Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with exchange

Best way to turn gold into dollar bills?

kestralwing — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:25:03 -0800

Basic dumb question that could use a little expert advice. What's the best way to turn gold into cash? I've got two Krugerrands in my safe deposit box, but now I need the money. I live in a small town; we have banks and one coin shop. But I'm reluctant to just go up to someone at a counter and say "what will you give me?" Any advice? (Beyond "keep it, it's going up up up." I need to pay my dentist now.)

It's almost holiday time - let the neroses begin!

pointystick — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:59:19 -0800

Holiday gift giving going out of my comfort zone but I don't wanna be a scrooge. Please hope me. Longish explanation inside. My family Xmas list is feeling unmanageable. I know some big families draw names, but I have 2 medium sized families (dad/stepmom's & mom's). It has been tradition in both families to exchange gifts between everyone with couples generally giving a gift jointly and sometimes receiving jointly and adults give gifts to the kids too.
Mom's side used to be manageable but family has grown. Xmas includes gift giving between all my grandmom's family (grandmom's kids and spouses, my cousins, and cousin's kids). Dad is remarried now (stepmom, half sister & kid, stepsiblings & spouses). So I'm up to 20 people or so without even getting into my close friends (my non-blood family). I'm the only single person (besides the young folk) and I have no kids and no full siblings so I can't even use the excuse of "only exchanging gifts with a nuclear family".

Now for the questions:

-How do I do gifts without being chintzy? I like to buy nice gifts (especially for mom & dad) but I can't afford to splurge on everyone. What's reasonable? I can't afford what I used to be able to when I was in a 2 income family.
- Am I scrooge? I do make a decent living and I could afford more gifts if I cancelled my upcoming vacation. (OTOH, since my divorce a few years ago, I have been enjoying traveling to places I enjoy & having hobbies so I'm loathe to do it. Is that awfully selfish?)
- I like to give gifts to my close friends, too. Is it appropriate to spend more on my best friends than on stepsiblings I see a few times a year?)

Best option for regular US to EUR currency exchange?

finitejest — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:23:40 -0800

I'm an American who's just bought a lovely home in the EU. Yay! Now I have to make regular mortgage payments while still living and working in the US. How do I transfer money over to our EU bank account on a regular basis as cheaply as possible?... Some more info: It seems as though the majority of the currency exchange companies are targeted towards Brits. The rest look pretty shady.

We've looked at Currencies Direct, however in the middle of our application process we were informed that because of some new laws they were no longer able to open new contracts with any US citizens not based in the same state (GA) as their only US office.

Now we're out of ideas. We've even looked to see if we could somehow wrangle a PayPal account into euros and do exchanges through there.

Currently banking with BOA and doing wire transfers, but they charge hefty fees on top of the normal exchange rate.

So... halp please! Any suggestions from personal experience?

Outlook Web Access calendar subscription

lake59 — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:09:57 -0800

How to access two outlook exchange calendars from completely different domains side-by-side i work for two independent organizations. One of them has provided Outlook 2007 via Exchange 2003 and the other has provided OWA via Exchange 2003.

Each Organization provides a calendar. One is accessed as an exchange account in Outlook 2007 using and . The other is via OWA at https:///exchange//calendar.

I would like to access via outlook 2007 as well so I can easily compare the two calendars. I tried to subscribe to in Outlook using this address: webcals:///exchange//calendar but Outlook wants the subscription to include a specific file name like ical in order to work.

Any Ideas how i can get these two calendars side-by-side?

Thanks!

Most cost-effective way of transfering money from UK to US

moiraine — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 12:30:39 -0800

Need to transfer modest amounts of money from UK to a US bank account every 2-3 months. What would be the most cost-effective way to do so? I am working in the UK. I need to pay off study loans in the US, with the first loan installment due in a couple of months. I intend/ need to transfer between anywhere between $500 to $2000 to my US bank account regularly, say every 2-3 months.

The most cost-effective way that I know of would be to take out the money in the UK, change at the Post Office (with 0% commission rates), and physically the money to the US, and place it in my bank account there. This, of course, assumes my plane ticket is paid for and I am not robbed (I have done this before, and I was fine, but I don't want to do a regular basis).

Wire transfer appears to be the second cheapest method, and I am happy to pay the wire transfer fees (~20 pounds, depending on the bank). However, I understand that the bank have non-competitive exchange rates, which are hidden costs of the transfer (~50 pounds will be 'lost' in the exchange).

I considered making regular transfers from my Paypal UK to my Paypal US account. This would be extremely convenient, but there are hefty commissions -- about 5%, and I think more is taken off from the receiving end (?)

Anyway, I was wondering whether people had any personal experience with wire transfer and non-competitive fees. Any additional ideas are also appreciated. Would appreciate if there were no comments like, "But if you just paid a little more, you could save yourself the hassle!" as I am willing go through a fair amount of hassle just to pay less fees.

I have family in the US who are probably willing to cash in a check for me every month, if this makes any difference.

Ideas for Baked Goods/Confectionary Exchange

Mayhembob — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:49:03 -0800

I'm participating in a baked goods/confectionary exchange. What are some things I can make that can be easily packed and that won't spoil/stale during shipping?

USD to EUR/Spanish Debit Cards

PaulingL — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 05:51:53 -0800

LivingAbroadFilter: What can I, in particular, do to avoid conversion fees from USD to EUR? I am currently living in Spain. I will be returning to the states as of summer 2010. All my money is in American banks.

Is there something I can do to avoid fees? If not, what would be the best solution so as to keep them to a minimum?

Extra Questions

I have an online ING Direct account, with one of my banks attached to it. 1. Could I withdraw money from the ING location that is near where I am now?

2. Could I open a Spanish account, and use the online ING account to transfer funds between the two? I would like to get a Spanish Debit card.

Thanks!

Monitoring Exchange Performance without admin access

Coolcan2 — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 00:51:38 -0800

How do I monitor ms exchange 2003 performance without admin access? Hi Guys,

I'm trying to log exchange performance on our hosted service. A number of guys around the office experience drop outs, and long outbox queues.

I was wondering to what extent I am able to monitor exchange performance from a lowly user account.

Bonus points if you can recomend a way to do this in *nix. :)

Thanks.

Where to exchange dollars and euros?

meantime — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 11:34:02 -0800

Where to exchange euros for dollars? Where are the best places to exchange euros for dollars - either in Europe or in America?

I know about xe.com and they seem pretty good, but I've found a few local exchange shops in Prague, for example, that change Czech Koruna to either Dollars or Euros for better than XE or banks. The same was true in Singapore.

I havent been able to find a similar location that offers Euro-Dollar exchanges for good rates on either side of the pond.

Can anyone help?

How would you show a french girl US culture in a nutshell?

tfinniga — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:32:59 -0800

I'm looking for interesting things to show my french exchange student. What is unique to the US experience? I have a french exchange student living in the US for about a month. We'll be visiting the local tourist attractions, but I'm looking for something more fundamental. What would be good to show her that encapsulates the current culture of the US?

I'm not concerned in trying to show only the good things about the US. I'm more concerned about avoiding showing her stuff that is the same in France. So, we will probably eat at taco bell, but I wouldn't want to make a big deal of introducing her to orangina.

Any suggestions? People who have lived in France and the US, what are the biggest differences you noticed?

In case it's useful, she's 16 and from a suburb of Paris. I live in Utah.

How to retrieve shares in UK company

Daddysugar — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:55:02 -0800

I recently discovered that I am a shareholder of a UK listed company, Anglo Asian Mining Company. I base this discovery on my recent receipt of proxy materials and notice of the annual shareholders meeting, which was held today. I realize the best way to retrieve or have replaced shares of stock in the United States is to contact the investor relations or financial department. This seems like a daunting challenge. Is this the best/only way for me to retrieve whatever number of shares I have in the UK?

What is the cheapest way to send $4k USD from Greece to US?

lupefiasco — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 14:36:44 -0800

What is the cheapest way to send $4k USD from Greece to US? I left Greece today and accidentally left behind $4k USD (I know, quite foolish of me) in a friend's safe. The friend can wire the money to my bank account, but I am worried that the Greek bank will require the funds to first be converted to Euros, and then converted back to USD over the wire, thus resulting in a double conversion charge. Is there any way to avoid this? I'm looking for the cheapest way to send $4k USD from Greece to US.

I am accessing my work email using gmail, and I need help satisfying my company's backup requirements. Help?

kdern — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 08:47:16 -0800

I am accessing my work email using gmail, and I need help satisfying my company's backup requirements. Help? We use Exchange at work (MS Exchange 2007), and I am on a mac. I don't like Entourage, so I have been accessing my email via POP on a gmail account. I am very happy with this setup.

The problem is that since it's POP, emails that I send from gmail are not synced back to the Exchange server, which means they are not backed up with all the other company emails. If I want to continue using gmail, I have to figure out a way to get my outgoing emails backed up.

Gmail cannot fetch emails via IMAP, only POP, so that's not an option.

I considered OSX Mail, Entourage and Thunderbird, but I find Gmail to be far superior.

The only option I've thought of is this... to have all my outgoing emails automatically bcc'ed to an internal email address, which we would set up just for this purpose. Then all my outgoing emails would be backed up. I haven't been able to figure out how to do this in gmail.

Can anyone help? Please don't make me use Entourage!

m.exchangemail.com

benzenedream — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:35:08 -0800

Seeking a lightweight web interface to Exchange 2003 server. Need something more usable than OMA, but more smartphone-friendly than Outlook Web Access. We don't allow work email to be cached on non-work devices for legal reasons. I'd like to be able to log in to webmail but find OWA rather clunky on a smartphone browser; OMA provides a bare-bones interface that's intended for ActiveSync rather than actual humans. Has anyone cobbled together a reasonable solution? I guess I'm looking for something like the mobile gmail page for Outlook. We won't be upgrading to Exchange 2007 for a while so its features are not an option.

What was a million francs worth in 1953?

b1tr0t — Sun, 31 May 2009 20:01:04 -0800

Where can I find old historical exchange rates? Right now I'm looking for the crosses between British Pounds, US Dollars and French Francs in the mid-1950s. Monthly or yearly exchange rates would be fine. Bonus points if you can find currency data that goes back more than 50 years.

I'm reading Casino Royale (which is surprisingly good, by the way) and trying to get a handle on the cash figures being thrown around.

Backup Outlook from Exchange?

Joleta — Tue, 12 May 2009 07:43:36 -0800

How can I back up my Outlook 2003 files kept on an exchange server to a thumb drive? I know how to find and back up .pst files on my personal computer. Is there any way I can make a personal backup of my Outlook e-mail, contacts, etc. when they're stored on an exchange server? I don't want to lose this information if I should, say, no longer have access to my work e-mail for some reason.

Migrated MAPI Permissions?

Leud — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:30:02 -0800

Exchange - How does it handle Outlook MAPI permissions when migrating users from one domain to another? So the background is we've got two domains, Domain A and Domain B. Environments are all windows server 2003, Exchange 2003.

Currently users are on Domain A and have mailboxes there, we are migrating users to Domain B, disabling the Domain A account but leaving the mailboxes on Domain A. (This is not going to change for some time).

The accounts are moved over with sIDHistory maintained so NTFS permissions etc all work, the Domain A Mailbox permissions are set with the Domain B accounts as full access and associated external accounts.

My question is how do MAPI permissions work/carry over? If Bob Smith on Domain A has added Joe Bloggs using MAPI permissions to their outlook inbox, will this work once Joe Bloggs has been moved to Domain B?

The MAPI permissions are seperate from AD and I suspect don't check for sidhistory? Looking for confirmation on this.

Thanks,

How to sell UK shares not registered in the United States?

Daddysugar — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 15:09:52 -0800

I own some UK stock which is listed on the London Stock exchange. The companies' shares aren't registered in the United States and cannot be sold in the US. I would like to sell a portion of these shares, so I would like to find the name of an English bank and a telephone number for the appropriate person at the bank.

FW: FW: FW: FW: RE: Check this out! LOL

Liver — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 09:27:58 -0800

Should I try to take back our Exchange server from the inappropriate uses? I'm an IT worker in a small local government IT shop. We have roughly 250 - 300 users. Recently I've been taking a more active roll in the management of our spam firewall and Exchange server, and have made some interesting observations.

I am not shocked, but I am thoroughly appalled at the amount of personal email that travels through our server. It turns out that the top users of email resources aren't the important decision-makers and managers, but the lowest level employees with very little legitimate work use for email. For example, the #1 email user in our entire organization is a receptionist that answers phones for the tax department. What are these emails? Albino moose pictures, prayer forwards, angel pictures, chain forward, inspirational videos, and the like.

This is just one person, but there are a hundred more out there that either through ignorance of apathy are misusing the government email server as their own personal email provider.

Part of the problem, I think, is that most of these people are not computer & internet savvy. Their email address here is the first one they've ever had, and they have zero concept of what is and isn't appropriate email. To them, there is just EMAIL. Dancing baby forwards are just as legitimate as a message from their boss, or a member of the public seeking help.

As I see it I have a few options.

1) Do nothing. Accept that people are using county resources for their personal business and try to minimize the impact on legitimate users. This is the easy way out, and the way we got into this situation to begin with.

2) Bring the hammer down. Get aggressive with what comes and goes. Block all images by default. Train spam filters to block inappropriate emails. Tighten disk quotas to noose-like levels on "regular" users. Tell users to get hotmail/gmail/yahoo accounts for personal use. Expect resistance.

3) Something in between.

I'm especially interested in hearing from anyone who may have come into a poorly managed IT department and had to affect changes to both the technology and the culture side of problems similar to this.

Jumping into the deepend again

Knigel — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 19:41:37 -0800

KOREA FILTER: Help me decide if I should leave my current Korean university and move to Seoul to focus on Korean language learning. I have come upon a fork in the road and would greatly appreciate any advice. I am Canadian exchange student trying to decide if I should stay a third semester at my country-side Korean university or move to a Seoul university/academy. I am a bit atypical since I am in Korea as a student and not as a teacher; therefore, I need to be a little bit more money cautious and careful with my choices. I actually have it pretty well now where I am so want to make sure I do things right if I’m going to change.

I am on my second semester here at Soon Chun Hyang University which is in Asan and quite far away from everything. The biggest problem is that there are many cultural exchange courses that I feel to be a waste of time for my own goals and would like to focus entirely on Korean language courses. At this time my university looks after me quite well with free tuition and many other perks. They also help me with my student visa.

This has all been fine; however, I believe I have gained as much as I can and feel that I should move on. If I leave my university I will have to apply for a new visa and I do not know exactly how this works. Does any body know how many extensions one can get on a visa and how easy it is to switch between student and tourist visas and perhaps back again? Currently my student visa is for one year but I’d like to stay two years total (or more). What might be the best way to do this? I don’t know if I should enroll in a university language program and get a student visa or get a tourist visa and find other kinds of classes.

If I move to Seoul I would like to find good Korean language courses. Does anyone have any recommendations of universities or academies? Also, does anyone know how many hours one needs to be enrolled in classes for a student visa or what the other restrictions are? Do academies count or only universities?

I will also need a place to stay if I move to Seoul; therefore, I am curious as to how easy it is to find an apartment and where and how to look. Does anyone have any experience with this? I was thinking around Hong-dae area; however, I am fully open. As it is now, I spend at least three hours travelling one way to Seoul once or twice a weekend, so I won’t mind travelling a bit in the future to work or wherever.

Although I am here as a student I would like to be able to teach in the future so if anyone knows of any reputable TESOL or similar courses that are of high quality and that I can do online I would love to know of them. I suspect that I won’t find anything too good since these types of classes would seem to need classroom and hands-on experience to be successful; however, I’d like know if my notion is correct or not.

Lastly, if I am to move to Seoul I will have to deal with this cough that has been hounding me since I got here. The pollution is killing me and I really need to find a good doctor how will help me find out what is wrong and won’t just throw medication at me. Anyone know where I might find a good doctor who can also speak English?

This is all hard to put into words, but I thank everyone for taking the time to help me. I appreciate it~

Do studios exchange bad DVDs for good?

Blazecock Pileon — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:41:47 -0800

Is it true that non-working DVDs will be replaced by the studio (specifically, Paramount/Viacom) that released them, depending on the licensing agreement? I have a multi-disc set that is expensive to replace. One of the discs halts at a specific point during playback.

I have read that the DVD license is such that studios will exchange bad discs for new, on request.

Does Paramount/Viacom honor this and is there a good, non-generic contact for facilitating this?

Failing that, do off-the-shelf DVD repair kits actually work?

Migrating from Exchange to Google Apps

gttommy — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 06:46:51 -0800

Migrating from Exchange to Google Apps. Initially is it better to forward emails from Apps to Exchange, or the Exchange to Apps (before getting rid of Exchange altogether)? I'm more interested in the reliability of the migration so that users do not experience interruptions and technical issues are minimised. I'm sure performance and security is the same either way.

I've had a look at the following but no luck:
Mefi: Transfer-Gmail-to-Google-Apps-Gmail
Google: guide-for-migrating-to-google-apps

Any other migration tips will be handy, as I read emails and contacts migration to Gmail can be a huge task...

Many thanks MeFi!

Surprise! It's a.....

troika — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 21:04:55 -0800

What are some interesting, US-specific things I can mail to a friend abroad? A friend in New Zealand and I have started a little exchange - I send him peanut butter m&ms and he sends me a type of hot sauce I can't get over here. I like to include little extras in there - a chocolate-bacon bar, a bottle of Dogfish Head beer, that sort of thing. But I'm running out of ideas! What would be interesting to a kiwi, something they specifically can't find over there. We're both mid-20s, I live in Washington DC.

What would migrating an Outlook Exchange email system with Google's business Gmail?

gttommy — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 22:43:43 -0800

What would migrating an Outlook Exchange email system with Google's business Gmail? Google's Gmail for business seems like it has some potential and I am in the process of possibly converting the company!

http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/business/messaging.html

Any advice on what could be involved such as drawbacks or implementation process or method will be useful.

Thanks mefi.

mangled email signature...

dance — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 13:59:58 -0800

Why would a PNG, sent as part of an email signature, look compressed and distorted and generally horrible when included again in the recipient´s reply? This is through MS Exchange but I think it´s more than one Exchange. Googling for Outlook´s image compression ´feature´ doesn´t return anything useful. I can send a sample mail to anyone who´s interested in helping. Of course I could make a GIF, but I wanted PNG, damnit! ;-)

Thanks!