Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

READ THESE RULES CAREFULLY!

Remember how Tom Sawyer conned his friends into whitewashing his fence by pretending it was a blast? Well, we’ve got something similar in mind! Welcome to our first Woot Product Review Bonanza, where you get to do our work of reviewing a product for us while we spend the afternoon at the racetrack! Scientists and theologians agree that you’ll never do anything more fun than reviewing a product for Woot. And it’s not just about fun: you get to keep the product you review! This episode, we bring you the Beyond™ Smart Microwave Oven – totally FREE, with two conditions:

1) You use the microwave for a while, come back here, and give us a frank, honest review. If you hate it, let us know what you hate about it (though if you love it, they’d like to hear that, too). This is part of a new product-testing program that we’re working on with some of our suppliers, so we’d need you to tell us the brutal truth, not just blow sunshine up our butts. We’ll give you more details with your microwave. If you take the microwave and don’t review it for us, expect us to hound you with increasingly impolite emails. Ultimately, remember: we know where you live…

2) Here’s the hard part: in the next post on this discussion board, we are going to show you a satellite photo. Where is it? What is its relevance to this giveaway? The first person to identify it by sending me a PM will win a Beyond™ Smart Microwave Oven. What’s more, the winner gets to choose one other participant in this discussion to receive a microwave and review it for us.

When a winner for one photo is announced, we will show you another photo immediately – same deal. We’ll show you five photos in total. You can only win once.

HOW TO ENTER:

  • Send me a private message with your guess. You can do that by clicking on the “pm” button at the bottom of this post. This is extremely important!
  • If you post your answer in the forum discussion but don’t PM me, you will not get credit for it! Plus, somebody else could steal your answer and PM me first. Feel free to discuss the contest here, but give the answer away at your own risk.
  • Put your answer in a format like this: "#3 – Sioux City, SD - home of the Sioux City Microwaves hockey team" – got it? Which picture, where it is, why it’s relevant.

Wake your co-workers, call your grandma, alert the authorities. I’ll post the first picture in five minutes. Flex your Google muscles and get ready to hunt! A Beyond™ Smart Microwave Oven hangs in the balance!


Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

PHOTO #1

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

The competition was fierce, but we have a winner!

SirTwitchAlot was the first to correctly guess Howland, Maine, birthplace of Perry Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven! On with the contest:

PHOTO #2

Snapster


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Snapster

heh.. I guess everyone's keeping their guesses to themselves.

Snapster


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Snapster
 Snapster wrote:
heh.. I guess everyone's keeping their guesses to themselves.


note - guesses are supposed to be PM'd to Jason, I don't mean to mislead anyone with that comment.

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

Everybody's holding their cards close to the vest, it seems - not much discussion here...

I can tell you that this is NOT the headquarters of Raytheon, Percy Spencer's former employer (good guess, though). Indeed, is it a corporate headquarters at all...? Could be, could be...

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

In case you don't know, you can check your guesses against the satellite photos at http://maps.google.com/ - just enter a city or address and click "satellite" for the photo image.

patsyk


quality posts: 0 Private Messages patsyk

So has the winner chosen their co-reviewer yet? I would love to be the person chosen to get the other microwave to review. Me me, pick me!

skskou


quality posts: 0 Private Messages skskou

Jason, you have a PM.

steve

Snapster


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Snapster
 patsyk wrote:
So has the winner chosen their co-reviewer yet? I would love to be the person chosen to get the other microwave to review. Me me, pick me!


Good point, I think Jason wanted the winners to pick a woot member from the conversation thread here. Woot staff not included, it seems to be a rather limited choice!

jimmuldoon


quality posts: 0 Private Messages jimmuldoon

I use the microwave all the time, I would make a great tester! :)

szfsoft


quality posts: 0 Private Messages szfsoft

If a winner wants to choose a co-reviewer, I'm up for the job!

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

skskou is indeed the winner for photo #2 - Newton, Iowa, home of Amana, first manufacturer of the microwave oven for home use. Nice work! Tell us how you like the microwave!

PHOTO #3

Turken


quality posts: 5 Private Messages Turken

heh... I guess I didn't read the contest description completely the first time through. you're right about picking a co-reviewer... I'm game if anyone wants to hand out a random microwave to a fellow wooter.


Nancidrew


quality posts: 0 Private Messages Nancidrew

oooooh, fun. Review a product for WOOT! Me, me, me- I want to try!!

OK,on to the contest...
Oh.
Aerial photos.

Sigh.
Speaking as a geeklette with a doctorate and more than basic skills in many areas, I am herewith submitting the following whine (cheese, please):

Aerial photos are mean and stupid. they don't care about me and just flaunt their relationships with competently right-brained persons willy nilly, without so much as a passing thought in our direction.

I want a contest I have a half a chance in hell of winning. Or at least not looking quite so, what's the word, stupid in.

thank you. the cheese was tasty.

-Nancidrew


Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

Woot user ebrusky was the first to correctly identify #3 as the Lake Forest, Illinois headquarters of Salton, manufacturers of the Beyond kitchen line whence comes the free microwave. Only two more...look sharp:

PHOTO #4

SirTwitchAlot


quality posts: 0 Private Messages SirTwitchAlot
 Jason Toon wrote:
skskou is indeed the winner for photo #2 - Newton, Iowa, home of Amana, first manufacturer of the microwave oven for home use. Nice work! Tell us how you like the microwave!

PHOTO #3




OH OH OH! I know the answer to this one, but I already won the first photo. I like this contest.

Snapster


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Snapster
 SirTwitchAlot wrote:



OH OH OH! I know the answer to this one, but I already won the first photo. I like this contest.


Jason and dave bug assured me that people would get these but I'm still pretty amazed at how fast they are being found.

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

Congrats, CraftyKnave! You were the first to guess Boston, Massachusetts, where the first microwave oven was tested in a restaurant (the name of the restaurant is lost to history). On to the fifth and final pic...

PHOTO #5

kkfern


quality posts: 0 Private Messages kkfern
 Snapster wrote:

Jason and dave bug assured me that people would get these but I'm still pretty amazed at how fast they are being found.



this is tough.

skskou


quality posts: 0 Private Messages skskou

I've seen tougher.

Follow the hints.

steve

Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

There was a mad rush for this one, but Snookered beat everybody else to the punch with his correct answer: Carrollton, TX, the semi-secret location of the Woot Warehouse of Solitude!

Great Googling, gang!

Coming momentarily: a list of all the secondary recipients of microwaves...Stay tuned!

Nancidrew


quality posts: 0 Private Messages Nancidrew

What's really sad? I grew up in Boston. I actually looked at that picture and said, "hey, that kind of looks like Boston". But, then, I'm the girl who knows to turn right if my initial instinct is to turn left when unsure, so I didn't say anything, did I? and it turned out to be Boston.

Pah.

Bad, naughty, evil contest. Naughty, evil Woot.

Yet I can't stop paying attention until the ^%&$$$ thing is over, can I?

-Nanci

Turken


quality posts: 5 Private Messages Turken

doh! I knew that last one, but pm'd the wrong person...


szfsoft


quality posts: 0 Private Messages szfsoft

Darn! I was gonna guess it... right after it was already guessed! Good hunting, Snookered...

Staranela


quality posts: 0 Private Messages Staranela

Good job everyone. All I managed to come up with is a portfolio of locations NOT included n the contest...lol.

Snookered


quality posts: 0 Private Messages Snookered

And it was just an educated guess! WOOOOOOOT-Hoooo!

CraftyKnave


quality posts: 0 Private Messages CraftyKnave
 Nancidrew wrote:
What's really sad? I grew up in Boston. I actually looked at that picture and said, "hey, that kind of looks like Boston". But, then, I'm the girl who knows to turn right if my initial instinct is to turn left when unsure, so I didn't say anything, did I? and it turned out to be Boston.

Pah.

Bad, naughty, evil contest. Naughty, evil Woot.

Yet I can't stop paying attention until the ^%&$$$ thing is over, can I?

-Nanci



If it's a comfort, I'm from Boston as well, so I recognized it right off, too. Some fancy fast googling got the relevance.

popeketric


quality posts: 0 Private Messages popeketric

I almost had it as well.

Too bad too, I could have used a new Micro

Turken


quality posts: 5 Private Messages Turken
 Snookered wrote:
And it was just an educated guess! WOOOOOOOT-Hoooo!



good job Snookered... so, you pick yer secondary winner yet Wink


Jason Toon


quality posts: 16 Private Messages Jason Toon

Staff

Check your PMs, winners - and get back to me with your secondary winner names. As long as they've posted in this thread, that is...

RMSKOUSON


quality posts: 0 Private Messages RMSKOUSON

ME TOO ME TOO EVERYONE NEEDS A SMART MICROVAVE OVEN.

RMS

skskou


quality posts: 0 Private Messages skskou
 RMSKOUSON wrote:
ME TOO ME TOO EVERYONE NEEDS A SMART MICROVAVE OVEN.

RMS



Don't you know, only an ID10T uses all caps?

What a maroon!

steve

ghetto2310


quality posts: 0 Private Messages ghetto2310

That was more fun than those photo contests.

jimmuldoon


quality posts: 0 Private Messages jimmuldoon

Once Again, I use the nuke box all the time, I would love to review a new one :)

RMSKOUSON


quality posts: 0 Private Messages RMSKOUSON

I'm sorry for the all cap post i'm a first timer a virgin if you will

dmaggio12


quality posts: 0 Private Messages dmaggio12

Thank you Readers Digest 1958 edition for the informative article about Spencer and Boston.

melmobile


quality posts: 0 Private Messages melmobile

Great Contest!! I was always just a tad slow on the locations!!

mzwaterski


quality posts: 0 Private Messages mzwaterski

To whom it may concern (anyone in need of a secondary contact),
Make sure you look good in front of all of your wootians. Select me as secondary reviewer. I will make sure that you don't have a poor review tied to your record. Plus, I'm really talented. For example, I can pat my head and rub my stomach while saying the alphabet backwards. Additionally, as a poor college student I'm very well-versed in the art of microwave cuisine. If you could see a picture of my current model you'd notice that I A) use my microwave a lot and B) need a new one.

Please pledge your support for my microwave needs and I'll be sure to write a superb review!!

-mzwaterski

Deweypc20


quality posts: 0 Private Messages Deweypc20

did I win anything?