Category Archive

Gatekeeper Logo Anda berbicara bahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini! I’ve been using Mac for quite a long while, and I must say that I like it, despite the direction the UNIX-based platform is going and the insane price a certain manufacturer is asking for their laptops. In fact, I’m planning to keep my 2012 MacBook Pro until its death, at which point I may or may not have enough money to afford another one. Anyway, today’s not about my Mac, today’s all about OSX’s (now macOS) security feature, Gatekeeper. If you’re a frequent Mac user like me, I’m pretty sure you know about this feature already. Yes, Gatekeeper is Apple’s solution to make its OS secure. Its purpose is to stop malware from ever entering your Mac, usually by installing malicious apps from unknown sources. Though it sounds good, I found out that the security is kind of… annoying, especially on Sierra, the Mac’s latest iteration, especially if you like to install various apps from outside the walls of App Store. Now, instead of getting a warning, macOS will tell you that the app is broken and should be moved to the trash. Evil, isn’t it? Wow, wow… …

Windows 10’s Start Menu is a Marvel. Apakah Anda berbahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini! Another day, another Windows 10 tip. Who doesn’t like Windows 10? This release makes Microsoft seem as if they had finally found the right combination between the flat style UI and the traditional familiarity of Windows. However, just like all kinds of software, bug is still present, and one of them, is the missing texts of system UI. What do I mean? Well, head past the break to find out more. In fact, I’ll also give you a tip on how to solve that annoying bug. Have you ever experienced this?If not, good for you. It’s very annoying to have this kind of problem… Okay, what would you do now? See the picture above? That’s exactly what I meant. All the application names are gone, even the ones that are supposed to appear in the live tiles. What’s worse is that it doesn’t happen to just the apps, but also the system as well. See the picture on the left? Yeah, the system is supposed to tell us to input the password of a certain wireless network, but you can’t tell which network it is, …

Illustrated iOS10 on iPhone6 (or iPhone6S) Anda berbahasa Indoneisa? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini! I’ll have to admit that iOS10 is quite a revolutionary upgrade. With various new features added such as widgets and into existing apps like Siri and iMessage, iOS10 might the most flexible (and possibly the most open) iOS to date. However, there’s one new “feature” which is quite disturbing to me, which is the need to press the home button when unlocking your phone. In the previous iOS version, you only need to rest your finger on the sensor to unlock your device. Press Home to Unlock. No longer. The good news is, this “new feature” can be turned off. Honestly, since I’m kind of a person who takes “extraordinary” care for his home button (including the ones in Samsung devices), I try my best to never press it whenever possible. Why, because I’ve seen numerous broken home buttons, either them being unresponsive or no longer comfortable to click. Anyway, if you’re the same type as me, you might want to follow the following tip: The annoying “new feature” can be turned off. Huzzah! Go to Settings. Go to Accessibility. Go to Home Button. On the …

When you see this sign, what will you do?Will you take the bait? Apakah Anda berbahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini! I have quite an interesting story to share with you guys. Well, at least for me, this story is interesting enough to write and post immediately. A few days ago, on September 29 2016, to be exact, I saw an interesting deal. A very interesting and tempting one. Imagine, for each web hosting package you extend or buy in September, you will also score a lifetime discount of up to 40%. This means that all your future payments regarding to affected packages will be discounted by 40%, forever. Very tempting, isn’t it? Above is the promotion banner. In case you don’t understand, it says that there is a lifetime discount of up to 40%. For each web hosting package you buy, you will also get a free domain and free unlimited SSL. However, I just couldn’t bite that promotion, because I strongly believe that there are only a handful of deals that actually benefit the customers, or at least they come with lots of (hidden) terms and conditions. However, at that time, the promotion page didn’t mention any …

SSDs, compared to HDDs, are smaller and more compact Anda berbahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahan di sini! Have you ever heard of SSDs? If not, that’s fine. Actually, SSDs are like HDDs or most commonly known as harddisks, or storage. Except, there’s one obvious difference: HDDs spin while SSDs don’t. The term “SSD” is an acronym for “Solid State Disk”. The word “solid” is taken from the fact that they don’t spin. In fact, they look exactly like memory chips (or RAM, according to some people). A HDD’s speed is determined by how many spins it can make per minute. For example, the standard modern HDD is rated at 5400rpm while the speedier ones can score 7200rpm. HDD seeks data by reading “blocks” which are embedded on the spinning part. Ever saw a gramophone? Yes, that’s exactly how HDDs get your data, which is why spinning speed matters. The faster the disk spins, the faster it fetches your data. On the other hand, SSDs don’t spin. Your data is stored on the chips and is available for access at any time. However, unlike RAM, which clears out its storage when it runs out of power, SSDs retain their stored data …

Laptop fans. Small, but very important. Anda berbahasa Indonesia? Baca artikel terjemahannya di sini! Even though there are fan-less systems nowadays, fans still play a major role in the life of many PCs. That heat is responsible for many things going wrong in your system, such as frequent blue screen, sudden death, performance hiccups, or even degradation of your components. Heatsink, those thin metal fins, may help dissipating your heat, but they’re not as effective as spinning fans. Seriously, though, fans are important. A few days ago, I just noticed that my laptop fans are dead. Oh wait, fan. My Dell Inspiron 5447 only has one fan. How did I notice? Simple: it’s gone silent, and it got unusually hot. Very hot. Seriously, though, I was afraid, and I didn’t know what to do. To be honest, I didn’t want to take it to the service center, since it’s out of warranty, and I’m afraid about the price I would have to pay. Fortunately, I was able to open my laptop’s access panel and blew away the dust. I was able to spin it manually. However, I want to know if the fans really recovered. So, how did I check …

Google’s Illustration of Material Design Do you speak Indonesian? Read the translated article here. If you’re an Android enthusiast like myself, I’m pretty certain that you, at least, have heard of the term “Material Design”. Yes, it’s the design guideline recommended by Google to streamline the interface of Android OS and apps. If I remember correctly, the design was introduced in version 5 (Lollipop) and it’s getting better with 6 (Marshmallow) and the upcoming 7 (Nougat). Let’s just pray that our phones will get it :p. Anyway, the design is also starting to get popular among app developers, even major ones. And, if you like Material Design, I have a good news for you who use Google Chrome as your daily web surfing companion: Material Design is actually present in Google Chrome, though it’s hidden. You just need to find the settings and enable them. Where are the settings? As usual, it’s past the break. Don’t worry, it’s going to be short and easy :p Accessing chrome://flags chrome://flags Page Do you know that Google Chrome has a set of “experimental” features? I call them “experimental” because they’re still in beta, and may compromise not only your browsing experience but possibly your …

Windows 10 Anniversary Update Flyer Anda berbicara bahasa Indonesia? Artikel ini diterjemahkan di sini. Approximately one week ago, Microsoft released the latest major update to their Windows 10, dubbed the “Anniversary Update” which brings an update to the start menu as well as other changes and improvements, both visible and under the hood. While I updated my systems just fine, I was unable to update my trusty Acer Iconia W510. Why? Well… storage space, that’s why. How much space I had left If you’re updating through Windows Update, the application will tell you that you need to have at least 16GB of free space in your main partition (usually C:). Well, Sir… that’s certainly impossible for my Iconia, because it only has 32GB to start with. That number doesn’t count the partition size of ~4GB which leaves only 28GB of usable space. Cut that number with the size of Windows OS, built-in apps, and some of my personal apps, I was left with “just” 11.4GB. I’ve already tried Disk Cleanup a few times and CCleaner. However, that didn’t help. Fortunately, after browsing the Internet, I finally came up with a solution. I’m going to share the solution that I found …

The other day, I was requested by my aunt to fix her Skype. She said that the application refused to sign in, and that a sad smiley kept appearing as she repeatedly clicked the “Try Again” button. So, okay. I’ve done these small maintenance before, how hard could it be? Maybe there’s a glitch in the connection, or that it asks for a new update (although she said that she had updated it. She even had uninstalled and re-installed the program. Still, it refused to connect). She even brought it to her acquaintance which sells computers and told me that he had failed fixing it. He even resorted to last-resort alternative: reset and reinstall Windows. I thought it was ridiculous. Honestly, just because one program failing, I have to lose all my data and start over? Jesus, I would rather abandon that one program. Anyway, with overconfidence that I could fix whatever the problem was, I paid my aunt a visit. The Problem And well… Have you been put in a situation where everything you thought was wrong? Well, it was that. The computer wasn’t that old (a 15″ Centrino 2 laptop. Probably one of the best during its time) …

Illustration Well, Folks… I apologize for taking a very long time publishing something that I promised “won’t take long”. Things came up and I couldn’t simply ignore them. Anyway, as promised, I have a few ways to determine whether your Xiaomi power bank is genuine or not. As I mentioned in my previous article, there are a handful of counterfeit power banks not only here in Indonesia,but also worldwide. You can head out after the break to find out how to differentiate whether your unit is fake or genuine. Update: Sorry about the long delay. I thought the draft wasn’t ready yet, but today I reviewed the draft and it’s 98% complete. Once again, I apologize for the delay and happy Lunar New Year!  Where Do You Buy It? In some regions, like India and Indonesia, Xiaomi has an official distribution channel such as Flipkart in India (CMIIW) and Erajaya (or Erafone) in Indonesia (or through Xiaomi’s own online store). If you bought your Xiaomi power bank in one of these official channels, don’t worry. Your product is genuine. In my case, I bought my power bank from a third party retailer, so I was kind of suspicious and did …