Found out about Moblin's new beta release of its 2.0 Netbook OS from my friend @splemon from IDG. Unlike other Linux distros, Moblin reminds me of the OS on Nokia's Internet Tablet where functions of applications including web browsers, IM, and even Twitter are integrated right into the OS. This video does a great introduction to how the system works and feels. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsCpIeLLoT8&feature=player_embedded] I installed it on my Asus Eee PC 901 without any problems. According to Moblin's blog:

Moblin images should work on Intel based Netbooks and Nettops, we've been testing with the following platforms: Acer Aspire*One, Asus eeePC* 901, 1000H, Dell Mini 9, MSI Wind, Lenovo S10, Samsung NC10, HP Mini 1010 and 1120NR (wired networking only for now)

Moblin 2.0 for netbooks isn't going to satisfy the mobile worker. There isn't any productivity apps, no VoIP, and other office requirements. It's designed for the casual internet user. Those who love surfing the web, updating Twitter, checking some email, and mucking around with multimedia. Here are some screenshots of my installation. [gallery link="file" orderby="rand"] This beta version isn't without its bugs. Most things work well out of the box including webcam and WiFi. Even managed to install Flash without problems. But sound was a peoblem. It works, but it's way too soft even at max volume. Even with headpones didn't help. The other main bugs I found were with the dialog boxes. At times, on certain applications they refuse to respond. The app was still running, but the dislog boxes just didn't respond to the clicks. The last bug, but not a problem, was with the sleep. It sleeps well when you hit the button or close the lid, but waking up didn't work too well. Sometimes it wakes up for 1 second only to go back to sleep. 2-3 attempts are needed to fully restore it. Other than that, it's a lovely OS that boots quick and feels very light. It is a nice change to my Eee PC which was running Easy Peasy just before.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YNM9kA1bSHk] Gary Vaynerchuk knows how the social media works and I agree completely with this guy's approach. Two things to take away:

1. Create content that people want. It's not just about having a Twitter account and being on Facebook, it's a whole lot of hard work getting to know the community and giving them great content that they will thank you for. If you don't have anything good to say or the time to invest, you won't go anywhere.
2. The message is not what you tell people, it's what they think about your brand. Traditional marketing communications teaches us to "control" the message in your announcements, but in the social media you've got to look at it from what your customers are saying. Their voice is way louder. Your only way of influence is to respond with honesty. Respond with spin and your customers will know you're lying through your teeth.

On 5 August 2008 I started @SGnews to automatically update news about Singapore over Twitter. Today, @SGnews has 1,535 followers. In March this year, I began tracking each news story's link with Snipurl and since then I've collected a lot of data. This blog post will show you what readers of Singapore News on Twitter we up to in the month of April 2009. For the month of April, there were a total of 970 links that were clicked. This is not all the news that came through on the account, only those that were clicked on. Most of the clicks went to Channel NewsAsia followed by The Straits Times. The above chart is the complete view of the activity throughout the month. Judging by the stacked chart, the number of unique clicks almost shadow exactly the total clicks. This likely means the majority of users actively click the links when the news comes through @SGnews with only a small margin who click on news that was passed around by retweets. Breaking the data down by days, we can see that the strongest day for @SGnews was Friday, April 24, 2009 with a total of 1,923 clicks. The lowest day was Saturday, April 11, 2009. It appears that even on Twitter news reading followed the usual curves where more activity is found mid-week and weekends are valleys. Below are the Top 10 Articles from April. Interestingly, the AWARE Saga did make it into the Top 10, but it lingered toward to bottom. Maybe because it was only the beginning of the saga with the peak of the issue flowing over to May.

Top 10 Articles on @SGnews

Rank	Article Title	Source	Clicks
1	Online Only - Singlish: cause for concern	TODAY Online	172
2	A piece of Singapore history found on YouTube	Channel NewsAsia	168
3	Freak storm wreaks havoc	The Straits Times	161
4	Jackie slams S'poreans	The Straits Times	135
5	Microsoft allegedly stole S'pore firm's patented invention	Channel NewsAsia	123
6	New club in town	The Straits Times	101
7	150 AWARE members seek vote of no confidence in new executive committee	Channel NewsAsia	94
8	Government won't interfere in AWARE saga	Channel NewsAsia	93
9	Two bodies found	The Straits Times	85
10	Survey shows Singapore in bottom 10 of salary rise rankings	Channel NewsAsia	83