365 Discoveries

Google announced today the launch of their public DNS service. As of right now, all it provides is DNS resolution, while OpenDNS provides a plethora of options.

If you want to give it a try, Google got a pretty epic IP address grab. Use the following IP addresses for your DNS:

8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4

As always, the service is in beta, so be sure to copy down your current DNS settings before switching over just in case something goes awry. Google is even providing support telephone numbers in the event you’re unable to access the Internet using their DNS.

Update: I ran tests using Namebench from 3 different locations within my city. Two locations use the same ISP, the third is its own ISP. In all tests, UltraDNS and OpenDNS came out on top. Various Tier3 DNS servers (4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.6, etc) also ranked highly. In all tests, Google’s public DNS servers ranked well, but still towards the bottom of the pile.

Looking for a cheap, legitimate, almost free Windows 7 copy? Microsoft is offering Windows 7 Home Ultimate or Windows 7 Professional (32 and 64-bit versions) for $30 to college students with a valid .edu email address. Head on over to the order page, enter your email address and get in your pre-order! For the record, Windows 7 upgrades retail for $200. Take note: If you want the Professional version, click the link that says “Need to join your school’s network domain? Click here”. Since its the same price, I recommend getting the professional version since there are more usable features than Home, and less useless features than those contained in Ultimate.

Windows 7 will be available for download on October 22; those who pre-order will be sent a reminder email with the download link on that day.

The offer is good until January 3, 2010. Check out the table below to see what kind of upgrade experience you’ll be looking at. Keep in mind, though, if you purchase an upgrade instead of a full retail version, you need to keep the  discs and keys for the OS you’re upgrading. If you ever need/want to reinstall Win 7, you’ll need those things.

Windows 7 Upgrade Chart

xkcd:volume 0 - Cover

The first comic book from Randall Monroe, the genius behind the xkcd web comic is available for purchase! xkcd:volume 0 features 600 comics, selected by Monroe, and include fan and author favorites. Obviously, owning a book of a widely distributed, freely-available web comic is merely for the novelty of the tangibility of a comic book, however, the comics in the book have been assembled from high-resolution scans of the original artwork, and include author notes, doodles, and puzzles in the margins of the book, adding a personal touch to the comics not available online (yet, I’m sure).

A popular feature of the xkcd web comic is the alt (aka, tooltip or mouseover) text, the text a user sees when he/she hovers or an image. The alt text usually contains an afterthought of the comic, or some additional insight. Because of the non-interactive nature of a book (crazy talk, I know), the alt text has been included with each comic in appealing fashion

The book is being published by Breadpig and a portion of the publishers profits will go to the Room to Read charity to help build a school in Laos.

I’ll post again when I receive my copy!

xkcd: volume 0 - Comic and Author Notes

xkcd: volume 0 - Comic and Author Notes

xkcd: volume 0 - Back Cover

I’m making a note here in the hopes that, perhaps, it will help a frustrated gamer out there, somewhere. The issue at hand occurs when you try to launch Team Fortress 2 (TF2), Half-Life (HL, HL2), or Counter-Strike (CS) (any game connected to Steam that uses the HL2 engine). Steam will launch a small window stating “Verifying Game Files.” Typically, this only takes place after updates to the game, or Steam, if Steam detects any game files have been changed, or if selected to do so manually. The issue occurs, however, on every launch. The process launches, subsequently takes a few seconds to “check” — even though it should take a minute or two — then terminates without launching your desired game. [Read the rest of this entry...]

I have found I’ve fallen a little short of the 365 posts I had hoped to have within the first year or so of site launch. Like I say in the about section, I never meant to do a post a day, or stop at post 365, but I set it as a goal for myself. Maybe I can shoot for 365 within two years launch, a mere 6 months away.

Here’s a few posts and stats I want to “bump:”

Posts: 112
Word Count: 32,444
Comments: 165
Spam comments: 25,195

Approximately 2,600 visits per month, mostly thanks to the post on free church graphics from February and the post on how to CHMOD with Dreamweaver from early last year.

Though not popular, at all, I’ve added about 50 new entries to the post listing where my Flickr photos are used around the web.

A professor of Ethical hacking, networking, and security from CCSF (City College of San Francisco) referenced my post about wardriving with the Android OS in a classroom PowerPoint (here, then ch 8 ) and links to my wardriving results page from the Advanced ethical hacking course web page.

Nothing particularly special about these series of photots, just interesting pieces of California I thought to share.

Salinas, CA

A tourist trap situated at the intersection of Highway 101 and 156 is either missing a “u” or an “i”.

The Ugly Truth movie poster

Movie poster for the film “The Ugly Truth.” Can you spot the ugliness here?

Ad in Capitola Mall

This advertisement for the food court in the Capitola Mall uses stock photo featuring a umistakeable cup design. The worst part? There is no In-N-Out in or near this mall!

Stylish yes, but arch support is lacking

I spotted these foot coverings in a shoe shop in downtown Capitola. I assume they’re for show, but I wouldn’t put any money on it.

Photo by Reigh SierraYour computer is on a local network, and for some reason, you need to find the name of the computer you’re sitting at to share files, printers, or anything else over the network. You chose a name when you first installed the operating system unless your computer was bought pre-built from a store. In the case of the latter, your computer was already assigned some arbitrary name, often with the model number or manufacturers name playing a part in the naming scheme. So… do you know, or remember what it is? No? Well then, follow one of these two methods and you’ll no longer be embarrased when you can’t remember your faithful computer’s name. (Windows XP, Vista, 7)

Method one: