Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with address

Wrong address on the envelope, what am I to do?

913 — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:00:50 -0800

Canada Post filter: I sent a registered letter yesterday. I JUST realized that the return address I put on the envelope is slightly incorrect. What can I do? - The address isn't totally incorrect. It should be 905-109 Street but I accidentally wrote down 109-905 Street (there is no such address in my city - it's technically the middle of a park).

- The letter inside the envelope has the correct address on it.

- For all intents and purposes, I'm not able to contact the recipient to tell them the address on the envelope is incorrect.

Basically, I'm looking to see what my options are. I've tried calling Canada Post but they're closed until tomorrow morning (I will try again then).

Do people respond to letters (to a company) via the address on the envelope or would they use the address on the letter? Would I be able to re-direct mail from that address to mine? Main issue is that it would probably be registered mail coming to me, too - so I'd have to sign for it.

Help the pizza delivery guy find my house, please

The corpse in the library — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 14:09:19 -0800

It's hard to see our house number from the street. I want to get a sign or post to put at the end of the driveway. Suggestions? I'm finding plenty of people on-line who are willing to sell me signs, but they all seem to have rather sketchy websites or else the signs not my style. I don't want a wrought-iron rose, or a horse silhouette, or a Harley Davidson logo, but I also don't want it to look like a highway marker. (I'm not sure what I do want, unfortunately.)

It's important that the numbers be easy to see at night, and our street is dark. A solar-powered sign would be good but I live in Western Washington and the sign will be on the north side of a hedge, so I can't imagine it getting enough of a charge. Something reflective? Some super-sensitive solar cells? A big rock and a bucket of radium paint?

How can I get all residential addresses in a single town?

crapples — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:44:35 -0800

How can I get lists of all residential mailing addresses for a single town in the USA? I have a project that will require a one-time mass mailing to every resident in a single, very small (population < 500), town in the United States. How can I get a listing of every residential address in the town of interest?

Bonus points if it's free! Half-points and a congratulatory thumbs-up if it's cheap.

Thanks.

Website based oin IP address

yoyo_nyc — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 11:37:59 -0800

How do I show different webages to my website visitors based on country of origin? Currently I read the browser language settings with this code.

This has some disadvantages for my application. How would a code look that shows different websites not based on the language browser settings but on the actual IP location?

Is co-working best for us?

christopherbdnk — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 16:38:19 -0800

Is co-working best for us? My business which had been run out of home offices for the past few months has grown large enough that we'll need a central location for working sometimes, a conference room where meetings can be held, and most importantly, maybe, a legitimate address where packages can be delivered and queued for shipping. I've read about local offerings in NYC/Brooklyn, where a group of entrepreneurs and established businesses share a central space, but I'm not sure if it's the best thing for us.

Are there other options? We're not yet at the point where we want to budget for our own office ($1500+), but we do need something a bit more sophisticated than a UPS Store box.

How to completely clear Apple Address Book in preparation for recovery?

odinsdream — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 08:22:22 -0800

Recovering Address Book data. Apple Address Book phantom entries keep returning, even after deleting the data files and prefs lists. Where are they coming from? How can I get the original data back? I'm trying to help someone recover their address book data after they upgraded from Tiger to Snow Leopard.

They started with around 200 address cards. After the Snow Leopard upgrade they have 20. These 20 don't seem to have anything in common with eachother.

Several online resources indicate that I could use the file:

~\Library\Application Support\Address Book\AddressBook.data.previous

...by deleting the AddressBook.data file, and renaming the above to sit in its place. I've sifted through the AddressBook.data.previous file with an editor. It's 1.9 MB, and appears to contain all of her 200 cards.

I haven't been able to get the replacement working, though, because of this oddity:

1. Close Mail, Address Book, iCal.
2. Delete the entire ~\Library\Application Support\Address Book folder, and delete all of the ~\Library\Preferences\com.apple.addressbook* files.
3. Re-open Address Book.

Result: Those 20 cards are back. The Address Book comes up empty first, then these cards magically appear. The Application Support\Address Book folder now contains data related to these cards, where before it didn't even exist.

MobileMe sync is disabled. There is no other Sync option in the Address Book preferences Accounts area. Where are these cards coming from?

I have a feeling that if I solve this part, I could probably get the recovery working, but I'm stumped.

Excel: How can I decide which cell to apply to a formula, based on the runtime contents of another cell?

Flunkie — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 15:23:57 -0800

Excel: How can I decide which cell to apply to a formula, based on the runtime contents of another cell? For example, let's say I have column A filled with a bunch of values. In any given cell of column B, I want to display the value of the adjacent A-cell minus the value of some other A cell, a bit further down the column. But I don't know exactly how far down the column when I'm designing the spreadsheet, so I have another cell, C1, which tells me how far down.

So, if C1 has value 1, then B1 should be A1-A2, B2 should be A2-A3, and B3 should be A3-A4.

But if C1 has value 10, then B1 should be A1-A11, B2 should be A2-A12, and B3 should be B3-B13.

I'm imagining something like setting B1 to "A1-CELLATADDRESS(A, 1+$C$1))".

US Street Address question

gatorbiddy — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 16:04:36 -0800

If you have a unit letter in your street address, is it proper for it to go after the street number, or after the street name? What is the correct way to include a unit letter? Is it 125B Main Street or is it 125 Main Street Unit B? Or does it not really matter one way or the other? I'm moving and want to pick the correct one as I change everything. The lease does say 125B Main Street, but I feel like it is more appropriate to put Unit B. The USPS zip code lookup doesn't seem to like 125B that much.

The apartment contains two units A and B that share the same front door (numbered 125) and mail slot.

Thanks!

Losing a contact (and not in the "fall out of your eye onto the carpet" way)

rileyray3000 — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 12:56:46 -0800

On a mac, in the address book program, is there any way to sort contacts or have a group, that shows the contacts that have been most recently created? I recently switched to mac after years on a PC. I tried Entourage for a week and realized it was slow and clunky. So now I'm just using mail, address book and ical. So far ical and mail are great. It's address book that's a pain. It doesn't seem to have a lot of ways to search in it.

I'll meet some person, take down their info in the field on my iphone with the intention of putting them in some group, then, once it syncs, I forget who they are and I've gotta scroll through 500 contacts to look.

So IS there a way to create some sort of smart group or some such that you can create or something that shows recently added contacts?

Can I use a U.S. based web server to gain a U.S. ip address for a computer located outside the U.S.?

Anonymous — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:51:29 -0800

Can I use a U.S. based web server to gain a U.S. ip address for a computer located outside the U.S.? I have a dedicated windows web server rented from a U.S. web hosting company (the server is - to state the obvious - located in the U.S.). I would like to have a U.S. ip address for my home computer which like myself resides outside of the U.S. (In Europe).

I can access the web server via remote desktop from my work computer, this access is limited to my work ip address. However I would like to know if it is possible to use the web server to somehow acquire a U.S. ip address for my home (non-work - I dont have remote desktop access) computer, for the purposes of accessing services which are limited to the U.S. (HULU.com etc). So while I can easily gain access to the web server from home via other means like logmein.com I really need the U.S. ip address as I need sound!

Assume I know very little about this aspect of computing. Also know that I do not wish to do anything illegal nor do I wish to do anything which would throw up any red flags to my hosting company or appear like some sort of hack-attack to them. They are very well run and I am very happy with their service and do not wish to jeopardise it. Final comment about the hosting company - they have very tight security, enforce strong passwords and from my limited knowledge are likely to have applied all reasonable security measures to this web server. The reason I am not asking my hosting company this question is that I do not want to be seen to be requesting something which could potentially appal them.

Hoping I have given background detail on which to base an answer to the question. So one final piece of information. Within IIS there are 10 ip addresses which I can assign to directories on the web server. Don’t know if one of these can somehow be used by my laptop.

So to restate the question for clarity. Is it possible to use a U.S. based web server to provide a U.S. ip address to a computer outside the US? And if so how?

To thank, or not to thank

Anonymous — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:49:20 -0800

Is it appropriate to use an email address given as a part of a donation to send a short thank you note, when the person making the donation through my website did not consent to me using their email address? I have a small, non-commercial blog on which I have a donation button inviting friends, family, interested strangers, etc. to donate funds through PayPal to help my family cover the costs of reaching a personal/family goal. In the couple of weeks I've had the donation button up, a handful of people have donated. Some are individuals I know IRL, others are not. PayPal collects the email addresses of those who donate, and I'm sure has its own privacy policy associated with email addresses. I have NOT done any disclaimer or notification to people that I might use their email address to respond to them or in any other way, nor do I have any anonymous donation option.

I am considering sending a simple emailed thank you note to those who donate, but I am wondering whether as a matter of etiquette, this comes off odd. I have a ticker on the website through ChipIn that shows people I have received their donation. The purpose of my email would be a second acknowledgment and a brief thank you. "Good manners" says thank people for gifts, but I am just wondering if there is any reason in this particular circumstances that my thank you notes might seem spammy or intrusive, since I have not asked permission to use the email addresses. I am of course not really concerned about this for those I know IRL, more so for those who are otherwise strangers. I would not be using the email addresses to create a mailing list or for ANY other reason whatsoever.

Yes, I overthink EVERYTHING. This is anon bc the website is linked from my profile, and it therefore seemed skeevy to not anonymize the question.

Zip, indeed.

dinger — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:39:00 -0800

Since we all have nine-digit zip codes now, why is it still neccesary to include the city and state in a postal address? Zip codes, as far as I know, are unique. If so, why should we still have to include the city and state in a mailing address? Isn't that redundant?

My contacts need a fire-proof home.

RobertFrost — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:39:41 -0800

Anybody know of a worthwhile, online address book? I am looking for an online address book to be the internet version of my little black book. I know there are many out there, but I haven't been able to find one that suites all of my desires. This is what I want:

1. The ability to apply multiple tags to entries and to view/export entries according to tags (i.e. family, business, friends)
2. The ability to input international address (keepm for example has a "country" field, but only allows for a 5 digit zip code, meaning Japanese addresses - with an 8 digit zip - are a no go)
3. The ability to export into an Excel spreadsheet, or even better directly to Word labels (Christmas card time).
4. If possible, the ability to choose which contacts to export, and which fields to export
5. This may be me dreaming - but some way to keep a tally of how often you have emailed a particular person. I live overseas and travel a lot, so I send a lot of postcards to keep in touch with friends and family. It would be nice to be able to view my address according to how many mailings I've sent them so I can be sure I'm mailing everyone evenly.
6. An interface where data entry is easy (I have an entire book worth of addresses to input).

I thought about just making a spreadsheet on google docs, but there is no way to export them to labels and I do a pretty massive mailing at xmas/new years time that I would prefer to print up labels for (currently I hand write them, it takes ALOT of time).

Thanks for any guidance you might have!

Help me clean an email list?

By The Grace of God — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 11:34:32 -0800

What is the best way to clean this mailing list of bad email addresses? Difficulty: No address cleaners, but I do have a snapshot - the results of sending a newsletter to the list, and the resultant bounce reports. I have this information in several forms.. in the webmail inside a standard cpanel; in the sent files and incoming files in Thunderbird; and I also have the bounce reports in my gmail. I also have an excel file of the whole list I used.

I emailed the list in chunks of 50, from Thunderbird.

I am looking for a process that would be easiest, a full walkthrough would be best - I have full office suite and a technical husband that can use scripts and stuff.

Many thanks!

Stop Gmail auto-adding to my contacts list?

wastelands — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 08:20:45 -0800

Gmail, can you please stop automatically adding to my contacts list!? How do I get Gmail to stop adding every single person I email -- even one-off crap -- to my contacts list? It bugs me because those addresses show up in the keyboard address completion when I'm adding contacts to a new email. I find myself regularly pruning the All Contacts list. Even stuff that's NOT in any contacts list will auto-complete when I'm typing in the To/CC/BCC fields.

I absolutely love Gmail, but this feature drives me nuts. I've looked through Settings, nothing. I've googled for help, no real luck.

MeFi to the rescue?

Postal Address in Niagara Falls

bright77blue — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 07:23:32 -0800

Postal Address In Niagara Falls, NY - I live in Toronto Canada and would like to have a postal address in Niagara Falls, NY. Some offerings (e.g.) free Amazon music downloads, (or buying songs from Amazon), rebates, etc. Of course I can provide identity - passport etc. Any ideas? There is no problem opening a bank account in the US - they will issue me with a debit card, but it would be nice to build up a solid credit record in the US. Different question (sorry)

Thanks!

BB

What address to put on returns for filing taxes for two states?

Rustbeard — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 18:01:03 -0800

Last year I lived and worked in two different states (RI and CA) I worked two jobs in RI and then got another temp job in CA and moved out there in the fall. So I am using TaxCut to file my returns (yes I know its cutting it close) but I am confused when it asks for the "Employee's address" under the W-2 section; what do I put? Do I put my address where I used to live for those jobs back in RI or my current one in CA? I still consider myself a RI resident and will be moving out of CA in two weeks back to New England.

to: you@youremail.com subject: a gift for you

grumblebee — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 11:08:11 -0800

If you want to send someone a classy thank you gift, e.g. wine, chocolates or flowers, what are the best options if all you have in terms of contact info is the person's email address? I don't want to send a gift certificate. I don't want to ask for a street address, because that will be a give away.

I want something along of lines of "Grumblebee has sent you some _____ wine. Click here to redeem." Then they enter their street address and the wine is sent to them.

Recipients are in the U.S., as am I.

Mapmaker mapmaker make me a map

sanka — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:59:05 -0800

So I have a lot of addresses. How can I map them? I have a list of probably 40 addresses. I'm looking for a simple way to map them out. I know several online places like google maps can do this one by one, but is there something out there where I can just copy/paste the entire list and have them come out on a map?

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL?

farmersckn — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 15:20:02 -0800

How do I make Firefox go to a page that I choose if I type a bad URL? This askmefi post has some potentially useful info but it does not apply in my case.

In Firefox 3.06, if I type a bad URL into my address bar, such as http://blah/ and instead of doing a google search or an error page, or showing me a url that I might have been attempting to reach, like blah.com, it takes me to this spam search page: "http://hwerror.hwpub.com/?ck=esb02oob60&et=1".

I have modified "keyword.url" in my about:config to do a google search on keywords (different than the default I'm feeling Lucky Search), but it has no effect when I type only a single word into my address bar and hit enter.

I have tried to disable "keyword.enabled" and that has no effect on this problem either.

I have run firefox in safe mode and it has the same result.

I have already switched my DNS server to OpenDNS and confirmed that it is working, so I do not believe that my ISP is re-routing my request.

It is interesting to me, that if I view source on the page, it shows a frameset, and only within that frameset does it pull in the url for the search page referenced above.

I believe that somewhere inside the code or configuration files, or possibly an extension, Firefox has been tweaked to do this to me. Is it possible for me to reconfigure it so that it does not happen?

I am already aware that I am causing this by typing a malformed URL, and that I can do keyword searches if I type two words into the address bar, and also that I can hit CTRL+ENTER to magically append ".com" to a single word in the address bar.

I just want to know if there is a way to put this intercept this redirect and put in my own to google or whatever I desire.

Thank you all.

How can I find mailing addresses along a route?

kjackelen05 — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 13:35:49 -0800

Is there a tool for generating a list of addresses along a route? That is, if I wanted to mail a letter to everyone who lives along the route from point A to point B, is there an online tool available to help me find the addresses?

Help finding "earth" business address for website.

SociologistTina — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 11:14:34 -0800

I have the web address, but can find no "earth" address for a website which I would like to contact by snail mail. Is there a way online (hopefully free) to find the actual business address for a website?

Hey Miss Thang... or should I call you Sir Thang? Sir Miss Thang?

NikitaNikita — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:18:43 -0800

Should you address a knighted person as "Sir," as opposed to his/her professional title? Given this recent thread, I figure this is best place to ask:

Let's say* I'm sending an initial email to someone who is knighted, yet I'd normally address the person as "Dr Soandso", especially because we are emailing about our doctoral work-related things, so to speak -- should I be beginning my email "Sir Soandso" instead? or do you use both Sir and Dr?

Also, do people really address a knighted person as "Sir FirstName", like I've seen in some news articles? Because, if Sir and Dr are synonymous titles, it sounds more cutesy than professional to my ear. ("Hi Dr Bob!" for example)

I'm American, and like twoleftfeet in the aforementioned thread, I don't really know much about this knight business. In fact, I've never thought of seriously calling someone "Sir" until now, so it sounds funny to me. Oh, and the Sir-in-question right now is a British male, PhD if that makes any difference too.

Thanks!

*because I am

Hypercard stack to Mac Address Book?

woot — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 17:59:09 -0800

How can I move all 1200 of my dad's Hypercard addresses to Mac Address Book? Fifteen years ago my dad started using Hypercard's Address Book stack. It's time to convert all 1200 cards of it to Mac's Address Book format. I've done some research into this and while I've found apps that will *open* a Hypercard stack, I can't find something that will either export the stack into a text format or convert it right over to Address Book. Please help me, hive mind, you're my only hope.

fauxstal address problems

Franklin76 — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 05:51:52 -0800

[Postal_Filter] I sent out 45 postcards to friends for X-Mas. They had a "From" address (labeled as such) and a "To" address (also labeled as such). Somehow, the Post Office sent it all to the "From" Address (not return to sender for insufficient postage or anything). Do I have any recourse in getting these sent to the right address? Is it bad protocol on my part to put a very visible "From" Address on a postcard?