The interwebs has been going crazy the last couple of days with the apparent leak of the new Blackberry Messenger, more commonly called “BBM”. A lot of people have been successful with loading it onto their berries while many have had no such luck.

The initial way of loading the leaked Blackberry Messenger 5 onto your blackberry was through the Desktop Manager (DM) but the Over the Air Method (OTA) followed soon after. I tried both DM and OTA , the latter being the successful way for me. A lot of people have asked me for help so i thought it prudent to just do a blog post, so the lowdown:

• BBM 5 is leaked therefore it’s possible that it may screw up your blackberry, So Ensure you do a backup through Desktop Manager

• If you have very little knowledge about your blackberry, it’s best you wait until the official release and not get caught up in the hype of having the leaked version

• BBM 5 DOES work on blackberries not running  OS 5.0, it also runs on Berries running the 5.0 OS.

• BBM 5 is compatible with MOST blackberries excluding the pearls and earlier versions, it’s compatible with the curve, bold, tour,storm etc.

So less talking and more links ( Courtesy of Blackberry News) – these are links to the OTA method, just visit them from your blackberry browser

BBM5 for OS 4.5 (83xx)

BBM5 for OS 4.6 (9000)

BBM5 for OS 4.6.1 (8900)

BBM5 for OS 4.7 (95xx)

BBM5 for OS 4.7.1 (9630)

BBM5 for OS 5.0

BBM5 for OS 5.1.0

The 4.7.1 OTA will work on 8900/9000 OS 5.0

Disclaimer: I will not be held responsible for any damage done to your blackberry, you do this at your own risk.

I’m willing to help anyone who asks through the installation and troubleshooting just drop me a comment on this post. And please remember to backup your Blackberry, there’s a strong possibility that you might just lose your BBM, and may need to do a fresh installation of your OS.

We are “brothers & sisters” in Christ, but when we are in a sticky situation and it’s a matter of saving our own lives we become inhumane, uncivilized fuckups. Personally, i think humans are as wild as hogs in a pen trying to make there way out, we are selfish and inconsiderate and live under this facade of having some sort of empathetic/sympathetic nature. The only thing that sets us apart from that wild hog is that we do a good job at hiding our animal like nature with formalities and unwritten rules. With ties, business suits and schooling etc

This is not something I’ve deduced over night, but rather something I’ve noticed and mused on for quite some time. We treat each other like shit in tight situations and that is when the animal starts to rare it’s ugly head, it’s unsightly.

Yesterday, coming from work i was in one such situation, which more or less confirmed my thoughts. The bus that i was in apparently had issues, halfway into the journey it started to have this weird burning smell, the Driver somehow lost it and colorfully said “THE BUS A BURN,RASS” at which point he stopped it, ran out, leaving us inside to unleash the survival animal. That VERY moment was where it was every man for himself, as everyone didn’t want to get blown to shreds ( how? ) everyone started to wrestle there way out of the cramped up metal…like pigs trying to fight there way out of a pen. They were all out before i could spell my name backwards, i wasn’t in all that haste and was pushed out of the bus, but only to cater for those who wanted to get out.

Nobody cared about the other, nobody stopped to see if anybody needed assistance, no..no one looked back. It’s one of those sad human moments, and i bet my last dollar that the naive Christians in that Bus call themselves Brothers and Sisters in Christ. They panicked, and panicking causes impulsive decisions. I wonder how they’d feel if that one moment was videoed and could have been played back for them to see.

Obviously you have the odd exceptions where one would lay there own life down to save another, wanting to feel heroic, like that protagonist in that one movie they watched.

Me? I’d lay down my life for someone i love and treasure, but maybe I’m a sadistic bastard who doesn’t value my own life. So, people are quick to throw it out there how they love this friend and that friend, but is that person really a friend? Would YOU lay down your life for that friend? If not, is that person really a friend? Do you really value them?

For most it’s a dog eat dog world; every man for themselves.

It’s sad how most people complain about life, it’s hardships and have no hope for the future; but don’t want to see there own life end. They’ll do what they must to survive. If that bus could in theory blow up yesterday, then i think it would be a valid reason to lose your life…it would not be considered suicide but a “freak accident” and maybe you’d end up in “Heaven” wherever that is and whatever Heaven is to you. Maybe I’m a sad person yesterday for not wanting to live, but rather thinking how an explosion would feel…if it would hurt, because i don’t like pain.

Via, Flickr by janet

Last Pass - I don’t do passwords, i honestly don’t. I really suck at remembering them too, couple that with my unfortunate hacking experience a few years ago and you have me being an extremely paranoid security person. I don’t know any of my passwords.  Every password for every website i use is randomly generated by a password generator provided by lastpass; they’re usually something like 8Au#r9US7Br^H 6-10 characters long, in some cases even 15 characters long. Passwords are encrypted client side and sent to the lastpass servers already encrypted. Military security type of thing. My #1 online essential tool. Heck i love the damn thing so much i’m a premium user. $12 a year isn’t bad:)

SmrtGuard- Nobody likes losing there cellphone, more so the information on the cellphone. Me? I’m safe. In the unlikely event of me losing my cell phone or worse it being stolen i can remotely wipe everything off it, track it, and my information is always backed up by them which i can restore conveniently at any time. Damn lifesaver if i say so myself:) Yet again another online essential tool for only $4 USD monthly.

Xmarks- I’m always juggling my laptop and my desktop. Love both dearly, but it gets tedious sometimes sharing information between the two. But syncing bookmarks between them is a synch. Xmarks does that well. Now it feels like i’m using one browser. Sure there is del.icio.us i use it, but xmarks always comes in handy:)

Dropbox - Last but not least Dropbox. Syncing files between computers. You never know how good it is until you actually try it. Then there are those odd times when you mistakenly forget an essential file. Log into dropbox and download that badboy, a lifesaver!

My time on this earth has been short, but in the 18 years I’ve been around I’ve come to the conclusion that life is nothing short of interesting,spectacular and full of spontaneity.  It is what makes the world a beautiful place.  Waking each fleeting day never knowing exactly what will happen next; as routine as one’s life may be you are guaranteed some level of surprise some time or the other. Sometimes your surprised with pleasant things and pleasant people while sometimes it’s the total opposite.

Two weeks ago i came across someone who out of the blue has had more than a profound impact on me, i’d love to say it happened by chance, but do things like this really happen by chance?  I mean it’s not everyday i’m wowed by someone. With that said, i won’t  sit all day and be perplexed as to why, no; instead i’ll embrace this unexpected happening and appreciate this new found relationship! Not wondering why it happened, but instead i’ll wonder what  we can do with it and where it can go, the possibilites are endless.  Life’s good live it to the fullest and be sure to enjoy everything and everyone in it:) <3

I’ve been asked this time and time again; “Gordon, Twitter or Facebook, Which one’s better?” Even recently on Twitter by my friend and fellow blogger Ruthibelle.  My Answer?  Twitter is Facebook’s status updates on drugs, albeit you are limited to 140 Character on Twitter which you are not limited to on Facebook, but that’s twitter’s job…status updates and they do it well.   Twitter does what it’s supposed to do great, which is “microblogging” and facebook does what it’s supposed to do well, which of course is a full blown “social network.”  Of course twitter is social in a sense, but nowhere near to Facebook’s level of “socialness”

Twitter Vs. Facebook

When you add someone as a “friend” on facebook in contrast to you following them on twitter is two different things. Facebook offers you the ability to view  picture of the person, they’re religious views, interests,video and a myriad of other things while twitter is much less formal, offering you only  a short blurb about the person and a link to they’re blog/website with status updates.  If you’ll notice when you add someone on facebook you are much more likely to know more about them compared to when you add them on twitter( assuming they provide they’re info on fb).

Twitter is good for collective thoughts and it can give you an idea of what is on the masses’ minds. That is where “Trending Topics” come into play, facebook does not provide that. Another favorite of mine is Twistori, twistori shows you what people love, hate feel, think, beleive and wish which is all made possible with twitter’s status updates and there API. Facebook provides more robust stuff like say quiz applications, games etc. I could go on and on about the usefulness of both but i’m guessing i made my point ( or not?).

Ultimately they’re both great and DIFFERENT coomunications services and i will use both.

I know i was an addict, i really did, but it’s worse than i thought. I’ve been relating this story to quite a few people so i thought it best to just do a post on it. I’ve been blackberry less… for 4 days, and I’m dying;slowly but surely, i have withdrawals, loose bowels, pissy mood and just plain indifferent to everything but the loss of my bb ( r.i.p you sexy thing you), my life feels like a mess.So the story:  Late afternoon, decided to charge my “BB” on my mother’s desktop at work because it was running low on juice, ;put it on the desk, it fell, while plugged in, ripped the charger/usb port out.. but just a bit.

That was the least of my worries…Thought the problem was trivial( which it was at the time) so i carried it to a supposed phone repair shop, thinking they had it under control only to have them screw up my damn phone, he turned a small problem into a big one, i swear parts were flying all over the place and all i could hear him mutter was “Mi nuh like work pan blackberries innuh, they are so tender”, i swore i shit my pants, but fortunately i did not. Me being the idiot thought he had it under control only to realize he didn’t, after about an hour or so of “working” on it he handed it back to me telling me it was useless and could not be repaired…i walked out dissapointed , but  determined to make it work again. So i went to a nearby town, to another repair shop hoping i could resolve the problem there, this time this repair man was confident in his ability to fix it and i thought he could too saying he ‘fixed these all the time”, i believed him ( i still do), but what he had to tell me after examining my phone was certainly not good news…the dude who was working on it before him totally screwed the damn thing up.

It was late and he promised he’d look into it for me on Tuesday, today’s Monday, i’ll here what becomes of it tomorrow, i’m crossing my fingers and hoping for the best, being the optimist i’m not used to being *sighs*