*mundu, a white cloth draped around the waist, which covers the waist to the ankles

This is so unfair. Why?

Well, first, when I ask myself in all honesty what I want to do for the next forty years, the answer is never work. Okay, I’m human. Then I should find what I’m good at and go with that. Thankfully, this has been quite clear in my mind for the last five years:

The summer of 2003 I visited the ‘Candy Unwrapped’ exhibit at the Ontario Science Centre with some friends. The most popular section of the exhibit was a large, clear box full of sour bombs. To get these sour bombs, the visitor had to use an extremely unwieldy and awkward stick to scoop up a candy, lift it, and drop it down a tall narrow pipe. … I don’t want to brag, but I was awesome. Everyone else took over five minutes to get one out: and when I stepped up I tipped three out in under 10 seconds. I kid you not – everyone behind was literally gasping in admiration at the skilful way I balanced and moved the candies. It felt very good to have found my niche in life and now all I have to do is find a career that involves using unwieldy sticks to get Sour Bombs out of plastic boxes. I hope it pays well.

But failing that, with a bit of diligence on my part, I could be literally anything I want to: I could write proverbs found in fortune cookies, test shark armour, sample chocolate flavours or use scuba gear to fix problems at sewage plants. I know a lady who washed bodies at a morgue to pay her way through medical school – believably, its very good money. I could even be a chartered accountant, whatever the heck that is…

Ah, the paradoxical view of me and teenagers in general. True, we can drive, buy houses and vote, yet I suspect people view me as having the social and life skills of an introverted mole rat but with a much larger appetite. I know that teenagers as a group don’t exude responsibility or even basic intelligence – I wouldn’t trust a guy who can’t keep his pants up, either. But how many times have I heard ‘You Are the Leaders of Tomorrow’? (Frankly, whoever today’s leaders are have kind of screwed things up, so I don’t know why they think we can change it, but anyways.) That’s why I was so thankful when, through all the murky clouds of responsibility, there cut a ray of solid, rigid, objectivity. Guess what? There are people out there who really, genuinely want our input and company. I can just feel my walls of cynicism melting away as I receive college ad after college ad, from schools practically screaming “Dude, bring us your money!”

Let’s see; we have so far … limitless options and my inclination towards sour bombs, mixed expectations of me, and universities wanting my money.

Let’s talk about me again: I’ve spent the last few years of high school feeling as astute and quick witted as a stoned walrus*. Perpetually staying up late to do school (whether necessary or not) has degenerated my intelligence to the point where I make lame metaphors and now probably dulls my decision-making ability. I have begun to vizualize the entire issue like this: here’s me, suffering a slight headache and dozing off in a chair. In front of me are all teachers, relatives and older friends personified in a character very similar to Willy Wonka. He’s jumping up and down and blithering something incredibly important about the future, choices of the present, stability and how hard the real world can be.

And I say: Hey, you make chocolate, don’t you?

That, friends, is exactly why, with two months left of grade twelve, I am utterly, totally clueless.

Dutifully I flip through the stacks of college pamphlets, study, and record the numbers. But ultimately it comes down to judging them based on which one had cuter girls in the ‘Campus life’ photos. Three months after visiting Calvin College, I’ve forgotten all the financial information I dug up but frequently muse on their large and well-stocked cafeteria. I don’t intend to base my final, 20-60000$ decision on this sort of thing, but I’ve started to wonder if perhaps major life decisions like this shouldn’t come with a warning label: "Do not take while under the influence of hormones".

Yes, it's hard. To all my dear fellow high school seniors out there whom I may be depressing with this drivel: dude, why weren’t you depressed before? … But when in a nonsensical doubt, refer to children’s book, so if I may paraphrase Alice in Wonderland:

Alice: “Excuse me; which road should I take?”
Hare: “That depends where you want to go.”
Alice: “Well, I don’t really know.”
Hare: “Then it doesn’t really matter which one you take, does it?”

Dutifully,
Your Mundu
--taking topics firmly between his erudite sights and missing completely--

*Note: no animals were harmed in the invention of that metaphor

“Something is a serious problem if you cannot deprecate it in a whimsical blog post [or fb note].

If you can deprecate it, it must not be a serious problem.

Theoretically.”

-The (original) mundu blog, ‘A Life Lesson. A Red Herring’. June 07.

I do keep in touch with people over IM and lately, its much easier to catch up with people over IM, than to write a mail to them.

I tried out this service called Nimbuzz, which is essentially an all-client messenger for mobiles. The best part is that its free, and the software is quite elegant and user friendly. The even better part is that contrary to what fring told me, they actually have the app for most phones that roam the face of the planet - which essentially means that even if you arent cutting edge, you have a chance of enjoying the same features, benefits and luxuries of the elite.

I guess now we have three contenders in the ring. There is Mundu IM, Fring, and Nimbuzz playing this game. There are a few others, such as IM+ and so on, but i doubt that they are even going to get close to measuring up. Time will tell how these boys measure up against one another.

PS; Fring supports VoIP calls as well, because its also a SIP dialer. Nimbuzz says "Coming soon".

Update: Apparently, there is also ebuddy which is in this game. *sigh*. I have a feeling that this space is already overcrowded.

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When it comes to mobile instant messaging, is it possible to improve on the iPhone or Blackberrry? We spoke with Kai Yu, president of BeeJive, whose JiveTalk is considered one of the best instant messaging applications for the Blackberry and iPhone - and unlike many mobile applications, it's not free. (The iPhone isn't free either, last I checked).

How does JiveTalk work?
Yu: JiveTalk is a multi-protocol mobile IM service that connects to most of the major public IM networks. We support AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, ICQ, Jabber, and just added MySpace IM. JiveTalk allows the user to sign on to all of their IM accounts simultaneously from their mobile device, and stay connected at all times. In terms of software components JiveTalk consists of a client application and a server gateway. The client on the mobile device connects to the server gateway, which handles all connections to IM servers and other peers.

With so many free mobile applications, why did you choose to charge for Jive-Talk?
Yu: In order to develop and continue to improve the software, and to provide the right level of support for the service, we have to be viable as a company. Mobile advertising is not quite mature enough yet, but down the road this may change. Things are moving pretty quickly in this space, so we are always looking for better strategies.

Do you think most mobile developers really shouldn't be releasing their products as free applications?
Yu: To some extent that’s true, though it depends on the application and the level of support required. I will say that it’s somewhat irresponsible to release an application and not back it up with the requisite bug fixes, enhancements, and support. In the end both the product and the company needs to be viable, both for the user’s sake and for the developer’s sake.
It’s a lot easier for someone like Google to offer free services to the end user, both because they can afford to and because they get paid back in user retention and potential ad-revenue down the road. For the independent developer, that’s not really possible.

What can your product do that your competitors don't?
Yu: Our application is more reliable and easier to use. The reliability is a big part of it - our BlackBerry application is able to maintain connectivity to the server and handle all sorts of network disruptions. Feature wise we’re leaps ahead of the free apps and most for-pay apps. For example, we provide native file transfer support where someone can drag and drop a MP3 onto a desktop AIM or MSN client and have it sent directly to your BlackBerry; we offer MySpace IM support; we’re adding buddy icons and group chat support (we offer free software upgrades).

What is your business model?
Yu: Right now we’re a traditional consumer software company, much closer to someone like Adobe or Symantec than an internet startup. As I mentioned earlier, that may change over time.

Why did you choose to develop your product for the Blackberry and the iPhone first? Do you plan to offer versions for other mobile devices, besides the Blackberry and the iPhone?
Yu: Mobile IM works best on a QWERTY phone with a reliable data connection. BlackBerry and iPhone are probably leaders in this space today. We are planning to release versions for most devices that fit the above description; for example, Windows Mobile and Series 60.

How is your iPhone client working out? When will you go from alpha to beta?
Yu: It’s going well so far, but it’s very early in the game. We have over 50,000 users, so that’s a decent number, considering there has been less than 1 million units sold so far. Originally we planned to make the product just as reliable as our BlackBerry version, but currently we’re limited by what’s possible in mobile Safari. Since we are still looking for alternative ways to give users the equivalent functionality - always-on, message alerts, etc., we’re going to keep it at alpha a while longer. We’ve made 6 updates since our first release for the iPhone, and from a product quality perspective we have been beta-level for quite some time now.

What do you think about FlickIM, eBuddy, Meebo, and Mundu?
Yu: These are our direct competitors in the iPhone space. We released our product first and we think it’s still the best browser-based IM solution for the iPhone, even after the updated releases from our competitors. This seems to be the general consensus in the blogs reviews as well (look up our reviews on MacWorld or Engadget or the BoyGeniusReport, etc.). JiveTalk currently handles reconnects and suspends better than any of the four. It also blends in much better with the native look and feel of the iPhone, which is obviously something we went for. Out of the four we think FlickIM is the most reliable service, but it’s limited to AIM and its interface isn’t as clean as Meebo’s. Meebo has a really clean UI, but doesn’t handle networking problems very well. Mundu is very good. eBuddy is probably our least favorite. Competition is a good thing, it gives users more choice and pushes developers like us to make our products better.

Michael M.

Galera universitária, preparada para mais um ano? Para os calouros (Bixos e bixetes) é o início da melhor fase de suas vidas, as primeiras baladas universitárias e o início de grandes amizades. As primeiras provas, e aquele frio na barriga nos primeiros trabalhos. Relaxem bixos, vocês passaram no vestibular, quer tensão maior que essa? Pressão por todos os lados e isso foi tirado de letra, agora é responsabilidade com diversão, sem medo no trote, porque trote é integração. Para os veteranos, que já sabem que estão vivenciando essa fase, mais calouros para pegar, mais baladas para curtir, e jogos universitários para torcer e vibrar pelo nome de sua Faculdade! Além de muita chapação! Sempre com moderação. Aproveitem sempre! Essa fase é inesquecível! E compartilhem conosco mandando seus vídeos mostrando como você vive o seu mundo universitário!