I was lucky enough to get in on the big blowout sale over Christmas and got a tracking number for my package so at least I know it's on the way. I'm new to the BBS (obviously, as I am kindly referred to as a stranger) but I gotta say there is a lot of good info here. Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else has seen their package travel as follows:

Pickup status SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 15:30
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 17:20
Arrived at FedEx Ramp SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 17:34
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 18:38
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 19:01
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 01/02/2002 19:27
Arrived at FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 01/02/2002 19:52
Left FedEx Sort Facility OAKLAND CA 01/03/2002 07:04
Arrived at Sort Facility INDIANAPOLIS IN 01/03/2002 16:02
Left FedEx Sort Facility INDIANAPOLIS IN 01/03/2002 18:08
Left FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 01/04/2002 01:55

Couple of questions here... How many times can it leave San Jose and why in the world did it go back to Oakland? Hopefully this is just FedEx's screwy way of posting the tracking information and it's actually waiting in Boston to be delivered to me Monday morning...

This was discussed in another thread.

Some of those are scans of the paperwork, and some of them are scans of the package. They don't necessarily travel together.

Also, if there is a clock set wrong on someone's scanner device somewhere, it will look like things bounce around when they really went in sequence.

Yeah - I got a laugh out of my tracking info too...

Delivered MELVILLE NY 12/31/2001 16:08
On FedEx vehicle for delivery MELVILLE NY 12/31/2001 07:51
Arrived at FedEx Destination Location MELVILLE NY 12/31/2001 07:45
Left FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 12/29/2001 01:46
Left FedEx Sort Facility NEWARK NJ 12/28/2001 20:18
Arrived at FedEx Ramp SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 19:44
Arrived at FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 12/27/2001 19:41
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 18:42
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 17:19
Pickup status SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 15:40 Pre-routed meter pkg picked up

the funniest thing I have found with fed ex is it seems like no matter what speed delivery I choose the next day the package is at a fed ex location in the city I live in and they just keep it there until it is due to be delivered. I usually just go pick it up early

Unlike UPS, which holds my packages at the Oakland hub for a week before getting around to putting them on a truck destined for Grass Valley. (Expecting two packages on the 8th which have been sitting in Oakland all last week.)

Mine's been "Arrived at FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 01/04/2002 22:48"

For a while now :|

How dare they ship my order and tease me so

another bad thing about ups is they won't let you pick up the package until they have had an unsuccessful delivery attempt.

Just so ya know, this is 'normal'. My order showed the same behavior and eventually delivered. Note the quick jaunt to Tennessee before coming back to Oakland:

Delivered SAINT PAUL MN 01/02/2002 11:05
Delivered with Exception SAINT PAUL MN 01/02/2002 11:05
Placed on Van SAINT PAUL MN 01/02/2002 10:31
Arrived at FedEx Destination Location SAINT PAUL MN 01/02/2002 07:17
Arrived at FedEx Destination Location SAINT PAUL MN 01/02/2002 07:17
Left FedEx Ramp MINNEAPOLIS MN 01/02/2002 06:01
Left FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 12/29/2001 01:46
Left FedEx Sort Facility MEMPHIS TN 12/28/2001 17:21
Left FedEx Sort Facility OAKLAND CA 12/28/2001 07:03
Arrived at FedEx Ramp OAKLAND CA 12/27/2001 19:41
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 17:19
Arrived at FedEx Ramp SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 19:44
Left FedEx Origin Location SAN JOSE CA 12/27/2001 18:42

I never understood why they shipped them Fedex. I find their system appalling. Their tracking one of the least accuart things i've seen and it takes forever for it to update. Why not send UPS where every major switch is scanned and then updated in the tracking information exactly where its at? I always seem to have a problem with fedex, never have had one with UPS.

-Greg

Don't get me started on UPS...

• They don't allow you to pick up an item the same day as a failed delivery attempt.
  
• They refuse to leave any package in an appartment building/condo without a sig.
  
• They never have more than one person working the desk at the sort facility.

FedEx:

• I was able to sign a waiver with them to leave anything at my place without a sig.
  
• Service at the sort facility is friendly and timely.

Thank God Empeg and Sonic Blue both send stuff FedEx. Otherwise I would have made many trips to UPS the last couple weeks.

Agreed, I prefer Fedex over UPS. UPS has always left my stuff on the doorstop with no wavers filled out. This included my $3100 desktop replacement class Gateway laptop a few years back. Nice big cow spotted box. I was glad I was home, but the driver was halfway down the driveway when I was pushing the door open to get it.

I also have no clue where the UPS depot is here, since they have never left just the "We missed you" things

You can pick up your packages from the ups facility easily, but not when their flying all over the US ; ). My friend ordered a 40gig hd the other day and it went to some place then back across the state to california then to canada and who knows where its at now. At least with UPS I KNOW when im going to get my package.

-Greg

This included my $3100 desktop replacement class Gateway laptop a few years back.

You too?! I thought I was the only tech-savvy person that would buy a Gateway laptop. I now have a 9550 with integrated Wi-Fi. It rules.

Yeah, it was the only decent model of the Solo 9300 released. It has firewire, TV in, and 5.1 optical sound all working. Revisions after that had at least one of the features above gone (and usually replaced by an odd looking blank). I used it as my only system for a while. I bought the dock, and threw in a Voodoo 3 for my games, and it worked rather well. It was also quite happy with Windows 2000 (and worked well with ACPI once a BIOS glitch was fixed).

Gateway laptops to me seem real hit or miss. They have made some really nice ones, and some really horrid ones. And the feature changes in the same model number drive me nuts. But it wasn't bad for a first laptop.

I personally think I am one of the few people who can't stand Dell laptops. I love the tech specs on their top end models, but they are always bricks. Big, overly plastic feeling, and heavy. The model Dell offered at the time I bought the 9300 that was comporable was 2.5 pounds heavier, and had a few less features.

Right now I am on a company provided Compaq Armada M700, and I will never go back to a plastic casing again. This one I believe is a magniesum (sp?) alloy casing, and it's awesome. It also has a variable speed fan, compaired to the on or off the 9300 did. My next laptop? Well I am leaning to a Powerbook. I love OS X, and having that in a portable package will be awesome. The one mouse button may drive me to the point of insanity though.

I know what you mean about the Powerbooks -- I used my brother's G4 Titanium when visiting him last month and fell completely in love. A huge compliment as I've always been a vigorous hater of Mac OS's.

The single mouse button isn't a problem if you get a Wacom Graphire2 or something similar. It comes with a two button +scrollwheel mouse and costs a hundred bucks. Not a studio grade tablet, but definitely up to the task for your average power user.

I can't believe I'm helping someone decide on a Mac...

You can pop video cards into docking stations for laptops?! is that common?

It was a PCI video card, and worked fine. In theory, any PCI slotted dock should accept a video card, and treat it as a second output device. I had a 2000 profile set up that if I ever booted with the dock connected, it even set the Voodoo 3 as the primary monitor and disabled the onboard card. It did not run the video through the LCD though, that was always controlled by the onboard chip.

You can use pretty much any USB mouse in a mac. Microsoft has mac intellipoint drivers as does logitech and others. My Dad upgraded to a Mac G4 400 and i gave him my MS wheel mouse. He loves the flexibility.

Many years ago when 486s where the latest PC CPU, the company i worked for had laptops with docking stations that took ISA cards. Just as well as there was no other way to get them on the network!

The problem isn't that you can't attach multi-button mice, which you could do even before USB came along, but, rather, that the built-in mouse has only one button. What's the point of having this sleek laptop if you need to carry an external mouse along with you. Cheeseball.

Fortunately, there are applications that can map keys to button presses, so you don't have to do that. The Enter and Option keys to the right of the spacebar are excellent candidates for this.