Tag: bullshit

Sued by Canada Post for listing Canadian postal codes

Posted on by John Rockefeller

Did you know that attempting to build a list of Canadian postal codes by region can get you sued by Canada Post?

I think most Canadians would agree that it’s fair for Canada Post to charge companies for a list of Canadian postal codes by region, since it does require actual work to organize and maintain that list. What I think most Canadians would disagree on is suing someone for building their own list from scratch, based on people submitting their address and postal code to help out. But, that’s exactly what’s happened to Geocoder.ca, an Ottawa-based mapping firm which supplies the postal codes to free and open mapping services like OpenStreetMap.

From Geocoder.ca’s release:

This is the gist of the matter: Since 2004 we have crowdsourced* the generation of the “Canadian Postal Code Geocoded Database.” When you make a query to geocoder containing for example this information “1435 Prince of Wales, Ottawa, ON K2C 1N5”, we then extract the postal code “K2C 1N5” and insert it into the database that you may download for free on this website.

It’s been nearly 4 years since they’ve been sued and they’re finally going to see their day in court soon.

Donate to the Geocoder.ca defense fund to keep their home-grown list free.

Download the list of Canadian postal codes by region, released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Canada License.

 

Bullshit calling, it’s for you.

Posted on by John Rockefeller
sage-manager-fired
A frame from this video.

The building manager of my apartment was recently fired after a viral video surfaced of him allegedly physically pushing a tenant out of his office. I found it interesting in the same way one does when watching any other train wreck in slow motion. Afterwards, an article was posted on The Record (Waterloo’s local paper) where an IN8 spokesperson, Darryl Firsten, stated:

“This is our 11th building in Waterloo and 10 out of 10 have been done on time, right down to the last blade of grass,” Firsten said.

I live in Sage 3 Waterloo, which is an IN8 development. I can confirm that, when I moved in on May 1st, 2015, it was so unfinished that we didn’t even have blades of grass. Work was being done for weeks after we moved in, including things like laying down sod, putting up fencing, putting furniture in the lobby, insulating pipes in the underground garage, adding locks to the outside doors, actually having a door in some places (rather than just a portal).

We were very lucky that the units themselves were ready. Many tenants of Sage 2 are not so lucky.