Just Rambling

I know it's been like for ever since I've updated this blog but I have been just going through some personal stuff and I'm only human, right? Right!
It's not like I had a huge following anyway but I will always appreciate the few that do read my blog and actually enjoy it. So to them, I am sorry.

First of all, I have noticed that I've been receiving a lot a friend requests for the Facebook profile I created to make that tutorial a little while back. I honestly never intended to use that Facebook account for anything except tutorials maybe or something? It is really nice though to see the friend requests in spite of all that. So now I'm starting to think I should make it an actual page for me, this blog, or whatever. What do you guys think?

So what's been going on with me lately?
Nothing much actually! I will admit that I have been getting a little too addicted to games lately. Facebook actually sucked me in to a bunch of games until it just became overwhelming. Then I started playing on the Nintendo Wii that we recently got. It's going to sound silly but I've been pretty obsessed with a little game call "Animal Crossing City Folk". I know, I know, it's like a child game but you wouldn't believe how many adults actually play it. I actually started playing it on my Nintendo DS Lite and it's so easy to get sucked in. I finally got away from it and then they came out with a version for the Nintendo Wii.
However, what I have really been getting interested in, is the whole cheating side of these games. Not because I want to cheat, but because I'm interested in the whole hacking side of things and how they come up with these specific codes to make certain things happen. It's been really intriguing me. I actually went out and bought this little gadget they call a "USB Gecko". I haven't actually tested it out yet but I know you can create cheat codes with it (for the wii anyway)and learn how these games work. Apparently it's useful for all kinds of stuff and I'm going to attempt to figure out how it works (I hope LOL)... does anyone know about these things? Anyone that may want to help a girl out? I'm also a really obsessive researcher when I'm curious about something ... Wish me luck!

I usually try to figure things out myself because if you go into any of those forums or chat rooms filled with little hackers and act like a newbie to all this, they will rip you apart and the best answer you'll get is "why don't you try reading" or my favorite response "Google is your friend" LOL! There are the rare times though where you'll get somebody willing to help you and not criticize you. I have experienced the nice ones a few times but I really think it's only because I'm a girl that thing went easier on me,,, who knows?
So that's where my head is now! Curious about hacking and how games work.... and how to create cheat codes for others that actually work!

I'm still debating on the whole upgrade to 3.0 on my iPhone 3G. I have way too many jailbreak apps that I can't live without. Plus the whole backing up, reinstalling, re-jailbreaking, reinstalling everything..etc... seems like so much work! My phone works really well and has everything I need so why fix what ain't broken? It's kind of funny that most of the upgrades on new iPhone 3GS were things that all of us with jailbroken phones already had it for a really long time now. So honestly, why do we need to rush an upgrade?

Oh yeah I forgot! Because a lot of apps out now can only be used on 3.0!! That is the one thing that kind of pisses me off but whatever.

Okay my rant is over for tonight! Thanks for listening and come again!

Oh yeah by the way, I am really excited because that free Macbook Pro is almost in my possession! I never realized how hard it was to get referrals! I mean wouldn't you think it was easy to get friends or family to sign up for something that costs them nothing and helps you out in the long run? Yep that's what I thought... but I know better now! So when I finally, finally, FINALLY get this laptop, I will appreciate it a hell of a lot more since I really did have to work for it!

I also kept asking myself, if somehow all my begging and pleading ended up giving me enough referrals for more than one prize, what would I do?
Well, I've decided that if that happens, I'll hold some kind of contest to give some lucky person an awesome prize! How cool would that be? I think it would be awesome! It really is just as fun to give as well as receive if you can do it. It just gives you this really great feeling inside that you would never know any other way. Trust me I know!
Whenever I got my hands on extra money or something like that, I would always try and find someone might need things a little bit more than I do and send it in them anonymously. Sometimes it would be food basket, sometimes clothes or sometimes just plain old money donations to those who really needed it at the time and every single time I've done this, I just felt so good inside and knew that this was a feeling that could never be felt any other way.
I just wish I could do it all the time. Yep it definitely feels better to give than receive.... but receiving is pretty cool too hehehe

Wow I got a little sentimental and corny there... must be the season. Okay I'm signing off for real this time! Niterz!

What is SwagBucks???

Click Here for More Information

I recently found a site that lets you earn prizes just for searching the web like I always do!
Ever since I joined this site, I've been having so much fun and already collected my first prize.
It's almost like playing a slot machine but instead you're using a search engine.

You just search for things like you always do on Google, but instead you're going through the
SwagBucks site, which uses Google's search engine. So you're basically getting paid for doing something you already do.
It's cool because you just search like normal and occasionally a page will pop up saying congratulations you've won one swag Buck or however many. It could be $10 $20, who knows? It's just fun!

Here is what the page looks like when you win while doing a search(I won this Buck searching for "internal bleeding" LOL):


Just click the photo to see it larger.

Now check out this site because it explains everything much better than I can and there's also a link to sign up so you can start earning too! There's an explanation of Swagbucks, how it works, winning tips, and also photo proof of others that have claimed prizes! So what are you waiting for?

Go here now and start winning! It is so fun!

or Click Here or Banner Below to just Sign Up
and Have Fun!

Facebook Photo Tip(s)

(clicking on any of the images below will open the full-size image to get a better view)

Lately I've been noticing a lot of thumbnails on Facebook are off-center and I started wondering, "maybe they just don't know how to fix it? Or they don't care LOL". Well this post is for the people who just don't know how. For those that don't know, the thumbnail that I'm talking about is the one that is used all over Facebook whenever you post something. You know, that little picture next to all your comments. in my opinion, this is kind of more important than the photo on your profile page because this photo is used EVERYWHERE on Facebook! Well there is a really easy way to fix this. On your profile page, there is a big picture of this thumbnail on the top left corner of your page. This is the big version of your thumbnail.




If you right-click on that picture, a little menu will pop down and one of the choices is to edit your thumbnail
Scroll down to the option that says "Edit Thumbnail" and click on this to bring up the edit thumbnail window (see image below).





In the "edit thumbnail" window (image shown below), you can use your mouse to move around the thumbnail image into the position you want which should be in most cases, your face in the center.






Save your thumbnail, and
your image will be automatically corrected anywhere it is shown.






Optionally, you can also edit your thumbnail in your upload window. For instance, if you click on "upload a picture" to upload a brand-new profile photo, they also give you the option to save your thumbnail in that area also (as shown in photo below).

Another small tip that I learned was about updating statuses on Facebook. Some of you may know this, but if you don't then here you go. If you wanted to share a video, picture, link...etc... with all your friends, then you should always click on the "Home" button up top and post it under the "What's on Your Mind?" Box on that page instead of the one on your profile page. If you click on your profile page and post it on that one, it will only show up on your "Profile" page and people will have to physically go to your profile page to even know you posted it. The "Home" page however, will post it in the newsfeed to all your friends as an announcement.

This may have changed since Facebook is constantly changing, but this is how I do it.

Okay thanks for reading and if I learn any more tips I'll let you know!

I joined SwagBucks & it's so fun!

Free Apps I Use On My iPhone

Who said that if it's FREE that means it's no good? One of the really cool things about my iPhone is that there are millions of free apps available and sometimes they can be better than paid ones (not always but there are some gems in there). Here are a few of the free apps that I thought were worthy of valuable space on my iPhone. This list is only my opinion and they are in no particular order.

I found this first app helped me a lot in finding other free apps. The great thing about it was that it would tell me which apps were free for only that day for a limited time.
A lot of apps that cost money will occasionally go on sale for free or very cheap for only a day or so and with so many apps in the app store, it would be impossible to always find which ones were on sale but not with this.

It is called PandoraBox (link opens iTunes) and it is also free!
It gives you a list of apps that are free or just became free and also gives you a list of apps that have dropped in price. Just like in the app store, you get a description\photos and you can create a list of favorites if you want to save a certain app to keep track of price or be informed when it dropped to a certain price. It's a great little app and has saved me a HUGE amount of money by informing me of really great apps that were only free for a day. It is definitely worth having on your iPhone and checking at least once a day.

There are similar apps available but I found PandoraBox to be the best for the price and features. If you're looking for alternatives, AppSniper is a really good one too but you have to pay to get the features of PandoraBox or get a limited Lite version of it. The others I've tried have been less than impressive in my opinion.

This is something I found when I first started using my iPhone & exploring the app store. It's called "App Fiend" (link opens their website) and of course it's free.
Have you ever been asked by your other friends with iPhone's what apps you use? If so, then this will be great for you! You sign up easily for a free account and you list all the apps you own. Then you can give each app a review either by star rating or actually writing what you think. Each of your friends who has the app can be added to your friends list and view all your apps\reviews and vice versa. I thought it was pretty cool and now I can easily see what everyone else has without having to ask plus I trust their reviews.

For some reason I can't find this in the app store right now but if you can download it, I definitely recommend it. The link I posted goes to their website.
I've also read that there is a service like this available online called "I use this" and you can check that out here http://osx.iusethis.com. However, check out this app if you can because it's pretty cool.

Vlingo (link opens in iTunes) is a cool voice app that I found when I first started using my iPhone also. It was free and it seemed to work pretty well at the time and I guess I'm just used to it now. It works with your contacts, dialing, Google search and maps among other things. I liked being able to update my Facebook and Twitter status with it at the same time. Try it out, you might like it!

Melodis Voice Dialer (from the same makers as "midomi") is another free voice app that came out a little bit after "Vlingo" and it's not that bad at the voice recognition. that is exactly what it is though, a voice dialer. So if all you need is something to dial for you, then this is a great alternative but if you need more, go for "Vlingo".

Yelp (link opens iTunes) is a must-have on my phone! It gives you reviews in places around where you live or where ever you want to look up. It's pretty straightforward but useful. I'm always wondering about places nearby and would rather have some kind of information from real people. Also if you're ever in an unfamiliar place you can search the area by your location and find a place to go. Simple as that! You can open an account for free with yelp or just browse without an account. Try it out!

Before I got my iPhone, I was actually debating on getting the Kindle 2 from Amazon.com because this was going to be a gift to me and so I was looking into one semi-high-priced item. When I saw that you could actually read e-books on the iPhone, that was the deal breaker! So I immediately downloaded the Kindle for iPhone app to my iPhone. It was pretty cool and there were a lot of Kindle books available, but there were also other free e-book readers. I also tried "eReader" and "Stanza". Out of all of them, "Stanza" is my absolute favorite because you can upload every other type of e-book to it and it also converts all your e-books into whatever format you want. I keep the Kindle reader also because Amazon.com will only let you upload previews of books onto thier reader but I definitely use Stanza the most because I can use ALL my e-books\documents on it. There is nothing wrong with eReader app, but there are no major advantages either.

I don't really play a lot of games but it's always great to have something to kill time right? So what do I use? Well, I love most of the games that are made by SkyWorks (link opens up SkyWorks website). Mainly the Arcade Bowling Lite, Arcade Hoops Lite, Ping-Pong Lite, and the Horseshoes. With the exception of horseshoes, they are all available in a free lite version. They are nothing mind blowing but they're fun, short and don't require thinking just a fun little ways to kill time. Don't get me wrong, the graphics are nice and the arcade games are almost like the real ones but it's just something fun that I enjoy. Plus they are free!

Shazam (link opens in iTunes) was pretty much on everyone's iPhone when it came out, including mine! How cool is an app that can listen to whatever song you're listening to, and tell you the name of it? Then came the free app called "midomi" (which is now called midomi Ultra and incidentally is also by the Melodis Corporation) and this one not only lets you play a song to it, but you could also hum or sing a song to it and that was a little bit cooler. However, they decided to no longer be free and instead they now charge $2.99 for this app which in my opinion, it is so notworth it! I did get it when it was free, but I still prefer "Shazam" on my iPhone!


I also have a social networking apps of course. For Twitter, my personal favorite free one "TwitterFon". For instant messaging I prefer the separate apps like the free AOL messenger, and the free Yahoo messenger. IM+ Lite 3.0 isn't bad either but it will only keep you logged in if you use the paid version and AIM does it for free.
I also have "Facebook" app for iPhone, MySpace mobile,
and a few other basic apps but I won't list all those unless you want me to?

This list is in no way complete, and my choices are always changing, but for now, this is a good start. I'm sure I forgot many things and will probably do a new list considering a new iPhone system is coming out soon (along with a new iPhone! I'm so jealous!) So we'll just have to wait and see!
There are also a lot of apps available only to jailbroken iPhone's that I rely on heavily but that's another list!

If you can think of any free apps that you use, please comment and list them! I don't require anyone to register to make comments so it can't be any easier! Thanks again for reading and don't forget to subscribe!

I tried signing up for this Feedzilla thing but I'm not sure how it works. If anyone knows please tell me!

You Can Host Your Own Website!

Well if you own a Mac you can! Actually you can probably do it on other systems in lots of other ways, but I am going to focus on what I used when I learned this...

Okay so I have this old PowerBook G4 which technically was the best available out there at the time but now unfortunately times change and I am now the proud owner of a dinosaur LOL! Luckily it's not too old to install the new operating system Thank God!

So after not touching my PowerBook for about two years(I use WinXP on my desktop which is my main computer), I decided to update it with Leopard OSX (version 10.5.7) and like I usually do, I went exploring on the new system. As I was looking through "System Preferences", under "Internet and Network" options there is a preference labeled "Sharing" and inside this folder, there are all kinds of neat ways to share your computer with other computers on your network and things like that. I noticed one of the options was labeled "Web Sharing" and so I clicked on it. It told me that the link to my personal website is http://199.000.0.000/~myname (okay that's not the real address but you get my point, it's basically IP address and your username.). So of course I had to go to that website and see what it said. It basically told me that this was the homepage of my own personal website and if I click that little web sharing option, then others would be able to see my webpage\website whenever I am online! How cool is that?

There is a folder in your user's folder with your name on it (Apple calls it your "home folder") and inside of that folder is another folder labeled "Sites" (so it's basically MacHD\Users\Your Name\Sites) and this is where you put all of your website files for your site. Right now, in my sites folder there is an index.html file and an images folder. The index file is basically the main page of your site and that is the first page you would edit to make your home page. Then you can add however many pages you like or photos, or even upload files for other people to download I believe. As long as your computer is online, people will be able to access your website. Just make sure you have Web sharing option on in your system preferences of course!
Also, I don't think this is specific to the Leopard Operating System. I'm just telling you what I was using and the instructions for that because I'm not completely sure about other systems. I do know that you can do it on Tiger and Panther but don't quote me on it!

I just thought this was a pretty cool thing and a lot of people don't seem to know about it. I didn't know! I just happen to be very nosy when it comes to certain things. I love to see how things work and find little tips and tricks. So I hope you all use us and send me your webpage if you want! I'd love to see what others have done!

Stick It by Tapfactory -- Review

My review for the
"Stick It" iPhone app
by Tapfactory
Website link: http://tapfactoryapps.com/

Stick it icon

Apple finally added Tapfactory's new app to its app store and I have to admit, it's pretty cool!
With so many apps to choose from in iTunes, I'm here to point out some specific ones for you, like "Stick It" by Tapfactory for the iPhone/iPod so read on!

First of all, the icon is cute and definitely relevant to the app itself. It's a picture of some sticky notes of course (image shown above and links directly to the app website not iTunes). It starts up very quickly and runs smoothly on my iPhone 3G and offers lots of customization options.

The user interface is so self-explanatory that even the most technically challenged users will be able to use this app with no problems in my opinion.
It's pretty straightforward, and does exactly what it says it will, but it makes creating reminders fun.

You can create regular looking sticky notes or choose from a variety of styles and colors, then add your text and choose from the list of included fonts which also includes the option to change the color and size of your text (which can be extremely helpful for fitting text perfectly on any note style you choose, big or small).
Last is the option of backgrounds which include brick walls, steel, paper and many others. If you don't like any of those, use your own photos stored on your iPhone or take a picture! The note styles also include many different talk bubbles if you feel like turning your picture into a comic! I love that feature!
All of these options are created easily with the touch of a well labeled button or swipe of the screen. I had absolutely no problem navigating and performing everything I wanted to do with this app. Honestly, they could not make it any easier to use this!

After creating your note you can export it to your photo folder on your iPhone, then just add it as your background and it will appear on your lock screen so it's the first thing you see when you turn on your iPhone or iPod! Perfect for important reminders! There's also a preview button so you can see how it will look before you save it.
I love the idea they showed on the demo video using a metal plate as your note and adding your info as the text so if your phone is lost the first thing they will see is where they can return it! The note style and background is a great touch to make it look stylish.
I also love the comic effect you can add to your own photos for a fun, personal touch. Check out the examples I posted that were all created in this app in my personal photo with a comic note added for fun.
Add one note or many! The choice is yours!

Problems Experienced:

The only problem I actually had with this app was when I was scrolling through the note styles. It appeared to be stuck and would not swipe to the next screen (the note style choices are the same format as your iPhone home screens where you are to swipe to the next screen for the next note style and when you choose one, you would tap the note itself).
I spoke to the developer about this and was informed me that I needed to swipe above or below the note in order to move from screen to screen. I was actually trying to swipe on the note itself in the middle of each screen.
I went into the app again to see if that was actually the problem and sure enough, it was! Swiping above and below the note made the transitions much easier. So I thought I would mention this in case you got this app and thought it was not working properly like I had thought. This was the only thing not apparent.

Additional Information:

I'm told an update was submitted to Apple already and I believe they will be adding more choices to customize your notes in future updates. In my personal opinion, this developer seems genuinely dedicated to the apps they create and distribute.
I can comfortably recommend this app to anyone who is looking for something like this or just likes these kind of apps. The amount of options available is just awesome and worth the small price. Now go get it!

Links for "Stick It" App:

• Developer Website
• "Stick it" Demo Video
• Link to "Stick It" app in iTunes (this link opens iTunes)

My personal images created in "Stick It"
(you can click each image to view a larger version)
Go to developer website for more images and information.

Quote from website:
Stick It
The most versatile custom reminder tool for your iPhone/iPod. Quickly, and easily create wallpapers for your lockscreen.



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Forget Type Tweeting!

Note: Links open webpage not iTunes

Has anybody ever tried audio tweets?
Well I've been playing around with this new app for my iPhone called TweetMic and it's actually pretty cool. I guess if twitter is technically for busy people then TweetMic would be for really really busy people! Now you don't even have to type your messages, you just speak into the app to record a "Tweetcast" (as they call it) and if you want to write a little message, it gives you a space for that, then just send! It automatically posts to your twitter account. It cannot get any easier!

If you don't want to type a message, they actually have a default message already in place that says "listen to my audio tweet". That's pretty self explanatory, right?
I love it, but it's a little awkward for me because I'm one of those people that hears their voice in a recording and can't believe that it's them LOL! Yes it's silly but we are who we are. I will however post a TweetMic post for just this occasion on my twitter account to announce this blog post and then I'll probably never do it again, ha ha! Seriously though, I do think it's a really cool idea for those of us who are comfortable with that sort of medium and this app actually accomplishes the task at hand rather well.

It's only $.99 at the app store .....so what are u waiting for?

listen to my audio tweet here