[AccessD] On DB Bloat, Bad DB Design, and various

Gustav Brock gustav at cactus.dk
Tue Jun 1 03:20:57 CDT 2004


Hi Stuart

There certainly is a market. The problem is that this topic is very
difficult to handle on a high level, thus applications for addressing
tends to be quite expensive because you inevitably will need frequent
updating of postal code validation.

For those interested in this area, visit Graham Rhind's site with a
huge collection of links:

  http://www.grcdi.nl

It doesn't look nice, but browse a little ...

/gustav



> I know this is already a week old, but I am only just now catching up on
> an interesting topic and thought I'd "share" my office address.

> Business Information Technology Solutions Limited (49 char)
> 1001 Workingberg Commercial Building (36 char)
> 41-47 Marble Road
> North Point
> Hong Kong

> As you can see the first line is 49 characters.  I have yet to do
> business with an "Internationalised" US company's website that simple
> allows me to enter my address as it stands without jumping through some
> hoop or another.  To be honest, the US is far from being the only
> offender on this.  Trust me I know.

> - Invariable it requires shortening (sometimes severely) the first two
> lines.  It is not uncommon for 25 letters to be the maximum allowed.  I
> have seen business names in this part of the world that are over 100
> characters in length.  
> - It is also not uncommon that 2 address lines are all that is provided.
> - 99% of sites require a postal code.  I don't have one.
> - 99% of sites require a state.  I don't have one.

> I sometimes wonder whether there would be a market for an address
> datachecker with business rules on a country by country basis.  But then
> since it is we the "user" that have to jumo through the hoops, probably
> not.  I do know that some sites have lost business if they are too
> strict on their data entry rules.

> Stuart




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