Posts by Sarah Stokely
Customer Service: How to resolve a complaint with your bank
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | For many people, banks are large corporations which can be intimidating to deal with. But if they make a mistake or start giving you bad customer service, you’ll need to speak up. Here are some tips from Lifehacker tipster Paul Fenwick, who recently got his mortgage provider to reverse a $400 charge they’d put on his loan without notice.
Paul’s advice? Take notes, be unfailingly polite but persist in escalating your complaint, and be prepared to take your case to the ombudsman (BFSO) or appropriate body (such as VCAT in Victoria).
“As it happens, I’ve never had a case go to either the BFSO or VCAT, and
that included our dispute with RHG. Why? Because it’s much cheaper for
the dispute department to roll over on a $400 dispute than it is to go
through all the time and expense of a legal process. Even if they win,
the time taken to bring a dispute through VCAT will end up costing them
more than $400. This sort of process tends to be a very reliable way,
albeit a somewhat time consuming one, to resolve a dispute with most
large organisations.”
Check out Paul’s blog for the full story. And if you liked his hack, check out his previous Lifehacker tips – including how to declutter the web using Greasemonkey, and how to hack the best seat on an airplane. Thanks for the tip, Paul!
Beating up banks – a tale of success [Paul Fenwick]
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Get involved at the first OLPC Techfest in Sydney
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Back in February, we broke the news that the One Laptop Per Child charity was set to come down under – which was great news for people interested in helping with the development of its uber cool open source laptop, the XO. OLPC Australia has just announced it will host its first OLPC Techfest in Sydney on Sunday, 1 June. It will include demonstrations, workshops about the OLPC hardware and software, and developer tutorials. If you’re at all interested in the OLPC, I strongly recommend you attend this event, as a lot of its very cool features are best demonstrated when you can network a bunch of the machines together, as will no doubt happen at this event.For full details, check out the OLPC website. [via]
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How to survive Melbourne’s 3rd annual Zombie Shuffle
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Phew, just in time for Melbourne’s third annual Zombie Shuffle, comes Wired’s handy guide for surviving a zombie apocalypse.I can’t say I’m a zombie fan, personally I prefer the old days when geeks were either into monkeys or ninjas. But if you’re into bandages, horror movie makeup and mumbling “braaaains” then the Zombie Shuffle may be right up your alley. Enjoy! I mean, braaaains! :)
[via Richard Watts] More » Salary sacrifice for laptops axed
5:38AM Sarah Stokely | One not-so-great outcome of the Federal budget this week was that the fringe benefit exemptions have been tightened on laptops. So the practise of salary sacrificing to get a laptop is on its way out, unless you use it “primarily for work”. If you were thinking of rushing one through before June 30, apparently that’s not an option either – the changes have already taken effect. Thanks, Mary, for that tip. More » Reminder: Win an autographed Lifehacker book
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | We are giving away autographed copies of the new Lifehacker book in our current competition. All you need to do is submit your best tip, trick or Lifehack, and you’ll be in the running to win a copy of Upgrade Your Life, autographed by Lifehacker founder Gina Trapani. We’re giving away the first lot of books on Friday, so get your entry in pronto!Check out the original post for details on how to enter, and good luck! :) More » 
Quickly grab multiple photos from the web for editing with Picnik
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | We’ve already talked a fair bit about online photo editing suite Picnik but this tip from Digital Inspiration seemed like such a great way to grab a bunch of photos for editing at once, I wanted to share it.Basically, rather than grabbing images one by one, you can actually paste the URL of a Google image search or other photo site like Flickr photo galleries directly into Picnik. This will import full versions of each image (not thumbnails!) ready for you to edit. The free version of Picnik is ad-supported, you’ll need to pay for the premium version if you want to avoid ads.
How to Quickly Grab Pictures from Web Pages into Picnik for Editing [Digital Inspiration] More » Opera releases Mobile browser Opera Mini 4.1
8:00AM Sarah Stokely | Opera has taken the latest version of its mobile browser, Opera Mini, out of beta this week. The new Opera Mini 4.1 gives the browser a speed bump and offers several new features for quicker scrolling, navigation and page rendering.One feature carried over from the 9.5 Beta 2 version of Opera’s desktop browser is the ability to guess the URL you want when you enter a search term in the address bar.4.1 also supports offline viewing, and users with Java-enabled mobiles supporting JSR-75 will be able to upload and download any file via Opera’s mobile web.Opera Mini 4.1 is not compatible with all mobile phones, so check the full list of compatible phones here. Most Java handsets are supported, including BlackBerry and Palm phones.Opera Mini 4.1 is a beta, so the usual warnings apply. It can be downloaded here. [via]
More » SMS makes intergalactic chat look cheap
8:04PM Sarah Stokely | Trying to kick a bad texting habit? Here’s some news that should help you say no to SMS: The SMS data rate is four times as expensive as sending data from the Hubble Space Telescope. Ouch. More » XP extended to 2010 on Eee PCs
6:58PM Sarah Stokely | Here’s a twist on the tale of the Windows XP phaseout – Microsoft has confirmed it’s going to keep selling XP on certain ultraportable computers, including the ASUS Eee PC, until 2010. Microsoft had already extended the XP phaseout once, to June this year, but it will be sold on the Eee and similar form factor products until 2010. Interesting! [via] More » 
Eat like a Googler with the Food 2.0 cookbook
6:34PM Sarah Stokely | There’s a new recipe book out in the States called Food 2.0: Secrets from the Chef who fed Google.I have to admit that when I saw the title, I wondered who the hell would want to buy a recipe book for food served by an IT company – especially when that company is famous for fattening up its programmers. But I read on out of interest.Of course, being a Google chef, author Charlie Ayers isn’t just any chef, but the former caterer for the Grateful Dead (ah, California).The CNET review describes Food 2.0 as “a ridiculously healthy cookbook in the most Northern California sense possible” but it sounds like it strikes a balance between fresh, healthy ingredients and being tasty enough to appeal to finicky programmers. :) By the time I reached the end of the review, I have to admit I was kind of tempted – more for the Jade Smoothie recipe (sliced cucumber, mint leaves, apple cider, and lemon sorbet) than the Google hot sauce. Now I feel like a Google tragic. :) More » 
