Woot!

Woot-offThis is sort of silly but there are a few websites I check every day…even on weekends.  One of the first is www.woot.com.  They typically sell one item per day.  If/when they sell out of the item, the site is locked until the next day.  Now, that may seem pretty dull but the deals are typically pretty great.  They also have hilarious product descriptions, a funny podcast and goofy comments on the blog.  But the really exciting part is when they have a woot-off (usually once a month…you’ll see the sirens and the yellow progress bar during a woot-off).  During a woot-off, which can last 1or more days, they sell one item until it is gone, and then they move on to another item.  I suppose it is a purging of the items left in the warehouse that either didn’t sell during normal woots or were purchased in smaller quantity.  Anyhow, it is a ton of fun for me to watch the progression of items for sale during a woot-off.  The problem is, many items sell out in a matter of minutes.  I can’t sit at work all day refreshing a webpage waiting for the next item.  Of course, I can’t sit all day at work during a woot-off and miss any items either.  Faced with a problem, I thought, “hey, I am a computer programmer…I own this!”  From that, “woot watcher!” was born.  I wrote a little application to check the site every 30 seconds and look for changes.  When it finds a change, it pops up a message with the item title and cost.  I can choose to ignore it or view the item.  Now, there are others who have written similar applications, but I like having control over how my version works. 

You can download my program here.  When you click the link, it will prompt you to run or save.  Just save it to your desktop (or wherever you want) and have it ready for the next woot-off!  Please drop me a comment if you download.  I am just curious if anyone else likes woot or “woot watcher!”.  Of course, you download this at your own risk.  I make no warranty for the program or your system.  Please feel free to virus scan it.  It works well for me but I can’t be responsible if it sends your Windows 95 machine over the edge!