Sponsor Appreciation, Emptiness, Empty Support & More

Please show your support for The Daily WTF by checking out the companies that have been kind enough to sponsor us. And, in doing so, I’m sure you’ll find some pretty cool products and services built by like-minded developers and IT professionals.

Microsoft/web - We teamed up with Microsoft/web to answer a burning question: with the dizzying array of languages, frameworks, tools, and technologies, what do you think about web development? Take the survey and let us know... there's a free TDWTF sticker in it for you!

Develop Better & Smarter

Business of Software 2009 - interested in building long-term, sustainable and profitable software businesses? Then you need to go to Business of Software 2009. I went last year and will definitely be there in November to learn from speakers like Joel Spolsky, Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham, Ryan Carson and many others.

Sûnnet Beskerming - focued and driven to provide Information Security services. Whether it's through Security Patch Briefing Packs (ever wonder what is in those security patches that your system is bugging you to install?) or Site Guardian (vulnerabilities, attack techniquies, etc. against your website software), Sûnnet Beskerming can helps you improve your Information Security position today.

Cool Tools

Splunk - Search, navigate, alert and report on all your IT data in real time. Logs, configurations, messages, traps and alerts, script, code, metrics and more. If a machine can generate it -- Splunk can eat it.

Caretta Software - makers of GUI Design Studio, a specialized software prototyping and User Interface design tool for Desktop, Mobile and Web Applications. Quick and Easy to use, with No Coding! Why not give the 30-day trial a shot?

TechSmith - the world’s leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. Personally, I can't live without SnagIt, and am quickly getting addicted to Camtasia. The Jing project is also pretty interesting for instant sharing.

SlickEdit - makers of that very-impressive code editor and some pretty neat Eclipse and VisualStudio.NET tools and add-ins, some of which (Gadgets) are free. Check out this short video highlighting just one of SlickEdit's Visual Studio integration features.

Software Verification - software engineering tools for memory leak detection, code coverage, performance profiling, thread lock contention analysis and thread deadlock detection, flow tracing and application replay on the Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000 and NT platforms.

Great Components

Divelements - developers of WinForms, WPF, and Silverlight controls. Easily integrate the Office 2007 Ribbon Interface, Dockable Windows, and several other interfaces. All products are available with a 30-day trial.

Tall Components - makers of PDFKit.NET, a 100% managed .NET component for, reading, creating and manipulating PDF documents and PDF forms on the fly. You can also split, append, stamp, and encrypt PDF documents and forms. If you have to do anything with PDF, you should definitely download the free trial.

Data Springs - offers a whole bunch of DotNetNuke modules and SharePoint WebParts. In addition to their ever-growing list of complementary products, they can also help with just about any of your other DotNetNuke needs or integrations.

Solid Hosting

Go Grid - the first multi-tier, cloud computing platform that allows you to manage your cloud hosting infrastructure completely on demand through an intuitive, web interface. Get powerful dedicated resources on a cloud computing architecture that you can buy as you need instead of deploying servers and building complex load balanced networks. Get a $50 credit when signing up!

Cushy CMS - a hosted CMS built from the ground up with ease of use in mind. It's incredibly simple to use: no PHP or ASP required. If you can add CSS classes to HTML tags then you can implement CushyCMS. And best of all, it's free. Spend a few minutes and try it out!

SoftLayer - serious hosting provider with datacenters in three cities (Dallas, Seattle, DC) that has plans designed to scale from a single, dedicated server to your own virtual data center (complete with racks and all)

Peer 1 - provides award-winning Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Co-location, and Network services offered through 15 data center across North America. With over 10,000 businesses hosted on their legendary SuperNetwork™backbone, PEER 1 delivers one of the highest server performance and network outputs in the industry.

And now, back to our regularly scheduled program.

"We received some X360 Devkits," writes Onno J. "Each kit was packed in a box that was packed in a bigger box together with some more boxes containing a variety of parts and accessories. One of the smaller boxes was particularly interesting..."

"... Microsoft did not disappoint."

"Watchout!" Gerrie writes, "there's a wet spot on the carpet."

"Recently, my coworker set on a pot of coffee and waited a really, really long time for the pot to brew," writes Ruquay K Calloway "He eventually gave up, and called in the calvary to diagnose. It didn't take too long to figure out the problem: he created an infinite loop in the coffee machine. As it turns out, he also makes infinite loops in his code..."

"I saw this in one of our local restaurants," Czedryk noted. "It seems they are open 24hours/7days a week everyday during the holy days."

Richard Mabry writes, "instructions followed from this."

"Like everyone else on the planet, I had a problem with my PayPal account," Savvas writes, "when I contacted customer support, I was pleased to see how individually PayPal treats its customers."

"I was at the NAB convention week, and saw this odd logo on DaVinci's booth," writes Darrin Cardani. "I'm not sure it really conveys what they think it does."

Andrea was impressed by this "unbreakable" outlet cover at Lowe's.

"I noticed this interesting new Coke flavor at the local 7-Eleven," writes Brandon Lewis.

"I saw this notice at the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome," Adam C wrote. "Sure it has winding passageways, but large land-dwelling reptiles?"

[Advertisement] BuildMaster allows you to create a self-service release management platform that allows different teams to manage their applications. Explore how!

		Microsoft/web - We teamed up with Microsoft/web to answer a burning question: with the dizzying array of languages, frameworks, tools, and technologies, what do you think about web development? Take the survey and let us know... there's a free TDWTF sticker in it for you!

Develop Better & Smarter
		Business of Software 2009 - interested in building long-term, sustainable and profitable software businesses? Then you need to go to Business of Software 2009. I went last year and will definitely be there in November to learn from speakers like Joel Spolsky, Geoffrey Moore, Donald Norman, Paul Graham, Ryan Carson and many others.
		Sûnnet Beskerming - focued and driven to provide Information Security services. Whether it's through Security Patch Briefing Packs (ever wonder what is in those security patches that your system is bugging you to install?) or Site Guardian (vulnerabilities, attack techniquies, etc. against your website software), Sûnnet Beskerming can helps you improve your Information Security position today.

Cool Tools
		Splunk - Search, navigate, alert and report on all your IT data in real time. Logs, configurations, messages, traps and alerts, script, code, metrics and more. If a machine can generate it -- Splunk can eat it.
		Caretta Software - makers of GUI Design Studio, a specialized software prototyping and User Interface design tool for Desktop, Mobile and Web Applications. Quick and Easy to use, with No Coding! Why not give the 30-day trial a shot?
		TechSmith - the world’s leading provider of screen capture and recording software for individual and professional use. Personally, I can't live without SnagIt, and am quickly getting addicted to Camtasia. The Jing project is also pretty interesting for instant sharing.
		SlickEdit - makers of that very-impressive code editor and some pretty neat Eclipse and VisualStudio.NET tools and add-ins, some of which (Gadgets) are free. Check out this short video highlighting just one of SlickEdit's Visual Studio integration features.
		Software Verification - software engineering tools for memory leak detection, code coverage, performance profiling, thread lock contention analysis and thread deadlock detection, flow tracing and application replay on the Windows Vista, 2003, XP, 2000 and NT platforms.

Great Components
		Divelements - developers of WinForms, WPF, and Silverlight controls. Easily integrate the Office 2007 Ribbon Interface, Dockable Windows, and several other interfaces. All products are available with a 30-day trial.
		Tall Components - makers of PDFKit.NET, a 100% managed .NET component for, reading, creating and manipulating PDF documents and PDF forms on the fly. You can also split, append, stamp, and encrypt PDF documents and forms. If you have to do anything with PDF, you should definitely download the free trial.
		Data Springs - offers a whole bunch of DotNetNuke modules and SharePoint WebParts. In addition to their ever-growing list of complementary products, they can also help with just about any of your other DotNetNuke needs or integrations.

Solid Hosting
		Go Grid - the first multi-tier, cloud computing platform that allows you to manage your cloud hosting infrastructure completely on demand through an intuitive, web interface. Get powerful dedicated resources on a cloud computing architecture that you can buy as you need instead of deploying servers and building complex load balanced networks. Get a $50 credit when signing up!
		Cushy CMS - a hosted CMS built from the ground up with ease of use in mind. It's incredibly simple to use: no PHP or ASP required. If you can add CSS classes to HTML tags then you can implement CushyCMS. And best of all, it's free. Spend a few minutes and try it out!
		SoftLayer - serious hosting provider with datacenters in three cities (Dallas, Seattle, DC) that has plans designed to scale from a single, dedicated server to your own virtual data center (complete with racks and all)
		Peer 1 - provides award-winning Managed Hosting, Dedicated Hosting, Co-location, and Network services offered through 15 data center across North America. With over 10,000 businesses hosted on their legendary SuperNetwork™backbone, PEER 1 delivers one of the highest server performance and network outputs in the industry.