Hector Martin

Every year at around this time I do a quick sweep of family finances, which often involves working with a new Japanese financial firm, which means I get a quick object lesson in http://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/ … Today's example is a Kafkaesque nightmare.

System A: "Please enter your first and last name in a total of less than 8 characters. If you need more, we'll abbreviate for you." System B: "Please enter your first and last name in a total of less than 8 characters. If you need more, abbreviate your first name."

Me: "McKenzie is, in fact, 8 characters." System B: "Your first name can't be blank." "McKenzie P." "You foreigners suck at math." "McKenzi P" "One more time." "McKenz P" "OK now give me that in roman characters." "McKenz P" "You included insufficient vowels. Try again."

One of these years I might have to incorporate a Japanese LLC (合同会社 technically) just to deal with this. Step 1: Register [Patio11 G.K.] (G.K. = LLC here) Step 2: Hello bank / insurance / government agency I need the corporate version of this form. Step 3: It works.