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Admin
So did Jack H. try to click the headings? He could have fixed this mistake quite easily...
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That Epson window only serves to re-enforce why printer drivers are sins. Certain HP printers have secret drivers that don't do any of the crap, I don't know about other manufacturers though.
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How does one even do unethical research in computing? Force mice to work as turing machines?
This comment powered by FATIGUE. FORTIFY YOUR WORLD.
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TRWTF is inkjet printers. Color laser printers are cheap and awesome. Stop wasting your time on crap.
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Oh, but they do unethical research in computing all the time. They're called auditors and we are their lab rats.
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Of course the iMac is unethical. Given its enormous potential power, it might well cause people with Windows experience to become unnecessary, leading to a massive loss in jobs.
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The Chrome thing is sorely missing an "I don't know" box.
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When somebody unknown is in your backyard and doesn't respond to your hails, you should consider stopping them. Chrome is using that analogy.
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[1] Or whatever the witch hunt target of the month is. [2] aka Shopping list, letter to Grandma, printed Amazon receipt, etc.
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And what's with this "FORTIFIED WITH FATIGUE" nonsense, anyway?
I'd prefer it to fortify me AGAINST fatigue.
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However, if you select black and white output, it does not.
That's still no excuse for this ridiculous "feature." WTF Xerox?
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No comments yet about the wood table in the RAM picture? For shame.
Captcha: immitto Will you take out the trash? Immitto.
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Deep-packet inspection and session-theft attacks on unsuspecting users in order to probe their emails and social networks and browsing habits without permission? In the name of establishing useful trend information, naturally.
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LEGALIZE 45:30:25!!
CALL YOUR CONGRESSMAN/PM/DA/ AND/OR REPRESENTATIVE AND TELL THEM TO SUPPORT THE BILL TO MAKE 45:30:25 LEGAL!!
MEDICINAL 45:30:25 IS NOT A CRIME!!
45:30:25 4 EVA!!
Admin
Creating a sentient AI and then pulling the power cord?
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The real WTF is calling it by the name beginning with "m" and not by its proper name beginning with "c". The "m" word is derogatory. Shows what a state a nation has got into where the mainstream name for a medicinal and recreational plant of great efficacy and beneficence perpetuates the myth that it turns you homosexual.
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For an interesting variation on this, track down a copy of The Killing Machine by Jack Vance. The protagonist of this novel pulls off an audacious grand stunt of counterfeiting - in the universe of the book's series, banknotes are protected by a very very secret scheme that allows the central bank to issue cheap "fakemeters" to anyone who wants to be able to detect counterfeit money. The protagonist by chance intercepts (and blocks) a message that ultimately reveals the secret of the fakemeters, and he is able to produce a blank piece of paper that passes the test...
Admin
Ummm... just off the top of my head?
1 - Creating Killbots to kill all humans 2 - Research in to nanobots that crawl inside humans, liquefy their brains, and take over control by building a neural net in the now empty space. 3 - Contacting extra terrestrial life and sending them a list of our vulnerable spots. 4 - Pretty much anything written in PHP (I kid :) kinda)
The list goes on...
Admin
The Epson one actually isn't much of a WTF. A computer can be hooked up to multiple printers.
Admin
But Apple already had a massive loss in Jobs...
(...too soon?)
Admin
Unethical research is mostly done by the president's daughter
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That's really not the most egregious problem with UHC's web site. You could do a whole week of WTF articles just from browsing their site.
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Even in this tough economy, pancreatic cancer cells can get Jobs.
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Actually print-out is no longer required after great inventions like Ipad / Galaxy tab.
Just take it and you have portable paper. Also we should go toward paperless world soon, otherwise all trees will loss their life.
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A paperless world has as much chance at succeeding as a paperless bathroom. The Great Cornholio is not pleased!
BTW, trees are a renewable resource. Or perhaps we should stop eating corn because we might run out of corn plants after we eat it all. This whole tree hugging stuff is just a conspiracy to divert your attention form the use of non-renewable oil.
The real WTF is that the unethical research in computing is performed by making people view advertisements in their printer drivers. People are so conditioned to it these days that they don't complain, and actually buy more of the abusive products.
Admin
Our paper in the US is produced by exactly one small company, Crane Paper, in Dalton Mass. It only sells our particular cotton based paper to the Treasury. No other nations no other business. If you happen to stop by they have a nice museum to paper making in the eastern USA. They make other paper products as well; and will give you a little tour of some of the facility where those products are made.
You get to watch a video about currency paper and the security features in ours; they also allude to the fact there is lots they are not telling you.
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That's easy. Just decide you'd like to see for yourself how the Therac-25 operates and get some test subjects to help you out.
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Welcome to Third World. All bathroom is paperless only. Use water. that is what everyone in my country do.
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As a way to track down the person who wrote the ransom note or the terrorist threat or whatever, this only works as long as the criminals don't know that you're doing it. Once they know, criminals will be sure to print their ransom notes or whatever on a printer that they buy with cash or steal or otherwise acquire in a way that cannot be easily traced, and then dispose of after the crime. I suppose particularly sophisticated criminals will figure out how to disable it or fake it out. Like, hmm, can I find out the serial number of the Attorney General's printer -- like write some innocuous letter to his office and study the paper of the reply -- and then put that code on my terrorist threat? That would be funny watching the FBI track that down.
Admin
Or creating a sentient AI and then NOT pulling the power cord.
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Where to begin?
Find ways to collect large numbers of email addresses, and then send them advertising messages or scam solicitations.
Investigate ways to obtain private information about people without their knowledge.
Develop software for tax collection agencies.
Use computers to help develop weapons for use by terrorists.
Etc etc etc. Surely computers have been used in many unethical activities.
"Computers don't spam people. People spam people."
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PHP
[/thread]
Admin
Unethical research in computing - This part confuses me: Are we talking about unethical computer science research? Or tools to assist other unethical research, that use a computer?
Void the warranty - This is not a WTF; AFAIK, the warranty for every product these days is voided by using it normally.
Print the error window - Better print it quick, before the printer notices you're out of ink.
Our phone service is down - This makes sense; after all the headings are edited by phone...
Medical descriptions - The "pfsname..." part isn't nearly as interesting to me as the combination in the first part of the message: "Colonoscopy [okay...], Mammogram [okay...], Pap Smear [okay...], and Well Child [Wait...what? What kind of perverts are these guys!?]".
fortified with fatigue - This makes perfect sense, too. You exercise to stimulate muscle growth, but exercise makes you fatigued...wait, does this stuff actually do anything?
"Apparently, Chrome doesn't know everything then" - Well, duh!!! Chrome asked the plugin what it was, but the plugin didn't respond!
Admin
Imagine you are a low ranking tech or an intern at Capitol Corridor Rail. Suddenly all the phones just stop working. Your supervisor tells you, "Post a message on the CC Rail web site announcing the outage."
You quite naturally add it to the "Service Alerts" page. That's where any sensible person would look, right? And that page is well constructed just for that purpose -- quick posting of real-time info.
Then The Idiot Boss Whom Everyone Avoids On Pain Of, well, Pain grabs you and yells, "Be sure to add it to the CC Rail Mail too." and runs off to add his bit to the chaos attendant on the no phones thing.
So you open up the CC Rail Mail edit form, and discover that to add a message, you need to fill in the issue date field, the issue contents field, the article count, the article heading field, and the article text field. You cannot call your mentor or supervisor to ask what to do because, du-uh, the phones are not working.
And you cannot find anyone to talk to because they are all trying to solve the phone emergency. And if you take any longer to try to figure it out, the phone emergency will be over. And you know if TIBWEAOPOP ever asks you, "Did you add the emergency message to the CC Mail Page like I told you?" you had better be able to say "Yes, I did."
Would you just enter the emergency message into the article text field, with a link to the Service Alerts page, and press "Enter"? I would.
-Harrow.
Admin
+1 Classic book. Worth re-reading. Think I'll do just that this weekend.
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I've once got error "I expected stripped strings, but got null instead". Pretty fun outside context - but it was for one database handling libraries for Unity3d engine and happened only when someone tried to fiddle with query (anti-sqli safety nullified string then).
validus - meaning that all law written by us is valid (don't by any chance mistake it for "all law written by U.S.").
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Well Child is a child that has fallen down a well. Some aspects of that are covered by insurance.
TRWTF is giving a play station screen name to each medical condition.
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Research into unmanned, (semi-)autonomous, armed vehicles (aka killer drones).
Research into spying on and intercepting internet traffic for a large number of people, i.e. whatever China uses to run their great firewall.
Using computers to spy on and build massive databases on a large number of people.
On the flipside: Running your research in a way that exploits your researchers, for example by overworking them in hostile environments to the point where they become burnt-out and depressed shells of their former selves before they turn 35, then firing them and replacing them with younger workers.
Admin
How does that make it any less of a WTF? If anything, that makes it worse.
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I've tried this, and I think there's still a lot of research needed - it's expensive, the shiny screens just smear the poo around, and they sink to the bottom of the bowl and don't flush right.
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That's not unethical.
That's standard procedure.
Admin
Semi-plastic? I think some countries go an extra hog than that and use actual plastic... Australia for example. We got rid of silly paper money way back in the 90s. According to Wikipedia, "Countries that have since [Australia in 1988] switched completely to polymer banknotes include Bermuda, Brunei, Canada, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Romania and Vietnam."