The internet gave us email, which almost made the USPS extraneous. But then the internet gave us online commerce, which has made the USPS even more necessary.
fun fact: street vehicles are still being used to transport data around. for large amounts of data, it's faster and cheaper to write it on a disk, then ship the disk, instead of transporting it over the internet.
One time I looked at a 1tb microSD card and decided there was no fucking way that much data could fit into something so small. Ever since that day, no microSD card has worked for me. They get I/O errors, each one. Suspecting this isn't a coincidence might be my most schizophrenic thought.
I just noticed the MTU for the interface in the article. If nobody has suggested this already I'll be disappointed, but I propose that instead of jumbo frames we call them dumbo frames, when it relates to IPoAC using printed paper as the medium.
Yeah, shitty politics has done more damage to the USPS.
Though there is some truth to OP, the new generation mail trucks are designed with less enveloped letters and more parcel post in mind than the Grumman LLV was.
The US government had a legal monopoly to "carrying letters and parcels arround." Then it decided to remove that law, and then capitalism created delivery services.
In exchange for the monopoly there was flat rate service to every address in the country. Now they’re expected to do the flat rate service without the monopoly, while other companies targrt the most lucrative business.
And then Congress required them to take out loans to come up with 75 years worth of employee health benefits in just 10 years. That put them in massive debt, when other companies have such requirements.
Now, the same politicians that imposed those rules on them, are complaining that they're no longer "profitable", since every single penny they make is going towards paying off that debt.
Email was never a threat to mailed letters or magazines. It was some nonsense thunked up by the same caliber of technophobe that called it the webbernet and thought it really was just a series of tubes.
You know, he was making a coherent point about bandwidth limitations, it was just phrased in a silly way because that's how you have to talk to laymen.
Email was never a threat to mailed letters or magazines
Excuse me? You didn't put a /s in there, so I'm genuinely puzzled by your comment. If it was sarcastic, then well played.
Granted magazines have died out because of websites, but letters?
As a Dane unless you have an exemption, because you're very old or intellectually challenged, then you're required to have a special digital inbox for government and banking. When that was in introduced, letters died in less than a decade. To such a degree that the postal service stopped delivering letters last year.
A private company took over the letter carrying responsibility, so you can still send a letter. But there are no mail boxes left, you have to go to a store that does packages as well and standing in line to send a letter. The private company btw did a splendid job of making the postal service seem competent in comparison. Something no Dane would have found possible in years prior.
A mail straight from my living room to your living room, delivered instantly??? That'll never work! Some kind of electronic mail??? The post office won't stand for it!
40 Comments
gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org · 47 pts · 1d
fun fact: street vehicles are still being used to transport data around. for large amounts of data, it's faster and cheaper to write it on a disk, then ship the disk, instead of transporting it over the internet.
Endymion_Mallorn@kbin.melroy.org · 40 pts · 1d
Never underestimate the bandwidth of a Ford Taurus full of tapes screaming down the Jersey Turnpike.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 16 pts · 1d
I remember someone put a Micro SD card on a pigeon and sent it. Was faster.
gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org · 9 pts · 1d
i remember there is an XKCD about it, i just can't find it rn
edit: https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/
yakko@feddit.uk · 6 pts · 1d
One time I looked at a 1tb microSD card and decided there was no fucking way that much data could fit into something so small. Ever since that day, no microSD card has worked for me. They get I/O errors, each one. Suspecting this isn't a coincidence might be my most schizophrenic thought.
gandalf_der_13te@feddit.org · 5 pts · 1d
wait until you learn about the information density of DNA
yakko@feddit.uk · 5 pts · 1d
I'd better go find out and balk at that too, free vasectomy if it works
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 10h
You should not have doubted that card, now they're all taking their revenge
yakko@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 4h
This morning my external SSD won't mount. This is getting fuckin spooky
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 3h
Could you doubt global warming or Trump? I mean you have a power, and with great power comes great responsibility. Stop only destroying electronics 😉
yakko@feddit.uk · 1 pts · 3h
Alright, I'll take a flying fuck at it. I guess check headlines in an hour.
ganryuu@lemmy.ca · 3 pts · 1d
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IP_over_Avian_Carriers
Flax_vert@feddit.uk · 8 pts · 22h
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 10h
I just noticed the MTU for the interface in the article. If nobody has suggested this already I'll be disappointed, but I propose that instead of jumbo frames we call them dumbo frames, when it relates to IPoAC using printed paper as the medium.
feannag@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 1d
Ah, classic sneakernet!
hogmomma@lemmy.world · 30 pts · 1d
Email affected the USPS far less than people think it did.
EDIT: I should say the ADVENT of email.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 21 pts · 1d
Yeah, shitty politics has done more damage to the USPS.
Though there is some truth to OP, the new generation mail trucks are designed with less enveloped letters and more parcel post in mind than the Grumman LLV was.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 20 pts · 1d
Then Capitalism gave us delivery services, and the US government made the USPS bankrupt and obsolete.
ChilledPeppers@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 9 pts · 1d
The US government had a legal monopoly to "carrying letters and parcels arround." Then it decided to remove that law, and then capitalism created delivery services.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 1d
In exchange for the monopoly there was flat rate service to every address in the country. Now they’re expected to do the flat rate service without the monopoly, while other companies targrt the most lucrative business.
Archangel1313@lemmy.ca · 5 pts · 22h
And then Congress required them to take out loans to come up with 75 years worth of employee health benefits in just 10 years. That put them in massive debt, when other companies have such requirements.
Now, the same politicians that imposed those rules on them, are complaining that they're no longer "profitable", since every single penny they make is going towards paying off that debt.
CompactFlax@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 22h
Similar play as private equity
diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de · 8 pts · 10h
There are postal organizations outside of the US.
grandel@lemmy.ml · 3 pts · 2h
It's the same when you ask an American where they are from when you meet abroad and they reply with a state name like Texas instead of a country.
They're abroad so they must know that other countries exist yet still reply with their state name.
I don't think knowledge is the problem anymore, it's ignorance.
magic_smoke@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 4h
That's insane, I never knew that!
I always assumed my ali-epxress packages where launched via cannon, and landed on my doorstep 10,000 miles or so away.
schnurrito@discuss.tchncs.de · 0 pts · 6h
for which the same thing is also true
db2@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 1d
Email was never a threat to mailed letters or magazines. It was some nonsense thunked up by the same caliber of technophobe that called it the webbernet and thought it really was just a series of tubes.
betterdeadthanreddit@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 1d
Without those tech-illiterate morons, we wouldn't have works of art like this though so it's not all bad.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1d
You know, he was making a coherent point about bandwidth limitations, it was just phrased in a silly way because that's how you have to talk to laymen.
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 1d
I thought it was a big truck.
BigDanishGuy@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 10h
Excuse me? You didn't put a /s in there, so I'm genuinely puzzled by your comment. If it was sarcastic, then well played.
Granted magazines have died out because of websites, but letters?
As a Dane unless you have an exemption, because you're very old or intellectually challenged, then you're required to have a special digital inbox for government and banking. When that was in introduced, letters died in less than a decade. To such a degree that the postal service stopped delivering letters last year.
A private company took over the letter carrying responsibility, so you can still send a letter. But there are no mail boxes left, you have to go to a store that does packages as well and standing in line to send a letter. The private company btw did a splendid job of making the postal service seem competent in comparison. Something no Dane would have found possible in years prior.
db2@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 6h
The post specifies USPS which means the time would be around 30 years ago in the US.
I'm sorry to heat about your postal service. It's a sad accomplishment to out-suck the US.
Vandals_handle@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 5h
Mail/packages sent via the United States Postal Service have more constitutional protections than those sent via commercial carrier or email.
elephantium@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 15h
I have a buddy who works for the USPS. The package delivery portion of his job sounds nuts.
chahn.chris@piefed.social · 5 pts · 1d
Until the internet can move matter we will always need matter transport options of which the USPS is one of.
nieceandtows@programming.dev · 5 pts · 1d
I bet actual personal letters are less than 1% of what USPS delivers these days
Rivalarrival@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 1d
Certainly. It's probably less than 1 in 50,000.
Danarchy@lemmy.nz · 3 pts · 1d
So the man said “that’s a good thing” and the zen master said “we’ll see”
elephantium@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 15h
Ok Charlie
Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 1d
A mail straight from my living room to your living room, delivered instantly??? That'll never work! Some kind of electronic mail??? The post office won't stand for it!