How Shipping Containers Changed the World

Nice article. The other end of this equation are ubiquitous shipping pallets:

http://www.slate.com/articles/business/transport/2012/08/pal...

Optimizing what to put on a pallet and in what order to maximize use of space is also a nice intellectual challenge for anyone wanting one. In real-world scenarios (esp Walmart-style retail), you have to factor in boxes of varying sizes at varying distances from where they must be loaded. Travel distance, fork-lift or walking, counts too. Then, it has to be fast enough and easy to follow to be used in a fast-paced, production environment.

Just remember to release it under Apache or GPL if you build a good one. You might benefit the economy in many ways. ;)

99% Invisible's episode on refrigerated containers is relevant: http://99percentinvisible.org/episode/reefer-madness/

Read "The Box" for more history and details - http://www.amazon.com/The-Box-Shipping-Container-Smaller/dp/...

I think this story has been on HN before, but I can't find it.

The Wire (season 2) gives an excellent insight into how docks are run (Baltimore). There's even a scene where some Dutch company wants to bring Rotterdam's automation to Baltimore.

I like things like this standardization I find it interesting almost insect-like how uniformity and simplifying tasks improves efficiency.

I'm surprised cranes and ships aren't fully automated yet.