NYCPHP Meetup

[Tedd Sperling]

On Sep 23, 2011, at 11:29 AM, Chris Snyder wrote:

> Or the opposite problem: I've been working with a city-run database
> that doesn't allow hyphens in names. Brilliant!

Tell me about it.

Many years ago I started a company in Michigan named "•.com".

I don't know if the BULLET character will make it through your email program, but it's a legitimate character none the less. I even had/have a web site for the name for over ten years, namely: http://xn--nvg.com (<-- note this URL is PUNYCODE).

On Windows Machines, the URL will how up as PUNYCODE, but for Mac Machines running Safari, you will see a BULLET dot com in the address bar.

In any event, when I printed the name of the Michigan State's DBA registration, it printed well enough via my Mac. But when the Michigan Secretary of State tried to enter the name into their database, they did not know how to enter a BULLET on their Windows machines. So, I showed them that if the typed 0149 with the ALT key a BULLET would be produced. So, I was able to get the name into their machines.

But they didn't like it because it was different. However, I insisted that the character was a legitimate character and that's what I wanted for my company name. So my request rattled all the way up to THE Secretary of State who ruled that all Michigan companies names must be ASCII only. That is the rule now.

So, if you want to start a Business in Michigan, you must use a name that only contains ASCII characters. No foreign characters allowed here! As always, the government knows best. :-)

Cheers,

tedd

_____________________
tedd at sperling.com
http://sperling.com