• Chronomium (unregistered)
    [...] Yoshi writes [...]
    What's Yoshi doing in the software development industry?

    Well I guess he'd be good at detecting code smells.

  • frist (unregistered)

    frist, not spam

  • iK the Alcoholic (unregistered)

    I'd pay it to not have to deal with supermarket tracking.

    Frist?

  • kwan (unregistered)

    Last!

    nisl

  • (cs)

    Yes, they are pushy. "Get our 'advantage card' or else!"

    Of course, if they want to give you discounts, you know they're making it back some other way. Selling your email or your purchase information to some ad agency.

  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to frist
    frist:
    frist, not spam
    Doubly wrong, and you also missed the chance of doing at least something funnier out of it. At the very least you could write "frst,notspam"

    So yeah, try harder but with something useful or entertaining next time.

  • Recursive Reclusive (unregistered)

    I'm not seeing the superpower connection on the previously expensive tshirt.

  • Mike (unregistered)

    I'm not finding the core meltdown message anywhere on the Web.

  • Jack (unregistered)

    I think the meltdown was probably in the 3D core. After all it is Visual Studio. Spellchecker probably screwed it up.

  • Larry (unregistered)

    You just buy it with your card for $3.00 and then return it without your card, collecting $288.98. Plus tax.

    Rinse and repeat.

  • (cs) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    I think the meltdown was probably in the 3D core. After all it is Visual Studio. Spellchecker probably screwed it up.

    Well the alternatives are quite ghastly to consider, either on a normal computer or on a some types of power plants, so I hope you are correct.... ;-)

    Yazeran

    Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer

  • C-Derb (unregistered) in reply to Recursive Reclusive
    Recursive Reclusive:
    I'm not seeing the superpower connection on the previously expensive tshirt.
    All cotton tagless t-shirts with a list price over $90,000 come with superpowers. You didn't know that?
  • (cs)

    Get rid of those calories: Run a marathon!

  • Darth (unregistered) in reply to C-Derb
    C-Derb:
    Recursive Reclusive:
    I'm not seeing the superpower connection on the previously expensive tshirt.
    All cotton tagless t-shirts with a list price over $90,000 come with superpowers. You didn't know that?
    One of the superpowers is the ability (after donning the shirt) to strangle the shopkeeper/wholesaler using merely your mind. How else do you think my friends at Amazon could get the price down so low?
  • (cs)

    The MSU one reminds me of a compression algorithm that was presented in my first C book, "C Primer Plus".

    It was a simple and efficient algorithm: discard every 2nd and 3rd character.

    It even came with an example: "So even Eddy came oven ready" Try it yourself... Stupid Akismet won't let me post the 'compressed' string.

    Reconstructing the original message is a real bitch, tho.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    I think the meltdown was probably in the 3D core. After all it is Visual Studio. Spellchecker probably screwed it up.

    I can not think of a worse idea than running Spellchecker on source code.

    Oh, wait, yes I can. Visual Studio.

  • (cs) in reply to Larry
    Larry:
    You just buy it with your card for $3.00 and then return it without your card, collecting $288.98. Plus tax.

    Rinse and repeat.

    Except on the receipt it says what you actually paid. And I would love to see you even try to return meat to a store (specially without a receipt).

  • (cs) in reply to Anketam
    Anketam:
    Larry:
    You just buy it with your card for $3.00 and then return it without your card, collecting $288.98. Plus tax.

    Rinse and repeat.

    Except on the receipt it says what you actually paid. And I would love to see you even try to return meat to a store (specially without a receipt).
    That and places that take returns without a reciept will usually give you the lowest price of the item in the last 30 days. And yes, the only time grocery stores will usually accept a return on perishables is with a reciept and if there is something wrong with it, and even then its usually an exchange.

    Also, you have to assume that since the meat is weighed and priced in the store, there probably isn't a rack of meat accidently overpriced like that.

    And I uploaded the 26 mile one in March ^_i^ I thought it was forgotten.

  • Nagesh (unregistered)

    In the India cow is sacred and of course such expensive.

  • (cs)

    The VS one could well be generated by the code Fausto was developing. The basis of the VS designer is that it executes the code of "components" and "controls" to render them as they would be - but because they're not in the context in which they'd actually be used you might hit error conditions. In theory you can avoid this using 

    if (!DesignMode)
    but in practice it's more complicated. And I have on occasion managed to get VS to hang or to die in response to an exception thrown inside the designer.

  • studog (unregistered)

    What's really interesting is that both naive corrections for the over-priced meat, $7.22 and $7.46, are cheaper than the club price of $7.49.

  • area driver (unregistered)

    Is "Hwy F" a real road in Milwaukee, or another variable name?

  • (cs) in reply to area driver
    area driver:
    Is "Hwy F" a real road in Milwaukee, or another variable name?

    Yes it is, it is about %d miles west of the city

  • Nageshing (unregistered) in reply to area driver
    area driver:
    ...
    You don't drive an area, road hog, you drive a line. Stay in your own lane!
  • (cs) in reply to mpalecek
    mpalecek:
    area driver:
    Is "Hwy F" a real road in Milwaukee, or another variable name?

    Yes it is, it is about %d miles west of the city

    +%X

  • LieutenantFrost (unregistered) in reply to area driver

    In Wisconsin, highways that are created at the county level are labeled with letters. I grew up on County N, as an example.

    This leads to shenanigans such as people stealing their initials in road signs. YMMV

  • (cs) in reply to Coyne
    Coyne:
    Yes, they are pushy. "Get our 'advantage card' or else!"

    Of course, if they want to give you discounts, you know they're making it back some other way. Selling your email or your purchase information to some ad agency.

    Either that or the discounted price is the real price, and the other price has an anonymity premium built in.

  • (cs)

    ObOldJoke: "If that 4th core melts down, we'll be up here all day!"

    (Michigan State University: the school without eyes.)

  • Sayer (unregistered) in reply to Nageshing
    Nageshing:
    area driver:
    ...
    You don't drive an area, road hog, you drive a line. Stay in your own lane!

    I drive a car.

    damnum: an incredulous element.

  • José Tomás Pérez Rodríguez transverbero (unregistered) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    I think the meltdown was probably in the 3D core. After all it is Visual Studio. Spellchecker probably screwed it up.
    That's what they get for using Nvidia.
  • Anonymoose (unregistered)

    To be fair, freeway time in Milwaukee is always variable.

  • Spewin Coffee (unregistered)

    "Appearently" MSU is TRWTF.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    "I was building a Silverlight project,"

    Never before has there been a truer WTF.

  • (cs)

    I like the lack of spaces one. Reminds me of a friend that worked the computer help desk in the business building when we were in Uni. One of the students approached him about an issue with the keyboard on the computer he was using, the space bar didn't work.

    "Sorry we don't have any extra keyboards you'll have to move to another computer."

    Business student: "That's fine, but do you know how to add spaces?"

    Apparently he had written an entire essay with no spaces. It took some back and forth to figure out he wanted a way to automatically add the spaces. The answer he provided didn't go over well.

    WhoTF decides, "Oh.. I'll just write the entire essay with no spaces and figure it out after." Future CEO material there I tell ya.

  • norsetto (unregistered)

    Am I the only one to think that TRWTF are the Safe Handling Instructions!?

  • Rodnas (unregistered)

    So i could run from the north pole to the south pole with just a kilo of sugar in my backpack? Great news

  • I forget (unregistered)

    Those "advantage" type cards are evil and aught to be illegal.

  • (cs)

    "So how do I get to the freeway from here?" "Oh, it's just a few minutes across from US 45 and a bit up from Hwy F."

  • P. Almonius (unregistered) in reply to Recursive Reclusive
    Recursive Reclusive:
    I'm not seeing the superpower connection on the previously expensive tshirt.
    I saw someone today in a tshirt with a logo saying "Zip". I wonder if it's slimming, and "Rar" brand is even more effective.
  • Jellineck (unregistered) in reply to I forget
    I forget:
    Those "advantage" type cards are evil and aught to be illegal.

    I know. I can't imagine what kind of junk mail the guy that lives at 666 Mulberry Lane is getting from 15 years of using my card at the grocery store.

  • Jack (unregistered) in reply to Jellineck
    Jellineck:
    I forget:
    Those "advantage" type cards are evil and aught to be illegal.
    I know. I can't imagine what kind of junk mail the guy that lives at 666 Mulberry Lane is getting from 15 years of using my card at the grocery store.
    Oooh! You're so clever lying to the store, its a wonder no one else ever thought of that before!

    Got news for you. You're still getting screwed. The reason those cards are so valuable to the marketers (aside from junk mail) is that by assigning a unique ID to each purchase and purchaser, they can figure out exactly how much you're willing to pay for a 12-pack of Diet Coke. Sure they can make it and sell it at a profit for $1.25 but why should they sell it to you at that price when they know that you are willing to pay $4.99?

    And how do they know that?

    Because when they have a sale most people load up but not you, no, you just keep buying your same 12 pack every week. And when the sale is over most people stop buying but you just keep grabbing that same 12 pack every week. The only week you didn't was when they let it go up to $5.29. That was a test. If you'd bought one that week you can be sure that price would come around again some day -- just for your benefit.

    And so on for every other product in the store.

    They use those cards to figure out how many people are in your house, and their approximate age and gender. They know whether you go for the cheap fatty ground beef or the premium steak. So they have a good idea of your income bracket too. Most likely they know more about your financial and consumption habits than you do. And they can do all of that without ever needing to know who you really are. They don't care who you really are. They only care that "customer 1985763278 can be regularly screwed out of $17.32 per week". That's why your data is valuable to them, and they're willing to pay you to hand it over.

    Why do you think the prices keep changing so often? It isn't because the costs are changing that much. They are testing you, and every other shopper, to see just how much you will swallow. It used to be they had to set one price for everyone, but now, they can slice the market up into razor thin segments and extract the maximum possible from each one.

    The OP is right. They're evil.

  • blank (unregistered) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    Jellineck:
    I forget:
    Those "advantage" type cards are evil and aught to be illegal.
    I know. I can't imagine what kind of junk mail the guy that lives at 666 Mulberry Lane is getting from 15 years of using my card at the grocery store.
    Oooh! You're so clever lying to the store, its a wonder no one else ever thought of that before!

    Got news for you. You're still getting screwed. The reason those cards are so valuable to the marketers (aside from junk mail) is that by assigning a unique ID to each purchase and purchaser, they can figure out exactly how much you're willing to pay for a 12-pack of Diet Coke. Sure they can make it and sell it at a profit for $1.25 but why should they sell it to you at that price when they know that you are willing to pay $4.99?

    And how do they know that?

    Because when they have a sale most people load up but not you, no, you just keep buying your same 12 pack every week. And when the sale is over most people stop buying but you just keep grabbing that same 12 pack every week. The only week you didn't was when they let it go up to $5.29. That was a test. If you'd bought one that week you can be sure that price would come around again some day -- just for your benefit.

    And so on for every other product in the store.

    They use those cards to figure out how many people are in your house, and their approximate age and gender. They know whether you go for the cheap fatty ground beef or the premium steak. So they have a good idea of your income bracket too. Most likely they know more about your financial and consumption habits than you do. And they can do all of that without ever needing to know who you really are. They don't care who you really are. They only care that "customer 1985763278 can be regularly screwed out of $17.32 per week". That's why your data is valuable to them, and they're willing to pay you to hand it over.

    Why do you think the prices keep changing so often? It isn't because the costs are changing that much. They are testing you, and every other shopper, to see just how much you will swallow. It used to be they had to set one price for everyone, but now, they can slice the market up into razor thin segments and extract the maximum possible from each one.

    The OP is right. They're evil.

    agree. maybe use multiple (fake id) "loyalty" cards with each company?

    are they doing facial recognition from cctv too (yet)? i guess it's back to balaclavas for the 'noids and "it's 1984" brigade. or are they illegal now?

    considers creating fake id email handling (spam rebound) service

  • Jack (unregistered)

    The MSU one looks old--we haven't used that shade of green (or that slogan) in years. Looks like someone in Admissions screwed the pooch good.

  • Will (unregistered) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    It used to be they had to set one price for everyone, but now, they can slice the market up into razor thin segments and extract the maximum possible from each one.

    Wow I my grocery store is really old tech, they have a printed out prices. Where are these grocery stores that have systems that scan for your card and change the prices as you walk by, also with a system that makes sure that someone else is not watching? Or do they just not display prices?

  • Jim (unregistered) in reply to blank
    blank:
    Jack:
    Jellineck:
    I forget:
    Those "advantage" type cards are evil and aught to be illegal.
    I know. I can't imagine what kind of junk mail the guy that lives at 666 Mulberry Lane is getting from 15 years of using my card at the grocery store.
    Oooh! You're so clever lying to the store, its a wonder no one else ever thought of that before!

    Got news for you. You're still getting screwed. The reason those cards are so valuable to the marketers (aside from junk mail) is that by assigning a unique ID to each purchase and purchaser, they can figure out exactly how much you're willing to pay for a 12-pack of Diet Coke. Sure they can make it and sell it at a profit for $1.25 but why should they sell it to you at that price when they know that you are willing to pay $4.99?

    And how do they know that?

    Because when they have a sale most people load up but not you, no, you just keep buying your same 12 pack every week. And when the sale is over most people stop buying but you just keep grabbing that same 12 pack every week. The only week you didn't was when they let it go up to $5.29. That was a test. If you'd bought one that week you can be sure that price would come around again some day -- just for your benefit.

    And so on for every other product in the store.

    They use those cards to figure out how many people are in your house, and their approximate age and gender. They know whether you go for the cheap fatty ground beef or the premium steak. So they have a good idea of your income bracket too. Most likely they know more about your financial and consumption habits than you do. And they can do all of that without ever needing to know who you really are. They don't care who you really are. They only care that "customer 1985763278 can be regularly screwed out of $17.32 per week". That's why your data is valuable to them, and they're willing to pay you to hand it over.

    Why do you think the prices keep changing so often? It isn't because the costs are changing that much. They are testing you, and every other shopper, to see just how much you will swallow. It used to be they had to set one price for everyone, but now, they can slice the market up into razor thin segments and extract the maximum possible from each one.

    The OP is right. They're evil.

    agree. maybe use multiple (fake id) "loyalty" cards with each company?

    are they doing facial recognition from cctv too (yet)? i guess it's back to balaclavas for the 'noids and "it's 1984" brigade. or are they illegal now?

    considers creating fake id email handling (spam rebound) service

    Hi Aksimet, would you please let me post a link that is vaguely related to some of the dissertation here...

    http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

    Although the articlae doesn't say it, it turns out she lived at 666 Mulberry Lane....

  • Wfd (unregistered) in reply to PiisAWheeL

    Actually my local supermarket will take everything back, no questions. Even if they have to just discard it.

  • (cs) in reply to dubbreak
    dubbreak:
    Apparently he had written an entire essay with no spaces. It took some back and forth to figure out he wanted a way to automatically add the spaces. The answer he provided didn't go over well.

    WhoTF decides, "Oh.. I'll just write the entire essay with no spaces and figure it out after." Future CEO material there I tell ya.

    Quite so. In the times of .com boom, it went like this "Oh, we'll just start this whole company on venture capital, and we'll hopefully figure out what to do before the money runs out". I really wonder who were those greedy venture capitalist idiots who thought rules of business don't apply anymore just because they don't dig technology.

  • (cs) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    Got news for you. You're still getting screwed. The reason those cards are so valuable to the marketers (aside from junk mail) is that by assigning a unique ID to each purchase and purchaser, they can figure out exactly how much you're willing to pay for a 12-pack of Diet Coke. Sure they can make it and sell it at a profit for $1.25 but why should they sell it to you at that price when they know that you are willing to pay $4.99?

    And how do they know that?

    [...]Why do you think the prices keep changing so often? It isn't because the costs are changing that much. They are testing you, and every other shopper, to see just how much you will swallow. It used to be they had to set one price for everyone, but now, they can slice the market up into razor thin segments and extract the maximum possible from each one.

    The OP is right. They're evil.

    How is that evil? I'm not really in love with grocers, whether big or small, but I don't understand why leveraging technology for purposes of running the business at good profit is somehow bad. They aren't exactly a charity, you know.

    As for the loyalty cards, I think they may be a bit overrated. People who are on good financial footing will most likely use the same credit card all the time anyway, or perhaps they'll use a small set of them. It's no biggie to use a hash of the credit card number for customer ID. Yes, they get recycled as accounts get closed, but that's easy to pick out. If there was a period of inactivity followed by that same hash "appearing" three states over, it's probably not because the customer has moved...

  • Röb (unregistered)

    That MSU one makes me think someone doesn't know the difference between forward slash and back slash, and that just raises more questions...

    str.replace( /insertnamehere/si, '' )

    !=

    str.replace( \insertnamehere\si, '' )
  • $$ERR:get_name_fail (unregistered)

    Visual Studio 2010 developers really think of everything.

    They are not just checking for errors caused by a CPU malfunction, they even were thoughtful enough to identify that the cause is a meltdown in the 3rd CPU core.

    Did you remember to catch CPUMeltdownException in your last program? No? See how much you can learn from Microsoft developers!

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