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Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

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Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#101

Post by simonebrunozzi »

Speaking of USPS: I shipped a package from Japan to my home in San Francisco, 3 months ago. The package arrived two days ago. I opened it... And realized the content has been "replaced" with junk books of (I assume) a similar weight of the original.

The content was a few ceramic plates, a few books, some tea - nothing particularly expensive, but these were items that we bought during our stay in Japan.

I hate this. I hate the person or persons that have done this. I pretty much feel my own person has been violated.

Also, knowing USPS, I'm certain that nothing will ever happen to these THIEVES, and that there will be no easy way for me to force them to open an investigation.

Sorry for the venting... But I somehow had to express this inner rage somewhere, and when I saw this thread I couldn't resist.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#102

Post by Spooky23 »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #101

Speaking of USPS: I shipped a package from Japan to my home in San Francisco, 3 months ago. The package arrived two days ago. I opened it... And realized the content has been "replaced" with junk books of (I assume) a similar weight of the original. The content was a few ceramic plates, a few books, some tea - nothing particularly expensive, but these were items that we bought during our stay in Japan. I hate this. I…

You would be surprised.

Call the postal inspector office in your area. They take mail theft very seriously.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#103

Post by Spooky23 »

codezero wrote: post #37
wtn wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS was probably much more adamant about delivering lost mail in the 1950s. The level of service was higher, with twice daily delivery.

I never knew they did twice daily deliver, time to google up some more info!

It was more in some places. My grandma and aunt would mail letters like IMs in 1930s NYC.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#104

Post by dawnerd »

simonebrunozzi wrote: post #101

Speaking of USPS: I shipped a package from Japan to my home in San Francisco, 3 months ago. The package arrived two days ago. I opened it... And realized the content has been "replaced" with junk books of (I assume) a similar weight of the original. The content was a few ceramic plates, a few books, some tea - nothing particularly expensive, but these were items that we bought during our stay in Japan. I hate this. I…

Did you report it to customs? That's almost certainly where it got swapped.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#105

Post by philwelch »

sethammons wrote: post #19
philwelch wrote: post #3

This is why it’s so important to measure p99 latency rather than maximum latency.

true, percentiles are important for telling you how your system is doing and how typical users experience it. However, I contend that you should also measure max latency, just that is is less important for understanding typical usage. But seeing your max go crazy can signal that there is something else in the stack that needs work. Silly example that I hit: max was consistently 2hr on something that p99'd at like 1mi…

Good points.

To my point though, you mention that you noticed a "consistent" max of 2hr. Meaning the consistency was the interesting part. You probably consider this issue to be more important than some other hypothetical issue that caused, say, literally a single request to have a 2hr latency on Tuesday.

In other words, if you monitored over a period that was long enough to establish a statistically significant p99.9 or even p99.99 and then measured those percentiles, you still would have not only caught this issue, but also distinguished it from the other hypothetical issue. Monitoring your maximum and worrying about consistently high maximums might be a more effective mechanism, but in principle, you still care more about top percentiles.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#106

Post by sib »

tialaramex wrote: post #89
kube-system wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The barcode is not a postmark, it's a machine readable version of the address

Nerdy nitpick: It might not be quite an "address". In the UK at least the machine readable information (either added during sorting or printed deliberately for a discount rate by bulk senders) indicates a delivery point a place to which this post will be in fact delivered, distinct from an address. For example my address says Flat 7 of 60 My Street, and a friend lives at Flat 10 of 74 My Street. But my delivery point…

Address (n): "a place where a person or organization may be communicated with"

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#107

Post by Dylan16807 »

philwelch wrote: post #97
vecter wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This user is not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Welch

How do you know I’m not? To confirm though, I am indeed not that or any other mathematician and I can’t claim any credit for any contribution to category theory. I’m simply a programmer who knows a little bit about a few things, no one special :)

Well I suppose it's possible that your "about" line is completely fake, but in that case it sounds like you want people to go around thinking you're not him.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#108

Post by IncRnd »

dstick wrote: post #87
IncRnd wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How would you do that, burn them?

I think the correct word would be: sacrifice ;-)

Yes. Thank you. You are of course correct, and I appreciate you pointing that out to me. Make them holy and sacred.

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#109

Post by tialaramex »

sib wrote: post #106
tialaramex wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nerdy nitpick: It might not be quite an "address". In the UK at least the machine readable information (either added during sorting or printed deliberately for a discount rate by bulk senders) indicates a delivery point a place to which this post will be in fact delivered, distinct from an address. For example my address says Flat 7 of 60 My Street, and a friend lives at Flat 10 of 74 My Street. But my delivery point…

Address (n): "a place where a person or organization may be communicated with"

Mmm. Where did you find that definition?

My (Collins) paper dictionary offers:

"The conventional form by which the location of a building is described" and nothing close to what you've suggested.

Wiktionary offers: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/address

"A description of the location of a property, usually with at least [...]"

Re: Postcard stamped in 1920 delivered 100 years later

#110

Post by libraryatnight »

js2 wrote: post #68

Years ago for my sister's 30th birthday, I did a fun project involving the USPS. I wanted to send her the message "Happy Belated Thirtieth Birthday!", which is 30 characters, via postcards, one character per postcard. I found 30 post offices in unique places throughout the U.S. (For example, I found a town that had the same name as her given name in Illinois. I found another with my name, etc.) I used Zazzle to print…

Sweeter than sugar. That's awesome.
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