January 31, 2022

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Web security has improved in leaps and bounds over recent years, but as is always the case the interests on the other side of the fence have made their own advancements. Many people have been inclined to ask around what exactly is in it for the people who create malware and put it out there for infecting a person’s computing device, but as has been determined – and not surprisingly – it’s all about money like anything else. There’s a very complex network of interests there, and the long and short of it is that people benefit from having your computer, notebook, or mobile compromised very underhandedly. And so it is that much of what makes the Cloud the godsend it has been for digital professionals is also what makes it the #1 risk factor for being infected with malware. In many ways it is a classic example of having no choice but to take the bad with the good, and it appears the competition between malware makers and cyber security experts is going to continue full tilt for the foreseeable future. Here at 4GoodHosting we’re equally big fans of the Cloud in the same way it is for any good Canadian web hosting provider who has a seat that’s conducive to seeing digital advances in the clearest of lights. Further, you can’t stop progress and there’s no debate we’ll be looking to get more out of cloud computing so that extensive physical storage isn’t allowed to be as harmful as it would otherwise. So yes, we are all very much taking the good with the bad these days and many people will have already had one or more unpleasant experiences with malware. Let’s look at this finding that most malware downloads are delivered via the cloud, why that might be, and what are the potential ramifications of it all for the average business or organization. 2/3 of All for 2021 A recent Netskope report based on the 2021 year found that no less than two-thirds of malware downloads were based in cloud apps. This puts a spotlight on the continued growth of malware and other malicious payloads that make...

January 24, 2022

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Reading Time: 4 minutes

Even if you don’t have the most dextrous fingers or type especially quickly you are probably like everyone else in the way that doing your job probably involves typing on a keyboard. But these days as we all know keyboards are for so much more than just pressing keys to enter text and we use them in many other ways to make personal computing more efficient. Customization and greater functionality is the name of the game with all computing components. Mechanical keyboards offer this and they’re not new to the market, but until recently they’ve been quite expensive and not as widespread available. That’s soon to change and nearly everyone who uses a keyboard for work or on a regular basis is likely going to be quite thrilled with the new mechanical keyboards. They will likely stay on the pricey side, but for some people it will be a price well worth it if it increases the productivity of their work day and gets rid of nuisances they used to find with their old conventional keyboard. This makes the cut as newsworthy here at 4GoodHosting in the same way we imagine it would for any other good Canadian web hosting provider, as it’s something that nearly everyone can relate to. That’s going to be true if you’re anything from a web master to a data entry clerk or a university student with plenty of papers to write. So what’s the fuss and what can be expected with this new and vastly improved generation of mechanical keyboards? All About Customization The ability to customize these keyboards is what makes them so great. What they offer is a level of personalization that can transform your everyday typing experience into a much more pleasurable experience as well as facilitating greater productivity on your part. The best of features with new-technology mechanical keyboards starts with the keycaps on top of switches. They communicate key presses to the PCB and when contact is made between a switch and the PCB then it is the PCB that transmits the input to the computer and this allows the key to deliver much more detailed digital information if...

January 17, 2022

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It was inevitable that eventually data was going to become Big data, and the increasingly digital nature of being in business and doing business is ensuring that trend just becomes more and more pronounced all the time. The catch as been in being able to make data available to partner organizations while still safeguarding the privacy interests anyone may have in the data being shared, and one of the more interesting things on the horizon early in 2022 is data clean room software. With data leaks and the fallout of them being so often in the news it’s easy to see why we can relate to the need for this here at 4GoodHosting. Like any quality Canadian web hosting provider we have smaller level customers who may well see the promise of this for their online business or venture too. Many companies are in the process of looking for equally effective ways to collect, share and analyze data without compromising on privacy. This also goes well beyond compliance, as companies that can incorporate this new technology and then be able to turn to any user interest group and give them 100% assurance to data security is going to be at an immediate advantage. Demand for such a resource has been growing over recent year, and it may be that with data clean rooms it’s about to become attainable and commonplace. So what is the hype about, and what exactly is a data clean room? That’s what we’re going to look at with this week’s entry. What’s a Data Clean Room? A data clean room is a piece of software that allows brands and their partners to share data and gain mutual insights without compromising the privacy of the users’ data. Specifically it means not sharing any personally identifiable information or raw data with one another and in this way the data clean room serves as something of a neutral 3rd-party in major level affairs much like Switzerland would be if you wanted to use a geopolitical analogy. At present there are 2 primary types of data clean room solutions available in the sharttech industry: The first ones are called walled...

January 10, 2022

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Even if you’re a Mac person it is not difficult to see why the Windows OS is the dominant one all across the board. And truth is most people are not firmly in one camp or the other when it comes to their computing devices of choice. Mac is always going to be preferable for people who use theirs for creative purposes too, but PCs are going to be the same way for people who are all business and work related for the most part. One of the things that has been noteworthy recently is how some companies – And Apple most notably – are now starting to make replacement parts available as part of the Right to Repair movement that is growing in strength due to how much e-waste is being generated and how electronic devices of all sorts are being made with planned obsolescence in mind. Microsoft isn’t doing the same with parts but one of the big aspects of the coming Windows 11 update is that the OS is going to now be able to run better on older and more low-end hardware. In that sense it’s in line with the same ideas, and of course this is a good thing. So many possible examples as to why, but look no further than the thousands of old PCs that are repurposed for education in 3rd world countries and the like. This is not the only aspect of the update that should be talked about, but it is one that we can definitely support here at 4GoodHosting and we’d imagine any good Canadian web hosting provider would feel similarly. More on Build 22526 Right now the Windows 11 Build 22526 is only available to members of the Microsoft Insider early access program, but it is introducing a number of fixes and enhancements. Many, however, are relatively minor but one worth mention is how Microsoft is using the latest build to experiment with a new approach to indexing file locations. They hope this will help users hunt down important files more quickly in File Explorer. The reason we mentioned this one is despite the performance improvements seen over the...

January 3, 2022

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Here we are with another new calendar year opened up, and you’ll be forgiven if January ’22 has you the same you were at this time last year with some sense of bewilderment at how developer technologies and methodologies are expanding in leaps and bounds. Part of that has been low-code technology, one that was forecast to have gains in application around 22% for 2021 and by all indications did that at the very least. It’s also estimated that by 2025 70% of new applications will be built with low-code or no-code technologies. What we have on the plate today is 3rd generation low-code technology that’s improved on the 2 preceding generations of it. It gives enterprise that ability to build anything from the simplest to highest complexity applications and scaling them to whatever extent needed without limitations. It’s also known for providing built-in controls and functionalities required for enterprise governance while fostering more collaborative team working environments too. It is conducive to the type of digital applications enterprises need to be able to create quickly and then easily adaptable as they fit needs that may be changing. Here at 4GoodHosting we imagine we’re like any good Canadian web hosting provider in that we’re able to see the real relevance in that and accordingly why there’s so much hype about low code and applications that are built around it. But perhaps there’s reason to pull on the reins a bit there The Pros Low code can be helpful for building an MVP and fleshing out concepts within a small scope with precise product requirements and an understanding any scaling will be limited. But many times as project progresses there is the need to upgrade the processes. Without low-code solutions your ability to scale is very limited, and it can also be more costly too. Then from the developer's perspective choosing low code to complete small-scale projects and prototypes or build basic solutions is almost always faster and with fewer hiccups. Keep in mind though that most professionals will prefer to code from scratch when working on complex on account of the flexibility that provides for them. While the chance that...

December 27, 2021

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Hoping that everyone is enjoying the holidays, had a good Christmas, and has an enjoyable NYE 2022 on deck. During the Xmas holidays a lot of people find time for entertaining themselves that’s not as easily found during the rest of the year. For some people that entertaining is best done via their computer, and for many there’s nothing better than enjoying games. They’ve come a long way over the last decade +, and usually in order to get all the visual pop and immersive experience the game developers want you to have you need a good GPU. Lots of people are perfectly fine with the one that came in their desktop, and not many of them will be the type inclined to perform invasive surgery on computing devices in the first place. For others with the know how and no hesitation to perform ‘tweaks’ it is possible to make small changes to computer components that will alter how they function. One of these procedures that gamers will probably at least have heard of is undervolting the GPU. To describe in plainly, it means to restrict the power that the card has access too and gain specific performance benefits because of it. This is not something that would generally be among the familiarities for a Canadian web hosting provider, but here at 4GoodHosting we are good at identifying what might be of interest for people who are tech-savvy in this way, and it turns out that undervolting isn’t especially difficult to do. So it’s something that might be possible for you if you’re an avid gamer, and what we’ll do here with the last entry for 2021 is talk about advantages and disadvantages to undervolting graphics cards. Efficiency Boost Your GPU is going to have a few important calibrations that are open to manual adjustment with software like MSI Afterburner. These include power limit, core and memory clocks, plus the voltage. The entirety work in unison to provide the performance and power needed for what’s expected in regard to out-of-box operation. So what exactly is undervolting? Simply, it is a reduction of the voltage your GPU has access to and...

December 21, 2021

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There’s the old expression ‘take only what you need’ and it’s good advice to follow in all sorts of situations. It may be followable when you’re at an all-you-can-eat buffet and you’ve eaten all you can, but when it comes the processing power in your computers at home you get what’s given to you when the device was put together. Some people put the entirety of that processing power to work for them, but most people don’t use anywhere near the total of it. And in truth the majority of people may not even know what it is they actually have at their disposal. Some will though, and it’s these people who will want to take note of a new decentralized Internet platform that will let people pay for their apps and services by making their idle computing power available to those who could put it to use. As a quality Canadian web hosting provider, this is something that resonates with us here at 4GoodHosting because like any host we can relate to what it’s like to have real constraints based around this and in the industry there’s been much in the way of roundabout talk along the lines if something like this might become possible someday. It has made a lot of sense for a long time, but like many things it takes time to get the wheels sufficiently in motion to see things start to happen. But that’s what’s happening now with Massive, an app monetization startup that’s set to make some serious waves. Smart Decentralization Massive has just recently closed a $11 million seed round, which will let it move forward with a monetization software development kit that will be able to support the project and move forward with s small yet noteworthy step in decentralizing the internet and making it possible for people to pay for apps using their idle compute power. This is an impressively unique potential solution, one that will benefit the individual consumer but also improve on how app developers and service providers make money for the work they do. As it is now they usually charge users money, and it’s fairly standard...

December 13, 2021

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It has certainly been a while since we’ve had a nasty bug making enough of a stink that it warrants being the subject of one of our weekly blog posts, but here we are again. The good thing has always been that these software vulnerabilities are usually quite limited in the scope of what they’re capable of, and that means they usually don’t get much fanfare and they’re also usually fairly easily dealt with via patches and the like. The problem becomes when the bug is rooting in software that is ubiquitous as far as being used in cloud serves and enterprise software used as much for government as it is in industry. That’s the scenario with the new Log4Shell Software Vulnerability that has the Internet ‘On Fire’ according to those who are qualified to determine whether something is on fire or not. All joking aside, this is apparently a critical vulnerability in a widely used software tool, and – interestingly enough - one that was quickly exploited in Minecraft. But now it emerging as a serious threat to organizations around the world, and here at 4GoodHosting like most quality Canadian web hosting providers we like to keep our people in the know when it comes to anything that’s so far-reaching it might apply to a good number of them. Quick to be Weaponized Cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike is as good as any for staying well on top of these things, and reading what they have to say about Log4Shell is that within 12 hours of the bug announcing itself it’s been fully weaponized. That means that tools have been developed and distributed for the purpose of exploiting it. Apparently all sorts of people are scrambling to patch, but just as many are scrambling to exploit. It’s believed this software flaw may be the worst computer vulnerability to come along in years. As hinted at, it was discovered in a utility that’s ubiquitous in cloud servers and enterprise software used across industry and government. If allowed to continue unchecked it has the potential to enable criminals, spies, pimps and programming novices alike for no-hassle access to internal networks. Once in they...

December 7, 2021

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Reading Time: 6 minutes

Android and iOS are definitely two entirely different worlds when it comes to the default choices between mobile devices, and you’d have trouble finding any more than just a few people who don’t take advantage of apps for their smartphones nowadays. Depending on who you are that may be for entertainment or personal pursuit aims, or it may be for making your workdays that much more productive and streamlined. All sorts of possibilities out there for what you can do with apps and it sure is a whole lot different from where we were just 10 or so years ago. Once you’ve got a taste for them it’s hard to go back, and you won’t want to be thwarted in your attempts to get one into your device if you see the need for it. The reason that sideloading apps – installing apps without getting them from office ial sources (namely Android Market or the App Store) – is as popular as it is because both Google and Apple have been fairly free with allowing certain carriers to block certain applications based on model and network. There’s plenty of people with phone only a couple years of old that are already encountering roadblocks, and sideloading the app allows them to get around that. In the bigger picture though it’s not good for the development of better app versions in the future, as those developers don’t get what they should for their work and that’s something we can relate to in a roundabout way as a good Canadian web hosting provider. We certainly know all that goes into allowing people to enjoy the digital connectivity they do nowadays. So not to pick sides, but recent information seems to suggest that sideloading apps for Android is not so bad as it might be for iOS devices. Let’s look at why that is. Privacy & Security Concerns Apple has come right out and made it clear that there’s plenty of evidence indicating sideloading apps through direct downloads and 3rd-party app stores would weaken privacy and security protections that have made their iPhone as secure as it’s been regarded to be all these years....