New Apple Lust Objects for 2010 and onward

more like "why don't you have any sense of organization amirite

It would be nice if those tracking text messages or emails really were in real-time, but they actually arrive about 10-15 minutes after the fact.

This is the current definition of "real-time" for almost all large tracking systems. The system your local delivery company is using is not scalable enough for a company like UPS or FedEx and would increase their delivery times, extending the delivery windows and making their overall service worse.

I don't get though, given that I signed my name on an electronic tablet that I assume has an internet connection, why that info takes 10 minutes to reach my phone. Or why GPS-equipped trucks with my shipment onboard can't clue me in on their location at a given time.

1. it's a poor assumption to think that the tablet has an internet connection
2. it's a poor assumption to think that, if the tablet does have a connection, that it is as fast as a 4G LTE connection
3. it's a poor assumption to think that updating the record in the shipping database and looking up your contact info to generate the notification email takes no time
4. it's a poor assumption to think that updating the GPS information for the specific truck containing your package takes zero time

5. it's a poor assumption to think that your signature is uploaded to the central database the instant you make it
5a. it's a poor assumption to think that all of the information surrounding your specific transaction is processed at the instant that it happens, particularly in a system with a high volume of highly similar incoming transactions

it all could take zero time, like weve all dealt w services that do that, it just doesnt matter enough to them to make it happen, theyll get there eventually im sure

pretty sure those signing pad things only phone home every so often to keep up battery life

then idk if they even phone home directly to UPS/FedEx or a third-party data aggregation provider that then syncs to UPS

most contrived data project I worked with involved (details fuzzed here to obscure the actual business purpose) sensors that used a satellite connection to pick up daily readings. the sensor was by one company, the satellite data provider was another, and we were then using a web service to pick up readings once every day (although the satellite might not pick it up some days, due to weather) where we were then staging it into a database and putting it together with customer data, which was then picked up by a web service by a company we contracted with, then presented on a web page for their customers

the data from the service was binary in a xml wrapper

Re: leaving packages, I heard fedex/ups designate neighborhoods as safe to leave / unsafe to leave, so it happens on a route by route basis

I don't assume any of those things, but as lag∞n noted the tech is already in place, and you don't need LTE speeds to transfer a tiny amount of data within 30 seconds. All I know is that a small independent shipping company had their act together and managed to notify me electronically when their truck was leaving New York for DC., that mine was the second delivery that day, and gave an increasingly accurate arrival time estimate as the truck neared it destination. Don't know why the big guys can't do the same thing. Yes the huge number of pacakages and larger number of stops complicates logistics, but it's no more difficult to send out an automated text when the truck enters my city, and it shouldn't take more than a few seconds to reach me like any other txt.

The signing pads are much bigger and heavier than an iPhone and should be able to hold a high-capacity battery. And with wireless recharging mats affordable, the trucks could be so equipped so the pads could be easily recharged even between shortly-spaced delivery stops without adding too much inconvenience for the driver. Even an old-style wired car phone charger dock would work fine.

My home must be on both of those lists (safe/unsafe to leave), as it seems 50/50 whether packages will be dropped or i'll get a note on the door saying nobody was home and they'll try again tomorrow.

only thing stopping them is prob the cost, all those little things scaled up to their millions and billions of deliveries, this is a company that designs its routes so that its trucks can make right turns at lights in order to save gas after all

idk they could probably do it better but you're sounding like my coworker who likes to rant about how parts of the company I work for could be much more efficient when he's like a low-level business analyst

xp to Lee626, head of shipping logistics

just upgrade tens of thousands of delivery trucks all across the US at hundreds of dollars a truck, it's no big deal

UPS probably paid a huge amount of money for custom software to do tracking and notifications. Realities of enterprise procurement make it slow and expensive to change stuff.

If I'm right, they should've gone in-house, that software basically is their business.

Apple is reportedly cutting iPhone 5c production in half from 300,000 units to 150,000 units per day, according to claims by C Technology [Google Translate], which leaked a number of photos of the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c ahead of their launches last month. As highlighted by Unwired View, gray market pricing for iPhone 5c units has also been falling as availability has remained solid.

news report: nobody wants this shit phone that is the iphone 5c

beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh)
Posted: October 10, 2013 at 5:05:36 PM
idk they could probably do it better but you're sounding like my coworker who likes to rant about how parts of the company I work for could be much more efficient when he's like a low-level business analyst

some nerve mere consumers challenging professional programmers itt, know yr place people ffs

having used stuff that works good before is not a valid argument

kneel before the programmers hard won knowledge of corporate dysfunction

Yes the huge number of pacakages and larger number of stops complicates logistics, but it's no more difficult to send out an automated text when the truck enters my city, and it shouldn't take more than a few seconds to reach me like any other txt.

How many packages are on the truck? How many different people need to be notified when it leaves its origin point/arrives at its destination? How many stops is it going to make and is it going to trigger another update after every stop? How long does each of these transactions take and how does that time increase as the source database increases? How long does it take to remove delivered packages from the system and does that impact performance for live updating? Are delivered packages ever even purged, and if not how does the increasing database of delivery information impact current query/update performance, plus what is the rate of growth for storage costs for this ever-increasing database of increasingly out-of-date information?

These are a subset of the questions you need to answer before you can get the type of system you're looking for, and that's before even looking into the cost of creation and implementation.

youre right that would be totally impossible to code

lol you are dumm

lol you are arrogant

"ILX - NICER than ILM". Discuss. [Started by Nordicskillz (Nordicskillz) in January 2003, last updated 2 minutes ago by the late great on I Love Everything] 19 new answers

sorry that "knowing something about a topic" = "arrogant", let me comfort u

http://www.teeshirtuniversity.com/content/images/my.png

my friend who works on this stuff has a doctorate in physics and works in a company of fellow doctorates in physics. it's funny when we talk because they're working on like optimizing Dell deliveries but it turns out to be a massively complicated (and lucrative) line of work

your sophistry is vv impressive to everyone dan, i assure you

and does not at all typify willful nerd point missing

lol okay Pot

seriously what are you even saying, that ups making their tracking system better would require work, does anyone think it would not, are you saying that it would be impossible to broadcast realtime info, are you denying the completely banal observation that its not a great product

What I'm saying is:

- the UPS tracking system falls within an accepted industry standard;
- improving it to the point suggested is a long-term goal that's going to be massively expensive, which is why it doesn't exist now

The question "I can send a text to someone almost instantaneously, so why can't UPS send a text to me instantaneously?" shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem, which is tied to multiple sources broadcasting multiple messages to multiple people while coordinating them through a centralized system that likely has several points of replication/redundancy built into it, and coordinating all of those transactions in the most efficient way possible takes time. Someone could and probably will come up with a way to shorten that window but the return on investment has to make it worth implementing; is UPS losing business because they update their tracking information in 10-15 minute increments rather than 5-10 second increments? If not, why would they spend the money to implement this?

so like

only thing stopping them is prob the cost, all those little things scaled up to their millions and billions of deliveries, this is a company that designs its routes so that its trucks can make right turns at lights in order to save gas after all

― lag∞n, Thursday, October 10, 2013 12:39 PM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

you're the one who decided to take exception to my tone even though we were making the exact same argumet

well it did seem a bit dismissive of a completely valid point which anyone is totally qualified to make, that ups et als tracking is not a great product which lags well behind the cutting endge

and i do think theyre prob wrong that its not worth the cost tho, particularly considering the emergence of the realtime web and app interoperability, i wouldnt be surprised if theyve already come to this conclusion and are building realtime tracking as we speak

I wouldn't either, but the complaint was "it's ridiculous that they don't have this right now"

its a little bit ridiculous

I have no problems with complaining or saying shit could be better

just the armchair coaching like saying batteries could totally handle this or some local freight dude can do this why can't UPS

my anecdote was basically that there are usually reasons things suck but armchair quarterbacking this is lol

why don't they just have an inductive charger docking station in the truck that charges the device AND syncs it omg so obvious

mh OTM

UPS trucks are basically all metal, make the truck itself an antenna, then you don't have to worry about cell reception

new iPad - when?

tlg, iPad event at the end of this month, so probably no later than early November

sorry for my misplaced anecdote, it was just on my mind and always kills me how contrived big companies can be with data

just the armchair coaching like saying batteries could totally handle this

― beautifully, unapologetically plastic (mh), Thursday, October 10, 2013 2:03 PM (12 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lees observation about the size of the device compared to an iphone and room for a battery was totally valid tho, maybe you are a battery expert that can explain why more space for a bigger battery doesnt equal longer battery life idk, i think we all agree at this point that it comes down to business decisions which i dont think anyone itt is an expert at

anyway imho its pretty absurd that company which describes its what it does as logistics cant tell you reliably when your package is gonna be there etc

tbh I just get irritated by Lee's posting style although I am sure he's a swell guy

hah