2arrs2ells Comments

A Bully Finds a Pulpit on the Web

Despite its lame title, this article is fascinating: detailing how a rogue eye wear merchandiser slipped through the “consumer safeguards” of Citibank, Ebay, and most compellingly, Google. I would be outraged, but I’m struck by the genius of search engine optimization through negative, not positive, buzz. This glasses site snags first page ranking for several keyword searches because it’s linked to reputable customer review sites - even though the reviews are negative. Which surfaces this question: should Google have consumer safeguards? Or should is just show you whoever is being talked about? Reporter David Segal and the commentators in the piece seem to take it as given that Google should only be lifting up shopping sites with positive reviews. But shouldn’t consumers be more vigilant in the first place about what and where they buy?

You still can’t trust anything on the Internet, and that’s part of what makes it such an interesting place.

[via 2arrs2ells]

I think the nerdy answer is that sites focusing on retail horror stories shouldn’t give outgoing links “google juice”

Engineer buys $3k worth of pudding: gets over 1mil frequent flyer miles + $800 tax writeoff

mollybierman:

2arrs2ells:

thehiso:

flandrea:

In 1999, UC-Davis civil engineer David Phillips was grocery shopping when he noticed something peculiar. Healthy Choice Foods was offering frequent-flyer miles to customers who bought its products. But a 25-cent pudding would bring 100 miles — the reward was worth more than the product itself.

Recognizing a good thing, Phillips bought 12,150 servings of pudding for $3,140, claiming he was stocking up for Y2K. Then he enlisted the Salvation Army to help him peel off the UPC codes, in exchange for donating the pudding.

He mailed his submission to Healthy Choice, and to their credit they awarded him 1.25 million frequent-flyer miles, enough for 31 round trips to Europe, 42 to Hawaii, 21 to Australia, or 50 anywhere in the United States.

There’s no downside. Phillips also got Aadvantage Gold status for life with American Airlines, which brings a special reservations number, priority boarding, upgrades, and bonus miles. And he got an $815 tax writeoff for donating the pudding.”

Ok, really, next time you see this or some US mint -> miles scheme, feel free to funnel the opportunities to me. I’ll help peel UPC codes.

Daniel Carroll is green with envy.

Pudding Guy has been a personal hero of mine for quite some time :-P. The proof is in the pudding.

god I love (but shouldnt) stories like this that give me false hope about getting something for nothing

related: that man who traded a paper clip for a house

I’ve met the paper clip —> house guy!

wtf happened to tumblarity?!

(via kathychoi)

You need to follow http://staff.tumblr.com !!

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Formed in Los Angeles in 1992, Weezer had a handful of hits two years later with the songs ‘Undone — The Sweater Song,’ ‘Buddy Holly’ and ‘Say It Ain’t So.’

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Rivers Cuomo “suffered minor injuries” in bus skid.

They probably pulled this paragraph out of their obituary drafts. This will be Rivers’ obituary someday.

This is the best they can say about Weezer. And I can’t say I blame them.

Considering how many albums Weezer has released after the blue album, this is pretty sad.

(via marco)

Pinkerton deserves a significant mention! Something of a flop when it came out, but it’s become a cult hit and sold almost a million copies now (and lord knows how many teens + tweens can sing along to El Scorcho thanks to its position in Rock Band). I won’t try to defend the green/red/black/white/etc albums, though.

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[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]

thehiso:

collectingraindrops:

2arrs2ells:

Anya Marina - Whatever You Like (T.I. Cover)

(via hypem)

This hurts, Rob. It hurts deep in my soul.

(183 plays)

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⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘⌘

mollybierman:

so i’ve officially been a working girl for 7 weeks now. a number of people (mostly people still in school) have asked me what I found to be the biggest adjustment so far.

one would reasonably assume it would be something like having to work for many hours straight (as opposed to in college where you have all those random breaks throughout the day) or not getting things like fall break or summer vacation

however, so far nothing can compare to using a PC all day long and then switching to a mac at night. my god, rarely before have I been so disoriented. my related grievances / sources of OS-stress include (but are not limited to):

the absence of hot corners on PCs

being able to go backwards on the alt-tab* menu by pushing alt ~ on macs but not on PCs

ctrl-c, ctrl-v, etc. versus cmd-c, cmd-v

um, google chrome

spaces

this must be how people feel when they live part-time in the United Kingdom or Kenya and part-time in the USA and they have to drive on different sides of the road depending on their current location

gahh my life is so hard

*that said, a special shout-out to alt-tab is necessary for its cross-OS consistency. thank you for keeping me marginally sane

I feel your pain! I’ve been a bi-operating system user for a while.

Do what you can to find keyboard shortcuts that are the same on each OS (for example, I think command-shift-tab cycles backwards on PCs and Macs).

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The Next Youth-Magnet Cities -- from WSJ.com

mollybierman:

#1 DC

#8 Durham

#9 Dallas

yeah! apparently I (among others) like cities that start with D!

Not to mention Denver!

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pablog:

This is an excellent tumbltopic. Some quick predictions for the most common costumes this Halloween (e.g. Palin last year):

1. Michael Jackson
2. Twilight-people/vampires
3. Jon and Kate Gosselin
4. Kanye West*

*This one would actually be fun, to go around interrupting random people all night. But I imagine that this costume quickly turns racist. Like the time one of my college roommates dressed up as a Blue Man.

boml:

It’s October now, which means that one of my current fave ways to pass the (dull) time at work is thinking of Halloween costumes!! Last year, I tried with all of my might to get everyone in my office to dress up as Spiderman. Can you imagine anything funnier than an office full of people (most of whom are total awkies) dressed up in Spiderman costumes? I, for one, cannot. Needless to say, no one signed on, opting instead to pursue more humorous options, like “Native American girl” and “Neon Pink Highlighter.”

This year will be different. I am targeting a younger, hipper set with which to join forces, and our band of Lady Gagas/cookie monsters/MJs/Carrie Prejeans cannot and will not be stopped!

Blue man or iPod ad?