What about contacting the postal inspectors?
https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/
They maybe able to open a case for you
SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
101–110 of 151 posts
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
> that's some really high expectations there. The USPS is easily on my top 5 list of incompetent companies.
I have found just about everyone picks one carrier: FedEx, UPS, USPS, etc, and decides they suck. It's all anecdotal. I've had several problems with UPS and so I tend to avoid them. Yet USPS is batting 1000 for me.
Same here, been repeatedly screwed by FedEx (parcels marked as delivered, carrier shows up 2 or 3 weeks later and won't explain WFT happened), but USPS has treated my parcels pretty well. The employees at my local post office are competent and well meaning, opposite the vibe I get at other shipping places.
Ultimately, they all do work most of the time (except OnTrac, showing up at 11pm at night at my office and calling me is not acceptable).
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#103As a hopeful note of optimism: I recently sent a large, expensive package (worth around $1500) cross-country via USPS. The package was sent out mid-December. According to the tracking it made it all the way to the destination Post Office. After that...nothing. It just never progressed. I filed both a mail search requests, and an insurance claim. I received nothing but radio silence on those as well. Fast forward to a…
USPS is usually fantastic but, when they fail, they fail very bureaucratically.
Ordered a gift with rush shipping on Dec. 20th. Arrives at the local post office Dec. 22nd, marked undeliverable as addressed the next day.
I call them up and say, "Hey, I typed in 123 Sprig Street, but I meant 123 Spring Street. Can I just drive over and get the package?".
"No."
An employee told me all I could do was update my address with the shipper, wait for them to fail 2 more delivery attempts, have them return the package at their leisure, and have the shipper resend. So I checked the shipping status every day and, sure enough, they tried redelivering to the same bogus address twice. Predictable, at least. Got the package last week.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm only 33, and the 401K loan automatically takes money out of each paycheck until it's repaid. I believe it was a 72 month loan? Might've been shorter. So, pretty sure it won't be a problem before I retire. Of course, if an exigent circumstance comes up, and I can prove it (medical emergency, bankruptcy), it's possible to borrow the other half of the 401K. But if I'm short on the mortgage, it's not going to help me…
The problem is for people that take out a loan, then decrease their monthly 401k contributions to cover the loan payments. Also, while your money is out on loan, it isn't gaining value from the market (on the other hand, it is at least gaining the percent interest that you are paying back in -- so from the fund's perspective, it isn't too bad).
Ouch, that's a good point.
If you don't mind a question ... I was thinking about taking out a loan again once it was paid off in order to pay my house mortgage down to 78% so that I can knock off the $200/mo PMI. If I then contributed $200/mo toward the loan + 401K, do you think that would be better or worse than just leaving the 401K alone and paying the PMI? The PMI will probably take another 6+ years to fall off on its own, due to the criminally lopsided interest-to-principal amounts that 30-year mortgages start off at.
(I realize the absurdity of asking financial advice here, but you seem to know your stuff, so why not? ;)
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, after sitting for 21 days in US customs, it's now stuck in Jersey City, NJ: http://i.imgur.com/XYB1lZS.png Note the "in transit to destination" is a fake event automatically added 24 hours after no scans. Assuming it wasn't stolen, it's still in NJ. Sitting in a pile for 10+ days for no apparent reason despite being priority mail.
21 days seems pretty excessive to be stuck in customs. I've sent a fair bit of stuff between UK and US and I've never had it take so long to clear customs. Plus they usually explicitly say that it's cleared customs. It seems very odd that it would take that long. Did you pay the right duties and tax on this? It may be that it's still with customs and they have absolutely no idea what a giant box of old SNES games is…
> Plus they usually explicitly say that it's cleared customs.
It didn't on the last package delivery, at least.
> Did you pay the right duties and tax on this?
I don't know, sorry. I'm the recipient.
> It may be that it's still with customs and they have absolutely no idea what a giant box of old SNES games is worth?
I would truly love it if someone from USPS would tell me that, if that were the case. I'd pay their ransom to get the package.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this: http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg And you need them to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the…
I don't know why you are getting so much crap. It seems entirely reasonable to me that mailing the games to you is a suitable way to solve this problem. And entirely reasonable to expect said packages to not get lost in transit.
Yeah. Truth be told, I've had around 400 mail shipments to complete my US set, and another 900 or so to complete my Japanese set. Even the last 100 games made it just fine. Never lost a package of any importance until now.
I honestly didn't expect this package to go missing.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this: http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg And you need them to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the…
"I have a one-of-a-kind setup in order to analyze and dump the entire memory maps of cartridges. All other methods to back up SNES cartridges cannot do this." Are there pictures of this setup that I can see ?
I can do much better! :)
Here's renderings, the full schematics and part numbers, gerber files, FPGA source code, and boot loader source code.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this: http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg And you need them to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the…
Hey byuu, just wanted to say that I appreciate everything you've done for preserving gaming history. higan is still the finest emulator I've ever seen, and it's an amazing feat that it can run SFC games cycle-accurately. On a side note, has anyone gone to the Jersey City facility? Is that even possible?
Thanks for the kind words.
And afraid not. I am willing to drive there, but only if I know it's possible to get my package that way. It's a ten hour drive.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#109Earlier quoted context omitted.
A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this: http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg And you need them to look like this: http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the…
Have you ever written up or documented the technical aspects of your whole process to scan one of the cartridges you receive? That would be something that I would find interesting to read.
Not really, no. Most of what I use are FreeBSD tools I wrote. So it's mostly just connect cart, turn on SNES, run commands on the terminal, log the resulting SHA256 and cart serial#s into a database, move ROM to archive, rinse repeat.
Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
The problem is for people that take out a loan, then decrease their monthly 401k contributions to cover the loan payments. Also, while your money is out on loan, it isn't gaining value from the market (on the other hand, it is at least gaining the percent interest that you are paying back in -- so from the fund's perspective, it isn't too bad).
Ouch, that's a good point. If you don't mind a question ... I was thinking about taking out a loan again once it was paid off in order to pay my house mortgage down to 78% so that I can knock off the $200/mo PMI. If I then contributed $200/mo toward the loan + 401K, do you think that would be better or worse than just leaving the 401K alone and paying the PMI? The PMI will probably take another 6+ years to fall off o…
Try /r/personalfinance?