DNS is an abbreviation for Domain Name Servers, When ever you type in a domain Name i.e. www.clazh.com in your browser the first thing the browser does is to check up with a Domain Name server and translate that domain name into an IP address, which then tells it where the website is hosted. On an average a user performs multiple DNS lookups to render a single page. The average Internet user performs hundreds of DNS lookups each day, slowing down his or her browsing experience. As the web continues to grow, greater load is placed on existing DNS infrastructure.

In Brief having a Public DNS has two advantages.

1. Faster Performance, Page loads
2. Better Security

Below are a few way a public DNS helps in more details courtesy Google

• Performance. Many DNS service providers are not sufficiently provisioned to be able to support high-volume input/output and caching, and adequately balance load among their servers. In addition to load-balancing user traffic to ensure shared caching, Google Public DNS implements “smart” caching to increase the speed of responses. Google Public DNS independently resolves domain names and keeps the resolutions in the cache until their time-to-live (TTL) expires, at which point they are automatically refreshed. The cycle of caching and refreshing is performed offline, asynchronously with user requests, so that responses are almost always available directly from cache. For more information, see the page on performance benefits.
• Security. DNS is vulnerable to various kinds of spoofing attacks that can “poison” a nameserver’s cache and route its users to malicious sites. The prevalence of DNS exploits means that providers have to frequently apply server updates and patches. In addition, open DNS resolvers are vulnerable to being used to launch denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on other systems. To defend against such attacks, Google has implemented several recommended solutions to help guarantee the authenticity of the responses it receives from other nameservers, and to ensure our servers are not used for launching DoS attacks. These include adding entropy to requests, rate-limiting client traffic, and more. For more information, see the page on security benefits.
• Correct results. Google Public DNS does its best to return the right answer to every query every time, in accordance with the DNS standards. Sometimes, in the case of a query for a mistyped or non-existent domain name, the right answer means no answer, or an error message stating the domain name could not be resolved. Google Public DNS never blocks, filters, or redirects users, unlike some open resolvers and ISPs.

Before we Begin on how to configure Google Public DNS Service I have listed out a few more alternatives below

List Of Free Public DNS Servers

Google

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

OpenDNS

• 208.67.222.222
• 208.67.220.220

ScrubIt

• 67.138.54.100
• 207.225.209.66

dnsadvantage

• 156.154.70.1
• 156.154.71.1

vnsc-pri.sys.gtei.net

• 4.2.2.1
• 4.2.2.2
• 4.2.2.3
• 4.2.2.4
• 4.2.2.5
• 4.2.2.6

Configuring your network settings to use Google Public DNS

When you use Google Public DNS, you are changing your DNS “switchboard” operator from your ISP to Google Public DNS.

In most cases, the IP addresses used by your ISP’s domain name servers are automatically set by your ISP via the Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). To use Google Public DNS, you need to explicitly change the DNS settings in your operating system or device to use the Google Public DNS IP addresses. The procedure for changing your DNS settings varies according to operating system and version (Windows, Mac or Linux) or the device (computer, phone, or router). We give general procedures here that might not apply for your OS or device; please consult your vendor documentation for authoritative information.

Note: We recommend that only users who are proficient with configuring operating system settings make these changes.

Important: Before you start

Before you change your DNS settings to use Google Public DNS, be sure to write down the current server addresses or settings on a piece of paper. It is very important that you keep these numbers for backup purposes, in case you need to revert to them at any time.

After changing your settings, if you encounter a problem and cannot connect to the Internet, call Google’s support numbers for troubleshooting instructions.

you can download this tutorial and print it, in the event that you encounter a problem and need to refer to these instructions.

Google Public DNS IP addresses

The Google Public DNS IP addresses are as follows:

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

You can use either number as your primary or secondary DNS server. You can specify both numbers, but do not specify one number as both primary and secondary.

Changing your DNS servers settings

Many systems allow you to specify multiple DNS servers, to be contacted in a priority order. In the following instructions, we provide steps to specify only the Google Public DNS servers as the primary and secondary servers, to ensure that your setup will correctly use Google Public DNS in all cases.

Note: Depending on your network setup, you may need administrator/root privileges to change these settings.

Microsoft Windows

DNS settings are specified in the TCP/IP Properties window for the selected network connection.

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Microsoft Windows Vista

1. Go the Control Panel.
2. Click Network and Internet, then Network and Sharing Center, then Manage network connections.
3. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
   • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, right-click Local Area Connection, and click Properties.
   • To change the settings for a wireless connection, right-click Wireless Network Connection, and click Properties.

   If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.

4. Select the Networking tab. Under This connection uses the following items, click Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4), and then click Properties.
5. Click Advanced and select the DNS tab. If there are any DNS server IP addresses listed there, write them down for future reference, and remove them from this window.
6. Click OK.
7. Select Use the following DNS server addresses. If there are any IP addresses listed in the Preferred DNS server or Alternate DNS server, write them down for future reference.
8. Replace those addresses with the IP addresses of the Google DNS servers: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
9. Restart the connection you selected in step 3.
10. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
11. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

Mac OS X

DNS settings are specified in the Network window.

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Mac OS 10.5

1. From the Apple menu, click System Preferences, then click Network. If you are prompted for an administrator password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
2. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
   • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, select Built-In Ethernet, and click Advanced.
   • To change the settings for a wireless connection, select Airport, and click Advanced.
3. Select the DNS tab.
4. Click + to replace any listed addresses with, or add, the Google IP addresses at the top of the list: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
5. Click Apply and OK.
6. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
7. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

Linux

In most modern Linux distributions, DNS settings are configured through Network Manager.

Example: Changing DNS server settings on Ubuntu

1. In the System menu, click Preferences, then click Network Connections.
2. Select the connection for which you want to configure Google Public DNS. For example:
   • To change the settings for an Ethernet connection, select the Wired tab, then select your network interface in the list. It is usually called eth0.
   • To change the settings for a wireless connection, select the Wireless tab, then select the appropriate wireless network.
3. Click Edit, and in the window that appears, select the IPv4 Settings tab.
4. If the selected method is Automatic (DHCP), open the dropdown and select Automatic (DHCP) addresses only instead. If the method is set to something else, do not change it.
5. In the DNS servers field, enter the Google Public DNS IP addresses, separated by a space: 8.8.8.8  8.8.4.4
6. Click Apply to save the change. If you are prompted for a password or confirmation, type the password or provide confirmation.
7. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.
8. Repeat the procedure for additional network connections you want to change.

If your distribution doesn’t use Network Manager, your DNS settings are specified in /etc/resolv.conf.

Example: Changing DNS server settings on a Debian server

1. Edit /etc/resolv.conf:

   sudo vi /etc/resolv.conf

2. If any nameserver lines appear, write down the IP addresses for future reference.
3. Replace the nameserver lines with, or add, the following lines:

   nameserver 8.8.8.8
   nameserver 8.8.4.4

4. Save and exit.
5. Restart any Internet clients you are using.
6. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.

Additionally, if you are using DHCP client software that overwrites the settings in /etc/resolv.conf, you will need to set up the client accordingly by editing the client’s configuration file.

Example: Configuring DHCP client sofware on a Debian server

1. Back up /etc/resolv.conf:

   sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.auto

2. Edit /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf:

   sudo vi /etc/dhcp3/dhclient.conf

3. If there is a line containing domain-name-servers, write down the IP addresses for future reference.
4. Replace that line with, or add, the following line:

   prepend domain-name-servers 8.8.8.8, 8.8.4.4;

5. Save and exit.
6. Restart any Internet clients you are using.
7. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.

Routers

Every router uses a different user interface for configuring DNS server settings; we provide only a generic procedure below. For more information, please consult your router documentation.

Note: Some ISPs hard-code their DNS servers into the equipment they provide; if you are using such a device, you will not be able to configure it to use Google Public DNS. Instead, you can configure each of the computers connected to the router, as described above.

To change your settings on a router:

1. In your browser, enter the IP address to access the router’s administration console.
2. When prompted, enter the password to access network settings.
3. Find the screen in which DNS server settings are specified.
4. If there are IP addresses specified in the fields for the primary and seconday DNS servers, write them down for future reference.
5. Replace those addresses with Google IP addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
6. Save and exit.
7. Restart your browser.
8. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.

Mobile or other devices

DNS servers are typically specified under advanced wi-fi settings. However, as every mobile device uses a different user interface for configuring DNS server settings, we provide only a generic procedure below. For more information, please consult your mobile provider’s documentation.

To change your settings on a mobile device:

1. Go to the screen in which wi-fi settings are specified.
2. Find the screen in which DNS server settings are specified.
3. If there are IP addresses specified in the fields for the primary and seconday DNS servers, write them down for future reference.
4. Replace those addresses with Google IP addresses: 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4.
5. Save and exit.
6. Test that your setup is working correctly; see Testing your new settings below.

Testing your new settings

To test that the Google DNS resolver is working:

1. From your browser, type in a hostname, such as http://www.google.com. If it resolves correctly, bookmark the page, and try accessing the page from the bookmark. If both of these tests work, everything is working correctly. If not, go to step 2.
2. From your browser, type in a fixed IP address. You can use http://18.62.1.6/ (which points to the website http://eecs.mit.edu/) as the URL*. If this works correctly, bookmark the page, and try accessing the page from the bookmark. If these tests work (but step 1 fails), then there is a problem with your DNS configuration; check the steps above to make sure you have configured everything correctly. If these tests do not work, go to step 3.
3. Roll back the DNS changes you made and run the tests again. If the tests still do not work, then there is a problem with your network settings; contact your ISP or network administrator for assistance.

* Google thanks MIT for granting permission to use this URL for the purposes of testing web connectivity.

Switching back to your old DNS settings

If you had not previously configured any customized DNS servers, to switch back to your old settings, in the window in which you specified the Google IP addresses, select the option to enable obtaining DNS server addresses automatically, and/or delete the Google IP addresses. This will revert your settings to using your ISP’s default servers.

If you need to manually specify any addresses, use the procedures above to specify the old IP addresses.

If necessary, restart your system.

The Guide above has been provided by Google you can read the original tutorial at Google Code

Related posts:

1. Google Updater Service Uninstall, Disable Or Configure The Complete Guide
2. Uninstall Google Gears From Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
3. Unblock Blocked Websites like Myspace, Bebo and Orkut
4. Facebook Chat, Google Gtalk Intergration Coming Soon
5. Yahoo To Stop Email Spam Forever With DKIM

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Google, Technology, Tutorial Tags: Browser, DNS, Guide, How To, Performance, Tuneup

We all knew Google has been secretly work on an Operating System called the Google Chrome OS, Google has now officially announced the Google Chrome OS. The best part is they have open sourced the whole code. Could this be the operating system that everyone been waiting for? Not really here are a couple of reasons why, read about it after the Video.

What? How? Who? Etc about the Google Chrome OS in Brief

1. Will be Open Source.
2. Speed, Simplicity, and Security are the pillars of Chrome OS
3. Cloud based OS, which means all your data will be stored online not on the hardisk.
4. Here is the funny part it will be a paid ?
5. Support the latest Web Standards HTML 5 CSS 3.0 etc
6. Not meant to be your Primary OS.
7. Can be run in a Virtual Machine.
8. Main targets are netbooks, since the use of netbooks have been growing at an exponential rate.
9. 7 Second boot time. Everything is flash-memory-based–no hard drive.
10. Will run only web applications no native applications.
11. Chrome OS looks very much like Chrome browser

Here is a video of a prototype of the Chrome OS

What is the Google Chrome OS Video In Brief?

Watch this video which explains it in brief. After the video I have listed out all the technical details.

Related posts:

1. Internet Explorer 9 and SilverLight 4 Announced Breaking News
2. Google Updater Service Uninstall, Disable Or Configure The Complete Guide
3. FireFox 3.0 And Opera Have Inbuilt Support For Video, SVG Is Pretty Cool
4. Uninstall Google Gears From Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
5. Facebook Chat, Google Gtalk Intergration Coming Soon

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Google, Open Source, Software, Technology Tags:

If you read my previous post about uninstalling Google Gears, the main reason why I wanted to uninstall Google Gears, was because Google Update would fire up every 30 mins to check for for an update and this got really annoying, Google Update does this silently in the background without your knowledge, I been using a firewall monitoring application called Little Snitch to see which programs connect to the internet on my Mac, unlike most programs which check for an update every time the program is launched, Google updater will check every half hour, also there is no option to configure or disable the updater. I wonder if the Google Updater Service was doing more than just checking for an update. Conspiracy theories aside,  googling around showed me that I wasn’t the only one facing this problem, similar to uninstalling Google Gears on the Mac, there was no straight forward way to get rid or to configure the Updater , this goes both for Windows and the Mac OS X.

First of all lets see how Google updater gets install, this will help in preventing you from getting the update service running in the background. If you are using any of the Google prodcuts, like Google Desktop, Google gears, Google Talk, Google Pack and Google Earth the updater gets installed and starts running in the background silently.

Scroll down if you are looking for the Mac OS X Guide

Google Updater Service on Windows 7, Vista & XP

For people using windows you can hit the CNTRL + ALT + DEL keys to bring up the task manager to see if the Google Update program is running in the background or not.

Now there are a couple of things you might want to do, completely get rid of the Google update which can cause so programs to malfunction or Configure google updater to check the internet at a specified time.

Completly Get rid Of Google Updater Service.

There are a couple of different way you can remove the Google Updater. Each has its advantages and disadvantages.

Uninstall from the Start Menu

1. Go to the Start menu > Programs > Google Updater > Uninstall Google Updater.
2. Restart your computer after you uninstall.

Uninstall from the Control Panel

1. Click the Start menu on your computer taskbar.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Double-click Add or Remove Programs (on XP) or Programs and Features (on Vista).
4. Select Google Updater in the list of programs.
5. Click Remove.
6. Restart your computer after you uninstall.

Uninstall from the command line (advanced)

1. Click the Start menu on your computer taskbar.
2. Select Run.
3. Enter cmd to open a command prompt.
4. Type cd C:\Program Files\Google\Google Updater to change directories.
5. Type GoogleUpdater.exe -uninstall to uninstall.
6. Restart your computer after you uninstall.

If the Above Methods don’t work you can try the following options.
Disabling the Google Updater from startup List

1. Click on Start Button then in the Run box, type in msconfig in the Open field and click OK or press the Enter key.
2. The System Configuration Utility will open up. On the top you’ll a couple of tabs, select the Startup tab. Go down to the GoogleUpdate startup item and deselect it.
3. Restart the computer.

Disabling the Google Updater service

1. Click on Start Button then in the Run box, type in services.msc in the Open field and click OK or press the Enter key.
2. You will see a huge list of Services, scroll down to find the GoogleUpdate Service. Double click on it to open the Properties box (or right click and select Properties). The Startup Type drop-down will list three options, select Disabled.
3. Click on Apply and OK.

Customizing the Updater: Software update preferences

The Google Updater lets you choose if and how you’re notified about updates for software you’ve installed through Google Pack. To set your preferences for Pack software updates, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Start menu > Programs > Google Updater > Google Updater.
2. Click the Preferences tab.
3. Click Advanced options.
4. In the ‘Updates’ section, select one of the following options:
   • ‘Automatically update software’: The Updater will silently keep your software up-to-date without any prompts or notifications. Occasionally, an issue may need your attention, in which case you’ll be notified.
   • ‘Let me check for updates myself’: The Updater won’t send you any update notifcations and your software won’t be updated automatically. To see a list of available updates, click the Updates tab at any time.
5. Once you’ve made your selection, click Save Preferences.

Configure Google Update using Registry.

If your operating doesn’t include a policy editor (Windows XP Home, Windows Vista Home), edit the Registry directly. Just create the following key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Policies\Google\Update

and add two DWORD values:

AutoUpdateCheckPeriodMinutes – auto-update check interval (for example: 1440 to check for updates once a day)

DisableAutoUpdateChecksCheckboxValue – 1, if you want to disable the auto-updater; 0, if you want to enable it.

Configure Google Update using the Group Policy.

Change the default update check period to once per week or disable it.
Step 1. Download the Administrative Template provided by Google Google Updater Group Policy Template

Step 2. Launch Group Policy Editor

• Navigate to Start > Run: gpedit.msc

Step 3. Importing Google Update ADM template.

• Navigate to Local Computer Policy > Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates
• Right-click Administrative Templates, and select Add/Remove Templates
  Google Updater Configure Group Policy
• Add the GoogleUpdate.adm template via the dialog.
• Once complete, a Google folder will appear under ‘Administrative Templates’ if it’s not there already.

Step 4. Set the update check period.

• Navigate to Administrative Templates > Google > Google Update > Preferences.
  Google Updater Configure Group Policy
• Modify the Auto-update check period override property as shown or mark is a Disabled.
  Google Updater Configure Group Policy

If you want Disable Individual Google products. The Example below uses Google Chrome auto-updates as an Example.

Follow steps 1 and 2 in the first example if you haven’t imported the GoogleUpdate.adm template. Change the update policy override for Google Chrome:

• Navigate to Administrative Templates > Google > Google Update > Applications > Google Chrome.
  Disable Google Chrome
• Modify the Update policy override property as shown.
  Disable Google Chrome

Mac OS X GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent and GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon

Remove GoogleSoftwareUpdateDaemon from the Mac OS X

1. Uninstall any Google programs you currently have installed on your computer.
   Failing to uninstall your Google applications may cause these applications to work improperly and, in many cases, Google Software Update will be reinstalled after a few hours.
2. Open a Terminal window by going to Applications > Utilities in Finder.
3. Google Software Update can be uninstalled for a specific user or for your whole system. Paste one of the following commands in Terminal:
   • Uninstall for a specific user:Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py –uninstall
   • Uninstall for the whole system: (needs root access)sudo /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/GoogleSoftwareUpdateAgent.app/Contents/Resources/install.py –uninstall
4. After pasting the command, press Enter on your keyboard.

Google Software Update should now be uninstalled

Configure Google Updater for the Mac OS X

Update Frequency
To change how frequently Google Software Update checks for updates, execute the following in the Terminal application:

$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval

where is the elapsed time in seconds between update checks.

To disable Google Software Update from checking for updates, execute the following in the Terminal application:

$ defaults write com.google.Keystone.Agent checkInterval 0

Manual Updates
Google Software Update also provides a way to manually update all Google software on a user’s Mac. Here’s how:

1. In Finder, select Go > Go to Folder.
2. In the window that appears, enter one of the following locations. It’s expected that one of these folders won’t be found:
   • /Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
   • ~/Library/Google/GoogleSoftwareUpdate/GoogleSoftwareUpdate.bundle/Contents/Resources/
3. In the folder that opens, double click the file named ‘CheckForUpdatesNow.command’.

Terminal will open to run the file. When you see the message ‘[Process completed]‘ you can close Terminal. Once this is done, your Google programs will be up to date.

Related posts:

1. Uninstall Google Gears From Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
2. Free Public DNS Servers IP Addresses and How To Configure Google Public DNS
3. How to Hide or Remove A Installed Program from Add Remove
4. How To Remove SpyWare, AdWare Clean and Fix Windows
5. How To Upgrade and Update WordPress A Simple Guide

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Google, Software, Technology Tags: Guide, How To, Update

Microsoft just announced that they been working on Internet Explorer 9 and SilverLight 4. Below I have listed a brief run down of all that you can expect in the both Internet Explorer 9 and SilverLight 4.

Internet Explorer 9 Whats new?

Increased JavaScript Performance

The latest builds of Internet Explorer 9 shows that the performance is comparable to that of FireFox 3.6 and Chrome 4 and the latest Web Kit Nightly build. If true this is a huge improvement.

Internet Explorer 9 JavaScript Performance

Standards Support CSS 3.0 and HTML 5

What does that mean? In plain english it means support for rounded corners, text shadows, Box shadows, video support etc without the need for using images or scripts. Thought the latest ACID 3 test for Internet Explorer 9 doesn’t seem to be that great.

Acid 3

Rounded Corners

CSS Selectors

Uses Graphics hardware acceleration for rendering

We’re changing IE to use the DirectX family of Windows APIs to enable many advances for web developers. The starting point is moving all graphics and text rendering from the CPU to the graphics card using Direct2D and DirectWrite. Graphics hardware acceleration means that rich, graphically intensive sites can render faster while using less CPU. Now, web developers can take advantage of the hardware ecosystem’s advances in graphics while they continue to author sites with the same interoperable standards patterns they’re used to.

In addition to better performance, this technology shift also increases font quality and readability with sub-pixel positioning

Rendering of font normally

96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom using GDI (note jaggies)

Rendering of font using Graphic card hardware

96 point Gabriola on a Lenovo X61 ThinkPad at 100% Zoom: Direct2D (without jaggies)

SilverLight 4 Whats new?

Empowering richer, more interactive experiences

Silverlight is already in use as a comprehensive platform for building rich experiences both for application and pure media scenarios including HD quality, interactive video through Smooth Streaming. Silverlight 4 introduces additional capabilities to enable creation of ever more rich, appealing high-performance interactive experiences and innovative media experiences:

• Fluid interface enhancements advance application usability through animation effects.
• Webcam and microphone to allow sharing of video and audio for instance for chat or customer service applications.
• Audio and video local recording capabilities capture RAW video without requiring server interaction, enabling a wide range of end-user interaction and communication scenarios for example video conferencing.
• Bring data in to your application with features such as copy and paste or drag and drop.
• Long lists can now be scrolled effortlessly with the mouse wheel.
• Support conventional desktop interaction models through new features such as right-click context menu.
• Support for Google’s Chrome browser.
• Performance optimizations mean Silverlight 4 applications start quicker and run 200% faster than the equivalent Silverlight 3 application.
• Deep Zoom enhancements include hardware acceleration to support larger datasets and faster animation.
• Multi-touch support enables a range of gestures and touch interactions to be integrated into user experiences.
• Multicast networking, enabling Enterprises to lower the cost of streaming broadcast events such as company meetings and training, interoperating seamlessly with existing Windows Media Server streaming infrastructure.
• Content protection for H.264 media through Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady.
• Output protection for audio/video streams allowing content owners or distributors to ensure protected content is only viewed through a secure video connection.

For Sandboxed applications

• Place HTML within your application enabling much tighter integration with content from web servers such as email, help and reports.
• Provide support for ‘toast’ notification windows, allowing applications to communicate status or change information while the user is working on another application through a popup window on the taskbar.
• Offline DRM, extending the existing Silverlight DRM powered by PlayReady technology to work offline. Protected content can be delivered with an embedded license so that users can go offline immediately and start enjoying their content.
• Control over aspects of UI include window settings such as start position, size and chrome.

For Trusted applications

• Read and write files to the user’s MyDocuments, MyMusic, MyPictures and MyVideos folder (or equivalent for non-windows platforms) for example storage of media files and taking local copies of reports.
• Run other desktop programs such as Office, for example requesting Outlook to send an email, send a report to Word or data to Excel.
• COM automation enables access to devices and other system capabilities by calling into application components; for instance to access a USB security card reader.
• A new user interface for requesting application privileges access outside the standard Silverlight sandbox.
• Group policy objects allow organizations to tailor which applications may have elevated trust.
• Full keyboard support in fullscreen mode richer kiosk and media applications.
• Enhancements to networking allow cross-domain access without a security policy file.

Related posts:

1. Download Internet Explorer 8 Beta, New Features In IE8
2. Google Chrome OS All About it – Breaking News
3. The SilverLight Poster and more on Silverlight and Microsoft
4. Prism and XUL Could Have Been A Silverlight And Adobe AIR Killer
5. FireFox 3.0 And Opera Have Inbuilt Support For Video, SVG Is Pretty Cool

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Software, Technology Tags: Browser, Internet Explorer, Silverlight

I been playing around with Fluid for Mac, its similar to the Prism. If you don’t know what I am talking about, basically PRISM and FLUID let you run any web applications like Gmail, Facebook, Google Reader etc in a separate instance of a browser, so that you can launch them like desktop Icons.

Fluid Apps

I installed google gears to enable offline browsing while using gmail, and google reader. After a while I decided to get rid of it since Little Snitch (a firewall application) told me that Google kept trying to connect every 30 minutes to the internet to check for an update, I found this extremely annoying and completely unnecessary. What was more annoying was that I couldn’t find a way to uninstall it. On a mac uninstalling is pretty straight forward just drag and drop the application on to the trash can. In google gears case it wasn’t installed as an application, and after hunting around I found that the only way to uninstall it is to run a command in terminal. below are the instructions.

1. First Quit any fluid application including Safari.
2. In Finder, open your Applications folder.
3. Open the folder named Utilities.
4. Open Terminal. alternative is to type Terminal directly in Spotlight
5. In Terminal, enter the following command (including the quotes): ‘/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/Gears.plugin/Contents/Resources/uninstall.command’
6. Press Enter.
7. Enter your password when prompted.

For instructions on how to uninstall Google Gears for various other Operating systems.

Windows XP or Vista

1. Click the Start menu on your computer taskbar.
2. Select Control Panel.
3. Double-click Add or Remove Programs (on XP) or Programs and Features (on Vista).
4. Select Google Gears in the list of programs.
5. Click the Remove button.

If you’ve installed Google Chrome, Gears is installed by default. To uninstall Gears for Google Chrome, you’ll need to uninstall Google Chrome.

Linux

1. Open Firefox.
2. Click the Tools menu.
3. Select Extensions (Firefox 1) or Add-ons (Firefox 2 or later).
4. Select Google Gears in the list of programs.
5. Click Uninstall.
6. Restart Firefox.

Mac OS X

1. Open Firefox.
2. Click the Tools menu.
3. Select Extensions (Firefox 1) or Add-ons (Firefox 2 or later).
4. Select Google Gears in the list of programs.
5. Click Uninstall.
6. Restart Firefox.

Windows Mobile 5.0 or 6.0

1. Select Settings.
2. If present, select the System tab.
3. Select Remove Programs.
4. Select Google Gears from the list.
5. Click Remove.
6. Restart your device.

Related posts:

1. Google Updater Service Uninstall, Disable Or Configure The Complete Guide
2. How to Hide or Remove A Installed Program from Add Remove
3. Google Announces "Gears" Offline Support For Web Applications
4. Free Public DNS Servers IP Addresses and How To Configure Google Public DNS
5. Recover Lost Forgotten Windows XP Administrator Password

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Google, Tutorial Tags: How To, Uninstall

I was using Facebook when I saw the ad on the side recommending me to switch to Facebook lite for a faster and better user experience. So I clicked on it hoping to change back to the regular Facebook interface once I was done with exploring Facebook Lite. Facebook lite is an simplified version of Facebook, that lets you use facebook without the clutter of various Facebook Applications spamming your Wall and Feed. But the funny thing is there was no link anywhere which I could use to switch back to the regular interface. I spent 10 minutes trying to figure out how to Switch off the Facebook Lite Interdface change back to the default Facebook interface. I could see that the URL of the the Facebook Lite page was http://lite.facebook.com/ and when I tried entering http://facebook.com/ it would redirect me back to http://lite.facebook.com/. After a lot of hunting around I found a couple of solutions.

Official way to Switch off Facebook Lite

On the top right hand corner before the search box you’ll see two small icons, the first on looks like a spanner click this, this will take you to the facebook lite settings page.

Facebook Lite Settings

Now click on default site

Facebook Lite Default Site

Select. When I go to Facebook.com, show me, Regular Facebook. and click save you should be done. You also have the option of checking Let me switch between regular Facebook and Facebook Lite If you select this option, a blue bar will appear at the top of Facebook that enables you to switch back and forth between the two versions i.e Facebook Lite and the default Facebook Interface.

Facebook Lite Change To Default Facebook

Use The Facebook Feeback Form

Scroll way down to the bottom of the facebook lite interface at the bottom you’ll see a small link called feedback click this., You’ll see a new page at the top it will say Looking to get back to the regular Facebook? Just click here. Just click the given link it should turn off the Facebook Lite interface and send you back to the regular Facebook interface.

Other Methods are listed below but not Guaranteed to work.

Change Facebook URL Link

You’ll notice that the Url has changed to http://lite.facebook.com/ just change this back to http://facebook.com/. This doesn’t work all the time you can try to use http://lite.facebook.com/home.php

Clear Your browser Cookies and Cache

Clear your browser cookies and cache and try logging into facebook again, the facebook lite interface should be gone now.
For Internet Explorer users go to your menu bar and click Tools –> Internet Options –> Delete Cookies and Delete Files
For Firefox Users go to your menu bar and click Tools –> Clear recent History –> Select all the options and click Clear all

Related posts:

1. Myspace Hack : Profile url And MySpace Email
2. Facebook Chat, Google Gtalk Intergration Coming Soon
3. Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership
4. Uninstall Google Gears From Mac OS X, Windows, Linux
5. How To Hack Myspace Private profile picture and video

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 16 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: General, Internet, Tutorial Tags: FaceBook, Hacking, How To, Social-Networks, Tutorial

Looks like hackers at it again. Its like a cat and mouse game between the hackers and Microsoft, it true for any other companies as well Apple with its iPhone which has been cracked, jail broken and unlocked, Mac OSX hacked to run on other systems called as Hackintosh. The latest word on the street is that hackers have finally managed to crack windows 7 activation licensing key restrictions. Compared to Windows XP and Windows Vista Microsoft had beefed up security and licensing technology on Windows 7, which hasn’t stopped the hackers from taking a crack at it. Even when Windows 7 was released hackers had managed to find a workaround to bypass the activation in Windows 7 which utilized a leaked OEM product key. Microsoft was quick to blacklist the keys and was prompt to respond that they had superior licensing technology within Windows 7 to counter such hacking. The technology is labelled as WAT Windows Activation Technology.

Windows 7 Activation Key Cracks Using Chew WGA & RemoveWGA

The cracks currently floating around the internet are called Chew WGA and RemoveWGA. They provide one click patch solution for Windows 7 RTM. The cracks do not actually validate or activate windows, but lets you use Windows 7 indefinitely. Microsoft has confirmed that they are aware of these cracks for Windows 7 and are working swiftly to fix this. Knowing Microsoft this shouldn’t take too long. The Security fix from Microsoft will most likely be a Windows 7 Update patch. People who use pirated and cracked software, will mostly likely be unable to update Windows 7 without deactivating the crack.

People who use pirated and cracked software are mostly likely to be open to malware and virus attacks, personally I recommend buying the original software, If you can’t afford it Ubuntu Linux is a great option its Free and Open Source, and in some ways is better than windows in terms of security.

Windows 7 Activation MGA

Windows 7 System Properties

Source: Orginally reported by Cnet

Related posts:

1. Download FairUse4WM and Crack Windows Media DRM
2. How to Hack or Crack a Windows XP Administrator Password
3. How To Remove SpyWare, AdWare Clean and Fix Windows
4. Microsoft We Screwed Up Windows Mobile, iPhone Competitor Silverlight Mobile 2010
5. Recover Lost Forgotten Windows XP Administrator Password

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Technology Tags: Hacking, Hacks, Windows

Unlocked iPhone 3GS

This post is for all iPhone lovers, if you are like me and totally frustrated by the locked iPhones that Apple sells the good news is Apple sells Official Factory Unlocked iPhones 3GS. Unlike the US there are some countries that have sane laws about locking the phone that a Mobile service provider gives you. I own an iPhone 3GS which I brought for the full price contract free from AT&T, straight off from Cupertino, California, US when I was there a few months back. Using the iPhone 3GS was a great experience while I was in the US. Once I came back to India I had no other option but to hack the iPhone 3GS or Jailbreak it as its called, once the iPhone is Jailbroken you can Unlock it to make it work with your local Service Provider.

The jailbreaking was not an issue, the iPhone worked great after unlocking it, but I get frustrated when I think about how I brought such an expensive gadget with my money and was not being allowed to use it in the way I wanted to, also the ethical factor bothered me a lot. And every time there is a firmware update I have to wait for the unlock to come out.

I am a great Apple fan. I work on a 15″ Mac Book pro and all my design and development work is done on it, Apple is great at churning out really cool products that just simply work out of the box, the User Experience, right from the packaging, Design, Hardware and Software is extremely streamlined. But they have one big drawback they lock you down into their system whether its Hardware or Software.

So I began my quest for an Official unlocked iPhone. First I started by looking on eBay and was horrified by the prices at which the 3GS was selling. Now by cheap I don’t literally mean cheap but you can get it for the exact full price that Apple sells it for, without the need for buying it off from eBay for $$$ and then when you get it you realise it’s badly scratched or doesn’t work properly or is truly locked.

The Cheapest Place to buy An Unlocked iPhone 3GS

The Cheapest Place to buy An official factory Unlocked iPhone 3GS now is Hong Kong. Hong Kong is one of the few countries where its illegal to lock a Phone down to a Mobile service provider, hence Apple sells it unlocked. check out the iPhone Prices on the Hong Kong Apple Store

Here is what it states on the Apple iPhone Page.

iPhone 3G & iPhone 3GS purchased at the Apple Online Store can be activated with any wireless carrier. Simply insert the SIM from your current phone into iPhone 3G or iPhone 3GS and connect to
iTunes 8.2 to complete activation.2 Purchase limitations may apply.

Price Listing for an unlocked iPhone 3GS in Hong Kong.

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 5388 Hong Kong dollars = 696 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 6288 Hong Kong dollars = 812 U.S. dollars

Official Unlocked iPhone 3GS Hong Kong Prices

The Other places to buy unlocked iPhones but not so cheap prices are

Australia iPhone 3GS Apple Store Prices

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 879 Australian dollars = 820 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 1040 Australian dollars = 970 U.S. dollars

New Zealand iPhone 3GS Apple Store Prices

• iPhone 3GS 16GB is 1149 New Zealand dollars = 853 U.S. dollars
• iPhone 3GS 32GB is 1349 New Zealand dollars = 1002 U.S. dollars

The List of Places where you Can buy an unlocked iPhone are list below. the data might be a little old. But you can check for an Updated list on the Apple Website itself which lists all the places in the World where the iPhone is sold and also which Wireless provider sells Unlocked iPhones

• Belgium – Mobistar 16GB: 575 EUR32GB: 675 EUR
• Czech Republic – O2, T-Mobile, Vodafone 16GB: 15 777 CZK32GB: 18 377 CZK
• Greece – Vodafone, Cosmote16GB: 569.00 EUR32GB: 668.99 EUR
• Hong Kong – 316GB: HK$ 5,38832GB: HK$ 6,288
• Italy – TIM, Vodafone16GB: 619 EUR32GB: 719 EUR
• Luxemburg – Vox Mobile, LUXGSM
• Macau – 3
• Malaysia – Maxis16GB: RM249032GB: RM2990
• New Zealand – Vodafone16GB: 1,179 NZD32GB: 1,379 NZD
• Russia – MegaFon, MTS, Beeline
• Saudi Arabia – Mobily
• Singapore – SingTel
• Slovakia – Orange
• South Africa – Vodacom16GB: R750032GB: R8500
• Taiwan – Chunghwa Telecom
• Thailand – TrueMove
• Turkey – TurkCell
• United Arab Emirates – Etisalat

Source my google search turned up hackint0sh.org/

Related posts:

1. Apple Numbers
2. Good Bye Apple You Suck Really Bad
3. Confirmed iPhone To be Launched on June 29
4. Microsoft We Screwed Up Windows Mobile, iPhone Competitor Silverlight Mobile 2010
5. iPhone Nano Can It Be True ? Naaa

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 8 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Apple, Featured, Technology, iPhone Tags: Buying Guide, Gadget, Mac OSX

Updated: Found a Fix for the missing post id at the end of the url using $postLink = urlencode ( $postLink ) ;

Updated: Got rid of the Custom Metadata, used the modified date and the created date of the post to check if its a new post or an old one. Now you don’t have to worry about updating your old posts.

Updated: To Make the title text more Twitter friendly.

I been trying to cut down on the number of Plugins used. Firstly to make maintained easier, secondly to simplify and reduce to the bare minimum without using Plugins, thirdly to hone up my WordPress skills. The latest plugin I got rid of was the WP to Twitter Plugin. Initially I started off trying to modify how I wanted it to work. Basically I wanted to cut off Bit.ly as a URL shortner and use my own blog as a URL shortner to send people directly to my site and keep the traffic on my site without the need for a middle man. I figured this out after I saw how Amit Aggarwal was tweeting his links to his site.

Short URLs in WordPress without Bit.ly or URL Shortners

We all know that WordPress generates long Permalinks for your site, it automatically converts your titles into those long URLs called permalinks that you see. Example http://www.clazh.com/this_is_some_random_post, If you switch off Permalinks in WordPress you’ll see that links to your posts will be of the form http://www.clazh.com/?p=401 if you look at it you’ll notice the last bit has a number attached to it, each post has a unique ID associated to it. The trick is to make use of this ID to and create a URL for our posts, so when people click on this shortned link they’ll be automatically taken to the Permalink associated with that post its as simple as that.

A Simple WordPress To Twitter Function.

First we’ll write a really simple function that uses CURL to post to the Twitter API. Just copy paste it into your functions.php file in your WordPress theme directory. In case you don’t see the file in yours themes folder just create one and paste the code inside it. To check if CURL is enabled on your server you can paste this function into a blank PHP file and call the function like this twitterUpdate("some random post", "http://clazh.com", true); with some random inputs. Make sure you uncomment the last few lines where it says to uncomment to test for CURL support.

Note: In the rare case your host does not support CURL you can always make use of fsockopen for PHP 4 or the much easier stream_context_creat for PHP5

function twitterUpdate($postTitle, $postLink, $isNew)
{
	// Enter Your Twitter ID Here
	$username = 'Twitter_ID';
	// Enter Your Twitter Password Here
	$password = 'Password';

        # text into a twitter friendly text
	$code_entities_match = array('--','"','!','@','#','$','%','^','&','*','(',')','_','+','{','}','|',':','"','<','>','?','[',']','\\',';',"'",',','.','/','*','+','~','`','=');
	$code_entities_replace = array('-','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','','');
	$postTitle = str_replace($code_entities_match, $code_entities_replace, $postTitle);

	// Check if New or Updated Post
	if($isNew)
		$postTitle = 'New Post: ' . $postTitle;
	else
		$postTitle = 'Updated Post: ' . $postTitle;

	// Calculate Twitter Msg and keep it under 140 Chars
        if(strlen ($postTitle) > (140 - strlen ($postLink)))
		$postTitle 		= substr_replace($postTitle, '...', (140 - 3 - strlen ($postLink)));

	$message = $postTitle . $postLink;

	// The twitter API address
	$url = 'http://twitter.com/statuses/update.xml';
	$curl_handle = curl_init();
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_URL, "$url");
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_CONNECTTIMEOUT, 2);
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1);
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POST, 1);
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_POSTFIELDS, "status=$message");
	curl_setopt($curl_handle, CURLOPT_USERPWD, "$username:$password");
	$buffer = curl_exec($curl_handle);
	curl_close($curl_handle);

	// Uncomment the lines below to check if
	// CURL is enabled on your Web Server
	// check for success or failure
	/*
	if (empty($buffer))
		echo 'message';
	else
		echo 'success';
	*/
}

WordPress Function that Triggers Post To Twitter

Next we’ll write a simple wordpress function that triggers whenever you update or publish a post, we will also added a custom metadata to the post check if its a new or old post. Copy paste this code below the twitterUpdate function in your functions.php themes file.

function postToTwitter($post_ID)
{
	// Create your Short URL replace with your blog url
	$postLink = ' http://clazh.com/?p=' . $post_ID;
	// encode the URL to fix Post to Twitter issues
        $postLink = urlencode  ( $postLink ) ;
	// Get the Post Object
	$get_post_info 	= get_post( $post_ID );
	// Get the Post Title
	$postTitle = $get_post_info->post_title;
        // Get the Post date
	$postDate 		= date('U', strtotime($get_post_info->post_date));
	// Get the post Modified date
	$postModified 	= date('U', strtotime($get_post_info->post_modified));

	// Check if the post is new or modified
	if($postModified == $postDate)
	{
		twitterUpdate($postTitle, $postLink, true);
	}
	/*  If You want to fire everytime You update
	      a post remove these comments around the else.
	else
	{
		twitterUpdate($postTitle, $postLink, false);
	}
	*/
}

// Post to twitter when you publish or update a post
add_action('publish_post', 'postToTwitter');

So thats about it, just paste these two blocks of code into your functions.php and change the required parameter, you can play around with the code and modify it to change the message being posted to twitter.

Related posts:

1. Guest Bloggers Required, SandBox Wordpress Theme Suggestions
2. Wordpress Plugin Better Comments Manager Update
3. Wordpress Security Alert Adsense Deluxe Plugin Vulnerable
4. Who Sees Ads 1.0 Wordpress Plugin Released
5. FeedSmith The Official FeedBurner Wordpress Plugin

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 12 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Featured, Tutorial, Web-Design, Wordpress Tags:

I just returned from the round table discussion Microsoft MVPs and MVP Alumni had with S. Somasegar the Senior Vice President of the Developer Division at Microsoft, at the Sheraton Hotel in Chennai. I was the first person to land there and the only one dressed up casually in a T-Shirt and Jeans not surprising since most of the MVPs had regular jobs or worked as developers for companies.

S. Somasegar VP at Microsoft

Its very rare to see an executive of such high level come down to meet with developers and mix and mingle with them. Its people like Somasegar who connect and engage with the community that increases the appeal Microsoft has as a Company and separates them from Apple or Google. A down to earth person he candidly answers all the questions that were fired at him.

He began by explaining Microsoft’s Vision and how they always plan and develop things which would be relevant 5 years down the line, the next version of .NET 4, Visual Studio 2010, new features introduced the completely redesigned UI based on WPF for the IDE. Most of the discussion centered around .NET and the developer tools. But Missing from the whole talk was Windows Mobile. While I been a .NET developer for 3 years before I quit to become a freelancer, I was more interested in what Microsoft was doing with Silverlight and its Mobile Platform, and how they were looking to compete with the iPhone OS and Android Platform.

Yes We Screwed up with Windows Mobile

I pointed out Windows Mobile and the lack of innovation and stagnation with regards to features, User Experience, Design and interface his answer was extremely candid and frank. “Yes we screwed up Windows Mobile, and let it stagnant. In fact you are being very polite in pointing this out.” He went to say how the initial vision of Windows Mobile had been long term and well planned but along the way the lost the game.

Microsoft Secret Plans For Windows Mobile, Silverlight for Mobile

While he was very mum and secretive about what Microsoft had planned for Windows Mobile, he did let out that a few things about what Microsoft was doing for the mobile platform, they had revamped the whole Windows mobile team and rebooted the process similar to what they had done with Windows Longhorn. I see it more like a comparison of what happened with Windows Vista Vs Windows 7.

Some of the Key Points he made were.

1. Rebooted Windows mobile Strategy.
2. Brand New Windows Mobile Team
3. Microsoft is laying its bet on SilverLight
4. Silverlight for mobile will be the competitor for iPhone and Andriod.
5. Silverlight for Mobile will be announced at MIX 2010

Things Microsoft got wrong

• They are too late in the game.
• They are taking too long to come out with a competing product and keeping with the trends.
• Billions spent on R&D hard to believe nothing concrete on the Mobile front has come out yet
• Clear Disconnect between Microsoft Design team and products. Do they even have a Design R&D team?

Related posts:

1. The SilverLight Poster and more on Silverlight and Microsoft
2. Microsoft Launches Killer RIA Say Goodbye to Flash
3. Microsoft and Facebook Announce Partnership
4. Microsoft I Want A Zune Phone
5. Prism and XUL Could Have Been A Silverlight And Adobe AIR Killer

© Arpit Jacob for Clazh, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Catergories: Microsoft, Software, Technology Tags: iPhone, Microsoft, Mobile, Software, Web-Development