calebbrown.id.au

So the other day I ran out of Telfast (a particular type of antihistamine drug) and so I went to the chemist to get some more.

Upon finding the box I immediately realised that it was noticeably larger than my previous one.

I was surprised that a company would decide to increase the size of a their packaging without increasing the size or quantity of the product it contains. I suspect this change is to do with some brand repositioning within it's owning company, Sanofi-Aventis, or maybe a change in where it's packaged. But, nevertheless, such a move struck me as counterproductive, which further investigation seems to support...

After getting the new box home I took some measurements and made some calculations:

So the new box is more than 50% larger than the old one - or to put it another way, I could fit one and half of the old boxes inside the new one.

At this point you might be thinking "so what, who cares if it's a little bigger?". Well, let me point out the ramifications this has for shipping.

It means that if before only 12 boxes fit in a shipping box, now only 8 will fit. If a truck was full of these it would be carrying roughly two thirds the original number of boxes. This means that it would require another half full truck to make up the other third to distribute the same quantity. Or for a 1.2m x 1.2m x 1.2m pallet load the difference is between fitting about 10000 of the old size to 6700 of the new size - that's more than 3000 fewer boxes!

This has two negative implications:

1. shipping will cost roughly 50% more than before (assuming the shipping costs didn't change)
2. waste and pollution from shipping will also increase by about 50% (assuming no change to the method of shipping). This is negated a little by the decrease in overall weight due to there being less product

The amusing thing in all this is that all the extra space is taken up by air. The extra money spent in transport and the extra burden this places on the environment is a result of packaging more air.

I don't know why they did this, but it goes to show how costly increasing package sizes by only a small amount can have.

So while I was carrying out my daily dump-the-junk-mail routine I considered for the umpteenth time buying a 'No Junk Mail' sticker for the mailbox.

Then I wondered: what would happen if 'No Junk Mail' stickers were delivered with the junk mail? What would happen if they were mailed out en masse to every home in Sydney?

It struck me that such a stunt could be very disruptive.

Assuming a majority of people apply the sticker, it could drive the companies that are responsible for distributing the material out of business. It would mean more teenagers hunting employment at the local department store. And they wouldn't be able to employ them due to the drop in income from a smaller distribution of their catalogs.

The upside to this is that families would be less inclined to buy things that don't actually need, but all this would probably result in an increase in prices as retailers try and make ends meet.

The only real winner in the end would probably be the environment.

Ever noticed how the white road markings are really slippery when wet?

I remember discovering how slippery they can get when riding my bike to school in the wet. I would always ride along the bike track that had a single white line running down the centre of it.

One day, as I was ascending the one significant hill on the trip to school, my tyres touch the line as I applied power to the wheels through the peddles. I soon found I was struggling to stay on as I contended with the sudden loss of friction, which was quite a surprise.

I don't ride my bike much nowadays, but I still experience the slipperiness as I take off from the traffic lights in my car and feel the wheels start spinning as they try to accelerate over the wet line.

The irony of all this is that zebra crossings are painted out of the same stuff. The same slippery-when-wet concoction that my bike tyres slip on and my car wheels spin on also makes it hard for pedestrians with certain types of shoes (like uggboots) to stay upright on.

So much for being the safe place to cross the road.

It's week 22 of 2008 and I'm well into my reading challenge. So far I am on track to hit 48 having completed 20 books so far. Finally, as promised a number of weeks ago, here is the list so far...

Just thought I'd put out a gratuitous plug for TechWorld - a website we've just pushed live at work.

For those who don't know I work for IDG Communications (think PC World or ComputerWorld - tech media) and I've been working on this site for a little while now so I'm very happy to have it going live.

Included on the site is a blog that I contribute to. That is where I plan on geeking out on things that are Tech and Programming related, so if you're interested in that sort of thing check it out.

While playing with Facebook Chat I wondered if it supported emoticons. Turns out it does. But when I tried the >:-) emoticon (a 'devil') and saw it printed as boring text, I wondered, "what smilies does facebook actually support?"

So with the help of Safari and some javascript hacking I present to you a complete list of facebook emoticons.

smile

:-) :) :] =)

frown

:-( :( :[ =(

tongue

:-P :P :-p :p =P

grin

:-D :D =D

gasp

:-O :O :-o :o

wink

;-) ;)

glasses

8-) 8) B-) B)

sunglasses

8-| 8| B-| B|

grumpy

>:( >:-(

unsure

:/ :-/ :\ :-\

cry

:'(

devil

3:) 3:-)

angel

O:) O:-)

kiss

:-* :*

heart

<3

kiki

^_^

squint

-_-

confused

o.O O.o

upset

>:O >:-O >:o >:-o

pacman

:v

curly lips

:3

robot

:|]

Chris Putnam

:putnam:

Shark

(^^^)

Penguin

<(")

42

:42:

Enjoy.