Daily Archives: 2/2/2009

Editor-in-chief of Men's Health and author of the bestselling book Eat This, Not That has just released a new supermarket survival guide. Here's a quick look at what it says you should avoid putting in your cart:

The roundup features 20 of the worst supermarket foods you can find organized by category. If a few goodies you love made the list, don't despair. The article also lists healthier alternatives that should satisfy many of the same cravings that made you reach for the unhealthy food in the first place. According to the author, the 20 worst supermarket foods include:

  • Worst Crunchy Snack: Gardetto's Special Request Roasted Garlic Rye Chips
  • Worst Cookie: Pillsbury Big Deluxe Classics White Chunk Macadamia Nut
  • Worst Yogurt: Stonyfield Farm Whole Milk Chocolate Underground
  • Worst Candy: Twix
  • Worst Condiment: Eggo Original Syrup
  • Worst Ice Cream: Haagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter
  • Worst Drink: AriZona Kiwi Strawberry
  • Worst "Healthy" Pantry Item: Pop-Tarts Whole Grain Brown Sugar Cinnamon
  • Worst Frozen "Healthy" Entree: Healthy Choice Complete Selections Sweet & Sour Chicken
  • Worst Cereal: Quaker 100% Natural Granola, Oats, Honey & Raisins
  • Worst Packaged Pasta: Pasta Roni Fettuccine Alfredo
  • Worst Baked Good: Otis Spunkmeyer Banana Nut Muffins
  • Wort Frozen Treat: Toll House Ice Cream Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwich
  • Worst Individual Snack: Hostess Chocolate Pudding Pie
  • Worst Packaged Lunch: Oscar Mayer Maxed Out Turkey & Cheddar Cracker Combo Lunchables
  • Worst Stir-Fry: Bertolli Grilled Chicken Alfredo & Fettuccine Complete Skillet Meal for Two
  • Worst Frozen Breakfast: Jimmy Dean Pancake and Sausage Links Breakfast Bowls
  • Worst Frozen Pizza: DiGiorno for One Garlic Bread Crust Supreme Pizza
  • Worst Frozen Entree: Hungry-Man Classic Fried Chicken
  • Worst Packaged Food in America: Marie Callender's Creamy Parmesan Chicken Pot Pie

Be sure to hit up the MSN Health article for the details on what makes each offering such a disaster and for the list of healthier alternatives. Last month we highlighted the 20 worst foods in America from the Eat This, Not That! folks, but this supermarket-focused edition will hopefully help you stay healthy now that the recession's got you eating in more often. If a favorite of yours made the list, let's hear about it in the comments.

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YourFonts is a web-based service that turns your handwriting into a TrueType font for free. If you have a printer and scanner, nothing can stand between you and the awesomeness of your own script.

We've covered a similar service before, but the handwriting-to-font process at Fontifier costs $9 per font you create. YourFonts has a software package for making personalized fonts that runs $49, but the web-based tool is entirely free. The process is straightforward: download the provided PDF template, print it out, and fill in each number and letter blank with your own hand writing. When you're done you upload the template back to YourFonts, preview it to make sure it looks like your own calligraphic gift to the world, and then download it as a monitor-friendly font. Additionally you can use the service without actually printing the PDF out and using a scanner—if you've ever wanted to create your own set of crazy wingdings, you can load up the PDF in an editing application like Adobe Illustrator and fill in the font-grid with anything you wish—hand writing or otherwise.

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Windows/Mac/Linux: Google's 3D mapping application Google Earth has just released version 5.0, adding historical imagery, maps of the ocean's floor, and even better features for touring the world from your desktop.

The demo video pretty much says it all. The historic imagery lets you go back in time to see how the location you're viewing has changed over the years. For the cubicle-based deep sea explorers, the new ocean features integrate maps of the ocean's floor along with videos from National Geographic with Google Earth. Finally, if you've ever wanted to record a custom tour, a new record feature makes it easy to create and save tours of the globe. Looking good, GOOG.

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is going hunting for groundhogs today. eff winter!

digsby is down… this makes me sad.

Acronis is giving away copies of Acronis True Image 10 Personal Edition because its got a new version out. That means you (or backup-needing friends) get whole disk image backups from a friendly interface.

The give-away of Acronis' cloning software, normally $50 per license, is intended to inspire users to get familiar with Acronis' backup systems, and possibly upgrade to Acronis True Image Home 2009. For most folks planning to re-install Windows, or just create one-file backups of entire drives, True Image 10 Personal will probably fit the bill. Its interface and step-by-steps don't seem to give you as many options and geeky switches as DriveImage XML, which we featured in our guide to hot-imaging a hard drive. But True Image does offer backup archive validation, a recovery disk creator, a startup interrupter that can re-apply a backup image, and other tools for those shaking their fists at the Windows gods.

To grab your copy, hit the registration link below, fill out a minimum of the First Name, Last Name, email, and other magazines read sections (along with the privacy policy checkbox), and be patient (click back if you get a timeout). You'll get a registration email, then be asked to log in and download, and have to enter a serial number after installing. The giveaway was launched for users of Personal Computer World, a UK tech magazine, so grab it sooner rather than later if you don't want to chance losing the offer after this month's PCW leaves the overseas shelves.

Update: At the request of Personal Computer World, we've removed the link. Apologies to PCW and Acronis if they've been inconvenienced.

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