My current system setup before the process.
ubuntu64:~$ which node
/usr/local/bin/node
ubuntu64:~$ node -v
v0.4.9
Firstly make sure your system is upto date
ubuntu64:~$ sudo apt-get update
ubuntu64:~$ sudo apt-get install git-core curl build-essential
openssl libssl-dev
Then clone the Node.js repository at git hub:
ubuntu64:~$ git clone https://github.com/joyent/node.git
ubuntu64:~$ cd node
I wanted the latest tagged version
ubuntu64:~/node$ git tag
....
....big list of all the tags
....
ubuntu64:~/node$ git checkout v0.9.2
Then I removed the old version of node
ubuntu64:~$ which node
/usr/local/bin/node
ubuntu64:~$ cd /usr/local/bin
ubuntu64:/usr/local/bin$ sudo rm node
Now to install the desired version, in may case v0.9.2
ubuntu64:/usr/local/bin$ cd ~/node
ubuntu64:~/node$ ./configure
....
ubuntu64:~/node$ make
....
ubuntu64:~/node$ sudo make install
....
Then I had to run the following to update the profile
ubuntu64:~/node$ . ~/.profile
Finally confirm that node is in fact upgraded, and npm has magically been installed too :-) bonus
ubuntu64:~/node$ which node
/usr/local/bin/node
ubuntu64:~/node$ node -v
v0.9.2
ubuntu64:~/node$ which npm
/usr/local/bin/npm
ubuntu64:~/node$ npm -v
1.1.61