this post was submitted on 07 Jun 2024
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Reminds me of: https://www.wired.com/story/null-license-plate-landed-one-hacker-ticket-hell/
A guy thought it would be funny to change his license plate to NULL.
TBF it is one of many incidents that have brought more attention to databases used by government institutions that cannot handle NULL as a string. Another instance involved a man with the last name Null who was getting tickets from multiple vehicles he didn't own and states he didn't live in, because whenever the name field was left empty it went to NULL.
It's really not a citizens fault when the system breaks so easily.
I am not blaming the guy.
I think it's a good thing if attention is paid to these things. However if I remember correctly it took quite a toll on the guy dealing with all the government BS.
(That's why it wasn't funny.)
Meta: Writing stuff online is quite something. When I wrote my comment I did not even consider that it could be interpreted as me blaming the guy for challenging bad government it systems. In a conversation this could easily be rectified with a quick exchange. ( I could have picked up the expression on the other persons face. ) All kinds of context clues are missing. Also I don't know if this will be actually read by all people who passed by and also understood it that way. I am glad that it wasn't something serious.