We all that know that tipping your waiter 15-20% is the standard (though some of you will surely disagree) or that you usually throw the pizza guy at least a couple bucks, especially if he braves flood waters to deliver your order. But what about your tattoo artist, or your salmon fishing guide or your sherpa? [More]
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Is "Internet Content Screener" The World's Worst Job?
By 7.21.10
Last week I thought I’d found the job I’d hate most of all (warning: it involves sewers, a shovel, and “fat mounds”), but then I read this New York Times profile of people who are employed as Internet content screeners, which appears to be the real world equivalent of web surfing in hell. [More]
Cities Are So Broke They're Outsourcing The Police
By 7.19.10
The new trend in government cost-cutting involves disbanding the police department, says the WSJ. The paper has an article about Maywood, a tiny city southeast of Los Angeles. The city lost its insurance after its carrier decided to cancel its policy “because of the $21 million in legal expenses and judgments against the city stemming from the conduct of its police department.” This means that Maywood can’t employ anyone. [More]
Use Doctor Finder To Prescreen Your Doctor
By 5.11.10
If you’re like most people, you pick a new doctor by going through an approved list provided by your insurer and selecting someone nearby. Doctor Finder from insiderpages.com hopes to make the process less random by providing reviews for doctors and dentists. You can search by zip code, then narrow down results by your insurer, distance, gender, specialty, language, and experience. [More]
Dell Just Calls This $150 Upsell What It Is
By 3.18.10
Dell has given up even pretending to be subtle. They’ve just gone ahead and call their offer of in-home programming for your Logitech Harmony remote control what it is–an upsell. [More]
Websites Offer After Death Services For Your Online Life
By 2.26.10
If you don’t want all your various online accounts left unattended when you permanently go off the grid, you can now hire several different services to clean up any loose ends–closing accounts, sharing passwords with survivors, transferring gaming accounts, and so on. Wired says they cost anywhere from $10 a year to $300 for a lifetime account, although after reading about this you may find it’s cheaper and more efficient to just add the necessary info to your will. [More]
How To Improve Your Chances On Dating Websites
By 1.29.10
The blog for OkCupid.com recently looked at over 7,000 profile pictures of men and women on the dating site, and compared various poses with the number of new contacts made each month. If you’re using a dating site you might want to read through their findings and fine-tune your presentation. [More]
Company Introduces Bridal-Style Registry For Paying Off Bills
By 1.8.10
BillPayRegistry is a new website where customers can create a list of bills they need paid off, and then have friends and family members make “gift” payments via the website to be applied to said bills. The site takes 5.9% off the gift amount and sets aside the rest in a fund that the registrant can only apply to the accounts listed–there’s no way to cash out the funds, in other words. [More]
Kill Off Your Online Identities With The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
By 12.30.09
Supposedly the most depressing day of the year is just a few weeks away, and that sucks. But if you off yourself, you can’t drink, so it’s a conundrum. What you can do is use the website suicidemachine.org to remove yourself from unnecessary social media sites that either you’ve stopped using or don’t really enjoy anymore. [More]
Rent Someone's Home On Your Next Vacation
By 10.30.09
The next time you travel to another city, it might be cheaper, or at least more interesting, to rent directly from a local homeowner. Cool Tools says Vacation Rentals By Owner (VRBO.com) is a great way to find rental opportunities when you travel.
Google's New Music Search Launches, But Your Buying Options Remain The Same
By 10.29.09
The new music search capabilities that Google introduced today will make it easier to quickly find a song you can’t remember the name of, or sample some tracks from an artist you’re interested in. But it’s not so much a new service as a more efficient combination of a bunch of services already scattered around the web.
Company Will Program Your Universal Remote For $250
By 10.15.09
When I was in college, an older woman I worked with paid me $25 to come over and program her VCR, and that is not a euphemism. Clearly I missed a valid business opportunity when I didn’t think to package that skill and resell it as an in-home service for idiots everywhere. You know, sort of like what InstallerNet offers with universal remotes for the low low actually-sort-of-high price of $250.
AloofDoof Sends Alerts When Ads You Like Appear On Craigslist
By 8.19.09
Reader Sedo just sent us a link to aloofdoof.com, a website that lets you set up keyword searches on Craiglist. We haven’t tested it, but it appears to be similar to WishRadar for Amazon. Sedo writes,
LendingTree Launches Financial Advice Website
By 7.23.09
MoneyRight, a new website from LendingTree, seems at first aimed to take on Mint.com in the easy-to-read/use financial snapshot category of web services. However, it also offers financial advice based on your current situation and future goals.
Man Sues Match.com For Teasing Him With Non-Active Profiles
By 6.11.09
The Daily News says that one Brooklyn man is fed up with writing emails to potential dates on Match.com and never getting a response. It’s not that he has a “bad personality” — it’s that the profiles are of people who have canceled.
By 5.26.09
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If you own a Kindle, you can now access your notes and highlights via the web at kindle.amazon.com. [TechCrunch]
This Is How All User Agreements Should Be Displayed
By 3.16.09
Aviary is a suite of web-based graphics programs, both free and subscription-based. What’s awesome about Aviary from the Consumerist perspective, though, is their Terms of Use, which offers a plain English summary in bullet points alongside the legalese. It’s brilliant, it’s simple, it doesn’t reduce the power of their legal agreement, and it helps users make informed decisions. Everyone should do this.
