Monthly Archives: March 2021

Much is being made of quantum computing these days, and for good reason. It stands poised to revolutionize our digital world, and along with that making so much more possible with regards to improving the ability of the world to work together and add so much more reach and efficiency to a great deal of what we’re doing. The development of the technology has been a long time in the making, and it’s a cake that’s not quite bake yet. But one of the most important ingredients to it is one material that’s been commonplace and unexceptional for a long time now.

Optical fiber has been around for 50 years now, permitting transmissions over long distances with higher bandwidth levels. Just that part of the explanation should be all that’s needed to allow you to grasp the significance of what optical fiber has offered to us. And if you don’t even know exactly what they are then that’s fine too. A quick description – straight from Wikipedia – is to say that they are flexible, transparent fibers made by drawing silica glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair.

A whole lot of goodness in very skinny package. Putting people in the know about things that will interest them is a small part of what makes us here at 4GoodHosting a good Canadian web hosting provider, and we think that a shout out to the potentially unsung hero of quantum computing is worth it here this week.

So let’s have a look at the role of optical fibers in quantum computing here, and maybe you’ll have a greater appreciation for them.

Integral to Massive Processing Power

So just how is that an ordinary telecommunications technology is so key to building superconducting quantum computers with massive processing power?

It started with tests measuring and controlling a superconducting quantum bit (qubit) using light-conducting fiber instead of metal electrical wires. The results which indicated that the optical fibers was able to pack a million qubits into a quantum computer rather than just a few thousand.

That’s a BIG jump in capacity, and as a result we’re now seeing superconducting circuits being a lead technology for making quantum computers because of reliability how they are easily mass produced. One hang up of sorts is that these circuits must operate at cryogenic temperatures, and wiring them to room-temperature electronics isn’t simple and there’s a real risk of overheating.

So with that in mind now process yourself how a universal quantum computer, is expected to need about 1 million qubits. Conventional existing infrastructure would only support thousands at most.

Optical fiber, on the other hand, features a glass or plastic core that can carry a high volume of light signals without conducting heat. Superconducting quantum computers use microwave pulses to store and process information though, and that creates a need for the light to be converted precisely to microwaves.

Optical fiber has been reworked to meet this need, and by combining it with a few other standard components that convert, convey and measure light at the level of single particles, or photons, this was made possible. The light is then easily converted into microwaves that showed themselves to be ideal for maintaining the integrity of the qubit’s fragile quantum states.

Long story short here – Optical fiber can also carry far more data in a much smaller volume than conventional cable.

With the new setup using an optical fiber instead of metal to guide light signals to cryogenic photodetectors, microwaves could be routed to the qubit through either the photonic link or a regular coaxial line.

Superconducting Metals

The functional key to the workings of the optical fiber here is that there are two superconducting metals separated by an insulator. Add a certain microwave frequency and the qubit is able to move between low-frequency and excited states without lag.

The frequency at which microwaves naturally bounce back and forth in the cavity, called the resonance frequency, is dependent on and defined by the qubit state. Plus, the frequency at which the qubit switches states depends on the number of photons in the cavity.

The hope with this technology is that quantum processors will be enabled for having optical fibers transmitting signals to and from the qubits, with each fiber capable of carrying thousands of signals to and from the qubit.

Soon-to-Be Applications

Much is being made of quantum computing these days, and for good reason. It stands poised to revolutionize our digital world, and along with that making so much more possible with regards to improving the ability of the world to work together and add so much more reach and efficiency to a great deal of what we’re doing. The development of the technology has been a long time in the making, and it’s a cake that’s not quite bake yet. But one of the most important ingredients to it is one material that’s been commonplace and unexceptional for a long time now.

Optical fiber has been around for 50 years now, permitting transmissions over long distances with higher bandwidth levels. Just that part of the explanation should be all that’s needed to allow you to grasp the significance of what optical fiber has offered to us. And if you don’t even know exactly what they are then that’s fine too. A quick description – straight from Wikipedia – is to say that they are flexible, transparent fibers made by drawing silica glass or plastic to a diameter slightly thicker than that of a human hair.

A whole lot of goodness in very skinny package. Putting people in the know about things that will interest them is a small part of what makes us here at 4GoodHosting a good Canadian web hosting provider, and we think that a shout out to the potentially unsung hero of quantum computing is worth it here this week.

So let’s have a look at the role of optical fibers in quantum computing here, and maybe you’ll have a greater appreciation for them.

Integral to Massive Processing Power

So just how is that an ordinary telecommunications technology is so key to building superconducting quantum computers with massive processing power?

It started with tests measuring and controlling a superconducting quantum bit (qubit) using light-conducting fiber instead of metal electrical wires. The results which indicated that the optical fibers was able to pack a million qubits into a quantum computer rather than just a few thousand.

That’s a BIG jump in capacity, and as a result we’re now seeing superconducting circuits being a lead technology for making quantum computers because of reliability how they are easily mass produced. One hang up of sorts is that these circuits must operate at cryogenic temperatures, and wiring them to room-temperature electronics isn’t simple and there’s a real risk of overheating.

So with that in mind now process yourself how a universal quantum computer, is expected to need about 1 million qubits. Conventional existing infrastructure would only support thousands at most.

Optical fiber, on the other hand, features a glass or plastic core that can carry a high volume of light signals without conducting heat. Superconducting quantum computers use microwave pulses to store and process information though, and that creates a need for the light to be converted precisely to microwaves.

Optical fiber has been reworked to meet this need, and by combining it with a few other standard components that convert, convey and measure light at the level of single particles, or photons, this was made possible. The light is then easily converted into microwaves that showed themselves to be ideal for maintaining the integrity of the qubit’s fragile quantum states.

Long story short here – Optical fiber can also carry far more data in a much smaller volume than conventional cable.

With the new setup using an optical fiber instead of metal to guide light signals to cryogenic photodetectors, microwaves could be routed to the qubit through either the photonic link or a regular coaxial line.

Superconducting Metals

The functional key to the workings of the optical fiber here is that there are two superconducting metals separated by an insulator. Add a certain microwave frequency and the qubit is able to move between low-frequency and excited states without lag.

The frequency at which microwaves naturally bounce back and forth in the cavity, called the resonance frequency, is dependent on and defined by the qubit state. Plus, the frequency at which the qubit switches states depends on the number of photons in the cavity.

The hope with this technology is that quantum processors will be enabled for having optical fibers transmitting signals to and from the qubits, with each fiber capable of carrying thousands of signals to and from the qubit.

Soon-to-Be Applications

Quantum computing experts predict that this year the technology is going to make some very visible inroads. One of them is the predicted first public acknowledgment of the quantum crypto break, where quantum computers become capable of breaking traditional public key crypto. More to what the average person will relate to, there will also greater numbers of quantum devices like quantum random generators and quantum key distribution, made more cheaply and appearing as subcomponents in more devices like smartphones and personal computing devices. 

Don’t know about you but it hasn’t been even a week since I ordered something from Amazon.ca, and I was browsing through my Facebook feed over breakfast this AM. There are a few people who’ve sworn off social media these days, and in truth that’s often a good thing. But there’s all sorts of us who have Google as big parts of our digital lives and many of those same people take advantage of much of what Apple has to offer too.

That’s not going to change, but what may have to change is the way we all keep our guards up a little bit more when taking advantage of these conveniences or taking in social media in moderation. That’s for the following reason; there’s plenty of malware out there looking for any and all opportunities to get in where they shouldn’t, but none of them are drumming up as much caution quite like the CooperStealer.

Sounds fancy, and it has nothing to do with a digital thief stealing barrels or anything of the sort. What it DOES have the ability to do is steal credentials. And more specifically, login and account credentials for Facebook, Google, and Apple passwords. While it’s debatable whether you could go without Facebook in in the interest of keeping yourself safe from this, you likely won’t see it the same way when it comes to Google and Apple accounts.

Part of being a quality Canadian web hosting provider is keeping our customers in the know about developments that might affect them, and considering what we’ve laid out here this CooperStealer malware definitely meets the criteria for that. So let’s look at it in greater detail with our entry for this week and explain further about why this is something you’ll want to be aware of and then conclude with tips about how you can make yourself less at risk.

Hunger for Cookies Too

This malware we’re discussing here today was given the name CooperStealer by researchers because it is both a password and cookie stealer that is in active development. Plus, another big part of the potential problem is that it comes with a download feature that allows its operators to deliver additional malicious payloads to infected devices.

The infection seriousness doesn’t end there. Threat actors behind this malware strain have used compromised accounts in order to run malicious ads and conduct malware advertising campaigns that have been given the term ‘malvertising’ recently.

But this isn’t exactly new. Early versions of the CooperStealer were seen as early as the summer of 2019. It was seen to effectively target Facebook and Instagram account credentials while also being able to target Bing, PayPal, Tumblr and Twitter.

Building on SilentFade and More

It’s also been determined that CooperStealer utilizes many of the same targeting and delivery methods as SilentFade, the Chinese-sourced malware which ended up on Facebook’s security radar in 2019 too. It ended up being the cause of over $4m in damages, and so the alarms going off about CooperStealer are legit. Industry and malware experts believe that CooperStealer is a previously undocumented family within the same class of malware as SilentFade, StressPaint, FacebookRobot and Scranos.

CooperStealer may also be implemented into suspicious websites advertised as KeyGen and crack sites such as keygenninja[.]com, piratewares[.]com, startcrack[.]com, and crackheap[.]net. The reason people are at these sites at all is because they present themselves as being an alternative to circumventing the licensing restrictions of legitimate software.

The truth of the matter, however, is that these Potentially Unwanted Programs/Applications (PUP/PUA) are much more frequently in existence to simply deliver malicious executables capable of downloading and installing additional payloads. Take note of them, and avoid them unless you see these resources as being worth the risk.

Good Sinkholes

The good news is that the people who you’d think would need to be proactive about this threat are doing just that. Researchers at Facebook, Cloudflare and other service providers have worked to develop co-ordinated disruptive action. The best examples being a warning interstitial page that presents itself in front of the malicious domains, and the development of ‘sinkholes’ for select sites that are known to be favoured by these threat actors behind the CooperStealer.

Now it’s true that most people don’t envision anything good when thinking of a sinkhole, but in this case it’s a good thing and not a huge falling away of the earth that devours homes, vehicles and whatever else has the misfortune of being immediately above them when they’re about to do their thing.

No, the type of ‘sinkhole’ that we’re talking about here is a method used to limit an attacker’s ability to collect data on victims while also enabling researchers to gain visibility into victim demographics. During a sinkhole’s first 24 hours of operation they can log hundreds of thousands of HTTP requests from unique IPs originating from hundreds of different countries around the world.

Based on this industry experts were able to determine the top five countries based on unique infections were India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and The Philippines.

Don’t know about you but it hasn’t been even a week since I ordered something from Amazon.ca, and I was browsing through my Facebook feed over breakfast this AM. There are a few people who’ve sworn off social media these days, and in truth that’s often a good thing. But there’s all sorts of us who have Google as big parts of our digital lives and many of those same people take advantage of much of what Apple has to offer too.

That’s not going to change, but what may have to change is the way we all keep our guards up a little bit more when taking advantage of these conveniences or taking in social media in moderation. That’s for the following reason; there’s plenty of malware out there looking for any and all opportunities to get in where they shouldn’t, but none of them are drumming up as much caution quite like the CooperStealer.

Sounds fancy, and it has nothing to do with a digital thief stealing barrels or anything of the sort. What it DOES have the ability to do is steal credentials. And more specifically, login and account credentials for Facebook, Google, and Apple passwords. While it’s debatable whether you could go without Facebook in in the interest of keeping yourself safe from this, you likely won’t see it the same way when it comes to Google and Apple accounts.

Part of being a quality Canadian web hosting provider is keeping our customers in the know about developments that might affect them, and considering what we’ve laid out here this CooperStealer malware definitely meets the criteria for that. So let’s look at it in greater detail with our entry for this week and explain further about why this is something you’ll want to be aware of and then conclude with tips about how you can make yourself less at risk.

Hunger for Cookies Too

This malware we’re discussing here today was given the name CooperStealer by researchers because it is both a password and cookie stealer that is in active development. Plus, another big part of the potential problem is that it comes with a download feature that allows its operators to deliver additional malicious payloads to infected devices.

The infection seriousness doesn’t end there. Threat actors behind this malware strain have used compromised accounts in order to run malicious ads and conduct malware advertising campaigns that have been given the term ‘malvertising’ recently.

But this isn’t exactly new. Early versions of the CooperStealer were seen as early as the summer of 2019. It was seen to effectively target Facebook and Instagram account credentials while also being able to target Bing, PayPal, Tumblr and Twitter.

Building on SilentFade and More

It’s also been determined that CooperStealer utilizes many of the same targeting and delivery methods as SilentFade, the Chinese-sourced malware which ended up on Facebook’s security radar in 2019 too. It ended up being the cause of over $4m in damages, and so the alarms going off about CooperStealer are legit. Industry and malware experts believe that CooperStealer is a previously undocumented family within the same class of malware as SilentFade, StressPaint, FacebookRobot and Scranos.

CooperStealer may also be implemented into suspicious websites advertised as KeyGen and crack sites such as keygenninja[.]com, piratewares[.]com, startcrack[.]com, and crackheap[.]net. The reason people are at these sites at all is because they present themselves as being an alternative to circumventing the licensing restrictions of legitimate software.

The truth of the matter, however, is that these Potentially Unwanted Programs/Applications (PUP/PUA) are much more frequently in existence to simply deliver malicious executables capable of downloading and installing additional payloads. Take note of them, and avoid them unless you see these resources as being worth the risk.

Good Sinkholes

The good news is that the people who you’d think would need to be proactive about this threat are doing just that. Researchers at Facebook, Cloudflare and other service providers have worked to develop co-ordinated disruptive action. The best examples being a warning interstitial page that presents itself in front of the malicious domains, and the development of ‘sinkholes’ for select sites that are known to be favoured by these threat actors behind the CooperStealer.

Now it’s true that most people don’t envision anything good when thinking of a sinkhole, but in this case it’s a good thing and not a huge falling away of the earth that devours homes, vehicles and whatever else has the misfortune of being immediately above them when they’re about to do their thing.

No, the type of ‘sinkhole’ that we’re talking about here is a method used to limit an attacker’s ability to collect data on victims while also enabling researchers to gain visibility into victim demographics. During a sinkhole’s first 24 hours of operation they can log hundreds of thousands of HTTP requests from unique IPs originating from hundreds of different countries around the world.

Based on this industry experts were able to determine the top five countries based on unique infections were India, Indonesia, Brazil, Pakistan, and The Philippines.

In the bigger picture, these days there are more different types of malware out there than ever before and there’s never been a higher level of risk from them. If you think that little old you isn’t going to be at risk yourself then there’s plenty of reasons to rethink that position.

If you’re the type of person who’s used our website builder here at 4GoodHosting and have yourself a simple website to promote yourself and nothing more then you won’t have much of a need to be looking into the workings of your website. If there’s a lot more riding on your website and it doing what you need it to do, however, that’s a different story and you’re going to want to be at least somewhat involved in keeping tabs on how your site is doing set up alongside the information superhighway.

Now like any good Canadian web hosting provider in Canada, that definitely relates to us too. Site monitoring is definitely not my area of expertise, but we have someone who is an expert with the subject and keeps things at their best with this site. So if you have a similarly vested interest in the performance of your website and how optimized it is for SERPS and all the other priorities that exist for everyone then you will want to be involved in website monitoring. Let’s look at why that is today.

Wide Open Expanses

1.8 billion is a big number, and that’s how many websites on the Internet today. Of them, it’s estimated that 70% don’t have the proper monitoring to be entirely safe from cyber attacks. The study that came up with those numbers was based on large enterprises, but cyber resilience is increasingly important for small businesses too.

And the primary reason that’s true is because of malware. If a site becomes infected and the infection really takes root then that site could see a dramatic reduction of traffic as users are kept away by their browsers. And in a good number of cases there’s a long period of time before the site’s owner or webmaster becomes aware of that. During that time your organic SEO is going to be negatively affected in a big way, and so that’s the thing – if your website is serving any type of an e-commerce interest then there’s going to be real problems.

The longer it takes to fix problems like these, the larger the SEO impact, and the longer it will take to make the recovery. So if you need to know why website monitoring is vital, that’s why. It may be out of your realm of abilities too, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be hiring to get someone to take care of it for you if so.

Automation for Superior Cyber Defenses

This same report stated very emphatically that automation increased cyber resilience in a big way. When monitoring is automated, it’s much more likely that checks vital to that particular business or venture’s online health will be conducted from multiple locations worldwide and done regularly. The other advantages to doing what it takes for automation with cyber security is that automated monitors tend to be much more thorough and consistent than if someone is tasked with having to remember to do the checks on their own.

The biggest part of that are the instant notifications sent out if a site goes down or if an all-important email account is unreachable. And all of this is made possible with web monitoring services.

Web Monitoring Services

Cybersecurity is not the only part of effective monitoring. A good web monitoring service will cover a number of other interests too, and in particular you’ll want to have it keeping tabs on your site’s search engine and keyword ranking. It’s a nice way to get that peace of mind and be assured of the operating health of your site.

So here’s the four primary reasons you need a web monitor.

1. Avoid Potential Downtimes, and Losses that Come with Them

If your website is inactive or unreachable and you’re unaware of it, you’re taking an immediate hit. No purchases, no bookings, no whatever. There’s been research done (admittedly with larger e-commerce sites, but still) where the average cost per minute of this downtime is estimated to be around $5,600. Long term costs of this type and even at a smaller scale are probably not something that you’ll be okay with.

Unless of course you actually DO want to be losing money, visibility, AND reputability in some cases. The longer your site is down, the worse the impact is on brand reputation or SEO. And again, many websites can experience downtime without the owners or managers knowing about it.

2. KNOW You’ve Got the Cyber Security You Want

This same survey also indicated that as many as 57% of large organizations have been the victim of some sort of data breach or cybersecurity incident that negatively affected their site. No one needs to be told of the really serious risks that can come from data leaks, and so you should be taking this pretty darn seriously.

An insecure website is like a back door with no lock on it, and there’s also the risk of the hackers sending out harmful communications on your behalf and before you have any chance to do anything about it.

3. Monitor SEO Health and Optimization

SEO shortcomings that result from a compromised website can bring down your SEO fast and furiously. But it can also affect site speed, for instance. For this reason it is useful to monitor SEO performance closely. Problems with your SEO could be indicative of a larger problem but even if it isn’t, organic SEO is a majorly important aspect of a business’s web performance. It’s a big part of creating traffic to engage and contribute to your conversion rates, and of course we all know what bounce rates are and why you want yours as low as possible.

4. Proactive and Time-Saving Solutions

What you can do is use a certain way of thinking when deciding what sort of website monitoring and cyber security will meet your needs. This is a simple as a) knowing that a problem exists as early as possible, and b) knowing what actions you should take to resolve this problem

Then look into web monitoring solutions that are going to contribute to both these aims being met. Monitoring your site closely for issues is a good start, but from there you should also ensure those all-important reports that detail the actions you need to take. They should be easy to read and easy to act on.

We will fully understand if you don’t get the Skynet reference there, but for those of us who were big fans of the Terminator films it’s somewhat hard not to think of the fictional far-reaching A.I. platform that spelled disaster for humanity when we hear of Elon Musk’s ‘StarLink’ satellite internet development. Seems as if everything this billionaire investor does these days is noteworthy, and this is no exception. And let’s be clear – all this development is doing is promising the fastest internet speeds ever available to the average earth dweller.

We can be fairly certain it is NOT going to lead to the Rise of the Machines, or a need for John Connor to save us all from them.

Anyways, enough with the sci-fi movie references. StarLink has the potential to put you in pretty much a Bugatti for roaring down the information superhighway, and we imagine that sounds plenty good to you. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like every other quality Canadian web hosting provider in that the nature of what we do means we really get how the promise of faster page-loading times and flash media like it was meant to be will really appeal to people.

So it’s for this reason that we think that Mr. Musk and his StarLink are definitely newsworthy enough for this week’s entry. Here’s hoping this all comes to be like it’s predicted it will!

2x Sounds Just Fine

And the meat of that prediction is that Elon has stated that the speeds of the StarLink satellite internet service will double over this year as it continues to build out its global consumer network. More specifically, what’s being suggested is that speed will double to ~300Mb/s and latency will drop to ~20ms later this year. If so, it is quite the development as StarLink routers currently max out at speeds between 50 and 150 Mbps.

That is the consensus, although some users have claimed to get speeds well above that, and even up to 215 Mbps. However, we ca probably safely assume those speeds were recorded by someone enjoying a fairly empty network at the time.

Global Reach

It’s also being reported that StarLink is set to offer these benefits to one and all, and pretty much no matter where it is on the planet you’re calling home. This satellite internet service is promising to reach nearly all customers around the Earth by the close of this year, and the reaches that it can’t quite get to this year would be taken care of successfully by the end of 2022 at the latest.

Lofty aims for sure, but Musk is saying it’s doable – and will be done. He has also said that StarLink is currently very similar to other satellite broadband services in that it’s optimized for customers living in regions with low-to-medium population density. He shares a belief with his lead engineers who are making all of this goodness happen, and that being that traditional methods of providing internet are still best outside of these areas.

The Pikangikum First Nation in Canada is one remote area in a large country with vast expanses of wilderness where the reach and strength of SkyLink is being tested.

Subscribe to the Beta

For $99 a month you can subscribe and try all of this out for yourself, but be aware that by the time you get to that point you’ll already be in for 5 bills at least– for now at least. That’s because it’s $499 for the StarLink kit. The kit includes a Wi-Fi router, mounting tripod and a terminal to connect to the satellites. But it’s not like that’s been dissuading to most people it would seem. So far the service has around 10,000 users participating in the beta test.

So if you want to gauge all this for yourself and you’re not on any sort of a budget, then no one’s stopping you from getting onboard yourself.

It was about three weeks ago now that the company started making pre-orders of StarLink available to other countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. With a $100 deposit you’ll be put in line to start enjoying the service once it becomes available in those locations. But again with the same hardware expense they’ll be paying $600 upfront for the service.

Possibility of Federal Funding

StarLink reaching both the speed and the coverage that Musk is aiming for is going to be dependent on SpaceX rolling out quite a few more satellites. While they’ve put up more than 1,000 of them for StarLink so far, the goal is to have some 42,000 satellites up there by the middle of 2027.

And of course doing all this is an expensive proposition, and that’s an understatement as is. To help with that SpaceX won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand StarLink. And given what these types of internet speeds along with 5G network connectivity have in potential for federal and municipal governments it’s not surprising that they’re investing to the extent they are.

On the other side of the coin, however, many small internet service providers (ISP) are opposed to this ‘unproven technology’ as they refer to it. They’re asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review winning applications submitted by satellite and fixed wireless providers to ensure this is being rolled out judiciously and fairly. They insist that what is at stake is legit broadband access to millions of people in rural areas and regions that are currently too costly to serve.

It’s true that there have been companies that received millions of dollars in federal funds to expand broadband internet service to rural services, but they then dropped the ball with that. The project trials in rural Canada might suggest that is not going to be the case this time, but we will have to see how it all plays out.

We will fully understand if you don’t get the Skynet reference there, but for those of us who were big fans of the Terminator films it’s somewhat hard not to think of the fictional far-reaching A.I. platform that spelled disaster for humanity when we hear of Elon Musk’s ‘StarLink’ satellite internet development. Seems as if everything this billionaire investor does these days is noteworthy, and this is no exception. And let’s be clear – all this development is doing is promising the fastest internet speeds ever available to the average earth dweller.

We can be fairly certain it is NOT going to lead to the Rise of the Machines, or a need for John Connor to save us all from them.

Anyways, enough with the sci-fi movie references. StarLink has the potential to put you in pretty much a Bugatti for roaring down the information superhighway, and we imagine that sounds plenty good to you. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like every other quality Canadian web hosting provider in that the nature of what we do means we really get how the promise of faster page-loading times and flash media like it was meant to be will really appeal to people.

So it’s for this reason that we think that Mr. Musk and his StarLink are definitely newsworthy enough for this week’s entry. Here’s hoping this all comes to be like it’s predicted it will!

2x Sounds Just Fine

And the meat of that prediction is that Elon has stated that the speeds of the StarLink satellite internet service will double over this year as it continues to build out its global consumer network. More specifically, what’s being suggested is that speed will double to ~300Mb/s and latency will drop to ~20ms later this year. If so, it is quite the development as StarLink routers currently max out at speeds between 50 and 150 Mbps.

That is the consensus, although some users have claimed to get speeds well above that, and even up to 215 Mbps. However, we ca probably safely assume those speeds were recorded by someone enjoying a fairly empty network at the time.

Global Reach

It’s also being reported that StarLink is set to offer these benefits to one and all, and pretty much no matter where it is on the planet you’re calling home. This satellite internet service is promising to reach nearly all customers around the Earth by the close of this year, and the reaches that it can’t quite get to this year would be taken care of successfully by the end of 2022 at the latest.

Lofty aims for sure, but Musk is saying it’s doable – and will be done. He has also said that StarLink is currently very similar to other satellite broadband services in that it’s optimized for customers living in regions with low-to-medium population density. He shares a belief with his lead engineers who are making all of this goodness happen, and that being that traditional methods of providing internet are still best outside of these areas.

The Pikangikum First Nation in Canada is one remote area in a large country with vast expanses of wilderness where the reach and strength of SkyLink is being tested.

Subscribe to the Beta

For $99 a month you can subscribe and try all of this out for yourself, but be aware that by the time you get to that point you’ll already be in for 5 bills at least– for now at least. That’s because it’s $499 for the StarLink kit. The kit includes a Wi-Fi router, mounting tripod and a terminal to connect to the satellites. But it’s not like that’s been dissuading to most people it would seem. So far the service has around 10,000 users participating in the beta test.

So if you want to gauge all this for yourself and you’re not on any sort of a budget, then no one’s stopping you from getting onboard yourself.

It was about three weeks ago now that the company started making pre-orders of StarLink available to other countries like Australia, New Zealand, and Mexico. With a $100 deposit you’ll be put in line to start enjoying the service once it becomes available in those locations. But again with the same hardware expense they’ll be paying $600 upfront for the service.

Possibility of Federal Funding

StarLink reaching both the speed and the coverage that Musk is aiming for is going to be dependent on SpaceX rolling out quite a few more satellites. While they’ve put up more than 1,000 of them for StarLink so far, the goal is to have some 42,000 satellites up there by the middle of 2027.

And of course doing all this is an expensive proposition, and that’s an understatement as is. To help with that SpaceX won $885 million in federal subsidies to expand StarLink. And given what these types of internet speeds along with 5G network connectivity have in potential for federal and municipal governments it’s not surprising that they’re investing to the extent they are.

On the other side of the coin, however, many small internet service providers (ISP) are opposed to this ‘unproven technology’ as they refer to it. They’re asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to review winning applications submitted by satellite and fixed wireless providers to ensure this is being rolled out judiciously and fairly. They insist that what is at stake is legit broadband access to millions of people in rural areas and regions that are currently too costly to serve.

It’s true that there have been companies that received millions of dollars in federal funds to expand broadband internet service to rural services, but they then dropped the ball with that. The project trials in rural Canada might suggest that is not going to be the case this time, but we will have to see how it all plays out.

At a more basic level, people are going to be absolutely thrilled at the prospect of consistent 2x faster internet speeds.

Everyone all over the world has benefitted from the digital revolution that has made our lives and workplace productivity better over the past few decades. Behind all of that goodness are a collection of key technology contributors, and the semiconductor is definitely one of them. These powerhouses are kind of unsung heroes, as they’re hidden from view and don’t get the fanfare that CPUs do. Despite the fact that much of what your CPU is capable of is made possible because of a semiconductor chip.

These chips have been produced in large, large volumes for a long, long time. But only just recently has it become a situation where – quite simply – there’s just not enough of them to meet demand. That’s problematic for a whole lot of different reasons, but most front and centre is the fact that manufacturers aren’t able to make enough of the products that need these chips to meet ever-growing consumer demand for them. The most newsworthy example these days? There’s a very specific reason why buying a new PlayStation 5 is a real challenge, and it has nothing to do with anyone’s personal finances.

But this has big-picture ramifications for all sorts of people who rely on their digital connectivity, and if you’re only inconvenienced by not being able to play the newest and best video games then consider yourself fortunate. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like any good Canadian web hosting provider in that our business puts us right in the middle of being able to understand the magnitude of this issue. And it really is something that pretty much anyone should be aware of.

So here goes.

Not Enough Chips

Semiconductors are also known as integrated circuits and they are both the tiniest and most exacting product ever globally manufactured on a global scale. The majority of all the ones currently at work around the world have been produced by one of 2 Asian powerhouses — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. However, even these big producers can only pump out some many of them at a time.

So why is there a shortage of chips?

Well there’s a lot of reasons. Part of it is related to the ongoing global pandemic. It’s spurred an explosion in sales for not just laptops, but also home appliances and TVs, webcams, and other items (including air purifiers) that people are purchasing as their life / work arrangement have changed because of COVID.

The next factor is related to the massive surge in online shopping for these same products. Suppliers have had to hedge bets against the peaks and valleys of orders coming in and in some cases they’ve cut back on production just for this very reason. Another type of popular consumer item that needs semiconductor chips these days is your vehicle, and automakers who cut back drastically in the early days of the outbreak underestimated how quickly sales would rebound.

When they tried to catch up, they found that there are not enough of the chips available, and in large part because nearly all of them are being purchased by smartphone and personal computing device manufacturers. 

The last factor here is that making good semiconductor chips isn’t easy at all. There are only three companies — TSMC, Samsung and Intel — still making advanced logic chips, and Intel- the only NA one here –  has been falling behind. Chips are made in plants that cost billions to build and equip and recouping the investment means going full bore with production 24/7.

However, the real factor here is yield – or the amount of good chips per batch – determines success or failure. It takes years of learning to fine-tune your design and production logistics to get a yield of 90% out of the complex photolithographic process needed for consistent and reliable semiconductor chip production.

Chip Hoarding?

It’s true, and it’s a thing. PC makers were already stating the chronic shortage of chips early last year before all of this global craziness began. By the middle of the year Huawei was hoarding components to keep production up in face of U.S. sanctions that threatened to cut it off from its primary suppliers of chips. Other Chinese companies started to do the same and the country’s imports of chips equalled some $380 billion in 2020.

Lost Sales

Some businesses are taking it on the chin with this global semiconductor shortage. Automakers in particular are expected to suffer $61 billion of sales losses and delays to the production of a million vehicles this financial quarter alone. but the fallout now threatens to hit the much larger electronics industry.

The two Asian chip giants are doing what’s needed to cement their dominance: TSMC raised its envisioned capital expenditure for 2021 to as much as $28 billion from a record $17 billion a year prior, while Samsung is directing $116 billion on a decade-long project to keep pace with its Taiwanese arch-rival.

China has its own interests, and has stated its plans to spend more than $140 billion on building a world-class domestic semiconductor sector. But industry insiders say they have a long way to go before they’re up to speed with the Koreans and Taiwanese.

New POTUS has a Plan

Everyone all over the world has benefitted from the digital revolution that has made our lives and workplace productivity better over the past few decades. Behind all of that goodness are a collection of key technology contributors, and the semiconductor is definitely one of them. These powerhouses are kind of unsung heroes, as they’re hidden from view and don’t get the fanfare that CPUs do. Despite the fact that much of what your CPU is capable of is made possible because of a semiconductor chip.

These chips have been produced in large, large volumes for a long, long time. But only just recently has it become a situation where – quite simply – there’s just not enough of them to meet demand. That’s problematic for a whole lot of different reasons, but most front and centre is the fact that manufacturers aren’t able to make enough of the products that need these chips to meet ever-growing consumer demand for them. The most newsworthy example these days? There’s a very specific reason why buying a new PlayStation 5 is a real challenge, and it has nothing to do with anyone’s personal finances.

But this has big-picture ramifications for all sorts of people who rely on their digital connectivity, and if you’re only inconvenienced by not being able to play the newest and best video games then consider yourself fortunate. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re like any good Canadian web hosting provider in that our business puts us right in the middle of being able to understand the magnitude of this issue. And it really is something that pretty much anyone should be aware of.

So here goes.

Not Enough Chips

Semiconductors are also known as integrated circuits and they are both the tiniest and most exacting product ever globally manufactured on a global scale. The majority of all the ones currently at work around the world have been produced by one of 2 Asian powerhouses — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. However, even these big producers can only pump out some many of them at a time.

So why is there a shortage of chips?

Well there’s a lot of reasons. Part of it is related to the ongoing global pandemic. It’s spurred an explosion in sales for not just laptops, but also home appliances and TVs, webcams, and other items (including air purifiers) that people are purchasing as their life / work arrangement have changed because of COVID.

The next factor is related to the massive surge in online shopping for these same products. Suppliers have had to hedge bets against the peaks and valleys of orders coming in and in some cases they’ve cut back on production just for this very reason. Another type of popular consumer item that needs semiconductor chips these days is your vehicle, and automakers who cut back drastically in the early days of the outbreak underestimated how quickly sales would rebound.

When they tried to catch up, they found that there are not enough of the chips available, and in large part because nearly all of them are being purchased by smartphone and personal computing device manufacturers. 

The last factor here is that making good semiconductor chips isn’t easy at all. There are only three companies — TSMC, Samsung and Intel — still making advanced logic chips, and Intel- the only NA one here –  has been falling behind. Chips are made in plants that cost billions to build and equip and recouping the investment means going full bore with production 24/7.

However, the real factor here is yield – or the amount of good chips per batch – determines success or failure. It takes years of learning to fine-tune your design and production logistics to get a yield of 90% out of the complex photolithographic process needed for consistent and reliable semiconductor chip production.

Chip Hoarding?

It’s true, and it’s a thing. PC makers were already stating the chronic shortage of chips early last year before all of this global craziness began. By the middle of the year Huawei was hoarding components to keep production up in face of U.S. sanctions that threatened to cut it off from its primary suppliers of chips. Other Chinese companies started to do the same and the country’s imports of chips equalled some $380 billion in 2020.

Lost Sales

Some businesses are taking it on the chin with this global semiconductor shortage. Automakers in particular are expected to suffer $61 billion of sales losses and delays to the production of a million vehicles this financial quarter alone. but the fallout now threatens to hit the much larger electronics industry.

The two Asian chip giants are doing what’s needed to cement their dominance: TSMC raised its envisioned capital expenditure for 2021 to as much as $28 billion from a record $17 billion a year prior, while Samsung is directing $116 billion on a decade-long project to keep pace with its Taiwanese arch-rival.

China has its own interests, and has stated its plans to spend more than $140 billion on building a world-class domestic semiconductor sector. But industry insiders say they have a long way to go before they’re up to speed with the Koreans and Taiwanese.

New POTUS has a Plan

The White House is expected to sign an executive order directing a government-wide supply chain review for critical goods shortly, with the Biden administration putting together a longer-term plan for chip supply and aiming it to have a key role in formulating tax incentives for a proposed $12 billion TSMC plant in Arizona and another costlier one Samsung is eyeing for Texas. The EU is also rumoured to be getting ready to do something similar.