Comment On Error Error Everywhere

!fist

Addendum (2008-08-20 08:13):

please read the next comment

[fist] [!fist]

The first image is how they made one of the scenes in the opening credits of the IT Crowd.

Yeah, something about the graphics card. You can drag the window over the entire screen and it will fill it completely.

For those interested in the choice of beers in this belgian town:

- draught beer
- Gueuze (that I don't know)
- fishing beer
- kriek (don't know either)
- raspberry beer

- tea beer
- grapefruit beer
- pineapple beer
- banana beer
- apricot beer

- honey beer
- mirabelle beer

- apple beer
- bilberry beer

- strawberry beer
- griotte (?)
- three fruit beer

- wood fruits beer
- passion fruit beer

I don't think that's necessarily what happened here. Does not Windows have a "smart placement" feature for new windows? It's been a while since I've really used Windows, but that was my recollection. Anyways, as more and more windows pop up, it would try to be more creative in placing them, eventually filling up the screen. Looks legit to me.

The answer is obvious - click cancel so there should be no error.

As for the dentist - I dare not say what he is going to do you out loud. It is the procedure that must not be named.

Alex:

Either Casey's math is wrong or Verizon's is.

I'd bet Verizon's is:

http://verizonmath.com/

Click "Cancel". Where is the WTF?

Kluge Doctor:

Click "Cancel". Where is the WTF?

What if your e-mail was someone@revision3.com?

I'd say 'fruit[s] of the forest' rather than 'wood fruits', it's more idiomatic and less likely to get confused with wooden fruits.

kriek = cherry beer (vlaams)

SELECT Title FROM tblMovies

Title
------------------------------------------
The Last of the Mohicans

Results 1 Row(s)

CAPTCHA: Employee Pilfering

Markp:

Kluge Doctor:

Click "Cancel". Where is the WTF?

What if your e-mail was someone@revision3.com?

In your example, the number does not follow the last name.

Kluge Doctor:

Markp:

Kluge Doctor:

Click "Cancel". Where is the WTF?

What if your e-mail was someone@revision3.com?

In your example, the number does not follow the last name.

does too!

Somebody simply did not check the printed menu. Word has a nasty habit of updating fields when you print your document, even though the fields show their old values in Word. I have encountered this in the past, printing something and seeing 'Error!' in the printed version where everything was fine when looking at the Word document.

I suspect they might have just left it at that and decided to fix it the next time they needed to print the menu.

I still prefer this Wallpaper :
http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/p/4841/109457.aspx


It's so much more beautifuler.

Chris:

Somebody simply did not check the printed menu.

NO WAY!! You think!?

pa:

For those interested in the choice of beers in this belgian town:

- draught beer
- Gueuze (that I don't know) <-special beer brewed only in belgium, near brussels. it's a blond and a little turbid beer (sorry not sure of the english adjectives).
- fishing beer <- You're wrong there, it's peach flavored beer
- kriek (don't know either) <- it's geuze beer brewed with cherries
- raspberry beer

- tea beer
- grapefruit beer
- pineapple beer
- banana beer
- apricot beer

- honey beer
- mirabelle beer

- apple beer
- bilberry beer

- strawberry beer
- griotte (?) <-it's a kind of cherry
- three fruit beer

- wood fruits beer
- passion fruit beer

I think I can help here as a native french speaker who live near belgium, I completed the words you were missing for the knowledge of you all.

These "secret questions" are a pet peeve of mine. Basically, it's a second password with far, far less security (in the all to common worst case it's both vulnerable to a dictionary attack and can be easily found out through some research) that everyone can use to circumvent the real password.

So, in a way, the case shown in the screenshot ("What is your password?") may seem stupid, but is at least secure.

CrnDel#10 is secret dentist code for removal (deletion) of the crown on tooth number 10. Presumably it needs replacing.

kriek is cherry beer, very tasty.
griotte is cherry beer aswell.
gueuze is a special type of lambic beer.

And "bière à la pèche" isn't fishing beer. It is peach beer.

Thanks to the abomination known as modal dialogs*, some error boxes lock up the parent window until you answer their demands. If you move the error box, the parent window won't repaint because it is locked up. Now you have two boxes, the real one and the "shadow" of where it used to be. Move it enough and you can fill the screen with shadow dialogs plus the one real one still demanding your sage decision.

So the only WTF here is GUI designers who think all users will do what they're told like sheep and never tinker with anything. And, of course, since most GUI users ARE sheep, they're usually right.

Anyway to make this more fun, try to find the REAL dialog box in the midst of all those shadow ones. Hint: it's the one with a yellow triangle!


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_dialog

brazzy:

These "secret questions" are a pet peeve of mine. Basically, it's a second password with far, far less security (in the all to common worst case it's both vulnerable to a dictionary attack and can be easily found out through some research) that everyone can use to circumvent the real password.

So, in a way, the case shown in the screenshot ("What is your password?") may seem stupid, but is at least secure.

I agree. And when you have to choose one of the preset questions it's usually worse.

They usually go like this:
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your pet's name?
3. What is your favourite vacation spot?

I've never given any thought to my favourite colour, I don't have a pet, and I can't say I have a distinct favourite vacation spot. Ergo, either I make something up and forget it for one the questions--defeating the purpose of the question--or I make something up and write it down--making it way less secure.

At least it's somewhat more acceptable when they give an option that might not change depending on the day of the week, like "What is your birth mother's maiden name?"

Aaron:

Chris:

Somebody simply did not check the printed menu.

NO WAY!! You think!?

I don't think that anybody could ever have forgotten to check the menu before printing. Someone must have dropped some beer on the menu which caused the ink to get drunk and show funny stuff.

That's why I don't trust ink jet printers. They're evil.

(First article):

(full-size image, makes a great desktop background)

But then how would I know if I encountered the same problem as the original poster?

GordonShowers:

(First article):

(full-size image, makes a great desktop background)

But then how would I know if I encountered the same problem as the original poster?

Run Linux or OSX or Vista aero - your wallpaper is the one that looks old.

Markp:

They usually go like this:
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your pet's name?
3. What is your favourite vacation spot?

I've never given any thought to my favourite colour, I don't have a pet, and I can't say I have a distinct favourite vacation spot. Ergo, either I make something up and forget it for one the questions--defeating the purpose of the question--or I make something up and write it down--making it way less secure.

At least it's somewhat more acceptable when they give an option that might not change depending on the day of the week, like "What is your birth mother's maiden name?"

So, in answer to any of the three questions, put "none". It's both truthful and recallable. And for the last 10 years or so everybody has been using the "mother's maiden name" thing... there must be a couple hundred websites now that know that answer for me. When it comes up now, I change the question.

snowman:

Anyway to make this more fun, try to find the REAL dialog box in the midst of all those shadow ones. Hint: it's the one with a yellow triangle!

I'm colorblind, you insensitive clod!

Code Dependent:

Markp:

They usually go like this:
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your pet's name?
3. What is your favourite vacation spot?

I've never given any thought to my favourite colour, I don't have a pet, and I can't say I have a distinct favourite vacation spot. Ergo, either I make something up and forget it for one the questions--defeating the purpose of the question--or I make something up and write it down--making it way less secure.

At least it's somewhat more acceptable when they give an option that might not change depending on the day of the week, like "What is your birth mother's maiden name?"

So, in answer to any of the three questions, put "none". It's both truthful and recallable. And for the last 10 years or so everybody has been using the "mother's maiden name" thing... there must be a couple hundred websites now that know that answer for me. When it comes up now, I change the question.

The weakest part of any security system is the people that use it.

You can always harden your security but your users are as hard as they are getting.

The good news is they are VERY hard, the problem is, they are hard HEADED and will not listen.

Sure, have "your first pet's name", but I changed a lot of MSN passwords when I was a kid by flat out ASKING people's security question.

Oh hi!
What's your favorite color? I like blue!
What was your first pet call? Mine was DrGiantTeeth!
Where were you born?
What schools have you been to?

Security questions are fine for remembering things, but the majority of people are clueless and not only do they fill in the correct answer on the site, they will provide me with the answer with minimal prompting.

I propose "How big is your penis to the nearest millimeter?" or for women "What is the heaviest you have weight before {the last date this was updated}". Also, users cannot fill it in, a doctor has to, so they won't lie.

When they forget their password, they can break out a ruler. I bet 99% of people will not give out their real measurements but would give out their their favorite color.

Men will lie upwards, women downwards - the perfect, secure system. 2 factor like.

Code Dependent:

Markp:

They usually go like this:
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your pet's name?
3. What is your favourite vacation spot?

I've never given any thought to my favourite colour, I don't have a pet, and I can't say I have a distinct favourite vacation spot. Ergo, either I make something up and forget it for one the questions--defeating the purpose of the question--or I make something up and write it down--making it way less secure.

At least it's somewhat more acceptable when they give an option that might not change depending on the day of the week, like "What is your birth mother's maiden name?"

So, in answer to any of the three questions, put "none". It's both truthful and recallable. And for the last 10 years or so everybody has been using the "mother's maiden name" thing... there must be a couple hundred websites now that know that answer for me. When it comes up now, I change the question.

My pet peeve on these is "In what city were you born?"

Um: New York City? New York?, NYC? NY? Three tries? not enough!

Why not let us make up our own questions?

Personally, for the magic phrase, I use a reg-ex hinting at what password I used at the site - as without context, it's useless to anyone but me and my wife.

The first error dialog is obviously someone else playing around with dialogs not repainting, not a lot of error dialogs. The fact that you have a series of left dialog-bars in the middle is a tell-tale sign.

I know because I have a computer with too little RAM, so when things get crazy, things tend to stop repainting with alarming frequency.

snoofle:

Code Dependent:

Markp:

They usually go like this:
1. What is your favourite colour?
2. What is your pet's name?
3. What is your favourite vacation spot?

I've never given any thought to my favourite colour, I don't have a pet, and I can't say I have a distinct favourite vacation spot. Ergo, either I make something up and forget it for one the questions--defeating the purpose of the question--or I make something up and write it down--making it way less secure.

At least it's somewhat more acceptable when they give an option that might not change depending on the day of the week, like "What is your birth mother's maiden name?"

So, in answer to any of the three questions, put "none". It's both truthful and recallable. And for the last 10 years or so everybody has been using the "mother's maiden name" thing... there must be a couple hundred websites now that know that answer for me. When it comes up now, I change the question.

My pet peeve on these is "In what city were you born?"

Um: New York City? New York?, NYC? NY? Three tries? not enough!

Why not let us make up our own questions?

Personally, for the magic phrase, I use a reg-ex hinting at what password I used at the site - as without context, it's useless to anyone but me and my wife.

Plenty places let you pick your own question - it still has the "I may ask you" problem. Except for you of course, but for everyone else. I might recognize a regex though...

I saw this site the other day:

http://www.blue-moon-authentication.com/

It's authentication based on preferences, which are usually pretty stable. You select 16 things (8 liked, 8 disliked) from a pool of 60 things. Then when you need to authenticate, it just shows you the 16 things and you have to select whether you like them or not.
Unless you suddenly go from hating watching golf to loving it, you shouldn't need to remember what you put in the first time.

Anon:

I saw this site the other day:

http://www.blue-moon-authentication.com/

It's authentication based on preferences, which are usually pretty stable. You select 16 things (8 liked, 8 disliked) from a pool of 60 things. Then when you need to authenticate, it just shows you the 16 things and you have to select whether you like them or not.
Unless you suddenly go from hating watching golf to loving it, you shouldn't need to remember what you put in the first time.

Again - it's just a matter of talking to you for long enough. If it's your bank account I'm after, that isn't enough because that would motivate someone long enough to ask 60 questions.

Shit, they could approach you on the street with a questionnaire and offer you $10 for completing it - most people would.

DazP:

I propose "How big is your penis to the nearest millimeter?" or for women "What is the heaviest you have weight before {the last date this was updated}".

A number in well-known range? Brute force will crack these in seconds.

snoofle:

Personally, for the magic phrase, I use a reg-ex hinting at what password I used at the site - as without context, it's useless to anyone but me and my wife.

Your wife knows how to use reg-exes? That's hot.

Gort:

CrnDel#10 is secret dentist code for removal (deletion) of the crown on tooth number 10. Presumably it needs replacing.

Ooooooooh. That's a lot less entertaining than what I was thinking, viz. « Cornea deletion ».

« Open wiiiiiide! No no, I don't mean your mouth... »

Velko:

DazP:

I propose "How big is your penis to the nearest millimeter?" or for women "What is the heaviest you have weight before {the last date this was updated}".

A number in well-known range? Brute force will crack these in seconds.

3 tries as maximum is pretty standard, that's quite a big range, plus it was a joke - lighten up.

That's a lot of beer! Mmm, getting thirsty.

Where I'm writing from we get only a few Belgian beers - Duvel, Hoegaarden, etc. They're pretty good by our standards, but I understand they're just average by Belgian standards. Planning on a nice vacation there. Drink myself stupid, wife can go shopping.

The verizon one is probably simply a case of roundoff. What if the file in question is 30.1 seconds?

The first image (the one with all of the error popups everywhere) isn't fake as much as it is misleading. Message boxes do not pop up at random places. They "cascade". They start from some arbitrary point, then popup from the (SamePointX + ZConstant), (SamePointY + ZConstant), where ZConstant is something like 10 pixels. After it reaches the boundries of the containing window (desktop window in this case), it starts back to (SamePointX, SamePointY).

The image is clearly a desktop that isn't redrawing itself. It is the same window error popup dragged around. Knowing this, you can see the "path" that the error popup was dragged.

snoofle:

My pet peeve on these is "In what city were you born?"

Um: New York City? New York?, NYC? NY? Three tries? not enough!

What's really fun is when they put arbitrary restrictions on top of the questions... like, "answer cannot contain spaces". And of course, they generally don't mention these restrictions on the page where you actually have to enter the answer. ::pulls hair out::

Or, alternatively, "must contain a certain number of characters". I've seen sites which require that security questions have answers of five or more characters. One question I've seen asks the names of one's first pet. My first pet was a dog named "PJ".

is it just me or is that woman's finger rather... threatening?

I like the pretty error message collage, but clearly that is just one error message that has been dragged about over a hung application (probably explorer). The hung app underneath cannot repaint itself so a ghost image of the dialog is painted all over it (I'm sure all Windows users are perfectly familiar with this!). If it were actually a mass of error boxes that were opening in the "windows default" location, then the pattern would be constant - each new window would appear 21 pixels below and 21 pixels to the right of the last, up until the dialog bounds meet the screen bounds at which point the cascade returns to the top of the screen (if it meets the bottom) or starts moving in the other direction (if it meets the side).

I think someone screwed with the OPs machine while he was getting his lunch. Fun though, thanks.

Re Barkin's item, I've been responsible for messes like that myself. Fortunately, I caught most of them before I deployed code.

Re Casey's item, I suspect a rounding error. My guess is that the WAV is probably some fraction of a second longer than 30 seconds. The error message is wrong inasmuch as it's misleading.

My dentist uses that same software package to send reminders. I like it better than the usual phone call reminder, but they could still use some improvement. They attached an iCalendar appointment to my last appointment reminder -- in UTC. 8:10 AM appointments are bad enough, but I'm not going to my dentist at 1 in the morning!

Gueuze is a beer made by spontaneous fermentation. Authentic versions are pretty darn acidic. Kriek has some "wild" characteristics but is more subdued. Then they add cherries to it.

I love the Paint error. It's a perfect example of why programmers shouldn't blindly report whatever the technical details of the error where.

I mean, sure, programmers know that an open() call failed. It makes perfect sense: the first thing you do to write a file is open it. I'm sure quite a few programs I've written would report the same "cannot save: cannot open" error, because it just doesn't occur to me that users might get a confusing error message like that.

It's also a great example of why I hate exceptions. They're generally not granular enough, making it next to impossible to create a useful error message. You have to blindly parrot whatever the exception message said back to the user and hope that the user can make heads or tails of it.

And if the user winds up being told "Cannot save file: Cannot open file", well, so be it! It's not like you could tell the difference between that and "disk is full" or "permission denied" or "file locked" or any other exceptions that opening a file might cause.

Of course, I'm fairly sure that since Paint dates back to early Windows days, it's not written in a language that uses exceptions, so they have no excuse. Well, unless Paint simply blindly parrots back a Windows error string, which is a great recipe for creating confusing and useless error messages like the favorite "Error: The operation completed successfully." message.

snowman:

Thanks to the abomination known as modal dialogs*, some error boxes lock up the parent window until you answer their demands. If you move the error box, the parent window won't repaint because it is locked up. Now you have two boxes, the real one and the "shadow" of where it used to be. Move it enough and you can fill the screen with shadow dialogs plus the one real one still demanding your sage decision.

So the only WTF here is GUI designers who think all users will do what they're told like sheep and never tinker with anything. And, of course, since most GUI users ARE sheep, they're usually right.

Anyway to make this more fun, try to find the REAL dialog box in the midst of all those shadow ones. Hint: it's the one with a yellow triangle!


* http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modal_dialog

Unless you're using some homebrewn modal dialog substitute, WM_PAINT is perfectly handled in the parent windows while the modal dialog is shown. When a parent window is disabled, it only doesn't get mouse clicks and keyboard focus; that's it.