• fp (unregistered)

    fp

  • (cs)

    LOL

  • (cs)

    I wonder how long it'll be before we get all of the people in here violently defending "that" company once again and wildly claiming that they'll shut this site down for libel.

  • Steve (unregistered)

    I'm not sure if this was mentioned the first time the article was published...but isn't making a microsoft office killer using microsoft technology against the EULA?  I remember seeing the new office ribbon specs and now it is available but a clause says you cant use it in an office competitor.  does vb make similar requirements?              ....captcha: captcha  

  • (cs) in reply to Saladin
    Saladin:
    I wonder how long it'll be before we get all of the people in here violently defending "that" company once again and wildly claiming that they'll shut this site down for libel.


    Did that actually happen? I seem to remember people being concerned that it actually could happen, not that it did.
  • (cs) in reply to Steve
    Anonymous:
    I'm not sure if this was mentioned the first time the article was published...but isn't making a microsoft office killer using microsoft technology against the EULA?  I remember seeing the new office ribbon specs and now it is available but a clause says you cant use it in an office competitor.  does vb make similar requirements?              ....captcha: captcha  


    Yes. This makes it doubly hillarious, although how well MS could enforce that clause is up for grabs.
  • pacman (unregistered) in reply to Steve

    Anonymous:
    I'm not sure if this was mentioned the first time the article was published...but isn't making a microsoft office killer using microsoft technology against the EULA?  I remember seeing the new office ribbon specs and now it is available but a clause says you cant use it in an office competitor.  does vb make similar requirements?              ....captcha: captcha  

    IIRC, from last discussion -- you can't use Office to make an Office competitor (imagine: embedding a Word object inside of a winform and selling it as AwesomeWord), but you are free to VB, VC++, etc. Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...

  • (cs) in reply to Volmarias

    Volmarias:
    Saladin:
    I wonder how long it'll be before we get all of the people in here violently defending "that" company once again and wildly claiming that they'll shut this site down for libel.


    Did that actually happen? I seem to remember people being concerned that it actually could happen, not that it did.

    I don't think they could do anything directly to thedailywtf, though it's possible that they could go after the person who posted the message. There's a specific law exempting website operators from responsibility of their users (http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061120-8257.html). 

  • (cs)

    best 15 minutes of the week i spent reading that! sigh i'm in love with Virtudyne! I want morrreeeee!!!!!

  • (cs) in reply to pacman
    Anonymous:

    ...Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...

     

    Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't a C-level compiler supposed to be able to compile itself?  It wouldnt' surprise me if the VC++ one couldn't do it, but I thought I remember hearing that years ago.

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    Anonymous:

    ...Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...



    Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't a C-level compiler supposed to be able to compile itself?  It wouldnt' surprise me if the VC++ one couldn't do it, but I thought I remember hearing that years ago.

    This can be posible, but not needed. Is usefull for new hardware withouth compilers. So you start with a simple compiler, maybe "compiled" by hand to the new architecture, then use that compiler to compile a real size compiler. This tecnique name is Boostrap, and often the boostraped compiler is a C compiler.

    I have no idea about VC++, and libs. But maybe some libs are made out of C, C++ and Pascal, and the core stuff of VC++ is made with VC++ or either a older version of VC++. A compiler+IDE is nothing special to compile, only yet another program.  

    I love compilers :DD
     

  • (cs) in reply to sir_flexalot
    sir_flexalot:
    Anonymous:

    ...Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...

     

    Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't a C-level compiler supposed to be able to compile itself?  It wouldnt' surprise me if the VC++ one couldn't do it, but I thought I remember hearing that years ago.

    This is a case of whether Microsoft will let you, rather than it actually being possible...

  • (cs)

    Three words:

    no freaking way

     

    O_O

    amazing... just amazing

     

     

    happy new year everyone 

  • RS (unregistered) in reply to Otterdam

    What are you guys talking about, you need the source code to VC++ to compile it. Which you don't get when you buy VC++. There's no way VC++ licence forbids you to compile and redistribute your *own* C++ compiler.
     

  • n (unregistered)

    Go to http://virtudyne.com. Someone (maybe WTF folks?) made a nice site. I'm crushed that I can't buy a digital donkey mug.

     

    my captcha is the word "captcha". neat. It's a meta-captcha?

  • n (unregistered) in reply to n
    Anonymous:

    Go to http://virtudyne.com. Someone (maybe WTF folks?) made a nice site. I'm crushed that I can't buy a digital donkey mug.

     I'm smart. Once I actually read the text on the website, it became clear that the WTF editor made the site. Good morning!

     

    I love the captchas on this site! This time it's "giggity".

  • I have the hat to this day. I have the hat. (unregistered)

    A newspaper of record published an article some years ago mentioning The City's partial adoption of Virtudyne's Office Killer that included this gem:

    "[It was] created from scratch to deliver Web services. [It] uses special coding that is more efficient than HTTP, the transport protocol invented to deliver Web pages. To juice up HTTP, for instance, to deliver an online calendar to 50,000 users, requires rooms full of servers running multiple software applications. Virtudyne could handle millions of users on a single server."

    Priceless.

  • I have the hat to this day. I have the hat. (unregistered)

    By the way, am I the only one impressed by how WTF's have scaled up over the years? I remember when what qualifies as a CodeSOD or a sidebar today was a WTF. Now WTFs are on the grandest strategic level, illustrating with painful insight man's very ability to WTF at a breadth and depth barely imaginable without such illustrations. I mean neural networks, and then this? I am in awe.

    chocobot! 

  • (cs) in reply to Volmarias

    Saladin:
    I wonder how long it'll be before we get all of the people in here violently defending "that" company once again and wildly claiming that they'll shut this site down for libel.
    Volmarias:
    Did that actually happen? I seem to remember people being concerned that it actually could happen, not that it did.

    The astroturf invasion definitely happened, I remember it quite well (the contributions of someone doing a fair impression of the CTO's mistress PA in tearful righteous indignation will forever stick in my mind... if that was satire, then very well done! but can we assume that religion has supplanted patriotism as the last refuge of the scoundrel?) - but given that here is not only still here, but having another bite at the cherry, I think we can assume the threats of legal action were baseless.

  • chmod755 (unregistered) in reply to I have the hat to this day. I have the hat.

    Did anybody think to google some of the text from that quote to try and figure out the real culprit in this WTF?

    Google Search for "...juice up HTTP..." 

  • (cs) in reply to I have the hat to this day. I have the hat.
    Anonymous:

    A newspaper of record published an article some years ago mentioning The City's partial adoption of Virtudyne's Office Killer that included this gem:

    "[It was] created from scratch to deliver Web services. [It] uses special coding that is more efficient than HTTP, the transport protocol invented to deliver Web pages. To juice up HTTP, for instance, to deliver an online calendar to 50,000 users, requires rooms full of servers running multiple software applications. Virtudyne could handle millions of users on a single server."

    Nice. Might it possibly have been this article in USA Today?  (And am I going to explode the Daily WTF by posting this link?)

  • (cs)

    coincidence?

    http://www.gcn.com/print/22_1/20839-1.html

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm 

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simdesk

    http://www.sys-con.tv/read/134151.htm    Video of CEO Lou Waters...

  • (cs) in reply to fennec
    fennec:
    Anonymous:

    A newspaper of record published an article some years ago mentioning The City's partial adoption of Virtudyne's Office Killer that included this gem:

    "[It was] created from scratch to deliver Web services. [It] uses special coding that is more efficient than HTTP, the transport protocol invented to deliver Web pages. To juice up HTTP, for instance, to deliver an online calendar to 50,000 users, requires rooms full of servers running multiple software applications. Virtudyne could handle millions of users on a single server."

    Nice. Might it possibly have been this article in USA Today?  (And am I going to explode the Daily WTF by posting this link?)

     

    I've just realised that for the first time in a long while I was actually 'rooting' for MS Office while reading that article. 

  • (cs)

    Virtudyne == SimDesk?

    ---- Edit ----

    Well, that is what I get for writing the message, but not posting it for a few hours...  I see some others already hit on it as well...

  • (cs) in reply to Otterdam

    Otterdam:
    sir_flexalot:
    Anonymous:
    ...Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...
    Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't a C-level compiler supposed to be able to compile itself?  It wouldnt' surprise me if the VC++ one couldn't do it, but I thought I remember hearing that years ago.
    This is a case of whether Microsoft will let you, rather than it actually being possible...

    FWIW, VC++ 6.0 is an MFC application - thus it was likely compiled using a version of VC++ (like 5.0) and then again using itself.  A "first test" for a compiler is often compiling itself, IIRC.  Good way to have your own compiler catch its own code bugs via warnings, and the like.

    Peace!

  • (cs) in reply to jtwine
    jtwine:

    Virtudyne == SimDesk?

    Well, if that's the case, http://www.simindiana.com will let you try out what SimDesk really does have to offer, for free, if you sign up and pretend to be from Indiana (google up an appropriate zip code, eh?). There a web page access (which looks like your typical kinda-sucky web-based email, calendar, and such) and ~35MB worth of software you can install (anyone want to touch the stuff? eww...)

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:
    sir_flexalot:
    Anonymous:

    ...Not sure if you can make a VC++ competitor using VC++, though ...



    Correct me if i'm wrong, but isn't a C-level compiler supposed to be able to compile itself?  It wouldnt' surprise me if the VC++ one couldn't do it, but I thought I remember hearing that years ago.

    This can be posible, but not needed. Is usefull for new hardware withouth compilers. So you start with a simple compiler, maybe "compiled" by hand to the new architecture, then use that compiler to compile a real size compiler. This tecnique name is Boostrap, and often the boostraped compiler is a C compiler.

    I have no idea about VC++, and libs. But maybe some libs are made out of C, C++ and Pascal, and the core stuff of VC++ is made with VC++ or either a older version of VC++. A compiler+IDE is nothing special to compile, only yet another program.  

    I love compilers :DD
     

    You don't even need that nowadays - to support a new platform, add a new code emitter to the existing compiler and then build the compiler on the new platform using itself. It's a lot less work and goes faster, too.    

  • I have the hat to this day. I have the hat. (unregistered)

    Any idea for a piece of software whose genesis can be described with the opening phrase "Recalling his days as a Digital PDP-11 programmer..." is bound to be a gem.

  • (cs) in reply to jtwine
    jtwine:

    Virtudyne == SimDesk?

    ---- Edit ----

    Well, that is what I get for writing the message, but not posting it for a few hours...  I see some others already hit on it as well...

     

    Nope.  Virtudyne.equals(SimDesk)

    Happy New Year 

  • (cs)

    "Instead, he discovered something much more important: Magic: The Gathering." 

    One of the best lines in any WTF post all year ever.  Thanks for the good laugh.  I still chuckle to myself when I drink my morning tea from my Digital Donkey mug.

  • (cs) in reply to ssprencel
    ssprencel:

    "Instead, he discovered something much more important: Magic: The Gathering." 

    One of the best lines in any WTF post all year ever.  Thanks for the good laugh.  I still chuckle to myself when I drink my morning tea from my Digital Donkey mug.

    I'm not sure if its one of the best lines ever, there have been some doozies here. But the image to go along with it is definitely one of the best.

  • Le salaud (unregistered)

    I'm rather disappointed in this series.

     

    What's a "Best of 2006" without http://thedailywtf.com/forums/thread/53809.aspx ? 

  • Rob (unregistered) in reply to Le salaud
    Anonymous:

    I'm rather disappointed in this series.

     

    What's a "Best of 2006" without http://thedailywtf.com/forums/thread/53809.aspx ? 

     
    Might have something to do with the date it was posted...

  • wtfwtfwtf (unregistered) in reply to Le salaud
    Anonymous:

    I'm rather disappointed in this series.

     

    What's a "Best of 2006" without http://thedailywtf.com/forums/thread/53809.aspx ? 

    \

    maybe it's because the posted date was 12-19-2005, 1:28 PM ?

  • chmod755 (unregistered) in reply to chrismcb

    I think my favorite line is this one:

    "The Savior was a self-made billionaire who struck it rich doing the type of business that makes unregulated industries regulated."

     Boy, do I know a lot of those guys...

  • sure boy (unregistered)

    Check out free trial: https://web.simdesk.com/email/frames.php
    Some nice javascript there

     

    The interview available at www.simdesk.com is also worth listening while trying out free trial :)

  • (cs)

    Thank you for putting this whole story into one posting. IMHO you can only this way appreciate its full glory.

  • (cs)

    One word: Epic.

  • Alexander Temerev (unregistered)

    Those who familiar with Magic: The Gathering cards have already discovered that this specific CIO card in the post is completely useless and requires insane amount of resources to enter the game... just like the real life. :)

  • cjd1 (unregistered)

    Where do I sign up?  Doing some googling, they've got contracts with the cities of Houston and Ho Chi Minh City, and the state of Indiana.  The Vietnam one is an article from June 26, 2006, just a short six months ago.  So apparently, they haven't collapsed yet.  I watched their flash demo (not a single screenshot of the actual app).  There is this "S Drive" to store all your documents.  I wonder what happens if you map it to another letter?

    Hmm, if they are always hiring, I wonder if they need a new Chief Architect of Internet Affairs, TDWTF Division... 

  • Mark Carter (unregistered)

    That picture of the Digital Donkey. It's the goddamn funniest thing I've seen in 2006.

  • RobertJohnK (unregistered) in reply to Mark Carter

    Happy 2007 everyone!

    (Offer valid in Europe at the moment of writing, soon on the east coast USA, a bit later on the west coast USA. YMMV everywhere else.)

  • dsggdsdgs (unregistered)

    Umm, there is no such thing as a 600 MHz Pentium II.

  • (cs) in reply to cjd1
    Anonymous:

    Where do I sign up?  Doing some googling, they've got contracts with the cities of Houston and Ho Chi Minh City, and the state of Indiana.  The Vietnam one is an article from June 26, 2006, just a short six months ago.  So apparently, they haven't collapsed yet.  I watched their flash demo (not a single screenshot of the actual app).  There is this "S Drive" to store all your documents.  I wonder what happens if you map it to another letter?

    Hmm, if they are always hiring, I wonder if they need a new Chief Architect of Internet Affairs, TDWTF Division... 

    you're not thinking grandiose enough for this company, try 'Penultimate Ruler of Internet Affairs....' or go for the vint cerf-esque title as 'Chief TDWTF Evangelist'

  • (cs) in reply to sensei
    sensei:

    coincidence?

    http://www.gcn.com/print/22_1/20839-1.html

    http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm 

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simdesk

    http://www.sys-con.tv/read/134151.htm    Video of CEO Lou Waters...

    if you read this one http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2003-01-21-simdesk-cover_x.htm, you can actually track each part of the story from key lines in the article..i think i laughed more from this than the actual post, simply because of the positive spin in the article.

  • (cs) in reply to Pingmaster

    I just realized that the most likely reason they can use a single server for 20million+ users is probably because the server is not even being used for anything. The application is 35MB and with the poor feature set that they offer, that probably means that they are loading the complete application on the pc. Nothing remote is being done, except maybe mapping to a "network" drive which happens to be the server. Everyone gets a partition. How often do you have to access data on the server. Its pretty funny. Gartner suppossedly analyzed the software - makes you wonder how reliable gartner is.

  • Mick (unregistered) in reply to cjd1

    If you look at the training videos under The support tab you get some crazy technobabble as well. The "instructor" who, by the way, has the most annoying voice ever, says that you should save your documents to the "S-Drive" and then proceeds to go into My Computer and click on a drive lettered Z:! Its amazing. Then she said that when you are connected to a simdesk session, your s drive is automatically mapped to your C drive! Its amazing, even their support section is full of shit. All that I can see that this software does is offer a really shitty word editor, lower quality than the free openoffice, and then just maps a remote server to your hard drive so you can save documents remotely.

  • egamemnon (unregistered) in reply to Mick

    This is just more proof that "business" people are usually just plain stupid. I think we've figured out who the company is that this article portrays and, yes, people actually buy this crap! Companies wonder why IT projects fail and it's because their leadership is inept, clueless and it's only those on the front lines who are actually aware of that. The Digital Donkey is the single greatest thing I've heard possibly ever. And whichever overpaid "management" know it all who came up with that should be instantly shot in the head and his corpse burned as quickly as possible to remove whatever genetic material he has on this earth before anything else could feasibly grow from it. However, after reading this series I now have a fool proof plan for wealth. I plan on taking a drill with the longest drill bit I can find and driving it from one temple clean through to the other. After that I will open my own business called Digital Donkey.

  • anonymous (unregistered)

    http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-981878.html

    quote : "The company has a single 32-processor Unisys server capable of handling 21 million users."

  • jackson (unregistered)

    I love SIMDESK !!

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