• Friedrice The Great (unregistered) in reply to science_gone_bad
    science_gone_bad:
    Having worked for a sister telco, I can say that every word of this story is true (may not even be obfuscated). I once was asked to join a similar call.

    For 3+ hours everybody was trying to blame somebody else. The conversation was all over, and blame was being thrown like sh*t at a Cow Chip throwing contest. It wasn't until 2 days later that I actually found out WTF the call was even about.

    Turns out that a heavy rain had gotten some equipment wet.

    Ages ago I was involved with developing a big state government system. Everytime we went to them with our draft user documentation, they'd change the audience. One day it would be, "Write it for educated, technically-knowledgeable users." The next it would be, "Write it for educated people who have never used a computer before." Went back and forth, back and forth.

    Then the company's project manager called a meeting for just us at our office, and explained the politics that was going on. The social workers we were developing the system for didn't want a system; they wanted the state to hire more social workers and pay them a living wage. The state government had been refusing to do either for years and years, and was now trying to force the system on them instead to make them change how they tracked cases and filed reports.

    Project manager also mentioned that while the workers were educated (Masters in Social Work), many of them still didn't even type their reports. They handwrote them and filed them as such.

    Made me glad I wasn't a project manager on that!

  • bambam (unregistered)

    The advertising promotion was for a date with the presidents daughter. She was sick, so they had to photograph her on a wooden table.

  • (cs) in reply to bambam
    bambam:
    The advertising promotion was for a date with the presidents daughter. She was sick, so they had to photograph her on a wooden table.

    Please show a little sensitivity. I told a joke once that was sick, and I can assure you it was no laughing matter.

  • Captain Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Developer:
    wtf did I just read?

    I don't know. Can someone explain the plot?

    Telco released the cell phone plans with new pricing, in February and March. And massive TV ad campaigns. There were massive blizzards in February and March, and lots of their calls centers got shut down. In fact, pretty much most of them did. So the rest, which do customer service and sales, got slammed with sales ineligible calls.

    So, the call centers got blamed for lower sales figures. When really they were picking up 13 other call centers' slack.

  • Plastic (unregistered) in reply to D-Coder
    D-Coder:
    ... your flight will leave late, arrive more late, ...
    "More late" is referred to as "later".
  • Dirk (unregistered)

    Hey snoofle, I don't think unilateral means what you think it does.

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered) in reply to garaden
    garaden:
    I appreciate stories like this. It's subtle, but come on. They saw success and mistook it as failure. That's a WTF!
    Yeah, but it's a WTF for another site. Success is Worse Than Failure.
  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)
    snoofle:
    You have to love the folly of big companies. Bear Stearns. Lehman. Tyco. Enron. MF Global. MegaCorp. WTF Inc.
    Your sarcasm is uncalled for. The law protects us ALL. The US has laws to prevent Bre-X from occurring in the US. Japan has laws to prevent Enron from occurring in Japan. Canada has laws to prevent AIJ from occurring in Canada. We're all safe.
  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)
    snoofle:
    Phone companies, especially, take extreme precautions when releasing software because the communications grid simply cannot be allowed to go down. Ever. I mean, it's critical that you be able to get important messages through, like: I'm on my way, or Pick up milk.
    Sorry to interrupt with a fact. Sometimes phone companies take extreme precautions when releasing software because it's critical that calls get out like "My mother is having a heart attack" or "Burglars broke in." Yahoo and Skype warn us that their internet calling systems can't be used for calls to 119 and 110 so we'd better decide carefully whether to dispense with our ordinary phone lines.

    One time a telco told Northern Telecom that if NT didn't fix their new software within 20 minutes the telco would revert to the previous release. I asked why NT didn't advise the telco to revert immediately and try to debug the new version afterwards. The answer was that it's impossible to reproduce all real word situations in a lab. Oh yeah right, even when this telco's configuration of NT equipment was known, NT still wasn't capable of copying that configuration in order to track down NT's bug in a copy that wouldn't impact the real world? NT didn't advertise its policy of "We fire talent" but the bankruptcy was well earned and overdue.

  • Cheong (unregistered) in reply to Plastic
    Plastic:
    D-Coder:
    ... your flight will leave late, arrive more late, ...
    "More late" is referred to as "later".
    In fact I'd propose "much later" instead if you want to go with the grammer, the "much" is needed to emphasize that you want the "comparision" function of the word "later".
  • Cheong (unregistered) in reply to Reductio Ad Ridiculousum

    Actually the "Praise and honor" is given to those involed in "Search for guilty" and "Punish the innocent" steps, rarely for those real "nonparticipants".

  • (cs) in reply to Cheong
    Cheong:
    Plastic:
    D-Coder:
    ... your flight will leave late, arrive more late, ...
    "More late" is referred to as "later".
    In fact I'd propose "much later" instead if you want to go with the grammer, the "much" is needed to emphasize that you want the "comparision" function of the word "later".

    Rubbish. When you get on a flight, whether it is late or not, you will arrive "later", by the nature of the space-time continuum. On the other hand, you may get on a flight "late" and arrive "early", if there is a particularly strong and favourable tailwind. Or, you may leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule), and arrive "just as late" (i.e. the same 15 minutes behind schedule).

    Or, like in the example quoted, you would leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule) and arrive "more late" (e.g. 30 minutes behind schedule).

    Now go and sit at the back of the class and learn to engage brain before posting inanities.

  • (cs) in reply to Matt Westwood
    Matt Westwood:
    Rubbish. When you get on a flight, whether it is late or not, you will arrive "later", by the nature of the space-time continuum. On the other hand, you may get on a flight "late" and arrive "early", if there is a particularly strong and favourable tailwind. Or, you may leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule), and arrive "just as late" (i.e. the same 15 minutes behind schedule).

    Or, like in the example quoted, you would leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule) and arrive "more late" (e.g. 30 minutes behind schedule).

    Now go and sit at the back of the class and learn to engage brain before posting inanities.

    I'll join you under your bridge, and I'll bring sandwiches.

    "Later" is a perfectly good word to use for your "more late", that is "with a greater degree of lateness". The problem, perhaps, is that it is, for those with a skewed sense of stuff (or those whose traditional abode is sub-bridgeous), ambiguous. Here in the real world, we hear "later" in that context and understand that "with a greater degree of lateness" is the intended meaning.

    To disambiguate a bit, I'd say "even later"...

  • Ziplodocus (unregistered) in reply to Scourge of programmers.
    Scourge of programmers.:
    Ziplodocus:
    Having worked in call centers for nearly 10 years, I'm surprised they eventually found the cause and didn't just circle blame each other until the issue fixed itself.

    Where is Nagesh?

    You can say what you like. I've seen it happen.

    The funny part is when the issue goes away and everyone climbs over each other to take the credit for 'fixing' it.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    Matt Westwood:
    Rubbish. When you get on a flight, whether it is late or not, you will arrive "later", by the nature of the space-time continuum. On the other hand, you may get on a flight "late" and arrive "early", if there is a particularly strong and favourable tailwind. Or, you may leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule), and arrive "just as late" (i.e. the same 15 minutes behind schedule).

    Or, like in the example quoted, you would leave "late" (e.g. 15 minutes behind schedule) and arrive "more late" (e.g. 30 minutes behind schedule).

    Now go and sit at the back of the class and learn to engage brain before posting inanities.

    I'll join you under your bridge, and I'll bring sandwiches.

    "Later" is a perfectly good word to use for your "more late", that is "with a greater degree of lateness". The problem, perhaps, is that it is, for those with a skewed sense of stuff (or those whose traditional abode is sub-bridgeous), ambiguous. Here in the real world, we hear "later" in that context and understand that "with a greater degree of lateness" is the intended meaning.

    To disambiguate a bit, I'd say "even later"...

    Mine's the egg, cress and raw goat, thx m8 you're a star, I was starving.

    Sorry, but the ambiguity is, in this context, too egregious to excuse the use of "later".

    The confusion arises over the fact that "later" is not usually used as the comparative of "late" (in the sense of "behind schedule") -- it generally means "at some indeterminate time following". Therefore, when you do need to use the comparative of "late", meaning "(even) more behind schedule", you either need some intensifier to emphasise that the event is relating to "behind scheduleness", or you need specifically to use the "more" construct.

    Take the example:

    "Bob (despite his retard nephew) arrived at work today on time at the scheduled 09:00. Matt (because he got sidetracked with a posting on TDWTF) arrived late. Steve (for whatever reasons) arrived later."

    But even that does not quite express the nuance that we want, i.e. that Steve should have arrived at the same time as Bob -- this just states that "some time after Matt arrived, Steve arrived." It could be that Steve was not scheduled to arrive until 10:30, in which case, if Matt arrived at 09:30 and Steve at 10:00, Steve (although arriving "later" than Matt) actually arrived early.

    As you say, in the above, "even later" works, because it reduces the ambiguity.

    But as "more late" has no ambiguity, and is appropriately pithy (2 syllables and 8 letters beats 4 syllables and 9 letters) I would argue it is preferable and more elegant.

    I probably wouldn't bother to correct "even later" to "more late", but to argue the other way that "later" and "even later" are preferable to "more late" is IMO incorrect.

    For added credit, go and analyse the differences between "latest" and "most late".

  • Neil (unregistered)
    dot all the İ's
    FTFY
  • (cs)

    Should have referenced Veridian Dynamics.

  • (cs) in reply to Ziplodocus
    Ziplodocus:
    Scourge of programmers.:
    Ziplodocus:
    Having worked in call centers for nearly 10 years, I'm surprised they eventually found the cause and didn't just circle blame each other until the issue fixed itself.

    Where is Nagesh?

    You can say what you like. I've seen it happen.

    The funny part is when the issue goes away and everyone climbs over each other to take the credit for 'fixing' it.

    i am not working in Call centers, you dumb hicks!

  • (cs)

    Did you lose your job?

  • Reductio Ad Ridiculousum (unregistered)

    For the mother tongue meanders with linguistic Fate; One can be later, even latest, without being late!

  • The late Ogden Nash (unregistered) in reply to Reductio Ad Ridiculousum
    Reductio Ad Ridiculousum:
    For the mother tongue meanders with linguistic Fate; One can be later, even latest, without being late!
    Cunning.
  • (cs) in reply to Captain_Oblivious
    Captain_Oblivious:
    Blames were assigned. Sacrificial lambs were roasted. Ah well, another a Big Enterprise story. Wait, what? This is a result of a success? Here I thought such success resulted in profits and happiness.

    Impersonating a superior officer is a court martial offense.

    Heck, I'd give you the username if you were oblivious. But you're not even doing that right.

  • (cs) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Did you lose your job?

    Why you concern with my job? I am having good job and good pay.

  • (cs)

    So this is a Curious Perversion in Information Technology, is it?

  • Sam I am (unregistered)

    I know about the dot's on 'i's, but who dots their 'I's?

  • Scourge of programmers. (unregistered) in reply to Sam I am
    Sam I am:
    I know about the dot's on 'i's, but who dots their 'I's?

    Folks who write latin.

    [image]
  • Norman Diamond (unregistered) in reply to Sam I am
    Sam I am:
    I know about the dot's on 'i's, but who dots their 'I's?
    Turks don't dot 'I's, they dot 'İ's. Also Turks don't dot 'ı's, they dot 'i's.

    Warning, American racist joke coming up.

    An African American asked God, "God, I have to ask you something. Is you white, or is you black?" God said "I am what I am." The questioner persisted, "Please, I have to know." God persisted, "I am what I am." After a few more rounds, God finally relented. "OK, you win. Look at what I didn't say. I didn't say, 'I is what I is.'"

    I'm not sure if that explains why Windows ignores the casing tables that were written when each NTFS volume was formatted.

  • dfjbghdlsjdekljhgjubhn (unregistered) in reply to Black Bart
    I'm baffled: how does an advertising campaign affect just one call center, and why did the people call?
    They tried round-robin but it turned out their Spanish customers didn't like to speak to the French support staff all that much. Neither did the Belgian customers care much about getting a Polish emplyee on the line.

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