== Re: Sanitising user input
should be ==, not = (first =)
389 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Dec 2011
Got this query "why not test all possible ...") at Intel. Among other things, we had a 16/16 divide procedure that had "only" 4 billion possible combination; spent a few nights testing 10^8 of them at random -- on the ONE real chip we had at hand. (This is 1981, 1MHZ top instruction rate)
At Princeton U, there was a student lab to measure g using a pendulum. g was off more than it should have been. The prof investigated. Turned out the wall clock (used to measure pendulum period) ran off the local power company. The clock at the power company ran off same power. When 5PM approached, the workers' hand would move the generators a bit faster, so as to get home sooner. Hence wong g.
The Hebrew University got a PDP11/70 delivered, late on a Friday, on a pickup truck. They told us "600Kg, 6 packages". Turned out one package (the 11/70) was 500Kg.
We (the CS department) got it off the truck by tying ropes from it to a higher floor, letting the truck move, and putting a table to stop if moving (said table became matchwood). Let it there until Sunday, when the staff came in.
11/70 worked like a charm