Author Archives


27
Jun 10

Tips for your children’s property to be returned, not lost

It is a known fact that children lose their toys, keys, jackets, and clothes. You name it and they’ve most likely lost it at one point or another in their life. The question is does their property stay lost? Have you ever thought of making their property returnable when lost??

Putting the ol’ last name on your kids clothing tag works sometimes but why not put your number instead? Why would you write on a coat tag when you can write a note and stick it in the pocket in case lost? A good idea one mom thought about was sewing her own tag on top of the normal tag in the back. This extended her area for displaying her own note and contact information for easy contact.

Two simple elements are needed. Something just as easy as writing “return” and then including a contact number or address it can be returned to. Just writing a name on a piece of property will tell the people in fact who owns it, but finding that person may be a whole different story.

One thing that my children lost that was very nerve racking to me was our home keys. We ended up re-keying everything including the back shed. It cost us easily over $300 and rather than telling them not to lose their keys again I decided to find a remedy that worked.

With very little effort I came across a lost key return service named “Back To Ya” which is just as simple as attaching their lifetime service keytag, registering it on their website @ www.BackToYa.com and taking a deep breath. My kids keys now have their very own method of return back to us anonymously so we don’t have to worry about them getting into the wrong hands.

There are many different ways to ensure your property returns back to you after lost.  Hopefully the tips found here can help you in making the decision what would work out best for you. Maybe this article will even get some juices flowing in the brain to come up with your own ideas so that your little guy’s things get back to where they belong. Thanks for listening.


30
May 10

Lost and Found in New York Taxicabs

God damn it. Take five minutes to label your stuff :-)

via Lost and Found in New York Taxicabs.


25
May 10

Cabdriver Thanked for Returning a Stradivarius

See people are nice!

This shows just how important it is for all your property to correctly labelled. However, when it comes to privacy it is just as important to have a third party handle the contact. To ensure that your contact information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

via Cabdriver Thanked for Returning a Stradivarius.

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20
May 10

A Resting Place for the Flotsam and Jetsam of Commuting

Oh the horrors of not labelling your stuff. How much must all this cost?

via A Resting Place for the Flotsam and Jetsam of Commuting.


15
May 10

Keys, Wallet, Phone… Where’s My Phone?

Lost property nightmare!!

via Keys, Wallet, Phone… Where’s My Phone?.

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10
May 10

39 percent of men have lost their mobile phone: study | Dynamic Business

39 percent of men have lost their mobile phone: study | Dynamic Business.

I wonder how many of these would have got their phone back had they used a Lost and Found service?

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5
May 10

Honest cabbies blast fellow drivers who cheated passengers out of $8M

Just when you thought honesty was dead. One more story pops up that shows why in lost property tests recovery rates of labeled goods is over 70%.

Yellow Cab NYC

via Honest cabbies blast fellow drivers who cheated passengers out of $8M.

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23
Apr 10

How to add the Facebook ‘Like’ Button to your WordPress Blog

After Facebook’s presentation at F8 and Ed Dale’s post highlighting the importance of this ‘Like’ button I decided to add it to my WordPress Posts.

I assume a nice little plugin will come out soon, if it hasn’t already and I’ve missed it, but until then here is a simple way to add it.

Well here is the way I did it anyway :) It is simple but you do have to edit the main template files so be VERY careful. I do suggest that you have the Pretty Link Plugin installed.

Login to an account that has Admin privileges.

On the left, under Appearance, click on Editor.

On the right hand side where the list of files are, look for “Main Index Template (main.php)”, and open it.

Once the editor opens the file look for the line

<?php the_content("<p>Read the rest of this entry »</p>"); ?>

Underneath this line paste the code below

<?php echo '<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=', urlencode(get_permalink()), '&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px"></iframe>'; ?>

Save the file. You are half way done. Now if you view the Front Page of your blog you should notice a “Like” link.

Then open the file “Single Post (single.php)” and follow the same procedure

Once the editor opens the file look for the line

<?php the_content("<p>Read the rest of this entry »</p>"); ?>

Underneath this line paste the code below

<?php echo '<iframe src="http://www.facebook.com/plugins/like.php?href=', urlencode(get_permalink()), '&layout=standard&show_faces=true&width=450&action=like&colorscheme=light" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowTransparency="true" style="border:none; overflow:hidden; width:450px; height:25px"></iframe>'; ?>

There you should be done now. Both the Front Page and the individual posts should have “Like” buttons and you should be able to take advantage of some more traffic. Hopefully! ;)

I hope this helps some of you.

On the off chance you flew over to the USA to pickup your iPad and now you’d rather not lose it, or for that matter your keys. Why not check out my Lost and Found site.

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8
Apr 10

How to keep an item inventory for insurance purposes

One thing most Insurance Companies require when you’re claiming an item as lost, or stolen, is along with brand, model etc. Is one piece of information that people often forget to record, their serial number.

An Item Register is something that everyone should keep up to date whenever they buy something that is worth insuring. As most with most information that you want to keep safe it is best to keep this list “in the cloud”. Doing so helps avoid any problems with losing the paper you may have written it on, or pehaps losing the data from your computer. If it’s ‘in the cloud’ it will be accesable from any computer you log in from.

One great feature available on lostuff.com is the ability to generate an Item Register from the data already used to generate your recovery labels. It offers a handy all encompasing solution for lost property, item recovery and insurance documentation.

Keep track of your imporant possessions by first documenting them. Preferably, on a site like lostuff.com.

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6
Apr 10

My story & How losing your keys ruins an Anniversary

Oh what a sorry tale I have to tell.

Three years ago I was out to dinner after a tough day at work.  It was a celebration of our last un-married anniversary, we were getting hitched in about a month.

Got a nice relatively close park in an underground secure parking.  We got to restaurant in heaps of time.  With the entrées ordered things couldn’t have been going better.

Well things started to go a little south from there.

You know when you look back on things that go wrong you can usually pin point the exact point that things start to fall apart.

Well this is that moment!

The phone rang, I should have turned it off!!  It was a rather frantic call from where I worked at my day job, I handle the IT and software development for Kitset Kitchens.   Well the guys were in a bit of a tiz with a computer in the office.

Well I left the restaurant and paced up and down the pavement while talking the guys through how to fix the problem, all the while fiddling with my keys in my pocket.

After ten minutes, or so, everything was settled and I was able to return to the restaurant and enjoy the rest of the night.

Or so I thought.

After the lovely dinner we walked down the sidewalk towards when I had left my car.  As we got closer I put my hand in my pocket to get my keys, well they weren’t in the normal pocket, so I sheepishly checked the other pocket; nope not their either.  ”Honey could you check your handbag please? I might have put them in there.”  Nope!  Oh crap, where the hell are they?

Surprisingly she STILL married me…

So then begins the treasure hunt.  First back to the restaurant, looking along the way.  Nope, not there.  Then checked the road, which I had been pacing up and down.  Nope, not their either.  Then I asked all the stores I had passed in case someone found them and handed them in.  You guessed it, nope, not there either!  Well I spent a few hours looking, then realized what the hell do I do with my car? The secure parking locks up for the night in 45 mins!

Well to save you all the boring details.  I left the car and got my girlfriend, surprisingly she still married me, to drive me home.  Then I called around all the local police stations to see if anyone handed anything in, nothing!  Funnily though, they all said they had boxes and boxes of keys I could come and look at though.

Just as I was about to give up, in the middle of the night, I got a call from a guy who worked at my local golf club.  Apparently, the kind lady who found them saw the tag, which had a membership number on it, and called the golf club.  He gave me her phone number.

From there it was a simple case of arranging to meet her the next day and get my keys back, plus pay a ridiculous fee to get my car back from the car park.

Well I have to say the whole mess got me thinking.  The situation could have been improved had the lady been able to contact me instantly without doing any detective work and if her details had been kept more private.

Had these two simple problems been solved chances are she would have been right next to the restaurant when she found them; I would have only had to walk outside to get them off her.  The wonders of timely information.

Well I set out to create a simple fast and effective solution that solves all these problems.

Why not take 5 minutes out to check out my awesome Lost Property solution at www.lostuff.com.

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