I ordered a 17 Inch Aluminum PowerBook G4 (AlBook) last friday (the 30th) along with a backpack for it and an Airport Extreme Base Station. I ordered the 17 incher because I needed something to replace my iBook for WWDC but I could not wait until the 15inch AlBook was released. I had to use my "educator" discount on it because I couldn't find anyone with an ADC Hardware Discount Key which was slightly disappointing. I was only able to save $200 instead of $600+. Still, something is better than nothing, right? The items were shipped via Fedex.
Not sure how this will look, but here is the FedEx tracking information for the AlBook and the Backpack (Base Station is the same as the AlBook). OK, Safari cannot copy tables well at all.
 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Date/time | | Status | | Location | | Comments | ||||||||
| Jun3, 2003 | 8:56 am | | Delivered | | PHOENIX AZ | | |||||||||
| 8:11 am | | On FedEx vehicle for delivery | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| 7:35 am | | Arrived at FedEx Destination Location | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| 5:12 am | | Left FedEx Ramp | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| Jun1, 2003 | 6:55 pm | | Arrived at FedEx Ramp | | SACRAMENTO CA | | |||||||||
| 1:30 pm | | Arrived at Sort Facility | | MEMPHIS TN | | ||||||||||
| 1:30 pm | | Arrived at Sort Facility | | MEMPHIS TN | | ||||||||||
| 6:08 am | | Left FedEx Sort Facility | | OAKLAND CA | | ||||||||||
| 5:50 am | | Left FedEx Ramp | | SACRAMENTO CA | | ||||||||||
| May 31, 2003 | 6:39 pm | | Left FedEx Origin Location | | RANCHO CORDOVA CA | | |||||||||
| 3:17 pm | | Pickup status | | RANCHO CORDOVA CA | | Pre-routed meter pkg picked up | |||||||||
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| Date/time | | Status | | Location | | Comments | ||||||||
| Jun3, 2003 | 8:56 am | | Delivered | | PHOENIX AZ | | |||||||||
| 8:10 am | | On FedEx vehicle for delivery | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| 7:35 am | | Arrived at FedEx Destination Location | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| 6:24 am | | Left FedEx Ramp | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| 5:11 am | | Arrived at Sort Facility | | OAKLAND CA | | ||||||||||
| 5:11 am | | Arrived at Sort Facility | | OAKLAND CA | | ||||||||||
| 4:11 am | | Left FedEx Sort Facility | | OAKLAND CA | | ||||||||||
| 3:56 am | | Arrived at FedEx Ramp | | PHOENIX AZ | | ||||||||||
| Jun2, 2003 | 11:31 pm | | Arrived at Sort Facility | | OAKLAND CA | | |||||||||
| 9:08 pm | | Left FedEx Ramp | | SEATTLE WA | | ||||||||||
| 7:46 pm | | Arrived at FedEx Ramp | | SEATTLE WA | | ||||||||||
| 3:48 pm | | Left FedEx Sort Facility | | ANCHORAGE AK | | ||||||||||
| May 31, 2003 | 5:57 pm | | Package status | | ANCHORAGE AK | | Regulatory Agency Clearance Delay | ||||||||
Can someone please explain to my why it'd go from Oakland to Memphis and back to Sacramento? It seems like a waste of time, money and effort. What's worse is that the Airport Base Station was in Phoenix then got shipped to CA then back again. All I can guess is that it go to Memphis and there they sort to it's final destination, then send it back to the main sorting facility in that area. However, this is not efficient at all. And people wonder why FedEx shipping to Russia is $219 for 14 pounds or from Phoenix to LA is $13. I bet they could save a lot of money by doing it directly. That and kill the Air Conditioner in the FedEx trucks. When the FedEx guy delivered it today (oddly, 4 minutes before the earliest they would deliver it) he complained that I lived on the 3rd Story (the one on the ground is the 1st) and there was no elevator up. Well, it was 108 degrees F a few days ago. Neither the USPS nor the UPS delivery trucks have A/C in them. FedEx trucks do.
Enough of that FexEd rant. This AlBook is huge. It barely fits on the TV tray I have in the bathroom. Seriously what's the point of having a laptop with wireless networking if you can't use it in the bathroom? As soon as I got the AlBook, I wiped it's hard drive cleaned, partitioned it the same as I had my iBook in (with the same partition names), then did a software restore of the included boot-able DVD. After that was done, I ran the software updates making sure to install the QT update after the 10.2.6 combined updater. Ahh.. 300 megs of updates to be pulled over Airport (non-extreme) and then installed. For the record, installing and optimizing took longer than it did to download the updates. I then set my iBook into FireWire disk mode by holding down the T key at boot time, connected it to the AlBook via a 6-to-6 pin FireWire cable (the one that came with the first and second generation of iPods). The AlBook immediately saw the three partitions and I dropped into the terminal, typed sudo ditto -rsrcFork /Volumes/Consecrated\ 1/Users/rosyna /Volumes/Consecrated/rosyna and while it was doing it's thing, I copied the /Library (sans receipts folder) and a few applications over. When that was all done, I opened NetInfo Manager (/Applications/Utilities/NetInfo Manager) and changed my home folder to /Volumes/Consecrated/rosyna. Logged out for good measure and back in to make sure everything was ok. All settings and passwords were successfully brought over. I had to reset the desktop picture and a few applications in the dock had to be reset. Only those that were on a differently named partition on the iBook and not on the boot partition. Login items and sharing also had to be re-enabled and for some odd reason, I had to reset the iPhoto library path. It asked me to find one but wouldn't let me choose the one I use so I just made a new one and renamed the old one to have the new one's name. And of course, I had to install APE on this AlBook.
After I was done with that tedious process, I searched for a bootable Mac OS 9.2.x CD. Before OS X, each localization came on a different CD. I could easily find my copies of the Japanese, Korean, Chinese (three dialects), German, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish, Spanish, French, and Portuguese but not the English (American) version. After more searching I found it in a Developer DVD case I had placed it in a few months ago. I then proceeded to unmount and disconnect the iBook from the AlBook and booted the iBook of the 9.2.1 CD (I held option, I was lazy). Opened Drive Setup and zeroed all the data on the drive and made one partitioned. Waited the 3 hours for it to complete and did it again. I then reinstalled Jaguar on the iBook and ran all the updates. Tomorrow the iBook is going down to the Apple Store (chandler, I don't feel welcome at the Biltmore one) and from there being shipped off to Apple to get repaired. I've been wanted to get it repaired for a long time. It peters out on DVDs about one and a half hours through which is a serious problem with anime. And anyone that knows me knows I have an addiction to anime (260+ DVDs and rising).
You can see a picture of my iBook on the AlBook to get a difference of size here. Notice the missing key.
Posted by rosyna at 12:46 AM
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Fedex's 'fly it all to memphis' concept is actually far more efficient. ALL sorting is done in one place. There are books written about the concept (and that 'modern marvels' episode is on often)... do some web searches. :)
Doing 'it all directly' is far more expensive, because you need to pay for way more sorting facilities.
Posted by: Clef on June 4, 2003 1:44 AMI think the following line is probably just erroneous. Maybe some sort of mis-scan:
Jun1, 2003 6:55 pm Arrived at FedEx Ramp SACRAMENTO CA
I can't imagine it would go Sacramento > Oakland > Memphis > Sacramento > Phoenix. I get FedEx all the time, and it doesn't go Memphis > Sacramento > Phoenix, so I imagine this is just wrong.
Posted by: Lenroc on June 4, 2003 1:59 AMClef, then the sorting systems should be more efficient, more connected... with .NET ;)
There is no excuse for a poor design. Once you get sufficiently big enough, this method does not work.
Posted by: Rosyna on June 4, 2003 3:01 AMWhen I got my 12" AlBook, it showed the delivery location as Memphis rather than Ft. Lauderdale. I panicked at first but they explained that everything goes through the hub in Memphis.
Brett Easton Ellis could have easily written that post, Rosyna. all that was missing, was what you were wearing, or eating, or how you dismembered the body of the FedEx guy.
Posted by: phil on June 4, 2003 7:47 PMThat's why I prefer to buy from the store. Just one of the perks of having an authorized retailer 2 miles from your house. Or 500 ft from work. Too bad it's not 0 ft from work. What? You don't think I can sell Macs? I converted 2 hardcore Windows people so far, I can sell a Mac.
Congrats on your purchase, you lucky SOB. I want a laptop sooo bad. I'll settle for a 15" though. Or even just a 12".. if it had L3. *sigh*
Posted by: Jason Anderson on June 5, 2003 1:18 AMCalifornia may still have severe limitations on intrastate shipping (They heavily tax pure intrastate shipping) ... I thought that problem had been solved but maybe not. So therefore, a package must leave the state and come back in or FedEx must pay hefty fines. I know that The FedEx station in Birmingham would load packages drive them to the state border and come back just to avoid the intrastate limitations.
There is a FedEx hub in Oakland that handles most of the freight shipped along the west coast (OAK - SEA). That is why the package went to OAK first and then MEM and then out on the Sacremention flight.
So you can thank your California gov't for the regulations and taxes that force FedEx to fly a package from OAK to MEM and back to CA because it is cheaper to make it an interstate package to comply with the regs and taxes for an intrastate package.
Larry
Memphis
Posted by: Larry on June 5, 2003 10:29 AM
Whats up with the Biltmore store? I like the Chandler one because it's in abtter (for me) location but I haven't thought much of the service at any Apple store I've been to. Why do you feel unwelcome at Biltmore?
Posted by: TTucson on June 5, 2003 9:08 PMLOL! your 12 is missing the "F" key. My 15 is mising the V... so much for the F word and the V word!
Posted by: ravedog on June 9, 2003 10:32 PMI noticed your 'Book came through my town (Anchorage, AK). FedEx's main hub for all Far East-US traffic is here in Anchorage (it's a huge facility at the north end of the main international airport).
When I ordered my 17" G4 a few months ago, I watched the FedEx shipping page like a hawk. It departed Shanghai, China, and the next day it was scanned at Anchorage, AK, even though the scheduled delivery date was over a week away. I began to get really excited, thinking my computer was going to be delivered early! So I waited at home all the next day...and again the following day. Just when I was about to call FedEx, I saw the next city scan appear on FedEx's site: Memphis.
MEMPHIS?! I know FedEx does all of their domestic sorting there, but I never expected an international shipment to first pass through MY OWN CITY, go 3/4 of the way across the US, and THEN come back! I called FedEx to check on this. They said that they had been unable to clear it through customs by the time it arrived in Anchorage and so had to go to their main customs clearing office in Memphis. I told them that they were wasting their resources (especially when jet fuel is so expensive), but I guess it's their prerogative. I was a little disappointed, though, that my baby had been literally 5 miles from me and then left. I bet the FedEx jet took off of runway 6 and followed the ANCHORAGE.THREE departure right over my house, too. Darn it.
Oh well, it came a week later, so I just had to learn a little patience. I got it and it's beautiful. I'm happy! :-)
Posted by: Jackal on April 29, 2005 11:27 PMKeep comments on topic. If a comment is unrelated to this post, it may be removed or moderated.