• bvs23bkv33 (unregistered)

    I first visited foreign country at age 006 and I see no problem

  • A Traveller (unregistered)

    Quantas?!?! Seriously, can’t people even cut and paste a company name these days?

  • (nodebb)

    I can just see how somebody filled out the entry and due to poor database design, it was allowed in. Field: RestrictedToAge Caption: "Restrict Sales to Minimum Age:" Field Type: Varchar(4) NOT NULL -- WTF, should be NULL-able Unsigned Byte

    Answer given of course was "Y", as in Yes, restricted to a minimum age, as opposed to say, 18.

  • AnonymousCoward (unregistered)

    For the NYC MTA, why would someone want to see the message in American Sign Language, given that they've just seen the message written in words?

  • Drak (unregistered)

    On the Qantas one, I like how the miles and km distance are the same, but the altitude in meters/feet is calculated correctly(?).

  • (nodebb)

    Why, of course I'm Y years or older! I've visited a foreign country at the ripe age of Z, and it was -654,553,204m down under.

  • (nodebb)

    I particularly liked the extortion email. With all the synonyms. Fun read.

  • Mike (unregistered)

    How could you begin to trust a bank whose name is an improper fraction, anyway?!

  • golddog (unregistered)

    On the plus side, Hamilton Island will be really nice when you got there a few minutes ago.

  • BufferUnderflowException (unregistered) in reply to Drak

    It seems to me like the KM is calculated from the Miles; and that the metres from the ft.

    The -2,147,483,648 is the lowest number a signed 32bit integer can represent, which is why it appears as such (obviously). There's obviously a bug in whatever is handling/passing the real data, and instead a 32bit integer's minimum value is being used as a default.

    1 Mile is roughly 1.60934 KM, so the calculation would result in a far higher number of (negative) KM. It's just that the data type they're using can't represent it (and seems to not underflow), limiting it to the lowest value it can show - appearing to "not work".

    With 1 Mile being 5280ft, the calculation is obviously that there are fewer (negative) miles, which is why it appears to "work" OK.

  • Time Leap (unregistered) in reply to bvs23bkv33

    Try to visit foreign country at 008 and the site may crash! (illegal octal number)

  • Brian Boorman (google)
    "The fact that Fifth Third Bank handles money should be able to handle numbers correctly."

    That's not even a sentence. Stop hurting my brain. And learn some grammar. Let's try something: "Given the fact that Fifth Third Bank handles money, it should be able to handle numbers correctly."

  • (nodebb)

    If the distance is negative, I'd sure hope the travel time is negative as well, or the Standard Model of Physics and Cosmology is broken.

  • (nodebb) in reply to bvs23bkv33

    -99

  • Mister Monk (unregistered)

    Why would you view a message in ASL? And if you somehow couldn't read text, but could understand ASL, how would you know to visit the link?

  • FormalWare (unregistered)

    Dear {Scumbag|Waste Of Skin|Bottom-Dweller},

    {Publish and be damned|Make my day|Do your worst|Go pound sand}!

    {Sincerely|Kind regards|I remain, your faithless servant},

    /Nigel

  • operagost (unregistered)

    A warp drive will take you across the galaxy really quickly, but it won't get you there before you left. I think you're looking for the Tardis.

  • (nodebb) in reply to operagost

    The Tardis. Of Course! That explains so much. Designing websites for Time Lords would explain the Y age, as Y is sometimes used as 150 in Roman Numerals. And, at 150, your age would be at least three characters long in decimal.

    Not sure of the rest, though... maybe the barcode reader started to become sentient?

  • siciac (unregistered)

    It meta-broken, it meta-not. Fuggedaboudit.

  • spines (unregistered)

    Look, naked mole rats!

  • Jesse (unregistered) in reply to The_Bytemaster

    I mean, if body fat can, why not barcode readers?

  • I dunno LOL ¯\(°_o)/¯ (unregistered) in reply to Mister Monk

    And where is the Braille link for the screen reader impaired?

  • (nodebb) in reply to Jesse

    Think about it: plastic. All over the world, every artificial thing waiting to come alive. The shop window dummies, the barcode scanners, the wires...

  • Anthony (unregistered) in reply to Mister Monk

    ASL is a different language from English. Just because you are fluent in one doesn't mean you are fluent in the other. But just because you aren't fluent doesn't mean you can't understand enough to click the link, just like every other language listed there. You see the name of your language and you click, getting the rest from context.

  • wizofaus (unregistered) in reply to Brian Boorman

    Perfectly grammatical, just nonsensical unless you think facts can handle numbers (correctly or otherwise).

  • Johan Johanson (unregistered)

    Why do you need ASL to read text?

    Also, I like the fact that even amount how much you have to pay is randomized.

  • Obfuscator (unregistered)

    When travelling with Quantas the book "Time Traveler's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations" by Dr. Dan Streetmentioner might come in handy.

  • löchlein deluxe (unregistered)

    Ah yes, the in-flight displays… also often puzzled by the fact that origin and destination might not be in the same TZ, or in that of the plane, and that planes can move east or west (though if they do both at the same time, good luck).

  • Kwantas (unregistered)

    The conversion function of ft to m is about right although the answer would put the altitude in space past the orbit of the moon on the other side of the planet. The conversion function of miles to km simply gave up and returned its input, maybe in the spirit of ask a silly question get a silly answer.

    Rather than being fractally wrong it looks more like a cascade fail where some wrong data (maybe the location) went through and affected everything that depended on it. It does highlight the way the later functions work and is more interesting than a simple 'unavailable, please wait' screen that is usually shown to users.

    I'd rather face the chaos than be babied.

  • (nodebb) in reply to Mister Monk

    Why would you view a message in ASL?

    There are people who know ASL but can't easily read. Deaf kids, for instance, or folks with dyslexia.

    And if you somehow couldn't read text, but could understand ASL, how would you know to visit the link?

    Good question. The same question holds for all those other languages listed!

Leave a comment on “Let's Hope it's Only a Test”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article