Buy New Mac Pro ??

Yang sedang berpikir untuk membeli komputer desktop Mac Pro baru sebaiknya membaca artikel ini terlebih dahulu. Siapa tahu jadi berubah pikiran setelah itu.
Dari Lifehacker :)

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Google Blockly

Membaca LifeHacker seperti biasa saat sampai di kantor. Dan lagi-lagi kagum dengan Google karena ada berita mengenai Google Blockly. Tool programming baru dari Google.

http://lifehacker.com/5917581/google-blockly-is-a-visual-drag+and+drop-tool-for-building-apps-and-learning-to-code
http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/06/google-blockly/
Sekilas langsung tampak mirip dengan App Inventor, dulu saat pertama kali mencicipi programming di Android, sempat menggunakan App Inventor, memiliki interface yang luar biasa visual dan menyenangkan untuk pemrograman sederhana. Ternyata keputusan App Inventor yang dihentikan Google beberapa bulan yang lalu kemudian kembali meluncurkan project open source baru ini. Blockly.
Sama saja terinspirasi dari MIT Scatch, Blockly menurut saya lebih ringan dari App Inventor dulu dan yang pasti karena tidak lagi dalam bentuk aplikasi JAVA murni dari HTML dan Javascript tampaknya, sangat ringan, cepat tapi tetap dengan kemudahan nyaris sempurna seperti aplikasi desktop.
Yang menyenangkan lagi dari Blockly ini adalah hasilnya bisa diexport ke beberapa bahasa pemrograman secara langsung yaitu Javascript, Dart, Python dan XML semudah mengklik tab di interfacenya.
Secara umum ini jadi tool yang woth to try, bahkan kalau mau main-main juga disediakan Maze untuk diselesaikan. Selamat mencoba.

Penyelesaian tanpa logic :p

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Penusukan

Kalau sampai ke kantor, hal yang saya lakukan hampir selalu sama. Begitu sampai di meja, sebelum duduk saya menyalakan komputer, kemudian saat sudah siap digunakan saya langsung membuka program email (saya memakai Thunderbird sekarang) dan browser (sekarang saya memakai Chrome sebagai browser default). Email tentu saja untuk mengecek apakah ada kiriman (sekarang sepi email saya, ga kayak dulu di logistik) dan browser untuk membuka beberapa website wajib sebagai bacaan pagi.

Web pertama adalah blog saya, untuk mengecek apakah ada komen baru, bagaimana traffic semalam dan sebagainya. Kemudian saya juga membuka LifeHacker, untuk mengetahui kabar-kabar baru dan unik dalam berbagai bidang, karena sambungannya banyak ke Gizmodo, Jalopnik, Kotaku, Jezebel, Gawker dan banyak situs lain yang ditampilkan dalam LifeHacker. Web wajib selanjutnya adalah Kaskus, langkah awal tentu saja mengecek segala Hot Thread yang menarik dan Hot News, setelah itu mungkin disambung ke The Lounge sebentar. Web wajib terakhir adalah Detik, saya memilih detik untuk mengetahui berita update tentang Indonesia, soalnya dari pengalaman ini yang paling cepat update.

Dan pagi ini saya kaget saat membaca Detik, ada dua berita yang sangat menarik perhatian saya (selain tentang All New Avanza yang murah dan mobil concept Suzuki yang OK), yaitu berita tentang beragam penusukan di Indonesia dan Hatta Rajasa yang menerima penghargaan dari Asia Society.

Ternyata, mau tampak sejelek apapun pemerintahan SBY, ada prestasinya juga. Terbukti dari salah satu penghargaan ini, paling tidak di mata Internasional Indonesia dipandang memiliki perkembangan dan perbaikan yang cukup baik. Standing Applause untuk bung Hatta Rajasa. :thumbs_up :thumbs:up

Kemudian berita kedua yang sangat menarik perhatian saya adalah rangkaian berita penusukan di Jakarta, awalnya saya sekedar membaca tentang penusukan pelajar di Tebet, kemudian ternyata link berita relevan di bagian bawah banyak menyediakan berita-berita penusukan yang lain. Ada penusukan di klub Shy Rooftop, pelaku penusukan yang kabur dengan mobil Xenia, dan montir yang tewas karena ditusuk rekannya sendiri.

Membaca rangkaian berita itu seakan membayangkan betapa tidak amannya di Jakarta, pelajar menunggu bus di halte, ditusuk, orang ke klub malam dan bersenggolan dengan orang lain, ditusuk, orang berkunjung ke Cafe, berkelahi, ditusuk dan bahkan oleh rekan kerja sendiri, ditusuk juga.

Semudah itukah kekerasan atau bahkan di kasus-kasus ini pembunuhan dilakukan? semudah itukah membawa senjata tajam kemana-kemana dan menggunakannya dengan enteng untuk membunuh orang?

Kaget, dan membuat saya merenung, pantas Ibu saya sering menelpon dan khawatir, isi berita seperti ini semua dan kenyataan memang seperti ini. Bersyukur saya masih aman dan tidak kurang suatu apa sampai sekarang, semoga Jakarta dan Indonesia lebih aman, agar bisa hidup dan beraktivitas lebih tenang. :)

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Windows 8

I think Windows 8 will be interesting. :)
It has so many features new and the refurb of the old. For the first time I heard that the Developer Preview version is ready to download (download here), I'm not interesting at all. I think it will be another Windows 7 with Metro UI like WindowsPhone7. Yeah, it's good, but it's not gonna be impress me.
And then, I heard this story in LifeHacker, you can read here, it's about the new BSOD screen, and yeah this simple thing already impress me. It's simple but very interesting for me, and the look of BSOD screen now very friendly, without some crazy code about your error ( any of you ever mention, or then search about your BSOD error code? -- I do that, because I'm technician, but I think the other 98% of my friend never mentioned it, they just restart the Windows).

Windows 8 has stolen my focus this morning. I search about it news, but unfortunately I can download the Developer Preview, my Internet connection not enough to do that. That's okay, I'll wait till one of my friend download that :)
It has new system shortcut, you can switch easily between Metro UI and the Old interfaces, the browser said that it will have no Flash support, pure HTML5, and from video comparision about Win8 Tablet vs Ipad2, the UI look more more more interesting.
From WinRumors I found the 300+ list of features that will ne added to Windows8.
It will be more interesting from now to keep updated about this OS.

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Songbird 1.0 Release Official, Fixes Bugs, Plays iTunes Purchases

Windows/Mac/Linux: The long-awaited cross-platform media player Songbird officially reaches its 1.0 release today. The open-source application—built on the same platform as Firefox—promises to bring exciting new innovations to a software jukebox market that has become arguably quite stale. Like Firefox, Songbird is extensible, meaning that users can customize the look, feel, and features of Songbird to their heart's content. We took you on a screenshot tour of Songbird last month, and from a feature standpoint, not much has changed. From a functionality standpoint, Songbird has gotten much, much better.

The first release candidate had a lot to be excited about, but unfortunately it was rife with errors in my tests. The official 1.0 release fixes most if not all of the bugs I came across in my initial review, which is very promising. The footprint is still a little unwieldy, weighing in at just over 100MB of RAM on the Windows PC I tested it on.

The default installation also suggests installing a new add-on (new in the sense that it wasn't suggested in the release candidate I tested) called QuickTime Playback that supports playing back music you've purchased from the iTunes Music Store—a killer feature that, in conjunction with the iPod sync add-on, would allow even the hardcore iTunes user to switch.

If you want a closer look at what you can do with Songbird and what sets it apart from your stock media player, check out our previous screenshot tour and Songbird's demo screencasts. Whether you're a regular Songbird user or you're trying it out for the first time today, share your Songbird experience in the comments.

Songbird

source:http://lifehacker.com/5100579/songbird-10-release-official-fixes-bugs-plays-itunes-purchases

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First Look at Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx Beta

All platforms: You want change? Ubuntu 10.04, the next long-term release of the free operating system, is full of change. Window buttons are on the left, default apps are replaced, the theme is new, and many more upgrades are worth exploring.

One of the first things any user will notice in the pic above, whether new to Ubuntu or a veteran Linux user, is the button layout. Ubuntu 10.04, also known as "Lucid Lynx," has opted for a left-side, Mac-style lineup of maximize/restore, minimize, and close buttons, but switched around the order, so that the close/kill button is the right-most button on a left-hand button panel. That is certainly new, and will take some getting used to. An alpha-testing friend of mine said it took "a few hours" over one or two days to start using the buttons without thinking too much about it, but he still occasionally catches himself mousing toward the wrong side of a window. Time will tell whether this was a smart long-term move for Ubuntu.

There's also a new purple/dark gray theme that's seen the usual "It's elegant"/"It's awful" debate around the net. I haven't used the beta enough to render a real verdict, but it was definitely time to try something new.

As predicted, Ubuntu 10.04 will have a built-in music store that ties together with the free 2 GB of Ubuntu One cloud storage given to each user. Ubuntu One's music store is built into the Rhythmbox music player, and once you try to access it, Ubuntu will install the proper MP3 codecs so you can, you know, play MP3s. Alas, I didn't get very far with my own installation, but it does look like a nice alternative to buying songs manually through Amazon and processing them through Rhythmbox.

Ubuntu One itself is integrated into the operating system, and logs in automatically when you sign into your account, after first setting up your credentials. The Ubuntu One folder that automatically syncs whatever you drop in it, just like Dropbox, is stashed in your home folder; why the left-hand location links don't include Ubuntu One by default, I don't know. From your user panel (detailed further down), you can set preferences for how much bandwidth Ubuntu One can use, and control which computers your Ubuntu One account syncs to.

Ubuntu is moving, with each release, toward a more social, net-connected experience built more tightly into the operating system. Clicking on your user name icon in the upper-right corner brings down a user panel that can set your chat status through the Empathy chat client, which connects to Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, ICQ, and many other protocols. You can also set up "Broadcast" preferences to send out messages through Twitter, Facebook, and other short messaging/social network services. And Ubuntu One preferences are controlled through this panel as well.

I've called Simple Scan a big step forward for Ubuntu, as it takes something that previously involved four windows and hundreds of micro-controls and pared it down to what most people need: a "Scan" button, a rotate-and-crop tool, and a choice of just a few DPI resolution levels. Simple Scan is a default application in Ubuntu 10.04, along with the PiTiVi video editor, which I haven't had a chance to try out in much depth (I've found OpenShot to be remarkably usable of late).

There's a quick tour through what's new and changed in Ubuntu 10.04, but it's certainly not everything. Ubuntu 10.04 Beta 1 is a free download that can be used as a live CD or installation disc on most hardware.

If you give Ubuntu 10.04 a go as a live CD, virtual machine, or on your hard drive, tell us what's new and exciting, and what's just goofy, in the comments. If you're an Ubuntu user who doesn't want the fuss of setting up a test run, consider using TestDrive for a super-simple VirtualBox try-out.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS [Ubuntu]

source:http://lifehacker.com/5498799/first-look-at-ubuntu-1004-lucid-lynx-beta?skyline=true&s=i

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