Posted on 08/20/2019 1:58:48 PM PDT by Responsibility2nd
(Newser) – A California man's 2016 decision to get a vanity license plate set him on a path into a "Kafkaesque loop," reports Wired in a look at Joseph Tartaro's predicament. The computer security researcher began brainstorming possibilities that related to his industry, including "null pointer." He liked the NULL, and thought it would be humorous to additionally replace his wife's plate with VOID. Better still, he thought he might be "invisible" and be able to skirt a couple tickets. "I was like, 'I'm the s---,'" he told the crowd while recounting his story at DEF CON, per Mashable. The joke was on him. Nothing much happened in 2017, other than some trouble renewing the plate. But things got weird in 2018: Tickets for traffic violations made all over the state started pouring into his mailbox, with the fines totaling $12,049. Except he wasn't the offender.
As best Tartaro can tell, the trouble started in early 2018 when he paid a $35 ticket for not having a current registration sticker on his plate. He suspects someone scraped it off to use on their own car, and he decided not to bother fighting the fee. But upon paying it, his NULL plate got linked in the system to all incidents of "null"—cases where the cop forgot to take down the plate number, leaving the system with "null" in that field. Tartaro got the DMV to work with ticket issuer Citation Processing Center, getting the balance down to $6,262 and then $140. Which would be encouraging—except he can't reregister his car without paying the fines, and Tartaro indicates he doesn't want to unfairly pay for any tickets and worries more are on their way. (Read about another problematic vanity plate.)
Should’ve used
> devnull
Maybe they don’t allow the greater than character.
I knew someone would post that one.
Ping
Not me, my plate is “NOPLATE”
See? I knew you were smart!
Nully’s fault.......
The states make extra money by charging you the same amount as (that they once did for new plates) by using stickers.
When the stickers came out, that is, the fees remained the same.
Now my state often charges an additional fee if you want actual new metal plates, too.
He is suffering from gov contractors doing piss poor we development. The text ‘null’ is not the same as the value ‘null’
A real world example the “little billy drop tables” cartoon on xkcd.
Well, there you go...
Scofflaw...
Good one....
I never understood vanity plates. When on the road ‘tis best to be as anonymous as possible.
My CA Vanity License Plate says “TRUMP 45”.
We left CA so I have to decide what to do with it by December.
Maybe an Ebay Auction. I can transfer it to a new owner (for a price) rather than just turn it over to the State.
Problem is, nobody in CA has the guts to put it on their Car based on the many People I’ve had discussions with after they noticed my Plate.
Lots of “closeted” Trump Fans there, but they draw the line on risking their paintjobs.
I remember a long ago Archie comic strip where Archie sends Jughead to get his custom plate SUPEDUDE. Jughead comes back with the plate SUPERDUD since there was a limit to the letters.
Congrats on escaping CA.
What state did you move to?
My vanity plate is my ham call sign. It doesn't cost me any more than a normal plate and it identifies me as an emergency responder. I got stopped once because a cop didn't like how I handled a stop sign, and my tag was expired by a month. He asked me if my tag was my husband's call sign and I said, no it's mine. He let me go.
We’re living in the Free State of MS right now. My Wife’s Sisters moved here with their Husbands years ago to Semi Retire.
They brought her Mother with them, but when her health diminished my Wife wanted to be closer to her.
Her Mother just passed away, so we are looking for our final Retirement destination. We’ll probably be here for a year or so before we move on.
My Guns are very happy here. They get to go outside and play now rather than being locked away in the Attic like Anne Frank.
Every “captcha” I ever get.
10O1lB811ll88BB00BO8
“Sorry, you entered the it wrong. Try again.”
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