The sixth sense here is the internet. Remove the projector and camera, and replace them with sun glasses and I will pay whatever you ask to have this.
UPDATE : Good News! The project is now open source. Something good is going to come out of this.
Archive for category other
Last few weeks has seen new versions of all the major browsers. My work revolves around a browser, So I decided to take all of them for a run and check how they compete against each other. The big news coming out was from Google. Now the initial surprise has worn off, it’s time to ask the big questions about Google’s new browser: is it any good? And how does it compare to its rivals? Google knows how important the browser market is and how hot the competition is, so everybody was expecting a solid product.
I decided to download Firefox 3.1 beta becasue it includes the new TraceMonkey Javascript engine, Since chrome claims to have the fastest javascript engine out there, it was only fair to test it against the new Tracemonkey Engine. IE8 also has some exicting new innovative features, which have been discussed below. Opera and Safari have their fan following. So we Get, Set, Go….
IE8
Microsoft has been under great pressure to release a better browser after firefox showed the world, the browser could be better. IE7 made some noise, but it was essentially a catchup with current technologies. IE8 s Microsoft’s chance to innovate, and it has. IE8 includes Accelerators .Accelerators are plugins that essentially bring the power of web services to the context menu so, for example, if you right-click on a link you can choose to blog it, email it, translate it and so on. It’s context-sensitive, so some content will give you the ability to define text with Encarta or map an address with Live Maps. For some reason for me the Accelerators only show up after the page has been fully loaded, which is not good, since a lot of web pages continue downloading data even after the visual site has been loaded. Also its disappointing to see only Microsoft products as accelerators options. Perhaps more will show up as the browser makes its presence felt, but we will have to just wait and see.
The next new feature is the InPrivateBrowsing. This is something that is quiet cool. You can switch your browser to a private mode, after which it will stop saving cookies and browser cache. From the IE8 homepage “ Now you can shop for that special gift with confidence knowing your family won’t accidentally find out.” Pretty sure its going to be used for lot more than shopping for special gift 
Note : Safari had had this for quiet some time.
There are a few more features like web slices, which are an extension of rss feeds with images and videos and compatibility mode, which fixes sites that don’t show up correct. Nothing to be too exited about I guess. IE8 broke my companies hosting website, It works in the compatibility mode and it does not work on Linux. So grrrr….
Website designers are not going to like the browser if it continues to break websites, its already a pain to make the site compatible in all the browsers available in the market.
For testing javasccript performance I used the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark. It gave IE8 a not impressive 7919.4ms +/- 2.8%
It is sad to see such a bad performance from the company that virtually gave the internet ajax and worked on javascript for years before any other browser.
I give IE8 a 6 out of 10 for mediocre performance
Next up Firefox 3.1
Overselling has become a huge problem in the web hosting industry. Web hosting providers are offering huge amounts of disk space and bandwidth as a part of their marketing plan to bait customers into signing up for service, knowing that it’s physically impossible for the customer to use those resources. When they use even 10% of the resources advertised, the trouble begins!
These web hosting providers target those new to web hosting, those looking for a “great deal” and those that are not as tech savvy and sell them on the fact that they will be able to use the resources so long as the usage is according to their Terms of Service, which is actually a limiting factor. The Terms of Service generally states that the customer may not use the disk space for personal storage, that it must be used to house an actual active website, that certain file sizes are prohibited and excessive usage may be billed or be cause for account suspension.
If you’re not able to use the disk space and bandwidth for what you want, so long as it’s legal, why offer it to customers?
DreamHost a Prime Example of Overselling
An example of one web hosting provider overselling their resources to the max is DreamHost. As of this entry, DreamHost is offering 500GB’s of disk space and 5TB’s (5000GB’s) of bandwidth per month for only $5.95, but there’s a catch! In order to get this insanely low pricing, you have to pre-pay for 10 years, running your total to $714.00 upfront! They’re so nice, they even offer $0 setup, unless you pay monthly (see below).
If you’re not able to pre-pay for 10 years, you have a few other payment options, you can pre-pay for 5 years for $417.00, 3 years for $286.20, 2 years for $214.80, 1 year at $119.40 or pay $10.95 on a monthly basis with a $60.90 setup fee.
In addition to the ridiculous pricing structure, they state that the disk space increases every month by 2GB’s (24GB’s per year) while the bandwidth increases 40GB’s per month (400GB’s per year). So, if you actually manage to stay with them a full 10 years, you’ll be able to add another 240GB’s of disk space and 4TB’s of bandwidth on to your already hefty resource limits.
It Sounds Good, But You Won’t Be Able to Use It!
While the offer sounds like a steal (sort of….ok not really), you won’t be able to use the resources given, period. It’s that simple. The above offer is for a shared web hosting account (as with all overselling web hosts).
Shared web hosting accounts are housed on servers with multiple other customers, each with the same ridiculous resources. Depending on the web hosting provider, there could be as few as 100 customer accounts per server or as many as 1,000!(believe me I’ve been there! ) We’re banking on the fact that Dream Host is probably on the higher of the 2, after all, they have to make up for costs somehow.
Now, a shared web hosting server isn’t truly capable of pushing 5TB’s (500GB’s) of bandwidth in any given month, let alone pushing 100-1000x that, however, DreamHost is banking on the fact that you won’t even come close to using the resources and if you somehow manage to, it’s time to review the Terms of Service and see what they can suspend you for.
The most common account suspension reason…Excessive Resource Usage, but wait, weren’t you sold on the fact that you could use 500GB’s of disk space and 5TB’s of bandwidth? It doesn’t matter. Their Terms of Service rule over your web hosting account and while this is true of any web hosting provider, those offering reasonable limits tend to work with their customers.
You won’t find too much forgiveness with one overselling their resources.
If I Can’t Use It, Why Do They Offer It?
Simple, they bait you in with what they feel is an incredible, awesome offer that can’t be refused and figure you probably won’t read much into it or you’re not too knowledgeable of the web hosting industry and limitations of shared hosting.
Once you sign up for service, they bank of the fact that you won’t even come close to using the resources and will just continue on your merry way with a support inquiry here and there.
If It’s Too Good to Be True…It Probably IS!
The age old saying has never been so true. This old saying applies to everything, however, it especially applies to the web hosting industry.
5TB’s of Bandwidth….Not Even With a Dedicated Server
Pushing 5TB’s (5000GB’s) of bandwidth on a shared hosting server is out of the question, but to give you a general idea of how much bandwidth this truly is, for those that are new to web hosting or questioning this entry, you would be hard pressed to even push this much bandwidth through a dedicated server where you’re the ONLY website using the resources.
So What About Disk Space?
Considering a 1TB (1,000GB) drive isn’t truly available for use at the moment, web hosting providers are left with the option of using 500-750GB hard drives.
Given that information, if DreamHost only housed 100 customers per server, they would need 100 750GB hard drives to actually be able to allow customers to use the given 500GB’s of disk space. The cost of such, even with bulk discounts far outweighs the money they are getting in return.
In short, 500GB’s of disk space isn’t going to happen. A few GB’s is more probable.
So What Do You Do?
TRY US! We have been in the webhosting industry for more than 5 years and we know our stuff. Instead of making ridiculous claims about our services, we are working to make sure your website is safe, hacker free, optimized and above all online 24×7. We are more intrested in going for a cluster/load balancing setup for our web database and emails then offer you disk space and bandwidth you will never need.
You probably won’t find “the deal of a lifetime” with us, you will however find resources that you can actually use and knowledgeable support staff that will be able to answer your questions and work with you to find the best possible solution for your website.
Quality isn’t cheap and cheap isn’t quality. In the web hosting industry, you truly get what you pay for and most Hosting Providers are setting a prime example and a bad one at that.