• Ha! (unregistered)

    Zero'th

  • (cs)

    Thanks for the timely article. Now summon all the nerds with their tales of passive-aggressive conquest!

  • Roger the dodger (unregistered)

    TRWTF is that Eric didnt just ask Kevin if he was a total retard (like we do in my company-even the MD hasnt escaped-although he finds it funny)

    Capthca:"odio"-bull riding without the oars.

  • (cs)

    You know what they say, the ones that are eager to learn but unable to do so are the most dangerous.

  • (cs) in reply to Roger the dodger
    Roger the dodger:
    TRWTF is that Eric didnt just ask Kevin if he was a total retard (like we do in my company-even the MD hasnt escaped-although he finds it funny)
    Wait... you can do that over there? Where do I sign up? I work for peanuts. Hell I'll work for free if I get to tell the boss how mind-numbingly stupid his latest idea is.
  • Mr H (unregistered) 
    Yeah... mucking around in the prioritization and job control internals is a wonderful idea.  What's t h  e    w    o     r      s       t         t         h          a



<<Still recieving input>>
  • Anders (unregistered)

    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

  • (cs)

    Like a lemur discovering fire? Thanks for the chuckle to get my day started. :D

  • Kevin (unregistered)

    IT. Manipulating the perceptions of its constituents since the dawn of the computing era.

  • leo (unregistered) in reply to Anders
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1048576 bytes

    ftfy

  • Cyclops (unregistered) in reply to Kevin
    Kevin:
    IT. Manipulating the perceptions of its constituents since the dawn of the computing era.
    WIN! This is my new tag!
  • Patrick (unregistered) in reply to leo
    leo:
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    ftfy

    ftfy

  • Knux2 (unregistered) in reply to Anders
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    I think they said what they meant - mb, not MB. "2mb of memory was used to store commonly used data" - not surprising. My whole MINIX partition is only 0.005 bits in size...

  • Richard (unregistered)

    "This lasted for months..."

    And Eric was still working there instead of walking out and letting someone else prop up Kevin? Now there's the WTF...

  • mr_smith (unregistered)

    You know, this guy sounds like a somewhat decent boss other than the whole micromanagement thing. He managed to get more money to solve the i/o bottleneck problem. Isn't one of the boss main jobs to remove obstacles and impediments of his team?

  • anon (unregistered) in reply to leo
    leo:
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1048576 bytes

    ftfy

    you must be one of the people who prefer using imperial units to metric

  • justsomedude (unregistered)

    Finally, a heart warming action packed success story. My hat's off to you.

  • Beta (unregistered)

    Eric sounds technically competent, but not brilliant. A powerful and stupid boss is like a wild ox; a competent person will stay out of its way, but a brilliant person will get it into harness, feed it a controlled diet and use it to do a lot of heavy hauling.

  • (cs)

    The real WTF is the real WTF is straight out of straight out of Star Trek.

  • Spivonious (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    The real WTF is the real WTF is straight out of straight out of Star Trek.

    QFT

  • csm (unregistered) in reply to Spivonious
    Spivonious:
    Zylon:
    The real WTF is the real WTF is straight out of straight out of Star Trek.

    QFTFT

    ftfy

  • Kempeth (unregistered)

    I'm quoting straight out of straight out of the article:

    Kevin nodded along, like he understood, and then said, "Great, so we'll boost the priority then. Show me how."

    Eric did.

    That's the the real wtf...

  • (cs) in reply to csm
    csm:
    Spivonious:
    Zylon:
    The real WTF is the real WTF is straight out of straight out of Star Trek.

    QFTFT

    ftfyfy

    FTFTFYFYFY.

  • (cs)

    Short version: Moron is hired as competent guy's new boss. Moron knows nothing about anything. Competent guy improves speed, moron thinks he's a genius. Competent guy locks moron out of messing with the system, moron gets mad. Competent guy fakes code to make it look like moron's changes are working. Moron is happy.

  • 50% Opacity (unregistered)
    Hear A Blog - We are currently narrating this post. Subscribe to get notified when ready.

    Okay, I'm ready. Notify me!

    I said, Notify Me! Now!

    Captcha: haero - That's me!

  • Cliff notes anyone (unregistered)

    Where I work, we slow things down intentionally so management can compalin about something that is actually fixable isntead of making stupid nonsensical requests.

    I remember hearing the tale of some atuomated unit tests litterally had a sleep comamnd in there to sleep for 15 minutes.

  • Cliff notes anyone (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    Short version: Moron is hired as competent guy's new boss. Moron knows nothing about anything. Competent guy improves speed, moron thinks he's a genius. Competent guy locks moron out of messing with the system, moron gets mad. Competent guy fakes code to make it look like moron's changes are working. Moron is happy.

    Ahhh, the illusion of control. Some of the metrics management wants are totally useless but it make management think they are doing a good job when in reality they are destroying a department.

  • SR (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    Short version: Moron is hired as competent guy's new boss. Moron knows nothing about anything. Competent guy improves speed, moron thinks he's a genius. Competent guy locks moron out of messing with the system, moron gets mad. Competent guy fakes code to make it look like moron's changes are working. Moron is happy.

    +1 nice summary.

  • (cs)

    Flipjacks and mople syrup...mmmmmm.

  • Bosshog (unregistered)
    MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes
    The Real WTF.
  • Scott (unregistered) in reply to Patrick
    Patrick:
    leo:
    Anders:
    mib = mibibit = (1/1048576) bit mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    ftfy

    ftfy
    ftfy

  • (cs) in reply to Anders
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    How exactly do you have a thousandth of a bit?

  • grizz (unregistered)

    This is the second recent article where a techie decides that the solution to a problem is to secretly rewrite an OS command so that it is silently disabled or produces outright lies in it's output. I've been in the data processing field in a variety of positions, including several where I've had the ability to make changes like the ones described, since the mid 70's and in all that time it's never crossed my mind to do something like this. Is this a common practice that I've been blissfully unaware of all this time?

  • Bluesman (unregistered) in reply to Scott
    Scott:
    Patrick:
    leo:
    Anders:
    mib = mibibit = (1000/1048576) bit mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    ftfy

    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy

  • (cs) in reply to campkev
    campkev:
    How exactly do you have a thousandth of a bit?

    A bit is the amount of information that can be stored by a device that exists in two states.

    A thousandth of a bit is one-thousandth of that amount of information.

  • (cs) in reply to grizz
    grizz:
    This is the second recent article where a techie decides that the solution to a problem is to secretly rewrite an OS command so that it is silently disabled or produces outright lies in it's output. I've been in the data processing field in a variety of positions, including several where I've had the ability to make changes like the ones described, since the mid 70's and in all that time it's never crossed my mind to do something like this. Is this a common practice that I've been blissfully unaware of all this time?

    If you're sitting at the poker table and you don't know who the sucker is...

  • (cs) in reply to grizz
    grizz:
    This is the second recent article where a techie decides that the solution to a problem is to secretly rewrite an OS command so that it is silently disabled or produces outright lies in it's output. I've been in the data processing field in a variety of positions, including several where I've had the ability to make changes like the ones described, since the mid 70's and in all that time it's never crossed my mind to do something like this. Is this a common practice that I've been blissfully unaware of all this time?

    I don't think it's a "common practice" but more a way to easily appease stupid management who have no business playing with the system, or who want the impossible. Is it a little unethical? I guess so, but when you have unreasonable demands or someone who is non-technical messing around with a technical system because they may "know some computers" then it's really the only choice, since explaining why they shouldn't be messing with the system, or why the reports can't be generated the way they want, will usually result in the programmer being replaced and/or reprimanded.

  • 50% Opacity (unregistered) in reply to Maurits
    Maurits:
    campkev:
    How exactly do you have a thousandth of a bit?

    A bit is the amount of information that can be stored by a device that exists in two states.

    A thousandth of a bit is one-thousandth of that amount of information.

    Thaaaat's… a lot then?

  • (cs) in reply to Bluesman
    Bluesman:
    Scott:
    Patrick:
    leo:
    Anders:
    mib = mibibit = (1000/1048576) bit mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    ftfy

    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy

  • Jeff (unregistered) in reply to Roger the dodger

    I second that. Even managers need to be put in their place at times. A good manager will understand if you do. A not-so-good manager will get defensive; a non-technical solution is needed for that situation.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to grizz
    grizz:
    This is the second recent article where a techie decides that the solution to a problem is to secretly rewrite an OS command so that it is silently disabled or produces outright lies in it's output. I've been in the data processing field in a variety of positions, including several where I've had the ability to make changes like the ones described, since the mid 70's and in all that time it's never crossed my mind to do something like this. Is this a common practice that I've been blissfully unaware of all this time?
    Yes. You missed the memo because data processing goons aren't on the distribution list.
  • ctw (unregistered)

    Might it be more accurate to say that the PDP-11, and other tech of the era, inspired the design of Star Trek?

  • Mike Caron (unregistered)

    What, no one suggesting that he reverse the polarity on the phaser grid? THAT will make it run faster!

  • RandomUser423682 (unregistered) in reply to Scott
    Scott:
    Patrick:
    leo:
    Anders:
    mib = mibibit = (1/1048576) bit mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes
    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy
    Nah. Clearly leo had it right. 1 megabyte = 1048576 bytes, the same way 1 kilobyte = 1024 bytes, and 1 kilometre = 1024 metres.

    Er... Hmm.

    Well, I suppose the span of Niagara Falls would still be, "fractionally over a kilometre," either way.

  • (cs) in reply to ctw

    Star Trek debuted in 1966 and ran for three seasons. The PDP-11 debuted in 1970, and the particular variant in the article, the /70, was released in 1975.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to ctw
    ctw:
    Might it be more accurate to say that the PDP-11, and other tech of the era, inspired the design of Star Trek?
    Maybe, if the PDP-11 could travel through time. Did it do that? I'm pretty sure it didn't have enough memory for that sort of thing but I may be wrong.
  • Alan (unregistered)

    Wouldn't a mibibit be closer to 1/1024 bits? The same way a kibibyte is 1024 bytes...

    Captcha: abbas (as if one of them wasn't enough already)

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Maybe, if the PDP-11 could travel through time. Did it do that? I'm pretty sure it didn't have enough memory for that sort of thing but I may be wrong.

    Only the Type-40. But the controls are a little sloppy, and unless you have all six operators at the controls, it tends to overshoot.

  • Patrick (unregistered) in reply to Ren
    Ren:
    Bluesman:
    Scott:
    Patrick:
    leo:
    Anders:
    mib = mibibit = (1/1024) bit mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MiB = Mebibyte = 1048576 bytes MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    ftfy

    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy
    ftfy

  • AnOldRelic (unregistered) in reply to campkev
    campkev:
    Anders:
    mb = millibit = (1/1000) bit MB = Megabyte = 1000000 bytes

    How exactly do you have a thousandth of a bit?

    Technically, bits are just off and on voltage. Instead of slamming voltage to high, you incrementally increase it until you get 1/1000 of your maximum capacity.

    That's the theory, anyway.

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