The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Mario was led upstairs to the only room that had an exhaust fan; a restroom near the main office. When they opened the door, a warm blast of 100°F air rushed past him. Though it had an exhaust fan, it was only turned on when someone was in the restroom. After seeing an advanced server/thin-client setup that had a hardware cost of €9,800 ($13,500) for a total of six clients, he politely excused himself.

And until I read the comments this bit confused me.

Why would you have a fan like that in a restroom? I'd forgotten how there's one room Americans have so many strange euphemisms for (bathrooms without baths, restrooms that you don't rest in etc).

Over here an employee's restroom would be a room fitted out with comfy chairs and maybe a fridge, kettle and TV!

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Shadow Wolf:
Anonymous Coward:
It's "all tolled" as in tallied, not "all told"
/english nazi

"All told" is correct. In fact, the very first Google result for "all tolled", as well as the following three, explain the correct usage:

http://wsu.edu/~brians/errors/tolled.html

I'll add that I have never seen anyone "all tolled" used before, which is also an indicator that "all told" is the correct usage.

An easy way to remember it (for technical people anyway) is that "told" is the same meaning as used for the "T" in "ATM" (Automated Teller Machine) where the Teller is a bank employee who counts out money.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Someone You Know:
The symbol $ means "dollars". The D in USD means "dollars". Saying "dollars" twice is redundant. I never said it was incorrect. I never said it was not commonplace. I never said that the United States was the only country that uses the dollar sign as its currency. I only said that writing something that reads out loud as "eleven thousand dollars United States dollars" is redundant.

Surely if you're going to be pedantic, you'd read it 'dollars eleven thousand United States dollars'. If you're going to ignore common practice in one place, why not ignore it everywhere?

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

misha:
It's been observed that Britishers tend to use °F when it's hot and °C when it's cold, thus making either extreme seem even more extreme.

Actually, it tends to be people over about 50 use Fahrenheit, while people under 50 use Celsius. Although some younger people might also use Fahrenheit, and some older ones may use Celsius. I haven't come across many who mix the two though.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

David Hasselhoff:
Actualy, you bought a CD player in Montreal for 15$ CAD.

Depends. Was the transaction performed in English or French?

KattMan · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Sad Bug Killer:
TRWTF (TM) is that we now have Viagra ad on the front page. Bring back beanbag or fusball girls please

I agree, because they had a much more measured effect on me than a simple viagra ad. And looking was free!

KenW · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Simmo:
Nice. But you see, as is often the case, the Yanks on this site seem to think they're the only people in the universe. I bet the original article was changed too - it refers to 100°F, not 38°C. I bet few people in Europe under the age of 30 know what that means

What is it with the American bashing for no reason? Of course this site has an American tilt to it - it's based in the US, and the owner/author lives in the US as well.

Do you have a web site? Does it have any bias toward your country of residence? For example, if you live in the UK, does your site contain the word "colour" or "cheque"? OMG! You must thing you're the only people in the universe!

Jackass.

KenW · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Someone You Know:
The symbol $ means "dollars". The D in USD means "dollars". Saying "dollars" twice is redundant.

Unless you're using VB, where "$" has something to do with strings; you know, Mid$()?

Someone You Know:
I'm not sure what makes you think I'm American, but I would suggest that it is generally a good idea to try to set your personal prejudices aside before reacting the way you are.

Agreed. I think I made the same point just after you did. :-)

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Someone You Know:
Daza:
You are aware there are other countries apart from the U.S. that use the dollar sign as their currency symbol? Australia for one? The dollar sign and 'USD' are definitely necessary. If you're trying to point out the use of 'D', it's pretty common place to do so.

The symbol $ means "dollars". The D in USD means "dollars". Saying "dollars" twice is redundant. I never said it was incorrect. I never said it was not commonplace. I never said that the United States was the only country that uses the dollar sign as its currency. I only said that writing something that reads out loud as "eleven thousand dollars United States dollars" is redundant.

I'm not sure what makes you think I'm American, but I would suggest that it is generally a good idea to try to set your personal prejudices aside before reacting the way you are.

Actual the D in USD means Dollar not Dollars. It refers to the type of dollar the dollar sign is identifying. The dollar sign in $15 USD identifies the 15 as being 15 dollars. The USD identifies the dollar sign in $15 as being a U.S. dollar (or Canadian or Australian, whichever it happens to be). So I don't see any redundancy here, they are not referring to the same thing. As for the idiot who wants to snipe at Americans, WTF are you talking about? Not a single person on here even implied that the U.S. is the only country to use the dollar sign. You are just looking for an excuse to bitch about Americans. The other person is correct, you came here with your prejudices intact.

CAPTCHA = Tacos mmmmmmmmm taaaacoooos (in my best Homer Simpson voice)

misha · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

Thief^ · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Simmo:
Nice. But you see, as is often the case, the Yanks on this site seem to think they're the only people in the universe. I bet the original article was changed too - it refers to 100°F, not 38°C. I bet few people in Europe under the age of 30 know what that means

I'm English, and I'd heard that 100°F was the temperature inside the back end of a cow (human body temperature being slightly lower at 96°F). Wikipedia doesn't mention this theory though, so it could be wrong. I'd also heard that 32°F was chosen because he wanted to avoid negative temperatures in normal winter weather, with the number being somewhat arbitrary.

I'd also heard that the Fahrenheit scale was recalibrated to have exactly 32°F and 212°F at the freezing and boiling points of water respectively, to make it easy to convert to/from the Celsius scale (and Wikipedia backs this one up). In the old Fahrenheit scale body temperature was 96°F, now it's ~98°F.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Global Warmer:
misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

And as a Canadian, I'm offended. Clubbing seals is hard work under adverse conditions, eh? There's no Tim Horton's on the ice floes and and the ice isn't smooth enough to play hockey on, eh? Although, the children seem to enjoy it, and that's what it's all aboot, eh?

misha · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Look at me! I'm on the internets!:
Global Warmer:
misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

And as a Canadian, I'm offended. Clubbing seals is hard work under adverse conditions, eh? There's no Tim Horton's on the ice floes and and the ice isn't smooth enough to play hockey on, eh? Although, the children seem to enjoy it, and that's what it's all aboot, eh?

Ahh, but I club my baby harp seals at the zoo, which makes it a lot easier, especially if you do it at night.

morpcat · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

And here I was thinking $ meant Pesos...

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

misha:
Look at me! I'm on the internets!:
Global Warmer:
misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

And as a Canadian, I'm offended. Clubbing seals is hard work under adverse conditions, eh? There's no Tim Horton's on the ice floes and and the ice isn't smooth enough to play hockey on, eh? Although, the children seem to enjoy it, and that's what it's all aboot, eh?

Ahh, but I club my baby harp seals at the zoo, which makes it a lot easier, especially if you do it at night.

OMG ROFLMAO....at both comments My wife's Canadian, I brought her here a few years ago but she doesn't enjoy bashing baby seals as much as I do. For that matter she doesn't enjoy hockey as much as I do either.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

As an English english speaker, might I point out to those on the other side of the pond that "rest room" over here generally refers to a room where one might, er, rest. Usually it's got chairs, magazines, the tea/coffee equipment, etc. Over here, what the USians call a restroom we call a "toilet", "loo" or something less polite.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Matt Burgess:
Anonymous:
Mario W.:
Sorry for my bad english.
Why does this disclaimer usually feature only messages that are perfect in grammar, punctation and spelling? ;-)

Agreed. Wish my German was that "bad". :)

Linguistic redundancy is not the evil that people seem to think it is. ...

What I enjoy are the multilingual redundancies here in the "States".

e.g.:

Table Mesa : means "table table"

The La Brea Tar Pits : means "the the tar tar pits"

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Dun Codin:
As an English english speaker, might I point out to those on the other side of the pond that "rest room" over here generally refers to a room where one might, er, rest. Usually it's got chairs, magazines, the tea/coffee equipment, etc. Over here, what the USians call a restroom we call a "toilet", "loo" or something less polite.

So.......would you prefer we called it the "Sh*t Room"? One of the first times I was driving across Canada as an adult, I stopped at a service center and asked a young lady at a wendy's counter where the restrooms were. You would have thought I was speaking Chineese to her. She looked at me like "WTF are you talking about?" Then I remembered my wife (who is Canadian) always called them washrooms. So I repeated my question to the girl at Wendy's instead asking where the washrooms are aand she then understood. Kinda funny, guess you had to be there, the faces she was making when I asked for a restroom...geez. You know though, When I go in a restroom and sit down I do tend to get some rest but I don't always wash. I certainly don't wash more then my hands so I suppose maybe you could call it the "Hand washing room"

java.lang.Chris; · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Jonny:
Intersting. It's highly possible that the server side software was very poorly designed and perhaps it really did need an $8000.00 server to run it.

Well, it was mentioned that Outlook was accessible from the client machines. Presumably the Exchange web interface to outlook, as a thin client would be a bit on the fat side of it was able to run the Outlook client. Anyway, it means the server is running Windows and Exchange, which would explain the need for a reasonable machine although 8000 EUR still seems excessive. The Exchange server at my company which serves aprox. 100 people was a recent purchase and at 4500 EUR was a bit over specced.

Addendum (2007-09-12 11:15): Then of course it could be Citrix as someone else pointed out, in which case those licenses on top of the hardware and MS license would make the price about right.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Mogri:
Anonymous:
Mario W.:
Sorry for my bad english.
Why does this disclaimer usually feature only messages that are perfect in grammar, punctation and spelling? ;-)

s/english/English s/punctation/punctuation

;)

s/english/English/ s/punctation/punctuation/

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

David C.:
tmountjr:
I bought a CD player in Montreal for $15 CAD
Still redundant. What do you think the "D" stands for.

Disc?

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

What I enjoy are the multilingual redundancies here in the "States".

e.g.:

Table Mesa : means "table table"

The La Brea Tar Pits : means "the the tar tar pits"

And in England we have Torpenhow Hill..

Tor - hill Pen - hill How - hill Hill - hill

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

java.lang.Chris;:
Anyway, it means the server is running Windows and Exchange, which would explain the need for a reasonable machine although 8000 EUR still seems excessive. The Exchange server at my company which serves aprox. 100 people was a recent purchase and at 4500 EUR was a bit over specced.

It's exactly running that (frankly, I'm not sure about the exchange server).

"[...]was a bit over specced." That's what I told them. They wouldn't listen.

P.S.: About midday here in germany, the boss's wife sent in a new picture of hers.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

And until I read the comments this bit confused me.
Why would you have a fan like that in a restroom? I'd forgotten how there's one room Americans have so many strange euphemisms for (bathrooms without baths, restrooms that you don't rest in etc).

Over here an employee's restroom would be a room fitted out with comfy chairs and maybe a fridge, kettle and TV!

Well, the term "Shitroom" is frowned upon by most people around here, especially in church and grandma's house - "Excuse me Sister Mary, can you point me to the nearest shitroom? I've had too much pizza and now I have pizzeria..." Most bathrooms in homes have baths or showers in them, and I like to "rest" every morning after my coffee...I guess "peeroom" is slightly less inappropriate but that only tells half the story. What is the literal translation in your language?

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Apropriate in Germany are toilets and the washrooms. If you are at a privat house/flat it's also apropriate to ask for the bathroom.

Inapropriate but common slang is (literally) shithouse.

And it was a small toilett with no windows. In Germany it is common to build those things about 2 square-meters with only a lightbulb and a fan (which is only working when the light is turned on).

But for saving energy you can't leave the light on, can you?

misha · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

bronzy:
What I enjoy are the multilingual redundancies here in the "States".
e.g.:

Table Mesa : means "table table"

The La Brea Tar Pits : means "the the tar tar pits"

Torpenhow Hill: Hill Hill Hill Hill (thank you QI)

addendum Ahh, Bob beat me to it

FredSaw · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Mario W.:
Apropriate in Germany are toilets and the washrooms. If you are at a privat house/flat it's also apropriate to ask for the bathroom.

In the US "toilet" is the same as "commode" and refers to that porcelain receptacle which catches what you eliminate. For the same strange and inexplicable reason that "shit" is considered vulgar and offensive but the identically defined "dung" is not, "toilet" is slightly offensive in polite society. Given that public rooms for elimination don't have a bath, most people refer to them with the term that vaguarizes their intended activity in there: "restroom" (getting some rest from the internal pressures, I assume).

Oddly enough, "toilet" also refers to a woman putting on her makeup, perfume, etc. or to the place where she does so (usually a mirrored dresser); and "toilet water" refers to a pleasantly scented product used for the same purpose as, but inferior in quality to, perfume. It's a strange world/language.

And please, let's acknowledge the neologism.

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

As I recall they refer to restrooms on ships as the "head". What do you suppose goes on in there?

Pingmaster · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Look at me! I'm on the internets!:
Global Warmer:
misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

And as a Canadian, I'm offended. Clubbing seals is hard work under adverse conditions, eh? There's no Tim Horton's on the ice floes and and the ice isn't smooth enough to play hockey on, eh? Although, the children seem to enjoy it, and that's what it's all aboot, eh?

that and on the ice, baby seals can be slippery little bastards....

java.lang.Chris; · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Mario W.:
Apropriate in Germany are toilets and the washrooms. If you are at a privat house/flat it's also apropriate to ask for the bathroom.
Inapropriate but common slang is (literally) shithouse.

Reminds me of the fallout from an incident a few days ago. When my boss asked me if I was ready for a meeting I told her I first needed to visit the crapper (a mildly vulgar term for the shithouse). She appeared a bit ruffled by my usage of colloquial English, so much so that it was the only complaint at my three month review the next day. I really must learn to use more professional language at work ...

2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Thief^:
Simmo:
Nice. But you see, as is often the case, the Yanks on this site seem to think they're the only people in the universe. I bet the original article was changed too - it refers to 100°F, not 38°C. I bet few people in Europe under the age of 30 know what that means
I'm English, and I'd heard that 100°F was the temperature inside the back end of a cow (human body temperature being slightly lower at 96°F). Wikipedia doesn't mention this theory though, so it could be wrong. I'd also heard that 32°F was chosen because he wanted to avoid negative temperatures in normal winter weather, with the number being somewhat arbitrary.
I'd also heard that the Fahrenheit scale was recalibrated to have exactly 32°F and 212°F at the freezing and boiling points of water respectively, to make it easy to convert to/from the Celsius scale (and Wikipedia backs this one up). In the old Fahrenheit scale body temperature was 96°F, now it's ~98°F.

Hrm... I'm pretty sure that that is wrong. I know the part about calibrating it for conversion is wrong - if Wikipedia says that it, too, is wrong.

Fahrenheit wanted the 0 of the scale to be the lowest temperature he could get water to by mixing water and salt. He wanted 100 to be the temperature of the human body - he was just off a bit.

real_aardvark · 2007-09-12 Reply Admin

Mario W.:
There is a multi-thousand-members non-profit organization with less to no knowledge about anything whith the leadership of a man and his even less competent wife throwing more money out of the windows than I earn in a year.

Mario: ever thought of just giving up the day job and standing underneath the window with a butterfly net?

2007-09-13 Reply Admin

diaphanein:
If you're arguing over something that trivial, I'd find your position at my company to be redundant.

Errrm.... dude... aren't you also arguing over "something that trivial"? Doesn't that make your position at your company redun..

... ah forgeddit.

2007-09-13 Reply Admin

David C.:
tmountjr:
I bought a CD player in Montreal for $15 CAD
Still redundant. What do you think the "D" stands for.
You should either write "CAD 15" or "$15 CA".

Just like a US-dollar amount should be written as "USD 15" or "$15 US".

Still redundant. What do you think the "$" stands for? (It was originally an overlaid 'U' and 'S'.)

2007-09-13 Reply Admin

KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

There is always a reason for American bashing.

ggeens · 2007-09-13 Reply Admin

The dev should have sneaked in 3 instances of SETI@home

At one time, we had a dual-processor Solaris machine in the office. It wasn't used much (it was a development machine) so I installed 2 SETI@home processes.

That boosted my SETI rank quite nicely.

Raggles · 2007-09-13 Reply Admin

Not that much of a WTF, just a bit expensive.

This is a WTF:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/27/dell_standsby_server_order/

Taz · 2007-09-13 Reply Admin

TimmyT:
What is the literal translation in your language?

In French the polite term is toilettes. I think everyone can translate that to English.

Slang is "chiottes" which is best translated into "shitter". :)

Oh, and at today's exchange rates it doesn't make much of a difference if it's USD, CAD or AUD at 15 bucks. So why not call a buck just a buck?

2007-09-13 Reply Admin

KenW:
Simmo:
Nice. But you see, as is often the case, the Yanks on this site seem to think they're the only people in the universe. I bet the original article was changed too - it refers to 100°F, not 38°C. I bet few people in Europe under the age of 30 know what that means

What is it with the American bashing for no reason? Of course this site has an American tilt to it - it's based in the US, and the owner/author lives in the US as well.

Do you have a web site? Does it have any bias toward your country of residence? For example, if you live in the UK, does your site contain the word "colour" or "cheque"? OMG! You must thing you're the only people in the universe!

Jackass.

Oh it was just a little dig at youse guys, not to be taken seriously.

Random832 · 2007-09-13 Reply Admin

Nemo:
David C.:
tmountjr:
I bought a CD player in Montreal for $15 CAD
Still redundant. What do you think the "D" stands for.
You should either write "CAD 15" or "$15 CA".

Just like a US-dollar amount should be written as "USD 15" or "$15 US".
Still redundant. What do you think the "$" stands for? (It was originally an overlaid 'U' and 'S'.)

Considering that the '$' sign existed long before the US itself, that seems doubtful. I always heard it was an overlaid "P" and "S" - for "Peso". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$ lists a number of theories.

2007-09-13 Reply Admin

Global Warmer:
misha:
KenW:
What is it with the American bashing for no reason?

American bashing is like baby harp seal clubbing; it's both easy and fun!

OMG, I am American and I found that funny as hell.

Me too! Hilarious analogy! As a side note. Why do my fellow Americans need to be so acerbic when responding to America bashing? You don't need to call someone a jackass for over-reacting to our natural bias to use terms with which we are most familiar. Just point out where he is wrong and leave it at that. Or, even better, make some poignant humorous observation like misha did. If you can calmly demonstrate that someone's accusation against you is without merit, then you are the better man. But name calling is liable to make people disregard your, otherwise, substantive remarks.

2007-09-14 Reply Admin

Well its a nursing home... Do you expect competent people to work in such a place?

I thought the ending was: "And he was led into the server/rest room only to find that there was a leaky toilet spewing water all over the server"

2007-09-14 Reply Admin

Not to be picky or anything... Although folding@home is an interesting program, it's benefit to humanity is not really immediate. Even if they manage to find something interesting that is real (remember these are all predictions), the earliest you would ever see a benefit from it would be about 10 years.

In other words, don't poo-poo SETI just because it is looking for something that may not be there... in reality, they both have good points and bad points...

2007-10-15 Reply Admin

herefore everyone should therefore concentrate on protein folding @ home

They are in the fridge, usually.

2008-08-21 Reply Admin

Global Warmer:
Someone You Know:
Daza:
You are aware there are other countries apart from the U.S. that use the dollar sign as their currency symbol? Australia for one? The dollar sign and 'USD' are definitely necessary. If you're trying to point out the use of 'D', it's pretty common place to do so.

The symbol $ means "dollars". The D in USD means "dollars". Saying "dollars" twice is redundant. I never said it was incorrect. I never said it was not commonplace. I never said that the United States was the only country that uses the dollar sign as its currency. I only said that writing something that reads out loud as "eleven thousand dollars United States dollars" is redundant.

I'm not sure what makes you think I'm American, but I would suggest that it is generally a good idea to try to set your personal prejudices aside before reacting the way you are.
Actual the D in USD means Dollar not Dollars. It refers to the type of dollar the dollar sign is identifying. The dollar sign in $15 USD identifies the 15 as being 15 dollars. The USD identifies the dollar sign in $15 as being a U.S. dollar (or Canadian or Australian, whichever it happens to be). So I don't see any redundancy here, they are not referring to the same thing. As for the idiot who wants to snipe at Americans, WTF are you talking about? Not a single person on here even implied that the U.S. is the only country to use the dollar sign. You are just looking for an excuse to bitch about Americans. The other person is correct, you came here with your prejudices intact.

CAPTCHA = Tacos mmmmmmmmm taaaacoooos (in my best Homer Simpson voice)

The initialism USD is in practical terms an uncountable noun, in that it can refer to both US dollar and US dollars. Also, the dollar sign is an example of good practice which is needed for, for example, the currency XAU, also known as gold, where XAU100 is opaque to the layreader; gold is measured in "Trojan Ounces", named after a French town which I believe was called Troys, and 100 trojan ounces of gold is equal to slightly more than 3.11 graves (interestingly, a tonne of gold is a bit under 32170.75 troy ounces or a bit more than 35273.96 normal ounces, more properly known as imperial ounces or unciae)

As for US people thinking that only they use Dollars, I actually saw someone in Canberra trying to buy something, I do not know what, with US dollars, and I heard him claiming /[disclaimer]I am reconstructing this from memory[/disclaimer]/ "The sign says to pay in dollars and I am paying in dollars, what is wrong with you". Do not worry, Unitedstatesofamericans, there are arrogant idiots even in Australia: Some of them even tour your country meeting dignitaries under names like John Howard and Mark Latham; in fact, John Howard is just as bad as George Walker Bush in many ways (see the book Silencing Dissent) and at least George's political dog-whistle doesn't irritate my ears every second time he uses it.

2008-09-01 Reply Admin

If all they need is email and some other bits then they could probably get away with a $400 computer.

Slightly Excessive

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