Earlier quoted context omitted.
You want to check out the author? .... Isaac Asimov ... Yeah, you should probably do that.
I checked out a bibliography. Seems like lots of derivative stuff playing on the same old memes you see everywhere.
People with names that break computers
221–230 of 288 posts
Re: People with names that break computers
#222Earlier quoted context omitted.
I recall Kinect had the same problems.
And now I feel compelled to mention Better Off Ted, Season 1 Episode 4.
Re: People with names that break computers
#223It 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.
Which is weird because my first name is hyphenated and so many computers refuse to accept a hyphen in a first name. And even if they do accept a hyphen then there are still many times (including my state's online system) where my first name is too long.
Re: People with names that break computers
#224Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you really not understand, or are you being oblique? In any case, there is no county of Greater London. Greater London is an 'administrative area' - have a read of the London Government Act 1963, which created it, and abolished the county of London which had existed before. That's why we have a Greater London Authority (and before that a Greater London Council), rather than the London County Council we had when Lo…
London, along with most county towns in the UK shouldn't have a county appended to them. This isn't the case for New York.
In a postal address, no. But in the comment which spawned this godforsaken subthread, i specifically referred to "UK forms which ask for a city and a county".
Re: People with names that break computers
#225Earlier quoted context omitted.
Heh. My name is Randall R. Randall. I have had quite a lot of pushback from humans ("No, sorry, I need your LAST name..."), but I can only remember two systems that ever really caused me issues: Facebook and Google+.
I have to ask. Does the R also stand for Randall?
Seems like he'd be randallcubed then, no? :P
Re: People with names that break computers
#226I have a close friend who lives in rural Ireland. That's not in a town, but on a small farm in a general area of about 15-20 other small farms. His address is just the name of the general area and the county. The Irish postal system is clever enough to know that the person with this name, in that general area lives in that house. In fact, he probably still isn't even really classified by his name, rather as the husba…
Where I lived (and now work) the streets had no names. Well, actually the electric company had names for them, but didn't really tell anyone. For years, I had stuff sent to "House 311 behind the school". FedEx refused to ship to us unless its a school or business and you had to drive 90+ miles to pick it up. UPS delivered fine. It did take a bit to train new drivers. USPS did not do any home delivery (PO box or nothing).
After the whole 911 push, we theoretically have names for all the streets, but they are not posted.
Re: People with names that break computers
#227Earlier quoted context omitted.
Most of those memes are memes because Asimov invented them. You sound like I guy I once heard complain that The Lord of the Rings was just a collection of D&D cliches.
Actually I think it is a knockoff of the Ring Cycle by Wagner :)
I realize you're probably being sarcastic, but I've heard people claim that in all seriousness, so just for the record: that is definitely not true, and I can't imagine anyone thinking it was true unless they were completely ignorant of the myths and stories that both Wagner and Tolkien drew from. (Much like the folks who claim Star Wars is a ripoff of Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress, which shows ignorance of the dozens of other classic films that Lucas quite openly referenced and homaged.) It's like claiming that Sonic the Hedgehog is a ripoff of Super Mario Bros.
Re: People with names that break computers
#228I am convinced that the programmer interviewed in this article by BBC is the same Patrick McKenzie(patio11).
It must be right? How many Patrick McKenzies that live in Japan and can talk to a reporter about tech issues can there be?
Re: People with names that break computers
#229Earlier quoted context omitted.
I checked out a bibliography. Seems like lots of derivative stuff playing on the same old memes you see everywhere.
it's probably little consolation, but I thought your comment was hilarious. :)
You gotta watch out for Poe's Law if you're trying to be funny on the internet.
Re: People with names that break computers
#230My legal name is Martin C. Martin. This has only been a problem for computer systems 2 or 3 times. Once or twice on some no-name web site, which rejected names where first and last were the same. The other time was when the company I was working at was bought by Oracle. Oracle's internal email system simply refused to create a user with the same first name as last name. (For the curious, I was born Martin C. Hilgerde…
I am reminded of "Catch-22"'s Major Major Major Major.