It’s Parkers Family Farms Peanut Butter. Or, so claims Dave Pell. Good luck finding it in Michigan though. Where’s the closest Wal-Mart?
Blog
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Now here's something interesting; Xobni
Desktop search too much for your email-sifting needs? Always felt that all that email meant something about the people you received it from and sent it to? It actually does.
Email, the much maligned, outdated, and dying communication medium is stil, like it or not, the prevalent way to communicate in business and, for most Internet users, home. But most email packages, from Gmail to Lotus Notes, don’t tell you much more than the content of a message. Email, really, is a network. You talk to the same people a lot, exchange lots of information with them, contact them through other protocols. None of that connection is available or visible in any software package.
Well, it wasn’t. Enter Xobni (“Inbox” backwards). It tries to draw those connections, to turn email into that buzziest of buzzwords for the Web: social. Essentially, it crawls your (for now) Outlook mailbox and does some basic analytics on that database of communication and people. Who’s your number one contact? When do you get messages from a particular person most frequently? What have you sent a specific person? All of that is displayed in a nifty sidebar added into Outlook. It also does things you’d think Outlook should do, like pull out phone numbers for people from their signatures, thread conversations, and quickly search your accumulated emails.
I’ve only been playing with this for a couple hours now thanks to Lifehacker, but it looks really cool. Currently in a closed beta, but I have 5 invites if anyone’s interested. Drop a comment here or an email and I’d be happy to toss an invite your way. Windows/Outlook only, though.
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The 50 Most Loathsome People in America
Aside from the obvious #1, #32 seems harsh; it’s hardly their fault if the #9’s of the world can’t think for themselves. The 50 Most Loathsome People in America
Provenance: Blogometer > Mr. Gloomy Pants > Suspect Device (or invert it, I’m too lazy.)
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WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin
Greatest. Plugin. Ever. All you WordPress users should go grab the WordPress Automatic Upgrade plugin. Upgrade your WP site in less than 5 minutes.
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The Jokes Write Themselves Dept.
The American Cornhole Association. For real, but not what you think (you dirty, filthy minded person you). When you’re done getting your gear, head over the Cornhole Party.
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Popcorn makers removing chemical
Back in May, a Washington Post article detailed the effects of diacetyl of workers at popcorn factories. Known to some as “popcorn lung”, the chemical causes a rare but fatal lung disease, which only a transplant could cure.
Now four major popcorn manufacturers (the Orville Redenbacher, Act II, Pop Secret and Jolly Time brands) have agreed to remove the chemical. The only question that remains is what is being done to help those already affected. The linked article says that over 500 lawsuits are pending, and that many settlements have happened confidentially, but the House has also passed a bill to limit damages. Sounds like a few corporations want to have their cake and eat it, too.
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Done with Digg
Today marked the end of my regular use of digg as I unsubscribed from their RSS feed. Between election spam, recycled links from dozens of sites I already read, or whatever insipid Top 10 list got spammed to the front page by people gaming the system, digg has become a torrent or useless information. Their RSS feed kicks out hundreds of posts every day; missing one or two days with Google Reader results in a level of flotsam management that makes my inbox look downright tidy.
I’d ditched the diggnation podcast a while ago, mostly because I never got around to actually watching the thing. I haven’t missed it at all and I doubt I’ll miss digg much either. Since signing up in mid-2005, I was an avid user of digg; I didn’t submit many stories (2, actually) mostly because I was reading such interesting stuff that other people put up. But, with digg’s more recent turns towards becoming a full-on social site (leaving “news” behind), it’s become a bastion for the worst of the web; spammers, trolls, and SEO “consultants”.
So, I’m done with digg. Any suggestions (and don’t say reddit) for other, early-days-digg sites?
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YouTube – World of Warcraft Commercial – Verne Troyer
You’ve seen the Mr. T ad, you’ve seen William Shatner; now, it’s Verne Troyer.
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Dead Xbox
After little less than a year, our Xbox 360 has succumbed to the 3 red rings of death. After speaking with “Adrian” in multi-click phone transfer land, we receive an incredibly well-designed (and, I’m assuming, oft-used) shipping box system to send back the unit. At Christmas. Via UPS. Yeah, not expecting to see any gaming for a while.