Slashdot Mirror
Software Glitch Leads To $23,148,855,308,184,500 Visa Charges
Hmmm2000 writes "Recently several Visa card holders were, um, overcharged for certain purchases, to the tune of $23,148,855,308,184,500.00 on a single charge. The company says it was due to a programming error, and that the problem has been corrected. What is interesting is that the amount charged actually reveals the type of programming error that caused the problem. 23,148,855,308,184,500.00 * 100 (I'm guessing this is how the number is actually stored) is 2314885530818450000. Convert 2314885530818450000 to hexadecimal, and you end up with 20 20 20 20 20 20 12 50. Most C/C++ programmers see the error now ... hex 20 is a space. So spaces were stuffed into a field where binary zero should have been."
Interesting? You're assuming we're all computer geeks. Wait a minute...
Meh. What's 23 quadrillion dollars really worth these days?
This guy's the limit!
In EBCDIC, hex 40 is a space. Making this error if EBCDIC was used would make the charge a whopping $4,629,771,061,636,895,312 - 4 quintillion dollars!
So what was the minimum payment on that?
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
This is how Obama is paying for health care.
Paying taxes to buy civilization is like paying a hooker to buy love.
Isn't that about the cost of a couple of packs of smokes and a bag of chips at one of those gas station stores? If he filled up the truck, too...well, that would just about account for it.
Dude should shut up and pay what he owes.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
He also felt a stab of fear that he had saddled all his unborn grandchildren -- and their grandchildren -- with a lifetime of debt. "Down the generational line, nobody would have any money."
Give me a break.
-Xoltri
"Do you owe $23 quadrillion or more on your credit cards? Well I'm about to tell you a secret that the credit card companies don't want you to know. You can settle your debt for pennies on the dollar and get out of debt fast!"
Tired of FB/Google censorship? Visit UNCENSORED!
I must've put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.
Anything more then "Huh, what an odd error" and you really need to check your reality.
On the plus side you might be able to leverage:
Hey, if Visa lends me 23 quintillion dollar, surely I'm good for another 100 billion.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I always mess up some mundane detail :(
I'm a rabbit startled by the headlights of life
0x20 is "space" in ASCII. The ASCII table maps numerical values to (mostly) readable characters. Unicode is a buffed out table supporting international (and other) characters. The programmers forgot to strip the whitespace from their input.
If I were him, I would have applied for a bailout, then gave myself a nice hefty bonus before going bankrupt.
It's the American Dream!
The money that was created out of thin air by this error is no more invalid than the trillions of dollars of Fiat currency that the Government forces down everyone's throat.
.
Nixon was an absolute bastard for getting us off of the Gold Standard.
.
Now money should not be backed by just one precious metal, but should be backed may various different precious metals and maybe some other precious resources. Full faith and credit is a joke.
.
Hey maybe they should give this guy a gold metal, because he could have single handedly used his debit card to pay off all out debts like Stan did in "Margaritaville".
.
Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
It's good to know their system is able to handle $23 quadrillion charges, now I just need to get them to raise my limit a bit.
Our credit score cannot repel debt of that magnitude!
Does he still get the airline miles for that one? I mean, even at 1 mile per dollar spent.... He can now book a first class ticket to mars...
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!
I hope it was on one of the cards that gives him 1% cash back.
Oh please... if the person on the phone knew anything about programming, they wouldn't be working the phones, they would be coding their apps like the guys who got promoted from answering the phones last week.
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
Maybe not the wrong currency soon, the way we're printing money here...
There is very little future in being right when your boss is wrong.
Holly: Busy, Dave?
Lister: Well, yeah. I am, actually.
Holly: Oh, then you won't want to know about the two super-lightspeed
fighters that are tracking us.
Lister: What?!
Holly: I'll leave you to your bubble blowing, mate.
Lister: No, Hol, come on, come on.
Holly: They're from Earth.
Lister: Three million years away?
Holly: They're from the NorWEB federation.
Lister: What's that?
Holly: The North Western Electricity Board. They want you, Dave.
Lister: Me? Why? What for?
Holly: For your crimes against humanity.
Lister: You what!
Holly: It seems when you left Earth three million years ago, you
left two half-eaten German sausages on a plate in your
kitchen.
Lister: Did I?
Holly: You know what happens to sausages left unattended for
three million years?
Lister: Yeah. They go all mouldy.
Holly: Your sausages, Dave, now cover seven-eighths of the Earth's
surface. Also you left seventeen pounds, fifty pence in a
bank account. Thanks to compound interest you now own
ninety-eight percent of all the world's wealth, but since
you've hoarded it for three million years nobody's got any
money except for you and NorWEB.
Lister: Why NorWEB?
Holly: You left a light on in the bathroom. I've got a final demand
here for one hundred and eighty billion pounds.
Lister: A hundred and eighty billion pounds! You're kidding!
Holly: (wearing Groucho Marx disguise) April fool.
Lister: But it's not April.
Holly: Yeah, I know, but I could hardly wait six months with a red-hot
jape like that under my belt.
Charge several thousand people $2.31 too much and you can make an alright profit.
Let's see... 2000 x $2.31 is, er, around $4620. Yes indeed, big mamou, yes indeed.
If you want news from today, you have to come back tomorrow.
... ....
elseif (amt == 12.00)
Post_12_00()
elseif (amt == 12.01)
Post_12_01()
"I gave him an unlimited expense account and he exceeded it." Edward Bennett Williams, who used to own the Redskins--once said about George Allen, Sr., whom he had hired to be his coach.
"Be grateful for what you have. You may never know when you may lose it."
I had a roommate who had a calling card that had rolled over to maxint minutes remaining. He checked the balance on a speakerphone to prove it to me.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Shouldn't have checked his email from Mexico.
But just think of the airline miles!
Advice: on VPS providers
Yikes.