Manage your grocery list with ZipList

I recently heard of ZipList and thought I would check it out.  It sounded like your grocery shopping list met Drop Box and that sparked my interest.  ZipList is a great idea.  My wife is always calling me to see if there is anything that I need while she is at the store.  On the occasions that she misses me, I miss out on the items that I needed.

ZipList makes it easy to add items to your shopping list.  One of the easiest ways to add an item to your list is to link your mobile device to your ZipList account.  Once you’ve created a ZipList account, you can login and go to your profile page.  Once there add your mobile phone to your account.  You will get a text message that you have to reply to in order to activate the text-to-add feature.

Another easy way to add items to your list is via instant messaging (IM).  ZipList makes it easy to setup.  Just choose your service and enter your user name.  You have to add ZipList as a buddy in order to interact with your list.  Here is a list of contacts for different chat networks:

• GoogleTalk: ziplistim@gmail.com
• Yahoo Messenger: ziplistim
• Microsoft Live Messenger: ziplistim@live.com
• AIM (AOL Instant Messenger): ziplistim

The IM feature has a lot of useful tools built in.  Some of the more advanced features are worth noting:

• To retrieve a specific list, type use<listName>.  If you had a list named ‘family’ you would type ‘use family’.
• To remove something from a list, just add a hyphen before the item (-beer).  Keep in mind that is not a real world example as someone would never remove beer from their shopping list.
• You can add a store name after an item to get that item from that store.  To get beer from Safeway, type ‘beer @ safeway’.
• If you forget any of these things, just type ‘help’.

It looks like ZipList is constantly expanding their features, so keep checking back to the site to see what they’ve updated.  I think one of the obvious steps for ZipList is to add a widget to recipe sites that would automatically add all items of a recipe to your list.  I think this would be a great feature to have and would most likely get me to use recipe sites more!

What are the best ways you’ve found to keep your grocery list organized?

How to Find a Good Author

While my mind was wandering recently, I was wondering how to find a good author.  I enjoy reading quite a bit and finding a good author that you haven’t read before is always a fun thing to do.  I’ve compiled this list of places to visit if you don’t have any friends (like me) that read (it’s safe posting this because all of my friends don’t read).

1.  Amazon

If you don’t have an Amazon account and don’t know about their suggestion features, now is the time to start.  Amazon’s suggestion algorithm is a handy piece of software for you as a consumer and here we’re going to use it to find a new author.  Step1, go to Amazon.com.  In the search bar, type in your favorite author’s name.  In the next page, you will see a list of books written by the author.  On the right side of the page under the biography, there should be a section titled ‘Customers Also Bought Titles By’.  Use this list to find books from similar authors.

2.  SimilarAuthors

Similar Authors is a great website to use.  It’s straight forward and simple and gives you great results.  Just type in your favorite authors name and you get a list of authors back with ratings.  If you see an author in this list that you’ve read before and also enjoyed, click the symbol to the very right (looks like a trowel?) and another list gets generated showing authors similar to your second author.

3.  LiteratureMap

Literature Map makes finding a new author fun.  Again, this website is easy to use.  Just type in your favorite authors name and a ‘map’ is generated.  The cool thing about this map is the layout of authors around the author you typed in.  The closer an authors name appears to another authors name, the more similar they are.  This way you can gauge how far you want to stray from a reading style you like.

4.  FindMeAnAuthor

Find Me An Author leaves a little to be desired if you’re looking for a main stream author.  The one thing that I didn’t like about the site is the fact that you never see an authors name until you click on their picture to go to their website.  Regardless, it is still a tool that you can use to find a new author in a genre that you like.  Just click the genre you enjoy reading and a grid of authors photos is shown.  Click on an image and it will take you to their website where you can read about them and their books.

5.  Your Local Library

If you’re a fan of your local library and are looking for a new author, they may keep a list of authors with similar styles.  You can call or ask if your local library has a list like this.  Here is an example that I found.  Here is a link to the original PDF.

How do you find a new author?  I’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Black Milk - Tronic

#15  Black Milk – Tronic

Black Milk is Detroit’s version of Kanye.  He’s got great beats and is a decent lyricist to provide the whole package.  Check out his sophomore album for a great listen.

Don’t miss:  Losing Out

I liked 8 of 14 songs for a 57% enjoyment factor.

Wale - Attention Deficit

#14  Wale – Attention Deficit

Wale is amazing.  From his first hit mixtape The Mixtape About Nothing to his latest releases, he keeps the hits coming.  Attention Deficit is nothing less and gives some great appearances.

Don’t miss:  Shades

I liked 8 of 14 songs for a 57% enjoyment factor.

Atmosphere - When Life Gives You...

#13  Atmosphere – When Life Gives You Lemons, You Paint that Shit Gold

Atmosphere gives a much different feel to the hip hop game.  He doesn’t come at you with the regular topics or sounds, yet this album is still a great listen.

Don’t miss:  Puppets

I liked 9 of 15 songs for a 60% enjoyment factor.

Pharoahe Monch - Desire

#12  Pharoahe Monch – Desire

Pharoahe Monch is my most missed MC.  I consider Pharoahe one of the greatest lyricists and always wonder why he hasn’t done more for hip hop.  Not that he isn’t trying, but I just assume with talents like his, he would have garnered more fans than he has.  Regardless, Desire showcases some of Pharoahe’s best work.  What I really appreciate about Desire is the number of ‘story raps’.  It’s a lost art and it’s great to hear Pharoahe doing what he does best.

Don’t miss:  Trilogy

I liked 8 of 13 songs for a 62% enjoyment factor.

DJ Jazzy Jeff - The Return of the...

#11  DJ Jazzy Jeff – The Return of the Magnificent

Where in the hell did he pull this from?  I’ve listened to some of his past work and it doesn’t come close to the sound and feel of this amazing album.  I know that Jazzy is one of the highest regarded DJ’s in the game, but I’m happily surprised at this addition to his resume.

Don’t miss: Run That Back

I liked 10 of 16 songs for a 63% enjoyment factor.

Common - Be

#10  Common – Be

Common provides some great content on this album with the help of a very talented producer (you know him).  The one thing that makes this album stand out from the rest of Common’s collection are the lyrics.

Don’t miss:  They Say

I liked 7 of 11 songs for a 64% enjoyment factor.

Jay-Z - Kingdom Come

#9  Jay-Z – Kingdom Come

Ah, the big hitter: Jay-Z.  Arguably one of the best rappers of all time and this album shows just where that comes from.  The mood on this album is excellent.  Jay’s ego really comes out in the mood and you leave listening to this album knowing that you’ve heard one of the greatest.

Don’t miss:  Do U Wanna Ride

I liked 9 of 14 songs for a 64% enjoyment factor.

Lupe Fiasco - Lupe's Food & Liquor

#8  Lupe Fiasco – Lupe’s Food and Liquor

Lupe is going to go down in history.  One of the best lyricists to come out in the last 5 years, every single of his main stream albums has been a hit among fans.  Lupe’s Food and Liquor has an amazing mix of beats and lyrics that leaves you very satisfied.

Don’t miss:  Kick, Push

I liked 10 of 15 songs for a 67% enjoyment factor.

Schwayze - Schwayze

#7  Schwayze – Schwayze

Schwayze is someone who does not fit into hip hop in the strict sense.  This is an extremely laid back album.  The mood is fun and is a great listen in the summer.

Don’t miss: Buzzin’

btw, Schwayze has the coolest website of the bunch.  Props for that!

I liked 9 of 13 songs for a 69% enjoyment factor.

Murs - Murs 3:16

#6  Murs – Murs 3:16 – The 9th Edition

Murs provides a knock out with 9th Wonder on this album.  Murs is already a talented MC.  When you put him together with the talent of 9th Wonder, you get something much more.

Don’t miss:  Bad Man!

I liked 7 of 10 songs for a 70% enjoyment factor.

Little Brother - The Minstrel Show

#5  Little Brother – The Minstrel Show

Little Brother is one of those groups that makes you wonder why they aren’t a larger force in hip hop than they are.  Before 9th Wonder split, they were one of the best groups out there.  The Minstrel Show provides some insight into just how great they were together.

Don’t miss:  Hiding Place

I liked 12 of 16 songs for a 75% enjoyment factor.

Blu & Exile - Below the Heavens

#4  Blu & Exile – Below the Heavens

Below the Heavens is a unique blend of beats and lyrics.  I guarantee that it is nothing like you’ve heard before.  Blu flows perfectly over Exile’s soulful beats.

Don’t miss:  The World Is

I liked 13 of 17 for a 76% enjoyment factor.

Pharoahe Monch - Internal Affairs

#3  Pharoahe Monch – Internal Affairs

This album has Pharoahe’s highest hitting song, Simon Says, on it and some other gems as well.

Don’t miss:  The Light

I liked 12 of 15 songs for an 80% enjoyment factor.

The Roots - The Tipping Point

#2  The Roots – The Tipping Point

The Roots are a dynamic group and by far the best hip hop group to be an actual band.  The Tipping Point is a great look at the dynamic lyricism of Black Thought.

Don’t miss:  Guns Are Drawn

I liked 9 of 11 songs for an 82% enjoyment factor.

Little Brother - Getback

#1  Little Brother – Getback

Getback is the main reason that I think Little Brother should be a larger influence on hip hop than they are.  This is one of those albums that you get and can’t stop listening to.  I played it nonstop for three months when I first got it and I keep coming back to it.

Don’t miss:  Good Clothes

I liked 11 of 11 songs for a 100% enjoyment factor.

That’s it from me.  I’d love to hear what your recommendations are for hip hop albums in the comments below.

This is what wallpaper used to mean before 1995.

Everyone likes to have a cool looking wallpaper on their desktop.  It makes your computer feel more ‘you’.  You can change it depending on the season, your mood or whether you are at home or the office.  So, where do you go to get these gems?  I’ve made this list of the ten most popular websites for getting wallpaper.

1.  Interfacelift

Interfacelift.com is a great website to find wallpaper at.  They have a useful search engine on their site to narrow down what you are trying to find.  If you’re not sure what you want, you can always browse the categories.

2.  DeviantArt

DeviantArt.com is much more than wallpaper, but if you are in the need for some fresh art on your desktop, head here.  There are tons of artists submitting their work and some of them you can buy as actual art.

3.  Digital Blasphemy

Don’t let the design of this site steer you away.  The list of wallpapers here is worth the visit.

4.  Desktopography

Desktopography.net has some of the most unique blends of art and nature.  These wallpapers have a heavy rotation on my desktop.

5.  Wooden Fish

There is not a huge sample of wallpapers here, but what they have is quality.

6.  End Effect

This is a great site to get wallpaper from if your style is graphic design.

7.  Flickr

Flickr is a great site by itself.  What makes it even better is the fact that you can search for wallpaper on the site.  The downside is that membership is required.

8.  HD Wallpapers

This site has a good list of high definition wallpapers.  The only problem that I had with the site was the pop-under ads (does anyone think this is a good idea?).

9.  Steampunk Wallpaper

I’m not exactly a big fan of steam punk.  I think that some of the work that comes from it looks very cool, but for the most part, not my thing.  If it is yours, here is a great site to find wallpaper to match.

10.  Socksoff

Socksoff has a bunch of cool and original wallpapers to browse through.

I’d love to hear what your favorite wallpaper sites are in the comments below.

A shot of the 2010 Winter Olypmics cauldron in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Yesterday, I went to Vancouver to take part in the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I was not prepared for how much excitement there was in the air.  I knew going up to Canada that there would be a general feeling of excitement, but what I experienced was much more than that.  Maybe it had something to do that it was 57 degrees Fahrenheit out in the middle of February!  My running joke of the day (that Canadians never seemed to tire of) was that Vancouver is a good contender for the next summer Olympics.

We took a shuttle up to the border, walked across to catch another shuttle that took us to the King George station of the Skytrain.  This was a great way to get up to Vancouver.  We waited for 10 minutes at the border and later found out that there was 3 hour wait by car at the border crossings.  The other benefit of taking a shuttle was the fact that the driver gave us tips of what to do once we got to Vancouver.  She told us the good and bad things from other people that she had shuttled.

We were fortunate to have a friend meet us in Vancouver who lives there.  It was nice having someone with us that knew the city better.  We spent the morning walking around Vancouver.  We walked around to some of the country houses that were setup and to the Main Media Center.  Getting around was not too hard considering the amount of people that were around us.  As you can see in the image gallery photos, there were tons of people everywhere and lines to go along with those crowds.

We got to see the Olympic cauldron and then went to the Saxony House that was setup in the Vancouver Rowing Club house on the water.  The wait for this was not worth it.  We stood in line for 45 minutes, got inside, waited in line for food and then waited in line for a place to sit.  We finally got a table (to stand at) and the live music started!  An authentic German band complete with an accordion!  This picked up the atmosphere inside and made up for the cold sausages being passed off as authentic German fare.

After the Saxony House, we walked to see the inukshuk statue setup on the edge of the bay for the Olympics.  Notice in all of the pictures, the complete lack of snow!  If there weren’t any signs, you would have a hard time believing that you were at the winter Olympics!

A shot from my seat showing the curling lanes inside the Vancouver Olympic Centre.

We attended the men’s curling event that evening.  The US team was not playing, but Canada was going up against Great Britain.  The atmosphere inside Vancouver Olympic Centre was electric.  Obviously, the Canadian team had the most fans and Great Britain was a worthy opponent.  The Canadian fans made sure to let their team know that they wanted them to win.  It was such a close match that it came down to Great Britain’s last stone.  They missed by a bit on the last throw and the crowd went nuts!  Flags waving, feet stomping, high fiving all around and the rest of beers spilling.

It was a great match and a great day.  If you ever have an Olympic event within 4 hours of you, it pays just to go to the city to feel the energy.  Everyone was in a good mood and friendly.  I’m sure that at the end of the games, the people of Vancouver will be glad to have their city return to normal.

This is a continuation from my previous post about setting up and getting started with Opera Unite.  If you haven’t installed Opera and setup a user account, visit their download link.

Accessing Your Unite Applications Remotely

You should now have Unite installed and some applications running inside Unite.  This is where the fun starts.  Let’s say you’re at work and you forgot your iPod (or Zune) and you’re dying for some music.  Lucky for you, you’ve installed Unite on your home computer.

To access your music, open up your browser of choice (Firefox, Opera, Safari or Internet Explorer) and enter in the following formatted URL:

http://computername.username.operaunite.com

This URL brings you to your homepage.  You should see a list of applications that are installed on your computer.  If you can’t access your computer, you may have typed the URL incorrectly or your computer may be off (sorry, had to say the obvious).

Click the Visit button of your application of choice and enter in the password that you have setup for accessing the application.

More Options

There are a lot of things that you can do with Unite and their applications have left sharing wide open.  If you have a friend that you want to share your music with, just send them the link to your computer and your password and they can listen to your music collection from their smart phone, work computer or other internet enabled device.

The Fridge application is pretty fun with a group of friends, too.

I’d love to hear about how you are using Unite in the comments below.

Getting back to the main story, though. Unite is Opera’s new file sharing program. You can share any files with any friends that you want, stream music from a computer at home to a computer at work or access photos from your computer at home without having to upload them to a third party site.

This guide will take you through Unite so that you know how to use this cool new application.

Get Started

Go to http://unite.opera.com and download the latest version of Opera. Save the file and install Opera. Once Opera has been installed on your computer, it will open up to it’s start page (Opera is a web browser for those who haven’t caught on).

Getting Started with Unite

Now that Opera is installed and opened, you will want to enable Unite. You can do that one of two ways. You can go to Tools-Opera Unite Server-Enable Opera Unite or you can point your mouse to the lower left side of the Opera window and hold your mouse over the Unite icon. Then click Enable Opera Unite.  You’ll notice a screen pop-up that will walk you through setting Unite up on your computer.  If you already have an Opera account, you won’t need to setup a new one.  If you don’t have an account, you can set one up in the wizard.   You are going to have to give a name to the computer that you are on to distinguish it from others that you may setup.  There are some advanced settings that you may want to take a look at depending on how you have your network setup (UPnP setup if you want to change it).  You can also adjust whether your applications and files are visible on the web in the advanced window.

First Steps in Unite

You should have received an email from Opera asking you to verify your account.  If you haven’t done that already, do so now.  After you have finished the setup wizard and verified your account, the Opera Unite Home will be up.  This is the part where I got really excited.  There are so many cool features within Unite that I didn’t know were to start.  If you click the Add button in the top left corner a list of applications available to install will show up.  I would recommend installing the Media Player, File Sharing, Photo Sharing, Media Streamer, The Task Manager and Fridge.

You’re On Your Own

That is it for now.  You’ve successfully setup Unite and are ready to experience one of the most innovative web applications that the Internet has seen in a long time.  For more information check here.

You can keep learning more about Unite in my Guide to Accessing Your Files Remotely.

I’d love to hear about applications that you would like to see developed for Unite or fun ways you’re using Unite in the comments below.

p.s. Write on my Fridge if you want!

First off was the price.  Gerber lists it as $48.30 (yes, that 30 cents makes a difference) on their website and I got mine for $40.00.  I’ve looked at other knives online and in stores that were comparable in quality yet higher in price.

I like the design of the 4.5″ blade.  It is not serrated and has a full tang.  If you’re looking for a blade that is designed to hold up for years to come, this blade looks like it will do just that.  This blade is thick at the top and looks like it could hold up to some serious chopping.  The blade is also very sharp coming right out of the box.  One thing that could have been accounted for is a blade sharpener.  This knife does not come with any sharpener so you are going to have to carry a sharpener with you if you are going to be using this knife heavily or be on an extended hiking trip.

The handle fits nicely into my hand and felt comfortable when holding it.  It has a glass filled nylon handle so it will hold up in heavy use.  That is overmolded with a softer material (most likely some TPU) that gives it a softer, no-slip feel.  I even dunked the knife in water to see if it felt slippery when wet.  Nope!

The sheath seems fairly nice.  I’m going to figure out some way to lash the sheath to one of my pack straps so that it is conveniently located when I need it.  The sheath can be worn on a belt and does not have any slots to wear as a calf sheath.

I’m excited to use this knife and will update this post as I use to let you know how it holds up.

Before Kramer passed, they would play like this all the time. They were such good friends that they used to sleep together in a larger kennel at nights.