• sol (unregistered)

    And, all this time I just downloaded it from the internet who knew there was such a niffty trial...

    Oh! Even better lets use MSDE and in order to bypass the 10 connection limit we will make one connection and stick it in an application variable and never close it. That will work right? I mean that way there is only one connection; right?

    Hmm maybe we can just all stand instead of sitting and the we can use the 5 seat version...

    No, no I got it XML; XML can fix anything and them we could use the Web 2.0 AJAX stuff that just came out even though it's been around for years...

  • Nine Volt (unregistered)

    We've got one computer lab that a professor set up themselves (wouldn't let our IT department touch it.)... Figured out he's using the volume license key from his previous academic employer-- heaven forbid he actually go thru my boss the IT manager for actual media for our license.

  • douglasarthur (unregistered) in reply to peon
    peon:
    A Nonny Mouse:
    JohnB:
    You must be new here. People only do that when the captcha has some bearing on the content of the original message or to the reply.

    Captcha: howdy (Indeed!)

    ok seriously. can you people fuck off with your captchas? nobody cares!! (or should that be failure off)

    I might care if they were even mildly funny or clever. They are just not so. Why would you think somebody would find that "Indeed!" remark worth reading? Why, why why?

    I enjoyed reading the first "why", though I found the second was not quite as good. The third "why" was, in my estimation, not worth reading.

  • (cs) in reply to JohnB
    JohnB:
    Bet your sweet dupa:
    [snip]BTW, what's up with displaying the captcha text in replies?
    You must be new here. People only do that when the captcha has some bearing on the content of the original message or to the reply....
    ...or they just fake a relevant captcha. Captcha: Clinton. (What a coincidence)
  • peon (unregistered) in reply to triso
    triso:
    JohnB:
    Bet your sweet dupa:
    [snip]BTW, what's up with displaying the captcha text in replies?
    You must be new here. People only do that when the captcha has some bearing on the content of the original message or to the reply....
    ...or they just fake a relevant captcha. Captcha: Clinton. (What a coincidence)
    Gee, very clever. LOL.
  • dzimm (unregistered) in reply to rbowes
    rbowes:
    shambo:
    Reading this I had a grand idea. Someone needs to create a screen shot application which automagically places a "wooden desk" matting around it.
    That idea confuses me a little. So you, uhh, like, when you print it off and take the picture, you have a double-wood border?

    Pretty soon, it's desks all the way down

  • lelitsch (unregistered) in reply to Nine Volt

    This surprises you HOW? I got tons of calls forwarded from costumer service. Usually irate academics who couldn't understand why we wouldn't upgrade old volume license after they moved to a new university.

    The best one included the memorable sentence "I gave my key to all the people in my new department and now their software doesn't work anymore!" (Yes, that's you USC!!)

  • lelitsch (unregistered) in reply to Nine Volt
    Nine Volt:
    We've got one computer lab that a professor set up themselves (wouldn't let our IT department touch it.)... Figured out he's using the volume license key from his previous academic employer-- heaven forbid he actually go thru my boss the IT manager for actual media for our license.

    This surprises you HOW? I got tons of calls forwarded from costumer service. Usually irate academics who couldn't understand why we wouldn't upgrade volume licenses granted by their old university after they moved to a new one.

    The best one included the memorable sentence "I gave my key to all the people in my new department and now their software doesn't work anymore!" (Yes, that's you USC!!)

  • (cs)

    I like how they call it the "Workload Governor".

  • (cs) in reply to A Nonny Mouse
    A Nonny Mouse:
    ok seriously. can you people fuck off with your captchas? nobody cares!! (or should that be failure off)

    Firefox + Greasemonkey + Captcha Killer = no more CAPTCHA comments

  • (cs)

    why, oh why ?

    If they wanted a free database server back in 2000 why they did not use Interbase (or Firebird as it is now called) or mysql or postgres or .... especially Interbase had similar connectivity options comparable to SQL Server in those days.

    And they are running it on a desktop: it is very, very likely that they have less than 50 concurrent users.

    You could get a 50-user Interbase license from Borland for the cost of the mentioned book or less in those days - Borland was struggling back then and trying to buy customers.

    This setup is the archetypical penny-wise, pound-foolish setup - this should go into the textbooks.

  • Merlin (unregistered)

    I knew a company who based a multi-million dollar billing system on FileMaker Pro. The thing is that the guy who thought of it hacked it himself and then gave it to IT without any budget to redesign it. Management would always go like "why should we redesign this application ? It's running fine!". That is, until they had a major issue and lost a few millions...

  • NameNotFoundException (unregistered)

    The "real WTF" is the linked Amazon page:

    Download Description This one-stop resource will show you everything you need to know about SQL--including coverage of Web services and XML. NOTE: due to the large amount of text and graphics, this eBook file is 18.3 MG. We recommend that you download this eBook using the fastest Internet connection at your disposal, otherwise you may notice a longer downloading time than usual.

    Wow... this is HUGE! 18.3 MegaGigs! I was just wondering whether to connect my old modem for this download, but I', glad they warned me, so I'm going to use my DSL connection...

  • Watson (unregistered) in reply to Critter
    Critter:
    The sad thing is that there are perfectly good SQL servers out there other than MS SQL Server, which are open-source.

    Immediately coming to mind:

    • PostgreSQL (my personal favourite)
    • MySQL
    • SQLite

    The real WTF is that if they are going to be so f---ing cheap, that they overlooked free.

    Perfectly valid point, but you should scratch SQLite from that list; an embeddable SQL engine probably wouldn't cut it (though it makes a hell of a lot better sense than SQL Server Compact).
  • PlunderBunny (unregistered)

    Our company continues to work around the limitations of the cut-down InstallShield edition supplied with Visual Studio 6. Not allowed to put up a custom page in the install wizard? No problem - just drop out to C code and make your own window that covers up the first page...

  • Watson (unregistered) in reply to Jojosh_the_Pi
    Jojosh_the_Pi:
    JCM:
    "Don't you think there's been a lot of storms lately?" she asked.

    "Not really." I replied.

    I'm not sure who to be more annoyed with:

    • The insurance agent for purposefully glossing over the fact that Florida was essentially hurricane-free in 2006.

    • JCM for purposefully ignoring the concept of "above average".

    Florida hurricanes in 2005: Arlene, Dennis, Katrina, Rita, Wilma

    Florida hurricanes in 2004: Charley, Frances, Ivan, and Jeanne

    2004 was the first year since 1886 four hurricanes hit one US state in one season. It happened again in 2005. I'm not sure how this could not be defined as "a lot of storms".

    You forgot

    • An insurance agent (and, by extension, the company that set the premium) who was apparently ignorant of the concept of a normal distribution.

    • A commentator who missed the bit about "standard deviations" and "expected values". "Above average" should be expected about half the time. Of course, that depends on the sample size (is that "over the last two years" or "over the last millennium" or "over the last fifty years" or "however long we've been in business" or "over the last twelve seconds")?

  • Clad (unregistered)

    Juuust change the name back. No harm, no foul, no more need for snippy comments.

    Let's put it this way - I'm not unsubscribing from my feed reader, but next time it gets wiped out, I probably just won't remember to re-add it.

    There is only negative buzz around the new name.

    It seems the overwhelming weight of feedback is simply ignored. So be it...

  • (cs) in reply to Clad
    Clad:
    Juuust change the name back. No harm, no foul, no more need for snippy comments.

    Let's just change your name instead, moron. Alex has the right to call the site whatever he wants, and all of you idiots whining about it shouldn't make any difference to him at all.

    And to keep this post on-topic: This reminds me of a place I worked in the mid-90's. It was a distribution center for a publishing company, with enough computers to require a 100-user Netware license. Every computer was running Windows for Workgroups (3.11), installed from a set of 3 1/2" floppies. Yes, a set. The same applied to the copy of Office installed on all the machines. This was back in the days where, the first time you ran the install from the diskettes, you were asked for your name and organization and it was written to the floppy somewhere; every computer said the software was registered to "John Doe" at "Some Company".

    And the worst thing? The company didn't actually buy either of the sets of diskettes; the head of IT borrowed them from his wife's office, as he did their tech support on the side.

  • (cs) in reply to Jojosh_the_Pi
    Jojosh_the_Pi:
    ... 2004 was the first year since 1886 four hurricanes hit one US state in one season. It happened again in 2005. I'm not sure how this could not be defined as "a lot of storms".

    You know, trying to think logically is just going to give you a headache.

  • (cs) in reply to Watson
    Watson:
    You forgot

    • An insurance agent (and, by extension, the company that set the premium) who was apparently ignorant of the concept of a normal distribution.

    • A commentator who missed the bit about "standard deviations" and "expected values". "Above average" should be expected about half the time. Of course, that depends on the sample size (is that "over the last two years" or "over the last millennium" or "over the last fifty years" or "however long we've been in business" or "over the last twelve seconds")?

    And then there's

    • People who don't understand the concept of division of labor manifest in different job requirements for insurance agents (who are sales people and have absolutely no need to know about things like standard deviation, which 99% of their customers wouldn't know if it bit them in the arse) and insurance mathematicians whose job it is to do risk assessment and adjust the rates accordingly.
  • LineNoise (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    CAPTCHA: Gygax. Looks like this company rolled a natural '1' on its Willpower save against Stupidity.

    I've been out of the loop...what've they done now?

  • LineNoise (unregistered) in reply to too_many_usernames
    too_many_usernames:
    Jojosh_the_Pi:
    ... 2004 was the first year since 1886 four hurricanes hit one US state in one season. It happened again in 2005. I'm not sure how this could not be defined as "a lot of storms".

    You know, trying to think logically is just going to give you a headache.

    3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693_99_375105820974944592307...

    "Oh dear, it carried on for 11 digits, then we saw an 8!"...or perhaps "Look at the spacing between the 9's, and then 'Bam!' two in a row!"

  • rgz (unregistered)

    The real "what the fuck!?" is stupid management that doesn't get things right... I'm talking about this site's management.

    Not only are our complains about the forum software been systematically ignored but now the readers are getting mocked at? You guys feel very confident because you don't have any competitors right now, but that won't always be the case. Some day, sooner than you expect, a humble challenger will arrive, presenting the same product but better, like Google did to Yahoo!.

    When times like this come, there are usually two responses from your public, either the new challenger is dismissed as a copycat or you readership start a massive exodus to better lands.

    Do you really want to be ditched only for an attitude problem?

    You should be thankful that your readers can take some abuse, but instead of taking it as a second chance you actually push us to leave?

    For now I'll continue to visit this site, but I'll make this clear, my experience on this site has been substantially degraded. Keep on and I'll leave, and I won't leave alone.

    geez... what happened to common sense...

  • Productive Coder (unregistered) in reply to CapitalT

    All of the time I walk into someone's office and see them using an unregistered version of WinZip, obediently clicking on the "register later" button at startup. Our company has a site license for WinZip and it would take about 30 seconds to get it from our internal IS website and register it. Bothers the heck out of me every time I see it.

  • Tarwn (unregistered) in reply to rgz

    Personally I can believe today's perversion. I consulted for multiple large companies and have seen as bad and worse. The next time you flip a light switch in certain south-eastern US states, be aware that the gas powered turbines providing that electricity are being fed by natural gas purchased based on automated excel reports that automatically print themselves at 2 in the morning. We used to have a desktop system at my current company that would take down half the company + the public website when you turned it off (not to be confused with the "servers", this was a developers actual desktop machine). Backups were happening, though it is unsure whether we could have recovered from them. Heck, we are the second largest company in the world for our particular product and our "middleware" consists of over 200 MS Access forms.

    Companies skimp. A certain class of business user decides that working is good enough and that as long as something appears to be working you should be able to provide them with every benefit in absolutely no time that they received back when they worked at a company that actually had an infrastructure. Meanwhile things are slowly rotting until even the hacks and systems you tossed on top of the mud heap are no longer capable of keeping things running in any semblance of useability. And of course now it is the fault of the IT team, not the wizard pusher in purchasing that built the original half-baked app or the executives that decided to ignore the advice of the experts they are paying to advise them of possible critical problems.

    I'm not bitter :P

    <rant> I just can't believe how many people are coming out to post diatribes because the owners of a website they like decided to change the name and haven't managed to fix an outstanding issue. Grow up. The restaurant down the street would probably listen to me if I made a suggestion, or if 5% of their customers had a complaint about them changing their name (but obviously kept coming to eat there) but it would be up to the restaurant to decide if they wanted to change their name back after putting thought and work into something they no doubt liked better. Listening is not the same as doing. If you absolutely must have a site to visit every day with the old name, make your own and stop spamming (yes, spamming) the articles. You've made your opinion heard, we have moved on, it's time for you to either live with it or not. It's a fricking name. </rant>
  • Dullsville (unregistered)

    Software is expensive, but labor is free!!

  • LineNoise (unregistered) in reply to LineNoise
    LineNoise:
    too_many_usernames:
    Jojosh_the_Pi:
    ... 2004 was the first year since 1886 four hurricanes hit one US state in one season. It happened again in 2005. I'm not sure how this could not be defined as "a lot of storms".

    You know, trying to think logically is just going to give you a headache.

    3.1415926535897932384626433832795028841971693_99_375105820974944592307...

    "Oh dear, it carried on for 11 digits, then we saw an 8!"...or perhaps "Look at the spacing between the 9's, and then 'Bam!' two in a row!"

    Hrmm...I've been too harsh, and too hasty. A more accurate observation would be that the actuaries simply don't have enough of a sample size yet to know what "average" is, and are scrambling/aka adjusting to accommodate the new data as the available sample space of the whole population grows over time.

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