• Anonymouse (unregistered)

    As a statistics fan, I would be devastated if some e-commerce site wouldn't let me browse my order history for orders older than 25 years.

  • Quicksilver (unregistered)

    Where is the wtf?

  • Smug Unix User (unregistered) in reply to Quicksilver

    It is using PHP. 25+ year old records show the stability of your company. I for one prefer utilizing a system with some stability.

  • (cs)

    Crikey, I'd forgotten about Sculptor. Around about the time I started forgetting about QNX and DOS... you still out there, Brad?

    And now with mobile!

    The Sculptor client is available for handheld computers such as PDA's and Mobile phones running versions of the Windows Mobile (Windows CE). Sculptor programs on these devices work in client/server mode to a Sculptor server on Windows or Unix over a LAN or the Internet.
  • (cs)

    I guess the WTF is how things too often seem more important by virtue of loss, regardless of the value of what is being lost.

    I have to say though, someone needs to hurry up and find or make some rediculously silly code fast... or I might have to start making my own WTFs just to get my fix.

  • (cs) in reply to Smug Unix User
    Smug Unix User:
    It is using PHP. 25+ year old records show the stability of your company. I for one prefer utilizing a system with some stability.

    I guess they wanted something to boast about in commercials. Hope they didn't already pay to have them aired.

  • Sebastian Buchannon (unregistered)

    "Well, stammered before looking as though a cinder block had been dropped on his head."

    So suddenly blood bursted from his crushed eye sockets and bits of brain dribbled down his chin? That's the real WTF for that to happen during a 7am meeting.

  • Sebastian Buchannon (unregistered) in reply to Some Jerk
    Some Jerk:
    I guess the WTF is how things too often seem more important by virtue of loss, regardless of the value of what is being lost.

    I have to say though, someone needs to hurry up and find or make some rediculously silly code fast... or I might have to start making my own WTFs just to get my fix.

    the guid thing from yesterday

  • Mark Donoghue (unregistered)

    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System = WHORE

    Surely a made up name?

  • (cs)

    This isn't a WTF. It's more like chicken soup for the "perfectly understaffed" developer's soul.

    Btw did he end up buying donuts for the staff after all?

  • Some Jerk (unregistered)

    Much like Richard, I also learn much about work tasks by wikipeding them.

  • (cs)

    Here it would be, "they just do!" After it's done you check the logs and not a single person has ever used it.

  • (cs) in reply to Sebastian Buchannon
    Sebastian Buchannon:
    the guid thing from yesterday
    ... was pretty friggin boring.
  • (cs)

    In August 1987:

    • I got my first car. On 6th August to be precise, which is why, to this day, that remains my insurance-renewal date.

    • I was working for an awful life insurance company called General Portfolio. I came in as a Maths graduate but was treated lesser than a kid with nothing but poor CSEs because his dad was more important to the company than mine.

    • Michael Jackson topped the UK chart with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", a duet with Seidah Garrett. This was the lead single off his new album "Bad". It replaced "La Bamba" by Los Lobos at number one.

    • The Hungerford massacre - this happened on 19 August 1987 so next Monday will be 25 years exactly.

  • (cs)

    I don't get it... If nobody ever accessed that data, how did they notice the system was gone in the first place?

  • Anon (unregistered)

    'Jim had just recently passed away after 35 years of dedicated service'

    That's the most depressing think I've ever read.

  • Jockamo (unregistered) in reply to brazzy
    brazzy:
    I don't get it... If nobody ever accessed that data, how did they notice the system was gone in the first place?

    this.

  • (cs) in reply to Cbuttius
    Cbuttius:
    In August 1987:
    • I got my first car. On 6th August to be precise, which is why, to this day, that remains my insurance-renewal date.

    • I was working for an awful life insurance company called General Portfolio. I came in as a Maths graduate but was treated lesser than a kid with nothing but poor CSEs because his dad was more important to the company than mine.

    • Michael Jackson topped the UK chart with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", a duet with Seidah Garrett. This was the lead single off his new album "Bad". It replaced "La Bamba" by Los Lobos at number one.

    • The Hungerford massacre - this happened on 19 August 1987 so next Monday will be 25 years exactly.

    Interesting - was just reminiscing about August 1987 with an old friend.

    That was the month when, instead of doing the usual thing of going to Reading Rock festival, I went to an SF convention in Brighton where (also instead of playing at Reading Rock) Hawkwind performed. Ah, happy days.

  • ComputerChip (unregistered)

    "Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System" Seriously? I'm calling BS.

  • schmitter (unregistered) in reply to Cbuttius
    Cbuttius:
    In August 1987:
    • I got my first car. On 6th August to be precise, which is why, to this day, that remains my insurance-renewal date.

    • I was working for an awful life insurance company called General Portfolio. I came in as a Maths graduate but was treated lesser than a kid with nothing but poor CSEs because his dad was more important to the company than mine.

    • Michael Jackson topped the UK chart with "I Just Can't Stop Loving You", a duet with Seidah Garrett. This was the lead single off his new album "Bad". It replaced "La Bamba" by Los Lobos at number one.

    • The Hungerford massacre - this happened on 19 August 1987 so next Monday will be 25 years exactly.

    But does anyone or any company really give a crap that they bought 1000 model 2 widgets, 1500 model 3 widgets and 5000 of the original widgets, 25 years ago? If they did, then the PURCHASER should have kept better records.

  • (cs) in reply to Mark Donoghue
    Mark Donoghue:
    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System = WHORE

    Surely a made up name?

    http://forums.thedailywtf.com/forums/t/26543.aspx

    It was him!

  • (cs)

    The real WTF is that the business people are making development decisions (PHP will be a language of choice, etc. who decided that?) and it takes a developer to make the business decision (this project has no business benefit).

  • (cs)

    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...

  • Don (unregistered)

    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System Not the first time WHORES stopped production...

  • Your Name (unregistered) in reply to Sebastian Buchannon
    Sebastian Buchannon:
    "Well, stammered before looking as though a cinder block had been dropped on his head."

    So suddenly blood bursted from his crushed eye sockets and bits of brain dribbled down his chin? That's the real WTF for that to happen during a 7am meeting.

    Truefax: after ten or twelve espresso doubleshots, your head esplodes. 7 AM meetings are dangerous.

  • (cs) in reply to Cbuttius
    Cbuttius:
    The real WTF is that the business people are making development decisions (PHP will be a language of choice, etc. who decided that?) and it takes a developer to make the business decision (this project has no business benefit).
    Cbuttius:
    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...
    No.
  • (cs) in reply to Mark Bowytz
    Mark Bowytz:
    Cbuttius:
    The real WTF is that the business people are making development decisions (PHP will be a language of choice, etc. who decided that?) and it takes a developer to make the business decision (this project has no business benefit).
    Cbuttius:
    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...
    No.
    You happy now? Your featured :p
  • Primo (unregistered) in reply to QJo

    Nah, Hawkwind at the Brighton SF Convention was April 1984.

  • Silverwizard (unregistered) in reply to Cbuttius

    Actually - the Documentation required the PHP code. Which - presumably - was written by the Dear Departed.

  • Mike (unregistered) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    'Jim had just recently passed away after 35 years of dedicated service'

    That's the most depressing think I've ever read.

    Thank you, that was my first thought as well. I truly hope that is never said about me.

  • Richard (unregistered)

    I'm probably going to get murdered by Alex for this, but I think its well accepted (and admitted by himself) that he "fictionalises" accounts to make them more entertaining and to protect the submitter.

    I am the submitter of this particular WTF, and I think I need to clear up a few things - the only non-fiction part of the story is the step by step process for data transfer.

    There was no failure, there was no Jim, there was no meeting.

    I submitted this because the real WTF was that this entire process never failed - despite its horrific nature, it was rock stonking solid for the decade I worked at the company, and it still goes right now.

    Prior to this system being put in place (by myself, a quick hack at the start of 2000 designed to be a stop gap for a quick sign up form), the previous developer had PHP just doing a passthru() to the Sculptor server - and the Sculptor server outputted the entire HTML page.

    I have since moved on from PHP and Sculptor, and have become an accomplished .Net developer. But those days still haunt me :)

    Just goes to show that sometimes the WTF is that it works, and works well. That was the intention of the submission.

  • unixcorn (unregistered)

    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System or WHORE for short.....

  • Mr Keith (unregistered)

    To quote Robert Browning on "How they Brought the Good News from Ghent to Aix"... huh, a Victorian poet could actually forsee the sheer amount of busywork in middleware and communications layer to AIX:

    I SPRANG to the stirrup, and Joris, and he;
    I gallop’d, Dirck gallop’d, we gallop’d all three;
    “Good speed !” cried the watch, as the gate-bolts undrew;
    “Speed!” echoed the wall to us galloping through;
    Behind shut the postern, the lights sank to rest,
    And into the midnight we gallop’d abreast.

    Not a word to each other; we kept the great pace
    Neck by neck, stride by stride, never changing our place;
    I turn’d in my saddle and made its girths tight,
    Then shorten’d each stirrup, and set the pique right, Rebuckled the cheek-strap, chain’d slacker the bit,
    Nor gallop’d less steadily Roland a whit.

    ’T was moonset at starting; but while we drew near
    Lokeren, the cocks crew and twilight dawn’d clear;
    At Boom, a great yellow star came out to see;
    At Düffeld, ’t was morning as plain as could be;
    And from Mechelm church-steeple we heard the half chime,
    So, Joris broke silence with, “Yet there is time!”

    At Aershot, up leap’d of a sudden the sun,
    And against him the cattle stood black every one, To state thro’ the mist at us galloping past,
    And I saw my stout galloper Roland at last,
    With resolute shoulders, each butting away
    The haze, as some bluff river headland its spray:

    And his low head and crest, just one sharp ear bent back For my voice, and the other prick’d out on his track;
    And one eye’s black intelligence,—ever that glance
    O’er its white edge at me, his own master, askance!
    And the thick heavy spume-flakes which aye and anon
    His fierce lips shook upwards in galloping on.

    By Hasselt, Dirck groan’d; and cried Joris “Stay spur!
    Your Roos gallop’d bravely, the fault’s not in her,
    We ’ll remember at Aix”—for one heard the quick wheeze
    Of her chest, saw the stretch’d neck and staggering knees,
    And sunk tail, and horrible heave of the flank,
    As down on her haunches she shudder’d and sank.

    So, we were left galloping, Joris and I,
    Past Looz and past Tongres, no cloud in the sky;
    The broad sun above laugh’d a pitiless laugh,
    ’Neath our feet broke the brittle bright stubble like chaff; Till over by Dalhem a dome-spire sprang white,
    And “Gallop,” gasped Joris, “for Aix is in sight!

    “How they ’ll greet us!”—and all in a moment his roan
    Roll’d neck and croup over, lay dead as a stone;
    And there was my Roland to bear the whole weight
    Of the news which alone could save Aix from her fate,
    With his nostrils like pits full of blood to the brim,
    And with circles of red for his eye-sockets’ rim.

    Then I cast loose my buffcoat, each holster let fall,
    Shook off both my jack-boots, let go belt and all,
    Stood up in the stirrup, lean’d, patted his ear,
    Call’d my Roland his pet name, my horse without peer;
    Clapp’d my hands, laugh’d and sang, any noise, bad or good,
    Till at length into Aix Roland gallop’d and stood.

    And all I remember is, friends flocking round
    As I sat with his head ’twixt my knees on the ground;
    And no voice but was praising this Roland of mine,
    As I pour’d down his throat our last measure of wine,
    Which (the burgesses voted by common consent)
    Was no more than his due who brought good news from Ghent.

  • C-Derb (unregistered) in reply to Cbuttius
    Cbuttius:
    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...
    I'm pretty sure I know who the real WHORE is.
  • Recursive Reclusive (unregistered) in reply to Mike
    Mike:
    Anon:
    'Jim had just recently passed away after 35 years of dedicated service'

    That's the most depressing think I've ever read.

    Thank you, that was my first thought as well. I truly hope that is never said about me.

    "Mike had just recently passed away after 35 years of doing fuck all". Better?

  • ¯\(°_o)/¯ I DUNNO LOL (unregistered) in reply to Mark Donoghue
    Mark Donoghue:
    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System = WHORE

    Surely a made up name?

    That's the back-end to the Business Information Technology Historical E-System.

    Also, AIX is properly pronounced "aches".

  • bob goatse (unregistered)

    where is irish girl? i miss irish girl!

  • (cs) in reply to brazzy
    brazzy:
    I don't get it... If nobody ever accessed that data, how did they notice the system was gone in the first place?
    It probably went down 10 years ago and they are just figuring it out.

    Also, Why the hell would somebody bother reimaging a 25 year old server for use? The artical should read "Somebody decided to throw it out the window and that lead to the discovery that their 25 year old records were no longer available because it landed on the ceo's car." or some other such nonsense.

    Also, Everybody misses the irish girl.

  • (cs) in reply to Richard
    Richard:
    I submitted this because the real WTF was that this entire process *never* failed

    Ah, so that explains why the title of this story is "The Process that Never Failed".

  • Richard (unregistered) in reply to PiisAWheeL

    That was all fictionalised - there is no "WHORE", it's not an ecommerce platform, the server wasn't reimaged and there was no hurried remplementation.

    See my last post.

  • Ben Jammin (unregistered) in reply to Richard
    Richard:
    I'm probably going to get murdered by Alex for this, but I think its well accepted (and admitted by himself) that he "fictionalises" accounts to make them more entertaining and to protect the submitter.

    I am the submitter of this particular WTF, and I think I need to clear up a few things - the only non-fiction part of the story is the step by step process for data transfer.

    There was no failure, there was no Jim, there was no meeting.

    I submitted this because the real WTF was that this entire process never failed - despite its horrific nature, it was rock stonking solid for the decade I worked at the company, and it still goes right now.

    Prior to this system being put in place (by myself, a quick hack at the start of 2000 designed to be a stop gap for a quick sign up form), the previous developer had PHP just doing a passthru() to the Sculptor server - and the Sculptor server outputted the entire HTML page.

    I have since moved on from PHP and Sculptor, and have become an accomplished .Net developer. But those days still haunt me :)

    Just goes to show that sometimes the WTF is that it works, and works well. That was the intention of the submission.

    I was much more interested in Alex's story than this comment

  • Director (unregistered) in reply to ComputerChip
    ComputerChip:
    "Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System" Seriously? I'm calling BS.
    Mark Donoghue:
    Warehouse Historical Order Retrieval E-System = WHORE

    Surely a made up name?

    First, It's WHORES[/s]. See the capitol "S"?

    Second, welcome n00b5. This is the daily WTF where people submit examples of [b]your code for us all to laugh at. However, they make up names of places, people, products and companies to protect the guilty.

    Thank you and we hope you enjoy your experience here.

    Juliambo the Embiggener, Director, Dedicated Omni-Universal Client High-End Banking Analysis Group

  • (cs) in reply to Mark Bowytz
    Mark Bowytz:
    Cbuttius:
    The real WTF is that the business people are making development decisions (PHP will be a language of choice, etc. who decided that?) and it takes a developer to make the business decision (this project has no business benefit).
    Cbuttius:
    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...
    No.

    featuring your own comments is the first sign of WTF-ery.

    From Mark: Ok, self moderated. But, you get what you get when you ASK to be featured. ;-)

  • Harrow (unregistered) in reply to Sebastian Buchannon
    Sebastian Buchannon:
    ...bits of brain dribbled down his chin?
    Not this guy -- he's management.

    -Harrow.

  • (cs) in reply to Some Jerk
    Some Jerk:
    Mark Bowytz:
    Cbuttius:
    The real WTF is that the business people are making development decisions (PHP will be a language of choice, etc. who decided that?) and it takes a developer to make the business decision (this project has no business benefit).
    Cbuttius:
    and come on, that last comment of mine was brilliant, you must feature it...
    No.
    You happy now? Your featured :p
    Not really, he featured his own response, not my comment, albeit that it was quoted.
  • (cs) in reply to Richard
    Richard:
    I'm probably going to get murdered by Alex for this, but I think its well accepted (and admitted by himself) that he "fictionalises" accounts to make them more entertaining and to protect the submitter.

    I am the submitter of this particular WTF, and I think I need to clear up a few things - the only non-fiction part of the story is the step by step process for data transfer.

    There was no failure, there was no Jim, there was no meeting.

    I submitted this because the real WTF was that this entire process never failed - despite its horrific nature, it was rock stonking solid for the decade I worked at the company, and it still goes right now.

    Prior to this system being put in place (by myself, a quick hack at the start of 2000 designed to be a stop gap for a quick sign up form), the previous developer had PHP just doing a passthru() to the Sculptor server - and the Sculptor server outputted the entire HTML page.

    I have since moved on from PHP and Sculptor, and have become an accomplished .Net developer. But those days still haunt me :)

    Just goes to show that sometimes the WTF is that it works, and works well. That was the intention of the submission.

    Unfortunately that biggest WTF in software development is that poorly written software works. Yes, it can be a nightmare to maintain, not extensible etc. but it gets the job done. And therefore business managers continue to hire poor developers but their software works anyway.

    Beautifully written software, where the developer unfortunately wasn't able to decipher the complex specification, on the other hand, doesn't work the way the business wanted.

    So often, rather than clarify the spec, the person with the business knowledge will just code it all themselves. Only later do they hand it to the developers, often without a spec that makes any sense at all, and with a lot of "look at the code and see what it does".

  • (cs) in reply to PiisAWheeL
    PiisAWheeL:
    Also, Why the hell would somebody bother reimaging a 25 year old server for use? The artical should read "Somebody decided to throw it out the window and that lead to the discovery that their 25 year old records were no longer available because it landed on the ceo's car." or some other such nonsense.

    What it takes to get something new added to the workplace: a single chance randomly-fired neuron in the brain of some marketing guy.

    What it takes to get something old and unused removed from the workplace: a complete reversal of the Earth's axis. If you're lucky.

    Also, I thought we were going to learn that for the last 25 of those 35 dedicated years, Jim had been running an illegal bookmaking business out of his cubicle using the company's critical server.

  • F (unregistered) in reply to Harrow
    Harrow:
    Sebastian Buchannon:
    ...bits of brain dribbled down his chin?
    Not this guy -- he's management.

    ... and therefore has neither?

  • (cs) in reply to bob goatse
    bob goatse:
    where is irish girl? i miss irish girl!
    She is still in my bedroom after a rough night.
  • (cs) in reply to Cbuttius
    Cbuttius:
    featuring your own comments is the first sign of WTF-ery.
    Unless there is (perhaps) some deep and illusive meaning behind the one-word comment and featuring it. After all... who would feature just the word "No."... unless there is a hidden message in there that I just can't figure out... :P

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