[Cryptography] Anyone else seen some odd shipping delays?

[Jonathan Thornburg]

On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 10:31:43PM -0500, dan at geer.org wrote:
> Never, ever, order a computer delivered to your identity.

So... how does one go about buying something that local retailers
don't carry?  Almost any online purchase wants a credit card
(= tied to your identity) and a shipping address (ditto).

The alternatives which occur to me are
* travel to $big_city and visit a well-stocked retailer
  (still falls down for unusual stuff)
* ask a friend to place the order for you
* ask a local store to special-order for you

Are there better alternatives?

ciao,

-- 
-- "Jonathan Thornburg [remove -animal to reply]" <jthorn at astro.indiana-zebra.edu>
   Dept of Astronomy & IUCSS, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, USA
   "There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched
    at any given moment.  How often, or on what system, the Thought Police
    plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork.  It was even conceivable
    that they watched everybody all the time."  -- George Orwell, "1984"