The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Ah, the good old "Save the phone no. as a double" method.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Then, exactly, what does "Delivery by Dick" mean...?

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MightyM:
Ah, the good old "Save the phone no. as a double" method.

Yes, everybody knows you use 64-bit integers for that, they have enough digits and no loss of precision.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MightyM:
Ah, the good old "Save the phone no. as a double" method.

Because hey, what could go wrong?

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MacFrog:
Then, exactly, what does "Delivery by Dick" mean...?

I think that is only for "NSA customer"s.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Now that's a frist...

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

I can use + in phone numbers at least in the beginning of one... Just need to substituted e with sufficient approximation.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Hey, don't bash Dick, he's a hard-working contentious employee and all that teasing he gets isn't nice. It turns him into a shrinking violet and we really want him to grow in his current role until his contribution is out in the open for all to see.

Either that, or this is for when you intend from the very beginning to file a damage complaint.

Zacrath · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

I once went to a website for a college that has a course for building websites, and I noticed that the urls in the links had HTML tags in them. Like href="

web_building_course

.html".

I decided not to go there.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

OK well the number with a + in it is not a phone number, it's the one time techn support "code" or "voucher". You give it to the agent so that you get a free support session. You probably don't need to type it in.

Some other numbers might even have letters in it who knows.

Don't see the WTF here except maybe they could have specified the tech support phone number as well.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Is the first one really a WTF? I mean that would be a sort of unimaginable oversight. Seems more likely to be a user training issue to me.

I would anticipate at most Life insurance firms paying a benefit does not constitute "leaving the policy". The death event actually might make it impossible for anyone to "leave the policy" at that point the client can obviously no longer make and decisions about it, and the insurance company is not obligate to do whatever remaining administrative tasks are required and make the payout. So the correct status is probably something like "Benefit Paid" or "Contract Completed".

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Blah:
OK well the number with a + in it is *not* a phone number, it's the one time techn support "code" or "voucher". You give it to the agent so that you get a free support session. You probably don't need to type it in.
Some other numbers might even have letters in it who knows.

Don't see the WTF here except maybe they could have specified the tech support phone number as well.

Do you really think it was supposed to be rendered this way? It certainly looks like a number converted to a string in the wrong way to me.

VinDuv · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

The TV BSOD made me remember another error I’ve seen on some random cable TV channel, circa 2000 (I think): A "test card" (probably this one) with the Windows 98 error dialog “This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.” on front.

I guess their test card program had crashed...

After a few minutes, someone (or a watchdog) reset the system: Windows restarted (showing the blue Active Desktop™-enabled desktop for a few seconds), the test card program relaunched... and re-crashed right away.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

I could spend hours watching the Windows BSOD channel. Or rather, I have spent hours watching it before....

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Well you do have to give them credit, not only have they prepared for our next overlords, they also know who is listening in.. (Dropship and NSA) :-)

Yazeran

Plan: To go to Mars one day with a hammer.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Zacrath:
I once went to a website for a college that has a course for building websites, and I noticed that the urls in the links had HTML tags in them. Like href="
web_building_course
.html".
I decided not to go there.

"Those who can, do." "Those who can't, teach" Or so the saying goes.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

VinDuv:
The TV BSOD made me remember another error I’ve seen on some random cable TV channel, circa 2000 (I think): A "test card" (probably this one) with the Windows 98 error dialog “This program has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down. If the problem persists, contact the program vendor.” on front.
I guess their test card program had crashed...

After a few minutes, someone (or a watchdog) reset the system: Windows restarted (showing the blue Active Desktop™-enabled desktop for a few seconds), the test card program relaunched... and re-crashed right away.

It's not a BSOD. It's the normal WinNT boot screen. Back when it provided technical information like the build version that installation was running, rather than useful swirling colors we get now.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

The first one definitely is a not a wtf. Very few people navigate to an insurers website to terminate their life insurance after they have died, so it is permissible to exclude "death" from the reasons one might give for cancelling insurance.

On the other hand, should a zombie ever try to do so and be refused cancellation on the grounds that "Death is not a valid selection", the insurer might be in for a discrimination charge.

Perhaps the best approach would be to allow the option but make the field "Payouts will go to..." mandatory, with careful checks in place that the payouts do not go to the deceased.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Too many deliveries by Dick can lead to another type of delivery...

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

faoileag:
The first one definitely is a not a wtf. Very few people navigate to an insurers website to terminate their life insurance after they have died, so it is permissible to exclude "death" from the reasons one might give for cancelling insurance.
On the other hand, should a zombie ever try to do so and be refused cancellation on the grounds that "Death is not a valid selection", the insurer might be in for a discrimination charge.

Perhaps the best approach would be to allow the option but make the field "Payouts will go to..." mandatory, with careful checks in place that the payouts do not go to the deceased.

I think the WTF is that the staff at the company cant close a life policy if the person dies...

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

The delivery method is not a WTF. If they made it a row of checkboxes instead, sure, but as it is, there's nothing fundamentally wrong with it.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Blah:
OK well the number with a + in it is *not* a phone number, it's the one time techn support "code" or "voucher". You give it to the agent so that you get a free support session. You probably don't need to type it in.
Some other numbers might even have letters in it who knows.

Don't see the WTF here except maybe they could have specified the tech support phone number as well.

I hope I'm just missing your sarcasm. That's clearly a number that should have been stored as a string but wasn't, causing whatever code it's running on to convert it to scientific notation.

devjoe · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

TRWTF is that the web site about the IT workshop is trying to load a DLL from C:\Windows\temp.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Geoff:
Is the first one really a WTF? I mean that would be a sort of unimaginable oversight. Seems more likely to be a user training issue to me.
I would anticipate at most Life insurance firms paying a benefit does not constitute "leaving the policy". The death event actually might make it impossible for anyone to "leave the policy" at that point the client can obviously no longer make and decisions about it, and the insurance company is not obligate to do whatever remaining administrative tasks are required and make the payout. So the correct status is probably something like "Benefit Paid" or "Contract Completed".

So, your saying maybe I will never be the executor of someone else's estate and need to cancel that policy because -- let's say the deceased killed themselves and the death benefit would not be paid (without a suicide clause)? Death is a perfectly valid reason for cancelling life insurance. Not all cancellations relate to death ONLY IF the benefit was paid.

Steve The Cynic · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Sam:
I think the WTF is that the staff at the company cant close a life policy if the person dies...

Be careful of the two forms of life insurance. One, sometimes called "term life insurance", is where you bet the insurance company that you will live at least ... that long, and you get the payout if you do.

The other, perhaps better called "death insurance", is where you bet the insurance company that you will die during the valid period of the policy, and if you "win" (by dying, duh), your estate gets the payout.

The latter type cannot be closed after the policyholder dies, because it will have paid out, and almost by definition the coverage ends at that point. (A similar thing happens when you write off / total a car. Because the insurance covered that car, after the company pays out on a write-off, the remains of the car become the property of the insurance company, and you need a new policy for your new car. I know this because I once parked my car on its roof(*) in the edge of a field, and I had to send the ownership registration documents to the insurer after they paid out.)

(*) This is almost guaranteed to be a total loss with any modern car, because it is almost impossible to restore anything like the full structural strength of the bodywork after such an event (even if you do it gently like I did), and a car that won't pass roadworthiness inspections is basically worthless. And even if you can repair the damage adequately, it's prohibitively expensive.

The structural integrity of modern cars is a WTF in its own right. I once owned a small hatchback (by a curious coincidence, the replacement for the roof-parked one) that was gently rear-ended by a young woman who didn't leave enough time to stop in the somewhat slick conditions. I took it to the local dealership to have them do a basic check, and it was OK, but the mechanic said that you basically get three levels of damage, depending on how heavy the impact was:

No damage of significance, some scratches on the plastic bumper, perhaps.
The bumper is cracked (easy to replace, but not necessarily cheap) and the small panel that carries the fixed part of the hatch's latch is bent out of place so you can't close the hatch. This is repairable, but is not cheap.
The impact splits the weld at the bottom of that panel. This is basically unrepairable at a reasonable cost, and insurance companies will write off the car.

The transitions from 1 to 2 and then to 3 are abrupt and at far lower collision speeds than you might expect.

Addendum (2013-12-13 08:39): EDIT: My comment on the "death" insurance policy having paid out should, of course, be interpreted in light of the insured person not having committed suicide, been killed by a war, and various other weasel-grade exceptions. But even in those cases, the death of the insured automatically deactivates the policy.

And a "term" insurance policy will be automatically deactivated if you lose the bet (by dying...)

And yes, I mean "bet" in all the above. Insurance is a form of gambling.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

When I died they cancelled my life insurance without any issues. Reinstating it when I got better though was a different matter entirely.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Well I suppose I'll have to select "Cake", then.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

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2013-12-13 Reply Admin

"Death is NOT an Option" is not a WTF. They are a life insurance company, which means they pay out on death. And like any other insurance company (my homeowner's insurance for example), they just need to decline to offer a renewal on the policy after making a huge payout. The policy expires, and then if they need to give a reason for the customer leaving it'll be something like "Too many large claims in the past 12 months".

Suicide? Not a problem: just refuse to pay (based on the terms of the insurance which specify that no payment is made for death due to suicide), and then decline to offer the renewal because the client is now too "high-risk" to insure.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

anonymous:
Suicide? Not a problem: just refuse to pay (based on the terms of the insurance which specify that no payment is made for death due to suicide), and then decline to offer the renewal because the client is now too "high-risk" to insure.

Too high risk? Surely there's minimal risk of the policy holder dying yet again...I'd like to see the actuarial tables on that.

mikeTheLiar · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

luctus:
Well I suppose I'll have to select "Cake", then.

We're all out of cake. We didn't think it would be so popular.

mikeTheLiar · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MacFrog:
Then, exactly, what does "Delivery by Dick" mean...?

It means that "Dick" is going to deliver a very special "package," if you know what I mean. A large pizza with extra "sausage." He's a plumber that's going to be laying some serious "pipe."

I'm trying to say he's going to put his penis in you.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

You can check out any time you want, but you can never leave?

captcha: secundum. Secundum quem? Secundum me.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

mikeTheLiar:
luctus:
Well I suppose I'll have to select "Cake", then.
We're all out of cake. We didn't think it would be so popular.

The cake is a lie !

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Rnd(:
I can use + in phone numbers at least in the beginning of one... Just need to substituted e with sufficient approximation.

Easy-peasy: Turn your phone upside-down and hit '3'.

Kuba · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MacFrog:
Then, exactly, what does "Delivery by Dick" mean...?

Richard delivers it. Duh.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Doesn't the "Leave Reason Validation" message that states "Death is not a valid selection on this screen" imply that the application has a selectable Reason For Leaving option of Death?

If Death is not a valid selection, why is it in the list of options to select? (Unless TRWTF is just poor grammar?)

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Pock Suppet:
anonymous:
Suicide? Not a problem: just refuse to pay (based on the terms of the insurance which specify that no payment is made for death due to suicide), and then decline to offer the renewal because the client is now too "high-risk" to insure.
Too high risk? Surely there's minimal risk of the policy holder dying yet again...I'd like to see the actuarial tables on that.

class Person()
{
   public bool Dead 
   {
      Pay(Policy.Amount);
      Policy.Cancel();
   }
}

policy.Person = new person(policy) { Dead = true; }

Pays out on construction of person.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

The post-collision structural integrity of modern cars is a consequence of essentially two things: crumple zones and fuel economy.

For the former, you have areas in the bodywork of your car that are designed to absorb energy in a collision by "crumpling", which they do quite well. It's the main reason modern cars are much safer in a collision than cars built in, say, 1971. But once a crumple zone crumples in a collision, un-crumpling it in a manner that it will be capable of absorbing another collision is essentially impossible. You can cut the whole segment off and weld on a new one but this is generally not worthwhile, and on a unibody car (rather than, e.g., a body-on-frame truck, there are no body on frame cars in production anymore since Ford discontinued the Crown Victoria) the weld will be a weak point in a future collision anyway.

For the latter, the aggregate fuel savings of lightweight unibody cars vs. easier to repair but heavier body-on-frame cars has paid for itself many times over by now. But totaling a car is a lump sum loss rather than the gradual loss of decreased fuel economy. Hence insurance.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

What vendor is this that lets you choose the delivery method? I want to do business with them.
I hate dealing with vendors who won't let me choose the delivery method. I have told customer service that I'll pay extra to choose the delivery method but they won't let me. It seems that no matter where I live, there is at least one local delivery service that is miserable to work with.

-- Of late, I have had serious problems with UPS. They loose my packages. They stick "sorry we missed you" tags on the door without ringing the doorbell while I'm home. They have called the FBI on me when they lost $150 worth of shoes. I have to have UPS hold my deliveries for pick up at their distribution center in the worst part of town filled with abandoned buildings and no street lights or I never get them.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
Addendum (2013-12-13 08:39): EDIT: My comment on the "death" insurance policy having paid out should, of course, be interpreted in light of the insured person not having committed suicide, been killed by a war, and various other weasel-grade exceptions. But even in those cases, the death of the insured automatically deactivates the policy.

Most suicide clauses are in effect only for a couple of years. In other words, you could still collect a payment on a policy even if the death is the cause of death was suicide, as long as the policy has been held long enough (depending on the terms of the policy). The goal is to prevent suicidal individuals from taking out a policy knowing they plan to kill themselves soon. If you want your family to have that money, you're going to have to wait a couple years to kill yourself.

It is a very sound business strategy, really.

cellocgw · 2013-12-13 Reply Admin

MacFrog:
Then, exactly, what does "Delivery by Dick" mean...?

If you have to ask...

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

XXXXXX:
What vendor is this that lets you choose the delivery method? I want to do business with them. I hate dealing with vendors who won't let me choose the delivery method. I have told customer service that I'll pay extra to choose the delivery method but they won't let me. It seems that no matter where I live, there is at least one local delivery service that is miserable to work with.
-- Of late, I have had serious problems with UPS. They loose my packages. They stick "sorry we missed you" tags on the door without ringing the doorbell while I'm home. They have called the FBI on me when they lost $150 worth of shoes. I have to have UPS hold my deliveries for pick up at their distribution center in the worst part of town filled with abandoned buildings and no street lights or I never get them.

Most companies have exclusive contracts with a single delivery carrier. They've negotiated better shipping rates by agreeing to use UPS (or whatever) and only UPS. That's why you don't get a choice. At most places.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

XXXXXX:
What vendor is this that lets you choose the delivery method? I want to do business with them. I hate dealing with vendors who won't let me choose the delivery method. I have told customer service that I'll pay extra to choose the delivery method but they won't let me. It seems that no matter where I live, there is at least one local delivery service that is miserable to work with.
-- Of late, I have had serious problems with UPS. They loose my packages. They stick "sorry we missed you" tags on the door without ringing the doorbell while I'm home. They have called the FBI on me when they lost $150 worth of shoes. I have to have UPS hold my deliveries for pick up at their distribution center in the worst part of town filled with abandoned buildings and no street lights or I never get them.

Really?

Must be a location thing then.

Because they hide my packages somewhere on my property, and then slip something under the door. Of course, I ask them to do that.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

C-Derb:
Steve The Cynic:
Addendum (2013-12-13 08:39): EDIT: My comment on the "death" insurance policy having paid out should, of course, be interpreted in light of the insured person not having committed suicide, been killed by a war, and various other weasel-grade exceptions. But even in those cases, the death of the insured automatically deactivates the policy.
Most suicide clauses are in effect only for a couple of years. In other words, you could still collect a payment on a policy even if the death is the cause of death was suicide, as long as the policy has been held long enough (depending on the terms of the policy). The goal is to prevent suicidal individuals from taking out a policy knowing they plan to kill themselves soon. If you want your family to have that money, you're going to have to wait a couple years to kill yourself.
It is a very sound business strategy, really.

And most reasons people commit suicide for are temporary anyway. Life goes on. You hit another break and get back ahead, or you don't but find another reason to live. Maybe you learn you don't need that big house and your family is happier with you alive in a small house than dead.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Valued Service:
Pock Suppet:
anonymous:
Suicide? Not a problem: just refuse to pay (based on the terms of the insurance which specify that no payment is made for death due to suicide), and then decline to offer the renewal because the client is now too "high-risk" to insure.
Too high risk? Surely there's minimal risk of the policy holder dying yet again...I'd like to see the actuarial tables on that.
class Person()
{
   public bool Dead 
   {
      Pay(Policy.Amount);
      Policy.Cancel();
   }
}
policy.Person = new person(policy) { Dead = true; }
Pays out on construction of person.

Which is why any insurance policy that ignores pre-existing medical conditions (such as death) is stupid.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
One, sometimes called "term life insurance", is where you bet the insurance company that you will live at least ... that long, and you get the payout if you do.

That...is not how term life insurance works. At least not in Canada and the US; insurance products vary country-to-country so maybe that's accurate somewhere else, I don't know.

In North America, though, term life insurance just means that it covers you for a particular term (say, 20 years). If you live "at least ... that long", you get nothing. If you die, you (well, your beneficiaries) get the payout.

This is in contrast to permanent life insurance, which covers you for your whole life (as long as you keep making the payments). Term insurance is cheaper, because it's not as risky for the insurance company (as long as the customer is relatively young).

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Darryl S:
Steve The Cynic:
One, sometimes called "term life insurance", is where you bet the insurance company that you will live at least ... that long, and you get the payout if you do.

That...is not how term life insurance works. At least not in Canada and the US; insurance products vary country-to-country so maybe that's accurate somewhere else, I don't know.

In North America, though, term life insurance just means that it covers you for a particular term (say, 20 years). If you live "at least ... that long", you get nothing. If you die, you (well, your beneficiaries) get the payout.

This is in contrast to permanent life insurance, which covers you for your whole life (as long as you keep making the payments). Term insurance is cheaper, because it's not as risky for the insurance company (as long as the customer is relatively young).

Exactly.

Term life insurance is basically to cover you during the part of your life where you are most valuable to your dependents.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

I don't think the IIS one is a WTF, really. I'm pretty sure that the GET method is not allowed on the input page, but the response is an error page, which you can GET.

2013-12-13 Reply Admin

Torgo:
Too many deliveries by Dick can lead to another type of delivery...

It only takes once.

Death is NOT an Option

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