introduction(stage 1)

8/9/2019 Introduction(Stage 1)

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The Latest Open SourceSoftware Available and the

latest Development in ICT

Name:Ang Wen YanClass:4 Makmur

I/C Number:940308-14-5469Teacher:Puan Vinsala


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1.0)Introduction

This folio titled:The Latest Open Source Software Available and the

Latest Development in ICT.In this folio,i will talk about following aspect:The

Latest Open Source Operating System(OS),Example of Open Source,The latest

open source application software,meaning of open source application software,The

Latest Development in ICT,Hardware,Software,Pervasive Computing,Meaning of

Pervasive Computing,Example of Pervasive Computing and Conclusion.This folio

is intended for student to know more about latest development in ICT.This is an

interesting folio as I could observe the future direction of ICT.

Open Source SoftwareOpen source software is software that is available in source code form.The license of open

source allow user to modify,optimize but it is not subjected to copyright protection.

SoftwareSoftware is defined as a set of program which contain the instruction to tell computer what to

do.

HardwareHardware is physical component of a computer.


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2.0)The Latest Open Source Operating System(OS)

2.1)The Meaning Of Open Source Operating System(OS)Open Source Operating System is define as an Operating System which is

open source.In other word,this os is free of copyright and the source code could be

downloaded and modified/optimized as user desire.For this part of assignment,i

will talk about two Open Source Operating System which in my opinion is very

interesting and might proved to be future direction of computing.The Open Source

OS I will talk about today is Linux MCE and Google Chrome OS.They both are os

which is coded for very specific purpose.


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2.2)Two Example Of Open Source Operating System(OS)

1.)Google Chrome OS(Chromium OS)Google Chrome OS is currently in development state.The current name is Chromium

OS.Chrome OS Source Code was released on November 19,2009.Without further delay,let me show ascreenshoot of this OS:


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There are plenty of reason to get excited about this OS.I will talk about the

selling point of this OS.When development is done,this will be an open source

OS.This OS is mainly design to be run on netbook and as secondary computing

device.This is an OS which will have simple GUI and feature a browser and some

basic tool like calculator and media player.It is not design to be a full fledge OS

which can run productive application you can see in the picture,it will feature link

to Google online service mostly.Google also promise fast boot time with this OS.It

will boot in 10 seconds.For comparison,a Windows 7 System typically boot roughly

1minute on desktop with a 7200RPM Hard Drive.One more interesting aspect

about this OS is it will support both ARM and x86.In other word,it can be adapted

into a wide array of device,such as netbook,tablet which the former typically run a

x86 based processor such as Intel Atom while the later tend to run on ARM

processor such as Qualcomm based processor.

This OS will mainly feature Cloud Service.It will also support HMTL

5.Adobe Flash will be integrated into this OS by default.One worrying aspect of

this OS is how Google would market it.Google have Andriod Mobile OS as

well.Andriod is designed to be run on mobile devices.They might potentially have

over lapping OS.I am looking forward to this OS release and see how market

response to it.


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2.)Linux MCE

Unlike Google Chrome OS which I feature above,Linux MCE is a finished product.There aredifferent reason why I will show enthusiasm in this OS.This OS,unlike the Chrome OS above,is not an

independent OS.It is design to run on top of an OS,for instance ubuntu,much like Windows Media

Centre.Linux MCE is a Home Theater PC(HTPC) Centric OS,as are Windows Media Centre.The major

different is this is an open source OS and secondly,it feature way more feature then Windows MediaCentre.Without further ado,here a screenshoot of Linux MCE homescreen:


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We will now go slightly more in-depth on this OS.First,it is a x86 OS unlike

Google Chrome OS.As I mentioned above,it is an alternative to Windows Media

Centre.This is an immensely powerful OS.Other then basic feature,there are plenty

of advance feature.Feature such as Telephone Control,A/C Control,Light Control

etc.In other word,you can integrate your home various control into this OS.Other

then those mentioned above,you can even went as far as integrating surveillance

and alarm into this OS!

In other word,this OS is far ahead of Windows Media Centre as a HTPC

OS.Also,there are dedicated remote control unit for this OS.So it sounds

good,right???Well all these level of sophistication of course come with some

drawback.In fact the drawback that is it's own enemy.First,Linux is not a simple

OS to use as after all these GUI overlay,the backbone is still command line.Or put

it this way,an os for mostly hobbisits.Typical end user of course will find this os

complicated to setup.As such,it is an OS that serve as a backbone to a lot of

commercial home automation product.All in all,this is a great OS for those who

know how to integrate and operate it but it won't be a mass market os like Google

Chrome OS.


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3.0)The Latest Open Source Application Software

For this part of folio,i will be talking about Open Source Application

Software.I hope this section will increase awareness of the superb open souce

application software that is out there.From what I observe,Malaysian in general

don't have the habit of trying alternative way of doing stuff.They prefer to go to

proven way,it is the same with their computing habit.For this topic,i will feature

Mozilla Firefox and Handbrake Video Encoder.

3.1)The Meaning Of Open Source Application SoftwareOpen Source Application Software is the software which provide source code for

download,hence the term open source.User can modify/optimize the software but it is not subjected to

copyright.


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3.2)Example Of Open Source Application Software

1.)Mozilla Firefox

Mozilla Firefox is one of the good internet browser out there.I had been an

user of this software since 2005/Mozilla Firefox 1.Here is a screenshoot showingMozilla Firefox 3.6.4 with Mozilla.org page loaded on my pc.


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According to research,Mozilla Firefox is the 2nd most market share internet

browser,in the range of 25-32% after internet explorer mentioned above,i had been

an user of Mozilla Firefox since 2005/Firefox 1.If I remember correctly,i know this

software in the way of a magazine application software disc.Back then,i am

impressed by its tabbed browsing.Unlike Crazy Browser,which is essentially a

Multi Tab overlay on Internet explorer 6 as 6 does not support tabbed

browsing,Firefox is a ground up build multi tab Internet browser.

The Latest Build of this Browser is 3.6.6 at the time of writing.Firefox 3.6.4

feature the latest Gecko layout engine.The main change to build 3.6.4 is the out-of-

process plug-ins (OOPP) which isolates execution of plug-ins such as Adobe's Flash

or Apple's QuickTime into a separate process. This is a significant improvement

say,for argument sake,a plugin crash,on the older build,firefox will just terminate

itself and I experience that couple of time before.With current build,it will just

show error on the plug-in page.So,avoid that page and you can continue browsing

other tab.As of 3.6.6 build,there are no official 64bit version yet.

In couple of months,Mozilla will introduce Firefox 4.The main revamp for

this time is newer GUI and official 64bit support.Personally,i am looking forward

to that as I had been 64bit user for a while and I find application support for 64bit

is lacking.


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2.)Handbrake Video Encoder

Handbrake Video Encoder is an Open Source Video Converter.The most latest build at the time

of writing is 0.9.4.Here is the screenshoot of Handbrake Video Encoder:

Handbrake Video Encoder is an open source video converter that is coded to

convert video.The supported container is x264,.mkv and .mp4.It is quite an

advance video encoder support majority of file format on market as input

source.The latest build have feature such as pass-through DTS from a source when

video is being encoded into .mkv container,Live Preview,New Build System for

64bit support.Other then these major change,they also drop 3 outdated video

container which is avi,XviD and ogg/ogm.


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4.0)The Latest Development In ICTFor this topic,i would like to talk about the latest development of ICT.This

topic will cover both development of hardware and software.This is an interesting

topic as it shows how fast does the computing world move.I am glad to be a

hardware enthusiast as I witness the rapid development of hardware side for the

past 3years or so.After consider all the possible topic to talk about,i decide to focus

on what I think is one of the most important can be make on hardware

side,SSD and I will compare it to traditional HDD.For software side,i will talk

about a famous overclocking/system information utilities,CPUZ.


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4.1)HardwareFor this bit of assignment,I would like to talk about storage.But why

storage???Weren't 1TB HDD can be had for sub RM200 at the time of writing??So what so interesting

about the development???Well,for the past 2-3years,there are a new technology,it is SSD.You willask:What is SSD??To put it in very simple term,SSD is a storage which is base on flash chip.It is akin

to USB Flash Drive but the controller used is much more complicated.The reason why I want to talk

about this is because right now,HDD is the bottleneck of computer system.Other parts is very well-developed but HDD are not.A.For this bit,i will quote heavily from my favorite tech

site,anandtech.com as they had been at the forefront of promoting SSD storage to the mass for a while.

Firstly,let us start with a picture of SSD:


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To start off,i quote this from anandtech.com article-The SSD Relapse:Understanding And

Choosing The Best SSD:

'In todays world of netbooks and nettops where performance is cast aside, weve let far too much slide.The bar of acceptability is too low. A good SSD is the anti-netbook, it is the most believable proof that

PCs arent fast enough today. We dont need good enough, we need orders of magnitude of

performance improvement. And that's exactly what a good SSD can deliver today.'

As you can read from above,a good SSD will make system 'feel' much much faster.The reason why

SSD will make a system feel faster because a good SSD excel in Random Read/Write.SSD is pickingup the point from where HDD left.

Again,from the same article,here is an example of why:

This is what the article call 'fresh test' which is a very very good example of how SSD would

benefit consumer.As you can see,the test involve timing the time to load Photoshop,World Of Warcraftand Mozilla Firefox immediately after boot.This is a very real world test.As you can see,SSD is faster

by roughly 4 times.In other word,it will make a PC feel much 'swifter'.And that,in today marketplace,is

just what needed.Other component have gotten so fast that you can't feel the difference,save for some

ultra intensive task but this will.This will make your pc feel faster in doing anything,anytime.That is

the reason why SSD,despite the ultra high cost,is worth the entry price.


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HDD SSD

Price Cheap(Roughly RM0.20 per GB) Expensive(Roughly RM9 per GB)

Capacity Big(~2TB) Small(~500GB)

Heat Higher Lower

Power

Consumption

Higher Lower

Chance Of

Failure(Drop)

Higher Lower

Technology

Used

Mechanical Platter Flash Memory

Suitable

Usage

Storage Boot&Application Drive

As you can see from above,i have make a simple table which compare the main storage

technology on the market today,HDD & SSD.First,let us talk about price.A 1TB HDD(SamsungSpinpoint F3 1TB) retail for roughly RM200 which work up to be RM0.20 per GB while a good

SSD(Intel X25-M G2 80GB) goes for RM750 or so which work out to be roughly RM9 per GB.As youcan see,the price difference is extremely big.Capacity wise,HDD is available on capacity of up to 2TB

while the biggest SSD on the market is 500GB.The heat output of HDD is Higher while SSD is lower

because HDD use mechanical platter while HDD use Flash Memory.Then,power consumption of HDDis higher then SSD because again,HDD use mechanical platter while SSD use Flash Memory.In the

case of dropping your computing device,SSD have lower chance of failure due to the usage of Flash

Memory.And as stated above,the technology HDD used is Mechanical Platter and SSD use FlashMemory.

Finally,the suitable application for HDD on a desktop is data storage drive while SSD is moresuitable as Boot&Application Drive due to the high price of SSD.The ideal solution is one fast SSDand one big capacity HDD for a desktop at the time of writing.

SSD price will be getting cheaper and cheaper in the future with the advancement in fabrication

process.Currently,Intel used 34nm for its SSD with 25nm coming out in roughly Q4.This will more orless bring the price of SSD down by 50% so it might be about RM5 per GB.Hopefully by then,I will be

a proud user of a SSD.


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4.2)SoftwareFor this topic,I would like to talk about a software which I believe whom is involved in

overclocking will be very familiar with.The software in question is CPUZ.

Here a screenshoot showing cpuz with all tabs open:

As you can see from the picture,I open CPUZ with all the possible tab shown.It consist of 7

tabs.The upper left tab is showing the processor speed/info,the upper middle tab is showing the cache

information of processor,the upper right tab is showing the motherboard info,the lower left tab isshowing memory configuration info(Speed,Channel,Total Memory),lower center showing the SPD ofRAM,the lower right shows the graphic card info and the tab in between the graphic card tab and

motherboard tab is CPUZ info tab.As you can see from the screenshoot above,CPUZ is a small and

handy utilities of showing various system information.


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Other then showing information about PC,CPUZ also have the facility of validating a system

information.

Here is the screenshoot of a validation page:

The above screenshoot show this system information in question is validated.

And now,i want to talk about the revision of 1.53 version to 1.54 version,the following function had

been introduced:Able to take more accurate information ofIntel Core i7-880, Core i5-680, Core i3-550processors,Intel Xeon 5600 line (32nm) processors,AMD Phenom II X6, Sempron II, Turion II,

Turion II Ultra and Athlon II Mobile "Caspian" processors

NVIDIA GeForce 320M chipset,AMD 870/880G/890GX + SB800/SB850 chipset. Is supportedIntroduction of validation rooms.

As you can see,this is a minor revision release which introduced support for newer

processor.And the feature introduced is Introduction of validation rooms.


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5.0)Pervasive Computing

5.1)Meaning Of Pervasive Computing

Pervasive computing is the trend towards increasingly ubiquitous connected

computing devices in the environment, a trend being brought about by a

convergence of advanced electronic - and particularly,wireless - technologies and

the Internet.In layman term,it mean that computing have been tightly integrated

into our daily lives.Sometime we are using it without our own realization.This is all

possible thanks to advancement in technologies of various aspect such as Internet

connection,hardware,battery and mobile software/OS.The most common example

of such device is smartphone and MP3 player of which I am going to talk about.


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5.2)Two Example Of Pervasive Computing

1.)HTC HD2 SmartphoneI want to talk about HTC HD2 smartphone.It is a good example of pervasive computing

because it represent the crme of the crop of smartphone hardware wise that is on market at the time of

writing.First,let us start with a picture of HD2:

This is currently the flagship of HTC devices for Windows Mobile OS.Let us talk about the

specification for a bit.First,it is based on Windows Mobile 6.5 Professional and come equip with HTC

Sense GUI which is an overlay on top of stock windows mobile interface.Let's move on to the

hardware,shall we?The processor feature a Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250 1 GHz processor,576MBof RAM(Custom ROM only),512MB ROM.The screen is a 480x800 4.3 Screen which is one of the

best on market.This phone have all the connection that is needed currently-GSM(850 / 900 / 1800 /

1900 ),HSDPA(HSDPA 900 / 2100 ),Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g reciever,Wi-Fi router in built,V2.1 Bluetoothwith A2DP.Lastly,it also have GPS with aGPS support.This phone weight 157g and dimension is 120.5

x 67 x 11 mm which make this phone extremely wide and long to hold.


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2.)Apple Ipod Touch MP3 Player

This had been the benchmark for MP3 player pretty much since its release.The current gen Ipod

Touch is based on Iphone 3GS as far as hardware go.It comes in 32 and 64GB capacity.The latest OS

supported for 2nd and 3rd generation Ipod Touch is iOS4.iOS4 introduce many feature such asmultitasking,revamped GUI.Ipod Touch come with wi-fi as well.At the September 9, 2009 keynote

presentation at the Apple Event, Phil Schiller announced total cumulative sales of iPods exceeded 220

million.This device,In My Opinion,is one of the best example of successful pervasive computing

solution.


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6.0)Conclusion

As you can see from the folio I had done above,the world of computing is still moving at a rapidrate after so many year of advancement.Just that,in some aspect,the development have moved into a

different direction.Google Chrome OS clearly reflect the change in direction.Other then that,computing

solution(Pervasive Computing) as I shown in topic 5 had come a lot in the past few years.It is nowtightly integrated into our life thanks to advancement of various aspect of mobile technology,like

connection speed,battery life and software improvement.As far as desktop concern,it is quite interesting

to observe.I might went as far as say right now,desktop is moving at a faster pace then moore law.Tome,that is very very good news.At the other spectrum(netbook etc) is not moving at this fast pace.It is

still in advancement but in a slower pace.This is due to the mass consumer,as mentioned in

anandtech.com quote,the bar of acceptability have been lowered.Lowered to a point where there are not

much need for huge performance advancement.

Software wise,i think it need to catch up.There are still a lot of room for catchup.Hardware is

developing at a very rapid rate but sofware are not.Development as in the ability to take advantage ofthe rapid hardware development.Software maker need to move quick and implement feature,like 64bit

and quad core multi threading support.As of now,there are not a lot of software is being released in

64bit.However,mass consumer machine is starting to be shipped with 64bit OS installed.

As a tech enthusiast,there never been a better time to be one.Right now,technology is moving at

very rapid rate.I am glad to see that.


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Reference

1.)http://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z/versions-history.html

2.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operating_system

3.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_Source_Software

4.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hardware5.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software

6.)http://www.linuxmce.org/

7.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LinuxMCE

8.)http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os

9.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Chrome_OS

10.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromium_OS

11,)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mozilla_Firefox

12.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handbrake

13.)http://handbrake.fr/index.php

14.)http://www.anandtech.com/show/2829/20

15.)http://www.anandtech.com/show/3756/2010-value-ssd-100-roundup-kingston-

and-ocz-take-on-intel/7

16.)http://searchnetworking.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid7_gci759337,00.html

17.)http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_ipod

18.)http://www.gsmarena.com/htc_hd2-2957.php
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