Lukas, your friend's project sounds really cool!  Mine won't be reading the text so there is probably room for both programs to exist as each would probably have its own advantages and disadvantages in different situations.  I told her the same thing about the name Neptune!  haha! 

Well Neptune, I personally always prefer the griek names for the gods anyway, so where Poseidon would make me think of a fellow, Neptune just makes me think of the planet and the movement in holsts' planet sweet ;D.

Actually the name that confuses me slightly more is aprone sinse I have no idea what it means.

As regards food etc, I personally never ask friends to go shopping with me, sinse that would strike me as unfair on them. I usually ask the assistant as Lucas mentioned, and while this is troublesome it's at least possible, especially if I continue to use the same shops so that people know me.

For the Language problem, there is a similar issue with Indian shops in the Uk, though generally you can find someone who speaks good enough English, and even if not, if I can ask specifically for what I want rather than asking said person to list things then things are usually okay.

The other method I use for really big orders, is online ordering, ---- actually I've had to do that recently because it's two and a half feet deep in snow up here at the moment ;D.

As for recognition of stuff once I've got it home, a program such as the one Aprone mentioned would indeed be incredibly useful. Currently I use a combination of senses and logic.

I look to see general colour scheme, ---- for instance I know that if I have baked beans and peas in my cupboard, the beans have red on them the pease have green.

I also use tactile indicators such as box shape, size, or fealable contents when possible, identification of the contents through the packit if possible, ---- the pea tins for instance are smaller than usual.

For some things I even use smell (it's fairly easy to tell which box contains my smoked bacon or which bottle is my barbeque sauce.

If worst comes to worst and I'm dealing with for instance something frozen, I just stick my finger in the box and have a feel. If I know what I've ordered then I can usually tell fairly quickly, and with frozen or the majority of chilled stuff it really doesn't matter too much. I generally only do this if I really have to though.

I also keep track of where I put things if I can, so that I can use it's location to identify it. For instance, I'm going to make a chilly this afternoon and the red kidney beans and tomatoes are annoyingly similar.

So, I have the beans on one side of my cupboard, and the tomatoes on another. People actually tend to comment my flat is unusually tidy, and this is the reason, that unless I put things in specific places I tend to lose them, ----- and I stil! tend to lose things, usually because I forget where I've put them ;D.

The only really major problem with food, is that sinse I'm usually only cooking for myself, I don't particularly take the time to do anything time consuming or elaborate, sinse I always think "well it's just me, and I have better thingsto do"

the most I will do is chuck stuff in my slow cooker, or buy something and roast it.

My brother is a really accomplished cook, and has been known to do ridiculous marinades, stur fries and other gourmet stuff, but myself I never really see the point unless I've got friends turning up.

That being said,  regular ritual is getting together with one of my friends for long Dr. who marathons, and we always cooperatively cook something fairly mega then (he works for a company who makes herbal extracts, so we tend to use those).

I hope this explains matters a bit more.

Lol, you guys are funny.    Aprone is actually an old name from a few ancient cultures, Greece is one of them but I forget the others.  It is one of those names that people stopped using centuries ago.  I find it wonderfully unique and I am pleased to be able to stand out by using it.  If, for example, you went looking for "Dark" or "Lukas" online you would probably find a half million people who have used either name in the billion or so games, message boards, or web sites around the net.  Aprone, however, will always refer to me.  In the 14 or so years I've used the name, I have only ever seen 1 other person using it.  As it turned out, the guy had known me in a video game and decided to use the name himself when he moved to a different game, and I don't think he used it for long.  People from each game and online community I've ever been apart of can identify me if we cross paths again.  I've played brand new games and had people say "Hey Aprone, this is so-and-so from such-and-such, how have you been man?" because they remember me. 

Actually aprone, dark I find to be fairly unique, as in I've only ever run into I think two others in the 9 years I've been using it. I do however have a solution, sinse the full name is dark empathy, ---- and I've never! seen someone with that screen name ;D.

I've actually had people identify me in games this way too.

lucas, your english is fine to me. Some of your phrasing is occasionally unusual and interesting, but that makes your posts unique rather than hard to read.

For online ordering, I was actually thinking large scale grosseries as much as occasional things like cds or dvds, especially sinse the alternative is lugging six bottles of diette coke or 8 tins of rice pudding around which is not pleasant.

I do not do the shelf thing, because I have an absolutely terrible sense of space and spacial memory, this is also why I find mental mapping exercises or games with audio overviews of graphical maps such as mine sweeper, solitare or even sound rts quite a challenge to play, ---- with the exception of time of conflict.

In fact, I'll freely admit I found towers of war a great deal harder to play when I turned off my monitor so couldn't see the graphical map, ---- which I did so as to give good feedback on the game.

Generally the way I get around in real life is much the same as I would in a game like shades of doom, I memorize landmarks and turnings, ---- eg, at a certain coloured shop front turn lleft, cross the road outside subway (which has a distinct smell), that sort of thing.

As to my long explanatory posts, ---- yes, I freely admit I ramble like nobody's business ;D. Also I will admit I've sort of made it my business to be able to accurately answer these sorts of questions sinse generally in my experience it's helpful to be able to do so.

Hi,
Yeah, putting things in places does help Dark. How ever, you'd have to go into a shop with a cain and  its territory and find what your looking for, or either get  a guydedog. I haven't been on shopping with an assistant, but I have to say, talking to those Indian assistants could be sometimes, annoying. The reason is because you have to tell them the same thing over and over again. For an example at primary school, I was at the dining   room, and I had to have school dinners. I usually have pac lunch, but that's getting irrelevant. I have to tell them a hundrad times! Not rice and chicken I think it was, rice! But I have to agree with you Dark on the subject. In trooth, it was about 3 times, but it can get annoying.

Usually Muhammed, if someone has less good english, it's only necessary to speak clearly and not say much. I wouldn't for instance ask an assistant who spoke bad english to list things rather just ask for what I want.

in cafes, or when getting school dinners etc asking people to list things is indeed problematic if their english isn't good.

Usually, i will try and find someone serving who has good english, if I'm for instance waiting in a kew, or ask someone in front of me if I think the assistant isn't going t be cooperative (I had to do this in colidge several times).

listening carefully to what the people in front of you in the kew order is also a helpful tactic as well.

for shopping, yes, i go shopping with a cane (though i am on the guide dog list and will probably be getting one soon), but this doesn't cause too much trouble. I always take a backpack to put stuff in to allow me free hands, ---- and as I said, for really big orders, I use online ordering.