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 33 |
The U.S. Postal Service estimates $238 billion in losses in the next 10 years
By Ryan on 2010-03-02 | 6 comments |
| 2 | Ryan | 2010-03-02 | |
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Paper mail is a dead technology. It's low bandwidth, low availability, and high latency. Think about this. You write some things on a piece of paper, then stick that piece of paper in an envelope with the place you want it to go scrawled on the outside. Put the envelope in a box out near the road, and you're pretty sure some guy is going to come and get it, read the scrawlings, then take it and put it in another box out near a road that is kindof nearby the place where the person you're trying to contact lives. There is no transactions to look at, no confirmations, nothing. It doesn't work. Not only that, but there is usually 4-5x as much nonsense bulk mail as their is things you care about. I say down with the mail. Here is what you can do, USPS: invest in some scanners, big ones, and some really really good OCR tech. When mail comes into the post office, scan it, and then store it for people to read online. Enable things like spam filter, archiving, instant replies, tracking etc. Maybe if they do this, my generation will continue using them, otherwise, we'll just email for messages and fed ex for packages. Reply to this |
| 1 | Natalie | 2010-03-02 | |
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I passionately hate fed ex, and I like sending physical mail. I'm ok with no saturday deliveries and more expensive stamps. So there. :P
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| 1 | Luke | 2010-03-03 | |
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It feels look to get a physical peice of mail from someone, but I think we could live without the post office if the government required FedEx, UPS, and DHL to cover all people.
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| 1 | Natalie | 2010-03-03 | |
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But they're so much more expensive for packages.
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| 1 | Ryan | 2010-03-03 | |
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They're not getting government subsidies, and they're not providing as good of a service. I love being able to see things like estimated arrival date, and tracking stuff. To me, it's worth the extra couple of dollars. Reply to this |
| 1 | Commander Cody | 2010-03-02 | |
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Snail mail .
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