6 ms·

When I come across posts like these, I just wonder, "How in the world did the user discover this in the first place?!" Let's place bets: A) The user just let

When I come across posts like these, I just wonder, "How in the world did the user discover this in the first place?!" Let's place bets: A) The user just let autocomplete "take it away" (not sure about this one since they were able to access the console) B) Pen Testing? C) Error copy and pasting? D) Actual dialog in a sci-fi post-apocalyptic love story where a robot discovers the Turing test and attempts to set itself into an infinite loop.

dkarl 4y ago
I've heard people say it, speaking like this: "This would be a great solution to the problem, except that it would break the admin dashboard. And billing. And SSO. And partner test environments. And. And. And. And. And. This would break so many things I'm sure I could only name half of them if I tried."
- rhizome 4y ago
  Yep. I've written that formulation many many times.
- marcusverus 4y ago
  Agreed--it seems likely that the user was writing dialogue, taking minutes, or something similar. Skilled speakers frequently use repetitions of a word (like 'and') as an interjection[0]. It's a handy way of giving yourself a second to think without saying 'uhh' or 'umm' (which, for whatever reason, are considered 'bad' interjections), and seems to be a kind of defense against being interrupted. [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42822623 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42822623 (a Meet the Press transcript which contains eight "and, and"s and one "and, and, and"!)
amelius 4y ago
Fuzzing?
orblivion 4y ago
C seems very likely to me. I often compulsively copy and paste things. You might not call it an error as such.
fnord123 4y ago
E) Children playing on the tablet/computer.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
technothrasher 4y ago
Years ago in school, maybe about 1992 or so, I managed to make xdm (X Display Manager) crash and dump me a root window by simply holding down a key until the buffer ran out. I remember wondering how anybody didn't discover this before me. Similar behavior with the university phone system (repeatedly pressing '0') eventually dropped me an outside line that I didn't have to pay for (yes, for you young folks, we used to have to pay for long distance phone calls, on phones that didn't fit in our pockets).
- merlinscholz 4y ago
  Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25843874 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25843874
  - technothrasher 4y ago
    Good to know the new guard is still leading the fight :)
  - Thorrez 4y ago
    And another one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7531140 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7531140
- spullara 4y ago
  When I was a teenager, I got dropped into a shell on a VAX by doing the same thing when it was trying to identify the terminal type.
- hawski 4y ago
  I always suspect that software I'm using is not really tested. If there are animations or whatever is happening asynchronously monkey bashing will trigger lots of issues.
- joseda-hg 4y ago
  I seem to remember that a few years ago some versions of either TouchWiz or Android, that you could overflow into unlocking the phone. The number required was pretty high, but you could get to it by copy pasting an already typed (In the emergeny dialer) number for a while, crashing the lockscreen until the next reset
glitchc 4y ago
Option D is rather romantic. Poor robot fell in love with an NFA. He’ll never hear the end of it.
a-dub 4y ago
E) fidgeting/futzing with stuff mindlessly while in conversation/doing something else personally, i've happened across some pretty serious security bugs this way.
OhSoHumble 4y ago
Writing a novel and a character within the novel has a stutter or is stammering.
t_mann 4y ago
Some more options: Just a demonstration of how Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V works. Literal transcript of a stammered conversation. Poetry / word-based art.
avgcorrection 4y ago
This is just a transcript of a stutter. Too much for modern technology to handle. :)
matthberg 4y ago
Apparently from a poem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31278566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31278566 That comment is from the submitter of the issue (and HN post), the poem is from Eliza Callahan (copy found here): https://durationandthebodyelizacallahan.cargo.site https://durationandthebodyelizacallahan.cargo.site The relevant excerpt: "I thought about my body. It’s past. It’s present… Which made me think about the word and. And. And. And. And. And. Then."
quickthrower2 4y ago
The same way a lottery winner discovers the correct numbers

dkarl 4y ago

I've heard people say it, speaking like this: "This would be a great solution to the problem, except that it would break the admin dashboard. And billing. And SSO. And partner test environments. And. And. And. And. And. This would break so many things I'm sure I could only name half of them if I tried."

rhizome 4y ago
Yep. I've written that formulation many many times.
marcusverus 4y ago
Agreed--it seems likely that the user was writing dialogue, taking minutes, or something similar. Skilled speakers frequently use repetitions of a word (like 'and') as an interjection[0]. It's a handy way of giving yourself a second to think without saying 'uhh' or 'umm' (which, for whatever reason, are considered 'bad' interjections), and seems to be a kind of defense against being interrupted. [0] https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42822623 https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna42822623 (a Meet the Press transcript which contains eight "and, and"s and one "and, and, and"!)

amelius 4y ago

Fuzzing?

orblivion 4y ago

C seems very likely to me. I often compulsively copy and paste things. You might not call it an error as such.

fnord123 4y ago

E) Children playing on the tablet/computer.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

technothrasher 4y ago

Years ago in school, maybe about 1992 or so, I managed to make xdm (X Display Manager) crash and dump me a root window by simply holding down a key until the buffer ran out. I remember wondering how anybody didn't discover this before me. Similar behavior with the university phone system (repeatedly pressing '0') eventually dropped me an outside line that I didn't have to pay for (yes, for you young folks, we used to have to pay for long distance phone calls, on phones that didn't fit in our pockets).

merlinscholz 4y ago
Related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25843874 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25843874
- technothrasher 4y ago
  Good to know the new guard is still leading the fight :)
- Thorrez 4y ago
  And another one: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7531140 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7531140
spullara 4y ago
When I was a teenager, I got dropped into a shell on a VAX by doing the same thing when it was trying to identify the terminal type.
hawski 4y ago
I always suspect that software I'm using is not really tested. If there are animations or whatever is happening asynchronously monkey bashing will trigger lots of issues.
joseda-hg 4y ago
I seem to remember that a few years ago some versions of either TouchWiz or Android, that you could overflow into unlocking the phone. The number required was pretty high, but you could get to it by copy pasting an already typed (In the emergeny dialer) number for a while, crashing the lockscreen until the next reset

glitchc 4y ago

Option D is rather romantic. Poor robot fell in love with an NFA. He’ll never hear the end of it.

a-dub 4y ago

E) fidgeting/futzing with stuff mindlessly while in conversation/doing something else personally, i've happened across some pretty serious security bugs this way.

OhSoHumble 4y ago

Writing a novel and a character within the novel has a stutter or is stammering.

t_mann 4y ago

Some more options: Just a demonstration of how Ctrl-C, Ctrl-V works. Literal transcript of a stammered conversation. Poetry / word-based art.

avgcorrection 4y ago

This is just a transcript of a stutter. Too much for modern technology to handle. :)

matthberg 4y ago

Apparently from a poem: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31278566 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31278566 That comment is from the submitter of the issue (and HN post), the poem is from Eliza Callahan (copy found here): https://durationandthebodyelizacallahan.cargo.site https://durationandthebodyelizacallahan.cargo.site The relevant excerpt: "I thought about my body. It’s past. It’s present… Which made me think about the word and. And. And. And. And. And. Then."

quickthrower2 4y ago

The same way a lottery winner discovers the correct numbers