• Top Cod3r (unregistered) in reply to .

    Just because you don't agree with my opinion doesn't mean I'm trolling. I'm sure you know everything and believe every part of the one-sided stories posted on this site. Well there is another side to the story sometimes.

  • Unresolved External (unregistered) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Just because you don't agree with my opinion doesn't mean I'm trolling. I'm sure you know everything and believe every part of the one-sided stories posted on this site. Well there is another side to the story sometimes.

    Yes, true, there is usually another side, however in this (or any other) case you do not seem to be able to identify it.

    Yes,yes, I know ... don't feed the trolls ...

  • (cs) in reply to Alonzo Turing

    Prefix RPN. Nice!

  • (cs) in reply to AJS
    AJS:
    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!

    Wow, that's completely different than at a previous employer of mine. There was this engineer there who changed from salaried engineer to hourly tech to increase his pay and reduce his hours.

    I guess it depends on the industry/company...(and yes, there was a word that starts with 'U' involved.)

  • (cs)
    Alex:
    ...nearly $500 dollars for his six or so weeks or work.

    $500 dollars? The check must've been issued by the Department of Redundancy Department.

  • AJS (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    Alex:
    ...nearly $500 dollars for his six or so weeks or work.

    $500 dollars? The check must've been issued by the Department of Redundancy Department.

    Perhaps he paid it into the TSB bank using an ATM machine, by typing in his PIN number.

  • (cs) in reply to AJS
    AJS:
    Someone You Know:
    Alex:
    ...nearly $500 dollars for his six or so weeks or work.

    $500 dollars? The check must've been issued by the Department of Redundancy Department.

    Perhaps he paid it into the TSB bank using an ATM machine, by typing in his PIN number.
    At the drive-thru in his car with the ABS braking system, of course.

  • PhreakBert (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    Alex:
    ...nearly $500 dollars for his six or so weeks or work.

    $500 dollars? The check must've been issued by the Department of Redundancy Department.

    Or, as we call it, the DRD Department.

  • (cs) in reply to freelancer
    freelancer:
    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?

    Nah. You sense moronic troll - just check TopCod3r's other posts over the last couple of weeks. Always something totally idiotic to say to waste everyone's time and prove that "TopCod3r" is shorthand for juvenile jackass.

  • (cs) in reply to AJS

    I think you meant to say: ... an automatic ATM machine, by typing in his personal PIN number.

  • Martin (unregistered)

    In 2005, I took a temp job at a company that does contract work for the US government. It was to be an (up to) 3 month contract starting up their RSA SecurID program. Creating network accounts, compiling lists, mailing fobs, etc.

    At the 3 month mark, they sent me & my co-worker home, as we had run out of fobs to distribute. Mind you, we knew up front that there were 5000+ employees that were going to get them, and only around 2000 were purchased. After 1.5 weeks, I returned to work, minus my co-worker, since they decided not to fund the 2nd position any more.

    After 8 months, I left for a "real" job, and the fob program was nowhere near complete. Due to some stupid rule at the company, they weren't allowed to hire me on fulltime, since perm employees got priority in hiring over contractors. Since I wouldn't stay unless they hired me (contract company was bleeding me dry with horrible pay), I walked.

  • Edward Royce (unregistered)

    Hmmmm.

    "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. "

    This is my plan for when I retire.

    I'm going to go to college for a Sociology degree and then spend the next twenty years torturing college students by making do really stupid and inane things for low wages.

    Why? I hate people. :)

  • Edward Royce (unregistered)

    Hmmm.

    Seriously though.

    I once worked for a small software company that hadn't had a programmer in 3 years, and the last one wasn't all that great. Instead what the owner of the company had been doing was using a hex editor to change the version number of the software and then sending out the same broken buggy piece of c**p that the customers already had! When they called and complained that the same bugs weren't fixed, he'd say "Oh sorry. I thought the programmer had fixed that!". What scam eh?

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

    This is a whole new WTF unto iteself. Waf, you should be ashamed of yourself. Go to your corner and think about what you've done.

  • (cs) in reply to Edward Royce
    Edward Royce:
    Hmmm.

    Seriously though.

    I once worked for a small software company that hadn't had a programmer in 3 years, and the last one wasn't all that great. Instead what the owner of the company had been doing was using a hex editor to change the version number of the software and then sending out the same broken buggy piece of c**p that the customers already had! When they called and complained that the same bugs weren't fixed, he'd say "Oh sorry. I thought the programmer had fixed that!". What scam eh?

    Nope, that's just "agile."
  • Corey (unregistered) in reply to real_aardvark
    real_aardvark:
    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 ...

    Umm...no. I think Americans don't have a future in programming, whereas Indians do. I'm not stupid.

    My point was, the only reason it would make sense to work lots of unpaid overtime in these situations would be to try to help your career. There's no sense in that if your career has no future (i.e. for American programmers). Yet I still see some doing so - maybe it's inertia, maybe they're deluded about the future, maybe I'm over-pessimistic about the future.

    The offshoring trend is not the fault of the Indian programmers, of course. It comes from business management, which is pushed that way by the laws of economics, which derive from basic human nature. To summarize the summary of the summary, people are a problem.

  • Alonzo Meatman (unregistered)

    Well, did he ever find out why the employer had such bizarre and contradictory deadline requirements?

  • Disbelief (unregistered)

    Yeah, that's why programming jobs actually GREW this year in America, because they have all been outsourced and there is no future in the career.

    Please continue to believe the hype, it will help your boss keep costs down if all of his programmers believe their jobs are in jeopardy of being outsourced.

    Meanwhile, back in reality, most CEOs are worried about how they are going to fill their programming positions over the next 15 years with fewer and fewer students pursuing Computer Science degrees.

  • (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.

    If you ever want to "dispose" of most of it, just send it my way...

  • (cs) in reply to Random832
    Random832:
    I think you meant to say: ... an automatic ATM machine, by typing in his personal PIN number.
    I prefer to do my banking online, through my NIC card.

    I really hate when people call it a NIC card.

  • (cs) in reply to despisethesun
    despisethesun:
    I only started reading this site a few weeks ago and even I've picked up already that Top Cod3r is a troll.
    'nuff said
  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to vt_mruhlin
    vt_mruhlin:
    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".

    So what you're saying is that it's the employee that "owns" the job? Otherwise it couldn't be stolen.

    Sorry, but employees don't "own" their job. The work to be done and the money paid for that work comes from the owner of the capitol, the business. That job is there for whomever the business wants to hire. If it's an American, so be it. If it's an Indian, so be it. It's the business's job to give to whomever it wishes.

    As someone living in the US I too want those jobs to stay in America, but I in no way feel entitled to it. We're in a global economy nowadays with some businesses that have no national identity. They setup shop where it's best for them and can move around more easily than in centuries past.

    /rant

    CAPTCHA: wigwam - a different kind of Indian.

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to DOA
    DOA:
    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 :)

    Woo! I had a job like that once. They told me "I don't care where it goes, as long as it's out of this warehouse. I ended up with an attic full of crap by the end of that year. Hard drives, chassis, power supplies, chairs, powered speakers, monitors, etc. If only I was old enough to sell on eBay at that time.

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

    Don't you just hate cliffhangers?

    what the hell kind of story is this?

    today's wtf was phoned in from a myspace blog, apparently.

  • Anonymous Cowherd (unregistered) in reply to Disbelief
    Disbelief:
    Yeah, that's why programming jobs actually GREW this year in America, because they have all been outsourced and there is no future in the career.

    Please continue to believe the hype, it will help your boss keep costs down if all of his programmers believe their jobs are in jeopardy of being outsourced.

    Meanwhile, back in reality, most CEOs are worried about how they are going to fill their programming positions over the next 15 years with fewer and fewer students pursuing Computer Science degrees.

    I can understand that worry, now that the law requires them to favor the expensive American programmers, but it looks like they've found a way around that:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCbFEgFajGU

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

    Incorrect. The company initially said they could only pay for 10 hours/week, which would be 3 x 10 x $5.50 = $165.00

    Once they increased the hours paid per week to 15, the pay would have been 3 * 15 * $5.50 = $247.50

    So he still got a deal.

  • . (unregistered) in reply to Top Cod3r
    Top Cod3r:
    Just because you don't agree with my opinion doesn't mean I'm trolling. I'm sure you know everything and believe every part of the one-sided stories posted on this site. Well there is another side to the story sometimes.

    No, you're trolling, and not very well considering how obvious it is.

  • Paul Wakeford (unregistered)

    This sounds a lot like the Sherlock Holmes store, the Red Headed League. Sure there aren't a gang of master criminals tunneling into a neighbouring bank from your apartment while you are out?

  • (cs) in reply to Fish Basket Gordo
    Fish Basket Gordo:
    Incorrect. The company initially said they could only pay for 10 hours/week, which would be 3 x 10 x $5.50 = $165.00

    Once they increased the hours paid per week to 15, the pay would have been 3 * 15 * $5.50 = $247.50

    So he still got a deal.

    Bear in mind that he ended up working six weeks, not three. What happens when you multiply your second result by two?

  • (cs)

    It'll take me 3 weeks to come up with a good comment to go with this story.

  • (cs) in reply to Disbelief

    I used to fix code that was written by India coders. So I agree that outsourcing is a bit of hype.

    To give then some credit, the bad code was due to unrealistic deadlines, and (my guess) trying to understand American property tax laws. But who would? :}

  • pingmaster (unregistered) in reply to waf
    waf:
    3 Weeks x 10 Hours x $5.50 = $825 > $500 payed.
    10 hours per week = 30 hours

    multiply by $5.50 = $165

    $500 > $165.

  • pingmaster (unregistered) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    Fish Basket Gordo:
    Incorrect. The company initially said they could only pay for 10 hours/week, which would be 3 x 10 x $5.50 = $165.00

    Once they increased the hours paid per week to 15, the pay would have been 3 * 15 * $5.50 = $247.50

    So he still got a deal.

    Bear in mind that he ended up working six weeks, not three. What happens when you multiply your second result by two?

    $495, he's still up by 20 packs of ramen noodles

  • drusi (unregistered)

    This comment needs to be posted right away.

Leave a comment on “I Need This Right Away”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article