Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Lord Shonus]

Heh, OOTS lampooned that once in a very early comic: http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0007.html

It has been a very long time since I reread that from the beginning, and I forgot how stupid-looking the wiggly panel borders the Giant used in the early strips were.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

There's a website called gethuman.com which appears to claim that they have contact info for the USPS. I haven't visited it, so be wary.

You could go to your nearest post office and ask about your missing packages.

[IcyTea31]

You could go to your nearest post office and ask about your missing packages.

Good luck with that. Some countries, including mine, seem to have got completely rid of post offices: small mail is sent and received via mailboxes, while larger mail is sent and received at convenience stores and kiosks, the workers of which have no will or means to track any packages.

[Shadowlord]

My cable company has a similar system, but it short circuits and connects you directly to a real person if you simply don't speak to the automated system.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

You could go to your nearest post office and ask about your missing packages.

Good luck with that. Some countries, including mine, seem to have got completely rid of post offices: small mail is sent and received via mailboxes, while larger mail is sent and received at convenience stores and kiosks, the workers of which have no will or means to track any packages.

Are there any startup courier services appearing?

Lord Shonus appears to be an American, so I thought it might be possible.

[IcyTea31]

Are there any startup courier services appearing?

Not really. The system works surprisingly well, probably due to the low volume of mail sent nowadays. People don't need an office that's open to public if there's nothing there that can't be done acceptably well elsewhere.

[Kot]

My graphics card died again.
Not that I expected otherwise, but I'm still let down. :/

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

What specifications do you require?

[Lord Shonus]

You could go to your nearest post office and ask about your missing packages.

Good luck with that. Some countries, including mine, seem to have got completely rid of post offices: small mail is sent and received via mailboxes, while larger mail is sent and received at convenience stores and kiosks, the workers of which have no will or means to track any packages.

Are there any startup courier services appearing?

Lord Shonus appears to be an American, so I thought it might be possible.

We do still have post offices in the US, but the people there are little more than clerks that handle things like selling stamps or mail forwarding. Filing an actual complaint there won't do me any good. Luckily I got the not-that-important package along with my vitally-important insurance ID cards. Three hours after the tracking number declared delivery, and more than an hour after all the mail trucks are supposed to be back in. They must have sent my carrier back out.



EDIT:
On an unrelated subject, I wound up reading one of those "Bizzare old-school inventions" lists, expecting that the list would be one part "perfectly reasonable then, bizarre now" to three parts "what the hell were they thinking", but didn't expect that some of them are actually quite brilliant.

[BorkBorkGoesTheCode]

That's good.

Which list?

[Lord Shonus]

This one

http://offbeat.topix.com/slideshow/17822/

Three of them I think would be good ideas today.

[smjjames]

This one

http://offbeat.topix.com/slideshow/17822/

Three of them I think would be good ideas today.

Actually, weren't gas masks for horses used in WWI? I've seen footage of gas masks for dogs too, what with the gas being used and horses actually still being used and horse cavalry actually still existing in some places.

I know the swim mask (which makes you look like a Luchador, or a burn victim) got popular in China, but I didn't know it was an old thing as well.

[Lord Shonus]

This one

http://offbeat.topix.com/slideshow/17822/

Three of them I think would be good ideas today.

Actually, weren't gas masks for horses used in WWI? What with the gas being used and horses actually still being used and horse cavalry actually still existing in some places.

I know the swim mask (which makes you look like a Luchador, or a burn victim) got popular in China, but I didn't know it was an old thing as well.

That and the gas pram (a gas-proof baby carriage) were in the "once perfectly reasonable, but now strange" category. The periscope glasses, gun camera, and sitting stick were the ones I found quite clever, and the last one is (I believe) fairly common.

[smjjames]

Yeah, the last one was a precursor to the VR goggle concept. The glow-in-the-dark tires seemed more like they'd be for some marketing scheme or design art for a car show rather than actual use.

Not sure what you mean by the last one, and the one I was thinking about is more in the middle, and shown at the start.

[Truean]

I'm honestly very sad for the state of thought in this country right now and could explain it and some solutions but don't want the bother.