December 6th, 2009
Since Google released its Public DNS, I was curious about how it would really perform. Thus, I have looked around and I have found a script on the internet that I ran at home, here are the results:
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| Domain | My ISP | Google | OpenDNS|
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| lifehacker.com | 17 ms | 68 ms | 68 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| facebook.com | 18 ms | 69 ms | 68 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| manu-j.com | 19 ms | 79 ms | 70 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| reddit.com | 58 ms | 88 ms | 66 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| tb4.fr | 16 ms | 64 ms | 67 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| bbc.co.uk | 55 ms | 65 ms | 67 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| lemonde.fr | 58 ms | 63 ms | 78 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| dailymotion.com | 58 ms | 66 ms | 68 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| faz.de | 57 ms | 65 ms | 99 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
| gmx.de | 56 ms | 62 ms | 68 ms |
+------------------+--------+--------+--------+
Google Public DNS and OpenDNS performed quite similarly. However, my own ISP is still quicker to respond, a possible answer is that Google DNS in Europe are located in Frankfurt, Germany.
N.B.: these tests were performed on a wireless link under Mac OS X Leopard in Toulouse, France. If you want to run the script on a Mac, you should change the first line of the script to #!/bin/bash
Update 2009.12.10:
Tags: dns, google, Mac OS, network, opendns
Posted in General, Linux, Mac OS | No Comments »
September 10th, 2009
Adobe Flash plug-in 64bit
The major problem faced by 64-bit Linux users is getting Flash Player to work properly on the platform. With the latest version of Ubuntu, it installs the 32-bit release of Adobe Flash Player along with the necessary 32-bit libraries so it can work.
However, using 32-bit Flash is sometimes buggy (when it is working). What about a 64-bit version of Flash Player?
Gnash, the free (libre) alternative is not enough mature to work on all web sites. But Adobe is currently working on a 64-bit version of its player. It is now available in the labs for download. This is still a pre-release, so using this plug-in could make your browser unstable.
Before installing it, you should remove any previous installation of Adobe Flash Player, you can use Synaptic (System -> Administration) for this purpose.
The downloaded file has the extension .tar.gz, it is a compression format like ZIP. You can double-click on it and extract the file (libflashplayer.so) to your home directory, or use the command line: “$ tar zxf libflashplayer-10.0.42.34.linux-x86_64.so.tar.gz“. Now, you need to copy the extracted file to a system directory. It is assumed that the extracted file is in your home directory.
$ sudo cp $HOME/libflashplayer.so /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
You can now launch Firefox or Chromium on your 64-bit system and watch Flash media content. My own experience is a more stable system! But do not forget, Flash is not a free software.
Tags: 64bit, chromium, firefox, flash, Linux, plug-in, Ubuntu, web browser
Posted in Linux, Ubuntu | No Comments »
August 30th, 2009
Giving Chrome its wings
After making the chromes shine on Ubuntu, let’s make them flashy! In the previous article you learned how to have Google Chrome and Chromium installed, now that you have used them for awhile, you perhaps find out that you cannot play video on youtube.com or dailymotion.com, that you do not have annoying advertisement, etc. Yes, Google Chrome and Chromium Linux versions do not yet support Adobe Flash!
However, since you are not afraid to try a test version of these browsers on your favorite OS, you will not mind activating a test feature: plug-ins.
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Tags: chrome, chromium, flash, Free Software, google, Linux, Open Source, plug-in, Ubuntu, web browser
Posted in General | No Comments »
August 26th, 2009
Chromium
Google Chrome is an internet browser (or navigator) based on the free software project Chromium. Chrome is long available on Windows, but only really recently is it available on Mac OS X and Linux, though still under “beta” (meaning testing/experimental) stage.
I have been using Chrome or Chromium without any obvious differences (at least on Linux).
So why Chrome/Chromium when there is already Firefox? First it is a matter of choice, I could answer you why so many different vehicles? Second, I like the look and feel of Chrome, it optimises the use of screen real estate, it is not cluttered with many menus or actions on the toolbar and it seems to always know where I want a new tab to be opened. Third, it launches really fast.
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Tags: chrome, chromium, Free Software, google, Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu, web browser
Posted in Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu | No Comments »
July 19th, 2009
First of all, as a free(dom) software advocate I am obviously biased towards all proprietary software makers. Anyway, this position can sometimes make me see things from a different perspective.
Now here is the big news these days: Microsoft had Windows 7 in pre-order for a bargain price, but only a limited amount of licences (e.g. 76 000 licences for France). And they were overwhelm by demands from users!?!
Wait a minute, how come overwhelm? Basically, many users (no numbers were published) connected to Microsoft servers to go through a couple of pages in order to pre-order Windows 7. Basically, this is just a few requests to some servers to download web pages (a few kilobytes). Does Facebook, Twitter, Gmail or even Windows Live (Hotmail, MSN, etc.) services just collapse because people are using them? In comparison, Facebook handles 120 millions connections per day!
So there are three solutions to the fact that Microsoft servers could not handle the amount of requests :
- Microsoft Windows servers are too poorly performing for such a job as handling web pages: obviously wrong as Windows Live seems to be able to handle such loads ;
- Because of the rarity of the amount of licences on sale, people rushed to be able to buy one. Thus, servers could be overwhelm by demands for a really short peek periods ;
- Microsoft purposely under-scale its servers for the big sell, so the web will relay the info.
First solution seems wrong. Perhaps it is a mix of the second and third solution, both can create a buzz around Windows 7 sales, and this is what exactly happened as many news related Windows 7 high popularity because so many people tried to buy it that even Microsoft could not handle their requests. Congratulations to the marketing guys, the operation reached its goal!
Tags: commercial, rant, Windows
Posted in General | No Comments »
June 16th, 2009
Butterfly browsing, Nepal
First of all, no I do not boycott Opera, but some persons do want that for the reason that Opera Software triggered the whole antitrust browser case in Europe. In support of Opera Software, I am now writing this news using their browser!
The big news that triggered it all is that Microsoft, in response to the EU antitrust browser case, will be removing Internet Explorer 8 from Windows 7 in Europe.
I have to say that I am happy and delighted to hear this news. My point is that Microsoft should only be shipping a raw Windows. The computer manufacturer should then integrate Windows with a software solution of their choice, a software solution that integrates of course a browser and other tools. Just like Windows does not shipped with an office pack, but major computer vendors are adding office software applications to their computers offers.
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Tags: boycott, europe, free, Linux, microsoft, opera, web browser, Windows
Posted in General | 2 Comments »
February 23rd, 2009
Déjà Dup
Déjà Dup is a Gnome-based backup tool that aim for easiness. It provides transparent encryption of your data, can store to an external hard disk or a remote storage (SSH server or Amazon S3) and offers schedule backup.
The tool is extremely simple to use. It offers two big buttons, one for manual backup and one for restoring. Those two functions are accessible in the menu too, as well as preferences and help. That is all.
So how does it work?
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Tags: amazon s3, backup, cloud computing, deja-dup, Free Software, Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu
Posted in Linux, Open Source, Ubuntu | 2 Comments »
February 22nd, 2009
What is?
For a short and quick answer,
cloud computing is moving your computer experience from your desktop to the internet (the cloud!).
From the consumer of computing services perspective, it means having those services accessible from the internet:
- Online application (e.g. Google Mail, Google Docs, etc.) ;
- Online storage (e.g. S3Fox + Amazon S3, Flickr, Apple MobileMe, etc.) ;
- Online services (e.g. Google Maps, Airline reservation, etc.).
From an IT person or software developer perspective, it means that you deploy your application on a (potential virtual) infrastructure or platform on the internet:
- Virtual infrastructure or grid (e.g. Sun Grid, Amazon EC2, though both have their own specificities) ;
- Platform (e.g. Google Apps Engine) ;
- Identity verification, storage, payments, etc.
Tags: cloud computing, computer, definition, layman, virtualisation, What is
Posted in What is | No Comments »
February 7th, 2009
Source: ZDNet.com | IT Project Failures
The article on ZDNet is about why Michael Krigsman (CEO of a IT consulting company) loves Windows 7, hates Linux and thinks the Mac is lame. The article is pretty short and gives 3 reasons to be satisfied by Windows 7, by presenting an old screenshot of Linux to present it in a miserable way and displaying a fake version of Apple Mac vs. PC advertisement. All a good laugh if it was not serious.
After reading Michael’s post, I cannot help but remember this: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.”
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Tags: Linux, Mac OS, talk, Windows
Posted in General, Mac OS, Ubuntu | 2 Comments »
