Friday, April 24, 2009

Ubuntu 9.04 has arrived!


Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) was released a few days ago and I must say that it has certainly improved quite a lot!

One of the first things noticed after installing Ubuntu 9.04 was the MUCH faster bootup time! There wasn't much difference when booted up Ubuntu 9.04 on my desktop (as it already boots up pretty fast anyways) but there was a noticeable difference when booting Ubuntu 9.04 on my laptop. Normally it takes about 1-2 minutes to FULLY boot up (by fully boot up it means everything is done loading and nothing else is being loaded).

Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope)


After Ubuntu 9.04 was installed the boot up time was around 30 seconds, a MAJOR improvement! Openoffice was also updated to 3.0.1, but the one thing that really caught my eye was a "Notification" window. It's pretty neat and useful like when you're expecting an important email yet you have a document to type up the notification window can notify you when the email arrives so you don't need to go back and forth, back and forth thinking "Where is that email?"


Head over to http://tinyurl.com/2cm3o5 and grab a copy of Ubuntu 9.04 while it's still hot!




Instructions on how to upgrade from Ubuntu 8.10 (Intrepid Ibex) to Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty Jackalope) will be posted soon! Keep checking joshlam.com




The "Notification" window


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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

4 Ways To Monetize Twitter!



Twitter is a social network which simply asks the question, “What are you doing?” And you reply in 140 characters or less by mobile texting, instant message, or the web. It okay if you’re still new to this Twitter “thing”, you’re not alone. 26% of the U.S. population don’t even know what Twitter is yet. Hopefully after this post, we’ll change your mind.


Simliar to Magpie below, RevTwt posts Advertisting links into your tweets. Unlike Magpie, the tweet are paid per click, not pay per view. Many people turn off the idea of ads in their timeline, so there maybe a situation where they might unfollow you due to the ads. The rate is from $0.01 to $0.10 per click, while you can cash out to your Paypal account after reaching $20 in your account.



TwittAd uses your Twitter profile page background to place ads. Advertisers use TwittAd's website listing of Twitter users making their profile available to search for relevant Twitter accounts. Twitter users place information about their Tweets, their bidding place, location, topic. If an advertiser finds a suitable Twitter account, he/she will place a order for that Twitter account. The Twitter account user can choose to accept or deny this offer.
The makers of TwittAd also created What's your tweet worth? to allow Twitter users to estimate how much their account is worth. This is a great tool as many people either hope for too much money or undercharge, leaving them short-changed. You can cash out to your PayPal account when your account reaches $30. 

Josh's Advice: Use What's your tweet worth?, but reduce that price by $5, but always have a price below $100 a month. This will increase the chances of you getting an advertiser interested in you as they may think yo
u're undervaluing your profile, but you actually not. Try to get over 100 followers before adding your profile on the listing, as well. This makes the advertiser more attracted to your profile as there is a larger audience.

Magpie is another advertising solution for Twitter. Magpie, though, tweets adverts instead of using a Twitter's user background. Many people turn off the idea of ads in their timeline, so there maybe a situation where they might unfollow you due to the ads.
Magpie also pays pretty quite well - with the cost depending on your number of followers - so get more followers first! You can cash out when you reach 50 Euros.

Josh's Tip: Remove the "#magpie" tag option to hide your Magpie tweets, set your Pre-Approval off, and make it your tweet/ad ratio to 1 tweet/1 ad.

Unlike the other three, Adjix helps you montize your Twitter account by using those shortening URL's. Those

shortened URL's contain an iFrame which contains ads. The payouts are quite low compared to the two other service I metioned above. I
only suggest using Adjix if you have a large base of followers, otherwise you'll find it quite hard to monetize this service. Personally, I don't actually like this service much.

Do you have any other ideas on how you could monetize Twitter? Comment Below!

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Saturday, April 11, 2009

LEAKED Images of Zune HD!

An anonymous leaker sent Engadget these images..


Josh's Verdict: Do you know where all my pocket money is going to go now? It looks so sweet! Microsoft should had launched a touch screen Zune ages ago. But knowing Microsoft, it won't be available in Hong Kong... :(

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Thursday, April 9, 2009

I Just Acquired TheUniversityKid.com


Yepp, it's official.

Along with my business partner, Stanley Tang, I'm pleased to announce that we have just acquired the blog TheUniversityKid.com, from Jason Pereira, another great Young Internet Entrepreneur. As this blog is about Young Entrepreneurs, it's obviously a great blog for both Stanley and myself to continue - we're both Young Entrepreneurs ourselves.

No, this doesn't mean I'm going to stop blogging on this blog. But it does mean that I'm going to convert this blog from a "Tech News" blog to something more about myself - a personal journal being a Young Internet Entrepreneur.

I have great ideas for both Josh's Blog and The University Kid, watch out for them! Don't blink otherwise you're miss out!

P.S. The new design is currently being tested :)
P.P.S I've got a free eBook planned, as a gift to all of Josh's Blog readers coming soon! Stay tuned!

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Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Apple introduces Nehalem-based Xeon Xserves

As expected, Apple on Tuesday announced an updated family of Xserves that deliver an 89 percent improvement in performance per watt and up to twice the overall performance of the previous models by tapping Intel's "Nehalem" Xeon processors and a next generation system architecture.

The 1U rack-optimized servers are available with up to two 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors, each with an integrated memory controller with three channels of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC memory that delivers up to 2.4 times the memory bandwidth while cutting memory latency up to 40 percent. Using high-efficiency power supplies and intelligent thermal management, the new models also deliver a 19 percent reduction in idle power use.

New storage capabilities include a 128GB SSD boot-drive option that requires a fraction of the power of a hard disk and delivers up to 48 times faster random access times without occupying a drive bay, according to Apple. The servers also include three 3.5 inch drive bays that support both 7200 rpm SATA and 15,000 rpm SAS drives and can be configured with up to 3TB of internal storage.

"The Xserve is the best workgroup server for our education, business and creative customers," said David Moody, Apple's vice president of Worldwide Mac Product Marketing. "With up to twice the performance, better power efficiency and an innovative SSD drive option, this is the best Xserve we've ever made."

Two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots provide wide I/O bandwidth to support the latest high-bandwidth expansion cards. An Xserve RAID card option delivered improved performance of up to 497MB/s in Apple's test and also supports RAID levels 0, 1 and 5 with 512MB of cache without using a valuable PCI Express expansion slot. A 72-hour backup battery is included for enhanced data protection.

Starting at $2,999 and available immediately, every Xserve ships with an unlimited client edition of Mac OS X Leopard Server, offering support for Mac, Linux and Windows clients without the added cost of client-access licenses.


Time Capsule


Apple also touts the new Xserve as the latest hardware product in its portfolio geared towards setting new standards for environmentally friendly design. Xserve uses PVC-free internal cables and components, contains no brominated flame retardants and features a power supply with an average energy efficiency of 89 percent.

Time Capsule


The Xserve standard configuration, with a suggested retail price of $2,999 (US), includes:
  • a single 2.26 GHz Quad-Core Xeon 5500 series processor with 8MB of fully shared L3 cache;
  • 3GB of 1066 MHz DDR3 ECC RAM;
  • a single 160GB 7200 rpm SATA Apple Drive Module;
  • dual Gigabit Ethernet on-board;
  • two PCI Express 2.0 x16 expansion slots;
  • Bonjour-enabled Lights-Out Management processor and Server Monitor Software;
  • internal graphics with Mini DisplayPort output;
  • two FireWire 800 and three USB 2.0 ports; and
  • an unlimited client license for Mac OS X Server version 10.5 Leopard.

Build-to-order options and accessories for Xserve include: dual 2.26 GHz, 2.66 GHz or 2.93 GHz Intel Xeon processors; 160GB and 1TB 7200 rpm SATA Apple Drive Modules; 450GB 15,000 rpm SAS drives (third party option); internal Xserve RAID card; Gigabit Ethernet, 4Gb Fibre Channel cards and a 750W redundant power supply.

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New RSS address! Please Update!

If you're reading this in a RSS reader, you're cool! No need to change anything else!

But if you're reading this at joshlam.com, please update your RSS reader as we changed our feed address to:
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/joshlam

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Sunday, April 5, 2009

New domain, New Look, New Josh's Blog!

In case you haven't noticed, Josh's Blog is now located at:
http://www.joshlam.com

Instead of the previously ugly BlogSpot subdomain joshl2.blogspot.com

Also, I'll like to tell you guys that a new design is coming in a few weeks time! Stay tuned, and if you haven't susccribe to my feed below to keep up with the latest Tech News! I understand that there hasn't been much news for some time, but that's going to change right now.

Cheers,
Josh

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Dell roadmap LEAKED: High-end 720p Mini 10 and Mini 11!



Looks like there's going to be a high end Dell Mini 10 coming, codenamed the Mini 1010 Tiger, with "purpose-built for the internet entertainment and mobility". It's coming with a higher end 1.8GHz Intel Atom Z processor, and a Magnesium Body "for Looks". A 16:9 HD 720p ETE Display and HDMI completes this awesome high end netbook. Other Options include Touch pad with gestures, Integrated GPS and Mobile TV.

Another thing would be the new Mini 11, coming sometime in Q3 in 2009. Check out the slides below. Thanks to netbooknews.de for the leak.


Josh's Verdict: Wow, a netbook with HDMI? No way. I can't wait to see it!

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Second Microsoft Laptop Hunters Ad: Giampaulo



Well, so much for the redhead Lauren. Here comes Giampaulo: a tech savvy guy who calls Macs "so sexy", except in the end, he rejects Macs calling them "all aesthetics and brand with no computing power". Anyways, once again, just like Lauren, he picked an HP with a $1,500 budget. He picked the HP HDX 16 with 2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GT graphics, 4GB of RAM, and a 500GB drive, which would cost him $2,499 from Apple. Check out the video here: 



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Thursday, April 2, 2009

WebHostingChoice.com: Your Guide to Web Hosting!

I just found a great site I felt like sharing: it's called Web Hosting Choice. They offer an awesome guide to popular web hosting services, which includes reviews and easy to read comparison charts. 
Have you ever wondered with web hosting to choose? With the number of hosting companies these days, it's quite hard to pick the right plan for the right price. Well, Web Hosting Choice makes it easy to pick a web host. On their front page, they show a frequently updated table for the top 10 web hosts, based on a number of criterias. Currently, the Top Web Host is JustHost, with only a cost of $3.95 per month and comes with a free domain, Unlimited Space and Data Transfer. That to me, sounds like a great deal. The  Top 10 web host is shown below:
If you are more specific and picky about each individual web host, you can try their Advance Search feature, which allows you to pick a web host depending on a particular feature a web host, might have, for example, payment by PayPal or support for C++.  This can be seen below. 
Josh's Verdict: Overall, a great site to begin finding your first Web Host! Good Luck!
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