Online Shoppers Blog - Become's Pocket Change

Posting has been light these days, and for that we sincerely apologize. We will return to regularly scheduled posting soon. In the meantime

SPOILER ALERT:

this was a triumph.

Kris

Posted by Kris at 12:05 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

So it's about that time of the year again when family and friends start calling you randomly and sending you emails asking about your holiday wish list. Well, at least with my family it's like this. Throughout the year I always seem to find really cool electronics or toys or equipment that I would love to have, but when the holiday season rolls around, I always seem to draw a blank and can't remember what any of them were, and thus, my list is empty. I'm sure this happens to many people besides myself, including my own family and friends that I'm purchasing gifts for. The only thing worse than having to search countless hours for a gift to buy someone, who doesn't have a list or hasn't given you any ideas, is to surprise them with something they absolutely hate. It's happened to everyone, both on the gift giving side and the receiving end. What I've learned from all of this, is that you can never go wrong with a good DVD. No matter who you are, everyone enjoys the time to relax and watch a good, quality movie. In my quest to help you buy a DVD for that special someone, I have listed my 5 favorite movies off all time. Because I too have trouble buying gifts, I would love to hear your top 5. Here it goes...

1. American History X (1998) - Edward Norton, Edward Furlong

2. Dumb and Dumber (1994) - Jim Carrey, Jeff Daniels

3. Blow (2001) - Johnny Depp, Penelope Cruz

4. Shawshank Redemption (1994) - Tim Robbins, Morgan Freeman

5. 21 Grams (2003) - Sean Penn, Naomi Watts

Others that almost cracked the list would include:
Back to the Future, Dazed and Confused, Memento, Seven, and Die Hard

Comment, critique and post your own listing.

Brent

Posted by Brent at 01:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

By now, most of those who have picked up the Orange Box, Valve's newest offering, have played through and beaten Portal. Those who have traversed through it's puzzles have discovered a game with depth and style that is both engaging and ultimately satisfying. They have played a game that embraces all the things that games should be. However, there are those of you out there who have no picked up the "best value in gaming," and have not ventured through Aperture Science with the help of your only friend, the Weighted Companion Cube (R.I.P.). For those lonely soles I will try to break this game down, and try to convince you that it's time take the test: There will be cake.

The Good: This is a game that has taken everything that the industry has learned in the past 10 years and turned it flat out on it's face. The game puts you in an utterly absurd situation, and things just continue to get stranger as the games go in. This is a surreal fantasy. The levels test your thinking, while the atmosphere try to trick you at every turn. Even the primary weapon in the game, the portal gun, can cause you to quickly lose your bearings. Like all good absurd fantasy, the game keeps a sense of humor that really needs a much more prominent place in gaming. All of this wraps up in one of the single best credit roll ever made.

The Bad: While this game plays like a masterpiece, it's over in the time it takes to complete a demo of most games. The puzzles aren't exactly mind benders either. There are quite a few moments where the game left me wishing for more. Perhaps it's the fact that the portal gun leaves you a bit too powerful in your world, or that the levels were designed to only be a introduction to the possibilities of the portal world. It is hard to tell why there is not more to this game. However, it's much better to finish a game and want more, than finish a game and be glad that you're finally done with it.

The Bottom Line: Buy this. It's short and it isn't very complicated, but it's batched with 2 of the other best games ever made: Half Life 2 and Team Fortress 2. You really can't go wrong picking up 5 highly rated games for the price of one package.

Kris

Posted by Kris at 01:59 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

The following post is courtesy of Aram Cretan, former researcher here at become.com. Aram has sinced moved on from his role here to pursue his dreams of piracy, and general swashbuckling. He has changed his name to Captain Danford Stevenson and is the terror of the Sacramento River (like all business, you have to start on the bottom in piracy). He brings us a post he wrote before leaving us that is still quite useful information for those who use Become, or pretty much anything out there in the vast world of the interwebs. Enjoy

We got an email a little while ago from a woman named Kathy, who had been trying to order a handbag from a site that she found through us. It turned out the site didn't ship to where she lived (UK) and when she tried to cancel her order, they clammed up and stopped returning her emails--although they were still charging her credit card.

Now, before I go any further, I should point out that this is not one of our merchants that you'll see on the "Shop" side of Become.com. This was some random site that came up through our "Research" index, which, while we try to emphasize quality buying guides, reviews, blogs, etc., contains over four billion pages--some of them are merchants, and some of them are inevitably bad. I mean, have you SEEN the Internet? That place is HUGE!

Kathy naturally wanted some help, but there wasn't a lot we could do. If it were one of our merchants, then sure, there's a business relationship there that we could leverage on her behalf (not that our merchants would ever pull these kinds of shenanigans), but this was a site our crawler came across while indexing the web--there's just not a lot of recourse. Ultimately, I advised her to ask her credit card company to reverse the charges, since they're often pretty good about that. But as I looked at the site further, it occurred to me that this site just reeks of shady if you know what to look for--we see a bunch of these, and you get a pretty good Spidey sense after a while. I'm not trying to take anything away from poor Kathy, btw--these people make their livings off of looking just credible enough to part bright people from their disposable income. They're pros.

So while I wasn't really able to help Kathy that much (I emailed her about this post--Kathy, if you've got anything to say, please do leave a comment) perhaps Kathy's experience can help you. Let me show you exactly why I probably wouldn't spend my lazily-earned money at bagzandwatchez.com.

The name. OK, so a ridiculously-spelled name isn't itself an indicator of untrustworthiness, but notice how the name in the URL doesn't match the name on the page. If they were actually a store trying to build a brand and curry true favor with their customers, they wouldn't want you to end up going to bagsandwatches.com (which is currently domain-parked), which you might do if you were to type their address out from your memory of their site's logo. That lack of concern for repeat business is the same reason you shouldn't buy speakers out of the back of a van.

The site copy. Read the following paragraph:

Indulge your passion for luxury with our louis vuitton replica handbags, cerise monogram Louis Vuitton replica bags and imitations of the original cerise monogram Louis Vuitton handbags with a trendy motif inspired by the fruit of the cherry blossom, Japanese art wedded to Louis Vuitton perfection.

You know how if you repeat a word enough in a short span of time, it starts to sounds ridiculous? (Go ahead, say "cow" 50 times; I'll wait.) When you get to the end of the front page of this site, the words "Louis Vuitton" have become a meaningless collection of syllables--and for good reason. This page wasn't really written for you to read. It was written to look vaguely acceptable to human eyes while looking extremely juicy to search engine algorithms. We in the biz (I've always wanted to say that) call it "keyword stuffing," and while it's one of the cruder techniques that webmasters use to achieve a good ranking in search engines, it's still widely practiced. Black hat SEOs have gotten slightly more sophisticated than they were a few years ago--they can't just repeat the word "sex" 500 times in white text at the bottom of the page--but words used in context like the above example are trickier for machines to pick up on. General rule: if a page reads like it was written by someone who missed class the day the rest of us learned how to use pronouns, it was probably written by a scumbag, for a machine.

No contact info. This is a biggie. They have a contact us page, which is nice, I suppose--except, as Kathy found, it's pretty useless. It's just a form to fill out. There's no address or phone number, or anything that you could actually use to hunt them down and administer a beating. Even if you were to do a WHOIS on their domain, you'd see this:

Created: 2006-08-01
Expires: 2007-08-01
Last Modified: 2006-08-01 13:47:32

Registrant Contact:
Katz Global Domain Name Registration
Privacy Protected Domain Katz Global Domain Name Trust (domaintrust@katzglobal.com)
32 Maxwell Road #03-07 c/o bagzandwatchez.com
Singapore, SC, sg 069115
P: +65.67228356 F: +65.67258021

A couple causes for concern here:

1. A one-year registration on the domain which began two months ago. Again: not in itself damning, but not an indicator that they're in this for the long haul. Spammers and scammers go through domain names as quickly as Paris Hilton goes through BFFs--as soon as one site gets discovered and booted from all the search engines (as this one has, at least from Become, as of...now) they move on to the next.
   
2. They've used an anonymous domain registrant service. Domain registrars are required to keep public records of who registered which domain, so services have sprung up that will register a domain for you in their name, thereby shielding you from the public eye. This is great if you're a dissident in China who fears reprisal for your pro-democracy blog; it's not so great if you're trying to find someone who's charging your credit card for merchandise they never delivered. There are certainly legitimate uses for these services, but I don't think this is one of them.
   

And finally, there's the matter of the item itself. A site selling "replica" versions of high-end designer goods should raise a flag, since selling such items is kind of a legal gray area. They do clearly identify them as "replicas," so that's good, but it's a somewhat unsavory part of the Internet in the first place. If it's counterfeit bags you're looking for, I'd recommend the guy who usually sets up around Market & Turk, around the corner from the Crazy Horse. No teeth means no dental plan overhead, and he passes the savings on to you!

So anyway, I've been kind of long-winded here, but I hope I've been helpful. There are a number of other good resources on the web, too. For starters, try:

• About.com's Tips to Protect Yourself While Shopping Online
• Consumer Reports WebWatch
• The FTC's e-commerce page.

Aram

Posted by Kris at 09:17 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I have never been a huge fan of the FPS genre. I love multiplayer gaming, but when it comes to FPS and RTS games people tend to get so good so fast that it's nearly impossible to keep competitive. Sure, I'll play a single player FPS now and then. I was a huge fan of Bioshock, and I hear that people are crazy for the Haloz, but I don't have the same reaction to them that I do to RPGs.

I'll admit it: I never played Half-Life. I bought, but never completed, Half-Life 2. I played a little Counterstrike now and again, but only when the servers were down in World of Warcraft (or whatever MMO I was currently playing). So, when I started seeing videos of this Team Fortress 2 I was only slightly interested. This is of course until the "Meet the X" campaign began. I suddenly saw that this was not the typical FPS. This was a game that understood it's players. It was a game with a whole lot of style, a talented art team, and a whole lot of humor batched in. I started to see what there might be a bit of quality batched here.

After getting my hands on the game for awhile, I feel very safe to say that this is the best multiplayer experience I've had outside of an MMO since Diablo 2. The game is fast paced. Sure it comes with the same frustrations that any First Person Shooter tends to incite ("Where the #%#$ did he come from, What the @#$%# is shooting me?"), but I still can't help but laugh even after seeing my own foot lying on the ground with a little label telling me of its origin. It really helps to take the edge off a typically tense genre when the game refuses to take itself seriously.

However, I think what really separates TF2 from herd is the intense team dynamic. Most first person shooters pigeon-hole the player into one type of play style. Whether its Counterstrike, Halo, Half-life, or whatever you're play style is determined only by the type of gun you choose to pick up. Team Fortress 2 has 9 classes that each have important roles in the victory of the team. However, playing a Scout is a very different experience than playing a Spy. While a Spy's role may be sneak behind enemy lines and take out a few of those annoying sentry turrets or drop the medic that is about to turn the heavy into an unstoppable killing machine, the scout's role is to rely on its speed to capture the point or return the intelligence. Meanwhile the Medics, Soldiers, and so on all have their own role in the fight if there is any hope of emerging victorious.

Team Fortress 2 is part of the Orange Box, and is available on Steam October 10th, or you can pre-order it now and begin playing it this very minute! Check out past the Jump for some videos.

Edit: Feel free to friend me on Steam if you're looking for a Medic friend - Hiphopopotomus

Kris

Posted by Kris at 09:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I recently stumbled across an article in the New York Times about an ecard site that puts a spin on conventional ecards. Just in time for the holiday season too, since I just about gave up on finding free, witty ecards to passively send to loved ones, ex-loved ones, acquaintances, stalkers, stalkees, and people I may need favors from in the near future.

Someecards.com is just the ticket if like me, you enjoy a little digital sarcasm and humor in your electronic greetings. Created by Brook Lundy and Duncan Mitchell, and designed by Jerry Tamburro, someecards has cards that range from the traditional birthday and thank you greetings to the more unorthodox “cry for help” and flirting cards.

Personal favorites include “Let’s pretend to get together soon” and “Consider yourself invited to my funeral”. If you want to go with the more assertive route of sending actual greeting cards, these cards from eEvil Ink Design and Bald Guy Greetings should do the trick.

Jill

Posted by Jill at 03:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It's been confirmed that the popular rock band, Radiohead, will release their latest album, In Rainbows, on October 10th. Both loyal Radiohead fans and casual music fans alike are stoked for the release new album, but it's not the band's popularity that is creating all the buzz about their new music. In a ground breaking event in the music industry, Radiohead will be offering their new album without a record label or retail price. In Rainbows will be available only as a digital download from the band's website, Radiohead.com. If you place the album in your checkout bag, the screen will prompt you to enter a price you're willing to pay for it. The price is ultimately up to the customer; it is totally acceptable to pay $0 or any higher amount you desire. This is the first major record to ever give the customer complete control over pricing options.


The whole concept and idea behind this is really fascinating. I have no idea what the outcome of this business strategy will be. On one hand, they will be able to distribute their music and gain exposure from all the people looking for free music. This could indirectly help them with concerts and ticket sales. But on the other hand, I wonder how much revenue they will lose from people who were expecting to pay the market value of $15 for the album. Regardless, I still believe there is a large demographic who are loyal to the artist and will support them with compensation for the CD. And since there is no record label involved in this business model, the band will actually be making all the profits.


That leads me to another interesting question. If this trend catches on and becomes popular, will there be any need for record labels? Generally a band under a major record label only receives about 30% of all sales, so I'm interested to see how much gross profit Radiohead actually receives without a label, compared to what they could have made with them. Anyways, it will be interesting to see how this new "business model" affects the music industry. It surely can't be good for the large record labels, but I'm wondering what kind of affect they will have on such distributors as iTunes, and Amazon's new music project.

Brent

Posted by Brent at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Beyond.com would like to thank the LA times for renaming our company. (If they fix it) We had all been sitting around brainstorming on how we could come up with a really terrible name, then the LA times comes along and helps us out. Using the power of run on sentences, they were able to tell the story of this young startup and our antics during the Google invasion. One may ask, "but the Google invasion was months ago," and "this article is entirely pointless." Yes, but the intrepid journalists at the LA times have moved beyond being "relevant," "timely," and "correct."

So, in order to thank the LA times we here at Beyond.com would like to present Jessica Guynn and Michelle Quinn with the Beyond.com Medal of Journialisticism Excelentitude.

You should be proud.

Fail

Kris

Posted by Kris at 09:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)