The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
One minor correction: the code should exist, but often times it's "it just works" code. You know, the brute-force, 1500 line method (copy and pasted 14 times) which can be refacted to 12, kind of code.

Well, exactly what i meant: If the code could be refactored from 1500 lines to 12 because the coder set his brain to autopilot-mode during the programming, than there are 1500 lines that have no reason to exist and should be replaced by the correct 12 lines.

hoodaticus · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Hey guys, show some respect. Alex just passed, and we don't know when (if ever) Remy and me will start posting again.

WTF happened?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
Jay:
operagost:
Kjella:
fritters:
My fellow developers and I, knowing that we had little more than prototype code at that point, estimated another 2-3 months, easily. (...) "I really need it done in 3 weeks", boss says. (...) At least I got lots of overtime pay.

If my boss is ready to pay me 150%/200% overtime for it, I could easily put in some crazy hours. It's the people that don't get overtime and still do it that confuse me. You have to be very desperate to do that...
No, you have to be VERY DESPERATE to be a salaried exempt worker and do that.

In theory at least, salaried workers are supposed to have some flexibility in their work schedule. When things are busy, you're exected to put in extra hours to get it done. When things are slow, you can arrive late, leave early, and take a long lunch and your boss doesn't object.

Also, salaried workers are generally paid more than hourly workers. i.e. the hourly worker may get, say, 10 foobars per hour which would come to 20,000-some-odd foobars per year. The salaried worker might bet 30,000 foobars per year, but he might also be expected to average more than 40 hours per week, so his hourly rate may or may not come out to more than the hourlay rate of the hourly worker.

How all this works out in real life depends, of course, on the employer. I've worked places where they say, "Because you're salaried, your schedule is flexible. When things are buy, you may have to work 60 hours a week to get the job done. When things are slow, it's no problem if you only work 50 to 55 hours."

I have fond memories of the time I came to work one day at 9:00 am. A major customer had some crisis and I spent all day working on it, literally worked all night, until 5:00 am the next morning, without leaving the building. Then finally I had it all fixed and went home, got a few hours sleep, and came back to work about noon. My boss's boss then yelled at me for coming in late. He told me that it didn't matter how late I worked, I was supposed to be in on time every day.

This sounds like a cry for help and exactly why I'm going contract now.

No way I'd ever go back to contracting. I'm salaried, get healthcare and pension, regular pay raises (even though everyone else in the company has had their salary frozen for the last 2 years) and I'm free to work from home whenever I like. Even when I show up, my hours are 10:30 - 5:30, strictly no overtime. It's the best of both worlds in my opinion - all the perks of a salaried role but free to work my own hours or not turn up at all.

hoodaticus · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

hoodaticus:
Mark Bowytz:
Hey guys, show some respect. Alex just passed, and we don't know when (if ever) Remy and me will start posting again.
WTF happened?

WTF! THAT IS NOT FUCKING FUNNY.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

hoodaticus:
Anonymous:
Fats Geronimo:
Anonymous:
fritters:
C-Octothorpe:
Man, is it really the norm for developers to be worked to the bone, for free, and usually for nothing (customer doesn't see feature or isn't really THAT critical)? If that's so, either I've had really good luck or my bosses could tell ahead of time that I would laugh in their face if they asked me to work for free...

Well, luckily as I said I was being paid 150% overtime (and if I really wanted to I could probably have charged 200% for working on a statutory holiday, but I just took a different day off in lieu after the deadline was reached).

I wouldn't mind working small amounts of unpaid overtime, occasionally -- every company has tight spots and I identify with my company enough to know that if things go well for them, things go better for me too. And frankly sometimes it's my own fault for goofing off during work hours and not getting it done within 7.5 hours. By "small amounts" I mean, perhaps 1-2 hours a week. I feel embarrassed even writing that down on the timesheet.

But if you expect me to work 12+ hour days, 7 days a week, in order to hit an arbitrary deadline that was imposed upon me, then I definitely expect overtime pay, and lots of it. And even then, I only want to do that sort of pace occasionally.

I know guys who worked like that for years on a stretch. The money was good but nobody ever saw them. I could only handle a pace like that for a few months before I decide that the managers here can't schedule anything properly and I start looking elsewhere. Craploads of overtime pay is nice, but I prefer having time for a life.

I flat refuse to work overtime, ever. If I can't get it done within my standard working hours (10:30 - 5:30) then it's somebody else's problem. It's nice to be "irreplaceable" (or rather, the only person in the company who has ever developed one of our flagship products - a close second to irreplaceable).

7 hour days? No wonder the EU has to set up massive trade barriers to preserve their second rate economy.

Good lord no, 7 hour days aren't normal, they don't even have days that short in France. No no, my contract specifies a 40 hour week - I just don't bother working it. Remember what I said about being irreplaceable? When you've got your company over a barrel you can pretty much set your own work hours.
This works until your attitude spreads to enough of your colleagues and brings down the company.

I agree... A toxic attitude can be very dangerous to your employment, no matter how irreplaceable you think you may be. I recall many times where a super highly skilled developer was canned because he had a shit attitude. People may be able to put up with it for a short while, but eventually you will be fired, esp. if management takes notice of your attitude (and the negative effect it has on your colleagues).

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

This hits way too close to home for me. I worked for Honeywell on a US Navy contract back in 2000. This is SOP for government work. I one time got hired for job, to supposedly write some Web Services for a Cognos report. Turns out all they needed was a menu on a web page. They have no clue.

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Akismet, you moron, this is a registered user (Nagesh) posting. rainbow barf

Well if you're going to make your comments look as stupid as they sound, then I hate to say it but I agree with Akismet on this one.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

hoodaticus:
Anonymous:
Fats Geronimo:
Anonymous:
fritters:
C-Octothorpe:
Man, is it really the norm for developers to be worked to the bone, for free, and usually for nothing (customer doesn't see feature or isn't really THAT critical)? If that's so, either I've had really good luck or my bosses could tell ahead of time that I would laugh in their face if they asked me to work for free...

Well, luckily as I said I was being paid 150% overtime (and if I really wanted to I could probably have charged 200% for working on a statutory holiday, but I just took a different day off in lieu after the deadline was reached).

I wouldn't mind working small amounts of unpaid overtime, occasionally -- every company has tight spots and I identify with my company enough to know that if things go well for them, things go better for me too. And frankly sometimes it's my own fault for goofing off during work hours and not getting it done within 7.5 hours. By "small amounts" I mean, perhaps 1-2 hours a week. I feel embarrassed even writing that down on the timesheet.

But if you expect me to work 12+ hour days, 7 days a week, in order to hit an arbitrary deadline that was imposed upon me, then I definitely expect overtime pay, and lots of it. And even then, I only want to do that sort of pace occasionally.

I know guys who worked like that for years on a stretch. The money was good but nobody ever saw them. I could only handle a pace like that for a few months before I decide that the managers here can't schedule anything properly and I start looking elsewhere. Craploads of overtime pay is nice, but I prefer having time for a life.

I flat refuse to work overtime, ever. If I can't get it done within my standard working hours (10:30 - 5:30) then it's somebody else's problem. It's nice to be "irreplaceable" (or rather, the only person in the company who has ever developed one of our flagship products - a close second to irreplaceable).

7 hour days? No wonder the EU has to set up massive trade barriers to preserve their second rate economy.

Good lord no, 7 hour days aren't normal, they don't even have days that short in France. No no, my contract specifies a 40 hour week - I just don't bother working it. Remember what I said about being irreplaceable? When you've got your company over a barrel you can pretty much set your own work hours.
This works until your attitude spreads to enough of your colleagues and brings down the company.

The same benefits are not extended to other software engineers. I only get away with it because I'm the only person in the company with domain knowledge and development experience for one of our key products. My boss hates it but in my defense I warned him this would happen before he fired all my subordinates. Chickens coming home to roost and all that.

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
I grew up in a very diverse community, work with people of many different races, religions, creeds, colors, etc., and have many friends (and some relatives) from all over the world.

Who cares?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

hoodaticus:
hoodaticus:
Mark Bowytz:
Hey guys, show some respect. Alex just passed, and we don't know when (if ever) Remy and me will start posting again.
WTF happened?
WTF! THAT IS NOT FUCKING FUNNY.

it wasn't funny. But, then you replied to Mark Bowytz: (Unregistered) in a serious manner and then got all pissy after you saw you were punked. Now it's kind of funny.

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz (phony):
Hey guys, show some respect. Alex just passed...

Really? Did he forget to stop? Is he going to turn around and come back?

Don't leave me in suspense.

Nagesh · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

boog:
Nagesh:
Akismet, you moron, this is a registered user (Nagesh) posting. rainbow barf
Well if you're going to make your comments look as stupid as they sound, then I hate to say it but I agree with Akismet on this one.

boog, Colorful comments bring some color to this forum.

Nagesh · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

hoodaticus:
hoodaticus:
Mark Bowytz:
Hey guys, show some respect. Alex just passed, and we don't know when (if ever) Remy and me will start posting again.
WTF happened?
WTF! THAT IS NOT FUCKING FUNNY.

Hoodarino, You have been hoodwink by fake person.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Remy Porter:
Scott:
Seriously? This is not something to joke about, would like to hear for sure from a reliable source.

How can you doubt the word of Mark Bowytz(unregistered)? What more reliable source could there be?

Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list. I bet you didn't know he was black.

The reason I'm showing up unregistered is I forgot my password, and Alex is the only who knew the password to reset my account. I'm still trying to contact Remy, but he's not answering my texts.

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list.

So he writes obituaries now? Are any of them as funny as the articles here?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
C-Octothorpe:
Jay:
operagost:
Kjella:
fritters:
My fellow developers and I, knowing that we had little more than prototype code at that point, estimated another 2-3 months, easily. (...) "I really need it done in 3 weeks", boss says. (...) At least I got lots of overtime pay.

If my boss is ready to pay me 150%/200% overtime for it, I could easily put in some crazy hours. It's the people that don't get overtime and still do it that confuse me. You have to be very desperate to do that...
No, you have to be VERY DESPERATE to be a salaried exempt worker and do that.

In theory at least, salaried workers are supposed to have some flexibility in their work schedule. When things are busy, you're exected to put in extra hours to get it done. When things are slow, you can arrive late, leave early, and take a long lunch and your boss doesn't object.

Also, salaried workers are generally paid more than hourly workers. i.e. the hourly worker may get, say, 10 foobars per hour which would come to 20,000-some-odd foobars per year. The salaried worker might bet 30,000 foobars per year, but he might also be expected to average more than 40 hours per week, so his hourly rate may or may not come out to more than the hourlay rate of the hourly worker.

How all this works out in real life depends, of course, on the employer. I've worked places where they say, "Because you're salaried, your schedule is flexible. When things are buy, you may have to work 60 hours a week to get the job done. When things are slow, it's no problem if you only work 50 to 55 hours."

I have fond memories of the time I came to work one day at 9:00 am. A major customer had some crisis and I spent all day working on it, literally worked all night, until 5:00 am the next morning, without leaving the building. Then finally I had it all fixed and went home, got a few hours sleep, and came back to work about noon. My boss's boss then yelled at me for coming in late. He told me that it didn't matter how late I worked, I was supposed to be in on time every day.

This sounds like a cry for help and exactly why I'm going contract now.
No way I'd ever go back to contracting. I'm salaried, get healthcare and pension, regular pay raises (even though everyone else in the company has had their salary frozen for the last 2 years) and I'm free to work from home whenever I like. Even when I show up, my hours are 10:30 - 5:30, strictly no overtime. It's the best of both worlds in my opinion - all the perks of a salaried role but free to work my own hours or not turn up at all.

Well, I'm sure that's not entirely true as no employer would be OK with you not turning up at all. In fact I'm pretty sure they'd be kind of pissed off.

Guys, no one is irreplaceable, sorry to burst your bubble. Everyone can be replaced; it's just a matter of how long to find your replacement or how long before your replacement gets up to speed... Remember, there is nothing you know or can do that someone else can't, or learn or be taught to do.

I'll put up with a bit of a shitty attitude (managable), but if I had to face someone who thought they owned the joint every day, they would be gone ASAP.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

boog:
C-Octothorpe:
I grew up in a very diverse community, work with people of many different races, religions, creeds, colors, etc., and have many friends (and some relatives) from all over the world.
Who cares?

Obviously you do...

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
boog:
C-Octothorpe:
I grew up in a very diverse community, work with people of many different races, religions, creeds, colors, etc., and have many friends (and some relatives) from all over the world.
Who cares?

Obviously you do...

Well, of course; I meant besides me. </duh>

boog · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
boog:
Nagesh:
Akismet, you moron, this is a registered user (Nagesh) posting. rainbow barf
Well if you're going to make your comments look as stupid as they sound, then I hate to say it but I agree with Akismet on this one.

boog, Colorful comments bring some color to this forum.

True. And yet it doesn't make your comments actually look any better or sound any smarter.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Remy Porter:
Scott:
Seriously? This is not something to joke about, would like to hear for sure from a reliable source.

How can you doubt the word of Mark Bowytz(unregistered)? What more reliable source could there be?
Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list. I bet you didn't know he was black.

The reason I'm showing up unregistered is I forgot my password, and Alex is the only who knew the password to reset my account. I'm still trying to contact Remy, but he's not answering my texts.

Yeah, hold your horses. I'm just cornifying the obit - Alex would have wanted it that way. That's why he never really liked you, you know, because you never gave him the 'corns. He loved the 'corns.

Anyway, your password is irishgirliloveyou, like it always was.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Remy Porter:
Mark Bowytz:
Remy Porter:
Scott:
Seriously? This is not something to joke about, would like to hear for sure from a reliable source.

How can you doubt the word of Mark Bowytz(unregistered)? What more reliable source could there be?
Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list. I bet you didn't know he was black.

The reason I'm showing up unregistered is I forgot my password, and Alex is the only who knew the password to reset my account. I'm still trying to contact Remy, but he's not answering my texts.

Yeah, hold your horses. I'm just cornifying the obit - Alex would have wanted it that way. That's why he never really liked you, you know, because you never gave him the 'corns. He loved the 'corns.

Anyway, your password is *****************, like it always was.

Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...

Nagesh · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:

Anonymous:
No way I'd ever go back to contracting. I'm salaried, get healthcare and pension, regular pay raises (even though everyone else in the company has had their salary frozen for the last 2 years) and I'm free to work from home whenever I like. Even when I show up, my hours are 10:30 - 5:30, strictly no overtime. It's the best of both worlds in my opinion - all the perks of a salaried role but free to work my own hours or not turn up at all.

Well, I'm sure that's not entirely true as no employer would be OK with you not turning up at all. In fact I'm pretty sure they'd be kind of pissed off.

Guys, no one is irreplaceable, sorry to burst your bubble. Everyone can be replaced; it's just a matter of how long to find your replacement or how long before your replacement gets up to speed... Remember, there is nothing you know or can do that someone else can't, or learn or be taught to do.

I'll put up with a bit of a shitty attitude (managable), but if I had to face someone who thought they owned the joint every day, they would be gone ASAP.

Employer like to make employee believe that all can be replaced. This replacement strategy further delaythe project.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

You can solve it by throwing money at it because to a CFO everything looks like money...

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...

But remember: This hide-the-Password-feature only works when you are actually logged in!

As i am not logged in, the board will show my password: BertGlanstron

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Design Pattern:
Nagesh:
Akismet, you moron, this is a registered user (Nagesh) posting.
<snip>
[ color=silver] [/color]
<snip>
So when you colorise your whitespaces, what exactly do you expect?
Reliable and hard-working Indian coder always make code defensive. If whitespace is redefined as letter, Indian coder's program still works. This is why you Americans give so much code to Indians - code is future-proof.

Kind of like this little snippet of indian code I found. It's absolutely brilliant in that it protects the system against all future errors:

try{

//TODO: type cast exception here

}catch(Throwable t){

System.out.println("Error!"); }

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Borin' Olde Meme:
C-Octothorpe:
Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...
But remember: This hide-the-Password-feature only works when you are actually logged in!
As i am not logged in, the board will show my password: BertGlanstron

Guys, again, a little respect please? Bert Glanstron just passed...

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Borin' Olde Meme:
C-Octothorpe:
Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...
But remember: This hide-the-Password-feature only works when you are actually logged in!
As i am not logged in, the board will show my password: BertGlanstron

Guys, again, a little respect please? Bert Glanstron just passed...

What did he pass?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Franz Kafka:
Mark Bowytz:
Borin' Olde Meme:
C-Octothorpe:
Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...
But remember: This hide-the-Password-feature only works when you are actually logged in!
As i am not logged in, the board will show my password: BertGlanstron

Guys, again, a little respect please? Bert Glanstron just passed...

What did he pass?

I loled.... Thanks.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Borin' Olde Meme:
C-Octothorpe:
Wierd, all I see is stars where the password should be...
But remember: This hide-the-Password-feature only works when you are actually logged in!
As i am not logged in, the board will show my password: BertGlanstron

Guys, again, a little respect please? Bert Glanstron just passed...

... a kidney stone.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Gunslinger:
Slim:
Wait... a 5-digit date?

2 for the day, 2 for the month, 1 for the year. Ensures that you update the system at least every 10 years. The developers probably figured that they'd be the ones doing the updating, so it's a job security feature. Too bad they forgot to inform the company about that bit.

On behalf of Dr. Strangelove: I was originally commissioned to look into building a doomsday device by the Bland corporation. I eventually determined it was impractical for reasons that should be all too obvious to us now- VY DIDN'T YOU TELL ANYONE YOU WERE BUILDING IT?! VY DIDN'T YOU TELL THE WORLD?!?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

It sounds like Brian really wants to work for this company. Maybe he should give it a shot: it might be as simple as the interviewer describes.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

i can haz new wtf?

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Remy Porter:
Scott:
Seriously? This is not something to joke about, would like to hear for sure from a reliable source.

How can you doubt the word of Mark Bowytz(unregistered)? What more reliable source could there be?
Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list. I bet you didn't know he was black.

The reason I'm showing up unregistered is I forgot my password, and Alex is the only who knew the password to reset my account. I'm still trying to contact Remy, but he's not answering my texts.

Rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Twain:
Mark Bowytz:
Remy Porter:
Scott:
Seriously? This is not something to joke about, would like to hear for sure from a reliable source.

How can you doubt the word of Mark Bowytz(unregistered)? What more reliable source could there be?
Seriously, you guys. Do a Google search on "Alex Papadimoulis". You'll discover his obituary near the top of the list. I bet you didn't know he was black.

The reason I'm showing up unregistered is I forgot my password, and Alex is the only who knew the password to reset my account. I'm still trying to contact Remy, but he's not answering my texts.
Rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated.

FTFY

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

God I hope not. The family has had enough pain already.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Comments have been suspended for unregistered users in honor of Alex's unexpected and untimely decease.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Mark Bowytz:
Comments have been suspended for unregistered users in honor of Alex's unexpected and untimely decease.

Couldn't call it unexpected. Not with the way he'd been living. But man, he did love them 'corns.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Ol' Bob:
In my experience hourly workers in the IT area (i.e. contractors) are paid *more* than salaried workers, as the work is not perceived as being as steady. When I was a contractor, however, I got paid more *AND* worked steadily (15 years on one contract, for example), plus I got incentive pay for just showing up regularly *AND* got stock options and other perks. In the end, though, a few less bucks for a *LOT* less time in the car led me to an in-house position.

I'd be careful with how you do things. 15 years with one contract could very well be taken as an employer-employee relationship - especially if you're getting perks and stuff like that. Of course, you didn't specify if you were doing stuff for other people in the meantime (no one said you can't take on multiple contracts simultaneously). There are many tax implications as a result (usually on the employer's side).

And 7 hour work days aren't unusual - in Canada, full time employment usually one of 35 hour weeks (7 hrs/day), 37.5 hour weeks (7.5 hrs/day) and 40 hour weeks (8 hrs/day), not including legally mandated break (unpaid, so not counted).

I don't think 35 hour workweeks are unusual, either...

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

derp:
Sectoid Dev:
Here, here.
Whenever I work on any legacy application, my first question is: "When will this be retired?" We are constantly churning projects, but those old issues that have sat around for months/years need to be worked ASAP!

In the end, the old legacy apps rarely go away, except on paper.

Everyone who has written code that will expire in 2038 (when time_t rolls over), raise your hand...

Everyone who used time_t and realizes that simply recompiling on a 64 bit platform will result in the Sun turning into a cold black cinder long before their timestamp overflows, keep your hands on the keyboard...

32 bit systems, like COBOL, will be long obsolete and no longer used for anything important in 2038. If you miss the sarcasm, I will make fun of you.

Matt Westwood · 2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Jay:
operagost:
Kjella:
fritters:
My fellow developers and I, knowing that we had little more than prototype code at that point, estimated another 2-3 months, easily. (...) "I really need it done in 3 weeks", boss says. (...) At least I got lots of overtime pay.

If my boss is ready to pay me 150%/200% overtime for it, I could easily put in some crazy hours. It's the people that don't get overtime and still do it that confuse me. You have to be very desperate to do that...
No, you have to be VERY DESPERATE to be a salaried exempt worker and do that.

In theory at least, salaried workers are supposed to have some flexibility in their work schedule. When things are busy, you're exected to put in extra hours to get it done. When things are slow, you can arrive late, leave early, and take a long lunch and your boss doesn't object.

Also, salaried workers are generally paid more than hourly workers. i.e. the hourly worker may get, say, 10 foobars per hour which would come to 20,000-some-odd foobars per year. The salaried worker might bet 30,000 foobars per year, but he might also be expected to average more than 40 hours per week, so his hourly rate may or may not come out to more than the hourlay rate of the hourly worker.

How all this works out in real life depends, of course, on the employer. I've worked places where they say, "Because you're salaried, your schedule is flexible. When things are buy, you may have to work 60 hours a week to get the job done. When things are slow, it's no problem if you only work 50 to 55 hours."

I have fond memories of the time I came to work one day at 9:00 am. A major customer had some crisis and I spent all day working on it, literally worked all night, until 5:00 am the next morning, without leaving the building. Then finally I had it all fixed and went home, got a few hours sleep, and came back to work about noon. My boss's boss then yelled at me for coming in late. He told me that it didn't matter how late I worked, I was supposed to be in on time every day.

Technically illegal in this country (and the merkins will laugh because they think their culture of oppression is a gooood thing, poor sad benighted colonials) - apparently you are entitled by law to at least 8 hours between arriving home and turning up for work next day. We had a situation a few years ago when a field service engineer arrived home at 4 a.m. and didn't get to work next day till 10 a.m. (6 hrs later). He was fired for being late. Successfully took the company to court.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Maybe Askimet is not letting them post a new article.

In the meantime, here's one we prepared earlier

[image] http://churchit.com/linux-commands-via-jeopardy/

OOPS!

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

kastein:
derp:
Sectoid Dev:
Here, here.
Whenever I work on any legacy application, my first question is: "When will this be retired?" We are constantly churning projects, but those old issues that have sat around for months/years need to be worked ASAP!

In the end, the old legacy apps rarely go away, except on paper.

Everyone who has written code that will expire in 2038 (when time_t rolls over), raise your hand...
Everyone who used time_t and realizes that simply recompiling on a 64 bit platform will result in the Sun turning into a cold black cinder long before their timestamp overflows, keep your hands on the keyboard...

32 bit systems, like COBOL, will be long obsolete and no longer used for anything important in 2038. If you miss the sarcasm, I will make fun of you.

Will your code be recompiled for 64-bit, though? Or will the source get lost by some moron and then they'll run your 32-bit binaries for all eternity because some arcane business process depends on it?

I think I agree with your implicit assumption that if we don't switch to 64-bits some time in the next twenty-seven years we deserve what we get, though.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Matt Westwood:
you are entitled by law to at least 8 hours between arriving home...

So never go home? Problem solved!

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

This is the same article from 2 days ago now....

I'm thinking this website should be renamed to TheWheneverWTF.com

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Duh:
Matt Westwood:
you are entitled by law to at least 8 hours between arriving home...
So never go home? Problem solved!

In this neck of the wood, that sort of thing is very industry (and contract) specific. There are laws surrounding operation of Heavy Machinery (Heavy Vehicle drivers have weird regulations about daily, weekly, monthly, yearly hours - these include time spent loading/unloading). I think some employment contracts in other fields may stipulate what sort of breaks people get, but (AFAIK) there is no workplace law that requires such clauses to be included in contracts.

Silly as it seems, I wouldn't be surprised if the law in the US allows not going home - the point is that it is unreasonable to have people travel to and from work constantly, not that it is unreasonable to work their arses off...

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

darren:
This is the same article from 2 days ago now....
I'm thinking this website should be renamed to TheWheneverWTF.com

Why not "The Whenever the F"

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

L.A.S.T

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

Duh:
Matt Westwood:
you are entitled by law to at least 8 hours between arriving home...
So never go home? Problem solved!

Because I think I was unclear: So never arrive at home. Then the problem of having to work is solved (if you're salaried). Though the other problem could also be solved by never being allowed to leave.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

GalacticCowboy:
synp:
Slim:
Wait... a 5-digit date?

Because some have really never worked on a mainframe, 5-digit dates is two digits for the year, and 3 digits for day. 11001 would be January 1st, 2011 (or 1911).

Today's March 2. January had 31 days, February 28, plus 1 day because we're not zero based and plus 1 for March 1st, so today is 11061.

But gasp you're wasting 6 numeric values for that middle digit. And 8 values for the first. What you need to do is shift the entire year value to reclaim the upper 4 bits of the day value, then you can squeeze in another digit for century. That way, you'll only have to rewrite it every 100 years. Now THAT is enterprisy good use of system resources.

Bits? That is not enterprisy at all! What if you work on a ternary system? Will you need to rewrite program logic just because of a different CPU?

No. You use text. That way you can switch processors, character sets, datasets and JES versions, and everything continues to work.

2011-03-03 Reply Admin

derp:
Will your code be recompiled for 64-bit, though? Or will the source get lost by some moron and then they'll run your 32-bit binaries for all eternity because some arcane business process depends on it?
I think I agree with your implicit assumption that if we don't switch to 64-bits some time in the next twenty-seven years we deserve what we get, though.

Well, not forever. It'll eventually be rewritten or else the company will die. It's the circle of life, right?

Hard Deadline

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