Your Order Was Shipped!

To me, those words mean that the package in question has been put in physically custody of the postal service. To Amazon, it means "we sent the postal service an email and told them to come get this package and they will probably stop by in the next 3-5 days to pick it up."

I ordered a new mp3 player and they said it shipped on Tuesday and gave me a tracking number, but this is what I see on the usps website every day:

"Status: Electronic Shipping Info Received : The U.S. Postal Service was electronically notified by the shipper on April 15, 2008 to expect your package for mailing. This does not indicate receipt by the USPS or the actual mailing date. Delivery status information will be provided if / when available."

STOP TEASING ME!

GPS 101

When we went snow-shoeing two weeks ago at Lake Tahoe, we decided to climb up to the top of a ridge that overlooks the lake. Our friend loaned us a GPS unit, so we decided to take it with us. We wrote down our coordinates at the car so that we could find our way back. I read the coordinates to Ed and he put them in his pocket.

We hiked up the to the peak, taking a pretty direct route. One the way down we had to meander a lot more because it's hard to go down hill in showshoes (face-planting in snow still hurts).

Part way down, Ed asked "what units are the GPS coordinates in?"

I responded: "The normal units - latitude and longitude."

"But the numbers you read only have 2 decimals - that's only going to put us within 2 miles of the car."

"Oh. Well, there were more digits after the decimal, but I thought you would be annoyed at having to write them all down."

"You're right. I might have been annoyed."