• Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    We had to wear one of these while I was a package handler for FedEx. It was tied into a scanner unit attached to your finger, scan packages as you load.

    You’d think you’d get used to it, but it always felt like I had a tumor strapped to my arm while trying to sling things around.

        • rosa666parks@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          Yes I can “SatansMaggotyCumFart”

          Our building had bay doors lined up on one side of the building, it was the off season so we would only use the first quarter of bay doors. At the end of line of garage doors we would use the last 1-3 bays as a sort of “overflow” (I was only there for a few months so I didn’t fully know what they were for.)

          We would call it the “abyss” because no one went back there, and there were a few lights out so it was kinda dark. I mostly worked there, when it was a heavy day and the belts were pretty full they would send all packages to the abyss and we would get so back up with packages it worked jam halfway up the shoot to the trailer. So we would have to get a ladder and a stick to fix the jam.

          We would sometimes solve the jamming issue by spraying lube on the shoots to help them slide better. It would make the shoots very slick if you tried to walk on them. Also we had fans blowing air into the trailer and if it was a very hot day they would just blew already hot air into a hotter trailer.

          • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Hey now, as a former FedEx package handler we never walked up the chutes. That would be dangerous. /s

    • andrew_bidlaw
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      1 year ago

      I had a joke about you and the Platinum Chip, but I lost it at that funny description. I bet in Fallout world many people have disproportional arm muscles due to swinging around pre-war Pip Boys on their hands.

      • Rose Thorne(She/Her)@lemm.ee
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        1 year ago

        Loading was my usual, and our hub sucked. Fuck tons of goddamn fruit in wax, and then would come the big packages about right as I was loading on my own, so now I had that thing strapped to me, trying to work around the belt with a damned TV to scan.

        Smalls was my dream. Lightweight, wrapping took no time, steady pace but never overwhelming. Night just flew by, chatting about bullshit. Jumped at the chance any time they needed a body.

        • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          lol Smalls is where they send the people they want to get rid of in my building. Half of them, probably more, are on permanent medical modified duty so FedEx can’t use them for anything else.

      • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Loading with these things was shit. I primarily loaded as a package handler and it was a pain to have this attached to your arm, scanning every package, and then lifting those packages over your head to fill in the gaps on top.

  • GluWu@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    There’s a lot of wearable/durable tech made for warehouse workers. I wish I had the money to buy all the awesome things I find. They’re still semi usable with new software. A lot run on the “mobile” windows architecture which takes Unix/Linux naively.

      • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, but they are only marginally better. It’s like moving from a hopelessly out of date platform to one that is only five years old. Is it better than what you had? Without a doubt. Does that make it good? Fuck no.

        • Hawke@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No, they’re a lot better. The touch screen is actually usable and Android is incredibly much better than WinCE 7. Is it better than a mobile phone? No. Is it much much more durable than a mobile phone? Yes.

    • Signtist@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      They weren’t these exact models when I was there in 2013-2014, but they’re definitely similar. The finger scanner thing was so cool; I was always playing with it when there weren’t any packages coming down the conveyor.

      • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        FedEx used their own custom version that booted directly into the proprietary scanner system. The new version uses Android (probably 10 or lower) and does the exact same thing. Also, the scanner attachment is now Bluetooth, which only seems like an upgrade until you give it more than one second of thought and realize how easy they are to lose.

    • thedirtyknapkin@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      yeah, i always used to want to try and get at the thing a little, but it didn’t seem worth risking my job 😅. it was totally just running windows

    • Sixner@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Hah! I was just thinking I used someone similar back in 2008-10 I think? Paired with a little hip printer.

    • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s industrial equipment, and industry is not really known for frequently upgrading. Floppy disks are still a thing.

      • BottleOfAlkahest@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        These also look like they can take a couple of good knocks and keep functioning. You don’t really want sleek and glass covered like the new modern looking phones for a warehouse.

        • MeanEYE@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          That too. LCDs meant for industrial use are indeed more robust and made to last. Not only screens of course. Glass or carbon reinforced plastics are used commonly due to really good properties where it can take a beating but remain flexible without cracking. Like you said, metal and glass don’t combine well.

      • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Magnetic tape is still a thing, particularly for long-term data storage. If you want to keep some data around for longer than most humans live, store it on magnetic tape.

          • AutistoMephisto@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            Yeah, but a lot of companies started storing their records on magnetic tape when that became a thing, and it’s more for continuity purposes. It’s still the lowest cost, highest capacity, longest durability solution for archival purposes.

  • Hux@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    2006 to 2013 felt longer with those, since you could slow down time on demand.

  • 0_o@lemm.ee
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    1 year ago

    Reading all the comments reminiscing about using these as if they are now a relic of a bygone era. We errr… Still use them to this day, I don’t believe the company has any plans to upgrade in the near future either.

    We also still use dot-matrix printers. They’re still being manufactured to this day and the new ones even come with ethernet ports! (As opposed to serial, which again we still have some)

    • AstralPath@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      It’s for work-related use, not for personal use. You’d never see someone wearing this outside of the workplace.

    • niktemadur@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Strap this bad boy on, head on out to the singles’ bar.

      …do singles’ bars even exist anymore? Am I showing my age? Aw hell… they were old news even in my bachelor days.

      How about swingers’ clubs?
      Strap this bad boy on, sashay - or strut - on out to your friendly local neighborhood swingers’ club.

  • HRDS_654@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    We used to use these where I work. They look cool, but they run Windows Mobile and don’t have a touch screen so they actually were very cumbersome to use. Luckily we only had to use them to scan barcodes and that app automatically loaded on boot, unless they fucked up. Rock solid, but also made me hate every moment I had to use them, especially when the scanner attachment wouldn’t register.

  • bionicjoey@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Doesn’t look older than it is honestly. If you showed me this and asked me how old it is I’d have guessed early aughties