Kidsshadow's Blog

Pemandangan Dari Atas Tebing Keraton Bandung - Nyikreuh.com

2016-08-25T17:39:00.000+07:00

Bandung, atau kota yang biasa disebut sebagai Kota Kembang emang ga bakal ada habisnya kalo kita kaitin dengan wisata, mau itu wisata kuliner, fashion, alam ataupun wisata lainnya. Ada banyaaaak objek wisata di kota ini yang bisa kita datengin untuk ngisi liburan ataupun sekedar refreshing doang. Ga cuman wisata mainstream yang emang udah tenar dari dulu, tapi di kota ini juga banyak bermunculan objek wisata baru yang ga kalah seru buat dijelajahin. Kali ini kita bakal sedikit ngulas tentang objek wisata yang kebilang cukup baru, tempat yang berada di kawasan Dago ini punya pemandangan dan suasana yang sejuk banget. Tempat ini juga sempet booming di tahun 2014 lalu, yap tempat wisata ini bernama Tebing Karaton atau yang orang-orang kenal dengan Tebing Keraton. Dari atas tebing ini kita bisa ngeliat luasnya hamparan pohon di Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda dan pemandangan ini nih yang ngebuat tebing ini jadi tenar. Selain itu tempat ini juga punya beberapa spot yang bagus untuk dijadiin tempat buat foto-foto, jadilah tempat ini makin wajib buat di kunjungin.

: Pemandangan hamparan hutan dari pinggir tebing

Akses Menuju Tebing Keraton

Tebing Keraton ini berada di kawasan Bandung bagian utara, kurang lebih di daerah dago ke atas dikit laaah. Buat sampe kesini kita bakalan ngelewatin beberapa tempat wisata yang cukup terkenal kaya Dago Pakar dan juga Warban (warung bandrek). Naah dari warban ini nih tebing keraton udah ga begitu jauh lagi, kita tinggal ngikutin jalan ke arah atas kurang lebih 15 menitan (pake motor) buat sampe kesini. Kalo takut nyasar kalian juga bisa buka maps atau tinggal nanya aja sama warga sekitar yang kalian temuin di jalan, pasti mereka ngasih tau arah yang benernya ko.

Kalo kalian kesini pake mobil, di deket warban kalian bakal diberhentiin sama orang disana, soalnya mobil ga dibolehin buat naik lebih atas lagi (berdasar pengalaman temen, tapi gatau juga sih kalo sekarang bisa). Nah dari situ kita bakal ditawarin naik ojek buat sampe keatas, tapi harga yang ditawarin lumayan mahal juga sih, sekitaran 50rb per ojeknya (dari warban). Daripada harus ngeluarin uang lebih banyak lagi, jadi enaknya mending kita bawa motor aja kalo mau kesana. Untuk kalian yang ga bawa kendaraan pribadi, selepas jalan dago udah gaada angkutan umum yang menuju ke arah sana selain ojek dan kalo jalan pun jaraknya lumayan jauh.

: Jalan di tebing keraton udah dipakein Paving Block coy!

Keadaan jalan buat sampe ke atas udah lumayan bagus, cuman begitu mau sampe ke tebingnya aja sih jalannya jadi rada jelek. Diperjalanan kita bakal ngelewatin kaya perumahan dulu di awal-awal, terus lanjut ngelewatin pepohonan yang bikin adem, ngelewatin warung-warung, lanjut lagi lewatin perkebunan, lewatin rumah warga desa sana dan barulah kita sampe ke tkp. Walaupun bukan jalan besar, di jalur ini juga udah lumayan rame sama lalu lalang orang yang lewat, apalagi di hari libur biasanya banyak tuh pesepeda yang naik kesini. Begitu mau sampe, kalo bawa motor kita bakal ditagih uang parkir sama penjaga disana, setelah itu barulah kita markirin motor dideket pintu masuk tebingnya atau bisa juga di deket warung punya warga sekitar.

Untuk artikel lebih lengkapnya kunjungi http://nyikreuh.com/pemandangan-dari-atas-tebing-keraton-bandung/ atau nyikreuh.com untuk baca cerita ataupun Catatan Perjalanan ke tempat-tempat lainnya.

Road Trip Menuju Pantai Sawarna di Banten

2016-08-14T22:44:00.002+07:00

Setelah sekian lama engga pergi ngetrip, akhir tahun kemaren akhirnya kita bisa lanjutin perjalanan buat nyambung hidup lagi (cielah). Awalnya kita ngerencanain buat ngelakuin road trip ke ujung kulon dan bakal dilanjut buat nyebrang ke pulau peucang, tapi karena persiapannya masih kurang (terutama biaya) jadilah kita ngurungin niat buat pergi kesana. Setelah mikirin banyak pertimbangan, akhirnya kita mutusin buat nyusurin pantai selatan mulai dari bandung sampe akhirnya ke Pantai Sawarna di Banten, tepatnya di desa Bayah. Sebenernya setelah dari sana kita masih ngelanjutin perjalanan buat nyusurin pantai sampe akhirnya berhenti di Kota Serang (lewatin anyer, carita dan lain-lain), tapi untuk postingan kali ini kita bahas khusus tentang trip ke Sawarna aja oke!

Sampai Ketemu Lagi Bandung! (Cimahi juga)

Dari beberapa hari sebelum keberangkatan kita udah mulai nyusun rencana buat keberlangsungan trip ini, mulai dari berapa budget yang dibutuhin, jalur mana yang bakal dilewatin, logistik apa aja yang perlu dibawa dan hal-hal teknis lainnya. Sehari sebelum keberangkatan kita semua sepakat buat nginep dan juga packing ulang di rumah Kenza di daerah cimahi, dan besok subuhnya kita langsung caw dari sana biar ga telat. Dari Cimahi kita mulai berangkat jam 6 pagi, jalur yang rencananya kita ambil yaitu Cimahi-Padalarang-Cianjur-Sukabumi-Pelabuhan Ratu-Sawarna. Pas perjalanan di dalem Cimahi sih masih lancar-lancar aja, tapi begitu masuk ke daerah padalarang jalanan mulai jadi padat dan sedikit macet.

Setelah ngelewatin kemacetan di sepanjang jalan padalarang, kurang lebih jam 8 akhirnya kita masuk juga ke daerah Cianjur. Keadaan jalan disana lumayan lancar alias ga macet, beda kaya waktu di padalarang yang ternyata macet karenda ada jalan yang ambles. Jam 9 pas akhirnya kita sampe di Sukabumi, jalanan disini juga lumayan lancar jadi kita bisa maju mulusss tanpa hambatan. Karena cuman ngandelin google maps sebagai navigator, kita sempet nyasar ke jalanan sempit dan akhirnya mentok di jalan buntu. Gara-garanya sih kita pede maju terus ngikutin arahan gmaps, pas nanya sama warga sekitar barulah dikasihtau kalo kita salah jalan dan harus muter balik lagi. Gara-gara nyasar ini kita ngebuang waktu 30 menitan, tapi ga apa apalaaah biar nambah pengalaman gitu.

It feels good to be lost in the right direction.

Anonymous

Setelah balik ke jalan yang bener, kurang lebih jam 12 siang kita akhirnya sampe juga di Pantai Palabuhan Ratu. Sebenernya niat kita cuman mau ngelewat doang, tapi ternyata malah ditagih Rp 20.000 sama petugas disana walaupun cuman buat ngelewat doang, karena udah bayar kita sekalian aja berhenti cari mushola dulu buat shalat dan regangin badan. Setelah beres istirahat kita lanjutin perjalanan lagi dengan tetap mengandalkan gmaps. Jalan yang kita ambil lumayan muter, yang harusnya kita bisa lebih cepet sampe kalo ngelewatin jalan utama, kita malah lewatin sejenis pabrik dan hutan-hutan gitu dulu buat sampe tujuan. Kurang lebih jam set.3 barulah kita sampe ke kawasan Pantai Sawarna di bayah, tepatnya di area parkiran mobil karena untuk ke pantainya sendiri kita udah gabisa bawa kendaraan roda empat, kalo motor sih masih bisa dibawa sampe pinggir pantai.

Touchdown, Sawarna!

Begitu sampe di parkiran mobil kita langsung nge-unpack barang-barang bawaan yang perlu diabawa ke pantai. Barang bawaan kita lumayan banyak laah, kaya galon, tenda, alat masak, gitar, baju dan lain-lain. Walaupun tiap orang udah bawa barang bawaannya masing-masing, ternyata kita masih perlu balik lagi ke mobil buat bawa barang sisanya. Untuk bisa sampe ke pantai kita perlu jalan lagi kurang lebih 10 menit, nyebrang ngelewatin jembatan dan juga deretan kebon punya warga sekitar. Biaya yang perlu kita keluarin untuk masuk kesini yaitu Rp. 5,000 per orang untuk tiket masuk dan Rp. 25,000 per mobil untuk biaya parkir satu malem, kalo untuk kendaraan roda dua kita kurang tau karena ga nanyain juga sih hehe.

Untuk artikel lebih lengkapnya kunjungi nyikreuh.com/road-trip-menuju-pantai-sawarna-di-banten/ atau nyikreuh.com untuk baca cerita ataupun Catatan Perjalanan ke tempat-tempat lainnya.

Menjelajahi TAHURA Bandung

2015-02-19T15:16:00.000+07:00

Perjalanan pertama dan Catatan Perjalanan pertama kita sebagai travel writer amatir (cie) dimulai dari Tahura atau Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda. Dari apa yang kita baca, tempat ini merupakan suatu kawasan konservasi hutan yang berada di daerah Dago Pakar, tepatnya di Bandung Utara. Kawasan ini terbentang mulai dari Curug Dago, Dago Pakar sampai Maribaya. Sebelumnya nama dari kawasan ini yaitu Taman Wisata Alam (TWA) Curug Dago, tapi pada tanggal 14 Januari 1985 (di hari dan bulan lahirnya Ir. H. Djuanda) secara resmi kawasan ini diubah menjadi Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda. Kawasan ini juga merupakan Taman Hutan Raya pertama yang berada di Indonesia.

Di hari keberangkatan (Rabu, 31 Desember 2014), kita yang jumlahnya 16 orang kumpul di terminal dago jam 6 pagi. Karena emang rencananya kita bakal jalan sampai tujuan (curug omas), biar lebih deket kita mutusin buat masuk lewat gerbang belakang. Jadi dari terminal dago kita jalan ke PLTA di daerah Bengkok dan dilanjut naik tangga seribu dari sana. Sebenarnya jumlah anak tangganya ga sampe seribu sih kalau dihitung, mungkin karena jumlahnya banyak makanya disebut tangga seribu. Pas sampai atas, kita tinggal lurus sampai nemuin plang yang nunjukin arah ke ticket booth gerbang belakang tahura. Harga tiket untuk wisatawan nusantara cukup murah, yaitu Rp.11,000,- /orang dan untuk wisatawan mancanegara yaitu Rp. 76,000,- /orang. Harga tersebut udah termasuk asuransi keselamatan (Rp.1,000,- /tiket).

Waktu baru masuk ke dalem kita bisa langsung ngeliat pepohonan tinggi yang ngejajar disana. Suasana di sana bener-bener sejuk, apalagi kalau datengnya pagi pas musim hujan. Sebenernya disana ga cuman hutan, tapi juga ada banyak objek lainnya yang bisa kita kunjungin contohnya Musium Hutan, Plaza Tahura, Forest Cafe, Goa Jepang dan Belanda, Penangkaran Rusa, Curug Omas dan yang terpenting buat masuk kesana kita ga perlu keluarin uang lagi, jadi bisa dibilang dengan tiket seharga Rp.11,000 itu kita bisa masuk ke banyak objek seru lainnya. Keadaan di Tahura sendiri waktu itu ga begitu ramai, mungkin gara-gara kita dateng pas di akhir tahun kali ya.

Sebelum ke Curug Omas jangan lupa buat masuk ke objek bersejarah kaya Goa Jepang dan Goa Belanda. Untuk masuk kesana bagusnya kita bawa senter sendiri sih, atau kalau di smartphonenya ada Flashlight bisa juga dimanfaatin. Buat yang ga bawa keduanya jangan khawatir, kita bisa sewa senter di depan Goa tersebut. Harga yang di tawarin biasanya Rp.6,000 buat satu senter, tapi kita bisa nego biar dapet harga yang lebih murah. Info yang kita dapetin disana, Goa Jepang dan Goa Belanda dulu digunain untuk tempat istirahat tentara Jepang/Belanda dan juga penjara untuk tawanan perang. Goa-goa tersebut juga pernah dijadiin tempat uji nyali ataupun wisata mistis beberapa waktu yang lalu.

Selain Goa Belanda ataupun Goa Jepang, masih banyak objek keren lainnya yang bisa kita datengin disana. Jarak dari masing-masing objek emang ga begitu jauh, jadi kita bisa 'nyikreuh' untuk ngeliat objek yang ada. Yang paling jauh yang bisa kita kunjungin disana yaitu Curug Omas. Yang kita ukur (pake aplikasi di android) jarak dari Goa Belanda ke Curug Omas yaitu 4,1Km. Emang jaraknya ga deket buat yang satu ini, tapi tenang aja soalnya di sepanjang perjalanan banyak disedian saung atau tempat duduk buat istirahat. Selain itu juga banyak warung ngejejer atau warga sekitar yang jualan makanan dan minuman disana. Sedikit tips biar jalan jauh ga kerasa, di perjalanan coba buat ngobrol, cerita ataupun becanda sama temen-temen seperjalanan. Yang saya rasain sendiri kemaren, perjalanan 4 kilo jadi engga kerasa kalo kita bener-bener nikmatin perjalanan tersebut.

Buat makanan sendiri yang dijual disana lumayan banyak, mulai dari makanan ringan kaya jagung bakar, gorengan, kue-kue tradisional sampai makanan berat kaya nasi goreng dan mie instan. Di sana juga ada yang jual minuman tradisional khas tanah Pasundan yang harus dicoba , yaitu Lahang. Lahang sendiri dibuat dari gula Aren dan rasanya tuh manis-manis asam, emang pas banget buat diminum kalo cuaca lagi panas dan keadaan tubuh yang cape. Harga untuk satu gelas lahang juga cukup murah, yaitu Rp.3,000. Untuk yang belum pernah coba, gaada salahnya keluarin uang sedikit buat ngerasain minuman ini.

Di perjalanan menuju Curug Omas dari Goa Belanda, banyak tempat-tempat yang bisa kita datengin dulu kaya Curug Lalay, Batu Batik, Pengangkaran rusa dan lain-lain. Buat ke batu batik ataupun curug lalay sendiri kita bener-bener butuh perjuangan yang lebih. Kenapa? akses jalan buat kesana jelek dan kalau ga hati-hati kita bisa kepeleset. Buat ke penangkaran rusa sendiri kita belum sempet ngeliat, mungkin lain kali kita bakal coba dateng kesana. Untuk yang ga kuat jalan jauh bisa juga naik ojeg buat ke curug omas. Uang yang perlu dikeluarin untuk naik ojek ke sana berkisar Rp.15,000 sampai Rp.40,000 tergantung negosiasi.

Sesampainya di Curug Omas kita disambut sama air terjun dan jembatan yang ngelintasinnya. Objek ini bener-bener keren buat difoto, kebukti kemaren aja beberapa dari kita banyak ngabisin waktu disana buat foto. Tapi satu hal yang bener-bener disayangin, yaitu ada banyak sampah yang ikut kebawa aliran air ataupun yang nyangkut di bebatuan di sungai. Dibutuhin kesadaran lebih dari masyarakat ataupun wisatawan buat ga buang sampah di aliran sungai sana. Di sana juga kita harus lebi hati-hati kalo gamau barang bawaan kita ilang, soalnya banyak monyet liar yang hidup di pohon-pohon sekitar. Dari sana juga kita bisa ngeliat tebing keraton dari bawahnya dan untuk ke sana kita ga perlu bayar tiket lagi. Kita bisa gunain tiket masuk ke Tahura ini untuk kesana, tapi jarak dari sana lumayan jauh kalo kita jalan kaki.

ESTIMASI PENGELUARAN

Tiket Masuk : Rp. 11.000
Lahang : Rp. 3.000
Makan dan minum : Rp. 10.000
Angkot pulang (sampai stasion) : Rp. 1.500

Total pengeluaran pribadi per-orang Rp. 25.500, sebenernya pengeluaran tersebut bisa dibikin lebih murah kalau kita bawa makanan dan minuman sendiri.
Secara keseluruhan Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda merupakan destinasi wisata yang menawarkan keindahan alam dan beberapa bangunan bersejarah. Dengan tiket masuk yang murah, kita bisa dapet banyak pengalaman dan hal menarik lainnya saat Menjelajahi Taman Hutan Raya Ir. H. Djuanda (termasuk foto bagus buat di upload di instagram haha). Jangan lupa follow Flickr (flickr.com/photos/nyikreuh) dan Instagram kita di @nyikreuh untuk ngeliat foto lainnya dari Tahura.

Kamera Profesional bagi Para Kaum ABG

2013-01-25T22:06:00.001+07:00

Pada tahun 2013 ini, bisa diperkirakan keberadaan kamera sudah menjadi seperti ponsel. Mengapa demikian? Bukan karena kamera memiliki berbagai fungsi seperti ponsel, tetapi karena kamera sudah banyak dimiliki oleh orang-orang. Banyak sekali jenis-jenis kamera yang dimiliki oleh banyak orang seperti kamera pcoket, prosumer, lomo, polaroid, SLR atau bahkan DSLR. Harga Kamera sendiri semakin lama semakin murah jika dibandingkan dengan beberapa tahun ke belakang. Teknologi juga semakin meningkat dari tahun ke tahun sehingga banyak sekali kamera baru yang dirilis setiap tahunnya.

Jika beberapa tahun ke belakang kamera SLR ataupun DSLR hanya dimiliki oleh orang-orang yang mempunyai pekerjaan di bidang fotografi, namun sekarang kamera SLR atau DSLR sudah dimiliki oleh banyak orang. Sekarang ini banyak orang yang rela mengeluarkan banyak uang agar dapat mengabadikan momen yang menurutnya penting. Bahkan sebagian orang juga rela mengeluarkan banyak uang untuk bepergian ke suatu tempat demi mendapatkan objek untuk difoto.

Contohnya kaum remaja jaman sekarang, tidak sedikit dari mereka yang telah memiliki kamera professional tersebut. Sebenarnya bukan hanya fungsinya yang mereka butuhkan, tetapi gengsi menjadi nomor satu. Bagi mereka, memiliki kamera SLR/DSLR sangatlah meningkatkan pamor mereka di mata teman-temannya. Tetapi tidak semua remaja yang memiliki kamera professional tersebut memiliki sifat seperti demikian, karena semua hal didasari oleh sifat perorangan.

Meningkatnya penjualan kamera SLR/DSLR pada kaum pelajar juga karena Harga Kamera Digital tersebut semakin lama semakin menjadi murah. Maka dari itu, banyak orang yang tidak merasa keberatan mengeluarkan uang untuk membeli kamera professional tersebut. Untungnya berkaitan dengan hal tersebut, semakin banyak juga lembaga yang menggelar lomba fotografi bagi kaum remaja khususnya bagi Pelajar SMA dan juga Mahasiswa.

Adsense

2010-07-03T06:34:00.005+07:00

AdSense

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

AdSense is an ad serving application run by Google Inc. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image, and video advertisements on their websites. These advertisements are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-impression basis. Google beta tested a cost-per-action service, but discontinued it in October 2008 in favor of a DoubleClick offering (also owned by Google). In Q1 2010, Google earned US$2.04 billion ($8.16 billion annualized), or 30% of total revenue, through AdSense.

AdSense

Developer(s)	Google Inc.
Initial release	June 18, 2003 (2003-06-18)
Operating system	Cross-platform (web-based application)
Type	Online advertising
Website	www.google.com/adsense

Overview

Google uses its Internet search technology to serve advertisements based on website content, the user's geographical location, and other factors. Those wanting to advertise with Google's targeted advertisement system may enroll through AdWords. AdSense has become a popular method of placing advertising on a website because the advertisements are less intrusive than most banners, and the content of the advertisements is often relevant to the website.

The use of proxy is allowed but if you use a proxy to enter your adsense account your account will be disabled. It has been seen lately that you can use proxies for logins, but sign up must be from a real computer. Proxies like hidemyass, armyproxy, schoolproxy, etc., can be used after signup.

Many websites use AdSense to monetize their content. AdSense has been particularly important for delivering advertising revenue to small websites that do not have the resources for developing advertising sales programs and sales people. To fill a website with advertisements that are relevant to the topics discussed, webmasters implement a brief script on the websites' pages. Websites that are content-rich have been very successful with this advertising program, as noted in a number of publisher case studies on the AdSense website.

Some webmasters invest significant effort into maximizing their own AdSense income. They do this in three ways:

1. They use a wide range of traffic-generating techniques, including but not limited to online advertising.
2. They build valuable content on their websites that attracts AdSense advertisements, which pay out the most when they are clicked.
3. They use text content on their websites that encourages visitors to click on advertisements. Note that Google prohibits webmasters from using phrases like "Click on my AdSense ads" to increase click rates. The phrases accepted are "Sponsored Links" and "Advertisements".

The source of all AdSense income is the AdWords program, which in turn has a complex pricing model based on a Vickrey second price auction. AdSense commands an advertiser to submit a sealed bid (i.e., a bid not observable by competitors). Additionally, for any given click received, advertisers only pay one bid increment above the second-highest bid.

History

Oingo, Inc., a privately held company located in Los Angeles, was started in 1998 by Gilad Elbaz and Adam Weissman. Oingo developed a proprietary search algorithm that was based on word meanings and built upon an underlying lexicon called WordNet, which was developed over the previous 15 years by researchers at Princeton University, led by George Miller.

Oingo changed its name to Applied Semantics (company) in 2001, which was later acquired by Google in April 2003 for US$102 million.

In 2009, Google AdSense announced that it would now be offering new features, including the ability to "enable multiple networks to display ads".

Types

AdSense for Feeds

In May 2005, Google announced a limited-participation beta version of AdSense for Feeds, a version of AdSense that runs on RSS and Atom feeds that have more than 100 active subscribers. According to the Official Google Blog, "advertisers have their ads placed in the most appropriate feed articles; publishers are paid for their original content; readers see relevant advertising—and in the long run, more quality feeds to choose from."

AdSense for Feeds works by inserting images into a feed. When the image is displayed by a RSS reader or Web browser, Google writes the advertising content into the image that it returns. The advertisement content is chosen based on the content of the feed surrounding the image. When the user clicks the image, he or she is redirected to the advertiser's website in the same way as regular AdSense advertisements.

AdSense for Feeds remained in its beta state until August 15, 2008, when it became available to all AdSense users.

AdSense for search

A companion to the regular AdSense program, AdSense for search, allows website owners to place Google search boxes on their websites. When a user searches the Internet or the website with the search box, Google shares any advertising revenue it makes from those searches with the website owner. However the publisher is paid only if the advertisements on the page are clicked: AdSense does not pay publishers for mere searches.

AdSense for mobile content

AdSense for mobile content allows publishers to generate earnings from their mobile websites using targeted Google advertisements. Just like AdSense for content, Google matches advertisements to the content of a website — in this case, a mobile website.

AdSense for domains

Adsense for domains allows advertisements to be placed on domain names that have not been developed. This offers domain name owners a way to monetize domain names that are otherwise dormant. Adsense for domains is currently being offered to some users, with plans to make it available to all in stages.

On December 12, 2008, TechCrunch reported that AdSense for Domains is available for all US publishers.

AdSense for video

AdSense for video allows publishers with video content to generate revenue using ad placements from Google's extensive Advertising network including popular Youtube videos.

XHTML compatibility

As of September 2007, the HTML code for the AdSense search box does not validate as XHTML, and does not follow modern principles of website design because of its use of

* non-standard end tags, such as and ,
* the attribute checked rather than checked="checked",
* presentational attributes other than id, class, or style — for example, bgcolor and align,
* a table structure for purely presentational (i.e., non-tabular) purposes,1 and
* the font tag.2

1: using a table structure for unintended purposes is strongly discouraged by the W3C, but nevertheless does not cause a document to fail validation — there is currently no algorithmic method of determining whether a table is used "correctly" (for displaying tabular data or for displaying elements, that get proportionally wider or narrower when browser window resizes in width without active client side scripting).
2: the font tag is deprecated but does not fail validation in any XHTML standard.

Additionally, the AdSense advertisement units use the JavaScript method document.write(), which does not work correctly when rendered with the application/xhtml+xml MIME type. The units also use the iframe HTML tag, which is not validated correctly with the XHTML 1.0 Strict or XHTML 1.0 Transitional DOCTYPEs.

The terms of the AdSense program forbid its affiliates from modifying the code, thus preventing these participants from having valid XHTML websites.

However, a workaround has been found by creating a separate HTML webpage containing only the AdSense advertisement units, and then importing this page into an XHTML webpage with an object tag. This workaround appears to be accepted by Google.

How AdSense works

* The webmaster inserts the AdSense JavaScript code into a webpage.
* Each time this page is visited, the JavaScript code uses inlined JSON to display content fetched from Google's servers.
* For contextual advertisements, Google's servers use a cache of the page to determine a set of high-value keywords. If keywords have been cached already, advertisements are served for those keywords based on the AdWords bidding system. (More details are described in the AdSense patent.)
* For site-targeted advertisements, the advertiser chooses the page(s) on which to display advertisements, and pays based on cost per mille (CPM), or the price advertisers choose to pay for every thousand advertisements displayed.
* For referrals, Google adds money to the advertiser's account when visitors either download the referred software or subscribe to the referred service. The referral program was retired in August 2008.
* Search advertisements are added to the list of results after the visitor performs a search.
* Because the JavaScript is sent to the Web browser when the page is requested, it is possible for other website owners to copy the JavaScript code into their own webpages. To protect against this type of fraud, AdSense customers can specify the pages on which advertisements should be shown. AdSense then ignores clicks from pages other than those specified.

Abuse

Some webmasters create websites tailored to lure searchers from Google and other engines onto their AdSense website to make money from clicks. These "zombie" websites often contain nothing but a large amount of interconnected, automated content (e.g., a directory with content from the Open Directory Project, or scraper websites relying on RSS feeds for content). Possibly the most popular form of such "AdSense farms" are splogs (spam blogs), which are centered around known high-paying keywords. Many of these websites use content from other websites, such as Wikipedia, to attract visitors. These and related approaches are considered to be search engine spam and can be reported to Google.

A Made for AdSense (MFA) website or webpage has little or no content, but is filled with advertisements so that users have no choice but to click on advertisements. Such pages were tolerated in the past, but due to complaints, Google now disables such accounts.

There have also been reports of Trojan horses engineered to produce counterfeit Google advertisements that are formatted looking like legitimate ones. The Trojan uploads itself onto an unsuspecting user's computer through a webpage and then replaces the original advertisements with its own set of malicious advertisements.

Criticism

Due to alleged concerns about click fraud, Google AdSense has been criticized by some search engine optimization firms as a large source of what Google calls "invalid clicks", in which one company clicks on a rival's search engine advertisements to drive up the other company's costs.

To help prevent click fraud, AdSense publishers can choose from a number of click-tracking programs. These programs display detailed information about the visitors who click on the AdSense advertisements. Publishers can use this to determine whether or not they have been a victim of click fraud. There are a number of commercial tracking scripts available for purchase.

The payment terms for webmasters have also been justly criticized. Google withholds payment until an account reaches US$100, but many micro content providers require a long time—years in some cases—to build up this much AdSense revenue. However, Google will pay all earned revenue greater than US$10 when an AdSense account is closed.

Many website owners complain that their AdSense accounts have been disabled just before they were supposed to receive their first paycheck from Google. Google claims accounts have been disabled due to click fraud or forbidden content, but have offered no proof of this. Attempts to appeal against Google decisions are directed to non-monitored mailboxes and do not receive replies.

Google came under fire when the official Google AdSense Blog showcased the French video website Imineo.com. This website violated Google's AdSense Program Policies by displaying AdSense alongside sexually explicit material. Typically, websites displaying AdSense have been banned from showing such content. Some sites have been banned for distributing copyrighted material even when they hold the copyright themselves or are authorized by the copyright holder to distribute the material.

It has been reported that using both AdSense and AdWords may cause a website to pay Google a commission when the website advertises itself.

In some cases, AdSense displays inappropriate or offensive ads. For example, in a news story about a terrorist attack in India, an advert was generated for a (presumably non-existent) educational qualification in terrorism.

Toy Story 3 (2010)

2010-07-03T05:48:00.004+07:00

Toy Story 3
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Toy Story 3 is a 2010 American 3D computer-animated film. It is the third installment in the Toy Story series. The film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. Lee Unkrich, who edited the previous films, and co-directed the second, takes over as director. In his place, Ken Schretzmann is the editor.

Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, John Ratzenberger, Wallace Shawn, Jeff Pidgeon, Jodi Benson, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, and Laurie Metcalf all reprised their voice-over roles from the previous films. Jim Varney, who played Slinky Dog in the first two movies, and Joe Ranft, who played Lenny and Wheezy, have both died since the second film was released. The role of Slinky was taken over by Blake Clark, while Ranft's characters and various others were written out of the story.

Toy Story 3 was released in theaters on June 17, 2010 in Singapore; June 18, 2010 in the United States and Canada and June 24, 2010 in Australia. It will be released on July 19, 2010 in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Originally the UK release was set as July 23 but has since been pushed forward due to its anticipated high demand in the country. Toy Story 3 broke the record of Shrek the Third as the biggest single day gross for an animated film, but it was unable to top Shrek the Third's opening weekend and, with a $110,307,189 gross, it received the second highest opening weekend for an animated movie.It is also the highest grossing opening weekend for a Pixar film, as well as the highest grossing opening weekend for a film to have opened in the month of June.

Toy Story 3
Official movie poster
Directed by	Lee Unkrich
Produced by	Darla K. Anderson John Lasseter (Executive) Nicole Paradis Grindl (Associate)
Written by	Michael Arndt
Starring	Tom Hanks Tim Allen Joan Cusack Ned Beatty Don Rickles Michael Keaton Wallace Shawn John Ratzenberger Estelle Harris John Morris Jodi Benson Emily Hahn Laurie Metcalf Blake Clark
Music by	Randy Newman
Editing by	Ken Schretzmann
Studio	Pixar Animation Studios
Distributed by	Walt Disney Pictures
Release date(s)	June 18, 2010 (2010-06-18)
Running time	103 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English Spanish
Budget	$200 million
Gross revenue	$373,039,169
Preceded by	Toy Story 2

Plot

The film opens with a Western-style action sequence, featuring Woody, Jessie and Buzz battling Hamm, Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head and the aliens. At the climax, the sequence is revealed to be a visualization of one of Andy's many imagined adventures while he played with the toys as a child. Now seventeen, Andy has long outgrown the toys and is preparing to move out of the house to attend college. He decides to bring Woody with him, and packs the other toys in a trash bag to be stored in the attic (a move the toys have long prepared for). However, his mother mistakes the bag for garbage and leaves it on the curb. After the toys barely manage to escape the garbage truck, they refuse to believe Woody (who saw what happened) when he says that Andy didn't intend to throw them away, and Woody and the rest of the toys end up sneaking into a box of donations to a local daycare, Sunnyside.

Upon their arrival at Sunnyside, the toys receive a warm welcome led by Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear (a.k.a. Lotso). Other Sunnyside residents include Ken and a baby doll named Big Baby. Lotso shows them to their new home, the Caterpillar room, before returning to the Butterfly room, where Lotso, Ken (now joined by Andy's sister's Barbie) and Big Baby live. While Sunnyside's children are still outside, Woody attempts again to persuade the other toys to return to Andy's house, but Lotso has convinced them that they will be happier at Sunnyside; Woody sets off alone. After he leaves, the remaining toys soon discover that the Caterpillar room is designated for toddlers, whose rambunctious nature is upsetting to the toys.

After escaping the building, Woody is found by a girl named Bonnie, who brings him home to play with her own well-loved array of toys. Woody learns from one of them, Chuckles the Clown, that Sunnyside is a virtual prison for toys, run with an iron fist by Lotso. Chuckles, Lotso and Big Baby were formerly owned by a girl named Daisy, who loved them dearly, with Lotso being the "special one", who she always kept close to her. However, Daisy accidently lost them while away from home, when they stopped at the roadside to play. When the trio finally made their way back to Daisy's home, Lotso found that he had been replaced, causing him to snap and become bitter and controlling.

Meanwhile, the toys at Sunnyside discover Lotso's true personality for themselves: when Buzz goes to ask Lotso to transfer them to the Butterfly room, he is captured by Ken, Big Baby and Lotso's other minions. Under Lotso's direction, they use Buzz's instruction book to reset his memory to its originally-packaged state, causing him to forget his friendships with Andy's other toys and become an officer under Lotso's control. With Buzz's help, Lotso has all of Andy's toys imprisoned on the shelves of the Caterpillar room.

Woody returns to Sunnyside to help his friends escape. After arriving, he meets Chatter Telephone, the oldest toy at Sunnyside, who informs him about Lotso's extensive security measures, including an cymbal-wielding monkey, who alerts Lotso to any attempted escape. The toys manage to carry out a plan to escape the Sunnyside via the garbage chute (although their efforts to restore Buzz's former self lead to him temporarily adopting his Spanish-language mode, which makes him more concerned with wooing Jessie through seductive salsa dance). As they narrowly avoid falling into the dumpster, Lotso and his henchmen surprise them. Woody tells the other toys about Lotso's past, convincing them of Lotso's deception and leading Big Baby to throw Lotso himself into the dumpster. However, Lotso manages to pull Woody in with him just before a garbage truck arrives, forcing the others to jump in as well in order to rescue Woody.

In the dumpster, Buzz is struck by a falling TV, which causes him to regain his memory and ability to speak English. The truck takes the toys to a landfill, where they are, through a series of events, forced onto a conveyor belt. They manage to pass over a shredder before realizing an incinerator looms ahead. Buzz and Woody help Lotso climb a ladder where he can push a button to stop the conveyor belt, but Lotso runs away once he is safe. As they realize they cannot escape the incinerator, the toys hold hands, ready to face their impending doom. They are rescued at the last moment by a giant claw crane being operated by the aliens. As the other toys are saved, Lotso is found by a garbage man who ties the bear to the front of his garbage truck.

The toys make their way back to Andy's room, where Woody goes back into the "College" box and the other toys enter a box designated for the attic. Unseen by the others, Woody writes a message on a Post-It and sticks it to the top of the "Attic" box. When Andy reads the note and discovers his assumed-lost toys, he decides to give the toys away instead of storing them. He brings the box over to Bonnie's house and asks if she will take care of them, explaining to her each toy's history and personality. At the bottom of the box, Bonnie recognizes Woody, and Andy reluctantly decides to give Woody to her as well. Andy and Bonnie play together with the toys, Andy's toys finally enjoying the final playtime with him that they've been longing for. Before Andy drives to college he thanks the toys for all the time they spent together. After the credits Sunnyside is shown under the leadership of Ken and Barbie, who have turned the daycare into a toy paradise. They keep in touch with Andy's toys by slipping notes into Bonnie's backpack.

Voice cast

Tom Hanks as Woody
Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear
Joan Cusack as Jessie
Ned Beatty as Lots-O'-Huggin' Bear
Don Rickles as Mr. Potato Head
Wallace Shawn as Rex
John Ratzenberger as Hamm
Blake Clark as Slinky Dog
Michael Keaton as Ken
Estelle Harris as Mrs. Potato Head
John Morris as Andy
Jodi Benson as Barbie
Emily Hahn as Bonnie
Laurie Metcalf as Mrs. Davis
Teddy Newton as Chatter Telephone
Bud Luckey as Chuckles the Clown
Timothy Dalton as Mr. Pricklepants
Kristen Schaal as Trixie
Jeff Garlin as Buttercup
Bonnie Hunt as Dolly
Beatrice Miller as Molly
John Cygan as Twitch
Jeff Pidgeon as Squeeze Toy Aliens
Whoopi Goldberg as Stretch
Jack Angel as Chunk
R. Lee Ermey as Sarge
Lori Alan as Bonnie's Mom
Jan Rabson as Sparks
Richard Kind as Bookworm
Charlie Bright as Peaty/Young Andy
Amber Kroner as Peatrice
Brianna Maiwand as Peanelope
Erik von Detten as Sid
Jack Willis as Frog

Non-speaking characters include Bullseye, Big Baby, Totoro, and the Monkey.

Several other characters were written out of the story by being either sold or thrown away after Toy Story 2 (they appear in this film only via archive footage).

The character of Slinky Dog also was limbo after the death of Slinky Dog's voice, actor Jim Varney, from lung cancer in 2000, shortly after Toy Story 2 came out. Veteran actor Blake Clark was chosen for the part. After Clark was cast to play Slinky Dog, the producers later discovered by accident that Clark and Varney had been close friends, making the transition a lot easier.

Development

According to the terms of Pixar's revised deal with Disney, all characters created by Pixar for their films were owned by Disney. Furthermore, Disney retains the rights to make sequels to any Pixar film, though Pixar retained the right of first refusal to work on these sequels. But in 2004, when the contentious negotiations between the two companies made a split appear likely, Disney Chairman at the time Michael Eisner put in motion plans to produce Toy Story 3 at a new Disney studio, Circle 7 Animation. Tim Allen, the voice of Buzz Lightyear, indicated a willingness to return even if Pixar was not on board.

Promotional art for Circle 7's Toy Story 3, displaying the storyline of the Buzz Lightyears being recalled; this story was later shelved.

Jim Herzfeld wrote a script for Circle 7's version of the film. It focused on the other toys shipping a malfunctioning Buzz to Taiwan, where he was built, believing that he will be fixed there. While searching on the Internet, they find out that many more Buzz Lightyear toys are malfunctioning around the world and the company has issued a massive recall. Fearing Buzz's destruction, a group of Andy's toys (Woody, Rex, Slinky, Mr. Potato Head, Hamm, Jessie, and Bullseye) venture to rescue Buzz. At the same time Buzz meets other toys from around the world that were once loved but have now been recalled.

In January 2006, Disney bought Pixar in a deal that put Pixar chiefs Edwin Catmull and John Lasseter in charge of all Disney Animation. Shortly thereafter, Circle 7 Animation was shut down and its version of Toy Story 3 was shelved. The following month, Disney CEO Robert Iger confirmed that Disney was in the process of transferring the production to Pixar. John Lasseter, Andrew Stanton, Pete Docter, and Lee Unkrich visited the house where they first pitched Toy Story and came up with the story for the film over a weekend. Stanton then wrote a treatment. On February 8, 2007, Catmull announced Toy Story 2's co-director, Lee Unkrich, as the sole director of the film instead of John Lasseter, and Michael Arndt as Screenwriter. The release date was moved to 2010.

When the people behind the movie sat down to look at their work from the original Toy Story during the early development stages, they found they could open the old files, but they could not edit the 3D models and had to recreate everything from scratch.

Instead of sending Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, and John Ratzenberger scripts for their consideration in reprising their roles, a complete story reel of the film was shown to the actors in a theater. The reel was made up of moving storyboards with pre-recorded voices, sound effects, and music. At the conclusion of the preview, the actors signed on to the film.

Dolby Laboratories announced that Toy Story 3 will be the first movie that will feature their theatrical 7.1 surround audio format.

Marketing

The film's first teaser trailer was released with the Disney Digital 3-D version of the film Up on May 29, 2009. On October 2, 2009 Toy Story and Toy Story 2 were re-released as a double feature in Disney Digital 3-D. The first full-length trailer was attached as an exclusive sneak peek and a first footage to the Toy Story double feature, on October 12, 2009. A second teaser was released on February 10, 2010, followed by a second full-length trailer on February 11 and appeared in 3D showings of Alice in Wonderland. On March 23, 2010, Toy Story was released on Blu-ray/DVD combo pack which included a small feature of "The Story of Toy Story 3". Also, Toy Story 2 was released on that day in the same format which had a small feature on the "Characters of Toy Story 3". On May 11, 2010, both films had a DVD-only re-release which contained the features.

Mattel Thinkway Toys and Lego are among those who will make toys to promote the film. Disney Interactive Studios has also produced a video game based on the film which was released on June 15, 2010.

Toy Story 3 was featured in Apple's iPhone OS 4 Event on April 8, 2010, with Steve Jobs demonstrating a Toy Story 3 themed iAd written in HTML5.

Pixar designed a commercial for a toy, Lots-o'-Huggin' Bear, and formatted it to look like it came from an old VCR recording. The recording was altered with distorted sound, noise along the bottom of the screen, and flickering video, all designed to make it look like a converted recording from around 1983. A Japanese version of the commercial was also released online..

On Dancing with the Stars' May 11, 2010 episode, the Gipsy Kings performed a Spanish-language version of the song "You've Got a Friend in Me". It also featured a paso doble dance which was choreographed by Cheryl Burke and Tony Dovolani. Both the song and dance are featured in the film.

Sneak peeks of the film are shown on Disney Channel. One sneak peek was shown on Cartoon Network in the United States on June 10, 2010.

Reception

The film has received universal acclaim. Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 99% of critics have given the film a positive review based on 206 reviews, with an average score of 8.8/10. The critical consensus is, "Deftly blending comedy, adventure, and honest emotion, Toy Story 3 is a rare second sequel that really works." Among Rotten Tomatoes' Cream of the Crop, which consists of popular and notable critics from the top newspapers, websites, television, and radio programs, the film holds an overall approval rating of 100% based on 33 reviews.Another review aggregator, Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 top reviews from mainstream critics, calculated a score of 91 based on 38 reviews.

A. O. Scott from The New York Times states: "This film -- this whole three-part, 15-year epic -- about the adventures of a bunch of silly plastic junk turns out also to be a long, melancholy meditation on loss, impermanence and that noble, stubborn, foolish thing called love. "Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly gave the film an A, saying: "Even with the bar raised high, Toy Story 3 enchanted and moved me so deeply I was flabbergasted that a digitally animated comedy about plastic playthings could have this effect." Gleiberman also wrote in the next issue that he, along with many other grown men, cried at the end of the movie. Michael Rechtshaffen from The Hollywood Reporter also gave the film a positive review, saying: "Woody, Buzz and playmates make a thoroughly engaging, emotionally satisfying return."Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert, while praising the film with 3 out of 4 stars, wrote that it is "a jolly, slapstick comedy, lacking the almost eerie humanity that infused the earlier Toy Story sagas, and happier with action and jokes than with characters and emotions". Writing her review for USA Today, Claudia Puig gave the film a complete 4 star rating writing "This installment, the best of the three, is everything a movie should be: hilarious, touching, exciting and clever. "Lou Lumenick, film critic of The New York Post, wrote "Toy Story 3 (which is pointlessly being shown in 3-D at most locations) may not be a masterpiece, but it still had me in tears at the end. "Michael Phillips gave the film 3/4 stars writing that "Compared with the riches of all kinds in recent Pixar masterworks such as Ratatouille, WALL-E and Up, Toy Story 3 looks and plays like an exceptionally slick and confident product, as opposed to a magical blend of commerce and popular art. "Orlando Sentinel film critic Roger Moore who gave the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars wrote "Dazzling, scary and sentimental, Toy Story 3 is a dark and emotional conclusion to the film series that made Pixar famous. "Box office

Toy Story 3 made a strong debut, grossing $41,148,961 on its opening day at the box office from 4,028 theaters and was set to be the biggest opening for a Pixar film, surpassing The Incredibles's $70,467,623. In addition, Toy Story 3 had the single-highest opening day gross for an animated film on record, beating Shrek the Third's $38 million. During its opening weekend, the film grossed $110,307,189, ranking it #1 for the weekend. The film had the second highest opening for an animated movie behind Shrek the Third's $121,629,270 and also had the third best opening for a movie in 2010 behind Iron Man 2 and Alice in Wonderland, which grossed $128,122,480 and $116,101,023 respectively. With this, Toy Story 3 also became the highest opening weekend film in June at the box office, beating Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Toy Story 3 also became the biggest opening G-rated film, the tenth biggest opening weekend of all-time, and the eighth top summer opening weekend of all-time. On its second weekend, Toy Story 3 lost 46.2% grossing $59,337,669, and remaining the #1 spot for two weeks defeating the new releases Grown Ups and Knight and Day. As of June 30, 2010, Toy Story 3 grossed $258,826,169 domestically and $114,213,000 in foreign countries which totals up to $373,039,169 worldwide.

Soundtrack

Toy Story 3
Soundtrack by Randy Newman
Released	June 15, 2010
Genre	Film score
Length	56:00
Label	Walt Disney Records

No.	Title	Artist	Length
1.	"We Belong Together"	Randy Newman	4:03
2.	"You've Got a Friend in Me (para Buzz Español)"	The Gipsy Kings	2:15
3.	"Cowboy!"	Randy Newman	4:11
4.	"Garbage?"	Randy Newman	2:41
5.	"Sunnyside"	Randy Newman	2:20
6.	"Woody Bails"	Randy Newman	4:40
7.	"Come to Papa"	Randy Newman	2:06
8.	"Go See Lotso"	Randy Newman	3:37
9.	"Bad Buzz"	Randy Newman	2:22
10.	"You Got Lucky"	Randy Newman	5:59
11.	"Spanish Buzz"	Randy Newman	3:31
12.	"What About Daisy?"	Randy Newman	2:07
13.	"To The Dump"	Randy Newman	3:51
14.	"The Claw"	Randy Newman	3:57
15.	"Going Home"	Randy Newman	3:22
16.	"So Long"	Randy Newman	4:55
17.	"Zu-Zu (Ken's Theme)"	Randy Newman	0:35

In addition to the tracks included in the soundtrack album, the film also uses "Dream Weaver" by Gary Wright, "Le Freak" by Chic, and Randy Newman's original version of "You've Got A Friend In Me".

Also, tracks "Cowboy!" and "Come to Papa" included material from Newman's rejected score to Air Force One.

Source : Wikipedia

Trailer :

Movie Download Link :
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Cara Mengklik Iklan Di Website PTC Gagabux

2010-04-18T16:44:00.005+07:00

Sebelum saya ngebahas tentang Cara Mengklik Iklan Di Gagabux, saya udah pernah share hasil payout dari PTC yang bernama "Gagabux" Dan Juga Bagaimana Cara Mendaftar Di Website PTC Gagabux . Nah kali ini saya mau memposting gimana cara klik iklan di gagabux. langsung aja ya saya kasih tutorial beserta pic hasil screenshoot saya sendiri.

Pertama-tama Login terlebih dahulu ke website gagabux, setelah itu klik menu "Surf Ads". nah setelah itu akan terlihat halaman surf ads tersebut seperti pic berikut.

Di Gambar tersebut terlihat beberapa kategori dan iklan-iklan yang bisa kita klik, tapi kali ini saya ambil contoh iklan The ShoeMoney System is Live saja. Klik pada tulisan "The ShoeMoney System Is Live" yang berwarna oranye, setelah di klik akan terdapat Icon Bulat berwarna merah dan terdapat tulisan "Click The Red Button To View The Advertisement" di tempat tadi kalian mengklik tulisan "The ShoeMoney" seperti pada pic di bawah ini.

Setelah Tombol merah tersebut di klik, browser otomatis akan membuat tab baru yang berisi website dari iklan "The ShoeMoney System Is Live" tersebut seperti pada pic di bawah ini.

Dari picture di atas kita bisa ngeliat isi dari website tersebut, dan di atas website tersebut terdapat banner gagabux dan tulisan 57%. kita tinggal menunggu beberapa detik lagi untuk bikin 57% naik-naik terus sampai ke 100% dan kita mendapatkan $0.01 dari hasil klik iklan tersebut. Jika sudah mencapai 100% akan terlihat seperti pic di bawah ini.

Di picture tersebut sudah terdapat baner hijau di bagian atas website yang bertuliskan "You have been credited for clicking the advertisement". itu berarti kita sudah berhasil mendapatkan $0.01 dari hasil klik iklan gagabux dan akan di simpan di "Current Balance" akun gagabux kita. Kalau kita masih mau ngejelajahin website tersebut kita tinggal klik tombol "Close" di sebelah tulisan "You have been credited for clicking the advertisement". tapi kalau udah puas ngeliat websitenya tutup saja tab tersebut. Nah sekarang icon di sebelah kiri tulisan "The ShoeMoney System Is Live" udah berubah jadi ikon jam dari yang asalnya ikon kantong uang. itu berarti kita udah pernah mengklik iklan tersebut, bisa di lihat seperti picture di bawah ini.

Sekian post dari saya tentang "Cara Mengklik Iklan Di Gagabux".
Thanks, Kidsshadow.

Payout Pertama Dari GagaBux / First Payout From Gagabux

2010-03-28T11:31:00.002+07:00

Halo, ketemu lagi sama saya. Udah lama nih gak ngeblog, kali ini saya mau ngepost tentang pengalaman saya dapet Payout dari GagaBux atau bahasa inggrisnya mah "First Payout From Gagabux" hehehe (sok inggris mode on) . Gagabux itu Website PTC, jadi kita dapet $ hanya untuk ngeklik-klik aja link yang di kasih sama mereka, terus kalau udah kekumpul banyak kita bisa request payout (minta gaji lah istilah lainnya).

Langsung aja nih Bukti-bukti pembayaran dari Gagabux.

jadi ingin gak dapet uang dari gagabux ?? caranya juga gampang kok, kita tinggal log-in di website mereka, terus kita klik-klik link yang di kasih sama mereka. setiap klik kita di kasih $0.01 terus kita bisa nge klik banyak iklan sehari, kalau saya biasa dapet 17 iklan sehari. jadinya sehari saya bisa dapet $0.17 . nah kalau kita mau payout yang pertama kita harus ngumpulin dulu sampai $2 . kira-kira 12 hari ngeklik udah bisa request payout.. nah kalau kita mau di hargain lebih mahal kliknya yaitu $0.02 per klik, kita bisa upgrade keanggotaan jadi silver, harganya $9 (kalau gak salah), dan kita bisa dapet lebih banyak klik dalam perharinya.

Sekian dulu deh pengalaman payout pertama saya dari gagabux. jadi yang mau daftar ke gagabux klik aja gambar di bawah ini, atau klik linknya DISINI.

Thanks ^^

Lockerz, Cuma ngumpulin poin bisa dapet hadiah-hadiah menarik.!

2010-03-07T08:02:00.002+07:00

Halo, ketemu lagi sama sayaa. ^^
Kali ini saya mo ngepost tentan "Lockerz". Agan-agan ada yang tau tentang lockerz gak ? klo gak saya post langsung ya about lockerz dari webnya langsung.

Apa itu lockerz ??? Lockerz adalah Website yang member dari website tersebut bisa mengumpulkan pointz atau disebut dengan ptz untuk mendapatkan Hadiah-hadiah menarik seperti : Kaos lockerz, Skateboard, DVD Game, Wii, Xbox, Voucher belanja di amazon.com, uang dari paypal, MacBook dan hadiah menarik lainnya. Langsung mulai ya penjelasan langsung dari webnya. ^^

What is Lockerz?

Lockerz launches in early 2010. Get in now and start earning PTZ (Pointz)!

Lockerz is an invitation-only website created to connect members through commerce, content and social networking. Once invited, you'll be able to watch exclusive video, buy great products, discover new music, play games, and connect with friends. You'll be able to do this all in one place, AND you'll get rewarded for just doing the things you love. When you watch a video, play a game, or even log in, you'll earn Pointz (or "PTZ") Lockerz own form of currency. Turn around and redeem your PTZ for incredible merchandise, unique experiences and exclusive deals and sales.
Our mission is to be your daily habit, not a site for your parents or grandparents looking for their long-lost friends from kindergarten. Thanks to our millions of members around the world, Lockerz is already taking off beyond our greatest expectations. While still in beta, we've been sending today's most coveted items, from iPods to Xboxes, to members around the globe who have redeemed their PTZ and earned great prizes.
Too good to be true? Why are we doing this? To thank you for joining early. To build a Lockerz community of leaders and trendsetters. To give you a taste of how PTZ will work when we go live in early 2010. And to test out different prizes and PTZ levels. That's key. This version of PTZ Place is a test. PTZ levels will change when the full Lockerz site launches.
We're excited to have our early members join now, and explore and help shape the site before our official launch. We hope you'll join us.

Cukup kan ??? Jadi udah tau tentang lockerz.

Nah sekarang gimana caranya ngedapetin Pointz ???
1. login ke ptz (klik lambang $ di bagian bawah kiri lockerz) = 2 ptz
2. jawab pertanyaan harian (Daily Question) = 2 ptz
3. nonton video (Nonton doang bisa beberapa video di tonton) = 2 ptz
4. invite orang (undang temen-temen buat join di lockerz) = 2 ptz per 1 teman.

Nih saya nemu imagenya dari kaskus.. Thanks to Riddance@kaskus.

Sekarang udah tau kan tentang lockerz ??
tinggal daftar aja langsung!! . tapi kita gak bisa asal daftar ke lockerz, jadi kita harus di invite sama orang lain.
kalo ada yang minat buat join Lockerz kirim aja email ke juni0rzone@yahoo.com (email gw atas nama "Ghiffari Hendana"). dengan subject "Daftar Lockerz". nanti saya email balik link buat daftar lockerznya.

kalau enggak bisa comment di postan di blog saya ini, post emailnya juga ya. nanti saya invite lockerz, atas nama "Ghiffari Hendana" dan bukan yang laen,,, hehehehe.
kalo enggak kalian tinggal masuk ke http://invite.lockerz.ro/?id=kidsshadow trus isi emailnya.. entar saya bales email agan sama link invite buat daftar lockerz. kalau udah cek di kotak masuk atau enggak spam.
sekian dulu ya.

Thanks, Kidsshadow. ^^

Playstation 2

2010-03-03T04:47:00.004+07:00

PlayStation 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The PlayStation 2 (often shortened to PS2) is a sixth-generation video game console manufactured by Sony. The successor to the PlayStation, and the predecessor to the PlayStation 3, the PlayStation 2 forms part of the PlayStation series of video game consoles. Its development was announced in March 1999 and it was released a year later in Japan. Its primary competitors were Sega's Dreamcast, Microsoft's Xbox, and the Nintendo GameCube.
The PS2 is the best-selling console to date, having reached over 138 million units sold as of August 18, 2009 and a software library projected to exceed about 1,900 games in 2009. Several new games are scheduled to be released in 2010, thus continuing the sixth generation. It also holds the dubious record for "First Console in a Nuclear Weapons conspiracy

PlayStation 2

Original model design and logo of the PS2.
Manufacturer	Sony Computer Entertainment
Product family	PlayStation
Type	Video game console
Generation	Sixth generation (128-bit era)
Retail availability	^JP March 4, 2000 ^NA October 26, 2000 ^EU November 24, 2000 ^AUS November 30, 2000
Units shipped	138 million (as of September 1, 2009)
Media	DVD, CD
CPU	128-bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294.912 MHz (launch), 299 MHz (newer models)
Storage capacity	40 GB Hard Drive , PlayStation and PlayStation 2 Memory cards
Graphics	"Graphics Synthesizer" clocked at 147.456 MHz
Controller input	DualShock 2
Connectivity	100 Mbit Ethernet/modem adapter, 2x USB 1.1
Online services	Dynamic Network Authentication System
Best-selling game	Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas: 17.33 million sold (as of February, 2009)
Backward compatibility	PlayStation
Predecessor	PlayStation
Successor	PlayStation 3

History

Only a few million people had obtained consoles by the end of 2000 due to manufacturing delays.Directly after its release, it was difficult to find PS2 units on retailer shelves. Another option was purchasing the console online through auction websites such as eBay, where people paid over one thousand dollars for a PS2. The PS2 initially sold well partly on the basis of the strength of the PlayStation brand and the console's backward compatibility, selling over 980,000 units in Japan by March 5, 2000, one day after launch. This allowed the PS2 to tap the large install base established by the PlayStation — another major selling point over the competition. Later, Sony added new development kits for game developers and more PS2 units for consumers.
A notable piece of advertising for the PS2 launch was accompanied by the popular "PS9" television commercial. It was to be the epitome of development, toward which the PS2 was the next step. The ad also presaged the development of the PlayStation Portable (first released in Japan on December 12, 2004).
Many analysts predicted a close three-way matchup between the PS2 and competitors Microsoft's Xbox and the Nintendo GameCube (GameCube being the cheapest of the three consoles and had an open market of games); however, the release of several blockbuster games during the 2001 holiday season maintained sales momentum and held off the PS2's rivals.
Although Sony, unlike Sega with its Dreamcast, placed little emphasis on online gaming during its first years, that changed upon the launch of the online-capable Xbox. Sony released the PlayStation Network Adaptor in late 2002 to compete with Microsoft, with several online first–party titles released alongside it, such as SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs to demonstrate its active support for Internet play. Sony also advertised heavily, and its online model had the support of Electronic Arts. Although Sony and Nintendo both started out late, and although both followed a decentralized model of online gaming where the responsibility is up to the developer to provide the servers, Sony's attempt made online gaming a major selling point of the PS2.
In September 2004, in time for the launch of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Sony revealed a new, slimmer PS2 (see Hardware revisions). In preparation for the launch of the new models (SCPH-70000-90000), Sony stopped making the older models (SCPH-30000-50000) to let the distribution channel empty its stock of the units. After an apparent manufacturing issue—Sony reportedly underestimated demand—caused some initial slowdown in producing the new unit caused in part by shortages between the time the old units were cleared out and the new units were ready. The issue was compounded in Britain when a Russian oil tanker became stuck in the Suez Canal, blocking a ship from China carrying PS2s bound for the UK. During one week in November, British sales totalled 6,000 units — compared to 70,000 units a few weeks prior. There were shortages in more than 1700 stores in North America on the day before Christmas.
Sony announced that starting April 1, 2009, the PS2 would be retailing at the price of $99.99.

Hardware and software compatibility

In addition to PS2 software, the PS2 can read both CDs and DVDs and is backward compatible with PlayStation games. The PS2 also supports PlayStation memory cards and controllers, although the memory cards only work with PS1 games and the controllers may not support all functions (such as analog buttons) for PS2 games.

The PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 controller is cosmetically similar to the original DualShock.

The PS2's DualShock 2 controller is essentially an upgraded PlayStation DualShock; analog face, shoulder and D-pad buttons replaced the digital buttons of the original. Like its predecessor, the DualShock 2 controller has force feedback, which is commonly called the "vibration" function. The standard PlayStation 2 memory card has an 8MB capacity and uses Sony's MagicGate encryption. This requirement prevented the production of memory cards by third parties who did not purchase a license for the MagicGate encryption. Memory cards without encryption can be used to store PlayStation game saves, but PlayStation games would be unable to read from or write to the card - such a card could only be used as a backup.
The console also features USB and IEEE 1394 expansion ports. Compatibility with USB and IEEE 1394 devices is dependent on the software supporting the device. For example, the PS2 BIOS will not boot an ISO image from a USB flash drive or operate a USB printer, as the machine's operating system does not include this functionality. By contrast, Gran Turismo 4 is programmed to save screenshots to a USB mass storage device and print images on certain USB printers. A PlayStation 2 HDD can be installed in an expansion bay on the back of the console, with some exceptions (see Hardware revisions below).

Online

With the purchase of a separate unit called the Network Adapter (which is built into the slimline model), some PS2 games support online multiplayer. Instead of having a unified, subscription-based online service like Xbox Live, online multiplayer on the PS2 is split between publishers and run on third-party servers. Most recent PS2 online games have been developed to exclusively support broadband Internet access. Xbox Live similarly requires a broadband Internet connection.
All online PS2 games released in and after 2003 are protected by the Dynamic Network Authentication System (DNAS). The purpose of this system is to prevent piracy and online cheating. DNAS will prevent games from being played online if they are determined to be pirated copies or if they have been modified. However, methods have been developed to get around this protection by modifying key files in the modified game.
Also, some unofficial modifications have been made on the PS2 software allowing it to be used as a fully-functional web browser or messenger when connecting to a certain network. The PS2 can also run Linux.
The Playstation 2 Network Adapter fits flush into "Expansion Bay" on the backside of the PS2. The Adapter offers for online play through Broadband internet connections. Also LAN gameplay is accessible through using an ethernet cord, and by connection multiple Playstation 2 consoles together. Online gameplay is also accessible by using a standard Dial-Up online connection with select Playstation 2 game titles.
The broadband adapter allows LAN play with XLink Kai, a created unofficial tunneling software that allows for LAN only games to be played over the Internet.

Hardware revisions

The PS2 has undergone many revisions, some only of internal construction and others involving substantial external changes. These are colloquially known among PS2 hardware hackers as V0, V1, V2, etc., up to V18 (as of 2010).
The PS2 is primarily differentiated between models featuring the original case design and "slimline" models, which were introduced at the end of 2004.

Original case design

The original PlayStation 2 design.

Three of the original PS2 launch models (SCPH-10000, SCPH-15000, and SCPH-18000) were only sold in Japan, and lacked the expansion bay (Dev9) of current PS2 models. These models included a PCMCIA slot instead of the Dev9 port of newer models. A PCMCIA-to-Dev9 adapter was later made available for these models. SCPH-10000 and SCPH-15000 did not have a built-in DVD movie playback and instead relied on encrypted playback software that was copied to a memory card from an included CD-ROM. (Normally, the PS2 will only execute encrypted software from its memory card, but see PS2 Independence Exploit.) V3 had a substantially different internal structure from the subsequent revisions, featuring several interconnected printed circuit boards. As of V4 everything was unified into one board, except the power supply. V5 introduced minor internal changes, and the only difference between V6 (sometimes called V5.1) and V5 is the orientation of the Power/Reset switch board connector, which was reversed to prevent the use of no-solder modchips. V7 and V8 included only minor revisions to V6. Assembly of the PS2 moved to the People's Republic of China during the development of V9 (model numbers SCPH-50000 and SCPH-50001). The upgraded console added an infrared port for the optional DVD remote control, removed the IEEE 1394 port, added the capability to read DVD-RW and DVD+RW discs, added progressive-scan output of DVD movies, and added a quieter fan. V10 and V11 were only minor revisions to V9.
The PS2 standard color is matte black. Several different variations in color have been produced in different quantities and regions, including ceramic white, light yellow, metallic blue (aqua), metallic silver, navy (star blue), opaque blue (astral blue), opaque black (midnight black), pearl white, Sakura purple, satin gold, satin silver, snow white, super red, transparent blue (ocean blue) and also Limited Edition color Pink which was distributed in some regions such as Oceania, and parts of Asia.
The small PlayStation logo on the front of the disc tray could be rotated ninety degrees, in order for the logo to be the right way up in both vertical and horizontal console orientations. This feature is also used in the slimlines.

Slimline

PlayStation 2 slimline
The first PS2 slimline. This was succeeded by another slimline in 2007.
Manufacturer	Sony Computer Entertainment
Product family	PlayStation
Type	Video game console
Generation	Sixth generation era
Retail availability	October 2004 - Present
CPU	333 MHz
Controller input	DualShock 2

In September 2004, Sony unveiled its third major hardware revision (V12, model number SCPH-70000). Available in late October 2004, it is smaller, thinner, and quieter than the older versions and includes a built-in Ethernet port (in some markets it also has an integrated modem). Due to its thinner profile, it does not contain the 3.5" expansion bay and therefore does not support the internal hard disk drive. It also lacks an internal power supply, similar to the GameCube, and has a modified Multitap expansion. The removal of the expansion bay has been criticized as a limitation due to the existence of titles such as Final Fantasy XI, which require the use of the HDD. The official PS2 Linux also requires an expansion bay to function. Currently only the modified Multitap is sold in stores, however these are also compatible with the older versions, and also added support for multiple memory cards on some games. Third-party connectors can be soldered into the unit giving hard drive support, however IDE connections were completely removed in the V14 revision, thereby eliminating this option. Certain mod chips enable the use of a USB hard drive or other mass storage device. As of October 2009 Present Playstation 2 SlimLine Can now use HDD by attaching a modified board and modified mod chip thus require minor soldering techniques.
There are some disputes on the numbering for this PS2 version, since there are actually two sub-versions of the SCPH-70000. One of them includes the old EE and GS chips, and the other contains the newer unified EE+GS chip, but otherwise they are identical. Since the V12 version had already been established for this model, there were some disputes regarding these sub-versions. Two propositions were to name the old model (with separate EE and GS chips) V11.5 and the newer model V12, and to name the old model V12 and the newer model V13. Currently, most people use V12 for both models, or V12 for the old model and V13 for the newer one.
The V12 model was first released in black, but a silver edition is available in the United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, United Arab Emirates and other GCC Countries, France, Italy, South Africa, and most recently, North America. It is unknown whether or not this will follow the color schemes of the older model, although a limited edition console that is pink in colour has become available since March 2007.
V12 (or V13) was succeeded by V14 (SCPH-75001 and SCPH-75002), which contains integrated EE and GS chips, and different ASICs compared to previous revisions, with some chips having a copyright date of 2005, compared to 2000 or 2001 for earlier models. It also has a different lens and some compatibility issues with a different number of PlayStation games and even some PS2 games.

Comparison of the slimline PlayStation 2 design with the PlayStation 2, with an Eye Toy on top.

In the beginning of 2005 it was found that some black slimline console power transformers bought between November and December 2004 were defective and could overheat. The units were recalled by Sony, with the company supplying a replacement model made in 2005.
Later hardware revisions had better compatibility with PlayStation games (Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions operates on most silver models); however, the new Japanese slim models have more issues with playing PlayStation games than the first PS2 revisions.
In 2006, Sony released new hardware revisions (V15, model numbers SCPH-77001a and SCPH-77001b). It was first released in Japan on September 15, 2006, including the Silver edition. After its release in Japan, it was then released in North America, Europe, and other parts of the world. The new revision uses an integrated, unified EE+GS chip, a redesigned ASIC, a different laser lens, an updated BIOS, and updated drivers.
In July 2007, Sony started shipping a revision of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-79000) featuring a reduced weight of 600 grams compared to 900 grams of the SCPH-77001, achieved through a reduction in parts. The unit also uses a smaller motherboard as well as a custom ASIC which houses the Emotion Engine, Graphics Synthesizer, and the RDRAM. The AC adaptor's weight was also reduced to 250 grams from the 350 grams in the previous revision.
Another refinement of the slimline PlayStation 2 (SCPH-90000) was released in Japan on November 22, 2007, and in the US in late 2008, with an overhauled internal design that incorporates the power supply into the console itself, with a further reduced total weight of 720 grams. SCPH-90000 series consoles manufactured after March 2008 incorporate a revised BIOS, which disables an exploit present in all older models that allowed homebrew applications to be launched from a memory card.

PSX

Main article: PSX (DVR)

Sony also manufactured a consumer device called the PSX that can be used as a digital video recorder and DVD burner in addition to playing PS2 games. The device was released in Japan on December 13, 2003, and is the first Sony product to include the XrossMediaBar interface. It did not sell well in the Japanese market and was not released anywhere else.

Sales

Region	Units sold	First available
Japan	21 million (as of October 1, 2008)	March 4, 2000
North America	50 million (as of December 2008)	October 26, 2000
Europe	48 million (as of May 6, 2008)	November 24, 2000
Worldwide	138 million (as of August 18, 2009)

On November 29, 2005, the PlayStation 2 became the fastest game console to reach 100 million units shipped, accomplishing the feat within 5 years and 9 months from its launch. This achievement occurred faster than its predecessor, the PlayStation, which took 9 years and 6 months to reach the same benchmark.
The PS2 has sold 138 million sell-in units worldwide as of August 18, 2009, according to Sony. In Europe, the PS2 has sold 48 million units as of May 6, 2008, according to Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. In North America, the PS2 has sold 50 million units as of December 2008. In Japan, the PS2 has sold 21,454,325 units as of October 1, 2008, according to Famitsu/Enterbrain.
In Europe, the PS2 sold 6 million units in 2006 and 3.8 million in 2007, according to estimates by Electronic Arts. In 2007, the PS2 sold 3.97 million units in the US according to the NPD Group and 816,419 units in Japan according to Enterbrain. In 2008, the PS2 sold 480,664 units in Japan, according to Enterbrain.

Accessories

Main articles: DualShock, PlayStation 2 HDD, EyeToy, PlayStation 2 Headset, and Logitech

The PlayStation 2's DualShock 2 controller is largely identical to the PlayStation's DualShock, with the same basic functionality; however, it includes analog pressure sensitivity on the face, shoulder and D-pad buttons, is lighter and includes two more levels of vibration.

The EyeToy.

Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller compatible with the PlayStation 2.

Optional hardware includes DualShock or DualShock 2 controllers, a PS2 DVD remote control, an internal or external HDD, a network adapter, horizontal and vertical stands, PlayStation or PS2 memory cards, light guns (GunCon), fishing rod and reel controllers. Also available are various cables and interconnects, including the Multitap for PlayStation or PS2, S-Video, RGB, SCART, VGA (for progressive scan games and PS2 Linux only), component and composite video cables, an RF modulator, a USB camera (EyeToy), dance pads for Dance Dance Revolution, In the Groove, and Pump It Up titles, Konami microphones for use with the Karaoke Revolution games, dual microphones (sold with and used exclusively for SingStar games), various "guitar" controllers (for the Guitar Freaks series and Guitar Hero series), the drum set controller (sold in a box set (or by itself) with a "guitar" controller and a USB microphone (for use with Rock Band), Onimusha 3 katana controller, Resident Evil 4 chainsaw controller, a USB keyboard and mouse, and a headset. Unlike the PlayStation, which required the use of an official Sony PlayStation mouse to play mouse-compatible games, the few PS2 games with mouse support work with standard PC-compatible USB mice. Early versions of the PS2 could be networked via an iLink port, though this had little game support and was dropped. The original PS2 multitap cannot be plugged into the newer slim models (as the multitap connects to the memory card slot as well as the controller slot and the memory card slot on the slimline is shallower). New slim-design multitaps are manufactured for these models, however third-party adapters also exist to permit original multitaps to be used. Some third party manufacturers have created devices that allow disabled people to access the PS2 through ordinary switches etc. One such device is the PS2-SAP from LEPMIS, another is for example the JPemulator.

Homebrew development

Technical specifications

The specifications of the PlayStation 2 console are as follows, with hardware revisions:

Emotion Engine CPU

Graphics Synthesizer GPU

Graphics Synthesizer as on SCPH39000.

Older EE+GS that does not incorporate system memory (Found in Older Charcoal Black Slim PS2s. (SCPH-70001).

ASIC that incorporates the EE, GS, and system memory (found in silver slim PS2s. Model SCPH-79000).

CPU: 128-bit "Emotion Engine" clocked at 294.912 MHz (299 MHz on newer versions), 10.5 million transistors
- System Memory: 32 MB Direct Rambus or RDRAM
- Memory bus Bandwidth: 3.2 gigabytes per second
- Main processor: MIPS R5900 CPU core, 64 bit, little endian (mipsel).
- Coprocessor: FPU (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 1, Floating Point Divider × 1)
- Vector Units: VU0 and VU1 (Floating Point Multiply Accumulator × 9, Floating Point Divider × 1), 32-bit, at 150 MHz.
  - VU0 typically used for polygon transformations optionally (under parallel or serial connection), physics and other gameplay based things
    - Parallel performs transformations in parallel in the same moment
    - Serial (series) performs transformations in a series of steps or stages coherent to the design of each VU
      - Stage 1: VU0 does perspective and cam, boning, animations and movement laws per triangle
      - Stage 2: VU1 does colors, lights and effects per triangle)
  - VU1 typically used for polygon transformations, lighting and other visual based calculations
    - Texture matrix able for 2 units (UV/ST)
- Floating Point Performance: 6.2 gigaFLOPS (single precision 32-bit floating point)
  - FPU 0.64 gigaFLOPS
  - VU0 2.44 gigaFLOPS
  - VU1 3.08 gigaFLOPS (with Internal 0.64 gigaFLOP EFU)
- 3D CG Geometric transformation(VU0+VU1 parallel): 66 million polygons per second
  - 3D CG Geometric transformations under curved surfaces: 16 million polygons per second
  - 3D CG Geometric transformations at peak bones/movements/effects(textures)/lights(VU0+VU1): 15-20 million polygons per second (dependent on if series or parallel T&L)
  - Actual real-world polygons (per frame):500-650k at 30fps, 250-325k at 60fps
- Compressed Image Decoder: MPEG-2
- I/O Processor interconnection: Remote Procedure Call over a serial link, DMA controller for bulk transfer
- Cache memory: Instruction: 16 KB, Data: 8 KB + 16 KB (ScrP)

Graphics processing unit: "Graphics Synthesizer" clocked at 147 MHz
- Pixel pipelines: 16
- Video output resolution: variable from 256x224 to 1280x1024 pixels
- 4 MB Embedded DRAM video memory bandwidth at 48 gigabytes per second (main system 32 MB can be dedicated into VRAM for off-screen materials)
  - Texture buffer bandwidth: 9.6 GB/s
  - Frame buffer bandwidth: 38.4 GB/s
- DRAM Bus width: 2560-bit (composed of three independent buses: 1024-bit write, 1024-bit read, 512-bit read/write)
- Pixel Configuration: RGB: Alpha:Z Buffer (24:8, 15:1 for RGB, 16, 24, or 32-bit Z buffer)
- Dedicated connection to: Main CPU and VU1
- Overall Pixel fillrate: 16x147 = 2.352 Gpixel/s (rounded to 2.4 Gpixel/s)
  - Pixel fillrate: with no texture, flat shaded 2.4(75,000,000 32pixel raster triangles)
  - Pixel fillrate: with 1 full texture(Diffuse Map), Gouraud shaded 1.2 (37,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
  - Pixel fillrate: with 2 full textures(Diffuse map + specular or alpha or other), Gouraud shaded 0.6 (18,750,000 32-bit pixel raster triangles)
- GS effects: AAx2 (poly sorting required), Bilinear, Trilinear, Multi-pass, Palletizing (4-bit = 6:1 ratio, 8-bit = 4:1)
- Multi-pass rendering ability
  - Four passes = 300 Mpixel/s (300 Mpixels/s divided by 32 pixels = 9,375,000 triangles/s lost every four passes)
Audio: "SPU1+SPU2" (SPU1 is actually the CPU clocked at 8 MHz)
- Sound Memory: 2 MB
- Number of voices: 48 hardware channels of ADPCM on SPU2 plus software-mixed channels
- Sampling Frequency: 44.1 kHz or 48 kHz (selectable)
- Output: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround sound, DTS (Full motion video only), later games achieved analog 5.1 surround during gameplay through Dolby Pro Logic II
I/O Processor
- I/O Memory: 2 MB
- CPU Core: Original PlayStation CPU (MIPS R3000A clocked at 33.8688 MHz or 37.5 MHz)
- Automatically underclocked to 33.8688 MHz to achieve hardware backwards compatibility with original PlayStation format games.
- Sub Bus: 32-bit
- Connection to: SPU and CD/DVD controller.

Interfaces:
- 2 proprietary PlayStation controller ports (250 kHz clock for PS1 and 500 kHz for PS2 controllers)
- 2 proprietary Memory Card slots using MagicGate encryption (250 kHz for PS1 cards, up to 2 MHz for PS2 cards)
- Expansion Bay (PCMCIA on early models for PCMCIA Network Adaptor and External Hard Disk Drive) DEV9 port for Network Adaptor
- Modem, Ethernet and Internal Hard Disk Drive (single IDE/ATA channel, possible to hook 2 devices to.)
- FireWire (only in SCPH 10xxx – 3xxxx)
- Infrared remote control port (SCPH 5000x and newer) — IEEE 1394 port removed and Infrared port added in SCPH-50000 and later hardware versions.
- 2 USB 1.1 ports with an OHCI-compatible controller.

Disc Drive type: proprietary interface through a custom micro-controller + DSP chip. 24x speed (PlayStation 2 format CD-ROM, PlayStation format CD-ROM), 4x (Supported DVD formats) — Region-locked with anti-copy protection. Can't read Gold Discs.

Supported Disc Media: PlayStation 2 format CD-ROM, PlayStation format CD-ROM, Compact Disc Audio, PlayStation 2 format DVD-ROM (4.7 GB)(some games on DVD9 8.5 GB), DVD Video (4.7 GB), DVD-9 (8.5 GB Double-Layer). Later models (starting with SCPH-50000) are DVD+RW, and DVD-RW compatible.

Disc Read Error (DRE) Lawsuit

A class action lawsuit was filed against Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. on July 16, 2002, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Mateo. The lawsuit addresses consumer reports of inappropriate "no disc error" (disc read error) messages and other problems associated with playing DVDs and CDs on the PlayStation 2.
Sony settled its “disc read error” lawsuit by compensating the affected gamers with USD $25, a free game from a specified list, and the reduced cost repair or replacement (at SCEA’s discretion) of the damaged system. This settlement was subject to the courts’ approval, and hearings began in the US and Canada on April 28, 2006, and May 11, 2006, respectively.

Emulation

See also: PCSX2

Source : Wikipedia

Playstation

2010-03-03T04:45:00.004+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The PlayStation (abbreviated PS, PSone, PS1, or PSX) is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, 1994.
The PlayStation was the first of PlayStation series of console and handheld game devices. Successor consoles and upgrades include the Net Yaroze, PS one, PSX, PocketStation, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable,and the Playstation 3. The PlayStation was the first "computer entertainment platform" to ship 100 million units, which it had reached 9 years and 6 months after its initial launch.

PlayStation™

Original model design and logo of the PS1.
Manufacturer	Sony Computer Entertainment
Product family	PlayStation
Type	Video game console
Generation	Fifth generation era
Retail availability	^JP December 3, 1994 ^NA September 9, 1995 ^EU September 29, 1995 ^AUS November 15, 1995
Discontinued	March 23, 2006
Units sold	102 million (as of July 20, 2008)
Units shipped	102.49 million, including 28.15 million PS one units (as of March 31, 2005)
Media	CD-ROM
CPU	MIPS R3000A-family R3051 @ 33.8688 MHz
Storage capacity	Memory card
Best-selling game	Gran Turismo, 10.85 million shipped (as of April 30, 2008)
Successor	PlayStation 2

History

An original PlayStation control pad. This model was later replaced by the Dual Analog, and then the DualShock.

The first conceptions of the PlayStation date back to 1986 in Japan where it was created. Nintendo had been attempting to work with disc technology since the Famicom, but the medium had problems. Its rewritable magnetic nature could be easily erased (thus leading to a lack of durability), and the discs were a copyright infringement danger. Consequently, when details of CDROM/XA (an extension of the CD-ROM format that combines compressed audio, visual, and computer data, allowing all to be accessed simultaneously) came out, Nintendo was interested. CD-ROM/XA was being simultaneously developed by Sony and Philips. Nintendo approached Sony to develop a CD-ROM add-on, tentatively titled the "SNES-CD". A contract was signed, and work began. Nintendo's choice of Sony was due to a prior dealing: Ken Kutaragi, the person who would later be dubbed "The Father of the PlayStation", was the individual who had sold Nintendo on using the Sony SPC-700 processor for use as the eight-channel ADPCM sound synthesis set in the Super Famicom/SNES console through an impressive demonstration of the processor's capabilities.
Sony also planned to develop a Super Famicom-compatible, Sony-branded console, but one which would be more of a home entertainment system playing both Super Nintendo cartridges and a new CD format which Sony would design. This was also to be the format used in SNES-CD discs, giving a large degree of control to Sony despite Nintendo's leading position in the video gaming market.

The DualShock controller.

The SNES-CD was to be announced at the May 1991 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). However, when Hiroshi Yamauchi read the original 1988 contract between Sony and Nintendo, he realized that the earlier agreement essentially handed Sony complete control over any and all titles written on the SNES CD-ROM format. Yamauchi decided that the contract was totally unacceptable and he secretly canceled all plans for the joint Nintendo-Sony SNES CD attachment. Instead of announcing a partnership between Sony and Nintendo, at 9 a.m. the day of the CES, Nintendo chairman Howard Lincoln stepped onto the stage and revealed that Nintendo was now allied with Philips, and Nintendo was planning on abandoning all the previous work Nintendo and Sony had accomplished. Lincoln and Minoru Arakawa had, unbeknownst to Sony, flown to Philips headquarters in Europe and formed an alliance of a decidedly different nature—one that would give Nintendo total control over its licenses on Philips machines.
After the collapse of the joint project, Sony considered halting their research, but ultimately the company decided to use what they had developed so far and make it into a complete, stand-alone console. As a result, Nintendo filed a lawsuit claiming breach of contract and attempted, in US federal court, to obtain an injunction against the release of the PlayStation, on the grounds that Nintendo owned the name. The federal judge presiding over the case denied the injunction and, in October 1991, the first incarnation of the new PlayStation was revealed. However, it is theorized that only 200 or so of these machines were ever produced.

PlayStation Memory Card.

By the end of 1992, Sony and Nintendo reached a deal whereby the "PlayStation" would still have a port for SNES games, but Nintendo would own the rights and receive the bulk of the profits from the games, and the SNES would continue to use the Sony-designed audio chip. However, Sony decided in early 1993 to begin reworking the "PlayStation" concept to target a new generation of hardware and software. As part of this process the SNES cartridge port was dropped and the space between the names was removed, thereby ending Nintendo's involvement with the project.

Launch

The PlayStation was launched in Japan on December 3, 1994, North America on September 9, 1995,Europe on September 29, 1995, and Oceania in November 15, 1995. The launch price in the American market was US$299 (a price point later used by its successor, the PlayStation 2), and Sony enjoyed a very successful launch with titles of almost every genre, including Battle Arena Toshinden, Warhawk, Air Combat, and Philosoma, and Ridge Racer. Almost all of Sony's and Namco's launch titles went on to spawn numerous sequels.

Functions

The PlayStation console posseses a number of features, in addition to playing games, has the ability to read and play audio CDs. The CD player has the ability to shuffle the playback order, play the songs in a programmed order, and repeat one song or the entire disk. This function, as well as a memory card manager, can be accessed by starting the console without inserting a game, thereby accessing a system menu. The original Playstation and PSone menus differ: the Playstation menu has a dark blue background and buttons that are designed like rainbow graffiti, the PSone has a blocked gray background with 2 icons, one with 2 memory cards on it, the other with a keyboard and some notes. If a game is put in the system at any time on the menu, the game will immediately start.

Titles

As of September 30, 2007, a total of 7,918 software titles have been released worldwide (counting games released in multiple regions as separate titles). As of March 31, 2007, the cumulative software shipment was at 962 million units. The very last game for the system released in the United States was FIFA Football 2005. However, it can be noted that on 07/26/07 in Japan and 03/18/08 in the US, Metal Gear Solid: The Essential Collection was released which contained new printings of the PlayStation 1 game Metal Gear Solid. The discs were in the PlayStation format and playable on PlayStation and PS One's.
The OK and Cancel buttons on most of the Japanese PlayStation games are reversed in their North American and European releases. In Japan, the File:MegadriveLogo.jpg button (maru, right) is used as the OK button, while the button (batsu, wrong) is used as Cancel. North American and European releases have the button or the buttons as the OK button, while either the or the buttons are used as Cancel (some titles like Xenogears used the button for cancelling actions and selections). However, a few games such as Squaresoft's Vagrant Story, Final Fantasy VII (with the button was used for the cancel button), and Final Fantasy Tactics, Namco's Ridge Racer Type 4 and Konami's Metal Gear Solid, have the buttons remain in the same Japanese configurational layout. Some games like Japanese version of Gran Turismo had used different control similar to North American games. These Japanese button layouts still apply to other PlayStation consoles, such as the PlayStation Portable (PSP), PlayStation 2, and the PlayStation 3. This is because in the early years Sony America (SCEA), Sony Europe (SCEE), and Sony Japan (SCEJ) had different development and testing documents (TRCs) for their respective territories.

Production Run

Lasting over 11 years, the PlayStation had one of the longest production runs in the video game industry. On March 23, 2006, Sony announced the end of production.

Variants

Developer's kit PlayStation (PAL)

The PlayStation went through a number of variants during its production run, each accompanied by a change in the part number. From an external perspective, the most notable change was the gradual reduction in the number of external connectors on the unit. This started very early on—the original Japanese launch units (SCPH-1000) had an S-Video port, which was removed on the next release. This also led to the strange situation where the US and European launch units had the same part number series (SCPH-100x) as the Japanese launch units, but had different hardware (Rev. C silicon and no S-Video port)—they were the same as the Japanese SCPH-3000, so for consistency should have been SCPH-3001 and SCPH-3002 (this numbering was used for the Yaroze machines, which were based on the same hardware and numbered DTL-H3000, DTL-H3001, and DTL-H3002). Also, the first models (DTL-H1000, DTL-H1001, DTL-H1002) had some problems with printf function and developers had to use another function instead. This series of machines had a reputation for CD drive problems—the optical pickup sled was made of thermoplastic, and eventually developed wear spots that moved the laser into a position where it was no longer parallel with the CD surface—a modification was made that replaced the sled with a die-cast one with hard nylon inserts, which corrected the problem.
With the release of the next series (SCPH-500x), the numbers moved back into sync. A number of changes were made to the unit internally (CD drive relocated, shielding simplified, PSU wiring simplified) and the RCA jacks and RFU power connectors were removed from the rear panel. This series also contained the SCPH-550x and SCPH-555x units, but these appear to have been bundle changes rather than actual hardware revisions.
These were followed by the SCPH-700x and SCHP-750x series—they are externally identical to the SCPH-500x machines, but have internal changes made to reduce manufacturing costs (for example, the system RAM went from 4 chips to 1, and the CD controller went from 3 chips to 1).
The final revision to the original PlayStation was the SCPH-900x series—these had the same hardware as the SCPH-750x machines with the exception of the removal of the parallel port and a slight reduction in the size of the PCB. The removal of the parallel port was probably partly because no official add-on had ever been released for it, and partly because it was being used to connect cheat cartridges that could be used to defeat the copy protection.
The PS one was based on substantially the same hardware as the SCPH-750x and 900x, but had the serial port removed, the controller / memory card ports moved to the main PCB and the power supply replaced with a DC-DC converter that was also on the main PCB.
With the early units, many gamers experienced skipping full-motion video or dreaded physical "ticking" noises coming from their PlayStations. The problem appears to have come from poorly placed vents leading to overheating in some environments—the plastic moldings inside the console would warp very slightly and create knock-on effects with the laser assembly. The solution was to ensure the console was sat on a surface which dissipated heat efficiently in a well vented area, or raise the unit up slightly by propping something at its edges. A common fix for already affected consoles was to turn the PlayStation sideways or upside-down (thereby using gravity to cancel the effects of the warped interior) although some gamers smacked the lid of the PlayStation to make a game load or work.
Earliest series had potentiometers on the board for adjusting the reading mechanism, named BIAS, GAIN and an unknown one. By connecting a voltmeter between the upper-most metering point near the BIAS potentiometer and the chassis, the resulting voltage could be read. The supposed right values are 1.70V when a CD is spinning at 1x speed and 1.85V when a CD is spinning at 2x speed. Further tuning was also possible on the unique potentiometer present on the CD drive. Later series featured an automatic laser calibration mechanism.
Sony then released a version dubbed "Dual Shock", which included a controller with two analog sticks and a built-in vibration-feedback feature.
Another version that was colored blue (as opposed to regular console units that were grey in color) was available to game developers and select press. Later versions of this were colored green—on a technical level, these units were almost identical to the retail units, but had a different CD controller in them that did not require the region code found on all pressed disks, since they were intended to be used with CD-R media for debugging. This also allowed the use of discs from different regions, but this was not officially supported; different debug stations existed for each region. The two different color cases were not cosmetic—the original blue debug station (DTL-H100x, DTL-H110x) contained "Revision B" silicon, the same as the early retail units (these units had silicon errata that needed software workarounds), the green units (DTL-H120x) had Rev. C hardware. As part of the required tests, the user had to test the title on both. Contrary to popular belief, the RAM was the same as the retail units at 2 MB. The firmware was nearly identical—the only significant change was that debug printf()s got sent to the serial port if the title didn't open it for communications—this used a DTL-H3050 serial cable (the same as the one used for the Yaroze).
Another version (SCPH-5903) was also produced that had the ability to play VCDs—this was only sold in Asia, since that format never really caught on anywhere else. From a developer perspective, the white PlayStation could be treated exactly like any other NTSC:J PlayStation.

"Chipped" consoles

The installation of a modchip allowed the PlayStation's capabilities to be expanded, and several options were made available. By the end of the system's life cycle almost anyone with minimal soldering experience was able to realize the modification of the console. Such a modification allowed the playing of games from other regions, such as PAL titles on a NTSC console, or allowed the ability to play copies of original games without restriction. Modchips allow the playing of games recorded on a regular CD-R. This created a wave of games developed without official approval using free, unofficial tools, as well as the reproduction of original discs. With the introduction of such devices the console was very attractive to programmers and illegal copiers alike.
A previous theory was that anyone seeking to create copies of games that would work correctly faced several issues at the time, as the discs that were produced by Sony were designed to be difficult to copy — and impossible to copy on recordable media. Discs were manufactured with a black-colored plastic (transparent only to the infrared radiation used by CD-ROM lasers), and it was theorized that the PlayStation's drive was engineered to require these tinted discs. However, this has been easily disproven, as PlayStation CD-ROMs can be read by most CD drives, and the PlayStation will read most recordable CDs. Nonetheless, the discs were mastered with a specific wobble in the lead-in area. This wobble encodes a four-character sequence which is checked by the CD-ROM drive's controller chip. The drive will only accept the disc if the code is correct. This string varies depending on the region of the disk—"SCEI" for NTSC:J machines, "SCEA" for NTSC:U/C machines, "SCEE" for PAL machines and "SCEW" for the Net Yaroze. Since the tracking pattern is pressed into the disc at the time of manufacture, this cannot be reproduced on a CD-R recorder. Some companies (notably Datel) did manage to produce discs that booted on unmodified retail units, but this required special equipment and can only be done with "pressed" discs. However, inexpensive modchips were created that simply injected the code to the appropriate connections to the controller chip, which provided an easy way of bypassing these measures. The other issue is that most PC drives used Mode 1 or Mode 2/Form 1 (2048 bytes/sector) and the PlayStation uses a mixed-mode format with most data in Mode 2/Form 1 and streaming audio/video data in Mode 2/Form 2, which most CD-R drives at the time could not handle well. Newer drives were able to correctly handle these variations.
The creation and mass-production of these inexpensive modchips, coupled with their ease of installation, marked the beginning of widespread console videogame copyright infringement. Also, CD burners were made available around this time. Prior to the PlayStation, the reproduction of copyrighted material for gaming consoles was restricted to either enthusiasts with exceptional technical ability, or others that had access to CD manufacturers. With this console, amateurs could replicate anything Sony was producing for a mere fraction of the MSRP.

Swap Trick

On earliest series, SCPH-100X and SCPH-3000, it was possible to launch games burned on CD-R without any mod-chip. The trick consisted in starting the console with no game, then going to the CD player application. After inserting an original game, using a small object like a match or a spring, make the lid contactor go down to simulate a closed lid. The CD would spin up and stop, after it was exchanged by another game this time burned on a CD-R. After exiting the CD player application, the PlayStation loads the game thinking it's an original CD. On later series, this trick was defeated, though it was still possible to realise a double-swap which consisted of launching an original game, the two times the CD-ROM spins to 2x speed and lowers to 1x speed, the original game was exchanged by a copy, twice. This defeated the tighter verifications on newer series, but at a price of wearing out the CD-ROM motor. A third method is to load a "GameShark" CD, swap discs (keeping the lid switch down), and start the game through the GameShark's menu.

Net Yaroze

A version of the PlayStation called the Net Yaroze was also produced. It was more expensive than the original PlayStation, colored black instead of the usual gray, and most importantly, came with tools and instructions that allowed a user to be able to program PlayStation games and applications without the need for a full developer suite, which cost many times the amount of a PlayStation and was only available to approved video game developers. Naturally, the Net Yaroze lacked many of the features the full developer suite provided. Programmers were also limited by the 2 MB of total game space that Net Yaroze allowed. The amount of space may seem small, but games like Ridge Racer ran entirely from the system RAM (except for the streamed music tracks). It was unique in that it was the only officially retailed PlayStation with no regional lockout; it would play games from any territory. It would not however play CD-R discs, so it was not possible to create self-booting Yaroze games without a modified PlayStation.

PS one

The redesigned PSone with an LCD Screen and DualShock controller

The PS one (also PSOne), launched in 1997, is Sony's smaller, redesigned version of its PlayStation video game console. The PS one is considerably smaller than the original PlayStation (dimensions being 38 mm × 193 mm × 144 mm versus 45 mm × 260 mm × 185 mm). It was released on July 7, 2000,
and went on to outsell all other consoles—including Sony's own brand-new PlayStation 2—throughout the remainder of the year. Sony also released a small LCD screen and an adaptor to power the unit for use in cars. The PS one is fully compatible with all PlayStation software. There were three differences between the "PS One" and the original, the first one being cosmetic change to the console, the second one was the home menu's Graphical User Interface, and the third being added protection against the modchip by changing the internal layout and making previous-generation modchip devices unusable. The PS one also lacks the original PlayStation's parallel and serial ports. The serial port allowed multiple consoles to be connected for multiplayer or for connecting a console to debugging software.

Summary of PlayStation models

The last digit of the PlayStation model number denotes the region in which it was sold:

0 is Japan (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC Video, 100V PSU)
1 is USA/Canada (English boot ROM, NTSC:U/C region, NTSC Video, 110V PSU)
2 is Europe/PAL (English boot ROM, PAL region, PAL Video, 220V PSU)
3 is Asia (Japanese boot ROM, NTSC:J region, NTSC video, 220V PSU)

Consumer models

Model:	Case:	BIOS:	Hardware:	Region:	A/V Direct Out:	Parallel Port:	Serial Port:	Sound Scope:	Notes:
SCPH-1000	Original (Grey)	Unknown (09/22/94)	Rev. A	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	FMV skipping issues. S-Video direct out.
SCPH-1001	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	FMV skipping issues. Based on SCPH-3000 series.
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.0 (05/10/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-1002	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-3000	Original (Grey)	1.1 (01/22/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	FMV skipping issues. Earliest units had a PU-7 board, further units featured a PU-8 board like SCPH-1002.
SCPH-3500	Original (Grey)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	FMV skipping issues.
SCPH-5000	Original (Grey)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No	CD-ROM drive re-located on right side of CD bay. Lens carriage reinforced and power simplified, fixing FMV skipping issues. A/V direct out and RFU power connector removed. Model numbers synchronized worldwide. SCPH-5552: A very rare Men in Black promotional model exists with a black case and the film's logo on the CD lid. SCPH-5903: Only model capable of playing Video CD movies. This model also has RCA plugs, like earlier PlayStation models.
SCPH-5001	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5002	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5003	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5500	Original (Grey)	3.0 (09/09/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5501	Original (Grey)	3.0 (11/18/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5502	Original (Grey)	3.0 (01/06/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5503	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5552	Original (Grey)	3.0 (01/06/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-5903	Original (White)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
SCPH-7000	Original (Grey)	4.0 (08/18/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes	DualShock now standard. Introduction of Sound Scope. Major manufacturing cost reductions took place from this model onwards. The number of memory chips and CD-ROM controllers were reduced, other components were simplified. SCPH-7000, SCPH-7001, and SCPH-7002: Available in midnight blue as promotional item to celebrate the 10 millionth PlayStation sold.
SCPH-7001	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7002	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7003	Original (Grey)	3.0 (11/18/96)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7500	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7501	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7502	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-7503	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9000	Original (Grey)	4.0 (08/18/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	Yes	Yes	Parallel port removed. Motherboard PCB reduced in size.
SCPH-9001	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9002	Original (Grey)	4.1 (12/16/97)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-9003	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	Yes	Yes
SCPH-100	PS one (White)	4.3 (03/11/00)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	No	Yes	Redesigned smaller case. Controller and memory card ports integrated onto motherboard. Serial port removed. Has external power supply.
SCPH-101	PS one (White)	4.5 (05/25/00)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-102	PS one (White)	4.4 (03/24/00)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-102	PS one (White)	4.5 (05/25/00)	Rev. C	PAL	No	No	No	Yes
SCPH-103	PS one (White)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	No	No	No	Yes

Speciality models

Model:	Case:	BIOS:	Hardware:	Region:	A/V Direct Out:	Parallel Port:	Serial Port:	Sound Scope:	Notes:
DTL-H1000	Original (Blue)	Unknown (09/22/94)	Rev. A	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. S-Video direct out. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies.
DTL-H1000H	Original (Grey)	1.1 (01/22/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies.
DTL-H1001	Original (Blue)	2.0 (05/07/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies.
DTL-H1001H	Original (Grey)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies.
DTL-H1002	Original (Blue)	2.0 (05/10/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies.
DTL-H1100	Original (Blue)	2.2 (03/06/96)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Has external power supply.
DTL-H1101	Original (Blue)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Has external power supply.
DTL-H1102	Original (Blue)	2.1 (07/17/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Has external power supply.
DTL-H1200	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Will not display PAL video mode.
DTL-H1201	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Will not display PAL video mode.
DTL-H1202	Original (Green)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. C	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Debugger. Can boot games from any region and CD-R copies. Will not display NTSC video mode.
DTL-H3000	Original (Black)	Unknown (Unknown)	Rev. B	NTSC-J	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Net Yaroze hobbyist development system. Can boot games from any region but not CD-R copies.
DTL-H3001	Original (Black)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	NTSC-U/C	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Net Yaroze hobbyist development system. Can boot games from any region but not CD-R copies.
DTL-H3002	Original (Black)	2.2 (12/04/95)	Rev. B	PAL	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	Low quality CD-ROM drive. Net Yaroze hobbyist development system. Can boot games from any region but not CD-R copies.

Successors

Sony's successor to the PlayStation is the PlayStation 2, which is backwards compatible with its predecessor in that it can play almost every PlayStation game. Unlike emulators that run on a PC, the PlayStation 2 actually contains the original PlayStation processor, allowing games to run exactly as they do on the PlayStation. For PlayStation 2 games this processor, called the IOP, is used for input and output (memory cards, DVD drive, network, and hard drive). Like its predecessor, the PlayStation 2 is based on hardware developed by Sony itself.
The third generation of the PlayStation known as the PlayStation 3 (abbreviated PS3), was launched on November 11, 2006 in Japan, November 17, 2006 in North America, and March 23, 2007 in Europe. The PlayStation 3 was initially backward compatible with all games that were originally made for the PlayStation and PlayStation 2, but due to the removal of the PlayStation 2 Emotion Engine Chip after the introduction of the 40 GB version, the capability to play PlayStation 2 discs is limited now to software emulation, and the capability to play original PlayStation games is still possible. While PS3 games are not region-locked, PlayStation and PlayStation 2 games still only play on a PS3 console from the same territory. The redesigned "Slim" form factor PS3 introduced in 2009 has had the ability to play PlayStation 2 games entirely removed, though it can still play games from the original PlayStation.
The PlayStation Portable (abbreviated PSP) is a handheld game console first released in late 2004. The PSP is capable of playing PlayStation games downloaded via Sony's online store, and can also play any PlayStation game by using the PlayStation 3's remote play feature while the disc in the PlayStation 3. Sony hopes to release nearly all PlayStation games on a gradual basis. It is also possible to convert original PlayStation disc images into executable binaries using freely available software. These games are then playable on PSPs that have been modified to run unsigned code.

An original PlayStation 2

An original PlayStation 3.

A 1000 series PlayStation Portable

Legacy

The success of the PlayStation is widely believed to have influenced the demise of the cartridge-based home console. While not the first system to utilize an optical disc format, it was the first success story, and ended up going head-to-head with the last major home console to rely on proprietary cartridges—the Nintendo 64.
Nintendo was very public about its skepticism toward using CDs and DVDs to store games, citing longer load times and durability issues. It was widely speculated that the company was even more concerned with copyright infringement, given its substantial reliance on licensing and exclusive titles for its revenue.
The increasing complexity of games (in content, graphics, and sound) pushed cartridges to their storage limits and this fact began to turn off third party developers. Also, CDs were appealing to publishers due to the fact that they could be produced at a significantly lower cost and offered more flexibility (it was easy to change production to meet demand). In turn, they were able to pass the lower costs onto consumers.

Quality of construction

The first batch of PlayStations used a KSM-440AAM laser unit whose case and all movable parts were completely made out of plastic. Over time, friction caused the plastic tray to wear out—usually unevenly. The placement of the laser unit close to the power supply accelerated wear because of the additional heat, which made the plastic even more vulnerable to friction. Eventually, the tray would become so worn that the laser no longer pointed directly at the CD and games would no longer load. Sony eventually fixed the problem by making the tray out of die-cast metal and placing the laser unit farther away from the power supply on later models of the PlayStation.
Some units, particularly the early 100x models, would be unable to play FMV or music correctly, resulting in skipping or freezing. In more extreme cases the PlayStation would only work correctly when turned onto its side or upside down.

Technical specifications

Central processing unit

R3051

MIPS R3000A-compatible 32bit RISC chip running at 33.8688 MHz
The chip is manufactured by LSI Logic Corp. with technology licensed from SGI.
Features:
- Operating performance of 30 MIPS
- Bus bandwidth 132 MB/s
- 4 KB Instruction Cache
- 1 KB non-associative SRAM Data Cache
- 2 MB of main RAM

Geometry transformation engine

Resides inside the main CPU chip, giving it additional vector math instructions used for 3D graphics
Features:
- Operating performance of 66 MIPS
- 360,000 flat-shaded polygons per second
- 180,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second
Theoretical polygon count in optimal conditions given by Sony:
- 1 million flat-shaded polygons per second;
- 500,000 texture mapped and light-sourced polygons per second.

Data decompression engine

Also residing within the main CPU, it is responsible for decompressing images and video.
Documented device mode is to read three RLE-encoded 16×16 macroblocks, run IDCT and assemble a single 16×16 RGB macroblock.
Output data may be transferred directly to GPU via DMA.
It is possible to overwrite IDCT matrix and some additional parameters, however MDEC internal instruction set was never documented.
Features:
- Compatible with MJPEG and H.261 files
- Operating Performance of 80 MIPS
- Directly connected to CPU Bus

An early PlayStation motherboard.

Graphics processing unit

Name unknown

Handles 2D graphics processing separate from the main 3D engine on the CPU
Features:
- Maximum of 16.7 million colors (24-bit color depth)
- Resolutions from 256x224 to 640x480
- Adjustable frame buffer
- Unlimited color lookup tables
- Maximum of 4000 8x8 pixel sprites with individual scaling and rotation
- Emulation of simultaneous backgrounds (for parallax scrolling)
- Flat or Gouraud shading and texture mapping
- 1 MB of VRAM

Sound processing unit

Name unknown

Supports ADPCM sources with up to 24 channels
Sampling rate of up to 44.1 kHz
512 KB of memory

Other

CD-ROM drive

2x, with a maximum data throughput of 300 KB/s
XA Mode 2 Compliant
CD-DA (CD-Digital Audio)
32 KB buffer

Operation System

Stored on 512 KB ROM

Memory Card

128 KB of space in an EEPROM

Source : Wikipedia

Kontera

2010-03-02T18:19:00.000+07:00

Kontera Technologies, Inc. is a provider of in-text advertising and information services.
Kontera's technology is based on several proprietary semantic, statistical, linguistic, and yield-maximization algorithms that analyze online content, extract and rank topics and keywords, and then match them to relevant advertisements, content, and information. The company's flagship product is called ContentLink.
Kontera was founded in 2003 by co-founders Yoav Shaham, Assaf Henkin, and Henit Vitos. The company is privately held and backed by Sequoia Capital and Carmel Ventures. Kontera is based in San Francisco, with offices in New York City and Herzliya, Israel.

Source : Wikipedia

Website : http://www.kontera.com

Neobux

2010-03-02T13:29:00.003+07:00

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First let's describe the amount you win per click and for each of your referral's clicks depending on the type of membership you have:
Standard Membership

Per click:	$0.010 (standard exposure) · $0.015 (extended exposure)
Per referral click:	$0.005 (standard exposure) · $0.010 (extended exposure)

Golden Membership

Per click:	$0.010 (standard exposure) · $0.020 (extended exposure)
Per referral click:	$0.010 (standard exposure) · $0.020 (extended exposure)

We also have mini exposure advertisements where users earn $0.005 for each click without referral commissions.
Minimum Payout:

The minimum payout amount is set at $2.00 (two US dollars) for your first payout request, $3.00 (three US dollars) for the second, $4.00 (four US dollars) for the third and so on until $10.00 (ten US dollars).
This means that when you reach or go beyond this limit, you can request your earned money.

Amount of time for payment processing:

After you request your payment, you'll receive it instantly in your chosen payment processor account unless some kind of technical difficulty is encountered during the process.

WHAT IS A REFERRAL?

A referral is someone who works for you.
Sounds good? Keep on reading:
A referral gets what every other user gets when they click ads: Money!
But, if a user that clicks ads is your referral, you get money, too!
There are two types of referrals and three ways of getting them:
Direct referral:

This user registered using your username as their referrer.

Rented referral:

You rented them.

So, how do you get referrals?
Here are the three ways you can do that:
Use our banner:

Show our banner online with a link to NeoBux with your username on that link (you can find the banners with the links in your account).
When the visitor clicks that banner, he/she will be sent here.
Then, all he/she has to do is register. We'll take care of the rest for you.

Talk:

Just tell everyone to register at NeoBux and to type your username in the referrer field when they do so.

Rent:

You can rent referrals monthly (30 calendar days) to work for you (this is not slavery... they win too).
Just go to your account to do so.
The quantity of referrals available will vary depending on how many users registered without a referrer.
You'll only get referrals that have clicked at least 10 advertisements in the past 5 days.

The renting price for each referral per month is:

Referrals	Golden		Standard
Referrals	Monthly	AutoPay	Monthly	AutoPay
0 -> 250	$0.20	$0.0060	$0.25	$0.0075
251 -> 500	$0.21	$0.0060	$0.26	$0.0080
501 -> 750	$0.22	$0.0065	$0.27	$0.0080
751 -> 1000	$0.23	$0.0070	$0.28	$0.0085
1001 -> 1250	$0.24	$0.0070	$0.29	$0.0085
1251 -> 1500	$0.25	$0.0075	$0.30	$0.0090
1501 -> 1750	$0.26	$0.0080	$0.31	$0.0090
over 1750	$0.27	$0.0080	$0.32	$0.0095

The number of rented referrals that each user can have is relative to his/her type of membership/pack as follows:

	Standard	Golden	Emerald	Platinum	Sapphire	Diamond	Ultimate
Limit	300	2000	2000	2000	2500	3000	4000

NOTE:

Members with an Ultimate pack can use the rental queue
after the normal rented limitations.
In this case each referral will have a cost of $0.60 plus an
additional $0.01 for each 100 referrals that the
user has above the limit to a maximum of $1.20.
This increased amount is only for rentals and not for extensions.

Pay daily using AutoPay:

You can activate AutoPay to extend your referrals' next payment date.
On the first click each referral makes per day, you'll pay to keep him/her for an extra day.
This is the fastest, easiest and cheapest way to keep your referrals.
Also, you'll save 10%.

Recycle your referrals:

You can recycle each referral any time you want to.
Is your referral inactive or just clicks a few advertisements per day?
No problem!
For just $0.07 you can replace him/her with a new active referral.

So, what are you waiting for?

	I BOUGHT SOMETHING. I WANT IT NOW!
	Yes, we know. That is why our delivery service is fast and professional. When you buy something at NeoBux, you will receive it as soon as the payment is approved. Even when loading a bus with referrals, it will only take a short time for them to arrive at your door.

	CAN SOMEONE CLICK FOR ME?
	Yes, we allow any living creature to click for you. So, if you have a dog, you can start training it (we would love to see the video)! If you think that a program that automatically clicks is a living creature, then your mental state is somewhat strange. If you use that type of programs: You'll be treated as a hacker. You'll get banned. We can't be friends.

CAN EVERYONE IN MY HOUSEHOLD JOIN?

Yes, everyone in your household can join NeoBux (even your mother-in-law)!
There is a catch, though... Only one user per IP is allowed in 24 hours and only one account per computer.
This means, that if everyone in your house logins in the same day, only the first one can earn by clicking the advertisements. To allow another user to click advertisements, he or she will have to wait 24 hours.
But everyone can login to check their account or post at the forums, for example.
So, in short, to click advertisements and get paid, only one user per IP in 24 hours and only one account per computer.
Don't do that at school, work or by using some kind of Proxy or VPN because usually the IP is the same for every Internet user and the computers may be acceded by other accounts.

I AM A HACKER!

That's nice!
Seriously, we love hackers. That is why we also thought of you!
Hackers will have a special attention from our system. Just for you, we have implemented one of the strongest anti-cheat protection in the industry so that you can work harder in cheating.
You will be warned when you try to cheat but we also have many other surprises because we know how much you love surprises. In certain cases you won't be warned!
As we love hackers so much, we will even update your account balance because we know what success means to you.
If our system finds out you are a hacker it will fight back. Don't worry, there is no violence involved... you will just be banned when you request your payment.
How do we know that you are a hacker:

You try to develop or use something that click ads for you.

You try to view advertisements you're not supposed to.

You are ugly!

If you get banned, it's because our system got upset with you so, it won't accept communications coming from you. Our system doesn't accept apologies.
If you're banned, you will lose all the money in your account!
(It's our way of saying: We told you so!)
You have been warned!

I WANT TO ADVERTISE! WHAT DO YOU OFFER ME?

As an advertiser you will get what you pay for.
We are different because we care about our advertisers.
This is what we offer you:
Advertisement Management

You only need to submit your advertisements once.

You can pause, resume or delete them any time you want.

You may set a demographic filter or show to all members.

You can buy clicks and distribute them by your advertisements.

You access detailed statistics during and after your advertisement display.

Click Packs Management

You buy how many clicks you need.

You decide how many clicks go to each advertisement.

If you decide to delete an advertisement that still has clicks left, no problem... you will get those clicks back in your account to use in another advertisement.

Demographic exposure

Choose to show your advertisement to the world or just a few countries.

Toggle the filter on and off and choose different countries for each advertisement.

Anti-Cheat Protection

Your advertisements will be shielded by a strong anti-cheat protection.

Clicks from hackers will never be accounted (but we may tell them they are).

It was never so easy and secure to advertise and manage your advertisements.

Source : www.neobux.com

Nah sekarang udah Tau kan tentang NeoBux ??
Yaudah sekarang tinggal daftar di NeoBux, Websitenya http://www.neobux.com, atau juga bisa klik gambar di bawah ini.
.

Thanks, Kidsshadow ^^

Hina Guru Lewat Facebook, 4 Siswa di keluarkan dari sekolah

2010-02-19T15:08:00.003+07:00

Pekanbaru - Facebook makan korban lagi. Empat siswa SMU Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang, ibukota Provinsi Kepulauan Riau (Kepri) dikeluarkan bersamaan karena dianggap menghina guru lewat jaringan sosial facebook.

Keempat siswa itu adalah Al, Ya, Ha dan siswi berinisial Am. Kabarnya keempat siswa ini kesal atas tugas rumah yang diberikan seorang guru wanita bidang keterampilan karena terlalu berat.

Lantas salah satu dari mereka melampiaskan kekesalan terhadap guru itu di facebook. Kalimat yang tertulis di facebook itu telah menyinggung guru yang bersangkutan.

“Saya bersama istri sudah minta maaf kepada pihak sekolah atas kejadian tersebut. Kami bermohon sekali agar anak kami tidak dikeluarkan. Namun permohonan kami ditolak. Anak saya pun akhirnya di keluarkan,” kata Edy Trisno, ayah dari Al, dalam perbincangan lewat telepon dengan detikcom, Minggu (14/2/2010).

Pertama kali yang membuat status di facebook itu adalah Ha, yang selanjutnya tiga rekannya ikut nimbrung.

Mereka menulis di facebook karena yakin guru tersebut tidak familiar dengan situs jejaring sosial itu. Lantas komentar para murid di facebook beredar di sekolah dalam bentuk lembaran kertas kopian.

Dari sanalah, lantas pihak SMU Negeri 4 Tanjungpinang, tidak memberi ampun kepada muridnya. Pihak sekolah mengeluarkan murid tersebut.

Sumber : Detik News.

Wah kasian ya, gara-gara ngehina guru di facebook langsung di keluarin dari sekolah.
lain kali berfikir dulu sebelum bertindak.. hehehe

Ati Technologies

2010-02-05T13:02:00.004+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

ATI Technologies Inc. (ATI) was a major Canadian designer and supplier of graphics processing units and motherboard chipsets. In 2006, the company was acquired by Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) and was renamed the AMD Graphics Product Group (or sometimes named ATI Technologies ULC), although the ATI brand was retained for graphics cards.
The AMD Graphics Product Group is a fabless semiconductor company conducting in-house research and development and outsourcing the manufacturing and assembly of its products. Its main competitor is NVIDIA in the graphics and handheld market. The flagship product, the Radeon series of graphics cards, directly competes with NVIDIA's GeForce. These two companies' dominance of the market forced other manufacturers into niche roles.

ATI Technologies Inc.

Fate	Acquired by AMD
Founded	1985
Defunct	2006
Headquarters	1 Commerce Valley Drive East Markham, Ontario, Canada
Key people	Adrian Hartog, president, AMD Canada Rick Bergman, Sr. VP and GM
Industry	Semiconductors
Products	Graphics processing units Chipsets Video capture cards
Website	ati.amd.com

History

In 1985, ATI was founded as Array Technologies Incorporated by Lee Ka Lau, Benny Lau and Kwok Yuen Ho. Working primarily in the OEM field, ATI produced integrated graphics cards for PC manufacturers such as IBM and Commodore. By 1987, ATI had grown into an independent graphics card retailer, introducing EGA Wonder and VGA Wonder graphic card product lines under its brand that year. In May 1991, the company released the Mach8, ATI's first product able to process graphics without the CPU. Debuting in 1992, the Mach32 offered improved memory bandwidth and GUI acceleration performance. ATI Technologies Inc. went public in 1993 with stock listed at NASDAQ and Toronto Stock Exchange.

AMD Markham at the former ATI headquarters.

ATI's former Silicon Valley office.

ATI VGA Wonder with 256 KB RAM.

In 1994, the Mach64 accelerator debuted, powering the Graphics Xpression and Graphics Pro Turbo, offering hardware support for YUV-to-RGB color space conversion in addition to hardware zoom; early techniques of hardware-based video acceleration.
ATI introduced its first combination of 2D and 3D accelerator under the name 3D Rage. This chip was based on the Mach 64 but it featured elemental 3D acceleration. The ATI Rage line powered almost the entire range of ATI graphics products. In particular, the Rage Pro was one of the first viable 2D-plus-3D alternatives to 3Dfx's 3D-only Voodoo chipset. 3D acceleration in the Rage line advanced from the basic functionality within the initial 3D Rage to a more advanced DirectX 6.0 accelerator in the 1999 Rage 128.
The All-in-Wonder product line introduced in 1996 was the first combination of integrated graphics chip with TV tuner card and the first chip that enabled to display computer graphics on a TV set. The cards featured 3D acceleration powered by ATI's second generation 3D Rage II, 64-bit 2D performance, TV-quality video acceleration, analog video capture, TV tuner functionality, flicker-free TV-out and stereo TV audio reception.
ATI made an entrance into the mobile computing sector by introducing 3D-graphics acceleration to laptops in 1996. The Mobility product line had to meet requirements different from desktop PC, such as minimized power usage, reduced heat output, TMDS output capabilities for laptop screens, and maximized integration. In 1997, ATI acquired Tseng Labs's graphics assets, which included 40 engineers.
The Radeon line of graphics products was unveiled in 2000. The initial Radeon graphics processing unit was an all-new design with DirectX 7.0 3D acceleration, video acceleration, and 2D acceleration. Technology developed for a specific Radeon generation could be built in varying levels of features and performance in order to provide products suited for the entire market range, from high-end to budget to mobile versions.
In 2000, ATI acquired ArtX, which engineered the Flipper graphics chip used in the Nintendo GameCube game console. They have also created a modified version of the chip (codenamed Hollywood) for the successor of the GameCube, the Wii. ATI was contracted by Microsoft to create the graphics core (codenamed Xenos) for the Xbox 360. Later in 2005, ATI acquired Terayon's Cable Modem Silicon Intellectual Property strengthening their lead in the consumer digital television market. K. Y. Ho remained as Chairman of the Board until he retired in November 2005. Dave Orton replaced him as the President and CEO of the organization.
On July 24, 2006, AMD and ATI announced a plan to merge together in a deal valued at $5.4 billion. The merger closed on October 25, 2006. The acquisition consideration included over $2 billion financed from a loan and 56 million shares of AMD stock. ATI retained its name, logos and trademarks. ATI's then CEO Dave Orton was made the Executive Vice President of Visual and Media Businesses.
It was reported that in December 2006 AMD/ATI, along with its main rival NVIDIA, received subpoenas from the United States Department of Justice regarding possible antitrust violations in the graphics card industry.
In July 2007, AMD announced the resignation of Dave Orton. ATI, a subsidiary of AMD, is called the Graphics Product Group (GPG) inside the company. The top-level management of the Graphics Product Group consists of Rick Bergman, Senior Vice President and General Manager and Adrian Hartog, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Consumer Electronics Group. Both report to Dirk Meyer, CEO of AMD.

Products

ATI's Ruby fictional female character.

In addition to developing high-end GPUs (originally called a VPU, visual processing unit, by ATI) for PCs, ATI also designs embedded versions for laptops (Mobility Radeon), PDAs and mobile phones (Imageon), integrated motherboards (Radeon IGP), and others.
ATI promotes some of its products with the fictional "Ruby" female character, described as a "mercenary for hire." Computer animated videos produced by RhinoFX about Ruby on a mission (being a sniper, saboteur, hacker and so on) are displayed at large technology shows such as CeBIT and CES.

Computer graphics chipsets

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Graphics Solution / "Small Wonder" - Series of 8-bit ISA cards with MDA, Hercules and CGA compatibility. Later versions added EGA support.
EGA / VGA Wonder - IBM "EGA/VGA-compatible" display adapters (1987)
Mach Series - Introduced ATI's first 2D GUI "Windows Accelerator". As the series evolved, GUI acceleration improved dramatically and early video acceleration appeared.
Rage Series - ATI's first 2D and 3D accelerator chips. The series evolved from rudimentary 3D with 2D GUI acceleration and MPEG-1 capability, to a highly competitive Direct3D 6 accelerator with then "best-in-class" DVD (MPEG2) acceleration. The various chips were very popular with OEMs of the time. The Rage II was used in the first ATI All-In-Wonder multi-function video card, and more advanced All-In-Wonders based on Rage series GPUs followed. (1995–2004)
- Rage Mobility - Designed for use in low-power environments, such as notebooks. These chips were functionally similar to their desktop counterparts, but had additions such as advanced power management, LCD interfaces, and dual monitor functionality.

Radeon Series - Launched in 2000, the Radeon line is ATI's brand for their consumer 3D accelerator add-in cards. The original Radeon DDR was ATI's first DirectX 7 3D accelerator, introducing their first hardware T&L engine. ATI often produced 'Pro' versions with higher clock speeds, and sometimes an extreme 'XT' version, and even more recently 'XT Platinum Edition (PE)' and 'XTX' versions. The Radeon series was the basis for many ATI All-In-Wonder boards.
- Mobility Radeon - A series of power-optimized versions of Radeon graphics chips for use in laptops. They introduced innovations such as modularized RAM chips, DVD (MPEG2) acceleration, notebook GPU card sockets, and "PowerPlay" power management technology. AMD recently announced DirectX 11-compatible versions of its mobile processors.
- ATI CrossFire - This technology was ATI's response to NVIDIA's SLI platform. It allowed, by using a secondary video card and a dual PCI-E motherboard based on an ATI Crossfire-compatible chipset, the ability to combine the power of the two video cards to increase performance through a variety of different rendering options. There is an option for additional PCI-E video card plugging into the third PCI-E slot for gaming physics, or another option to do physics on the second video card.
FireGL - Launched in 2001, following ATI's acquisition of FireGL Graphics from Diamond Multimedia. Workstation CAD/CAM video card, based on the Radeon series.
FireMV - For workstations, featuring multi-view, a technology for the need of multiple displays for workstations with 2D acceleration only, usually based on the low-end products of the Radeon series.
FirePro - The follow-on to the FireGL cards, for workstations.

Personal computer platforms and chipsets

IGP 3x0, Mobility Radeon 7000 IGP - ATI's first chipsets. Included a DirectX 7-level 3D graphics processor.
9100 IGP - 2nd generation system chipset. IXP250 southbridge. It was notable for being ATI's first complete motherboard chipset, including an ATI-built southbridge. It included an updated DirectX 8.1 class graphics processor.
Xpress 200/200P - PCI Express-based Athlon 64 and Pentium 4 chipset. Supports SATA as well as integrated graphics with DirectX 9.0 support, the first integrated graphics chipset to do so.
Xpress 3200 - similar to Xpress 200, but designed for optimal CrossFire performance.
- AMD 580X CrossFire chipset - AMD edition of Xpress 3200 renamed, due to AMD acquisition of ATI.
690G, Xpress 1250 - for AMD and Intel platforms. Includes DirectX 9 graphics processor improved over Xpress 200 and industry first native HDMI implementation on motherboards.
AMD 700 chipset series - exclusively for AMD processors, this is a chipset family supporting Phenom processors and Quad FX enthusiast platform (790FX), enthusiast chipset (790X), IGP (790GX, 785G, 780G, 740G) and single graphics card variants (770, 740) aimed at mainstream and value computing systems available.

In addition to the above chipset ATI has announced that a deal has been struck with CPU and Motherboard manufacturers as of 2005, particularly Asus and Intel, to create onboard 3D Graphics solutions for Intel's new range of motherboards that will be released with their range of Intel Pentium M-based desktop processors, the Intel Core and Intel Core 2 processors, the D101GGC and D101GGC2 chipset (codenamed "Grand County" ) based on the Radeon Xpress 200 chipset. However, high-end boards with integrated graphics processor (IGP) will still use Intel GMA integrated graphics processors. The deal with Intel was deemed to be officially ended with the purchase of ATI Technologies from AMD in July 2006, with Intel announcing SiS IGP chipset (D201GLY chipset, codenamed "Little Valley") for entry-level desktop platform, replacing the "Grand County" series chipsets.

Multimedia and Digital TV products

All-In-Wonder series - A series of multimedia graphics cards which incorporating TV tuner and Radeon family graphics cards onto one add-in card, which, after being seemingly discontinued was relaunched as All-In-Wonder HD on June 26, 2008.
TV tuners
- TV Wonder and HDTV Wonder - a chipset family providing TV reception of various analog TV and digital TV signals (PAL, NTSC, ATSC, DVB-T and so on) with first generation AVIVO technology, also supporting CableCARD, and Clear QAM technologies.
- Theater - a family of QAM and VSB demodulators for the Digital Cable ready and ATSC environments.
Remote Wonder, wireless remote control series for ATI multimedia products. Operates using radio frequency, away from mainstream implementations using infrared.

Console graphics products

Flipper - The Nintendo GameCube contains a 3D accelerator developed by ArtX, Inc, a company acquired by ATI during the development of the GPU. Flipper is similar in capability to a Direct3D 7 accelerator chip. It consists of 4 rendering pipelines, with hardware T&L, and some limited pixel shader support. Innovatively the chip has 3 MiB of embedded 1T-SRAM for use as ultra-fast low-latency (6.2 ns) texture and framebuffer/Z-buffer storage allowing 10.4 GB/second bandwidth (extremely fast for the time). Flipper was designed by members of the Nintendo 64 Reality Coprocessor team who moved from SGI. The Flipper team went on to have a major hand in development of the Radeon 9700.
Xenos - Microsoft's Xbox 360 video game console contains a custom graphics chip produced by ATI, known as "R500", "C1", or more often as Xenos. Some of these features include the embedded DRAM (eDRAM). The Xenos also features the “True Unified Shader Architecture” which dynamically loads and balances pixel and vertex processing amongst a bank of identically capable processing units. This differs greatly from past-generations PC graphics chips that have separate banks of processors designed for their individual task (vertex/fragment). Another feature presented in Xenos is the hardware surface tessellation to divide a surface into smaller triangles, similar to TruForm in terms of functionality, which is an advanced feature as it is not presented even in the most up-to-date DirectX 10 specification. The recent generation Radeon R600 GPU core inherited most of the features presented in Xenos, except eDRAM.
Hollywood - Successor to Flipper. Part of Nintendo's latest gaming console, Wii.

Handheld chipsets

Imageon - System-on-a-chip (SoC) design introduced in 2002 to bring integrated 2D and 3D graphics to handhelds devices, cellphones and Tablet PCs. Current top-of-line product is the Imageon 2298 which includes DVD quality recording and playback, TV output, and supports up to a 12 megapixel camera, with another line of Imageon products, the 2300 series supporting OpenGL ES 1.1+ extensions. The Imageon line was rebranded under AMD, after AMD acquired ATI in Q3 2006, as AMD Imageon.
Imageon TV - Announced in February 2006, allowing handhelds devices to receive digital broadcast TV (DVB-H) signals and enables watching TV programs on these devices, the chipset includes tuner, demodulator, decoder, and a full software stack, operates alongside the Imageon chip.
Besides full products, ATI has also supplied 3D and 2D graphics components to other vendors, specifically the Qualcomm MSM7000 series SoC chips of handheld and upcoming Freescale i. MX processors .
ATI claimed in May 2006, that it had sold over 100 million 'cell phone media co-processors,' significantly more than ATI's rival NVIDIA, and announced in February 2007 that the firm had shipped a total of 200 million of Imageon products since 2003 .

High Performance Computing

AMD FireStream, originally ATI Firestream, and previously rebranded as AMD Stream Processor for a short period of time, utilizing the stream processing concept, together with Close to Metal (CTM) hardware interface.

ATI graphics drivers

Main article: ATI Catalyst

ATI currently provides proprietary drivers, called ATI Catalyst, for Microsoft Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, Mac OS X, and Linux. Linux users have the option of both proprietary (R600 and above) and open source drivers.
In an interview with AMD official Hal Speed, it was suggested that AMD were strongly considering making at least the functional part of the ATI drivers open source. However, at least until the merger with AMD was complete, ATI had no plans to release their drivers as open source code:

Proprietary, patented optimizations are part of the value we provide to our customers and we have no plans to release these drivers to open source. In addition, multimedia elements such as content protection must not, by their very nature, be allowed to go open source.

Source : Wikipedia

Nvidia

2010-02-04T16:50:00.006+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA pronounced /ɛnˈvɪ.di.ə/) is a multinational corporation which specializes in the development of graphics processing units and chipset technologies for workstations, personal computers, and mobile devices. Based in Santa Clara, California, the company has become a major supplier of integrated circuits (ICs), designing graphics processing units (GPUs) and chipsets used in graphics cards, in personal-computer motherboards, and in video game consoles.
Notable Nvidia product lines include:

the GeForce series for gaming
the Quadro series for computer-aided design and for digital content creation (DCC) on workstations
the nForce series of integrated motherboard chipsets

Nvidia Corporation

Type	Public (NASDAQ: NVDA)
Founded	1993
Founder(s)	Jen-Hsun Huang Chris Malachowsky
Headquarters	2701 San Tomas Expressway Santa Clara, California USA
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Jen-Hsun Huang, Co-founder, President and CEO Chris Malachowsky, Co-founder, Nvidia Fellow, Senior Vice President, Engineering and Operations Jonah M. Alben, Vice President, GPU Engineering Debora Shoquist, Senior Vice President, Operations Dr. Ranga Jayaraman, CIO
Industry	Semiconductors — Specialized
Products	Graphics processing units Chipsets
Revenue	▼ $ 3.424 billion (2009)
Operating income	▼ $ 70.70 million (2009)
Net income	▼ $ 30.04 million (2009)
Total assets	▲ $ 3.350 billion (2009)
Total equity	▼ $ 2.394 billion (2009)
Employees	over 4,985 (as of June 2008^[update])
Website	Nvidia.com

Company history

Three people co-founded Nvidia in 1993:

Jen-Hsun Huang (As of 2008^[update] CEO), previously Director of CoreWare at LSI Logic and a microprocessor designer at Advanced Micro Devices (AMD)
Chris Malachowsky, an electrical engineer who worked at Sun Microsystems
Curtis Priem, previously a senior staff engineer and graphics chip designer at Sun Microsystems

The founders gained venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital.
In 2000, Nvidia acquired the intellectual assets of its one-time rival 3dfx, one of the biggest graphics companies of the mid- to late-1990s.
On December 14, 2005, Nvidia acquired ULI Electronics, which at the time supplied third-party southbridge parts for chipsets to ATI, Nvidia's competitor.
In March 2006, Nvidia acquired Hybrid Graphics
In December 2006, Nvidia, along with its main rival in the graphics industry AMD (which had acquired ATI), received subpoenas from the Justice Department regarding possible antitrust violations in the graphics card industry.
Forbes magazine named Nvidia its Company of the Year for 2007, citing the accomplishments it made during the said period as well as during the previous 5 years.
On January 5, 2007, Nvidia announced that it had completed the acquisition of PortalPlayer, Inc.
In February 2008, Nvidia acquired Ageia Technologies for an undisclosed sum. "The purchase reflects both companies' shared goal of creating the most amazing and captivating game experiences," said Jen-Hsun Huang, president and CEO of Nvidia. "By combining the teams that created the world's most pervasive GPU and physics engine brands, we can now bring GeForce-accelerated PhysX to twelve million gamers around the world." (The press-release made no mention of the acquisition-cost nor of future plans for specific products.)

Branding

The company's name combines an initial n (a letter usable as a pronumeral in mathematical statements) and the root of video (from Latin videre, "to see"), thus implying "the best visual experience" or perhaps "immeasurable display." The sound of the name Nvidia suggests "envy" (Spanish: envidia; Latin, Italian, or Romanian: invidia); and Nvidia's GeForce 8 series product (manufactured 2006-2008) used the slogan "Green with envy."
The company name appears entirely in upper-case ("NVIDIA") in the company's technical documentation. The mixed-case form ("nVIDIA," with a full-height, lower-case "n") appears only in the corporate logo.

Products

Nvidia headquarters in Santa Clara

A graphics processing unit on an Nvidia GeForce 6600 GT

Nvidia's product portfolio includes graphics processors, wireless communications processors, PC platform (motherboard core logic) chipsets, and digital media player software. The community of computer users arguably has come to know Nvidia best for its "GeForce" product line, which consists of both a complete line of discrete graphics chips found in AIB (add-in board) video cards and core graphics technology used in nForce motherboards, the Microsoft Xbox game console, and Sony's PlayStation 3 game console.
In many respects Nvidia resembles its competitor ATI. Both companies began with a focus on the PC market and later expanded their activities into chips for non-PC applications. As part of their operations, both ATI and Nvidia create reference designs (circuit board schematics) and provide manufacturing samples to their board partners. However, unlike ATI, Nvidia does not sell graphics boards into the retail market, instead focusing on the development of GPU chips. As a fabless semiconductor company, Nvidia contracts out the manufacture of their chips to Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd. (TSMC). Manufacturers of Nvidia video cards include BFG, EVGA, Foxconn, and PNY. The manufacturers ASUS, ECS, Gigabyte Technology, MSI, Palit, and XFX produce both ATI and Nvidia cards.
December 2004 saw the announcement that Nvidia would assist Sony with the design of the graphics processor (RSX) in the PlayStation 3 game console. In March 2006 it emerged that Nvidia would deliver RSX to Sony as an IP core, and that Sony alone would organize the manufacture of the RSX. Under the agreement, Nvidia will provide ongoing support to port the RSX to Sony's fabs of choice (Sony and Toshiba), as well as die shrinks to 65 nm. This practice contrasts with Nvidia's business arrangement with Microsoft, in which Nvidia managed production and delivery of the Xbox GPU through Nvidia's usual third-party foundry contracts. Meanwhile, Microsoft chose to license a design by ATI and to make its own manufacturing arrangements for the Xbox 360 graphics hardware, as has Nintendo for the Wii console (which succeeds the ATI-based Nintendo GameCube).
On February 4, 2008, Nvidia announced plans to acquire physics-software producer Ageia, whose PhysX physics engine program formed part of hundreds of games shipping or in development for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, and gaming PCs. This transaction completed on February 13, 2008 and efforts to integrate PhysX into the GeForce 8800's CUDA system began.
On June 2, 2008 Nvidia officially announced its new Tegra product line. The Tegra, a system-on-a-chip (SoC), integrates an ARM CPU, GPU, northbridge and southbridge onto a single chip. Commentators opine that Nvidia will target this product at the smartphone and mobile Internet device markets.

Graphics chipsets

NV1: Nvidia's first product, based on quadratic surfaces
RIVA 128 and RIVA 128ZX: DirectX 5 support, OpenGL 1 support, Nvidia's first DirectX-compliant hardware
RIVA TNT, RIVA TNT2: DirectX 6 support, OpenGL 1 support, Nvidia's first market-leading product
Nvidia GeForce: graphics processors for personal computers
Nvidia Quadro: graphics processors for professional workstations
Nvidia Tesla: dedicated GPGPU processors for high-performance computing systems
Nvidia GoForce: media processors featuring nPower technology for PDAs and mobile phones
Nvidia Tegra: system-on-a-chip with an ARM processor for mobile devices such as smartphones, PDAS, and MIDs
GPUs for game consoles:
- Xbox: GeForce3-class GPU (on an Intel Pentium III/Celeron platform)
- PlayStation 3: RSX 'Reality Synthesizer'

Desktop motherboard chipsets

nForce series
- nForce: AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron K7 CPUs (System Platform Processor (SPP) and Media and Communications Processor (MCP) or GeForce2 MX-class Integrated Graphics Processor (IGP) and MCP, SoundStorm available)
- nForce2: AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron/Sempron K7 CPUs (SPP + MCP or GeForce4 MX-class IGP + MCP, SoundStorm available)
- nForce3: AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Opteron/Sempron K8 CPUs (unified MCP only)
- nForce4
  - AMD: Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Opteron/Sempron K8 CPUs (unified MCP, SPP + MCP, or MCP paired with GeForce 6100 series/Quadro NVS 210S IGP)
  - Intel: Pentium 4/Pentium 4 Extreme Edition/Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Edition/Celeron/Celeron D NetBurst CPUs (SPP + MCP only)
- nForce 500
  - AMD: Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Opteron/Sempron K8 CPUs (unified MCP or SPP + MCP)
  - Intel Pentium 4/Pentium 4 Extreme Edition/Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Edition/Pentium Dual-Core/Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme/Celeron/Celeron D NetBurst and Core 2 CPUs (SPP + MCP only)
- nForce 600
  - AMD: Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Opteron/Sempron K8 CPUs, Quad FX-capable (unified MCP or MCP paired with GeForce 7000 series/GeForce 7100 series IGP)
  - Intel: Pentium 4/Pentium 4 Extreme Edition/Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Edition/Pentium Dual-Core/Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Celeron/Celeron D NetBurst and Core 2 CPUs (SPP + MCP or MCP paired with GeForce 7000 series/GeForce 7100 series IGP)
- nForce 700
  - AMD: Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Athlon X2/Opteron/Phenom X3/Phenom X4/Sempron K8 and K10 CPUs
  - Intel: Pentium 4/Pentium 4 Extreme Edition/Pentium D/Pentium Extreme Edition/Pentium Dual-Core/Core 2 Duo/Core 2 Extreme/Core 2 Quad/Celeron/Celeron D NetBurst and Core 2 CPUs
- nForce 900: AMD Athlon 64/Athlon 64 X2/Athlon 64 FX/Athlon X2/Athlon II X2/Athlon II X3/Athlon II X4/Opteron/Phenom X3/Phenom X4/Phenom II X2/Phenom II X3/Phenom II X4/Sempron K8 and K10 CPUs

Documentation and drivers

Nvidia does not publish the documentation for its hardware, meaning that programmers cannot write appropriate and effective open-source drivers for Nvidia's products (compare Graphics hardware and FOSS). Instead, Nvidia provides its own binary GeForce graphics drivers for X.Org and a thin open-source library that interfaces with the Linux, FreeBSD or Solaris kernels and the proprietary graphics software. Nvidia also supports an obfuscated open-source driver that only supports two-dimensional hardware acceleration and ships with the X.Org distribution. Nvidia's Linux support has promoted mutual adoption in the entertainment, scientific visualization, defense and simulation/training industries, traditionally dominated by SGI, Evans & Sutherland, and other relatively costly vendors.
The proprietary nature of Nvidia's drivers has generated dissatisfaction within free-software communities. Some Linux and BSD users insist on using only open-source drivers, and regard Nvidia's insistence on providing nothing more than a binary-only driver as wholly inadequate, given that competing manufacturers (like Intel) offer support and documentation for open-source developers, and that others (like ATI) release partial documentation.Because of the closed nature of the drivers, Nvidia video cards do not deliver adequate features on several platforms and architectures, such as FreeBSD on the x86-64 architecture and the other BSD operating systems on any architecture. Support for three-dimensional graphics acceleration in Linux on the PowerPC does not exist; nor does support for Linux on the hypervisor-restricted PlayStation 3 console. While some users accept the Nvidia-supported drivers, many users of open-source software would prefer better out-of-the-box performance if given the choice. However, the performance and functionality of the binary Nvidia video card drivers surpass those of open-source alternatives following VESA standards.
X.Org Foundation and Freedesktop.org have started the Nouveau project, which aims to develop free-software drivers for Nvidia graphics cards by reverse engineering Nvidia's current proprietary drivers for Linux.

Market share

According to a survey conducted in the third quarter of 2007 by market watch firm Jon Peddie Research, Nvidia occupied the top slot in the desktop graphic devices market with a market share of 37.8%. However, in the mobile space, it remained third with 22.8% of the market. Overall Nvidia has maintained its position as the second-largest supplier of PC graphic shipments, which includes both integrated and discrete GPUs, with 33.9% market share, their highest in many years, which puts them just behind Intel (38%).
According to the Steam hardware survey conducted by the game developer Valve, Nvidia had 64.64% of PC video card market share (as of 1 December 2008). ATI had 27.12% of the PC video card market share. But this could relate to Valve releasing trial versions of The Orange Box compilation to Nvidia graphics card users: the compilation provided a link to the survey. However, free copies of The Orange Box were also released to purchasers of ATI cards, notably to those who purchased the Radeon 2900XT.

Market history

Before DirectX

An Nvidia RIVA 128 AGP video card

Nvidia released its first graphics card, the NV1, in 1995. Its design used quadratic surfaces, with an integrated playback-only sound card and ports for Sega Saturn gamepads. Because the Saturn also used forward-rendered quadratics, programmers ported several Saturn games to play on a PC with NV1, such as Panzer Dragoon and Virtua Fighter Remix. However, the NV1 struggled in a marketplace full of several competing proprietary standards.
Market interest in the product ended when Microsoft announced the DirectX specifications, based on polygons. Subsequently NV1 development continued internally as the NV2 project, funded by several millions of dollars of investment from Sega. Sega hoped that an integrated chip with both graphics and sound capabilities would cut the manufacturing cost of the next Sega console. However, Sega eventually realized the flaws in implementing quadratic surfaces, and the NV2 project never resulted in a finished product.

Transition to DirectX

Nvidia's CEO Jen-Hsun Huang realized at this point that after two failed products, something had to change for the company to survive. He hired David Kirk as Chief Scientist from software developer Crystal Dynamics. Kirk would combine Nvidia's experience in 3D hardware with an intimate understanding of practical implementations of rendering.
As part of the corporate transformation, Nvidia sought to provide full support for DirectX, and dropped multimedia functionality in order to reduce manufacturing costs. Nvidia also adopted the goal of an internal six-month product cycle, based on the expectation that it could mitigate a failure of any one product by having a replacement moving through the development pipeline.
However, since the Sega NV2 contract remained secret, and since Nvidia had recently laid off employees, it appeared to many industry observers that Nvidia had ceased active research and development. So when Nvidia first announced the RIVA 128 in 1997, the market found the specifications hard to believe: performance superior to market-leader 3dfx Voodoo Graphics, and a fully hardware-based triangle setup engine. The RIVA 128 shipped in volume, and the combination of its low cost and high performance made it a popular choice for OEMs.

Ascendancy: RIVA TNT

Having finally developed and shipped in volume a market-leading integrated graphics chipset, Nvidia set itself the goal of doubling the number of pixel pipelines in its chip, in order to realize a substantial performance gain. The TwiN Texel (RIVA TNT) engine which Nvidia subsequently developed could either apply two textures to a single pixel, or process two pixels per clock cycle. The former case allowed for improved visual quality, the latter for doubling the maximum fillrate.
New features included a 24-bit Z-buffer with 8-bit stencil support, anisotropic filtering, and per-pixel MIP mapping. In certain respects (such as transistor count) the TNT had begun to rival Intel's Pentium processors for complexity. However, while the TNT offered an astonishing range of quality-integrated features, it failed to displace the market leader, 3dfx's Voodoo2, because the actual clock rate ended up at only 90 MHz, about 35% lower than expected.
Nvidia followed with a refresh part: a die shrink for the TNT architecture from 350 nm to 250 nm. A stock TNT2 now ran at 125 MHz, a TNT2 Ultra at 150 MHz. Though the Voodoo3 beat Nvidia to the market, 3dfx's offering proved disappointing; it did not run much faster and lacked features that were becoming standard, such as 32-bit color and textures of resolution greater than 256 x 256 pixels.
The RIVA TNT2 marked a major turning point for Nvidia. They had finally delivered a product competitive with the fastest on the market, with a superior feature set, strong 2D functionality, all integrated onto a single die with strong yields, and that ramped to impressive clock rates. Nvidia's six-month cycle refresh took the competition by surprise, giving it the initiative in rolling out new products.

Market leadership: GeForce

A GeForce4 MX 64 MB card. Nvidia produced such cards from 2002 to 2003

The northern-hemisphere autumn of 1999 saw the release of the GeForce 256 (NV10), most notably introducing on-board transformation and lighting (T&L) to consumer-level 3D hardware. Running at 120 MHz and featuring four pixel pipelines, it implemented advanced video acceleration, motion compensation, and hardware sub-picture alpha blending. The GeForce outperformed existing products - including the ATI Rage 128, 3dfx Voodoo3, Matrox G400 MAX, and RIVA TNT2 - by a wide margin.
Due to the success of its products, Nvidia won the contract to develop the graphics hardware for Microsoft's Xbox game console, which earned Nvidia a $200 million advance. However, the project drew the time of many of Nvidia's best engineers away from other projects. In the short term this did not matter, and the GeForce2 GTS shipped in the summer of 2000.
The GTS benefited from the fact that Nvidia had by this time acquired extensive manufacturing experience with its highly integrated cores, and as a result it succeeded in optimizing the core for higher clock-rates. The volume of chips produced by Nvidia also allowed the segregation of parts: Nvidia could pick out the highest-quality cores from the same batch as regular parts for its premium range. As a result, the GTS shipped at 200 MHz. The pixel fillrate of the GeForce256 nearly doubled, and texel fillrate nearly quadrupled because multi-texturing was added to each pixel pipeline. New features included S3TC compression, FSAA, and improved MPEG-2 motion compensation.
In 2000 Nvidia shipped the GeForce2 MX, intended for the budget and OEM market. It had two fewer pixel pipelines and ran at 165 MHz (later at 250 MHz). Offering strong performance at a mid-range price, the GeForce2 MX became one of the most successful graphics chipsets. Nvidia also shipped a mobile derivative called the GeForce2 Go at the end of 2000.
Nvidia's success proved too much for 3dfx to recover its past market share. The long-delayed Voodoo 5, the successor to the Voodoo3, did not compare favorably with the GeForce2 in either price or performance, and failed to generate the sales needed to keep the company afloat. With 3dfx on the verge of bankruptcy near the end of 2000, Nvidia purchased most of 3dfx's intellectual property (in dispute at the time). Nvidia acquired anti-aliasing expertise and about 100 engineers, but not the company itself, which filed for bankruptcy in 2002.
Nvidia developed the GeForce3, which pioneered DirectX 8 vertex and pixel shaders, and eventually refined it with the GeForce4 Ti line. Nvidia announced the GeForce4 Ti, MX, and Go in January 2002, one of the largest releases in Nvidia's history. The chips in the Ti and Go series differed only in chip and memory clock rates. The MX series lacked the pixel and vertex shader functionalities; it derived from GeForce2 level hardware and assumed the GeForce2 MX's position in the value segment.

Stumbles with the FX series

At this point Nvidia dominated the GPU market. However, ATI Technologies remained competitive due to its new Radeon product, which had performance comparable to the GeForce2 GTS. Though ATI's answer to the GeForce3, the Radeon 8500, came later to market and initially suffered from issues with drivers, the 8500 proved a superior competitor due to its lower price. Nvidia countered ATI's offering with the GeForce4 Ti line. ATI concentrated efforts on its next-generation Radeon 9700 rather than on directly challenging the GeForce4 Ti.
During the development of the next-generation GeForce FX chips, many Nvidia engineers focused on the Xbox contract. Nvidia also had a contractual obligation to develop newer and more hack-resistant NV2A chips, and this requirement left even fewer engineers to work on the FX project. Since the Xbox contract did not anticipate or encompass falling manufacturing costs, Microsoft sought to re-negotiate the terms of the contract, and relations between Nvidia and Microsoft deteriorated as a result. The two companies later settled the dispute through arbitration without releasing the terms of the settlement to the public.
Following their dispute, Microsoft did not consult Nvidia during the development of the DirectX 9 specification, allowing ATI to establish much of the specification themselves. During this time, ATI limited rendering color support to 24-bit floating point, and emphasized shader performance. Microsoft also built the shader compiler using the Radeon 9700 as the base card. In contrast, Nvidia's cards offered 16- and 32-bit floating-point modes, offering either lower visual quality (as compared to the competition), or slower performance. The 32-bit support made them much more expensive to manufacture, requiring a higher transistor count. Shader performance often remained at half or less of the speed provided by ATI's competing products. Having made its reputation by designing easy-to-manufacture DirectX-compatible parts, Nvidia had misjudged Microsoft's next standard and paid a heavy price: As more and more games started to rely on DirectX 9 features, the poor shader performance of the GeForce FX series became more obvious. With the exception of the FX 5700 series (a late revision), the FX series did not compete well against ATI cards.
Nvidia released an "FX only" demo called "Dawn," but a hacked wrapper enabled it to run on a Radeon 9700, where it ran faster despite translation overhead. Nvidia began to use application detection to optimize its drivers. Hardware review sites published articles showing that Nvidia's driver auto-detected benchmarks and that it produced artificially inflated scores that did not relate to real-world performance. Often tips from ATI's driver development team lay behind these articles. While Nvidia did partially close the performance gap with new instruction-reordering capabilities introduced in later drivers, shader performance remained weak and over-sensitive to hardware-specific code compilation. Nvidia worked with Microsoft to release an updated DirectX compiler that generated code optimized for the GeForce FX.
Furthermore, GeForce FX devices also ran hot, because they drew as much as double the amount of power as equivalent parts from ATI. The GeForce FX 5800 Ultra became notorious for its fan noise, and acquired the nicknames "dustbuster" and "leafblower." Nvidia jokingly acknowledged these accusations with a video in which the marketing team compares the cards to a Harley-Davidson motorcycle. Although the quieter 5900 replaced the 5800 without fanfare, the FX chips still needed large and expensive fans, placing Nvidia's partners at a manufacturing cost disadvantage compared to ATI.
Seemingly as a culmination of these events at the corporate level and the subsequent weaknesses of the FX series, Nvidia ceded its market leadership position to ATI.

GeForce 6 series and later

A former Nvidia logo, in use until 2006

With the GeForce 6 series Nvidia moved beyond the DX9 performance problems that had plagued the previous generation. The GeForce 6 series not only performed competitively against other Direct 3D shaders, but also supported DirectX Shader Model 3.0, while ATI's competing X800 series chips only supported the previous 2.0 specification. This proved an insignificant advantage, mainly because games of that period did not employ extensions for Shader Model 3.0. However, it demonstrated Nvidia's desire to design and follow through with the newest features and deliver them in a specific timeframe. What became more apparent during this time was that the products of the two firms, ATI and Nvidia, offered equivalent performance. The two firms traded the performance lead in specific titles and specific criteria (resolution, image quality, anisotropic filtering/anti-aliasing), but the differences were becoming more abstract. As a result, price/performance ratio became the reigning concern in comparisons of the two. The mid-range offerings of the two firms demonstrated consumer appetite for affordable, high-performance graphics cards. This price segment came to determine much of each firm's profitability. The GeForce 6 series emerged at a very interesting period: The game Doom 3 had just been released, and ATI's Radeon 9700 was found to struggle with OpenGL performance in the game. In 2004, the GeForce 6800 performed excellently, while the GeForce 6600GT remained as important to Nvidia as the GeForce2 MX a few years previously. The GeForce 6600GT enabled users of the card to play Doom 3 at very high resolutions and graphical settings, which had been thought to be highly unlikely considering its selling price. The GeForce 6 series also introduced SLI, which is similar to technology that 3dfx had employed with the Voodoo2. A combination of SLI and other hardware performance gains returned Nvidia to market leadership.

Badge displayed on products certified by Nvidia to utilize SLI technology

The GeForce 7 series represented a heavily beefed-up extension of the reliable 6 series. The introduction of the PCI Express bus standard allowed Nvidia to release SLI (Scalable Link Interface), a solution that employs two similar cards to share the workload in rendering. While these solutions do not equate to double the performance, and require more electricity (two cards vis-à-vis one), they can make a huge difference as higher resolutions and settings are enabled and, more importantly, offer more upgrade flexibility. ATI responded with the X1000 series, and with a dual-rendering solution called "ATI CrossFire". Sony selected Nvidia to develop the "RSX" chip (a modified version of the 7800 GPU) used in the PlayStation 3.
Nvidia released a GeForce 8 series chip towards the end of 2006, making the 8 series the first to support Microsoft's next-generation DirectX 10 specification. The 8 series GPUs also featured the revolutionary Unified Shader Architecture, and Nvidia leveraged this to provide better support for General Purpose Computing on GPU (GPGPU). A new product line of "compute only" devices called Nvidia Tesla emerged from the G80 architecture, and subsequently Nvidia also became the market leader of this new field by introducing the world's first C programming language API for GPGPU, CUDA.
Nvidia released two models of the high-end 8 series (8800) chip: the 8800GTS (640 MB and 320 MB) and the 8800GTX (768 MB). Later, Nvidia released the 8800 Ultra (essentially an 8800GTX with a different cooler and higher clocks). All three of these cards derive from the 90 nm G80 core (with 681 million transistors). The GTS model had 96 stream processors and 20 ROPS and the GTX/Ultra had 128 stream processors and 24 ROPS.
In early 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GTS 320 MB. This card resembles an 8800GTS 640 MB, but with 32 MB memory chips instead of 64 MB (the cards contained 10 memory chips).
In October 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GT. The 8800GT used the new 65 nm G92 GPU and had 112 stream processors. It contained 512 MB of VRAM and operated on a 256-bit bus. It had several fixes and new features that the previous 8800s lacked.
Later in December 2007 Nvidia released the 8800GTS G92. It represented a larger 8800GT with higher clocks and all of the 128 stream processors of the G92 unlocked. Both the 8800GTS G92 and 8800GT have full PCI Express 2.0 support.
In February 2008 Nvidia released a GeForce 9 series chip, which supports Microsoft's DirectX 10 specification, in response to ATI's release of the Radeon HD3800 series. After March, Nvidia released the GeForce 9800 GX2, which effectively packaged two GeForce 8800 GTS G92s working in an internal SLI configuration on a single card.
In June 2008 Nvidia released its new flagship GPUs: the GTX 280 and GTX 260. The cards used the same basic Unified Architecture deployed in the previous 8 and 9 series cards, but with a upgrade in power. Both of the cards use the GT200 GPU as a basis for their design. This GPU contains 1.4 billion transistors on a 65 nm fabrication process. The GTX 280 has 240 shaders (stream processors) and the GTX 260 has 192 shaders (stream processors). The GTX 280 has 1 GB of GDDR3 VRAM and uses a 512-bit memory bus. The GTX 260 has 896 MB of GDDR3 VRAM on a 448-bit memory bus (revised in September 2008 to include 216 shaders). The GTX 280 allegedly provides approximately 933 GFLOPS of floating point power.
In January 2009 Nvidia released a 55 nm die shrink of GT200 called GT200b. Cards using this chip include an update to the GTX 280 card (called GTX 285) which allegedly provides 1062.72 GFLOPS of floating point power), an update to the GTX 260 (still called the GTX 260) with 216 shaders, and a multi-chip card (called GTX 295) which features two GT200b chips. Distinctively, each individual GPU features 240 stream processors, but only a 448-bit memory bus. The GTX 295 has 1.75 GB (1792 MB, 896 MB per GPU) of GDDR3 VRAM. The GTX 295 allegedly provides approximately 1788.48 GFLOPS of floating point power.
March 2009 saw the release of the GTS 250 mainstream chip, based on a 55 nm die shrink of G92, called G92b. The GTS 250 derives from the 9800GTX+ (some cards consist of rebranded 9800GTX+s) and has 128 shaders (stream processors) with a 256-bit memory bus and 512 MB or 1 GB of GDDR3 VRAM.
On May 12, 2009, Nvidia released images of a new revised edition of the GTX 295. This design, while similar to ATI's HD4870x2, differs from the original. The first production run of the GTX 295 literally consisted of two separate graphics accelerators sandwiched in the same casing and connected by an SLI ribbon cable. The new design encompasses both GPUs on one PCB. The card still has the same specifications of the first production run, although speculation admits it will sell for less due to lower manufacturing costs for the more compact device.
Nvidia plans to launch the Geforce 300 series - based on the Fermi architecture. - postponed to March 2010.

Defective mobile video adapters

In July 2008, Nvidia noted increased rates of failure in certain mobile video adapters. In response to this issue, Dell and HP released BIOS updates for all affected notebook computers which turn on the cooling fan at lower temperatures than previously configured in an effort to keep the defective video adapter from reaching higher temperatures. Leigh Stark of APC Magazine has suggested that this may lead to the premature failure of the cooling fan. This resolution/workaround may possibly only delay component failure past warranty expiration.
But at the end of August 2008, Nvidia reportedly issued a product change notification announcing plans to update the bump material of GeForce 8 and 9 series chips "to increase supply and enhance package robustness." In response to the possibility of defects in some mobile video adapters from Nvidia, some manufacturers of notebooks have allegedly turned to ATI to provide graphics options on their new Montevina notebook computers.
On August 18, 2008, according to the direct2dell.com blog, Dell began to offer a 12-month limited warranty "enhancement" specific to this issue on affected notebook computers worldwide.
On September 8, 2008, Nvidia made a deal with large OEMs, including Dell and HP, that Nvidia would pay $200 per affected notebook to manufacturers as compensation for the defects.
On October 9, 2008, Apple Inc. announced on a support page that some MacBook Pro notebook computers had exhibited faulty Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT graphics adapters. The manufacture of affected computers took place between approximately May 2007 and September 2008. Apple also stated that it would repair affected MacBook Pros within three years of the original purchase date free of charge and also offered refunds to customers who had paid for repairs related to this issue.

Source : Wikipedia

Linux

2010-02-04T16:40:00.002+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Linux (commonly pronounced /ˈlɪnʌks/, LI-nuks in English, also pronounced /ˈlɪnʊks/, LI-nooks) is a generic term referring to Unix-like computer operating systems based on the Linux kernel. Their development is one of the most prominent examples of free and open source software collaboration; typically all the underlying source code can be used, freely modified, and redistributed, both commercially and non-commercially, by anyone under licenses such as the GNU General Public License.
Linux can be installed on a wide variety of computer hardware, ranging from embedded devices such as mobile phones and wristwatches to mainframes and supercomputers. Linux is predominantly known for its use in servers; in 2007 Linux's overall share of the server market was estimated at 12.7%, while a 2008 estimate suggested that 60% of all web servers ran Linux. Most desktop computers run either Mac OS X or Microsoft Windows, with Linux having only 1–2% of the desktop market. However, desktop use of Linux has become increasingly popular in recent years, partly owing to the popular Ubuntu distribution and the emergence of netbooks.
Typically Linux is packaged in a format known as a Linux distribution for desktop and server use. Linux distributions include the Linux kernel and all of the supporting software required to run a complete system, such as utilities and libraries, the X Window System, the GNOME and KDE desktop environments, and the Apache HTTP Server. Commonly-used applications with desktop Linux systems include the Mozilla Firefox web-browser and the OpenOffice.org office application suite.
The name "Linux" comes from the Linux kernel, originally written in 1991 by Linus Torvalds. The contribution of a supporting Userland in the form of system tools and libraries from the GNU Project (announced in 1983 by Richard Stallman) is the basis for the Free Software Foundation's preferred name GNU/Linux.

Linux

OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Free and open source software
Latest stable release	Kernel 2.6.32.7 (January 28, 2010; 6 days ago)
Latest unstable release	Kernel 2.6.33-rc6 (January 29, 2010; 5 days ago)
Supported platforms	IA-32, MIPS, x86-64, SPARC, DEC Alpha, Itanium, PowerPC, ARM, m68k, PA-RISC, s390, SuperH, M32R and more
Kernel type	Monolithic
Userland	GNU and others
License	Various including GNU General Public License, BSD License, Apache License, MIT License, and others

History


Richard Stallman, left, founder of the GNU project, and Linus Torvalds, right, author of the Linux kernel

Unix

The Unix operating system was conceived and implemented in 1969 at AT&T's Bell Laboratories in the United States by Ken Thompson, Dennis Ritchie, Douglas McIlroy, and Joe Ossanna. It was first released in 1971 and was initially entirely written in assembly language, a common practice at the time. Later, in a key pioneering approach in 1973, Unix was re-written in the programming language C by Dennis Ritchie, (with exceptions to the kernel and I/O). The availability of an operating system written in a high-level language allowed easier portability to different computer platforms and Unix became widely adopted by academic institutions and businesses.

GNU

The GNU Project, started in 1983 by Richard Stallman, had the goal of creating a "complete Unix-compatible software system" composed entirely of free software. Work began in 1984. Later, in 1985, Stallman created the Free Software Foundation and wrote the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) in 1989. By the early 1990s, many of the programs required in an operating system (such as libraries, compilers, text editors, a Unix shell, and a windowing system) were completed, although low-level elements such as device drivers, daemons, and the kernel were stalled and incomplete. Linus Torvalds has said that if the GNU kernel had been available at the time (1991), he would not have decided to write his own.

MINIX

Andrew S. Tanenbaum, author of the MINIX operating system

MINIX was an inexpensive minimal Unix-like operating system, designed for education in computer science, written by Andrew S. Tanenbaum. As of version 3, MINIX is free and redesigned also for “serious” use.
In 1991 while attending the University of Helsinki, Torvalds began to work on a non-commercial replacement for MINIX, which would eventually become the Linux kernel.
Torvalds began the development of Linux on MINIX and applications written for MINIX were also used under Linux. Later Linux matured and it became possible for Linux to be developed under itself. Also GNU applications replaced all MINIX ones because, with code from the GNU system freely available, it was advantageous if this could be used with the fledgling OS. Code licensed under the GNU GPL can be used in other projects, so long as they also are released under the same or a compatible license. In order to make the Linux kernel compatible with the components from the GNU Project, Torvalds initiated a switch from his original license (which prohibited commercial redistribution) to the GNU GPL. Developers worked to integrate GNU components with Linux to make a fully functional and free operating system.

Commercial and popular uptake

Today Linux distributions are used in numerous domains, from embedded systems to supercomputers and have secured a place in server installations with the popular LAMP application stack. Use of Linux distributions in home and enterprise desktops has been expanding. They have also gained popularity with various local and national governments. The federal government of Brazil is well known for its support for Linux. News of the Russian military creating their own Linux distribution has also surfaced, and has come to fruition as the G.H.ost Project. Indian state of Kerala has gone so far as to make it mandatory for all state high schools to run Linux on their computers. China uses Linux exclusively as the operating system for its Loongson processor family to achieve technology independence. In Spain some regions have developed their own Linux distributions, which are widely used in education and official institutions, like gnuLinEx in Extremadura and Guadalinex in Andalusia. France and Germany have also taken steps towards the adoption of Linux.
Linux distributions have also become popular with the newly founded netbook market, with many devices such as the ASUS Eee PC and Acer Aspire One shipping with customized Linux distributions installed.

Current development

Torvalds continues to direct the development of the kernel. Stallman heads the Free Software Foundation, which in turn supports the GNU components. Finally, individuals and corporations develop third-party non-GNU components. These third-party components comprise a vast body of work and may include both kernel modules and user applications and libraries. Linux vendors and communities combine and distribute the kernel, GNU components, and non-GNU components, with additional package management software in the form of Linux distributions.

Design

A Linux-based system is a modular Unix-like operating system. It derives much of its basic design from principles established in Unix during the 1970s and 1980s. Such a system uses a monolithic kernel, the Linux kernel, which handles process control, networking, and peripheral and file system access. Device drivers are integrated directly with the kernel.
Separate projects that interface with the kernel provide much of the system's higher-level functionality. The GNU userland is an important part of most Linux-based systems, providing the most common implementation of the C library, a popular shell, and many of the common Unix tools which carry out many basic operating system tasks. The graphical user interface (or GUI) used by most Linux systems is based on the X Window System.

User interface

Users can control a Linux-based system through a command line interface (or CLI), a graphical user interface (or GUI), or through controls attached to the associated hardware (this is common for embedded systems). For desktop systems, the default mode is usually graphical user interface, where the CLI is available through terminal emulator windows or on a separate virtual console.
On desktop machines, KDE, GNOME and Xfce are the most popular user interfaces, though a variety of additional user interfaces exist. Most popular user interfaces run on top of the X Window System (often simply called "X"), which provides network transparency, enabling a graphical application running on one machine to be displayed and controlled from another.
Other GUIs include X window managers such as FVWM, Enlightenment and Window Maker. The window manager provides a means to control the placement and appearance of individual application windows, and interacts with the X Window System. This is a more minimalist goal than KDE, GNOME et al., which are termed desktop environments.
A Linux system typically provides a CLI through a shell, which is the traditional way of interacting with a Unix system. A Linux distribution specialized for servers may use the CLI as its only interface. A headless system that runs without even a monitor can be controlled by the command line via a remote-control protocol such as SSH or telnet.
Most low-level Linux components, including the GNU userland, use the CLI exclusively. The CLI is particularly suited for automation of repetitive or delayed tasks, and provides very simple inter-process communication. A graphical terminal emulator program is often used to access the CLI from a Linux desktop.

Development

A summarized history of Unix-like operating systems showing Linux's origins. Note that despite similar architectural designs and concepts being shared as part of the POSIX standard, Linux does not share any non-free source code with the original Unix or MINIX.

Main article: Linux distribution

The primary difference between Linux and many other popular contemporary operating systems is that the Linux kernel and other components are free and open source software. Linux is not the only such operating system, although it is by far the most widely used. Some free and open source software licenses are based on the principle of copyleft, a kind of reciprocity: any work derived from a copyleft piece of software must also be copyleft itself. The most common free software license, the GNU GPL, is a form of copyleft, and is used for the Linux kernel and many of the components from the GNU project.
Linux based distributions are intended by developers for interoperability with other operating systems and established computing standards. Linux systems adhere to POSIX, SUS, ISO and ANSI standards where possible, although to date only one Linux distribution has been POSIX.1 certified, Linux-FT.
Free software projects, although developed in a collaborative fashion, are often produced independently of each other. The fact that the software licenses explicitly permit redistribution, however, provides a basis for larger scale projects that collect the software produced by stand-alone projects and make it available all at once in the form of a Linux distribution.
A Linux distribution, commonly called a "distro", is a project that manages a remote collection of system software and application software packages available for download and installation through a network connection. This allows the user to adapt the operating system to his/her specific needs. Distributions are maintained by individuals, loose-knit teams, volunteer organizations, and commercial entities. A distribution is responsible for the default configuration of the installed Linux kernel, general system security, and more generally integration of the different software packages into a coherent whole. Distributions typically use a package manager such as Synaptic or YAST to install, remove and update all of a system's software from one central location.

Community

A distribution is largely driven by its developer and user communities. Some vendors develop and fund their distributions on a volunteer basis, Debian being a well-known example. Others maintain a community version of their commercial distributions, as Red Hat does with Fedora.
In many cities and regions, local associations known as Linux Users Groups (LUGs) seek to promote their preferred distribution and by extension free software. They hold meetings and provide free demonstrations, training, technical support, and operating system installation to new users. Many Internet communities also provide support to Linux users and developers. Most distributions and free software / open source projects have IRC chatrooms or newsgroups. Online forums are another means for support, with notable examples being LinuxQuestions.org and the Gentoo forums. Linux distributions host mailing lists; commonly there will be a specific topic such as usage or development for a given list.
There are several technology websites with a Linux focus. Print magazines on Linux often include cover disks including software or even complete Linux distributions.
Although Linux distributions are generally available without charge, several large corporations sell, support, and contribute to the development of the components of the system and of free software. Analysis of Linux code—from December 2008 to January 2010—showed 75 percent of the code was developed by programmers working for corporations, leaving about 18 percent to the traditional, open source community. Some of the major corporations that contribute include Dell, IBM, HP, Oracle, Sun Microsystems, Novell, Nokia. A number of corporations, notably Red Hat, have built their entire business around Linux distributions.
The free software licenses, on which the various software packages of a distribution built on the Linux kernel are based, explicitly accommodate and encourage commercialization; the relationship between a Linux distribution as a whole and individual vendors may be seen as symbiotic. One common business model of commercial suppliers is charging for support, especially for business users. A number of companies also offer a specialized business version of their distribution, which adds proprietary support packages and tools to administer higher numbers of installations or to simplify administrative tasks. Another business model is to give away the software in order to sell hardware.

Programming on Linux

Most Linux distributions support dozens of programming languages. The most common collection of utilities for building both Linux applications and operating system programs is found within the GNU toolchain, which includes the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) and the GNU build system. Amongst others, GCC provides compilers for Ada, C, C++, Java, and Fortran. The Linux kernel itself is written to be compiled with GCC. Proprietary compilers for Linux include the Intel C++ Compiler, Sun Studio, and IBM XL C/C++ Compiler. BASIC is supported in such forms as Gambas, FreeBASIC, and XBasic.
Most distributions also include support for PHP, Perl, Ruby, Python and other dynamic languages. While not as common, Linux also supports C# via the Mono project, sponsored by Novell, and Scheme. A number of Java Virtual Machines and development kits run on Linux, including the original Sun Microsystems JVM (HotSpot), and IBM's J2SE RE, as well as many open-source projects like Kaffe.
The two main frameworks for developing graphical applications are those of GNOME and KDE. These projects are based on the GTK+ and Qt widget toolkits, respectively, which can also be used independently of the larger framework. Both support a wide variety of languages. There are a number of Integrated development environments available including Anjuta, Code::Blocks, Eclipse, KDevelop, Lazarus, MonoDevelop, NetBeans, QtCreator and Omnis Studio while the long-established editors Vim and Emacs remain popular.

Uses

As well as those designed for general purpose use on desktops and servers, distributions may be specialized for different purposes including: computer architecture support, embedded systems, stability, security, localization to a specific region or language, targeting of specific user groups, support for real-time applications, or commitment to a given desktop environment. Furthermore, some distributions deliberately include only free software. Currently, over three hundred distributions are actively developed, with about a dozen distributions being most popular for general-purpose use.
Linux is a widely ported operating system kernel. The Linux kernel runs on a highly diverse range of computer architectures: in the hand-held ARM-based iPAQ and the mainframe IBM System z9, System z10 in devices ranging from mobile phones to supercomputers. Specialized distributions exist for less mainstream architectures. The ELKS kernel fork can run on Intel 8086 or Intel 80286 16-bit microprocessors, while the µClinux kernel fork may run on systems without a memory management unit. The kernel also runs on architectures that were only ever intended to use a manufacturer-created operating system, such as Macintosh computers (with both PowerPC and Intel processors), PDAs, video game consoles, portable music players, and mobile phones.
There are several industry associations and hardware conferences devoted to maintaining and improving support for diverse hardware under Linux, such as FreedomHEC.

Desktop

GNOME

KDE

Xfce

Main article: Desktop Linux

The popularity of Linux on standard desktops (and laptops) has been increasing over the years. Currently most distributions include a graphical user environment. The two most popular such environments are GNOME and KDE, both of which are mature and support a wide variety of languages.
The performance of Linux on the desktop has been a controversial topic; for example in 2007 Con Kolivas accused the Linux community of favoring performance on servers. He quit Linux kernel development because he was frustrated with this lack of focus on the desktop, and then gave a "tell all" interview on the topic.Since then a significant effort has been expended improving the desktop experience. Projects such as upstart aim for a faster boot time. In the field of gaming, the Linux desktop still lags behind Windows.However, there are several companies that do port their own or other companies' games to Linux.
Many types of applications available for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X are also available for Linux. Commonly, either a free software application will exist which does the functions of an application found on another operating systems, or that application will have a version that works on Linux (such as Skype). Furthermore, the Wine project provides a Windows compatibility layer to run unmodified Windows applications on Linux. CrossOver is a proprietary solution based on the open source Wine project that supports running Windows versions of Microsoft Office, Intuit applications such as Quicken and QuickBooks, Adobe Photoshop versions through CS2, and many popular games such as World of Warcraft and Team Fortress 2. In other cases, where there is no Linux port of some software in areas such as desktop publishing and professional audio, there is equivalent software available on Linux.
Many popular applications are available for a wide variety of operating systems. For example Mozilla Firefox, and OpenOffice.org have downloadable versions for all major operating systems. Furthermore, some applications were initially developed for Linux (such as Pidgin, and GIMP) and, due to their popularity, were ported to other operating systems (including Windows and Mac OS X).
A growing number of proprietary desktop applications are also supported on Linux, see List of proprietary software for Linux. In the field of animation and visual effects, most high end software, such as AutoDesk Maya, Softimage XSI and Apple Shake, is available for Linux, Windows and/or Mac OS X.
The collaborative nature of free software development allows distributed teams to localize Linux distributions for use in locales where localizing proprietary systems would not be cost-effective. For example the Sinhalese language version of the Knoppix distribution was available significantly before Microsoft Windows XP was translated to Sinhalese. In this case the Lanka Linux User Group played a major part in developing the localized system by combining the knowledge of university professors, linguists, and local developers.
To install new software in Windows, users either download a digital distribution and double-click to install it or use a traditional installation medium (such as CD-ROM). Both of these methods usually provide a "Software Installation Wizard" to guide the user through the setup. On most Linux distributions, there are utilities for browsing a list of thousands of applications installed with a single click. Some of these programs are the Synaptic Package Manager, PackageKit, and Yum Extender. However, installing software not in the official repositories is not always easy - especially for users new to Linux - and sometimes the only option is to compile from source.

Servers, mainframes and supercomputers

Servers designed for Linux

Linux distributions have long been used as server operating systems, and have risen to prominence in that area; Netcraft reported in September 2006 that eight of the ten most reliable internet hosting companies ran Linux distributions on their web servers. (As of June 2008, Linux distributions represented five of ten, FreeBSD three of ten, and Microsoft two of ten.)

The Oak Ridge National Laboratory's Jaguar supercomputer, as of November 2009 the world's fastest supercomputer. It uses the Cray Linux Environment as its operating system.

Linux distributions are the cornerstone of the LAMP server-software combination (Linux, Apache, MySQL, Perl/PHP/Python) which has achieved popularity among developers, and which is one of the more common platforms for website hosting.
Linux distributions have become increasingly popular on mainframes in the last decade due to pricing, compared to other mainframe operating systems. In December 2009, computer giant IBM reported that it would predominantly market and sell mainframe-based Enterprise Linux Server.
Linux distributions are also commonly used as operating systems for supercomputers: as of November 2009, out of the top 500 systems, 446 (89.2%) run a Linux distribution.
Linux was also selected as the operating system for the world's most powerful supercomputer, IBM's Sequoia which will become operational in 2011.

Embedded devices

See also: Embedded Linux and Linux devices

An HTC Dream running Android

Due to its low cost and ability to be easily modified, an embedded Linux is often used in embedded systems. Linux has become a major competitor to the proprietary Symbian OS found in the majority of smartphones—16.7% of smartphones sold worldwide during 2006 were using Linux—and it is an alternative to the proprietary Windows CE and Palm OS operating systems on mobile devices. Cell phones or PDAs running on Linux and built on open source platform became a trend from 2007, like Nokia N810, Openmoko's Neo1973, Motorola RAZR2 v8, Motorola ROKR E8, Motorola MING series, Motorola ZINE and Google Android. The popular TiVo digital video recorder uses a customized version of Linux. Several network firewall and router standalone products, including several from Cisco/Linksys, use Linux internally, using its advanced firewall and routing capabilities. The Korg OASYS and the Yamaha Motif XS music workstations also run Linux. Furthermore, Linux is used in the leading stage lighting control system, FlyingPig/HighEnd WholeHogIII Console.

Market share and uptake

Main article: Linux adoption

Many quantitative studies of free / open source software focus on topics including market share and reliability, with numerous studies specifically examining Linux. The Linux market is growing rapidly, and the revenue of servers, desktops, and packaged software running Linux was expected to exceed $35.7 billion by 2008.
IDC's Q1 2007 report indicated that Linux held 12.7% of the overall server market at that time. This estimate was based on the number of Linux servers sold by various companies and did not include server hardware purchased separately and had Linux installed on it later. In September 2008 Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer admitted that 60% of web-servers run Linux versus 40% that run Windows Server.
Companies have, mostly based on web server statistics, estimated that the desktop market share of Linux range from less than 1% to 2.14%. In comparison, Microsoft operating systems hold more than 85%.
The frictional cost of switching operating systems and lack of support for certain hardware and application programs designed for Microsoft Windows have been two factors that have inhibited adoption. Proponents and analysts attribute the relative success of Linux to its security, reliability, low cost, and freedom from vendor lock-in.
Also most recently Google has begun to fund Wine, which acts as a compatibility layer, allowing users to run some Windows programs under Linux.
The XO laptop project of One Laptop Per Child is creating a new and potentially much larger Linux community, planned to reach millions of schoolchildren and their families and communities in developing countries. Google, Red Hat, and eBay are major supporters of the project. While the XO will also have a Windows option, it will be primarily deployed using Sugar, a desktop environment for Fedora Linux.
In the film industry, Linux has been the platform of choice for several years. The first major film produced on Linux servers was Titanic in 1997. Since then major studios like Dreamworks Animation, Pixar and Industrial Light & Magic have moved to Linux. According to the Linux Movies Group, more than 95% of the servers and desktops at large animation and visual effects companies use Linux.

Copyright and naming

The Linux kernel and most GNU software are licensed under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The GPL requires that anyone who distributes the Linux kernel must make the source code (and any modifications) available to the recipient under the same terms. In 1997, Linus Torvalds stated, “Making Linux GPL'd was definitely the best thing I ever did.” Other key components of a Linux system may use other licenses; many libraries use the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL), a more permissive variant of the GPL, and the X Window System uses the MIT License.
Torvalds states that the Linux kernel will not move from version 2 of the GPL to version 3. He specifically dislikes some provisions in the new license which prohibit the use of the software in digital rights management, and it would also be impractical to obtain permission from all the copyright holders, who number in the thousands.
A 2001 study of Red Hat Linux 7.1 found that this distribution contained 30 million source lines of code.Using the Constructive Cost Model, the study estimated that this distribution required about eight thousand man-years of development time. According to the study, if all this software had been developed by conventional proprietary means, it would have cost about $1.34 billion (2010 US dollars) to develop in the United States.
Most of the code (71%) was written in the C programming language, but many other languages were used, including C++, assembly language, Perl, Python, Fortran, and various shell scripting languages. Slightly over half of all lines of code were licensed under the GPL. The Linux kernel itself was 2.4 million lines of code, or 8% of the total.
In a later study, the same analysis was performed for Debian GNU/Linux version 4.0 (etch, released 2007). This distribution contained close to 283 million source lines of code, and the study estimated that it would have cost $7.37 billion (2010 US dollars) to develop by conventional means.
In the United States, the name Linux is a trademark registered to Linus Torvalds. Initially, nobody registered it, but on 15 August 1994, William R. Della Croce, Jr. filed for the trademark Linux, and then demanded royalties from Linux distributors. In 1996, Torvalds and some affected organizations sued him to have the trademark assigned to Torvalds, and in 1997 the case was settled. The licensing of the trademark has since been handled by the Linux Mark Institute. Torvalds has stated that he trademarked the name only to prevent someone else from using it. LMI originally charged a nominal sublicensing fee for use of the Linux name as part of trademarks, but later changed this in favor of offering a free, perpetual worldwide sublicense.

GNU/Linux

Main article: GNU/Linux naming controversy

The Free Software Foundation views Linux distributions which use GNU software as GNU variants and they ask that such operating systems be referred to as GNU/Linux or a Linux-based GNU system. The media and common usage, however, refers to this family of operating systems simply as Linux, as do many large Linux distributions (e.g. Ubuntu and SuSE Linux). Some distributions use GNU/Linux (particularly notable is Debian GNU/Linux, on which Ubuntu is based), but the term's use outside of the enthusiast community is limited. The naming issue remains controversial.

Source : Wikipedia

Microsoft Windows

2010-02-04T16:37:00.001+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Microsoft Windows is a series of software operating systems and graphical user interfaces produced by Microsoft. Microsoft first introduced an operating environment named Windows in November 1985 as an
add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces (GUIs). Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal computer market, overtaking Mac OS, which had been introduced previously. As of October 2009, Windows had approximately 91% of the market share of the client operating systems for usage on the Internet. The most recent client version of Windows is Windows 7; the most recent server version is Windows Server 2008 R2; the most recent mobile device version is Windows Mobile 6.5.

Microsoft Windows

Windows 7 desktop
Company / developer	Microsoft
OS family	MS-DOS/Windows 9x-based, Windows CE, Windows NT
Working state	Publicly released
Source model	Closed source / Shared source
Latest stable release	Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2 NT 6.1 Build 7600 (7600.16385.090713-1255) (October 22, 2009; 3 months ago)
Latest unstable release
License	MS-EULA
Website	Official website

Versions

The term Windows collectively describes any or all of several generations of Microsoft operating system products. These products are generally categorized as follows:

Early versions

Main articles: Windows 1.0, Windows 2.0, and Windows 2.1x

The history of Windows dates back to September 1981, when the project named "Interface Manager" was started. It was announced in November 1983 (after the Apple Lisa, but before the Macintosh) under the name "Windows", but Windows 1.0 was not released until November 1985. The shell of Windows 1.0 was a program known as the MS-DOS Executive. Other supplied programs were Calculator, Calendar, Cardfile, Clipboard viewer, Clock, Control Panel, Notepad, Paint, Reversi, Terminal, and Write. Windows 1.0 did not allow overlapping windows, due to Apple Computer owning this feature. Instead all windows were tiled. Only dialog boxes could appear over other windows.
Windows 2.0 was released in October 1987 and featured several improvements to the user interface and memory management.Windows 2.0 allowed application windows to overlap each other and also introduced more sophisticated keyboard-shortcuts. It could also make use of expanded memory.
Windows 2.1 was released in two different flavors: Windows/386 employed the 386 virtual 8086 mode to multitask several DOS programs, and the paged memory model to emulate expanded memory using available extended memory. Windows/286 (which, despite its name, would run on the 8086) still ran in real mode, but could make use of the high memory area.
The early versions of Windows were often thought of as simply graphical user interfaces, mostly because they ran on top of MS-DOS and used it for file system services. However, even the earliest 16-bit Windows versions already assumed many typical operating system functions; notably, having their own executable file format and providing their own device drivers (timer, graphics, printer, mouse, keyboard and sound) for applications. Unlike MS-DOS, Windows allowed users to execute multiple graphical applications at the same time, through cooperative multitasking. Windows implemented an elaborate, segment-based, software virtual memory scheme, which allowed it to run applications larger than available memory: code segments and resources were swapped in and thrown away when memory became scarce, and data segments moved in memory when a given application had relinquished processor control, typically waiting for user input.

Windows OS market share
Source	Net Applications	Awio	StatCounter
Date	December 2009	December 2009	December 2009
All versions	92.16%	86.43%	93.35%
Windows XP	67.77%	56.61%	65.12%
Windows Vista	17.87%	21.29%	22.02%
Windows 7	5.71%	6.80%	6.21%
Windows 2000	0.62%	0.50%	—
Windows 98	0.09%	0.09%	—
Windows Me	0.05%	—	—
Windows CE	0.05%	—	—
Windows Server 2003	—	1.14%	—

Windows 3.0 and 3.1

Main articles: Windows 3.0 and Windows 3.1x

Windows 3.0 (1990) and Windows 3.1 (1992) improved the design, mostly because of virtual memory and loadable virtual device drivers (VxDs) which allowed them to share arbitrary devices between multitasked DOS windows. Also, Windows applications could now run in protected mode (when Windows was running in Standard or 386 Enhanced Mode), which gave them access to several megabytes of memory and removed the obligation to participate in the software virtual memory scheme. They still ran inside the same address space, where the segmented memory provided a degree of protection, and multi-tasked cooperatively. For Windows 3.0, Microsoft also rewrote critical operations from C into assembly, making this release faster and less memory-hungry than its predecessors.With the introduction of the Windows for Workgroups 3.11, Windows was able to bypass DOS for file management operations using 32-bit file access.

Windows 95, 98, and Me

Main articles: Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me

Windows 95 was released in 1995, featuring a new user interface, support for long file names of up to 250 characters, and the ability to automatically detect and configure installed hardware (plug and play). It could natively run 32-bit applications, and featured several technological improvements that increased its stability over Windows 3.1. There were several OEM Service Releases (OSR) of Windows 95, each of which was roughly equivalent to a service pack.
Microsoft's next release was Windows 98 in 1998. Microsoft released a second version of Windows 98 in 1999, named Windows 98 Second Edition (often shortened to Windows 98 SE).
In 2000, Microsoft released Windows Me (Me standing for Millennium Edition), which updated the core from Windows 98 but adopted some aspects of Windows 2000 and removed the "boot in DOS mode" option. It also added a new feature called System Restore, allowing the user to set the computer's settings back to an earlier date.

Windows NT family

Main article: Windows NT

The NT family of Windows systems was fashioned and marketed for higher reliability business use. The first release was MS Windows NT 3.1 (1993), numbered "3.1" to match the consumer Windows version, which was followed by NT 3.5 (1994), NT 3.51 (1995), NT 4.0 (1996), and Windows 2000 (2000). 2000 is the last NT-based Windows release which does not include Microsoft Product Activation. NT 4.0 was the first in this line to implement the "Windows 95" user interface (and the first to include Windows 95’s built-in 32-bit runtimes). Microsoft then moved to combine their consumer and business operating systems with Windows XP, coming in both home and professional versions (and later niche market versions for tablet PCs and media centers); they also diverged release schedules for server operating systems. Windows Server 2003, released a year and a half after Windows XP, brought Windows Server up to date with MS Windows XP. After a lengthy development process, Windows Vista was released toward the end of 2006, and its server counterpart, Windows Server 2008 was released in early 2008. On July 22, 2009, Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 were released as RTM (release to manufacturing). Windows 7 was released on October 22, 2009.
Windows CE, Microsoft’s offering in the mobile and embedded markets, is also a true 32-bit operating system that offers various services for all sub-operating workstations.

64-bit operating systems

Windows NT included support for several different platforms before the x86-based personal computer became dominant in the professional world. Versions of NT from 3.1 to 4.0 variously supported PowerPC, DEC Alpha and MIPS R4000, some of which were 64-bit processors, although the operating system treated them as 32-bit processors.
With the introduction of the Intel Itanium architecture, which is referred to as IA-64, Microsoft released new versions of Windows to support it. Itanium versions of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 were released at the same time as their mainstream x86 (32-bit) counterparts. On April 25, 2005, Microsoft released Windows XP Professional x64 Edition and x64 versions of Windows Server 2003 to support the x86-64 (or x64 in Microsoft terminology) architecture. Microsoft dropped support for the Itanium version of Windows XP in 2005. Windows Vista is the first end-user version of Windows that Microsoft has released simultaneously in x86 and x64 editions. Windows Vista does not support the Itanium architecture. The modern 64-bit Windows family comprises AMD64/Intel64 versions of Windows Vista, and Windows Server 2008, in both Itanium and x64 editions. Windows Server 2008 R2 drops the 32-bit version, although Windows 7 does not.

Windows CE

Main article: Windows CE

Windows CE (officially known as Windows Embedded), is an edition of Windows that runs on minimalistic computers, like satellite navigation systems and, uncommonly, mobile phones. Windows Embedded runs as CE, rather than NT, which is why it should not be mistaken for Windows XP Embedded, which is NT. Windows CE was used in the Dreamcast along with Sega's own proprietary OS for the console. Windows CE is the core from which Windows Mobile is derived.

History

Main article: History of Microsoft Windows

The Windows family tree.

Microsoft has taken two parallel routes in its operating systems. One route has been for the home user and the other has been for the professional IT user. The dual routes have generally led to home versions having greater multimedia support and less functionality in networking and security, and professional versions having inferior multimedia support and better networking and security.
The first version of Microsoft Windows, version 1.0, released in November 1985, lacked a degree of functionality and achieved little popularity, and was to compete with Apple’s own operating system. Windows 1.0 is not a complete operating system; rather, it extends MS-DOS. Microsoft Windows version 2.0 was released in November, 1987 and was slightly more popular than its predecessor. Windows 2.03 (release date January 1988) had changed the OS from tiled windows to overlapping windows. The result of this change led to Apple Computer filing a suit against Microsoft alleging infringement on Apple's copyrights.

A Windows for Workgroups 3.11 desktop.

Microsoft Windows version 3.0, released in 1990, was the first Microsoft Windows version to achieve broad commercial success, selling 2 million copies in the first six months. It featured improvements to the user interface and to multitasking capabilities. It received a facelift in Windows 3.1, made generally available on March 1, 1992. Windows 3.1 support ended on December 31, 2001.
In July 1993, Microsoft released Windows NT based on a new kernel. NT was considered to be the professional OS and was the first Windows version to utilize preemptive multitasking.. Windows NT would later be retooled to also function as a home operating system, with Windows XP.
On August 24, 1995, Microsoft released Windows 95, a new, and major, consumer version that made further changes to the user interface, and also used preemptive multitasking. Windows 95 was designed to replace not only Windows 3.1, but also Windows for Workgroups, and MS-DOS. It was also the first Windows operating system to use Plug and Play capabilities. The changes Windows 95 brought to the desktop were revolutionary, as opposed to evolutionary, such as those in Windows 98 and Windows Me. Mainstream support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2000 and extended support for Windows 95 ended on December 31, 2001.
The next in the consumer line was Microsoft Windows 98 released on June 25, 1998. It was substantially criticized for its slowness and for its unreliability compared with Windows 95, but many of its basic problems were later rectified with the release of Windows 98 Second Edition in 1999. Mainstream support for Windows 98 ended on June 30, 2002 and extended support for Windows 98 ended on July 11, 2006.
As part of its "professional" line, Microsoft released Windows 2000 in February 2000. The consumer version following Windows 98 was Windows Me (Windows Millennium Edition). Released in September 2000, Windows Me implemented a number of new technologies for Microsoft: most notably publicized was "Universal Plug and Play". During 2004 part of the Source Code for Windows 2000 was leaked onto the internet. This was bad for Microsoft as the same kernel used in Windows 2000 was used in Windows XP.
In October 2001, Microsoft released Windows XP, a version built on the Windows NT kernel that also retained the consumer-oriented usability of Windows 95 and its successors. This new version was widely praised in computer magazines. It shipped in two distinct editions, "Home" and "Professional", the former lacking many of the superior security and networking features of the Professional edition. Additionally, the first "Media Center" edition was released in 2002, with an emphasis on support for DVD and TV functionality including program recording and a remote control. Mainstream support for Windows XP ended on April 14, 2009. Extended support will continue until April 8, 2014.
In April 2003, Windows Server 2003 was introduced, replacing the Windows 2000 line of server products with a number of new features and a strong focus on security; this was followed in December 2005 by Windows Server 2003 R2.
On January 30, 2007 Microsoft released Windows Vista. It contains a number of new features, from a redesigned shell and user interface to significant technical changes, with a particular focus on security features. It is available in a number of different editions, and has been subject to some criticism.

Timeline of releases

Main article: Timeline of Microsoft Windows

Release date	Product name	Current Version / Build	Notes	Last IE
November 1985	Windows 1.01	1.01	Unsupported	-
November 1987	Windows 2.03	2.03	Unsupported	-
May 1988	Windows 2.10	2.10	Unsupported.	-
March 1989	Windows 2.11	2.11	Unsupported.	-
May 1990	Windows 3.0	3.0	Unsupported	-
March 1992	Windows 3.1x	3.1	Unsupported	5
October 1992	Windows For Workgroups 3.1	3.1	Unsupported	5
July 1993	Windows NT 3.1	NT 3.1	Unsupported	5
December 1993	Windows For Workgroups 3.11	3.11	Unsupported	5
January 1994	Windows 3.2 (released in Simplified Chinese only)	3.2	Unsupported	5
September 1994	Windows NT 3.5	NT 3.5	Unsupported	5
May 1995	Windows NT 3.51	NT 3.51	Unsupported	5
August 1995	Windows 95	4.0.950	Unsupported	5.5
July 1996	Windows NT 4.0	NT 4.0.1381	Unsupported	6
June 1998	Windows 98	4.10.1998	Unsupported	6
May 1999	Windows 98 SE	4.10.2222	Unsupported	6
February 2000	Windows 2000	NT 5.0.2195	Extended Support until July 13, 2010	6
September 2000	Windows Me	4.90.3000	Unsupported	6
October 2001	Windows XP	NT 5.1.2600	Extended Support until July 13, 2010 for SP2 and April 8, 2014 for SP3. (RTM and SP1 unsupported).	8
March 2003	Windows XP 64-bit Edition (IA-64)	NT 5.2.3790	Unsupported	6
April 2003	Windows Server 2003	NT 5.2.3790	Current for SP1, R2, SP2 (RTM unsupported).	8
April 2005	Windows XP Professional x64 Edition	NT 5.2.3790	Current	8
July 2006	Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs	NT 5.1.2600	Current	8
November 2006 (volume licensing) January 2007 (retail)	Windows Vista	NT 6.0.6002	Current Version changed to NT 6.0.6001 with SP1 (February 4, 2008) and to NT 6.0.6002 with SP2 (April 28, 2009).	8
July 2007	Windows Home Server	NT 5.2.4500	Current	8
February 2008	Windows Server 2008	NT 6.0.6002	Current Version changed to NT 6.0.6002 with SP2 (April 28, 2009).	8
October 2009	Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2	NT 6.1.7600	Current	8
2012	Windows 8	Unknown	Upcoming	Unknown

Security

Consumer versions of Windows were originally designed for ease-of-use on a single-user PC without a network connection, and did not have security features built in from the outset. However, Windows NT and its successors are designed for security (including on a network) and multi-user PCs, but were not initially designed with Internet security in mind as much, since, when it was first developed in the early 1990s, Internet use was less prevalent.
These design issues combined with programming errors (e.g. buffer overflows) and the popularity of Windows means that it is a frequent target of computer worm and virus writers. In June 2005, Bruce Schneier’s Counterpane Internet Security reported that it had seen over 1,000 new viruses and worms in the previous six months.
Microsoft releases security patches through its Windows Update service approximately once a month (usually the second Tuesday of the month), although critical updates are made available at shorter intervals when necessary. In versions of Windows after and including Windows 2000 SP3 and Windows XP, updates can be automatically downloaded and installed if the user selects to do so. As a result, Service Pack 2 for Windows XP, as well as Service Pack 1 for Windows Server 2003, were installed by users more quickly than it otherwise might have been.
While the Windows 9x series offered the option of having profiles for multiple users, they had no concept of access privileges, and did not allow concurrent access; and so were not true multi-user operating systems. In addition, they implemented only partial memory protection. They were accordingly widely criticised for lack of security.
The Windows NT series of operating systems, by contrast, are true multi-user, and implement absolute memory protection. However, a lot of the advantages of being a true multi-user operating system were nullified by the fact that, prior to Windows Vista, the first user account created during the setup process was an administrator account, which was also the default for new accounts. Though Windows XP did have limited accounts, the majority of home users did not change to an account type with fewer rights – partially due to the number of programs which unnecessarily required administrator rights – and so most home users ran as administrator all the time.
Windows Vista changes this by introducing a privilege elevation system called User Account Control. When logging in as a standard user, a logon session is created and a token containing only the most basic privileges is assigned. In this way, the new logon session is incapable of making changes that would affect the entire system. When logging in as a user in the Administrators group, two separate tokens are assigned. The first token contains all privileges typically awarded to an administrator, and the second is a restricted token similar to what a standard user would receive. User applications, including the Windows Shell, are then started with the restricted token, resulting in a reduced privilege environment even under an Administrator account. When an application requests higher privileges or "Run as administrator" is clicked, UAC will prompt for confirmation and, if consent is given (including administrator credentials if the account requesting the elevation is not a member of the administrators group), start the process using the unrestricted token.

File permissions

All Windows versions from Windows NT 3 have been based on a file system permission system referred to as AGLP (Accounts, Global, Local, Permissions) AGDLP which in essence where file permissions are applied to the file/folder in the form of a 'local group' which then has other 'global groups' as members. These global groups then hold other groups or users depending on different Windows versions used. This system varies from other vendor products such as Linux and NetWare due to the 'static' allocation of permission being applied directory to the file or folder. However using this process of AGLP/AGDLP/AGUDLP allows a small number of static permissions to be applied and allows for easy changes to the account groups without reapplying the file permissions on the files and folders.

Windows Defender

On January 6, 2005, Microsoft released a Beta version of Microsoft AntiSpyware, based upon the previously released Giant AntiSpyware. On February 14, 2006, Microsoft AntiSpyware became Windows Defender with the release of Beta 2. Windows Defender is a freeware program designed to protect against spyware and other unwanted software. Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 users who have genuine copies of Microsoft Windows can freely download the program from Microsoft's web site, and Windows Defender ships as part of Windows Vista and 7.

Third-party analysis

In an article based on a report by Symantec, internetnews.com has described Microsoft Windows as having the "fewest number of patches and the shortest average patch development time of the five operating systems it monitored in the last six months of 2006."
A study conducted by Kevin Mitnick and marketing communications firm Avantgarde in 2004 found that an unprotected and unpatched Windows XP system with Service Pack 1 lasted only 4 minutes on the Internet before it was compromised, and an unprotected and also unpatched Windows Server 2003 system was compromised after being connected to the internet for 8 hours. However, it is important to note that this study does not apply to Windows XP systems running the Service Pack 2 update (released in late 2004), which vastly improved the security of Windows XP. The computer that was running Windows XP Service Pack 2 was not compromised. The AOL National Cyber Security Alliance Online Safety Study of October 2004 determined that 80% of Windows users were infected by at least one spyware/adware product. Much documentation is available describing how to increase the security of Microsoft Windows products. Typical suggestions include deploying Microsoft Windows behind a hardware or software firewall, running anti-virus and anti-spyware software, and installing patches as they become available through Windows Update.

Emulation software

Emulation allows the use of some Windows applications without using Microsoft Windows. These include:

Wine — a free and open source software implementation of the Windows API, allowing one to run many Windows applications on x86-based platforms, including Linux and Mac OS X. Wine developers refer to it as a "compatibility layer"; and make use of Windows-style APIs to emulate the Windows environment.
- CrossOver — A Wine package with licensed fonts. Its developers are regular contributors to Wine, and focus on Wine running officially supported applications.
- Cedega — TransGaming Technologies' proprietary fork of Wine, designed specifically for running games written for Microsoft Windows under Linux. A version of Cedega known as Cider is used by some video game publishers to allow Windows games to run on Mac OS X. Since wine was licensed under the LGPL Cedega has been unable to port the improvements made to wine to their proprietary codebase.
- Darwine — A bundling of Wine to the PowerPC Macs running OS X by running wine on top of QEMU. Intel Macs use the same Wine as other *NIX x86 systems.
ReactOS — An open-source OS that is intended to run the same software as Windows, originally designed to simulate Windows NT 4.0, now aiming at Windows XP compatibility. It has been in the development stage since 1996.

Source : Wikipedia

Mac OS

2010-02-04T16:36:00.001+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mac OS is the trademarked name for a series of graphical user interface-based operating systems developed by Apple Inc. (formerly Apple Computer, Inc.) for their Macintosh line of computer systems. The Macintosh
user experience is credited with popularizing the graphical user interface. The original form of what Apple would later name the "Mac OS" was the integral and unnamed system software first introduced in 1984 with the original Macintosh, usually referred to simply as the System software.
Apple deliberately downplayed the existence of the operating system in the early years of the Macintosh to help make the machine appear more user-friendly and to distance it from other operating systems such as MS-DOS, which was more arcane and technically challenging. Much of this early system software was held in ROM, with updates typically provided free of charge by Apple dealers on floppy disk. As increasing disk storage capacity and performance gradually eliminated the need for fixing much of an advanced GUI operating system in ROM, Apple explored cloning while positioning major operating system upgrades as separate revenue-generating products, first with System 7.1 and System 7.5, then with Mac OS 7.6 in 1997.
Early versions of the Mac OS were compatible only with Motorola 68000-based Macintoshes. As Apple introduced computers with PowerPC hardware, the OS was upgraded to support this architecture as well. Mac OS 8.1 was the last version that could run on a 68000-class processor (the 68040). Mac OS X, which has superseded the "Classic" Mac OS, is compatible with both PowerPC and Intel processors through version 10.5 ("Leopard"). Version 10.6 ("Snow Leopard") supports only Intel processors.

Mac OS

Mac OS X Snow Leopard desktop
Company / developer	Apple
OS family	UNIX
Working state	Publicly released
Source model	Closed source (with open source components)
Latest stable release	10.6.2 (November 9, 2009;)
License	Proprietary EULA
Website	www.apple.com/macosx/

Versions

The early Macintosh operating system initially consisted of two pieces of software, called "System" and "Finder", each with its own version number. System 7.5.3 was the first to include the Mac OS logo (a variation on the original Happy Mac startup icon), and Mac OS 7.6 was the first to be named "Mac OS".
Before the introduction of the later PowerPC G3-based systems, significant parts of the system were stored in physical ROM on the motherboard. The initial purpose of this was to avoid using up the limited storage of floppy disks on system support, given that the early Macs had no hard disk. (Only one model of Mac was ever actually bootable using the ROM alone, the 1991 Mac Classic model.) This architecture also allowed for a completely graphical OS interface at the lowest level without the need for a text-only console or command-line mode. Boot time errors, such as finding no functioning disk drives, were communicated to the user graphically, usually with an icon or the distinctive Chicago bitmap font and a Chime of Death or a series of beeps. This was in contrast to PCs of the time, which displayed such messages in a mono-spaced font on a black background, and required the use of the keyboard, not a mouse, for input. To provide such niceties at a low level, Mac OS depended on core system software in ROM on the motherboard, a fact that later helped to ensure that only Apple computers or licensed clones (with the copyright-protected ROMs from Apple) could run Mac OS.
The Mac OS can be divided into two families:

The Mac OS Classic family, which was based on Apple's own code
The Mac OS X operating system, a fusion of the 'classic' Mac OS and NeXTSTEP.

"Classic" Mac OS (1984–2001)

Main article: History of Mac OS

Original 1984 Macintosh desktop

The "classic" Mac OS is characterized by its total lack of a command line; it is a completely graphical operating system. Noted for its ease of use and its cooperative multitasking, it was criticized for its very limited memory management, lack of protected memory, and susceptibility to conflicts among operating system "extensions" that provide additional functionality (such as networking) or support for a particular device. Some extensions may not work properly together, or work only when loaded in a particular order. Troubleshooting Mac OS extensions could be a time-consuming process of trial and error.
The Macintosh originally used the Macintosh File System (MFS), a flat file system with only one level of folders. This was quickly replaced in 1985 by the Hierarchical File System (HFS), which had a true directory tree. Both file systems are otherwise compatible.

Extensions Manager under Mac OS 9

Most file systems used with DOS, Unix, or other operating systems treat a file as simply a sequence of bytes, requiring an application to know which bytes represented what type of information. By contrast, MFS and HFS gave files two different "forks". The data fork contained the same sort of information as other file systems, such as the text of a document or the bitmaps of an image file. The resource fork contained other structured data such as menu definitions, graphics, sounds, or code segments. A file might consist only of resources with an empty data fork, or only a data fork with no resource fork. A text file could contain its text in the data fork and styling information in the resource fork, so that an application, which didn’t recognize the styling information, could still read the raw text. On the other hand, these forks provided a challenge to interoperability with other operating systems; copying a file from a Mac to a non-Mac system would strip it of its resource fork, necessitating such encoding schemes as BinHex and MacBinary.
PowerPC versions of Mac OS X up to and including Mac OS X v10.4 Tiger (support for Classic was dropped by Apple with Leopard's release and it is no longer included) include a compatibility layer for running older Mac applications, the Classic Environment. This runs a full copy of the older Mac OS, version 9.1 or later, in a Mac OS X process. PowerPC-based Macs shipped with Mac OS 9.2 as well as Mac OS X. Mac OS 9.2 had to be installed by the user — it was not installed by default on hardware revisions released after the release of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger. Most well-written "classic" applications function properly under this environment, but compatibility is only assured if the software was written to be unaware of the actual hardware, and to interact solely with the operating system. The Classic Environment is not available on Intel-based Macintosh systems due to the incompatibility of Mac OS 9 with the x86 hardware.

Mac OS 9 - the last release of the classic Mac OS.

Users of the classic Mac OS generally upgraded to Mac OS X, but many criticized it as being more difficult and less user-friendly than the original Mac OS, for the lack of certain features that had not been re-implemented in the new OS, or for being slower on the same hardware (especially older hardware), or other, sometimes serious incompatibilities with the older OS. Because drivers (for printers, scanners, tablets, etc.) written for the older Mac OS are not compatible with Mac OS X, and due to the lack of Mac OS X support for older Apple machines, a significant number of Macintosh users have still continued using the older classic Mac OS. But by 2005, it has been reported that almost all users of systems capable of running Mac OS X are doing so, with only a small fraction still running the classic Mac OS.
In June 2005, Steve Jobs announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference keynote that Apple computers would be transitioning from PowerPC to Intel processors and thus dropping compatibility on new machines for Mac OS Classic. At the same conference, Jobs announced Developer Transition Kits that included beta versions of Apple software including Mac OS X that developers could use to test their applications as they ported them to run on Intel-powered Macs. In January 2006, Apple released the first Macintosh computers with Intel processors, an iMac and the MacBook Pro, and in February 2006, Apple released a Mac mini with an Intel Core Solo and Duo processor. On May 16, 2006, Apple released the MacBook, before completing the Intel transition on August 7 with the Mac Pro. To ease the transition for early buyers of the new machines, Intel-based Macs include an emulation technology called Rosetta, which allows them to run Mac OS X software that was compiled for PowerPC-based Macintoshes. Rosetta runs transparently, creating a user experience identical to running the software on a PowerPC machine, though execution is typically slower than with native code.

Mac OS X (since 2001)

Mac OS X is the newest of Apple Inc.'s Mac OS line of operating systems. Although it is officially designated as simply "version 10" of the Mac OS, it has a history largely independent of the earlier Mac OS releases.

Star Trek

One interesting historical aspect of the classic Mac OS was a relatively unknown secret prototype Apple started work on in 1992, code-named "Star Trek" (as in "to boldly go where no Mac has gone before"). The goal of this project was to create a version of Mac OS that would run on Intel-compatible x86 personal computers. The project was instigated by Novell, Inc., who were looking to integrate their DR-DOS with the Mac OS UI as a retort to Microsoft's Windows 3.0. The Apple/Novell team (fourteen engineers from the former, four from the latter) was able to get the Macintosh Finder and some basic applications, like QuickTime, running smoothly on a PC. Some of the code from this effort was reused when porting the Mac OS later to PowerPC.
The project was short lived, being canceled only one year later in early 1993. There are two theories for the cancellation: the first is that Apple's board canceled further development upon realizing that going with Star Trek would mean an entirely new business model and one that would likely see a notable drop in Apple's lucrative hardware sales; and the second is that an x86 Mac OS was not commercially viable in the early nineties because Microsoft's contracts for Windows 3.1 forced PC manufacturers to pay a royalty to Microsoft for every computer shipped, regardless of what operating system it contained.
A further complication was that Star Trek was designed to be source-level compatible, not binary compatible, with the Mac OS. Mac applications would therefore have to be recompiled or rewritten by their developers to run on the x86 architecture, and there was much skepticism as to exactly how much work this would entail.
Fifteen years after Star Trek, support for the x86 architecture was officially included in Mac OS, and then Apple transitioned all desktop computers to the x86 architecture. This was not the direct result of earlier Project Star Trek efforts. The Darwin underpinning used for Mac OS X 10.0 and later included support for the x86 architecture. The remaining non-Darwin portion of Mac OS X (based on OPENSTEP, which ran on Intel processors) was released officially with the introduction of x86 Macintosh computers.

68000 emulation

Although the Star Trek software was never released, third-party Macintosh emulators, such as vMac, Basilisk II, and Executor, eventually made it possible to run the classic Mac OS on Intel-based PCs. These emulators were restricted to emulating the 68000 series of processors, and as such most couldn't run versions of the Mac OS that succeeded 8.1, which required PowerPC processors. Most also required a Mac ROM image or a hardware interface supporting a real Mac ROM chip; those requiring an image are of dubious legal standing as the ROM image may infringe on Apple's intellectual property.
A notable exception was the Executor commercial software product from Abacus Research & Development, the only product that used 100% reverse engineered code without the use of Apple technology. It ran extremely quickly but never achieved more than a minor subset of functionality. Few programs were completely compatible and many were extremely crash-prone if they ran at all. Executor filled a niche market for porting 68000 classic Mac applications to x86 platforms; development ceased in 2002 and the source code was released by the author in late 2008.
Emulators using Mac ROM images offered near complete Mac OS compatibility and later versions offered excellent performance as modern x86 processor performance increased exponentially.
Most of the Mac user base had already started moving to the PowerPC platform that offered backward compatibility on 8.xx & 9.xx operating systems along with faster PowerPC software support. This helped ease the transition to PowerPC-only applications while prematurely obsolescing 68000 emulators and the Classic-only applications they supported well before these emulators were refined enough to compete with a real Mac.

PowerPC emulation

At the time of 68000-emulator development PowerPC support was difficult to justify not only due to the emulation code itself but also the anticipated wide performance overhead of an emulated PowerPC architecture vs. a real PowerPC based Mac. This would later prove correct with the start of the PearPC project even years later despite the availability of 7th & 8th generation x86 processors employing similar architecture paradigms present in the PowerPC. Many application developers were also creating and releasing both 68000 Classic and PowerPC versions concurrently helping to negate the need for PowerPC emulation. PowerPC Mac users who could technically run either obviously chose the faster PowerPC applications. Soon Apple was no longer selling 68000-based Macs and the existing installed base started to quickly evaporate. Despite the eventual excellent 68000-emulation technology available they proved never to be even a minor threat to real Macs due to their late arrival and immaturity even several years after the release of much more compelling PowerPC based Macs.
The PearPC emulator is capable of emulating the PowerPC processors required by newer versions of the Mac OS (like Mac OS X). Unfortunately, it is still in the early stages and, like many emulators, tends to run much slower than a native operating system would.
During the transition from PowerPC to Intel processors, Apple realized the need to incorporate a PowerPC emulator into Mac OS X in order to protect its customers' investments in software designed to run on the PowerPC. Apple's solution is an emulator called Rosetta. Prior to the announcement of Rosetta, industry observers assumed that any PowerPC emulator running on an x86 processor would suffer a heavy performance penalty (e.g., PearPC's slow performance). Rosetta's relatively minor performance penalty therefore took many by surprise.
Another PowerPC emulator is SheepShaver, which has been around since 1998 for BeOS on the PowerPC platform, but in 2002 was open sourced with porting efforts beginning to get it to run on other platforms. Originally it was not designed for use on x86 platforms and required an actual PowerPC processor present in the machine it was running on similar to a hypervisor. Although it provides PowerPC processor support, it can only run up to Mac OS 9.0.4 because it does not emulate a memory management unit.
Other examples include ShapeShifter (by the same programmer that conceived SheepShaver), Fusion and iFusion. The latter ran classic Mac OS with a PowerPC "coprocessor" accelerator card. Using this method has been said to equal or better the speed of a Macintosh with the same processor, especially with respect to the m68k series due to real Macs running in MMU trap mode, hampering performance.

Macintosh clones

Several computer manufacturers over the years have made Macintosh clones capable of running Mac OS, notably Power Computing, UMAX and Motorola. These machines normally ran various versions of classic Mac OS. Steve Jobs ended the clone-licensing program after returning to Apple in 1997.
In 2008, a manufacturing company in Miami, FL called Psystar Corporation, announced a $499 clone that comes with a barebones system that can run Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. Threatened with legal battles, Psystar originally called the system OpenMac and have since changed it to Open Computer. Apple is still in a lawsuit with the company and says it wants Psystar to pay for damages, recall every clone ever sold, and pay Apple's legal bills.

A/UX

Main article: A/UX

In 1988, Apple released its first UNIX-based OS, A/UX, which was a UNIX operating system with the Mac OS look and feel. It was not very competitive for its time, due in part to the crowded Unix market. A/UX had most of its success in sales to the U.S. government, where UNIX was a requirement that Mac OS could not meet. Mac OS X later incorporated code from the UNIX-based NeXTStep after Steve Jobs rejoined Apple in 1997.

MkLinux

Announced at The 1996 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC), MkLinux is an open source computer operating system started by the OSF Research Institute and Apple Computer in February 1996 to port Linux to the PowerPC platform, and thus Macintosh computers. In the summer of 1998, the community-led MkLinux Developers Association took over development of the operating system. MkLinux is short for "Microkernel Linux," which refers to the project's adaptation of the Linux kernel to run as a server hosted atop the Mach microkernel. MkLinux is based on version 3.0 of Mach.

Mac OS on non Apple-labeled computers

Though a violation of Apple's EULA, running Mac OS X operating systems compiled for x86 on a non-Apple PC is possible using various kernel modifications, third-party and community drivers, and emulation methods. For example, the PC-EFI project emulates the Extensible Firmware Interface that is normally present on Apple's Intel-based Macs, allowing Mac OS X to be installed on non-Apple hardware.

Source : Wikipedia

Ubuntu

2010-02-04T16:32:00.003+07:00

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ubuntu (pronounced /uːˈbuːntuː/), is a computer operating system based on the Debian GNU/Linux distribution. It is named after the Southern African ethical ideology Ubuntu ("humanity towards others") and is distributed as free and open source software. Ubuntu provides an up-to-date, stable operating system for the average user, with a strong focus on usability and ease of installation. Ubuntu has been selected by readers of desktoplinux.com as the most popular Linux distribution for the desktop, claiming approximately 30% of Linux desktop installations in both 2006 and 2007. Web statistics from late 2009 suggest that Ubuntu's share is between 40 and 50%.
Ubuntu is composed of multiple software packages, of which the vast majority are distributed under a free software license (also known as open source). The main license used is the GNU General Public License (GNU GPL) which, along with the GNU Lesser General Public License (GNU LGPL), explicitly declare that users are free to run, copy, distribute, study, change, develop and improve the software. Ubuntu is sponsored by the UK-based company Canonical Ltd., owned by South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth. By keeping Ubuntu free and open source, Canonical is able to utilize the talents of community developers in Ubuntu's constituent components. Instead of selling Ubuntu for profit, Canonical creates revenue by selling technical support and from creating several services tied to Ubuntu.
Canonical endorses and provides support for three additional Ubuntu-derived operating systems: Kubuntu, Edubuntu and Ubuntu Server Edition. There are several other derivative operating systems including local language and hardware-specific versions.
Canonical releases new versions of Ubuntu every six months and supports Ubuntu for eighteen months by providing security fixes, patches to critical bugs and minor updates to programs. LTS (Long Term Support) versions, which are released every two years, are supported for three years on the desktop and five years for servers. The current version of Ubuntu, 9.10 (Karmic Koala), was released on October 29, 2009.

Ubuntu

Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
Company / developer	Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Foundation
OS family	Unix-like
Working state	Current
Source model	Free and open source software
Initial release	20 October 2004
Latest stable release	9.10 / October 29, 2009; 3 months ago
Latest unstable release	10.04 alpha 2 / January 14, 2010; 20 days ago
Available language(s)	Multilingual (more than 55)
Update method	APT (front-ends available)
Package manager	dpkg (front-ends like Synaptic available)
Supported platforms	IA-32, x86-64, lpia, SPARC, PowerPC, ARM, IA-64
Kernel type	Monolithic (Linux)
Userland	GNU
Default user interface	GNOME
License	Mainly the GNU GPL / plus various other licenses
Website	www.ubuntu.com

Ubuntu 9.04 with New Wave theme

History and development process

Ubuntu is a fork of the Debian project's code base. The original aim was to release a new version of Ubuntu every six months, resulting in a more frequently updated system. Ubuntu's first release was on October 20, 2004.
Ubuntu releases are timed about one month after GNOME releases.In contrast to other forks of Debian, which extensively use proprietary and closed source add-ons, Ubuntu uses primarily free (libre) software, making an exception only for some proprietary hardware drivers.
Ubuntu packages are based on packages from Debian's unstable branch: both distributions use Debian's deb package format and package management tools (APT and Synaptic). Debian and Ubuntu packages are not necessarily binary compatible with each other, however, and sometimes .deb packages may need to be rebuilt from source to be used in Ubuntu. Many Ubuntu developers are also maintainers of key packages within Debian. Ubuntu cooperates with Debian by pushing changes back to Debian,although there has been criticism that this doesn't happen often enough. In the past, Ian Murdock, the founder of Debian, has expressed concern about Ubuntu packages potentially diverging too far from Debian Sarge to remain compatible. Before release, packages are imported from Debian Unstable continuously and merged with Ubuntu-specific modifications. A month before release, imports are frozen, and packagers then work to ensure that the frozen features interoperate well together.
Ubuntu is currently funded by Canonical Ltd. On July 8, 2005, Mark Shuttleworth and Canonical Ltd announced the creation of the Ubuntu Foundation and provided an initial funding of US$10 million. The purpose of the foundation is to ensure the support and development for all future versions of Ubuntu. Mark Shuttleworth describes the foundation as an "emergency fund" (in case Canonical's involvement ends).
Ubuntu 8.04, released on April 24, 2008, is the current Long Term Support (LTS) release. Canonical releases LTS versions every two years, with Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx (release number subject to change) scheduled as the next LTS version in 2010. The current regular release, Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala), was released on October 29, 2009.
On March 12, 2009, Ubuntu announced developer support for 3rd party cloud management platforms, such as for those used at Amazon EC2.

Features

Installing and removing software in Ubuntu in versions before 9.10 Karmic Koala

Ubuntu focuses on usability. The Ubiquity installer allows Ubuntu to be installed to the hard disk from within the Live CD environment, without the need for restarting the computer prior to installation. Ubuntu also emphasizes accessibility and internationalization to reach as many people as possible. Beginning with 5.04, UTF-8 became the default character encoding,which allows for support of a variety of non-Roman scripts. As a security feature, the sudo tool is used to assign temporary privileges for performing administrative tasks, allowing the root account to remain locked, and preventing inexperienced users from inadvertently making catastrophic system changes or opening security holes. PolicyKit is also being widely implemented into the desktop to further harden the system through the principle of least privilege.
Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software that includes OpenOffice, Firefox, Empathy (Pidgin in versions before 9.10), Transmission, GIMP, and several lightweight games (such as Sudoku and chess). Ubuntu allows networking ports to be closed using its firewall, with customized port selection available. End-users can install Gufw and keep it enabled. GNOME (the current default desktop) offers support for more than 46 languages. Ubuntu can also run many programs designed for Microsoft Windows (such as Microsoft Office), through Wine or using a Virtual Machine (such as VMware Workstation or VirtualBox).

Installation

Ubuntu 9.04 (live CD session)

Installation of Ubuntu is generally performed with the Live CD. The Ubuntu OS can be run directly from the CD (albeit with a significant performance loss), allowing a user to "test-drive" the OS for hardware compatibility and driver support. The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer, which then can guide the user through the permanent installation process. CD images of all current and past versions are available for download at the Ubuntu web site. Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MB RAM.
Users can download a disk image (.iso) of the CD, which can then either be written to a physical medium (CD or DVD), or optionally run directly from a hard drive (via UNetbootin). Ubuntu is even available on the PowerPC platform (enabling users of older Macintosh computers to run Ubuntu natively on their machines); however, it is no longer officially supported.
Canonical offers Ubuntu and Kubuntuinstallation CDs at no cost, including paid postage for destinations in most countries around the world (via a service called ShipIt).
A Microsoft Windows migration tool, called Migration Assistant (introduced in April 2007),can be used to import bookmarks, desktop background (wallpaper), and various settings from an existing MS Windows installation into a new Ubuntu installation
Ubuntu and Kubuntu can be booted and run from a USB Flash drive (as long as the BIOS supports booting from USB), with the option of saving settings to the flashdrive. This allows a portable installation that can be run on any PC which is capable of booting from a USB drive.In newer versions of Ubuntu, the USB creator program is available to install Ubuntu on a USB drive (with or without a LiveCD disc).
Wubi, which is included as an option on the Live CD, allows Ubuntu to be installed and run from within a virtual Windows loop device (as a large image file that is managed like any other Windows program via the Windows Control Panel). This method requires no partitioning of a Windows user's hard drive. Wubi also makes use of the Migration Assistant to import users' settings. It is only useful for Windows users; it is not meant for permanent Ubuntu installations and it also incurs a slight performance loss.

Remastering

Package classification and support

Ubuntu divides all software into four domains to reflect differences in licensing and the degree of support available. All unsupported applications receive updates from community members, but not from Canonical.

	free software	non-free software
supported	Main	Restricted
unsupported	Universe	Multiverse

Free software includes only software that has met the Ubuntu licensing requirements, which roughly correspond to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. Exceptions, however, include firmware and fonts, in the Main category, because although they are not allowed to be modified, their distribution is otherwise unencumbered.
Non-free software is usually unsupported (Multiverse), but some exceptions (Restricted) are made for important non-free software. Supported non-free software includes device drivers that can be used to run Ubuntu on some current hardware, such as binary-only graphics card drivers. The level of support in the Restricted category is more limited than that of Main, because the developers may not have access to the source code. It is intended that Main and Restricted should contain all software needed for a general-use Linux system. Alternative programs for the same tasks and programs for specialized applications are placed in the Universe and Multiverse categories.
In addition to the above, in which the software does not receive new features after an initial release, Ubuntu Backports is an officially recognized project to backport newer software from later versions of Ubuntu. The repository is not comprehensive; it consists primarily of user-requested packages, which are approved if they meet quality guidelines. Backports receives no support at all from Canonical, and is entirely community-maintained.
The -updates repository provides updates to stable releases of Ubuntu and are generally installed through update-manager. Each release is given its own -updates repository (e.g. intrepid-updates). The repository is supported by Canonical for packages in main and restricted, and by the community for packages in universe and multiverse. All updates to the repository must meet certain requirements and go through the -proposed repository before being made available to the public. Updates will continue to be available until the end of life for the release.
In addition to the -updates repository, the unstable -proposed repository contains uploads which must be confirmed before being copied into -updates. All updates must go through this process to ensure that the patch does truly fix the bug and there is no risk of regression. Updates in -proposed are confirmed by either Canonical or members of the community.

Availability of third-party software

Releases

Version	Code name	Release date
4.10	Warty Warthog	2004-10-20
5.04	Hoary Hedgehog	2005-04-08
5.10	Breezy Badger	2005-10-13
6.06 LTS	Dapper Drake	2006-06-01
6.10	Edgy Eft	2006-10-26
7.04	Feisty Fawn	2007-04-19
7.10	Gutsy Gibbon	2007-10-18
8.04 LTS	Hardy Heron	2008-04-24
8.10	Intrepid Ibex	2008-10-30
9.04	Jaunty Jackalope	2009-04-23
9.10	Karmic Koala	2009-10-29
10.04 LTS	Lucid Lynx	2010-04-29

Main article: List of Ubuntu releases

There are two Ubuntu releases per year, using the year and month of the release as the version number. The first Ubuntu release, for example, was Ubuntu 4.10 and was released on October 20, 2004.Version numbers for future versions are provisional; if the release is delayed the version number changes accordingly.
Ubuntu releases are also given code names, using an adjective and an animal with the same first letter (e.g., "Dapper Drake" and "Intrepid Ibex"). With the exception of the first three releases, code names are in alphabetical order, allowing a quick determination of which release is newer. Commonly, Ubuntu releases are referred to using only the adjective portion of the code name.
Releases are timed to be approximately one month after GNOME releases (which in turn are about one month after releases of X.org). Consequently, every Ubuntu release comes with an updated version of both GNOME and X. Selected releases (such as 6.06 Dapper Drake and 8.04 Hardy Heron) have been labeled as Long Term Support (LTS) versions, indicating that they are supported (with updates) for three years on the desktop and five years on the server, as compared to the 18-month support period for non-LTS releases.
The current release is 9.10 Karmic Koala,released on October 29, 2009. Some users have reported hardware-recognition and functionality issues on upgrading to this version from previous versions of Ubuntu. However, statistics based on the main Ubuntu support forum shows that the number of problems with 9.10 is no worse than average.

Variants

Kubuntu is an official variant of the Ubuntu distribution which uses KDE rather than GNOME

Several official and unofficial Ubuntu variants exist. These Ubuntu variants install a set of packages that differ from the original Ubuntu distribution.
Official variants store packages and updates in the same repositories as Ubuntu, so that the same software is available for each of them and is generally compatible between the official variants. The Ubuntu derivatives that are fully supported by Canonical are:

Kubuntu, a desktop distribution using KDE rather than GNOME.
Edubuntu, a GNOME-based subproject and add-on for Ubuntu, designed for school environments and home users.
Ubuntu Server Edition.
Ubuntu JeOS, "Just enough Operating System" for virtual appliances.

The following are Canonical-sponsored derivatives:

Xubuntu, a "lightweight" distribution based on the Xfce desktop environment instead of GNOME, designed to run better on low-specification computers.
Ubuntu MID Edition, an Ubuntu edition that targets Mobile Internet Devices.
Ubuntu Netbook Remix, designed for netbooks and other ultra-portables.

There are also many unofficial variants, unsponsored derivatives, and other localizations and customizations not controlled or guided by Canonical, which generally contain customizations that have been created for specific goals.

System requirements

The desktop version of Ubuntu currently supports the Intel x86, AMD64, and ARMarchitectures. Some server releases also support the SPARC architecture. Unofficial support is available for the PowerPC, IA-64 (Itanium) and PlayStation 3 architectures.

	Desktop & Laptop		Server
	Required	Recommended	Server
Processor	300 MHz (x86)	700 MHz (x86)	300 MHz (x86)
Memory	256 MB	384 MB*	64 MB
Hard drive capacity	574 MB	700 MB	500 MB
Video card	VGA @ 640×480	VGA @ 1024×768	VGA @ 640×480

* With compositing effects enabled

Development

UDS Karmic Group Photo

The Ubuntu Developer Summit is a gathering of software developers which occurs prior to the release of a new public version of Ubuntu.
At the beginning of a new development cycle, Ubuntu developers from around the world gather to help shape and scope the next release of Ubuntu. The summit is open to the public, but it is not a conference, exhibition or other audience-oriented event. Rather, it is an opportunity for Ubuntu developers, who usually collaborate online, to work together in person on specific tasks.

Reception

In an August 2007 survey of 38,500 visitors on DesktopLinux.com, Ubuntu was the most popular distribution with 30.3% of respondents claiming to use it.
In January 2009, the New York Times reported that Ubuntu had over ten million users and in June 2009 ZDNet reported, "Worldwide, there are 13 million active Ubuntu users with use growing faster than any other distribution."
Ubuntu was awarded the Reader Award for best Linux distribution at the 2005 LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in London, has been favorably reviewed in online and print publications, and has won InfoWorld's 2007 Bossie Award for Best Open Source Client OS.
Jamie Hyneman, co-host of the television series Mythbusters, has advocated Linux, specifically giving the example of Ubuntu, as an alternative to proprietary software, citing software bloat as a major hurdle in proprietary operating systems.
Ubuntu has also received negative assessments. In early 2008 PC World criticized the lack of an integrated desktop effects manager, although this did not prevent them from naming Ubuntu the "best all-around Linux distribution available today".
The Ministry of Education and Science of Republic Of Macedonia deployed more than 180,000 Ubuntu Linux based classroom desktops, and has encouraged every student in the country to use Ubuntu-powered computer workstations.
The French police are in the process of installing Ubuntu on 90,000 workstations, demonstrating a 70% saving on the IT budget without having to reduce its capabilities.

Vendor support

A number of vendors offer computers with Ubuntu pre-installed, including Dell, Tesco,OP3, Gliese IT, System76, and the South African company Bravium Computers. Dell and System76 customers are able to choose between 30-day, three-month, and yearly Ubuntu support plans through Canonical Dell computers (running Ubuntu 8.04 or 9.04) include extra support for ATI Video Graphics, Dell Wireless, Fingerprint Readers, HDMI, Bluetooth, DVD Playback (using LinDVD), and MP3/WMA/WMV.

Source : Wikipedia

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Alexa Internet

2010-01-29T19:03:00.000+07:00

Alexa Internet, Inc. is a California based subsidiary company of Amazon.com that is known for its toolbar and website. Once installed, the toolbar collects data on browsing behavior which is transmitted to the website where it is stored and analyzed and is the basis for the company's web traffic reporting.


Type	Subsidiary
Founded	1996
Headquarters	San Francisco, California, USA
Industry	Internet information providers
Products	Search Engine
Parent	Amazon.com
Website	Alexa.com
Type of site	Web traffic and ranking
Advertising	Web banner with AdBrite
Registration	N/A
Available in	English
Current status	Active

Operations and history

Alexa Internet was founded in 1996 by Brewster Kahle and Bruce Gilliat. The company's name was chosen in homage to the Library of Alexandria. drawing a parallel between the largest repository of knowledge in the ancient world to the potential of the Internet.
The company offered a toolbar that gave Internet users suggestions on where to go next, based on the traffic patterns of its user community. Alexa also offered context for each site visited: to whom it was registered, how many pages it had, how many other sites pointed to it, and how frequently it was updated.
Alexa's operation includes archiving of webpages as they are crawled. This database served as the basis for the creation of the Internet Archive accessible through the Wayback Machine. In 1998 the company donated a copy of the archive, 2 terabytes back then, to the Library of Congress. Alexa continues to supply the Internet Archive with web crawls.
In 1999, Alexa was acquired by Amazon.com for about $250 million in Amazon stock as the company moved away from its original vision of providing an 'intelligent' search engine. Alexa began a partnership with Google in spring 2002, and with the Open Directory Project in January 2003. In May 2006, Amazon replaced Google with Live Search as a provider of search results.In September 2006, they began using their own Search Platform to serve results. In December 2006, they released Alexa Image Search. Built in-house, it is the first major application to be built on their Web Platform.
In December 2005, Alexa opened its extensive search index and web-crawling facilities to third party programs through a comprehensive set of web services and APIs. These could be used, for instance, to construct vertical search engines that could run on Alexa's own servers or elsewhere. In May 2007, Alexa changed their API to require comparisons be limited to 3 sites, reduced size embedded graphs be shown using Flash, and mandatory embedded BritePic ads.
In April 2007, the lawsuit Alexa v. Hornbaker was filed to stop trademark infringement by the statsaholic service. In the lawsuit, Alexa alleges that Hornbaker is stealing traffic graphs for profit, and that the primary purpose of his site is to display graphs that are generated by Alexa's servers. Hornbaker removed the term Alexa from his service name on March 19, 2007 Nevertheless, Alexa expressly grants permission to refer its data in third-party work subject to suitable credits.
On November 27, 2008, Amazon announced that Alexa Web Search was no longer accepting new customers, and the service would be deprecated or discontinued for existing customers on January 26, 2009.

Accuracy of ranking by the Alexa Toolbar

Alexa ranks sites based on tracking information of users of its Alexa Toolbar for Internet Explorer and from integrated sidebars in Mozilla and Netscape.
There is some controversy over how representative Alexa's user base is of typical Internet behavior, especially for less trafficked sites. In 2007 Michael Arrington provided a few examples of relative Alexa ranking known to contradict data from comScore, including ranking YouTube ahead of Google.
On April 16, 2008, many users reported dramatic shifts in their Alexa rankings. Alexa confirmed this later in the day with an announcement that they had released the new Alexa ranking system, claiming that they now take into account more data sources "beyond Alexa Toolbar users".

Redesign and new statistics

On March 31, 2009, Alexa.com underwent a complete redesign with new metrics including: Pageviews per User, Bounce Rate, and Time on Site.In the following weeks they added new features including Demographics, Clickstream and Search Traffic stats.

Spyware

The Alexa toolbar is regarded by many vendors, such as Symantec and McAfee, as spyware. Symantec classifies the toolbar as trackware. McAfee classifies it as Adware, a "Potentially Unwanted Program." McAfee Site Advisor rates the Alexa website as yellow, with the warning:
"In our tests, we found downloads on this site that some people consider adware, spyware or other potentially unwanted programs,"

Source : Wikipedia

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Twilight Saga : Eclipse (2010)

2010-01-28T16:22:00.006+07:00

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse is an upcoming romantic-fantasy film scheduled for release on June 30, 2010. It is based on Stephenie Meyer's Eclipse and will be the third installment of The Twilight Saga film series, following 2008's Twilight and 2009's New Moon. Summit Entertainment greenlit the film in
February 2009. Directed by David Slade, the film will star Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, and Taylor Lautner, reprising their roles as Bella Swan, Edward Cullen, and Jacob Black, respectively. Melissa Rosenberg will be returning as screenwriter.
Rachelle Lefevre, who played Victoria in the previous two installments, will not be returning due to scheduling conflicts; instead, Bryce Dallas Howard will play Victoria. It will be the first Twilight film to be released in IMAX.

The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
Theatrical poster
Directed by	David Slade
Produced by	Wyck Godfrey Karen Rosenfelt
Written by	Melissa Rosenberg (Screenplay) Stephenie Meyer (Novel)
Starring	Kristen Stewart Robert Pattinson Taylor Lautner
Music by	Howard Shore
Cinematography	Javier Aguirresarobe
Editing by	Nancy Richardson Art Jones
Distributed by	Summit Entertainment
Release date(s)	June 24, 2010 (Los Angeles Premiere) June 30, 2010
Running time	124 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$68,000,000
Gross revenue	$108,944,978
Preceded by	The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Followed by	The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn

Plot
Summit Entertainment released a plot summary of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse on February 20, 2009, which states:
As Seattle is ravaged by a string of mysterious killings and a malicious vampire continues her quest for revenge, Bella once again finds herself surrounded by danger. In the midst of it all, she is forced to choose between her love for Edward and her friendship with Jacob — knowing that her decision has the potential to ignite the ageless struggle between vampire and werewolf. With her graduation quickly approaching, Bella has one more decision to make: life or death.

Cast

Main cast

Kristen Stewart as Bella Swan, who finds herself surrounded by danger and targeted by the vengeful vampire Victoria. In the meantime, she must choose between her love for vampire Edward Cullen and werewolf Jacob Black.
Robert Pattinson as Edward Cullen, Bella's vampire boyfriend who can read minds, except for Bella's.
Taylor Lautner as Jacob Black, Bella's best friend and a member of the Quileute tribe, who loves Bella.

Secondary characters

Peter Facinelli as Carlisle Cullen, a compassionate doctor who acts as a father figure to the Cullen coven.
Elizabeth Reaser as Esme Cullen, a loving mother figure of the Cullen clan.
Ashley Greene as Alice Cullen, a member of the Cullen family who can see "subjective" visions of the future and who is close friends with Bella. Alice is involved in a fight sequence that Greene calls "Cirque du Soleil-ish".
Kellan Lutz as Emmett Cullen, the strongest member of the Cullen family.
Nikki Reed as Rosalie Hale, the most beautiful member of the Cullen family. Reed says she is looking forward to sharing her character's backstory in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse: "I shot an entire sequence in the 1930s. ...And it's intercut between a really amazing scene and moment that I have with Bella. ...It gives me the opportunity to explain myself."
Jackson Rathbone as Jasper Hale, a member of the Cullen coven who trains his family on how to fight newborn vampires and can control/manipulate emotions. The film also explores Jasper's backstory as a human during the American Civil War before he was turned into a vampire.
Billy Burke as Charlie Swan, Bella's father and Forks' Chief of Police.
Chaske Spencer as Sam Uley, the leader of a werewolf pack that protects humans against predatory vampires.
Tinsel Korey as Emily Young, Sam's fiancée and a mother figure to the wolf pack.
Tyson Houseman as Quil Ateara, one of Jacob's best friends and a member of the wolf pack.
Alex Meraz as Paul, a volatile member of the wolf pack.
Kiowa Gordon as Embry Call, one of Jacob's best friends and a member of the wolf pack.
Bronson Pelletier as Jared, the joker of the wolf pack.
Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater, the only female member of the werewolf pack.
Boo Boo Stewart as Seth Clearwater, Leah's younger brother.
Gil Birmingham as Billy Black, Jacob's father and a Quileute elder.
Bryce Dallas Howard as Victoria, a vampire who wants to kill Bella to avenge her mate, James.
Xavier Samuel as Riley, a "good-looking college student who joins the plot of villain Victoria to murder protagonist Bella."
Jodelle Ferland as Bree, a newly turned vampire.
Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria, the vampire who turned Jasper Hale into a vampire.
Kirsten Prout as Lucy, a vampire who helped create a vampire army with Maria, but was later killed by her and Jasper after turning on them.
Christian Serratos as Angela Weber, one of Bella's closest friends.
Anna Kendrick as Jessica Stanley, Bella's friend.
Justin Chon as Eric Yorkie, Bella's friend who dates Angela.
Michael Welch as Mike Newton,Bella's friend who has a crush on her.
Jack Huston as Royce King II, a wealthy banker's son who was engaged to Rosalie in 1933 before she became a vampire.
Sarah Clarke as Renée Dwyer, Bella's mother.
Sabrina Frank as Vera, Rosalie's friend of whom she was jealous for having a husband and child.
Dakota Fanning as Jane, a guard of the Volturi who has the ability to torture people with illusions of pain.
Cameron Bright as Alec, Jane's twin brother who has the ability to block out others' senses.
Charlie Bewley as Demetri, a member of the Volturi who has "unparalleled tracking abilities".
Daniel Cudmore as Felix, a Volturi enforcer.

Production

Development

In early November 2008, Summit announced that they had attained the rights to the remaining books in Stephenie Meyer's Twilight series: New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. In February 2009, Summit confirmed that they would begin working on The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. On the same day, it was announced that since New Moon director Chris Weitz would be in post-production for New Moon when The Twilight Saga: Eclipse began shooting, he would not be directing the third film. Instead, The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will be helmed by director David Slade, with Melissa Rosenberg returning as screenwriter.
In January 2010, an early draft of the film's script was leaked on the Internet. The script presumably belonged to star Jackson Rathbone, as his name was watermarked across each page.

Casting

Bryce Dallas Howard will be replacing Rachelle Lefevre as Victoria. Summit Entertainment attributed the change to scheduling conflicts, and Lefevre responded that she was "stunned" and "greatly saddened" by the decision. Jodelle Ferland has been cast as the newly turned vampire, Bree. Other new cast members include Xavier Samuel as Riley, Jack Huston as Royce King II, Catalina Sandino Moreno as Maria,Julia Jones as Leah Clearwater, and Boo Boo Stewart as Seth Clearwater.

Filming and post-production

Principal photography began on August 17 at Vancouver Film Studios and ended on October 29, 2009. Howard Shore, who composed the scores for The Lord of the Rings trilogy, will compose the score for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.

Music

The score for The Twilight Saga: Eclipse will be composed by Howard Shore, who composed the scores for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Sequel
Summit Entertainment announced in November 2008 that they had obtained the rights to the fourth book in Stephenie Meyer's series, Breaking Dawn. Though Summit has not yet officially greenlit the project, stars Robert Pattinson and Ashley Greene have stated that there are plans for a Breaking Dawn film and that production is expected to begin after the completion of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse. Wyck Godfrey, producer of the previous films in the series, said, "...it's a little overwhelming to really think in a detailed manner of how we're going to crack this, but we have every intention to make Breaking Dawn." When talking about Taylor Lautner's next film for Summit Entertainment, producer Wyck Godfrey stated, "Lautner will reprise his role of Jacob in "Breaking Dawn" beginning in late 2010, and it is likely that the final book will be divided into two films that will shoot back-to-back."

Source : Wikipedia

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AdSense

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Toy Story 3 (2010)

Reception

Soundtrack

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Playstation 2

PlayStation 2

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History

Hardware and software compatibility

Online

Hardware revisions

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Slimline

PSX

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Technical specifications

Disc Read Error (DRE) Lawsuit

Emulation

Playstation

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History

Launch

Functions

Titles

Production Run

Variants

"Chipped" consoles

Swap Trick

Net Yaroze

PS one

Summary of PlayStation models

Consumer models

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Successors

Legacy

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Ati Technologies

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

History

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