• MP79 (unregistered)

    Sadly far too common for people in charge of techincal departments to be completely non-technical. Not even sure it's TRWTF any more :/

  • JimmyCrackedCorn (unregistered)

    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production, let alone putting a stealth app alongside your bread and butter application!

  • (cs)

    More common than you think... my last developer job had a CIO that had a graphic arts or something background that had also dabbled in network administration and PHP, so of course being a .NET shop he was qualified to give detailed ideas for things without knowing it. What stands out the most in my mind was when we hired a developer who had 10+ years .NET experience. His first (and only) project was creating a report. Since everything had to be approved by the CIO, no matter how small, he would ask for feedback and go a month or more without hearing anything, and then when he did hear back it would be things like "I don't like this shade of blue, change it" (no joke), without any word regarding the layout or data of the report. He got incredibly frustrated and quit within 5 months, having all of his talent and knowledge absolutely wasted.

  • csrster (unregistered)

    I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work?

  • (cs) in reply to csrster
    csrster:
    I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work?

    I guess there is a secondary WTF with some code somewhere that only worked in debug mode. But as Les got the boss's football running on his cell phone I guess he couldn't be arsed (rightly) debugging whatever was on the web server.

  • Franky (unregistered)

    TRWtf is that devs have direct access to the prod machines

  • Hannes (unregistered) in reply to JimmyCrackedCorn
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production

    This. In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

  • (cs) in reply to Hannes
    Hannes:
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production

    This. In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

    You're assuming the company in the post has a distinction. Outside of large organizations, most companies lump all their technical staff under "IT".

  • EvilSnack (unregistered)

    TDPHB.

    CAPTCHA nulla: "The development skills of the VP for Development were nulla."

  • Hannes (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    Hannes:
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production

    This. In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

    You're assuming the company in the post has a distinction. Outside of large organizations, most companies lump all their technical staff under "IT".

    VP should never ever be considered to be "technical staff" anyway. ;)

  • Sam (unregistered) in reply to MP79
    TDWTF:
    his complaints about Phil, the Vice President
    When is a spoiler not a spoiler? When it's foreshadowing.
  • Damien (unregistered) in reply to csrster
    csrster:
    I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work?
    From the article:
    article:
    the report was taking forever to pull up

    In Debug mode, the script timeout is disabled, so the report can take as long to run as it needs to. Whereas without it, the default timeout is 90 seconds

  • nitePhyyre (unregistered) in reply to Damien
    Damien:
    csrster:
    I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work?
    From the article:
    article:
    the report was taking forever to pull up

    In Debug mode, the script timeout is disabled, so the report can take as long to run as it needs to. Whereas without it, the default timeout is 90 seconds

    Ahh, that makes more sense than the article saying that turning on debug mode made the report finish more quickly.

  • jumentum (unregistered)

    I was expecting to find out that the VP had turned on debug mode to "turn off some bugs" that users had reported, i.e. literally "de-bug" the app. ;-)

  • (cs) in reply to nitePhyyre
    nitePhyyre:
    Ahh, that makes more sense than the article saying that turning on debug mode made the report finish more quickly.

    Something as long as 91 seconds would be quicker then "never"

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to RangerNS
    RangerNS:
    nitePhyyre:
    Ahh, that makes more sense than the article saying that turning on debug mode made the report finish more quickly.

    Something as long as 91 seconds would be quicker then "never"

    But still not "instantly".

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Hannes
    Hannes:
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production

    This. In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

    If the boss has admin rights to the IT staff, it doesn't matter.

  • C-Derb (unregistered) in reply to JimmyCrackedCorn
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production, let alone putting a stealth app alongside your bread and butter application!
    Agreed. If he can get rights to make changes to the production web.config, he can get rights to look at fantasy sports websites.
  • mizchief (unregistered)

    reminds me of a boss I once had whose only requirement for his computer was that it was better than everyone else's. Couldn't really explain to him Devs needed better hardware all he needed was a box to run outlook.

    So we gave him this monster 16GB machine but installed server 2k8r2 with hyper v with a windows 7 skin and used the rest of the head space for build slave VM's :)

  • Russell (unregistered) in reply to mizchief
    mizchief:
    reminds me of a boss I once had whose only requirement for his computer was that it was better than everyone else's. Couldn't really explain to him Devs needed better hardware all he needed was a box to run outlook.

    So we gave him this monster 16GB machine but installed server 2k8r2 with hyper v with a windows 7 skin and used the rest of the head space for build slave VM's :)

    Nice. :)

  • augue (unregistered) in reply to mizchief
    mizchief:
    reminds me of a boss I once had whose only requirement for his computer was that it was better than everyone else's. Couldn't really explain to him Devs needed better hardware all he needed was a box to run outlook.

    So we gave him this monster 16GB machine but installed server 2k8r2 with hyper v with a windows 7 skin and used the rest of the head space for build slave VM's :)

    I'm surprised you guys didn't give him an Etch-a-Sketch™ instead... or maybe a cardboard cutout of a computer. :-)

  • (cs)

    This is not new. I previous company I worked with back in the late 90s had a fantasy football program running on the development VAX. I never saw this software, so I assume they weren't crazy enough to put the database on the Oracle 7 system or I kinda would have noticed (VMS has a pretty robust ISAM called RMS that would have worked quite well).

  • (cs) in reply to Hannes
    Hannes:
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production

    This. In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

    This is obviously fake.

    No VP wants access to production. They are much too important to be bothered with such menial tasks.

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    More common than you think... my last developer job <!-- Dear god, you're boring --> His first (and only) project was creating a report. <!-- you've made your point, feel free to shut up --> quit within 5 months, having all of his talent and knowledge absolutely wasted.
    Apparently it isn't as common as you think. You worked at the same company!
  • (cs)

    TRWTF is taking wide receivers in the first round.

  • Popeye (unregistered)

    How much tim, effort and cost is wasted on butthead VPs wanting some custom report or app to appease their own stupidity?

  • stew (unregistered)

    Always gotta love how company rules only apply to the mere employees, and not the inner circle of executives often driving said company into the ground.

    Although there's something to be said for how they always go all out when doing so: "Who cares if it cripples the production servers? I need my fantasy football reports!"

  • Rodrigo (unregistered) in reply to jumentum

    I don't understand why people keep running their applications in "bug" mode, when they could use the "de-bug" mode.

  • (cs)

    As bad as this situation may have been, it could have easily been a lot worse. The VP was:

    1. honest
    2. interested in listening to what technical people had to say and most amazingly
    3. willing to change
  • Mr. Bob (unregistered)

    ...and so he takes the first step on the road of self-discovery. At the end of the road, he will find a big pot of Frank Was Smarter Than I Thought.

  • Sam I am (unregistered)

    I don't understand parts of this WTF

    How does setting a production's configuration value enable Phil to get the fantasy football report that he otherwise wouldn't be able to get?

  • JayGee (unregistered)

    Wouldn't the TRWTF be not setting the machine.config to always turn off debug mode on prod?

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to JimmyCrackedCorn
    JimmyCrackedCorn:
    I smell shenanigans! TRWTF is allowing a VP access to production, let alone putting a stealth app alongside your bread and butter application!

    I don't think you know what "shenanigans" means.

    It means a deceitful act, trick, or prank. In this context, it would mean that you don't believe that the story is true.

    But saying, "This would be an unwise thing to do" is hardly proof that no one ever did it. People do stupid things all the time.

  • Clint (unregistered)

    TRWTF is spending time at work with non-work non-important BS like fantasy football leagues. I have in the past and would again refuse to assist with any such thing.

  • n+1 (unregistered)

    "used the rest of the head space for build slave VM's"

    excellent

  • (cs) in reply to Sam I am

    [quote user="Sam I am"]I don't understand parts of this WTF

    How does setting a production's configuration value enable Phil to get the fantasy football report that he otherwise wouldn't be able to get?[/quote]

    The world may never know.

    cough

    [quote user="Damien"][quote user="csrster"]I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work? [/quaote] From the article: [quote user="article"]the report was taking forever to pull up[/quote]

    In Debug mode, the script timeout is disabled, so the report can take as long to run as it needs to. Whereas without it, the default timeout is 90 seconds[/quote]

  • (cs)

    And I broke quotes.

  • Tom (unregistered)

    Geez, how stupid, running fantasy football on a production server. Run it in the dev environment at least, and save the production resources for you NCAA brackets.

  • Anonypony (unregistered) in reply to Hannes

    TRWTF is fantasy football. Really.

    Hannes:
    In the company I work for, only the IT-Staff has access to anything computer related. Not even my boss has admin rights on his PC...

    Most of the companies I've worked for have given developers local admin rights, and sometimes even admin access to the test/dev servers. Local admin is wonderful for getting things done, especially when you need to configure IIS and whatnot.

    mizchief:
    reminds me of a boss I once had whose only requirement for his computer was that it was better than everyone else's. Couldn't really explain to him Devs needed better hardware all he needed was a box to run outlook.

    Had a boss at a smaller shop like that too. We got together and configured what all of the new machines would look like. The day they arrived, 14 looked the way we expected but the last one had twice the drive space and twice the RAM and twice the video card. And then it sat in the corner unused most days because the boss was "working from home".

    Captcha: verto -- At least poor Les (Leslie to his mom) wasn't just told make a program to reverto the debug option once his boss had checked his team.

  • Anomaly (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev

    [quote user="chubertdev"][quote user="Sam I am"]I don't understand parts of this WTF

    How does setting a production's configuration value enable Phil to get the fantasy football report that he otherwise wouldn't be able to get?[/quote]

    The world may never know.

    cough

    [quote user="Damien"][quote user="csrster"]I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work? [/quaote] From the article: [quote user="article"]the report was taking forever to pull up[/quote]

    In Debug mode, the script timeout is disabled, so the report can take as long to run as it needs to. Whereas without it, the default timeout is 90 seconds[/quote][/quote]

    Think this might have done it.

  • (cs)

    I'm not even going to guess as to how that "a" got in there.

  • (cs) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    "I don't like this shade of blue, change it"

    I don't like this shade of blue in the comment, change it.

  • tbone (unregistered) in reply to urusan

    You seem like a glass half-full kinda person.

  • (cs) in reply to EvilSnack
    EvilSnack:
    TDPHB.

    CAPTCHA nulla: "The development skills of the VP for Development were nulla."

    +1

    Time to jump into the archives for some good articles and CodeSOD.

  • (cs)

    Early in the article, I was just sure that when he turned debug off, the application was going to crash bigtime.

    ...nothing like applications that don't work with debug off...

  • Tim (unregistered) in reply to Popeye
    Popeye:
    How much tim, effort and cost is wasted on butthead VPs wanting some custom report or app to appease their own stupidity?
    A lot of me is wasted on VP's....
  • ASF (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    Sam I am:
    I don't understand parts of this WTF

    How does setting a production's configuration value enable Phil to get the fantasy football report that he otherwise wouldn't be able to get?

    The world may never know.

    cough

    Damien:
    csrster:
    I don't get it. Why was setting debug mode necessary for the Fantasy Football report to work? [/quaote]
    From the article:
    article:
    the report was taking forever to pull up

    In Debug mode, the script timeout is disabled, so the report can take as long to run as it needs to. Whereas without it, the default timeout is 90 seconds

    What's a quatoe?

  • (cs)

    A Dan Quayle™ brand quote.

  • Windmills (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev

    [quote user="chubertdev"]A Dan Quayle™ brand quote.[/quixote]

    This.

  • Lo (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi

    I understand that happens often. However, I just wanted to add a counterpoint to the constant management bashing. Our situation is little different because we are a startup full of young guys, but I (along with a senior developer) basically manage all the developers/QA, evaluate and make technology decisions, act as technical sales support, etc. I am the first one to acknowledge that I am not a ninja developer (maybe someday), but I do know what the hell I'm talking about most of the time and when I don't, I promptly admit it and delegate that issue/topic to the most knowledgeable person the team. I excel at this position because I am able to explain complex topics in a simple friendly way, and more importantly can act as a translation/coordination layer between the autistic-like developers, the dense management, and the unrealistic expectations of customers.

Leave a comment on “Performance Dehancement”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article