The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Go Ed go! Certainly not a WTF, pure genius. One of the first products I worked on was a printer sharing 'network', which required that each PC had two serial ports. The PC's were daisy-chained together (three wires only) and the last one in the chain could drive a serial or parallel printer. Each PC ran a small TSR that could assign 32 to 64k as buffer space and provide print redirection.The software could use all the buffer space on any of the PCs so it was quite quick. The last version of the product was actually a DOS network where users could share any number of printers, each others' drives etc. All running at 115kbaud! Worked a treat for years.

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Sutherlands:
Code Dependent:
Ollie Jones:
Umm, young fellas, those are "foxy" lab assistants. The word "hot" is soooo 90s.
Anything "female lab assistant" is soooo seventies. Why are the women all relegated to subordinate roles in which their main feature is appearance? What would be really cool is if "Gary" was instead "Mary".
No, what would be really cool is if the story come with pictures.

At least the comments come with pictures. [image]

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

lrucker:
This is thedailywtf. No female programmers or techy types exist here and certainly not goth ones - obviously, then, being both, I am a figment of my imagination.

It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

I once wrote something I called the "Purchase Management System" (totally not noticing the acronym) until the (female) accountant quietly suggested I think about the name...

Yeah. You wouldn't want people to get it confused with Pantone Matching System.

"Um. What exactly do you mean by 'PMS number?'"

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Wow; I built one of those, once - a combination of LapLink and similar programs, a handful of printer switches, and lots and lots of parallel cables...

"So, if I want to get a file between these two computers, I need to set switch 1 to A, switch 2 to D, and switch 3 to C."

Glad I'm not the only one.

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

This is pretty pathetic.

I'm not an apple fanboi, but setting up an apple network during the early days of networking and having it work as required is not a WTF.

So some other guy came along later and made a copy-cat PC network on the cheap by hacking connectors and stealing software. Whoopie-doo.

Your "Gary" character deserves all the credit here.

Code Dependent · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?

Fat != ugly.

moogal · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Slackmaster K:
'course, then again, he could have put DOS on there and used Interlnk + Intersrv, which comes with some versions of DOS and only requires a dedicated server. The client would see it as a local drive.

Unfortunately, Interlnk/Intersrv was MS-DOS 6, putting it into the 90s...

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

moogal:
Slackmaster K:
'course, then again, he could have put DOS on there and used Interlnk + Intersrv, which comes with some versions of DOS and only requires a dedicated server. The client would see it as a local drive.

Unfortunately, Interlnk/Intersrv was MS-DOS 6, putting it into the 90s...

Well, he worked in a lab so I'm sure he had access to a time machine.

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

It's been a few years! but can anyone sill whistle @ 300?

lolwtf · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Was I the only one disappointed that the paper clips weren't part of an ad-hoc female-to-female connection between parallel cables?

lolwtf · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Matthew Watson:
The Central Laboratory Information Terminal?
Interesting acronym...

hehehehehe

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

not really a wtf, but entertaining anyway. Sounds like he's a genius.

kastein · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Worf:
As for the 3MHz 8088 - it's entirely possible. Intel farmed out production of those CPUs to other companies (I believe they included... Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD? Yes, Intel subcontracted AMD to produce their chips, mostly as a "alternative supplier" exercise).
I wouldn't be surprised if there were many knockoffs, and if they ran at oddball speeds.

umm, all the first few sets of chips were good to 5MHz (including the second-source parts). I believe the -1 or -2 variant was good up to 8MHz or 10MHz, not sure. The oddball 3MHz speed of some knockoff systems probably had a lot more to do with bad design resulting in data corruption on the bus at any higher speed, or the knockoff manufacturers wanting to keep prices down by using DRAMs with a longer access latency. A lot of cheap knockoff makers also used shoddily fabricated two-layer PCBs instead of quality two-layer or four-layer boards, also.

Slackmaster K:
Not to put too fine a point on it, but Laplink supported parallel connections, which sport 115,200 bps of throughput. Serial can only hope to achieve 57,600 bps, and even then only with a 16550A UART, which didn't exist on those old XT's.

You also have no idea what you are talking about. You don't measure parallel connections in bits per second... well... I guess you COULD... but 115200 is a modern serial speed not a parallel speed anyways. Parallel ports don't have a set of speeds they run at, they go as fast as the handshaking will let them. Parallel ports in nibble-mode, assuming an 8MHz ISA bus, should be able to achieve something like 150kB/sec including handshaking (done via bitblasting on the control port, requires enough instructions on an XT that you can't reach full bus utilization.) LapLink's site claims approx. 3-5MB/minute as the fastest a nibble-mode transfer will go.

Try not to nitpick on things you don't actually understand, it makes you look like a fool.

Vechni · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

You get the 8088's, you get the cables, you get the women. But it all starts with the 8088's.

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

And so the Mac vs PC debate was born.

Kensey · 2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Jay:
I am reminded of an article I read ... somewhere ... back then that said -- quoting from memory after 30 years -- "Real programmers do not like 'what you see is what you get' editors. Real programmers like editors that are powerful, cryptic, and dangerous. In one word, TECO."

You must mean this one. The money quote:

"The problem with these editors is that Real Programmers consider "what you see is what you get" to be just as bad a concept in Text Editors as it is in Women. No, the Real Programmer wants a "you asked for it, you got it" text editor-- complicated, cryptic, powerful, unforgiving, dangerous. TECO, to be precise."

2009-02-11 Reply Admin

Code Dependent:
Anonymous:
It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?
Fat != ugly.

Yes, it is you fucking ugly fatass.

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

kastein:
Worf:
As for the 3MHz 8088 - it's entirely possible. Intel farmed out production of those CPUs to other companies (I believe they included... Advanced Micro Devices, or AMD? Yes, Intel subcontracted AMD to produce their chips, mostly as a "alternative supplier" exercise).
I wouldn't be surprised if there were many knockoffs, and if they ran at oddball speeds.
umm, all the first few sets of chips were good to 5MHz (including the second-source parts). I believe the -1 or -2 variant was good up to 8MHz or 10MHz, not sure. The oddball 3MHz speed of some knockoff systems probably had a lot more to do with bad design resulting in data corruption on the bus at any higher speed, or the knockoff manufacturers wanting to keep prices down by using DRAMs with a longer access latency. A lot of cheap knockoff makers also used shoddily fabricated two-layer PCBs instead of quality two-layer or four-layer boards, also.

Actually, the rather odd number 4.77 was due to using cheap oscillators meant for TV sets. The NTSC color frequency was 3.579545 MHx, and the oscillator was 4/3 times that, i.e. 4.77 MHz. As far as I remember some of the cheaper copies used the same oscilaltor but did not bother with the scaling (save money), so they ran at 3.58 Mhz. There were of course a lot of other odd frequencies...

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

I can remember as a student chemist back in the 80's, writing a polynomial regression curve plotting program in 32k of RAM on an HP80B computer - it sent output to an HP plotter in "HP plotter Language". I've still got the printout somewhere, but it took all bar 300bytes of available memory. And most of the available variables were all used - A0 to Z9. There was an additional "data card" and a "matrix math" card plugged into the back, for super computing power.

Those were the days. The guy running the lab still preferred to use a flexi-curve though; if he wasn't a Scot, I'd call him an IT Palestine. Ah the old jokes are coming back to me now too.

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

"Central Laboratory Information Terminal."? I don't get it... Wait! I get... er... nope, still don't get it.

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

SGTJimmmy:
"Central Laboratory Information Terminal."? I don't get it... Wait! I get... er... nope, still don't get it.

And you never will...

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

"Central Laboratory Information Terminal" ?

I used to maintain a WebApp that contained code like this:

 Iterator clit = context.getCustomerListIterator();
 while(clit.hasNext()) {
  ...
 }

Code Dependent · 2009-02-12 Reply Admin

LOLWUT:
Code Dependent:
Anonymous:
It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?
Fat != ugly.

Yes, it is you fucking ugly fatass.

...said the pimplefaced bucktoothed milky-white cellar dweller.

pink_fairy · 2009-02-12 Reply Admin

Code Dependent:
LOLWUT:
Code Dependent:
Anonymous:
It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?
Fat != ugly.

Yes, it is you fucking ugly fatass.
...said the pimplefaced bucktoothed milky-white cellar dweller.

I resemble that remark. Well, I did, before I lost me teef.

I think we're on to something here. There are three typical sources of pollution in WTF threads:

(1) Me (2) TopCod3r (3) Anonymous posters.

Sadly, we'll never get rid of me. I have the Amulet of Yendor, ha ha ha!

Equally sadly, TopCod3r seems to have been chased off by zealous site-owning bigots who don't seem to realise that he is only a pollutant because of (3).

Which leaves us with anonymous posters.

I've come to the conclusion that the way to deal with these people is -- and it applies to all blogs, websites, whatever, that invite anonymous posters -- to replace the title "Anonymous" with the title "Worthless Turd."

It's an idea in progress; make of it what you will. I believe it would help. Requiring an RSS feed to an email address, so that the worthless turd in question can see the threaded replies, might also help.

In the spirit of co-operation, I'm prepared to sign up "pink_fairy" on the same basis.

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

eric76:
Someone suggested, not very seriously, that since the tape drives of the two machines were side by side, they could cut a couple small holes in each cabinet, splice a tape to make it continuous, and let it run.

Sounds "feasible". Gives a whole new meaning to "bandwidth" - like half inch.

Code Dependent · 2009-02-12 Reply Admin

pink_fairy:
-- to replace the title "Anonymous" with the title "Worthless Turd."

As is my nature, I immediately tried to think what would be the alternative. In this case, I suppose it'd be "Worthwhile Turd".

2009-02-12 Reply Admin

Code Dependent:
amischiefr:
Code Dependent:
Why are the women all relegated to subordinate roles in which their main feature is appearance? What would be really cool is if "Gary" was instead "Mary".
Because objectifying women is fun? </shrug> What are we supposed to look at, their personalities? Fuck that. Show me some titties!@
You couldn't look at Mary's titties? Or is it a control issue, too?

You are in a strange forum, littered with quotes.

Mary is here.

look mary

Mary has a grandmother's bun and hefty computer manual. She also has titties here.

look titties

You are likely to be eaten by a grue.

2009-02-13 Reply Admin

operagost:
A "PC compatible" wouldn't have a 3 MHz processor, since the real 8088 and its clones ran at a minimum of 4.77 MHz.

Emmm... I thought 80286 initially was released at 2MHz... with a later version that running at higher speed and can be overclocked to 10MHz...

pscs · 2009-02-13 Reply Admin

Cheong:
Emmm... I thought 80286 initially was released at 2MHz... with a later version that running at higher speed and can be overclocked to 10MHz...

No, the original AT had a 286 running at 6MHz or 8MHz.

lrucker · 2009-02-14 Reply Admin

Fat != ugly

Female on thedailywtf != fat, either.

ETA: Dammit, I quoted the first time. "the real wtf is the forum software", yeah, I know.

2009-02-14 Reply Admin

GooberMcNutly:
Anonymous:
Oh God, I remember that crap - "95% IBM compatible". Great, but that 5% makes a whole heap of difference...

My working definition was always: If it runs Flight Simulator, it's 100% compatible.

Those percentages are by weight:

2009-02-17 Reply Admin

This would get top marks on http://www.ratemynetworkdiagram.com

2009-02-17 Reply Admin

We just put Bio-Hazard stickers on the doors and the inspectors refused to come in.

2009-02-17 Reply Admin

Dr Leather:
The real name for a "gas chromatograph mass selective detector" is a "gas chromatograph/mass spectrometer", GC-MS for short and if he'd called it that, I'm sure he'd have got the attractive lab assistants immediately. Our lab only had the mass spectrometer part and no lab assistants of any sort, so that proves it.

Actually, it was a GC-FTIR-MS. The gas phase infra red detector was added between the GC and MS (because it's non destructive) much later. Any female lab assistants that understand this are "science girls" and are probably very weird.

2009-02-18 Reply Admin

pink_fairy:
Code Dependent:
LOLWUT:
Code Dependent:
Anonymous:
It's easier to be called "that goth" than "that fat ugly chick", isn't it?
Fat != ugly.

Yes, it is you fucking ugly fatass.
...said the pimplefaced bucktoothed milky-white cellar dweller.
I resemble that remark. Well, I did, before I lost me teef.

I think we're on to something here. There are three typical sources of pollution in WTF threads:

(1) Me (2) TopCod3r (3) Anonymous posters.

...I've come to the conclusion that the way to deal with these people is -- and it applies to all blogs, websites, whatever, that invite anonymous posters -- to replace the title "Anonymous" with the title "Worthless Turd."...

As a member of the unwashed/unregistered masses, I am cool with this. But we want a concession on your side as well.

You have to admit that the lady in that navy show is definitely both fat AND ugly. And goth, which just exacerbates the two.

2009-02-18 Reply Admin

Well Ed B- You brought back some memories Paper clips, duct tape and bondo could fix anything. The Fame of that D218 lab lives on today not far away. Lab Assistants are still young (like they weren't born when you were doing this) and Perky. The PC's rule the lab and process up to 280 sample in 24hrs. Your macro for report generation of two columns still works. The terminal still has a “special place”.

2009-02-23 Reply Admin

Booboo:
Anonymous:
Not exactly a WTF but interesting reading nonetheless, cheers.
Not even _slightly_ a WTF. Wonderful stuff.

+1

2009-06-05 Reply Admin

I guess DECnet DOS was too easy

Damn the River

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