United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear • Hacker News Board

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#31

Post by ppereira » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:40 PM UTC

tnorthcutt wrote: post #21

hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. No. They charge the same amount to send those two letters. It does not cost the same amount, however. Regular physical mail delivery at current prices is unsustainable. Period.

Just interpret "it costs" as "it costs the user" and use the plain English definition of cost as "asking price, market price, or selling price" and you'll arrive at the original poster's intended meaning.

I assume that for the second part of your comment, you consider "Regular physical mail" to be letter post, because we will always need packages to be delivered.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#32

Post by _delirium » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:43 PM UTC

angdis wrote: post #9

USPS blew it. They could have evolved/adapted into different businesses. Not only could they have competed with UPS and FedEX for parcel delivery at scale, but there was (and perhaps still is) an opportunity for an entity to provide 3rd party authenticated email service-- and charge for it. Instead, they got comfortable with merely existing as a junk-mail conduit. Pathetic. Sadly, in the current environment, where th…

Much of the quasi-independent USPS's attempt to move in a UPS/FedEx-ish direction was blocked by the government. They actually tried to get to the most profitable segment of the market, fast package delivery between major metropolitan areas, before FedEx or UPS did much in that area, but their 1978 proposal for an "Express Mail Metro" service was blocked by the Postal Regulatory Commission.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#33

Post by sp332 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:44 PM UTC

patio11 wrote: post #28

sp332 wrote: post #17

It's a federal offense to steal someone's mail out of their mailbox. No such protections exist for email.

Title 18 U.S.C Section 1030 (the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act) makes it a federal offense to exceed your authorized access on, basically, any computer system anywhere. (Does it communicate? It is used in interstate commerce? BAM.)

So there are a bunch of employees at my ISP who are fully "authorized" to read my mail. Also a bunch at the recipient's ISP. And probably some scanners in various systems in the middle that might surface my email for purposes of targeted advertising or spam fighting. It's not nearly the same level of protection.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#34

Post by dwiel » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

gerggerg wrote: post #6

Mail theft exists. In fact it's one of the leading causes of identity theft. And computer viruses? Any one ever been delivered anthrax through email?

Also, I see way more junk mail in my mail box than I do in my email inbox ...

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#35

Post by joezydeco » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:45 PM UTC

tnorthcutt wrote: post #21

hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. No. They charge the same amount to send those two letters. It does not cost the same amount, however. Regular physical mail delivery at current prices is unsustainable. Period.

Regular physical mail delivery at current prices is unsustainable.

But it was sustainable when bulk mail and junk mail made huge profits for the postal service and subsidized the first-class prices.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#36

Post by sp332 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:48 PM UTC

jonknee wrote: post #26

hammerdr wrote: post #16

This is something that is very close to my family so I have a bit of experience with how the Postal Service is going. The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. The USPS is also required to deliver mail to even the most re…

> The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. That's also true of the internet. It doesn't cost anything to email someone who's right next to you or who is across the globe. There is very little demand for mail these days a…

To send and receive USPS mail, you need... a mailbox. To send and receive email you need an internet subscription and a computer. Internet access can be impossible to find, or very expensive, in many areas that are serviced by USPS. Saying "It doesn't cost anything to email someone... who is across the globe" is only true if you both have the infrastructure, equipment, and service necessary.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#37

Post by DTanner » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:49 PM UTC

thaumaturgy wrote: post #27

The USPS ad isn't completely baseless. We just recently did a virus cleanup for someone who opened up what they thought was a ticket confirmation for their boss in their email. Oops. (Their mail service provider apparently doesn't block zip files containing executables.) There is a lot of confusion out there from people who aren't sure what is and isn't safe to open. The knowledge that we take for granted -- .jpg is…

> The knowledge that we take for granted -- .jpg is safe, .vbs is not

Not always: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms04-02...

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#38

Post by Wistar » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 6:55 PM UTC

gerggerg wrote: post #6

Mail theft exists. In fact it's one of the leading causes of identity theft. And computer viruses? Any one ever been delivered anthrax through email?

Or something from Ted Kaczynski?

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#39

Post by sp332 » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 7:01 PM UTC

adaml_623 wrote: post #20

sp332 wrote: post #17

It's a federal offense to steal someone's mail out of their mailbox. No such protections exist for email.

I think you'll find that it is a federal offense in your country to hack someones email.

There's no "hacking" necessary because there aren't nearly the same protections (in the USA if you're wondering) on someone's email as there is on USPS mail. To be fair, even laws about FedEx, UPS, DHL etc. mail are less stringent than USPS mail, simply because they're not federal agencies.

Re: United States Postal Service tries to compete with Google using fear

#40

Post by ohyes » Wed, Jan 25, 2012, 7:02 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #35

tnorthcutt wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The big sell of the postal service is that it costs the same amount to send a letter from San Francisco to Los Angeles as it does to send a letter from the bayou in Louisiana to Honolulu, Hawaii. In this, physical mail is the big equalizer. No. They charge the same amount to send those two letters. It does not cost the same amount, however. Regular physical mail delivery at current prices is unsustainable. Period.

Regular physical mail delivery at current prices is unsustainable. But it was sustainable when bulk mail and junk mail made huge profits for the postal service and subsidized the first-class prices.

It is still sustainable. The USPS is being forced to prepay its retirement benefits 75 years into the future (i.e. for people that aren't even alive yet or are just being born).

It has been profitable to the tune of a couple hundred million a year. The issue is that it can't afford to pay 5.5 billion that congress mandated that it pay each year. It is 20 billion in the hole, but only because congress made a ridiculous demand of it that no other organization, public or private would be required to make.

Citation: http://www.cnbc.com/id/45049636/Fixing_the_US_Postal_Service...