How to make my website fast as a rocket?

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A constant worry for every owner of a website is to manage it properly. Optimizing, it is vital not to be left behind competitors. Remember, if a website doesn’t appear at the top of Google’s results, it is like it doesn’t exist for potential clients. 

There are 3 main criteria to rank: 

  • Offer quality content on your website. Include stuff that provides significant value to your specific audience.
  • Fast loading! Yes, a fast website will be better ranked by Google, so better positioned in the search results of your clients. And of course, it is necessary for giving the user a satisfying experience.
  • Mobile optimization. Check that the content of your website look good when consumed by users from their mobiles. 

Keeping this in mind, here you have some effective recommendations that really will make your website, fast as a rocket!

So, how to make your website faster? 

Get a good web hosting

Choosing web hosting is not easy, but it is very important. There are many providers and plans. Sometimes it’s hard to get the difference among them, beyond the price. As a starting point: 

Look for modern servers, with SSD and a variety of resources included (basic and more advanced for the growing of your business). Always check the server’s location and prices. Get stick to the real needs of your business! It is the best way not to get so lost.

Prefer a light theme

It’s common when developing a website to think “spectacular”. Ok, but to load all the spectacular stuff could take so much time. Such a website is pointless if visitors won’t wait to see it fully. And Google will rank it in the least seen search results. 

So light and mobile-friendly theme is the best choice.

Optimizing images

Large images take longer to be loaded. Prefer compressed formats like .JPG and be careful with the resolution. Keep it down. There’s no sense in using 20Mpx images when you can have 1MPx ones that are good enough for posting and really fast for loading.

Shrink those pics! Make your huge images smaller and experience the difference. For both compressing and resizing, there are free choices online.

Caching your website

Caching means to save unchanging elements of your website for later use. Every time a user requests your website, the last cached version of it will be displayed without delay. Just in case of recent changes, it will take a bit of time to load the website, and again, the last version will be cached.

Caching really reduces the server’s load, the needed bandwidth, and the time that users have to wait when visiting your site. 

No matter what CMS are you using, there are cache plugins that can significantly boost the speed of your website.

Suggested article: Anycast DNS – Why start using it today?

Get your own CDN

This is a very effective but expensive choice. It is getting very popular among big companies. 

Content delivery network (CDN) means to have many points of presence (PoPs) thanks to servers located worldwide. So a copy of your website is located on different servers. When a user wants to visit your site, the request is redirected to the closest PoP, not necessarily to the original hosting server that could be far from the user’s location.

Activate HTTP keep-alive response headers

Every HTTP request means to grab a file (a content of your website: JavaScript, video, images…), distribute and close. Multiply this process by several requests.

Keep-alive headers allow the user’s browser to download all that content (multiple files) through a constant TCP connection. This communication server-browser avoids the process of requesting individually every single file.  

Conclusion

To get a fast website is possible. Some optimizing actions can be implemented inside the website, while others are external. Some choices are expensive but worthy. Others are even free! 

A proper combination of both could really boost your website’s speed and launch it like a rocket, directly to Google’s first search results page! Good luck!

The biggest tech world winners from COVID-19 (List)

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Covid-19 is a massive blow to the world. People are staying at home. They are losing their jobs, consuming less. It sounds like bad, right? Not for everyone. There are many tech companies that are blossoming right now. Who are those Covid-19 winners? 

Zoom Video Communications, Inc. (ZM)

We all got stuck at home for months. There was a huge need for a good platform for video conferences. Sure, Google and Microsoft already had great solutions for their business users, but they are not free. Zoom is also not free, but its freemium model managed to attract a lot of attention. Businesses, Schools, Governments… Everybody is using it now. Investors saw it, and the stock price has grown significantly. It was around 70 USD at the beginning of the year, and now it is about 300 USD. 4 times more! The New Normal will include a lot of video conferences, so there is a headwind for Zoom.  

Netflix, Inc. (NFLX)

Another industry that is going extremely well is the online video streaming one. People are staying at home, without the opportunity to go out and spend money on restaurants, movies, trips, etc. Their only choice is to find entertainment on their devices, and Netflix is there for them. Yes, now there are many new contestants like Disney Plus, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, and more, but Netflix is still the best-known. Since the beginning of the year, Netflix has added more than 26 million new subscribers, and the stock price has increased by more than 60%. Not bad at all! Will Netflix keep its dominant position until the end of the year? Probably yes.   

Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) 

Amazon is on its way to full domination. Everybody was and still is, buying madly from Amazon. Masks, disinfectants, heck even toilet paper were out of stock from months. Jeff Bezos’s company shows how e-commerce must function during a crisis like the Covid-19 virus. 

If we check the numbers, they have more than a 40% year-on-year boost in revenues (Q2 results), and the price has almost doubled since the beginning of the year. 

Amazon AWS is also doing its part. It is fast-growing, and each year, it is responsible for a bigger percentage of Amazon profits. It is the most immense “cloud in the sky” right now, and it is on a patch of growing even more. 

Suggested article – Top 10 tech companies in 2020

Microsoft Corporation (MSFT)

Who does not know Microsoft? They have the OS running on most computers, many excellent online services, and a good alternative to Amazon AWS – Microsoft Azure. They got 13% more revenue (Q2 2020 vs. Q2 2019) and over 30% stock price increase since the beginning of the year. 

There are two fascinating points this year. Will Microsoft buy Tik-Tok? And the premiere of the next Xbox. 

The first might be an excellent addition for Microsoft for their social networks’ portfolio. Tik-Tok will give them plenty of young users and a weapon against Facebook and Snapchat. LinkedIn is great, but Tik-Tok is fresh and cool now.   

And when we are talking about young users, the next-gen Xbox is just around the corner. We still don’t know the price, but from the rumors, it will be a worthy competitor. 

Tesla Inc

Yes, Tesla is a tech company, don’t be fooled by the cars they are selling. Their stock price is going through the ruff. I already commented about Tesla stock price (https://maxpc.co.uk/tesla-stock-price-in-july-2020/), you can check it out, but basically, in time of crisis, they are just going up. Now they cost around 2200 USD (up from 1430 USD a month ago). 

Elon Musk is a very charismatic and futuristic person, but it is a bit scary how people are trusting 100% in him. The way I see it, the bubble will grow some more in the next months.  

Conclusion

A problem for some is the opportunity for another. The Covid-19 virus has pushed many industries to evolve. Many businesses already became digital in just a few months. Adopt or die. This is how the world works. 

Top 10 tech companies in 2020

No Comments Apple Inc., TOP , , , ,

During this tough 2020, some old giants are already bellied up, while the tech companies are developing immunity to COVID-19.

The Tech sector is the driver of the global economy now. 

Let’s see the top 10 tech companies that are ruling the world this 2020. Here you will see e-commerce, media, software, hardware, with massive market capitalization! 

1. Apple Inc.

Apple started the year with a bit more than 1 trillion USD value. By the end of August, it raised to 2.22 trillion USD! 

Co-founded by Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak in 1976, Apple became a public company (IPO) in 1980.

A strategic vision drove it first to manufacturing desktop computers, and later to mobile devices, tablets, and wearables. Producing popular products with big margins led the brand to success. Currently, ‘services’ is another key to its value.

2. Amazon Inc.

1.74 trillion USD made Amazon the second colossus on this ranking.

Founded by Jeff Bezos (1994) to sell books online, it grew as an e-commerce leader selling pretty much everything. In 1997, it became a public company. 

Diversification has been vital for Amazon, which nowadays is much more than e-commerce. Cloud computing, digital video and music streaming, publishing, film and TV studios, and artificial intelligence (AI) are significant branches.

3. Microsoft Corporation

1.70 trillion USD sent Microsoft to the third position in the top 10 tech companies in 2020.

Created by Bill Gates and Paul Allen in 1975, Microsoft developed user-friendly software for PC. Products such as the MS-DOS operating system and later, Windows, boosted the company, becoming public in 1986. 

Innovation but mostly adaptation, have been its keys to keep expanding through the time, no matter the large number of competitors.

Now Microsoft also means hardware, smart devices, mobiles, apps, games, servers, cloud services, machine learning, and AI. 

Suggested article – Top 7 Web Hosting Services

4. Alphabet Inc.

1.11trillion USD placed Alphabet in the fourth spot. It is obvious, because we are talking about Google. Created in 2015, Alphabet became the head on top of Google and many more sub-companies.

Sergey Brin and Larry Page founded this conglomerate in 1993. Now it is far more than a little search engine. It changed “search for it” to “google it,” and that’s a great success!  

Develop innovative, excellent services, and big acquisitions are the company’s strength that today owns YouTube, GMaps, GApps, GCloud, GVenture, GCapital, and much more.

5. Facebook Inc.

The fifth place in the top 10 tech companies goes for Facebook and its 0.84 trillion USD value.

The social networking company was born in 2004 when officially, Mark Zuckerberg launched it as a website from his university dorm. The site got very popular, and in 2012, Facebook had its IPO.

Daily, an average of 1.79 billion users log into the platform. Its growth, both in terms of users and value, has been massive. To fuel the expansion, Facebook made some significant acquisitions like Instagram, Whatsapp, and Oculus VR.

6. Alibaba Group

A 0.76 trillion USD Asian giant comes on the stage. 

In 1999, Jack Ma and 17 more partners created a website to sell internationally, goods from small Chinese exporters and manufacturers. 

Alibaba arose as an international leader in online and mobile commerce, becoming public in 2014. It was the largest IPO ever! 

Now, Alibaba Group leads online retail, electronic paymentS, shopping search engine services, cloud computing, digital media, entertainment, etc.

7. Tencent Holdings Ltd.

7th place with 0.65 trillion USD goes to another Chinese company.

It was founded in 1998 and rapidly grown as the most used Internet service portal. In 2004, Tencent Holdings Limited went public on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange.

The conglomerate involves e-commerce, payment systems, social networks, and games. Titles like “League of Legends” and “Fortnite” are globally popular.

8. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Limited (TSMC)

A 0.38 trillion USD value leads TSMC to the eighth spot.

Established by Morris Chang (1987) as a foundry business, TSMC became the largest worldwide company dedicated to semiconductors. 

Its chips are present in automotive, electronics, and various industrial equipment. Nvidia, Qualcomm, Intel, and Apple are just a few of its clients.

9. Samsung

0.36 trillion USD is the value of the South Korean Samsung.

Lee Byung-Chull created Samsung (1938) as a grocery trading store. From trading noodles, local goods, later textiles, it jumped to producing the textiles and investing in petrochemical industries.

In 1969, Samsung got into the electronics industry. 

Televisions, home appliances, semiconductors, genetic engineering tools, aerospace, shipbuilding, memory chips, integrated systems, nanotech, smartphones, life insurance… Evolution and expansion, the keys to Samsung’s success.

10. Nvidia Corporation

Closing the top 10 tech companies with Nvidia (0.32 trillion USD).

Jen-Hsun Huang, Christopher Malachowsky, and Curtis Priem founded it in 1993 to create microprocessors for PC’s to empower full-motion video and stereo sound. The computer gaming sector got so interested in its products.

The global graphic processor producer is present in gaming and video edition, apps, data centers, AI, robotics, cryptocurrency mining, self-driving cars, and more.

An intro to PAM (Pluggable Authentication Modules) in Linux

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PAM is Pluggable Authentication Modules. It is a crucial framework for app and service authorization and authentication. Many Linux distros rely on it. This the reason that it is essential to understand it. 

About PAM for Linux

PAM for Linux is available since 1996. First in Red Hat Linux and later in AIX OS, FreeBSD, Solaris, NetBSD, and macOS. Now you can find in almost any Linux distro.  

It is a centralized mechanism with the purpose of authentication. Use it as an API that facilitates adding new authentication method later on, with an installation of a new PAM module. 

How can PAM help? Programs that need access to a system must be authenticated. As a dev, you can configure them with PAM, for that purpose. There is also a lot of settings for fine-tuning the policies regarding the system. Devs can use it and focus on creating their software and have one less worry.   

Advantages of PAM

Common frame – It is a complete framework that a variety of applications can use easily. 

Adjustability – Both app developers and system administrators have enough control and adjustability. 

Single library – There is a single, very well documented library for the developers. They can use it to write applications and forget the need to develop own authentication method. 

Take a minute to check this article – Why Apple is moving to ARM chips is a huge deal?

Configure PAM in Linux

You can find the configuration file in /etc/pam.conf. There is a directory- /etc/pam.d/ which contains the config. files for every one of the PAM-aware applications or services. If the directory exists, PAM will ignore the file.

What is the syntax of PAM? PAM syntax is this one:

service type control-flag module module-arguments

service: the actual name of application or service.

type: module type/context/interface.

control-flag: Shows what to do if PAM-API module fails with the authentication.

module: the exact filename or pathname of the PAM.

module-arguments: List of tokens for administrating the behavior of each module.

Suntax of each file in /etc/pam.d/:

type control-flag module module-arguments

PAM Management Groups and Control-flags

There are 4 separate management groups for the PAM authentication tasks. They administrate various parts of a users’ requests for restricted services.

A module is related to one of these PAM management group types:

account: Used for account verification: It checks if the user’s password is still valid; if the user has access allowed for the service.

authentication: authenticate the user and check credentials.

password: Works with authentication modules, and it is responsible for the update of users’ passwords.

session: Administrates tasks for the beginning and end of a session.

The modules (PAM loadable object files) are located in one of these directories: /lib/security/ or /lib64/security, depending on if the OS is 32bit or 64bit.

The Control-flags are:

requisite: If it fails, it returns to the application and showing the nature of the module fail.

required: all of the modules must succeed for libpam to return success to the application.

sufficient: if all previous modules have succeeded, then the success of the current module will return successfully to the application (failure of this module is ignored).

optional: the fail or success of the particular module will not be recorded.

If you are interested in PAM, I recommend you to check these two links:

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system-level_authentication_guide/pluggable_authentication_modules

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-pam.html

First is from Red Hat, the second from NetBsd. Both have a lot of useful infromation.

Sources: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pluggable_authentication_module

https://www.redhat.com/sysadmin/pluggable-authentication-modules-pam

https://access.redhat.com/documentation/en-us/red_hat_enterprise_linux/7/html/system-level_authentication_guide/pluggable_authentication_modules

https://www.netbsd.org/docs/guide/en/chap-pam.html

http://web.mit.edu/rhel-doc/5/RHEL-5-manual/Deployment_Guide-en-US/ch-pam.html

What’s new in Android 11?

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It’s been a year since Android 10, and it is time for Google to show us the latest version – Android 11. It should be released in Q3 of 2020, probably around mid-September 2020. Let’s not waste time and just right into the new features and updates of Android 11. 

What’s new in Android 11? 

Android is already very feature-rich, but you will see some slight improvements that are worth mentioning. This is the list of new features and changes that we are going to see very soon: 

  1. Built-in screen recording. Finally, we will have the chance to take not only screenshots, but also videos without third-party apps. This is a useful feature for the mobile gamer who wants to upload gameplay videos or even for an average consumer who wants to show a step-by-step guide for their elder. 
  2. Mute notifications while a video is on. No more beep sounds when you are Netflixing. We were desperately waiting for this one for years. You can also enjoy online videos without annoying notification from social media apps. 
  3. Increased touch sensitivity. This feature can help Android users who like to put extremely strong screen protectors. Small upgrade, but it can improve the overall feeling.
  4. Notification history. Now, if you dismissed a notification, you can still be able to find it in the history of all notifications. The notifications are a mess for a long time. At least now you can search inside them easily. 
  5. App permissions auto-revoke. Google will auto-revoke permissions like microphone, camera, etc. of apps, that you haven’t used in a while. A clever little feature that I like. 
  6. COVID 19 Exposure Notification API. Not sure if this will be really helpful, but there it is. Devs will be able to use the API for COVID-19 apps. Probably it won’t be used at all, but at least it was a nice PR move. 

Suggested article: 5 types of Apps you shouldn’t download on your smartphone

Small updates:

  • Updated power menu
  • New screenshot interface
  • Revamped menus and shortcuts
  • Quick “select text” button in the overview menu
  • The media player moves from the notifications to quick settings – it is a bit more comfortable there, I must admit. 
  • Airplane mode keeps Bluetooth on – Perfect for those who use Bluetooth headphones. Maybe bad for the airplanes? Who knows.  
  • Better voice access capabilities allow you to perform actions with your voice in a natural way. Now you can directly say the function, instead of saying the number on the screen that correspond. 
  • Chat bubbles will be more present. You are probably familiar with it. Facebook use it for a long time.  
  • Separate icons for different 5g networks. Because up until now, everything was showing 5g even if it is actually 4g
  • Auto-activated dark mode depending on the time of the day. 
  • One-time permissions for apps. iOS has this from some time already. Now Android 11 caught up.

What I am missing still

These are a few new features that I want from Google:

  • Screenshot feature. It is so lovely to be able to make a panoramic-like screenshot of a complete web page and read it later. Also, you can use it to save a whole chat with somebody. 
  • Desktop mode. This is a very niche desire, but I would really like to have a desktop mode. That way I can use my mobile when I am on holiday, with whatever screen there is in the hotel. 

We are currently in Android 11 Beta 3, so we can expect almost all of these new features to stay in the final version. We are just a few days away until Google releases it. 

5 types of Apps you shouldn’t download on your smartphone

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In the last years, all sorts of apps have been developed to make “our life easy”. Some useful, others very pointless, but all push us to install them on our smartphones. 

The problem is, many just occupy storage space, worsen the general performance of your device, drain battery, and wants your personal data! 

Keyboard

Third-party keyboards have tempted many users with better auto-correction, smart reply, nicer interface, and “for free” signs!

Well, you don’t give money, but you painfully pay!

Through the keyboard, we access pretty much to everything: typing passwords, personal data, credit card numbers, conversations with clients, family, friends. Everything could get registered in the app. Do you trust the developers with all of that?!

Battery savers and fast charging

All users want their device to last longer, reduce the power drain, and charge the device without waiting hours. That’s why such apps sound very attractive, but they don’t work.

What actually helps is to reduce the use and quit all running services and apps in the background because they continuously use power. Those apps need to close applications and keep them closed. They will need root access for that, and they don’t have it. 

Fast charging driven by an app is also false. Apps can order specific functions to devices, but they can’t manage the independent voltage/current controller that every battery has.

The charger also has a power output limit that an app can’t change. 

These are apps you shouldn’t download because they will consume extra space, energy, and sometimes, a lot of data. 

Social networking

Yes, currently, many users can’t live without social networking apps. But the space they take is massive, the amount of energy they use, invasive permissions, data consumption, and risks for your info are crazy. Especially Facebook.

Just having the Facebook app installed can significantly affect the performance of your mobile. Suppose you add more apps like this, plus the ones you use to work, exercise, banking, etc. You are really shortening the life of your battery.

You don’t need to quit. Just use it from the browser instead of the app version. Sites won’t take your device resources once closed.

RAM Optimizers

Each application needs RAM. It keeps temporary files there. Sometimes even after it is turned off. What RAM optimizers and RAM savers promise is to close the applications and remove all their temporary files from the RAM. Some apps can do it, but you can do it too. Just open the multi-task window and close some apps manually. If you need some extra RAM for an app, this is fast and easy. 

Remember that Android and iOS themselves have features to manage the use of RAM automatically too.

So such an app will just do the same as the OS already does.

Suggested article: TOP 7 Web hosting services (2020)

Cleaning utilities 

Another kind of apps you shouldn’t download because they just will take you memory, energy, and in some cases, private data from your device.

They say they clean pointless files to free space to boost the device’s performance by cooling it down, saving battery, and other marvels.

It is true that every mobile has cached data from the apps. The good news is that it can be effectively deleted without a third-party app. If you go to settings, you just need to tap the Clean Cached Data in General or delete a specific app’s cached data.

Wrap up

These are apps you shouldn’t download, but apps are more present every day, so it is not to avoid them totally but to look for the safest. 

Always get apps from well-known app stores like Google Play Store or Apple App store. Choose apps from known developers. Check the pros and cons, and don’t forget the users’ reviews. They can be extremely helpful. When installing an app, I’m always very cautious. If it demands access to the mic, camera, contacts, location, files (image/video), etc. without an apparent reason, I put it in my Apps you shouldn’t download list.

Access to my personal data is a “price”, I’m not willing to pay.

Tesla stock price increased by 32.5% in July, is it a bubble about to burst?

No Comments Tesla , ,

It is 2020, the year of the Corona Virus, and the “Apocalypses” for all the traditional companies. The amount of cars sold has dropped by up to 80% in some countries. In general, people are not traveling this year. One can assume that it is hell for the car manufacturers, right? So how come that Tesla stock price is rising so much and it became the car company with the highest ever market cap? Does it make any sense, or is it a bubble?

Tesla stock price increased by 32.5%

Against all pessimism burst by the coronavirus pandemic that has badly affected the results of most companies in this 2020, Tesla just reported a great milestone.

At the end of last July 2020, the Palo Alto-based company reached its fourth consecutive quarter of profitability. Tesla (NASDAQ, TSLA) hopped to 32.5%, based on information provided by S&P Global Market Intelligence. This means it has arisen close to 250% year to date.

David Trainer, who is the CEO of New Constructs, an investment research company, puts Tesla stock as “the most dangerous stock of 2020.” He believes that the traditional automakers will soon catch up with their electric vehicles, and TSLA will go down as low as $300. Trainer thinks that Tesla can’t compete if the rest focus on EVs. 

Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation, said, “The stock price is insane. The valuation is insane.” He is definitely not buying the hype around the stock too. He was pointing that Tesla’s results are thanks to the huge government support, and without it, the picture would be very different. 

So July is gone now, and we are in August. The price is still rising, and it is currently trading at 1,658.32 on NASDAQ. It looks like the investment market is totally disconnected from the reality outside our windows recently. Many are expecting the price to pass the 2000 mark and to grow even more. 

For me, this looks like a big bubble about to burst. It doesn’t mean that you still can’t invest and make good earning on your investment, but just be prepared. Don’t invert your retirement’s money on it. 

If you ask me, you can make a big buck if you are a risk-taker, and you want to play with some put options with strike day around the end of the year. 

Yes, betting against your favorite company is hard, but an artificially inflated price is not nice too. 

What’s next for Tesla?

Tesla will split the stock in a 5-to-1 ratio on the 21st of August. Each stock owner will receive 4 more, and the price will go down accordingly. This will make the stocks more affordable for retail investors. The announcement itself inflated the value with around 18%. 

We are expecting a presentation on the topic of batteries on the 15th of September. The company is well-known for its high-tech innovations, so a new, more efficient battery can easily boost the stock price. At least this is a good reason. 

Conclusion

If we look back on a year ago, the Tesla stock was around 250% less, and during the complete 2019, the price increased by more than 500%. These numbers are not typical for companies in the S&P 500. Even if you think it is a great company and you “love” the real-life iron man Elon Musk, be cautious investing in Tesla. It is a high risk, high return affair!

TOP 7 Web hosting services (2020)

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Are you looking for web hosting? I will help you narrow it down faster and show you 6 great web hosting companies worth checking. 

All of them have decent uptime (99.93-99.99%) and 24/7 support. 

Bluehost 

https://www.bluehost.com

In the business since 2007. WordPress.org officially recommends it! 

Competitive prices, Digital Marketing team (paid service), support through chat or phone, and instant activation of their plans are some of the best features.

Bluehost has SEO tools, free email accounts, free SSL certificates, money-back guarantee, plans for higher traffic websites, VPS, shared, dedicated hosting…

It offers different plans—the basic 3-year costs around $3 monthly.

Some cons to be considered: The free backup solution is really limited, the constant upsells, that migration is free for just 1 site, and the fact that Bluehost has servers just in the US. 

HostGator

https://www.hostgator.com

Founded in 2002, this is another popular web hosting provider. 

Unlimited bandwidth and storage, support reachable through phone and chat. It offers free migration assisted by experts, free email accounts.

Easy to use website builders (drag and drop), money-back guarantee (45 days!), Windows and Linux hosting, VPS hosting, and dedicated server.

The cheapest plans start at around $3 monthly. 

The cons: A lot of pointless upsells. You get just one backup included. It doesn´t have its own cache for fast loading, and the renewal rate is high. 

Siteground 

https://www.siteground.com

Created in 2004, it is recommended by WordPress.org too. 

A highly recommended 24/7 customer support.

It has 6 own data centers on 4 continents (North America 1, Europe 3, Asia 1, and Australia 1).

It offers unlimited traffic, speed cache, real-time monitor, AI traffic guard, money-back guarantee, SSL, CloudFare CDN with 194 locations, website builder, free email accounts, free daily backups. Its plans start from $6.99 monthly (discounted from $14.99). Their hosting services include shared hosting and cloud hosting.

Some cons: It is expensive. Low storage space (starts at 10GB). So if you have an image/video heavy website, maybe it is not your best choice. 

Hostinger

https://www.hostinger.com

It was founded in 2004, but until 2011, it got the name Hostinger. 

Price is its most attractive feature. It has a $0.99 monthly plan (if you sign for 48 months, and it has limited bandwidth, and no free domain). The price increases in the renewal to $9.99. You can use it for 2 years and run to another. 

Website builder, money-back guarantee, unlimited bandwidth, and databases in most of its plans. 

It provides Cloudflare DNS, and you can upgrade to VPS. Its data centers are located in North America, Europe, and Asia.

Drawbacks: Limited services (in the basic plan only 1 FTP Account, 1 email, no free backups, 100GB bandwidth). This host has not the traditional cPanel but its own custom control panel. 

There are many comments from users who warn about the policy and proper refunds when you apply for the money-back guarantee. So check it very well! 

A2 Hosting

https://www.a2hosting.com

This host launched in 2001.

Good support team through chat, email, phone and tickets, and its fast servers, are the main A2 features. 

Its servers can load pages up to 20X faster than standard hosting. At least they say so. They are optimized for WordPress sites and use LiteSpeed cache for a speed boost. A2 also works with Joomla, Drupal, OpenCart, and Magento.

Most of its plans include limitless bandwidth and SSD storage, money-back guarantee, free SSL, domain name, email accounts, one-click installers, and site migration. 

The basic plan costs around $3 monthly (renewal goes approx. to $8). 

Besides shared hosting, you can get services like VPS and dedicated. A lot of options for upgrade. 

Without a doubt, speed is a big selling point of this host. Just don´t get confused and be loyal to your real needs because many upsells are related to this factor. 

GoDaddy

https://www.godaddy.com

The largest domain registrar was created in 1997, as Jomax Technologies. Years later, GoDaddy also became a hosting provider.

Drag-and-drop website builder, Marketing services, Website design services, cPanel, 100GB website storage, free domain, unmetered bandwidth, money-back guarantee, VPS, and dedicated servers.

Its basic plan is $5.99 monthly (renewal $8.99), and it doesn’t include backups, SSL, and email accounts. You have to pay extra to get them so the final deal will go higher. Expect a lot of pushy upsells.

The missing of migration service worries me. Not everybody can migrate by themselves. 

No automatic backups, either.

Hostway

https://hostway.com

Founded in 1998, it has now 12 data centers in North America, 2 in South Korea, and 2 more in Germany, so 16 data centers in total!

Its website hosting services include different plans for shared hosting, cloud hosting, and virtual private server hosting (VPS). 

The plans email accounts, unlimited monthly traffic, money-back guarantee, customized solutions, SSD storage, cPanel, marketing tools.

The cheapest plan starts at $6.95 monthly, but it does not include SSL. There are no promotions for new users.

It is fit more for big companies than for small ones. It is reliable, no doubt, but especially for businesses interested in North America. Asia and some European areas are not specially covered.

Conclusion

The best hosting provider for you is the one that better fits with the real needs. Most of the providers have similar offers but pay attention to the server location. Choose one closer to your clients. Check very well the policies, conditions, limits, etc. about resources and payments of your plan.

Use the money-back guarantee to try the host you are interested in. It is a great way to see how it works without losing money!

Why Apple is moving to ARM chips is a huge deal!

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Apple is planning to completely replace Intel as its chip supplier. The change will start very soon. But don’t be afraid, this is actually a great thing for people who love the Apple ecosystem. 

What is ARM? 

At the moment, almost every mobile phone out there uses an ARM processor. ARM (Advanced RISC Machine) is an architecture that promises better battery life, uses less power, and potentially similar performance to Intel’s and AMD’s chips. 

Apart from that, you can benefit from features like always-connected devices that have 4G or 5G connection. Imagine if it gets usual to have mobile connectivity on almost any laptop. It will be great! 

Devices powered by ARM chips are also less power-hungry. This allows fanless designs that are lighter and more portable. To be honest, current-gen laptops are light enough, but even a small improvement is welcome. 

With ARM chips, Apple will be able to control better their releases of new products. Now they are strongly connected to Intel’s schedule, and with all the delays in the past years, this is hard to plan.  

Why now? 

Intel has been struggling for a long time. They continuously delay their 10nm processors. There are just a few available right now, and the future doesn’t look bright for team Blue. They are so much behind that they are trying to collaborate with TSMC to keep up with the competition. AMD is already on 7nm architecture, so are the mobile chip producers, and we are almost at 5nm size already. 

The other big problem is the price. Intel’s chips are expensive. It is a company with a dominating position on the market of computer processors for a long time. So far, they were capable of charging extra for that. 

Also, if you have checked the market of devices with Windows on ARM, you will see that they are starting to be good. Yes, a 64bit application emulator is missing, but Snapdragon 8cx is quite capable of native 64bit apps. It will be a shame to stay behind! 

What could go wrong? 

ARM may not be powerful enough. Yes, we all have seen how powerful the iPhone is, in comparison with Android phones. But how does it compare to Intel Core processors for typical work? 

Not enough software. Apple has provided excellent options for the developers to create universal apps for both macOS and iOS (Universal 2 application binaries). This will come in handy in the future, but what about now? Can we use all the apps from macOS without losing performance due to emulation? Apple promise “translation” of the apps during installation with Rosetta 2. We need to test that. 

ARM can get expensive. ARM is for sale, and it can end in anybody’s hands. Apple has a license for its custom architecture, but what if the price for that license increases in the future? Apple can get completely dependent on a single company. And if you are thinking, why Apple just buy ARM, forget it. It will be too much of a hustle for Apple. It will lead to serious anti-monopoly problems. 

So? 

First, ARM-powered Apple computers are coming this fall. Are you going to get one? Or you prefer to wait a few years to be sure that they are here to stay. I will probably get one to play with it. I am a bit worried about software compatibility and how developers will translate their apps to the new platform. I have seen a great first look, but I need to get one in my hands. 

Stay tuned and let’s see how this develops.

Hello, tech enthusiasts!

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Let me present myself, I am Max Meyer, and I am happy to welcome you to my blog! I am glad you got interested in my stories, in the sea of information, the Internet.

Who am I? 

I am an American with European descent. From an early age, maybe 5-6 years old, I have been attracted to technology. My dear father was an electrical engineer, and he used to show me how things work. I have disassembled and assembled countless radios and home gadgets. This knowledge helped me fix my Nintendo many times. 

Later I was getting some money aside while I was studying at the university by fixing electronics. 

I finished with a computer degree – Bachelor in Computer Science.

In this personal blog, I will try to be least biased as possible, and I won’t share the names of companies I was working too.   

After I finished my studies, I stayed in California, and I started my professional career. It was the early 80s, and Silicon Valley was hot. Everybody wanted to be there and taste the future. Microsoft was getting big and working with IBM, Apple went public already, and it was the best time for a young tech grad. 

I started as an intern in one of the big computer companies at the time. I got lucky, and I managed to get a job there. I was doing what I loved, tinkering computers!

I learned to code, but my passion will always be the hardware.   

It was a fascinating time, incredibly dynamic. In the late 90s, the company where I started was on a decline. It was painful to watch when most of the competitors were going massive. It was my time to continue, to leave the nest.

I moved several times in different companies until the early 2000s. I try my luck both in small companies and in big corporations. 

Now I am still working in one of the big tech companies, and I am pleased with my position. 

Why I write

I have worked many years already in the tech industry. Now I want to start sharing my insights and knowledge. The tech is so exciting, and there is always something new to be learned. Follow me on a journey through time and space, exploring the most amazing tech in the world. You can expect interesting articles about new tech, less-known but essential tech, commentary on trendy topics, and more! 

I hope you like my articles and see you often on my blog!