Nov

21

The Gift Assistant to be Sued by Ohio Attorney General

Filed Under General | 31 Comments

Well, it looks like the shady practices of my former employer have finally been noticed by the right people. The Ohio Attorney General, Jim Petro, has filed suit against The Gift Assistant:

The Enquirer - Ohio Attorney General Suing Norwood Company

In a lawsuit filed in Hamilton County last week, Petro’s office is asking a judge to order the company at 1776 Mentor Ave. to cease violating the Ohio Consumer Sales Practices Act. It says the Gift Assistant used unfair and deceptive methods to take at least $42,000 from at least 250 people. Petro wants the money returned and the company fined $25,000 for each violation of the law.

Hopefully this will get some money back to the hundreds of people who were scammed. The two owners had this coming and I am glad they will finally be answering for the crap that they pulled.

Nov

16

Amazon Showcase Wordpress Widget

Filed Under General | 13 Comments

I’m proud to announce one of my first code releases:
Amazon Showcase Wordpress Widget

Amazon Showcase is a Wordpress Widget for showcasing items from Amazon. Simply enter the ASIN/ISBN number of any product and optionally enter an Associate ID for earning commissions. The product image will be displayed with a link to the product detail page on Amazon.com.

This widget was born out of my own need for a simple way to add Amazon products to my sidebar. As you can see, I am using it to display the book that I am currently reading. Amazon Showcase makes use of Amazon’s Web Services, Representational State Transfer (REST) and a little PHP XML parsing magic to grab products from their catalog dynamically.
So enjoy, and please offer feature requests, I plan on expanding this widget in the near future!

Nov

15

Immigrants Good, Mass Immigration Bad

Filed Under General | 3 Comments

I don’t like to get into political stuff too much, but this “Immigration by the Numbers” video explaining the effect of immigration in the United States is just outstanding. A must watch for anyone who lives in the U.S.

Roy Beck’s celebrated demonstration of the population consequences of current U.S. immigration policies has entertained and shocked all audiences across the country. This video is packed with the facts and analysis that make moral and practical sense of a complex and highly contentious issue.

Immigration by the Numbers at Google Video