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Money

Australia Post Giving Away Scales

11:30AM Angus Kidman | Declining postal volumes are one reason Australia Post wants to put up the price of stamps, but it’s also trying to encourage people to send more mail, and offering a free set of electronic scales to anyone who registers for its Click and Send service is one way of doing that. Lest you worry that Click And Send sounds like some dodgy campaign that will encourage junk mail, it’s a service that lets you fill out the paperwork for goods being sent overseas online, and then either have them picked up by a courier or posted via your local office. It’s free to sign up for, and would be handy for businesses, eBay addicts and people with overseas relatives, while the scales giveaway is running until September 20. Picture by czardases Click And Send [via OzBargain]
Work

The Complete Guide To Going Paperless

2:00AM Gina Trapani | You already pay your bills online and get electronic statements, but there are even more ways you can stop killing innocent trees and wasting time and money dealing with paper. It’s time we went paperless. More »
Communicate

Does It Matter If The Price Of Stamps Rises?

10:30AM Angus Kidman | Australia Post is contemplating putting up the price of stamps for the second time in a year. But just how important is the basic postal service these days? More »
Organise

How I Cleaned 1328 Emails Out Of My Inbox In An Hour

1:09PM Angus Kidman | I’m generally pretty organised with my email, and I like to have nothing in my inbox except stuff I haven’t acted on yet. However, a spurt of recent travel and work commitments meant I’d fallen into a familiar but dangerous pattern: grabbing information from emails I needed (and replying when necessary), but not filing or deleting them, and not checking out stuff that didn’t look urgent. The end result: I suddenly had 1328 emails in my inbox, and 401 of them hadn’t even been read. Sounds like a nightmare, but in reality it only took me an hour to get my inbox back under control. More »
Fix

ChromeMailer Makes Gmail Chrome’s Default Mail Handler

6:00AM Kevin Purdy | Windows only: ChromeMailer, a free email utility for users of Google’s Chrome browser, pops open a Gmail compose window by default when you click an email address in Chrome. Actually, ChromeMailer seems to replace the default mailto: handler at the system level, so it’s advised only for fans of Gmail’s web interface. While ChromeMailer is potentially very useful, there are two big caveats: It requires an up-to-date .NET installation in Windows XP, and Windows Vista makes you answer a User Account Control nag on every click. If you’re more a Firefox fan looking for a similar fix, try our previous method for integrating Gmail into your browser. ChromeMailer is a free download for Windows systems only. Thanks, How-To Geek! ChromeMailer [Skaelede.hu] More »
Work

WebToMail Delivers Any Web Page to Your Inbox

8:00AM Adam Pash | Web site WebToMail sends full web pages to your email on demand. Why? Let’s say, for example, you’re sitting behind a nasty internet filter at work that won’t even let you access your friendly, productivity-enhancing Lifehacker. Just fire off an email to send@webtomail.co.cc with the URL of the web page you want in the subject (http://lifehacker.com.au). A few minutes later, you’ll receive an email back from WebToMail with the contents of the URL you requested conveniently embedded in the email. The results vary depending on the email client you’re using; in Gmail, you don’t get nicely styled CSS, but you do in desktop apps like Thunderbird. Seems like a worthwhile utility to add to your IT lockdown toolbox. More »
Organise

Forget couriers, stick with the Post Office

11:32AM Angus Kidman | It’s hardly a new option, but I’ve got to give the thumbs up to Australia Post’s Express Post Platinum, which got me out of a document delivery jam yesterday when a rather more expensive courier company simply failed to show up to pick up some visa-related material. For just $12.20, I sent the document at the nearest post office in Adelaide, and the online tracker let me keep tabs on it until it got to its destination this morning in Sydney. While it’s almost a cliché to diss the PO for its poor service, in this instance it managed the rare combination of cheaper and better. More »
Organise

More Firefox 3 shortcuts for quick Gmail

3:01PM Angus Kidman | Hot on the heels of our contest-winning tip on adding Gmail to your browser search box, reader Matthew B wrote in with an alternative technique for fast email composition. This one uses Firefox 3’s Smart Bookmarks feature. More »

Manage Your Tracking Numbers with Track My Shipments

3:00PM Adam Pash | US-centric: Web site TrackMyShipments automatically tracks packages from any delivery company by examining the shipping email and adding any shipments to your tracking queue. It works like this: You sign up for TrackMyShipments, then forward any shipping confirmation email (you know, those “Your order has shipped” emails) to track@trackmyshipments.com. The webapp identifies your email address and automatically detects the tracking number and company from your email, and starts tracking the package. Their site displays the status of the package and its current location on a map, and you can use it to set up email or SMS alerts for deliveries. With TrackMyShipments, keeping track of all your various packages is as simple as forwarding an email. TrackMyShipments More »

DMA Drops Mailing Preference List Fee

6:30AM Lifehacker US Edition | US-centric: You no longer have to pay to opt out of annoying unsolicited snail mail: the Direct Marketing Association has dropped their dollar fee to get your name on their mailing preferences list. The DMA’s member companies honor this granddaddy of snail mail optout lists, which is supported by the U.S. Postal Service. I paid the buck way back when to get on the DMA list, and it’s since reduced my unwanted postal mail a whole lot. This dropped fee is long-awaited, great news. See also five ways you can clean up your snail mail. How To Get Off A Mailing List [DMA] More »