Shop Diggity Blog

Today, Zac Johnson wrote a good article about promoting products when an affiliate program isn’t available to monetize it. In his example, he was promoting Myoplex protein shakes. While these shakes can be pretty tasty, allow me to recommend the far superior-tasting Muscle Milk High Protein Shake. I’ve had several flavors of Muscle Milk shake (Chocolate mint is the best, in my opinion), and I hereby endorse them for your protein needs.

Broadband internet is a good thing - but so is sharing. That’s why FON’s La Fonera wireless router should be considered if you wish to add WiFi Internet capabilities to your existing setup. With FON, you get a username and password, giving you free access to the Internet anywhere in the world that other La Fonera routers are installed (and likewise, other members are given free access through your router). The company claims that there are over 200,000 active FON spots out there, so finding a spot shouldn’t be too difficult in urban areas (especially in the EU, where adoption has taken hold quicker than in the US).

With the help of a Google maps mashup, you can quickly find hot spots in advance and plan a drive-by on your next trip out of town to check your email/browse the web for free. Interestingly enough, you can also allow non-Foneros to use your router for Internet access, as well. These ‘aliens’ are charged by FON, who then splits the earnings with you.

The company is only a little more than 2 years old, but has strong backing from a few large corporations and has undergone extreme growth during that time. Let’s see how it all pans out… increased competition could prevent FON from reaching the critical mass necessary to really become a killer technology. Here’s hoping otherwise!

The Casio Classic Black Digital Watch #F91W-1 is the perfect workout watch. Do you really need to spend $50+, when an $11 watch will do the trick? It has everything you need: water-resistance to 165 feet, time & date, and start/stop timing - plus a light (not a backlight, but the old school light on the side). All this in an elegant thin-profiled throw-back to the 1980s when digital watches really picked up in popularity. As I mentioned in the previous post about the L.L. Bean oxford shirt, I like durable products that can take a beating without breaking the bank.

Kashi GOLEAN cereal may look awfully similar to Kibbles ‘n Bits dry dog food, but it’s delicious and nutritious (and that dog food look is part of the fun).  It is one of the few cereals that really fills me up and is a signficant source of protein.  I also like that it doesn’t have any corn syrup for sweetening. Shop Diggity recommended, mother approved.

Ingredients: Soy grits, Kashi Seven Whole Grains and Sesame™ (hard red winter wheat, long grain brown rice, whole grain oats, barley, triticale, rye, buckwheat, sesame seeds), evaporated cane juice syrup, corn meal, corn flour, soy protein, wheat bran, oat fiber, corn bran, honey, evaporated cane juice, natural flavors, calcium carbonate, salt, annatto color.

Allergen Statement: CONTAINS SOYBEAN AND WHEAT INGREDIENTS.

Diabetic Exchange: 2 Carbohydrates & 1-1/2 Very Lean Proteins

Kosher Certification: OU

Calorie-Watchers Serving
Serving Size: 3/4 cup (39g/1.4oz)
Calories 110 Fat 1g
Fiber 8 Sugars 5g

Before you call me an old man, let me just explain that these shirts hold up well, and they are truly wrinkle-resistant.  I’m a pretty active guy, and I don’t have the inclination to spend excessive amounts of money on a fancy shirt that I’m going to have to iron and worry about (and that will inevitably get bike grease on it, anyway).  If you’re like me, I recommend the L.L. Bean Wrinkle-Resistant Classic Oxford shirts.  They don’t have a lot of variety, but you can get the exact size you need at a pretty decent cost and they can take a beating.  Are they the most fashionable?  No, but they do the trick when you need a good shirt that you can wear in a great variety of situations.

Apples to Apples is a simple, but very fun and engaging game from Mattel.  The rules are simple:  You sit in a circle and there is a stack of red cards and a stack of green cards.  Everyone gets 7 red cards to start.  Then one person is selected as the ‘judge’ and draws a green card.  As an example, that card might say “Disappointing.”  Everyone else must look through their 7 red cards (which are all nouns) and pick the one that they believe the judge would consider most “Disappointing.”  Once everyone has selected their red card, the judge must then make a decision and pick the best one.  Whomever’s red card is picked wins that round.   The person sitting to the left of the current judge is the new judge and must draw a new green card, and so the game goes.  It continues until one of the players hits a predetermined number of wins (around 6 or so).

The brilliance of the game is that you can let your personality shine through, especially when you’re a judge and deciding on which card is the best (you may opt to select the more absurd card, or you may pick the most literal choice).  Since the game is so simple, and easy to learn, most everyone can play and has a shot of winning… plus it gets conversations going.  Apples to Apples is an all-around excellent choice for a game to play at any party or informal social gathering.

For the past year I have subscribed to a new magazine called GOOD.  The founder sums up the magazine’s mission as follows:

We see a growing number of people tied together not by age, career, background, or circumstance, but by a shared interest. This revolves around a passion for potential mixed with fierce pragmatism and creative engagement. We sum all this up as the sensibility of giving a damn.  But to shorten it, let’s call it GOOD. We’re here to push this movement and cover its realization.

Without further ado, here are Shop Diggity’s steps to determining if subscribing to GOOD Magazine is right for you:

[1] Go to http://www.goodmagazine.com/ and decide whether the content there is of interest to you.  If so, continue to step 2.

[2] Does giving money to any of these non-profit organizations interest you?  If so, continue to step 3.

[3] Subscribe, because you’ll get 6 excellent issues per year and 100% of your subscription fee goes to the non-profit of your choice.

Keep on GOODing…

Birdwell’s were, for many years, the official bathing suit of summer for lifeguards along the Jersey Shore. I know that most have since phased out Birdwells as the standard issue uniform (particularly my alma mater, the Margate City Beach Patrol), in favor of more fashionable board shorts. That being said, the company still has amazing success due to its cult following and those beach bums seeking the retro look. Head over to their low-tech site (or your local surf shop) and order a pair. It might take a while to receive them, but it will be worth the wait because you’ll be the coolest dude on the beach.

Never be bored again when you’re waiting for the bus without a book or magazine, thanks to Electronic Arts’ Scrabble for cell phones. If your phone and carrier support it, you just need to pay for the game ($7.99 for Verizon Wireless), download it, and you’re ready to go. I like to play it when I’m at the movie theater waiting for the movie to start… it beats watching those commercials for the hundredth time.

I’m something of a novice when it comes to using CSS. Despite knowing many of the reasons why I should switch to the infinitely more proper and useful CSS standard, I have been a reluctant clinger-onto-er of obsolete HTML elements like <center>, <font>, <b>.

This has primarily been a function of the fact that I generally have only built smaller-scale sites, but now I’ve been ramping up my efforts, so it’s time to get serious. I fetched a copy of O’Reilly Media’s CSS: The Definitive Guide, 3rd Edition by Eric A. Meyer to catch me up to speed. Simply put, this book covered all of the styling and layout questions I had, and a whole lot more. If there are any other standards-avoiding web vandals out there (I know who you are), do yourself a favor and buy this book. You’ll never look back.