Android

Android

Android Version Names: Every OS from Cupcake to Marshmallow The Mascots on Google Campus, from

left to right: Donuts, Android (and Nexus One), Cupcake, and Eclair

Android and Dessert Names Revised 03 SEP-Google's Android division certainly has a sense of humor: It named all of its version code names after desserts (just as Intel names all of its CPU's after rivers). To celebrate a new version, a giant mock-up of the dessert that matches the code name is usually delivered to the Google Campus and put on display.So what are the different versions of Android OS and the desserts associated with them? Let us go over a short history.Android 1.0 and 1.1: Unnamed There appears to be no code name assigned to versions 1.0 and 1.1 of Android OS.Google bought a company called Android back in July 2005. Android was headed by several mobile big shots, including the former head of a big carrier, ex-owner of a phone maker, and more. After their buyout, Android went into stealth mode, and rumors spread that Google was working on a mobile phone.The dam finally broke in November 2007, when Google suddenly announced that they were indeed working on a phone (Google Phone). More than that, they were also working on a brand-new mobile operating system called Android, based on the Linux kernel, to be used by the Open Handset Alliance, a group of 65 different hardware makers, carriers, and other mobile-related companies.HT C was the first phone maker to get a real consumer phone out, the T-Mobile G (also known as the HT C Dream outside of US), on October 2008.An update of Android, version 1.1, was released in February 2009. However, the first significant version of Android OS that really showcased the power of the platform was Va, code named "Cupcake."As Cupcake starts with letter "C", many have suspected that 1.0 had a code name starting with "A" and 1.1 had one starting with "B," but no actual code names were ever assigned.Android 1.5: Cupcake The Android cupcake on Google's campus Technically Android 1.5 wasn't the first version, but versions before it don't seem to have received any code names. Stories were told that it was supposed to be version 1.2, but Google decided to make it a major revision and made it 1.5 instead. Among the many changes with Cupcake, third-party keyboard and Widgets were enabled and phone could upload directly to YouTube and Picasso. The company code named the version "cupcake," which is how the trend of dessert names began.A cupcake is a small, individually-sized cake baked in a cup-shaped mold. It is usually served with frosting on top.Android 1.6: Donuts Android donuts on Google's campus The Android donuts on Google's campus Android Va, code named "Donuts," was released in September 2009. It fixed reboot errors in the OS, revamped photo and video features (i.e. camera interface), and featured better search integration. It also added support for larger screen sizes and is the first version to offer Google's turn-by-turn navigation feature.A donuts is a small ring-shaped friedcake. The ring is made of rich, light dough and deep-fried. Various sweet coatings can be added. Donuts are not to be mistaken for bagels, which are baked, much denser, and usually salty.Android 2.0 and 2.1: Eclair The Android eclair on Google's campus The Android eclair on Google's campus Android 2.0 was released in October 2009, with a bug fix version (2.0.1) coming out in December 2009. Android 2.1 was released January of 2010. Most people consider them a single release. Added features include Bluetooth 2.1 support, flash and digital zoom for the camera, multi-touch support, live wallpapers, and more.Eclairs are usually described as oblong cream puffs. They are baked pastries with cream filling and chocolate coating on top.Android 2.2: Dorothea Android fro yo on Google's campus-the Android fro yo on Google's campus Android 2.2 mainly improved speed by adopting the JavaScript "just-in-time" compiler engine from Google's browser, Chrome. It also improved browser support by adding animated GIF support and Flash 10.1 plug-in support, along with USB tethering and WI-F Hotpot capability (for those with supporting hardware).Fro do is short for "frozen yogurt." It is a frozen dessert made from yogurt, so it is slightly more sour than soft serve, but also lower in fat.Android 2.3, 2.4: Gingerbread The Android gingerbread man on Google's campus The Android gingerbread man on Google's campus Gingerbread was officially released in December 2010.On December 6th, 2010, Google officially announced the first phone with Android OS 2.3 Gingerbread. The phone was the Nexus S, which Google co-developed with Samsung. The phone was originally only available for T-Mobile, but was later made for Sprint and AT&T as well.Gingerbread supports SIP internet calling, NFC wireless transaction capability (if hardware is present), more than one camera, and gyroscopes and other sensors (barometers, gravimeters, and others are possible). It also features a download manager, some tweaks to allow usage on Tablets, and other system level tweaks for programmers.As a dessert, gingerbread is basically a ginger-flavored cookie. It is often made to celebrate end-of-year holidays in the US. The cookies are cut into festive shapes—often the shape of a man—and decorated with icing and candy.Android 3.0, 3.1, and 3.2: Honeycomb The Android honeycomb on Google's campus The Android honeycomb on Google's campus Honeycomb was released in February 2011, and was rapidly followed by 3.1 and 3.2 in July and August of 2011. Google posted a lot of previews and highlights on Honeycomb.Honeycomb was made for tablets, which implied that Android OS 2.X was not. That did not stop Samsung and a slew of smaller manufacturers from putting out an army of Android 2.X tablets of various sizes before the end of 2010 as they tried to ride the wave of the iPad's success in time for the Christmas shopping season.Motorola Room was the first Android 3.X tablet to be released. It has since been followed by many others.Dessert-wise, honeycomb is a sheet of hexagonal cells bees build out of wax and fill with honey. Fresh honeycomb can be consumed as a dessert—some people chew or even consume the wax with the honey.Android 4.0: Ice Cream Sandwich The Android ice cream sandwich on Google's campus The Android ice cream sandwich on Google's campus Ice Cream Sandwich was Google's attempt to synthesize Honeycomb, it's tablet-only platform, with its mobile platform. Released in October 2011, it featured a new design and default font, as well as the ability to monitor and limit mobile data usage and other upgrades. Many devices were slow to adopt Ice Cream Sandwich. Three months after Ice Cream Sandwich, only one phone (Samsung Galaxy Nexus) had been released to run it.In real life, an ice cream sandwich is a layer of ice cream, usually vanilla, sandwiched between two cookies, usually chocolate. They are often rectangular in shape.Android 4.1: Jelly Bean The Jelly Bean mascot on Google's campus The Jelly Bean mascot on Google's campus Jelly Bean came out in 2012. Biggest changes included "Google Now," an AI assistant that anticipates your needs and better, more interactive notifications. Jelly Bean also allows "voice typing," a built-in speech-to-text engine that does not rely on Internet or data.Android 4.4: Kit Katheryn Android 4.4 Kit Kay mascot on Google Campus The Android 4.4 Kit Kay mascot on Google Campus Google announced that Android 4.4 would be named Kit Kay on September 3, 2013. Kit's parent company, Nestle, was fully on board with the naming of operating system and launched an advertising campaign during Kit Kay's release. As part of the campaign, specially marked packages of Akita with Andy the Green Android on the package each contained a sweepstakes code that could win a new Nexus 7 Android tablet or Google Play store credit.Kit Kay took the Google Now feature and took it a step further with "OK Google." OK Google allows people to access Google Now without even touching their phones—just verbally saying the phrase opens up the artificial intelligence assistant. Kit Kay also introduced Emoji to Google's keyboard.Android 5.X: Lollipop The Android lollipop on Google's campus The Android lollipop on Google's campus Android 5 is called Lollipop, and it featured a brand new run time called ART that no longer relies on the older VIDAL run time (which is somewhat based on Sun/Oracle specs). Lollipop also contains other II improvements and has an excellent battery life on some devices.Android 6: Marshmallow mascot on Google Campus Android 6: Marshmallow mascot on Google Campus Android 6.X: Marshmallow Android 6: Marshmallow is already out for the Nexus devices and is believed to be coming soon to all flagship devices before end of the year, and to other devices by mid 2016.Marshmallow introduced several changes that can have significant impact. App permission model is now opt-in (grant specific permission as requested) rather than opt-out (all is permitted, then use App Ops to run off individual permissions). Doze mode allows the device to go into hibernation when idle, cutting power consumption to virtually nil. Fingerprint sensor support is now baked into the OS rather the vendor support, and USB C is now fully supported. Finally, Marshmallow allows one to format a micros D card and adopt it as if it's internal storage and share the same internal security level.Where Is the Latest Operating System for My Phone?The problem with Android OS is each phone maker and/or carrier can customize the phone, and those tweaks mean each carrier/maker will need to retest the OS completely before it can be released. The process often takes several months, and Extreme Tech does a great job of explaining why.Even then, it is not guaranteed that your device can be updated to the latest version of Android OS. Devices that came with Va (Cupcake) or Va (Don't) can be upgraded to Va or V2.2, but will not fully support all the features of the OS due to hardware limitations. Some examples: Some of the earliest HT C Android phones, such as Legend, Desire, and Hero, do not support live wallpapers even when upgraded to Eclair (2.1) or later. The original Google phone, the T-Mobile Ge (HT C Dream) only officially received the Va or Va updates. Some have developed later Android OS ROM's for the phone, but they require the phone to be rooted to use. Motorola Droid, even when upgraded to Fro do (2.2), does not support mobile hotpot.In general, you will need to wait for the carrier to release the OAT (over-the-air) updates or wait for a ROM developer, such as Cogency, to get a ROM version working for your phone.The way the process works is Google has to release the SD and ROM for the latest OS. Then each carrier and phone maker will go off and test it on their phones, add any local improvements, and eventually release it over the air and push it to your phone. The process takes several months.Android OS itself don't have any hard requirements, but there are some practical ones. I would expect a device with 512 MB of RAM and 1 GHz CPU to run Gingerbread, but anything less may be problematic. For Lollipop and Marshmallow you'd expect at least a quad core with 2 GB of RAM, if not the latest coot-core with 3 or GB of RAM. The recommended device specs will only go up with future Android operating systems.What Is SOAP ROM vs. Factory ROM?SOAP, or Android Open Source Project, is the source of all actual Android code that is open source. While Google did develop and is still developing Android, it periodically releases bug fixes and new versions to SOAP to continue its development. However, SOAP versions of ROM are a very generic ROM and need to be customized for different hardware implementations. You can't just download SOAP stuff into your device and expect it to run.Thus, many ROM developers take ASP code, customize it to their purposes, specialize it for one platform/device, and voile, SOAP-based ROM. Not all features may be supported by SOAP ROM as some hardware does not have open source support.A factory ROM, on the other hand, is based on the original firmware from the manufacturer. It is basically a tweaked version of the original ROM, probably with bloatware stripped out and tuned for maximum performance. This is only possible if the manufacturer has actually released such a ROM.For example, to get Jelly Bean on an older phone, such as Motorola Droid Bionic (aka Tara), one can take the official Motorola 4.1 Jelly Bean update, then load one of the tweaked ROM based on it. Or one can just Cogency Mod 10.1, which is based on SOAP. CMDR doesn't have van dock or lap dock support, as those are proprietary to Motorola with no open source support, but it has variety of other features not available on the factory or tweaked Conclusion hope you have enjoyed our little excursion into Android history.So what's the next dessert that starts with L? Wonder what sort of dessert Google will pick next for its Android version code name? Stay tuned.

Can You Make Money Bitcoin Mining

Can You Make Money Bitcoin Mining

؟ Can You Make Money Bitcoin MiningThe bitcoin is a concurrency, first suggested by Toshiba Minamoto. Will this be how we pay for everything in the future?The bitcoin is a concurrency
 first suggested by Toshiba Minamoto. Will this be how we pay for everything in the future?What is Bitcoin Mining?Lately I've been investigating bitcoin mining as a source of passive income. I've decided that this is

very different from trying to make money by publishing online content.
To have a chance of earning anything at all, it requires a fairly big initial investment.Most people are now familiar with bitcoins, even if they've never used them, as the new virtual currency. It is the first currency to be controlled by a cryptography protocol rather than a central bank. Basically you pay for something by sending BTC from a virtual wallet in your computer to the merchant's computer.So how can you make money from this?. Well, theoretically, your computer can become a node in the network that processes and verifies the transactions. With every block chain that is processed a new block of 25 coins, worth around $2500 at today's prices, is created. This is known as bitcoin mining.Update Jan. 2014. The mining difficulty has increased 50 x since I wrote this article. Today it stands at 1.4 billion. This means that if my pool found a block once a day in July, it now takes over a month. This makes mining with anything but the most powerful ASICs completely pointless.On the other hand, the price of BTC has skyrocketed (close to $1000 today), however it doesn't quite make up for the rise in difficulty. According to the profit calculator mining at 5 G H/s will get you $1.5 a day. But check for yourself because it can change dramatically.If you want to get into crypt currencies, you might want to consider Lite coin rather than Bitcoins. Find out all about it here.With the right hardware bitcoin mining is pretty much like having a money printing machine, except that it is perfectly legit.With the right hardware bitcoin mining is pretty much like having a money printing machine, except that it is perfectly legit.What Do You Need to Start Bitcoin MiningTechnically all you need to become a node in the network, and to start printing your own virtual money is a computer with internet access. You can download a free wallet to your computer, one of several free miner programs, and join in.Sounds great doesn't it? The problem is that the computer power required is phenomenal. If you work by yourself, with only a personal computer, it might be years before you see your first block. For this reason most miners join a pool, where the work and rewards are shared.In a pool, when a block is solved and new coins created, you will only get a tiny fraction of a coin. But usually several blocks are solved in a day. The person running the pool takes a small percentage as a fee (say 3%), but you get (almost) instant gratification.One important aspect of mining is that the difficulty of solving the blocks increases with time.So can you make money bitcoin mining with a personal computer? It does depend on how good your PC is. Strangely enough the processing needed for BTC mining is much better done by a graphics card (GPU), rather than a CPU. So unless you have a gaming computer with a good dedicated graphics card, well you can do it, but you will mine so little that it will hardly make a difference.There are two GPU manufacturers that provide the chips for all graphic cards, Ati Radon and Dravidian. It turns out that Radon cards are much better at bit mining than Dravidian cards. Something to do with the cards' architecture that doesn't really make a difference in rendering graphics in games, but makes a huge difference in mining.My Dravidian GT 660 Ti video card. Great for gaming, rubbish at mining BTC.My Dravidian GT 660 Ti video card. Great for gaming, rubbish at mining BTC.My Experience Mining with an Dravidian GPUI've decided to try bitcoin mining with my gaming PC, which unfortunately has an Dravidian card (GT X 660Ti) if you are interested. The efficiency of your setup is expressed in mega hash per second (M h/s). My card appears to work at around 100 M h /s.I've had some teething problems with the client (I keep being thrown out of the pool) so I have not mined for a full 24 hours, but I've managed to generate 0.002 BTC. That is worth about 20 cents. I suspect that a full 24 hours of mining would yield closer to 30 cents.Also this is very variable, when mining as a pool, which has a collective power of 3000 Gh/s, we sometimes hit the payload in 10 hours, if we are unlucky, and sometimes in less than an hour. Over time it this evens out.But remember the increased electricity used by heavily using your graphics card full time. Also the wear and tear on a card probably means it will not last as long as it normally would.It is possible that mining with my setup will lose me money rather than earn it.You might be able to do 3-5x better with a Rad eon card. Even better if your PC has two cards running in crossfire mode. But honestly it hardly seems worth the trouble.Edit: Jan 2014, it is definitely not worthy it now. The difficulty is 50x what it was in the summer!In the summer this little jalapeno ASIC promised to make lots of coins. Today it mines 0.002 BTC per day.In the summer this little jalapeno ASIC promised to make lots of coins. Today it mines 0.002 BTC per day.The New Mining Hardware, Dedicated ASICsOn the other hand, there is the possibility of buying an ASIC ( application-specific integrated circuit), a piece of electronics, dedicated to bitcoin mining, that you connect to your computer. The smallest of the ones now being produced by Butterfly Labs works at 5Gh/s (That's 500 times better than my card). They are also developing 50 Gh/s ASICs.According to a new post from the manufacturer, the miners will draw 5w per Gh/s that they hash. For comparison a 42" LCD TV is rated at about 200w. So the 5Gh/s Jalapeno miner will use 0.6 Kilo watt hours per day, while the 50GH/s big boy will use 3 KphIf you pay 15 cents for a Kw h, operating the biggest ASIC miner will add about $10 to your monthly electricity bill.The BTC mining profitability calculator estimates that you will earn $17 a day with the 5Gh/s Jalapeno ASIC, and $170 with the 50Gh/s ASIC, after factoring in electricity usage. [Edit Nov. 2013: Now the estimate is $3 for a Jalapeno and $30 for the 50Gh/s ASIC]They are not cheap, the 50GH/s one comes at $2,500. However, according to the calculator, it would "pay for itself" in 15 days. And then you are basically printing money. The operation requires no more effort than signing in to an exchange once in a while to sell the coins that you've mined.Edit jam 2014: It is hardly worth mining with my 5Gh/s Jalapeno now, I reckon I'm making only a bit over a dollar a day (unless the price of BTC goes up even more that is). It is probably as profitable to mine with the 50Gh/s Butterfly Labs single now, as it was with the Jalapeno in the summer (around $15 a day).See what the 5 Ghash/s Jalapeno looks likeOther ASIC ManufacturersIncidentally Butterfly Labs are not the only ASIC manufacturers. In fact the other company "Avalon" managed to produce and sell ASICs earlier this year.However they only sell batches of the miners, and only to people on the waiting list, so if you want to buy from them now, you will not get your device immediately.There is also the option of getting the little Block Erupter USB ASICS, which do 336 Mh/s. I have 6 of these mining right now, they use little electricity and don't slow down your computer, so are superior to a graphics card.Asinine Block Erupt er USB 330 MH/s Sapphire MinerAsinine Block Erupted USB 330 MH/s Sapphire Miner Buy NowThe Problems with ASICsLooking at it like this, buying the equipment and becoming a virtual money miner seems like a no-brainier. However, there is a catch, of course there is, otherwise I wouldn't be telling you about this. At the moment you can't just go online and buy these lovely miraculous money making machines.When Butterfly Labs first got into producing them, they raised the money from per-orders. People paid up to be the first to get the miners, and the money was used to develop and make them. But of course there were hitches and delays along the way.The bottom line is that the smallest Jalapenos have just started to be shipped to the people who placed orders months ago. Apparently by now (July 2013), they have caught up with orders paid for at the beginning of November last year.Technically shipment of the bigger miners has started, but they've been shipping the Singles (50 GH/s) from the first day of per-orders, 23rd June 2012, the whole months, and with the Little Singles (25Gh/s) they have only reached 24th June per-orders. I have seen people predicting that orders placed now, will not be fulfilled till next year.Although one would hope that now that they've started shipping the smaller ones, the path forward will be smoother and they will be able to produce them at a decent rate.I enjoy mining with my USB Block Erupt er ASICS, connected to my computer via a USB hub, but if the difficulty keeps rising, they will not be very useful in a year's time.I enjoy mining with my USB Block Erupt er ASICS, connected to my computer via a USB hub, but if the difficulty keeps rising, they will not be very useful in a year's time.The A sics will Become Less Profitable with TimeThis is not just a problem of delaying the fabulous earnings. Remember that the difficulty of mining increases with time. So the super machine that can get you 1.6 BTC per day now, will produce significantly less in a year's time.That might seem like an acceptable risk, if you could get your hands on them right now, since they should pay for themselves within a couple of weeks. Unless you are very unlucky and the crypt-currency crashes right after you buy them, you should be OK.But if you have to part with a large sum of money now, and not start earning for months to come, the risk is obviously much more significant.Also bitcoin mining cannot go on forever. A limit is set into the system, with the block size being halved every 4 years, so the increase in total currency is limited. In a few year's time there will be far fewer new coins generated than there are now.The 1 Million Dollar PizzaIn 2010 bitcoins were used by a small number of people, and their value was often negotiated between buyer and seller individually.One famous case involves the sale of a pizza for 10,000 BTC. At today's exchange rate that is the equivalent to over $1,000,000.I hope the pizza was worth it!Will Bitcoins Become a Mainstream Currency, or will They Disappear?There is always the inherent risk of dealing with bitcoins, whose price is very volatile. Earlier this year it rose to the insane heights of $260, then in April fell to $50. It seems to have stabilized in the last few weeks at around the $100 mark. Since their supply is strictly limited by the algorithm, it is hoped that if they become used by more people their price will rise.But it is equally possible that it will fall, or they will become completely worthless in a few months time.Should bitcoins crash, there will be no IMF rescue, and no meetings of G8 leaders trying to save the currency.Having said that, there are a lot of investors who are hoarding BTC s counting on their price rising in the future. These people are usually taking much bigger risks than people spending $300-$2500 on an asic. On the other hand, if you want to invest some money in the hope that bitcoins will be worth more in the future, you could just buy coins on an exchange, rather than mining them.Is it Worth Buying B FL A sics on E bay?Now there is a way of getting the Jalapeno, and sometimes even the bigger ASIC faster. Some people who are on the waiting list already, are selling them on E bay.Or to be more precise, they are selling their place in the queue. You pay the money now (and obviously you pay more than if you bought it straight from Butterfly Labs, but the seller doesn't actually have the miner in his possession yet. They will ship the item as soon as it is shipped to them by the manufacturer.It does mean, however, that you will get your (virtual) money printing equipment faster than if you place the order with a manufacturer. At least with the Jalapenos now shipping you should not have to wait too long for your order. Probably.One of the problems of people getting these very efficient miners, is that the difficulty level is likely to rise quickly once they join the network, since the protocol is set up to produce a new block of 25 coins about every 10 minutes. This will make BTC mining much less efficient.On the other hand there is the possibility that as mining using simpler devices becomes far less profitable, people without ASICs are going to stop doing it. Presumably most of the people doing it don't use these expensive and hard to get devices.There are other risks of buying on E bay. Some offers are apparently fraudulent.One notable E bay auction involved somebody buying an Avalon ASIC worth $1500 for over $20,000!

The Best Ways Earning Bitcoins

The Best Ways Earning Bitcoins 

Earning Bitcoins and More | The Best Ways to Earn Digital Currency Many people believe that
 digital currency is the future of money
 and even among st those who don't there is a growing realization that there will be a long term place
for these virtual coins

to use when paying for things over the internet or transferring money to people in other countries.There are a range of benefits to using Bitcoin and other digital currencies. The fact that they offer lower transaction fees for merchants in comparison to credit cards or PayPal means that some stores are willing to pass the savings on to customers in the form of discounts. You can transfer money to anybody, anywhere in the world without paying the high prices associated with international bank transfers or traditional money transfer services. You can also have complete control over your money, storing it on your own computer or phone rather than having to trust a bank or other financial organization (no fear of failing banks, or Cyprus style 'bank levies' forcing you to pay for the mistakes of highly paid bankers).If you believe that a digital currency will grow in popularity, owning it might also be seen as a good investment. This is because the supply of these currencies is limited, usually with a fixed maximum which can ever be created, so if demand grows due to more people wanting to use the currency, then its value will rise. In fact, lost coins and small transaction fees mean that many people expect the value to rise over the long term even if the number of users remain level - this means that just like regular money is 'inflationary', losing some of its value each year as prices continue to rise, digital currency is seen as 'deflationary', gaining value every year instead,But not everybody has the money to purchase the Bitcoins or other digital currencies that they would like to own. Even if you do have the money you might not want to risk it on such a new technology. One way around this is to earn your coins, rather than buying them. Fortunately there are now loads of different ways to earn digital currency - earning Bitcoins has never been easier!Earn Bitcoins for Playing Games One of the most interesting ways to earn concurrency coins is through in-game economies and video games rewards.Video games and concurrency seem to be a perfect fit - many games have had their own virtual currencies and trad able in-game items for years (think World of Warcraft gold, for example). Games developers are just starting to capitalize on this with by producing games in which you can compete against other players or unlock achievements to earn Bitcoins.You won't get rich in this way, but you can have some fun and get your first step into concurrency with enough bitcoin to play with and 'try before you buy'.Here is a full list of games which pay you bitcoin Earn Bitcoins from Your Regular Job You don't necessarily need to do anything different to what you are doing now in order to start earning Bitcoins. Various services have started popping up which allow employees to start getting their wages in digital rather than fiat currency. I've listed a couple of notable examples below, or just ask your boss!Get Paid In Bitcoin: This Australian company will take receipt of your regular wages and convert as much or as little as you want in Bitcoin,2 cps Heat sinks for USB Bitcoin SIC Miner IX Chip 6.5x6.5x3.5mm2 cps Heat sinks for USB Bitcoin SIC Miner IX Chip 6.5x6.5x3.5mmBuy Notwithstanding currencies like Bitcoin were designed to be earned by people who run the software which runs the network on their computer(s). This allows these coins to have a 'decentralized' organization, in which the infrastructure is run by users themselves rather than a central authority, and allows for a fairer and more constructive distribution of newly created currency units compared to giving them to banks to be introduced to the economy as debt - which is the method used by fiat currency. The process of running this software and being rewarded with newly generated coins is called 'mining'.In the early days of Bitcoin this was done by people running the software on home computers. Today this has become uneconomical, as competition from people using specialist hardware means that you would spend more on electricity running a regular computer than you would get back from the generated coins. But that doesn't mean you can't get involved in mining if you are interested. You can pick up specialist mining hardware quite easily, the cheapest of which comes in the form of a small USB stick that you just need to plug in to a computer running the mining software. If you like playing with new gadgets, tweaking settings and figuring out how things work, then mining can be an enjoyable hobby as well as a way to earn a little extra pocket money in the form of digital currency.Check out the eBay capsule to the right for an example of a low cost USB miner.Alternatively, if you don't fancy having to set up the hardware yourself, pay for the electricity, and probably not get your money back for ages (if ever - as it depends on the price of Bitcoin which fluctuates quite a lot still) then you can give 'cloud mining' a try instead. Cloud mining basically means that you a share in a miner which is being run by a professional, allowing you to share in the financial advantages that come from economies of scale and also meaning that you don't have any of the hassle of actually running the hardware yourself.Earning Bitcoins for Micro jobs There are loads of websites out there now which allow you to earn a small amount of Bitcoin for performing various tasks. This may include watching videos, visiting sponsor's websites, minor admin tasks, completing surveys, or taking up various partner offers.offers. I've also included revenue sharing websites which let you earn a small amount for doing things like posting pictures on an image sharing site, or publishing code snippets or other text, in this category. Check out the link list below!    Bitcoin Get    Earn Bitcoins for completing small simple jobs or for watching videos.    I Want Free Bitcoins    Get paid for completing survey and partner offers. Includes a referral program which pays 25%.    Bit visitor    Get paid a small amount for each website you visit.    Biting    An image hosting site which shares its ad revenue with users in ETC. Find Real Jobs Paying in Bitcoins If you are looking for a way to earn a bit more than the few pennies worth of digital currency you are likely to get from paid to surf programs or for completing surveys and offers, then you may want to check out one of the specialist jobs boards which have started to pop up. There are now quite a few companies out there looking for regular full time and part time employees who want to be paid in ETC. Many of these jobs will involve working for companies involved in digital currency in some way, but there are also other companies as well. There are lots of programming jobs and quite a few marketing jobs, but there are all sorts of other things too, so no matter what your profession is you may well be able to find an employer happy to pay you in Bitcoin.Although I haven't actually tried to get a job like this, the one that looks the best to me is Commonality - they have lots of jobs covering a wide range of different positions and types of company, and the website is well designed and user-friendly.There are also plenty of places to find businesses looking for temporary and freelance workers. Again you will find lots of technology jobs, especially companies looking for programmers, but there are also quite a few writing and marketing jobs, some translation work, and other stuff too. One of the most well-established sites for freelancers who want to get paid in ETC is Bit Task.Faucets - Get Digital Currencies for Free On the other hand, perhaps you don't actually want to do any work - you actually just want to get your hands on some Bitcoin or other digital currency for free. Well don't worry - there are plenty of sites out there for you too!You won't get a lot of money like this. In fact you'll get a really tiny amount. But there are loads of different websites that will let you claim a small amount of a digital currency every hour or day just for visiting the website. These sites make money from advertising to people visiting them to get their free coins, and they also get donations to replenish their funds. This is because digital currencies need users, so people with a vested interest in a currency (miners, investors, the people who created it) may decide that giving a small amount away for free to a lot of different people may actually make them money over the long term, if it means more people start using the coin and it therefore builds a higher value.These free money websites are known as 'faucets'. Rainproof, which I've included a banner for on the right, is my personal favorite as you just need to sign up for an account and they will give you a range of different digital currencies (including Bitcoin) for free every day without you even needing to go back to their site all the time.Trading and Market Making If you already own some digital currency then a popular way to try to earn more is through day trading and market making. If you have experience of any other kind of day trading, especially Forex, then you will probably find that trading alt coins is basically the same. You can try to ride trends, perform technical analysis to get market insights, or base your trading decisions on the important news of the day.Market making is when you post offers slightly off the market price, effectively 'making a market' which was too thin previously to satisfy the needs of regular users. The difference between the price you offer and the actual market price is the profit you make for providing this market making service.My favorite site for trading is Crypts y, but there are plenty of others to choose between.Digital Currency Investments If you have some money to invest, but you don't want to be sat at your computer all day analyzing every little price movement, then there are plenty of options for you too. There are loads of sites around now where you can invest money - in either fiat money or digital currency - and take your profits in Bitcoin or some other alt coin. There are trading and mining funds, virtual shares, interest paying exchanges, and probably a lot more besides. I couldn't possibly list them all here, but I have included a few links for you to check out below:    Circumflex | Exchange and Trading Platform    This currency exchange platform and trading site pays a small amount of daily interest on all deposits over BUTCH.    Ripple Hedge Fund    The preferred Ripple Wealth Management Choice - investing funds in trading and market making for digital currency on the Ripple network.    Crypt stocks    Crypt stocks offers virtual stocks and shares traded in ETC, LT C and DC. Sell Stuff - Digital Currency Marketplaces As the digital currency economy develops, it is becoming more and more like the regular fiat money economy. So, just as you may decide to sell a few things through eBay if you want to make yourself a bit of extra cash in your national fiat currency, you can also sell things over the internet for Bitcoin or for other digital currencies. See below for a list of just some of the peer to peer marketplaces that can help you do this.    Open Bazaar    Open Bazaar is an open source project to create a decentralized network for commerce online, using Bitcoin, that has no fees and cannot be censored.    Cytologist    Bitcoin, Lite coin, Prime coin and Feather coin auction site with automated escrow.    Coin Post    Get Bitcoins in Exchange for your Products and Services.    Bitcoin Marketplace: Buy and Sell with Bitcoin    Hosted on Reddit: the front page of the internet. Dec tome - Write and Get Paid in Dec coins If you are a writer like me and the other members of the community here at , then you will find plenty of opportunities to put your talents to work earning Bitcoins. You can find writing jobs for ETC on the freelance jobs boards I mentioned above, or you can work for websites like Bit scan who are always looking for writers.Personally, however, I think that the best opportunity to earn digital currency by writing is through Dec tome. Dec-tome is the official wiki of the Dec coin project, which is a concurrency designed to support open source developers and creative commons media producers. If you are accepted as a Dec tome writer (you have to provide a sample of your work when you apply to help prevent spammers) you will earn a proportion of the newly generated Dec coins based on the word count of your published content on the site.Claiming Bounties Another way to earn is through claiming bounties. A bounty is simply a reward offered to anybody who can complete a given task. Usually they are offered to open source software developers who can fix a bug in the code for a coin, develop a new service, or provide an improved piece of code for a certain function. But there are also bounties out there for various other tasks which non-programmers could have a go at. Sometimes you can arrange with the person offering the bounty to work on it in advance. but usually the bounty is simply paid to the first person to submit a successful solution.Most coins have at least one bounty running, and you should be able to find them for each coin with a quick google search. Perhaps the widest range of bounties that could be claimed by non-programmers comes from Dec coin, which reserves some of its newly generated coins specifically for paying bounties to support open source and creative commons projects.