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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)

#341

Post by dl9999 »

mjevans wrote: post #159
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…

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)?

I send $3 U.S. with QSL (ham radio) cards. It seems like everybody is able to convert that to local currency to cover postage.

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

#342

Post by radnor »

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…

Yes! Check out Postcrossing, where you can sign up to send and receive postcards to random people. :)

https://www.postcrossing.com/

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

#343

Post by layer8 »

singingboyo wrote: post #322
tart-lemonade wrote: post #268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you not send thank you cards for birthday and holiday gifts?

Physical thank you cards are pretty dead. I don't even keep track of mailing addresses for a number of my friends (and a couple siblings, come to think of it) - how would I send them a physical card? Even older relatives - we sent a physical gift a bit ago, but the response/thanks was by text. It just doesn't make sense to send a letter, have it take a week, never know whether it got lost, etc.

In Europe where I live sending birthday letters and the like to relatives is still a standard practice, at least in my social environment.

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

#344

Post by layer8 »

xmprt wrote: post #286
petesergeant wrote: post #209

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. Some adults were born in 2007

Younger than Gmail, YouTube, and the iPhone.

The iPhone is not yet 18.

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

#345

Post by cameronh90 »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #267
cameronh90 wrote: post #190

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The author in the UK so it's pretty much a given that they're exaggerating for comedic effect, but... living in the UK myself, I have only sent maybe about 5 letters in my life, all to the government bureaucracy, and none more recently than a decade ago. And I'm a millennial, albeit on the younger side (so I tell myself). I don't have any pens, paper or a printer in my house, so I'd probably go to my workplace if I n…

We don't have a printer at home (UK), sending parcels is the only time we'd need it but our small local post office prints labels (eg for Amazon returns, or parcel companies). I did print a page at work recently, the second one since I started my job 5 years ago.

Most of the time I have to send parcels now, I use those drop off lockers where you just put it in the right cubbyhole and - I guess - they label it when they pick it up. Otherwise, most couriers will do label on pickup, or the return label is included with the delivery in the first place. Very occasionally there's no other option but to find some way of printing it myself.

I did have a small inkjet printer at one point, but the ink kept drying up, so in the end it was costing me £10 and a trip to Tesco every time I needed to print something. Thought about getting a laser, but it's quite a lot of space to waste on something I use so rarely. I might get one of those little thermal printers that are small enough to keep in a drawer.

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

#346

Post by [deleted] »

rascul wrote: post #75
int_19h wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not an American and I did write letters in my country of origin as a kid, but one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address - you're just expected to line text up on your own correctly. If you're used to writing on lined paper because that's the standard in your country (including envelopes!), it can be frustrating. The envelopes I'm used to look like this: h…

> one thing that annoys me about US-style envelopes to this day is that they have no lines for address I'm an American and I've used envelopes that have lines to write addresses on. I used to see them every now and then. In fact, I have about half a box sitting in my filing cabinet next to me that I probably haven't used for years. Many envelopes don't have the lines, though.

[deleted]

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

#347

Post by sudobash1 »

returningfory2 wrote: post #315
crmi wrote: post #215

> After a few weeks of waiting, I eventually received the ‘African Daisy global forever vert pair’ stamp which was round! I should have noticed that the seller sent me the item using stamps at a much lower denomination that those I had ordered. Oh well. Wild that so many commenters don't see the satire dripping from the post. Is it just a UK thing to never take things at face value?

I don't understand the satire, can you explain? We can't see the full set of "lower denomination" stamps on the letter, but I'm not 100% sure it's actually lower denomination. The sender of the stamps seems to be using the "2 domestic forevers + some amount of cents = 1 global forever" formula. I think the UK sender didn't need to include _two_ global forevers.

> I think the UK sender didn't need to include _two_ global forevers.

It would be hard to know that ahead of time though. The global forever stamp is good for letters up to 1oz which can be as little as 4 US letter pages. It took the FSF 5 double-sided pages. Granted, it looks like lightweight paper & the post office doesn't seem to be very picky about this. But I think sending two forever stamps was being on the safe side.

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

#348

Post by layer8 »

01HNNWZ0MV43FF wrote: post #124
bluGill wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As I implied in my top level comment, it should happen more often than it likely does. If you work on a commercial project with any GPL code ask your test group who has done that and when - if you don't see a lot of hands go up then your test group isn't doing their job. (if you are only automated tests, then I assume you have an automated test to send this letter and verify the response)

For April fools I should set up an API for sending postal mail as a service

I’m pretty sure that’s a common business use case.

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

#349

Post by davisr »

cortesoft wrote: post #319
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.

What sort of request volume did you get? How many per day were you sending out?

On average, zero per day, maybe 5 to 10 per year.

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

#350

Post by returningfory2 »

sudobash1 wrote: post #347
returningfory2 wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand the satire, can you explain? We can't see the full set of "lower denomination" stamps on the letter, but I'm not 100% sure it's actually lower denomination. The sender of the stamps seems to be using the "2 domestic forevers + some amount of cents = 1 global forever" formula. I think the UK sender didn't need to include _two_ global forevers.

> I think the UK sender didn't need to include _two_ global forevers. It would be hard to know that ahead of time though. The global forever stamp is good for letters up to 1oz which can be as little as 4 US letter pages. It took the FSF 5 double-sided pages. Granted, it looks like lightweight paper & the post office doesn't seem to be very picky about this. But I think sending two forever stamps was being on the saf…

Good point!
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