The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Something Wonderful

by Remy Porter in Representative Line on 2026-07-29

Today, we look at a "representative comment" from Mark W. This particular comment appears on a function:

/// <summary>
/// Does something wonderful.
/// </summary>

13 comments - Last comment @ 15:04

Convert Back, Way Back

by Remy Porter in CodeSOD on 2026-07-28

Windows Presentation Foundation, the XML-based UI framework for Windows, has its own "fun" quirks. One of its core ideas is that controls can be data-bound: that text box is linked to a numeric field in your model class. Type a different number, and the model automagically updates.

That's fine for what it is, but of course you're going to need to give it some instructions on how to do those kinds of conversions for your own custom types. And that's where the IValueConverter interface comes in.

16 comments - Last comment @ 09:23

The Hard Goodbye

by Ellis Morning in Feature Articles on 2026-07-27

One minute, you’re fine. The next, you’re doubled over with tears spilling down your face while an aching black hole in your heart threatens to drag you into oblivion.

Grief’s funny like that.

11 comments - Last comment @ 06:54

The Song that Never Ends?

by Lyle Seaman in Error'd on 2026-07-24

"Watch to the end", the scammers demand. In today's episode of Error'd, the end is a long time coming. But at least it's amusing. In the meantime, Amazon irked and/or terrified thousands of their customers last week by mailing out ridiculously inflated bills. It's been covered extensively elsewhere but why should we miss all the fun?

It was Willy who worried "Amazon prices seem to have crept up this month, finance are going to have something to say"

20 comments - Last comment @ 03:56

Classic WTF: My Many Girlfriends

by Remy Porter in Feature Articles on 2026-07-23

Honestly, with the wildfire smoke and the oppressive heat, maybe it's time to find a nice quiet cave to hang out in. Something with no natural light and no natural ventilation. I wonder if anybody has a place like that… Original. --Remy

In the long ago, wild-west days of the late 90s, there was an expectation that managers would put up with a certain degree of eccentricity from their software developers. The IT and software boom was still new, people didn't quite know what worked and what didn't, the "nerds had conquered the Earth" and managers just had to roll with this reality. So when Barry D gave the okay to hire Sten, who came with glowing recommendations from his previous employers, Barry and his team were ready to deal with eccentricities.

Of course, on the first day, building services came to Barry with some concerns about Sten's requests for his workspace. No natural light. No ventilation ducts that couldn't be closed. And then the co-workers who had interacted with Sten expressed their concerns.

13 comments - Last comment @ 12:10

Classic WTF: Server Room Fans and More Fun

by Alex Papadimoulis in Feature Articles on 2026-07-22

It's been pretty hot lately. Probably should use a fan to cool off. Mind the trip hazards. Original. --Remy

"It's that time of year again," Robert Rossegger wrote, "you know, when the underpowered air conditioner just can't cope with the non-winter weather? Fortunately, we have a solution for that... and all we need to do is just keep an extra eye on people walking near the (completely ajar) server room door."

12 comments - Last comment @ 2026-07-24

Classic WTF: Fork and Log

by Mark Bowytz in CodeSOD on 2026-07-21

We keep our summer break going. Today, there's something floating in the pool, and I don't think it's a Snickers bar. Original. --Remy

A few years back, Adam C. was brought in to help with some performance problems that appeared while load testing a VXML Platform. The project was already well behind and they couldn't figure out why the system kept falling over under a very slight load. To make matters worse, Adam had absolutely no prior knowledge of the system or its software other than Wikipedia’s definition of what VXML is.

A veteran to these sorts of situations, Adam grabbed a coffee, a donut, and then started picking through the application logs to get a feel for what the system is doing and where something might be going wrong.

4 comments - Last comment @ 2026-07-22

Classic WTF: The Table Selector

by Alex Papadimoulis in CodeSOD on 2026-07-20

It's summer break time, which as always, means we dip back into classic articles. Today, we pick which table we want. Original. --Remy

"In my native language of German," writes Christian, "the word quellcode is a pretty direct translation of 'source code'."

"Unfortunately, bad code seems to cross language barriers - as does that famous three-letter explicit adjective. But occasionally I’ll find a piece of quellcode that deserves its own special, localized expletive: quäl-kot. When I stumbled across this interface in our quellcode, quäl-kot was the first thing that came to my mind."

11 comments - Last comment @ 2026-07-21