Doged a bullet . . . phew

[RetroRomper]

No.

Many of these are one of a kind transfers from VHS, bootleg DVDs, and now long dead torrent sites (not torrents, torrent sites.) I've tried putting them back into circulation, but there is so little interest that I may be one of the few people and in many circumstances, the only person who has a copy. It may not even be an access issue as I imagine you could purchase the VHS from a junk store in Japan, but no one ever bothered to digitize quite a few of these.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

This maybe? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stacker-3-0-Up ... 3488814632

[Flack]

My family made a conscious decision to reduce our footprint and order less things online to help ease the shipping system... until today around 5pm, when people on CNN began saying we might be social distancing until 2021 or 2022! Like, I was going to wait a few more weeks before ordering a broom online but I can't wait a fucking year. Sorry, Amazon driver.

Ordered: April 15, 2020
Estimated Arrival Time: May 7, 2020
Arrived: April 17, 2020

[Tdarcos]

Amazon is promising 21. Days.

As this point it should be clear to everyone that Amazon is just ramming it down our throats.

Look, Amazon has problems too. They might have to have minimum distancing between masked pickers, potentially requiring some access lanes to operate one-way, and people being out because they're sick or have a fever. This cuts capacity which means orders take longer.

If Amazon has, say, a 20% reduction in staffing capacity either due to increased spacing, reduced staff and other issues, they can't just replace those people because they might not be able to add temporary (or permanent, if they died) replacements for those people if a logistics survey determines you're at max. crowding allowed under social distancing.

If it's causing staff shortages in all departments then the much faster usual shipping has to be cut back. But how?

In electric utilities, when the amount of available electricity is less than demand, they have to find a way to make up shortages. Often they can spin up reserve generators. Sometimes they can purchase power from other utilities over the regional grids. Then they cut the power of industrial and residential users who either agreed to shut off for a few minutes their air conditioning, and industrial users who get a lower rate in exchange for the utility temporarily cutting service. In really bad cases, instead of sending 110 volts, they'll send 105, which most equipment won't notice or may run a little hotter. After that, they have no choice but to shut off the power in some neighborhoods. This practice of reducing load in the event of excess electricity demand is called "load shedding."

Everyone does load shedding. If your income is reduced you load shed your creditors, paying critical bills like food and shelter first. In the case of Amazon, important or critical items come first and other customers are temporarily load shedded. For Amazon, "important" or "critical" would mean food and medical supplies and other essentials for quick deliveries. Others will get theirs as time permits.

Who buys essentials on Amazon anyways?

Those who can't get them locally. Disabled customers. Rural customers. Soldiers in hotspots where going to get special items off base might potentially be a death sentence. (There are special APO/FPO addresses for mailing things, they have reserved zip codes. These provide US-based addresses for military personnel in remote areas. Mailer pays postage as if it was a US address, once it gets to the APO/FPO processing center, the military picks up the cost to deliver it to the ship or base the soldier is at.)

And why do we have handicapped parking spaces but no such consideration for handicapped people who can't even drive?

Because the Americans With Disabilities Act of 1990 requires a minimum number of disabled parking spaces in each facility, and mandates no discrimination for persons with disabilities, and a person who has one need not mention it unless they wish to invoke an accommodation. If you get on a bus and need to use the front seats, you can ask for them, the person must move unless they are also disabled. Handicapped placards and tags are available because we can't ask the car if its owner is handicapped and to be sure non-disabled users aren't abusing the privilege. Most businesses will accommodate people with a disability if it's not too much trouble. I once went to a store where I wanted a soda, but there was a step in front. I asked a customer to tell the clerk a customer with a wheelchair was out front. He asked the lady to come back and tell me he'd get to me as soon as he finished serving the other customers, and he did. If you put a vest on your dog that says "service dog" you can bring it anywhere even places normally required to exclude animals, and nobody will question you.

The disabled should take precedence if there was such a shipping crisis, which there isn't, maybe by a few days but not the fuck it we're all going 700 years back in time model of delivering packages.

Not that far back, more like 100. If you used the Sears-Roebuck catalog or Montgomery Wards to order something circa 1920 from a wheat farm in rural Bumfuck, Nebraska, ten miles from Nowhere, it took about a week for your order to get there, another month for your personal check to clear (or a week for post office money orders and American Express travelers checks), then maybe a month for your package to be delivered. Call it 6-8 weeks.

700 Years ago meant asking a merchant to pick something up when he went to some far off place. His next trip might not be for a month, it might take 3-4 months to get there and the same to return, plus maybe a month for stops in several cities, so you're looking at more like 10 months to a year, if he doesn't die during the trip.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

In really bad cases, instead of sending 110 volts, they'll send 105, which most equipment won't notice or may run a little hotter. After that, they have no choice but to shut off the power in some neighborhoods. This practice of reducing load in the event of excess electricity demand is called "load shedding."

Good point - can you tell us which pieces of equipment you recall seem to do worse under the additional load?

[Flack]

The tibia, for one.

[Tdarcos]

In really bad cases, instead of sending 110 volts, they'll send 105, which most equipment won't notice or may run a little hotter.

Good point - can you tell us which pieces of equipment you recall seem to do worse under the additional load?

My understanding is anything with a motor has problems with reduced voltage. The 5% reduction I gave is okay, but any more and they can burn out. This is based on Arthur Hailey's Overload about a fictional San Francisco Electric Utility. Someone else who works with electrical equipment, told me that you can plug in a computer, since it has a switching power supply to convert 110 volt AC to 12 volt DC, it can still run even if AC voltage were to drop as low as 60 volts, and "at that low a voltage, you couldn't run a vacuum cleaner."

[Billy Mays]

broom...Amazon.

Ordered: April 15, 2020
Estimated Arrival Time: May 7, 2020
Arrived: April 17, 2020

I'm too afraid to order a broom from Amazon since Bezos would likely swing by to jam the broom up my ass sideways after making me wait two months for it. I made a purchase on Amazon, the seller was Amazon, and it has been two days and I haven't even received confirmation that the order has been sent yet.

[Billy Mays]

"load shedding."

Yeah, well Flack got his broom in 2 days.

[Tdarcos]

I made a purchase on Amazon, the seller was Amazon, and it has been two days and I haven't even received confirmation that the order has been sent yet.

If you are logged in, there is a link/button called "Returns and Orders" that shows all delivered or pending orders and status if not delivered. This may sound stupid but next to the orders button is the shopping cart, which indicates if you've put items in it but have not purchased them. If the cart does not read 0, you have items not yet purchased by checking out.

I am sorry to say there has been at least one time I was waiting on something to be delivered from Amazon, then discovered it was still in my shopping cart. I had not checked out.

Amazon operates on the Hotel California sales model: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave! Even after checking out, Amazon will think of something else to offer/tempt you into buying.

[Billy Mays]

If you are logged in, there is a link/button called "Returns and Orders" that shows all delivered or pending orders and status if not delivered. This may sound stupid but next to the orders button is the shopping cart, which indicates if you've put items in it but have not purchased them. If the cart does not read 0, you have items not yet purchased by checking out.

I clicked on "Returns and Orders" and the only shopping cart I was able to see is the one that is always in the upper right hand corner of the screen regardless of where I am on Amazon. It indicates 0.


Also, all bullshitting aside, this was the friendliest and most informed customer service experience that I have ever had. There has to be a way for you to make decent money working remotely with your overall skill set.

[RetroRomper]

This maybe? https://www.ebay.com/itm/Stacker-3-0-Up ... 3488814632

I've been WinRaring my entire NAS with great success! Maybe I'll actually buy it one day...