• Scott (unregistered)

    The first one is no WTF. Haven't you heard of bistromathmatics?

  • Looks familiar (unregistered)
  • (cs)

    2 clean sheets in one week. I must be on a roll

  • Learn to read (unregistered)
    TFA:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    It wants you to the file in a directory that is accessible by all users. Makes sense, considering these are help files, don't you think?
  • (cs)

    I can't quit you, Excel, so I'm gonna put you down for awhile.

  • (cs) in reply to Looks familiar
    Looks familiar:
    ...
    I thought so too. Thanks for saving me some sanity-checking time. What's sad is that it's from just a couple of months ago.
  • Larry (unregistered)

    TRWTF is a 12% penalty for not paying your bill on time.

  • (cs)

    That Discover "statement" could make sense depending on what your average daily balance and APR were. You paid it off, but then you charged another $182 and interest or other charges were added to that. I don't see a WTF.

  • ldnunes (unregistered)

    ImgBurn has several messages like that one. But it is a great piece of software.

  • Larry The Dwarf (unregistered) in reply to operagost
    operagost:
    That Discover "statement" could make sense depending on what your average daily balance and APR were. You paid it off, but then you charged another $182 and interest or other charges were added to that. I don't see a WTF.

    You don't see a WTF in not showing an itemized list of those extra charges?

  • (cs) in reply to Larry The Dwarf
    Larry The Dwarf:
    operagost:
    That Discover "statement" could make sense depending on what your average daily balance and APR were. You paid it off, but then you charged another $182 and interest or other charges were added to that. I don't see a WTF.

    You don't see a WTF in not showing an itemized list of those extra charges?

    That's probably not the only view of account information available.

  • (cs)

    I've gotten that excel dialog, happens sometimes when you try to shut down the computer with excel running. You have to close excel by hand when that dialog appears.

    Of course I've seen better dialogs from Excel, including one that says in effect: "You can't open two files with the same name, even if they are in different folders". It's real, it happens, and it is VERY annoying!

  • drusi (unregistered)

    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

  • diggya (unregistered)

    Flipped screen not a wtf, tis an electrical failure - saw same artefacts many times.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to The MAZZTer
    The MAZZTer:
    I've gotten that excel dialog, happens sometimes when you try to shut down the computer with excel running. You have to close excel by hand when that dialog appears.

    Of course I've seen better dialogs from Excel, including one that says in effect: "You can't open two files with the same name, even if they are in different folders". It's real, it happens, and it is VERY annoying!

    Blame VBA. Not just because it sucks, it really is VBA's fault. It can't uniquely identify files of the same name in different folders so to preserve the functioning of VBA code they carry this restriction through to the rest of the app.

  • Miquel Fire Burns (unregistered)

    There could be a charge on the Discover card that hasn't cleared yet (and maybe not even showing as pending) but is counting toward the total credit, and as a result, the balance.

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to Learn to read
    Learn to read:
    TFA:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    It wants you to the file in a directory that is accessible by all users. Makes sense, considering these are help files, don't you think?
    That depends on whether I want every user to have access to the help files, surely? Although perhaps it doesn't when you're using an OS with only rudimentary multi-user support.
  • (cs) in reply to Miquel Fire Burns
    Miquel Fire Burns:
    There could be a charge on the Discover card that hasn't cleared yet (and maybe not even showing as pending) but is counting toward the total credit, and as a result, the balance.

    Or perhaps there was a $68 charge made on May 19, 2010, after the last statement was posted. Since the activity period selected is "Since May 19, 2010" rather than "Since last statement" it would not be included.

    It's still a load of crap, but at least it doesn't require too many evil gnomes to be trying to steal money from Bill T's credit card.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to moz
    moz:
    Learn to read:
    TFA:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    It wants you to the file in a directory that is accessible by all users. Makes sense, considering these are help files, don't you think?
    That depends on whether I want every user to have access to the help files, surely? Although perhaps it doesn't when you're using an OS with only rudimentary multi-user support.
    I may be wrong but since this dialog came up as part of a VS2010 install the help files it is referring to may be the entire MSDN library. This is several gigabytes in size so you would never install this per-user on every developer's machine, it would be a shocking waste of disk space. As such, the dialog makes sense to me - the files need to be shared between users so don't put them anywhere with restricted user rights. The wording is particularly bad but it still makes sense.
  • bl@h (unregistered)

    So we get a wtf yesterday of someone pushing a button too many times and people griping over how 'As developers we should account for that'. Then today we get a wtf of a pretty sweet notice to the user that 'Hey we know you pushed that button be patient' and that also is considered a wtf. This site is so rapidly going downhill.

    captcha: odio - Odio's tdwtf I believe your standards have slipped.

  • eman rouy (unregistered) in reply to moz
    moz:
    Although perhaps it doesn't when you're using an OS with only rudimentary multi-user support.
    You might want to elaborate on that part. I wasn't aware that VS2010 is installable on Windows 9x/ME.
  • OC (unregistered)

    Seeing ATM errors makes me cringe... They need some master "CANCEL/UNDO" button on each screen until cash is given, standard on all ATMs (but could you even trust that?).

    What do you do when you get errors like that and the bank's closed? If you just enter something, you could be in for a long fight with your bank if the error clears out and overdraws/locks your account. If you wait or just leave it, what's to say the next person gets their account and not yours.

    I may have just talked myself into cancelling ATM access to my account o_O

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to bl@h
    bl@h:
    So we get a wtf yesterday of someone pushing a button too many times and people griping over how 'As developers we should account for that'. Then today we get a wtf of a pretty sweet notice to the user that 'Hey we know you pushed that button be patient' and that also is considered a wtf. This site is so rapidly going downhill.

    captcha: odio - Odio's tdwtf I believe your standards have slipped.

    I agree that this is a sharp contradiction to yesterday's WTF; don't display feedback and it's a WTF, display feedback and apparently it's a WTF as well. To be fair though, it's only an Error'd - which is more about funny pictures and dialogs than true WTFs. Whenever you see a BSOD in a funny place it's not really a WTF because BSODs happen all the time, but that sort of thing still ends up on Error'd.

  • Steve (unregistered) in reply to OC
    OC:
    Seeing ATM errors makes me cringe... They need some master "CANCEL/UNDO" button on each screen until cash is given, standard on all ATMs (but could you even trust that?).

    What do you do when you get errors like that and the bank's closed? If you just enter something, you could be in for a long fight with your bank if the error clears out and overdraws/locks your account. If you wait or just leave it, what's to say the next person gets their account and not yours.

    I may have just talked myself into cancelling ATM access to my account o_O

    Not sure where you live but in the UK this is standard on all ATMs. The physical keypad always has a "Cancel" button that can be used at any point in the transaction to cancel the operation and return your card, regardless of what is being displayed on the screen. I would have thought this was a standard across the globe, maybe not but check out the physical keypad next time you're withdrawing cash.

  • Edward von Emacs, VI (unregistered)

    New math... new-hoo-hoo math...

    Akismet failed in new math :-(

  • JJ (unregistered) in reply to OC
    The Help Dialog Guy:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    So tell us, what did you end up to the files?
  • Chip (unregistered) in reply to Learn to read
    Learn to read:
    TFA:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    It wants you to the file in a directory that is accessible by all users. Makes sense, considering these are help files, don't you think?

    Your statement is far more readable than that piece of garbage in the dialog.

    Does that reader say "Please remove card. No Chip Detected"? I wasn't sure about "Chip".

  • silent d (unregistered)

    This comment should not be construed to imply that I do not agree with those who say the message about not storing help files in folders that can not be accessed by all users is not confusing, nor do I fail to contradict the negative assessment of those naysayers who neither contend that the message is understandable nor stop their withdrawal of support from those who don't agree with this disagreement.

    Glad we cleared that up.

  • Nonny McNonnington (unregistered) in reply to Miquel Fire Burns
    Miquel Fire Burns:
    There could be a charge on the Discover card that hasn't cleared yet (and maybe not even showing as pending) but is counting toward the total credit, and as a result, the balance.

    Yes, Discover doesn't show holds anywhere on their site that I can find, which is something of a WTF itself. So there are purchases that haven't been completed yet since the last statement. "Since X Date" and "Since last statement" are synonymous on all my credit cards' online viewers, so there's no purchase that snuck into a gap. Once the merchant reconciles their outstanding transactions the $68 will appear.

  • JayC (unregistered) in reply to drusi
    drusi:
    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

    Except that it's a local help store, which I read as for the current user. The sentence "We need to put this in a place that is NOT accessible to all users, because you are installing it only for the current user." would be better.

  • JayC (unregistered) in reply to bl@h
    bl@h:
    So we get a wtf yesterday of someone pushing a button too many times and people griping over how 'As developers we should account for that'. Then today we get a wtf of a pretty sweet notice to the user that 'Hey we know you pushed that button be patient' and that also is considered a wtf. This site is so rapidly going downhill.

    captcha: odio - Odio's tdwtf I believe your standards have slipped.

    WTFs don't always have to be bad.

  • Andy P (unregistered) in reply to bl@h
    bl@h:
    So we get a wtf yesterday of someone pushing a button too many times and people griping over how 'As developers we should account for that'. Then today we get a wtf of a pretty sweet notice to the user that 'Hey we know you pushed that button be patient' and that also is considered a wtf. This site is so rapidly going downhill.

    It's pretty simple. If the user initiates an action that will take time to complete, show them an "in progress" indicator. If you're not able to do anything else while the action is in progress, they should be prevented from entering any other input.

    Allowing more input (whether that silently kicks off more "action" like yesterday's example or responds with a "funny" error message like today's example) is unhelpful and confusing to the user, hence WTF.

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    The MAZZTer:
    I've gotten that excel dialog, happens sometimes when you try to shut down the computer with excel running. You have to close excel by hand when that dialog appears.

    Of course I've seen better dialogs from Excel, including one that says in effect: "You can't open two files with the same name, even if they are in different folders". It's real, it happens, and it is VERY annoying!

    Blame VBA. Not just because it sucks, it really is VBA's fault. It can't uniquely identify files of the same name in different folders so to preserve the functioning of VBA code they carry this restriction through to the rest of the app.
    Actually the problem is with the cell reference syntax. It's possible to do cross-workbook references of the form: '[Book1.xlsx]Sheet1'!$A$1. Opening a second workbook of the same name creates a conflict in the cell reference namespace. So, it's not VBA's fault. BTW, Word has VBA and allows you to open two documents with the same file name. Reference: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/excel/archive/2009/01/07/why-can-t-i-open-two-files-with-the-same-name.aspx (blame Askimet for the lack of hot link)

  • Previously National City (unregistered)

    i'm sorry, we don't take Discover!

  • (cs) in reply to diggya
    diggya:
    Flipped screen not a wtf, tis an electrical failure - saw same artefacts many times.
    It can also be poor software. The LCD driver ICs are capable of scanning in either direction horizontally and vertically, to make it easier to lay out the PCB with hundreds of tracks (and no room for crossovers).

    Some panels do not bring out a hardware reset pin, but publish a recommended startup command sequence. If you don't follow this exactly, 99 times out of 100 everything is fine but occasionally the drivers aren't initialised correctly and you get the default settings.

    We had several products which used to do this, and everybody accepted it 'just happened'. When I took over the code, I added the manufacturer's recommended startup command sequence, and we rarely saw the problem again. On later products, I ensured that the panel had a hardware reset line; this completely solved the issue.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Andy P
    Andy P:
    bl@h:
    So we get a wtf yesterday of someone pushing a button too many times and people griping over how 'As developers we should account for that'. Then today we get a wtf of a pretty sweet notice to the user that 'Hey we know you pushed that button be patient' and that also is considered a wtf. This site is so rapidly going downhill.

    It's pretty simple. If the user initiates an action that will take time to complete, show them an "in progress" indicator. If you're not able to do anything else while the action is in progress, they should be prevented from entering any other input.

    Allowing more input (whether that silently kicks off more "action" like yesterday's example or responds with a "funny" error message like today's example) is unhelpful and confusing to the user, hence WTF.

    But it's not always that simple. You say "show a progress indicator" but what if you are cancelling an operation, like the ImgBurn example - do you show a progress indicator for the cancel operation? That would be weird in my opinion, plus you generally don't know how long it will take to cancel (waiting for an async return, for example) so any progress bar could only display a value based on guesswork. There are other ways around this, you could disable the cancel button for example, but that often confuses users to the point that they just terminate the process. I think the "I heard you!" dialog is an acceptable solution to this scenario.

  • (cs) in reply to Scott

    Microsoft Excel... I wish I knew how to quit you!

  • Ralph (unregistered)

    The guy who was hoping to skim some debit cards put the display back in incorrectly :P.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to JayC
    JayC:
    drusi:
    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

    Except that it's a local help store, which I read as for the current user. The sentence "We need to put this in a place that is NOT accessible to all users, because you are installing it only for the current user." would be better.

    You've misinterpreted the meaning of "local help store". It doesn't mean it's literally on your machine, it's just the term given to the complement of online help. So the "local help store" doesn't mean local to your machine, it means local to your network/company/team - as in, it's not the online help.

  • (cs)

    "how exactly do I search for this file name?"

    ۻ.

  • enam rouy (unregistered) in reply to JayC
    JayC:
    drusi:
    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

    Except that it's a local help store, which I read as for the current user. The sentence "We need to put this in a place that is NOT accessible to all users, because you are installing it only for the current user." would be better.

    Local, as opposed to online (i.e. the Internet). Also, you never install something big like VS2010 only for the current user. What would be the point?

  • Support for Pattern Fills (unregistered) in reply to frits
    frits:
    I can't quit you, Excel, so I'm gonna put you down for awhile.

    One of these days, and it won't be long, you'll look for me but baby I'll be gone.

  • airdrik (unregistered) in reply to enam rouy
    enam rouy:
    JayC:
    drusi:
    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

    Except that it's a local help store, which I read as for the current user. The sentence "We need to put this in a place that is NOT accessible to all users, because you are installing it only for the current user." would be better.

    Local, as opposed to online (i.e. the Internet). Also, you never install something big like VS2010 only for the current user. What would be the point?

    Because I'm a data hog and want to keep all of the help information to myself and not let anybody else see it.

  • airdrik (unregistered) in reply to airdrik

    Or, I have a 2 TB HD, so I can fit a copy of the help library in every user's directory.

  • (cs) in reply to operagost
    operagost:
    That Discover "statement" could make sense depending on what your average daily balance and APR were. You paid it off, but then you charged another $182 and interest or other charges were added to that. I don't see a WTF.
    You can certainly explain why the numbers don't add up on the "statement", but I wouldn't go so far as to claim that it "makes sense". At the very least their choice of visual representation is a WTF; last I checked, 557.31 - 557.31 + 188.95 is not 256.59.
  • BentFranklin (unregistered)

    TRWTF is Discover Card. I only know one person who uses it and, let's just say, it fits his personality.

    I view the ImgBurn MsgBox as an Easter egg. Cute, not broken.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to enam rouy
    enam rouy:
    JayC:
    drusi:
    The local help store one makes perfect sense to me. To rephrase it, "we have to put this somewhere that can be accessed by all users."

    Except that it's a local help store, which I read as for the current user. The sentence "We need to put this in a place that is NOT accessible to all users, because you are installing it only for the current user." would be better.

    Local, as opposed to online (i.e. the Internet). Also, you never install something big like VS2010 only for the current user. What would be the point?
    To be fair it is perfectly normal to install VS2010 per-user, I have all versions of VS from 2003 upwards installed on my dev machine on a per-user basis (as do all the devs here). Obviously the MSDN library is shared but we all have our own copies of the app. I refuse to use VS over thin-client and nobody else has access to my dev machine so it's per-user all the way.

  • Microsoft Excel (unregistered) in reply to apaq11
    apaq11:
    Microsoft Excel... I wish I knew how to quit you!

    You can never quit me, so stop trying.

  • Jim (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    moz:
    Learn to read:
    TFA:
    "so where exactly does it want me to the files?"
    It wants you to the file in a directory that is accessible by all users. Makes sense, considering these are help files, don't you think?
    That depends on whether I want every user to have access to the help files, surely? Although perhaps it doesn't when you're using an OS with only rudimentary multi-user support.
    I may be wrong but since this dialog came up as part of a VS2010 install the help files it is referring to may be the entire MSDN library. This is several gigabytes in size so you would never install this per-user on every developer's machine, it would be a shocking waste of disk space. As such, the dialog makes sense to me - the files need to be shared between users so don't put them anywhere with restricted user rights. The wording is particularly bad but it still makes sense.

    I think the point is that it doesn't let him choose a directory

  • Microsoft Excel 2007 (unregistered) in reply to Microsoft Excel
    Microsoft Excel:
    apaq11:
    Microsoft Excel... I wish I knew how to quit you!

    You can never quit me, so stop trying.

    Know that even as I grow and spread my wings, I'll always be here for you, baby.

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