Null: Is There A Problem Here?: Null

Showing posts with label Null. Show all posts

20131101

Problem ID: 3505445824327656442
Entered by: Ben Simo

The Healthcare.gov application that can't

I keep pressing Save & Continue, but nothing happens.

I take a look at my browser's console window, and see a whole bunch of errors -- one for each time I clicked the Save & Continue button.

No matter what I enter into the "First name" field, the browser reports "Cannot set property 'firstName' of null".

The application gets stuck in this same place each time I leave the site and login fresh. Oh, and it also requires I re-enter half the information it already has each time I restart.

This application now appears to be in a state that it cannot be completed. And since the system only allows one open application at a time, this kind of error likely encourages users to create a new Healthcare.gov account -- if they don't totally give up in frustration.

UPDATE 11/03: After a bit of debugging of the Javascript that is hitting the above error, I don't see how anyone with an application that contains more than one person can get past this step. The error is occurring in code that checks for a combination of a duplicate first name and birthdate (if you have twins with the same first name, you can't get them insured); however, this code is attempting to compare first names of family members that haven't yet been entered into the system. Javascript throws a type error when you try to get the lowercase text of a variable with a null value.

Edit

20110828

Problem ID: 8053903988938253995
Entered by: Ben Simo

Bugs multiply

All I wanted to do what blog about a bug I encountered while blogging about a bug...

... but that quickly turned into blogging about a bug I encountered while blogging about a bug I encountered while blogging about a bug I encountered while blogging about a bug I encountered while ...

The Blogger editor in Picasa is broken. I can't type any text without getting Javascript errors.

Edit

20100126

Problem ID: 6404274388211195603
Entered by: Ben Simo

The Evolution of Bing

sbanwart: From Microsoft Bing, the infamous "object reference not set to an instance of an object" error. EPIC FAIL.

Edit

20100112

Problem ID: 9069110056659713566
Entered by: Ben Simo

Undefined is null or not an object

@scottpatton: an IE script error on an atm? tha makes me feel "safe". NOT!!!!!!

Nothing increases confidence in banking technology like Internet Explorer script errors on ATM machines. ;)

Edit

Problem ID: 6416039326963872156
Entered by: Ben Simo

Windows cannot find '(null)'

I did not type any name. I'm waiting for Firefox to install an update.

Is null required to update Firefox? If null is nothing, then why should Windows expect to find it? Or maybe '(null)' isn't really null, but something like null. ;-)

Edit

20091229

Problem ID: 8903969217988727638
Entered by: Ben Simo

You may keep (null) (null) in your collection or drop it later

“@gowalla see twitpic for the error I just found. It ended up being a snowboard #1420 after my passport reloaded.” - @chadhutchins

“Sweet. Just picked up my first @gowalla (null) (null) item! Anyone else getting this error?” - @johngarcia

Edit

20091228

Problem ID: 3029821834473433976
Entered by: Ben Simo

Bit.ly to FeedBurner

I had been using Bit.ly, a URL-shortening service, to shorten links to this blog tweeted on Twitter. It worked fine for me and I assumed it was working for others until Amit Kulkarni (@mumbaitesting) contacted me (@QualityFrog):

"IsThereAProblemHere? Pop-under menus?: Not only does this newspaper web site page have no real content, but the me... http://bit.ly/4oowSH" - @QualityFrog

"@QualityFrog If I try to access the tiny URL in your tweets, the 1st time I get Feedburner Err and 2nd time it works. hapnd 2nd time." - @mumbaitesting

"@mumbaitesting Interesting. The bit.ly URLs in tweets via TwitterFeed when scheduled blog posts get published? Or some other URL?" - @QualityFrog

“@QualityFrog This might help you:” - @mumbaitesting

"@mumbaitesting Interesting. Does it happen the 1st time you click each of those bit.ly links? Feedburner should redirect to the blog." - @QualityFrog

"@QualityFrog Thats what the pattern I've observed until now...waiting for another such URL from you, to confirm." - @mumbaitesting

Sure enough, Amit encountered the same problem with later Bit.ly URLs. So I changed to another URL-shortening service. I haven't yet confirmed that the problem is the combination is Bit.ly and Feedburner.

However, I do see reports by others encountering the same problem with Bit.ly links to FeedBurner. Here's one example:

"#iPhone iTablet Rumor Updates — Hardened 10″ Panels, and iSlate Nostalgia for MessageSlate: So... http://bit.ly/7DVYDW @theiphoneblog" - @AllThingsiPhone

“@AllThingsiPhone feedburner error on last tweet..” - @tebailey

Edit

Usability Heuristics

• Visibility of system status Visibility of system status: The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.

• Match between system and the real world Match between system and the real world: The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.

• User control and freedom User control and freedom: Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.

• Consistency and standards Consistency and standards: Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.

• Error prevention Error prevention: Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.

• Recognition rather than recall Recognition rather than recall: Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.

• Flexibility and efficiency of use Flexibility and efficiency of use: Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.

• Aesthetic and minimalist design Aesthetic and minimalist design: Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.

• Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors: Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.

• Help and documentation Help and documentation: Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Consistency Heuristics

-F amiliar Familiar: The product is not consistent with the pattern of any familiar problem.

E xplainable Explainable: The product is explainable.

W orld World: The product is consistent with the real world.

H istory History: The present version of the product is consistent with past versions of it.

I mage Image: The product is consistent with an image that the organization wants to project.

C omparable Products Comparable Products: The product is consistent with comparable systems.

C laims Claims: The product is consistent with what important people say it’s supposed to be.

U ser Expectations User Expectations: The product is consistent with what users want.

P roduct Product: Each element of the product is consistent with comparable elements in the same system.

P urpose Purpose: The product is consistent with its purposes, both explicit and implicit.

S tatutes Statutes: The product is consistent with applicable laws.

FAILURE Heuristics

F unctional Functional: The error detecting, reporting, and handling functions properly.

A ppropriate Appropriate: Errors are reported at the appropriate time in an appropriate manner.

I mpact Impact: The impact of the failure is communicated to those impacted.

L og Log: The error is appropriately logged; or not logged.

U ser Interface User Interface: The error is reported in the user interface in terms that the user understands.

R ecovery Recovery: The user is informed of what they need to do to recover from the error.

E motions Emotions: The error handling and reporting has a positive influence on user emotions.

Security Vulnerabilities

1. Injection Injection: Injection flaws occur when untrusted data is sent to an interpreter as part of a command. The attacker’s hostile data can trick the interpreter into executing unintended commands or accessing data without authorization.

2. Broken authentication and session management Broken authentication and session management: Application functions related to authentication and session management are often not implemented correctly, allowing attackers to compromise passwords, keys, or session tokens, or to exploit other implementation flaws to assume other users’ identities.

3. Cross-Site Scripting Cross-Site Scripting (XSS): XSS flaws occur whenever an application takes untrusted data and sends it to a web browser without proper validation or escaping. XSS allows attackers to execute scripts in the victim’s browser which can hijack user sessions, deface web sites, or redirect the user to malicious sites.

4. Insecure Direct Object References Insecure Direct Object References: A direct object reference occurs when a developer exposes a reference to an internal implementation object, such as a file, directory, or database key. Without an access control check or other protection, attackers can manipulate these references to gain unauthorized access to data.

5. Security Misconfiguration Security Misconfiguration: Good security requires having a secure configuration defined and deployed for the application, frameworks, application server, web server, database server, and platform. Secure settings should be defined, implemented, and maintained, as defaults are often insecure. Additionally, software should be kept up to date.

6. Sensitive Data Exposure Sensitive Data Exposure: Many web applications do not properly protect sensitive data, such as credit cards, tax IDs, and authentication credentials. Attackers may steal or modify such weakly protected data to conduct credit card fraud, identity theft, or other crimes. Sensitive data deserves extra protection such as encryption at rest or in transit, as well as special precautions when exchanged with the browser.

7. Missing Function Level Access Control Missing Function Level Access Control: Most web applications verify function level access rights before making that functionality visible in the UI. However, applications need to perform the same access control checks on the server when each function is accessed. If requests are not verified, attackers will be able to forge requests in order to access functionality without proper authorization.

8. Cross-Site Request Forgery Cross-Site Request Forgery (CSRF): A CSRF attack forces a logged-on victim’s browser to send a forged HTTP request, including the victim’s session cookie and any other automatically included authentication information, to a vulnerable web application. This allows the attacker to force the victim’s browser to generate requests the vulnerable application thinks are legitimate requests from the victim.

9. Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities Using Components with Known Vulnerabilities: Running software components with known vulnerabilities can compromise the vulnerable components and anything those components can access -- undermining defenses.

10. Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards Unvalidated Redirects and Forwards: Using untrusted data, without validation, to determine the destination of redirects and forwards can enable attackers to redirect victims to phisihing or malware sites.

Is There A Problem Here?

20131101

The Healthcare.gov application that can't

20110828

Bugs multiply

20100126

The Evolution of Bing

20100112

Undefined is null or not an object

Windows cannot find '(null)'

20091229

You may keep (null) (null) in your collection or drop it later

20091228

Bit.ly to FeedBurner

Problem or no problem?

Usability Heuristics

Consistency Heuristics

FAILURE Heuristics

Security Vulnerabilities

Popular

Recent Problems

Recent Comments