Post Haste If you've got a printer and Internet access, you've got postage.

Can't get to the post office before it closes? Tired of waiting in long lines to buy stamps? Fed up with mechanical postage meters that hit bottom or jam just when you need them most? Internet postage may be just what you're looking for--a low-cost, convenient way to buy postage and print your own stamps right off the Web any time you need them.

All it takes is a standard IBM-compatible PC, an ink-jet or laser printer, and a small chunk of software you can download from either of two companies offering this new postage service: E-Stamp (http://www.e-stamp.com) and Stamps.com (http://www.stamps.com).

And yes, it's entirely legal. It's all based on the U.S. Postal Service's development of a two-dimensional bar code, officially called the Information Based Indicium. Instead of the parallel lines seen in supermarket bar codes, this 2-D bar code appears as a large-stamp-sized rectangle full of apparently random marks. In fact, that gibberish contains a sophisticated and forgery-resistant information code that records such items as a postage amount, the ZIP code of where your letter's going and the time the bar code was printed. New Postal Service machines can automatically read these bar codes and route the attached mail in a flash. They're not pretty, but these Internet stamps provide new levels of service.