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Most websites that require a postal address are also international, but it is a wonder how so many of these sites can make fatal flaws that make there site look unprofessional or unusable.

A registration form many seem like something simple to create, you just need to get the users postal address, username, password and email address. So many websites on the net can not seem to get even their registration forms correct.

5 digit postal codes

The idea that a postal code has to be 5 digits seems to be ingrained in every American. From their point of view, every address has a postal code and all postal codes are 5 digits.

When a website goes international, it needs to understand that the American way is not always the way that everyone else does things. Some countries:

• Have postal codes, but many citizens do not use them
• Have non-numerical postal codes
• Have postal codes shorter than 5 digits.

New Zealand has a 4 digit postal code. When someone from New Zealand uses some American sites, often they can not correctly enter their postal code as it is not 5 digits.

States

Hey America, not all countries have states. Just because a user can enter their country does not mean that your site is international. You need to understand that

• Smaller countries do not have states
• Users need to be able to enter non-US states
• Users need to be able to continue without entering a state.

Come on America, there are more than just Americans using the net.

Discrimination is defined as unfair or unequal treatment, based on prejudice, taken against a person or group of people because of:

• Race
• Colour
• Gender
• Religious belief
• Sexual orientation
• Nationality
• Culture
• Disability
• Age
• Class or trade union membership
• Political beliefs
• Dependants
• or other reasons

Discrimination occurs when a person is treated less favourably, on one of the above grounds, than others are or would be treated in the same or similar circumstances. This may be the result of conscious decision, policy or bias in a system or procedures. Indirect discrimination consists of applying a requirement or condition which although applied equally, has a disproportionately adverse effect on one group because the proportion of the group which can comply with it is much smaller that the proportion in the whole which can comply with it.

It seems that many people now-days go on about how they are discriminated against on the grounds of age, race and sex. There has been countless court cases where people have made claims that they were discriminated against, with most cases ruling in the discriminated persons favour.

The problem with these court cases is that they seem to be one sided. Most discrimination cases are where someone was:

• Against Women
  • Treating women differently to men
  • Not employing people because they are women
  • Making decisions that are against women
• Against the older generation of people
  • Stating that a potential employee must be young
  • Making decisions that are against older people
• Against a race that holds a minority
  • Not employing people because of their race
  • Making decisions that are against people of a different race

The problem with most of the court cases being for one of the above situations is that people do not realise some other types of discrimination. For example, if a qualified woman applied for a job in an all male company and was not employed, people would start claiming that there was discrimination. If a qualified man applied for a job at an all female workplace, people would think nothing of him not getting the job. What would you think?

Another example of where discrimination is overlooked is when it comes to age. If an older person applied for a job in a programming company where most of the workers are young, people would start claiming discrimination. If a highly qualified young person was not employed at a company where most of the employees where older, people would just think that the young person was just not experienced enough.

If anyone was to look at the prices of insurance they would have noticed that young males pay the most for car insurance. Is this not discrimination? Most people would just say "no" , this is not discrimination as it is a proven fact that young males have more expensive crashes than any other demographic, although this statement in itself is discriminating. If a company was to only employ men and had proven statistically that men were better in its industry, it would be called discrimination. What is the difference between only employing men since it was statistically found that they were better suited for the industry and charging young men more than others for insurance?

In my opinion both cases are discriminating.

The fact is that the world itself is so careful not to discriminate against the typical discriminated groups, that in some cases it now discriminates against everyone else.

Just ask yourself:

• Why are scholarships not evenly distributed between demographics
• Why does insurance cost more for some demographics
• Why should school children get to seen movies at a lower price, when they make the most noise in the cinemas?

If there was no discrimination, shouldn't everyone be paying the same price?

In Britain and the U.S. there is an lot of people still set on using the imperial system of measurement. It is yet another case of the desire for tradition against globalization and standardization.

The Imperial units are an irregularly standardized system of units that have been used in the United Kingdom and its former colonies, including the Commonwealth countries. The Imperial system is also called the English system or the British system.

The metric system or International System of Units, is the most widely used system of units. It is used for everyday commerce in virtually every country of the world except the United States.

What is good about the imperial system

There has been many claims to why the imperial system should be around, but most are belief that are not backed by fact.

• Traditional weights and measures should be kept as part of the national heritage
• People already know the imperial system
• Some metric units are less convenient
• It could increase costs
• Involves rewriting English literature which in any case already uses many units strange to us today

What is good about the metric system.

• A much simpler system
• No conversions (only one unit for each quantity)
• No numbers to memorize (derived units are defined without numerical factors)
• No fractions (decimals only)
• No long rows of zeros (prefixes eliminate them)
• Only 30 individual units (compared to hundreds of traditional units)
• Easy to pronounce and write (short names; simple letter symbols)
• Based on natural standards (size of Earth, water, laws of physics)
• Coherent system (symbols can be manipulated algebraically)
• World standard (even traditional U.S. units are defined by it)
• The only nations other than the USA which remain officially non-metric are Liberia and Myanmar (Burma).

There is one main point that prevents the change from imperial system to the metric, understanding. There are a lot of people in all areas of all industries that want to preserve the way things were measured in the past. Some schools in the U.S. and other places do not teach enough metric measurements as their teachers are so used to using the imperial measurement.

People are opposed to change, even if it is for the better.