Anak IT Brunei: February 2010

2010/02/28

Things to Consider Before Buying A Computer

Salam. Sebelum biskita membali computer, pernah biskita plan lebih awal? Or maybe pernah biskita nyasal after membali computer? Kebanyakan urang inda ngambil hal tentang perkara "remeh-temeh" ane they said "asal saja lawa" but inda lama kemudian merungut tia "alaaa nyasal ku membali laptop ane..." or even "tantu plang ku membali yang sebalahnya ari atue..." so dimana salah nya tue nah? Here I would like to share my personal tips sebelum survey computer/laptop yang kan dibali.

Sebelum biskita membali computer, ada beberapa perkara yang kitani patut ambil kira:

1. Liat budget dulu cukup kah inda. "No money no talk"
2. Untuk kegunaan apa?
3. Laptop or PC biasa (either tower or desktop)?
4. Operating System apa kan dipakai? Mau yang free or bebayar?
5. Technical Specifications (Tahap Kecanggihan) - Especially for gamers
6. Penggunaan Software - Dedicated student might need dedicated software as well
7. Last and least important is extra gift yang kana bari as "package" dari pembelian komputer

Laptop or PC biasa (either tower or desktop)? Well it depends dimana biasanya biskita membuat keraja? Di rumah, di sekolah or di pejabat? If untuk di rumah, I recommend makai PC (tower-type) pasal it is much powerful than laptop but if untuk sekolah or untuk dibawa kemana-mana, of course buying a laptop would be your choice. If pejabat, usually ada PC kana sediakan sudah but that depends as well. Inda jua biskita kan mengangkut PC barat-barat miatu tiap hari turun naik pejabat kalie? Hehe but again, that depends.

PC ada dua jenis, Tower and Desktop. Tower ani yang jenis berdiri (first on the left) while desktop biasanya "nipis" and kana ampai atas mija dalam keadaan "melimpang" then kana taruh monitor screen atasnya. Salah satu kebaikan PC adalah ianya bersifat "extendable" as in you can add more PCI/PCI-Ecards and even graphic cards into it. It also has a lot of USB ports (dapan belakang). Not only that, if something goes wrong with the hardware device inside the PC, you can easily do "trouble-shooting" or apa nya urang kitani as "mengusai" pasalnya sanang dibuka and easy for us to access segala isi di dalam PC. If ada rusak, just replace apa yang rusak. Bukannya tukar the whole devices/parts.

Laptop... Hmmm... I think semua urang tau miana usulnya haha kanak-kanak darjah 3 pun ada yang ber"pisbuk" udah makai laptop adi-beradinya or indungnya. It is a portable PC where you can bring it anywhere at anytime. Biasanya kana bawa ke restaurant yang ada label "Free Wi-Fi" but I am not sure if "Free KARAN" kah jua inda tue. It is usually only have up to 4 USB ports and if something goes wrong with the hardware device inside the laptop, you have to "operate" it carefully if pandai or else paksa "masuk wad" jua tue. If ada rusak, sometimes you need to replace the whole motherboard which is costly.

Operating System (OS):

Ubuntu, my "Number One" Operating System. Not because it is free, but it's capabilities on "fixing" Windows OS problem (usually happened to WinXP). It is faster to load up everything compared to Windows OS (but slightly comparable to Windows 7 depending on the machine's specifications). You may visit this site for its review or directly visit its official site here. The latest version of Ubuntu OS is Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic Koala).

Windows Operating System is the most popular Operating System around the globe. I remembered the first computer that we had (owned by my brother) was running in Windows 95! Huhu classic enough? No... There were also more previous Operating Systems available before that. So, in order to use this Windows OS owned by a company named Microsoft, you need to invest some money and purchase the GENUINE one. The latest Windows OS available now is Windows 7. Click here to find out more.

Mac Operating System, owned by Apple Inc., has been used widely mainly for media production such as audio editing, video editing or even as simple as image editing. I remembered a time where both me and a friend of mine (eRhyme) were producing audio track. I was using Windows XP and he was using Mac OS X. Using the same audio interface (Behringer's), the audio quality that he produced was far better than mine and that shows how superior the Mac OS is in media creation compared to other OS. I also heard that RTB (Radio Televisyen Brunei) is now "nearly" fully equipped with Apple's Mac systems (running on Mac Operating System).

I think that is all for today and I might continue to elaborate more on my next article. Thank you. Wassalam.

2010/02/27

e-Resources @ MOE

Assalamu'alaikum wbt...

Today I would like to share with pembaca Anak IT pasal eResources kepunyaan Kementerian Pendidikan, Negara Brunei Darussalam atau lebih dikenali dengan eResources@MOE. Ianya adalah satu "portal" untuk mencari bahan-bahan pendidikan secara online seperti e-kamus, e-learning dan sebagainya. It is actually good for students yang malar memakai kamus atue or for those yang suka membaca dan menimba ilmu pengetahuan. For those yang interested, you may go to http://eresources.moe.edu.bn/ or click here.

eResources@MOE's main page

Ramai urang betanyakan pasal barang ani. They said "cemana kan access tue jul? mesti jua ada password nya tue..." and here I would like to share the account created for public which has been given to me by Pegawai Pelajaran dari Kementerian Pendidikan sendiri. The account is:

Username: eresources
Password: sekolah

Type in the Username and Password

And walaaa~ you are now accessing the MOE's eResources. I think that some of the links requires you to pay for the service if you access their site directly (as in bukan dari eResources@MOE). That is what I heard but I am not that sure as well.

Resources provided by eResources@MOE:

Oxford English Dictionary<
Oxford Reference Online
Access Science
Kids InfoBits
American Institute of Physics
American Physical Society Journals
Credo Reference<
Springer
SIAM Journals
ProQuest
American Chemical Society
Annual Reviews
ACM
American Society of Civil Engineering
Proquest K12

So here it goes, free educational resources provided by our beloved government. Browse it while you can bak kata pepatah, "ilmu pelita hidup" dan juga "usaha tangga kejayaan". Sekian terima kasih.

2010/02/25

SQL Zoo

Hello guys!!!! This is going to be my first article. SOoooo it's going to be short and simple. Just a website I wanted to share :) which I saw on the 24^th of February 2010 (today) just before my test which is the 25^th (tomorrow) hehe before 9 PM. I wanted to post it immediately but my connection went DOWN!!! Argh! Anyways here it goes.

Do you have trouble of trying to figure out if your SQL is correct? Do you have to go to your university to try out? Hehehe worry no more. I have found this cool website that allows you to try SQL or MySQL or XML or Java. Go to http://sqlzoo.net/ and choose the language you are using just beside the 'login'. If it is SQL oracle, please choose Oracle – MySql is totally a different language. In the text area just type your SQL as you can see below the one I typed and then just click 'Submit Query' and Walaaa you will see what you want to see (if the one you typed is correct :) ) if not, it will show error message which is easier to understand (in my opinion). PLEASE IGNORE the table at the top and also the descriptions unless you want to see the original coding and tables.

Hope this article will help you guys :)

Regards,

Khadijah Said

2010/02/21

Internet Connection Problem

For the past few weeks, it has been a pain in the neck for most of us to browse the internet. These are my bandwidth reading last night. I am using e-Speed's 512kbps service.

My average speed

After "Retest" for so many times, this would be the highest speed I could get

My other friends were also facing the same problem where the connectivity is "undulating". B-Mobile's Zoom! Broadband user also told me that the broadband usually "putus-putus" and they need to reconnect "balik-balik".

Some of the possible reason for this are:

May have relation to cyberwar that is going on this week. See this article to find out.
Our Internet Service Provider (ISP) is currently doing maintenance? Who knows? But surely BruNet's Website is currently under maintenance.
Natural disaster that has been broke out recently e.g. earthquake
Dan yang sewaktu dengannya

Oleh itu, para pengguna Internet dinasihatkan agar lebih bersabar dan menggunakan Internet yang ada dengan sebaik mungkin. Sekian.

2010/02/19

Interview - AITI

Today, Anak IT had arranged an interview with Authority for Info-communications Technology Industry of Brunei Darussalam or in short AITI. The interview was held at their place in Kg. Anggerek Desa. Members who representing Anak IT during the interview session were:

Wafiy
Zulfadly

For this interview, AITI (through Siti Zaraura Haji Mohammad) has elected Aedy Azmani Haji Azahari to entertain us. He is the manager of Public Relations under IT Industry Development Group. Anak IT representatives had selected "What is AITI in general?" as the interview's subject.

Aedy Azmani Haji Azahari with Anak IT Trademark

This is where the interview was conducted

The interview session:

Wafiy : Our topic for today is a bit general. We would like to know what AITI is all about

Aedy : If you play football, you have two sides kan. Let's say, you have DST FC and the other side is TelBru FC, we are the referee. We regulate telcom (telecommunication) companies. So, macam, in terms of brapa price bisdurang set, like easi kad kah or prima, kami set kan tue. They cannot go above, they cannot go below. So we regulate national spectrum and then... we control every ICT technology in Brunei so anything that goes to Brunei, has go to us to be approved and licensed. Sama macam every mobile yang masuk ke Brunei ani, has to go through us so we know frequency nya and at the same time we contact the mobile companies to verify frequency nya lurus kah inda supaya inda "clash". The main reason why we monitor the frequency is, so that.. dulu.. you guys remember kalau ada urang betelipun, skali ada suara urang third party? We want to eliminate that.

Zulfadly : Oh... so kira macam crossover kah ni?

Aedy : Yes crossover. We want to make the frequency atue clear (from any disturbance) for national security. Another thing is, since we control the equipment jua, segala walkie-talkie, mobile, satelite dish, parabola, basically anything that can be used to communicate la even PS3 punya joypad, we have to make sure ia punya reception ngam untuk playstation saja. You cannot use the joypad untuk ekon or anything like control computer dari bangunan atu kah *tunjuk bangunan sebalah*.. atu inda dapat tu.. same goes to other devices like parabola atue la aa sal ia ambil reception dari satellite.

Aedy : Ahh and then we monitor ICT companies jua. Since in Brunei ani we don't have trademark, maybe ada but inda kuat kan, I mean copyright atue la, anybody can simply cetak rompak. What we are doing is AABS (AITI Accredited Business Status). It is some sort of trademarking scheme. So siapa ada apply that through us, anything yg bisdia register (product) inda dapat urang copy tue. They have rights to protect them. If kedapatan kana copy, we can sue them (the one yang copying)

Zulfadly : Aaaa so its like kalau Bruneian buat program or even system, we just register disini supaya copyrightED la tue..

Aedy : Yes. In a way, we protect them la.. That is in-line with our order jua, we help to promote ICT and at the same time we try to develop the ICT industry in Brunei Darussalam ani. We also try to facilitate macam exhibitions rah overseas for our local companies macam last year we joined Comnic ASEAN, the biggest ICT expo in South East Asia. So... apa lagi aa?

Zulfadly : If... Peranan AITI? Kira dalam penggunaan internet?

Aedy : Internet wise... We don't monitor tue... People who monitor internet is EGNC and ITPSS for security. Anyway, we have over 25 functions and duties. You want a copy? Sanang-sanang, minta email kamu la.

Wafiy : So, kalau aku ada device yang bebali dari Singapore macam wireless device, sekali aku kan makai untuk buat system, we must go here first right untuk mencek?

Aedy : Sini dulu tue. Minta and bawa specs nya (documented specifications), and then if approved, then balayar tah kamu then you bring the product in, liatkan saja and say "this has been approved by AITI" ja. Baru lapas. Kalau inda, the problem with urang kitani, bisdurang bali saja, then kana tahan marah and say "mana kami tau pasal AITI", datang kemari, we explained to them cana procedures nya and then barutah bisdurang tau pasal kami. Tapi, by right, urang kastam sepatutnya awal membaritahu bah, macam apa saja walkie-talkie kah apa, ada betampal disana bah kira they must go through us dulu. So basically, we have to implement that dari awal la.

Wafiy : Kami terpaksa bawa barang atue kesini la dulu?

Aedy : Sini dulu. Anything with receptions, frequency, mesti dari AITI minta kana approved especially communication equipment. Wireless mouse.. aa inda kalie.. cause atu inda jauh kan signalnya.

Aedy : We also have grant scheme. Lets say you have a baby company baru kan starting up and you need funding, you do a presentation to us, you prove to us that your product or service ani can make profit, so we give you money like allowance, capital to start up the business etc. and thats it, we monitor you.

Wafiy : Then after that kami bayar balik duit atue atau inda?

Aedy : No. Its yours. It is in-line with our order atue wa "to promote". Because as long as maju di Brunei ani, happy tah kami tue.

Zulfadly : Is it sama macam incubation kah?

Aedy : Awu. Sama tue.

"We licensed, we regulate. We promote, we protect." - Aedy Azmani @ AITI

It was around half an hour interview. We talked about a lot of stuff including IC3 training, Wi-Max as well as RFID. We would like to thank Aedy Azmani for his leisure time spent with us. For further information about AITI, kindly go to their website, http://www.aiti.gov.bn or simply click here. You may even visit their office to learn more about them. That is all for today and until the next interview, wabillahitaufiq walhidayah, Assalamu'alaikum wbt...

Reported by:
Zulfadly & Wafiy

Some galleries available inside the AITI building

2010/02/18

How To Handle Missing/Corrupted File?

Assalamu'alaikum wbt...

Have you experienced a sudden dead blue screen in Windows XP? Then after you restart your computer, it is saying something like a file is missing or corrupt?

I've been facing such "cheerful" events haha just yesterday it happened to me again. Missing or corrupted hal.dll... Based on my experience, sometimes it is due to improper booting up. In special cases, the file itself buat hal. So miana tue? Logically, we would just replace the file with the unaffected file. But, if you can't even access the operating system, how are you going to do it? Yetah masanya I would directly interact with my best buddy named "Live CD". Live CD allows you to run the operating system WITHOUT having to install it first in you harddisk.

To learn more on Live CD, go to this wikipedia.
You may get the list of available Live CD here.

Ubuntiu 9.04 (well it is now 9.10). I only use it as Live CD

After you get yourself a preferable Live CD (I recommend you to use Ubuntu), insert it into your tray and then restart your machine.

You need to make sure that you have selected your CD-ROM drive as primary boot device. When the first screen appears, press Delete key on your keyboard immediately to access the BIOS configuration. This might be different on other machines. Certain machines use F12 key instead of Delete key. It depends on the manufacturer.

BIOS Setup...

Browse for "boot" word,

Change the first boot device to your CD-ROM drive, save changes made and leave the BIOS setup.

Restarting the machine again.

Upon successful, you will be brought to Ubuntu's menu whether to try it as Live CD or to install it into your harddisk. Choose the Try Ubuntu option.

It will load Operating System files from your CD. Starting from now, you could not eject the Live CD from your CD-ROM drive.

Walaa~ Welcome to Ubuntu Operating System.

Go to Place>Computer and go to your windows drive. Browse to windows/system32 folder.

But, before that, I need to download new hal.dll to replace the corrupted hal.dll (if it surely is corrupted)

I went to dll-files.com and download the file

Once the download is completed, open the downloaded archive file

Extract it to desktop temporarily

Back to the folder, look for the corrupted file

Kindly back the file up before you replace it with the new file.

Then, replace the corrupted file with the downloaded file. The system will ask you again to confirm the replacement of the file. Just select "Replace".

After you replaced the file, turn off the Ubuntu Operating System

Shut down~

You will be prompted to remove the Live CD from your CD-Rom drove

Remove the Live CD

And do another restart

Its getting close now... Hopefully...

YEaH! It is back to normal...

Thank you Ubuntu. You saved my "Windows" LOL

- The End -

2010/02/16

Hard Disk - IDE or SATA?

This is my 1^st article for anak.it… I’m honored for anak.it for giving me the chance to give a contribution to it. So... here it goes…

Inda kita pernah terpikir kan membali hard disk external untuk menyimpan data biskita? Seperti document-document kraja, gambar, lagu, movies, series and etc… Sekali kan membali... ada kana bagi choice… sama ada kita mau hard disk yang IDE atau SATA? Apa tah biskita buat tu? Sama ada pilih IDE atau SATA? Apa yang bagus? IDE atau SATA? Bisai atau inda membali saiz Hard disk basar? Walaupun kita tanya arah penjaga kadai, tatap jua decision arh kitani…. So, cemana tah nie?

Pernah terasa dilemma cemani? To be honest, I’ve even experienced this kind of dilemma a few years back… maybe all the people have as well… so I’m going to write an article about the difference between IDE and SATA, and my recommendations on what kind of hard disk to get nowadays…

Mari tah kitani melihat gambar Hard disk IDE sama SATA dulu ye…