On 2010\08\02 18:02, Theo Markettos wrote:
Basil wrote:
On 2010\08\02 11:30, Theo Markettos wrote:
Should that go to Newport (Isle of Wight), Newport (Gwent), Newport
(Telford& Wrekin), Newport (Hants) or Newport (Essex)? How many
places do you have to send the letter around to find if a Mr Jones lives
there?

Since you're the post office, and you delivered the mail yesterday and
the day before, you should know which Station Road has a Mr Jones in it,
i.e. the person's name is a checksum.

Indeed. But do you ring up the delivery offices in each of those places and
try to get through to the postie who happens to do that round? Or do you
play (literal!) pass-the-parcel around all the various possible sorting
offices until you find one who recognise the name? Which could take weeks
(for example, if a postie was on holiday).

No, the scanner that currently does OCR on the postcode of every letter
would also do OCR on the text that precedes the postcode and store every
combination to allow subsequent comparison on letters where the postcode
is unreadable.

On Sun, 1 Aug 2010, Roland Perry wrote:

In message . li, at 19:07:34
on Sat, 31 Jul 2010, Tom Anderson remarked:

I was particularly pleased to see the 'Romford is/is not in Essex'
argument being brought up immediately in the comments.

Having been brought up in the vicinity, I'd say that all of those were
in Essex, as is [ObLRT:] Upminster and Epping.

Whereas having been brought up in Essex, i'd say they were in London!

tom

--
What we learn about is not nature itself, but nature exposed to our
methods of questioning. -- Werner Heisenberg

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 20:35:44 on
Mon, 2 Aug 2010, Neil Williams remarked:
It avoids people having to publish two addresses - one for postal
purposes and a second so that you can find where they are.

Don't know about you, but these days I find out where someone is by
typing their postcode into Google Maps or my sat-nav.

Ad you think that would still work if we had a two-tier (continental
style) address model in the UK?
--
Roland Perry

It certainly works with an address where I used to live in New York - you
can try it out for yourself because I've given the address below. The Royal
Mail seem to be trying to move this way, although they're not doing a very
good job of educating the Great British Public.

I would be strongly in favour of a system that is more highly mechanised
(and much cheaper) such as the USA has. All US addresses follow the format

Street address
City, StateZip

The Street address contains the building name or number, the street name
and an optional apartment/room number, in that order.

So my address was

377 Rector Place Apt #5A
NEW YORK, NY10280-1534

If you don't follow the above format your mail probably won't be delivered
at all or, at the very best, takes a long time to reach its destination.

The first five digits of the zip code identify the local mail delivery
office, the next four digits (which are optional) identify a group of around
15 delivery points. Google maps doesn't handle the extended zip code, but it
gets near enough.

--
DAS

In article 5XC5o.68616$zo4.52132@hurricane,
(Richard J.) wrote:

Should that go to Newport (Isle of Wight), Newport (Gwent), Newport
(Telford & Wrekin), Newport (Hants) or Newport (Essex)? How many
places do you have to send the letter around to find if a Mr Jones
lives there?

Juat Telford & Wrekin.
Newport (Gwent) doesn't have a Station Road in Newport itself.
There are several Station Roads in the area, but the secondary
locations are needed in the address, e.g. Crumlin, NEWPORT.
Similarly for Newport (Isle of Wight).
Newport (Hants) appears to be another way of referring to Newport
(IoW).
Newport (Essex) is Newport, SAFFRON WALDEN.

Hmm. Newport, Essex is the name of the station which is still open, and
Newport, IOW had a station until 1967.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 08:54:50 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

It avoids people having to publish two addresses - one for postal
purposes and a second so that you can find where they are.

Don't know about you, but these days I find out where someone is by
typing their postcode into Google Maps or my sat-nav.

I can think of some addresses where you could be some distance from your
intended destination. Try Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ. Postcodes
define points for deliver of mail, not a large sprawl of buildings
covering a large chunk of central Cambridge.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

On 3 Aug, 00:35, wrote:
In article ,

(Neil Williams) wrote:
On Mon, 2 Aug 2010 08:54:50 +0100, Roland Perry
wrote:

It avoids people having to publish two addresses - one for postal
purposes and a second so that you can find where they are.

Don't know about you, but these days I find out where someone is by
typing their postcode into Google Maps or my sat-nav.

I can think of some addresses where you could be some distance from your
intended destination. Try Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ. Postcodes
define points for deliver of mail, not a large sprawl of buildings
covering a large chunk of central Cambridge.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

It would be handy if Google Maps indicated when it was guessing wildly
with a new development rather than just stick the arrow somewhere.

Some of their results are so wild that I can't believe it's actually a
database entry at all, but more likely pulling back one level to
somewhere in the area covered by the first half of the postcode.

In message , at 00:30:21 on Tue, 3 Aug
2010, David A Stocks remarked:
377 Rector Place Apt #5A
NEW YORK, NY10280-1534

If you don't follow the above format your mail probably won't be
delivered at all or, at the very best, takes a long time to reach its
destination.

The first five digits of the zip code identify the local mail delivery
office, the next four digits (which are optional) identify a group of
around 15 delivery points. Google maps doesn't handle the extended zip
code, but it gets near enough.

I lived in Atlanta for a year, and the five-digit part of the postcode
was all that anyone used. Unfortunately for geo-location purposes it
covered a rather large area. Indeed, despite being in the suburbs (and
not even the outer suburbs) the nearest Post Office (which was also the
district sorting and delivery office) was a 20 minute drive away!
--
Roland Perry

In message , at 18:35:57
on Mon, 2 Aug 2010, remarked:
Try Trinity College, Cambridge CB2 1TQ. Postcodes
define points for deliver of mail, not a large sprawl of buildings
covering a large chunk of central Cambridge.

When I was in Cambridge, I used a very short address that worked every
time. (Sidney Sussex, Cambridge). I've never had the opportunity to have
such a short address again.
--
Roland Perry

In message . li, at
00:21:04 on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, Tom Anderson
remarked:
I was particularly pleased to see the 'Romford is/is not in Essex'
argument being brought up immediately in the comments.

Having been brought up in the vicinity, I'd say that all of those
were in Essex, as is [ObLRT:] Upminster and Epping.

Whereas having been brought up in Essex, i'd say they were in London!

Brentwood is an interesting case (I lived there for a while).

People "from London" used to regard it as the "first market town out in
the countryside of Essex". (Although strictly it didn't have a market,
but people used to go there for a "day/evening out in the country").

Whereas people who lived in the real countryside (eg in Chelmsford or
Billericay) used to regard it as "the first town that's inside Greater
London metro area".
--
Roland Perry

On Mon, Aug 02, 2010 at 09:08:39PM +0100, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 20:35:44 on
Mon, 2 Aug 2010, Neil Williams
remarked:
Don't know about you, but these days I find out where someone is by
typing their postcode into Google Maps or my sat-nav.
Ad you think that would still work if we had a two-tier (continental
style) address model in the UK?

Of course it would, given that it works in the rest of Europe. Sure,
you don't type in the postcode, but Tomtom on my phone knows *exactly*
where to find most of my continental friends.

eg ...

hit "Navigate to", "Address", select Germany from the list of countries,
type five letters to find the town, type three letters to find the
street, it then asks me for the house number and directs me right to
their front door.

This is actually quicker than, in the UK, typing in the entire postcode
(with irritating switches between letters and numbers) and the house
number.

--
David Cantrell | top google result for "internet beard fetish club"

Deck of Cards: $1.29.
"101 Solitaire Variations" book: $6.59.
Cheap replacement for the one thing Windows is good at: priceless
-- Shane Lazarus