Coping with the USPS outage

Thursday, December 11, 2008, 3:24 AM
Business by John (Article #232)

Nothing against the general notion of applications failing elegantly, but screw that!

We've started compiling and caching postal rates server side. Does that compound the problem for the USPS? Probably.

First, any orders that get a clean postage quote, those quotes go right in the DB for later re-use. Second, when the system can punch one through, it is sneaking a few spare quotes for random weights to random ZIP codes.

Yeah, that's right -- I'm cheating!

Right now I don't care. I have one goal: get through February without having to eat shit because the post office can't do its job.

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Third party APIs

I've read a few articles about the USPS outage, and one recurring dumb thought people keep posting is a sort of "depending on third party APIs is dumb" meme.

Sure, I understand that any dependence on a third-party API is an invitation to trouble. But, really, isn't the entire concept of a postal system sort of a third-party app? Aren't you kinda depending on them to do a lot of things?

Beyond the quote itself, you depend on the USPS to:

1. Show the hell up.
2. Take the package.
3. Transport the package to some place far beyond the horizon.
4. Through multiple way points transfer the package to said far-off place.
5. Show the hell up there.
6. Not break too many of your packages while repeating this process relentlessly six days a week, every week, every year.

I've read a few discussions about the dependency aspect of the Webtools API, and I think the sort of down-my-nose-at-you view some programmers have about third-party APIs displays complete ignorance of the facts on the ground when it comes to shipping.

Most important fact: the process is entirely third-party after you slap some packing tape on the box and hand it to some dude wearing a blue uniform.

And, yeah, at most small businesses you're going to know said blue uniform guy, thereby providing a bit of a buffer against the third-partiness of it all.

But, the underpinning flaw in the logic of 'don't depend on third part APIs' is that an interconnected society engaged in global trade is nothing but several billion third parties constantly interfacing in the vague promise of survival, some return and mayeba little happiness.

To act as if one fairly minor quote system is really the linchpin in this is to sort of ignore the other 99% of the process.

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Wonder where to start with your web design business?

This blog follows along with my efforts to build and grow a website design business, Pro Content and Design.

The goal of this blog is to fill in blanks that may be empty as you get your business rolling.

This blog, particularly the source code section, is not intended for beginners. If you are not comfortable with databases, Ajax, DOM objects and other advanced methods, I strongly suggest you go take a look over at W3 Schools before even reading -- let alone tinkering with -- any of the code here.

I hope this blog has some value to web designers as they attempt to get their businesses going.

Good luck, and happy reading.

Thank you,
John Crawford
Pro Content and Design