Opportunity for Amazon to help storm victims

I’m hearing lots of horror stories about the situation out in the Rockaways and Staten Island - families in need of diapers, wipes, sanitary products, trash bags, etc. As an Amazon Prime member, I can purchase these supplies online and send them via cheap overnight shipping to some families who need the help. I know it’s tough to get supplies out there, so they can’t use cash, and donating to a large charity like the Red Cross, while helpful, isn’t as direct.

Amazon should collect addresses of families/shelters/parishes in need and make it super easy on their home page (One Click) to order supplies and have them expedited to the area. I remember all those laudatory stories about Wal-Mart trucks beating FEMA to New Orleans after Katrina. Now we can have “Amazon trucks” (UPS) descending on Belle Harbor, Staten Island, Jersey shore, etc. throughout the week.

Amazon, Google, or someone should get on that. Please let me know if something like this already exists and I’m missing it.

I think a much better goal is to live with the smallest number of gadgets possible… Dig deep into your soul, and make a list of what you want to do more of between now and the day you die. If one of those activities really is surfing the web even more than you do now, then go ahead and buy the iPad. But if not, let go of your desire and let’s go out for a bike ride instead.
Why I am SO Not Buying an iPad 3 | Mr. Money Mustache

Source: mrmoneymustache.com

The cell phone is dead (long live the cell phone)

Through some dumb moves on my part, I am without a phone for the week (TL;DR: I ported my number from AT&T to Verizon, but then returned my Verizon phone to Amazon, so have an iPhone sans phone - basically, a fancy iPod Touch). I’m still not sure how it’s all going to shake out - there’s about a 10% chance that I’ll have to pay $1,000 or something for a new phone. Good times.

What’s remarkable to me is how easy it is to live without a cell phone. Granted - I’m cheating by using a 3G iPad - but between WiFi on my phone, Skype on my iPad, Google Voice (everywhere!), and iMessage, I’m pretty much constantly contact-able by anyone anywhere. 

This is why a 3G data-only iPod Touch doesn’t exist. People like me would buy it and cancel our cell phone plans. I feel pretty goofy walking around with my iPad to supermarkets, restaurants, etc., but if there was a 3G iPod Touch that I could slip into my pocket, and use essentially as a data-only phone, I’d buy it in a heartbeat.

All I’ll say is that Twitter makes watching sports more fun. In fact, it makes many things much more fun to watch: political debates, award shows, movies that always end up trending because they’re playing on BET, etc. In fact, Twitter often flips the script on these events. When I watch the Oscars, I don’t actually watch them. I watch TWITTER, and then periodically check the Oscars to see if Kirk Douglas dropped dead on stage.

Twitter Is Now The Most Important Part Of The NFL Viewing Experience

Agreed 1,000%