Then Swaptree.com is the place for you.  I found out about this site on Yahoo.com and thought it was a great idea.  In a way, it's like ebay or craigslist.  You post all of the games, books, cd's, and movies you are willing to trade.  You do this by typing in the UPC or ISBN code on the item (its the scanner number, on most things).  

After you put in the items you have, now is the FUN PART!  Finding all of the things you want, add as many things as you'd like.  After that, you just sit back and wait for swaptree to find someone who has an item you desire.  It took about a day for me to receive an email notification of a potential trade, but for some people trades could be found INSTANTLY.  What's really cool about it, is that it is not always a trade between two people, sometimes you will get three way trades.  So the person you are getting the item from is not the same person you ship the item to.  I like how it is smart enough to create trades like that.  Swaptree looks all around the U.S for people to barter with and so that just makes the chances of you getting what you want THAT MUCH GREATER.  

Shipping is very quick and easy because you can print out the shipping label at home (no special paper or ink needed).  So far i've done one trade and sent the game to Spokane, Wa and it cost $2.74 for the label.  Even though I had to go to the store to buy packaging for the game, I still found it rather easy to do.   It cost me only $2 (it was a bigger game case), normally packaging would've cost me a dollar.  So $3.74 to send the game seems pretty reasonable to me.  I'm in the process of another trade where I'm sending a game to Pennsylvania and the label cost me the same thing ($2.74).  

A little more information about the site is that it cost you a dollar a month (for label and tracking fees).  And of course you don't have to use their shipping labels, it's just a simple method that is provided.  Also you don't have to accept every swap that is offered to you, but one thing about rejecting too many trades is that swaptree will limit the amount of swap's it finds for you in the future.  So if you go on a vacation, you can just pause your account and you wont have to deal with any of that.  Click the link above to to visit the site and see it for yourself.

So far, I'm liking the site and it is very straightforward and I hope that you find it to be that way too.  Have questions/problems?  Write it in a comment and I'll try my best to answer it.

Update: Just received my first game.  It was really quick!  Was not expecting it today.  So just letting you know people on this site can be trusted.

Now when I think about Itunes, I think .99 cents per song. No matter how favored or foolish the song is, but that may soon change. To provide cheaper music, Itunes is thinking about charging $1.29 for the most popular songs. HUH?? Why in the world would they do that? I mean it's bad enough that many people steal music, but this is a better reason to start.  Seriously, I would rather pay .79 cents for A POPULAR song at amazon.com.  The only good thing about the price hike is that the unpopular songs will be priced at .69 cents. They say that most of the songs will stay at 99. cents, but it doesn't seem like a smart pricing system to me. Maybe there is something I'm missing, but they should have made unpopular songs .79 cents and everything else .99 cents. Maybe it's just me but, I hope they figure out something better than this.

For those of you that don't know what Ipod Wizard is, it is software used to edit the Ipods background, fonts and overall look.  As of now, I've only known that Ipod Wizard could be used on Windows computers, but TODAY IS A NEW DAY!  Now this method is FREE and very easy to use.  One problem (at least for me) is that you need an intel mac with Tiger or Leopard and X11.  

What's X11?  Well I'm not exactly sure myself, but it is used to run Windows applications.  Now, if you have Leopard, it should already be installed on your computer, but with Tiger it may not  (You can type X11 in spotlight to see if it shows up).  For those Tiger users that don't have it installed, you can download it from the Tiger installation CD, just put it in and go to optional installs and find X11.  If you lost or just never had a CD don't fret.  Luckily I found this website to download X11 for free (legally too).  On the site are instructions on how to install X11.

Download X11

Next, you will need this FREE program called Darwine and download the link that says (Universal).  After Downloading unzip the file and drag the Darwine folder into your applications folder AND YOU'RE DONE!  Now you can use most if not all windows .exe files (as far as I know).  Next time you download a windows .exe file the Darwine icon should be next to it showing that it will work.  As for Ipod Wizard, just download the file and open it like usual.  I think that this is a Significant alternative to buying VMware or Parallels if you just want to use a few windows applications.  Any questions? Comments? BRING THEM OUT and I'll try to answer them.

No I'm not just talking about 3-Dimensional characters (that has been around since the N64).  I mean where the game actually pops out in front of your eyes!  What you will need is a copy of Skate 2 (don't think this feature is in Skate 1) and a pair of blue and red 3D glasses (you know those ones you get in the movie theaters).  I haven't been able to try this for myself because I don't have the game, but from the sounds of it, I'd love to get my hands on it just for this element.  For those of you that own the game, just head to extras (from the main menu), and enter the code "strangeloops".  After that you should notice that the colors have shifted, that's where you throw on your 3D glasses.  In the article I found this information from, it says "old style red-blue glasses 3D Glasses", so I don't know if the new "Real-D" glasses will work for the game.  Also to undo this you just have to put in the code again.  I would like to find out how well this feature works, so if anyone out there has Skate 2 and a pair of 3D Glasses THEN PLEASE TELL ME IF IT WORKS!

The Samsung "Blue Earth" phone looks like your average touch screen phone from the front, but on the back is a solar panel! First thing I thought was how would you charge it if it's in your pocket most of the time and that's one thing about it. To use the solar panels on the back it needs to be facing down, in direct sunlight. The specs on how long it will take to charge is still unknown and still has no release date, but I assure you that it will be on the news for awhile when it does come out. An additional eco-friendly thing about the phone is that it is made up of recycled water bottles. I hope all phones are made this way in the future, just the thought of never having to worry about my phones battery gets my heart pumping. Sorry I can't go into more detail, but this phone is still in the making and I will create a new story as soon as it comes out (also I hope it is available for T-Mobile users)

Ever have your phone die on you when you really need it? (I that has happened to me TOO many times) Well with a portable Solio solar powered phone charger that problem is solved. Now I know most of you are picturing some ugly clunky gadget, that takes days of sunlight to charge. But on average it takes 8-10 hours of light to fully charge the internal battery and with that power you can charge the average cell phone twice, if not more! Also with about an hour of charging, a phone can provide 25 minutes of talking and 10 hours of standby time. As for the design, it may be a little big for a pocket, but it would easily fit into a small purse/handbag and it only weighs 5.8 ounces. It comes in white so it's not to flashy or very noticeable. To start charging, you just have to fold out the 3 panels and away you'll go! Now this device doesn't only charge phones, there is an adapter for the Ipod too. And with every hour of charging, that will give you about an hour of music playback. Another thing to add about it is that there is an included wall adapter and USB cord to charge it like you normally would and it takes only 4 hours to fully charge. The price isn't cheap (at $99), but I would expect that as solar powered gadgets become more popular, the price will drop. I absolutely LOVE the idea and will probably get one (as soon as I get enough money). Click the link above to visit the website and see it for yourself.  Or check out Amazons description with customer reviews: Solio Solar Charger
Tell me, would you be willing to cough up $99 for a charger that takes on average 8-10 hours to charge? *With Direct Sunlight*

Update!: Just stopped by the T-Mobile Store today and I noticed that they were selling these!  Not only that, but at only $60 bucks, almost half of what you pay on the Solio website.  Also that there are many other adapters for other devices, like cameras and more!  So stop by your local T-Mobile store to check it OUT!

Whenever I use this, it makes me feel like I'm surfing through my own little world of pictures. It's called Cooliris and it's available for Macintosh and Windows XP/Vista users. Compatible with Safari (Mac only) , Internet Explorer, and Firefox (Mac and Windows). It's great when you want to look through MANY pictures quickly. There's no waiting for each page of pictures to load, as long as you scroll through you find pictures. Doesn't work with every site you are on, but it does work on the popular ones like Myspace, Flickr, Google Images, including Blogger and more. It's free so you might as well give it a try. Cooliris

Ever spilt a liquid on your keyboard?, scratch your computer?, or has a key came off? Then this article is for you! Survive 17 Mac Disasters
It's nice to know, because sooner or later something like this will happen to you and you wont have to worry.

Also at the end of the article it tells you how to avoid these accidents:
Stay Dry- Keep beverages away from the computer (common sense)
Stay Up To Date- Make sure to get all of the latest security updates.
Stay Secure- Be careful of spyware!!
Stay Clean- Both on the computer physically and on the hard drive.
Last BUT VERY IMPORTANT, Back Up Your Data!

This isn't anything huge, but I thought it should be told. Kanye has announced (about three weeks ago) he is releasing a new shoe called Air Yeezy. They will come out in three different colors and each color at a different time. First pair (the Grey ones) come out in April, next the black pair released in May, and last (also my favorite) the tan colored pair in June. Can't wait to get my hands on a pair. Which ones would you get? Would you even buy these? Comment below.

Now I did say I was going to post things I found interesting and these are a few pictures off Kanye West's blog. These photos were taken and edited by photographer Chris Milk and I just think it's amazing, how detailed and clean the pictures look. These were taken because Kanye is the cover of the April/May issue of Complex Magazine. Here is the link to the exact blog these were from, feel free to check it out and there are a few more pictures: Complex Blog

I am sure that many people know that you can record shows with a Tivo box and save them for your own use, but not many people know (at least no one I know) realizes you can do the same with a regular Comcast DVR. I've been using it for sometime and it is fairly easy to use. First let me tell you that this program only works on a mac (There may be another thing like this for windows) and you will need to download the Firewire SDK.

CLICK HERE FOR TIGER

CLICK HERE FOR LEOPARD

(For the leopard link you'll need to create a free apple account)


After downloading, the website below has very detailed instructions:
http://jpicune.wordpress.com/2006/10/13/record-shows-from-your-comcast-hd-dvr-onto-your-mac/

It is great because you can even record shows that you recorded already on your DVR!
One problem though is that the original playback file is mpeg-2 and to convert it to a format I can watch on my Ipod, I use Senuti. Now Senuti's latest versions are not free to download, but versions before are and here is a link to the Free Senuti
If you want to be up to date with the newest versions of senuti, you can download the free trial and then if you like it buy it, only $18, Latest Senuti. After that it's very easy from there. Although the files do take up a lot of space, you can delete those big files after you convert them with senuti.

Also if you have any questions feel free to ask. Hope you find it as cool as I did.
Note: You are able to record from most channels off the DVR, but not any of the movie channels (A.K.A HBO, Showtime, Encore...)

Well let me start by saying that even though it may seem impossible to get music for free LEGALLY, there are a couple of sites i've found. One is www.Qtrax.com, which offers a wide selection of music. The only catch is that it is only compatible with windows computers and it does not work with Apple's Ipod or Microsoft's Zune! This is because while you download your song, it is encoded with a DRM, so that way you can't illegally share it with others. I say that it is nice to have a place to legally get free music, but it isn't really compatible with the very popular brands of mp3 players. There have been stories of Qtrax creating an ipod compatible song base, along with it being available to macintosh users, but that has sadly yet to come.

Along with Qtrax, www.Spiralfrog.com is another windows only compatible site. The reason is because the songs are encoded with protected-WMA, which is not compatible with Ipod's or Zune's. Both of these sites use advertisements to pay for the music. I think that Qtrax makes you listen to a few ads before you listen to a song, and Spiral Frog just has ads all around their site. So if you have a windows device, and don't mind advertisements, then these sites are just right for you. (Personally I use a mac and an Ipod 5th gen, so I'm not able to use these sites, instead I use Itunes) If you have any questions or comments PLEASE feel free to ask or say them.

Update:I have just found out that Spiral Frog has been shut down. For good? I'm not sure, but ad supported sites are not easy to keep up.

Hey everyone, my blog is going to basically be about things I'm interested in. Things like, technology (apple, windows, xbox 360, ps3 and others), sports, and occasionally clothes (cool items I like). These are just a few of my interests, so don't worry I'm sure you'll find something that catches your eye. I hope I can keep people happy with it and I'll try my best too make in appealing. Also if anyone has suggestions on what they would like me make a post about, I can try and do the best I can about it.