One of our readers is looking to buy a house and his mortgage broker suggested that he open up about four credit cards to establish some credit history. Should he? [More]
readers
DC Safeway Sells Truffles
By 8.3.10
Fancy people living in DC can satisfy their truffle craving by heading over to a Safeway in Georgetown, which is selling the hypogeous delicacy for $999.99/lb. [More]
Loading A PDF Could Give Hackers Total Control Over Your iPhone
By 8.3.10
Better not load any PDFs on your iPhone for a while, not unless you want to risk handing over total control of your device to hackers. The exploit affects all iOS 4 iOS 3.1.2 and higher devices, including the iPod touch and the iPad. [More]
Town Catches Pool Permit Dodgers With Google Earth
By 8.2.10
New technology often has unintended consequences. In the case of Google Earth, a popular program that combines various satellite and aerial images to create a navigable 3D globe, it’s being used by one town to catch unpermitted pool owners. [More]
Paypal's New Security Card Fits Inside Wallet
By 8.2.10
Like the idea of the Paypal security key fob, which auto-generates a 6-digit code that must be entered every time you use your Paypal account, but not so hot on its bulky shape? This year Paypal introduced a credit-card sized design that fits inside your wallet. [More]
Puppy Game Features Ill-Advised Phallic Puzzle Shapes
By 8.2.10
The Barnes and Noble website says that the Golden Puppies 500 piece shaped puzzle has “surprise shapes hidden within.” Indeed it does. [More]
Jamba Juice To McD: Suck On Our Cheeseburger Smoothies
By 8.2.10
To fight back at McDonald’s jumping in on its smoothie game, Jamba Juice has launched a new line of “Cheeseburger Chill Smoothies.” [More]
Oops, You Didn't Buy A House, You Bought Its Worthless 2nd Mortgage, And Now It's In Foreclosure
By 8.2.10
A couple thought they were snagging a $97,606 foreclosure fixer upper at a courthouse sale, only to find out months later they had actually bought its worthless second mortgage. The original was in arrears, and now the house would be sold at another courthouse auction. [More]
Longhorn Steakhouse Serves Up An Anniversary Dinner To Remember
By 8.1.10
Rachel and her husband had an underwhelming first anniversary dinner at the Longhorn steak house. The next day, she wrote to the corporate office to express her disappointment. The local restaurant’s manager quickly called to offer what Rachel thought was a complimentary apology dinner, but ended up being a whole lot more. [More]
The Post Office Wants You To Know They Caught The Thief Who Stole Your Shirt
By 7.31.10
Someone at the post office poached the Villainous Victorian Velociraptor Matt had ordered from Shirt.Woot. Woot sent Matt a new Velociraptor shirt and he figured that was that. Not so! He recently received a remarkably detailed letter from the post office’s Inspector General, complete with an added surprise. [More]
Canceling Your Clear Wire Service? How About A Refund And Free Service?!
By 7.24.10
Rich decided to cancel his Clear Wire internet service to help cut his household costs. Most retention representatives would handle the request by kicking and screaming like angry toddlers waiting for a blood test. Not Clear Wire. After hearing that Rich had fallen on hard times, they offered to refund a month’s worth of service charges and kick in two free months of service to boot. [More]
Um, Why Did My Frigidaire Microwave Randomly Catch Fire?
By 7.24.10
Though not advertised as a feature, Matt recently learned that if you turn off a Frigidaire microwave and leave the house, it might spontaneously combust. A service tech blamed a short-circuiting switch for the blaze, which thankfully didn’t cause any serious property damage. [More]
BP Took 79 Days To Do Fix Citizen Sent Them On Day 6
By 7.14.10
A reader claims he emailed BP and the White House on April 28th with the very method put into place to seal the gushing oil well on July 10th, and all he ever got back were boilerplate form letter replies. [More]
Get Amazon Prime Free For 1 Year With .Edu Address
By 7.13.10
Amazon is giving students a free year of Amazon Prime, which gives you free two-day shipping and some other nice bonuses. [More]
Debt Collectors Discover New Levels Of Relentlessness
By 7.12.10
It makes sense that as the economy has soured that the rapacity of debt collectors would rise, but this much? [More]
TD Ratchets Up Overdraft Opt-In Push With Pop-Up Scare Tactics
By 7.12.10
TD Bank is really stepping up its efforts to try to get customers to sign back up for “overdraft protection,” which really just protects their right to charge you $35 if you want to buy a $2.00 candy bar and only have a $1 in your account. Now they’re greeting customers accessing their accounts online with pop-up ads trying to scare them into agreeing to signing up for the service. [More]
These Fries Must Last A Really Long Time
By 7.12.10
According to the sell by date, these Alexia Potato Julienne fries will last you until 6,071,100,111. [More]
Fry's Exchanges Empty Box For Phone Without Batting An Eye
By 7.12.10
Talk about buyer’s remorse! Troy bought a new Wifi Skype phone from Fry’s. Upon opening the box at home he discovered that the box had all the accessories in it, but no phone. He girded himself for an epic confrontation when marched back to the store. Something involving shooting ball lightning and calling forth minions, but he ended up not needing any battlemage skills whatsoever. [More]
