4 ms·

Two weeks ago, when I applied for a new passport (in Germany), I was asked to make sure that my personal information on a printed out form was correct. Immedia

Two weeks ago, when I applied for a new passport (in Germany), I was asked to make sure that my personal information on a printed out form was correct. Immediately the line saying "Artist's/Religious name: null" caught my eyes. I told the officer: "Well, the info about my artist's name is wrong. I don't have one." As I was expecting beforehand, I was told: "That's exactly what 'null' means here." To which I replied: "And what if my artist's name was 'null'?". To which I got no satisfactory response. I guess these problems are only apparent to programmers... So, if anyone wants to cause confusion, now you know how.

biztos 10y ago
Based on my own interactions with the Bürgeramt I think it would be most fun to have a Religious Name of "null null" -- at which point it's win-win, since you can confuse the bureaucrats and/or demand that your full Religious Name be recognized since, well, religion. (Or, to up the ante, one might consider "Keine Angabe" as a Religious Name. It would stand out amongst the nulls, while also being the actual null they are trying to point to.)
city41 10y ago
Reminds me of a tweet I saw a while back where someone was told their four digit pin couldn't be a year. To which they replied "aren't they all years?"
- jaytaylor 10y ago
  https://twitter.com/mralancooper/status/652532677979959296 https://twitter.com/mralancooper/status/652532677979959296 and my "solution": https://twitter.com/jtaylor/status/772607233829969920 https://twitter.com/jtaylor/status/772607233829969920
  - BerislavLopac 10y ago
    Well, technically, any PIN starting with one or more zeroes is not a year.
wavefunction 10y ago
If your artist name was 'null' then Artists's/Religious name: null would be appropriate, would it not?
- nnnnnande 10y ago
  In this particular case, yes. That's not the issue. In the general case, the issue would now lie in deciding whether null is actually a name or a 'value' indicating the absence of one.
_kst_ 10y ago
What if someone has an "artist's name" and a "religious name", and they're not the same?
- germanier 10y ago
  You have 2 lines of 30 characters each to work with. Likely they will be separated by a slash but as far as I know details for this are not regulated. Note that you need to submit proof. For an artist's name it needs to overshadow your common name in at least some parts of life and entry is at the discretion of the officer. Famously, a sex worker was not allowed to add her artist's name into her ID card.
germanier 10y ago
If I remember correctly, "null" is only on the printout but not displayed on screen. As applications are handled completely electronically there is some chance that those two cases are actually distinguished (i.e. only the largely irrelevant printing part of the software has this problem).

biztos 10y ago

Based on my own interactions with the Bürgeramt I think it would be most fun to have a Religious Name of "null null" -- at which point it's win-win, since you can confuse the bureaucrats and/or demand that your full Religious Name be recognized since, well, religion. (Or, to up the ante, one might consider "Keine Angabe" as a Religious Name. It would stand out amongst the nulls, while also being the actual null they are trying to point to.)

city41 10y ago

Reminds me of a tweet I saw a while back where someone was told their four digit pin couldn't be a year. To which they replied "aren't they all years?"

jaytaylor 10y ago
https://twitter.com/mralancooper/status/652532677979959296 https://twitter.com/mralancooper/status/652532677979959296 and my "solution": https://twitter.com/jtaylor/status/772607233829969920 https://twitter.com/jtaylor/status/772607233829969920
- BerislavLopac 10y ago
  Well, technically, any PIN starting with one or more zeroes is not a year.

wavefunction 10y ago

If your artist name was 'null' then Artists's/Religious name: null would be appropriate, would it not?

nnnnnande 10y ago
In this particular case, yes. That's not the issue. In the general case, the issue would now lie in deciding whether null is actually a name or a 'value' indicating the absence of one.

_kst_ 10y ago

What if someone has an "artist's name" and a "religious name", and they're not the same?

germanier 10y ago
You have 2 lines of 30 characters each to work with. Likely they will be separated by a slash but as far as I know details for this are not regulated. Note that you need to submit proof. For an artist's name it needs to overshadow your common name in at least some parts of life and entry is at the discretion of the officer. Famously, a sex worker was not allowed to add her artist's name into her ID card.

germanier 10y ago

If I remember correctly, "null" is only on the printout but not displayed on screen. As applications are handled completely electronically there is some chance that those two cases are actually distinguished (i.e. only the largely irrelevant printing part of the software has this problem).