The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

This comment did not pass QA in time to be frist.

ObiWayneKenobi · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Ah the old classic. Can't be how WE do things here at Initrode, must be that the new guy is just a clueless noob, even though he's only new to our company and has experience elsewhere in doing similar things.

I always love how companies treat a new employee as though they were fresh out of college with zero experience even when they are experienced and just new to that organization, and summarily dismiss anything they say as "They're just the new guy". God forbid that someone new to your organization could provide some good insight or alternatives that might work..,

Addendum (2014-05-20 06:58): I specifically recall a situation at my previous job where we had hired a guy who had over 10 years experience in .NET, but the director treated him like some inexperienced moron who knew nothing, and any piece of good advice he gave based on his decade of experience was dismissed as being ridiculous. He left within a few months because his experience wasn't being utilized at all.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Can this site's QA team please reject stories with such an inane amount of dumb sports puns?

It was like getting a hockey puck to my brain.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

So you're telling me they didn't have time to test the App at least once before uploading it to the Store? I call bullshit.

ObiWayneKenobi · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Salad:
So you're telling me they didn't have time to test the App at least once before uploading it to the Store? I call bullshit.

But... if they take time to test it, some other company might get THEIR app listed instead! Nope, it compiled so ship it.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

This comment went head first into the boards.

Zemm · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

ObiWayneKenobi:
I specifically recall a situation at my previous job where we had hired a guy who had over 10 years experience in .NET, but the director treated him like some inexperienced moron who knew nothing, and any piece of good advice he gave based on his decade of experience was dismissed as being ridiculous. He left within a few months because his experience wasn't being utilized at all.

A similar thing happened where I work. A guy was hired as "support" with the view to do programming (different language than he had experience in, but nothing he couldn't handle). After working for a few months and then changing his mind about learning this language he decided to return to his old job. In a farewell discussion with the lead, he was taken through basic programming concepts, like "if" cases and looping. WTF!? This guy had written modules and helped with other parts of the system so he wasn't completely useless.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Reminds me a little bit of an in-house developped browser-based IDE for an in-house developped programming language.

I hated it.

Zemm · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Salad:
So you're telling me they didn't have time to test the App at least once before uploading it to the Store? I call bullshit.

Maybe it worked perfectly on the iPhone 3 running iOS5, but crashed and burned on the iPhone 4 running iOS6. I had one game on my iPad that stopped working after an OS update, unfortunately it was never updated.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

we had hired a guy who had over 10 years experience in .NET, but the director treated him like some inexperienced moron who knew nothing, and any piece of good advice he gave based on his decade of experience was dismissed as being ridiculous. He left within a few months because his experience wasn't being utilized at all.

That's something that (unfortunately) I experienced myself. Plenty of company driven by "the elders", who just dismiss any good suggestion with a "yeah, you know better, now GTFO and do as we say". Skilled people last a few months at best, while mediocre ones are there for decades. The only reason why such companies are still in business is that they usually have sly sales departments, who will lie about anything to close a sale. Once the sale is closed and they got the money, nothing else matters (including providing an actual service).

skotl · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

I'm British. When I read "hockey", I think of this; http://vintagetablehockeygames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3.jpg

ObiWayneKenobi · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Didakos:
we had hired a guy who had over 10 years experience in .NET, but the director treated him like some inexperienced moron who knew nothing, and any piece of good advice he gave based on his decade of experience was dismissed as being ridiculous. He left within a few months because his experience wasn't being utilized at all.

That's something that (unfortunately) I experienced myself. Plenty of company driven by "the elders", who just dismiss any good suggestion with a "yeah, you know better, now GTFO and do as we say". Skilled people last a few months at best, while mediocre ones are there for decades. The only reason why such companies are still in business is that they usually have sly sales departments, who will lie about anything to close a sale. Once the sale is closed and they got the money, nothing else matters (including providing an actual service).

The irony in that situation was the Director was a network guy who dabbled in some PHP and had a fine arts degree or something; he got his position by being the company's "IT Guy" many years ago. It's still disturbing to see companies not take advantage of experience. Just because someone is "the new guy" doesn't mean they're a newbie, they're just new to YOUR company.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

the article says:
It was supposed to be his first day on his new consulting job, and his new boss was supposed to meet him in the lobby at 10:30. According to Adam’s phone, it was 11:15

That's exactly the way my first day at my first job out of college started. Rang the bell, told the secretary that I'd be the new recruit for the development department and that the head of the department would be expecting me. She told me that the head of the development department had not yet arrived, hung up and left me standing in the cold.

The second new recruit for the team arrived, same procedure.

The third new recruit arriving started at a different department and his head of department was in, let us into the building and told us that our head of department had a day off.

Luckily the team was ok, the desk was set up, a terminal was there and the senior developer did his best to give us an introduction into how everything worked.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Miriam:
Can this site's QA team please reject stories with such an inane amount of dumb sports puns?
It was like getting a hockey puck to my brain.

Brain Puck

Zagyg · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

skotl:
I'm British. When I read "hockey", I think of this; http://vintagetablehockeygames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3.jpg

Funny, I'm going to be thinking of something reasonably similar to that, tonight. Can you guess what the differences will be?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

skotl:
I'm British. When I read "hockey", I think of this; http://vintagetablehockeygames.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/3.jpg

It's not as if the picture showing an ice hockey match was particularly small...

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Zagyg:
Can you guess what the differences will be?

You'll probably have your cock out?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

faoileag:
It's not as if the picture showing an ice hockey match was particularly small...

No, but why would you want to look at a freakishly hairy angry sweaty man holding a length of wood, when you could look at some babes jostling each other instead?

Zagyg · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

faoileag:
the article says:
It was supposed to be his first day on his new consulting job, and his new boss was supposed to meet him in the lobby at 10:30. According to Adam’s phone, it was 11:15
That's exactly the way my first day at my first job out of college started. Rang the bell, told the secretary that I'd be the new recruit for the development department and that the head of the department would be expecting me. She told me that the head of the development department had not yet arrived, hung up and left me standing in the cold.
The second new recruit for the team arrived, same procedure.

The third new recruit arriving started at a different department and his head of department was in, let us into the building and told us that our head of department had a day off.

Luckily the team was ok, the desk was set up, a terminal was there and the senior developer did his best to give us an introduction into how everything worked.

Wow, maybe I'm a spiteful old shit, but I would be looking for subtle ways to get some revenge against a receptionist that nasty. Nothing horrible, maybe just a few mates making some prank calls or something. What a bitch.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Miriam:
Can this site's QA team please reject stories with such an inane amount of dumb sports puns?

You must be new around here. I would be suprised if the original submission mentioned hockey even once.

Bobby Tables · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Bottom Problems:
Zagyg:
Can you guess what the differences will be?

You'll probably have your cock out?

So, is he going to rock out, then?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Zagyg:
faoileag:
She told me that the head of the development department had not yet arrived, hung up and left me standing in the cold.
Wow, maybe I'm a spiteful old shit, but I would be looking for subtle ways to get some revenge against a receptionist that nasty. Nothing horrible, maybe just a few mates making some prank calls or something. What a bitch.

With people being as unprofessional as that it's sometimes just as effective to leave them alone. They are bound to shoot themselves in the metaphorical foot sooner or later anyway.

Steve The Cynic · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

20 comments, and nobody has even thought to mention the issues surrounding a QA department with revert rights in the source code repository...

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

If the OP had worked small incremental changes and praised the compiler for a few months before fixing the problems he would probably have been accepted by the company's developers. Most organizations have a transition period for even the most skilled developer to be treated badly until he proves himself. (Don't fix peoples pet projects until later in your career.)

Zagyg · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Bottom Problems:
Zagyg:
Can you guess what the differences will be?

You'll probably have your cock out?

Just Probably?

Zagyg · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

faoileag:
Zagyg:
faoileag:
She told me that the head of the development department had not yet arrived, hung up and left me standing in the cold.
Wow, maybe I'm a spiteful old shit, but I would be looking for subtle ways to get some revenge against a receptionist that nasty. Nothing horrible, maybe just a few mates making some prank calls or something. What a bitch.
With people being as unprofessional as that it's sometimes just as effective to leave them alone. They are bound to shoot themselves in the metaphorical foot sooner or later anyway.

You're probably right. Still, it would be very tempting.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

It was similar to make, if Stuart Feldman had gone headfirst into the boards before implementing it.

He downloaded it to his device and confirmed that it went head-first into the boards on launch.

* Duplicate metaphor * Hyphenation inconsistency

This article will be purged from the database.

Sincerely, QA

devjoe · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Heh, calling the hockey team that reminds me of my college years in Austin. I lived in a cooperative house that was part of an organization that ran several such houses. There was a very loosely organized baseball league which tried to arrange a game a year between each pair of teams, out of whichever houses managed to field a team.

The team at the house I lived in, which I played on for one game, was called the Taos Corndogs. One of the other teams was the 21st Street Motherf**kers. I don't remember any of the other team names.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

[quote user="Zagyg"][quote user="skotl"]Can you guess what the differences will be?[/quote]

There'll only be one person on your team?

There'll be a belly hanging out over the mini-skirt?

What...?

pjt33 · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Can anyone with a high tolerance for incomprehensibility summarise the story?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Salad:
So you're telling me they didn't have time to test the App at least once before uploading it to the Store? I call bullshit.

Oh, they tested the App, and QA signed it off, but then they had to be able to Compile it.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

pjt33:
Can anyone with a high tolerance for incomprehensibility summarise the story?

Yeah. For the first time in years, I gave up as well when half way. Perhaps I can't follow because I don't know anything about ice hockey.

Captcha: This text should be a bit facilisis-ized

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

pjt33:
Can anyone with a high tolerance for incomprehensibility summarise the story?

* company X is late delivering an app project * a temp is brought in to help deliver the app * the temp is experienced app developer for android et al. * temp does his best, but local QA folk are a bit special * code deemed faulty by QA is removed from source control by QA * after QA's testcase are passed, app has to be build using homegrown make utility * which has very bad ui * but is the child of Jason, head of QA * temp manages to compile app after an allnighter * when app is finally deployed it crashes * because the compiled app has never been tested * because according to QA the temp "took too long" to get it compiled * temp's superior sides with head of QA * temp is given the boot

@miriam: does this version pass your ratio of sports puns / words in the story test?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Seriously, way, WAY too many hockey-related puns. And bad ones, too.

It seems the author thinks hockey is all about fighting on ice.

pjt33 · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Thanks, faoileag. And yikes! Seems like with a good write-up it could have the best article so far this year.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
20 comments, and nobody has even thought to mention the issues surrounding a QA department with revert rights in the source code repository...

Not only revert rights, but purge rights. Anyone purging (or perforce obliterating) something needs to be taught the meaning of source control / or pummeled.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Steve The Cynic:
20 comments, and nobody has even thought to mention the issues surrounding a QA department with revert rights in the source code repository...

I've worked for smaller companies where a QA member might also do some development, so I can see that. I was more surprised that management was OKAY with whole revisions being deleted instead of fixed. There was also that, according to the story, they wanted a cross-platform app with ONLY an old iPhone to test on. At the end, I was hoping to find out if the submitter had gone back over his contract and put out a working, rival product if possible.

No, I think TRWTF here is an article that seems to focus on normal ineptitude instead of playing up all that other juicy stupidity.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

faoileag:
Miriam:
Can this site's QA team please reject stories with such an inane amount of dumb sports puns?
You must be new around here. I would be suprised if the original submission mentioned hockey even once.

Knowing TDWTF, it probably was football (the international kind) and changing it to hockey was part of the "anonymisation" process.

Nutster · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Be glad you are out of there when the lawsuits start flying. First the team and the company have negotiations about not meeting the conditions and qualifications of the contract, then the company reps go "Just watch what happens next!" not realizing that by over-promising, they are just digging a deep hole for themselves. Next time, the team is saying, "You get no more money until you deliver as you promised, 3 months ago!" This is followed a month later by, "You clearly can not do the job you promised. We are considering you in full breach of contract and we will be seeing you in court due to the damage this project has made to the reputations of the WTFers. We expect a full refund and have to look to other companies to do the work you were originally contracted to do. Good bye."

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Nutster:
Be glad you are out of there when the lawsuits start flying.

Unless of course the company developing the app is owned by the WTFers president's daughter... with nepotism as an enforcer, ineptitude can go a long way.

Coyne · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Yet another example of, "United we stand, divided we fail."

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

It doesn't compile.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

It doesn't compile.

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

If any code made so much as one test case fail, QA would have a fit and purge the offending changes from source control. Adam had to keep a local copy of his work so his changes weren’t lost in their reversion frenzy.

WTF!

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

YellowOnline:
pjt33:
Can anyone with a high tolerance for incomprehensibility summarise the story?

Yeah. For the first time in years, I gave up as well when half way. Perhaps I can't follow because I don't know anything about ice hockey.

Captcha: This text should be a bit facilisis-ized

Come on, it's not that hard to follow. Pretend it's a Star Trek episode and instead of hockey puns it's futuristic tech jargon.

captcha: consequat: The alternative to trut.

pauly · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Hah! That guy looks kind of like Trevor from GTA V.

DCRoss · 2014-05-20 Reply Admin

That still leaves the most important question unanswered.

Who own the Chiefs?

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Miriam:
It doesn't compile.

As I said: "sports puns / words in the story", not "words in the story / sports puns".

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

Salad:
So you're telling me they didn't have time to test the App at least once before uploading it to the Store? I call bullshit.

Dude, IT COMPILES!

2014-05-20 Reply Admin

I never wrote code for iOS 5 but I'm assuming Apple's policy of validating all apps was still implemented. How would this app get past that process when it can't even launch without crashing?

TRWTF is that QA has any access at all to the source control server and even worse that they actively make changes to it without warning the developers!

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