Author Archives: Arjen Lentz

Other people’s mail is costly to me

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Before I lived at my current address, 4 students shared this location… and from what I can tell, before them some others. A lot of post still arrives in the mailbox for all these people,  even after a few years and me doing a lot of return-to-sender efforts. The same companies just keep sending stuff anyway, not just once but ongoing. Also some post has no decent return address. So what do I do?

The range includes super funds and insurance companies; local, state and federal government; credit card companies and banks; universities. I would be a identity theft goldmine, so what do I do? I apparently can’t make it stop. So I try to shred. After all, leaving someone’s Medicare card lying around in the garbage is not nice, is it. Not that I caused it, but it feels wrong anyway.

Because I have a home office, I have a medium load shredder, and thank goodness for that because my word what businesses send out…. “highlight” today was a cosmetics company that apparently felt the need to put some sachet with some cosmetic cream in the envelope also. Aargh.

Ponderings

  • does return-to-sender have any effect on company-client communications? I’m not talking addressed spam, but things like banks with their clients, etc. If so, how many RTS does it take to make it stick? If RTS doesn’t work, how do you make ’em stop?
  • Companies sending me addressed unsolicited mail… I need to dispose of these items through shredding. The disposal process as a whole takes considerable time, as will asking them to stop mailing me (which apparently is not effective). Can I bill companies for this? Could I sue a company for aiding identity theft?

Update… someone has informed me of details from the Australian Commonwealth Postal Services Act of 1975. Essentially I can neither retain nor destroy the mail, on penalty of up to 2 years of imprisonment. So, no shredding then. The ponderings still apply (and it makes addressed unsolicited mail and unresponsive companies even more costly for an individual!).

And I suppose I’ll just have to hand in un-returnable post to the local post office or mail distribution centre… I can’t keep or destroy it, in those cases I am unable to address it back… so if the post gets me stuck in that way, I’ll have to hand back the responsibility to them. Best I can do?

Input on Daylight Savings in South East Queensland

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A Queensland member of parliament has introduced a private members bill to hold a new referendum on Daylight Savings time. All Queenslanders would get a vote on it, but the daylight savings would just be for South East Queensland where it actually makes sense. The online request for input (until May 31st, so fill in now!) also asks whether a trial should be held in SEQ prior to the referendum.

I’m for Daylight Savings in SEQ… it would provide us with longer light in the evenings in the summer. Also, many people work with people in other states. Speaking from personal experience, it’s a pest in summer because NSW and VIC are an hourr ahead, and to manage I often need to be available an hour earlier to talk with clients while still having the regular hours as well – so essentially the working day becomes an hour longer… that’s really just weird and unnecessary.

Because Queensland is so large, it does not necessarily make sense to have all of QLD do the daylight savings. While that may appear odd, there is a natural “boundary” in central queensland below which DST would apply.

Advertising – stupid sales

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Below is an email exchange between someone trying to sell me a service (online advertising) and myself. It started with an unsolicited email (aka spam) but sometimes I’m just intrigued to see whether I can get some sense out of people. In this case, not.

Original mail:

I work for ***, a leading broker of online advertising, dealing with thousands of independent webmasters like yourself, worldwide.

I’ve had a look at your site and think Openquery.com would be a good match for our client, whose target demographic is similar to your own. We’re working on their behalf to acquire advertising from sites such as yours.

We would be interested in purchasing advertising in the form of a text-based advert on your site. We pay you a fixed annual fee for our advertisements.

My initial reply:

Can you please describe that target demographic to me?
thanks

Their reply:

Great hearing from you today. Thank you for your response.
I have two pricing options for you, depending on the type of client you would be interested in working with.

Option 1: We can offer you 250USD for a client in the gaming industry; or
Option 2: We can offer you 200USD for a client in industries including mobile phones, travel or insurance.

Let us know your preferred industry. Next, we’ll complete a quick assessment of your site and then advise you of the best client fit. In the meantime we can answer any questions you might have.

My reply:

I already asked you a question in my previous reply, and your response did not address it. In the above you are trying to sell me something, and we’re by no means at that stage. To refresh your memory, you wrote:

>> I’ve had a look at your site and think Openquery.com would be a good
>> match for our client, whose target demographic is similar to your own.

And I asked:

> Can you please describe that target demographic to me?

Feel free to answer the question; it was your own statement I am referring to, and I do hope you are not making unfounded statements.
thanks

Their response:

I apologise for that. The target demographic for our client’s advert would typically be anyone who has access to the internet, and it would also depend on the type of client you would choose.(Option 1 or 2)

Let me know what you think.

My final reply:

I think that’s pathetic and useless.

“anyone with access to the Internet” has absolutely no reason to visit our site, as it’s highly specialised. Conclusion: you did not research your prospective client (me and my site) at all.
Go away.

Mum’s 80th

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Right, I’m off… my mum has invited me to her 80th birthday dinner in Amersfoort (The Netherlands), and who can refuse such a request! It’s a very respectable age.

My dad sadly didn’t make it that far, he died at age 72 when I was merely 9. To clarify: I was the last of 3 in his second marriage… I do remember him, it’s just a pity we didn’t get more time together…

Wanna learn something really interesting? Phoebe was born 100 years after my dad: 1905 -> 2005. How’s that.

The domain scam – repeat performances

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This time it’s .CO, that’s actually Colombia but some domain registrar smartypants have decided that it’s the new “truly global” domain for companies. This, like .biz .mobi and all the others, is utter bollocks and the main people profiting are the domain registrars – although in this case I hope that Colombia at least will get something out of it.

Why is it a scam? Let’s analyse.

  • If you already have a .com etc you’d rather not have someone else own the .co, so there’s incentive for you to buy it. This incentive is extra strong if you own the trademark, because you are obliged to defend the trademark or lose it. So if someone else gets the domain you’d need to fight them – so it’s simpler to just register the domain yourself. Gain? Nothing. Just “no potential loss”, at a cost.
  • If you can’t get the .com or national domain of a name you might want to get the .co. That is, if the name isn’t trademarked. But does it make sense? Will people be able to find you rather than whoever else owns domains using that name? Unless the others are just domain hogs or dormant sites, you choose to fight for google juice.
  • If you grab the .co of a name that is trademarked, you’re just opening a can of worms and in the best case still fighting for google juice. Why bother?
  • You’re a Colombian company mainly focused on the national market. Well now you’re messed, because all these “globals” are eating up your namespace – supply&demand predicts that the price you pay for your domain names will go up. Sure some people will make a buck *selling* their existing .co, but in pure numbers most will be new and thus flow out of the country rather than in.

It’s a bit late to stop this, but it’s so very very bad.