The Buzz

My friend Megan pointed me in the direction of an article about an abandoned government project to make cars safer and more fuel efficient. The technology, designed in 1975, might still have lessons to offer despite advances in car technology.

We may not have known so much about them or had as much to learn from them if the government hadn’t lost count, as two managed to avoid destruction when the program was finished. The cars could protect drivers from many times of accidents at up to 50 miles per hour, get 32 miles to the gallon and were, for 1970s standards, pretty hot looking cars. Despite an ad campaign by the government to encourage car companies to adopt the tech, it was never meant to be.

Jalopnik has a fantastic article about the Minicar Research Safety Vehicles program, and more importantly, pictures and video of the car that could have made a big impact if its features had been implemented in the 80s, as originally hoped.

SOURCE: Jalponik via Impact Lab

There’s a group of people who have turned making their money go farther and work harder into quite the game. I’ve pointed previously to the Drugstore Game, where people go through a lot of work to spend as little as possible using coupons at drugstores.  I’ve also written about rewards and cashback programs online.

But why leave money on the table?There’s a segment of us though who have to spend certain amounts of money on certain areas. If you’re a commuter, you spend a certain amount on gas because, well, you have to get to work, after all.

NerdWallet offers an interesting proposition: by inputting your spending trends, it will recommend the credit card that will get you the best rewards possible. One additional important difference about them is that although, like other services, they get affiliate payments for referring people to credit cards, they don’t limit the choices to them, but instead offer links to others that they don’t get paid for either. This widens the net and really allows you to find obscure offers that may pay off nicely.

This won’t help you if you carry a balance from month to month; rewards cards tend to carry high interest rates and will quickly wipe out any benefit you get from miles or points. But if you charge a lot and pay it off at the end of each month, such as a card that you expense out for work each month, this could be one great way to make your money give a little extra back.

SOURCE: Lifehacker

Facebook was generally devoid of a lot of crapware. The company had done a good job of protecting users from malicious applications and links. Unfortunately, it seems this isn’t always the case anymore, and it’s getting worse, as the number of attacks appear to be on the rise.

Earlier this month, it was a series of videos that had sexy imagery that went with it. They led to applications or downloads that were rogue, and then sent it to all of that person’s friends, looking to keep the party going. Tonight, it appears another one’s spreading, this time masquerading as something legit – a guy who took a picture of himself for eight years straight. That is a true news item, albeit old (see video below), but the links are leading to URLs that don’t look very trustworthy. Researchers believe this will become more common, since they apparently work.

As always, if a link seems suspicious, be careful; Facebook is beginning to look a lot more like E-mail in terms of how trustworthy it is.

Now, for that video I promised:

Living My Life Faster – 8 years of JK’s Daily Photo Project from JK Keller on Vimeo.

SOURCE: IT Business Edge

Prepaid cell phones have developed a reputation of being an inexpensive alternative for those who don’t want or can’t afford a monthly plan. They’ve been touted as a way to avoid a contract. They’re also very popular with those on the more illicit side of things, as they can be thrown away easily, bought easily and can be registered basically with fake information. As such, drug dealers, terrorists and the like have caught on to them as a way to avoid easy detection by law enforcement.

That raises red flags for some senators, including New York’s Chuck Schumer. They’re calling for tracking of prepaid wireless phones as a way to try to crack down on some of this crime. Among the proposed rules: an ID would have to be shown during the purchase of a prepaid phone. Of course, that would require those behind the counter to be good with verifying ID in the first place, and we know that people are capable of opening accounts with other people’s information.

SOURCE: Washington Post via Engadget

One of the features that was added to Facebook over the past few years is the ability to change a page into a memorial page when someone passes away. A friend or family member sends in pertinent information such as an obituary, and then Facebook will convert the page. However, once it’s done, it’s apparently difficult to reverse, as a Consumerist reader discovered.

Ryan’s Facebook page was converted a month ago, and he still can’t get it converted back. If someone is converted by mistake, or plays a prank on a friend and reports them dead, it looks like Facebook hell results.

SOURCE: Consumerist

Google released a list of the top 1000 most visited websites in the world. Because it’s a list for their ad division, they chose to leave themselves off, but they’d top it if they were there. There aren’t any major surprises, although those who thought Yahoo! was weak and in decline may be interested to see they’ve still got a boatload of traffic.

SOURCE: Google via Gizmodo

I previously wrote about the project that the team at 48 Hours magazine was ready to tackle: Writing, designing, editing and shipping an entire magazine in 48 hours.

Now that the project is done, check out this video that shows how it all came together:

The magazine is now available for purchase, and content is able to be enjoyed online.

SOURCE: Vimeo via Laughing Squid via Gizmodo

Chalk this one up to clever marketing, even if it’s questionable. A reader of Consumerist has written in to point out some “advertised prices” at Best Buy lately have been more expensive than the everyday price. They are careful enough to avoid the word sale, but if true, they’re playing into the game some play of scanning the advertised specials for a good deal, while ignoring the “regularly priced” items, which could end up being a better bargain under this system.

Me, when I shop for computer equipment, I compare specs for the price, and generally you’ll always be a winner if you do that, especially if you’re flexible on the brand. Best Buy has been the winner of that exercise before, but so has Wal-Mart, Target and, when they were still around, Circuit City. I have no experience yet with P.C. Richard and Son, but now that they’re in the area they’ll certainly be in the mix as well.

SOURCE: Consumerist