weather.yahoo.com has been redesigned and it sucks. It is now a giant panel and most of the space is wasted. Instead of the old, compact, info-dense layout they used to have, they now have this humongous panel and all the useful info (humidity, wind, etc.) is hidden behind a “details” button. So: bigger panel, less info. NICE.

And to top it off, they made a mistake that you don’t even need to go to design school to learn not to do: the fluffy white cloud in their background makes it impossible to read the white “last updated” text at the bottom. RETARDED!

If you’re thinking of using Trusted Moving and Storage to move, DON’T. We moved with them last Fall and there were some problems and they said they would issue us a refund check. We have this in writing. The document says they will pay within 30 business days. (6 weeks.) It has been 9 weeks. For the last 2 weeks they have been telling us “we are not sending out refund checks” and no one can tell us why. Trusted Moving and Storage are liars and thieves.

Let’s run down their “About Us” page, shall we?

1. Complete, accurate information and explanation about the upcoming move. The more informed a customer is, the fewer potential problems. In our opinion, an informed customer is an asset to a mover.

Nope. When setting up the move (just a few items) we were told it would cost $1000, including all needed packaging. (We described our items exactly.) On the day of the move, we were already at the destination and a friend was at the house. They called us with questions several times the day of the move; the one time they didn’t call us was when they wanted to charge and additional $500 for additional packaging. They told our friend “Sign here; they  have to pay extra” but they did not call us. (Neither did our friend, but he’s not the supposed “professional” here. My friend was tired after waiting EIGHT HOURS for them to arrive—see below.)

2. A trained and certified sales representative to be as informative as possible and go over all possible fees that may apply to the customer to avoid hidden fees.

Yeah. That didn’t happen. See above.

3. A uniformed moving crew that is trained, courteous, motivated and experienced. The Trusted Moving And Storage team should be an organized group who work methodically and efficiently. Your goods should be perfectly wrapped and moved in an organized manner into the truck, with nothing left unwatched in the process.

I wasn’t at the pack-up stage, but here’s who arrived: two guys; one of whom spoke passable English. Dressed in pajamas (I’m not kidding—loose flannel pants) and open-toed sandals. We were told we would have to pay him the money; when he got their, he insisted on cash—not credit or a check. He said if we didn’t pay him cash then and there, he’d take our stuff back to their storage center and we’d have to pay all kinds of fees. Luckily I live close and a friendly co-worker was able and willing to loan me his ATM card to cover what I was short. (They arrived on a Thursday—the day before payday.)

4. Clean, well-maintained trucks designed to move household goods. This will reduce the chances of damage and increase the efficiency of the move. All trucks should be air-ride and, obviously, cleaned daily.

One of our items was a full-size, upright piano. They brought it out through the side door of the trailer without a ramp. I don’t know what they had planned. There were only 2 of them and the piano was 4’ off the ground. LUCKILY there were two big guys from the local cable company who helped the two “professional movers” bring the piano out of the truck and all the way into our house.

5. Proper moving equipment. A sufficient amount of up to date packing material must be available to conduct all moves safely and smoothly.

Other than the equipment needed to get a piano out of the truck, yeah.

6. Prompt, courteous post-move services, especially on Long distance relocation. The customer should expect a phone call after the move to verify that it was completed to his or her satisfaction. If any damage has occurred, the mover must respond in a professional manner.

*sigh*

7. Secure, climate controlled, professionally operated Trusted Moving And Storage facility. It does happen at times that a moving customer may need emergency Trusted Moving And Storage, short/ long-term storage or storage to consolidate his goods for long-distance shipment. Assuming the mover has Trusted Moving And Storage facilities, they should be clean, protected by an effective security system and staffed by trained personnel to assure the safekeeping of your property. A climate-controlled environment is especially important where Fine Art etc. are concerned.

The hinged seat of the piano bench was broken upon delivery.

8. Punctuality of the movers. All pickups and deliveries should be on time within the windows given. 

The delivery time was fine. The pickup day was supposed to be 8am-2pm and they arrived at 4pm.

This post brought to you by the deceptive assholes at Beltone Hearing Care Centers, St. Cloud, FL.

In case you can’t tell from the image, it says “REBATE CHECK” in giant letters on the right and “this is not a check” in tiny letters at the bottom. It came in a bank-looking envelope with the words “REBATE CHECK ENCLOSED.”

FUCKING LIARS.

Just stumbled across this in iTunes and thought it was funny.

My Only Wish - Jessica Simpson

Customer Reviews

Meh *

by Derek Schinke

Sorry, but it’s unoriginal. Sounds to much like “All I Want for Christmas” by Mariah Carrey.

ok * * *

by b.o.b is the best

it sounds like all i want for christmas is you by mariah carey and trust me its not as good. It isnt bad though and its free. If you like christmas music than why not get this but if not dont.

Good Pick * * *

by trochin

This is a good song to have on track for a Christmas Party. You can always delete it after Christmas when you are never going to listen to it again.

National Treasure was a pretty fun movie. It required you to suspend your disbelief some. National Treasure II is also pretty fun. It, however, requires you to strap your disbelief to a rocket and fire it into the sun. :-)

Sort of. He says “Like the Ministry of Truth, it appears that Apple is deliberately attempting to usurp the meaning of the word Flash in the computing industry and redefine it.” which isn’t totally accurate. The thing is, “flash”, in a computer context, already has multiple meanings. Ever heard of “flashing your BIOS”? What Steve Jobs is (rightfully, in my mind) trying to do is remind people of that fact. Why should Adobe get to be the sole owners of the word “Flash”? 

The fact is, Flash is on its way out. Every single review I’ve read for the just-released Samsung Galaxy Tab says, at one point or another, that web browsing is harmed by the presence of Adobe Flash. Here are just a couple examples:

• “In all cases, [Flash content] slowed the browser down.” — Walt Mossberg
• “The browser is miserable, at least when Flash is enabled. It goes catatonic, scrolling is laggy, and it can get laughably bad.” — Gizmodo

So, here’s how the next 2-3 years will go:

Apple will continue to not support Flash on its iOS devices. The also just started shipping the new MacBook Air without Flash. I imagine all of their products will gain this “feature” as they’re revised. Flash will maintain a presence on most desktop computers, though it may drop some, like maybe to 75% or so. However, mobile use of the Web is climbing fast. Companies that currently depend heavily on Flash (like for their front page or for persistent navigational elements) will eventually be unable to ignore their Flash-less visitors anymore and they’ll do one of two things:

1. They’ll start maintaining two versions of their sites so that Flash-less visitors (you know, people with money to blow on web tablets and MacBook Airs) get a good experience, or
2. They’ll realize that’s a stupid, money-wasting idea and they’ll scrap Flash altogether except where it’s essential

Pretty soon you’ll see the “chicken and egg” effect being replaced by the “snowball” effect. Apple (with some help from Adobe themselves, in the form of the craptastic Flash performance we’re seeing so far on mobile devices) has taken care of the chickens and the eggs so now it’s just a matter of waiting for the snowball to grow. Flash won’t go away, but it won’t continue to dominate, and you’ll see fewer and fewer “missing plug-in” boxes on your iPad as the years go by.

The night before: “Woo hoo, an extra hour of sleep!” The night after: “Damn, it’s 9pm, why am I tired?”

I just switched from my original, unlimited $30/mo AT&T data plan to the 200 MB, $15/mo plan. I now have a “data budget” of about 6 MB per day. I know I can check my data usage by dialing *DATA# (*3282#) but I would happily pay a few bucks for an app that looked like this:

A two-part pie chart that shows me how much data I’ve used in relation to how far along in the month we are. It could also be in bar form, I really don’t care. I just want a simple way to tell at a glance if I’m pacing myself OK or if I should lower my data usage a bit for the remainder of the month. I just don’t want to have to dial the number, look at the resulting text message, and do the math in my head.

Update: OK, I guess I can just do this. Still, I’d be happy for a big, simple display. That’s what most apps are, right? Just a big, easy display of the one thing you care about.

You’ll need:

• A stove, two burners, two pots, two spoons, an oven or a toaster, something to serve spaghetti with.
• Bag of frozen meatballs, box of pasta, jar of sauce, oil, salt, cheese

What to do:

• Minute 1: Start a pot of water boiling for spaghetti. Hint: hot water from the tap will boil much faster than cold. (I know, right? Science—freaking amazing! But seriously, a lot of people don’t think to do this and it can save a lot of time.) Add a bit of salt (like a teaspoon or so) and about a tablespoon of oil. The salt adds a bit of flavor and it raises the boiling point of the water so the pasta cooks better. (I know, more science. OK, I’ll stop now.) Any oil will help keep the noodles from sticking together; olive oil will give you a mild authentic twist. (Or so I’m told. I can’t taste the difference.)
• Minute 2: Put a small pot on another burner. Cover the bottom with frozen meatballs. Pour a jar of sauce over it. Put it on high for the first few minutes and stir frequently.
• Minute 5: When the water is boiling, throw in the noodles. Turn the heat down a bit (so it’s still boiling but not bubbling like crazy) and turn down the sauce to somewhere a little below medium. Keep stirring it every so often. Most pasta cooks in 8-10 minutes.
• Minute 6: Start tearing up lettuce for salad and cut up tomatoes, mushrooms, whatever you like. 
• Minutes 7-14: Make some garlic toast, either from a package, or just make toast with garlic butter. If you’re going to go the toast-and-garlic-butter route, work on the salad a little more—toast only takes a couple minuets. (Literally, less than two minutes, plus time to butter.) If you’re going the frozen-bread route, start warming the oven and get back to the salad making.
• Minute 15: Everything should come out at the same time. By the time the pasta is done, the sauce and meatballs should be hot, your salad should be done, and the bread should be coming out of the oven. Drain the spaghetti and start filling plates. Top with some kind of cheese—parmesan, romano, or whatever else you can find in a tall can next to the sauce. Or shredded mozzarella from where the rest of the cheese is. Or, one of those little tubs of fresh-grated parm from the deli section, Mr. Fancy-Pants.

This won’t be as good as what you’d get in a five-star restaurant but it’s a lot better than what you’ll get in a box and it’s really not that much work. Serves about 4.