• (disco)

    I found TR :wtf:! Jenny waited months after that disaster of a meeting before she started looking for greener pastures. She should have bailed immediately.

    Edit: Frist!

  • (disco) in reply to abarker

    I would have kept it for the easy excuses. "why aren't you deploying anything?"

    • waiting for testing to complete "why aren't you testing?"
    • test rig isn't available.
  • (disco)

    TRWTF is that Jenny doesn't know about the scaling tools almost all browsers have.

    Anyway, it's not a WTF to test in different screens. IPS displays and 4K displays require higher resolution images and fonts which you can really appreciate in lower end screens even if you raise/lower the resolution.

  • (disco)

    Thanks to the name, I read the whole article in Denholm Reynholm from The IT Crowd's voice.

    Fuck Douglas. The programme wasn't the same without Denholm!

  • (disco) in reply to Muzer
    Muzer:
    Fuck Douglas. The programme wasn't the same without Denholm!

    QFT.

    [image]
  • (disco) in reply to Muzer

    I thought for sure he was going to lift the sheet to reveal... The Internet

  • (disco) in reply to Eldelshell
    Eldelshell:
    Anyway, it's not a WTF to test in different screens. IPS displays and 4K displays require higher resolution images and fonts which you can really appreciate in lower end screens even if you raise/lower the resolution.

    I didn't understand a word of that. Please could you elucidate? 4k screens obviously don't benefit from pixellated images, but how do you show a high res image on a low res screen, even if it is IPS?

  • (disco) in reply to kupfernigk

    I guess he meant "can't really appreciate"?

  • (disco) in reply to abarker
    abarker:
    Jenny waited months after that disaster of a meeting

    Maybe she was having trouble finding a non- :wtf: workplace willing to hire her :)

  • (disco) in reply to Muzer
    Muzer:
    I guess he meant "can't really appreciate"?

    These pesky little ! symbols cause a lot of problems.

  • (disco) in reply to kupfernigk

    He's Spanish, so ! only works if paired with a ¡ on the other end.

  • (disco) in reply to Eldelshell
    Eldelshell:
    TRWTF is that Jenny doesn't know about the scaling tools almost all browsers have.

    :horror: "You're not really suggesting our users use browser scaling tools are you?! That's not user friendly. Our sites must be user-friendly. Our users must be able to read our site without scaling!"

  • (disco)

    Can't you just, you know, resize the window?

  • (disco)

    99%+ a WTF....but not 100%. For certain types of information, testing on different physical displays is important. This would include different sizes, but also different technologies (LED, Plasma, and perhaps even good old CRT), different screen coatings (anti-glare, glossy)., then blend in (pun intended) different lighting conditions, etc....

    About 15 years ago, video home walk through's were just starting (popular in Australia because it might take a flight or a many hour drive to look at a property). Even s subtle color shift could render a nice looking room horrible on a screen and kill a deal. So software was used to do a dual set of corrections (one for the camera, one for the display).

  • (disco)

    To be fair, changing the desktop res on Windows is likely to really piss you off, as I haven't found a Windows version yet that doesn't occasionally rearrange all your icons when you do it.

  • (disco)

    Perhaps more useful would have been keeping a bunch of old computers around. I used to keep a long bench full of PC's, from a 4.77MHz PC, up through an AT, then a ATT 386, a Packard-Bell 486, and a Micron Pentium, just to see how well our software worked at slower speeds and less RAM and older OS versions. Now THAT was illuminating.

  • (disco) in reply to Yamikuronue
    Yamikuronue:
    abarker:
    Jenny waited months after that disaster of a meeting

    Maybe she was having trouble finding a non- :wtf: workplace willing to hire her :)

    No, she waited months before looking:

    **Months passed** slowly at Reynholm CorpoTech. With two top-tier graphic cards, an overclocked processor, and open administrator account, the Workbench found its true purpose as a great time-wasting device. As for Jenny, she gained confidence and bonded with her team, but as the torrent of venture capital slowed to a trickle with no projects past the planning stage, **she found herself looking for greener pastures.**
  • (disco) in reply to george_gonzalez

    Windows XP, 40 Mhz Intel Pentium, 96 Mb RAM, 10 Gb hard drive. That is at present the last working machine I had with a modern OS running on legacy hardware. Even had a Real SoundBlast 16 in it!

  • (disco)

    I learned my lesson over a decade ago; don't question the boss man in a large meeting - they simply do not appreciate it at all, no matter how much your question makes sense.

  • (disco)

    I worked with a team who maintained a large legacy application on a DEC mainframe system. Come the late 1990's (when I joined them) they were just coming up to speed with those new-fangled Windows machines, as the boffins in the Central Development team were looking to upgrade to a "different" architecture.

    Now the original DEC mainframe terminals were those big old-fashioned greenscreen terminals which had 24 lines of 80 characters. However, the terminal emulators which we were given for our new Windows machines were more flexible than that. It was a straightforward task to configure them to show -- gasp! -- 48 or even 64 lines of -- wow! -- 132 characters, thus being able to see a lot more of the legacy code on the screen than had previously been possible. You could even set it up with different colours, which I found useful because then I could colour-code my screen according to the specific machine I was connected to (dev, test, prod, UAT, whatever).

    In the fullness of time (after a year or two of proving my general competence with the apps and tools) I found myself in a mentoring / troubleshooting position whereby people would be encouraged to ask me for advice. A common suggestion I made was to expand the code out on the screen, by adding the occasional blank line or space or even coherent indentation scheme. Oh no, was the common response, because then I won't be able to see much of the code on the screen. So why don't you set up your emulator to more than 24 lines of 80 characters? Oh no, can't do that. Why not? Because it's a VAX. You can't look at a program on the VAX at more tha 24 lines of 80 characters, it wouldn't be right.

    Many years later (more than a decade), and life had moved on, but we still had the same team of basically the same people (some had left, some had been made redundant, but the same core of people remained) working on what was left of the same legacy applications, although they had been "encouraged" to take on the burden of maintenance of the new java-and-Oracle web-based application suite as well. However, every time I went over to help them out over some difficult problem on the VAX suite (whether something silly like an off-by-one error on a FORTRAN do-loop, or a couple of transposed digits in a list of numbers (those very numbers in the files whose line count still needed to be added to the bottom / top of the files we were talking about the other week), they were still editing their files in an emulator set to 24x80, green on black, where the characters were still the same five-by-seven pixel dot-matrix fonts they had been using 25 years before.

  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood

    Our systems strictly forbid and reset any custom color schemes we put into the emulator. So, you have that at least.

  • (disco) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    For certain types of information,

    There is an online "test your colour vision" test where I can get a very high score on an AMOLED display, a high one on Sony Triluminos and a much lower one on a vanilla laptop display,even though it is IPS. But in the case of TFA, I think it's pure ceoisamalememberishness.

    Matt_Westwood:
    Oh no, can't do that. Why not? Because it's a VAX. You can't look at a program on the VAX at more tha 24 lines of 80 characters, it wouldn't be right.

    There, in a couple of lines, you have summarised the human attitude that does more to prevent progress than perhaps any other. "You can't do X for legacyreason, it wouldn't be right."

  • (disco) in reply to abarker

    The article says this was her first "real" job. Tell me, how would you like to go to the next hiring manager, who already is questioning you because you don't have much experience, and explain why you quit after less than a week on the job?

    Like Jenny, I stuck out a situation that was treating me quite badly with the goal of lasting 3 years, so that I would be in a much better position when I went looking. (I lasted 2 years, and that made a huge difference later on in my career.)

  • (disco) in reply to EatenByAGrue

    Had something similar. On my first day (you can tell these things) I realised I'd walked into completely the wrong job. Fortunately one of the agencies I'd registered me with still had my details on file, and sent me to an interview with the absolute dream job, one which was offering me double what I was on, and had real responsibility and technical excitement, etc. etc. During the interview I mentioned my mistaken job move (I'd been there, like, 2 days) but unfortunately the bloke interviewing me was really good mates with the boss of the company I had just joined. He effectively said that the only reason he didn't hire me was purely because of that.

  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood
    Matt_Westwood:
    only reason
    This is why I don't slander until well situated within the company. :sunflower:
  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood

    IIRC Even some later VT100s could display at 132*24

  • (disco) in reply to GerryC

    Yes but you had to press a Special Button or initiate a Special Command known only to those with Arcane Knowledge in order to put the terminal into that mode.

  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood
    Matt_Westwood:
    still the same five-by-seven pixel dot-matrix fonts

    TRWTF detected.

  • (disco) in reply to george_gonzalez
    george_gonzalez:
    Now THAT was illuminating.
    Yes, I can imagine that a long bench full of pcs with flickering leds is quite illuminating.
  • (disco) in reply to Matt_Westwood

    No, you could just set it through the menu.

    But in the late nineties dec had plenty of graphical terminals available. Of course you could also just connect from any client capable of running an X server.

  • (disco) in reply to MattSmucker

    Likewise; in the form of a donkey.

  • (disco) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    99%+ a WTF....but not 100%. For certain types of information, testing on different physical displays is important. This would include different sizes, but also different technologies (LED, Plasma, and perhaps even good old CRT), different screen coatings (anti-glare, glossy)., then blend in (pun intended) different lighting conditions, etc....

    About 15 years ago, video home walk through's were just starting (popular in Australia because it might take a flight or a many hour drive to look at a property). Even s subtle color shift could render a nice looking room horrible on a screen and kill a deal. So software was used to do a dual set of corrections (one for the camera, one for the display).

    How do you color correct an end-user's completely unknown monitor? ICC only works if someone actually calibrates everything, rather than takes the manufacturer specs as gospel (they lie!).

  • (disco) in reply to operagost
    operagost:
    To be fair, changing the desktop res on Windows is likely to really piss you off, as I haven't found a Windows version yet that doesn't occasionally rearrange all your icons when you do it.

    Easy fix: Just kill explorer.exe (and dwm.exe on newer systems) afterwards. Icon-Positions are only saved on changing the Power-Mode of the system (Shutting down, sleeping, hibernation, etc..). If the Desktop needs to be re-generated because you've restarted explorer.exe, the old config will take place.

  • (disco) in reply to foxyshadis
    foxyshadis:
    How do you color correct an end-user's completely unknown monitor? ICC only works if someone actually calibrates everything, rather than takes the manufacturer specs as gospel (they lie!).

    100% correct. We had high quality reference cards printed and distributed to the various real estate agencies. For some of the larger ones even calibration services were provided.

    As a side note, even though the specifications to lie, we found that when a CRT was fairly new (they change characteristics over time) a given model tended to be fairly consistent, even if it did not match the specs....So a model # based set of settings did actually help, but was not optimal.

  • (disco) in reply to Snowman25
    Snowman25:
    Easy fix: Just kill explorer.exe (and dwm.exe on newer systems) afterwards.

    Easier fix: Uncheck this option for the desktop: [image]

    I've not regretted it.

  • (disco) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    foxyshadis:
    How do you color correct an end-user's completely unknown monitor? ICC only works if someone actually calibrates everything, rather than takes the manufacturer specs as gospel (they lie!).

    100% correct. We had high quality reference cards printed and distributed to the various real estate agencies. For some of the larger ones even calibration services were provided.

    As a side note, even though the specifications to lie, we found that when a CRT was fairly new (they change characteristics over time) a given model tended to be fairly consistent, even if it did not match the specs....So a model # based set of settings did actually help, but was not optimal.

    That's a pretty impressive level of service then, not a half-bad way of doing basic calibration. Must've looked pretty damn good once it was all dialed in.

  • (disco) in reply to foxyshadis
    foxyshadis:
    That's a pretty impressive level of service then, not a half-bad way of doing basic calibration. Must've looked pretty damn good once it was all dialed in.

    It looked amazing!!!! The service also cost a fair amount of money, but it provided value. Other systems showed views that had so many effects (mainly color shift) that the view of the rooms on the screen looked very little like actually standing in the room. So there was first the effects of "nice rooms" looking ugly, and other rooms which looked nice [all very subjective!] not being what was expected when a physical visit was made.

    Sine the physical visit was time consuming and expensive (often including a flight in a small plane!) the companies that were trying to sell these homes were willing to pay [and these were all high end homes, ranches, compounds, et. al.)

  • (disco) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    The service also cost a fair amount of money, but it provided value.

    Given what it was selling and where, I can totally see that, and the end users would see the point of going to the bother of doing the calibration (whereas usually they can't). Having the monitor's factory settings as a baseline would help.

    Nice use of technology to solve a problem efficiently.

  • (disco) in reply to accalia
    accalia:
    Easier fix: Uncheck this option for the desktop:

    Useful feature causing minor annoyance when performing a rare operation? Why not nuke the feature?

    You'll never be annoyed again, until you try to use your desktop and find it's now just a useless placeholder for an image

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