The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

Zylon · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Robb:
Wait they make NON-suppository pills? No wonder why the room clears when I take my multi-vitamin.

Don't feed the troll. Troll-feeders are why we can't have nice things.

C-Octothorpe · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Zylon:
Robb:
Wait they make NON-suppository pills? No wonder why the room clears when I take my multi-vitamin.
Don't feed the troll. Troll-feeders are why we can't have nice things.

Sounds like a serious question to me...

frits · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Zylon:
Troll-feeders are why we have any comments at all.

FTFY (in a meta-way).

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

I do say our Chris Paul Peterson is quite the busy bee!! I just wish I could find where his desk his and tell him other people are changing his work.

Justice · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

trtrwtf:
xzhang:
I think the first one. Many stories end up on here about how men suck at technology, but I don't think I've ever seen a comment here about guys being dumb that is similar to the one further up the page about girls being dumb. Yet almost every time such ignorance is committed by women and ends up being posted here, there is someone who comments categorically that women as a whole are deficient in this area in comparison to men.
Also IT folk usually being men is a restriction imposed by the stereotype that women suck at technology. There may well be female IT folk who dwell in basements and never speak to anyone of the opposite sex too. So then the second stereotype becomes about IT folk in general. And let's face it, there's plenty of those particular stereotypes around. Us IT folk are also supposed to be caffeine addicted super hackers who wear sunglasses indoors, I'm sure.

I've been hearing a lot about women in technology in the last century. The girlfiend is writing a thesis on the subject - and I can tell you that according to her research there has never been a time in the history of modern computing when women have not made up a significant minority of the IT workforce. The basement-dwelling mouthbreather stereoype, as far as I can tell, comes mostly out of MIT in the late 70s/early 80s, and more generally from the academic preference for male professors. There have always been plenty of women writing code in industry, and this is not hard to document, through journal articles and conference presentation rosters.

The reasons for the academic preference for male professors are surprising and interesting, and I'll try to make the full thesis available when it's finished if anyone wants the details.

(Hint: it's not the patriarchy out to keep the sisters down)

It has something to do with beards, I assume. Or an assumption that male undergrads would be too distracted by women professors.

Seriously though, I would be interested in seeing the thesis, or at least a summary, when it's done. Here's hoping to see it in the side bar.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Article:
An endless stream of fresh-faced youth marched into Stan's office and back out again. A week later, two young and aggressively female assets joined the team.

I wonder what'it'd be like to shine a blacklight in that office. Talk about an endless stream!

C-Octothorpe · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

She blinded me, with SCIENCE!!! (and her boobies)

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Given those choices, John configured a rule that would automatically forward web tickets to the appropriate team.

As oppose to explaining the difference to «"assets"»?

(First?)

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

P:
Given those choices, John configured a rule that would automatically forward web tickets to the appropriate team.

As oppose to explaining the difference to «"assets"»?

(First?)

That strange. Ignore - last line - when I clicked 'All Comments' none appeared.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
Jockamo:
And you nerds wonder why you continue to be single...
I wonder which stereotype is more widespread: 1) That women suck at technology or 2) That IT folk (usually men) are all basement-dwelling mouth-breathers that have never spoken to a person of the opposite sex.

Really. My bedroom is, and always has been, on the 2nd floor, down the hall from Mom's. And once in 3rd grade I spoke to Suzie Martin, but she didn't answer me back.

CAPTCHA: damnum. Out, out, damnum!

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Some damn Yank:
C-Octothorpe:
Jockamo:
And you nerds wonder why you continue to be single...
I wonder which stereotype is more widespread: 1) That women suck at technology or 2) That IT folk (usually men) are all basement-dwelling mouth-breathers that have never spoken to a person of the opposite sex.
Really. My bedroom is, and always has been, on the 2nd floor, down the hall from Mom's. And once in 3rd grade I spoke to Suzie Martin, but she didn't answer me back.

That must be so lonely for you, all by yourself down the hall, boo-hoo! You wish you could have it as nice as me - I get to sleep in my mom's bed, ever since dad passed (God rest his soul). She says it's comforting to be with me since I look and smell like him and all - and I inherited his *gifts*. It's good for me too as I always wanted a girl like mom... well, I guess I found an easy to fulfill that requirement!

Enjoy sleeping alone ;P

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

z00n3s!$:
dad passed

I'm assuming not of diarrhea poisoning?

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

boog:
z00n3s!$:
dad passed
I'm assuming not of diarrhea poisoning?

Do you really want to know the dark, horrifying TRUTH!?!?!

Or do you just want be say he fucked with the wrong beaver? (if you know what I mean)

hatterson · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

neener neener:
strictnein:
Interviewed with a company a while back that had more VPs and "Managing Directors" than normal employees. At the time the company had ~50 employees, and only 20 of them had "normal" job titles.
This sounds a lot like my current employer. When I started, there were about 50 employees across the company, 30 of which had Director, VP, or C-level titles. Now, we're almost 200 employees, with about 150 Director, VP, or C-level titles.
Sadly, I'm not one of them. :(

So what you're saying is that since you started a full 80% of new employees have either been hired at a level above you or have been promoted to a level above you?

You just might be the canary in the coal mine.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

hatterson:
So what you're saying is that since you started a full 80% of new employees have either been hired at a level above you or have been promoted to a level above you?
You just might be the canary in the coal mine.

Or, he just hasn't figured out how to snag one of those faux-titles.

When I started at this company, the progression was General Manager -> Manager -> Supervisor. It's now President -> Senior VP -> VP -> Senior Director -> Director -> Senior Manager -> Manager -> Supervisor. (And yes, we're grown over the years, but not seven layers of management grown.)

I don't have the fancy title, but I report to a Director who reports to the President. And I find in practical terms, the number of bounces between you and The Big Boss is a far more accurate indicator of your heft in the company. (The number of people below you helps too, but that comes with a lot more headaches.)

Nagesh · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

Did there parents aprove of such unions?

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

When I read the tile, I was looking for a good old fashioned Boys vs Girl argument again.... :(

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Jenna:
When I read the tile, I was looking for a good old fashioned Boys vs Girl argument again.... :(

OOPS....Should've read more than the first few lines before posting....This should be good!!

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

strictnein:
Stan was a nice enough co-worker, but a promotion to VP doesn't mean much to a company that hands out promotions like glowsticks at a rave. Stan was now the 4th VP in the 30 person company.

Interviewed with a company a while back that had more VPs and "Managing Directors" than normal employees. At the time the company had ~50 employees, and only 20 of them had "normal" job titles.

You must tell me where this place is that hires any normal employees? I've never yet met one.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

trtrwtf:
For all the well-justified facepalming going on at "it was marked with your initials", this does point out that sometimes you do have to train people. These girls are not just pairs of boobs, they are now co-workers, and investing a bit of time in explaining the technology will probably pay off. It's fun to make fun of the stupid people, and I do that too, but if you treat people as though they're capable of understanding things, and you take the time to help them understand things, they often end up understanding them. And then they're not stupid people any more, they're co-workers who can make your life easier. And because you took some time to help them do their jobs well, they're motivated to help you do your job well.
I know this site isn't about serious answers to serious issues, but really, until you take the time to get someone up and running, you have no grounds to complain that they can't do the job right.

(one of the best tech support people that I know has an awesome rack and a fiendish mind for math - these are not mutually exclusive)

Nonetheless, you do have to wonder how anyone can think it might be a good idea to hire people on the service desk who don't even know/understand (reasonably common) file extensions...

I guess when they said "...never had a D- in the classroom..." they didn't specify that they'd actually taken any classes that might somehow qualify them to think they know something about IT...

Non-Technical people on the servicedesk make life difficult, but Technical people on the service desk often make life harder (if they don't move on very quickly), because they either speculate on cause (rather than giving the raw facts as reported) or they attempt to fix things they have no business touching. Sadly, 1st Tier servicedesk really needs to be a simple triage that refers issues to appropriate groups without doing too much thinking (and perhaps resets a password or 17).

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
Jockamo:
And you nerds wonder why you continue to be single...
I wonder which stereotype is more widespread: 1) That women suck at technology or 2) That IT folk (usually men) are all basement-dwelling mouth-breathers that have never spoken to a person of the opposite sex.

You sexist pig, you mustn't imply that anyone even thinks that women are technically inept. On the otherhand, it's true we are all somewhere between "Comic book guy" and "Professor Frink"

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Simon Richard Clarkstone:
I have the ^^obvious username and nickname at work. I have also had Ubuntu's installer object to the username.

Some_Dick_Clarkson?

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Remy Porter:
A week later, two young and aggressively female assets joined the team.

Given the title and the tone of the text immediately following this statement, I didn't know if this was referring to one young woman or two.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Justice:
trtrwtf:
xzhang:
I think the first one. Many stories end up on here about how men suck at technology, but I don't think I've ever seen a comment here about guys being dumb that is similar to the one further up the page about girls being dumb. Yet almost every time such ignorance is committed by women and ends up being posted here, there is someone who comments categorically that women as a whole are deficient in this area in comparison to men.
Also IT folk usually being men is a restriction imposed by the stereotype that women suck at technology. There may well be female IT folk who dwell in basements and never speak to anyone of the opposite sex too. So then the second stereotype becomes about IT folk in general. And let's face it, there's plenty of those particular stereotypes around. Us IT folk are also supposed to be caffeine addicted super hackers who wear sunglasses indoors, I'm sure.

I've been hearing a lot about women in technology in the last century. The girlfiend is writing a thesis on the subject - and I can tell you that according to her research there has never been a time in the history of modern computing when women have not made up a significant minority of the IT workforce. The basement-dwelling mouthbreather stereoype, as far as I can tell, comes mostly out of MIT in the late 70s/early 80s, and more generally from the academic preference for male professors. There have always been plenty of women writing code in industry, and this is not hard to document, through journal articles and conference presentation rosters.

The reasons for the academic preference for male professors are surprising and interesting, and I'll try to make the full thesis available when it's finished if anyone wants the details.

(Hint: it's not the patriarchy out to keep the sisters down)

It has something to do with beards, I assume. Or an assumption that male undergrads would be too distracted by women professors.

Seriously though, I would be interested in seeing the thesis, or at least a summary, when it's done. Here's hoping to see it in the side bar.

By Jove, I think you have it. People associate Beards with wisdom - noone wants to be taught by the bearded lady....

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Obligatory xkcd

Piss off akismet

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

z00n3s!$:
Article:
An endless stream of fresh-faced youth marched into Stan's office and back out again. A week later, two young and aggressively female assets joined the team.
I wonder what'it'd be like to shine a blacklight in that office. Talk about an endless stream!

Contrarily to what Fred Brooks thinks, you really can grow a baby in two weeks if you put enough people at it. Hell, you can even grow two twenty-something attractive ladies in two weeks.

Matt Westwood · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

C-Octothorpe:
Jockamo:
And you nerds wonder why you continue to be single...
I wonder which stereotype is more widespread: 1) That women suck at technology or 2) That IT folk (usually men) are all basement-dwelling mouth-breathers that have never spoken to a person of the opposite sex.

opposite ... he said "sex" (snigger)

Matt Westwood · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

z00n3s!$:
C-Octothorpe:
The first rule of TDWTF: you never explain the jokes...
The second rule of TDWTF: YOU NEVER EXPLAIN THE JOKES!!!

... off to take my meds now ...
I wonder... if you inserted your pills like a suppository (or ate a suppository) would it have the opposite effect?

Doctor, I took all the suppositories you gave me, and for all the good they did me, I might as well have just rammed them up my arse.

Matt Westwood · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Dumbledore:
Justice:
trtrwtf:
xzhang:
I think the first one. Many stories end up on here about how men suck at technology, but I don't think I've ever seen a comment here about guys being dumb that is similar to the one further up the page about girls being dumb. Yet almost every time such ignorance is committed by women and ends up being posted here, there is someone who comments categorically that women as a whole are deficient in this area in comparison to men.
Also IT folk usually being men is a restriction imposed by the stereotype that women suck at technology. There may well be female IT folk who dwell in basements and never speak to anyone of the opposite sex too. So then the second stereotype becomes about IT folk in general. And let's face it, there's plenty of those particular stereotypes around. Us IT folk are also supposed to be caffeine addicted super hackers who wear sunglasses indoors, I'm sure.

I've been hearing a lot about women in technology in the last century. The girlfiend is writing a thesis on the subject - and I can tell you that according to her research there has never been a time in the history of modern computing when women have not made up a significant minority of the IT workforce. The basement-dwelling mouthbreather stereoype, as far as I can tell, comes mostly out of MIT in the late 70s/early 80s, and more generally from the academic preference for male professors. There have always been plenty of women writing code in industry, and this is not hard to document, through journal articles and conference presentation rosters.

The reasons for the academic preference for male professors are surprising and interesting, and I'll try to make the full thesis available when it's finished if anyone wants the details.

(Hint: it's not the patriarchy out to keep the sisters down)

It has something to do with beards, I assume. Or an assumption that male undergrads would be too distracted by women professors.

Seriously though, I would be interested in seeing the thesis, or at least a summary, when it's done. Here's hoping to see it in the side bar.
By Jove, I think you have it. People associate Beards with wisdom - noone wants to be taught by the bearded lady....

What rubbish. It's quite simple. Ask any woman, they'll tell you men think with their balls. Women don't got no balls, therefore they can't fucking think. No quack.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Right, move over, kids. Give it to me, I'll sort it out, I'm the only one round here who can program worth a holy damn, to be sure.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Yeesh, so sensitive. That's the problem with women, they think everything's pitched against them when the truth is that it's all in their heads and they actually have the advantage, if anything. If they'd just shut up and quit whining it'd all go away.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

frits:
ParkinT:
It sounds like Stan hired a couple of Weakly Trained Females based solely on their ASSets.
More like their tit-sets.

I can't believe you missed:

It sounds like Stan hired a couple of Weakly Trained Females based solely on their TITular ASSets.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

FOAR:
trtrwtf:
For all the well-justified facepalming going on at "it was marked with your initials", this does point out that sometimes you do have to train people. These girls are not just pairs of boobs, they are now co-workers, and investing a bit of time in explaining the technology will probably pay off. It's fun to make fun of the stupid people, and I do that too, but if you treat people as though they're capable of understanding things, and you take the time to help them understand things, they often end up understanding them. And then they're not stupid people any more, they're co-workers who can make your life easier. And because you took some time to help them do their jobs well, they're motivated to help you do your job well.
I know this site isn't about serious answers to serious issues, but really, until you take the time to get someone up and running, you have no grounds to complain that they can't do the job right.

(one of the best tech support people that I know has an awesome rack and a fiendish mind for math - these are not mutually exclusive)
Nonetheless, you do have to wonder how anyone can think it might be a good idea to hire people on the service desk who don't even know/understand (reasonably common) file extensions...

I guess when they said "...never had a D- in the classroom..." they didn't specify that they'd actually taken any classes that might somehow qualify them to think they know something about IT...

Whatever - they're there now. Do you (a) help them learn what they need to learn to do the job so they can at least not cause damage, and, in time become useful

or

(b) sit around and bitch about how much the world sucks?

If you picked (b), congratulations, you're going to get to do a lot of bitching in the hell that will be the rest of your life.

lucidfox · 2011-09-27 Reply Admin

Oh, and as always, mention women in a WTF story and suddenly the comments are filled with stereotypes. Good to know there are some constants on this site.

http://xkcd.com/385/

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

lucidfox:
Oh, and as always, mention women in a WTF story and suddenly the comments are filled with stereotypes. Good to know there are some constants on this site.
http://xkcd.com/385/

And the ultimate anti-stereotype has arrived.

2011-09-27 Reply Admin

FFS:
lucidfox:
Oh, and as always, mention women in a WTF story and suddenly the comments are filled with stereotypes. Good to know there are some constants on this site.
http://xkcd.com/385/
And the ultimate anti-stereotype has arrived.

In line with "Anon"'s post above...

Is the world portrayed in that xkcd how it is, or is it how women perceive the world to be?

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

lucidfox:
Oh, and as always, mention women in a WTF story and suddenly the comments are filled with stereotypes. Good to know there are some constants on this site.
http://xkcd.com/385/

There are always stereotypes in the comments on this site. Naturally, you would only notice them if they concern women, gays or Russians (only 1 of which ever comes up....).

Other stereotypes you might not have noticed, included various other ethnicities, programmers who use certain languages, people who haven't completed tertiary studies, people who have completed tertiary studies, managers, Code Monkeys, Help Desk operators (oh...) etc...

If you where dark sunglasses when you read this site, it will appear dark. If you really hate how dark it appears, either take your tinted sunnies of, or stop visiting. I doubt you have any chance of changing attitudes on this site, and I'm almost certain that voting with your feet would be more effective if you indeed think your opinion makes much of a difference. OTOH, feel free to stay here and provide some of your usual entertainment...

Severity One · 2011-09-28 Reply Admin

ParkinT:
It sounds like Stan hired a couple of Weakly Trained Females based solely on their ASSets.

Actually, no, the text clearly states so:

The kind with a well stacked resume.

Severity One · 2011-09-28 Reply Admin

APÃƒâ€šÃ‚Â²:
Super hackers are the guys from TV who assemble viruses using 3D cubes while listening to shitty techno.

Sorry, but what do you have against writing code using 3D cubes? I write all my code using Maya, so that you know.

Watson · 2011-09-28 Reply Admin

Justice:
It has something to do with beards, I assume.

Sometimes what is just another advertisement for shaving utensils in one country can be bought in another as pornography.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

This writes like John S is just jealous that he did not get that promotion.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

trtrwtf:
For all the well-justified facepalming going on at "it was marked with your genitals"

That's how I first read it.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

If we could invent a power station which ran on stupidity, there would be a never-ending supply of clean and cheap energy. :)

(Until some muppet flicked the wrong switch of course)

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

Did there parents aprove of such unions?

stop to be defiling my good name matterhorn! To hak my acount and change pasword being wors than beefstake-eating! Where univercity are you being in?

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Nagesh:
Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

Did there parents aprove of such unions?
stop to be defiling my good name matterhorn! To hak my acount and change pasword being wors than beefstake-eating! Where univercity are you being in?

Friends, real Nagesh's funning to stop. Have you wondering why he not has posted some time? This is very sad situation: He take long struggle with dysentery and died of much diarrhea food poisioning. He has wife and 16 childs who are missing his provision and in bear feet on the streets.

Please be sparing his good name from abuse further.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

More companies should hire college grads. My first company I worked for was almost all recent college grads with a demanding CEO that didn't sit in his ivory tower. The people there were a lot more talented and hardworking than the experienced slubs I work with now that expect 100K for no responsibility. Yes, I am one of those slubs now, the pays better, certainly not the work though. I can feel my coding skills growing weaker.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

We always looked forward to the summer interns. Hot days meant little clothing, and we made sure to keep the AC on full blast, wink, wink. Lots of company pool parties and picnics, too.

Nagesh · 2011-09-28 Reply Admin

Siva(Troll):
Nagesh(faker):
Nagesh:
Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

Did there parents aprove of such unions?
stop to be defiling my good name matterhorn! To hak my acount and change pasword being wors than beefstake-eating! Where univercity are you being in?
Friends, real Nagesh's funning to stop. Have you wondering why he not has posted some time? This is very sad situation: He take long struggle with dysentery and died of much diarrhea food poisioning. He has wife and 16 childs who are missing his provision and in bear feet on the streets.

Please be sparing his good name from abuse further.

I have become like troll magnate.

2011-09-28 Reply Admin

Nagesh:
Siva(Troll):
Nagesh(faker):
Nagesh:
Sectoid Dev:
At one of my old jobs, we had a newly created customer support team that consisted completely of attractive twenty-something women. The guy who hired them was a real pig of a human being, so it didn't surprise me much. Most of them eventually learned how to do their job since there was no lack of engineers wanting to impress them with their knownledge. It worked out well in that it lightened up a very male nerd heavy environment and a couple of the more socialable engineers married some of the customer support women.

Did there parents aprove of such unions?
stop to be defiling my good name matterhorn! To hak my acount and change pasword being wors than beefstake-eating! Where univercity are you being in?
Friends, real Nagesh's funning to stop. Have you wondering why he not has posted some time? This is very sad situation: He take long struggle with dysentery and died of much diarrhea food poisioning. He has wife and 16 childs who are missing his provision and in bear feet on the streets.

Please be sparing his good name from abuse further.

I have become like troll magnate.

Then why don't you tell them to do something? The url above is to the definition of "magnate" but Askimet is going to try to make me spoil the joke.

The New Hire's a Bust

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