The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I like how you highlight everything from Wednesday, January 18.... to Friday, January 27... You can see the "aaa..."

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

Turn in your programmer card.

Captch = null.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I've seen the same thing on AVP.com. I'll see if I can dig it up...

Ah:
http://www.avp.com/schedule/gameday.jsp?id=3993
When: Thursday July 13 -- Qualifier
whenwhenwhenGates Open 8am - 6pm
When: Friday July 14 -- Main Draw Competition
whwhenenwhenGates Open 9:30am - 6pm
When: Friday Night July 14 -- Main Draw Competition
whwhenenwhenGates Open 7:30pm - 10pm
When: Saturday July 15 -- Main Draw
whwhenenwhenGates Open 9:30am - 6pm
When: Saturday Night July 15 -- Main Draw
whwhenenwhenGates Open 7:30pm - 10pm
When: Sunday July 16 -- Men's / Women's Finals
whenwhenwhenGates Open 9:45am - 5:50pm
Highlight for goodness

this must have taken real talent, they actually used the word when, but the real wtf, is I didn't see the

tag in the source

MaGnA · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

<font color="#WTFFFFFF">

Bus Raker · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

The real wtf is that he didn't use:

Wednesday, January 18 - 8:30am - 8:00pm
 wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf 
Thursday, January 19 - 8:30am - 8:00pm
wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf 
Friday, January 20 - 8:30am - 6:00pm
 wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf

Somebody buy the man 'Idiot's Guide to HTML'. They cover this sort of thing in the first chapter.
Point here is never undertake a new technology without at least doing a little research. Reminds me of an IT boss of mine that used to insert a column in Excel to manually type all of the values of an equation in another column. Then she could safely delete the columns that were referenced. She stayed up all night doing this for 10,000 inventory items. When I showed her 'Copy > Paste Special' the next day she almost died! Later on, I showed her what a 'database' was. She said it was like 'Excel on steriods'. And I ramble...

Anonymous:

Anonymous:
I like how you highlight everything from Wednesday, January 18.... to Friday, January 27... You can see the "aaa..."

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

Turn in your programmer card.

Captch = null.

If only people were required get licenses to code .. and also to have babies ... the world would be a much safer place.

snoofle · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Bus Raker:

The real wtf is that he didn't use:


Wednesday, January 18 - 8:30am - 8:00pm
 wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf 
Thursday, January 19 - 8:30am - 8:00pm
wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf 
Friday, January 20 - 8:30am - 6:00pm
 wtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtfwtf

Somebody buy the man 'Idiot's Guide to HTML'. They cover this sort of thing in the first chapter.
Point here is never undertake a new technology without at least doing a little research. Reminds me of an IT boss of mine that used to insert a column in Excel to manually type all of the values of an equation in another column. Then she could safely delete the columns that were referenced. She stayed up all night doing this for 10,000 inventory items. When I showed her 'Copy > Paste Special' the next day she almost died! Later on, I showed her what a 'database' was. She said it was like 'Excel on steriods'. And I ramble...

Anonymous:

Anonymous:
I like how you highlight everything from Wednesday, January 18.... to Friday, January 27... You can see the "aaa..."

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

Turn in your programmer card.

Captch = null.

If only people were required get licenses to code .. and also to have babies ... the world would be a much safer place.

I had a boss like that once - technologically clueless, but she could understand if you fed it to her in small bytes</bad pun>. I don't blame people for not knowing technology - most folks don't. I blame people who think they're wizards because they aren't smart enough to realize how much they don't know, and don't have the brains to ask (really, how stupid do you need to be to try manually editing 10K rows without asking someone if there's an easier way?)

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

GoatCheez, are you really that stupid?

Over and over and over, your comments disappoint and annoy.

You singlehandedly make this site less enjoyable for me.

Kind regards,
the jerk

egon · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Oh god, my "XHTML 1.1 OCD" personality is freaking out right now. Must go validate again

triso · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I've seen the same thing on AVP.com. I'll see if I can dig it up...

Ah:
http://www.avp.com/schedule/gameday.jsp?id=3993
When: Thursday July 13 -- Qualifier
whenwhenwhenGates Open 8am - 6pm
When: Friday July 14 -- Main Draw Competition
whwhenenwhenGates Open 9:30am - 6pm
When: Friday Night July 14 -- Main Draw Competition
whwhenenwhenGates Open 7:30pm - 10pm
When: Saturday July 15 -- Main Draw
whwhenenwhenGates Open 9:30am - 6pm
When: Saturday Night July 15 -- Main Draw
whwhenenwhenGates Open 7:30pm - 10pm
When: Sunday July 16 -- Men's / Women's Finals
whenwhenwhenGates Open 9:45am - 5:50pm
Highlight for goodness

The hidden letters are only used for indentation not line breaks. Sorry!

marvin_rabbit · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

[oops. deleted.]

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

well, I know of at least one system where the only way of displaying empty lines was indeed inserting letters in the colour of the background. They used lotus notes as a backend and transformed them to html. Multiple linebreaks were swallowed by the system while converting the lotus notes document. No suprise, it was a governement website...

So maybe the system in this case was incapable of handling linebreaks...

fg

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Saarus:
GoatCheez:
John Bigboote:
Anonymous:

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

I think they probably used server-side GDI methods to calculate the width of the string, given the font face and size, and then programmatically built the string of "a"s to the appropriate length.

Uh, I really, REALLY disagree. If this was server-side, the programmer should be SHOT IMMEDIATELY. The method you describe requires intelligence. No one with the smallest amount of intelligence would use strings of text to break a line.

This HAD to be a wysiwyg editor. Besides, the lines with single a's should prove that. The reason the number of a's are different is because the fonts are not monospaced.
The real WTF is that people in this forum aren't explicitly delimiting sarcasm with the requisite sarcasm tags.

I can only hope that this is sarcasm too. Because, come on, he really shouldn't have to use tags if it's that obvious.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Brilliant. I have to go back to re-develop all my pages now.

Bus Raker · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

snoofle:
Bus Raker:

When I showed her 'Copy > Paste Special' the next day she almost died!

I had a boss like that once - technologically clueless, but she could understand if you fed it to her in small bytes</bad pun>. I don't blame people for not knowing technology - most folks don't. I blame people who think they're wizards because they aren't smart enough to realize how much they don't know, and don't have the brains to ask (really, how stupid do you need to be to try manually editing 10K rows without asking someone if there's an easier way?)

Well, she was my IT boss!

Though I will admit she was one of the best I've had. She managed and I did the technical part. Great communication skills, great project management skills, and great leadership, and she valued my opinion on IT decisions. Makes me wonder that the promotion of weak IT/CS employees to management is not necessarily a WTF. It's only a WTF that they make more money and have a better future.

oops .. am I starting a flame war?

Bus Raker · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Saarus:
GoatCheez:

Uh, I really, REALLY disagree. If this was server-side, the programmer should be SHOT IMMEDIATELY. The method you describe requires intelligence. No one with the smallest amount of intelligence would use strings of text to break a line.

The real WTF is that people in this forum aren't explicitly delimiting sarcasm with the requisite sarcasm tags.

I can only hope that this is sarcasm too. Because, come on, he really shouldn't have to use tags if it's that obvious.

[sarcasm][misinterpreting sarcasm][sarcasm]Are you being sarcastic?[/sarcasm][/misinterpreting sarcasm][/sarcasm]

GoatCheez · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

asdqwe:

I can only hope that this is sarcasm too. Because, come on, he really shouldn't have to use tags if it's that obvious.

It wasn't that obvious to me... Of course it's been a pretty long day... err.... week I should prolly say....
Also isn't the first time I've missed obvious sarcasm lol.

<sarcasm>
And obviously I must be really stupid according to the jerk. And what would a comment from me be if it didn't disappoint and annoy. I have to make sure that this site isn't enjoyable for anyone. Everyone knows I've never made a single constructive comment on any thread in any of the forums.
</sarcasm>

Of course, I won't even bother telling anyone what I think of the jerk. What purpose does it serve? What purpose did his comment serve? Was it to try and desuade me from ever posting again? Obviously that didn't work. Did anything I say in this thread to truely disappoint and annoy? I would honestly like to know. If the only thing was me not recognizing the sarcasm and responding to it, well, c'mon now... I dunno... Maybe it's just some person who doesn't agree with some of my views, and thinks that they can shut me up from an anonymous post. I dunno... I tend to over-analyze things... Which is why I do what I do... I dunno... Just re-read the jerk's message to see if it sounded right with a sarcastic tone. It doesn't. I knew I was socially inept, but uh... What do you call it when you are digi-socially inept lol... Awell... Can't please everyone... Maybe I pointed out a flaw in one of their comments? BAH! STOP ANALYZING lol.... ok... damnit.... I hope I can sleep tonight...

ogilmor · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

neither do i, but i know enough to find that funny. reminds me of the wft where the developer registered his dll by invoking the keypress sequence for start/run/regsvr32.exe (instead of using windows installer or some api within the installation). I kid you not.

merreborn · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
The funny thing is, this WTF isn't all that far removed from the crap David "World's Worst Web Designer" Siegel used to promote in his books.

That's amazingly dreadful, although that page *is* 10 years old.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
GoatCheez, are you really that stupid?

Over and over and over, your comments disappoint and annoy.

You singlehandedly make this site less enjoyable for me.

Kind regards,
the jerk

Leave the Goat alone. The controversy he started with the Scientologists was great. When he got upset about Windows security... priceless.

Frankly speaking, I could care less about the WTF's, I come to the site to see nerds argue about off topic threads. We need more like him to stir things up.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
GoatCheez, are you really that stupid?

Over and over and over, your comments disappoint and annoy.

You singlehandedly make this site less enjoyable for me.

Kind regards,
the jerk

Leave the Goat alone. The controversy he started with the Scientologists was great. When he got upset about Windows security... priceless.

Frankly speaking, I could care less about the WTF's, I come to the site to see nerds argue about off topic threads. We need more like him to stir things up.

To right, the WTF's are kinda a side amusment, the real fun begins when the flame wars begin!!!!

TankerJoe · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
GoatCheez, are you really that stupid?

Over and over and over, your comments disappoint and annoy.

You singlehandedly make this site less enjoyable for me.

Kind regards,
the jerk

Leave the Goat alone. The controversy he started with the Scientologists was great. When he got upset about Windows security... priceless.

Frankly speaking, I could care less about the WTF's, I come to the site to see nerds argue about off topic threads. We need more like him to stir things up.

To right, the WTF's are kinda a side amusment, the real fun begins when the flame wars begin!!!!

Quoted for truthiness.

I think that the great-great-grandparents name says it all. Or was that sarcasm too? Oh I give up.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

GoatCheez:
Anonymous:
Wouldn't it be a even bigger WTF if he really used a WYSIWYG editor and tried to wrap a line using aaaaa instead of just hitting enter?

Yes, but that probably didn't happen here. As it was pointed out earlier, in Frontpage and other WYSIWYG editors, hitting enter creates another paragraph, which is way more than a line break. To create a line break they would hit Shift-Enter. Not something all people would try when they don't get the results they desire.

When I first learned about HTML in school, we were instructed to use FrontPage and "never click the HTML tab because it will confuse you" (I was 8 at the time).

I think I just tried copy+pasting linebreaks from other places before I realized to do shift+enter.

Why is it so hard for peple to get inside anoyther person's mind and assume the creator of the software would have devised a way to make single-line returns; then go look for that feature, instead of behaving like monkeys?

Because it's easier to devise a creative way to do line-breaks than it is to try to look through the documentation when you have no idea what you're looking for (I know I didn't know what line-breaks were when I was in eighth grade).

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

I used to do stuff like this when I made my first geocities home page with it's 1 meg of space goodness... oh the memories. Couldn't figure out how to get things go to another line, so my first page was just a big paragraph.

It's funny to think that people still do this

Bet you thought there was stuff there... nope

olddog · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

what a hoot... I did a google on "aaaaaaaaaaaaa" and found another site that uses this clever positioning tool. Check out:

http://pagesperso.laposte.net/chezwouam/usplan.php

and highlight the text. Or do your own google. WOW.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Well, if the length of the shortest "aaa...aaa" strings is longer than the longest non-white-text, then the line-breaks should divide the text exactly in the places intended by the designer, since the only limiting box is the tag, wich automaticaly scales to the content, but also tries, to minimize the area...so..my point is, I do believe it realy rarely looks bad...unless highlighted :P

I'd like to be so creative as person in question.

Some Idiot · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Saarus:
GoatCheez:
John Bigboote:
Anonymous:

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

I think they probably used server-side GDI methods to calculate the width of the string, given the font face and size, and then programmatically built the string of "a"s to the appropriate length.

Uh, I really, REALLY disagree. If this was server-side, the programmer should be SHOT IMMEDIATELY. The method you describe requires intelligence. No one with the smallest amount of intelligence would use strings of text to break a line.

This HAD to be a wysiwyg editor. Besides, the lines with single a's should prove that. The reason the number of a's are different is because the fonts are not monospaced.
The real WTF is that people in this forum aren't explicitly delimiting sarcasm with the requisite sarcasm tags.

If everyone posting on this site were to use sarcasm tags, stupid developers would come here and learn enough to get by. This would be BAD, people. VERY BAD.

The way I see it, if someone on this site suggests something stupid like using server-side GDI methods to calculate the width of strings as above, developers who lack the basic problem solving abilities required to become good developers will think "hey, that's brillant!" and by combining the many illessons learned on this site, create potentially millions of new WTFs.

If we wrap everything in sarcasm tags, these same idiots will be given blatant enough clues to learn something useful, reducing future WTFery.

It is therefore in this site's interest to never wrap any sarcasm in tags. In fact the forum software should eat sarcasm tags as a matter of self preservation.

Omitting sarcasm tags also leaves open the possibilty of situations like above where GoatCheez screwed up. That stuff is funny, the reactions are funny. It all makes the site worth reading. And kudos to GoatCheez for good humour in admitting a mistake - just don't do it again, the idiots are reading and learning.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

The best part about this is that someone got paid to do it.

Saarus · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Some Idiot:
Saarus:
GoatCheez:
John Bigboote:
Anonymous:

Is there a specific number of "a"s that forces a new line? They don't seem to have the same number from line to line.

I think they probably used server-side GDI methods to calculate the width of the string, given the font face and size, and then programmatically built the string of "a"s to the appropriate length.

Uh, I really, REALLY disagree. If this was server-side, the programmer should be SHOT IMMEDIATELY. The method you describe requires intelligence. No one with the smallest amount of intelligence would use strings of text to break a line.

This HAD to be a wysiwyg editor. Besides, the lines with single a's should prove that. The reason the number of a's are different is because the fonts are not monospaced.
The real WTF is that people in this forum aren't explicitly delimiting sarcasm with the requisite sarcasm tags.

If everyone posting on this site were to use sarcasm tags, stupid developers would come here and learn enough to get by. This would be BAD, people. VERY BAD.

The way I see it, if someone on this site suggests something stupid like using server-side GDI methods to calculate the width of strings as above, developers who lack the basic problem solving abilities required to become good developers will think "hey, that's brillant!" and by combining the many illessons learned on this site, create potentially millions of new WTFs.

If we wrap everything in sarcasm tags, these same idiots will be given blatant enough clues to learn something useful, reducing future WTFery.

It is therefore in this site's interest to never wrap any sarcasm in tags. In fact the forum software should eat sarcasm tags as a matter of self preservation.

Omitting sarcasm tags also leaves open the possibilty of situations like above where GoatCheez screwed up. That stuff is funny, the reactions are funny. It all makes the site worth reading. And kudos to GoatCheez for good humour in admitting a mistake - just don't do it again, the idiots are reading and learning.

You know what is funny about all this is I can't figure out get this forum software to display the angle brackets properly for sarcasm tags. I'm seriously laughing at myself.

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Ahh, my bad! Brilant move on my part...

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

I did something like this - in about 1996, before I learnt about tables...

/hangs head

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Don't mess with that, it's absolutely brillant!

2006-07-13 Reply Admin

and than they sue google for being listed in pr0n search results

Some Idiot · 2006-07-13 Reply Admin

Saarus:
You know what is funny about all this is I can't figure out get this forum software to display the angle brackets properly for sarcasm tags. I'm seriously laughing at myself.

Looks like the forum software is looking after itself.

Actually putting sarcasm tags on the forum is easy. Here's how:

a: Type your sarcastic comment into Word including sarcasm tags.

a.a: Where you need new lines in your comment, change the font colour to the background colour, type "wtf" until the cursor appears on the next line, change the font colour back and continue your comment.

a.a(a): Using a third party tool, save your Word document as a pdf, or if you don't have a license for a third party pdf creation tool, download openoffice.org, install it, open your word document in open office and export it as pdf.

a.a(a).A: Print out your pdf document.

a.a(a).A.a: Place the printout on a wooden background (eg a table) and photograph it.

a.a(a).A.a(a): .......... aaaaaaaaaaaaaa forget it.

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

The real WTF is that Alex had to use s to make the WTF wrap correctly.

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Of course the graphically inclined html novice guru would have used <img src="images/clear.gif" width=120 height=1>

MS IE used that method at one point of time to implement indented paragraphs.

themagni · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

It's still a good line. Thanks for the best laaaaaaaaaugh in the thread.

Oh, by the way: Hi, everyone. My name's Magnus. I'm an Electrical Engineer.

TechNoFear · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
GoatCheez, are you really that stupid?

Over and over and over, your comments disappoint and annoy.

You singlehandedly make this site less enjoyable for me.

Kind regards,
the jerk

Leave the Goat alone. The controversy he started with the Scientologists was great. When he got upset about Windows security... priceless.

Frankly speaking, I could care less about the WTF's, I come to the site to see nerds argue about off topic threads. We need more like him to stir things up.

To right, the WTF's are kinda a side amusment, the real fun begins when the flame wars begin!!!!

remind me, was this before or after the Clone Wars?

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

I will give you the other side of the picture... If this isn't thinking out of the box, then what is?

Maybe he's ignorant, but dammit! He has the talent to use a pin to do the job of a crowbar. Lemme bet ya! This dude is going to go far.. Maybe he will even become the president of the united states.

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Don't mess with that, it's absolutely brillant!

All the people thinking it's fun or whatever to refer to 'brillant' (and there are a lot of you, not specifically picking this one out) obvious don't get it. The wtf part behind Paula is that she did NOTHING at all and managed to stay on the job. No copy-past, not 'creative' combination of technologies, no language abuse, ... just nothing ...

Next time you refer to it, think about it for a moment, it makes you look stupid.

</rant>

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Alex Papadimoulis:

 aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

With Web2.0 style:

  <font color="#FFFFFF"> <script>for(t=0;t<21;t++) document.write("a");</script> </font>

--Tei

error27 · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Clearly this was autogenerated. My guess is they were using Microsoft FrontPage or something.

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

I can't stop laughing g
OMG, this is really a creative WTF...
Hopefully this guy only did the book store, and nothing else...

captcha: chocobot

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Don't mess with that, it's absolutely brillant!

All the people thinking it's fun or whatever to refer to 'brillant' (and there are a lot of you, not specifically picking this one out) obvious don't get it. The wtf part behind Paula is that she did NOTHING at all and managed to stay on the job. No copy-past, not 'creative' combination of technologies, no language abuse, ... just nothing ...

Next time you refer to it, think about it for a moment, it makes you look stupid.

</rant>

Just because _YOU_ don't think something is funny, doesn't make it so. I personally giggle, when someone posts a well thought-up "brillant"

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

I just involuntarily said 'What the fuck..' out loud.

snoofle · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Don't mess with that, it's absolutely brillant!

All the people thinking it's fun or whatever to refer to 'brillant' (and there are a lot of you, not specifically picking this one out) obvious don't get it. The wtf part behind Paula is that she did NOTHING at all and managed to stay on the job. No copy-past, not 'creative' combination of technologies, no language abuse, ... just nothing ...

Next time you refer to it, think about it for a moment, it makes you look stupid.

</rant>

Just because _YOU_ don't think something is funny, doesn't make it so. I personally giggle, when someone posts a well thought-up "brillant"

I think this ties in with the omitted sarcasm tags. implied: <sarcasm>brillant</sarcasm>

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Yes, clearly this is NOT a "professional" way to chew up space - all the pros know you ought to use captial Ws, to minimize the number of chars sent across the wire. After all, truly dedicated pros give the user's experience top priority, even if it means holding the shift key down while typing Ws

PhillS · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Anonymous:

With Web2.0 style:

  <font color="#FFFFFF"> <script>for(t=0;t<21;t++) document.write("a");</script> </font>

--Tei

I always thought "Web2.0" was more enterprise-y than that. You know, something like using XMLHttpRequest to send a request to the web server to retrieve the string needed for a line break character. That way, they could upgrade to " " with the minimum amount of effort.

In fact, in order to "future-proof" the sites that I create, I've started trying to apply that philosophy. Now, I don't hard-code in HTML tags. I just use an AJAX style request to get the tag. It's so Web 2.0 it gives me goosebumps just thinking about it.

seymore15074 · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Correct me if I'm wrong but IF this individual used a WYSIWYG editor for this, couldn't they have just hit enter? Consequently, if that doesn't work then it wouldn't exactly be a WYSIWYG editor, would it...

2006-07-14 Reply Admin

John Bigboote:
I just like envisioning scenarios where massive amounts of technical know-how are brought to bear on solutions that really really don't need them.
<bringingAGunToAKnifeFight>like so.</bringingAGunToAKnifeFight>

I disagree...If there is ever a time when I need a gun it is when someone is about to try to stab me.

The CAPTCHA was 'paste' but my browser ate it!

ParkinT · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

Simply: Ingenious.

I admire the creative spirit (thinking beyond the established standards). And, based on his limited knowledge and understanding, this was an excellent approach!

My vote for WTF-ness is "thumbs down"

ParkinT · 2006-07-14 Reply Admin

MaGnA:

<font color="#WTFFFFFF">

THAT is the funniest post on this subject!

You owe me a keyboard.

No Line Breaks? Aaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

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