In message , at 12:55:02
on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, David Cantrell 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,

Have they avoided having (the equivalent of) half a dozen towns called
"Newport", or does it show some (equivalent of) County information to
help sort out one from the other?

type three letters to find the
street, it then asks me for the house number and directs me right to
their front door.

You seem to be *not* typing the German postcode into your TomTom.

Typing in the street address is all very well, but this is a discussion
about postcodes.

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

My satnav doesn't require me to change between letters and numbers in
order to enter a UK postcode. But nor do I have my satnav with me at all
times, so I cannot rely upon it (in the absence of county information in
someone's address that I am trying to locate).
--
Roland Perry

On Aug 3, 8:57*am, Roland Perry wrote:

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.

Well, addresses like '2 Stowage, SE8 3EE' are pretty short and should
work. But they don't quite have the same class, that's for sure!

In message
, at
06:14:05 on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, Mizter T remarked:
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.

Well, addresses like '2 Stowage, SE8 3EE' are pretty short and should
work. But they don't quite have the same class, that's for sure!

'BBC, W1A 1AA' is both short and classy too ... it's just having the
opportunity to be able to use them (for one's own address)


--
Roland Perry

On Aug 3, 2:47*pm, Roland Perry wrote:

In message
, at
06:14:05 on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, Mizter T remarked:

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.

Well, addresses like '2 Stowage, SE8 3EE' are pretty short and should
work. But they don't quite have the same class, that's for sure!

'BBC, W1A 1AA' is both short and classy too ... it's just having the
opportunity to be able to use them (for one's own address)

HM Queen/King, SW1A 1AA... though rumour has it that there's a high
degree of nepotism involved in getting that gig.

wrote:

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.

And of course there's the nightmare of courier firms trying to deliver to
those sorts of addresses. I don't know if it's the case in Cambridge but a
lot of universities have a tendency to use a single postcode for the entire
campus. This is fine for Royal Mail who either deliver to a central mail
room or who get used to looking at the building information (for example
I've recently discovered that in my Kent days I was using the wrong post
code for my college/halls, instead giving out the postcode for the central
registry) but it can be a real nightmare for a courier firm with limited
experience of the destination and who find the address supplied does not
contain sufficient information. My current QMUL department gives out an
address that's fine for mail but it would be incomprehensible to anyone
trying to deliver a package, especially at this time of year when a lot of
people actually on the campus are from conferences et al and won't know
which building a particular department office is in, let alone how to find
it. (And the Royal Mail's online post code finder is useless for trying to
divine a more specific code.)

In uk.transport.london message YEm5o.25446$RO5.25424@hurricane, Sun, 1
Aug 2010 23:35:36, Richard J. posted:


Because our postcode system has a far finer resolution than most other
countries, and therefore enables greater automation and efficiency in
Royal Mail (in theory), as well as enabling many other applications
such as satnav and location finding on online maps. Why would you want
to degrade our excellent postcode system?

The postcode system ideally suits the postal authorities, and no-one
else very much.

The second part is more-or-less arbitrary, being designed for final
sorting and delivery - few people could say where most second-halves
referred to, even within their local first-half, except for those that
they actually post to or from.

Sorting machines in 2010 can have enormously more memory and computing
power than those dating from the beginning of coded sorting; it would be
perfectly easy to give each named neighbourhood a coded form
recognisable as built from country, county, city/town/village,
neighbourhood (and recognisable different from postcode first-halves).
Then those could be allowed on letters, and translated by look-up in RAM
into as much of the existing code as appropriate.

The coding would be more easily recognisable, and could be used for
other purposes.

--
(c) John Stockton, nr London, UK. Turnpike v6.05.
Web URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/ - w. FAQish topics, links, acronyms
PAS EXE etc : URL:http://www.merlyn.demon.co.uk/programs/ - see 00index.htm
Dates - miscdate.htm estrdate.htm js-dates.htm pas-time.htm critdate.htm etc.

On 2010-08-03, Roland Perry wrote:
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.

surname, suburb worked for us when I were a nipper, though mostly we
put the road in, and later, a direction.

Eric

Eric wrote on 03 August 2010 19:27:30 ...
On 2010-08-03, Roland wrote:
In messageeL6dnWfi1ubAy8rRnZ2dnUVZ8gSdnZ2d@giganews. com, 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.

surname,suburb worked for us when I were a nipper, though mostly we
put the road in, and later, a direction.

Presumably your surname isn't Jones and you didn't live in Wales. Even
the road wouldn't help much in some parts of Wales. My father-in-law
during WW2 had an entire platoon of soldiers all named Jones.
--
Richard J.
(to email me, swap 'uk' and 'yon' in address)

On 03/08/2010 13:32, Roland Perry wrote:
In message , at 12:55:02
on Tue, 3 Aug 2010, David Cantrell 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,

Have they avoided having (the equivalent of) half a dozen towns called
"Newport", or does it show some (equivalent of) County information to
help sort out one from the other?

There is /Main and /Oder for Frankfurt, and various X im Y names.

--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK

On 03/08/2010 15:57, Tim Roll-Pickering wrote:
wrote:

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.

And of course there's the nightmare of courier firms trying to deliver to
those sorts of addresses. I don't know if it's the case in Cambridge but a
lot of universities have a tendency to use a single postcode for the entire
campus.

Cambridge doesn't have a campus. Unless you are a dodgy looking tourist,
in which case it is that way ---

The colleges each have their own postcodes, though Name, College,
Cambridge is pretty much certain to work (unless there are two people
with the same name there), and there will be a porter to collect
whatever it is. I guess there might be a problem if you are getting a
big heavy thing which needs to be delivered to a very specific place.

The system used to break with firms which couldn't cope with multiple
names at one address, but hopefully that is generally fixed these days -
one electronics firm used to send all orders to whoever had placed the
first ever order from that address, so there would be messages
circulating saying things like "whoever ordered the left-handed grommit
from ACME, it's in my pigeon hole, from Fred Bloggs".


--
Arthur Figgis Surrey, UK