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God speed, little parcel

Yep, that’s my booze order. It still hasn’t gotten to me yet. Strategic gin reserves running lean.

We use this particular shipping company a lot. In the other half of the screen, there’s a map where you can track the poor bastard as he moves along his route.

I refresh it frequently and it’s weird – he will get close to me several times before moving far away again. I trust they have some kind of clever algorithm that maps out the optimum route, but it sure doesn’t look like it to a layman.

I’m stop 121 of 122 and it’s estimated the delivery will be between 7 and 9. Those guys have an absolute shit job.

Comments


Comment from BJM
Time: December 30, 2020, 6:57 pm

Delivery is where robots will be deployed next. We built a special dropbox just inside our gate cuz we’re at the end of the delivery route. We posted two huge signs, with arrows, in three languages, on our front gate instructing drivers where to leave packages and the idiots still drop packages in weird places, usually right next to a recessed sprinkler head.

Autonomous delivery vans could recharge robots between stops. Boston Robotics is already testing prototypes.

All the whiners at Amazon distribution centers/warehouses will be the first to go.

One of our local supermarket chains is using the Starship robots to deliver within the vicinity of their new flagship super store. They look a like a cross between an Eskie and R2D2. Tt’s very odd, in a time warp kinda way, to see them whisking along the sidewalks, and returning to their parking spots in front of the store like robotic ants.


Comment from Pupster
Time: December 30, 2020, 7:24 pm

I trust they have some kind of clever algorithm that maps out the optimum route, but it sure doesn’t look like it to a layman.

Well first of all he’s driving on the wrong side of the road.


Comment from Mark Matis
Time: December 30, 2020, 8:27 pm

This:
https://www.rd.com/article/ups-left-turns/
might be the reason…


Comment from Carl
Time: December 30, 2020, 8:59 pm

Our local hospital in Bristol has robots delivering medication and meals to all the wards. It manages to cope with the elevators.


Comment from S. Weasel
Time: December 30, 2020, 9:17 pm

It hath arrived. Tonight, we drink!


Comment from gebrauchshund
Time: December 31, 2020, 3:53 am

“Tonight, we drink!”

We too. Well, me too. But I got mine the old fashioned way, tramping through the snow to the liquor store in sub-freezing temperatures, uphill both ways.

Get off my lawn.


Comment from dissent
Time: December 31, 2020, 4:04 am

Seems the Wu Flu has claimed Dawn Wells. RIP Mary Ann.


Comment from durnedyankee Dalek
Time: December 31, 2020, 3:07 pm

Autonomous Robots and Drones?

Exterminate!

Exterminate!

Okay okay.
Happy New Year Y’all!
May we all be blessed in the coming year and sanity, such as it is, return.

And Gebrauchshund – thanks for the reminder. We’re almost out of Cachaca!


Comment from Mrs. Peel
Time: December 31, 2020, 6:15 pm

“Traveling salesman problem” is what you want to look up. It’s interesting.


Comment from drew458
Time: December 31, 2020, 6:52 pm

Well, it is England. Blackadder runs the logistics department. “I have a cunning algorithm. So cunning you could put a tail on it and call it a weasel”. Yes, it maximizes road time, fuel use, driver wages and lunch breaks. Package delivery efficiency? Baldrick!!!!


Comment from drew458
Time: December 31, 2020, 6:56 pm

And this is why we have Whisper Chippers on our side of the pond.

( a bit of nasty mustelidae news )

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/nov/25/culled-mink-rise-from-the-dead-denmark-coronavirus


Comment from Uncle Al
Time: December 31, 2020, 11:11 pm

@durnedyankee Dalek — Ooh! Ooh! You said, “Cachaça!” I’ll have a large pitcher of caipirinhas, please.

Straight cachaça is actually pretty ghastly. But it magically transforms into a very lovely thing when properly mixed with lime, simple syrup, and cracked ice. Yummmmmmmmmm.


Comment from durnedyankee
Time: January 1, 2021, 12:35 pm

Uncle Al! Yes!

I once got several free mojitos in a bar outside of DC trying to get a caipirinha. Neither were popular at the time, ahead of the curve I was.

I had had caipirinhas (plural) a few months before the trip, but for some reason… 🙂 I couldn’t remember what was in them, except rum, and lime, and they were from south of the border.
The bartender suggested it was mojitos that I wanted and sent off to the kitchen to get fresh mint, but warned me he wasn’t exactly sure how to make them and I could taste test them to see if he got it right.
Let the practice begin! Mrs D came back from her conference and wheeled me out of the bar at dinnertime.

A wonderful hotel bar, with a whole wall painted in a mural of the Charge of the Scots Greys (Union Brigade) at Waterloo.

and FREE test mojitos!

Much later I was, uh, clear headed enough to actually find what I wanted was caipirinhas.

Last night we welcomed the new year with just enough Cachaça left to make two of them.
I flubbed mine by halving the lime against the grain, so Mrs D got the proper one.

Still damn good.


Comment from drew458
Time: January 1, 2021, 5:11 pm

Some day I hope to taste test a caiparinha against a kamakaze and perhaps a mojito. AFAIR, the first two taste a lot alike, maybe closer if you make ‘kazes with white rum.

OTOH, good cachaca has always been hard to find in the USA. That Pitu brand stuff is gasoline. Maybe by now artisanal ones are out there.

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