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I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

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Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#151

Post by palata »

mytailorisrich wrote: post #143
alias_neo wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but ordering stamps... on eBay OP was ordering US stamps to include _in_ the letter, on an SAE (self-addressed envelope) they were sending _from_ the UK, so that the FSF could reply (from the US) using said stamps. As a millennial myself, I have no idea where else I'd look for stamps should I want to include them on a SAE I was sending to said country, so that they recipient wouldn't incur the cost of replying to m…

Sure but, on the other hand, this was overly kind of him. In general, unless it is explicitely requested that you must provide a stamped envelope for the reply the assumption of snail mail is that each side pays for its own envelopes and stamps.

And you could also put a dollars bill in the envelope?

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#152

Post by mort96 »

daedrdev wrote: post #82
gwd wrote: post #14

> Writing the address on the envelope was awkward, as I haven’t used a pen in several years; it took a few attempts and some wasted envelopes... Wow -- I mean, sure, I don't use a pen that often, but I'm sure I hand-write something at least once a month...

There will soon be many people who never learn how to write, only type

And many, many more people who never learn how to write or type, only to tap a phone screen!

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#153

Post by johannes1234321 »

gwd wrote: post #14

> Writing the address on the envelope was awkward, as I haven’t used a pen in several years; it took a few attempts and some wasted envelopes... Wow -- I mean, sure, I don't use a pen that often, but I'm sure I hand-write something at least once a month...

I recently was in an awkward situation when ordering my new passport. Most times I got to sign some papers I have some signature which is a few waves, not forming many letters. In the passport office the clerk told me they can't recognize any enough letters in there, so I had to do multiple attempts till they were happy ... now my passport got a signature I won't be able to replicate ever.

(I do some handwriting for notes taking, but that's some writing based on block letters, not script as in a signature)

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#154

Post by Symbiote »

dharmab wrote: post #112
maccard wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've never written a check in my life.

How do you pay for things above a few thousand dollars? I guess if you don't ever buy a pricey car or own a home you wouldn't need it.

Electronic transfer through online banking, or a debit card (may well be followed with a call from the bank to verify, though it's years since I've done this).

Visa's debit card limit on Denmark seems to be 100,000 DKK, roughly 13,000€. There's no limit with the national system, Dankort.

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#155

Post by longlonglonglon »

Symbiote wrote: post #62
rafaelm wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because in our countries (I'm also from S.America) the reliability of the post office is questionable at best, so it wasn't something I ever really used.

In most/all of Europe, letter volumes are reducing but they're still used. Even where email is common, letters are usually possible. In your country, - how do you get a new bank card, when the current one expires? - how are you informed about a change like a price increase for electricity? - how do you pay for electricity? (Knowing how much to pay, when etc) What about an elderly person?

> - how do you get a new bank card, when the current one expires?

The bank sends it through mail but they warn you that if it doesn't arrive within 2 weeks you should go in person to the bank to retrieve it. Depending on where you live there's a 50/50 chance that it never arrives through mail so you just wait 2 weeks and go to the bank.

> - how are you informed about a change like a price increase for electricity?

Email. Or the news channel for elderly people (if the increase is too big). If the increase is small that's a fact of life, everyone just expects it to increase a bit every 2 or 3 months.

> - how do you pay for electricity? (Knowing how much to pay, when etc) What about an elderly person?

Website or bank app. There are physical places that take cash payments and do the online process for you, elderly people generally use those.

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#156

Post by crazygringo »

robin_reala wrote: post #5
diggan wrote: post #4

> The first thing that came to attention, the paper that the text was printed on wasn’t an A4, it was smaller and not a size I was familiar with. I measured it and found that it’s a US letter size paper at about 21.5cm x 27.9cm. I completely forgot that the US, Canada, and a few other countries don’t follow the standard international paper sizes, even though I had written about it earlier. I guess I shouldn't be surp…

It’s US standard. Hence the infamous default PC LOAD LETTER message on HP printers that made zero sense to anyone outside the US: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PC_LOAD_LETTER

That's implying it made sense to people in the US...

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#157

Post by drivingmenuts »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #3

Not sure if it's being exaggerated for comedic purposes but it is interesting to me how alien the act of sending a letter by post is to the author. Granted I don't send them very often but I wouldn't think much of it if I had to. But I guess younger people and particularly those in tech may genuinely never need a reason to send a letter (or, it seems, write an address by hand).

I have a roll of Forever stamps, purchased years ago. I don't even remember why, specifically, I purchased them. In theory, I could post a letter on my deathbed (I'm Generation X, so it's not that far off) and be assured that the delivery fee is covered by the cost of one stamp. Unfortunately, most of the people I would wish to correspond with will also be deceased at that time. So …

I leave it to y'all to monkey-knife-fight for the rest of the roll.

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#158

Post by rwmj »

NoboruWataya wrote: post #3

Not sure if it's being exaggerated for comedic purposes but it is interesting to me how alien the act of sending a letter by post is to the author. Granted I don't send them very often but I wouldn't think much of it if I had to. But I guess younger people and particularly those in tech may genuinely never need a reason to send a letter (or, it seems, write an address by hand).

Disappointed that International Reply Coupons are no longer a thing too! I used one back in the 1980s to write to the authors of the Power C compiler[1] in the US about a bug (yes, a bug report by mail). I enclosed an IRC in case they wanted to reply. They were kind enough to write back, and didn't use the IRC (but sent it back). They did however include a floppy disk with the fixed compiler, which was nice of them.

[1] Still around: http://mixsoftware.com/product/powerc.htm

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#159

Post by mjevans »

alias_neo wrote: post #133
palata wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I am a millennial, so most likely older than the author. Not having envelopes at the ready is one thing, but ordering stamps... on eBay??? And then wasting a few envelopes because writing down the address is unusual? That kind of blew my mind. I am a software engineer, and I always have a paper notebook and a pen next to my keyboard to write down stuff. I guess this all tells me I'm getting old :-).

> but ordering stamps... on eBay OP was ordering US stamps to include _in_ the letter, on an SAE (self-addressed envelope) they were sending _from_ the UK, so that the FSF could reply (from the US) using said stamps. As a millennial myself, I have no idea where else I'd look for stamps should I want to include them on a SAE I was sending to said country, so that they recipient wouldn't incur the cost of replying to m…

Offhand, I don't think I've ever mailed an International letter or package.

Is return postage something that, normally, my local post office would help me with? E.G. do they have some method of marking or adding post to a package that would be accepted globally (or at least within the destination country)?

Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)

#160

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

VikingCoder wrote: post #134

I think these licenses are incredibly useful. I have a really, really dumb question. Why don't we have more licenses and contracts like this? Do we just need to set up a foundation that drafts them and makes them freely available to use? Like, for instance, "Hi, Mark - we'd like to offer you a job here at our daycare, but first we need you to look over this contract and sign it." This contract says, roughly, that if…

If I follow correctly, then yes I agree that having more widely used standard licenses/contracts would be nice. One of my crazy legal fantasies is that all EULAs have to go through a central government authority that pushes back on new ones, because one of the things I love about FOSS is that there's only a handful of common licenses, so you can reasonably read them once and then just see them and know what you're getting. I don't need to re-read the GPL every time I use a new piece of software using it, because I already know what it says.

To a specific point, though,

> Guess what? Churches should follow a similar license. Letting priests or pastors move from town to town, abusing kids? That was completely bonkers insane. And I feel like a contract like this (and a registry, and etc.) could have helped. If people forced their daycares and churches to accept a license like this.

Er, yes, that does sound bonkers; where are you that every school, church, and daycare isn't already doing a background check on every single person working there?

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