> And what exactly does a bike courier spend all this time carting from Alpha to Beta?. Undramatically, it is mostly just legal documents and cheques. I fear that once average people get more comfortable with internet encryption, courier companies will go out of business.
Any data on how this has panned out? I'd imagine that it has declined a lot, but sometimes you still do just need to deliver a physical document.
One thing that occasionally stands out to me in Agatha Christie novels is that London had twice-daily mail delivery in the early-to-mid 1900s. You'd post a letter in the morning and it would arrive in the evening. It wouldn't replace the "we need this across town in an hour", but it's always been interesting to me that delivery service downsized when telephones became commonplace. It would make sense for courier services to do the same with email, the web, and SSL.
When I lived in Hatfield briefly in the 1980s, we had thrice-daily post delivery, 9am, noon and 9pm. I imagine it was an artifact of de Havilland's influence.
Yes, IIRC, the evening edition had essentially "updates" to the morning edition. I was very young though, I don't recall getting both editions past the mid-90s.
> Gibson and Stephenson had taught me that the messenger, the mailman, was a vital romantic figure.
It seemed weird to me that both Snow Crash and Virtual Light had main characters who were couriers. When I read Virtual Light I thought "oh, so this is what Snow Crash was parodying," but nope, it came out a year later. I didn't grow up in a city so that job was something I only encountered in fiction (aside from pizza and Chinese delivery).
> once you've learned your chops you should be up in the $10 - $12CAD
I forgot about the (2005). That is below the (very low) current minimum wage of $16.55 CAD in Ontario. And that minimum wage is not sufficient to survive in Toronto. Wouldn't be surprised if couriers were paid minimum wage today, or maybe a dollar or two over. Seems to be the trend for 'manual labor'.
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[ 4.4 ms ] story [ 69.9 ms ] threadAny data on how this has panned out? I'd imagine that it has declined a lot, but sometimes you still do just need to deliver a physical document.
One thing that occasionally stands out to me in Agatha Christie novels is that London had twice-daily mail delivery in the early-to-mid 1900s. You'd post a letter in the morning and it would arrive in the evening. It wouldn't replace the "we need this across town in an hour", but it's always been interesting to me that delivery service downsized when telephones became commonplace. It would make sense for courier services to do the same with email, the web, and SSL.
> Gibson and Stephenson had taught me that the messenger, the mailman, was a vital romantic figure.
It seemed weird to me that both Snow Crash and Virtual Light had main characters who were couriers. When I read Virtual Light I thought "oh, so this is what Snow Crash was parodying," but nope, it came out a year later. I didn't grow up in a city so that job was something I only encountered in fiction (aside from pizza and Chinese delivery).
Also, that early 2000s internet was indeed a fine place to be in. Simple pages with well-crafted long-form, using Verdana -- what more do you need.
Player's Handbook? ;)
(Yes, I know they mean the Scott Adams creation)
A Coder in Courierland - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=268768 - Aug 2008 (29 comments)
I forgot about the (2005). That is below the (very low) current minimum wage of $16.55 CAD in Ontario. And that minimum wage is not sufficient to survive in Toronto. Wouldn't be surprised if couriers were paid minimum wage today, or maybe a dollar or two over. Seems to be the trend for 'manual labor'.