k r i s a n d r o

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INQ Mobile is giving away $100 cash and a $100 shopping voucher to one lucky winner!

INQ is one mobile phone company that is doing things a little differently with their phones. They cater for users like you and me who feels the need to be constantly ‘plugged into’ the internet and be on social platforms like Skype, Windows Live Messenger (WLM) and Facebook. Guess what? They integrated the mentioned social platforms (and more) into the phone itself.

As such, my favourite feature of the INQ Mobile phones is the integration of social platforms into the address book of the phones. Fire up your address book, see who is online on WLM, check out their newest drunk profile pic from Facebook, call someone on Skype to laugh about the pic; all these done right in the address book.

The bad news is that the makers of the best mobile handset at the Global Mobile Awards 2009 do not have their INQ mobiles available yet in Singapore. While we all drool at the possibility of actually owning one soon, take this chance to win lovely prizes from them right here!

One lucky commentator from this blog entry will be awarded $100 cash and a $100 shopping voucher and here is what YOU have to do:

1. Go to INQ’s website and find out more about their mobile phones and note the features that you love the most.
2. Post a comment in this post about the features that you love about INQ mobiles.
3. [optional] Tweet, Plurk, Facebook update about this contest I am hosting to increase your chances of winning! All social updates must contain the tag #INQmobile and the URL to this post http://pea.to/inqkt so that we can track and up your chances!
   The phrase that you can use for updates is:
   I discovered a new phone thru ! Go check it out and you
   may win $200 cash + voucher! Details at http://pea.to/inqkt! #INQmobile
4. Remember to leave a valid email for your comment in this post so that we may contact you after the results are revealed. Please also leave the following information in the comments if applicable [If you did instructions no.3):
   Twitter ID:
   Plurk ID:
   Facebook Profile URL:

That is all that you need to do for a chance to win! Contest starts from now till 2359H 14th September 2009. Read up, comment and spread the word!

**Contest is open to all Singapore Citizens, PRs and Residents (If you are staying in SG right now, you are eligible!). All winners will decided by 24seven Communications and winners will be notified by email.

With the every growing popularity of social media tools in the internet such as blogging, twittering, plurking,  facebook, friendster and WLM, it’s no wonder that people start to use less of other traditional forms of communication like landlines and handphones.

[Image from here]

I remember my first encounter with the internet was back in secondary school when I joined this ECA called ‘Media Resource Club’(MRC). The school purchased about 3 to 4 computers in the library and they are connected to the internet. I was with 2 other friends and we logged on to explore. I distinctly remembered going to Yahoo! and the very first term I search for was,

“Amy Yip”

WAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHHAHAAH!!!!!!

Younger generations won’t know who she is but let’s just say that she was pretty popular back in the days for her erm… assets.

=D

Anyway, I soon acquired my own computer and a 56K modem and I was connected! I used mIRC to make all sorts of new friends and stayed connected with them through ICQ. Papers constantly reported the dangers of the internet during those times and I understood them, but I still proceeded to meet people up. Before all this, I was this introverted geek and the internet really opened me up to chatting and meeting new people up.

Fast forward to now and I am still using the internet to meet a whole lot of people I got to know online through popular social sites and tools.

At least for me, the internet has made me more sociable and enabled me to reach out to a bigger pool of people. Whether or not these relationships can be continued and substained in the real world is still too early to tell. With the right mindset and correct approach, I strongly believe that the internet is a great tool for socializing.

This post is inspired from Nadnut who has the following to say,

.

How many of you have changed your MSN/WLM status to “Busy” and have people approaching you asking all sorts of WTF! questions like,

“HELLO! ARE YOU BUSY?“

OR

“Hello?”

(5 seconds later…)

“Hello?”

(5 seconds later…)

“Hello?”

(5 seconds later…)

“Busy?”

.

How many of you have also been so accustomed by the misuse of the status that you approach a person NO MATTER what status they are having? Which is very true for my observation as most of the people on my list who are “busy” or “away” are actually very free to chat.

So, these are the observations for the 4 most popular MSN/WLM statuses!

.

#1

What it says: “Online”

What people think it means: You are free to chat with anyone!

What it should mean: You are free to chat with anyone!

What it really means to you: I am free to chat with anyone!

What it really really means to you: Mass cybersex anyone?

.

#2

What it says: “Appear Offline”

What people think it means: Where is that $#%%@$!^!???

What it should mean: You want to stay invisible while knowing who is online.

What it really means to you: I am feeling anti-social.

What it really really means to you: If I want to cybersex, I will approach you.

.

#3

What it says: “Away”

What people think it means: You are 30cm ‘away’ from the monitor.

What it should mean: You are physically away from your computer/device.

What it really means to you: I am away, don’t expect me to reply you.

What it really really means to you: If I like you, I am 30cm ‘away’ from the monitor. If not, don’t expect me to reply you.

.

#4

What it says: “Busy”

What people think it means: You are ‘busy’ being online.

What it should mean: You are occupied with the computer. Message me ONLY when it is IMPORTANT

What it really means to you: Don’t ask me stupid questions.

What it really really means to you: F**K OFF!!!!

.

WAHAHAHAHAAHA!!!!

Many of us have been using the internet to socialize, be it through the likes of WLM, Yahoo, gTalk, Ping.sg, WhoLivesNearYou or even through blogs. I am quite sure that many of you has some point in time thought if the personality that you portray through these mediums are actually who you really are.

.

The charming guy you have been chatting with could be him…

.

I’ve been socializing on the internet since 1997 through popular mediums such as mIRC and ICQ. Being the horny curious teenager that I was back then, I got to know many friends online and eventually met up with quite a lot of them.

The Icons of my generation.

.

Only a handful of those that I met and got to know personally are friends to this very date. There are ALL SORTS of personalities on the internet who is so different from their true selfs in the flesh.

There are the types who will KNN, CCB, FARK YEW, BURN-YOUR-KUKU, SLAP-YOUR-NEH-NEH kinds on the internet but once you meet them, they are as small as hobbits and have voices of cute, cuddly care bears.

There also the types who is all nice and caring on the internet who only wants to FWEN FWEN you and end up trying to get in your skirts and in your zippers once you meet them.

Even in real life, people are already putting up different masks and thus different personalties. So when one goes on the net where there is a lesser chance of someone calling you a fake, the odds are higher that you’ll be someone different on the internet.

For me, I think my internet persona is at most times, my true self. But it is a more amplified version of my personality (i.e Crazier and Lame-er). And if I take into consideration that I write/type better than I speak, I think my internet persona at my serious times is more ‘me’ than the Krisandro most know in real life.

Krisandro in real life. HAMSERM BOH?

.

So, the big question……

Are you different from your online persona?

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