#postcode — Public Fediverse posts

Die Butimba Primary School in Mwanza, Tansania erhielt über das Labdoo Hub Würzburg und die Familie Gundolf IT-Spenden für einen Computerraum. Vielen Dank allen Beteiligten.
https://platform.labdoo.org/de/edoovillage?e=227878
@Labdoo_D wird gefördert von der Deutsche Postcode Lotterie u.a. für Laptopreparaturen, Ersatzteile und Logistik.
#labdoo #würzburg #mwanza #tansania #PostcodeLotterie #PostcodeEffekt #postcode #danke #laptop #schule #bildung

An example of enshittification and how badly Google has broken its core reason for existence, search: Google is using an LLM to "hallucinate" postcodes.

I dunno about other countries, but in Australia, if you get someone's postcode correct and a detail as simple as the recipient's name or nickname, a street name without the number, or the name of a home, then our postal service has a miraculously high success-rate for delivering a letter or parcel to the correct destination. You can write the wrong suburb or state in the address, but if you use the right the postcode, Australia Post delivers. But, without the correct postcode, you're up the creek without a paddle. The wrong postcode can lead to delayed delivery or can result in your mail getting the "Return to sender" treatment.

Google Search results _could_ index the database from Australia Post or pay a moderate commercial licensing fee to access their API. But, instead, Google's got an LLM to make-up postcodes. The results are near enough to appear convincing at first glance, such as using '3' for first digit of postcodes in Victoria. Then, they present it in the top position of Search results and have the cheek to use the Australia Post logo. In my experience, there appears to be a correlation between numerical similarity of Google's fictional postcodes and geographical proximity of suburbs. Google's "AI Overview" presents misleading nonsense instead of using traditional indexing or a trivial lookup table.

(More details in the Alt-text of the screenshot.)

#Google #GoogleSearch #AI #AIOverview #LLMs #Enshittification #AustraliaPost #Australia #Postcode #Zipcode

"...10,000 patients had waited more than a year to see a specialist and a further 2,500 had then had to wait another year for treatment. "; "Some people are being denied elective surgeries that they would qualify for if they lived in a different region. " - and much more from The #Kākā by Bernard #Hickey <[email protected]> commenting favourably on the #1News report by #JessicaRoden. Some of us who have moved barely 100 km north have noticed the #postcode lottery too. #Healthcare in #NZ varies greatly with location.