• NightGod (unregistered) in reply to Kuba
    Kuba:
    Moekandu:
    It may not be as such for you, but "The Princess Bride" is a considered a cult classic.

    WTF?! A cult classic? For whom? 12-year old girls?

    Give me a break. Seriously.

    Most guys (and quite a few women) I know who went to high school in the late 80s/early 90s would consider The Princess Bride a classic. I honestly can't think of a time when someone has said "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" and it wasn't immediately understood by everyone in my age group. Ditto "that word you keep using...I do not think it means what you think it means".

    It's maybe not "Holy Grail" level of cult hood, but it's certainly up there.

    But hey, go on being bitter and angry, seems like you're enjoying it.

  • Reaver121 (unregistered) in reply to NightGod
    NightGod:
    Kuba:
    Moekandu:
    It may not be as such for you, but "The Princess Bride" is a considered a cult classic.

    WTF?! A cult classic? For whom? 12-year old girls?

    Give me a break. Seriously.

    Most guys (and quite a few women) I know who went to high school in the late 80s/early 90s would consider The Princess Bride a classic. I honestly can't think of a time when someone has said "My name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die" and it wasn't immediately understood by everyone in my age group. Ditto "that word you keep using...I do not think it means what you think it means".

    It's maybe not "Holy Grail" level of cult hood, but it's certainly up there.

    But hey, go on being bitter and angry, seems like you're enjoying it.

    I went to high school in the late 90s, early 10s and even I caught some of the quotes (although the first one about the Asian land war went completely over my head).

    On the other hand, I am surrounded by colleague programmers who are about 5 years older and don't know a thing about it. It could be that I know about it because I am a total geek or maybe because I am in Europe and it isn't that popular here.

    Unfortunately, I have to admit that my colleague's also don't know anything about (in no particular order) : the holy grail, wargames (the movie), final fantasy, Heinlein or Asimov. So they aren't probably that great as a reference.

  • (cs) in reply to NightGod

    I find it slightly amusing reading a conversation between (I assume) adult men about a movie I saw as a 10-yr-old at a friend's sleepover birthday party. (Yes, I'm a girl)

    It is a classic though, despite the fact that I sincerely doubt any of the other girls at the sleepover would find any quotes about a land war in Asia or Inigo Montoya amusing in the least. Looks like you're (mostly) alone on this one - the 10-yr-old girls have deserted you :)

  • Beej (unregistered)

    This is an interesting story, and really highlights leadership/management issues (or rather, the obvious lack of leadership/management/team building etc), in addition to the technical problems. Not to mention the issue of highly dysfunctional personalities that unfortunately populate our profession in relatively high numbers....

  • Abraham (unregistered)

    The RWTF is the kids here are quoting some unknown children movie (Princess Bride) and ARGUING about who got the "joke".

  • Tim E (unregistered)

    I just read my new favorite term ever: passive-aggressive C code.

  • the real wtf fool (unregistered) in reply to Moekandu
    Moekandu:
    Yes. We caught that you missed the joke. We also caught that you attempted to make a joke on that which you missed. In our not so subtle way, we pointed that out. The point of my post was to help show you how to make a funny.

    In any case, you did remember the quote. However poorly that may be. It may not be as such for you, but "The Princess Bride" is a considered a cult classic. I caught the reference immediately because it's just one of those movies that if I catch it while flipping channels, I have to watch the rest of it. I don't think I'm alone in that respect.

    We are not salivating over this. Reading your first comment and subsequent response to Zylon was like a slap in the face in its obviousness. I am trying to make you aware of your gaff and give you pointers on not making it again. I apologize if I offended you in my attempt to point things out. I've been doing this sort of thing with my brother for years.

    Don't worry, there's plenty of popcorn to go around.

    Wow. You so need to get out and interact with some real live human beings in the flesh.

  • MK (unregistered) in reply to CRNewsom

    Especially when DEATH is on the line HA HA HA HA HA!

  • (cs)

    As someone who was a teenager about the right time I have to admit having got all the quotes, and that the movie is one of my favourites which I still watch on DVD from time to time.

    I do find it amazing though that some people don't appear to realise that cultural references don't travel and are often very specific to the time and place of your upbringing. I think they need to spend more time mixing with those from different eras and areas.

    For example my wife (also a nerd) has once or twice quoted bits of "The Goonies" at me which go straight over my head but it would seem rather rude to make a big thing of it. Similarly my parents really like "Round the Horne" (a 1950's British radio programme) but I don't get most of the jokes.

    "Shall I do you now?"

  • Drak (unregistered)

    Goonies is great, but I'll be damned if I could remember any quotes from it (and I last saw it less than 2 months ago).

    I only saw Princess Bride once, and also didn't link the quote to that movie.

    Now Asimov and Heinlein, that's something I remember quite a bit of, seeing as Isaac is my favourite writer ever, and Robert has some cool books too.

    Then again, I did move around a lot when I was young and as such was exposed to many cultures and their types of movie, which I think is a Good Thing (tm).

  • (cs) in reply to Alan
    Alan:
    Yup, always get Australia first, then build up your guys.

    Yep. And then take one territory at a time to collect cards and hopefully bung 10 more men on.

  • Sanjay Kumar (unregistered)

    Hey Mr. Blogger, you failed to mention that these were American programmers, not outsourced ones. WTF? No more India-bashing? Ran out of steam?

  • (cs) in reply to Tim E
    Tim E:
    I just read my new favorite term ever: passive-aggressive C code.
    HA ! I've just inherited some - embedded C on a PIC. My predecessor/ex-colleague used up 92% ROM and 97% RAM while only implementing <90% of the functionality. Some of that was wrong, in spite of my suggestions from a previous very similar project which I'd developed.

    This is the biggest device in its family (8-bit PICs are very small). I'm now trying to persuade my bosses to migrate the whole thing to an ARM (and quietly re-writing most of it).

    </rant>
  • (cs) in reply to CRNewsom
    CRNewsom:
    He's just fallen victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly lesser known is this: one person is not always capable of fixing the problems caused by a team of many.

    Of course they are!

    Ctrl + A, Delete

    Problem solved.

  • Johny Mark (unregistered) in reply to WhiskeyJack
    WhiskeyJack:
    FredSaw:
    You forgot "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line".

    A-Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Ha ha ha- Segmentation fault

    Well, you could put death on hold before going against the Sicilian. </Epic_Movie_Joke>

  • gbjbaanb (unregistered) in reply to CRNewsom

    "One problem, though; computers are slow! The team agreed that a linked list would be too slow, so they'd make an array of pointers of a reasonable size for the dialog data"

    lol. Computers are slow, so heavily optimising your list logic will make it go faster... after all, I'm sure it takes no time at all to instantiate and display a whole dialog box.

  • facilisis (unregistered)

    I don't know if I'm the only one who noticed this but...

    ... when he picked up a job as a C developer ... programmers making their own versions of a class so that ...

    IN C??????

  • BadReferenceGuy (unregistered) in reply to Westley
    Westley:
    How do we stop these kids from stabbing each other in the face over the internet?

    If we only had a wheelbarrow, that would be something!

    That's easy enough: send them hunting with Dick Cheney.

  • (cs) in reply to facilisis
    facilisis:
    I don't know if I'm the only one who noticed this but...
    ... when he picked up a job as a C developer ... programmers making their own versions of a class so that ...

    IN C??????

    You can make classes in C. It's just exceedingly ugly. Inheritance is possible, but that's even worse.

  • Weezel (unregistered) in reply to Zylon
    Zylon:
    FredSaw:
    CRNewsom:
    He's just fallen victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is never get involved in a land war in Asia, but only slightly lesser known is this: one person is not always capable of fixing the problems caused by a team of many.
    You forgot "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line".
    Hey Fred, congratulations on being today's "That Guy". You know, that guy who thinks he's being really clever explaining the joke that everybody else already got. And ironically, thus making him the *least* clever person in the room.

    So yeah, today, you're That Guy. Here's your complimentary bag of stinky microwave popcorn.

    Is the bag of stinky microwave popcorn a reference to the bag of chocolate covered nuts offered to the dating show producer in Mallrats? You know, the one where Jason Lee gives him stink-hand? Namely he rubs his hand in the crack of his presumably skid-marked butt, and shakes hands with the producer after giving him the bag so that when he licks his fingers while eating the candy he gets sicks from the bacteria, turns green, and blows chows? Thus being distracted, allowing the protagonist a chance to get back his former girlfriend, the contestant in a dating game knock-off, also the producer's daughter if I remember correctly, being played by Claire Forlani? Because if that is the stinky kind of popcorn you are talking about, I sure would not want to explain it, and embarbutt myself in front of all the other readers...

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallrats

  • (cs) in reply to MET
    MET:
    For example my wife (also a nerd) has once or twice quoted bits of "The Goonies" at me which go straight over my head but it would seem rather rude to make a big thing of it.
    "Truffle shuffle" is pretty much the only thing anyone needs to remember from Goonies.

    /Now good evening. I'll most likely kill you in the morning.

  • (cs) in reply to Abraham
    Abraham:
    The RWTF is the kids here are quoting some unknown children movie (Princess Bride) and ARGUING about who got the "joke".
    You forgot to tell us to get off of your lawn.

    Seriously, the movie is decades old. The people who remember it fondly are no longer "kids" any more than fans of "The Wizard of Oz" are kids.

  • (cs) in reply to Sanjay Kumar
    Sanjay Kumar:
    Hey Mr. Blogger, you failed to mention that these were American programmers, not outsourced ones. WTF? No more India-bashing? Ran out of steam?
    Pipe down, curry breath. Harold's waiting for you at White Castle.
  • BBT (unregistered)

    Just because you inherit a bad system doesn't mean you have to keep it up.

    The old team didn't label backups? And you realize they were complete fuckin' retards? OK, so label your backups! It's not like the ghosts of the past team are haunting the stack preventing changes.

  • Buddy (unregistered) in reply to Weezel
    Weezel:
    Is the bag of stinky microwave popcorn a reference to the bag of chocolate covered nuts offered to the dating show producer in Mallrats?{snip LOL - not really LOL - more of a quiet smile - but still cute. When a cute girl makes a bad joke, I still laugh coz I'm thinking I might have a chance with her, even though I'm married, old enough to be her daughter, and love my wife.}
    I find microwave popcorn, especially with the buttery additive, smells very much like really old male cat piss. Mammalian urine often does double duty as a scent marker, depending on the species, with older and presumably better fit males having stronger scents.

    It doesn't remind me of the time when I was a kid and slipped in some bear shit picking apples in an abandoned orchard. Bears will eat anything to capacity, and too much fruit can act as a laxative. So anyway, I kept on picking apples even though my knee was wet with another animal's diarrhea.

    It also doesn't remind me of the time we moved into a new town and the local kids bet I couldn't climb a large Jack pine in the back yard. I climbed it not knowing it was reserved for a colony of fire ants. My descent was considerably more rapid. They got to see my wiener coz I had to take off my clothes to pick the ants out. The buggers grab tighter when you pull the bodies off. I didn't care much about being naked at the time.

  • facilisis (unregistered) in reply to Zemyla

    People try to use OO design in C??? Why not switch to C++ if you going to hack through that crap.

  • (cs) in reply to Kuba
    Kuba:
    Moekandu:
    It may not be as such for you, but "The Princess Bride" is a considered a cult classic.

    WTF?! A cult classic? For whom? 12-year old girls?

    Give me a break. Seriously.

    You appear to have confused The Princess Bride with The Princess Diaries.

  • Inigo Montoya (unregistered) in reply to Kuba
    Kuba:
    WTF?! A cult classic? For whom? 12-year old girls? Give me a break. Seriously.
    My name is Inigo Montoya. You insulted my favourite movie. Prepare to die.

    captcha: Inconceivable!

Leave a comment on “Toppling the Stack”

Log In or post as a guest

Replying to comment #:

Log Out

« Return to Article