• Jay (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Jay:
    Maybe I'm missing something here, but I thought the story said that the team lead said that this diagram was "not for anything", it was just his idea of art. I'm not clear if he thought this was actually a work of great beauty or a joke, but either way, it was just someone throwing together a picture when he had a few minutes of free time, and then storing it on the Wiki for a laugh. So what? I don't find his artwork particularly interesting or amusing, but I've never quit a job because I didn't share the same artistic taste or sense of humor with my boss.

    I suppose I could imagine extreme cases, like if his idea of great art was graphic pictures of people being tortured and he insisted on posting these on the walls all over the office, maybe I'd find it unpleasant enough to drive me to quit. But in this case, so you say to yourself, "Wow, that's really stupid", and you move on. What's the big deal? Why is this a reason to quit?

    While I do think that this article is fairly well written, it should make the distinction as to how crucial the application is. It only implies that it's crucial enough to quit over.

    The article says:

    "I don't think I understand. What is this structure for?"

    "It's not for anything. It's art."

    I understood that to mean: This is not a diagram for any real database. It's something I drew because I thought it was pretty and/or interesting, using the tools for building database diagrams. If that's what was meant, then there is no question of how vital the application is, because there is no application.

    I guess it is also possible to read those sentences as meaning that the diagram serves no useful purpose except as art, but the database is real. That seems a less likely interpretation to me, but possible.

  • ullamcorper (unregistered) in reply to nmclean
    nmclean:
    It's actually a much more versatile word than you describe. Consider:

    "The light is off, for it is broken."

    "The light would be on, but for its malfunction."

    "I feel sorry for him."

    None of those match the pattern of the original joke. (Not that it particularly matters of course, since it's, well, a joke.)

  • (cs) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    Valued Service:
    It's bad English, but it is commonly used. You should avoid ending a statement in a preposition or conjunction.

    Yes, yes, those classic rules pedants always bring up:

    Never use a preposition to end a sentence with.

    A pronoun must agree in type and number with their antecedent.

    About sentence fragments.

    Never use a long word when a diminutive one will do.

    It may seem like a good idea to end a sentence with a conjunction, but.

    Is there really any point in asking rhetorical questions?

    And don't start your sentence with a conjunction.

  • Reductio Ad Ridiculousum (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:

    The article says:

    "I don't think I understand. What is this structure for?"

    "It's not for anything. It's art."

    I understood that to mean: This is not a diagram for any real database. It's something I drew because I thought it was pretty and/or interesting, using the tools for building database diagrams. If that's what was meant, then there is no question of how vital the application is, because there is no application.

    I guess it is also possible to read those sentences as meaning that the diagram serves no useful purpose except as art, but the database is real. That seems a less likely interpretation to me, but possible.

    Yes, that's how I read it. As another poster mentioned, it's a test, a shibboleth. The Artist simply was playing around one day (I understand that many people take time out of their workday to do something amusing, but don't quote me on that). For whatever reason, it pleased him, so he left it in. It's now evolved into a test for noobs. Can they spot it? Do they have the initiative to ask about it? What's their reaction?

    Is this a good test to see if someone is knowledgeable and compatible? Maybe. We have no data, though, since we all know that Ray didn't say those things, Ray probably would have spelt her name as Rae, and Ray, of course, does not even exist.

  • (cs)

    If a PHB says that something is not used, you can be sure that it's mission-critical.

  • Someone not prepared to give you my email address (unregistered)

    Sine I ain't going to give you my personal details because there is no reasonable reason whatsoever for visitors to this site to do so, I am commenting here on the terrible new forum system introduced in the article above this one. Remove this comment if you like, but, really.... WTF?

    Did you look at the crappy Slashdot redesign fiasco and think "Hey, we should do that because everybody loved it......."?

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)

    for (tree = 4; tree == 4; tree = 4) { printf("You can't see the for is for the trees.\n"); }

  • R (unregistered)

    Here's my opinion as someone who doesn't normally visit the comments page:

    I hate the new Discourse system. I prefer not to make accounts for random forums. Especially if I don't visit frequently.

    Also, I don't like the infinite scroll system. The user experience is that it's slower than the simple HTML that is loaded all at once.

  • kupfernigk (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev

    Last year I left a company where the CEO decided to go off and install our product himself (you guessed, nice exotic location). He came back and raved that the product didn't work, was not fit for its purpose, everything was wrong. It turned out he had never actually used it himself and never installed it, nor did he have the manual with him. What he had was a PowerPoint which he had created himself, which explained what he thought the product did.

    I have visions of the ERD that justifiably floored Ray ending up in just such a ppt.

  • Anone (unregistered)

    Can anonymous commenting please be added to the Discourse article threads.

  • (cs) in reply to Anone
    Anone:
    Can anonymous commenting please be added to the Discourse article threads.
    Can the Discourse forum software be removed from the new forums please. Clay tablets are better than that.
  • CigarDoug (unregistered) in reply to Jay
    Jay:
    chubertdev:
    Jay:
    Maybe I'm missing something here, but I thought the story said that the team lead said that this diagram was "not for anything", it was just his idea of art. I'm not clear if he thought this was actually a work of great beauty or a joke, but either way, it was just someone throwing together a picture when he had a few minutes of free time, and then storing it on the Wiki for a laugh. So what? I don't find his artwork particularly interesting or amusing, but I've never quit a job because I didn't share the same artistic taste or sense of humor with my boss.

    I suppose I could imagine extreme cases, like if his idea of great art was graphic pictures of people being tortured and he insisted on posting these on the walls all over the office, maybe I'd find it unpleasant enough to drive me to quit. But in this case, so you say to yourself, "Wow, that's really stupid", and you move on. What's the big deal? Why is this a reason to quit?

    While I do think that this article is fairly well written, it should make the distinction as to how crucial the application is. It only implies that it's crucial enough to quit over.

    The article says:

    "I don't think I understand. What is this structure for?"

    "It's not for anything. It's art."

    I understood that to mean: This is not a diagram for any real database. It's something I drew because I thought it was pretty and/or interesting, using the tools for building database diagrams. If that's what was meant, then there is no question of how vital the application is, because there is no application.

    I guess it is also possible to read those sentences as meaning that the diagram serves no useful purpose except as art, but the database is real. That seems a less likely interpretation to me, but possible.

    Since the article does not make this clear, either:

    1. This is just a database diagram that the team lead created, and inserted into the documentation just because it looked cool.

    or

    1. This is an actual database diagram from the actual database that the team lead KEPT in the database because the diagram looked cool.

    If the answer is 1, it's harmless, but superflous to the documentation. It shouldn't be in there if it is OBE or it doesn't actually describe a real thing that people reading the documentation need.

    If the answer is 2, the team lead is structuring databases for art's sake, not efficiency's sake. Someone needed to tell him he has no business being team lead, if he thinks that is the proper way to do things. Someone hasn't said anything yet. In short, "Ray" should find herself a new job, in short order.

  • Neil (unregistered) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Sole Reason for Visiting:
    Ike:
    "She poured over all of the documentation provided to her by her team lead."

    What did she pour over all of the documentation? Tears? I think you meant to say that she PORED over the documentation.

    You really have no clue how this site works, do you?

    A WTF isn't a WTF until you've run it through Creative Writing 101. In Creative Writing 101, a spell-checker (and Cliff Notes to the collected works of Miguel Cervantes) are your friend!

    Now, you or I would choose to spell the verb correctly, on the assumption that this would make it easier for the reader to work out what on earth is going on. And you or I would be wrong!

    It's about time we started anonymizing verbs on this site!

    The actual mistake here, as any professional Creative Writer should know, was to "anonymize" the verb simply by mis-spelling it.

    I'd suggest that "She crepusculated over the documentation" would be a far better choice.

    Maybe we could leave out the intransitive altogether and go nonsensically transitive: "She cromulated over the documentation."

    With a bit of luck, we'll end up with Creative Writing Bingo. It would certainly make the comments more entertaining, not that the commentators are at fault over the last year or so.

    Your wrong their, wear ewe said it wood bee moor entertaining. Moor entertaining than what?
    FTFY

  • Neil (unregistered) in reply to MrOli
    MrOli:
    Q. What's Ray short for?

    A. She hasn't got any legs.

    What's Nigel Short for?

  • PCard (unregistered)

    ............................................________ ....................................,.-'"...................~., .............................,.-"..................................."-., .........................,/...............................................":, .....................,?......................................................, .................../...........................................................,} ................./......................................................,:`^`..} .............../...................................................,:"........./ ..............?.....__.........................................:`.........../ ............./__.(....."~-,_..............................,:`........../ .........../(_...."~,_........"~,_....................,:`........_/ ..........{.._$;_......"=,_......."-,_.......,.-~-,},.~";/....} ...........((.....*~_......."=-._......";,,./`..../"............../ ...,,,___.`~,......"~.,....................`.....}............../ ............(....`=-,,.......`........................(......;_,,-" ............/.`~,......`-...................................../ .............`~.*-,.....................................|,./.....,__ ,,_..........}.>-._...................................|..............`=~-, .....`=~-,__......`,................................. ...................`=~-,,.,............................... ................................`:,,...........................`..............__ .....................................`=-,...................,%`>--== ...................................................,-%.......`

    (now this is art!)

  • Jokester (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    MrOli:
    What's "Ray" short for?

    A. She hasn't got any legs.

    I knew a Rhea once (pronounced the same).

    Was her first name "Dia"?

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to qazwsx
    qazwsx:
    Ray was not just a recent addition to the DailyWTF team. She was also a recent grad just getting started in her career. As a result, she was eager to glean as much knowledge as she could from any source she could find. She poured over all of the stories provided to her by her team lead. She read the HTML comments (because that's the storehouse of communal knowledge for every team), reviewed the code and examined the cornify links.

    All was going swimmingly...until she came across the following.

    Casa de Quixote is a small, state-run retirement community in La Mancha, in central Spain. Sergio is the sole developer of software managing hundreds of residents. Missing documentation, he tracks down his predecessors for help.

    After spending enough time to ensure that the purpose of the story wasn't something blinding obvious (or opaquely obvious), she walked over to her team lead's desk.

    "Ahhhh. I see you found it.", he said.

    "Found it??"

    "Yes. My masterpiece. I spent more than a few hours on that story getting everything defined and lined up properly"

    Ray had a confused look on her face.

    "I even had to set the size of the paragraphs so they would all fit on the screen."

    "Set...the size??"

    "Yes. That's why I named the characters like I did."

    "I don't think I understand. What is TRWTF in this story?"

    "It's not for the WTF. It's art."

    Ray paused. "Art?"

    Yes. I like the way I wrote it. The allusion. The and kept the story around to preserve it".

    "Okay. Thanks. I guess", said Ray.

    "No problem. Come back any time you need to have something explained."

    Ray retreated back to her desk. Afraid of what she might find, Ray didn't really have the enthusiasm to dig into more of the HTML comments. Or Error'd diagrams. But she did start to think about how long she would have to stay in this website before it wouldn't look bad on her RSS reader if she left. Or maybe she should just start looking now. By using a little artistic license, she could just pretend this website never actually happened.

    qazwsx wins the thread.

  • Axel (unregistered)

    WHEN THE FUCK are you people going to learn how to spell PORED??

    WHEN!!!??

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