My holiday gift to you

I spent a large chunk of today looking about the web for a good way to corral the recipes I find online, add my own and have access to all of it on my phone. Since I’m a nice person, I shall share with you the fruit of my labors.

First and foremost, I spent a worthwhile bit of time consolidating and organizing my bookmarks in Chrome so that it syncs them all and everything is in easily identifiable folders on all the computers I use. AMAZING. There is no proper reason for me to feel as smug about this as I do.

Some time ago I purchased the Real Simple android app and it was worth the $5. You get to choose the amount of time you have to cook as well as a protein and then it gives you a list of options to choose from. Every recipe I’ve ever made from Real Simple has been fantastic and the app is a collection of those.

Today I added OurGroceries (free), so that Spouse and I can avoid duplicating purchases at the grocery store. It syncs the lists so we each know what we need and can check them off as we go.

But what about the initial premise- adding stuff I find online and my own recipes? I attempted My Cookbook first but when you attempt to add a recipe from a webpage, it’s rather a shit show as to what will actually import correctly.

Through a vast amount of googling and some trial and error, I tripped upon ChefTap (free). I tend to be skeptical of anything that claims to be “the first” to do anything but I’ve got to tell you this app is the shit. I imported recipes from no less than 5 websites, all of which look vastly different in structure, and where MyCookbook failed ChefTap kicked ass. They imported brilliantly and formatted exactly as desired. The only downside to this app: no desktop, so you’ll have to do the browsing from your phone or send yourself links to add the recipes from webpages. On the other hand, it’s vastly superior to me having to type in ANYTHING on my own.

As a second bit of awesome, ChefTap will also sync and import any recipes from epicurious.com and allrecipes.com (neither of which have mobile apps that sync across all platforms). This has persuaded me to open an account at epicurious and the sync feature is pretty brilliant.

In related free apps, I also got Sweet and Spicy Indian Food so I’m pretty stoked to try that out as well.

I’m starting to add my frequently made/favorite recipes/recipes from mom on Epicurious and then searching out other faves online so that I’ve got them with me all the time.

I also took a bit off the BrokeAss Gourmet’s Cranberry-Zinfandel Brownie Bites and adapted them for fresh cranberries and high altitude. I’m pretty happy with how they turned out, thought I think I might want a mini-cupcake pan since I made mine in regular cupcake liners.

Incidentally, this was all prompted by making a fantastic General’s Chicken recipe for lunch today and wanting it on my phone for a shopping list. Spouse is working out and I’m couched in the basement with a bottle of Snow Day and Dr. Who Netflixing on my TV.

Hppy

Netbook, ahoy!

I picked up a netbook for several reasons:

1. My laptop has eaten another battery. I figured if I was going to replace a second one, I might as well get a new device instead.

2. Clearance price. I got this little sucker for less than $200 (after tax), which was the only thing that made it plausible.

3. I’d been thinking it would be nice to have something I could take with me to work, so that I can write during my lunchbreak. The netbook is small enough that it fits in the tiny work lockers.

4. Last but not least, surprise money.

And here she is:

I’m calling her Shortcake since she’s tiny and cute and peppy. These things have very little logic. It’s an Acer D255E-13639 (which you can see in the photo) and I’ve already changed the wallpaper.

The stupidest thing about Windows 7 starter is that you can’t change the desktop wallpaper or themes. Me? I don’t give a hot damn about themes but there was no chance that I was keeping that standard background. I suspect this was the plan of the evil TechNOverlords to annoy the average joe into an $80 upgrade [jerks]. Doing a very quick google search (have I mentioned how much I’m liking the latest Chrome?) I found Oceanis to change the background. I’m not linking the site because it tried to install malware but my AVG Free/ZoneAlarm free caught it. Anyhoo, thanks to hackers everywhere I’ve got a set of nifty background images that I can rotate through as frequently as I’d like.

As to the REST of Windows 7 Starter… I’m not noticing much of a difference from Home Premium (which I have on my laptop) probably because I didn’t get Shortcake to DO those things. This is not the machine you’re looking to stream movies from Netflix and get great picture/sound because it’s got a 10.1″ screen, for crying out loud. I’ve installed a couple of writing programs to play around with, the keyboard is comfortably sized and I haven’t had any issues getting the machine to do what I want. The hard drive is the same size on this as it is on my laptop (250G) and I’ve already used dropbox to add music to Shortcake.

In peripheral news, they have come a LONG WAY in wireless mouse technology. I love that this has a multitouch pad but I grabbed a wireless ($19 at Target) because sometimes it’s nice to have one. The usb interface is very nearly flush with the edge of the netbook, making it the tiniest usb input I’ve ever seen. Go you, Logitech!

I haven’t had any luck locally finding a sleeve that isn’t too big, but Office Max does stock a couple of TINY backpacks perfect for this.

This is probably where I should also do an endorsement of the free AVG and ZoneAlarm products, as in all of the years I’ve had PCs I’ve never gotten a single virus or trojan. Go free software! It also helps to download from cnet, as they make sure your programs come malware free.

A new skin from DecalGirl is already wending its way to the mountains. You can use DECAL10 and get 10% off right now, or like their facebook page and get a one-time only code. I’ve used their service for virtually all my devices in the last 4/5 years and I’ve got nothing but great things to say about them.

So yeah. Spouse has been at a work thing and I’ve been nerding out with my new toy ever since I got home this afternoon. There’s a solid chance I may even install Linux on this one. I haven’t touched my phone or looked at the television but I guess he’ll be relieved not to hear me TALK ABOUT ALL THIS since I’m just putting it on the internet.

THAT was unexpected

Today at work was shittier than usual, mostly due to a large number of incompetent people whose shortcomings all bumped up against each other TODAY and caused ME to do more work. When I came home I checked the mail, as per usual, and found a couple of envelopes. One was complete junk and the other was a check from a class action suit that I was opted into.

WHAT?!

I know, right? When you get those pieces of mail you always think they’re bullshit but apparently the system occasionally works. It’s not a huge payday but there is a very sweet, incredibly inexpensive little netbook in my future thanks to the check and the clearance shelves at Target. w00t!

Thanks to the boys at the 404 podcast, I’m re-evaluating my mistrust of Chrome. The latest release didn’t wow me as it didn’t have a lot of the extensions I’ve grown to love in Firefox but the speed is gradually winning me over. In addition, they HAVE added some more extensions that increase the functionality for me. If only I could get the GD import and sync features to work…

In unrelated news, I thought the Glee finale was maybe the worst episode of the season. Am I the only one?

Skins

Kindle 3 skin from DecalGirl

I think my favorite thing about various media devices is being able to customize them. I’m not much for hacks (too cautious) so skins are one of my all-time favorite things to shop. Shopping does not equal buying so I spend a disproportionate amount of time LOOKING at tons of them before I finally commit. DecalGirl had some sweet options so I actually picked 2. This one looks even better than I’d hoped, so I’m saving the other for a rainy bored day.

Technical Difficulty

I got paid for my teaching gig and I thought HEY NOW, maybe I’ll pick up the Kindle 3 I’ve been lusting after. I can sell the K2 or maybe give it as a gift and I’ll have a shiny new (lighter! brighter! faster!) gadget. Since I was running some other errands, I ducked into Target and picked it up. It’s safe to say I was pretty excited.

Once home, I got it charged and then put a screen protector on it (because I am a nerd) and THEN decided to turn it on and use it. The contrast is definitely better than on the K2. It’s smaller, which for me is neither here nor there, and supposedly lighter though you can’t prove it by me holding it and the K2 in opposing hands. It feels about the same. The keyboard is a little offset because they moved the 5-way navigator, which is a little annoying but a small blip. More annoying than that is that they did away with the number keys. Especially if you have to enter passwords.

These are things I knew about though. I’ve read reviews and had an idea what to expect. I knew some of  these things would just be glitchy habit-breaking issues. Then I tried to register it.

Pretty much immediately it tried to access my wireless internet connection. Due to the lengthy password which involves capital letters (an epic PITA on the Kindle it seems) I thought I’d try to get it to access the 3G, which I obviously use all the time on the K2. No love. I go into the menu to make sure the wireless is on and that I’d bought the right Kindle (which I’d checked BEFORE I bought it but, you know…) Right Kindle, no access. Now I’m a little annoyed.

I turn on my K2 which promptly shows me 4 bars of access. I call customer service and then have to explain to the very nice man on the phone in India that I haven’t registered the device because the GD wireless won’t work*. When I mention that I might return it because it doesn’t work, he points out that it has global coverage so I can use it in Canada and the UK among other places. I politely tell him that I don’t give a shit about that if I can’t use it IN MY HOUSE. He registers it for me over the phone and has me restart it. When it reboots, it says EDGE and varies between 1 and 2 bars. My K2 shows full bars. WTF. He can’t explain it. I think maybe it will be enough or whatever so I hang up with the very nice support guy and go back into the basement.

The Kindle 3 promptly shows no wireless and wants me to connect to my wifi. My Kindle 2 still shows 2-3 bars. WTF.

Eventually the K3 shows up with EDGE again, but no bars. What the fucking fuck.

I’m going to give it another day or so to see if this resolves itself but then it’s going back. It’s too bad because I was excited about the new device but it’s useless to me if I can’t get the access I want where I need it most. What’s worse is that there doesn’t seem to be a logical reason for it: why would the earlier device work and the latest device doesn’t in the EXACT same place and time?

*Yes, it will connect to wifi. However, if I wanted to use the wifi I’d have bought the GD wifi version. I love the whispernet coverage, the wifi was just going to be a bonus.