Category: Software

The continuous rapid advancement of technology since the start of the 21^st century has made it possible for anyone to learn how to code. What was originally a complex task reserved for a few interested IT professionals and software engineers has become popular and trendy. It is also widespread and accessible across the world as very young children are involved in the creation of amateur software creation at a very young age.

The faces of businesses have shifted to online platforms where they can reach an unlimited number of potential customers worldwide. The need for creation and sustenance of websites has increased due to online competition.

Learning how to code is an important skill for people who are ready for the future. The skill will boost your career advancement making you more valuable to your company than without it. Online presence is measurable as a major marketing success for both multinationals and small companies.

Why it is Necessary to Learn Coding?

Coding is widely used to mean programming of various types. Web development is, however, considered the most trendy as it directly involves businesses’ online presence. It is, therefore, very demanding. Before you begin deep involvement in web-developing, it would be wise to first learn the learning skill in general and find out what precisely suits you. Perhaps the most intriguing thing is that coding today is among the cheapest courses you might ever enroll for in an institution. Most amazing is the abundance of tutorials available for free on the Internet. This means you might become an expert in web developing with as minimal as zero financial investment. All you need is a passion and a consistent effort to learn all you need to become an expert.

The job market today has created a high demand for coding specialists and web developers. This trend is increasing across countries around the globe as more companies seek the services of bright creative minds to fill the positions of web developers.  With the right attitude, you could be set to be a reliable company developer without spending a dime in costs of learning. This is one valuable skill you can be sure will not be overlooked by potential employers.

Online Platforms

There are various ways of learning. Individual courses and premade learning paths are common ways of online learning methods. If you are serious about learning to code, there are an abundance of websites with programs that will definitely fit your preference. Here are some of the most common websites.

Udemy

This can be viewed as a global marketplace for teaching and learning on the Internet.  Since its formation in 2010, Udemy has helped many people to improve their job skills. here, you have access to a selection of fundamental programming courses in video lessons before advancing to higher courses at a cost.

Here, students master new skills and attain their targets by accessing at least 45,000 courses taught by experts of the respective fields.

Coursera

Coursera has for the past six years, after its inception, grown into a huge technological company that offers, among other things, coding lessons. With at least 1,000 courses in at least 119 institutions, the company has made partnerships with Canadian and American Universities to offer their courses. The first introductory courses are free as is the norm in most websites. It avails the courses in different languages such as English, Spanish, French, and Chinese since most of the students speak the languages.

Codecademy

Codecademy has earned a reputation through the provision of one of the best code-learning programs on the Internet. It has helped many schoolchildren to engage in effective lessons since the courses are not available in public schools despite their importance to the future generation. It offers exciting and interesting online classrooms that have proved very educative to young programmers.

By the end of 2017, records show that at least 24 million people had participated in a code academy online class. There are also at least 300 hours of online content in a video for users around the globe. Courses here include; JavaScript, HTML, CSS, PHP, Ruby, Python, and jQuery.

EDX

EDX is one of the leading online learning platforms that provide material completely free. It is a non-profit making organization dedicated to offering knowledge to whoever does not have the ability to join expensive courses at University. Since its formation in 2012 by MIT and Harvard University, the organization has amassed support of at least 90 partners around the globe. There are 60 schools to choose from by interested students around the world. Open edX is the platform that runs the courses online.

Code Avengers

In Code Avengers, students are taken through rugged quick steps to think like professionals. This helps to highlight the importance and relevance of coding to real life. There are many quizzes and challenges and videos that support a determined community of learners. From learning to building useful company websites and other applications, a result is an independent group of experts with the ability to build technology that can change the world or begin their own tech company.

Conclusion

Many other websites such as Freecodecamp, Codewars, the Odin Project, Khan Academy, and Udacity make up a fraction of the entire body of educative websites where you have a chance to learn to code and make yourself self-sustainable.

Windows PC has been a target of hackers looking for new ways to access the system. From malware, files attacks, viruses there are plenty of attacks out there. Therefore, no matter how careful you are the reality is that you need a solid antivirus to protect your PC or your Laptop from harm.

This doesn’t have to be very expensive. Most products give their basic version for free. With an amazing array of free versions available you might think why you need to buy a paid version. However, the paid versions offer much more features than the free versions. For example, features like spam filters, parental controls, advanced firewalls are available in the paid versions. Therefore, it is better to buy the paid versions.

And some commercial packages comes with a price you can easily afford. So what are the great products that are available in the Anti-Virus product segment?

1. Bit defender Anti-Virus

Bit defender is one of the most accurate and reliable software in the anti-virus segment. The anti-virus performs web filtering which keeps malicious viruses at bay. It’s anti-phishing module blocks dangerous sites and informs the user of any malicious sites.  Although it may consume more resources it delivers great performance and often more than enough to justify the price.

Download Bit defender Anti Virus here

2. Norton Anti-Virus Basic 2018:

Norton is a top quality anti virus available. The main advantages of Norton are it blocks even brand new malware. Also, it does not consume more system resources. Further, the price of Norton AntiVirus is far less than its peers which makes it more lucrative.

Download Norton Anti Virus Basic 2018 Here

3. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2018:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus relies on the core security essentials like web filtering of malicious URLs, an intelligent Anti-Virus engine detects and removes threats. Also, the program rates high on ease of use.

Download Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2018 Here

4. Panda Anti-Virus Pro

The Panda Anti-Virus pro delivers above average protection. The software has numerous features. Also, the ease of use of the software is great.

Download Panda Anti-Virus Here

5. McAfee Anti Virus

McAfee is an award-winning Anti Virus software. This software was used even before many new Anti-Virus software came into the picture. The Anti-Virus offers comprehensive protection. Some of the salient features are virus and threat protection, safe browsing, protection of multiple devices, security management console, file lock, and password manager.

Download McAfee Anti-Virus Here.

It is evident that if you have a Windows Computer or a Laptop you will require an Anti-Virus Software. While Mac and Linux do not have many viruses and Trojan horses, Windows still welcomes a lot of malicious viruses. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary to protect yourself by installing an Anti-Virus software.

In the previous post we have seen about browsers for Desktop. In this post let’s delve deeper into the field of mobile browsers.

Mobile usage over the years have increased by a significant amount. People today spend most of the time in mobile rather than in desktops. Therefore, a good mobile browsing experience is required so that people can surf more.

Mobile browsers are available for two main  mobile platforms namely iOS and Android. And most of the mobile browsers available are free of cost. That means you can easily download it from the App Store.  Here are some of the main mobile browsers available today.

1. Google Chrome: As we have seen in the previous post about the Google Chrome desktop browser. Like the Desktop browser, Google Chrome is also available for mobile devices. Some of the salient features of Chrome are: Chrome is a relatively fast browser, the browser allows safe browsing, allows Incognito Mode to allow for safe browsing, etc. Another important feature of the Chrome browser is the built-in Google translate, Voice Search, and the Data Saver feature which allows navigating the web with more than 50% less data.

Platforms available: iOS, Windows, Download Google Chrome for mobile here.

2. Safari: This is a great web browser available for iPhones and iPads. The browser has an awesome user interface.  Some of the salient features of the Safari browser are the auto reader view, block cookies option and an option to save web pages for the Safari Reading List.

Platforms available: iOS, Download Safari for mobile here.

3.  Firefox Focus  Browser: Mozilla makes two Firefox applications for the mobile platform. One is the Firefox browser and another is the Firefox Focus Browser which is its “privacy browser”. The Focus browser is fast and it allows one tap erase of its history. The browser is also light-weight and can be installed easily.

Platforms available: iOS and Android Download Firefox Focus for mobile here.

4. Opera Mini Browser: Opera browser is good but the Opera Mini is a great browser. Some of the excellent features are data savings, faster browsing, smart night mode, video boost, etc. While the Opera browser is available for Android, Opera Mini is available for both iOS and Android.

Platforms available: iOS, Android and other basic phones.

Download Opera Mini for mobile here.

5.Dolphin Browser: This is a new browser. It offers some lovely features for mobile web browsing.  These features include multiple tabs bar, personalized search, incognito browsing, ad block, HTML 5 Video player and so on.

Platforms available: iOS and Android

Download Dolphin for Mobile Here.

6. Surfy Browser. Windows phone users use the Surfy Browser. This browser is used for voice search plus a lot of other features. Some of the salient features include the text to speech engine, searchable history, night dimmer and private browsing at startup.

Platforms Available: Windows Phone

Download Surfy Now.

7. Puffin Browser:  It sounds like Muffin but it’s called the Puffin browser. This is a relatively new browser available in the market today. Puffin Browser claims itself to be a super fast browser. And there claim is indeed true. I checked the Puffin browser it loads pages twice as fast as any other browser available in the market.

In addition to the super fast speed, Puffin allows colored themes, incognito mode, secure browsing, and huge bandwidth savings.

Platforms Available: iOS, Android

Download Puffin Now.

Thus we saw various different browsers today. I wrote this post only after testing each one of them individually. The browsers of today have improved a lot. For example, many people haven’t heard of the Puffin Browser. And slowly the new browsers are being increasingly accepted. If you see the download count you will be amazed to see that Dolphin browser has already around 50 million installs.

The landscape of browsing is changing fast. People have more choices now. With improved AI technologies, browsing experience will improve further. In the future, there is a possibility for AI maneuvered browsers.

A right web browser can make a large difference in everyday browsing efficiency. It mainly depends on what priority you have. It may be that you need faster browsing, more security, better downloadable extensions or a great user interface.

However, it can be quite challenging to break out of your comfort zone when it comes to browsers. Many of us may search Amazon or Google for a better mobile phone but haven’t searched in the net if there are better browsers around.

Here are some of the browsers that are transforming web search today.

1. Mozilla Fire Fox: This is one of the earliest browsers known. This browser was one of the widely used browsers in the 2000’s.  This browser lagged behind Google Chrome in terms of speed. However, with the release of Fire Fox Quantum the speed of the browser has increased substantially. Fire Fox is not only great in terms of speed but also in the use of system resources. For example, the browser makes frugal use of RAM even when the tabs are wide open. Also, the new browser has taken care of the privacy aspects which has made it even more attractive.  However, there is the lack of Flash support and the browser doesn’t sync with iOS devices yet. Download Fire Fox Here.

2. Google Chrome : Another browser that is widely used is the Google Chrome browser. This browser is one of the best browsers available in the internet. The browser has a cool look, is fast and is incredibly stable. If you have a resourceful system this browser is the most efficient browser. However, the browser is heavy and uses system resources compared to other browsers.  Another great feature of this browser is the incredible support for extensions. You can really customize this browser and make it your own browser.

Download Google Chrome  Here

3. Opera Browser: This browser is recognized by the red colored ring. This browser controls only around 1% of the market. However, this browser has also some interesting features. For example, this browser is good for slow connections. The browser has a feature called Opera Turbo which compresses the web traffic routing it through the Opera servers. This browser also has an integrated Ad blocking feature which comes along with it.

Download Opera Browser. Here

4. Microsoft Edge: This is one of the most successful browsers of Microsoft after Internet Explorer. Some of the salient features of this browser are the super fast speed. The browser claims to be faster than both Fire Fox and Chrome.  This browser offers full integration with Windows 10. However, the browser lacks backward compatibility. But the user interface is perfect and it has a built for providing a pleasant web browsing experience.

Download Microsoft Edge Here

5. Vivaldi Browser: This browser provides a unique browsing experience. In this browser, you have the built-in space for taking notes while browsing at the same time. The user can also put the important links in the left-hand side of the browser. The structure and style of the interface fully depend on the user.  The Vivaldi is built on Chromium which allows the user to expand it with extensions from the Chrome Web Store

What I liked about this browser is the incredible customization that it provides. However, the browser speed is relatively less compared to its peers.

Download Vivaldi  Here

6. Tor Browser: Tor Browser is built to keep browsing private. It is perhaps gives the most secure browsing experience.  The good thing about the Tor browser is that nothing is tracked and stored and basically you can forget about cookies.  However, the speed is slow compared to its peers. Therefore, this browser can be used along with another browser particularly if you want to browse in private mode.

Download Tor Browser Here

7. Safari Browser:  This browser is supported only in Mac and iOS platforms. It is a great alternative to Google Chrome and Fire Fox. The web browser has a customizable tool bar, reader view, iCloud, etc. It can be said that this browser is made exclusively for Apple fans.

Download Safari Browser Here.

It can be seen that each browser is unique in its own way.  While it is entirely up to the user to choose the browser it is always advisable to use two browsers. This helps to optimize the user experience for various kind of situations. For example Opera browser can be used in conjunction with the Google Chrome browser to optimize the performance. In a similar way, you also use other browsers. The good thing about today’s browsers is that almost all browsers are stable compared to the 90’s browsers.

The user today has more choices than the early ’90s where  Microsoft Internet Explorer was the only browser available. There are many more browsers today which is good news for users. Another good thing about the browsers is that it is free of cost.

In the future, there is hope that a more improved browser will evolve because of the extensive use of AI technologies in computing.  With increasing use of AI,  browsers of the future will be able to do a lot more.

SAAS refers to the new and modern ways of accessing software as opposed to the traditional model. In the earlier days software was literally purchased and installed into the computer. However, with the evolution of SAAS software can be purchased in a subscription-based model where the software is hosted in the cloud and it is accessed via the internet.

SAAS is often referred to as software on demand and utilizing is akin to renting the software instead of purchasing it. Usually, Software as a Service is done on a monthly basis. The customers who subscribe to the application or service have to pay a certain amount every month to avail the service.

What are the main advantages of SAAS?

The main advantages of SAAS are as follows

1. Zero Hardware Cost

The processing power to use the software is provided by the cloud provider. The cloud provider has the essential hardware to process the software remotely. Therefore, there is no absolutely any need for sophisticated hardware on the user side. In most cases, the software’s are located in big servers. Some of the most popular services like Office 365, Amazon Cloud, Salesforce are SAAS services.

2. Zero Setup Cost

The applications are ready to use when the user subscribes. The user do not have to set up the application because the application will run in the cloud.

3. Only Pay For The Amount Of Time Used

One of the advantages of the SAAS service is that the applications can be halted at any time. If the user feels the need to subscribe again he/she is free to do so at an additional charge. In most cases I prefer subscription model that charges monthly. However, there are many SAAS services that charge on a yearly subscription model.

4. Scalability

Another important feature of SAAS is scalability. If the user decides he or she needs more storage or more space SAAS allows for scalability. This feature allows for smooth scalability as an when the need arises.

5. Updates Are Automated

Whenever there is an update the user will be notified online and the user can easily update the software. Often updates are free of charge.

6. Cross-Device Accessibility

As the software runs in the cloud there is cross-device compatibility. The software can be accessed easily from any device like a computer, laptop, tablet, or a mobile phone. Thus the user need not worry about accessing the software from any device.

7. Location Independent

SAAS allows for location independent access of the software. The SAAS provider may be a different country and the user may be located in another country.

8. Requires Only Internet Connection

If the user has an internet connection the user should be able to access SAAS. Speedy internet connections are often preferred for SAAS as the cloud service provider may be located in an entirely different geographic location.

Some examples where SAAS  is used.

1. Accounting

2. Tracking Sales

3. Planning

4. Performance Monitoring

5. Communications

6. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)

7. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

The evolution of SAAS has changed the entire landscape of the software industry. It has open doors for small business to access large software’s which were not possible earlier. The future of SAAS seems promising.