• Mike K (unregistered)

    Guys, I hate to say it but this sort of thing is as common as air and bullshit on corporate america (non-profit america too). It's hardly deserving of a wtf.

  • Scott (unregistered) in reply to sane person
    I once read somewhere or other that before Julius Caesar reformed the calendar, the Romans sometimes inserted a "leap month" to resynchronize their calendar with the seasons, and that they called this month "Meridinus". I nominate Meridinus as the name for period 13.

    The Hebrew calendar uses leap months. Seven out of every 19 years have the creatively-named Adar II.

  • (cs)

    ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Philip H. Baas [email protected] To: *GL-All [email protected] Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2010 12:44:07 -0500 Subject: Period 13 Change Notice

    All, Due to the inability of operational employees to remember that December 31 is reserved for Period 13 transactions, the Period 13 date will be changed to February 29. Management is pleased with this innovative utilization of leverage because it will effectively reduce Period 13 related errors by 75%.

    Regards, Philip H. Baas Assistant Vice President, Accounting & Operations

  • Fus (unregistered)

    One for 2 isnt bad when Corporate does the fixing for you - especially since its been less than a month.

    My Corporate finally did something for me - after waiting for 13 months. :<

  • (cs) in reply to Steve (yes, the real Steve)
    Steve (yes:
    In regards to the occasional missing word, I pass that credit on to the webmaster of the site. Anyone wanting to see the content of what I submitted originally can email me directly at seskeet at prodigy dot net. I hope this isn't coming off as sour grapes because I love some of the flair that was added to build up the excitement. However, rest assured that the original submission was flawless in grammar and spelling.

    No, it's not coming off as sour grapes. It does, however, make you come across as a CYA weasel who thinks he never makes any mistakes on his own.

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    February 29... will effectively reduce Period 13 related errors by 75%.

    Or more!

  • David (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    ducks and run:
    So? Inherit from the Date parser, and override the parse method so that is accepts December 32 as a valid value...

    The date parser is a sealed class. Now what do you do?

    Light a fire. Then you can follow the notice on the fire alarm:

    "In case of fire, break class."

  • Todd Lewis (unregistered) in reply to pete
    pete:
    But what should this 13th Month be called? According to wikipedia Undecimber I think we can do better.

    I've got a little calendar app I threw together one night for a Cub Scout pack, and "bad" months in it are called "Flubruary".

    I vote for Flubruary.

  • Todd Lewis (unregistered) in reply to dpm
    dpm:
    Steve (yes:
    Anyone wanting to see the content of what I submitted originally can email me directly at seskeet at prodigy dot net.
    I received the original, and am quite disappointed at not only how much was removed, but also at how much was added. It was certainly able to stand on its own, but the amount and degree of editing is ridiculous and shameful. This is not what an editor should be doing.

    Having sent an article through the WTF process myself, I have to concur. What bothered me most in my case was how much the truth was sacrificed for the sake of narrative.

    I guess you have to remember that while these stories may have been inspired by actual events, they are in themselves fictional.

    In closing, meh.

  • (cs)

    Well, no WONDER they had problems. What did they expect, posting to unlucky period 13?

  • (cs) in reply to pete
    pete:
    But what should this 13th Month be called? According to wikipedia Undecimber I think we can do better.
    Dr. Seuss would have us use Octember.
  • lolcat (unregistered) in reply to lollersk8s
    lollersk8s:
    vasiliys:
    Has anyone really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like?

    You've got to be kidding me. I've been further even more decided to use even go need to do look more as anyone can. Can you really be far even as decided half as much to use go wish for that? My guess is that when one really been far even as decided once to use even go want, it is then that he has really been far even as decided to use even go want to do look more like. It's just common sense.

    WIN

  • jg (unregistered) in reply to Steve (yes, the real Steve)
    Steve (yes:
    In regards to the occasional missing word, I pass that credit on to the webmaster of the site. Anyone wanting to see the content of what I submitted originally can email me directly at seskeet at prodigy dot net. I hope this isn't coming off as sour grapes because I love some of the flair that was added to build up the excitement. However, rest assured that the original submission was flawless in grammar and spelling.

    And while I have not officially implemented the fix (because I can't get anyone at Corporate to respond that my idea is acceptable -- even though it's just what they end up doing every year), rest assured that if and when it goes in, it will be meticulously documented. Ask ANYONE that I work with and they'll validate that.

    but, will anyone READ your documentation

  • AdT (unregistered)

    The 13th period exists because the cotton industry lobbied for it. BTW, there's an easy fix to the "won't remember next year"-problem, it's called iCal notifications. (I'm sure Outlook can do as well.)

    That's the next best solution after reeducating the developers about the viability of magic dates.

  • (cs) in reply to frits
    frits:
    Due to the inability of operational employees to remember that December 31 is reserved for Period 13 transactions, the Period 13 date will be changed to February 29. Management is pleased with this innovative utilization of leverage because it will effectively reduce Period 13 related errors by 75%
    75.75% actually. Pedantic man, away!
  • Grumpy Smurf (unregistered) in reply to The Other Steve
    The Other Steve:
    Steve (yes:
    Ask ANYONE that I work with and they'll validate that.

    As someone who does work with Steve, I can validate his comment. :-)

    As it happens we had another issue with log files not properly rolling on the new year, which has persisted for at least 2 years. This year we did knock that one out so it won't be coming back in 2011. So far we're one for two.

    2 bug fixes in 1 year. You guys are on fire!

  • Grumpy Smurf (unregistered) in reply to AdT
    AdT:
    The 13th period exists because the cotton industry lobbied for it. BTW, there's an easy fix to the "won't remember next year"-problem, it's called iCal notifications. (I'm sure Outlook can do as well.)
    I think Google Calendar, not limited to a Windows / Mac, would likely be a better solution. But I'm sure that's what you meant.
  • WilliamF (unregistered)

    i dont know who designed the schedule program for my TVR/TV card but they were either accountants or damn stupid as it doesnt like schedule entries for December 31st either, as soon as you hit ok the entry doesnt show in the list and hence doesnt capture the program

    captcha: causa causa and effect-a

  • The Other, Other Steve (unregistered) in reply to The Other Steve

    I don't recognize you, Steve. Obviously you are a fake Steve and not the real Steve. This is obviously part of the Bob conspiracy.

  • EngleBart (unregistered) in reply to WilliamF
    WilliamF:
    i dont know who designed the schedule program for my TVR/TV card but they were either accountants or damn stupid as it doesnt like schedule entries for December 31st either, as soon as you hit ok the entry doesnt show in the list and hence doesnt capture the program
    It might be a time zone issue...

    If it accepts AM times okay then that will help debug it.

    If you can set the time zone on the setup, try using UTC/GMT and see if that works.

    P.S. I hate time zones!

  • EngleBart (unregistered)

    I was a little disappointed when I reached the end of the story.

    I thought the solution was going to be:

    I logged into the HR vacation request system and scheduled vacation for New Years Eve 2010.

  • Quirkafleeg (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Abrelt:
    It's the wlhoe ccnpoet taht the itranel odnirerg of wdors dsnoe't mttear as lnog as the bngeniig and end are crrcoet.
    Atlaulcy taht ccnpoet is dmtrnlbsoaey fsale. The whole concept breaks down as soon as words get to about 7 letters or above. Hence "dmtrnlbsoaey".
    There's more to it than that: how pubsillae the slambcerbd word appears to be, and what words are likely to fit there, given the coxnett. (plausible, scrambled; you know the other)

    Because of this, I found ‘dmtrnlbsoaey’ easier than ‘ccnpoet’. Demonstrating the concept…

  • Cygnus (unregistered) in reply to Steve (yes, the real Steve)

    Geez, Steve, you come across as a real stick-in-the-mud.

  • Bryan Price (unregistered)

    In the days I was sysop on an IBM Model 3 System 12, my boss would run the midyear accounts on June 31. Always done at the end of the day, and only took about half an hour to actually run. He wanted to run year end on December 32, but accounting wouldn't let him do that. Year end processing was a little more involved as well.

  • Spoe (unregistered) in reply to pete
    pete:
    But what should this 13th Month be called? According to wikipedia Undecimber I think we can do better.

    Well, back in the 80's Rich Hall had a sniglet for the 13th month. Checkuary. The month that begins the day after Dec 31st and ends when you start writing the correct year on checks.

  • sy (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous

    I hlhigy deagsrie wtih tihs smenitnet taht the aorgagteign of cacrehatrs in a rcillsduoiuy lnog aicdjetve or wrod meaks tihs coencpt flal aprat Waht meaks it flal arapt is wehn you use a wrod taht polepe dn'ot konw scuh as dbtsolmrnaey I dno't eevn konw waht dltesonabmry mneas

  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Abrelt:
    It's the wlhoe ccnpoet taht the itranel odnirerg of wdors dsnoe't mttear as lnog as the bngeniig and end are crrcoet.
    Atlaulcy taht ccnpoet is dmtrnlbsoaey fsale. The whole concept breaks down as soon as words get to about 7 letters or above. Hence "dmtrnlbsoaey".
    I wtore an arhlitgom to rgnrareae leertts in a mneanr taht is pllarraitucy hrad to raed. It teirs to miismaxe the pudcrot of the lhistevneen dcnaiste bweeten the snligples and the lhtsineeven danciste beeetwn the pnatiircnuonos as mueersad by a maopnthee fcuointn.

    Source code, requires advas.

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    ducks and run:
    So? Inherit from the Date parser, and override the parse method so that is accepts December 32 as a valid value...

    The date parser is a sealed class. Now what do you do?

    Shoot the hostage.

  • Affirmative What, now? (unregistered)

    Relying on a 13th period? That's crazy! What happens when the number of months reaches 13 or greater? Best to make it the 0th period...

    Or better yet, the -1st period.

  • Quirkafleeg (unregistered) in reply to Spoe
    Spoe:
    pete:
    But what should this 13th Month be called? According to wikipedia Undecimber I think we can do better.
    Well, back in the 80's Rich Hall had a sniglet for the 13th month. Checkuary. The month that begins the day after Dec 31st and ends when you start writing the correct year on checks.
    If that's what I think that you mean, then the correct name for that month would be Chequary. Although if it's about (not) checking the dates on cheques, then I concede your name for Checkuary, this current (account) month of cheque checking…
  • (cs) in reply to sirlewk
    sirlewk:
    The wonderful thing about the english language is that nomatter what you do with it, so long as it conveys the intended meaning, it is still perfectly valid english.

    Only old shrill english teachers and jackasses think otherwise.

    Agreemification negate, vis-a-vis me as comparative to you, per abovementioned comment of you. Hee-haw.

  • (cs)
    Steve's phone gave its distinctive internal ring.
    I haven't seen the show in years, but this still makes me instantly thing of:

    Boop-boop-beee-Oop Bauer: Dammit, Steve, I need that NavSat data on my screen NOW!

  • lesle (unregistered)

    "Gracie," I asked her on an early Lombardo show, "how many days are there in a year?"

    This is a relatively simple question. Every school kid knows the right answer. "Seven," Gracie said, as if it were a dumb question.

    "Seven?"

    "Seven. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. If you know any more, George, just name them."

             <em>Gracie</em>, A Love Story, George Burns
  • Some Guy (unregistered) in reply to dpm
    dpm:
    I received the original, and am quite disappointed at not only how much was removed, but also at how much was added. It was certainly able to stand on its own, but the amount and degree of editing is ridiculous and shameful. This is not what an editor should be doing.

    At last, we've found the real WTF, again:

    People who make this same complaint with every last story ever posted here, yet they aren't happy to merely keep on reading, they also feel the need to post their stories here just so they can have even more complaints.

    And there isn't a single person posting here who has the ability to create their own website where they'll do only the things that an editor should do.

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Mr.'; Drop Database --
    Mr.'; Drop Database --:
    Anonymous:
    Abrelt:
    It's the wlhoe ccnpoet taht the itranel odnirerg of wdors dsnoe't mttear as lnog as the bngeniig and end are crrcoet.
    Atlaulcy taht ccnpoet is dmtrnlbsoaey fsale. The whole concept breaks down as soon as words get to about 7 letters or above. Hence "dmtrnlbsoaey".
    I wtore an arhlitgom to rgnrareae leertts in a mneanr taht is pllarraitucy hrad to raed. It teirs to miismaxe the pudcrot of the lhistevneen dcnaiste bweeten the snligples and the lhtsineeven danciste beeetwn the pnatiircnuonos as mueersad by a maopnthee fcuointn.

    Source code, requires advas.

    I hvae no ieda waht you are siyang. Palulrratciy the lsat snetcene. If you wloud not mnid riierwntg yuor comnemt, it sonuds vrey itrnstenieg. BTW I heavn't uesd yuor sciprt for tihs cmnemot.

  • MMMason (unregistered)

    I know that DuPont for accounting purposes has varying days of the month. For reasons unknown to me, a 33 day month is a typical.

  • quisling (unregistered) in reply to SQLDave
    SQLDave:
    sirlewk:
    The wonderful thing about the english language is that nomatter what you do with it, so long as it conveys the intended meaning, it is still perfectly valid english.

    Only old shrill english teachers and jackasses think otherwise.

    Agreemification negate, vis-a-vis me as comparative to you, per abovementioned comment of you. Hee-haw.

    arf arf?

  • Oliver (unregistered)

    I do so hope that Sarbanes Oxley isn't part of your work environment, because I'm pretty certain this is a potential breach of that law. Unless of course, there's another field which is the actual date/processing date.

  • Mr.'; Drop Database -- (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    I hvae no ieda waht you are siyang. Palulrratciy the lsat snetcene. If you wloud not mnid riierwntg yuor comnemt, it sonuds vrey itrnstenieg. BTW I heavn't uesd yuor sciprt for tihs cmnemot.
    I guess it worked then. :)

    In plain English, my algorithm tries shuffling each word 50 times, trying to maximise both the difference in spelling and the difference in pronunciation.

  • lokey (unregistered) in reply to Bim Job
    Bim Job:
    amischiefr:
    DES:
    Steve (yes:
    In regards to the occasional missing word [...] rest assured that the original submission was flawless in grammar and spelling.

    Priceless.

    It's "regarding", "as regards" or the ever so popular "with regard to", never "in regards to".

    Heil mein fuhrer of all that is grammatically correct. We praise you for your contribution to this post.
    Oh, I don't know. It's always worth checking your grammar before posting a grammar bleat. The phrase 'in regards to' should be consigned to the dust-heap of history.

    As for your amusing -- indeed, Godwinian -- allusion to the Hitlergruß, you might at least have spelled it correctly. It's not difficult. You have two choices:

    • Heil, mein Führer! or
    • Heil, mein Fuehrer!

    But, to DES's point. The English language is a wonderful thing, and should not be disfigured by arthritic phraseology such as "in regards to."

    "Regarding" conveys precisely the same meaning, and makes one sound substantially less of a twat.

    I commend it to all grammar anti-Nazis out there.

    Lazy Twit! Learn to use the language correctly, don't change the dictionary because you are too ignorant to understand what it says...

  • (cs) in reply to amischiefr
    amischiefr:
    DES:
    Steve (yes:
    In regards to the occasional missing word [...] rest assured that the original submission was flawless in grammar and spelling.

    Priceless.

    It's "regarding", "as regards" or the ever so popular "with regard to", never "in regards to".

    Heil mein fuhrer of all that is grammatically correct. We praise you for your contribution to this post.
    It's "Führer". With umlaut and capitalized.

    Edit: someone else already posted the same rely and CS doesn't allow me to delete this comment :-(

  • Steve the Cynic (unregistered) in reply to Steve (yes, the real Steve)
    Steve (yes:

    OK, so if you are "the real" Steve, and he is "the other" Steve, what am I?

    "a false" Steve

    "a fictional" Steve

    "nobody"

    "a Cynic"

    "FAIL"

    ?

  • (cs) in reply to Steve the Cynic
    Steve:
    OK, so if you are "the real" Steve, and he is "the other" Steve, what am I? "}
    You are all Steve!

    "Steve (the Cynic)" == "Steve (yes, the real Steve)"= true "Steve (the Cynic)" == "Steve (the other)" = true "Steve (yes, the real Steve)" == "Steve (the other)" = true

    But you're different types (of Steve)...

    "Steve (the Cynic)" === "Steve (yes, the real Steve)"= false "Steve (the Cynic)" === "Steve (the other)" = false "Steve (yes, the real Steve)" === "Steve (the other)" = false

  • (cs) in reply to bjolling
    bjolling:
    amischiefr:
    DES:
    Steve (yes:
    In regards to the occasional missing word [...] rest assured that the original submission was flawless in grammar and spelling.

    Priceless.

    It's "regarding", "as regards" or the ever so popular "with regard to", never "in regards to".

    Heil mein fuhrer of all that is grammatically correct. We praise you for your contribution to this post.
    It's "Führer". With umlaut and capitalized.

    Edit: someone else already posted the same rely and CS doesn't allow me to delete this comment :-(

    It's "reply." With the letter "p." The period goes inside the quotation marks.

    (Come on, someone had to say it!)

  • Herby (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    Why not use February 29th as your 13th period. That could never cause a problem, right?
    No, no problem at all even in years divisible by 4, like 2100 (90 years from now, when we won't be here).
  • (cs) in reply to Some Guy
    Some Guy:
    dpm:
    I received the original, and am quite disappointed at not only how much was removed, but also at how much was added. It was certainly able to stand on its own, but the amount and degree of editing is ridiculous and shameful. This is not what an editor should be doing.

    At last, we've found the real WTF, again:

    People who make this same complaint with every last story ever posted here, yet they aren't happy to merely keep on reading, they also feel the need to post their stories here just so they can have even more complaints.

    And there isn't a single person posting here who has the ability to create their own website where they'll do only the things that an editor should do.

    Au contraire:

    • This was the first time I've ever complained about the editing.

    • Perhaps there are many complaints because the editing is bad --- you do not seem to consider this as a possibility.

    • I host 32 domains, thank you very much, and could host another . . . but that would not stop the poor editing on this site.

    • Did you read the original submission? I doubt it, because the editing, at least for Steve's article, was extremely poor and does indeed deserve to be pointed out.

  • Graham (unregistered) in reply to Steve (yes, the real Steve)

    Steve, I am dying to know, did you try using December 32nd instead? It feels like that would be a fix worthy of the original hack!

  • Still Not Tim (unregistered) in reply to sirlewk
    sirlewk:
    The wonderful thing about the english language is that nomatter what you do with it, so long as it conveys the intended meaning, it is still perfectly valid english.

    Only old shrill english teachers and jackasses think otherwise.

    erm... but isn't the problem that when someone makes arbitrary changes in vocabulary or grammar, it doesn't necessarily convey their intended meaning.

    In many cases, the recipient is left with the question of whether the phrasing was intended or mistaken.... or indeed the question: "WTF was that supposed to mean ?"

  • Steve H (unregistered) in reply to ContraCorners
    ContraCorners:
    The period goes inside the quotation marks.

    Full marks to you, if you slipped this error in on purpose.

  • paratus (unregistered) in reply to anon
    anon:
    Drew:
    krupa:
    While he never got a direct answer to that question, Steve eventually found out through more that it everything seemed to be good right up until the end of December.

    There are other clunky sentences at the end, but this one just kills me.

    That totally the whole post. I.

    I was going to post this but I accidentally on my keyboard.

    I was going when inside amazingly dodge small offset.

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