How to use custom DNS on android devices

 Did you know how easily you could change DNS server on your Android 9(Pie) or newer devices? Probably few of you know, some don't care & some are oblivious. So here is what changing DNS does. DNS or Domain Name System is set by your internet service provider(ISP) to let you access the contents of world wide web easily. It is the gateway to go inside internet. Problem is, not always the DNS provided by your ISP is the fastest route. Quite frequently you may find that using a custom & occasionally free DNS servers can make your internet notably faster.

So firstly I should clear that there are both free & paid DNS services available. But the free ones provided by Google, Cloudflare, OpenDNS etc.(there are lots more) are more than sufficient for most usage.

In Android 8.1 Oreo, we had to change the DNS at multiple area, but it was working fine still. In older Androids the only way out was the apps doing the job for us. Personally I hate using unnecessary applications on my phone. So in Android 9 or newer phones you do it like this - go into your setting> open network setting> click advanced options> click private DNS> set DNS name

Check these images for better understanding

Do notice though, the DNS server addresses need to be written here as the full name, e.g for cloudflare 1dot1dot1dot1.cloudflare-dns.com & for Google dns.google

We can't use 1.1.1.1 or 8.8.8.8 as we do in our PC.

Hope it helps some of you.

Summoners War: Sky Arena - The game I am playing for the longest time

 Summoners War: Sky Arena or only Summoners War(SW) as we like to call it is a game by a Korea based company named com2us. This an unit based gacha game with incredibly diverse ways to upgrade & keep yourselves engaged. I started the game in June, 2017. Still kinda regret the fact that I started the game quite late & after spending a ton in various games upto that very point.

This game is hugely popular in its 6th year of release & has one of the most competitive developers at its back. The gameplay is as I said diverse. It allows you to play like a lone wolf, upgrading stuffs, be yourself & don't care about anything or anyone or, be very competitive, beat everyone & keep trying to best every other player. Again I will post some in game screenshot as I see fit in my future posts about this game. For now I will post some images from the google search for a primary impression (credits to the people who took it from their respective game).

Summoners War: Sky Arena on dotnxt.com

The very active reddit community of this game - Here

Playstore links - Google - iOS

I am a F2P player at this game. Had a promise made that I would start spending if I get a good Light & Dark(LnD) nat5. I got 1, but it's not good considered everything. So I am still F2P. Honestly right now I am addicted being F2P even after spending in all those games before SW. But, if you are staring late or want to progress faster, a little bit of spending in summoners war will get you a good boost.

The game keeps getting updated with new contents & characters very often. The community or playerbase is very active too & as such you can find numerous help on YouTube, Reddit or Twitch for any content of the game you are curious about(in almost any language too). There are 6 different servers of the game as well for convenience of the people from different parts of the world. Hope you all like the game too if you start it.

YouTube cancelled 2020 rewind Video

 Due to the Pandemic, YouTube acknowledged the hardship people going through & cancels it's popular year end "Rewind" video this year. This image on their twitter handle is self explanatory

AFK Arena - Best game to play leisurely for me

 AFk Arena is a game by LilithGames. This is the second game I keep playing everyday for about 2 years now. This is a gacha game, where you collect Heroes/characters to progress in the PVE aspect of the game as well as PVP. The game is good looking, very smooth, constantly updated & fixed, the developers follow player base to keep up-to-date with the development. But the real best part of this incredible MMORPG is the time it takes out of your daily routine. Apart from some events & special occasions in a fortnight or more, whether you are a paying or non paying player, it takes an hour at best to be done with daily activities. Most of the days, it takes 30 minutes & I can log in on next day.

The next best part of the game is the lack of bottleneck for free to play(F2P) players & the possibility to play secluded without being worried about others at all. Yes, there are things in this game you can buy & progress a lot in a very short time. But from my personal experience the higher level PVE or PVP either needs insane amounts of money or insane luck to be able to compete in. So for any average or casual player, some basic VIP level & some spending every few weeks will be more than enough. Even as F2P you can reach the end game & I must emphasize quite easily just not as much fast.

Here is an incredible reddit community for English speakers: Reddit Link

Here is a gallery of in game images you might like to see (Imgur gallery)

AFK Arena for dotnxt.com

As much as I wanted to post my own in game pictures, I kept messing up so added 2 from playstore(first 2). These will give you honest enough idea how it looks. But the actual gameplay is lot more interesting than it looks. I will post further game updates with my own images(only). I am quite lazy at this game, wait a lot to clear content to get lazy people rewards as well. I am still pretty far ahead with my antiques.

Here is the link for the game - Google Playstore - iOS

Furthermore, AFK Arena allows users to use emulators to play on PC. I will discuss best options for emulators in another topic. But playing on PC helps a lot of players.

I will post about this beloved game of mine time to time again with updates.

Bryan Adams - are you a fan?

 I am a fan! May not be the biggest or anything like that. But I was always a fan of Bryan Adams. My first experience with English pop was through a cassette of Bryan Adams my cousin owned in late 90s.

Official page of the singer: https://www.bryanadams.com/

But the point of this topic is how I am becoming bigger fan of this legend during this pandemic. From my habit of strolling through older pop & rocks in YouTube I came across the legend posting his older & newer songs he sang & recorded at his home with his phone! Although most are easily available in the platform with their original music & edits, the experience of the person performing all by himself at his home with a guitar most of the time is inexplicably awesome, nostalgic & heart warming.

If you haven't caught up with those yet or if you are somehow unfamiliar with the singer, do check his YouTube channel. Even if you are new to his songs, I bet you will love them. I can keep humming "summer of 69" or "straight from the heart" throughout the day when I am in such mood.

YouTube Channel - Link

Here is "Please forgive Me" from YouTube if anyone needs a reason to browse the channel

 

Google Photos unlimited stoarge discontinued! Get your offline backups in order

 Did you catch the news? Google photos is discontinuing free storage of our "High Quality Photos/Videos". This is the mail I received

So, our little free storage for every precious moment is ending on May 30th 2021. 2020 is getting better with good news everyday. Well get your hard storage devices ready unless you have plans to buy the storage from google. I am not sure how much I will need to buy if it comes to that. Since I always kept 1 backup on my portable hard disk, I will keep it up to date for safety. If you do intensive photography on mobile & your mail id is used for other works requiring storage as well, better deactivate photos app on your phone before 1st June, 2021. You can start afresh again after you are sure about the storage you are buying or using etc. For now, I feel, it would be safer to keep your backups secure.

Additionally, if you are using "Google Pixel 5" or earlier device/s the free will continue. So all the above information is meant for non pixel users.

Make Transparent Taskbar on Windows 10!

 Being conservative about my PC from the very beginning, I am one of those very people who was stuck with Windows XP till Windows 7 was here, skipping Vista altogether. Then same with Windows 10. I waited till early 2020 to switch to Windows 10. So I was late to W10 party. But frankly the experience in W10 is better than W8 or 8.1 for me. I am ok with almost anything with Windows 10 appearance apart from the opaque Taskbar. I have a huge desktop wallpaper collection & I like to get them changed periodically. So getting them in kinda cropped look in W10 was bugging me for a while. So I opted for "TranslucentBT", an opensource app available through Microsoft store for free. It among other functions, makes your Taskbar transparent, which suits my requirement just fine.

 

Github page of TranslucentBT - Link

Microsoft Store page - Link

(better get it from your windows 10 store directly) 

 

Here is the description of TranslucentBT from their Github page -

A lightweight (uses a few MB of RAM and almost no CPU) utility that makes the Windows taskbar translucent/transparent on Windows 10.

• Advanced color picker supporting alpha and live preview to change the taskbar's color.
• Taskbar states (choose one - color can be customized on every state except Normal):
  • Blur: Will make the taskbar slightly blurred.
  • Clear: Transparent taskbar.
  • Normal: Regular Windows style. (as if TranslucentTB was not running)
  • Opaque: No transparency.
  • Fluent: Windows 10 April 2018 update and up only. Will give the taskbar an appearance similar to Microsoft's Fluent Design guidelines.
• Dynamic modes (these can be used together and each of them provides a taskbar state and color you can customize):
  • Dynamic Windows: Will change the taskbar to a different appearance if a window is currently maximized.
  • Dynamic Start Menu: Will change the taskbar appearance when the start menu is opened.
  • Dynamic Cortana: Will change the taskbar appearance when Cortana (or the search menu if Cortana is disabled) is open.
  • Dynamic Timeline/Task View: Will change the taskbar apperance when the Timeline (or Task View on older builds) is open.
• Ability to show or hide the Aero Peek button. Can be customized at will or dynamic.

 

MMO, MMORPG & it's slangs - Let's learn it

 Whether it's mobile/android/iOS, like the ones I play (i.e. Summoners War, AFK Arena) or PC one (e.g. World of Warcraft, Blade & Soul etc.) there are certain abbreviations we keep using very frequently. I am mainly a mobile gamer till date. So here I will be listing the ones I found very often be used in the games I play. Main purpose is to let my readers know the meaning when I use some of those slangs in my future posts. A big thanks to channel 108 of Asia server of Summoners War for helping me remember some of these.

• MMO - massive multiplayer online (game)
  
• MMORPG - massive multiplayer online role playing game
  
• AOE/AE - area of effect
  
• OP - over powered
  
• DPS - damage per second, usually means high damage character/unit/skill etc.
  
• BRB - be right back
  
• BBL - be back later
  
• BRT - be right there
  
• TBH - to be honest
  
• AFK - away from keyboard
  
• ALT - alternate
  
• BUFF/DEBUFF - enhancing/removing certain combat ability or character attribute
  
• CRIT - doing critical damage
  
• DoT - damage over time
  
• FARM/GRIND - act of accumulating game related items by repeating a task over & over
  
• F2P - free to play, usually means players who don't spend real money in game
  
• P2W/P2P - pay to win/play, usually means players who spend in game/s to gain advantage
  
• IMHO - in my humble opinion
  
• IRL - in real life
  
• LnD/LD - light and dark
  
• NAT5/NAT4/NAT3 - natural born 5 star/4 star/3star
  
• LF - looking for
  
• MOB - usually the in game non human controlled monsters
• NPC - non playing character
  
• NERF - reducing value of something
  
• NEWBIE/NOOB/NUB - new/novice player
  
• NUKE - doing biggest possible damage
  
• PROC - programmed random occurrence, getting random beneficial items/buff
  
• PVE/PVP - player vs environment/player
• RTA - real time arena
  
• REKT - abbreviation of Wrecked
  
• ROLL - trying to get something out of a big pool of items
  
• RNG - random number generator, usually means the randomness of certain parts of any game
  
• TANK - ability of or some character/monster with high damage absorption
  
• WTB/WTS/WTT - want to buy/sell/trade 

There must be some more I missed. I will try & add later. But with these addressing some gaming aspects will be lot easier.

Gaming, MMO & my journey!

 Being a 90s kid & brought up in a humble household with quite primitive education system in our time & society, my introduction to computers was quite late compared to most. I bought/assembled my own PC in 2006. But my introduction to internet was in 2005 through my beloved first smartphone "Nokia 6600".

I have had Nintendo like gaming consoles to play on TV since around 1999 & I had Playstaion 1 at a point too. But the variety of games I could access or enjoy through my 6600 was 1 of a kind & paved my way to PC gaming. In 2006 after I got my first PC, the first game I installed on my PC was "Need for Speed". Didn't like NFS a lot, but it was an one of kind experience on then great GFX 6600 graphics card I had. The next game was "Rise of Nations". This game I loved & I still adore. Playing RoN with my friend over LAN & later on with other people made me like the games I play today. RoN is a game by Microsoft & the extended + HD version was released in early 2018 if anyone is interested. There are 3 similar games of RoN type, RoN, "Rise of Legends" & "Age of Mytholgy". All 3 are very much enjoyable if you can like the real time strategy type of games. Now let's go into browser games.

Let's discuss the Pandemic

We are having an experience of lifetime people! We have a pandemic going on! The first of it's kind in more than 100 year(last was in 1918 - Spanish Flu). Well, I do understand why some people around the world either don't believe corona is a thing or any serious issue. We prefer things we saw with our eyes or experience ourselves.

Honestly this topic may not suit you if you are one of those few. But for the rest, there is a serious pandemic going on. According to Worldometer (link) currently "52,441,392" cases, "14,474,157" active cases & "1,289,752" deaths reported worldwide. 

I thought about posting this in my blog for primarily because 2 reasons. 1. I can avoid too much attention & still warn people about things I feel harmful; 2. I need to vent my frustration somewhere. 

So, if you are like me, from an area/country/state where people are nearly careless about any pandemic going on or how they could cause irreversible harm(if not death) to themselves, their family & friends, try to seclude yourselves as much as you can right now. Moreover you may observe how your local authority is allowing everything to open up, allowing people to gather & announcing declining corona numbers/deaths everyday. 

Here are some of my experiences - 

1. Some working healthcare friends of mine has developed scars in their lungs. Most of them aren't sure if they will heal, worsen or what will happen. I haven't heard of any nerological footprint from my limited contacts in healthcare. But I heard that is a possibility. 
2. The facilities to treat corona patients has been increasing but the corona numbers are decreasing. 
3. There were barely a handful of corona patients in our city. Now the corona numbers decreasing etc but my locality itself has few families suffering from corona. 
4. People aren't willing to follow corona norms/social distancing/use of masks. Some are forced to. But most breaking those whenever they feel like superman. 

Some facts till date from from various sources -  

• Herd immunity - Nature.com a detailed article Unlikely, no proven data till now & WHO official statement page  
• Vaccine - BBC estimates can be available by end of 2021 (Link); My small addition, it will be a hell of an achievement! The fastest developed vaccine till date is for Mumps & it took 4 years (Source: National Geographic)  
• Re-infection - Possible (Source: CDC)& Example from BBC (Link)  
• Treatment - Please read from WHO (Link), I will link a screenshot from the same page in case you are trying to rush - WHO Screenshot

Why this topic then? Because if there is still some who are just getting bored of their abnormal captivity due to the length of it & lacking moral support from people surrounding you but know the reason behind it, here is your reloaded version of reasons to stay safe, stay home & keep your family healthy after 11 months of Corona pandemic.