• (cs)

    This the (1,3)[frist] comment. Come and see in a few minutes more sensible entry.

  • lost (unregistered)

    at 2:01AM I have to change the status of this ticket back to "under investigation"

  • (cs)

    tl;dr: If "some lady" has a vague problem, then "some lady" can ok the fix.

  • (cs) in reply to RichP
    RichP:
    tl;dr: If "some lady" has a vague problem, then "some lady" can ok the fix.
    Yes, and the intern herself might well qualify as "some lady". Sorted.
  • Meta-commentator (unregistered)

    The real wtf is all the HTML code entries you have on the POS entry. Seriously. Why use 5 characters when one will do.

  • (cs)

    Ummm... why did she keep referring to him by the ticket number?

  • Bob (unregistered)

    It was an intelligence test. She was supposed to automate the update. She failed. That's why they didn't offer her a permanent position.

  • (cs) in reply to Zylon

    The entire article is an extended homage to Les Miserables, in which Jean Valjean is consistently referred to as "prisoner 24601".

  • (cs)

    The real wtf is idiots who won't let you close out tickets that are just wasting space. He should have done it anyways. He's a consultant, remember?

  • Anon (unregistered)

    Updating the same ticket to the same status at the same time every day. If only there were some magical way to do this automatically... but until that magical discovery we'll do it manually, every night!

  • Lothario (unregistered)

    TRWTF is opening a ticket without capturing the user who is experiencing the issue.

  • Rick (unregistered)

    Situations like this is why bug tracking systems differentiate between the "Resolved" and "Closed" statuses. In this case, I would have marked it "Resolved" and let them try to track down the user to verify that it's fixed.

    That, or just let the bug pop up as Critical. I bet their boss would be willing to close the bug rather than look bad in front of his boss.

  • (cs) in reply to sinistral
    sinistral:
    The entire article is an extended homage to Les Miserables, in which Jean Valjean is consistently referred to as "prisoner 24601".
    And to the number 9.45620096744035, surely.
  • (cs)

    I'd follow the example of [probably apocryphal] tales from aircraft defect reports, e.g.

    "Problem: something loose in cockpit" "Solution: something tightened in cockpit"

    Which I think he kind of did.

  • what a strange story (unregistered) in reply to Bob
    Bob:
    It was an intelligence test. She was supposed to automate the update. She failed. That's why they didn't offer her a permanent position.
    just what I was thinking - You'd think Matt would have asked her why she didn't just do that
  • A developer (unregistered)

    That stupid college intern will make a great manager!

  • (cs)

    Based on my experience with ticketing systems, automating the update would have been extremely difficult or impossible. But then again, I've only used "enterprise" ticketing software. You know the kind- it barely friggin' works and if you look at the underlying data structures the wrong way the entire thing breaks down until you pay a technician $30,000 to come out for 48 hours and fix it.

    The last time I suggested we automate some ticket workflows, I was told that no developers were allowed to invoke the ticket system's web services, because there was absolutely no guarantee that any of the methods would work.

  • (cs)

    If the button that some user pressed was the Enter key that submitted that ticket, it looks like something bad actually did happen.

  • QJo (unregistered)

    An excellent yarn. Vintage stuff. Everything you ever need: a thwarted love-interest, a madwoman, a Process from Hell - delightful. Cheered up a tedious Monday.

  • (cs)

    Everyone's assuming that the student was allowed to run scripts or something. Remember - where there's one idiot policy, there's sure to be others.

  • Foo Bar (unregistered) in reply to RichP

    Exactly. TRWTF is the ticket itself, but a secondary WTF is that these two people didn't see the solution and determine that the issue could be closed.

  • (cs) in reply to Kushan

    Hah. Also a good catch. I know in my office, interns are not allowed to code anything.

  • Al H. (unregistered) in reply to Quango

    Another airplane complaint: "number 2 engine missing."

    Resolution: "number 2 engine discovered on right wing."

  • Robbert (unregistered) in reply to Kushan

    She was logging in from home. She could still run a script on her own computer that just blindly clicked where the buttons should be. If I had to do that every single night at 2AM I wouldn't care how ugly the solution is, I'd just be happy that I could sleep.

  • Some Damn Yank (unregistered) in reply to Lothario
    Lothario:
    TRWTF is opening a ticket without capturing the user who is experiencing the issue.
    I've never seen a system that lets you enter a ticket without identifying yourself. I call foul on this one, it's unbelievable.
  • Bring Back TopCod3r (unregistered) in reply to Robbert
    Robbert:
    She was logging in from home. She could still run a script on her own computer that just blindly clicked where the buttons should be. If I had to do that every single night at 2AM I wouldn't care how ugly the solution is, I'd just be happy that I could sleep.

    That would be far from straightforward. Presumably she would be running remote desktop through a VPN. She would have to log in manually anyway using Secure ID or similar. So it wouldn't save her getting out of bed.

  • David (unregistered) in reply to Some Damn Yank

    I think the ticket is being filed on someone else's behalf.

  • emaNrouY-Here (unregistered)

    "Why did it take you eight months to help this user?"

    Answer: It took me eight months to determine who "Some User" was.

  • Mr.Bob (unregistered)

    Boss: "Hey, we've got this critical ticket on the report that's over a year old!"

    You: "Yeah, I closed it this morning. It was cruft from a useless bug report that ended up being a dead end."

    --If you work with mindless automatons controlled by spreadsheets, turn to page 2-- --If you work with thinking people, turn to page 3--

    Page 2: Boss: "But, the report says it is critical! We can't have that!" You: "Good. It won't be on tomorrow's report, because now it's 'resolved'."

    Page 3: Boss: "Ok." You: "Yes. Yes it is. Now, where's that minx of an intern that was here earlier?"

    -The end.

  • Some Damn Yank (unregistered) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    Hah. Also a good catch. I know in my office, interns are not allowed to code anything.
    Interns are often allowed to do lots of real-world things. As an intern at General Motors, in my very first assignment out of high school, I designed a steel frame to hold a cyanide scrubber on the roof of a factory.

    Then again, years later in data center stint all I did was load paper into the line printers and tapes on the IBM 2401 tape drives. Every department is different.

  • (cs) in reply to Lothario
    Lothario:
    TRWTF is opening a ticket without capturing the user who is experiencing the issue.

    no kidding. he should have either re-assigned it to the IT desk, or set the status to "On Hold."

  • (cs)

    Put a note on the ticket explaining the problem and assign it to the boss, encourage him to promote it up the line until it gets to whoever is responsible for this abomination.

  • (cs) in reply to Remy Porter
    Remy Porter:
    Hah. Also a good catch. I know in my office, interns are not allowed to code anything.

    that is odd. in our workspace, we make interns do all the work and give them back-rubs to speed their work.

  • syskill (unregistered) in reply to Loren Pechtel
    Loren Pechtel:
    Put a note on the ticket explaining the problem and assign it to the boss, encourage him to promote it up the line until it gets to whoever is responsible for this abomination.

    Yeah, that oughta work, because everyone knows that s**t rolls uphill. Oh, no, wait.

  • (cs)

    Intern: Meet BOFH. Bzerrrt. FTFY!

  • (cs)

    I call foul on this too, but for the opposite reason. Every ticketing system I've worked with has a way to reject a bad ticket. On several occasions I've bounced a ticket back to someone for not containing enough information to enable me to do anything useful with it, and I find it difficult to believe that their system wouldn't have the same capability...

  • Bring Back TopCod3r (unregistered) in reply to Mason Wheeler
    Mason Wheeler:
    I call foul on this too, but for the opposite reason. Every ticketing system I've worked with has a way to reject a bad ticket. On several occasions I've bounced a ticket back to someone for not containing enough information to enable me to do anything useful with it, and I find it difficult to believe that their system wouldn't have the same capability...

    Typically these systems are highly customisable (I worked somewhere once where it was so customised the vendor said they could no longer support it).

    So it all it requires is some PHB to have a ticket of his rejected, prompting him (or her) to introduce a new policy of not rejecting tickets, and getting the system changed to enforce this.

  • (cs)

    Our ticket system is better than that, we use it so we know how much work we do. More places should do that.

  • Daniel (unregistered)

    I think this should be more floridly written. It's not quite florid enough.

  • Daniel (unregistered)

    I think this should be more floridly written. It's not quite florid enough.

  • Daniel (unregistered) in reply to Daniel

    Also I think I shouldn't accidentally doubleclick on the submit button.

    Sorry 'bout that.

  • Calli Arcale (unregistered) in reply to Bring Back TopCod3r
    Bring Back TopCod3r:
    Robbert:
    She was logging in from home. She could still run a script on her own computer that just blindly clicked where the buttons should be. If I had to do that every single night at 2AM I wouldn't care how ugly the solution is, I'd just be happy that I could sleep.

    That would be far from straightforward. Presumably she would be running remote desktop through a VPN. She would have to log in manually anyway using Secure ID or similar. So it wouldn't save her getting out of bed.

    You could fix that too, by aiming a webcam at the SecureID fob and getting OCR software to read the code off of it.

    Or, knowing that the report doesn't run until 5AM, get up at 4:45, click the button, then get on with your day. ;-)

  • txteva (unregistered) in reply to Some Damn Yank

    Hardly unbelievable - generic tickets that can be logged with the site or office name rather than an individual.

  • Bruce W (unregistered) in reply to Daniel
    Daniel:
    Also I think I shouldn't accidentally doubleclick on the submit button.

    Sorry 'bout that.

    Did you log a ticket about clicking on some button somewhere?

  • Bring Back TopCod3r (unregistered) in reply to Calli Arcale
    Calli Arcale:
    Bring Back TopCod3r:
    Robbert:
    She was logging in from home. She could still run a script on her own computer that just blindly clicked where the buttons should be. If I had to do that every single night at 2AM I wouldn't care how ugly the solution is, I'd just be happy that I could sleep.

    That would be far from straightforward. Presumably she would be running remote desktop through a VPN. She would have to log in manually anyway using Secure ID or similar. So it wouldn't save her getting out of bed.

    You could fix that too, by aiming a webcam at the SecureID fob and getting OCR software to read the code off of it.

    Or, knowing that the report doesn't run until 5AM, get up at 4:45, click the button, then get on with your day. ;-)

  • Bring Back TopCod3r (unregistered) in reply to Calli Arcale
    Calli Arcale:
    Bring Back TopCod3r:
    Robbert:
    She was logging in from home. She could still run a script on her own computer that just blindly clicked where the buttons should be. If I had to do that every single night at 2AM I wouldn't care how ugly the solution is, I'd just be happy that I could sleep.

    That would be far from straightforward. Presumably she would be running remote desktop through a VPN. She would have to log in manually anyway using Secure ID or similar. So it wouldn't save her getting out of bed.

    You could fix that too, by aiming a webcam at the SecureID fob and getting OCR software to read the code off of it.

    Or, knowing that the report doesn't run until 5AM, get up at 4:45, click the button, then get on with your day. ;-)

    The webcam solution could work. Presumable the fob would be placed on a wooden table.

  • katastrofa (unregistered) in reply to Some Damn Yank
    Some Damn Yank:
    Interns are often allowed to do lots of real-world things. As an intern at General Motors, in my very first assignment out of high school, I designed a steel frame to hold a cyanide scrubber on the roof of a factory.

    Then again, years later in data center stint all I did was load paper into the line printers and tapes on the IBM 2401 tape drives. Every department is different.

    A: "Hey boss, remember this guy who designed years ago this cyanide scrubber which didn't work? He's coming to work for us now." B: "Oh great. Well, better keep him away from anything important."

  • Javert (unregistered)

    You closed that ticket? I am the law and the law is not mocked.

  • BillClintonIsTheMan (unregistered) in reply to Nagesh
    Nagesh:
    Remy Porter:
    Hah. Also a good catch. I know in my office, interns are not allowed to code anything.

    that is odd. in our workspace, we make interns do all the work and give them back-rubs to speed their work.

    Are you David Letterman?

  • HowItWorks (unregistered)

    Using View Source, I was able to read "...The Rest of The Story" (tm Paul Harvey).

    In IE the displayed article ends "a regular Critical ticket was bad enough,". After that is an html comment that doesn't terminate, thus hiding the story's conclusion.

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