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USPS problems

The US Postal Service wonders why people are finding other ways to communicate, which reduces their market share, which forces them to (try to) raise rates. I've had two problems with them recently that I think bear on this.

The first is Netflix. I recently opened a Netflix account at my PO Box at the main post office in Merrifield 22116. I thought this would be a good thing since one of the Netflix distribution centers (the address on your return envelope) is run out of a PO Box at Merrifield VA 22116. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. Just this past month, I've had three separate problems:

1. discs that never arrived. in my Netflix account summary, it says that they sent two discs to me on Sat 11/06 (expected delivery Mon 11/08). I never received them, but Netflix says that they received the discs back on Tue 11/09 and sent the next set of discs to me. Two things -- evidently, the post office at Merrifield saw a Netflix envelope and lazily just dropped them into the Netflix box, thinking it was a return. I don't understand this because it's easy to tell if it's a send or a return. When Netflix sends a disc to a customer, both sides are RED. When the customer returns a disc to Netflix, one side is RED and the other is WHITE (the side with the address). I mean, how hard is it to tell the difference between an envelope that is red on both sides and one that is red on one side and white on the other?

2. discs that were delayed about a week. Another disc was sent to me on Fri 10/15 (expected delivery Sat 10/16). I reported it missing on Mon 10/18. Netflix sent me a replacement on 10/19. Imagine my surprise when BOTH discs arrived on 10/20 !! I sent one of them back and it arrived at Netflix on 10/21. The other, I watched and returned and arrived back at Netflix on 10/22. How did that one disc get lost for a week? I'm thinking that the same thing that happened in #1 happened here, but with a twist -- the post office saw a red Netflix envelope and lazily thought it was a return and sent it back to Netflix. But this time, when Netflix got it, someone must have realized that it had never gotten to me (both sides red, still addressed to me and not to Netflix) and put it back in the outgoing pile to come back to me, and this time, it got to me.

3. discs that disappeared. three discs were sent out on Tue 11/09 (expected delivery Wed 11/10) and never arrived. Because of the holiday, i gave everyone a little slack and didn't report them missing until Sat 11/13. Netflix has said that replacements are scheduled to go out on Mon 11/15 (and therefore should arrive 11/16 if coming from another local center). I will update this when I get more info.

In case you're thinking that these are just three little problems in a sea of "we did it right", here are my stats:

11 discs were sent to me on-time (or within 1 day of on-time) -- includes reshipped discs: 10/04, 10/19, 10/22, 10/26, 10/29, 11/03, 11/03, 11/03, 11/15, 11/15, 11/15

5 discs arrived 2 or more days late: 10/08, 10/15, 11/09, 11/09, 11/09

2 discs never arrived: 11/06, 11/06

UPDATE: 11/09 discs arrived about a week late - at the same time their 11/15 replacements arrived - upped the "as expected" stats from 53% to 61% - whoopee :-P

That's about 61% "as expected". Compare this to --

I used to have an account that went to my street address. I had some problems there but nothing worth mentioning. for several years, it worked the way it's supposed to work. with almost no exceptions, i got discs when Netflix said i was supposed to get them. actual stats:

over 7 years, an "as expected" rate of 97% --

854 discs arrived as expected

2 were in the wrong envelope

18 arrived damaged

3 lost but eventually showed up

5 lost and never showed up

so it's not a Netflix problem. the problems only happen when i try to get the discs at a post office box -- the very solution that the post office suggests if you have trouble receiving mail !!

(i'll be moving my po box soon - at a not small cost) to a different post office (one that does not have Netflix returns going there) and will update this with my experiences with the new PO. my suspicion is that it's the Merrifield PO that is the problem (because they also handle returns).

I tried to complain about this on the USPS web site today (Sun 11/14), but ran into problems. The complaint/compliment/suggestion form comes up and i can fill it in, but when i try to press "continue" to go to the "who are you" page, the browser does nothing. i tried this on Mac/Safari, Mac/Firefox, PC/Firefox and finally, PC/IE -- only on IE did the "continue" button take me to the next "who are you" page. we're 10 years in to the 21st century and the post office still thinks that everyone uses IE. They probably don't even know that they are stuck in IE since the web page says nothing about "IE only" (I don't like web pages that require me to use IE, but I do appreciate it when they know enough to tell me that I have to use IE, i.e., they'd rather I take my business elsewhere).

I have no sympathy for the post office's dilemma. If they can't even do their current job right, why would I trust them with a 21st century job?

Flashtards

I guess I understand why these people are trying to get other people to believe that Flash is important. They probably make a living at it and don't want to learn something new. But anybody that is developing to web technologies should have understood a long time ago that developing for the web means that you are learning the "next big thing" every year or two.

I always hated the intrusiveness of Flash. All of these companies that believe that I want to sit through a 30-second commercial just because I wanted to visit their web site. And even after the commercial, the site is still crap. When Safari got Click-to-Flash and Firefox got NoScript/FlashBlock, I was so happy. I could ignore all of the crap (well, most of it) that people were putting on their web sites and get right to what I wanted to see/buy.

I don't miss Flash at all. And I don't get why all of these companies and developers are complaining that they can't get Flash onto the iPhone/iPad. It's not going to happen. And if it does, I'll be waiting for the Click-to-Flash/FlashBlock feature that removes it (or even better, a Setting).

These companies/developers should be focused on one thing - their bottom line. Do they want to sit around with their thumbs in their mouths complaining ? Or do they want to spend that time and effort building a web site that appeals to the few consumers that are still spending money in this economy ?

When I hit something that requires Flash, my reaction is "I guess they don't want my attention/money - let me go to the next thing in the long list of things screaming for my attention/money and see what they have to offer".

5-Hour Energy (2 oz "chaser") review

Don't bother.

Didn't experience the niacin flush, but did feel mildly jittery (barely worth mentioning, except to say that if you have trouble handling stimulants or have heart problems, you should ask your doctor first). Pro: It did keep me awake, but con: my brain was still tired.

I think that this would be good for people that have something mind-numbing to do and just need to stay awake to get through it. But if you need to think creatively or analytically, I recommend you take a walk, find a way to get a power-nap, or something similar. The 5-hour energy drink will keep your body awake, but your brain will be on cruise-control.

iPhone sync problem with Photos and Camera

Found this problem with iOS 4.0 with iPhone 4 and it has persisted into the current release (4.0.1). The Camera Roll can get out of sync between the Photos app and the Camera app. Here is how to reproduce it ...

0. iPhone is set up to sync photos to iPhoto through iTunes
1. get the iPhone to a known starting position:
- open multitasking bar (double-press the home button)
- find the Photos app (you may have to swipe to the left a few times), hold it for a few seconds, press the minus sign to remove it from the multitasking bar
- find the Camera app and remove it also
- close the multitasking bar (press the home button)
2. open the Camera app and take at least two pictures
- press the lower left icon to go to the Camera Roll and see your pictures there
- press Done in the upper right to return to the Camera app
- exit the Camera app by pressing once on the home button
3. open the Photos app
- look at the pictures you took in the Camera Roll
- exit the Photos app by pressing once on the home button
4. sync your iPhone with iTunes
5. double click the home button
- find the Photos app and press the icon to bring it up
- find one of the pictures you just took and delete it
- look at the Camera Roll preview screen - the picture you deleted is not gone - instead, it is a black square
6. double click the home button
- find the Camera app and press the icon to bring it up
- bring up the Camera Roll (lower left) - the deleted picture is gone in this version of the Camera Roll
- take a new picture
- bring up the Camera Roll - the new picture is there
7. double click the home button
- find the Photos app and press the icon to bring it up
- look at the Camera Roll preview screen - the deleted picture is still a black square and the new picture is missing
8. double click the home button to bring up the multitasking bar
- find the Photos app, hold it, and press the minus sign to remove it
- do the same with the Camera app
- exit by pressing the home button once
9. Go back to the Photos app and look at your pictures - all is well
- the deleted picture is gone and the new one is visible
- the same is true from the Camera app

So, you don't actually lose any pictures, but something goes wrong across an iTunes sync event.

Anyone else see this?

iPhone 4 white balance off

Seems that the iPhone 4 camera's white balance is a bit off. See pictures below. The first is from the phone, the second is from a Sony DSC-W1 (5.1mp point-and-shoot) camera, and the last is a color-corrected version of the first picture. If you are having the same problem, I corrected it with the free Photoshop.com Mobile app (from a suggestion on this page) -- except instead of lowering the saturation, i shifted the tint to the "left".

At first, I thought it was a hardware problem since when i rotated the iPhone 90 degrees to the right, the green tint rotated 90 degrees to the right. But, googling the problem, it appears that it may be a white balance problem -- which should be correctable in software.

On another note -- has anyone noticed that if you leave the camera and photos apps open (don't close them using the multi-tasking bar), then sync the phone, then take more pictures and delete a few, that the photo library app and the view of the photo library you have through the camera app will get out of sync? i found that closing them in the multi-tasking bar brought everything back in sync, but i wonder how many other apps may have this kind of syncing problem?

EVO 4G vs iPhone 4

Two funny YouTube videos (warning - plenty of NSFW language [not safe for work]).

An EVO 4G Salesman Confronts an iPhone 4 Shopper
and the rebuttal
An EVO 4G Owner Walks Into an Apple Store