Scribd : Online Publishing for Printed Media

Scribd was featured in several blogs I read regularly a couple of weeks back. I looked at the application and thought why would I need to use that when I can type my content straight into my blog or onto the website using HTML?

TechCrunch used it in one of its articles today to display the Yahoo! Presentation to Stockholders document and it really worked out well. It has a clean interface for displaying printed documents. You don't need to retype print documents you want to feature online instead all you have to do is upload it and let Scribd handle the rest.

Good job, Scribd! This will make online publishing a whole lot easier now.

Paypal's Anti-Phishing Campaign

I set up a Paypal account over the weekend to be able to handle transactions for sponsoring my blog. This morning, I looked at my spam folder and there was an email that looked like it was from Paypal saying that a third party might have accessed my account. Now since my email provider had already warned me that this might not be from who it was claiming to be from, I was planning to contact Paypal to ask about the email.

When I got to their Security Center, they had information about Phishing in there. Phishing is a form of fraud designed to steal your identity according to Paypal's Can You Spot Phishing Challenge. Here are some tips to avoid being victimized by phishing:

• Just because the sender's email address appears to be from Paypal, doesn't mean it is. It is easy to make an email address appear that it is from a trusted source.


• Do not give out personal information like your password, a trusted source will never ask for this in an email.


• Just because the link looks like it's going to the Paypal website doesn't mean it is, it is easy to mask a link to make it appear like it's from a trusted source.


• Always check your trusted source's website or contact them to make sure the information in the email is correct.

I hope this information has been helpful. Stay safe and happy! Protect your identity.

Pacquiao: A Homeland Hero

My husband and his friends from church had a boys' night out last Saturday, gathering in a friend's family room to watch the Pacquiao vs. Diaz fight. The only females in the gathering were me, the wife of our host, their daughter and two of their daughter's friends who came for a play date. We didn't really pay attention to the matches, but we saw when Manny knocked out Diaz in the 9th round.

Pacquiao won his fourth title belt, he is the first Filipino - the first Asian - boxer to ever win in four weight divisions. Wow! He now holds the super flyweight, super bantamweight, featherweight and now the lightweight division belts. He is truly our homeland's hero.

Filipinos everywhere in the world watched and supported Manny Pacquiao. The strain and stress of poverty and hard times were stripped from their faces as they rejoiced in Manny's victory. As news of his win was featured in The Filipino Channel, I witnessed a rare sight that was so beautiful to finally see - the Filipino people proud to be Pinoys because of this humble boxer from General Santos who struggled and learned to be the best in the world. They finally had someone they can be proud of in the world's limelight again.

Congratulations, Manny! Thank you for the gift of pride you brought back to Filipinos around the world. Good job!

Social Spark : Blogging Opportunities With Pay

Are you a blogger? Do you enjoy writing reviews about different products or services out there? Are you looking for ways to earn a little extra income? You may want to check out SocialSpark, an online community for bloggers looking to earn some extra income from what they love to do - blog!

I have been blogging for years, but have never earned from my blog. I used to read friends’ blog posts saying that they earn from blogging and I thought - wow they must have a lot of readers for people to pay them to blog. My blog was primarily for friends and family who wanted to catch up on my life and what I was up to, I didn’t really think I could earn from blogging. But I was wrong!

I joined SocialSpark a couple of weeks ago and found a great way to earn extra income from blogging. Here’s how it works, you create a free account and then add your blog to your account. You then install a code into your blog to claim it as truly yours and install the Izea Tool Kit (Izea is the company behind Social Spark) so that you can maximize what you can do with your blog on Social Spark. Then you click on the link to submit your blog for verification. Easy enough, right? Once your blog is verified you are now free to go into the Marketplace and look for opportunities that interest you or that would be of value to your blog readers. You find interesting topics to blog about and get paid to blog about them – doesn’t that sound like a win-win situation?

Worried about how your readers will take to you getting paid to blog? SocialSpark is a marketing network with a great code of ethics. It values the trust your readers have for you and your blog and promotes 100% in-post disclosure. Tell your readers that you are getting paid for the blog post. Be transparent about whether the post is sponsored or not. But be real, give your opinions like you usually do – no sugar-coating allowed here! SocialSpark also requires us to be search engine friendly, each sponsored link from the opportunities on SocialSpark has the “no-follow” attribute so that it doesn’t affect search engine rankings for the protection of both the advertisers and bloggers like us from search engine penalties. Sounds good, right?

But don’t take my word for it, come join me on SocialSpark – and explore an entirely new world for bloggers. See you there!

Google Listens to its Bloggers

Google just launched new features in Blogger in Draft where they are testing them out and requesting user feedback. The list of features they added were from user feature requests and they do say they're not done with these features yet and are fine-tuning them for faithful blogger users like me.

My favorite features are the import/export blogs to backup all posts (when blogger kept going down for maintenance I couldn't help thinking what if all my posts disappeared, etc.) and the enhancement of their post editor with drag-and-drop image placement (now they default to the top and you have to go to the backend code to place them where you want them - hey when I'm blogging I'm a blogger/writer first and a developer second).

I just want to say I appreciate that Google listens to their users. And frankly I prefer blogger over the movable type I had to set up for work just as it is, these features are bonuses for me. Good job!

clipped from bloggerindraft.blogspot.com clipped from bloggerindraft.blogspot.com Webmaster Tools Verification. Turn this on to automatically add and verify all your blogs on Google’s Webmaster Tools. Star ratings. Add a 0–5 star rating control to the bottom of your posts so that your readers can rate them. Import / export of blogs. Back up all of your posts and comments to one Atom XML file on your computer, and import your posts from one blog to another. Embedded comment form. By incredibly popular demand, we’ve brought the comment form to your blog’s post pages, with support for Google Account and OpenID authentication. New post editor. We’ve completely revised the post editor, bringing in drag-and-drop image placement and better HTML handling.

Why I Love YouTube

Where do you watch most of your videos online? I've always gone to YouTube because I love the way you can easily share video clips by email, post it in your blog, share it in your social bookmarking sites. I love that you can rate a video clip and comment on it. I love browsing through the related videos. And I love that the service is free.

And 75% of Americans who watch video online also love going to YouTube - can you imagine that 75% of the market share. Wow! That's something any business can aspire to.

I'm not sure if channel websites like cbs.com, abc.com or nbc.com is included in this study, but Hulu is, they're rank number 13.

clipped from www.readwriteweb.com YouTube's huge lead in market share over other online video sites continues to get bigger, even as the over all video viewing market continues a decline. According to traffic analysts Hitwise, YouTube now sees 75.43% of traffic to the online video category; that's up 26% from it's May 2007 marketshare of 59.95%. The nearest competitor is still MySpaceTV, which was down a whopping 44% to 9% marketshare. (Full chart of top 5 sites below.)

Helping Hand Mortgage Payoff Contest

My husband saw this in the news last night. Sony Pictures in promoting the movie Hancock starring Will Smith wants to pay off the home loan of a deserving family. You have to be a current homeowner, have lived in your home for at least 90 days, a legal resident of the US, and the rest of the rules are in their website.

All you need to do is write an essay on why you deserve to have your mortgage paid off. Submit a photo of the exterior of your home and fill in all the required fields in the entry form. The grand prize winner will receive a total payment out in the amount of $360,000.00.

Wow! PR Exec Rey Embray's All Heart in cooperation with Sony Pictures' Hancock really have a wonderful campaign here. They are not only promoting a new movie, but giving people who are experiencing hard times hope. I hope this information blesses a deserving family out there. Please pass this on to your friends and family who may benefit from this contest.

He Loves Me, He Loves Me NOT

He Loves Me, He Loves Me NOT : A Memoir of Finding Faith, Hope, and Happily Ever After by Trish Ryan is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. It brought me back to the days when I was single and searching for my husband-to-be, a predicament most women probably find themselves in. But at the same time, Trish Ryan's search was not purely for a husband, she was searching for God as well.

Her adventurous jaunts into astrology, feng shui and spirituality had me laughing most of the time. Her open and honest voice was like a breath of fresh air. Trish Ryan wrote with her heart. Her story describes one of the most common dilemma Christian women have in these liberal times of courtship and dating. But it was her search for God and how she built her faith that was most memorable. Trish Ryan showed us how to trust God and described the inner battles she had to win to get there.

This is an awesome book dealing with a very serious subject in an almost chick-lit style of writing. An exploration into a Christian woman's heart that will have you laughing, crying and feeling everything else in between.

I recommend you get yourself a copy. I give this book two thumbs up - waaaay up!

08-08-08 : NBC Universal's Ground-Breaking Media Coverage

One of the things in my Bucket List is to watch the Summer Olympic Games live on location - especially the swimming and diving competitions. Going to China is not an option this year, so I'll have to go for the next best thing NBC Universal's Olympics coverage.

With simultaneous broadcasts on TV and online, this will certainly be a media project for the record books and I plan to avail of all that technology has to offer on this much-awaited occasion. Imagine what must be going on in the background, the servers being set up, the technology being prepared to handle the viewer onslaught. It's so exciting!

08-08-08 here we come!

clipped from www.usatoday.com NBC Universal's Olympics coverage will make a big splash In what's being called the most ambitious single media project in history, NBC will swamp the airwaves and cyberspace with a whopping 3,600 hours of coverage from Aug. 8 to 24. While the bulk will be live streaming video on NBCOlympics .com, 1,400 hours will air on NBC and sister stations USA Network, Oxygen, MSNBC, CNBC and Telemundo (in Spanish), plus high-definition coverage on USA HD and Universal HD cable channels. All told, there'll be more hours of coverage in Beijing than the combined total of every previous Summer Olympics televised in the USA. Covering 28 sports and 302 events will be virtually 24/7, providing a "home for everything," says veteran NBC sports programmer David Neal, who has worked on six Olympics. "There won't be enough hours in the day for anyone to watch all the offerings," he says.

A Prequel to a Bestseller: Foreign Body Webisodes

How do you market a new book to the YouTube generation? Make a prequel using several video webisodes and put them online. I came across my favorite author, Robin Cook's new book, Foreign Body, in a newsletter from Borders.

As I explored their website I noticed their promotional campaign consisted of these webisodes that comprised the prequel to the book. Wow! Isn't that a great marketing concept? Use viral marketing to promote your book so that you can hook the millions of people on video-based social networks. Well it will work on readers like me who absolutely love Robin Cook's medical thrillers and like browsing through bookstores' websites that have the webisodes as well.

I must admit, I have not had time to watch these webisodes yet, but I think the concept is great and I've stumbled upon comments in sites like Veoh that viewers actually enjoy the webisodes.

Great idea! I give this marketing concept two thumbs up!

jQuery: Making JavaScript Easy

I once spent hours trying to code multilevel folder-like structures into a form using Javascript. I think that was when my aversion to this scripting language started. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it did not and it's very difficult to debug.

Other developers out there may say, "Why are you whining? You can simply search for the script you want then copy and paste it to your code." Yes, that's how I am able to place Javascript on my code too - why reinvent the wheel, right?

Well sometimes you want clean code that works. And my coworker introduced me to this jQuery Javascript library today. You still have to find the right code that works, but when you're using the library, the functions you need to add are in fact readable. It actually resembles English. And the code is not messy at all, you simply link to the main library, link the function you need, place the minimal code you need on your page and voila! A working client-side application to enhance your site!

So for all you budding web developers out there, don't hesitate to look into jQuery when you need to.

clipped from jquery.com jQuery is a new type of JavaScript library. jQuery is a fast, concise, JavaScript Library that simplifies how you traverse HTML documents, handle events, perform animations, and add Ajax interactions to your web pages. jQuery is designed to change the way that you write JavaScript. "You start with 10 lines of jQuery that would have been 20 lines of tedious DOM JavaScript. By the time you are done it's down to two or three lines and it couldn't get any shorter unless it read your mind." - Dave Methvin

Sugar, Inc. Building Communities for Women (around 8 million of them)

Geeksugar.com is one of my favorite blogs. It might be because I'm a geek and enjoys the topics they blog about like gadgets, accessories for gadgets, websites, downloads, web technologies, and other fun topics. But I think it is also because this blog caters to women and until today I didn't realize how big this network is.

Eight million monthly unique visitors and more than 50 million page views. Wow! Imagine if you had that big of an audience, no wonder they get to do so many creative revenue generating programs!

Will this start the women's magazines' exodus from print media into online social media? We can only wait and see...

clipped from www.crunchbase.com Sugar Inc. focuses on creating communities for women and has 8 million monthly unique visitors and more than 50 million page views Building upon its flagship property, PopSugar.com, the company’s Sugar Network now comprises ten distinct lifestyle and entertainment sites, covering topics that include celebrity, fashion, entertainment, food, fitness and more. Competitors include Glam Media and iVillage

Funny Numb3rs Promo Clips

Like I've said before I love the PC vs. Mac commercials. I also love these promo clips of my favorite TV show, Numb3rs - following the PC vs. Mac format.

Promo Clip 1:

Must Read: Life is a Gift - Inspiration from the Soon Departed

My father-in-law was under hospice care for two months before he died. When I married my husband, his father already had dementia - a precursor to Alzheimers. When we brought him into the nursing home, he could barely speak and could do nothing for himself anymore. When he died, those who cared for him cried with us. In the short amount of time they knew him, my father-in-law had touched their hearts as he had mine.

When I found the book, Life is a Gift: Inspiration from the Soon Departed by Bob and Judy Fisher - I thought of my father-in-law and how his last days enriched my life and the lives of those around him.

If your doctor told you that you only had six months to live, what message would you want to leave behind? What would you do in the last months of your life? What unfinished business do you have? Are you prepared for the final healing? These are only some of the questions that Bob and Judy asked the patients at Alive Hospice in Nashville.

Bob and Judy Fisher collected and packaged the legacies of 104 terminally ill patients in this spiritual journey of reflections and realizations. It is when you know that your life is coming to an end that you appreciate the experiences that were woven together to make the masterpiece that is you. The stories of five-year-old Maddie who was such a blessing to her family; Shirley who was a rape victim abandoned by her husband - an alcoholic who was able to move her mountains and build a personal relationship with God; and Jack Logan who gave his life to save two young boys after their boat capsized will cling to your heart long after you have put the book down.

Life is a Gift made me examine my life and how much better it could be if I looked at it from the same perspective as these patients. We are all going to die, we may not know when, but that is a certainty of life. Maybe by knowing what these soon departed people experience, by learning from their wisdom - we can refocus and repurpose our lives so that there will be no regrets when our time comes because we have stared death in the eye and learned from it.

This is a deeply moving book that I would recommend to all my friends. Definitely a must-read for those who are feeling lost and discouraged.

Tech Review : Sprint's Online Support

I was trying to remove the unlimited text messaging my sister had added on to one of the phones on my family plan this morning via the Sprint website. As I finally remembered my password and logged in, I was asked to create a PIN for my account. It explained that it was an added layer of security for changing one's account details. I thought it was a really great idea. The only problem was I got stuck on the registration form - literally. Ever time I clicked on the Continue button it would not let me through to the next step. Now it could have been my internet connection, but it was very frustrating.

I was thinking of giving up entirely when I found their online tech support - you click on a button to chat with an agent. The wait couldn't have been longer than a minute and the agent created my PIN for me within minutes. I was able to log in without being stopped by the Create a PIN form and was able to manage my account easily.

The new interface for managing plans and add-ons was even simpler and more user-friendly than the one they had a couple of months back, which was a breakthrough for me then. I loved the fact that I don't have to go to a store (and wait in line) to add services. Good job!

I have to give Sprint kudos on their online support applications - just another feature that makes their website a better alternative for busy customers like me.

Philippine Airlines Baggage Restrictions

Two nights ago my sister flew back home to the Philippines. She had a late night flight on Philippine Airlines. We did not know about the dimension limitation so we had to find a way to compress her balikbayan box at the airport. She was one of the last ones to have her bags checked in, but we were able to compress it in time.

Baggage restrictions will become stricter starting in July where you will only be allowed 50 lbs in lieu of the current 70 lbs. Baggages should not exceed 62 inches in length/width. Each passenger will only be allowed two pieces of checked in bags. For hand-carried bags, size should not exceed 45 inches and should not weigh more than 7 kg.

Excess baggage fees range from $150 to $200, quite steep and it's a flat rate. They don't care if you're only over the suggested size by a few inches!

Philippine Airlines has this information in their website, but in case you have trouble finding it, I just thought I would help you out by informing you about the changes. Have a safe and happy trip!

The New Shelfari : For the Love of Books

I got an email from Shelfari yesterday about their newly redesigned site. I decided to check it out. Their simpler design scored points with me - I usually am drawn to uncluttered and well organized site designs. I love the way they redid the shelf, it's more streamlined and more professional than the old one. Their activity feed is a constant reminder of what the community is doing and what interactive elements are available for use - good job on that one!

It takes a little getting used to, but all in all it's still a great site to share your love of literature!

LiveStrong.com : An Online Tool for Health

Lance Armstrong's Livestrong.com is up in beta today. I went through the site and found a lot of great articles about getting healthy, being active, eating well, finding balance and staying young. It lets you register for an account so that you can participate in the forum, groups, dares and the daily plate. I find the daily plate very interesting. It gives you a food journal, a calorie calculator and a fitness log. It guides you into a scientific way to become healthier. I have never been on any formal fitness program, but this actually looks like something I could try.

The site is clean and well-designed. It has just enough widgets and applications to keep a user engaged. I love the mix of articles and video content. The featured experts and advisors make the site look credible in terms of content. All in all I think Livestrong.com hit the right amount of content and social media to make it a very interesting destination for people interested in health.

Way to go! Keep up the good work, this is a valuable service to a lot of people who are trying to become healthier.

Pew Internet Studies Election-Year Online Involvement

The study indicated that 46% of Americans have used the Internet, email or text-messaging to get news and share views about the 2008 elections. It also states that nearly 40% of the population is turning to the web to get unfiltered campaign materials like video of debates and speeches.

The internet has suddenly become one of the main centerpieces of any election campaign, it is beginning to replace traditional media because it reaches so many people.

Personally I think it is good to know who you're voting for, the issues they stand for and how they act under pressure. Having this information at your fingertips will help make at least that 46% of Americans make informed decisions this election year.

clipped from publications.mediapost.com The poll found that 35% of Americans have watched online political videos, and 10% have used social networks such as MySpace and Facebook to get information or become politically involved. Nearly half of all Americans have used the Internet, e-mail or text-messaging to get news and share views about the 2008 election as well as to directly support candidates.

Tech Review : Flip Video Greeting Card

My mother-in-law is 82 years old. She doesn't own a computer, but she calls her daughter in the Philippines a lot. My sister-in-law loves it when we send her photos of mama via the internet. She misses her mom a lot.

One of the interesting built-in features of the Flip Video is the Share videos as a link from a website. The videos are uploaded to a server and you can then send a link to the video via email within the built in application. I use this feature a lot because my mother-in-law tends to talk for 20 or more minutes (unless you stop her) at a time when I shoot a video of her.

I save these videos of my mother-in-law on my PC just in case my children do not get to see their grandmother later on. I wish we had the Flip Video while my father-in-law was still alive. It would have been great to have videos of him telling his war stories and having fun with his grandkids as well.

I saw reviews of the Flip Mino that had just been made available in stores a couple of weeks back. Being happy with my Flip Ultra Series, I was not really interested in buying the new model. I noticed that aside from the sleek black case, the new buttons and the USB being on top instead of on the side - the reviews did not mention any technical spec improvement from the Ultra Series. For me, the Flip Video provided an easy plug-n-play utility for capturing videos and sharing them online. You don't have to have any video editing software or worry about codecs - everything is right in the video camera. It's the perfect tool for the YouTube generation - it's no wonder a lot of stars have been seen playing with it during award shows and gala events.

The Online Race to the Oval Office

John McCain's Website: http://www.johnmccain.com

Barack Obama's Website: http://my.barackobama.com

The race to the oval office has gone online as both democratic and republican candidates have brought their campaigns online. They are meeting the people where they are - and most of them are online.

The web is a cost-efficient platform to run a campaign, using tools like blogs, emails, e-commerce and social networks to promote their respective candidacies. It's a greener alternative too - if they reduce their use of paper-based campaign materials.

Personally, the design of John McCain's site draws me in more than Barack Obama's very formal site. But I appreciate the fact that Barack Obama's site has a People tab where he addresses different groups of people - the fact that he took time to address the Filipino people during our Independence Day celebration gives the democratic candidate big points in my book! On the other hand, John McCain's Solutions for High Prices proposal is a sign of his grasp of pressing issues affecting Americans today - and though we will not know until they are actually elected into office if any of their proposals get acted upon it is good to know that he is thinking about what is hurting the nation today.

Are you confused yet? I won't bore you with politics, the intent of this post is to show another use of the internet today. To inform people, making it easier for them to make a decision because they have information at their fingertips to base these decisions on. To all you voters out there, good luck and may you make the right choice for all of us!

Repair Shops Beware!

A lot of the tech blogs I read announced the launch of Repair Pal, having heard quite a few horror stories about repair shops over charging people for services I think this is a great concept.

Repair Pal is comparison shopping for car repair services, it gives you an estimate of the service your car needs along with a list of repair shops in your area that offers the service. It gives you the option to rate the repair shop as well. How many of us have tried going to a new repair shop and left feeling completely ripped off? This could be a great way to prevent this from happening again. Check for feedback on the shop before taking your car there.

You can rant about bad service or high charges for service to warn others not to go to a certain repair shop. Or promote your favorite repair shop as a thank you to the people who have done a great job on your vehicle.

You may also decide to keep service records of your vehicle on the site for easy reference later on.

My only complaint is that 2005 Frontier in this website looks more like the 2004 one we have. The picture of the 2004 model doesn't seem to be the correct one, especially since the bumper in that picture was stainless steel and the 2004 model's bumper has the truck's body color. I think the details of the vehicles in this site should be accurate since having inconsistencies like this leads users to question the correctness of the information on the site. Just a bit of constructive criticism here!

Overall I think this is a great website, which can possibly save car owners money they need to cover the cost of gas. Great job!

Go Lakers!

The Los Angeles Lakers won their first game yesterday thanks to the more agressive leadership of Kobe Bryant and the support of Sasha Vujacic and the rest of his team. It was hard work beating the Celtics. but they had what it took last night.

This was the first non-disappointing night on TV since Sunday for me when they lost their 2nd game in Boston. My season finale of Greek last Monday did not turn out as I had hoped either - got me to thinking that maybe Cappie and Rebecca were meant for each other.

So I say, "Go Lakers!" Here's to three more wins for the championship

clipped from www.nba.com

Too Much Information

I had a close friend who once told me he lost one of their production databases, but that was in a private phone conversation. I sympathized with him, but not really knowing how to help he had to figure out how to recover all the data by himself. Note that that was a close friend asking for help in a private conversation.

Twitter engineers just announced to the world that they lost a database - it doesn't exactly build confidence among users of the staff's competency to keep their frequently used application up, guys!

clipped from www.techcrunch.com Ok, I love the new, improved and more communicative Twitter as much as everyone else (even if their uptime woes continue to get worse). The fact that Twitter recently launched a status blog to communicate performance issues tells me they’re serious about acting more like a grown up startup. But notifying us that they’ve “Lost a database” may be sharing too much

The Future of Elder Care

I was reading this article on elder care in the Costco Connection Magazine. It mentioned how technology is changing the way baby boomers might receive care in the future.

It mentioned online medicine trackers and a video conferencing feature that lets whoever is available for dinner remotely to sit down with the elderly relative so that they don't feel alone. There was also this sensor mentioned that tracks the habits of the person living in a certain home and reports to relatives or caregivers when his habits has changed.

As Filipinos the care of our parents often fall on the shoulders of the children. And at times it is hard to balance career, your own family and caring for your parents - most of the time one of those three will suffer neglect. But with these remote assistance technologies, we at least can be there for our parents even if we're not physically there (with the price of gas the way it is, these gadgets might be a great investment for caregivers!).

I for one like the idea of a medicine tracker. My in-laws tend to either forget to take their medicines or take them twice when they forget that they've already taken them for that time. Our solution was to buy them pillboxes where we put medication on 4 different slots per day. It has worked well so far, but shaky hands sometimes lose the medicine they get from the pillbox or they sometimes drop into another slot unintentionally. It is nice to have some gadget that will prevent this because sometimes this causes adverse reactions that have drastic consequences.

So to whichever companies are developing these technologies, kudos to you! We need these in our society.

Elevator Pitches Online

When I was in my network technologies class that allowed MS Information Technology students play with the MBA students, we had this exercise called elevator pitches. We had 60 seconds to make the CEO of our company buy our networking technology. For someone who has written most of her life, it was surprisingly hard for me - I kept thinking what do I say? What would have the most impact? What does the CEO need to hear to make him buy my technology pitch? I can't really say who was better at it the MS IT or the MBA students without sounding biased. All I can say is that it was fun! And apparently a lot of people have these elevator pitches for their companies...

Tech Crunch launched a minisite called Elevator Pitches that features 60-second videos of startup executives' elevator pitches. It allows readers to vote the pitch up or down and will feature the highest-ranking pitches on their site.

They have standout pitches from Meebo, Netvibes, and Smugmug just to name a few. Maybe we can learn something from them - like how to make millions from one web application:)

Planning My Room with MyDeco

When I was young, I would spend hours just daydreaming about the house I will have when I grow up. Now I know a lot of kids drew their dream homes with crayons and pencils like I did, but I liked drawing the floor plan and layout of each room as well. It was a hobby I rarely shared with my friends.

When Geeksugar featured mydeco.com I saved the link but never went to it until last weekend. I spent hours creating my room and rearranging furniture. I wish there were more furniture choices and a way to design a kitchen, but it was like returning to my youth, planning my dream rooms for my dream home. Only I have to deal with dimensions now and measurements - am sure glad for the drag and expand feature!

For all you aspiring interior designers out there - or if you just want to try out how a piece of furniture will look in your space, check out mydeco.com!

Looking Forward to the Greek Season Finale

I find this show completely entertaining. It has just the right amount of humor, sarcasm and relationship chaos to make you look forward to the next episode.

When the first season ended I was thinking, "What else could they possibly do?" Season 2 was disappointing at first, but quickly turned around. I didn't like the fact the Cappie and Rebeca hooked up, I had always voted for Casey to be with Cappie. And the teaser of next week's season finale looks very promising!

Eye Candy: Nintendo DS Lite

Have you seen the new Nintendo DS Lite commercials with Liv Tyler and Carrie Underwood? I have been thinking of getting this system just for their Brain Age game that supposedly stimulates your brain to keep it functioning right. I have been really forgetful lately and frankly this is causing a bit of anxiety for me. So of course I'm looking for fun ways to fix the problem like this cute little gaming system.

Of course when I saw the crimson and black model, I was sold!

Fair Pricing at the Vitamin Shoppe

My mom swears by this Alive! multivitamin. My mom is the most health-conscious member of our family, she has stayed away from MSG since she read that it was hazardous to health and she has successfully avoided being overweight even if she cooks most of the food in our home. She will try anything as long as you tell her it helps you lose weight - then she will force it on us (lovingly of course).

When she told me about Alive! I didn't think much of it. I thought it was just one of those fads my mom gets into every so often. When my father and younger sister told me Alive! really seems to help my mom I looked it up online.

I found it at the Vitamin Shoppe. I wasn't expecting to find it there since my mom said it was from a multilevel marketing company in the Philippines. When I showed it to her she confirmed that it was the same multivitamin she was taking, the only difference was it was selling for $22/180 capsules in the Vitamin Shoppe here and it was selling for around $21/30 capsules in the Philippines.

My mom is buying these capsules for 6 times the sale price - or 3 times the regular price here! That upset me because I know how hard times are in the Philippines, I told my mom I'd get the vitamins for her.

The first time I went, they sold it to me for $36 - when I told them about the internet price they told me to print out a copy and show it to them. I did this last weekend and was able to get it for the online promised $22. The past two weekends I have gone to the Vitamin Shoppe, I'd taken all the Alive! they had in their shelves (which wasn't a lot). But at least my mom is guaranteed a six-month's supply (a whole year if she doesn't share it with my younger sister) - so all is well - and thank you, Vitamin Shoppe for your fair pricing! You've won a new client right here!

Tech Review: PicLens Downloadable Application

Piclens was featured in the Download of the Day group at Geeksugar. It's an application that lets you appreciate pictures on certain website. I love it! When you come to a site that has this enabled, all the distractions get taken away and you're left with pure photos.

It's a great application for a photo-lover like me! It gives you thumbnails of the images on the site - which you have searched for or are on the current page you are on. You can control how small or how big the thumbnails are, with one click you can go to full screen. You can flip through the images with ease.

The only downside I see so far is that it's not yet available in some photo-sharing sites - especially Multiply, which I use a lot. But they're open to the idea of applying their application to Multiply so I guess I will just have to be a little more patient.

Overall this application gets five stars from me!