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Admin
Mostly about the management screw-ups.
The VP-friend hired to run tech that was a friend of the original founder-with-money that could manage his way out of a clear plastic baggie. The founder-with-money that wouldn't let anybody else manage anything (the reason he hired the VP-friend).
The slimy lying-about-performance over which good people got fired (for not lying).
The vindictiveness of management. The amounts of stock and money that some C-level management (and his cute young girlfriend) got for sitting around and doing nothing (in another city!).
Oh, I've got stories alright.
Admin
damn, no preview...
s/could/couldn't
Admin
What a great set of detectives we have!! Hats off to you guys.
You should pool your talents and find all those America's Most Wanted. And, maybe, locate Osma Bin Laden while you are at it!
Admin
You should stop posting.
Admin
I think it would be wise of you to remove the SIMDESK reference from the comments.
They have already created a Wikipedia page for Simdesk with full reference to this site.
Who knows..the good folks at Virtudyne may rush to sue you for defamation even if it meant embarassing themselves. You can save yourself some headache.
Admin
So are you saying the grand finale of this story is only a metaphor?
Admin
Guys, guys. Please stop with the references to this other company who I won't name here.
I believe just as much as any of you that it's probably the same company. But if it is the case, then "Rob Graves" is going to be discovered, and he is not going to like the consequences. This blog itself might be shut down for posting company secrets. It is not a good idea to continue posting these things, guys. Please listen to me.
And what's more, if you're wrong and Virtudyne is not this other company, then the blog could still be shut down for libel.
In short, trying to work out the company isn't going to be a good idea either way. Please, stop trying to get this blog shut down. I, for one, enjoy this blog and I would loved to be able to see it carry on.
Thank you.
Admin
way to kill the joke
Admin
I'm not saying that YouOS is Virtudyne in disguise. However...
Admin
Trust me Alex has done very well protecting himself from anything they can do to him. Lawyer go for deep pockets and so wikipedia will get hit before wtf ever does.
Also there is something about the truth that makes a libel suit go away. I think they have suffed enough bad press, sueing or taking any action over the harmless postings of an internet community is not going to get them any good press.
captcha = truthSetsYouFree
Admin
Ya, tell that to SCO :)
Admin
Sorry but I must continue to respond to these pleas.
This blog cannot be shut down for anything that was written, speculation is just that, speculation. Alex has protected himself very well, and us musing over who this could be about is not actionable in any way.
Also Rob has nothing to fear unless he signed a non-disclosure agreement.
If it isn't the main company being speculated about still no harm done as nothing can has been confirmed or denied by the controler of this site.
Admin
Typo, or Grammer Malfunction, or Something (in the hidden network ad)
"For Readers, keep checking out the ads -- more and more are coming in each day and we are trying are best to make sure that they're all high-quality job opportunities. If you notice anything off, don't hesitate to contact -- quality is very important."
Should be:
"For Readers, keep checking out the ads -- more and more are coming in each day and we are trying our best to make sure that they're all high-quality job opportunities. If you notice anything off, don't hesitate to contact -- quality is very important."
That kind of thing really bugs me.
Admin
Wow, where to begin.
WTF!? - A Donkey?
Can you imagine if your "Internet" has to take a leak while you are editing your resume?, calcuating the cost of donkeys in VirudyneExcel?
I don't care if it is fake or not. That's just Saaaaad.
In your best Shrek(tm) voice...
"Donkey! You're going the right way about getting a smacked bottom!"
Admin
The Digital Donkey must be an upgrade from the Analog Ass.
Admin
When I first read "SimIndiana," I thought it wsa someone who had accidentally tacked an additional "na" on to "SimIndia." Then I started to realize that "SimIndiana" was actually correct! I started to get worried and a blur of insults, intended for the governor of my old home state, started to spring from my imagination. Wanting to know who was behind this foolishness, I clicked the "Contact Us" link on the SimIndiana site and realized that it was Indiana the city, not Indiana the state. I calmed down.
Admin
<pedantic mode>
I think you mean Grammar.
</pedantic mode>
Admin
Please everyone, let's stop this. I have worked for "Virtudyne" for almost five years now. "Junior" is a good and descent man that is working hard to make the product and everyone here successful. He stays late often and in many cases is the last person out of the building at night. He doesn't deserve this.
It was cute at first, but these postings are crossing the line and I have spent more time than I care in tears about this bull*hit. The company may not be what it used to, people may not be as friendly and don't stop by my desk to say hello anymore, but it still has a chance if we all come together as a team. The last thing we need is to fight off rumors and my Christian faith still has confidence that people will do the right thing when push comes to shove.
Admin
Right, no technical intelligence outside of Austin. . .because NASA isn't technical at all!
Admin
I just don't understand!!
Who on Earth hears an idea about straping laptops and satalite dishes to the back of donkeys and agrees it's a great idea!!
I guess money does thin the mind!!
I'm sorry but poor CEO, he's got to deal with this for the rest of his life, knowing that all the dailywtf community (and more now!!) know about this!!
Still, he can always start a farm (ranch) with all those left over donkeys!!
Maybe even start a seaside donkey ride in Skegness!!!!
Admin
That's what we were talking about, the descent of the company, and...oh, wait...
You're joking, of course. A basic understanding of Christian beliefs would indicate that Christians should not have faith in people to do the right thing.
I don't even know why I'm responding. I can't even tell if you're being sarcastic or not.
Admin
I wonder if these posts will last. Earlier I had posted that there was an amusing typo in the last bit of the ad before the article itself, "quality if very important". The issue was fixed, but then my post deleted, and while it had nothing to do with the article (but I argue that since the ad is in the article, then it's part) I thought it was amusing enough to stay.
And so this post has something to do with the main article, I'll say the donkey looks cute. (but I don't feel like expressing that sentiment in mug form)
Admin
WHATEVER!!! You're a emotional, two-faced wreck of a woman that is a Christian by name only and loves shoving your assistant pseudo-title in people's faces. You were almost as bad as that 80's presidential skank they fired in Client Services. But, i suppose I have to give you credit. At least you have half a brain, didn't sleep with members of the Server Team, a few of the Project Managers or threatened to charge one of your neighbors with sexual harassment via email. The truth is coming out and you can't stop it!!!!!!!
Admin
I thought you were joking, but then I checked:
<font face="Arial">3. By Mail :
</font><font face="Arial">Corporate Headquarters
Simdesk Technologies, Inc.
6510 West Sam Indiana Pkwy N. Suite 100
Indiana, Texas 77041
1-866-SIMDESK</font>
Dear god. They created simindiana.com by just doing find-and-replace on simhouston.com. LOL!! HAHA!!
I live in Indiana, and I am going to find out who is responsible for this and sue them.
Admin
Let the pent up frustrations of the "Virtudyne" employees come flowing out full force behind the protection of anonymous posts to a blog! Alex, look what you started. I love it! This is easily worth $18.25 for the coffee mug.
Admin
This site is such a big piece of CRAP!!!!!!!!!!!!
Admin
Donkeys are nothing. Let us hope they do not find a basselope.
Admin
Hello, Pot? This is the kettle speaking. Your spelling of grammar really bugs me.
Admin
<trollbiting>
Nice spur of drama.
But I don't think anyone here cares whether you can cope with reality or not. If all this Virtudyne story is real, and Virtudyne is actually SimDesk (wow look it's in bold!), then ridicule is all they deserve, and it's also all they will get. They can sue Alex if they feel like it, and if the laws where they live are so out of whack that they allow it.
Alot of (dare I say most?) users of this forum found the Virtudyne saga pretty entertaining. Alot of them also believe Virtudyne is actually SimDesk, since the similitudes are many. Suing Alex will not change this, neither will it silence all those anonymous posters who ridicule you (whether it's deserved or not).
</trollbiting>
Personally I think the Virtudyne idiots (whoever they are) got what they deserved, and I commend Rob Graves for milking those fools of their surplus of money.
As for SimDesk, I don't know anything about them, so best of luck to them, assuming their product isn't crap.
Admin
Good for you, and good for "Junior." If the company has got past the .com bubble and produces a real product, more power to you.
Personal decency does not make a person competent, however; the current occupant of the White House is a good example. As for your Christian faith, I am glad you are sincere about it, but I don't see what relevance it has here.
Admin
IANAL, but...
Would Alex be held liable for the comments in the forum? After all, he took pains to anonymize the company and the participants. He has neither confirmed nor denied that SimDesk was the actual company. The speculation in the forum is just that -- speculation.
Being held up as an object lesson of how not to run a company doesn't strike me as libel, necessarily. I mean, hell, Bobby Inman's torpedoing of Tracor is a case study in business schools of how to drive a successful company into Chapter 11.
captcha = awesomeness
Admin
Libel and slander only count if they are false statements that could reasonably be believed and damage the reputation.
For example, "Xela is really an arthopod from Cygnus B" cannot be libel because there's no chance of it being true. It's obviously ridiculous.
The example, "Xela could get into trouble for this. He was sued by IBM in 2001, and they took down his old blog, 'ibmsucks.com'." is also NOT libellous. It's not true and it's possible, but it doesn't damage his reputation. If anything, it bolsters his reputation because it shows that he's not afraid of getting sued or getting shut down.
The following example IS libel.
I'm not surprised that Xela has time to post this. I worked with him at Virtudyne. He got fired for spending all day playing on gambling websites. Last I heard, he was $55k in debt. He's in denial about it. It's really sad. I'd like to help him out, but he just won't accept any help.
This is only libel if (and only if) it is FALSE. If Xela did get fired for gambling at work, then it's not libel.
So, you have to:
1. Be false.
2. Be believable.
3. Be damaging.
And remember the pnemonic: Speak slander, lines of libel.
IANAL. YMMVBJ. CYLLFD.
Admin
This is quite possibly the best post ever in the history of The Daily WTF.
Admin
You heartless bastard, don't you care about the huddled masses in Africa/India/Indochina?
Admin
What in the hell did they do to you poor bastards to have you turn against each other like this??? There is no job or money in the world worth harboring this kind of hatred for other people.
I hope to god this is just B.S.
Admin
Found this in Microsoft's last 10k registered with the SEC. It seems Microsoft knows all about Simdesk. For the last 4 years they have listed them as a competitor. Four years ago Microsoft listed only: Apple, Corel, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Sun Microsystems as competitors. Simdesk was added 4 years ago and now they are grouped into their own category: WebBased Offerings.
This story has been a big waste of time. It's not true, its not a real company, Alex has been duped or has duped us, so WTF!!!!!!
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">United States Securities and Exchange Commission </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">Washington, D.C. 20549 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="5">FORM 10-K </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="2"><font face="WINGDINGS">x</font></font><font color="#000000" face="ARIAL" size="2"></font> ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">FOR THE FISCAL YEAR ENDED JUNE 30, 2006 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">OR </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="1"></font><font color="#000000" face="WINGDINGS" size="1">¨</font><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="1"><font color="#000000" face="ARIAL" size="2"></font><font color="#000000" face="ARIAL" size="2"></font></font> TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">FOR THE TRANSITION PERIOD FROM TO </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">COMMISSION FILE NUMBER 0-14278 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="4">MICROSOFT CORPORATION </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">ONE MICROSOFT WAY, REDMOND, WASHINGTON 98052-6399 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">(425) 882-8080 </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">Competition </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">Competitors to the Microsoft Office system include many software application vendors such as Apple, Corel, Google, IBM, Novell, Oracle, Red Hat, Sun Microsystems, and local application developers in Europe and Asia. IBM (Smartsuite) and Corel (WordPerfect Suite) have measurable installed bases with their office productivity products. Apple may distribute certain of their application software products with various models of their PCs. The OpenOffice.org project provides a freely downloadable cross-platform application that also has been adapted by various commercial software vendors to sell under their brands, including IBM, Novell, Red Hat, and Sun. Corel’s suite and many local software suites around the world are aggressively priced for OEMs to preinstall on low-priced PCs. In addition to traditional client-side applications, Web-based offerings such as AjaxWrite, gOffice, iNetOffice, SimDesk, ThinkFree, wikiCalc, or other small projects competing with individual applications, can also provide an alternative to Microsoft Office system products. Google has announced spreadsheet and word processing applications as web-based offerings and also provides an enterprise search offering that competes with SharePoint and our new enterprise search product. IBM has many different points of competition with Office system products with its Notes and Workplace offerings. </font>
<font face="ARIAL" size="2">As we continue to respond to market demand for additional functionality and products, we will compete with additional vendors, most notably in enterprise content management, collaboration tools, unified messaging, and business intelligence. These competitors include WebEx, and a number of business intelligence vendors such as Business Objects, Cognos, and Hyperion</font>
Admin
Yeah, and?
That doesn't mean they're actually capable of competing. Christ, they list WordPerfect and Lotus^WIBM SmartSuite. And if you think they are in actual fact genuine Office competitors, I have a brige to sell you.
Admin
First, if you want to cite official documents, just provide a link to the official site. You might as well have made that thing up, as is (i.e. it's not worth anything).
Second, assuming this is official, how does this disprove anything? Assuming that Virtudyne == SimDesk, this "excerpt" would only correlate the story of VD/SD's astroturfing, declaring itself a competitor to MS to whoever was willing to listen. To infer that the story is false based solely on this demonstrates some kind of cognitive dissonance on your part. And assuming that Virtudyne != SimDesk, how is this "excerpt" even relevant?
Admin
Maybe the real WTF is that Alex is laughing his ass off because he managed to convince a bunch of highly paid, highly intelligent computer programmers of the most ridiculous thing ever imagined.
Admin
lol
http://www.simdesk.com/default.asp?id=138
I find it amusing that their "Bangalore, India" office is not in Bangalore.
Or India.
Admin
Oh, speaking of WTFs, did you guys know that gullible isn't in the dictionary?
Admin
I don't know if the Digital Donkey refers to SimIndiana*, but I'm starting to find SimIndiana a gigantic WTF all in itself. Because I'm in Indiana, work for a library, and specifically remember recieving install disks for "SimIndiana," which was being given to many libraries around the state. Granted, no one really took the disks home, but I didn't think the entire thing was scrapped and reassigned to a city. WTF!
*If it does, then some of working at libraries may not appreciate the connotation. I may be a jackass (it's true, I can't help it.), but I prefer not to be told that I am. :P
Admin
Why is this so hard to believe?
In rural areas, especially in southern India, donkeys and mules are very common forms of transportation. How would you try to demo this product to the people of such regions? There are no paved roads, eletricity, etc ...
The fact that Virtudyne tried to sell this to such a place is not surprising given everything else they did. A donkey was a logical way to transport it.
Admin
It's becoming increasingly apparently that the "donkey" is a metaphor(perhaps a joke used within the company to ridicule the idea of the S*mIndiana/Digital Divide venture?). (I'll accept that you can't admit that publicly, and even that you'll explicitly deny it, but still, I'm going to have to assume it is true: it makes sense, and the converse does not. (Tying expensive equipment to a donkey to introduce a product to remote parts of India(which would be, coincidentally, quite accessible to human employees, and human employees are neither hard to get nor expensive to employ in India, as I'm sure many of you know) is more far-fetched by several orders of magnitude than creating an Office killer using VB. (One is something you could potentially convince someone completely clueless about programming about, the other is not.) I apologize for the impoliteness of just assuming that you're lying and ignoring anything you may claim to the contrary, but it really seems like the sensible option here.)
I just want to take this opportunity, on behalf of what I expect is a sizeable part of the readership of this blog, to say that I do not appreciate being told lies as entertainment. I might have bought a T-shirt or a cup or something with something less outrageous as the motive, but I certainly won't buy this knowing that the joke is probably just that -- a joke. (It's not really a funny conversation point if you know it just refers to a joke someone made on a website.) I don't always read the comments on these stories(I expect many readers never do at all); there's a chance I could've read this little piece of science fiction and assumed it to be "strange but true" because I believed this to be a credible site. Some commenters here still seem to take this conclusion seriously.
I believe you said at the start of the story that you had worked closely with the submitter to preserve the integrity of the story. You seem to have done the opposite. Much of the humour I used to glean from thedailywtf.com came from knowing that the stories were actually true(though occasionally brutalized by anonymization): as a generic joke site, it would be far less funny.
The entire concept of this site assumes that we, the readers, can trust you, the writer, to believe that which you write to be true. Please do something to recover your credibility after this. I appreciate that you won't be able to admit that this story in particular was false, but in lieu of actually admitting that you've lied, you can recover credibility by being trustworthy in the future; giving us WTFs that include code and are anonymized only where it's strictly necessary. Do not ever do this again. If you get your hands on a story that you can't tell for legal reasons, do not tell it as an outrageous joke metaphor.
(If you feel a moral obligation to tell these stories anyway, one possible option could be to start a sister site which allows everyone to submit stories anonymously, sorting by quality determined by voting consensus. When you've got a story you need to tell which you can't tell because you fear being sued, you can submit it anonymously on your own site. I assume that a disclaimer could take care of the legal problems here(the submitter could probably theoretically be sued, but of course no logs would be kept). This could also be handy for code snippets that can't be easily anonymized.)
Admin
That was fairly long-winded and this forum software seems to be... quirky, so I'll post it again formatted for your reading pleasure:
It's becoming increasingly apparently that the "donkey" is a metaphor(perhaps a joke used within the company to ridicule the idea of the S*mIndiana/Digital Divide venture?). (I'll accept that you can't admit that publicly, and even that you'll explicitly deny it, but still, I'm going to have to assume it is true: it makes sense, and the converse does not. (Tying expensive equipment to a donkey to introduce a product to remote parts of India(which would be, coincidentally, quite accessible to human employees, and human employees are neither hard to get nor expensive to employ in India, as I'm sure many of you know) is more far-fetched by several orders of magnitude than creating an Office killer using VB. (One is something you could potentially convince someone completely clueless about programming about, the other is not.) I apologize for the impoliteness of just assuming that you're lying and ignoring anything you may claim to the contrary, but it really seems like the sensible option here.)
I just want to take this opportunity, on behalf of what I expect is a sizeable part of the readership of this blog, to say that I do not appreciate being told lies as entertainment. I might have bought a T-shirt or a cup or something with something less outrageous as the motive, but I certainly won't buy this knowing that the joke is probably just that -- a joke. (It's not really a funny conversation point if you know it just refers to a joke someone made on a website.) I don't always read the comments on these stories(I expect many readers never do at all); there's a chance I could've read this little piece of science fiction and assumed it to be "strange but true" because I believed this to be a credible site. Some commenters here still seem to take this conclusion seriously.
I believe you said at the start of the story that you had worked closely with the submitter to preserve the integrity of the story. You seem to have done the opposite. Much of the humour I used to glean from thedailywtf.com came from knowing that the stories were actually true(though occasionally brutalized by anonymization): as a generic joke site, it would be far less funny.
The entire concept of this site assumes that we, the readers, can trust you, the writer, to believe that which you write to be true. Please do something to recover your credibility after this. I appreciate that you won't be able to admit that this story in particular was false, but in lieu of actually admitting that you've lied, you can recover credibility by being trustworthy in the future; giving us WTFs that include code and are anonymized only where it's strictly necessary. Do not ever do this again. If you get your hands on a story that you can't tell for legal reasons, do not tell it as an outrageous joke metaphor.
(If you feel a moral obligation to tell these stories anyway, one possible option could be to start a sister site which allows everyone to submit stories anonymously, sorting by quality determined by voting consensus. When you've got a story you need to tell which you can't tell because you fear being sued, you can submit it anonymously on your own site. I assume that a disclaimer could take care of the legal problems here(the submitter could probably theoretically be sued, but of course no logs would be kept). This could also be handy for code snippets that can't be easily anonymized.)
Admin
The comments are.
Admin
Said a bit more melodramatically than I would have put it, but I agree in the likelihood of the donkey as a metaphor, and if true, what a letdown. I doubt Alex intentionally deceived; the question is whether or not "Rob" was in on the joke.
Admin
This is lik the Where's Waldo of insanity...
Admin
That's like blaming the toilet for being dirty because you took a dump in it...
Admin
Hey! You're right! I wouldn't believe it if I didn't check myself: www.dictionary.com