December 2007 Archives

quan·tum - \ˈkwän-təm\ - 2 a: any of the very small increments or parcels into which many forms of energy are subdivided

With a name like QuantumView you might suspect that UPS' package tracking notification system would give you really fine-grained detail on the current status of your package (either as a shipper, or as a recipient). You'll get these wonderful e-mail message letting you know when the status of your package changes throughout the shipping process. For instance, I got one this morning:

Now this seems all well and good except it put me in a panic. Why? Because it made me think perhaps the shipper had double-shipped the item. Why might it make me think that?

The e-mail message, dated just eight minutes prior to my taking a screenshot for this blog entry, is letting me know that "tomorrow your package will arrive!" What's important here is that tomorrow was my scheduled delivery date, but UPS got it here faster. This means that QuantumView Notify isn't looking at the real status, but the scheduled status.

In other words, QuantumView Notify doesn't tell you jack-shit about where your package is. It tells you wonders about where it should be according to some stuff it determined when the shipper originally dropped off the package, not taking into account any changes at all that happened afterwards. So, if we all lived in a perfect fantasy world where Brown never lost or misdirected packages, or if they never got delayed by weather, missed flights, or slow customs agents, then this UPS service would be sweet. Instead though, since we live in the real world, it's tits-on-a-bull useless.

D: Where'd you go?
Me: Went to go find the source of that draft.
[beat]
Me: I realized, there were too many.
D: Welcome to my world.

Last night, I ended up (finally!) watching Children Of Men. I'd been meaning to do so for some time, but it's a pretty dark movie, and not really D's cup of tea, so it'd just been forever until I could actually watch it.

The basic gist of it is that it's the year 2027, and humanity has been infertile for over 18 years. Primary schools are abandoned shells of their former selves. Faced with its own slow, agonizing extinction, societal norms have pretty much broken down around the world, except in Britain, where an iron-fisted "Homeland Security" keeps the peace. In the midst of this, one man - through a quirk of fate - gets saddled with protecting the world's first pregnant woman in years from the various forces who want to exploit her for their own purposes.

This movie is a really interesting blend of "bleak despair" with "raw undirected hope". Add to that some awesome cinematography (some of its longest running-shots are in the six minute range!!) and you've got a film that is both interesting to watch, and interesting to get engrossed in.

If you haven't seen this yet, definitely check it out.