Find Out if That Online Retailer is Legit with SiteJabber
My Clippings July 23rd, 2009 by System
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You’re searching for the best price on a specific brand or product, and you come across a retailer you’ve never shopped with before. The site looks legit, but you don’t know the retailer and you don’t know anyone who’s used them, so you’re wary of spending money there or giving the site your credit card number, even if it’s a small purchase.
Enter SiteJabber, a new site designed to give consumers a place to rate and review Web sites and share their experiences with them. From Web stores to advice forums, SiteJabber lets you weigh in on whether the site is useful or even legitimate.
SiteJabber isn’t just for rating Web stores and online retailers to see if they’re legitimate, the service is also designed to give consumers a place to vent their frustrations and share their good experiences so others can benefit from them. If you’re curious whether ClubPenguin is a safe place for your children to hang out, for example, SiteJabber notes that 8 reviewers love the site and recommend it very highly. At the same time, if you’re looking to shop for cosmetics online you might want to steer clear of All State Beauty, the site received a single star across nine reviews.
If you want to contribute to the pool of reviews, you can sign up for an account at SiteJabber and start writing about the sites that you visit. If you have a bad experience with a Web site, you can share that experience and give the site a rating out of five stars.
Alternatively, if you’re a shopper or looking for the best sites for politics, music, food, literature, or travel, SiteJabber can recommend some destinations members have rated highly. For example, if you’re looking for some great travel tips, SiteJabber recommends Kayak and Seat Expert, and if you’re looking for something new to listen to, reviewers suggest Tunebite and ScreenTunes.com. You can also browse additional categories for suggestions, including technology, business, online dating, health, and more.
SiteJabber also has tips for consumers to help keep you from getting ripped off on the Web, and the best way to report online fraud and scam artists looking to steal your money. If the site you’re interested in doesn’t have a review, you can request one from the SiteJabber community, or better yet, sign up for an account and write one of your own. The service is completely free.
50 New Beautiful Blog Designs
My Clippings July 22nd, 2009 by System
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There are things that can’t be showcased too often. For instance, beautiful blog designs. We have presented hundreds of beautiful blog designs in the past and now it’s time to provide our readers with a fresh portion of tasty design inspiration.
All blogs listed below have an original, unique design. They aren’t based upon some ready-to-be-used WordPress templates, but are the result of a hard, time-consuming work – therefore they deserve respect and admiration. Yes, many of these design are quite “heavy” on graphcs, not only because they look impressive on a tiny 550px-width-screenshot.
Below we present 50 new, beautiful, creative and (hopefully) inspiring blog designs. We feature many various styles and designs – hopefully, everybody will find some inspiring elements and design solutions for his or her next design. And, of course, thanks to all designers and artists featured in this post! All screenshots are linked to the original designer’s site.
Beautiful and Original Blog Designs
The Astonishing Adventures of Lord Likely
Open a Banana like a Monkey [Food Hacks]
My Clippings July 10th, 2009 by System
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The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.There is a strong chance that you’ve been opening bananas wrong your whole life. Take a cue from our simian friends and start opening a banana with the efficiency of a hungry monkey.
It’s possible you’ve been opening bananas the most efficient way, but more likely you’ve been opening them—like we have—the completely backwards and frustrating way. Most people start by grabbing the stem of the bananas and using it like a pull tab to get the banana open. This usually works with a somewhat high degree of success, high enough to keep people doing it and writing off the occasional banana opening mishap as problem with a faulty banana and not a problem with their technique. Watch the video below to see a demonstration of how monkeys open bananas:
The image associated with this post is best viewed using a browser.
If you watched the video and said “That’s how I do it!” good for you, you’re a primate most efficient. If you were amazed by the simplicity of the upside down maneuver, congratulations you’ve just learned a simple and effective way to chow down on your favorite yellow fruit. Have an unconventional technique for skinning, peeling, or otherwise getting at the delicious parts of your favorite foods? Let’s hear about it in the comments below.
FancyFastFood.com Gives Fast Food Meals a Gourmet Makeover [Friday Fun]
My Clippings July 10th, 2009 by System
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Fast food leaves a lot to be desired healthwise, but if you’re going to eat it, why not fancy it up? FancyFastFood.com provides recipes and ideas for turning Domino’s Pizza into chow mein, Burger King’s Croissan’wich into a quiche, and more.
The site only has a handful of recipes up so far, but all score points in the creativity department.
Among our favorites is this recipe to turn one large Domino’s American Legends Pacific Veggie pizza and a two-liter bottle of Diet Coke into Dao Mi Noh Chow Mein (get it?). The post says that the dish requires “hoisin sauce,” which you get from the dark syrup of the coke. As for the meal itself:
Pick off all the vegetable toppings from the pizza pie. While you don’t have to separate all of them by type, make sure you separate out the spinach, as it will be used for the garnish. Next, using a pizza slicer, slice thin strips of crust to make the “noodles”…When the Diet Coke is evaporated down to about 2-3 tbsp. of “hoisin sauce,” add the green peppers, red peppers, olives, mushrooms, onions, and tomatoes to the wok. Sautée and stir fry all the ingredients until they’re all mixed together, then spoon them over the noodles. Garnish with spinach and serve with chopsticks and Diet Coke in a stemless wine glass.
Okay, so it’s a little strange, but after some culinary adjustments and some clever plating, the results do impress. Browse the web site for the full recipe details as well as other fancy fast food concoctions, and, if you’re looking for a reason to tweak your fast-food meal in the first place (or perhaps skip eating it entirely), look no further than this fast-food reality check comparison chart.
Come On Ride the Sushi Train [Japan]
My Clippings July 8th, 2009 by System
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Conveyor belt sushi and sushi trains have always been particularly appealing as they promise unlimited food without requiring the pangs of social interaction or the short repeated treks to the buffet line. Now that joy can come to your home.
Epoch will officially unveil this toy sushi train later this month at the Tokyo Toy Show. Doubtfully slated for a US release (most probably because the train’s design wasn’t meant to accommodate several pounds of cow meat dipped in butter), the train is a replica of Japan’s famously fast N700 series Shinkansen. We’re assuming that given the model’s plastic construction, Epoch’s mini Shinkansen delivers sushi at speeds slower than 186MPH.
But as anyone who’s played with a cheap toy train around the holidays can attest, plans for your pricey toro could quickly derail mid-transit, adding a bit of carpet lint and dog hair to your typical wasabi and soy sauce mix. Still, you could do worse than eating off the floor. I mean, once you’ve taken a ride on the sushi train, you can’t just go back to the humdrum life of plates. (Trust me. My quest for unique dining experiences dictates that I only accept food delivered via a Dolly Parton impersonator bungee jumping from a hot air balloon. The thought of anything less makes me want to vomit.) [HobbyMedia]
S’More Keyboard Would Not Survive 10 Minutes on My Desk [Sweets]
My Clippings June 27th, 2009 by System
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Yes, this keyboard is made of real, carved chocolate, mini-marshmallows, and sheets of graham crackers. No, it doesn’t actually work. And finally, yes. We are kind of hungry, now that we think about it. [Geek Pad via Foolish Gadgets]
Tags: Food
