The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Zecc · 2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Jerry:
Protip: Instant spam filter -- if it contains HTML, trash it.

Your password reset link is in the mail.

PiisAWheeL · 2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Zecc:
Jerry:
Protip: Instant spam filter -- if it contains HTML, trash it.
Your password reset link is in your spam folder.

FTFY

Mason Wheeler · 2012-09-07 Reply Admin

XXXXXX:
Frankly I would love to have more coworkers who can read WTF code, understand the WTF code, and be able to fix bugs or add new WTFery.

FTFY

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

operagost:
Ozz:
Joe:
Jack Boot:
We're just looking for:

Tax evaders

The "one percent". And the next one percent after them.

Romney voters

You have some duplicates there.
Not sure. Timothy Geithner fits the first two, but is probably an Obama guy.
Heck, Obama is a 1%-er, and I'm pretty sure I know who he's going to vote for.

Not to mention George Soros, and I would guess most of the Wall Street types who got bailout money from Obama.

There's a curious myth that rich people are Republicans. But surely to the extent that they vote for their own best interests, most will be Democrats. It's the Democrats who are in favor of big bailouts when a megacorporation gets in trouble; the Republicans tend to say that the market should deal with them. It's the Democrats who are in favor of "government-business partnerships", which of course always means government and BIG business -- the president doesn't call Joe's Shoe Store in Podunk and ask him to join a commission on economic planning. It's the Democrats who want lots of business regulation, which of course benefits the big guy who can afford to hire lobbyists to get the regulations tailored to suit him and for whom the cost of lawyers to comply with the regs is not a big deal. (I recall a few years back it was found that Mattel toy company was selling toys that had lead paint. There was a big scandal and the government imposed new safety regulations on toys, with a provision that companies could get a waiver if they had their own testing labs to insure their toys were safe. The first company to qualify for the waiver: Mattel.) Free markets benefit consumers and small business. Socialism benefits big business, because they're the ones who are part of the establishment making the rules.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Of course Amazon knows you're male. That's why they put sex books at the top of all your search results. I'm sure the criteria is: author matches search text OR title matches search text OR user is male and book is about sex OR user is female and book is about 'relationships'.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

TRWTF is putting NSFW content on this website.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

$$ERR:get_name_fail:
Translation of the German email:
Hello _______

For our customer ________ .NET Development [something missing] Applications.

You should have the following skills:

Programming knowledge C#

.NET Framework 3.5

WTF

Experience with Oracle databases

Stored Procedures

So "stored procedures" is the same in English and German? Odd.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Color correction monitors can do 48 bits, also 16 million colors

http://www.eizo.com/global/products/coloredge/cg276/index.html#tab02

http://quato.biz/english/IP240Excellence.php

poizan42 · 2012-09-07 Reply Admin

PiisAWheeL:
When they say 24bit color and 8 bit alpha, they mean 8 bits (0-255 possible value) for each primary color (primary as far as the computer is concerned) of RGB (Red Green Blue). The alpha value is equivilent to the brightness of the specific color. Each pixel on your 1024x768 monitor can have a seperate (32bit) value for each pixel on the screen.

No the alpha value isn't equivalent to the brightness of the specific color. The brightness is fully described by the amount of red, green and blue color - using 8 bits per channel you can e.g. get both black at (0,0,0) and white at (255,255,255).

An alpha channel is usually used when compositing images - it describes how much of the image behind that "bleeds through". It doesn't make sense for a monitor to use an alpha channel, unless they can actually make the pixels transparent, as I was trying to point out.

Now some monitors exists that can actually show more than 8 bits per channel - we call that "Deep Color". From what I know (and wikipedia agrees with me, if that is worth anything), they come in 30, 36 and 48 bit variant. No 32 bits versions. It is possible that such an esoteric monitor actually exists somewhere out there, but I seriously doubt that it makes up for 55% of the visitors. Sadly a lot of software wrongly reports 24 bits color depth as 32 bits, so that seems like a much more likely explanation.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Jeff:
I'd suggest changing your password now, Shawn.
Unless you want to be nagged by that same dialog every day for the next 18446744073709551614 days.

Their notification is so far in advance, that he'd get another one the moment he changed it.

Either way, Shawn is screwed.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Jerry:
That thing from easyJet is not an email. Email is text. Some spammer decided to send you what is, most likely, a horribly garbled web page in an email envelope. (Strike One.) You decided to open it. (Strike Two.) In a program that cheerfully does whatever spammers tell it to do, with no regard for the safety of your computer. (Strike Three.)
Protip: Instant spam filter -- if it contains HTML, trash it.

Good luck actually reading any emails then. No modern email client defaults to text. At least there will be a link (legitimate!) in text somewhere at some point.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

poizan42:
An alpha channel is usually used when compositing images - it describes how much of the image behind that "bleeds through". It doesn't make sense for a monitor to use an alpha channel, unless they can actually make the pixels transparent, as I was trying to point out.
Now some monitors exists that can actually show more than 8 bits per channel - we call that "Deep Color". From what I know (and wikipedia agrees with me, if that is worth anything), they come in 30, 36 and 48 bit variant. No 32 bits versions. It is possible that such an esoteric monitor actually exists somewhere out there, but I seriously doubt that it makes up for 55% of the visitors. Sadly a lot of software wrongly reports 24 bits color depth as 32 bits, so that seems like a much more likely explanation.

It's really even more complicated than that. The colo(u)r depth of many cheap flat panels is actually only 6 bits / channel due to cheap drive electronics. Some use dithering, spatial (patterns) or temporal (rapid flickering), to regain the lost two bits. Add to that the fact that many cheap TN panels have poor color reproduction to begin with, and you may have a large display, but not much quality to speak of. Better - alas, more expensive - displays have better drivers that have 8 actual bits per channel, and better panel technologies, such as IPS. The panel is fundamentally an analog device, so reproducing more than 8 bits per channel is possible, but requires changes in drive electronics - or dithering.

CRT displays are analog devices at the input level, so they can - theoretically - display an arbitrary number of colors. The limit in color accuracy is set again by the drive electronics, i.e. the display adapter in the computer, specifically the speed and accuracy of its D/A converters, the electron gun drivers in the display, and the cabling in between. The task is to accurately reproduce variations in voltage levels at high frequencies (for high resolutions and refresh rates), which is no easy task. AFAIK, only some specialized display adapters had a color depth of more than 8 bits per channel (not counting alpha). I remember reading about a range of display hardware that had a huge grayscale range for examining X-ray images.

I for one would regard with keen interest a monitor technology where I could set the background to all zeroes and see what's behind the monitor, yet set a terminal window's background to black, alpha 100%, and not see through it. (Background images might perhaps be fully visible to the flip side?) It would be very handy, for example, when working with a paper copy and a large screen; I could just clip the paper to the back of the screen and type away, not obscuring the screen with the paper, but vice versa.

captcha: vulputate - amputate a limb by having a fox bite it off.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Jerry:
That thing from easyJet is not an email.

Jerry:
Email is text.

Jerry:
In a program that cheerfully does whatever spammers tell it to do, with no regard for the safety of your computer.

Jerry:
if it contains HTML, trash it.

Allow me to summarize my response to those: [image]

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Das richtig WTF ist Deutschedingwortkenntnisse

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

The Insurance Agency should not make software. Why don't they learn this already. If you're not a software company, use something that's as high-level as possible (HTMl should work in most cases). If you try to make a desktop application you will most likely make a turd.

2012-09-07 Reply Admin

PiisAWheeL:
poizan42:
So how the hell can a monitor have an alpha channel? Can you see the electronics behind the pixel if it is not opaque, or something like that?
You may just be a troll but I'll bite. When refering to 24 bit color (or any of them) you are not refering to screen space or monitor technology. It is how the computer represents a color internally. When they say 24bit color and 8 bit alpha, they mean 8 bits (0-255 possible value) for each primary color (primary as far as the computer is concerned) of RGB (Red Green Blue). The alpha value is equivilent to the brightness of the specific color.

You may be a troll, but the 8 bits of "alpha" are typically just unused padding for alignment purposes. Some video cards may use them for non-standard purposes; like telling the video card to get the colour from a feature connector or some other source instead (MPEG decoder?), and in some cases it actually may be a true alpha channel (e.g. to determine how much colour should come from the alternative source).

For "32-bpp" those spare 8 bits are never an intensity flag. You might be thinking of 16-colour CGA (where the 4th bit is an intensity bit).

PiisAWheeL · 2012-09-07 Reply Admin

Brendan:
PiisAWheeL:
poizan42:
So how the hell can a monitor have an alpha channel? Can you see the electronics behind the pixel if it is not opaque, or something like that?
You may just be a troll but I'll bite. When refering to 24 bit color (or any of them) you are not refering to screen space or monitor technology. It is how the computer represents a color internally. When they say 24bit color and 8 bit alpha, they mean 8 bits (0-255 possible value) for each primary color (primary as far as the computer is concerned) of RGB (Red Green Blue). The alpha value is equivilent to the brightness of the specific color.
You may be a troll, but the 8 bits of "alpha" are typically just unused padding for alignment purposes. Some video cards may use them for non-standard purposes; like telling the video card to get the colour from a feature connector or some other source instead (MPEG decoder?), and in some cases it actually may be a true alpha channel (e.g. to determine how much colour should come from the alternative source).
For "32-bpp" those spare 8 bits are never an intensity flag. You might be thinking of 16-colour CGA (where the 4th bit is an intensity bit).

Ya it has been a while since i've bothered to look any of that up... It wont be the first time I was wrong ^__i_^

2012-09-08 Reply Admin

Bill:
Jack Boot:
We're just looking for...
You forgot Visual Basic and PHP programmers.

2012-09-08 Reply Admin

After figuring out what the taekwondo person meant by "seal", I saw it. It looks to me like "&#51344:", which isn't an HTML entity because it doesn't end in a semicolon.

2012-09-08 Reply Admin

So EasyJet sends e-mail to a former customer? How boring. Cebu Pacific is so much more interesting. Whenever anyone with an address in one particular village makes a reservation to fly from anywhere to anywhere on Cebu Pacific, Cebu Pacific sends me e-mail giving me the passenger's name, phone number, and itinerary. I wouldn't count on that getting fixed. I informed Cebu Pacific around 3 years ago.

Maurits · 2012-09-08 Reply Admin

As far as I can tell the HTML entity is supposed to be this.

좐

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/c890/index.htm

ronin · 2012-09-09 Reply Admin

A large German email and online services provider once seriously had a job advertisement looking for a network administrator with experience in BOFH and LART.

2012-09-09 Reply Admin

Conduit - increase revenue by creating a custom Community Toolbar. With a toolbar unique to your business, you'll connect and engage with your users, extend your reach, boost traffic to your site, and build brand awareness.

THEY MAKE FUCKING ADWARE, WHY ARE THEY IN THIS PAGE.

dkf · 2012-09-09 Reply Admin

ronin:
A large German email and online services provider once seriously had a job advertisement looking for a network administrator with experience in BOFH and LART.

That's actually quite cunning; anyone who can truthfully claim to know what they mean will probably do quite reasonably at the job (assuming other qualifications also present). Not a WTF at all.

2012-09-09 Reply Admin

operagost:
1999 called, it wants its rant back.

Two things:

"$YEAR called, it wants its $THING back" was toe-curlingly unfunny and unclever the first time it was used. Now it just makes you look like a tool.
If 1999 had done its job better, then people would not be making what would be considered n00b mistakes even then, and we would not need to point out their idiocy.
Yay innumeracy!

2012-09-09 Reply Admin

Brendan:
PiisAWheeL:
poizan42:
So how the hell can a monitor have an alpha channel? Can you see the electronics behind the pixel if it is not opaque, or something like that?
You may just be a troll but I'll bite. When refering to 24 bit color (or any of them) you are not refering to screen space or monitor technology. It is how the computer represents a color internally. When they say 24bit color and 8 bit alpha, they mean 8 bits (0-255 possible value) for each primary color (primary as far as the computer is concerned) of RGB (Red Green Blue). The alpha value is equivilent to the brightness of the specific color.
You may be a troll, but the 8 bits of "alpha" are typically just unused padding for alignment purposes. Some video cards may use them for non-standard purposes; like telling the video card to get the colour from a feature connector or some other source instead (MPEG decoder?), and in some cases it actually may be a true alpha channel (e.g. to determine how much colour should come from the alternative source).
For "32-bpp" those spare 8 bits are never an intensity flag. You might be thinking of 16-colour CGA (where the 4th bit is an intensity bit).

You are all trolls, but I shall bite.

The statistics quoted are those reported by the browser, which are those supplied by the operating system. The OS, for reasons of performance (think "DWORD alignment") uses 32-bit colour; and so this is what it reports to the browser, which then reports it to the server.

The monitors colour resolution does not come into it anywhere, so the whole argument is moot. (Or, if you are from the internet, mute.)

HTH.

2012-09-09 Reply Admin

Norman Diamond:
After figuring out what the taekwondo person meant by "seal", I saw it. It looks to me like "좐:", which isn't an HTML entity because it doesn't end in a semicolon.

That might be why it didnt render correctly?

Considering how lackadaisical browsers can be about enforcing valid HTML, they sure seem to be picky about numerical entity formatting.

Of course, TRWTF is browsers that encounter a broken web page and just render it anyway instead of just putting up a page that says "Error - defective website" and the site owners home telephone number.

English Man · 2012-09-10 Reply Admin

Jerry:
That thing from easyJet is not an email. Email is text.

HTML is text.

2012-09-10 Reply Admin

John Rasch smiled and rubbed his Zen Master beard. Finally, after 11 years, he had figured out a way to covertly brag about his SECOND Degree Black Belt.

2012-09-10 Reply Admin

I'm sure the criteria is: author matches search text OR title matches search text OR (user is male AND book is about sex) OR (user is female AND book is about 'relationships').

FTFY. Not to be a jerk, but because I figured it's what TDWTF would want. n'est ce pas?

2012-09-10 Reply Admin

I would totally have clicked "Other" button and written "Belgium (Dutch)". At least for the screenshot.

2012-09-10 Reply Admin

¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL:
Location (_) Belgium (French) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (_) Belgium (Dutch) (O) [__WTF__]

Man I remember seeing a Kombi that dutched out on a European holiday....

2012-09-11 Reply Admin

My best guess is that it says: 'for our customer we're looking for a .NET Developer".

Entwickler > Enwicklung WHERE CONTEXT == 'JOB DESCRIPTION'

2012-09-11 Reply Admin

I can see how a German recruiter on the phone with a hiring client could pick up "WCF" as "WTF", considering the German pronunciation of the letters C and T.

CAPTCHA: damnum - "Damnum stuck up Northerners!"

The Great Lobachevsky · 2012-09-11 Reply Admin

Maurits:
As far as I can tell the HTML entity is supposed to be this.
좐

http://www.fileformat.info/info/unicode/char/c890/index.htm

좐 = John. The top left character is the J sound, the top right character is an "ah" sound, and the bottom character is the "n" sound.

2012-09-12 Reply Admin

consequat:
Good luck actually reading any emails then. No modern email client defaults to text.

Last time I looked, Thunderbird and SeaMonkey will autoconvert your HTML message to plain text if it looks safe to do so. There are actually levels of safety, so for instance PRE and BLOCKQUOTE are safest, things like OL trigger a warning (because they will get converted to static text), and other stuff triggers a dire warning (but you can still force the message to send as text).

CAPTCHA: A ratis typing this for me.

2012-09-12 Reply Admin

Safari uses the Webkit Template Framework.

Not to be confused with the Mozilla Framework Based on Templates, of course.

2012-09-12 Reply Admin

The 16777216-bit monitor is probably that new type of monitor, called an LSD-monitor. It's exactly like the drug of the same acronym.

2012-09-14 Reply Admin

The EasyJet one is not a WTF. Just in line with company policy: You have to pay extra to get the opt-out link.

GalacticCowboy · 2012-09-19 Reply Admin

Clearly, the operative word in the password-change message was "within".

2012-10-10 Reply Admin

While I hate Safari, I have it installed on my Windows box so I can test web apps for cross-browser compatibility.

2012-10-16 Reply Admin

Incidentally, 2^24 = 16,777,216. Clearly, this should just be added to the 24-bit category.

2012-12-17 Reply Admin

The Forms dialog... Looks like the BCeSIS used in schools in British Columbia, that teachers complained about

Sponsor Appreciation, 16777216 Bits of Color, and More Error'd

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