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CS 106


I ran several advertisements in a major newspaper, offering a house for sale.
After I had paid for the ads, and had received the cancelled check,the paper
continued to bill me for one ad; their computer began to make it clear via
punched cards that it considered me a deadbeat.  I wrote to them, mangling 
the enclosed billing card so that no machine could read it, and correctly
suggesting that they had two accounts for me: 
a Robert Floyd account (balance -$10.00) for the me who had advertised, and a
Robert W. Floyd account (balance +10.00) for the me who had paid. Their billing
system was a time bomb in search of a lawsuit.

(***** RWF: write section about time bombs *****)

Among the options to prevent such blunders, automatic return of or notification
about positive balances would have worked.  The reader might think about how
the two accounts could be recognized as belonging to the same person, taking
into account that

  	    James Vandyke 		and 	J. van Dyke
 	    1 Fifth Street              and 	One 5th St.
	    Boulevard of the Allies 	and 	Allies Blvd

may all be the same.  Another difficulty is that the same person may represent
himself and several independent businesses and voluntary activities.