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Try having an apostrophe in your last name. O'Brien, O'Keefe, O'Dell and my fave O'Charley's. It is really simple to accommodate this in software and databases,

Try having an apostrophe in your last name. O'Brien, O'Keefe, O'Dell and my fave O'Charley's. It is really simple to accommodate this in software and databases, but the problem is getting worse and worse. The pharmacy can't find my prescription, the cleaners can't find my clothes, my doctor's office can't find my appointment. My passport doesn't match my drivers license. Some of my credit cards have the apostrophe and some don't. I have to use the right credit card to pay certain bills (Straight Talk, I'm lookin' at you). One employer's system set email addresses from your name in the payroll system, and believe me, you really don't want an email address with an apostrophe in it. The sneering response to this is that I should change my name. Really? It's part of our Irish cultural heritage. Sigh.

mistermcgruff 13y ago
That really stinks. I can't imagine how annoying that must get. I work at an email service provider, and I deal with about two billion email addresses from all around the world. Apostrophes are certainly a consideration when working with emails, loading them to and from databases. But the spec for what's a valid email is very very wide. Lots of special characters including apostrophes are technically valid, so if I'm doing an analysis that requires email as a unique key, but I don't actually need to know the addresses, I'll just hash each address. It's lazy, but man does it solve a lot of special cases.
ceejayoz 13y ago
NY's E-ZPass website tells me my last name (hyphenated) isn't valid every time I go to change billing details. Some places I'm Sternal-Johnson, others SternalJohnson, others Johnson, others Sternal.
officemonkey 13y ago
I call it the apostrophe catastrophe. Once in the 90s, my email system would send my email with an apostrophe in the address, but would only deliver email without an apostrophe in the address. The IT department told me that was "impossible" until I demonstrated it in front of him. For electronic systems, I pretend the apostrophe doesn't exist. I'll still use it in writing, but if it's going to be an entry in a database, I leave it out.
ZoFreX 13y ago
> The sneering response to this is that I should change my name. REALLY? Computers exist to bend to our needs, not the other way around!
- fixermark 13y ago
  I would assume there were quite a few people of Japanese or Chinese origin utterly annoyed at the generation of computers that only had ASCII character representation. ... of course, that era was a long time ago. :)
fauigerzigerk 13y ago
Too bad that the president's name isn't really O'Bama as was reported (jokingly) a few years back when he visited Ireland. If it were, this problem might have been resolved by now ;-)

mistermcgruff 13y ago

That really stinks. I can't imagine how annoying that must get. I work at an email service provider, and I deal with about two billion email addresses from all around the world. Apostrophes are certainly a consideration when working with emails, loading them to and from databases. But the spec for what's a valid email is very very wide. Lots of special characters including apostrophes are technically valid, so if I'm doing an analysis that requires email as a unique key, but I don't actually need to know the addresses, I'll just hash each address. It's lazy, but man does it solve a lot of special cases.

ceejayoz 13y ago

NY's E-ZPass website tells me my last name (hyphenated) isn't valid every time I go to change billing details. Some places I'm Sternal-Johnson, others SternalJohnson, others Johnson, others Sternal.

officemonkey 13y ago

I call it the apostrophe catastrophe. Once in the 90s, my email system would send my email with an apostrophe in the address, but would only deliver email without an apostrophe in the address. The IT department told me that was "impossible" until I demonstrated it in front of him. For electronic systems, I pretend the apostrophe doesn't exist. I'll still use it in writing, but if it's going to be an entry in a database, I leave it out.

ZoFreX 13y ago

> The sneering response to this is that I should change my name. REALLY? Computers exist to bend to our needs, not the other way around!

fixermark 13y ago
I would assume there were quite a few people of Japanese or Chinese origin utterly annoyed at the generation of computers that only had ASCII character representation. ... of course, that era was a long time ago. :)

fauigerzigerk 13y ago

Too bad that the president's name isn't really O'Bama as was reported (jokingly) a few years back when he visited Ireland. If it were, this problem might have been resolved by now ;-)