David was out of a job for two years and faced the difficult prospect of being a 54-year old looking for work as an IT manager. He carefully edited his resume so it had no hint of age. The only dates it mentioned were his last 10 years of experience. After sending his resume to a lot of places, he finally scored an interview, only to have the hiring manager react “dumbfounded” when she saw his age and his gray hair. The interview went well enough. The rejection email came a week later. “And that was when I started coloring my hair,” David writes. [More]
BLOGS
"And That Was When I Started Coloring My Hair" – An Older Man Looks For Work In The Recession
By 7.20.11
Completely Fake Apple Stores Found In China
By 7.20.11
An American blogger living in the middle of China was amazed to stumble across a fake Apple store in her town. It was a complete counterfeit of a real Apple store, designed to look like the real thing. It had signage, and employees walking around in the iconic blue shirts with those lanyard nametags. It had the big long wooden tables with Apple products on them and the typical Apple store winding staircase. But certain details were off. [More]
TechCrunch Provides Complaint Letter Template For Their Own Redesign
By 7.12.11
AOL-owned technology blog TechCrunch is extremely interested in your opinion of its new redesign, so they’ve created a helpful complaint letter template full of swearing and finger-pointing so that you, the user, can compose your thoughts more efficiently. [More]
Buy Groceries From Giant QR Code Wall In Subway Station
By 7.7.11
As you wait for the subway to arrive, thoughts of errands drift through your head. Pick up medicine from the pharmacist, get package from the post office, and go get the groceries. In South Korea, Tesco has been experimenting with a system that lets you take care of that last one, right while you’re on the subway platform. It’s a wall-length billboard with photorealistic images of essential supermarket supplies. You take a picture of each item you want, grabbing its QR code, place your order, and Tesco will deliver it to your door. [More]
Man Uses Spare Syringe To Invent Sauce-Injected McNuggets
By 7.5.11
Noticing how a spare syringe was sitting on his desk right next to his box of McNuggets and dipping sauces, Kenji over at Serious Eats was struck by inspiration. He picked up the syringe, dipped it in the Tangy Barbecue sauce, and loaded the syringe with sauce. Then he injected it directly into the McNugget to create a dipping sauce-filled fried chicken nugget. Genius! [More]
16 Tales Of Frugal Fathers
By 7.5.11
We got over 225 comments when we asked you, “What’s the most frugal thing your dad ever did?” You guys have some really crafty pops. Your stories were humorous, heartfelt, and inspiring. I seriously got misty reading some of them. Others made me fearful for how our generation of young men will ever live up to what these heroes of frugality and grit did on a daily basis. Here are 16 of the best. [More]
Full Details On New Verizon Data Plans Leaked
By 6.23.11
Android Central got their mitts on the official internal training charts as well as a lengthy email to Verizon Wireless retailers explaining the nitty gritty on how the new tiered data plans work, and how much they’re going to cost you. [More]
Target Updates Coupon Policy To Limit BOGO Stacking
By 6.21.11
One of the hardest things about being a dedicated couponer is keeping up to date on each of the store’s ever-changing coupon policies. Target has just posted a new update to its coupon policy to limit how BOGO (Buy One Get One) coupons can be stacked. (Stacking is when you combine in-store coupons with manufacturer’s coupons to beef up your discounts). Here’s the rule change: [More]
What's The Most Frugal Thing Your Dad Ever Did?
By 6.21.11
In honor of Father’s Day, the Year of Shopping Detox blogger took time to celebrate her frugal father this weekend. She goes so far as to say her dad is more frugal than yours. Here are some of the things she remembers him doing when she was growing up: [More]
Hotel Openly Advertises For Fake TripAdvisor Review Writers
By 6.16.11
It’s no secret that hotels put bogus user reviews of themselves on sites like TripAdvisor, but usually they’re more discreet than this. TripAdvisorWatch found an example of an owner of several hotels in Hanoi posting on freelancer.com under his real name asking “if anyone can teach me the way to write reviews on this forum in which my reviews can not be found as fake and be removed.” [More]
Starbucks Responds To Alleged "Attack" On Gay Worker
By 6.15.11
After a woman’s story about a Starbucks worker she allegedly saw getting forced to hand in his keys while being told by a shift supervisor his co-workers didn’t want to hear about him being gay anymore went viral, the coffee giant has pledged to investigate. [More]
Pay For This, Not That! When Buying Tech
By 6.15.11
Four rules of thumb to help you decide which features are worth paying for when buying your next gadget or gizmo, courtesy of the New York Times: [More]
Get More Money When Airline Loses Luggage By Having Receipts For Every Piece Of Clothing
By 6.8.11
Airlines play the lowball game when they lose your luggage, offering paltry compensation and making it hard for you to get a fair value for your lost items. It demands a bit of an anal mentality but you can help yourself if you’ve saved the receipts for everything in your baggage, writes the Airfarewatchdogblog. [More]
Best Student Checking Accounts
By 6.8.11
New freshman entering college this Fall should take the time right now to get their banking account set up if they don’t have one already. Consumerist Commentary rounds up the best student checking accounts and compares their benefits and fees. The good news is that the best of the crop have no fees, or fees waived if you can meet some pretty easy requirements. [More]
Make Your Own Peanut Butter At Home
By 6.6.11
You can save $1.37 a jar making your own peanut butter at home. It’s actually really easy, fun, and it won’t contain a bunch of that extra nonsense you find from big name brands. [More]
Dell Makes Good For Man Whose Life They Wasted 400 Minutes Of
By 6.1.11
After Bill’s story of spending 400 minutes in Dell Hell to get his dead laptop replaced went up on Consumerist, Dell gave him a call [More]
Man's 400 Minutes In Dell Hell Could Cost Them Millions
By 6.1.11
By pissing off this one customer, Dell may have lost millions of dollars. Bill is a corporate account holder and a consultant who makes recommendations to Fortune 500 companies on how to spend their IT money. Usually he recommends Dell, but after his trip to Dell Hell, that will no longer be the case. [More]
What $1 Million Looks Like Around The House
By 5.26.11
Who hasn’t dreamed of holding a million dollars in their sweaty, clammy paws? Beats working! That day may never come for you, but you might be surprised by how kind of quotidian a million dollars actually looks like in person. To give you a sense of perspective, Cockeyed has a gallery of pictures of what a million dollars would look like in various poses around the house. (They used 10,000 one dollar bills to simulate what 10,000 $100 bills would look like). [More]
