The Core

Why We Are Here => Hardware & Technology => Topic started by: rcjordan on July 06, 2021, 02:58:09 PM

Title: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: rcjordan on July 06, 2021, 02:58:09 PM
Note the irony in my title.

Researcher finds certain network names can disable Wi-Fi on iPhones - The Verge
https://www.theverge.com/2021/7/4/22563166/researcher-finds-network-names-percent-disable-wi-fi-iphones
Title: Re: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: ergophobe on July 06, 2021, 05:22:25 PM
or spaces
Title: Re: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: ergophobe on July 06, 2021, 05:35:20 PM
Little Bobby Tables comes to mind. Sweet kid. Unfortunate name for lazy coders

https://xkcd.com/327/
Title: Re: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: rcjordan on July 06, 2021, 06:40:11 PM
>Bobby

I think it was Gimp who posted this photo here years ago:

SQL Injection Fools Speed Traps And Clears Your Record | Hackaday
https://hackaday.com/2014/04/04/sql-injection-fools-speed-traps-and-clears-your-record/
Title: Re: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: littleman on July 06, 2021, 08:47:33 PM
That SQL injection is very smart and funny.  Twenty-two years ago my wife chose to hyphenate her last name and I was really surprised by how many programs that little dash broke.
Title: Re: Coder from the 70s here: Don't use special characters!!
Post by: rcjordan on July 07, 2021, 01:00:15 AM
>hyphen

My wife's dad was head of the state's driver license & record division and was in charge when the state first converted to a computer system in the mid-1950s. (The license/ID to drive, not the tags on the bumper.)  It was a 6- or 7-digit field, but he did assign a some 'vanity' lifetime numbers to himself, his wife, a few cabinet members, and the governor. He assigned "1" to the governor.

The governor died in office a few months later, so the number became available and my FIL re-assigned it himself.  Everything went fine for 30+ years, the "1" even getting him out of speeding tickets. (No patrolman who wants to keep his job is going to write a ticket to some old guy with Driver License #1.)  Then checkout lines in big box stores started to computerize and they keyed your DL number if you paid by check.