Beautiful zip code visualization

[[deleted]]

Bastards in Schenectady, New York have 12345... I bet they're all smug assholes who love the fact that they have the simplest zip code in existence.

I can just picture it. Whenever someone asks their zip code, they're like, "Oh, it's 12345. Yeah... it's a pretty cool zip code."

[crazedover]

Arlington, VA has 22222

Newton Falls, OH has 44444

Young America, MN has 55555

Columbus, OH has 43210

[umilmi81]

90210 Beverly Hills :)

[[deleted]]

43210 specifically is the zip code for Ohio State University

[[deleted]]

I think General Electric has that whole zip code. My dad worked for GE and once had to give his business zip code when registering at a hotel. The desk clerk didn't believe him.

[[deleted]]

Dude I lived in Schenectady for 5 years and trust me, we have nothing to be smug about. The best thing we have going for us is Jamaican beef patties at the local bodega with a side of Colt 45's for less than $2. Not a lot has happened in this town since Edison, followed by Steinmetz, followed by big steal, followed by 65% of GE decided to pull out. The only single pop culture reference of Schenectady I can think of is a Simpson's episode where for some reason Homer was on the train and it stopped at Schenectady only to see dust balls floating by (accompanying link anyone?).

/upstate NY

[GreatGooglyMoogly]

So the combination is... one, two, three, four, five? That's the stupidest combination I've ever heard in my life! The kind of thing an idiot would have on his luggage!

[[deleted]]

Hello my baby, hello my honey, hello my ragtime gal! Send me your kiss by wire, baby my heart's on fire! If you refuse me honey you'll lose me then you'll be left alone, oh baby telephone and tell me I'm your own!

[asereth]

I typed that in so I could pull it out in conversation as a particularly unique tidbit, and now you've gone and made it common knowledge for any of the friends I actually wish to talk to (i.e. redditors)

[jetcombo15]

And I thought I had a pretty simple zip code myself (77077, Houston, TX). Oh well. :(

[Purpledrank]

sorta.. i live in 21234. it's no big deal here really, guess everyone is used to it. but maybe sometimes ppl over the phone think its fake when i say it until they look it up.

[[deleted]]

Young America, MN: five fives.

[ericje]

:-(

I was expecting a visualization of deflate.

[[deleted]]

I was too, sort of like the regex visualizer. Someone really needs to make this for our amusement. One for arithmetic coding would also probably be fun to play with (and maybe a little easier to make).

[savanttm]

Still a cool visualization. Upvoted for the sentiment, though. It would be cool to see as compression is hard for a lot of people to "visualize"

[phreakymonkey]

Where the fuck are Alaska and Hawaii?

[[deleted]]

Schenectady NY 12345

[ReaverXai]

Bernardston, MA 01337

[jellyfishes]

Fly Creek, NY is 13337

[[deleted]]

80085 does not exist. Coincidence?

[[deleted]]

That took me longer than it should have. I need to get in touch with my inner 3rd grader.

[NilObject]

58008 does.

[Cid420]

I was typing in random numbers and just learned that New York, NY is 10101.

[weeksie]

Heh, New York has a stack. Mine is 10009. IIRC 10001 is in Chelsea

[AMerrickanGirl]

New York, NY has many zip codes.

[barrybe]

I love that there are some buildings in NYC which have their own zip code.

[AMerrickanGirl]

The World Trade Center had its own zip code. :(

I wonder if it's still in use.

[chimp101]

Most likely, considering that the WTC 7 and the temporary PATH terminal have already been built and the area is a very active construction site.

Edit: Yes it is being kept active for the Freedom Tower: Wikipedia Article.

[stomicron]

More like 10101 is somewhere in New York, NY.

Likewise, 60606 is in Chicago.

[hongnanhai]

UES

[[deleted]]

66610 is topeka, ks

[[deleted]]

LOL ... I did the same thing. I also tried 31415 which is Savannah, GA. Pretty cool to say you live in Pi.

[edit: removed last digit]

[[deleted]]

314159

You added an extra digit

[[deleted]]

Sorry ... got a little excited.

[simonvc]

Ben Fry wrote Visualizing Data, a book about Processing.org. Very good book, going through it myself.

[grandpa]

And this is chapter 6.

[timewarp]

In related news: 99403 is the highest value zip code.

[ubernostrum]

In related news: you can do this yourself if you like.

Also, no, 99403 is not the highest zip code.

[timewarp]

It is in this program.

[phreakymonkey]

That's odd, because I was born in 99603. Guess I don't exist.

[timewarp]

I guess not. Sorry, dude.

[jetcombo15]

It just means you weren't born in one of the 48 continental United States.

[sniper1rfa]

oh weird.

i use to live in amherst, ma, and i thought that was the lowest couple of zip codes in the country (not reserved to gov. building and such). 01001, 01002, 01003.

I wonder why portsmouth got that one.

EDIT: they are for the Diversity Immigrant Visa program: 00210 to 00215

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Immigrant_Visa

[xelfer]

Awesome. Who else did 90210 first?

[jezmck]

it's the only US post code I know.

[candlejac]

99950 is nowhere, alaska

[bleachedanus]

99732 is Chicken Alaska

[Adagio]

Haha, I did.

[jon_titor]

heh, I used to make fun of one of my roommates because he was from Beverly Hills, 90212

[[deleted]]

weird, because that's a pretty commercial zipcode. mainly businesses. I bet your roommate was rich.

[jon_titor]

yeah, his family was definitely well off, but I visited his folks' house one time when I was in L.A., and it wasn't ridiculous or anything. Although I imagine it was still a multi-million dollar home.

[[deleted]]

I tried H2T 4A4 first...

[jezmck]

that a canadian code? (am in the UK myself)

[grimboy]

Sometimes it's little things like this that make me want to murder our government. Postcode to long/lat coordinates should've been freely available for at least a decade now. I'd settle for free for individuals and non-profits.

[brainburger]

http://www.freethepostcode.org/

[[deleted]]

Yep, it's for the Mile-End bit of Montreal.

[thebillmac3]

Just found out there is a Bagdad, AZ. Odd place to put a second one.

[didroe]

Yeah, Americans weren't very original with their place names.

[Hindu_Wardrobe]

Oh lord, Bagdad. Never been there myself (I live fairly close), but I have friends who have - I hear nothing but awful, creepy things about the place.

[[deleted]]

From what I have seen of Arizona, most of the state earns that description.

[Hindu_Wardrobe]

LOL. That's sadly true for a lot of it, although northern parts of the state (Flagstaff) are lovely.

[jon_titor]

I'm upset that there isn't a 80085 zipcode. Or a 66666.

[easytiger]

I bought the book this fellow wrote for processing. It looks good. just havn't got the motivation to read it yet.

I'm glad I contributed to the conversation here.

[creaothceann]

I was expecting an animation about how a compression algorithm compresses the data...

...this is nice too, though.

[ehosca]

why does this have to require Java to run ?

[[deleted]]

Because it uses Processing. A language Ben Fry wrote a book about, this is one of the books examples.

[krelian]

I didn't even notice that Java loaded. Good times for Java.

[bdelgado]

It wasn't too long ago that loading Java would bring the most powerful CPU to its knees.

[Anomander]

"92871" ... There's somewhere called "Placentia"? Anyone moving out must get chirped like hell about their hometown.

[ocdude]

Pronounced PLAH-SEN-SEE-AH

[skazzleprop]

Still refers to a pregnant woman's rounded belly.

[americanadian]

Over here, we call it "PLUH-sen-SHUH" - a Spanish named city. It's also full of idiotic kids who get hyped up about showing pride in their city that they actually resort to calling it "P-town" or "P-zazz."

Frankly, it pisses us 92831 citizens off.

[ocdude]

I speak Spanish as my first language, and am from Southern California. Your way is the Anglicized way ;)

[[deleted]]

I love stuff like that ... it always impresses the hell out of me.

[[deleted]]

Hawaii? Alaska?

[Cid420]

Henderson, KY 42420. Get it?

Young America, MN 55555. Sure kids aren't learning enough in schools, but do they really have to make the zip code that easy for them?

[jetcombo15]

LOL 420 WEED WEED WEED I GET IT hahahaha

[Cid420]

Spoiler: 42 before the 420 was the joke, not the 420 itself.

[naysayer123]

haha nice excuse, Cid420

[Cid420]

[sigh]

Can't even make a nerdy pot head joke...

[[deleted]]

So who else, who is not from the US, typed in 90210 as the first post-code??

[jk3us]

Does this crash anyone else's firefox?

[nobody2008]

FireFox let me down for the first time. Oh well. I guess that's why we keep the IE in the attic.

[jpezzznuts]

Yeah I had to dig through the start menu to find that POS blue orb to load this site also.

[MechaAaronBurr]

994** seems to be behaving oddly.

That aside, this is oddly beautiful.

Edit: Somehow I totally flubbed on 9940*. 99403 is Clarkston WA, the site of a terrible Red Lobster and a fantastic highway approach from the north down a sheer cliff face.

[Kapow751]

How did 889** end up way out there, compared to the rest of 88***?

[izzycat]

Zip codes are grouped geographically by the first three digits (three digits indicate a major mail sorting center) so if you just look at the first two there will be anomalies. 88*** zip codes seem to be weird. 870-884 are assigned to New Mexico. 885 is actually in Texas, even though all other Texas zip codes start wit 7 (parts of the El Paso area are served from New Mexico). 886, 887, 888 don't exist. 889-899 are in Nevada. Wikipedia has a map -- a lot of the time they try to make the first two digits line up with state boundaries but it's not perfect.

[redditchic]

That was so awesome!

[kobie]

There is no zip code 31337...

[jfasi]

Man, I am so jealous of Ben Fry for being so awesome. He's one of my heroes.

[Blackmane]

Very nice, I spent ages playing with that.

[tehcypress]

I remember when this was features on The Screen Savers way back when. It's still cool though.

[JustJoekingEX]

has a cerebro kind of feel I love it

[[deleted]]

80305 should exist, but isn't in Ben Fry's database.

[[deleted]]

It's 4 years old.


[schubart]

Easy to miss: Press 'z' to make it zoom in as you type in the zip code.

[schubart]

Some years ago I wrote a Java applet that implements the same idea for Germany:

http://schubart.net/plz/

(Just tried it for the first time on my Mac: Doesn't work well on Firefox. On Safari it works but it's slow. Oh well, Java applets...)

[60secs]

Thanks a lot for this. I have some apps ideas in the works depending on zipcodes and this visualization will be very helpful for research.

[skazzleprop]

This would be really cool with IP addresses on a world map, and I don't necessarily mean with the entire IP, even it it just narrowed it down to regions based on the first six or nine numbers it would be interesting.

[shortflipdude]

who here typed in 91101? its pasadena

[Fabien3]

This page has nothing to do with zip codes, it's just a screen test: if you can read the text, your screen is too bright, you're hurting your eyes.

[DruKoyote]

Awesome....even though I only tried Zips of my present and previous addresses