Marked for Dearth

Thanks to Dealnews, I snagged a Dell 2001FP monitor for $564 plus shipping. This was a no brainer. It took me a while to realize that Dell’s hardware prices are highly dependent on the coupon code you dig up, the current phase of the moon, and your general temperament at the time of purchase.

This type of promotion always struck me as kind of random: reward people who spend a long time hunting around for the best deals. They don’t have to buy additional accessories, mail in rebates, or recommend the manufacturer’s products to their friends - only spend the requisite amount of time looking for the secret alphanumeric passphrase that lowers the price. Speak friend and enter.

The AdWords API, a project I’ve spent most of my time working on recently, launched today. The API lets you interact with Google’s advertising system programmatically. It’s probably too geeky for, say, your grandmother to appreciate, but if you have an AdWords account and have written a for-loop or two in your day, go check it out.

What can you do with it? Well, you could always carry out Phil’s “Eye of Sauron” scheme on an unprecedented scale. If you’re into that sort of thing.