Excessive Tech Packaging? 206
fraew wonders: "I just received a Microsoft Partner Program package in the usual MSDN sized box (34cm x 25cm x 11cm) that contained a single A5 piece of paper. Nothing more. Previously I've had RAM DIMMs and PCI cards double-boxed in boxes that approached the size of a computer case, so what is the worst example of excessive tech packaging you've received?"
This (Score:2)
Recycling paper packaging (Score:2, Interesting)
Paper is a friggin' waste to recycle. It's biodegradable for one. The tree's used to make it in the U.S. all come from tree farms. These trees are grown specifically for this purpose, so no one is running into virgin forests cutting down all the trees for paper. There does exist opposing research for both sides on the topic of set asides and the increased cost to consumers for packaging. I think the cost difference is negligible and definitely worth the process of forest conservation. On the topic of pollut
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:4, Insightful)
Keep in mind that this yield is per harvest - and hemp harvests occur much more frequently than tree harvests. After all, hemp is a weed, and grows very fast.
http://www.thehia.org/facts.html [thehia.org]
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
But if this is the case, why would paper companies not be bribing our congresspeople to allow this? Wouldn't it cost them less than the bribes to cut down forests?
Can it really be the "anti-drug" fervor is keeping these huge corporations from reaping (pun intended) immensely higher profits without the need to deal with "enviro-nuts"?
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
-Rick
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
If this was true then i'm not sure why that hemp isn't mass produced for this purpose. For that matter why isn't hemp mass produced for this purpose in other countries were is isn't politicly incorect? I know organic fiber ropes and stuff loose thier tensile strngth and rot
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
And the simple answer to that question is: bingo. Hemp _is_ mass-produced already all over Europe (both eastern and western), and even in Canada. I don't know if anyone makes paper out of it, or not, but I do know that it is in fact mass-produced. At the moment only the USA has the weird "hemp == marijuana" at
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
And as far as i know, the Hemp==marijuana attitude is only because the THC in industrial hemp (less then 1%THC) as well as two cannibiods can be extracted and used as a drug. I'm not sure if this is r
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2)
The problem is - your math an
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:5, Funny)
Grammar of this sentence suggests too much hemp.
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:3, Informative)
Hemp != Marijuana (Score:4, Informative)
Sad to break this to you, but most species of hemp contain at most traces of THC. And after the early 1900's strains of hemp have been selected which score even lower.
To give you some numbers, the legal upper limit for THC content industrial hemp in Europe is 0.3% and most strains contain actually safely less than that. By comparison, the drug varieties contain 20% to 30% THC. So think literally having to smoke 100 times (or more) as much to get the same high. You'd have to literally smoke several pounds of industrial hemp to get the same high as from a join of the drug varieties. At which point, you'd either asphixiate from the smoke, or (more likely) it would take so long as to not get a high at all. The organism would get rid of it faster than you can get it into your system.
It's a plant that's been cultivated since the stone age for its fibres. (Which contain even less THC, btw.) It's been one of humanity's main sources of material for clothes, ropes, sacks, etc, for literally tens of thousands of years. Even paper. The USA Declaration Of Independence was drafted on hemp paper, btw. Even nowadays it's cultivated in the whole world except the USA... even though it's legal to _import_ industrial hemp in the USA. How's that for a stupid hypocrisy?
At any rate, there are plenty of plantations all around the world. Not only in Europe and Asia, but even right next to you in Canada. We already know how much it yields per acre, and how much is stolen by stoners. Hint: none at all is stolen by stoners, because it's freaking useless to them.
In the USA the ban has more to do with (A) the cotton lobby, and (B) with a good dose of government hypocrisy and putting up a jolly good "war on drugs" show. You _can_ make sure which varieties people grow, and every country except the USA does that. You just require a license for growing it, and then you go and check what those people grow. It's that simple.
Re:Hemp != Marijuana (Score:2)
Re:Hemp != Marijuana (Score:2)
Hint: Quite a bit is stolen by stoners (per account of a friend farmer who planted a nice field of hemp and got just dry trampled ground) because a significant percent of stoners are clueless morons who don't know better.
Re:Hemp != Marijuana (Score:2, Insightful)
In the US, it actually has everything to do with a little company called DuPont [wikipedia.org], and a media mogul named Hearst [reefermadness.org].
Excuse me..... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Recycling paper packaging (Score:4, Funny)
Not really packaging as much as marketing... (Score:5, Funny)
Shipping package (Score:3, Informative)
Talk about driving up the shipping price...
Dell batteries (Score:5, Funny)
We received a box about 12 x 12 x 8 inches. This box contained 5 inner boxes, each about the size of a standard retail software box. Inside each box, the top and bottom were covered in eggcarton foam. In the center of each box was a single CMOS battery.
Re:Dell batteries (Score:2)
I recently received a DIMM in its antistatic sleeve in a box 10x14x8 or something. Pull out all the crappy paper, and the sleeve had slid under the bottom cardboard flaps, and almost fell out from underneath the box.
One of our suppliers always ships items in this box size.
To give a sense of scale (Score:2)
* Normally I'd use a coin denomination but I think Pepsi bottles are probably more circulated than any currency on earth.
Re:Dell batteries (Score:5, Funny)
We got that one too... (Score:3, Informative)
The other one I always wonder about is why Dell feels the need to seal every single component inside the box of a new PC in plastic, even if it's just a single sheet of paper...
Re:We got that one too... (Score:4, Informative)
Water?
All boxed up. (Score:5, Funny)
The browser that slashdot came in.
Net order hardware resellers are the worst (Score:3, Interesting)
First the firewall was bubble wrapped. OK. Then the bubble wrap had a cardboard support. Fine. Then the OEM box box - this is where it starts to get crazy. That was easily 40cm x 20cm x 10cm. It was shrink wrapped, and then wrapped in another layour of bubble wrap by the reseller, and packed with scrunched up newspaper. It was then put in another box which must have been about 60cm x 40cm x 20cm. All of which was taped up and put inside a courier bag.
Now I'm not keen on damaged mail order goods, but that is just getting silly.
Sun StoreEdge Power Cables (Score:3, Informative)
Totally fucking absurd. Why the hell do four powercables need to be shipped in four separate boxes? Why do CDs already in sleeves, need to be boxed twice before being put into yet another box?
Sorry for the rant. That experience really brought out the violently fanatic "environmentalist" in me. It reminded me of an endless matrioshka sans the artistic angle.
Re:Sun StoreEdge Power Cables (Score:3, Interesting)
A power cable... (Score:2)
What's even funnier is that I didn't find out what was in the box until *after* I'd been notified that it had been delivered to a building across town, and that the courier company had to go and pick it up from there and deliver it to me at the proper location, for free courtesy of their screwup.
Logitech V200 mouse (Score:4, Funny)
The Logitech V200 cordless mouse [logitech.com] comes in plastic packaging that is so thick [blogspot.com], I would say that a circular saw is the most appropriate tool for opening it. It's probably at least twice as thick as it needs to be. I think that the only explanation for that is to make you so thoroughly mangle the package that you would feel bad about returning it if you change your mind.
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
The packaging is just theft proof, cant hide it under your shirt and cant break it easily.
I almost lost the blade on my box cutter, and still had to wrestle the mouse out of it.
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:3, Funny)
(I have one of these. It's well worth $5. I don't work for the company though.)
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
All good nerds should know that the gerber multi-tool beats the living daylights out of the leatherman. Even the "wave" leatherman is harder on your hands when using the pliers than the base model gerber. Gerber also makes some of the best blades on the planet, and the blades in their multi-tool are no exception. The normal blade is a fairly ordinary and lower-end gerber blade, it's plenty sharp but not nearly as impressive as the saw, which lasts fucking forever and is damned near sharp enough to shave wi
Re:Logitech V200 mouse (Score:2)
Columbia River Knife & Tool [crkt.com]
Benchmade [benchmade.com]
SOG [sogknives.com]
These companies make about the nicest mass produced (not handmade) folders you can buy. They are a little expensive, but well worth it. The models I linked too are just personal preference.
Apple (Score:2)
This guy has you ALL beat. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:This guy has you ALL beat. (Score:2)
Telecom equipment (Score:3, Funny)
Does overkill on media count? (Score:3, Interesting)
Now if we are talking about shipping packages, I receive 1 or 2 floppy disks per month via overnight FedEx from one of our data vendors. It comes in a padded FedEx envelope stuffed in a small FedEx shipping box. The real kicker: The files on the disk are e-mailed to us as well. We have never used the content from the actual disks. I just peel off the labels and add them to a stack at my desk.
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:4, Interesting)
My father, a medical statistician, was one of the authors of a book on skeletal maturity http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0702025119/ref=sr _11_1/002-0416510-2702407?ie=UTF8 [amazon.com]. I was asked to provide a program to accompany the book so that paedeatricians wouldn't need to do the complex maths that goes from measuring x-rays to assessing growth. This was a simple VC++ routine which came to less than 200Kb. The publishers insisted that it should be on a CD, not a floppy, because
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
I don't get how it wasted space (unless you mean data capacity). Most CDs included in books are in plastic or paper envelopes glued inside the back cover. A floppy is rather too thick to do that, it would need to be separately packaged. Also, it's a lot easier, and cheaper, to press CDs than floppies nowadays. I doubt there are many plac
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Before everyone had a CD-ROM drive, books and magazines used to come with 3.5" floppies. Some of them even came with 5.25" floppies, which are at least flexible. Either way, you're wrong, and I call shenanigans. None of those floppies were ever bad when I got them.
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Really? "In packaging terms" does rather look like you're talking about physical volume (as after all is TFA's topic). And preferably be a little more clear beforehand rather than condescending later.
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:3, Funny)
Quit now while you're not so far behind.
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Unfortunately, near the end of the usable life of our Apple IIc, it was nearly impossible to find suitable floppies. They only 5 1/4" floppies readily available were high-density 1.2 MB floppies, which are
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
You seem to be undereducated, because there was another way: you could replace the r/w notch protection sensor with a switch, which would also allow you to write to protected floppies without anyone being
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Did they at least point you in the direction of a company that manufactures a 5-1/4" CD drive?
Re:Does overkill on media count? (Score:2)
Really? I could have sworn that 500kB > 360kB.
You would need a high density 5.25" floppy to hold a 500kB game.
Serial cable (Score:4, Funny)
No wonder that company went under.
The worst... (Score:4, Funny)
The pen is pinned to my cubicle wall. I think I referred to the warranty paper once.
Compaq advanced iLo license (Score:2)
Shipping Weight (Score:4, Informative)
What probably happens is:
Retail
the manufacturer finds the optimum box size to relay the information they want on the box, then adjust that for the box that some number of them fit into, finally making adjustments for pallet packing. This final packaged box weight may or may not fall under the physical weight of the item. The reseller then has to add to the packaging when they send it to the consumer.
OEM
The reseller gets a bunch of parts together in some sort of skid container which needs packaging to be put into a box. These resellers get discounts when they order larger quantities of the boxes, and they know that customers hate paying a ton for shipping a trivial sizes, so they get boxes that they know the volumetric weight of. 13x9x7 inches is the rough 'universal' size in the industry I'm in that you can ship UPS and it will be 1lb by volume. 13x13x9 is the 1 lb by volume for air shipments.
maximum pc (Score:2, Funny)
Re:maximum pc (Score:2)
Re:maximum pc (Score:2)
SD cards? (Score:2)
Re:SD cards? (Score:2)
I find the actual packaging slightly smaller - but bloody awkward to open. But then our work supplier will stick a single card in the same sized box that a shipment of 10 would come in. Yet for other stuff they'll use a sturdy envelope.
Re:SD cards? (Score:2)
Re:SD cards? (Score:2)
SD Memory (Score:2)
Oz
Multiply packaged pieces of paper separately sent. (Score:3, Interesting)
The next license arrived similarly packed (only the large computer size box wasn't used for it.) My only guesses are either they wanted to impress upon us how valuable/expensive the license was, or that they had some sort of standardized shipping process that assumed everything was workstations.
Re:Multiply packaged pieces of paper separately se (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Multiply packaged pieces of paper separa (Score:2)
Intuit does this (Score:2)
Next year, I expect they'll start shipping boxes containing only a f
Ee (Score:3, Funny)
I have you ALL beat.
I recently ordered Suse 10.1 and it arrived on DVD's...LOTS of them. They put a single bit on each DVD, in which was placed in a DVD box, which was wrapped in plastic, placed in a cardboard box, wrapped in bubble wrap, then placed into another box which was then labelled and shipped.
I enjoy it if it is fun and well done (Score:2)
Now, if I just knew wha
Dell (Score:3, Interesting)
Intel BIOS update. (Score:2)
The box was about 2 feet by 2 feet and about 10 inches deep. Inside that was shaped polystyrene. Inside that were poly peanuts, inside _THAT_ was a small black plastic box (abnout 2 inches square), inside that was some more antistat foam inside which was a miniscule BIOS flash chip (about 2 cm square and 3 mill deep).
BLIMEY!
Standardized overpackaging (Score:3, Informative)
The ones that bug the hell out of me are the big companies that ship stuff completely overpackaged *routinely* for completely standard items.
Example 1: Dell Latitude notebooks. They come in a 2'x2'x2' box. Inside this are a few smaller boxes, suspended in the middle with some foam standoffs. Open those up, and there's more foam surrounding the notebook. Open another one, bigger than the entire notebook, with cardboard standoffs holding the battery. Open another one that has documentation and CDs, each wrapped in plastic. I'd estimate that 80% of the packaging is air space. Of the 20% non-air, 50% is foam. By comparison, Macbooks come very nicely packed. We can fit 10 macbooks in their packaging inside one Dell notebook box, with plenty of rattling around room to spare. This is particularly annoying, because it takes up HUGE amounts of storage space for us. We have to at least shed the outer box to compress things down before they go in the store room.
Example 2: Ordering keyboards from HP. Just a keyboard. Basic model. They take the keyboard and put it in plastic. Then they put that into a box (#1).
If you order a keyboard a la carte, they have another box, #2, custom made just the right size to fit Box #1, so they can ship it to you. This seems to be done for the purpose of having a different ordering number for the unit. IE, the part code for a PC means you get a box with a PC, a manual, and a Box #1. The part code for a keyboard means a box with a Box #1.
If you order 10 keyboards, they put 10 Box #2s into an aggregator box, Box #3.
Then they put Box #3 into a shipping box, Box #4, which gets the shipping label.
Thus, boxes:
#1: Protect the keyboard
#2: Add a part code
#3: Bundle 10 keyboards together
#4: Place to put the shipping label
It's almost like the joke recursive gift box I saw a friend get for their birthday one year.
Re:Standardized overpackaging (Score:2)
Packaging Engineering 101 (Score:3, Informative)
Here's the key - take the box drop height and divide it by the distance from the nearest point of your item to the nearest point on the outer box. That is the minimum G force your item will receive if you have the perfect packaging material for that exact drop. You c
Mousepad packaging (Score:2)
Here [imageshack.us]'s a picture of the box a mousepad I bought recently came in. The mousepad is about 25x20x1cm, the box 70x50x20cm (conversion to inches is left as an excercise to the reader). But what made me really laugh is the fact that they apparently couldn't fit in the other item of the order, a Logitech V270. So they sent it in a second box. No wonder they charge $10 for shipping...
mouse stickers (Score:2)
Measured in metric car-loads (Score:2)
I returned with 1 car-load of packaging.
While installing the kit, I managed to build a floor-to-ceiling fort in their reception area
A laptop with MS-Windows on iy (Score:3, Interesting)
Waste of time OEM installing Win or packaging up the CD for it.
But... (Score:2)
Heat shrink sleeving (Score:2)
Two meters of this [maplin.co.uk] came in a tube that was 1.5 meters long.
On receipt I wound it round my fist and shoved it into a small bag.
I also love the way some tools and bike parts are packaged. I one bought an avid disk brake rotor and mech. They could have delivered the the parts by firing them out of a cannon and they would still work. But no, they packaged it in a plastic tray , in a box, inside bubble wrap, inside another box, inside a waterproof bag.
PLCC32 Sockets in a tube (Score:2)
The hard plastic enclosure... (Score:2, Funny)
I hate this stuff, too... (Score:2)
I don't have to tell you how many times I have cut myself open on such packaging. What I have found works best for most packages like this is a set of heavy-duty kitchen shears. Pick up some made out of steel if you can find them (they won't be
My worst over packing experiance (Score:2)
These boxes were delivered over 2 days by FedEx. Wish I still had the pictures I took of the boxes and their contents.
Do I win?
Packaging: Who does it RIGHT? (Score:3, Informative)
As an example, I recently ordered some laptop RAM from OemPCWorld.com. I didn't have good specs on what modules would work, so I ordered 3, planning to return 2. According to their return policy [oempcworld.com], this is cool.
What arrived in the mail was a letter-size FedEx cardboard envelope. Inside that was my receipt and a half-size USPS cardboard return envelope, post-paid, which I'd added to my order to facilitate the return. Inside that were three tiny antistatic mylar bags, each with an SODIMM in it.
Absolutely perfect. I couldn't have packed it better if I'd tried; there was no wasted space, the 2 layers of cardboard provided more than enough protection against flex, and the whole thing weighed just a few ounces.
Another company that does things right: BG Micro [bgmicro.com]. Recently ordered about $30 worth of stuff from them, some small tools, a few components, nothing huge. They wedged it all into the standard textbook-sized USPS box. The fragile bits were protected in individual boxes within, but most of the durable stuff just got a turn of bubble wrap, if that. It was sensible, and everything was in perfect shape when it arrived.
Another: Minimus [minimus.biz]. Does it bother you that the average first-aid kit contains about a 3:1 ratio of bandages to antiseptic wipes? Shouldn't it be the other way around? I wanted to properly equip my kit, but Ididn't want to buy a box of 1,000 alcohol or iodine wipes. Thanks to Minimus, I didn't have to. They carry everything from ketchup and mustard packets, to single-use bug repellent towelettes, all sorts of medical supplies, laundry soap, hand sanitizer, even coffee and tea. I can't say enough good things about this company. I stocked up the entire family's first-aid kits, equipped my travel bag with some laptop screen wipes, and tried a new brand of toothpaste. The whole mess came in a 5x5x4-inch box, and that still left about half the box as air space. Single-use products are the epitome of excessive packaging, but I ordered for convenience. Besides, Burn-Jel isn't something I need a gallon of.
I'm not affiliated in any way with any of the above companies, just a satisfied customer. How about your experiences?
Selling It (Score:2)
Unfortunately, I can't find any examples online, but I'm sure at least some of you know what I mean.
Pallet (Score:2)
Peter
This was a little excessive... (Score:2)
For a 1.8" hard disk. Mmmm.
Don't do this at home, folks (Score:2)
She forgave me when she got to the Nano.
"Excessive tech packaging" (Score:2)
Re:TI Chip Samples (Score:5, Interesting)
We recieved from Insight a box about 3/4 the size of a standard tower computer box. We opened it up to find a box the size you'd expect to find a full-sized array controller card in, plus a few large shipping air-bladders.
We opened up the array-controller sized box to find foam egg crate packaging securing what looked like a cd sleeve.
We opened up the CD sleeve to find inside the front cover, a number. We then used that number to "unlock" the "advanced features" that had really been there all the time.
The thing that I think makes this packaging especially over the top is that the number could have just as easily been put in a plain text email. "Shipping" and "packaging" were not even necessary to get this into our hands. We would have gotten it faster, cheaper and it would have cost them less to do it.
After all that, I'm afraid to say it actually got a little worse. The truth is, we didn't really order just one of them; we ordered three. All came packaged exactly the same way. Insight didn't make any effort to consolidate the smaller boxes into just one of the larger ones.
TW
Re:TI Chip Samples (Score:2)
The worst packaging I have seen was back in the late 1980's. Our boss put in an order for a good few hundred state-of-the-art 80286 MS-DOS PC's. This went through to central purchasing and out to IBM, who promptly sent us a whole load of PS/2's bundled as a set of 3-metre palette cubes transported by lorry. We couldn't get the cubes off
Re:Some is better than one (Score:2)
Jeez, I got a cold chill up my spine when I read this. We've had more than one of these over the years. Sometimes it happened with the variation that they'd use a single layer of the tiniest bubble wrap they could find.
Ignoring the fact that these users are abviously clueless about the dangers of shipping and the fragility of laptops, they were pretty clever about one thing. It just so happens that the regular FedEx shippi
Re:Who needs all that packaging? (Score:2)
I have a V555. The box is probably only ten or fifteen the times the volume of the mobile phone, which isn't very much. Boxes need to be a certain minimum size so that they are apprehendable. You want to present your message to the customer. This is also why CDs originally