BitCoins: The New Internet Currency

Today, I'm going to tell you about a new Internet currency called BitCoin.

Basically, BitCoin is a new type of internet currency that is starting to get more and more popular online.  It's the first peer-to-peer currency.  That means people can transfer BitCoins without going through a middle-man, like the bank or PayPal and they endure no fees when transferring BitCoins.  Many people have started using BitCoin as it is a legal in the US(as of June 2011) and it's easy to transfer and use as money online.

The MyBitCoin.com Registration Page.  Photo Credit: N/A

Before you do anything else, you need to get a "online wallet" for your BitCoins.  You can do that at MyBitCoins.com.  There you can get a account to store your BitCoins in that is totally free.  Find a other list of services like MyBitCoins here if you want a alternative.  There is also the BitCoin software that you can download here.

Now you might be asking, how do people get bitcoins?  Well, you do a process called BitCoin mining.  BitCoin mining is when your computer solves a mathematical "proof-of-work" problem and once it solves that problem, you get some BitCoins.  The proof-of-work problem is based on current transactions in the BitCoin system and all of the past transactions.  To start mining, you can join a pool of miners (like BitCoinPlus.com) or download mining software and try to do it on your own.  The best way to start is using a pool as most home computers aren't powerful enough to mine BitCoins on their own.

The easiest to use mining pool(and the one I recommend) is BitCoinPlus.com.  On BitCoinPlus, you register a account and then you go to the "Generate" page and click "Start Generating".  After that, just let it run in the background until you've gotten 1 to 2 "payouts".  If you can, try to leave it running all day/night when you aren't home or you are asleep.  That way, you'll mine more BitCoins.  Just make sure to set your computer not to go to sleep go it keeps mining.  Once you've gotten enough, transfer them out of your account by going to the My Account page and selecting "Send Money".  On the Send Money page, type (well, copy and paste) your BitCoin Address(the same BitCoin address MyBitCoin will give you after you sign up), the amount you want to transfer out and then click on "Preview Transfer".  Then, send out the BitCoins.

After you have some BitCoins, you can spend them at different websites.  You can find a large list of websites that accept BitCoins here.  You can find a list of BitCoin exchanges here (the most popular one is MtGox).

What do you think?  Post it in the comments!

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

SuperPC

Review: FatCow Web Hosting

FatCow has been one of the most popular choices in website hosting since 1998. They continue to be one of the most popular web hosts today.

Plans:

• The Original FatCow Plan- $56/yr
• The MiniMoo- $5/yr

FatCow Pricing:

Since using FatCow, they have managed to make their pricing completely worth it. Their features are a huge selling point in the hosting market. I have had very limited issues when it comes to FatCow’s pricing. As an example, you have to pay for a full year of hosting. Yes, it would be a great benefit if you could pay for hosting monthly, but FatCow offers a 100% refund within 30 days of purchasing a FatCow Hosting plan. This allows the customer to see if their satisfied with FatCow’s amazing hosting experience.

Features and Bonuses:

FatCow really likes keeping their customer happy. FatCow has added amazing features that are top of the market and also some added bonuses.

• Unlimited Disk Space
• Unlimited Bandwidth
• Unlimited POP Mail Boxes
• Unlimited Domain Name Hosting
• Free Domain Name
• FTP Support
• MySQL
• Point & Click Site Building Tools
• $50 AdWords Credits
• $25 Yahoo! + Bing Search Engine Credits
• WordPress, Joomla, and Drupal Support
• 100% Wind Powered Hosting!
• Much, Much more

The MiniMoo plan is a cheaper plan for customers that need a small, inexpensive website. You can host only one website using the MiniMoo plan. However, the Original FatCow Plan allows you to host unlimited websites and unlimited disk space. I recommend the MiniMoo plan only if you are looking for a small, personal website. If you are looking for a larger website, I highly recommend upgrading to the Original FatCow Plan.

Performance and Uptime:

I’ve been with FatCow for a long time. Throughout the time of having FatCow as a host, I have yet to experience any issues with my hosting. FatCow really works hard to keep their hosting 100% problem free. The websites I have built are speedy and have had no data loss. Once you register, you’ll have your new website up and running in a heart beat.

Summary:

Overall, FatCow has been my choice of website hosting for a while now. I have yet to find anything that even compares to the amazing features and bonuses FatCow offers. I plan to remain a FatCow customer for the years coming.

When choosing a hosting company, be sure to check out FatCow. You should not be disappointed in their amazing hosting.

The Importance of Exposure on the Internet

Nowadays, YouTube users have the possibility of becoming celebrities. Whether it is online celebrities or even worldwide celebrities. From pop hit-makers like Justin Bieber to tech-savvy users like SoldierKnowsBest, Jon4Lakers, and David DiFranco. All of them became popular on this website through exposure.

Because of all these famous YouTubers, so many people have tried to follow in their footsteps for different reasons: to make money or to just know that they are being heard. Either way, they are craving exposure and some just don't know how to get it. Though I myself am pretty low on the online fame scale, I am going to try and give some tips that will help.

Before you begin to make a YouTube channel revolved around the technology world filled with the same sort of thing such as unboxings, reviews, and updated news, you have to know that there are thousands of people trying to do the same thing. That is why you have to stay different and unique. For example, MattsMacintosh is completely revolved around Apple Inc. by giving history about their past products. You have to stay unique for people to become interested in you. Whether it is the production of the video or the context, stay unique.

Along with staying unique, you have to also remember to know what you are talking about. Rather than just reading an article, thinking that you know everything, then doing a video based on it, do some in depth research. It will give you as well as your viewers a better feeling of understanding.

And finally, stay frequent. Don't post one video, then wait two months to post another. Try to update your viewers once or twice a week. You don't want them to worry that you died or anything. Working on an important project. Perfectly fine, just bust out an update video stating where you have been and what's coming up.

Those are just a few tips. I understand it may seem quite weird for someone with no YouTube channel to be writing about this topic. I just wanted to get a point across. Also, for those wondering: what if I want to get exposure by means other than YouTube such as a website? You can still follow these steps. 

My updates are found here and here. 

Review of iPhone 4: One Month Later

In just 2 days I'll have had my iPhone 4 from AT&T for exactly 1 month. Must I say, this is the best phone i've ever had in my life. It does everything I want, and more. Below is my review of the iPhone 4 after having it for 1 month.

First off, the iPhone 4 has some amazing features. One of it's key features is it's front FaceTime capable camera. It look amazing and it's one of the best features you could ever ask for on a mobile phone. The issue? You can only do it where there's WiFi, but in Apple's introduction of the iPhone they said that is only in 2010. Maybe we'll be able to Facetime on 3G sometime soon! The phone is extremely fast with it's A4 processor. It handle's multitasking extremely well. The AppStore has over 300,000 applications. The AppStore is really what makes the iPhone what it is. It's super thin, light, feels good in your hand, and it's just flat out amazing. The only issues I've had with it is that it's a MicroSIM, but that's understandable because they needed the space for it's size. Overall, I love this phone and I look forward to seeing what Apple has to offer on the next generation iPhone.

Review: Altaz Internet Clock Radio

If your searching in the market for a Internet Radio or a digital photo frame with some bonus features then look no further. Check out the Altaz Touchscreen Internet Clock Radio. Before I get into the review itself I want to of course give a big thanks to the Altaz company for sending a review unit of the product my way, it was nice of them to do so.

Okay at first glance you might think of this to be a Chumby which I have to admit does give off the look to be a clone but really its not. I can honestly say that this device is not trying to be a clone or really a alternative but a standalone product in that what features it supports work very nicely. However I want to save the best for last so first off lets discuss what comes in the box.

In The Box:

Altaz Internet Clock Radio

Microfiber Cloth

Stylus

Power Adapter

USB Cord

Manual

Now lets get to what were all waiting for and that’s the Internet Clock Radio. When I personally picked it up I could tell it had some weight to it and really didn't feel cheap. Located on the sides of the device are four buttons which controls the volume, play and pause also the power button. On top is a bigger button which acts as the snooze and the home button function. On the very back of the device is a Mini USB plug-in where you can connect the Power Adapter to charge or continually power the device also the speakers are located here as well. On the opposite side of the four buttons is a SD card slot where you can load pictures, songs or videos onto the device. Now on the bottom you have a elevated rubber grips to slightly rise the Internet Radio up. Of course the front is the 3.5” Touchscreen.

Starting up time for the Clock is only a few seconds which is great. When it comes to the Home Screen it reminds me of the iPhone with similar looking icons. Setting up the device was a breeze for me, the touchscreen is very nice and not really touchy so going through the settings and having to spell anything out with my finger alone was not at all stressful. My home network runs on a WPA2 encryption and right of the bat the Altaz Radio was able to pick it up and all I had to do was simply input the password. Pretty much everything you need to setup on the device such as clock, calender and internet connection was very straight forward in the settings section of the device. Once connected the device has several neat little features that really gives the little radio a wide variety of media income. As I mentioned you have a full monthly calendar along with the clock and a neat three day forecast weather application.

However not every application included in the device was able to be setup on the device itself. Using your computer and the easy to follow instructions you get a bigger handful of applications to work with. A few notable applications that I would like to discuss is the FrameChannel, Picasa, and I-Radio. FrameChannel is a online application in which registered to the free online program will allow you to add some these news feeds, for example on mine I was able to scroll through my Facebook, Twitter and even Time magazine news feed which are just a few of the many feeds you can choose onto your FrameChannel account. The Picasa which I am sure most of you are familiar with also is included in the device. Now for those who have never heard of this program; Picasa is a online image viewer that is offered by Google. Here you can sign up and post all of your pictures online and of course can be set privately for your eyes only. Now Altaz's Internet Radio will link to your Picasa account and stream your photos and turn the Internet Clock Radio to a Digital Photo Frame with the touch of a button. Lastly we have the I-Radio. Once connected to the internet I-Radio has hundreds of online radio genres to choose from and within those genres are several of online stations which is nice to have a wide selection of music to pick from. Now if you include your SD card you can add video playback with the M-JPEG format along with any pictures and music that is already included in your SD card.

Definitely a great device with some nice key features. You can get yours for the price of $99.99 at http://www.altazdesign.com along with major online stores such as http://www.amazon.com http://www.buy.com and http://www.walmart.com where they may have special discounts.

List of complete Specs:

3.5”TFT Panel

Resolution: 320x240

Audio: MP3

Video: M-JPEG

Wi-Fi: 802.11g

Memory: 128MB

Card Support: SD

USB: Mini USBX1

Built-in Battery: 3.7V 1500mAH

AC/DC Adapter: 5V/0.5A