07:59 – We use 30 mL wide-mouth “pharmaceutical packer” bottles for some of the solid chemicals in our science kits. One of those is dextrose. Back when we filled the first batch of those bottles, I tested them to see how much dextrose would fit in one of the bottles. It turned out that loose-filling the bottles to the rim put about 26 or 26.5 grams, give or take, but always at least 25 grams. So I made the labels to list the contents as 25 grams.
So yesterday I started filling a batch of 60 bottles with dextrose. The first 20 or so were no problem. I was using dextrose from a current batch. Then I opened a new 3 kilo bottle of dextrose, loose-filled a bottle, and found that it contained only about 20 grams. The new batch of dextrose is fluffier than the old batch. I tried tapping the bottle to settle the contents, but even with tapping there was no way to fit 25 grams into that bottle. So now I have to use a thick rod to press down the contents of the bottle, refill it to the rim, press down again, and refill yet again to the rim. I guess they don’t call these “packers” for nothing. I guess I should just re-label the bottles as containing 20 grams rather than 25 grams, but I’m stubborn.
Oh, and I got a call yesterday evening from a USPS rep about my lost Priority Mail packages. It turned out that she wasn’t the proper person to handle the problem, so she said she’d refer it to the proper person, whom I’d hear from in the next 24 hours.
15:05 – I just took Colin for a walk. There are hundreds of squirrels in our immediate neighborhood, and Colin is a Mighty Squirrel Hunter. Or he would be, if he didn’t have me along. I honestly believe he could keep himself fed just on squirrels, if it weren’t for me holding the leash. Colin, on the other hand, probably wonders why I didn’t starve to death long ago. Here is Colin’s evaluation of my hunting skills:
Spotting prey: D-
Stalking prey: F
Chasing prey: F
Pouncing prey: F
Sharing prey: B+
That last one is the only reason he tolerates me. Not only do I share with Colin the prey that Barbara brings home from the supermarket, but I have access to tasty prey that’s hard to find in the yards around the neighborhood, things like Cheesoritos and beef-flavored chews.
whom I’d hear from in the next 24 hours.
Want to take any bets on that? My guess is that you will not be contacted by anyone in the next 24 days.
Well, the first one called me within a few hours, so I’m hopeful. I’m not hopeful that the “resolution” will be anything more than “we lost it; tough luck”.
Bob, do you insure the kits? I forgot if you ever mentioned that.
I decided it wasn’t worth it. I’ll admit that the thought crossed my mind yesterday. I expect to hear from the USPS that at least one and possibly two packages were lost or destroyed. But if that happens, the score so far will be several hundred packages delivered with almost no problems versus a couple lost. Objectively, that’s a pretty good score, far better than what others have told me about UPS and FedEx, not to mention my own experiences with them.
Fortunately, the two packages in question were both $52 slide sets rather than more expensive kits. If it turns out they’re lost or destroyed, I’ll just write that off as a cost of doing business. It’d cost more to insure all of the packages, let alone use the more expensive UPS or FedEx, than it costs to eat the occasional lost package.
The really annoying thing is that if they do lose or destroy a package, USPS doesn’t even refund the postage cost.
ChuckW, this might be of interest to you:
http://awesometoast.com/recording-what-you-hear-in-windows-7/
even if it doesn’t apply to your particular problem (no SndRecorder in Win7) the technique might.
I’ve shipped > 1,000 electronic kit packages by USPS in the last four years. About 1/3rd by Priority Mail and the rest by first class mail (small boxes and padded envelopes.)
My loss rate is 0.00% on Priority Mail and first class boxes. I’ve had one first class padded envelope go missing, but that’s the extent of it.
About 20% of these shipments are international, the rest domestic.
Once or twice I’ve had a Priority Mail (with delivery confirmation) go astray, and the customer had to go to the post office to pick the package up. But none have been lost.
Jack
Thanks for the data. It confirms what I already believed; the USPS is extremely reliable.
I talked to our mailman yesterday about the package(s) that had gone missing. He was horrified and apologetic. Oddly, I was the one making excuses for USPS, and he was the one criticizing USPS. I told him that I’d briefly considered insuring the packages. He said he’d never sent a package insured, but from what he’d heard over the years from people on his route, it can be a real pain to get USPS to pay up and it sometimes take months before they actually pay.
Back in the early 90’s, I was responsible for shipping monthly database CD updates to about 400 subscribers. We looked at different options and ended up sending them in Tyvek sleeves inside plain 6 x 9 inch paper envelopes. That took 2 ounces of First Class postage. We sent thousands out. I don’t think any were ever lost. I think there were two that were damaged. It was a lot cheaper to replace the damaged ones than it would cost for more protective envelopes or insurance.
We’ve had CD software updates eaten by dogs – delivered by both UPS and USPS. One of our customers has a couple of mastiffs and the guys just put his packages in his fence that surrounds his home. For some reason the delivery dudes refuse to open the gate and go to his front porch. The dogs pull the packages out of the fence and proceed to chew them up into small pieces. We have had to reship this individual several times.
We have had the CD envelopes ripped open at an end and the CD fall out (one appeared on ebay and UPS ended up firing that individual after I complained). We’ve had customs rip open the envelope while eating a ham sandwich and get food grease all over the CD. Does not matter who the shipper is, there will be failures. The key here is how the shipper responds to the failures. Outside the USA, UPS is the best hands down. In the USA, it is a tossup.
We’ve probably shipped 25,000 software CDs over the last 20 years. The system works amazing well. We transitioned to UPS from USPS in 2001 when they started requiring us to take the packages to the post office and personally vouch for them. USPS has relaxed that somewhat over the years but we are not going back.
Of course now, like everything else, our customers are transitioning to the net and half of them no longer want a CD anymore. The others want to hold a piece of plastic (and download too!). The world, it is a changing.
OK, gotta admit that got a chuckle out of me.
Chuck;
another option would be vurecorder that you can find here
I’m using with W7 and an M-Audio FastTrack C400. Works very well.
hmmm
the link seemed to have vanished. It’s here http://www.vuplayer.com/
We’ve had customs rip open the envelope while eating a ham sandwich and get food grease all over the CD.
Hasn’t anyone ever heard about warm soapy water? (Or maybe you use paper labels?)
I honestly believe he could keep himself fed just on squirrels, if it weren’t for me holding the leash.
Perhaps you failed to consider (a) it takes some time for the squirrel population to replenish, and (b) squirrels that are hunted become a lot more cautious than the normal suburban variety. I read a piece by a naturalist who moved to the country. One neighbor was of the reclusive, subsistence hunting sort. There were still a few squirrels around his property but they were almost impossible to see they were so skittish. It took a few years after he died before she saw one in that vicinity.
I don’t think replenishment would be a problem. I’d estimate squirrel density around here as about one mole (6.02e23, not the rodent) per square kilometer.
The truth is, Colin, like most BCs, wouldn’t actually hurt a squirrel. BCs are catch-and-release predators. Duncan managed to catch quite a few, despite all our efforts to keep him from doing so. He let all of them go unharmed, except for one that was foolish enough to bite Duncan’s snout. That one, he grabbed and shook. Dead squirrel.
We’ve had customs rip open the envelope while eating a ham sandwich and get food grease all over the CD.
Hasn’t anyone ever heard about warm soapy water? (Or maybe you use paper labels?)
There was a big thumb print on the data side of the cd. The customer was not happy and blamed us. I blamed their customs people inspecting stuff randomly.
Thanks for the links to substitutes for M$ Sound Recorder. I am pretty sure we are going to use Audacity, but currently have another problem: one channel is dead. Well, it has plenty of noise in it, but not the intended audio. Looks like the right channel. Since the computer is now working and in-service, it will be a few days before I can take it offline for a couple hours to troubleshoot. There is so much difference between the old and new computer. Both are Asus with Intel audio on the motherboard (although we use an M-Audio soundcard for the main output; m-b audio for recording weather and other voice-only material), and I cannot figure out how to relieve the Realtek software from handling audio, and pass it to M$. I did that with my own computer, but cannot find the way on that one. I am afraid part of the problem is Realtek’s software default of ‘enable surround sound’, which we do not need and should not be engaged. I only get an hour or so at a time with that computer, and that just ain’t enough for me to do effective troubleshooting on it.
Worst problem is that I cannot for the life of me, get that %$#&@ computer to share a whole drive to anyone. Our real guru has only worked in domain shops with M$ servers running everything, and thus is no better informed than me on small business/no-real-server networking. I could handle Win2k, but XP now has Administrative policies to deal with, and I really do not understand what many of them mean or how they affect things. We had a different guru set up the old computer—which worked just fine,—but he moved away, and is no longer available. And that was almost 4 years ago, anyway. Plus, I suspect the guy who assembled this computer changed policies to suit himself, and not to accommodate all of our potential needs.
Over the years, a couple people have administered the 4 year-old computer we stole from the talk studio to press into service, and somebody kept updating it. I am an absolutely firm believer that updates are extreme dangers to computers that are working perfectly acceptably. We scrobble the music played to a file that is used on the website, and scrobbling was broken when Winamp crossed into v5.59. The previous playout computer used v5.35. So I have got to step back to that previous version to get scrobbling working again. Updates have no place in mission-critical work; it is just make-work for minions in places that lack good firewall policy. While I was there, The Chemical Company never updated computers without hundreds of hours of testing every single update to insure they did not affect the 1,200 applications and 32,000 computer seats their IT department administered and supported around the world.
At least the station manager and I are agreed that time spent now to get that newer, much faster computer in service, is worth the time sink needed to fix the problems that arise. Turns out that the sound coming from it is significantly cleaner than what emanated from the old one. Clarity and detail is quite noticeably improved.
The station tech supervisor wants to resurrect the old computer, but I sure do not want to have to figure out why the audio on it is crappy, while the new one is so significantly better.
Btw, did I mention that the original failure was caused by a broken plastic flange on a ring that screws to the m-b which then holds the clamp of the CPU fan to that motherboard base? The fan itself is fine, but the tension on that plastic flange, necessary to hold the fan tight to the CPU, finally broke the cheap plastic flange. The CPU overheats and shuts down within 30 seconds of switching the thing on.
Robert,
Since you mentioned moles of both flavors,
A Mole of Moles
.mg
Ah, yes. I did that calculation, albeit not in as much detail, back when I was in junior high school.
Ah, the Mole. I remember being introduced to that concept in Year 11 by my chemistry teacher. He paused for theatrical effect and made a comment on another use of the word mole then, ah, common in Australia:
“Moll is Australian and New Zealand slang, usually pejorative or self-deprecating, for a woman of loose sexual morals, a bitch, a slut or a prostitute. The term can also be used for a girlfriend of a thief, gangster, surfie or bikie.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moll_%28slang%29