Comment On Claymation with a Murky Past

Hmm, greater then nothing and less then nothing... worsethennothing@e-mailvender.xxx? Oh wait it has to be a NUMBER???? -9999@-999.-99 .... What a difference a quick bit of testing can do.

TRWTF is that America West became US Airways a year or two ago. Either this is an old snapshot, or Orlando really needs to get with the program!

I didn't know Nero was running the mafia now.

And I suppose it suggested Nick should lock the PC in his own home, burn it and blame someone else?

Is it a WTF if I tried to click on the OK button on the flyzoom screenshot? I just REALLY wanted the error message to go away.

So John Settino's wtf is the shadow across the screen? Or is it the blurry photo?

Oh, wait -- maybe its the indistinct window in the middle of the screen. That might be a Windows error message.

LOVE the faux wood finish at the top of the airline photo!

Am I the only one who keeps looking for the WTF in the Google ad?

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

The FlyZoom form validation error is just plain sloppy UI design. My professors in college wouldn't even let us turn in basic C homework assignments unless the apps did some validation on the user input. Call getchar() and pass it directly along to the next function without validation? I don't think so.

And when we did assignments in JavaScript for web apps we were especially careful because now these apps were being used by a broader, less technical, audience.

I have a book sitting here on my desk which is VB.NET for beginners. Let me repeat that. It's for beginners. Even this book specifically has a section about best practices for designing forms. That includes field validation. Now, UI design is gaining prominence in the development community whereas in the past it was almost always ignored. However, if a recently published beginner's book talks about UI design (and by extension field validation) then there's less and less excuse for people to develop such shoddy web forms. Anyone that does is clearly a hack or is working in a development environment that doesn't allow the developers time to write production-ready code.

Joe:

The FlyZoom form validation error is just plain sloppy UI design. My professors in college wouldn't even let us turn in basic C homework assignments unless the apps did some validation on the user input. Call getchar() and pass it directly along to the next function without validation? I don't think so.

And when we did assignments in JavaScript for web apps we were especially careful because now these apps were being used by a broader, less technical, audience.

I have a book sitting here on my desk which is VB.NET for beginners. Let me repeat that. It's for beginners. Even this book specifically has a section about best practices for designing forms. That includes field validation. Now, UI design is gaining prominence in the development community whereas in the past it was almost always ignored. However, if a recently published beginner's book talks about UI design (and by extension field validation) then there's less and less excuse for people to develop such shoddy web forms. Anyone that does is clearly a hack or is working in a development environment that doesn't allow the developers time to write production-ready code.

there. don't you feel better?

Smash:

I didn't know Nero was running the mafia now.

They're the passive-aggressive mafia. The real mafia would kill your PC for you.

Joe:

Anyone that does is clearly a hack or is working in a development environment that doesn't allow the developers time to write production-ready code.

Or maybe they, you know, made a mistake, and QA (assuming they have QA) didn't pick that up.

Besides, the field clearly is being validated, it's just not displaying the correct error message. It's possible that the wrong kind of validator was used, but I doubt it, otherwise nobody would ever be able to get through the form.

Using a JS popup instead of an inline message is unforgivable, though.

GalacticCowboy:

They're the passive-aggressive mafia. The real mafia would kill your PC for you.

At least they said "please".

Oh boy, another windows error dialog on a public display. These just aren't interesting anymore. We get it, lots of places run windows for this sort of thing, and sometimes windows breaks down.

Becoming Jane was released in 2007 with a PG rating.
The Painted Veil was released in 2007 with a PG-13 rating.

Those are neither murky nor past.

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old.

1988? So, what, Windows 2.03 with a Windows 95 skin? That must be a real hot-rod machine.

Poor Shaun. Shagged by the ranch hand as a young lamb in New Zealand, forced to witness the brutal murder (and subsequent display at the local butchery) of his mother Lambchop, living in constant trepidation of the day it would be his turn, and as if it wasn't enough, the cruel humans put him through a humiliating annual shearing of his 'vesture' leaving him cold and naked 3 months out of every year.

His big break in showbiz as a children's entertainer was well deserved.

WhiskeyJack:

GalacticCowboy:

They're the passive-aggressive mafia. The real mafia would kill your PC for you.

At least they said "please".

GLaDOS said "please" too.

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

It's a Windows error message. I'm going to take a stab and say it's a Windows 2000 error message. Are you suggesting that Orlando International Airport is capable of time travel?

savar:

Becoming Jane was released in 2007 with a PG rating.
The Painted Veil was released in 2007 with a PG-13 rating.

Those are neither murky nor past.

I guess that's why those two are considered "stars of the present".

Aaron:

Joe:

Anyone that does is clearly a hack or is working in a development environment that doesn't allow the developers time to write production-ready code.

Or maybe they, you know, made a mistake, and QA (assuming they have QA) didn't pick that up.

Besides, the field clearly is being validated, it's just not displaying the correct error message. It's possible that the wrong kind of validator was used, but I doubt it, otherwise nobody would ever be able to get through the form.

Using a JS popup instead of an inline message is unforgivable, though.

You're right about the fact that the field is in fact being validated. I was being harsh because I was looking at it from a UI design standpoint. Despite the validation, the user, as you correctly stated, should never have gotten such an ugly message box. An inline message would be preferable.

During a rushed development cycle, I sometimes throw in a dialog box for error messages with the hope that before deployment the ugly dialog boxes will be replaced with something better. Of course, these are internal apps so these are the kinds of niceties that never get done before going live. It's a shame. At least with shrink wrap software or anything else external every little improvement has a definite payoff. That payoff can be in the form of more units of software shipped and sold or it can be a higher conversion rate on a website.

This is why building internal apps blows. Joel Spolsky was right.

The flyzoom is if you use their site with anything other than IE - I fly them a lot and have to keep remembering this. Same with West-Jet, it lets you do almost the whole booking than sticks out at the last page.

Is the Nero message something like 'please have your computer humanely euthanized, since it is immensely outdated' but then a little more direct?

cparker:

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

It's a Windows error message. I'm going to take a stab and say it's a Windows 2000 error message. Are you suggesting that Orlando International Airport is capable of time travel?

A few months ago, I flew out of MCO, they did have the lcd screens, but one of the channels had an NT 4.0 error....

> lots of places run windows for this sort of thing, and sometimes windows breaks down.

Its a comment on the sad state of affairs when people expect computer thingies to break and need re-booting once a week just because they don't work.

I remember a time when such things just plain worked.

cparker:

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

It's a Windows error message. I'm going to take a stab and say it's a Windows 2000 error message. Are you suggesting that Orlando International Airport is capable of time travel?

So, let me guess: TRWTF is that the Orlando International Airport didn't go back in time and kill its own grandparent? (I suspect lots of commuters who have to travel through the airport really wish it had done so.)

bad boss:

Its a comment on the sad state of affairs when people expect computer thingies to break and need re-booting once a week just because they don't work.

I remember a time when such things just plain worked.

I'm not saying it's good or acceptable, but it's just not surprising or funny any more.

kipkuch:

Poor Shaun.

How did this not become a recommended post?

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

They had neither color LCD screens, nor Windows 2000 in 1988.

Wallace obviously declined to comment. ;)

operagost:

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

They had neither color LCD screens, nor Windows 2000 in 1988.

So 20 years is a bit on the high side. Let's just go with the lower bound and say 10 plus maybe an error bound of a couple of years, shall we? Sheesh, some people don't know how to handle ranges.

Stop executing scripts on this page.
Please stop.
Stop, Dave.

please kill your PC, for greater justice

GalacticCowboy:

Smash:

I didn't know Nero was running the mafia now.

They're the passive-aggressive mafia. The real mafia would kill your PC for you.

Maybe, maybe not. If you are trying to join the mafia, or you are in the mafia but they have questions about your loyality they would ask you to kill your mom to prove the mafia is more important to you.

In this case Nero isn't fully trusted, but it isn't up to kill your own mother stage yet. Killing your PC will aliviate such concerns, and allows them to kill your mother latter if you cause problems. Or perhaps you already killed all your living relatives and they are running out of ways to test your loyalty

Watson:

operagost:

JD:

As an Orlando resident and one who recently traveled through OIA, I can vouch that this photo must be about 10-20 years old. Nowadays everything is on LCD panels. I have no doubt, however, that windows errors still pop up every once in a while.

They had neither color LCD screens, nor Windows 2000 in 1988.

So 20 years is a bit on the high side. Let's just go with the lower bound and say 10 plus maybe an error bound of a couple of years, shall we? Sheesh, some people don't know how to handle ranges.

So, you'd say that "eight" is in the range "10-20"? Yeah, you know how to handle ranges real good alright.

Most people can't make 'em stretch *nearly* that far.

Shaun is clearly the famous proverbial black sheep, hence the murky past.
No WTF here.

DaveK:

So, you'd say that "eight" is in the range "10-20"? Yeah, you know how to handle ranges real good alright.

Most people can't make 'em stretch *nearly* that far.

Trying to remember when something with only a tenuous relationship to one's own experience that happened on the order of a decade ago, and without researching for a more accurate figure, yes. Eight is acceptable. I mean, if you can't even sure to within ten years when something happened, you're not going to say "8-18 years ago", are you? Never mind, maybe you would.

I think it safe to say that "10-20 years ago" was intended as an approximation, not as a measurement accurate to two significant figures.

So, let me guess: TRWTF is that the Orlando International Airport didn't go back in time and kill its own grandparent? (I suspect lots of commuters who have to travel through the airport really wish it had done so.)

What have you got against McCoy Air Force Base?

How do you make it so the checkbox for "Stop executing script" will appear on a javascript message box?

"stop executing scripts on this page"?? I want that browser!!

I am the submitter. Hmmm, I submitted it back in October -- do I remember why my browser was giving me that option in those days? I think I was using Opera. Too bad I cropped out the title bar -- that'd confirm my hunch -- but yeah, I'm pretty sure October was an Opera month for me. Someday I'll meet the perfect browser and settle down.