• (cs)

    "David, I'm so glad you were able to make your way here! Us old timers have been hoping ..."

    That's "We old timers", man, not "Us old timers". The old, sweaty guy doesn't even know basic, simple grammar, so how can he possibly know anything vastly harder like computer programming?

    :-)

    It's weird that (good) computer programming is an exacting art/skill, requiring great attention to detail and an appreciation of minutiae, and yet so many programmers can't even spell. (I'm talking about the native English/American speakers; proficiency in a second or third language is understandably hard.)

    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.

    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)

  • Sir Wilhelm (unregistered) in reply to eViLegion

    If it doesnt involve a mouse-in-a-wheel fueled contraption alla Incredible Machine, then I dont do it.

  • boardofpowder (unregistered)

    ha ha ha, I nearly pissed myself laughing! "hustle man, hustle hustle hustle!"

    That's awesome!

  • Bosshog (unregistered) in reply to Max
    Max:
    Fans do not actually cool down air. They just move it.
    WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOODNIGHT!
  • (cs)

    The fans aren't "cooling down the air"; the fans are moving the air faster to better cool the warmer-than-ambient-air-temperature components in the computer. Sheesh.

  • (cs) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration?

    Wiping is continuous, but dabbing is discrete.

  • psm321 (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)

    One drop at a time.

  • Ouch! (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    "David, I'm so glad you were able to make your way here! Us old timers have been hoping ..."

    That's "We old timers", man, not "Us old timers". The old, sweaty guy doesn't even know basic, simple grammar, so how can he possibly know anything vastly harder like computer programming?

    I don't think computer programming is indeed vastly harder. The grammars of programming languages are much simpler than grammars of natural languages. Plus, the compiler nowadays not only notices your grammatical errors but also tells you in what way you erred (of course, it doesn't spot the exact error in every case; still it's much easier to correct your errors now than in the days where the only error message the compiler gave was "Syntax error on line xx. Possibly missing ';' on line above.").

    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)
    'Discretely' as opposed to 'continuously'?
  • monkeyPushButton (unregistered) in reply to Ouch!
    Ouch!:
    DWalker59:
    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Muphry's Law FTW
  • (cs) in reply to monkeyPushButton
    monkeyPushButton:
    Ouch!:
    DWalker59:
    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Muphry's Law FTW
    Give that man a two's compliment!
  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    monkeyPushButton:
    Ouch!:
    DWalker59:
    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Muphry's Law FTW
    Give that man a two's compliment!

    Or two compliments!

  • (cs) in reply to Ouch!
    Ouch!:
    DWalker59:
    "David, I'm so glad you were able to make your way here! Us old timers have been hoping ..."

    That's "We old timers", man, not "Us old timers". The old, sweaty guy doesn't even know basic, simple grammar, so how can he possibly know anything vastly harder like computer programming?

    I don't think computer programming is indeed vastly harder. The grammars of programming languages are much simpler than grammars of natural languages. Plus, the compiler nowadays not only notices your grammatical errors but also tells you in what way you erred (of course, it doesn't spot the exact error in every case; still it's much easier to correct your errors now than in the days where the only error message the compiler gave was "Syntax error on line xx. Possibly missing ';' on line above.").

    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)
    'Discretely' as opposed to 'continuously'?

    Although I don't usually like to pull people on their grammar, for some reason I feel the need to comment here. Complementary was exactly right, unless you wanted to praise them for their lack of skills. I don't mind people making mistakes with language, but I feel incorrect 'corrections' need a response.

  • Plz Send Me The Code (unregistered) in reply to Ouch!

    complementary and complimentary are two different words...or don't I get the joke?

  • (cs) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    You should see what they have to do when they send an email.
    So that's how you get fan mail!
  • Murdog (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    akatherder:
    You should see what they have to do when they send an email.

    Tie it to a pigeon?

    Nope, go stoke the woodfire out back for them there smoke signals!

  • Dank. (unregistered)

    I am so annoyed that someone already suggested the CD tray hack.

    Now I am gonna go out back and throw a few logs on the TCP/IP smoke-stack and see if that makes my connection faster.

  • (cs) in reply to Malenfant
    Malenfant:
    Ouch!:
    Isn't that supposed to be spelled 'complimentary' on the internets?
    Although I don't usually like to pull people on their grammar, for some reason I feel the need to comment here. Complementary was exactly right, unless you wanted to praise them for their lack of skills. I don't mind people making mistakes with language, but I feel incorrect 'corrections' need a response.
    Malenfant <--.....--> Joke

    (Yes, I know, he didn't use a smiley.)

  • jimbobmcgee (unregistered) in reply to Bosshog
    Bosshog:
    WINDMILLS DO NOT WORK THAT WAY! GOODNIGHT!
    Win!!
  • (cs) in reply to Plz Send Me The Code
    Plz Send Me The Code:
    complementary and complimentary are two different words...or don't I get the joke?
    Yes, they are two different words. The joke is that 'on the internets' [sic], they are seemingly confused more often than not.
  • jschank (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    Don't be silly. There's no way a pigeon can carry a mail server.

    You need a least two, and they have to have it on a line.

  • Loopy (unregistered) in reply to Gieron
    Gieron:
    I think more of us could use some exercise during the work day. Perhaps this is not as stupid as it sounds.
    My thoughts exactly. Probably the only exercise they get all day. I also miss the days when compiles took 10 minutes or more and you had time for a coffee break.
  • Ouch! (unregistered) in reply to Bellinghman
    Bellinghman:
    Plz Send Me The Code:
    complementary and complimentary are two different words...or don't I get the joke?
    Yes, they are two different words. The joke is that 'on the internets' [sic], they are seemingly confused more often than not.
    Quite sad that such an obvious joke needs to be explained, isn't it?
  • edthered (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59

    Grammanazi...

    I find it interesting that folks get their knickers all in a bunch over the "correct" use of a living language. I'm sure at some point in the past, someone would have told you that "We old timers..." was improper use.

    If you want to go all "that's not proper..." then restrict it to latin or one of the other dead languages where hard and fast rules actually make sense. Language, first and foremost, is about communication.

    Did you correctly understand what was said?

    Yes?

    Then it's PROPER!

    Geez...

    BTW... "As the months passed, David came to learn that, oddly enough, the younger and healthier non-smoking developers tended to have more success at getting their builds sent to the mainframe and tested"... almost blew coffee out my nose on that...

  • Chelloveck (unregistered) in reply to Loopy
    Loopy:
    I also miss the days when compiles took 10 minutes or more and you had time for a coffee break.

    You need to work on a bigger project. A complete build here takes an hour, on some moderately beefy machines. More than two hours if you feed it to the dog of a VMware instance that is the "official" build machine.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read Slashdot-- Um, I mean, I have to go recompile my code.

  • (cs) in reply to Loopy
    Loopy:
    Gieron:
    I think more of us could use some exercise during the work day. Perhaps this is not as stupid as it sounds.
    My thoughts exactly. Probably the only exercise they get all day. I also miss the days when compiles took 10 minutes or more and you had time for a coffee break.
    If you do stuff like this in enough project files, you can make compiles take as long as you like.
  • (cs) in reply to edthered
    edthered:
    Grammanazi...

    Did you correctly understand what was said?

    Yes?

    Then it's PROPER!

    No, it ain't. That's not how things work.

  • (cs) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    edthered:
    Grammanazi...

    Did you correctly understand what was said?

    Yes?

    Then it's PROPER!

    No, it ain't. That's not how things work.
    From the "first and last letter" people:

    Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

  • ExParrot (unregistered)

    I have a story in a similar vein.

    Years ago, I was an operator on a Univac series 3 (AKA RCA Series 3, in the SPECTRA line). One evening, the AC for the whole building failed. Our machines were crashing every few minutes.

    In desperation, I opened the side panels to aid in cooling. There, I found the overtemp sensor - a common wall thermostat! I pushed it up to the max, and to keep the behemoth going, I would submit a job and fan the thermostat with my coat. Of the three machines in the room, mine was the only one that didn't crash. It didn't seem to suffer from overheat damage, either, so it was a win-win.

  • EngleBart (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent

    The boss of Ryan would fix it in a second...

    http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Fisher_Price_Technology_Integration.aspx

  • Sylver (unregistered) in reply to Steve the Cynic
    Steve the Cynic:
    "Nobody ever thought to..."

    Apparently, even David didn't think of it. Sigh.

    Precisely my thought.

  • Keloran (unregistered)

    So TRWTF is that they were all idiots

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to eViLegion
    eViLegion:
    Very nice.

    I would have suggested a complicated system of levers and pulleys.

    How about a series of tubes?

  • Franz Kafka (unregistered) in reply to Chelloveck
    Chelloveck:
    Loopy:
    I also miss the days when compiles took 10 minutes or more and you had time for a coffee break.

    You need to work on a bigger project. A complete build here takes an hour, on some moderately beefy machines. More than two hours if you feed it to the dog of a VMware instance that is the "official" build machine.

    Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go read Slashdot-- Um, I mean, I have to go recompile my code.

    Over here, builds take 40 minutes, or 1 if you disable ivy:reports (it builds a monster 2G xml file). I've been places that need over an hour to build - it usually means the project is to big.

  • bene (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    "David, I'm so glad you were able to make your way here! Us old timers have been hoping ..."

    That's "We old timers", man, not "Us old timers". The old, sweaty guy doesn't even know basic, simple grammar, so how can he possibly know anything vastly harder like computer programming?

    :-)

    It's weird that (good) computer programming is an exacting art/skill, requiring great attention to detail and an appreciation of minutiae, and yet so many programmers can't even spell. (I'm talking about the native English/American speakers; proficiency in a second or third language is understandably hard.)

    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.

    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)

    I think that that is actually connected to that you spend 8 hours a day being bitched at about tiny semantics by either compilers or basic tests (you do them, right?!) so when it comes to natural language, which normally parses just fine with even huge mistakes, many programmers just dont bother. ;)

    I've noticed the same thing in lots of programmers in my country as well, so its not just you english speakers.

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    DWalker59:
    edthered:
    Grammanazi...

    Did you correctly understand what was said?

    Yes?

    Then it's PROPER!

    No, it ain't. That's not how things work.
    From the "first and last letter" people:

    Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

    Which is not only painful to read, but orthogonal to a discussion of what constitutes "proper" spelling or grammar.

    "Proper" in this context means exactly what a compiler would want it to mean: a construct which follows the rules as currently understood. Where a natural language is concerned, a small amount of wiggle-room is allowed. I would argue that the confusion between the nominative and the accusative in "Us programmers..." falls in to this category. (It's certainly acceptable in spoken English, which is an entirely different beast to written English.)

    Misspelling "complementary" as "complimentary," or vice versa, does not. It's all very well to say that "the meaning is obvious in context," but how do you know that without carefully analysing the context in each case? Why not just get it right in the first place?

    At the very least, you're going to cause a brain hiccough while the reader subconsciously says "did he really mean that?"

    The argument that the reader will follow the general meaning holds no water, either. If that were the criterion for proper usage, then our aim would be to write using all the solecisms that the reader would have used. This requires mind-reading in the one-to-one case and is entirely unworkable in the one-to-many.

    Besides which, given the illiteracy of the average programmer, you'd need a pretty sophisticated language mangler. Oh wait, I've got one right here:

    "I can haz Babelfizh?"

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Bim Job

    Or, to put it another way, misspelling complementary as complimentary is not complimentary to complementary; although misspelling complimentary as complementary is complementary to complimentary usage.

    Oh, and anybody who thinks that spelling and grammar rules are any more set in (Rosetta?) stone with regard to Latin or Greek clearly has never read any Latin or Greek.

  • (cs) in reply to Bim Job
    Bim Job:
    Code Dependent:
    DWalker59:
    edthered:
    Grammanazi...

    Did you correctly understand what was said?

    Yes?

    Then it's PROPER!

    No, it ain't. That's not how things work.
    From the "first and last letter" people:

    Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

    Which is not only painful to read, but orthogonal to a discussion of what constitutes "proper" spelling or grammar. snip
    Did you correctly understand what was said?

  • Bim Job (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Did you correctly understand what was said?
    Yup: I correctly understood it the first time I read it, many years ago. I've correctly understood it every single time it gets trotted out as a "gotcha" argument. I correctly understood it when you brought it up again this time, and I correctly understood the relationship between the argument that you can eroredr the ltteers in a wrod, ety sittl raed it wouthit a porbelm, and the argument that you can misspell a word as an entirely different word without fear of consequential confusion.

    There is no relationship. The two arguments are orthogonal. Did you correctly understand what "athrogolan" means?

  • (cs) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    "David, I'm so glad you were able to make your way here! Us old timers have been hoping ..."

    That's "We old timers", man, not "Us old timers". The old, sweaty guy doesn't even know basic, simple grammar, so how can he possibly know anything vastly harder like computer programming?

    :-)

    It's weird that (good) computer programming is an exacting art/skill, requiring great attention to detail and an appreciation of minutiae, and yet so many programmers can't even spell. (I'm talking about the native English/American speakers; proficiency in a second or third language is understandably hard.)

    You would think the skills would be complementary, but obviously they are not.

    Oh, and how do you "discretely" wipe off perspiration? (I know, that's Alex's fault...)

    Spoken language is informal and generally has less stringent rules of acceptable grammar. Are you really implying that you only talk in complete sentences and adhere to the same rules for written grammar when speaking?

    Seriously -- you're picking at a single informality in a spoken sentence, and then coming to the conclusion that the speaker doesn't know basic, simple grammar. That smacks of someone who is pretty desperately searching for something to make himself feel and sound superior to others.

    I'd suggest you keep looking, we're not impressed yet.

  • Zapp Brannigan (unregistered)

    Are we 100% certain that Tom and the other old-timers weren't jerking David's chain? Cause that would be cool to pull off a long term punk like that.

  • Hatterson (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Is this the origin of the term "fanboy"?
    And over all that time, nobody ever thought to vent A/C directly to the machine room, or a build machine that wasn't so temperamental, or at the very least, buy an electric fan.
    I don't think I would have the guts to submit a story with such an admission in it. I mean, for about twelve bucks you can get a little fan at Walmart... if I couldn't convince management to kick down for one, I'd be willing to do it myself.
    Yea it would take about 1 trip for me to get tired of running down the hall. I'd break my own budget and buy the cheapo Walmart fan and then calmly sit back and upload my changes.
  • quibus (unregistered) in reply to Loopy
    Loopy:
    Gieron:
    I think more of us could use some exercise during the work day. Perhaps this is not as stupid as it sounds.
    My thoughts exactly. Probably the only exercise they get all day. I also miss the days when compiles took 10 minutes or more and you had time for a coffee break.

    Where I work, the test framework takes 4 hours to compile. Its a horrible screwup "script" that is heavily influenced by Pascal syntax, which is parsed into horrible, horrible c++ which is compiled. We have massive amounts of testcases that have to be compiled. The fun part? We have a homegrown test framework that is really scripts. If you need to change something you do so, and then just run it again. No half a days worth of compiling. >.< But we are not allowed to use it anymore. Company policy.

    I am SO going to have to write something about my workplace. The product I work on is oozing of wtfery.

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to Murdog
    Murdog:
    Anon:
    akatherder:
    You should see what they have to do when they send an email.

    Tie it to a pigeon?

    Nope, go stoke the woodfire out back for them there smoke signals!

    Out back? Why not use the charcoal one in the machine room? Why do you think it's so warm and dusty in there?

  • v.dog (unregistered)

    "or at the very least, buy an electric fan." Electric fans don't work long term, All they do is cause the heatsinks to get clogged with dust (TRWTF, I've tried this).

    A five dollar case fan and a hole saw is all you need.

  • (cs) in reply to the real wtf fool
    the real wtf fool:
    Anon:
    Mike:
    Code Dependent:
    Anon:
    Perhaps there wasn't a spare outlet?
    You are standing in a room, holding a fan. There is an old computer with the covers off here. There are no spare wall outlets.

    What do you do now?

    KILL COMPUTER You can't do that here...

    KILL COMPUTER WITH SWORD You don't have the sword... GET SWORD You don't see the sword here...

    COMPILE You have been reading too much xkcd

    CONTINUE TO FAN COMPUTER You fan the computer. Nothing happens.

    KICK COMPUTER You kick the computer. Your foot hurts.

    WAIT You are slain by a grue.

  • pong (unregistered) in reply to boardofpowder
    boardofpowder:
    ha ha ha, I nearly pissed myself laughing! "hustle man, hustle hustle hustle!"

    That's awesome!

    Hustlin' Hustlin' Hustlin' Every day I'm hustlin'.

  • (cs) in reply to Bim Job
    Bim Job:
    There is no relationship. The two arguments are orthogonal.
    As you wish.
    Bim Job:
    Did you correctly understand what "athrogolan" means?
    Of course. However, you are using the archaic spelling. In modern Thurmese, it's "athrogolian".
  • By eck (unregistered) in reply to jschank
    jschank:
    Don't be silly. There's no way a pigeon can carry a mail server.

    You need a least two, and they have to have it on a line.

    These days they just need to carry a USB key.

  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    From the "first and last letter" people:

    Aoccdrnig to rseearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is that the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

    Tihs tierd old cyoasptpa nedes to die. It osuveers sorht wodrs and all of the leretts are itnanlolietny rangeerard in a way taht's ralbeade to hanmus. Try rdloanmy snfihfulg the leretts of the wdors and wctah as the huamn bais dprsieaaps. You can pablorby stlil dihepecr it but it's osiblovuy mroe dcfulfiit. Ieialtlndncy, the utesiinrvy rarceseh is tlltoay foantciil. It nveer henepapd.

  • Andrew (unregistered) in reply to amischiefr

    And miss the spectacle of the old timers running out of breath?

    This arrangement is beneficial to the young and healthy.

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