• They Call Me The Joker (unregistered) in reply to Populus
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Satanicpuppy:
    ...and they ditched the product change at the absolute last possible second, which caused untold havok with all the code which was suddenly wrong
    Three words: source control rollback
    Works well for dipstick little VB programs that don't have complex dependencies.

    Works less well for large-scale engineering systems where MegaCo has signed up to spend $1,000,000 on the next version of your product because it's got twenty man years of development on new features. Which you've just rolled back. And you now have a week to re-integrate, re-test, re-document, and re-deploy.

    I see where you're coming from, man, but sometimes reality bites simplicity in the bum; SOP or not.

  • Beaker (unregistered) in reply to Steve H
    Steve H:
    In b4 Belair
    "September? Ken is supposed to check it every month!"

    "Ahh, well, I don't know what to tell you," the support tech sighed. "The janitor said that there were no signs of leakage, the cap was in place, and it's supposed to be topped off after every test. It may've been siphoned?"

    The two sat in silence for a while, when a couple of guys who were up to no good started making trouble in the neighborhood. I got in one little fight and my Mom got scared. She said, "You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air."

  • Decimal (unregistered)

    Random fact: Generator fuel is usually dyed red, indicating that road use is prohibited. Using such fuel in a car is illegal because it circumvents the federal fuel tax.

    I wonder what sort of fine Ken would get, should anyone blow the whistle on him?

  • (cs) in reply to Beaker
    Beaker:
    She said, "You're moving with your auntie and uncle in Bel-Air."
    There's a fresh idea.
  • CrackHappy (unregistered) in reply to Leo

    This thread is FULL OF WIN.

  • Kelsey Grammar (unregistered)

    "...let he get yelled at or god forbid a demerit from himself."

    From himself???

  • (cs) in reply to someguy
    someguy:
    Or an ex-surgeon as a janitor.

    They're entirely different fields, and while I'm of the general opinion that programmers are awesome enough to bring a unique and useful perspective to any situation, most job skills do not translate well.

    Surgeons may be really smart and really highly trained- but not at being janitors. And they'd probably be horrible at it.

    Yeah, but it would take a hell of a lot longer to learn the surgeon's job than the janitor's. Thus the difference in pay!

  • Mostly Evil Frank (unregistered) in reply to Decimal

    If you vehicle is registered as a commercial vehicle such as a farm truck, then yes, there is a chance he could have gotten caught. For the most part, they normally don't check vehicles when they do fuel checks.

    Also, if you are only doing a few gallons in a 30 gallon tank, the red dye would not have a perceivable effect on the green dyed fuel. We also don't know how long the Ken has allegedly been siphoning fuel, so it could have been 5 gallons a month over many months.

  • (cs) in reply to They Call Me The Joker
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    I have heard that saying a bunch of times, and it's really, really stupid. You're not washing your hands to get the piss off of them; you are washing your hands to get rid of (some of) the germs that are living on your private parts and are now on your hands (and there are some, no matter how clean you are). Fresh piss is pretty germ-free.

    You especially want to wash your hands if you're going back to your table in the restaurant where you'll slice some more bread for your fellow diners, which requires holding the small loaf of bread...

    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.

  • mwb (unregistered)

    Reminds me of a colo my company had servers at back in the mid-90s... Sitting on two independent power grids, battery backups, diesel generators... Nice setup, and documented procedures for everything, including testing the diesel generators every month.

    Then one night, both power grids went down for an extended period, and the diesel generators came on when the battery backups started to get low. Everything was good for about 5 minutes until the generators ran out of fuel. Seems there was a procedure for everything except topping off the fuel tanks for the generators after the monthly test.

    DOH!

  • aBase (unregistered) in reply to lolwtf
    lolwtf:
    So wait, Ken was speaking in the third person?
    Ken and Garrett were confused. "Third-person is hard," he said. "I know," he replied.
  • Jason (unregistered) in reply to Dlareg

    That just makes you another WTF.

  • oldami (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    I have heard that saying a bunch of times, and it's really, really stupid. You're not washing your hands to get the piss off of them; you are washing your hands to get rid of (some of) the germs that are living on your private parts and are now on your hands (and there are some, no matter how clean you are). Fresh piss is pretty germ-free.

    You especially want to wash your hands if you're going back to your table in the restaurant where you'll slice some more bread for your fellow diners, which requires holding the small loaf of bread...

    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.

    I think you must not understand the concept of a joke. Maybe you should look up the definition.

  • Nicole (unregistered) in reply to Dlareg
    Dlareg:
    Garret got a nice bonus. Plus he can now install whatever he wants.

    I always make these kinds of deals, there is never any budget for bonuses and stuff. But if you do this overtime, you get a new development laptop to use at home :wink wink: or I get to order from our electronics supplier etc... (different budgets)

    That just makes you another WTF.

  • (cs) in reply to Bim Job
    Bim Job:
    Works well for dipstick little VB programs that don't have complex dependencies.

    Works less well for large-scale engineering systems where MegaCo has signed up to spend $1,000,000 on the next version of your product because it's got twenty man years of development on new features. Which you've just rolled back. And you now have a week to re-integrate, re-test, re-document, and re-deploy.

    I see where you're coming from, man, but sometimes reality bites simplicity in the bum; SOP or not.

    Well, BJ, I've been working with source control for over 12 years, both singly and as part of a team; first SourceSafe, now TFS. "Twenty man-years of development on new features" gets checked in at regular points in the development process, with labels (SS) or numbered changesets (TFS) and comments documenting the changes. A rollback to a previous version does not erase the versions that came after it; they remain in source control, and if necessary you can "rollback" to them (or would that be "rollforward"?).

    If there's a question whether proposed new development may become obsolete, you can keep it in a branch off of the current Production version. If it turns out to be needed after all, merge the branch in with main.

    Our main web application has been in source control for seven years. It currently consists of 5952 files and has 149 dependencies. We've performed occasional rollbacks when circumstances made it necessary. You might want to have another look at source control. Sounds like it's changed some since you used it last.

  • aBase (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Satanicpuppy:
    ...and they ditched the product change at the absolute last possible second, which caused untold havok with all the code which was suddenly wrong
    Three words: source control rollback
    One more: havoc
  • RagnaroK (unregistered) in reply to CrackHappy

    And so out of diesel...

  • Murdog (unregistered) in reply to Kelsey Grammar
    Kelsey Grammar:
    "...let he get yelled at or god forbid a demerit from himself."

    From himself???

    If you keep demeritting yourself you'll go blind!

  • (cs) in reply to Herohtar
    Herohtar:
    @Deprecated:
    It's a "Pick your own ending" book!

    If you want Ken to be fired, turn to page 39. If you picked up the magic shoes in the crystal cave, turn to page 17. If you think Garrett now has a new best friend, turn to page 128.

    turns to page 17

    As you put on the magic shoes, you immediatly find yourself in a dank dark cave. A feeling of Death and despair permeating the darkness.

    "Hello my child" hisses a voice from behind you.

    Turning to face the voice you find a wrinkled crone humanoid toad in a cloak staring at you.

    "Take this..." hisses the crone, handing you a book. "The answers to your problems lie herein."

    You grab the book and start to walk away when you suddenly find yourself back in the office. A grizzly book clutched in your hands. Looking at the book you barely make out the name "Necronomicon". It appears Bound in human flesh and inked in blood. Do you....

    A) Read the book. Turn to page 245. b) Read the book Aloud. Turn to page 310. c) Give the book to Ken. Turn to page 220. d) Donate it to your local library. Turn to page 35. e) put it with your other books at work. Turn to page 64.

  • @Deprecated (unregistered) in reply to mwb
    mwb:
    Reminds me of a colo my company had servers at back in the mid-90s... Sitting on two independent power grids, battery backups, diesel generators... Nice setup, and documented procedures for everything, including testing the diesel generators every month.

    Then one night, both power grids went down for an extended period, and the diesel generators came on when the battery backups started to get low. Everything was good for about 5 minutes until the generators ran out of fuel. Seems there was a procedure for everything except topping off the fuel tanks for the generators after the monthly test.

    DOH!

    A friend of mine worked for a telecom company, with diesel generators on the roof. Diesels kicked in and out shortly after. The tanks were in the basement, and there is a small reserve on the roof to get the fuel pump started... But nobody knew you had to switch the generated from the reserve over to the main tanks!

  • (cs) in reply to They Call Me The Joker
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    "In the Army, they didn't teach us how to go to the bathroom at all. :("

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered) in reply to galgorah
    galgorah:
    Herohtar:
    @Deprecated:
    It's a "Pick your own ending" book!

    If you want Ken to be fired, turn to page 39. If you picked up the magic shoes in the crystal cave, turn to page 17. If you think Garrett now has a new best friend, turn to page 128.

    turns to page 17

    As you put on the magic shoes, you immediatly find yourself in a dank dark cave. A feeling of Death and despair permeating the darkness.

    "Hello my child" hisses a voice from behind you.

    Turning to face the voice you find a wrinkled crone humanoid toad in a cloak staring at you.

    "Take this..." hisses the crone, handing you a book. "The answers to your problems lie herein."

    You grab the book and start to walk away when you suddenly find yourself back in the office. A grizzly book clutched in your hands. Looking at the book you barely make out the name "Necronomicon". It appears Bound in human flesh and inked in blood. Do you....

    A) Read the book. Turn to page 245. b) Read the book Aloud. Turn to page 310. c) Give the book to Ken. Turn to page 220. d) Donate it to your local library. Turn to page 35. e) put it with your other books at work. Turn to page 64.

    Klaatu barada nikto
  • Bub (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.
    I don't. I laugh inside when I think of all the people eating my ass-germs.

    Gotta go....skin-suits don't just stitch themselves, and I've got a date with a nice plump lass.

  • Cyberwizzard (unregistered)

    Wait, free fuel and he wasn't sharing?! What an....

  • Bub (unregistered)

    You know that feeling you get when you're 95% of the way through jerking off, and some ninja smashes through your ceiling and chops off both your hands?

    This WTF story makes me even more frustrated than that.

  • Durr (unregistered) in reply to galgorah
    galgorah:
    Herohtar:
    @Deprecated:
    It's a "Pick your own ending" book!

    If you want Ken to be fired, turn to page 39. If you picked up the magic shoes in the crystal cave, turn to page 17. If you think Garrett now has a new best friend, turn to page 128.

    turns to page 17

    As you put on the magic shoes, you immediatly find yourself in a dank dark cave. A feeling of Death and despair permeating the darkness.

    "Hello my child" hisses a voice from behind you.

    Turning to face the voice you find a wrinkled crone humanoid toad in a cloak staring at you.

    "Take this..." hisses the crone, handing you a book. "The answers to your problems lie herein."

    You grab the book and start to walk away when you suddenly find yourself back in the office. A grizzly book clutched in your hands. Looking at the book you barely make out the name "Necronomicon". It appears Bound in human flesh and inked in blood. Do you....

    A) Read the book. Turn to page 245. b) Read the book Aloud. Turn to page 310. c) Give the book to Ken. Turn to page 220. d) Donate it to your local library. Turn to page 35. e) put it with your other books at work. Turn to page 64.

    But what if you don't have a book. Then what?

  • Bub (unregistered)
    But what if you don't have a book. Then what?
    INITIATIVE FAIL
  • Jess (unregistered) in reply to Mostly Evil Frank

    @Frank: If you vehicle is registered as a commercial vehicle such as a farm truck, then yes, there is a chance he could have gotten caught. For the most part, they normally don't check vehicles when they do fuel checks.

    You could always call up the Highway Patrol and report him. Depending on their monthly quota, they might be very interested in a fuel-tax-dodger. After he's arrested for that, it won't be hard to convince the execs that he's also an embezzler. Then you wouldn't be reporting to a Navy hard-ass anymore.

    Also, if you are only doing a few gallons in a 30 gallon tank, the red dye would not have a perceivable effect on the green dyed fuel. We also don't know how long the Ken has allegedly been siphoning fuel, so it could have been 5 gallons a month over many months.

    I imagine that the generator tank is probably much larger than 30 gallons, and unless Ken is driving a HUGE truck or has installed auxiliary tanks his tank isn't that big anyway. Why would he bother with 5 gallons a month? Besides, what is this green dye of which you speak? I drive diesels all the time, and while the color of the fuel varies a bit and even has a greenish cast sometimes, that isn't from dye. Why would they bother with the whole dyeing exercise if it didn't have some benefit? If you run that stuff through your truck, your fuel filters will have some of the residue in them for a long time afterward. If you really want get Ken, report him just after the next monthly generator test.

  • Melikoth (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    I have heard that saying a bunch of times, and it's really, really stupid. You're not washing your hands to get the piss off of them; you are washing your hands to get rid of (some of) the germs that are living on your private parts and are now on your hands (and there are some, no matter how clean you are). Fresh piss is pretty germ-free.

    You especially want to wash your hands if you're going back to your table in the restaurant where you'll slice some more bread for your fellow diners, which requires holding the small loaf of bread...

    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.

    I usually wash my hands before I take a piss, since my hands are nastier than my junk, and I like to keep it clean.

  • Observer (unregistered) in reply to Bub
    DWalker59:
    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.

    I've always felt that my hands, which just touched the door to the bathroom and the handle on the toilet are much dirtier than my dangle could be. Plus I don't really need to touch it very much when using the bathroom. So yea, I was taught to not piss on my hands...

    I just figure that it's a good idea to wash your hands regularly or at least sometime during the day, and when you go to the bathroom, the sink is right there, so why not!

    Unless I'm in a hurry. Or if they only have those stupid hand blowers. Screw that.

    Oh, and I was going to complain about people leaving the end off of their post, but then it kept happening and it transitioned back into being funny again. Funny how that works...

  • Ex-Navy (unregistered) in reply to They Call Me The Joker
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    I heard that joke when I was in the Navy, only it was the Navy guy that told the Marines, "In the Navy, they taught us not to piss on our hands."

    The Navy also taught me the difference between Marine boots and cowboy boots. With cowboy boots, the sh** is on the outside.

  • (cs) in reply to Durr
    Durr:
    galgorah:
    Herohtar:
    @Deprecated:
    It's a "Pick your own ending" book!

    If you want Ken to be fired, turn to page 39. If you picked up the magic shoes in the crystal cave, turn to page 17. If you think Garrett now has a new best friend, turn to page 128.

    turns to page 17

    As you put on the magic shoes, you immediatly find yourself in a dank dark cave. A feeling of Death and despair permeating the darkness.

    "Hello my child" hisses a voice from behind you.

    Turning to face the voice you find a wrinkled crone humanoid toad in a cloak staring at you.

    "Take this..." hisses the crone, handing you a book. "The answers to your problems lie herein."

    You grab the book and start to walk away when you suddenly find yourself back in the office. A grizzly book clutched in your hands. Looking at the book you barely make out the name "Necronomicon". It appears Bound in human flesh and inked in blood. Do you....

    A) Read the book. Turn to page 245. b) Read the book Aloud. Turn to page 310. c) Give the book to Ken. Turn to page 220. d) Donate it to your local library. Turn to page 35. e) put it with your other books at work. Turn to page 64.

    But what if you don't have a book. Then what?

    Its already been explicitly stated that you do have a book. It's called the necronomicon. now go to page 310 dammit

  • Ex-Navy (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    I have heard that saying a bunch of times, and it's really, really stupid. You're not washing your hands to get the piss off of them; you are washing your hands to get rid of (some of) the germs that are living on your private parts and are now on your hands (and there are some, no matter how clean you are). Fresh piss is pretty germ-free.

    You especially want to wash your hands if you're going back to your table in the restaurant where you'll slice some more bread for your fellow diners, which requires holding the small loaf of bread...

    People who use this saying are idiots. I don't crap on my hands either, but I sure wash my hands each time I crap.

    You don't know your military. They were obviously in a bar, not a restaurant.

  • Bub (unregistered)

    Klaatu Barada Nuhh!*!tbrrbah!

    There. More-or-less said it.

  • Jess (unregistered)

    I've worked for an old Navy officer before. He was gruff and profane and uninformed and a bully, but I didn't let it get me down. Just don't pay any attention to the stylistic BS, be polite, do your job, and occasionally surprise him with something about the company or the system that he hasn't considered before. If he's an old Navy guy (and I don't mean the popular clothing store!), there will be MANY things he hasn't considered before. As long as he fears you a little bit, you have much less to fear from him.

    Within 6 months of my being hired, the old Navy dude for whom I worked was fired. Which bummed me out, because I had figured out exactly how to handle him. But I guess being a gruff uninformed profane bully annoys more people than just your subordinates.

  • Bub (unregistered)
    ...because I had figured out exactly how to handle him
    I guess that's one way to appease him....or do you need to drastically reword your statement?
  • Ex-Navy (unregistered) in reply to superjer
    superjer:
    They Call Me The Joker:
    Populus:
    These ex-Navy guys are the worst. They have to have procedures and manuals for everything else they wouldn't know how to turn on a light or go to the bathroom.

    A Marine and a Navy guy were using the bathroom. After the Marine finished, he began to walk out. The Navy guy says, "In the Navy, they taught us to wash our hands after we use the bathroom." The Marine responds, "In the Marines, they taught us not to piss all over our hands."

    "In the Army, they didn't teach us how to go to the bathroom at all. :("

    Did they give you a shovel to use when on bivouac?

  • (cs)

    "This, this isn't like being a janitor, okay! It's not just like something everybody can do." "Oh. So you can do my stuff, but I can't do yours?" "YES!" "OK, hotshot... what would you use to get a coffee stain up off a tile floor?" "I don't know, the... rough side of a sponge?" "...Dammit!"

  • rant! (unregistered) in reply to Jess
    Jess:
    I've worked for an old Navy officer before. He was gruff and profane and uninformed and a bully, but I didn't let it get me down. Just don't pay any attention to the stylistic BS, be polite, do your job, and occasionally surprise him with something about the company or the system that he hasn't considered before. If he's an old Navy guy (and I don't mean the popular clothing store!), there will be MANY things he hasn't considered before. As long as he fears you a little bit, you have much less to fear from him.

    Within 6 months of my being hired, the old Navy dude for whom I worked was fired. Which bummed me out, because I had figured out exactly how to handle him. But I guess being a gruff uninformed profane bully annoys more people than just your subordinates.

    I have 3 ex military bosses that keep coming up with varying silly stuff for me to do JUST as my team is in monster crunches to squeeze that feature out the door that we didnt get quite enough time to do. And its always just when the worst stress is on our team.

    This week I've gotten requests for SoCing the competence of our team. This week we also have a delivery that spells make or break for about 500 people (if we dont pull it off they just cancel our product even though its 1 out of 2 products that generate revenue). And our 5 man team is doing it. That document? Its 15 fucking pages of stuff for each and every bloodu team member. Before that another one started bitching about how we didnt have an updated burndown chart. While we were basically just cleaning up bugs and stuff. Oh yeah. Screw that.

    My normal way to react is "Yes, I will get around to it as soona s my current 3 uberimportant things gets solved" when the boss in question gets pissy, I just forward them to the guy that currently pays my wages. Sooner or later Im gonna be stuck an entire project just doing the stupid and retarded stuff because one of said ex military guys gets to pay my wages. But thats their issue. If they dont want one of their devs acually doing dev stuff and are willing to pay for it, thats their decision. Of course I'll tell them how stupid they are for doing it though.

    Military. Bleh. they all seem to think that yelling and pointing with the whole hand is a good way to push someone around. Doesnt really work on me. Heh.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to Decimal
    Decimal:
    Random fact: Generator fuel is usually dyed red, indicating that road use is prohibited. Using such fuel in a car is illegal because it circumvents the federal fuel tax.

    I wonder what sort of fine Ken would get, should anyone blow the whistle on him?

    That would be theft and tax evasion. Where I come from, the latter is a felony. That's probably a bit more than just a fine.

  • A. Cube (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward:
    To everyone complaining that the WTF is missing the end, presumably the implication is that Ken has been siphoning the diesel in the generator after every "test" and getting maintenance to top it up, essentially embezzling his car fuel costs from the business. Do you need everything spelt out for

    I think everyone here gets that part. What isn't clear is if anything happened to said manager after getting caught red-handed--or if business was allowed to continue as normal, embezzling and all.

  • Bub (unregistered)
    Using such fuel in a car is illegal because it circumvents the federal fuel tax
    It's a crime to evade theft, didn't you get the memo? ;)
  • Bub (unregistered)

    You're all missing the possibility that Ken simply failed to top-off the tank after every monthly test.

    But where's the fun in that?

    Which is why FINISHING THE GODDAMN STORY is so important ;)

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Bim Job:
    Works well for dipstick little VB programs that don't have complex dependencies.

    Works less well for large-scale engineering systems... MegaCo ... $1,000,000 ... blah blah blah.<snip/>

    Well, BJ, I've been working with source control for over 12 years, both singly and as part of a team; first SourceSafe, now TFS. "Twenty man-years of development on new features" gets checked in at regular points in the development process, with labels (SS) or numbered changesets (TFS) and comments documenting the changes. A rollback to a previous version does not erase the versions that came after it; they remain in source control, and if necessary you can "rollback" to them (or would that be "rollforward"?).

    If there's a question whether proposed new development may become obsolete, you can keep it in a branch off of the current Production version. If it turns out to be needed after all, merge the branch in with main.

    Our main web application has been in source control for seven years. It currently consists of 5952 files and has 149 dependencies. We've performed occasional rollbacks when circumstances made it necessary. You might want to have another look at source control. Sounds like it's changed some since you used it last.

    Diffrnt strokes for diffrnt ... oh, let's not go there.

    You're falling in to the same trap we all fall in to on the Web, CD; making wild assumptions about someone you will (thankfully, for you) never meet. Nice statistics, though.

    Source control is a tool (although it could be argued that VSS was an anti-tool). When used with (ironically) Standard Operating Procedures, such as you suggest, it can indeed be great for rollback (even for web apps, which don't really fit the model I posited, however large. Yup, programmed them too. Insisted on SVN, and installed it myself).

    Doesn't make rollback/forward painless, though.

    AFAIR, I was making a simple (VB snidey, as is my way) defence of an earlier poster, who made the entirely reasonable point that a week often won't get you there, no matter how fine and dandy your source control system is, and no matter how careful you are with branches and labels and the like.

    Some possible problems:

    (a) The PHB in question refused permission to branch, because "it just won't be necessary." (b) You don't have control of the source control system anyway, and the ninnies in charge won't listen to you. (c) The entire team was on a death march for three months to get the new features out, and didn't have time to sit in endless meetings to discuss philosophical issues like "if a branch falls in the forest, and nobody pruned it, does it prove that the client is my imaginary friend?" Then some twit comes in and uses the clueless bat to make the death march even more painful. (d) So many orthogonal features, so little room for branching. Might not happen in your world. Happens elsewhere in the multiverse. (e) An application where (at least) one team is on software development, and one team is on hardware development. Possibly on a different site. With different source control systems. Oh yes, give me some of that sweet ClearCase Kool-aid, please ... because I trust those in charge to make these decisions. And money doesn't matter.

    Now, all five of those have happened to me. I'd guess that one of those was responsible for the $100,000 loss mentioned by the earlier poster. I might be wrong. I, no doubt like you, have taken to running my own secondary source control on the side in mitigation: tarballs at the minimalist level, and a side-order of CVS (blech) if that's all I can get away with.

    But to make a comment like "three words: source control rollback" ill-behoves you. Four letters: YMMV.

    Reality does, indeed, bite simplicity in the bum.

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    I have heard that saying a bunch of times, and it's really, really stupid. You're not washing your hands to get the piss off of them; you are washing your hands to get rid of (some of) the germs that are living on your private parts and are now on your hands (and there are some, no matter how clean you are). Fresh piss is pretty germ-free.

    Since your hands are generally far dirtier than your penis, if we were being rational, we'd wash before we piss. You wash after to get any spattered piss (and there's always some) off your hands.

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to aBase
    aBase:
    Code Dependent:
    Satanicpuppy:
    ...and they ditched the product change at the absolute last possible second, which caused untold havok with all the code which was suddenly wrong
    Three words: source control rollback
    One more: havoc
    Well, nobody reads these things any more unless you repeat them.

    Gosh, did I just get taken in by a Spelling Ninzi? Inadvertently, though, a succinct summary of the nostrum "Three words: source control rollback."

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Bub
    Bub:
    You know that feeling you get when you're 95% of the way through jerking off, and some ninja smashes through your ceiling and chops off both your hands?

    This WTF story makes me even more frustrated than that.

    Quality typing, though. At least the ninja couldn't see your prick well enough to lop it off.

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Satanicpuppy:
    ...and they ditched the product change at the absolute last possible second, which caused untold havok with all the code which was suddenly wrong
    Three words: source control rollback

    That wasn't the problem. The problem was that the code generates work orders and inventory requests based on projected production, and that it had been doing so for almost 10 days before the production run.

    Rolling back the code was trivial. Trying to figure out what should have been in the logistics pipeline, and expedite it...That was challenging.

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Satanicpuppy
    Satanicpuppy:
    Code Dependent:
    Satanicpuppy:
    ...and they ditched the product change at the absolute last possible second, which caused untold havok with all the code which was suddenly wrong
    Three words: source control rollback

    That wasn't the problem. The problem was that the code generates work orders and inventory requests based on projected production, and that it had been doing so for almost 10 days before the production run.

    Rolling back the code was trivial. Trying to figure out what should have been in the logistics pipeline, and expedite it...That was challenging.

    Durn, missed that. It's not like you didn't emphasise the logistics pipeline.

    I did mention hardware, though, so I'm due +1 on my magic WoW source control cluebat...

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