Talking

Google throws out a new stuff to the public-Google Public DNS.Somebody may not know what DNS exactly is.Here’s the simple explanation:

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource connected to the Internet or a private network. It associates various information with domain names assigned to each of the participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices worldwide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.(Wikipedia)

In the real world,every website/server will have an IP address.However,in order to easily access the site,we normally type in the domain name to visit it and the domain name server will translate it into that specific IP address.After all,we could get what we want to get.

Many ISPs will always provide some DNS service to their customers,even automatically configured.However,Google Public DNS could give more compared to other DNS service:

• Speed up your browsing experience.
• Improve your security.
• Get the results you expect with absolutely no redirection.

Google has a broader network all over the world.Thus,it will direct you the closest DNS server once you set Google Public DNS as your priority DNS.

To try it out:

• Configure your network settings to use the IP addresses 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 as your DNS servers or
• Read our configuration instructions.

I previously tried OpenDNS for some while.It is also an independent service provider with quite a lot of credits from the clients.But the DNS servers are mostly located in Europe and America,the users in Asia would have delay because of the geographic conditions.Google eliminates the issue since it has several DNS servers in Asia.

I have used Google Public DNS for 3 days.It works as well as what it says.I’m so happy to see that we are having more alternatives.Thumb up!

Firefox Beta 3.6 had come out for several weeks.In fact I had tried it when it firstly launched,but I don’t feel so comfortable on it because quite a lot of add-ons were not compatible and I even met some crashes in one-hour usage.

However,with the help of thousands of beta users,it has been going to run properly and most of functions could work well.Firefox also introduced Add-on Compatibility Reporter which could mention the author of add-ons for any compatibility issues.You could check up the details of the Beta of Firefox 3.6 / Gecko 1.9.2 introducing several new features for users to evaluate:

• (New in this update) A change to how third-party software integrates with Firefox to increase stability.
• (New in this update) The ability to run scripts asynchronously to speed up page load times.
• A mechanism to prevent incompatible software from crashing Firefox.
• Users can now change their browser’s appearance with a single click, with built in support for Personas.
• Firefox 3.6 will alert users about out of date plugins to keep them safe.
• Open, native video can now be displayed full screen, and supports poster frames.
• Support for the WOFF font format.
• Improved JavaScript performance, overall browser responsiveness and startup time.
• Support for new CSS, DOM and HTML5 web technologies.

I’m going to try that again soon.If you want to try it,please go here to download and install it.I hope you will like it too.

It’s 5 years for me to use Firefox too.I remembered that I just wanted to try it at that time and amazingly I’m never going to drop it since then.Compared to IE,Firefox is of better performance,rich facilities and more securities.Of course,now we have some other good browsers to choose such as Safari,Google Chrome and so on.Anyway,Firefox did all greatly and I do wish it could last long with all pros.

Happy Birthday,Firefox.

I went to Lowyat Plaza buying a piece of Windows 7 Home Premium(32bit+64bit DVD) at RM469 yesterday.As I’m going to buy a new computer in the near month,so I need to have one more copy of Windows to install on that PC.

RM469 is still a promotional price and the official retail price is RM525.I installed this brand new operating system into my 4-year-old Lenovo laptop.It took approximately 30 minutes from reassigning the hard disk to completing the installation.Window 7 can recognize most drivers for the hardware,so it saved quite a lot of time on this part.

The only issue I met is for the audio driver.The Windows driver can make it work and so I spent several hours to look for a latest driver which is compatible to Windows 7.However,I was not so lucky.After all,I decided to use Vista driver and manually installed it and it worked half of the function-I could get sounds from speakers,but my internal microphone didn’t work.

Anyway,Windows 7 is really faster a lot than Windows Vista and better on arranging the resources too.Now I’m going to solve the microphone problem.I wish I could work it out.Or anyone wanna help me?

Officially Windows 7 released on October 23rd worldwide.However,I couldn’t find the track of Windows 7 on that day.Well,finally I get the news saying Windows 7 was in town on November 2nd,7-day late to land in Malaysia.

The prices for Windows 7 in Malaysia are labeled at US dollar and so we have to exchange them into Ringgit Malaysia by the given exchange rate US$1 = RM3.75.

*Note:The above prices are for full pack(retail version).

I know Windows 7 is of good performance and better security,but it’s still quite expensive.I’m now waiting for PC fair where may provide some promotions.