Most interpreted programming languages parse source files and translate/compile them into opcode/bytecode that are suitable to be executed in the virtual machine. Python for example, dumps the compiled opcode into the .pyc or .pyo files so when the same file is imported again in the future, no parsing and compilation needs to be done. On the other hand plain vanilla PHP does not really have a way to save cached opcode so that at every request, source files have to be parsed and compiled into opcode again and again.

So we have the PHP accelerators which are mostly opcode cachers + optimiser, which cache the compiled opcode to either memory or disk, so the scripts don’t need to be parsed and compiled again in subsequent requests. They greatly improve the performance, and even the up-coming PHP6 will have the APC built in by default.

Opened my DreamHost control panel today and found the Rewards Section is now completely different. A new item has been added — DreamHost Invitations, which I have no idea what it is, since I don’t currently have any of this special offerings.

I have searched on Google, WHT and a few other blogs, and cannot find any info on what exactly DreamHost Invitations are. Any one has any idea? I am in the process of getting a DreamHost account to a not-for-profit organisation, and a discount like $150 off 5-year plan would be very useful.

Update: Yes I’ve got some now. And as a referral you do get the full $97 referral commission if someone uses your code. Therefore if anyone tries to post their code in the comments, they will be mercilessly deleted.

(Note: This is a review of VPS hosting services provided by Web24 and Linode, and a migration of one of my sites from one to the other at the end of March 2008.)

Web24 — Virtuozzo VPS in Australia

Back in early this year I talked about writing a review on Web24.com.au, which I used to replace a VPS I got from GPLHost, which I terminated last December as I was using too much bandwidth (and was too cheap to pay :) The VPS I got from Web24 was their Silver package, a Virtuzzo Linux VPS running Ubuntu Linux, with 384MB guaranteed memory, over 6+GB of privvmpages (burstable memory), 50GB/month data transfer, and was located in Fujitsu data centre in Melbourne (see their profile on VPSAU). All these for under AUD$50/month — very affordable for my little sites.