A New World of Web with JavaFX

Through Rich Internet Application (RIA), an internet application run just like an desktop application. Microsoft do this with Silverlight, Adobe works on Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR). Right now Sun comes with JavaFX.

Software developer have work hard to prepare a new inovation in a website. User can do more atractive. Data from internet and data from user's hard disk won't be separated. Browser have no 'very important' function again, because the software can comunicate to website directly. This is we called Rich Internet Application (RIA).

RIA supported by a platform, like a AIR from Adobe and Silverlight from Microsoft. Now Sun following with JavaFX, provide tools and support for RIA.


Runtime for JavaFX
JavaFX build with a diferent programming language. To run a web application based JavaFX, user needs a library called runtime. This runtime has been included in Java runtime engine 6 update 10. This condition is a big benefit for Sun to increase market for JavaFX. Also, java platform has been available for mobile equipment. Meanwhile, user must downloads a different runtime from Microsoft for Silverlight, or from Adobe for AIR.


Sun provide free developer tools for JavaFX, like a NetBeans for development environment and Project Nile to convert Photoshop and Illustrator file. In 2009, Sun will launch a special designer tools. It seems Sun have a big plan for this project.

Speed Up Vista Boot Time

Although your PC powered with Dual-core or Quad-core processor, and Windows Vista supported multi-core processor, Vista still boot too long. With a little trick, you can boost booting-time up to approx. 10%.

Microsoft provided hidden features to do it. There is an integrated option to activate multi-core processor into boot process.

From Start Menu, run 'msconfig' from Start Search or Run... menu, then System Configuration window will appear. Choose 'boot' tab, and click 'Advanced Option...' button. 'BOOT Advanced Option' window will appear, then check 'Number of processor' option. Now select number of core (maximum number recommended) that Vista should use for boot.


FYI: Vista boot time usually not constant. You can test it by boot your system several times. You can use freeware Windows Boot Timer (www.planetsoft.org) to check yourself easily.

most Pirated Software Review in 2007

The most pirated software has been released by Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA). They have received 427 report about pirate. what kinds of software that most pirated?

Here are the lists from SIIA version in 2007:
1. Symantec Norton AntiVirus
2. Adobe Acrobat
3. Symantec pcAnywhere
4. Adobe Photoshop
5. Autodesk AutoCAD
6. Adobe Dreamweaver
7. Roxio Easy CD/DVD Creator
8. Roxio Toast Titanium
9. Ipswitch WS_FTP
10.Nero Ultra Edition

Also included the most pirated software in 2007:
1. McAfee VirusScan
2. Symantec Norton AntiVirus
3. McAfee Internet Security Suite
4. Intuit TurboTax
5. Adobe Photoshop
6. Adobe Acrobat
7. Intuit Quicken Home and Business
8. Symantec Norton pcAnywhere
9. Symantec Norton Ghost
10.Adobe Creative Suite

From lists above, we didn't find Microsoft's product, but actually we always expect Microsoft is the most.

Othello Game Project

At last I’ve done my project for Computer Networking. This game is very simple and just like other Othello game.
Actually, my lecturer asks me to make it on Linux platform. Because it was coded in C, I also port it for Windows platform. There are some different, for Windows no multiplayer (via LAN) mode is available, but it was replaced by two players mode.

Here are links to download:
Othello source code for Linux
Othello source code for Windows
Othello game executable file

Enjoy trying it!

Bug In System Information

There's a bug in a Windows System Information about the amount of my physical RAM. Maybe it's not a serious problem but it can make me though, "it's a joke!"

Actually my computer has a 256MB of physical RAM. But not in "System Information".
Any people had experience this problem?

Part 4: Make Your Removable Storage Media Looks Pretty

As we know that in removable media like UFD, we can’t customize its folders. So how can’t my UFD has a customized background? It’s simply by manually editing desktop.ini file.
Add this text into desktop.ini:


[ExtShellFolderViews]
{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}={BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
IconArea_Text=0x00000000
IconArea_Image=your_image_file_here
IconArea_TextBackground=0x00000000

Change content section IconArea_Image with your own picture. If it put in folder, then write it like this,


IconArea_Image=\Your_folder\your_image_file_here.jpg

Part 3: Make Your Removable Storage Media Looks Pretty

pCont’d from part 2, wants your UFD have commented to identify like this?



Or, your folders have a comment like this?



It’s difficult? It’s simple. To create it, first, make file desktop.ini contains:

[.ShellClassInfo]
InfoTip=your comment here

Put that file into place where you want to add comment. For example, to add comment for your drive put it in root folder. To add comment to folder, put that file into folder you want.

Before that please make sure in your folder doesn’t contains any desktop.ini file. To do this, set Windows Explorer to view hidden and system file. If it exist, open it and add InfoTip= under [.ShellClassInfo] sub section.

This method not only for removable media, but also can applied to hard disk. I’ve try this only on Win XP. Please let me know for other Windows OS.

Next, applied background your UFD…

Part 2: Make Your Removable Storage Media Looks Pretty

Cont’d from part 1, now I will show you how to change your UFD drive icon like this,




How you can do that? First, create a new file in your UFD (do not create it in a folder), named autorun.inf. Below the content of file,

[autorun]
Icon=your_icon_name.ico

Just like that! Now prepare an icon file (you can create the new one or extract from file application using ResHacker). Put any icon file into UFD and write that icon filename. If your icon name like bomb.ico then write

Icon=bomb.ico

If your icon putted into folder, in the example in a folder named myicons, then write

Icon=.\myicons\bomb.ico

Simple, yes and you can do that!

Next, make comment for your UFD, so it has different identify beside with label name, check this out…

Part 1: Make Your Removable Storage Media Looks Pretty

Looks pretty?? What’s that? Its mean make your storage media (especially Flash disk/UFD) looks different by change its folder icon, drive icon, background, and also adds comment to your UFD.
Most of my friends amazed with my ‘unix’ UFD, and they don’t know how to do that. I have customized it so looks like picture below.



Because so many question about it, a will show method to alter your UFD looks whoah…!
At first, how to change folder icon in UFD? It can be easily change with folder existing in fixed media (hard disk), but not to removable media. It doesn’t have options to customize folder icon. It just a tricky.
Make a new folder in your hard disk and rename it. Now customize the folder by right-click its folder, choose Properties, open Customize tab, and there is some options to change how your folder looks.


Click Change Icons… button, please note that you only can change icon with the new one supplied from file system32.dll. After select the icon you wish, then press OK, and OK again.
Now copy that folder into your UFD, and see whether the folder icon is still changed or not :-).


Next, Find out how to change your UFD icon, background, and also add comment here...

How to open damaged SFX (Self-Extracting) File

A few months ago I make experiment with compression software. It’s happened when I try to open a self-extracting file, but the executable section is damaged and show error “not valid Win32 executable file” when I run it. I’ve confused because I need the contents for my study. Because that icon file indicated it makes with Winrar, I try to open it with Winrar.

Unexpectedly Winrar can open it! Although Winrar reports that the header file is corrupt, but I still can extract all of its contents. Then I think, if the section of executable file (to extract its contents) doesn’t affect the compressed file, I can mixed compressed file with other file (see Use Image File to Protect Your Data).

After that I make experiment to check whether another installer file can open with Winrar. I found a few files can open with Winrar below:


Firefox installer file (Firefox Setup 2.0.0.x.exe)
Avg antivirus installer file
WindowsVistaUpgradeAdvisor.msi
Nero Burning ROM 7.exe
JawsPDFcreatorEn.exe
flashplayer7_winax.exe
dotnetfx.exe (framework 2.0 installer file)

Exactly there are some criteria installer file I found can open by Winrar. You can see it from file description that contains text below:

1. Win32 cabinet self-extractor


2. IExpress Setup


3. Windows Installer Package

Please note sometimes installer file with that file description cannot be opened with Winrar.
So, if you have any installer, but it’s damaged in executable file (cannot be executed), don’t worry. You can try this method. Maybe you will feel lucky. Please let me know if this trick is useful.

Use Image File to Protect Your Data

Ever your thing you want to secure your private data with a unique method? You can try this experimental method to secure your data, so others people don’t know where you save it.
Actually I found this method not intentionally when I try to open damaged self-extracting file made by Winrar. From that case, I think I can embed compressed file with other file, but Winrar still can open and interpreted as compressed file.
Now how to do that? It’s easily. Just prepare compression software, one image, and file (or some files/folders) to secure. Below step by step method:

1. Compress your files/folders to secure (I’ve use Winrar, but maybe you can use other software) as a ZIP compressed file. It’s better if that application support password.


2. Prepare your own image to embed with compressed file. Put both image and compressed file in one folder.


3. Run command prompt, and go to folder contains those file. Then execute this command:
   copy /b [image file] + [compressed file] destionation_file.JPG
   Example, if you have image file named mypic.jpg and compressed file mydata.zip just execute:
   copy /b mypic.jpg + mydata.zip dest.jpg

Now your file has embedded as dest.jpg file. It’s normally shows just as image file. But now try to open it with Winrar (I only try this by Winrar), by double click embedded file. Normally Winrar will open an external image application to open image file. But now is different. Winrar will show the content of compressed file and you can freely extract or view its contents.
Beside that, you can also use other file type except image file. I’ve try with DOC file, XLS file, and executable file, no problem occurs. You can try to experiment with other file.
Please note I’ve only try this method by Winrar (it is not promotion!). Please let me know if you can try with other compression application.

More Space for Your Storage Media

Storage media capacities this time has reached set of Gigabyte, even capacities Terabyte ( 1000 Gigabytes) has started developed. But sometimes we feel our storage capacity still less. Takes example our harddisk 40 GB, filled many applications, music, video, picture, etc, without we realize simply remains remaining 1 GB.
There is many causes our storage media quickly depleted:

• Have never to defragment
  

• saves small fairish files in great quantity
  

Why saves small fairish file can cleanse space? This thing relates to file system structure applied to storage media. There is all kinds of file system applied that is FAT, FAT32, NTFS, EXT3(for linux), etc. Each file system has separate characteristic. Below is example comparison from kinds of files system by its size per cluster:

FAT: 16KB
FAT32: 16KB
FAT32: 4KB

Three kinds of above file system saves one file in a cluster. So if we save small file contains only 1 byte hence the file will used space 1 cluster.
Let’s take to the example, you have flash disk 1GB with FAT file system, and contains 2000 files that all is only 1 byte long. One files will still used 16KB space (1 cluster). Hence for all file will used 32000KB or about 32MB. It’s really very wastefulness! So how can we do that files didn't eat more place? Use compression program! you can try Winzip, WinRAR, fitur internal compresi provided by Windows XP, and a lot of compression programs that is paying and also free.
Actually we don’t exploited its compression, but is merge all the files becomes one fully files. Out of 2000 files if compressed, hence its file size total becomes approximately 2000 bytes ( 2KB). This measure if it is kept at file system FAT only used 16KB. does it more efficient, doesn't it?
This way you can applied if you wish to save many picture files (more than 1000 pictures) with size not too big at flash disk. that files is better if you are former compress in harddisk then copied to flashdisk. This way besides economizing space also economizes time because flashdisk to require longer time copying files in a huge number.

My experience copying 500 fairish picture files average of 40KB directly pass the time approximately 30 seconds. While if compress I finishs time total about 9 second ( 6 second for compress, 3 second to copy).

Windows vs Linux

Mengapa memakai Windows? Mengapa memakai Linux? Mana yang lebih baik, Windows atau Linux? Pertanyaan ini sudah menjadi pembicaraan yang biasa dalam suatu diskusi di internet. Begitu pula dengan keadaan negara ini yang katanya IGOS (Indonesia Goes Open Source?) dengan segala kebingungan apakah tetap mempertahankan tradisi 'bajak-membajak' dengan menggunakan 'closed source' software seperti Windows atau beralih ke 'open source' software yang benar-benar gratis seperti Linux (kebanyakan distro linux).
Supaya anda dapat memahami lebih jauh perbedaan antara Windows dan Linux, saya telah merangkum beberapa hal yang penting sebagai bahan perbandingan.

	Windows	Linux	Catatan
Market	90-93% komputer desktop (th. 2007)	50-80% web-server, supercomputer. 0.7% komputer desktop (biasanya dual-boot)	Masih tidak akurat
Windows Manager/Desktop Environment	Hanya 1 macam WM tetapi bisa di-modif dengan software third-party	GNOME, KDE, Enlightenment, Xfce, Openbox, Fluxbox, dll.
Pre-installed software	Beberap software standar (MediaPlayer, IE, notepad, paint...)	Beberapa distro menyediakan software lebih lengkap (office suite, multimedia, graphic, games, system utilities,Windows Manager,...)	Pernah dilaporkan beberapa software bundled Windows melanggar hak paten
Install software tambahan	Relatif lebih mudah	Relatif lebih sulit, tetapi beberapa sudah dibuat lebih mudah
Games	Game untuk Windows jumlahnya sangat banyak (dan kebanyakan tidak gratis).	Beberapa games untuk Windows dengan graphic OpenGL bisa berjalan dengan menggunakan emulator. Performa bisa lebih baik/lebih buruk, tergantung dari game. Game-game bagus untuk linux juga banyak tersedia dengan gratis
Keamanan
Virus	Ribuan virus untuk ditemukan dan menyebar dengan cepat	Beberapa virus pernah ada untuk Linux, tetapi tidak satupun berhasil menyebar
Spyware dan malware	lebih dari puluhan ribu malware ditemukan	Hanya sekitar 800 malware diketahui. Kebanyakan berbasis browser
Dampak dari virus	System menjadi crash, lambat, mempengaruhi pekerjaan	System menjadi lambat. Diketahui tidak satupun berhasil menyebar
Open vs Closed source	Diklaim lebih aman karena source code-nya tidak diketahui public. Hanya perusahaan yang bersangkutan yang bisa memperbaki bug.	Diklaim lebih aman karena source code-nya diketahui public, mempercepat penemuan dan perbaikan bug.	Microsoft meng-klaim mendapat nilai tertinggi dalam hal keamanan

Perkiraan jumlah pengguna Windows dan Linux juga masih tidak akurat karena pengguna tidak harus mendaftarkan software-nya. Selain itu juga karena masih banyaknya user yang menggunakan software bajakan. Sebenarnya masih banyak lagi hal yang bisa menjadi bahan 'tanding', tetapi saya hanya memaparkan hal-hal yang penting dan banyak diketahui saja.