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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)

#291

Post by xmprt »

ethbr1 wrote: post #166
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).

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…

> Postal mail, for all its faults, is universally accessible by design

I think it's important to note that this isn't actually true. For a lot of homeless people or people who move often postal mail isn't as good. Online communication is actually more universal. Most (all?) public libraries have computers now.

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

#292

Post by Suppafly »

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #18

This was written in 2022. Do people still know how to postal-mail things? Asking as the acquisition of envelope, paper and stamps read like a new adventure for the author. I make a practice of sending (picture) postcards to each of my descendants, when i arrive at a new place. It is a very rare occasion when I can find them, even rarer for the vendor to know what they are. Once the vendor was insisting that a flash c…

>Asking as the acquisition of envelope, paper and stamps read like a new adventure for the author.

I can pretty much guarantee it'd be an adventure for my teen, nearly adult, children.

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

#293

Post by MadnessASAP »

davisr wrote: post #273

This is funny because I was the operations assistant (office secretary) at the time we received this letter, and I remember it because of the distinct postage.

How wonderful! Since the game of the day seems to be the technicalities of the minutiae, could you explain the decision to send the GPLv3 vs GPLv2? Is this a request that happens often?

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

#294

Post by Suppafly »

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…

>Like, shouldn't we have more contracts like this?

We have tons of them, they are written by lawyers.

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

#295

Post by SoftTalker »

bongodongobob wrote: post #220
ryandrake wrote: post #201

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. 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.

I just sent in my taxes by USPS mail a couple of weeks ago. Long after online payments were available, I would pay my monthly bills by writing checks and sending them in the mail, as that process actually took me less time than logging in to five or six different websites and navigating through their online payment flows.

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

#297

Post by jenscow »

MadnessASAP wrote: post #293
davisr wrote: post #273

This is funny because I was the operations assistant (office secretary) at the time we received this letter, and I remember it because of the distinct postage.

How wonderful! Since the game of the day seems to be the technicalities of the minutiae, could you explain the decision to send the GPLv3 vs GPLv2? Is this a request that happens often?

The version wasn't specified in the request

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

#298

Post by dheera »

Suppafly wrote: post #261
dheera wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once I had to send an international RMA that they wouldn't pay for the shipping. It went something like this: 0. Went to Fedex to check on the shipping cost for this tiny box. It was $120 so I passed 1. Went to USPS, found that they were closed, the only option was a 30 minute line to use the machine. Lined up for 30 minutes, found that it the goddamn UI on the machine did not support international shipments. 2. Went…

>12. Went to another USPS to drop the package You have a USPS drop box for tiny boxes in front of your house.

> house

I can't afford a house ($2M+ where I live), so I don't have one of those mailboxes. My apartment complex doesn't have a visible USPS pickup anywhere that I know of.

If you meant those inverted U shaped things that look like they are from WW2 (maybe WW1?), I forgot about those, but somehow I never know how frequently they are checked ... there is no indicator about when they were last opened and I wonder whether the mailman might just forget about a couple of them in odd parts of town, which is why I always feel more "secure" dropping it at a USPS.

I was once walking down the street when I saw a presumably-GenZ person who thought they were a trash can and casually dumped trash in it so there's also that concern, if everyone is using them as trash cans now ...

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

#299

Post by regentbowerbird »

bluGill wrote: post #200
ndiddy wrote: post #186

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some companies still do this mainly to make the GPL request process more annoying so fewer people do it. If you have to mail a letter with a check to cover shipping/handling and wait for the company to send you a CD-R with the code on it, fewer people will look at the code compared to if the company just put it on Github or something.

Most of the time the GPL request is a waste of time with no purpose other than annoy a company. You can download linux source code from many places, why do you want to get it from us? There is a slight possibility we have a driver that you could get access to, but without the hardware it won't do you any good. Once in a while we have hacked the source to fix a bug, but if it isn't upstream it is because the fix would…

You only have to serve those requests if you distribute your changes yourself.

So presumably as a hardware company you'd be offering your hardware with your custom linux installed, and then people wanting to audit or hack the product they bought would request the code from you.

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

#300

Post by Someone »

kalleboo wrote: post #288
Someone wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Then I would Google for an alternative, and find https://shop.deutschepost.de/briefversand/briefmarken/briefm...
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