Court Computer Says All Hartford Is Dead (1992)(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Court Computer Says All Hartford Is Dead (1992)
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/09/30/nyregion/court-computer-says-all-hartford-is-dead.html
7 comments
Article is light on details, but sounds like a fixed length field issue with "d" overflowing into the status field because the city name was included in the wrong field.
I wonder what field it was included in. The city name would have been included on the questionnaire mailer, but those never went out, so I guess the field could have been anything.
I wonder what field it was included in. The city name would have been included on the questionnaire mailer, but those never went out, so I guess the field could have been anything.
> The problem came to light in a lawsuit challenging the racial makeup of the grand jury that indicted Luis Colon Osario, a defendant in the $7.1 million robbery of a Wells Fargo depot in West Hartford in 1983.
Gee, it started out as a chuckle but this is scary. Tsk, seems like there should be some sort of check in place. How would we know if our counties had a similar issue? Sure, sure, that was 1992 but we've got plenty of clever bugs hiding in code written in this century too.
Gee, it started out as a chuckle but this is scary. Tsk, seems like there should be some sort of check in place. How would we know if our counties had a similar issue? Sure, sure, that was 1992 but we've got plenty of clever bugs hiding in code written in this century too.
"In related news the entire town was listed on a single line as the 'd' appeared in column 72 which everyone knows is the "continuation" column on punched cards."
Cool article! Clearest example I know for demonstrating buffer overflow to laypeople.
Good for a laugh.
Form overflow.
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8020235