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Comment by jffry | Hacker News Reader

Here's a neat bit of zip code esoterica: domestic US mail can be sent to US embassies abroad via special addresses in Washington DC. [1]

Each embassy has a unique nonexistent house number and street name within the 20521 zip code.[2] For example, the embassy in Paris is "9200 Paris Pl, Washington, DC 20521-9200".

Oddly, the only duplicated number in the list is "3180 Grenada Pl" and "3180 St George’s Pl"; St George's is the capital of Grenada.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZIP_Code#Scope_and_internation...

[2] https://www.state.gov/official-addresses/

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here's a neat bit of address and zipcode esoterica that isn't esoteric at all, but apparently the people who code mailing address software (some of whom I hope read HN) don't bother to learn how USPS addresses work.

Here is a hypothetical New York City address (that I have faked/obfuscated). Note that a penthouse is not an apartment. Note also how the APT or the PH (or suite or floor) goes on the same line as the street address, not a line by itself.

  750 5TH AVE PH 1
  NEW YORK NY 10002-2590

I mention it because when you print it wrong, or don't allow me to enter it correctly as my address, it actually messes up the delivery. (Looking at you, Peapod grocery delivery)

Here's where you can confirm how it is recommended that addresses be printed:

https://tools.usps.com/go/ZipLookupAction!input.action

Why does putting PH 1 on another line mess up the delivery? (I assume the other issue is that there's an APT 1 and a PH 1 in the building)?

Not the poster you asked, but a lot of times the address boxes will "help" you buy parsing what you write and correcting it. Maybe his penthouse address gets corrected to the second line and USPS delivers it incorrectly.

My personal issus are the apartment selectors. I live in a complex with about 300 units and having to scroll all the way to the bottom is a huge pain in the ass. lol

I don't know if this would be useful in your case, and it's desktop only, but in the UK because the convention is to have the house/apartment/anything number at the start of the line when I need to choose my address from a dropdown box I select the field, then type my numbers and it selects the right one. This works for dropdown boxes in general where you know the first letters/characters you are looking for (but I can imagine scenarios where it would be no hope, like if all the addresses are written with the differentiating number/detail at the end not the start). Page down / end keys are also useful for long lists (again, not so helpful on mobile).

USPS does parse address#2 on the same line now in the recommender - which was news to me

I live in Los Altos Hills but online correction software sees the zip (which we share) and corrects it to Los Altos, the next town over. This often causes confusion.

It's so annoying. Everyone needs to offer a free form address field at least as an option.

Another bit of zip code quirkiness: Zip code data is copyrighted to the USPS and can not be reused without purchased permission. To get around that, the openly available ZIP Code Tabulation Areas from the US census are a rough approximation of the same data, so it gets used often as a free alternative.

That... can't be true.

First of all, US copyrights can't be registered for mere facts. "This ZIP code corresponds to this location" (and a list with this string for all ZIP codes/locations) is a fact, and therefore not copyrightable.

However, even if one could convince a judge that it is (What arguments they could use, I have no idea) the whole thing falls apart because the USPS is a government agency, and works released by the U.S government hold no copyright protection inside the U.S

The USPS is an independent federal agency not funded by tax dollars and its employees are not federal government employees. Since works produced by the USPS are not produced by federal government officers or employees they are copyrightable.

Wait why shouldn't our tax dollars fund the USPS? I'd love for my fungible tax dollars support timely and speedier mail service

The republicans for some reason really really hate the USPS. They've been looking to privatize it for decades now

Well tbh who can blame them? the service stinks, the employees <at least at my local> are so rude as to border on the psychotic and they refused to allow us to put our mailbox at the end of our drive...we are the only house in our development where this is the case. they routinely refuse to deliver our mail and even when they do its ripped, dirty (at least i hope its dirt) or purposefully missing (yo anybody seen my socks i ordered over a month ago?) and its a never ending saga. she (the local pm) is awful to us all the time. whole checks have gone missing and needed to be reissued.

i had hopes of Thiel/OUTBOX but they went about the implementation a*backwards. the machines the invented to scan the mail: check. the mail they wanted to scan: fail. instead of scanning the important mail (bank statements, insurance etc) they should have been scanning the junk and making the marketers pay for enhanced delivery to 1234MainStreet@ups.gov. customers could then just go through digital versions of offers etc and set it up to purge at various intervals. the pizza place, valpak now no longer need to print things thereby saving money and trees and we throw away less paper etc. they already have the EDD software and zip code db this was just one little step and it would have released the full value of the USPS. The royal post in the Uk and the Japanese post both posted record profits at at time when last mile logistics are a BIG deal...and we cant even deliver a postage stamp without problems.

> 17 U.S. Code § 105 - Subject matter of copyright: United States Government works

(a)In General.— Copyright protection under this title is not available for any work of the United States Government, but the United States Government is not precluded from receiving and holding copyrights transferred to it by assignment, bequest, or otherwise.

If you look a few sections above in 17 U.S. Code § 101 which contains the definitions applicable to the copyright code "work of the United States Government" is defined.

> A “work of the United States Government” is a work prepared by an officer or employee of the United States Government as part of that person’s official duties.

It is indeed true. Here's the order form: https://postalpro.usps.com/Standardizeyouraddresslist/AISOrd...

Facts are copyrightable in bulk.

For instance, if I collate all the horse race results of the 19th Century into a single book, I could copyright it.

What you are referring to is the “sweat of the brow” doctrine. This is not correct in the USA. A work must show at least some creativity in order to qualify for copyright protection.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweat_of_the_brow

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feist_Publications,_Inc.,_v._R....

Thank you - I knew there must be a name for this doctrine but I could never find it.

Most post offices have a zip code one higher than the town for the post office boxes.

And since a small post office will have less than 9999 boxes you can identify one by zip+4.

I remember testing this theory when I lived in Los Gatos, CA around 1980 and had a PO Box there. Los Gatos has three zip codes: 95030 for the downtown area where I lived, 95031 for the PO boxes at the downtown post office, and 95032 for the east part of town and the hills.

I put a stamp on an envelope and wrote nothing but 95031-nnnn on the envelope, where nnnn was my PO Box number. Mailed it from some other local town, and sure enough it was delivered to my PO Box!

This may be because St. George's seems to have no longer have any municipal government per https://www.nowgrenada.com/2017/05/continued-uglification-ur...

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