The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Socio:
Bob:
You're a funny troll.
Unions in Union-controlled States only protect union members. Which doesn't include any of us.
You are wrong.

I am a capitalist, red in tooth and claw. Sometimes paying a fine for violating the law is the cost of doing business. Human costs are absolutely irrelevant.

The reason I want to destroy unions is because they cost non-union businesses (like mine) more money. If there is a union shop offering union wages and benefits in my market, then my non-union shop has to compete at those same rates. Otherwise I get the dregs who don't even qualify to work for the union (and considering the average union worker, just think about how bad that is for a moment!)

Far from protecting only union workers, the unions are still a pain in my non-union ass.

Oh what a terrible disgrace! How could anyone expect you to pay a good wage for good staff? If we don't put a stop to this inhumane practice, next thing Intel will be demanding that you pay more for their i7 processors than they charge for their i5's.

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Jo:
That may well be true, but as I say there are normally specific requirements of what you are testing.
Are you testing to see that the alarm is activated correctly, or that should it activate people can hear it. If you want to test that it activates correctly, then you need some smoke/heat source (depending what triggers it), if you want to test that it is audible in all areas, then you need it triggered - how is irrelevant.

Ours actually starts off "Whoop Whoop...Warning...Whoop Whoop" and then progresses to "Wheeeeeeee.....Evacuate the Building.....Wheeeeee"

Using Mocks in tests 101

Testing the Alarm: use a mock Smoke Detector.
Testing the Smoke Detector: use a mock Alarm (at least one that doens't cut power to the mains).

Finally, pray that you've wired the two 'real' components together correctly.

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:

Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

frits · 2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Is "plucking the chicken" some kind of euphemism?

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

frits:
Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.
Is "plucking the chicken" some kind of euphemism?

yes.

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

That's pretty far off-sine! http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin%28tan%28x%29%29+compared+to+sin%28x%29

frits · 2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Charles:
That's pretty far off-sine! http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=sin%28tan%28x%29%29+compared+to+sin%28x%29

That depends on the range ;) http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=plot+%28sin%28tan%28x%29%29%2Csin%28x%29%29+%2C+0.0%3C%3Dx%3C%3D.25.

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

The whole fucking article is a big WTF, and such a waste of fucking time.

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Wow - I wonder what sort of lecturing you do.....

As for being a native speaker - they're usually the worst at understanding the language (mainly because us what use it speak how it's convenient, not how it's correct) so I'm not sure that qualifies you as an expert....

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

Your typical TDWTF misspelling. Can't you WTFLatin yet?

2011-12-22 Reply Admin

next thing Intel will be demanding that you pay more for their i7 processors than they charge for their i5's.[/quote]

If you get an i5 you seriously don't know shit. If you want to save money get an i3. If you want performance get an i7, period. The i5 is a waste of money and will not yield any benefit unless your looking at a laptop, and hopefully your not on battery when you expect that performance gain.

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Jim:
Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.
Wow - I wonder what sort of lecturing you do.....

As for being a native speaker - they're usually the worst at understanding the language (mainly because us what use it speak how it's convenient, not how it's correct) so I'm not sure that qualifies you as an expert....

Nobody suggested that I'm an expert because I'm native. How do you come up with shit like that? But I agree that native german speaker are not that good - fe I would be surprised if you could correctly correct the sentence above.

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Tim:
snoofle:
Isn't testing a canister-fueled suppression system without the canister kind of like testing a backup system without the tape? The procedure may look like it passed, but how do you really know?
I am going to propose that in order to reduce risk, from this point forward all [fire] drills be done by setting actual [fires].
exactly - I never met a computer guy who was content to press the 'test' button on a smoke alarm. Despite what the instructions say, The only way to test a smoke alarm is to hold a match underneath it

You can test the alarm just fine by pressing the button. If you want to test the detector, that's another matter.

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

[quote user="GRepcat"] next thing Intel will be demanding that you pay more for their i7 processors than they charge for their i5's.[/quote]

If you get an i5 you seriously don't know shit. If you want to save money get an i3. If you want performance get an i7, period. The i5 is a waste of money and will not yield any benefit unless your looking at a laptop, and hopefully your not on battery when you expect that performance gain.[/quote]

You noob ... 2500k ~= 2600k . because HT sucks - your brain is a waste of perfectly good neurons, I ain't bothering you with that am I ?

So let the idiots be, and the more-knowledgeable-than-you too and just stfu, thx.

Pim · 2011-12-23 Reply Admin

GRepcat:
If you get an i5 you seriously don't know shit. If you want to save money get an i3. If you want performance get an i7, period. The i5 is a waste of money and will not yield any benefit unless your looking at a laptop, and hopefully your not on battery when you expect that performance gain.

Let's just, for the sake of the argument, assume you meant "you're". OK? OK.

How does the processor know what you're looking at and why would it decide to base its performance on that?

PiisAWheeL · 2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Mathew:
frits:
Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.
Is "plucking the chicken" some kind of euphemism?

yes.

Not being a German speaker (native or otherwise) google tells me:

The fox is rotten in the grass. So he apparently has no desire to pluck the farmer's chickens.

So if the fox is dead what's the problem?

Matt Westwood · 2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Craig:
Jo:
That may well be true, but as I say there are normally specific requirements of what you are testing.
Are you testing to see that the alarm is activated correctly, or that should it activate people can hear it. If you want to test that it activates correctly, then you need some smoke/heat source (depending what triggers it), if you want to test that it is audible in all areas, then you need it triggered - how is irrelevant.

Ours actually starts off "Whoop Whoop...Warning...Whoop Whoop" and then progresses to "Wheeeeeeee.....Evacuate the Building.....Wheeeeee"
Using Mocks in tests 101

Testing the Alarm: use a mock Smoke Detector.

Testing the Smoke Detector: use a mock Alarm (at least one that doens't cut power to the mains).

Finally, pray that you've wired the two 'real' components together correctly.

Okay smartarse: how do you test that you've wired the two 'real' components together correctly?

Matt Westwood · 2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Das ist gut, ja?

Matt Westwood · 2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Mein Schwanz ist wund, so dass ich nicht will dich ficken.

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Gut: Im Grase liegt faul der Fuchs. Des Bauern Hühner zu rupfen, hat er also anscheinend keine Lust.

Naja: Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er anscheinend keine Lust, des Bauern Hühner zu rupfen.

Konzis; De Voss is dood.

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

you win!

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

I. G. E.:
Mathew:
A little test for those wo claim I don't get german:
Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er scheinbar keine Lust des Bauern's Hühner zu rupfen.

Proofread and make corrections where necessary.

Gut: Im Grase liegt faul der Fuchs. Des Bauern Hühner zu rupfen, hat er also anscheinend keine Lust.

Naja: Der Fuchs liegt faul im Gras. Also hat er anscheinend keine Lust, des Bauern Hühner zu rupfen.

Konzis; De Voss is dood.

you win!

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

Tom:
Not to go off on a tangent, but what's an "off-sine" data center?

I wondered that too. Can I cosine your post?

2011-12-23 Reply Admin

ObiWayneKenobi:
The real issue is spineless developers who put in hours for death-marches instead of saying "No, I don't care how much you cry like a spoiled kid, this isn't being done in a week".
Seriously, why do most managers act like spoiled children and expect to point and scream and say "Mommy I want that now! now now now" and get it?

I don't know.

Maybe it's because manager's control the programmer's salaries.

jcsalomon · 2011-12-24 Reply Admin

Cantabrigian:
Tom:
Not to go off on a tangent, but what's an "off-sine" data center?

Hold on a sec, cos I was wondering that too.

Are you two in sinc?

Coyne · 2011-12-25 Reply Admin

L.:
Coyne:
I wasn't physically present, but I heard second hand the story of testing a fire alarm system here at our very own data center.
When the alarm goes off, the power is automatically cut to all systems. So, when testing, there is a certain key switch that must be switched to the test position to ensure that the power stays on. Procedure requires the data center manager to change the setting--and for someone else from the operations group to verify that the key switch is in the correct position--both before testing starts and after testing is completed.

One day, the third party fire alarm tester-person decided he didn't want to wait for the manager and someone else to show up. He triggered the alarm.

I heard it was quite shocking, after the alarm cut off (he just tested it for a second) to find oneself in a completely silent data center: No computers, no monitors, no air conditioning...no computing.

The policy has been reinforced: Now the fire tester is held at the front desk until the manager comes to get him. And the specific fire-tester-person that caused the incident is permanently barred from our site.

Fail . I mean . if your DC isn't redundant and all your apps redundant .. your design sucks and your operational costs go straight up .

On the other hand, if it's redundant, you can do the smoke test without requiring complicated procedures -- and you test the DRP at the same time .

2011 + no redundancy = you suck

Well, this was a while back (a decade or so) but yes, we had a DRP. It involved flying tapes to a backup site 6 states away and, at that time, pretty much ignored Linux servers and such.

So if we had full mirroring, I guess it might have been less of an outage (and should be now).

Anyway: How about let's go kill the power to your DC and see if your DRP's as good as you think it is? Or did you already do that? Because if you haven't already done exactly that, your plan is still to be fully tested, isn't it? Let's hope it works as well as you think.

But you know that old adage about "The best-laid plans ..."

hoodaticus · 2011-12-28 Reply Admin

Matt Westwood:
Craig:
Jo:
That may well be true, but as I say there are normally specific requirements of what you are testing.
Are you testing to see that the alarm is activated correctly, or that should it activate people can hear it. If you want to test that it activates correctly, then you need some smoke/heat source (depending what triggers it), if you want to test that it is audible in all areas, then you need it triggered - how is irrelevant.

Ours actually starts off "Whoop Whoop...Warning...Whoop Whoop" and then progresses to "Wheeeeeeee.....Evacuate the Building.....Wheeeeee"
Using Mocks in tests 101

Testing the Alarm: use a mock Smoke Detector.

Testing the Smoke Detector: use a mock Alarm (at least one that doens't cut power to the mains).

Finally, pray that you've wired the two 'real' components together correctly.

Okay smartarse: how do you test that you've wired the two 'real' components together correctly?

I have a few ways that, if you survive, will prove they aren't wired properly...

hoodaticus · 2011-12-28 Reply Admin

Jay:
ObiWayneKenobi:
The real issue is spineless developers who put in hours for death-marches instead of saying "No, I don't care how much you cry like a spoiled kid, this isn't being done in a week".
Seriously, why do most managers act like spoiled children and expect to point and scream and say "Mommy I want that now! now now now" and get it?

I don't know.

Maybe it's because manager's control the programmer's salaries.

We're also always asking ourselves, "how competent is this guy anyway"?

2011-12-28 Reply Admin

Das tut ja wirklich weh! Wenn das Wort am Anfang steht wird es natürlich groß geschrieben - also hat die Wortreihenfolge schon etwas in mit Groß/Kleinschreibung zu tun. Nicht wahr?

OK, sorry I could not resist.

I think we are missing the point here all together.

The translation has a fundamental problem - other than word order or capitalisation. As a native german speaker I read the translation as if the project plan was in the process of being burried. However, the english original, I read as if the plan had already been burried - and hence could not been found. OK, here is my translation:

"Der Projektplan war unter einem Stapel von leeren Pizza-Kartons und Laptops begraben."

And yes, using an "imported" word as "laptop" we attach an "s" to make it plural - well most of times: der Laptop - die Laptops das Steak - die Steaks erm exception: der Computer - die Computer

2011-12-29 Reply Admin

Coyne:
L.:
Coyne:
I wasn't physically present, but I heard second hand the story of testing a fire alarm system here at our very own data center.
When the alarm goes off, the power is automatically cut to all systems. So, when testing, there is a certain key switch that must be switched to the test position to ensure that the power stays on. Procedure requires the data center manager to change the setting--and for someone else from the operations group to verify that the key switch is in the correct position--both before testing starts and after testing is completed.

One day, the third party fire alarm tester-person decided he didn't want to wait for the manager and someone else to show up. He triggered the alarm.

I heard it was quite shocking, after the alarm cut off (he just tested it for a second) to find oneself in a completely silent data center: No computers, no monitors, no air conditioning...no computing.

The policy has been reinforced: Now the fire tester is held at the front desk until the manager comes to get him. And the specific fire-tester-person that caused the incident is permanently barred from our site.

Fail . I mean . if your DC isn't redundant and all your apps redundant .. your design sucks and your operational costs go straight up .

On the other hand, if it's redundant, you can do the smoke test without requiring complicated procedures -- and you test the DRP at the same time .

2011 + no redundancy = you suck

Well, this was a while back (a decade or so) but yes, we had a DRP. It involved flying tapes to a backup site 6 states away and, at that time, pretty much ignored Linux servers and such.

So if we had full mirroring, I guess it might have been less of an outage (and should be now).

Anyway: How about let's go kill the power to your DC and see if your DRP's as good as you think it is? Or did you already do that? Because if you haven't already done exactly that, your plan is still to be fully tested, isn't it? Let's hope it works as well as you think.

But you know that old adage about "The best-laid plans ..."

An untested DRP is worse than no DRP . I wouldn't let that happen - but I often run stuff on somebody else's infrastructure knowing full well I shouldn't trust it -

Next time I get my own enterprizy arch. you can be sure it'll be replicatested.

toshir0 · 2011-12-29 Reply Admin

My name:
misogyny:
TRWTF is that Sally wasn't in the kitchen or bedroom, right?

Well, long tall Sally, she's built for speed She got everything that Uncle John need

Sally can't dance no more, oooh She can't get herself off of the floor

2011-12-29 Reply Admin

Oh Mann, es heist des Bauerns Hühner.

Hint: No apostroph!

Also wirklich. Was für ein "native speaker" bist Du denn?

Nimms leicht. Ein schönes Neues Jahr an Dich! ;)

And a happy new year and many thanks to Alex for maintaining this site.

Hey all of you participating, best of luck in life and in business in 2012! (I think we all need it.)

2012-01-21 Reply Admin

Excellent Tips! Thanks for sharing the information!

2012-01-21 Reply Admin

data center management:
Excellent Tips! Thanks for sharing the information!

2012-04-17 Reply Admin

"Off-sine data center"? Why hello there, fellow Dvorak layout user! :-)

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