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Quote from: jeffandnicole on April 27, 2024, 05:52:17 PMQuote from: noelbotevera on April 27, 2024, 01:18:49 AMPenn State happens to publish old campus maps that I personally find interesting. I've yet to find a town map of State College in PSU libraries or published by the state, so for now this page has to suffice. Walking around campus, there's some geography notes I've found interesting:
- 1992 map: what on earth are those phone numbers? I've seen 7 digit phone numbers (area code is implied), but never 5 digit ones.
This is a product of the phone system the college uses. Using a phone within the college's system, they only need to dial the 5 numbers shown. The 1st number is the last number of the local extension (ie: 623-3064. If you needed to call from outside the school's system, just dial the 7 digit number, which is now probably area code plus 7 digit number). Each professor's office, classroom, administration and other offices all probably had 5 digit numbers as well.
State offices in Trenton, NJ have the same (or at least similar) system, although some Divisions and Departments have changed to a newer system that involves dialing all 10 digits.
Quote from: triplemultiplex on April 26, 2024, 11:09:32 AMAs much as a LOVE panning around on Google Earth and the like and enjoy it when there is new imagery to browse, I have a pang of nostalgia for the days before the ubiquity of such online resources and my efforts to keep our copy of the Delorme atlas for Wisconsin updated amid a flurry of rural expressway/freeway construction in the state.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 01:31:04 PMIf I had my druthers, merchants would not be allowed to sell anything with a deferred-redemption component unless the full value of said component were kept available to the customer without expiration. This would mean:
* Store gift cards and gift certificates would never expire.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 01:31:04 PMIf this forced supermarket chains to phase out loyalty programs, I would not shed a tear.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 05:08:47 PMQuote from: SEWIGuy on April 28, 2024, 04:33:33 PMBut it is not required that returned merchandise be returned for cash. (It's almost always in-store credit - which is basically a gift card.) So I have no idea why gift cards should be. I mean these are gifts.
That has not been my experience. On the few occasions I have returned things for a refund, I have typically received a chargeback on the card I used to pay. I can't remember the last time I was asked to settle for in-store credit or a voucher that I could spend only at the business concerned.
Quote from: J N Winkler on April 28, 2024, 05:08:47 PMQuote from: kkt on April 28, 2024, 04:37:59 PMOkay, but what does "never expire" really mean? Businesses don't stay around forever. They don't have any way of knowing how to get ahold of people who have gift cards they issued, and I wouldn't want to be on their mailing list if they did.
"Never expires" means that the value of the card (or other deferred-redemption instrument) would remain a liability against the business indefinitely. Realistically, I think it would have to be dischargeable in bankruptcy, even if this meant that customers would have to settle for pennies on the dollar.
Quote from: Road Hog on April 28, 2024, 11:06:08 PMThe Edgar Allen Poe Bridge.Trusses cause an unkindness.
Murder out the trusses.