Apple iCloud crashes due to last name “true” | Hacker News Reader

Apple iCloud crashes due to last name “true”

twitter.com

103 pointsmydarkstar16 comments

It doesn't seem like that long ago, Apple would aggressively test, release when releases were ready rather than on a rapid set schedule, and would occasionally issue bugfix-only releases. Apple is far from alone in this, but I really wish we could go back to "No new features!" as a mantra for an occasional release - maybe a tick-tock release schedule? - and reinvest in software quality.

Getting this wrong in a core product is one thing. But then also not fixing it for over half a year? Sigh... Remember how this "recent" critical Mail vulnerability also didn't get fixed for months? It's really putting me off at that point. I also like the tick-tock release schedule idea.

If the NULL reference is the million dollar mistake, I wonder what the cost for the disappearance of every value types is.

In a former life I created a system that was unusable by people with the very real surname “Null”. Not my proudest moment.

There's a plot point about someone named Root in Cryptonomicon, but I have met someone with this surname (who, I think not familiar with its special meaning, requested "root" as her username on a computer system).

[Smirking in Person of Interest reference intensifies]

I can see how this happens, but come on. Write your software to account for these edge cases. Reminds me of people who can’t register for services because of non-western names:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/man-cal...

https://qz.com/1249588/how-i-learned-to-live-with-a-name-tha...

And of course, the king:

https://xkcd.com/327/

I actually can’t see how this happens. I can’t even imagine how you could get strings to actually care what the content is. Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe?

> Inserted unsafely in to sql maybe?

Precisely. SQL Injection attacks used to be very, very common. Whilst using parameterized queries today is now hopefully the norm, it was normal at one point to just use string interpolation.

And then instead of paramaterizing after you hit your first bug, introducing a function to try and sanitise your strings, but still using interpolation.

We were young. The world was new. We had a marshaling bug. It’s no great mystery.

The solution is to have a lot of children to raise the population of people with True surnames above Apples threshold of caring...

Classic, little Bobby Tables

Little? I’m not sure about that anymore. I don’t think he is that short and if you are referring to his age then he is around the 19 year old mark if the call to his mother happened when he was around the age of five entering the school system (the comic was posted back in 2007)

Poor kid, makes it into one meme and can’t live it down for the rest of his drawn life.

The fact that it’s been 14 years since Bobby Tables makes me feel so old...

Bigger discussion here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26364993

Reply on news.ycombinator.com