• (cs)

    So, did he accept the next job?

  • CGomez (unregistered)

    I'm curious what this existing API was? Uhh... C++? Lol... The $500 was great but at $500 per nineteen weeks, this is more like picking up babysitting jobs... with the aggravation.

  • 19 weeks (unregistered)

    i'll do it

  • (cs)

    I'd take the job. Sounds like they'll pay for minimal results, and the accountability is nearly nil. Where's the downside?

    I mean, sure, they're asking the impossible and they (kind of) want it now, but...it's like like they're trying to GET it.

    Addendum (2007-07-25 16:24): *edit - meant "but it's not like they're"

  • my name is missing (unregistered)

    Of course they might be terrorists on the cheap...

  • (cs)

    Were either of the PCs they lent him filled with used pinball machine parts?

  • (cs) in reply to freelancer
    freelancer:
    So, did he accept the next job?

    Don't you just hate cliffhangers?

  • Steve (unregistered)

    1. Yes I took the next job, and story as usual: haven't heard from him in over a week after accepting the job via e-mail

    2. I chose to use C++ to interface with the API, but it has other extensions. The main hang up with the API is that it is very obscure, and essentially the only reference I had was staring at the documentation. Essentially, no actual code examples exist.

    3. No pinball parts, just dust and ancient defective PC parts. The radio cards alone were worth more than every other piece of equipment combined. Just one of the cards on it's own, that is.

    4. Was there a 4th question?...

  • waf (unregistered)

    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

  • Nazi Grammer (Grammar) (unregistered) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    1. Yes I took the next job, and story as usual: haven't heard from him in over a week after accepting the job via e-mail

    1. I chose to use C++ to interface with the API, but it has other extensions. The main hang up with the API is that it is very obscure, and essentially the only reference I had was staring at the documentation. Essentially, no actual code examples exist.

    2. No pinball parts, just dust and ancient defective PC parts. The radio cards alone were worth more than every other piece of equipment combined. Just one of the cards on it's own, that is.

    3. Was there a 4th question?...

    How did you suddenly change into Alex when knocking?

    Assuming his contact was behind one of those doors, Steve devised a plan to handle the locked doors. He’d knock at one door, wait, run to the other end, then knock, wait, and repeat. With each trip, my knocks turned into pounds and got louder and louder. Still, no one opened the door. It was time for Steve to get creative.
  • Corey (unregistered)

    I've always wondered about people that buy into the whole "OMG! We might Miss A Deadline! Gotta crunch so that The Schedule is kept intact!" If you've spent any time in software (of course the protagonist of the story had not) you'd know that every non-trivial project slips behind the schedule (usually because the schedule was decided without regard to achievability).

    I still see it all the time at my day job. Programmers with 20 years of experience still busting their butts to try to meet deadlines that are obviously completely arbitrary (as in the story).

    I could see maybe if you were in a career with a future - maybe Indian programmers might want to try to save The Schedule to look good to the bosses. Can't see the point for Americans though.

  • roto (unregistered) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

    What?

  • Jeff T (unregistered) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

    6 Weeks x 15 Hours/Week x $5.50/Hour = $495.00

    yay maths!

  • jimi (unregistered) in reply to waf

    Now that is a WTF.

  • Ogdred (unregistered)

    "three weeks ... ten hours of work per week....$5.50/hr."

    3 x 10 = 30 hours of work

    30 hours x $5.50 = $165.00

    Am I missing something?

  • Ogdred (unregistered)

    "three weeks ... ten hours of work per week....$5.50/hr."

    3 x 10 = 30 hours of work

    30 hours x $5.50 = $165.00

    Am I missing something?

  • (cs)

    Ah, "Tight Deadline Meets Lazy Boss" should be a children's book and mandatory reading. Can't count the number of times I've pulled an all nighter, only to have arbitrary delays for a month and a half.

  • Ogdred (unregistered)

    Sorry for the double post... :(

  • (cs) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

    hmm

    3 weeks * 10 hours/week *5.5 dollars/hour = 30 hours * 5.5 dollars/hour = 165 dollars

    165 < 500 (by 335)

    I ain't no genius, but by simply cancelling the units, I came up whole different number.

    maybe I missed something?

    (we now know the REAL WTF)

  • (cs) in reply to Ogdred
    Ogdred:
    "three weeks ... ten hours of work per week....$5.50/hr."

    3 x 10 = 30 hours of work

    30 hours x $5.50 = $165.00

    Am I missing something?

    Yes, at one point they bumped it up to 15 hours a week, making it $250. The double in pay, well they probably just screwed up in his favor.

  • asegstro (unregistered) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

    Uhh that's 10 hours a week, NOT 10 hours/day...

    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $165 < $500

  • (cs)

    OK, I'm going to break the habit of a lifetime and not read the other posts.

    Oww. Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow.

    We are all doomed.

  • gotcha (unregistered)

    darn those companies that only allow 10 hours per day.

  • (cs) in reply to Corey
    Corey:
    I've always wondered about people that buy into the whole "OMG! We might Miss A Deadline! Gotta crunch so that The Schedule is kept intact!" If you've spent any time in software (of course the protagonist of the story had not) you'd know that every non-trivial project slips behind the schedule (usually because the schedule was decided without regard to achievability).

    I still see it all the time at my day job. Programmers with 20 years of experience still busting their butts to try to meet deadlines that are obviously completely arbitrary (as in the story).

    I could see maybe if you were in a career with a future - maybe Indian programmers might want to try to save The Schedule to look good to the bosses. Can't see the point for Americans though.

    Yup, I see it too. In fact I'm involved in a project like that, which is supposed to finish in 2 1/2 weeks time which incidentally is when I leave on holiday. Seeing as we still don't even have a design laid out yet (because the people involved can't even be bothered to have a meeting) I'm pretty sure there's no chance in hell to pull it off. In fact I've just emailed my concerns to the team which I'm sure will be met with the usual but-it's-simple-why-are-you-being-negative reply. Only thing to do now is wait for the fireworks and try to act in a civilized manner if anyone makes the mistake of trying to pin it on me. Gotta love IT.

  • (cs)

    All this failed math is giving me a headache. Stop it!

  • Freddy Bob (unregistered) in reply to Steve
    Steve:
    the only reference I had was staring at the documentation.
    That is exactly what documentation is for, isn't it?
  • (cs) in reply to Corey
    Corey:
    I've always wondered about people that buy into the whole "OMG! We might Miss A Deadline! Gotta crunch so that The Schedule is kept intact!" If you've spent any time in software (of course the protagonist of the story had not) you'd know that every non-trivial project slips behind the schedule (usually because the schedule was decided without regard to achievability).

    I still see it all the time at my day job. Programmers with 20 years of experience still busting their butts to try to meet deadlines that are obviously completely arbitrary (as in the story).

    I could see maybe if you were in a career with a future - maybe Indian programmers might want to try to save The Schedule to look good to the bosses. Can't see the point for Americans though.

    Yet one more H1B/Outsourcing comment. (I'm assuming it's just not pure racism.)

    Indian programmers in California work one way. Indian programmers in Bangalore work another way. Indian programmers here in Birmingham work yet another way ... strangely enough. Some of it is to do with cultural differences, and some of it is to do with what PHB wants them to do.

    It has bugger-all to do with the schedule, unless you get a responsible Indian programmer. (I'd recommend a Sikh, but then I'm prejudiced.)

    Interesting that you think that American programmers have a future, whereas Indian programmers don't, though ...

  • Zygo (unregistered) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.

    Obviously you were using the OMGWTF contest winner to do that math...

  • Alonzo Turing (unregistered)

    (* 3 10 5.5) 165.0 (* 5 3 10 5.5) 825.0

    Looks like someone read 10 hours per day instead of per week.

  • Top Cod3r (unregistered)

    The real WTF is that man was nice enough to pay Steve D the money considering that Steve D was completely ignoring his client for weeks at a time. It sounds like Steve D should have done better planning so he could have met the original three week deadline instead of taking nineteen weeks or however long he took. He's lucky that C++ programmers are in high demand!

  • (cs) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Top Cod3r:
    The real WTF is that man was nice enough to pay Steve D the money considering that Steve D was completely ignoring his client for weeks at a time. It sounds like Steve D should have done better planning so he could have met the original three week deadline instead of taking nineteen weeks or however long he took. He's lucky that C++ programmers are in high demand!

    Did I miss a bunch of the story or is it that you didn't read the story or are you just trolling? It sounds like a "need it yesterday" deadline was easily pushed back by the boss because new stuff seems more important all of a sudden. I was working on a project that I was told had to be done by months end. It was vital it be completed as work had to be started right away. It's been months since anyone has looked at it and that was only when I gave someone training on the program.

  • (cs) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Top Cod3r:
    The real WTF is that man was nice enough to pay Steve D the money considering that Steve D was completely ignoring his client for weeks at a time. It sounds like Steve D should have done better planning so he could have met the original three week deadline instead of taking nineteen weeks or however long he took. He's lucky that C++ programmers are in high demand!
    Do I sense sarcasm?
  • SomeCoder (unregistered) in reply to vt_mruhlin
    vt_mruhlin:
    Ah, "Tight Deadline Meets Lazy Boss" should be a children's book and mandatory reading. Can't count the number of times I've pulled an all nighter, only to have arbitrary delays for a month and a half.

    I had this a few months ago. We absolutely, positively had to have this code written in 2 weeks or so. I wrote it up, tested it, and deployed it to the internal server in about a week. There it sat for months before anybody decided to use it or even look at it.

    Really irritated me how they acted like it was a huge fire originally, then promptly forgot about it.

  • despisethesun (unregistered) in reply to MrMoo

    I only started reading this site a few weeks ago and even I've picked up already that Top Cod3r is a troll.

  • (cs)

    I had a similar 'must be done yesterday' thing at another job, not code related. A piece of equipment was 'must have yesterday', so me, a junior engineer, was sent driving quite literally from one side of the city to the other to pick it up and bring it back. Took a whole day.

    Two weeks later the box was where I left it, still unopened.

    Not that I was complaining - easiest day's work I ever did.

  • (cs) in reply to real_aardvark
    real_aardvark:
    Interesting that you think that American programmers have a future, whereas Indian programmers don't, though ...

    I interpreted that to mean the opposite. Indian programmers have a future (stealing American jobs).

    I'm maintaining faith that once the last American programmer is gone, there'll be nobody to clean up after the get-what-you-paid-for guys in Bangalore, and we'll all get to say "I told you so".

  • (cs) in reply to vt_mruhlin
    vt_mruhlin:
    I'm maintaining faith that once the last American programmer is gone, there'll be nobody to clean up after the get-what-you-paid-for guys in Bangalore, and we'll all get to say "I told you so".

    From the unemployment line, you mean?

    Yeah, that'll be satisfying.

  • Bozo the Engineer (unregistered)

    The client didn't really care about the software. They just wanted to know how much idiocy Steve would take. There's probably an English major somewhere writing a summary of War and Peace in 3 weeks at $5.50 an hour, and somewhere else an accounting major dissecting the books of a fake business.

    Steve's client was a grad student in psychiatry.

    capcha: burned. What he was.

  • macawm (unregistered) in reply to waf

    I think your abacus needs adjustment.

    Captcha: doom (I think that sums this WTF up pretty well.)

  • JoshJ (unregistered) in reply to Bozo the Engineer
    Bozo the Engineer:
    The client didn't really care about the software. They just wanted to know how much idiocy Steve would take. There's probably an English major somewhere writing a summary of War and Peace in 3 weeks at $5.50 an hour, and somewhere else an accounting major dissecting the books of a fake business.

    Steve's client was a grad student in psychiatry.

    capcha: burned. What he was.

    You mean psychology.

  • Jack (unregistered) in reply to vt_mruhlin
    vt_mruhlin:
    Ah, "Tight Deadline Meets Lazy Boss" should be a children's book and mandatory reading. Can't count the number of times I've pulled an all nighter, only to have arbitrary delays for a month and a half.
    Similarly, at my fortune 100 company, I can't begin to tell you how many *unopened* boxes of misc. computer equipment I see being sent off to salvage with FedEx Priority Red (e.g. next day) delivery stickers on them. IOW, some self-important asshole paid a small fortune to get something RIGHT NOW, but then never even opened the box, now it's going into the trash.
  • . (unregistered) in reply to MrMoo
    MrMoo:
    Top Cod3r:
    The real WTF is that man was nice enough to pay Steve D the money considering that Steve D was completely ignoring his client for weeks at a time. It sounds like Steve D should have done better planning so he could have met the original three week deadline instead of taking nineteen weeks or however long he took. He's lucky that C++ programmers are in high demand!

    Did I miss a bunch of the story or is it that you didn't read the story or are you just trolling? It sounds like a "need it yesterday" deadline was easily pushed back by the boss because new stuff seems more important all of a sudden. I was working on a project that I was told had to be done by months end. It was vital it be completed as work had to be started right away. It's been months since anyone has looked at it and that was only when I gave someone training on the program.

    He's trolling. He did the same for yesterday's story as well.

  • (cs)

    Man, $5,50/h, now thats low! I'd never take a job for less than $20/h. Shit, those $165 you'd initially make for three weeks of work would what, last you a week in food etc.? Fuck that, paperboys make far more money than this!

  • (cs) in reply to JoshJ

    or perhaps he meant "a grad student locked in the psychiatry ward".

  • (cs) in reply to Jack
    Jack:
    vt_mruhlin:
    Ah, "Tight Deadline Meets Lazy Boss" should be a children's book and mandatory reading. Can't count the number of times I've pulled an all nighter, only to have arbitrary delays for a month and a half.
    Similarly, at my fortune 100 company, I can't begin to tell you how many *unopened* boxes of misc. computer equipment I see being sent off to salvage with FedEx Priority Red (e.g. next day) delivery stickers on them. IOW, some self-important asshole paid a small fortune to get something RIGHT NOW, but then never even opened the box, now it's going into the trash.
    Maybe you should volunteer to throw it away. Of course whether you "throw it away" in the trash or at your house doesn't really matter. It's trash after all :)
  • PinkFloyd (unregistered)

    What's so strange about this? This is my office daily! Oh, except that it's multiple must haves and it sounds like this guy's equipment was better than mine, BTW, the company I work with is a BILLION $$ company, that's a WTF x 2

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    Were either of the PCs they lent him filled with used pinball machine parts?
    "The way I see it, if you're gonna build a radio card into a PC, why not do it with some style?"
  • AJS (unregistered)

    I had a job once, as a technician at an electronic engineering firm. (In case you don't know, a technician is someone who knows as much as an engineer, works twice as hard as an engineer and gets paid half as much as an engineer.) There was one time when the engineers basically insisted for three of us to work a 19-day week (three weeks and two weekends straight through) building test equipment to meet a deadline.

    The gear we bust a gut to get together spent the next fortnight gathering dust on the engineer's desk, completely untouched.

    And they wondered why morale was so poor in that company!

  • SlyEcho (unregistered)

    Obviously it took so long because he needed time to find all that junk.

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to AJS
    AJS:
    In case you don't know, a technician is someone who knows as much as an engineer, works twice as hard as an engineer and gets paid half as much as an engineer

    A technician is someone who couldn't even pass calculus, and can't imagine what an engineer does, and therefore thinks he does an engineer's job.

    I dropped some donut crumbs over in 7G- go make yourself useful, and clean them up.

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