Januari 2012

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Mobile Computing: The Story Of G's

Posted by Unknown Selasa, 31 Januari 2012 0 komentar

THE STORY OF G's

Computing is defined as the use of computers or any such device which works on some program or set of programs. Now as we had already started a discussion on Cloud Computing, these are the techniques on which this computing implicated.

Present day, we would have come across these terms like- GSM, GPRS, CDMA, TDMA, EDGE, 3G, 4G, etc. Now being the “End-User”, we hardly try to know what they are, nor bother to know how these things differ. What we bother about, is that how to use them.

Now where’s the fun in watching a movie when you can’t even remember a scene or a punch dialogue. The same applies in everything we do. Thus, my motive from writing and spreading this article is that we try to know the slightest of details about the various “G’s”.

Now going way back to the past, when inventions of devices like radio, TV, Telephone, W-Phone (Wireless Telephones) were at its work. Now it’s not a joke to convert one form of energy into other, it takes great understanding. Thus, many inventions were combined to achieve what we understand as Wireless communication. The concepts used were the idea behind working of radio and that of a telephone. With this they came to know that sound energy captured from one end can be converted to electrical signals with help of magnets and routed to a desired location in the form of waves through a transmitter. Also it can be received at the other end by a receiver and converted back to electrical coding which can be further converted to sound. All this was possible because of the common factor “frequency” between electricity, magnetism and sound. Now the factor of differentiating signals from one device to other was an issue i.e.: making a device unique. We all are familiar with the quantum theory, and various electromagnetism phenomenons. Now this helped us in relating various factors like speed of light, frequency of signal, bandwidth, wavelength of signal, amplitude of signal etc. Then, a particular electrical coding was assigned to each device which differentiated them from each other.

That was a bit of history of how things began. Now we head straight away to what is this “G”. ‘G’, in computing stands for “Generation”.

0G:

It all began with zero-generation mobile systems called the Mobile Radio Telephone System (MRTS).

The image shown above is a MRTS based device, a predecessor of the modern telephone. In MRT System the technologies used were as follows:-
PTT: Push to Talk.
MTS: Mobile Telephone System.
IMTS: Improved Mobile Telephone System.

AMTS: Advanced Mobile Telephone System.

Each of them differed in frequency range i.e.: kept increasing from one technology to other. This MRTS/ 0G, system of communication started as early in 1940’s and ended up by mid 80’s.

1G:

During early 80’s researches on the first generation (1G), communication systems had been started up. This was surely the best invention in field of communication technology. Instead of converting a single frequency into electrical signal a packet of data was converted into a particular signal and it was analog in nature. Thus, 1G speed varied between that of a 28k modem (28kbit/s) and 56k modem (56kbit/s), meaning actual download speeds of 2.8KBytes/s to 5.6KBytes/s.

2G:

With the beginning of 1G marked the evolution of present day Mobile Cellular Systems. 2G, or the Second Generation system works on a GSM standard. Now GSM stands for Global System for Mobile communication. This is based on TDMA i.e.: Time Division Multiple Access. The only difference between 1G and 2G is the signals were analog then and digital in the later.

TDMA works by dividing a radio frequency into time slots and then allocating slots to multiple calls. In this way, a single frequency can support multiple, simultaneous data channels.

GSM uses a narrowband TDMA, which allows eight simultaneous calls on the same radio frequency.

The other standard for 2G system is CDMA or Code Division Multiple Access. This uses a spread- spectrum technique where data is sent in small pieces over a number of discrete frequencies available for use. Each user’s signal is spread over the entire bandwidth by unique spreading code. At the receiver end, the same unique code is used to recover the signal.

Now both of the above techniques i.e. the entire 2G system was built mainly for voice services and slow data transmissions.

Thus there was a need of modification. But the modification though should have been considered as 3G, did not match up to the uplink/downlink speed.

2.5G:

This is nothing but GPRS or General Packet Radio Service. It is used to describe 2G-systems that have implemented a packet-switched domain in addition to the circuit-switched domain. It does not necessarily provide faster services because bundling of timeslots is used for high speed circuit-switched data services (HSCSD) as well. GPRS could provide data rates of 56 kbit/s - 115 kbit/s. It can be used for services such as Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) access, Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), and for Internet communication services such as email and World Wide Web access

2.75G:

GPRS networks evolved to EDGE networks with the introduction of 8PSK encoding. Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution (EDGE), Enhanced GPRS (EGPRS), or IMT Single Carrier (IMT-SC) is a backward-compatible digital mobile phone technology that allows improved data transmission rates, as an extension on top of standard GSM. EDGE was deployed on GSM networks beginning in 2003—initially by Cingular (now AT&T) in the United States.

EDGE is standardized by 3GPP as part of the GSM family and it is an upgrade that provides a potential three-fold increase in capacity of GSM/GPRS networks. The specification achieves higher data-rates (up to 236.8 kbit/s) by switching to more sophisticated methods of coding (8PSK), within existing GSM timeslots. Presently EDGE is known as Enhanced Data rates for Global Evolution.

Mixture of GSM/ GPRS/ EDGE is considered to be the modern day 3G.

3G:

LTE or 3GPP in Long Term Evolution is what should be considered as modern day 3G. As it matches the required data rates of 2 Mbit/s for stationary or walking users, and 384 kbit/s in a moving vehicle, but does not actually clearly specify minimum or average rates or what modes of the interfaces qualify as 3G, so various rates are sold as 3G intended to meet customers expectations of broadband data i.e.: 2.5G and 2.75G are used as 3G.

3.5G:

UMTS or Universal Mobile Telecommunication System is a standard and the higher version of 3G. It is called 3.5G as it doesn’t match up the requirements of 4G but can be appreciably close. It is based on W-CDMA i.e.: Wideband CDMA (increased bandwidth).

Mobile-WiMax also happens to match up the requirements as 4G but the technique used and the data rates are much closer to 3G thus often termed under ‘3.5G’.

3.75G:

HSPA or High Speed Packet Access is an amalgamation of two mobile telephony protocols, High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) and High Speed Uplink Packet Access (HSUPA) that extends and improves the performance of existing WCDMA protocols.

A further 3GPP standard, Evolved HSPA (also known as HSPA+), was released late in 2008 with subsequent worldwide adoption beginning in 2010.

HSPA supports increased peak data rates of up to 14 Mbit/s in the downlink and 5.76 Mbit/s in the uplink. It also reduces latency and provides up to five times more system capacity in the downlink and up to twice as much system capacity in the uplink, reducing the production cost per bit compared to original WCDMA protocols. Many HSPA rollouts can be achieved by a software upgrade to existing 3G networks, giving HSPA a head start over WiMAX, which requires a dedicated network infrastructure.

Evolved HSPA (also known as: HSPA Evolution, HSPA+, I-HSPA or Internet HSPA) is a wireless broadband standard defined in 3GPP release 7 and 8 of the WCDMA specification. Evolved HSPA provides data rates up to 84 Mbit/s in the downlink and 22 Mbit/s in the uplink (per 5 MHz carrier) with multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) technologies and higher order modulation. It utilises multiple base stations to potentially double the channels available utilising MIMO principles.

MIMO or Multiple Input and Multiple Output is the use of multiple antennas at both the transmitter and receiver to improve communication performance. It is one of several forms of smart antenna technology. Note that the terms input and output refer to the radio channel carrying the signal, not to the devices having antennas.

MIMO technology has attracted attention in wireless communications, because it offers significant increases in data throughput and link range without additional bandwidth or increased transmit power. It achieves this by spreading the same total transmit power over the antennas to achieve an array gain that improves the spectral efficiency (more bits per second per hertz of bandwidth) or to achieve a diversity gain that improves the link reliability (reduced fading). Because of these properties, MIMO is an important part of modern wireless communication standards such as IEEE 802.11n (Wifi), 4G, 3GPP Long Term Evolution, WiMAX and HSPA+.

3.9G:

LTE-Advanced is termed as 3.9G. 3.9G because it is closest to 4G but differs in the desired data rates. Also the technology adopted in LTE-Advanced is a combination of W-CDMA, MIMO & Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA).

LTE Advanced (Long-term-evolution Advanced) is a candidate for IMT-Advanced standard, formally submitted by the 3GPP organization to ITU-T in the fall 2009, and expected to be released in 2012. The target of 3GPP LTE Advanced is to reach and surpass the ITU requirements. LTE Advanced is essentially an enhancement to LTE. It is not a new technology but rather an improvement on the existing LTE network. This upgrade path makes it more cost effective for vendors to offer LTE and then upgrade to LTE Advanced which is similar to the upgrade from WCDMA to HSPA. LTE and LTE Advanced will also make use of additional spectrum and multiplexing to allow it to achieve higher data speeds. Coordinated Multi-point Transmission will also allow more system capacity to help handle the enhanced data speeds. Release 10 of LTE is expected to achieve the LTE Advanced speeds. Release 8 currently supports up to 300 Mbit/s download speeds which is still short of the IMT-Advanced standards.

Data speeds of LTE Advanced
	LTE Advanced
Peak Download	~1 Gbit/s
Peak Upload	300-500 Mbit/s

4G:

Fourth Generation Tele-communication system uses the HSOPA High Speed OFDM Packet Access, i.e.: OFD Multiplexing.

OFDMA or Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access is the latest research field. It is a multi-user version of the popular Orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) digital modulation scheme. Multiple access is achieved in OFDMA by assigning subsets of sub-carriers to individual users as shown in the illustration below. This allows simultaneous low data rate transmission from several users.

Data speed rate of 4G systems:

Peak Download- 1Gbit/s. Not less than this.

Peak Upload- 500Mbit/s. Not less than this.

Benefits of OFDM:

► Over CDMA/W-CDMA.

•OFDM can combat multipath interference with more robustness and less complexity.

•OFDMA can achieve a higher MIMO spectral efficiency due to providing flatter frequency channels than a CDMA rake receiver can.

•No cell size breathing as more users connect.

► Over TDMA.

•Allows simultaneous low-data-rate transmission from several users.

•Pulsed carrier can be avoided.

•Lower maximum transmission power for low data rate users.

•Shorter delay and constant delay.

•Contention-based multiple access (collision avoidance) is simplified.

•Further improves OFDM robustness to fading and interference.

OFDMA is still a theory, as there has not been any practice of it till now. America claims to run on 4G but in some areas only. That can be considered LTE-A.

That’s not it researches have been started already for “5G”. Something that would give a promising of 750 Mbit/s uplink and a downlink of 1 Gbit/s even when used by someone in a moving vehicle.

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How to Create Your Own Customized Run Commands

Posted by Unknown Senin, 30 Januari 2012 0 komentar

The Run command on Microsoft Windows operating system allows you to directly open an application or document with just a single command instead of navigating to it’s location and double-clicking the executable icon. However, it only works for some of the inbuilt Windows programs such as Command prompt (cmd), Calculator (calc) etc. So, have you ever wondered how to create your own customized Run commands for accessing your favorite programs, files and folders? Well, read on to find out the answer.

Creating the Customized Run Command

Let me take up an example of how to create a customized run command for opening the Internet explorer. Once you create this command, you should be able to open the Internet explorer just by typing “ie” (without quotes) in the Run dialog box. Here is how you can do that.

1. Right click on your Desktop and select New -> Shortcut.

2. You will see a “Create Shortcut” Dialog box as shown below

3. Click on “Browse”, navigate to: Program Files -> Internet Explorer from your Root drive (usually C:\) and select “iexplore” as shown in the above figure and click on “OK”.

4. Now click on “Next” and type any name for your shortcut. You can choose any name as per your choice; this will be your customized “Run command”. In this case I name my shortcut as “ie”. Click on “Finish”.

5. You will see a shortcut named “ie” on your desktop. All you need to do is just copy this shortcut and paste it in your Windows folder (usually “C:/Windows”). Once you have copied the shortcut onto your Windows folder, you can delete the one on your Desktop.

6. That’s it! From now on, just open the Run dialog box, type ie and hit Enter to open the Internet Explorer.

In this way you can create customized Run commands for any program of your choice. Say “ff” for Firefox, “ym” for Yahoo messenger, “wmp” for Windows media player and so on.

To do this, when you click on “Browse” in the Step-3, just select the target program’s main executable (.exe) file which will usually be located in the C:\Program Files folder. Give a simple and short name for this shortcut as per your choice and copy the shortcut file onto the Windows folder as usual. Now just type this short name in the Run dialog box to open the program.

I hope you like this post! Pass your comments.

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How to Identify and Avoid Phishing Scams

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Phishing is a form of social engineering technique used by hackers to gather sensitive information such as usernames, passwords and credit card details by posing as a trustworty person/organization. Since most online users are unaware of the techniques used in carrying out a phishing attack, they often fall victims and hence, phishing can be very effective.

With the dramatic increase in the number of phishing scams in the recent years, there has also been a steady rise in the number of people being victimized. Lack of awareness among the people is the prime reason behind such attacks. This article will try to create awareness and educate the users about such online scams and frauds.

Phishing scams usually sends an email message to users requesting for their personal information, or redirects them to a website where they are required to enter thier personal information. Here are some of the tips that can be used to identify various phishing techniques and stay away from it.

Identifying a Phishing Scam

1. Beware of emails that demand for an urgent response from your side. Some of the examples are:

You may receive an email which appears to have come from your bank or financial organization stating that “your bank account is limited due to an unauthorized activity. Please verify your account asap so as to avoid permanant suspension”. In most cases, you are requested to follow a link (URL) that takes you to spoofed webpage (similar to your bank website) and enter your login details over there.
In some cases, phishing emails may ask you to make a phone call. There may be a person or an audio response waiting on the other side of the phone to take away your credit cards details, account number, social security number or other valuable data.

2. Phishing emails are generally not personalized. Since they target a lagre number of online users, they usually use generalized texts like “Dear valued customer”, “Dear Paypal user” etc. to address you. However, some phishing emails can be an exception to this rule.

3. When you click on the links contained in a phishing email, you will most likely be taken to a spoofed webpage with official logos and information that looks exactly same as that of the original webpages of your bank or financial organization. Pay attention to the URL of a website before you enter any of your personal information over there. Even though malicious websites look identical to the legitimate site, it often uses a different domain or variation in the spelling. For example, instead of paypal.com, a phishing website may use different addresses such as:

papyal.com
paypal.org
verify-paypal.com
xyz.com/paypal/verify-account/

Tips to Avoid Being a Victim of Phishing

1. Do not respond to suspicious emails that ask you to give your personal information. If you are unsure whether an email request is legitimate, verify the same by calling the respective bank/company. Always use the telephone numbers printed on your bank records or statements and not those mentioned in the suspicious email.

2. Don’t use the links in an email, instant messenger or chat conversation to enter a website. Instead, always type the URL of the website on your browser’s address bar to get into a website.

3. Legitimate websites always use a secure connection (https://) on those pages which are intended to gather sensitive data such as usernames and passwords, account numbers or credic card details. You will see a lock icon Picture of the Lock icon

in your browser’s address bar which indicates a secure connection. On some websites like paypal.com which uses an extended validation certificate, the address bar turns GREEN as shown below.

In most cases, unlike a legitimate website, a phishing website or a spoofed webpage will not use a secure connection and does not show up the lock icon. So, absence of such security features can be a clear indication of phishing attack. Always double-check the security features of the webpage before entering any of your personal information.

4. Always use a good antivirus software, firewall and email filters to filter the unwanted traffic. Also ensure that your browser is up-to-date with the necessary patches being applied.

5. Report a “phishing attack” or “spoofed emails” to the following groups so as to stop such attacks from spreading all over the Internet:

You can directly send an email to spam@uce.gov orreportphishing@antiphishing.org reporting an attack. You can also notify the Internet Crime Complaint Center of the FBI by filing a complaint on their website: www.ic3.gov.

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Linux : A Brief Overview

Posted by Unknown Minggu, 29 Januari 2012 0 komentar

What is Linux?

Linux is an open-source "UNIX-like" operating system, with many similarities to proprietary UNIX operating systems like Sun Microsystem's Solaris and Hewlett Packard's HP-UX. The Linux kernel and many applications included in Linux distributions are developed by countless programmers worldwide. This "many eyes" approach to software development arguably results in more secure and robust code, especially with high-profile projects such as the Linux kernel, KDE, Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org. Most of the software included in a Linux distribution, including the Linux kernel, is licensed under the GNU General Public License, permitting others to examine, modify, and create derivative works from the code for both commercial and noncommercial purposes.

To be technically correct, Linux is an operating system kernel, and is not itself a complete operating system. Linux distributions such as Red Hat, Fedora, SuSE, Debian, Mandrakelinux, Slackware, and Gentoo package the Linux kernel along with application software to provide a complete operating system.

The kernel, or "heart" of an operating system, is low-level software that provides an interface to system hardware. Process management, memory management, networking, multi-tasking, and disk input/output are all functions of an operating system kernel.

What began as a hobbyist project in 1991 by Finnish programmer Linus Torvalds, Linux is now a serious contender in the enterprise server market, and because of full-featured desktop environments like KDE and GNOME, Linux is slowly gaining market share in the corporate and public sector desktop market.

What are some benefits of using Linux?

One of the key benefits of using Linux is cost: most Linux distributions are available at no charge. UNIX administrators can transition to Linux with ease; Windows adminstrators may require re-training to the UNIX "way of doing things." Therefore, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of a Linux-based solution is not always lower than a Windows or proprietary UNIX-based solution. However, many companies have saved millions of dollars deploying Linux.

If vendor support is required, companies such as Red Hat offer enterprise Linux distributions. For example, Red Hat's enterprise offering--Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)--has an 18-month "enterprise-friendly" release cycle, provides five years of security and "bug fix" updates, and offers telephone and Web-based technical support.

Linux excels as a server platform, particularly because of Linux's rock-solid stability. Linux is well-suited for firewalls, file and print servers, DNS servers, mail servers, cache servers, application servers, and database servers.

In recent years, Linux has made significant strides in desktop usability. Linux distributions typically include the KDE and GNOME desktop environments, providing similar look-and-feel and functionality to Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X.

Can I run Windows applications/games in Linux?

Currently, very few commercial applications and games are available for Linux. If an open-source alternative for a Windows application will not suffice, such as using OpenOffice.org instead of Microsoft Office, Linux users may run Windows application using WINE, VMware, or Win4Lin.

WINE is an open-source implementation of the Windows API. WINE does not require a Windows license or installation to run Windows executables under Linux, although compatibility with the thousands of Windows applications can be "hit and miss."

CrossOver Office is a commercial product based on WINE that runs applications such as Microsoft Office, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Visio, Lotus Notes, Quicken, and other popular Windows applications with near-perfect compatibility.

VMware and Win4Lin allow users to run the Windows operating system concurrently with Linux. Windows software often runs perfectly within these "virtual" operating systems. However, VMware and Win4Lin are commercial products, and both require a valid Windows license, making them a potentially cost-prohibitive solution to run a few Windows applications.

Although very few commercial games are available for Linux, newer "first-person shooters" such as Doom 3 and Unreal Tournament 2004 include a native Linux port. TransGaming's Cedega (formerly called "WineX") allows Linux users to run popular Windows games in Linux. However, serious gamers will likely be dissastisfied using Linux as a gaming platform.

How do I get started using Linux?

The KNOPPIX Linux Live CD is a Linux demonstration distribution that runs entirely off the CD. If you are ready to install Linux as part of a dual-boot system, or if you have a spare system on which to install Linux, I recommend the Fedora or Mandrakelinux distributions. Distributions such as Gentoo, Slackware, and Debian are geared toward the more experienced Linux user.

Most of the Linux distributions listed above are available from their respective Web sites at no cost. You may download the distributions in ISO format, "burn" them to a CD, boot your system from the CD, and install the distributions.

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Apple loses latest round in Android patent fight

Posted by Unknown Sabtu, 28 Januari 2012 0 komentar

Apple came up short in the latest twist in the seemingly endless Android patent saga, as a Dutch court ruled today that Samsung's Galaxy Tab can be sold in the Netherlands and distributed throughout the European Union.

Apple came up short in the latest twist in the seemingly endless Android patent saga, as a Dutch court ruled today that Samsung's Galaxy Tab can be sold in the Netherlands and distributed throughout the European Union.

Essentially, the Gerechthof's-Gravenhage appeals court in the Hague upheld an earlier decision made by a lower Dutch court that ruled Samsung's Galaxy Tab tablets did not infringe upon Apple's patents related to the iPad and could thus be sold in the Netherlands.

TIMLINE: Patent madness! A timeline of the Android patent wars

BACKGROUND: Dutch court slams brakes on Samsung Android phone sales in Europe

Although the ruling means the Galaxy Tab will continue to be sold in the EU, it does not affect the EU-wide preliminary injunction against the Samsung Galaxy smartphone that a lower Dutch court issued last year. Patent blogger Florian Mueller noted today that the latest ruling in favor of Samsung comes just a week before a German court is slated to rule on whether to lift that preliminary injunction and thus clear the Galaxy smartphone to be sold throughout the EU. Mueller also said that the upcoming rulings will be crucial in determining just how much protection Apple will get from competitors that design products similar to its own.

"[T]he two companies need the courts in various jurisdictions to clarify where Apple's exclusive scope of protection ends and Samsung's freedom to compete begins," Mueller writes. "There's no mathematical formula based on which they could simply agree that Samsung's products are allowed to have a degree of similarity of up to (for example) 70%. Instead, they need guidance from judges."

This week's court ruling was a big win for Samsung, which had already voluntarily agreed to stop selling its Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Australia last year until it resolved its patent disputes with Apple. In a statement issued today, the company said that the ruling "again demonstrates that Apple's products simply do not warrant the intellectual property protections it believes."

Apple, Microsoft and other big tech companies have been suing manufacturers that create and sell devices based on Google's Android operating system for alleged patent infringement since 2010. Apple got the ball rolling by filing a lawsuit against HTC for allegedly infringing on 20 Apple patents in March 2010 and Microsoft followed shortly after by announcing it had reached a licensing agreement with HTC where the company would pay Microsoft royalties in exchange for the right to sell Android-based devices.

To combat these patent suits against Android vendors, Google has attempted to boost its own patent portfolio through both its failed bid to acquire valuable tech patents formerly held by Nortel and its announcement that it intends to pay $12.5 billion to acquire Motorola Mobility and its portfolio of 24,500 patents.

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Apple may introduce the iPhone 5 at WWDC

Posted by Unknown Jumat, 27 Januari 2012 0 komentar

Many of the Apple rumours nowadays revolve around the upcoming iPad 3. But now and then, a few trickle in about the iPhone 5. The last bit of information about Apple’s upcoming flagship handset was that there was indeed a launch that would be held, alongside the 4S, but it got canceled due to problems in Verizon’s 4G LTE connection. As for the design of the iPhone 5, which is by far the biggest talking point, it was believed that the handset would feature a tapering design that has an aluminium back plate and is believed to come in nano-chromatic colours. The latest bit of information comes from 9to5Mac, where a reliable source from within Foxconn states that Apple is readying production of the iPhone 5.

Apple iPhone 5 may not look like this render

The report states that the source has revealed that there are a number of sample devices at the factory and hence it is impossible to know, which one is going to be the final version that will be released. However, there are a few consistencies between all the devices. All devices in the factory that are doing the rounds have displays that are larger than 4 inches. At least one of these displays are made by LG. Contradictory to many reports in the past, none of these handsets feature the tear drop design and all of them are wider and longer, but symmetrical in thickness. As expected, neither of the devices has the same form factor found on the iPhone 4 or 4S. It would make sense for Apple to ditch this design, as they have used it now on two generations of their iPhones. The source goes on to say that neither of these devices may be the final version and it could change at any given time.

The report mentions that this was the same source who informed them that Apple would be launching the iPhone 4S and not the iPhone 5, last year. Also, reportedly, if Apple is gearing up for production now, one should expect the handset to be launched by the time of Apple’s WWDC event, which takes place during the middle of the year.

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Prince of Persia : The Forgotten Sands

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ABOUT THE GAME

Marking the next-gen console debut of Ubisoft's critically acclaimed series, Prince of Persia - The Forgotten Sands is the next chapter in the Sands of Time universe. Visiting his brother's kingdom following his adventure in Azad, the Prince finds the royal palace under siege from a mighty army bent on its destruction. His brother Malik decides to use the ancient power of the Sand in a desperate gamble to save the kingdom from total annihilation. To save the kingdom, the Prince must embark on an epic adventure in which he will learn to bear the mantle of true leadership, and that great power often comes with a great cost.

Features:

Classic Gameplay Reinvented: From huge-scale multi-enemy combat to dizzying feats of acrobatic prowess in gigantic environments enhanced by the Prince's ability to control nature and time, The Forgotten Sands will push the Prince's prodigious abilities to a not-yet-seen level.

A Blockbuster Experience: With all-out war at the gates of the kingdom, the Prince's abilities will be challenged like never before through the course of epic wow moments, be it by scaling a castle tower collapsing under bombardment or combating foes hundreds of feet tall.
Mastery Over Nature: Wielding powers of nature and time, the Prince will have unparalleled mastery over his environment and his enemies. The Prince will discover that harnessing the forces of nature itself will prove to be a devastating companion to his ability to rewind time.
Better Than Ever: Powered by the Anvil Engine used for Assassin's Creed® 2, The Forgotten Sands promises to bring a Prince of Persia experience like never before seen.
Return of a Fan-Favorite Franchise: Set between Prince of Persia - The Sands of Time and Warrior Within, The Forgotten Sands provides fans with a new chapter in the saga of the Prince, and an opportunity to deepen their understanding of the events from this series.

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS-Supported OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista/Windows 7
Processor: Dual core processor 2.6 GHz Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ (Intel Core 2 Duo 2.2 GHz or AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ or better recommended)
RAM: 1 GB Windows XP/2 GB Windows Vista and Windows 7
Video Card: 256 MB DirectX 9.0 or higher compliant card with Shader Model 3.0 or higher (see supported list)
Sound Card: DirectX-compatible sound card or motherboard sound capability (5.1 sound card recommended
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0 or 10.0 libraries
Hard Drive Space: 8 GB
Peripherals: Keyboard, mouse, optional controller (Xbox 360 Controller for Windows recommended)

Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
ATI RADEON X1650-1950/HD 2000/3000 series
NVIDIA GeForce 6800/7/8/9 series

you can download the game from here (torrent link)

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Free Full Game

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Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time is a 3Dplatformer which focuses on acrobatics and agility. Throughout much of the game, the player must attempt to traverse the palace by running across walls, ascending or descending chasms by jumping back and forth between walls, avoiding traps, climbing structures and jumping from platform to platform, making other types of well-timed leaps, solving puzzles, and using discovered objects to progress.

Combat has a heavy focus on using acrobatics to defeat foes. One example is the ability of the Prince to rebound off walls in order to strike enemies decisively. The player can also vault over the enemies' backs and then finish them off. The player generally attacks enemies and blocks using a sword, although only the Dagger of Time can defeat humanoid enemies, with the exception of the final sword that is acquired in the game.

The Dagger of Time contains "charges" of the Sands of Time from the hourglass that allow the Prince to control time. The Prince has the ability to "rewind" time and travel up to ten seconds into the past. While using this ability, all sounds and previous action play backwards. For example, if the Prince was struck by an enemy attack during the rewound period, the health he lost will be given back to him, or a bridge that was destroyed a few seconds ago will repair itself. He can also save himself from death by falling, by rewinding time. The Dagger also allows the Prince to slow down time, and freeze his enemies, using it as a main-gauche to attack them directly.

The Dagger only comes with a limited number of uses which are replenished by absorbing enemies and Sand Clouds with the Dagger. This encourages the player to confront and vanquish enemies (as opposed to avoiding them) in order to replenish the power to manipulate time during the more tricky acrobatic sections of the game. However, if the player does not absorb the Sand from a fallen enemy in about five seconds, said enemy will come back to life. Extra Sand Tanks (used for rewinding time) can be gained by collecting eight Sand Clouds, and extra Power Tanks (used for all other abilities) are gained by vanquishing sixteen enemies after having collected a new Sand Tank.

Early in the game, the player will receive help from a non-playable character named Farah. She will assist in solving puzzles too complex for one person. During fights with sand creatures, she will also shoot arrows in an attempt to assist the player. If she dies, the game ends

you can download it from here

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Cloud computing: Taste The Cloud

Posted by Unknown Rabu, 25 Januari 2012 0 komentar

In our daily working with computers, its not uncommon to come across software that provide such obivous benefits that it becomes hard to live without them.of late, with cloud computing, this has also become the case of web services. Below are some utilities that will make your life simpler.

Use IFTTT to build bridges between diferent services
we are well versed with the concepts of 'events' and 're-sponses'. when a phone rings, we pick it up; if the oven's timer goes off, we check on our baking. the web services 'if this, then that' (IFTTT) now brings this concepts of events and responses to the internet.
         The resource lets you pick from large number of event sources e-mail services, social networks, online storage sites, photo sites, RSS feeds, etc and supports myriad action and responses that cab be carried out automatically in case a certain condition is met. Take Facebook, for instance. it has a feature that lets people tag in photos. this means your photo collection will not only the pictures you take, but also those in which your tagged. now consider the cloud storage service called Dropbox. Using IFTTT, you can set up an "if-then" condition that will automatically store the picture in which you are tagged to your dropbox account.
So whether its automatically updating your Twitter image when you update your Facebook image, or something more useful as getting an SMS notification of stock/currency rate updates, IFTTT can handle nearly everytning.
The resource offers numerous "channels" which can serve as source of events (most popular web services are included) and also as recipients of actions to be performed.
Website:http://ifttt.com

Use Attachments.me to search within your Gmail attachments
Gmail might have brilliant search system, but unfortunately, it doesn't search within your attachments. The creators or Attachments.me understand this need, and have built a system to index the content of your attachments.
        To use the service, create an Attachment.me account by signing up with your existing Google account. It will then being indexing as many as the last 10,000 messages in your inbox. Once it is done crawling through your email, you will be able to search through them through their website or even in Gmail itself if you install add-on (available for Firefox and Chrome).
   If you're bothered about privacy, don't worry. Attachments.me downloads a copy of your attachments in order to index them, but it stores them in an encrypted form on a secure server - and your account information can only be accessed by you. Additionally, if you remove your account, Attachments.me deletes all your data from their server. The only thing they maintain are statistics on the kinds of terms people search for so as to improve their systems.
Website: http://attachments.me

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Apple iPhone 4S vs. Samsung Galaxy S II: Which Is the Greatest?

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If you're new to the smartphone world, you may not know which way to go. Do you want Apple's iPhone 4S, which seems to be the "it" device that everyone wants, or do you want "the" high-end Android smartphone, the Samsung Galaxy S II?

AT&T, Verizon, and Sprint all offer almost identical versions of the iPhone 4S. The situation is abit more complicated with the Android device -- the Galaxy S II series includes the Galaxy S II and the Galaxy S II Skyrocket from from AT&T, theEpic 4G Touch from Sprint, and T-Mobile's version of the Galaxy S II. These are all basically the same device, with minor differences between the carrier-specific versions, except that the Skyrocket is equipped with 4G LTE.

Build & DesignWhen it comes to design, I say the iPhone 4S takes the prize. It's small, it's sexy, and everyone knows exactly what kind of phone you have when you pull it out. The Galaxy S II devices aren't exactly ugly, but they aren't exactly head-turners either, suffering from a "me too" design sensibility of all-black devices without any real flair.

Both the Apple and the Samsung handsets are dominated by large displays that cover the front of the device. They also have the same basic button and port layout, though the buttons on the iPhone 4S are slightly larger and easier to operate.

Display and KeyboardThe iPhone 4S is equipped with a 3.5-inch IPS display that has a resolution of 960 x 640 at 326 ppi. It has also been treated with an oleophobic coating designed to repel fingerprints, but you'll still be cleaning off the display pretty frequently.

The various Galaxy S II devices have larger displays than the iPhone 4S, measuring 4.3-inches to 4.5-inches, with a resolution of 800 x 480 (WVGA). They look very good, and being larger than the iPhone they offer more immersive entertainment, but they don't have that same high resolution, razor-sharp clarity.

The Galaxy S II devices do have an edge when it comes to outdoor viewing, because they are equipped with Super AMOLED Plus screens that are capable of amazing brightness. They almost cause your eyes to bleed at the highest settings. The iPhone 4S is also viewable outside, but isn't able to compete on sheer brightness.

When it comes to text entry, you'll be using a virtual keyboard on either of these smartphones, as none of them have a physical keyboard. They're pretty comparable across the board, though the Galaxy S II models have larger screens and therefore slightly larger virtual keyboards.

PortabilityThis is pretty much a dead heat, with the iPhone 4S being slightly smaller than most versions of the Galaxy S II series, but also slightly thicker. The Apple handset is more pocketable since it's smaller overall, measuring 4.5-inches tall, 2.31-inches wide, and 0.37-inches thick, but it is slightly heavier than the Galaxy S II phones since it weighs in at 4.9 ounces.

The Galaxy S II versions vary slightly in their exact measurements, but they are generally larger overall than the iPhone 4S. Sprint's Epic 4G Touch, for example, measures 5.1-inches tall, 2.7-inches wide, and 0.38-inches thick. For those looking for a smaller option, AT&T's Galaxy S II is 4.96-inches tall, 2.60-inches wide, and 0.35-inches thick.

Features and Capabilities
The iPhone 4S is based on the Apple A5 chip, which is a dual-core processor, though the actual processor speed has not been released by Apple. Most reports peg it at 1GHz. It is super fast and responsive, though there's no way to directly compare it to the Galaxy S II phones since the same benchmark apps aren't available for the iOS and Android OS.

The Galaxy S II phones from AT&T and Sprint have dual core 1.2 GHz processors, while the AT&T Skyrocket and the T-Mobile Galaxy S II Titanium have 1.5 GHz dual core processors. They all perform well and also have an edge when it comes to true multitasking, while the iPhone 4S has fast app switching and very limited multitasking (allowing apps to complete only certain tasks in the background when you switch).

When it comes to memory and storage, the iPhone 4S has advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the model you choose, it has more internal memory than any of the Galaxy S II devices, because it's available in sizes ranging from 16GB to 32GB. It does not, however, have any sort of memory card slot to add additional memory.

The Galaxy S II devices have 16GB of internal storage memory and also have a microSD slot that supports memory cards of up to 32GB in capacity. That means a top storage capacity of 48GB, less than the largest (and most expensive) iPhone 4S version, unless you want to deal with switching out the card on a regular basis. That would be quite a hassle, however, since the card slot is generally located in the battery compartment, and sometimes under the battery. For that reason, the iPhone wins when it comes to memory, assuming that the 64GB model is chosen.

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