The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

chubertdev · 2013-04-05 Reply Admin

Freudian Trousers:
>Emptying the trash on your Mac: You really shouldn't have >started by dragging your drive into the trash. Not only will >your files be gone, but also your hard-drive.
One reason I never liked Macs - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "drag floppy disk icon to the trash to eject it" was a good example. But yet it allows you to drag a hard drive to the trash to delete all its contents?

Maybe it just considers the entire computer to be "Trash."

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

Maybe it makes your computer faster, like deleting the System32 folder in windows.

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

The trouble with troubleshooting is that trouble sometimes shoots back...

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

chubertdev:
Paul Neumann:
Unless you're app reads Shift + Del on a file as a "Cut", which is what the shortcut does EVERYWHERE ELSE!

Not only did you invoke Muphry's Law, but you missed the point that this is for Windows Explorer (and things like file dialogs), where Shift + Del won't be mapped to Cut.

Ok, so, who is the troll that mapped shift+del as cut one place and perma-delete in another? I mean, wannabe power users are going to use their newly learned shortcut to cut/paste a file and not only accidentally delete it, but Permanently delete it.

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

Rodnas:
A Canary is a bug which is first presented as a feature only later to be discovered as being a fatal error.

What, like Windows 8?

DescentJS · 2013-04-05 Reply Admin

Ben Jammin:
chubertdev:
Paul Neumann:
Unless you're app reads Shift + Del on a file as a "Cut", which is what the shortcut does EVERYWHERE ELSE!

Not only did you invoke Muphry's Law, but you missed the point that this is for Windows Explorer (and things like file dialogs), where Shift + Del won't be mapped to Cut.
Ok, so, who is the troll that mapped shift+del as cut one place and perma-delete in another? I mean, wannabe power users are going to use their newly learned shortcut to cut/paste a file and not only accidentally delete it, but Permanently delete it.

It still asks you, and the dialogue box for it looks very different from the normal dialogue.

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

neminem:
I actually quite like the recycle bin - I may be smart, but that doesn't mean I haven't accidentally deleted the wrong file, or the wrong version of a file, or even intentionally deleted exactly the file I meant to and then later realized I still wanted it... not to mention when programs programatically delete a file using the Windows API, and I'm like, I still wanted that! The recycle bin is great. My only complaint about it is the stupid name: you aren't really recycling the files in it, are you? I guess you're recycling the space on disk they took up?

I always figured calling it "Recycle Bin" was an attempt to one-up Apple, since theirs was a much less eco-friendly "Trash".

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

Roby McAndrew:
Andy:
No, Andy, you're not so unique. For one thing, I'm also named Andy.
I'm Andy, and so's my wife

I'm ND, and so's Fargo.

2013-04-05 Reply Admin

uxor:

c:>del /?
Deletes one or more files.
If Command Extensions are enabled DEL and ERASE change as follows:
The display semantics of the /S switch are reversed in that it shows
you only the files that are deleted, not the ones it could not find.

So if Command Extensions aren't enabled, DEL /S will list the files it couldn't find? All of them? Can I use it on files I can't find? Is that why Booleans were invented?

Silverhill · 2013-04-06 Reply Admin

Andy:
No, Andy, you're not so unique. For one thing, I'm also named Andy.

Please show some sensitivity. I had a son named Andy once, and let me tell you, it was no laughing matter when he suddenly took an arrow to the knee while trying to save the President's sick daughter.

2013-04-06 Reply Admin

One reason I never liked Macs - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "drag floppy disk icon to the trash to eject it" was a good example.

One reason I never liked Windows - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "click the floppy disk icon to save to the hard drive" is a good example.

2013-04-06 Reply Admin

This is kind of grasping at straws. There was a time where saving data on a floppy disk was a logical thing to do, and many people would associate one with data storage. If you show most people a little icon of a hard drive, they'll just be confused.

On the other hand, there is no situation in which throwing away a floppy disc is required to remove it from the computer.

ekolis · 2013-04-06 Reply Admin

You should never have written that bot that likes every video on YouTube for you. You left them no choice! What was left to suggest for you?

2013-04-06 Reply Admin

Andy:
On the other hand, there is no situation in which throwing away a floppy disc is required to remove it from the computer.

That's a nice discussion you guys are having about the Trash in MacOS X, but I suppose you haven't noticed that (a) there's no trash icon on the desktop anymore, only in the dock, and (b) the trash icon changes to an "eject" icon whenever you drag a CD, a network drive or anything else that could be ejected. I can't say about floppy discs, because I haven't had any hardware that could eject floppy discs for ages. So there's no way to drag a hard drive to the trash.

2013-04-06 Reply Admin

It's not an invalid canary, it's only resting!

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Tim:
The "trash" is a great example of why I don't like Mac or Windows. They both assume I'm an idiot.
If I tell my computer to delete something, that's because I fucking want it deleted. I have no ambivalence on the matter. I order it to be gone so I want it gone now.

Linux doesn't argue with me... or at least it didn't until they started trying to make it more "friendly"... to keep up with the other systems that treat their owners like idiots...

Many programs on the Mac will automatically put stuff in the Trash for you, for example, iTunes will put old versions of apps in the Trash. Once or twice I've wanted to recover an old version, and this way it doesn't have to ask me every single time, which is a much better UI.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

neminem:
The recycle bin is great. My only complaint about it is the stupid name: you aren't really recycling the files in it, are you? I guess you're recycling the space on disk they took up?

My complaint is the settings. Depending on how it's configured, it might automatically clean stuff out, or you might have to manually empty it.

At least on the Mac, it's consistent: you put stuff in, and it stays there until you empty it. It's not perfect, but it's a very reliable standard, and that's an important property for any UI and any file system.

The recycle-bin might be set to automatically empty itself, so I have to manually set it not to (if some control freak SA allows it) and I can't trust it at all on Other People's Accounts. And the automatic emptying uses the worst possible metric: % of disk space. If they just made it clear stuff out after a period of time, it would actually be useful and reliable!

That's typical Windows: ten million options, and all of them suck.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Meep:
Tim:
The "trash" is a great example of why I don't like Mac or Windows. They both assume I'm an idiot.
If I tell my computer to delete something, that's because I fucking want it deleted. I have no ambivalence on the matter. I order it to be gone so I want it gone now.

Linux doesn't argue with me... or at least it didn't until they started trying to make it more "friendly"... to keep up with the other systems that treat their owners like idiots...
Many programs on the Mac will automatically put stuff in the Trash for you

So, in essence, you are agreeing with me that Mac treats you like an idiot. "Don't worry your pretty little head about all this tekkie stuff; I'll decide what you do and don't need."

Meep:
for example, iTunes will put old versions of apps in the Trash.

Again, WTF is a music player doing even having access to or awareness of your apps?

Meep:
which is a much better UI.

No, my computer obeying me is the only useful UI, for those of us who know what we want to do. For the couch potatoes who wait for the TV to tell them what to do*, the Mac/Windows UI is perfect.

*in other words, idiots.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

don:
One reason I never liked Macs - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "drag floppy disk icon to the trash to eject it" was a good example.

One reason I never liked Windows - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "click the floppy disk icon to save to the hard drive" is a good example.

One reason I never liked Linux - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "edit a few hundred lines of CONF to get it to go on a network" is a good example.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Tim:
So, in essence, you are agreeing with me that Mac treats you like an idiot.

What a stupid thing to say. Both your interpretation that the Mac treats users like idiots, and your assertion that the poster agreed with you, are completely wrong. It's just a very nice standard behaviour that most applications removing files do it exactly the same way as the operating system does, by putting them into a known location, where you can _reliably_ pick them up and recover them if you want, and that you can erase whenever you wish.

If you want an operating system where removing a file is an unrecoverable operation, and deleting a file by mistake is an action that requires you to go to your backup (if you have one), that makes you the idiot in my book.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Freudian Trousers:
>Emptying the trash on your Mac: You really shouldn't have >started by dragging your drive into the trash. Not only will >your files be gone, but also your hard-drive.
One reason I never liked Macs - things are not as "inuitive" as they should be. The "drag floppy disk icon to the trash to eject it" was a good example. But yet it allows you to drag a hard drive to the trash to delete all its contents?

Your example of why you never liked Macs involves a technology that hasn't appeared in one in nearly a decade?

You're certainly not being obtuse.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Tim:
No, my computer obeying me is the only useful UI, for those of us who know what we want to do. For the couch potatoes who wait for the TV to tell them what to do*, the Mac/Windows UI is perfect.
*in other words, idiots.

You're an idiot. First off, there are about 10 ways to permanently delete files for the 5% of the population who "can't stand" having to clear a trash bin. So you're a power user who doesn't like how the GUI App works. Use the command line genius.

Secondly, Saying . Operating systems are bad because they cater to the consumer market that they were inteded to is the most ass backwards thing I've read on this site. You prefer Gentoo because you have full control? That's perfectly fine..because that's why it was built. But Gentoo will never be a popular consumer operating system because most consumers don't wan to deal with all of that... they just want to use a damn computer. Calling them "idiots" because they want to use a conusmer device as a consumer devices actually makes you the idiot.

And yes, computers are for the most part consumer electronics now. This isn't 2000 anymore.

Secondly,

People who think like you amaze me. I'm guessing you also can't understand why cars have automatic transmissions.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

What program maps SHIFT-DEL to Cut? Every program I've ever seen maps CTRL-X or CMD-X to Cut.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

neminem:
OldCoder:
neminem:
I actually quite like the recycle bin - I may be smart, but that doesn't mean I haven't accidentally deleted the wrong file, or the wrong version of a file, or even intentionally deleted exactly the file I meant to and then later realized I still wanted it... not to mention when programs programatically delete a file using the Windows API, and I'm like, I still wanted that! The recycle bin is great. My only complaint about it is the stupid name: you aren't really recycling the files in it, are you? I guess you're recycling the space on disk they took up?
The files are still in the exact same place on the disk. All that has changed is that they are now under a new, harder-to-find, folder.
Not relevant: physical items in a physical recycle bin are also still their original items. A recycle bin is a place that you put items you *intend* to recycle - it's after the bin is emptied that its contents get recycled. My point was that files in a Windows recycle bin aren't recycled when you empty it: they're erased.

When the physical items in your recycle bin are collected and processed, their original form is erased and their constituent pieces (metals, plastics, paper) are recycled to be made into another widget.

When your files are collected and processed (ie, recycle bin emptied), their original form is erased and their constituent pieces (bytes and sectors on your hard drive) are recycled to be made into another file.

2013-04-07 Reply Admin

"Canary Invalid"--isn't that probably talking about the stack canary, indicating a stack overflow, making the exception a warning of what's thought to be an attempt to own EIP?

Scarlet Manuka · 2013-04-07 Reply Admin

Andy:
there is no situation in which throwing away a floppy disc is required to remove it from the computer.

Given the reliability of most floppy disks, it's not too unnatural a progression.

Timmeh:
What program maps SHIFT-DEL to Cut? Every program I've ever seen maps CTRL-X or CMD-X to Cut.

If you're on a Windows system, you should try using SHIFT-DEL for Cut and SHIFT-INS for paste (and CTRL-INS for Copy). I think you'll be quite surprised at the number of places they work; just because Ctrl-X is mapped to Cut doesn't mean SHIFT-DEL can't also be mapped to Cut.

The Wikipedia article has some relevant historical information.

Severity One · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

So Outlook Web Express doesn't even use pigeons to send mail, but canaries. That explains a thing or two.

So will the next version use pigeons, or will they make a technological leap and move to ponies straight away?

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Lawyer:
Your video is available worldwide Zack. It's the title that is blocked. You see, I've copyrighted the word "test". Now anybody who tests software for a living owes me royalties.

Well, anyone who tests, that is.

Whew, narrowly escaped that one, I did.

chubertdev · 2013-04-08 Reply Admin

gnasher729:
the trash icon changes to an "eject" icon whenever you drag a CD, a network drive or anything else that could be ejected.

I'd expect that kind of UI on April 1st.

2013-04-08 Reply Admin

Andy:
No, Andy, you're not so unique. For one thing, I'm also named Andy.

You are unique. Just like everybody else.

shepd · 2013-04-09 Reply Admin

If you're on a Windows system, you should try using SHIFT-DEL for Cut and SHIFT-INS for paste (and CTRL-INS for Copy). I think you'll be quite surprised at the number of places they work; just because Ctrl-X is mapped to Cut doesn't mean SHIFT-DEL can't also be mapped to Cut.

For example, Shift-Ins works in Outlook 2007, just not when you are doing a search. I figured that functionality was broken because I never used ^v, ever--especially since I do most of my work in a terminal.

2013-04-10 Reply Admin

AN AMAZING CODER:
Use the command line genius.

A noun of direct address - even one used sarcastically - should be set off by a comma.

2013-04-11 Reply Admin

And here I was thinking that the Canary error existed because OWA doesn't support Chrome.

2013-04-17 Reply Admin

BA-DUM-TSS!

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