Fastest DNS and Optimize Your Internet Speed
Google recently started a new service called Google Public DNS to
help speed up your web browsing. This is an alternative to the DNS
provided by your ISP, and other public DNS services like Open DNS, that
we covered previously on MakeUseOf. Which of these options best optimize
your internet speed? The good news is that you can test this yourself,
and don’t need to be misled by anyone’s marketing pitch.
DNS: A Backgrounder
In simplified terms, Domain Name Servers (DNS) are translators that
convert website names to IP Addresses. When you click on a bookmark,
hyper-link, or enter an address like http://faisal3355.blogspot.com/
in your browser, the browser sends that name to a DNS Server that helps
route the request to the appropriate IP Address of that URL. Think of
this as your letter for “John Doe” being sent to his correct home
address.
When your ISP configures your Internet connection, it is set to use
the ISP’s DNS service. However, you are free to use other alternatives,
as Karl explained in Open
DNS Works Great As A Free Web Content Filtering Solution. Thus, you
can use Open DNS or the new Google Public DNS,
to replace your ISP’s DNS.
Why should you use something other than what your ISP gives you for
free? As you can see, Open DNS
offers rich content-filtering options for privacy and family safety.
Google Public DNS has been engineered by Google for faster performance
and better security. However, because of the complex variables involved,
no single option can be said to be the best for all when it comes to
speed. So how do you find out which DNS is the fastest for you? Enter NameBench, a free tool
to help you find the fastest DNS for you.
Introducing NameBench
NameBench is a
portable application (no installation!) that works across the Windows,
Mac, or Linux platforms. It runs a benchmark test on your computer,
using either your web browser’s history or a standardized test data set
to find out which DNS service returns the fastest results for your
location. Download and run the application from the Google Code
repository here.
Starting the NameBench Test
Before you run NameBench, make sure you have closed all applications
using the Internet. This will ensure that the results are not distorted
by interference from other programs using your network bandwidth. Then,
launch the application, and you will see a screen like this:
The Nameservers at the top shows the DNS servers you are currently
using. If you are not interested in technical details, simply click
“Start Benchmark”. The test takes between 10-20 minutes, so you can take
a coffee break while it runs.
NameBench Results
After the test is complete, your browser launches to show you the
results. At the very top are the main results (in this case, showing
that my ISP’s DNS is hopelessly slow):
At the right, you can see which DNS service works the fastest for
you. To change your DNS configuration, you can follow
the instructions at the Google Public DNS site, using the
recommended configuration from the test, instead of Google’s Public DNS.
NameBench Options Explained
NameBench includes public DNS providers like OpenDNS and UltraDNS in
its test via the first checkbox. The “Include best available
regional DNS services” option tests the health and response
time of over 1000 DNS servers worldwide so that it can include those
that are close to you and may be the fastest. Leave both options checked
for best results.
The “Benchmark Data Source” drop-down will give you
the option of choosing your browser history or a standardized data set
of the top 10,000 Internet websites. Many of those websites would be
foreign-language ones that you never visit, so keep the default option
and use your browser history for the test.
Using the “Benchmark Data Selection” mode, you can
choose a random or sequential set of websites from your browser history.
The default “Weighted” mode uses more of your recent
browser history and is the best option for most users. Finally, the
Number of tests represents how many requests will be sent to the
servers, and should be kept over 100, preferably 150-200. Running the
test more than once with “Number of runs” > 1, will
result in DNS caching being used for subsequent runs if you want to test
performance with and without caching.
NameBench Results In Detail
The Tested DNS Servers table shows a list of the DNS Servers that
were used for the test, with the corresponding response times, notes,
and errors if any. NameBench allows a maximum of 10 DNS servers at a
time.
This graph shows the average and fastest response times for the top 5
servers.
Finally, this pretty graph shows the percentage of times a response
was received from a server within the first 200 milliseconds.
Grab your free download of NameBench and run the
test. You may be surprised by the results! Did you change your DNS
servers after using it? Is your web browsing faster as a result? Tell us
in the comments! Read more...
Watch & Upload Your Own 3D Videos To YouTube
Watch & Upload Your Own 3D Videos To YouTube
That extra dimension tends to work wonders for films and TV. I
recently went to see UP!, and while the 3D animation wasn’t exactly
groundbreaking it definitely added an extra layer of entertainment.
What is largely overlooked is 3D entertainment online. Why
shouldn’t we be able to enjoy the thrills of free 3D video entertainment
from the comfort of our homes? Hell, it’s almost 2010!
For those of you who don’t know exactly how 3D works, I’ll explain it
briefly so you’ll understand what I’m talking about in the later parts
of this article.
Basically, it all starts off with two lenses positioned beside one
another a small distance apart. Both of the films taken from these
lenses are combined into one with the difference being superimposed
alongside one another in distinct colours, which depends on what viewing
glasses will be used. An example is the classic Red and Cyan.
The world’s largest provider of user-generated content, YouTube currently operates a great service
for 3D videographers and their viewers. You can see a screenshot of a
3D video as it would look without viewing glasses; after the jump.
Below the video screen, there is a drop down menu which lets you
choose from several viewing options. Firstly, we have those specialized
for whatever type of viewing glasses you have. So if you have Red and
Cyan glasses, choose that option. You can also choose whether or not you
want to view the video in full colour with 3D or black and white with
3D. The other option allows you to make use of the less popular uses for
3D video such as parallel viewing (I.e. watching both videos at once)
and a mirror-split version of the former. Similarly, you can also view
either of the film streams at once; left or right.
If you don’t have viewing glasses, you can select the ‘cross-eyed’
option which will display the left and right video streams alongside one
another. Simply cross your eyes (if you can) and thus the two videos
will overlap. Not the most comfortable viewing method but it’ll get the
job done. Not recommended for full length films however!
Obviously, the best way to view 3D videos is to have your own viewing
glasses. You can pick them up at basically any cinema or buy them
online. A five pack of cheap, paper viewing glasses will set you back
around $3 including P&P from eBay.
Alternatively, you can make your own. Various guides suggest
different methods. The most basic is to simply recycle an old pair of
sunglasses (or make your own cardboard frames) and colour clear plastic
in with felt-tip markers. You can read more about doing that here.
If you publish videos on YouTube and would like to include a 3D video
in your library, simply add the following tag to it: ‘yt3d:enable=true’.
This will enable the drop-down menu we discussed above and index the
better video for search results. To look for a free 3D video on YouTube,
simply put ‘3D’ before your search term. As of the time of writing,
YouTube currently doesn’t have a dedicated category for 3D videos. Read more...
10 Common SEO Mistakes that can Destroy Your Website
10 Common SEO Mistakes that can Destroy Your Website
There are many techniques and “tricks” you can
use to edge out the competition in search engine results. However, in
the process of trying to be competitive, the last thing you want to do
is shoot yourself in the foot with overzealous SEO tactics. In part one,
I discussed a few of the top SEO mistakes and a little bit about making
sure you use your primary keyword phrase in both your title and your
permalink, and make sure that you build your site from the beginning in a
way that’s search engine friendly. However, moving forward with your
website or blog, you’ll also want to make sure that all new content is
effectively optimized to attract the most traffic possible.
Now, when you have to make a living doing this, the only way to
survive is by learning what actually creates positive traffic
growth. When many people think about search engine optimization, they
don’t consider the possibility that by attempting to optimize, you could
actually be doing more damage than if you’d done nothing at all. This
is because Google has had to deal with unscrupulous characters
attempting to “outsmart” the Google algorithm, so now that algorithm is
arranged to penalize anyone attempting to use those tactics – whether
it’s intentional or not. If you happen to make one of those top SEO
mistakes, your website rank will actually drop and you’ll see much less
search engine traffic than normal. So how do you avoid those pitfalls?
The following tips will guide you through the process.
SEO Mistake #6 – The Cardinal Sin – Keyword Spamming
There is nothing that Google hates more than a website that attempts
to hijack the crawler with an overabundance of particular keyword
phrases. You can be certain that if you are targeting the phrase “make
money online,” and plaster the phrase all over your article a dozen
times (this is known as keyword “stuffing”), you may actually see an
immediate short term spike in traffic to that page. However, you can
also be certain that in time, not only will that traffic drop off
quickly, but your entire domain will struggle to rank very highly (if at
all) in Google search results under every keyword phrase you write
about. An example of keyword spamming is shown here, from Team-Schuman.
On this single page, I counted the occurrence of the keyword phrase
“make money” a whopping total of 30 times. This approach may achieve
temporary success, but don’t be fooled. Before long you’ll be wondering
what happened when your site is nowhere to be found on Google. Don’t get
me wrong, distributing high-value keyword phrases is essential to
quality SEO, but it needs to be done in a measured and careful way.
SEO Mistake #7 – Spamming for Backlinks
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’ve always preached that you should post on
forums and blogs in order to generate quality backlinks to your own
site. This is what I described in my recent article on increasing blog traffic when I mentioned engaging the blogosphere every single
day. However, simply posting for the sake of achieving a link back to
your site is a major social networking no-no. A somewhat humorous
example I saw take place was on a MakeUseOf article on how to remove false information about yourself online. It appeared that
one of the folks posted repeated comments was trying to hijack the
comment area into an area for self-advertising.
Some folks even “stage” conversations within the comment areas of
blogs to generate interest. If your only purpose for posting comments to
a blog or forum is to generate a link to your site, don’t bother. It
won’t win you any fans within the industry or niche that you’re trying
to target, and secondly, the transparency of the effort will make most
readers skim right past your comment, or even worse you could get
banned.
SEO Mistake #8 – Not Optimizing Images
In 2007, on the Google
Webmaster Central blog, Google’s own Ríona MacNamara provided
a very important clue to SEO enthusiasts with the statement, “As
the Googlebot does not see the images directly, we generally
concentrate on the information provided in the ‘alt’ attribute.” So,
what does this mean for your SEO efforts? It means that you better start
taking advantage of your image alt-text tags if you want to have some
advantage over your competition.
In the example above, this is an upcoming article I’m writing for my
blog, FreeWritingCenter. As you can see, the entire phrase that I’m
targeting is “writing a research paper,” so I’ve inserted that as the
alt-text for my first image. However, you’ll notice that the title is
simply a description of the picture itself. You only need to target the
alt-text picture tags for your keywords, and only add them to a few
pictures, otherwise you’ll run the risk of getting labeled as a spammer.
As always – distribute the keywords carefully and sparingly.
SEO Mistake #9 – Producing Stupid, Poorly-Written Content
One of the worst symptoms of black-hat SEO scammers trying to
outsmart Googlebot’s crawl algorithm is the evolution of
“content-mills.” Now, given just about every blog out there is a content
mill to some extent, at least when there’s a certain level of
investment and quality checks in place, you know that the articles you
read are going to be written using proper grammar, offer a decent style
of writing and provide useful content. However, there are countless
blogs and writers out there who simply churn out 500 word blocks of text
as fast as they can with the hopes of capturing search engine traffic.
If you want to see an example, just review any of the major free article
directories, such as EzineArticles.
Now, I’m not knocking EzineArticles. I’m a registered author there,
and whenever I need to publish something online quickly and there’s no
other place to do it, I’ll publish it there. However, there are
countless authors who just publish the first draft of whatever mindless
drivel comes out of their heads. There’s no editing, no spell checking
and in most cases I’m pretty sure there’s no writing background to speak
of. This phenomenon is leading to an Internet that’s cluttered with
some of the most atrocious writing imaginable.
What does this have to do with SEO? The SEO lesson to learn here is
this: Yes, Google prefers websites and blogs that are fresh and
constantly updated with new content, but that doesn’t mean you should
ever overlook quality just to get your content published quickly. Focus
on producing high-quality, valuable content that people will want to
link to and return to again and again.
SEO Mistake #10 – Submitting Your Website
Do you remember the days when trying to get your website noticed
online meant submitting your URL to as many search engines as possible?
The fact is, these submission forms still exist on many of the major
search engines even though they are completely outdated and unnecessary.
In fact, if you look at Yahoo’s own submission page and read the text
carefully, you’ll find that Yahoo makes the case that you’re really
wasting your time. The page reads, “The Yahoo! Search index, which
contains several billion web pages, is more than 99% populated through
the free crawl process.” Now, with 99% chances that the Yahoo crawl
process will discover your website (especially if you’ve properly
optimized it), do you really think you need to fill out these silly
submission forms? Read more...
Create A Logo Using Custom Shapes In Photoshop
Create A Logo Using Custom Shapes In Photo shopFirst off, a warning. This how-to article is about graphic design
written by a non-designer, for non-designers. I only claim to be someone
who appreciates the art and work that real graphic designers do. But I
also know that just like you don’t have to be a professional
photographer to make great photos, you don’t have to be a trained
graphic designer to explore the art and techniques of graphic design. So
now that you’ve been warned, feel free to read on.
This how-to focuses on using custom shapes in Photoshop to
explore possible ways to create a shaped-based logo. You will not be
successful at creating your own logo without lots of patience. You might
create a likable design on your first try, but more than likely it will
a take a few hours to several weeks trying out different shapes,
colors, fonts, and sizes to get your desired results. If this sounds
like a hassle, then you need to pay a graphic designer. If you like a
creative challenge, then read on.
To get started, let’s just play around. Open a version of Photoshop.
Create a file large enough (5 by 5 inches, for example) to layout your
design.
Now select the rectangle or oval shape tool in the tool’s palette.
Select a foreground color that you want to start with. Remember, be
willing to experiment. Just because you choose black as your starting
point doesn’t mean you should stop there. In fact, you should go on to
try 10 more colors.
With the regular or oval shape tool selected as your base, hold down
the shift key and draw a perfect square or circle with the mouse and
cursor. Draw it large enough so that you’re comfortable working within
it.
Now here’s where the fun begins. Select the shapes tool again, but
this time, click and hold on the tool button and select Custom Shape
Tool.
Select the Custom Shape Palette in the menu bar of Photoshop. Choose a
custom shape that you want to experiment with. Don’t spend time
fretting over what shape you should use. If you have never done this
before, your first goal is to experiment with possibilities. So choose a
shape, and then using the mouse and the cursor, draw the shape over the
square. When you do this, the colors of the custom shape and the square
might be the same. After you click the return key to apply the shape,
keep its layer selected and then change the color of the custom shape to
white.
After the color is set, select the move tool in the Tool Palette. Be
sure your custom shape layer is still selected. Now resize the shape to
create a new shape mixing the square and the custom tool.
Here’s an example combining an umbrella shape and stretching it a
little until it takes on a slightly different shape combined with the
black square.
Now select the move tool again; option-click on the background square
or oval shape, and drag it to make a copy. Change the color and try
some new shapes. Don’t limit yourself. You can spend a few hours just
experimenting, and that’s exactly what it takes to come up with a
possible good design.
Keep experimenting. Have fun and don’t censor yourself. Mix
background shapes with fonts, as in the example on the right, which is a
combination of a circle and the font, Jazz LET (letter S).
Photoshop may contain a shape or two that will fit your needs, but
more than likely, if you want your logo to be unique, you’ll need to
create an entire new shape. Head over to Ladyoak
or do a search for free custom shapes for Photoshop to download more
custom shape styles to combine.
You will also have to consider the font style of the business name
for your logo. That’s a subject for another article or book, but just as
you experiment with shapes and colors, do the same with experimenting
with font styles and the various character tools found in the Character
Palette of Photoshop.
When you’re ready to design your logo, visit YouTheDesigner
to get ideas and inspiration for designing your logo. If you’re
interested in learning more on the subject of graphic design, I strongly
recommend a classic primer, The Non-Designer’s Design Book, by
Robin Williams.
Let us know how you get on with your own logos and if you have any
questions, let us know in the comments.
Back Up Data From Computer That Won’t Boot
Recently I have been on a spree of fixing unbootable OS’s for friends
and family. A surprising fact that I discovered was that many of them
were ready to reformat and perform a fresh Windows install, if only they
could just backup their music, photos and the likes.
So here I am with a piece on how to back up hard drive data on your
computer when the operating system won’t boot. The easiest most
hassle-free way to achieve our objective is to use a Live CD. Period.
Forget about all other ways and all the advice you get. If you have a
functional CD drive and a Live CD or can arrange one then this is the
way to go bro. You won’t regret it.
A Live CD, if you don’t already know, allows you to run an Operating
System from your CD drive. There are lot’s of Live CD’s available on the
Internet. A large number of Linux distributions are available as Live
CD’s. Just pop them in, make a few choices and you get a complete OS on
the fly with no changes to your data on the hard disk. You can do pretty
much anything from there in, even update a status or two on
Twitter/Facebook while waiting for the file transfers to finish. Here
are a few Live CD suggestions if you care for one:
- Knoppix
- Damn Small Linux (DSL)
- Ubuntu
- A Windows Live CD –
How would you burn a disc when the freaking operating system won’t
boot? My apologies if you are reading this after the problem has
occurred. I am afraid you would have to ask a friend to create a Live CD
for you or you can use another computer if you have access to one. That
being said, it is always a nice thing to prepare a couple of them
beforehand for the rainy day. I say a couple of them because 1) most of
them are free and 2) you never know if one of them decides it doesn’t
like your video adapter (for example) and refuses to boot.
The links listed above will let you download an ISO file. Next step
is to burn the ISO file to a disc. Here is a list of our
favorite disc burning software to help you along.
- Download the one you like and run it. Look for an option that burns
an image file or ISO file to a disc.
- Choose the said option, let the software know where the ISO file is
that you want to burn.
- Pop in a blank CD and the software should do the rest. When the burn
process completes you should have a Live CD in your hands.
What If The CD Drive Is Broken Or Not Available?
A very valid scenario indeed, specially with the ultra thin laptops
and netbooks these days. In such a case you can either use a USB CD
drive or what we would call a Live USB stick. We have written about how
you can create a Live
USB from an ISO file or even
from an installer CD. One thing to keep in mind is that some old
computers just cannot boot from the USB drive.
Set The Boot Device Priority
Before your computer can boot from either a CD or a Live USB drive
you might have to change the boot device priority from the computer’s
BIOS settings. This is not as scary as it sounds. Follow along:
- Power on the computer. Most computers will display a graphic
depicting the processor or the manufacturer or some general information.
If you look around you will also see that the computer prompts you with
a Key combination that you can use to enter the BIOS settings page.
Generally it is the F2 key but it can vary. - Hit the desired key (F2 if it is) and you are in. Now look for an
option that lets you change the boot device. Different BIOS have it
named differently and under different menus, but if you look around it
should not be too difficult. The setting will list devices like CD
drive, external drive, first hard disk drive and the likes. - You can move these devices up and down in the list. Make sure that
CD drive (or external drive if you are using a USB key) is listed before
the hard disk. You can change this back once have a functional
Operating System. Save and exit.
We Are Set
Now restart the computer with the Live CD inside the tray and the
computer should pick up the contents of the CD and load the contained
operating system. You will get a fully functional system once the OS
boots up. The Live OS should automatically detect your hard disk and
list the various partitions as drives. From here on you can use the
computer just as you would use it normally and you can easily back up
the required files.
You would of course need an external media like an external USB disk
or a USB flash drive depending upon the amount of data that you want to
back up. Just copy the required files to the destination as usual. When
you are done, just shut down the computer, take out the hard disk and
now you are ready to format the computer or attempt any other fixes
without worrying about the precious data on the hard drive.
Have you been in a similar situation before? How did you recover your
important files and restore the system? We would love to hear and learn
from your experiences. Read more...
Remap Your Keyboard Keys with These 3 Free Apps [Windows]
If you and your keyboard are not hitting it off, then maybe it’s time
to consider remapping your keyboard. You can get along without a mouse,
but the same is not true about the keyboard. Remapping your keyboard is
a productivity tweak. Remapping the keyboard involves customizing
certain keys for specific functions.
As an example let’s take this – my Acer laptop keyboard has the Delete
key located on the right corner of the first row i.e. the Function row.
That requires me to reach for it. To bring the Delete key
closer, I could replace the function of one of the two Shift keys,
located on either side of the Home keys (the center row).
This is where a remapping utility comes in handy. I substitute the
function of the Delete key to the relatively unused Shift key. Other
untapped keys can be made more functional by giving them regularly used
functions. Remapping utilities also can block the functioning of certain
keys, if you feel that they are doing more harm than good.
So, remapping gives a nice little boost to productivity. It is also a
consideration for dedicated gamers who might want to match the gaming
commands with the layout.
Though remapping is often advocated for advanced computers, some
remapping software makes it as simple as ABC. Here’s a look at three
applications you can use to remap your keyboard.
MapKeyboard
MapKeyboard is a little 28KB free software that lets you alter any
key to a different function or also disable it. The freeware does not
need an install. The only requirement is that you should have Microsoft
.Net Framework 2.0 installed on your machine.
MapKeyboard is very easy to use. Select the key you want to remap and
using the Remap selected key to drop down, select the new key.
Using the application, you can also map your mouse buttons. You can
also disable any key you want.
Click on Save Layout and with a restart, you have your
remapped keyboard. This layout is preserved until you decide to revert
to the default. Also, you don’t need to launch the program to use the
new layout as the changes are saved in the registry. Always remember to
revert the layout to the default before removing the program.
MapKeyboard is
supported on Windows XP/2003/2000/Vista.
Sharpkeys
Sharpkeys gives you an interface for choosing the keys to be
remapped. After the selection, it adds a value to the registry which
modifies the keyboard layout. Also, once the change is made, you don’t
need to run the program again. You can also turn off any selected key to
suppress an accidental press. To bring back the original layout, launch
the program again and delete the key.
Sharpkeys supports a larger number of mappings equal to the number of
options for a standard keyboard layout (104). The Type Key
feature helps the program recognize the keys with a key press.
Unlike MapKeyboard, this application does not map mouse buttons. But
depending on the program support for your brand of your keyboard, it can
open a few applications and also map buttons for Internet keys.
Sharpkeys is
supported on Windows XP/2003/2000/Vista/7.
KeyTweak
KeyTweak is another easy to use tool for redefining the keyboard
layout. Like MapKeyboard, this 280KB freeware displays a full keyboard
as a visual aid. The virtual keyboard is numbered and mapped to the
current keys on the physical keyboard.
Highlight the key on the KeyTweak interface and select the remapped
key from the dropdown. You can also map it to multimedia or Internet
keys if your keyboard has those features. The latest version also lets
you map it to Macintosh keys. You can suppress specific keys with a
click on Disable Key.
KeyTweak has two Teach Modes. The Full Mode allows a
user to press two keys simultaneously and map one to the other. The Half
Mode gives the options available using a dropdown. The Teach Modes
offer a more intuitive way to map the keys.
KeyTweak also can be run as a portable app with just the KeyTweak.exe
file. The one nice thing about the program is the detailed PDF help
file that’s packaged with the program. Do read the brief file to
understand why some keys cannot be remapped.
KeyTweak (ver.
2.3.0) is supported on Windows NT4.0/2000/XP/2003/Vista/7. These three
tools are the ones to go for if you want simplicity and portability.
Microsoft also has an application of its own which downloads as a
10MB package and is slightly more complicated to run. The main purpose
of the Microsoft
Keyboard Layout Creator is to widen the international scope of
Microsoft by letting users change the layout to languages that MS does
not support. The free program lets you define an entirely new layout of
keys.
Do you think that remapping keys gives you a more ergonomic
experience? Do you think it will add to your productivity? Read more...
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