• Valued Service (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann
    Paul Neumann:
    I was hoping there was a more WoW integrated method...

    You want the XP applications to show up as mods in WoW? So when I use a mailbox in the Undercity, I can type an email address and email my boss?

  • duis (unregistered) in reply to MiffTheFox
    MiffTheFox:
    Cantabrigian:
    > it’s RAM was maxed out

    Oh, please. Just get it right.

    Why can't "it's" stand for both "it is" and "it, his", just like "laptop's" can stand for "laptop is" and "laptop, his": "The laptop, his RAM was maxed out" is a valid, albeit archaic, English sentence, since it is supposedly the long form for "The laptop's RAM was maxed out".

    Oh wait, it's because that would be introducing consistency to English. A language that has remained so consistent and unchanging since at least the time of Chaucer.

    Where are you from so you think "laptop's" is the same as "laptop, his"? WTF does "laptop, his" even mean? I can't think of one sentence where that would make sense.

    "Is" is a verb that can be abbreviated to "'s" when following the subject of the sentence, taking away the space between the two also. "It" just happens to be one of the possible subject pronouns that, when combined with "is", gets to be similar to "its" (an adjective). "Similar" is the key here, and similar things are not the "same". That's fucking why.

  • neminem (unregistered) in reply to StephenCleary
    StephenCleary:
    I think Windows XP will be the new VMS

    So true!

    MS is trying to fight this by dropping XP in .NET 4.5. I'll be curious to see whether they succeed...

    I expect they'll succeed... as soon as they release another OS that sucks as little as XP did. (Or until they die completely in the OS market and turn into a console hardware and office software company, and Windows compatibility is no longer the required thing ;))

  • duis (unregistered) in reply to Valued Service
    Valued Service:
    When I worked for "the city." I had to build a machine with parts I found. I had to install all the software. I had to figure out their network to get on it. There was no help-desk. I had to find my own work. And that's where it ended. Apparently showing up under the mayor's desk working on his computer when he was out of office was a bad thing. How I got into his office? I walked in. I was let go on good terms though, because I had done quite a bit. Just not enough to end up on Minesweeper for half the time. The other guy that hired on with me got to keep his job, because he was good with wires???

    That was my stint in IT. After that, I went for a BS in Computer Science, got a minor in math (2 classes short of a second BS). 1 class short of a minor in art (for the hell of it). And enough logic, workflow, languages, etc. classes that most CS majors never get to see that our school was accredited by the Ivy Leagues and even that wasn't enough for how good the major was.

    Too bad no one's heard of McNeese State U. For the longest time I couldn't understand why people thought CS majors weren't capable programmers.

    Yeah, you've got plenty of language classes alright. You're expressing yourself quite diligently (what the fuck is the point of your telling, sentence construct and grammar mistakes aside?).

  • (cs) in reply to Y_F
    Y_F:
    airdrik:
    a laptop that supports up to 2GB of ram isn't really old enough for archaeologists to care about (after all, it's new enough that with the upgrades it can actually run Win 7).
    Can it "run", properly said? Or just at breaknerve speed?
    I still use a Dell D610 for travelling, sporting a cutting edge Pentium 4M and 2048 megabiggles of memo-ram with red stripes painted on the chips to make them go faster. The case badges have been worn down so that only tiny mirrors are left, the body is held together by lengths of electrical tape and velcro and the hard drive has failed and been replaced at least twice, but it still runs Windows 7 quite happily.

    The latest release of Umbongo has some issues with power management, but that's my fault for not sticking with 10.04 while I was ahead. I wouldn't recommend it for heavy gaming and I would be... what's that word that means "mildly irked with hints of murderous rage"? Whatever. I wouldn't be pleased if I had been issued it as a development machine, but as something that I won't be too upset about having broken or lost while on the road it's still surprisingly capable.

  • mmmmmmmm (unregistered)

    Wow, that is a very familiar tale. Unfortunately on my new Win7 box, I couldn't even use XP mode to access the bug tracker since my XP mode VM couldn't access the domain. So I have my old XP development PC still under my desk just so I can remote desktop into it to use the bug tracker.

    The bug tracker didn't by any chance happen to be ClearQuest did it?

  • (cs)

    I'm going to take a wild guess on the bug tracker: Quality Center.

    Along which source control tool is being used, I always ask what defect tracking system is being used during an interview. I have refused and always will refuse to take jobs where QC is the bug tracker.

  • MadtM (unregistered)

    That settles it. I'm sticking with Vista.

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered) in reply to MadtM
    MadtM:
    That settles it. I'm sticking with Vista.
    98SE still purrs along quite handily. On today's hardware it is amazingly speedy. 98SE is so secure and stable, they haven't even had to release any "urgent" updates for it in years.
  • Coward (unregistered) in reply to lizardfoot
    lizardfoot:
    I'm going to take a wild guess on the bug tracker: Quality Center.

    Along which source control tool is being used, I always ask what defect tracking system is being used during an interview. I have refused and always will refuse to take jobs where QC is the bug tracker.

    Wish I read this post before working here. QC is the biggest pile of shit. Now management want a way to automatically update the fucking thing with junit results... I'll probably have an aneurysm from digging through its shit by this time tomorrow...

  • nmare (unregistered) in reply to Swedish tard
    Swedish tard:
    Anarud:
    Why do i get the strangest feeling that Miguel hails from Portugal (and no, I am not going about it by his name...)

    That mess is pretty much how any government functions (or disfunctions, as it were)

    I agree. And the laptop specs are greater then the desktop i use to work on VS2005 (ssis, ssas)

    And im jealous of his 500b hdd! I have to transfert huge databases with only 4gig left.

    I am working for a Canadian province.

  • Joao (unregistered)

    And i'm a portuguese.

    And this problem i saw many times. As developer i worked for a french company, here in portugal, where all proxies where in France and all program installation required IT control. We dreamed of Padawan Power User permissions!

    The paranoiac OC JEDI masters want everything on their law and don't care control. They even forbbiden the use of gmail, but the funny thing it's that the www.abola.pt was always accessible.

    regards

  • Basement_Cate (unregistered) in reply to MiffTheFox

    I suggest you contact the language authorities and demand they get this fixed.

    "'It, his'"? Here's the thing: no.

    The greatest threat to consistency in the English language is its users' partial understanding of its rules. So, for the record: http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/apostrophe-1.aspx

    And if we was afeared of inconsistency we shouldn't ought to have let them furriners stick all their words into our language. It's like they have a differnt wurd fur everything.

  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    TRWTFs:

    • Portable (compact, more expensive) computer permanently chained to one spot.
    • Microsoft Windows.
    • Microsoft Visual Studio.
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer.
    • Microsoft ActiveX.
    • Reinstalling everything takes days.
    • Interactive-only installers.
    • No single-command, non-interactive package management.

    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.

  • (cs) in reply to Steve The Cynic
    Steve The Cynic:
    ctw:
    Brevity is the soul of wit. Akismet, clearly, is soulless.
    And therefore Akismet is witless?
    No, just briefless. It prefers boxers.
  • Anonymous (unregistered)

    Oh, and let's not forget:

    • Software developers (whose role in life is to write programs) not being trusted to install programs to run them.
  • Slapout (unregistered)

    Windows XP Mode requires a separate install which required three more signatures..

  • (cs)

    At least Miguel was let into the building. I once spent two weeks locked in a large empty office with close to a hundred other contractors because the client's security dept refused to sort out access cards and let us into the building - of course, the doors were unlocked on request, but we had to get security to let us in and out of the building; we weren't imprisoned. A good proportion of the contractors were on no more than a couple of hundred quid a day, but a fair few were on hefty multiples of that. The total bill was tens of thousands a day, undoubtedly.

    I was called into a series of meetings with escalating levels of management over the next two weeks, in each of which it became apparent that the managers were appalled at the security team's behaviour, but that literally no-one in the company below board level had the authority to order them to change. Eventually, it got bumped all the way to board level, resulting in the CEO of a multi-national bank personally escorting the head of security out of the building, and telling the rest of the security staff that they could follow him if the contractors weren't all given access passes within the hour.

  • Dominic (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.
    Ha ha, look at the dumb Linux bigot.
  • urza9814 (unregistered) in reply to Dominic
    Dominic:
    Anonymous:
    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.
    Ha ha, look at the dumb Linux bigot.

    Ha ha, look at the MCSE.

  • doozerboy (unregistered) in reply to CleanCode
    CleanCode:
    The best BigCorp places I've worked at treated their devs as another special group. We got the machines, the tools, and pretty much made most of the upgrades to our machines. We also had to extensively test our code before rollout to whatever configurations the corporate desktops had, as well.

    The worst places were like the story - I had some project stall at QA because the security was so tight they wouldn't tell us how the machine was configured, or whether it was even close to our dev servers.

    Kind of like that at our place. No-one is allowed admin access, but the guy in IT who delivered our computers and set them up on the domain gave us local admin access anyway and just told us to keep quiet, and don't do anything stupid with those admin privileges.

    fair play to the guy really.

  • (cs) in reply to ffelthc what
    ffelthc what:
    At least Miguel was let into the building. I once spent two weeks locked in a large empty office with close to a hundred other contractors because the client's security dept refused to sort out access cards and let us into the building - of course, the doors were unlocked on request, but we had to get security to let us in and out of the building; we weren't imprisoned. A good proportion of the contractors were on no more than a couple of hundred quid a day, but a fair few were on hefty multiples of that. The total bill was tens of thousands a day, undoubtedly.

    I was called into a series of meetings with escalating levels of management over the next two weeks, in each of which it became apparent that the managers were appalled at the security team's behaviour, but that literally no-one in the company below board level had the authority to order them to change. Eventually, it got bumped all the way to board level, resulting in the CEO of a multi-national bank personally escorting the head of security out of the building, and telling the rest of the security staff that they could follow him if the contractors weren't all given access passes within the hour.

    This is highly, highly illegal. What happens in the event of a fire? You don't escalate it within the company, you call the police...

  • (cs) in reply to urza9814
    urza9814:
    Dominic:
    Anonymous:
    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.
    Ha ha, look at the dumb Linux bigot.

    Ha ha, look at the MCSE.

    Hah, look at the Rhode Islander!

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Y_F
    Y_F:
    Biggest TRWTF... ActiveX, IE, Windows itself? Hard to decide...

    No TRWTF is having to use 4 different versions of Visual Studio. ActiveX (seriously who uses that besides windows update for XP?) and IE are WTF's too but still...

  • iMalc (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann

    Yes it can easily be done. Simply host the IE Web browser ActiveX control in an app you've made yourself and add the necessary registry entry to force it to IE8 or IE9 mode.

    This is not speculation, I've done this a few times in apps I've made to solve precisely this problem.

  • (cs) in reply to uxor
    uxor:
    Dumb question, I know, but Miguel was sitting on his rump for 2 weeks straight, and did not even get curious about what was in the bug tracker? An application (from the description in the article) that does not depend on Visual Studio of any sort. Just a website, and he never tries it out?
    Well it's simple: When he logs into the bug tracker, open bugs will get assigned to him. Some months later his processing times will be reported to the president's daughter and he will be reprimanded or even fired for not solving simple bugs for over two weeks!
  • (cs) in reply to Valued Service
    Valued Service:
    Paul Neumann:
    I was hoping there was a more WoW integrated method...

    You want the XP applications to show up as mods in WoW? So when I use a mailbox in the Undercity, I can type an email address and email my boss?

    There's Evolution even in Underworld. It's usually accompanied by Kate Beckinsale.

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to Wody
    Wody:
    Because of these kinds of issues, Windows 7 comes with a virtual Windows XP machine called XP Mode. So what's the problem?
    Have you ever actually looked at "XP mode"? First, it requires Windows 7 Professional or higher. (I'ts not supported on "home" or "home premium" editions.) Second, it requires a CPU that supports "hardware assisted virtualization". Finally, it requires a minimum of 2GB RAM.

    Do you really think that his old XP box really has the ability to run XP Mode?

    And do you really think that he would get the authorization to install something like VirtualBox?

  • nmare (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    TRWTFs:
    • Portable (compact, more expensive) computer permanently chained to one spot.
    • Microsoft Windows.
    • Microsoft Visual Studio.
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer.
    • Microsoft ActiveX.
    • Reinstalling everything takes days.
    • Interactive-only installers.
    • No single-command, non-interactive package management.

    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.

    • Software developers (whose role in life is to write programs) not being trusted to install programs to run them.

    Therefore, do i have to leave a job with the job security, a pension and decent salary because a poor kid without experiment restricts himself to use only one platform and dont like to work in team?

    Where i work we are 180 IT specialists on the same floor. I rarely choose the technologie i use.

  • Valued Service (unregistered) in reply to duis
    duis:
    Yeah, you've got plenty of language classes alright. You're expressing yourself quite diligently (what the fuck is the point of your telling, sentence construct and grammar mistakes aside?).

    First, I don't know why you're pissed at me. I was talking about how government jobs end up like this hell where you're pretty much on your own. Waiting around for things to be done is the average day. The lack of management's ability to create work for its employees, the lack of necessary technology, the state of its IT, etc. is the point of that story.

    Second, who are you? Again, why are you mad? Are you some government employee manager or something. Why should I care about your random opinion on my comment. "Diligently" doesn't mean what you think it means.

    So back the hell off!

  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.

    Your point is going up in the tyre smoke of my bimmer.

  • Valued Service (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    TRWTFs:
    • Portable (compact, more expensive) computer permanently chained to one spot.
    • Microsoft Windows.
    • Microsoft Visual Studio.
    • Microsoft Internet Explorer.
    • Microsoft ActiveX.
    • Reinstalling everything takes days.
    • Interactive-only installers.
    • No single-command, non-interactive package management.

    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.

    Oh get off. You can't respect someone with real skill and talent because they use MSVS and Windows instead of what, Eclipse and Linux.

    Machismo is so lame, because fluffing your feathers doesn't make yourself bigger. If you're so damn good, then use it and leave alone. Talking big and putting down good people because they don't share your immature hate of "the man" is getting old.

    No matter what you think about Microsoft, .NET programmers make good money and are high in demand. In that respect, your opinion matters little.

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to MiffTheFox
    MiffTheFox:
    "The laptop, his RAM was maxed out"
    I thought you were talking about English, not Tamarian.

    Q: Why aren't you doing your work? A: The laptop, in Winter.

    Q: What about that Windows 7 upgrade? A: Windows, when the wall fell.

  • Paul Neumann (unregistered) in reply to iMalc
    iMalc:
    Yes it can easily be done. Simply host the IE Web browser ActiveX control in an app you've made yourself and add the necessary registry entry to force it to IE8 or IE9 mode.

    This is not speculation, I've done this a few times in apps I've made to solve precisely this problem.

    Now this is a solution! (Why did I never think to do this myself?

  • Ken B (unregistered) in reply to Dominic
    Dominic:
    Anonymous:
    I can't really respect any computer professional that relies on Microsoft products or graphical user interfaces.
    Ha ha, look at the dumb Linux bigot.
    Even The Doctor uses Linux.

    Darn akismet. No clickable link for you:

    http://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/p480x480/482378_580125238666684_1657809723_n.png

  • Joe (unregistered) in reply to hymie
    hymie:
    MiffTheFox:
    Why can't "it's" stand for both "it is" and "it, his", just like "laptop's" can stand for "laptop is" and "laptop, his": "The laptop, his RAM was maxed out" is a valid, albeit archaic, English sentence, since it is supposedly the long form for "The laptop's RAM was maxed out".

    I have my wife's car.

    At the time when "owner his" became "owner's", women could not own property, and cars had not been invented. So this can not be used as a proper counterexample.

    On the other hand, since archaic English did not have the word "laptop", expanding "laptop's" as "laptop, his" is stupid as well.

    Posessive pronouns have no apostrophe. My, our, your, thy, ones, his, hers, theirs, its.

  • Berend de Boer (unregistered)

    Why oh why would people want to work for organisations like that?

  • urza9814 (unregistered) in reply to Ken B
    Ken B:
    Wody:
    Because of these kinds of issues, Windows 7 comes with a virtual Windows XP machine called XP Mode. So what's the problem?
    Have you ever actually looked at "XP mode"? First, it requires Windows 7 Professional or higher. (I'ts not supported on "home" or "home premium" editions.) Second, it requires a CPU that supports "hardware assisted virtualization". Finally, it requires a minimum of 2GB RAM.

    Do you really think that his old XP box really has the ability to run XP Mode?

    And do you really think that he would get the authorization to install something like VirtualBox?

    1. You think they installed the home edition on his work laptop? I highly doubt it.
    2. The article explicitly states he has 2GB of RAM.
    3. They explicitly told him to use virtualization, so clearly he can get authorization for it somehow.

    So of four objections, the only one that actually makes sense is that his CPU may not support it.

  • (cs) in reply to Joe
    Joe:
    Posessive pronouns have no apostrophe. My, our, your, thy, ones, his, hers, theirs, its.
    Who's bright idea was that?
  • jkupski (unregistered) in reply to chubertdev
    chubertdev:
    This is highly, highly illegal. What happens in the event of a fire? You don't escalate it within the company, you call the police...
    FWIW, I'm guessing that in a building like that, when the fire alarm goes off it cuts the power to the magnetic locks and no one is trapped. The building also likely had the requisite number of doors equipped with exit bars, though they were likely placarded with "PUSH TO UNLOCK--ALARM WILL SOUND"

    Security and safety do not have to be mutually exclusive--when they are, it's usually because some asshole ignored code.

  • (cs) in reply to jkupski
    jkupski:
    chubertdev:
    This is highly, highly illegal. What happens in the event of a fire? You don't escalate it within the company, you call the police...
    FWIW, I'm guessing that in a building like that, when the fire alarm goes off it cuts the power to the magnetic locks and no one is trapped. The building also likely had the requisite number of doors equipped with exit bars, though they were likely placarded with "PUSH TO UNLOCK--ALARM WILL SOUND"

    Security and safety do not have to be mutually exclusive--when they are, it's usually because some asshole ignored code.

    You are a far more optimistic person than I am.

  • (cs) in reply to uxor
    Valued Service:
    Paul Neumann:
    I was hoping there was a more WoW integrated method...

    You want the XP applications to show up as mods in WoW? So when I use a mailbox in the Undercity, I can type an email address and email my boss?

    There's Evolution even in Underworld. It's usually accompanied by Kate Beckinsale.

    Addendum (2013-04-04 17:22): EDIT: Double post by mistake. WTF: Pressed the Delete-button, but it didn't work!

  • Simon (unregistered) in reply to Sander
    Sander:
    Also for security reasons, the laptop was not allowed to leave his desk. It was locked in place with a security chain too short to throw the laptop out the window.

    Was the desk bolted to the floor? If not, the solution seems obvious.

  • (cs)

    He should count himself lucky.

    After all, he skipped Vista.

  • (cs) in reply to Paul Neumann
    Paul Neumann:
    Except, "Classic" integrated with the dock, VirtPC doesn't integrate running applications to the taskbar. "Classic" provided transparent access to the primary hard drive, VirtPC requires a virtual disk as primary. "Classic" worked, VirtPC not so much.
    XP Mode comes with options for reasonably transparent integration. For instance, all my XP mode apps show up (individually) on my Win 7 taskbar; the only oddity is that they are all grouped together, because they're all really from the same parent application. XP mode apps do see the virtual hard drive as C:, but they automatically get every (physical or mapped) drive on my Win 7 machine mapped as well (e.g. mine get drives "C on <host machine>", "D on <host machine", "N on <host machine>", etc.). So while the drive integration isn't transparent, it's easy enough for me to e.g. save things onto my main HD from the XP Mode apps. That's enough for what I need; your needs may differ.

    XP mode does have its share of irritations, but the integration really is pretty good, most of the time.

  • Matt (unregistered) in reply to Paul Neumann

    You need to have Win 7 Pro. XP Mode is a basic version if MS Virtual PC that only runs 1 VM and its a copy of XP

  • GovtContractor (unregistered) in reply to ObiWayneKenobi

    Spoken like a true government contractor!

  • Norman Diamond (unregistered) in reply to jkupski
    chubertdev:
    This is highly, highly illegal. What happens in the event of a fire? You don't escalate it within the company, you call the police...
    That depends on whether the employee was a member of a protected group. If the firee was a talented programmer, the police won't do a thing.
    jkupski:
    Security and safety do not have to be mutually exclusive--when they are, it's usually because some asshole ignored code.
    No, it's because some asshole WROTE the code. No wait, when assholes write the code we get neither security nor safety.
  • Norman Diamond (unregistered) in reply to da Doctah
    da Doctah:
    Joe:
    Posessive pronouns have no apostrophe. My, our, your, thy, ones, his, hers, theirs, its.
    Who's bright idea was that?
    Well, whose bright idea was it to ask "Who is bright idea was that?"? It wasn't mine. Was it thine? One of yours? One of those ones' ones?
  • Norman Diamond (unregistered)
    Remy Porter:
    I've seen this happen. You need VS2003 for handling .NET1.0 stuff that you can't upgrade because the business won't pay for it
    So you really did forget to include Visual STD 2002 in your list.

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