I’ve been using computers, the internet, and the web for a long time and one of the most startling things is to see how the cost of technology has plummeted.

A few days ago, I bought a 1 gigabyte memory chip for my laptop that for only $164. The same amount of memory for a desktop computer is just over $90.

What prompted this whole train of thought was that I was checking out the home page of the company that hosts this site and they offer a dedicated server for $69 per month. That means they give you a computer running Windows 2003 Server and you can use it in any way you please. The machine that you get is at 2 GHz Celeron with a 40 GB drive, and only 256 megs of memory but you get 500 GB per month of transfer volume and additional IP addresses are only 99¢ per month.

Why is that a staggering deal? Wasn’t it only 3 years ago that hosting companies were charging almost $300 per month even if you provided your own computer! Now, they give the computer and charge less than ¼ the price.

The great thing about this pricing is that people running non-standard application servers, like 4D, finally have sites where they can run their applications in a secure environment and not have to pay an arm and a leg to get that level of service.

Check out this link for information about 1and1.com