17.377 anti-Irish computing?

From: Humanist Discussion Group (by way of Willard McCarty willard.mccarty@kcl.ac.uk)
Date: Mon Nov 03 2003 - 02:00:41 EST

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                   Humanist Discussion Group, Vol. 17, No. 377.
           Centre for Computing in the Humanities, King's College London
                       www.kcl.ac.uk/humanities/cch/humanist/
                            www.princeton.edu/humanist/
                         Submit to: humanist@princeton.edu

             Date: Mon, 03 Nov 2003 06:49:38 +0000
             From: Office of The Provost <provost@georgetown.edu>
             Subject: anti-Irish computing?

    Willard,

    For many years, I have observed that some computer systems have difficulty
    with apostrophes in surnames -- a common problem among Irish and
    Irish-decended folk. Just now, trying to sign up for online billing from
    a phone company, it couldn't recognize me until I deleted the apostrophe.

    1. Any useful algorithm to understand when/how this will happen?
    2. Any prospects of remediation?

    Jim O'Donnell
    Georgetown University

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