• haero (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Probably, but there are absolutely no new details in this second write up so why the hell did she bother? Amanda, if you're reading this would you please stop wasting our time with duplicate submissions, we're busy people you know. Well... I'm kinda busy... I'm just on my lunch break you see...
    Aren't you the guy that keeps asking, "I can haz new WTF?"
  • s73v3r (unregistered) in reply to Mr. S.

    Actually, The Real WTF (TM) is that they're still using Visual SourceSafe.

  • s73v3r (unregistered) in reply to boog

    I really hope not, because that means that there's more than one company out there thinking like this.

  • Max (unregistered)

    Haven't they heard of pigeons?

  • StupidTheKid (unregistered) in reply to Ben L.
    Ben L.:
    They probably have a computer dedicated to getting viruses.

    +1

    danixdefcon5:
    If this is during the Melissa timeline, USB virii hadn't been spawned yet. However, floppy-borne virii were pretty common back then, even some boot sector ones like Eek and CIH/Chernobyl. I would've been weary even without the USB virus pandemia.

    Good, accurate point.

  • Steven (unregistered) in reply to snoofle

    Honestly as bad as that setup is, I've seen worse. There are corporations with fully connected networks but it won't allow you to send an email until the system administrator has read and accepted the email as "business-related"

    There are start-ups which require you work from your home computer

    In fact- having separate computers for different tasks is VERY common in some companies. This one just took it to the extreme.

  • (cs)
    aluminum that could have easily been mistaken for a art
    You did this on purpose, didn't you?
  • Slicerwizard (unregistered) in reply to lolwtf
    lolwtf:
    aluminum that could have easily been mistaken for a art
    You did this on purpose, didn't you?
    Yes, he did. The writers have been trolling for a long time.
  • Christian (unregistered)

    I had the displeasure to work with more than one company that practiced things like this and worse. Thankfully I always was called in as outside help to fix a flaming pile of.. well, bad things. I left with a less bad situation in place, but I could never convince them to actually change their ways in my younger days.

    Strangely, today it's more the opposite, people get internet access on their machine but their usb ports get blocked...

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to haero
    haero:
    Anonymous:
    Probably, but there are absolutely no new details in this second write up so why the hell did she bother? Amanda, if you're reading this would you please stop wasting our time with duplicate submissions, we're busy people you know. Well... I'm kinda busy... I'm just on my lunch break you see...
    Aren't you the guy that keeps asking, "I can haz new WTF?"
    What part of my impeccable grammar makes you think that, or indeed makes you think I'd misspell a three letter word?
  • quibus (unregistered) in reply to Max
    Max:
    Haven't they heard of pigeons?
    The problem with pigeons is that they're fucking peristeronic as shit. And they smell.
  • Thijs (unregistered)

    This reminds me so much of those old days where you stories from, those days where you had to make an appointment for the machine that would run your card and where you would pray it would not bug out.

    And what exactly is this Melissa Virus that was so bad that they went back to this stone age approach and ditch an entire network rather then protect it? or restrict access and capabilities?

  • SR (unregistered)

    I used to work in a non-networked shop in the 90s. We'd back everything up to 3.5" floppy (using PKZIP) and store everything in a giant cupboard. They had the cabling, server (NetWare) and everything... except our PCs lacked NICs.

  • N (unregistered) in reply to Max

    Yes. And they've heard of avian flu virus too. So no RFC1149 network for you sir :)

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Thijs
    Thijs:
    And what exactly is this Melissa Virus that was so bad that they went back to this stone age approach and ditch an entire network rather then protect it? or restrict access and capabilities?
    It was a trivial Word macro virus, completely benign in nature (it didn't delete or corrupt files but I remember that some of the later variants did make a bit of a mess). It would examine your address book and mail itself to all the addresses via Outlook.

    The only reason it caused such a stir was because it severely clogged the tubes, caused a lot of network outages due to overloaded mail servers but that was it. Really, it was just a trivial little macro virus and even back then the smart folks amongst us didn't run macros in untrusted Word docs in the first place. I remember receiving it back in the day but I never allowed macro execution so it never had a chance to deliver its payload. It was literally that easy to beat, even without any anti-virus at all.

    Of course, that didn't stop the feds from sentencing the author to 10 years in the pen! He only served 2 though.

  • My Name (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous

    Had also to pay a fine of 5000 USD. Got probably out due to the feds needing his help on tracking down another virus creator.

  • Meep (unregistered) in reply to boog
    boog:
    You mean you don't just write whatever crap code you think might work without checking a single book or search engine for reference, then mindlessly hack away at it until the compiler stops barfing?

    Interesting...

    Reminds me of a quote I saw on Perlmonks: "Most coders don't actually program, they just act as the selection function in a very slow genetic algorithm"

  • ihavard (unregistered) in reply to snoofle

    Huh. Replace 'employer' with 'partner' and that's pretty much word for word the advice my mother gives me about relationships.

  • uxor (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    haero:
    Anonymous:
    Probably, but there are absolutely no new details in this second write up so why the hell did she bother? Amanda, if you're reading this would you please stop wasting our time with duplicate submissions, we're busy people you know. Well... I'm kinda busy... I'm just on my lunch break you see...
    Aren't you the guy that keeps asking, "I can haz new WTF?"
    What part of my impeccable grammar makes you think that, or indeed makes you think I'd misspell a three letter word?
    There are no mispelled words in LOLEnglish.
  • (cs) in reply to frits

    TRWTF is that Amanda didn't simply video her source code and search it using SSDS.

  • Joe (unregistered)

    What a crummy situation! I would hope that she has the ability to run local source control such as git or mercurial on her development PC.

    From the upper management point of view, aren't there more funds wasted by wasting the developer's time in jumping through these hoops? At the very least I would think having a closed local network running with open groupware or something would quadruple productivity. You don't even need it connected to the internet.

  • ÃÆâ€â„ (unregistered) in reply to haero
    haero:
    Aren't you the guy that keeps asking, "I can haz new WTF?"
    No dumbasss, that's me. Speaking of which...

    i can haz new wtf?

  • Bert Glanstron (unregistered)

    Dear [email protected],

    In case you can’t tell, the computer world is a grown-up place. The fact that you insist on using one PC for all emails clearly shows that you’re too young and too stupid to be offering web page services.

    Go away and grow up.

    Sincerely, Bert Glanstron

  • CoderDan (unregistered) in reply to Kmandew
    Kmandew:
    No the person that thinks he can write the best code ever without ever looking at a book or the internet, is worst kind of developer to have on any project. Pretentious prick, grow up!

    Hmmm....one would hope that if you have writing software for more than 5 years....you know the syntax and logic. What prey tell are you learning from the book?

    Sagaciter: An orator of sagas

  • (cs)

    The real WTF is that this didn't do diddly-squat for their security. Viruses can be transmitted via USB sticks nearly as easily as over intranet.

  • CodeNinja (unregistered) in reply to flaquito
    flaquito:
    I was expecting the punch line to be that all the machines ended up infected with a virus spread via the company-issued flash drive. I'm somewhat disappointed that they weren't.

    That actually happened here. Production and Test systems were not on the network since there weren't enough drops in the engineering bay, or something. So the company provided us with flash drives. Worked great until we got a call from the customer telling us that one of our systems had a virus. We sent a guy out to check it, and sure enough, had a virus. Thankfully it wasn't connected to a network with external access! Then they implimented a scan of -all- the systems in the engineering bay and every one of them was infected.

    So now we have McAffee AV on them. Mind you, it's not up to date, since it's not on the network. We are still using flash drives to copy files to the systems in the engineering and production bays.

    Surely nothing can go wrong!

  • Ryan (unregistered)

    You misspelled "equipped".

  • DFYX (unregistered) in reply to Caffeine
    Caffeine:
    http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Overdue-Retirement.aspx

    I was having a bad case of de ja vu.

    Exactly what I thought. I read the old one a few days ago, so this story sounded strangely familiar.

  • (cs) in reply to R C
    R C:
    For emails, I'd probably make use of an off-line mailer which piles up all the messages I want to send, and just push them all and get my new messages (a la fetchmail) when I get to the email machine.
    Like, say, pretty much any email client software these days? Or, if you want to be on a cloud-of-one, Zimbra Desktop.
  • itsmo (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    I am always amazed that a SOFTWARE COMPANY can be so absolutely stupidly clueless. Some company selling Widgets that have non-technical people calling the shots, I can see (although it's still stupid), but a company that is dedicated to software, and presumably owned and operated by someone with a software background doing such idiotic things? Rediculous .
    FTFY
  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to itsmo
    itsmo:
    ObiWayneKenobi:
    I am always amazed that a SOFTWARE COMPANY can be so absolutely stupidly clueless. Some company selling Widgets that have non-technical people calling the shots, I can see (although it's still stupid), but a company that is dedicated to software, and presumably owned and operated by someone with a software background doing such idiotic things? Rediculous .
    FTFY
    ARGGHHH, IT KEEPS HAPPENING!
  • Name changed to protect the innocent (unregistered)

    I worked for a major UK bank in 1999, as a java developer. We were not allowed internet accesss "for security". There was a standalone PC with internet access which we could use - if we wnated something off the net (e.g. jar file) we could dpownload it on that PC, copy it to floppy (!) and then upload it onto our oewn (netwroked) PCs. That was apparantly more secure than having direct internet access because "otherwise we might get a virus".

    Moral of the story? - if you are ging to be an IT middle manager, read just enogh about the story to get paranoid, but not enough to actually have any knoledge. Ideally yu should then ignore any advice from your highly paid developers .....

    It got so bad that I installed a dial up modem to my work PC, and accessed the internet like that (with the dial tone turned off, and the modem hidden in the desk trunking !)

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to Merrick
    Merrick:
    How the hell do you not run away screaming after a first day like that? Who in their right mind would stay with such an idiot of an employer?

    I call bullshit. Even in this tough economy, I can't see sticking around to deal with the level of idiocy seen in this "story". Work of fiction this, through and through.

    Yes, I refuse to work for any company that is not run exactly the way I think it should be. If I see any policy I don't like, I promptly quit.

    That's why I'm now living in this cardboard box under a bridge.

    Really now, even if you own the company, you probably are stuck with stupid policies that are required by the government, or that you have to implement to please an important client. In real life, we don't all get our own way all the time.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Merrick:
    How the hell do you not run away screaming after a first day like that? Who in their right mind would stay with such an idiot of an employer?

    I call bullshit. Even in this tough economy, I can't see sticking around to deal with the level of idiocy seen in this "story". Work of fiction this, through and through.

    Hello Merrick and welcome to the wonderful world of reality. You're obviously fresh out of school and I commend your optimistic outlook on life. I can assure you it won't last for long so relish it while you can.

    Fixed that for you.

  • Jay (unregistered) in reply to CoderDan

    [quote user="CoderDan Sagaciter: An orator of sagas[/quote]

    I thought a Sagaciter was a class to loop through sages.

  • (cs) in reply to Someone You Know
    Someone You Know:
    danixdefcon5:
    StupidTheKid:
    Nice eye indeed, it is a re-hash of an old story.

    Not to re-hash myself a tired meme, but TRWTF would be to use USB keys to prevent virus propagation. A simple google scan on "USB virus" returns no less than a quarter million hits ...

    If this is during the Melissa timeline, USB virii hadn't been spawned yet. However, floppy-borne virii were pretty common back then, even some boot sector ones like Eek and CIH/Chernobyl. I would've been weary even without the USB virus pandemia.

    "Virii"? Really?

    The plural of virus is viruses.

    Virii doesn't even make sense in Latin, let alone in English. The Latin word virus is a mass noun, like traffic or music in English — it can't be pluralized.

    Nothing can't be pluralized on the internets.

  • ANONYMOUS COAWRD LOL (unregistered) in reply to Bryan the K

    nobody reads slashdot dummy

  • lsdahsdot (unregistered) in reply to Bryan the K
    Bryan the K:
    No internet connection? How is she supposed to look for a new job or read slashdot?

    no one looks @ slashdot unless they want to feel humiliated. at least they took animefu links off the sidebarm ugh

  • Steve Urkel (unregistered)
    a two inch long piece of sculpted aluminum that could have easily been mistaken for a art
    Trolling is a art.
  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Steve Urkel
    Steve Urkel:
    a two inch long piece of sculpted aluminum that could have easily been mistaken for a art
    Trolling is a art.
    You mean an ar- oh, I see what you did there...
  • (cs)

    This wtf makes my head spin.

    I wish that I couldn't believe this were real, but... yeah it probably is. Man, that's depressing.

    Furry cows moo and decompress.

  • (cs) in reply to k#
    k#:
    Very smart. When the Cylons attack, this company will be the only one to survive.

    Yes the rest of the fleet should learn from this and figure out that the Internet was a silly thing to get involved in. How else will Skynet be able to wage war on Humanity.

  • db (unregistered) in reply to boog
    boog:
    Caffeine:
    http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Overdue-Retirement.aspx

    I was having a bad case of de ja vu.

    Sure, both stories involve a company that doesn't use a network due to fear of viruses. And sure, both stories involve an "Email PC". And everyone shares one Outlook session. And uses their own USB drive for file transfer. And there's a source code notebook/laptop.

    But that really only amounts to a coincidence. You can tell these were two completely different stories because they were submitted by two different developers. Right?

    Right?

    There's one client I deal with now in 2010 where more than three people share the same email address and it looks like they have an email PC and three non-networked laptops fed via USB drive and sneakernet.

  • Anonymix (unregistered) in reply to JJ
    JJ:
    I have a huge "manual" called the MSDN Library installed locally on my machine. I could survive for quite a while without an Internet connection, not that I'd want to.
    I have a comprehensive set of manual pages for every piece of software on my system, and the sources for the software. I could survive for quite a while without an Internet connection, not that I wouldn't just connect to it anyway
  • (cs) in reply to db
    db:
    boog:
    Caffeine:
    http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Overdue-Retirement.aspx

    I was having a bad case of de ja vu.

    Sure, both stories involve a company that doesn't use a network due to fear of viruses. And sure, both stories involve an "Email PC". And everyone shares one Outlook session. And uses their own USB drive for file transfer. And there's a source code notebook/laptop.

    But that really only amounts to a coincidence. You can tell these were two completely different stories because they were submitted by two different developers. Right?

    Right?

    There's one client I deal with now in 2010 where more than three people share the same email address and it looks like they have an email PC and three non-networked laptops fed via USB drive and sneakernet.

    Ok, but is your name Amanda?

  • (cs)

    This is in a country with no working unemployment benefits system right? Like America?

    I might have stuck it out jusssst long enough to cover the 'leaving voluntarily' clause my country insists on (a pause of several weeks, depending on circumstances), but no more.

    There is no other reason to stay more than 5 minutes in such a place.

  • (cs)

    And another thing.

    Since when is a USB stick any protection against Windows viruses?

    I would doubt the veracity of this story but I've seen enough examples in the real world to know that, sadly, somehow, companies like this exist and even make money..... because the customers are even stupider.

  • Reow (unregistered)

    More than likely, they just didn't trust her.

  • Douglastab (unregistered)

    Pharmacie en ligne livraison Europe https://kamagraenligne.shop/# Achat mГ©dicament en ligne fiable

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