Comment On The Sky is Falling!

Today's WTF is from Darren S., who reminds us of the complexity of source control software. [expand full text]
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Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:02 • by Mike
wow.  I have this whole "first post" possibility thing going, and yet the wtf left me speechless.

Well, even if it has its problems, like not knowing magically how far to size the window, I still prefer vss to cvs.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:08 • by Ciaran
The real WTF is that I'm still subscribed to the RSS feed for these daily WTF's that aren't WTF's any more. Bye bye..

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:12 • by Long-time-lurker-first-post
The real WTF is her name was Paula and you didn't react?

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:12 • by Anonymous
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.

Or we could share stories of similar dumb goofups that we've made.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:19 • by KNY
84291 in reply to 84288
Anonymous:
The real WTF is her name was Paula and you didn't react?


I trust that is an anonymization made by Alex.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:20 • by Code toaster
She probably told her cluster of friends in neighbouring cubes that she'd fixed it, and was hailed as "brillant".

And so the monster was born?

CAPTCHA: wtf
(damn I've lurked long enough it's my turn to post one of these!!)

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:21 • by Anonymous Squirrel
This is classic. Much respect to the dude for lowering himself to that level of stupidity... that takes real talent.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:21 • by Le salaud
84294 in reply to 84289
Absolutely Brillant.



(captcha=clueless)

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:26 • by beanbag
84295 in reply to 84289
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.

Or we could share stories of similar dumb goofups that we've made.


hmmm..... "Beanbag Girl".... I like...

Today's post is kinda bland - things like that happen all the time - to everyone. Just think of the last time you said "DOH!!" and send in the next WTF.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:32 • by Dagur
84296 in reply to 84295
I agree.

Yesterday I locked myself out of the house, but i'm not going to post that here.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:34 • by OzPeter

Well I work with a PLC programming tool (Toshiba V-Series) and in one of the windows (TC-Net variables), there are two buttons bound to the right hand side of the window, and other buttons at fixed locations that are at the same height.  If you adjust the window just right, the floating buttons overlay the fixed position buttons.  When you do this, there are *NO* indication that some buttons have been hidden.  Of course the only access to the hidden functionality is via the hidden buttons.  To top it all off , the default window size is such that the fixed position buttons are overlayed to start with!


 


And believe me, this is the least of their problems


 


---


 


Captcha is tango, which is actually what I was doing when I met my (then) future wife

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:36 • by SilverDirk
84299 in reply to 84295
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.


hmmm..... "Beanbag Girl".... I like...


Hmm... Beanbag Girl is hotter, but Foosball Girl is in an advertisement for an "online community for software development", so there's a chance that she is a programmer chick. So she still wins.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:37 • by Tode Coaster
84300 in reply to 84289
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.

Or we could share stories of similar dumb goofups that we've made.


Mmmm....women. You dont see too many of those in IT, well, none with such obvious talents.

What I'm pondering is that guy below. Is that Patrick Moore (The gamesmaster himself), and is he wearing the class action suit of which he speaks?

Actually scrub that, he looks more like Steve Ballmer on a bad day.


Sincerely, Me

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:37 • by anonymous
84301 in reply to 84287
Anonymous:
The real WTF is that I'm still subscribed to the RSS feed for these daily WTF's that aren't WTF's any more. Bye bye..
See ya! Can't say we'll miss ya...

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:40 • by Cowardly Lion
It is so a WTF.

Remember that the subtitle of the site is "curious perversions in information technology." Who among us doesn't see the perverse in allowing someone such as this to access a versioning system? WTF was her hiring manger thinking?

Sometimes people merely create WTFs and sometimes people embody WTFs.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:49 • by the_saint
84304 in reply to 84299
Hmmm, stain resistant eh? I like!

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:52 • by Zelos
I think the main WTF is that they're using VSS. I think I'd rather use punched cards than that abomination.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 11:53 • by wgh
84306 in reply to 84296

Dagur:
I agree.

Yesterday I locked myself out of the house, but i'm not going to post that here.


You just did.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:01 • by twks
84308 in reply to 84299
If Paula looks anything like the Foosball Girl on the side, then I can certainly see why she continues to be able to find work.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:11 • by anonymous
84309 in reply to 84305
Anonymous:
I think the main WTF is that they're using VSS.
I think I'd rather use punched cards than that abomination.




Hello, I am your boss.



  ISO-133700 demain that our application sould be distributes with magnetic medias.

 I notice our past distribution whas with DVD. This sould stop, or we may lost the iso certification.

 We have deativated the DVD-ROM burner to avoid mistakes.  Here is a pile of 20.000  3 1/2 disks, for you.

 We are also evaluating ISO-91111 thar required a printed version of the application, be ready.

 



Sincerylly.



Point Haired.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:20 • by GoatCheez
I'm confused. In the second paragrah, it is stated:


Being the de facto VSS administrator (since nobody else had a clue how
it worked), I probed a little, and discovered that apparently the
filenames of all the checked-in files were truncated.  All of them --
every single file.


That states that the filenames were truncated. Meaning something like "somelongfilename.file" got changed to "somelongfi". If that happened, how would stretching the filename column solve the problem. If the filenames were changed in VSS, as it was stated, then widening the column would do nothing.

Now, if what we are meant to believe actually did happen (the filenames weren't truncated, the column was just not wide enough), then I would have scolded her for wasting my time. It's complete and utter stupidity. Frankly, I can see how something of this nature would result in the person either being demoted or fired as well. Let's go through what her train of though would have been.

"The filenames in VSS look wrong. They suddenly stop all at the same place as if they were truncated..."
"I must assume that VSS got corrupted. I need to go to the SS master to tell him so."

No where in her train of thought had it occured to her that it could possibly be something that she had done. Also, she never attempts further investigation. The right thing to do after seeing that the names appear wrong (Aside from looking at the columns at the top) would be to change the working folder, and to get the latest version of all of the files. If she had done this, then it would have been obvious that it was something wrong with the sourcesafe client (like the column being two small).

Stupidity.


Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:37 • by R.Flowers
The real WTF is that I'm reading this post before my lunch!

This one's kind of weak, but it is the middle of the week, so I'll give you guys a break.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:38 • by neven
That's a pretty lame WTF, probably exaggerated by the submitter.

However, it's quite silly of VSS (just checked 2005) to simply cut off the filenames instead of adding ellipses like Explorer does. In fact, why not shade the filename column like Explorer does in XP?

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:52 • by ChiefCrazyTalk
84327 in reply to 84289
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.


Or we could share stories of similar dumb goofups that we've made.


The real WTF is that I didn't notice the beanbag girl OR the foosball girl until they started being mentioned in the last few posts.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 12:57 • by snoofle
84328 in reply to 84309

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
I think the main WTF is that they're using VSS. I think I'd rather use punched cards than that abomination.


Hello, I am your boss.

  ISO-133700 demain that our application sould be distributes with magnetic medias.
 I notice our past distribution whas with DVD. This sould stop, or we may lost the iso certification.
 We have deativated the DVD-ROM burner to avoid mistakes.  Here is a pile of 20.000  3 1/2 disks, for you.
 We are also evaluating ISO-91111 thar required a printed version of the application, be ready.
 

Sincerylly.

Point Haired.


Dear PHB,


As per your directive, I am hereby requisitioning 20.000 wooden tables such that we can properly position said forthcoming printout for appropriate photographing for archival purposes. Additionally, since DVD storage will no longer be allowed, we will need to requisition an additional 1MM 3.5" floppy disks to be used to store the images of the aformentioned photographs.


 


Sincerely,


The Schmuck who works for you


 

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:14 • by GoatCheez
84333 in reply to 84312
Please excuse my poor spelling on my previous post. I meant "too small" for "two small", and "train of thought" instread of "train of though". It was probably obvious, but I figured I'd still mention it in case the spelling and grammar police show up.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:18 • by snoofle
84334 in reply to 84333

GoatCheez:
Please excuse my poor spelling on my previous post. I meant "too small" for "two small", and "train of thought" instread of "train of though". It was probably obvious, but I figured I'd still mention it in case the spelling and grammar police show up.


Oh come on, nobody on this forum makes apologies for typos. You're one of the better posters. I don't know where you are, but it's 105 outside here - cut yourself some slack!

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:26 • by l1fel1ne
84336 in reply to 84333

GoatCheez:
Please excuse my poor spelling on my previous post. I meant "too small" for "two small", and "train of thought" instread of "train of though". It was probably obvious, but I figured I'd still mention it in case the spelling and grammar police show up.


What do you think this is? Slashdot?

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:30 • by OneFactor
84337 in reply to 84299

SilverDirk:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.


hmmm..... "Beanbag Girl".... I like...
Hmm... Beanbag Girl is hotter, but Foosball Girl is in an advertisement for an "online community for software development", so there's a chance that she is a programmer chick. So she still wins.


There's also the possibility that Foosball Girl actually looks as good in real life as she does in the picture. I'd bet money that the Beanbag photo has been digitally altered or something.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:40 • by me != programmer
84340 in reply to 84312

GoatCheez:
I'm confused. In the second paragrah, it is stated:


Being the de facto VSS administrator (since nobody else had a clue how it worked), I probed a little, and discovered that apparently the filenames of all the checked-in files were truncated.  All of them -- every single file.


That states that the filenames were truncated. Meaning something like "somelongfilename.file" got changed to "somelongfi". If that happened, how would stretching the filename column solve the problem. If the filenames were changed in VSS, as it was stated, then widening the column would do nothing.

Now, if what we are meant to believe actually did happen (the filenames weren't truncated, the column was just not wide enough), then I would have scolded her for wasting my time. It's complete and utter stupidity. Frankly, I can see how something of this nature would result in the person either being demoted or fired as well. Let's go through what her train of though would have been.

"The filenames in VSS look wrong. They suddenly stop all at the same place as if they were truncated..."
"I must assume that VSS got corrupted. I need to go to the SS master to tell him so."

No where in her train of thought had it occured to her that it could possibly be something that she had done. Also, she never attempts further investigation. The right thing to do after seeing that the names appear wrong (Aside from looking at the columns at the top) would be to change the working folder, and to get the latest version of all of the files. If she had done this, then it would have been obvious that it was something wrong with the sourcesafe client (like the column being two small).

Stupidity.



The REAL wtf is that every truncated filename ended in an ellipsis...

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:47 • by me != programmer
84343 in reply to 84340

...and she still ran screaming to the VSS admin.


(added for clarification)

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:49 • by marvin_rabbit
84344 in reply to 84312
GoatCheez:
I'm confused. In the second paragrah, it is stated:


Being the de facto VSS administrator (since nobody else had a clue how
it worked), I probed a little, and discovered that apparently the
filenames of all the checked-in files were truncated.  All of them --
every single file.


That states that the filenames were truncated. Meaning something like "somelongfilename.file" got changed to "somelongfi". If that happened, how would stretching the filename column solve the problem. If the filenames were changed in VSS, as it was stated, then widening the column would do nothing.

Now, if what we are meant to believe actually did happen (the filenames weren't truncated, the column was just not wide enough), then I would have scolded her for wasting my time.

It took me a couple of reads to get to the hidden meaning.  I think that when he said he "probed a little" (and we all know how painful that can be), he was referring to asking a few probing questions.  These probing questions being directed to Chicken Little.  And thus, at the end of the probing, he was saved the necessity of having to look at the situation himself.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 13:59 • by GoatCheez
84345 in reply to 84343
Anonymous:

...and she still ran screaming to the VSS admin.


(added for clarification)



Oh gawd, if that were the case I'd have to find this person IRL in order to give them the dumbest person in IT of the year award. Yeah, it'd be early, but she so deserves it. I checked VSS when writing my original post, and unfortunately it does not give elipses for filenames that are longer than the column they are in. Bheh, I think I'll still have to hunt her down... Just imagine if it had been her behind the computer on September 26, 1983 instead of Stanislav Petrov.




Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:00 • by marvin_rabbit
84346 in reply to 84337
OneFactor:

SilverDirk:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already.


hmmm..... "Beanbag Girl".... I like...
Hmm... Beanbag Girl is hotter, but Foosball Girl is in an advertisement for an "online community for software development", so there's a chance that she is a programmer chick. So she still wins.


There's also the possibility that Foosball Girl actually looks as good in real life as she does in the picture. I'd bet money that the Beanbag photo has been digitally altered or something.


This sound like a sit-comm plot...

Several Sumo Lounge Beanbags get delivered to the Cambrian House.  Wackiness ensues.  Probably with pajamas and pillow fights.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:01 • by GoatCheez
84347 in reply to 84344
marvin_rabbit:
GoatCheez:
I'm confused. In the second paragrah, it is stated:


Being the de facto VSS administrator (since nobody else had a clue how
it worked), I probed a little, and discovered that apparently the
filenames of all the checked-in files were truncated.  All of them --
every single file.


That states that the filenames were truncated. Meaning something like "somelongfilename.file" got changed to "somelongfi". If that happened, how would stretching the filename column solve the problem. If the filenames were changed in VSS, as it was stated, then widening the column would do nothing.

Now, if what we are meant to believe actually did happen (the filenames weren't truncated, the column was just not wide enough), then I would have scolded her for wasting my time.

It took me a couple of reads to get to the hidden meaning.  I think that when he said he "probed a little" (and we all know how painful that can be), he was referring to asking a few probing questions.  These probing questions being directed to Chicken Little.  And thus, at the end of the probing, he was saved the necessity of having to look at the situation himself.



AHHHHHHHHHHH! That makes much more sense now... All you need is to add "her" after the word probed and it all makes sense.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:04 • by anonymous
84348 in reply to 84347
This site no longer posts the type of WTFs I've been accustomed to over the years.

I'm leaving!!!

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:10 • by Unklegwar
luckily, when I used to go screaming "the css is borked!", it actually was. Hmmm. Maybe "luckily" isn't the right word.

css suxors. CodeVault is nice tho.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:11 • by Amon E. Moose
The real WTF is the lofty standards some people set for their free entertainment. It happens here every day.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:11 • by Roger
84351 in reply to 84348
Anonymous:
This site no longer posts the type of WTFs I've been accustomed to over the years.

I'm leaving!!!
Dear Anonymous, Boy that'll show us! We'll no longer get to read your intelligent "anonymous" commentary. It's a sad day here at the DailyWTF.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:13 • by Unklegwar
84352 in reply to 84348
Anonymous:
This site no longer posts the type of WTFs I've been accustomed to over the years.

I'm leaving!!!

Yeah, these are more "computer stupidies" type anecdotes than actual WTFs.

However, maybe that's an indication that the developer gene-pool is improving!!!
....nah....

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:17 • by Anonymous
84353 in reply to 84351
Don't worry... I'll keep up the anonymous postings!

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:17 • by noname
84354 in reply to 84285
Anonymous:
[...] I still prefer vss to cvs.


I've heard you people exist, but I didn't really believe it. My god, I'd almost prefer the 'make a directory copy at each revision' method of source control (it'd certainly be less prone to curruption).

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:25 • by packrat
84357 in reply to 84327

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
As this isn't really much of a WTF... I would like to suggest a new conversation topic and direct everyone's attention to the new "Beanbag Girl", if your attention wasn't there already. Or we could share stories of similar dumb goofups that we've made.
The real WTF is that I didn't notice the beanbag girl OR the foosball girl until they started being mentioned in the last few posts.


 


I must have been demoted to l-user, because I still don't know what girls are being referenced.


 


catcha = java ( What? Why not Tiger?)

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:34 • by WTF ..
84360 in reply to 84357
man, this is just Stupid..

 what a fuckin waste of time.



you guys need to put a little more heart into this crap..

 

 this is absolutely stupid..

 the REAL WTF is that some dip is still using VSS like its a usefull tool.



considering most MS developers dont even touch it.. has to say something.



VSS is Junk. there are many much better choices now.



Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:36 • by Calli Arcale
84361 in reply to 84354
VSS is not evil.  At least it's versioned.  Half the battle seems to be getting the development team actually *using* some kind of versioning system instead of somebody's desktop PC....

I'm a ClearCase person myself, but of course you need a fair bit of money in your organization to afford that.  Subversion is a more affordable (i.e. free) alternative.  It's spoiled me; I tend to chafe a bit at the older version control systems because they don't have the flexibility.  But the old systems do work, even if some of them have dopey GUIs.

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 14:39 • by WTF ..
84362 in reply to 84285
Anonymous:
wow.  I have this whole "first post" possibility thing going, and yet the wtf left me speechless.

Well, even if it has its problems, like not knowing magically how far to size the window, I still prefer vss to cvs.




OMG..

 someone shoot this guy..

 

 I am curious what would make those choices?



are your parents brother and sister perhaps?

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 15:02 • by snoofle
84366 in reply to 84362

Interesting asiide: My sister is a very non-technical psychogist. I recently introduced her to TDWTF, just to get her slant on the folks who participate. She had some interesting observations:


- we, as a group, tend to yammer on, no matter how boring/trivial we think the WTF is


-

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 15:04 • by snoofle
84367 in reply to 84362

Sorry - I hit POST instead of HTML while editnig....


Interesting asiide: My sister is a very non-technical psychogist. I recently introduced her to TDWTF, just to get her slant on the folks who participate. She had some interesting observations:

- we, as a group, tend to yammer on, no matter how boring/trivial we think the WTF is

- we tend to bash naysayers more than stupid posts ("we lack confidence")
- someone could post "I like ice cream", and we would still generate 75 posts commenting on such related topics as: Paula, FileNotFound, Wooden tables, etc.

Interesting

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 15:07 • by GoatCheez
84368 in reply to 84366
snoofle:

Interesting asiide: My sister is a very non-technical psychogist. I recently introduced her to TDWTF, just to get her slant on the folks who participate. She had some interesting observations:


- we, as a group, tend to yammer on, no matter how boring/trivial we think the WTF is


-



MORE! MORE! I want more observations!!! I'm sure the comments on this site would make most folks scratch their heads and go WTF?!?!? lol ;-P

Re: The Sky is Falling!

2006-08-02 15:18 • by Disgruntled DBA
84371 in reply to 84367
snoofle:

Sorry - I hit POST instead of HTML while editnig....


Interesting asiide: My sister is a very non-technical psychogist. I recently introduced her to TDWTF, just to get her slant on the folks who participate. She had some interesting observations:

- we, as a group, tend to yammer on, no matter how boring/trivial we think the WTF is

- we tend to bash naysayers more than stupid posts ("we lack confidence")
- someone could post "I like ice cream", and we would still generate 75 posts commenting on such related topics as: Paula, FileNotFound, Wooden tables, etc.

Interesting



I like ice cream.
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