Is FedEx Abnormally Slow?

I don’t send or receive a lot of FedEx shipments, so maybe this is normal:

From the 28th to the 3rd (inclusive), I’d expect there to be five working days (28-29, 1-3) and two stop days (30-31). Am I wrong about this? Is the 1st a stop day as well? Is the 29th? Six days from pickup at the vendor to leaving the sort center seems excessive to me, even given the time of year.

Even worse though is that the estimated delivery date is January 12th. I live in a major city about 10 hours away from Dallas. How the hell do they justify another nine days in transit? Hopefully the system is estimating on the very broad side of caution and it will arrive much sooner than that.

,

January 3, 2008 | Filed Under Rants & Random Thoughts

3 Comments 

Terror in the Air! Christmas Eve Travel

southwest-airlines.png

I’m writing this at 22,000 feet in a Southwest plane, heading east.

Prior to takeoff, the flight attendants did their little spiel, and taught us all how to master the super-complicated, high-tech seat belts. Just after takeoff, I was subjected to the most terrifying thing of my own personal aviation history. One of the flight attendants got on the speaker system and sang. She sang! It was horrible… just horrible…

To the tune of “Zippity Doo Dah”:

Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
Zip-a-dee-ay
My oh my what a Southwest day
Plenty of peanuts
Comin’ your way
Zip-a-dee-doo-dah
Zip-a-dee-ay

Seriously. I may never be the same.

Just after that, the flight attendant said “if there is anything else that we can do to make your flight more pleasurable, please ask”. I must have had ‘that look’ on my face because I didn’t even get a chance to open my mouth when my wife said, “no, don’t even think about it. That’s not what she meant.”

It’s been an uneventful flight as a result.

Realization of the decade: traveling on Christmas Eve? Not as bad as one might think. Short lines, and the plane not only took off on time, it arrived at the destination early. This was probably the best flight - singing notwithstanding - that I’ve taken in recent memory.

, , ,

December 24, 2007 | Filed Under Rants & Random Thoughts

 

Giving Up on Adobe Contribute

contribute-ecto-icon.pngI’ve tried. I’ve really, really tried. I’m a big Adobe fan - Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign… and I tried to use Contribute CS3. I tried for months. Here are the problems:

  1. Takes forever to load - longer than any other program on my MacBook Pro. I timed it at a minute and ten seconds, from launch to actually connecting to a blog.
  2. Can’t edit a post’s source code. I tried to work around this, but man, what a hassle. This is a no-brainer, Adobe. Give me access to my own source. There is absolutely no reason to make it inaccessible.
  3. Takes forever to switch from one blog to another. I can’t explain why, and I don’t even have a theory, but it takes 20 seconds to switch from editing one blog to another - without any drafts open.
  4. Takes forever to upload a draft. I tested a very short, all-text blog entry and it took Contribute just over 60 seconds to upload.
  5. And the worst thing of all? There is no real way to tell that the program is actually doing anything half the time. During the long startups, the long uploads… the program will just sit there for ten or fifteen seconds without a status bar.

So, what am I using to write this very blog entry?

Ecto.

It loads in under 5 seconds, I can edit my posts’ source code, switching from editing one blog to another is instantaneous, uploading an entry takes less than 10 seconds, and it’s responsive (and it tells me it’s being responsive).

So long, Contribute. I can’t say it was nice while it lasted, but maybe Adobe will make you a contender in version CS4.

, , ,

December 24, 2007 | Filed Under Software

 

Black Friday: Update

Not only did I not participate in the insanity, I slept until noon. Haven’t done that in years. Felt good.

Can’t wait to see the news reports tonight of people getting trampled in stores trying to get 20% off on a toy. Nothing says Happy Holidays like a few broken bones.

Tags:,

November 23, 2007 | Filed Under Rants & Random Thoughts

 

« Previous Page — Next Page »