I expect better, Clorox.

Enter GreenDimes (well, now the company is calling themselves Tonic Mailstopper):

For $15 [now $20], GreenDimes offers a series of services that you could probably do yourself, but which become much, much easier if you get GreenDimes to help you. Here’s how it works:

First, you register your address and all the names which receive junk mail at your house. Then GreenDimes goes to work, filing letters on your behalf to the thousands of direct marketers to remove you from their mailing lists. That works for credit card mailings and the like, but not for catalogs. Those you have to unsubscribe from individually, so when you get a catalog you no longer want, you visit the GreenDimes website and select the name of the company spamming you. GreenDimes then tells them to cut it out. […]

It does take a couple weeks to start working—due to the printing lead-times for junk mail—though I started noticing small improvements even within a few days. Now, it’s been a couple months since I signed up and I can say that it's worked a treat. Some days, I go to open my mailbox and simply discover that it’s empty. Bliss.

Along these lines, one other service that may be worth mentioning is YellowPagesGoesGreen.Org. On one hand, it’s an advocacy site for curbing yellow-pages distribution (such as by promoting an opt-in model), but what's also handy is that they have an opt-out form in which you can unsubscribe from the yellow pages.

Though they’re not associated with the various yellow-pages companies, they apparently then contact the phone companies in your local area, on your behalf, and get you unsubscribed from your local yellow (and/or white) pages. Since yellow pages don’t arrive with as much regularity as junk mail, I can’t say with absolute certainty that it’s successful, but I signed up back in September (’08) and I haven’t received a yellow-pages since then.

Dell Home offers the Dell UltraSharp 2405FPW 24" Widescreen LCD to $799.20 with free shipping. Coupon code “?7VKHB0253GTSM” knocks the total price to $739.20, $60 off our mention earlier in the week and easily the lowest price we've seen. Features include a native resolution of 1920x1200, 1000:1 contrast ratio, 16ms response time, 16:10 aspect ratio, picture-in-picture, integrated 4-port USB 2.0 hub and flash card reader, and VGA, DVI, S-Video, RCA, and component video inputs. […]

Must resist… must resist…

Replacing your old toilet set, the Swash 600 includes a built-in bidet, gentle closing seat, warm air dryer, heated seat, and more, all managed via a remote control. The Swash 400 has most of the 600’s features (no warm air dryer) with push-button controls for $379 after coupon. […]

I don’t know what’s weirder, that someone’s selling a remote-control toilet seat or that it’s made its way up to #2 on DealNews’ Top Reader Picks page :-/.

In any case, the Slashdot discussion turned to customer tracking of other kinds, such as those supermarket cards. And, switcha pointed out Rob Cockerham’s Ultimate Shopper endeavor. In short, Rob took a digital photo of his Safeway card, cropped the image and then printed a bunch of replica barcodes onto labels with his inkjet. This way, you can use one of his stickers and become Rob. More importantly, your privacy remains intact since Safeway no longer tracks your identity.

I like the tongue-in-check character of the page, but I’m still not fond of these shopper cards. Sure, you can trade them with your friends or even apply for them with fake credentials, but you still have to carry around that silly card in your wallet (or even three or four, depending on the number of supermarkets in your area). So, these days, I’ve emptied my wallet of those cards and I just go to stores that offer sale prices without any strings attached.

They also asked me whether I was aware of all the discounts available. I knew about the various hotel and car-rental discounts, but apparently there’s much more than that.

The lady on the phone mentioned just a few, but I was unaware of most of them. For instance:

• 15% off at Fresh Choice restaurants.
• 10% off at Hard Rock Cafe
• 30% off carry-out food at Papa John’s
• 10% off at Amtrak
• 10% off Apple Computer deals from Unitek
• 20% off floral arrangements at FTD.com
• 30% off at Lenscrafters (exluding contact lenses)
• $3 off CDs and DVDs priced $10 or more at Wherehouse Music

Ok, so some of them aren’t useful on an everyday-basis (I’m not sure when next I’ll use Amtrak, for instance). But, I’m especially stoked about the 30% off (!) at Papa John’s carry-out and $3 off at Wherehouse Music, as I can make use of those right away.

(Keep in mind that these discounts are from the AAA-Texas website, and might not be valid elsewhere.)

Basically, they sell Silly-Putty-like goo, but in all kinds of crazy colors. Sure, there's the traditional pink and white, but there’s also shiny silver and even mistletoe. They typically sell it by the 1/4 lb tin, but they offer it by the pound as well.

I put in an order for a tin of Lustrous Bronze and a tin of Gunmetal Graphite. Whee!

I’ve checked Target, and their selection isn’t bad. But, I’d like to compare several stores.

Have you tried Dial Complete handwashing soap yet?

It looks like just another liquid soap, except the container is pink and a little more squat-looking. But it's quite different — it foams itself.

That’s right, it comes out of the spout pre-lathered.

Now, how lazy do you have to be, that you can’t even lather up your own soap?

But the fact is, few people are really good at lathering. Glops of unlathered soap are always falling into the sink, completely wasted.

With Dial Complete, that doesn’t happen. Everything you get out of the bottle is usable. No waste. [...]

(Link passed along by my brother Adrian)