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Is this a distraction story from USPS?
Of course, USPS has been politicized to an unreasonable degree, so folks are reading it in that context.
The response from USPS is what I expected. It's unlikely this was in the system for 100 years, but someone put it in the mail recently and the USPS decided to deliver it.
That seems almost certainly the case. It seems unlikely that any USPS sorting facility or post office where this could have fallen behind something would still be in use 100 years later (at least without extensive renovations/changes).
Also, cf. "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett.
This is why it’s so important to measure p99 latency rather than maximum latency.
This! Thank you for your service to category theory! Comparisons like this are what is going to lead us into the next 100 years.
We got one 50 years old a few years ago, but it was a return to sender because the street no longer existed. It happened to be a Christmas card right around Christmas.
By the way, barcodes were introduced to encode ZIP codes, and ZIP codes were introduced in 1963.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems almost certainly the case. It seems unlikely that any USPS sorting facility or post office where this could have fallen behind something would still be in use 100 years later (at least without extensive renovations/changes).
Remember the USPS is rumored to have recently dismantled hundreds of sorting machines. Entirely possible that some old mail was jammed in there somehow. Also, cf. "Going Postal" by Terry Pratchett.
We got one 50 years old a few years ago, but it was a return to sender because the street no longer existed. It happened to be a Christmas card right around Christmas.
Last year I bought a house and moved out of my apartment. So far I have received 1) two stimulus checks for the two deceased owners of the house 2) funeral home bills 3) family photos they sent and got returned
Earlier quoted context omitted.
That seems almost certainly the case. It seems unlikely that any USPS sorting facility or post office where this could have fallen behind something would still be in use 100 years later (at least without extensive renovations/changes).
Improbable things happen frequently at scale. One possible scenario is just that this card got lost twice. It could have slipped behind a counter at the original post office and been uncovered when that office was decommissioned 35 years later. Then it would have made its way to a newer sorting facility where either it could have been misplaced again or, more likely, been stuffed in a cabinet somewhere (as I doubt US…