Imagine for a minute that you are holding a $100 bill, freshly minted in your hand. Would you still want that $100 bill if I took it and crumpled it? Likely yes. What if I stomped on it? Still likely yes. Now what if it were torn almost in two and dragged through the mud? Would you still want the $100 bill?

It is likely through all of these scenarios above, you still felt the $100 bill was as valuable to you even crumpled, torn and dragged through the mud.

We are no different than a crisp $100 bill. When born, we are crisply minted but then life comes at us, crumples us, tears us and drags us through the mud. The neat part about the whole process is one thing – our value never changes. We are still worth the same no matter what.

I found this on Facebook the other day and got quite a chuckle. If you get stuck on some of these, just buzz me and I will set you straight.

1. You know the meaning of the word “girt”.

2. You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.

3. You think it’s normal to have a leader called Kevin.

4. You waddle when you walk due to the 53 expired petrol discount vouchers stuffed in your wallet or purse.

5. You’ve made a bong out of your garden hose rather than use it for something illegal such as watering the garden.

6. You believe it is appropriate to put a rubber in your son’s pencil case when he first attends school.

7. When you hear that an American “roots for his team” you wonder how often and with whom.

8. You understand that the phrase “a group of women wearing black thongs” refers to footwear and may be less alluring than it sounds.

9. You pronounce Melbourne as “Mel-bin”.

10. You pronounce Penrith as “Pen-riff”.

11. You believe the “l” in the word “Australia” is optional.

12. You can translate: “Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.”

13. You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.

14. You call your best friend “a total bastard” but someone you really, truly despise is just “a bit of a bastard”.

15. You think “Woolloomooloo” is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.

16. You’re secretly proud of our killer wildlife.

17. You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that’s twice as big as its $2 coin.

18. You understand that “Wagga Wagga” can be abbreviated to “Wagga” but “Woy Woy” can’t be called “Woy”.

19. You believe that cooked-down axlegrease makes a good breakfast spread. (Mmm…Vegemite…)

20. You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.

21. Hamburger. Beetroot. Of course. Of course – you cannot eat a hamburger without beetroot!

22. You know that certain words must, by law, be shouted out during any rendition of the Angels’ song Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again.

23. You believe, as an article of faith, that the confectionary known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.

24. You still don’t get why the “Labor” in “Australian Labor Party” is not spelt with a “u”.

25. You wear ugg boots outside the house.

26. You believe, as an article of faith, that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to the Yanks for a pittance.

27. You believe that the more you shorten someone’s name the more you like them.

28. Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language.

29. You understand that “excuse me” can sound rude, while “scuse me” is always polite.

30. You know what it’s like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.

31. You understand that “you” has a plural and that it’s “youse”.

32. You know it’s not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle.

33. Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.

34. You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call “Anzac cookies”.

35. You still think of Kylie as “that girl off Neighbours”.

36. When returning home from overseas, you expect to be brutally strip-searched by Customs – just in case you’re trying to sneak in fruit.

37. You believe the phrase “smart casual” refers to a pair of black tracky-daks, suitably laundered.

38. You understand that all train timetables are works of fiction.

39. When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.

40. You get choked up with emotion by the first verse of the national anthem and then have trouble remembering the second. 41. You find yourself ignorant of nearly all the facts deemed essential in the government’s new test for migrants.

42. You know, whatever the tourist books say, that no one always says “cobber”.

• Evernote: don’t leave home without it. It is free (but the Premium is well worth the small price to pay)
• Reeder: In my opinion, the best RSS reader on the market
• HeyTell: A perfect little two way intercom between iPhone users. Just like the old Nextel Direct Connect
• TweetBot: The best Twitter App. I cannot wait for their Mac app to launch
• Songza: Better than Pandora and Spotify combined. Their ability to create ad-free playlists for any occasion is beyond amazing.
• SugarSync: Better than dropbox, it has saved my hide on more than one occasion. Their file sync between devices (including folder management) beats anything out there.

These six apps take pride of place on my iPhone and are consistently downloaded on all new devices or re-installs. They are apps that I “truly” cannot live without.

A professor of philosophy stood before his class with some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly he picked up a large empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with rocks about two inches in diameter. He then asked the students if the jar was full.

They agreed that it was full.

So the professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly and watched as the pebbles rolled into the open areas between the rocks. The professor then asked the students again if the jar was full.

They chuckled and agreed that it was indeed full this time.

The professor picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. The sand filled the remaining open areas of the jar. “Now,” said the professor, “I want you to recognize that this jar signifies your life. The rocks are the truly important things, such as family, health and relationships. If all else was lost and only the rocks remained, your life would still be meaningful. The pebbles are the other things that matter in your life, such as work or school. The sand signifies the remaining “small stuff” and material possessions.

If you put sand into the jar first, there is no room for the rocks or the pebbles. The same can be applied to your lives. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are truly important.

Pay attention to the things in life that are critical to your happiness and well-being. Take time to get medical check-ups, play with your children, go for a run, write your grandmother a letter. There will always be time to go to work, clean the house, or fix the disposal. Take care of the rocks first – things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just pebbles and sand.

Pretty darn cool if you ask me.

Shortly before Apple released iOS 5.1 to the public, I made a decision to jailbreak my iPad and iPhone 4s. I followed all of the instructions and quickly entered the “underworld” of the Jailbreak community.

The process was really easy, and painless. Before too long I was exploring Cydia and discovering a number of tweaks and applications. I kept both devices jailbroken for about 60 days or so, enough for me to fully explore the “other” side.

When the new update was released, I jumped back on the update bandwagon and left my jailbreak world behind. It has been about 60 days or so since that decision and I am happy to report that for me, I wont be going back to the jailbreak world anytime soon.

True, the tweaks were amazing. Having the ability to respond to a text message without having to close an app was pretty neat thanks to bitesms and then there were tweaks aplenty that gave me access to my notification screen without having to slide to unlock. My favorite tweak was Infinifolders which allowed me to consolidate more than 12 apps in each folder. I also enjoyed MultiIconMover which bulk moved icons into respective folders.

So if all these tweaks helped me, why not go back?

During my time as a jailbreaker, I was reminded of why I moved toward Apple and away from Microsoft those many years ago. I loved Apple products because of design but I particularly like the “it just works” mentality of the software. The same applies to the iOS software. I don’t want to know what baseband my phone has, or whether I correctly saved my shsh blobs. I don’t want to know whether I need to refresh my springboard or respring (or are they even the same thing?). What I want is a device that turns on, does it’s job, keeps the behind the scenes where they need to be and allows me to go on with my life.

So this Apple pundit is going to throw his support strictly behind the official iOS software and stick with something that just works – and secretly cross my fingers behind my back that there are a few people in Cupertino who are actively working on incorporating the best tweaks into iOS 6.0

Google launched Google Drive, an online service that lets you create, share and store your documents online. You can use the desktop client to upload videos, photographs, Google docs and more to Google’s cloud. When you’re on the go, you can access these files using a mobile client.

Google Drive includes 5 GB of free storage, and additional space is available at a rate of US$4 per month for 20 GB of storage (up to 16 TB supported). The service will launch with support for Windows and Mac desktops as well as Android devices. An iOS client is in the works.

Google also increased your free amount of Gmail today, now up to 10 GB. Also, if you update to Google Drive, be aware that docs.google.com will redirect to drive.google.com, which (as The Next Web suggests) indicates somewhat of a rebranding of Docs into Drive.

You can read more about Google Drive and sign up for the service on Google’s website.

Google launches Google Drive originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 24 Apr 2012 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What I got when i downloaded the app was the nicest surprise and that is what prompted me to take action and write this review.

When you launch Songza, you are asked to create an account. I logged in with Facebook because so many of these apps are integrated into that service now. You can manually create an account if you want to bypass the integration with Facebook.

Once logged in, you are presented with a Concierge view. I believe this is new.

The concierge view asks me what kind of mood I am in and presents me with multiple channel options. What is neat is it tailors these moods to the time of day. For example, this morning I was presented with “Singing in the Shower” and “Road Rage” both options very appropriate for the morning.

I have had a chance to explore a vast number of these moods but I have not yet “run out” of moods which means that there is some depth to the player.

What is neat is once you have the station selected it will play a grouping of songs that match that mood.

My drive in this morning was simply awesome because i picked music to match the way I felt and as they say, music makes the world go ’round.

What is even better is that the service has a great buffering component as well as no audio ads like Pandora and Slacker. I loved that feature about Jango but got sick and tired of the repetition.

On my drive in, there is a 2-3 minute gap where AT&T have decided to give up trying to cover with a cellphone tower. Every other service craps out on me there, but Songza sailed right through which was absolutely awesome.

Their is an accompanying website that I have listened to non-stop at work today. Again, matching music to my mood.

Apple tries to do this with their iTunes service – they offer playlists that you can use to buy their music but Songza does this with a streaming effort that to take a word out of the Steve Jobs playbook: just works.

Last night, I cooked on the grill and had music to cook dinner too. Right now I needed an energy boost and Disco Inferno is elegantly matching what i needed.

Way to go Songza, way to go. Now, help us Mac addicts out by creating an iPad app and Mac Store App for OSX and you will be ahead of the curve – but in the meantime, keep plugging away and doing your thing. I have tried them all and right now (knock on wood) Songza is beating them all away handidly.

Songza is free on the App Store and is available for the iPhone.

The first one is always called Apple and in the past I was capped at 12 icons. I kept putting apps in and realized that when I needed two folders in the past I only need one.

So I tried to fill it up and got capped at 20. So there you go folks: 8 more apps in folder. I know that is a big AHA for me.