#RandomArticle –– Making Technology Development Run Slower

Good morning everyone! I come back. Today, I write an article about technology. Yeah, I already wrote the title above. And then I'm sure that you think that I'm crazy, right? Yeah, sometimes we need to be crazy to be an "awesome" guy. Okay, let's talk about this.

Have you ever realize that today's technology development are runs so fast? Yeah, I'm sure that you're realize it. Well, it looks good, then. But practically, tech development that runs too fast has several negative effects. First, they make us as consumer much much more consumtive, but we just use it not so effective and efficient. So, it's not worth with the money we spent on it. Second, we don't have much time to learn more from tech devices that we already owned. When we already learn a part from that devices, a newer tech has arrived. But yeah, this one is depends on you.

The third one is the product's build quality. Well, this one is just for "several" products. I was compared between my father's old notebook (Acer, 2006) and my friend's notebook (Acer, 2012). The two of 'em are very different, my friend's notebook has a lot of new features (USB 3.0, better keyboard, and better Display), but my friend says that he got some "problem" after 7 months. So he need to get it to Service Center to got some treatment. My father's old notebook, is very old for electronic device, really. But untill now, it's still work well. I remember when my father took his notebook to the Sevice Center. If I'm not wrong, it was almost one year after purchase, when the guarantee period almost expired.

Another fact that the tech development runs too fast is on Mobile devices such as Smartphones and Tablets and also on hi-end PC and PC components such as Video Cards, Motherboards, HIDs, etc. Intel's technology roadmap show Intel's new technology plan every 2 years. In this year, they planned to make 14nm-ed lithography CPU. While in the next two years, Intel plans to make 10nm-ed lithography CPU. Please look back at the old days, how much time does Pentium series need?

Well, suddenly I started to gain my consciousness again. So, let me end this #RandomArticle before Ichanged my mind to delete it. Hope you enjoy these article, fellas!

#SneakPeek –– Need for Speed Rivals

Well, several days ago my bestfriend told me that the upcoming videogame from Need for Speed are revealed. He told me that this upcoming videogame will be titled Need for Speed Rivals. Feeling unsure, I tried to check it by myself (Googling, of course XD). And it's true! So, I continued to look for another information about these videogame. Curious? Come on, let's check it out!

According to the title, it seems that this videogame like a "meeting" of the real-world-competing-sportscar-manufacturers. When I watch the teaser video, I feel that these videogame look like a mash up of NFS Hot Pursuit (2010) and NFS Mostwanted HD (2012).

Criterion and Ghost Games seems very painstaking and perserving with this game. With a dynamic weather system which make this game-world feel alive in a much bigger sense than another NFS franchise. Hell yeah!

The cars are awesomely great. You can do some vehicle customization such as performance upgrades, paintjobs, decals, rims, and license plates. And also for the first time in eleven years, Ferrari returns in a full form. Which make this videogame could be a "battle" of two most famous Italian cars, Lamborghini and Ferrari. So, what did you choose? Lamborghini or Ferrari?

Well, I DON'T have any information about the minimum specifications for this videogame. But, I tried to predict it. And my prediction is below:

OS: Windows 7

Processor: Intel Celeron G1610 Dual-Core 2.6GHz | AMD Athlon II X2 240 2.8GHz

Memory: 2GB RAM

Disk Space: 12GB of free Disk Space

Videocard: nVidia GeForce GT310 1GB | AMD Radeon HD4670 1GB

Soundcard: DirectX 11 compliant

Network: Connection required for Download and Install. Broadband connection required for Online Play.

Interested? You can pre-order this videogame here

#HellYea! –– AMD FX9590 and FX9370

Phew, it's very hot here. Maybe because of dry season eh? Well, that's not very important, though. The more important thing is that AMD had released it's new legendary FX-family processors! Interested? Let's check it out!

This all-new AMD processors are using the newest architecture called Piledriver and clocked at 4.7 - 5GHz (FX9590) and 4.4 - 4.7GHz (FX9370) on. Piledriver also used in the newest Opteron which launched at launched in early December 2012. Products based upon Piledriver were first released on 15 May 2012 with the launch of the Trinity series of mobile APU. APUs aimed at desktops followed in early October 2012 with Piledriver-based FX-series CPUs released later in the month.

Piledriver itself are the successor of the previous architecture, Bulldozer. Hmm, so what's the differences between two of them? Basically, they're same, Piledriver uses the same 'module' design with main improvements to branch prediction and FPU/integer scheduling, along with a switch to hard edge flip-flops to improve power consumption. Practically, this resulted in clock speed gains of 8-10% and a performance increase of around 15% with similar power characteristics. Piledriver includes several improvements over the Bulldozer architecture, they are:

• Very high clock rates.
• Higher overclocking potential.
• Higher Instructions per clock.
• Lower temperatures. (hell yea!)
• Turbo Core 3.0.
• Faster IMC.
• Fixed hardware divider.
• Improved branch prediction and prefetching.
• Improved FPU and integer scheduling.
• Support for AVX1.1, FMA3, F16C, Bit Manipulation and Trailing Bit Manipulation instructions.
• Larger L1 Translation Lookaside Buffers and L2 efficiency improvements.
• Switch to hard edge flip-flops, allowing for a decrease in power consumption.
• Cyclos Resonant clock mesh technology.

Amazing right? But these awesomeness are only for those who have thick pockets –or thick wallets. You have to pay US$920 for one FX9590. But don't cry baby. You still can have "its" brother, FX9370 for US$346.

Okay, thanks for reading. Have a nice day! ^_^

#AllAbout –– Avast! Antivirus

Yeah, the effects of La Nina storm still affect the season in here, Yogyakarta. This is June, and actually it must be in Dry Season (there's no more rain!). But because of it, the rain still interrupting. Okay, stop talking about La NIna again. Today I'd like to write about Avast! Antivirus, which I think the best antivirus I've ever had

Avast! (styled avast!) is a freemium (free for using standard version, but you must pay for premium version) antivirus computer program available to Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux users, with a user interface available in 41 languages. The name Avast is an acronym of "Anti-Virus – Advanced Set". The official, and current logo of Avast! is a white orb with the letter 'a' on it and an orange circle around it, sticking out to four directions.

Its developer, AVAST Software a.s. (formerly known as ALWIL Software a.s.), has headquartered in Prague, Czech Republic, with offices in Linz, Austria; Friedrichshafen, Germany; and San Mateo, California. It has been awarded VB100 Award by Virus Bulletin multiple times for 100% detection of "in-the-wild" viruses, and also won the Secure Computing Readers' Trust Award. The central scanning engine has been certified by ICSA Labs and West Coast Labs' Checkmark process. Avast! competes in the antivirus industry against Avira, AVG Technologies, Bitdefender, F-Secure, Frisk, Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec, and Trend Micro among others.

AVAST Software timeline:

1. 1988 – Pavel Baudiš, then a researcher at Prague’s Mathematical Machines Research Institute, encountered a sample of the Vienna Virus and, intrigued by it, wrote a program able to remove it. He then showed it to colleague Eduard Kučera and, together, they started ALWIL Software cooperative, which released the first Avast! antivirus. Due to the oppressive regime, however, they were unable to form a ‘company’ at that time.
2. 1991 – Founders Pavel Baudiš and Eduard Kučera, free from the socioeconomic constraints of the former regime, transformed ALWIL Software from a ‘cooperative’ into a joint partnership ‘company’.
3. 1995 – A young Ondrej Vlček (current AVAST CTO) joined ALWIL while completing his university studies. He wrote the first antivirus program for Windows 95.
4. 1996 – Avast! Antivirus was one of the first three antivirus programs globally to win Virus Bulletin’s VB100 awards in all testing categories.
5. 1997 – ALWIL Software provided the Avast! Antivirus engine to McAfee, which licensed it for use in its own line of McAfee Antivirus products with the "Powered by Avast! engine" logo on the McAfee VirusScan boxes. Also, ALWIL hired its first tech-support specialist, Pavel Mourek.
6. 2001 – Co-founder Eduard Kučera implemented a user-community growth strategy based on the principle that all computer users deserve protection from harmful threats, and that computer safety should not be a luxury. Thus, on 1st June 2001, ALWIL Software launched a free antivirus solution for home (non-commercial) use. Six months later (January, 2002), a new registration system saw the very first user registration of free Avast! Antivirus Home Edition.
7. 2003 – The growing free Avast! user base generated a need to offer other paid-for solutions effectively online. Thus, ALWIL turned to Digital River’s online sales distribution share-it! New product launches included Avast! Bootable Antivirus & Recovery Tool (BART) CD and the (free) Avast! 4 Home Edition (under Ondrej Vlček's R&D supervision).
8. 2004 – Only 30 months after its first user registration, the free version of Avast! reached one million users. Until this time, management remained uncertain as to whether giving for free what others sell would work, but reaching one million users confirmed a successful increase in visibility for the company. ALWIL also implemented an international reseller channel for its paid-for security solutions. New product launches included Avast! Linux version, Avast! 4.5 Home/Professional edition, Avast! Distributed Network Manager (ADNM), and Avast! BART CD 2.0.
9. 2005 – As a way for Avast! to reach new users at a time when the internet did not have such high penetration, ALWIL began cooperation with SanDisk. Thanks to this partnership, Avast! needed language localization for all SanDisk markets. Thus, ALWIL hired the first people for in-house localization and support, which was the first step toward Avast! supporting a wide range of languages. New product launches included Avast! U3 Edition (for SanDisk) and Avast! 4.6.
10. 2006 – The Avast! user base doubled twice, first to 10 million and then to 20 million by year’s end, in large part due to the availability of more language versions and a number of industry awards for quality. Avast! swept the SC Awards categories with Best Antivirus, as well as Anti-Malware (European) and Readers' Choice (USA). New product launches included Avast! Linux Home Edition.
11. 2007 – The company reached 40 million registered Avast! users with only 38 employees, for a ratio of one million users per employee. ALWIL Software transformed into a joint stock company. New product launches included Avast! Mac Edition and Avast! Windows Home Server Edition.
12. 2008 – ALWIL put major focus on acquiring a multinational sales and support team and localizing Avast! antivirus and Avast.com into more languages. The company reached 50 million registered users and 60 employees. New product launches included Avast! 4.8.
13. 2009 – To strengthen the team, ALWIL hired Vincent Steckler (formerly of Symantec) as CEO. The Avast! registered-user base jumped from 68 million to over 100 million, and the company reached 100 employees. New product launches included the 5.0 series of Avast! Free Antivirus, Avast! Pro Antivirus, and Avast! Internet Security.
14. 2010 – Summit Partners invested $100 million for a minority share of the company. Said Han Sikkens, a Principal in Summit Partners, "it is rare to find a company such as AVAST that redefines how an industry does business. We are very excited about the growth prospects of this exceptional company." As well, ALWIL Software changed its name to AVAST Software, to more closely align the company with the brand, and Avast! reached 130 million registered users. New product launches included Avast! 5.0 series, with a new antivirus engine and an optional silent firewall and virtualization sandbox.
15. 2011 – By midyear, Avast! had more than 135 million active users and over 165 million user registrations – with just over 150 employees. New product launches included Avast! Business Protection line (with a simplified central administration console); Avast! 6.0 series, with new innovations that included: WebRep (a website reputation ratings tool), SafeZone™ (a built-in browser, using the Chromium source code, for safety with sensitive online transactions), and AutoSandbox (the first automatic virtualization feature offered within a free antivirus).
16. 2012 - As of Q2, Avast! had more than 150 million active users and over 211 million user registrations – with just over 200 employees. New product launches included a new version of Avast! Free Antivirus for Mac; the Avast! Endpoint Protection business security line; and the Avast! 7.0 series, with innovations that included FileRep (a cloud-based file reputation warning system), streaming updates (also cloud-based), and Remote Assistance capabilities.

Features

• Antivirus kernel based on certified antivirus engine.
• Resident protection comprising individual modules or "shields", each of which can be individually configured or disabled.
• File System Shield — Real-time protection against viruses and other malware threats. Scans files as they run on your computer to keep viruses from being able to execute.
• Mail Shield  — Scans messages and attachments in E-mail/Outlook/Exchange for viruses.
• Web Shield — HTTP protection (local transparent proxy). Version 4.8 also allows the blocking of URLs. Scans URLs and incoming data for viruses, and aborts connections to the site if one is found.
• P2P Shield — Scans P2P files from file share programs.
• IM Shield — Instant Messaging protection. (Scanning of files transferred through instant messaging applications)
• Script Shield — Scans webpages for malicious scripts, and disables them from infecting your computer, though they can still be used (for example, a clickable button.)
• Network Shield — Basic protection against well-known network worms. Acts as an Intrusion Detection System.
• Behavior Shield — Reports suspicious behavior by analyzing the behavior of programs
• Anti-spyware capabilities
• Anti-rootkit capabilities (Powered by GMER).
• Self-Protection — Prevents malware from terminating avast! processes and damaging avast! files.
• Automatic incremental updates — Updates of both the program and the virus database which is used to identify potential threats — Avast! updates its virus definitions on a regular basis (sometimes multiple updates daily) and this process is automated by default.
• Audible alarms — Vocal warnings and notices such
  
  
  as "Threat has been detected!" and "Virus database has been updated."
• Boot-time scan — Users can schedule a boot-time scan to remove infections that load during Windows startup.
• Virus Chest — Quarantine; folder where infected files can be stored. The virus chest also stores vital system files to protect them from damage by malware. Users can also add their own files to the virus chest. Once in the chest, a file cannot be executed; double-clicking the file will instead display information about the file.
• SafeZone — SafeZone is a special web browser in avast! Pro Antivirus 6.x and avast! Internet Security 6.x based on Chromium web browser. It allows users to browse the web in a private, secure environment, invisible to the rest of the users' system.
• WebRep browser plugin — WebRep is a community-based website reputation ratings tool implemented in version 6.0 of Avast! Antivirus.[10]
• Avast! antivirus monitor — Avast! antivirus monitor is a sidebar gadget for Windows 7 and Windows Vista. It comes with Avast! Antivirus 6 and 7.
• Consumer Alert — Gives the user information if their credit may have been tampered with (US Customers Only)
• AVAST cloud — Avast! 7 introduces streaming updates from the cloud in addition to daily virus database updates. Throughout the day, AVAST streams updates to users, giving them faster warnings about new malware. This supplements regular virus updates, keeping users informed and protected regardless of their internet connection.
• FileRep — The FileRep feature enables faster threat identification by sorting new, potentially dangerous files from known safe files. Sourced from the CommunityIQ sensor network, the data helps avast! decide when questionable files should be placed in the AutoSandbox.
• Remote Assistance — An avast! user can connect to the computer of a second avast! user, allowing the "helper-friend" to help with any computer issues.

Customization

Version 5.x and higher versions of Avast! Antivirus allows its users to customize the voiceover played by the program whenever an event happens (such as the detection of malware, or whenever the program's database is updated). Official voiceovers are available in Hungarian, Belarusian, Brazilian Portuguese, Catalan, Chinese, English, French, German, Korean, Polish, Russian, Spanish, Turkish and Ukrainian. Avast allows its users to submit voiceovers in different languages. Themed voiceovers are also available; these include "Aussie", "Californian", "Canadian", "Pirate Talk" and "Santa Claus".

Version 4 allowed users to customize its graphical user interface with different skins from the Avast! website.

Registration

The free version of Avast! Antivirus is only intended for personal, non-commercial use. After installation, the program can be used in trial mode for 30 days. This limit can be eliminated by registering using a form in Avast's website. The program must then be re-registered every year.However, a user who has version 4.8 and upgrades to the latest version is given an automatic 14-month license.

Interested eh? You can get this Antivirus here.

#SneakPeek –– Call of Duty: GHOSTS

Good morning everyone! Well, it's a little cold here in Yogyakarta, and I tried to warm up myself with a glass of chocolate milk--and some crackers when I tried to write this post. Today, I'd like to write about the upcoming series of Call of Duty. And now, let's check it out.

Call of Duty: GHOSTS is an upcoming FPS video game to be the 10th installment in the Call of Duty series, and the 6th developed by Infinity Ward. The game is to be released for Microsoft Windows, PS3, Wii U and Xbox 360 on 5th November 2013. GHOSTS will also be available on next-generation consoles, the PS4 and Xbox One at a later date.

On 7th February 2013, Activision confirmed that a new Call of Duty game was in development and would be released Q4, 2013. The publisher expects poorer performance than previous entry Call of Duty: Black Ops II due to the transition to next-generation consoles.The series starts a new subseries with GHOSTS to coincide with the launch of 8th generation consoles entering the market. The game will debut an engine built by the developer, originally described as a new engine, but later clarified to be the same engine as used in previous games with "significant" upgrades. In this game development, Infinity Wards will be assisted by Raven Software and Neversoft.

On 29th April 2013, the official Call of Duty website was updated with a social media mosaic that filled up every time a user logged into the site via Twitter or Facebook. The next day, the mosaic was completed and the picture showed a skull along the text "The Ghosts are real". Some details about Ghosts leaked prior, especially when Tesco pulled the listing of the game for the PS3 after it was put up accidentally. Several other retailers, including Target, listed it for PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. The live-action teaser trailer for Ghosts, titled "Masked Warriors", features glimpses of people wearing historical battle attire, among them one of a group of soldiers putting on the skull mask shown on the box art. That live-action teaser itself was released on 1st May  2013. Ghosts appeared at the "Xbox Reveal" event on 21st May 2013.

The Call of Duty: GHOSTS story itself is setted a few years after the USA has fallen and no longer to be a superpower country, torn apart by war with the Federation, a South American alliance. It follows two brothers that form part of a clandestine hit squad known as The Ghosts wage a covert war against an unseen enemy, with the outcome having far-reaching consequences for both themselves and the remains of America. It will also, at times, follow their dog, Riley. The dog has been a hit since it was revealed at Microsoft's reveal of the Xbox One. And, actually, while the cult following has been somewhat flippant, Riley's inclusion looks to mix in some differing game mechanics. At the start of the demo, you are connected to Riley's back-mounted camera, scoping out enemy targets by sneaking through the underbrush. You can either attack with Riley, tearing your foe's throat out, or mark the target for a bullet to the head. Riley's involvement seems fairly scripted at this point, and it will be interesting to find out just how much freedom the attack dog's stealth allows. The Ghosts move through a nest of foliage before emerging over a highway that has collapsed under heavy bombing, forming a quarry-esque hole. A building shudders and collapses in the distance, bricks and mortar tumbling into the bowl below. Phenomenal detail at 60fps, desolation stretching into the distance, cuts and scrapes on your character's hands, eyes adjusting to light as you come out from darkness.

Call of Duty GHOSTS System Requirements (PC)

MINIMUM :

• OS: Windows 7
• Processor: Intel Celeron E1200 Dual-Core 1.6GHz | AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3600+
• Memory: 2GB RAM
• Disk Space: 10GB of free Disk Space
• Videocard: nVidia GeForce GT220 1GB | AMD Radeon HD4650 1GB
• Soundcard: DirectX 11 compliant
• Network: Connection required for Download and Install. Broadband connection required for Online Play.

RECOMMENDED :

• OS: Windows 7 (x64)
• Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3,16GHz | AMD Athlon II X3 415e
• Memory: 4GB RAM
• Disk Space: 10GB of free Disk Space
• Videocard: nVidia GeForce GTS450 1GB | AMD Radeon HD4850X2 1GB
• Soundcard: DirectX 11 compliant
• Network: Connection required for Download and Install. Broadband connection required for Online Play.

If you want to pre-order this video game, you can click here. Oh, and I suddenly found that you can also pre-order PS4, you can click here.