UPS vs FedEx
Friday, February 29, 2008 - 02:59 PM
Like many of you, I live in the modern world. That means that, on occasion, I have to either receive something via home delivery, or ship something to someone else. Given the choice (and I don’t always have a choice) I always choose UPS for either shipping or receiving. The following is a list of just some of the reasons why.
Reasons UPS is better than FedEx:
- UPS is cheaper - this in and of itself would not be that big of a reason if FedEx provided better service than UPS. But, as the following points illustrate, that is not the case.
- We live in a multi-unit building (condo) with a secure foyer. If we’re not home at the time of delivery, the UPS driver will ring one of the neighbors to sign for the package and leave it in the foyer. The FedEx driver won’t, they always leave that stupid slip, wasting our time and theirs.
- You don’t need an account with UPS just to schedule a pickup. BOO!!! FedEx for forcing people to create an account just to schedule a pickup! BOO!!!
- When shipping UPS ground it’s supposed to get there within 3-5 days. If UPS is able to deliver it sooner, they do. Packages shipped UPS ground usually get there NEXT DAY. FedEx will make no effort to deliver your package sooner than when they guarantee it, so their 3-5 day delivery will not get there any sooner than three days, but usually doesn’t get there until the fifth day. If you use the online tracking service you can actually see it sit on hold at their hub for several days. (That is, if their online tracking system gives you any info at all - see the next point).
- FedEx’s online tracking sucks (as does their entire website, for that matter). Often times the tracking info won’t be available until after the package is already delivered.
Why do I bring these points up? I had to deal with FedEx this week, and it just reminded me how much I hate them.
Graphing Calculator Story
Thursday, February 28, 2008 - 09:19 AM
It may not seem like it to most people, but sometimes the history of computing is filled with incredible and entertaining stories, particularly when it comes to Apple. This is an example of that; the story of a couple of engineers doing whatever it takes to finish a piece of software they weren’t supposed to be working on in the first place:
Don’t worry, it’s not filled with a bunch of geek-speak and technical jargon. It’s a fascinating read for anyone, even if you are not technically inclined or have no interest in the history of Apple. Basically, it’s about two guys who were working as contractors on a project at Apple that got canceled, but decided to keep showing up covertly to finish their part of the project.
One week we were evading security, the next week Apple is rising to our defense.
For those of you who are in tune with the history of computing, it’s a great insight into the mind set of the environment at Apple at the time that they were able pull this off. I was thinking while reading this that this kind of thing would never happen at Microsoft. At the end of the story the author (Ron Avitzur) makes that point with this little joke:
We wanted to release a Windows version as part of Windows 98, but sadly, Microsoft has effective building security.
Enjoy!
Tim Burton’s Alice
Wednesday, February 27, 2008 - 02:25 PM
I just found out that Tim Burton is going to be directing the new Alice in Wonderland, which will be done in a combination live action and stop motion animation. That should be really cool.
Let me make a couple of predictions:
Chistina Ricci as Alice
Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter
Too obvious? We’ll see…
It’s Finally Over
Tuesday, February 19, 2008 - 09:45 AM
Well, Toshiba officially announced that it is putting the HD-DVD format to rest. This is no surprise, pretty much everyone saw it coming, even as Toshiba continued to claim that they were committed to the format.
Some people are saying, however, that Blu-ray still has stiff competition from HD downloads, like Apple TV and cable on demand services. I don’t really think this is the case.
For one thing, the quality of Blu-ray is superior to the HD download services. This may change in the future, as bandwidth increases allow for continued higher quality, but comparable quality downloads are still a ways away.
Second, and more importantly, some people like to actually own movies. For most people, this could be just favorites that you like to watch again and again*. Some people are movie buffs (I know a few) who have large collections of films. You also have TV series sets that are immensely popular.
That’s not even considering the lure of "extras", which is a huge added value to some people. With the higher capacity of Blu-ray, expect to see the extra features expanded on in the near future.
I don’t really think the market for physical media is going anywhere soon. On demand and download services have their place (we use our on demand all of the time), and will definitely replace physical movie rentals - both "brick and mortar" (like Blockbuster) and on-line (Netflix), but they’re not going to replace physical media any time soon.
The biggest hurdle for Blu-ray right now is more affordable players and media. But, like any new technology, that’s just a matter of time. Anyone remember how expensive DVD players and DVD movies were when they first cam to market? It didn’t take long for them to become affordable to the average person. Same thing with HDTVs - look how fast the prices for HDTVs came down.
* I have the original Star Wars trilogy on VHS, both the original versions and the late ‘90s special edition ones, and on DVD. When they come out on Blu-ray, I’ll probably eventually own those, too.
Why are you here?
Monday, February 18, 2008 - 01:31 PM
I really don’t understand some people. Why on earth would you spend money to buy tickets to a go to a concert, get in your car and drive to the concert, find parking and walk to the venue, and then deal with the lines/security to get into the concert, only to talk through the entire concert?
And why do we always end up sitting by these annoying people?
Seriously, why did you come? It’s not possible to listen, particularly to music, while you’re talking. So, if you were just going to talk the entire time, why did you bother to come?