The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

chubertdev · 2013-06-07 Reply Admin

Do pensioners retyre?

2013-06-07 Reply Admin

No, hyper-inflation will lead to the tyre wearing too much along the middle, or in the worst case it may explode.

2013-06-07 Reply Admin

golddog:
eViLegion:
It's always amused me that in the UK, the AA is a club for drivers, whereas in the US it's a club for alcoholics.
They should merge.

You're not going to get better at something without practice. For both groups.

Of course you can. You can sober up.

Someone:
xaade:
Not disposable identities.
They'd probably not allow you into the second set of classes until you pay the difference once they realize you are the same person.
Indeed, I wouldn't even be surprised if they recorded drivers license numbers (if the lessons are to get better at driving) or some other information to record their checks that students are legally able to participate in the driving lessons.

Does "driving lesson" mean something to you people other than sitting in a car next to <name redacted> for an hour or so? I don't know what will happen once you are noticed, but pretending to be someone else is never going to work.

2013-06-07 Reply Admin

TRWTF is government standards. I don't know what the drop-downs said on the Disney site, but the government collects these values:

For ethnicity (not race):

Hispanic or Latino
Not Hispanic or Latino
Refused
Unknown

For gender:

Male
Female
Refused
Unknown

Source: I work in healtchare

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_Census

2013-06-07 Reply Admin

And of course, wretched refuse.

2013-06-08 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
For once, comparing apples to orangutans might help. Consider a £4 chocolate is being offered for £1, and a £1000 holiday is being offered for £995. Which offer is "better"?

This is easy!

If you buy the chocolate for £1 instead of buying the holiday worth £1000, you save £999. If you buy 1000 chocolates you'd save £999000, and they might even give you a discount for buying in bulk.

Brendan

faoileag · 2013-06-08 Reply Admin

PRMan:
faoileag:
No, what would really be a novel concept would be a pub linked to a garage...

They have a restaurant in Pennsylvania called the Quaker Steak and Lube which does exactly this. I didn't try it. I won't even eat Subway from a gas station. It tastes like petrol.

So much for coming up with a novel concept :-(

But I must say, that Quaker Steak & Lube sure sounds great! I just had a quick look at their drinks menu and I must say, I am impressed! Probably a good thing they already have your car keys and don't have to ask you for them after a couple of Lube-N-Ades or the like :-)

2013-06-08 Reply Admin

fsck0:
TRWTF is government standards. I don't know what the drop-downs said on the Disney site, but the government collects these values:
For ethnicity (not race):

Hispanic or Latino

Not Hispanic or Latino

Refused

Unknown

For gender:

Male

Female

Refused

Unknown

Source: I work in healtchare

Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_and_ethnicity_in_the_United_States_Census

That's perfect! I remember those times I forgot my gender!

CAPTCHA: saluto - I saluto the government for having an option for forgotten gender.

2013-06-09 Reply Admin

That university might have some interesting history classes.

"But, professor, wasn't it in nineteen fifty-ni-"

"YOU MEAN THE BEGINNING OF TIME?!"

"...okay."

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

Just to make it overly confusing I have a friend in AA in the UK and it is indeed for alcoholics. They do have a way of screwing with outsiders though. Pudding=dessert for example and often skipping words or inflection that are used to make something a question. As in:

"Pudding."

"Pardon?"

"Pudding."

"What?"

"Would you like pudding?"

"Sure what kind do you got?"

"Cherry pie or ice cream."

"Huh?"

At which point my friend explained it to me. Nice.

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

I'm guessing that Chris's college is using a SAS database as the backend for their website. The SAS epoch is 1st January 1960 - you need to use negative numbers for earlier dates.

This isn't usually a problem in and of itself, but I suspect that in this case it might have caused compatibility issues with some other system that was expecting an unsigned variable.

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

Nope - I'm going to bet they are using Oracle Banner. There is a special college term hardcoded in there called "The Beginning of Time." The problem is blindly accepting all of the results from the query when this Beginning of Time entry was there all along and is easily filtered.

If I remember correctly, there's also an "End of Time" value, that appears not to be showing. Don't ask me what End of Time means. Banner is scary enough when it's not talking about the Beginning and End of time itself.

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

It's a fact that most people don't understand what "saving money" means. I am regularly told by my brother that there's some kind of sale on <expensive_appliance> and I should go and get one! "You'll save like $100", he'd tell me! Even though I have no plans to get <expensive_appliance> so it would actually cost me <regular_price> - 100, which is usually at least $200 and often closer to $1000. Needless to say, he doesn't have any money...

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

facilisi:
eViLegion:
It's always amused me that in the UK, the AA is a club for drivers, whereas in the US it's a club for alcoholics.
They should merge.

I can't stop laughing [sarcastically].

Dude, you're comparing apples and oranges. In US, "AA" is an acronym for "Alcoholics Anonymous" (I'm sure you knew this), but it's also how "American Airlines" like to abbreviate its name. In UK, that "AA" seems to be the name (or a part of it) of that company, with essentially no meaning (I bet the only reason they choose that was to be first in the phone book, slimy bastards).

Automible Association

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

xaade:
Nick:
At first glance, there's nothing wrong with the AA website - if you add the savings to the cost, to get the amount without the discount applied, then divide by the number of hours, you get a consistent £27 per hour.
Its only after looking at it I realised that if you book 2 hours 5 times, you pay £135 for 10 hours, instead of the published £223. Yes, I can see how that can be considered at WTF. Very amusing indeed. Hysterical, in fact.

It may be a one time booking discount. Maybe it's a first time members discount.

So if you know you need 10 lessons now, you'll save more money if they never offer the discount again.

However, if they offer the discount for a period of time, instead of once only, then and only then is it a WTF.

And in all likelihood, they've worked out that the average numpty will take about 7 lessons to learn to drive, so you have the choice of paying 5 then 2x27 or paying for 10 just in case....it's called marketing

2013-06-10 Reply Admin

moz:
golddog:
eViLegion:
It's always amused me that in the UK, the AA is a club for drivers, whereas in the US it's a club for alcoholics.
They should merge.

You're not going to get better at something without practice. For both groups.
Of course you can. You can sober up.

Someone:
xaade:
Not disposable identities.
They'd probably not allow you into the second set of classes until you pay the difference once they realize you are the same person.
Indeed, I wouldn't even be surprised if they recorded drivers license numbers (if the lessons are to get better at driving) or some other information to record their checks that students are legally able to participate in the driving lessons.
Does "driving lesson" mean something to you people other than sitting in a car next to <name redacted> for an hour or so? I don't know what will happen once you are noticed, but pretending to be someone else is never going to work.

If it's a big company (as I'd imagine AA is) then cheances are if you booked twice independently you'd get a different instructor....of course, tracking the number on the license should do the trick....

2013-06-20 Reply Admin

I don't know what is supposed to be wrong with this driving lessons prices. It seems looking at that picture that one hour of driving costs 27£. So if you buy hours in package instead of buying multiple single hours - then you save money. And values match - you save 27£ when you buy two hours package, you save 33,75£ when you buy 5 hours package etc. So of course you have to pay more for ten hours then for two, but you still "save money". That's just how every market works.

2013-06-24 Reply Admin

eViLegion:
It's always amused me that in the UK, the AA is a club for drivers, whereas in the US it's a club for alcoholics.
They should merge.

In Quebec we have the SAQ which stand for Société des alcools du Québec, which are state run liquor store and then you have the SAAQ which stand for Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec which does the driver and vehicle licensing and handle the legislation in accident case.

2013-07-19 Reply Admin

Looks like a negative rebate to me... and I'm pretty sure that, as with most job application sites, there is a "Decline to state" or similar option in those dropdowns.

2014-03-18 Reply Admin

TRWTF is how many people in the comments can't figure out that while the numbers are mathematically correct, you save LESS per lesson the more lessons you sign up for, despite the assertion that the more you sign up for the more you will save. The key is "per lesson" folks.

TRWTFs of the year dropdown are that 1969 was immediately preceded by 1698, and that 1962 apparently never happened.

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