• (cs)

    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?

  • Sockatume (unregistered)

    You need to warn the cashier that he's hosting a tiny capsule piloted by a miniaturised Dennis Quaid.

  • (cs)

    Today I was reading The Daily WTF when something caught my attention, alerting me to some bad news: somebody had reduced the resolution of an image to such an extent that the original WTF could no longer be cherished!

  • (cs)

    The amount shown in the display of the cash register doesn't really strike me as odd - after all, the shopping list could be something like:

    1 unicorn horn 19,939,414.02 2 lb asparagus spears 8.33 total: 19,939,422.35

    Next time, go for rhinoceros horns. As effective as unicorn horns, but much cheaper!

  • Beavis (unregistered)

    heh heh heh...you said cockles...heh heh heh </beavis&butthead>

  • Warren (unregistered)

    There was a time when ebay bought ads for every Google search. I remember testing this with "world peace" and was shown "World peace: great selection, low prices".

    Hmm, I'll take "World peace: Roman empire style" please.

  • (cs) in reply to Warren
    Warren:
    Hmm, I'll take "World peace: Roman empire style" please.
    I know it's tempting at a $1.00 starting price, but be careful: if you really want it, you might end up with a bill even higher than the $19,939,422.35 you might be asked for it at your local grocery store!
  • Andrew (unregistered) in reply to Dogsworth
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?
    I guess everyone realized that browser toolbars are shitty. Remember when every company had one- I mean, several of those?
  • (cs)

    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.

  • (cs) in reply to Dogsworth
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?

    As if my browser wasn't able to download stuff correctly (it did download the download manager didn't it?)

  • fa2k (unregistered) in reply to Le Poete
    Le Poete:
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?

    As if my browser wasn't able to download stuff correctly (it did download the download manager didn't it?)

    I prefer download managers for updates. No need to follow links, choose where to download, click past the warnings, etc.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to nobulate
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.

    Cheap to obtain for women, maybe - men usually have to lay out considerable funds in order to be allowed into the factory ...

  • (cs) in reply to Sockatume
    Sockatume:
    You need to warn the cashier that he's hosting a tiny capsule piloted by a miniaturised Dennis Quaid.

    Bravo

  • (cs) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Today I was reading The Daily WTF when something caught my attention, alerting me to some bad news: somebody had reduced the resolution of an image to such an extent that the original WTF could no longer be cherished!

    I think the point was that the error box appeared in the TV image - ie it was broadcast

  • (cs) in reply to Warren
    Warren:
    There was a time when ebay bought ads for every Google search. I remember testing this with "world peace" and was shown "World peace: great selection, low prices".

    Hmm, I'll take "World peace: Roman empire style" please.

    Yup, I recall a long-ago search that turned up an eBay ad for technitium-99M.

    It's going to have decayed into uselessness by the time the package arrives!

  • mark s (unregistered)

    It's not the initial "purchase" of the baby that's expensive anyways, its the ongoing maintenance for the next 18-25 years.

  • dignissim (unregistered)

    Paolo, it's not Windows - it's IE that broke. 2 WTF's here:

    1. Your using IE
    2. Your playing smartass (ass you may be, but I'm not sure about smart)
  • dignissim (unregistered) in reply to Sockatume
    Sockatume:
    You need to warn the cashier that he's hosting a tiny capsule piloted by a miniaturised Dennis Quaid.

    I wonder if he slid his credit card, hehe. I'd never walk into that fucking store again. God knows how they calculate and charge, even in times when the total looks just about right.

  • (cs)

    I remember the ads to buy and sell slaves on eBay. Hmm.

  • (cs) in reply to dignissim

    *you're

  • (cs)

    Surely a "16 pound [anything]" should cost £16. Unless you can make a deal with the shopkeeper. And assuming you're not in Gearov's favourite store. (Of course, if it's a 16.56 pound Raspberry Pi, you may not be able to buy it for any price.)

  • (cs) in reply to pscs
    pscs:
    I think the point was that the error box appeared in the TV image - ie it was broadcast
    That used to happen in my area a lot several years ago. Starting anywhere between Friday night and Money morning, a local channel that has long since been kicked by my cable company, would broadcast nothing for the rest of the weekend but a Windows desktop with some icons plus an alert window saying that VLC had crashed.

    To be fair, I found that more interesting to watch than the programmes that channel otherwise showed.

  • @Gurth (unregistered) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    pscs:
    I think the point was that the error box appeared in the TV image - ie it was broadcast
    That used to happen in my area a lot several years ago. Starting anywhere between Friday night and Money morning, a local channel that has long since been kicked by my cable company, would broadcast nothing for the rest of the weekend but a Windows desktop with some icons plus an alert window saying that VLC had crashed.

    To be fair, I found that more interesting to watch than the programmes that channel otherwise showed.

    I've seen those too. I used to think the station (rather small, in my case) pirated some oversea programs and used VLC to playback whatever downloaded to their PC. Funny.

  • Mozzis (unregistered) in reply to fa2k

    Except that Dell's DLM is seriously broken in several places, and has been for some time.

  • wlao (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.

    Cheap to obtain for women, maybe - men usually have to lay out considerable funds in order to be allowed into the factory ...

    Cheap, unless you also consider the wear of the carrier, and the slight inconvenience of squeezing them through your gonads.

  • (cs) in reply to Loren Pechtel
    Loren Pechtel:
    Yup, I recall a long-ago search that turned up an eBay ad for technitium-99M.

    It's going to have decayed into uselessness by the time the package arrives!

    Seriously? You were searching for tracers for a Meckel's diverticulum?

    (Backstory: I was injected with Te-99 once. Once!)

  • n_slash_a (unregistered) in reply to QJo
    QJo:
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.

    Cheap to obtain for women, maybe - men usually have to lay out considerable funds in order to be allowed into the factory ...

    +1

  • Cole (unregistered)

    Am I missing something with the Dell Download Manager one? I don't see anything. There's a total download progress bar with an individual item progress bar underneath. It's bad UI, but I don't see the WTF in it.

  • Cole (unregistered) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Today I was reading The Daily WTF when something caught my attention, alerting me to some bad news: somebody had reduced the resolution of an image to such an extent that the original WTF could no longer be cherished!
    I believe that's a .NET JIT crash message. From what I've seen, it's only available for Visual BASIC..
  • Anonymous Cowherd (unregistered) in reply to nobulate
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Mmmmm.

    FTFY

  • (cs) in reply to Dogsworth
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?
    This. I don't get it. What's in it for them? Do their customers really have that much difficulty completing a browser-based download?
  • (cs) in reply to Cole
    Cole:
    Am I missing something with the Dell Download Manager one? I don't see anything. There's a total download progress bar with an individual item progress bar underneath. It's bad UI, but I don't see the WTF in it.

    My guess is the negative speed.

  • drake (unregistered) in reply to Spenzer4Hire
    Spenzer4Hire:
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?
    This. I don't get it. What's in it for them? Do their customers really have that much difficulty completing a browser-based download?

    Have you ever dealt with Dell customers? If you had to ask that question probably not...

  • (cs) in reply to Dogsworth
    Dogsworth:
    Why does every company want to make you use their shitty proprietary download manager?
    Ads, I'm guessing.
  • Rich (unregistered) in reply to Spenzer4Hire
    This. I don't get it. What's in it for them? Do their customers really have that much difficulty completing a browser-based download?

    The last time I used a download manager intentionally was back when I was on dialup. Back when downloads were slow and over lines that could disconnect. It would suck if you were downloading something for 3 hours, got a 3 second hiccup and then lost your file. The download managers dealt with resume much better than http browsers could. HTTP didn't even support ranges back then. You absolutely needed secondary software to successfully download anything large.

    Nowadays, it's much more likely you have broadband, but not 100%. So, you have a non-zero percent of your customers that would be pissed off if their dialup download was interrupted and you had a non-resumable tool.

    CAPTCHA: laoreet. hmm, I got nothin'

  • Friedrice The Great (unregistered) in reply to dignissim
    dignissim:
    Paolo, it's not Windows - it's IE that broke. 2 WTF's here:
    1. Your using IE
    2. Your playing smartass (ass you may be, but I'm not sure about smart)
    Your not too smart, are you?
  • moz (unregistered) in reply to wlao
    wlao:
    QJo:
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.

    Cheap to obtain for women, maybe - men usually have to lay out considerable funds in order to be allowed into the factory ...

    Cheap, unless you also consider the wear of the carrier, and the slight inconvenience of squeezing them through your gonads.

    At least they're still microscopic when "they" leave your gonads.

  • (cs) in reply to Rich
    Rich:
    This. I don't get it. What's in it for them? Do their customers really have that much difficulty completing a browser-based download?

    The last time I used a download manager intentionally was back when I was on dialup. Back when downloads were slow and over lines that could disconnect. It would suck if you were downloading something for 3 hours, got a 3 second hiccup and then lost your file. The download managers dealt with resume much better than http browsers could. HTTP didn't even support ranges back then. You absolutely needed secondary software to successfully download anything large.

    Nowadays, it's much more likely you have broadband, but not 100%. So, you have a non-zero percent of your customers that would be pissed off if their dialup download was interrupted and you had a non-resumable tool.

    CAPTCHA: laoreet. hmm, I got nothin'

    But nowadays HTTP supports ranges, so there's no reason you should ever need such a tool. Unless you're using Failurefox, which will just treat an interrupted download as success and not let you resume.

  • Bill C. (unregistered) in reply to moz
    moz:
    wlao:
    QJo:
    nobulate:
    Babies may be cheap to obtain but have a high maintenance cost - unless you use them for stews, that is. Hmmmm.
    Cheap to obtain for women, maybe - men usually have to lay out considerable funds in order to be allowed into the factory ...
    Cheap, unless you also consider the wear of the carrier, and the slight inconvenience of squeezing them through your gonads.
    At least they're still microscopic when "they" leave your gonads.
    They still don't come cheap.
  • Roby McAndrew (unregistered) in reply to Spenzer4Hire
    Spenzer4Hire:
    This. I don't get it. What's in it for them? Do their customers really have that much difficulty completing a browser-based download?

    My guess is so that tech support only have one script, rather than one per OS/browser/version combo.

  • DeliriousHippie (unregistered) in reply to Roby McAndrew

    Obvious reason: Salesguy from software company goes to Dell's marketing manager and says: "You need download manager. Then you will know what your customers are downloading. Buy one from us." Marketing manager goes: "Wow. Yes, we have to know what our customers are doing. Cost doesn't matter, sell it to us."

  • (cs) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Loren Pechtel:
    Yup, I recall a long-ago search that turned up an eBay ad for technitium-99M.

    It's going to have decayed into uselessness by the time the package arrives!

    Seriously? You were searching for tracers for a Meckel's diverticulum?

    (Backstory: I was injected with Te-99 once. Once!)

    My wife was having a heart scan. I was trying to figure out how many rads she was going to get from the procedure.

  • yuwtze (unregistered)

    I've created a WTF like the cash register one before, back in my grocery store days.

    To ring up produce, you typed in the PLU, set the item on the scale, then pressed the 'PLU' button on the register to weigh it. To ring up multiple quantities of an item, you typed in the quantity and then scanned the item (no need to press QTY). On occasion, the scale would take longer than normal to settle, but you'd already have picked up the produce and scanned the next item, leading to not charging for the bananas, and instead charging for 4011 cans of soup. There'd be a missing beep, so I'd realize what I'd done as soon as it happened, but less attentive cashiers occasionally got all the way through the order before they realized that the total seemed a bit high...

  • (cs) in reply to fa2k
    fa2k:
    I prefer download managers for updates. No need to follow links, choose where to download, click past the warnings, etc.
    1. Click here to download.
    2. Here's how to use our download manager. Click here to start the download.
    3. Ignore that Java security warning. It isn't a real security risk. It's just because we self-signed the HTTPS certificate
    4. Oh, and yes you really do want to run the Java applet from "UNKNOWN"
    5. Wait for download manager to download. 3MB.
    6. Wait for "connection to server"....
    7. Wait for file to download. 365KB.
    8. Open file management tool to try and find unknown download location. Wait... It said in the instructions... Oh. It's in "C:<company name>\download". Great. I'm on Mac/Linux/Windows with UAC enabled... I wonder if it's still in a temp dir somewhere.
  • Kasper (unregistered)

    Companies are trying to sell anything these days. I once got an add saying

    Can you afford not to own Uranus? Buy yourself or your loved one a piece of Uranus
    They had even registered a domain name to go with that ad. I mean seriously, is the money spend on that domain name ever going to pay back, if they cannot deliver?

  • some user (unregistered) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    pscs:
    I think the point was that the error box appeared in the TV image - ie it was broadcast
    That used to happen in my area a lot several years ago. Starting anywhere between Friday night and Money morning, a local channel that has long since been kicked by my cable company, would broadcast nothing for the rest of the weekend but a Windows desktop with some icons plus an alert window saying that VLC had crashed.

    To be fair, I found that more interesting to watch than the programmes that channel otherwise showed.

    Obviously. You even watched for the entire weekend just to make sure it stayed there the full 63 hours.

  • some user (unregistered) in reply to Kasper
    Kasper:
    Companies are trying to sell anything these days. I once got an add saying
    Can you afford not to own Uranus? Buy yourself or your loved one a piece of Uranus
    They had even registered a domain name to go with that ad. I mean seriously, is the money spend on that domain name ever going to pay back, if they cannot deliver?
    I think they didn't mean to say Uranus - maytbe they used voice-to-text software or someit
  • Nagesh (unregistered) in reply to dignissim
    dignissim:
    Paolo, it's not Windows - it's IE that broke. 2 WTF's here:
    1. Your using IE
    2. Your playing smartass (ass you may be, but I'm not sure about smart)

    It's you're, as in you're a moron.

  • (cs) in reply to Gurth
    Gurth:
    Starting anywhere between Friday night and Money morning
    Somebody please wake me early on Money morning, I want to get as much as possible!
  • a29 (unregistered)

    Google removed the ads. You can add "baby" to many searches to eliminate ads.

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