On 8/7/05, Don Sanderson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Tell Tofu that's a great shot Frank!
I know! That really pisses me off. <vbg> > Did you teach him the "Rule of Thirds" or does > he just have the eye? Are you kidding? We were having a few beers on the roof (as you can see from what the subject's holding), and telling Tofu about the Rule of Thirds seemed much less important than attempting the maintenance of a vertical position (okay, I exaggerate for the purposes of humour - we weren't that hammered <g>) > I really like that CL lens, very sharp with a nice > transition to OOF areas. I like it, too. Thanks > In case you didn't catch my question yesterday, > how do you communicate with the messengers to > dispatch them. > I've never seen bike messengers in action, must > be a pretty cool job. (Most times) Ah, yes, thanks for bringing it to my attention again. I did see it yesterday, was about to answer it, became distracted, and forgot about it. A Short History of Messenger/Dispatcher Communications, by frank theriault: Back in the really old days (before my time), messengers actually had to go back to the depot after every call or run of calls, and the dispatcher would physically hand the messenger slip(s) of paper with the call(s) (ie: the pick-up and drop-off information) written on it (them). There was this big board, and each courier had his number at the top of the board, and a bunch hooks under his number, and the dispatcher would hang these slips of paper (in duplicate) on those hooks. To this day, we say a dispatcher is "on the board", meaning (nowadays) "sitting at his computer, dispatching calls". We also still say that calls that are yet to be picked up by the messenger are "on his hook". As you can imagine, this system wasn't too efficient, as riding back to the depot is a waste of time and energy. Then, messengers got open-channel two way radios. By open channel, I mean that everyone - all messengers with a particular company and the dispatcher - were on the same channel, and we could hear all calls being dispatched, and we could hear each other responding to the dispatcher. This was actually good, because we knew that no one was being "fed" (receiving an unfair number of calls from the dispatcher), as we knew what everyone else was doing. When we received a call from the dispatcher, we had to either write it down on a little pad of paper, or remember it. Since we might have up to 5 or 6 calls yet to pick up, often with several drops between those pickups (efficient dispatching will make you work that way), either you had to have a good memory, or you wrote. Most of these radios were big heavy affairs, made by Motorola, and we called them "bricks". That was the system in place when I started almost 10 years ago. Then, about 5 years ago, we got pagers to supplement the radios, which was good, because we didn't have to write down or remember calls. They were one way pagers, so the dispatcher still had to confirm verbally that we got a call, since sometimes pages didn't come through. Over the past couple of years, almost everyone has gone over to Mikes (brand name, I don't know what they may be called down there). Basically, a heavy duty cell phone, with two way radio capability and two way paging/text messaging. The radios are closed channel, meaning that I can only talk to one person at a time, and no one but that person can hear me. Now, my dispatcher rarely speaks to me. He sends me call(s) by text message, I acknowledge that I've seen them simply by opening that message. I text message when I pick the call up, and I send a message with POD (proof of delivery, ie: signature), and by keeping track of those messages, he knows exactly where I am. It's efficient, much less talking (usually only when we have problems, or when we have no calls on and he wants us to stand still - called "hanging" or "standing by" to cover a certain area). I really like it, but it's not as much fun as the old open-channel bricks - with a good dispatcher with a sense of humour, you could joke around all day and lighten things up a bit. Aren't you glad you axed? <vbg> cheers, frank -- "Sharpness is a bourgeois concept." -Henri Cartier-Bresson
