Recycling Toner Cartridges

We’re currently running 2 Samsung laser printers in our home office: one is just a printer, the other is an all-in-one. They are fabulous – I love them to bits. Quiet, efficient, fast, reliable. Everything any inkjet I’ve ever owned wasn’t.

To top it all, when I had to replace toner recently, I spotted a notice on the box that Samsung now run a recycling program for toner cartridges: once you’ve installed your new toner, you pack the old one back into the box the new one came in, then go to http://www.samsung.com/printer/recycle/ to register your and your printer’s details, and print out a postage-paid return label to send it home. Brilliant!

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Hearst Magazines Summer Sale for iThings

I love Newsstand on iThings, mainly on the iPad, though content is surprisingly accessible on the iPhone too. I love that I can decide over breakfast that I’d like to read a magazine, then download one without leaving the house; I love that I can access some obscure titles without placing a special order with my newsagent; I love that the magazines cost less than they do in the newsagent’s (there’s a shocking markup on magazines here in Ireland); I love that I don’t wind up with stacks of paper creating clutter and needing to be recycled, and that even if I’ve deleted an issue I can download it again for free any time; I love that I can bring a stack of magazines with me in my pocket when I leave the house; I love that I can zoom in on content if it’s not clear enough at standard size. There’s a lot to love.

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Requesting Read Receipts from Particular Mail Recipients Automatically

I send a lot of mail. Some of it is social, keeping in touch, fluff… No big deal if it gets eaten by a spam filter, or the recipient doesn’t read it till their afternoon coffee break, or whatever. But a good bit of it is also important work-related stuff, and if the recipient doesn’t get/read it, processes break down, schedules are thrown out, and it’s just not good.

Outlook allows you to request delivery and read receipts on your messages. You can do this for all messages (File | Options | Mail and scroll to the Tracking section), or you can do it on a case-by-case basis (create your message, and select required receipts on the Options ribbon). The first doesn’t suit, because I don’t need read receipts on all of my mail, and the second doesn’t suit, because I usually click Send too quickly to remember to manually turn on receipt requests.

So, today, a situation arose that prompted me to investigate whether or not I could automatically request delivery/read receipts on all messages to a particular person – and do you know something? You can! My email life is officially transformed!

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