

Apple: Please Design Better Serial Numbers - scottoreilly
http://www.spiderstrategies.com/blog/2012-10-10-apple-design-better-serial-numbers.html

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emehrkay
Here is a fix for computers that can turn on:

 > About This Mac > More Info > Highlight serial > Copy (command + c or edit
> copy> > Paste (command + v or edit > paste> into form field

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jevinskie
A checksum could always be added like a ISBN. Though you would still enter an
incorrect serial number, you would know that it was incorrect.

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polyfractal
Mountains out of molehills? Why is this newsworthy? And I say this as someone
that doesn't even particularly like Apple or Apple products.

It's a serial number, and an employee made a mistake. End of story.

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mikeash
It's not presented as "newsworthy", so why ask that question? It's a mild
musing on a subtle design defect in Apple products, which is interesting for a
company that prides itself on getting little details right. It's also
interesting from a wider perspective, because the problem of making
alphanumeric strings that can be entered by hand is pretty common, and there
are some easy steps you can take to make the process easier that few people
actually take.

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polyfractal
I have no problem with people posing idle thoughts on their blog. But this is
Hacker _News_ ... and this was not news, nor was it particularly interesting.

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mikeash
Half the stuff on the front page at any given moment is not "news".

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najhr999
Why not just include it as a QR or Bar Code, then scan when you arrive?

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mhb
Since they can't change the existing serial numbers, why don't they have
autocomplete software suggest the possible alternatives to an incorrect one
based on the likely character mistakes?

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arb99
So an employee made a mistake? that doesn't happen anywhere else.

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jevinskie
But if Apple is as innovative as they say they are, why don't they implement
better serial numbers like the article suggests? I agree, the numbers can be
hard to read, especially given their tiny size.

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pja
The obvious thing to do would be to encode the serial number in a 2D barcode &
have the Apple store employee scan it from the device.

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Hansi
Older laptops used to have this, was under the removable battery, which is now
defunct. I'm sure it's most likely somewhere on the motherboard now.

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scottoreilly
Keep in mind that this was the second time an Apple employee screwed up a
serial number in a year. Obviously something is wrong with the system.

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jsmcallister
Maybe the employee needs to have his eyes checked. I have no problem reading
my serial numbers and I have a 5 and an S.

