Bereninga

As a member of Brightkite, I’ve seen some iPhone screenshots that I’ve usually just looked at but never thought about taking any myself. Anyway, it’s quite simple.

1. Navigate to where you want to take a screenshot.
2. Hold down the home button, and then press the on/off button.
3. The screen will flash after the photo is taken.
4. Navigate to the “Camera Roll” gallery and the screenshot will be there.
5. You’re done!

Simple as cake eh? By the way, this would be a funny little prank to pull on someone when they’re not looking. Just take a screenshot of their home screen and tell them that their icons aren’t working and hand over their phone.

Do you like to fight? Do you have differences with someone you’d like to settle? Do you like watching little cartoon characters beat up each other? Then you’re in luck! My friend Cheryl showed me this site called My Brute. It requires no skill at all.

All you do is create a character, customize it, and go challenge people. Once you challenge someone, the characters fight on their own. The point of the game is to win as many points as you can to get to a higher level. It’s pretty much an RPG. You can gain special skills and weapons to help win battles. Also, if people sign up through your link, you get more XP, and you become their master (insert evil laugh)!

It’s addicting and awesome because you never know who will win. Everything is pretty random; victories, gained skills and acquired weapons are all obtained randomly.

Check it out if you’re not afraid!

Internet fads are so much fun to participate in. As of late, there’s been a new one that’s spreading like wildfire on Facebook. It’s called “25 Things”. Users create a note that starts out with:

Rules: Once you’ve been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you. At the end, choose 25 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. If I tagged you, it’s because I want to know more about you.

(To do this, go to “notes” under tabs on your profile page, paste these instructions in the body of the note, type your 25 random things, tag 25 people (in the right hand corner of the app) then click publish.)

Then the user lists 25 things about him or herself and tags 25 friends. I think practically 90% of my friends have done of these things. I think most of the fun comes from learning about yourself and then telling friends about stories and facts about yourself. It’s sort of like story-telling/secret-telling. Of course, the stories aren’t that personal since it’s published on the web. The most fascinating thing about “25 Things” is how fast it spread and how its caught on. I would post my 25 Things here but then I can’t tag you.

In case some of you haven’t noticed, Google decided to make its buttons a little cooler. I like how they grouped each function according to how similar they behaved. The left three buttons are ways to remove the items from your inbox. The next two buttons are interesting. “Move to” is used to label an item and archive it simultaneously. “Labels” just adds a label to an item. What if you want to add more than one label to an item and then archive it? You will most likely have to do it the old school way by adding the labels and then still clicking on archive. Also, first-time users may (or may not) get confused after moving something to a label/folder. In this new interface, the labels act as both a folder and a tag.

Ohhh, did I just say tag? I wonder why Google just doesn’t implement tags and trash the idea of folders. Perhaps it may have to deal with the way Apple Mail handles Gmail. Currently, Apple Mail doesn’t have a label or tag functionality. Apple, do you hear this?

Anyway, I guess we’ll see how well users adapt to the new interface.

Photo courtesy of lovebuzz from Flickr

During the Superbowl this year (kudos to Pittsburgh for the win. You guys rule!), they played so many 3D ads for movies and TV shows that I vomit a little bit in my mouth. I really cannot imagine 3D really going anywhere past the theater experience. I really have a hard time picturing my friends and me sitting in front of the TV wearing those silly 3D glasses just to watch a show, and it’s starting to really annoy me how websites and TV are hyping it up. It’s like hyping up VHS or audio cassettes. The technology is not where it should be and it’s just plain inconvenient. Advertisers should just save their money and put it elsewhere because 3D won’t be going anywhere. In a recession, you’d think people would be spending money on something more worthwhile. But then again, Paul Blart: Mall Cop was #1 in the box office for two consecutive weekends.

I’ve had a couple of friends recently ask me how to sync up Brightkite, Twitter and Facebook. So here’s a quick little step-by-step guide to help y’all out. Obviously, you’ll need an account with all three social networks. So make sure you have an account with them before proceeding.

First, get Brightkite to talk to Twitter.

1. Log into Brightkite.
2. Go to “Account Settings”.
3. Go to the “Sharing” tab.
4. Input your Twitter account info there.
5. Fin!

Second, get Twitter to talk to Facebook.

1. Log into Facebook.
2. Click on the “Applications” tab at the bottom navigation.
3. Click on “Find More”.
4. In the search box, search for “Twitter”. Twitter should appear as the first result.
5. Install the Twitter application to your profile.
6. Click on “Settings” on the top right navigation of Faceboo and go to “Twitter Settings”.
7. Change your settings there to have the Twitter application update your Facebook status.
8. All done!

Now you have all three applications talking to each other. Wasn’t that easy?

Getting older is a funny thing. Most people complain at how old they are getting. But not me.

So January 5th was my 26th birthday and I have no complaints at all. My 25th year was probably my best year so far. I’ve made a lot of friends, learned a lot of new things, had fun and made a lot of progress. Aging shouldn’t be something to hate. With age comes experience, memories (hopefully good ones, but bad ones are okay too) and new relationships and understanding of self.

• Use the experience to help you make better decisions in the future.
• Think of the memories when you feel like you haven’t felt anything in life.
• Build on the new relationships you’ve made.
• The more you understand yourself, the happier you will be.

So cheers to getting older and wiser!

Yes, this post is a week too late but it’s still the start of the new year. I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year and best wishes to everyone - friends and family alike. Resolutions? I guess there are a few. I would like to generally be healthier, nutritionally and physically. Isn’t that original!

2008 was a great year, so it’ll be hard to top. If ‘09 beats ‘08, that would be quite an amazing feat.

Have you ever watched an ad on television that you thought was just straight up badass and inspiring? This will be one of them. On one of my football Sundays, I saw this ad and was blown away by its creativeness. Over 70,000 images were used for this ad. Much props to the advertising company Grey New York. The feeling I got from watching this gave me goosebumps.

p.s. - It’s even cooler because it has Derick Ward of the NY Giants going for a touchdown! Giants FTW!

YouTube went widescreen yesterday. Does this imply that YouTube will eventually start having HD content? Maybe, but not for a long time. It already took them this long to go 16:9. Sucks for folks with smaller screens! Standards are moving up.