Amazon Prime

[Deleted member 28849]

For those that don't know you can watch music concerts on Amazon Prime. Simply type Music Concerts in the Search window and you'll see a selection of concerts (could be better) to choose.

 

[mhardy6647]

Amazon Prime (which I do "have" or "subscribe to" or "partake of" or whatever) kind of reminds me of CVS coupons: there's all of this "value" that I have no particular interest of exercising.

Pointless, egocentric aside: I like the free shipping (but, as wags have pointed out, most everyone offers free shipping nowadays, in one way or another). Even that is of somewhat limited value to us due to our profoundly rural location (no US mail delivery here, so no street address that's recognized by UPS or FedEx). Many items won't ship to a PO Box (even though that's our legal address, due only to the USPS's procedures, not our choice!) so we have to get it shipped to our daughter & son-in law's house (they have a real address) or take our chances with our "real" street address (we do have one, it's just not in any databases except the state's 911 database). As a consequence, we really don't use Amazon all that much for purchases -- and rarely for videos or music, either.

The best of all in terms of our delivery challenges is "UPS SurePost". This is a hybrid delivery scheme that uses USPS for "the last mile" -- Now... the USPS knows we have a PO box, but since UPS doesn't success with "SurePost" is hit and miss. We know something's been successfully delivered to our little PO when we get a UPS email that informs us that they couldn't deliver our shipment!

I'd say these are first world problems... except they're sort of the opposite of first world problems!

 

[Deleted member 28849]

As a courier driver once in a blue moon I would get an address that would stump me. For me it was a matter of pride to be able to find these difficult places. One guy had this book costing around $50 bucks sort of a bible of all the Post Office addresses in the area, which was only really needed in rural areas. I was too cheap to purchase this book but if I had been doing lots of rural deliveries I most certainly would have got one.

 

[RayDunzl]

As a courier driver once in a blue moon I would get an address that would stump me.

In Japan, there will (or would) be a sign with a map of the specific neighborhood with the house numbers for that area.

They were not in any order that I could figure out.

Later, I found out the houses were numbered in the order that they were built.

 

[Blumlein 88]

I wish What3Words or something similar would become common.

What3Words using only 3 words has mapped the entire surface of the earth into 10 ft (3 meter) x 10 ft (3 meter) squares.

https://what3words.com

The main impediment is getting others to use it. A phone app, can give you location in just a minute and then anyone else with the app can find you precisely. So good for permanent addresses or even a meet up. Meeting in a parking lot say, what3words can narrow that down to where you are give or take a parking spot.

 

[mansr]

What3words is a horrible company (litigious when criticised), and their system is fragile to the point of being dangerous.

https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/
https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2...o-cave-rescue-after-what3words-location-error

 

[Blumlein 88]

What3words is a horrible company (litigious when criticised), and their system is fragile to the point of being dangerous.

https://cybergibbons.com/security-2/why-what3words-is-not-suitable-for-safety-critical-applications/

This is a rather stupid article honestly. While it may not be perfect there is no comparison to alternatives. Most addressing systems already used for critical applications have the same issues as what3words only much worse with no oversight. Plus they have numerous other potential problems that what3words avoids.

https://www.grough.co.uk/magazine/2...o-cave-rescue-after-what3words-location-error

Again while it isn't perfect how does it do compared to something else. Not familiar with the grid system in the UK. But for instance elsewhere which is more likely to contain an error? A what3words location or someone reading a long string of numbers for GPS coordinates.

Perhaps what3words needs work more than I realize (though it has never been wrong in my use of it), but the concept seems a good one.

 

[mansr]

Perhaps what3words needs work more than I realize (though it has never been wrong in my use of it), but the concept seems a good one.

The concept is good, but the implementation has shortcomings, and their litigiousness doesn't inspire confidence.