A few years ago, I formed an LLC to "own" a few projects I was working on.
In trying to come up with a suitable name, I had decided that I wanted it to be "$something Ventures" but I wasn't sure about the $something part. Finally, "null" popped into my head and it seemed like a good fit since the company didn't really have much of a "real purpose". Thus, Null Ventures LLC was born.
Since that time, I've received countless pieces of snail mail where the company name appears as " VENTURES LLC" -- note the space at the beginning.
I still giggle every time I see one and I often wonder if I've just screwed up some application somewhere and, if so, how bad.
Nice one. I keep collecting my name badges from various conferences. I'm always registering with my properly spelled name which contains a non-ascii character. So far I've got: square, circle, ?, multi-byte code as separate bytes, and completely different letter instead of the ł. Also one just finished before the character.
Interesting note. I actually used this photo to teach the concept of SQL Injection to my thoroughly non-technical girlfriend today. Amazingly, she got it immediately once I removed the actual syntax of what was going on and explained it in terms of stitching together a string with a user-supplied value in the middle.
And of course, she then thought this was tons more awesome than the submitted article.
Guess it never hurts to try. Our previous most-involved technical discussion revolved around the topic of how to copy a photo from one folder to another.
From 2003-2011, I worked at an .edu and until 2009 or so, the "student information system" was an old terminal-based ("green screen") application -- written in COBOL and still running on a mainframe.
There was a "data warehouse" piece of the overall system and I was often tasked with writing batch jobs to pull various data out of it. The resulting files were in either fixed-width or CSV format and so we "massaged" them a bit before writing them out to .xls files that the end-user could work with.
The purpose of most of these was to build a mailing list so that something could be sent out (via snail mail). The criteria were often along the lines of "I need a list of all <PROGRAM> students who haven't registered for the next semester" and such.
In each and every resulting data file that was downloaded after the job completed, we had to filter out records for the name "ERROR, ERROR" (last, first). I never found out why but apparently the registrar's office had for years been putting names in as "ERROR, ERROR" when it was illegible/unavailable/whatever. Thousands of these had accumulated over the couple of decades they'd been doing this.
(Side note: they really regretted it once a new upgraded system was being set up. They had to manually review each and every one of the "ERROR, ERROR" records.)
Here in Virginia we have many special thematic plates to choose from. One of them is a colorful, fingerpaint-themed plate that says "kids first" at the bottom. Some guy ordered one of these as a vanity plate that said "Eat the".
He had the plate for years, but last year someone at the DMV somehow got clued in and took his plate back, claiming that it had potentially obscene connotations.
EDIT: See the picture of the kids theme in bentcorner's reply.
The difference between a NULL entry and a sentinel value. And poorly designed systems.
Anyone with a correct understanding of the problem domain would know you have to cope with missing plates by indicating they are missing and not by using (many) different sentinel values. The fact each city/county/state uses a different value indicates the whole ticket processing system is a screwed up mess.
The North American system of plates essentially identifying a person and not a vehicle is weird. The UK still allows vanity plates but they are bound to the vehicle (and to a current keeper - when you sell it the plates go with the vehicle to the new keeper unless you make special arrangements). I still find it odd to take the plates off a vehicle being sold and to have to get them put on to the new one.
A vehicle without plates in violation of traffic/parking laws should be towed (or in some places it could be blown up as a security threat - Northern Ireland that used to be a regular event and a joy-riders post-drive fun to remove the plates and wait for the fireworks).
At least if it is towed, the fines can be sorted out before the return of the vehicle rather than wasting time (and money) on a no-hope chase of some unidentifiable owner unless some schmuck happens to have a vanity plate matching your chosen sentinel value [in which case you then have the extra expense of wasting time cancelling the ticket or even wasting court time before it gets dismissed].
In California plates stay with the vehicle. Not sure how it works in other places in North America.
And sentinel values aren't just a problem of the system, but there would also be a human element. Even if you had a "no plate" option some would likely continue to write noplate. The current system might even support null values for all we know.
Vehicle registration is done at the state level and vehicles are often driven (by someone permanently moving) or sold across state lines. So it probably makes more sense to have a driver keep their proof of tax payment than it does to transfer it around with each sale.
The plate situation is even weirder in Michigan (not sure on other states). I owned several cars with the same plate, and even bought a Toyota 4Runner (which is a truck) with the same plates. When I bought a pickup truck though, I had to get new plates. Plates are registered based on vehicle type, and in Michigan SUVs are classified as station wagons, which is a type of car (in England I believe they're called estate cars) not a type of truck. Pickup trucks are different, and require a new plate.
A little subtle, but one additional problem is that the vehicle is being matched to a ticket by the plate number's string. The result is that old tickets are being keyed to whoever currently has that plate number. A proper system would lookup that vehicle's registration_id at the time of the violation and store that as the foreign key.
> Well, they can just leave the number blank and we will allow NULL on the database.
> No can't have that. Staff are lazy and won't bother entering the number. We must make it mandatory and force them to enter a number.
> Okay, how about a tickbox they can tick to indicate that no number was present.
> Nope. We'd have to re-design the form. And that means re-designing the OCR system. Costs too much.
> Ehmm. We could have them enter a special, 'NOPLATE' code. Of course, you'd have to choose a code that isn't currently used, and inform your colleagues that it is reserved, so it isn't assigned to some joker. Ha.
> Oh that would never happen. Okay, we'll put it down on the Project Risk Register. Someone remember to do that.
[+] [-] jlgaddis|12 years ago|reply
In trying to come up with a suitable name, I had decided that I wanted it to be "$something Ventures" but I wasn't sure about the $something part. Finally, "null" popped into my head and it seemed like a good fit since the company didn't really have much of a "real purpose". Thus, Null Ventures LLC was born.
Since that time, I've received countless pieces of snail mail where the company name appears as " VENTURES LLC" -- note the space at the beginning.
I still giggle every time I see one and I often wonder if I've just screwed up some application somewhere and, if so, how bad.
[+] [-] viraptor|12 years ago|reply
Yeah... they were tech conferences.
[+] [-] vidarh|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] edent|12 years ago|reply
Anyone who speaks Polish will understand why, for the rest of us: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/7899171.stm
[+] [-] jackgavigan|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonkester|12 years ago|reply
And of course, she then thought this was tons more awesome than the submitted article.
Guess it never hurts to try. Our previous most-involved technical discussion revolved around the topic of how to copy a photo from one folder to another.
[+] [-] ToastyMallows|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jlgaddis|12 years ago|reply
There was a "data warehouse" piece of the overall system and I was often tasked with writing batch jobs to pull various data out of it. The resulting files were in either fixed-width or CSV format and so we "massaged" them a bit before writing them out to .xls files that the end-user could work with.
The purpose of most of these was to build a mailing list so that something could be sent out (via snail mail). The criteria were often along the lines of "I need a list of all <PROGRAM> students who haven't registered for the next semester" and such.
In each and every resulting data file that was downloaded after the job completed, we had to filter out records for the name "ERROR, ERROR" (last, first). I never found out why but apparently the registrar's office had for years been putting names in as "ERROR, ERROR" when it was illegible/unavailable/whatever. Thousands of these had accumulated over the couple of decades they'd been doing this.
(Side note: they really regretted it once a new upgraded system was being set up. They had to manually review each and every one of the "ERROR, ERROR" records.)
[+] [-] leephillips|12 years ago|reply
Here in Virginia we have many special thematic plates to choose from. One of them is a colorful, fingerpaint-themed plate that says "kids first" at the bottom. Some guy ordered one of these as a vanity plate that said "Eat the".
He had the plate for years, but last year someone at the DMV somehow got clued in and took his plate back, claiming that it had potentially obscene connotations.
EDIT: See the picture of the kids theme in bentcorner's reply.
[+] [-] bentcorner|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mortov|12 years ago|reply
Anyone with a correct understanding of the problem domain would know you have to cope with missing plates by indicating they are missing and not by using (many) different sentinel values. The fact each city/county/state uses a different value indicates the whole ticket processing system is a screwed up mess.
The North American system of plates essentially identifying a person and not a vehicle is weird. The UK still allows vanity plates but they are bound to the vehicle (and to a current keeper - when you sell it the plates go with the vehicle to the new keeper unless you make special arrangements). I still find it odd to take the plates off a vehicle being sold and to have to get them put on to the new one.
A vehicle without plates in violation of traffic/parking laws should be towed (or in some places it could be blown up as a security threat - Northern Ireland that used to be a regular event and a joy-riders post-drive fun to remove the plates and wait for the fireworks).
At least if it is towed, the fines can be sorted out before the return of the vehicle rather than wasting time (and money) on a no-hope chase of some unidentifiable owner unless some schmuck happens to have a vanity plate matching your chosen sentinel value [in which case you then have the extra expense of wasting time cancelling the ticket or even wasting court time before it gets dismissed].
[+] [-] sbov|12 years ago|reply
And sentinel values aren't just a problem of the system, but there would also be a human element. Even if you had a "no plate" option some would likely continue to write noplate. The current system might even support null values for all we know.
[+] [-] maxerickson|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freehunter|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chaz|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] malka|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] treerock|12 years ago|reply
> Well, they can just leave the number blank and we will allow NULL on the database.
> No can't have that. Staff are lazy and won't bother entering the number. We must make it mandatory and force them to enter a number.
> Okay, how about a tickbox they can tick to indicate that no number was present.
> Nope. We'd have to re-design the form. And that means re-designing the OCR system. Costs too much.
> Ehmm. We could have them enter a special, 'NOPLATE' code. Of course, you'd have to choose a code that isn't currently used, and inform your colleagues that it is reserved, so it isn't assigned to some joker. Ha.
> Oh that would never happen. Okay, we'll put it down on the Project Risk Register. Someone remember to do that.
...
[+] [-] l0gicpath|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RyanMcGreal|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mseebach|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] revnja|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] BuildTheRobots|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] blueskin_|12 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omnibrain|12 years ago|reply
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[+] [-] unknown|12 years ago|reply
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