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People with names that break computers

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Re: People with names that break computers

#161

Post by dsr_ »

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.

People who use my name have probably been introduced to me. People who use all three of my initials probably know me online.

People who call up and ask for "Dee" are invariably trying to sell me something.

Re: People with names that break computers

#162

Post by gumby »

silveira wrote: post #28

I have a first name composed of two names, and one of them with an acute accent. This is enough to cause some of my credit cards to be printed with a repeated name because they assume my "second first name" to be a middle name too. The acute accent results in encoding problems once in a while. But nothing compares the problems that people with names longer than 30 characters have to face. Creating a SSN card, or driv…

> And if you are naming kids and want to save them a lot of bureaucracy in their lives, give them short names.

This is not just a computing issue; my parents come from different continents, my wife from another and we live in yet another. Finding a name for our child that could be pronounced by all the various relatives was very hard -- we found a single phoneme name and went with that.

Our hyphenated family name is essentially unpronounceable and unspellable to most people.

Re: People with names that break computers

#164

Post by mikeash »

joshstrange wrote: post #138
twic wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My dad also goes by his middle name - he has a first name that is incredibly common in his nation of origin, so it's almost useless as a way of referring to him. You're the first person i've ever heard suggest that he's wrong to do that, and you are mistaken to do so.

I'm not saying he is wrong to do so but that he has to deal with the consequences of doing so. Your legal name is what is on your birth certificate/green card/etc not what you say it is. You can make it whatever you want it to be by legally changing your name but until you do so your legal name is your legal name no matter what you want to say it is.

One of the ways to legally change your name is to simply start using your new name. So it sounds like they've already done as you suggest.

Re: People with names that break computers

#166

Post by habosa »

rexreed wrote: post #154
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've always wanted a license plate I1II0O0O just to mess with the automated license plate scanners and video tolls

Many states don't allow both "I" and "1" or "O" and "0" in their character set. NJ is one that doesn't.

However in NYC I saw a limo with the plates "1I11II1"

Re: People with names that break computers

#167

Post by david-given »

parennoob wrote: post #56
stygiansonic wrote: post #26

My favourite "real world fails to fit the model we've come up with" is Carmel-by-the-Sea, which has many streets that have no addresses: " To this day, there are still no addresses, parking meters or street lights, and no sidewalks outside of Carmel's downtown commercial area. Those seeking directions receive hints such as “fifth house on the east side of Torres Street, green trim, driftwood fence” or by the legendar…

> My favourite "real world fails to fit the model we've come up with" is Carmel-by-the-Sea, which has many streets that have no addresses You might be surprised to learn that in India, all addresses are more or less like this. This is due to the fact that we never ended up with the standardised street numbers and names that a lot of other countries have, and road naming is a highly political thing in India, so a lot…

I grew up in rural Scotland with an address which was:

    - House name
    - Community name
    - County
    - SCOTLAND
Just the other day I found myself explaining this to a cow orker some ten years younger than me, and they couldn't believe it.

"But how did the postman know where the house was without a number?"

"They just knew."

"What, all of them?"

"Yup. Each postman knew their own area."

"But how did the post get to that postman? There's no postcode!"

"People in the sorting office read the addresses..."

We also had a three-digit phone number. (One of the outer isles used to have one-digit phone numbers.)

Re: People with names that break computers

#169

Post by dsr_ »

bitslayer wrote: post #21

Randall Munroe numbers his jokes, and so many threads end up with multiple links to the same strip. It will end up like the old joke: https://www.reddit.com/r/Jokes/comments/2uuii3/a_man_goes_to... 327!

I only recognize 386, but that's "Someone is wrong..." and now you will too.

Re: People with names that break computers

#170

Post by greenleafjacob »

joshstrange wrote: post #137
kstrauser wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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. See, this is one of the misunderstandings from the article. Don't feel bad: many people make this mistake. But it is a mistake. Your legal name is the one you conduct business with. In my case, I conduct all business using my middle name. The fact that I was born with it do…

Legal Name = Name on your birth certificate, pure and simple. Something isn't so just because you say it is. I can say my SSN is 123-45-6789 but that doesn't make it so.

It's not nearly that simple. Most scholars for example agree that the common law permits a right to change your name "with legal affect" without relying on state procedures or approval.

[1] http://www.uclalawreview.org/pdf/57-1-7.pdf

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