[rescue] Things I'd like to find good homes for...

[Liam Proven]

On Wed, 2 Sep 2020 at 15:55, Sandwich Maker <adh at an.bradford.ma.us> wrote:
>
> yes, we can.  it's a simple duckduckgo query
> zipcode 01845

Well, yes, I could Google it or whatever too, but I meant by eye.

My old UK postcode was CR4 3SB. I know anything with CR- is the
general Croydon area. I also know IM?? is the Isle of Man, and
SW/SE/NW/NE are the quadrants of London. L?? is Liverpool, because I
was born there. Most of the rest I'd have to guess or simply would
have no idea.

There is only one Zip code that I know, and asking around a few years
ago, I discovered it is the *only* Zip code that basically every
non-North-American I could find knew. We all know it because we
sometimes have to use it, because sometimes web forms demand a Zip
code but don't validate it, and we don't know any others and we don't
even know the number of digits or if there is any particular format to
them.

So we all use the same one.

9 0 2 1 0.

So thanks to a TV series I never saw in my life, I know a single Zip
code and it's just occasionally been useful info to me.

> obtrivia: one of my mother's college roommates was from prague, an
> interesting person i got to meet when the iron curtain came down.

It's a beautiful city. I've lived here 3 years now and bought an
apartment here. Before that I lived for 3 years in Brno, the 2nd city
of the country, far smaller and less pretty, but far friendlier. This
is a very beautiful country, with low unemployment,  a very low cost
of living, lots of jobs for foreigners in its thriving tech sector,
and quick rail links to Germany, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary and points
east and west... but not so much to Poland because for reasons I don't
understand, the Czech and Polish train companies don't like each other
and refuse to cooperate.

The language is terrifying, though. 6 years of study and I am a total
beginner, barely past pidgin level. When much younger, I learned basic
tourist German in 3 days of hard work, and basic tourist Norwegian in
a couple of months, over a decade later. I can also get by in French
and Spanish. Over half a decade of Czech and I can't read a newspaper
headline.

I think it's one reason the place is so unspoiled.

But hey, it's still under $2 for a pint of beer and it's the best
lager in the world. :-)

Lots of fascinating retro computers, too. I covet one of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Didaktik#Didaktik_Kompakt

Possibly the first ZX Spectrum compatible with a built-in 3.5" floppy drive.


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