• next_ghost (unregistered)

    I've had my own antigravity packaging experience a few months ago. I've ordered a Dell laptop from one eshop. The laptop specs said it weighs 2.6kg (and it does). The delivery company tracking page said that the package they received from the shop weighs 1.6kg. When I received the package, it was the laptop I ordered so apparently the delivery company should check their scale. And when I started to open the box, I've noticed a sticker from Dell saying that the package weighs 4kg...

  • North Shore Beach Bum (unregistered) in reply to toth
    toth:
    So I figured the 15-Oct thing was probably a culprit of something (like Excel) interpreting it as a date, but Oct is 10, so was it originally "15-10"? That seems really weird, especially since all the other options are lowernumber-highernumber.

    In the US, most people use month-day-year, thus 10-15 could be interpreted as 15 October.

  • Harrow (unregistered) in reply to Markp
    Markp:
    When you walk in the woods at night, you shine a flashlight a few feet in front of you at the ground, illuminating about 10 feet in front of you. Would you like to go 100 mph with that lighting? That would give you approximately 0.07 seconds to see a deer, react, and come to a complete stop.
    Fortunately, here in Massachusetts, all deer are required by law to carry their own flashlights, and shine them directly toward any approaching environmentalists or experimental physicists.

    -Harrow.

  • (cs) in reply to flyboyfred
    flyboyfred:
    toth:
    So I figured the 15-Oct thing was probably a culprit of something (like Excel) interpreting it as a date, but Oct is 10, so was it originally "15-10"? That seems really weird, especially since all the other options are lowernumber-highernumber.

    I just put "10-15" into an Excel spreadsheet. What'd it change it to? "15-Oct".

    Ah, of course. I didn't think about Excel interpreting it as date and then displaying it in its own date format. Excel date handling is TRWTF (can't handle dates earlier than 1900? seriously?)

  • Physics Curmudgeon (unregistered)

    TRWTF is the "anti-gravity packaging" statement. The kilogram is a unit of mass, not weight, so its value is independent of gravity. Now, if the weights had been measured in Newtons...

    CAPTCHA: praesent - Dave Carson bought the "20kg" dumbbells as a praesent for himself, so he could bulk up and pick up chicks.

  • o (unregistered) in reply to sino
    sino:
    You need to watch The IT Crowd.
    Indeed, or at the very least the first episode of the first season.
  • llort suoivbo (unregistered) in reply to o
    o:
    sino:
    You need to watch The IT Crowd.
    Indeed, or at the very least the first episode of Parks and Recreation
    FTFY
  • (cs) in reply to Physics Curmudgeon
    Physics Curmudgeon:
    TRWTF is the "anti-gravity packaging" statement. The kilogram is a unit of mass, not weight, so its value is independent of gravity. Now, if the weights had been measured in Newtons...

    CAPTCHA: praesent - Dave Carson bought the "20kg" dumbbells as a praesent for himself, so he could bulk up and pick up chicks.

    Gravity acts on mass, not weight. Anything that counteracts gravity would be mathimatically interpreted as having negative mass. So, if the package is negative 1.6kg, then it certainly is an anti-gravity package. I'd be interested to see if the package has the same effect on inertia, if not then we may have a graviton-blocker. That would be interesting.

  • Bernie (unregistered) in reply to neminem
    neminem:
    ...or Lobster Thermidor a Crevette with a mornay sauce served in a Provencale manner with shallots and aubergines garnished with truffle pate, brandy and with a fried egg on top and fried pickles?
    I also once tried to destroy a Chevette with Lobster Thermite, but my Provincial manner proved me to be a moron with egg sauce on top of his face.
  • Physics Curmudgeon (unregistered) in reply to Jaime
    Jaime:
    mathematically

    FTFY

  • SilverEyes (unregistered) in reply to PeriSoft

    Obviously. People who have liquid cooling will pump water or oil. Iron (even molten iron) has a low enough electrical resistivity to wreck the operation of the computer. Also, the computer will melt.

    CAPTCHA: genitus. Either genes for genius or a single genitalia.

  • uuang (unregistered) in reply to CHiPs
    CHiPs:
    TRWTF is 'V', amirite?
    Yes
  • me (unregistered) in reply to next_ghost
    next_ghost:
    I've had my own antigravity packaging experience a few months ago. I've ordered a Dell laptop from one eshop. The laptop specs said it weighs 2.6kg (and it does). The delivery company tracking page said that the package they received from the shop weighs 1.6kg. When I received the package, it was the laptop I ordered so apparently the delivery company should check their scale. And when I started to open the box, I've noticed a sticker from Dell saying that the package weighs 4kg...
    Maybe they're filling bubble wrap and air-packs with helium these days? I'm just sayin'....

    CAPTCHA 'minim' - the rate you pay when your package weighs nothing

  • Mark (unregistered)

    Something quite a few people seem to be ignoring is metric conversion and rounding for marketing purposes. Whack 18.4 Kg into the unit converter of your choice and you get a bit more than 40 pounds. The company is only going to want to make one set of weights and sell them in locations using both Kgs and pounds, so someone gets rounded so marketing can put round numbers on the advert.

  • whiskeyjack (unregistered) in reply to Bernie
    Bernie:
    I also once tried to destroy a Chevette with Lobster Thermite, but my Provincial manner proved me to be a moron with egg sauce on top of his face.

    And a fried pickle hidden somewhere in his body?

  • BentFranklin (unregistered)

    TRWTF is USA can't even manufacture cast iron dumbbells anymore.

  • (cs)

    Manager to website designer: "We got a lot of fried pickles by mistake. Do whatever you can to push them."

  • the real frits (unregistered)

    Really? We're having the best date format conversation again? Everybody should just log off and go home.

  • boog (unregistered) in reply to the real frits
    the real frits:
    Really? We're having the best date format conversation again? Everybody should just log off and go home.
    Best advice I've heard all day.
  • h1ppie (unregistered)

    Did anyone else read "Thai Kitchen" as "Thai Kittens" the first time through?

  • whiskeyjack (unregistered) in reply to h1ppie
    h1ppie:
    Did anyone else read "Thai Kitchen" as "Thai Kittens" the first time through?

    No.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to toth

    toth

    On the western side of the atlantic, October 15 is typed 10/15 and less often 10-15.

    Excel is like a lonely nerd that will do anything to get a date.

  • Harrow (unregistered) in reply to BentFranklin
    BentFranklin:
    TRWTF is USA can't even manufacture cast iron dumbbells anymore.
    Not True! I deal with cast iron dumbbells all week long and most of them were born right here in the USA.

    -Harrow.

  • Larry (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that image is from Lost.

  • the beholder (unregistered) in reply to whiskeyjack
    whiskeyjack:
    Bernie:
    I also once tried to destroy a Chevette with Lobster Thermite, but my Provincial manner proved me to be a moron with egg sauce on top of his face.
    And a fried pickle hidden somewhere in his body?
    Is that a fried pickle in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
  • AA (unregistered) in reply to North Shore Beach Bum
    North Shore Beach Bum:
    In the US, most people use month-day-year,

    This is TRWTF.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to Max
    Max:
    dpm:
    Anyone who doesn't immediately realize the cause of the "15-Oct" WTF hasn't had to suffer under Excel's insane eagerness to regard ANYTHING as a date.
    My favourite experience with this was when I entered Aug 31 and Excel dutifully changed it to date format... August 1931.

    Misinterpreting the day as year I can kind of forgive, inconvenient as it may be, but apparently Microsoft Office fixed the y2k issue by shifting it 30 years. Is 2030 really so far in the future? (That's Office 2007 if you're wondering and want to try it yourself, I haven't checked with other versions.)

    This can be configured somewhere (as in, you can change the last two digits of the year which will be assumed as "19xx" versus "20xx".) I can't be bothered to find it right now because it's Friday afternoon.

  • Ed Von Emacs, VI (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    toth Excel is like a lonely nerd that will do anything to get a date.

    Liked it.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to next_ghost
    next_ghost:
    I've had my own antigravity packaging experience a few months ago. I've ordered a Dell laptop from one eshop. The laptop specs said it weighs 2.6kg (and it does). The delivery company tracking page said that the package they received from the shop weighs 1.6kg. When I received the package, it was the laptop I ordered so apparently the delivery company should check their scale. And when I started to open the box, I've noticed a sticker from Dell saying that the package weighs 4kg...

    The shipper is scamming the shipping company out of money for heavier packages. This works well until they catch the discrepancy and overbill you for the erroneous weights.

  • Marc B (unregistered) in reply to Proud Papa
    Proud Papa:
    That driver's ed quiz is deceptive. I got pulled over for doing February MPH in a 15-Oct zone. I couldn't tell if that meant I was speeding, driving too slow for traffic, or just the lucky recipient of the cop's bad day.

    That happened to me the other day, I told him no way, my car can barely get up to 10-Aug, never mind 15-Oct. He didn't buy it and I ended up paying the 25 quart fine and got 3 amps on my insurance.

    Anyone else notice that there's a stray radio button in the instructions?

  • Jason (unregistered) in reply to dkf
    dkf:
    JakeyC:
    Actually, it's not advertised as 20kg. If you put that catalogue number into the Argos website, it states it's an 18kg set...
    Yeah, well they have to suffer the consequences of the UK's truth-in-advertising laws. But at least the weights were 20kg when they left the Chinese factory…

    Chinese products are required to include half-life of all hazardous metals shipped.

  • (cs) in reply to JakeyC
    JakeyC:
    Actually, it's not advertised as 20kg. If you put that catalogue number into the Argos website, it states it's an 18kg set...

    Oh, I see: TRWTF is that the software rounded-up 18KG to 20KG.

    It's still lame. :)

  • PITA (unregistered) in reply to Bill P. Godfrey
    Bill P. Godfrey:
    Is Shoving Buddies on after the news?
    Followed by 'Slowly Rotating Black Man'
  • neminem (unregistered) in reply to the real frits
    the real frits:
    Really? We're having the best date format conversation again? Everybody should just log off and go home.
    Log off? You mean with the restart button, right?
  • LB (unregistered)
    next_ghost:
    The Real Truth:
    Please tell me HTH this is logical?
    It's ordered by size of the unit. Day is the smallest unit in date so it goes first, year is the biggest one so it goes last.
    Year isn't even a part of the date in this example. It's just a month and day. So whether you have MM-DD or DD-MM, either one is equally logical. It's simply a matter of whether you prefer ascending order or descending order. The standard in the US (as well as a lot of other places) only becomes strange when the year gets tacked onto the end rather than the beginning where it belongs.
    frits:
    Day of the month makes no sense by itself. I never find myself wondering...gee, what day of the month is it?
    That's the part I'm most likely to find myself wondering. ("hmm... What's today? The ninth or the tenth?") I usually already know what month it is, the same as I usually already know the year.
  • (cs) in reply to dpm
    dpm:
    Anyone who doesn't immediately realize the cause of the "15-Oct" WTF hasn't had to suffer under Excel's insane eagerness to regard ANYTHING as a date.

    This.

    Buried in the options menus of Excel is a tab with the setting "Eagerness level with which to regard entries as dates". The options are

    • Insane (default)
    • Normal
    • Subdued
    • Nonexistent
  • (cs) in reply to BentFranklin
    BentFranklin:
    TRWTF is USA can't even manufacture cast iron dumbbells anymore.

    We can't seem to get quite as high lead levels as China does.

  • J (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Excel is like a lonely nerd that will do anything to get a date.

    Best comment I've read on the website for a while. It's so true.

  • Roger Garrett (unregistered) in reply to Markp
    Markp:
    RayMarron:
    TRWTF is that driver training question! I'm pretty sure any* headlight is effective until the car exceeds the speed of light. ;)

    *must be turned on, not broken

    When you walk in the woods at night, you shine a flashlight a few feet in front of you at the ground, illuminating about 10 feet in front of you. Would you like to go 100 mph with that lighting? That would give you approximately 0.07 seconds to see a deer, react, and come to a complete stop. Accelerating from 100 mph to 0 in 0.07 seconds puts a force on you of about 65g, instantly killing you.

    In short, it's the angle of the beams, not the speed that's the problem. Obviously.

    No, it's the speed of the vehicle in conjunction with the intensity of the beams, which determines how far ahead of the vehicle you can see. Yes, it's true that "low beams" are also generally directed more downward than high beams, but that's because they can't illuminate farther out at their reduced intensity.

  • (cs) in reply to LB
    LB:
    next_ghost:
    The Real Truth:
    Please tell me HTH this is logical?
    It's ordered by size of the unit. Day is the smallest unit in date so it goes first, year is the biggest one so it goes last.
    Year isn't even a part of the date in this example. It's just a month and day. So whether you have MM-DD or DD-MM, either one is equally logical. It's simply a matter of whether you prefer ascending order or descending order.
    And if you prefer ascending order, you should put the units digit of both month and day before the tens digit.

    For consistency.

  • Roger Garrett (unregistered) in reply to Larry
    Larry:
    TRWTF is that image is from Lost.

    Yeah, I noticed that, too. Since I retired from software engineering I've done some acting/background work here in Hawaii (there IS life after programming!). I was in three episodes of Lost.

  • Silverhill (unregistered)

    Actually, the first choice for the speed is 13 mph (translated from the octal). TRWTF is that they didn't put the rest of the speeds in octal. (Maybe they thought that only programming nerds would drive slowly?)

    captcha: delenit -- how you say "deleting it" before you've had that first cup of coffee.

  • AnOldRelic (unregistered)

    Holy crap! I wasn't the only one fighting with ESXi today!

  • boog (unregistered) in reply to Roger Garrett
    Roger Garrett:
    No, it's the speed of the vehicle in conjunction with the intensity of the beams, which determines how far ahead of the vehicle you can see. Yes, it's true that "low beams" are also generally directed more downward than high beams, but that's because they can't illuminate farther out at their reduced intensity.
    I believe it's to avoid blinding drivers coming at you. Ever see an oncoming car going over a hill and its lights seem extra bright? Or an oncoming car with misaligned headlights? One looks normal, but the other is so much brighter.

    Headlights have to be angled downward for safety reasons, so I expect an "effective speed" is due to both angle and intensity, not to mention it's generally harder to see things in the dark (even with headlights) so reaction times are significantly slower.

    <tying-the-comment-back-to-the-article-so-it-wont-get-deleted> But it's still kind of a BS question. What are the other driving conditions? Weather? Street lighting? "Maximum effective speed" for low-beam headlights is hard to estimate given such vague circumstances. The easiest answer would be the lowest speed (in this case "15-Oct"). Who would argue against safety? Other than the software, which will probably fail you and deny your driver's license for choosing the safest answer over a predetermined "correct" answer. And I assume "15-Oct" is not the correct answer. </tying-the-comment-back-to-the-article-so-it-wont-get-deleted>

  • (cs)

    I have some sympathy (but not much) for the "card you entered was a card" one.

    The "credit card number" space is divvied up among credit card vendors much the way IP space is divvied up among registrars. They presumably have a CreditCardVendor_From_Number function which takes "4000 0000 0000 0000" and returns "Visa".

    This function would appear not to have an entry for the poster's credit card (which is forgivable) but does not have an "Unknown" default return value... and HTML collapses consecutive spaces, so this code line ends up displaying the WTF:

    message = "The card you entered was detected as a " + CreditCardVendor_From_Number(number) + " card"

  • (cs)

    kg one is not a WTF. "g" is an SI unit, and "k" is an SI prefix. "KG" means nothing.

  • (cs) in reply to Marc B
    Marc B:
    <Hilarity snipped> Anyone else notice that there's a stray radio button in the instructions?

    Yeah. "Vlad" was eluding to that (below). A+ on the funny post, BTW.

    Vlad the Poutines:
    Straight away you can eliminate "A" and "Check the button next to your choice and then press ..." ...
  • (cs) in reply to markbark
    markbark:
    Unhandled state expection?

    My code handles ALL expections! (save those of the Spanish Inquisition, because... well, you know)

    Because no-one expects the unexpected exception?
  • Kael Rourke (unregistered)

    You and me both, UI. You and me both.

  • (cs)

    If you see the message "enter comment" you should enter your 16-digit credit card number and then press "Submit".

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