3 ms·

Apple iCloud crashes due to last name “true”

103 points by mydarkstar 6y ago

asfarley 6y ago
Classic, little Bobby Tables
- Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
  Little? I’m not sure about that anymore. I don’t think he is that short and if you are referring to his age then he is around the 19 year old mark if the call to his mother happened when he was around the age of five entering the school system (the comic was posted back in 2007) Poor kid, makes it into one meme and can’t live it down for the rest of his drawn life.
  - toyg 6y ago
    The fact that it’s been 14 years since Bobby Tables makes me feel so old...
vonsydov 6y ago
She got fuzzed !
pohl 6y ago
In a former life I created a system that was unusable by people with the very real surname “Null”. Not my proudest moment.
- schoen 6y ago
  There's a plot point about someone named Root in Cryptonomicon, but I have met someone with this surname (who, I think not familiar with its special meaning, requested "root" as her username on a computer system).
  - no_identd 6y ago
    [Smirking in Person of Interest reference intensifies]
- alsetmusic 6y ago
  I can see how this happens, but come on. Write your software to account for these edge cases. Reminds me of people who can’t register for services because of non-western names: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/man-called-phuc-dat-bich-posts-passport-facebook-prove-his-name-real-a6741586.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/man-cal... https://qz.com/1249588/how-i-learned-to-live-with-a-name-thats-a-constant-source-of-humiliation/ https://qz.com/1249588/how-i-learned-to-live-with-a-name-tha... And of course, the king: https://xkcd.com/327/ https://xkcd.com/327/
  - PurpleFoxy 6y ago
    I actually can’t see how this happens. I can’t even imagine how you could get strings to actually care what the content is. Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe?
    - shakna 6y ago
      > Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe? Precisely. SQL Injection attacks used to be very, very common. Whilst using parameterized queries today is now hopefully the norm, it was normal at one point to just use string interpolation. And then instead of paramaterizing after you hit your first bug, introducing a function to try and sanitise your strings, but still using interpolation.
    - pohl 6y ago
      We were young. The world was new. We had a marshaling bug. It’s no great mystery.
torstenvl 6y ago
It doesn't seem like that long ago, Apple would aggressively test, release when releases were ready rather than on a rapid set schedule, and would occasionally issue bugfix-only releases. Apple is far from alone in this, but I really wish we could go back to "No new features!" as a mantra for an occasional release - maybe a tick-tock release schedule? - and reinvest in software quality.
- mydarkstar 6y ago
  Getting this wrong in a core product is one thing. But then also not fixing it for over half a year? Sigh... Remember how this "recent" critical Mail vulnerability also didn't get fixed for months? It's really putting me off at that point. I also like the tick-tock release schedule idea.
- rixed 6y ago
  If the NULL reference is the million dollar mistake, I wonder what the cost for the disappearance of every value types is.
gnu8 6y ago
See also: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...
londons_explore 6y ago
The solution is to have a lot of children to raise the population of people with True surnames above Apples threshold of caring...
eddyg 6y ago
Bigger discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26364993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26364993

103 points by mydarkstar 6y ago

asfarley 6y ago

Classic, little Bobby Tables

Crosseye_Jack 6y ago
Little? I’m not sure about that anymore. I don’t think he is that short and if you are referring to his age then he is around the 19 year old mark if the call to his mother happened when he was around the age of five entering the school system (the comic was posted back in 2007) Poor kid, makes it into one meme and can’t live it down for the rest of his drawn life.
- toyg 6y ago
  The fact that it’s been 14 years since Bobby Tables makes me feel so old...

vonsydov 6y ago

She got fuzzed !

pohl 6y ago

In a former life I created a system that was unusable by people with the very real surname “Null”. Not my proudest moment.

schoen 6y ago
There's a plot point about someone named Root in Cryptonomicon, but I have met someone with this surname (who, I think not familiar with its special meaning, requested "root" as her username on a computer system).
- no_identd 6y ago
  [Smirking in Person of Interest reference intensifies]
alsetmusic 6y ago
I can see how this happens, but come on. Write your software to account for these edge cases. Reminds me of people who can’t register for services because of non-western names: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/man-called-phuc-dat-bich-posts-passport-facebook-prove-his-name-real-a6741586.html https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/man-cal... https://qz.com/1249588/how-i-learned-to-live-with-a-name-thats-a-constant-source-of-humiliation/ https://qz.com/1249588/how-i-learned-to-live-with-a-name-tha... And of course, the king: https://xkcd.com/327/ https://xkcd.com/327/
- PurpleFoxy 6y ago
  I actually can’t see how this happens. I can’t even imagine how you could get strings to actually care what the content is. Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe?
  - shakna 6y ago
    > Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe? Precisely. SQL Injection attacks used to be very, very common. Whilst using parameterized queries today is now hopefully the norm, it was normal at one point to just use string interpolation. And then instead of paramaterizing after you hit your first bug, introducing a function to try and sanitise your strings, but still using interpolation.
  - pohl 6y ago
    We were young. The world was new. We had a marshaling bug. It’s no great mystery.

torstenvl 6y ago

It doesn't seem like that long ago, Apple would aggressively test, release when releases were ready rather than on a rapid set schedule, and would occasionally issue bugfix-only releases. Apple is far from alone in this, but I really wish we could go back to "No new features!" as a mantra for an occasional release - maybe a tick-tock release schedule? - and reinvest in software quality.

mydarkstar 6y ago
Getting this wrong in a core product is one thing. But then also not fixing it for over half a year? Sigh... Remember how this "recent" critical Mail vulnerability also didn't get fixed for months? It's really putting me off at that point. I also like the tick-tock release schedule idea.
rixed 6y ago
If the NULL reference is the million dollar mistake, I wonder what the cost for the disappearance of every value types is.

gnu8 6y ago

See also: https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-...

londons_explore 6y ago

The solution is to have a lot of children to raise the population of people with True surnames above Apples threshold of caring...

eddyg 6y ago

Bigger discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26364993 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26364993