Results after the cut.

Results

Here are two queries using Earthlink servers:

elli:~ phil$ time dig facebook.com && time dig apple.com

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> facebook.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 50925
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 4, ADDITIONAL: 4

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;facebook.com.                  IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
facebook.com.           1700    IN      A       69.63.176.140
facebook.com.           1700    IN      A       69.63.178.11

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
facebook.com.           12269   IN      NS      dns05.sf2p.tfbnw.net.
facebook.com.           12269   IN      NS      dns04.sf2p.tfbnw.net.
facebook.com.           12269   IN      NS      ns1.facebook.com.
facebook.com.           12269   IN      NS      ns2.facebook.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
ns2.facebook.com.       3207    IN      A       204.74.67.132
dns05.sf2p.tfbnw.net.   131959  IN      A       69.63.176.9
dns04.sf2p.tfbnw.net.   131577  IN      A       69.63.176.8
ns1.facebook.com.       3207    IN      A       204.74.66.132

;; Query time: 32 msec
;; SERVER: 207.69.188.185#53(207.69.188.185)
;; WHEN: Wed Jul 23 11:23:35 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 216

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> apple.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 48776
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 6, ADDITIONAL: 5

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;apple.com.                     IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
apple.com.              124     IN      A       17.112.152.57
apple.com.              124     IN      A       17.149.160.49

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver2.apple.com.
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver.asia.apple.com.
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver.apple.com.
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver4.apple.com.
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver.euro.apple.com.
apple.com.              92770   IN      NS      nserver3.apple.com.

;; ADDITIONAL SECTION:
nserver.asia.apple.com. 85265   IN      A       17.82.254.3
nserver.euro.apple.com. 85934   IN      A       17.72.133.64
nserver2.apple.com.     172562  IN      A       17.254.0.59
nserver3.apple.com.     431998  IN      A       17.112.144.50
nserver4.apple.com.     172562  IN      A       17.112.144.59

;;; Query time: 32 msec
;; SERVER: 207.69.188.185#53(207.69.188.185)
;; WHEN: Wed Jul 23 11:23:35 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 284

And with OpenDNS:

elli:~ phil$ time dig facebook.com && time dig apple.com    

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> facebook.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 3356
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;facebook.com.                  IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
facebook.com.           2606    IN      A       69.63.176.140
facebook.com.           2606    IN      A       69.63.178.11

;; Query time: 48 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.222.222#53(208.67.222.222)
;; WHEN: Wed Jul 23 11:22:12 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 62

; <<>> DiG 9.3.4 <<>> apple.com
;; global options:  printcmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NOERROR, id: 36024
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 2, AUTHORITY: 0, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;apple.com.                     IN      A

;; ANSWER SECTION:
apple.com.              2738    IN      A       17.149.160.49
apple.com.              2738    IN      A       17.112.152.57

;; Query time: 46 msec
;; SERVER: 208.67.222.222#53(208.67.222.222)
;; WHEN: Wed Jul 23 11:22:13 2008
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 59

Analysis

It may be that OpenDNS provides the faster response on subsequent requests, which would make sense if caching is their primary means of a boost. lookupd caches aggressively locally anyway, though, so that’s a moot point.

After learning about Earthlink’s search and ad-free DNS servers, I’m sold on what I already have.

• STOP: INACCESSIBLE_BOOT_DEVICE error after installing Service Pack 4
• Continued error after “repair installation” from CD
• STOP: KERNEL_STACK_INPAGE_ERROR error during a full reinstall from CD

I finally ended up making an illegal copy of my Windows 2000 disc (ironically, using a Mac), which sorted out whatever read errors were occurring and worked much better. I also made my father perform the installation from the fresh CD. He seems to have magic IT fingers. I am not sure which was more effective: a new CD or my father.

More problems:

• Service Pack 4 installer’s “update.exe” crashed, because it had “generated errors”

I fixed this by running the following excellent recovery command with the Windows 2000 CD in the drive:

sfc /scannow

This took about half an hour and solved the Service Pack 4 upgrade issue.

Another failure while installing Flight Simulator 2004: Century of Flight:

• Installer caused a system freeze and silent reboot, with no error message

I solved this by running ScanDisk on the destination drive. It’s scary that a bad block can bring Windows down…

My notes and task list appear after the jump.

It’s bad enough that Linksys foists control away from Windows to their own wireless manager, but even worse that it’s not in the places most people look: Start→Programs→Startup and HKLM/SOFTWARE/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion/Run. Fail.

Here’s what Internet Health Report has to say:

Isn’t Mozilla located in the Valley?

Update (Tuesday at 7:01pm EST): Also, California legalized same-sex marriage today. Perhaps it had more to do with that.

Usually <noscript> tags aren’t the best search description. I wonder how they’re addressing this, if they are.

I walked to the counter and stood with my arms crossed, as I always do, pretending to decide but already knowing what I’m going to order. I stepped forward and asked for a #1, with a milkshake substituted for the drink. I paid and moved to the side, leaning against the scuffed gray tile on the wall.

As I waited, two people my age—a boy and a girl—walked in. I felt like I knew the girl from somewhere, but couldn’t place her. They ordered and sat down in a booth, talking to each other in bursts. I took my food and sat on the other side of the room.

It occurred to me, suddenly, that the person might be a friend-of-a-friend named Mary, but with a different hair color from the last time I’d seen her. I watched her as I ate, trying to spot some identifying detail that would resolve the issue in my mind. I knew she lived in the same part of town as me, but I could not remember any details. I considered saying hello. I also considered the result of saying hello if she was someone else, something that seemed incredibly embarrassing and grounds for having to leave the restaurant. I debated this in my mind as I started drinking my milkshake.

Finally, they got up to leave and started walking towards me. I could see her face, now, and felt more sure.

“Mary?” I said to nobody in particular.

She answered, “yeah?” I had guessed correctly.

“I knew you lived on my side of town, but didn’t know you were this close,” I said. “I’m Celeste’s boyfriend.”

“Oh yeah! Hey.” She paused. “I do live out here. I thought you lived in Greenville or something.”

Her boyfriend wandered out the door, disinterested. She stayed. It closed behind him with a rush of warm air.

We talked about her summer plans, about how she was going to volunteer at Bonnaroo, and about who was headlining. We only spoke for a minute or two before saying goodbye. She began to walk off.

She opened the door, eyeing the parking lot for her boyfriend.

“Glad to be done?” I asked, turning in my chair. She looked back at me, holding the door open.

“Sad,” she said. “Sad—and glad.”

I sat in the cold building and watched her walk off through the drive-through lane. Part of me wanted to run after her, to tell her anything else—to try something, to write something, to get a new boyfriend over the summer. Maybe the feeling in my stomach was just the remnants of my previous anxiety, but it felt different now. I sat in front of the window until the two, now rejoined, were out of my sight and shouting distance.

And so we all wait, as we watch each other cut across the hot asphalt, growing steadily smaller. We have, perhaps, just this summer—two months or so—to push our chair back, run into the sunlight, and shout.

http://www.amazon.com/Nikon-Digital-18-55mm-3-5-5-6G-Zoom-Nikkor/dp/B000KJQ1DG

Oddly, the only part that matters is the /dp/B000KJQ1DG product code.

So you can create URLs that link to products, but insult your friends. Or are a bit more tame:

http://www.amazon.com/dp/this part is irrelevant/B000KJQ1DG

<customer>
  <id>4222</id>
  <name>John A. Doe</name>
  <address>123 Beech St., Anytown, USA</address>
</customer>

This is the type and structure of examples given in XML tutorials. However, one could also mark up the data like this:

<customer id="4222" name="John A. Doe" address="123 Anytown, USA"/>

So what, exactly, is the distinction? I realized the obvious after a day of thinking:

Can you have more than one of the item?

This means the first example is wrong. A customer can’t have more than one id, and this is the fatal flaw of the tutorials.

Depending on the complexity of our application, a customer could possibly have more than one name or address, but for the majority of basic database-structured applications, the all-attribute example above is more appropriate.

Regardless of how you go and write XML, be sure not to commit the mistake of differentiating between tags and attributes purely by how deep, or nested, the tag is.

In an application with multiple names and addresss, here’s how I would structure the XML:

<customer id="4442">
  <name first="John" middle="A" last="Calvin" />
  <address title="Home" street="123 Beech St." city="Anytown" country="USA" />
<customer>

Even while writing this example, I automatically started to break the address into tags for street and city. After a second, I realized: an address can only have one street and city.

It’s a hard habit to break.