• Darin (unregistered)

    Interestingly enough, our CEO warned us just today to make sure we don't reveal any details of the next product to our sales force, lest they try to sell something that's not here yet.

  • phs3 (unregistered) in reply to Darin
    Anonymous:

    Interestingly enough, our CEO warned us just today to make sure we don't reveal any details of the next product to our sales force, lest they try to sell something that's not here yet.

    Sort of along those lines, r maybe the inverse: about 12 years ago I was running support for a vendor who'd bought another vendor's product line.  A year or so after the deal, a major customer calls up and says "We want to use some of our consulting hours."  "Um...what consulting hours?"

    Turned out a long-gone salesrep had sold them up to 2 man-weeks/year of onsite consulting 5 or 6 years earlier, and nobody knew about it. Needless to say, we weren't in a position to say "Never heard of it, go away", since they'd put several hundred $K in without using any, so I got to go on an emergency trip to Atlanta to work on something I'd never seen.  Fortunately the developer worked from home, and was a really nice guy, and we had some fun figuring out the problem in their custom scripts and fixing it. And I got to be a hero.

    ...phsiii 

     

  • mouseover (unregistered) in reply to Michael
    Anonymous:
    On topic: Once learned about a new application I was supposed to develop from scratch after the company owner started promoting it on the company web site.

     

    This wouldn't happen to be a Market Research firm in Florida, would it? 

     Nupe. A credit union service provider. He also sold the 'product' before we had an alpha.

  • (cs) in reply to EnterUserNameHere

    When you think about it, programming is just a lot of typing. How hard can it be?

     

  • (cs) in reply to Darin
    I have always been one for taking a pragmatic approach to aspects of life and work which, while distasteful, realistically are going to happen.
    Sales staff who sell modules/functionality/products that don't exist is just one of these aspects.  Coming from a dev background, when I finally made it to the point that I could directly influence the sales staff (dreaded middle management), of course I put in requests to stop selling things that didn't exist.

    Bluntly, despite repeated attempts and approaches, it just didn't work.  Sales staff pretty much lie for a living and they struggle to distinguish between one lie and another - and therefore can't stop themselves from lying in a particular way, even if you ask them to.

    My solution in the end was to be pragmatic about the situation.  I now have a policy (though not a published one) that sales staff are free to sell whatever nonexistant features/modules/products they like, provided they are also then willing to take on responsibility for explaining to the customer why the feature/module/product isn't available yet.  This couples nicely with refusing to allow 'sold' nonexistant items to take priority or pressure the development team in any way.
    B.
  • (cs) in reply to GrandmasterB
    GrandmasterB:

    JF should be glad it was only the boss.  I once worked at a place that had a whole sales staff that would routinely sell program modules we didnt have in that manner.  They'd go out to the customer, write up the contract complete with 'cost estimate', and then come back and act like heroes.  Of course, they'd flip out in disbelief when we'd tell them the new functionality would take 6 months, not 3-4 days, and that development cost would be far larger than what they were charging the customer, meaning we'd lose money on the deal. 

    Though, to be fair, at least the sales people werent coding!  We were lucky they could manage to remember where the on switch was on their laptop.

     

    I've worked for a number of startups, and this was SOP. It can be frustrating at times, but it's taught me to design & write flexible software, utilizing good database design principals and OO to the maximum extent possible.
     

  • Brad (unregistered)

    Honestly this story sounds like it is coming for a liar jerk guy that I used to know (worked with as a peer) with a few of the details changed.  Don't believe everything that you read.

  • Sarath (unregistered) in reply to TJ

    I don't think so. The manager should have some technical capabilities else it would hard to understand the issues and other related things. Which will end up in an opinion "my boss is a mad barking dog"

    Once a person posted a question in a technical forum. He urgently needs the solution. even the output is not that much impressing, the effort to make it like that is something enormous. According to that guy "The manager don't know anything about programming and it's hard to convince him. He's like a mad barking dog". I was just saying a generic aspect of the same

  • (cs) in reply to kipthegreat
    kipthegreat:
    GoatCheez:

    I've been at a loss for words for the last couple of weeks' worth of WTFs... I dunno why though... I mean, this is some pretty messed up stuff going on. I guess after frequenting the site for so long you get accustomed to some of the horror stories. This is a huge WTF and the only thing I can think of is eh, yeah, not surprised... It shouldn't be like that. I should be on my toes screaming at the monitor in horror. Oh well...

     I wanna see the quality of the modules that the Boss coded in his hotel room. I bet that code is littered with WTFs.

     

    I'm with you, I've become desensitized to WTFs.  This is actually the first time I've read this site in about two or three weeks.  Funny site, but nothing entertaining me anymore.


    <font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Although I still read this site daily from time to time, I too, seem to "got used" to the contents here that I am not surprised anymore (even though I'm just new to the real world). Some stories still made me say "Ouch!" or "What the???" to myself but still at a loss for any word to post...

    At least there's still some potpourries and smorgasbords from time to time to divert my attention to...



    </font>
  • Annony Mouse (unregistered) in reply to djork

    Result: and mine...

  • (cs) in reply to John Hensley
    John Hensley:

    When you think about it, programming is just a lot of typing. How hard can it be?

     


    With the technology we have today, "typing" is reduced to merely google, copy, paste...

    So it's waaay easier than what you may think...



  • Bramster (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy
    Satanicpuppy:

    This sort of thing was actually pretty common immediately post-bomb, because a whole host of idiots who'd gotten in way late in the curve, still had enough money to push on into 2002-2004.

    I worked for one...God, nightmare. I applied for the job, sent in my resume, and got an interview. The guy looks at my resume, and then at me, and says, "So, you know HTML?"

    This is what the programming languages section on my resume looked like:

    Java, C/C++, Perl, Cobol, VB5-VB6, Php, Lisp, Prolog, Basic, Turbo Pascal, XML, SQL, HTML.

    I had years of experience out next to each language, with examples of the work I did in 'em, and I threw XML/SQL/HTML on the end because, what the hell, why not? Pad it up a little bit. Who doesn't know HTML, for example?

    I needed the work, at the time, and I got seduced by the fact that the tech guy who interviewed me later knew his stuff. Less than a week after I started working there, I was doing .Net/SQL web apps, and two months after that, when the guy who'd actually hired me tried to get me to do whatever batshiat crazy HTML thing he'd had in mind when he hired me (which was SCOBiz as it happened, just to add icing to the cake of shame), I had so much other stuff to do I could tell him to stuff it.

    Company failed pretty spectacularly a few months after I was "let go" for telling the bosses son he was a screw up. The day I left I was supposed to install an inventory control system I'd built from scratch...Even programmed the  bar code readers. Got a call about a week later asking me where the software was, and I told 'em, and they were quiet for a second, then said thanks and hung up. Turns out they were so paranoid about me "sabotaging" their systems that they'd formatted my development server, which pretty much left them completely screwed. Good times. They hit bottom so hard it left a crater, and it took me 18 months after I got fired to get the grin off my face. I couldn't have wished anything worse on them than what they did to themselves.

     

     

    beautiful.

    I'll emphasize the part I really like. . .

     

    Turns out they were so paranoid about me "sabotaging" their systems that they'd formatted my development server, which pretty much left them completely screwed. Good times. They hit bottom so hard it left a crater, and it took me 18 months after I got fired to get the grin off my face. I couldn't have wished anything worse on them than what they did to themselves.

     

    It has always struck me that the most incompetent are the truly paranoid.

     

    captcha = captcha.      Vindication!!!! 

     

     

     

     

     

  • Bramster (unregistered) in reply to xrT
    xrT:
    kipthegreat:
    GoatCheez:

    I've been at a loss for words for the last couple of weeks' worth of WTFs... I dunno why though... I mean, this is some pretty messed up stuff going on. I guess after frequenting the site for so long you get accustomed to some of the horror stories. This is a huge WTF and the only thing I can think of is eh, yeah, not surprised... It shouldn't be like that. I should be on my toes screaming at the monitor in horror. Oh well...

     I wanna see the quality of the modules that the Boss coded in his hotel room. I bet that code is littered with WTFs.

     

    I'm with you, I've become desensitized to WTFs.  This is actually the first time I've read this site in about two or three weeks.  Funny site, but nothing entertaining me anymore.


    <font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Although I still read this site daily from time to time, I too, seem to "got used" to the contents here that I am not surprised anymore (even though I'm just new to the real world). Some stories still made me say "Ouch!" or "What the???" to myself but still at a loss for any word to post...

    At least there's still some potpourries and smorgasbords from time to time to divert my attention to...



    </font>

     

    So, like most (and me), you're either fnthedog at work, or don't have a live after hours. . .

     

    captcha = initech.   ahh for a taxi chic for those IBM printers. 

  • Bramster (unregistered) in reply to Bramster
    Anonymous:
    xrT:
    kipthegreat:
    GoatCheez:

    I've been at a loss for words for the last couple of weeks' worth of WTFs... I dunno why though... I mean, this is some pretty messed up stuff going on. I guess after frequenting the site for so long you get accustomed to some of the horror stories. This is a huge WTF and the only thing I can think of is eh, yeah, not surprised... It shouldn't be like that. I should be on my toes screaming at the monitor in horror. Oh well...

     I wanna see the quality of the modules that the Boss coded in his hotel room. I bet that code is littered with WTFs.

     

    I'm with you, I've become desensitized to WTFs.  This is actually the first time I've read this site in about two or three weeks.  Funny site, but nothing entertaining me anymore.


    <font face="tahoma,arial,helvetica,sans-serif">Although I still read this site daily from time to time, I too, seem to "got used" to the contents here that I am not surprised anymore (even though I'm just new to the real world). Some stories still made me say "Ouch!" or "What the???" to myself but still at a loss for any word to post...

    At least there's still some potpourries and smorgasbords from time to time to divert my attention to...



    </font>

     

    So, like most (and me), you're either fnthedog at work, or don't have a live after hours. . .

     

    captcha = initech.   ahh for a taxi chic for those IBM printers. 

     

    live . . .  meant life

     

    chic . . .  meant chit.     although. . . . 

  • csrster (unregistered) in reply to Bramster

    Is there a separate website where managers write wtf's about the terrible developers they've known? Or do they end up here as well?

  • (cs) in reply to GrandmasterB
    GrandmasterB:

    JF should be glad it was only the boss.  I once worked at a place that had a whole sales staff that would routinely sell program modules we didnt have in that manner.  They'd go out to the customer, write up the contract complete with 'cost estimate', and then come back and act like heroes.  Of course, they'd flip out in disbelief when we'd tell them the new functionality would take 6 months, not 3-4 days, and that development cost would be far larger than what they were charging the customer, meaning we'd lose money on the deal. 

    Though, to be fair, at least the sales people werent coding!  We were lucky they could manage to remember where the on switch was on their laptop.

     

     

    Sales people selling stuff that doesn't exist yet is obviously not good, but very frequently the reality. The WTF in this WTF is that the boss actually went out and coded and delivered something. Granted, if the whole sales department went out to different customers and coded and delivered stuff, THAT would indeed be a WTF of gargantuan proportions.

     

    (Didn't read all posts, so I may be the 20th person to write this, bad, bad me.)

     

  • BruteForce (unregistered) in reply to csrster

    Anonymous:
    Is there a separate website where managers write wtf's about the terrible developers they've known? Or do they end up here as well?

     

    Dont worry, the horrible devs end up here too.

  • ??? (unregistered) in reply to djork

    This is like what happens to some programmers I know. Picture this:

     
    - Client that doesn't know exactly what he wants (OK, I understand, sometimes it is difficult to make a picture of what you EXACTLY need) 

    - Boss that only think about money, doesn't know much about programming and wants everything done "for yesterday".

    - Programmers that have to follow the instructions of the boss, or they are fired! Since they can't do a good job so quick, they have to "throw the bomb" (the badly-done program) into the client's hands.

     

    I have experienced my fair share of this approach of sales/management and development.

    Unfortually my background was sales then management, and then I decided to go into the techie side, as I was more interested in this side of things, at each level I spent time researching the various levels, so I could function to a high standard, before I undertook the new task.

    My previous experience put me in good stead to understand, what is correct and not correct, and I have seen first hand in various jobs, that the guys in the sales and management side of the business have no concept of reality, this is regardless of the size of the business, but usually it is smaller companies grasping for the extra dime, who suffer more from this approach.

     
    Unique sales pitch, it is up running doing this and that, for this company, SOLD == Developer you have finished the program to do this haven't you, first I heard of it, [SALES] no problem it should be installed and working in seven days {WTF}.

     

    My favourite is  the lead developer, who creates a nice GUI, delivers it to the customer, it does nothing with customer data, and is sold as a final, project gets handed to another developer (me), get this to work, and you should have it working before the customer rings up asking for support {mega WTF}, you have the weekend {Thanks}, don't forget we expect you to be here at 08:00 sharp to support this new project.

     


  • SomeDude (unregistered)

    This sounds an awful lot like the place where I used to work. Except for the fact that The Boss interfered with system administration rather than development. Our 'real' system administrator quit his job because of this and found another job as a developer. After which me (a developer) was assigned with the system adminstrative tasks.

  • (cs) in reply to NZ'er

    Please tell me it wasn't Wellington.

  • (cs)

    Ahh, first jobs. I graduated just over a year ago now (software engineering degree from a relatively good university), and immediately started applying for jobs. Lo and behold, I got an interview really quite soon afterwards. Having no actual professional programming experience, I thought it'd be a lot harder - I'd heard horror stories from my friends, and many of those that graduated the year before were still unemployed or sat behind helpdesks.

    Reading this post makes me think back to my first job. It was a software development role at an ISP/telco. I was a bit shocked to find out that it wasn't as big as I'd assumed ISPs ought to be. They had a systems administrator, a part-time sales guy and the CEO. The CEO was also the CEO of a number of other companies, none of which were based in Britain.

    You can probably guess at this point how much of a WTF this place really was.

    Fast forward two months: The sysadmin was marched out of the 'office' (boss' house) for being in league with a rival company, legal action ensued, I was left to manage EVERYTHING. Servers, customers, finances... Bwahaha.

    I handed in my notice 2 weeks later and promptly spent 5 months looking for a REAL job.
     

  • wTheF (unregistered) in reply to djork
    djork:
    Anonymous:

    This is like what happens to some programmers I know. Picture this:

     
    - Client that doesn't know exactly what he wants (OK, I understand, sometimes it is difficult to make a picture of what you EXACTLY need) 

    - Boss that only think about money, doesn't know much about programming and wants everything done "for yesterday".

    - Programmers that have to follow the instructions of the boss, or they are fired! Since they can't do a good job so quick, they have to "throw the bomb" (the badly-done program) into the client's hands.
     

    Result? Bad software (large bugs, no QA, ugly hacks, etc...).

     

    Result: my job!

     Mine too!
     

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Squiggle

    Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.

    Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.

    Also the nature of "unexisting features" is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ. 

    Not a WTF. 

     

  • ??? (unregistered) in reply to anonymous

    Anonymous wrote the following post at 10-31-2006 6:49 AM:

    				<p>Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.</p><p>Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.</p><p>Also the nature of &quot;unexisting features&quot; is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ.&nbsp;</p><p>Not a WTF. </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>The WTF is the deadline to deliver and support, not the actual task.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I have yet to come across a project, I cannot achieve the goals stated for the said project, but there is always a first time ;)&nbsp;</p>
  • (cs) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

    Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.

    Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.

    Also the nature of "unexisting features" is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ. 

    Not a WTF. 

    Most definitely a WTF.  I can code XYZ but what about the ABC... that I'm supposed to be working on?

     I work for a company where customers learn of new features, some of which don't exist & some of which may only exist in the latest version of the product.  Result - we drop everything to get a 'service pack' out on an old version.  This puts back development of the latest version.

    Result of the result - customers that were going to upgrade to the version we were developing now upgrade to the latest released version, which may not have the features they were expecting ... so we have to issue yet another service pack with half the functionality that was meant to go into the new release.

    Ultimate result.  We spend more time retrofitting features to old versions than we do introducing new functionality.

  • (cs) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

    Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.

    Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.

    Also the nature of "unexisting features" is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ. 

    Not a WTF. 

     

     

    You vastly underestimate the power of salesmen

  • PLasmab (unregistered) in reply to John Smallberries

    Yup. The only way to get anything done.
     

    Actually i've found selling stuff that doesnt exist it's not just restricted to IT. This happens in Electronics/Lighting too.... makes for a good business model... and stressed coders.

     

     

  • Calophi (unregistered)
    Anonymous:

    You can find the foxpro article on Google cache. For now anyway.

    http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:C76UzgEr8EwJ:thedailywtf.com/+the+daily+wtf&hl=sv&gl=se&ct=clnk&cd=1&client=firefox-a

    It isn't there anymore, but you can still find it as a syndication feed on LiveJournal:

    http://syndicated.livejournal.com/daily_wtf/171363.html
     

  • M (unregistered)

    Hey, did the RSS feed screw up?  21 of the old WTFs including thist one now appear as "new" and duplicated when they aren't.

  • IQpierce (unregistered) in reply to Calophi

    Okay, my RSS reader is now flooded with.... many many entries from The Daily WTF. All marked as unread.

     RSS WTF FTW!
     

  • PS (unregistered)

    I notice the company was still in business 3 years later so the "Boss" must have doing something right.

  • Dazed (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

    Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.

    Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.

    Maybe true if the client organisation is just as big a WTF as the selling company.

    OTOH most of the customers I know don't pay for something until they receive it in working order. To get them to put up money up front you have to first demonstrate a degree of trustworthiness far beyond the subjects of this discussion.

    So you have the choice between no money and a customer who might give you some, or no money and an angry client who certainly won't be giving you any.

    However the fact that this business model doesn't die out does seem to suggest that there are enough WTF-clients to keep the WTF-suppliers (temporarily) in business.

  • (cs) in reply to ???

    Anonymous:
    Also the nature of "unexisting features" is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ. 

    You can make a products & orders database system for a multinational corporation that communicates wirelessly with all other client sites in the world using satellites that suffers from zero latency, will run on a 386, and can be backed up onto a 3 1/2" floppy each night?

    Nice.

  • Tei (unregistered) in reply to Dazed
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.

    Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.

    Maybe true if the client organisation is just as big a WTF as the selling company.

    OTOH most of the customers I know don't pay for something until they receive it in working order. To get them to put up money up front you have to first demonstrate a degree of trustworthiness far beyond the subjects of this discussion.

    So you have the choice between no money and a customer who might give you some, or no money and an angry client who certainly won't be giving you any.

    However the fact that this business model doesn't die out does seem to suggest that there are enough WTF-clients to keep the WTF-suppliers (temporarily) in business.

    I disagree. 

    The datetime of the CVS commit is nothing of importance for the client. If the commit date is later than the selling date nothing will break. And a sell is a sell. And not sell mean bankrupt.

    Of course, I will hate If everyone follow that idea and start selling non-existing features!, so, please, dont do. 

     

  • NZ'er (unregistered) in reply to PS
    Anonymous:

    I notice the company was still in business 3 years later so the "Boss" must have doing something right.

     

    The product had all the wizzy front end, and looked a hell of a lot better than the only other real competetor, and was really really hard for anyone to convert the data out of, if they ever wanted to get off the product.   So it was sold on looking 'pretty' and by the time they found it was buggy as hell, and was forever being patched to fix the problems that the boss had introduced by doing new builds from our development source, without notifying anyone, they were either stuck with the product or they had to go to the competitor and abandon or re-enter a lot of their data.

     
    The company by some miricale is still in buisness!
     

  • Solo (unregistered)

    Well, my boss can design databases, with her mighty degrees in English litterature, and masters in comparative history of religion, but she has a lot of experience, in portfolio management. And when I say she designed databases, I mean, she names fields in tables she creates. And when I say tables, I really mean on big fat wide table.

    In light of that, developping a "module" in a hotel room at night is really simple. Trivial I would say. You all whiners.

     captcha: tps

     
    mmm... what's happening?
     

     

  • Benjamin Smith (unregistered) in reply to ???
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous wrote the following post at 10-31-2006 6:49 AM: 
    				<p>Selling unexisting features is not that bad, if work and get clients, and is mostly posible to create that features later.</p><p>Is better to get the money and regret latter, than no-money and instant regret.</p><p>Also

    the nature of "unexisting features" is virtual. If some sales guy can think of something XYZ, I can code something XYZ. 

    Not a WTF.

     

    The WTF is the deadline to deliver and support, not the actual task.

     

    I have yet to come across a project, I cannot achieve the goals stated for the said project, but there is always a first time ;) 

     

    Finally, SOMEBODY WITH A CLUE. It's far better to generate some activity and scramble to keep up, then to fail to sell an uninteresting product and close your doors. Yeah, sometimes it sucks, and sucks bad. But is it actually better to be out looking for a job? Ultimately, somebody has to cook up the job and make the sale, whether or not the product actually exists.

     

    I'm right now working out bugs that I would love to have squashed long ago, and were ignored while new development (features sold) ensued. But in the meantime, our marketshare has more than doubled, the company is MUCH more profitable, and the staff size has more than doubled, with NO turnover.
     

     Some people just need to buck up, and realize that, while having quality technology is VERY important, all the quality in the world is meaningless if you don't SELL IT!

     

    This is NOT A WTF.  

  • Benjamin Smith (unregistered) in reply to Alchymist
    Alchymist:

    Most definitely a WTF.  I can code XYZ but what about the ABC... that I'm supposed to be working on?

     I work for a company where customers learn of new features, some of which don't exist & some of which may only exist in the latest version of the product.  Result - we drop everything to get a 'service pack' out on an old version.  This puts back development of the latest version.

    Result of the result - customers that were going to upgrade to the version we were developing now upgrade to the latest released version, which may not have the features they were expecting ... so we have to issue yet another service pack with half the functionality that was meant to go into the new release.

    Ultimate result.  We spend more time retrofitting features to old versions than we do introducing new functionality.

     

    So how come your software doesn't have patching built into the application environment? Patching files, updating database tables, all should be part of your release process. You do have automatic builds, program self-updates (a la Windows Update or RedHat  yum) don't you? Your application tracks the file format along with whatever appropriate conversion code, so that newer releases seamlessly read older document versions, right? And your database tables are built as needed using a unified, consistent format so that you never have new code operating against old database schemas, right?

     

    You do have an established release process, don't you...? 

     

    What?!?!? You don't???

     

    There, ladies and gentlemen, is your WTF.
     

  • (cs)

    Wow.  I suppose I can count myself lucky that I haven't had to work for anyone that delusionally bad.  So far...

    I think that poor J.F. had stumbled his way directly into true I.T. Hell...

  • Stone cold sober (unregistered) in reply to ???

    >ou have the weekend {Thanks}, don't forget we expect you to be here at 08:00 sharp to support this new project.

    Your health will suffer if you go on like that, Don't ruin your life by doing such crappy jobs.

  • Belinski (unregistered) in reply to John Hensley
    John Hensley:

    When you think about it, programming is just a lot of typing. How hard can it be?

    I've got a manager who thinks like that. He tends to say things like "just type faster" or "can't you just cut and paste that from a totally different project?".

     
    Other than that he's okay, though.
     

  • Belinski (unregistered) in reply to xrT
    xrT:
    John Hensley:

    When you think about it, programming is just a lot of typing. How hard can it be?


    With the technology we have today, "typing" is reduced to merely google, copy, paste...

    So it's waaay easier than what you may think...

    That reminds me of a talk titled "programming is easier when you think". Problem was, in my language, mixing up "when" and "than" in this sense is quite a common grammar error, so a helpful secretary had fixed it to "programming is easier than you think", which was exactly not the point of the talk.

  • (cs) in reply to Stone cold sober

    You have the weekend {Thanks}, don't forget we expect you to be here at 08:00 sharp to support this new project

    The correct answer to that, imho, is 'get bent'.

    My dad told me of a story where the salesmen sold something that was not only vapourware, but actually impossible to achieve. Unfortunately I can't remember the details, but that apparently caused quite some embarrassment!

  • (cs)

    Alex Papadimoulis:
    The cycle continued almost every month for the next three years: The Boss would head out to a client site, sell a module that didn't exist, develop it in the hotel room at night, install it the next day, and let the customer work with the developers to get it working.

    Where does the "lead developer" manage to find so many fools to buy his non-existent products? You definitely need alot of fools to keep such a business running for three years. I reckon the boss actually deserves an award of sorts for such a feat. 

  • (cs) in reply to Ghost Ware Wizard
    Ghost Ware Wizard:
    <run fast> J.F. had the right idea, albeit 2 years and 11.75 mos. after his initial employment.

    <the idiots are everywhere....and they keep following me around..../>


     
    I'm not sure if your intent was to poke fun at XML or simply to geekify your post, but you failed miserably either way.  See, a prerequisite to making fun of something is to have some basic knowledge of whatever it is you're making fun of.

    But thanks for playing. 

  • nonnymiss (unregistered) in reply to pbounaix

    Yes. At my previous job, the boss would often stay up into the night making code changes for new and brilliant ideas on the production server.  He'd never mention any of these changes to anyone in the business or to any of the clients.  Naturally he was confident enough in his experience to not make use of a change log or version control.

    The next morning I'd come in, with the boss nowhere in sight, with several messages on my desk from clients that the application was broken. I'd spend the morning tracking down the mystery changes and fixing or reverting them.  Around lunch time, my boss would usually show up (unless he was visiting clients) and then proudly explain to me his latest and greatest feature.

    It was very stressful at times, but now that I've escaped, this story helped me to see the humor in the situation.

     

  • (cs)

    Did this boss use Ruby on Rails?

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