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."

Hey

[sonicmerlin]

Interesting? You're assuming we're all computer geeks. Wait a minute...

meh

[gEvil (beta)]

Meh. What's 23 quadrillion dollars really worth these days?

At least it wasn't EBCDIC

[sheepweevil]

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!

Re:meh

[Anubis IV]

Not much to us, but think of the children. They'll be paying it off for decades!

Minimum

[Selfbain]

So what was the minimum payment on that?

Re:At least it wasn't EBCDIC

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, well -- if they were still using COBOL this wouldn't have happened.

Now get off my lawns!

Not an error

[ArsonSmith]

This is how Obama is paying for health care.

Re:At least it wasn't EBCDIC

[snspdaarf]

One big ASCII charge!

So what's the big deal?

[hyades1]

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.

Sensationalist article

[Xoltri]

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.

Re:At least it wasn't EBCDIC

[MightyMartian]

Good god, if Visa is still using a Unisys V Series and Burroughs terminals.... I'm switching to Mastercard!

Excellent. Now please wait while we calculate your interest with an abacus.

I can hear the radio ads now

[IGnatius T Foobar]

"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!"

Re:Minimum

[pjt33]

$5. But if they've got any sense they'll pay the whole thing off straight away to avoid the interest.

Been there

[Anonymous Coward]

I must've put a decimal point in the wrong place or something. I always do that. I always mess up some mundane detail.

Re:The Sad Thing...

[geekoid]

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.

oblig...

[nih]

I always mess up some mundane detail :(

Re:C/C++ programmers

[Arakageeta]

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.

Debt--American Dream

[tmosley]

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!

Re:Hey

[Itninja]

Joke's on you! I post via US Mail.

Re:At least it wasn't EBCDIC

[Sponge Bath]

That would be a really large abacus run by a team of shackled slaves being whipped by a leather clad master.
So pretty much like any IT shop.

The Money that was created by this error....

[jameskojiro]

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".
.

reassuring...

[Dahamma]

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.

Re:It's a Trap!

[oatworm]

Our credit score cannot repel debt of that magnitude!

Re:Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

Welcome, visitor from the past! In this futuristic year of 2009, people who are not nerds are actually USING COMPUTERS! Also, WOMEN are allowed to VOTE and WEAR PANTS.

My question...

[T-Bucket]

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...

Re:C/C++ programmers

[Anonymous Coward]

WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!

Visa Rewards?

[WTSane]

I hope it was on one of the cards that gives him 1% cash back.

Re:meh

[SkyDude]

Do I just pay the minimum?

Re:stack garbage

[nizo]

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.

Re:Wrong Currency?

[horatio]

Maybe not the wrong currency soon, the way we're printing money here...

Re:I can hear the radio ads now

[nizo]

Actually calling up one of these companies and having them pull up your balance would be awesome.

Re:Hey

[Anonymous Coward]

Greetings kind future man. Could you perchance be able to give me a ride in one of those horseless buggies I've heard so much about?

Sounds like Red Dwarf

[Ainu]

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.

Re:meh

[owlstead]

Yep, I've already got a stack of thousands rolls of toilet paper stacked up here, just in case.

Re:Hey

[cthulu_mt]

You must have to get up awful early in the morning to score a first post.

Re:meh

[Anonymous Coward]

So that's only 232 of the $100 trillion bills. Too bad you can't pay with Zimbabwe dollars.

Re:Hey

[FatdogHaiku]

Welcome, visitor from the past! In this futuristic year of 2009, people who are not nerds are actually USING COMPUTERS! Also, WOMEN are allowed to VOTE and WEAR PANTS.

Oh sure, but let them vote to wear no pants and the wheels come right off the whole system... Pity... I for one would have welcomed our bottomless female overlords...

Re:Only Notice Large Glitches

[Frosty Piss]

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.

Re:Extremely speculative.

[Anonymous Coward]

...
elseif (amt == 12.00)
      Post_12_00()
elseif (amt == 12.01)
      Post_12_01() ....

Re:64 bit charge amounts?

[El_Oscuro]

"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.

Re:Yeeeaaaaahh...

[HTH NE1]

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.

Re:meh

[Lunzo]

Sensible move that. You've gotta be ready for when the shit hits the fan!

Re:meh

[MadnessASAP]

If we really do suffer a complete and total failure of society to the point where the caretakers of the large stockpiles of gold can get away with claiming ownership of it then the gold will be worthless anyways and of no value anyways. Gold buying is there to help insure against recessions or the collapse of one or more economies/currencies.

BTW If society does collapse I'm coming to live with you and your pile of corn :)

Re:meh

[BryanL]

If inflation gets that bad, your currency *is* your toilet paper.

Isn't that his iPhone bill..

[grepya]

Shouldn't have checked his email from Mexico.

Re:So what's the big deal?

[Ant P.]

The "sin" tax on those smokes must have been part of the new anti-smoking bill.

Wait... does that mean this is a sin tax error?

Re:of course they didn't reverse interest charges.

[afabbro]

But just think of the airline miles!

Re:meh

[drosboro]

Exactly. Then we'll use bottle caps for currency.

Almost $100k in interest per millisecond.

[Ihlosi]

Yikes.

Re:Sounds like Red Dwarf

[L4t3r4lu5]

"It has a six in it, but it's not six thousand."

Re:So what's the big deal?

[Overzeetop]

Sir, I tip my hat to you. That was very possibly the best, and almost certainly the worst, joke in this thread. (I'd mod you up, as I have points, but you're at +5 already).

Re:So what's the big deal?

[clam666]

Although I award you first prize for the simple brilliance of that joke, I still feel you should be shot for having made it.

Kudos.

Re:Hey

[kamochan]

Ah, but let them vote with no pants and watch the system achieve unheard of performance!