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Admin
Why even give them the option if it corrupts the data?! I guess the spec was unclear that the right click menu option should work...?
Admin
ahh...
the rube goldberg approach to software development!
Admin
That's Wind River's Tornado application! Its out already, yours for the bargain price of $20k per year with unlimited crappy customer support available!
Admin
When I was in the 5th grade a substitute teacher gave this test. There was no actual instruction to perform any of the instructions besides reading them. After reading the instructions, I sat at my desk and read a book. The teacher sent me to the Principal for ignoring her instructions. I explained my postition and the Principal agreed with me.
Admin
Years ago when Joseph Campbell was being interviewed by Bill Moyers on PBS, he talked about using his computer (1987, so probably a DOS based PC):
"Using my computer is like making a sacrifice to an old testament God:
- You must follow all of the required processes,
- In exactly the right sequence,
- Or else, there are DIRE CONSEQUENCES"
Admin
OMG WTF!!!! Not again....
Admin
/quote
/endQuote
this is like a nightmare game!
Admin
And here I thought the embedded software ide I was using for dynamic-C was a bit fiddly.
Admin
To ensure the instructions are non-ambiguous, they would need to read, "Read all questions before answering any of them. Each question supercedes the previous one, unless otherwise noted in the text of the question."
And yes, this test is designed to punish the "smart kids" for being able to skim the page. On the otherh and, splitting hairs about the instructions is equally ridiculous. When you pull up to a stop sign while driving, you know to eventually go again, even though the instructions to stop never changed.
Admin
So clearly one would do them in order, superceeding each in turn until the end when faced with an impossible supercession.
Noo - the test is designed to allow the smartass teacher to show how much smarter than the students they are.
110% agreed!
The whole point is that this pseudo-paradox, smartass joke played on young students is pointless and/or stupid and certainly without justification.
BTW, I also was gifted with this idiot thing in 3rd grade. I ended up with only my name on the paper, which the wiseass teacher thought was correct. I am now convinced that refusal to play along, or strict sequential execution (EXACTLY what we expect from computers in the absence of branch instructions) would have been more correct, with a protest instead of an attempt to answer the 25th question.
The real WTF is how this relates to the stupidly designed and implemented and soon ignored application exemplified in the original post.
This is more fun than packing chickens!
Admin
Fortunately, at least in California, there's an online RFC-equivalent specifying behavior at permanent stop signs.
Admin
I didn't know that there was a difference.
Admin
Yeah... Crystal Reports...
I wonder how is the code inside it... Better not to know.
Admin
Maybe "random" mean the last or first macro, or the latest random added. I think.. he!.. random as random() really need a effort, its not something you get for free with bad code, you need to work for it.
A workaround for this problem will be to rewrite the manual:
Tip: Once opened, you can delete a random macro clicking in any other tab.
--Tei
Admin
Dear oh dear. The whole point of the test is to teach that careful preparation and attention to detail can sometimes save you a whole bundle of work.
Many of the WTF-perpetrators whose work gets displayed here fail to understand that. So, apparently, do you.
Admin
Sadly, the CMVC doesn't follow the "numbered things should be in order" rule. That rule modifies an otherwise-controlling later rule.
I passed the test by cheating--I'd read of the thing in a book somewhere, and so knew what was coming.
Admin
No, the point which many understand and you do not is as follows:
You are instructed to READ all instructions before performing them.
READING instruction 25 does NOT give you permission to EXECUTE instruction 25!
Actually, it seems that there isn't quite a logical inconsistency here. You execute the instructions in order, 1-24. Once you hit 25, you say "OK, so now I will NOT DO #1-24". Great. I wasn't going to do them anyway, since I've already done them, so I won't do them again. Fine. I'm done.
Admin
[[And people wonder why so many kids drop out of school. I would just drink a beer.]]
There's a lesson from the ancient Gordonian knot, which would grant fabulous power to whomever could undo it. People failed until young Alexander whacked it with his sword.
He went on to rule the world.
Admin
I seem to remember that the way I saw that test was as a block of about two paragraphs of instructions, followed by 25 questions. Hidden in the middle of one of the paragraphs was the sentence "when you finish reading these instructions, write your name on the paper and turn it in". Therefore, since the instruction to not do any of the instructions is in the explanatory material. The whole point is that just because there are numbered instructions doesn't mean you should do them.
Admin
Admin
That, of course, is an entirely different matter. If the command not to perform the 25 numbered instructions is in a separate, introductory paragraph, then of course you don't perform the 25 instructions. It's only if instruction #25 is "don't do the rest of the instructions" that the argument can ensue.
Admin
"Hahahahaha. That's an awesome description. My previous boss did the exact same thing. I liked to call it UCRS (uncontrollable random clicking syndrome). Someone needs to come up with medication for this. Every time i would show him something, I would preface the conversation with, "now don't start clicking everywhere." It didn't help."
You've just stumbled on perhaps the one valid use for Powerpoint slides!
Admin
Two-year old kids are good for this also. We had one over last year, with his mom who was helping me sell my house at the time. We were in my home office on my computer running through listings (for comparable sales information), and trying to ignore the kid while not letting him get into too much trouble. Out of the corner of my eye I watched him start to fiddle with my husband's iMac. Since I'd been told that he "knew how to use the computer already!", I watched him in fascination. Nope, he was just randomly clicking on pretty things on the screen. But soon it became obvious that he knew the word "OK". I stopped him as he was about to click on OK.... and create some sort of network interface!
Admin
LOL...Now that is amazing
Admin
Heh, yeah. I recognised it as well. Its Tornado II I think, which I had the complete lack of pleasure getting to work with some VxWorks bloodmeasuring machinery.
Now you know that your lifedepending machines are programmed using this. Have a nice day.
Admin
The whole point of the test, as far as I remember, was to allow part of the classroom to laugh at the other part of the classroom. Any moral high-ground of giving out this test is lost because the teachers are unable to grasp that there is any point to it other than to create a hostile atmosphere. Theoretically it could teach you something, but if you look at the majority of the posts you can see that statistically it was never administered correctly to begin with. If anything, the administration of this type of test teaches you to watch your back, and not trust people in authority. Careful preparation and attention to detail is learned through other means. Most probably in the course of making small explosives from common household chemicals.
Admin
This is definately Tornado (Wind River IDE for vxWorks).
I don't know that I've ever seen that level of poor behavior from it. The whole "use the tab key, not the mouse" - that's just wrong. Makes me think that something else in their environement was seriously corrupt.
Like maybe: Tornado was built using TK/TCL - maybe they had a different version of TK or TCL installed and it was messing with the GUI.
Yes, Tornado is basically dead - WRS has moved to an Eclipse based environment. Honestly, having used Eclipse/CDT in the past, I'm not impressed - it was way more painful to use than Tornado. And being Java/Eclipse based, it'll now run 100 times slower. But hey, it'll be cheaper for WRS, which is why they do things like that.
Pete
Admin
Probably not, because this WTF consists mainly of code that the F-head didn't bother to write.
Step 8 is my favorite. Temptation!
Admin
It IS VxWorks, or to be precise, it's the Tornado IDE for VxWorks. It's not an in-house app, it's their flagship product.
Ah, yes, it's been a couple of years but I fondly remember the auto-selecting-the-next-macro-after-you-edited-the-last-one feature.
Admin
But where did it say that in the case of a conflict, numerically later questions should have priority over earlier questions? Q3 and Q8 contradict each other; you can logically complete one, or the other, but not both. (You could of course validily answer neither, but then you wouldn't even get the single mark that it *is* possible to achieve out of the two of them on your final score). Why is answering Q3 and not answering Q8 any less correct than answering Q8 and not answering Q3?
It isn't, that's what; without assuming some hidden condition, the two situations are exactly the same amount as correct as each other, and exactly the same amount as incorrect as each other. The teachers were making a false assumption, or rather were grading you based on your ability to obey a rule that they didn't even tell you.
A test of your ability to follow instructions? I don't think so. A test of your keenness to voluntarily restrict yourself to social norms, more like. Presumably any of the kids who pointed out the contradiction and refused to answer either were labelled as trouble-makers on their permanent record... ?
Admin
I once had a summer job at a company that did something very much like this. The product wasn't really quite WTFity enough to make it onto here, but it was still far from easy to use without extensive training (at $BIGNUM per hour). I never did quite work out if this was deliberate or just a happy byproduct of poor development.
Pete
Admin
This is the test I did in 4th grade: http://www.ucs.umn.edu/lasc/handouts/followdirection.html It's strange how it tries to make the people who go through all the steps look foolish (steps 3, 5, 8, 13, and 17).