Are you sure you're not Paul Anderson?



  • I went to rent a tile cutter at my local hardware super store, everything was going alright, got the tile cutter onto a trolley and signing papers and then... "That's weird?" says the clerk. I live in Colorado, but apparently someone in Georgia has the EXACT same license number on their George state license as my Colorado license. "Can't you just put say 'CO' in front or something?" I ask, "Oh no, its got to be exactly the same." 30 minutes later, a store manager came up with a fantastic idea "Just put CO in front of his license number" As an added bonus, I got this dude in Georgia's home address, phone number, obviously his license number, and a history of his rental transactions. I get the impression that they refused to believe that in a country of 280 million, two people in different states, with different names, might have the same number of their licenses.



  • We all know them, they are amongst us: the people who always insist on using a natural primary key!



  • In Massachusetts, there are these special Red Sox license plates that have a little "RS" arranged vertically to the left of the license plate number, which is shorter than a standard license plate number. So, for example, one might have the little RS and then "D245". However, before these were instituted, there were already license plates that began with RS, such as "RSD 245". This kind of collision caused an acquaintance of mine to nearly be arrested for driving what a police officer thought was a stolen vehicle. 



  • Agent Smith:

    <font color="#000000" face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" size="1">As you can see, we've had our eye on you for some time now, Mr. Anderson. It seems that you've been living two lives.</font>



  • @sentix said:

    30 minutes later
     

    ... I would have been at the next hardware supplier ...

    Driver licenses generally have different number formats but still the same if its a key field they should pair the key with the state enit?

     



  • Well, this is what happens when a country can't pick one format and stick with it. Sweden have had no such silly issues.



  • @henke37 said:

    Well, this is what happens when a country can't pick one format and stick with it. Sweden have had no such silly issues.

    That's because you don't need a license to ride a mule, dumbass.  Also, licenses are a function of the states, not the Federal government. 



  • @henke37 said:

    Well, this is what happens when a country can't pick one format and stick with it. Sweden have had no such silly issues.

    Sorry, we have too many people to use "Hi My Name Is" stickers. I'm sure it works great for you guys, though.



  • @sentix said:

    I get the impression that they refused to believe that in a country of 280 million, two people in different states, with different names, might have the same number of their licenses.
     

    I'm too lazy to compute it, but I bet the chances of two people in different states with the SAME name having the same license number are not really that low, either (birthday paradox and all -- it's not the chance that someone else is a copy of YOU, but the chance that there are two people, somewhere, who are copies of each other). Of course, that must be multiplied against the chances of both of those people going to the same hardware store to rent equipment, obliterating it back to near zero again...

     



  • There are only 1,000,000,000 - 1 possible combinations. The chances are low, but so are the chances of somone winning the lottery, and probability dictates that there is a high probability that someone will win.

     

    Hell with SS# theres a good chance of collision since illegal imigrants might be using the same SS# as you (happened to my wife). In fact address and SS# are unique ids for certain credit agencies who unoficially support illegal imigrants.. [read this in an article a while back, dont remember the name of the agency]

     

    TRWTF is that you waited 30 minutes.



  • I was running behind, I had marked out all the tile cuts I needed and then planned on being cheap. If you rent the equipment just before store close at 8pm, and return it at opening, then you only pay for 4 hours rental. That was at least my plan and it kind of worked.



  • @smxlong said:

    Of course, that must be multiplied against the chances of both of those people going to the same hardware store to rent equipment, obliterating it back to near zero again...

    Ya, what are the chances that people in both Georgia and Colorado would go to home depot?



  • I'm too lazy to compute it, but I bet the chances of two people in different states with the SAME name having the same license number are not really that low, either

    @dlikhten said:

    There are only 1,000,000,000 - 1 possible combinations.

    In a company with about 165,000 people not one of them is named Paul Anderson so this math needs a lot of work to fit this scenario. There's 51 states but not all states have the same format for numerating their driver licenses (mine, for example is one alpha + 7 numeric ... what's yours?) 

     



  • @medialint said:

    There's 51 states

    wat?

     

    @medialint said:

    what's yours?

    1 alpha + 8 numeric, but the alpha is 'S' for everyone. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    @medialint said:

    There's 51 states

    wat?

     

    Yes 51st state: Iraq.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    Yes 51st state: Iraq.
     

    Hang on, when did the UK get supplanted as the 51st?  Oh right, probably when Tony quit.



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    Hang on, when did the UK get supplanted as the 51st?  Oh right, probably when Tony quit.

    Yeah, like the US really wants Britain as a state.  The costs for dental care alone would bury us. 



  • @morbiuswilters said:

    Yeah, like the US really wants Britain as a state.
     

    I thought:

    America : Britain :: Britain : Australia

     

    Hmmmm.



  •  I thought America : Britain :: Iraq : MPS



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

    I thought:

    America : Britain :: Britain : Australia

    Not sure I fully understand (something about C++ and inheritance?) but just about the only thing that made me smile today, cheers MPS and Morbius!



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    Not sure I fully understand
    The notation A : B :: C : D means "A is to B as C is to D", or in more verbose terms, "The relationship between A and B is the same as the relationship between C and D"



  •  @Eternal Density said:

    @upsidedowncreature said:

    Not sure I fully understand
    The notation A : B :: C : D means "A is to B as C is to D", or in more verbose terms, "The relationship between A and B is the same as the relationship between C and D"

    Right, now explain yours. That is the only thing confusing anyone.



  •  Mine was about as sensible as yours.



  • @Eternal Density said:

     Mine was about as sensible as yours.

     

    So you dont understand the relationship between Britain and Australia?



  •  Of course.  Australia is a state of Britian, like Britain is a state of America.  Which is why  Australia has a prime minister and a governer general, Britain has a prime minister and queen, and America has a president and God.  America, of course, is a state of the Internet, which has AmmoQ.



  • @MasterPlanSoftware said:

     @Eternal Density said:

    @upsidedowncreature said:

    Not sure I fully understand
    The notation A : B :: C : D means "A is to B as C is to D", or in more verbose terms, "The relationship between A and B is the same as the relationship between C and D"

    Right, now explain yours. That is the only thing confusing anyone.

    Ah, OK, the double colon had me thinking C++.

    So America is to Britain as Britain is to Australia?  Seems to me that the best villains in US films (movies) are always Brits but I can't think of any Oz villains in Brit films.  Yeah, we do make films apparently!

    I reckon the difference is that Brits migrating to the US largely went by choice and those who went to Australia (a hundred or so years earlier) largely didn't but both groups had a better deal in the long run.

    Enough bitching, some relatives of mine have just moved to Alberta, Canada - should I be concerned about them being in Alien Central?  I should at least warn them about the shack, right?



  • @upsidedowncreature said:

    I can't think of any Oz villains in Brit films.  Yeah, we do make films apparently!

    I don't think two hours of a guy dressed as a woman qualifies as a film. Also, it doesn't qualify as funny, either. Limey gits...



  • Taxation without Representation

     Technically, the District of Columbia is not a state. However they do have their own driver's license and it's always a dropdown in a State list box ;-)



  •  So there's 51 states ;-)



  • @bstorer said:

    I don't think two hours of a guy dressed as a woman qualifies as a film. Also, it doesn't qualify as funny, either. Limey gits...

     

    That wasn't a film, that was the state opening of parliament.


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