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NULL license plate not such a bright idea

knrs.iheart.com

311–320 of 484 posts

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#311

Tangentially related somewhat-common bug: YAML files will interpret the literal 'no' as boolean false if it's not quoted, instead of as a string. Many developers have wondered why, when they stuck country-specific configurations in a YAML file, that things suddenly stopped working when they expanded support for Norway.

YAML has tons of warts like this. https://yaml.org/type/bool.html This should be used in schools as an example to illustrate how not to do things.

Also as an example of "always deserialize to known types". Flexible boolean values can be convenient since it's relatively human-readable, but "deserialize into [whatever the heck you think is appropriate]" is a problem for quite a few reasons beyond confusion: https://lgtm.com/blog/swagger_snakeyaml_CVE-2017-1000207_CVE... (same techniques have been used against other kinds of serialization in many languages for many years)

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#312
post #297
post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't trust it. If you use the "Hex key - 128-bit" preset, it returns a different amount of bits every time you click it. Here are 3 samples: 3f38ba8a6ce3aa800f007c2e431df7fd 124 bits 9339bf587ee11b12d207df846a879cf4 129 bits 8ca4354a9038df590fecec1f964062fd 121 bits

Due to missing or repeated characters from the set of the hex alphabet?

which doesn't make sense.

I randomly generated an 8 character alphabetical (all lower case) password "jraxxhwr". According to keepass it has 32 bits of entropy, but the entropy should be 26^8 = 37.6 bits because the search space is all 8 character letter permutations. There's no way you can reduce the search space from 37.6 bits to 32 bits unless you have an oracle that says which characters I used.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#314
post #170
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

All we had to do was register our cars in each others names. When I was married, my car was registered to her and vice versa. The redlight/photoradar laws in my state required that the company operating the devices had to match the pic of the driver violating the law, to the pic of the registered owner via the license plate. If they couldn't match them, no ticket was issued as you can't prove who was driving. That's…

Where i am from the ticket is issued to the vehicle owner, doesn't matter who was driving. On the plus side it means that you can get a photoradar ticket for driving 300km/h and not lose your licence, just pay the fine. P.S. If the driver must be recognized does it mean that motorcyclists are exempt from photoradar fines?

At least here in Finland, the cameras take pictures of speeding motorcycles, but they are not used. No front license plate.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#315
post #302

I recently bought a *.ninja domain name and started using it for my personal email address. Probably 20% of the time, when I try to sign up for a service it gets rejected by web forms that have been hardcoded to check for traditional top-level domains.

Oh you think that's bad? My email address ends in that most exotic of domains, .net

I find websites that won't accept it because they think it's an invalid address all the time. I have no idea what logic they're using, would love to find out.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#316
post #120

I love when people double down out of principle, when the only person getting hurt is themselves. He refuses to change it because he did nothing wrong...sure, but you are also the only one being hurt by it. Is this really the hill to die on?

Sure he did nothing wrong because it backfired like one of Wile E. Coyote's schemes but the article makes it clear he was hoping to confuse automatic ticketing systems. He was trying to get out of tickets. Sure he didn't break the letter of the law but he tried to break the spirit of the law and it bit him. Some might call that karma, I think he needs a better hobby than standing in line at the DMV which is ultimatel…

AKA he was attempting to commit fraud or rather obstruct justice. I don't particularly feel sorry for him.

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#317
post #232

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are two options: die on the hill, or retreat. He is not retreating. Therefore he has chosen to die on the hill.

Those would be the options if there was an attack against him, but there's not any attack against him. Wrongly addressed tickets are hardly even a minor inconvenience. I think that's what the parent is saying.

> Wrongly addressed tickets are hardly even a minor inconvenience.

Now I wonder what you would consider a minor inconvenience. "Oh yeah that time they suspended my licence that was a minor inconvenience for me."

Wrongly addressed tickets are a real hassle. I'd assume that if you don't contest them in time, you have to pay them. And if you don't pay them, they will suspend your licence. (I don't really know. But I assume that's what would happen.)

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#318
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once had a Texas policemen unholster his pistol on me because he thought my US Passport was a fake ID and my travelers checks were some sort of scam. Then his backup arrived and explained both items to him — and the Dairy Queen cashier that had called 911 on me. Stuff like that is why you have to stay on the interstate.

Wait, you tried to pay with travelers checks at a Dairy Queen?

Yeah, do you want to get shot?

Re: NULL license plate not such a bright idea

#320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read that someone tried to register a license plate with a random sequence of Os and zeros (e.g. "OO0O00"). Unfortunately, it worked too well because the person doing data entry at the DMV ordered him a plate with all Os. :)

Or all 1's, L's and I's with a license plate frame that "accidentally" covers up the differentiating marks. >:) PS: Reminds me, I should get one of those LPR T-shirts with license plates all over it.

https://xkcd.com/1105/
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