two tools for tuesday

I know, Tuesday should be travel, but well, I missed last week and I just would rather do this today. :)

I want to spend a bit of time to talk about Amazon and Powells wishlists and also about the Automated Postage Centers® which are found at many post offices.

Ok. Wishlists first.

Many of you say you have Amazon lists, but are scared to show them because they have 300 or more items. Did you know that you can have more than one? [photopress:amazon_temp.png,thumb,alignright]And mark it private so it’s not searchable and you can then put everything in there? I do this and try to keep my “public” wishlist up-to-date, relevant, and short. My private list has about 200 items in it at the moment. My public list has 26 (which is a bit high, I try to keep it at about 20). I also try to use priority flags as well, but uhm.. I never expect anyone to actually follow them (my in-laws gave me a *very* nice gift last year because of this). There is also a compact view which lets you select multiple items and move or delete. You can also limit by type of item (such as DVD, book, magazine). I hope someone finds this information useful.

Powells also allows for multiple wish lists and you can choose if you want to make it public or not. With their interface you can also select multiple items and once and choose to move them around. Sadly I do not use my Powells wishlist as much as I would like. Unfortunately Amazon is much too convenient.

Ok. Post Office. I have a hate-hate relationship with the post office. I live in an urban area so that means the post office is always busy. Anyway, about a year ago (perhaps more) in many locations these Automated Postage Centers were rolled out. You can buy stamps, mail priority mail, mail regular mail, do just about all the “normal routine” things most post office patrons need to do. You can add delivery confirmation without filling out the green slip (it’ll just print out a bigger label). These things rock. The interface is pretty easy to use and the best part is you can pay by credit or debit/ebt card. (You cannot pay by cash). They’re not a really big deal even though they are really really cool. Today while waiting ((frustrating story, if you want I’ll vent to you, I think I’ve gotten it out of my system.)) a customer behind me just could not believe that this sort of machine existed and that one could use a credit card at the post office and at the APC ((I wanted to scream, Lady, this is the US, while the Post Office is kinda new at accepting credit cards, it isn’t a big surprise nor should you then flash your wallet of 15 credit cards. What in heck do you need all of those for? And no, I really did not need to hear you stage whisper to your friend that half of them are maxxed.)). I think she’s been living in a bubble for the past couple of years. ((no offense meant to those who live in a bubble.))

yes. I finally turned on footnotes and remembered the syntax. :)

• Category: books, tools