The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Maybe it's heraldry: stupidity rampant or on a field sable

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Irony Detection Squad:
... rampart stupidity ... ... rampart stupidity ... ... rampart stupidity ...

We're reading a 9.4 on our meters.

No kidding.

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Lorne Kates:
Anonymous Coward:
Seriously Alex, come back - we need you to get rid of these monkeys you furnished with word processors and save us all.

Alex is still busy with BuildMaster. Like all startup companies, the first couple years were rocky. They kinda had to take the clients they could get. And one of the early, larger clients managed to finagle the contract so that Inedo gets paid in bananas.

So if you have a better suggestion on what Alex should do with a monthly shipment of several tons of bananas, I'm sure he'd love to hear it. In the meanwhile, I'm one well fed typewriter monkey, and you're still ugly.

Look, it wasn't a bad story, and if you thought the phrase was "rampart stupidity", there's simply no amount of you staring at the text that was going to catch that.

So while I understand that the finger pointing is galling, it's still better to acknowledge that you fucked up and move on than to be dig in and be defensive.

Lorne Kates · 2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Meep:
So while I understand that the finger pointing is galling, it's still better to acknowledge that you fucked up and move on than to be dig in and be defensive.

You have a very strange definition for words, like "dig in" and "defensive". I bet you also think "rampart" means "spreading without restriction".

Is your reality based on drugs, alcohol, or chemical imbalances?

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

90% of WTFs come down to us peons from stupidity up in the ramparts.

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

[quote user="Isikyus"][quote source="Qazwsx"] Friday, not an "Error'd" entry, and a good story? This is the kind of stuff this site needs more of. Great job! [/quote]

Apparently, I'm the one person who actually reads this site for "Error'd".[/quote]

You're not alone. It's far more entertaining than the normal articles, IMHO.

Captcha: causa - The CSO will causa disaster if he meets Hanzo.

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Lorne Kates:
Meep:
So while I understand that the finger pointing is galling, it's still better to acknowledge that you fucked up and move on than to be dig in and be defensive.

You have a very strange definition for words, like "dig in" and "defensive". I bet you also think "rampart" means "spreading without restriction".

Is your reality based on drugs, alcohol, or chemical imbalances?

God knows I need a shot of something to deal with this. Lorne, here is where you used "rampart stupidity" in your story:

"Juan's job wouldn't have been so bad if not for the rampart stupidity."

"Indeed, his job wouldn't have been so bad if not for the rampart stupidity." (Yes, you repeated this sentence almost verbatim.)

"As long as he had good coworkers, the job couldn't be that bad-- even with the rampart stupidity. Right?"

"Look, guys, this job would be fine if not for the rampart stupidity."

You spelled it that way four times in the article so it clearly wasn't a typo. Your story is the top Google hit for "rampart stupidity"; you're tied with the Urban Dictionary for being functionally illiterate.

Scarlet Manuka · 2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Isikyus:
In other words, 99% of IT problems are caused by IT professionals attempting to solve the problems users think they have, but which actually reflect correct operation, rather than mindlessly following instructions created by people with a much better understanding of the process?
That sounds pretty plausible.

FTFY.

Scarlet Manuka · 2013-12-01 Reply Admin

Meep:
Lorne Kates:
Meep:
So while I understand that the finger pointing is galling, it's still better to acknowledge that you fucked up and move on than to be dig in and be defensive.

You have a very strange definition for words, like "dig in" and "defensive". I bet you also think "rampart" means "spreading without restriction".

Is your reality based on drugs, alcohol, or chemical imbalances?
God knows I need a shot of something to deal with this. {irrelevant rant snipped}

And here on the first page of comments is where Lorne acknowledged the mistake, which is pretty much the exact opposite of digging in and being defensive -- as Lorne tried to point out to you in the post above, but no surprise, you misunderstood that post too.

2013-12-01 Reply Admin

I thought you guys were supposed to edit out all the company names and change them for a dummy name? Well you failed horribly here.

Lorne Kates · 2013-12-01 Reply Admin

AnonToTheBone:
I thought you guys were supposed to edit out all the company names and change them for a dummy name? Well you failed horribly here.

If the story took place at IG bank, I would have changed the name from IG to something else-- like "The International Bank of Reading Comprehension Failure" (or, for short, "ING")

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

So now, instead, you decide to use the name of another actual bank, thus possibly messing with their image? Because yes, they had a CSO called Steve.

nomdeplume · 2013-12-02 Reply Admin

AnonToTheBone:
So now, instead, you decide to use the name of another actual bank, thus possibly messing with their image? Because yes, they had a CSO called Steve.

What's that got to do with anything? The article never said nor implied it was about a bank of any kind, let alone the one the phishing emails that started the ball rolling happened to target.

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Taco:
Very nice story. True or not

if (TRUE || NOT) { return YES }

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

AnonToTheBone:
So now, instead, you decide to use the name of another actual bank, thus possibly messing with their image? Because yes, they had a CSO called Steve.

The spam was impersonating the ING bank. The story itself does not take place at ING bank, however.

Captcha: I'm in the station

Lorne Kates · 2013-12-02 Reply Admin

AnonToTheBone:
So now, instead, you decide to use the name of another actual bank, thus possibly messing with their image? Because yes, they had a CSO called Steve.

Does their CSO know how the correct usage of "rampart"?

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Anonymous Coward:
For god's sake - a proof reader would not go amiss. My 8-year-old daughter could write more professionally than this. Rampart stupidity? The only [b]RAMPANT[b] stupidity here was from the author for not bothering to check whether what he was writing actually made sense.
Seriously Alex, come back - we need you to get rid of these monkeys you furnished with word processors and save us all.

Article:
"Rampart Stupidity" is actually an IT slang term for "not understanding how basic security works": http://thedailywtf.com/Comments/Gone-Phishing.aspx#422334

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Heh heh, "rampart" stupidity. Yes, I hate when stupidity runs RAMPANT all over my ramparts.

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Juan's job wouldn't have been so bad if not for the rampart stupidity

That's what happens when you sing the Star Spangled Banner when drunk

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Muphry:
Anonymous Coward:
For god's sake - a proof reader would not go amiss.
I'd capitalize on That.

ftfy

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

lol:
I call it dereliction of duty from those slackers.
If the chief security officer emails you with some explicit instructions to block all emails containing words that have been determined to be bannable, because of security, then it is their responsibility to go ahead and implement that scheme. Chief security officers don't get to where they are by not knowing what they're talking about, and if you think you know better than them, its because they have access to information and decision-making procedures that you don't.

You should, of course, ensure that the essential security directive from the CSO is recorded and possibly even printed out and hung on the wall to remind anyone who asks just who it is that makes the important decisions around here.

Then you can sit back and watch the fun :)

"I know of no method to secure the repeal of bad or obnoxious laws so effective as their stringent execution." -- Ulysses S Grant

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Manfred approves this story. A fun little romp into palm-forehead land.

captcha: Pecus - Oh no, the birds are trying to pecus!

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

bing up your ass!

chubertdev · 2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Isikyus:
Qazwsx:
Friday, not an "Error'd" entry, and a good story? This is the kind of stuff this site needs more of. Great job!

Apparently, I'm the one person who actually reads this site for "Error'd".

Yes.

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Bubba:
Juan's job wouldn't have been so bad if not for the rampart stupidity
That's what happens when you sing the Star Spangled Banner when drunk

Well the War of 1812 was when Canada and the US invaded each other, but I think Lorne Kates would have sung Oh Canada when drunk ... if the song had existed at the time.

2013-12-02 Reply Admin

Paul Neumann:
Muphry:
Anonymous Coward:
For god's sake - a proof reader would not go amiss.
I'd capitalize on That.
FTFY

ftfy

2013-12-03 Reply Admin

's true, those virgins can be remarkably territorial.

2013-12-03 Reply Admin

I'm only familiar with Lorne Greene. Lorne is a 'her' now? What?

2013-12-03 Reply Admin

You mean 'prosaically'.

2013-12-03 Reply Admin

anon:
You mean 'prosaically'.

I meant, "You mean 'prosaicaly.'" Referring to an action, not a thing, so adverbiall form required.

2013-12-03 Reply Admin

Once you've seen Juan phishing message, you've seen them all.

konnichimade · 2013-12-03 Reply Admin

Paul Neumann:
Muphry:
Anonymous Coward:
For god's sake - a proof reader would not go amiss.
I'd capitalize On That.
ftfy

ftftfyfy

2013-12-04 Reply Admin

faoileag:
Taco:
Very nice story. True or not
Probably true. Many, many years ago I had freshly started at at new employer. My email-address had been set up a few days in advance but not really circulated.
Some time into the job and a pa came to my desk with a printed out email showing some pr0n spam. And told me that I should tell my friends not to sent me stuff like that to my work email.

It took an amazingly long time to introduce that pa to the concept of harvesting email addresses from internet forums etc. And that, if using my email address in such forums was not ok, they should have told me earlier so that I could have used my private one.

Ah well. As we've all learned earlier this year, even in 2013 the internet is still "virgin teritory" to some.

A few years ago I worked for a company and my email was set up before I got there. They used the standard firstname.lastname They had my last name wrong. For some reason they couldn't easily change it. I suggested just creating a correct email and set up internal forwarding, but that wasn't allowed. It took two weeks to fix and it never really was right - home dir was "last wrong name", etc . Should have saved myself the trouble when the company that is hiring you doesn't know you name.

2013-12-05 Reply Admin

Rampart boredom found.

http://m.livescience.com/41725-new-boredom-discovered.html

If apathy were rampart, no one would bother reading about it. When stupidity is rampart, everyone reads. But what about boredom? Well I took a look, but tl;dr.

Lorne Kates · 2013-12-06 Reply Admin

Norman Diamond:
Rampart boredom found.
http://m.livescience.com/41725-new-boredom-discovered.html

If apathy were rampart, no one would bother reading about it. When stupidity is rampart, everyone reads. But what about boredom? Well I took a look, but tl;dr.

I think people get bored of it when it's posted on the third page of a comments for a week old article.

2013-12-11 Reply Admin

Shoreline:
... rampart stupidity ...

Rampart Stupidity in IT is a slang term for not understanding how basic security works.

For example, in the crazy world of internets, phishing that gets through the filters needs to be identified by the user and pointedly ignored or forwarded for blacklisting. Not doing so may demonstrate Rampart Stupidity.

Steve shows himself to have Rampart Stupidity.

Not knowing the difference between rampant and rampart is also a sign of stupidity.

2013-12-23 Reply Admin

...if not for the RAMPANT stupidity of using the word rampart instead of rampant...

Gone Phishing

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