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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)

#421

Post by Scoundreller »

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’m surprised this stamp seller didn’t cover half the envelope in 5 cent stamps.

That’s what I usually get on the envelopes from stamp sellers: decades old stamps from the “bad investment” portions from stamp collectors.

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

#422

Post by Scoundreller »

crmi wrote: post #417
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 quoting that part alone, didn't make it clear I was referring to the whole article. >...... "Oh Well." May have been more apt. Is eBay really anyones first thought when looking for a (non-collector) stamp to (actually) mail? Perhaps he should have picked up a few £1 coins on eBay, use them to purchase some stamps from the post office?...

They needed US stamps.

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

#423

Post by ayewo »

ajb wrote: post #406
__turbobrew__ wrote: post #389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We need DNS, but for mail addresses.

One thing I've been meaning to try, but never got round to, is to stick a URL on an envelope, pointing at a page with an address, and see if the mail (royal mail, in my case) actually deliver it. I suspect they would but that it would take a few extra days. It's no worse than some of the addresses that they do deliver.

What about encoding the address as a QR code?

This should not require any Internet access to view by whoever is scanning it to be sorted for delivery.

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

#424

Post by avodonosov »

I once was reading a software license, and deep inside it there was a promise: who has read till this place will get a certain prise. I emailed them, they kind of confirmed that I am eligible for the prise. But it was a far away city, so I never went to claim it.

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

#425

Post by sokoloff »

tshaddox wrote: post #402
Misdicorl wrote: post #192

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> the goal should be to ensure that anyone who wants to do a thing can, with as few third party requirements as possible. This is a good starting point, but if you have no barriers then you get abuse problems which is why email is terrible. I remember being horrified in the 90s about attempts to charge 1 cent per email. Now I long for a world where that actually happened.

Ironically, the amount of effort I expend dealing with spam from the postal service is much larger than the amount of effort I expend dealing with email.

I’m pretty sure I spend less than 5 minutes a week dealing with physical spam mail. I have a recycling bin right next to where the mail arrives and most days are 15 seconds of “these go into that bin unopened” and sometimes I have to open an envelope and glance at it to see if it’s something relevant to me.

Even with the best spam filtering on email, I’m well over 5 minutes a week of distraction from it.

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

#426

Post by dheera »

krisoft wrote: post #408
dheera wrote: post #379

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, part of the problem is I didn't own a pen at the time. I have multiple computers and phones, I thought that was the interface to the post-2000 world. I do have paint, but that's a little clumsy. I grudgingly own a box of BIC pens now, but ... It's like requiring people to own a horse to do something these days. And in past experience during school days, those goddamn BIC pens all go bad (ink dries up or somet…

Oh, i absolutely get you! Was not intending to pen-shame you in any way. Just used it to illustrate that the postal process worked (eventually, and with a lot of inconvenience) even though you were not best prepared for it. But i have been exactly where you are. We were having a book club and trying to vote on the next book to read, and turns out none of us out of twenty literature loving people had a single pen on u…

Yes! I've never had an issue -- in the US at least, signatures on receipts generally don't matter. Cat sketches are usually fine.

The only place I've had it mattered is when signing bank documents in Asia.

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

#427

Post by crmi »

Scoundreller wrote: post #422
crmi wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think quoting that part alone, didn't make it clear I was referring to the whole article. >...... "Oh Well." May have been more apt. Is eBay really anyones first thought when looking for a (non-collector) stamp to (actually) mail? Perhaps he should have picked up a few £1 coins on eBay, use them to purchase some stamps from the post office?...

They needed US stamps.

I didn't see any request for a return envelope or stamp. Author decided to include them (unless I missed something).

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

#428

Post by globular-toast »

seabass-labrax wrote: post #393
globular-toast wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the UK at school in the 90s we were taught how to write a letter including addressing and stamping the envelope. It's quite strange to see it done "wrong" like in the OP. You're supposed to have the first line of the address centred vertically, leaving the top half for stamps. At least they got the stamps on the correct (right) side, though. I've seen a lot worse.

I wouldn't say it's that different from how the Royal Mail currently recommend one write the address: https://help.royalmail.com/personal/s/article/How-to-address... My father writes the address staggered; that is, each subsequent line being indented a centimetre or so relative to the previous line. Were you taught to stagger the address at your school in the 90s?

Yes, I was taught to do it staggered, but I think this was dying out at the time and I believe that by the time I wrote any letters of my own I didn't do the staggering. My theory is it's because of the prevalence of printed labels. I haven't seen it for a long time now.

Now that I'm reminiscing a bit, it was also fairly common at the time for people to order a batch of sender labels that they could affix to the envelope. My grandparents had particularly distinctive golden metallic labels which meant you could instantly tell who it was from (if you didn't already recognise the handwriting).

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

#429

Post by sokoloff »

dheera wrote: post #379
krisoft wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean it is the fallback method. The solution for the "I never heard of this internet thing, or something else is preventing me from finding the licence online" problem. Almost everyone will just use their search engine to find this page: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.en.html What can you do to serve the licence to those who can't or won't do that (for whatever reason)? I think it is hard to find…

I mean, part of the problem is I didn't own a pen at the time. I have multiple computers and phones, I thought that was the interface to the post-2000 world. I do have paint, but that's a little clumsy. I grudgingly own a box of BIC pens now, but ... It's like requiring people to own a horse to do something these days. And in past experience during school days, those goddamn BIC pens all go bad (ink dries up or somet…

Your life sounds positively exhausting.

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

#430

Post by giancarlostoro »

1oooqooq wrote: post #415
giancarlostoro wrote: post #282

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> > 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.

since this is hacker news... i once had some trouble changing mail address from one supplier (they would send the materials to the new address, but insisted on sending billing/tax info to the old one) so i did the mail forward process some three times + their extensions (i recall it was 6 + 3mo or so)... it got me close to 3 yrs of reliable mail forward from the great folks at usps until i could get thru the supplier…

> the only issue "redoing" the request is that people at the old address can block it, so be sure to talk to them first.

That's so strange, especially when you consider that for legal purposes, if you receive mail at someone's home, you are now a "resident" and it is harder for police to kick you out. Why would anyone willingly want your mail to come to your address.

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