Jon Peck wanted a file server for streaming media across his network so he wouldn't need to leave his main PC on 24/7. Rather than buy an expensive preconfigured NAS machine, he did what real men do: He built it himself, in about 45 minutes, for under $80. Built around a cheap refurbished Dell and loaded with Ubuntu Linux, he does all of the machine's administration through web-based interfaces like SWAT and TorrentFlux. Of course, he gives step-by-step instructions on getting the machine set up, which took him less than an hour "from zero to a fully functional system." Very cool.Posts with tag cheap
How to build an $80 file server in 45 minutes
Jon Peck wanted a file server for streaming media across his network so he wouldn't need to leave his main PC on 24/7. Rather than buy an expensive preconfigured NAS machine, he did what real men do: He built it himself, in about 45 minutes, for under $80. Built around a cheap refurbished Dell and loaded with Ubuntu Linux, he does all of the machine's administration through web-based interfaces like SWAT and TorrentFlux. Of course, he gives step-by-step instructions on getting the machine set up, which took him less than an hour "from zero to a fully functional system." Very cool.la la: Trade music CDs for a dollar
Want some new CDs? Got some to get rid of? la la might be of some assistance. It's a web service that will hook you up with the CDs you want, in exchange for the CDs you want to rid yourself, and a dollar. It works like this: At the la la web site you enter the CDs you have and the CDs you want. When la la sees that you have a CD somebody else wants, and you agree to ship it, la la will send you prepaid mailing envelopes, and credit your account with one CD. Then, when la la sees that somebody else has a CD you want, they'll send it to you. While this might not seems like the best deal, consider how much money you're likely to get trading in your CDs at a used record store. While brand new albums are predictably rare on la la, if you're like me and constantly behind the curve when it comes to new music, or are constantly getting rid of old CDs, la la may be just what you're looking for. In addition to being good for trading CDs, la la has a social networking component and will recommend new music to you and introduce you to others with similar musical tastes.[Thanks, David!]
REBTEL: International calls on the cheap
Along similar lines as JAJAH, REBTEL harnesses the power of VoIP to make international calling cheap, and it doesn't even require a funny-looking headset. It has a base rate of $1 per week, and you aren't charged for weeks when you don't use the service. After that, there are two kinds of service, REBout and REBin: REBout gives you a local number to call a friend for a small per-minute fee (e.g. calls to France cost $0.02/minute for land lines or $0.20 for mobile numbers), with the first 30 seconds free. REBin is free (apart from the $1/week) but a little more complicated--you make a REBin call by entering your number and your friend's on the REBTEL web site, calling your friend on the number it gives you, and then having them hang up and call you back at the number provided to them. You can try REBin for free on the REBTEL web site. Personally I prefer JAJAH's method because it does the dialing for you, but if you spend a lot of time on international calls, Rebtel's flat rate combined with REBin is cheaper in the long run. I did a test call (albeit with someone sitting in the same room as me) and there was a noticeable delay, but nothing intolerable.Building a profitable startup in one week on $500
Is it possible to build a profitable web startup in seven days on a budget of $500? Jason L. Baptiste and Brian Breslin think so. On Saturday Breslin, CEO of Viral Ventures (which owns uGather.com) and Baptiste, CEO of Miami web design firm Infinimedia, set out to build WeblogWire from scratch in a week, and in true Web 2.0 style they're blogging as they go. WeblogWire will be "a system that would be a newswire for bloggers and online media outlets," basically providing a direct line between them and companies and PR firms. With five days left to turn out a working prototype I can't wait to see what they come up with. (Hey Breslin and Baptiste, you ought to have a countdown clock.[Via Nestcape]
JAJAH dials the phone for you (and saves you some money)
So last week when I posted Plaxo dials the phone for you, I didn't realize that the JAJAH-powered service is actually available Plaxo-free, in the form of a web service or Firefox extension. In case you missed the Plaxo post, what JAJAH does when you enter a friend's telephone number is call your phone, then when you pick up, dial their phone number. This would be unremarkable except for the fact that through the power of VoIP, JAJAH will cost you a fraction of what a normal long-distance or international call would. For example, long-distance calls within the U.S. cost less than two cents per minute, and a call from the U.S. to Japan costs a little more than three cents per minute. That ain't bad, and is decidedly more simple to set up (and explain to your grandmother) than, say, Skype. At the JAJAH web site you can get a free five-minute trial without having to sign up for anything and Mozilla Update has the extension that adds JAJAH to your Firefox search box.allTunes: Music store app from AllOfMP3
Uber-cheap quasi-legal Russian music store AllOfMP3 has released a beta of a new app for Windows
and smartphones called allTunes that puts a slick interface around
the download service. TechCrunch's Nik Cubrilovic is a longtime AllOfMP3 customer and was impressed with the Windows version of
allTunes, and he gives high marks all around, especially appreciating the "Preview" feature that lets you
stream entire songs at low bitrates for free. In the comments, which get pretty fiesty, he also certifies that allTunes
is spyware free. All About Symbian reviews the mobile version
and declares ithe beta interesting but wanting. AllOfMP3 charges $0.02 per megabyte downloaded, and songs are available
in a variety of DRM-free formats including lossless.
