• (cs) in reply to DrPepper
    DrPepper:
    -.-:
    We are programmers! Not "solution engineers".

    Wrong. You are not being paid to write code -- you're being paid to solve a problem; and the solution just happens to be code. You ARE a solution engineer. Unless, of course, you can't be bothered to think for yourself, and just do what others tell you to do. In that case, you're not a programmer, you're a monkey.

    Not quite. Code is but part of the solution. I have had times where I have had to make a change in code and a bigger one in procedure. Other times, I have had to debug an operating procedure that I did not set up so that it would work with an edge case.

    Sincerely,

    Gene Wirchenko

  • (cs) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    If your employer thinks your workplace is something that you should be able to swap every single day, in reality that means he thinks you are a person that he can swap every single day.

    Now let's check if your boss is fine with swapping his workbench every single day!

    There are plenty of cases where Hot Desk makes sense. My office has a maximum of 3-5 people at any one time. There are over 50 employees. I am to pay rent and other costs for enough space for 50 desks, even though more than 5 would never be used????

  • (cs) in reply to Mughi

    This:

    Mughi:
    Story was meh, but sometimes they are.. at least it wasn't embellished beyond recognition like some of them. And if the biggest issue is misfiling, then we should probably be thankful. Hey, it was free and good for a quick chuckle.
  • (cs) in reply to C-Derb
    C-Derb:

    Don't bring us problems. Bring us solutions!

    Or failing that, precipitates. //rim shot

  • (cs) in reply to TheCPUWizard
    TheCPUWizard:
    no laughing matter:
    If your employer thinks your workplace is something that you should be able to swap every single day, in reality that means he thinks you are a person that he can swap every single day.

    Now let's check if your boss is fine with swapping his workbench every single day!

    There are plenty of cases where Hot Desk makes sense. My office has a maximum of 3-5 people at any one time. There are over 50 employees. I am to pay rent and other costs for enough space for 50 desks, even though more than 5 would never be used????

    Well, i was talking about "your workplace".

    In your case you are either working from home or working at a clients site and the desks in the office are not regular workplace desks.

  • neminem (unregistered) in reply to operagost
    -.-:
    We are programmers! Not "solution engineers".
    Funny - that is literally actually my official job title, "Solutions Engineer".
    operagost:
    I'm pretty sure this demands a car analogy. Hey, someone changed a bunch of stuff in my car. The interior is leather instead of cloth, and it's a different color. Oh yeah, and now it's a Ford instead of a Honda. They changed so much.
    Except the outward appearance *is* the same, so it's really more like: hey, I swear I parked my car here... it's a blue Honda, but crap, someone stole my GPS, and... put a stupid hangy thing in the dash? What the crap?

    Which... I have had a couple boneheaded moments very much like that, actually with my car. Turns out blue Hondas of recent make are fairly common, and look pretty similar from the outside. The difference is, a few seconds later, I realized I was being dumb, rather than, like this person would have, calling the cops that someone stole stuff from my car and replaced it with other stuff.

    Also agreeing with all the people complaining about where this article was posted - couldn't an admin just come in and change its category? It's not actually a bad article (unlike a couple recent ones...), just misposted.

  • Chosepf (unregistered) in reply to faoileag

    You must not live in the US. Here teachers are punished when you fail tests in school, it's called, "No child left behind."

  • (cs) in reply to neminem
    neminem:
    -.-:
    We are programmers! Not "solution engineers".
    Funny - that is literally actually my official job title, "Solutions Engineer".
    operagost:
    I'm pretty sure this demands a car analogy. Hey, someone changed a bunch of stuff in my car. The interior is leather instead of cloth, and it's a different color. Oh yeah, and now it's a Ford instead of a Honda. They changed so much.
    Except the outward appearance *is* the same, so it's really more like: hey, I swear I parked my car here... it's a blue Honda, but crap, someone stole my GPS, and... put a stupid hangy thing in the dash? What the crap?

    Which... I have had a couple boneheaded moments very much like that, actually with my car. Turns out blue Hondas of recent make are fairly common, and look pretty similar from the outside. The difference is, a few seconds later, I realized I was being dumb, rather than, like this person would have, calling the cops that someone stole stuff from my car and replaced it with other stuff.

    Also agreeing with all the people complaining about where this article was posted - couldn't an admin just come in and change its category? It's not actually a bad article (unlike a couple recent ones...), just misposted.

    Yup, I know that feeling. Someone in my building (which holds about 50 employees) just bought a car similar to mine. Luckily, his has two fewer doors, so it keeps the confusion to a minimum.

  • (cs) in reply to Chosepf
    Chosepf:
    You must not live in the US. Here teachers are punished when you fail tests in school, it's called, "No child left behind."
    [image]
  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to no laughing matter
    no laughing matter:
    OldCoder:
    If you watch the BBC news you'll know that the journalists (and everybody else) are hot-desked in a battery farm right behind the newsreader. Nobody owns a desk. God help you if you put down a coat or a bag anywhere.
    "Hot-desking"! TRWTF!

    If your employer thinks your workplace is something that you should be able to swap every single day, in reality that means he thinks you are a person that he can swap every single day.

    Now let's check if your boss is fine with swapping his workbench every single day!

    The practice is incredibly common.

    And that thought process is standard for management. You are utterly replaceable.

  • psuedonymous (unregistered) in reply to jnareb
    jnareb:
    That would be only possible with laptop configured to login without password (for a work laptop???).
    Or roving accounts.
  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered)

    TRWTF to me is that apparently they are doing captions on a regular keyboard, and not a steno keyboard. I thought most live captioners used steno keyboards because it's faster, though you can make phonetic errors. Then Mary might have noticed that it wasn't her keyboard, too.

  • (cs)
    twenty four-hour
    Sweet ass-hyphenation detected.
  • (cs) in reply to ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL
    ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
    TRWTF to me is that apparently they are doing captions on a regular keyboard, and not a steno keyboard. I thought most live captioners used steno keyboards because it's faster, though you can make phonetic errors. Then Mary might have noticed that it wasn't her keyboard, too.
    Mary's trying to prep subs for the 5 AM slot

    False assumption.

  • (cs) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.
  • foo AKA fooo (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.
    Why not.
  • CAPTCHA: aliquam (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative?

    FTFY

  • lolatu (unregistered)

    That's what we in the business like to call a PEBCAK error, otherwise known as a ID-10-T error.

  • foo AKA fooo (unregistered) in reply to emaN ruoY
    emaN ruoY:
    I gotta give Mary some credit. Have you ever tried to instruct someone, not in IT, over the phone to open the command prompt and type in a command without it being a 5 minute ordeal?
    Actually, I once walked someone not in IT (an electrician if you care) through a moderately complex bash command line including $() and stuff, over the phone. It was kind of an emergency, but it was successful.
  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    chubertdev:
    [image]
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.

    Boxes are inanimate objects, they can't draw.

  • (cs) in reply to laoreet
    laoreet:
    Oh if I had a dollar for every time a user screwed up...

    Get a job in tech support. Get paid $10 an hour to handle maybe 4 calls. That's more than double your rate.

  • Anomaly (unregistered)

    TRWTF if she doesn't take her laptop home, and has her own desk, why did she leave her laptop somewhere other than locked up in the cabinet? If she didn't have her own desk she should have taken the laptop home.

    Otherwise the other RWTF is not properly labelling individual laptops for brothers sake.

  • foo AKA fooo (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Zylon:
    chubertdev:
    [image]
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.

    Boxes are inanimate objects, they can't draw.

    Oh yeah? And what about Box.draw()?

    If we learned anything in the past 20 years, it's that objects can do anything.

  • CodeMonkey (unregistered) in reply to operagost
    operagost:
    I'm pretty sure this demands a car analogy.

    Hey, someone changed a bunch of stuff in my car. The interior is leather instead of cloth, and it's a different color. Oh yeah, and now it's a Ford instead of a Honda. They changed so much.

    This actually happened to my parents once on a trip. They stopped somewhere to eat and when they came out they unlocked and got into what they thought was their car. Turned out it was a different car, same make, model and color, and even the the same key "combination". They figured it out once they noticed all the strange stuff in the back seat, but still, what are the odds? And it was before key fobs and electronic security systems were common in case anyone wondered why that worked.

  • Anonymouse Coder (unregistered)

    I like this story, I really do. Nice little annecdote, well told - good surprise at the end. No tiresome embellishment. Will read again.

    Only "Tales from the Interview" puzzles me...

  • (cs) in reply to foo AKA fooo
    foo AKA fooo:
    chubertdev:
    Zylon:
    chubertdev:
    [image]
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.

    Boxes are inanimate objects, they can't draw.

    Oh yeah? And what about Box.draw()?

    If we learned anything in the past 20 years, it's that objects can do anything.

    The Pen object is doing the drawing.

  • (cs) in reply to CodeMonkey
    CodeMonkey:
    operagost:
    I'm pretty sure this demands a car analogy.

    Hey, someone changed a bunch of stuff in my car. The interior is leather instead of cloth, and it's a different color. Oh yeah, and now it's a Ford instead of a Honda. They changed so much.

    This actually happened to my parents once on a trip. They stopped somewhere to eat and when they came out they unlocked and got into what they thought was their car. Turned out it was a different car, same make, model and color, and even the the same key "combination". They figured it out once they noticed all the strange stuff in the back seat, but still, what are the odds? And it was before key fobs and electronic security systems were common in case anyone wondered why that worked.

    If it's a 91 Integra, I think it was something like 1 in 7.

  • QJo (unregistered) in reply to Valhar2000
    Valhar2000:
    Pock Suppet:
    If anyone's going to be fired, it's someone in IT for not making the "right" software appear no matter who's logged in.

    For not spending money, time and resources on setting up a system that will provide no additional benefit to any user capable of identifying their own desk in their own office?

    Some people hot-desk so much they can't remember where they were sitting before lunch break, let alone yesterday.

    I have to carry enough around in my head that one little extra thing to remember, like: where am I sitting today? is enough to reduce my efficiency below critical threshold. I detect in Mary someone who is so overworked and stressed that this is just one of the little things that could have her on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

    At the risk of sounding like the Bob-meme: please show a little respect. I had a nervous breakdown once, and I can assure you, it was no laughing matter.

  • A Non. E. Mouse (unregistered) in reply to Anonymouse Coder
    Anonymouse Coder:
    Only "Tales from the Interview" puzzles me...

    I think it's one of those stupid, ridiculous "logic" problems interviewers these days like to ask. Maybe Alex is looking for a new writer and this is his way of finding top-notch talent, though, like most of the interview puzzles, I fail to see any correlation between the puzzle and the job.

  • Hannes (unregistered) in reply to laoreet
    laoreet:
    Oh if I had a dollar for every time a user screwed up...

    Oh if I had a dollar for every time a "computer tech" screwed up...

  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    chubertdev:
    Explain why both boxes put a question mark at the end of an imperative.
    Because they're kinda literal translations from the french original, by Emmanuel Chaunu. Here's one (PT-BR) version where his signature hasn't been chopped off: http://blog.cev.org.br/laercio/files/educacao_1969_2009.jpg Next question please?
  • Bananas (unregistered) in reply to Could you dumb it down a shade, please?
    Could you dumb it down a shade:
    Josh:
    Tales from the Interview is quite rare, so when I see that purple banner, I expect some interview shenanigans.

    Welcome to The Daily Incremental Reduction Of Expectations.

    +1

  • Teo (unregistered) in reply to Jim

    For me, IT and Development lends itself to a certain type of personality. That kind of personality is at least a little OCD and very attention oriented.

    Most developers where I work would get this very perplexed look on their face in the morning if someone moved their keyboard or shifted one of their monitors by 6 or 8 inches.

    So, people who have that kind of attention to detail find it incomprehensible that a person couldn't tell "their" laptop from another of the same model.

    Personally, I think the wear pattern on the keycaps would be the first giveaway for me, but then again, I can't get comfortable in hotel beds because they aren't my bed.

  • (cs)

    This episode reminds me of the commercial where someone is looking for his glasses. Then another office mate with very accurate throwing skills lobs a wadded up paper ball and hits the glasses on the subject's heat (they were propped up there) and they fall cleanly on their nose.

    File in category: DUH!

    p.s. Wallpaper on users laptops can help here!

  • Hermun (unregistered) in reply to faoileag
    faoileag:
    Or how come, when you fail in tests at school, you are blamed and not your teacher?
    Many schools need pupils to achieve certain grades to continue to be funded, often laying off teachers. So they may not be blamed but they're getting punished.
  • PAW (unregistered) in reply to emaN ruoY
    emaN ruoY:
    I gotta give Mary some credit. Have you ever tried to instruct someone, not in IT, over the phone to open the command prompt and type in a command without it being a 5 minute ordeal?
    Going back a few decades I had to reprogram mainframes by reading sets of six digits over the phone to people not in IT. Reloading the bootstrap even involved flipping switches for the binary version.
  • (cs) in reply to herby
    herby:
    glasses on the subject's heat
    The glasses were on heat? In that case he'd better take them to the vet to get them “done”. Nobody likes a randy pair of spectacles.

    Waitaminute…

  • (cs) in reply to emaN ruoY
    emaN ruoY:
    I gotta give Mary some credit. Have you ever tried to instruct someone, not in IT, over the phone to open the command prompt and type in a command without it being a 5 minute ordeal?
    I actually once talked my ex-girlfriend through removing an old host-key entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts on her MacBook. Over the phone. In Terminal. Using vi.
  • (cs) in reply to Javelin
    Javelin:
    emaN ruoY:
    I gotta give Mary some credit. Have you ever tried to instruct someone, not in IT, over the phone to open the command prompt and type in a command without it being a 5 minute ordeal?
    I actually once talked my ex-girlfriend through removing an old host-key entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts on her MacBook. Over the phone. In Terminal. Using vi.

    uphill both ways?

  • pedant (unregistered) in reply to D-Coder
    D-Coder:
    laoreet:
    Oh if I had a dollar for every time a user screwed up...
    Well, if you do any kind of support, and your employer sends you a paycheck... you do.
    no, I get 12c each time a user screws up....
  • Not Matt Westwood (unregistered) in reply to OldCoder
    OldCoder:
    Valhar2000:
    Pock Suppet:
    If anyone's going to be fired, it's someone in IT for not making the "right" software appear no matter who's logged in.

    For not spending money, time and resources on setting up a system that will provide no additional benefit to any user capable of identifying their own desk in their own office?

    If you watch the BBC news you'll know that the journalists (and everybody else) are hot-desked in a battery farm right behind the newsreader. Nobody owns a desk. God help you if you put down a coat or a bag anywhere.

    Captcha: usitas. Usitas we provided it for you.

    Thy'r fucking thieves too

  • mickey (unregistered) in reply to DrPepper
    DrPepper:
    -.-:
    We are programmers! Not "solution engineers".

    Wrong. You are not being paid to write code -- you're being paid to solve a problem; and the solution just happens to be code. You ARE a solution engineer. Unless, of course, you can't be bothered to think for yourself, and just do what others tell you to do. In that case, you're not a programmer, you're a monkey.

    in any IT shop it's important to have some "Solution engineers" and some "Code Monkeys". On large projects, things get ugly when there's too many thinkers, because they all approach the problem differently and fight to the death to protect their idea at the exclusion of all others (even the ones that are actually the same). While we all like to think we're smart enough to actually design the solution (and perhaps we are) it doesn't make sense for all of us to independently be designing solutions for the same problem, so in any project some of us have to accept that we're just there to be code monkeys (in a friendly workplace you'd hopefully take it turns to be the brains and the brawn)....
  • Hugh (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann
    Paul Neumann:
    faoileag:
    [...]Give them a couple of tasks to accomplish.

    Some will fail, even if the tasks are not impossible.

    But others will succeed.[...]

    And what is your analysis of the users whom succeed on the impossible tasks?
    When you don't know something's impossible it's a lot easier to do.

    There's a saying along the lines of "She didn't know it couldn't be done, so she went ahead and did it"

  • (cs) in reply to faoileag

    Seeing the moji-bake that most often passes as "subtitling"...

    I'm surprised deaf people don't go hunting the subtitlers down and bash their heads in with a teleprinter: [image]

  • Griffyn (unregistered)

    How did the IM get sent to the laptop? Mary is using Jenny's laptop, which would mean that she'd be logged in as Jenny. Tazza's IM wouldn't have been received on Jenny's laptop.

  • ae; roh (unregistered) in reply to Griffyn
    Griffyn:
    How did the IM get sent to the laptop? Mary is using Jenny's laptop, which would mean that she'd be logged in as Jenny. Tazza's IM wouldn't have been received on Jenny's laptop.
    how many people have already mmentioned about domain logon - this means IM would reolve to the person logged on, not the owner of the laptop
  • Reductio Ad Ridiculousum (unregistered) in reply to Griffyn
    Griffyn:
    How did the IM get sent to the laptop? Mary is using Jenny's laptop, which would mean that she'd be logged in as Jenny. Tazza's IM wouldn't have been received on Jenny's laptop.
    As mentioned at least twice: roving domain logins.
  • Reductio Ad Ridiculousum (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Javelin:
    emaN ruoY:
    I gotta give Mary some credit. Have you ever tried to instruct someone, not in IT, over the phone to open the command prompt and type in a command without it being a 5 minute ordeal?
    I actually once talked my ex-girlfriend through removing an old host-key entry from ~/.ssh/known_hosts on her MacBook. Over the phone. In Terminal. Using vi.

    uphill both ways?

    in the snow.

  • Reductio Ad Ridiculousum (unregistered) in reply to D-Coder
    D-Coder:
    laoreet:
    Oh if I had a dollar for every time a user screwed up...
    Well, if you do any kind of support, and your employer sends you a paycheck... you do.
    +1

    I'll mitch and boan along with everyone else, but without users we'd be out of work. Think "job security".

  • Darth Paul (unregistered) in reply to DrPepper
    DrPepper:
    ...How would she possibly know that she'd grabbed the wrong one? Only because the installed programs were different. There is no outward physical difference to indicate it, just like two pens are outwardly identical.

    It would be trivial for the IT department to add a popup on login that says something to the effect that this is not your computer and some of the programs you use may not be available.

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