[lug] USPS & Linux

[John Starkey]

Hehehe.

I used to print those things. Did more than 80 million express mail forms
in 2 1/2 years. Quit in 98. At the time we were using a Leibenger Printing
unit (Unix). Actually 3 of them and then photo verification. Running at
600-800 feet per minute. The ink sucked and would get pretty crammed into
the units which throws havoc on the scanning devices obviously. But we did
(photo) scan every piece 10 times and the press would shut down
immediately if it didn't get 7 good results on any given piece.

I think they went to Laser after I left. But it was always a pain.
Every one of the forms had to be accounted for and an ex-FBI guy was
checking every number (the best he could).

Certified was a little different. Some kinda of Flourescent ink or
something, no high tech verification that I can remember. I worked with
them once or twice.

Anyway... just a rambling from someone that can tell you, they want a lot
of those forms done very fast (the record was set at 180k in an 8 hour
shift, at the time I left). Printing and verifying barcodes and magnetic
numbers at that speed is a pain in the butt. Glad I'm out of that one :}

John

On Sat, 28 Apr 2001, ljp wrote:

> At 19:58 4/28/2001 -0600, you wrote:
> >On Sat, Apr 28, 2001 at 07:03:15PM -0600, ljp wrote:
> > > I just read an article in embedded linux journal (not online yet), that
> > the
> > > USPS is using 7000 linux systems for their OCR sorting system. And all
> > this
> > > time I thought all the mis sorted letters were software problems... :)
> > > That and their buildings are all paid for, and they STILL manage to
> > lose money.
> >
> >Yes, the Post Office has been using Linux for OCR for several years.
> >
> >http://www.linuxvar.org/Solutions/ocr.html
>
> The embedded linux journal article goes into detail about the hardware.
> Really nice detail.
> Interesting for me, because I own a packaging/UPS/USPS/Mailbox type store,
> and deal with all kinds of crazy mis-sorted letters, all the time. Not sure
> if linux is responsible, but whatever unit stamps the bar codes needs to be
> serviced or revamped. I'm really surprised it works at all, with all the
> scribbled addresses out there.
> :)
>
> ljp
>
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