We got new scanners at work a couple of days ago.

Actually, what we got was an add-on for our old scanners.

It’s a bluetooth enabled cell phone that’s only set up to communicate with the scanner.

I guess it’s kind of like a Tracfone without any minutes added.

So now we have a few more steps to do in the morning before we start out with the mail.

I think the reason they did it was to be more competitive with all the other companies that have real-time scanning….instant updates to package tracking status, etc.

I heard rumors that all the drivers were going to get bluetooth dog collars so our status could be tracked at all times, too….but the Union blocked it.

Just kidding about the last part.

I’m such a creature of habit.  When I hear a new beep while I’m driving it kind of bothers me.

Usually the new beep is the updated scanner asking if I want to communicate with the new cellphone that’s not really a cellphone.

Sure I do…just not while going around a blind curve at 35 miles an hour.

I don’t want another button to ask me to press the button….but I will… because I obey my machines.

After watching all of the Terminator movies, you have to wonder if someone isn’t getting me ready for something to come in the not so distant future.  “Obey my machines” ?  Sheesh.

It’s a pretty minor thing, to punch a button on an updated scanner so it can talk with a new cellphone that’s not a cellphone, so it can communicate with a satellite somewhere and tell someone with fingers poised over their computer that the beanie babies they sent to Wisconsin are at the proper destination.

That’s all a pretty minor thing, really.  In the big picture it’s huge, though.  To be able to tell what happened almost immediately after it happens is a pretty big deal.

To be able to track your beanie babies with that level of precision is going to change lives.

Probably.

When you get down to it, like we said in the office, it’s really all just him and his technology.

I can get used to a few new beeps now and then…and I have my own Tracfone so it’s not a temptation to talk on the new one.

Any change feels like a forward movement.  Whoever “him” is, I’m sure he’s (or she?  don’t mean to sound sexist)  pretty jacked with the new cellphone plan.

I should share their enthusiasm just to be kind, I guess.

In the end, though, it’s just jimenez technology.

 

image from here.