Alex Papadimoulis

Ever since the first Free Sticker Week ended back in February '07, I've been sending out WTF Stickers to anyone that mailed me a SASE or a small souvenir. More recently, I've been sending out the coveted TDWTF Mugs for truly awesome souvenirs. Nothing specific; per the instructions page, "anything will do." Well, here goes anything, yet again! (previous: Big Box of Awesomeness).

"This popped up after I exited from the game Combat Arms," Nathan notes, "the anti-hacking tool bundled with the game thinks its own post-game advertising is a hack."

Dan Wiebe had grown all too familiar with the routine of the 2:00 AM phone call. Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. What the – huh? Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Oh, great. What time is it? Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Okay, okay, I’m coming! Bbbbrrrrrdddddiiiing. Please be a wrong number, "Hello?"

"My company has very strict policy on direct access to the database," Steve writes, "no hand-built SQL in the front-end code and always use a stored procedure to access the data. The reasoning behind this was simple and sound: Avoid SQL injection attacks and increase database performance. "

"I recently received this letter from my insurance company," Graeme writes "but I'm unsure how to clear my outstanding premiums. Should I just send a cheque for the amount stated and backdate it to the date due?"

Really, Really Custom Software was originally published August 29, 2007.

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"This came on in the middle of a commercial," writes Rob S., "and surprisingly, stayed up for a good five minutes or so."

Nothing screams sexy like an ad for a C# developer job at a well-funded start-up. In fact, when Frank's recruiter presented the opportunity to him, Frank knew it would be a long shot. After all, he had no commercial software experience and had only limited Web development experience. But he did know .NET pretty well, so he figured it'd be worth a try. Maybe his skills could translate to a Web-based software company.

"I recently received two identical letters apologizing for multiple communications," wrote Corey A. Spitzer, "and I didn't even receive any of the voicemails the letters referred to. "

Unlike just about all of his friends, family, and coworkers, Jack doesn’t have a fancy cell phone. No streaming video, no Bluetooth, and certainly no “apps”. Heck, it doesn’t even have a camera. It’s just a plain old phone with plain old service that can only dial and receive plain old calls. And it’s exactly the type of phone that Jack wants.

"Some programmers like to program defensively," wrote Sam, "and then there's some of my coworkers. This is found at the top of nearly every function of our C++ classes."

"Dear Monster," wrote Eric, "why does it matter what words I use in my password?"

Have your own Tale From an Interview? Don't hesitate to send it to me.

"It felt like a long flight," Matt commented, "but I did not realize it went half way to the moon."

Although Douglas Mezzer’s housemate had moved out many months ago, there was one recurring reminder of his prior residence: the monthly DSL bill from iiNet. Though Douglas had been paying on time every month, Douglas thought it’d be best if the bills came addressed to him instead of his former housemate. He figured it’d be a simple change that could all be accomplished through the self-service account management website.

As software developers, we're seen as by the world as the Experts of All Things Computer. Want more RAM installed? Of course we can help, we know C++! Blue screen of death? Our day job calls for .NET, so we know exactly what to do! Need a monitor plugged in? That's basically the same thing as programming!

"The first time I logged into a new system, I was prompted to change my password," John said. "After I typed in what I thought was a perfectly acceptable password, this popped up."

Except for the dryers being infamous for not performing their most basic task – drying –students at the Sogn Student Village near the University of Oslo were happy with how the laundry system worked. Just swipe your laundry card and run load, and the charges are conveniently billed along with the rent. Neat. But of course, all good things must come to an end.

"I saw this in the Mar/Apr 2009 issue of IT Expert magazine," notes Mike Edwards, "I wonder if Google is going for the 'artsy' look or the 'oh crap, we forgot to export fonts as curves when we sent in the artwork' thing."

For as long as he could remember, one Millan C's clients had always bragged about having their very own, in-house PHP Guru. "You could really learn something from this guy," they would often tell him, "he's brilliant, you know! And a guru!" Not being a particularly big fan of PHP, nor really interested in meeting the guru, Millan always put it off for "some day."