The Daily WTF: Curious Perversions in Information Technology

jeremydwill · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Mung Kee:
AndrewVos:

good job!

[pi][pi]

nope, bad job, just like almost everyone else.

OK here is my attempt to get a piece of the PI: [image]

jeremydwill · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

jeremydwill:
Mung Kee:
AndrewVos:

good job!

[pi][pi]

nope, bad job, just like almost everyone else.

OK here is my attempt to get a piece of the PI: [image]

Well - that was simple! Just put in an IMG tag in the HTML view:

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Heh, you are all just copying his avatar.

[image]

Mung Kee · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

jeremydwill:
jeremydwill:
Mung Kee:
AndrewVos:

good job!

[pi][pi]

nope, bad job, just like almost everyone else.

OK here is my attempt to get a piece of the PI: [image]

Well - that was simple! Just put in an IMG tag in the HTML view:

[image]

That may get the job done but as far as I'm concerned, an img tag is a workaround.

ComputerGuyCJ · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

masklinn · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Ytram:
Mung Kee:

sinistral:
OK, no pizza for me. Perhaps I shouldn't bother trying in Firefox on Linux.

I have tried everything and can't get it to work. It's one of the best kept secrets of the forum. [pi]

It's as easy as... well... pie.

[image]

Seriously though, it requires IE for the way I figured it out. Select the picture, or just right click on it and copy. Then you can paste it into the posting text box.

[image][image][image]
[image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image]

Seems to work for me

anzac · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Alex Papadimoulis:
...I think it's non-usage stems from the fact that IHBLRIA is completely unpronounceable...
...that they pronounceable or, at a bare minimum, contain the letter X...

...I think its asdf non-usage stems from the fact that IHBLRIA is completely unpronounceable...

and

...that they are pronounceable or, at a bare minimum, contain the letter X...

please.

bugsRus · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Manni:
bugsRus:
Manni:

DisturbedSaint:
DAMMIT
...

...
$10 says this doesn't show up right in the forum...

Please send my $10 to the American Red Cross thanks! [pi]

I wasn't saying that I'm betting $10. Heavens no, gambling is illegal in my home state. I was just saying that I have a $10 bill with a negative attitude.

Well, for you, since you're a fellow WTF poster, I have a special for you! I will correct the attitude of that bill for only $9.95!

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

Here are some
pi pi

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

(pi) :-)

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

[image]

mozka · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

With $10 i could enjoy some [image] and [image]

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

ammoQ:
The name of the method is wrong; it does not only check if the file exists, but also if it can be opened. Opening an existing file can possibly fail for various reasons (missing privileges etc.)

There's another elusive WTF here, I believe. It's not easy to find, though.

A pity problem that many programmers never realize until after they have implemented a system that receives heavy utilization---is that these precursor checks aren't really good at preventing a resource conflicts.

Assume that the file should only be used for exclusive writing (you don't want to write code to lock sections of a file). Process A checks to see if the file exists and can be opened and returns. Assuming the FSO destructor is called and the locks are freed, there is some time (very, very short) that process B could come in and perform the same action (locate and open the file).

Ok, so what if Process B has higher priority than process A and managed to do a subsequent action, like open the file for exclusive use, start writing data, then process A tries the same thing? Process A bombs.

99% of the time this problem with locking data has been eliminated with RDBMSes that have good contention-handling code, but with the need for developers to read and write out XML and other artifacts to the filesystem, I've seen developers become perplexed by this simple problem.

2005-10-25 Reply Admin

ComputerGuyCJ:

However, I have added it to Wikipedia for what it's worth: IHBLRIA.

And thanks to the watchful wiki-editors, deleted already. )-;

Rank Amateur · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

jeremydwill:
Mung Kee:
AndrewVos:

good job!

[pi][pi]

nope, bad job, just like almost everyone else.

OK here is my attempt to get a piece of the PI: [image]

Wait a minute. I am to understand that all this time [pi] is not intended to be an ascii emoticon of a square-headed big-nosed person looking askance?

Can I use it?

--RA

[pi] I think someone has tampered with my pizza [pi]

Jeff S · 2005-10-25 Reply Admin

How about IBREW ?

Invented But Reinented Even Worse

Otac0n · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Manni:
bugsRus:
Manni:

DisturbedSaint:
DAMMIT
...

...
$10 says this doesn't show up right in the forum...

Please send my $10 to the American Red Cross thanks! [pi]

I wasn't saying that I'm betting $10. Heavens no, gambling is illegal in my home state. I was just saying that I have a $10 bill with a negative attitude.

LMFAO!

Best... reply... ever!

[pi]

llxx · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Those of us that are used to foreign languages will find IHBLRIA easy to pronounce - ihb-l-ria with a partially silenced "l" sound. ihb is like ib except with an "ih" sound.

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Mung Kee:
jeremydwill:
jeremydwill:
Mung Kee:
AndrewVos:

good job!

[pi][pi]

nope, bad job, just like almost everyone else.

OK here is my attempt to get a piece of the PI: [image]

Well - that was simple! Just put in an IMG tag in the HTML view:

[image]

That may get the job done but as far as I'm concerned, an img tag is a workaround.

Yeah, an img tag is a workaroud but... [B][image][B] gives a few exciting opportunities.

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

in DAO you had to explicitly set things to Nothing in the right order otherwise things could stay alive due to circular references. This then seeped into VB programmers brains as "you must set everything to Nothing" as leaving things to go out of scope doesn't always work.

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

"On Error Resume Next" is the worse f**king statement in VB/VBScript. It essentially says "yeah, I know we're screwed but we're gonna get to the end regardless". Nothing like real error handling, is there?

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

[image][image]

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Isn´t it true that the Resume statement will clear the error anyway?

But even if it doesn't, it reminds me of some discussions about 'exception-' handling in Java....

AJR · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

ComputerGuyCJ:

Not sure what lexicon you're referring to, so I can't help you out there. However, I have added it to Wikipedia for what it's worth: IHBLRIA.

As "Anonymous Wikiwatcher" has already said, it has been deleted. Please don't add these sort of things to Wikipedia, not a brain-dump; Wikipedia is meant to be an encyclopedia, and its content needs to be verifiable. If it becomes a widely used term, then it would be suitable, but until then, it's just a tounge-in-cheek term that's been used a few times on this website.

masklinn · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

AJR:
ComputerGuyCJ:

Not sure what lexicon you're referring to, so I can't help you out there. However, I have added it to Wikipedia for what it's worth: IHBLRIA.

As "Anonymous Wikiwatcher" has already said, it has been deleted. Please don't add these sort of things to Wikipedia, not a brain-dump; Wikipedia is meant to be an encyclopedia, and its content needs to be verifiable. If it becomes a widely used term, then it would be suitable, but until then, it's just a tounge-in-cheek term that's been used a few times on this website.

It would more likely qualify as a tentative to start a meme than a simple statement/term.

tmountjr · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

A few weeks ago I was reading what was formerly known as Woody's Office Watch. In that issue, their local Access guru proposed an even worse implementation: Take a filename as a string, open it up with the Open function, then try to read from it. As if this sample here isn't wtfy enough, she had to actually open the file without using the FSO then try to read it. Her excuse when I emailed her about it: doing this requires a user to add a reference to the Scripting Host Library within their project, while anyone using VB can use the Open statement. ^o)

I used to do this myself...until I was reading up on the FSO and noticed that there was a FileExists() function. It'll compress to one line, so the only reason I place it in an extra function is because I don't want to have to type this all the time:

Application.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject").FileExists(strFileName)

Drop this in a function called "Function isFile(strFileName As String) As Boolean" and you're set to go.

dhromed · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

[:pi]

dhromed · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

NOOOOOOOO

Ytram · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

masklinn:
Ytram:
Mung Kee:

sinistral:
OK, no pizza for me. Perhaps I shouldn't bother trying in Firefox on Linux.

I have tried everything and can't get it to work. It's one of the best kept secrets of the forum. [pi]

It's as easy as... well... pie.

[image]

Seriously though, it requires IE for the way I figured it out. Select the picture, or just right click on it and copy. Then you can paste it into the posting text box.

[image][image][image]
[image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image]

Seems to work for me

Weird. When I did it in Firefox a thread or two ago, it just showed up as broken image blocks.

Let me give it another shot:

[image][image][image][image][image][image]

hank miller · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Manni:

$10 says this doesn't show up right in the forum...

So thats how you make this forum work: bet it won't.

Actually it works for me, but I learned early on that you never go to the html editing page, never try those fancy icons, and I let it do whatever it wants with the formatting of my message.   So long as I'm not posting code samples things normally look ok.

Well most of the time that works.   I'm not betting any of my money on it working on any particular post.   If I'm going to bet my money I'd like something deterministic in my favor, or at least deterministic even odds. (which is why you never see me in a casino) Though I guess I have money in the stock market, so I'm not sure if that is really the case...

emptyset · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Yeah, an img tag is a workaroud but... [B][image][B] gives a few exciting opportunities.

hey, he's got ears!

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Code Re-invented After Publishing?

[pi]

emptyset · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

llxx:
Those of us that are used to foreign languages will find IHBLRIA easy to pronounce - ihb-l-ria with a partially silenced "l" sound. ihb is like ib except with an "ih" sound.

are you from molvania?

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Let's try again...

Code Re-invented After Publishing

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Hah now we're back to our 3 option bool post from Monday. True, False, and ... uh.. something else. KindaSortaMayabe was my personal favorite.
H

Mung Kee · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
Let's try again...

Code Re-invented After Publishing

[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]
[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]

"I want to party with you cowboy"

Manni · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Kefer:

Isn´t it true that the Resume statement will clear the error anyway?

But even if it doesn't, it reminds me of some discussions about 'exception-' handling in Java....

Nope, Resume Next means it will continue to the next line regardless of errors and it will keep that error flagged until you check it or clear it yourself:

Err.Clear

It will also clear the error once you exit the function/sub (I think).

My attempt at a slice of the pie: [image]

Satanicpuppy · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

I see a lot people saying, "It's not that bad, it still does what it's supposed to."

But it doesn't. First of all,

FileExists = File.FileExists(FullPath)

Is the right way to do it...this implementation is less capable, less efficient, and less useful than the original. And second, this code can throw back a false negative if the file is locked or unreadable due to a permissions issue, something I would hope FileExists would not do. With this, after it has decided erroneously that the file doesn't exist based on the fact that it can't open it, the code may then go on to try and create the file, which, if this is not possible, could cause a full on crash, or it could write over the existing file, destroying any data in it.

Bad code! Bad bad code!

John Smallberries · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Anonymous:
"On Error Resume Next" is the worse f**king statement in VB/VBScript. It essentially says "yeah, I know we're screwed but we're gonna get to the end regardless". Nothing like real error handling, is there?

How is that different from:



try

{

    wft();

}

catch(...)

{/**/}

John Smallberries · 2005-10-26 Reply Admin

ugh.
well, you get the idea.

what is the canonical way to show code in this damn forum, anyhow?

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Function FrontPage_FileExists(fspath)
  On Error Resume Next
  FrontPage_FileExists = False
  Set fs = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
  Err.Clear
  Set istream = fs.OpenTextFile(fspath)
  If Err.Number = 0 Then
    FrontPage_FileExists = True
    istream.Close
  End If
  Set istream = Nothing
  Set fs = Nothing
End Function

2005-10-26 Reply Admin

Strictly speaking, acronyms are pronounceable - per definition. Otherwise they are initialisms. (At least according to some, according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acronym)

2005-10-27 Reply Admin

What you both missed is that the OpenTextFile call (IIRC) will try to create the file if it does not exist. :)

2005-10-27 Reply Admin

I've got to see how tough this is: pi
(Practicing on a thread a couple days old to not annoy the old pros).

pi

Ooh, clicking on the html tab shows this is mucked up. href="" doesn't seem right...

Can't drag and drop into the html version (at least not using firefox).

And trying the :'( emoticon::'(

nerfer

2005-10-27 Reply Admin

[image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image][image]

I like that. It appears us Firefox users are banished to copy from other posters.
I see better html links when I look at the HTML tab on this message, but I keep losing things I've typed since flipping tabs. Also the captcha things is one page behind a couple times.

<img src="../emoticons/emotion-33.gif">
If it doesn't show up on the post you're writing, it won't show up in the resultant post either.

img src="../emoticons/emotion-33.gif"

nerfer

2005-10-27 Reply Admin

Well, why didn't that work? It shows up in this editing page!
[image]
<img src="../emoticons/emotion-33.gif">
[image]

nerfer

2005-10-31 Reply Admin

A more better acronym:

WAWWAROWAAWD

Why A Wheel When A Round Object With An Axle Will Do?

The Return of IHBLRIA

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