I use the person-to-person payment feature on ING Direct to send and receive money every month. To accept a payment, I need to visit a page on their site and enter my receiving account’s number and routing number (twice each). This month, ING Direct stupidly and obnoxiously installed some crap javascript that prevents me from pasting the account number and routing number into their page.

Why?

It seems they’re trying to degrade my banking experience further, perhaps because they’re now owned by Capital One, which recently lost me as a customer when they attempted to convert my 20-year-old VIP no-fee checking account into an ordinary account that costs $8.95/month or some comparable figure to maintain.

But ING Direct makes or saves no additional money by diminishing my ability to use person-to-person payments, so I can only assume that they are consumed with the desire to put up as many obstacles to outgoing money transfers as possible.

I easily out-maneuvered their shitty website by installing the Kill Evil extension in Chrome, but I also think this is a shot across the bow and that ING Direct’s new owners are resolved to ruin it the way they ruined Chevy Chase Bank, which Capital One also bought.

Who can recommend a free online checking account (not Ally) that has a great person-to-person payments system?

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FdUf3jXqcko

CNET on cannabis without THC:

A group of Israeli scientists decided that they should pursue this joy-dampening experiment… they wanted to dampen the effect of tetrahydrocannabinol, the pot element that makes you feel so very good. But their aim was to increase the effect of cannabidiol, a substance that has been shown in some studies to help not only diabetics, but also those with some psychiatric disorders. “It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant — it’s all the same — but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared.”

At least one comment sarcastically calls for the mullahs’ regime to attack Israel with nuclear weapons.

Leave it to the Jews to ruin this for everybody.

Wow, somebody put (legitimate) English subtitles on one of my all time favorites, Tunak Tunak Tun:

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOHjKoic1Ts

Sweetheart, the strings of the instrument play / Listen to what the heart says / Come and love me … The world is a colorful place / It’s not good or bad.

I’ll never listen to this song the same way again.

Slate:

… I go online to look for pants. Pants are my fashion Waterloo. I’ve got a slight waist and short legs, a dimensional no-pants-land that’s ill-served by most retail stores… I’ve come across a few expensive brands of jeans, chinos, and dress pants that fit me somewhat well, and my strategy has been to buy up as many of them as possible… it’s sartorially boring, not to mention expensive… From afar, the Web looks like a trouser treasure trove… What could go wrong? … But then my pants arrive and they’re a disaster. Even though they’re in my size, they don’t really fit.

His problem is to assume that buying pants off the rack, in the mass produced sizes, is ever going to work. What he should do instead is look into tailoring, which is obviously not an entirely obscure topic to him because he’s written about it.

What I recommend is: shop online first by manufacturer, then by style/fabric, then cut, then color and finally waist size, and order a pair of pants that that will probably be too long. Then take them to a great local tailor and, for $10 or less, they can fit perfectly.

Like Farhad, I’m in the Bay area, and I warmly recommend Roberto, who’s accessible by BART/Muni (Montgomery Station) and who has done great work for me: taking pleats out of suit pants, which is a major job; and hemming a bunch of chinos that I bought from Uniqlo online via Suddenlee, a minor job to Roberto but still major to me.

Information Architects on social network share buttons:

Some people probably do use those buttons. Maybe even a lot of people. And maybe you do… I won’t deny all that. What I know for sure is that most people who know how to use social media also know how to share URLs…

Summary: get rid of the damn buttons from your site.