• (cs)

    5046354 days? That's over a year!

  • (cs)

    13K year trial! Competition has really altered the software market, eh?

  • Anon (unregistered)

    They call them "fingers" but I've never seen them "fing"

  • Keith Hackney (unregistered)

    That Norton one is just someone using a cracked copy of NIS. It seems that the length of the trial is linked in some way to the keygen so you get random amounts of days.

    Find them Symantec, find them quickly.

    Wouldn't it be good one day to have an error'd that didn't have any really long numbers in it?

    CAPTCHA=GASHPOLICE

  • Woowoo (unregistered)

    You might never have seen then fing, I've never seen them fig....

  • Andrew (unregistered)

    "Ken Burns" is a legitimate effect.

    Ze describes (at 1 minute 25): http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050906.html

  • hehe (unregistered)

    I don't see the problem with the quit dialog.. "Do you want to quit? AND did you save?". its not asking if you want to save..

  • (cs) in reply to hehe
    hehe:
    I don't see the problem with the quit dialog.. "Do you want to quit? AND did you save?". its not asking if you want to save..

    Maybe you didn't save but you still want to quit.

    Do you still think there is no problem? Do you want to give me a million dollars?

    |Yes| |No|

  • JonC (unregistered) in reply to Andrew
    Andrew:
    "Ken Burns" is a legitimate effect.

    Ze describes (at 1 minute 25): http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050906.html

    There's even a wiki page for it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_Effect

  • Bosshog (unregistered)

    5046354 days? But that's tomorrow!

  • (cs)

    The "Please be patient, I heard you the first time" isn't a WTF.. it's a cute popup :D

  • Anon (unregistered)

    The "fing" part of "finger" is related to "five".

  • John Doe (unregistered)

    The real WTF is that they don't know how to write "tigerprint", but they let it start with an "f" instead.

    Now, where can you find nearly four million cooperating tigers to scan?

  • (cs)

    The Ken Burns effect is a slow pan and zoom. It makes still images more interesting and is especially useful when the resolution of the source image is much higher than the display (like on television). It's named after the historical documentarian best known for it.

    What's the next WTF? Screenshots of "Fourier transforms"?

  • copo (unregistered)

    Figerprint? What good is the sensor to me if it's only for the mythical half-fish, half-tiger beast?

  • (cs) in reply to rohanprabhu
    rohanprabhu:
    The "Please be patient, I heard you the first time" isn't a WTF.. it's a cute popup :D

    Right, because it should of course be possible to click Cancel twice ... (once to cancel, twice to cancel cancelling)

    Reminds of FTP and trying to abort. Some FTP servers seem to have no clue about ABOR. At least with FlashFXP, you click Abort, and FlashFXP sends ABOR. The server doesn't care. So then you click Abort again, and FlashFXP sends QUIT. The server still isn't interested. So finally you hit Abort again and FlashFXP gets pissed and nukes the socket.

    Another server I use has a hissy fit and rips the connection down if you try to ABOR.

    I am sure everyone here has had plenty of occasions where Cancel just won't.

  • (cs)

    Well, nevermind the philosophical consequences of having a negatively-sized pagefile - it would be handy though, since by simply writing vast amounts of random data to it, we could reverse the overall accumulation of entropy and thereby prevent the heat death of the universe

    No, TRWTF here is the fact that windows needs the pagefile to be at least as large as the amount of physical memory in the system so it's big enough to be used to store a full crashdump after a BSoD. So how on earth did Dan manage to windows up and running and logged in and all the way to the control panel with zero RAM in his PC?

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    They call them "fingers" but I've never seen them "fing"
    Woah, there they go!
  • (cs)

    3997806 fingerprints! If it ain't one fing, it's another.

  • Lunkwill (unregistered)

    OMG, they burned Kenny! You BASTARDS!

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    They call them "fingers" but I've never seen them "fing"
    your might be merely finger, but mine is fingest.
  • (cs)

    Less than 0 pagefile...

    A pagefile is using HD as Ram.. so negative Pagefile means.. having no pagefile and having a RAM Drive, obviously.

  • Herohtar (unregistered) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    Well, nevermind the philosophical consequences of having a negatively-sized pagefile - it would be handy though, since by simply writing vast amounts of random data to it, we could reverse the overall accumulation of entropy and thereby prevent the heat death of the universe

    No, TRWTF here is the fact that windows needs the pagefile to be at least as large as the amount of physical memory in the system so it's big enough to be used to store a full crashdump after a BSoD. So how on earth did Dan manage to windows up and running and logged in and all the way to the control panel with zero RAM in his PC?

    That is not true -- I'm looking at my system settings right now and I can set my pagefile size all the way down to 2MB. In fact, there is an option for no pagefile at all.

  • J (unregistered) in reply to webrunner

    Ken Burns gets too much credit. They should call it the Chris Marker Effect.

  • (cs)

    TRWTF is why anyone would install Norton Internet Security in the first place and THEN go through the trouble of pirating it.

    Stealing that steaming pile of code is nearly as bad as buying it.

    Addendum (2008-03-04 11:25): Click "Unintstall"! Click "Unintstall"!

  • (cs) in reply to AlpineR
    AlpineR:
    The Ken Burns effect is a slow pan and zoom. It makes still images more interesting and is especially useful when the resolution of the source image is much higher than the display (like on television). It's named after the historical documentarian best known for it.

    What's the next WTF? Screenshots of "Fourier transforms"?

    Yup, not a WTF at all http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_Effect

  • J (unregistered)

    On the 0Mb Pagefile size shot. It has been (at least with XP) advised by many that with 2Gb of RAM or more, no paging file is necessary. That is just the warning saying you can't get a debug file after you manually set it to "No Paging File"

  • (cs) in reply to JonC
    JonC:
    Andrew:
    "Ken Burns" is a legitimate effect.

    Ze describes (at 1 minute 25): http://www.zefrank.com/theshow/archives/2006/05/050906.html

    There's even a wiki page for it http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ken_Burns_Effect

    And here's what IE gave me when I clicked 'play' on the video clip therein:

    --------------------------- Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library --------------------------- Runtime Error!

    Program: C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\iexplore.exe

    This application has requested the Runtime to terminate it in an unusual way. Please contact the application's support team for more information.

    OK

    Hmm. Little bit WTF, little bit sick.
  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    They call them "fingers" but I've never seen them "fing"

    Woah! There the go!

    ---Dammit, i need to read all the posts before posting. Lesson learned.

  • [twisti] (unregistered) in reply to J
    J:
    On the 0Mb Pagefile size shot. It has been (at least with XP) advised by many that with 2Gb of RAM or more, no paging file is necessary. That is just the warning saying you can't get a debug file after you manually set it to "No Paging File"

    Only someone with no clue about how memory management works would suggest something that stupid.

  • (cs) in reply to Anon
    Anon:
    They call them "fingers" but I've never seen them "fing"
    Crash Test Dummies:
    Well take my fingers, what do fingers really mean to me? You can easily look them up in the dictionary: They call them digits, or technically they're known as the "philanges"
  • Worf (unregistered) in reply to akatherder
    akatherder:
    hehe:
    I don't see the problem with the quit dialog.. "Do you want to quit? AND did you save?". its not asking if you want to save..

    Maybe you didn't save but you still want to quit.

    Do you still think there is no problem? Do you want to give me a million dollars?

    |Yes| |No|

    It's also against MacOS Human Interface Guidelines. Buttons are not supposed to have yes/no on them, but be verbs. That's quite a bit more preferable to the "Are you sure you want to quit?" with yes/no dialogs (which can inadvertently have double-negatives, as well as being a general UI nightmare since the answers aren't consistent ("Quit without saving?" vs "Save before quitting?"). And it becomes a WTF if instead of yes/no/cancel, you give yes/no.

    Instead, in OS X, you're supposed to say "You have made changes since you last saved. What do you want to do?" with buttons "Save and Quit", "Quit without saving", and "Cancel". Thus, the buttons and actions aren't ambiguous.

    (Mac users are actually quite picky with UI - they demand a certain amount of "polish"...)

  • Shinobu (unregistered) in reply to J
    J:
    with 2Gb of RAM or more, no paging file is necessary.
    I'm not that into WinXP pagefile configuration, but unless the system automatically creates one when needed I would consider it bad advice. Of course, WinXP hits its absolute ceiling at less than 4GB, even though (IIRC) IA32 supports segmented addressing in 32-bit mode as well, which is probably what Linux kernels use when compiled to support large amounts of RAM.
  • (cs) in reply to Keith Hackney
    Keith Hackney:
    That Norton one is just someone using a cracked copy of NIS. It seems that the length of the trial is linked in some way to the keygen so you get random amounts of days.

    Find them Symantec, find them quickly.

    Wouldn't it be good one day to have an error'd that didn't have any really long numbers in it?

    CAPTCHA=GASHPOLICE

    How long is 0, Keith?

    Or didn't you scroll down through the rest of the article?

  • Peter Norton. NOT! (unregistered)
    Thanatos:
    13,825 years seems a pretty generous trial period.
    Considering it's a Symantec product, it doesn't sound so generous at all -- more like an eternal punishment...
  • foo (unregistered) in reply to Keith Hackney
    Keith Hackney:
    That Norton one is just someone using a cracked copy of NIS. It seems that the length of the trial is linked in some way to the keygen so you get random amounts of days.

    Find them Symantec, find them quickly.

    Wouldn't it be good one day to have an error'd that didn't have any really long numbers in it?

    I don't think so. If you look at the two long numbers, the fingerprint one is 3997806 = 0x3D006E and the Norton one is 5046354 = 0x4D0052. They both look like small 16-bit numbers that are being displayed from a 32-bit field. The Norton one is probably 0x52 = 82 days and the Verisign one is 0x6E = 110 fingerprints.

  • J (unregistered)

    Hey twisti, So you're saying virtual memory on a disk is mandatory no matter the amount of physical RAM? Let's try to remember why virtual memory was created in the first place. Idiot.

  • [twisti] (unregistered) in reply to J
    J:
    Hey twisti, So you're saying virtual memory on a disk is mandatory no matter the amount of physical RAM? Let's try to remember why virtual memory was created in the first place. Idiot.

    You clearly don't seem to understand at all what a page file is used for nowadays. This isn't 1975. Go read a book or something before you make yourself look like a fool in public. Your post literally belongs on the front page of this website.

    I'll put it in simple terms for you: No, just because you only use 500mb of your 2gb ram does NOT mean turning off the page file will have no effect. In fact, turning off the page file will slow your system down considerably. If you do not have the knowledge to understand why, then I suggest Google, your CS for beginners teacher or a public library, as a detailed explanation would exceed the limits of this forum.

  • (cs) in reply to rohanprabhu
    rohanprabhu:
    The "Please be patient, I heard you the first time" isn't a WTF.. it's a cute popup :D
    Yes, because when I’m pressed for time to do something, and I’m rushing so I click the wrong menu item, and now I just want to get rid of the stupid modal dialog box, and it won’t go away, and maybe I slewed off too quickly when I clicked Cancel, because I’m rushing, because, you know, I’m pressed for time, and so I take the time to click Cancel carefully this time, THEN just what I need is some cute attitude from the software that is like, “Oh, I know you hit Cancel, but I didn’t indicate I did, because you’re just a user, and I have more important things to do than respond to you. You just sit there and wait, and I’ll cancel if and when I feel like it.”

    Yeah, that’s how a computer should be.

    Bowman: Open the pod bay doors please, HAL. Bowman: Open the pod bay doors please, HAL. Bowman: Hello, HAL, do you read me? Bowman: Hello, HAL, do you read me? Bowman: Do you read me, HAL? Bowman: Do you read me, HAL? Bowman: Hello, HAL, do you read me? Bowman: Do you read me? HAL: Affirmative, Dave. Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.

    --RA

  • whicker (unregistered) in reply to Rank Amateur

    this irritating waiting stuff I've found has more or less has to do with the lack of timers and un-cancelable I/O in most languages.

    If the program message loop receives a close command, it really can't do a whole lot except wait while another thread is cranking away in what probably amounts to a tight inner loop. Indeed it is a case of, "I heard you the first time, but this other stupid thread of mine isn't listening to me. You can kill me off, but it's probably the system I/O call of your OS and not my fault anyways."

  • Ferg (unregistered) in reply to [twisti]

    Hate to tell you twisti, but you are in fact wrong. All the pagefile is used for besides the temporary memory dump shown is storage of memory pages that haven't recently been used. It does this to free RAM for other applications and prevent page faults. So yes, not having a pagefile is in general a bad thing in that the system is more vulnerable to page faults which in turn slow down the system, but in no way is it absolutely necessary if you don't exceed your physical memory capacity to begin with.

  • Cam (unregistered) in reply to [twisti]

    A detailed explanation might exceed the limits of this forum, but a simple link and some politeness would be nice: http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php#TurnOff

    I've been through a CS degree and got a pretty much WTF-less programming job*, and I'd never heard about Windows' memory management - we were taught how a computer works from the transistor level up, but my course covered more general concepts rather than Windows-specific ones. I've heard plenty of the advice discussed in the article - 2x your RAM size, fixed size to avoid fragmentation, etc - and practised it at various points in my PC ownership, so it's pretty interesting to find out what Windows is actually doing behind the scenes.

    • Pre-emptive snarky comment: yes, I'm a Java programmer, and thus have never had to deal with Windows' arcane rituals and innards. I am not hardcore. Deal with it.
  • (cs) in reply to The General
    The General:
    And here's what IE gave me when I clicked 'play' on the video clip therein:

    I made the original clip - it's also posted on YouTube (in lower resolution).

    The Real WTF is Wikipedia's video player - it's just too clever at times. =)

    Old piece of wisdom I heard once: "You try to shoot yourself on the foot using Javascript. If you are using Netscape, your arm falls off. If you are using Internet Explorer, your head explodes." Still as valid as ever! So, it crashes MSIE for you; for me, on Firefox, it mis-guesses that I want QuickTime and refuses to play (but lets me select VLC, so it actually plays just fine, except I have to choose VLC every time I want to play a video on Wikipedia).

  • raptor (unregistered) in reply to DaveK
    DaveK:
    So how on earth did Dan manage to windows up and running and logged in and all the way to the control panel with zero RAM in his PC?
    Big cache.
  • oneup (unregistered) in reply to raptor

    Or a big set of CPU registers.

  • Péter (unregistered) in reply to Anon

    There has to be at least one language translated to which a four-letter word becomes a real four letter word: http://szotar.sztaki.hu/dict_search.php?start=1&F=0&L=HUN%3AENG%3AEngHunDict&M=1&E=1&C=1&A=0&S=H&T=1&D=0&G=0&P=0&MR=100&flash=&sid=af6c7b8c77e2ae82a04e141814eda430&vk=&start=&W=fing&O=ENG

  • (cs) in reply to Cam
    Cam:
    I am not hardcore.

    That rather depends on your definition of "hardcore". You made a living working in a pointless toy language.* That's pretty hardcore.

      • No, I am not serious. Put down the torch.
  • (cs)

    I thought the first one had something to do with the replacing of fingerprints with new ones - "The new fingerprints will be used next time you log on"

  • (cs) in reply to [twisti]

    Interesting.

    So... how does keeping everything in RAM be slower than thrashing the sh*t out of the HDD?

  • Marcos (unregistered)

    The ImgBurn dialog is not a WTF, that's awesomeness.

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