A 'Null' License Plate Landed One Hacker in Ticket Hell (2019) (opens in new tab)

(wired.com)

25 pointsdanielyaa53y ago11 comments

11 comments

Generic wishful suggestion for courts, regarding any sort of computer-processed data which is a basis for legal action: Coin some fancy-sounding Latin phrase meaning "obvious computer failure", and make liberal use of that phrase in curtly dismissing legal actions (with prejudice) where some key piece of the assertion is clearly a product of "garbage in, garbage out".

That might at least give some incentive to those running GIGO-excreting computer systems to clean up their sh*t.

karmakaze3y ago

Exactly.

> “null” is also a text string that in many programming languages signifies a value that is empty or undefined.

I can't think of a single language that does this. A null interpolated into a string or concatenated with an empty one could produce such a string. If that string value is then used to signify an empty/undefined value is misuse of the language.

cestith3y ago

SQL is more of a data language, but things like T-SQL or P-SQL I guess count. Lots of programming languages interacting with SQL databases mistreat NULL values. This guy's plate should never be "IS NULL" but should be a string that "plate = 'NULL'".

1 more reply

openasocket3y ago

There's definite grounds to sue the Citation Processing Center, at least to get them to stop assigning these tickets to him.

theandrewbailey3y ago

It should be easy to prove harassment, if he can prove that a majority of these vehicles aren't registered in his name.

tpoindex3y ago

For those who like podcasts, Radiolab also had this story recently, along with a few other cases of bad programming (“Are you suggesting I change my name to “quote N-U-L-L quote”, to match the databases you’re working with?”)

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/null

gunshai3y ago

I'm surprised that NULLs weren't filtered out with what ever stored procedure is running on the database that sent the workload for mail ticket dispersal.

Although I suppose it is an edge case because NULL is supposed to not ever get joined with an address or UID.

grenran3y ago

On the other hand, this could allow him to easily contest any future parking ticket.

rad_gruchalski3y ago

But they have to respond to each one of them. Is it worth their time?

cestith3y ago

Great story from 2019. https://dev.to/michaelpaulkunz/what-we-can-learn-from-sir-ch... relates the same story back to Sir Tony Hoare.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

11 comments

bell-cot3y ago

That might at least give some incentive to those running GIGO-excreting computer systems to clean up their sh*t.

karmakaze3y ago

Exactly.

> “null” is also a text string that in many programming languages signifies a value that is empty or undefined.

cestith3y ago

1 more reply

openasocket3y ago

There's definite grounds to sue the Citation Processing Center, at least to get them to stop assigning these tickets to him.

theandrewbailey3y ago

It should be easy to prove harassment, if he can prove that a majority of these vehicles aren't registered in his name.

tpoindex3y ago

https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/radiolab/articles/null

gunshai3y ago

I'm surprised that NULLs weren't filtered out with what ever stored procedure is running on the database that sent the workload for mail ticket dispersal.

Although I suppose it is an edge case because NULL is supposed to not ever get joined with an address or UID.

grenran3y ago

On the other hand, this could allow him to easily contest any future parking ticket.

rad_gruchalski3y ago

But they have to respond to each one of them. Is it worth their time?

cestith3y ago

Great story from 2019. https://dev.to/michaelpaulkunz/what-we-can-learn-from-sir-ch... relates the same story back to Sir Tony Hoare.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse