Donating to EFF

[Edvard]

How do you know they didn't get those stamps donated to them so they could do this for people?

-Stephen66515 (January 10, 2015, 03:03 AM)

The stamp is not an actual stamp, but an imprint stating the price as well.

-eleman (January 10, 2015, 04:21 AM)

Yes, but how do you know those costs are not being covered by a Third Party?

-Stephen66515 (January 10, 2015, 04:26 AM)

Common things occur commonly, uncommon things do not. When you hear hoofbeats, don't think of zebras.

-eleman (January 10, 2015, 05:22 AM)

Now that has got to be one of my absolute favorite posts.

I have absolutely no idea what it means. But I love it!

P.S. Sould I hear hoofbeats...I'm most likely hallucinating. (I live in the suburbs y'see.)  

-40hz (January 10, 2015, 08:17 AM)

I got it right away.  Roughly analogous to "If it quacks like a duck...".
Nice one eleman, I'm going to have to steal it one day.  

[TaoPhoenix]

It was indeed a truly brilliant response - that sounds oddly familiar. So either I've heard it before...or it just made perfect sense to me initially. Which - since no one else seems to have understood it - could be a very bad sign for both myself and eleman..

-Stoic Joker (January 10, 2015, 09:36 AM)

I feel "reverse confused", why this is apparently so hard.

To me, it's just Occam's Razor. Simplest Explanations First, and all that. Hoofbeats - eliminate the possibility of both horses AND zebras, before you discover someone is parading a camel to make a YouTube video! Or a Monty Python re-enactment! (Everything is possible in pursuit of a viral video!)



A couple of TV shows are fundamentally built on the "zebra" premise. House from the show even stated it point blank in an episode or two - I can't quite recall but he almost used the same language even! Something like "you see, I don't get the ordinary cases (except when Cuddy is being a bitch and making me do clinic duty.) So by the time it gets to me, the hoofbeats *aren't* horses because the other three doctors would have looked for that. So *our* intelligent place to start is with the zebras first."

[KynloStephen66515]

Seven.

[40hz]

I'm not sure if that, that that, that that, that that referred back to was that that I understood it to be.

But enough of that.

[Shades]

@40Hz:
In the Netherlands it was relatively easy to get such a device for an organization. Because there you had to pay upfront for the expected postal mail. Those also came with a counter that counted back and even weighed the envelope/letter. At least the one in the army base where I was working at the time did. Although we often bypassed that part to speed up the process. Pre-sorting on weight by hand (literally) was much faster (we had to handle all military/civilian postal needs for 4 army bases and 15 auxiliary units).   

Also, you'd better not exceed the agreed upon limits, or use the wrong frank with the weight of an envelope/letter. Those 'civies' would become quite hostile if we did...forgetting who they were talking to (army, having weapons and all ). Then again, the Dutch and German postal services are/were very efficient and fast. Standard postage mail would even arrive after 1 day, although that qualified to be delivered in 3 days. Even standard postage mail sent to any country in Europe or US/Canada would arrive within a day, sometimes 2 at the intended location. Northern Africa (Tunesia, Marocco) and Turkey were quite efficient as well. Other continents or parts thereof...not so much in my experience.

Here in Paraguay (South America) international mail may arrive quite fast at the national postal services, although that is not a given. Doesn't even matter if the sender paid for high priority postage or not. Also, this doesn't mean that the mail will arrive at the intended destination any soon either. Unfortunately, the rule of 3 applies here. Don't expect any mail to arrive within 3 days. More realistic is 3 weeks or 3 months. After that...consider it lost. National mail is also problematic, bills arriving on the final day that they can be paid is quite common. Automatic payment facilities, web or otherwise, do not exist here. It is quite easy to get disconnected not of your own fault.

In all the time I have been here, I don't think I have ever seen national mail being sent without stamps. Utility bills don't even have stamps at all. So I'll assume there are no such frank systems here.

[40hz]

In the Netherlands it was relatively easy to get such a device for an organization.

-Shades (January 18, 2015, 09:56 AM)

Same here. Anybody - or any organization - can get a "postage meter" as they're called here. And as long as you're paying the full postage rate, you're all set. What is less easy to get is a mail "permit" that gets you special postage rates. The most common is "bulk mail" or "pre-sorted" (i.e. junkmail) as they call it nowadays. In exchange for complying with a bunch of somewhat complex rules plus doing some of the post office's sorting work, you get substantial discounts over the usual first class single item rate.

Non-profit permits are trickier. You first need to obtain formal recognition of your "tax-exempt" or 501(c)(3) status from the IRS. That's not an easy thing to do these days. The IRS has gotten very tough about who and what qualifies since NPOs get favorable tax treatment. After that you need to apply for the non-profit mailing permit.

[eleman]

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