I would also like to impart some things I learned through the whole engagement ordeal particularly the process of getting an engagement ring which, I’m pretty sure everyone who has proposed before could attest to, is the hardest, most frustrating part of the process.

First of all, although my Ilocano roots make me generally predisposed to hating everything that involves spending superfluous amounts of money in the traditional dating process–giving flowers being a great example; I do not have any aversion towards giving an engagement ring. I mean sure miners in Liberia have perennially and regularly died mining the diamonds set in these rings and that’s horrible but dude, are these things beautiful or what?!

I mean, think about it this way: This is probably the last thing you have to get your girl before you are assured of a life of sex and sandwiches on demand. Not to mention a life of coming home late and hitting your Down syndrome-afflicted kid because he wouldn’t shut the fuck up when all you really want is to drink your beer while you watch a basketball game. But, I digress.

Besides, the engagement ring signifies your true love for your girl and it’s something she’s going to show all her snobbish, judgmental friends when they go out and shit. It’s also something she’s supposed to wear for the rest of her life, or in my case at least, for two years before we get annulled because of a rather petty argument about who the best American Idol judge is (duh, Randy Jackson obviously).

Anyway, how do you go about purchasing the ring? Two options presented themselves for me:

1. 1.) I could go ahead and purchase the ring with my girl. We could, unromantically, hit up known jewelry stores, she could pick a ring she likes and, if my budget agrees with her, I could buy it right then and there. After which, I could drop to my knees and propose to her right in the jewelry store.She would then acquiesce and say yes amid a dozen other shoppers rolling their eyes.
2. 2.) I could buy the ring without her. I could ask my lady friends who are already engaged for tips about getting the perfect ring. This process invariably involves outdoing a certain lady friend’s fiance and going to a jewelry store asking the sales person “How much karats does this shit pack again?” And saying “0.8 Karats you say? Well that’s just perfect! the rock Kenneth gave Melissa was just 0.7 Karats, fuck it! I’m taking this shit! [immediately phones Kenneth to gloat]

I picked option 2. Seriously, isn’t it a little lame for a girl to have an idea in regards to what it’s going to look like? Similarly, how anticlimactic is it to the girl for her to be cornered into a Q&A session about what her perfect engagement ring should be everyday for three weeks only to be proposed to later on? And really, how lame is it for a girl to actually be physically present when her engagement ring is bought, let alone be proposed to in a Jewelry store?

Besides, there is no better feeling in the world like you and your girl drudging through your seemingly eternity-old relationship, until the day you guys go out to eat in an expensive restaurant and instead of you asking her if “she has 500 bucks on her” because you “don’t want to break your 1,000″ when in reality you’re just really short, like you normally do; she finds your thick ass kneeling down in front of her holding out one of those black folds restaurants use to bring you your bill asking you to marry her. (Well initially, she may think that you’ve really hit rock bottom and are asking her to pay for the entire dinner. Until she opens the fold and sees an engagement ring inside. WOW!)

Much like how mine went though, her surprise might prove short-lived being that you didn’t take the time to ask her what sort of ring she likes nor did you take the time to ask for tips from any of her friends–or from anyone at all for that matter; her surpirise may soon turn into repugnance seeing that the ring you bought resembles something one can find in a flea market or one handcrafted by a drunk jeweller from Chinatown using a broken rhum bottle, a copper wire and some glue.

What’s more important than the engagement ring though is what you do right after you propose. Make sure that you pepper her with “I love you so much’s” and, in my case, make sure to apologize profusely about the ring and say that you felt like getting it yourself was the best option because you want to come off a little romantic.

Failing to do these will end up with her crying and telling you that you spend way too much time streaming ebony and ivory porn in your computer. If she does, you probably should just walk away and forget the entire engagement thing.

A good wife should never question your decisions on how to spend your time–free or otherwise–especially if it involves a black man stuffing the brains out of a petite, probably underage, blond girl. Seriously.

 

Over at The Man Blog, we have written enough material on picking up women, dating and relationships to make tomes that can fill entire library wings.

What we haven’t had the chance to write about, and something we’ve been feeling remiss about, are breakups.

I mean all of us, at one point or another, will go through breakups. It’s simply one of those inevitable things in life–like getting born and going through…a breakup.

When the wheels of a relationship come off, there’s usually not a lot either party can do but attempt to move on with as less pain as possible and hope for the best.

Or they could turn those frowns upside down into evil, weird-looking smirks and use this guide to get the most fun out of breakups and make it a really awesome experience instead! So, if you’re ready, take the amulet key hanging from your neck and insert it in the slot in front of you.

Step 1: Finding a girl you can break up with

The first step to an awesome breakup is actually the toughest. Finding girls can be a big bitch as most girls are ninjas, have built in stealth mechanisms and are innately surreptitious.

Make sure to check cupboards and drawers as well as areas under beds because chances are, there are girls hiding there.

As soon as you find one, ask her out on a date and proceed to step 2.

Step 2: Make her your girlfriend

Girlfriending a girl entails spending more time with her, making out with her and bearing with her as she yaks about how she envisions your wedding to be. Sometimes, she’ll even go as far as coming up with awkward, creepy descriptions of what your children will look like and even meld your pictures with her’s using morphing software to depict them. Girlfriending someone also entails you not looking grossed out when she starts talking about her vaginal infection using medical terms like candidiasis or apartheid or something.

Sometimes, this step also involves love.

Step 3: Argue with that bitch!

This step, for most people, is the easiest step since usually, for couples who spend enough time together, arguing comes as naturally as moving your lips and making any sound with your mouth. But, if for some reason, you find yourself having trouble starting an argument, here are a few argument-starters to help you get going:

• “I told you to arrange my CD collection alphabetically, not by genre. What are you? Stupid?”
• “I wish you could stop whining about how you think you’re fat. I’ve told you dozens of times already, You’re not fat. But of course I was just saying that so I could shut you up. So yeah, shut up. Shut up and hit the gym!”
• “Your being a woman turns me off”
• “The television shows you watch suck.
• “Hi Honey, let’s argue about money!”

Step 4: Breakup time!

Once you’ve gotten the hang out of step 4, it’s time to take it to the next level which is to break up with your girlfriend. The best way to go about doing this is to start an argument using one of the topics I highlighted in step 3, keep duking it out until she says “I give up! You’re impossible! WE’RE DONE!” and walks out.

If you do this correctly, ten minutes later, she’ll send you a text message to the effect off “Im nt ready 2 tlk yet. U r an ashole and I rly h8 u.” and then, about an hour later she’ll send you one that says “Im sry, I gt carrid away, cn we talk abt it?” And then finally, “Y did u post our nakd pics on ur blog? I said sry! see me 2day we need to talk”

Of course we all know this leads to…

Step 5: Getting back together!

What the fuck were you thinking? This woman’s your soulmate! Everything you went through was just a rough patch on the road towards marital bliss! You just need to sit down with her and talk about the things you both need to work on.

Step 6: Breakup time!

What the fuck were you thinking? You can’t stand her! Fuck this and fuck her! This shit’s over!

Step 7: Getting Back Together!

Baby, I’m sorry
Please forgive me for all the wrong I’ve done
Please come back home girl
I know you put all your trust in me
I’m sorry I let you down Please forgive me.

Gonna swallow my pride
Say I’m sorry
Stop pointing fingers the blame is on me
I want a new life
And I want it with you
If you feel the same
Don’t ever let it go
You gotta believe in the spirt of love
It can heal all things
We won’t hurt anymore
No I don’t believe our love’s terminal
I’m down on my knees begging you please
Come home

Step 8: Breakup time!

…

Step 9: Getting Back Together!

…I’m down on bended knee..woh oh…

Step 10: Breakup time!

…

…

…

…

Step 77: Breakup time! This time fer realz!

That’s it, You have to stop kidding yourself. You’re done with this shit.

Step 78: Seriously we’re breaking up this time

The other ones were dry runs, you’re seriously doing it this time.

Step 79: Holy shit what did I do?!

Why isn’t she calling me!? Shit, is this really it? I should call her!

Step 80: I don’t know!

No, I shouldn’t call her, she should call me!

Step 81: Feel sad as fuck

There are two ways of going about this long, tedious step: First, there’s the Mike Villar method, in which you consume as much alcohol as humanly possible and have lots of empty, paid sex that leave you feeling even sadder and more depressed every time.

Then there’s the nerd approach where you play DoTA a lot, vent out with your internet friends on forums and not have lots of empty, paid sex that would make you feel emptier and sadder than before.

However which way you choose to go about it, what’s important is to remember that all of this is just temporary and it shall pass with time. No it wouldn’t, what the fuck am I saying? She was all I had and now she’s gone! I might as well end all my suffering now by slashing my wrist while listening to Typecast. My life is meaningless!

Step 82: Feeling slightly better

You are now coming to terms with the fact that you have, indeed, broken up with your ex. This is the step where you inject yourself back into life and catch up on everything you missed while you were sulking and thinking about inventive ways to kill yourself.

You start getting your groove back at work; you flirt with every girl you come into contact with and fall in love with every single one that flirts back because the loneliness you’re feeling, although it has ebbed, is still overwhelming.

Step 83: Feeling perfectly fine

Success! You are now over your ex and through everything you’ve experienced, you are now a better person! Yay for you!

Step 84: Getting back in touch with your ex

You are totally over her and you want to talk to her and shove this fact in her face as many times as it takes her to agree to get back with you. I mean you’re a better person now! She must want you back right?

Comments are off for this Article. Comment on the original article posted over at The Man Blog.

I’ve always tried to see these comments or emails as constructive criticism; but sometimes, comments like “Mike Villar likes to lick donkey balls because he has the intelligence quotient of a barbecue skewer. Also, he is a gay and a dumb” are too much for even myself to resist:

Yes. Sometimes, I cannot help but retaliate with an effortless strike of witty, obscene, curse-filled polemic whenever comments like these find their way in my inbox. Of course this isn’t exactly a good idea because as we all know, arguments done over the internet last an average of 62 years and sometimes even carries over to your unsuspecting progeny’s internet life. (Most of the flames directed towards me were actually just spillovers from my dad’s tiff with some members of a Dragon Ball Z message board back in 1967)

Needless to say, I have mastered the art of arguing over the internet and if you have enough time and patience, I am willing to take you under my wing and teach you this intricate art. Or maybe not because even if you do have the time, I probably don’t as I am perpetually busy proving that Super Saiyan Son Goku is no match for a Super Saiyan IV Vegeta to a nine year old over a nondescript anime message board.

So, you know, why don’t you kamehameha your face and just read the fucking guide?

What the fuck do you know? I am the expert. Bitch.

If, for some reason, you find yourself arguing with somebody over the internet about whether or not Gloria Macapagal Arroyo should resign, say that you are the secret emperor of the Philippines and thus know more about the subject than she does. And if say you find yourself arguing with somebody about the legitimacy of blogs as a medium for journalism, why don’t you go ahead and claim that you are the Dean of Blogs in the University of the Universe’s college of blogging?

What you have to understand is that it really doesn’t matter whether or not you know what the fuck you’re talking about. The internet makes it possible for you to become anyone you want to be! (read: Rising Internet Star)

Sample Flame: Hellow pow! y WuD u Say ThaT KiM is d BesT PInOy BiG BROTHeR GrAnd ChAmPion? ThAT Is A BuLLsHet! You DnT knW WhaT ur TalkIng AboUT! ClEarLY NEL is d BEst GrANd ChamPion BeCauSe HiS Pogi And hAs Dark Betlog and Many BulBols!

How NOT to respond: Hi, while, arguably, Nel is the most colorful character as far as the entire Pinoy Big Brother series would go, he didn’t have as much career mileage as Kim Chiu did after PBB. I think her endorsements speak for themselves. Just my opinion

Correct Response: I would listen to you but seeing that you didn’t CONCEPTUALIZE, FILM, MANAGE, nor did you do ALL THE STUNTS for Pinoy Big Brother like I did, I don’t think your opinion matters. So why don’t you just suck a queer fetus you stupid fuck!

NEVER Stay on topic

This is very important. Never, under any circumstances should you attempt to engage a flamer on an argument that could potentially stay on track. If you stick to finding flaws in your flamer’s comment instead of tackling the issue head on, you should be fine.

Everybody knows that anyone who stays on topic leave themselves open for further scrutiny and end up parrying strikes from his opponent when he clearly needs to be on the attack instead.

It’s really just like Marvel Vs. Street Fighter– The amateur internet debater ducks in a corner with their arms covering their face to dampen their opponent’s blows, waiting for the perfect opportunity to launch a counterstrike. The experienced internet debater on the other hand unleashes complicated 3222-hit combos that more often than not involves transforming into a ten headed dragon of death that breathes orange fireballs of destruction and opening a can of evil pedophile mime death on their cowering opponents.

Sample Flame: I read your post about how blogs are used by some people as penis-compensating tools. I think you don’t know what you’re talking about and should probably do some more research. Blogs are an integral part of social media!

How not to respond: No, I stand by what I wrote. It’s just that bloggers nowadays value their existence based on their blog’s page rank and technorati links.

Correct Response: Um no? You are a dumb and stupid and you’re probably a virgin. Why don’t you just go to your squatter house and kiss your squatter mom because you are stupid as a dumb idiot.

Even better response: I HEADSHOT YOU WITH AWP

Call anyone who flames you a Fag

An internet argument is not an argument at all if it doesn’t involve one person calling another a Fag. This is a non-negotiable requirement of an internet argument.

People who don’t know any better would probably find this tactic childish and politically incorrect but this technique represents one of the cornerstones of internet debating.

This technique is believed to have been invented by The Man Blog‘s Pau Araos who, up to now, uses the technique with staggering mastery and efficiency.

Sample Flame: Why do you keep mentioning that Diablo Cody used to be a stripper? Yeah, so? Seriously, why is that even worth mentioning? Because if you keep bringing that shit up, I think it’s only right that you also mention that she graduated with a degree in Media Studies. That she used to do proofreading jobs. That she used to write for magazines. Long story short, she’s more qualified than any of you ignorant bigots will ever be. I mean, really (Sample Flame courtesy of Anne)

How NOT to reply: You’re right. I should probably have done more research. I’ll edit my post when I find the time. Thank you for pointing that out.

Correct Response: EAT MY PENIS PLZ! JUMP UP MY BUTT YOU FAG!!!1

Although I cannot claim to be a pioneer of what we call today as “The Internet Culture;” I’ve been online long enough to have a fairly good understanding of what internet denizens are like. I vaguely remember going online just to download Alicia Silverstone pictures on a 14.4 KBPS connection or logging in to ICQ to ask one of my pre-med classmates to scan his notes for me and have them “DCC’ed” to me–A process which takes something like 4 hours.

I can’t claim to have sent plain text emails on a super computer that runs on vacuum tubes, there were internet pioneers who stretch farther into the past than I did. But one of the things that these pioneers and myself share is being able to witness a time when “internet culture” was a homogeneous thing–a badge we wear proudly.

The internet of 2007 is a long tail of thousands upon thousands of archetypes. Since I do not have sufficient time nor willpower to describe each and every one of them, let me provide you with keen insight into my favorite one: The Internet Elitist.

If you yourself are an internet elitist, please realize that I’m not making fun of you specifically. I’m just making fun of you in general. You know, because you’re a douchebag.

Who are the Internet Elitists

Internet elitists are typically in their mid twenties to their mid thirties. They spend most of their adult life obsessively fixating over the internet, something which they consider to be their domain. Among all the archetypes of modern internet users, the internet elitist is the one who share the most characteristics with the pioneers of the Internet. They’d remind you every chance they get too.

Internet elitists think that having an email address with a naming convention other than “name.surname@email.com” is “geigh” and using Yahoo! Messenger is “retarded” since the Yahoo! Messenger client “sold out” when it served ads. Internet elitists use Trillian or for Mac elitists, the more elite of internet elitists, Adium.

Awesomecakes! How do I become one?

Internet elitists have very discerning tastes when it comes to how they use the internet or how they entertain themselves over the internet. They will discuss their passions to a point of fanatical obsession. In order to qualify as an internet elitist, you must possess at least five of the following qualities:

• You must have a borderline deranged obsession for alternative browsers like Flock or Safari or Opera.
• You must hate a TV series after its first season or after people outside your circle starts watching them. Sure Heroes was cool but it totally fucking sucked after the first season. Now every episode feels like a really bad episode of One Tree Hill.
• A Zealous love for Tool. Nevermind the fact that Tool fans are the most widely-hated music club this side of Linkin Park land.
• Impossible, scrupulous standards for what makes a woman “attractive.” Despite the fact that an Internet elitist is most probably a virgin, or in the rare instances that he does have sex, he fails to satisfy both himself and his partner because of his obvious lack of stamina resulting from sitting in front of the computer for weeks on end working on a huge ass Photoshop or AutoCAD project; he will immediately spot or even fabricate flaws in the most beautiful of women.
• An automatic, inherent disgust for anything on the Internet he has seen before. When anybody shows an Internet elitist a funny video on YouTube, he’ll snap back with an almost knee-jerk retort of “The 90′s called, it wants its video back…“
• …Because after all, the video in question was probably posted on Digg months before.
• You should laugh at people who played Final Fantasy after Final Fantasy VII because the franchise “sold out” after that.
• The internet elitist buys computer hardware based on benchmarks and the recommendations of other internet elitists in a tech forum he frequents. Also, he, most probably, has a signature containing the complete system specs of his “rig” on any forum he posts at.
• Don’t have a blog. Blogging is so below you. However, make sure to leave anonymous comments on popular blogs which invariably questions the blogger’s sexuality or attacks his personal life.
• A blatant disregard for hygiene and grooming. After all, “Trying to look good limits my productivity” or “It’s a dot com thing.”
• Internet elitists are the life of the party. That is if by “life of the party” means whipping out your laptop, Cellphone, hell even your PSP to wardrive for free WiFi to post updates on Twitter about how “retarded” the party is.

Originally written for The Man Blog

The cross-OS platform uses HTML, Flash and AJAX among others to make highly-functional Rich Internet Applications and deploy them as desktop clients.

Currently, my favorite AIR apps include  Snitter, an AIR-based Twitter client for Mac OSX; Airpress, a WordPress compatible blogging client; and of course, Pownce‘s desktop client.

However, AIR being a relatively new runtime environment, applications tend to be buggy and I find myself installing and trying to uninstall apps a lot.

Usually, to make sure that I delete all files associated with the app I am trying to uninstall, I use either App Zapper or App Delete.

The process is pretty straightforward. I go to my applications folder and drag the program I wish to uninstall to App Delete or App Zapper and that’s that.

I’ve been trying out a lot of Adobe AIR-based apps in the last couple of months and until lately, I haven’t found a way to uninstall them as they do not appear in the applications folder.

What I found out was the AIR installer and apps are, by default, installed in your Home/Applications folder rather than your root Applications folder. So for a user named TedGrubb, AIR-based apps are installed in /TedGrubb/Applications rather than in /Applications.

As I see it, the trend in Human Resource Management is shifting from giving major consideration to the CV as far as making hires is concerned to something that evenly distributes scrutiny between sources such as blogs (Which, I think, is an effective gauge of a person’s passion and how it could translate into potential real world actions), career-centric social networks like LinkedIn and even what potential employers see when they first search for your name in Google.

This is a natural progression I cannot wait for to happen. However, until such a time when the present breed of Human Resources Managers bequeath their responsibilities to pony tail-sporting, Web 2.0 adroit young professionals, the resume will remain to be a nuisance we have no choice but to deal with.

The main problem faced by people who make hires is that sometimes, the sheer number of candidates applying for a particular position inhibits them from going over individual resumes thoroughly. Resumes are usually given a quick skim and if a detail catches a potential employer’s eye, then maybe he’d read it more thoroughly.

It is tough for a resume to catch the attention of a potential employer and while it’s tempting to pull stunts like using colored paper, vanity photos and crazy fonts on your resume; these along with having a weird ass email address like lhoverbhoyet_totallyrad2@homail.com all scream unprofessional and turns most potential employers off.

I actually remember my team in my previous job with my good friend Peter not hiring an otherwise qualified candidate just because the idiot decided to print his resume on photo paper, used a layout that made us all want to puke and as if those weren’t enough, attached pictures of himself without a shirt on his CV. I probably would’ve understood if the guy was applying for a same sex relationship and wanted a chubby up his ass, but he wasn’t. He was applying for a mid-level marketing position.

Chaponry Rith over at LifeClever wrote a brilliant piece on how one could give his resume a face lift. It’s amazing how huge improvements can be made on your resume by simply selecting a better typeface, removing extra indentations, creating a distinct typographical hierarchy, typographical detailing and spacing. A template of the final resume can be downloaded here.

So your resume was picked up and shortlisted. What makes you so sure that you’re going to get a call back and invited to an interview? You’ve successfully given your resume a nice attractive paint job, but did you bother to pop the hood and check inside? What if there’s something in your resume’s content that would turn off potential employers? Surely, for you, that means having to endure the pangs of unemployment or underemployment a little longer.Here’s a list of “Writing Don’ts”I have compiled to help improve your chances of landing that dream job of yours.

Fluff

What you wrote:

Summary of Qualifications: Marketing Strategist with broad experience in multi-channel market planning and deployment. Seasoned account manager with over four years experience in managing multiple accounts from different industry verticals (Focus on Telecoms and Internet). A “people person” with extensive experience in Customer Relations Management. Proven Business Development specialist having facilitated numerous key high-value deals with high-profile companies bringing in significant revenue for companies he has worked for. An impassioned learner currently engaged in Affiliate Marketing.

What the potential employer actually reads:

Hi future employer, this is your queue to repeatedly bang your head on your desk, sit down on the floor and rock back and forth while hugging your knees. After all, who wouldn’t? Considering this is just one of the possibly millions of variation of this hackneyed, useless fluff, you might as well injure yourself to a point where you fall into a trauma-induced coma.

Information Overload

What you wrote:

Assistant Manager (Inbound Sales: Vonage Digital Voice phone subscriptions)

Generated sales reports and monitors team productivity, close ratio and call processing time. Analyzes statistical data sent by Call Center Managers (CCM’s), Workforce Analysts, Quality Assurance Monitors and sorted it out to create individual agent performance reports. Duties also included discharging corrective actions and warnings to agents whose performance are struggling.

Took escalated calls.

Supervised floor operations.

What the potential employer actually reads:

ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz

Don’t go on and ramble about the details of every job you’ve ever had. It’s too much information. What you want to do is put more “oomph” in your resume and clearly, boring your future employers not the way to go. Tailor-fit your resume to the job you are applying for. If you’re applying for an Internet Marketing Job, it’s best if you leave out the details of that gig you did over at the local McDonalds.

Outdated Information

Do you think I fucking care if you won your University’s intercollegiate spelling bee 20 fucking years ago? Or the fact that you were president of your High School chess club? Exactly.

(Also, if you’re anything like me, you have a penis the size of a wine cork and you cry about it at night. Let’s not go there. Thanks.)

Well, Clear Skys came up with a wonderful plug-in for WordPress that helps make the dashboard a little more bearable and actually useful at the same time.

The myDashboard plug-in takes the “Start Page” look from services Netvibes, Page Flakes and iGoogle and takes it to your WordPress Dashboard.

It organizes information displayed on your dashboard into Widgets (which they call “Gadgets”). These gadgets can display the usual stuff on your Dashboard like latest comments, latest posts, statistics and Technorati incoming links.

The neat thing about myDashboard is that it’s open source to some extent and developers can create their own Gadgets to be used with the plugin. Check out this Subscriber widget for myDashboard which displays the numbers of subscribers you have on your posts.

And because myDashboard is filled with sweet AJAX goodness, you can easily rearrange gadgets by dragging and dropping them like you would on your favorite start page-type service.

You can download myDashboard from WordPress Extend and Google Code.

Now aside from the fact that Zoo.Tok allows you to make phone calls using your mobile phone, you might be asking yourself what the value is in using Zoo.tok when VOIP services like Skype allows you to make calls for as low as $0.03 per minute? Well, at its per-call price, Zoo.tok allows you to make one call and talk AS LONG AS YOU WANT.

Zoo.Tok also passes the “Mom Test” and can’t be any easier to use. All you need to do is register your mobile phone number (using what they claim is The World’s Shortest Form^tm), send an SMS containing the number of the party you wish to call to +447800000319 and zoo.tok automatically connects you.

Alternatively, you can login to your zoo.tok account and make phone calls from there.

You get two free calls upon registration and after you’ve used those up, you have the option to top up your account with £1.00, £5.00, £10.00, or £20.00 values.

A tip to Filipino readers: What can you do with Zoo.tok, disposable email addresses, and cheap, 30-Peso Sim Cards?

Cheap ass.

Hi Mike – I work for TechSmith (makers of Jing) and would like to thank you for
your nice post about Jing. I also wanted to let you know that you can embed
video. Check out the following screencast to see how and let me know if you
have any other questions or feedback.

As a proof of concept, I recorded a video you could watch that should show you how to go about doing exactly that.

Thanks for the info Dave.

Now, I know a lot of you have your own ways to shorten this process. Personally, I use a combination of OSX’s grab, Adobe Photoshop and this handy ImageShack Image Upload Dashboard widget for the Mac.

I’ve been pretty much happy with the aforementioned combination until I found something that does the job in a more convenient, more streamlined fashion. Techsmith, a company specializing in screen capture and recording software has a service that does exactly that. And more.

The concept behind The Jing project is an always-ready program that instantly captures and shares images and video from your computer to anywhere. Aside from providing a simple yet functional desktop interface which allows you to take screen shots, Jing also also allows users to make simple annotations to screen captures before storing and allowing users to share them using Techsmith’s ScreenCast service.

This is particularly useful for people who frequent message boards looking for an easy way to share things they find on the web or for people looking for a way to provide support using a robust instructional aid.The features I highlighted are impressive enough but Jing takes it to an whole new level by allowing users to create a video of anything you see on your computer. So instead of typing thousands of letters explaining how to enable POP in Gmail to your computer illiterate dad, you can simply use Jing to record a video showing him exactly how to do it step by step, click by click.

Jing’s blog has this sample video.All in all Jing is a solid service. My only gripe so far is Jing’s output is limited to sharing images and video hosted on ScreenCast. It would be nice to see direct link outputs for images and an embed feature for video. These would be extremely useful to people looking to embed instructional material using Jing-captured images and video on their site.

Update: A member of Techsmith’s development team emailed me to let me know that you can, in fact, embed video on your site.