What's a VAT?
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Disclaimer: Before anyone goes explaining a VAT, I've seen discussions of them here before. I know what they are. The title just seems appropriate for this topic.
As I have mentioned before, one of my projects right now is working on a system to manage warehouse inventory. Recently, I was given a mobile device with laser bar code scanner for testing purposes. Only one problem: it won't boot. I went through troubleshooting over the phone with the manufacturer today, and they couldn't figure it out, so I had to complete an online form to start a repair order. First things first, select a region and country:
Good so far. Now it's time to actually complete the form.
Given the title of this thread, you may think you can spot the error here. But no, asking for a VAT at this point is just a minor . The bigger one comes next:
I told you I'm in the USA! We don't have belgium VAT numbers! Go away!
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So make something up. 0, THX-1138, NCC-1864
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VAT_NOT_FOUND?
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Just write them a lovely message in the field.
"I'm from America, we don't have no stinkin VAT, GET OFF MY LAWN! FIX YOUR SHIT"
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I told you I'm in the USA! We don't have ■■■■■■■ VAT numbers! Go away!
Ha! Finally! After all those years filling in dummy US states, wrong area codes and postal codes the EU fights back with ridicule requirements.
No really. VAT-numbers shouldn't be required there are a lot of companies/entities exempt from having a VAT number.
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required
What part of "Do you want to continue anyway?" makes you think a field is required?
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That's what you get for living in the USA. You should move to OEM, it's so much better.
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Ha! Finally! After all those years filling in dummy US states, wrong area codes and postal codes the EU fights back with ridicule requirements.
+∞
That is not a valid ZIP code
Fuck off, it's a valid postal code! Ok, I'm leaving it blank!
ZIP code is a required field
Next time I see this, I'm going to email them asking for their VAT number. Thanks for the inspiration.
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And in all that, we won't even discuss the American sites that have heard of France, but don't realise that not all the world formats its addresses like the Americans do. My address is (anonymised version):
Steve The Cynic 123 rue des Avenues 62100 Ville-en-France FRANCE
where 34100 is my Code Postale, and not:
Steve The Cynic 123 rue des Avenues Ville-en-France Pas-de-Calais 34100 FRANCE
which is how many American web sites insist on it being done. (Some British sites seem to think that postal codes go on a line of their own after the town, but thankfully don't insist on a "region" name.)
That is, the French put the postal code on the same line as the name of the town, but before the name of the town, and don't put the name of the state at all (because they don't have states(1), duh). When the site insists on a state name, I usually put the name of my département (which is NOT Pas-de-Calais), but I still find it annoying. La Poste seems to have its head around delivering stuff, thankfully.
(1) The levels of administration in France, from largest to smallest, are: France, the régions, the départements, (in some very large towns) the communauté urbaine or equivalent, and the individual "commune". This last word has nothing to do with hippies living in fields - in small-town areas, it is the town or village, while in big cities, it refers to something like London boroughs. Within France, packages are addressed with postal code and commune or big city name.
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That is, the French put the postal code on the same line as the name of the town, but before the name of the town, and don't put the name of the state at all
Just like in Germany!
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Do their non-North-American country pages understand international dialling conventions for phone numbers? (i.e. can I just type in +33612345678 for a French mobile number?)
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Just like in Germany!
I thought I remembered that the Germans did it like that, but couldn't be bothered to look for it, partly because I never order stuff on line and have it shipped to addresses in Germany...
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```text
Steve The Cynic
123 rue des Avenues
62100 Ville-en-France
FRANCEwhere 34100 is my Code Postale, and not:</blockquote> I see no `34100` in the above text... </missing the obvious> @aliceif <a href="/t/via-quote/48038/11">said</a>:<blockquote>Just like in Germany!</blockquote> Confirming rest of Europe is sane as well and follows this pattern. @thegoryone <a href="/t/via-quote/48038/14">said</a>:<blockquote>I have problems.</blockquote> I can quote almost all of Red Dwarf verbatim. You're fine. --- Filed under: [No, USians, your formats arent' sane](#), [[Citation]](http://stuff.dasprids.de/slides/zendcon2012/internationalization-in-zend-framework-2/date-formats.png)
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Confirming rest of Europe is sane as well and follows this pattern.
We put the postcode on its own line, right at the bottom. But then we have funky alphanumeric postcodes.Example:
Microsoft Campus
Thames Valley Park
Reading
RG6 1WG
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France
Streets and numbers are non-existing in many rural area's:
Name
62100 Petit-VillageSometimes the name of the house or lieu-dit (even smaller part of that village) can be added.
edit Discourse! Why do you save while I was still typing?
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funky alphanumeric postcodes
The Dutch use a saner version. And they don't put theirs in front of the city like all other sane people.
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RG6 1WG
RG identifies a major sorting office (out of a set chosen when the system was created, not as exist now) and RG6 is a postal area. They vary wildly in size, according to population density. The 1WG identifies a street, street segment (for longer streets) or business. Domestic properties are often identified here by house number and post code only. Large businesses that receive a lot of mail may have multiple post codes (or might not; it's up to them).
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>Steve The Cynic
123 rue des Avenues
62100 Ville-en-France
FRANCEwhere 34100 is my Code Postale
So on a French address you have to double the first digit of the postcode and halve the second?What do you do if the second digit is odd?
In the UK we put the postcode on its own line after everything except country, if it's being sent internationally. Internationally meaning 'from outside the UK': you do not need to specify 'England' when posting a letter from Scotland. For the forseeable future, anyway. The nearest equivalent we have to US states is the regions (England, NI, Scotland, Wales) but they never get put on intranational addresses, and I'd probably put county for that.
Some British sites seem to think that postal codes go on a line of their own after the town, but thankfully don't insist on a "region" name.
These days it's only street number and name, and postcode that's required (strictly speaking, house number and postcode should be sufficient information, but it's generally expected that you include the street name), and I haven't seen a form requiring county for a long time. Most commonly they have 2-4 optional fields in between street address and postcode to fill in as many as you like, including optional subdivisions of the town. I tend to put the town but not the county.
Back when there was the 'Occupy XXX' stuff, I posted a Christmas card to the 'Occupy Newcastle' guys. IIRC I addressed it to 'The Occupiers, Grey's Monument, Newcastle upon Tyne, [the postcode of the nearest addresses]'. I don't know if it got to them.
Edit - PJH: Pendantry.
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So on a French address you have to double the first digit of the postcode and halve the second?What do you do if the second digit is odd?
We have a pendantic winner.
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In the UK we put the postcode on its own line after everything except country, if it's being sent internationally.
You sometimes see the postcode written on the same line as the town (usually after it). It's not very common, but we could adapt to it rapidly.
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I got a flag! I wasn't even trying. Had I been trying I'd have pointed out that VAT number is not redundant like 'PIN number', and that VAT by itself not only isn't what is meant here but is a mass noun so 'a VAT' is always incorrect.
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I got a flag! I wasn't even trying.
It's not merely that you were pendantic about it, but that you were also a dickweed. That's a rarer combination that is more usually attained when not trying for it. :)
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you were also a dickweed
It was a perfectly friendly joke, and had anyone said something similar to me I'd have interpreted it as such.
more usually attained when not trying for it.
So.. actually being a dickweed doesn't get you a flag, someone misunderstanding you does?
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Quick badge this time...
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Who all all these circular people? What is happening?
Have you been seeing other stylesheets behind our backs?
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Who all all these circular people? What is happening?
Discourse Default
tends to get used with pages under /admin unless I can be arsed to be very careful with how I end up there. Bane of my life and a known issue over on meta.d.
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[b]62100[/b] Ville-en-France
Ville-en-France
Pas-de-Calais
[b]34100[/b]I found the problem.
Edit: multiply- 'd. You damn Europeans and people on the other part of the world shouldn't get up so early in the morning.
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Filling in Japan addresses on US sites suck as well.
If they aren't dicks about the postal code, then that can narrow it down to a district level. So a number and one additio line is all that is needed. The rest of the lines are for redundancy. I guess the extended zip in the U.S. is similar, but I'm never sure enough to trust not filling in the 3-4 lines.
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Bah! What doesn't make any sense about this?
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I actually searched in my national post office's website to see if they had any information about how to format addresses. They didn't (and still don't). So I just write everything in approximate little-endian order (street and number first, country last) however I feel like and let them figure it out.
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If I had to implement a postal service myself, I'd just place a computer in each office, assign an IP range to each village, and run BGP. The protocol will figure out the rest.
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The protocol will figure out the rest.
You'll still need some way to actually deliver packets. And letters too. (Fortunately, reliable delivery is now seen as unnecessary.)
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Well naturally, each office will be responsible for delivering the letters to the next office.
Another alternative would be to let each office operate as an independent, unregulated entity, charging whatever they want to take and deliver other other post offices' letters. Then the Free Market will figure out the most efficient routes and cheapest prices. Actual results may vary.
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assign an IP range to each village, and run BGP
And, of course, it would be IPv4. Because who'll ever need more?
Filed under: The Postman: Behind the NAT — Coming this summer to a theatre near you
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Let's just assign a GUID to each square inch on the Earth and use that for addressing.
Filed Under: Terrible ideas thread
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I miss living in APAC. Also, from looking at Google, not only have I forgotten what Intel calls where I am now, but they used a different abbreviation from everyone else.
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Let's just assign a GUID to each square inch on the Earth and use that for addressing.
Anyone want to reinvent ISO-6709?
How do we accommodate continental drift?
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Let's write 56,000 words on exactly how to build a bit for dinosaur riding now!
Postal codes SO FUN!!!!
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Let's just assign a GUID to each square inch on the Earth and use that for addressing.
The original definition of the metre was 1/10,000,000 of the distance from pole to equator on a line passing through Paris. It's still pretty close to that, which makes the circumference of the Earth about 4e10 metres.
Surface area of a sphere A = 4πr2, and circumference c = 2πr, which makes A = c2/π so the surface area of the Earth is roughly (4e10)2/π = 5e20m2.
±10km strikes me as a reasonably conservative limit for the range of distances above and below ground level where terrestrial deliveries are ever going to need to occur. This is small compared to the diameter of the Earth, so a good approximation for the volume of a spherical shell that thick is just the surface area times the thickness, or 1e25 cubic metres.
A GUID is 128 bits, so there are roughly 3.4e38 possible GUIDs. If we used them all to label voxels of roughly uniform size within such a shell, each such voxel would occupy 1e25 ÷ 3.4e38 cubic metres or roughly 0.00003 cubic millimetres.
That should be precise enough for addressing purposes.
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A GUID is 128 bits, so there are roughly 3.4e38 possible GUIDs. If we used them all to label voxels of roughly uniform size within such a shell, each such voxel would occupy 1e25 ÷ 3.4e38 cubic metres or roughly 0.00003 cubic millimetres.
That is very Minecrafty.
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very Minecrafty
A cubic millimetre is a microlitre, so 0.00003 cubic millimetres is 30 picolitres - roughly the droplet size for a wide-format industrial inkjet printer.
This is Minecraft Retina Edition.
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Each cell in my body can have its own postal address!
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...provided you stand perfectly still.
Actually, don't bother. 128 bits is only 64 DNA base pairs. You should be able to tag each cell's nucleus with its own postcode without disrupting it too badly.
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Full Name Damrak 2 1000 AA Amsterdam
But it'll probably arrive if you just write down
1000 AA 2