3 ms·

My question, does Uganda not have used laptops available for sale? At the point where you're about to spend $200 on shipping, why not consider just doing a mone

by wildzzz 5mo ago

My question, does Uganda not have used laptops available for sale? At the point where you're about to spend $200 on shipping, why not consider just doing a money order so the guy can find one locally. Shipping things overseas is such a convoluted process. My wife wanted to send a company Christmas gift bundle (literally just company merch and some candy) to two Filipino employees. One of the workers says that only DHL reliability delivers to her so I help my wife with getting a shipping label. Holy shit, I'm just sending a tshirt, mug, and some pens. Why do I need to list out the contents and their international categories like I'm trying to send a shipping container full of rifles? Also addresses for people living in villages in PI are weird, the address was relative to the town hall. Luckily the other person lived in a gated community with a more familiar address formatting. Finally I figure everything out and she buys the label and pays the tariffs (more expensive than the gifts but it's too late now). Luckily there's a DHL near my work so I go to drop off the two very carefully wrapped packages. Of course she wraps both like an actual gift with cute tissue paper and of course the DHL agent has to open it and inspect it, ruining the care my wife put into the wrapping. Overall the experience was mind boggling bureaucratic. Sending via USPS would likely have been a bit easier but the warning of unreliable local mail was concerning. The next year, she just had the CEO send them an extra bonus instead.

lexandstuff 5mo ago
~$200 doesn't go as far as you'd expect for good used laptop, even in Uganda. We did look into our options. However, there's definitely a sunk cost aspect to the operation. After the first failure to send it through Australia Post, I became determined that Django was going to have that MacBook.
- oefrha 5mo ago
  Wait, how the hell can Australia Post charge you the full AUD 111.60 for a failed shipment when it seems to be the fault of the clerk who approved the shipment against their own rules? And sounds like the package didn’t even leave Australia so even if you should pay for the full mileage it would be 20% at most?
  - IshKebab 5mo ago
    Seems like it's the fault of the author for blindly trusting AI...
    - oefrha 5mo ago
      Not really, it this is too be believed > At the post office, a friendly staff member confirmed it could be sent, helped me package it up securely It's actually at least half a case of not blindly trusting AI, and pressing until a positive answer is given: > I asked ChatGPT how to send the laptop, and it gave me a spiel about finding a reliable freight service or courier. > (Later) I should have listened to ChatGPT.
    - Aachen 5mo ago
      I couldn't tell if the screenshot was from an LLM or the post office's website. It sure looks like what a post office would say so I'm inclined to think that's not autogenerated. A total ban on anything containing lithium batteries, as the company claimed when returning the shipment, seems wrong as well. We receive laptops from customers for doing pentests all the time, for example. Australians could never order a phone or earbuds that didn't already make it into Australia via another shipping company. Etc. Why'd they forego all that custom? How many electronics nowadays don't have such a battery? This doesn't sound to me like it was only GPT spewing nonsense But yeah I had the same question: OP said that ChatGPT initially produced words that turned out to be sensible, but not where that later screenshot came from
  - sofixa 5mo ago
    Nah, it's the fault of the sender, all the ruled for what you can send are listed and it's up to you to check and respect them.
madradavid 5mo ago
I am Ugandan, that $200 could have gone a long way buying used locally , case in point https://jiji.ug/central-division/computers-and-laptops/laptop-apple-macbook-pro-2011-8gb-intel-core-i7-hdd-320gb-AXKJnI7LjkDzZBNUyhgyzGYU.html https://jiji.ug/central-division/computers-and-laptops/lapto... , a used Macbook pro with some change to spare.
- eisa01 5mo ago
  Very interesting, thanks for sharing! Is that representative of the pricing? 550 000 USh is the equivalent of 145 USD, which is a lot for a 2011 13" MBP with a HD drive! That will be quite slow... 1.5 years ago I sold a 13" 2012 MBP with 500 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM on the used market here in Norway, and I couldn't fetch more than 90 USD... Half the value in the SSD itself? And a 13" 2015 MBP with 256 GB and 16 GB RAM and new battery(!) I only managed to get 200 USD for, even though I'd tried for months for higher prices So it seems like there's some market inefficiency here :/
- wildzzz 5mo ago
  Right, I figured there had to be at least something reliable in the $200AUD. That's about $140USD which won't get you a lot of laptop for that price here in the US but you'll definitely be able to find old MacBooks and Thinkpads that are plenty capable of web browsing, watching HD videos, and completing assignments for an undergrad in Computer Science. In college, that's exactly what I did. I'd buy $100-200USD Thinkpad X-series that were about 5 years old, use them until I couldn't, and then buy another. I'd just swap the SSD to the new Thinkpad and sell the old one, that at least paid for a fresh battery for the new one.
throw12353 5mo ago
Christians colonized Africa and destroyed their cultures and tribes for not converting and now you send them a Christmas gift to them. Hope Africans see these Europeans true colors
- nephihaha 5mo ago
  Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea were Christian before most of Europe was. The entire Maghreb was once majority Christian.

by wildzzz 5mo ago

lexandstuff 5mo ago

~$200 doesn't go as far as you'd expect for good used laptop, even in Uganda. We did look into our options. However, there's definitely a sunk cost aspect to the operation. After the first failure to send it through Australia Post, I became determined that Django was going to have that MacBook.

oefrha 5mo ago
Wait, how the hell can Australia Post charge you the full AUD 111.60 for a failed shipment when it seems to be the fault of the clerk who approved the shipment against their own rules? And sounds like the package didn’t even leave Australia so even if you should pay for the full mileage it would be 20% at most?
- IshKebab 5mo ago
  Seems like it's the fault of the author for blindly trusting AI...
  - oefrha 5mo ago
    Not really, it this is too be believed > At the post office, a friendly staff member confirmed it could be sent, helped me package it up securely It's actually at least half a case of not blindly trusting AI, and pressing until a positive answer is given: > I asked ChatGPT how to send the laptop, and it gave me a spiel about finding a reliable freight service or courier. > (Later) I should have listened to ChatGPT.
  - Aachen 5mo ago
    I couldn't tell if the screenshot was from an LLM or the post office's website. It sure looks like what a post office would say so I'm inclined to think that's not autogenerated. A total ban on anything containing lithium batteries, as the company claimed when returning the shipment, seems wrong as well. We receive laptops from customers for doing pentests all the time, for example. Australians could never order a phone or earbuds that didn't already make it into Australia via another shipping company. Etc. Why'd they forego all that custom? How many electronics nowadays don't have such a battery? This doesn't sound to me like it was only GPT spewing nonsense But yeah I had the same question: OP said that ChatGPT initially produced words that turned out to be sensible, but not where that later screenshot came from
- sofixa 5mo ago
  Nah, it's the fault of the sender, all the ruled for what you can send are listed and it's up to you to check and respect them.

madradavid 5mo ago

I am Ugandan, that $200 could have gone a long way buying used locally , case in point https://jiji.ug/central-division/computers-and-laptops/laptop-apple-macbook-pro-2011-8gb-intel-core-i7-hdd-320gb-AXKJnI7LjkDzZBNUyhgyzGYU.html https://jiji.ug/central-division/computers-and-laptops/lapto... , a used Macbook pro with some change to spare.

eisa01 5mo ago
Very interesting, thanks for sharing! Is that representative of the pricing? 550 000 USh is the equivalent of 145 USD, which is a lot for a 2011 13" MBP with a HD drive! That will be quite slow... 1.5 years ago I sold a 13" 2012 MBP with 500 GB SSD and 8 GB RAM on the used market here in Norway, and I couldn't fetch more than 90 USD... Half the value in the SSD itself? And a 13" 2015 MBP with 256 GB and 16 GB RAM and new battery(!) I only managed to get 200 USD for, even though I'd tried for months for higher prices So it seems like there's some market inefficiency here :/
wildzzz 5mo ago
Right, I figured there had to be at least something reliable in the $200AUD. That's about $140USD which won't get you a lot of laptop for that price here in the US but you'll definitely be able to find old MacBooks and Thinkpads that are plenty capable of web browsing, watching HD videos, and completing assignments for an undergrad in Computer Science. In college, that's exactly what I did. I'd buy $100-200USD Thinkpad X-series that were about 5 years old, use them until I couldn't, and then buy another. I'd just swap the SSD to the new Thinkpad and sell the old one, that at least paid for a fresh battery for the new one.

throw12353 5mo ago

Christians colonized Africa and destroyed their cultures and tribes for not converting and now you send them a Christmas gift to them. Hope Africans see these Europeans true colors

nephihaha 5mo ago
Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea were Christian before most of Europe was. The entire Maghreb was once majority Christian.