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Good Government Websites:

• The IRS
• The US Postal Service

What makes a good government website for me is lot's of practical advice on dealing with the agency. Many agencies just post scanned regulations and leave it at that. That's fine for the lawyers, but most of us need good english translations, with as many examples as possible.

The front page should always contain:

• A full text search box, ideally with a link to a full featured search page.
• The top level heirarchical listing of categories
• A link to a (frequently updated) FAQ, with links to other agencies where relevant. Example: Going to the Dept. of Commerce, I could reasonably expect to find encryption export regulations, but that responsibility was recently transferred to the Bureau of Export Administration.
• A short summary of recent news happenings/hot topics at the agency
• A short, clear statement of the agencies' areas of responsibility

In short, give people multiple ways to find the info they want, and try to anticipate their questions in the FAQ

Also, actively solicit feedback, becuase you'll be surprised at the types of things your users want to do that you never anticipated

Ack, gotta run, please forgive the lack of proofreading

-Loopy

Nom is French for name, so you could have johnsmith.nom and 5551212.tel as your personal domains. Of course, there would be a lot of other John Smith's who want the johnsmith.nom domain, so I think the .tel is a better idea.

On a related note, the US post office is creating a email address for every mail recipient in the US. it will consist of your 9-digit zip, followed by the last two digits of your street address or apartment number, and your first and last initial. So Bill Clinton's is bc20502000100@usps.gov

No it means the Lumber Cartel has lost its hold on the USPS.

I love programs run by the government the signing up for which "would be strictly voluntary.

I wouldn't stress too much, since the USPS isn't a government organization. They get a big fat subsidy, but are an independent organization, just like any other delivery service.

It does still irk me that they get to have a .gov address, even if all it does is redirect you to the .com.

The first post in the United States was established by Benjamin Franklin in 1775.

wisconsin does not exist.

Just so you know, you're not fooling anyone. It might be that I was not paying attention and Minnesota invaded Wisconsin and that the latter no longer exists, though I seriously doubt that's the case. Just to make sure, I checked a recent map of the US. As of 1999 Wisconsin did indeed exist, but still, maybe this is recent news. I went ahead and checked MapQuest. It's there and their maps appear to be up to date. Still, I was not entirely satisfied, so I also checked a few news sites. I would imagine that if something happened to Wisconsin it would receive some coverage. I searched CNN, MSNBC, ABC and even Slashdot (hey, Wisconsin should be right across the lake from the Geek Compound). Strangely enough, none of these sites had any coverage of Wisconsin disappearing, getting destroyed, blowing up, sinking into the Great Lakes or in any other way ceasing to exist. In fact, I got quite a bit of recent news that almost seems to suggest Wisconsin does exist.

This leads me to believe that your sig might just be false. Now, it did eventually occur to me that you may have intended the statement to be true. Perhaps you meant to say

Wisconsin does exist.

However, such a statement is terribly obvious, so I came to the conslusion that either 1) you were misinformed about whether or not Wisconsin exists, or 2) you intentionally stated a falsehood in your sig. The fact that Wisconsin exists has been well known since May 29, 1848 (they even have a stamp) leads me to believe the first option (you were misinformed) is not the case, so the only option then is that you are well aware it exists and are trying to mislead people. Well, I've figured out your game and you're not fooling me and hopefully nobody else because it's fairly obvious Wisconsin does indeed exist.

Also, wisconsin should be capitalized.

That said, it's time you got yourself a new sig. Thank you.

Actually, they categorically deny such rumours so strongly that they have a link on their website to the denial.

- - - -

Actually, they categorically deny such rumours so strongly that they have a link on their website to the denial.

- - - -

Basically, what has happened is that they [the isp's checks] were deposited into an account that didn't belong to our Internet service provider, and our lawyer is currently working that out.
This is mail fraud if they were mailed to the ISP. Contact the postmaster immediately! Contact the Police and FBI. If the checks were mailed, and cashed by persons that were not destined to, that is a federal crime. See this page from the USPS explaining mail fraud.

Basically, what has happened is that they [the isp's checks] were deposited into an account that didn't belong to our Internet service provider, and our lawyer is currently working that out.
The False Representation Statute (Title 39, United States Code, Section 3005). This is mail fraud if they were mailed to the ISP. Contact the postmaster immediately! Contact the Police and FBI. If the checks were mailed, and cashed by persons that were not destined to, that is a federal crime. See this page from the USPS explaining mail fraud.

The file does not include an entry for Frankfort, Kentucky, which is the capitol of the state and currently spans 9 zipcodes! It lists "Hatton, KY" for the 40601 zipcode, which I believe was Frankfort's first zipcode, but being the capitol of the state, Frankfort has probably been in the postal system since the beginning of the century.

Actually, if you go to the USPS's free zipcode lookup feature and type in 40601 in the blank, it will tell you that Frankfort and Hatton are both valid, with Frankfort being the "default" value.

However, having said that, I will say that it is very odd that 40602, 40603 and 40604 are not listed. (The other five ZIP codes of Frankfort, KY, are apparently reserved for state government usage, and so it may or may not be surprising that they are not listed in the text file.)

http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups/look up_zip+4.html

it has a .com instead of a .gov

Actually the USPS website is available at both http://www.usps.com and http://www.usps.gov, probably to end the possible confusion caused by differing sites like http://www.whitehouse.com and http://www.whitehouse.gov

Too late; been there, done that. In fact, the USPS has already been privatized--while they still answer to the US Congress under Title 39, they are ran "for profit" with it's own CEO and board of trustees.

Read more here at http://www.usps.gov/history/history/his3.htm#REORG

And that's why we pay $0.33 for a first-class mail stamp, boys and girls--because that's about what it costs on average to deliver that piece of mail to anywhere in the United States, including all those pesky little territories and to the US millitary men serving abroad. Last I checked, FedEx will also provide delivery of your letters--but for about one and a half orders of magnitude more.

I believe you'll find that the licensing issue comes from the costs in distributing the data. The full database is fairly large large and there's apparently a bit of cleanup involved as well (Also IIRC, the data was developed for internal usage; as is often the case it needs a little packaging before being sent outside). If you look at the costs, it's around a $900 to get a copy on CD-ROM according to the price guide on page 113 of the USPS's product doc. I think once you factor in the production costs (which aren't amortized over a huge distribution base) this is probably not that unreasonable. Unless I'm mis-remembering, government agencies are allowed to charge fees to cover production costs on information, even if they're required to give it to you. Even though the USPS has a somewhat unusual position compared to more traditional government agencies, this probably still applies.

It's pretty obvious that the zip codes are public, since that's how the public sends mail to a particular place. If the zipcode were "private" it would be practically impossible to do business by mail. Or to use it for any other purpose for that matter.

There is a way to look up any Zip Code on line, you can do it at the USPS's Zip code lookups page

That said, the only people who have a use for a large database of zipcodes are mass marketers, and IMHO they OUGHT to pay for having it. I don't want it to be any easier than it needs to be for those morons to send me dead trees.

I think the most threatening looking public display is the one provided by the United States Postal Service. Several of the post offices around my area have a display giving a count down to the end of the year to promote sales of their end of the century stamps. To catch your attention they purposily gave the sign a bomb like appearence by including the tenths and hundreths of a second in the count down. To make things worse, the last two digits on the display are so blantently pointless and only serve to give it a bomb like appearence. I have been keeping my Palm Pilot time syncronized with the national nuclear clock using the sntp client for palm. When I compared the count down displayed at the post office with the time on my palm I found that the most accurately set display was approx. 12 seconds fast. Even the seconds digit is inaccurate! But the United States Postal Service have refused to return any email regarding including two additional inaccurate digits on their signs for the purpose of creating a bomb-like count-down display. If the US Goverment doesn't even need to comment on their actions regarding this, why the holy hell should they be monitoring us? Until people start yelling in mass for the resignation of Einar V. Dyhrkopp and the head of FBI then I firmly believe that the US Goverment will continue this two face activity.

I think the most threatening looking public display is the one provided by the United States Postal Service. Several of the post offices around my area have a display giving a count down to the end of the year to promote sales of their end of the century stamps. To catch your attention they purposily gave the sign a bomb like appearence by including the tenths and hundreths of a second in the count down. To make things worse, the last two digits on the display are so blantently pointless and only serve to give it a bomb like appearence. I have been keeping my Palm Pilot time syncronized with the national nuclear clock using the sntp client for palm. When I compared the count down displayed at the post office with the time on my palm I found that the most accurately set display was approx. 12 seconds fast. Even the seconds digit is inaccurate! But the United States Postal Service have refused to return any email regarding including two additional inaccurate digits on their signs for the purpose of creating a bomb-like count-down display. If the US Goverment doesn't even need to comment on their actions regarding this, why the holy hell should they be monitoring us? Until people start yelling in mass for the resignation of Einar V. Dyhrkopp and the head of FBI then I firmly believe that the US Goverment will continue this two face activity.

I don't know about the rest of you, but 'back in the day' when I had no better place to put a webpage than on Geocities, I too was required to register. I'm sure they kept every scrap of information I gave them, and I'd like them to know that it was all bullshit.

According to geocities, my name is John A. Doe. I live at 1234 main street, LA California. I make over $150,000 per year, am married, and am female.

Though I'm not going to tell you the truth either, I will say that I'm male, live far far away from LA california, make a small fraction of the listed income, am not married, and don't even know anyone whose initials are JAD.

The USPS is happy to provide the zip+4 address that many registration programs require to verify that you really do live there. Go to http://www.usps.gov/ncsc/lookups /lookup_zip+4.html and give them an address. Many sites also require you to enter an area code for similar reasons. This is also easily spoofed. Go to http://www.555-1212.com/area_codes.html and list the place you've decided to tell them you live at. Some place (LA, for example) have several area codes. All will be listed, and you'll have to try them until they work. For example, LA has 323, 213, 310, and 424 so you'll be shooting in the dark. Fortunately, not many places are as big as LA, and if it's only got 4 area codes, your favorite burg likely has only 1.

In short, while I'm distressed by the business practice of grabbing what info they can however they can so you don't know about it, I've developed ways to give them verifiable but totally useless information to satisfy registration requirements. As a matter of course, I provide such bogus information even to reputable institutions like the new york times, where I have over a half-dozen registrations for myself and various friends.

But wait! you say. What about scams where I have to provide an email address so I can get a registration key? That brings us back to geocities. Or hotmail. Or any one of a hundred different similar services. Hotmail and their ilk are probably the best in this instance because they're webmail (as opposed to geocities' pop server, which while slow is very nice if it's your main email address) and don't require any re-configuring of your mail settings to get at. Send the key there. Then ignore all the mail you get. If you don't use the service anymore, it'll delete you. If you do keep using it, just ignore the junk mail that piles up and grab the keys you need.

Who "goes through the trouble" to carry around a barcode reader? Your FedEx / UPS / DHL / USPS delivery person. Your grocery / department store clerk. The list grows longer daily.

All I did to find this was search for 602P from the www.usps.gov web site.
Email rumor completely untrue
Postal News - Email rumor completely untrue

All I did to find this was search for 602P from the www.usps.gov web site.
Email rumor completely untrue
Postal News - Email rumor completely untrue

This is a hoax. The Postal Sevice had a message about this on their main page until it got pretty old. They've still got a bulletin about it here here.

This is a hoax. The Postal Sevice had a message about this on their main page until it got pretty old. They've still got a bulletin about it here here.

during a recent stop at http://www.usps.gov, I read a statement stating that the USPS had no plans/means/whatnot to tax email. Of course...I can't find where it says that now.

This is not true. Click here for USPS comment on this.

But another, more accurate thought is that the US Postal service is a branch of the federal govenment. See www.usps.gov . Note the .gov in the address.

• Get an ounce physically delivered from puerto rico to alaska for $0.33?
• Mail an overnight package at noon on christmas eve and have it delivered on christmas day? (With all of the tracking abilities available with commercial package distribution organizations?)
• Have legal proof of delivery of an item?

etc. etc.

Not only that, but people greatly exaggerate the perceived lack of reliability of the USPS. Remember that on average, the USPS delivers over half a BILLION pieces of mail a day. Even a small fraction of a percentage of that mail lost is a large amount. FedEX looses mail too, you know -- See
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/od/story.html ?s=v/nm/19990719/od/fedex_tests_1.html
(Sorry, I would anchor this in but slashdot keeps chewing up the url and spitting it back out null.)

Reminder -- Use your ZIP+4 code to help keep mailing costs down!

I found this nifty 1998 Annual Report at the USPS web site. They delivered 198 billion pieces of mail in 1998, 3.7% more than 1997. Most of the mail was First Class.

Reason 2.) I read someplace the the USPS plans on getting into the emial business in order to provide email services to the 50% of americans who are not online. However since I can find anything about this on the web site, maybe they have changed those plans.

They have a pretty spiffy web site. While that does not mean they will last, at least it is a nerd point in thier favor.

If so, then our antagonist in this case should have THEIR domain removed. My proof:

A search at USPS ZIP+4 Code Lookup for the address listed on aol.com, which is: 22000 AOL Way, DULLES VA 20166 (note the lack of zip+4, which I imagine NSI must retrieve before mailing) comes back from the USPS' own database as: "he address you entered was not found in DULLES VA in our database." Hmm, very interesting?

Now, once one corrects for the obvious flaw in the CITY (which is not commonly known), the new address becomes: 22000 AOL Way, STERLING VA 20166-9302, which is valid. But why, oh why, is their registration record incorrect, yet their domain continues to exist, in violation of NSI's standard for complete addresses?

One more thing to consider: Is my address wrong because I add a "tag" to trace junk mail or because I omit the street suffix, as in: 1208 Tiffany #K5 (no Ln, add #K5), but the USPS still delivers it correctly?

Just a thought.