Do the owners of test.com check the email sent to test@test.com? If they do what do they do with the possible thousands of test messages being sent everyday? Is the volume substantial or moderate?

I develop Rich Internet Applications for a living and over the years (7 of them) I’ve used test@test.com countless times in development and also to bypass lame email checks/registration requirements.

Does anyone out there in the blogosphere know the owners of test.com?

From their “About” page:

Test.com has a successful twelve year track record providing hosted testing software to leading organizations.

Visit Test.com for organizations to learn more about Test.com’s flagship product, or contact us if you would like to learn more about Test.com and how you can request a free no obligation trial of our software.

Why can’t Google tell me what time it is? I know that my IP address and it’s corresponding ISP location aren’t an exact match to my physical address but why can’t Google just take a whack at it, and tell people that they *might* be wrong?

Here’s a quick little graphic I worked up in Fireworks showing where My IP registered (geographically) and where I’m actually located.

Not a huge distance in miles, and definitely within the same time zone (EST), therefore Google could easily tell me what time it is.

I don’t know if you’ve been to Yahoo! Shopping lately, but it’s a complete disaster of a shopping portal and Yahoo should be ashamed … ASHAMED! of having that atrocity in their mature web portfolio.

First some history …

I happened across Shopping.Yahoo.com not because I was ‘shopping’ but rather I was following the story on Woot! about a new “partnership” they rolled out with Y! Shopping (anyone else find it weird that Woot! and Yahoo! both end! with! exclamations?! Jason Toon is hilarious by the way, and his blog announcement of the “selling out” is a good read.\

Getting back to Y! Shopping, if anyone hasn’t seen the home page, it’s a disaster of banner ads, links that look like banner ads, and poorly structured navigation and changing page layouts … it’s that bad.

Here’s a screenshot, see the large version at Flickr.

Here’s a screenshot with my commentary, and the larger version at Flickr.

The Problems as I See Them:

1. The main store navigation looks like a poorly disguised ad placement, more commonly seen on spammy landing pages setup by domain prospectors.
2. There are ads, everywhere. Too many ads and not enough product highlights and shopping tools. Amazon makes Yahoo! Shopping look downright silly.
3. Wasted space. Not only do the ads take up valuable real estate, the spacing is bad and Yahoo uses an entire section to tell me I’m not logged in that could be devoted to … selling? (what a concept)
4. Woot! Their best feature is halfway down this depressing page, and offers the only glimmer of hope (and slim chance that someone still has a pulse) over at Yahoo! Shopping.

Look, I’m sure Yahoo! makes an assload of money from this portal, and probably sells a crap load of ads and makes a tidy profit. But it’s just downright horrible, and they could make a lot more if they’d devote a little attention (and some expensive Stanford PHD brain time) on devising a better shopping experience, and in turn better ROI for their advertisers.

Inspired by my last article on Global Warming I scoured the web for for funny videos on the topic of global warming and found some of the best clips I’ve seen online in a long time. I searched YouTube, Google Video, Flurl, MetaCafe and found videos from Futurama, The Simpsons, Stephen Colbert, Will Ferrel and more. So without further adieu, here’s the list of 10:

1. Will Ferrel. This clip was featured in my last article but it’s so good it deserves to be posted again. Here’s Will Ferrel playing President George Bush talking about Global Warming.

2. Futurama. Global Warming or: None Like it Hot is a classic Futurama clip that I found on GooTube.

3. The Simpsons. I found this video at MySpaceTV (of all places) of Marge and Lisa getting a demonstration on Global Warming.

The simpsons Global Warming

Add to My Profile | More Videos

4. Futurama. Futurama gets on the board a second time with another video, this one featuring Al Gore and the crowd favorite Bender.

5. South Park. The Day After Tomorrow theme is taken up by South Park in this 2 minute clip.

South Park- The Day After Tomorrow – Watch the best video clips here

6. Stephen Colbert. The Convenienist Truth video is a great clip from Colbert. I wish I could find more Colbert material but Comedy Central isn’t very generous when it comes to allowing bloggers to embed clips (they’re using WMV streaming for crying out loud!).

THE CONVENIENTIST TRUTH – Click here for more amazing videos

7. Stephen Colbert. This is a rather low quality video (from WeWin.com via Flurl) of Stephen interviewing author Tim Flannery about his new book The Weather Makers. Colbert’s interviews are always good for a laugh.

8. Polar Bear. This is actually a commercial for Halls I believe, but it’s pretty funny and somewhat related.

9. Philip Walkate. I’ve never heard of this Duth comedian but here’s some stand up from him with some topics relating to Global warming.

Dutch Comedian Philip Walkate In New York: Global Warming – More free videos are here

10. Spinal Tap. This video is funnier for it’s Spinal Tap content but it’s related to Global Warming in that the band needs to reunite for the themed concert.