Cebu Dancing Inmates with Michael Jackson's Choreographer

As if you haven't seen it yet, the most recently memed Youtube video in the PI within the last 2 days is this: Cebu's world-famous dancing inmates! Oh, but it's not just another dance video from the viral hitmakers who rose to e-lebrity status via "Thriller" in 2007. Michael Jackson's (and Lady Gaga's as well) choreographer Travis Payne trained and danced with the inmates of Cebu Provincial Detention And Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC), along with dancers who are featured in MJ's post-humus "This Is It" video.




Would you believe that they trained for only 2 hours in 2 days? Only in the Philippines!


The Youtube clip was made available just a few days before the release of the Michael Jackson: This Is It DVD on January 26, 2010. To order your copy of the video, simply click on the image below.

Cure That Facebook Addiction

Do you find yourself tweeting or Facebooking when you should be working or studying instead? Like everything else, extreme activity on social networking sites is bad for you. It's counter-productive and unhealthy. Some employees have been fired--or received disciplinary action at least. Some friendships have been broken. Don't even let me get me started. I should know. I was a self-confessed Facebook addict  until I decided to take action. Now, I can go for days without logging in to Facebook or Twitter. There is no secret formula to fighting social network addiction. It all depends on your willpower. Let me share with you some rehab tips:

Deleting applications

Becoming app-aholic is a major symptom of addiction to social networking sites. Remove applications that require regular interaction, such as simulation games. As human beings are creatures of habit, it's easy to get caught in a trap. Pretty soon, you'll find yourself going online just to make sure that your scores won't fall even if there's nothing at stake. If deleting these apps seem to drastic for you, take it one step at a time. For instance, delete one game that you're most likely to check/play on a daily basis and leave apps that don't take up too much of your time. Later on, you'll realize that you don't really need all these apps, and removing them gets easier.

Limiting notifications

If seeing the red flag makes your heartbeat go fast, or if you find yourself clicking on "@yournamehere" every now and then, you know you've become addicted to feedback. Keep your notifications settings at a minimum, such as allowing alerts only for messages posted on your wall. If you leave your notification for photo comments "on," you'll find replying to comments hard to resist. And before long, you're logging in hours just browsing through friends' photos, caught in an endless comment exchange. Turn off alerts sent directly to your e-mail as well. This way, you won't be tempted to log in to the social networking site each time you check your mail at work.

Using alternative sites

Don't get me wrong. This isn't about replacing one bad habit with another. Try to find a site that allows you to post an update on all your social networks. Mine is Plurk, a microblogging site like Twitter, but with a more user-friendly interface. It works more like a personal journal, and you can count on it to be spam-free. Since it syncs my posts to my FB and Twitter accounts, I don't have to log in to these sites anymore. For this reason, I don't get to see feedback as often as I used to. After a while, I found that my "need" to reply to comments began to fade. 

If your addiction is really severe, you might want to consider Web 2.0 Suicide Machine. A word of caution, though: its actions, such as deleting all your contacts, will be permanent, leaving only a "cyberskeleton," or a blank profile. Why would you do this when you can simply deactivate your account, you ask? With FB, you can always re-activate your account without losing all your connections and previous inputs, so it's just like being invisible for a while. As for Suicide Machine, it's designed to kill your online social life, so this means that it will purge all your records and prohibit any future attempts to re-activate your accounts. It works the same for MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter. There's even going to be a cybermemorial held for you on the site.

As you can see, Suicide Machine should only be a last resort. After all, social network sites have their benefits too, such as increasing traffic to your blogs or reconnecting with long-lost friends. Stopping your addiction to online social networking doesn't have to mean becoming anti-social. It's about enjoying their service without letting them control you. Try these rehab tips and be free of your addiction. I did it; so can you. Good luck!

Taser: From stun gun to spying tool?

The days when Taser is simply known as a law enforcement device are over. The Taser (an acronym for Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle) trademark has provided both young and old a sense of security since developing the stun gun in 1969. Its popularity resulted in the use of the word "taser" as a noun referring to any electroshock weapon, in general, and stun guns, in particular. The word has also become a popular verb. On Superpoke!, a Facebook application that allows you to "do" certain actions to a friend (or more appropriately, post these "actions" on a friend's Wall), it's featured under "mean" actions as a sort of joke (Read: "X has tasered Y"). 

In the days ahead, "taser" is yet to acquire a new connotation: from protection to privacy breach. This morning, I came across the Tech News that Taser has come up with a phone application called "Mobile Protector." It's designed to enable parents to monitor their kid's mobile phone use. With this application, parents can block contacts and screen the text messages and calls that their kids receive and send. Services like these have been around since 2007, but Mobile Protector levels things up by allowing parents to listen in on the phone calls! The people behind Mobile Protector say that when this happens, it's going to be announced to both parties that the call is being shadowed. Still, I can't get over the thought of having a parent eavesdrop on me as I indulge in girl-talk. Taser further claims that it's not spyware, but what else would you call an application that gives someone so much control over somebody else's communication system?


I can understand how much important it is to provide guidance and protection, especially to kids. I'm all right with the porn-blocking features and the GPS tracking, especially during emergency situations, but for the Mobile Protector to allow a parent to disable the phone for a specific period? Wow, that's remote grounding! Using the application, someone can pull up records from your phone, such as calls made, text messages received and sent, and last known location, among other data. That's like sending the FBI after you. Tough love, indeed!


Aside from the privacy issue, my main concern is this: what if the application falls into the wrong hands? Won't this endanger kids even more? Watching shows like CSI and Criminal Minds has taught me that perpetrators use the same strategies and tools that law enforcers do. Think about it: what if your Mobile Protector falls into the hands of a potential sex offender? Would it make you sleep better at night?


Taser's Mobile Protector will be out in the market by summer, and subscription rates will range from $10-$30. Let the buyer beware!



(Photo credit:  abcnews.go.com)

Online New Year's resolutions, anyone?

HAPPY 2010! It's that time of the year again. In my Sunny Side Up! blog, I wrote about making and keeping your New Year's resolutions. As I've mentioned there, placing your New Year's resolutions where you can regularly see them is important. So I thought, for the cyber folks out there, what better way to remind yourself of your promises than posting them online? For one, you can't tear it down and apart. Sure, you can delete it later, but where's the fun in that? As for other advantages, let me digress. People who are more socially active online usually reveal themselves better to "cyberfriends" or e-friends than the ones they personally spend time with. Why? As a self-acclaimed mouse potato, I'd say that the best thing about online friends is that they can't make judgments about who you are as a person. Aside from the witty comebacks that you normally get on your Facebook or blog posts, what you can expect from people you meet online is to take you at "text value." You can expect them to ask how your plans are coming along or at least wish you good luck and cheer you on. No "remember whens" or I-told-you-so's.  Also, going public makes you more accountable. Like being pushed into the spotlight, you are left with no choice but to deliver.

Getting back on track, I looked up a site that does have "bucket list" features. Using my Google eyes, I found My50, a site designed to motivate you about the things that you want to accomplish. The tagline "things to do in my lifetime" speaks for itself. Although it's meant for hosting your lifetime to-do list, some of the posts there are popular New Year's resolution items, such as "clean up my room more often," "lose weight," and "quit smoking." From daily tasks to lifetime goals, My50 enables users to get more creative. It allows you to post pictures, previous accomplishments, and set deadlines. Once a task or goal is done, it gets automatically moved to your Achievements list, so there's no need to cross items out manually. You may also organize your lists into activities and sports, holidays and travel, health and relaxation, making or saving money, and the list goes on! It also has this nice Places to Visit and 50 Suggestions tab. It's like a task-list-and-time-capsule-in-one application. Sounds great, right? You can also choose who get's to see your list, as it can be set to "private" anytime. The best thing about it is that it's free.

That's it for now. I need to go and create my own list. Just the thought of it makes me so excited to start accomplishing them right away. Wish me luck! Either that or start your own list now.