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Kamis, 30 Juli 2009

Wikipedia Saingi Dokter-Dokter di AS

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WASHINGTON - Wikipedia menjadi sumber referensi terbaru bagi warga Amerika Serikat untuk membeli obat untuk penyembuhan suatu penyakit. Berdasarkan survei yang dilakukan Pew Internet dan American Life Project, hampir 61 persen warga AS mencari informasi mengenai kondisi tubuh dan alternatif penyembuhan.

"Hal ini berpotensi membahayakan, karena sebuah situs dijadikan sebuah sumber untuk proses penyembuhan suatu penyakit."

Penggunaan Wikipedia sebagai bahan referensi pengobatan telah menjadi tren sejak beberapa tahun terakhir. Masyarakat lebih memilih untuk membuka Wikipedia untuk mencari informasi mengenai suatu penyakit ketimbang pergi ke dokter.

Banyak kalangan medis menyatakan keprihatinannya, dan mempertanyakan mengapa masyarakat tidak membuka situs-situs mengenai kesehatan dan justru membuka Wikipedia yang kebenarannya masih sulit untuk dipercaya dan masih dapat diedit sepenuhnya.

Dokter-dokter di AS menyarankan agar pengguna internet tidak begitu saja percaya dengan konten di Wikipedia untuk urusan kesehatan. Ada baiknya selain mencari informasi di Wikipedia, masyarakat juga berkonsultasi dengan dokter. (Choi)

Sumber ; Okezone.com
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Twitter Baru Lebih Kaya Fungsi

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LONDON - Twitter, situs yang menjadi fenomena internet yang khas dengan pesan terbatas 140 karakter, menyegarkan pandangan para penggunanya dengan tampilan home page anyar.

Home page Twitter menghadirkan tampilan sign-up sederhana dan terdapat pula fasilitas mesin pencarian daftar 23 topik paling populer per menit, hari, dan pekan.

Pengamat internet mengatakan, perubahan ini merupakan pengenalan bahwa Twitter tidak lagi sekadar situs untuk mengetahui update kabar terbaru teman, namun telah menjelma menjadi sebuah situs yang menjadi tempat pemberitaan peristiwa global.

Pendapat ini mungkin ada benarnya. Pasalnya, penggambaran pembaruan Twitter juga ditunjukkan dari adanya perubahan deskripsi kalimat pada home page Twitter.

Pada halaman Twitter lama deskripsi kalimat berbunyi: "Twitter is a service for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected through the exchange of quick, frequent answers to one simple question: What are you doing?".

Namun sekarang deskripsi kalimat itu telah diubah menjadi: "Share and discover what?s happening right now, anywhere in the world". Kalimat tersebut mencerminkan perluasan fungsi Twitter tak hanya sebagai situs pertemanan tetapi juga situs informasi peristiwa terkini.

Sejak meluncur pada 2006, Twitter telah menjadi salah satu situs populer di dunia dengan 55 juta pengunjung setiap bulannya.

Penggunaan Twitter kian meluas tak hanya dikalangan pengguna internet biasa tetapi juga merambah di kalangan selebritis, politisi, bahakan lembaga-lembaga kenegaraan dan sosial. (Choi)

Sumber ; Okezone.com
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Charger iPhone & Blackberry dengan Sinar Matahari

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LONDON - Kini semakin banyak produsen elektronik yang menciptakan perangkat charger bertenaga matahari. Yang terbaru salah satunya adalah Powcell yang diciptakan oleh MotionTouch produsen elektronik asal Inggris.

Bagi pengguna ponsel yang lebih sering beraktivitas di luar ruangan, tentu akan merepotkan jika harus selalu mencari sumber listrik ketika ponsel kehabisan energi.

Techtree, Kamis (30/7/2009) melansir, mekanisme isi ulang baterai yang dilakukan PowCell sepenuhnya mengandalkan energi matahari yang berasal dari matahari.

Pengguna hanya perlu menyisipkan ponsel pada "holder" charger dan menunggu hingga baterai gadget siap diisi ulang.

PowCell menggunakan sel solar untuk menghasilkan energi listrik bagi kebutuhan gadget. Namun untuk saat ini, desain charger PowCell baru bisa digunakan untuk ponsel cerdas iPhone dan BlackBerry.

Hal menarik lainnya dari PowCell, charger ini hadir dilengkapi dengan baterai sendiri yang bisa diisi ulang secara mandiri pada saat tidak digunakan.

MotionTouch selanjutnya akan mengembangkan charger ini agar bisa juga digunakan untuk gadget selain iPhone dan Blackberry. (Choi)

Sumber ; Okezone.com
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Microsoft-Yahoo deal to face tough antitrust probe

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WASHINGTON - The Internet search partnership between Microsoft and Yahoo faces a tough antitrust review in the U.S. and overseas, with approval likely hinging on whether the marriage would foster more competition with market leader Google.

The deal, announced Wednesday, may have a better shot at success than the proposed pact last year between Yahoo Inc. and Google Inc. That agreement fell apart after the Justice Department threatened to block it, ultimately leading Yahoo to revive talks with Microsoft Corp.

Yahoo's alliance with Microsoft could have an easier path because antitrust regulators are tougher on deals involving the top two companies in an industry, said Evan Stewart, an antitrust lawyer at Zuckerman Spaeder. Google is by far the leading search engine, with two-thirds of the U.S. search market, according to comScore Inc.; Yahoo is well ahead of Microsoft for the next two spots.

Even so, a key lawmaker on antitrust issues said Wednesday that the agreement "warrants our careful scrutiny."

Sen. Herb Kohl, a Wisconsin Democrat, said lawmakers would review the deal "because of the potentially far-reaching consequences for consumers and advertisers and our concern about dampening the innovation we have come to expect from a competitive high-tech industry."

Meanwhile, the Obama administration's antitrust enforcers have promised to subject deals to more rigorous review than the previous administration.

"I'm expecting tough scrutiny in the U.S., and even tougher" in the European Union, said Herbert Hovenkamp, an antitrust law professor at the University of Iowa. He noted that European regulators have historically taken a harder line against Microsoft than their U.S. counterparts in their reviews of the software company's dominance in other products, like Windows and Internet Explorer.

A Justice Department spokeswoman, Gina Talamona, would say only that the department is "aware" of the deal. Peter Kaplan, a spokesman for the Federal Trade Commission, which also enforces antitrust law, declined to comment.

Under the agreement announced Wednesday, Yahoo will use Microsoft's search engine, Bing, on its Web portal, significantly expanding Bing's reach. In return, Yahoo will keep 88 percent of the revenue from search ads for the first half of the 10-year deal.

The deal isn't expected to close until early next year, and Yahoo and Microsoft said in a joint statement that they expect the agreement to be "closely reviewed by the industry and government regulators." They insist their partnership will lead to better choices for consumers and advertisers.

A key issue, according to Hovenkamp, will be whether regulators accept Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer's argument that the deal will create a stronger competitor against Google.

"In the past, that defense hasn't worked all that well," Hovenkamp said, and courts have shot down deals between the second- and third-largest players in other industries.

But Stewart said the deal should pass muster because it will provide "real competition" to Google.

Separately, privacy advocates came out against the agreement.

The Center for Digital Democracy, an online privacy advocate in Washington that opposed the Google-Yahoo partnership last year, called for an examination of the partnership's consumer data collection policies, as well as privacy and online ad business practices.

The U.S. Public Interest Research Group also came out against the deal, as it had the Google-Yahoo partnership.

"The Microsoft-Yahoo deal should serve as a red flag," said Amina Fazlullah, media and telecom legislative counsel for the Washington, D.C.-based group. "When we lose independent search competitors, then we lose the ability to have multiple competitors working to preserve privacy." (Choi)

Sumber ; Yahoo.com
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Cyber-criminals targeting social networks

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VALENCIA, Spain (AFP) - Facebook, MySpace and other social networking sites are inceasingly being targeted by cyber-criminals drawn to the wealth of personal information supplied by users, experts warn.

Data posted on the sites -- name, date of birth, address, job details, email and phone numbers -- is a windfall for hackers, participants at Campus Party, one of the world's biggest gatherings of Internet enthusiasts, said.

A vicious virus Koobface -- "koob" being "book" in reverse -- has affected thousands Facebook and Twitter users since August 2008, said Asier Martinez, a security specialist at global IT solutions provider Panda Security.

"Its spread has been very significant and it has been detected in 4,000 different variants," he told AFP at the week-long event which wraps up Sunday in Valencia in eastern Spain.

The virus hijacks the accounts of social networking site users and sends messages steering friends to hostile sites coontaining malware, a malicious software often designed to infiltrate a computer system for illicit purposes.

In one of its variants, Koobface sends the victim a warning that its Flash player is outdated along with an invitation to download a new version, which is is in fact the virus.

Malware can be used to steal bank account data or credit card information once installed on a personal computer.

Facebook has sought to resist attacks by Koobface and similar viruses by blocking links to hostile sites and shutting down accounts from users that show signs of infection, such as sending too many messages.

"You also must be very careful with people who ask to join your friends list," said Laura Garcia, who writes a popular blog about Internet security, adding that hackers often sent requests.

Another danger of social networking sites are the popular quizzes, horoscopes and games made available for free to users which can sometimes be used to hide links to hostile sites, she added.

Birthday greetings and well as messages sent at Christmas and other holidays may also appear to come from friends when in fact they are linked directly to sites that try to convince would-be victims to reveal personal information like passwords or bank numbers, said Martinez.

The vulnerability of social networking sites was underscored in a study by security company Sophos made public earlier this month.

It found that about half of all companies un the United States block some or all access to them due to concerns about cyber incursions via the sites.

Facebook says that less than one percent of its users have been affected by a security issue, such as a virus, since the site opened in 2004.

Garcia said the number of viruses detected in recent years has exploded while the profile of cyber-criminals has changed.

"Before it was very savvy teenagers who wanted to show off their computer skills. Now you don't really need to know much about information technology to be a hacker, all the tools have already been created," she said.

Real cyber-crime mafias have now taken over, especially in Russia, China Brazil and the Ukraine whose goals are purely economic gain, she said, underscoring that hacking could be highly lucrative.

For an initial investment of 1,500 dollars (1,050 euros) for Mpack, a programme created to infect web pages, hackers can obtain a profit of between 21,000 and 847,000 dollars in just one month, Martinez said.

Around 6,000 people are expected to attend the Campus Party, which unites participants from all over the world to share ideas, experiences and all types of activities related to computers, communications and new technology.

The annual event began in Spain in 1997. Editions of the event have since been held in Brazil and Colombia. (Choi)

Sumber ; Yahoo.com
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Twitter and Facebook make Afghan election debut

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KABUL (AFP) - Afghans may be desperately poor, largely illiterate and without electricity, but that does not stop would-be presidents campaigning in cyber space on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.

Mimicking tactics made famous by US President Barack Obama, one of the top contenders to rule Afghanistan "tweets" on hot micro-blogging service Twitter and has a flashy website where supporters can make donations.

Of 41 presidential candidates standing on August 20, some trumpet policies on social networking site Facebook, while video-sharing website YouTube carries clips of campaign rallies from across the war-scarred nation.

As only 10 percent of the estimated population of 26 to 30 million have access to electricity -- let alone a computer with Internet access -- it may seem like a waste of resources.

But Luke Cholerton-Bozier, who heads London-based digital media agency Red Narrative, says that even in a country where at best five percent of people have Internet access, that still means 1.5 million potential voters.

"The Internet has huge potential to affect elections in the developing world, as it does in richer countries," he told AFP by email.

"Those few people that do have computers or Internet access are going to be the types of people who are influential amongst their peers, and so it's important to gain their support for the election," he added.

His agency handles online strategy for Afghan presidential hopeful Ashraf Ghani, who blogs on Twitter and has his own YouTube page.

Another of the top three contenders, ex-foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah, has a sophisticated website with photo galleries and videos.

Incumbent President Hamid Karzai's online strategy lags behind his two main rivals, with his website "down for maintenance" just weeks before he stands for another term in the country's second presidential poll.

Karzai, who is tipped to win, does however dominate television coverage -- a priority in a country were 70 percent of people cannot read, his campaign spokesman Waheed Omer said.

"The Internet and Twitter and YouTube and Facebook and all these things, they have a limited audience here in Afghanistan," Omer said.

"I don't see how using Twitter or using Facebook for example could get anyone a substantial number of votes or a substantial edge in the voting... the Internet is a new thing in Afghanistan."

Indeed online support for candidates appears lacklustre.

A Facebook page for Karzai -- although unclear whether official -- logs only 528 supporters. Ghani clocks in 824 on his fan page. Abdullah wins the race with a still underwhelming 1,216 Facebook backers.

Ghani's Twitter page has 63 followers -- rather paltry compared to Obama's 1.8 million Twitter devotees.

Cholerton-Bozier says that a key aim of the online campaigns is to reach out to the better-off Afghan diaspora living all over the world, who can donate money to the candidates' campaigns.

And it is not just political candidates who harness the power of the Internet in Afghanistan.

The US military has a Twitter blog and Facebook page extolling its operation against the Taliban in Afghanistan, posting photographs of smiling soldiers entertaining Afghan children and talking to turbaned elders.

On the other side of the fence, the Taliban recently revamped its website before it was apparently taken offline this week. The site has been blocked several times, usually reappearing soon afterwards under a new domain name.

But in the cramped booths of a Kabul Internet cafe, patrons tapping away at their keyboards appear unaware or uninterested in the candidate websites, and few have even heard of Twitter and Facebook.

"No, I do not use those sites, mostly I'm just coming to check my email," said Arash Perzai, a 22-year-old medical technology student.

He said he did not even know the presidential candidates had websites: "I don't have any interest. Mostly I get my information from the TV."

Sherahmad Hotak, a 35-year-old construction company owner, says the Internet is catching on among his peers as it is more reliable than phone lines in a country where infrastructure is crippled by decades of war.

The International Telecommunications Union, a United Nations agency, puts Internet access as low as 1.5 percent in Afghanistan.

Hotak may use the Internet, but he is still in the dark about Facebook: "I have heard of it, but I don't use it. I don't know how it operates."
(Choi)

Sumber ; Yahoo.com
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Asus Xonar D2X, Wujudkan Pusat Hiburan di PC

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Jakarta - Jika dilihat dari segi kualitas suara maupun fitur yang ditawarkan, kartu suara yang telah terintegrasi dalam sebuah motherboard sekarang ini memang dapat dikatakan cukup baik. Malah di antaranya bahkan sudah dapat mengeluarkan suara sekelas Dolby Digital.

Namun bagi para pengguna yang 'peduli' akan kualitas suara, memang wajib untuk menggunakan kartu suara terpisah. Apalagi bagi mereka yang hendak menjadikan PC-nya sebagai pusat hiburan di rumah.

Untuk tujuan itu, Asus mengklaim memiliki salah satu kartu suara yang cukup berkualitas. Nama produk ini adalah Asus Xonar D2X.

Terkesan Mewah

Kesan mewah mulai timbul dari kemasan yang disertakannya. Box putih berukuran cukup besar yang di dalamnya berisikan sepaket perlengkapan mulai dari 4 pasang kabel RCA, modular MIDI, hingga beragam aplikasi penunjang seperti Cyberlink Power DVD dan Cakewalk Studio.

Hal itu belum seberapa, kemewahannya makin terasa ketika detikINET memegang kartu suara yang sudah menggunakan interface PCI-Ex 1X tersebut. Warna hitam yang melekat di sekujur tubuhnya, bercampur dengan warna emas pada masing-masing port menambah kesan 'mewah' produk ini.

Apalagi masing-masing port tersebut akan mengeluarkan warna yang berbeda ketika dioperasikan, makin memberikan nilai lebih untuk masalah penampilan. Selain itu, setiap warna yang berbeda akan membantu pengguna saat menghubungkan speaker ke kartu suara.
Suara Berkualitas Namun 'Loyo'

Jika ASUS Xonar D2X memiliki penampilan yang enak dipandang, lalu bagaimana dengan kualitas suaranya?. Tentu saja hal itu menjadi sorotan utama untuk sebuah kartu suara, dan dapat dikatakan ASUS Xonar D2X mampu membuat para penggunanya terlena dalam dentuman musik yang indah.

Tak heran jika sound card ini cukup handal untuk menangani file musik digital. Pasalnya, jika ditengok lebih dalam ternyata ASUS Xonar D2X menggunakan Audio Processing Unit (APU) Oxygen HD CMI8788 yang merupakan chip handal besutan C-media.

Tapi tunggu dulu, menyebut nama C-Media tentunya indentik dengan kartu suara onboard. Namun, dapat dipastikan chip yang satu ini sangat jauh berkualitas jika dibandingkan dengan varian kartu suara onboard manapun.

Saat mencobanya, detikINET menggunakan kartu ini untuk memutar alunan saksofon Kenny G dengan lagu Forever in Love yang terdengar begitu indah dan menghanyutkan, begitupun vocal John Scofield dengan lagunya I Don't Need No Doctor.

Namun hal tersebut berbanding terbalik ketika penggunanya mendengarkan lagu Rock dari band cadas Korn atau Slipknot. Suara yang dihasilkan malah terkesan 'loyo' dan kurang 'nendang'.

Oke, untuk file musik, Xonar boleh lah dikatakan sanggup membuai penggunanya. Tapi bagaimana performanya untuk menonton konten High-Definition (HD) ataupun bermain game?

Untuk mengoptimalkannya, detikINET menggunakan speaker 5.1 yang telah mendukung output Dolby Digital sebagai pasangan ASUS Xonar D2X. Hasilnya, memang kartu suara ini cukup handal untuk memainkan konten HD atapun game.

Tetapi, untuk mendapatkan suara yang optimal dibutuhkan sedikit pengaturan jika penggunanya menggunakan kabel RCA untuk outputnya. Masalahnya, pengaturan awal (default) dengan kabel RCA akan terkesan 'memendam' suara bass yang dihasilkan.

Akibatnya, pengaturan via aplikasi bawaan kartu ini pun harus dilakukan untuk 'mengangkat' dentuman bass itu. Namun, jika menggunakan kabel optical hal itu tak perlu dilakukan.

Secara keseluruhan, dengan harga sekitar USD 175, ASUS Xonar D2X dapat dikatakan mampu untuk mengubah komputer menjadi sebuah pusat hiburan yang cukup memadai. Tentunya hal tersebut juga perlu diimbangi oleh perangkat speaker yang mendukung.

Kelebihan
+ Bonus Lengkap
+ Suara Jernih
+ Sudah Mendukung Dolby Digital

Kekurangan
- Kurang cocok untuk Jenis musik rock atau cadas lainnya
- Agak merepotkan Jika menggunakan kabel RCA (Choi)

Sumber : Detikinet.com
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Microsoft-Yahoo Bersekutu Gempur Google

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Jakarta - Microsoft akhirnya berhasil meluluhkan hati Yahoo untuk menyerahkan kendali atas mesin pencarinya dan bersama-sama menghimpun kekuatan untuk menggempur raksasa Google.

Tentu saja kesepakatan 10 tahun dengan Yahoo ini akan memberi suntikan tenaga baru bagi Microsoft untuk memuluskan ambisinya mengalahkan Google di pasar mesin pencari.

Segenggam asa pun digantungkan kedua perusahaan tersebut. Dengan Yahoo di sisinya, Microsoft berharap bisa lebih tenang menggenjot Bing, mesin pencari barunya untuk mengejar ketertinggalannya dari Google, yang menguasai sekitar 65 persen pangsa pasar di Amerika Serikat.

Sementara Microsoft berkonsentrasi pada perang situs pencarian, Yahoo diharapkan mampu membuyarkan konsentrasi Google dalam penjualan iklan di Web.

"Kesepakatan ini datang menawarkan sejuta nilai untuk Yahoo, user kami dan juga industri," ujar Carol Bartz, chief executive Yahoo.

Tentu saja yang tak kalah girang dengan kesepakatan ini adalah CEO Microsoft, Steve Ballmer. "Aku sangat bersemangat. Ini telah aku katakan sejak 18 bulan lalu. Konsumen, pengiklan dan publisher akan mendapat layanan yang lebih baik, dan tentunya akan ada kompetisi yang lebih menantang bagi Google jika Microsoft dan yahoo bersekutu di mesin pencari."

Regulator antimonopoli akan meninjau kesepakatan kedua perusahaan tersebut untuk memastikan bahwa kesepakatan ini tidak akan melukai kompetisi.

"Sementara Microsoft dan Yahoo menunggu persetujuan dari pemerintah tentang kesepakatan mereka, kemungkinan Google akan terus meningkatkan performa mesin pencarinya," ujar Danny Sullivan, editor SearchEngineLand.

Sepertinya pertarungan antar raksasa itu akan semakin panas. Apalagi saat ini Google tengah menyiapkan sistem operasi untuk PC, yang dapat mengancam eksistensi Windows Microsoft.

Sullivan mengklaim Google sangat paranoid dengan Microsoft. "Mereka selalu menebak-nebak 'monster' apa lagi yang sedang disiapkan Microsoft untuk masa depan," ujarnya. (Choi)

Sumber : Detikinet.com
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Intel Atom Baru Segera 'Meluncur' Tahun Ini

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Jakarta - Intel dikabarkan meluncurkan Atom chip terbarunya, paling lambat akhir tahun ini. Hal ini sekaligus menepis rumor, bahwa peluncuran chip baru tersebut akan ditunda hingga 2010.

Dilaporkan bahwa Intel tengah menunda peluncuran platfrom Atom terbarunya yang bernama Pine Trail-M. Platfrom baru tersebut, mengintergrasikan grafis serta memory controller di dalam prosesor Atom.

"Pine Trail-M yang menggunakan chip Atom dengan arsitektur baru dijadwalkan dirilis bagi pengguna PC, paling lambat tahun ini," ujar Mooly Eden, General Manager Mobile Platforms Intel.

Eden tidak menunjuk secara spesifik kapan waktu peluncuran chip baru tersebut, tapi ia mengatakan Intel akan menunjukan beberapa prototye Pine trail-M netbook di forum pengembang Intel, September mendatang.

Nantinya Pine Trail akan meningkatakan performance serta kemampuan pada sebuah netbook. Berdasar data Intel, dengan memory controller terintegrasi akan membantu prosesor dan memory untuk berkomunikasi secara cepat, serta mengurangi latensi memory.

Sementara grafis yang terintegrasi akan menjalankan fungsi multimedia secara cepat dan membantu 'membebaskan' bandwidth pada prosesor, untuk menjalankan fungsi komunikasi pada komponen lain. (Choi)

Sumber : Detikinet.com
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