Project 4 ~ AMD vs INTEL

Intel’s chips are a lot better than AMD’s says a lot of people but AMD’s is a lot better than Intel’s says AMD, but which one is true. Which one is really better amongst the two?

The battle between the two rivaling CPUs has been there ever since the birth of the two companies. From the very start there were always competition between the two. AMD has always been the underdog since Intel has been getting a lot of support. AMD has something to show thou and doesn’t want

There came a time where AMD was no match for Intel and people knows it. I have always though so but this is not always the case. Few years ago, year 2005, there came a time where AMD challenged Intel to a processor/CPU competition front to front. There was a whole one page newspaper for this challenge of AMD vs Intel. It was the time where dual core processors were new and the top models of AMD and Intel are still AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+, Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 840. Intel surprisingly refused to fight off front to AMD back then. People wondered why and did the competition by themselves. Then there came the Cnet review.

In the Cnet review, Cnet took 5 AMDs best and 5 Intels bests and compared both through 7 categories. Cnet compared both processor using everyday applications, gaming, multi tasking performance, photo editing performance, mp3 encoding, video encoding and price. AMD surprisingly won all the rounds that Cnet lined up for the fight. It was at the gaming category however than AMD struck down Intel most because even AMD’s weakest beat Intel’s strongest processor in the category. This time around AMD really defeated Intel big time. The smaller company, David vs the bigger company Goliath earned more this time around. They had the upper hand and grabbed a big chunk of 9 billion dollars from intel.
Intel however, didn’t let this David and Goliath act run for long. Goliath Intel recovered back 2006 and beated AMD over and over again especially at their release of the Intel Core Duo. Intel Code Duo beats AMD’s top of the line product Athlon 64 x2 3800++ EE in most aspects.







It was a good release by Intel and was a really powerful processor. It’s price is reasonable as AMD and was better in terms of processing power and efficiency. Intel has beaten AMD again.

AMD took a beat from Intel’s Core Duo processor. From Tom’s review. Intel won over every aspect this time around. A role reversal from what the Cnet 2005 review has been. AMD became the underdog again.

AMD however still beats Intel however at energy energy efficiency despite the weights shown on the chart because the L2 stepping of Intel doesn’t really work so well with a lot of hardware. Certain upgrades and the like is a must for L2 stepping of intel to work and is a really tedious task. “Whenever low acquisition costs, low follow-up costs as well as low power consumption are important, AMD's processors are still first choice.” Says Tom’s Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel comparison. AMD is still first choice when you look at the chip’s price as well.





In terms of overall performance and quality today, Intel beats AMD big time. This will not hold forever true as what AMD showed year 2005. There will come a time that AMD will be better than Intel and there will also come a time where Intel will be a lot better than AMD. There is this energy efficient factor thou where AMD beats Intel and this factor cannot just be put aside. As what has tom said “Our projections for a year's electricity bill ranged from €48 to €221, depending on the processor. A cheap but inefficient processor may prove expensive in the long run.”.But in my opinion, as for now, Intel’s chip compared with AMD’s energy efficient chips hand in hand is still better than their AMD counterpart and will remain victorious over it. But in the world of technology, nothing really is for certain and only time will tell as what was proved to us by Microsoft over Apple. Who knows? AMD might turn out to be the PC’s Microsoft when the time comes.





______________Sources:

C|net AMD vs Intel 2005 Review
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-10442_7-6389077-1.html?tag=lnav

Tom’s Energy Efficiency: AMD vs Intel
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/07/11/energy-efficiency-intel
-left-out-in-the-cold/page16.html

AMD vs Intel
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/102607-arguments-intel-amd.html?page=2

Project 3 ~ Access Nation

The movie was about a crime that was organized but was also solved using the use of technology, specifically computer technology. It was about a murderer who stalked his prey, and was able to find out all his prey’s action through the use of a “computer worm” that was handed out to the murderer by an organization, access nation, which helps provide normal people of information regarding anyone they want to know about on.


The issue in this movie is whether it was possible or not to be able to stalk someone using computer technology and the answer is yes. It is very much possible and is currently happening to a lot of people nowadays. Cases about people losing money from their bank, increase in debts in credit cards, and stalkers which receives access of you through sniffed information exists. This is made possible due to computer malware that was specially designed to do a certain programmed thing to track whatever it is that you are doing in your computer. Such malware are worms, viruses, Trojans, and key loggers.


What a worm does is it’s a program that self replicates itself by sending emails to people in your MS outlook address books, or disrupt bandwidth, disrupt a website by using your computer as host for spam. It is originally built to help rather than disrupt or destroy. It was actually originally made to help machine run more efficiently. A virus is similar to a worm. Only that it does not self-replicate itself but attaches itself to a program in your system, crash your system, and if not, does harm to your computer. A Trojan is also a malware, but masks itself as a useful application but actually downloads viruses, worms, other more Trojans, and key loggers.


A key logger is a program that records every keystroke that you type in your computer. It may record bank passwords, credit card information, and any other private information that you would like to keep just for yourself. Manually, a key logger program can be installed and viewed manually by the person who installed it. Many of the hack cases of credit cards, bank accounts, and game accounts is because of key loggers. In stalking, a key logger is used to record chat logs of a stalker’s pray such that when a person types using his keyboard a date and a place he/she wants to go to, a key logger is able to log it and possibly, automatically send it to an email or another computer. If installed manually, it may be downloaded freely from hacking websites and the like. On the other hand, it can also be configured to install itself remotely when packed together with malware, which is what the murderer in the movie did.


The thing about the Magic Lantern is also real. The Magic Lantern is a key logging software program developed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation of the United States. Magic Lantern can be installed remotely through email attachments or exploiting common OS vulnerabilities just like what I described in the previous paragraph.


Another issue in the movie is whether a company, like access nation, which sells information to normal people, exists. The answer is yes but they only exist in the black market. No legal company should have the right to sell the privacy of others if it is not about terrorism and the like. Just as what had happened to the movie, the act of doing so is dangerous and will surely compromise lives of a lot of people. Also, as what was shown in the movie, all things that the client do will be a responsibility of the company as to why no one risks on going on such business.





______________Sources:

Worm, Virus, Trojan
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Internet/2004/virus.asp

Computer Worm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_worm

Info about Keylogger
http://www.en.articlesgratuits.com/keylogger-someones-watching-you- id423.php

Keylogger worm
http://www.albany.edu/its/alarm_alert_121605-01.htm

Magic Lantern – FBI Trojan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magic_Lantern_(software)

Project 2 ~ Software Piracy

Software piracy is a very big problem in the Philippines. According to the BSA, Business Software Alliance, an organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world, the software piracy rate in the Philippines during 2005 is at 71%. With the 71% rate of piracy, the Philippines’ IT industry lost about $76 million US dollars which is equivalent to 3 plus billions of pesos. Also, they said that the Philippines is one of the highest raters on software pirates in the world.

During early 2000s, software piracy was getting worse. Investments were halved because of piracy. Investors saw the rising piracy rating in the Philippines making them back down. Because of this, IT people had a hard time. Years and years have passed since then and more and more investors backed away from our market. This is due to the fact that each year, our software piracy rate increases as well.

Software piracy is a big problem because a lot of people are used to practicing all kind of piracy here in the Philippines and the IT industry is falling because of this. Because of software piracy, our IT industry remains as it is and is left behind by the other countries’ software industries. Our IT industry failed to develop because of this and it is found that potential software investments are lost and cancelled because of software piracy.

The problem in Software piracy here in the Philippines is that a lot of people support it. They say that they don’t have too much of a choice regarding these matters because of the poor status of most Filipinos nowadays. People would rather buy 100 peso software pirate products than 10,000 pesos of original ones because obviously, the pirated ones are cheaper and is much easier to find. They say that it is not practical to buy a licensed 10,000 pesos of software than the 100 variation because the life today is hard but that’s exactly what is making their lives and other people’s lives around them even harder.

You see, people nowadays lack education on this kinds of things. They think too naively and say that buying/getting hold of pirated products doesn’t harm their selves and others, which is wrong. By supporting piracy we doom our development in the industry. People don’t get jobs because of the lack of investment. People wont buy original software because of the rampant selling of the more convenient pirated software here in the Philippines. People will keep developing pirated software because of too much support from the people their selves.

What we needed was a counter-measure for piracy, an organization that will educate pirates that piracy will not be tolerated. That is where Philippine Anti Piracy Team, or PAPT, was launched. PAPT was developed 2005 when the Philippine government finally realized the need for an anti piracy team. There was a need to let people know that what they are doing is wrong and is punishable by law. PAPT then took action. First, they initiated a 30 day countdown for all companies, computer shops, etc to license what needs to be licensed, and after which was a raid. PAPT raided computer shops, business establishments, and continues to raid up till now. A lot of people has been captured and a lot of computers was seized by the PAPT due to raids. Alas something is being done.

If software piracy will be decreased, for sure the effects of what happened at year 2000s when investors backed off our market would reverse. More investments will come, and our economy will improve. Thus improving the lives of all in general.
Software piracy is a big problem for both the IT world and our economy, thus affecting the lives of people that lives in that country that is being affected. We get poor because of supporting piracy rather than saving the money we use to buy a pirated software. Stop supporting and the source will stop distributing. You wont steal a car, you wont steal a purse, so don’t steal software. If you cant buy it, then you cant have it. Same should go on what you do to get a car. You work hard to have one and not steal it because stealing is crime.




______________Sources:

Website Philippine Anti Piracy Team
http://www.papt.org.ph/news.aspx?id=2&news_id=24&paging=3
Software Piracy Rate in the Philippines Remains at 71%
http://w3.bsa.org/philippines/press/newsreleases/2006-Global-Piracy- Study.cfm
Piracy robs Philippines of software investment: study
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/24/1095961838408.html?from=moreStories

Project 1 ~ PCs

The PC was a technological boom at the past. It is, in reality, Simon that was considered the first PC defenition but it was never really popular since it was only an experimental machine. It was, however, the release of IBM PC that the word “personal computer” hitted the mind of the mob. Its release was so successful and so revolutionary and the timing of its release, the release of the floppy disk ten years ago, and the boom of the microprocessors were perfect. It featured the revolutionary operating system which people really took interest off. People really needed and most importantly, really wanted a personal computer to be incorporated at their homes at that time.


Having a PC was, back then, a status symbol, a sign of wellness in life and only the abled ones were the ones to get a hold of it. People had their eye on it from the very news date that the first “Personalized PC” to be launched. Who wouldn’t have want one any way? Back then only few would have imagined that you could own those computing machines that only used to exist in their workplaces and was too expensive to be able to incorporate it in their homes. True that there are existing computers in their time but none that isn’t too bulky and none that you can really bring home. People back then really wanted and dreamed of what we already call, Personal Computers.


At first, there was no way for normal people to really buy the PCs even if they wanted to. Early PCs usually costed from $700 to $3000 dollars a package(take note that the equivalence of each dollar today may be 1 dollar then is to 3 dollars now.) with the early ones not really being as useful because the required technical skill for the user to have to be able to operate on these. It was usually the business people, the schools, and the money-able people, the programmers who only owns this stuff.


The thing that made the PC become so popular and bought of the market is because, people liked it and needed it. It was the time of many technological advances and people knew, that tasks will be harder from then on manually. It was the era of computing and people really needed help in that area. That’s when people thought about a machine wherein they could do whatever they needed to do. There were computing applications, CADs, CASE tools, office applications and a lot more. People embraced the PC because of this and many investors saw more possibilities on this device as well. The PC could do many things and the people and the investors loved it for that.


One of the areas that the investors saw that was booming at that time was the gaming industry. The gaming industry was at boom and what would be better than supporting an already useful, powerful tool of computing and incorporate entertainment in it, incorporate more usefulness than what it already has? With the use of the already available GUI and taking advantage of the computing power of the PC, incorporating games was possible. The PC was incorporated with games and people loves games especially in their PCs.


Another factor of the boom of PC was networking and the Internet. There was no other way for people to be able to access the Internet than their PCs. It was their gateway to the online world. The internet was so successful because it is so useful to both business people and ordinary people. It was a means of transfer of information without having the need for phxysical presence. The network/internet made the PC more needed by the users and the business people.


In conclusion, I believe that the very reason why the PC became so popular and so in demand such that it reaches the point to where a PC is a common household appliance is because a people saw a lot of possibilities along with it. It was a great help to everyone and adults, tennagers, children, wanted it and desires for it. Thus, the business people liked it too and finds ways to continue to make it better. PC is so popular because of the support it from so many areas. It became popular to kids because of the support of the gaming industry, to adults and teens because of the Internet and school/office applications and a lot more.

Competition

Market competition is a very good thing for progress. Imagine how our technology would be right now if it wasnt for competition. I mean if you would look at the rate at which , Apple vs Windows, PC vs Mac, Google vs Yahoo, and all other companies with matching big time competitors improved after their competition came out and the rate of their progress without each other's counterpart, you would definitely see the connection and thank competition a lot. Fact of the matter is, they help each other and society progress in a way rather than the other way around which is do harm.

Do Something!

Thing is, the most important factor why piracy is rampant especially in the poor countries like ours, and other third world countries is because we dont implment that big a punishment to the doers of the crime. Face it, piracy is a crime, and when not many people know that. Not many people think of piracy as stealing. Stealing is a crime, as well as piracy. This two should have the same weight when it comes to the punishment given when stealing and when selling/distributing pirated software.

Like what the saying about piracy goes, You wont steal a car, you wont steal anything else, but if you support piracy, it's the same as supporting stealing a car, stealing money, and the like. Same goes for doing the act of piracy yourself.