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People with names that break computers

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Re: People with names that break computers

#261

Post by jbrazile »

david-given wrote: post #124
bagels wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

US immigration thinks I live in a city called Z?rich.

Hey, I live there too.

On a recent visit to Boston I wanted to use my credit card to buy my wife a gift at Best Buy whose special price was internet-only for store pickup. For those of us whose credit card billing addresses have non-US addresses, their special magic address to get past the US-only address form is:

10780 Kempwood Dr. Houston, TX 77043

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/help-topics/international-orders...

Re: People with names that break computers

#262

Post by phillc73 »

phillc73 wrote: post #75
sevensor wrote: post #39

I received a Dutch surname as a second middle name. I can never use it -- the "Van" alone is enough to break things. But even without "Van", having two middle names usually does not compute. I've seen people who lack middle names entirely have the opposite problem and insert the middle initial "X" just to satisfy the system.

My wife and son have no middle name. An ex-girlfriend also had no middle name. I would have thought it's pretty common.

Replying to myself....

Now that I think about it, in a large chunk of the Slavic world (Russia, Ukraine, Belarus etc), the majority of people probably have no middle name. A patronymic isn't really a middle name as such.

Re: People with names that break computers

#263

Post by phillc73 »

DrJokepu wrote: post #220
takno wrote: post #199

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My apartment has two different apartment numbers, the right one and the one that Royal Mail made up for their database. Makes it interesting to match things up on different accounts

Also, a lot of websites have this thing where you have to enter your postal code and then you can pick your address from a list of addresses associated with the postal code. I used to live in a development for a while that was so new that it didn't appear in many of these databases, so signing up for various services (or even paying council tax) was near impossible.

I had a similar, derived issue. A new house I was renting was marketed as "24 Street Name",the lease document was written as such and the front door had a number 24 on it.

However, after moving in, we discovered that on all official databases it was "24-26 Street Name".

This caused a number of frustrations over the years. After a while we just put "24-26" on everything and be done with it.

Re: People with names that break computers

#264

Post by [deleted] »

rwhitman wrote: post #134
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…

That is amazing. Not that I endorse criminal activity or anything, but I imagine the amount of power you now have to evade traffic violations, get away with jewel heists etc, must have made the wait well worth it

[deleted]

Re: People with names that break computers

#265

Post by dalke »

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.

No. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_name#United_States

> Most state courts have held that a legally assumed name (i.e., for a non-fraudulent purpose) is a legal name and usable as their true name, though assumed names are often not considered the person's technically true name.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Name_change#Informal_methods_o...

> A common law name (i.e. one assumed for a non-fraudulent purpose) is a legal name.[7] In most states a statutory method, while quick and definitive, only supplements the common law method,[8] unless the statute makes itself exclusive.

Re: People with names that break computers

#266

Post by dalke »

switch007 wrote: post #192
apozem wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These kinds of limitations are fascinating because they reveal the cultural biases (and I don't mean bias in the negative sense) of their creators. A Western, American system might not be designed to accept names with accents and vowels because who has those in the States? Anecdotally, I also heard of a female games journalist who had trouble using a VR headset because she wore mascara. It threw off the eye tracking…

> ...because who has those in the States? Right! Just: Hernández, Martínez, Rodríguez, García, González, Gómez...

Jacques Villeré, Jacques Dupré, and Paul Octave Hébert - all governors of the state of Louisiana.

Luis Muñoz Marín, Luis Fortuño, and Aníbal Acevedo Vilá - all governors of Puerto Rico.

Ben Ray Luján - current U.S. Representative

Re: People with names that break computers

#268

Post by NicoJuicy »

msielski wrote: post #8

I had a strange experience where my cable company's mobile app, which streams most channels, was missing audio on a few channels. After escalating the issue to an engineer, he finally got back to us and told us that if a username contained "ts" like mine did this issue would happen. After making a second username without that combination, all worked fine. I'd still like to know what logic in their application would g…

The only thing I can think about is that ts is a abbreviation for terminal server. Which reminds me of a username: tsAdmin.

Perhaps there is an internal policy with usernames and those usernames and some rights are also transferred into the app. I don't have a better idea

Re: People with names that break computers

#269

Post by YeGoblynQueenne »

Freak_NL wrote: post #11
msielski wrote: post #8

I had a strange experience where my cable company's mobile app, which streams most channels, was missing audio on a few channels. After escalating the issue to an engineer, he finally got back to us and told us that if a username contained "ts" like mine did this issue would happen. After making a second username without that combination, all worked fine. I'd still like to know what logic in their application would g…

Imagine the cowboy code responsible for such an abomination of a bug.

I think I may be turning into a machine myself, because I had to google "cowboy code" thinking it's probably something from the Jargon File. Like, an apocryphal list of error codes and things, hidden in some obscure part of a posix filesystem etc.
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