bluepostit

To add to your tip #7: Get to know your local user group. Google "PHP/Python/RoR/etc [Insert City here]".

They might be doing monthly meetings, code sprint, bug squashing parties, or just enjoying a beer once in a while. That allows you to stay on top of what is going locally, get to know other freelancers, grow your network and have fun!

Didn't even think of searching for such application! It sure is great to be able to have an inbox-like view.

I also love using Python's integrated SMTP server.

  python -m smtpd -n -c DebuggingServer localhost:25

This will just spit out the raw email.

Edit: you need root permission to listen on port 25. Otherwise you can use a different port > 1024.

I agree, I stopped to care during the last winter Olympic in Vancouver.