The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

Gotta love the Monty Python error. Great selection of quotes to use for stupid errors.

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

Quirkafleeg:
J:
Quirkafleeg:
MRAB:
Tim:
J:
The correct phrase is "being naught in my sight".
Are you sure about that? (See the clip.) It sure sounds like "naughty" to me. It's funnier that way too.
No, it's definitely "naught" (or maybe "nought").
No, it's definitely “naughty”. Listen carefully; you'll hear two distinct but similar sounds between the ‘t’ and the ‘n’.
I can see the case for 'naughty'. If you were to write out exactly what he says phonetically, it would sound like "not yin...".
Not really.
There is a bit of a 'y' sound, but it doesn't get its own syllable.
It sounds very much like it does to me; and there's a lot more of a ‘y’ sound than there is of the following ‘i’ sound. (And, because of the BBC, I've heard plenty of that sort of accent.)
Any chance somebody has a link to the official script (or a genuine copy of the book of armaments)?
If it's an online resource, then yes. Until such shows up, though, will this do?

The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).

dkf · 2010-03-19 Reply Admin

J:
The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).

Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

I strongly suspect that the airline checkin one is because the submitter a) disabled JavaScript or b) had a browser they hadn't tested in, or both. Most systems of that sort let you pick what you're going to validate against, then dynamically create the form boxes you need to supply all the fields that validation method needs. To see what I mean, try online checkin at Alaska Air's website, with a lookup via credit card number -- when you make a selection, it adds an extra text box to let you enter your last name.

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

dkf:
J:
The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).
Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

I take the opposite view in that when they use the colloquial phrase "snuff it", it has greatest impact if the preceding sentence sounds entirely biblical.

DaveK · 2010-03-19 Reply Admin

Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

"I'm from FILE_NOT_FOUND."

DaveK · 2010-03-19 Reply Admin

http://thedailywtf.com/articles/viewarticle.aspx?articletitle=password-perplexity#Pic1:
Passwords with a letter 'I' in the 3rd position are not supported.

No shit?

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

PeriSoft:
Everyone repeat to yourselves: "I can't be Insecure without 'I'."

There's no 'I' in "password"!

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

Maurits:
Re:Me:
we should ban all use of the “R”. You would make a great legislator.

We could call it the "Kiss your 'R's Goodbye" bill.

WIN!! You get a free day of surfing the IntraWebz!

2010-03-19 Reply Admin

SXL:
We are the Knights who say "??????????????????????????" !

¿Que?

Quietust · 2010-03-19 Reply Admin

J:
dkf:
J:
The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).
Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

I take the opposite view in that when they use the colloquial phrase "snuff it", it has greatest impact if the preceding sentence sounds entirely biblical.

I've just checked the DVD subtitles, and they are as follows:

Once the number three, being the third number, be reached... then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch... towards thy foe... who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'"

If you desire, I can post a screenshot.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Quietust:
J:
dkf:
J:
The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).
Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

I take the opposite view in that when they use the colloquial phrase "snuff it", it has greatest impact if the preceding sentence sounds entirely biblical.

I've just checked the DVD subtitles, and they are as follows:

Once the number three, being the third number, be reached... then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch... towards thy foe... who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'"

If you desire, I can post a screenshot.

Since they are clearly saying "naught", I'm of the opinion the writer of subtitles could have made a mistake, so I would only be satisfied by the script.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

J:
The real WTF is that nobody ever writes down the Monty Python quote correctly.
They always either write "being not in my sight" or "being naughty in my sight".

The correct phrase is "being naught in my sight".

No. You're wrong. The correct phrase is "Being naughty in my sight".

It's a silly way of saying "[Your enemies], who, being sinners, will perish."

It doesn't make sense your way, which translates roughly to "[Your enemies], who, not being visible to the God almighty, will perish."

But it doesn't matter. Listen to the clip. He's clearly saying "naughty".

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

NotDomo:
Since they are clearly saying "naught", I'm of the opinion the writer of subtitles could have made a mistake, so I would only be satisfied by the script.

Ask, and ye shall receive!

Books.Google preview : http://tinyurl.com/yalklke

In case that url is broken, here is the image directly : http://skizzers.org/andy/tmp/books.png

Satisfied?

-Andy

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Andy L:
NotDomo:
Since they are clearly saying "naught", I'm of the opinion the writer of subtitles could have made a mistake, so I would only be satisfied by the script.

Ask, and ye shall receive!

Books.Google preview : http://tinyurl.com/yalklke

In case that url is broken, here is the image directly : http://skizzers.org/andy/tmp/books.png

Satisfied?

-Andy

I'm sorry. I can't accept that because it's not on a wooden table.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

I am not surprised about the WTF on KLM's website, it's the worst one out there of all airlines.

Flygon · 2010-03-20 Reply Admin

TDWTF=Amusing

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

OMG, I know the suite of products of the "unknown browser" - it's ours! The eggtimer image behind the error message is quite unique.

Now I just wonder which product is it - the suite is quite big.

BramSmulders · 2010-03-20 Reply Admin

md5sum:
Dude, Alex, comments on a blog aren't that complex, fix this damn thing... thedailywtf.com comment system is TRWTF... For this comment system, you should buy at LEAST a 5,000 SLoC BCO. This comment posting system is an undue inconvenience to billions of electrons.
(try 743, DETERMINATION FTW!)

Addendum (2010-03-19 15:10): And somehow after so many attempts to submit a comment, I forgot to include it...:

At least some people at Red Gate have a great sense of humor...

Sorry, my bad. Yesterday I was the first one to write a comment. In my enthousiasm I wrote "FRIST!". Then I got an error message saying "Comments with the letter "I" as the 3rd character are not supported. Please write another comment." After that everything started behaving funny...

Abdiel · 2010-03-20 Reply Admin

dpm:
Minimal length of secret should be 37458368 characters.
Better start typing --- at the rate of ten keystrokes per second, it will take just over 43 days of non-stop activity to enter a valid password.

Of course, after the 43 days you find out that passwords with a letter 'I' in the third position are not supported, and you have to start over again. It will also change all the ' in your password to ' to prevent XSS (and make it impossibe for you to log in).

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Andy L :
J:
The correct phrase is "being naught in my sight".

No. You're wrong. The correct phrase is "Being naughty in my sight".

It's a silly way of saying "[Your enemies], who, being sinners, will perish."

It doesn't make sense your way, which translates roughly to "[Your enemies], who, not being visible to the God almighty, will perish."

Actually, it would translate roughly to "[Your enemies], who, being of no significance to the God almighty, will perish." Which makes somewhat more sense, but not as much, and still isn't as funny.

FWIW, I've always heard it as "naughty".

(I do find it interesting that, every time I've had my interest piqued by something this random in a brand-new TDWTF comment thread and gone to Google it, the TDWTF thread has been one of the top hits... case in point, the top two hits for "naught in my sight" are this thread. Apparently Google re-indexes this site very promptly.)

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

dpm:
Minimal length of secret should be 37458368 characters.
Better start typing --- at the rate of ten keystrokes per second, it will take just over 43 days of non-stop activity to enter a valid password.

cat /dev/urandom|dd count=73161 >passwd.txt?

And hope the maximum is a bit larger than the minimum. Less than 5 seconds. copy-paste may give you a problem though.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

No. I totally saw the Holy Hand Grenade scene in my head, too.

W/V: Transverbero - Transvestite reverberations?

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

What's all this rubbish about not allowing ‘I’ as the fifth character in a password?

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Brompot:
cat /dev/urandom|dd count=73161 >passwd.txt?

Congratulations, you have won this week's Useless Use of Cat Award!

Try

</dev/urandom dd count=73161 >passwd.txt

or perhaps

dd if=/dev/urandom count=73161 of=passwd.txt

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Quietust:
J:
dkf:
J:
The hearing thing is definitely based on what our ears expect and are trained to hear (because to me, it still sounds a lot more like 'naught'). It's likely you are right on the intended word, though I'm not sure whether IMDB is a reliable resource for something so subjective. 100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).
Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

I take the opposite view in that when they use the colloquial phrase "snuff it", it has greatest impact if the preceding sentence sounds entirely biblical.

I've just checked the DVD subtitles, and they are as follows:

Once the number three, being the third number, be reached... then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch... towards thy foe... who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'"

If you desire, I can post a screenshot.

In that case, I'll have to stand corrected.

~places a paper bag over his head~

DaveK · 2010-03-20 Reply Admin

Quirkafleeg:
What's all this rubbish about not allowing ‘I’ as the fifth character in a password?

What's the problem? There's no 'I' in 'hunter2'.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

IMSoP:
Brompot:
cat /dev/urandom|dd count=73161 >passwd.txt?

Congratulations, you have won this week's Useless Use of Cat Award!

To be fair, most "Useless Uses of cat" I know of are perfectly legitimate - not for practical need, but for convenience of reading and editing.

For instance, I routinely run grep via the form

cat input-file | grep string

instead of

grep string input-file

because with the former, A: when I notice that I need to use a different regexp, I can just hit Up and start editing (whereas with the latter I would also have to move back to the middle of the command in order to edit the string instead of the filename),

and B: when I notice that I need to use a more complicated pipeline, I can insert a new command anywhere in the pipeline and have it Just Work (whereas with the former inserting a new command at the beginning of the pipeline would require me to edit the grep command and pass the input file to the new first command).

Those two conveniences put together are, IMO, more than enough to outweigh the slight inefficiency of adding a cat invocation at the beginning of the pipeline.

(Hmm. This makes three consecutive posts with CAPTCHAs I don't think I've ever seen mentioned before. Has Alex changed something in the backend lately?)

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

The Wanderer:
To be fair, most "Useless Uses of cat" I know of are perfectly legitimate - not for practical need, but for convenience of reading and editing.

Well, I admit to mentioning it in somewhat of a "Devil's Advocate" spirit - it's not like modern systems are likely to choke because you spawned a "cat" process! But it is useful to know the alternatives available, as they can teach you helpful tricks for when you're doing something more complex...

The Wanderer:
For instance, I routinely run grep via the form
cat input-file | grep string
instead of
grep string input-file
because with the former, A: when I notice that I need to use a different regexp, I can just hit Up and start editing (whereas with the latter I would also have to move back to the middle of the command in order to edit the string instead of the filename),
and B: when I notice that I need to use a more complicated pipeline, I can insert a new command anywhere in the pipeline and have it Just Work (whereas with the former inserting a new command at the beginning of the pipeline would require me to edit the grep command and pass the input file to the new first command).

Actually, both of those conveniences are maintained with the simplest alternative, which is to redirect standard input:

cat file | command1 | command2 ...

becomes

There are a few exceptions where this doesn't work quite right - such as piping the file to a "while" loop in some shells - but 99% of the time it's equivalent. The only thing that's a little trickier editing-wise is that if you replace the <file with another command, you have to remember to add a pipe character, whereas with "cat" you have a spare one lying around already. I think mostly it's just a case of getting used to it.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

IMSoP:
Brompot:
cat /dev/urandom|dd count=73161 >passwd.txt?

Congratulations, you have won this week's Useless Use of Cat Award!

Try
</dev/urandom dd count=73161 >passwd.txt
or perhaps
dd if=/dev/urandom count=73161 of=passwd.txt

Not quite useless in fact. It's a performance thing.

dd is a single threaded process that does either input or output, but not both at the same time (in most common implementations, I'm sure someone has made a more optimized version somewhere).

By putting cat in front of it the reading takes place concurrently with the writing, it's buffered in the pipe. When dd gets to reading the input is already there, it no longer has to wait for actual I/O to take place. Whether that's a physical disk or the generation of random bytes makes little difference. The pipe is in memory and therefore faster than real I/O.

you should try

dd if=bla1 of=bla2

versus

dd if=bla1|dd of=bla2

The second one will be faster (for files of significant size), especially on a multicore/multi CPU machine.

dd if=bla1|mbuffer|dd of=bla2

will accelerate even further, assuming you pass mbuffer a large chunk of memory. Use buffer if mbuffer is not available.

A similar setup brought down my backup from 90 to 30 minutes because reading and writing can take place more or less concurrently.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

I love the complex version of "Assertion failed var!=3" that this one developer of Visual Studio created. I think I'm gonna code all my assertions with such error messages from now on.

2010-03-20 Reply Admin

dkf:
Here's how to work it out from first principles. The Pythons were (and still are, where alive) comedians. Now, ask yourself “which interpretation is funniest?” Given that they are sending up some of the more turgid parts of the Bible there, “naughty” has got to be the most likely option. QED.

I think the funniest alternative is to do it in an ambiguous way and have people fight over the true version a long time after -- especially when referring to the Bible ...

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

DaveK:
Quirkafleeg:
What's all this rubbish about not allowing ‘I’ as the fifth character in a password?
What's the problem? There's no 'I' in 'hunter2'.

OMG, How did you know that?

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

Technically, yes. Same is true for every other language.

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

DaveK:
Dakkon:
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".
"I'm from FILE_NOT_FOUND."

Area code 404?

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

danixdefcon5:
sirlewk:
Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

What?
ENGLISH M**RF**ER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?

What?

method1 · 2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Quietust:
I've just checked the DVD subtitles, and they are as follows:
Once the number three, being the third number, be reached... then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch... towards thy foe... who, being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it.'"

If you desire, I can post a screenshot.

I don't think you can regard DVD subs as authoritative - I saw the original release 10 times or so in the cinema during the 70's & at no time did I think the word was anything but "naught". The trouble with DVD's in general is that they're re-mastered & hence fiddled with - perhaps Palin was supposed to say naughty but said naught or vice-versa. Certainly, as far as Python goes, you can't really apply the "what would be funniest?" criterion, especially to one of their films. As someone pointed out, what you need is an original copy of "The Book of Armaments"

DaveK · 2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Unregistered:
DaveK:
Quirkafleeg:
What's all this rubbish about not allowing ‘I’ as the fifth character in a password?
What's the problem? There's no 'I' in 'hunter2'.

OMG, How did you know that?

I have the same combination on my luggage!

DaveK · 2010-03-21 Reply Admin

DaveK:
Unregistered:
DaveK:
Quirkafleeg:
What's all this rubbish about not allowing ‘I’ as the fifth character in a password?
What's the problem? There's no 'I' in 'hunter2'.

OMG, How did you know that?

I have the same combination on my luggage!

(But I should mention it just looks like '*******' to me)

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

appellatio:
danixdefcon5:
sirlewk:
Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

What?
ENGLISH M**RF**ER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?
What?

SAY WHAT AGAIN. I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE DARE YOU M**RF**ER!

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

md5sum:
sirlewk:
Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actually three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

What?

No, they speak ""-ish in "".

The following paragraph is an example of ""-ish:

Ever read "Mr Bunny's Big Cup of Java?" - ""ish seems very similar to the diagram of whitespace....

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Andy L:
NotDomo:
Since they are clearly saying "naught", I'm of the opinion the writer of subtitles could have made a mistake, so I would only be satisfied by the script.

Ask, and ye shall receive!

Books.Google preview : http://tinyurl.com/yalklke

In case that url is broken, here is the image directly : http://skizzers.org/andy/tmp/books.png

Satisfied?

-Andy

Nope. I think the people publishing the script got it wrong too.

Could you please provide any notes taken while the scriptwriters were collaborating?

Cheers in Advance!!

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

robbo:
appellatio:
danixdefcon5:
sirlewk:
Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

What?
ENGLISH M**RF**ER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?
What?

SAY WHAT AGAIN. I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE DARE YOU M**RF**ER!

What?

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Obviously 'obvious' is oblivious to most WTF comment-writers.

Loved the beatdown on 'Naughty', excellent use of Google Books.

Also loved the useless use of cat.

cat food-in-tins
cat can't open "food in tins"

captcha:sino Is that some klnd of racial slur?

DaveK · 2010-03-21 Reply Admin

robbo:
appellatio:
danixdefcon5:
sirlewk:
Bobble:
Dakkon:
There are actualyy three new countries on the list: "" "1/10/08" "10/30/08"
I can only imagine the awkward silence when someone asks a "" citizen "What country are you from?".

Do they speak English in ""?

What?
ENGLISH M**RF**ER! DO YOU SPEAK IT?
What?

SAY WHAT AGAIN. I DARE YOU, I DOUBLE DARE YOU M**RF**ER!

"What again".

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

method1:
I don't think you can regard DVD subs as authoritative

I don't think you can, either, and here's why: When I first watched Trainspotting, I confess I was having a little trouble making out Renton's opening monologue, so I turned on the DVD subtitles. They seemed to correctly follow the dialog. They also included a line from the song playing in the backround, Iggy Pop's Lust For Life. According to the titlers, "We'll dance like hypnotized chickens."

2010-03-21 Reply Admin

Validation for the droplist has already been written

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/October-Road.aspx

Scarlet Manuka · 2010-03-21 Reply Admin

J:
100% certainty would be dvd with subtitles turned on (which I should have thought about in my last post).

You must have different DVD subtitlers than the ones responsible for most of the DVDs I've watched. (I watch most DVDs with subtitles on because... well, I have three young kids, you can connect the dots yourself)

It's quite common for them to leave out words altogether or paraphrase, presumably in the interests of brevity since I don't know what other interest it could possibly serve. Slightly less common but far more annoying is when they mix up words that sound similar.

Among the more egregious examples I can remember off the top of my head, "mite" being consistently rendered as "might" in Firefly (e.g. "a mite concerned" becomes "a might concerned", which doesn't even make sense - and they use that word quite a bit), and "piqued" being rendered as "peaked" in a line from Futurama ("My intellectual curiosity re cryogenics was peaked[sic]").

So no, I would not regard DVD subtitles as an authoritative source. Think of them as the source code comments from an application that's a couple of years old written by someone who no longer works for the company - at best they're a guide to the general intention, but don't rely on them being accurate in any way.

2010-03-22 Reply Admin

If The=security, will this site now be known as Security Daily WTF?

da Doctah · 2010-03-22 Reply Admin

The drive is not ready for use; its door may be open. Please check drive

Wha'dya mean you can't figure out what it wants you to do?

Close the freakin' door! What, were you born in a barn?

Password Perplexity

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