Eircode postcodes will cost lives, warn emergency workers
A group representing frontline emergency staff has warned lives will be lost unless the Government reverses its decision on a new national postcode system due to be rolled out next spring. John Kidd, chairman of the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association, said the “mainly random nature” of the Eircode system would mean errors by users would go unnoticed, as well as cause confusion and may be “catastrophic” in terms of sending services to the wrong location. [….] Neil McDonnell, general manager of the Freight Transport Association Ireland, said he understood Mr Kidd’s concerns. “Take, for example, two adjacent houses in Glasnevin, Dublin,” said Mr McDonnell. “One could be D11 ZXQ8, the other one D11 67TR. The four-character unique identifier is completely random, with no sequence or algorithm linking one house to the other.”
(tags: eircode fail postcodes ireland geo location gps emergency)
The Problem Isn’t Vancouver’s Astronomical Housing Costs— It’s the People Who Buy
Two types of people own homes in Vancouver?—?wealthy foreigners who are looking for a place to park their money, and long-time Vancouver residents who have benefited from skyrocketing equity, through no actual effort of their own. There is a simple problem with these people being the primary homeowners in any city?—?they don’t actually create much value for the place they live in. A very large percentage of wealthy foreigners who “park” their money here don’t actually live in Vancouver. Take a drive around most expensive areas and you’ll realize the homes are empty. At most, they send their kids to live in Vancouver, learn english/go to school, and then return to their country (usually to Hong Kong). For some reason this is okay with people who live here. The amount of value added to a city from this sort of activity approaches zero. In fact, I’d argue that these people actually leech off of the system more than anything else.
(tags: vancouver housing mortgages investment canada homeowners)
Tonx’s Fuss Proof Cold Brew Coffee Guide
via potentato
Yet another woman in gaming has been driven from her home by death threats
Fuck gamergate
(tags: games harassment feminism misogyny 4chan 8chan mra trolls gamergate)
Game Devs on Gamergate (with images, tweets)
Welp, that’s the end of my reading The Escapist. this is fucked up. ‘these people say that this is a hate movement, but let’s see what these white supremacists and serial harassers have to say’
(tags: ethics gaming journalism the-escapist gamergate misogyny sexism)
To “patch” software comes from a physical patch applied to paper tape
hmason: TIL that the phrase software “patch” is from a physical patch applied to Mark 1 paper tape to modify the program.
It’s amazing how a term like that can become so divorced from its original meaning so effectively. History!(tags: history computing software patch paper-tape patching bugs)