• dpm (unregistered) in reply to Anon.
    Anon.:
    TheSHEEEP:
    Why he did not immediatly quit after that incident (or, well, after the paid off-time) is beyond me.
    That, at least is obvious. If you were going to quit after, you wouldn't spend the time hanging around holding the button down.

    That said, I call BS on the whole story. Any one of the WTFs would be acceptable on its own, but all of them in a single story? nope.

    There's always one in every crowd. You seriously believe that this could not have happened? Why not? How many places have you worked? Are you sure you've worked at the worst possible places?

  • Clickety click (unregistered)

    Yeah but all the other WTFs aside, someone had an IBM Model M. So they can't be all bad.

    In my opinion, the Model M is the best keyboard of all time. You can keep your flat, soulless keyboards with a row of hotkeys to open IE or whatever (who honestly uses those?)

    I remember back at the beginning of the noughties, when I was working for a fairly large insurance company, word had come from head office in Paris (France) that all peripherals were to be replaced with the officially sanctioned device from some little computer shop in Round Rock, Texas. Some tosh about compatibility. I tried for as long as possible to circumvent this hardware refresh but they eventually got my anti-social, curly-corded noise-maker and threw it out.

    Sad times.

    Needless to say I quit that day etc etc.

  • Jan (unregistered) in reply to realmerlyn
    realmerlyn:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    In real browsers, "--" is a toggle between comment and non-comment. So an odd number of them will confuse any standards-compliant browser.

    If you write bad code and it won't compile, is it the compiler's fault? Or yours for not understanding the language syntax, arcane as it may be?

    Anyone who asks "what browser are you using" has demonstrated that they are not yet competent to be writing HTML code. Write to standards. That will work on all compliant browsers. If someone is using a non-compliant browser, that's their problem.

  • Firefox 3 theme rulez! (unregistered) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    For various complex and not necessarily valid reasons, I'm on Firefox 3.6.23.

    Yeah, I can't be bothered to move from Mint 7 either :)

    And I like the user interface of that too... on Win7 I'm on FF15 with theme add-on "Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4+" ( http://ffaddons.game-point.net/ff3ff4/ ) - unfortunately they've broken something in FF16+ and the add-on won't work any more :( So I'm stuck on FF15 now.

  • Will (unregistered) in reply to realmerlyn
    Manny waved at the developer at the other end of The Center, and she waved back.
    By this time he has observed plenty of red flags. If he had the presence of mind to consider this the last straw, he would have saved himself a lot of grief.

    Just sayin'

  • Kent (unregistered)

    So the computer has never before failed during the daytime? (Otherwise they would have gone out of business from the losses, which would have been a good thing, and in the case of companies like this, the sooner it happens the better.)

    And the reason it couldn't reboot is because that was what would automatically advance the trading day -- but once having done so, the counter was stored in TPM-protected memory so you couldn't just go in and set it back?

    Like the time I creamed in my girlfriend's "I", this story is too hard to swallow.

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered)

    So, TRWTF is SGML today?

    From W3C:

    White space is not permitted between the markup declaration open delimiter("<!") and the comment open delimiter ("--"), but is permitted between the comment close delimiter ("--") and the markup declaration close delimiter (">"). A common error is to include a string of hyphens ("---") within a comment. Authors should avoid putting two or more adjacent hyphens inside comments.

  • MP (unregistered)

    He didn't spend the next week looking for a different job?

  • (cs)

    And what happens if the power goes out? I highly doubt they have the 'servers' on an UPS. If I was feeling mean I would trip the breaker for that room and then lol.

  • Naveen (unregistered)

    I am a regular reader of this blog and this is by far the best story I have read here. Hats off! I just hope this is fictional, for sake of Paul!

  • Derek Stiles (unregistered)

    My mind was screaming "LET'S BEGIN THE OPERATION!" the whole time that I spent reading this.

  • (cs) in reply to Paul Neumann
    Paul Neumann:
    So, TRWTF is SGML today?

    From W3C:

    White space is not permitted between the markup declaration open delimiter("<!") and the comment open delimiter ("--"), but is permitted between the comment close delimiter ("--") and the markup declaration close delimiter (">"). A common error is to include a string of hyphens ("---") within a comment. Authors should avoid putting two or more adjacent hyphens inside comments.

    Huh. Learned something new. Given how much I love em-dashes, I'm surprised I haven't been burned by this before.

  • (cs) in reply to Firefox 3 theme rulez!
    Firefox 3 theme rulez!:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    For various complex and not necessarily valid reasons, I'm on Firefox 3.6.23.

    Yeah, I can't be bothered to move from Mint 7 either :)

    And I like the user interface of that too... on Win7 I'm on FF15 with theme add-on "Firefox 3 theme for Firefox 4+" ( http://ffaddons.game-point.net/ff3ff4/ ) - unfortunately they've broken something in FF16+ and the add-on won't work any more :( So I'm stuck on FF15 now.

    I'm not on Mint, nor any other variety of Linux. FreeBSD 8.2, if you must know. It's a long story and I'm not bored enough to tell it all here.

  • (cs)

    The real WTF is any company not having a backup server that will keep the business going if one of your servers goes down, when that server is worth so much in business, i.e. far more than the cost of a backup.

  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to sukru
    sukru:
    Richard:
    Most of those old beige boxes with the mechanical power switches, you could release the button and push it again quickly enough to prevent a power-down.

    You might want to practice a few times before doing it on a production server, though.

    I used to do this all the time! As long as you can re-press the buttons before the capacitors discharge, nothing happened.
    I did it several times too when those buttons were the norm, but Paul couldn't have the luxury. It wasn't his machine, so he couldn't be sure how much the button would push back until it reached the stage where you have to press it again.

    The article calls the lack of ACPI a "small blessing of old hardware". I have to disagree. Were they using newer hardware Paul would release the button at Manny's scream and all would be ok.

  • Fred (unregistered)

    For some reason that description of the "server room" reminds me of a guy I used to work with. Let's call him Dan the Junkyard Dog. Dan existed in the midst of an enormous pile of formerly useful computers and peripherals.

    Dan also seemed to think that his job was to run around the building and help whoever called him. So lots of people called him.

    Our boss, however, thought Dan's job was do what the boss needed done. After a series of conversations failed to communicate this message, the boss snuck into the den of doomed hardware one evening and disconnected Dan's phone. Over the next couple days Dan became quite depressed as he thought nobody needed him any more. (The boss, and his needs, apparently didn't count.) Finally he inspected his phone and discovered the missing wire.

    You'd think he'd start putting the puzzle together, but no, in his world broken hardware was the norm so he just "fixed" his phone and went back to usual.

    He left the company a few weeks later -- probably for somewhere with a bigger pile of older junk.

  • Greg (unregistered)

    Even that newfangled pushbutton switch was a mistake. Proper computers had proper switches that worked like a light switch, except the lever was red and about 2 inches long. It flipped with a satisfying "thunk" and didn't give the software any opportunity to argue with your authority.

    When humans lose the ability to power off their computers, the world of the Terminators is one step closer to reality.

  • (cs) in reply to the beholder

    This article, including HTML comments, was probably the most fun read here in weeks! Great writing, but 3 typos stuck out: "all in various states of apparent disassemble" -> disassembly "There were CRTs, two button mice," -> two-button "closest to the lone window verses least covered in dust" -> versus

    the beholder:
    The article calls the lack of ACPI a "small blessing of old hardware". I have to disagree. Were they using newer hardware Paul would release the button at Manny's scream and all would be ok.
    Maybe, depending on what was set in the OS's power options. Though given the rest of the circumstances, "when I press the power button" was probably set to "shut down".
  • Sean (unregistered)

    Certainly a made up story or grossly exaggerated in terms of impact.

    Even if 100% of revenue came through that single box, with around 250 trading days per year and $10M per trading day, this is a $2.5B company; not a small business. And in financial services industry. If the financial numbers are correct, they should have $100M+ IT budget. While there can be lot of other nonsensical things done at such places, hard to believe they are running with dozen or so programmers with hardware that is close to 2 decades old with no physical segregation of production and development servers.

  • (cs) in reply to bkDJ
    bkDJ:
    This article, including HTML comments, was probably the most fun read here in weeks! Great writing, but 3 typos stuck out: "all in various states of apparent disassemble" -> disassembly "There were CRTs, two button mice," -> two-button "closest to the lone window verses least covered in dust" -> versus

    Thanks, glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for the spiel check. Fixed!

  • Neil (unregistered) in reply to Jan
    Jan:
    realmerlyn:
    Steve The Cynic:
    Somebody should edit the comments in the HTML to not include double-dashes, as that confuses at least some browsers.

    lk: Done. What the heck browser are you using?

    In real browsers, "--" is a toggle between comment and non-comment. So an odd number of them will confuse any standards-compliant browser.
    If you write bad code and it won't compile, is it the compiler's fault? Or yours for not understanding the language syntax, arcane as it may be?

    Anyone who asks "what browser are you using" has demonstrated that they are not yet competent to be writing HTML code. Write to standards. That will work on all compliant browsers. If someone is using a non-compliant browser, that's their problem.

    I believe Firefox 4 switched to ignoring double hyphen-minus characters as part of their new HTML5 parser. If you look at the source (which of course you should always do, particularly on this site) then you'll see newer versions complain whenever a comment contains a double hyphen-minus. I'm looking at you, <!-- Tokyo & Beijing - see you at QCon (April 16-20) -->

  • Clayton (unregistered)

    I can't believe noone has mentioned the reference to the excellently quirky Trauma Center games (or at least, used the phrase "game" or "Nintendo DS").

  • (cs) in reply to Clayton
    Clayton:
    I can't believe noone has mentioned the reference to the excellently quirky Trauma Center games (or at least, used the phrase "game" or "Nintendo DS").

    I didn't see noone's comment, but Derek Stiles did mentioned it just a few comments above.

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to Lorne Kates
    Lorne Kates:
    Huh. Learned something new. Given how much I love em-dashes, I'm surprised I haven't been burned by this before.
    FWIW, I decided to open up my old Firefox to see what that page was.

    I was greeted by 30 or so "THIS SESSION HAS EXPIRED" windows from the HR thingy I had to do last month which didn't think Seamonkey was a real browser. Not the first time that the open tabs memory has "remembered" tabs that I closed, but definitely the most spectacular.

    http://thedailywtf.com/Comments/Kentucky-Fried-Cat.aspx

    Open that one in Firefox 3.6 and then something more recent. A properly "standards compliant" browser will not parse the comment as intended, and you won't see any of the comments. Because they've become a comment.

    Current browsers say fuck the standard and parse it in the way that humans expect.

  • A Luser (unregistered)

    Toothpick(s). Jammed between button and housing.

  • (cs)
    Paul's first day at Redacted Commodities and Trading, LLC.
    Sooo... How are things at Knight Capital nowadays, Paul?
  • sunnyboy (unregistered) in reply to A Luser
    A Luser:
    Toothpick(s). Jammed between button and housing.

    Bingo! That or a small screwdriver... anything to wedge the button in the on position.

    Basically, the guy deserved to work there simply because he was too stupid to think up a decent solution to jamming the button on for the day.

    I'd call that a pretty good 'interview' question!!! :-D

  • Dzov (unregistered) in reply to A Luser

    A lot of those buttons aren't very well made, and the act of trying to jam it could cause enough of a momentary interruption to completely shut down. If that was your $10 million, would you risk it?

  • (cs) in reply to Lorne Kates
    Lorne Kates:
    Huh. Learned something new. Given how much I love em-dashes, I'm surprised I haven't been burned by this before.
    If you really loved em dashes, you'd know that they're a — (Alt-0151 or —), not --.

    As for today's story, I have a hard time believing a room full of geeks didn't take advantage of this opportunity to brainstorm ways to keep that button pressed.

  • letatio (unregistered) in reply to Lorne Kates
    Lorne Kates:
    Sockatume:
    Of course, MacGuyver would've opened up the machine and hotwired the power switch.

    MacGuyver was fired the other week for using equipment from an non-approved vendor. Sure, the paperclips we get from the no-bid contract with the boss' nephew's office supply hut costs $50 each, but they're SOX and PCI compliant paperclips!

    Am I insane or don't power switches generally make the circuit meaning they only needed to open up the side and unplug the switch from the motherboard?

    How old was this machine?

  • jiteo (unregistered)

    I still don't understand why someone's first step upon choosing a computer that is already on is to press the power button. Apparently that's explained in the HTML comments, but I had a look and still don't get it.

  • Curmudgeon (unregistered)

    To be sure (captcha esse), the real WTF is that he ended up as a new hire, in that room, NEVER HAVING SEEN IT BEFORE.

    He did not ask for, nor was offered a tour before uh 'creaming' on the dotted line. What did he expect and how many light years away was the reality?

    Now THAT's a WTFWYT (WTF were you thinking).

  • B00nbuster (unregistered)

    TBH: It should be very easy to perform such a live surgery. I could've done it.

  • John (unregistered)

    TRWTF was hitting the power button on the machine. I had an admin years ago suggest that the best thing to do when faced with a keyboard and a blank monitor where you weren't sure if it was in screen saver mode, sleeping or off, was to just press the shift key. This will either confirm it's off, sleeping, or running, and the shift key is least likely to enter any data input that might affect something running in the background.

    But my real question is, if someone says "Pick out a computer" why would your first instinct be to hit the power button? This one smells of Snope...

  • Fing (unregistered) in reply to John
    John:
    the best thing to do when faced with a keyboard and a blank monitor where you weren't sure if it was in screen saver mode, sleeping or off, was to just press the shift key.
    NO!!! Not shift! Control!! You shift-lovers make me sick, I tell you. How many times do I have to go over this? Ye gods I hate living in such a stupid world. And it never gets better...
  • urza9814 (unregistered) in reply to letatio
    letatio:
    Lorne Kates:
    Sockatume:
    Of course, MacGuyver would've opened up the machine and hotwired the power switch.

    MacGuyver was fired the other week for using equipment from an non-approved vendor. Sure, the paperclips we get from the no-bid contract with the boss' nephew's office supply hut costs $50 each, but they're SOX and PCI compliant paperclips!

    Am I insane or don't power switches generally make the circuit meaning they only needed to open up the side and unplug the switch from the motherboard?

    How old was this machine?

    I think you're insane. It's a desktop PC, and every desktop PC I've ever built or repaired had a normally open power switch. Which I am absolutely certain of because I've had a few machines so mangled that I had to replace the power switch with a generic button from Radioshack.

  • smxlong (unregistered)

    On those old machines you can pop the button out and back in fast enough that the machine wont lose power. I used to do it all the time when I was bored.

  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann
    Paul Neumann:
    So, TRWTF is SGML today?

    From W3C:

    White space is not permitted between the markup declaration open delimiter("<!") and the comment open delimiter ("--"), but is permitted between the comment close delimiter ("--") and the markup declaration close delimiter (">"). A common error is to include a string of hyphens ("---") within a comment. Authors should avoid putting two or more adjacent hyphens inside comments.
    Acid2 used to contain a test for this. Something like <!-- -- -->this is a comment<!-- -- --> The test was removed when the author of Acid2 finally agreed that the real error was the SGML spec itself.

  • Darth Paul (unregistered) in reply to bkDJ
    bkDJ:
    Maybe, depending on what was set in the OS's power options. Though given the rest of the circumstances, "when I press the power button" was probably set to "shut down".

    Reminds me of how the Australian Public Service, with their strict Internet usage monitoring policy, always had Internet Explorer search set to "Just go to the most likely site" at a time when search engines were notorious for having no safety filters and even the search term "broccoli" was not safe.

  • ahhhhh (unregistered) in reply to Darth Paul
    it's far less interesting to read about me telling you about him telling you about his co-worker telling him about a different co-worker
    Oh. So its just a story the tell the FNG to make sure he doesn't mess with the production server.
  • glwtta (unregistered)

    Paul seems like kind of an asshole.

    Also, just tape down the button, jeez.

  • (cs)

    Well, like a previous poster in the thread, I've done this sort of thing too, and ended up holding the button down for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes... long enough to clean up the system and let it shut down properly.

    Given that the story is probably highly anonymized, I bet the original story was much the same.

  • (cs)

    "So what you're saying is that if I release this button, you're out ten million, but if I hold it down all day, you're only out... half a million. Here, I'll fill out my deposit slip for you..."

  • (cs) in reply to WhiskeyJack
    WhiskeyJack:
    Well, like a previous poster in the thread, I've done this sort of thing too, and ended up holding the button down for a few seconds, maybe a few minutes... long enough to clean up the system and let it shut down properly.

    It isn't the clean shutdown they were worried about. It was the broken-ass startup that, upon each and every boot, would set the calendar on trading system to day+1. Their system would be out-of-sync with the exchange, and they couldn't execute any trades.

    It's a little WTF nugget in a bucket of sloshing WTF stew.

  • Mark (unregistered)

    If this were a real story, I'd think the power button would have been mechanically disabled long ago, at least taped over. AT LEAST. But most likely, talking this kind of money, these measures would be unnecessary because the machine would be out of arms reach of anyone who didn't understand the importance of it, and it would have had a great fail-over plan in place.

    Releasing that button, if the story was real, would have resulted in the manager getting fired and the lawyers coming down on him for such massive negligence, which makes his threat to the new guy pretty funny.

  • Kef Schecter (unregistered) in reply to db2

    I'd totally have released the button. Maybe if I were feeling particularly generous, I would at least attempt to tape it down or something. It'd be their own stupidity causing the losses, not mine.

    db2:
    "So what you're saying is that if I release this button, you're out ten million, but if I hold it down all day, you're only out... half a million. Here, I'll fill out my deposit slip for you..."
    Except extortion is a crime.
  • Nick (unregistered) in reply to Fing
    Fing:
    John:
    the best thing to do when faced with a keyboard and a blank monitor where you weren't sure if it was in screen saver mode, sleeping or off, was to just press the shift key.
    NO!!! Not shift! Control!! You shift-lovers make me sick, I tell you. How many times do I have to go over this? Ye gods I hate living in such a stupid world. And it never gets better...
    Scroll-Lock, twice. Jeez.
  • Realee (unregistered)

    The moment I read what had happened I thought "Cardboard & Sticky Tape"

    That or purposely use the "middle" finger and direct it towards Janice.

  • F (unregistered) in reply to Lorne Kates
    Lorne Kates:
    Paul Neumann:
    So, TRWTF is SGML today?

    From W3C:

    White space is not permitted between the markup declaration open delimiter("<!") and the comment open delimiter ("--"), but is permitted between the comment close delimiter ("--") and the markup declaration close delimiter (">"). A common error is to include a string of hyphens ("---") within a comment. Authors should avoid putting two or more adjacent hyphens inside comments.

    Huh. Learned something new. Given how much I love em-dashes, I'm surprised I haven't been burned by this before.

    Em-dashes are no problem; it's double hyphens that have syntactic meaning.

  • (cs)

    Is it just me, or are HTML comments absolutely useless?

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