• Y (unregistered)

    yyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyrst

    Ah, looks like Akismet is programmed to detect tree frog spam.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    Actually, the frogs are only the second plague; there are eight more to endure. Better say farewell to your firstborn now that you still can.

  • Mike (unregistered)

    So, lazy scientists who begrudge work, known dodgy networks that somehow are tolerated for ages, acts of god and outback driving issues...

    And the lesson is to write better code!

    Now there is the wtf!

  • jokergirl (unregistered)

    FrOK - Frog on Keyboard error?

  • Gaza Rullz (unregistered)

    In the end it sorted out that the frog was a Chinese spy trying to steal valuable information from Graham's system

  • O4W (unregistered)

    Bwahahahaaaa! I love it!

    (<pedant>You do know that frogs are amphibian, not reptilian, right?</pedant>)

    Oh and happy thanksgiving for those that do that sort of thing!

  • Warren (unregistered)

    As usual the solution was just to rebiit

  • (cs) in reply to O4W
    O4W:
    <pedant>You do know that frogs are amphibian, not reptilian, right?</pedant>
    This is not pedantic :) The sentence about "de-bug-ging ... reptilian" made absolutely no sense to me. What bug? What reptilian? There is only a cute little frog. WTF is he talking about?
  • NPSF3000 (unregistered)

    Hehehe... I live near there. Well, 700km north of it :P

  • jc (unregistered)

    aah, the cryptic errors and circumstances when you think murphy is hell bent on destroying you. We've all been there...

  • Princess (unregistered)

    If only someone had made the cognitive leap to frogure out that all you have to do is kiss a cursed project to turn it into a prince!

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to jokergirl

    It was just F.O.K.ed

  • VictorSierraGolf (unregistered)
    Always handle error conditions like connection issues, parasites, car accidents, frogs, floods, volcanoes, apocalypses

    You forgot nuklear strikes, alien invasions, cats and dogs living together, altering laws of physics, when 2+2 suddendly equals 5, the Rapture, spontaneous self ignition of the hardware, stray bullets hitting the system and, of course, the Spanish Inquisition. Emphasis on the latter, because expirience shows that nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition.

  • (cs)

    You also forgot when users plug the kettle into the same four-way as the server, then fail to realise the 100% correlation between unexplained downtime and tea breaks...

  • Adrian (unregistered)

    I'm very disappointed in this article.

    Specifically, I'm disappointed to see that the picture of the frog wasn't hosted on yfrog.com.

  • Matteo (unregistered)

    ...and that's why locking your screen while you're away is a good idea?

  • linepro (unregistered)

    Did they use kermit to transfer the data?

  • captcha:tego (unregistered)

    Maybe the lesson to learn is that general-purpose computers aren't good at working autonomously for months?

    They are susceptible to faulty parts, faulty software, power outages (you can't fix those but you could at least send a status signal) frogs sitting on keyboard, requiring a long trip just to hit a reset button or plug something in.

    A remote-controlled robot arm mounted on a motorized platform would have worked on some cases, but surely someone has tackled this problem before?

  • anonymouse (unregistered) in reply to bjolling

    frogs eat bugs, frogs are de-buggers (but not reptiles)

  • foo (unregistered) in reply to O4W

    Classic Comment: Those who live in glass houses...

    O4W:
    (<pedant>You do know that frogs are amphibian, not reptilian, right?</pedant>)
    I wish all you ivory tower biology-wannabes would get off your high horses. Amphibians ARE reptiles! Do you even know what amphibians mean? They mean some animals. Reptiles are some animals. Now STFU.
  • Chris Brand (unregistered) in reply to jokergirl

    Critter Resting On A Key

  • foxyshadis (unregistered)

    if(apocalypse_detected) { connect(SKYNET_IP); initiate_human_liquidation(); }

  • bar (unregistered) in reply to foo

    Although that comment looks like a troll, I feel obliged to correct it. Amphibia and Reptilia are entirely different branches of vertebrates (and reptiles are more closely related to mammals and birds than to amphibians).

  • Matthew (unregistered)

    Frogs are amphibians, not reptiles. ;-)

  • Obnoxious Frog (unregistered) in reply to foo
    foo:
    Amphibians ARE reptiles! Do you even know what amphibians mean? They mean some animals. Reptiles are some animals. Now STFU.

    Are you serious ?

    Both these claims are absolutely (and trivially) false.

    (note: etymology: amphi-bian =~ double (amphi-) life (bio), referring to living on both land and water).

  • (cs) in reply to Mike
    Mike:
    So, lazy scientists who begrudge work, known dodgy networks that somehow are tolerated for ages, acts of god and outback driving issues...

    And the lesson is to write better code!

    Now there is the wtf!

    The real lesson should be to unplug the keyboard when you're not using the computer.

  • (cs)

    For the record, one pronounces Mackay like with a long I sound (like the word "I").

    Also, the floods took out YouTube. Mackay floods all the time: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=mackay+floods

  • Veldan (unregistered) in reply to NPSF3000

    700Km is close by Australian standards.

    I visited Mackay when we had our boat at Hamilton Islands. The only thing I remember is the god like amount of alcohol the average inhabitant drank.

    Surprised that wasn't the problem when I heard the name...

  • Veldan (unregistered)

    Also, while we're being pedantic Wollongong to Mackay is closer to 2000Km (1850~Km) than 1500Km.

    Additionally, if you're familiar with the Australia highway system this will take you 25 hours of driving (breaks, slow drivers, etc etc).

    Found this out the hard way driving from Sydney to Townsville every summer...

  • Iminuru (unregistered)

    I can't immagine the wtf.

    Captcha: dolor - color with odor.

  • InfoSteve (unregistered) in reply to NPSF3000

    Geckos stuck in cooling fans, gecko crap corroding circuits. Humidity so high water compresses out of the air at fan speed, spraying the inside of cases. Salt air corrosion. I love the tropics...

    Cyclone Yasi! I pissed in the eye of the storm!

  • Simwell (unregistered) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    For the record, one pronounces Mackay like with a long I sound (like the word "I").

    Also, the floods took out YouTube. Mackay floods all the time: https://www.google.com.au/search?q=mackay+floods

    And yet banana Benders (@yankee = Queenslanders) insist that they live in God's Country.

    I guess the bible talks about wiping people out with floods too....

  • Shawn (unregistered) in reply to Veldan
    Veldan:
    Also, while we're being pedantic Wollongong to Mackay is closer to 2000Km (1850~Km) than 1500Km.

    Additionally, if you're familiar with the Australia highway system this will take you 25 hours of driving (breaks, slow drivers, etc etc).

    Found this out the hard way driving from Sydney to Townsville every summer...

    Err....of course..... 2000KM @ 100km/h = 20 hours, but given fuel breaks, rests and the occasional roadwork or town you'd never manage to average more than about 80km/h - actually, now 25 hours is starting to sound unrealistic to me....

    (used to do ADL->CBR/CBR->ADL a lot (about 1200KM and rarely did it in less than about 15 hours....Hit a dead skippy once too - found some nice green Kangaroo Steaks faslling off underneath the car later that week....)

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)

    Submit bugs here: http://www.bitboost.com/pawsense/ and ask them to detect frogs.

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)

    WTF? Why did Akismet allow my non-spam to be posted the way I typed it? That is very un-Akismet-like.

  • Ollie (unregistered)

    Arrk. RRRRbt. Fail.

  • Shinobu (unregistered)

    Wow! An ytram in the flesh!

  • DanDan (unregistered)

    Frogs will float if you put them near a magnet.

  • Oliver Ruebenacker (unregistered)

    Frogs are amphibians, not reptiles :P

  • Andi (unregistered) in reply to jokergirl

    That kind of thing happens only to people who don't lock their screens before leaving the computer...

  • Ray (unregistered)

    BBS software I once wrote (back when dialup BBS's were a thing) had a "disable feline input" configuration option to disable keyboard input until a password was typed.

    It isn't the sort of thing you think about until it happens. Even then, you have to give it a name that reminds people of Why they might want to use it, because they won't think of it either, until it happens.

  • Harbinger (unregistered)

    I remember when I was doing support for a schools program in Queensland, a particular school on a remote island was always having computer issues, because geckoes would creep into the comms box and munch through something vital or other (they weren't perticularly fussy), electrocuting themselves in the process. It would be weeks before a particular Telco could organise a tecnician to catch a series of planes and boats in order to get to the island, and then fix things. And within a week, sure as eggs, another gecko would wander along...

  • David Nuttall (unregistered) in reply to Veldan

    Maybe the level of alcohol consumption is why a car killed the power for the area.

  • Jasper (unregistered)
    After debugging the reptilian de-bugger...
    Well, that didn't help, since there wasn't a reptile involved...
  • (cs) in reply to Andi

    The password was yyyyyyyyyyyyy

  • Ben R (unregistered) in reply to jokergirl

    PEHOK

    Problem Exists Hoping On Keyboard

  • JJ (unregistered) in reply to Zemm
    Zemm:
    For the record, one pronounces Mackay like with a long I sound (like the word "I").
    So then it sounds like "Mike eye"?
  • Some Random Texan (unregistered) in reply to Ben R

    ??? hopping?

    And... I give up. Just can't make sense of it.

  • EvilCodeMonkey (unregistered)

    Wow, his software bugs have evolved into keyboard frogs.

    This was my favorite comment the last time this story came up. I just had to repost it for the benefit of the new readers.

  • furiant (unregistered) in reply to jokergirl

    Connection Reset On Amphibian Keypress

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