Geeks and techies around the globe are looking forward to the release of Mozilla’s Firefox 3 web browser, scheduled for official release on June 17th. In addition to the rollout, the Firefox marketing community at SpreadFirefox.com (which I am conveniently a member) is looking to set a Guiness World Record for most software downloads in 24 hours (since no previous record of that kind has been set, it shouldn’t be too hard to achieve).

I’ve been using a portable version Firefox 3 RC2 for the past few weeks and I must highly recommend the download. All of my friends and family are faithful Firefox converts, thanks to me, and I’m sure to be installing this latest major release for them as well. When its finally released tomorrow (June 17), head on over to GetFirefox.com to upgrade!

SpreadFirefox.com Download Day 2008

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In addition to providing all their music as high quality, unrestricted, DRM-free mp3s, you can also find some freebies at the Amazon.com Music Download store. Unlike those other freebies you download, these freebies are totally legit… no need to worry about the RIAA knocking down your door and violating your nether-cavities.

Sure, a bunch of the freebies are duds, but with some patient searching you can find a gem. Case-in-point, I urge everybody to grab a copy of “Dead Sound” by The Raveonettes from their newest album Lust Lust Lust. I first heard this duo on Letterman and got hooked to their distortion-laden ’50s style rock-n-roll mixed with a modern Indie sound and vocal harmonies. See kiddies, I can sound like I’m hip to the music scene, too.

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Add another desktop wallpaper site to the pile: Social Wallpapering is a community desktop background site featuring almost 3,000 (and growing) high quality images for standard, widescreen and dual-monitor setups. Most images are photographic, with a few digital and 3-D illustrations thrown into the mix. Social Wallpapering is a cut above the rest, featuring easy to use filtering and even an RSS feed to subscribe to the latest uploads.

www.socwall.com

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“What I Killed Today” is a blog belonging to a veterinary technician who documents every animal they euthanize from day to day. Some posts are rather blunt, simply stating the what and why. Yet many are enough to make a grown man cry, such as:

Saturday, December 08, 2007
a 16 year old pomeranian. the family was present in the room. they were wearing very formal clothes, all black, as if they were attending a funeral. i tried not to make anything of it but, during their grieving, they stated that they were actually on their way to a funeral for a friend who had died - a 44 year old woman with a nine year old daughter. they were sobbing, i cried as well and felt no need to hide my tears. the dog wimpered with the injection and tried to fight it a bit. then he laid down and rested.

I found this post, the only one accompanied by a photo, especially haunting:

Monday, August 01, 2005
Barn owl with a broken femur. It held the mask in place with its good foot as I anesthetized it.

whatikilledtoday.blogspot.com [via BoingBoing]

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After much tribulation, Petco.com refunded me for my 300+ dead mealworms.

The tribulation came in when trying to contact the Petco.com “Customer Support.” Contact forms found on Petco.com, which idiotically limit your complaint to only 1500 characters, once submitted, apparently get delivered to Pluto, because I received no response. Fed up with the contact forms, I went searching for an actual physical email address. Naturally, none exist anywhere on Petco.com. The email listed on my packing slip, cs@orders.petco.com, turned out to be invalid. Finally, I found through Google references to orders@petco.com, decided to give it a shot, and finally got through to someone.

So, hey Petco, thanks for living up to the Live Food 100% guarantee and giving me a refund, but if you’re not going to check your website form submissions, how about listing some email address on your site? Woof.

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If you’ve ever wondered what 300 dead waxworms look like, today is your lucky day!

I recently ordered, for the first and now last time, live reptile food (waxworms, specifically) directly from Petco.com. You see, my pet box turtle loves eating the things. In fact, she will eat nothing else. I regularly buy waxworms from the Petco brick-and-mortar stores where a container of 50, which lasts about a week, goes for about $6.00. Online they sell them in containers of 500 for $20.00 + $8.00 shipping. I did the math, found a 10% off coupon from RetailMeNot, and the 500 container seemed like a deal, so I ordered them.

I realistically didn’t expect to receive all 500 of the little buggers perfectly unharmed. However, a box filled with miniature death is not what I had in mind. After sorting out the survivors, I would say at least 60% arrived in black, sticky clumps, which you see in the above image filled 2 plastic containers near to the brim. The smell was hardly describable, it could only be equated to what one would imagine how 300 miniature rotting human corpses would smell.

Needless to say, I am one peeved consumer. I’ve currently got a Customer Service request into Petco.com regarding this, and you’d better believe I sent them this image to enjoy as well. I’ll keep everyone updated.*

*as if we had any readers…
…but if we do, let us know your online ordering horror stories in the comments!

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Convert and save your favorite YouTube videos, or supposedly any online video, to a wide variety of playable video files for use on your computer, media player or mobile device with the website Movavi. While you’re at it, you can upload your own video files that need converting to another file type, without any software to install or complicated settings to remember.

The site is clean, simple and ad free, as the only product Movavi is pushing is their own suite of desktop video utilities. You can convert up to 5 files or 100mb at a time, with a max time of 10 minutes each, and it even gives you the option to merge all of your files into one seamless video file. Simply enter the YouTube URL links or upload files, choose your output format, enter your email and click “convert!” (I would recommend using your junk email address, as its unknown how Movavi archives or shares it.) Leave your browser window open for a brief ‘converting’ progress bar for each of the videos, and then they’ll email you a link to where you can download the finished results!

File output formats include:
• AVI format, Xvid (.avi)
• Mpeg-4 format (.mp4)
• MPEG-2 format, DVD Quality, PAL (.mpeg)
• MPEG-2 format, DVD Quality, NTSC (.mpeg)
• iPod video, 320×240 (.mp4)
• iPod 5G video, 640×480 (.mp4)
• iPhone video (.mp4)
• PSP video (.mp4)

I converted three YouTube videos to iPhone video, which took about ten minutes to wait through the ‘converting’ progress bars, then received the download link in about 30 minutes. The files play flawlessly on my iPod Touch so I can recommend Movavi to anyone who has been looking for a way to save online video on their local machine or convert for use on their mobile device.

Movavi Online Video Converter [via Lifehacker]

UPDATE: Upon closer inspection, the video files did not play flawlessly, or at all, on my iPod Touch. They required an additional, lengthy “Convert for iPod” from within iTunes. So, I would look elsewhere for converting local video for your mobile device, but Movavi still has my thumbs-up for a no-hassle way to get your grubby hands on your favorite YouTube videos.

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Everyone’s favorite little digital planet, Google Earth, recently received an update including new layers to display real-time weather information, including radar, clouds and forecasts. I, along with most everyone else it seems, has been wondering what took so long.

Although I didn’t find it right away, this update also includes looped radar and cloud animations. You can find it by clicking the “Information” tab under the Weather grouping, which offers links to download the 24-hour cloud animation or 6-hour radar animation. I’ve noticed these animations aren’t as fluid or high resolution as can be found directly on Weather.com, but its a good feature I hope they eventually refine.

Either way, this should make your Google Earth flight simulator adventures all the more realistic!

Google Earth 

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RetailMeNot.com is a great site to search for and, most importantly, find coupon codes and discounts for the majority of your bargain online shopping needs!

All of the coupon codes are user submitted, and user rated by asking “Did this coupon work for you?” For example, Kohl’s is having one of thier usual 15%, 20% or 30% Off sales, where Kohl’s Charge owners get drawn at “random” to receive one of the aforementioned coupons. More often than not, I get stuck with the measly 15% off. So this time, I just went up on RetailMeNot.com, searched for Kohls.com, and found the coupon codes for both the 20% and 30% off coupons! In addition, I also found a free shipping code I was unaware of! Exclamation point!

They’ve even made a handy little Firefox Extentsion, that when you install will give you a notification if the current website you are at has any applicable coupons for you to use! (I’ve noticed the plug-in isn’t totally reliable yet, as sometimes it tends to neglect to notify you for certain sites, so be sure to check the RetailMeNot.com website for the full coupon listings.)

Black Friday is fast approaching, so before you hit “Checkout” on your next online gift buying binge, head over to RetailMeNot.com and save some scratch. And, while you’re at it, if you have any coupon codes laying around the house, feel free to submit it to the site to further expand the coupon sharing euphoria!

RetailMeNot.com

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When a featured advertisement article on Yahoo Education named Entry-Level Jobs That Pay More Than $50k caught my attention, I didn’t expect my job to show up on the list. After all, my less-than-desirable salary was the very reason I clicked through in the first place. Yet, there it was, number nine on the list, mocking me: Web Designer — $51,931 entry earnings. I immediately let out a hearty Edna Krabappel style HA!

I’m not sure what Fantasy Happy Land they got their statistics from, but every full-time web design job I’ve had or interviewed for started at a $25,000 salary. Many of these requested 1-2 years professional experience, which is hardly “entry-level.”

This article provides yet another obvious source of comedic disinformation. Apparently, High School Teachers start their careers with $59,269 in entry earnings. I’m not sure the school district in which they may be referring to, perhaps one where Evian flows from the water fountains and the little children are curing cancer in the science lab, but I know a few teachers who would like to find out.

Some of these jobs, in some location, at some time, may pay this much. Or, at least, I can say that I hope they do. Yet, the overall lesson learned from this article (that was linked from the “Featured” section of the main Yahoo.com page) is that it, in fact, is not an article at all. It is merely a Trojan Horse, put forth by Yahoo, to populate the page with links to advertisements and listings of online college degrees on Yahoo Education. So don’t go taking these figures to your boss to use as evidence that you need a pay-raise unless, of course, you want to hear his best Edna Krabapple impression.

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