, laptops and netbooks. Chrome OS will also be developed to be compatible with Arm chips which are widely used in handheld devices.

Texas Instruments and Qualcomm, which developed a chip-based mobile devices Arm, will also be a partner in the Google Chrome OS project.

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Twitter Spreading Koobface Worm

Koobface worm, which had been linked to infect user accounts at popular social networking service, Facebook and Myspace, now extended into various accounts of Microblogging users, Twitter. This worm attacks scale is serious enough to make twitter managers issued a warning on its service status page.

Actually Koobface activities on Twitter have been detected before, but only recently responded by temporary closing infected account. Email notification, which also contains tips to remove Koobface from the PC, will be sent to the infected user accounts.

This Koobface worm malware sends bogus messages while a user access his Twitter account. The message contains a link to a video with interesting topics.
If the link is clicked, the link will lead users to a website containing malware disguised as video codecs. Windows users who install the codec would automatically become infected by Koobface.

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Convert Music and Movie

Not only DVD player that can play movies and music. Apple iPhone can play them too, if provided with right multimedia file formats. In order to have an appropriate format, there are convertion software available. Which one is the best, read through this article to know the difference.

Formerly, AV player in the family room is usually dominated by a DVD player with a single output MPEG formats. Now, DVD player is also equipped with the ability to play AVI movies and MP3 songs. Later, consumers who do not have a Blu-ray, but want to enjoy High Definition quality impressions, also begin to look for player that supports Matroska (MKV).

In addition there are mobile devices that can play video, like iPhone, PSP (PlayStation Portable), and the latest game console PlayStation 3. Players like this only supports MP4 files with a specific profile with predefined resolution, framerate, and birthrate.

Perhaps, only experts who won't be confused with a variety of multimedia formats. Consumers or users who want to convert a movie or song to be played on the player usually depend on special software to convert to the standard format and profile.

Demands on a complete or all-in-one multimedia converter program is very high. They (converter) must support four standard containers commonly used : MPEG, AVI, MP3, and Matroska. Each multimedia files stored in a container that manages video and audio tracks in it. The format of these tracks may vary. To know the detail of the format, use program analyzer and special identifiers.

Container MPEG for DVD has a relatively simple structure, ie for MPEG2 video and Dolby Audio (AC3) for audio. As for AVI as a classic container for movie on the PC is more flexible. But for the DVD player that supports DivX, AVI file that is compatible with the player, the parameters must follow the rules which tracks the video-oriented Advanced MPEG4 Simple Profile standard (MPEG4-ASP) and has a maximum resolution of DVD (DivX Home Theater).

Popular Encoder, such as DivX and XviD support these formats although they have more XviD settings option. Simply by selecting the appropriate profile in the encoder and disabled Global Motion Compensation, then you have to create a compatible video tracks. As for audio tracks, AVI container provides MP3 and AC3 formats.

MP4: standard mobile devices

Diversity began to emerge in the MP4 container. A popular container for mobile devices allows a series of audio and video formats which also part of MPEG4 standard. A video track must be in a regular MPEG4 or MPEG4 Part 10 (H.264). Devices such as iPod or PSP can play both, but because H.264 offers better picture quality, this is a prioritized format. Parameters for the mobile player encoder is strict. For MPEG4, encoder must use the Simple Profile, whereas for the H.264, Baseline Profile selected. Both profiles have been revoked several amenities (such as B-frames) in order not to burden the resource.

Original audio tracks only support MP4 AAC or MP3 only. It was only since August 2008, MP4 finally started to support AC3 (Dolby Digital). However, these options only found in PCs. Faced with constraints on the MP4, several communities on the Internet develop other container that is Matroska (MKV). This container has no limits. MKV can handle any combination of audio and video, and subtitles that can be considered an ideal container. However, because no official standard, many hardware manufacturers are still delay integrating MKV into the player. Some player that supports MKV HD playback can be seen in www.mkvplayers.com. H.264 and RC3 combination in MKV is not a problem. DivX sees that and includes an H.264 encoder to version 7 of their new DivX. In addition, the DivX plus is a new certification program for DVD players. DivX plus that will be published this year consists of a MKV file with H.264 video tracks

MP3 and the like: the next audio format
If the format of the movie (video) increases, the audio just so simple. In addition to audio CDs which is somewhat old-fashioned enough, MP3 format still dominates. Recent replacement of MP3 format maybe only AAC. Popular iPod player even restrict ourselves to these two formats. This makes all the other formats "neglected". MP3 songs are in the same container is called MPEG AAC in a MP4, M4A usually have the suffix. Today there is HE (High Efficiency) AAC format. This format uses AAC to a more compression technology that is Spectral Brain Replication. In this technology, high frequency don't need to be saved because it would be put together by the decoder during playback. In HE-AAC, 64 kbbps is the normal bitrate, equivalent to 128 kbbps in MP3 and 96 kbbps on AAC. HE-AAC is commonly used on the internet as audio tracks in video flash-efficient place.

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Google Wave : New E-Mail Concept

It only takes a program for chatting, e-mail, and writing documents. This was introduced by Google with their new service, Wave. Initiators of this new service is the inventor of Google Maps, Jens and Lars Rasmussen. Google Wave will be offered this year.

In this initial phase, the two brothers are still expecting the inputs from other developers, given the Wave would later become an open source project. With an open platform, developers are expected to integrate Wave website into their website or program.

Wave can bundle the discussions that have been made into a single topic and displays them in the form of dialogue in a mailing list / forum. Later the user can communicate with each other, work with each other, and share, not only text but also photos, videos or games. For digital photos, Wave can automatically create thumbnails and prepared a small slide show. Documents and tables can be processed instantly. Changes immediately visible to all members, and can directly be commented on in the fields. Thus, this feature is a mixture and further development of e-mail, instant messaging, and social networking. With a playback function, Wave can search and retrace all messages that have been sent / received and immediately display it. This is a practical way for new members who do not want to struggle in tracing the e-mails one by one. According to the developer, Wave may be use as Content Management System, for example for mini blog. They even believe that Wave could replace e-mail service as a whole.

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The Sims 3 Better and More Interesting

The Sims, the Most popular game series in the world who loved by gamers of various ages come again in a new series..

The Sims series is the most popular game in the world today. Games that simulate life always appears in the list of world's 10 best games and so many Add-on and the release of the Expansion Set always sold out and go into the list of 10 best games! Therefore, the release of The Sims 3 is something that worth waiting for.

The secret behind the success of The Sims is a form of game that makes all the players are addicted. Basically, you will manage the life of a character called the Sims. Sims that you control will be able to have basic needs that you fulfill, such as hygiene and the need to eat and communicate with other Sims.

In addition to basic needs, you are also required to fulfill the desire Sims life, such as jobs, hobbies, and have a family. To further complement Sims life, you can have a house and filled it with furniture which are so various.

Although the The Sims 3 has many similarities with The Sims before, this game is also interesting. New feature that you can find is more complete character building facility. You can be more free to create your Sims appearance and create their own style of clothing used. Thus you will find greater freedom in creating characters.

New feature which is still closely connected with the character building is Traits system. There Are five basic traits that make up the personality of your Sims. You can choose freely the properties when creating new Sims or the random button to add the game difficulty level. All the qualities you choose will be closely related to the activities undertaken by your Sims. For example, you can choose the Traits that help Athtletic Sims in developing sports career and loner who makes your Sims uncomfortable among strangers.

Not all Traits benefit your Sims. You can choose properties that make Sims Kleptomaniac so your Sims will like to take the property of others. Or making it Clumsy. However, all these properties will provide a new nuance of every game session you start.

In addition, the combination will open Traits Wish Lifetime option to choose from such as achieving the highest career in the military and became a famous writer. Every wish and desire achieved will provide a point that can be exchanged a few bonuses that help the game. For Example, Fast Learner will accelerates the process of learning all the skills (eg cooking skills, sports, and music).

Every needs and wants you fulfill (for example, getting enough sleep and brushing teeth) will give a bonus Mood for Sims and affect all activities. Sims who are in high mood levels will achieve a higher success when doing work and socialize.

Another feature that distinguishes this game with previous Sims game is that the city can be visited in real time. Previously, you had to go through the loading process to move to the outside of your home. Now, all regions can be directly visited without loading. In fact, you can do jogging and cycling to the destination. This gives a new feel for the fans of previous Sims game. Unfortunately, this feature consume high PC memory and significant frame rate reduction will appear every time you're on way to the city.

Over all I think The Sims 3 will be a game worth waiting for and will make you addicted just like the previous series. I'll give you more detailed review after I played the game.. Hope this review could be helfull.

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Microsoft is Ready to Take On Google

In search engines, Google's competitors have no chance at all. Microsoft wants to change it with Bing. Will these efforts ended in vain?

With the MSN search engine and their live search, Microsoft never came close to Google. Until June 2009, Microsoft is still in third place after Google (80%) and its competitor Yahoo (10%). Being in the third position, Microsoft promised to do better. Thus explained by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the conference "All Things Digital" in California when he introduced a new search engine named Bing.

Bing is not the successor of Live, but a new development of the concept of search. Bing is not a search engine but a decision engine. Currently about 30% of search queries fail because unsatisfactory result. Two third of queries have yet to be specified once again before the user find the desired results. So, there's a lot of potential to be developed for a search engine. The breakthrough of this new engine is expected to help the socialization of this search engine.

Before Bing was launched, Microsoft conducted a series of acquisitions after the failed acquisition of Yahoo, last year it bought Power Set, a software company. This quite promising company is doing research in the field of semantic web search. Currently, Power Set team is creating some concept of semantic web search to be integrated into the Bing. While Google only provides a link from the searched word, Bing even understand the meaning of the word. The experts were impressed with Bing. Bing is a major update compared to Live.com in many aspects, Bing even more user friendly compared to Google. Semantic web search capabilities can be seen from the following example: if a user enters the word "Cancer", Bing will separate the link associated with disease and link associated with astrology. This machine also suggest similar terms, such as skin cancer or lung cancer, this suggestion is shown on the left window of the search results.

In addition, Microsoft also complement Bing with the practical functions, a preview window will provide initial information about the link offered.
Search images and video with Bing gives satisfactory results, more compact compared to Google. With the mouse over, the information will appear, such as image size or source tools, in a small window. If you search for videos, Bing provide a video preview, in addition, users can provide comments on the video and say in which part, the search machine really gives the best results. From these functions, search engine experts believe that other providers will follow Microsoft. Actually, semantic web search integrated into Bing, is already offered by Wolfram Alpha knowledge. This machine can provide answers to specific questions. With no links in search results. This knowledge services can provide a satisfactory answer, although there is also a less satisfying. Mathematical formula such as the sine curve not only processed, but also graphically depicted.

Will Bing beat Google or vice versa ? Unlike its predecessor, Bing is really a search engine that is very useful. Bing still needs a long step to catch Google. But in the United States Bing is slowly reaching the number two position. However, the imitators will not make it last long, they will confirm the name of Bing "But It's Not Google".

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Google Page Rank, Mysterious Algorithm

Looks like every blogger knows what is Google Page Rank. For who haven't know what is Google Page Rank, I will explained it here. Google Page Rank is a "rank" made by Google to determine the "popularity" of a site. The lowest rank is 0 and the highest rank is 10. Every new blog or website will have a page rank of 0. Usually every two or three months (sometimes one month) Google will make update on Page Rank. Although the exact algorithm is still mysterious, but simply said that you need a lot of backlink to get higher Page Rank.

Me myself don't quite understand how this Page Rank system works. From my experiences, there's several thing you must do to get higher rank. I have four blog including this blog with various page rank. There's a blog that used to have a page rank of 3 but suddenly dropped to 0. On the opposite, this blog suddenly get the page rank of 3 (although it's a pretty new blog). From the experiences I made some conclusion of things that influence the Page Rank.

First, You must do some link exchange to get higher page rank. The link you get must be from a higher ranked blog/site. It seems that there's some weight on the link determined by the opposite page rank. It is said that if you get a link from a blog that have a page rank of 4 is much much better than getting hundreds link from 0 page rank blogs.

Second, you must update your blog quite often. Usually about ten to fifteen post per month is enough. I don't really sure how this helps but from my experience I get that the blog I update much get the higher page rank.

Third, the article posted in your blog MUST BE ORIGINAL and not copied from other site. ( I think if you copy a little is okay, just don't copy all the article). I have a blog that all its article is copied from somewhere else and until now didn't get any page rank.

Fourth, I think Paid Review has something related to this. If your blog has too many paid review post, it will drop your page rank. It happens on one of my blog that has a page rank of 3. It suddenly dropped to 0. So if you want to post paid review articles, I think you better write some other article too, so after one paid review article put at least three non paid article.

That's all I know about Google Page Rank system. I'll update if I know something else that connects with Google Page Rank. If you guys knows something else about the Google Page Rank system, please let me know. I welcome any comment here. Thank you

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Make Readmore on Blogger Post

You make a blogger post, but this post is so long that you think it will be better if you can just put the first two paragraphs only, and whoever want to read it more can click through "Read More" link. The solution is to make what we call "Read More".

Actually there are lots of "Making Readmore Tutorial" on the web, but in case you guys don't find it, I'll post it here.

The process is quite simple. First login to blogger.com. Click "layout" and then "edit html". Mark the "expand widget templates" box. What you need to do here is put the code I give before the </head> tag or right after } ]]></b:skin> The code you have to put is :

<style>
<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType == "item"'>
span.fullpost {display:inline;}
<b:else/>
span.fullpost {display:none;}
</b:if>
</style>

After that you need to find <p><data:post.body/></p> and put this code right after it :

<b:if cond='data:blog.pageType != "item"'>
<a expr:href='data:post.url'> Read More..</a>
</b:if>

Don't forget to save the widget template after that.

To cut your post, you need to put :<span class="fullpost"> at the place you want to cut your post and </span&gt; at the end of the post. For example, if you write it like this :

This is just an example, the post will be cut after this<span class="fullpost"> and this part of the post will be replaced by a "Read More.."</span>

the result of that post will be like this :

This is just an example, the post will be cut after this Read More..

That's it, hope this tutorial can help you make over your blog. See you in the next tutorial

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BattleStations Pacific

Pacific war that involve the U.S army and Japanese Army is pictured amazingly in this action game. Pacific war is one of the history that will not be forgotten by U.S people. This beacuse of the sudden attack by Japanese Army to the U.S military base in Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Because of this attack, U.S.A lost a lot of its army and so many people dead. This drama is well represented by Battlestation Midway Game, BattleStation Pacific.

In this game, you can follow the story of both side in war. You will control several type of war machine. Beside piloting, you can choose to be a commander in chief that act behind the screen. The air unit is divided into 2 type, bomber and hunter. Surface unit, every type of war machine have it's own unique characteristic. Basically, a Destroyer have the biggest war power because have biggest cannon. And a surveyor have high maneuverability

Although this game is quite interesting, but it seems that the developer make it half hearted. The biggest problem that make PC gamers won't be too convinience is about the use of keyboard and mouse when piloting a plane. You can shoot using a mouse but it's veru uncomfortable. This game is very suitable to be played using a media controller. In addition, You can also play together with your friends through multiplayer mode. Every type of game in multiplayer mode have a high difficulty rating. So You will enjoy play it again and again

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Paid Access for Youtube and Facebook ?

Internet big players such as Youtube and facebook is rumored to have big financial problem. They need new sources of income to cover the lost. Will us as user have to pay for access ? Not many people think that a company that runs the biggest social network in the world can have financial problem. Several weeks ago, Facebook Financial Director, Gideon Yu, resigned. This website has over 200 million users and developing rapidly. But their income don't grow as much as it looks like. Their income from advertising can't cover the expenses, so Facebook will need new fresh income.

This financial problem is faced not only by Facebook, but also by almost every big company that offers web 2.0 technology. According to an estimation by Credit Suisse, Youtube this year will have a lost almost 471 million US dollar. The traffic cost is almost 1 million dollar a day. The same condition also happens at Twitter and Skype. To the investors, internet is not as interesting anymore as when web 2.0 era begins. Sequoia Capital, one of biggest financial company have requested directors to develop a new business model which is hoped to be more stable.

With this problem going through, the future we can expect is : Free for basic feature only. Slowly but sure, free services will disappear. Youtube will develop a new system that require payment for users. Facebook will also develop this method. There will be paid account. The basic feature will be free but if you want convinience, you will have to pay. Let's hope there will be another way out for this problem.

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F.E.A.R 2 : Project Origin - Alma Haunts Again

Gamers who like shooting game will definitely know FEAR, action game with horror inside through a little girl called Alma. In FEAR 2, the action is unmacthed and the horror will still frightens you. FEAR 2 can be told as FEAR 1 story explanation. In this game you will get more detailed explanation what has happened to this Alma girl, and why she become a ghost that haunts you. Luckily, the story is developed in a way so that if you don't play the first FEAR you can still understand and enjoy the whole story.

As a shooter game, FEAR 2 is full of explosion, action, and unique weapons. Enemy you face cannot be taken lightly too. The enemy can work together to attack you from all side. They can force you to come out with grenades and then the other enemy is ready to shoot you as you escape from the explosion. You can also find a very agile enemy so that you must ave a superb reflex to be able to shoot him. Luckily you can use an ability to slow down time. You can use this ability in a certain time (not too long after you use it, you will be able to use it again).

Another interesting feature is a robot war machine. This robot has an awesome attack power and protected by an invincible shield, but this robots have weakness against electricity, so you can use electromagnet grenade to defeat her. On the contrary, you can use this robots too to get through an enemy-populated area. The horror inside is nice too. Beside Alma, there's monsters which will shocks you from time to time. The environment is full of blood too and there's many violence in the game that make this game is rated Mature (for adult only).

There's multi player mode too with many features that make the game more interesting. This multi player thing made this game so enjoyable even if you play it over and over again. Overall, a nice shooting game with lots of features that can make you sit for hours playing this game.

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Cloud Computing - Internet Moves Like Cloud

There's a revolution happens in internet and computer world. The revolution is called Cloud Computing which holds the key to many future innovations and solutions. Through Cloud Computing technology, many activity can be done more light, fast, and secure. Many "heavy" activities can now be done without a superior hardware. To do it what you need is just a browser and a fast and reliable internet connection.

The basic of Cloud Computing is to perform all application in website. Start from a simple application through a complex operating system. The most important part is that users don't need to have a superior and luxurious hardwares, and don't need softwares too. Looks like this technology is for the future, but some implementation of this Cloud Computing technology is available now. For example Google. This search engine provide Office application, e-mail account, RSS Reader, Calendar, and other programs. All run in a browser so it doesn't depend on the operating system used. Every softwares and data is saved on Goolgle's server and loaded accordingly.

This Cloud Computing technology is not a new thing. It is a compilation af available technology. Inside, there is Computer cluster, Grid Computing, and Utility Computing. A Cluster consist of some computers connected one another to increase the available power and also minimize the lost of data. A broken server will put tasks to another server (High Availability Cluster). Grid's function is to perform high resource tasks. The difference with Cluster is that Grid is a sequence of servers around the world that connect several institution. The third component in Cloud Computing is Utility Computing. in Utility Computing, there's online storage, virtual servers, and integrated software service.

There's three application available from Cloud Computing. The first is "Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). Here the developer can control the whole infrastructure. For example is virtualized hardware. The second application is "Platform as a Service (PaaS). This application is made specially for developers. The most well known example is "Google App Engine" which based on Phyton language. The third aplication is Software as a Service (SaaS). In SaaS, users can "rent" software. This "rented" software run in a browser and doesn't need special platform.

From the above discussion, we can see that Cloud Computing offers advantages for all. Users can use softwares regardless what the operating system is. Software developer doesn't need expensive hardwares, and server provider have profit with renting its resources. So, lets wait this technology to develop further.

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Violence in game

Sadistic massacre in schools happens again and shock the world. The question is, why boys and teenagers often involved in it ? It's a difficult question to answer. But The trigger is suspected from "killer computer game". The shooter in Winnenden, German (happens this March) often play those violence game game like Counter strike.

From 1999 until now, several serious killing have happened. In April 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold kill 12 student and a teacher in Littleton. In 2002, a massacre in Erfurt shocks the word. Robert Steinhauser kills 17 people brutally and then kill himself. In 2007, 32 people dead and 30 people seriously wounded in a killing done by Cho Seung Hui in Virginia tech Blacksburg. And the latest killing is in March 2009 when Tim Kretschmer, a 17 year old boy obsessed with guns shoot 15 people and then kill himself.

Although many stores don't sell games that full of violence anymore, experts don't fully agree to the relation between violence in virtual world and violence in the real world. The pros and cons do some research on their own and the result shows both of them are right.

In common, parents don't see digital entertainment media as a media that gives bad influence. Research from Microsoft shows that three from four teacher think that video game can give some good experience for their student. Still from the research shows that two from three parents allow their children to play "adult" games.

Research on "violence in computer game" already done many times. There are several result about the research. Some says that boy gamers usually have a higher alcohol consumption level. But the other research says that people who are intensively play games don't have any relation at all to killing or violence in the real world. However, many agrees that violence in computer games need to be reduced. And also kids who looks easy to do violence need to have extra control.

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Hard Disk Maintenance

Working on a PC is more enjoyable for us if we sure that our data is safe within our hard disk. There are three tools that can be use for hard disk maintenance, Imaging, Partitioning, and Backup.

For Forrest Gump, life is like a chocolate box, full of surprises. On the contrary, PC users don't like surprises because most of them end with something bad. PC security is not only about malware and virus, data protection is important too. That's why we need imaging software to make backup to prevent lost of data.

Most of notebooks today is equipped with one important function : partitioning. This function can make a special partition to keep owner's private data. This will keep the data secure even if we must re-install Windows. Let's take a look at the three tools for hard disk maintenance.

Imaging

For imaging process, every imaging software has already reached a high standard. On-th-fly backup system or internet image saving already become a standard features. The different is only at the speed of the process. Another feature that already become a standard is image update. Almost every imaging software can update image without writing the image from the beginning. It only save the latest change of the image. Beside that, to make image, imaging software use a special protected area on hard disk. This area become a single locked partition.

Partitioning

We should make several partition in our disk to prevent "total lost" case. For example, we should put operating system in one partition, and data in another partition. This will prevent the lost of data if we re-format or re-install the operating system. Windows Vista has a partitioning function and works better than Windows XP. Create, expand, and delete partition is a very easy task in Windows Vista. This function can be found in Control Panel "Administration | Computer Administration | Hard Disk | Hard Disk Administration".

Backup

Backup is one of the most important hard disk maintenance tools. Backup can be done manually the hard way (Bakup to CD or DVD or something like that) or we can use imaging software. There are two type of backup in imaging software. incremental backup and differential backup. In incremental backup, what will be saved is only the latest change at the latest backup. But in differential backup, it saves the change from the full backup.

There are several recommended software to do this hard disk maintenance software. Disk Director Suite 10 (True Image Home 2009), Partition Manager 9 (Drive Backup 9 Proffesional), Partition Magic 8 (Norton Ghost 14), and Partition Commander 10 (Perfect Image 11) are several example of the recommended software.

That's all for now, I hope this article can be a useful tips for performing hard disk maintenance.

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Get Ready for Windows 7

Microsoft will release a new operating system called Windows 7. This new version of windows will be an effort to cover their "failure" in Windows Vista which was not responded well in the market. What are the new features in windows 7 ? Basically, there are not many new features in Windows 7. What Microsoft do is upgrade the existing feature better.

Microsoft really wants to make this Windows 7 as a superior product and bury the bad name because of Windows Vista. Although Vista is really not a bad product, but the image of Microsoft really goes down in end users. On the contrary, since Windows 7 was tested, good words have been spreading. There are several "promise" from Microsoft about this new Windows 7 :
Light. Not like Vista which many user found it heavy and use very high computer power to load, Windows 7 is promised to be much more lighter.
Fast. Because it is light, so Windows 7 will be much faster than Vista.
Responsive. Windows 7 will be more responsive. Windows 7 will start immediately what user wants and will make every day works become easier.
Clear. In visual side, Windows 7 will adapt more Vista "beauty" but with a lot of improvement.

To see if Microsoft keep the promise in Windows 7, Let's take a look at its new features.

Aero The Beautiful
Since Windows Vista, Microsoft use what called "Aero" for its visual appearance. Several new features is implemented in this new Aero. Aero Peek is one of them. It is the ability to peek opening windows. Another features is Aero Shake. This features make easier to minimize all application windows except the active one. There are Aero Snaps too which allow user to snap application windows to the side of the screen.

Windows XP Mode
Windows XP Mode (XPM) is eligible only for the "expensive" versions of Windows 7. Like Windows 7 Professional, Ultimate, and Enterprise Edition. Basically, this feature is Windows XP Service Pack 3 complete with its license, but live inside Windows 7. This XPM application allow user to install softwares that only works in Windows XP. With this application, XP users will not afraid to upgrade their OS, cause all of their software will guaranteed to work perfectly.

There are also some eliminated feature in Windows 7. The most promising of the eliminated feature is the use of Autorun which often used by viruses. In windows 7, users only have choice to open flash disk with windows explorer or with previously installed software. Another eliminated features is Windows Sidebar. This will make desktop looks more wider although the gadgets will look more messy.

Is windows 7 ready yet ? The main problem for Windows 7 is driver. Since Windows 7 is a new OS, support driver still use the one that from windows XP or Vista or from the Windows 7 itself. ATI and NVIDIA have already prepared specific driver for this new OS, but the performance still not reach its full potential. Beside of the driver problem (which wont take long), another problem is bug. Because it's new, there will be bug everywhere. This will depend on Microsoft how to deal with bugs and make some updates according to it. But out of those problems, Windows 7 will still be a powerful OS that worth waiting for. Performance offered by Windows 7 is superior than 2 of its predecessor, Windows XP and Vista. So let's wait for the official release.

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Kindle 2, E-book Reader From Amazon

This February, Amazon introduce a new Kindle 2 which was an e-book reader. Until now, book can't be replaced by computer. But this lack of technology is not for Amazon anymore with Kindle. With this milestone product, Amazon can write history. Books, newspaper, magazine now can be read easily through e-book.

This new Amazon Kindle is not just a gadget but it becomes "a must have book". This new Kindle is very slim, light, and has a superior quality from its predecessor. Because of its characteristic, this gadget is very easy to be taken anywhere. In free time you can easily read your favorite content. If you don't have much time, parts or interesting news can be marked and you can read it later in "My Clippings" . With bookmark facility, readers can directly go to the latest read parts, books by books.

According to few sources, for their readers, Amazon provide nearly 260,000 e-books and magazines. You will always have something to read. Beside that, almost all Best Seller from New York Times can be accessed too. But Kindle has a few disadvantages, like the use of DRM (Digital Rights Management). Books is sold per package and always protected by DRM, not like songs from iTunes or from Amazon. So, books cannot be copied like conventional books. Beside that, Amazon forgets about social interaction. There's no book reviews, comment, or rating in this gadget.

So, for those wo love reading everywhere, this gadget can be considered "a must have book".

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