Category: Technology

I work in technology sector. And I do round a clock, not only from 9 to 5. It is my bread and butter, it is my hobby, it is the fascination of my life. And with the current rate of change particular in information technology (IT), there is always something new to learn, to try, to talk about. I often post news, thoughts, and reviews. And when I do, this is the category I use.

Google Public DNS announced

Google announced a Public DNS service, which is extremely easy to configure and which will improve your web browsing speed and security.  This service is not revolutionary however.  There were a few ones before, and the one that seems most popular these days is OpenDNS.  In case you wonder what’s the difference between OpenDNS and Google Public DNS, take a look at this Google Groups discussion.

From the end-user point of view:

Right now the difference is that Google Public DNS does not use any sort of redirection or display any ads. If a host (domain name, web address, etc…) doesn’t resolve, it will just fail. With OpenDNS, they hijack these failures and redirect you to a search page that displays ads and makes them money.

From the administrator or customer point view there are things like stats, control panels, and more – all in OpenDNS.  Google Public DNS seems to be focused differently. At least for now.

Update: Jason Kottke explains why Google did it.

Internet users in Cyprus

Blogoscoped reports that Google has expanded their Public Data Onebox functionality and now you can see the Internet penetration rate for population of any country.  All you need to do is search for “internet users in cyprus” (or use your favourite country).  Currently, it reports Cyprus having 38% of the population connected to the Internet.  And that sounds just about right.

Internet in Cyprus

The country with the highest Internet penetration rate that I know of is Netherlands.  Google reports it having 86.8% of population connected.  Which also sounds just about right.

AIDS – killing humans and web applications

Yesterday, December 1st, was a World AIDS Day.  A lot of sites on the web were trying to increase awareness about AIDS by switching to red-colored desings and such.  One of the web sites apparently was Twitter.  And guess what?  Today morning Twitter is dead (again).  Here is a screenshot of their red design from Google Cached version:

Red Twitter

I guess AIDS is dangerous not only to humans, but to web applications as well.

One of the things to love about Red Hat

Karsten Wade shares five reasons for which he loves working at Red Hat.  Not a reason on its own, but a part of one is this excellent quote:

At this company, the technical people have a serious influence on adjusting the mindset of the very smart people we bring in who haven’t yet fully absorbed the open source way.

Just brilliant!

Fedora 13 name suggestions

After a recent release of Fedora 12, the attention is starting to focus on Fedora 13.  And, as it is usually, the work starts with the name.  Here are the suggested and approved names for the next release of Fedora distribution:

  • Botany
  • Gloriana
  • Goddard
  • Langstrom
  • Loana
  • Manfredi
  • Truro

The Fedora naming tradition says that the new name must be in some way related to the previous one. If you don’t know how any of these names are linked to “Constantine”, the name of the Fedora 12 release, here is a page with more information.

And if you want to learn more history of the Fedora release names, you should visit this page.