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

code.mendhak.com

281–290 of 585 posts

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

#281

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Much easier to just drink enough so there is no chance of that happening. But then I am in UK where milk is easily obtained in 2 pint or less packages and is all long term - over a week. It is harder to gat 4 int or gallon containers which I think are more common in the US.

In the US, the way milk is sold, is that larger amounts cost less. In other words, the 1/2-gallon container, buy two of those, and it costs significantly more than a single 1-gallon container. It gets even worse for quarts. But I seldom buy in the 1-gallon container as it will generally spoil before I've used it all, so there isn't any savings there for me.

>In other words, the 1/2-gallon container, buy two of those, and it costs significantly more than a single 1-gallon container.

Except sometimes the 1/2 gallons will be randomly on sale where you can get like 3 of them for the price of a gallon. Milk economics makes no sense to me. But yeah, it's usually cheaper to buy more than you need and just throw it out if you don't use it, as is the American way.

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

#282
post #236

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Free Software Foundation closed their office at 51 Franklin St in August 2024 [1]. Their new mailing address is on 31 Milk Street [2]. If this test was reproduced today, we may see different results ;) [1]: https://www.fsf.org/blogs/community/fsf-office-closing-party [2]: https://www.fsf.org/about/contact/mailing

That's recent enough that mail forwarding should work, if they set it up: > Standard mail forwarding lasts 12 months. You can pay to extend mail forwarding for 6, 12, or 18 more months (18 months is the maximum). Edit for source: https://www.usps.com/manage/forward.htm

> > Standard mail forwarding lasts 12 months. You can pay to extend mail forwarding for 6, 12, or 18 more months (18 months is the maximum).

That's kind of awkward when you consider people will find that address for source code where that license file just wont be updated for decades to come, if at all.

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

#283
post #149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You physically go to the bank. The electricity company has their own employees to deliver paper monthly statements to all their customers, they can attach other communications if needed. My bank has a connection to the electricity company, and can look up in realtime what my open balance is, which you can view and pay in the banking app. You can also pay it in cash at various offices (e.g. Western Union) around the c…

Three weeks ago I was part of a comment thread on this very site, where people were wondering why banks still had buildings for people to go in to.

In some countries, it is somewhat of a question "why" though. For example, banks in Sweden stopped carrying cash, and AFAIK (at least when I lived there) you interact with them either online or via the telephone, even cards are sent your home address instead of being picked up the branch and so on.

Contrast to where I live now (Spain) where I can still go to the bank to deposit/withdraw money, so the use case for the branch/building/office is kind of obvious.

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

#284

I'm interested in hearing from someone at FSF (and I used to know someone, but I don't think he's there any more), who can tell us how often this has happened. I can't imagine it's a frequent occurrence.

I love how small of a world this site is: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43784538

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

#285
post #166

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).

Slightly alternate take: this post (and the fact that FSF still replies to paper mail) is about accessibility Which changes as times change. In the 90s, requiring access to the internet and an email address would have been exclusionary and decreased access. Now, 30 years later, it's reversed and physical mail is difficult. But from another perspective... the goal should be to ensure that anyone who wants to do a thin…

A common mistake in accessibility is to assume accessibility is mostly for users who are blind. I've rarely seen the opposite approach, calling something accessible that is very much not accessible to a person who is blind. A url is much more accessible for many people with disabilities than the postal mail.

Even if you mean access instead of accessibility, presumably a person who can find a way to acquire stamps can just as easily make it to a library with public computers.

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

#286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. It was pretty recognizable as trolling--the very good and clever "old school Internet" style of trolling where it sounds plausible and sincere, but then you get done reading it and say, "Oh lawd, he got me! Good one!" The kind of writing that people used to spend a lot…

> I refuse to believe there are adults out there where things like using a pen to write and mailing a letter are alien concepts that need to be learned. Some adults were born in 2007

Younger than Gmail, YouTube, and the iPhone.

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

#287

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I refuse to believe there are adults out there where things like using a pen to write and mailing a letter are alien concepts that need to be learned. Well, believe it. I'm in my 40s and haven't written a letter since I was a kid. Why would I ever have to? Ask someone who was born in 2003 if they've ever written and mailed a letter. 99% are going to say no.

As someone born in 2003, I did this just last week when filing my tax returns.

Most people do it digitally or have an accountant do it, this isn't the norm.

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

#288

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…

> 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 I would try to buy them online from their post office. For the USA, there is https://www.usps.com/business/postage-options.htm : “Print Labels Online with Click-N-Ship With your free USPS.com account, you can pay for postage and print just one label or a batch of shipping labels online” Germany has ( h…

That German app is not available in the App Store in my country (and I presume in any country other than Germany), so I would also be forced to go to eBay for stamps

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

#289
post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being unaware of paper sizes is baffling to me - where I live, letter and legal paper are common but I’m entirely aware of ISO216 paper sizes.

The problem is that the rest of the world is not aware of US sizes. Thus HP printers continually displaying "PC LOAD LETTER" on printers outside the US dealing with documents generated by people in the US.

Could be PC LOAD LEGAL if your document is really weird.

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

#290
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…

Look, there's plenty of things to complain about with regards to the US - especially these days. But getting upset about US citizens not using all the same standards in their daily lives as many other places is just silly. --It's like complaining about the UK and a relatively small number of countries that chose to drive on the left instead of the right. Could they change? Sure. Are they likely to change? Seems prett…

> But getting upset about US citizens not using all the same standards in their daily lives as many other places is just silly

Good thing it wasn't a complaint then, just questions from someone who doesn't know how it works across the pond :) And it seems to be the story of someone outside of North America trying to interact with the North American standards, not some internal confusion between internal states or whatnot.

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