Apparently our Russian brethren have some issues ordering things online. Their shipping solution? A bit of remote social engineering. Thanks to the nature of Russian addresses – that is, the language is pretty easy to recognize – they’ve found that putting down their address in Russia along with a Canadian zip code will usually result in the package being forwarded along thanks to the thoughtful Canadian postal workers. Thanks [Jock]
Social engineering not your thing? OK, well here’s a few extra hacks to chew on. [Sam] thinks you should wrap your electronics in a condom to keep em dry. If you’re in NY, you might want to check out the circuit bending festival. Oh, and if you’ve had your head in the sand, you might have missed the steam powered R2D2.
I take it Canadian tax payers pay for the extra postage?
xD that’s funny, but Canadians don’t have zip codes they have postal codes.
#1:
Sadly, yes. And we wonder why our stamp rates are increasing…
Another good postal Hack. As a Libertarian I especially Hate Socialists disguised as Democrats. So I started signing up to a couple of campaigns of some really pinko types. I donate $1 Dollar and Letters will start POURING in. I think they all trade lists etc. Anyhow once the letters start coming to me from say candidate X. I take the generic Pre-Paid envelopes they usually supply and Clear Tape it to a Brick that I have wrapped to look like a package. When done properly it only takes a few minutes and it looks like a nice package with their address and a Pre Paid stamp. From what I understand they ship these prepaid letters to the recipient and weigh the whole shebang. They then bill the recipient for the weight. The bricks are equal to 1000s of donation letters Plus since they normally get money in them it costs them double. During election season, especially presidential I get tons of these letters. I have a pallet of bricks left over from building my house so I grab a couple and while watching TV I assembly line them. I have wrapped and packed as many as 7 of these babies in just a few minutes. However the Joy it gives me is worth far more. I am now on so many DNC mailing lists that I can send tons yet rarely duplicate the candidate. My version of Power to the people!!!
MoneyOx
grr I work in the UK postal service and I’ve seen a lot of letters etc with one country’s address and anothers postcode/zip these letters are a pain in the arse and now I know what they are I’ll see to it that this stops in the UK at the very least.
you know, technically a zip code is still a postal code here too. (in the U.S.)
its funny how many people put in their redundant two cents. GG russians.
jimbob, you’re kind of a c*nt. Mate, you don’t get paid any less, and you still have to work the same number of hours in the day. I bet you were unpopular in school too…
@ 7(JustJake),
Jimbob has a job to do. That means he doesn’t let people get anyway with posting things over long distance for cheap, and he’s probably supposed to stop it, he’s just doing his job, I would do the same.
That’s how the world works, if hacking wasn’t being stopped it wouldn’t be fun!
In regards to the condom thing, how does the picture come out so clearly? In my experience, even things like sandwich bags much up picture quality pretty bad–and they look MUCH clearer than those prophylactics… Anyone know?
I’m a sound guy, and to keep the wireless mic beltpacks dry (from actor’s sweat…) we use either condoms or plastic ziploc bags. Just thought I’d put my two cents in….
So, how are any of these “postal hack” things different from theft?
MoneyOx
Libertarian means someone who doesnt want to be called ultra-convervative so they hide under this title pretending they value everyones liberity. yet censor everyone else when they can. who is the true commie here?
btw we have been colecting your bricks. so you wont build anymore berlin walls. keep sending them we dont want more walls.
as for the hack this is not my cup of tea but seem nice.
werejag- Edge-You-Mi-Cate Yourself…… Last time I checked Ultra Conservatives… Are NOT for Gay Marriage, Ending the Prohibition on Drugs, Pro-Choice, The immediate removal of the Patriot Act, Severe Limitations on the executive branch ETC ETC ETC. The funny think about Socialists is that because they always believe that the Government can spend money smarter then the citizen, Libertarians Fiscal policies enrage them so much they put blinders on. It is a shame that in the age of the Internet where information is at your fingertips you would make a patently false statement. especially since 6 keystrokes would disprove it. ( LP.ORG )
To keep this topic on topic ( As my first post was ) The good old DNC has invited an RIAA shill to the convention. Don’t get me wrong I have plenty to say about the RNC. However the DNC usually is an easier target as the RNC in most cases is simply the lesser of two evils….
Also…. The Berlin Wall was Built by SOCIALISTS… ( THE DDR ) In fact Ulbricht and Honeker Called it the Anti-Facist protection barrier. I mean this with all do respect. BUY A HIGH SCHOOL HISTORY TEXTBOOK!
Yikes.. a simple piece of social engineering is getting a lot of backs up, no? I couldn’t quite tell from the article- is this used to forward offers that should only go to the US and Canada, or to get around american companies that just refuse to ship to Russia? If it’s the former I’m not sure how much I approve, as there’s probably a good reason the offer is limited to the US/canada, but if it’s the latter then it sounds like a great plan.
also, the steam r2d2 is delightful. any fans of steampunk vehicles should check out his site.
sorry for double post, but @jakeh: the condom is stretched tightly across the tube protecting the objective so is a very flat film. all it will do to the image is make it a little bit darker/greyer by blocking some of the light. using a sandwich bag, the plastic over the lens probably won’t lie completely flat so will cause nasty refractions at the air/water interface which will mess up the image. if you could find a way to make the sandwich bag lie flat over the lens it could potentially work even better than this hack, but I’m not sure about the pressure resistance of ziploc so I think i’ll stick with the condoms.
MoneyOx
my point was your socialist coments are that of the far right the rest of your political diatribe yes indead seem progressive.
this topic had no place for your polictical diatribe.
and most libertainians ive meet are ultra-conservatives hiding under a label that has liberty in it
you could have just mentioned that you sent bricks threw the mail to your hated political party.aka in some generic way.
It’s not nice to take advantage of an organizations or an individuals kindness. A lot of postal workers take great pride in there job all round the world. I would delete this “hack post.”
PS: I am not a postal worker.
On one hand, I disapprove of people generating unnecessary additional labor for postal workers of Canada. On the other hand, I feel the blame for the problem should not be placed against Russians using this hack, but on the closed minded and lazy american merchants who refuse to ship products beyond north america.
Whenever I sell stuff on the web, I try not to penalize foreigners who want to buy my products. It costs me a whopping 83 cents to ship my product anywhere in the united states, while shipping overseas via airmail costs around $3 or $4. Yes, it’s a little more, but still less than the $6 or $7 S&H fee most vendors charge customers.
I read some people claiming that they do not ship to Russia due to unscrupulous Russian crackers who have previously ordered items using stolen credit card numbers. In my opinion, the answer is to either do better credit verification, or if that’s not feasible, require Russians to pay using other (slower) methods such as cash, money order, etc.
Completely refusing to ship to them at all is way too harsh punishment.
Analogy: If a few people in your state are illegally downloading music files using the Internet, how would you feel if the RIAA had your entire state disconnected from the Internet? In Russia, a few people order items using stolen credit cards, and so merchants completely cut off all shipping to an entire country of people?? sheesh
Moneyox, you’re a dick.
As the bumpersticker reads “If you’re not enraged, you’re not paying attention.” The right wingers are the ones who got us into this trouble (Iraq, gas prices, sticking it to poor people come tax day). I dislike the 2 party system as much as the next man, but what you’re doing should be illegal. Moreover, you’re doing it to screw the party that has the least amount of money.
Granted, the RIAA is terrible. If anything, you should do your brick thing to them. The Dems have historically fought for justice (e.g. black civil rights movement) and always fight for things that you seem to want (civil rights viz the Patriot act, pro gay marriage, pro drugs, etc.). The Republican party is motivated by the white male top dogs who have all the money in America and want to keep it that way. So that they don’t drown, they want to hold others underwater to keep their heads above.
Finally, though Dems (lefties in general) want a bigger government, they do it for bigger social programs: welfare, sheltering the homeless, protecting American worker’s health and safety, protecting the environment. What are the first cuts made when a government is shrunk? Not our Military, which has spent a lot of money only to piss off the rest of the world and thus ensure that we need a huge military to defend ourselves. Half a trillion dollars poured into Iraq to protect a handful of people’s oil interests could have been spent to educate people, to clean our streets of crime, to reduce pollution and develop cleaner technologies.
You’re sending bricks. I hope someone smashes you in the face with one.
thezeigs, dont be silly.
ignorance is the greatest downfall of man.
as for the hack the postal hack is pretty cool though maybe the canadian post should just return the packages labled that way to whoever sent them instead of fowarding them.
as for the condom hack, i finally can get…more…use out of the fistfull of condoms that are showered onto people here at my university. It seems everytime there is a firedrill some group is there to shove condoms into our pockets. O.o :-p
thezeigs-It looks like I am beating a dead horse here. BUT if it were not for Republicans, There would still be Slaves. The Republican party is the party that freed the slaves. Democrats were PRO-slavery…. Do they hand out history books any more??? The erosion of the Black family is directly due to Socialists government programs (LBJs War on Poverty ). Democrats WANT minorities to be dependent on the Goverment. If you do not beleive me check out the Rate of Single Parnet homes in the black community. It is an epidemic. The erosion of the Black family unit is a direct result of social programs TARGETED to them. It is sad really. You need to read the post I originally reacted to…
A person by the name of werejag did not know who built the Berlin wall…. Basic World Civ here…..
It is funny how EVERY socialist Govt. Fails…. The only ones who have been able to stave of failure ( and the ones who were able to prolong failure. ) Subsidized their goverment via OIL etc… ( Like Norway the former and the USSR the later )
P.S. The War on Poverty and the War on Drugs… TWO Wars that have been lost and need to be ended!!!!
thezeigs-I may be a Dick, but I am a Dick who paid attention in History class….
If you do not KNOW history you are DOOMED to repeat it!!!
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salut sami , comment va tu ?