Chris Pirillo » words

Do You Play Word Games Like Scrabble?

Chris — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 08:37:26 +0000

Do You Play Word Games Like Scrabble? is a post from Chris Pirillo

This is 3amjosh’s submission for the HP Magic Giveaway. Feel free to leave comments for this article as you see fit – your feedback is certainly welcomed! If you’d like to submit your own how-to, what-is, or top-five list, you can send it to me. Views and opinions of this writer are not necessarily my own:
on geeks.pirillo and this is my entry for the HP Touchsmart Competition. It’s a How To on the “CheckWord” app for iPhone/iPod touch.

Do you play Scrabble with friends? Do you often find yourself arguing the validity of a word they are claiming is legit? Do you usually forget your handy dandy Webster’s Dictionary? If you’re like me, you have lost your pride many times when a word you believe is legit gets busted when your friends consult a dictionary to prove you wrong. Which takes away precious time for you to create megawords and rack up some points on scrabble. Well, the app store has brought us many applications but one of my favorites and most used is CheckWord.

Checkword pulls from two different lists of words. TWL is the 2006 tournament word list used in North America and other countries: Thailand and Israel. The list contains 178,691 words from AA to ZZZ. SOWPODS is the 2006 international word list used in English speaking countries that don’t use TWL. It contains 267,751 words. So for must of you, you will be using the TWL unless you want to trick your friends and get away with words that don’t really count. It does not contain proper nouns so your friends can’t get away with using Jeff or Canada.

With the features to tell you if words are good or not at the flick of a few thumb taps on your iPhone or iPod touch, this app is worth its weight in Gold. There is more to it than just a simple word search to prove your friends wrong.

Do you get stumped often with the letters on your stand and just have nowhere to go? Are you the type of person who enjoys cheating? Are you alright with deceiving your friends saying your checking words to see if they work? CheckWord has another great feature for you!

MakeWords will make you a Scrabble genius! Just click the little tab at the top of CheckWord that says MakeWord, and you will see a nice screen that lets you enter in random letters that you have to generate words from that list. Not only does it rank the words from amount of letters that can be used, it will even find words in patterns that are already laid out on the Scrabble board! Let me give you an example.

Your letters are ASETUI. Here are the results of the 61 words found:

3 Words with 5 letters: ETUIS, SAUTE, SUITE
19 Words with 4 letters: AITS, ATES, EAST, EATS, etc.
26 Words with 3 letters: AIS, AIT, ATE, EAT, etc.
13 Words with 2 letters: AE, AI, AS, AT, etc.

It even covers wildcards. If you have a wildcard, just substitute one of your seven letters with “.” and it will factor that in for some killer 5, 6, 7 or 8 word combos!

So, if you are into Scrabble this is a must have app! Take it to the next Scrabble party and either be honest and challenge your friends to play against the iPhone, or secretly sit and throw out some words that your friends will question the validity of and you can quickly show them with CheckWord that it is Legit! Have fun!

Where do You Find Song Lyrics Online?

Chris — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 04:54:04 +0000

Where do You Find Song Lyrics Online? is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

When you a hear a new song for the first time, you want to know all the words to it. How exactly do you find those words though? Many sites that offer music lyrics online are shady, and can infect your pc with Malware. How do you know who to trust? Where can you find lyrics to songs you’ve forgotten the words to?

LyricsFly has a very easy-to-use interface. It’s clean. It’s simple. Best of all… it’s popup and malware free. Yes, the site is powered by ads, but they aren’t overly annoying or intrusive. You can search by artist, song, album or partial lyrics.

Once you find the lyrics to a song, there are several options that you can then choose from. You can print or email them, or submit corrections if you find mistakes. You’ll also get a few links to suggested and similar artists! Whoever made this site, thank you! I’ve been looking for something like this. Bookmark this site, y’all. It’s an excellent and simple way to safely find the words to every song you ever needed to know the lyrics to.

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

The Secret Language of Lovers

Chris — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:35:35 +0000

The Secret Language of Lovers is a post from Chris Pirillo

Add to iTunes | Add to YouTube | Add to Google | RSS Feed

As Ponzi and I prepared to leave for our Hawaiian Cruise last week, we had a discussion about different “code words” and phrases that we tend to use. I bet you and your significant other know exactly what we’re talking about.

We’ve decided to start using the word “Chumby” as our code word when we want to avoid an arguement. We’re sure this will work. In the past, we’ve had to use a code word for a stinky person. We’ve been on many flights where we had to sit next to someone who just smelled so awful. I kept trying to let Chris know that the man next to me was stinky, without letting the man know I was saying something negative about him. You know… you’re trying to tell the person next to you something, without conveying to everyone else in the vicinity exactly what it is you’re trying to say? So this is what happened to me on this particular fight. We agreed if we ever had that issue again, we’d say “when are we going to play tennis?”. That stands for “someone next to me/us STINKS!”.

So… back to Chumby. Ponzi and I both have very strong personalities, so we tend to get into arguements at times. We had to pick a word we would both remember, that would hopefully make us laugh, instead of argue. The chat room came up with the word Chumby. Not only is it a funny word in and of itself… it’s also my newest fun gadget!!

Want to embed this video on your own site, blog, or forum? Use this code or download the video:

How to Handle Remote Tech Support

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 06:30:00 GMT

Using GoToAssist is the easiest way to view and control another person's computer online. Use it to provide instant technical support to family, friends and customers. Start a session with just one click, and instantly connect with the other party.

Network Tools for Windows

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

You need these network tools, no matter which operating systems and networks you have to support. SolarWinds ipMonitor: Affordable Network Monitoring for SMBs. Get turnkey network, server and application availability monitoring with SolarWinds ipMonitor v9.0. This easy-to-use, reliable solution for SMBs delivers out-of-the-box availability monitoring so you always know exactly what's up with Active Directory, DNS, Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server, and SMTP. Download your free trial today. Or, try their totally free tools! And, through 2/29, save 20% when you purchase ipMonitor 9.0.

Get Your Own Web Site

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

Starting at just $3.99/month, web hosting from GoDaddy includes 99.9% uptime, 24/7 support and free access to GoDaddy Hosting Connection, THE place to install over 30 FREE applications sure to help you get the most from your hosting plan and Web site. Enter code CP2 at checkout, and save an additional 10% on any order.

Plus, as a friend of Chris Pirillo, enter code CHRIS7, that's C-H-R-I-S and the number 7, when you check out, and save an additional 10% on any order. Get your piece of the internet at GoDaddy.com.

VMware and Parallels for Virtual Machines

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 06:30:00 GMT

It doesn't matter if you're running on Windows or Mac OS X - every power user needs either Parallels or VMware (or both). There's never been an easier way to test software without destroying your primary operating system's stability. Think of how many times you wish you could press a 'reverse' button on your computer. Plus, there's no easier way to try new Linux distributions - see what all the fuss is about. Run Windows in OS X, run Linux in Windows, but the best way to do either is with VMware and/or Parallels.

Coupons for Online Shopping

chris@lockergnome.com (Chris Pirillo) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 07:56:13 GMT

This feed is fueled by Lockergnome Online Shopping and Coupon Codes

Before you shop next time, see if we have a coupon first.