Domain Name Systems (DNS) exert such a pervasive influence on the basic functioning of the Internet. The DNS not only supports host name to network address resolution, known as forward resolution, but it also supports network address to host name resolution, known as inverse resolution. Without it, we would have to primarily rely on the IP address to find our way around the Internet. This clearly would be like trying to navigate a huge maze, blindfolded!
However DNS problems can hurt speed and reliability of applications without being noticed. The article referenced below tries to simplify DNS by taking a look at DNS behavior and detailing experiments you can run to garner valuable insight into users’ network performance.
http://developer.yahoo.net/blog/archives/2009/11/an_engineers_gu.html
JRuby continues to make great progress on performance. A year ago, JRuby was the fastest implementation for Ruby 1.8 code. JRuby performance has been raised with every release. Further improvements are on the way with the new intermediate representation (IR) that is being developed by Subbu Sastry.
Follow this link to read what Subbu Sastry has to say about the benefits of this new representation.
http://www.infoq.com/news/2009/11/jruby-ir
Modern Relational Databases have a limitation when it comes to handling large data volumes. There are three specific problem areas: Scaling out to data sets, per-server performance, and rigid schemas. This has prompted businesses to look at other alternatives to traditional relational database technology. Collectively, these alternatives have become known as “NoSQL databases.”
Here’s a very interesting review of NoSQL – http://www.rackspacecloud.com/blog/2009/11/09/nosql-ecosystem/
Vint Cerf, aka the godfather of the net, is continually onto something new. He recently announced a software stack that sits on top of the open-source Android operating system that could strengthen wireless network communications through the DTN (Delay Tolerant Netorking) Interplanetary Net protocol.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/11/05/vint_cerf_on_mobile/
