The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

ssprencel:

Hey that's pretty good! Maybe people could send you their resumes (and a small monetary incentive) and you could help "fluff" them up a little bit. How would you spice up "Spent hours of company time surfing the internet and reading TDWTF while the project deadline loomed closer and closer."?

I would have said:

"Prepared to meet critical project deadlines by researching the latest design and implementation methodologies in numerous technical forums where top professionals use real world case studies to compare best and worst software development practices."

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
"I once interviewed a really nice Indian bloke."
Why is there a need to include the guy's ethnic origin in this statement? It makes no impact on the story. If it was a white guy, would you say "I once interviewed a really nice white bloke."? I doubt it.

You are blonde?

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

"If it was "I once interviewd[sic] a really nice fat bloke", then yes I would still be annoyed by that. It doesn't add anything and there is no need for it."

Oh sorry, I didn't realise adjectives were such terrible things. Let us rid them from out language because there is no need for them. All stories should be told with the minimum amount of words required, no more. We wouldn't want to ever say someone is tall, or loud, or gasp Indian because it is totally unecessart and is discrimination.

Thank you for opening my eyes. It turns out that by describing people in any way, or referencing their country of origin, I have been guilty of terrible discrimation all these years.

ParkinT · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:

Education:
WTFU, 1969 - Present, 9.9 GPA
BS, MS, and PhD in BS, specializing in Passing the Buck methodologies.
The year should be 19NaN.

I had a dear friend, a fellow "techie", who died just last year. :-(

He had business cards printed with "letters after his name" like this Wilson Rogers, PhD, nacu

It was funny to watch people stare at the cards, impressed by his credentials. He had a very nice diploma displayed on his wall from The Internet Institute of Technology. He earned it by acing his final exam.

In his words, "The web-based final was in two parts;

1) my name

2) my credit card number

I GOT 100%"

The "nacu" stood for Not An Accredited University. But NO ONE EVER QUESTIONED HIM ABOUT IT.

djork · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog

I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

djork:
Anonymous:
I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog

I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.

Had to go to the VS2005/SQLServer 2005 launch event in Houston to get a copy of VS2005 to use at work.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

djork:
Anonymous:

I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog
I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.

I don't know whether you are a contractor or an employee, but, if you are a contractor, I think it's appropriate that you supply your own licensed copy of Visual Studio, as well as your own laptop.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
By stating his ethnic origin, the poster is drawing attention to that aspect which is discriminating by ethnicity.

I wholeheartedly agree, but we should not stop there. Mentioning that the applicant was a "bloke" was pure sexist discrimination. It would be better to say "human", but we would still discriminate against dolphins.

Obviously, "intelligent lifeform" would thus be a vast step ahead towards a politically indoct, I mean correct society. But wouldn't an android feel discriminated against by these seemingly innocous words? I guess so! I think for now we can settle with "intelligent being", until our word-twisting technology is advanced enough to enable us not to discriminate against unintelligent beings and non-beings.

djork · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
djork:
I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.

I don't know whether you are a contractor or an employee, but, if you are a contractor, I think it's appropriate that you supply your own licensed copy of Visual Studio, as well as your own laptop.

I am an employee of a contractor. We are provided Gov't-issued workstations that are barely suitable for development and 15-inch CRT monitors. No more, no less.

Volmarias · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
By stating his ethnic origin, the poster is drawing attention to that aspect which is discriminating by ethnicity.

I wholeheartedly agree, but we should not stop there. Mentioning that the applicant was a "bloke" was pure sexist discrimination. It would be better to say "human", but we would still discriminate against dolphins.

Obviously, "intelligent lifeform" would thus be a vast step ahead towards a politically indoct, I mean correct society. But wouldn't an android feel discriminated against by these seemingly innocous words? I guess so! I think for now we can settle with "intelligent being", until our word-twisting technology is advanced enough to enable us not to discriminate against unintelligent beings and non-beings.

Your adjective is still discriminatory. What if the applicant is an MSCE, or comes from a background in management? What if the applicant is the "See-Pound" applicant? We cannot simply assume intelligence, just because of what job is being applied to?

Frankly, until we can think of a real word to use, I say we should just call everyone Chicken. For a more complete explaination, please see the following:
Chicken

mrsticks1982 · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
djork:
Anonymous:
I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog

I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.
Had to go to the VS2005/SQLServer 2005 launch event in Houston to get a copy of VS2005 to use at work.

thats when you start telling them how cheap open source technologies are. I work with .NET but they over charge everything!

CodeReaper · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

*begins using advise from the comments to pretty-up his resume*

*puts a pen-stroke through "Stays the hell out of the way" (which was in red crayon), and writes "Provides passive productivity amplification with occasional demonstrations of common coding fallacies" with glue and red sparklies*

*crosses out "Helps office plants live by turning Oxygen into Carbon-Dioxide" (written in blood) with "Actively aids in providing richer and healthier atmosphere for the entire devlopment team" with letters cut out of a local newspaper*

*tongue sticking lazily from the left side of his mouth, he skips off to the company photo-copier to prepare his latest round of ammunition against corporate America at large*

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

hmm, the persons sex also is irrelevent. Should be 'I once interviewed a really nice person'.

WIldpeaks · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

JamesCurran:
Well, we can assume that the clients only method of dealing with the problem was to re-boot the server, a task which, depending on it's workload, could easily take 15 minutes.

The Real WTF(tm) is that rebooting a server every 30 minutes is a solution to anything.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
hmm, the persons sex also is irrelevent. Should be 'I once interviewed a really nice person'.

yep, and he can be referred to as "it" to prevent any revelations as to gender

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

WIldpeaks:
The Real WTF(tm) is that rebooting a server every 30 minutes is a solution to anything.

Not really, I've had to work on several systems where this was the norm (due to memory leaks in software from the vendor which the vendor claimed didn't exist). It's not unlike having to do a "FORMAT C:\" every few months to get Windows back into a stable state. :P

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

mrsticks1982:
Anonymous:
djork:
Anonymous:
I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog

I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.
Had to go to the VS2005/SQLServer 2005 launch event in Houston to get a copy of VS2005 to use at work.

thats when you start telling them how cheap open source technologies are. I work with .NET but they over charge everything!

Actually this was like a double WTF. Even though we are a "technology" company that does "custom programming", I have the only compiler installed in the entire company (hand to <exalted figure of your choice>). And if I had asked for this piece of software as a purchase, I would have to try and shatter their poor delusions of grandeur while justifying the cost. So the questions would've been why do we need it and why do we need to spend so much money to get it.

Easier to drive to Houston for a day and get a free copy. (Thanks Microsoft).

Saladin · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
It's not unlike having to do a "FORMAT C:\" every few months to get Windows back into a stable state. :P

I'm guessing the latest experience you have with Windows is Windows 95 :P

Okay, not quite, but all of the BSODs and reinstalls that people love to complain about Windows for have never once been an issue for me in all of the years I've been using Windows XP (not even during the betas). Not a single BSOD when it hasn't been due to a bad driver install or something else that's either my fault or the fault of bad hardware.

I still prefer Linux for most stuff, but it just bugs me a little to see people complaining about that sort of archaic Windows stuff when the last time it was a relevant complaint was maybe 6 years ago ;P

Anonymous:
Even though we are a "technology" company that does "custom programming", I have the only compiler installed in the entire company (hand to <exalted figure of your choice>). And if I had asked for this piece of software as a purchase, I would have to try and shatter their poor delusions of grandeur while justifying the cost.

You need to do one of two things:

1. Leave that WTF company
2. Leave that WTF company after printing off a few hundred copies of your resumé first

A "custom programming" company that doesn't understand what a compiler is and why you might need it? Perhaps one of the biggest WTF's I've ever seen on this site.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:

After the interview, the interviewer started wondering about this mysterious "UN-9"... when suddenly it dawned on him - if you're into Roman numerals, that's how you'd pronounce "UNIX" if you've only ever read the word instead of actually discussing it with someone!

Um, it's "Unix" not "UNIX." It's not an acronym. If I ever see a resume with it listed as an acronym, I ask them to tell me what it stands for.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Saladin:
I'm guessing the latest experience you have with Windows is Windows 95 :P
Okay, not quite, but all of the BSODs and reinstalls that people love to complain about Windows for have never once been an issue for me in all of the years I've been using Windows XP (not even during the betas). Not a single BSOD when it hasn't been due to a bad driver install or something else that's either my fault or the fault of bad hardware.
I still prefer Linux for most stuff, but it just bugs me a little to see people complaining about that sort of archaic Windows stuff when the last time it was a relevant complaint was maybe 6 years ago ;P

The :P at the end of my comment was supposed to mark it as sarcastic. I've been using XP for a long time now too and I like it. But, I have had to completely reinstall it twice because it became completely unstable (and no, I haven't been going to porn sites and getting infected with loads of spyware). The biggest culprit it seems is media player (v10). I use it to listen to my music (I used to use winamp, but it seems to destroy my computer faster than unattended spyware installs) and to watch the occassional tv show I download. But for some reason, the codecs start getting corrupted after a while and eventually other parts of the system start showing weird behavior. I can't say for certain it is media player, but it just seems like more than a coincidence. (There's not enough room here and I don't have the time to go into my complete reasoning for suspecting media player. It could also be the combination of media player and Halo.)

As for the BSOD, while it hasn't made as much of an appearance as it did in earlier versions of Windows, I was hit with it once about 3 months ago. I was surprised to see it because I thought MS got rid of it altogether. Ah well.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Education:
WTFU, 1969 - Present, 9.9 GPA
BS, MS, and PhD in BS, specializing in Passing the Buck methodologies.
The year should be 19NaN.

just brillant!

djork · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:

After the interview, the interviewer started wondering about this mysterious "UN-9"... when suddenly it dawned on him - if you're into Roman numerals, that's how you'd pronounce "UNIX" if you've only ever read the word instead of actually discussing it with someone!

Um, it's "Unix" not "UNIX." It's not an acronym. If I ever see a resume with it listed as an acronym, I ask them to tell me what it stands for.

If you were interviewing me and you asked me what "UNIX" stood for I'd think you were an idiot. It's either way: UNIX or Unix.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I once got a resume from an experienced 'lunix' programmer.

In some UNIX/Linux circles it's a shorthand for, well, UNIX/Linux Operating Systems. He might not have been the bad apple you thought he was.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
I don't know whether you are a contractor or an employee, but, if you are a contractor, I think it's appropriate that you supply your own licensed copy of Visual Studio, as well as your own laptop.

Apparently you also think it's appropriate for any passing contractor to connect their laptop to the company network. At most of the organisations I've worked recently that would be rated a big WTF.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
" Umm, get a little less sensitive. They weren't being racist, just stating a fact. They even said he was "really nice"?"
Being racist isn't just about beating up on someone because of the colour of their skin. By stating his ethnic origin, the poster is drawing attention to that aspect which is discriminating by ethnicity. Oh, and because he said he was "really nice", then that makes it all ok? So it would be alright to say "I think black people are really nice, but they shouldn't be in our country". Bit more extreme and obviously racist, but it's ok because they said they are "really nice".
If it was "I once interviewd[sic] a really nice fat bloke", then yes I would still be annoyed by that. It doesn't add anything and there is no need for it.

Captcha : stfu (how apt).

In the effort to be "politically correct" most smart people eventually realize that its impossible to avoid pissing SOMEONE off. For example, somewhere out there, there is a person who would be offended by, "I had an interview with a very nice guy" because the the person talking didn't say "person."

Get over yourself, and watch Mind of Mencia.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
Seems like it wasn't a mistake on your part - you caught him red-handed
Not so fast! Sometimes it's the head-hunter who adds all the latest buzzwords and acronyms.

Indeed. With the number of buzzwords flying about now... The HR person might ask for "LAMP", you might have Linux, Apache, MySQL and Perl/PHP skills, but, you don't know the acronym and the HR person doesn't know what "LAMP" stands for either. Asking "what's LAMP?" marks you down in that HR person's eyes for not knowing. (If you don't know what the name is, how could you have the skills?!)

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Sean:
Is CMO compatible with C-Pound?

GOOD ONE!

HEY, I worked with Collateralized Mortgage Obligations! I guess I can't abbreviate them CMO anymore! I HAVE worked with COM also though! I didn't know there was a language though! 8-)

Steve

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:
I once got a resume from an experienced 'lunix' programmer.
In some UNIX/Linux circles it's a shorthand for, well, UNIX/Linux Operating Systems. He might not have been the bad apple you thought he was.

Or he might have been a developer for Lunix, the Unix for Commodore 64s.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

John Smallberries:

I recently received a résumé from a candidate who had extensive experience in C+ and Pearl.
*cries*

You NEVER know! Sometimes some STUPID "recruiter" will add stuff, or a secretary will "correct" an "obvious" mistake. It may EVEN have been taken over the phone. PERL DOES sound like Pearl. C++ DOES sound like C+ with a stutter.

Steve

Volmarias · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

WIldpeaks:
JamesCurran:
Well, we can assume that the clients only method of dealing with the problem was to re-boot the server, a task which, depending on it's workload, could easily take 15 minutes.
The Real WTF(tm) is that rebooting a server every 30 minutes is a solution to anything.

Please tell our IT department this. We're stucking using Outlook, and the mail server apparently needs to be rebooted 4 times a day.

I want to cry.

HitScan · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Volmarias:
WIldpeaks:
JamesCurran:
Well, we can assume that the clients only method of dealing with the problem was to re-boot the server, a task which, depending on it's workload, could easily take 15 minutes.
The Real WTF(tm) is that rebooting a server every 30 minutes is a solution to anything.

Please tell our IT department this. We're stucking using Outlook, and the mail server apparently needs to be rebooted 4 times a day.

I want to cry.

If your IT depatrment has to reboot a mail server regularly then they're massive failures. If you think it's because you're using Outlook on your machines (There is no Outlook server, it's called Exchange) then you're also a massive failure. Reach higher! Or something like that.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

I think you might want to rethink your view: from http://www.unix.org/trademark.html, "UNIX is a registered trademark of The Open Group". Apparently the current trademark owners believe that it should be used in all-capitals.

BrownHornet · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:

I once was interviewing a candidate who seemed to have a good resume, presented himself well, was knowlegeable on the right subjects (Unix System Administration), etc.
However, he was somewhat evasive about the references from his previous position, with the "State Correction System".
He finally admitted he was an inmate in prison for a few years for selling drugs, but he had some knowledge of computers and had become system adminstrator for the prison.

This is more common than you would think. At my previous job, a colleague told me a story about an installation he did at a small county jail. He needed someone to create a few email accounts for our software to use, and the officer he was dealing with said that this would be a problem, because their system administrator was an inmate that got paroled the week before, and nobody else knew how to do it.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

We interviewed an candidate that was "an expert C++ programmer". I'm a terrible C++ programmer, so I had a limited set of questions to ask him about the language.

Me: Do you know what a constructor is?

candidate: ummm. yes.

Me: Can you tell what a constructor is?

candidate: ummmm.....

I wasn't aware you could be an expert C++ programmer without knowing what a constructor is. I guess I'm better than I thought.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Saladin:
Anonymous:
Even though we are a "technology" company that does "custom programming", I have the only compiler installed in the entire company (hand to <exalted figure of your choice>). And if I had asked for this piece of software as a purchase, I would have to try and shatter their poor delusions of grandeur while justifying the cost.
You need to do one of two things:
1. Leave that WTF company
2. Leave that WTF company after printing off a few hundred copies of your resumé first
A "custom programming" company that doesn't understand what a compiler is and why you might need it? Perhaps one of the biggest WTF's I've ever seen on this site.

Not all bad. I'm getting a crash course of sorts in system/network/database administration. I get to bang out SQL queries and procedures of various difficulty regularly. I've learned some basic Crystal Reports stuff (version 7 :D )

And, now that I've had a compiler, I'm slowly introducing them to the concept of software development. Hopefully, with enough time (and enough input into the hiring process) I'll be able to turn Yet Another Software Vendor into Yet Another Software Developer. Just need to hijack a machine to start hosting subversion and actual bug tracking.

So, one of the benefits of being a really small company is being able to change fundamental direction.

But, yeah, I'm not banking on anything. I have my resume ready, and I just need to start actively pushing it out there. I have a problem where I like to bide my time.

Saladin · 2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Get over yourself, and watch Mind of Mencia.

Ugh. The Comedy Central execs were trying a little too hard to fill a very specific void with that one. What a piece of garbage.

"BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER...am I Dave Chappelle yet?"

It's like the scriptwriters did a find-replace on every Chapelle's Show script but replaced "the N word" with "beaner," thinking nobody would notice. Not to mention that Mencia is a joke-stealing punk, but that's a whole other topic.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Saladin:
Anonymous:
Get over yourself, and watch Mind of Mencia.

Ugh. The Comedy Central execs were trying a little too hard to fill a very specific void with that one. What a piece of garbage.
"BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER BEANER...am I Dave Chappelle yet?"
It's like the scriptwriters did a find-replace on every Chapelle's Show script but replaced "the N word" with "beaner," thinking nobody would notice. Not to mention that Mencia is a joke-stealing punk, but that's a whole other topic.

I've watched a couple of episodes of Mind of Mencia. Occasionally funny, often not.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Me: Can you tell what a constructor is?
candidate: ummmm.....
I wasn't aware you could be an expert C++ programmer without knowing what a constructor is. I guess I'm better than I thought.

But, he does know what a constructor is. "It" (because some people think it's sexist to write he or she here) just doesn't know how to define it. I'd probably have a similar problem (not specifically with constructor) in that I know what things are but when asked to provide a definition, I fall flat on my face.

2006-10-17 Reply Admin

princeton girl:
Um, it's "Unix" not "UNIX." It's not an acronym. If I ever see a resume with it listed as an acronym, I ask them to tell me what it stands for.

From the Microsoft XNA FAQ:

Q: What does XNA stand for?
A: XNA’s Not Acronymed

//mmm

2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Most people would respond with "yes" or "no" .. or true or false..

My response: "FileNotFound"

2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Later, at the same company, I introduced the magic of using larger packet sizes and streaming mode in Kermit to get about a 10x improvement in the speed of file transfers over international calls. (Yes, they did this via modem. It was a while back.)

KERMIT!!!! Oh man, the memories come rushing back. Upgrading your com program so that 300 baud can run at 1200 (Hayes FTW!!). 8N1!! B-modem!! Z-modem!! star-star-uparrow!!!!

*cries*

Feeling nostalgic.

CAPTCHA = zork

(It is dark. There might be grues.)

gblues · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Anonymous:

One "C" test was "how would you write a function that allocates memory and copies a string to that place?" Answer was "i wouldn't. I would use 'strdup()'". Interviewer didn't know that one.

Except there's no strdup() in C ;-)

Err, there most certainly is strdup() in C.

As far as "getting it" how the applicant improved performance by 50%, that should be easy: with the full version of the component installed, there's no need to run the "Push The Button" solution (which would've introduced some delay between when the dialog appeared and when the application clicked on it). Hence, a significant improvement in performance--although it looks like the applicant's advice wasn't followed.

Nathan

2006-10-18 Reply Admin

gblues:
Anonymous:
Anonymous:

One "C" test was "how would you write a function that allocates memory and copies a string to that place?" Answer was "i wouldn't. I would use 'strdup()'". Interviewer didn't know that one.

Except there's no strdup() in C ;-)
Err, there most certainly is strdup() in C.
As far as "getting it" how the applicant improved performance by 50%, that should be easy: with the full version of the component installed, there's no need to run the "Push The Button" solution (which would've introduced some delay between when the dialog appeared and when the application clicked on it). Hence, a significant improvement in performance--although it looks like the applicant's advice wasn't followed.
Nathan

Well, you both are right to some degree. There is no strdup in C but in Posix and thereby in almost any environment. Even NT claimed to be Posix-compliant.

And for the performance improvement from the original post: How far does the productivity of a coder/developer/designer/manager drop when he spends X years in "doing his job", followed by Y years in prison for stealing a lot of stuff he used?

capcha: billgates - can anyone say "doublespace" without grinning until biting his own ears?

Phill · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

ParkinT:
I had a dear friend, a fellow "techie", who died just last year. :-(
He had business cards printed with "letters after his name" like this Wilson Rogers, PhD, nacu
It was funny to watch people stare at the cards, impressed by his credentials. He had a very nice diploma displayed on his wall from The Internet Institute of Technology. He earned it by acing his final exam.
In his words, "The web-based final was in two parts;
1) my name
2) my credit card number
I GOT 100%"
The "nacu" stood for Not An Accredited University. But NO ONE EVER QUESTIONED HIM ABOUT IT.

You shouldn't have mentioned that he died. That added nothing to the story and is offensive and discrimanatory towards dead people.

jwenting · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Anonymous:

This reminds me of some interviews i went to. Let me share two"brilliant"interviewers with you here, as they tried to play the "shock and awe" game asking for deep knowledge in areas they could not evaluate because they did not know the stuff themselves..
One "C" test was "how would you write a function that allocates memory and copies a string to that place?" Answer was "i wouldn't. I would use 'strdup()'". Interviewer didn't know that one.
Then there was a test if i knew C++ or not, where they hand you a small function and ask what it does, only to get the paper back with all portability issues and two bugs carefully marked and explained.
I still have to grin sometimes when i remember these.

Or the job interview I had where they gave me some problems to solve, which I immediately recognised from a book I was reading at that time (and said so).

jwenting · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

WIldpeaks:
Anonymous:

"I once interviewed a really nice Indian bloke."
Why is there a need to include the guy's ethnic origin in this statement? It makes no impact on the story. If it was a white guy, would you say "I once interviewed a really nice white bloke."? I doubt it.

What's wrong with being Indian (which is a country btw) ? I woudln't mind personally if told of me "I once interviewed a really nice french bloke."

Nothing per se, but the amount of resume stuffing done by Indians (or their companies when they're going for offshoring projects) seems to be a lot higher than that for most other population groups.
Whether insecurity, dishonesty, or a combination of those doesn't matter, but it does put Indians in general in a bad light and makes one distrust all their claims.
Being a place where it's pretty much impossible for outsiders to verify claims makes it even harder to trust their resumes (and even more lucrative for them to do some "creative writing").

devdas · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

John Smallberries:
I recently received a résumé from a candidate who had extensive experience in C+ and Pearl.
*cries*

Pearl is a realtime programming language, used for industrial automation tasks.

http://www.irt.uni-hannover.de/pearl/pearl-gb.html

devdas · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

jwenting:
Nothing per se, but the amount of resume stuffing done by Indians (or their companies when they're going for offshoring projects) seems to be a lot higher than that for most other population groups.
Whether insecurity, dishonesty, or a combination of those doesn't matter, but it does put Indians in general in a bad light and makes one distrust all their claims.
Being a place where it's pretty much impossible for outsiders to verify claims makes it even harder to trust their resumes (and even more lucrative for them to do some "creative writing").

Bleh. It's only resume stuffing, not having one person come to an interview and actually have someone else turn up for work [1].

Any specific reasons why verifying resumes is difficult? Lots of companies in India are now looking at resumes and graduation certificates closely, because of this issue.

Please let me know of specific instances, I do have enough contacts who can raise a bit of a stink in the press. That resume stuffing and cheating is fairly common because of the volume of money involved, and it does need to be stamped out. It hurts those of us Indians who actually have honest resumes.

[1] IMNSHO, even resume stuffing should be a firing offense. And bill the lusers for the time you have wasted interviewing them (or post hiring/outsourcing issues).

un.sined · 2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
djork:
Anonymous:

I needed to install and IDE on my machine for a job I was on. I asked my boss where they registration key was and he told me to "just work around it" like they had done before. The problem (besides obvious software piracy) was that the vendor had made it much harder to defeat the registration key in the new version of their software. Instead of paying a few hundered dollars for a legitmate key, he me and another worker to try and defeat the key.
I shouldn't have even tried, but the challenge sounded like fun, so the two of us dug in and spent two days trying to crack the registration system. The vendor had done their job and we didn't make any headway. It took us another day to convince our boss that it was pointless. Add another three days for the purchase order to clear, and it was well over a week lost before we got the keys we needed - not to mention the $$$ he spent getting two contractors to pound on the key for two days.
CAPTCHA: hotdog
I'm still using a 90-day demo of Visual Studio because they won't buy legitimate license keys at my job. They bought one copy... and it's for 5 people.

I don't know whether you are a contractor or an employee, but, if you are a contractor, I think it's appropriate that you supply your own licensed copy of Visual Studio, as well as your own laptop.

I think that really depends on the job. I've contracted for Microsoft plenty of times, and they always provided the equipment and licenses for anything that was needed. It's been like that everywhere that I've contracted. I think the difference is that they contracted me to help with a project. If they'd contracted me to provide something other than another head (such as, develop something that does x), then it would be my responsibility to provide the hardware/software.

Of course, I think it was a bad idea to try and work around it as a contractor because the manager that instructed you to try and crack the software is very limited in his liability. Also, there's the matter of professional integrity.

Of course, it would be fun to try...

2006-10-18 Reply Admin

Err, there most certainly is strdup() in C.

No there isnt, and the fact that you think linking to a linux man page proves it is a WTF.

The Optimizing Candidate

Leave a comment on “The Optimizing Candidate”