The Pew Internet & American Life Project just posted its findings on teens and the web, and it seems to have uncovered much of what we already know about the internet. Here’s a bullet point summary of the major findings. With each point, we’ll try to name site/service who’s users would stereotypically match.

• AIM: 93% of American teens (ages 12-17) use the web. Many of them use the web to interact with others.
• YouTube: 64% of online teens create online content, up from 57% in 2004.
• Livejournal (bad poetry): 39% of online teens share their artistic creations online.
• MySpace: 27% of online teens keep a personal web page.
• LOLcats?: 26% of online teens “remix” content they find online.
• WoW: 49% of online teens play games online.
• America: Teens are more likely to own desktop computers over any other type of “gadget.” This one was almost surprising.
• Facebook: Social network communicators are more “intense” communicators.
• Facebook: Girls eclipse boys in photo posting.
• Nintendo Wii: 31% of teens spend time time with friends outside of school every day.
• High School: 34% of teens spend time with friends outside of school several times a week

To be honest, a lot of this is pretty obvious. We shouldn’t need a study to find out chat rooms suck, teens tend to own computers, and girls are more likely than guys to post photos online. Regardless, there’s a lot more information where that came from, so if you’d like to learn more about the online habits of today’s teenagers, make sure to check out the full study.

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One of the main issues with open source software that people have (and a reason they don’t use it) is that it’s hard to install and configure. There is a new project called BitNami that is trying to take the sting out of the open source adoption process. They bundle many popular Open Source software packages into a 1-click setup file. Theoretically, all a user has to do it download the package of their choice and copy it on to their system or web host.

There are some very hard-hitting packages to chose from including WordPress blogging software, phpBB bulletin board software, Drupal CMS, and MediaWiki, among others.

To check out their packages. Head over to BitNami.org and download the application you are interested in. You will probably have to FTP the packages up to your web host. More detailed instructions can be found on BitNami.org.

The BitNami project is looking to add new packages to their site and are taking suggestions. One app on their list that excites us in particular is SugarCRM, an immensely popular Customer Relations Management application.

We say “way to go!” to the BitNami project and hope this radical step will broaden the user base and drive more people to utilize these fantastic tools.

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Sharing your portfolio or a gallery can be done a number of ways, from building an HTML or Flash version to hosting a presentation gallery online at Google Docs. ViewBook makes it easy to create professional looking web presentations.

ViewBook’s presentation toolprovides a photo album and slideshow at a custom domain. Users can create galleries and portfolios with images, titles, descriptions and custom background colors. Works can be then embedded on a website and viewed at full screen. ViewBook offers a public page with a listing of the presentations you have available, with a bio or profile. As for uploading imagery to use, there are a few different options, from a batch upload tool to a drag and drop feature with a minimal toolset for editing.

If you have a portfolio or presentation that is constantly changing, or want an easy way to make and share one and you aren’t too comfortable fiddling with HTML or Flash files, this could be the tool to check out. The embedding feature makes it easy to embed display your works on the comfort of your personal website in a clean and professional manner. The free beta account does have some limitations: 250 images and five portfolios.

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The hard working folks at WordPress.org have not taken the holidays off. In fact, news broke on Friday of a bug that allowed a would-be hacker access to future, draft, and pending posts.

But WordPress.org has unleashed WordPress 2.3.2 and has labeled the update an “Urgent Security Release”. If you are the purveyor of a WordPress blog, we’d suggest you run right out and update. To get the latest version of WordPress, head over to their download page and install the update.

As an added bonus, WordPress 2.3.2 allows you to define your own custom Database Error Page. At last. No more canned page that screams “I don’t know how to configure MySQL”!

We say thanks to WordPress.org for responding quickly to bugs reported just a few days ago!

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RSS is a fantastic technology, but what about ‘on-the-go’? Sure, you could use Google Reader, or Newsgator Mobile, but what if you wanted to be SMS-messaged when a new post appears on a particular feed? That’s where Pingie comes in.

By now, you’re probably wondering what on earth the service could be used for. Let’s share with you a few examples. Perhaps you’re wanting to follow Download Squad’s coverage of a particular operating system, category of software, or even a particular author’s posts (all of which have feeds found by adding /rss.xml to the page’s URL), you simply enter the Feed URL, your email address and your mobile phone number and Pingie does the rest. Easy!

Of course, when you’re wanting up-to-the-minute event coverage say from sister sites’ Engadget (at the Consumer Electronics Show) or TUAW (at Macworld Conference and Expo) this might just allow you to keep your finger on the pulse, no matter where you are.

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