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Postal Sensor Fleet Idea Gets Tentative Nod From the USPS
Late last year, we mentioned the idea floated by to Michael J. Ravnitzky, a chief counsel at the Postal Regulatory Commission, that the US Postal Service use its wide-ranging fleet to gather and upload useful data of all kinds — everything from weather conditions to RF coverage. Now, an anonymous reader writes "A workshop on this topic is scheduled for April 12th in Washington, DC. This month, the Postmaster General sent a letter to Senator Thomas Carper, Chairman of the US Senate Subcommittee that oversees the Postal Service, expressing interest in exploring this concept."
On the surface this sounds like a good idea, provided that data is collected from sensors only - for things like radiation and chemical/biological agents.....
However, I could easily see DHS wanting to expand this to more troubling activities....
Google collects images for its streetview, and a Wifi sensor to create a "coverage" map, and it gets investigated by two governments (EU and US) plus an anti-trust investigation.
But if the government-owned post office does it, and "accidentally" collects your userID and other crap, that will be good. It will "help stop terrorism". Yep.
Sorry. I'm a cynic.
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They return with the data you requested the next day!
(note next day data delivery costs extra)
You don't need GPS for that conspiracy theory. Your address is already on the parcel....
PG&E - Pacific Gas And Electric (and other utitilies) have full reign over entering my backyard to check my meter monthly. I've long wondered whether and/or when they'll team up with others to provide sensitive data to those with money.
I worry about one single organization controlling all the aspects of this. Wouldn't it be better to publish an API and/or data format and have third-party fleets (fed-ex, taxis, bus operators, etc) collect the data for a fee? It seems like having layers of boundaries would help prevent abuse, particularly if the data was somehow intrinsically open. It also seems like sourcing the data from disinterested third parties could potentially lead to better/more data if the numbers work out right.
There aint no pancake so thin it doesn't have two sides.
You do realize that the USPS gets exactly $0.00 from your taxes right? Not even a penny. Whether or not the USPS exists has absolutely no effect on the national debt. In fact even their retirements are PRE-funded so it is impossible for them to have unfunded pension issues... This is a potential revenue source for the USPS. Weather services, scientists, and others could "rent" access to the sensor information for a small nominal fee.
This also has the potential to greatly expand the available data points for any number of things and could greatly increase our ability to understand or predict natural phenomenon.
Of course people like you who have absolutely no idea what they're talking about will probably ruin the opportunity for those that aren't completely uninformed idiots.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
I wonder why he sent a letter ... and email would have been faster :)
Reminds me of a former boss who sent our company's reply to a US Post Office RFP via UPS. Needless to say, we didn't win that contract.
One "Aw, Shit!" is worth 100 "Ata boys!"
There is a simple solution! We can set up a mail network to prevent the postal service from tracking our mail. As a node on the network, you receive sealed letters which contain stamps with them. The final destination is indicated on the inside of the envelope with the letter (away from the prying eyes of those evil mailmen) and you mail the letter to the next nearest node in the direction of the destination in a new envelope. This will always make the mail look like it is local as well as hiding the destination/sender pair. Eventually it will reach its destination after a few deliveries and you can safely continue your trade of obscure 18th century books. I think the bandwidth should be OK, but we'll need to work on the lag.
I'm sure the posties are just thrilled that dogs can now track them remotely. No need to lie in wait, they can run around and play just keeping an eye on their tracker!
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Actually, the Post Office has been automated for a long time. The letter sorting machines really cut costs and mistakes. I think they got them in the late 90's. They could sort something like 30,000 letters an hour. You must be in some back woods location if the time clock is the only machinery they have. In the 90's even the smallest PO had computers. Some of their mail was sorted by machine in a nearby town. "Junk mail" is how small businesses reaches customers that are not connected to the internet for reasons of money or location. The USPS has experimented with fuel efficiency (hybrids, electric). MPG is affected by the weight of the mail, and the stop and go driving from box to box. On my route I drove two miles, walked ten miles. My last vehicle was a S10 with an aluminum screwed and glued body by Cushman. The newer vehicles are lighter and more efficient. The data collection code and equipment will probably be provided by the businesses and agencies. I don't think the PO would be doing the coding. BTW, the Post Office has no control of pricing or markets they can enter. They are also required to have universal delivery. When I was a rural route carrier, there was one delivery 2 miles down a one lane road. So I had to do a 4 mile trip whether I had mail for him or not. There was an outside chance there was some outgoing mail, and I'd get my butt reamed if I missed it. There are the intangibles of the public servant/mailcarrier. Many lives have been saved, crimes solved and prevented, and child and animal abuse reported by mail carriers. Sometimes the only human contact the elderly have is their mailman. I used to check to see if one of my elderly customers remembered to take her medicine. We provide a sense of normalcy, and a human touch. There are a lot of lonely people out there, and a "hello, how are you" from the mailman might be enough to give temporary relief from the crushing loneliness many experience in this impersonal society.
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All of those losses were due to the pension costs they have without the pension charges the USPS would have actually ran about a 2 billion dollar profit.
As is the USPS is not fine because they run a deficit of any variety but I wouldn't be opposed to cutting them off from the treasury and vice versa (Though that would increase the deficit since the USPS pension plan is used to increase tax receipts and thus lower the deficit). This would put them on the same pension funding rules as every other corporation. Of course eliminating one day of delivery and raising the rates for shipping packages to something remotely close to other carriers would solve this.
I'll meet you at the intersection of "Should be" and "Reality"
Dittos to that. I don't think the social benefit of the USPS can be stressed enough.
My dad has been a carrier for the past 38 years. In this time he has:
Stopped a spree murderer. ... And this is not out of the ordinary for our mail carriers. They know better than anyone, even neighbors oftentimes, when something is odd or out of place, and often disrupt criminal situations just by driving or walking up.
IDd another man wanted for murder.
Alerted police to a hostage situation.
Physically apprehended an armed rapist in the act. (My mom damn near killed him for that)
Thwarted armed bank robberies... TWICE.
Called ambulances and social services for the injured, sick and elderly dozens of times
Reported dozens of incidents of elder, child, and animal abuse.
Maybe the USPS could attach (innocuous) physical cookies to people when they receive their mail and use the USPS fleet to (anonymously) track their offline activities. I think this would revolutionize offline marketing and help the economy.
Now how about moving to Electric cars. Seriously, The USPS could make a dent in lowering their costs, as well as getting electric cars in the USA moving. They currently buy most of their vehicles from AM General, which are basically CJ-5's, called DJ5s. Instead, AM General could produce an electric version that got 40-50 miles on a charge. That might sound low, but the average USPS vehicle travels less than 30 miles daily(yes, that little). So, with 40-50 miles / charge, they have plenty left over. And if AM General did this up right, they would get a load of work their way.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.