• (cs) in reply to Jim the Tool

    That's honestly what I'd probably do anyway. Honestly, I'd probably develop this software in a VM so that I don't have to worry about doing something really really stupid, like storing the bit representing "yes" or "no" at a random location on the HDD.

  • Mickey (unregistered)

    Can we clarify....I assume it has to CLAIM to be random, not actually be random?

    Like if I'm doing a WTF type thing, then presumably there's bonus points for doing stupid things to make it less random (provided it appears that there's a [strike]good[/strike] naive reason for it) eg something like (this is example only): [code]

    //Seem to be getting too many tails // need to even up a bit. int x = rand()%2; if(x==1) return "hEads"; else { x = rand()%2; return (x==1?"heads":"tails"; } [code]

    (and the above has the added bonus of accidentally introducing a third value)

  • Sheepish Shawn (unregistered)

    Are you likely to have access to stuff like wxWidgets, or am I better off to use the Evil One or Java for a GUI approach?

  • (cs) in reply to Mickey

    Well, pretty much everything on a computer is pseudorandom. It has to output "yes" and "no", and it has to at least appear random to a cursory glance. We won't be running a statistical analysis to see how random things are- but if you provide something like that, we'd be interested in seeing it.

  • (cs) in reply to Sheepish Shawn

    Include build instructions. Something like wxWidgets is trivially easy to install, so I wouldn't worry about that (just make it clear that it's required).

    As I mentioned elsewhere- if it takes us six hours to set up the environment to run your code, we're probably not going to bother.

  • (cs)
    Also, your entry only counts if you install and deploy New Relic's performance monitoring software. It's free and only takes a few minutes to do, and you'll even be able to score one of their Nerd Life T-shirts in the process
    I love when the entire article is a thinly-veiled advertisement. I suppose instead of being told if we've won, we'll be given a PIN that we need to enter (along with our name, email, phone number, date of birth, shoe size...) on some web form for "points"?
  • Mitch (unregistered)

    I'm glad this site doesn;t have any cynics on it....

    Although slightly seriously @Mods: Does New Relic get any feedback from you about how well their advertising attempt was/is received here - or do you just expect them to come here and read the comments to see whether their advertising strategy is working?

    <disclaimer>I have no issue whatsoever with a company offering a product test to subsidise a competition as "marketing". I don't really even have a problem with the "you must use our product at least once to enter" (hey, we can choose not to enter). I think it's a little off, however, when one of the more prominent authors on the site is actively encouraging people to do a bodge. Sure, you can point out that it only has to be run once and can be removed; maybe even the bit about running it on a VM is not so bad - but to actually say "That's what I'd be doing" is a bit harsh I would think - even if that is your personal opinion. That's a bit like a sporting team engaging a liquor purveyor to support them, and then producing a statement saying "We wouldn't actually use this guy, because Alcohol is evil" (in my neck of the wood, that's called a conflict of interest).

    By all means delete the thing afterward, and by all means slag it off in private, but to do so on a site that is (at least in part, it would seem) supported/sponsored by them seems somewhat inappropriatge. </disclaimer>

  • (cs) in reply to lolwtf

    It's not "thinly veiled" in any way. We've chucked that veil out the window. They are the contest sponsors- without them, there wouldn't be a contest.

  • (cs) in reply to Mitch

    For the record, when I say, "I'd be doing all this in a VM," it's because developing in VMs is a very common way to develop, and I'd want to build a WTF that does something really absurd without corrupting my main environment (like using unprotected pointers to random addresses and reading random disk sectors, or something). It's not because I think there's any particular risk to running the New Relic client in my main environment. I have a stack of VMs on my local machine that I use for all sorts of things. It's my development process.

    I wish I could use VMs at my day job, but my work computer is a 32-bit OS with 4GB of RAM. I can barely run VS2012 non-virtual. But that's a whole other WTF.

    As for feedback New Relic gets, I can't really say. That happens so far outside of the daily site operations that I wouldn't even hazard a guess.

    Mostly, my responses arise out of crankiness at whiners. New Relic was nice enough to sponsor this contest. Without them, there wouldn't be a contest.

  • o11c (unregistered)

    Well, I'm not going to enter formally since it requires installing stuff. But I have made a program that meets the other requirements.

    I suppose protocol is not to post it until the deadline has passed, but I'll give the feature list:

    • A screenful of compiler warnings! Trust me, they're harmless. Really, I mean it.
    • Compiles on all systems (presumably), but only works on some.
    • Hard-coded constants from system headers.
    • Undocumented build flag requirements on some (but not all) systems.
    • Allows the user to specify the list of options.
    • Not equally random for some inputs.
    • Likely to terminate for well-formed input.
    • Won't terminate for ill-formed input. What exactly that means is not documented.
    • No buffer overflows (but there is a feature request involving case sensitivity that may change this...)
    • Spams stdout with debug output (the same place as the answer goes)
    • Inefficient use of system calls.
    • and much more.
  • mewse (unregistered)

    If it wasn't for a requirement that I install somebody's software for which I have no use, I might have taken part in the contest.

    That they further require me to give them my full name, e-mail address, and phone number was overkill; you had me at "install and run our software at least once, even if it isn't relevant to what you do."

    Not whining. Just mentioning the factors that made me uninterested. Others will feel differently. If you're uninterested in my reasons for being uninterested, then please feel free to consider us even. :)

    Am looking forward to a future contest which perhaps won't mandate adding oneself to a sponsor's CRM database or fussing with throwaway VMs.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to ereh-emaNrouY

    I'm guessing you don't use a calendar often...

  • Mitch (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    For the record, when I say, "I'd be doing all this in a VM," it's because developing in VMs is a very common way to develop, and I'd want to build a WTF that does something really absurd without corrupting my main environment (like using unprotected pointers to random addresses and reading random disk sectors, or something). It's not because I think there's any particular risk to running the New Relic client in my main environment. I have a stack of VMs on my local machine that I use for all sorts of things. It's my development process.

    I wish I could use VMs at my day job, but my work computer is a 32-bit OS with 4GB of RAM. I can barely run VS2012 non-virtual. But that's a whole other WTF.

    As for feedback New Relic gets, I can't really say. That happens so far outside of the daily site operations that I wouldn't even hazard a guess.

    Mostly, my responses arise out of crankiness at whiners. New Relic was nice enough to sponsor this contest. Without them, there wouldn't be a contest.

    Apologies - the post I thought I saw (which I can't find now [although I was near certain it was bottom of Page 1], so either I imagined it or it's been removed) seemed to suggest that you would try New Relic in a VM, and then destroy anything that might even remotely have been touched.

    I retract my comment only because I thought you had (maybe I read someone else say it in response to you....)

  • Mitch (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    That's honestly what I'd probably do anyway. Honestly, I'd probably develop this software in a VM so that I don't have to worry about doing something really really stupid, like storing the bit representing "yes" or "no" at a random location on the HDD.
    in fact, I took this one (top of page 2) to be an endorsement of the sentiment at the bottom of page 1 - run New Relic on VM, then nuke it into orbit.

    Apologies again if that wasn't your intent.

  • (cs)

    But I really don't understand this NewRelic part.. It says that you have to install and use it but it hasn't to be part of the solution. How will it be checked that a submitter actually used these piece of software?

  • Dan Morrison (unregistered)

    All the NewRelic-bashing aside, I want to chip in and say I was delightfully surprised at the polish and first-impression niceness of http://omg2.thedailywtf.com/

    As a web-dev (not an active designer) I just smiled when I saw this single-purpose site doing its single-purpose commendably. Bravo to the team or contractors or whoever that did this and made this look nice and be functional. I'm sure there are holes that can be picked by the peanut gallery here (or my with my grumpy hat on), but it's a nice result right now.

    It made me smile, so that's something.

  • (cs) in reply to keigezellig

    New Relic can tell if your account has ever been actually used.

  • My name (unregistered) in reply to ereh-emaNrouY

    Unless you are a time traveler from next month: No.

    In my universe it is still May

  • My name (unregistered) in reply to ereh-emaNrouY
    ereh-emaNrouY:
    /pedantic on If the deadline is 28 June 2013 12:00 AM, haven't we already missed the entry deadline? /pedantic off

    Damn, clicked the wrong button...

    Here it is again.

    Unless you are a time traveler from next month: No.

    In my universe it is still May

  • (cs)

    I'm bemused by the bashing of New Relic. How many spam emails do you get from companies trying to push their software? And now you have a software company that is trying to be creative and expand its market by appealing to the kinds of folks that may be interested in its product. And, as Remy and (a very few) other people say, if it wasn't for them then there would not be a competition nor any prizes. It's a bit of fun and, if 1 out of 100 of the people who look at New Relic's software buys it then it's a result for them.

    And as for the paranoid who think it's some kind of malicious spyware then this seems a needlessly complex route for New Relic to get terrible publicity if it was.

    So please quit the whining - if you don't want to enter then go read an article that you're interested in. If you do want to enter then spend 30 minutes having a look at the software produced by the people who are ponying up the prizes.

  • Luweewu (unregistered) in reply to Alex Papadimoulis

    Somehow, I think that this requirement is going to discourage a lot of people who would otherwise want to enter the contest. That, in my mind, is a big WTF.

  • (cs) in reply to Luweewu

    But there would be no contest without them? And no tablet prize. And no runner up prizes...?

    I don't work for TDWTF and have nothing to do with the sponsor but, honestly, what the hell is the big deal? Install the software. Delete it if you don't like it. Some people (and this is why they sponsored the comp in the first place) will actually find it useful and buy it.

    Jeez - a lot of people whining about a free site, and a free competition...

  • Dodgy Development Inc. (unregistered)

    If I am a high school student, its it still acceptable for me to enter, as my only real option is to deploy New Relic on a program I have written for my state government?

    (Yes, the real WTF is the government needing a 17 yo student to develop a solution for them that actually works)

    CAPTCHA: inhibeo - The capacity of government coders is inhibeo-ed

  • Michael (unregistered)
    create an “enterprise” level decision making engine. It needs to tell us, randomly, “yes” or “no”.
    Sounds like enterprise firewall.
  • Tyler (unregistered)

    I'm somewhat interested on trying this (new relic) out on a full enterprise application. However, the sticky part is "New Relic is a SaaS product". This means that the data does not remain local to the machine but instead gets brodcast "somewhere else."

    What exactly is reported to new relic's servers?

  • mewse (unregistered) in reply to skotl
    I don't work for TDWTF and have nothing to do with the sponsor but, honestly, what the hell is the big deal? Install the software. Delete it if you don't like it. Some people (and this is why they sponsored the comp in the first place) *will* actually find it useful and buy it.
    Do you really believe that all marketing practices should be considered acceptable and not be subject to comment or criticism as long as they eventually lead to a few sales for the company doing the marketing? That every practice is automatically okay, as long as there's a sale at the end?

    I have trouble believing that's actually what you meant to imply. It's nonsensical. Can you clear that up for me and show me what I've missed in your comment?

  • randomdba (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    As I mentioned elsewhere- if it takes us six hours to set up the environment to run your code, we're probably not going to bother.

    If it takes less than 6 hours to set up the environment its not enterprisy enough!

  • (cs) in reply to mewse
    mewse:
    I don't work for TDWTF and have nothing to do with the sponsor but, honestly, what the hell is the big deal? Install the software. Delete it if you don't like it. Some people (and this is why they sponsored the comp in the first place) *will* actually find it useful and buy it.
    Do you really believe that all marketing practices should be considered acceptable and not be subject to comment or criticism as long as they eventually lead to a few sales for the company doing the marketing? That every practice is automatically okay, as long as there's a sale at the end?

    I have trouble believing that's actually what you meant to imply. It's nonsensical. Can you clear that up for me and show me what I've missed in your comment?

    It's no more senseless than coming onto this site and whining about something you don't like and have no interest in being a part of when you should just ignore it and move on with your life.

    Remy has more restraint than me, I'd just delete all of the dumb comments here that are so counter-productive.

  • Krunch (unregistered)

    12:00AM June 28th

    When is that exactly? The first minute of June 28th in UTC?

  • Wesley Kerfoot (unregistered)

    Isn't this basically an obfuscated code contest? You're asking people to give the most obscure, fragile solutions as possible right?

  • Xeno (unregistered) in reply to Wesley Kerfoot
    Wesley Kerfoot:
    Isn't this basically an obfuscated code contest? You're asking people to give the most obscure, fragile solutions as possible right?
    Obfuscation isn't often the theme around here; it's often very clear what code posted onto this site actually does (and usually what was intended).

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