Fifa 12 – Official trailer released

EA Sports has released the trailer of the latest from the Fifa franchisee, Fifa 12. Though it is a very short trailer, most of the new features are made clear in the trailer. I really don’t think I need to elaborate the new features as the video speaks for itself.

One thing can be said that since Fifa 09 very little has been done on the graphics side and I expected some changes in Fifa 12 but after watching the video, I was somewhat disappointed as the graphics looks exactly similar to Fifa 11. And that’s not good when Pro Evolution Soccer is catching up with Fifa.

More can be said after watching the second trailer of Fifa 12.

Till then feast your eyes on the official trailer of Fifa 12.

Flipkart – A new option for Online shopping

Most of you would have seen a television commercial where a mouse keeps running inside a wheel. So you guys must be familiar with the name FLIPKART if you have watched the advert. If not, let me tell you what Flipkart is.

Flipkart is an Indian electronic commerce company headquartered in Bangalore, India. It is the largest online bookstore in India.Flipkart was established in October 2007 by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal. Both are alumni of Indian Institute of Technology Delhi and worked forAmazon.com before quitting and founding their own company. Initially they used word of mouth marketing and social networking websites to popularise their company. Flipkart broke even in March 2008 and claims to have had at least 100% growth every quarter since its founding. The store started with selling books and in 2010 branched out to selling CDs, DVDs, mobile phones and other electronic gadgets. During financial year 2009-10, it reported a sales of  20 Crores (200 million). Initially funded by the Bansals themselves, Flipkart has since then raised two rounds of funding from venture capital funds Accel India (2009) and Tiger Global Management (2010). The company has 1000 employees.

[Source: Wikipedia]

The Run – The latest from the Need For Speed series

EA Games recently unveiled the first look of the latest iteration of the Need For Speed series – Need For Speed -The Run. The game as the trailer suggests takes you away from the boring track racing back into those narrow lanes of the city. This ensures a heavy dose of drama and superb racing experience.

The game has a simple plot: The gamer has to make his way through the country while the Bad guys and the Police chase him throughout the gamer’s journey. To put it in simple words, its quite similar to the Fast and Furious series.

Need For Speed - The Run

Is this an extension of the Underground series ? We don’t know as of yet as the game is set to release on 15th November 2011.

Below is the official trailer unveiled by EA Games. Though it is a short clip but it reveals quite a lot. From what I observed, I found these cars:

• Audi R8
• Porsche Cayenne
• Mustang (Probably the Shelby GT500)
• Ford Taurus Police Interceptor

This might not seem quite a lot but the Official Need For Speed website says this about the game:

“It’s called The Run. An illicit, high-stakes race across the country. The only way to get your life back is to be the first from San Francisco to New York. No speed limits. No rules. No allies. All you have are your driving skills and sheer determination as you battle hundreds of the world’s most notorious drivers on the country’s most dangerous roads. In Need for Speed The Run, you’ll weave through dense urban centers, rocket down icy mountain passes and navigate narrow canyons at breakneck speeds, all the while evading a relentless police force prepared – and willing – to use lethal force to take you down.

PLATFORMS: Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC, Wii, Nintendo 3DS”

So all you Need For Speed fans out there, start polishing your racing skills as Need For Speed – The Run is about to get your pulses running.

Video

F1 2010 in depth review

This post will give you in detail review of the F1-2010 game for PC.

Also one thing I want to make clear is that DO NOT DOWNLOAD this game from the Internet. I am warning you people because this game has to be activated using a Windows Live account. So Piracy will lead you no where.

Now lets begin with the review.

Starting up……

Well as soon as you start the game you feel that this is the game of the year. This is because the way the game starts you feel like you are a Real F1 driver. The game starts with the press conference at which you give your introduction. This introduction of yours and the choices you make decide which team you can join. I f you are expecting to race with a team like Ferrari or Red Bull directly then its not going to happen. You have to start with a  rookie team like HRT Racing or Virgin Racing.

Moving on, after the Press conference you enter your Van where the Agent greets you and tells you all the necessary things about your contract and stuff. also you can check the Team Objectives and the Race conditions from the Van.

Then comes the Paddock. This is where you get the different menus like any other game. Here you can hone your driving skills by going for a Time Trial also.

And yes if you really want to drive for the Big Teams you can do so using the Single Rae mode.

Going into the race……

Now lets discuss about the gameplay. Another warning-This game is not for the ones who like Rash Driving. It requires a lot of Skillful driving and Great Patience. Don’t approach this game like any other racing game. It is not.

The gameplay is just awesome. This game puts you right into the seat of an F1 driver. After playing this game you understand how hard it must be in real life to drive an F1 car.

The weekend starts with 3 practice sessions, 1 Qualifying session and the Race. All the rules in real F1 are followed in the game as well. So you get a limited set of tires for the weekend that you have to use wisely. So the key here is Be Wise.

Next before the race starts you start it on Full fuel load. So the car does not behave really well. Understeer is what you have to tackle at the start. As you progress through the race the fuel load starts going down and the car starts behaving differently (starts Oversteering ).

Also the tires wear out during the race duration and you start losing grip, thus the car slips and slides and you start losing time. Changing the tires at the right time can reap big results. Thus strategy matters a lot. Again Be Wise.

Another aspect of the game that makes life worse is Engine wear. Engine power goes down as you reach the end of the race. Also an Old engine might give away making you retire from the race. So try preserving your engine during the race or you might lose it all in the last lap. So again Be Wise.

And to top it all the competition is hell tough.

Now since we have finished discussing about the Gameplay lets move onto the Graphics.

Graphics

The graphics are just awesome. Every detail from cars to tracks to drivers and pit crew is perfect. The lighting is also very good which makes the game all the more beautiful. Every race has its own weather which is according to the weather you get at that time of the season.

Even the Paddock and the drivers have been detailed to the T. Also the Pit crew and the Pits are truly great in terms of detailing and characterization. Track surface detailing and spectators are also designed with great attention.

Overall graphics are really great.

Overall

Codemasters has done a great job in creating the best F1 game till now. This by far beats the NFS series for PC gaming. You can’t get better Graphics and Gameplay than that in a PC game. Its almost equivalent to playing on a console.

So my vote for the Best game of 2010 goes to F1 2010 just because of the Gameplay and the Graphics.

Now lets discuss about the gameplay. Another warning-This game is not for the ones who like Rash Driving. It requires a lot of Skillful driving and Great Patience. Don’t approach this game like any other racing game. It is not.

The gameplay is just awesome. This game puts you right into the seat of an F1 driver. After playing this game you understand how hard it must be in real life to drive an F1 car.

The weekend starts with 3 practice sessions, 1 Qualifying session and the Race. All the rules in real F1 are followed in the game as well. So you get a limited set of tires for the weekend that you have to use wisely. So the key here is Be Wise.

Next before the race starts you start it on Full fuel load. So the car does not behave really well. Understeer is what you have to tackle at the start. As you progress through the race the fuel load starts going down and the car starts behaving differently (starts Oversteering ).

Also the tires wear out during the race duration and you start losing grip, thus the car slips and slides and you start losing time. Changing the tires at the right time can reap big results. Thus strategy matters a lot. Again Be Wise.

Another aspect of the game that makes life worse is Engine wear. Engine power goes down as you reach the end of the race. Also an Old engine might give away making you retire from the race. So try preserving your engine during the race or you might lose it all in the last lap. So again Be Wise.

And to top it all the competition is hell tough.

Now since we have finished discussing about the Gameplay lets move onto the Graphics.

Graphics

The graphics are just awesome. Every detail from cars to tracks to drivers and pit crew is perfect. The lighting is also very good which makes the game all the more beautiful. Every race has its own weather which is according to the weather you get at that time of the season.

Even the Paddock and the drivers have been detailed to the T. Also the Pit crew and the Pits are truly great in terms of detailing and characterization. Track surface detailing and spectators are also designed with great attention.

Overall graphics are really great.

Overall

Codemasters has done a great job in creating the best F1 game till now. This by far beats the NFS series for PC gaming. You can’t get better Graphics and Gameplay than that in a PC game. Its almost equivalent to playing on a console.

So my vote for the Best game of 2010 goes to F1 2010 just because of the Gameplay and the Graphics.

TechAshram is back !!

Sorry guys for being away for such a long time. Actually I was busy with my website Technanimous and my Final year project. Now since Technanimous has been established, I felt it’s my duty to concentrate on TechAshram as well. So from today onwards, TechAshram will get  updated regularly and you guys will get your share of latest technology related news and more importantly my personla view on them.

So, gear up for some latest updates now !

NetBeans Platform Certified Training

Hi guys, I just attended the NetBeans Platform Certified Training organized by NUG Nagpur leader Mr. Tushar Joshi and given by Geertjan Wielanga on 27-28 November. This training was a two day training which acquainted the trainees about the NetBeans Platform and all its features. This training was held through WebEx and Skype and we had participants from India, Toga and Canada. So it was an International Training in some sense. Here is the complete debrief of the training…

Day 1

Well we basically started with a brief introduction to the NetBeans Platform and Geertjan cleared all the doubts that people had regarding the Platform. He also told the advantages of using the NetBeans Platform for developing Rich Client Platform Applications (I assume here that you understand RCP applications).

Also we learnt how to divide our applications into Modules thus making it simpler to manage the application. Also dividing an application into modules makes it more extensible and gives it plug-ability as all the modules are independent of each other and making some changes in one does not affect the other. Thus Modularity is an important feature in RCP application developement.

Then we moved onto Dependency Management. Well to explain in simple words, NetBeans developers have created many APIs that can be directly used for your application development. This saves a lot of coding time as most of the code is written by someone else and we just modify that according to our needs. all you need to do is to add the API in your Library folder and voilà you have all the features of that API.

The third thing that we learnt was the use of Lookup. Lookup library was designed the main problem of Component communication. It deals with how the components register with the system and how other components look up onto them.

We also learnt Java Extension mechanism which is a mechanism that allows to make custom APIs available to all the running applications on Java Platform. After the release of JDK 1.3 the are also termed as Optional Packages.

Then we moved onto the last topic of Day 1, Central Registry. Central registry is a feature that allows you to use the File System without importing the java.io.file class making coding simpler.

All throughout the day we were using the above mentioned features for developing a Word Editor that allows to convert Lower Case letters to Upper Case. It was not a Regular Swing Word Editor as it was very intricately designed, although it may look like a swing application.

Day 1 ended with a Question-Answer session in which participants asked their doubts to Geertjan and he cleared all of them.

Day 2

Day 2 started with a revision of all the things we covered on Day 1 and a small discussion session that Geertjan asked to hold so that he could check how much we had understood. To do this he had given us 3 questions which we had to discuss amongst ourselves and mail him the answers.

Then as we moved on we learnt the Nodes API. It is an API that is very useful in creation of a BeanTree View in NetBeans. Data can be represented using Nodes. The nodes allow the implementation of Icons and actions to them. These are the types of Nodes

1) BeanNode    2) AbstractNode    3) DataNode    4) FilterNode

Then we learnt the concept of Explorer Manager. Explorer Manager is an API that is used to manage all the views created by the developer. It listens to all the changes happening in the Node and thus can be used to control all the nodes including the root node. It should be implemented as ExplorerManager.Provider .

The next step of our training was Visual Management. Visual management was one of the most interesting topics of the training as it dealt with the management of the Views. The Explorer Manager is used to control the views and hence Visual Management involves extensive use of it.

Next it was time to learn how to give Actions to the components. We learnt to provide a drag-and-drop action to our node. This is where the creativity in you can be used. Providing Actions to Views requires a lot of creativity.

The Final part of out training was Widgets. Widgets are nothing but components that can be animated to give a rich look to the application. We designed a drag-and-drop widget. If we drag a node and place it into the text area we had defined below the text would appear in it.

All throughout the Day 2 we designed a Student Registration application using all the above features.

Day 2 ended on a very high note with all the trainees really happy.

All the trainees who completed the training are now NetBeans Certified Associates but what matters more is we understood what it takes to develop a very good looking and equally functional RCP application.

A special thanks to Geertjan Wielanga for giving us his precious time. Also a big thanks to Tushar Joshi who made all this happen.

This post of mine is dedicated to all the NUG Nagpur members who I became friends within the course of this training and to Tushar Joshi Sir.

Thank you all

Here is our group photo

EA Games announces Need For Speed-Shift 2 Unleashed

Just a day before the much awaited Need For Speed Hot Pursuit E3, EA Games announced yet another Need For Speed title named Need For Speed-Shift 2 Unleashed. In contrast to the arcade racing of Hot Pursuit, “Shift 2 Unleashed” is aimed at the simulation end of the spectrum — a followup to the successful Need for Speed: Shift — though why they’ve dropped “Need for Speed” from the title this time around is unclear. From the official press release:

Capturing the physicality and brutality of racing at 200mph has been the leading area of innovation by the award-winning development team at Slightly Mad Studios. SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED builds on the true drivers experience by introducing the driver’s battle, an even more authentic and primal feeling of power and speed which elevates the fundamental competitive race into a struggle for supremacy against other drivers and even the track itself. In SHIFT 2 UNLEASHED, players’ hands sweat and ache as they clutch onto the controller, their pulse races from the break-neck speeds experienced through the first-person cockpit view.

If this vague cinematic teaser trailer doesn’t satisfy, there’s a few low-res screenshots and a more detailed feature list on our Shift 2 Unleashed game page.

Shift 2 Unleashed is due in “Autumn 2011” (U.S. Spring) for PC, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Need for Speed Hot Pursuit retails tomorrow November 18 2010 for PC, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii.

SMIv2-Structure of Management Information

The Structure of Management Information version 2(SMIv2) is component for network management. Its Functions are:

1. To name Objects.
2. To define the type of data that can be stored in an object.
3. To show how to encode data for transmission over the network.

SMI is a guideline for SNMP. It emphasizes three attributes to handle an object: name, data type, and encoding method.

Name

SMI requires that each managed object (such as a router, a variable in a router, a value, etc.) have a unique name. To name objects globally, SMI uses an object identifier, which is a hierarchical identifier based on a tree structure.

The tree structure starts with an unnamed root. Each object can be defined using a sequence of integers separated by dots. The tree structure can also define an object using a sequence of textual names separated by dots. The integer-dot representation is used in SNMP. The name-dot representation is used by people.

The image shows the same object with two different notations:

iso.org.dod.internet <——–> 1.3.6.1

The objects that are used in SNMP are located under the mib-2 object, so their identifiers always start with 1.3.6.1.2.1.

Type

The second attribute of an object is the type of data stored in it. To define the data type, SMI uses fundamental Abstract Syntax Notation 1 (ASN.1) definitions and adds some new definitions. In other words, SMI is both a subset and a superset of ASN.1.

SMI has two broad categories of data type:

• SIMPLE
• STRUCTURED

Simple Type – Simple Data Types are atomic data types. SOme of them are taken directly form ASN.1; some are added by SMI.
Structured Type – By combining simple and structured data types we can make new structured dat types. SMI defines two structured data types

• SEQUENCE – A Sequence data type is a combination of simple data types, not necessarily of the same type. It is similar to the                                                  STRUCTURE used in C.
• SEQUENCE OF – A Sequence of data type is a combination of simple data types all of the same type or combination of Sequence data                                           types all of same type. It is similar to ARRAY used in C.

I hope you have now understood what SMIv2 is and why, how, and where it is used.

SNMP-Simple Network Management Protocol

Many of my friends asked me to write on SNMP since they didn’t get much information about it from the Internet. So this post is for my friends who want to read about Simple Network Management Protocol (from now on SNMP) .

The SNMP is a framework for managing devices in an Internet using the TCP/IP protocol suite. It provides a set of fundamental operations for monitoring and maintaining the Internet.

Concept

SNMP uses the concept of manager and agent. That is, a manager. usually a host,controls and monitors a set of agents, usually routers.

SNMP is an application-level protocol in which a few manager stations control a set of agents. The protocol is designed at application level so that it can monitor devices made by different manufacturers and installed on different physical networks. In other words, SNMP frees management tasks from both the physical characteristics of managed devices and the underlying network technology. It can be used in heterogeneous internet made of different LANs & WANs connected by routers made by different manufacturers.

Managers and Agents

A management station, called a Manager, is a host that runs the SNMP client program. A managed station, called the Agent, is a router (or a host) that runs the SNMP server program. Management is achieved through simple interaction between manager and an agent.

The agent keeps performance information in a database. The manager has access to the values in the database. The manager can also make the router perform certain actions.

Agents can also contribute to management process. The server program running on the agent can check the environment and, if it notices something unusual, it can send a warning message (called a TRAP) to the manager.

In other words. management with SNMP is based on 3 basic ideas:

1. A manager checks an agent by requesting information that reflects the behavior of the agent.
2. A manager forces an agent to perform a task by resetting values in the agent database.
3. An agent contributed to the management process by warning the manager of an unusual situation.

Management Components:

To do  management tasks, SNMP uses to other protocols

• Structure of Management Information (SMI)
• Management Information Base (MIB)

In other words, management of Internet is done through the cooperation of 3 protocols: SNMP, SMI, MIB

SMI & MIB discussed in above posts.

Why IPv6 was born

The network layer protocol in the TCP/IP protocol suite is currently IPv4. IPv4 provides the host-to-host communication between systems in the Internet. Although IPv4 is well designed, data communication has evolved since the inception of IPv4 in the 70s. IPv4 has some deficiencies that make it unsuitable for the fast growing Internet, including the following:

• Despite all short term solutions,such as subnetting, classless addressing, and NAT, address depletion is still a long term problem in Internet
• The Internet must accommodate real time audio and video transmission. This type of transmission requires minimum delay strategies & reservation of resources not provided by IPv4 design.
• The Internet must accommodate encryption & authentication of data for some applications. No encryption or authentication is provided by IPv4.

To overcome these, IPv6 also known as IPng (Internet Protocol next generation) was proposed and is now a standard.In IPv6, the Internet protocol was extensively modified to accommodate the unforeseen growth of the Internet. The format and the length of the IP addresses were changed along with the packet format. Related protocols such as ICMP were also modified. Other protocols in the network layer, such as ARP, RARP, IGMP were either deleted or included in ICMPv6 protocol. Routing protocols such as RIP and OSPF were slightly modified to accommodate these changes.

The adoption of IPv6 has been slow. The reason is that the original reason for its development, depletion of IPv4 addresses, has been slowed down because of 3 short term remedies

• Classless addressing
• Use of DCHP for dynamic address allocation
• NAT

However, the fast spreading use of Internet and new services such as mobile IP, IP telephony, and IP-capable mobile telephony, may require the total replacement of IPv4 by IPv6.

Advantages os IPv6

Larger address space-An IPv6 address is 128 bit long. Compared with the 32 bit long IPv4 address, this is huge increase in address space.

Better Header format-IPv6 uses a new header format in which options are separated from the base header and inserted when needed, between the base header and the upper layer data. This simplifies and speeds up the routing process because most of the options do not need to be checked by routers.

New Options-IPv6 has new options to allow for additional functionalities.

Allowance for extension-IPv6 is designed to allow the extension of protocol if required by new technologies or applications.

Support for resource allocation-In IPv6, the type-of-service field has been removed, but mechanism called Flow label has been added to enable the source to request special handling of packet. This mechanism can be used to support traffic such as real-time audio and video.

Support for more security-The encryption and authentication options in IPv6 provide confidentiality and integrity of the packet.

 

Above figure shows the IPv6 header