Recently I had a problem on my home computers. We couldn't connect to www.google.com anymore. A ping didn't work, a nslookup didn't work, a tracert didn't work. All other sites were ok.
I searched the Internet (using google.be ;-)) and many people had the same problem. It seems to be a strange DNS problem.
For those people, here is a temporary solution. Edit your Windows Hosts file (in c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc) and add this line at the end:
216.239.59.147 www.google.com
This way you tell your computer directly where to find Google.com. Note this solution will no longer work if Google.com changes its IP Address.
After that I could again read my gmail, my Google Calendar, my Google Notebook and Blogger.
I could not blog for several days because I couldn't connect to www.google.com due to very stange dns problems. Whatever, I would like to wish you the best for this end of the year.
I hope your holydays are filled with happiness and good cheer !
Very soon I will send you my Best Wishes with my Best Shots 2008.
Last week (Dec 8-12 2008), there was Devoxx (formely known as JavaPolis) in the Metropolis in Antwerp.
The fair usually welcomes 2000 developers for technical conferences on Java, PHP, JavaFX, Scala, Ruby on Rails...
IBM invests on this event and this year Robin Mulkers proposed to demonstrate IBM's technology leadership with a real use case of one of the hottest technologies: RFID.
The project was exlained in the keynote (see some photos here below)
Furthermore, it's a usefull use case for the Devoxx Organization : All participants receivedan RFID badge. Those badges were tracked so that one could for example see which sessions were the most popular. Or participants could leave their name at the booths by letting the hostess scan their badge to participate to games or request for more information.
At IBM, we call this innovation that matters !
PS : Devoxx is one of the best events that I know. The organization is really great. You have free WiFi, you can take drinks directly from the fridge, speackers are accessible, topics are cool... Everything is in place to have a great Developer experience !
This weekend I took some time to have a look at Ubuntu. I find Windows Vista is very slow and I wanted to know how Linux would run on my machine (Acer Aspire 5315, Intel Celeron 1.7 Ghz).
I downloaded a CDRom from Ubuntu's website. You can boot from that CDRom and run Linux without making any changes to your machine.
Directly, I was convinced by the performance : Linux is much more reactive. When applications are slow, the OS isn't and that makes all the difference.
There are however some things that make me realize it would cost me time if I would completely switch to Ubuntu :
My wireless didn't work. I should locate the windows driver and install it on Ubuntu.
My Graphical palette didn't work. Linux doesn't seem to understand how it works
I could not read my MP3 immediately. I should install a special codec over the Internet but as my wireless didn't work...
How to synch with Windows based phone like my Samsung SGH I600 ?
So I guess I will have to go for dual boot. Unfortunately I'm short on disk space... So I'll need to buy some storage first.
This Sunday (Nov 30, 2008) we were at the Lotto Arena in Antwerp for the last concert of Natalia's Glamorous Tour.
It's the 4th time I see Natalia in concert. The first time was ok. The second time I was disappointed. The third time was ok but I still found she was shouting instead of singing.
This time was ... exceptional :
1. She was singing and not shouting: real emotions could flow instead of a mass of decibels.
2. There was a real dance floor : Natalia and the dancers provided a superior experience.
3. There were nice surprises like singing Prince and the appearance of Stam van Samang.
