• NancyBoy (unregistered) in reply to themagni
    themagni:

    So, you have to:
    1. Be false.
    2. Be believable.
    3. Be damaging.

     You forgot:

    4. Have enough money to be worth suing

    This is no different from about 40 gajillion blind items that appear in newspaper gossip columns EVERY DAY, saying potentially damaging things about people with entire law firms at their disposal.  The people screaming "this speculation must stop!" are simply clueless ninnies and/or sad pandas who are dumb enough to still work at "Virtudyne".

     I'm sorry, did I write Virtudyne?  I  meant SIMDESK.  Oh noes, I gonna get sued now!

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:

    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.        

    I wonder how I found out about this story, and I'm wondering if everybody in my company knows about it. Perhaps even "Junior" is chasing down the guy who posted this information? I would really like to know this stuff (well, considering I work here I already know this stuff, my schizophrenia must have just got worse :( )
  • (cs) in reply to John Hensley
    Anonymous:
    Cratig:

    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!!

    You heartless bastard, don't you care about the huddled masses in Africa/India/Indochina?

     

     

    What about installing shacks?

    You could get a wooden shed and use a generator?

    I don't think I'm heartless at all - Just think about creating an internet cafe franchise

  • Redshirt Coder (unregistered) in reply to Pap

    Pap:
    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.

    ... which would, in turn, prove him to be an excellent manager. Selling an idea which sounds insane and maybe is insane to those who could make it true is the first step to [market/world/whatever] domination.

    BTW, we have a proverb saying "the dog which got hit barks", and i have a suspicion that there are drones from more than one virtudyne craporation around here, assuming the joke is on them and hitting each, maybe by accident.

    Anyway, good WTF. Next one, pls! 

    captcha: craptastic, yeah! 

  • (cs) in reply to BAReFOOt
    Anonymous:
    Ahhh... good american... i'm proud of you! All the FUD works so great on youx I guess you'd also say stop when someone wanted to kill hitler in 1940? This time it'n not hitler but corporate feudalism, but it's not any better. And it could end even worse... (Halliburton builds huge jails (or "KZ" in german) right now. For all those poeple jailed by the detention bill.)

    Oh forget that... Most americans don't even know he's deat. lol. A friend of mine still makes cash by driving hotel guests to "where hitler lives". No kidding!

    I'd respond, but it's not really worth my time to respond in detail to a troll. So instead I'll just thank you for invoking Godwin's Law.

    You lose.

    (Also, I'm not American.) 

  • raton-laveur (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    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.        

    I wonder how I found out about this story, and I'm wondering if everybody in my company knows about it. Perhaps even "Junior" is chasing down the guy who posted this information? I would really like to know this stuff (well, considering I work here I already know this stuff, my schizophrenia must have just got worse :( )

    Sooo, with so much VirtuDyne ppl coming here, can they confirm is that Digital Donkey hijinks is real ?

     

    Captcha : wtf (indeed, indeed)
     

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    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.        

    I wonder how I found out about this story, and I'm wondering if everybody in my company knows about it. Perhaps even "Junior" is chasing down the guy who posted this information? I would really like to know this stuff (well, considering I work here I already know this stuff, my schizophrenia must have just got worse :( )

     

    Are you really wondering how you found out about this story?  Don't you know?

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to anonymous

    This history whas lossing gas on the 3th. And whas somewhat dilued on non-tecnical wtfrisms. 96% of people love DRAMA, but is somewhat a differente type of crap. I mean, is "Reality TV" type of shit, and not something to learn from anti-patterns. 

    I think the M.U.L.E. whas not a bad idea at all. If only these cristyte pirates... 

     --Tei 

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
  • U-wing (unregistered) in reply to Anonymous Reader

    Wow, I've now wasted hours on this Texas-based soap opera (reading all the comments).

    People seem to be worried about TDWTF growing up and going for the root cause of failure. I also enjoy the true, false, maybe code stories more than business related stuff but this Virtudyne saga really is one visual basic answer to the question why software sucks. And very educational at that.

    Or at least refreshing for the short memory. Just 5 years ago I thought it was embarrassing to tell people you did software development for a living. Suddenly, after the dot-com bubble, everyone on the planet seemed to know what total overvalued crap the whole software industry was. Only, this side of globe it was more like mobile hype than actual internet tech. (To be a winner you put them in one sentence: mobile internet access etc.). Still, 5 seems to be enough for a new generation or total loss of memory (people asking over and over how can this really happen....) That is exactly why I think it's very appropriate to tell these stories. Truth, in this context has no actual meaning. It's just a definite maybe. Marketing value.

    The real WTF, after reading this, is the fact that sometimes something usable actually gets written. In code.

    (and no, I did not mean that VB is the root cause)

  • (cs) in reply to Alexis de Torquemada
    Alexis de Torquemada:

    Anonymous:
    Right, no technical intelligence outside of Austin. . .because NASA isn't technical at all!

    NASA? Those who can't even get insulation right? Challenger, Discovery? The ones who introduced the Space Shuttle which ironically turned out to be a huge money sink?

    Yes, NASA has some achievements to show for but I certainly wouldn't call it a beacon of technical competence.
     

     

    Yeah, ok, so they forget to convert standard to metric every once in a while.  http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/ , or blow a few O-rings.  When I think about their monumental tasks that they carry out, the software that they have to develop, or just the math they do for a single mission, I'm inclined to cut them a little slack when they slam a $125,000,000 satellite into Mars.

  • BtM (unregistered) in reply to yrag

    yrag:
    Firstably, I just want to say that I'm a newbie.  After reading the whole 4 part storyline.  I agreed with the comments most of you posted, WTF.  But I actually think the new Saviour executive did pull off some amazing shit, if the story is actually true.  They managed to convince the city to purchase an "non-existing" software for $8,500,000 as a three-year contract.  That's amazing shit.  They might not be technically competence, but they definitely competence in BS.  I, for one, would be definitely be interested in hiring some sales people like this (if I can afford them).

     I once worked for a company that did something similar.  We had a product that had been announced as shipping, but was actually six months behind schedule and totally non-functional (hell, it didn't even build most days).  We had to book revenue, fast.  Fortunately, there was a customer out there who had to burn some excess budget.  We sold them a CD of non-functional code, and the license agreement stipulated that they would not attempt to actually install or use that software. 

    Win-win situation.  We booked revenue, the customer justified their budget, and more importantly, we bought some time to get the product working (for sufficiently loose definitions of "working").  We sold it to a grand total of one customer, who soon disabled it, and the product was EOL'd a couple of years later. 

    And that was not The Project From Hell. 

    captcha = jiggles.  WTF?

  • anonymous (unregistered) in reply to U-wing

    Yeah, I suspect this has been a waste of time.  Even if there are elements of truth in this story, I suspect it has been greatly embellished for shock value.  I further suspect that anyone who places too much value in this is probably someone who actually thought the JFK movie by Oliver Stone was completely accurate (Note:  It was highly inaccurate and took great liberties with the truth.  Even Oliver admitted to that).

    I recall something I once heard.  What is it when the assassins call me an assassin?  Just as easily written, what is it when bad developers call you a bad developer?  Some let their achievements speak for themselves.  Others must hide their inadequacies by pointing out the inadequacies of others.  I suspect A LOT of that is going on here.

    I mean, can't you smell it?  The smell of mendacity.  Pure mendacity.  It permeates this site and all who come here.

    On a funny note, just saw the captcha test.  It was shizzle.  What?!  Is Snoop Doggy Dogg running this site?     

  • mnature (unregistered) in reply to ssprencel
    ssprencel:
    Alexis de Torquemada:

    Anonymous:
    Right, no technical intelligence outside of Austin. . .because NASA isn't technical at all!

    NASA? Those who can't even get insulation right? Challenger, Discovery? The ones who introduced the Space Shuttle which ironically turned out to be a huge money sink?

    Yes, NASA has some achievements to show for but I certainly wouldn't call it a beacon of technical competence. 

    Yeah, ok, so they forget to convert standard to metric every once in a while.  http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/ , or blow a few O-rings.  When I think about their monumental tasks that they carry out, the software that they have to develop, or just the math they do for a single mission, I'm inclined to cut them a little slack when they slam a $125,000,000 satellite into Mars.

    For those of you who follow conspiracy theories, it has been proposed that some of the satellites that seem to get "lost" are actually on black missions, and did indeed make successful planetfall on Mars in order to accomplish some covert mission.  The "proof" is that the Mars Rover is still sending signals back to Earth, long after it was supposed to have been drained of power.  Supposedly, the covert missions are sending signals to the Rover, which then encrypts them to send to Earth, embedded within the Rover data.

    CAPTCHA:  photogenic  [Why, thank you]

  • mnature (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

    This history whas lossing gas on the 3th. And whas somewhat dilued on non-tecnical wtfrisms. 96% of people love DRAMA, but is somewhat a differente type of crap. I mean, is "Reality TV" type of shit, and not something to learn from anti-patterns. 

    I think the M.U.L.E. whas not a bad idea at all. If only these cristyte pirates... 

     --Tei 

    M.U.L.E. was a marvelous game.  Wish someone would update it and market it. 

    Could make money from this idea.  How about a M.U.L.E. for illegal immigrants?  It shows them the way, occasionally dispenses water and subsistence junk food, provides shelter from the sun, warns when the border patrol is coming near, and signals the handlers when it is time to get picked up.

    CAPTCHA:  whiskey  [neat, please]

  • NancyBoy (unregistered) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

    Others must hide their inadequacies by pointing out the inadequacies of others.  I suspect A LOT of that is going on here.

    Note, he completely misses the irony of this statement.

    It's because he's not very bright.

  • anonymous for various reasons (unregistered) in reply to NancyBoy

    Perhaps.  Then again, perhaps not.  The whole point is that this is a web site driven by the observations of people who may or may not be any better than those they trash.  You assume that the poster misses the irony.  And you also assume they are not very bright.  And you know neither of those things.  It's interesting that you state as fact something no one can verify.

    Having said that, thanks for your opinion.

  • mnature (unregistered) in reply to anonymous for various reasons
    Anonymous:

    Perhaps.  Then again, perhaps not.  The whole point is that this is a web site driven by the observations of people who may or may not be any better than those they trash.  You assume that the poster misses the irony.  And you also assume they are not very bright.  And you know neither of those things.  It's interesting that you state as fact something no one can verify.

    Having said that, thanks for your opinion.

    Spoken like a true engineer.  I admire anyone who is basically calling someone else an idiot, without actually using the term, and then ends their statement by thanking them.  I like how you handle that 2X4 with such precision. 

  • NancyBoy (unregistered) in reply to anonymous for various reasons
    Anonymous:

    Perhaps.  Then again, perhaps not.  The whole point is that this is a web site driven by the observations of people who may or may not be any better than those they trash.  You assume that the poster misses the irony.  And you also assume they are not very bright.  And you know neither of those things.  It's interesting that you state as fact something no one can verify.

    Welcome, Simdesk employees!

    Uh, dumbass, his post IS the evidence that he both misses the irony of his own statement and (consequently) is a little short in the gray matter dept.  Unless of course you believe his (I'm sorry, I meant "your") post was intended as self-criticism.  I can see this is a company that retains the best and the brightesst.

    Anonymous:
    Having said that, thanks for your opinion.

    No problem.  If you keep reading you'll eventually profit from my greater knowledge and wisdom.

    Captcha:  genius (well, one doesn't like to brag, but compared to Simdesk management we're all pretty bright)

  • anonymous for various reasons (unregistered) in reply to NancyBoy

    NancyBoy:
    Welcome, Simdesk employees!

    Again, assumption on your part.  You would better served by staying on subject.

    NancyBoy:
    Uh, dumbass, his post IS the evidence that he both misses the irony of his own statement and (consequently) is a little short in the gray matter dept.  Unless of course you believe his (I'm sorry, I meant "your") post was intended as self-criticism.  I can see this is a company that retains the best and the brightesst.

    Oh, you can do better than that.  I mean, calling someone a dumbass?  I'm sure someone of such high intellect could come up with something more eloquent.  You really must apply yourself better.  Stick with what you know and your point will be better served.

    Oh, and brightest has only one s in it. 

    Anonymous:
    Having said that, thanks for your opinion.

    NancyBoy:
    No problem.  If you keep reading you'll eventually profit from my greater knowledge and wisdom.

    Well, unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether or not you have greater knowledge or wisdom.  I am leaning toward you not having those qualities, however I am open to persuasion.  Perhaps you can try again.  This time try and suppress the Napleonic tendencies you have shown so far.

  • giggity (unregistered) in reply to NancyBoy

    You sound like a spiteful ex"VirtuDyne" employee. I can imagine the employees over there laughing their heads off trying to figure out which one you are. And as soon as "Junior" buys enough mugs from Alex, I wonder how long it will be until the cloak of anonymity will roll back without anyone knowing it. Everyone has a price. Yes even an operator of website whos whole purpose is to make fun of people's coding practices in a public way. Ethically low.  

  • (cs) in reply to giggity

    I'm sorry, I just can't believe this donkey thing either, even with the disclaimer about others' succesful trials of the same 'technology'.
     

  • captcha (unregistered) in reply to mnature
    Anonymous:
    ssprencel:
    Alexis de Torquemada:

    Anonymous:
    Right, no technical intelligence outside of Austin. . .because NASA isn't technical at all!

    NASA? Those who can't even get insulation right? Challenger, Discovery? The ones who introduced the Space Shuttle which ironically turned out to be a huge money sink?

    Yes, NASA has some achievements to show for but I certainly wouldn't call it a beacon of technical competence. 

    Yeah, ok, so they forget to convert standard to metric every once in a while.  http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9909/30/mars.metric/ , or blow a few O-rings.  When I think about their monumental tasks that they carry out, the software that they have to develop, or just the math they do for a single mission, I'm inclined to cut them a little slack when they slam a $125,000,000 satellite into Mars.

    For those of you who follow conspiracy theories, it has been proposed that some of the satellites that seem to get "lost" are actually on black missions, and did indeed make successful planetfall on Mars in order to accomplish some covert mission.  The "proof" is that the Mars Rover is still sending signals back to Earth, long after it was supposed to have been drained of power.  Supposedly, the covert missions are sending signals to the Rover, which then encrypts them to send to Earth, embedded within the Rover data.

    CAPTCHA:  photogenic  [Why, thank you]

     

    Oh dear, someone's been watching the Transformers trailer...

     

    The reason the rovers lasted so much longer than  originally expected was because they lied.  "Oh, we're only expecting a few months" they said.  Later they admitted the fib, saying ot was to avoid disappointment if it failed early, and that they got the idea from Scotty, off startrek.

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered)

    The copy/pasting is not the biggest problem with their website, first thing I tried:

    <font face="Arial" size="2">Microsoft OLE DB Provider for ODBC Drivers</font> <font face="Arial" size="2">error '80040e14'</font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2">[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][SQL Server]Unclosed quotation mark before the character string ''.</font>

    <font face="Arial" size="2">\\IVI2\F\WWWROOT\MBR0115-SIMDESKCMS\FORM\../infostore/webpages.asp</font><font face="Arial" size="2">, line 1117</font>

     It has SQL Injection written all over it.

  • reader (unregistered) in reply to Marak
  • NancyBoy (unregistered) in reply to anonymous for various reasons
    Anonymous:

    Well, unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether or not you have greater knowledge or wisdom.

    Of course not, you've only just begun your training.  It may take awhile for someone such as yourself to advance, but keep trying!  You must have ample free time in between those Magic breaks.

  • (cs) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

     

    Wow. I totally forgot about that game and the countless hours I wasted playing it.

     

  • (cs) in reply to anonymous
    Anonymous:

     

    Wow. I totally forgot about that game and the countless hours I wasted playing it.

     

  • anonymous for various reasons (unregistered) in reply to NancyBoy
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    Well, unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether or not you have greater knowledge or wisdom.

    Of course not, you've only just begun your training.  It may take awhile for someone such as yourself to advance, but keep trying!  You must have ample free time in between those Magic breaks.

     I'm sorry.  You have me at a disadvantage.  What are Magic breaks and why would I take them?

  • Anon (unregistered) in reply to Bob Janova
    Bob Janova:

    I'm sorry, I just can't believe this donkey thing either, even with the disclaimer about others' succesful trials of the same 'technology'.

    I can believe six impossible things before breakfast. Take a piece of code I found today. The programmer first checks whether a parameter is equal to 'Y' or 'N'. If so, he then checks the length of the parameter is equal to 1. And if it passes both those tests, he checks that the parameter is not null. And to prove it isn't a momentary abberation, he (or possibly she) does the same for three or four other parameters.

    I mean, compared to idiocy like that, a digital donkey sounds sane.

  • mnature (unregistered) in reply to captcha

    Oh dear, someone's been watching the Transformers trailer...

    The reason the rovers lasted so much longer than  originally expected was because they lied.  "Oh, we're only expecting a few months" they said.  Later they admitted the fib, saying ot was to avoid disappointment if it failed early, and that they got the idea from Scotty, off startrek.

    Sorry, missed the Transformers' trailer.  And naturally they lied, to draw attention away from their black project, which probably involved a M.U.L.E. out doing prospecting on Mars.  While fighting off pirates and acid storms.  A good conspiracy theory will always be able to pull any negative feedback in, and transform it to being part of the conspiracy.

    Going back to the Digital Donkey, I'm surprised that nobody has commented (unless I missed it) on the silliness of sending out a traveling portable computer to people who are probably illiterate.

     CAPTCHA:  clueless [Found me out, eh?]

  • mnature (unregistered) in reply to anonymous for various reasons
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    Well, unfortunately, I have no way of knowing whether or not you have greater knowledge or wisdom.

    Of course not, you've only just begun your training.  It may take awhile for someone such as yourself to advance, but keep trying!  You must have ample free time in between those Magic breaks.

     I'm sorry.  You have me at a disadvantage.  What are Magic breaks and why would I take them?

    In previous threads about this company, it was mentioned that personnel would take frequent breaks to play a game called Magic, which evidently uses special cards.  It was implied that personnel were more involved in playing the game than in getting a product out the door.

  • A Nearly Former Reader (unregistered)

    Please stop hocking hiddennetwork.com on TDWTF.  Having a link on the side is fine, but cramming an ad in my face consuming the entire first half-screen.  Also, the graphic ad at the bottom is equally annoying.  I understand your need to monetize the site, but there's going to be an exponential decay of click-through from regular readers, because if we're not going to use hiddennetwork one day, chances are we won't use it the next.  Having a single fixed ad at the top of the site should fine.

  • (cs) in reply to A Nearly Former Reader

    Anonymous:
    Please stop hocking hiddennetwork.com on TDWTF.  Having a link on the side is fine, but cramming an ad in my face consuming the entire first half-screen.  Also, the graphic ad at the bottom is equally annoying.  I understand your need to monetize the site, but there's going to be an exponential decay of click-through from regular readers, because if we're not going to use hiddennetwork one day, chances are we won't use it the next.  Having a single fixed ad at the top of the site should fine.

    Gee, let me guess. You block every other ad on the site and are annoyed you can't block the in-article "ads". If you can't deal with scrolling past the indentented paragraph, then stop reading TDWTF. You'd be doing me a favor.

    I run this site for fun and at a considerable expenense (both in time and money). The ads *barely* pay for the hefty dedicated server and 1,000GB+ of monthly bandwidth required to support the readership.

    HiddenNetwork.com is a project I'm very exicted about and one that will benefit a lot of people (readers, bloggers, employers) if its successful.

     And the ad right below this text is a bug .... it's only supposed to appear on the main articles, not on my replies.

  • (cs) in reply to Alex Papadimoulis
    Alex Papadimoulis:

    Anonymous:
    Please stop hocking hiddennetwork.com on TDWTF.  Having a link on the side is fine, but cramming an ad in my face consuming the entire first half-screen.  Also, the graphic ad at the bottom is equally annoying.  I understand your need to monetize the site, but there's going to be an exponential decay of click-through from regular readers, because if we're not going to use hiddennetwork one day, chances are we won't use it the next.  Having a single fixed ad at the top of the site should fine.

    Gee, let me guess. You block every other ad on the site and are annoyed you can't block the in-article "ads". If you can't deal with scrolling past the indentented paragraph, then stop reading TDWTF. You'd be doing me a favor.

    I run this site for fun and at a considerable expenense (both in time and money). The ads *barely* pay for the hefty dedicated server and 1,000GB+ of monthly bandwidth required to support the readership.

    HiddenNetwork.com is a project I'm very exicted about and one that will benefit a lot of people (readers, bloggers, employers) if its successful.

     

    I agree completely, what is up with people anyway?  The real WTF is he says "hocking" instead of "hawking". 

  • Sam Thornton (unregistered)

    1:30 PM - Just installed the latest version of SimDesk (Indiana flavor). Number one on their list of 'New Features or Changes' is this statement:

    1. PersonalOffice (Simdesk Word, Simdesk Spreadsheet, and Simdesk Presenter) and Simdesk Messenger are no longer supported.

    WTF. 

    2:00 PM - Just uninstalled the latest version of SimDesk.

  • Bob (unregistered) in reply to mnature
    Anonymous:

    For those of you who follow conspiracy theories, it has been proposed that some of the satellites that seem to get "lost" are actually on black missions, and did indeed make successful planetfall on Mars in order to accomplish some covert mission.  The "proof" is that the Mars Rover is still sending signals back to Earth, long after it was supposed to have been drained of power.  Supposedly, the covert missions are sending signals to the Rover, which then encrypts them to send to Earth, embedded within the Rover data.



    I have it on absolute authority that no failed missions were in fact black missions.  I also have it on that authority that at least two failed missions did not, in fact, fail but were reclassified and re-labelled as such after the returned data revealed some "frightening surprises."  On very good authority, at least one other reported failure was factual, although the circumstances surrounding it were not.  In this case an unusual large stationary object was recorded (visually) within a few meters of the craft prior to failure.  Because of the object's proximity the craft's lens was unable to focus clearly.  The loss was attributed to space debris, but the craft did not re-enter the atmosphere and neither it nor any debris could be located.
  • (cs) in reply to Bob
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    For those of you who follow conspiracy theories, it has been proposed that some of the satellites that seem to get "lost" are actually on black missions, and did indeed make successful planetfall on Mars in order to accomplish some covert mission.  The "proof" is that the Mars Rover is still sending signals back to Earth, long after it was supposed to have been drained of power.  Supposedly, the covert missions are sending signals to the Rover, which then encrypts them to send to Earth, embedded within the Rover data.



    I have it on absolute authority that no failed missions were in fact black missions.  I also have it on that authority that at least two failed missions did not, in fact, fail but were reclassified and re-labelled as such after the returned data revealed some "frightening surprises."  On very good authority, at least one other reported failure was factual, although the circumstances surrounding it were not.  In this case an unusual large stationary object was recorded (visually) within a few meters of the craft prior to failure.  Because of the object's proximity the craft's lens was unable to focus clearly.  The loss was attributed to space debris, but the craft did not re-enter the atmosphere and neither it nor any debris could be located.

    And I have it on "absolute authority" that Oliver Stone killed JFK. Big deal.

  • risk (unregistered) in reply to foxyshadis
    foxyshadis:
    Anonymous:
    Anonymous:

    For those of you who follow conspiracy theories, it has been proposed that some of the satellites that seem to get "lost" are actually on black missions, and did indeed make successful planetfall on Mars in order to accomplish some covert mission.  The "proof" is that the Mars Rover is still sending signals back to Earth, long after it was supposed to have been drained of power.  Supposedly, the covert missions are sending signals to the Rover, which then encrypts them to send to Earth, embedded within the Rover data.



    I have it on absolute authority that no failed missions were in fact black missions.  I also have it on that authority that at least two failed missions did not, in fact, fail but were reclassified and re-labelled as such after the returned data revealed some "frightening surprises."  On very good authority, at least one other reported failure was factual, although the circumstances surrounding it were not.  In this case an unusual large stationary object was recorded (visually) within a few meters of the craft prior to failure.  Because of the object's proximity the craft's lens was unable to focus clearly.  The loss was attributed to space debris, but the craft did not re-enter the atmosphere and neither it nor any debris could be located.

    And I have it on "absolute authority" that Oliver Stone killed JFK. Big deal.

    And then he made a movie about it framing Tommy Lee Jones. It's the perfect crime!

  • me (unregistered) in reply to Alex Papadimoulis
    Alex Papadimoulis:

    I run this site for fun and at a considerable expenense (both in time and money). The ads *barely* pay for the hefty dedicated server and 1,000GB+ of monthly bandwidth required to support the readership.



    I'm having trouble reconciling your statement that you do this for fun, at the expense of time.  I don't expect to be paid for my hobbies, what makes you so special?  The bottom line is, if this is something other than a hobby and you're not prepared to wear the cost, you should walk away.  I'm sure you probably gain other indirect benefits as a result of this site.

  • Thomas (unregistered) in reply to foxyshadis
    foxyshadis:

    And I have it on "absolute authority" that Oliver Stone killed JFK. Big deal.



    No absolute authority here, but popular public opinion says that you are a humorless moron that doesn't recognize someone trying to stoke the fires of conspiracy theorists.
  • U-wing (unregistered) in reply to mnature

    ...  A good conspiracy theory will always be able to pull any negative feedback in, and transform it to being part of the conspiracy....

    Ah! like WTF is just part of MS campaign to...oh well...

    What if the mass of these WTF antipatterns here is so great it will suck anything in and turn it into a giant pattern?

    Will it be a blob, having infinite number of tiers refactoring the same messages again and again?

    What will the virtual marketing be like in the Second Life? Will the Digital Donkeys invade Menda City?

    Should we wait for the Third Life as version 3 is always the best there is? And will we also skip Web 2.0.

    Answers to these, in the next episode of...captcha:wtf...right!

  • Kiriai (unregistered) in reply to me

    Anonymous:
    Alex Papadimoulis:

    I run this site for fun and at a considerable expenense (both in time and money). The ads *barely* pay for the hefty dedicated server and 1,000GB+ of monthly bandwidth required to support the readership.



    I'm having trouble reconciling your statement that you do this for fun, at the expense of time.  I don't expect to be paid for my hobbies, what makes you so special?  The bottom line is, if this is something other than a hobby and you're not prepared to wear the cost, you should walk away.  I'm sure you probably gain other indirect benefits as a result of this site.

    Actually, many hobbies do provide self sustaining income outside of computers.  For example, I took up wood working for a while, and it is customary for hobbists to sell their finished project to fund the material costs (which can be signficant) of their next project.  Thus they can keep it going without losing income.  Other hobbies that produce things of value to society have similar repayment.  Running a web site (publishing) is an example of one of those things.

     
    Hobbies are just something you do that you enjoy and don't expect income from.  Theres nothing about getting your costs back or making something far below what would be an income that would make it not a hobby.

    Regardless, the site is a free service to you.  If viewing text and pictures advertising other companies is a cost that is too high for you to pay to view the daily WTF, thats a shame.  Certinally you can make that known and attempt to get that to change.  But most people don't share your problem, and don't care what others get out of providing a free service to them. 

  • Olddog (unregistered) in reply to Kiriai
    Anonymous:

    Anonymous:
    Alex Papadimoulis:

    I run this site for fun and at a considerable expenense (both in time and money). The ads *barely* pay for the hefty dedicated server and 1,000GB+ of monthly bandwidth required to support the readership.



    I'm having trouble reconciling your statement that you do this for fun, at the expense of time.  I don't expect to be paid for my hobbies, what makes you so special?  The bottom line is, if this is something other than a hobby and you're not prepared to wear the cost, you should walk away.  I'm sure you probably gain other indirect benefits as a result of this site.

    Actually, many hobbies do provide self sustaining income outside of computers.  For example, I took up wood working for a while, and it is customary for hobbists to sell their finished project to fund the material costs (which can be signficant) of their next project.  Thus they can keep it going without losing income.  Other hobbies that produce things of value to society have similar repayment.  Running a web site (publishing) is an example of one of those things.


    Hobbies are just something you do that you enjoy and don't expect income from.  Theres nothing about getting your costs back or making something far below what would be an income that would make it not a hobby.

    Regardless, the site is a free service to you.  If viewing text and pictures advertising other companies is a cost that is too high for you to pay to view the daily WTF, thats a shame.  Certinally you can make that known and attempt to get that to change.  But most people don't share your problem, and don't care what others get out of providing a free service to them. 

    I don't expect to be paid for my hobbies, what makes you so special?

    Can we get that on a Coffee Cup?

  • Coeurderoy (unregistered) in reply to Saladin

    Search for e-inclusion, and you will find enough "digital monkeys" to start breeding.

    CSR typically starts with C, and stops there

     

  • clueless (unregistered)

    Has anyone done the math

    $200,000,000/(12 month * 5 years)=$3,333,333 per month burn rate. How many employees did this company have? If they had 200 employees(I doubt), they each made 16,000 per month. That includes office space,travel and overhead. I call bullshit or I call fraud. Then I call the SEC. Man... hell hath no fury like a fool parting with his money. Damn now I am mixing my metaphors. I need a drink. Sounds like they really missed their calling. Raising cash.

  • (cs) in reply to clueless

    The Virtudyne story just appeared in a (highly rated, early, therefore quite visible) Slashdot comment:

    http://yro.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=201241&cid=16476751

    But that's not the same as being linked from the story itself, so I guess the site won't see that much trouble from it. 

  • (cs) in reply to clueless
    Anonymous:

    Has anyone done the math

    $200,000,000/(12 month * 5 years)=$3,333,333 per month burn rate. How many employees did this company have? If they had 200 employees(I doubt), they each made 16,000 per month. That includes office space,travel and overhead. I call bullshit or I call fraud. Then I call the SEC. Man... hell hath no fury like a fool parting with his money. Damn now I am mixing my metaphors. I need a drink. Sounds like they really missed their calling. Raising cash.



    *double-takes*
  • not clueless (unregistered) in reply to clueless
    clueless:

    Has anyone done the math

    $200,000,000/(12 month * 5 years)=$3,333,333 per month burn rate. How many employees did this company have? If they had 200 employees(I doubt), they each made 16,000 per month. That includes office space,travel and overhead. I call bullshit or I call fraud. Then I call the SEC. Man... hell hath no fury like a fool parting with his money. Damn now I am mixing my metaphors. I need a drink. Sounds like they really missed their calling. Raising cash.

    You obviously haven't. $3,333,333 / 200 = $16,666.665. Do you really think that overhead was only ~700/mo/emp? This is Virtudyne we're talking about here; did you catch how much they paid for hardware? And let's not forget how much The Founder, Junior, etc would have paid themselves.

    "bullshit or fraud" -- yeah, you're right on that one. It required a lot of bullshit to pull off this fraud.

  • Mortvar (unregistered) in reply to clueless
    Anonymous:

    Has anyone done the math

    $200,000,000/(12 month * 5 years)=$3,333,333 per month burn rate. How many employees did this company have? If they had 200 employees(I doubt), they each made 16,000 per month. That includes office space,travel and overhead. I call bullshit or I call fraud. Then I call the SEC. Man... hell hath no fury like a fool parting with his money. Damn now I am mixing my metaphors. I need a drink. Sounds like they really missed their calling. Raising cash.

    You have obviously never played Magic the gathering ;-)

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