

A novel way to address your envelope - RiderOfGiraffes
http://mapenvelope.com/

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callahad
I'm kind of confused about the placement of the marker and personal note. In
most cases, I open envelopes by tearing the topmost fold, which would cut the
connection between the place marker and the message.

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IgorPartola
I think this envelope is intended to be placed into another one which is
actually mailed, so that the one with the marker does not have to be sealed. I
guess that's pretty common for doing various kinds of formal invitations, etc.

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ccorda
Similar project: [http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/03/30/google-envelopes-
beta-...](http://www.yankodesign.com/2010/03/30/google-envelopes-beta-of-
course/)

And a partial howto from one of Google's Appengine devs, Nick Johnson:

<http://mapvelopes.appspot.com/>

[http://blog.notdot.net/2010/04/Generating-PDFs-on-App-
Engine...](http://blog.notdot.net/2010/04/Generating-PDFs-on-App-Engine-
Python-and-introducing-Mapvelopes)

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cpr
Wish we could zoom in or out; some addresses are way too far out to be
interesting.

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joshfinnie
Doesn't seem to work for me, though I am using IE6 so that is probably the
issue.

I think this would be fun, but anyone have any experience making their own
envelopes? Wonder if they hold up well...

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duck
IE6? Wow!

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esornoso
He should get a prize for still using IE6. Any suggestions?

~~~
WildUtah
Torture?

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tokenadult
I like that the submitted site has a "send me an email" link. I didn't see a
privacy policy posted (that's usually de rigueur for a website that asks for
personal information), so I sent a question asking what the privacy policy was
for users who submit their personal address.

Edit for update: I received this answer to my question:

"The policy is that we don't do anything with it whatsoever.

\-- Stephen Hallgren"

That might be a good thing to say explicitly on the site, with the usual
"privacy" link text.

~~~
cryptnoob
Is the "privacy policy" a legally binding document? If so, how so? If not, why
do you think it's important what a tiny start-up's privacy policy is?

The privacy policy is a promise. Broken promises have repercussions in
proportion to how well known it is that you break your promises. For Facebook,
that might be important. For weekendproject.com, I can't imagine why you're
fixated on it.

~~~
tokenadult
I don't know how you reach the conclusion I'm "fixated" on anything. I just
note for the record that it's an industry-standard recommendation for websites
that solicit personal information to declare a privacy policy. I agree that
there has to be a certain degree of user trust in any such stated policy,
because the stated policy might be a lie. On the other hand, if the stated
policy is a lie, then users who are misled by the stated policy would have a
legal remedy if they chose to pursue that.

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endlessvoid94
The default example when I loaded the page was "Niagara Falls", but the market
was on a golf course. Weird.

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aw3c2
I guess this prints Google Maps on it? How can this be legally fine? Google
Maps is not even remotely "free" for such things. OpenStreetMap data however
would allow it with attribution.

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Frazzydee
If they're using the API, then "as long as your site is generally accessible
to consumers without charge, you may use the Google Maps API"
(<http://code.google.com/apis/maps/faq.html#tos_commercial>)

~~~
aw3c2
Oh, I was thinking they would actually print out the envelope. If it is "just"
a website then of course it is fine.

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wmblaettler
"Sorry, we were unable to geocode that address" for every address entered.
Different browsers, all the same message.

~~~
wmblaettler
Ok, it's working from home, must be a firewall or shared IP thing at work...
odd.

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mdemare
Wish it wouldn't mangle the formatting of the address, but that's probably the
fault of Google.

