• (disco) in reply to xaade
    xaade:
    shouldn't the first digit of your STE say which building.

    Doesn't always work that way--the apartment complex across the street from me--and I've seen others--uses letters for the buildings instead of numbers.

  • (disco)

    Been there, done that.

    Even when managements approved the changes, you can still get low score in performance appraisal because while you're busy tweaking the fundamental structures, the changes are invisible to them. Chances are you'll get fired for underperforming before any good can be seen.

    I'll not say that it's a bad thing though. It's always better to leave companies that can't realize your value fast to find a company that can realize. Working for companies that can't properly recognize their mess-up is causing your hard work is a waste of time.

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat

    "Santa Claus"?

    In France, there is (was) a postal service that would collate all the letter sent to Santa, and when possible, reply to the kids.

    I believe some of the letters are sent with no address at all beside the name (I assume you did not count the name in the lines of the address).

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    Ooh, packed BCD could cut that down to 5 bytes, anyway, or 3 if you skip the +4 in "zip+4".

    Yes, I've seen that, too. But these days, most people wouldn't think of that.

    I also saw another goody once upon a time: 5-digit zip code stored in a 16-bit unsigned integer (0-65535). Because, you know, it's not like we'd need to store an address for Colorado or Wyoming or California or any of those weird places. (As I recollect, that particular package was written in New York.)

    I probably shouldn't have brought this up, because I really shouldn't give people ideas.

  • (disco)

    Zip codes:

    They are 5 digits as a base, and then you have the +4 type which gets it down to a street. If you bar code the thing, you add another two digits which are the last two digits of the house number.

    If you encode it it will get to you. Of course the local letter carrier who still sorts out your mail visually will want the actual street address just to confirm things.

    Of course those data entry people could get the table of zip code to city/state so you don't need to enter the city and state, only the zip code, and it would fill in the rest. If you go to 'usps.com' you can enter an address and get all the zip information you need.

    No, don't use integers to save these things PLEASE.

    Of course one shouldn't use floating point numbers for money either. I learned that lesson in the 70's.

    Of course

  • (disco) in reply to herby
    herby:
    No, don't use integers to save these things PLEASE.

    You prefer a float? :wtf: OK then, suit yourself…

  • (disco) in reply to Olivier_Nicole
    Olivier_Nicole:
    In France, there is

    Still works in Belgium. My daughter gets a reply and something small from the Belgian postal services every year. It's for Saint-Nicolas not Santa but the idea is the same.

  • (disco) in reply to Olivier_Nicole

    Yeah, when I wrote that yesterday I though of name as part of the address (shipping label) but it probably shouldn't be considered as such.

    As another example of that I heard once that the Dutch postal service would throw away letters addressed to God, even if there is a valid return address.

  • (disco) in reply to herby
    herby:
    Of course those data entry people could get the table of zip code to city/state so you don't need to enter the city and state, only the zip code, and it would fill in the rest. If you go to 'usps.com' you can enter an address and get all the zip information you need.

    You see that at times here as well - street/city are readonly fields, and when entering the postal code those are populated automatically.

  • (disco) in reply to Luhmann

    Oh. God of you to censor that word.

    We do not want a inter-stellar war on our hands now do we... :-)

  • (disco) in reply to Yazeran

    It's a feature. You are not allowed to say Belgium or belgium or ■■■

  • (disco) in reply to Luhmann
    Luhmann:
    You are not allowed to say ■■■■■■■ or ■■■■■■■ or ■■■

    Oh, you sneaky person! You're allowed to say “■■■” as much as you want. You just did it, for example…

  • (disco) in reply to Luhmann
    Luhmann:
    It's for Saint-Nicolas not Santa but the idea is the same.

    In my country there's this: http://auspost.com.au/postcode/9999

    Not sure why it is NSW when 9xxx postcodes are supposed to be bulk users/PO boxes in Queensland, but anyway.

  • (disco) in reply to herby
    herby:
    They are 5 digits as a base, and then you have the +4 type which gets it down to a street. If you bar code the thing, you add another two digits which are the last two digits of the house number.

    Strictly speaking, that's not quite correct: usually the +4 is a mail delivery route, which means it might be "the even-numbered side of a street" or "part of 3 streets". In a city, it might map to a single large building, etc.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    You prefer a float?

    Sucks to not have a decimal data type.

  • (disco) in reply to CoyneTheDup

    Whenever you say "no one ever...." the world always manages to create an exception.

    In the historic city of York in the UK, there is a oddly named street called Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate and it does indeed have a door with the address of 1 1/2 Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip-Ma-Whop-Ma-Gate

  • (disco) in reply to Luhmann
    Luhmann:
    Still works in ■■■■■■■. My daughter gets a reply and something small from the Belgian postal services every year. It's for Saint-Nicolas not Santa but the idea is the same.
    Belgium has a postal code especially reserved for Saint Nicolas: 0612. 6th of December happens to be his birthday (well, possibly).
  • (disco) in reply to dkf

    It censors your password too, see?

    hunter2

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    In a city, it might map to a single large building, etc.

    As noted above, it often maps to part of a single building.

  • (disco) in reply to nerd4sale
    nerd4sale:
    Belgium has a postal code especially reserved for Saint Nicolas: 0612.

    https://www.google.nl/maps/@51.1494826,4.1790029,12.75z

  • (disco) in reply to darwin70
    darwin70:
    Whenever you say "no one ever...." the world always manages to create an exception.

    In the historic city of York in the UK, there is a oddly named street called Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate and it does indeed have a door with the address of 1 1/2 Whip-ma-whop-ma-gate.

    I know it was possible; the statement was sarcastic about people who make assumptions.

    I spent 40 minutes one time looking for "3927½ S. 52nd Street" only to find it was behind 3917; a little 2-room apartment.

    People make a lot of bad assumptions when designing software.

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat

    You would think so, but no. The city of St. Niklaas has code 9100.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    FrostCat:
    In a city, it might map to a single large building, etc.

    As noted above, it often maps to part of a single building.

    And then there's LL Bean.

    The bulk of the business is mail-order, from the catalogues that Bean's sends out in seasonal waves that can reach flood level in any household with more than one member on the mailing list. Suffice to say that, although it ships mostly by U.P.S., Bean's has its own Zip code (04033).

    That article was from 1982.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    As noted above, it often maps to part of a single building.

    Yeah, I didn't feel like mentioning that again, since I'd previously mentioned the "can map to a single dorm room" anecdote already.

  • (disco) in reply to CoyneTheDup
    CoyneTheDup:
    I spent 40 minutes one time looking for "3927½ S. 52nd Street" only to find it was behind 3917; a little 2-room apartment.

    When I was a kid I knew someone who was in the same situation except the number was only 29 1/2 or whatever--but it was, just like in your case, a little apartment behind a house.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat

    What about 221B Baker Street, London?

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    What about 221B Baker Street, London?

    What about it? I'm not the one that said street numbers are numeric.

    I don't know why you'd even bother breaking the number out in the first place: "221B Baker Street", "235 N 17th Street" and "39 1/2 Wombat Lane" all look like "Address Line 1" to me, although, I should note for the pendants that's not the only form I think "Address Line 1" should take.

  • (disco) in reply to CoyneTheDup

    CoyneTheDup - I got the sarcasm, it was a good post. I was supporting your position that whenever anyone designs by making assumptions that have "when is that ever going to happen" as their basis, bad things usually follow. If not immediately then in a few month's time.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    "39 1/2 Wombat Lane"
    Now I have the urge to become a town planner just so that I could make a street called "Wombat Lane" with a house number 39 1/2, and a street called "1/2 Wombat Lane" with a house number 39.

    Oh, I see the evil ideas thread is :arrows:...

  • (disco) in reply to Scarlet_Manuka
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    I have the urge to become a town planner

    Don't. There's fuck all profit in it. Become a property developer instead…

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    "221B Baker Street"

    That's not too bad. I used to live at 192A, distinct from 192 and 192B - all standalone houses. From memory that same street had another number that went to L. As in a block of land had a single number available that was later split into 12 houses. Using letters is probably better than fractions, unless of course one of the blocks need to be further subdivided. Oh and 1A and 2A could be either side of 1 or 2 respectively, while 4A would virtually always be between 4 and 6. When it isn't a duplex of 4A and 4B. And sometimes there's an 11A instead of a 13. Sometimes.

    There is an American here confused by our standard 3/55 Fake St which means apartment 3 in the street number 55. I think you guys might write that like "55 Fake St Appt 3" or something?

    Finally the standard for rural numbering is simply the number of 10s of metres from the main crossroads, respecting odds and evens, to the driveway or letterbox. It is a fair assumption that farms would have more than 20m of road frontage. Handy to know how far to drive!

  • (disco) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    I think you guys might write that like "55 Fake St Apt 3" or something?

    Yes. But also, we tend to name our apartments with letters or give them whole street addresses, rarely ever a sub-number. So "55C Fake Street" and "55 Fake St apt C" are more or less interchangeable, it'll get to your box.

  • (disco) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    What about 221B Baker Street, London?

    You mean the postal address between 237 and 241 Baker Street, London?

  • (disco) in reply to Yamikuronue
    Yamikuronue:
    But also, we tend to name our apartments with letters or give them whole street addresses, rarely ever a sub-number. So "55C Fake Street" and "55 Fake St apt C" are more or less interchangeable, it'll get to your box.

    Bigger buildings will have numbers. Usually with the floor as the first digit[s].

  • (disco) in reply to Zemm

    I sense a whoosh

  • (disco) in reply to Scarlet_Manuka
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    Now I have the urge to become a town planner just so that I could make a street called "Wombat Lane" with a house number 39 1/2, and a street called "1/2 Wombat Lane" with a house number 39.

    That made me LLOL. In my company's applications, though, it wouldn't matter--we do what I mentioned above, and treat the street number and name as a single thing, "address1" or whatever.

  • (disco) in reply to Yamikuronue
    Yamikuronue:
    rarely ever a sub-number.

    That may be true in Cleveland, but not in most places I've lived. :) In particular, in Dallas, Tampa, and both sides of MA, I've lived in, or known people who lived in, places with numbered apartments. Oh, Fort Lauderdale, too. I break 'em out because culturally they're two different metropoli. (In Fort Lauderdale, they "cleverly" numbered the apartments and buildings where I lived. You might be in building 19, apartment 311; your street address would be something like 19311 NW 83rd Srt. (Most streets were numbered like that, but the county was roughly split, for street names, into quadrants: there was never an "83rd" street, only NW, NE, SE, and/or SW versions. That's another nice way to make sure to remove ambiguity, but it probably works less well when the streets aren't laid out on a grid.

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    in Dallas, Tampa, and both sides of MA, I've lived in

    Huh, I was drawing from a representative sample of the Bay Area, Greensboro, and Cleveland. So I guess it's more mixed than I thought :)

  • (disco) in reply to PleegWat

    Yes, those would be called “locations that do not get mail delivered to them.”

  • (disco) in reply to FrostCat
    FrostCat:
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    Now I have the urge to become a town planner just so that I could make a street called "Wombat Lane" with a house number 39 1/2, and a street called "1/2 Wombat Lane" with a house number 39.

    That made me LLOL. In my company's applications, though, it wouldn't matter--we do what I mentioned above, and treat the street number and name as a single thing, "address1" or whatever.

    I wasn't thinking of it being so much a problem for you, as for the person trying to deliver the mail. (And, I suppose, the people wishing to receive mail at those addresses.)

  • (disco) in reply to Scarlet_Manuka
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    the people wishing to receive mail at those addresses

    This might make the apartment prices there skyrocket. Just think of all the people that want to avoid getting mail from their opponents' lawyers, law courts, etc.

    Best if only absolutely desperate people even try to deliver mail there for more than one and a half days.

  • (disco) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    Finally the standard for rural numbering is simply the number of 10s of metres from the main crossroads, respecting odds and evens, to the driveway or letterbox. It is a fair assumption that farms would have more than 20m of road frontage. Handy to know how far to drive!

    The first time I rode along a road using that scheme, i was first confused, then intrigued, then disappointed when the numbers didn't go negative after the village centre. The fuckers just switched street name without any respect to symmetry.

  • (disco) in reply to gleemonk
    gleemonk:
    The fuckers just switched street name without any respect to symmetry.

    Not even palindromized the street name? That's really a :wtf:.

  • (disco) in reply to PWolff

    Yeah, it's a shame. They just switched from "Rue de l'Égalité" to "Rue de Lyon" or somesuch. I was hoping to see "-10 Rue de l'Égalité" and was mightily disappointed.

  • (disco) in reply to Scarlet_Manuka
    Scarlet_Manuka:
    so much a problem for you, as for the person trying to deliver the mail. (And, I suppose, the people wishing to receive mail at those addresses.)

    I live on a "Road" that begins with H, number 19, with a crossroads of an "Avenue" that also begins with H (the rest of the name is completely different). We often get mail delivered addressed to 19 H--- Ave, and we have asked them and they often get our mail. So if the mailman can get those addresses mixed up there's no hope at all for Wombat Lane vs 1/2 Wombat Lane!


    Filed Under: Squirrel!

  • (disco) in reply to gleemonk
    gleemonk:
    They just switched from "Rue de l'Égalité" to "Rue de Lyon" or somesuch

    Are these your examples or do they use "rural numbering" in Paris?

    PWolff:
    Not even palindromized the street name?

    Around here many roads are simply the two endpoints. Like "Southport-Nerang Rd" is the main road between Southport and Nerang. That would be interesting to swap the names around and have a second numbering system!

  • (disco) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    That would be interesting to swap the names around
    In Silicon Valley, there is a major which is called Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd. in one area, and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd. in another area. (In between, it's called De Anza Blvd.) IIRC, the numbering is independent in each of the several cities it goes through.
  • (disco) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    Are these your examples or do they use "rural numbering" in Paris?

    I suspect there is more than one "Rue de l'Égalité" in France. Probably more then 10. Possibly more than 100. Also lots of streets named after whatever day they signed the WW1 peace treaty on. Literally the date - Rue de 2eme Mai or something like that.

  • (disco) in reply to HardwareGeek
    HardwareGeek:
    In Silicon Valley, there is a major which is called Sunnyvale-Saratoga Rd. in one area, and Saratoga-Sunnyvale Rd. in another area. (In between, it's called De Anza Blvd.) IIRC, the numbering is independent in each of the several cities it goes through.

    You forgot one - Sunnyvale Saratoga Rd turns into S Mathilda Ave just before getting to downtown Sunnyvale. Then N Mathilda, then W Caribbean Dr (ok, that's after a 90deg bend - Mathilda is just a 45deg dogleg)

  • (disco) in reply to dcon

    Thanks. You're right, of course, and I kinda thought that when I started writing that, but I don't spend much time in that area any more, and then I thought, no, that's not right. The point, though, was Sunnyvale-Saratoga vs. Saratoga-Sunnyvale, so the other names for it are just parenthetical comments.

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