Alexandar Tzanov ~ The Titan

Firefox and DNS prefetching – I read about this being a feature in Google Chrome, but I wasn’t sure if it was, yet, a feature of Firefox. It is in Ff 3.5. Here you can find a list of the new features in Firefox 3.5.

What is DNS prefetching? – It is the process of requesting domain name and IP (Internet Protocol or Intellectual Property) address resolution used in links, images, documents and other content linked to from a page a web surfer is currently browsing. Theoretically, by taking care of the name resolution before a surfer desires to navigate to a file or another page from a link on the current page can save fractions to X number of seconds. Name resolution being out of the way the surfer should arrive at its next destination faster. The former is my definition and understanding of DNS prefetching. In my experience, at leased in Google Chrome, I am able to see performance improvements.

I needed to know how can I tell if it is on or off. In Google Chrome it is in the options menu and it can easily be turned on and with a simple check-mark click.

But, in Firefox this is not a function in the options menu. At leased not at this time.

Over the weekend I had some lack of video from my XBox360. Nothing that some heat couldn’t fix. Apparently most problems with the Xbox360 are fixed by that which kills PCs – heat.

I have an XBox360, which is one of those that was born with bugs and “genetic” issue – meaning an early version – one from the early ones, made before the red ring of death became evident  and all the various versions started to come out. Luckily, I don’t abuse and rarely spend massive amount of hours playing it, thus I don’t have very many problem with it! Other than the occasional screen flicker and the constant refusal of the DVD-Rom tray to actually stay closed after attempting to close it. Apparently the DVD drive gets a bad taste from DVD discs and refuses to work with them. HAHA. My solution for the latter is to place my thumb on the drive tray and prevent it from coming back out, then pushing the open/close button again!!

This past weekend I experienced something new – the XBox booted fine and there was audio, but no video. The digital TV detected an active video source, but there was no picture. At first I was going to disassemble the XBox to look for problem myself, because the warranty had expired a long time ago. But then I decided…

Now that’s a cool birthday cake, if not the best birthday cake ever. This cake is shaped like a helicopter and it has a functioning rotor. It’s not a cake like the ones you see created by professional cake creators/designers on the Food Network’s Cake Challenge show, but it’s a cake that everyone can make at home. Sweet!!!!

You can find the instruction on how to create your own helicopter birthday cake here, on Instructables, an awesome do-it-yourself site.