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People with names that break computers

bbc.com

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Re: People with names that break computers

#101

Post by bagels »

HoopleHead wrote: post #62

It doesn't even have to be an "edge case", as stated in the article. My first name has a single accented vowel and breaks tons of online forms. What annoys me is not so much having to re-enter my name with the unaccented version of the vowel, it's when the form throws up an error message saying "Enter a Valid Name" [or suchlike]. I find that insulting. At least make your error text put the blame where it belongs: "So…

I once sent a package to Curaçao. I bought postage online from USPS.

The package was delivered to Australia, as my local post office showed me on a printout, and lost forever.

The best I can figure out it, it was because I dared to use the accented 'ç' character in the country's name, and their computers were not able to handle this.

Re: People with names that break computers

#103

Post by chiph »

kstrauser wrote: post #92

I wasn't able to buy tickets once because "your name cannot include numbers, special characters, or the words 'select', 'drop', or 'user'". I (don't really) apologize for having a name containing one of the magic words your programmers aren't competent enough not to care about. -- In the 90s, I worked for an ISP. Our very first customer was "Joe Test". We had well-meaning customer service people delete his account a…

> insist on calling me by my first name, which is not who I am.

As someone who goes by a nickname, I find this to be a feature. If I get a phone call or email addressing me by my legal first name, it's almost certainly a sales call, and I can take appropriate action.

Re: People with names that break computers

#104

Post by mdellabitta »

HoopleHead wrote: post #62

It doesn't even have to be an "edge case", as stated in the article. My first name has a single accented vowel and breaks tons of online forms. What annoys me is not so much having to re-enter my name with the unaccented version of the vowel, it's when the form throws up an error message saying "Enter a Valid Name" [or suchlike]. I find that insulting. At least make your error text put the blame where it belongs: "So…

Yeah, my last name has a space in it. For a while, the NY DMV's computer couldn't handle that, so my license had a hyphen in my last name. Talk about insulting.

Re: People with names that break computers

#105

Post by rcthompson »

mabbo wrote: post #82
dirkdk wrote: post #66

I have had a decent number of forms that would not allow me to enter my last name because it contains a space: De Kok. Apparently over the centuries americans coming from Europe would drop spaces. For instance Vanderbilt is a Dutch name, that stems from the original Van der Bilt (means from the Bilt, which is a Dutch city) So now American programmers assume a space in a last name (or a dash for that matter) never hap…

A friend in university had the last name "des Trois Maisons", or "Of the three houses" (if I'm remembering it correctly). I can only imagine the number of computer systems that just die on that. Not one space, but two ! Come to think of it, I bet he reads this comments. Hi [name withheld]! Seriously, what a great last name.

You might want to edit your comment to avoid giving out your friend's first and last names.

Re: People with names that break computers

#106

Post by rcthompson »

cmdrfred wrote: post #41

Isn't this problem mostly solved by type casting? I've never encountered a problem where 'Null' and Null were the same thing. Is it just shoddy code that runs everything through an eval or lambda?

Read the StackOverflow link in the article for an example of how it can happen.

Re: People with names that break computers

#107

Post by roywiggins »

jakub_g wrote: post #69
pavel_lishin wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Conversely (or is it inversely?), I've got a coworker whose entire, full, legal name is a single word. It just shows up twice in all of our systems.

What is his nationality, out of curiosity? Or was he born with name and surname? BTW Just found this list, pretty short. Is it common in some societies still to have just one name? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_legally_mononymous_p...

Indonesia's the most well-known example.

Re: People with names that break computers

#108

Post by kstrauser »

chiph wrote: post #103
kstrauser wrote: post #92

I wasn't able to buy tickets once because "your name cannot include numbers, special characters, or the words 'select', 'drop', or 'user'". I (don't really) apologize for having a name containing one of the magic words your programmers aren't competent enough not to care about. -- In the 90s, I worked for an ISP. Our very first customer was "Joe Test". We had well-meaning customer service people delete his account a…

> insist on calling me by my first name, which is not who I am. As someone who goes by a nickname, I find this to be a feature. If I get a phone call or email addressing me by my legal first name, it's almost certainly a sales call, and I can take appropriate action.

> As someone who goes by a nickname, I find this to be a feature.

Oh, that's definitely a perk. "Hi, um, may I speak to... Firstname?" "No, but I can take a message."

As a bonus, my first name is ridiculously pronounceable but cold callers act like they've never seen that arrangement of letters before. Imagine being Robert Joe Smith and they ask, "is... Row... Bort... there?" If you can't even say my first name, I have no prior business with you (and almost certainly no future dealings).

Re: People with names that break computers

#109

Post by gricardo99 »

subway wrote: post #64

A few years ago I ordered a custom license plate 'NULL'. What should have been a 2-3 week process lasted 8 months, with the order being canceled multiple times, and at one point a blank plate being shipped to the county clerk's office. More recently I've gotten out of a parking ticket in a certain municipality when a frustrated meter maid told me they saw my plates were valid, but the handheld device used to issue ti…

I just checked, NULL is not available in California, but this one is ("INVALID"): http://imgur.com/1KhRws2

But, I wonder how much more frequently you'd get pulled over with a plate like that.

the CA DMV lets you check for custom plates online: https://www.dmv.ca.gov/ipp2/initPers.do

Re: People with names that break computers

#110

Post by joshstrange »

kstrauser wrote: post #92

I wasn't able to buy tickets once because "your name cannot include numbers, special characters, or the words 'select', 'drop', or 'user'". I (don't really) apologize for having a name containing one of the magic words your programmers aren't competent enough not to care about. -- In the 90s, I worked for an ISP. Our very first customer was "Joe Test". We had well-meaning customer service people delete his account a…

So.... Change your first name. It's called your legal name for a reason. Can you get away with your nickname in a number of systems? Sure, but when you run into issues you really don't have anyone to blame but yourself. Your complaint boils down to "I want to abuse the legal name system and everything should just work for me"

> And yet, so many institutions are incapable of handling the situation and insist on calling me by my first name, which is not who I am.

False, you may not consider that your first name but it IS your legal name and at the end of the day that's really the only thing that matters. We all have to conform to some system and it can't be "kstrauser's system" or "joshstrange's system". I feel for people with drop/user/select/null/etc in their name as they've done nothing wrong, but people not using their real first name and complaining when they have is just annoying.

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