Using Google Public DNS to speed up web access

Google has just introduced their Public DNS service as part of their ongoing effort to make the web faster.

Since Google's search engine already crawls the web on a daily basis and in the process resolves and caches DNS information, they wanted to leverage their technology to experiment with new ways of addressing some of the existing DNS challenges around performance and security.

Google Public DNS is offered freely to the general public to:

• Provide end users with an alternative to their current DNS service. 
• Help reduce the load on ISPs' DNS servers by taking advantage of their global data-center and caching infrastructure.
• Help make the web faster and more secure.

By making use of Google Public DNS, the benefits and enhancements are:

• Performance: In addition to load-balancing user traffic to ensure shared caching, Google Public DNS implements "smart" caching to increase the speed of responses.Click here for more technical detail on how Google Public DNS can improve web browsing performance.
• Security: DNS is vulnerable to various kinds of spoofing attacks that can "poison" a nameserver's cache and route its users to malicious sites. Google has implemented several security measures in their DNS servers. Click here for more technical detail on how Google Public DNS is protected from security threats and mitigations.
• Correct results: Google Public DNS never blocks, filters, or redirects users, unlike some open resolvers and ISPs. 

The Google Public DNS IP addresses are as follows:

• 8.8.8.8
• 8.8.4.4

Click here for detail information about how to configure your computer to make use of Google Public DNS.

My Aurora AS424C cross-cut paper shredder

I found this round of PIKOM PC Fair does not have much difference from last round in August 2009. In fact, the RAM module price has risen quite a lot. Things which have price drop are portable harddisk, GPS navigator, etc.

Anyhow, managed to bought myself an Aurora AS424C cross-cut paper shredder at the price of RM99. It looks small and cute, very portable and easy to carry. It is not so heavy too, weights only 2.3kg.

Its main purpose in my household will be to shred old statements of credit cards, bank slips, phone bills, etc. before disposal to dustbin.

It is able to feed in up to 4 pieces of A4 paper, folded. In fact, the papers need to be folded because the inlet length is shorter than A4 width.

Equipped with strong steel cutters, it shreds pretty fast and can even feed in small paper staples without problem. It is also able to awesomely shred credit card. But it is not designed to shred CD/DVD, and there are other higher end models (with higher price) which are able to do so.

This is the result after shredding. The stripes are actually not too fine, so if you shred vertically, can still read some words on the stripes. It is more advisible to shred the papers horizontally, so that the sentences will be cut into multiple stripes and rendered to be unreadable.

This shredder comes with some safety features, such as:

• It will not start-up if the unit head is not placed properly in its translucent wastebasket.
• It will auto switch off when its motor detected to be overheated due to long operation.
• It has a REV switch to reverse the feeding and roll out the paper. You can still save the unshredded part.

At the cost of RM99 with 1 year warranty, I find this paper shredder good to have for lightweight usage at home.

Findings from Synovate PAX Survey 2009

In its 13 year, Synovate PAX Survey is the most comprehensive study of affluent group of elite adults in Asia Pacific region, which are from the higher income percentile of the society in the surveyed metropolitan areas.

The survey tracks media and digital consumption, prosperity, and influence across 11 markets from Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Japan, to Australia. It is conducted year-round and Synovate spoke with 20,245 affluent consumers in Asia Pacific to get the 2009 results.

The table below shows the percentage of respondents in 5 of the surveyed metropolitan possess or answered "yes" to the corresponding items of interest.

The result reveals that:

• Affluent consumers across Asia Pacific continued to spend even during the recession in 2008-2009.
• Hong Kong respondents are still keen in the investment markets, with 51.2% invested in stock, bond and securities.
• Meanwhile, only 16.8% of respondents from Kuala Lumpur invested in stock, bond and securities.
• Online 10% of respondents from Kuala Lumpur enjoy a cultural lifestyle in live theaters and/or museums, and 51.6% will go to the cinema to watch (usually commercial) movies.
• Media advertising doesn't seem to do well in gaining trust from the respondents. However, branding is pretty important as many prefer to buy well known brands (but surprisingly, not in the case of Hong Kong).
  

You might want to...
Download PAX 2009 Hong Kong factsheet (PDF 86Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Korea Fact Sheet (PDF 70Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Singapore factsheet (PDF 70Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Kuala Lumpur Fact Sheet (PDF 65Kb)
Download PAX 2009 Philippines Fact Sheet (PDF 65Kb)