The Daily WTF exists to point out coding horrors, but a few years ago we also took a swing at trying to prevent bad code. Long time readers might remember our 2009 initiative, Code Offsets. We are pleased to announce that Code Offsets are back, redesigned, and ready for you to make a difference (or just to make fun of your coworkers).
Essentially, the idea is simple. Code Offsets are a novel way to offset your (or your co-workers') crap code. Like carbon offsets, which aim to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide/greenhouse gases to compensate, or offset emissions made elsewhere, our Code Offsets are used to offset the bad code that already exists.
When you purchase a pack of Code Offsets, the proceeds go to a featured nonprofit group that helps promote good code through education, donations, or open source software.
At launch that organization is TECH CORPS. They are an amazing nonprofit organization dedicated to ensuring K-12 students have equal access to technology programs, skills and resources that enhance early learning and prepare them for college and career.
The Code Offsets themselves are bills that feature some of the most notable characters from the history of computing, the founders of the discipline from Babbage to Hopper.
We’ve designed nine different bills, each offsetting a select amount of bad code. The bills available range from one line, all the way up to one thousand lines. They come in packs so you can keep a few for yourself, but still pass some out to any Paulas around the office.
Also to celebrate the release of the project, we printed up some stickers for the first 1000 orders! (Mainly because Alex loves stickers)