12 Skluptur Kreatif Hasil Daur Ulang

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Spoiler for 1:

1.Robert Bradford creates these life-size and larger-than-life sculptures of humans and animals from discarded plastic items, mainly toys but also other colourful plastic bits and pieces, such as combs and buttons, brushes and parts of clothes pegs. In 2002, he started to consider his children's forgotten toys as parts of something bigger. Some of the sculptures contain pieces from up to 3,000 toys and are sold for US$19,000.

Spoiler for 2:

2.Artist Stuart Murdoch replicated the Clifton Suspension Bridge using recycled Coke cans. No word yet if anyone has tried to cross the bridge.

Spoiler for 3:

3."Broken Family" by Anthony Haywood, uses all the household waste to construct an elephant.

Spoiler for 4:

4.It's a giant skull made from recycled kitchen utensils. The sculpture was crafted by Indian artist Subodh Gupta.

Spoiler for 5:

5.Sculpture made from recycled watches and clocks, by Michael Roberts.

Spoiler for 6:

6.London Zoo's Recycled Sculpture exhibit showcases 20 works, like this plastic bag sculpture of a polar bear.

Spoiler for 7:

7.Korean artist Jean Shin created this sculpture "Sound Wave" (2007) out of melted vinyl records to connote "the inevitable waves of technology that render each successive generation of recordable media obsolete." Her sculpture and othersmade from recycled materials are part of The Museum of Art and Design's exhibit "Second Lives: Remixing the Ordinary."

Spoiler for 8:

8.Artist Nick Sayers created this piece above called “To Live”, a shelter created from scrap real estate signs designed to create a statement about homelessness and sustainable building. Nick's recycled art is on display at The Lightbox in Woking, Surrey until January 2009.

Spoiler for 9:

9.Water Bird sculpture at the London Wetlands Centre. Recycled from ITV Fixers Plastic Bag.

Spoiler for 10:

10.The world of art is buzzing with new ideas for recycling products. The latest addition to this is the Wood And Wire Bird created from scraps of iron, cotton striping, shoe strings, wood, aluminum, glass and paper. This magnificent piece of art is the brainchild of Alabama Chanin, and is available for $735.

Spoiler for 11:

11.Another sculpture made from vinyl records.

Spoiler for 12:

12.He's seven meters tall and weighs three metric tons. He is WEEE Man! This sculpture stands at the Eden Project in Cornwall, after his debut at the South Bank in London. The British Royal Society of Arts had WEEE Man built out of discarded electronic components and household appliances to symbolize how much of this material each person contributes to environmental waste.

sumber : kaskus

Apa itu Forex?

Forex Online Trading memberikan satu hal yang tidak diberikan oleh bisnis jenis lain yaitu kebebasan. Kita dapat memasuki pasar kapan saja 24 jam sehari baik pagi, siang maupun tengah malam dan di mana saja selama ada akses internet. Kita juga bebas menentukan besar keuntungan yang ingin kita raih bebas tanpa campur tangan dan pengaruh pihak lain. Kita adalah boss bagi diri sendiri.

Apa itu Forex?

Foreign Exchange (forex) atau dikenal sebagai valuta asing (valas) merupakan salah satu pilihan investasi yang berkembang di Indonesia saat ini. Forex Trading adalah transaksi perdagangan nilai tukar mata uang asing di pasar uang internasional. Pasar forex merupakan pasar uang terbesar di dunia.

Yang melakukan transaksi di pasar forex adalah: pemerintah-pemerintah di dunia, bank-bank utama dunia, perusahaan bertaraf internasional, hedge fund, spekulan valas maupun individu. Sehingga dengan banyaknya pemain di pasar forex ini menyebabkan perputaran uang menjadi sangat cepat. Transaksi yang terjadi lebih dari 1,9 triliun US dollar setiap hari sehingga membuat uang dapat berpindah tangan dari satu tempat ke tempat lain hanya dalam beberapa detik.

Seperti halnya bursa saham para pemain forex dapat melakukan trading dengan menggunakan jasa perusahaan pialang (commision house) atau melakukannya sendiri secara online melalui internet.

Perdagangan forex memiliki beberapa kelebihan dibandingkan dengan perdagangan produk-produk keuangan lain seperti perdagangan saham, yaitu:

24 Hours Trading

Dapat dilakukan 24 jam sehari, 5 hari seminggu, kapan dan dimanapun kita berada.

Likuiditas

Sangat likuid dengan banyaknya broker/dealer yang bermain dalam pasar forex.

Rendahnya biaya transaksi

Komisi broker relatif kecil, bahkan untuk trading online melalui internet tidak ada biaya transaksi namun hanya dikenakan biaya yang jumlahnya beragam. Selain itu spreadnya juga kecil.

Potensi keuntungan 2 arah (naik maupun turun)

Memiliki potensi keuntungan baik pada mata uang yang menguat maupun pada mata uang yang melemah.

Margin Trading

Perdagangan dengan margin membuat daya beli investor melebihi jumlah modal yang dimiliki.

http://apaituforex.wordpress.com/

Malware

Mungkin anda sudah sering mendengar istilah Malware, namun kurang tahu maknanya.
‘Malware” adalah program komputer yang diciptakan dengan maksud dan tujuan utama mencari kelemahan software. Umumnya Malware diciptakan untuk membobol atau merusak suatu software atau operating sistem.
Contoh dari malware adalah Virus, Worm, Wabbit, Keylogger, Browser Hijacker, Trojan Horse, Spyware, Backdoor, Dialer, Exploit dan rootkit .

Virus
Inilah istilah yang sering dipakai untuk seluruh jenis perangkat lunak yang mengganggu computer. Bisa jadi karena inilah tipe malware pertama yang muncul.
Virus bisa bersarang di banyak tipe file. Tapi boleh dibilang, target utama virus adalah file yang bisa dijalankan seperti EXE, COM dan VBS, yang menjadi bagian dari suatu perangkat lunak. Boot sector juga sering dijadikan sasaran virus untuk bersarang. Beberapa file dokumen juga bisa dijadikan sarang oleh virus.
Penyebaran ke komputer lain dilakukan dengan bantuan pengguna komputer. Saat file yang terinfeksi dijalankan di komputer lain, kemungkinan besar komputer lain itu akan terinfeksi pula. Virus mencari file lain yang bisa diserangnya dan kemudian bersarang di sana.
Bisa juga virus menyebar melalui jaringan peer-to-peer yang sudah tak asing digunakan orang untuk berbagi file.

Worm
Worm alias cacing, begitu sebutannya. Kalau virus bersarang pada suatu program atau dokumen, cacing-cacing ini tidak demikan. Cacing adalah sebuah program yang berdiri sendiri dan tidak membutuhkan sarang untuk menyebarkan diri.
Hebatnya lagi, cacing bisa saja tidak memerlukan bantuan orang untuk penyebarannya. Melalui jaringan, cacing bisa “bertelur” di komputer-komputer yang terhubung dalam suatu kerapuhan (vulnerability) dari suatu sistem, biasanya sistem operasi.
Setelah masuk ke dalam suatu komputer, worm memodifikasi beberapa pengaturan di sistem operasi agar tetap hidup. Minimal, ia memasukkan diri dalam proses boot suatu komputer. Lainnya, mungkin mematikan akses ke situs antivirus, menonaktifkan fitur keamanan di sistem dan tindakan lain.

Wabbit
Istilah ini mungkin asing, tapi memang ada malware tipe ini. Seperti worm, wabbit tidak membutuhkan suatu program dan dokumen untuk bersarang.
Tetapi berbeda dengan worm yang menyebarkan diri ke komputer lain menggunakan jaringan, wabbit menggandakan diri secara terus-menerus didalam sebuah komputer lokal dan hasil penggandaan itu akan menggerogoti sistem.
Kinerja komputer akan melambat karena wabbit memakan sumber data yang lumayan banyak. Selain memperlambat kinerja komputer karena penggunaan sumber daya itu, wabbit bisa deprogram untuk memiliki efek samping yang efeknya mirip dengan malware lain. Kombinasi-kombinasi malware seperti inilah yang bisa sangat berbahaya.

Keylogger
Hati-hati kalau berinternet di warnet. Bisa saja pada komputer di warnet itu diinstall suatu perangkat lunak yang dikenal dengan istilah keylogger yang mencatat semua tekanan tombol keyboard.
Catatan yang disimpan dalam suatu file yang bisa dilihat kemudian itu lengkap. Di dalamnya bisa terdapat informasi seperti aplikasi tempat penekanan tombol dilakukan dan waktu penekanan. Dengan cara ini, seseorang bisa mengetahui username, password dan berbagai informasi lain yang dimasukkan dengan cara pengetikan.
Pada tingkat yang lebih canggih, keylogger mengirimkan log yang biasanya berupa file teks itu ke seseorang. Tentu saja itu dilakukan tanpa sepengetahuan si korban. Pada tingkat ini pula keylogger bisa mengaktifkan diri ketika pengguna komputer melakukan tindakan tertentu.
Misalnya begini. Ketika pengguna komputer membuka situs e-banking, keylogger aktif dan mencatat semua tekanan pada keylogger aktif dan mencatat semua tekanan pada keyboard aktif dan mencatat semua tekanan pada keyboard di situs itu dengan harapan nomor PIN dapat dicatat.
Keylogger ini cukup berbahaya karena secanggih apa pun enkripsi yang diterapkan oleh suatu website, password tetap dapat diambil. Pasalnya, password itu diambil sebelum sempat dienkripsi oleh system. Jelas dong. Keylogger merekam sesaat setelah password diketikkan dan belum diproses oleh system.

Browser Hijacker
Browser hijacker mengarahkan browser yang seharusnya menampilkan situs yang sesuai dengan alamat yang dimasukkan ke situs lain.
Itu contoh paling parah dari gangguan yang disebabkan oleh browser hijacker. Contoh lain yang bisa dilakukan oleh pembajak ini adalah menambahkan bookmark, mengganti home page, serta mengubah pengaturan browser.
Bicara mengenai browser di sini boleh yakin 100% browser yang dibicarakan adalah internet explorer. Selain karena internet explorer adalah buatan Microsoft, raksasa penghasil perangkat lunak yang produknya sering dijadikan sasaran serangan cracker, internet explorer adalah browser yang paling banyak digunakan orang berinternet. Tak heran, internet explorer telah menyatu dengan Windows, sistem operasi milik Microsoft yang juga banyak diserbu oleh cracker.

Trojan Horse
Kuda Troya adalah malware yang seolah-olah merupakan program yang berguna, menghibur dan menyelamatkan, padahal di balik itu, ia merusak. Kuda ini bisa ditunggangi oleh malware lain seperti seperti virus, worm, spyware. Kuda Troya dapat digunakan untuk menyebarkan atau mengaktifkan mereka.

Spyware
Spyware adalah perangkat lunak yang mengumpulkan dan mengirim informasi tentang pengguna komputer tanpa diketahui oleh si pengguna itu.
Informasinya bisa yang tidak terlampau berbahaya seperti pola berkomputer, terutama berinternet, seseorang sampai yang berbahaya seperti nomor kartu kredit, PIN untuk perbankan elektronik (e-banking) dan password suatu account.
Informasi tentang pola berinternet, telah disebutkan, tidak terlampau berbahaya. Situs yang dikunjungi, informasi yang kerap dicari, obrolan di ruang chat akan dimata-matai oleh si spyware.
Selanjutnya, informasi itu digunakan untuk menampilkan iklan yang biasanya berupa jendela pop-up. Iklan itu berhubungan dengan kebiasaan seseorang berinternet. Misalnya kerap kali seseorang mencari informasi mengenai kamera digital. Jendela pop-up yang muncul akan menampilkan, misalnya situs yang berdagang kamera digital. Adware adalah istilah untuk spyware yang begini.
Penyebaran spyware mirip dengan Trojan. Contohnya, flashget. Ketika flashget yang dipakai belum diregister, flashget bertindak sebagai spyware. Coba saja hubungkan diri ke internet, jalankan flashget yang belum diregister, cuekin computer beberapa saat, pasti muncul jendela internet explorer yang menampilkan iklan suatu situs.

Backdoor
Sesuai namanya, ini ibarat lewat jalan pintas melalui pintu belakang.
Dengan melanggar prosedur, malware berusaha masuk ke dalam sistem untuk mengakses sumber daya serta file. Berdasarkan cara bekerja dan perilaku penyebarannya, backdoor dibagi menjadi 2 grup. Grup pertama mirip dengan Kuda Troya. Mereka secara manual dimasukkan ke dalam suatu file program pada perangkat lunak dan kemudian ketika perangkat lunak itu diinstall, mereka menyebar. Grup yang kedua mirip dengan worm. Backdoor dalam grup ini dijalankan sebagai bagian dari proses boot.
Ratware adalah sebutan untuk backdoor yang mengubah komputer menjadi zombie yang mengirim spam. Backdoor lain mampu mengacaukan lalu lintas jaringan, melakukan brute force untuk meng-crack password dan enkripsi., dan mendistribusikan serangan distributed denial of service.

Dialer
Andaikata komputer yang digunakan, tidak ada hujan atau badai, berusaha menghubungkan diri ke internet padahal tak ada satu pun perangkat lunak yang dijalankan membutuhkan koneksi, maka layaklah bercuriga. Komputer kemungkinan telah terjangkit oleh malware yang terkenal dengan istilah dialer.
Dialer menghubungkan computer ke internet guna mengirim kan informasi yang didapat oleh keylogger, spyware tahu malware lain ke si seseorang yang memang bertujuan demikian. Dia dan penyedia jasa teleponlah yang paling diuntungkan dengan dialer ini.

Exploit dan rootkit
Kedua perangkat ini bisa dibilang malware bisa pula tidak. Kenapa begitu? Penjelasannya kira-kira begini.
Exploit adalah perangkat lunak yang menyerang kerapuhan keamanan (security vulnerability) yang spesifik namun tidak selalu bertujuan untuk melancarkan aksi yang tidak diinginkan. Banyak peneliti keamanan komputer menggunakan exploit untuk mendemonstrasikan bahwa suatu sistem memiliki kerapuhan.
Memang ada badan peneliti yang bekerja sama dengan produsen perangkat lunak. Peneliti itu bertugas mencari kerapuhan dari sebuah perangkat lunak dan kalau mereka menemukannya, mereka melaporkan hasil temuan ke si produsen agar si produsen dapat mengambil tindakan.
Namun begitu exploit kadang menjadi bagian dari suatu malware yang bertugas menyerang kerapuhan keamanan.
Berbeda dengan exploit yang secara langsung menyerang system, rootkit tidak demikian. Rootkit dimasukkan ke dalam komputer oleh penyerang setelah computer berhasil diambil alih.
Rootkit berguna untuk menghapus jejak penyerangan, seperti menghapus log dan menyembunyikan proses malware itu sendiri. Rootkit juga bisa mengandung backdoor agar di hari depan nanti, si penyerang bisa kembali mengambil alih system.
Rootkit ini sulit di deteksi, pasalnya rootkit ditanam pada system operasi di level kernel, level inti sistem operasi.
Cara terbaik yang bisa diandalkan untuk mendeteksi ada tidaknya rootkit di komputer adalah dengan mematikan komputer dan boot ulang tidak dengan harddisk melainkan dengan media lain seperti CD-ROM atau disket USB. Rootkit yang tidak berjalan tak dapat bersembunyi dan kebanyakan antivirus dapat mengidentifikasikannya.
Produsen perangkat keamanan biasanya telah mengintegrasikan pendeteksi rootkit di produknya. Meskipun rootkit di menyembunyikan diri selama proses pemindaian berjalan, antivirus masih bisa mengenalinya. Juga bila rootkit menarik diri dari system untuk sementara, antivirus tetap dapat menemukannya dengan menggunakan deteksi “sidik jari” alias byte unik dari rootkit.
Rootkit memang cerdik. Dia bisa menganalisis proses-proses yang sedang berjalan. Andai ia mencurigai suatu proses sebagai tindak tanduk antivirus, ia bisa menyembunyikan diri. Ketika prose situ selesai, ia aktif kembali.
Ada beberapa program yang bisa dipakai untuk mendeteksi adanya rootkit pada system. Rootkit detector kit, chkrootkit dan Rkhunter adalah contoh yang bisa digunakan.

Command and Conquer 4 : Tiberium Twilight

Kali ini, game yg dibahas adalah : Command and Conquer 4 : Tiberium Twilight..
Game ini saat movie2 nya, dgn org asli, dan gameplaynya agak rumit. Lumayan bagus, terutama grafiknya, tapi memang misi2 yg diberikan cukup sulit. Pada saat movie, ceritanya pun tidak mudah dimengerti, tapi setidaknya game ini mempunyai banyak unit2 yg bisa digunakan, melebihi C&C yg lainnya.

Berikut ini Review dari seseorang, bersumber dari www.gamefaqs.com :::

Introduction

Once upon a time ago, in between the first Command & Conquer game (retroactively dubbed “Tiberian Dawn” by EA), and its direct sequel, Tiberian Sun, there was a certain Tiberium game that many C&C fans have justifiably forgotten: Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor. Those of us who did suffer the consequences for our fandom and couldn't get enough C&C played this game and discovered that it was stripped down beyond recognition—well, the sound effects and music felt right at least. One adjusted from utilizing various groups of units to just one, and the unit balance did not even make sense. How could a Nod bike logically go toe-to-toe with a GDI mammoth tank?

If you are familiar with this game, then you may recognize many of the gameplay mechanics within the game that this review is for—Command and Conquer 4: Tiberian Twilight. Yes, let me re-iterate that contrary to the dismay of many a C&C “fan,” particularly those who were (un)fortunate to play the beta, there is indeed a precedent in the franchise for its style. Regrettably though, this game is just as flawed, revealing that Westwood was on to something when they abandoned such an experiment.

Story

As of this writing, many persist in expressing their shock in the game's presentation. Those who suffered an aneurism of the heart from the news that mining would be standardized in Red Alert 3 risk brain hemorrhaging upon discovering the complete removal of mining in Command and Conquer 4. Thus, any element of economy (econ) management that one may imagine, from booming to harassment, is absolutely irrelevant in this game. Dune came first, but C&C established the RTS genre as we know it; this repudiation of its own child has an explanation, however, in what we would call “story.”

Tragically, C&C4's story does not give justice to the series. We receive no closure to C&C3 or Kane's Wrath. For all intents and purposes, we are only left to conjecture how precisely the Scrin were defeated upon their invasion/summoning to earth in C&C3, and who/what the Scrin are. In fact, the instruction booklet for C&C4 does not even acknowledge the Scrin, forcing those who are even remotely interested in the story to appease themselves between their own fandom and the paltry details the game offers. The second-most egregious violation that C&C is inexcusably guilty is that the game retcons the controversy surrounding Tiberium. Through three (plus) games, we have been led to believe that Kane knows how to harness the power of Tiberium, and GDI finds it and Kane to be a threat to the survival of mankind. Now, we are to believe that all of this fighting, roughly 70 years of story (you can catch up by either playing C&C: TD and C&C: TS and Firestorm for free from the official C&C website, and buy C&C3 and Kane's Wrath or refer to YouTube for the canon videos) was a ruse, and Kane allies himself with GDI (Yes, C&C fans, you are allowed a “WTF” here) and uses (surrenders?) the Tacitus as a bargaining chip, shattering everything we thought we knew about the Tiberium series of games (if you did pause to YouTube the canon, my bad).The Tacitus is then used to establish the Tiberium Control Network (TCN), the game's explanation as to the absence of Tiberium harvesting. It's all under control now.

So what is the game's story really about? Well that is a good question. The first two serve as experience-less tutorials to get the player adjusted to the C&C4 engine, where one discovers that Kane is indeed a GDI ally, and not all of GDI, particularly Colonel Louise James, approve. Likewise, Gideon, a member of Nod, has risen during Kane's 15-year alliance with GDI, and he's stirring up the rebel pot—yes, again; C&C fans know that it is a standard plot convention for Nod to be splintered. The amiability of the GDI/Nod alliance, as one would expect, diffuses; at the end of the tutorial missions, the player is given the option to follow either Kane or James, which consequently follows the path of either Nod or GDI.

For the record, I selected Nod first, eager to discover the resolution to what began with Kane's Wrath.

I have to acknowledge EA's valiant attempt to relieve these factions of their didactic dichotomies. One will find that GDI is not all good and Nod all evil. Unfortunately, the story is more than just cheesy. Romantic comedies are cheesy, yet entertaining. This game will have the player cringing throughout the cutscenes. The player is provided the most perfunctory “wife” character that I have ever witnessed. I struggle to think of a more irrelevant and fruitless attempt at emotional effect in any story I have ever seen, heard, or read. Colonel James is one dimensional and Kane (Joe Kucan) fails to achieve the uber-coolness of the character this series revolves around. The desperate, anxious Kane portrayed in C&C 4 could be interpreted as an attempt to render Kane as a dynamic character, but as I will discuss in the gameplay section, change has consequences.

It is difficult to imagine the turmoil that one is supposed to understand encompasses the world, because gone are the blue/yellow/red zones from C&C3 that represented explicitly the devastation that Tiberium has wrecked upon the world. Instead, the world's problems now involve things such as unequal distribution of wealth, starvation, and war—much like many developing or post-colonial countries today. The world in C&C4 has 99 problems and Tiberium ain't one.

The best part of the story is that the GDI and Nod paths are mutually inclusive. That is to say, they are both canon (if, at the end of the day, fans accept this as canon). So there is no need to worry about beating one faction and believing that one ending is better or more significant than the other. This is both a positive and negative since one would contemplate the purpose behind playing both paths if they both have the same result. Well, the details as to how the story develops would be considered spoilers, though I can say that EA succeeded in their guarantee in providing a definitive ending to the series. There are enough plotholes left in this game without the complications introduced with the prospect of two different endings.

Gameplay

EA can sufficiently pat themselves on the back if they were aiming for “something different,” and with Barry Harrowitz emphasis if “different” translated to accessible (simplified) gaming mechanics. C&C 4 is tailor-made for multiplayer games involving players of diverse skill. This is an interesting move considering the fact that most C&C fans play for the singleplayer (see: the birth of skirmish mode, Counterstrike, Aftermath, Uprising). Again, the TCN negates the need for harvesting, thus, “playing styles” are standardized through the usage of crawlers, the new-school omni-MCV that produces units. For the novice and lame alike, at the beginning of each game, the “Offensive,” “Defensive,” and “Support” options for the crawler will appear, allowing players to select and deploy. C&C4 uses a persistent “experience tier” system to determine available units and abilities, so one unlocks new features the more one plays (and dominates). This will prove disconcerting, if not imbalanced in multiplayer, because the likelihood that players' abilities and unlocked tech will vary is great. Even in the campaign, this limitation is painfully keen, because one will come against a unit or structure that is lv 15 or higher when one only has access to lv 5 units.

Then again, one could argue that the entire experience system and crawler-types are superfluous, if not broken. Playing through both campaigns, I finished Nod at lv 12, and GDI at lv 10 (just a smidge short of 11). I tried to play with the defensive and support Nod factions, but they were quite ineffective, if not inconvenient, lacking in either mobility or healing capability. I stuck with offensive through both campaigns, which was rather boring due to the lame story, the absurdly easy difficulty, and the one-dimensional playing style I was unwillingly “encouraged” to use for the majority of the game. In the GDI campaign, being a traditional GDI fan (who was converted to Nod after the awesomeness of Kane in KW), I looked forward to playing with GDI's support crawler and the uber-cool Orca. Negative. Even at level 10, I lacked the proper unit distribution to play that “style” effectively. The only “anti-cannon” unit I had was a tank; but if I wanted to use a tank, I would just stick with offense! I wanted to play with all-air like my crawler (Why is it a crawler if it's airborne? This question also applies to Nod's support “crawler.”). I also lacked an “anti-heavy” and “anti-laser” unit, which, if I wanted to have all the unit types covered—light armor, medium armor, medium air, heavy armor, reinforced, and the crawler itself—I would have to play the game more to eventually acquire the proper units so that I can play as I usually play my RTS games with heavy air. Having to “play just to play” is irritating if not completely discouraging. The Kodiak and Archangel in the instruction booklet taunt me.

Then (yet) again, why bother with the high-level units? I found myself dominating them with units such as avatars and mammoth tanks with my beginning-of-the-game tier units. This may be attributed to the 90's-era AI, which does not even prioritize threats or use effective counters. Notwithstanding, C&C4, in its third-most egregious violation of the series, introduces an unforgivable command point (CP) system, A.K.A., “unit cap.” Gone are the days of build-until-you're-broke. Now, a full squad may, if the player is frugal, consist of two anti-gun units, two anti-cannon units, one anti-heavy, one-anti-laser, maybe one-anti-air, and two engineers. That's nine units total, compared to the sometimes uncountable masses in pretty much every other C&C game (this includes Red Alert, though 3, for the most part, does favor micro over spamming). Many have said that this game resembles Dawn of War. I say, given the number of CPs, the generous unit hitpoints (400 or so for a nod buggy???) and, as I alluded to with Sole Survivor, the fact that a mammoth thank will take many shots to kill a Nod bike 1on1 (in C&C3, with the railgun upgrade, it's a one-shot kill; it's actually a waste of DPS to bother shooting a Nod bike with a mammoth tank in that game), this game borrows heavily from the WarCraft3 model, minus the heroes. One is to manage a small squad of units effectively in this game. With CPs, I find that the most effective squads consist of multiple low-tier units rather than three or four high-tier units. It is possible to “cheat” the cap by building six or so engineers when one is approaching their CP limit and then recover husks of high-level units, but hose husks have to be available. That is, someone would have had to disable or defeat them, which means that someone has to have them unlocked. The campaign provides plenty of husks or presents the player with high-level units to fight so that husks can be recovered. Clever game design or a cheap way to make sure that players do not get bored or frustrated from not being able to build those units themselves? I vote the latter.

One saving grace concerning the units is that C&C4 gives players the ability to scrap their crawler for another at will. In fact, as I mentioned, one can scrap any unit to free up unit cap space. These two abilities provide the option for players to mix and match units from the offensive, defensive, and support trees, should they so choose. Unlike in the campaigns, in multiplayer it will make more sense to play with a variety of crawlers, because the objective of the multiplayer games is not to utterly defeat your opponent (they will always get a new crawler and can build their whole army back in about a minute), but to accumulate “victory points” from destroying enemy units, controlling TCN nodes, or acquiring Tiberium (more on that just below). I am convinced that EA had large games in mind, from 2v2 to 5v5, because 1v1 seems too limiting (rush!). Larger games provide more variables, and it would actually be possible (I imagine) for a defensive-style player to camp up and wait for their superweapon to charge—if they are lv20 and have access to them. Most players will probably opt for offense given the tradition of RTS games and its players catering to rushing strageties, as opposed to turtling. Time will tell if turtling will (finally) be a viable stragety. But that is not for me to decide, for this is a game review, not a FAQ. Suffice to say, the option is explicit.

The TCN did not eliminate all Tiberium. One will find Tiberium of various colors scattered throughout the maps. It can be collected or retrieved towards a player's starting point by units to add points so that a player can upgrade the global abilities of his or her units. There are also crates which spawn upon the death of units in battle which come in green and blue flavors. Green adds veterancy, which used to be a priority, but I can hardly tell the difference between a three-star veteran and a fresh unit; the much cooler and rarer blue crates increase the power of the unit that collects, and this will be indicated by the unit becoming visibly more threatening, usually from an additional gun or ammo pack. Unfortunately (for players like myself), air units cannot collect crates (to my knowledge), so woe be to the air unit that runs across an upgraded Mastadon!!!

Graphics

I mentioned that C&C4's game mechanics borrow from the WarCraft3 engine. Indeed, this game looks like WarCraft or C&C Generals, let alone C&C3 or Red Alert 3. “Visually underwhelming” is an understatement. The units are large in scale, low resolution, and the zoom of the game insures that players can get into the face of an Avatar should they wish, but they cannot alternatively see much on a zoom-out because it does not scale very far. Though the textures are obviously present, the unit composition reminds me of the PS1-era game Cyber Sled, with the humongous tanks made out of giant polygons. The Nod bike is large enough to substitute for a tan, and I would take any previous C&C version of it over this one. But that is just one example among almost one-hundred. Suffice to say, it is my conjecture that C&C4's graphics engine was designed, again, to facilitate multiplayer gaming, reducing lag.

Miscellaneous

The one, the only thing that this game improves upon from its predecessor is the music. James Hannigan returns from his Red Alert 3 and Uprising debut with dynamic music, changing depending upon the action on the screen. GDI's music sounds heroic enough, though Nod's soundtrack may take some getting used to. The Nod victory music sounds like it is played in reverse! I call myself gifted in the art of music (my VGM collection is almost as robust as my game collection), but I'm willing to admit that my ear is not privy to the sounds of western Europe, if that is what Hannigan was trying to emulate. In my amateur opinion, it sounds like he was going for a northern Africa sound. Regardless, the exotic resonance is welcome.

For all intents and purposes, besides Nod's black and red and GDI's gold, I can barely differentiate between the two factions. I find their differences negligible due to the simplification and standardization of the game. In C&C3, it was foolish to try to fight GDI head-on with Nod. It's totally possible now, for both factions seem to have an “equivalent” for the other faction's units. Nod still has stealth and borrow abilities, but why would one use these if there is no reason to harass? Harassment was a strategy developed to distract a player or slow down econ. Because this game no longer depends on econ or expansions, I see no reason for surprise attacks with small squads, particularly because unit count will already be low, so splitting armies is risky. Furthermore, listening to the unit voices, the difference between Nod and GDI is too subtle; one will think that Nod units were also formally trained like GDI units. I struggle to find what makes the factions unique in terms of utility rather than artifice, the differences are so few in number.

Lastly, I must mention the number-one most egregious feature of the game, which anyone reading this review probably already knows about (like no Tiberium harvesting): to play this game, one must always be connected to the internet. If anyone needs a reminder as to why this is problematic, I kindly refer them to Mercenaries 2. Should stubbornness persist, I will allow the record to show that of all the digital gaming services, I favor Steam, and even it allows users to play their games without a connection, so that should an alien invasion or the Second Coming of Christ take place, I could download my entire gaming collection to my harddrive and play all of my games—offline—should I be abducted or ascend to heaven. That's not the case with C&C4. Barring the unlikelihood (in the near future, anyway) of the two events I have mentioned, one is far more likely to suffer internet outage for various reasons, preventing one from playing C&C4.* He or she will be effectively locked out of their $50 purchase. The reason for this? DRM, the acronym more profane to PC users than the most vile four-letter equivalent. If EA wanted to play Big Brother, they could have been more subtle about it through a patching or DLC system like they've done with Mass Effect or Dragon Age.

Conclusion

So here is my theory behind the DRM:

The combination of C&C4 features I have covered, including the simplified gameplay and graphics, the always-online necessity, and the experience-based tech tree lead me to believe that EA is using the C&C franchise to test the waters for a potential MMORPG-style RTS. While debates will ensue, questioning C&C4's categorization as a real time or tactical game, most will agree that it was unfortunate that this franchise had to be the trailblazer, when in actuality, it gets lost in the weeds of its own front yard. To use another metaphor, one would expect that the C&C finale would go out swinging, but instead, it slips on a banana peel and suffers from the consequential concussion injury upon landing.

Do not get me wrong. The game is not bad, but it is not very good, either. Quite simply, there are many other games out there that do what this game tries to do, but much, much better. The redeeming qualities of this game that preserves this game as mediocre are its multiplayer accessibility (one need not be the C&C best of the members at gamereplays.org to figure this game out, though I doubt they leave RA3/KW for this) and the C&C franchise name. It's still cool to play as GDI, and though Nod is not as “cool” as it used to be, it is Nod nevertheless.

5/10

*See EA.com's editor-in-chief, Jeff Green's comments in regards to his frustration concerning C&C4's DRM. If your internet connection even flickers, none of your progress or experience will save. It will be effectively a disconnect. In case anyone is keeping score, I'm taking away a full point off my review score because of the invasive DRM. Proceed with caution!!!

Reinkarnasi ?

Pemuda India 5 kali Reinkarnasi dalam Keluarga yang Sama

New Delhi - Pengikut agama Hindu percaya akan reinkarnasi, percaya setelah orang meninggal akan lahir kembali, reinkarnasi dilahirkan kembali ke dunia ini terus menerus. Pada tanggal 26 Desembaer lalu ada laporan yang mengemukakan, seorang pemuda yang meninggal dalam kecelakaan mobil, pernah dengan bentuk tubuh sebagai lalat, lebah, dan ular reinkarnasi lima kali dalam keluarga yang sama.

Menurut Kantor Berita Pusat yang mengutip koran India "Asian Age" melaporkan bahwa di daerah Kasganj, Provinsi Uttar Pradesh yang berjarak 150km dari selatan-timur ibukota New Delhi, Ajay pemuda yang berumur16 tahun mengalami kecelakaan mobil awal pekan ini setelah meninggal, meninggalkan banyak kisah reinkarnasi yang benar-benar menakjubkan.

Laporan tersebut mengutip permbicaraan Rambeti nenek Ajay, ketika masih kecil Ajay sudah mengatakan kepada keluarganya bahwa, dari tahun 1984-1993, ia telah reinkarnasi lima kali dalam keluarga ini.

Rambeti mengatakan: "Pada awalnya, kami semua berpikir dia mengarang cerita, tapi ketika ia tumbuh dewasa, ia masih bersikeras pada argumen yang sama, dan menunjukkan bahwa reinkarnasinya pertama kalinya dalam keluarga ini adalah lahir pada tahun 1984 sebagai anak saya."

Tapi ketika Ajay tumbuh hingga enam tahun, seorang tetangga wanita yang karena jangka panjang tidak punya anak, hatinya timbul kebencian, dia menaruh racun dalam permen gula putih yang umum di ketemukan di pedesaan India, Ajay akhirnya meninggal karena keracunan, Rambeti berkata , peristiwa ini sangat sedikit diketahui orang, namun Ajay bisa secara detil mengatakannya, sehingga seluruh keluarga terkejut.

Laporan juga mengatakan, Ajay juga memberitahu keluarganya bahwa setelah dia meninggal keracunan, berturut-turut dia reinkarnasi menjadi lalat, lebah, dan ular reinkarnasi ke keluarga ini. Menurut Rambeti: "Ajay benar, pada tahun 1991 memang ada seekor ular di taman sana, namun dibunuh ibunya."

Ajay kemudian dilahirkan kembali sebagai putra dari putri Rambeti. Namun, tampaknya suatu kebetulan bahwa saat berusia dua tahun dia mati tersedak karena makan permen gula putih. Pada tahun 1993, Ajay sekali lagi bereinkarnasi menjadi putra menantu Rambeti, hingga pada minggu lalu dia meninggal dalam sebuah kecelakaan.

Rambeti mengungkapkan, keluarganya pernah membawa Ajay mengunjungi tempat-tempat kuil dan paranormal minta bantuan, ingin tahu apakah Ajay terlalu banyak fantasi. Dia bilang, namun bagaimana pun, keluarga yang masih sedih karena Ajay meninggal dalam kecelakaan mobil, sekarang mereka sedang prediksi Ajay akan dengan bentuk fisik apa lagi bereinkarnasi kembali.

sumber : http://blognyajose.blogspot.com