From: dblack@... Date: 2007-06-28T03:46:46+09:00 Subject: Re: Regexp to split name? Hi -- On Thu, 28 Jun 2007, Rick DeNatale wrote: > On 6/25/07, Alex LeDonne wrote: > >> I worked at an institution that was forced to rewrite a bunch of >> name-related code for a legacy system because of a "sanity" check that >> was just plain wrong... and nobody realized it until Dr. O came to >> work. Now they had to allow one-letter surnames, too (they'd already >> allowed one-letter given or middle names, thanks to President Truman's >> middle name, S). > > Reminds me of an old SF story "The Man Whose Name Wouldn't Fit." IIRC > it started with a guy getting fired because his company put in a new > computer personnel data system which had one too many characters in > the field for last name to accomodate him (and it was too expensive to > fix). > > I think it ended with a neo-luddite movement with a secret weapon > which dissolved the bond between the the magnetic material and the > substrate on magnetic tapes and disks. > > Don't know how many here are old enough to remember when most > computers used magnetic tape. I sometimes wonder whether the DECtapes in my attic would still be readable. David -- * Books: RAILS ROUTING (new! http://www.awprofessional.com/title/0321509242) RUBY FOR RAILS (http://www.manning.com/black) * Ruby/Rails training & consulting: Ruby Power and Light, LLC (http://www.rubypal.com)