Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Tree


Tree is the largest plant of all plants. The tallest tree grows over 61 metres in height. Many trees also live longer than other plants. Some trees sometimes live over thousand of years. They are the oldest living things that men know.
People think that trees are different from other plants. Most of other plants grow only for short time and then die. People think of trees as a permanent part of the landscape.
Trees continue to grow as long as they live. They grow new leaves and flowers. Leaves of a tree make food. The food makes the tree alive and help it grows. The flowers grow into fruit. The fruit contains seeds for making new trees.
Trees are different from other plants like herbs and shrubs. Most teees grow at least 4.6 to 6.1 metres but herbs and shrubs are much shorter than trees. Trees have one wood stem, which is called a trunk. Herbs have soft and juicy stem. Shurbs are like trees, they have woody stem but one shrub has more than one stem, and none of the stem of the shrubs grows so thick or tall as a tree trunk.
There are thousands of kinds of trees. But most trees belong to one of two main groups. They are boarfleaf trees and needleleaf trees. These two tipes of trees grow in many parts of the world. Most other types of trees, such as palms and tree ferns grow mainly in warm region.

Venice


Venice is a city in northern Italy. It is the capital of region Veneto. Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area. Venice has been known as the “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, and “The City of Light”. The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy.
Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot.
You can ride gondola there. It is the classical Venetian boat which nowadays is mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Now, most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses (“vaporetti”) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands. The city also has many private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.
You can see the amusing city’s landmarks such as Piazza San Marco, Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, Saint Mark’s Cathedral or villas of the Veneto. The villas of the Veneto, rural residences for nobles during the Republic, are one of the most interesting aspects of Venetian countryside.
They are surrounded by elegant gardens, suitable for fashionable parties of high society. The city is also well known for its beautiful and romantic view, especially at night

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Report Text - Penjelasan & Contoh


Secara umum, report text adalah salah satu jenis teks yang masuk kategori  "factual texts." Teks jenis ini sering dikatakan sebagai "saudara kembar"descriptive text sehingga wajar banyak siswa "bingung" cara membedakan kedua teks tersebut.

Sebelumnya, secara singkat dan sederhana, sudah memberikan penjelasananeh mengenai perbedaan keduanya [baca: bingung report text atau descriptive text]; lagi-lagi itu cuma perbedaan kecil dan hampir semua siswa bisa mencerna. Oleh karena itu, untuk mendalami apa itu report text, yuk kita simak bersama-sama keterangan di bawah ini:


Pengertian Report Text


Istilah report text sering juga dikenal dengan sebutan informational reportReport, dalam Concise Oxford Dictionary Edisi 10, diartikan sebagai 1) an account given of a matter after investigation or consideration. 2) a piece of information about an event or situation. Jika disimpulkan, secara bahasa report text adalah teks yang berfungsi untuk memberikan informasi tentang suatu peristiwa atau situasi, setelah diadakannya investigasi dan melalui berbagai pertimbangan.

Definisi report text ini juga hampir mirip dengan apa yang sering disebutkan dalam berbagai buku bahasa Inggris di tingkat menengah, "Report is a text which present information about something, as it is. It is as a result of systematic observation and analyses." [Report adalah sebuah teks yang menghadirkan informasi tentang suatu hal dengan apa adanya. Teks ini adalah sebagai hasil dari observasi dan analisa secara sistematis.]

Dengan demikian, sebenarnya teks report dan descriptive mempunyai perbedaan yang cukup jelas, meski nampak keduanya dikatakan sebagai "saudara kembar" sekalipun.

Intinya, dalam report text itu biasanya berisi dengan fakta-fakta yang bisa dibuktikan secara ilmiah, Oke..


Generic Structure Report Text.


Seperti halnya dengan descriptive text, Report text juga hanya memiliki dua struktur umum [generic structure] yaitu :

  1. General Clasification; Pernyataan umum yang menerangkan subjek laporan, keterangan, dan klasifikasinya. 
  2. Descriptiontells what the phenomenon under discussion ; in terms of parts, qualities, habits or behaviors; Pada bagian ini biasanya memberikan gambaran fenomena-fenomena yang terjadi; baik bagian-bagiannya, sifat-sifatnya, kebiasaannya, ataupun tingkah lakunya. Intinya adalah penjabaran dari klasifikasi yang disajikan dengan ilmiah.
Ada juga beberapa keterangan mengenai generic structure report text, yang meliputi :

  1. General information
  2. Bundles of Specific Information
General information adalah bagian yang menyebutkan informasi umum dari tema tulisan yang. Sedangkan Bundles of specific information, adalah penjabaran dari informasi umum tersebut.

Saya sendiri lebih cenderung setuju dengan generic structure kedua; karena hal ini bisa membuat siswa lebih paham akan cara menulis report text.

Tujuan Report Text

Setiap tulisan pasti memiliki tujuan mengapa tulisan itu ditulis. Begitu juga dengan report text. Beberapa pakar menyebutkan bahwa tujuan teks report adalah :

Its social purpose is presenting information about something. They generally describe an entire class of things, whether natural or made: mammals, the planets, rocks, plants, countries of region, culture, transportation, and so on. 

Jika disimpulkan, tujuan report text adalah untuk menyampaikan informasi hasil pengamatan dan analisa yang sistematis. Informasi yang dijelaskan dalam report text biasanya bersifat umum, baik itu alamiah ataupun buata seperti binatang mamalia, planet, bebatuan, tumbuh-tumbuhan, negara bagian, budaya, transportasi, dan lain sebagainya.


Pola Tata Bahasa Dalam Report Text


Setiap tulisan pasti memiliki ciri bahasa tersendiri; jika recount text dan narrative text cenderung memiliki ciri menggunakan simple past, lalu bagaimana dengan report text? Oke berikut adalah pola grammar yang umum digunakan dalam teks report, yang meliputi :
  • Use of general nouns, eg hunting dogs, rather than particular nouns, eg our dog;
  • Use of relating verbs to describe features, eg Molecules are tiny particles;
  • Some use of action verbs when describing behaviour, eg Emus cannot fly;
  • Use of timeless present tense to indicate usualness, eg Tropical cyclones always begin over the sea;
  • Use of technical terms, eg Isobars are lines drawn on a weather map;
  • Use of paragraphs with topic sentences to organise bundles of information; repeated naming of the topic as the beginning focus of the clause.
Keterangan :

  • General nouns, maksudnya adalah, suatu benda (baik itu hidup atau mati) yang bersifat umum. Coba bandingkan : Hunting dogs >< My dog. Hunting dogs bersifat umum; sedangkan my dog bersifat khusus. 
  • Relating verbs, dalam grammar disebut juga dengan linking verbs. Seperti to be [is, am, are: present], seem, look, taste dan lain sebagainya. 
  • Timeless present tense adalah salah satu penanda waktu dalam simple presentseperti "often, usually, always" dan lain-lain. 
  • Technical terms, maksudnya adalah istilah-istilah yang meliputi teks report tersebut. Misalnya tentang "music" maka, istilah-istilah musik harus ada.


Contoh Report Text : Thanksgiving Day


Thanksgiving or Thanksgiving Day is a celebration of harvest, thankfulness for peace, and the attempt of Native Americans. It is usually celebrated in late autumn. 

In the past, Thanksgiving was celebrated for their rich harvest in New England. In North America, however, it was originally held to thank God for their survival in the new land which was not easy for them. However, in Canada, it had been celebrated as in New England. Thanksgiving now is celebrated in United States of America and in Canada. Thanksgiving festivals are held every fourth Thursday of November in the U.S and on the second Monday of October in Canada. It is usually celebrated in four to five days in the North America and for three days in Canada.

It is celebrated through families and friends gathering to eat and give good luck. Turkey is the main dish in the thanksgiving dinner. Thanksgiving parades are also usually held. In Thanksgiving homes are decorated with wreaths, fresh and dried flowers. Lamps are lighted to brighten the environment. Tables are decorated with best china and antique silver dishes to mark the occasion.


Contoh Report Text : Venice


report text
Venice is a city in northern Italy. It is the capital of region Veneto. Together with Padua, the city is included in the Padua-Venice Metropolitan Area. Venice has been known as the “Queen of the Adriatic”, “City of Water”, “City of Bridges”, and “The City of Light”. The city stretches across 117 small islands in the marshy Venetian Lagoon along the Adriatic Sea in northeast Italy.

Venice is world-famous for its canals. It is built on an archipelago of 117 islands formed by about 150 canals in a shallow lagoon. The islands on which the city is built are connected by about 400 bridges. In the old center, the canals serve the function of roads, and every form of transport is on water or on foot.

You can ride gondola there. It is the classical Venetian boat which nowadays is mostly used for tourists, or for weddings, funerals, or other ceremonies. Now, most Venetians travel by motorised waterbuses (“vaporetti”) which ply regular routes along the major canals and between the city’s islands. The city also has many private boats. The only gondolas still in common use by Venetians are the traghetti, foot passenger ferries crossing the Grand Canal at certain points without bridges.

You can see the amusing city’s landmarks such as Piazza San Marco, Palazzo Contarini del Bovolo, Saint Mark’s Cathedral or villas of the Veneto. The villas of the Veneto, rural residences for nobles during the Republic, are one of the most interesting aspects of Venetian countryside.

They are surrounded by elegant gardens, suitable for fashionable parties of high society. The city is also well known for its beautiful and romantic view, especially at night.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Apple drops '4G' from iPad adverts


Apple iPad launch
Apple has stopped using the phrase 4G in adverts for its latest iPad.
The description proved controversial because 4G is not widely available in the UK and the iPad will not work with it when it is.
The UK's advertising watchdog and others around the world investigated Apple over use of the 4G phrase.
Apple said the confusion arose because of the ways operators refer to different high-speed mobile technologies.
Word jumble
When the newest version of the iPad was launched in March, adverts for the device claimed it would work with 4G, meaning fourth generation, mobile technology. The 4G in question was a technology known as Long Term Evolution (LTE) that was starting to appear in the US.
However, when LTE arrives in Britain, the rest of Europe and many other nations, it will use different frequencies to those in the US meaning the iPad will not be able to use 4G everywhere.
The disparity led to many complaints. In the UK, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated and won assurances from Apple that its advertising would change.
A spokesman for the ASA said it had started a second investigation after consumers told it that the 4G phrase was still being used to describe the iPad's capabilities.
The ASA had been "working closely" with Apple to amend the way the iPad is advertised, said the spokesman, adding that the consumer electronics firm had been very co-operative during the investigation.
"We will be checking the amendments to ensure they adhere to the Advertising Code," he said.
Apple said the confusion had arisen because of the different high-speed mobile technologies dubbed 4G by operators and carriers.
Apple would change its terminology to remove this confusion, it said.
"Carriers do not all refer to their high speed networks with the same terminology," said the firm in a statement, "therefore we've decided to use 'wi-fi + cellular' as a simple term which describes all the high speed networks supported by the new iPad."
"The advanced wireless features of the new iPad have not changed," it added.

Pirate Pay torrent 'blocker' backed by Microsoft


Piracy
A Russian company has developed software it says can disrupt and prevent people from downloading pirated content.
Pirate Pay has been backed by Microsoft and has so far worked with Walt Disney Studios and Sony Pictures to stop "thousands" of downloads.
The tool poses as real bit torrent users but then "confuses" peer-to-peer networks, causing disconnections.
Critics argue that the method will be ineffective in the long term.
The entertainment industry claims that the downloading of pirated material costs copyright holders billions of pounds in lost revenue every year.
Last month, the British Phonographic Industry won a court battle to force UK internet service providers to block its customers from accessing high-profile piracy site The Pirate Bay.
However, the true extent of the financial impact is strongly questioned by internet rights campaigners.
Swamping
Bit torrent blog Torrent Freak reported that Pirate Pay began life as traffic management software for internet service providers.
From here they discovered it could be used to swamp peer-to-peer networks - which are used to share the files - with false information.
"After creating the prototype, we realised we could more generally prevent files from being downloaded, which meant that the program had great promise in combating the spread of pirated content," said Andrei Klimenko, the company's chief executive, in an interview with Russia Beyond the Headlines.
The technology has received high-profile praise from the president of Microsoft Russia - Pirate Pay was awarded one million rubles (£62,000, $100,000) from a seed investment fund set up by the company behind Windows.
A recent campaign saw Pirate Pay "protect" recent Russian film Vysotsky. Thanks to God, I am Alive, made by Walt Disney Studios.
Pirate Pay said it blocked 44,845 attempted illegal downloads of the film.
However, as the Torrent Freak blog pointed out, the blocked downloaders might have simply just tried again later.
'Social issues'
Although exact details on how the system operates are not known outside of the company, security researcher Richard Clayton from the University of Cambridge told the BBC it was a process that could work, if only in the short term.
"If you flood the network with lots of lies, then you will be short of real things.
"[But] the networks are robust about this in the long term because you will say to your peer 'please give me this data', and when it gives you the data it will say 'this doesn't match' and throw it away."
Mr Clayton, who blogs about such issues, said peer-to-peer networks would eventually adapt, sharing information about "bogus" peers such as those reportedly utilised by companies like Pirate Pay.
Mr Clayton added: "You don't solve social issues with technical fixes.
"The social issue here is that a lot of people think that the legal offerings are too expensive and don't provide what they want.
"Once you solve that, nobody's going to want to mess around with complicated bits of software to get what they need."

Friday, May 11, 2012

Anontune: the new social music platform from 'Anonymous'


A YouTube video announcing 'Anontune' decries corporate involvement in online music.
(CNN) -- In a move sure to attract attention from the music industry, a small group of coders claiming to be part of Anonymous is putting together a social music platform. The rather ambitious goal: Create a service that seamlessly pulls up songs streaming from all around the internet.
The project, called Anontune and still in its infancy, is designed to pull songs from third-party sources like YouTube and let anonymous users put them into playlists and share them — while keeping the service from being shut down by music industry lawsuits.
Reached by e-mail, one of the creators of Anontune told Wired the project was started by a group of anons who met online six years ago on what was then an underground hacking site. The group, mostly focused at the time on "cracking," began discussing music, favorite artists and what they would do to fix current music business models.
"We would say stuff like, 'People really use YouTube as a music player yet it really sucks for that purpose ... it's too unorganized,'" the anon wrote to Wired. "And then, 'YouTube does make a good music player but you can't play all your songs on it since the obscure ones aren't uploaded,' then eventually, 'Hmmm, what if you were to combine music websites like Myspace, Yahoo, YouTube and others?'"
On the ever-sprawling internet, music can pop up anywhere — Tumblr pages, blogs, The Hype Machine (to name but a few). Almost any song is available at any time, whether posted by legitimate sources or uploaded by fans or pirates, and Anontune would tap into that rich reservoir.
It wouldn't be the first time Anonymous squared off with the record industry: When popular file-sharing site Megaupload was shuttered by the Justice Department in January, Anonymous retaliated by attacking the websites of the Recording Industry Association of America and the DoJ. The DDoS attacks provide an undeniable look at what Anonymous can do in a copyfight, but if the creators of Anontune succeed, they could make something far more disruptive to the music industry.
The Anontune concept remained nothing more than talk until one day in early December, when an anon posted a link to Anontune and said he planned to make their ideas a reality. The others looked at the site. Although it wasn't very good, the working prototype got enough people interested in the project that they "formed a team that day and stopped hacking," the anon said.
The platform has been in development for just a few months, according to the video above (titled "Message From Anonymous: Music Has Changed"). Although Anontune is still very rudimentary, the service is meant to improve the way music is played online.
"It has come to our attention that the state of online music has been sabotaged by the fat hands of corporate involvement," the Anontune video's voiceover states. "These changes have led to a world in which your enjoyment of music is controlled and billed by the minute."
How Anontune Works (And a Word of Caution)
Anontune works by automating what most people do online manually. After setting up an account, users can build playlists by simply typing in the names of songs they want to hear, or they can choose from the names of songs imported from their iPods. Anontune's "music engine" — which runs in a user's browser — then finds the songs on the web. Currently most of the tracks come from YouTube and SoundCloud, but there are plans in the works to add Yahoo Music, Myspace Music, Bandcamp and others. From there, users, of which there are currently fewer than 1,000, just press play.
(A word of caution to curious readers: The system relies on executing a Java applet. Unless you are extremely trusting or using VMWare, you should think very carefully about running code on your machine that was written by members of Anonymous.)
The stated central aims of the service's creators are to provide a flexible, open platform for users to listen to music without having to pirate it or face legal repercussions — read Anontune's white paper here. True to form, users of the service can largely remain anonymous.
Although the site is still very crude and its origins obscure, the idea of Anonymous — even a few far-flung members of the group — tackling online music is compelling. But Anontune could come into the world with a target on its back, even if it operates using completely legitimate methods, according to Electronic Frontier Foundation attorney Corynne McSherry.
"What we're seeing here is a situation where the government is getting much more involved in enforcement, and we know that the U.S. government doesn't like Anonymous all that much anyway," McSherry said in an interview with Wired. Other music services can attempt to cut deals with music labels to avoid legal hot water, but that's not really an option here.
"I think content owners, if they feel like the site is a really viable site, they're going to be pretty nervous [about this]," McSherry said. "Because they like to have people that they can make deals with, and there's no one to make a deal with in this situation."
It's hard not to notice that Anontune is popping up just as the U.S. government's case against Megaupload is getting heated. Even though Anontune's creators say the service isn't a rebuttal to the shuttering of the file-sharing service, its timely unveiling could serve as a model for a different way for Anonymous to respond to incidents (as opposed to, say, directing Low Orbit Ion Cannons at the website of the Recording Industry Association of America).
"The project is not so much a response to Megaupload but a response to the tycoons from the RIAA shutting down music services," the anon wrote to Wired. "You may have heard about what Anonymous has done in Operation Payback. We believe the underlying reasons for the revolt were (mostly) correct, however their approach is unlikely to change anything in the long run."
When asked about Anontune by Wired, an RIAA spokesman declined to comment.
Anontune's creators hope that in its complete version — it's only about 20 percent there so far, our source said — the service can improve the way people engage with music.
"We have a lot of plans regarding this," the Anontune co-creator told Wired. "The development of software to assist in achieving musical peak experiences, illumination of the functions and roles of music, psychometric testing based on music preference. It's all there and this is possibly the most interesting part of the whole project."
Anontune's technical aspects can be reviewed online, and the site's operators are taking donations. Even though its creators are still hurriedly trying to get the service up to snuff, the site has massive goals. One only needs to look at the final note on the above clip's YouTube page to get a taste.
"We need to think bigger," it reads. "This is Operation Mozart."

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