Coding Gaffe

[classical_hero]

http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-18922629

There was a line in the code that went: 0xB16B00B5, so as a result it looks like Big Boobs and thus it forced Microsoft to change the code. TGhe wonders of working with Hexadecimal code.

 

[civ_king]

If that was intentional that's rather childish and puerile, if not then no harm. Least it aint Nigaz.

 

[Formaldehyde]

It is clearly intentional. There is no legitimate reason to set the "HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID" in such a wacky way, or to set such an arbitrary value as the highest guest ID.

+#define HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID_LO 0x00000000
+#define HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID_HI 0xB16B00B5
+#define HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID (((u64)HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID_HI << 32) | \
+ HV_LINUX_GUEST_ID_LO)

This is particularly true given the following:

Commenting on the gaffe, developer Dr Matthew Garrett noted that the first version of the Microsoft code used a similar string of 0x0B00B135 - a form of letters that roughly translates to "boobies".

Much of this dates back to Novell Netware where you had to actually maintain IDs of 32-bit hex strings and be able to remember them. 0xDEADBEEF is a classic.

Even this one is mentioned in the Wiki "hexspeak" list which was pointed out over a year ago:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hexspeak

0x8BADF00D ("ate bad food") is used by Apple in iOS crash reports, when an application takes too long to launch, terminate, or respond to system events.[1]
0x1BADB002 ("1 bad boot"[2]) Multiboot header magic number.[3]
0xB16B00B5 ("big boobs") is required by Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor to be used by Linux guests as their "guest signature".[4]
0xBAADF00D ("bad food") is used by Microsoft's LocalAlloc(LMEM_FIXED) to indicate uninitialised allocated heap memory when the debug heap is used.[5]
0xBADDCAFE ("bad cafe") is used by Libumem to indicate uninitialized memory area
0xCAFEBABE ("cafe babe") is used by Mach-O to identify Universal object files, and by the Java programming language to identify Java bytecode class files.[6]
0xCAFED00D ("Cafe Dude") is used by Java as a magic number for their pack200 compression.[7]
0xD15EA5E ("disease") is a flag that indicates regular boot on the Nintendo GameCube and Wii consoles.[8][9]
0xDEADBABE ("Dead Babe") is used by IBM Jikes RVM as a sanity check of the stack of the primary thread [10]
0xDEADBEEF ("dead beef") is frequently used to indicate a software crash or deadlock in embedded systems. DEADBEEF was originally used to mark newly allocated areas of memory that had not yet been initialized -- when scanning a memory dump, it is easy to see the DEADBEEF. It is used by IBM RS/6000 systems, Mac OS on 32-bit PowerPC processors and the Commodore Amiga as a magic debug value. On Sun Microsystems' Solaris, it marks freed kernel memory. On OpenVMS running on Alpha processors, DEAD_BEEF can be seen by pressing CTRL-T. The DEC Alpha SRM console has a background process that traps memory errors, identified by PS as "BeefEater waiting on 0xdeadbeef".[11]
0xDEADDEAD ("dead dead") is the bug check (STOP) code displayed when invoking a Blue Screen of Death either by telling the kernel via the attached debugger, or by using a special keystroke combination.[12] This is usually seen by driver developers, as it is used to get a memory dump on Windows NT based systems. An alternative to 0xDEADDEAD is the bug check code 0x000000E2,[13] as they are both called MANUALLY_INITIATED_CRASH as seen on the Microsoft Developer Network.
0xDEADFA11 ("dead fall") is used by Apple in iOS crash reports, when the user force quits an application.[1]
0xDEFEC8ED ("defecated") is the magic number for OpenSolaris core dumps.[14]
0xFACEFEED ("face feed") is used by Alpha servers running Windows NT. The Alpha Hardware Abstraction Layer (HAL) generates this error when it encounters a hardware failure.[15]
0xFEE1DEAD ("feel dead") is used as a magic number in the Linux reboot system call.[16]
0xE011CFD0 is used as magic number for Microsoft Office files. In little endian this reads D0CF11E0, "docfile0".[17]
0x0000000FF1CE ("office") is used as the last part of product codes (guid) for Microsoft Office components (visible in registry under HKLM\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Uninstall registry key).
0x00BAB10C ("oo-ba-block") is used as the magic number for the ZFS uberblock.
C15C:0D06:F00D ("cisco dog food") used in the IPv6 address of www.cisco.com on World IPv6 Day. "Dog food" refers to Cisco eating its own dog food with IPv6.
face:b00c ("facebook") used in the IPv6 address of www.v6.facebook.com

But it is really much ado about nothing. They are really the equivalent of software developer Easter Eggs. Even Java uses 0xCAFEBABE which could be perceived as some sort of slight against attractive women who visit restaurants.

 

[holy king]

that's bascially porn.

 

[shadowplay]

Maybe they can get jobs animating for Disney.

 

[warpus]

"We thank the community for reporting this issue and apologise for the offensive string,"

Oh yeah, because breasts are sooo offensive

 

[Kozmos]

Yeah I don't see what the fuss is about.

 

[Quackers]

Probably some bored computer coder who wanted to have a bit of fun.
Anyway arent these guys sitting at a desk all day long with no social contract just building code? Seems dull to me.

 

[Formaldehyde]

Writing software is extremely boring to most people. But look at the mad perks. Nerd groupies with B16 B00B5 just to name one, not to mention all the CAFE BABEs. But you have to be careful not to turn into C15C0 D06 F00D.

 

[Kozmos]

All my classes and variables are obscenities and insults now that I think about it.

 

[shadowplay]

Yeah I don't see what the fuss is about.

I really wish companies wouldn't apologize for faux outrages like this.

 

[Askthepizzaguy]

I find hexadecimal descriptions of mammary glands to be strangely arousing.

 

[Synobun]

Oh no, it translated to Big Boobs.

Bring back the guillotine!

 

[The_J]

Silly season, obviously.

 

[AlpsStranger]

Moderator Action: <snip> Sorry, but it breaks the one click rule.

 

[Yeekim]

I really wish companies wouldn't apologize for faux outrages like this.

This.

 

[LegionSteve]

If that was intentional that's rather childish and puerile,

As a software developer I can confirm that many of us are childish and puerile.

I at least try to keep my swears in the comments rather than the code itself.