Setting Up Your CO.CC Zone Records

This post is an instruction in setting-up your CO.CC (sub) domain's Zone Records. If you do not have a CO.CC domain yet, you can get one here for free (if it qualifies as a free subdomain of CO.CC)... and be able to have an almost total control with this domain without any ads or banners whatsoever. Currently you can register a maximum of two CO.CC domains. It is actually a subdomain of the co.cc top-level domain, but a domain nonetheless and a short one too ;-)

There are three ways to make your CO.CC domain point at your web site. First is by pointing your domain's nameservers to the nameservers of your site's web host. Second is by editing the zone's A, MX, NS and CNAME records. And third, is by redirecting to your site. I shall talk about the second option... the zone records.

When I say that you have almost total control of your free CO.CC domain, what I mean is that you can change/edit the most useful parts of the zone records without going to the hassles of the common ones which will be handled by your hosting company or by CO.CC themselves. You don't need to edit the SOA, or make reverse-ip entries.

What you need is just the ip address of the site which you are going to point to. This is usually a shared ip address for all the users in the server and you need to park your domain to make it point to your actual account in the hosts (unless it's a dedicated hosting or you have a static ip address for your site). You can get the ip for your site by doing a DNS whois or lookup, or it may be written somewhere on your control panel depending on your hosting. There are many online whois tools available like in DNSstuff.com, or just do a search for something like "online whois".

So let's say the ip to your site is 74.86.133.24 (from x10hosting.com) and your free domain is example.co.cc (currently for sale at CO.CC). Go to your CO.CC account panel and choose Manage Domain, select the second option which is Zone Record. Add "example.co.cc" for host, 1D TTL (1-day time to live, default), A type record and enter the ip address 74.86.133.24 as value. After that, you wait for the dns to propagate (usually 1-2 days, sometimes much shorter) and it will then point to your site if you parked the domain or created a hosting account with "use my domain" option earlier in your web host. The "www" subdomain (www.example.co.cc) is usually entered as a CNAME of the domain example.co.cc but that is not currently allowed in your CO.CC account. So if you add an A record for www.example.co.cc with the ip of your site then example.co.cc will cease to function.

If you use google apps, you can enter MX records as well in your domain's zone records with these values:

(host - TTL - MX type - MX priority - value)

example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 1 - aspmx.l.google.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 5 - alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 5 - alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 10 - aspmx2.googlemail.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 10 - aspmx3.googlemail.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 10 - aspmx4.googlemail.com
example.co.cc - 1D - MX - 10 - aspmx5.googlemail.com

You would also be required by google to verify that you own the domain by creating a CNAME to google.com using a subdomain. Example will be googleffffffxhdksld.example.co.cc which must point to google.com for your google apps account to be verified. So for the host enter googleffffffxhdksld.example.co.cc, 1D for TTL (default), CNAME for type, and google.com for the value. You may want to change your email (or docs/calendar/sites/etc..) URLs in google apps so that you just type mail.example.co.cc by adding a CNAME (same as above) with mail.example.co.cc as host and ghs.google.com as value.

You can also give subdomains to your friends like myfriend1.example.co.cc to point to your friend's site. Just modify the A record with your friend site's ip and give your friend a subdomain in the host field.

Setting up NS records for your zone is just the same as the first option, but your zone details might be modified by the server it is pointing. If you do a DNS lookup for your domain, NS entries should just point to CO.CC's nameservers by default.

With an almost total control of the Zone Records, you can have blog.example.co.cc point to your blog in blogspot.com, example.co.cc pointing to your cool site hosted at x10hosting.com, use the email address yourname@example.co.cc with google apps and maybe serve other subdomains pointing to different hosting!

Wanted [2008]

I watched this film mainly because of being a fan of the Dozor (Watch) series which were directed by Timur... I wanted to see Timur's new movie. It also casts one of the primary characters in the Dozor films, Konstantin as a Russian fraternity member (The Exterminator). Info on Sergei Lukyanenko's ongoing tetralogy novels on film: Nochnoy Dozor (Night Watch, 2004) and Dnevnoy Dozor (Day Watch, 2006), both directed by Timur which I'm still planning to review. I am also waiting for Sumerechny Dozor (Twilight Watch) and Posledniy Dozor (Final Watch). Wanted also has the "articulated action sequences" of the Dozor films.

Wanted [2008|Action]
Director: Timur Bekmambetov
Cast: James McAvoy, Angelina Jolie, Morgan Freeman, Konstantin Khabensky... (more)

This film was based on Mark Millar's comic book mini-series of the same title (J.G. Jones was the artist). It tells the story of an ordinary accountant who is recruited by a group of assassins known as the Fraternity. The film added a new element to the story by including the looms of fate to determine the Fraternity's assassination targets.

The film starts with Wesley Gibson (McAvoy) narrating about his pathetic life, then the scenes shift to Mr. X being assassinated by Cross, a rogue Fraternity member who has been killing the assassins one by one. At a later part, Fox (Jolie) appears on Wesley's side to protect him from Cross, because Wesley was Cross' next target after killing his father Mr. X (plot related).
Wesley is then recruited to the Fraternity (same old stuff about "your dad was a member now its your turn") with his primary task: to kill Cross.

The film ends with Wesley taking back control of his own life and putting a bullet on another assassin; with the bullet travelling from his sniper rifle - to his untrustworthy best friend's drink - to his glutton-bitch-boss' donut - to his target.

Final note: bullets don't fly straight!

The Ruins [2008]

The Ruins [2008|Horror|Thriller]
Based on Scott Smith's novel "The Ruins"
Directed by: Carter Smith

A group of American and Greek tourists explore an uncharted Mayan ruin in Mexico. Mathias' brother had just met a beautiful archaeologist who has been exploring the ruins. He has not come back since spending the night at the archaeologists' camp there. Mathias met with the Americans and invited them over to the ruins to find his brother. Once there, they find a group of armed Mayans who try to drive them away at first, but then won't let them leave once they got into the ruin's vegetation.

The Mayans were actually placing the tourists in a quarantine, for the vegetation was actually a sentient creature-plant. The plant is capable of mimicking sounds and even the voices of people around to lure it's victims. It is somewhat like a parasite that enters human bodies, either as an unwilling host or to populate and spread.

The ending in the book tells how the last survivor commits suicide to warn others of the danger, but the plant drags the body so no one will find it. In the movie, the survivor escapes on a jeep and the camera focuses on the face to reveal the worm-like movement of the parasitic-plant under the skin.

WWW Directories

Internet directories provide links to your site and (may) improve your SEO rankings and traffic. Most of them allow you to submit your site for free with a reciprocal link to their site. You can also post articles on some of them. After submitting your site, be patient.. some directories are approved by volunteer editors and may take months (or a year) depending on the volume of submissions and the editor's time.

Here are some internet directories where you can submit your sites for free. It will be updated once in a while with every free directory site that I would stumble upon.


www.dmoz.org (highly recommended) :: The Open Directory
www.wowdirectory.com (recommended) :: Free Weekend Submission Review Directory
www.topsitelisted.com (good) :: SEO friendly internet directory of free listings
www.searchpowertour.com :: General Directories - Free Directory Listings - Free Website Submissions
www.urlguidenet.com :: Web Site Search Directory -URL Guide Net Web Directory
www.freeonlineindex.com :: SEO Friendly Web Site Search Directory-Free And Cheap Feature Listing Sites
www.worldurllink.com :: World URL Link Directory -General Web Directory Free Website Submission


You can also find more free internet directories with comments and reviews here.

---Updates---
www.valid8or.com (recommended) :: Not only adds your site but validates it as well... for free!

In Bruges [2008]

In Bruges [2008|Dark Comedy|Crime|Drama]
Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Primary Characters: Ray (Colin Farrell), Ken (Brendan Gleeson), Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes)

After accidentally killing a child on his last hit, hitman Ray and his partner Ken is sent to Bruges, Belgium by their boss Harry Waters to lay low for a while. While Ken thinks that the place is great, Ray feels otherwise and has been tormented by guilt as well. After agreeing with Ray to go sightseeing at night, the two left their hotel room and came across a movie shoot with a midget actor (they prefer to be called dwarfs). Here, Ray finds Chloe, which becomes his love interest.

As the story unfolds we then find out that the reason Harry sent the duo to Bruges is because he wants Ray to experience the magic and beauty of the place before taking him out, Harry has a principle that child-killers do not deserve to live and that if he had accidentally done it then he would swallow his own bullet and die. Without knowing Harry's intentions, Ray wanted to kill himself on the park but was stopped by Ken, who was supposed to kill him. Ken asks Ray to get on the train and disappear instead.

Upon learning this, Harry went to Bruges himself to deal with Ken. On the train, Ray was placed under arrest and was sent back to Bruges for a minor incident that happened earlier. At this part of the film we will see the chasing and the shooting. All three gets a bullet, two will die and one is brought by the ambulance in the end and wishes to live.

Getting Free Hosting With Free (SUB) Domain

The first thing you have to do is get a free domain. You can get a free co.cc domain of your choice. The co.cc domain is actually a subdomain but at least it is shorter. Sign up for a co.cc domain here. This free domain can be customized: Zone Records (A CNAME MX NS), setup with the nameservers of your free hosting so you can park or host it there for free, or you can redirect all traffic from this domain to your existing websites.

After you get your domain, you can sign up for a free web hosting at byethost or x10hosting. These free hosting services allow you to have bannerless PHP/MySQL sites for free (see their terms to what suits your needs). You can select the free subdomains (yoursite.byethost17.com, yoursite.x10hosting.com) or you can host your co.cc domain by pointing your domain's nameservers to them (information on this can be found on the member's area). Now you have a free domain and a free bannerless hosting for your site.

Want more free services? Apply for a google apps account and register your co.cc domain (information can be found on google). In your webhosting CPANEL, change your MX records to that of google apps so that you can have an email address like: yourname@yourdomain.co.cc!