Jing Project reveals magic behind Net toil

Deep down, beneath our four-day beard stubble and aversion to cologne, Digital Slobs want the approval of others. And, just like Respectable People, it's a compulsion that stems from childhood.

The only difference: 4-year-old Slobs know fake praise when they hear it.

For example, as a compulsive doodler, I was determined to master the art of perspective before I entered kindergarten -- if the Greeks could get it done by the fifth century B.C., then surely I could wrap it up by September.

OK, I didn't really know about the Greeks. Even if I did, I would've insisted they stole the idea from me.

But one day, while being baby-sat by my grandmother, I drew a barn in the distance, with a side angling downward, partially hidden behind hills. Somehow, this made it more "real."

I ran to my grandma so she could share my eureka moment.

"Oh, look, how pretty," she told her friend as they sat at the kitchen table. "Look, what a beautiful airplane!"

What? What airplane? There was no airplane.

I stood in stunned silence.

She was pointing at a cloud. How could she think that was an airplane? It looked like a flat cotton ball, if anything. Is that what she thinks I THINK an airplane looks like? What am I, an idiot?

Suddenly, my grandmother was not to be trusted -- just like everybody else. My big sister was so selfish she left us just to get married, my big brother would gladly break my arm if it got between him and a third pork chop, and my grandmother -- while a Mozart on a manual sewing machine -- was no preschool art critic.

Unfortunately, in the Digital Age, our binary doodles have gotten even harder to deliver to our loved ones for approval, let alone explanation. Fortunately, I stumbled across something that could be the best invention for validation-seeking Slobs since the refrigerator magnet.

It's a free software application available at jingproject.com.

Once installed, this brilliantly simple software can take a picture or video of anything happening on your screen, and then upload it to the Web, giving you a URL to share it instantly with anyone via online chat or e-mail.

So what, you say? Well, a misunderstood Slob genius can show others how he creates a blog, builds a Web page, or edits a home movie. Now, e-mail-and-only-e-mail Moms and Dads can see cool stuff without having to do any "install" acrobatics.

But the possibilities go way past the obvious.

Wouldn't it be cool to watch a video of Stephen King's screen as he creates a chapter in his next novel?

Right now, you could even see how I looked up the Greeks at Wikipedia.org back in the third paragraph (http://www.screencast.com/t/EFVE03o8m1) just to make you think I was smart or something.

Thanks to Jing Project, Slobs who live their entire lives on the Web have a simple way to invite their loved ones over for a show-and-tell of all their 3-D barns and cotton ball-shaped airplanes.

The best part: No shaving or cologne required.

Curt Brandao is the Star-Bulletin's production editor. Reach him at cbrandao@starbulletin.com. See also: www.digitalslob.com