Earlier quoted context omitted.
Debian also has a packaging lint rule telling people to update the FSF postal address. So much energy must be wasted in this. :-)
What’s the alternative?
Leave it alone, since it has no real effects?
I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
561–570 of 585 posts
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#562Earlier quoted context omitted.
What’s the alternative?
Leave it alone, since it has no real effects?
I think keeping the address up to date makes sense. At the same time the FSF should have gotten a PO BOX in 1985.
When I worked at Creative Commons we closed the office down there too and I got a PO BOX in Mountain View where the office was at the time and that seemed to work out okay.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#563This 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.
I met a web developer working for the FSF at a Boston pub one night while in town for a Red Hat conference. After many drinks, he walked us down fifth street to the FSF office building. I wasn’t sure what to expect but when we got there, he typed in some numbers on the door entry system, and what came out was RMS singing the free software song lol. It was a wonderful treat for a young Linux nerd on a hazy adventure i…
I love that your story could be read in two different ways: (1) a recording of RMS appeared on the door entry system screen, or (2) the man himself waltzed out of that door and started singing.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#564Earlier quoted context omitted.
I offer GPL source via physical address because I don't want to distribute it with the software and I think the GPL said you have to do it that way. I also provide an email address for convenience but without it being the official way so I don't really have to respond to those. In 10 years, I've had zero requests either way.
Why do you distribute under GPL if you don’t want to distribute the source?
Maybe because they have to. If you are reusing GPL code, you don't really have a choice.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#565I 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…
A lot of your use cases are already met by professional certifications and licenses. For example to run or work at a daycare in my state you have to have a license and part of the licensure process is a background check. That’s a much better system already because there’s already a state agency in charge of managing and revoking the license and as edge cases arise they don’t require re-negotiation.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#566Earlier quoted context omitted.
I sympathize strongly with the author. I write with a pen so infrequently ( years between handwriting) that I often have handwriting errors that displease me. So I usually do some practice writing on scratch paper before attempting the final version. Notice he said "printing the address would have taken less time". That doesn't sound like the issue was formatting or knowledge. It reads to me as the physical skill of…
How is that possible? I write things literally every day. Everyone I know does so. How do you go a literal year without picking up a pen?
At various points, I've gone years at a stretch without using a pen -- except maybe to scribble my signature on a paycheck or something. I just never encountered anything that required using one during those times.
It's not very far-fetched -- especially for regions where paper checks became outdated long ago, like my European friends have told me has been the case there since the Earth cooled.
So how, specifically?
These days, I get paid electronically. I pay my bills online. I bought some Forever stamps and mailing envelopes once about 5 years ago, but I haven't had any reason yet to use any of them. If I have to send out a package, I'm using a service like PirateShip and printing a self-adhesive label to keep it consistent with other packages. My work is usually done with a computer -- and when it is more hands-on, then it's usually work that doesn't imply writing anything at all.
When I want to take a quick note, I use my pocket supercomputer. For longer notes and correspondence, I use a real computer. If I need to draw a diagram to share with others, I'll probably be sharing it with them electronically so I produce that diagram electronically from the start.
I did use a pen the other day to draw a napkin sketch of a wiring diagram for some changes I want to make in my garage. AFAIK, I only have 1 working pen at home. I knew exactly where to find it; it was sitting in the last place I used it, about 3 months ago.
But now I'm inclined to reproduce that diagram electronically so I can easily move elements around and label it all clearly (so I can formulate a complete plan and spend more of my time doing the work instead of thinking about it once I get up on a ladder in the dark), so drawing it on paper may have been just a duplication of effort.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#567Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here in the US we just print posters at whatever size we want. We don’t have to rely on someone to have standardized the sizes of posters. Large–format printers often go up to eight feet wide, so you can print something as big as a wall if you want (and as long as you like, because they print on a _roll_ of paper instead of a sheet). Computers have made elegant ratios irrelevant. But if you really think it’s importan…
> But if you really think it’s important, then you can consider a series of sizes like tabloid, letter, and memo to be equivalent to A3, A4, and A5. This seems like you entirely missed the thread? The whole point is that this actually works for the A-series and in your made up US series it can't work because the ratio is wrong.
These are not made up sizes. They are standard paper sizes available in any store. Most ordinary househole printers won’t actually print on tabloid, and some won’t print on memo, but all copiers (and multifunction scanner/printers) can copy two letter pages and print them side by side, scaled down to memo size, on a single sheet letter of paper. It’s just a button you press, or maybe a checkbox you check, or whatever. It’s not magic.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#568Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm really surprised that it's more than 1 ever.
At scale, there are a lot of confused people who do unexpected stuff. The maintainer of cURL has people contact him when a notice shows up in car software or when they think he is connected to hacking: https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2018/02/16/why-is-your-email-in-... https://daniel.haxx.se/blog/2021/02/19/i-will-slaughter-you/
At FSF, someone would call every month thinking they had been "hacked" and that FSF was responsible because they found "evidence left behind" (the GPL).
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#569Not 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).
Man. I am generation-X, from a time when teachers would take the kids to a local post office and teach them how to send a letter and a telegram.
And yet, while I have a vague idea of how could I send a letter nowadays, I would have absolutely no idea of how to send postage for the international return.
Re: I wrote to the address in the GPLv2 license notice (2022)
#570Earlier quoted context omitted.
I find it hard to believe that waiting two hours is normal for customers of the USPS. You can order stamps online, they have (collection) postboxes and even offer a pick-up service for parcels. At $0.73 to send a letter anywhere in the USA, that sounds like a pretty impressive offering to me.
It's lining up multiple times. When I walk in with a box, I don't know how the hell to mail it, what to fill out, what the pricing vs. delivery ETA grid is so I can decide where I want to position myself on that curve, the different forms you need to fill to be on different parts of that curve. I usually end up screwing it up a few times in the process too. I didn't realize that the free boxes they give you are only…
I find your experience at the post office weirdly fascinating. Yeah, I am a strange guy.