Steven Ortiz, a 17-year old boy, used Craigslist to trade his old cell phone for an iPod Touch. He traded that gadget for something better, which he then traded for something even better. After a total of fourteen trades, starting with a cell phone, he had a Porsche Boxster:

Steven started his lucrative journey when his friend gave him an old cell phone – the sort most people would throw away or shove into a junk drawer.

He traded that phone for a better phone, which he then traded for an i-Pod touch. He traded that for a series of dirt bikes, a MacBook Pro, and a 1987 Toyota 4Runner.

At the time, Steven was just 15 and unable to drive his new acquisition. So he quickly swapped it out for a souped-up off-road golf
cart, another more valuable dirt bike, a streetbike, then a series of cars ending with a 1975 Ford Bronco. He spent a few months enjoying each acquisition before determining he was looking for something else.

It was that Bronco that got him the Porsche. Because some older Broncos are considered collectibles, Steven estimated his was worth $15,000.

He got offered all manner of trades – including a locksmith business – for the Bronco. The Porsche, worth about $9,000, was actually a trade down.

Link via Jalopnik | Photo (unrelated) by Flickr user The Car Spy used under Creative Commons license

http://www.theonion.com/video/new-apple-friend-bar-gives-customers-someone-to-ta,17693/

Too funny.

Mario, Mega Man, and Link all animated by Eric Odmyr using small plastic beads. This definitely took some time.

(Garden Store | Vancouver, BC, Canada)

(A customer lifts bag of steer manure onto the counter.)

Customer: “I’ve got a question. What makes steer manure different from mushroom manure?”

Me: “Well, steer manure is made from the droppings of–”

Customer: “Wait. You said droppings? As in waste?”

Me: “Yes. Manure is made from decomposed waste.”

Customer: “So…What exactly is a steer?”

Me: “It’s just another name for a cow.”

Customer: “So steer manure is…oh, God. Oh, God!” *leaves without buying the manure*

Whybin TBWA Australia and The Sydney International Food Festival cooked up a clever way to promote last year’s fest — they used iconic foods from the participating countries to recreate their flags. From the green-white-red of basil-spaghetti-tomatoes to the orange-white-green of tikka masala-rice-saag, the results are both appetizing and a little reminiscent of middle-school geography class. Which brings us to our challenge: Can you correctly identify these 12 culinary flags?

Japan

Italy

Spain

India

South Korea

France

Vietnam

Switzerland

Greece

Lebanon

Australia

Brazil

Mouse over the blacked out area for the answer.
[via TrendLand]

Related posts:

1. Guessing Game: Rivers from Space
2. Guessing Game: Celebrities’ Coming to New York Stories
3. Music Nerd Guessing Game: 5 Famous Albums as Dots

SHHHH
be vewwwwwy quiet…
Picture by: dunno source Submitted by: wavedog via deMotivational Builder

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A Tongue-in-Cheek Translation of Google’s Announcement to Bundle Flash With Chrome

Nobody dresses up the language in an announcement this much,
unless they’re speaking through gritted teeth.

Adobe Flash Player is the most widely used web browser plug-in. It enables a wide range of applications and content on the Internet, from games, to video, to enterprise apps.

Flash is not our problem, but we have been forced to take action.

The traditional browser plug-in model has enabled tremendous innovation on the web, but it also presents challenges for both plug-ins and browsers. The browser plug-in interface is loosely specified, limited in capability and varies across browsers and operating systems. This can lead to incompatibilities, reduction in performance and some security headaches.

Web standards and browsers almost died completely.

That’s why we are working with Adobe, Mozilla and the broader community to help define the next generation browser plug-in API. This new API aims to address the shortcomings of the current browser plug-in model. There is much to do and we’re eager to get started.

We told Adobe to get their act together. We are not afraid of Mozilla, but begrudge having to constantly point them in the right direction.

As a first step, we’ve begun collaborating with Adobe to improve the Flash Player experience in Google Chrome. Today, we’re making available an initial integration of Flash Player with Chrome in the developer channel. We plan to bring this functionality to all Chrome users as quickly as we can.

We told Adobe to fix their crap or we wouldn’t ship Flash with Chrome OS.

We believe this initiative will help our users in the following ways:

• When users download Chrome, they will also receive the latest version of Adobe Flash Player. There will be no need to install Flash Player separately.

Adobe’s website is a joke, and forcing unwanted downloaders, Firefox extensions and copies of McAfee Security Scan on users is unacceptable.

• Users will automatically receive updates related to Flash Player using Google Chrome’s auto-update mechanism. This eliminates the need to manually download separate updates and reduces the security risk of using outdated versions.

Adobe’s security is as tight as a clown’s pocket.

• With Adobe’s help, we plan to further protect users by extending Chrome’s “sandbox” to web pages with Flash content.

We aim to protect users from Adobe, because they can’t be trusted to get it right.

Improving the traditional browser plug-in model will make it possible for plug-ins to be just as fast, stable, and secure as the browser’s HTML and JavaScript engines. Over time this will enable HTML, Flash, and other plug-ins to be used together more seamlessly in rendering and scripting.

There will always be brain-dead developers in the world who insist on using dead-end technologies like Flash and Silverlight.

These improvements will encourage innovation in both the HTML and plug-in landscapes, improving the web experience for users and developers alike.

Adobe is going to get double-boned by HTML5 / The iPad.

This photo was made by Rob Kroenert on February 18th 2010 in the Yosemite National Park. Every year during the month of February, the Horsetall Falls turn golden around sunset. Amazing.

The Nineties in One Picture

Submitted by Nicci Relles