Comment On Pop-up Potpourri: The Really Windy City

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

Ah, retail taxonomies. We had a client who had an employee consistently placing toilet cleaner supplies
 in the 'executive pen and pencil set' category.

Anonymous:

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

You don't get humor, do you?

 

Anonymous:

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

You don't get humor, do you?

 

 
Since this is "The Daily WTF" wouldn't it only be funny if you know...it was a bug?  Otherwise any odd headline could make it.
 

What format will that album be available in? Can i wait 18 years for it!

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

You don't get humor, do you?

I understand what the headline means and I understand how it could be otherwise interpreted.  I think the real meaning is far clearer than the geographic mayhem that could be misinterpreted.  Either way it isn't a bug and even though I "get it" I don't think it's all that funny.

I'm not trying to make a big deal.  I'm just clarifying for those who might not know.  Yeesh.
 

You can e-mail Kathy to find out how she can be converted to an int:

kathy.milde@health.sa.gov.au

 

The WTF is that somebody apparently didn't realize that Iraqi expatriates could vote.

Amusing, but not really computer related, and it's odd to be laughing at the submitter rather than the submitted. Nothing at all like trying to imagine a -1x-1 monitor.

(Given that it wasn't a computer fluke at all, but a submitter fluke, no, it doesn't really belong here. Trying to say "Don't you get it?" doesn't really work, 'cause the *more* you know, the less funny it is. The whole "Don't you get it?" appeal-to-embarrassment is supposed to work the other way around.)

Anonymous:

The WTF is that somebody apparently didn't realize that Iraqi expatriates could vote. Amusing, but not really computer related, and it's odd to be laughing at the submitter rather than the submitted. Nothing at all like trying to imagine a -1x-1 monitor. (Given that it wasn't a computer fluke at all, but a submitter fluke, no, it doesn't really belong here. Trying to say "Don't you get it?" doesn't really work, 'cause the *more* you know, the less funny it is. The whole "Don't you get it?" appeal-to-embarrassment is supposed to work the other way around.)

Who cares if it's not computer-related, as long as it's something that might make somebody else scratch their head? I got the joke, as somebody who was unclued might -- why are Iraqis voting in Detroit? I also knew why Iraqis were voting in Detroit, since the media hammered the fact that Iraqis expats would vote in Detroit and several other cities across the country.

I think the whole complaining-something-isn't-a-wtf-or-isn't-a-technology-wtf is kinda old. Let's just laugh and move on, shall we?

Strangely, if you search for "Kathy Milde" you do actually get something.

i guess someone did... she's recognized by the database now.
how barbaric, turning your employees into numbers!
 

I got Kathy's number at the Christmas party last year.

Anonymous:

What format will that album be available in? Can i wait 18 years for it!

There's a Belgian artist, Vitalski, who is going to make a theatre performance of Dali 11 may 2040. And he recommends you buy your tickets now: VrtNieuws.Net.

Alex Papadimoulis:

And I thought Chicago was the Windy City. At least Adrian Ritchie and all the other folks from Guernsey shouldn't have any trouble flying a kite ... with an 80,000 ton weight attached to it ...

You could hold the kite down with one of these transistors from The -693926 Days of Christmas.

The search fails when "of", "the", etc are used. Presumably, these words are removed from the query, after they have been counted as part of the query.

Anonymous:

Strangely, if you search for "Kathy Milde" you do actually get something.

But it is even worse than that:

1. Search for "Kathy" and you'll find that all occurrences of the word are marked in bold font.

2. Search for "Kathy Milde" and find that all occurrences of the word "of" are in bold.

WTF!

 

 

Anonymous:

The search fails when "of", "the", etc are used. Presumably, these words are removed from the query, after they have been counted as part of the query.

Not quite "health" returns the syntax error regarding Kathy, too..

 

Anonymous:

Strangely, if you search for "Kathy Milde" you do actually get something.

 Sounds like some joker thinks database normalization is just as useless as validating your data fields before you put them in the database.

I see this kinda crap all the time, unfortunately.
 

 

>You can e-mail Kathy to find out how she can be converted to an int:

>kathy.milde@health.sa.gov.au

 

 

Do we have someone here from Austrelia who can call her  8226 6599 ?

Alex Papadimoulis:

Stuart Cambell got a rather bizarre response when searching for "rights of private practice" at the Department of Health's website. And yes, as of this date, the error is a live one. Go ahead, search for something yourself.

 At first, I didn't scroll down far enough, and thought the WTF was the image of the three smiling fruit or whatever they are.

What are they, BTW? Why the heck is this image displayed at the top of the search results?

Alex Papadimoulis:

I get it! The Real WTF™ is that a weather site for Jersey, England is displaying the wind speed in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour.

 

kmactane:

 At first, I didn't scroll down far enough, and thought the WTF was the image of the three smiling fruit or whatever they are.

What are they, BTW? Why the heck is this image displayed at the top of the search results?

They're apples, and every time you search, you get a different freaky apple image. I've gotten a good half dozen, and should really stop refreshing the page for apple images and get back to work.

Alex Papadimoulis:

And I thought Chicago was the Windy City. At least Adrian Ritchie and all the other folks from Guernsey shouldn't have any trouble flying a kite ... with an 80,000 ton weight attached to it ...

 

 

So Earth has dethroned Neptune as having the fastest winds in the solar system?  Must be global warming.  (Neptune's winds are estimated to be somewhere from 1200 to 1500 MPH.  That's a pretty damn windy day over in Guernsey!)
 

Alex Papadimoulis:

People, please do not set your monitor's resolution to -1, -1. Sure, it's fun to watch your (well, your employer's) monitor implode into a single pixel, but the resulting singularity that gobbles up the rest of existence is a bit of an inconvenience for the rest of us. Thank you BCS for pressing "Cancel".

 

The sad thing, it's already selected, notice Apply is greyed out.

 

captcha: craptastic [software]

kmactane:

I get it! The Real WTF™ is that a weather site for Jersey, England is displaying the wind speed in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour.

 

 

No, miles are used more frequently than kilometers in England for measurements of distance and speed. 

 http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm

(check the "speed limits" section)
 

The -1 x -1 resolution is what shows up when you try to change the display properties while connected remotely via terminal services.

Alex Papadimoulis:

 

 

This may be my favorite error message of all time ......

John Bigboote:

kmactane:

I get it! The Real WTF™ is that a weather site for Jersey, England is displaying the wind speed in miles per hour instead of kilometers per hour.

 

 

No, miles are used more frequently than kilometers in England for measurements of distance and speed. 

 http://www.highwaycode.gov.uk/09.htm

(check the "speed limits" section)
 

Yes... and, for what it's worth, Jersey isn't in England (it's not even part of the UK). It even has its own internet top-level domain, .je... 

 

-P 

Wait... that's not a font.  Someone actually wrote out the buggy text by hand without noticing.

WTF.

 

John Hensley:

Wait... that's not a font.  Someone actually wrote out the buggy text by hand without noticing.

WTF.

Happy to have you abord John.

Actually, there is a kids book called 'Wicked Words' (It's a Horrible Histories special) and it's quite possible that it has a sequel (i.e. 'More Wicked Words') which may partially explain how that particular book got labelled as childrens (it doesn't explain how someone managed to use that information to put it in that category without actually looking at the book). Of course it could be an automation error in that it looked up the title and grabbed the rest of the information from a database without further checks against say... the author (a bit like CDDB lookup telling you that Total Annihilation disc 1 is a Disney soundtrack, which it used to do a while ago)

Interestingly, if you google for "Kathy Milde" (including quotes), we find that she works for that department.

 

I love the text on this page:

http://www.health.sa.gov.au/Default.aspx?tabid=52&mid=449&ctl=ViewDetails&ItemID=1540&PageIndex=0

 
which says:

"Enquiries: Contact Kathy Milde for the Jpeg of the board (listed below) on 8226 6599"

Wow. 

Actually, there is a kids book called 'Wicked Words' (It's a Horrible
Histories special) and it's quite possible that it has a sequel (i.e.
'More Wicked Words') which may partially explain how that particular
book got labelled as childrens (it doesn't explain how someone managed
to use that information to put it in that category without actually
looking at the book). [...] 

No, obviously the title is used as primary key. And why not? Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Captcha: clueless (who, me?)

Anonymous:

Actually, there is a kids book called 'Wicked Words' (It's a Horrible
Histories special) and it's quite possible that it has a sequel (i.e.
'More Wicked Words') which may partially explain how that particular
book got labelled as childrens (it doesn't explain how someone managed
to use that information to put it in that category without actually
looking at the book). [...] 

No, obviously the title is used as primary key. And why not? Nothing could possibly go wrong.

Captcha: clueless (who, me?)

No, it's not that obvious. The bookseller likely has a big list of all the books they own, and a license to a data feed full of all kinds of book-related data that's not otherwise available. (like Muze, or AMG, or IMDB, or numerous other media services) In order to figure out which product numbers in their catalog match which rows in their data feed, they may employ some algorithm which checks for matching ISBNs, and matching authors and titles lacking ISBNs. If either data feed is incomplete, you get weird things like this.

On the hand written one, I bet what happened is they have essentially what are "keyers" in some country like China who simply gets the print out from the computer, hand-copies the text and stuffs it into an envelope.

 Having dealt with Chinese keyers, I can say that their instructions are generally "Key as seen" (or "write as seen") so they aren't supposed to make ANY judgement calls reguarding what is right or wrong.  Just copy it down and be done with it.

This doesn't make this any less of a WTF (the program that spit it out to the keyers has a WTF in it), but that's probably how it ended up hand written :)

 Also, I love the really windy city.  84,285 MPH winds are probably a, what, Catagory Infinity hurricane? :)

Anonymous:

 Do we have someone here from Austrelia who can call her  8226 6599 ?

While I live in Australia, and even in Adelaide (note the 8 at the beginning). I'm not calling anyone. And I suggest you don't either. 

I am actually the Richard from the third popup....sorry Eli...we only ever saw that popup on a mchine with a broken hard-drive up until we shipped the game....if you patch it will go away....

I particularly enjoyed that the publisher was 'Virgin Books'.

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

You don't get humor, do you?

So which part is supposed to be funny, people being forced out of their homelands by a ruthless dictator, or people participating in the democratic process?

ssprencel:

Happy to have you abord John.

Nobody else seems to have specifically mentioned it (or said anything else about that entry). You've heard of handwriting capture fonts, have you not?

 

Do handwriting capture fonts have multiple shapes for each letter, so that it looks like real handwriting? (Seriously, tell me. I've never used one.)

It's my hypothesis that Paula changed her name to Kathy. After all, this one's a varchar and the last one was a string literal.

In an unrelated note, I love the picture of the little man being blown away by the hurricane. I wish more weather services used cool graphics like that. It could be interesting to watch the Weather Channel when they're warning people to avoid lightning or whatever if they provided nice little warning graphics like that...

Anonymous:

On the hand written one, I bet what happened is they have essentially what are "keyers" in some country like China who simply gets the print out from the computer, hand-copies the text and stuffs it into an envelope.

 Having dealt with Chinese keyers, I can say that their instructions are generally "Key as seen" (or "write as seen") so they aren't supposed to make ANY judgement calls reguarding what is right or wrong.  Just copy it down and be done with it.

This doesn't make this any less of a WTF (the program that spit it out to the keyers has a WTF in it), but that's probably how it ended up hand written :)

 Also, I love the really windy city.  84,285 MPH winds are probably a, what, Catagory Infinity hurricane? :)

Not necessarily, to be a category infinity hurricane, one would naturally have to assume an infine wind speed.  Since the wind speed is a finite value, one would have to have a finite numerical classification.  as there is a new classification every approx 20 mph in wind speed, i would suggest a class 4,211 hurricane, though anything above 155 mph is still only considered a class 5.

nwbrown:

Anonymous:

Anonymous:

The Iraq voter registration refers to expatriates living in Detroit who could vote in Iraqi elections

You don't get humor, do you?

So which part is supposed to be funny...

I know!  I know!  Trying to have a political discussion on a techie site that has WTF as part of its domain name!
 

I've never used a custom handwriting font, so take this with a grain of salt, but I think I read that to simulate real handwriting multiple versions of the same letter are used.

Alex Papadimoulis:

People, please do not set your monitor's resolution to -1, -1. Sure, it's fun to watch your (well, your employer's) monitor implode into a single pixel, but the resulting singularity that gobbles up the rest of existence is a bit of an inconvenience for the rest of us. Thank you BCS for pressing "Cancel".

 

 

Something is wrong here, at least for me. Why does the combo box say "Multiple monitors" and the visual representation of the monitor setting shows only 1 monitor?

 

CAPTCHA: poprocks.  

Anonymous:

Alex Papadimoulis:

People, please do not set your monitor's resolution to -1, -1. Sure, it's fun to watch your (well, your employer's) monitor implode into a single pixel, but the resulting singularity that gobbles up the rest of existence is a bit of an inconvenience for the rest of us. Thank you BCS for pressing "Cancel".

 

 

Something is wrong here, at least for me. Why does the combo box say "Multiple monitors" and the visual representation of the monitor setting shows only 1 monitor?

 

CAPTCHA: poprocks.  

Well, since its monitor 2, its actually there, but since the size is -1...
 

Drahflow:

Anonymous:

Strangely, if you search for "Kathy Milde" you do actually get something.

But it is even worse than that:

1. Search for "Kathy" and you'll find that all occurrences of the word are marked in bold font.

2. Search for "Kathy Milde" and find that all occurrences of the word "of" are in bold.

Not only that, but even though the abstracts of the pages returned by search are texts of articles/news... the links actually all point to another (same for all results) page!

 

Alex Papadimoulis:

Stuart Cambell got a rather bizarre response when searching for "rights of private practice" at the Department of Health's website. And yes, as of this date, the error is a live one. Go ahead, search for something yourself.

 

The first thing I tried to search for was 'john', which produced the following error message:

Syntax error converting the varchar value 'media unit' to a column of data type int.

So it is not only humans they are trying to turn into numbers.

I wrote to Amazon, asking what this 2025 date was all about. Here's there response:

Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience you may 
have experienced.

Our latest information indicates that "I Sing The Body Holographic" 
has not yet been released and the expected release date is not 
known.  The 2025 date is displayed until our suppliers are able to 
provide us with a specific release date.

As soon as an actual release date has been determined for this item, 
we will add that information to our web site.

While we do still hope that copies will be made available, we cannot 
provide more precise information about the fulfillment of the order. 

So, umm, is 2025 like infinity, so that the undecided release date will definitely be <= that date.

:) 

 

rahuja:

I wrote to Amazon, asking what this 2025 date was all about. Here's there response:

Please accept my sincere apologies for any inconvenience you may 
have experienced.

Our latest information indicates that "I Sing The Body Holographic" 
has not yet been released and the expected release date is not 
known.  The 2025 date is displayed until our suppliers are able to 
provide us with a specific release date.

As soon as an actual release date has been determined for this item, 
we will add that information to our web site.

While we do still hope that copies will be made available, we cannot 
provide more precise information about the fulfillment of the order. 

So, umm, is 2025 like infinity, so that the undecided release date will definitely be <= that date.

:) 

If Amazon's system works in any way like the system I wrote for an online company that used to sell books, then it works by being giving stock updates from their suppliers. These stock updates contain a complete list of all the books currently available (even if the stock level is zero). Each product has a release date. The <i>suppliers</i> often have system where they <b>must</b> enter a date. Some enter 00-00-2008 (if they know it is coming up next year some time). Others fix the release date to some (moving relative) date in the future. Others just manually key in some futuristic date.

So, I suppose one cannot blame Amazon entirely. They could build something to cater for stupid release dates, but I'm guessing that, at the moment, they are just the messengers.