Cool video and idea on the mailing system. Looks to be in a country that is not the U.S., maybe European??? Anyway, a U.S. version would be pretty cool to see as well.
Funnily enough, my first thought was that it must have been in the UK, but also because of the Danske Bank -- one of the largest banks here in Northern Ireland. Post Danmark gave it away though.
But US-style mailboxes in the progress indicator (bottom of video). Interesting how that iconography has spread, even though the reality outside the US is often a box on the outside of the house, or just a slot in the door.
A rather large bomb was set off by the IRA in 1996 within walking distance of the sorting office in the article. There have been multiple bombs planted recently in NI itself.
There are countries in the world where this would rightly trigger a bomb scare. It's nothing to do with paranoia - in some places mail bombs are a reality.
The bomb detectors (if it passed through any) were more likely trying to detect actual chemical signatures of explosives rather than just a bunch of wires that might be a detonator. So something like this would pass fine, as it should.
Actually how is the legal situation on this? If they go all bomb scare crazy over this is it my fault as the sender even so it is not even remotely reassembling a bomb layout? Is there a ban on mailing home made electronics? Or do I need to put a sticker on ATTENTION, THIS IS NOT, I REPEAT, NOT A BOMB!
Actually,'bout that: The USPS has banned the mailing of batteries, not because they're worried someone will disguise a bomb as one, but because they have a habit exploding in atmospheric changes.
We need more cracked screen smartphone apps at Google play and itunes.
This cool postal logger generalizes to recycled smartphone hackaday DIY probes recording their adventure and uplink data of anything desired, intrepidly set adrift in the wild:
Telemetry
...is the highly automated communications process by which measurements are made and other data collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.
Although the term commonly refers to wireless data transfer mechanisms (e.g., using radio, hypersonic, or infrared systems), it also encompasses data transferred over other media such as a telephone or computer network, optical link or other wired communications like phase line carriers. Many modern telemetry systems take advantage of the low cost and ubiquity of GSM networks by using SMS to receive and transmit telemetry data.
...is a subdiscipline of FISINT which is concerned with missiles and other remotely-monitored devices sending back continuous streams of data about their location, speed, engine status and other metrics. This data can provide information on the performance of the missile and especially its throw-weight, i.e. the potential size of its warhead\s.
My guesses are: 1) maybe it's a mockery of the redundancy of using "www" in URLs, 2) a clever prank on anyone that attempts to communicate the site's address verbally and doesn't know that the sub-domain portion is optional, 3) a way of making the link catch the eye and create enough curiosity to result in a click.
Just guesses though, I really couldn't find anything concrete about it.
He edited out the boring parts, no one wants to watch a wall for 2 hours. Also he probably had a notice on the package to keep one side facing the top, at one point a machine did flip it over.
This is something I need to do in my country, I have developed resentment towards Sepomex (Servicio Postal Mexicano / Mexican Postal Service), due to the way they treat my packages.
What I hate the most is that companies like DHL that are established in Mexico, will use their own service in the country the delivery is being paid, but when the package reaches Mexico, they give the package to Sepomex, which basically defeats the purpose of using a different company...
In the US some vendors will send using UPS to USPS. I don't know what they save, but I think that the system loses a day or two compared to just UPS or just USPS. This is annoying if it is something that you need soon.
This has come through before, I wondered then if, had this been done in the US, the last bit of video would be the bomb robot coming up and shooting the package with a shotgun :-)
I was Fry's the other day and they have "spy pens" (those pocket video cameras) and I thought it would be an interesting way to do this project. Basically put one camera on each corner of the box (four sided) and then edit the camera contents together once you got to the destination (eliminating the boring /not useful bits).
I saw an interesting hack at a dinner the other day which used a camera and a 6DOF attitude sensor, to post transform the camera input so that it was always "up" (basically if you turn the camera upside down the orientation of the picture doesn't change). It seemed like a pretty cool application of these cheap orientation sensors to cameras.
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[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 122 ms ] thread[1] http://rubenvandervleuten.com/contact.html [2] http://rubenvandervleuten.com/AtoB1.jpg
People move around Europe a lot these days.
I am Danish and recognise things such as Danske Bank, in the beginning of the video, Post Danmark and so forth :)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-23727511
A rather large bomb was set off by the IRA in 1996 within walking distance of the sorting office in the article. There have been multiple bombs planted recently in NI itself.
http://pe.usps.com/text/pub52/pub52c3_024.htm
http://www.rubenvandervleuten.com/AtoB.html
This cool postal logger generalizes to recycled smartphone hackaday DIY probes recording their adventure and uplink data of anything desired, intrepidly set adrift in the wild:
Telemetry
...is the highly automated communications process by which measurements are made and other data collected at remote or inaccessible points and transmitted to receiving equipment for monitoring. The word is derived from Greek roots: tele = remote, and metron = measure. Systems that need external instructions and data to operate require the counterpart of telemetry, telecommand.
Although the term commonly refers to wireless data transfer mechanisms (e.g., using radio, hypersonic, or infrared systems), it also encompasses data transferred over other media such as a telephone or computer network, optical link or other wired communications like phase line carriers. Many modern telemetry systems take advantage of the low cost and ubiquity of GSM networks by using SMS to receive and transmit telemetry data.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry
Telemetry intelligence (TELINT)
...is a subdiscipline of FISINT which is concerned with missiles and other remotely-monitored devices sending back continuous streams of data about their location, speed, engine status and other metrics. This data can provide information on the performance of the missile and especially its throw-weight, i.e. the potential size of its warhead\s.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telemetry_intelligence
Also, when your probe is far far away, HN's second page magically concurrent today, provides minimalist command line bash telecommands:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6223022
http://shadabahmed.com/blog/2013/08/16/bang-bang
http://wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.bitnik.org/assange/
Just guesses though, I really couldn't find anything concrete about it.
What I hate the most is that companies like DHL that are established in Mexico, will use their own service in the country the delivery is being paid, but when the package reaches Mexico, they give the package to Sepomex, which basically defeats the purpose of using a different company...
http://www.fedex.com/us/smart-post/index.html http://consumerist.com/2012/11/21/insider-explains-why-fedex...
http://www.upsmailinnovations.com/services/domestic_mail.htm...
I was Fry's the other day and they have "spy pens" (those pocket video cameras) and I thought it would be an interesting way to do this project. Basically put one camera on each corner of the box (four sided) and then edit the camera contents together once you got to the destination (eliminating the boring /not useful bits).
I saw an interesting hack at a dinner the other day which used a camera and a 6DOF attitude sensor, to post transform the camera input so that it was always "up" (basically if you turn the camera upside down the orientation of the picture doesn't change). It seemed like a pretty cool application of these cheap orientation sensors to cameras.
http://hackaday.com/2013/07/01/hackaday-looking-for-a-good-h...