Pro Evolution Soccer 2008

PES series from Konami has been my favourite football game for years. What can I say about PES 2008? It is a big revamp of this series, added with new features but also missed some of the all-time features.
What I experienced in PES 2008:

- Total changed of menu interface, besides it shows the title and genre of songs that playing in background(which is similar to FIFA style...)
- Faster gameplay(passing/shooting)
- Improved facial animation of players, many of the faces are using new models(some of them not so "real" if compare to past series)
- Can see the fans in full 3D
- Can see the bench with substitutes and manager(a small box view of it when game is paused)
- Different angle of view for penalty shoot when playing as goalkeeper(Camera is behind goal where you can see the penalty taker)
- Better and longer replay (with zoom camera and motion camera, I still prefer motion view when turning the view around)
- The ball sounds too heavy
- New commentators, Jon Champion and Mark Lawrenson replaced Trevor Brooking and Peter Brackley - Improvement?
- Still very lack of licensed teams, e.g. Newcastle and Tottenham are the only licensed teams for Premier League

PES 2008 main menu

- Master League is added with headline's scenes(snapshots of match, fans, press conference...), popularity for clubs and players

Master League's Interface

Interface changed when club's popularity improved to B

- Improved ball deflection and ball rebounds more realistic like real football!
- Smarter goalkeeper (and more likely to come out from the box and play with the ball)
- Improved quick free-kick with no screen transition, fast free-kick can be taken when there is player around the ball after a foul
- The referee has real physique body, cannot penetrates through referee's body anymore
- New moves(Flip Flap, Sideways, Matthews Feint, ...)
- Shirt pulling sometimes can be seen when pressure on player(E/R1 + S/X)
- Able to set which players to go up(Max. 3), defenders/goalkeeper can be set to go up for attack when corner kick. Set the players under Setplay Settings
- Able to adjust the no. of player for wall build-up, by pressing Z/L2 + up or down button to increase or decrease the wall's player, now the wall can be built with max 10 players!

Compilation of headlines - The third one is funny...

- Facial import! Edit players' face by using picture/photo of your like! Import your own picture and become a top scorer. Picture also can be imported for jersey's chest logo, and I noticed the fans' jerseys will also change to the edited one

Strip is added with imported logo

- Diving!
Now your players can dive! While sprinting(E/R1), press Q/L1 + Z/L2 (or just press Q/L1 + Z/L2 + E/R1 together), and the player will fall on the ground immediately. I have tried to dive in penalty box for many times but most of the time got card shown because of diving, only 2 times were succeed to earn a penalty. Diving outside the penalty box also useful, a player was sent off because of 2 yellow cards, where both of the cards were resulted from my diving... Just make sure you dive in the right time and place(Just like real football) or else you get card from the referee. If you simply fall down on the pitch, the referee will show you yellow card without hesitation and award free kick to the opposition. However, there is one place you can dive as many times as you want- Your own penalty box. Referee wouldn't bother you because it's non-sense to award opposition a penalty if you dive in your own box. If you dive when shirt pulling happens(while attacking), most of the time you will win the dive. It is fun to dive, to fool the referee or make some funny act with your players!

It's not a cheat, it's one of the gameplay features

Shirt Pulling

According to Konami, there is a new AI system called Team Vision but I couldn't feel the real difference of it.

So what are missed:
- No more PES shop, that mean unlockable features inside it also lost together.
e.g. No more beautiful ball-effect, no more ride on ostrich or dinosaur as well as wear in penguin suit(PES shop is a real miss!)

Miss the war between dinosaurs and penguins

- No more referee option in exhibition mode
- No more penalty shoot-out match mode
- No more snow option in weather selection in exhibition mode, so far haven't see any match on snowy day
- Limited edit options if compare to past series, no more boot edit, no more drawing of logo, no more dog heads...
- Training mode not as complete as past series (where you can train almost every single move)
- No more match type option(Golden goal/Silver goal)
- No auto load of option file, need to load game settings in system setting
- No more random selection match

I was told that PES 2008 for PS3 and PS2 is different, looks like PS2 version is not included with all the new features and I heard that PS2 version got PES shop? PC has the same version with PS3 and X-Box.
PES has great gameplay and graphic but lack of licensed teams, I hope Konami will bring back the missed features and add more licensed teams in the next release.
So how is your experience with PES 2008?

This is my last post for year 2007, enjoy and welcome 2008...
Happy New Year!

Google Holiday Logos/Doodles

Google creates custom logos to bring out the theme for holidays, special days and events.
As usual, Google will comes out with a "holiday doodle"(a series of logos) at the end of every year.

Google's Christmas doodle for this year, one last logo to be released in the next few hours.
Click on the picture to see the complete doodle.


Check out all the custom logos Google has created in the past. It is interesting to recall all the logos at a glance here.
Let see how many custom logos you have seen/missed in year 2007, it indirectly reflects how "addict" you are to Google.

Merry Christmas!

openSUSE 10.3 Released

openSUSE - one of the well-known Linux distributions has released the final version of openSUSE 10.3. This final release is based on Linux kernel 2.6.22.5, the interface changed from blue back to classic green. It comes with KDE 3.5.7 and parts of KDE 4, SUSE-polished GNOME 2.20, a GTK version of YaST, 1-click-install technology, new and redesigned YaST modules, compiz and compiz fusion, virtualisation improvements, AppArmor 2.1 (openSUSE integrated Security Suite), OpenOffice.org 2.3, Xfce 4.4.1, Firefox, GIMP 2.2.17, faster boot time and more. Besides, it is fully installable with YaST on Sony Playstation 3.
More details on openSUSE 10.3
Here are some of the very cool screenshots:


- Splash Screen


- Shift Switcher


- Image Browser - F-Spot


- "Explode" Animation


- Cube with Gears


- Music Player - Amarok

More cool screenshots here

Download and try openSUSE 10.3 now, it's free.

GMail Flaw - Mailbox can be hijacked

Hackers can make use of the vulnerability in Gmail filtering feature to get the current and upcoming mails of a user by forwarding all the mails to their desired mailbox.
According to Petko Petkov, a web vulnerability researcher, when a user visiting a malicious website while still logged into Gmail, a "multipart/form-data POST" will be performed to one of the application programming interfaces, followed by injection of filter into user's filter list, then the filter will send all the mails that match the rule, including future mails also. That means even the vulnerability is fixed by Google, the mails will be forwarded also as long as the filter is still there. See Gnucitizen for screenshots and details.
So check your GMail filter list under settings now.

USB 3.0 announced

USB 3.0 is coming next year, around 7 years after USB 2.0 was first introduced. In IDF 07, Intel has announced that USB 3.0 will be released in first half of 2008. The speed of USB 3.0 will be 10X faster than USB 2.0, roughly 5 Gbps compare to 480Mbps, it is even faster than current SATA(3.0 Gbps) technology. USB 3.0 will uses fiber-optic cabling and remains backwards compatible with USB 2.0. Full specification of USB 3.0 will be announced when it is finalised next year, specs like power consumption, efficiency, CPU usage and cable length are what we expect it to improve.

Google Lunar X PRIZE

Google together with X PRIZE Foundation offer $30 million to privately funded teams that can land a spacecraft on the moon. Grand prize $20 million will be awarded to the first team that successfully land a spacecraft on the moon & capable to rove the moon surface for minimum 500 meters and send video, images and data(1GB required) back to the Earth. Second prize $5 million will be given to the next team that completed the mission. Besides, bonus prize of $5 million will be awarded to the team that can complete the additional tasks. Google Lunar X PRIZE is open to all organizations around the world, anyone can participate in this competition. This is what Google and X Prize called Moon 2.0, the second era of lunar exploration.
Check out this video!

Microsoft Tech•Ed SEA 2007 in KLCC

This year Tech•Ed SEA was mostly about Visual Studio Team System, SharePoint products and technologies, SQL Server, .NET, Silverlight, Expression Studio, WPF(Windows Presentation Foundation), WCF(Windows Communication Foundation), WWF(Windows Workflow Foundation), XNA, LINQ, System Center 2007, Office Communication Server 2007, VSTO, ASP.NET, AJAX, Open XML, Windows Live, Security, Forefront, Cardspace, Office 2007, Vista and Microsoft next trio releases - Visual Studio 2008, SQL Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 that across all the 7 tracks(WIN, DEV, EDM, OFC, ARC, SYS, WEB/UX) and 4 instructor led labs(IT Pro, DEV, .NET U, Hands on Lab).
There were also a lot of activities like Live Fest, guess my price contest, twin tower building contest, PC Games, Women In Technology, Sumorobot clinic and competition...

Some shots from the event:

Keynote session

The exhibition hall

One of the track session

Dinner served along the foyer on the first day

.Net University lab - too small...

Slides and manuals download at the Internet Cafe

One year earlier...

Collect the bot plans and build

Meet the .Net Bot after 100 minutes of hardwork

Adobe Creative Suite 3 Master Collection Free Trial DVD

I finally received the free trial DVD of Adobe CS3 Master Collection that requested about a month ago. The package is included with 3 DVDs which is Adobe CS3 Master Collection , Adobe Ultra CS3 and Adobe OnLocation CS3.















See what is inside the CS3 Master Collection disc, it is really a "master" collection!
It includes:
Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional, Adobe After Effects CS3 Professional, Adobe Contribute CS3, Adobe Dreamweaver CS3, Adobe Encore CS3, Adobe Encore CS3 Codecs, Adobe Fireworks CS3, Adobe Flash CS3 Professional, Adobe Flash Video Encoder, Adobe Illustrator CS3, Adobe InDesign CS3, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Extended, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Functional Content, Adobe Premiere Pro CS3 Third Party Content, Adobe Soundbooth CS3, Adobe Soundbooth CS3 Codecs, Adobe Version Cue CS3 Server












- Installation













- 1GB of RAM is required for some of the applications in the collection

Full installation will consumes around 7.9GB of the harddisk space, and installation will take age to complete if full installation is performed. I think I will need some time to try out all the new products.

Windows Live Hotmail Upgrades

Microsoft is upgrading Hotmail, one of the changes is the mailbox storage, increases from 2GB to 5GB for free users.

Besides that, other upgrades are:
- upgrades in performance and quality of services
- increase the time of junk mail and deleted items stay in mailbox
- show blocked content with single click
- contacts de-duplication feature -- prevent duplicate contacts
- phishing reporting feature
- able to forward mail from Hotmail account to other accounts
- option to turn off the Today page(MSN News)
- cobranded e-mail for organizations who uses Hotmail e-mail hosting
- auto vacation replies
- right-to-left languages support
- more space with smaller header
Read full story

Microsoft upgrades on Hotmail service keep it strong in webmail competition, with storage ahead of Google Gmail(2.8GB), but Yahoo still offering the most with unlimited storage.

I have several Hotmail accounts, one of it still is MSN Hotmail, just upgraded it to Windows Live Hotmail, and it is now 5GB and implemented with the new upgrades, but my existing Windows Live Hotmail still remains at 2GB with no new features.
Anybody has see the upgrades?

Microsoft Tech•Ed SEA 2007

Microsoft Tech•Ed SEA 2007, one of the largest event in the year will be held at KL Convention Center for 4 days start from 10th to 13th September. The event is Microsoft's premier and largest annual conference in South East Asia(as stated Tech-Ed "SEA"), focuses on current and upcoming soon-to-be-released Microsoft products.

In this event, you get to learn about the latest products based on Microsoft technology in 100+ breakout sessions that based on 6 core technical tracks, and get hands-on experiences with the latest products from Microsoft and its partners. It is a good opportunity to learn from technical experts, hear from Microsoft's product team, listen to industry gurus, networking with peers, and enjoy food and drink in the event.

Check out new products like Windows Vista, the 2007 Microsoft Office System, Microsoft Exchange Server 2007, Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007, Windows Server code name "Longhorn", ASP.NET AJAX, Visual Studio 2008, Silverlight and more...











After "Change Your Destiny" last year,
"Prepare to make your mark" this year







Tech•Ed SEA 2007 promotions (Original price:RM1299):
-Register by 15th August save RM400 and stand a chance to attend Visual Studio Live! or Tech•Ed Europe
-Register in a group of 5 or more save RM100 for each person

The event is open to trade visitors for free on day 2 & day 3 from 2pm to 6pm.
Is there anyway to get into Tech•Ed for free? You can work as a part of the event, e.g. PC setup, event assistant, ... or become a journalist, Microsoft Student Partner, ... and ...

PIKOM PC Fair (II) 2007

It was PC Fair again in KL Convention Center. Snapped some pictures and bought nothing...
Nothing much special in this PC fair, however PC.com and HWM offered great deal, first 100 subscriptions of their magazine came with DVD burner/bluetooth headset/wireless USB adapter...(PC.com), Altec Lansing speaker(HWM), plus dice roll(HWM) and wheel of fortune(PC.com). Kingston continued their anniversary redemption(phone strap & bag), and grand prizes were iPod Video, cellphone, watch and thumbdrive. Besides, Dell's offers also not bad.


- This thing looks familiar - see PC Fair (I)


- MSI Core 2 Quad and Core 2 Extreme mainboards


- Sony spent on double-storey booth
Blue-ray, Cyber-shot, VAIO, PSP, ...


- NEC - Nice Emitting Colour


- ASUS thermal solution for processor


- Big cooler small processor


- Toshiba lovely booth


- Front colour displays of Dell new Inspiron


- PC.com filled up their booth space with a truck

Quite disappointed with this PC Fair, price high, no freebies, no attractive promotions, and less beautiful "eyecandy".
Some eyecandy :
pic1-by Fattien
pic2-by Fattien
pic3-by chowchrist
pic4

Interesting Sights in Google Earth

My Streamyx line is very unstable again, SNR margin fluctuating like hell since last 2 weeks. Few days ago, error 676 and 678 visited again, called TM, they said connection in Klang Valley area got problem and they were fixing it, but according to some of my friends near my area, they didn't face any connection issue. So how to explain? I faced error 676 and 678 for almost a day even when the line was stable...

Well, I am not plan to talk about Streamyx in this post, but I want to share some interesting sights that can be found in Google Earth.

No parking space?
(Google Earth coordinates 52.069207,4.3139865)

Ancient man listening to mp3
(Google Earth coordinates 50.010083,-110.113006)

Check out more at PC World - In Pictures: The Strangest Sights in Google Earth.
Of course, there are more than that can be found in Google Earth...

Flash.10.exe Removal Guide

I separated the solution from the last post for better viewing

Solution:

1. Use HijackThis to scan and then remove the entries that contain Flash.10.exe, JambaMu.com, MSN.msn
   


2. Enable Folder Options that disabled by the malware:
   Go to Run -> Type gpedit.msc -> Expand "User Configuration" -> Expand "Administrative Templates" -> Expand "Windows Components" -> Select "Windows Explorer" -> Double click "Removes the Folder Options menu item from the Tools menu" in the right panel -> Select Disabled
   
   Alternative: Open regedit, go to
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer and HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer -> delete "NoFolderOptions" or "DisableFolderOptions" or similar key if it is there -> Reboot
   


3. Folder Options should be appeared now, go to Folder Options -> Select "show hidden files and folders" & uncheck "hide protected operating system files"
   


4. Go to C:\Windows\System32, delete Flash.10.exe, JambanMu.com, regedit.com, cmd.com, msconfig.com, ping.com, dxdiag.com
   


5. Delete My Secret.fold in My Documents, New Song.lagu & New Video.vidz in My Music, aweks.pikz & seram.pikz in My Pictures
   


6. Delete C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\DAO\MSN.msn
   


7. Delete C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\Macromedia.10.exe
   

- If you cannot delete the files and get messages like "cannot read from the source disk" or others that similar, probably your antivirus has blocked the access to these files, that's why you cannot move, delete or rename the files. Disable your antivirus and try again.

*regedit.exe and cmd.exe actually stay intact, it just disabled by the malware.

8. Enable regedit that disabled by the malware:
   Go to Run -> Type gpedit.msc -> Expand "User Configuration" -> Expand "Administrative Templates" -> Select "System" -> Double click "Prevent access to registry editing tools" in the right panel -> Select Disabled
   


9. Enable command prompt(cmd) that disabled by the malware:
   Go to Run -> Type gpedit.msc -> Expand "User Configuration" -> Expand "Administrative Templates" -> Select "System" -> Double click "Prevent access to the command prompt" in the right panel -> Select Disabled
   

Leave your comment on this solution, I need your feedback, does it helps?

NOD32 failed to detect Flash.10.exe

Recently, Flash.10.exe is spreading through thumbdrive. It affects regedit, msconfig, cmd and removes folder options and generates Flash.10.exe and JambanMu.com under windows\system32 and some files inside Document and Settings and Program Files. NOD32 detected the autorun.inf that came with the malware inside thumbdrive but failed to detect the Flash.10.exe file. NOD32 only detected the files(regedit, cmd, msconfig, dxdiag, ping, JambaMu.com, MSN.msn, ...)as infected after the infection was made. NOD32 gave warning and deleted the infected files and ask the submission of infected files for analysis, it only has the option to close the warning dialogue. However damage already done and Flash.10.exe is still there, not detected as a threat. The Flash.10.exe executed even you explore the thumbdrive instead of directly open the thumbdrive. Flash.10.exe process that running in the background cannot be terminated inside Task Manager because it didn't appeared inside Task Manager, it only visible when using other process monitor like Process Explorer. Have to delete the malware manually and used HijackThis to clear the the rest of the malware. Folder options, regedit, cmd and msconfig have to be recovered.

*Solution has been moved to new post - Flash.10.exe Removal Guide


UPDATE (16th July):
I tried to infect my thumbdrive with this malware, this time it came with Flash.10.Setup.exe, scanner.exe, Flash Jokes.exe and autorun.inf in the thumbdrive. NOD32 detected all the files at this time. At another infected pc, Flash.10.exe and Macromedia.10.exe that running in the background can be seen in Task Manager after infection. Different from the case above.

Hotmail has javascript trojan?

Hotmail contains trojan? One of the javascript loaded in Hotmail was identified as JS/Tivso.14a.gen trojan by NOD32. I think it only happens after NOD32 was updated to virus signature 2365 that released on 30th June. Strange thing is it detects nothing when using Firefox to open the website, but when I tried with IE, after few clicks on the left side menu, NOD32 shown alert when the javascript was loaded. Is it really a threat or NOD32 is just too sensitive?



UPDATE:
It was a false positive, there was a bug in virus signature 2365, problem fixed after updated to virus signature 2366(1st July) that just released.

UPDATE:
According to ESET, false positive was not totally solved, the generic signature covering JS/Tivso.13a.gen also would generate a false positive. Misdetection solved after virus signature 2368 was released. Details at ESET Threat Center Blog.

Dell new Inspiron - Santa Rosa inside

Dell release new Inspiron series with new Centrino Duo platform - Santa Rosa(Details on Santa Rosa).
New Inspiron available in 8 colors, offering red, blue, yellow, green, brown, and pink colors besides black and white one.It also built-in with 2.0MP webcam.














New Inspiron series 1420 (14.1"), 1520(15.4"), 1720(17")
that built on Intel new Santa Rosa come with:

• Processor of new Centrino platform(Santa Rosa) - T7100,T7300,T7500,T7700 with 800Mhz FSB or
  processor from previous Centrino platform - T5250,T5450 with 667Mhz

• 965GM chipset with Intel GMA X3100 graphics or
  965PM chipset for NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB or NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT 256MB
  

• Wireless 802.11n support (optional)

New Inspiron also comes with AMD. Inspiron 1521 is comes with AMD Turion 64 X2 processors and based on AMD ATI M690T chipset, integrated with ATI Radeon Xpress X1270 graphic. AMD Athlon 64 X2 will be available later for this model.

However gigabit LAN still not implemented in the new Inspiron.
Also notice that desktop product name is substituted from Dimension to Inspiron.

Fresh red brochure

Different color different face
(added 3rd July)

Wondering why Dell didn't show the graphic spec in the brochures. GeForce 8 series graphic is quite attractive...

Streamyx 4.0Mbps ?

Do we really need 4M of speed? Consider the factors:

Stability
-Copper line can support 4M of speed but most of the copper wires here are old and in bad quality. If the SNR margin is low for line capped 1M or below, you will face stability issue if upgrade to a higher speed, the SNR margin will drop when the line is capped to a higher speed, the SNR margin will become too low, then it will brings disconnection issue. Refer to my post - Get rid of Streamyx intermittent connection. I heard that TM only provides this service to customer that meet the minimum requirement of SNR margin(e.g. minimum of 15db for line capped at 1M). It also depends how far you are from the local exchange, cannot be too far from the exchange. Sometimes even you are near to the exchange, you may also have connection problems because of poor copper line. And it is hard to get full speed that offered by the package, speed is only on best efforts basis.

Expensive
-RM198! non-promotional RM268!
In other countries, you can get more than 10M at cheaper price.

Throttling
-4M with throttling , no point to subscribe if you only want higher bt speed (different if using of VPN services or methods of bypassing throttling are working). We no need 4M if just for surfing, may be it will helps in smooth news and multimedia streaming.

This time TM come out with new METRO.e technology that provides speed from 4Mbps to 1Gbps for businesses, so is Streamyx 4.0M package related to the new tech?
Some rumour says that current packages will be upgraded to higher speed soon. We hope it's true.
Anyone has experienced with the 4M package?
Now we can wait for the price to drop, or wait for WiMax to come...

Streamyx bill view in Firefox

I just realized that Streamyx bill now can be viewed in Firefox. Before this, when you select the bill period and click on the preferred language, it had no respond, and we only can viewed the bill in IE. Is it caused by TM MCM&B system update or Firefox latest release? However, account information update is still not working in Firefox, the system cannot save the profile after editing.

Enhance Firefox with Opera Features

Opera is good with speed dial, tab thumbnail preview and session manage. These very useful features are impressive but missed in the more popular Firefox. However Firefox extensions that available help Firefox to compete with Opera.

Speed Dial
- Function like latest Opera 9.2 Speed Dial feature. Speed Dial will be automatically loaded in blank new windows or new tabs. Set your most used websites and access through thumbnail view in new windows or tabs. Still need some improvement if compare to Opera Speed Dial feature.

Tab Scope
- Thumbnail preview of webpage when you move your mouse over the tab, you even can navigate(back, refresh, close, scroll, zoom, click on links) the page inside the thumbnail, cooler than Opera!













Can try Firefox Showcase if you want alternative thumbnail preview configuration. But it has some compatible issue with Tab Scope. I like Reveal , besides tab preview, it also provides thumbnail view on back and forward button when mouse moves over it, but sadly it is no longer supports latest version of Firefox.

Save Session
- You can choose to save the current session and load it for the next startup of Firefox. Just like you restore your session after Firefox crashed but now you can save your session at anytime and start Firefox the next time with the previous session. But Save Session only can save up to one session (the last session), if you want more control over session, you can try Tab Mix Plus, it includes a session manager that similar to Opera session manage. But TMP has some compatible issue with Tab Scope.


















We hope Firefox will includes all these cool features internally in the next release.

Intel Santa Rosa (New Centrino Duo & Centrino Pro) launch

Santa Rosa the 4th Centrino platform officially launched. New platform come with new processor, chipset, wireless solution and extra features.




New Core 2 Duo processor (Merom)
FSB 800Mhz
-Increases from 667Mhz to 800Mhz, faster performance because the bandwidth between CPU and system is increases, improves the potential of Core 2 Duo

Dynamic FSB Switching
-FSB scale dynamically according to loads, thus more power efficient during low utilization because reduces of chipset and CPU voltage

Enhanced Dynamic Acceleration Technology
-As many applications still not utilizing multi-core processing, Santa Rosa can detects single thread programs and overclocks one of its two core while put the other unused core to sleep, this will boosts the performance of single thread applications

Enhanced Intel Deeper Sleep
-Increases power saving

Intel Mobile 965 Express Chipset (Crestline)
800Mhz support
ICH8M southbridge
GMA X3100 graphics
-500Mhz clock speed (before is 400Mhz)
-Shader Model 3.0 support
-Maximum allocated video memory to 384MB (before is 224MB)
-Support for Windows Vista Aero interface

Turbo Memory (previously called Robson)
-NAND flash memory cache that holding system files and other data that the operating system requires at start-up, restoring from sleep or during application switches that designed to work with Windows Vista ReadyBoost, to improve performance and lower power consumption.

Wireless
Intel Wireless WiFi Link 4965AGN (Kedron)
-support 802.11n standard - faster speed and wider range



Santa Rosa business system is branded as Centrino Pro, while consumer system will carry the existing Centrino Duo name. Centrino Pro come with Intel's AMT(Active Management Technology) 2.5 firmware and an AMT/VT-capable BIOS that are not included in consumer system.


However WiMAX(802.16), DirectX 10 support have been delayed and the RAM support is not 800Mhz, still stuck at 667MHz, all of these technology may included in a refresh Santa Rosa platform that come with 45nm Penryn processor which release end of this year. Another technology - HSDPA is also not included in Santa Rosa.

Say NO to Streamyx installation

That day I helped my friend to format his PC. He just subscribed to Streamyx Super Duper Deal package- RM77, 1M, free modem and some useless offers. The story is he let an agent did the installation, and the agent charged him RM50 for a network card! after found out my friend's PC doesn't has one. This is ridiculous, with RM50 we can have 2 branded network adapters but instead my friend got a unbranded one. I still have no idea what is the brand of the expensive card after looking through the box again and again. Then during setup of windows for my friend, windows can't detects the network card, I looked for the driver cd inside the box but nothing was inside! We have to called back the agent to send us the cd! He said he forgot to include the cd...
By the way, the network card is using Realtek chipset, I found out after installation of the driver.
Then a day after this I was told that another friend of my also let TM to do Streamyx installation and what happen was he was charged RM80 for 4 splitters! I don't know why he needed that much of splitter and it was too expensive.
They are trying to suck money from installation as much as they can do...

The "exclusive" card

Free 'Billion' modem
Default password is "password" not "admin"
Wrong information in the manual and website