Why sending back empty credit card envelopes works.

I've noticed a change in the offers that I am getting from the credit card companies. And it's not that I'm getting less of them. No, apparently the companies sending out these offers have decided that I'm not being pedantic, I'm stupid. I really want to get the credit cards, I just can't seem to send back the right information. Two things have changed.

1) My girlfriend has decided to start adding random crap (and I do mean random crap; think cutout picture of Sr. Elton John) to the envelopes, so they don't actually go empty.

2) About 10% of the envelopes are now barcoded! I haven't figured out if the barcodes are real or not (well, seriously, I haven't bothered to try and scan them and see if they're meaningful), but they are definitely barcoded and meant to look meaningful. It's definitely not clear if they are trying to figure out who is sending back empty ones, or if they're just trying to make me thing they really care about me. Either way it's entertaining.

On the whole, I still feel somewhat vindicated sending these empty things back, and it's not making a dent in the volume. That site that I mentioned before seems more and more interesting.

In the end, I'm still going to send them back. If for nothing than the humor value to my post-person (or at least so I hope).

Awesome video; sewer explosion

Send it all back.

I am hoping that my spite can spread. In today's world full of "more sperm in your penis" email spam landslide, it's easy to forget how obnoxious regular ole postal mail spam is. Well, as much as I might try, I can't forget. I'm greeted by a credit card offer on (anecdotal) average every day. Not to mention the random catalogs and occasional magazines (how did I get on the right list for E Weekly??) that show up.

Well, there are lots of ways of addressing this. This link talks about how you can get yourself off of the credit card list by calling up some random 800 number and giving them your social security number. Oh, or you can send a postal letter to some addresses with even more personal information. And hope.

This site talks about how you can pay them to stop spam. Maybe. It definitely appeals to the green in all of us. Lots of pictures of happy children and green planets.

Well, I'm a bit more spiteful and execution oriented than that. Additionally, I'm really lazy. Writing letters in the hope that someone might one day listen to me strikes me like thinking those mail-in rebates are actually going to work. Have you ever actually gotten one? Have you actually ever met anyone who does? I know I haven't. So I have an alternative solution.

According to this site bulk postage rates for pre-sorted barcoded mail (what a credit card response envelope would seem to be) is approximately $0.231.

Assuming the credit card companies get 50% off of the posted rates (they send a shit-ton of mail), they still pay about a dime ($0.10) per letter they send. They will also have to pay (presumably) that much for any response. Add in some overhead costs associated with putting together a letter and knowing to whom it needs to be sent, I'll bet that the postage is a big driver of cost. Based on how much credit card spam I get, and how I have never responded (and I mean never. Not once) but it doesn't stop, I can't imagine it costs much to put together that letter. Additionally, my understanding is that opening and sorting mail is actually a complex job that probably is done by humans, and not a machine. That means it's expensive but only happens when you return the envelope.

That means that postage is probably an actual cost driver in this scenario. And thankfully, the credit card companies (and, I suppose, God) have given me all of the tools I need to significantly increase the postage costs per offer sent to me.

Every one of those offers has a postage paid return envelope in them.

Why not use it?

This accomplishes two things. Firstly, it makes me feel like I'm doing something. And that's always a primary goal. Secondly, it significantly increases the cost of sending me that offer.

Want to know the next way I can increase the costs? I want /you/ to start doing this too. Seriously. It's easy, it's fun, and hell, maybe it just might bleed the beast a bit.

Next time you get an unsolicited credit card offer in the mail (and I'm sure that'll be tomorrow, unless today is Saturday, in which case it'll be in two days), open it up, seal that return envelope, and send it on back.

While you have that envelope open, you might as well check to see if there is any choice secret information about you (like say SSN, address, full name, etc), which you should shred while you're at it. That's another upside of this process; it reminds me to shred that (get a cross-cut shredder so it means something).

That's it. If you start doing this, all I ask is a note back so that I know my spite is spreading.

To quote Calvin: Nothing helps misery like spreading it.

DSC01181

DSC01181, originally uploaded by nelsonabramson.

Cartagena, in all of it's post-colonial glory.

Super cool metallic sculptures

http://www.kodama.hc.uec.ac.jp/spiral/

From the page:
"“Morpho Towers--Two Standing Spirals” is an installation that consists of two ferrofluid sculptures that moves synthetically to music. The two spiral towers stand on a large plate that hold ferrofluid. When the music starts, the magnetic field around the tower is strengthened. Spikes of ferrofluid are born from the bottom plate and move up, trembling and rotating around the edge of the iron spiral."

ourTunes reborn?

(from: http://www.selfproclaimedexpert.com/?p=127)

Evan wrote:

Mac users: Download a small app called MusicPublisher (http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/musicpublisher/)

Install it, drag your ‘iTunes Music’ folder to the square, change the port in Settings to 3688, and then press Publish.

Open iTunes 7, disable your sharing in Prefs and quit out of the program.

Go back to MusicPublisher, change the Port back to 3689 and press Publish.

If everything went smoothly, you will now be seen in OurTunes. You’ll want to drag the app icon to your dock and select ‘Open at Login’ (and also Hide every morning after you press Publish).

I’m kind of digging this way of sharing better than before. You can drag any folder that contain Mp3 or AAC files to the square, including your iPod. I also don’t think there is a ‘max-user’ limit, which is cool. It doesn’t show playlist info, but hey, at least I can use OurTunes like I used to.

Posted 03 Nov 2006 at 4:53 pm ¶

Let's see what happenes.

Myspace is dying.

Thank god. My sister (target demographic for myspace, high school girl) says that no one uses Myspace anymore. More importantly, she says that people in her class are deleting their Myspace pages in favor of Facebook. I'm not exactly out there evangelizing for Facebook, but at least the web pages don't offend my sensibilities. I mean really, who needs music you can't stop on a webpage? If nothing else (and there's plenty), Myspace deserves to die a gruesome death for that.

Bombs?

In other news... here's a video of the guys putting up the "bombs" in Boston:




Here's the news story about /actual/ fake bombs being planted in Boston on Thursday, Feb 1:

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=180349

And here's a story about actual bombs, not in Boston:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070203/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq

Is there any explanation other than absurdity?

Why digital video editing is the coolest thing ever.

Check out this video on Youtube done by an amatuer to assemble an amazing piece of music: